The Go to Jail Card

"The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.

Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.)"

Wil Wheaton's family makes him feel like he's in the wrong for calling them on their bullshit.

Nice snapshot of the entire American dialog right now. People get to speak and behave literally like brownshirts, then they act weepy and hurt when you call them on it. Screw that - it's a strategy and a game. One-sided politeness is leading this country to fascism. Raise your fucking voice to me and you're not going to get a demure blush in return, no matter who you are.

Anyone ever work with victims of domestic abuse? Reading that, I'm hearing things I've heard too often before. "It's my fault, I made him yell at me, I made him hit me. I embarassed him because the neighbors heard him screaming at me. It's all my fault. He's calm now. He said it won't happen again. Let's just pretend it didn't happen and it will all go away. Can't you just tear up the police report and pretend this never happened? He's not as bad as I said he was. He only screams at me when I give an opinion."

Is there any moral atrocity left that Bush hasn't supported in our name?

Impeachment now.

Critical Literacy

"I've come to realize something about America recently, and it's disturbing not just because it's out of the mainstream media, but because it by definition is caused by the mainstream media. I offer this dark scenario: If you read, the terrorists win. What I mean by this is that fewer and fewer people read, for any reason, and fewer CAN read, for any reason. So you have a continuous dumbing-down of the populace, and an equally continuous rise in wingnuttery and incredibly simplistic concepts offered as fact. Take the 'ID' movement, please."

via PsychoPatriot

NYC Union Busting

The decimation of labor gets some more fuel. Thanks alot.

British torture memos.

Nationalism

I should warn you that the above link is academic, but it is an important frame for the discussions to come, and yet another component in understanding the NeoCon program (or should I say Pogrom) for this country.

While working on several large ales at the Cock n Bull, Covington and I were marvelling at how the right wing, normally and reliably, used to talk about "big government", and their loathing of such, with the attendent paranoia about wire taps, their apt and important criticism about the handling of the Waco Massacre, Ruby Ridge, etc. In short, I could rely on these watchdogs, however much I disagreed with the vast majority of their politics, about the danger of unrestrained police powers, unrestrained government, in short, the fear of the totalitarian.

Where things get sticky, and where they were wrong, and on the wrong side of history, as I'm so often placed, was their fear that is was a Soviet style totalitarism that was to be feared. Fortunately, we have avoided that nightmare.

However, the nightmare emergent comes from the peripheral of the right eye, from a blind spot so that many did not see it. Many still haven't.

The rhetoric of these NeoCons (and I make it a point, as in the past, to distinguish them from traditionaly Conservatives, at least those who are intellectually honest enough to have separated themselves from these CryptoFascists. If they haven't, well, then I suppose that makes them collaborators) has long stunk of Fascism; The divisive talk about "heartland" viz a viz, blood and soil, and the whoring of the idea of patriotism as an unquestioning, unforgiving ideology of state power, all have their roots in the Fascism of the middle of the 20th Century (not to mention corporatism masquarading as free market, but we've been over that one...)

What is killing me is how, when it comes to the domestic spying, which is the very definition of out of control big government, these folks give it a pass, justifying it in all sorts of the usual ways about "security", etc, some of which are eerily close to the kind of justifications Hitler used way back when. All of this, of course, is the kind of sacrifices that "patriots" make.

However, patriots are loyal to an idea, a constitution, for example. This constitution is a real thing, a text that, at the risk of getting too Torah, is a living word, an incarnation of the idea that the founders conceived as being such. This text is supreme in our way of life, biblical, almost. This constitutional text is the identity, the truth of the United States of America, an identity that is revolutionary. Patriots ally themselves, defend, the Constitution of the United States.

These other "patriots" are also loyal to an idea, an abstraction made real as well. This idea, the idea of "America", while paying lip service to the Constitutional Ideals of this Republic, in reality, has very little to do with those ideas. This idea is, as Eagleton pointed out, one of "blood and soil", a construct that roots inself in the myth of the dominion we were given by God over this continent. It is manifest destiny, John Wayne and Mayberry all wrapped up into cherry picked biblical authority. This "America" is a self serving nostalgia, which reads only the history it writes in the moment, writes only the history which serves its purpose in the moment.

