Mountains of Pony Poop

Via Crooks and Liars

Holden is going to be up to his butt in pony poop if Shrub's approval rating sinks much lower. The latest CBS News poll has it at 34%.

Just so you don't have to take your shoes off this is the historical bottom.

The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high....

Just in case you are wondering how Deadeye the lawyer shooter is fairing. He has dropped another 5 points and now stands at a miserly 18%. Feel the love.

Caught Pig

Sorry for the pocine reference to any one that may be offended by the mixing of Arabs in the same post with pork.

There is an old southern phrase "a caught pig squeals" and it seems to me that Duabai Ports trying to shut up Lou Dobbs on CNN and his coverage of the ports deal is a pretty good place to use it.

Much to CNN's credit they are refusing bend to the pressure.

A word of advice to Dubai Ports. Even though Bush, Cheney and Rove have been trying to silence the press for the last 6 or more years doesn't mean its a good idea.

More Chicken Dancing

You knew it was going to happen. You knew that some scheme to allow Shrub to save face over his temper tantrum and obvious lack of engagement on the Dubai Ports fiasco would raise its ugly head. Time is reporting that a deal is in the works that will make everyone happy.

Here is the money quote from an unamed Senate Republican aide:

"This avoids a direct clash," the aide said. "It solves everyone's problem. The President doesn't have to cancel the deal or veto anything."

If you read the article carefully you will note that nothing is really changing. The UAE is not changing the deal but only delaying the actual takeover of the 21 U.S. ports for 45 days so that the plan can be "re-vetted".

The reality is that Bush and company with the conspiracy of Frist and the boys are just taking this out of the limelight for 6 weeks or so in the dear hope that everyone will be preoccupied by some other atrocity by the time the deal goes through. I'm pretty sure the civil war in Iraq will garner enough media bandwidth by then that no one will notice. It's a strategy that has worked over and over again for Bush and company. Give the rubes something else to chew on and the won't notice the man behind the curtain.

I don't where the term "chicken dancing" came from but we used to use it in sales presentations when we were basically selling "vaporware". Distract the client from asking meaningful questions about functionality and performance and dazzle them with eye candy and fancy footwork.

Then again there is also that old adage about "boiling frogs".

Vive la Resistance

Thanks to Steve at YDD I had a nice read over at American Street. In a very good post Kevin Hayden asks some serious questions about who you are. It's a nice piece on the mindset of some of us liberal bloggers and I wish I had said it first. It reminds all of us that if you want to live in an open society and be free to live your life as you see fit then you have to do everything you can to resist the encroachment into our way of life by the hard right and intolerant religious right. Good read, give it a go.

Update#1:
Well, it seems we have a theme. Susie at Suburban Guerrilla is on fire today as well.

A hundred thousand dead in Iraq. A little girl, drenched in her family’s blood and screaming into the night. Naked men made to crawl like dogs, forced to listen to the cries of their wives and sisters being raped in the next cell. Icebergs melting, workers sickened and dying of poison at their jobs, bodies of the elderly floating in the chemical soup that used to be New Orleans and one fucking lie after another.

These greedy bastards. These immoral motherfuckers.

If you’re not outraged, there’s something wrong with you. And if you’re outraged, you need to do something. It’s a moral fucking imperative.

Bad Sign

When you have lost William F. Buckley Jr. then the light at the end of the tunnel is the 12:40 from Topeka!
From the NRO

"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed. "

[SNIP]

"He will certainly face the current development as military leaders are expected to do: They are called upon to acknowledge a tactical setback, but to insist on the survival of strategic policies.

Yes, but within their own counsels, different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat."

I think the above statement is overly optimistic. Expecting Bush to act like a leader? Won't happen. Acknowledge defeat? Not on your life.

UPDATE: #1: The Heretik picks up the theme (cool graphic too!)

Symptomatic

I have already posted on the absurd idea of allowing Dubai Ports to manage 6 of the most important U.S. ports but I haven't really touched on the reality of this and similar things that will inevitably happen over the next few years.

Like it or not, the U.S., especially during the Bush reign, have been systematically selling the U.S. to the highest foreign bidder. The Bush tax cuts, war expense and other fiscal mismanagement have been financed by foreign investment. The current account deficit for 2006 is going to be somewhere around 900 billion dollars. Within just a few years these foreign lenders such as China and Saudi Arabia are going to own virtually every capital asset in the U.S. This means factories, ports, real estate, corporations and all the rest are going to be increasingly controlled by foreign countries. What's more this kind of debt gives these countries the ability to punish the U.S. severely if we don't tow the line. All it will take is for them start unloading their reserves and we will see our economy collapse.

