Bad Pun Friday


Yeah, yeah, so sue me--it's Friday. My previous post has a picture I called nuts and bolts, now I've got Perle and swine...because of this:

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer interviewed former Iraq war architect Richard Perle to get his response to accusations by George Tenet that he was advocating an attack against Iraq in the days after 9/11. Perle acknowledged meeting Tenet a week after 9/11 at the White House, but claimed he never conversed with Tenet. Perle then said, “I never believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11.”

But CNN played a clip from 9/16/01 that showed Perle telling the network:

Even if we cannot prove to the standard that we enjoy in our own civil society they are involved, we do know, for example, that Saddam Hussein has ties to Osama bin Laden. That can be documented.

Actually, apologies to swines/pigs/hogs/boars, whatever--it's not their fault. Perle, et al, on the other hand, had better hope, ironically enough, that Guiliani's dead wrong--another pun, I guess--re: Saddam paying an eternal price for his own assholery...because otherwise Hussein's gonna have a LOT of company in that particular circle.

Anyway...here's to a nice weekend. Today saw a massive deluge in Red Stick, but it's supposed to be, well, if not clear, at least not rainy tomorrow and Sunday, and that means I'll probably find myself at the Fairgrounds, even if I really can't afford it.

Cheers.

Nuts and Bolts


Shrub and his wingnut minions can continue to delude themselves--at the entire country's expense, unfortunately--but here on the reality based side of the fence, articles like this further underscore the futility, not to mention the insanity, of continuing with Operation Keep Commander Guy's Ego Sufficiently Salved:

WASHINGTON - A new Pentagon survey of troops in Iraq found that only 40 percent of Marines and 55 percent of Army soldiers would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian

n the first internal military study of battlefield ethics in Iraq, officials said Friday they also found that only a third of Marines and roughly half of soldiers said they believed that noncombatants should be treated with dignity.

The study also found that long and repeated deployments were increasing troop mental health problems. And it showed that more than 40 percent of Marines and soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the lives of troops.

Bad things...bad things.

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture


Kevin Drum explains.

Oh, and Mitt: it's not like $50 dollar haircuts make you a man of the people.

GOP Hopefuls Unveil Iraq Strategery


Pixie Dust.

Making a Killing


Katrina...history's first windless hurricane.

More here.

From Cursor.

Veteran's Affairs: "Well, How the Hell Else Do You Expect Us to Light Up Our Expensive Cigars?"


Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans' health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.

Link.

And while the VA Brass get bonuses, veterans get...the shaft.

The Republican Way...

"Moral Beliefs"


Well, let's all shed a tear for poor little James Dobson, who no longer will be allowed to wear his hate on his sleeve, but instead will be forced to hold it close to the little lump of coal that substitutes for his heart.

Indeed, these are dark times for fake Christians.

Just Kicking Back


The Iraqi government, much to the distaste of our legislative branch, has evidently learned at least one thing from Commander Guy:

Lawmakers divided over whether to keep U.S. troops in Iraq are finding common ground on at least one topic: They are furious that Iraqi politicians are considering a lengthy break this summer.

"If they go off on vacation for two months while our troops fight — that would be the outrage of outrages," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn.

The Iraq parliament's recess, starting this July, would likely come without Baghdad politicians reaching agreements considered key to easing sectarian tensions. Examples include regulating distribution of the country's oil wealth and reversing measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because of Baath party membership.

Talk of the adjournment comes amid a heated debate in Congress on the pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq.

It's a Subpoena, Mr. Rove


To paraphrase a Brit-Com title, You are Being Served.

OK, technically it's the Justice Department, but Rove's ass is once again where it belongs...on the hot seat.

"Commander Guy"


Nobody suffers more than him.

Good News, Bad News


First, the bad news: The Arctic ice cap is now estimated to be melting much faster than initially thought, which will significantly contribute to the global warming crisis.

On the bright side, Sen. Jim Inhofe's (R-Denser than Lead) face melted off upon hearing this.

OK, so maybe I made that last part up...

Drive Away in a Used War Today

No country sausage...just a meat grinder.

Shrub supports the troops so much that he won't let anything get in the way...of more of the same. More death, more serious wounds, more suffering. After all, it's...his reputation on the line. Sure, we all know Shrub's a loser, but in his little pea-brain, there's still a small opportunity to deny reality and hold on until January 20, 2009.

This country didn't just lose a war: it lost its conscience.

Gross Tete


Quite the typical Shrub performance: petty, vindictive, mean, and stupid. As Professor Morris points out so succinctly, today's veto/tantrum not only contrasts markedly with Commander Codpiece of four years ago, it also underscores a patent absurdity--one that so many of us have said before, but which bears repeating, given the outrageous price he insists we pay in blood and money for his Iraq fiasco: IF THEY CAN'T--OR WON'T--FIX NEW ORLEANS, HOW CAN ANY SANE PERSON THINK THEY'LL BE ABLE TO FIX THE MESS IN IRAQ?

