Fiscal Respnsibility...Right

Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray at the Washington Post read through the mindnumbing details in the latest GOP budget proposal and noticed a little detail that was obviously buried in the middle of the document in the dear hopes that no one would notice.

A $2.7 trillion budget plan pending before the House would raise the federal debt ceiling to nearly $10 trillion, less than two months after Congress last raised the federal government’s borrowing limit.

The provision — buried on page 121 of the 151-page budget blueprint — serves as a backdrop to congressional action this week. House leaders hope to try once again to pass a budget plan for fiscal 2007, a month after a revolt by House Republican moderates and Appropriations Committee members forced leaders to pull the plan….

But the federal debt keeps climbing because of continued deficit spending and the government’s insatiable borrowing from the Social Security trust fund.

With passage of the budget, the House will have raised the federal borrowing limit by an additional $653 billion, to $9.62 trillion. It would be the fifth debt-ceiling increase in recent years, after boosts of $450 billion in 2002, a record $984 billion in 2003, $800 billion in 2004 and $653 billion in March. When Bush took office, the statutory borrowing limit stood at $5.95 trillion.

Actual conservatives are going to birth a cinderblock when they read this.

Office View

I took this picture this morning while waiting in my host's office for meetings to start. He has a balcony he can step out on when the need for fresh air strikes. If I had this view of the channel leading into Gothenburg harbor from the sea I would never get anything done. I happened to catch the view as two ships of the Stena Line passed each other coming and going. Most likely these guys are coming from and going to Copenhagen which is just over the horizon from Gothenburg. These are primarily truck ferrys. Much of the truck traffic from Scandinavia comes through here on its way to the mainland of Europe.

Not Foreign Relations

The latest example of the total incompetence of this administration in foreign relations is given in Cheney's very public smack at Russia while in Lithuania last week. Here we are trying to convince Iran that defying the international community on the development of nuclear capabilty is not a good thing and Cheney goes out of his way to piss off one of the two countries with any swing with Iran that could help sell our case.

Couple this with the letter that Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad just sent to Bush encouring an open dialogue and we get some idea of why Cheney went out of his way to jerk the Russian chain.

Why else piss off one of the only potential allies in convincing the Iranians to be a little more reserved if not to make it that much harder to to have face to face talks. The truth is that our leaders don't want anything to ruin their run up to war with Iran.

I have to give it to Ahmad-Nejad. He has managed to shift the burden of a meaningful diplomatic approach to the U.S. Now, if Bush doesn't make some balancing move then any negative result is his to carry.

Just Like His Buddy

Things aren't going too well for Tony Blair. His Labour Party got trashed in the latest elections and numerous MP's are calling for him to step down. According this article the Labour Party is now enjoying the same approvals as the GOP and Bush. 30% is not very encouraging for a politician. According to the Financial Times Blair has indicated that he will step down within the year, as soon as he gets his replacement properly trained. Supposedly it is to be Chancellor Gordon Brown and I wouldn't think he would need that much training. We shall see.

Hitch your car to a loser train Tony and you get to suffer the consequences.

Goteborg View

Here is a snapshot from the hotel room this afternoon. Lovely day and you can see from greening of the trees that spring has officially arrived here. All this green is new since I was here just over a week ago. Off in the distance you can see the top of the football stadium. I managed to catch one of the trolleys that cover the city going by as well. Like I said earlier not much of a view but this is pretty typical for a mid priced hotel in Europe if it is in the center of the city.

Sometimes you see the name of this town written in English as Gothenburg. Just a decade ago or so it was the largest ship building center in the world but now there is none. Evidently Korea now makes the bulk of the world's ships. Now the town has moved toward more high tech industry and those jobs lost when shipbuilding went away are now replaced. This is also the headquarters of Volvo and Ericsson also has a major presence. Saab is also headquartered about 40 kilometers north of here as well.

Another Dumb Move

The "braintrust" in the Whitehouse has officially nominated General Hayden for the top spot at the CIA. Let me just jump in and join the chorus in saying that this is a supremely stupid thing to do. I think this will wind up another Harriet Myers debacle. There is already a lot of negative vibes coming out from Capitol Hill on this.
A GOP leader on the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich is already signalling for a fight...

"I do believe he's the wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong time," House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., said on "Fox News Sunday." "We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time."

Even Rethuglican yes boy Saxby Chambliss of Georgia thinks a military man is the wrong pick.
This much bad press from the inside is a telling sign when it is made before the choice is even announced. As usual Bush (more likely Cheney) has decided to ignore the semaphores from the hill on the CIA post nomination.

If I was paranoid I would think that getting all these military types in the top spots of all civilian intelligence posts is setting the stage for martial law or something.

Finally, anyone that's a top aide to John "Deathsqaud" Negroponte is suspect in my book

On the Ground Again

Ensconced in Goteborg, Sweden once again. Uneventful trip though the same frustrating dash through Charles de Gaulle. Once again the flight from Atlanta was about 20 minutes late arriving and after the bus ride to the terminal from the remote parking area I had to get a boarding pass for the Paris-Goteborg leg, get through immigration, get re-security screened and therefore I was almost too late to make the flight. If you happen to have to fly through Paris on your European vacation try to insure you have at least 2 if not 3 hours of connection time. If I wasn't very familiar with the airport and had to dither around in the least I would not have made it and the connection was and hour and a half. You are warned.
Let me scout around and see what is going on and I'll be back. By the way the weather here is gorgeous...sunny and about 68. I took a photo a minute ago from the hotel window. The view is not spectacular but it doesn't get much better with mid priced hotels in Europe. I'll post it a little later.

On the Road Again

Ok final post from home as I am getting ready to head to the airport and back to Sweden for the bulk of the week. Just made a mad dash over to Barnes and Noble to get Crashing the Gate to read on the jump to Paris. This week it is actually going to take me over twice as long to travel to and from the meetings as they are long. Probably 18 hours total of meetings and just about twice as much traveling.

Speaking of Markos Moulitsas...he has a very pointed article in the Washington Post today explaining why Hillary won't and shouldn't be the candidate for the Dems in 08. Not very complimentary.

I should be in Sweden by about noon Monday Central European time which is 6 hours ahead of the East coast so I might be awake enough to check in. I did manage to get upgraded for both hops across the pond this time, so it won't be nearly as brutal as last week's trip. Cattle car is tough.

See you later.

CIA Headless

Looks like Porter Goss resigned today after less than two years on the job screwing up the CIA and politicizing the intelligence service. My bet he is tied up in the Watergate/Hookergate scandal that is brewing just under the surface and he is doing an early bail.

Very interesting ... now why won't Rumsfeld and Cheney go too.

More Good News

Ouch! Another three point drop in the latest AP-Ipsos poll for Bush over the past month.

• Only 33% of the public approves of Bush's job performance, this is the lowest of his presidency. That compares with a 36% approval in April. This number includes 45% of self-described conservatives who now disapprove of the president.

• Just 25% of the public approves of the job Congress is doing This is also a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5% since April.

• An unbelievable 65% of conservatives disapprove of Congress and 31% want Republicans out of power period.

• 51% of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress. 34% say the reverse. This too, is a new record gap in the poll.

Not Just Floods Folks

While Global Climate Change is not part of Bush's reality it is rapidly becoming a larger and larger part of ours. This article from the Washington Post discusses just one of the ancillary "benefits" of the gradual warming of the climate. These "benefits" are not widely discussed but they are probably going to be as devastating to the life inhabiting our little spaceship as the rising floodwaters. This article only discusses disease but there are other side effects of global warming that haven't been popularized as well.

There are going to be major shifts in global climate since some of the engines that drive it are changing like the Gulf Stream ocean current. Giant swaths of what is now arable, productive, food producing land will be transformed into dry desert. Think about what this will mean to the world's food supply.

