"Just Relax And Enjoy It"If you just add the word "bitch" to the end of that, it would pretty much explain what government does to the those of us NOT in power.
HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.I thought, "why does that sound so familiar?" Then I remembered the Manning Memo:
Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can’t have Americans killing Americans. That’s the kind of — that’s the level of stuff we’re talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected.
Manning records that both Bush and Blair were uptight that the WMDs were not going to be found, so George W offered another fabrication to give them an excuse to attack. He suggested that the U.S. would paint one of our own surveillance planes in the colors of the United Nations and fly it over Iraq, hoping that Saddam would be provoked into shooting it down. Then the U.S. and Brits could invade, claiming that they were retaliating for Saddam's attack on the UN.Indeed.
Labels: iran war prep, staged terror
Unger wrote prodigiously, churning out an endless stream of ideas about philosophy, politics, economics and social theory. He was, and he remains, a committed, radical leftist; he embraces the very idea of radicalism as a central pillar of his political philosophy.OK. So he's a radical leftist. So I read on:
Unger is more than just another academic-turned-politician, or another radical given a taste of power. His success or failure may very well determine the future of leftist movements around the world. His ideas represent some of the most novel approaches to dealing with the world’s problems: how to reduce poverty, promote economic growth and strengthen democracy. So his appointment will test whether a leftist movement still has the power to transform the world.OK. So my interest is piqued. But, towards the end, there's this:
But Unger doesn’t think Brazil should compete against the likes of China by giving its workers ever-lower wages. And he rejects the neo-Korean model because he wants to start an economic revolution from the ground up, not top down. Instead, Unger proposes that the government both tax and invest heavily. Voting should be made mandatory, as should savings. These measures would buffer the economy from the influence of international investors. This flies against the textbooks that say governments should prostrate themselves to foreign investment. Growth would not come from big business then, but from Brazil’s small enterprises.He's no radical. Far from it. He's still working within the established construct. A radical wants to break that construct. Destroy it. Not play with it in different ways.
Labels: economics, left vs. right, politics
G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite StimulusHeadline from washingtonpost.com:
U.S. Economy Grows at Solid Pace in 2nd QuarterSalient points from NYT article:
The American economy expanded at a weaker-than-expected 1.9 percent annual rate between April and June, the Commerce Department announced Thursday, while numbers for the last three months of 2007 were revised downward to show a contraction — the first dip since the recession of 2001.[…]In what country does bush live and how could anyone be so disconnected from reality?
“We already knew the economy was weak, and now you have both a negative growth number coupled with job losses,” said Dean Baker, a director of the liberal Center for Economic and Policy Research. “There’s a lot of real bad times to come.”
President Bush zeroed in on the positive growth rate in the second quarter as a sign of resilience, dismissing the characterizations of professional economists.
“We got some positive news today,” the president said…
The U.S. economy grew at a solid pace in the second quarter, the government said today, despite being buffeted by a financial crisis, a deep housing slump, high fuel prices and a weak job market.I have repeatedly noted in the past that any bushco economic figures cannot ever be trusted as the figures released are inevitably revised downward within a couple of months.
Gross domestic product rose at a 1.9 percent inflation-adjusted annual rate in the April through June period, the department said, far above what forecasters would have expected just a few months ago but below their more recent projections. It was boosted by strong exports resulting from the lower value of the dollar and rising consumer spending by Americans, who benefited from the stimulus checks.
That represents an improvement over the 0.9 percent growth rate of the first quarter and an economy that shrank 0.2 percent, according to the newly revised data, in the final months of 2007.
Other sources of strength were in the building of offices, hotels and other commercial construction, and spending by the government.…
Labels: Bushco, disinformation, Economy, MSM, propaganda
Everything is suspect. It does not sound like a suicide, but he could have known something and wasn't going to play hardball. Anyone could have ordered the kill. Dick Cheney is a powerful man, but so is Elton John...they are both annoying.And THAT'S why I read these things.
Labels: barksdale, missing nukes
Labels: memories
Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate and one of the chamber's most powerful members, was indicted Tuesday in Washington, a result of a year-long investigation into corruption in Alaska politics.I'm pretty sure that home in Girdwood is the one that Stevens had lifted from the ground, completely and literally, and allowed a crony contractor to build Stevens an entirely new first floor to the home, then setting the original first floor on top for an instant two-story home.
The indictment comes nearly one year after federal agents raided Stevens' home in Girdwood, a resort town about 40 miles south of Anchorage.
