In re: The War on Christmas- Is your faith so weak, so mindless and empty, that you need your particular religious message reflected back at you from EVERY corner of society? Mine isn't. I know what I believe, and I don't need anyone, or anything, other than my own personal church family and my pastor, to reinforce it.

Listening to: This American Life Christmas Spectacular. David Rakoff is a genius.

Reading: JFC Fuller, The Second World War. In talking about the origins of the war, he cites Clausewitz, who writes that there are two types of war-limited and total. Needless to say, we're really good at total war. We can kick your butt six ways from Sunday, every time, anywhere on the earth. Delbruck, a student of Clausewitz, continues (since Clausewitz died) that it follows that there are also two types of strategy, annihilation (total war) and exhaustion (limited war). Annihilation aims at just that-the decisive battle that eliminates the enemy force. Exhaustion aims at a political end through all means-maneuver, economic attack, political persuasion and propaganda.

Is there any doubt of the relevance of this to the Iraq war? Is there any doubt we are fighting (and losing) a limited war?

Clausewitz again, from Fuller, quoting Craig-”no strategical idea can be considered completely without considering the political goal”. No comment required.

Fuller also cites General Giulio Douhet in his book “The Command of the Air”-

“A complete breakdown of the social structure cannot but take place in a country subjected to this kind of merciless pounding from the air. The time would soon come when, to put an end to horror and suffering, the people themselves, driven by the instinct of self preservation, would rise up and demand an end to the war.”

Isn't it obvious that the insurgency is this sort of reaction?

I do this not to prove that I can read old military histories, but to prove how obviously wrong the planning and execution of this war has been. I know these people (the political leadership of this nation) arent readers, and they dont listen to outside advice.

Craig again, from Fuller, on World War I and the Germans' failure:
“The high command had failed...and had lost the war because it had disregarded the most important lesson of history, the interrelationship of politics and war.”

I disagree with nearly all of the goals of this administration. EVEN IF I DIDNT, George Bush should be impeached, and, really, jailed, because he is COMPLETELY, MANIFESTLY, GROSSLY incompetent. No THINKING person can disagree with that statement. I know Cheney is probably worse, but George Bush has to go. Not because I don't like him, though I don't, but because he has committed and allowed others to commit high crimes and treasonous misbehaviors.

Chuck Klostermann blows my mind again in the December 2005 Esquire.

He's talking about the reasons why we form the opinions that we do, and a BBC documentary called The Century of the Mind. Basically, the idea is that the central point of our opinion making is whether or not we believe the world and other people to be a rational place. All other opinions-politics, ethics, religion, whether or not Seal sucks-seem to come from that.


Fascinating notion.

"Pressed on why he did not follow the surveillance act and get court approval, Bush said that would be too slow, even though such approval can be granted retroactively.

"We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent," he said. "

(http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20051220-9999-1n20bush.html)

Liar.

The FISA act allows him to go to court up to 72 HOURS after the tap is placed. FISA courts are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. FISA courts NEVER turn down the government.

George Bush should be impeached.

http://feinstein.senate.gov/crs-intel.htm



The above outlines PRECISELY which intelligence Congress gets, and which it does not get, and why.

So the next time a Republican tells you that Democrats saw "the same intelligence" before the war, tell them they are wrong.

Period.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/9/182140/401


Why do men hate women?

We're jealous. We don't understand you. We view nearly everything completely differently.

Chris Rock has a joke about married men being shoved together by their wives-"Talk to him. He likes baseball." Men are angry with women because your entire universe consists of things that we don't even know exist.

There is no excuse for rape or assault on a woman or a girl. But most men also live in fear that nearly any interaction with a woman can be misinterpreted as hostile, resulting in serious consequences for them.

Oh, yeah.

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

I hope George Bush is right. I really hope the Middle East will be transformed by the War in Iraq. That would result in millions of people being infinitely better off, not to mention happier and healthier.

