Going Nowhere

For the first time in several months I am looking at two weeks straight of no travel. My engagement for the week was cancelled and nothing else was on the burner so here I am. Next week I had scheduled vacation for the first 3 days and Thanksgiving takes care of the rest.

Originally friends from the UK were coming for a stay and we were to take them to Cumberland Island for a day and then on to St. Augustine for the holiday. Nothing special...just relaxing and beach and some downtime. A family emergency put their trip on hold so we are now at ends as to what to do. Mom has made other plans for the holiday, since we were not going to be coming home, so that is out too. Might be a very quiet holiday unless something pops up and there is something to be said for that as well.

I've got plenty to keep me occupied however, so don't worry that I might go cabin crazy. If it doesn't get too cold I might actually get some golf in as well. Right now they are predicting 71 today in the Atlanta area and for November that is nice. I love this time of year anyway and this kind of weather makes it even better. It doesn't have to get cold at all and I will be happy. The heating bills are going to be bad enough as it is. I am just glad I live this far south and am not having to look forward to a full blown winter with snow and week upon week of freezing weather.

Hope everyone has a great Monday. I guess Dubya is off to the far east to piss those guys off too. I will be interesting to see how badly he steps on his crank this trip.

Deplorable Plot

Mustang Bobby rightfully has joined Bryan over at Why Now? in deploring the effort by skippy the bush kangaroo to set up a Google bomb for Bill O'Reilly as payback for his suggestion that terrorists should strike San Francisco because they have passed a ban on handguns. Skippy wants us to label Bill O'Reilly as a terrorist sympathizer.

I don't agree thatBill O'Reilly is a terrorist sympathizer either. I've never called him a terrorist sympathizer, and without any proof that he is a terrorist sympathizer I wouldn't do it. Truthfully, I doubt that there's anyone, left or right, blogging today that can justly call Mr. O'Reilly a terrorist sympathizer.

It is important for our credibility as bloogers that we defend Bill O'Reilly from being called a terrorist sympathizer unjustly. I am taking a special effort to say on this blog that "Bill O'Reilly is not a terrorist sympathizer." Just because he is an opinionated bag of wind and does kinky things with falafel doesn't warrant accusing him of being a terrorist sympathizer. Just because he he feels it somehow necessary to loudly and vigorously attack one of the great cities in America doesn't mean he should be called a terrorist sympathizer either.

Far be it for me, however, to restrict your right to call Mr. O'Reilly a terrorist sympathizer if you feel you need to. This is America, after all, and we are free to express our opinions, right or wrong. So if you wish to call Bill O'Reilly a terrorist sympathizer and take part in the Google bomb plot being foisted by skippy by posting the "terrorist sympathizer" link on your site, that is your right as a freedom loving American. You are free to do as you please and I won't or can't stop you. You will just have to let your conscience by your guide.

Weakening the Foundation

Below are five names you should mark in your little book. You may not need them this year or next but it won't be too many years before you can point to them and say with authority that these were the Senators that sold our most fundamental right down the river. These are the Senators that spat on the civil right considered so important by our founding fathers that it alone was embodied in the Constitution where the others were attached in the Bill of Rights.

These are "opposition party" Senators that voted with the Republican majority that threw out the right of Habeas Corpus for the foriegn nationals being held in Guantanamo that was so recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

Kent Conrad - North Dakota
Joe Lieberman - Connecticut
Mary Landrieu - Louisiana
Ben Nelson - Nebraska
Ron Wyden - Oregon

Why should we be concerned that this fundamental right to grievance was eliminated for these "so called" enemy combatants? They are not citizens. The right still applies to citizens.

One of our founding principles is that "all men are created equal" and the right of habeas corpus which dates back to the Magna Carta is fundamentally intertwined with that concept. Any action by government that weakens or moves away from this fundamental principle is setting a dangerous precedent that will make it that much easier to weaken its application to ordinary citizens.

The right of habeas corpus is our protection from unfair imprisonment by the majority... if you are arrested under false pretenses or without charges you have a right to petition a court to have the charges against you spelled out and justified with respect to the laws of the country. If the state cannot justify its right to hold you lawfully, you must be set free.

While this new Senate law only applies to foriegn nationals it is asking us to accept some mighty big assumptions and with the latest revelations on torture, false imprisonment, lying and general lousy and untrustworthy behaviour they are mighty assumptions indeed.

One, the Senate wants us to assume that the our govenment is "doing the right thing" without supervision of the courts or other outside monitor. No thanks.

Two, we are supposed to believe that everyone being held is absolutely guilty and doesn't deserve any other legal consideration. No thanks.

Three, we should trust the military tribunals to completely address all of the constitutional issues with respect to the detainees especially considering how they have had little or no legal counsel. No thanks.

Four, we are to just blindly agree to accept one standard of justice for ourselves and another for foriegners. No thanks.

Five, we are supposed to assume that just because we do not honor our acceptance of the Geneva Conventions and the Annex to the Hague Conventions we expect other govenments to do so when handling our citizens. No thanks.

It is these little "nibbles" at our civil rights that we must be most diligent about. They don't individually seem to amount to much but each one takes a stone or two from the foundation of our civil liberties. Each stone removed from the foundation weakens it and sooner or later the structure of our democracy will collapse because of it.

ReddHedd over at Firedoglake has done an excellent job of discussing this and since she is a lawyer has a much better take on it than I.

Lies Beget Lies

Your Momma told you that lies beget more lies and that when you start lying about things you will just have to keep lying more and more to hide the lies that you already told.

Bush didn't listen to his Momma. He spent his time yesterday disgracing the honor of our fallen telling more lies to hide the lie upon lie he has already told.

This article in the Washington Post pretty clearly spells out the lies and half truths from yesterday's Pennsylvania speech. A most disgusting speech... even for Dubya.

Here is some meat from the Post's take down. Good journalism.

President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw the same intelligence the administration did before the war, and that independent commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence.

Neither assertion is wholly accurate....

Bush and his aides had access to much more voluminous intelligence information than did lawmakers, who were dependent on the administration to provide the material. And the commissions cited by officials, though concluding that the administration did not pressure intelligence analysts to change their conclusions, were not authorized to determine whether the administration exaggerated or distorted those conclusions.

It is an excellent article and you shouldn't miss reading the whole thing.

Remember Why

Surburban Guerrilla reminds us about why we observe this date.

Abraham Lincoln

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Remember all that have fallen or sacrificed for this idea of America when you throw up your hands in disgust at what our leadership is doing and country has become under it. Remember the above words and harden yourself to fight on in whatever way you can, small or large. We are more than George Bush ever dreamed and if we let his dark soul and distorted vision permanently change the principles of this country then we have prostituted what our forefathers sacrificed so much for. Remember.

Escaped Again

Fallenmonk has once again escaped from the evildoers in Gropinator land. This time via the highly suspect San Jose airport. I thought I had been spotted when our first approach to Atlanta was waved off at the last moment but they were evidently after someone else as I made it through baggage claim and to the off airport parking without incident. I then managed to lose myself and my sanity in the 5pm Friday afternoon traffic in Atlanta.
I see I missed another day of Bush lying and trying to scare the rest of the country into continuing to support his war. Note that it is "his war" now and not "our" war or the war. Always remember to call it by it's proper name. It's "His War".
He is really getting good at lying isn't he? No hesitation and a firm set to the jaw as if he almost believes this drek himself. His writers have latched on the half truth ploy. Tell some of the truth but not all and defininetly not anything that would dispute your underlying prejudices.
Yes, everybody saw the NIE but not everybofy saw both the good and the bad parts. You know, the intelligence that questions or negated the stuff used to justify the invasion. What a maroon!

Defined By A Sentence

Everything you ever needed to know about the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist can be deduced from one sentence he threw up today concerning secret torture "Gulags".

Frist was asked if that meant he was not concerned about investigating what goes on in detention centers.

"I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that," Frist replied.

Every once in a while such moments happen and usually without warning.

If you aren't one of the 'chosen' or in other words, wealth and white then your life and everything about it is of no consequence to me. I am way too busy trying to spin the Iraq cluster fuck into some half baked tale of global salvation. i can't be bothered with this smaill stuff.