Labels: Conservatives, corruption, politics, scandal
When Stephanopoulos asked, "Are you a 'read my lips' candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?" McCain responded affirmatively: "No new taxes."Fast forward to July 2008:
McCain told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on "This Week." "I think that’s the way that Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill did it -- and that's what we have to do again."WTF! McCain's equating Reagan, a republican president who was responsible for the 3rd worst deficit in American history, (before Bush I and Bush II), with Tip O'Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House who called Reagan "Herbert Hoover with a smile" and "a cheerleader for selfishness" and "am amiable dunce."
When asked if that includes a possible hike in the payroll tax, McCain reiterated that nothing -- including such a tax hike -- is "off the table."
[Carly Fiorina, a key lieutenant to McCain who was fired from Hewlett-Packard] "The reality is when an economy is slowing, if you raise taxes and you curtail free trade through isolationist policies, bad economic times become worse," she told reporters.Maybe it's just me, but I think that hiring a person who's firing elevated HP's stock 7.5% would be a bad economic adviser, (tho she's vying for Phil Gramm for absolute worst economic adviser ever), especially one who thinks raising taxes will lead to a depression on the same day that her boss and republican presidential contender says raising payroll taxes could be a good idea.
The McCain campaign yesterday unveiled its latest TV ad, which hits Obama for -- among other things -- cancelling a visit to meet with wounded US soldiers at Landstuhl. "He made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops," the ad goes. "Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops. McCain. Country first."Next a quote, (follow the link to video), from NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who definitely can't be called an Obama supporter, but she was actually there:
Andrea Mitchell said, "That literally is not true.
Let me play a bit of Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman reacting to that today… The point is he had no intention of bringing cameras. I was there, I can vouch for it. Why put up an ad claiming that's why he didn't visit the troops?" [MSNBC, 7/28/08]
Labels: John McCain, presidential election
Federal Deficit Grows After 3 Years of DeclineBS! See, "United States National Debt (1938 to Present) An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing," which contains an excellent chart, which I lack the know-how to post here, showing the steady increase in our debt, the deficit, and that points out the parties responsible for the increases in text which I can quote:
The chart below, Figure 1, shows the United States national debt (per Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia[1] and US Government data[2]) with the various Presidents’ terms marked by vertical lines. Under President Clinton the growth in debt ceased, but note the radical change in direction since George W. Bush entered office. There is no question and a lot of mathematical proof that the steepest upward rises in debt since the end of World War II, started with President Reagan and continued with other so called Neo-Conservatives.[…]It's not only clear that the headline is wrong, it is so wrong as to defy credulity and again demonstrates a media bias favorable to Rethug Neocons.
Prior to the Neo-Conservative takeover of the Republican Party there was not much difference between the two parties’ debt philosophy. They both worked together to minimize it. However the debt has been on a steady incline ever since the Reagan presidency. The only exception to the steep increase over the last 25 years was during the Clinton presidency, when he brought spending under control and the debt growth down to almost zero.
Comparing the borrowing habits of the two parties since 1981, when the Neo-Conservative movement really took hold and government spending raced out of control, it is extremely obvious that the big spenders in Washington are Republicans and their party’s presidents. The only Democratic president since then, Mr. Clinton raised the national debt an average of 4.3% per year. The Republican presidents (Reagan, Bush, and Bush II) raised the debt an average of 10.8% per year. That is, for every dollar a Democratic President has raised the national debt in the past 25 years, Republican presidents have raised the debt by $2.53[6]. Any way you look at it Neo-Conservative Republican presidents cannot or will not control government spending.
Deficit to Grow to RecordMaybe the former headline was just a tad too dishonest for even the washingtonpost.com? Nope, when you link to the article it repeats the garbage headline and flushes it out with obviously bad information as the deficit has increased every single year bush has been in office.
Labels: Budget, bush hypocrisy, disinformation, Economy, Fiscal irresponsibility, neocons, propaganda
Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on DrillingAnd I say that anytime a group or organization suddenly makes ten-fold increases, millions of dollars, in donations to a candidate it is "completely absurd" to not believe that a candidate has been bought, paid for, gift wrapped, and delivered on a silver platter to that special interest group, don't you?
Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.[…]
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.
"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."
Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on drilling policy "completely absurd."