That still doesnt change the fact that he didnt have to do it on the cheap, and he didnt have to lie about why he was doing it, and he didnt have to bungle the postwar and battle for the hearts and minds so horribly. That will be the lasting legacy of this war-one hundred years of children taught to hate us by fathers (or widowed mothers) who hate us because of Abu Ghraib. And Abu Ghraib is not the fault of the media, it is the fault of leadership. Funny how all this personal responsibility rhetoric ends when they are the ones who are responsible.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml


"It's just a goddamned piece of paper."
-George W. Bush, on the Constitution of the United States


Impeachment is too good for this guy. The unabashed gall of this man makes me literally nauseous. If you voted for Bush, and you're not ashamed of yourself, I'm not even sure you're human.

Although it is a fucking SIN that we have to do this, we should do it anyway.


https://thor.aafes.com/scs/default.aspx



Give phone cards to the troops.

From Harper's Magazine, November 2005, page 34 : "But he and other men and women serving in Iraq must pay for their phone calls home."

What?

WHAT? These poor men and women have to pay for their own phone calls? Are you kidding me? $1 billion per month and we can't spring for the G-D phone?

Give me one good reason. ONE. You money grubbing corporate fascist heartless bastards. What reason could there possibly be? Any conservative out there. Any of you. Explain this to me. Please.

There's a new book, "Postwar" by Tony Judt, about postwar Europe, which points out that one of the reasons why reconstruction of Europe worked so well was that THEY KEPT THE DAMN POLICE FORCE together! One of the favorite right wing taglines has been "Well, this is different from Germany and Japan because there werent any insurgents then." Duh.

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1122nj1.htm


"Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter."

That says it all. Cheney's a liar, Bush is a liar, Rice is a liar. You don't need anything more than this to begin impeachment proceedings.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-112105usiraq_lat,0,7518613.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The aptly named Dick Cheney.

And how would you know a damned thing about war, Mr. "Five Deferments"? Mr. "I Had Other Priorities"? While men like Murtha and John Kerry and my father in law were facing bullets, you were cowering in Wyoming.

You sick, lying, evil bastard.

"No one starts a war-or rather, no one in his senses ought to do so-without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by that war and how he intends to achieve it."

Clausewitz, quoted in "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young", by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway.

Does any thinking person believe the President of the United States fulfilled either criteria?

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/goodbye-to-the-architect/


David Gassko writes a good, short, angry piece about the end of the Theo Epstein experience.

Amusing segment on Franken today.

He had on his "Resident Dittohead", and they played a clip of Limbaugh from after the Iraqi constitution vote, saying that the Washington Post did not play the vote on the front page. Franken had the front page of that day's Post, and they did run two stories about it on the front page. Now that's a lie. No interpretation necessary. He said they didn't do something, and they had done it.

Yet the guy still cant accept it.

He starts to go off on a tangent about how the MSM doesn't report enough good news from Iraq. I think that is a crock of shit. I don't think there is very much good news to report. And if you pay attention, they DO report it. If there is good news, I'd like to hear more of it. But news people will always report bad news before good-it's their nature. Bad news sells. But that's not the point.

The point is that Rush Limbaugh LIED. Lied, lied, lied. And narrow minded conservatives will never accept it.

Support National Novel Writing Month!


www.nanowrimo.org

It would be really cool if someone in my life could do something, ANYTHING, other than find fault with me.

The Chicago White Sox lead the 2005 World Series, 2 games to 0. I have a hard time rooting for Caveman Carl Everett to win anything, though I have always half rooted for Orlando Hernandez. I think I'm pulling for the Astros, in the end, because Biggio and Bagwell deserve a ring, even if it means Roger gets one.

-"Life Is A Highway" was annoying when it was released, and its still annoying.

-The President committed treason when he allowed Valerie Plame's name to be leaked. But as Al Franken said last night on Letterman, we probably shouldn't execute him.

-I don't get Lenny Kravitz.

-Suicide is not that great a tragedy. Let's face it, as Doug Stanhope says, if you have seen half of a movie, and it stinks, why would you stay for the second half?

-At what point did the meaning of "excuse me" become "I'm about to interrupt you"?

-I never wanted to admit that I liked Bon Jovi, but their music has stood up better than a lot of other groups I used to like more.

Hey Bush voters, kwitcherbitchin.

You asked for this mess, and now you have to eat it.

Exploding deficits, cruel budget cuts for our fighting men and women, lies, corruption, and the neverending quagmire in Iraq.

That's what you asked for, and that's what you got.

Hope yer happy.

