Air America Saved?

It appears a white knight is riding to the rescue.

Davd Brin

Brin is one of my favorite sci-fi writers, and a brilliant scientist. His blog is often fascinating and today is no exception. He has mini-catchall post and explains why markets MUST be regulated and a concise explanation of what's wrong in Iraq. Not bad for a toss-off.

Love and Peace (and Ponies!) In Iraq

This sums it up pretty well.

Free to Choose

Feb 11-17 is Freedom to Marry Week, so go out and marry a queer! :) I would but I can't talk the bf into it this year.

The Gifts Just Keep On Coming

Bartlett and Rove will probably have to testify in the Libby trial. Throw in Cheney, put em all under oath, and I may just swoon from multiple orgasms.

Both Rove and Bartlett have already received trial subpoenas from Libby’s defense lawyers, according to lawyers close to the case who asked not to be identified talking about sensitive matters. While that is no guarantee they will be called, the odds increased this week after Libby’s lawyer, Ted Wells, laid out a defense resting on the idea that his client, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, had been made a “scapegoat” to protect Rove.

What ANY of this has to do with whether the Scooter lied under oath or not, I can not imagine. Nor, really do I care. As long as the flames lick around their feet and waft gently upwards, I don't really care whether the fire was started for light or for heat.

Face Them Down

Chgo Jim at DailyKos has a great post comparing the Repugs to and abusive spouse. Standing up to them is the only answer.

It won't stop. Because they can't stop. You don't try to compromise and reason with irredeemable assholes. You stand up to them. Let them expose themselves for what they are. Let McConnell filibuster the anti-surge resolution. Let him tell the American people to go to hell. Don't give any tax breaks tied to the minimum wage - let them tell people they just don't give a shit about the poor.

Finally, like that poor deluded spouse that eventually has enough, the American people will come to their senses, the people will have had enough.

March!

If you're in or near the DC area, get out tomorrow and march. If I'd heard about this sooner, I'd have tried to get over there myself.

Hope this gets more coverage in the execution than the planning; I only heard any mention of it today.

Minimum Wage Hit List

Here's the list of Senators who voted against the minimum wage bill.

Naptime

I don't know if everyone focused on it (I watched ABC, and didnt switch around, so I dont know if it was pool video or just ABC), but it seemed last night like the focus of coverage in the audience was to find the most comatose member. Kennedy looked dead, til he moved his eyes then checked or made some notes, McCain appeared comatose, Liebermann looked sound asleep at one point, and on and on.

The one unsleepy member member was Sen. Grassley who, in response to the demand for more corn than we grow to use for biofuel, looked like he'd won the lottery with a bottle rocket up his ass. Could a grown man, supposedly a serious, nay ponderous, one have looked ANY goofier?

OOOPS!!

My boy, John Edwards, shit the bed!

Let's hope this isn't a fatal flaw, I don't have a backup candidate at this point.

Titanic Time?

Andrew Sullivan has the best line about Fitzgerald's assault on Cheney on his opening statements:

This may be the moment in the Bush administration when the huge liner splits in two, points upward and goes under for good.

Froomkinmania

Dan Froomkin has (as usual) a great round up of coverage of the SOTU and some biting commentary on the Libby trial.

On Libby:

How that scapegoating might mitigate Libby's alleged crime of perjuring himself to investigators isn't exactly clear -- but it sure gives us a rare and troubling view of the viper pit that apparently lurks beneath the West Wing's placid veneer.

Was Libby a scapegoat or a liar? Was he a victim of White House backstabbing, or a puppet in Cheney's obsessive war against those who dared question the highly questionable case for war in Iraq? Neither would reflect well on the White House. And they're not mutually exclusive.

If nothing else, the Libby defense hints at an answer to what I have long considered one of the great mysteries of this administration: How do Bush's two Svengalis -- Cheney and Rove -- get along? Apparently, not so great.

On the SOTU:

Dan Balz writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush used his State of the Union address last night to try to revive his presidency against what may be the greatest odds any chief executive has faced in a generation."

But, Balz concludes: "Bush may have been speaking into the void."

...