Estimates are that by 2013 or sooner fully 75% of the American GDP will be represented by foreign liabilities. This current deal is just an indicator of what is to come if we continue to live beyond our means. Robert Heinlein covered the concept very succinctly and that is TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such this as a free lunch).

We may very well be beyond the point of no return so get used to the idea of having to kowtow to some foreign government. Even if this port deal is scrubbed for the time being it is only a matter of time before it and more become the reality we have to live with.

UPDATE: BTW...if you think I am overstating the issue check out the following. Do I hear 21?
From UPI

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A United Arab Emirates government-owned company is poised to take over port terminal operations in 21 American ports, far more than the six widely reported.

The Bush administration has approved the takeover of British-owned Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. to DP World, a deal set to go forward March 2 unless Congress intervenes.

P&O is the parent company of P&O Ports North America, which leases terminals for the import and export and loading and unloading and security of cargo in 21 ports, 11 on the East Coast, ranging from Portland, Maine to Miami, Florida, and 10 on the Gulf Coast, from Gulfport, Miss., to Corpus Christi, Texas, according to the company's Web site.

Rapist Rights

Jane at Firedoglake has a link to a post from Dakota Today Blog by Doug that is worth repeating. In it Doug establishes an important concept that should be a part of every discussion of this insane law as often as it is mentioned and that is that it is effectively a "Rapist Rights Bill".
I mentioned this in my previous post on this medieval act but it didn't occur to me to carry to the next step. Good for Doug.

Mike Rounds, Governor of SD, is pondering and thinking about the Rapist Rights Bill the SD Legislature just passed. The wingnut loons answered prayers are putting Mikey in a bind. Does he eat everything they shovel his way or not?

Well, He just has to find out if God raped the Virgin Mary. That will provide the theological basis for SD supporting Rapist Rights and treating women as nearly worthless chattle, good only as reproduction machines betting on hitting the Jesus bonus on the reproductive powerball lottery. Speaking of lotteries, how about that Million dollar bribe the anti-women's righters are promising to pony up to fight for their lunatic legislation? Ok, Mike, I wanta buy a vowel and a subsection of a new law. Umm . talk to the lawyers, they are looking for another lawyer's subsidy law. Hey, guess what? Wild Bill Janklow is back in the legal saddle. Whooopppeeee!

Mixed Report

The ever optimistic Washington Post reports the new report from the Pentagon is "mixed". I guess going from one Iraqi battalion able to stand alone last fall to now ZERO able to stand alone is worthy of a "mixed" review.
How can all the money, lives and effort of three years be producing negative results? I am just flabbergasted at this. This is absoulutely outrageous.

To be fair they now say that the number Iraqi battalions that can do battle with U.S. assistance is higher. Three years and this is all we have to show for it?

Oh, but there is good news to report though, as it says the insurgency is now"losing steam" and that it really doesn't even qualify to be called an insurgency. I suppose all the people in the streets waving guns and protesting on TV are just a figment. Damn straight it is not an insurgency anymore but it is definitely a freaking CIVIL WAR.

You can bet your ass that Bush and company will paint this as progress and just part of the democratic process.

The Edge

We're over it. The edge that is. It toast...put fork in it...it's done. There is a certain point in an evolution like this when you know that it is so screwed that you need to start collecting your marbles and begin looking toward home.

I'm pretty sure that's your Momma callin'.

138 Iraqis Killed In Last 24 Hours...7 US Soldiers Killed... Talks Suspended On Forming Gov't... Troops Can’t Stop Bloodshed... Thousands March In Protest…

Out of Place

This is probably out of place for a 50 something male but for some reason I find it necesary to comment on the new South Dakota Abortion Law.

I haven't any moral authority on this issue because I will never have to face the decision on whether or not to abort a fetus is the correct decision. You will notice that I very pointedly did NOT use the term "right" decision.

I think my biggest issue is with the bunch of sanctimonious legislators sticking their uninformed noses into someone else's very personal and emotional decision. This is especially true when Tbogg does us the service of giving us an example of the mature, sexually secure and emotionally centered type that made this decision. Holy crap! Since when did the women of South Dakota turn over all their reproductive rights to a chubby, single, convenience store clerk? The insanity is that by proxy this same twit will probably be making the same decision for every woman in America since we all know that this is about testing the mettle of the New Improved Supreme Court.