As ocean temperatures rise the major source of the world's oxygen is going to be negatively impacted as well. The billions of tons of plankton that float in the world's oceans and seas convert millions of tons of carbon dioxide into oxygen daily via photosynthesis. Not only will the warming seas kill off many of these creatures but global warming will increase cloud cover over the earth and with decreased sunlight to fuel the photosynthetic conversion the balances of CO2 and O2 in the atmosphere will change. This will have an unknown but surely a negative impact on the rest of the globe's life. It does not look at all positive for much of life on earth.
From the Post:

Global warming -- with an accompanying rise in floods and droughts -- is fueling the spread of epidemics in areas unprepared for the diseases, say many health experts worldwide. Mosquitoes, ticks, mice and other carriers are surviving warmer winters and expanding their range, bringing health threats with them.
Malaria is climbing the mountains to reach populations in higher elevations in Africa and Latin America. Cholera is growing in warmer seas. Dengue fever and Lyme disease are moving north. West Nile virus, never seen on this continent until seven years ago, has infected more than 21,000 people in the United States and Canada and killed more than 800.

[snip]

But Paul Epstein, a physician who worked in Africa and is now on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, said that, if anything, scientists weren't worried enough about the problem.

"Things we projected to occur in 2080 are happening in 2006. What we didn't get is how fast and how big it is, and the degree to which the biological systems would respond," Epstein said in an interview in Boston. "Our mistake was in underestimation."

Froomkin on Colbert and Stewart

Dan Froomkin hits the nail on the head today in the Washington Post. This, however, is not a new premise or idea. The left-leaning blogosphere has been saying this since before 9/11/01. The MSM just spell checks and reprints whatever "Bushshit" the White House pumps out. They don't fact check or do any analysis nor do they put any kind of perspective on what is being posited. They don't test the premise against reality or history and leave the reader or listener to have at their fingertips all of the resources necessary to compare and contrast what is being said with the truth.
Granted, that's the White House expectation of the traditional media and true to the old wives' tale ' you get what you pay for" , much to our disservice. The traditional media still believes that the Whitehouse is going to be basically telling the truth but maybe with a little spin. This is ancient history. The Bush Whitehouse has thrown out that playbook and written their own. Lying is now the standard operating procedure. Lying is the norm. We will be ill served by the traditional media until they get this through their pointy little heads. Trust Bush and his minions at your peril. If you doubt and therefore verify and othewise validate what they say independently then you may get to the truth even if they are not telling you what it is.

Here is Dan to speak for himself.

Both Colbert and Stewart have risen to superstar status largely by calling (how can I put it here?) baloney on the Bush administration -- and on the press corps that transmits said baloney without the appropriate skepticism or irony.

Their very subversive message, at its core: That this Bush guy is basically a joke. And that the mainstream press is a joke, because it takes Bush at his word. ....

The way I see it, the Washington press corps is still appropriately embarrassed that they screwed up in the run-up to war. Now, as Bush's approval ratings fester, they are getting bolder in challenging the official White House line on any number of issues. They're justifiably proud of a handful of great investigative pieces.

But they still haven't addressed the central issue Colbert was raising: Bush's credibility. As it happens, the public is way ahead of them on this one: For more than a year, the polls have consistently been showing that a majority of Americans don't find Bush honest and trustworthy.

Dollar is Going South

The ever reliable Billmon discusses international finance and the recent rapid increase in the price of gold. He is most likely correct in that it is most likely due to central bankers switching from holding dollars to holding gold. Not a good sign.

The dollar has slipped down to $1.27/Euro. While this is not the worst that I have seen it is pretty darn close. For those of us that spend a lot of time in Europe this kind of exchange rate is very painful. It has been hanging around a $1.20 for the last few months but it has made a quick fall to this latest value. Let's hope this trend changes course but a lot of people are saying there is more to go.

While there is nothing wrong with a falling dollar since it does make us more competitive with foreign markets there is a limit. It's probably inevitable considering our high debt and current account balance but it is going to eat in to the profitablity of doing business in Europe. Most of my business is based on contracted rates for my time that made for good business at a more attractive exchange rate.

The only real danger with this scenario is that central banks are not going to like to see the value of their reserve holdings in dollars fall by a substantial amount and will move to unload them and and reserve in the Euro or some other currency. If this happens and it turns into a minor or major run then we have problems. We are the most indebted nation in the world and if the dollar weakens to a level where we cannot continue to sell debt then look for the recession. This is why the rapid increase in gold price is just a bit worrisome.

New Toy

I have spent all afternoon getting the new desktop up and running. Mostly transferring email and Quicken and music and all that. The old computer was rapidly dying so I bit the bullet and ordered a new one. Amazingly cheap when you compare features and horsepower with the one it is replacing which is about 5 or 6 years old. The old and new ones are Dell. I owe them since they are such a major client but that said I haven't had the first problem with the old one it is just old and slow and not ready for what I am asking it to do. Madam will inherit it to do her word processing and stuff on. The new one is an XPS 400 and so far so good. The flat screen is nice and bright and the 1 gig of memory makes XP much more friendly. I haven't tried any of the multi media features yet like DVD burning and all that but the included sub woofer sure makes a difference in the sound quality. I am a little disappointed that it still won't correct my typos. When I look back and remember my first computer it is rather amazing what has transpired in the last 25 years or so.

Please Run Al, Pretty Please

When you ponder where the country is right now and how badly fucked up it is there is a tendency to get rather depressed about what is going to happen during the balance of the disaster that is the George W. Bush presidency. Think further out you begin to wonder how in the world someone (hopefully a Democrat) could be expected to step in and begin to right our sinking ship of state. Our best chance is to elect someone experienced and who already believes and knows what has to be done. We won't have the luxury of a break-in period or giving the new adminstration a chance to learn the ropes. This article in the Chicago Tribune by Clarence Page gives me hope that we can convince Al Gore to give us some option other than Hillary. It is my considered opinion that we could not find a better combination of experience, knowledge andsomeone capable of hitting the ground running than Al. He's already won once and there are no skeletons that haven't been hammered on before. I would vote for him in a heartbeat. Maybe with Fiengold in the copilot's seat?

Yes, despite the nattering nabobs of anti-Al negativism, there is no longer much dispute that global warming exists. The only argument centers on how quickly it is going to cause more devastation and how much of it is caused by humans. That’s a debate Gore has been itching to have, and his side is looking more prescient by the day and too credible to be ignored.

And what better place to have that debate than a presidential campaign?

Sure, Gore’s not running. Not yet. But he has a ready-made base of strong support from MoveOn.org and Howard Dean’s army of feisty volunteers. Both groups tap him into the left’s richest vein of fundraising and volunteers outside of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) political and fundraising juggernaut. She’s way ahead in the polls and in fundraising, at present, but if the significant number of Democrats who doubt she can win the White House needs to coalesce around someone else, Gore is well-positioned to be wooed. And his movie hasn’t even been released.

None of this means Gore is going to run, of course. But, if I were Hillary Clinton I’d be looking over my shoulder.

Thanks to Susie for the heads up.
UPDATED: Fixed Link to the article (thanks Steve)

Outer Limits

The evidence keeps piling up that proves what we have all known all along. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi and everyone else know what was going on in Gitmo, Abu Graib and Afghanistan and probably actually ordered it. New Army documents release by the ACLU confirm it all Raw Story has it. Evidently Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez ordered interrogators to "go to the outer limits" to get information from detainees.

Here is a short quote from the release.

"These documents are further proof that the abuse of detainees was widespread and systemic, and not aberrational," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "We know that senior officials endorsed this abuse, but these officials have yet to be held accountable."

In the Garden in May

You always know when it is May in Atlanta as the peonies are blooming. They are real show-offs and very easy to grow. You just have to cage them with wire cages as they bloom so heavily they fall over.

Frogmarch Time

What definition is the Whitehouse using for traitor? Can anyone at the Whitehouse justify why an obvious and admitted traitor that has done clear and significant damage to our national security in a time of war still has a security clearance and therefore access to classified material?