Labels: elections, energy, flip-flops, gasoline, GOP, McCain, neocons, Oil
Labels: Barack Obama, disinformation, GOP, MSM, prejudice, propaganda
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama scrubbed a planned visit to see wounded American servicemen and women in Germany because of concerns raised by the Pentagon that the stop at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center could be seen as a political event, according to Obama's campaign.[…]So now Obama is wrong and by implication unpatriotic for honoring a Pentagon request and the McSlain campaign criticizes him.
"The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign," senior adviser Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
The campaign of Obama's GOP rival, Sen. John S. McCain, was quick to criticize the decision. "Barack Obama is wrong," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said. "It is never 'inappropriate' to visit our men and women in the military."
Labels: Barack Obama, diplomacy, elections, McCain, mental competency, Pentagon
Gallup: Obama 45, McCain 43Of course polls are only a "snapshot in time," but I think we will see steady gains for Obama, as McPain is a total ass, a possibly senile liar, and bush's monkey.
Rasmussen: Obama 47, McCain 45
Washington Post: Obama 48, McCain 42
AP-Ipsos: Obama 49, McCain 39
Labels: Barack Obama, bush organ grinder mccain monkey, elections, polls, presidential candidates, snark
Labels: Barack Obama, bush as chimp, civil liberties, civil rights, conspiracy, diplomacy, foreign policy, Freedom of speech, Germany, politics, schadenfreude
Used to be the gas stations etc would charge a dollar to see if the card was valid and then let you purchase your gas.The more you know....
NOW they are charging 100.00 to see if your card is valid.
And it is returned in about a week.
So this is becomming very common....I know others it has happened to as well. And if you are juggling, like I do and this is taken out without you knowing - it causes your automatic payments to bounce.
And it's all perfectly "legal".
Sigh
Labels: banks, capitalism, corporate greed, gasoline
Bush uses anti-terror funds to strengthen Pakistan air forceOh, well, that explains it, we needed to give the $$ to Pakistan so that they can give it to Lockheed ... wait, what!?
The Bush administration faced congressional criticism today for diverting funds from Pakistan's faltering fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida to pay for upgrades of the US-built F-16 combat planes.
The White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, today insisted the F-16s had a role in counterterrorism operations. "The F-16s that they have are used in counterterrorism operations," Perino said. "We made them available to the Pakistanis and they need to be maintained."
[...]
The move puts President George Bush at odds with Congress, which last year passed legislation specifying that the money be used for counter-terrorism or law enforcement.
[...]
A state department official said the timing was dictated by a need to make payment to Lockheed by the end of July.
U.S. Rushes to Change Workplace Toxin RulesOK, outrage fatigue has set in so I'd just like to mention that Bush's policies have killed more Americans than terrorism.
Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.
The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title.
The text of the proposed rule has not been made public
An American General confirms George Bush has committed war crimesWell, I'll tell you what the king is feeling tonight:
Labels: more Bush lies, War On Terror
House Republicans Fire Off Letter To New York TimesWell, actually, no! Newspapers have never been obligated to provide equal access. Newspapers aren't 'broadcast', and even if they were it's the Republicans who successfully fought the "Fairness Doctrine." Ye shall reap what ye sow.
[...]
"A national publication such as the Times has a clear obligation to provide equal access to its op-ed page to both candidates," the Republicans wrote, "to convey fairness by the paper and to help further the national debate."
House Republicans distributed a letter on Wednesday formally "urging" The New York Times to allow a third party to take out a full-page ad featuring a rejected opinion piece by their party's presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain.Strawman anyone!? Aside from the fact that many media outlets have already trumpeted McCain's unedited piece, no one has even suggested that McCain couldn't buy an ad in the NYT. No one has said McCain's billionaire buddies can't buy an ad. But I have to wonder, is McSame's campaign so deficient of funds that they can buy millions of dollars of TV ads but they can't but a print ad!?
Labels: McCain, more Bush lies, MSM, Obama
90% of America's undiscovered oil is located in the Arctic AreaPardon me? If it's UNDISCOVERED how the hell do they have any idea at all what lies under the Arctic?
Labels: CNN, disinformation, Oil, propaganda, snark
The added provision, proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr., would give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac access to government capital in the form of loans or equity purchases.So, basically, the government is going to hand over money to the two entities, so that all of the owners of those restructured assets won't loose all of their money. This deal doesn't really help the homeowner who is facing foreclosure though. In fact, I suspect that if there's money for a bailout, the banks will foreclose on even more houses, knowing full well that there will be money for them from the government to cover their losses.
While the White House favors much of the bill, it has threatened to veto it over a provision that calls for almost $4 billion in grants to states and communities for buying and repairing foreclosed homes in distressed neighborhoods.