This "America" is severed from the Revolutionary, the Progressive, a true Freedom. This "America" is severed from the the idea, the sign, if you will, of the United States. U-N-I-T-E-D-S-T-A-T-E-S. The so called "patriots" focus only on the idea of America, the last part of our Republic's name, because they ampute the individual from the equation, the 'e pluribus', if you will, leaving only AMERICA, the Unum. ONE....

Which, in an extremely roundabout way, gets us back to our pub discussion of a couple of nights ago; These people who carp on about the president, about "America", about patriotism as subservience, are not patriots at all; They are nationalists. Nationalists are not patriots. Patriots are the enemies of Nationalists.

Wake up and smell the Uber Alles.

Abramoff, and the thundering on the horizon of one of the biggest corruption scandals in US history.

Gettin' Dick for NYE!

Shallow, callow, and swimming in the money-river of GOP graft. It must be nice to be a young republican propagandist with a $100,000,000 license to steal from the American people. I hope karma is bearing down on this fucker with a chemical light stick the diameter of a Foster's can.

... and yes, I think his success with Bush is a result of his being a "friend of Gannon."

The cowardice of republicans achieved the shared goal of Bush and Bin Laden - the destruction of the free, democratic country that the United States was in 1990.

More than 30 Iraq and Persian Gulf War veterans have entered congressional races across the country as Democrats, hoping to capitalize on their military experience to topple the incumbent Republican majority...

Civil war.

Religion kills.

Enron accountant enters plea deal.

Fun game - match the republican to the crime.

Slicing political demographics into 9 groups.

Spying Broader Than First Reported

The National Security Agency has conducted much broader surveillance of e-mails and phone calls — without court orders — than the Bush administration has acknowledged, The New York Times reported on its Web site.

Clinton Impeachment Makes It Into School Texts

Hopefully we'll soon be adding Bush's Impeachment to the Class of '07 history books.

Employers Reward Weight Loss

Dear Uncle Osama,

Not much is new here in America. Did a saucy spread in GQ last week.

Hope all is well in the mountains.

Love,

"Little Ji-Hotty" Wafah

Momma, I killed Santa!

(Can you imagine the horror of these kids from here on, whenever they see a Santa?)

Children watch as Santa collapses at school assembly
Friday, December 23, 2005
Associated Press

Hubbard, Ohio -- A man playing Santa collapsed in front of about 750 elementary schoolchildren at a Christmas assembly.

John Rappach, 60, clutched his chest and fell near the end of the assembly at Roosevelt Elementary in Hubbard on Wednesday. He was in critical condition Thursday.

School officials ushered in crisis counselors and assured students that Santa would be fine and ready for Christmas Eve, Superintendent Richard Buchenic said.

The children were sent home with letters explaining the situation to their parents, he said.
About 700 parents were at the assembly, and those near Rappach checked his pulse once he fell and surrounded him to block the children's view, said Don Newell Jr., a parent at the assembly.

Rappach was breathing and had a pulse when he was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center in nearby Youngstown.

The hospital had no update Thursday on what caused Rappach's collapse.
Rappach's mother, Katie Rappach, said her son is recovering well.

Here come the triffids.

Scientific breakthrough of the year: Evolution.

Yet another Fox News limp-wristed queen threatens to beat up his guests.

What's the frequency, Gibson?

2200 lives of American soldiers, more than 16,000 American soldiers injured, more than 100,000 Iraqis dead, hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars... to create a radical Islamic theocracy dominated by Iranian influence.

You're doing a heck of a job, Georgie.

Only an America-hating traitor would question why David Brooks must be train-raped to fight terrorism.

Americans may be beginning to shed our cowardice and start to rebuild our democracy.

A terrorist attack would stop that and plunge us back into the fascism Bush and Cheney are trying to create.

It's a good time to remember Operation Northwoods.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

Good news for pharmaceutical companies.