David Shuster at MSNBC is reporting that Valerie Plame Wilson was heacily involved in trying to assess the Iranian nuclear capabilty at the time she was outed (Crooks & Liars has the video).

According to Shuster:

Early in the case, Rove admitted to investigators that he outed Valerie Wilson’s identity to columnist Robert Novak — Novak was the first journalist to publish Wilson’s identity and the first to talk about it to investigators.

And last week, Karl Rove testified again he may have spoken about the Wilsons with Time Magazine’s Matt Cooper.

Rove said he denied that under oath for the first year of the investigation because of memory problems. A case of bad memory is Scooter Libby’s defense.

But in regards to Karl Rove, lawyers in the case say prosecutor Fitzgerald is still troubled by the timing of Rove’s rolling disclosures: it seems that Rove’s memory perks up with every new indication someone else will expose him. When Rove finally began to update his testimony in October 2004, it was just days after Cooper was first held in contempt for refusing to disclose confidential sources. And Rove did not give Cooper a clear waiver to testify until after Cooper’s appeals had been exhausted 9 months later.

MSNBC has learned new information about the damage caused by the White House leaks.

Intelligence sources say Valerie Wilson was part of an operation three years ago tracking the proliferation of nuclear weapons material into Iran. And the sources allege that when Mrs. Wilson’s cover was blown, the administration’s ability to track Iran’s nuclear ambitions was damaged as well.

If you remember Raw Story also reported this in February 2006. It would seem to me that the evidence is overwhelming against Rove. From my days in the business if there was a compromise of classified material suspected then all access to classified material was denied until the investigation was completed. Why doesn't Karl have to follow these rules?

Not Whores After All

Looks like the American people have a little more spine and pride left than the GOP thought. They haven't been reduced to groveling whores like Rove wanted. The GOP are getting the reaction I had hoped would be forthcoming. Even Rush lambasted the idea.

WASHINGTON, April 30 — The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.

Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November.

"The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.

Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

Conservative talk radio hosts have been particularly vocal. "What kind of insult is this?" Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. "Instead of buying us off and treating us like we're a bunch of whores, just solve the problem." In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea "silly.

(Bolding mine)

Goodness Gracious, Mercy Me!

I evidently need to take the time to watch what may be, from all reports, a brilliant piece of work by Stephen Colbert.

Crooks & Liars has the video, it's good.

Wasting Lives

Here is a measure of how much better things are going in Iraq.

Military officials said an Army soldier died Saturday when a roadside bomb hit his convoy near Baghdad. The attack raises to 70 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Iraq during April.On Friday, officials at The Pentagon said that the American death toll in Iraq since the start of the war has topped 2,400.

This is an "improvement" over the 31 killed in March and the 55 in February.

BTW the Iraq Coalition Casualites website puts the number at 72.

This is nothing but madness but your Dear Leader says,

"Yet, the enemies of freedom have suffered a real blow in recent days, and we have taken great strides on the march to victory."

Cry for your country and the lives it is wasting.

Repeat Offender

In an excellent post Glenn Greenwald discusses the continuing efforts of Bush to ignore his responsibilities under the Constitution to uphold the law. In it he references an article in the Boston Globe by Charlie Savage that shines the bright light on the attempts to steal the power of Congress.

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed" . .

It is very frustrating to continue to see the administration flaunt the law with such impunity. Why can't we get more people with some backbone to stand up to this? Evidently Stephen Colbert stepped up and did some serious finger pointing at the Whitehouse press dinner. (video here - transcript here).

Here We Are

Ok back in the U.S, at least for a week, have to turn around and head back to Sweden for a couple of days week after next. Still trying to get caught up with everything including sleep. Turned really cool here in Atlanta, almost Sweden weather. We actually had to de-ice before takeoff Saturday morning. Only 61F and it is almost 3 in the afternoon. I'll check back in when I have caught up with everything else.

Planes Tomorrow

Travel day tomorrow. An o640 flight out of Gothenburg for Paris and then an almost impossible connection to Delta to Atlanta. The promised rain has finally arrived and it is raining like the proverbial cow on a rock tonight. It has also turned significantly cooler and I would guess it is in the mid 40's out there. I don't have to spend anytime exposed to the weather as I will be in a taxi or in the airport so it is really not a problem. Rain is forecast for Atlanta for the weekend so it should be a very quiet and restful return with much sleep and no pressure to get outside and maintain the homestead. See you folks afte the leap.

What Surprise?

The revelation that some of the payola going to the GOP from lobbyists was sex is a major Duh?
I had just always assumed that to be the case knowing what I know about big dollar business and the operating methods.
I am surprised that anyone would be surprised that these fuckwits are thinking with the johnson and making decisions base on nooky. I mean how else do you continue to make bad decision after bad decision if all of your thinking is done by your penis?
If you think about it that explains pretty much the state if the U.S. today. I'm a dickhead and I'm your President.

How About a Bribe?

I really can't believe I am reading this! GOP Senators actually believe that giving you a hundred bucks will distract you from the fact that they have completely failed to address America's energy crisis and have done nothing but stuff more moeny in the pockets of oil companies. They think you are so money hungry and stupid that you won't notice that they want to add a few drops to the oil supply for a couple of years by destroying the last pristine wilderness in North America nad forget how badly they have failed to lead this country in the right direction.

Just how much is a $100 bucks going to help you out? I can fill my tank in the little Hyundai a couple of times if the gas prices stay where they are. How about you?

You have to wonder how stupid they think the average American is. This reminds me of the old joke about a man that offers a beautiful woman a million bucks to sleep with him. She thinks a minute and say yes. He then asks her if she will sleep with him for twenty bucks. She responds. "What do you think I am, a whore?" He responds. We have already established that now we are negotiating price."

So what's your price?

8.4 Billion is Pretty Good

Explain to me one more time why gas prices are so high

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, on Thursday reported quarterly profit surged, driven by rising oil prices.

Net income in the first quarter was $8.4 billion, or $1.37 a share, up from $7.86 billion, or $1.22 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue jumped to $88.98 billion from $82.05 billion.

Full disclosure: I have some Exxon-Mobil stock and yes I am ashamed.

Sweden Stuff

Nine at night and once again the jet lag is kicking in so I won't be concious much longer. Long day at the client and I am still wondering why I am here but they are paying the travel and daily fees so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Again had dinner in the hotel tonight and had a very strange rendition of what the menu said was a club sandwhich. This one had some roasted chicken (kyckling) and underdone bacob piled on some toasted white bread with curry mayo. Very interesting interpretation. There was a little salad on the side and some "freedom fries" that were so hot when served that I couln't eat them. I probably don't want to know how they got them that hot.

You definitely have to adjust to the size of hotel rooms in Europe. I have seen closets in the U.S. that were larger than this one. Actually, the hotel room in Tokyo was bigger. I can deal with it as I am pretty used to it but at nearly $170 a night you expect a little more than a closet with a bath but that seems to be the going price here so you just deal with it.

Everybody have a great day and we will try and say hello again tomorow. I think I hear the little single bed( we call them twin beds) is calling. BTW the weather forecast that said it would be raining everyday here was completely wrong.

Gas Prices

This is a sore point for me. I have been saying for years that we were not paying enough for a gallon of gas. It is a non-renewable resource and it pollutes something horrible. That said, the current run up in prices is not good because it affects the guy (or gal) making a reasonable living in the 50K$ or below bracket so much harder as a percentage of income than it does the fuckwit driving a Hummer. I actuallt heard someone say the other day that even at $4/gallon it wasn't any skin off his nose since even at 4 bucks his gas expense was less that 1% of his income.
Anyhow...I think the price of gas should be twice or three times as high as it is now. I don't think, however,that this ought to be borne by the average Joe. The oil companies need to be straight and the media needs to pay attention. We are being screwed and you can see it in the profits. If you don't think so read the following.

Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn’t complaining.

Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.

Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.

Last November, when he was still chairman of Exxon, Raymond told Congress that gas prices were high because of global supply and demand.