I keep hearing sniping little remarks about some pharmacists' refusal to dispense Plan B, the morning after pill. And I have to part company with Springer, Franken, and those who have complained about it. While I DO NOT AGREE with the decision to refuse to dispense personally, I do not see how you can force pharmacists to dispense without doing away with the profession as a whole.

Pharmacists owe a duty to their patients-to dispense each prescription accurately and appropriately. The simple fact is that a pro life pharmacist believes there are two patients involved when a prescription is dispensed to a pregnant woman. I don't see how you can dispute that. And if you can legally force a pharmacist to dispense a prescription that they honestly believe will cause a patient harm, then you might as well not have pharmacists at all.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002509172_fbiporn21.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/171998p-150026c.html



These are great times. When you can expose Bush administration hypocrisy with just the click of a mouse. We are fighting a War on Porn, yet the Vice President is married to a pornographer. Awesome.

"Escape is never the safest plan."









Chuck Klosterman RULES. That's all he does. He gets up in the morning, rules all day, goes to sleep and rules all night.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743264452/qid=1127690559/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0565644-4594319?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

“Santorum, a leader among Christian conservatives, was responding to questions about remarks he made three years ago on a website called Catholic Online. In those comments, Santorum said, 'It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm'of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.”


Center of the storm?
You morally bankrupt, soulless monster.
Read this, you prick.
http://www.philadelphiadistrictattorney.com/images/Grand_Jury_Report.pdf
While you are railing about how Kennedy and Kerry did nothing, it looks like you
didn't do anything either.
What an arrogant, repugnant, disgusting disgrace.

"Because the President declared a state of emergency on
August 26, and because Blanco requested Federal Assistance on
August 27,Under the National Response Plan (as outlined in my Diary, here, and as is amply outlined in many, many places (I linked to them in my diary)....
Several things happened:Under the Homeland Security Act, the Stafford Act, and according to the NRP, this was AUTOMATICALLY determined to qualify as an "Incident of National Significance" - therefore, Responsibility for initial actions, coordination, and etc, AUTOMATICALLY fell upon the Director of DHS (Chertoff), and thereby AUTOMATICALLY fell upon FEMA and its director (Brown), and throught them, ultimately responsibility for command, control, and authority AUTOMATICALLY flows to the COMMANDER IN CHIEF...
In short, because Bush declared a disaster, the relief effort, by law, became the responsibility of the Federal Government Agencies. Any orders, actions, commands, and etc - done or not done, failed or successful, are the ultimate responsibility of the DHS, and the President.
Period." from www.dailykos.com These people (Republicans) really are evil. I don't mean just mean, or ill informed, or rude. I mean fucking evil. Blame the victim, blame the victim, blah blah blah blah. It's as simple as this-they're wrong about Blanco and Negin. They asked for help, and it never came until it was too damn late. Fine. All that aside-the results of this storm-telecommunications gone, toxic waters, dead people, disabled roadways-are an excellent version of the results of a terrorist attack. These people have had four years to fix this. This was the MBA president and the people who want to run government like a business. Effiency, right? New civil tone? Grownups in charge, right? And they actually get a chance to put their new tools, which they begged for, and said they absolutely had to have to protect us with, to work, and it is a category five clusterfuck. AND they have the nerve-the unmitigated GALL- to stand there and say that its not their fault! They dont want to play the blame game? yeah, sure-because they are the ones to blame!

IMPEACH GEORGE BUSH NOW.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/section/Diary
"I have been in contact with a person trying to live through this horror in New Orleans. She has been straddling the position of disaster victim and wife of the Chief of the NOFD. The suicides, the shoot-to kill-order (for humans and animals) and the stress contributed to this gutwrenching exerpt of the e-mail I just received.
'You are not alone, and even the order against the pets are affecting the local police and firefighters. Our police superintendent's house was broken into and someone killed his dog. This wasn't in retaliation to the order to shoot to kill, it was a malicious attack because of who he is and represents. He was surrounded by a very angry crowd at the river, and nearly met his end. PTS, stress, little sleep, not knowing about your loved ones, are taking a huge toll. My first campaign was for the city to provide an email or satellite connection for our families left behind. I went to several stations, local and national, and they are still sharing the same phone that isn't of the 504 area code. I have broken down so many times watching just an hour of the news stations, and another suicide by a police officer.'
Please, if anyone can get this to Josh, the other journalists here, members of both print and electronic media, PLEASE DO! There has been no coverage of the shootings that have already taken place, much less the mounting suicides by police and other emergency workers. I know from my source that one officer committed suicide yesterday (ate a bullet) after his entire family was lost in the disaster and he couldn't cope with the destruction and the shoot-to-kill order any longer. This is an SOS to the media. Without them, nobody will know what is happening inside that place right now."