Stay Away from Dover, PA

This is just a fair warning. It comes from an absolute authority and it is beyond question.

Stay the hell out of Dover, Pa.'cause we are looking at a disaster of "biblical" proportion. The shit is going to hit the fan and God is going to sit back and laugh and watch you suffer and after you die some horrible death he is going to make sure you go to hell.
You dumb sumabitches have voted God right out of your town and you know how carefully God follows the local elections is small town PA.
What was on your mind? Do you get some kind of thrill flaunting God's word? How could you reject the idea that the world was started by a couple of nekkid people and a talkin' snake.
Man you are so fucked.

Ticket to Ride

The Wednesday night polls released by NBC and the Wall Street Journal are impressive in their broad denunciation of the Bush presidency.

NBC/WSJ has Bush at all-time lows across the Board:

• Overall: 38%
• Economy: 34%
• Foreign policy: 35%
• Terrorism: 39%
• Iraq: 32%

If this isn't a horse the Democrats can ride then I can't imagine a better opportunity to seize the initiative on everything...Iraq, economy, environment, security, taxes, whatever. If the Dems screw this pooch then there is no hope.

We are not talking about a weekly dip here. This is a trend and I can imagine it getting worse for Bush. These things kind of have a momentum that is virtually impossible to stop. It's the snowball effect.
The following indicates a major paradigm shift in the thinking of the American people.

Fifty-seven percent believe he deliberately misled people to make the case for war, compared with 35 percent who say he gave the most accurate information he had. In addition, 58 percent are less confident the war will come to a successful conclusion, and 57 percent say the United States should reduce the number of U.S. troops there.

I can seriously see the word "impeach" becoming something you begin to see in the daily MSM narrative. Whatever "political capital" Dubya thought he earned in the last election has been squandered two fold. It's taken way too long for the American people to wake up but they appear to awake now. Jolted awake is more like it.

Bad News - Worst Case

Susie at Suburban Guerrilla has the scoop and it confirms what I mentioned, and didn't want to believe, a couple of days ago. there is no longer any question that the U.S. used white phosphorus against both civilians and insurgents in the attack on Fallulah. This report from the Army itself also proves that the U.S. State Department was lying when it said the WP was only used for illumination.

From the “The Fight for Fallujah – TF2-2 IN FSE AAR: Indirect Fires in the Battle of Fallujah” in the March/April ‘05 edition of Field Artillery Magazine :

“The munitions we brought to this fight were . . . illumination
and white phosphorous (WP, M110 and M825), with point-detonating (PD), delay, time and variable-time (VT) fuzes.”

“WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE. We fired “shake and bake” missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out.”

This according to Captain James T. Cobb, First Lieutenant Christopher A. LaCour, and Sergeant First Class William H. Hight, the authors of the article. Their article fundamentally disagrees with the statement by the U.S. State Department on the matter.

There are also numerous reports from embedded journalists that WP was fired on Fallujah, such as this one from the North County Times:

“Bogert is a mortar team leader who directed his men to fire round after round of high explosives and white phosphorus charges into the city Friday and Saturday, never knowing what the targets were or what damage the resulting explosions caused.
...
The boom kicked dust around the pit as they ran through the drill again and again, sending a mixture of burning white phosphorus and high explosives they call “shake ‘n’ bake” into a cluster of buildings where insurgents have been spotted all week.”

The use of white phosphorus is not specifically banned by any treaty, however the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations or by air attack against military forces that are located within concentrations of civilians. [2] The United States is among the nations that are parties to the convention but have not signed protocol III.

I don't know all the details about Protocol III and I am no lawyer but a nation that wants to claim the morale high ground has absolutely no business using such a weapon against combatants or anyone else. If you want to read more about WP here is the Wikipedia entry.

I am just disgusted.

Update #1: For and impassioned take on this story you can't go wrong by reading Hunter's diary over at Dkos.

Kansas Freak Show Redux

The Kansas Board of Education has rapidly reloaded and shot itself in the foot again. This time they had to resort to changing the definition of science in order to get intelligent design foisted upon Kansas' youth. Here is the salient paragraph...

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

I guess that will show the scientists that if you make the scientific method so rigorous as to eliminate the possibility of total bullshit being passed off as science, then they will just take their ball and go home.
If you live in Kansas it must be embarassing to be the laughing stock of the world.

Update: looks like the voters in Maryland are actually thinking and acting accordingly. Via Susie at Surbrban Guerrilla. Here is the quote:

DOVER, Pa. – Voters in this rural school district Tuesday ousted eight school board members who backed a controversial policy to introduce high school students to “intelligent design,” which critics say is a form of creationism.

Voters replaced the GOP incumbents with a Democratic slate that called for removing intelligent design from Dover’s science curriculum, returns from all six precincts showed.

There is hope I guess.

Lower the Bar One More Time

Via Americablog

Sounds like another brilliant plan from the Pentagon.

"We have clear experience from the 1970s with recruiting a sizable number of people from the lowest mental categories," said White. After the Vietnam War, the Army accepted a higher proportion of low-scoring recruits, leading to training and discipline problems, he added.

To achieve last month's recruiting targets, 12 percent of those accepted by the Army had the lowest acceptable results. They scored between 16 and 30 points out of a possible 99 on an aptitude test that quizzes potential soldiers on general science, mathematics and word knowledge.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey told reporters last month that the Army would begin accepting more people who scored in the bottom third on the military's aptitude test, increasing the proportion to 4 percent from 2 percent. The Army had kept the figure at 2 percent since 1990.

Do they not have any pride in the quality of their forces? Do they think it will somehow solve their problems if we lower the standards for military service? What happened to the FEW good men meme?
Is the problem that the only people they can find to sign up are the ones that will score lowest on these apptitude tests? If they don't lower their standards does that mean that we have to give up and get our folks home?

I can just see the ads now. "Are you dumb enough to join todays Army? Can't find your ass with both hands...no problem we can make a target out of anybody and the dumber you are the easier it is. Can't find the recruiter's office...no problem, just have your little brother or sister dial the number on your screen and we'll come to you."

I am being a smart ass and the truth is that it takes smart people to survive in a combat theatre. People that can think on their feet and improvise quickly in order to save their life and the lives of their comrades. Lowering the standards is going to mean higher casualties...I guarantee it.

Another in the seemingly endless chain of tragedies our current misadministration is visiting upon us. Goddess help us all.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Please, Please Karl can I be on your list? I know I am probably too small a fish to be on the list but I would like to sign up if that's possible. It really would mean a lot.

Via Capitol Hill Blue
White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political enemies'

Spurred by paranoia and aided by the USA Patriot Act, the Bush Administration has compiled dossiers on more than 10,000 Americans it considers political enemies and uses those files to wage war on those who disagree with its policies.The “enemies list” dates back to Bush’s days as governor of Texas and can be accessed by senior administration officials in an instant for use in campaigns to discredit those who speak out against administration policies or acts of the President.

[snip]

Those on the list include former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, former covert CIA operative Valarie Plame, along with filmmaker and administration critic Michael Moore, Senators like California’s Barbara Boxer, media figures like liberal writer Joe Conason and left-wing bloggers like Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (the Daily Kos)

Update: I see in my rush to get this posted I neglected to credit Susie at Suburban Guerrilla for pointing this out. My most humble apologies.

Good Blogging

Congratulations to Bobby Cramer over at Bark Bark Woof Woof on his second anniversary at blogging. As the volume of bloggers increases it is nice to know there are bloggs you can rely on as such as BBWW. Not too big and not too small.

The Hits Keep Coming

Just in case the last post wasn't sobering enough then take a look at the disheartening account of the death of a prisoner in Iraq at the hand of Americans by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker. Here is just snippet.

Jamadi’s bruises, [a forensic pathologist who examined the case records] said, were no doubt painful, but they were not life-threatening. Baden went on, “He also had injuries to his ribs. You don’t die from broken ribs. But if he had been hung up in this way [with his hands tied behind him in a painful position known as a "Palestinian Hanging"] and had broken ribs, that’s different.” In his judgment, “asphyxia is what he died from—as in a crucifixion.”