The White House opposes the measure because it says it helps lenders and not homeowners. Democrats backing the grants dispute this, saying that foreclosed homes drag down property values for surrounding homeowners.
The ENTIRE bill helps lenders and not homeowners. That $4 billion provision actually MIGHT help homeowners, so that's why the administration opposes it.
But this guy has a theory or two on the bailouts:
The crux of the matter is that the Illuminists know that if they cannot convince the US public to bail out these various bonds and derivatives and their various owners and counter-parties, the system will collapse and all those trillions in treasuries hanging around in the forex reserves of these nations will come back to roost with a vengeance as foreigners stampede to unload their treasuries and their remaining toxic waste in exchange for commodities and other tangible assets before they become worthless and/or to force the Illuminists to lobby for a public bailout of the tanking asset-backed bonds and derivatives under threat of a treasury boycott or hyperinflation-inducing treasury flood back to the US. That is their greatest fear, because such an event would destroy them and their precious system, especially the bond market, which is the main source of their power, a fact which we cannot overemphasize. They are trying to manage the dollar down gradually by use of a beggar-thy-neighbor policy, and the failure to win these public bailouts would collapse the system and take them all down with it before they have a chance to bail out of stocks, bonds and other paper assets through the dark pools of liquidity known as Project Turquoise and Baikal and into commodities and other tangible assets.
Where are those aliens when you need them?
Bayer Corporation put live H.I.V. Virus in their hemopheliac medicine for children- and shipped it all over the world.
Three hours later, the phone rang. It was the pharmacist, informing me that the doctor refused to refill the prescription because I hadn’t been in to see him in over a year.“That’s true,” I told the pharmacist. Then I explained that I hadn’t been in to see him for the simple fact that I had no job and no insurance, and so couldn’t afford it.
“What are we going to do about this, then?” she asked.
“I . . . don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s quite a pickle—they put me on this medicine, tell me I’ll die if I stop taking it, and now won’t give it to me because I can’t afford an appointment. Way I see it, it’s a particularly vicious form of blackmail.”
UFOs Found in Real TV Broadcasts
This UFO blogspot presents UFO footage (videos) and descriptions of UFO footage found in real TV broadcasts from around the world.
Labels: ufology
“After reviewing 517 of the Guantánamo detainees’ cases in depth,” [Jane Mayer of The New Yorker] said, “they concluded that only 8 percent were alleged to have associated with Al Qaeda. Fifty-five percent were not alleged to have engaged in any hostile act against the United States at all, and the remainder were charged with dubious wrongdoing, including having tried to flee U.S. bombs. The overwhelming majority — all but 5 percent — had been captured by non-U.S. players, many of whom were bounty hunters.”We have war criminals running this country that beg prosecution and prison or execution.
The U.S. shamed itself on George W. Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s watch, and David Addington and others like him were willing to manipulate the law like Silly Putty to give them the legal cover they desired. Ms. Mayer noted that Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the late historian, believed that “the Bush administration’s extralegal counterterrorism program presented the most dramatic, sustained and radical challenge to the rule of law in American history.”This simply takes my breath away.
Labels: blowback, Bush, cheney, disinformation, Gitmo, GWOT, propaganda
Mr. Maliki's interview prompted immediate concern from the Bush administration, which called to seek clarification from Mr. Maliki’s office, American officials said.Yeah, there's just a couple of problems with their spin:
Scott M. Stanzel, a White House spokesman with President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., said that embassy officials explained to the Iraqis how the interview in Der Spiegel was being interpreted, given that it came just a day after the two governments announced an agreement over American troops.
“The Iraqis were not aware and wanted to correct it,” he said.
[...]
Diplomats from the United States Embassy in Baghdad spoke to Mr. Maliki’s advisers on Saturday, said an American official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss what he called diplomatic communications. After that, the government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, issued a statement casting doubt on the magazine’s rendering of the interview.
The statement, which was distributed to media organizations by the American military early on Sunday, said Mr. Maliki’s words had been “misunderstood and mistranslated,” but it failed to cite specifics.
“Unfortunately, Der Spiegel was not accurate,” Mr. Dabbagh said Sunday by telephone. “I have the recording of the voice of Mr. Maliki. We even listened to the translation.”