Disgusting. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_04.php#006416

"During the campaign of 2004, I spoke often of the two Americas: the America of the privileged and the wealthy, and the America of those who lived from paycheck to paycheck. I spoke of the difference in the schools, the difference in the loan rates, the difference in opportunity. All of that pales today. Today - and for many days and weeks and months to follow - we see a harsher example of two Americas. We see the poor and working class of New Orleans who don't own a car and couldn't evacuate to hotels or families far from the target of Katrina. We see the suffering of families who lived from paycheck to paycheck and who followed the advice of officials and went to shelters at the Civic Center or the Superdome or stayed home to protect their possessions. "

--Fmr. Sen. John Edwards
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/9/2/14749/71454


Love this man. Want to go back in time and vote for him again.

from Editor and Publisher magazine:




"(September 03, 2005) -- While a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure. It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat” dithering on an administration-wide scale.Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall deadly failure of leadership, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty. President Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said: “In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need.” But Bush, and his top aides, quite frankly, did just that. I was reminded of this today, seeing pictures of Vice President Dick Cheney finally showing up at the White House after riding out the storm-of-the-century in Wyoming. Perhaps he brought back with him a couple dozen trout to throw on the grill for the White House staffers. His absence, and the president’s performance during it, can only add to the rumors that Bush is clueless without the Big Guy at his side. This follows Bush himself remaining on vacation for more than two days after the storm hit, despite acknowledging this was the worst disaster in the nation’s history. He did take a trip during those days, not back to Washington but out to San Diego to deliver a political speech comparing his Iraq war to World War II. It got little play because nearly everyone else in the country, beyond his inner circle, was focused on New Orleans instead. What that trip did produce was a picture of Bush laughing with a country singer and strumming a guitar. But at least the president did start heading home late Wednesday. As he did, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was still enjoying her vacation in New York. In fact, that night she enjoyed a few good yucks while attending the goofy Broadway play “Spamalot.” Ironically, the Bush team's performance this week did indeed seem like something out of a Monty Python skit. Each, in his or her own way, took a bunch of "silly walks."Condi also played tennis with Monica Seles and on Thursday went on a shoe-shopping spree on Fifth Avenue until a fellow customer yelled at her for not doing her job and bloggers exposed all of this. Then she hurriedly headed back to Washington. Whoops, we discovered she was overdue in getting a grip on offers to help that were pouring in from overseas governments and organizations. Paging Andrew Card: Turns out he was Bush's Maine man. And what of FEMA chief Michael Brown? He was so out-of-it that he didn’t even know about 10,000 evacuees living and dying at the Convention Center, even after they had received wide TV coverage for hours and hours. The next day, the president greeted him with, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." A medal is surely on the way. This from a president who has been fighting a "war on terror" in Iraq while appointing to the top FEMA position here at home a man whose main career experience was running an Arabian horse association. At a press conference on Thursday, the fourth day of the disaster, with newspapers and TV reporting tens of thousands stranded at hospitals, homes and a highway overpass, Homeland Security chief Michael Cherotff was asked by a reporter if he thought only hundreds or maybe many more needed rescued. He replied:“I'd be guessing. I mean, a thousand seems like a very large number, but we have already rescued several thousand. Hopefully, most people have gotten themselves onto roofs and have been picked up. But, as I said, rather than give you a guesstimate, I can tell you that as long as there is someone on a roof waving a flag, we're going to be sending a helicopter out there to get them.”At the same press briefing, Cherotff was asked if he thought there were enough soldiers on the ground to control the situation. His answer: “I'm satisfied that we have not only more than enough forces there and on the way. And frankly, what we're doing is we are putting probably more than we need in order to send an unambiguous message that we will not tolerate lawlessness or violence or interference with the evacuation.”While the 9/11 “My Pet Goat” episode was certainly illuminating, it’s not certain what might have worked out better that day had the president dropped the book and taken action. But his failure to grab the reins in the hurricane catastrophe for three days this week probably doomed hundreds, or more, to death. This is not mere incompetence, but dereliction of duty. The press should call it by its proper name."