I guess this is why Cheney is pushing so hard to exempt his boys from McCain's torture retrictions. Maybe Cheney is channeling Pontius Pilate? Maybe they think crucifixion is OK since it is in the Bible?

The bad dream continues.

Tell Me It Is Not So

It's just after 4am here in the West Coast and I am obviously still on East Coast time. It's not so bad because it does give me a chance to wander around and see what is going on. The bad thing is it allows me to stumble upon things like this.

While this is only one report I distinctly remember seeing something about white posphorous earlier in the Iraq debacle. I probably discounted it back then as some wild rambling and so over the top that it had to be just a bad rumor.

This is the Independent and it is not to be grouped into the National Enquirer crowd. If this is true and, I am sad to say, I am finding it harder and harder to disbelieve anything I see around our war crimes in Iraq then we will be paying for these crimes until the end of time.

The quote from the American soldier sure has the ring of truth...

"I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorus on Fallujah. In military jargon it's known as Willy Pete.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

A telling paragraph in the article is the following:

In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them as "widespread myths". "Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have used 'outlawed' phosphorus shells in Fallujah," the USinfo website said. "Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes.

This kind of double talk is typical of Pentagon misinformation. It admits that white phosphorus was used but for illunination which will discount any direct evidence of its use in theatre. If evidence of its use against combatants or civilians is presented then they can use the old collateral damage dodge.
I don't want to even think that we used this horrible weapon against other human beings. I'll reserve my judgement until I see more independent verification but somehow I get the sense that there is some flavor of the truth here.
How sad.

Gropinator Land

Sorry for the quiet here but it has been a busy weekend. Off to Sunnyvale on the other coast tomorrow morning for another week. Should be the last trip until December when we will take the application live. Rumor has it that I will be somewhere in Tennessee the week after but only rumor so far, though I was told not to make flight reservations for Indianapolis for week after. Something is in the wind. They'll wait until the last minute to tell me and then complain because I didn't get the best airline fare.

If you haven't or don't read the comments here there is one you should read on the previous post. It's by a another blogger Kristie of Just Venting. She is a perfect example of the type of people who will be hurt by the " make believe we are fiscally responsible" assholes in the Congress. Everything that they are doing to "save money" is a bad joke that will hurt real people. The real budget problems such as the Medicare Drug Benefit, war, defense etc. are not being touched. God forbid that that bridge in Alaska that goes nowhere be put on the back burner just so some stupid American babies won't be malnourished. Halliburton Forbid!

No Child Left Hungry

I was being snarky, or trying to be, in my last post. The cuts coming down the pipe are going to be disastrous for the low and middle class in this country. I'm talking about the people that have a job (or two or three) and are still just one or two missed paychecks from ruin.
A quick look at the "opportunities" for the working poor that are coming up courtesy of our Rethuglican lovers is a clear demonstration that these folks don't give a damn about the poor children in this country and by all evidence would just as soon see them dead.

Congressional Budget Office says:
The upcoming food stamp cuts in the House measure would cut almost 300,000 people off nutritional assistance, including 70,000 legal immigrants.

About 40,000 children are going to lose eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches.

Another $5 billion would be saved by a scale back of federal administrative aid to state child-support enforcement programs. Translation: Less child support for those that need it most.

Another House provision rolls back a court-ordered expansion of foster care support and denies foster care payments to relatives who take in children removed from their parents' homes by court order. This provision reduces the foster care coverage for to about 4,000 children a month.

While I have been lucky to always have food on the table I have experienced personally the reality that I am one of the lucky ones. I dare say a million children in this country go to bed hungry at least one night a week and these new measures passed by the Republicans are going to insure that this number goes up dramatically.

These assholes are passing "broad brush" laws to try and trim a few dollars here or there so that they can kill more Iraqis or other brown skinned people to be named later. Hello folks but the public defense budget for the coming year is 500 billion dollars. They are so concerned that some poor mother is getting an extra few dollars of milk money that they are ready to kill the whole system.

Yeah, I know there is a war on blah, blah, blah. but defense spending now repents over 50% of the government's discretionary spending. This is not chump change.

Update: 11/5 at 0830: Fixed typos.

Update II 11/5 at 0900 : Firedoglake is on this as well and there are some excellent comments.

Brilliant Idea

The Rethuglican Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, wants to spend 8 billion dollars to build a 2000-mile fence between the United States and Mexico:

Mr Hunter's plan for the fence envisages a dual-layer construction equipped with electric sensors stretching from the Pacific Ocean across to the Gulf of Mexico.

The events of 9/11 convinced him that his plan was necessary, Mr. Hunter said:

He said that the lessons of 11 September 2001 taught Americans that immigration was a national issue that required national solutions.

This plan is brilliant, an inspired GOP stroke of genius. How else were we going to use some of that 54 billion dollars we have stripped from food stamps,Medicaid, student loans, agriculture subsidies and child support enforcement? Hell we can probably fund the whole thing from the money we are stripping out of Medicaid and Medicare.

Now that you mention it, and with all that money we will have, we should just go ahead and build a fence across the Canadian border as well. Those Canadians are just as likely to be hiding terroists and other people who don't like us. Don't forget that Canadians are just as capable of taking good jobs aways from Americans as the Mexicans are. Damn straight.
The fence across the Canadian border would have one more big benefit and that would be to keep those cowards that don't want to fight for the democracy in Iraq down here in the lower 48 where we can get to them.

I like it! It's direct and forceful. Guaranteed to keep out foreigners. Create some jobs. What's not to like?

Don't Want to See It

OK here are the latest numbers from the CBS Poll

The question asked is:
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"

The overall approval comes out at 35% but when you look at the breakdown of responses between the Repubs and Demos you get quite a spread.

Among Republicans the approval is 77% approve and 19% disapprove and for Dems the numbers are 11% approve and 83% disapprove. Independents come in at 31% approves and 56% disapprove.

Just what in the hell does Bush and compancy have to do to make Republicans disapprove of his job performance. Think about it. Can you even envision the disaster that this country will have to be before the Republicans wake up and actually disapprove of Bush's performance. While I can't quite get my head around such a gruesome picture, just pondering sends shudders up my spine.

I don't know about you but I never want to see the Republican approval numbers below 50% because that will mean roving bands of storm troopers are moving through the country randomly killing small children and anyone of color.

Pile On!

ME in the comments over at Firedoglake has started a media campaign and I think it is an excellent idea. I will do my part tonight after I finish the day with the client. Below is the complete text of the comment over at Firedoglake. If any of you have some time and participate in any part of the campaign it will help. There is "blood in the water' and we cannot allow the MSM or the Bush Cabal to stifle the momentum.

[snip]

I have been working today on getting the message out. It's a lot of work, but it is worth it. I have collected some MSM and right wing media emails, and some direct links to online forms.

I have been using the statement from Senator Reid as the base text. I have been adding a header with a comment/opinion, pasting in the text, then putting my full name, addy, and phone at the end. The Reid text can be copied from the link below:

http://www.haloscan.com/comments...8021806/ #152806

Below are two on-line forms for USA Today and the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin...in/ contactus.pl
http://asp.usatoday.com/marketin...ne.aspx? type=18

List of valid email addresses:

editor@weeklystandard.com
Foxnewsonline@foxnews.com
comments@foxnews.com
letters@amconmag.com
letters@nationalreview.com
letters@nytimes.com
letters@washpost.com
letters@latimes.com
letters@cnn.com
letters@newsweek.com
letters@msnbc.com
viewerservices@msncb.com

Please take time and complete the "No More Pardons" form to be presented by the Hon. John Conyers if you have not already done so:

http://johnconyers.com/index.asp...7ECB674DE91D% 7D

You should also take a minute and contact your local and state representives. I have been sending them all the same message:

http://www.senate.gov/general/ co...enators_cfm.cfm

http://www.house.gov/

Some Senators need special attention (ADD/ADHD kids ya know, they don't want to hear)

Bill Frist:
http://frist.senate.gov/ index.cf...ist.ContactForm

Pat Roberts:
http://roberts.senate.gov/e-mail...e- mail_pat.html

Rick Santorum:
http://santorum.senate.gov/ conta...contactform.cfm

(add you favorite gooper target here)

And then the good guys, send em some love ;)

"Give em hell Harry" Reid:
http://reid.senate.gov/email_form.cfm

Richard Durbin did a great job today:
http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm

I am going to be reposting this on a fairly regular basis... Please don't get upset. Everybody should take a few minutes (or more) and help get the message out. You can't expect government to work from the top down, and this message will have to be _beaten_ into the MSM. It's up to us.

