Protest or speak out against a Rethuglican, get your ass kicked!

From Pensito:

Of course, John Kerry went to college and served in the military, with distinction. He is, in fact and by definition, a hero.

Now would be a good time to refresh their memories about the military service, or rather, lack thereof, of their own glorious leaders:

* VP Dick Cheney - several deferments, by marriage and timely fatherhood.
* Karl Rove, occasional Deputy Chief of Staff and alleged full time smear artist, escaped the draft and did not serve
* Secretary of State and former NSA Condaleeza Rice - did not serve
* Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - did not serve.
* Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert - did not serve.
* Republican Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay - did not serve.
* [Comedian] Rush Limbaugh - did not serve
* Sean Hannity - did not serve
* Ann Coulter - did not serve
* Bill O’Reilly - did not serve

Also did not serve:

* White House Press Secretary Tony Snow
* RNC Chair Ken Mehlman
* White House chief of staff Josh Bolten
* Our favorite GOP 2008 presidential nominee, Newt Gingrich
* Not-my-America’s-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
* Every Gop’s favorite Dem, Sen. Joe Lieberman
* Fox News anchor Brit Hume
* Fox News chief Roger Ailes

And as to Dear Leader himself, while men like Sen. Kerry went to Vietnam to fight for the United States, George W. Bush was laying about in Texas and Alabama, drinking, doing coke and chasing women.

Proud.... to be an American?

The German newsweekly Stern has reported that Germany's federal police (BKA) and foreign intelligence service (BND) found terrorism suspects are being tortured and beaten in an American concentration camp named "Eagle Base," located in Tuzla, northeastern Bosnia. One suspect, 70 years old, was beaten so savagely in the head with a rifle butt that he needed 20 stitches. The Good American soldier was, according to the German report, "visibly proud" of his actions. I'll bet that 70-year-old man doesn't threaten anyone with his dentures again.

Documents which American soldiers had seized in raids were "extremely blood-smeared" and one of the German agents there compared the actions of American soldiers with those of Serbian war criminals: "The Serbs ended up before the international court in The Hague for this kind of thing." It's not surprising that rather than help in the interrogations, as they were originally sent there to do, they instead informed German’s federal prosecutor. The irony of all of this occurring in Bosnia should be enough to choke a horse.

When did this happen, last week? Last month? No, this was just two weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. American soldiers were torturing and beating suspects - not convicted terrorists, just suspects - almost immediately after the attacks which George W. Bush treats as an excuse to ignore all boundaries of law, morality, and justice. None of this should be surprising and it's not limited to concentration camps set up on foreign soil. Police right here in America will use truncheons, chemical sprays, and projectile weapons against peaceful protesters who are exercising their constitutional rights in a way that is inconvenient to the government’s corporate backers.

Did I say "constitutional rights"? Sorry about that, it's an old habit that's hard to break. Our "rights" are becoming more and more just "privileges" which the government hasn't found a reason to snatch in the middle of the night. Our Constitution, according to our Leader, George W. Bush, is "just a goddamned piece of paper" and, according to Attorny General Alberto Gonzales, an "outdated document." The concept of constitutional rights is no longer an American value under the current regime and it's certainly not one which their collaborators and Kapos among the media elite are willing to openly defend.

Although it appears that the Germans here acted with some dignity and morality, the German government doesn't get off the hook because they've been claiming that they've known nothing about secret American concentration camps except for what they've read in media reports. One Afghan formerly held as a suspect by the Americans has filed a lawsuit alleging that German special forces participated in his interrogations. An intelligence report reveals that the CIA offered German officials access to a German citizen they held if Germany quashed EU protests over secret CIA flights, prisons, and torture. Germany got access to the prisoner and EU protests died down. There is also currently a scandal developing in Germany over photos of German soldiers desecrating a corpse and playing with someone's skull.

Read the whole thing...

Now maybe you can understand why I want to fucking gag every time I read about our "sacred mission," or bringing Freedom, Democracy and Liberty, to the rest of the world.

There was a time when I was SO proud to be an American. I remember right after 9/11 when you couldn't see the walls of the American Embassy here in Costa Rica, for all the flowers that Costa Ricans placed there. I remember strangers approaching me in the street and offering condolences, as if I had personally lost someone in the attacks. Now flash forward to today. The American Flag is burned in the streets, and America is looked at as something akin to The Beast.

I am, still proud to be an American. I am proud because I realize that REAL Americans do not support the things that have been done in our name. Real Americans believe as I do, that no one is above the law, and that America should not stand for torture, should not invade countries that have not attacked us, and should not be about lies and manipulation of the political process for power.

The Gay Ole Party baby, the GOP! The GOP seems to be the party of self haters... Self hating Blacks, Self Hating Gays... Jesus, they suck. I mean a Gay person who joins the GOP and pushes an anti gay agenda is like a light skinned black joining the KKK. It's just sick!

Hat tip Pensito!

The GOP, which from the looks of things should just drop the sham and call themselves the Gay Old Party!

The racist ad that the Republican National Committee put up against Rep. Harold Ford in Tennesssee also has a bit in which a sleazy guy says, with a leer:

So {Ford] took money from porn movie producers — I’m mean, who hasn’t?

I haven’t and would hazard to say hardly anyone has taken money from porn producers — except, as we learn today, the same Republican National Committee that paid for the racist ad in Tennessee:

It turns out that the Republican National Committee is a regular recipient of political contributions from Nicholas T. Boyias, the owner and CEO of Marina Pacific Distributors, one of the largest producers and distributors of gay porn in the United States.

What gets me is that for a party who spends so much time obsessing over people's sex lives and slamming the gay lifestyle, these guys have more skeletons in their closets than Skull and Bones!

THEN PLEASE... go take a look at this! I got the tip from The General, who reports on an inflamatory and absolutely RACIST exchange in one of the radio ads.

I particularly liked the one you call, "Don't Go There:"

Michael: If you make a little mistake with one of your ho's, you'll want to dispose of that problem toot suite, no questions asked, right?

Dennis: That's too cold. I don't snuff my own seed.

Michael: Huh. Really? Maybe you do have a reason to vote Republican!

I'm sure it's a message that'll resonate well with black men. Worrying about what all their "ho's" are going to do with their seed must be a full time job. It's a wonder that guys like Kenneth Blackwell and Vernon Robinson can even find time to run for office. Heck, where did you find the time to write the $900K check to fund the ads. A handsome black man like yourself must have "ho's" all over the place.

Make sure you listen to the Radio Ads, they are the most disgusting and patronizing collection of Stepin' Fetchit bullshit I have ever read/listened to! These people are BEYOND contempt!

Okay, I have tried to be nice to so called Black Conservatives... I really have. But this is the biggest crock I have ever heard.

When a black conservative group ran a radio ad proclaiming that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, reaction was swift. "We've gotten some e-mails and telephone calls filled with vitriol," said Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association. "They've called me Aunt Jemima, a sellout, a traitor to my race."

In the battle for the black electorate, liberals, who make up the overwhelming majority of black voters, have long disagreed with conservatives over ideology, public policy and economic strategies to better the lives of African Americans. But when conservatives placed the civil rights movement in a Republican context, black liberals said, they crossed a line.

"To suggest that Martin could identify with a party that affirms preemptive, predatory war, and whose religious partners hint that God affirms war and favors the rich at the expense of the poor, is to revile Martin," said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, the former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which the slain civil rights leader helped establish.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who marched with King in the 1960s, called the ads an "insult to the legacy and the memory of Martin Luther King Jr." and "an affront to all that he stood for."

The spot, which ran for a time in the District, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, will soon run again in those areas, as well as in Miami, Orlando and Tampa, Rice said.

The debate surrounding the ad is the latest skirmish in the ongoing battle over the King legacy. Foes of affirmative action, for example, often cite a line from King's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 in which he prayed that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the "content of their character," an adoption that makes black liberals fume. But in the latest fight, civil rights veterans may be surprised to find that some black conservatives agree with them.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R), who is running for the U.S. Senate, denounced the King ad, and Donald E. Scoggins, president of Republicans for Black Empowerment and a former member of the association, said it was a terrible idea.

Black Republicans railed against the radio ads, with the sharpest criticism coming from former members of the black Republican association.

"The vast majority of black Republicans I know would not have approved of the ad," Scoggins said.

In the ad, a black woman says, "Dr. King was a real man," and a second one responds, "You know he was a Republican."

"Dr. King, a Republican?"

Isn't it enough to deny blacks the vote in Florida, and Ohio among other places? Now do you have to lie on top of that. Dr. King would likely have a lot of problems with the Democratic Party of 2006, but to imply that he was a Republican, or that he would support this administration... is an outrage! King was a man who would be outraged at the cost in human lives of the Iraq war. He was a man who would be outraged at the abandonment of human rights under the Bush Administration, and he was a man who would be sickened by the divisive and dirty politics of the regime in power. King was no Republican, and to imply that he was, or that he would support this administration, or Republican policy, is an insult to his legacy, and a betrayal of the African American people...

Lets see... Blame the media did not work. Deny we knew anything did not work. Blame it on the gays did not work... Did you expect them to give up?

From Drudge

CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE CHATS WERE PAGE 'PRANK GONE AWRY'
**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**

According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal.

According to one Oklahoma source who knows the former page very well, Edmund, a conservative Republican, goaded an unwitting Foley to type embarrassing comments that were then shared with a small group of young Hill politicos. The prank went awry when the saved IM sessions got into the hands of political operatives favorable to Democrats.

The primary source, an ally of Edmund, adamantly proclaims that the former page is not a homosexual. The prank scenario was confirmed by a second associate of Edmund. Both are fearful that their political careers will be affected if they are publicly brought into the investigation.

The prank scenario only applies to the Edmund IM sessions and does not necessarily apply to any other exchanges between the former congressman and others.

The news come on the heels that Edmund has hired former Timothy McVeigh attorney, Stephen Jones.

And a shitload of the "Stay on Message Shock Troops" of the Washington version of "F Troop," are trying their best to spin this. Lots of talk going on in the sphere.

The Raw Story, Right Wing News, Daily Oklahoman, The Strata-Sphere, The American Thinker, Macsmind, Instapundit.com, Confederate Yankee, Hit and Run, Townhall.com Blog's …, Associated Press, Power Line, Let Freedom Ring, PoliBlog, TPMmuckraker, Flopping Aces, Sensible Mom, Stop The ACLU, Cold Fury, Right Wing Nut House, Little Green Footballs, PunditGuy, And Another Thing, Ace of Spades HQ, Don Surber, One Hand Clapping, Classical Values, Wizbang, Media Blog, PoliPundit.com and Sister Toldjah

You be the judge of who is living in an alternate reality... This guy definately isn't. Read the last paragraph of his post. Funny how the family values folks, lose those values when they are in danger of losing power. Can you smell it... Its the smell of fear and desperation...

None of this stuff surprises me anymore...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1. — Democrats expressed outrage today that Republican leaders had waited nearly a year to tell them about e-mails between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, allowing the Florida Republican during that time to remain head of the Congressional caucus on children’s issues.

“This should be investigated objectively. I think the Democratic leadership should have been told 10 months ago,” Representative Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said in a letter to the House Ethics Committee that it was “abhorrent” that House Republican leaders had known of Mr. Foley’s contacts with the page for a number of months “and that apparently no action was taken to protect these underage children,” Reuters reported. Ms. Pelosi said it was vital that the committee immediately question House Republican leaders under oath.

While the MSM echoes liberal talking points on the Mark Foley scandal, asking what did Republicans know and when did they know it, a curious detail was left out. The editors of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida reveal that the media has also knew about this story for quite some time, but did nothing about it.

WASHINGTON (AP) - GOP leaders admit their offices have known for months that a Florida Republican congressman was sending inappropriate e-mails to a boy who had worked as a page in the House of Representatives. The office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who earlier said he'd learned about the e-mails only last week, acknowledged that aides referred the matter to the authorities last fall. They said they were only told the messages were "over-friendly." Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who heads the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Hastert months ago about concerns that a fellow Republican lawmaker, Rep. Mark Foley, had sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Reynolds, a Republican from New York, is defending himself from Democrats who say he did too little to protect the boy. Foley quit Congress on Friday after ABC News questioned him about the e-mails to a former congressional page and about sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages. "The improper communications between Congressman Mark Foley and former House Congressional pages is unacceptable and abhorrent. It is an obscene breach of trust," Hastert, R-Ill., Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Saturday in a written statement.

Funny, but I'll bet his campaign is based on a strong military....

From Think Progress:

A Pentagon report last month found that as many one in five U.S. service members “are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases” that can charge interest of 400 percent or more. Increasingly, soldiers have debt levels so high they are barred from serving overseas; others suffer from “bankruptcies, divorces and ruined careers.” (More facts HERE.)

The Pentagon has joined consumer, military, and veterans groups in backing a bipartisan amendment from Sens. Jim Talent (R-MO) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) that places a cap of 36 percent on high interest rates for short-term payday loans to military members.

But one conservative congressman, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), is trying to gut the amendment. Davis has proposed his own language — praised by the payday lending industry — that sets no real limits on predatory lenders. One of Davis’s aides admitted last week that he consulted on the legislation with “CNG Financial of Mason, Ohio, one of his top campaign donors and owner of national payday lender Check ‘n Go.”

Another example of Right Wing hypocrisy!

How hypocritical conservatives can be... Remember how they successfuly got the Ronald Reagan movie axed and moved to cable... Please!

Bush's Base at Work:

First up from the God machine this week is a Baptist church that is filled with the Christian spirit — just as long as church officials approve of your racial background.

Fellowship Baptist Church in Saltillo, Mississippi, voted out a 12-year-old boy who "asked Jesus to live in his heart" at the church two weeks ago. Why the ban? Joe is biracial, and church members didn't want the black side of his family attending with him.

They were "afraid Joe might come with his people and have blacks in the church," church pastor John Stevens told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

To his credit, Pastor Stevens resigned from the church the same day 12-year-old Joe was voted out of the church. Cliff Hardy, a local police officer, also resigned from the church. "My best friend is a black man," he said. "I wouldn't be comfortable going to a place where I couldn't ask my best friend to go to church with me."

The local paper contacted church members, but they refused comment. Go figure.

I find this hillarious....

Aug. 23, 2006 — It used to be that you had to be The New York Times to raise the ire of the Republican National Committee, or radio icon Rush Limbaugh to get the Democrats chomping at the bit.

Now add blogs to the list of political actors worthy of official condemnation from the political powers that be.

The Republican National Committee sent an e-mail to supporters and members of the media today criticizing Markos Moulitsas, founder of the popular liberal Web log Daily Kos, for what it calls "hate-filled" rhetoric on the Web site.

It's not the first time they've singled him out, but it does put bloggers — formerly on the fringes of politics — front and center along with the most important traditional political activists.

Political watchers see it as recognition by organizations like the RNC that blogs are here to stay.

