Say What?

AP released a poll today or what Americans expect in 2007 that was pretty uninteresting except for one tidbit. 25% of respondents expect the second coming this year.

SAY WHAT? I hear you cry. Yes, I reply, as my hands shake, thinking of all those people having voter registration cards. TWENTY FIVE PERCENT! If you're in a room with three other people, and they are atheists, then that means YOU believe that Jesus is packing even now to come back.

There's no historical context given, so no way to determine if this is more or less than would have been so inclined in previous years.

What a world.

3000

Another milestone (as Dumbfuck would say) reached.

What Glenn Said

Greenwald weighs in on the subject that makes me the most furious and the one issue that would truly get my support in an Impeachment proceeding.

Random Thoughts, Signifying Nothing....Probably

There's a lot of hue and cry today over the fact that Bush was asleep when Saddam was hanged and not awakened or otherwise notified. One thought hit me, separate from the fact that his (and Poppy's) hated enemy was finally dead and Shrub didnt want to know.

The leader of the free world was in bed, asleep, at 9PM local time. You'd think he might actually want to pretend to work on the decision he's pretending to make on escalation. But not our Georgie.

Saddam Hanged

According to WaPo, Saddam was hanged about an hour or so ago. Good riddance. (Anyone counted the body doubles recently?)

I don't consider myself a conspiratorialist, just properly paranoiaic (but then I'm sure most conspiracy nuts dont consider themselves anything but rational, either), but I wonder about the almost unseemly haste with which Saddam was dispatched. There were an awful lot of things left that he could have been prosecuted for, most much more egregious than the relatively minor (in Saddam terms, anyway) mass murder for which he was hanged.

My inner wingnut wonders how much was a rush to do him in before he could implicate US officials and governments of the past in his activities. He hadn't managed to thus far, with a pretty considerable stage to act on, but who knows what the future could have brought.

It's an indication of how poisonous the Bu$hCo crowd has made the environment that even this long-expected result raises more questions than it answers.

Bob Scheer at HuffPo weighs in:

The fact is that Saddam Hussein knew a great deal about the United States' role in Iraq, including deals made with Bush's father. This rush to execute him had the feel of a gangster silencing the key witness to a crime.

Better the Devil You Know

OMG! AP has a poll out (via C&L, via Americablog) to name the worst villain of 2006. Dumbfuck is leading (HUGELY!).

You know you're having a bad year when you're named a worse villain (25%) than SATAN(1%)!!!!

Bring On the Rope

Per CNN (watching live), Saddam has been handed over to the Iraqis by US forces, for execution. There's this voice in the back of my head that wonders when we'll hear that he has mysteriously escaped.

Just an Impeachment That Hasn't Happened Yet

Okay, official proof that the WH is living in Cloud Cuckooland. From CNN, we present Presidential Advisor on Terra-ism, Frances Townshend:

HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we're going to get him. Still don't have him. I know you are saying there's successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That's a failure.

TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.

Whys Behind the Surge....er Escalation...er Whatever

Josh at TPM (referencing Yglesias) has a good summary of why Bush feels compelled to escalate (I did NOT want to use the phrase 'compelled to surge'):

To put it simply, the presidential is neither psychologically nor politically capable of leaving Iraq. The 2006 election made it clear the current course can't be sustained politically. Even his own party won't back it. That leaves escalation as the only alternative. All that's left is a rationale for doing so. And that's what the president is now working on.

I think this is pretty much correct. The boy just never learned the old lesson- when you're a freakin' hole, STOP DIGGING!

Edwards Makes It Official

Watching CNN just now, John Edwards, with Katrina rubble behind him, announces for 2008 Prez nomination. I like him a lot, but want to know more before I jump on board.

Sometimes the Irony is Just TOO Much

Americablog has a post today pointing to problem at DHS where they lost some guns from a security locker at their DC HQ. The point of the post, and of the article, was to point out that DHS cant do their job right.