Thoughtful Voices

Got some sad news when I checked on the Adgitadiaries blog this morning. MandT have decided to end their contibutions to the blogospehere. While I am not privy to their reasons for going quiet I am sure they are reasoned and sincere.
They have been a regular visitor and contributor to the comments and I appreciated all the input. I hope they continue to stop by and contribute but if nothing else let us all know how they are doing.

While we haven't been as diligent in supporting them as we should have been we are very sad to hear that their thoughful and meaningful contributions will end. I just want them to know that if they feel the urge to blog this space will always be available. An email is all that is required [the.fallenmonk at gmail dot com].

Additionally, I would love to have an email contact as well and if they would share that at the above email I would be most honored and I will reciprocate with my "real life" email.

Here is hoping that they reconsider their decision to go silent and we get the opportunity to hear from them via some vehicle.

Much Love and Peace guys.

Harry's Showing His Colors

Well! I thought this was going to be a slow week for news after all the excitement of last week. Walk in to my hotel room this evening and turn on CNN and see Hary Reid giving Bill Frist a shellacing big time. Don't have time to get all the details right now but from what I can see Harry is finally forcing the Senate to take up it's contitutionally mandated role to provide oversight to the executive branch I hope this is the beginning of the much needed transition back to a clear separtation of powers.
Go Harry. This is exciting.

Quiet Week Here

Probably be a quiet week here since I don't have Internet access except at night in the hotel. Raining here in the "Heartland" so not much walking around and scouting the territory. Not as big a place as I expected. A few tall buildings but not a metropolis by any measure. Hotel is right downtown by the dome so if the weather improves and I can escape maybe I can get a few pictures.
Everyone have a great day.

Off Again

"On the road again" as Willie would say. This week to the heartland. New client in Indianapolis which promises to be interesting. Never been to Indianapolis that I remember so at least I will be seeing something new. I will only be engaged for first couple of weeks to get the project headed in the right direction. Do my "Big Kahuna" act as it were.
This week should be a little quieter on the news front than last. So far all I have seen is the new SCOTUS nominee and I think it is too soon to expect any more Fitzmas stuff. No new hurricanes on the near horizon. I guess we will just have to be surprised at the next atrocity Dubya and compancy present us with.

BTW Jane Hamsher's blog Firedoglake got a mention in the NYT. She and Reddhedd have been doing a smashing job on the Plame deal and rightly deserve the attention. Congratulations to Jane and Reddhedd for the recognition. I will savor the fact that a now nationally known blog links here. Thanks Jane

New SCOTUS Nominee

CNN is reporting that Samuel Alito from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will be the new nominee you can read more about at the Soctusblog. Judge Alito was appointed to the Third Circuit by 41. He is a favorite of conservatives and looks like he shouldn't be too distasteful for democrats. Will probably be able to be affirmed without too much trouble. Not nearly as controversial a nominee as we could have seen. In his 15 years on the bench he has a conservative bent and a well documented judicial philosophy. We'll see.

UPDATE: I need to clarify my assessment now that I have had a chance to read a little more about Mr. Alito. He ia "Conservative Whacko" that will move the court dangerously close to nothing more than a cabal of evil men who think women should have never gotten the right to vote much less think they have no right to be able to control their own bodies. We should consider fighting this nomination.

Feel The Love?

Our "Compassionate Conservatives" continue to spread the love...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On a party-line vote, a Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives committee voted to cut food stamps by $844 million on Friday, just hours after a new government report showed more Americans are struggling to put food on the table.

About 300,000 Americans would lose benefits due to tighter eligibility rules for food stamps, the major U.S. antihunger program, under the House plan. The cuts would be part of $3.7 billion pared from Agriculture Department programs over five years as part of government-wide spending reductions.

The House plan would also cut U.S. crop supports by $1 billion, land stewardship by $760 million, research by $620 million and rural development by $446 million.

There are undoubtedly people collecting food stamps that shouldn't be, and that is just plain wrong, but making wholesale cuts like this is the wrong way to address abuse. When you put this amount of money spent on food stamps and other subsidies in the perspective of what we are spending per day in Iraq they just become mean spirited acts meant to screw the little guy. What are we talking here, a week of misplaced and misguided war? Two weeks?

To make it even more stupid, these kind of cuts fly in the face of the government's own research...

A new Agriculture Department report found 38.2 million Americans "were food insecure" in 2004, an increase of nearly 2 million from the previous year. Tufts University food economist Parke Wilde food insecurity "now equals the worst levels" since recordkeeping began a decade ago.

USDA said 11.9 percent of households, "at some time during the year, had difficulty providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources."

I have been around the kind of people that really need assistance with food all my life and I know first hand what happens when they are pressed. The first things to go are the high nutrition foods like milk and meat. They are replaced by "belly fillers" which are almost always high carbohydrate foods like macaroni and rice. The childrens' diets lose protein and gain nothing of value. The long term effect is childhood obesity and the resultant problems with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This doesn't even address the issues surrounding poor nutrition and learning which are significant. Not providing for nutritious food, especially for children, is guaranteeing problems and high costs later. Food stamps are an investment in our future and not "give-away".

Act One Only

Well I missed the live action but I did see monitors in the Atlanta airport when I landed. At first I was a little disappointed in not seeing more blood in the streets as I was hoping for a "massacree". Upon further reflection though I think we are just seeing the first volley.
Fitzgerald is still investigating and he needed some additional information to really nail his true target and that is Cheney. Now that Libby is indicted with a very solid case I'm sure he is going to start wondering why he should take the fall alone. Fitzgerald moved on the Libby charges when he did because he needs that 30 years in prison and million dollar fine hanging over Libby's head. He will squeeze the extra information he needs out of Libby in a pretty short order.

If Libby doesn't flip and goes to prison for the rest of these bastards he is stupid and deserves whatever he gets.

Missed Fitzmas

Looks like I will miss "Ftizmas". I have to catch a plane back to Atlanta tomorrow morning at 7am in Fransanfisco so i'll probably be in the air when the "feces hits the rotary ventilator". Looks like it will be an extended holiday in that Rove will be the subject of an extended investigation and not indicted tomorrow. Only Libby will be whacked tomorrow it seems.

I can't describe how badly I would like to see everyone in this misadministration slammed but I guess I can console myself if there is at least one.

It is time for me to try and get a few hours of shut eye as 3am comes early.

I am not sure, bit I am beginning to think that I may be getting too old for this kind of thing. I am still not 100% corrected by the three week in Japan, much less the week in France followed immediately by a week in California. I think I am somewhere out over the Atlantic, at least on my personal time line.

You Too Can Earn Big Bucks -Some Restrictions

And now for something not about Plamegate or Harriet.

Forbes has announced the biggest dead money earners...Elvis wins again.



Elvis: $45M
Charles Schulz: $35M
John Lenon: $22M
Andy Warhol: $16M
Dr. Seuss: $10M

As Mrs. Fallenmonk would say... Duh!

Miers Gone?

Watching CNN this morning as I get dressed and they just announced that Harriet Miers is withdrawing from the nomination to the Supremes. I can't but wonder that this is a feeble attempt to distract everyone from the Plame news. The timing is very suspicious. Now we'll just have to see what kind of wingnut replaces her. I can't help but think this one will swing very hard to Bush's base so we can expect somebody pretty conservative. Just have to wait and see.

Rollercoaster

Damn, there is a lot of potential energy building up with respect to the current misadministration. We’ve got the Plame affair and the possibility of multiple indictments coming down tomorrow, or at least soon, and possibly beheading the Dubya regime. We’ve got Bugboy under the scope in Texas for playing fast and loose with campaign funds and probably still more shit coming his way from the Abramoff investigation. We’ve also learned today that his defense fund accounting is not necessarily following the GAP. Bill Frist is now a proven liar. We on the left are excited and anticipating a huge “We told you so” moment.