Amen to that.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001054581




The President has been unforgivably cruel in this painful time.

Impeach George W. Bush now.

President Bush should resign, or be impeached, because of gross dereliction of duty.

From factcheck.org:

Over at least the past several budget cycles, the Corps has received substantially less money than it requested for the Lake Pontchartrain project, even though Congress restored much of the money the President cut from the amount the Corps requested.
In fiscal year 2004, the Corps requested $11 million for the project. The President’s budget allocated $3 million, and Congress furnished $5.5 million. Similarly, in fiscal 2005 the Corps requested $22.5 million, which the President cut to $3.9 million in his budget. Congress increased that to $5.5 million. “This was insufficient to fund new construction contracts,” according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project fact sheet. The Corps reported that “seven new contracts are being delayed due to lack funds” [sic].
The President proposed $3 million for the project in the budget for fiscal 2006, which begins Oct. 1. “This will be insufficient to fund new construction projects,” the fact sheet stated. It says the Corps “could spend $20 million if funds were provided.” The Corps of Engineers goes on to say:
Army Corps of Engineers, May 23: In Orleans Parish, two major pump stations are threatened by hurricane storm surges. Major contracts need to be awarded to provide fronting protection for them. Also, several levees have settled and need to be raised to provide the design protection. The current funding shortfalls in fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2006 will prevent the Corps from addressing these pressing needs.

The Hurricane really shows Bush's true colors.

Who would have thought the levee would break?

Well, FEMA, and the Army Corps of Engineers, and the scientific community. That's who. THE FREAKING DISCOVERY CHANNEL told me New Orleans couldn't take a direct hit from a major hurricane years ago. But Bush's tax cuts took the money away.

The response is slow, and pathetic, and ridiculous.

Bush also compares this to the worst kind of attack. The "MBA President" has had FOUR GODDAMN YEARS to get ready for exactly this kind of event.
But it's only poor black people, so the Republicans will just let them die.


Hurricane Katrina 2005 is George Bush's America 2005. If you have the means, you're on your own and you'll make it. If you don't have the means, die in the streets like a dog. That's the message, America.

Anyone who voted for these people is an idiot, a fascist, or a fool.

The President needs to be impeached. Now.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050824225609990001



But I thought there was "nothing real" about this?

Huh.

I guess Rush wasn't telling the truth.

Again.

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-08-25T193428Z_01_N8P699296_RTRIDST_0_ARMS-USA-BASES-UPDATE-1.XML



Great. Way to go, guys.

Create untold hundreds or even thousands of new injured, crippled soldiers, and then close
down one of the places that takes care of them.

"We'll expand the other one(Bethesda)."

Yeah, sure. Until another budget crisis brought on by your insane fiscal management causes you to close that one too.

Any vet who votes for these people is insane. It is abundantly clear that they hate soldiers, and cutting health care is just another big fuck you to the men and women in uniform. They apparently believe vets should just fend for themselves.

The heartlessness, the sheer unmitigated gall of these motherfuckers continues to amaze me.

Bill Clinton's Accomplishments

(From http://blog.radioleft.com/blog/FlushRush/_archives/2004/9/8/137228.html )


