Hypocrisy Part 2
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:13 PM Permalink
Now, here's what's been bothering me all day and hear me out:
This Foley thing. Why now? It it was known
over a year ago, why now? Why are we hearing about it now? It came out on a Friday, which means nothing else will be covered for the whole weekend. What are they trying to distract as from? The
Baghdad curfew? The recent horrible,
Constitution defying legislation? Woodward's
new book? All of the above?
Or, is just everything just so bad and so mucked up that it all comes pouring out of Washington in a torrent, one bad thing after another and nobody has any control over what is the last story to be revealed.
Frankly, either scenario is pretty bad.
Saturday Sailboat Blogging
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:52 PM Permalink
Oh boy.
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:00 AM Permalink
Here we were, thinking we'd get ourselves into another war via
Iran or
Syria. But there's
something brewing in
Russian Georgia that could do the trick. And if Russia goes after Georgia, we
could use NATO to go after Russia and start a war that way OR we could just start bombing Iran figuring "what the hell. The Russians are doing stuff, why not us?" And if anything like THAT happens, look for a big boom here at home to be followed by suspended elections and the Bush transformation into a a dictatorship to be complete.
Honestly, we all joke about how dumb Bush is, but Mr. Vidiot has a point when he says Bush is one of the smartest men on the planet. Look at him. Right now, he is the most powerful president ever. Congress doesn't challenge him. The courts don't challenge him. And even if they did, what would it matter? He'd still do whatever he wanted anyway. He's manage to find every loophole in the system and drive a truck through each and every one them. A real idiot couldn't manage to do that.
Think about it.
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:54 AM Permalink
It's a very small step to go from "
Critics buying into enemy propaganda" to "Critics aiding and abetting the enemy by spreading their propaganda,"
Hypocrisy of the Year!
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:43 AM Permalink
Normally, I wouldn't give a damn about a politician's sexual proclivities. Really. Couldn't care less. But I find it HIGHLY amusing that the representative caught with his
IM pants down with a young male intern was
A) author of a bill
protecting young people from sexual predators over the internet
B) one of Clinton's most
vociferous opponents back in the Monica Lewinsky days
C) the House leadership
knew about it for over year.
You know,
these sorts of things go WAY back when it comes to the GOP. Ever hear of the
Franklin cover-up scandal? (Here's
video.)
Update: Josh Marshall makes some
excellent points.
Have a whiff of the rotting corpse of irony
posted by The Vidiot @ 6:01 PM Permalink
Bush: "Isn't that interesting? Somebody's taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes."
Gee, leaking for political purposes, that would be bad right? And Bush would never do such a ... ahh, wait for it ... here it comes ... Here ya go!
Bush Authorized Leak to Times, Libby Told Grand Jury
More from the Lying Liars
posted by The Vidiot @ 5:45 PM Permalink
Condoleezza Rice's Credibility Gap
A point-by-point analysis of how one of America's top national security officials has a severe problem with the truth
What's A Pentecost? If you have to ask you can't afford them!
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:08 PM Permalink
Watch this trailer of religious extremists crying out for, and indoctrinating their children to fight a holy war ... and no, they aren't Muslims.
Some quotes in the trailer especially disturbed me; A child saying
"we are being trained to be God's army." (Quick question, if God is all powerful, why does he need an army?) At another point the
imam pastor asks
"How many of you wan't to be those who give up your life for Jesus?" Now as I remember, being Christian means giving up your life
to Jesus, not
for Jesus.
They Cry, Pray to Bush and Wash out the Devil - Welcome to Jesus Camp
The children at the Kids on Fire summer camp are intent as they pray over a cardboard cutout of President George Bush. They raise their hands in the air and sway, eyes closed, as they join the chant for "righteous judges". Tears stream down their faces as they are told that they are "phonies" and "hypocrites" and must wash their hands in bottled water to drive out the devil.
[...]
At one point Pastor Fischer equates the preparation she is giving children with the training of terrorists in the Middle East. "I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam," she tells the camera. "I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine."
[...]
"Extreme liberals who look at this should be quaking in their boots," Pastor Fischer says at one point in the film. She goes on to tell the children, mostly aged from seven to 12: "This is a sick old world. Kids, you got to change things. This means war. Are you part of it?"
[...]
The Rev Haggard said the film was too literal in its presentation of some of the opinions of Pastor Fischer. "My concern is ... that those on the far left will use it to reinforce their most negative stereotypes of Christian believers," he told Christianity Today. The "war talk", he said, was allegorical. "It doesn't mean we're going to establish a theocracy and force people to obey what they think is God's law."
[...]
Her Kids Ministry International states on its website: "We believe that childhood is the time that God designed for people to receive the gospel." Amid all the controversy generated by the film, Pastor Fischer has defended herself. "Excuse me," she says in the film, "but we have the truth."
They have 'The truth'!? I don't think they even have a
clue! Have they never read those bibles the thump so loudly?
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God" (Matthew 5:9)BTW, according to their website, (no link for religiofascists), donations to them are tax deductible ... take a second ... think about it ... these kids are taught to pray to Bush and fight in a holy war andare subsidized by our tax dollars. This is exactly what the separation of church and state was intended to prevent and exactly what was predicted when Bush's faith (and
Feith) based programs were foisted on the American people.
That's it then
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:09 PM Permalink
It's all over. Whatever we had left of a "democracy" (and believe me, I understood that there was little left to begin with) is gone. The Senate, today, decided that habeas corpus was optional, the congressional oversight was optional and that the new rules will be permanent.
Perhaps you think I'm being overly dramatic. Think again.
You're reading this blog, aren't you? You're sure to be reading other blogs. Your IP address is your ID stamp. Your phones are tapped and your email is read. They know who you are and if you get just a little to rambunctious, you're outta' here. Then you'll get that knock on your door, and you'll be dragged out of your house in your pajamas, thrown into a black van, driven to an airport where you'll be tossed onto an airplane and then taken to a prison camp in the middle of nowhere. You'll not have access to a lawyer. You'll not have access to the evidence against you. You'll most likely be "mistreated." You'll be held indefinitely and maybe even tried "in absentia" and it will ALL BE LEGAL, thanks to the the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act and the legislation they're passing today. Then, it will be most enthusiastically signed by Bush as soon as he can arrange the photo op.
Think it doesn't apply to you? Think what I'm saying is alarmist rheteric?
Think again.
Unless the dems muster up a filibuster against
the entire piece of legislation, we're doomed.... which obviously means we're doomed.
Update: No
filibuster. Vote was 65-34. Not even close. Mr. Vidiot insists that it's not a death knell since everything was already dead. I guess I still had a few illusions remaining. I'm indescribably sad.
We are all detainees now.
Excerpt: Anti-US and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint.
Update 2: In Case I Disappear by William Rivers Pitt
Bushco, making government smaller ... by poisoning us
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:20 PM Permalink
EPA Plans to Close Labs, Drop Scientists and Reduce Oversight
The Environmental Protection Agency intends to close labs, cut its cadre of upper-level scientists and reduce regulatory oversight, according to an internal agency document.
[...]
The EPA's budget has been dropping steadily since it reached a record $8.13 billion in fiscal 2003. The Bush administration's proposed fiscal 2007 budget was nearly $1 billion lower, but Congress hasn't yet approved a final version. The fiscal 2008 budget plan is due in February. Gray said the financial outlook was "very challenging."
In his memo, he asked for plans to close at least 20 percent of the EPA's 16 research laboratories by 2011 - a minimum 10 percent cut by 2009 and another 10 percent by 2011.
[...]
Staff cuts could worsen what some experts have said is already a deteriorating situation, particularly with a significant number of EPA employees due to retire over the next decade.
[...]
A report in August from the EPA inspector general found that various studies have concluded that the agency doesn't always have reliable data to support its conclusions and "does not always use reliable science to support its rules and regulations."
Gray's memo also calls on the agency to work with state and tribal groups to look for ways to reduce regulatory oversight.