I am trying to stay reserved and calm over all this as I have been disappointed so often in the last 6 years or so that I am not sure my psyche can stand another major let down.

One thing that is really bothering me is the question of aftermath. If all of the most pregnant wishes of the left come through (Ftizmas?) to reality, we are going to be left with nothing but a President who probably peaked intellectually in the third or fourth grade. If Cheney, Rove, Libby, and all the rest are toast then we have GWB sailing our ship of state without any oversight and this is a guy that was an alcohol soaked coke head until he was forty years old. This is very frighening.

The empty suit that currently shits in the Whitehouse has been an abject failure in everything he has ever tried. He cannot point to anything, prior to his highly tainted election, that even quaintly canbe measured as a success. This is the joker that will be running the country without supervision. I am seriously in doubt as to whether there are enough cojones in the the Rethuglican congress to impeach him and we are looking at 3 more years. Can we survive it?

So we have a dilemma. Is it better to enjoy the immediate gratification of seeing Rove, Libby and maybe Cheney forced to resign or sent to prison, and as bad as they are having Pretzel Boy running the country further into the ground without supervision or continue as we are with a known devil? It is not an easy choice.

I think I have settled for immediate gratification and let the chips fall where they may. I think there is reason to hope that without Rove and Cheney running the show Dubya will be caught in the headlights, so to speak, and we surely can’t be worse off than we are now.

Just sayin’

Beyond Tragedy

CNN is reporting that by their count the official death toll of American troops in Iraq has reached the 2,000 milestone.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, more than 15,000 American service members have been wounded in the conflict, according to the Defense Department.

According to CNN's tally, 2,194 coalition troops have died in the war.

In a justifiable conflict this would be a real tragedy. In the bloody light of this conflict it is beyond a tragedy in every way you can measure. The two thousand number is just a shadow of the real story. Each of these deaths ripples out and touches countless loved ones and friends. Grief and frustration touches thousands and thousands more. Heterodyne the more than 15,000 wounded and maimed and you probably have over a quarter of a million people directly and tragically touched by this useless, inexcusable farce. I am so ashamed of my country I can sometimes hardly breathe.

Just Gotta Torture

This is so absolutely beyond the pale that I can't believe I am actually reading it. Dick Cheney and Porter Goss have the unmitigated gall to actually seek an exemption so that their minions can torture at will. This alone should be enough to prove to America (the rest of the world knows it) that this adminsitration is the most morally corrupt bunch of scum to ever disgrace the government of our country. In any other world I would have to make this stuff up!

The Senate defied a presidential veto threat nearly three weeks ago and approved, 90 to 9, an amendment to a $440 billion military spending bill that would ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainee held by the United States government. This could bar some techniques that the C.I.A. has used in some interrogations overseas.

But in a 45-minute meeting last Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney and the C.I.A. director, Porter J. Goss, urged Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who wrote the amendment, to support an exemption for the agency, arguing that the president needed maximum flexibility in dealing with the global war on terrorism, said two government officials who were briefed on the meeting.

[snip]

Mr. McCain rejected the proposed exemption, which stated that the measure "shall not apply with respect to clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried out by an element of the United States government other than the Department of Defense and are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United States is a party, if the president determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack."

No Chicken Dancing

There is a lot of discussion around a post over at Firedoglake about whether or not Cheney was under oath or not when interviewed by Fitzgerald. While it may make some legal difference I think the discussion is missing a serious point.
First of all, both Cheney and Bush, as do all elected officials, take an oath of office. This oath deals with their responsibility around the Constitution and all but the fundamental reality is not so much in the words but in the symbology of the act.
The oath as symbol grants the President and Vice President the authority to act as our representatives in the conduct of all affairs. It virtually grants unlimited authority but it also places the massive burden of ultimate responsibility and the weight of ultimate integrity.
This weight of integrity demands that every word uttered by the office holder is the absolute truth. Unvarnished, unspun, whole and complete truth. No weasel words allowed.
Accepting the oath of office means that for the full term and beyond the taker is under the oath and that any lie or half truth is perjury pure and simple.
Discussing whether Cheney was under oath when talking with Mr. Fitzgerald is therefore meaningless in my view. Cheney and Bush are always under oath in my book and should be held to task for every word that comes out of their mouths plain and simple.
No "chicken dancing" ,no mincing, no hemming and hawing.

West Coasting

Here we are in beautiful Fremont (not). Not sure what the story is here but this particular part of the bay area is rather desolate. The Marriott here just sort of sits in the middle of nowhere just off I880. I can see a MickeyDee's from my window on the 6th floor but that is about it. A couple of other hotels nearby but nothing else.
Just into the room and turned on CNN looking to see what has been happening. So far nothing but Wilma coverage so I don't have the dope on the Plame affair.
I forget how bad the traffic can be here. The commute from Sunnyvale (Moffett) is along 237 to 880 and at 6pm it is very busy and basically 10-15 mph for the 10 -15 miles to Fremont. Then again you can say the same for spots in Metro Atlanta.
They just covered the fact that Rosa Parks has passed away. She made a difference which is more than many of us will be able to say. Rock on Rosa.

Super Week Coming

It looks like a super week may be in the offing. The two Goddesses over at Firedoglake are predicting major good mojo. I just hope they are right.
Been a glorious weekend in Atlanta and I have managed to put a major dent in the honey do.
Off to gropinator land tomorrow with a trip to Sunnyvale for the week. Only problem is I have to fly through SFO as the San Jose connection was not workable this time. Bummer. While I love San Fran I don't like the airport and the commute to Sunnyvale via 101 stinks. To top it off I could only get a hotel room in Fremont which means much commuting as well. Live like a Californian next week!
Since I will be a West Coaster next week I will be 3 hours behind the curve on the news and I hope I don't miss the revelations when/if they come. I like to be in real time with what's happening but one must earn ones living. The only consolation is that I will be able to party later.

8 am flight in the morning so it is bed time for bonzo here. Talk to you from beautiful Sunnyvale.

Light or Train?

You know the old expression about the the light at the end of the tunnel? I can't help feeling that we on the left are getting ourselves way too worked up about the upcoming climax of the Plame investigation. I so want everybody in the Whitehouse to be indicted, jailed and humiliated that it is sometimes hard to keep focused on the reality that it may be a bust. I just hope everybody has enough emotional reserve to weather another huge disappointment if it should happen. I am wishing with all my might that "Fitzmas" will come and that there will be presents enough for everyone. I am just trying to hold back just enough to survive the shock if it fizzles. Many of you will say that the attitude should be "in for a penny, in for a pound" but I am talking emotional survival here and I'll keep a dollar or two in my shoe thank you very much.

Here's wishing you Merry Fitzmas!

S.A.W.B hearts G.R.I.T.S.

Go over and get a chuckle at Neil Shakespeare's place. He's got a fun take on a post from The Fat Lady Sings that's fun. Bless your heart!


BTW SAWB was coined by Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young way back and it stands for Smart Ass White Boy.

Pray You Don't Need Them

Just in case you thought the slow response to Katrina was a fluke and mostly the fault of bad management at FEMA you might want to consider rethinking your disaster preparedness. Yes, I know a lot of tax money and time has been spent equipping and training the National Guard to be ready to help us in case of NATIONAL emergency but you are just going to have to be prepared to do without that support.

Just off the top of my head I would say an additional 30 days of rations, water and medical supplies for you and your family. Get a boat if you don't already have one and don't forget that generator and fuel. Oh, and don't forget jumpkits for the entire family as well. You know the drill. Plan for everything and expect the worst. DO NOT EXPECT ANY HELP FROM THE GOVERNMENT!

Army National Guard units are short of equipment on the home front partly because they are told to leave vital equipment such as armored Humvees in Iraq for replacement troops, according to a report released Thursday.

As of June, Army National Guard units had left overseas more than 64,000 pieces of equipment worth more than $1.2 billion, and more than half cannot be accounted for by the Army, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office.