Daily Snow Job

It's now official that Tony Snow is the new White House press secretary. Evidently he wanted to more than just be a parrot but wanted to be "an active participant in administration policy debates." So what am I missing here? I would think that as a talking shithead on Faux News wasn't he already an "active participant in administration policy"?

The story from the Whorehouse is that he is being brought on board to smooth over things with the press corps:

A senior administration official said last night that Bush is aware of the "perception of disdain for the institution of the media" on the part of the White House and wants a spokesman who will forge "a good working relationship" with journalists.

The official said the president is also looking for "a forceful advocate for the type of historical change he's trying to accomplish" and added: "We believe Tony fits the bill in both areas. He has a lot of experience on the air, which with the evolution of the briefings is something you have to take into consideration."

Talk about putting lipstick on a pig! How is this going to make any difference in the complete bullshit that comes out of the Whorehouse?

Another Sympton

This doesn't really affect me right now because I have a good job and it includes a comprehensive set of health care benfits. The reality for you and me though is that tomorrow it could all change and we will be in the same boat. A new report by the Commonwealth Fund clearly shows that the hardest working and backbone of American society is gradually( and not that slowly) being left behind in the search for security and freedom from fear of even a minor health crisis. This is the legacy that Bush and his henchman are leaving us. As long as the GOP and the major healthcare and drug companies control the agenda the bulk of America is at a high risk of being placed in the untenable position of being financially ruined by even a minor health crisis.

In a nutshell:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Americans making between $20,000 and $40,000 a year went without insurance for at least part of the year last year, according to a study published on Tuesday.

• More than 40% of middle income Americans went without insurance
• 20% of working adults paying off medical debt
• 60% of uninsured adults with chronic illnesses skip medicine because they can't afford it

"The jump in uninsured among those with modest incomes is alarming, particularly at a time when our economy has been improving," said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, who helped write the study.

"For an uninsured person who is unlucky enough to get sick, it is easy to see how quickly they can fall into a downward spiral of debt, forgone care, and poorer health," Sara Collins, Commonwealth Fund senior program officer, said in a statement.

We Here

Ok, safely in Sweden. Uneventful trip but after being awake for 32 hours I am a little foggy. Obviously the hotel does have Internet so there will be some activity here this week. Right now it is time for a little serious sack time. Weather is not too bad. Not raining as the forecast said. All checked in with Madam Monk so all is well.

How many?

There are hundreds of soldiers in the international concourse waiting for flights out. I wonder how many will come back alive or whole? It makes me very sad. Such a tragedy.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

Travel day today

BLOGGER was hosed this morning before I headed to the airport so there are a couple of posts that are hanging fire. Might have to wait until sometime tomorrow to try and get them to publish. More and more I am considering moving the blog somewhere more reliable. It always seems to go tango uniform when I have no time to mess with it. Oh well, on the way and should be changing planes in Paris in about 12 hours. Only a 2 hour connection in Paris so will be close since most of the time the plane parks somewhere out on the airport and the bus in to the teminal takes forever. Play nice.
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Blogger Misbehaving

Blogger is misbehaving this morning. It always happens when I don't have the time to fool with it.

Confirmed Liar and War Criminal

Josh Marshall has a piece up discussing the 60 minutes interview with Tyler Drumheller the now retired CIA officer and former head of covert ops in Europe.

This interview basically confirms what we have suspected. Bush and Cheney cherry picked the intel to falsely lead the country into war and when Drumheller's team in Europe turned the Iraqi Foreiegn Minister Naji Sabri just before the war and he admitted that Saddam had no WMD's the Whitehouse ignored this high value intelligence because it didn't support their lies.

This interview is proof conclusive that the President and his staff deliberately lied us into war and further more deliberately ignored reliable intelligence that would have allowed us to avoid this disaster.

Here is a quote from Josh's piece:

"I was stunned," Drumheller told me, when so little of the stuff he had told the commission's and the committee's investigators ended up in their reports. His colleagues, he said, were equally "in shock" that so little of what they related ended up in the reports either.

What Drumheller has to say adds quite a lot to our knowledge of what happened in the lead up to war. But what it shows even more clearly is that none of this stuff has yet been investigated by anyone whose principal goal is not covering for the White House.

Every death and every casualty is directly on Bush's head. Every penny spent is his. There is no other way to describe Bush and Cheney's acts but as high treason and war crimes. When you pile the torture, false imprisonment, and murder of so many together this is the only thing that answers.

Another Hard Day

Another hard day in the yard cleaning up from out little storm. Another giant pile of stuff on the curb waiting for the city guys to pick up. Would have been a much larger pile but I decided to get out the chipper/shredder and crank it up. It makes an awful racket but grinds up limbs and small branchs quickly and leave a nice pile of mulch to boot. Grinding the limbs in the back forty saves carting them to the street. So things are looking pretty good. Still have to get the muscadine off part of the fence and clear a few more small trees. Noted several more big pines that are dead or dying so I think I have about 10 or so now to be removed. That will be a 3-4000 dollar job when I think I can afford it. Hopefully Mother Nature will see fit to leave them standing until I can get them cut. Only three could hit the house but they are large and would do a lot of damage.

Getting the final stuff done so I can leave town for a week with a reasonably clear conscience. Didn't get all the "honey-do's done but made a good dent in them. Off to Sweden for meetings next week and won't get back until Saturday PM. If this experience is anything like last I will be very lucky to find Internet access next week so the old blog will be pretty quiet in that case. Maybe a plug or two from the Blackberry but otherwise zilch. Who knows they may have added wi-fi or something to the hotel by now. It is becoming more common in Europe. The weather forecast is for rain the entire week. Bummer.

Sunday, Sunday

Forgot to wish Happy Birthday to the Queen so Happy Birthday your Highness. Today is Orthodox Easter so everyone Happy Easter, Cristos Anesti!
Not so good a weekend for out troops in Iraq.

Three U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb northwest of the capital, raising to eight the number of Americans killed this weekend in Baghdad area.

More than 20 Iraqis also died in other violence Sunday, including seven who were killed in three explosions that occurred just outside the heavily guarded Green Zone in Baghdad, not far from Iraq's Defense Ministry.

We really got to get the the hell out of there. We have done enough damage and spent enough money. It's over.

Saturday Review

All right, another hard day in the yard and I am once again totaled. Not much time tonight to review what is going on around the web but I did check on Steve Bates at Yellow Doggerel Democrat.
He commented on the price of gas in Houston which triggered one of my hot buttons. I commented that I thought the price was too low by a factor of 3 and that this too cheap gas is toasting our environment.
So far there is a lively thread developing...so stop in and give a whack.

Lumberjack Day

Got the jeans, suspenders and trusty ball cap (it says Ping and not John Deere though) and am all set for another day of tornado clean-up. New chain link fence is all installed and nice and shiny. Got the installers to leave me fifty or so of the wire ties so I can replace all the ones on the rest of the fence that have been chewed through by the squirrels. Little buggers just chew right through the aluminum wire and then the fence starts to sag. These new ties are steel so maybe it slow them down. Rodents like squirrels and rats have to keep wearing down their large front teeth since they never stop growing. If they didn't they would just grow through the bottom jaw.
Anyhow, should be quiet here today at least until I get too tired to continue the lumberjack schtick or it starts raining again.

Day Consumed

The day has been consumed with conference calls and meetings not to mention the new chain link fence installation. Now its time for a nice dinner out with Madam before I head back across the pond next week. Maybe later.

What is the "Common Good"?

Digby has an excellent post up discussing the "Common Good" it is well worth the read. She addresses Michael Tomasky's essay today in The American Prospect.

I don't mean to be dismissive. I think it's important to embrace big ideas and big philosophy and reach for some inspiration. The Democrats have been issuing stultifying laundry lists for as long as I can remember and I couldn't be happier that people are thinking in these terms. But I can't help but feel that we always end up back at the same spot somehow. The unions, the womens groups, the civil rights groups, trial lawyers, consumer advocates --- the whole array of narrow special interests being held responsible for the fact that half of this country really resents the hell out of minorities, women and working people getting a fair shake. And the Democrats continue to pay the political price for that resentment.