However, what hit me wasn't that DHS is incompetent- in Bu$hCo, no matter the department, that's pretty much a given. What hit was the following paragraph:

Jarrod Agen, a department spokesman, said the guns belonged to Paragon Systems of Chantilly, which provides security for the department's facility on Nebraska Avenue NW.

Okay.... anyone else struck by the irony that the outfit in charge of protecting all of us is protected, not by their own efforts, but by Porta Pigs from suburban VA?!?!?!?

It's getting to the point that even the straight news from DC is so ironic it's writing it's own jokes.

Crossover

Sometime this week, if we haven't already, we will have lost more troops in Iraq than were killed on 9/11. Heckuva job, Georgie!

Ford Dead

According to Fox News just now (watching House, not FoxNewsNetwork,damnit!), Gerald Ford died. The last 'good' Repug is gone, they're doomed.

Confirmed by a legitimate source (if you disregard their increasingly weird editorial page)

Maybe the Most Disquieting Blogpost Ever

Imagine growing up in the Bush era. What does that do to your political POV? Readhead at dKos has a moving post about just that. It ain't pretty.

Merry Christmas

It just turned Christmas Day here in L.A. I'm sitting here at the computer, drinking a cup of Christmas cheer, smoking a decent cigar, listening to Mannheim Steamroller play Christmas music, and watching a video of a roaring fire (damned apartment!) and feeling incredibly mellow. I just wanted to wish every one of you all the love and joy and happiness you can find, and hope that your Holiday (of whichever flavor) is all you want it to be.

I'm Going On a Diet!

This is enough to put me off beef (and I was raised in Texas!!!)

Jeb Bails

FL Gov. Jeb Bush bowed out of (at least) the 2008 Prez race, saying he has no future.

Hallefuckinglujah! I don't think the country could survive another four to eight years of these lying, thieving, vote-stealing, Nazi-backing, Constitution-screwing oligarchic bastards.

Not that I have any strong feelings on the subject.

Stop Fucking! You're Upsetting the Fundies!

Well, as if we didn't already know the abstinence-only BS was doomed to failure, we now have empirical evidence that it won't work. According to a recent study, 95% of Americans have sex before marriage. Wanna try again, guys?

Joint Chiefs Opposed to Surge

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_12/010421.php

Interesting Stuff on the Time/Dobson Debacle

http://www.teachthefacts.org/vigilance.html

Why Aren't You Better Off?

Why aren't we outraged? Krugman weighs in.

(Thanks to Atrios for the link)

New Thirty Years War?

If the Saudi threat to back the Sunni insurgents if the US pulls out of Iraq are correct (and, on the face, they make a lot of sense), and given the general unease of Iraq's Sunni neighbors at the prospect of an Iranian dominated Shi'a Iraqi state, are we, as some think, on the verge of new Thirty Years War?

If we pull out, and the Saudis support the Sunnis, and Iran supports the Shi'a, how long before Saudi Arabia and Iran come to open warfare? How long before Jordan and/or Syria intervene? Egypt? This could be a nightmare quickly.

I'm NOT arguing that we shouldn't pull out, but the consequences are potentially devastating. And realists in the Administration should have realized this BEFORE the invasion, instead of daydreaming about candy and flowers and ponies for everyone.

The Case for Impeachment

For those of you that are impeachment buffs, there's a compelling diary in dKos today that sets forth the first, presumably of many, cases for impeachment.

I'm not pro-impeachment. Oh, I think if every ANYONE deserved to be impeached, it's Dumbfuck. But, the options after are not good. Do we let Cheney succeed him, then what? Impeach him? Impeach Cheney first (can one impeach the Veep?) I tend to lean towards leaving Shrub in office, watching him like a hawk, and hoping the codes in the football aren't real (surely, the Joint Chiefs are dumb enough to trust him with the keys to Armageddon!)

Al-Faisal Bugs Out?