Pot is a gateway drug, afterall...

In honor of Winter Solstice...

The Snowball has started rolling downhill: "U.S. judge on spy court resigns post"

Today's the Winter Solstice, root of all the midwinter holidays.

So Blessed Be.

Or if your name's Bill O'Reilly, fuck you, you syphilitic old queen.

Good to see 'democracy' in action

Just in time for "coup" season!

My sister said there was an explosion at 3368 Clifton Ave at the Mosque of Cincinnati. Anybody know anything about this? I hate to be hyper sensitive, but you never know...

Update: More Here this morning.

Tom DeLay loves living the life of a top-shelf whore.

"Misquoting Jesus"

Fascism, and boiling the frog.

DeLay=Delusion.

"DeLay files for re-election to 12th term"

Deja Vu: I'm not a dictator.

Echoes of another president, another war, another disavowal. Turns out, Tricky Dick really was a crook.

The news conference here.

Science and reason win over myth and superstition in Dover.

and analysis from Pharyngula and DarkSyde.

R.I.P John Spencer

Great Doonesbury Take On Religious Debate

From the Sunday 12/18 edition of your local Jewish controlled media outlet.

DarkSyde interviews Chris Mooney.

Deadly Serious

Conservative leaders start a sober discussion of the impeachment of George Bush.

No link, just an obvious point... last week's revelations about the extent to which the Bush cabal has thrown out the Bill of Rights further illustrates that the Alito hearings must focus on the fundamental issue whether the nominee recognizes a right to privacy in the Constitution, and whether he recognizes any checks on or limits to presidential power.

Not only might Alito be the deciding vote on the S.Ct. that abrogates all the protections pendant from that right to privacy, these hearing might be the only public venue in which the future of democracy in the United States will be debated before the last remnants of it are gone.

So much for the Queen retrospective on Iranian TV.

Captain Fantastic and the Call to Arms

Hear Hear, Sir Elton!

Santarchy in the NZ

How d'ya like these apples, O'Reilly...

Vote No on Manifest Destiny

Imagine a people having the audacity to elect the government they want, not the one we want.

We'll see how this turns out...

Posting is going to be very light from me for the next few weeks. Hopefully my partners in thought-crime will continue to take up the slack.

Hubris: The High Cost of Low Dealing

Salad days are over for Dubya, it would appear.

All those years are carte blanche for whatever twisted scheme he and his twisted sycophants dreamt up, and our loyal "opposition" party cowering in the corner like a chastened child, our "conservatives" looking the other way while their philosophy is being openly mocked with out of control spending, empire building and civil liberties being chopped away...Throw in a helping of the disappearance of any notion of independent media doing the public's good...well, it's been a rough four years.

Well, party's over folks, and prepare yourself for a big GOP hangover...

"WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from both parties called Sunday for a congressional investigation of whether President Bush violated federal law by secretly approving domestic spying — without court-approved warrants — on American citizens and U.S. residents suspected of terrorist ties."

This is big. Dubya's even gonna "talk" to us about the how's and why's.

This is the sound of a ship sinking.

"F--- Bush"

"Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau, a pilot with 500 combat hours in the first Persian Gulf war and the Balkans, is charged with felony criminal mischief for allegedly using paint stripper to write 'F--- Bush' in 18-inch-high letters on cars at Denver International Airport that had bumper stickers supporting President Bush and conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh."

I wonder how the apologists would account for this. I thought Bush, Limbaugh, et al. spoke for our troops?

Ya know...

I watched Rummy on the O'Reilly factor the other night, and I keep hearing about how things are going pretty good in Iraq, and that we will start gradually turning things over to the Iraqis. He again reiterated the connection between Iraq and 9/11, that Al Quaeda had always been in Iraq.

So I'm thinking about the time table for this, and the insurgency which everyday seems to kill more people. I'm also thinking about the seriousness in which we and our Iraqi allies are prosecuting the War on Terror. Then, I read this...

"Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's most wanted man in Iraq, was arrested last year but released because his captors did not know who he was, an Iraqi government minister has claimed."