I'm all for finding our way out of it. Tomasky's message has real resonance; I like it very much. But I think that if the party stopped trying to figure out ways to get the "special interests" to shut up and started giving them some respectful assurances that they aren't going to be the sacrificial lambs in whatever the new paradigm turns out to be, they might find a little bit more cooperation.

Not a Warm Fuzzy

This does not make a regular traveler through the Atlanta airport feel all that good.

ATLANTA -- Federal officials say they never found a suspicious device that a screener said had appeared on an X-ray screen -- leading to a halt in flights at Atlanta's airport for more than an hour. Officials stopped planes from leaving Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and closed down all security checkpoints for about two hours yesterday afternoon. Willie Williams, the airport's Transportation Security Administration director, said a screener notified her supervisor of a suspicious image on the monitor of her X-ray machine at 1:15 p.m. T-S-A screeners hand-searched all bags that were on the machine's conveyor belt, but no dangerous items were found. Williams declined to say what the image appeared to be.

I think it might be time to do a little review of the procedures that should be followed when a screener spots something suspicious. Shutting down the busiest airport in the world for a couple of hours with nothing to show for it is just a little embarrassing. Eh?

Backbone Missing

Here is the headline from Rawstory "As rhetoric builds, Democrats in Congress lie low on Iran"

Most aides refused to speculate whether Democrats might support a military operation in Iran. Several aides acknowledged, however, that some Democrats in Congress could support a military strike. If it was presented with clear and damning evidence of an Iranian nuclear program, aides said, Bush might be able to get Congressional authorization for the use of force.

I can't say how disappointed this makes me. Now is not the time to pussyfoot around and wait for opinion polls and focus groups. Now is the time to make your opposition to another stupid war known high and low and loudly. This is criminally stupid folks.

I cannot imagine any evidence that would justify another violent, pre-emptive foray into the Middle East or anywhere. This kind of mincing around by the supposed opposition party is why we have ourselves mired in Iraq and spending lives and and ever increasing amount of treasure.
In another story from Rawstory

With the expected passage this spring of the largest emergency spending bill in history, annual war expenditures in Iraq will have nearly doubled since the U.S. invasion, as the military confronts the rapidly escalating cost of repairing, rebuilding and replacing equipment chewed up by three years of combat. The cost of the war in U.S. fatalities has declined this year, but the cost in treasure continues to rise, from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The U.S. government is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago, a new Congressional Research Service report found. Annual war costs in Iraq are easily outpacing the $61 billion a year that the United States spent in Vietnam between 1964 and 1972, in today's dollars.

(highlighting mine)
The is serious money honey! Can you imagine what it would do domestically? Hello...less than a month's worth of Iraq quagmire spending would repair and improve the levees around NOLA so that we would never have another aftermath like Katrina's.

I want some opposition to this mad man and I want it now! I disagree with the theory "Give the GOP enough rope and they will hang themselves." We gave them rope with Iraq and they have now managed to hang it around our necks and are dragging us over a cliff.

No more war period.

Trading Liars

McClellan has decided that he must go. Now Bush is faced with getting a replacement liar. Rumor has it that Tony Snow of Faux News is a potential new Bush liar. Makes sense since he has been practicing for a number of years. Not much of a career move though from unofficial liar to official liar and the pay is probably not as good. Well, the apparent/publicized pay anyway.

I'm sure that with a new liar in place we will see some actual progress in Iraq or at least some new excuses.

Decidin' Done

Your leader speaks this morning:

I say, I listen to all voices, but mine is the final decision. And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror. He's helping us fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld. I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the Secretary of Defense.

One does not, obviously, argue with "The Decider". If "The Decider" thinks everything is just hunky dory in Iraq then by Goddess it is and no one but Don Rumsfeld got have done what we have done in Iraq.

There used to be a cartoon character that used the phrase "I'll do the thinin' around here." I can't remember right now which but Dubya's remarks don't fall far from that tree. We all know what hard work "decidin' is and when it is done right there is no question it is decided. Whatever. What a maroon!

Everybody is Going

Trying to schedule a last minute trip to Sweden this morning for next week for some planning meetings with a client and it seems everyone is going to Europe next week. Yep, the U.S. will be a lot like Paris in August next week with only the essential people still here. With the exchange rates what they are you wonder why anyone would go to Europe on holiday right now. Oh well, they are.

Seriously, there was absolutely no space on any flight from Atlanta to Europe on Sunday at least with Delta and any partner airlines. Forced to move to Monday and then it is a less than optimal connection through Paris. I won't get to Gothenberg until just after noon on Tuesday so I will miss the morning meetings and after flying all night ( I don't sleep well on planes) I will be a zombie for the afternoon. To add insult to injury when space gets this tight the airlines don't discount anything and you pay full boat for your tiny seat and crap food. I am priority waitlisted for an upgrade to business class both ways but don't hold out much hope if the flights are this crowded.

Meetings are over Thursday afternoon but the first flight out I could get is 640am on Saturday which will make for a long day of travel since that will mean getting up at about 9pm Friday night Eastern Standard in order to get back to Atlanta by about 3pm Saturday. Again have to go the the disaster that is Charles de Gaulle. With the new international terminal out of commission and being replaced you get to ride a bus around the airport for 45 minutes or so to get to and from your plane all through temporary facilities. My connections are tight so I will have to carry on all my luggage as it would never make it. This is when the travel experience in packing light pays off. It is always rather funny to see how much stuff most American tourists pack for their short trips to Europe.

The final insult is that the only hotel I could find that would guarantee me a room required a prepaid and non refundable payment for the entire four nights and it wasn't cheap. With the current exchange rates (very bad) a single room is 162 US$ per night. Ouch!

Tangled Web

If you haven't done so Billmon has several interesting posts up here and here discussing what some of the possibilites and ramifications of this dust up with Iran may mean. It is a complicated game and a lot of unknowns with some scenarios that are truly not pleasant to contemplate.

The frightening thing is that we have completely incompetent people on our side in this game and knowing that is enough to scare the juice out of me. I highly recommend reading what he has to say.

And as always the inside skinny on what is happening in the Middle East is from Professor Juan Cole.

It's a Freefall

The new Gallup poll is out and Dubya's job approval rating fell 1% to 36%. That's gotta hurt.

From E&P more interesting facts

Bush and the unhandling of Iraq - 32%

In a surprise, the new poll found that 44% of Republicans now back withdrawing some or all troops from Iraq. The number for all Americans, 64%...

[snip]

In another finding, 57% of Americans say it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq...

Gallup too says:

57% say that the US "will not win in Iraq"

Gallup again:

23% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 70% disapprove

tip to Holden who has cornered the market in ponies.

How Long Can We Wait?

From the Washington Post

BAGHDAD, April 16 -- Iraq's top legislator postponed the meeting of parliament scheduled for Monday, putting off "for a few days" an attempt to resolve a months-long deadlock over the formation of the country's new government.

The move was not entirely unexpected, but it still represented a setback for U.S. officials and an Iraqi public losing patience with four months of political paralysis since Dec. 15, when the country held elections to form a long-term government.

The delay coincided with a surge in sectarian killings between Iraq's Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims. At least 37 Iraqis died in shootings, bombings and other attacks Sunday, according to police officials and news reports. U.S. military officials also reported killing five insurgents in a raid in which a woman also was killed, and said four Marines were killed in combat west of Baghdad.

The Marines, from Regimental Combat Team 5, were killed in two engagements in Anbar province.

(bolding mine)

While the news cycle is being consumed with Rummy bashing and bombing Iran the news from Iraq just keeps getting worse. Not only are we spending vast amounts of money sorely and desperately needed here at home, we are even more tragically spending the lives of our children.