"The state and tribal grants have been reduced 25 percent since the administration started," said Heather Taylor, the deputy legislative director of the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. "First we take away the money to do their jobs, now we take away the oversight."
No wonder the oil companies were willing to roll back prices just in time for the election ...
posted by The Vidiot @ 6:54 PM Permalink
Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases
Four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property say the Interior Department suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they said were cheating the government.
The accusations, many of them in four lawsuits that were unsealed last week by federal judges in Oklahoma, represent a rare rebellion by government investigators against their own agency.
The auditors contend that they were blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The agency has lost its sense of mission, which is to protect American taxpayers," said Bobby L. Maxwell, who was formerly in charge of Gulf of Mexico auditing. "These are assets that belong to the American public, and they are supposed to be used for things like education, public infrastructure and roadways."
[...]
The new accusations surfaced just one week after the Interior Department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, told a House subcommittee that "short of crime, anything goes" at the top levels of the Interior Department.
In two of the lawsuits, two senior auditors with the Minerals Management Service in Oklahoma City said they were ordered to drop their claim that Shell Oil had fraudulently shortchanged taxpayers out of $18 million.
A third auditor, also in Oklahoma City, charged that senior officials in Denver ordered him to drop his demand that two dozen companies pay $1 million in back interest.
And in a suit that was filed in 2004, Mr. Maxwell charged that senior officials in Washington ordered him not to press claims that the Kerr-McGee Corporation had cheated the government out of $12 million in royalties.
On Wednesday, Interior officials denied that the agency had suppressed any valid claims and implied that the auditors simply wanted a share of any money recovered through their lawsuits.
"If these auditors believed there were fraud and or false claims on the part of the companies they were auditing, they should have followed the proper procedures," the Interior Department said in a written statement. "Instead, they opted to pursue private lawsuits under which, if they prevail, they could receive up to 30 percent of the monies recovered from the companies."
In defying their own agency, the Interior Department's auditors sued the oil companies under a federal law, called the False Claims Act, that was created to allow individuals to expose fraud against the government. People who successfully recover money for the government in such cases are entitled to a portion. A losing company is required to pay triple the amount of recovered money as well as back interest — potentially more than $120 million in the cases brought by the auditors.
[...]
"Most whistle-blowers are insiders at a company who spot something that government auditors have missed," said James Moorman, president of Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund, a nonprofit organization supported by lawyers that specializes in the False Claims Act.
"But here you have auditors saying, ‘We did our job, we found the problems and our superiors don't want to hear about it,' '' Mr. Moorman said. "If it were just one auditor, you could dismiss it. But with four auditors, that's a pattern of practice."
In their suits, the auditors contend that they had no choice but to go outside the agency because their supervisors ordered them to "cease work" on five separate investigations and drop their claims.
Documents recently unsealed in Mr. Maxwell's case against Kerr-McGee, which is scheduled for trial in November, show that federal officials abandoned his claims at almost the same moment that state auditors in Louisiana reached the same conclusions as Mr. Maxwell.
Mr. Maxwell's job was eliminated in 2004. He received a settlement from the government and is now living in Hawaii.
[...]
Interior officials initially encouraged Mr. Maxwell when he raised the concerns about Kerr-McGee in early 2003. "I am sure we can make the case," wrote John Price, then head of the agency's appeals division, in an e-mail message to Mr. Maxwell.
But a few days later, lawyers in the Interior Department's solicitor's office urged him to drop the case. "Although I did not understand the reasoning, it was made clear to me that the agency did not want the order issued," Mr. Maxwell wrote in an affidavit for his suit. "The next day, Mr. Price telephoned me and reiterated to me that if I issued the order, the director would be very upset with me."
[...]
None of the Oklahoma auditors would agree to an interview. Elizabeth Sharrock, a lawyer for Mr. Arnold and Mr. Little, said both men had already been removed from their usual jobs and were afraid of being fired.
[...]
Interior officials did not say how much money they had recovered from companies named by the auditors. But the agency's own statistics indicate that revenue from auditing and enforcement plunged after President Bush took office.
[...]
"Subpoenas are a very powerful tool to get the information you need, but I don't think they've approved a single subpoena in years," Mr. Maxwell said in an interview. "In the good old days when we were able to issue subpoenas on our own, each of us was able to recover millions of dollars a year."
Agency officials acknowledged that they have not issued any subpoenas in the last three years. "Enforcement of subpoenas by the courts can take years and be very costly," the agency said in a written response to questions. "We have not found them to be a very effective tool."
Somehow I suspect a
very effective
oilman tool is behind this.
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:45 PM Permalink
Heralded Iraq Police Academy a 'Disaster'
BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.
The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."
"This is the most essential civil security project in the country -- and it's a failure," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress. "The Baghdad police academy is a disaster."
[...]
The report serves as the latest indictment of Parsons Corp., the U.S. construction giant that was awarded about $1 billion for a variety of reconstruction projects across Iraq. After chronicling previous Parsons failures to properly build health clinics, prisons and hospitals, Bowen said he now plans to conduct an audit of every Parsons project.
[...]
"This facility has definitely been a top priority," Lt. Col. Joel Holtrop of the Corps of Engineers' Gulf Region Division Project and Contracting Office said in a July news release. "It's a very exciting time as the cadets move into the new structures."
[...]
The Parsons contract, which eventually totaled at least $75 million, was terminated May 31 "due to cost overruns, schedule slippage, and sub-standard quality," according to a Sept. 4 internal military memo. But rather than fire the Pasadena, Calif.-based company for cause, the contract was halted for "the government's convenience."
Parson's huh? Must be more of that faith-based construction. If this Police Academy was a priority, imagine what they're capable of when they slack off!
I guess that knock will come.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:19 AM Permalink
You know. The one from DHS telling me I'm a
iding and abetting the terrorists because I'm anti-corporation and anti-Bush administration agenda.
Excerpt: Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key negotiator on the bill, said enemy combatants would now include those who provided money, weapons and other support for terrorist groups as well as those involved in actual operations.
When did we lose our common sense?
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:14 AM Permalink
This woman, in an effort to get a bunch of kids out of a threatening situation, was fined for driving carelessly! When did law enforcment stop thinking? Or is not thinking a requirement for going into law enforcement.
Word o' the Day:
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:45 PM Permalink
flagitious [fluh-jish-uhs] - Adjective
Definition:
1) Characterized by extremely brutal or cruel crimes; vicious.
2) Infamous; scandalous.
3) shamefully wicked, as persons, actions, or times.
Used in a sentence:
Only a flagitious government would be arguing about legalizing torture.
The bad news is ubiquitous, so the good news must be coming ...
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:42 PM Permalink
Let Me Take You Home 4:43 Boston
When I Touch You 5:38 Spirit
Fantasy 4:41 Earth Wind & Fire
Take My Breath Away 4:14 Berlin
She Drives Me Crazy 3:37 Fine Young Cannibals
Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms 2:27 Bill Monroe
One Way Or Another 3:36 Blondie
You Can Make It If You Try 3:38 Sly & The Family Stone
Whole Lotta Love 5:34 Led Zeppelin
Let It Bleed 5:02 Rolling Stones
Lets Do It Again 4:51 The Staple Singers
Sweet Dreams 2:35 Patsy Cline
Don't Take My Word for It ...
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:59 AM Permalink
Retired Officers to Criticize Rumsfeld
Retired military officers on Monday are expected to bluntly accuse Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of bungling the war in Iraq, saying U.S. troops were sent to fight without the best equipment and that critical facts were hidden from the public.
"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said in remarks prepared for a hearing by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
A second witness, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, is expected to assess Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically ...."
"Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," said his testimony prepared for the hearing, to be held six weeks before the Nov. 7 midterm elections in which the war is a central issue.
[...]
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the committee chairman, told reporters last week that he hoped the hearing would shed light on the planning and conduct of the war. He said majority Republicans had failed to conduct hearings on the issue, adding, "if they won't ... we will."