Shakespeare's Sis, Pandagon, Digby and Redd and Jane at Firedoglake and others are doing a great job of covering this from the female side so I won't try and talk about something I can only imagine on an intellectual level. Let me just say though, that any law that forbids abortion when the pregnancy has resulted from rape or incest is a sick and perverted thing that has no place in a humane and just society. I would love to hear you try and convince me that a rapist has the right and privilege to have his genes passed on to the next generation and the same applies to incest. I would also like to hear the argument that a deformed fetus that will surely die at birth or soon after must be carried to term.
These are sick, sick people.

Recognizing Failure is Not Un-American

This might be GOOD news. I hope so. The Democrats seem to be rallying around a plan for redeploying troops in Iraq to other areas in the region. I am concerned that the Democratic leadership is calling it a ”redeployment" and NOT a "withdrawal" is sending the wrong message. Evidently, opinion research has discovered that “withdrawal” doesn’t play well in the heartland. I am inclined to believe however, that with the majority of the country wanting us to withdraw from Iraq we should step out there and not mince words. I would think it is time to start taking the initiative. Using the word “redeployment” seems to weaken the reality of what is at stake here.

What's at stake? The consistently incompetent Bush and his minions allowed us to be attacked. They then used that attack and “cherry-picked” intelligence to invade a country that was in no way complicit in the attack. They invaded Iraq with no plan for the aftermath and we are now embroiled in a conflict that cannot be won militarily as more than one expert has indicated. We have lost 2277 men and women as of today with another nearly 17,000 wounded and there is still no plan for “victory” or to bring our children home. Because of the unmitigated disaster in Iraq, the horribly misguided and ineffective War on Terror and its allied torture and lawless imprisonments we are an international pariah. Our military is dangerously overstretched and in spite of their desire to do so cannot effectively respond to other important issues (Katrina and Iran come to mind).

We dare not lose sight of what is happening and where this country is heading and calling this a “redployment” is giving too much credit and not enough discredit to the people who brought us to this.

The message from the Democrats should be that we are the party with a plan to address Bush’s and the GOP’s disaster in Iraq. We mustn’t let the right wing spin machine continue to paint us as un-American for recognizing that Bush and his administration are a bumbling, corrupt, incompetent failures. We should not be ashamed of wanting to pick up pieces of the American dream and to do something positive about getting our asses out of this double-damned war. We should also let the American people know that there is nothing un-patriotic about recognizing a failure in Iraq and seeing that there is nothing to be gained from "staying the course" except more death and a decisive option to get our people out of harm's way is not “cutting and running”.

Hidden Agenda

This is a follow-up to my post here on the take over of port management at a half dozen U.S. ports by state owned Dubai Ports World which is controlled by the United Arab Emirates.

Bush is refusing to budge on this and has even trotted out Chertoff, and Condi to dismiss concerns by a whole raft of people on both sides of the aisle about the control of New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore and Miami falling into the hands of known terrorism supporters at worst and enablers at best.

There is a piece in the San Jose Mercury News noting that Treasury Secretary John Snow, who's department has sign-off on such deals, is not necessarily lily white. Remember that Snow was chairman of the CSX rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for $1.15 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's cabinet.

Note also that David Sanborn, who runs DP World's European and Latin American operations was tapped by Bush just last month to head the U.S. Maritime Administration.

You have to also question why this deal was fast-tracked through the review process in less than 25 days when Congress requires a longer 45 day review when a foreign government is involved and national security may be impacted.

There is some political fallout risk for Bush to continue to back this obviously devisive issue and in light of the track record of this administration you cannot help but wonder what the rest of the story is. I find it hard to believe that we see all of the iceberg here. What other "deal" with the UAE is hanging fire and what is Bush and company's stake in it. I might be cynical but I suspect that this deal for the ports is merely a stepping stone for something even bigger that will net Bush and his cronies even more money, if not directly then indirectly.

If I have learned nothing in the last 6 years dealing with this bunch is that you take nothing at face value and that if you assume the least favorable result for the American people you will probably be right. It's a tragedy but it's true.