Once again, the Iraqis have postponed the meeting of parliament. This time it is supposed to be only for "a few days." Wake up everyone that’s what…the probable death of what, 20, 30 more of America’s best and a couple of billion dollars and how many more Iraqis?

How long are we supposed to wait for the Iraqis to form a government of some kind? How long are we suppose to stand aside whiled they continue to piss away U.S. blood and treasure? Why can’t someone from our government explain the urgency of the situation to the Iraqis? Do you think that George and Condi don’t have permission from Cheney to exert some pressure on the Iraqis?

The most probable answer is that Bush and company have talked so long and so hard and so often about not leaving Iraq until the Iraqis stand up that they now believe that we won’t bail out now matter how long it takes for them to get straight. There is absolutely no pressure on the Iraqis to hurry and form a government because we’ll be there as long as they need. John Kerry had it right the other day when he insisted on a very timely deadline or we’re history. Bush is not putting any pressure on and therefore the Iraqis feel comfortable in taking all the time in the world. By not putting intense pressure on the Iraqis, Bush is guaranteeing that there is going to be more blood in the streets, both American and Iraqi, and that all out civil war will explode and not only destabilize Iraq but whole Middle East.

You’d think that the daily bloodbath or the reality of Shia and Sunnis fleeing the cities in desperate fear would kindle some urgency of action on the part of the Iraqi legislators or at least prompt Bush to crank up the heat. Unfortunately, both parties seem to waiting to see how bad it will get and how many American and Iraqi lives are finally deemed too high a cost to pay.

More Debris

Another day of removing debris. I did honor the day with a roasted leg of lamb but other than that we spent the day with chain saw in hand removing the debris from the tornado.
I always remember Easter from my days in Greece and the roasted lamb and all the other traditions that come in to play during this time of year. Of course Orthodox Easter is still a couple of weeks away on the 23rd but to all the readers who may be Orthodox "Christo Anesti". I will try and remember when the actual observance hits. For those of you not Orthodox that means Christ is Risen and is the traditional greeting in Greece on Easter Sunday. Too bad all you christians with the small "c" don't embrace the meaning in those words.

Disgusting Money

There is an article in the AJC today on executive compensation. It is really disgusting. The chairman and CEO of Home Depot Bob Nardelli's pay for 2005 was 29.7 million a 4% increase of his 28.5 mil in 2004. This is his reward for Home Depot's stock falling 6% in 2005. In contrast the CEO of Lowe's made a paltry 6.5 million and the CEO of Wal-Mart only 12.6 million.

Since Nardelli came to Home Depot in 2000 he has been paid a total of 154.3 million dollars. Is it just me or does this level of pay seem insane? I sometimes wonder how someone like that justifies to himself that level of compensation. Somehow it just seems wrong.

I noted the other day that the just retired chairmand of Exxon-Mobil Lee Raymond has managed to get himself a whopping 686 million in pay and stock since he took the helm in 1993. Granted the company has done well under his guidance and its net worth increased by 375 billion. Exxon's net income in 1992 before Raymond was a paltry 4 billion while last year it hit a record 36 billion. He deserves a reward but holy cow! I can't even imagine spending that kind of money.

I can' t imagine these guys are feeling sorry for all of us who will soon be paying a dollar more per gallon for gas than we did at this time last year.

Tornado Mess

I didn't mention it here but a few tornados whipped through the neighborhood while I was away. Luckily, nothing hit the house but evidently one touched down for a moment in the back 40. My back neighbor lost about a dozen large pines the majority of which managed to land on my chainlink fence.

I have spent the day removing debris from the fence and my neighbor had a crew come in and remove the trees. Already have an estimate for repair and have contacted the insurance folks so I just have to give the go ahead. I consider myself quite lucky as the folks just north of here got whacked pretty good and several businesses and homes are pretty well trashed. I didn't lose any trees just the fence, and a couple of thousand will get it right pretty quick.

Not used to such physical labor and I am really feeling it this evening. The hardest is lifting the 14-16 inch diameter chunks of wood and piling it. Jeebus I'm wrecked. Anyhow, with blogger refusing to let me log in and all the yard work I have been rather silent today.

I will try and catch up later. Right now I have to check on my chicken which is roasting in the oven and decide if I will have another martini. Another one might send me down for the count before I even get le poulet out of the oven so I probably won't. Mrs. Fallen is out for the afternoon at a bridal shower( my step grand daughter) so I am just chilling tonight. If I don't have another martini I may even get some serious posting done. Cheers.

Five Makes a Chorus or is it Six?

It is now five and maybe even six generals saying that Rummy has to go. I think the Whitehouse is going to have trouble ignoring this chorus. So far we have Generals Newbold, Eaton, Zinni, and Batiste and I think is fair to count Ret. Army Gen. John Riggs, who told the Washington Post recently:

[Riggs] believes that his peer group is “a pretty closemouthed bunch” but that, even so, his sense is “everyone pretty much thinks Rumsfeld and the bunch around him should be cleared out.”

If Bush and Rummy really cared about the military and America, Rumsfeld would resign and Bush would apologize to the American people for it taking so long.

Try This Missing Link You Chuckleheads

There goes the Goddess again with with another bit of "Operation Mindfuck" for the creationists. She buried a bunch of transitional humanoid bones in a 4 million year old strata of sediment in Africa. She's a laugh a minute.

Silly Goddess just loves these pranks.

Don't Give Up on Me

I'm here. just awful busy trying to get caught up with everything after being away for two + weeks. You don't realize how many things distract you day to day until they pile up for two weeks. I still haven't read all the email that has accumulated and opened all the mail. Fortuneately I got the taxes done and filed before I left so I don't have to face that this weekend.
Tomorrow should be a little slacker and we'll have more time to devote to blogging.

Later

Nukes Are Not Nice

The Union of Concerned Scientists has produced an informative animation concerning the use of Nuclear "Bunker Busters". This needs wider dessemination so if you have a blog give it a link. Everyone needs to understand the consequences of using any nuclear device.

thanks to Susie

Long Way Away From a Bomb

I am still trying to get caught up with everything after two weeks of travel but I happened onto something that I felt needed wider attention. The American people are being played for patsies one more time with an attempt by the administration to scare us into believing that attacking Iran is something we have to do because diplomacy has failed.

Most people are woefully ignorant when it comes to such things as weapons grade unranium and rightly so since it is not something most need to worry about. Unfortuneately with "tactical nuclear weapons" in the discussions about doing something to Iran 'cause they are making a bomb it is fortunate we have someone like Juan Cole to put it in perspective for us and actually tell us what is really going on.

The ability to slightly enrich uranium is not the same as the ability to build a bomb. For the latter, you need at least 80% enrichment, which in turn would require about 16,000 small centrifuges hooked up to cascade. Iran does not have 16,000 centrifuges. It seems to have 180. Iran is a good ten years away from having a bomb, and since its leaders, including Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei, say they do not want an atomic bomb because it is Islamically immoral, you have to wonder if they will ever have a bomb.

[SNIP]

Likewise, Bush is trying to shore up his base, which is desperately unhappy with the Iraq situation, by rattling sabres at Iran. Bush’s poll numbers are so low, often in the mid-30s, that he must have lost part of his base to produce this result. Iran is a great deus ex machina for Bush. Rally around the flag yet again.

Read the whole thing and while your at it check out the more recent post concerning how well things are going in Iraq right.

I'm Back

Back from over the pond and just a little lagged today. Haven't had tome ot cruise the blogroll or even the news sites and therefore I have absolutely no idea what is going on. I can however guess that Bushco is busy trying to discredit Seymour Hersh and pretend that Iran is going to have an A-bomb in a couple of weeks while swearing that diplomacy has failed (while ignoring the fact that Bush has rejected every overture by Iran to talk).
The media is probably parroting the Whitehouse on how well things are going in Iraq while ignoring the probable 5 - 10 American deaths in the last 24 hours( be intersted to see how far off my guess is, hopefully there we none but....).
So let me finish up all my email and online banking and then I will look around and come back and comment.