Unexpectedly, and dramatically, the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Turki al-Faisal, has resigned his post and left the US. There is much wonderment about why (officially: to spend more time with his family) but it doesn't bode well for US-Saudi relations or the situation in Iraq. The buzz lately that we would essentially join and back the Shi'a leaders of Iraq in the case of outright civil war (how much worse CAN it get?) has the Saudis in a tizzy (they are vehemently anti-Shi'a Sunnis, and immediately next door to the hellhole that is modern Iraq) and just recently (Thanksgiving) 'summoned' US Veep Cheney to Riyadh for 'consultations'. Whatever they told Cheney, it doesn't seem to have been to jump on the Shi'a bandwagon.

Josh has some more in-depth/insider speculation.

NYT has details.

The former adviser said Prince Turki’s resignation came amid a growing rivalry between the ambassador and Prince Bandar, who is now Saudi Arabia’s national security adviser. Prince Bandar, well known in Washington for his access to the White House, has vied to become the next foreign minister.

“This is a very high-level problem; this is about Turki, the king and Bandar,” said the former adviser to the royal family. “Let’s say the men don’t have a lot of professional admiration for each other.”

Ciro Wins!

Ciro Rodriquez won his run-off today in TX-23, against a relatively weak but massively over-funded Henry Bonilla. This is one of the districts that DeLay's massively illegal redistricting in Texas created by accident when a judge basically reconstituted an Hispanic majority district after the Repugs redistricted it out of existence. This makes a 30 seat pickup in the House!

Even in Texas, the Repugs are in disarray! :)

Update: final count shows Ciro won 55-45(ish), a romp of 10 points. As late as Monday, Bonilla was up by 4-7 points. Way to go, DCCC and Bill 'Big Dog' Clinton, for closing this out with BANG!

Oy! Soy!

According to the esteemed scientismists in Wingnutland, soy makes you gay. Is thatwhy my bf is Chinese?

WHOA!

This is big, if true:

The group suggested the president shake up his national security team. "All of us said they have failed, that you need a new team," said one participant. That recommendation is likely to fuel Pentagon rumors that Bush and his new defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, may decide to replace Marine Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Paging Martin Luther!

An interesting post today in dKos about how homosexuality and the Churches' attitudes towards it are forcing a second Reformation.

Not Gonna Happen

Regardless of the realities behind why the ISG reached the non-decisions it did, it wouldn't have mattered if they had had the balls to recommend what actually needs to happen (withdrawal now) instead of the pablum they could agree on that they thought Bush might accept. Anything other than a very slightly modified version of 'stay the course' was a non-starter.

Two main reasons. One, Bush is a gut-level-reactor who has decided that he can 'fix' Iraq with just the right combination of force and will. Two, God told him to do it.

Even if we could get past the first, we'd never get past the second. It's unthinkable for people like Bush to concede that THEY might be wrong; what's the unthinkable-squared version of unthinkable for them to admit that GOD might be wrong!

Status Quo

SusanG has a post at dKos today about soldiers' reactions to the ISG report. Some heartwrenching quotes there. She closes with the quote of the year:

Man, this is totally heartbreaking. The effort to save Bush some face is not worth one of these soldiers’ lives. Not a damn one.

Repug Nightmare: Gay Conservative Jews!

In what seems to a surprising move, the rabbis of Conservative Judaism allowed for the ordination of gay rabbis and gay commitment ceremonies within the 'middle' branch of Judaism. They still maintain some prohibitions against gay sex, but not completely, and seem to be moving in the right direction.

Needless to say, the Orthodox rabbis think they're all meshugah!

Gates Confirmed

The Senate confirmed Robert Gates to succeed Rummy as SecDef today, by a vote of 95-2. It should be comforting to know that he was voted against by two of the biggest Repug dingbats, Santorum and Bunning, but knowing John Cornyn (R-Tx) supported him is always worrisome. Anyway, he's in, bringing a fresh new approach, and undoubted victory in Iraq.