UPDATE: Does is give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside like it does me that Bush didn't even know about this until it hit the press? Yet he is ready to grab his crotch and veto any attempt to delay or examine it closer. What a maroon.

Fair Warning

Mustang Bobby gets to the job of commenting on Leonard Pitts' column in the Miami Herald before I do and does his usual excellent job.

The column begins;

The enemies of freedom will be defeated.

-- President George W. Bush, 2005

We have met the enemy and he is us.

-- Pogo, 1971

The following happened in the United States of America on Feb. 9 of this year.

The scene is the Little Falls branch of the Montgomery County Public Library in Bethesda, Md. Business is going on as usual when two men in uniform stride into the main reading room and call for attention. Then they make an announcement: It is forbidden to use the library's computers to view Internet pornography.

As people are absorbing this, one of the men challenges a patron about a website he is visiting and asks the man to step outside. At this point, a librarian intervenes and calls the uniformed men aside. A police officer is summoned. The men leave. It turns out they are employees of the county's department of Homeland Security and were operating way outside their authority.

Walt Kelly first used that phrase "We have met the enemy and he is us." on Earth Day in 1970 and I have always thought it one of the most profound sentences ever uttered. Leonard Pitts does the usual excellent job of distilling the salient facts and making sure the reader does not miss the root of the issue however I am not so sure Leonard is strong enough in his implications.

In spite of what you may wish to believe, this country is on the fastrack to becoming a fascist state. We are losing freedoms at an ever increasing pace and the trend is accelerating. Out leaders only give lip service to our needs and only respond with any true action when the corporate fat cats speak. A little research upon fascism will show you that this is the definition of fascism.

While the terrorist may kill a few or a lot of us the most dangerous people are those that take our hard won liberties for granted and place their unswerving trust in their elected leaders to do the right thing. They can kill us all.

How Long Can a Polar Bear Tread Water?

I guess everything Bush and novelist Michael Crichton discussed and pooh-poohed about the threat of global warning was spot on and the little detail about this being the first time in memory that the Great Lakes have been ice free in mid winter is nothing to get alarmed about.

I'm sure it is just an aberration but if one had any "chicken little" tendencies it might be something to set them off.

"There's essentially no ice at all," said George Leshkevich, a scientist who has studied Great Lakes ice for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, since 1973. "I've never seen that."

What me worry? Not at all worried about Greenland melting 10 times faster than thought. Nope, not thinking about all the drowning polar bears either.

It's interesting to see what the always lovely and talented Fred Barnes says about Bush and the ridiculous theories about Global Warming.

In his new book about Mr. Bush, "Rebel in Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush," Fred Barnes recalls a visit to the White House last year by Michael Crichton, whose 2004 best-selling novel, "State of Fear," suggests that global warming is an unproven theory and an overstated threat.

Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as "a dissenter on the theory of global warming," writes that the president "avidly read" the novel and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement."

Georgie I'm as big a fan of science fiction as you will find but I do recognize it as fiction. I haven't read Mr Crichton's book but I do remember that he is a FUCKING SCIENCE FICTION WRITER!

Coon in the Chicken Coop

VIA John at AmericaBlog

It seems to me to be the last thing we want to do if we are going to maintain a high security profile at our ports. Hell, I wouldn't outsource operations of our major ports to my mother for Goddess's sake. For my money the ports are our most vulnerable access point and the most likely candidates for our next terrorist event. Do all of Bushes rabid followers know that this is how Dear Leader is protecting them. I would like to see maiden Coulter's take on this.

The Bush administration has outsourced the operation of six of the nation’s largest ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country with troubling ties to international terrorism. The $6.8 billion sale would mean that the state-controlled Dubai Ports World would control “the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.”

Some facts about the UAE:

– The UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

– The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia.

– According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system.

– After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts.

UPDATE: Georgia10 at KOS has the complete 411 on this whole deal here

First Lady of Southern Food

One of my cooking icons passed away earlier this week. I had the chance to meet her at Bulloch Hall here in Roswell, get her autograph in my copy of her first book "The Taste of Country Cooking" and spend a glorious 45 minutes or so talking with her about food and cooking. It is a favorite memory.

It was here in Roswell that Scott Peacock Her caretaker for the last 7 or 8 years and the chef at Watershed, put on an 80th birthday party at historic Bulloch Hall. Alice Waters sent produce. Peacock cooked the meal over an open hearth. It was an interesting relationship and one that that was very special for both of them. It always amazed me how a forty-ish, gay chef from Alabama wound up being such a soul mate and eventually caretaker for an old black woman.