But the interpreter for the interview works for Mr. Maliki’s office, not the magazine. And in an audio recording of Mr. Maliki’s interview that Der Spiegel provided to The New York Times, Mr. Maliki seemed to state a clear affinity for Mr. Obama’s position, bringing it up on his own in an answer to a general question on troop presence.And in a later clarification:
The following is a direct translation from the Arabic of Mr. Maliki’s comments by The Times: “Obama’s remarks that — if he takes office — in 16 months he would withdraw the forces, we think that this period could increase or decrease a little, but that it could be suitable to end the presence of the forces in Iraq.”
He continued: “Who wants to exit in a quicker way has a better assessment of the situation in Iraq.”
Iraqi officials hopes for US troop pullout by 2010Umm, so the same Iraqi gov't spokesman who said the remarks were mis-translated, (they weren't), now confirms that Maliki and Obama both want US troops out of Iraq by 2010. Hey, you say 16 months, I say 2010, let's call the whole thing off.
Ali al-Dabbagh made the comments following a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who arrived in Iraq earlier in the day.
Maliki: I Support Obama’s Withdrawal TimetableAnd that's from Faux News!
White House sends press corps al-Maliki praise for Obama plan
Labels: Barack Obama, Iraq war, more Bush lies
"We do know the foreign fighter flow into Iraq has been reduced very substantially," he said. From a peak of 80 to 100 foreign fighters entering Iraq each month, the total has dropped as low as 20 per month, he said.Is he telling us that it has been the efforts of fewer than 1.200 foreign fighters, now down to about 240 a year, that has bogged America down in a war we cannot win and forcing us to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in this stupid war? That these foreign fighters, in such small numbers, have stymied the efforts of the formerly most powerful armed forces on the planet?
Labels: Iraq war, Petraeus, snark, War On Terror
Forty journalists, including such leading correspondents as Dan Balz of The Washington Post, will be aboard his plane for next week's swing through Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.Why should future president Obama NOT be fully able to pick and choose which news outlets and magazine reporters can board his plane and join him in his travels?
The campaign received 200 requests for press seats on the plane.
Among those for whom there was no room was Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent of The New Yorker. The campaign, which was furious about the magazine's satirical cover this week, cited space constraints in turning him away.
Wow. So it's gonna be like that, is it? Retribution for unfavorable coverage is a chilling thing to contemplate — literally, as in, it carries with it the very real risk of chilling bold, outspoken coverage. Whatever one thinks of the New Yorker cover — that it was clear satire that clearly lampooned ridiculous rumors, that it went way overboard, that it was a comedic misfire — a robust press can't operate under threat of reprisal for unwelcome items.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bush, McCain
Iran must decide between confrontation and co-operation in the dispute over its nuclear plans, the US has warned.And now it's back to sleepless nights.
Labels: iran war prep
IT WASN'T so long ago -- last September, to be specific -- that a senator with a particular interest in campaign finance reform introduced a bill to provide important transparency in presidential campaigns. The measure, S. 2030, would require presidential campaigns to report the names of fundraisers who bring in "bundles" of individual contributions totaling $50,000 or more. The campaigns would have to report the occupations of the bundlers and the specific amounts they are credited with raising. This was a terrific idea. It's too bad that the bill's sponsor, Barack Obama, is failing to follow the rules he set out.[…]So why is the lede specifically critical of Obama and the criticism of McLame minimized? And didn't McBlame totally renege on the public financing bill he cosponsored with Russ Feingold, making him so much bigger a liar than Obama? And isn't McInsane operating unlawfully under the public campaign financing laws?
John McCain, whose disclosure of bundlers had been sketchier than Mr. Obama's, told the campaign finance groups it would add employer and occupational information to his list of bundlers, promising monthly updates and saying he would include in the totals the amounts bundlers raised for the Republican National Committee to benefit the McCain campaign. The Obama campaign did not reply to the groups' letter.
The biggest flaw with both candidates' disclosures is that they stop being specific at what is a relatively low amount: $200,000 for Mr. Obama and $250,000 for Mr. McCain.[…]
Mr. McCain's recent additions are welcome but insufficient. How far Mr. Obama's performance falls short can be measured by his own legislation.
This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never make it out of committee. Keep in mind that sometimes the text of one bill is incorporated into another bill, and in those cases the original bill, as it would appear here, would seem to be abandoned. [Last Updated: Jul 5, 2008]Kinda makes the WaPo.com look like prejudiced idiots, doesn't it?
Last Action:
Sep 6, 2007: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration. NO VOTES HAVE BEEN HAD ON THIS AMENDMENT.