Marc Sandalow writes in the San Francisco Chronicle: "President Bush acknowledged the change in political order in the opening minute of his State of the Union address Tuesday with a gracious tribute to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seated on the podium behind him.

"He then spent most of the next 49 minutes behaving as if the November election never happened.

"Bush pitched a health care policy he knows stands no chance in a Democratic Congress, an education plan Democrats have already rejected and an energy policy that did little to wow his opponents.

"On Iraq, Bush implored a Congress that is poised to pass a resolution condemning his latest war plan to 'find our resolve, and turn events toward victory.'"

...

Glenn Kessler does some fact-checking for The Washington Post: "In his State of the Union address last night, President Bush presented an arguably misleading and often flawed description of 'the enemy' that the United States faces overseas, lumping together disparate groups with opposing ideologies to suggest that they have a single-minded focus in attacking the United States.

"Under Bush's rubric, a country such as Iran -- which enjoys diplomatic representation and billions of dollars in trade with major European countries -- is lumped together with al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 'The Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat,' Bush said, referring to the different branches of the Muslim religion. . . .

"[H]is description of the actions of 'the enemy' tried to tie together a series of diplomatic and military setbacks that had virtually no connection to one another, from an attack on a Sunni mosque in Iraq to the assassination of Maronite Lebanese political figure."

Kessler questions Bush's insistence that "free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies" and that "we have a diplomatic strategy that is rallying the world to join in the fight against extremism."

He also finds room for a little domestic fact-checking as well. For instance: "Bush claimed credit for cutting the budget deficit ahead of schedule and proposed to eliminate it over the next five years. He did not mention that he inherited a huge budget surplus -- $236 billion in 2000 -- compared with a $296 billion deficit in the 2006 fiscal year, largely as a result of Bush's tax cuts and spending increases."

...

Steven Thomma writes for McClatchy Newspapers: "Bush wanted to convince Americans watching on television that he's heard them and that he wants again to work with Democrats....

"Yet the chasm between the parties is wide and deep, the politics between them are poisonous and Bush bears much of the blame.

"After reaching out to Democrats his first year, Bush governed after the 2001 terrorist attacks as the leader of a one-party state.

"In Congress, his party locked Democrats out of negotiations, then hammered votes through without chance of input.

"From the White House, Bush tacked 'signing statements' onto bills he signed and used the threat of terrorism in three successive elections to attack Democrats as weak or, worse, aiding the enemy. Last fall he warned that if the Democrats won control of Congress, 'terrorists win and America loses.'"

On Webb's (brilliant) response:

Here's the text of Webb's address.

Jonathan Alter blogs for MSNBC: "Something unprecedented happened tonight, beyond the doorkeeper announcing, 'Madame Speaker.' For the first time ever, the response to the State of the Union overshadowed the president's big speech. Virginia Sen. James Webb, in office only three weeks, managed to convey a muscular liberalism-with personal touches-that left President Bush's ordinary address in the dust."

No War on Terror?

From Britain's top cop:

The director of public prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, warned Wednesday of a "fear-driven and inappropriate response" to the new threat that could lead to the abandonment of respect for fair trials and due legal process.

In a speech to the Criminal Bar Association, reported by the Guardian newspaper, Macdonald rejected the assertion that a "war on terror" was being played out in Britain.

"On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs', said Macdonald, who heads the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

"The fight against terrorism on the streets of Britain is not a war. It is the prevention of crime, the enforcement of our laws and the winning of justice for those damaged by the infringement."

Amen! Couldn'ta said it better.....

(h/t to Americablog and Chris in Paris)

Greenwald: Liebermann = McCarthy

Joe Liebermann long ago renounced any pretensions to humanity, intelligence, and decency. Apparently, his little transaction yesterday with Gen. Petraeus pushed Glenn over the edge:

To Joe Lieberman, anyone who opposes whatever Iraq plan he happens to be currently favoring is a frivolous, defeat-hungry traitor -- giving "some comfort" to the "enemy." He's really the Senate's modern-day Joe McCarthy, smearing everyone's character and impugning everyone's motives who doesn't march faithfully along behind the President. What makes it all the more deceitful is that he never ceases to piously masquerade around as the Beacon of Civility and Honor, a disguise long propped up by an adoring Beltway media. But now, Lieberman's behavior has become so toxic and ignoble that even decorous, restrained Senate Republicans -- no strangers to the art of the political smear -- have begun condemning him in unusually strong terms. What is more pernicious than for a politician, in a Senate hearing with the country's new top General in Iraq, to expressly equate disagreement with their war views with treason? Not much.