"It means that they know who the new power brokers in politics are," said Julie Germany, the deputy director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.

Blogs as political power brokers? Germany says that bloggers have helped level the playing field by taking power away from the proverbial smoke-filled rooms that used to determine the course of party politics.

"Some of that power has transitioned to everyone else," she said.

And that power, whoever holds it, draws the attention of the opposite party, as Moulitsas has drawn the attention of Republicans. The RNC's "research briefing," as it is called, was titled "Who Is Markos Moulitsas Zuniga?"

So the RNC has finaly discovered KOS? And Kos is spewing hatred... Have they taken a look at Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter lately... Please... Looks like the Tighty Rigties are getting a bit desperate.

For a moment there, I was almost encouraged. George W. Bush, the most resolutely incurious and inflexible of presidents, was reported last week to have been surprised at seeing Iraqi citizens -- who ought to be grateful beneficiaries of the American occupation, I mean "liberation" -- demonstrating in support of Hezbollah and against Israel.

Surprise would be a start, since it would mean the Decider was admitting novel facts to his settled base of knowledge and reacting to them. Alas, it seems the door to the presidential mind is still locked tight. "I don't remember being surprised," he said at his news conference yesterday. "I'm not sure what they mean by that."

I'm guessing "they" might mean that when you try to impose your simplistic, black-and-white template on a kaleidoscopic world, and you end up setting the Middle East on fire, either you're surprised or you're not paying attention. But that's just me.

As for George Bush, what on earth is on his mind?

Even conservatives have begun openly assessing the president's intellect, especially its impermeability to new information. Cable television pundit Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, devoted a segment of his MSNBC show to "George Bush's mental weakness," with a legend at the bottom of the screen that impertinently asked: "IS BUSH AN 'IDIOT'?"

It's tempting to go there, but I'm not sure we'd get very far. While we have the president on the couch, I'm more interested in trying to understand his emotional response -- or lack of response -- to the chaos he has spawned.

According to the Iraqi government, 3,438 civilians were killed in July, making it the bloodiest month since the invasion. The president was asked yesterday whether the failure of the U.S.-backed "unity" government to stem the orgy of sectarian carnage disappoints him, and he said that no, it didn't. How, I wonder, is that possible? Does he believe it would be a sign of weakness to admit that the flowering of democracy in Iraq isn't going exactly as planned? Does he believe saying everything's just fine will make it so? Is he in denial? Or do 3,438 deaths really just roll off his back after he's had his workout and a nice bike ride?

This is one of the biggest crocks of shit I have ever read....

What alternate universe do these people live in? I mean like we don't learn about the possitives of the United States? PLEASE! I grew up thinking that George Washington was second only the Jesus. I also grew up seeing my people attacked by dogs and firehoses for wanting to eat at a freaking lunch counter or drink from a faucet. Do these people just want to ignore the "dark side," of our history?

For me, the fact that we learn about the dark side is one of the things that makes our country great, but then again, these are the same people who think that George Bush and his administration of rogues, pissing on the constitution is something that should be hidden from the American Public.

"Nothing Joe Scarborough, the former Gingrichite GOP congressman and current MSNBC Fox-News-wannabe, could ever say or do would give him credibility at this point. Still, it is interesting to note that he has joined rightwing rats like George Will and William F. Buckley in jumping off the good ship George W. Bush as it capsizes."

Pensito Review

I am surprised it took some of these guys this long... to figure out the obvious...

Make sure to go read the whole post now...

What do these photos show? When you look at their attire, you notice a couple of things. One isn't their sartorial splendor. It's that they look like anyone else in Lebanon. They blend in perfectly with anyone else walking around in that neighborhood, so if Israelis hit this particular heavy weapons position, the news report will claim that there were only seven or eight civilians hit - on the basis of the appearance of the clothes. The facts are substantially different. It would show that seven or eight Hizbullah terrorists were eliminated in a raid that successfully took out a heavy weapons position.

Okay, now someone want to explain to me how clothes would survice and huge weapon systems would be obliterated from the scene?

They show Hizbullah terrorists operating a heavy caliber machine gun in the middle of a densly populated area. Let's not forget that Hizbullah has had six years to prepare for this conflict, and knows the terrain well, and blends in perfectly with the civilian population, so that accurate counts of civilian casualties is simply impossible.

I got it, someone must have waded through the blood and guts and took the AK-47's out of the hands of those dead children...

These arguments border on ridiculous. The Israelis blew up some children. Did they do it deliberately? I am certain they did not, but all this bullshit justifying it is turning my stomach. It's a war, in war mistakes are made. ON BOTH SIDES. The true test of morality is whether one accepts their mistakes, makes ammends for them and makes every effort NOT to repeat them. This justification of Israeli carelessness does nothing to encourage that morality.

Israel is suppossed to be BETTER than Hezbollah...

Although I rarely speak ill of the dead....

HOUSTON (Reuters) -- Houston's political and business leaders, including former President George H.W. Bush, turned out for Kenneth Lay's memorial service Wednesday, less than a week after the Enron founder's sudden death.

Friends and family lauded as a devout Christian and family leader the man who built Enron into an international energy powerhouse before its collapse in the biggest corporate scandal of its time.

Lay's stepson David Herrold told the nearly full First United Methodist Church that Lay was wrongly convicted, and he was angry about the portrayals of his stepfather in the media.

"He did have a strong faith in God and I know he's in heaven, and I'm glad he's not in a position anymore to be whipped by his enemy," Herrold said.

Lay, who was 64, died while vacationing in Colorado on July 5, just six weeks after a jury convicted him and former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling of conspiracy and fraud in the 2001 collapse of the energy company.

Lay was found guilty of 10 counts of conspiracy, fraud and misusing personal bank loans on May 25 and was facing decades in prison at his sentencing, which was scheduled for Oct. 23.

Lay was a longtime friend of the Bushes, contributing to their political campaigns and was nicknamed "Kenny Boy" by President George W. Bush.

The former president and his wife Barbara entered and exited the church by a rear exit and did not speak to the media.

I will make an exception in this case. The man was a dirtbag who presided over the financial ruin of tens of thousands of people, while lining his own pockets. The fact that other dirtbags travelled to pay homage to him is niether a surprise, nor of particular concern. But as a Christian, I seriously take offense to all this hand wringing over his suppossed christianity. This man was no Christian. He was a thief and a liar, and I can only hope that God is more forgiving than I could ever be.

Prominent right-wing blogger today calls for the murder of Supreme Court Justices - the Right fails to condemn it

If your only source for news was reading right-wing blogs, you would have thought that the most significant world event in the last few days was that some crazy woman who nobody ever heard of before (someone by the name of "Deb Frisch") left some vile comments on Jeff Goldstein's blog, a venue which itself is devoted to some of the most vile, deranged and psychosexually disturbed commentary that can be found on the Internet. Virtually every right-wing blogger spent the weekend focused on this solemn and grave matter, milking it for all it was worth. Many implied that this unknown commenter was some sort of towering figure of great significance among liberals, and exploited the drama to argue that the "Left" must approve of these comments because they didn't denounce the comments enough times or with enough vigor.

The blogger Misha of the blog Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler is one of the most linked-to and popular bloggers in the right-wing blogosphere. He's the 42nd most linked-to blogger on the Internet, and he is in the blogroll of scores of right-wing bloggers, such as Michelle Malkin and Captian's Quarters Blog. He wrote a post today discussing the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan and here is what he said:

Of course, this is the same Supreme Court that earlier decided in Kelo that private property rights only matter as long as a private company doesn’t offer a better deal, above or below the table, to local authorities, so one shouldn’t really be surprised. The unelected, black-robed tyrants have a long history of not giving a fig about the Constitution if they don’t like what it says, not to mention a long tradition of usurping the powers of the legislative and executive branch by ruling by judicial fiat. . . .

Try doing anything to those mutilating darlings of the Supremes in order to extract life-saving intel from them, and then wait for the Supreme Whores to decide that you were “humiliating” them in doing so.

Five ropes, five robes, five trees.

Some assembly required.

He's advocating that the five Supreme Court Justices in the Hamdan majority be hanged from the neck until they're dead. His homicidal formulation is a play on the more standard call of the Right for American journalists to be hanged -- "Journalists. Rope. Tree. Some assembly required" -- another death call which, it just so happens, Misha also issued just a few days ago.

Read this post from WAPO:

In Iraq, lives differ in value -- and so do deaths. In this disparity lies an important reason why the United States has botched this war.

Last November in Haditha , a squad of Marines, outraged at the loss of a comrade, is said to have run amok, avenging his death by killing two dozen innocent bystanders. And in March, U.S. soldiers in Mahmudiyah allegedly raped a young Iraqi woman and killed her along with three of her relatives -- an apparently premeditated crime for which one former U.S. soldier has been charged . These incidents are among at least five recent cases of Iraqi civilian deaths that have triggered investigations of U.S. military personnel. If the allegations prove true, Haditha and Mahmudiyah will deservedly take their place alongside Sand Creek, Samar and My Lai in the unhappy catalogue of atrocities committed by American troops.

"You have to understand the Arab mind," one company commander told the New York Times, displaying all the self-assurance of Douglas MacArthur discoursing on Orientals in 1945. "The only thing they understand is force -- force, pride and saving face." Far from representing the views of a few underlings, such notions penetrated into the upper echelons of the American command. In their book "Cobra II," Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor offer this ugly comment from a senior officer: "The only thing these sand niggers understand is force and I'm about to introduce them to it."

But recall a more recent incident, in Samarra . On May 30, U.S. soldiers manning a checkpoint there opened fire on a speeding vehicle that either did not see or failed to heed their command to stop. Two women in the vehicle were shot dead. One of them, Nahiba Husayif Jassim, 35, was pregnant. The baby was also killed. The driver, Jassim's brother, had been rushing her to a hospital to give birth. No one tried to cover up the incident: U.S. military representatives issued expressions of regret.

In all likelihood, we will be learning more about Haditha and Mahmudiyah for months to come, whereas the Samarra story has already been filed away and largely forgotten. And that's the problem.

The killing at the Samarra checkpoint was not an atrocity; most likely it was an accident, a mistake. Yet plenty of evidence suggests that in Iraq such mistakes have occurred routinely, with moral and political consequences that have been too long ignored. Indeed, conscious motivation is beside the point: Any action resulting in Iraqi civilian deaths, however inadvertent, undermines the Bush administration's narrative of liberation, and swells the ranks of those resisting the U.S. presence.

Read the whole thing. It goes a long way towards putting into context some of the problems with alleged abuses of civilians in Iraq. Now I am going to reserve judgement on the active cases going on in Iraq, the Haditha incident and the alleged rape and murder, are open cases... The AG Prison scandal is not.

The apparent attitude of commanders on the ground towards the people of Iraq could go a long way towards explaining why such incidents have occured. This is pretty uncomfortable stuff we are talking about. The image of Americans as Liberators, and the whole Rah Rah, we are here to save the Iraqi people from tyranny thing, is going to ring pretty damned hollow if the latest accussations prove true...

A Secret the Terrorists Already Knew

Privacy rights advocates, with whom we generally agree, have lumped this bank-monitoring program with the alleged National Security Agency wiretapping of calls in which at least one party is within the United States as examples of our government violating civil liberties in the name of counterterrorism. The two programs are actually very different.

Any domestic electronic surveillance without a court order, no matter how useful, is clearly illegal. Monitoring international bank transfers, especially with the knowledge of the bank consortium that owns the network, is legal and unobjectionable.

The International Economic Emergency Powers Act, passed in 1977, provides the president with enormous authority over financial transactions by America's enemies. International initiatives against money laundering have been under way for a decade, and have been aimed not only at terrorists but also at drug cartels, corrupt foreign officials and a host of criminal organizations.

These initiatives, combined with treaties and international agreements, should leave no one with any presumption of privacy when moving money electronically between countries. Indeed, since 2001, banks have been obliged to report even transactions entirely within the United States if there is reason to believe illegal activity is involved. Thus we find the privacy and illegality arguments wildly overblown.

So, too, however, are the Bush administration's protests that the press revelations about the financial monitoring program may tip off the terrorists. Administration officials made the same kinds of complaints about news media accounts of electronic surveillance. They want the public to believe that it had not already occurred to every terrorist on the planet that his telephone was probably monitored and his international bank transfers subject to scrutiny. How gullible does the administration take the American citizenry to be?

Terrorists have for many years employed nontraditional communications and money transfers — including the ancient Middle Eastern hawala system, involving couriers and a loosely linked network of money brokers — precisely because they assume that international calls, e-mail and banking are monitored not only by the United States but by Britain, France, Israel, Russia and even many third-world countries.

While this was not news to terrorists, it may, it appears, have been news to some Americans, including some in Congress. But should the press really be called unpatriotic by the administration, and even threatened with prosecution by politicians, for disclosing things the terrorists already assumed?

In the end, all the administration denunciations do is give the press accounts an even higher profile. If administration officials were truly concerned that terrorists might learn something from these reports, they would be wise not to give them further attention by repeatedly fulminating about them.

There is, of course, another possible explanation for all the outraged bloviating. It is an election year. Karl Rove has already said that if it were up to the Democrats, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would still be alive. The attacks on the press are part of a political effort by administration officials to use terrorism to divide America, and to scare their supporters to the polls again this year.

The administration and its Congressional backers want to give the impression that they are fighting a courageous battle against those who would wittingly or unknowingly help the terrorists. And with four months left before Election Day, we can expect to hear many more outrageous claims about terrorism — from partisans on both sides. By now, sadly, Americans have come to expect it.

That is really what it all comes down to... An administration that believes it is above the law and completely unaccountable. The Supreme Court smackdown, demonstrates this very clearly. All the hell raising over the NYT revealations is more about raising the fear factor of Americans before the next election. Eh... I don't think it will work this time.

Others discussing:

Liberty Street, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, AMERICAblog and WTF Is It Now??

The following is a letter Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, has sent to readers who have written him about The Times's publication of information about the government's examination of international banking records:

I don't always have time to answer my mail as fully as etiquette demands, but our story about the government's surveillance of international banking records has generated some questions and concerns that I take very seriously. As the editor responsible for the difficult decision to publish that story, I'd like to offer a personal response.

Some of the incoming mail quotes the angry words of conservative bloggers and TV or radio pundits who say that drawing attention to the government's anti-terror measures is unpatriotic and dangerous. (I could ask, if that's the case, why they are drawing so much attention to the story themselves by yelling about it on the airwaves and the Internet.) Some comes from readers who have considered the story in question and wonder whether publishing such material is wise. And some comes from readers who are grateful for the information and think it is valuable to have a public debate about the lengths to which our government has gone in combating the threat of terror.

It's an unusual and powerful thing, this freedom that our founders gave to the press. Who are the editors of The New York Times (or the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and other publications that also ran the banking story) to disregard the wishes of the President and his appointees? And yet the people who invented this country saw an aggressive, independent press as a protective measure against the abuse of power in a democracy, and an essential ingredient for self-government. They rejected the idea that it is wise, or patriotic, to always take the President at his word, or to surrender to the government important decisions about what to publish.