Travel day today

On my back to the U. S. Today so nothing here until late tuesday night if then. Nice day in Paris so everything is on time.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

Welcome Glenda to the Blogroll

Forgot to mention earlier a new addition to the blogroll. Glenda in the Land of Oz

Welcome Glenda and her sidekick PinkFem.

That make two more Texas ladies in the mix.

Since Mrs. Fallenmonk is a "Yaller Rose" as well, we should all get along just fine as long as I remember to keep my place.

Fired Up!

At least some in the Democratic Party are beginning to stand up. This is the Kerry I supported in the last election before the media and his incompetent political campaign turned him into some pseudo Democratic candidate. This is the man I saw in “Going Up River”. This is the man I wanted for President.

According to this article in the New York Times “Kerry made a slashing attack on the Bush Administration.”

Senator John Kerry made a slashing attack on the Bush administration yesterday, comparing it to the faltering government in Iraq and equating its war strategy with its planning for Hurricane Katrina, while also invoking Jesus as he criticized federal Medicaid policy. [...]

"The Bush administration is wondering when Iraq will have a functioning government. I want to know when we're going to have a functioning government," Mr. Kerry said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Further on

Tell the truth. Fire the incompetents. Find Osama bin Laden and secure our ports and our homeland. Bring our troops home from Iraq. Obey the law and protect our civil rights," Mr. Kerry said in ticking off his list, which also included supporting health care, education, lobbying reform and alternatives to oil, as well as reducing the deficit.

It’s people like Kerry and Feingold that we are going to have to turn to if we expect to take back the Congress. They are standing up even though they know that they are going to be attacked and spun even by some in their own party. Yes, I know they are both thinking about 2008, so what, if they will stand up and be counted and make courageous statements then I will back either of them.

Some of you are going to say to hell with Kerry he had his chance and blew it but we need to face the reality of the situation. Kerry and Feingold seem to be the only people in the heart of the party who are willing to go out on a limb and ask the tough question and demand answers from this administration. They are currently the only game in town.

Feingold’s censure measure and Kerry’s call for troop withdrawal both needed saying and both took a lot of heat will take more.

Here is an example of the kind of personal attack Kerry got from Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado for his call to withdraw by May 15^th or the end of 2006.

I would like to start off by saying I've been very supportive of the president on the war of Iraq because he has had a plan and he has stayed the course. That's what gives me confidence in the president.

I do think that what we see today in the criticism of the president from Senator Kerry, we're seeing an individual who's being spun in the political winds, unlike the president.

Now here is John Kerry’s response:

Well, let me make it clear to the Senator from Colorado and anybody who wants to debate Iraq, when it comes to issues of war and peace and of young Americans dying, nobody spins me period. And I'm not going to listen to the Senator from Colorado or anyone else questions my motives when young Americans are dying on a daily basis or losing their limbs because Iraqi politicians won't form a government from an election that they held in December. That is just inexcusable. [...]

I'm listening to General Casey, not to the Senator from Colorado. If General Casey tells me that the Iraqis would stand up faster if there were less Americans there, I believe him. Our troops have done the job. Don't come to the floor of the United States Senate and try to suggest to me that somehow when we come up with a plan to protect our troops and to make America stronger that we're somehow making their life more miserable. Ask the troops. 70% of the troops who were pulled -- polled in Iraq said that they thought within the next year we ought to be able to withdraw. [...]

I tell you one thing I know well, and I'll remind the Senator from Colorado, half the names on the wall of that Vietnam Memorial, half the names on that wall became names of the dead after our leaders knew our policy wouldn't work. Well, our policy isn't working today, and I'm not going to be a United States Senator who adds to the next wall wherever it may be put that honors those who served in Iraq so that once again people point to a bunch of names that are added after we knew something was wrong. We have a bigger responsibility than that.

That’s the kind of stand up and be counted Democrats we need. Russ Feingold and John Kerry are both realizing that we have got to get the other side on the defensive and no longer let them control the dialogue. We have to tell the truth, demand answers from the party in power and begin to act like an opposition party.

There is too much at stake for the Democratic Party to try and play nice with the GOP. You can see where that has gotten us. We are on the brink of another war and quite possibly the first use of nuclear weapons in more than a half century.

The article in the New York Times is worth reading completely if you want to see what we as a party need to be saying to the party in power and to the American public.

It's A Dictatorship Folks - Like it or Not

Jack M. Balkin, of Yale Law School has an excellent post summarizing the realities of the Whitehouse's claim to unlimited dictatorial power over at his blog Balkinization. One wonders why none of the overpaid pundits in the national media cannot think this through. From the media view you would think it is business as usual in Washington.

Here is an excerpt but read the whole thing.

This theory, taken to its logical conclusions, gives the President the ability to treat anyone living in the United States, including particularly U.S. citizens, as wartime enemies without having to prove their disloyalty to anyone outside the executive branch. In so doing, it offers him what can only be called dictatorial powers-- that is, the power to suspend ordinary civil liberties protections on his say so. The limits on what the President may do under this theory are entirely political-- the question is whether the American people will stand for what the President has done if they discover what he has done in their name. But if the American people don't know what their executive is doing, they can hardly be in a position to object. And so the President has tried to keep secret exactly what he has done under the unreasonable and overreaching theory of Presidential power that his Administration has repeatedly asserted in its legal briefs and public statements.

tip to Atrios

Another Rainy Sunday in France

Well another rainy Sunday here in southern France though I managed a couple of hours of walkabout this morning before it got going too badly. Things in Lyon are very quiet on Sunday, virtually nothing is open, not even in the big covered mall next to the hotel.
On my search for lunch I only found Micky D's and a Subway open so I opted for the Golden Arches. Seems kind of sacreligious to eat at McDonald's in Lyon but....I couldn't find anything else. I at least tried something you won't find in the states I believe and that is a Chicken Mythic sandwich. Not too swift. Kind of a giant flat McNugget on a bun with white cheese, lettuce and what I believe might be "special sauce". The quarter pounder is called a Royal over here but the Big Mac is on the menu. The place was doing a hopping business even though every other place in the three story mall was closed. Whatever.

"Safe for Civilians" My Ass

If you are interested here is some more information on the so called "Safe for Civilians" tactical nuclear weapon glorious leader is planning on using against Iran. This is from the site Global Security. As you can see, even though the Pentagon claims this bomb can be used close to civiliam populations they are just pumping sunshine up your kilt. Thousands if not millions of poeple will probably die if this weapon is used.

The B61-11 is categorized as a "deep earth penetrating bomb" capable of "destroying the deepest and most hardened of underground bunkers, which the conventional warheads are not capable of doing". The B61-11s can be delivered in much same way as the conventional bunker buster bomb, from a B-2. a 5B-2 stealth bomber or from an F-16 aircraft.

"military officials and leaders of America's nuclear weapon laboratories are urging the US to develop a new generation of precision low-yield nuclear weapons... which could be used in conventional conflicts with third-world nations.

Critics argue that adding low-yield warheads to the world's nuclear inventory simply makes their eventual use more likely. In fact, a 1994 law currently prohibits the nuclear laboratories from undertaking research and development that could lead to a precision nuclear weapon of less than 5 kilotons (KT), because "low-yield nuclear weapons blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war."

... Senate Republicans John Warner (R-VA) and Wayne Allard (R-CO) buried a small provision in the 2001 Defense Authorization Bill that would have overturned these earlier restrictions... Senators Warner and Allard imagine these nuclear weapons could be used in small-scale conventional conflicts against rogue dictators, while leaving most of the civilian population untouched. As one anonymous former Pentagon official put it to the Washington Post last spring, "What's needed now is something that can threaten a bunker tunneled under 300 meters of granite without killing the surrounding civilian population." Statements like these promote the illusion that nuclear weapons could be used in ways which minimize their "collateral damage," making them acceptable tools to be used like conventional weapons." (See http://www.fas.org/faspir/2001 / click v54nl, italics added)

In an utterly twisted logic, the nuclear bunker buster bomb is presented as an instrument of peace-making and regime change, which will enhance global security. It is intended to curb the dangers of WMD proliferation by "nonstate organizations (terrorist, criminal)" and "rogue states". Pentagon propaganda has carefully distorted the nature of this bomb.