Tried to get Universal Health Care National Health Care Costs rising at 10% per annum. Cut to 3% Deficit Reduction Package Crime Bill 100,000 cops on street—crime down down down Welfare Reform-- Mend do not end. GOP helped bit time 80% increase in child welfare payments Job Growth-Record 236,000 per month. (Reagan/Bush 167,000) Largest percentage of Americans working in history Largest Home Ownership in history Record number of small business formations Tax Cut for 15 million working families Family and Medical Leave Act Defense Reinvest and Conversion—Bush enjoying weapons created by Clinton Direct loan programs for students Guts to put promises in a book "Putting People First"-58 promises in book. Took action on 56 in first two years. Second best record in history for getting legislation through Congress in first to years. LBJ number one. Reinvented Government—cut payroll Fewest number of civilians on federal payroll in 36 years Attacked cop killing nasty rifle association. Attacked the cancer inducing tobacco industry Promoted a global effort to ban abusive forms of child labor Loan 12.8 Billion to Mexico. Made 800 Million profit. Kept Mexico afloat. Wash. Post kept list of campaign promises. 162. Took action on 96% in first two years. Took on prejudice toward other Americans in military Took on his own Southern Baptist Church Hard smart work in Middle East and Bosnia-Kosovo Honored with all of the following: Dove of Peace Award Rabin-Peres Peace Award Gandhi Peace Award Order of Good Hope Award Nominated for Nobel Peace Award Northern Ireland Peace Agreement Lifeaholics of America Award for Quarter Century "Working for a Life Not Just A Living". First President to visit Northern Ireland Cleanup of Toxic sites. Record Increasing weekly earnings Shoo Shoo Saddam get away from Kuwait Stopping Haitians from drowning enroute to freedom First to visit South Africa First to make a determined effort to help the African continent come together and grow together Taxing top 1.2% of very wealthy to get Zoom Zoom Boom economy Stopping Republicans in the House from raiding Medicare of 181 Billion Stopping Republicans raid on Medicaid Stopping Republicans raid on education Stopping Republicans attack on environment Largest increase in Education funding since GI Bill Increased funding for Head Start Nafta.. A success until the Peso went south Submitting 8 budgets close to rate of inflation Brady Bill Gaat Assault Weapons Ban Telling Japan "You take our auto parts or we will apply tariffs on you California Desert Protection Forest Management Plan for Northwest Restoration of Florida Everglades Preservation of land in Utah Major increase in funding for homeless Motor Voter Act Lobbying Reform Effort. Handshake with Newt who reneged Pressure to get Campaign Finance Reform. National Export Strategy. Unbelievable success. Over 250 Trade pacts Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Pact Summit of Americas Super 301 Chemical Weapons Ban Treaty. Bottom Up Review of Military Agreement with Cuba to stop flow of immigrants to USA. Ameri-Corps Reduced Nuclear Threat Around the World Community Banking Act FEMA used as an active participant and a leader in disaster relief Tax on well off social security beneficiaries 100,000 new teachers effort 5,000 new classroom effort 50% of classes thru K-12 on internet Fourth Graders improvement on world tests Lifetime Learning Opportunity Program Controls on Spending and Borrowing Pension Protection Act of 1994 Record high consumer confidence Very, very, very low Misery Index National Agenda on Racial Prejudices First to get African-American unemployment under 10% Balanced Budget Record Corporate profits Record Bank profits Record Savings and Loan profits Never whining despite non-sop smears and attacks Not having a Mean Bone in his body per Historian David Maraniss Not knowing how to hate Classing others as "opponents" not "enemies" Inviting your attackers to the White House functions Inviting your defeated opponent Bob Dole to visit troops at Christmas A national attack on hate crimes Fighting to protect "legal" immigrants from Republicans in the House. Fighting hard for Fast Track legislation Kennedy and Kassenbaum Portability of Insurance Lowest interest rates in 30 years Allowing millions of homeowners to refinance home loans at lower (much) rates Lowest unemployment in 25 years Lowest inflation in 25 years Lowest welfare rolls in 27 years Lowest crime Rates in 25 years First balanced budget sent to Congress in 29 years Protecting worker pensions (repeat?) Opposed ban on "Late Term Abortions" A stock market which passed a 1,000 mark six times Greatest growth in federal revenues in history Played Saxophone and Smoked Peace Pipe, instead of beating War Drums like____. One of History's all time workers for Peace President in a year when Fortune Magazine classified it as "Greatest Economy in the History of the world" Popularity jump in the midst of a scandal. President with highest peacetime popularity in Asia, Africa, Russia and Europe. Highest popularity of any president at end of fifth year in office One of the most highly regarded First Lady in History. One of the most highly regarded Vice-President in History

Now Rush says he's being misinterpreted.
Of course.
Argh.
Nobody said you accused Cindy Sheehan of “making it up”.
What you actually said was that there was “nothing real” about Cindy Sheehan.
There is a hell of a lot more that's real about her than there is about you, you
stupid, ignorant fascist dog.
If they love America, why do they hate Americans?
BTW- Charles Chadwick, It's All Right Now. Brilliant.