The power that has been given us is not something to be taken lightly. The responsibility of it weighs most heavily on us when an issue involves national security, and especially national security in times of war. I've only participated in a few such cases, but they are among the most agonizing decisions I've faced as an editor.

The press and the government generally start out from opposite corners in such cases. The government would like us to publish only the official line, and some of our elected leaders tend to view anything else as harmful to the national interest. For example, some members of the Administration have argued over the past three years that when our reporters describe sectarian violence and insurgency in Iraq, we risk demoralizing the nation and giving comfort to the enemy. Editors start from the premise that citizens can be entrusted with unpleasant and complicated news, and that the more they know the better they will be able to make their views known to their elected officials. Our default position — our job — is to publish information if we are convinced it is fair and accurate, and our biggest failures have generally been when we failed to dig deep enough or to report fully enough. After The Times played down its advance knowledge of the Bay of Pigs invasion, President Kennedy reportedly said he wished we had published what we knew and perhaps prevented a fiasco. Some of the reporting in The Times and elsewhere prior to the war in Iraq was criticized for not being skeptical enough of the Administration's claims about the Iraqi threat. The question we start with as journalists is not "why publish?" but "why would we withhold information of significance?" We have sometimes done so, holding stories or editing out details that could serve those hostile to the U.S. But we need a compelling reason to do so.

Forgive me, I know this is pretty elementary stuff — but it's the kind of elementary context that sometimes gets lost in the heat of strong disagreements.

Since September 11, 2001, our government has launched broad and secret anti-terror monitoring programs without seeking authorizing legislation and without fully briefing the Congress. Most Americans seem to support extraordinary measures in defense against this extraordinary threat, but some officials who have been involved in these programs have spoken to the Times about their discomfort over the legality of the government's actions and over the adequacy of oversight. We believe The Times and others in the press have served the public interest by accurately reporting on these programs so that the public can have an informed view of them.

"A secondary argument against publishing the banking story was that publication would lead terrorists to change tactics. But that argument was made in a half-hearted way. It has been widely reported — indeed, trumpeted by the Treasury Department — that the U.S. makes every effort to track international financing of terror. Terror financiers know this, which is why they have already moved as much as they can to cruder methods. But they also continue to use the international banking system, because it is immeasurably more efficient than toting suitcases of cash."

Nuns pray over the bodies of four American sisters killed by the military in El Salvador in 1980


I just finished reading Empire's Workshop, a book written by Greg Grandin, author of The Last Colonial Massacre.

If you are still naive enough to have a puritan view of American global politics, you need to read this book.

Considering the times we live in, it seems very appropriate to look back on our History as an imperial power, and how our immoral past continues to guide U.S. foreign policy.

Jan. 8 - What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq? The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called "the Salvador option"—and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. "What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are," one senior military officer told NEWSWEEK. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing." Last November’s operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking "the back" of the insurgency - as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time - than in spreading it out.

WASHINGTON, June 24 - The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say.

And the US Congressional elections are WHEN? You know the absolute contempt that these people have for the intelligence of the American people is nothing less than incredible....

I want to make it clear that I support Bill Bennetts right to gamble away small fortunes while touting morality. I support his right to allegedly drink from a dogbowl and have a buffed Dominatrix whip his ass... Of course none of this impacts his credibility in preaching morality.

Michelle Malkin is such a hypocrite.

Funny she does not mention that she was a Drive By Baby. Heh...

Making money out of being gay. I am not at all impressed. If she actually stood for anything (except being Big Dick's daughter), I'd suggest that it might be worth checking out her book. But, she doesn't, and the book is there just to make the rich kid richer. Don't waste your time or money. She had a chance to actually stand for Gay rights and at the very least be accepted by the gay community. But all she has done is put herself in a position where she will be shunned by everyone.

Bout sums up my feelings on the matter. My hope is that she sells about 10 books, and then they rush it to paperback and the discount bin.

Be sure to check out the Video

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said Friday it had disciplined the Mexican founder of an influential Catholic religious order who has been accused of sexual abuse, instructing him to retire to a life of "prayer and penitence."

The censure of the Rev. Marcial Maciel, 86-year-old founder of the Legionaries of Christ, is significant because he and his conservative order had found favor under the late Pope John Paul II, making the decision by Pope Benedict XVI even bolder.

BOLDER??? More like Boulder Dash! Just another instance of the church quietly retiring one it's perverts. This slime is going to live the rest of his life surrounded by luxury and servants. The only consolation is that there is probably a SPECIAL section of hell for these people.

"There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up. What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."
- Rush Limbaugh show, Oct. 5, 1995

Did anyone expect this lying, hypocritical scumbag to show any contrition?

WEST PALM BEACH - Conservative king Rush Limbaugh opened his talk show Monday with an account of the agreement he struck with prosecutors and his quick trip to the Palm Beach County Jail Friday.

"There was no arrest. There were no handcuffs. There was no perp walk. There is no charge," said Limbaugh, trumpeting the message his public relations pros have telegraphed since Friday, that he was not arrested.
Rush

But according to the agreement, signed and finalized Monday, there is, of course, a charge: withholding information from a practitioner, doctor-shopping, a felony, hanging over his head.

And according to a jail official, Limbaugh's surrender on a warrant and his booking at the jail certainly is an arrest.

"It's all semantics," says Capt. Mark Chamberlain, a jail supervisor, about whether a person who surrenders can be called "arrested." "But it's definitely going to count in our booking statistics as an arrest."

The prince of lies does not want to admit he was arrested... Big Whoopie! He got off with not even a SLAP to the wrist. He is a hypocrite, who by his own logic, should be in jail... What else is new?

Talk about "The Pot calling the Kettle black!"

Politically, I think it's fair to observe that we've reached that point of partisan purity wherein a certain activist segment of the American left has decided, en masse, to pretend to believe a whole number of things that are objectively false (including, in this case, Colbert's genius) - and they have decided to do so in order to build consensus and then use groupthink as a political bludgeon, even it comes at the expense of their integrity and intellectual honesty.

Some may have considered Colbert's speech last night to have been in bad taste. I don't happen to share that belief. But I would like Jeff, or anyone else... to point out one falsehood in the "facts," he presented.

I will agree with my Right Wing Brethren that by commedy standards, (Number and length of laughs), he bombed. But he made some powerful points, and I for one am just satisfied that they are being discussed.

This remarkable post, says it all...

Hat tip C&L

From Pensito:

"China has become successful because the Chinese people are experience [sic] the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce, and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship."

President George W. Bush, just moments before a woman is arrested for verbally protesting the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao

That about says it, doesnt it. And I noticed, as I pointed out earlier, that several Right Wing Blogs picked up on the HERO thing, but none of them have been willing to STAND UP for the Hero...

Sort of like ranting and raving about, "supporting our troops," and then clamming up when the troops get screwed over.

UPDATE: Wizbang has a nice statement about the charging of Dr. Wang.

It's okay to operate GULAGS on foreign soil, no doubt to make it easier to torture people and make Real Life Snuff Movies and Porn Videos, but it is NOT okay to leak the information out? It's okay for Bush to Leak classified info to destroy the credibility of a detractor, but anyone else who does it is a traitor? Yep I got it...

I'm sorry, but I find this, truly funny and massively hypocritical. I posted,"Anyone got Michelle's Phone Number," back when this whole thing started. I of course have seen her contact information in several places since, but would never publish it. Why? Because I think Michelle was a piece of garbage for publishing those kids numbers in the first place, and I am many things, but Garbage I am not.
Still it facinates me how the Right Wing can get all bent out of shape and hollier than thou, over something that got started by one of their own foaming at the mouth brigade. I run a company. I release press releases all the time, and our contact information is on our website. Does this give any Right Wing Hate Monger out there the right to publish my contact information on their site along with hateful, mob inciting rhetoric? I don't think so, and even people on the Right have de-linked Ms. Malkin and condemned her actions.

Goldstein comes off with his usual logic defying rhetoric:

Whether you care for Michelle Malkin's political positions or not, this crusade to try to intimidate her and her family, a crusade being waged by mostly anonymous cowards who no person in the blogosphere, left OR right, should encourage or countenance, is both disgraceful and, in the long run, dangerous. Not only that, but the pretext upon which it is based—the reprinting of a press release (which last I checked was INTENDED to be disseminated), is so laughable as to be insulting to anyone with even a spark of electricity traveling across their grey matter.

So. I am now calling for the very public condemnation and ostracization of those who would post satellite photos and personal home phone numbers of a their political opponents on the web. I am also calling for the public condemnation and ostracization of those hyperpartisan bloggers / media figures who condone or applaud such actions.

Okay, I'll bite. I condemn Michelle Malkin AND those on the Left who have chosen to use the politics of personal intimidation. I believe that lowering the debate to the point of questioning people'e patriotism and calling them "troop haters," is sickening and should not be part of a civil debate on the Iraq War. I also believe that calling people "cunts," and racial names is childish. People have the right to stand up against a war that they don't believe in, without fear that the "Weenies of War," will be unleashed upon them. That same Freedom of speech applies to Michelle Malkin, who is free to spew her hatred as she sees fit, but not to sick her pathetic band of xenophobic, racist neo-patriots on those on the other side who chose to excercise their rights.

How this Brave Woman can be a hero to the Right for speaking out against human rights abuses in China. And yet strangely, no major player from the Right seems to be standing up for her when the Bush Administration is talking about throwing her in jail. Who's defending her.... Based on what I see on Memorandum right now, its a..... (hush mah mouth!), bunch of progressives....

Imagine that...

My mama used to have a phrase for this kind of hypocritical BS:

"Pot calling the kettle black"

The THUGESS in chief tries to justify her publishing of the SAW members contact information to her Hate Brigade. Wash it all you want Michelle, it still stinks. You would be better served by calling off the rabid dogs that you call readers...

The Conservatives are dalling all over themselves trying to do damage control on the recent criticism of Rummy by a group of retired Generals. As expected, a few Generals are supporting Rumsfeld and the Right is citing this as "proof of some kind of conspiracy." Um hmmm.. It's not within their capacity to underderstand that post Abu Gharib, with dozens of people dying in a civil war in Iraq and a FUBAR situation so bad that even Condi has admitted to "thousands of mistakes," in Iraq, that career military officers could be telling the truth about their opinion... No, these are enemies of the State, traitors and eroders of troop morale... These men who have served in harms way, and did not "have other priorities," or use Daddy's influence to get a cush National Guard gig during the Vietnam War. Yep traitors and pawns of the Democrats and Progressive's who will say anything to make Bush look bad...

Well add another to the list.

Three years ago, I was a Marine Corps captain on the Iraqi/Kuwaiti border, participating in the invasion of Iraq. Awestruck, I heard our howitzers thunder and watched artillery rockets rise into the night sky and streak toward Iraq — their light bathing the desert moonscape like giant arc welders.

As I watched the Iraq war begin, I completely trusted the Bush administration. I thought we were going to prove all of the left-wing antiwar protesters and dissenters wrong. I thought we were going to make America safer. Regrettably, I acknowledge that it was I who was wrong.

I believed the Bush administration when it said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. I believed its assertion that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium from Africa and refine it into weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb. I believed its claim Iraq had vast quantities of biological and chemical agents. After years of thorough inspections, all of these claims have been disproved.

Hat tip C&L

Be sure to read the whole thing. A man who did two tours in Iraq, shame on him for not talking about the new schools that are opening.

I believe there is a simple solution to winning this war. Captain Ed, Malkin, Goldstein, the idiots from Powerline, they should ALL enlist and go on over to Iraq, help out you know. And if that is unrealistic for them, perhaps they could use some of that blogads revenue and go on over and do some REAL reporting on the war, from the streets of Baghdad. They could show the MSM a thing or two about objective reporting. Maybe they could work in the PR group of the army, help develop a strategy to convince the Iraqis how fucking wonderful their lives are... yeah that's the ticket....

1. She is ridiculous, and should be prosecuted like anyone else striking a police officer.

2. If conservatives are so damned law and order, why arent they clammoring for Delay and others to go to jail. I am sorry, but this is nothing more than hypocrisy. Hell, the people at Wizbang have spent the last year defending the outting of a CIA agent, and they have spent the last week reporting breathlessly on this crap every day...

Here let me HELP, if Cynthia McKinney is guilty of striking a police officer, she should go to jail! Now lets scrutinize that list of Republican criminals, shall we?

Remember this? Well you would think now that the truth is out about what happened to Jill Carroll, someone owes her an appology... Ya Think?

NAW!

See that would be the classy thing to do... The right thing. But some people are not able to admit that they are wrong, even when it is slapping the shit out of them.

The Moderate Voice has an outstanding analysis of the aftermath of the Carroll crucifixion, its a must read. The post ends with this bit of analysis:

Polimom has a take on this, too which includes this tidbit:

Folks, everybody makes mistakes, and many bloggers have passed early judment to their chagrin - including me. It's rare, though, to see a personal smear campaign on this scale, and it should remind all of us that responsibility comes along with public discourse - even in this "new" medium.

I don't know how rare it is... I am reminded of the swiftboat job on John Kerry, and how his wife was even dragged through the mud. No, I don't see this crap as being all that rare at all, especially when someone has the audacity to hold an oppossing point of view. Personally I believe dear Debbie, is an Ann Coulter wanna be. But that is just my opinion. The rest of the crap... Well what have we become used to from that festering, racist pussbag of LGF, it is what it is.

I personally am glad the young woman made it home with her head, and I am sure she will have the last laugh. I can imagine that the publishers are already lining up for the book and movie rights...

Oh, and while you are reading updates, go read this one. ReidBlog does a follow up on the reaction of the haters out there. The Jonah Goldberg rant is a classic...

You no, I have never used the REALITY BASED COMMUNITY Tag on my Blog, but I am begining to get the point. Some of these people are definately living in alternate realities.

The National Urban League put out another mind-numbing compendium of statistics about the average black American and the average gaps between him and the average white American. My my! What is to be done? More money for more programs, of course. More awareness. More political activism, more donations of time, money and lip service from 'responsible' blacks who aren't 'sell-outs'. Whatever to that.

What the (upscale bourgie) leadership of the UL knows but won't say is that they're doing fine. It's implicit in all of their role-monkeying. Look at us. You could be just like us if you just... Actually, they're absolutely right.

Very simple ideas will make the difference between black poverty and black middle class status. This is why the idea of programmatic reform is so seductive to do-gooders like the Urban League. But they are not alone. In fact, there is no black organization I've ever known that didn't have the answers in plain sight. The Black Panthers were right. The National Association of Black Journalists are right. Booker T. Washington was right and duBois was right too. They all knew the way to San Jose, or the Promised Land or whatever place it was that the Brothers Johnson were singing about in 'Strawberry Letter 23'. (Or was that Earth Wind and Fire in 'Fantasy'?)