Wasn't this cribbed from an old episode of the Dukes of Hazzard?

Dingell's War On Christmas

Patriot Act Renewal Shot down by Senate.

Cointelpro: "Newspaper Reports Bush Authorized NSA to Spy in U.S.; Rice Says Bush Respected Constitution"

Of course I still respect...I know you've never done this before...No, I don't think any less of you...

Is it just me, or is it everytime Jean Schmidt tries to look serious and be serious...For all the obvious effort she is putting into this image, she kind of resembles the Non from Superman II trying to fry a stick with his eyebeams...

"I say shame on you Howard Dean. Shame on you Mr. Dean for telling our troops and our enemies that we cannot win this war. Shame on you for choosing today, the day millions of Iraqis are going to the polls to vote to spread your lies [...]

I continue to support our troops and I'll match my rhetoric against Mr. Dean's anyday and let the public decide who really supports our men and women in uniform."

Oh, I'd love to see that. Watch the video.

Nixon, Reagan and Stephen King Killed John Lennon

Two words. Cuckoo....Cuckoo.

Maybe, just maybe...something might go as planned...

"Everytime somebody says 'Happy Holidays', an angel get AIDS."


Update: Bill O'Reilly, poet.

How about a round of applause for Ford, standing up against the radical right wing?

Democrats blocking unconstitutional provisions of "PATRIOT" Act.

Is Iran flooding the Iraq election with forged ballots? If so, look for Chalabi's junta to gain power.

Another $300,000,000 spent to convince the world that we are untrustworthy propagandists. Priceless.

Ahmadinejad is Yiddish for Douchebag

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escalated his anti-Israeli rhetoric Wednesday, calling the Holocaust a "myth" used by Europeans to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.

Does he say this because he's truly an assbag, or just an incredible moron? I have a theory, too. Saddam never really used poision gas on Iranian troops in the 80's. It was just a myth to gain support from the International community, in an effort to save your skinny asses from the Soviets.

Cointelpro.

New motto: "China is for Stalkers"

More Amazon splurging:

1 "SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in Any Climate, on
Land or at Sea"
John 'Lofty' Wiseman; Paperback; $13.57

1 "The Republican War on Science"
Chris Mooney; Hardcover; $16.47

1 "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam
(American Empire Project)"
Robert Dreyfuss; Hardcover; $18.15

1 "Wilderness Survival"
Gregory J. Davenport; Paperback; $10.17

1 "Gun Digest Book of Sig-Sauer: a complete look at sig-sauer pistols"
Massad F. Ayoob; Paperback; $18.47

1 "The Art of Worldly Wisdom (Shambhala Pocket Classics)"
Baltasar Gracian; Paperback; $6.95

1 "Pleasantville (New Line Platinum Series)"
Tobey Maguire; DVD; $6.97

Virgin Spaceport to be built near White Sands, N.M.

The status of "persecution of christians" in the US.

Happy Holidays!

The bodies of fallen marines are being shipped home as "freight."

I guess Bush is banking on getting the bulk discount.

Congratulations to DarkSyde!

He's going to be part of the front page writers on dKos for 2006, meaning he'll be read by millions.

More torture chamber raids in Iraq.

and

Investigating the Public Relations firm that created the fictional "Iraqi National Congress" as a vehicle to put Chalabi in power.

Via Peter, Pinter's Nobel acceptance speech.

Lieberman.

Magnetic pole migration speeding up.

Let's Make a Deal

That's teamwork, guys. Thanks.

Medical Malpractice.

Mike Wallace speaks up.

via Atrios.

Prissy little psychopath Theodore now argues that raping a woman is no more morally wrong than a woman having consensual premarital sex.

Via the Cincinnati Blog, the company that refused to run billboards criticizing Jean Schmidt for slandering a decorated veteran marine on the floor of congress sure has a strange idea of what's "nonpolitical."

"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both,and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching outits hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye.vAdmit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end'."

So... I have to add my two sense in...

I was watching AMC the other night, and A Christmas Carol was on, the the 1951 classic starring Alistair Sim as Scrooge.