Labels: Barack Obama, disclosure, disinformation, McCain, media bias, propaganda
Felons Seeking Bush Pardon Near a RecordAll those Republicans, y'know.
Labels: snark
Labels: movies
Last week, McCain reported raising more than $22 million in June, which was his best month of the year. Together, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee began July with about $95 million in the bank.So, what we have here is a failure to communicate. Basically, there's less cash because the DNC has had to spend on a primary. The GOP primaries have been over for months. It doesn't really say that in the article though. Honestly, read the whole thing. It's either poorly written, poorly edited or both.
The reason for the discrepancy — greater fundraising by Obama and the DNC but less money in the bank than McCain and the GOP — is because until now the DNC had spent much of its money, leaving little cash on hand.
Labels: 2008 election, corporate owned media, journalism, MSM
Dozens of Afghan civilians have been killed during aerial bombing by US forces in the western province of Herat, tribal elders say.Calling for 'close air support' and bombing the houses of alleged insurgents is so indiscriminate as to border on murder in my mind. 500 to 2,000 pound bombs are weapons of mass destruction that kill everybody within their blast range, man, woman, child, 'insurgent' and/or total innocents.
They said an important tribal elder was among the dead in Shindand district.
A Nato spokesman said a number of insurgents had been killed and there were no reports of civilian casualties.
Earlier, US forces admitted killing eight civilians in a neighbouring province - the latest in a series of bombing incidents involving civilians.[…]
News of the fighting in Shindand district came from tribal elders who reported dozens of casualties in the Zerkoh Valley.
They said a large number of civilians had been killed in aerial attacks from midnight until 1000 local time.[…]
Haji Nasrullah Khan, a hugely influential tribal leader, and three other men had been targeted and killed and four civilians injured, the local police chief for Shindand said.
A Nato spokesman confirmed there had been an operation in the region of Parmagan village and said: "All indicators were that it had been successful with a number of insurgents killed and no reports of any civilian casualties."[…]
In a separate area of neighbouring Farah province, US forces said they had killed eight civilians after they were attacked from a number of houses in Bakwa district.
Their statement said a routine patrol came under sustained attack from machine-gun fire on Tuesday from houses adjacent to the road.
"The coalition returned fire and called for close air support on the enemy positions," the statement said.
"A house was hit - eight civilians were killed, two others injured. Coalition forces never intentionally target non-combatants, and deeply regret any occurrence such as this where civilians are killed and injured as a result of insurgent activity and actions."
The issue of civilian casualties has again come up as there have been a number of incidents over the last couple of weeks.This is yet another report of the bombing of wedding parties that must look like large gatherings of terrorists dressed in festive garb with music, dancing, plenty of food and drink, and quite obviously posing a threat to the American Forces indiscriminately bombing innocent people on what should rightfully be one of their happiest days.
On Thursday President Hamid Karzai visited families of those killed in the eastern province of Nangahar who had reported that more than 50 people from a wedding party died after being bombed by American aircraft.
President Karzai offered them his condolences and some financial assistance.
Labels: Afghanistan war, bush war doctrine, human rights, hypocrisy, indiscriminate bombing, inhumane cruelty., military, Taliban
Any system that allows an old man to rot in the streets like that or creates an environment where a young woman hooks to eat, or where young children walk around barefoot, selling crap nobody needs, or an entire family sitting on the street, the father playing an accordion while his wife and children sit next to him begging for money, any system that allows any of this to happen is evil.Mr. Vidiot wishes me to correct and clarify. The word "allows" is incorrect. It should be "Any system that produces old men that rot in the streets..." and "any system that produces any of this behavior is evil."
Labels: capitalism
Gusanos (worms) with guacamole and blue corn tortillas (not shown).Labels: capitalism, mexico, travel
Labels: Barack Obama, McCain, mental competency
Energy Costs Send Consumer Prices SoaringAnd as my wife and I spent way more money shopping at Safeway than usual last weekend we were wondering what was driving up prices.
Labels: Economy, Oil, sheer idiocy, snark
BARACK OBAMA yesterday accused President Bush and Sen. John McCain of rigidity on Iraq: "They said we couldn't leave when violence was up, they say we can't leave when violence is down." Mr. Obama then confirmed his own foolish consistency. Early last year, when the war was at its peak, the Democratic candidate proposed a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces in slightly more than a year. Yesterday, with bloodshed at its lowest level since the war began, Mr. Obama endorsed the same plan. After hinting earlier this month that he might "refine" his Iraq strategy after visiting the country and listening to commanders, Mr. Obama appears to have decided that sticking to his arbitrary, 16-month timetable is more important than adjusting to the dramatic changes in Iraq.There have been no stunning new developments in Iraq that would call for American troops to keep dying in Iraq when it is crystal clear, looking back, that the only reason America ever attacked Iraq in the first place was for their oil.