And yet the problems of the black underclass persist. And so such organizations pretend that their message isn't getting out. But it has been out and we've all heard it before.

Cosby said it, and that's all that ever needed to be said.

I'm willing to bet that the Urban League is chock full of first generation college graduates, but relatively few children of second and third generation grads. The old money has no misplaced optimism. They know better. They understand that there is no substitute for discipline, talent, loyalty and luck. They know that if people aren't motivated to make the difference in their own lives that no amount of coaching and prodding is going to make a material difference.

It's a bit tough being a Conservative because what Cosby said is all we really need to say. Our value is rather like everyone elses - we repeat that which needs to be said because obviously too many people aren't listening. But the difference between our perfect black solution and that of the other guys is that we choose not to profit by the suffering of the downtrodden. We won't end up institutionalizing the entire apparatus of keeping hope alive. We know that hope is born every day in every generation and that it keeps itself alive. That's the very definition of hope.

But on the Pimp side of the equation hope must be kept alive by artificial means - the self-congratulatory means of middle class co-sponsorship. And let's make no mistake about it, the National Urban League is not well-endowed by clusters of multi-millionaires. It is a march of middle class dimes, it is recycled black dollars, it's made of the stacks of spare change from brothers and sisters in my tax bracket. That's why what I'm saying is sacreligious. I'm the prime target of NUL fund-raising. Somebody who can do $100 a plate (as opposed to $5000 like the big dogs). Hope is kept alive by the diatribe and litany of ills that oppress the black masses. Katrina this, welfare-that, black on black the other, bombing you on your head until you think black Americans must be the most despised, hated, pathetic and undernourished souls on the planet. (Especially compared to average white Americans).

BUT YOU CAN HELP!

Can you? Can you really? Wouldn't you if you could? Hasn't everybody already?

Somebody might call me on it, but I have a very hard time believing that the Urban League, for all its good intentions, is anything more than a black owned and operated marketing organization selling a repackaged American Dream. They are selling the dream short however, but suggesting that they themselves are integral to the struggles of black Americans' upward mobility. But there are no barriers the Urban League can take away, no cities it can rebuild, no economic deflection it can manifest. There is nothing it can do but inform. It is a body with a tongue, and what that tongue is saying is that 'we still have a long way to go'. In the consulting business, that's called building in future work by making oneself indispensible.

There will always be a black underclass. They will be, as they are today, plagued with the same deficiencies of every underclass since the dawning of civilization. There too, will always be upwardly mobile escapees plagued by liberal guilt, and shaming Conservatives denigrating the lot of them, their struggles and false promises. We're all part of the same old wheel of humanity. But in the end since we know about humanity and its folly, we know that the middleman will never get any credit. So I conclude that the Urban League's days are numbered. What will kill it? The black middle class will stop kidding itself.

an article by Rahma Hugira, female Yemeni journalist

Sana’a -Yemen

Recently, 23 prisoners of alQaeda most dangerous members in Yemen broke away from their prison after a very long process of planning, while Yemeni security were too busy chasing and snooping on opponent journalists .The fugitives were said to dig a more than 400 meters underground tunnel to the most secured prison in Yemen, the Political Security. Some of them were even luckier and had opportunities to running away for three a number of times.

Fortunately, for more than month Alqaeda members were digging the tunnel to smuggle their leaders, for the third attempt! Whereas the local security were keen on spreading a recorded private telephone conversation between Aljazera correspondent in Yemen ,Ahmed Alshalfi and his wife, as scandal to punish him for interviewing the kidnappers of tourist Italians last month!!.

Regardless of what was reported in Yemeni newspapers and speculations about whether the breakaway was a means to blackmail the US administration or a deal between Alqaeda and some powerful figures in Saleh’s regime, there is the other side of this story: the tragedy of unlucky civil society activists that has to be mentioned.

This week perhaps, the fugitives are planning to go through their agenda, whereas three editors of Yemeni newspapers were shown standing with criminals in blue convicts clothes in a cage. There are Mohammed Alasadi, the editor-in-chief of Yemen Observer and Akram Sabra, Managing Editor of al-Huraea and Kamal Alulofi, editor-in-chief of Alray Ala’am, who still wanted by the police. The three face gross accusations for republishing the Danish satirical cartoons, in spite of the fact that they had published the caricatures as away to denounce them, the authorities found it as a golden chance to and use it against them and thus further undermine the freedom of press.

Besides the three detained journalists, there are more than 13 'unruly' journalists, who have been threatened to be charged with the same accusations because of their straightforward articles criticizing the corruption of Yemeni rulers. Furthermore, three newspapers including, Yemen Observer, one of only two papers that are published in English in Yemen have had their licenses canceled.

Despite the inhuman conditions the detainee journalists are living in, and the others whose reputation has been defamed, these journalists are afraid that they would be targeted by extreme anger and assaults from the angry and misled public, whose illiteracy and extremism was exploited by the regime to attack its enemies and blackmail its friends.

These contradictory attitudes of Saleh’s mismanagement are complicated equations for anyone who doesn’t follow Yemeni issues, but for Yemenis, they are perfectly understood and it is known to all here that the real enemies of Saleh's are those who oppose him by means of civil methods, not by breaking laws or threatening the world security and peace.

Therefore, Saleh has spent more time and effort to fight his critics inside Yemen or outside than he has done about international wanted persons or corrupt figures. For this, he employed military operations or Yemeni people's attitude to influence public opinion in Yemen. The media, mosques and army camps are the most popular platforms that are used to incite people with misleading ideas and views to serve the ruling regimes in the Muslim world.

If we could count how many times president Saleh roused these platforms against terror and against his opponents, especially journalists, we will see that the subject is there in 90% of his speeches. Furthermore, the media and mosques still incite uneducated Yemeni people against the West and against America.

Then it is typical that the regime would ask for security and financial cooperation to use for the purpose of blackmailing donors further, and terrorizing journalists .That is what Yemen's friends found it out lately about Yemeni-American cooperation to fight terrorism. Now they that they can’t achieve any victories against terror with corrupted and cheating partner like the Yemeni regime. It is beyond the ability of Saleh to fight terror, which has created by bigotry and illiteracy because it has been used by him to maintain his rule period for more than 28 years.

It is clearly that the big challenge in fighting terror in Yemen, Bin Laden’s homeland, for the USA and the international society is how to manage to avoid supporting the double terror in; Aalqaeda terror and terror against journalists .

Chairwoman of Yemeni Women Media Forum

I just love Cheney!

The Humane Society had previously condemned a specific of hunt Vice President Dick Cheney was on in December 2003!

Here's a guy who had, "other priorities," during the Vietnam War. Here's a guy who talks tough on Terrorism and curses like a sailor. Here's a guy who has no problem sending other people's kids off to die in an unnecessary war. But he goes on Mickey Mouse hunting trips where the game are literally sitting ducks. And he STILL can't shoot straight! Well at least the victim was not a Liberal.

Now aint this just special?

Ken Starr, caught lying and trying to suborn perjury!

Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California’s governor to spare the man’s life, prosecutors said Friday.

The jurors denied they thought Michael Morales deserved clemency because some of the testimony at his trial may have been fabricated, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

"We showed each person the declaration on their behalf and they all said they didn’t say that," Barankin said.

I just love such shining examples of Hypocrisy...

But you wont see this video on any Right Wing Blogs... Hehe...

Torture
Secret Prisons in Eastern Europe
Handing Prisoners over to be tortured by third parties

What happened to the American conscience. There was a time when we were the good guys. Could it be true that all it takes is a blow to turn good into evil?

I dont believe the America I grew up in would have tolerated this:

WASHINGTON - U.S. forces in at least two cases have detained wives of suspected insurgents in Iraq in an attempt to pressure the men into surrendering, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union confirm.

"This is not an acceptable tactic," ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh said Friday.

In one instance, members of a military task force seized a mother of three young children "in order to leverage" her husband's surrender, according to an account by a civilian Defense Intelligence Agency officer.

In the other, an e-mail exchange includes a U.S. military officer asking, "Have you tacked a note on the door and challenged him to come get his wife?"

Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, said: "It's very hard, obviously, from some of these documents to determine what, if anything, actually happened….

"When you see an individual e-mail note, it's oftentimes very confusing to figure out how that particular case fits into an overall, larger puzzle."

In Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said that only Iraqis who pose an "imperative threat" are held in long-term U.S.-run detention facilities.

The documents are among hundreds the Pentagon has released periodically under court order to meet an ACLU request under the Freedom of Information Act.

A June 10, 2004, memo written by the DIA employee, labeled as "secret," referred to "violations of the Geneva Convention."

It described the actions of Task Force 6-26 and stated that on May 9, 2004, task force personnel detained the wife of "a suspected terrorist" in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad.

"The 28-year-old woman had three young children at the house. Her husband was the primary target of the raid," the memo stated. "It was recommended that if the wife were present, she be detained and held in order to leverage the primary target's surrender."

Taking HOSTAGES... America, taking hostages.... Say it aint so....

Update: ABC News has more on the story

I am just dying to hear how my Conservative friends defend this one.
We used to have a term for what the Conservatives do when it comes to supporting the Military.... A nice descriptive Ghetto Term... "Talking LOUD and saying NUTHIN'"

Hat Tip Balloon Juice

And while I am on the subject of Iraq, the reconstruction seems to be going smoothly too...

WASHINGTON -- Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn't get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews and internal company documents.

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, disputes the allegations about water problems at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi, even though they were made by its own employees and documented in company e-mails.

"We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated," said a July 15, 2005, memo written by William Granger, the official for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait.

"The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River," Granger wrote in one of several documents. The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who will chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting abuses in Iraq. He said Democrats were acting on their own because they had not been able to persuade Republican committee chairmen to investigate.

The company's former water treatment expert at Camp Junction City said that he discovered the problem last March, a statement confirmed by his e-mail the day after he tested the water.

While bottled water was available for drinking, the contaminated water was used for virtually everything else, including handwashing, laundry, bathing and making coffee, said water expert Ben Carter of Cedar City, Utah.

Another former Halliburton employee who worked at the base, Ken May of Louisville, said there were numerous instances of diarrhea and stomach cramps _ problems he also suffered.

A spokeswoman for Halliburton said its own inspection found neither contaminated water nor medical evidence to substantiate reports of illnesses at the base. The company now operates its own water treatment plant there, spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said.

A military medical unit that visited Camp Ramadi in mid-April found nothing out of the ordinary in terms of water quality, said Marine Corps Maj. Tim Keefe, a military spokesman. Water-quality testing records from May 23 show the water within normal parameters, he said.

"The allegations appear not to have merit," Keefe said.

Halliburton has contracts to provide a number of services to U.S. forces in Iraq and was responsible for the water quality at the base in Ramadi.

Granger's July 15 memo said the exposure had gone on for "possibly a year" and added, "I am not sure if any attempt to notify the exposed population was ever made."

The first memo on the problem _ written by Carter to Halliburton officials on March 24, 2005 _ was an "incident report" from tests Carter performed the previous day.

"It is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including Coliform bacteria," Carter wrote. "There is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required 2 mile distance.

"Therefore, it is my conclusion that chlorination of our water tanks while certainly beneficial is not sufficient protection from parasitic exposure."

Carter said he resigned in early April after Halliburton officials did not take any action to inform the camp population.

The water expert said he told company officials at the base that they would have to notify the military. "They told me it was none of my concern and to keep my mouth shut," he said.

Oh NO, Halliburton, the Halliburton of NO BID contracts, is a "Liberal Boogeyman!" You'd think that Dick Cheney would be on the phone with his old colleagues sorting this out, wouldn't you? You'd think that Republican lawmakers would be outraged. You'd think that Conservative Bloggers, who claim to be all about supporting the Troops would be all over this story... WOULDN'T YOU?

From Yahoo News:

Although President Bush says he doesn't recall meeting convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the two have reportedly turned up in photos together.

Both Washingtonian and Time magazines have reported the existence of about a half-dozen photos showing the two together.

Time reported on its Web site Sunday that its staff members have seen at least six photos featuring Bush and Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from his lobbying practices and has pledged to cooperate with investigators. They appeared to have been taken at White House functions, according to the reports.

The White House has acknowledged that Abramoff attended some events at the Executive Mansion, and spokeswoman Dana Perino said Sunday it's not surprising that the two would have met.

"The president has taken tens upon thousands of pictures at such events," Perino said.

Hmmmm, not exactly news since from the moment Bush denied knowing Abramoff, there have been reports of a mad scramble in the White House to do damage control, including identifying photos and, "reasons," for his numerous appearances at the White House.

Response from one of my Favorite Bush Die Hards, Rob....

This is going to get a ton of attention from the media and the left. The contributions made by Abramoff to Bush have already been the subject of much scrutiny and criticism. But before Howard Dean and his ilk begin talking about perp-walking the President out of the White House I'd like to remind everybody, once again, that it is not Abramoff's personal donations to politicians that has him in trouble. Rather, it is the contributions he directed his clients to make to politicians in return for special favors.

This is how it worked: Abramoff would approach a politician to find out if they would be willing to "play ball" for his clients. If yes, Abramoff would direct his clients to contribute the appropriate amount to the politician in question. He did not, as far as we know, route any of this money through his personal accounts or contributions to politicians. And he would be stupid to have done that. Abramoff, as a private individual, faced the same contribution limits under campaign finance law as everybody else. Once he reached those limits he could donate no more in his name. Indian tribes, however, are exempted from that law and can contribute unlimited amounts of money.

Of course, if it comes out that Bush did engaged in some quid pro quo with Abramoff for these contributions the President should have to face the music like everybody else. But that's highly unlikely. Given what we know about Abramoff's other dealings he did not arrange for political favors based on his personal contributions.

Can I call Bullshit now?

First off, no lobbyist, especially Abramoff, makes donations without some expectation. This is not to say that Bush is on par with DeLay, but it is also not to say that it was perfectly okay for Bush or any other representative to dirty their hands with this man.

Rob goes on to make the spurious claim that Abramoff directed his clients to make "hundreds of thousands of dollars," in donations to Democrats... Nice talking point, mostly bullshit.

I am not saying Bush is guilty of corruption because he had now pretty conclussively been tied to the Abramoff scandal. I am also NOT saying that there were ZERO Democrats who accepted money as part of this scandal. Whitewashing Bush involvemen, while implying broader Democratic involvement is just plain BS, and should be called as such.

Michelle needs to just shut up. It didn't work the first time, it won't work this time...

Radio talk show host Michael Graham, now at Boston's WTKK, is also staying on top of the Haleigh Poutre case. Be sure to check out his website for the latest Haleigh developments.

Michael e-mailed me that many talk show hosts don't want to discuss the story:

I fear it's the post-Schiavo syndrome.