Since he spoke, a government-produced National Intelligence Estimate became public that concluded the war has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
[...]
Batiste, Eaton and retired Col. Paul X. Hammes were unsparing in remarks that suggested deep anger at the way the military had been treated. All three served in Iraq, and Batiste also was senior military assistant to then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
Batiste, who commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, also blamed Congress for failing to ask "the tough questions."
He said Rumsfeld at one point threatened to fire the next person who mentioned the need for a postwar plan in Iraq.
Batiste said if full consideration had been given to the requirements for war, it's likely the U.S. would have kept its focus on Afghanistan, "not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents."
And the Republican response?
[Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Moron ... ] called Rumsfeld an "excellent secretary of defense."
Which traslates as 'I can't hear you, la, la la, la.' [/fingers in ears.]
Movie reviews
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:52 AM Permalink
Saw
Jesus Camp and
All the Kings Men.
Jesus Camp was very interesting. Kids speaking in tongues. A mad women telling them to put their lives on the line for Jesus. It was crazy. It's definitely worth a viewing since nobody outside of these holy-roller places has any idea what goes on inside of them. Biggest irony in the movie: the camp program was called "Kids on Fire" and the camp was held in Devil's Lake, North Dakota.
All the Kings Men was decent. Every time I realize how good an actor Sean Penn is, I have to remind myself that he was the Spicoli in
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Mr. Vidiot was a bit disappointed in that it wasn't true enough to Huey P. Long. But other than that, it was good. Not great, but good. My only real big question: Why did they feel the need to cast two brits to play people from Louisiana?
Oh, and we watched
Stalag 17 on TCM the other night. (Mr. Vidiot's watched movie list is woefully lacking in the classics.) I'd forgotten what an excellent movie that is AND it makes a very big point of how damn important the Geneva Conventions are.
Excellent Time Waster
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:49 AM Permalink
Again, don't
hate me.
Yeah...
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:35 AM Permalink
Bush's
war anquish is in the same place Saddam's WMDs are.
Fluff job from WaHoPo: Bush keeps his war anguish hidden
Interesting thought
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:28 AM Permalink
A reader of this site, Dan,
suggested the following:
Instead (as has been the rule) of just switching the vote tallies where the most votes cast for any race ended up in the Republican column, the electronic vote counts for the Dems will be a quite obvious and blatantly a fraudulent puppy-screw ... so much so that even the Democratic candidates will have to refuse to accept the outcomes.
And what could happen? Well, Bush et al would just declare the election null and void and say he'll stay in office until the problem is solved.
Scary thought. But, if you look at how even
FOX news is covering the voting machine thing, and MSM is really talking about how bad the machines are, it's certainly becoming a predominant meme. It would actually be quite a clever thing to just let the machines record all the votes for Dems and since it would be the Repubs that were "wronged," well, we know how
THEY react when they need to fight.
I dunno. Seems somewhat plausible to me. And it would be a VERY logical way for Bush et al to hold onto the reigns of power. I mean, all elections are manipulated. Who's to say they can't be manipulated this way?
So, thanks Dan for giving my brain something else to fret about.
Why isn't our children learning?*
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:46 PM Permalink
Well, this might explain it:
Bush reading program blasted in internal audit
A $1 billion reading program that is a key part of the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind education law was mismanaged and rife with conflicts of interest, according to an internal audit released on Friday.
Gee, and I wonder why they released it in the
Friday Night News Dump.
The audit by the inspector general's office of the Reading First program -- the largest early reading program in U.S. history -- found that officials in 2002 and 2003, shortly after the program was established, improperly tried to influence states on which curricula they should use.
In addition, some officials with the power to approve certain reading materials for states had connections with the publishers, according to the report. It added the department had not properly reviewed the officials for such potential conflicts.
[...]
"Some of the actions taken by Department officials and described in the Inspector General's report reflect individual mistakes," Spellings said in a statement.
Gee, she sees 'individual mistakes' and I see a pattern of corruption by political cronies and hacks that has permeated this misAdministration from day one. DoD, DoJ, NOAA, EPA, FEMA, CIA, FBI. In summation, A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, has been replaced by M I C K E Y M O U S E.
Saturday Sailboat Blogging
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:26 AM Permalink
A friend sent me this with the appropriate heading "Oh $hit!"
(p.s. I have no idea where he got it and if I've violated someone's ownership or copyright I'm sorry and will do my best to make proper attribution or strike the pic as the author wishes.)
Reductionist crap.
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:27 AM Permalink
This article says that violent crime has gone up because the GOP cut police programs.
Excerpt: The rate of violent crime in America increased last year for the first time since 1991, according to a new FBI report. The increase coincides with dramatic cuts to state and local law enforcement funding by Republicans each year since President Bush took office. The $2.3 billion recently approved by the House amounts to nearly half of the $4.5 billion appropriated in 2001.
No, the violence coincides with the ever increasing disparities between rich and poor, the ever increasing marginalization of the lower classes, the increased hypersegregation due to over development and gentrification. In sum, the violence coincides as the contradictions in our capitalistic economic system become more obvious and pervasive. In fact, the scapegoating of the working class and poor is used to distract our attention away from these contradictions.
Got it? Good.
Uh, I hate to mention on tiny detail...
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:23 AM Permalink
But
this would be a real trick
Excerpt: Osama Bin Laden About to Attack the U.S., Says Terrorism Expert
If he's
dead.
Excerpt: Paris- Saudi intelligence services have determined that terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden died of typhoid in August, the French regional daily L'Est Republicain reported on its website on Saturday. The newspaper said it based its information on a document classified "defence secret" originating in the French DGSE intelligence services. According to the story, the DGSE informed President Jacques Chirac of the Saudi report on Thursday.
No, not THAT dead.
THIS dead.
Excerpt: Osama bin Laden is dead. The news first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan almost six months ago: the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, echoed the information. The remnants of Osama's gang, however, have mostly stayed silent, either to keep Osama's ghost alive or because they have no means of communication.
Update: The more I think about this, the more I'm fascinated by it. I mean, bin Laden was finally becoming and issue for Bush. The talking heads were finally getting around to bleating about how Bush never really focused on capturing bin Laden YET you had Rove going on about an October surprise and all sorts of warnings being generated in the faux press about Arabs in in America being told to get out of the country and that there's some sort of impending attack. Seeing as it's the French press that printed the report and we all know that Chirac and Bush don't always see eye-to-eye, well, could it be that the French are sticking it to George?
Hmmmm. Just a thought.
Update 2: OR MAYBE, bin Laden's body IS Rove's October surprise.
Hmmmm...
A dose of weirdness
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:17 AM Permalink
I can't describe
this.
Irony of the week.
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:11 AM Permalink
With all of Bush's denials about global warming,
this strikes me as ironic.
Excerpt: One "treasured place" in extreme risk is the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport (noted by the yellow arrow below). The area in orange shows land that will be submerged by a sea level rise of 6 feet; the area in red will be underwater after a rise of just 3 feet.
Besides moving his lips
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:01 PM Permalink
you know Bush is lying when ...
Excerpt: Asked at the news briefing in the East Room whether the United States would have actually attacked Pakistan if Musharraf had not agreed to cooperate in the war on terrorism, Bush said, "The first I've heard of this is when I read it in the newspaper today. You know, I was -- I guess I was taken aback by the harshness of the words."
he says 1) that he was reading the paper (which he's
said he doesn't do) and 2) was offended by the language ('cause, like, he's a
pottymouth). So you KNOW he knew about threatening to bomb Pakistan. You just KNOW IT.
Need a laugh?
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:52 AM Permalink
Watch
this. (safe for work)
If this is true
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:05 AM Permalink
then the Constitution
really is dead.
Excerpt: The critical $500 billion defense budget has stalled in the House because the Republicans managed to slip in a "mischievous" little amendment that they thought no one would notice.