Healthcare Roundup

Bush's announced plan last night is DOA, so a lot of this is moot, but it truly was the wrong step in the the wrong direction at the wrong time, to paraphrase Sen. Kerry. Moving from group based plans to individual based plans helps no one except the very young and very healthy (and only WHILE they are very young and very healthy) and hurts everyone in the long run.

Kevin Drum, at Political Animal, who's been banging this drum for a long time, weighs in.

Foreign Policy Nightmare

There's much discussion about the horrid state of foreign policy under Bu$hCo, and the awful design and execution thereof by them, and how the world views us and how difficult it is to move our foreign policy initiatives forward. I was discussing Ahmedinajad with the bf and said something that struck me as dead on as to why we have these FP problems.

The rest of world sees Bush in the same light WE see Ahmedinajad. Loud, obnoxious, and crazy.

SOTU SchmOTU

Dan Froomkin sums it up pretty well:

President Bush tonight will try to change the subject -- and will fail.

OOOH! Discipline!

New group formed, of trial lawyers, union folks, et al, promising to hold Dems feet to the fire. Article makes it sound 'divisive' but I think it's a great idea!

Kos weighs in....

Get Two More Chairs, Mary Margaret.....

Hillary and Bill Richardson have announced their candidacies (candidacix?)

Maybe the most interesting thing so far is that Hillary announced on her website, on a weekend. Talk about sang-froid! I'm still behind Edwards, but I can live with any of these guys as candidate/President, altho I do buy into the argumnet that, even tho Hillary can probably win, she would hurt the Dems down-ticket, where most of the others wouldn't. But we'll see.

Senate Passes Ethics Reform

Not bad all in all... got most of it... on to committee!

Kiss CFR Goodbye!

The Supreme are going to revist the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act. It was 5-4 in favor last time; subtract O'Connor, add Alito, get Zero.

No Matter How Cynical You Get......

Yesterday, I accused 'Berto of going over the edge. Today, he's trying to hit bottom, but I don't think there's anything low enough for him to call the bottom.

Say Your Prayers

In what is, I'm almost certain, on the signs of the endtimes, we had snow today, as low as Malibu!!

And on my birthday, I don't know what that means.....

Holy Shit!

'Berto done gone over da edge!

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy, ramping up his criticism of how they handle terrorism cases. In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday, Gonzales says judges generally should defer to the will of the president and Congress when deciding national security cases. He also raps jurists who "apply an activist philosophy that stretches the law to suit policy preferences."

UPDATE: dkos has commentary here and here

Bad News for the Blogosphere

Jane Hamsher, of Firedoglake, is suffering a recurrence of cancer (apparently her third go-round). FDL is one of my favorite sites, and Jane is a force in the blogosphere. Send her some love and keep her in your thoughts/prayers.

Un Huh, I'm Buying It, 'Berto......

Finally, after much diligent study and hard, hard thought (thinkin' is hard if you're a born Decider!), Bu$hCo has (apparently) come up with wholesome, friendly, child-safe version of warrantless wiretapping that involves, MIRABILE DICTU!, warrants!

Kevin has the best take on it. The money shot:

Of course, if Gonzales is telling the truth, that's even worse for Bush because it's a clear sign that the previous program was patently illegal. In fact, so illegal that it took two solid years to finally develop an alternative that a judge deemed acceptable. If the program merely needed a few tweaks here and there, it would have taken a month for a judge to approve it, not two years.

Iraq: Is The US Even Relevant?

Apparently, not.

Bush Nailed

dKos has coverage on a great McClatchy article on the lies surrounding Iraq, Iran, et all. They nail, Bush, Rice, the whole lying bunch of them. Great read, both the dKos coverage and the article.