The B61-11 is casually described as causing an underground explosion without threatening "the surrounding civilian population".

The Pentagon has blurred the distinction between conventional battlefield weapons and nuclear bombs. Already during the Clinton Administration, the Pentagon was calling for the use of the "nuclear" B61-11 bunker buster bomb, suggesting that because it was "underground", there was no toxic radioactive fallout which could affect civilians.

The Bush administration has gone one step further in defining the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which are now part of America's preemptive arsenal. Essentially they are described defensive weapons. Under the preemptive nuclear doctrine, they are specifically identified for use in conventional war theaters.

The Pentagon claims that the use of the B61-11 minimizes the risks of "collateral damage". According to US. military planners, "potential adversaries" are hiding their WMDs in "fortified bunkers" below more than 100 feet of concrete. Yet test results indicate that the low yield B61-11 has never penetrated more than 20 feet below the ground (See also The Independent. 23 October 2003) :

"The earth-penetrating capability of the B61-11 is fairly limited. ... Tests show it penetrates only 20 feet or so into dry earth when dropped from an altitude of 40,000 feet. ... Any attempt to use it in an urban environment would result in massive civilian casualties. Even at the low end of its 0.3-300 kiloton yield range, the nuclear blast will simply blow out a huge crater of radioactive material, creating a lethal gamma-radiation field over a large area " (Low-Yield Earth-Penetrating Nuclear Weapons by Robert W. Nelson,Federation of American Scientists, 2001 ).

About our Military Future

If you are not a regular reader of Pen and Sword then you should be. Jeff Huber the author is a retired Navy commander and brings some good writing and years of experience to questions around the security and military issues that continue to present themselves.
In his latest post Jeff discusses the future of American military power and makes some excellent points.

Example:

Mister Bush has become fond of saying, "We can no longer hope that oceans protect us from harm." As with so much of what Bush says, that statement is largely bunk.

Yes, terrorists can sneak into this country, hijack airplanes, and drive them into skyscrapers. But that was as true in 1948 as it is now. Rogue nations like Iran or North Korea may someday be able to strike American cities with nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, but the Soviets became capable of doing that during the Eisenhower administration.

It is refreshing to see a career military man ask these kind of questions and it gives one hope that we have a sufficient quantity of similarly thoughtful people still in the armed forces.

Developing Nightmare

Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker who is usually and unfortunately always right tells that

Bush is well into the planning for a massive pre-emptive strike on Iran focusing on its “nukular” capability. He and his pack of incompetent war mongers have convinced themselves that Iran will have a “nukular” weapon in the next few weeks or months.

Read the following slowly, word by word, and absorb all of the implications. These brilliant strategists believe that if we launch a devastating attack against Iran and embarrass the current government the Iranians will rise up against their own government and just like that another star in the crown of democracy in the Middle East. I’m sorry, but this is coming from the same crack team that has done such a brilliant job in Iraq and Afghanistan. Does it all sound hauntingly familiar?

From Hersh:

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that “a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.” He added, “I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?’ ”

How about this little gem?

A senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror expressed a similar view. “This White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war,” he said.

Just like Iraq, Dubya has already decided that diplomacy won't work even though he hasn’t tried any. He's already decided that the only way to deal with the Iranians is to declare war on them. Just like Iraq the evidence irrelevant. Just like Iraq world opinion is unimportant.

Not only is the above absolutely and obviously insane but one of the options the White House is considering is using tactical “nukular” weapons for the attack against Iran. You did not misread that, I did in fact, say “nukular”. Evidently in some of the initial planning last winter some idiot included the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against Iran’s underground nuclear sites. Bush latched on to that like an all day sucker.

Fortunately saner minds at the Pentagon are now trying to take that option off the table but predictably the White House is not interested, they want the “nukular” weapons.

If Dubya uses a “nukular” weapon against Iran the security of America is ancient history as is our standing with every other country in the world. There are nearly 2 billion Muslims in the world that might not understand why we bombed their brethren into the last century either.

Even if some modicum of sanity prevails and Bush only uses the new giant conventional bunker busters there are going be some serious repercussions. Has there been any thought about what might happen in Iraq? Afghanistan? The rest of the Middle East?

Do these folks think that Iran is without options? How about pumping more weapons and insurgents into Iraq and if not already extant insure a sectarian civil war?

How about funding the Saudi Shia and getting them to cut off the oil supply to the west by blowing all the pipelines?

How about supporting a Turkish invasion of the Kurdish in Northern Iraq to squash Kurdistan? Let’s not even talk about the level of international terrorism against American and allied targets.

I am not advocating that the U.S. just stand aside and let the Iranians develop the bomb but there is an awful lot of people in the business that think this eventuality is years away not months. We need an aggressive diplomatic strategy to sidetrack this. The unfortunate reality is that George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condi Rice are not capable of envisioning such a plan and wholly incapable of effecting it. This is a completely incompetent administration domestically and internationally. There is absolutely no evidence to the contrary and I defy anyone to produce it..

This is horribly serious and we need someone serious to handle it. Regardless of the solution to Iran and a nuclear capability, whether it is diplomacy or war, George Bush and company are the last persons in the world to handle it. It will be a disaster from the beginning.

I know it is too much to expect, but in the interest of the planet, Bush and company should resign and let the grownups handle this. Believing Bush is mature enough to realize that he is way, way beyond his level of competence is delusional but a guy can dream.

If there is any good news to be had, the Iranians most likely cannot develop a nuclear capability until after Bush is out of office. Unfortunately, we still have to live for a couple of years with a tin horn wannabe John Wayne in the Whitehouse with his itchy trigger finger on a pile of damn tactical “nukular” weapons and who is stupid enough to use them.

Everything is Out There

In light of the latest from the lawsuit brought by the EFF against AT&T you should really consider yourself completely compromised. You have no secrets and every piece of information you have ever communicated electronically is now Mr. Bush's and Karl Rove's to do with as they please. If the lawsuit is true there are no secrets.
Even though you might not use SBC or AT&T directly you should realize that AT&T is probably the largest provider in the world of bandwidth. Even if you use Charter, Verizon, BellSouth or any of the myriad other service providers chances are your actual traffic traveled over the AT&T backbone at least during part of its travels. If it touched their backbone, which it most probably did, then AT&T and Mr. Bush got a chance to read it.
This is why the whole domestic spying thing is a "BIG DEAL" as I have posted before. You cannot spy on just some calls or emails without being able to sort through them all. You have to be able to have access to every communication even though you only may only actually want one out of a million emails.
Finally, we should be monitoring communications by foreign agents or even Americans intent on no good. However it must be done with the proper supervision by the courts and that is exactly what FISA provided. Did you know you gave Bush a blank check to know everything about you and your friends and family?
This is some serious stuff.

Graphic courtesy EFF

How Low Can He Go?

I don't have a link but here is a snapshot of the AP:Ipsos polling from the Europeqn papers this morning. Remember that this is before they found out he was the guy behind the leaks!

Bush 36% approval overall
only 40% approveof foreign policy and war on terror
35% approve policy towards Iraq
30% approve of the GOP Congress
49%-33% prefer Democrats running Congress over GOP
41% tie on which party that people trust to protect the country

Good Old Days

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Remember this old wheeze? It comes from that old Constitional Amendment that King George threw out a couple years ago along with a couple of others. I think it was the fourth, if memory serves. I just thought I would post it here for old times sake in light of this from Abu Gonzales yesterday testifying before Congress. You remember them don't you? They used to be the part of government charged with balancing the power of the President.
Abu basically told Congress yesterday that the President was a law unto himself and that they could go take a long walk on short pier. Is it just me or are they now believing that they are untouchable and free to say or do anything they want?