I think Michael is right, and that the post-Schiavo syndrome is affecting more than just talk radio. Few on either the left or right in politics, in the blogosphere, in the MSM punditocracy, want to grapple with the moral, legal, and medical implications of this wrenching case. And as I noted before, the bleeding hearts in Hollywood, so quick to leap to the defense of every last Death Row convict are AWOL. There's already a jaded and shockingly callous exasperation about Haleigh's case epitomized by the title and comments at John Cole's blog: "Dear God, not again."

Michelle, a bit of advice, why don't you use your bully pulpit to raise awareness about child abuse. I mean this child was "killed," by those who were suppossed to be protecting her. Don't you see that as a more compelling issue here?

Hat Tip Crooks and Liars

Read John Cole's piece....

And let me add... DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! Damn all the hypocrits to hell!

Can I call Bullshit Now?

Steven, whom I happen to respect, writes:

Evidence for the relative degrees of venom on the Left and Right must necessarily be anecdotal. Last year the formeer NYT ombudsman Daniel Okrent noted the Left's greater hatefulness. During the '04 campaign, it seemed clear that there was more Dem than Rep election vandalism. Leftie blogger trumpet the restrictive (or nonexistent) comment policy on large Conservative blogs as some evidence that all those bloggers want to do is tout the Rovian party line and brook no dissent. From my own experience, Leftie blog-comment 'dissent' consists largely of vile name-calling.

At any rate, I accept the anecdotal evidence that Lefties are more strident, more hate-filled, in their rhetoric. (And I'm talking about 'on average,' wiht significant overlap in the Left and Right bell-curves). But I'm genuinely not sure why. Any thoughts? (Other than 'Lefties are bigger a*holes.')

First off, if Howell had accused the Republicans of something they were not guilty of, Powerline and Michelle and all the rest of the gang would be calling for her firing immediately. And implying that lefties are more hateful than Right Wingers is simply ridiculous. No scientific measurment has been done to my knowledge, and there are just as many hate filled comments from Right Wingers as there are Left Wingers. As someone who has had his children called "little niggers," by Jeff Goldstien readers I can attest to that fact. Not to mention the weekly hate filled diatribes by Paul at Wizbang and his ranting crew of hangers on.

Lastly, I saw the comments that were posted to that blog. America Blog had a post linking to an archive of them, and out of the hundreds of comments, there were maybe a half dozen objectionable ones, and that is by anyone's standards...

That is what's wrong with our country. It all comes down to Wingnuts and Moonbats doesn't it? No dialogue is possible, because even rational people like Steven get in on the game. Most of the Progressives I know dislike the current administration, they don't HATE their fellow Americans because they voted for it... Try talking to most on the Right and see what you get...

You obviously did not read this.

Or have you read what EVERY Lefty in the blogsphere had to say about Belafonte?

And personally, while I am not a big Michael Moore fan, Daou is 100% right on when he says:

And last I checked, Michael Moore didn't massacre thousands of innocent Americans. (The indispensable Crooks and Liars has the clip) And here's John Kerry's blistering statement on the Hardball scandal and Bin Laden's reappearance:

"You'd think the only focus tonight would be on destroying Osama Bin Laden, not comparing him to an American who opposes the war whether you like him or not. You want a real debate that America needs? Here goes: If the administration had done the job right in Tora Bora we might not be having discussions on Hardball about a new Bin Laden tape. How dare Scott McClellan tell America that this Administration puts terrorists out of business when had they put Osama Bin Laden out of business in Afghanistan when our troops wanted to, we wouldn't have to hear this barbarian's voice on tape. That's what we should be talking about in America." -- John Kerry

Michael may be a lot of things, but a murdering terrorist he is not. I can see how in your view anyone with such strong beliefs against the war and against this administration is an EVIL person, but I'm with Daou! Unless you know something none of the rest of America does, Michael Moore did not deserve that... And I am beginning to believe Matthews may be sharing the same crack pipe with Belafonte.

And while I am not sure of the value of "insta-blogs," based on one subject, if the Right could do it with RatherWatch, perhaps this guy has the right idea. Maybe it is time some of us played, "Hardball," with Chris.... hmmmm...

"What I can't stomach is Gore's partisan point-scoring."
Rob Port writing at Wizbang on Gore's recent comments on the NSA Domestic Spying Scandal....

Would it be okay for me to call BULLSHIT about now? Partisan Point Scoring? And No one, including Rob... does that on the Right... right? Since when is it Partisan Point Scoring to simply agree with the majority of Legal Scholars, including a member of the Secret Court who approves NSA snooping and quit as a form of protest... Since when, except in Conservative Hack fantasy land, is it Partisan Point Scoring to demand accountability of our elected officials?

Oh yeah, I forgot, questioning anything "The King" does is Partisan Point Scoring.... Long Live the King!

The tide may be turning though... We can only hope. I have asked repeatedly of my conservative friends, including Boyd, who is rational most of the time... Where do they FEEL a Wartime President's power should end. No one has given me an answer. Perhaps it is time for that answer.... Perhaps it is time we all took a look at the issue of Presidential Power, or more importantly, the balance of power...

Truer words...

As someone who has no idea what it's like to serve my country in the military because I was in college during the Vietnam war and they weren't drafting babes (just my boyfriends), I still have an opinion about it in light of all the news I've been reading lately.

On one hand, you have the administration warning Americans that speaking out against bush's fascist war policies gives comfort to our enemies and ruins the morale of the troops fighting for our freedom in Iraq while on the other hand Vietnam war heros such as John Kerry and Jack Murtha get swift boated for their service because they dare speak their minds years after they performed their service militarily and continue to serve their country in government.

Now what kind of morale boost is that for our troops? Do you not think that some of them are wondering that perhaps some day they might continue to serve their country in public office, but perhaps their military service may be thrown back in their faces and discredited? If I were in the trenches now and was hearing that former soldier's ribbons and medals were under question 30 years later, it would really bum me out. It would be disheartening to know that my fellow Americans who are trying to get me out of that middle eastern sand trap were being silenced too. Maybe, just maybe I could think of something better to do than try to avoid being blown up because I was trained for combat and this is not combat.

Waddaya need your arms and legs blown off in order for anyone to respect you after a war? Wait. No. Max Cleland was swift boated and he is living proof that he risked his life for his country. Look what the fascists did to him! John McCain has been swift boated by his own party.

On one hand the fascists are all 'rah rah war' and on the other hand, they demonstrate time and time again that the troops are not human beings, but fighting machines and guinea pigs who are expendable.

Have not been written. The Chicken Hawks have repeatedly used this tactic over the last few years, and to devastating effect in the 2004 elections. Now it's Murtha that they are after. It's pretty clear that one's noble service to the country means nothing if one dares to buck the system. The fact that "swiftboating," someone has become part of the language of the land, is a sad testament to the effectiveness of the smear as an effective political tool.

"Is it true that you never used to beat your wife?"

Clever tactic, real smart... Associate someone with a scandal by mentioning that they are not part of it. I heard from a good source that Rob and Glenn Reynolds are NOT child molestors.... Please.... Sleazy guys, REAL sleazy. Too bad niether of you seem to get very motivated when it comes to reporting on the real scum polluting up Washington....

Blah, Blah, Blah,Blah...

Like I said last night:

And for that matter so Freakin' what? The woman cried. Did she go to Senate Confirmation hearings expecting them to be an honors banquet?

And please, like the Democrats are suppossed to just lay down and give Bush Appointments a Pass. This shit is getting pyschotic. And I know I an inviting an attack by Wizbang's resident Bad Boy (Yawn), who gives a shit. Bring it on Bad Boy. I know you will just take a couple of smug swipes over in your playground.

John Cole and I agree of few things, but his rationality is obviously something that gets under the skirt of the Brown Shirt wing of the Conservative Blogsphere.

And finaly, get over the hypocrisy, dudes. Its not good for your soul. Not that I am endorsing the idea that some of you HAVE a soul.

And oh yeah.... RIGHT ON Reid!

Amen...

I am just waiting for Goldstein to call this an anti jewish thing.

"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents?"
Tom DeLay

Read this post by KOS and you will see exactly why that quote is so ironic.

From DC Thornton:

Democrats have always touted their moral authority on being tolerant and understanding of blacks and the poor,just as long as you're not like Ted Hayes, a respected homeless advocate who happens to be a black Republican.

This kind of idiocy is what really gets to me about some Democrats. Ted Hayes is a decent, kind, man who is doing good in his community. Do I think Blacks should participate in Republican Politics, of COURSE. The only way to change a party is from the inside. While I dissagree with many Republican and Conservative principles, I respect those blacks who have a sincere desire to work for change within the Republican Party.

The idea that someone who has done so much good, would be punished for his political affiliation is counter to what the Democratic Party is suppossed to be about.

I guess based on this, it is safe to say he would not do what GW is doing.

How they can get, and STILL get, all outraged about Bill Clinton's immorality, but stay silent on stuff like this. I mean that DeLay is a DIRT BAG, is obvious to anyone who can read, but he gets a pass.... Repeatedly he gets a pass... Go figure!

Hat Tip Gillmor

"I'm not a lawyer, so it's kind of hard for me to kind of get bogged down in the law. (Applause.) I'm not going to play like one, either. (Laughter.)
Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way."

George Bush April 20, 2004

Hat Tip: The Heretik

Eh... Touche'

Of course, that does not prevent the Righties from trying to confuse the issues... Which has been so beautifully exposed here....

I guess the Clinton thing did not work....

So now that great bastion of unbiased editorial, the Wall Street Journal, says its okay to spy on Americans without a warrant... yeah right... Eh, Dear... It's an EDITORIAL, not a legal opinion, forgive me if I wait for the investigation hmmmm.... Perhaps you should too huh?

Eh, but thanks for the links... Doesn't seem to be sending any traffic this way, but hey, cant hurt the ole' TLB rankings...

That one of the wingnuts would eventually come up with a "Clinton did it too!," defense of the latest "let's piss on the constitution," party. Well I have a message for my Wingnut friend... If Clinton did it, he was wrong too, as was Carter and any other President who chose to circumvent the constitution. We dont have KINGS in this Country, and we have three branches of Government for a reason. That reason may not be obvious to those who are so full of their own self rightousness that they cant see the threat to ALL of us. But our founders had the right idea.
Patriotism is not empty slogans and hyperbole, it is defending what this country stands for. How can we on the one hand claim to be spreading democracy, and on the other, sidestepping the very checks and balances that our Founding Fathers felt were important enough to Amend the Constitution for.
Some of you people have become disgusting in your apologetic stance towards an administration that reeks more than even the Nixon White House. Have you no shame?

Read the comments to this post... The prevailing Right Wing opinion following yesterdays elections is:

Look at the millions of people we saved from torture and death, and tyrany, and all that good stuff.... Fine enough. One thing I share with my Right Wing buddies is a sense of elation over the happiness of the Iraqi people at being able to vote, and at having Saddam sitting in a prison cell where he belongs... But lets take a look at some of the comments to the post.

"i never want to hear another progressive ever claim they stand under the banner of democracy and self-governance. the fact they are silent when actual democracy is happening and only raise their voices to accuse democracies of repression, reveals that democracy is a term they use fraudulently."

"You can keep asking why we didn't liberate every other country under the sun, but all you're really saying is that you just didn't want to liberate Iraq in addition to not wanting to liberate anyone else. We decided to deal with Saddam once and for all and at long last, after over a decade of failed diplomacy, something that in hindsight we should've done a long time ago. It seemed to me there were very few options left for what to do with Iraq. So, some of us thought it was a good idea to deal with Iraq before it became more like North Korea, that is, able to hold the world hostage."

"So what does your "against-ness" consist of? Circa 1859 would you have discouraged the armies of the north from invading the south? There were many who did so. Would you have said that the slaves would throw of the chains of their southern overlords all in good time? There were many who said so. Is your against-ness just an opinion? a feeling contra the large overall concept of War? As opposed to another large overall concept of, say, Freedom?
Bush didn't have the luxury of an opinion; he held the future in his hands."

So now that Korea (The Real Threat) has been convienantly dismissed... Let's look at the "Reason" we went into Iraq. To liberate the people from a madman and save thousands of people from getting killed. Good stuff, noble stuff. The stuff America is suppossed to be all about! Now, where is the Right Wing outrage over THIS?

Time for ridiculous WIZBANG quotes...

1) I wonder where the Democrats' newfound respect for veterans came from. It was nowhere in evidence in 1992 or 1996, when a draft-dodger who had publicly expressed his "loathing" for the military ran against two men with distinguished war records.

Jay, Jay, Jay....
LMAO! Now one thing you have to give credit to Clinton for, he was not a hypocrit about not wanting to go to Vietnam. On the other hand, your BOY.... Hehe... Lets see, he was snorting coke and drinking mint julips in Alabama while better men were checking in to the Hanoi Hilton. Of course that did not stop him from sliming that better man in 2000, or sending his dogs to slime one in 2004... Did it... Oh the Outrage!

I guess this just BLOWS to Hell the Administration's argument about our reasons for going to Iraq including stoping human rights abuses huh?

I grabbed this today out of a story about the use of the word insurgents. It provides a fairly dismaying view of Rumsfeld views on stopping torture by Iraqi forces we've trained.

From the Washington Post:

This time, it's the Joint Chiefs chairman [Gen. Peter Pace], still new to the job, who isn't marching to Rumsfeld's orders.

When UPI's Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld replied that "obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility" other than to voice disapproval.

But Pace had a different view. "It is the absolute responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene, to stop it," the general said.

Rumsfeld interjected: "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it."

But Pace meant what he said. "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it," he said, firmly.

Of course it's our job to stop it. Jeezus H!

And yeah I agree, Rummy should be put out to Pasture, along with the rest of the morons behind this war.

Why this is supposed to be important.... Especially in light of the Bullshit that has come from their 527's.... Remember the Swift Boat Liars? I mean THE OUTRAGE of using a stock photo in a Political Ad, and not verifying the pattern of the Cammies! They should all be shot I tell you!

Remember the Commissar's post on the Hate of the Left... Jack has some news for us, and it is that Hate is an equal opportunity political weapon.

Now I am going to make a bet that none of the usual suspects will address the questions posed in this post.

Just as they ignored this one, despite commenting quite "liberally," this week.

The truth is that the Right Wing simply ignore ANYTHING that can not be easily spun, especially when they look hypocritical in doing so.

Anyone up to answer this one?

Anyone want to explain to me how THIS, is "partying," over the deaths of American Troops?

Oh, and I just love the outrage!

Will someone explain to these people, and do it REAL slow so they understand, that some of us feel legitimate pain at the deaths of our young men and women, and believe in expressing that grief and our opposition to a war that every day is becoming more of a quagmire.