In direct violation of the Constitution, House Republicans drafted legislative language that would elevate Christian Evangelical Preachers to the status of official government chaplains above all other religions, including non-Evangelical Christians.
Oi vey.
Bluster? Bravado? Or something worse...
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:42 AM Permalink
So many stories out this last week about how we're gearing up for war with Iran. The latest is from
the Nation.
Excerpt: Colonel Gardiner, who has taught military strategy at the National War College, says that the carrier deployment and a scheduled Persian Gulf arrival date of October 21 is "very important evidence" of war planning. He says, "I know that some naval forces have already received 'prepare to deploy orders' [PTDOs], which have set the date for being ready to go as October 1. Given that it would take about from October 2 to October 21 to get those forces to the Gulf region, that looks about like the date" of any possible military action against Iran. (A PTDO means that all crews should be at their stations, and ships and planes should be ready to go, by a certain date--in this case, reportedly, October 1.) Gardiner notes, "You cannot issue a PTDO and then stay ready for very long. It's a very significant order, and it's not done as a training exercise." This point was also made in the Time article.
If this is just bluster or bravado to scare the Iranians, then it's pretty damn good bluster or bravado. But if it's something worse, then we're in a whole heap of trouble.
Obviously, we can't put troops on the ground. We don't have enough troops without a draft. Also, one of the carriers heading out there is nuclear which adds another horrific dimension to the impending conflict. I recommend that you read
Billmon's latest. It's depressing as hell though. He thinks nuclear is the only way the administration CAN succeed. A traditional bombing excercise would only raise the price of oil, thereby allowing Iran more money to rebuild and possibly move faster on getting the bomb.
Excerpt: There is only one U.S. move I can think of that could possibly offset Iran's natural advantages in this game of geopolitical chess -- the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The objective of such a strike would not only be to destroy Iran's nuclear plants more completely, but to demonstrate to Tehran that the old rules don't apply, that America is prepared to commit even barbarous war crimes if that's what it takes to deter hostile powers from acquiring, or even trying to acquire, nuclear weapons.
It would, in other words, take the logic of preventative war -- and Cheney's one percent doctrine -- to their ultimate conclusion.
Read the whole thing. It's very good.
If Bush et al really nukes Iran, I dunno how I could deal with that. Being a child of the cold war and all, the whole nuke thing scares me to the core. Here's hoping that they aren't so stupid as to start a nuclear war in the Middle East.
Yeah, hope.
Jeebus.
The Compromise
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:09 AM Permalink
The GOP and the Administration have
reached a compromise on torture. It's kind of like a "don't ask, don't tell" thing. I guess it can be called a "don't change, don't stop" policy; Congress won't change the law, but Bush doesn't have to stop abusing it. It will be an Executive Order in support of torture. What would that EO number be I wonder... Executive Order 666?
McCain should be ashamed of himself.
It's 10am. Is it too early for a drink?
Groundhog Day in the Middle East ... or ... They Shoot Horses Don't They?
posted by The Vidiot @ 6:13 PM Permalink
In a Replay of Iraq, A Battle is Brewing Over Intelligence on Iran
U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials say Bush political appointees and hard-liners on Capitol Hill have tried recently to portray Iran's nuclear program as more advanced than it is and to exaggerate Tehran's role in Hezbollah's attack on Israel in mid-July. [...] The International Atomic Energy Agency complained in an unusual letter made public on Thursday that a House intelligence committee report on Iran contains "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information."
A top official of the IAEA, which conducts nuclear inspections in Iran and elsewhere, wrote that the report exaggerated advances Tehran has made in enriching uranium, which can be used to fuel nuclear arms if made pure enough. The official, Vilmos Cserveny, said the report also falsely claimed that IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei had removed an inspector from Iran for being too aggressive. [...] The dispute was a virtual rerun of the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, when ElBaradei and his agency questioned claims that Saddam Hussein was aggressively seeking nuclear weapons. Some top U.S. officials sought to discredit ElBaradei, although the IAEA's assessment proved correct.
The IAEA's written protest, dated Tuesday, was echoed privately by U.S. intelligence analysts, who saw the House report as an attempt to discredit the CIA and other agencies on Iran. [...] Dick Cheney may be receiving a stream of questionable information that originates with Iranian exiles, including a discredited arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who played a role in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.
Officials at all three agencies said they suspect that the dubious information may include claims that Iran directed Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, to kidnap two Israeli soldiers in July; that Iran's nuclear program is moving faster than generally believed; and that the Iranian people are eager to join foreign efforts to overthrow their theocratic rulers. [...] "They're just basically saying all kinds of wacky stuff," said the first counter-terrorism official. "Now Iran is (said to be) responsible for everything Hezbollah does." [...] Adding to the unease, Rumsfeld's office earlier this year set up a new Iranian directorate, reported to be under the leadership of neoconservatives who played a role in planning the Iraq war.
Current and former officials said the Pentagon's Iranian directorate has been headed by Abram Shulsky. Shulsky also was the head of the now-defunct Office of Special Plans, whose role in allegedly manipulating Iraq intelligence is under investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general.
And just to complete the reference to
Groundhog Day ...
Bill Murray, a retired CIA station chief in Paris who met with a Ghorbanifar associate and found his claims about Iran to be bogus, called the office's establishment "a big bell ringer."
"That is outright manipulation of information to suggest a predetermined policy," Murray said.
Well no sheeeit! Remember WMDs, aluminum tubes, aerial drones of mass destruction, links with Al Qaeda, "
It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months?"
This misAdministration is a one trick pony, and it's time to put the pony down ... [which completes the reference to
They Shoot Horses Don't They?]
I repeat...
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:55 PM Permalink
I LOVE stuff
like this.
Gas prices
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:29 PM Permalink
Look, they're down 'cause there's an election coming up. (And if I were a gambler, I would bet that the states that could swing either red or blue are getting the biggest decreases right now.)
Don't worry, the prices will go back up right before or right after the election.
Simple.
Though, according to Brain Williams from last night's broadcast, thinking like that means I'm a cynic.
Honestly though, my cynicism can't possibly keep up with reality.
Wait for it, wait for it....
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:14 PM Permalink
it's coming.
Excerpt: The Pentagon's top brass has moved into second-stage contingency planning for a potential military strike on Iran, one senior intelligence official familiar with the plans tells RAW STORY.
here
it comes....
Excerpt: Instead, talks between the United States and European allies brought another delay -- and another deadline -- for Iranian compliance, pushing a possible confrontation to at least the beginning of October to leave more time for negotiations, diplomats said yesterday.
oh boy, I wonder when it'll be...
Excerpt: In the past week, Karl Rove has been promising Republican insiders an "October surprise" to help win the November congressional elections.
Action Alert: General Strike, October 5
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:56 AM Permalink
On October 5, people everywhere will walk out of school, take off work, and come to the downtowns & townsquares and set out from there, going through the streets and calling on many more to join us - making a powerful statement:
"NO! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US!
AND WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!"Go to their website and look for a
protest location near you.
Aliens!
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:43 AM Permalink
Missing footage from Roswell! No. Really. Honest.
Programming Note
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:42 AM Permalink
Watch this week's
NOW on PBS. It's about the "
stealth campaign for deep cuts in social services." Though, to be fair, I don't think it's been stealthy at all. It's been rather overt actually.
WE WON!, er, I mean...Rats!
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:39 AM Permalink
First, it was reported the Judiciary committee didn't pass the torture bill (HR 6054). But alas, whatever armtwisting/blackmail/threat of torture occurred, the vote was reversed and
the bill passed.
Update: And here's how it happened:
procedural shenanigens.
I've been saying it for awhile now
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:44 AM Permalink
Hedge funds and derivatives are risky business. Just ask
these guys.
Excerpt: Amaranth made around $1bn on the surging energy prices last year but lost more than $3bn in the recent downturn, the New York Times reported.
That's three billion with a B.
Perhaps had they
donated to more republicans, they might have been forewarned about energy prices being manipulated before the election.