On average, National Guard units at home have only 34 percent of their essential war-fighting equipment, said the report released at a hearing of the House Committee on Government Reform.

''National Guard officials believe that the National Guard's response to Hurricane Katrina was more complicated because significant quantities of critical equipment such as satellite communications equipment, radios, trucks, helicopters, and night vision goggles were deployed to Iraq,'' the report said.

[snip]

In addition to equipment left overseas, more than 101,000 pieces of equipment from units on the home front have been transferred to deploying units, the report said.

Most Important Case, Most Important

If you haven't read James Moore's article over at Huffpo yet ... do it now.

Patrick Fitzgerald has before him the most important criminal case in American history. Watergate, by comparison, was a random burglary in an age of innocence. The investigator’s prosecutorial authority in this present case is not constrained by any regulation. If he finds a thread connecting the leak to something greater, Fitzgerald has the legal power to follow it to the web in search of the spider. It seems unlikely, then, that he would simply go after the leakers and the people who sought to cover up the leak when it was merely a secondary consequence of the much greater crime of forging evidence to foment war. Fitzgerald did not earn his reputation as an Irish alligator by going after the little guy. Presumably, he is trying to find evidence that Karl Rove launched a covert operation to create the forged documents and then conspired to out Valerie Plame when he learned the fraud was being uncovered by Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson. As much as this sounds like the plot of a John le Carre novel, it also comports with the profile of the Karl Rove I have known, watched, traveled with and written about for the past 25 years.

Aftermath Questions

Since no one in the blog world is going to be able to touch Jane and ReddHedd over at Firedoglake on covering all the stuff going on with RoveLibbyCheneyBush affair I thought I might take a stab at some of the things we might have to face as fallout. That is, of course, if we on the left get our "Winter Holiday" presents early.

If all of Dubya's minions, or a good portion thereof, are indicted or named as unindicted co-conspirators we will have several possibilities. There is no way the powers that actually are ruining the country will let George W. try and go it alone.

There is a strong possibility that some of the old hands from daddy's administration might show up. The number one possibility is Dubya's prime poop scooper James Baker and who knows who else.

What happens if Cheney resigns under a cloud of suspicion as a conspirator and Bush has to come up with a VP? McCain and Graham are said to be manuevering but maybe they lose out on the trust issue and Bush taps Condi to set her up for the 2008 race. A worst case scenario would be that Bush is later forced to resign as well and we have out first woman and minority President. Imagine the fun.

If everyone's dream comes true and Bush and Cheney are forced to resign, probably as a result of a plea bargain, then we get Dennis Hastert as President and a mystery guest as VP. McCain?

Regardless of the outcome we are going to have change and I for one am having a hard time thinking that it could be worse than the cabal we have now. I can't believe we are not looking at some progress in 2006 and 2008 no matter what happens.

Anyone else have some wish scenarios?

Sandy Vaseline

Via Atrios

I see that Rummy and company over at the Pentagon have added another few degrees to the temperature in hell. Seems like the bribe that they offered during the first part of the year of $15K to re-enlist was actually just a joke. If you suckered for it and are still alive and now through the first six months of the extra six years you sold yourself for, guess what? They're bad! No can do. Sorry about that. Against the rules. Can't pay.

Not only are we going to waste your life in a useless war we are going to trick you into re-upping with a fake re-enlistment bonus. We have destroyed your finances by sending you overseas when as a National Guardsman you never intended to be deployed for such a long time and now that we have you desparate we will fuck you with this big hard golden carrot.

This is absolutely shameful. How hard would it have been to verify the legality of such bonuses before offering them? How many soldiers fell for it? Since they re-upped under false pretenses is the re-enlistment void? I'll give odds that the Pentagon will say the enlistment still stands. It will be just like the medical benefits for life lie.

"I know that we promised you benefits for life when you agreed to make a career in service but we weren't actually authorized to offer that so tough luck."

They Are Serious?

Atlanta has evidently settled on its new "Brand" and they are evidently dead serious about it. From the AJC this morning..

The logo launch is the first part of a $4.5 million-plus multipronged campaign Atlanta officials are undertaking to brand the city to local residents, who they hope will help in the ultimate goal: to attract more tourists, conventioners and businesses looking to relocate.

Wow, it must be nice to have $4.5 million-plus to spend on branding Atlanta. I guess there are no homeless or hungry people in town. Probably have more cops and firefighters than they really need too. I suppose all the refugees from NOLA that Shirley Franklin was whining about the other day are now all taken care of.

Silly me I thought a safe, clean and panhandler free city would be a much better way to "brand" a city.

Seriously, I can't imagine being a city leader and having the brass to admit I was going to spend that amount of money on something so inane and worthless. How do they sleep at night? Makes me want to scream. It is not even a sexy logo. It ranks up there with that silly mascot they picked for the '96 Olympics and it was so impressive I have forgotten it's name.

Catching Up

I have been trying to catch up with everything going on and it just dawned on me that with Fitzgerald now apparently taking a hard look at Uncle Dick that maybe Mr. Fitz had better start being very careful.
These guys are no small potatoes. They will kill a couple of thousand Americans on a whim and not even bat an eye over a 100,000 or so Iraqis or other brown types. If I were Fitz I might even go so far as to hire me a few boys to start my car and open my mail. These guys could also tag along when I went out just for company. I'm just sayin'.

I Return

Well the homestead is still here and I am home safe and sound from France. The fools let me back in the country again. Need sleep. Doesn't seem like much has changed here and we are all still waiting for the big show to start. I will be back after some rest.

Long National Nightmare

If athenae at First-Draft can resurrect the infamous ferret rant I can resurrect the best Onion piece ever and a prophetic one it was...

WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

[snip]
"at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

[snip]
"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

[snip]

"Finally, the horrific misrule of the Democrats has been brought to a close," House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told reporters. "Under Bush, we can all look forward to military aggression, deregulation of dangerous, greedy industries, and the defunding of vital domestic social-service programs upon which millions depend. Mercifully, we can now say goodbye to the awful nightmare that was Clinton's America."

"For years, I tirelessly preached the message that Clinton must be stopped," conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said. "And yet, in 1996, the American public failed to heed my urgent warnings, re-electing Clinton despite the fact that the nation was prosperous and at peace under his regime. But now, thank God, that's all done with. Once again, we will enjoy mounting debt, jingoism, nuclear paranoia, mass deficit, and a massive military build-up."

Nothing much left to say is there.

What We Have Lost

Lance Mannion has a post up called Charlie Meets Bill and I really resent being reminded of how much we are missing by not having someone with even 10% of Bill Clinton's force in office. It's a great post taken from Carl Reiner's autobiography My Anecdotal Life and Carl's brother Charlie's meeting with Bill at the Whitehouse. Brought a lump to my throat.

BTW Lance is now on the blogroll.

Unforgiveable Crime

Every once in a while a story comes along that just sends me into acute disgust and anger. The following story (via Reddhedd at Firedoglake) is one that does.

From the Washington Post

Not only to the soldiers who have been wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere have to deal with with the aftermath of their injuries they are now facing combat once they have arrived home. - This time the fight is with credit agencies sent by the US Government .


There are many reasons people join the military and it is really immaterial why. The military is an honorable service and many, like myself, are proud of our years of service. In return for our service we expect the military to be used properly as a tool to insure that the ideals that caused the founding of our country are respected and encouraged. When we are not it is a tragedy as was Vietnam and as is Iraq.

The role of the military, however, is not germaine to this particular situation. What is important is that for whatever reason or cause one of our sons or daughters is killed or disabled in service to our country that sacrifice should warrant the highest honor and respect we are able as a nation to provide. This includes the best care and support in dealing with the results of their service. Anything less is unacceptable and there is no gray about it, no argument.

Additionally, many of the tragically wounded returning from Iraq are from the National Guard and the operative word here is National. These men and women serve with the expectation of serving their fellow Americans in situations where the military are prohibited by law from assisting. This means on American soil and not in some god forsaken dust bowl in the middle east. We owe these a double measure of respect and honor.

There is really no excuse for this happening and I encourage all of you to contact you representatives in the government and express your disgust and anger. It is really the least you can and should do.