I thought there was "nothing real" about this, huh Rush?

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050816181409990015

"Colonel Shaffer said in an interview on Monday night that the small, highly classified intelligence program, known as Able Danger, had identified the terrorist ringleader, Mohamed Atta, and three other future hijackers by name by mid-2000, and tried to arrange a meeting that summer with agents of the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to share its information. But he said military lawyers forced members of the intelligence program to cancel three scheduled meetings with the F.B.I. at the last minute, which left the bureau without information that Colonel Shaffer said might have led to Mr. Atta and the other terrorists while the Sept. 11 attacks were still being planned. 'I was at the point of near insubordination over the fact that this was something important, that this was something that should have been pursued,' Colonel Shaffer said of his efforts to get the evidence from the intelligence program to the F.B.I. in 2000 and early 2001."

From Rushlimbaugh.com


Rush is trying to say, of course, that it is Clinton's fault that Col. Shaffer was not able to prevent the September 11th attacks. As usual with these dirtballs, they can't defend Bush, so they drag out the carcass of Bill Clinton to kick around.

Firstly, Bill Clinton is the ONLY President who struck Bin Laden before 9/11.
Secondly, Richard Clarke told Condi Rice that they were going to spend more time on Bin Laden than on anything else.
Thirdly, once the MBA President stole the election and took over, the same problems existed as were around before. Remember, Shaffer is still trying to get the intelligence agencies to talk to one another in 2001. Bill Clinton isn't president any more.
Fourthly, these fascist morons keep saying that Bill Clinton saw terrorism as a law enforcement issue, while the C Student sees it as a military issue. Well, let's see....the British dealt with the American Revolution as a military issue. Russia is dealing with Chechnya as a military issue, Israel deals with Islamic Jihad as a military issue....and Britain dealt with Northern Ireland as a law enforcement issue.

Which one worked?

From the "dog bites man" department: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5217351,00.html

The conservatives show their class again: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050816141109990002&ncid=NWS00010000000001 These people are losing, and they know it. It's only a matter of time before their house of lies falls apart at their feet.

www.meetwithcindy.org





That's all I need to say.

Meet with her, you coward.

O'Reilly Smears Grieving Mother as Flip-flopping Tool of the Left
Bill O'Reilly Tuesday (August 9, 2005) tried to make Cindy Sheehan look like an unwitting tool of leftist extremists who has unaccountably changed her views of President Bush. All it took was a Google search to reveal that O'Reilly was repeating false information that the far right has been spreading about Sheehan all week.
Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq last year, has been protesting outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch while the president vacations. She is demanding that Bush explain his conduct of the war in Iraq.
O'Reilly claimed that Sheehan has changed her feelings toward Bush since she met with the president a year ago. He said that in an inteview with a California newspaper shortly after that visit, Sheehan said, "I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss." He also quoted her as saying, "That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together."
Both O'Reilly and his guest, far-right pundit Michelle Malkin, criticized news outlets such as The New York Times for failing to report the flip-flop in Sheehan's feelings.
But O'Reilly left out a little crucial information himself. For starters, O'Reilly never mentioned that he was merely repeating a story from Monday's Drudge Report, another cog in the right-wing noise machine.
Drudge headlined his story, "Protesting Soldier Mom Changed Story on Bush." Except that she didn't.
The Reporter, from Vacaville, California, interviewed Sheehan after her family's meeting with Bush in June 2004. The article, "Bush, Sheehans share moments," makes clear that Sheehan and her husband Patrick wanted to confront Bush then about his policy on Iraq.
The Reporter's article said:
"'We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled,' Cindy said. 'The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached.'
"The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as whether Casey's sacrifice would make the world a safer place.
"But in the end, the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act. It addition, Pat noted that Bush wasn't stumping for votes or trying to gain a political edge for the upcoming election.
"'We have a lot of respect for the office of the president, and I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn't have to take the time to meet with us,' Pat said.
"Sincerity was something Cindy had hoped to find in the meeting. Shortly after Casey died, Bush sent the family a form letter expressing his condolences, and Cindy said she felt it was an impersonal gesture."
The Vacaville newspaper Tuesday dredged up its original story on the Sheehans and noted how the Drudge Report misused it. Referring to Sheehan's quote about the "gift of happiness" Bush gave them, Tuesday's story in The Reporter said that, "Drudge included that quote in his Monday morning report, but didn't explain that it referred to sharing time with her family, not the president."
O'Reilly repeated the misrepresentation.
After setting the stage with quotes taken out of context, O'Reilly and Malkin went on to smear Sheehan. Malkin said Sheehan "has turned her private, personal pain into a public circus" with her demonstration. In other words, grieving mothers like Sheehan should stay home, suck it up, and leave policy-making on things like war to Bush and members of Congress who have no children in Iraq and can make these decisions with clear-headed logic unclouded by silly sentimentalism for dead sons.