My hope is that one day Americans will wake up and realize that people like this are the REAL Anti-Americans. We are a nation with a proud history of dissent. Some of our greatest triumphs in building this nation started out an unpopular ideas, and the leaders of the movements were called names by the same kind of demagogues. The defense of this war has become difficult for even those who started it, and yet people like Malkin and Johnson continue to justify the war by attacking those who oppose it. The true Ghouls are those who justify the deaths of 2000 Americans on the basis of politics, because really... That is all they have left.

Hat tip Daou.

Dear Jeff:
Get over it. You have now been revealed as a the hypocrite and LIAR... that you are. Untalented? Whatever? I don't do this for a living, and if you paid attention, beyond scanning the blog horizon for attacks on Bush, you would know that:

1. I could care less about your critique.
2. My REAL Talents lie in making money.
3. Refer to item one.

What is funny about your post is that you guys are so dreadfully unoriginal. I cant spell worth a damn. I am fat. I'm Black. Last time I checked, one of the most popular blogs on the Internet, is written by a guy who meets two thirds of that criteria. I am willing to bet his blog whups both our asses. So what is your point, besides immature ramblings meant to insult. Get a life, stop drinking the Kool Aide, sign up for Military Service, (Oh yeah, I forgot, you prefer to support the war from the sidelines)... what the fuck ever. And I wont delete your trackback. I pwahmus!

Since Jeff has decided to address this post, I will summon up what little talent I have and try to respond.

What has being Fat and Black and Tony Pierce being black have to do with anything. I will say it slow so Jeff understands.

You have decided to take another approach to attacking me, first it was, "I am fat." We agree, great way to disarm that one huh? Then you decide to critique my spelling. Nothing new about that one. Thank God my clients don't deduct a dollar for every extra "n" I place in the word "minions," right? Some of your "minions," have made racial slurs in my comments, pointing out that I am black.... Wow what a surprise! I was simply pointing out that Tony likewise is Black and a Lousy speller, hasn't seemed to hurt him at all. And me being hugely untalented hasn't seemed to stop the MSM from frequently picking up my posts. So forgive me if I don't go all teary eyed over your opinion hoss.

And Yeah, Get over it!

UPDATE: Comments are being closed on this thread as well. Frankly I don't have time to deal with more of the same. I have posted Jeff's full comment as part of a post, so everyone can see it, along with my thoughts. You will find the post here. You are free to comment in that thread, but any more, "you are an idiot, moron, fatboy, nigger," comments, will be deleted.

One who leans to the right, drinks Roveco Kool Aide, and believes that the Federal Response to Katrina was Great at best, and the jury is still out at worst. At least that is what Jeff, "Damn I am so smart," Goldstein believes. But, "It's because of the Hypocrisy," you see!

Joe Gandelman writes a reasoned analysis of the Katrina aftermath, sharing the differing points of view. Jeff as he is often want to do, decides that he, "knows where Joe's heart is," and proceeds to blast him for no apparent reason other than he doesn't excuse the Bush Administration completely of blame. Something Jeff did weeks ago, despite claiming to want to "wait until all the facts are in."

Of course the Jeff G fanclub weighs in with their typical inflammatory nonsense, including calling Joe Gay... Which I fail to see what Joe's sexuality has to do with the subject, but then again, most of the trolls I get from Jeff's site seem to be obsessed with my weight. So in a pinch I guess any insult or perceived insult will suffice.

When Mike Reynolds of The Mighty Middle, weighs in on the cheap shot, Jeff Responds.... With an ego like his, would you expect less? Of course Jeff does not own up to the errors and mal attributions in his post! Say it after me kiddies, "It's the Hypocrisy!" Instead he goes into a righteous defense of his attack.

Let me point out a couple of things before Jeff's minions arrive to defend his lordship. Joe Gandelman is one of the most fair minded people in the Blogsphere. If anything, I find myself in disagreement with Joe as much as agreement.

Jeff delights in making fun of my "Conservatives as Hypocrites" meme. At the same time his attack of Joe for balance, while he has been anything but, is the hight of hypocrisy. This guy is supposed to be one of the humorist of the Right. The only thing I find funny about him is that others find him funny.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.

I'm not surprised, are you surprised?

Along with a being a hypocrite. Picking a fight with Tas over something he knows that Wizbang does with some regularity when it comes to Paul is a bit ridiculous.

I have taken to just making fun of the morons who come over to ISOU with the "Intent to Troll". I personally don't have the patience or time to delete keyboard monkeys every time they get the urge to fight the good fight for their Blog Heroes.

Wizbang points out this morning that the DNC was using a petition to fire the FEMA Director, to raise funds, you know, to do political stuff. Of course the Republicans never do such things. President Bush would never use a National Tragedy for political gain.... Would he?

While I agree that Katrina should not be used as a fundraiser for anyone other than the victims, I am a bit startled by the sheer hypocrisy.

UPDATE: Welcome Daou Report Readers

UPDATE II: Welcome Readers of The National Review Online.

Update at bottom of page.

From Frumious Blues:

Through the day, I saw sporadic reports on various blogs that the military in New Orleans are trying to keep journalists out of the city. Via Atrios (via Josh Marshall) comes this confirming report from NBC anchorman Brian Williams:

National Guard soldiers are ubiquitous. At one fire scene, I counted law enforcement personnel (who I presume were on hand to guarantee the safety of the firefighters) from four separate jurisdictions, as far away as Connecticut and Illinois. And tempers are getting hot. While we were attempting to take pictures of the National Guard (a unit from Oklahoma) taking up positions outside a Brooks Brothers on the edge of the Quarter, the sergeant ordered us to the other side of the boulevard. The short version is: there won’t be any pictures of this particular group of guard soldiers on our newscast tonight. Rules (or I suspect in this case an order on a whim) like those do not HELP the palpable feeling that this area is somehow separate from the United States.

At that same fire scene, a police officer from out of town raised the muzzle of her weapon and aimed it at members of the media

obvious members of the media armed only with notepads. Her actions
(apparently because she thought reporters were encroaching on the
scene) were over the top and she was told. There are automatic weapons and shotguns everywhere you look. It's a stance that perhaps would have been appropriate during the open lawlessness that has long since ended on most of these streets. Someone else points out on television as I post this: the fact that the National Guard now bars entry (by journalists) to the very places where people last week were barred from LEAVING (The Convention Center and Superdome) is a kind of perverse and perfectly backward postscript to this awful chapter in American history.

What are they trying
to hide? Their dicks have been hanging out on national TV for a week
now. The only possible rationale for prohibiting press access is to
keep us from knowing exactly how badly they fucked over the country.

You know what I find most offensive in all this.... It is that the media has been complicit in their own defanging. Where has the outrage been for five years as this administration has operated time and time again in secret. The no bid contracts, Abu Gharib, Camp Delta, Downing Street, Gannongate, 9/11... Time and time again this administration has played it's Rovian games unquestioned by the Press. The Majority of the American public have went about their business oblivious to the putrid stench of a political system rotten to the core.

The Press, long champions of "the truth," have served as miserable lap dogs to an unacknowledged "Ministry of Propaganda," run by Karl Rove. The Republican Spin Machine, supported by Conservative Blogs have fed the American public a constant steam of "truthspeak," creating an impression of Leadership when it never existed beyond the photo op and sound bite. A couple of two bit lawyers and a call center manager from the Midwest become celebrities while shamelessly calling dissenters, "traitors." While the real treason lies among those who fail to question. We have lost our way as a Democracy because some people have feel in love with the idea of power, power at the cost of freedom.

What happened in the Gulf remains a National Embarrassment. No amount of censorship will rid the American mind of the sense of powerlessness we all now feel. Nor will it change the fact that the sense of Safety Americans have had, the promise of Security was a sham, and God help us if another disaster or terrorist strike happens in the U.S. anytime soon. The utter ineptitude of the people running our country, long ago exposed to those us who immune to the snake charmer tactics of Rove and Company, has now been exposed to the entire world. Unfortunately thousands of Americans may have died to finaly demonstrate that indeed... The Emperor has no clothes.

Unfortunately there are still those who refuse to believe what their own eyes and ears tell them. I had a long discussion with a conservative friend tonight who absolutely refused to believe that Bush said that no one anticipated the levies not holding. Even confronted with video of Bush saying those very words, he still insisted that video can be edited and he wanted to see a transcript. How does one fight that kind of partisan lunacy. I have come to the conclussion that you dont... If New Orleans in all of it's horror did not serve as a wake up call for these people, then nothing less than a catastrophic terrorist attack will. I am affraid that even with that, they will find a way to spin Bush out of responsibility for it. My conclussion is that they all suffer from a sense of guilt, that will not allow them to acknowledge their own culpability in a disaster that far exceeds the carnage of Katrina.

And the Spin Continues... (I discovered this piece from Wizbang as part of the same Daou Report.) I applaud Paul for acknowledging the obvious,

"Of course FEMA, and the idiot who runs it, are a different matter."

But the premise of the post, that Lefties are being unfair to Bush for being on vacation, is way off the mark. The Photo of Bush being briefed before the storm means nothing, if it took five days for his team to adequately address it. FEMA, Homeland Security... They were missing in action for days as people died, and this falls directly on Bush's doorstep. There is NO excuse for it. As for the contention that others shared the blame for what went wrong. I agree. Every politician from the local, state and Federal governments share blame in what was a failure of unimaginable proportions. What has happened since has been even more disgraceful. The lying and spin in particular. So Paul may feel comfortable excusing the failures of the Administration, after all, he survived... His brethren who didn't, or who lost people in the aftermath, may not be so generous.

And while the press is effectively shut out of reporting the real tragedy... There is THIS.

You angry yet???

What I truly DON'T understand, is how some Republican Appologist are trying to make Bush a victim in all this.... HELLO! The victims are the potentially thousands who have died.

In the age of video, it is "hard work," lying...

Yeah... Real Hard Work...

Anyone who can watch this video and still claim that this is all about Bush Hatred is... well... delusional at best.

It has been a week since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, leveled New Orleans and left hundreds of thousands of Americans homeless. We saw the best of America during that time—millions of people stepped forward to offer help. Meanwhile, the Bush administration failed at their most important job: keeping America safe. The federal effort was too little, too late and it is now becoming obvious that hundreds or even thousands of people died as a result.

Then, starting Friday, in a Karl Rove-led campaign, the White House started to blame state and local officials and even the victims who were stranded without transportation when the Hurricane arrived. Sign our petition demanding that the Bush administration stop blaming victims, including state and local officials, and focus on helping them.

Timeline

Friday, Aug. 26: Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency in Louisiana and requests troop assistance.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Gov. Blanco asks for federal state of emergency. A federal emergency is declared giving federal officials the authority to get involved.

Sunday, Aug. 28: Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. President Bush warned of Levee failure by National Hurricane Center. National Weather Service predicts area will be "uninhabitable" after Hurricane arrives. First reports of water toppling over the levee appear in local paper.

Monday, Aug. 29: Levee breaches and New Orleans begins to fill with water, Bush travels to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. FEMA chief finally responds to federal emergency, dispatching employees but giving them two days to arrive on site.

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Mass looting reported, security shortage cited in New Orleans. Pentagon says that local authorities have adequate National Guard units to handle hurricane needs despite governor's earlier request. Bush returns to Crawford for final day of vacation. TV coverage is around-the-clock Hurricane news.

Wednesday, Aug. 31: Tens of thousands trapped in New Orleans including at Convention Center and Superdome in "medieval" conditions. President Bush finally returns to Washington to establish a task force to coordinate federal response. Local authorities run out of food and water supplies.

Thursday, Sept. 1: New Orleans descends into anarchy. New Orleans Mayor issues a "Desperate SOS" to federal government. Bush claims nobody predicted the breach of the levees despite multiple warnings and his earlier briefing.

Friday, Sept. 2: Karl Rove begins Bush administration campaign to blame state and local officials—despite their repeated requests for help. Bush stages a photo-op—diverting Coast Guard helicopters and crew to act as backdrop for cameras. Levee repair work orchestrated for president's visit and White House press corps.

Saturday, Sept. 3: Bush blames state and local officials. Senior administration official (possibly Rove) caught in a lie claiming Gov. Blanco had not declared a state of emergency or asked for help.

Monday, Sept. 5: New Orleans officials begin to collect their dead.

(Adapted from: Katrina Timeline.

Those are the facts. State and local officials BEGGED for help as people in their city suffered. The Bush administration didn't get the job done and when their failure became an embarrassment they attacked those asking for help.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Karl Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett "rolled out a plan...to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina." The core of the strategy is "to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana."

This is the same pattern of smearing that the Bush political machine has used for a decade. John McCain and John Kerry had their war records smeared. The CIA cover of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was blown after he criticized the Bush Iraq policy. Now, Hurricane victims are attacked when the Bush administration failed to do their duty to help them.

It isn't just the Bush administration. Republican Senator Rick Santorum blamed victims in a TV interview and House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested New Orleans should not be rebuilt.

Excerpted from a MoveOn.org mailing. Sign their petition here.

I don't have much to say about this. I mean expressions of outrage just seem to bounce off the walls these days. These people are truly disgusting in their ability to play politics with disaster, and to put it simply... LIE. That there are people out there who still, after all this, refuse to deal with the truth is Frankly MIND BOGGLING!

Okay, I promised myself that I would not play politics today, but this is too difficult to pass up. For the last couple of days, Jay Tea of Wizbang has been OUTRAGED, OUTRAGED I tell ya! That I would the audacity to blame Bush for any of the problems in New Orleans and the surrounding area! So what do I find on Wizbang today???

"Note that the commander-in-chief of the Louisiana National Guard is Governor Kathleen Blanco (D). How she's deflected all blame for the delays in deployment is beyond me (certainly having the "D" behind her name doesn't hurt), especially when (as of Wednesday) only half of the available Louisiana National Guard was deployed for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts..."

Kevin at Wizbang

Still no mention of the disastrous FEMA response, who I believe report to the President... Nor did I note any mention that the bulk of the LA Guard is in Iraq... Oh well. Jay will of course claim that the post was not his so he has no responsibility for it. I just wonder if he gave Kevin the same lecture he gave me....

WASHINGTON - President Bush, facing blistering criticism for his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday "the results are not acceptable" and pledged to bolster relief efforts with a personal trip to the Gulf Coast.

"We'll get on top of this situation," Bush said, "And we're going to help the people that need help."

He spoke on the White House grounds just before boarding his presidential helicopter, Marine One, with Homeland Security Department secretary Michael Chertoff to tour the region. The department, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been accused of responding sluggishly to the deadly hurricane.

So Bush is now in the affected region, and has admitted that the response has been ineffective. This six days and who knows how many unnecessary deaths since the disaster first struck. There are many on the Right who don't want to talk about who's fault it is that this happened. Some want to imply that Left Bloggers are being petty. There is NOTHING petty about the death and destruction in Luisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. And there is NOTHING that would convince me that these same people would not have been all over Clinton, had this happened on his watch. Without even getting into the LA National Guard being in Iraq, or the fact that the Government cut moneys needed to keep New Orlean levy system functioning, there are still plenty of accountability issues in this case. And Bush's statement today is proof of them.