Labels: Barack Obama, big oil, bush hypocrisy, bush war doctrine, Iraq, John McCain, nuclear weapons, Oil
U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have abandoned efforts to conclude a comprehensive agreement governing the long-term status of U.S troops in Iraq before the end of the Bush presidency, according to senior U.S. officials, effectively leaving talks over an extended U.S. military presence there to the next administration.Hurrah for some good sense for a change and stopping the wanna-be bully boy bush from dictating commands to other countries when he himself is merely a common criminal guilty of many war crimes.
In place of the formal status-of-forces agreement negotiators had hoped to complete by July 31, the two governments are now working on a "bridge" document, more limited in both time and scope, that would allow basic U.S. military operations to continue beyond the expiration of a U.N. mandate at the end of the year.
The failure of months of negotiations over the more detailed accord -- blamed on both the Iraqi refusal to accept U.S. terms and the complexity of the task -- deals a blow to the Bush administration's plans to leave in place a formal military architecture in Iraq that could last for years.
Labels: Bush, bush as chimp, bush hypocrisy, bush war doctrine, Iraq, totalitarian state, US hegemony, war crimes
Here's a story that will destroy your hopes for a reasonable humanityIt seems like the uproar is about the cracker actually being the body of Jesus once the cracker is consecrated. I'm pretty sure cannibalism is illegal in this country.
Webster Cook says he smuggled a Eucharist, a small bread wafer that to Catholics symbolic of the Body of Christ after a priest blesses it, out of mass, didn't eat it as he was supposed to do, but instead walked with it.
This isn't the stupid part yet. He walked off with a cracker that was put in his mouth, and people in the church fought with him to get it back. It is just a cracker!
Catholics worldwide became furious.
Would you believe this isn't hyperbole? People around the world are actually extremely angry about this — Webster Cook has been sent death threats over his cracker. Those are just kooks, you might say, but here is the considered, measured response of the local diocese:
"We don't know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was," said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. "However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it."
We just expect the University to take this seriously," she added "To send a message to not just Mr. Cook but the whole community that this kind of really complete sacrilege will not be tolerated."
Wait, what? Holding a cracker hostage is now a hate crime? The murder of Matthew Shephard was a hate crime. The murder of James Byrd Jr. was a hate crime. This is a goddamned cracker. Can you possibly diminish the abuse of real human beings any further?
Wisconsin law bans sex with dead bodiesWell, I guess I was only 1/2 right, you can eat dead bodies, but you can't have intercourse with them ... or it's OK to eat live bodies, but you can't have sex with them?
Wisconsin law bans sex with dead bodies, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in reinstating charges against three men accused of digging up a corpse so one of them could have sex with it.
The court waded into the grisly case after lower court judges ruled nothing in state law banned necrophilia.
Bronko Nagurski and the Magical Penis ThievesSpeaking of blogtopiates, skippy, (who coined the phrase 'blogtopia'), had his 6th blogiversary* yesterday!!! Happy blogiversary to skippy and all his crew! Here's to many more!
[just read the whole thing, the title makes sense.]
Labels: blogiversaries, blogtopiates
Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.The evidence of the use of torture and the commission of other war crimes by bush and cohorts has become so overwhelming that they should all be immediately arrested upon leaving office and turned over to the Hague for prosecution.
The book says that the International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were “categorically” torture, which is illegal under both American and international law.
Labels: Barack Obama, bush as chimp, bush hypocrisy, bush war doctrine, Bushco, disinformation, hypocrisy, inhumane cruelty., Torture, war crimes
Jackson Incident Revives Some Blacks' Concerns About ObamaIt is way the hell and gone outrightly ridiculous to even print articles and make assumptions about a candidate's character and capabilities and support based upon an off-the-cuff-stupidly-inane-comment made by a political has-been of ever diminishing importance (but still a legend in his own mind, as it were).
Labels: Barack Obama, Conservatives, Jackson, mainstream media, McCain
Labels: snark
Both countries have a common and increasingly urgent interest in rolling back the power of Al Qaeda and the Taliban and working together to promote democracy and development in Pakistan. President Bush needs to persuade Pakistan’s leaders of that — and he needs to do it now, before Al Qaeda and the Taliban get any stronger.Counting on bush in a situation such as this is equivalent to wishing with one hand and stacking horse excrement in the other to see which fills up first.