Amen to that. What do expect from a pig but a grunt? O Reilly is a dirtbag.

$65.9 trillion. Try to put your mind around that number. That is the latest estimate of the government's fiscal gap-the difference between all projected government spending and government revenues based on government projections. And our president, the fiscal conservative, the budget balancing law and order rules and regulations guy, has done nothing but make it much, much, much worse. Argh.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/politics/stories/01/08press.html


Conservative columnist Armstrong Williams took money from the Bush Administration to promote the "No Child Left Behind" education act.

Two questions:

1) If No Child Left Behind is so wonderful, why do we need to promote it?

2) Isn't this wasteful government spending?

O' Leilly lies again.

Bill O' Leilly has all over his site the heartrending tale of Swift Boat veteran Steve Gardner,
cruelly fired by the left wing corporate machine because of his heroic work at unmasking
that commie pinko traitor John Kerry.

Which would be interesting if it were true, except, of course, it's not.

http://www.millinfo.com/pr/Millennium%20Response%20to%20Sun%20Times%20Article.pdf

Gardner's company offered him another job-TWICE-and he turned it down.

Harry Shearer makes a great point on today's Le Show: Why aren't major Christian web sites providing links for tsunami relief? Is it more important that they be saved? Or is it that they are brown people?

God Bless Chuck Klosterman.

He has the culture war nailed in the latest(January 2005) Esquire(www.esquire.com) , to wit:

"Culture can't be wrong. That doesn't mean it's always 'right', nor does it mean you always have to agree with it...Culture is just there...So don't get pissed off over the fact that the way you feel about culture isn't some kind of universal consensus...You're not wrong, but neither is the rest of the world. And you need to accept that those two things aren't really connected."

Exactly. As another article in another Esquire pointed out, people who say they hate American culture really hate America. America is big, messy, ugly, vain, self important, and gloriously free and perfect and beautiful too.


And another thing...

From the same issue is a long article about an Iraqi woman who was well publicized as a victim of Saddam and turned out to have invented most of her story. Why doesn't right wing radio and TV trumpet an example of a journalist getting a story right? Oh, because it might be seen as questioning the war. And we can't be seen questioning the overall narrative. Saddam was a world class dirtball, but lying about it doesn't help matters any.

I'm so lame I can't even be bothered to whine and gripe, for free, on here.

Sigh.


I've been commenting on and on about others' stuff, so I should probably try to contribute.

http://filkertom.blogspot.com/2004_11_28_filkertom_archive.html

God Bless Filkertom.

I wish I were as clever as him, but I'll try.

Let me go pick on Bill O'Lielly for a while.


"There is going to be a thunderclap of resentment[if Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is nominated for Best Picture], particularly if Gibson is ignored. And that will impact on the box office because a lot of people say I'm not going to the movies. And I'm not going to watch this Oscar telecast either. Wait 'til you see."


Yeah, right. Movie attendance will simply plummet, based on Oscar nominations.


"O'REILLY: I don't know. It's a "Dr. Feelgood" type situation. You know how some doctors are -- they'll give you a prescription for anything. You walk in and say, hey I got a crick in my neck and you got Xanax (search).That's what's going on. And I believe it is going on. And there lies the problem is that the federal government is afraid, hey, you open this door and you're going to get these things all over the place, unscrupulous doctors for $150 a pop, who will be writing these things out[medical marijuana prescriptions]."

Jaysus. So regulate the medical profession, for Pete's sake! Don't deny people in agony relief from suffering, and prolong and deepen a so called drug war, because of fear of a few rotten doctors! What ignorance!

But that's all I expect from the Sultan of Phone Sex.