Call me petty all you like, but I do not consider it petty to hold our government accountable in times of crisis, and perhaps those criticizing the critics have not thought of this, but it has been six days since the Hurricane first hit. Look at the first line of the above article... Do you think that WITHOUT the criticism from the Left Spere, that Bush would be there today?

I have distant relatives that live in New Orleans, as well as countless personal friends and Fraternity Brothers. At this point I don't know where any of them are. I am angry and it appears that a LOT of Americans are angry. I am also dissapointed, that the President elected for Strong Leadership has so far shown VERY LITTLE strength or Leadership. Perhaps those of you who voted for him can stomach that, even EXCUSE it, I can't and won't. So dont DARE lecture me or others for "politicizing the disaster," when YOUR SIDE has politicized everything from 9/11 forward. This situation stinks with the smell of water bloated dead bodies. You are right about one thing, this event is being politicized, but not by the people calling for accountability. It is being politicized by the same people who time after time have excused the failures of this administration. There are two disasters taking place today, one is obvious, the other has been going on for five years!

And while you are pointing fingers at the Left, perhaps you should read this article about how one Conservative Magazine wants to blame the victims!

UPDATE: Jeff G weighs in on this post. As usual it's a distortion of what I wrote:

update: Here is "reasonable" lefty David Anderson, doing what he does best: congratulating himself and his ideological brethren
for saving the poor and displaced by heaping scorn and blame on the
President and his administration for a devestation (sic) he pretends to understand.

Because, you see, without the lefties screaming and yelling about how
Bush hates brown people and wants to see them dead or about how he
underfunded a levee that, were it to have prevented this disaster,
would have needed to be 50% taller to stop the Category 4 storm surge
(a plan that was never in the pipeline) they FORCED him to provide the relief he otherwise wasn't going to give.

They got him off vacation and into ACTION, however reluctantly. THEIR CRITICISM IS SAVING LIVES!

This, my friends, is why having a debate with wannabe pundits on the left is a losing proposition: their ignorance of the facts is surpassed only by their preening and utterly unfounded self-righteousness.

Like Gulliver, I fear I'm beginning to despise large swathes of humanity.

Welcome to the club Jeff, better late than never. I despised hypocrites a long time ago. And just to make it clear, I never accused Bush of Racism, I accused him of incompetence. Neither did I say anyone forced him to take action. What I said was that the criticism from across a broad segment of NON-Kool Aide drinking Americans forced him to move more quickly. Five days is a bit much don't ya think? But gee thanks for reading the blog and for the link. Us "wanna be pundits," take all the help we can get, even from an arrogant child who's own press and preening fan base has went to his head. Oh, and just so you know, I do understand disasters, having lived through a few of them myself. What I dont understand is people who just cant acknowledge that they are wrong. That never fails to amaze and annoy me.

Update HERE.

This is one of the most devastatingly brilliant pieces of blogging I have EVER READ! Thanks to the Brad Blog, for the heads up. It is a long piece, and brilliant every word, but I could not excerpt it in it's entirety. Go read the whole thing!

What happens when Chertoff (whose name actually means "of the Devil" in Russian) decides to forgo civil liberties in general and abuses his office, err, industrial department of Homeland Security? What happens when these Homelanders declare Martial Law in order to keep people from looting, but will not supply them with water, food, and other life sustaining supplies?

Apparently not a damn thing.

After all, no blond "good Christian" wealthy Republican children are drowning. Fox News anchors sit laughing at this tragedy but cry and piss on themselves because a blond girl on an island went missing (no offense to the family of the missing girl).

Do you realize that one person - one single person who is white, blond haired, and blue eyed - is more important to the networks than the thousands of black children spiraling to their deaths in a swirl of sewage in a once historic city?

Looting is what the networks are covering, as though such activity is "typical" of what "black people" do. The majority of residents left behind were the poor, who - due to the inexcusable mismanagement of emergency resources, coupled with high oil prices - were unable to leave on their own. The poor in this country happen to be minorities, so the people left behind were minorities.

Take away food, water, and other supplies and what should someone do? Swim over to an ATM and get some soggy money out? Or maybe dive in, holding their breath, and swim through their underwater living room looking for a lost wallet? Not to worry, the Pentagon is on its way, Martial law is declared, journalists are forced out, and those saved are happily dining on cat food.

Bush's cutting of his vacation short by a whole two hours - jetting off to DC, from where he can look Presidential -- is almost as timely as is him finally putting down My Pet Goat.

And where is that treasure of a mother, that national "I love my gay daughter when it works for the campaign" bastion of integrity? Lynn Cheney, the doyenne of Christian values, is probably rehearsing her "I am an indignant mother" routine, somewhere in the bowls of her underground mansion. Because she is not out, carrying buckets or collecting donations or for god's sake doing something to help the people of "her country."

Congress is still on vacation even though we are witnessing a national tragedy that could produce the worst death toll in recent US history.

Condi's father a prominent minister and educator is spinning in his grave as black women and children drown, while Condi stands and shills somewhere who the hell knows where on how we are spreading Democracy. As though such a thing as Democracy could be spread through rape, torture, and murder, like some venereal disease.

Where is the god damn leadership of this country? Dick, Condi, Rummy, anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

You know I finaly figured out why Jay Tea was so angry with my earlier post. Anyone from the Right who has watched what has happened in the Gulf Coast and is NOT having an "Oh Shit," moment, has got to be delusional. This disaster has absolutely stripped the myth away from George W. Bush and demonstrated not only the complete incompetence of his administration, but the callousness of it as well. It has also completely destroyed the MYTH of George W. Bush as a Leader in times of crises. This is a repeat of the Seven Minute Reading Session, as planes crashed into the towers, only this one has lasted five days. And honestly, if I was a Republican right now, I would be embarrassed beyond words.

Changing the subject will not change the facts. Shields are down Scotty, and there isn't enough Kool Aide in the world to bring 'em back up!

I am watching CNN this morning and the video coming from New Orleans and the Hurricane Zone is horrible. People are dying. People are without food and water. People are without hope...

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Thousands of people forced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina have crammed into the New Orleans convention center, where they've had no food, no water and no word on when help would come.

And people are dying.

CNN's Chris Lawrence described "many, many" bodies, inside and outside the facility on New Orleans' Riverwalk.

"There are multiple people dying at the convention center," he said. "There was an old woman, dead in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over her, pushed up against a wall. Horrible, horrible conditions.

"We saw a man who went into a seizure, literally dying right in front of us."

People were "being forced to lived like animals," Lawrence said -- surrounded by piles of trash and feces.

He said while he has seen police SWAT teams drive by in armored vehicles, no one has stopped to talk with the refugees.

I saw a video of someone's mother or Grandmother, dead in a wheelchair, pushed against a wall at the Superdome, covered with a blanket. Another grandmother complained of not having food for two days.

That people are still dying after FIVE days is a National Disgrace. This was an act of God, one that was expected and anticipated for days before hand. In fact, New Orleans has been a Hurricane Victim waiting to happen for years, so none of this should have come as a surprise to anyone...

The failure of Homeland Security to move quickly and have sufficient resources to aid the people of the Hurricane Stricken Region is yet another example of the ineptitude of the Bush Administration.

Those of you who voted for Bush with the idea that he was the best candidate to protect the Homeland, have now had your wakeup call. It does not matter the type of disaster. Had this been a terrorist attack, it is likely the same thing would have happened. At a time when the people of Luisiana needs them the most, their sons and daughters of the National Guard are far away fighting a useless war in Iraq. While Billions are wasted and even LOST in Iraq, the pumps and Levy's needed to protect one of our most beautiful and historical cities were neglected by our National Government.

Our Homeland Security appears to have learned nothing from 9/11. Police are not equipted to handle the scope of the disaster. Radios dont work. Police are taking gas from abandoned cars to fuel their cruisers. Coordination between FEMA, Homeland Security and local authorities has been a disaster. This disaster has been made 100 times worse by the incompetance of a Government that has bungled every major operation they have undertaken since first taking office five years ago.

This is NOT one Bush is going to be able to avoid responsibility for. Nor will it be one that Conservatives will be able to spin. It is a disaster of unparalleled proportions, and the responsibility for much of what has happened sits squarely at the door of this administration.

UPDATE: Jay Tea of Wizbang fame, has already posted a scathing comment to this post accussing Lefties of insensitivity to the problems on the ground in New Orleans:

"Things in the South are horrible. And while the Right side of the blogosphere is doing everything they can to help the people, the liberals are busting their asses, doing everything they can to make sure the "right" people get the blame. They'd much rather sit around and shriek in outrage, looking for someone to pin the blame on, than get off their self-indulgent asses, pry themselves away from their circle-jerk of political correctness, and actually step up and DO something about the problem themselves.

It's reminiscent of the illegal alien situation. The problem must be solved PERFECTLY, with no one getting their feelings bruised, or absolutely nothing at all can be done.

And in both cases, the liberals don't seem to mind if dozens, or thousands, or millions of people continue to suffer and die, as long as the liberals can make goddamned sure that they have plenty of bodies to lay at the Right's feet. In fact, for some, the more the merrier.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is, David. I'm helping Kevin coordinate our own relief efforts -- and it's not just because one of our own is one of those in trouble, and happens to be positioned to do some good. Where the FUCK is the massive movement from the Left to help those people?

On second thought, maybe it is best if you folks just stay out of the way while we do the real work. I'm trying to recall the last time liberals got involved in something serious and didn't majorly fuck it up. So keep on playing your little masturbatory political games -- we've got REAL work to do."

Perhaps Jay needs to look around the Liberal Side of the blogsphere before he makes such accusations:

In Search of Utopia

Patridiot Watch

The Rogue Angel

Crooks and Liars

Rox Populi

Billmon

Oliver Willis

Comments from Left Field

Dan Gillmor

Loaded Mouth

Ratboy's Anvil

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Ezra Klein

And that took me all of 30 seconds and was less than 1% of my Leftie Blogroll. Jay... Piss off. Because you Right Wingers want to stick your heads up your ass and pretend that this was a simple act of God, that NO ONE is responsible for, does not mean we should do it. It is time someone called this administration to accounts for the ridiculous policy and budgetary decisions that have led to so many deaths in the South.

You and your ilk would prefer to ignore the issue of responsibility, not just because the responsibility falls at the door of the President you voted for, but because YOU are partially responsible. You voted for this man, knowing well his record. YOU pushed his credentials for protecting the country. YOU supported a WAR that has drained the country of just the resources needed to address this kind of disaster. Yes Jay, you and everyone else who supported Bush, share responsibility. So YES, you should be working hard to help the people affected. It is the decent thing to do, the right thing to do. When it is over, six months or a year from now, you can stop working. We will join you in the effort to help those in need. But we will condemn the people who are responsible, AND we will hold them accountable, whether you chose to or not. And you are part of those who we will hold responsible.

If that hurts your feelings or embarrasses you, perhaps it should. Perhaps the time has come for ALL of you to step back, get off your own high horses and realize that you made a HORRIBLE mistake. One that today is affecting tens of thousands of Americans, including one of your own. One who pooh poohed Global Warming, which may have contributed to this disaster, and who supported the very war that took the Louisiana National Guard away from home at a time when they are desperately needed. With thousands missing, and an unknown number dead, I wonder how many of those troopers can concentrate on fighting your war right now, while the status of their own families are in doubt.

That is being an American.

Oh and Jay, while you are ranting about Liberals taking political advantage of the dissaster, perhaps you should read this Op/Ed from your own hometown and VERY CONSERVATIVE newspaper:

"Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.

A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease."

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." -- George Orwell, from the book 1984, published in 1949.

In the book 1984, the totalitarian government known as "Big Brother", uses high technology and cleverly crafted language known as "Newspeak" to control the minds of the masses. In that fictional world, any person thinking about notions of freedom or revolution was punished with torture or severe brainwashing. You see, in that world, thinking about true freedom was considered a "thoughtcrime". So Big Brother used "Newspeak" to get people to think in narrow terms, limiting the range of thought, in order to make "thoughtcrime" impossible.

I'm getting sick and tired of the Orwellian Newspeak. Just turn on the television, all you hear is Orwellian Newspeak. Nothing is as it seems.

That is the preamble to one of the best posts I have ever read. Go check it out.

That the insurgency is in its "last throes."

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents launched a sophisticated and well-coordinated strike against police checkpoints in Baghdad on Wednesday that left five dead and at least 31 wounded, police said.

Thirty to 40 insurgents in civilian cars fired two rocket-propelled grenades targeting police patrols at a checkpoint, striking vehicles. Initially, police mistakenly thought a car bomb had been detonated.

Using RPGs, hand-held grenades, AK-47s and machine guns stashed in their vehicles, the insurgents attacked police at other checkpoints.

Among those killed were two police officers. Seven police were wounded.

Via CNN

In the meantime, Bush continues to make speeches to Military Audiences, while refusing to meet with Cindy Sheehan.

It's classic Rove tactics. Things going to hell, go make a couple of Rah Rah, "We are facing an evil enemy, yada yada, Global War on Terrorism, yada yada," speeches before a friendly audience...

Show some courage Mr. President, meet for once with people who don't agree with you. Hear their point of view, THANK THEM, for being real Americans, and for honoring the American Tradition of dissent.

Now Pat Robertson is saying he was misquoted. Eh, you need to watch the tapes dude.

What Robertson and people like him dont realize, is that Chavez is popular as hell in Latin America. Making idiotic comments like that will only increase his popularity. Che has been dead for how many years? And yet they are still making movies about him...

This is hilarious, if for nothing else, the hypocrisy. The post references a post from NRO, where a Right Wing Blogger does a little "spying," at Camp Casey. He takes pictures, more or less makes fun of those supporting Cindy Sheehan, and does the usual Right Wing Slam of anything Liberal. Now cut back to the Polipundit post, for these words dripping with hypocrisy:

Berry says the protesters have been mostly respectful of her and other Bush supporters. But all that changed recently. "One of them came up to me and started taking pictures. It kind of made me uncomfortable, but that's their right. But the next day a group of them came up to me and said those pictures had been posted on the Internet and the protesters were making fun of my picture. It kind of shocked me. I almost wanted to throw up."

My sentiments exactly. Throw up or take a shower.

I wonder if Lorie threw up or took a shower, after reading the NRO post? I mean it was pretty much the exact same behavior that caused her to want to throw up on the part of the Sheehan supporters... Right?

Then there was this little nugget, also from the NRO Post:

"Two members from the administration stopped by while I was there and offered to bring food and drinks to those in attendance."

I wonder if the same offer was extended to Camp Casey, I mean they are Americans too right? Exercising their constitutional right to protest?

Sometimes the Hypocrisy of these people makes ME want to throw up!

Is a disgusting waste of air and space... That is all...