Wasted Energy
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:43 AM Permalink
If they only applied the
same amount of energy to solving world hunger....
Excerpt: OfficeMax is one example. It has hired Envirosell, a market research company based in New York that takes an anthropological approach to understanding how shoppers navigate stores. Other companies turn to statistical methods used in testing nuclear weapons. New scientific technologies like brain scans also allow companies to peer directly into consumers’ minds.
"The experience we create by scientifically understanding how customers interact with our stores can make a big difference," said Ryan Vero, chief merchandising officer of OfficeMax.
UN speechs
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:38 AM Permalink
I read
Ahmadinejad's speech yesterday on the way home. It was pretty damn lucid. Except for the bit about gassing people during the Iran and Iraq war. Ahmadinejad blamed it on Saddam, but I think there was a UN report that said it was Iran or at the very least, BOTH Iran and Iraq.
And
Chavez' speech was hiLARious. Really. The bit about smelling sulfer because Bush is the Devil was a crack up. On two levels. One, 'cause, like, he's calling Bush the devil and two, like, well,
Bush likes a good fart joke.
Must See Movie
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:31 AM Permalink
Here's an interview with Aaron Russo, the guy who made "
Freeedom to Fascism" which is about how we're enslaved by the Federal Banking system and how taxes are illegal.
Somewhere on the web you can download the movie, but I'd say don't do that. People need to see this movie and the only way to get to the people who aren't part of the choir (e.g. NOT on the internet) is to get the movie into theaters. You have to attend a screening to get the numbers up enough to interest theater owners. So, go see the movie in a theater. But watch this interview to wet your appetite. The next fcity it will be in is Chicago and a bunch of cities in Texas.
Bump and update: Wish I could get away with this
posted by The Vidiot @ 5:40 PM Permalink
Updated post: (by the Sailor)Senator Says Media Study Suppressed
Last week, Boxer released a draft of an FCC study that showed locally owned stations air more news than local stations controlled by outside owners. A lawyer with the FCC told The Associated Press last week that FCC managers ordered the destruction of that report; the lawyer is no longer with the agency.
"I want to assure you that I too am concerned about what happened to these two draft reports," Martin stated in a letter sent Monday evening to Boxer. "I have asked the inspector general of the FCC to conduct an investigation into what happened to these draft documents and will cooperate fully with him."
Martin added that he was not chairman at the time the reports were drafted, and that neither he nor his staff had seen them.
He's shocked, shocked I tell you, especially since
Martin joined the commission in July 2001 and became chairman in March 2005.
But I digress:
In June 2003, the commission voted to loosen rules in virtually all areas of media ownership, including cross-ownership limits on radio and television stations.
[...]
The report states that from March 1996 through March 2003, the number of commercial radio stations on the air rose 5.9 percent while the number of station owners fell 35 percent.
[...]
[The FCC] decided to eliminate its existing system of measuring radio markets and use one favored by Arbitron, a private firm best known for measuring ratings. The commission decided not to force broadcasters to divest stations in markets where the new boundaries would push the broadcast companies over the limit.
So the FCC decided to break the law by changing the rules, and when that wasn't good enough they just deep sixed the reports.
But there is hope:
Also on Monday, the FCC extended the period allowed for public comment on the ownership proceeding by a month, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 23. A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 3 in Los Angeles.
The corporations who own the media don't care about anything but profit. When a multitude of independent outlets report on the news we may not get 'the truth', but at least we get to see different viewpoints, and the biases hopefully cancel out.
If you live in the area, like
skippy and
SteveAudio do, go to the FCC meeting Oct. 3 in Los Angeles.
If you don't live in LA, write the FCC,
our airwaves are too important to leave to the government or, even worse, a few multinational corporations.
Here is the
contact info.
Original post (by The Vidiot):if I don't like what a report says, I
just toss it.
Excerpt: The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says.
Thanks guys.
Must have this game!
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:42 AM Permalink
It's like Risk, only with
terrorism and oil!
No they didn't!
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:39 AM Permalink
Yes they did.
They threatened to divert a plane because two gay guys were kissing. It was on American Airlines.
Again.
I'm so ashamed.
I don't normally point to a whole 'nuther blogpost
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:37 AM Permalink
But you have to read
Glenn Greenwald's recent entry regarding Michelle Malkin and her absurd hypocrisy.
We must look like pansies.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:28 AM Permalink
Thailand had a corrupt PM, so they
got rid of him.
In Budapest, they are
protesting and demanding that their PM resign for being caught lying about the economy.
Mexicans, not believing their rigged election, have f
ormed a shadow government in protest.
Our president?
Let 9/11 happen.
Flubbed a war in Afghanistan
Let bin Laden get away
Lied us into a war in Iraq
Badly mishandled the aftermath in Iraq
Has trashed our economy
Has agreed to torture, gulags and wiretapping of US citizens
Not to mention the cronyism. Oy, the cronyism.
...just to name a few
And what do we do? We crack open a beer and watch "Survivor."
I'm so ashamed.
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:18 PM Permalink
I'm a might busy what with all the booty I'm plundering, but I'll have more for ye later.
To tide you scurvy dogs over, here is the
Pirate Speak Translator version of King George tryin' to justify torture and illegal wiretaps:
Arrr, the principle behind this program is clear: when an al Qaeda operati'e is callin' int' the United States or out o' the country, we need t' know who they're callin', why they're callin', and what they're plannin'. Both these bills be essential t' winnin' the war on terror. We will work with Congress t' get good bills out. We have a duty, we have a duty t' work together t' gi'e our folks on the front line the tools necessary t' protect America. Time is runnin' out. Congress is set t' adjourn in just a few weeks. Congress needs t' act wisely and promptly so I can sign good legislation. A pence for an old man o'de sea?
Actually, it makes him sound more coherent, Bush's puppet masters should use the translator for every speech!
History repeats itself again and again.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:02 AM Permalink
If
this blockade of the Strait of Hormuz happens, it's an act of war against Iran, plain and simple. Think: Japan, WWII. Though, honestly, if you read the article, it's the typical, ridiculous "well war is inevitable" claptrap that we've come to expect from the cheerleading media. The article isn't so much about how war can't happen, but how it will.
It makes me nauseous.
Hero of the week... sorta.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:52 AM Permalink
Neil Boorman burned all of his branded goods and vows to never buy brand names again.
Excerpt: "To find real happiness, to find the real me, I must get rid of it all and start again, a brand-free life, if that is indeed possible."
I try to do the same all of the time and it's not easy. Especially when Mr. Vidiot is craving
Blue Runner creamy style cajun red beans.
I guess it's OK
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:50 AM Permalink
if
this drummer gets drool on his IQ test.
Songs in the key of G ... or ... These iTunes are Spot on
posted by The Vidiot @ 6:27 PM Permalink
The Boy From Ipanema 2:37 Julie London
i'm Not In Love 7:32 10cc
Sweet Emotion 5:10 Aerosmith
I Need You Tonight 3:01 INXS
Sexual Healing 4:09 Marvin Gaye
Whipping Post 5:19 Allman Brothers Band
Rock and Roll Fantasy 3:18 Bad Company
I Feel Good 2:46 James Brown
Blood Sugar Sex Magik 4:31 Red Hot Chili Peppers
Why would FOX news do this?
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:18 AM Permalink
I'll tell you why FOX news actually covered the story about the
hacking of the Diebold machines by a couple of guys from Princeton.
They covered it because it's looking like the Dems are going to pick ups a bunch of seats and propagandists need to give the mouth breathers a reason to doubt the results.
'Natch.
Bullshit is US!
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:29 AM Permalink
So, I've been watching the "debate" on wiretapping and surveillance. What we basically have are three different bills; 1)
no oversight of the executive, free reign to eavesdrop; 2) a
little oversight of the executive (report every 45 days on activities), free reign to eavesdrop and; 3)
weaken FISA enough to make it meaningless, therefore resulting in free reign to eavesdrop.