Flexible That's Me

The client has suddenly realized today that they are paying a relative fortune per day for my time and aren't really prepared to utilize my vast talents. The decision was made today that maybe they were a little premature in asking for two weeks of my time in that they weren't close to being ready. Net result is that I am out of here on Sunday instead of the Saturday a week later. Not without pain and some more dollars to Delta. If there are not any seats left of the fare you paid then you need to add dollars until you can buy one of the seats they have left. It is one of the perils of last minute travel. "Sorry all the 'cheap' cattle car tickets are sold but we do have some 'expensive' cattle car tickets." Same food, lousy seat just a couple of hundred dollars more precious. I am being snarky here as I actually will be flying business class which is one of the advantages of spending a large portion of your life on a plane. The almightly Platinum upgrade.

If you have to be in France on business or holiday then Lyon is probably as good as any place and most likely better than most. The people are very pleasant and the city is a snap to move around in. The metro is clean, efficient and cheap and can take you just about anywhere when coupled with the buses and tramways.

The food in Lyon is the best in Europe, bar none. This is the home of great cuisine in France. Paul Bocuse, Jacques Pepin, Paul Lacombe, etc. all sprang from the samll bouchon that are everywhere here. You can only get a bad meal here if you stay in your hotel and pay twice the price.

Tonight I walked a couple of blocks from the hotel and to the Bistrot du Palais. For an entree(that's an appetizer everywhere but in the U.S.) I had Filet de Margareau dans Vin Blanc. A lovely little dish of small fish filets(no idea what fish) poached in an aromatic white wine sauce over steamed potatoes and carrots in the cooking sauce served cold. For the main course I went with one of my favorites Braised Duck Leg with vegetables (Pot au Feu de Cuisse de Canard avec Legumes. Fall off the bone and gloriously fragrant with the aromatic veggies. Crusty french bread and a lovely Cote de Rhone Rouge. For a foodie like me it doesn't get much better. It would have been even better to share it with Madam Fallenmonk.
Finished up with a dish that is only found here in Lyon "Cervelles de Canut". The literal translation is "brains of the silk worker" but it is a wonderful after dinner treat. It is a very simple dish of creme fraiche blended with herbs, shallots and lots of garlic. It is a must have if you ever visit Lyon but you had better like garlic!

Going to get to sleep tonight without the threat of an alarm going off. It will be interesting to see if I can foil the internal clock and sleep past 530 am. I will try.

Still To Busy to Sleep or Blog

Still pushing here and still no time to really do anything except the basics. Jane and Reddhedd are doing a bang up job over at Firedoglake and are the go to source for everything on the Plame affair. Grace at Scriptoids is making sure we know what is going on the in the fringe press.
In what little news I am seeing I was most shocked at the news of the staged video conference with the troops that Bushco put on. I just can't believe they did that. Really disappointed.
Pretty much 24x7 here on CNN international is the disaster in Pakistan, bird flu(check out adgitadiaries) and Iraq vote. Not much else leaking through in the short time I get to see it.
Weekend coming up so I hope to have a little more activity here so don't forget to check in.
Don't forget to check out Shakespeare's Sister and Pandagon who are both on the same frequency about movies that make you cry.
Anyway, it is time to scramble for the metro and experience the Lyon underground again. Have a good day folks and maybe this evening I will buy a good bottle of Bordeaux and do a little besotted blogging. I know you can't wait.

Time Crunch

Between the commute to the client, 1 hour each way by metro and bus, and the long working day and the necessity to eat and sleep things will be light here until the weekend. I may find some sleepless time but I doubt it. The expectation is that I will be able to push this project a little and get it back on schedule but from the experience of the first two days I am beginning to doubt how much impact I will have. The difference in attitude and "work ethic", for lack of a better phrase, between the Japanese and the French is very striking.
The Japanese were freaking out over the fact that the project was nearly a week behind schedule and I had a serious grilling over what I was going to do about it and why I thought I was the one to do it. There was a veiled threat of handing me a very sharp knife and asking me to redeem my honor if I failed. The French on the other hand are not the least bit concerned that the project is months behind schedule and over budget and are continuing to try and change the scope. It is quite a culture shock. Just so I won't be accused of culture bias...Americans are somewhere in the middle and when the project schedule starts turning to shit, spend most of their time looking for someone to blame.
Anyhow, it is now time to walk somewhere to dinner as the "bistro" here in the hotel is crap and expensive. In Lyon there is absolutely no excuse for having to suffer from bad food. Pretty much anywhere in the central city there are dozens of glorious "bouchon" that offer great food and good value. Last was Daniel et Denise, maybe ten tables total and on a little side street a couple of blocks from the hotel. Great food, great service and good value.
Dinner time!

Je Suis Arrive

Well, I am here. Long day of travel. Flight from Altanta to Paris was late leaving Atlanta and I already had a close connection to get to Lyon so I changed to a later flight from Paris to Lyon. I might have made it but, sure as hell, my bag wouldn't have so I got to kill a few hours in Paris Charles de Gaulle.

Just getting settled and turned on CNN international. My heart goes out to the people in Pakistan and India who are suffering from a major earthquake. CNN is putting the death toll in 20,000 plus range. Got a quick head shot of Dubya and he says we are sending them some "cash money" and some equipment. You can live off twenty dollar bills but I've always found they give me gas. Shithead.
Are they covering this wall to wall in the U.S. as well?

Guatemala seems to be sucking wind as well and there is more rain expected. Those people need our support too.

All the good news... and now they are talking about the thousands of birds that have died in Turkey of avian flu.

Not a whole lot of positive news on this side of the Atlantic.

Your Capable Hands

I'm outa here again. Getting ready to head to the airport and head for Lyon via Paris for a few weeks. I'm going to have to leave DeLayAbramoffLibbyRoveBushCheneyGate in your capable hands. I'll do my best to stay on top of the situation.

I will have access to plenty of quality champagne if my assistance is required for any and all celebrations. It is what I do best after all.

You Say ToMAHto

Barbara O'Brien at Mahablog has an excellent post up. It is definitely worth a read. In it she discusses, in her usually clear and concise way, how she has come to realize a major difference in how we on the left and the right analyze or react to the babblings of Dubya.

Have you ever noticed that, on a very simple level, righties support Bush because of what he says and lefties oppose him because of what he does?

For example, I'm sure at some point you've crossed paths with a rightie who is fired up about the "liberation" of Iraq. You know the dance. You make faces; the rightie assumes you oppose the war because you don't want the Iraqi people liberated. But in fact you oppose the war because the Iraqi people aren't being liberated. At best they're in a transitional phase between despots. Americans are fighting and dying to establish an Islamic theocracy, assuming civil war doesn't take down the "nation-building" process first. But the rightie won't even listen to this. Bush says we're liberating Iraq, and that's it.

I have noticed the same thing when talking to all the conservatives I work with. They have all the talking points and the rhetoric down pat but refuse to recognize the reality. They twist your opposition to the war in Iraq into opposition of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. The frightening thing is I think they are sincere.

A good example of how the right takes Bush's words at face value and fail to temper them with his actions is in homeland security. They don't seem to remember that he opposed the creation of the department in the beginning but they listen raptly as he tells them how secure they are and how DHS has protected them from the "evildoers". Nobody except us whackos on the left ask him to show us how we are more secure. Ports? Planes? Chemical factories? Nuclear Power Plants? Electric transmission lines? Subways? Freight trains? Water supplies? Food supplies? How are we more secure Mr. President than before 9/11? Can you show us how the billions of dollars we have spent have been put to use?

Finally, the purported revelationary speech the other day is proof positive that he believes that if he says we are winning the war on terror in Iraq and the Iraqis are better off today than under Saddam then, in fact, we are and they are. The hell with all the evidence to the contrary. Ignore the man behind the curtain. Trust me. Barbara quotes one of the talking monkeys of the right John Hindraker's comment on the speech.

This was another in a series of great speeches in which President Bush has outlined his strategies and policies in the war.