So, I'm watching this, and somehow, I began thinking about the "War on Christmas", and how the coldest warriors in this "fray" might react to this story, which, I might point out, is definately a left leaning tale.

We know what great, charitable folks these NeoCons are, and for someone like O'Reilly (for which the Irish race, I might add, claim no responsibility...) who just loves those less fortunate to be uttering the word "Christmas" with out being pelted with wine bottles shows, perhaps, how cynical the whole festival really is.

Actually, the fact that he can utter the name "Jesus Christ" without being struck by lightning is in of itself amazing...I'll say it again, brothers and sisters: CHRIST WAS NOT A CONSERVATIVE.

Not withstanding this fact, however, here's a oldie but a goodie from Scrooge himself, chief defender of the faith:

"O'REILLY: Come on. The government never gave me anything, madam. I mean, I'm paying an enormous amount of taxes. And, you wanna take more and give it to somebody else who may have not gotten educated 'cause they're lazy. I mean -- I resent that --

ALBELDA: Is that why you think people aren't educated? Because they're lazy?

O'REILLY: Most people who don't make any money are not educated because they didn't wanna get educated [...]

O'REILLY: Yeah, because their family situation is irresponsible.

ALBELDA: Oh, come on. The average wage for a person receiving welfare in Boston is about $8 an hour.

O'REILLY: They shouldn't be on welfare[...]"

'Are there no prisons.' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses'."

Update: HAPPY HOLIDAYS, Folks. Let's keep the X in XMAS this year!!!

Pearl Harbor.

Sixty-four years ago today, Japanese aircraft attacked U.S. naval forces at Pearl Harbor. The United States went to war against the country that attacked it. Four years later, that country had surrendered and the war in the Pacific was over.

It has been four years since al-Qaida attacked the United States. We've gone to war against one country that provided a safe haven for those who attacked and with one country that had nothing to do with the attacks and no collaborative relationship with the attackers. Four years later, both wars continue. In Afghanistan the U.S. military says 22 Taliban guerrillas have just been killed in fighting with U.S. and local troops. In Iraq, at least 27 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a Baghdad police station. More than 250 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan. More than 2,130 Americans have lost their lives in Iraq. Untold numbers of Afghans and Iraqis have been killed -- are being killed -- as the two wars continue.

Nice.

"The paper of record", and "the first draft of history" has sunk so low it's just a pirated hack sheet for a corrupt slut passing along GOP talking points, lies, and propaganda. And that's not even getting to Judith Miller yet.

Elsewhere, Mnookin pulls no punches in stating that over the years Miller "had built a reputation for sleeping with her sources," had dated one of Sulzberger's best friends, Steve Ratner, "and had even, for a time, shared a vacation home with Sulzberger," whatever that means.

Why the occupation is feeding the insurgency in Iraq (hint, it isn't that they hate MTV):

Now you have some guerrilla groups little better than the Crips or Bloods. But others, those with their roots in the Shia resistance to Saddam or the Army, know their business and are successful.

What's even better is that they just have to watch the innocent get arrested and then ask if anyone in the family wants revenge.

Books for the evolutionist on your Christmas list.

"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

In this context, by "the worst elements of our culture" he means, of course, the jews.

Well this explains a lot.

Diebold whistleblower?

It occurs to me that O'Reilly's bullshit war on the holidays begs a simple test. Is there any way to find out what Christmas bonus his staff was paid last year? I don't know what Fox News does, but I once shared a table at a charity benefit with a group of reporters and show hosts from CNN right after they got an umbrella as their bonus, and they were quite steamed.

My company is one of the many which eliminated cash bonuses years ago, though the corporate culture is explicitely christocentric. Bah humbug, eh?

A primary opponent for Lieberman.

Ten questions about the Iraq occupation answered.

Alito's lies about his family background.

Sounds a little like Patrick Swayze's character in Donnie Darko.

Next up on the family-values republican lobbyist scandal menu: hookers.

Straight ones this time, maybe, unlike Bush's favorite mouthpiece Jeff Gannon.