Now, I ask you, where is the "debate" in that? Basically, all three "choices" allow unbridled eavesdropping. So, no matter what happens, they're going to listen in, at will, to whomever they want, American citizen or not.
Can we schedule the revolution already? My Mondays are pretty free...
(You know, this is how bad it's gotten. I'm second guessing including that last line 'cause I don't want "that knock on my door." How sad is THAT?)
Orwell lives.
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:27 AM Permalink
I can't believe
this.
Excerpt: Big Brother is not only watching you - now he's barking orders too. Britain's first 'talking' CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.
The system allows control room operators who spot any anti-social acts - from dropping litter to late-night brawls - to send out a verbal warning: 'We are watching you'.
I'm speechless.
Saturday Sailboat Blogging
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:57 PM Permalink
It's so much more satisfying if you can take a pic of the boat behind you instead of the one(s) in front of you!
Aye, Tunes! He Said/She Said Edition
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:56 PM Permalink
He said:
Hey There Lonely Girl 3:36 Stylistics
Would I Lie To You? 4:25 Eurythmics
She said:
Who Are You? 6:23 The Who
Dream on 4:25 Aerosmith
He said:
When I Touch You 5:38 Spirit
Tell it like it is 2:42 Aaron Neville
She said:
Make Me Smile 2:58 Chicago
Hold Me Now 7:06 Tears For Fears
He said:
One Thing Leads To Another 3:17 The Fixx
The Sweetest Taboo 4:24 Sade
Come In The Morning 2:17 Moby Grape
She said:
Hold on I'm coming 2:38 Sam & Dave
Don't leave me this way 6:00 Teddy Pendergrass
Call Me 3:32 Blondie
He said:
Hesitation Blues 2:46 Doc & Merle Watson
If You Don't Know Me By Now 3:24 Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
Kiss and Say Goodbye 4:26 The Manhattans
She said:
I Can See Clearly Now 3:05 Anne Murray
Don't Let It Bring You Down 3:38 Annie Lennox
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me 2:48 Dusty Springfield
He said:
No More Words 3:53 Berlin
She said:
No More Tears 7:24 Ozzy Osbourne
Coda:
The Night We Called It A Day 5:42 Diana Krall
Wish I could get away with this
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:44 AM Permalink
if I don't like what a report says, I
just toss it.
Excerpt: The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says.
Thanks guys.
It doesn't matter who votes, it's who counts the votes (Part XXLMCXXX):
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:20 PM Permalink
Princeton prof hacks e-vote machine
Students uploaded viruses able to spread to other machines
In a paper posted on the university's Web site, Edward Felten and two graduate students described how they had tested a Diebold AccuVote-TS machine they obtained, found ways to quickly upload malicious programs and even developed a computer virus able to spread such programs between machines.
[...]
The marketing director for the machine's maker [said] "I'm concerned by the fact we weren't contacted to educate these people on where our current technology stands," Mark Radke said.
[...]
The AccuVote-TS is commonly used across the country
[Obligatory superfluous snarky comment goes here.]
He's gambling on our troops lives
posted by The Vidiot @ 6:41 PM Permalink
Frist Targets Internet Gambling
WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is trying use a bill authorizing U.S. military operations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, to prohibit people from using credit cards to settle Internet gambling debts.
So Frist [R-Kitten Killer] thinks gambling he wants to make illegal is equated to supporting troops in a war zone!?
Ahh, Rethuglicans, always for less government, always for supporting the troops, always looking out for our best interests.
Interesting
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:56 PM Permalink
Chavez is trying to get himself the Latin American seat on the UN Security Council. The US of course, wants Guatemala to get it. Read Wayne Madsen's
Sept. 14 entry. Then, read this one about how
10 countries have just been banned from voting at the GA. Now, I'm no genius, and at least one of those countries (Georgia) is tight with this administration, but the rest of them seem like they'd aliqn with Chavez. And the reason for banning their votes, non-payment of UN fees, seems a little contrived at best. I mean, the US is WAY in arrears, like over
$1 billion. So if anyone should be banned, the US should.
Seems like it could be the usual strong-arming and game-playing at the UN by the US.
Another nail in the coffin of our democracy.
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:34 PM Permalink
The
National Security Surveillance Act passed committee. It allows for warrantless wiretapping of American citizens and gives Gonzales way more power than he should have.
Excerpt: "The administration has taken their illegal conduct in wiretapping Americans without court orders, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Constitution, and used it as springboard to not only get FISA changed to allow the Terrorist Surveillance Program, but to actually, going forward, not give protections to Americans' privacy rights," Graves said.
We can only hope that when Congress reads it, they understand that it's contrary to the Fourth Amendment and not pass the damn thing.
BwwwwahahahaHahhhahHhahahhaHaaaa!!!! ROFLMA. Yeah, like THAT'll happen. LOL
Sorry. But that "Congress reads it and understands" thing is quite a knee-slapper.
Oh for heaven's sake.
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:47 PM Permalink
This idiot says it's now a
proven fact that men are smarter than women.
Excerpt: The study - carried out by a man - concluded that men's IQs are almost four points higher than women's.
It doesn't even address the fact that the tests are written by men. That should skew the whole thing enough to cover the difference.
Also, keep in mind, this is the same idiot who came out and said that intelligence is race based and that's why blacks are involved with more crime. Yeah, 'cause it's got nothing to do with hypersegregation, capitalism and class issues.
Yes, there's a special place in idiot's hell for this guy.
What the hell is wrong with these people!?
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:02 PM Permalink
Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs
Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.
[...]
"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne.
Things that might work:
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:00 PM Permalink
They are calling it the "crossed legs" strike.
Fretting over crime and violence, girlfriends and wives of gang members in the Colombian city of Pereira have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to give up the gun.
If applied in the US it would be the first time Bush wasn't in a Pickle(s).
Viagra works, but chocolate works better
Viagra may heat up one's sex drive, but chocolate can make it sizzle.
So said Dr. Dora Akunyili, the director of Nigeria's Federal Agency for Food and Medicine, in advising Nigerians on Monday to forego the little, libido-boosting blue pills in favor of a measured dose of cocoa.
To back up her claims -- made during a meeting with the vice-governor of one of Nigeria's states -- the good doctor cited a recently published study extolling the libidinal qualities of cocoa beans.
So that's what they mean by
hard chocolate!
Can You Say 'Crusade?' ... or ... A Messianic Simplex
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:31 PM Permalink
Bush Tells Group He Sees a 'Third Awakening'
President Bush said yesterday that he senses a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion in the United States that has coincided with the nation's struggle with international terrorists, a war that he depicted as "a confrontation between good and evil."
Bush told a group of conservative journalists [...] "A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me," Bush said
I agree with our fearful leader incurious George on one point, it is a confrontation between good and evil, evil including him.
War Crimes
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:30 PM Permalink
IDF Commander: We Fired More Than a Million Cluster Bombs in Lebanon
"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.
Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.
In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law.
[...]
It has come to light that IDF soldiers fired phosphorous rounds in order to cause fires in Lebanon. An artillery commander has admitted to seeing trucks loaded with phosphorous rounds on their way to artillery crews in the north of Israel.
[...]
The International Red Cross has determined that international law forbids the use of phosphorous and other types of flammable rounds against personnel, both civilian and military.
And while the target has changed, the song remains the same:
'Gaza is a jail. Nobody is allowed to leave. We are all starving now'
Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon.
And before any of our readers get their panties in a bunch thinking I'm anti-semitic, nope, not the case, I'm anti war crimes ... wherever they occur.
How Did Bush take Ohio in 2004?
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:26 PM Permalink
The same way
Jeff Gannon takes a 'mandate' ... he f***ked them for a lot of cash!
Noe gets 27 months in prison; ex-coin dealer says he was pressured by Bush campaign
"I have pled guilty because I violated the federal campaign laws. In 2003, I was pressured by Bush-Cheney campaign officials to become a Pioneer for George Bush."