Too Little, Too Late

Dumbfuck et al are apparently appointing some realists to exec positions in Iraq. But even, the realists think it's probably too little, too late, and too damned bad.

Interlocking Webs of Repugnacity

As noted below, there's an effort to punish the lawyers doing pro bono work for the Gitmo detainees by 'boycotting' the law firms. Turns out, Scooter Libby's law firm is one of them. Guess Scooter will have to go back to square one. :)

I'm SOOOO Depressed

These guys are SO not the best and brightest, it gives me the heebee-jeebees.

Donald Rumsfeld, the then defence secretary, was unimpressed, but Kagan’s views got another hearing when Bush was searching for ways to ditch the seemingly defeatist recommendations of James Baker’s Iraq Study Group. “Wow, you mean we can still win this war?” a grateful Bush reportedly said.

For a little background on Kagan's supposed 'expertise', check out this other post at TPM.

MIchael Ledeen Is Dead

Oh horrors, who will lead the heroic charge into the next unnecessary, army-ravaging, national-soul-destroying war of convenience? Oh shit!?!? You mean it's satire? Fuck, that ruins my whole day!

Sanity At Last?

Let me say up front, I don't use any drugs except nicotine and alcohol (caffeine is NOT a drug, it's my FRIEND!!!!) but I have long been viscerally opposed to the 'War on Drugs'. IMHO, half or more of the social problems we have in this country can be traced directly to this misguided legal abortion. If we legalized everything and taxed it, we solve most of those problems. The whole drugs/crime matrix is a death-spiral as we make drugs more illegal and expensive, it costs more to acquire the drugs and increases the desperation of the acquiree, leading to more crime (I won't even get into the gangs/money/drugs aspect of it.) And the oppressive (and racially/culturally biased) minimum mandatory sentencing laws just make the problem worse.

But it appears that hope may be at hand, at least on the mandatory sentencing part. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless. Any progress is progress.

I Don't Know If This Is Sad or Funny, But It IS Indicitave

In a move that just reeks of political integrity, Walter ('Freedom Fries') Jones (R-NC) has been passed over for a senior minority position on a defense subcommittee. Apparently, as punishment for his (much earlier than I thought) opposition to the debacle in Iraq.

I don't much care for Jones, but his opposition has been longstanding and earnest. Duncan Hunter is an ass, but you'd think some of the Repugs might have noted that opposition to the war is sorta kinda not a bad thing, even with Repug voters. But they are obtuse, disconnected from reality, and mortally stupid and venal.

Have a french fry in Jones honor.

Why Waste Time Shooting The Messenger? Just Shoot His Lawyer

This story sort of popped up yesterday. Apparently, the RW Wurlitzer and the Defense Dept have decided to get the Gitmo detainees convicted by screwing their attorneys (screwing the detainees wasn't enough?). TPM weighs in, as do Drum and dKos.

There's so much wrong with this group of crooks in Bu$hCo, but this sort of sums up the total contempt for law, order, due process, civil rights, ad infinitum, that these guys think is what America should be. NEVER vote for a Repug again, if this is what we get. At this point, if you had a child molesting bank robber running against a Repug, I'd probably vote for the molestor, but then, given recent history, he'd be a Repug, wouldn't he?

More Froomkin

Froomkin hits on a couple of things in today's posting.

On Dumbfuck's speech in GA:

It was a bold attempt by Bush to rebut the widely-reported story that he stopped listening to his commanders -- and in fact, reassigned some -- when they stopped telling him what he wanted to hear.

But Bush's new story lacks a certain important quality: Believability.

Previous reporting -- see, for instance, Michael Abramowitz, Robin Wright and Thomas E. Ricks in The Washington Post on Wednesday -- has made it abundantly clear that adding U.S. troops was not an idea that emerged from the American commanders -- nor, for that matter, from the Iraqis.