Totally unconnected to reality or the actual content in the speech. As Barbara says,

And, of course, he did nothing of the sort. He presents goals. And there's nothing wrong with most of his goals. They are perfectly fine goals. But his policies and strategies, such as they are, are not sufficient to achieve those goals. Iraq is drifting toward either theocracy or chaos.

Go read the whole post as it is spot on.

No Shame

It appears that the GOP has absolutely no shame whatsoever. They have just passed another giveaway to the oil companies as if the are not already choking on profits. The bill will allow oil companies to skip important licensing rules and "streamline" the process of building new refineries.
Nothing in the bill addresses natural gas prices or makes an effort to reduce the cost of gas at the pump.

At one point in the debate Waxman of California shouted. "Is this the House of a Banana Republic?"

All this bill does is allow the oil industry to avoid environmental rules and force states and communities to accept refineries they don't want.

I just can't believe they have the balls to try and push this over the goal line. I hope the Senate has a little more understanding of the real problems we are facing but I feel little hope.

Brownie Redux

It ain't over folks. If/when the avian flu mutates sufficiently to enable human to human transmission we are going to witness another clueless crony stumble at a response.
Via Melanie

His succesor, appointed in 2003 as ASPHEP, is Stewart Simonson. Like Michael Brown at FEMA, Brown is a lawyer who was close to a political benefactor. Simonson graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1994 and served as legal counsel to Tommy Thompson while he was governor of Wisconsin from 1995 to 1999. Simonson then followed Thompson to Washington when the governor was appointed as head of HHS. Simonson’s bio at HHS states that “from 2001-2003, he was the HHS Deputy General Counsel and provided legal advice and counsel to the Secretary on public health preparedness matters. Prior to joining HHS, Simonson served as corporate secretary and counsel for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK).”

Congressman Henry Waxman has recently pointed to Simonson as an example where Bush has “repeatedly appointed inexperienced individuals with political connections to important government posts, including positions with key responsibilities for public health and safety.”

Boob Tube Bad

If you haven't read this speech delivered by Al Gore yesterday. I highly recommend it and agree with every word in it. More and more it's Gore in '08.

Al Gore on The Threat to American Democracy

"The subjugation of news by entertainment seriously harms our democracy: it leads to dysfunctional journalism that fails to inform the people."

Three Cubed Assholes

Just in case you would like to know who the nine Senators are that support torture:

Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)

Boy Scout Marching Song

This week is Pandemic Flu Awareness Week.

If you haven't been paying attention, a global pandemic is just a matter of when not if.

There are some that suspect (who me?) that our current faux leaders might take advantage of the public's lack of knowledge about the realities of a global pandemic. They might use it as an excuse to frighten the public with a scare about millions dying from avain flu and push through some potentially restrictive laws that could be used to secure their hold on power. Of course, that is just "Chicken Little Stuff" and our glorious leaders would never take advantage of a national tragedy to further their political agenda, but just in case, wouldn't it be a good idea to go over to the Flu Wiki website and get yourself educated about the very real possibility of a global flu pandemic.

Being prepared is just being smart.
Being played for a sucker out of ignorance is not smart.
Be Smart.

Is That a Goose Step I Hear?

Please consider the following statement by Dubya Gump very carefully. I want you to extrapolate using your experience with the Patriot Act coupled with the knowledge that 1) you have seen the current government in action with Katrina and 2) this misadministration is becoming desperate and 3) this is the misadministration that had absolutely no reservations about ignoring international law and invaded another soveriegn country without provocation and 4) even now with the situation devolving daily into civil war and chaos insists that it is going swimmingly.

(my highlight) LINK

``If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?'' Bush asked at a news conference.

``It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?'' Bush added.

``One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. I think it's an important debate for Congress to have.''

In order for them to do this Congress would have to eliminate or make major changes in the Posse Comitatus Act of 1868. This act prohibits the Federal Government from using the U.S. military in law enforcement activities on American soil. This is why we have a National Guard that can legally provide such law enforcement while under state control and not Federal control.

To give this misadministration this power would be the same as granting them the right and power to be a military dictatorship. This is unlimited, no recourse, no do-over power. It would be the end of the American system of gobernment and life as we know it.

Why do you think they think the National Guard is not enough?

Now I can't imagine the Congress would be stupid enough to grant this power to Dubya but I was once wrong and if it can happen once I guess it could happen again. Just to be on the safe side it might be a good idea to keep your ears pricked, as it were, so this doesn't happen while we are all distracted by who is diddling Paris Hilton today.

Such A Deal

Let's tally the score so far:
Appoint completely inept managers with no experience in disaster planning.
Fail to respond in a timely manner to one the worst natural disasters to befall the country.
Remove restrictions on wages so that the people who's lives and property have been destroyed won't make a fair wage and thus won't be able to afford the substandard housing they build.
and finally if that were not enough...Remove sanctions on hiring undocumented aliens so that you can lower the wage mark even further.

At a time when Latino immigrants are expected to form a big part of the Gulf Coast reconstruction labor pool, the Department of Homeland Security has temporarily suspended sanctioning employers who hire workers unable to prove their citizenship, essentially allowing contractors to hire undocumented workers.

That move followed President Bush's Sept. 8 decision to lift in Katrina-hit areas the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay at least the average regional wage. Bush says it will hasten one of the world's largest reconstruction efforts.

Dubya's coporate buddies must be rubbing their hands at the thought. Think of the profits. Think of the American workers we'll be able to screw. Think of the profits. Think of the Latinos we'll have working at slave wages. Think of the profits.

Just when you think it can't get any worse...

Link

Are We There Yet?

Here we are 4 days into my favorite month and we have lost 8 more of our future in Iraq, bringing the total loss to 1941 U.S. dead and untold Iraqi and others. I was just wondering if we are getting close to the magic number? You know the number of pointless deaths where the supporters of our continued occupation begin to question the value of continuing to flail away at the hopeless cause and call for a halt to the senseless mayhem.

There are a lot of exciting things happening to distract us from this most important question but we need to keep asking it everyday and with every death. It is only going to get worse and the upcoming vote on the constitution will just bias the going bad one way or the other.

I guess I will just keep hoping that today will be the day we hit the magic number. Maybe we can hope that all the bad news for Dubya and company will be some sort of catalyst and heterodyne with the pain of so many lost for no reason and trigger a revelation in the people that continue to support the tragedy. Then again, that may be desparation talking.

Lesson Learned

Well I see that Dubya has learned his lesson about cronyism and how dangerous that practice is when appointing people to important posts.

President Bush today nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "She will strictly interpret our Constitution and laws. She will not legislate from the bench," Bush said in announcing his choice from the Oval Office. Miers, who has never been a judge, has been leading the White House effort to help Bush choose nominees to the Supreme Court.

Is is too much to ask that someone appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States of America to have at least played a judge on TV? Are we taking bets on whether this appointment will generate any testicular fortitude among the so-called opposition party? Everyone take a deep breath and hold it now.

Update#1: 4:30 PM
Rick Hasen over at ElectionLaw believes this is just a Rovian set up to get the Dems to waste energy and set up a situation for the real pick. Janice Rogers Brown or someone like her.

It Could Happen

Something very scary just crossed my mind as I have been surveying all the analysis of the Plame case. Jane at Firedoglake has been on this like a pit bull and is where I turn for 411. She has some great sources and is always fun to read. Ditto on HuffPo which is covering this thing in detail. Digby and Billmon have also contributed to the dialogue and all in all there is excellent coverage in lefty bloggerland on this.

One thing I haven't seen is any discussion of is what might happen if (fingers and toes crossed) Libby and Rove plus some others such as Cheney, Rice etc. get whacked and either resign or are( best case) incarcerated. This will leave Georgie without his key handlers. Dwell for a few unpleasant moments on the thought of Dubya without his "brains". I don't know about you but the thought is rather sobering and not a little distressing. Look at the freaking mess with the supposed "heavies" in place and imagine another 3 years with "All Hat"alone at the controls.

While I can't tell you how happy it would make me to see the entire bunch in prison there is considerable dread at the pontial unforeseen downside.

While we are talking about a big sweep in the Whitehouse corps over this try not to think of it going all the way to the top. Does President Hastert make you feel warm and fuzzy?