Serious snark alert!

Blah, Blah

Nothing new, unexpected, surprising, or previously unsaid in the ISG report. But it is pretty much everything Dumbfuck didnt want to hear.

Blah, Blah

Nothing new, unexpected, surprising, or previously unsaid in the ISG report. But it is pretty much everything Dumbfuck didnt want to hear.

Hell, I'll Work For Em, Too!

Apparently, lots of bloggers crossed over and worked for campaigns during the election. For the record, I'm willing to be co-opted by Edwards, Gore, Clark, or Dean. :)

Is There Any Depth To Which They Won't Sink?

Apparently not. In what appears to be a last minute handout to Big Oil before he's 'muzzled' by having to work through the Dems in Congress, Bu$hCo is preparing to reopen shuttered Alaskan drilling sites.

Even Rummy Didn't Believe Rummy's Lies

In what was probably his last memo to the Preznit, Rummy offered options that seem strikingly similar to the Dem's suggestions for bailing out of Viet Nam..... er Iraq.

Two days before he resigned as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a classified memo to the White House that acknowledged that the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq was not working and called for a major course correction.

“In my view it is time for a major adjustment,” wrote Mr. Rumsfeld, who has been a symbol of a dogged stay-the-course policy. “Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough.”

Nor did Mr. Rumsfeld seem confident that the administration would readily develop an effective alternative. To limit the political fallout from shifting course, he suggested the administration consider a campaign to lower public expectations.

“Announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis,” he wrote. “This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not ‘lose.’ ”

“Recast the U.S. military mission and the U.S. goals (how we talk about them) — go minimalist,” he added. The memo suggests frustration with the pace of turning over responsibility to the Iraqi authorities; in fact, the memo calls for examination of ideas that roughly parallel troop withdrawal proposals presented by some of the White House’s sharpest Democratic critics. [Text, Page 28.]

The memo’s discussion of possible troop reduction options offers a counterpoint to Mr. Rumsfeld’s frequent public suggestions that discussions about force levels are driven by requests from American military commanders.

It also puts on the table several ideas for troop redeployments or withdrawals, even as there have been recent pronouncements from American commanders emphasizing the need to maintain troop levels for the time being.

The memorandum sometimes has a finger-wagging tone, as Mr. Rumsfeld says that the Iraqis must “pull up their socks,” and suggests that reconstruction aid should be withheld in violent areas to avoid rewarding “bad behavior.”

Other options called for shrinking the number of bases, establishing benchmarks that would mark the Iraqis’ progress toward political, economic and security goals and conducting a “reverse embeds” program to attach Iraqi soldiers to American squads.

Sound like anything he EVER said publicly?

E-Voting Machines CAN NOT Be Secure

No, that's not me, that's the US FREAKING GOVT!!!

Paperless electronic voting machines used throughout the Washington region and much of the country "cannot be made secure," according to draft recommendations issued this week by a federal agency that advises the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The assessment by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, one of the government's premier research centers, is the most sweeping condemnation of such voting systems by a federal agency.

In a report hailed by critics of electronic voting, NIST said that voting systems should allow election officials to recount ballots independently from a voting machine's software. The recommendations endorse "optical-scan" systems in which voters mark paper ballots that are read by a computer and electronic systems that print a paper summary of each ballot, which voters review and elections officials save for recounts.

A-FUCKING-MEN!!!!!!

Reyes Gets Top Intel Cmte Post

Nancy Pelosi picked Silvestre Reyes (D-Tx) as head of the House Intel Committee earlier today. I had, being a Californian now and liking Harman generally, backed her for the post, till I started reading some of the stuff about her over the last few weeks (mostly, semi-offensive lick-spittle behavior towards anti-terror/pro-PATRIOT Act stuff) and sort of lost the urge to support.

I don't know anything about Reyes but the little mentioned in the article, but he sounds good. Let's hope this is the right move with a key slot.