Last week, I heard repeated for the nth time the charge that the war on terror is a failure. Why did we invade Iraq, and more importantly, why is Osama Bin Laden still out there somewhere? Where is he? And how can we say we're winning the war if he's still unaccounted for?

I can see that argument. There's a part of me (the liberal, emotional, vindictive, touchy-feely part of me) even sympathizes with it. I want to see his ugly, bearded head on one of the spikes on the White House fence. But my intellect dismisses it as a non-issue.

Osama Bin Laden is not THE enemy. He is not who we declared war against. He is not the be-all and end-all of our foes, and even if he were to surrender today, that would not put an end to the struggle.
Jay Tea
Wizbang

Eh, are these the same people who supported and continue to champion a war based on, "Saddam Hussein is a bad, bad man... and needed to be removed from power?" Well, I don't know, maybe I am missing something, but I see the dude who ordered the murder of thousands of Americans as being a pretty bad chap too, and "rendering him irrelevant," while convienant for those who want to deflect from the embarrassment that we have not captured him, does not make it so..." Neither do I see us, "thoroughly stomping," anyone. If we have, then the terrorist that Osama continues to at least provide inspiration for, must be roaches, 'cause for every one we "stomp," ten more seem to appear. Jay Tea was once someone I respected, as at least inserting logic into his arguments, now he is nothing more than a well written apologist for a failed policy and a disgraced administration, one that does not quite know it has been disgraced.... YET...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. diplomats have conceded ground to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraq, negotiators said on Saturday as they raced to meet a 48-hour deadline to draft a constitution under intense U.S. pressure.

So what exactly was it we were fighting for in Iraq?

Bringing Freedom to Iraq? It will be interesting to see how Women's rights are respected under the new constitution. It will also be interesting to see how the Administration spins this. Conservatives continuously scream loud about not cutting and running, and it is one of the few areas I agree with them about Iraq. But this is just cutting and running under a another name folks. The administration will do ANYTHING to get out of Iraq at this point, including selling out the Iraqi people to the very terrorist who have been cutting off their heads and blowing up their markets for the last two years.

In the Meantime...
The NEW Iraq promises to be a model of stability, with none of the torture, abductions, cruelty and injustices of the Saddam Regime.... Yeah Right!

BASRA, Iraq -- Shiite and Kurdish militias, often operating as part of Iraqi government security forces, have carried out a wave of abductions, assassinations and other acts of intimidation, consolidating their control over territory across northern and southern Iraq and deepening the country's divide along ethnic and sectarian lines, according to political leaders, families of the victims, human rights activists and Iraqi officials.

While Iraqi representatives wrangle over the drafting of a constitution in Baghdad, forces represented by the militias and the Shiite and Kurdish parties that control them are creating their own institutions of authority, unaccountable to elected governments, the activists and officials said. In Basra in the south, dominated by the Shiites, and Mosul in the north, ruled by the Kurds, as well as cities and villages around them, many residents say they are powerless before the growing sway of the militias, which instill a climate of fear that many see as redolent of the era of former president Saddam Hussein.

USA Today - With about six weeks remaining in the Border Patrol's fiscal year - and more Border Patrol agents patrolling than ever - 201 men, women and children have succumbed to the elements in Arizona.

In Pima County, which includes Tohono O'odham and Tucson, so many corpses are waiting to be identified, autopsied and returned to Mexico that the coroner is storing 60 of them in a refrigerator truck.

Rob Port's response, posting at Wizbang:

"My response to this so-called crisis? Who cares?
Feeling sorry for people who consciously place themselves in a perilous position while committing a crime don't deserve our sympathy any more than drunk drivers who crash their vehicles and die deserve our sympathy."

Now I am a against illegal immigration as most conservatives, but being callous about the deaths of a couple hundred people, including women and children... Takes a special kind of hatred to feel that way. It also takes a special kind of hypocrisy, since the policies of the administration which Mr. Port and other members of the Bang Bang Crew support without question, is responsible for many of the illegal immigration issues that contributed to these deaths....

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
--Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

Amen...

Please read all of this post. Cant wait to hear what Chris has to say.

Want more proof of liberal's hatred guiding their thoughts? Try and figure out how this article relates to the "lies" that OIF is based on. Personally, I'm baffled.

Conservative Thinking

But he is right about one thing. Hatred pretty much describes my feelings about stupidity and political blindness. The post I made yesterday referred to a number of points. One (And I will keep this short to keep Chris' attention), is that as previously stated, the Iraq war was planned and pre-determined well before any effort was made to "justify," the war. Two, despite the fact that 9/11 happened on Bush's watch, and there appears to be significant evidence that it could have been stopped, had anyone in the administration been paying attention to the threat, Conservatives continue to blame it on Clinton, Liberals, anyone but the people most responsible for it...

I have ratcheted back my blogging lately, mainly because it is just ridiculous dealing with this crap. Disagree, hate me for being a Liberal, whatever. The chickens are coming home to roost, and history will be the judge as to who is right or wrong. Most blogs are preaching to their choirs, so I am sure Chris' audience is buying his spiel. But the Truth is out there.... I am confident that it will all come to light.

Oh, and as an asside, either Liberals are the only ones taking polls these days, or a significant numbers of Conservatives have stopped drinking the Kool Aid.

That is the sound of all those who have been denying the lies this war is based on, being beat over the head with a "truth stick!"

From Shakespear's Sister comes the latest:

Link (not blockquoted due to length):

State Department experts warned CENTCOM before Iraq war about lack of plans forpost-war Iraq security

Planning for post-Saddam regime change began as early as October 2001

Washington, D.C., August 17, 2005:

Newly declassified State Department documents show that government experts warned the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in early 2003 about "serious planning gaps for post-conflict public security and humanitarian assistance," well before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

In a February 7, 2003, memo to Under Secretary of State Paula Dobriansky, three senior Department officials noted CENTCOM's "focus on its primary military objectives and its reluctance to take on 'policing' roles," but warned that "a failure to address short-term public security and humanitarian assistance concerns could result in serious human rights abuses which would undermine an otherwise successful military campaign, and our reputation internationally." The memo adds "We have raised these issues with top CENTCOM officials."

By contrast, a December 2003 report to Congress, also released by the State Department, offers a relatively rosy picture of the security situation, saying U.S. forces are "increasingly successful in preventing planned hostile attacks; and in capturing former regime loyalists, would-be terrorists and planners; and seizing weapons caches." The document acknowledges that "Challenges remain."

Since then, 1,393 U.S. military fatalities have been recorded in Iraq, including two on the day the report went to Congress.

The new documents, released this month to the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act, also provide more evidence on when the Bush administration began planning for regime change in Iraq -- as early as October 2001.

Meanwhile, in Iraq.....

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi police arrested four people in connection with a string of car bombings Wednesday morning that killed at least 43 people and wounded 88 in central Baghdad, the Transportation Ministry said.

The blasts came as transitional governmental officials worked to complete a new constitution, which lawmakers hope will help produce stability in the volatile country.

The attacks began about 7:45 a.m. (11:45 p.m. ET), when a car bomb exploded outside of the al-Nahda bus terminal, police said. A second car bomb exploded about 10 minutes later.

Casualties were rushed to the al-Kindi Hospital, where a third explosion was reported a short time later.

Video from the scene showed the smoldering wreckage of a vehicle near two buses, but black smoke obscured much of the view. Iraqi police said 22 vehicles were damaged.

The "last throes," continue...

While some conservative bloggers blow sunshine up our ass... which is in and of itself amazing, considering that their own heads are up their asses. You see to them, it's all about Cindy Sheehan, the outrage of it all. Too bad they dont feel the same outrage about the bullshit that lead to Cindy being in Texas huh?

Wait NO, it was Clinton's fault!!! Everything was Clinton's fault. 9/11 was Clinton's fault... Let's just ignore the fact that it happened on Bush's watch, and that evidence has now been presented that 9/11 could have been stopped.

Have too much time on their hands.... Instead of beer busst and photoshop contest, wouldn't such creative minds be of much better use on the FRONT, fighting in the war they support so strongly? I mean wow, such energy, such wit, such creativity. I have no question that some of these guys could come up with a way to end the war tomorrow and poor Cindy could come home. What do you think?

I told you, this was coming.

I am just surprised it took this long.

I agree in principle that mainstream Muslims need to continue to work to eliminate extremism from their ranks, and to educate their youth on the evil of this philosophy. We need to do more to encourage them to do so. This type of push back, only serves to reinforce the arguments of those who would argue, "See, they hate you. Nothing you do is going to change their mind."

We need to start a dialogue with progressive Muslims. We need to encourage them to speak up, and support the efforts of those who do. The inflammatory rhetoric from some quarters about Islam only serves to push the young and impressionable, into the arms of the Terrorist.

When I was a young man, I remember the recruitment techniques of street gangs like the Crips and Bloods. What they offered was a rhetoric based on "Us vs. Them," and a sense of belonging. This is what we are fighting against, and until we offer young Muslims an alternative to that, a sense of belonging... Islamic Terrorism will continue to be attractive.

Think of the positive effect if more non Muslim Americans simply reached out to the Muslim Community, tried to include them, broke down some of the barriers which currently exist, and made them feel like Americans, instead of Muslim Americans.

As for the Right Wing Rhetoric, I will take it a bit more seriously when the Right spends as much energy condemning Right Wing hate groups, including those who bomb Abortion Clinics and disparage Gays and Lesbians. I will also be impressed with they tone down their rhetoric and match their rhetoric about caring for the people of Iraq, by demonstrating some compassion and soladarity with Muslims right here in the U.S., who are as much a victim of Islamic Terrorism as non Muslims are.

Update to this post.

It's amazing... Truly amazing... Kevin at Wizbang, who has posted:

Update 2: More on Novak and Plame later, but perhaps the raging debate in the comment section can dissect what effect, if any, Novak's piece would have had if he used Valerie Wilson instead of Valerie Plame? Also do you think Novak, on hearing of the wife's involvement got her name from Who's Who and stuck with it OR found the Who's Who reference to backup his source(s)?

*** Evidently one cannot even make a snarky remark about the Plame affair without having to explain oneself ad nauseum. OK here goes...

I'm over generalizing here, but it seem like there wasn't an outing of an agent until two non-secret bits of information were combined.Joseph Wilson's wife's maiden name, most would now agree, was not a secret. That Wilson worked at the CIA was not widely known, but it was hardly a secret [See Cliff May at NRO and Just One Minute]. That Wilson's wife was (or had been) a covert operative was only known to (if reports are to be believed) the Cuban government and perhaps those receiving information form Aldrich Ames, but it was still a secret. Novak puts two pieces of non-secret information together and gets this flashpoint.

But how did that combination "out" a covert agent? I turns out the the Valerie Plame name (remember, according to many commenters her name's no big deal) was her cover. If her cover name was Valerie Jones how exactly would Novak's column as it was written have "outed" her? It's wouldn't have. As former federal prosecutor Joesph DiGenoa contends it sure looks like the CIA didn't exactly bust a nut to "take every conceivable step to protect this person's identity."

to his misguided latest attempt to defend the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, has had it blow up in his face. He is getting hammered in his comments by "The Reality Based Community," who has apparently just had enough and called "Bullshit!"

The Right Wing efforts to defend Rove, Novak and the other co-conspirators in the treasonous act of outing an undercover CIA agent have gotten so ridiculous, that they don't even pass the smell test for some on the Right. Novak cracking under the pressure is just another example of things starting to unravel in the disciplined Bush Spin apparatus. This all started a while back with the unraveling of the Armstrong Williams scandal, followed by countless others. The recent Downing Street revelations, The exposure of the ACVR as a disgusting front for Partisan GOP Politics, and countless other mini-scandals, have demonstrated to any RATIONAL thinking person, that this administration is rotten to the core, and that the Emperor Indeed has no clothes.

That Wizbang, (A blog that based on comments on this blog demonstrate), has been discredited even among rational members of the Right (See RINOS), continues to spin the unspinnable, is no surprise. That they would do so with such completely ridiculous arguments, (even for them), is....

Apparently Kool Aide rations are running low, because more and more Right Wing Blogs seem to be changing their tone these days, subtly acknowledging that their Party has been hijacked by an extreme element that wants to impose a dogmatism on them that they never expected and don't support.

Many people on the Right voted for Bush last year for one reason. They saw him being stronger on Terrorism. These one issue voters are seeing religious dogmatism shoved down their throat. They are watching in horror as, "The man who would bring honor back to the White House," does anything but. They are alarmed.

There are those on the Right who absolutely believe the garbage that is coming from the Administration. And there are others who shamefully just cant stomach the idea that they made such a monumental mistake. Perhaps out of embarrassment, perhaps out of a vain hope that they are right, they will continue to defend the indefensible.

As a side note, while he has gotten a lot fewer comments, Rob has gotten slammed too.

"And, if memory serves me correctly, the information in the Who's Who listings are provided (or at the very least approved) by those listed in the directory themselves. Meaning that Wilson likely "outed" his own wife at least a year before President Bush was even in office."

The Ever so Brilliant Rob from Say Anything....

Eh, what did he "out her" as... His wife?"

Really need to think these things through Robster before you let your desire to crawl up the arse of the Wizbangers get the best of you!

"Missing Black Women: A liberal blogger discusses the missing Latoyia Figueroa's non-Laci-Peterson-like news coverage. If Figueroa had been married to the father of her child/children or anyone, would mainstream media be more interested? Discuss."
Lashawn Barber

Just adding to those links you so crave LaShawn...

Eh, and the answer to your question is NO! Tamika Houston has been missing for over a year, and got about as much coverage as Latoyia, and she does not have the "baggage," you Right Wing Religious nuts like to talk about. Stop Hating in the name of Jesus. Jesus don't like Ugly LaShawn, and your hate filled rhetoric, is pretty ugly.

First my apologies for breaking Blog etiquette and posting this post from Crooks and liars in it's entirety, but it is too hard to choose what to excerpt:

Brad Blog reports on this: "We'd expect it from the wingnut blogs out there like "Captain's Quarters", "Pardon my English", "Betsy Newmark", "WizBang", "The Anchoress" and "Mr. Remainder" (all of whom couldn't wait to re-type the nonsense without taking even thirty seconds to do a Google seach on the ACVR democracy-hating scam artists). But several in the "news" media faired as poorly as the Rightwing bloggers....read on"

The Moderate Voice is up in arms over this whole mess: WE WERE WRONG on that "The fact that a controversy has raged for months on the group being loaded with people alleged to be GOP activists means the report's allegations don't have the credibility it would have had if it was truly a bipartisan group with no controversy going back months....read on"

John Cole busted them this morning: "Sorry folks. I am calling bullshit on this group and on this report. The group was newly formed this year, it appears to be made up of nothing but Republicans, and for what it is worth, non-partisan groups concerned with voting rights don’t issue reports that amount to little more than “Democrats are worse. Neener Neener Neener!”