Religion professor assaulted and hospitalized for proposing a class teaching creationism under comparative mythology.

I don't know if Kansas has a ccw statute. If so, I recommend he give his next attackers a hollowpoint hello before rationality costs him his life.

Scalito and fascism.

Disconnect: The Ideologue's Choice

Here is a great example of the NeoCon's disconnect with reality. The 9/11 Commission's report on our readiness has come back, and things are grim:

"Time, money and ever-present terror threats have done little to close gaping holes in the nation's security system, the former Sept. 11 Commission said Monday in accusing the government of failing to protect the country against another attack.

The panel cited disjointed airplane passenger screening methods, pork-barrel security funding and other problems in saying the Bush administration and Congress had not moved quickly enough to enact the majority of its recommendations of July 2004."

So...where's the disconnect? Michael J. Gaynor claims, after reaffirming the party line as to why we are in Iraq in the first place, in all seriousness, that the real problem is...The 9/11 Commission, because they do not support the president:

"And the September 11 Commissioners are cooperating with the effort, by (1) pretending that President Bush is endangering America by not following their directions and (2) failing to acknowledge all that has been accomplished both at home and aborad since September 11, 2001.

Of course, what the biased, anti-Bush, so-called "mainsteam" media misfits now find newsworthy is the complaining of the September 11 Commissioners. That would be the gang that did not have the gumption to demand that Clintonista Jaime Gorelick, who was part of the problem, resign as a Commissioner and become a wintess instead of a Commissioner. The gang that insists that the absence of documentation immunizes them from the Able Danger expose highlighted by a heroic Congressman from Pennsylvania, Curt Weldon. The gang that should be investigated itself."

Isn't that great? Hey, fuck National Security, just as long as you cling to the sinking SS Dubya. Unfortunately, he would have it so the sinking ship is OUR COUNTRY. But in his pea brain, they are one and the same, and that's the real danger.

Resign immediately, Filner.

Crap, I just forgot to look for Carter's book at the bookstore at lunch.

Ended up with 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life, The Best American Science Writing 2005, Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism, and got another copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies because I don't think I'm getting back the one I loaned out.

Since O'Reilly's such a doctrinaire catholic, let's hope he gets a traditional visit from old buddy Knecht Ruprecht tonight.

The companion of the French St. Nicholas, Pere Fouettard, is said to be the butcher of three children. St. Nicholas discovered the murder and resurrected the three children. He also shamed Pere Fouettard, who, in repentance, became a servant of St. Nicholas.

In some of the Ruprecht traditions the children would be summoned to the door to perform tricks, such as a dance or singing a song to impress upon Santa and Ruprecht that they were indeed good children. Those who performed badly would be beaten soundly by Servant Ruprecht, and those who performed well were given a gift or some treats. Those who performed badly enough or had committed other misdeeds throughout the year were put into Ruprecht's sack and taken away, variously to Ruprecht’s home in the Black Forest, or to be tossed into a river.

Something tells me that this isn't the kind of homeschooling kids are getting in Kansas.

Jimmy Carter's new book is #1 on the NYTimes nonfiction list.

CIA admits that an innocent man held five months in a secret CIA prison, "on a hunch."

of course...

Rice going to Europe this week to deny that the gulags exist.

... More here.

Is this real? This bastard was selling "bulletproof" vests to our marines, that wouldn't even stop a 9mm?

Bosnian pyramid.

An unsurprising annecdote about asshat Michael Weiner.

More on the casual sport-murders by mercenaries in Iraq.

Draft Ken Lucas.

Hilarious. Cincinnati may ban outdoor alcohol sales after 10pm.

At this point you have to just sit back and laugh. See you in NKY.

Tonkin.

Cracks in the fundy/zionist alliance.

More on Sabbath, by the great Lester Bangs.