Edna was the granddaughter of a Virginia slave and was born on April 13 (Thomas Jefferson's birthday), 1916, in Freetown, Va., a community of former slaves, and against all odds, created a shrine to great food at tiny Café Nicholson in New York. The café was an icon hosting such 20th-century luminaries as Truman Capote, Greta Garbo, Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner.

She was the Southern answer to Julia Child and influenced myriad cooks (including yours truly) around the country and insured the preservation of many of the South's disappearing food traditions. To quote Alice Waters, "Edna Lewis had the hands and soul of a great artist, and like all great artists, she had something of which the rest of us know little or nothing."

In 1995, the James Beard Foundation gave her its first Living Legend Award. In 1998, Saveur magazine placed her at No. 9 on its list of 100 favorite things, calling her its "favorite Southern cook and national treasure." And in 1999, she received the Southern Foodways Alliance's Lifetime Achievement Award and was named a grande dame by Les Dames d'Escofier International.

She was a fine lady and I am very happy to have met and talked with her. She will be happy to know that her cookbooks, especially the first, are two of my favorites and I am trying to keep the traditions alive as well.

Photo courtesy the Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Jaroslav Kanka/Special

Just in Time for the Rain

Back to Atlanta in time for a rainy and chilly weekend. All of my good intentions to get out and some serious walking this weekend are pretty much shot. Don't say it...I know I am a wimp for letting a little freezing rain stop me from walking.
Going out in few though and go to historic Barrington Hall here in Roswell for a demonstration of African cookery in honor of Black History Month and also to see their exhibit of antique folk pottery including some Dave jars. For those of you that are not into folk pottery- Dave was a slave in South Carolina around Edgefield famous for his large storage jars and the fact that he was literate enough to inscribe them with poems and Bible verse. It should be worth a trip in the cold rain as thee jars are very rare and there are very few remaining examples.

I think the rest of the afternoon is going to be spent braising some veal shanks for dinner.

Heckuva Job Boys

Bush just loves our boys and girls in uniform and really, really respects and honors the job they are doing all over the world protecting us from the terrorists. In fact, he thinks so much of the job they are doing that he is proposing to give them a whopping 2.2% pay increase. Did I mention this is the lowest increase since 1994.

Senator John Kerry is leading a coalition of other Senators in trying to get this increase to a meaningful amount.

“Our troops are sacrificing so much, in every corner of the world. Shortchanging them and the families who love them is a lousy way to say thanks,” said Kerry, who authored the letter.

“Our military deserves leadership that matches their service and patriotism. Getting our troops the pay raise they deserve is the very least we can do to show how much we value everything they do for us. I’m going to fight for a fair military pay raise until it becomes a reality, and I thank my colleagues who have joined me in doing so,” added Kerry.

I don't know know about you but I can feel the love radiating from the Whitehouse.

Blood Money

via Marketwatch

Halliburton Co., coming off a banner year in the energy sector and flush with Pentagon contracts abroad, announced Thursday a series of measures to share the spoils with shareholders.

The Houston-based company said its board of directors approved a two-for-one stock split that would double its shares outstanding to 2 billion. Stockholders must still sign off on the split.
The quarterly dividend for Halliburton stock was also raised 20% to 15 cents a share. The higher payout is set for March 23 for shareholders as of March 2.

A $1 billion share buyback is also in the works, the company said.

How much of the blood dripping windfall will wind up in Cheney and Dubya's pockets? Maybe Rumsfool will get a cut and let's not forget Abu Gonzales, Feith and all the rest.

How much Halliburton stock do you own Mr. and Mrs. America? How much Halliburton stock do you think the 1000 or so widows, widowers and some 2000 children now without fathers and mothers hold?

Maybe Halliburton will set aside some to help us pay off the 500 Billion or so we have spent so far on their cash cow. I know I'm counting on it.

Baby Jesus Does Dirty Dick

Just catching up with all that is happening in my personal universe of blogtopia (see blogroll) and you really need to check in on Neil Shakespeare. He seems to have oversdosed on Deadeye Dick and has produced a long series of collages and narratives that address the current flap. Of course Baby Jesus, who can't miss a dustup, is also up to his holy ass in the thing. Travel over there and enjoy the whole series.