True campaign finance reform won't happen until the penalty is losing the election.
Ohmigawd! Ohmigawd! Ohmigawd!
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:58 AM Permalink
Saw it on
BoingBoing.net.Federal employees have to take a course on the Constitution. Now, I didn't believe the poster when he/she said that the First Amendment had been interepreted as the following:
"The first ten amendments comprise the Bill of Rights. The first amendment protects religious freedom by prohibiting the establishment of an official or exclusive church or sect. Free speech and free press are protected, although they can be limited for reasons of defamation, obscenity, and certain forms of state censorship, especially during wartime. The freedom of assembly and petition also covers marching, picketing and pamphleteering."
But I looked for myself and behold the
screen grabs.
Holy Crap Batman!
Here's what I don't get.
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:15 AM Permalink
I live in a very "smart" part of the world. New York City. Specifically, Brooklyn Heights, or near there anyway. Now, the people here are considered to be the best and the brightest. They're lawyers and doctors and professors and Wall St. executives (oh my) and well, one would EXPECT them to have a clue.
A clue about what? you might ask. Well, a clue about how messed up the government is these days. A clue about how those in Congress today are the idiots who "fell" for Bush's crap and gave him a blank check. A clue about now dangerous incumbency is. A clue about how you can use the voting process to express your disapproval.
But
noooooooo, my idiot neighbors maintained the status quo. Clinton won in a landslide against an anti-war candidate and my congresscritter, Edolphus Towns (a.k.a. the Marlboro man because of all the tobacco money he's taken during his tenure) won handily. He's been in Congress for over 20 years! Doesn't SOMEBODY think it's time for him to get his sorry, lobby-bloated ass out of there?
Apparently not.
How can people continue to vote for the same idiots over and over and over again? Can't they see how bad it is to have a person in there for so long, they get so deep in lobby money that they can't get out?
You know, I've been really verbally wrestling with Mr. Vidiot about voting and elections. He's convinced that not only are the parties the same but that elections are pointless. That there's no such thing as a fair election. Even if the count is fair, the media controls the discourse so that nobody is informed about anything. I think he's right though. There's no other way to explain the lunacy.
I'm like so frustrated right now. Here was a chance, in a primary, to throw the bums out. Anti-incumbency all the way. And what happened? The incumbents get to stick around for yet another term.
Jeebus.
Most. Useful. Site. Ever.
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:45 PM Permalink
Have a special someone who forgets things? Do you forget things? Well,
here's a nifty little web service to send reminders.
Time-waster of the Week
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:14 PM Permalink
Please don't
hate me.
I'm ignorant.
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:51 AM Permalink
And
I bet you are too.
Saturday Sailboat Blogging ... Monday Edition
posted by The Vidiot @ 3:37 PM Permalink
This picture says it all for me
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:41 PM Permalink
Here is the shot of Bush and his wife, laying a wreath at Ground Zero. Staged as a solemn event, it's a stark image of what 9/11 is five years out: Bush, alone, a wasteland surrounding him, nobody is with him except two people who HAVE to be with him.
Behold our ignoble leader.
Muckumentary part 3
posted by The Vidiot @ 10:25 AM Permalink
I couldn't watch more than five minutes of that stupid thing last night. At the point we turned it on, the evil Arab guys were doing something evil and while they were doing something evil, the film quickly cut to an image of Clinton saying something on TV, then it went back to the evil Arab guys. And I thought "Well THAT was heavy-handed. Yes. Let's subliminally equate the evil Arab guys with Clinton. Splendid idea!"
Jeesh.
Meanwhile, Bush et al is quietly circlulating legislation that would negate parts of the
1996 War Crimes Act. Retroactivley no less. Talk about evil.
Don't know where this comes from
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:30 PM Permalink
but I saw it in a
reader letter for whatreallyhappened.com
It's an interesting list with regards to 9/11:
a) 1st time when 4 planes get hijacked simultaneously.
b) 1st time when 4 planes get hijacked by hijackers using hand tools.
c) 1st time when 4 planes get hijacked in one country.
d) 1st time when commercial passenger planes have been used as terror tools.
e) 1st time when such huge concrete and steel buildings collapse like a pack of cards with one impact.
f) 1st time when human bodies could not be found but the hijackers passports were found intact.
g) 1st time that asking any questions about 9/11 or even seeking proof of the "official account" makes one unpatriotic and a criminal. Even in the Land of the Free this is a taboo topic.
h) 1st time when there is NO Repercussions on anyone in US like the airport security staff, the school where the hijackers studied flying, their bankers, etc. However, HUGE Repercussions for the COUNTRY and the RELIGION to which they belonged.
i) 1st time that whole countries (millions) are being punished for the "alleged" crimes of a few.
j) 1st time that a whole religion is being judged by the actions of few criminals who 'claim' to be of that religion.
k) 1st time that US President urges congress to legalise the military courts that were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court (Ref. Bush's speech on 6th Sep. 2006). Hence to absolve him from doing something wrong he asks congress to convert illegal into legal so that it can then be carried out.
l) 1st time that US also acts like a 'terrorist' by breaking laws (its own constitution, Geneva and Human Rights convention, etc.) and terrorising those "who are not with us", hence they are against us.
m) 1st time the US President has taken the country to war on LIES (re WMD in Iraq) which has cost thousands of US Lives (equal to 9/11) and billions of Dollars. Yet he is not impeached like Nixon was when he lied in the Watergate Scandal (which did not cost so much in lives, money and property).
n) 1st time the US President invades a country to liberate and democratise it. How can democracy be imposed? This is self-contradictory or oxymoron! I would call it demoNcracy.
Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.
ooooo, Clever
posted by The Vidiot @ 4:27 PM Permalink
Iran may
suspend uranium enrichment for a couple of months. Just long enough so that Bush et al can't easily do an October surprise.
This is what a police state looks like
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:30 PM Permalink
and it
looks like US.
Excerpt: Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.
Billmon read it
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:26 PM Permalink
so you don't have to:
The first part of the Phase II report on 9/11. Turns out, it's a little more revealing than the media would have you believe. Big surprise, huh?
Excerpt: The real surprise, however, is that such damning conclusions appear in the reports at all, given the implacable hostility of Chairman Roberts and most of the committee's GOP members towards anything resembling the truth. But it appears the hardliners have lost control of the committee. This may actually have been the most important news to come out Friday -- more important than the reports themselves, even though I haven't seen a peep about it in the corporate media.
This pleases the hell out of me.
posted by The Vidiot @ 1:22 PM Permalink
Really,
it does.
Excerpt: Excessively skinny fashion models will be barred from a major Madrid fashion show later this month for fear they could send the wrong message to young Spanish girls, local media reported.
Why it was just yesterday, I was walking into the subway, and saw an ad that was for
Fashion Week (this week) here in NY. Every single girl in the ad looked like she hadn't been fed anything substantial in weeks. I had this unbelievably strong urge to pull out an enormous Sharpie and write over the pictures "EAT SOMETHING!"
Now, I'm considered to be thin by many, but even I am appalled at the standard of beauty that is held up by these images.
Blech.
UPDATE (by the Sailor)
:Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modeling agency: "I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models.
Sheesh! How about the harming of the careers of all the normal women who could be models? How about designers have to deal with the shapes of an actual woman and not the clothes hangers that the current models emulate. Heck, even I could drape fabrics on a planform that didn't include titz or hipz.
I took a poll ... OK, I just asked me, so I guess it was just a pole ... but the results are in and I have never found the ubermodels very stimulating, much less attractive.
They kinda remind me of the old Sophie Tucker joke:
"Soph?! You've got no titz and a tight box."
So I says to him: "Ernie?! Get off my back!"
Funny line, but with today's models ... how can you tell?
More on the Muckumentary
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:31 PM Permalink
The brouhaha is mostly about placing blame on Clinton or not placing blame on Clinton.
That seems to be the question.