"Lots of Black Sabbath fans take downs, but there are certainly many that don’t, and just as many barbiturate and heroin casualties that have no truck at all with the group, including many of those devotees of the mellow acoustic sound who are supposedly into healthier lifestyles than the minions of the music of desperation; if the pop audience knew how many of the heroes whose pockets they’ve filled were on smack right now, they... would probably not be the least bit surprised. But somehow it’s easier to picture the kid down the block, as fucked-up as we’ve watched him become, slumped in his bedroom gorged on Tuinal, listening to Black Sabbath prate of the devil and nuclear war and what a cruel kitchen the world is, nodding to himself as he nods along anyway and finding justification for his cancerous apathy".

A third post is in the making...

Sound Familiar...and appropos of....

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident...well, it may not have happened like we said..

"'In truth, Hanoi's navy was engaged in nothing that night but the salvage of two of the boats damaged on 2 August', Hanyok wrote.

He said 'the handful of SIGINT reports which suggested that an attack had occurred contained severe analytical errors, unexplained translation changes, and the conjunction of two unrelated messages into one translation. This latter product would become the Johnson administration's main proof of the Aug. 4 attack'[...]"

Ah yes. The quagmires do seem to have a lot in common.

Sound familiar?

As we noted earlier today, the New York Times is comparing George W. Bush's "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" with Richard Nixon's 1969 speech on the "Vietnamization" of the Vietnam War. The matching covers shown above are the product of a War Room reader's imagination. The similarities between the two plans are not.

There are differences between Bush's "National Strategy" speech and Nixon's Vietnamization vision, of course: Nixon didn't start the Vietnam War, so he may have felt more free to acknowledge the problems it presented -- the first of which, he said, was that "many Americans have lost confidence in what their government has told them about our policy."

"The American people cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overriding issues of war and peace unless they know the truth about that policy," Nixon said. "Tonight, therefore, I would like to answer some of the questions that I know are on the minds of many of you listening to me. How and why did America get involved in Vietnam in the first place? How has this administration changed the policy of the previous administration? What has really happened in the negotiations in Paris and on the battle-front in Vietnam? What choices do we have if we are to end the war? What are the prospects for peace?"

It's hard to imagine the current occupant of the White House speaking with that sort of clarity. He can't or won't come to terms with the fact that Americans have lost confidence in him. And he simply has no answer -- or at least not one that is both plausible and politically palatable -- for the question of why America went to war in Iraq in the first place. But when it comes to a plan for getting out of that war, Bush sounds an awful lot like his predecessor.

Nixon in 1969: "The precipitate withdrawal of American forces from Vietnam would be a disaster not only for South Vietnam but for the United States and for the cause of peace."

Bush yesterday: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder -- and invite new attacks on America."

Nixon: "An announcement of a fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in."

Bush: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies -- that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends."

Nixon: "If necessary ... we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom."

Bush: "And as the Iraqi security forces stand up, coalition forces can stand down -- and when our mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will return home to a proud nation."

Nixon delivered his Vietnamization speech in November 1969, but the last U.S. ground troops didn't leave Vietnam until March 1973. More than 8,000 American soldiers died in the meantime.

-- Tim Grieve

DarkSyde interviews science artist Carl Buell.

Kong is King.

General Pace. Again he provides an example of the requirement of a strict code of honor in conduct that is critical to a standing military in a democracy. It is exactly men like him who are the sworn enemy of people like the Cheney cabal.

Brzezinski speaks on Iraq.

O'Reilly's war on "Happy Holidays."

Fuck you, Billy. The broadening of the season you're fighting against is getting MORE people, not less, to celebrate the season. Your McCarthyist crusade is a transparent and pathetic attempt to shut out millions of Americans. The holiday is far older than christianity, and every culture celebrates midwinter in some form. We all gather around the fires for good cheer.

And as for your tough-guy shtick, no one forgets the phone transcripts of you riding a dildo, you posturing little mince.

Yet another right wing pedophile. This guy hasn't been arrested yet, but his fetishizing 15 year old girls is fucking creepy.

Here's a picture of him. It's relevant, considering this guy is talking about how he hates seeing Jennifer Aniston because he thinks she's too old and saggy.

Top ten bad reasons for continuing the occupation of Iraq.