They can't even bid a basic contract without crass cronyism. Over there, the hysteria of their rhetoric (He told American and allied military officers there that a U.S. failure in the four-year-old war "should be unacceptable to the civilized world.") is matched only by their refusal to so much as PAY for the conflict, much less put their lives--or the lives of their children--on the line.

Four years ago, Shrub declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq--I think we all know what a crude, cruel joke/lie that was. Well, not quite 18 months ago, he stood in Jackson Square and promised to Accomplish the Mission. That turned out to be a cruel joke/lie as well.

And he's upset about being "misunderstood." God, what a creep.

Programming Note


The Crybaby-in-Chief has requested that television networks and cable news stations publicly air his upcoming tantrum.

American Torquemada


Rummy wanted regular updates:

In the course of the questioning [John Walker] Lindh, who had a bullet in his leg, was stripped naked, blindfolded, handcuffed, and bound to a stretcher with duct tape. In a practice that would become more familiar at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq 18 months later, smiling soldiers posed for pictures next to the naked prisoner. A navy medic later testified that he had been told by the lead military interrogator that "sleep deprivation, cold and hunger might be employed" during Lindh's interrogations. Meanwhile, his responses to the questioning, which ultimately went on for days, were relayed back to Washington, according to the documents disclosed to Serrano, every hour, hour after hour. Someone very important clearly wanted to know all the details.

Rummy claimed he was the law:

As the first load of prisoners arrived at the new military prison camp at Guantanamo, Cuba, on January 11, 2002, he declared them "unlawful combatants" who "do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention." In fact, the Geneva Conventions provide explicit protection to anyone taken prisoner in an international armed conflict, even when they are not entitled to actual prisoner of war status, but no one at that time was in a mood to contradict the all-powerful secretary of defense.

And Rummy wrote memos:

"It was a memorandum signed by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, authorizing a short list, maybe 6 or 8 techniques: use of dogs; stress positions; loud music; deprivation of food; keeping the lights on, those kinds of things," Karpinski said. Over to the side of the paper was a line of handwriting, which to her appeared to be in the same hand and with the same ink as the signature. The line read: "Make sure this happens!!"

But hey, it's all worked out so well, right?

Mission Accomplished + Four Years=Pity Party


Well, a small man deserves the world's smallest violin:

...the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he's doing things would be OK...etc., etc.

Maybe he'd like some cheese with his whine?

What a self-centered little prick.

Freedom of Speech, Israeli-Government Style


Speak to a journalist...go to jail:

A court in Israel has convicted former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu of violating a military order banning him from speaking to foreign journalists.
The verdict could mean a fresh jail term for Mr Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison for revealing details of Israel's clandestine nuclear programme.

His lawyer called it intolerable to convict a person for the mere act of speaking, never mind whatever was said.

A sentencing hearing is set for 18 May. Vanunu is banned from leaving Israel.

"We should be clear here that Vanunu was convicted for the very act of speaking to non-Israelis, rather than the content of those conversations," lawyer Michel Sfard said.

"We do not consider this appropriate for a democracy in the 21st Century."

Mr Sfard said interior ministry officials had told him the travel ban on Mr Vanunu had been extended by another year to April 2008.

'Security threat'

"All that I want is to be free, to leave the country," Mr Vanunu, 52, told reporters at the magistrate's court in Jerusalem.

He was jailed in 1986 and released in April 2004 under strict conditions, including not talking to the foreign press.

However, he has given a series of interviews to the international media in the last three years.

Mr Vanunu's revelations belied Israel's policy of "strategic ambiguity" about its atomic weapons programme.

It is believed to have at least 200 nuclear warheads. It is not subject to international monitoring because it is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Israel insists Mr Vanunu - who has converted to Christianity - still poses a security threat.

Mr Vanunu says his action in revealing Israel's nuclear secrets aimed to avert a nuclear holocaust in the region.

You can read more about Vanunu here.

Big Time Forgery


He's no master, that's for sure...

First Love


Not that anyone really wants to know what gets Team Big Time's hormones all a-raging, but George Tenet says it was posters of Ahmad Chalabi that were tacked up all over the staff offices:

You had the impression that some Office of the Vice President and DOD reps were writing Chalabi’s name over and over again in their notes, like schoolgirls with their first crush.

And they don't even get a draft deferment out of it...

"Let Them Drink Flood Water"


From First Draft and YRHT. If this doesn't prove that the Bush administration isn't just incompetent and stupid, but vicious and vindictive, than I don't know what will. Between turning down foreign aid post-Katrina/federal flood and wasting what aid DID manage to make it through, Shrub managed to demonstrate clearly that he's his mama's, um, boy.

You know, it's one thing to be sickeningly penurious towards the poor while lavishing fat-cat contracts to your rich buddies, even as Iraq continues its descent into hell AND a genuine threat from fundamentalist religious terrorists is ignored...that's par for Team Bush's course. But it's quite another thing to be SO vicious and ugly that you'll leave offers of help on the table, or spurn them outright, even as it's painfully obvious that people are suffering and a situation is out of control.

That's just plain sick.