But what is the REAL question? Why this? Why now? We now know that those behind the creation of the movie are part of
some Christian group that YOU KNOW must be staunch supporters of GW. And the spin is
full on in the the media to back up this manufactured controversy with "republican vs. democrat" propaganda.
Excerpt: Five years after 9/11, the bitter division between Republicans and Democrats on key issues is as intense as ever, with the two at loggerheads over the War in Iraq, wiretapping and surveillance, and what role, if any, Saddam Hussein played in the 2001 terror attacks, new polling by Zogby International shows.
But, I have a different theory all together.
With all this yapping about Clinton did this, or did Bush do that and it's the dems view vs. the repubs view, what's NOT being discussed is what's starting to be discussed amongst those of us with brains: They're
scared shitless that the populace is beginning to understand that the government had something to do with 9/11. Just look at the headline in a recent yahoo article:
False Flag Operations: Declassified Military Documents Show How US Government Planned Terrorist Attacks Against its Own Citizens
So, the reason Disney/ABC is going ahead with the 9/11 thing, despite the fact it may well ruin their brand for years to come, is that they're basically carrying water for this administration, trying to divert the public, distract them from what's going on in the discourse. They're trying to push the discourse to the manufactured, tried and true "dems v repubs" and away from the "hey wait a minute! The government is totally capable of..."
OHMIGAWD WATCH OUT FOR THOSE ISLAMOFASICSTS!
Incompetence or Insanity
posted by The Vidiot @ 12:15 PM Permalink
or is it just
too close to call.
Excerpt: Long before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday.
Not exactly Project Greenlight
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:27 PM Permalink
Discover the Secret Right-Wing Network Behind ABC's 9/11 DeceptionExcerpt: "The Path to 9/11" is produced and promoted by a well-honed propaganda operation consisting of a network of little-known right-wingers working from within Hollywood to counter its supposedly liberal bias. This is the network within the ABC network. Its godfather is far right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production. On this project, he is working with a secretive evangelical religious right group founded by The Path to 9/11's director David Cunningham that proclaims its goal to "transform Hollywood" in line with its messianic vision.
As sure a thing as death and taxes,
posted by The Vidiot @ 8:26 PM Permalink
the
Friday night news dump.
Excerpt: There's no evidence Saddam Hussein had a relationship with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his Al-Qaida associates, according to a Senate report on prewar intelligence on Iraq. Democrats said the report undercuts President Bush's justification for going to war.
Some might find the predictablity comforting.
I do not.
This and That ... or ... Reality Bytes
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:03 PM Permalink
Since the
Pathology to 9/11 Movie is all the rage I thought I'd show examples of how fiction isn't limited to Made for TV movies.
There's this fiction:
We've kept homeland safe, declares Bush
And then there's that reality:
Report: U.S. not ready for disaster
There's this fiction:
'There's progress in war on terror'
And then there's that reality:
Baghdad morgue tally triples August death toll
It turns out the official toll of violent deaths in August was just revised upwards to 1535 from 550, tripling the total ...this means that a much-publicized drop-off in violence in August – heralded by both the Iraqi government and the US military as a sign that a new security effort in Baghdad was working – apparently didn't exist.
But wait, there's more!
Suicide bomber attacks U.S. convoy in Afghanistan, killing 18
KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a U.S. military convoy Friday morning, killing two U.S. soldiers and at least 16 Afghans.
At least 29 people were injured, including the two U.S. soldiers. The blast was the deadliest in the country's capital since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.
There's this fiction:
Bush: Iraq Central In War On Terror
And then there's that reality:
Saddam not linked to al-Qaeda
a senate report on pre-war intelligence [...] discloses for the first time an October 2005, assessment by the central intelligence agency (CIA) that prior to the war Saddam's government "did not have a relationship, neither harbour, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi and his associates".
And a bonus track:
Republicans issue report criticizing Bush's decision on Iraq
President Bush announced Friday that he will address the nation Monday, on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. But members of his own Republican party issued a stinging report, essentially accusing the President of a major post-9/11 error: taking the nation to war with Iraq by erroneously linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda.
Jeebus, it only took the rethuglicans five years to catch up to reality ... they must really be worried about the election!
A-ha!
posted by The Vidiot @ 9:16 AM Permalink
Obama's pork database legislation has passed. All holds have been lifted and it passed. Now, we'll see how long it takes to actually happen. It's the 8th of September, 2006 right now.....
Sextuplet
posted by The Vidiot @ 11:33 PM Permalink
She Bop 3:43 Cyndy Lauper
She Drives Me Crazy 3:37 Fine Young Cannibals
Give It Up 4:40 Red Hot Chili Peppers
Relax 3:56 Frankie Goes to Hollywood
What You Need 3:36 INXS
Pleasure and Pain 3:42 Divinyls
Bonerus track: Smooth Up In Ya 4:25 Bullet Boys
The (Neo) Con Game
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:55 PM Permalink
Intel Estimate on Iran Blocks Neo-Con Plans
WASHINGTON - In the struggle over U.S. policy toward Iran, neoconservatives in the George W. Bush administration spoiling for an attack on Iran's nuclear sites have been seeking to convince the public that the United States must strike before an Iranian nuclear weapons capability becomes inevitable.
In order to do so, they must discredit the intelligence community's conclusions that Iran is still as many as 10 years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon and that such a weapon is not an inevitable consequence of its present uranium enrichment programme.
[...]
On Apr. 20, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte[...]"According to the experts that I consult... getting 164 centrifuges to work is still a long way from having the capacity to manufacture fissile material for a nuclear weapon."
[...]
The intelligence estimate on Iran, however, explicitly takes the view that there is nothing inevitable about an Iranian decision to weaponise.
[...]
The intelligence judgment on this is also supported by independent analysts of the Iranian programme. Ray Takeyh, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last March that it was "neither inevitable nor absolute" that Iran would turn to nuclear weapons, because "its course of action is still unsettled."
It's only unsettled because Bush refuses to talk with them and they are concerned we will attack them vis a vis
"[Bush] promised that Iraq was only the first step in a campaign to bring democracy to the Middle East."
BTW, Iran
is a democracy. Maybe not our vision of democracy, just like Britain doesn't have our type of democracy, but they have elections and they have an elected president. They also have a large internal struggle between the secular and the uber-religious wangdoodles. Sound familiar?
Suckumentary; Bump and Update
posted by The Vidiot @ 7:35 PM Permalink
There's nothing I can really add to the whole
ABC 9/11 movie controversy that hasn't already been said and said better than I could say it. I understand that there's a big issue with how images and narratives from pop culture can seep into our consciousness and create a reality that runs counter to, well, ACTUAL reality. And that's bad. BUT, frankly, I feel like anyone who's dumb enough to fall for whatever ABC throws at us is too dumb to save. So let them show the dumb movie. G'head. As Mr. Vidiot would probably say, let them show how ridiculous and desperate they are. It will only prove that the system is cracked. It will only magnify the contradictions in our worldview. And then, after saying that, Mr. Vidiot would most likely rub his hands together and in his best Mr. Burns voice say "Excellent. EXcellent."
UPDATE (by The Sailor): I had called Disney, ABC's parent company, (mainly because Steve Jobs of Apple is a 6.5% shareholder and I thought he/they should know that their money is going to rightwing propaganda just before an election) and talked to some very nice people who asked me to fax the request for email contact info. I also called some old friends from my days in LA to help me out.
All I was asking for were email links to the Disney Board of Directors, and Steve Jobs in particular, but in the 48 hours it took them to respond the 'net was all over it.
If you care to contact any of the people associated with ABC or Disney,
Steve Gilliard has the goods. If you do contact them, please be polite, most of them are very nice people and have nothing to do with this travesty.
I need to give a shout out to
skippy, who has been all over this and pointed me to Steve's blog, and especially to a friend at Disney who shall remain nameless at her request ... thanks M, I know you did your best!
Update 2: Billmon chimes in.