Labels: Afghanistan war, bush as chimp, bush war doctrine, diplomacy, Pakistan
Labels: global warming
China plans to conduct its first spacewalk in October. The European Space Agency is building a roving robot to land on Mars. India recently launched a record 10 satellites into space on a single rocket.Well, what do you expect from a country that now borrows more money at a faster pace than any nation EVER has? And that spends the money borrowed faster, better, more poorly, and the least effectively of any country in the known or unknown universe(s)?
Space, like Earth below, is globalizing. And as it does, America's long-held superiority in exploring, exploiting and commercializing "the final frontier" is slipping away, many experts believe.
Although the United States remains dominant in most space-related fields -- and owns half the military satellites currently orbiting Earth -- experts say the nation's superiority is diminishing, and many other nations are expanding their civilian and commercial space capabilities at a far faster pace.
"We spent many tens of billions of dollars during the Apollo era to purchase a commanding lead in space over all nations on Earth," said NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin, who said his agency's budget is down by 20 percent in inflation-adjusted terms since 1992.
"We've been living off the fruit of that purchase for 40 years and have not . . . chosen to invest at a level that would preserve that commanding lead."
Labels: bush as chimp, bush hypocrisy, dictatorship, Economy, flip-flops
By huge margins, Americans think the economy is in lousy shape — and they blame President Bush. This fact, more than anything else, makes it hard to see how the Democrats can lose this election.Not a single word in the entire column about the illegal wars in which bush has engaged America, the hugh increases in defense spending, the trillions of dollars it will cost to straighten out this country's finances to care for the wounded and infirm that will result from bush's oil wars and that will last a very long time into the future.
But is the public right to be so disgusted with Mr. Bush’s economic leadership? Not exactly. We really do have a lousy economy, a fact of which Mr. Bush seems spectacularly unaware. But that’s not the same thing as saying that the bad economy is Mr. Bush’s fault.[…]
Yet even liberal economists have a hard time arguing that Mr. Bush’s cluelessness actually caused the poor economic performance on his watch. Tax cuts didn’t work, but they didn’t create the Bush bust. So what did?
At the top of my list of causes for the lousy economy are three factors: the housing bubble and its aftermath, rising health care costs and soaring raw materials prices. I’ve written a lot about housing, so today let’s talk about the others.
Most public discussion of health care focuses on the problems of the uninsured and underinsured. But insurance premiums are also a major business expense: auto makers famously spend more on health care than they do on steel.[…]
What about raw materials prices? During the Clinton years basic commodities stayed cheap by historical standards. Since then, however, food and energy prices have exploded, directly lopping about 5 percent off the typical American family’s real income, and raising business costs throughout the economy.[…]
If Bill Clinton’s attempt to reform health care had succeeded, the U.S. economy would be in much better shape today. But the attempt failed — and let’s remember why. Yes, the Clinton administration botched the politics. But it was Republicans in Congress who blocked reform, as Newt Gingrich pursued a strategy of “coagulation” designed to “clot everyone away” from Mr. Clinton.
As for high food and fuel prices, they’re mainly the result of growing demand from China and other emerging economies. But oil prices wouldn’t be as high as they are, and the United States would have been much less vulnerable to the current price spike, if we had taken steps in the past to limit our oil consumption.[…]
So here’s the bottom line: Mr. Bush deserves some blame for the poor performance of the economy on his watch, but much of the blame lies with other, earlier political figures, who squandered chances for reform. As it happens, however, most though not all of the politicians responsible for our current economic difficulties were Republicans.
And bear in mind that John McCain has gone to great lengths to affirm his support for Republican economic orthodoxy. So he’ll have no reason to complain if, as seems likely, the economy costs him the election.
Labels: Bush, bush war doctrine, Economy, foreign policy
China Inspired Interrogations at GuantánamoThese techniques were designed to break torture victims and get them to say anything that a corrupt regime wanted them to say.
The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”
What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.
The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Some methods were used against a small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized by President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative” interrogation methods.
Labels: John McCain, more Bush lies, presidential candidates, Torture, Torture Memos
Labels: blowback, bush as chimp, Conservatives, Courts, criminal justice system, GOP, neocons, power, SCOTUS
vidiotspeak: vɪdiətspik [vid-ee-uht-speek] -noun
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
Click above to download the album, click below to contact
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