He quotes Brzenski on the Way Forward:

Carter administration national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski outlines five flaws in Bush's plan, in a Washington Post op-ed. Among them:

"The decision to escalate the level of the U.S. military involvement while imposing 'benchmarks' on the 'sovereign' Iraqi regime, and to emphasize the external threat posed by Syria and Iran, leaves the administration with two options once it becomes clear -- as it almost certainly will -- that the benchmarks are not being met. One option is to adopt the policy of 'blame and run': i.e., to withdraw because the Iraqi government failed to deliver. That would not provide a remedy for the dubious 'falling dominoes' scenario, which the president so often has outlined as the inevitable, horrific consequence of U.S. withdrawal. The other alternative, perhaps already lurking in the back of Bush's mind, is to widen the conflict by taking military action against Syria or Iran. It is a safe bet that some of the neocons around the president and outside the White House will be pushing for that. Others, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, may also favor it."

His colum/blog/whatever is always worth reading.

'Runaway, Duplicitous President'

I don't much like Andrew Sullivan, but he's right on here.

Are We At War (Secret) With Iran?

US troops attacked and ransacked an Iranian consulate in Irbil (Arbil?) today. Computers and documents were seized. Various bloggers (and here and here) are discussing a possible secret Presidential order to strike at Iranian and Syrian 'assets' in Iraq. This could get UGLY fast.

Lying Finally Making Him Ill-at-Ease?

Watching the speech earlier, I thought Bush looked ill at ease and slightly out of it, like Dr. Dick had fucked up his tranks. Apparently, Howard Fineman thought so, too.

Shrub, Iraq, and Gambling Theory

Brilliant analysis by litigatormom at dKos as to why Dumbfuck can't, or won't, cut his losses in Iraq.

Hmmm

I'm reading a lot of the blogging about the speech and everyone seems to think the target is al-Sadr (see the Larry Johnson piece noted below). I am, by nature, paranoid and conspiracy-spotting, and a thought struck me.

What if Maliki is in bed with Sadr (highly possible, if not probable, given the nature of Maliki's political connections). What if the push against Sadr, with Iraqi support, is a setup? What if we go in with Iraqi 'allies' to Sadr City, and the allies evaporate, or turn up, confused, at the wrong place at the wrong time? A lot of our boys could end up massacred.

Just my inner demons exercising themselves (exorcising them failed years ago). Noah Schachtman (h/t to Kevin Drum) thinks exactly the opposite, so.... take it all with a grain of salt till something happens.

Jeebus!

The ever-brilliant Larry Johnson explains what's wrong (okay, okay, what's MOST wrong) with Dumbfuck's 'new' strategery.

At the very moment that Bush wants to isolate Iran we are taking steps to strengthen the very elements in Iraq most closely aligned with Iran. At the same time we are stepping up our efforts to destroy the Iraqi elements least sympathetic to Iran. What is Bush trying to do?

Maybe I'm Not Alone in My Cynicism.....

Froomkin on the planning for the plan:

So how did it come to pass? Well, during White House deliberations, "How to look distinctive from the study group [the ISG] became a recurring theme.

Right?

One of the blogs (and I apologize to them for forgetting which) the other day was expounding on the War and begging someone to tell them one thing, just one thing, that Bu$hCo and Dumbfuck had gotten right on the war.

I started thinking about that. Can anyone name one thing, just ONE thing, in any endeavor that they have gotten right. Supreme Court nominess? Pretty Awful. SCOTUS nominee handling? VERY amateur. Environment? Katrina? Subordinate nominess? ANYTHING? ANYFUCKINGTHING?

Antibipartisanship Redux

Today's portion of the hundred hours is supposed to be devoted to the minimum wage increase (altho you'd be hard pressed to tell with the press sticking like leeches to the Admin preparing to perform escalatio.....*) There's a lot of talk about how hard it's going to be to get it through the Senate without making concessions.

DO NOT DO IT.

Send it to the Senate. Amendment and compromise free. Make the Repugs tell their constituents that they are opposed to them getting a living wage. Make them pay for their ideological purity. Make them bleed. And GET THEM ON THE RECORD! It's not as much about getting the minimum wage through (Dumbfuck is not going to sign it unadorned) NOW, as it is setting the groundwork for being able to do this, and so much more, post '08, with Dems in the House, Senate, and White House.

Update:

Per dKos, it appears Pelosi is proposing to do just that. So the struggle is in the Senate alone. Contact your Senator and tell him/her to put this to a straight up/down minimum-wage-only vote.

UPDATE: The bill passed out of the House with a veto-proof majority. Apparently, every Dem voted for it, as well as about 65-70 Repugs.

Lilly Tomlin Was Right

ABC is reporting that advance troops of the 82nd Airborne are already in Iraq as part of the escalation to be announced tonight. Got bipartisanship?

WTF does this have to do with Lily Tomlin? She uttered one of my favortie quotes, tres apropos of Bu$hCo:

No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.

A Look Back at RFK

I'm a big fan of RFK. FWIW at dKos is a bigger one, and has a great post about what mighta/coulda /shoulda been.

Intriguing Question

Is Iraq really 'sovereign'?

'Mean and Stupid'

MasonMcD, @ dkos, discusses why the Repugs really are third rate.

Rumor Mill A'Spinnin'

Cheney to boneyard, Rice to Veep, Negroponte to SecState.

Right Wing Theocrats

Americablog has a good post today on the Religious Right (which is, as often noted, neither) and their over-arching aims. Today, the queers. Tomorrow, the rest of you.

13 Reasons NOT To Vote for McCain

Easy=Hard.

How to Win If Losing

It occured to me while reading some commentary on the War that, even if the Dems can't get bills they want through the Senate (the filibuster is a bitch- why didnt we use it more?), they can make the Repugs pay, and pay heavily, for opposing them.

The current thinking is that they should water things down to the point that they can suck some of the moderate (or just frightened) Repugs over to their side. WRONG! Write the bills as they should be written, go for the goals you want, negotiate in good faith, but don't give in on basic principles. Then send the bills on for action. The enabler wing of the Repugs will go ballistic, oppose everything, and attempt to filibuster.

LET THEM.

In the long run, with the country overal 2-1 on our side on the war, and well over 50-50 on our side on virtually everything else, letting the bad guys get up and play obstructionist, will make them look stupid, out of touch, and all the things they really are. Let this build as needed over the next two years, and then deal with the problems, in 2009, with a majority in both houses AND a Dem Prez. Other than the war, everything can wait, and regardless of what the Congress does or does not do (short of impeachment), Dumbfuck is going stay the Decider and do whatever the hell he wants anyway.

And, if you favor impeachment, the more angry the populace becomes at the antics, the more time we give him, the more likely Shrub is to do something so heroically awful that impeachment is, to coin a phrase, a slam dunk.

Got Something to Hide?

Just get your lying, crooked ass elected Preznit!

It's Official

The Senate has been sworn in and the House is about to vote for Speaker. We did it! We wrested control of the government from the most corrupt, most venal, most obnoxious, most self-righteous group of evil bastards that have controlled Congress in my lifetime, and perhaps, forever.

Told Ya So

From the Houston Chronicle:

Electronic voting machines meant to streamline the Election Day process have resulted in late poll openings, data-retrieval errors and widespread machine failures, according to a new report about last year's midterm election.

...

"The evidence presented indicates that electronic voting in its current form is systematically flawed and will require significant corrective measures to remedy the problems that have been exposed," concludes the 23-page report issued by Voter Action, VotersUnite.Org and VoteTrustUSA.

HAHAHA OMG HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Fuck them and feed them fishheads!

Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell Us

Order up the circular firing squad. Now Dumbfuck and the rest of Bu$hCo are after Gen. Casey. An amazing record of non-support by the Preznit... oh wait, maybe not.

Cheers and Jeers

One of the diaries on dKos that I love is Cheers and Jeers. I don't quote em often cuz it's largely humor or anecdotal stuff, but this was funny:

CHEERS to sitting on your asp. Out today on DVD: Snakes on a Plane. The gripping story of Air Force One during the Bush years.

Saddam Hussein is STILL Dead....

What a clusterfuck this was. What a clusterbomb the aftermath will be.

Happy New Year, 2007!

Sorry, I was distracted by the municipal fireworks, so a slightly belated Happy New Year to one and all!

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.