Earl Bockenfeld: Politics

$100 Bucks & Forget You Ever Saw Any Of This

Thu, 04 May 2006 06:25:18 GMT

$100 Bucks & Forget You Ever Saw Any Of This

Monster Under Your Bed

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 03:35:36 GMT

Monster Under Your Bed

Once upon a time we had a great wartime president who told Americans they had nothing to fear but fear itself. Now we have George W. Bush, who uses fear as a tool of executive power and as a political weapon against his opponents.

Franklin D. Roosevelt tried his best to allay his nation's fears in the midst of an epic struggle against fascism. Bush, as he leads the country in a war whose nature he is constantly redefining, keeps fear alive because it has been so useful. His political grand wizard, Karl Rove, was perfectly transparent the other day when he emerged from wherever he's been hiding the past few months -- and gave the Republican National Committee its positioning statement for the fall elections: Vote for us or die.

Rummy Enjoys Full Military Support

Mon, 17 Apr 2006 04:38:59 GMT

Rummy Enjoys Full Military Support

Slate Cartoons

Unscientific Poll

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:17:09 GMT

Unscientific Poll
Ted Rall Cartoon

We'll Call Them "Guest Workers"

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 18:41:54 GMT

We'll Call Them "Guest Workers"

Slate cartoons

Defeat Hillary by Being a Skank

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 19:34:12 GMT

Defeat Hillary by Being a Skank

Indeed, there's nothing Hillary Clinton fears more than being mauled by a brigade of Republican hookers.

Of the advertisement (left) to be found on many a Right Wing website, Brad R. writes: "Indeed, there's nothing Hillary Clinton fears more than being mauled by a brigade of Republican hookers."

I know I know, it's juvenile, but it's funny. I mean, how the Big Tent of the Right covers the nuts who tried to prolong Terri Schiavo's suffering, those who seek to change gays, the tax-cutting fundamentalists, normal folk who pay little attention and like the color red better than the color blue, the global war fanatics, AND the beer-swilling tailgaters who create these ads, is beyond me.

I'm just shocked that any Repub would wear the hammer and sickel without a big Ghostbusters NO symbol around it. I mean, they aren't known for understanding subtlety - as evidenced by the rest of the shirt...

On usflag.org, I learned that the US Code, Title 36, Chapter 10 tells us of the patriotic customs associated with Old Glory. Under the section "Respect for the Flag", we learn that "The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery." And yet this model is wearing hot pants made from a flag. Go figure.

So I'm unpatriotic if I burn the flag but it's patriotic to leave skid marks on it. Cool.

Ummm, good thing it's the liberals and not the cons who continue to pollute our culture with sexually suggestive pictures, movies, music and videos.

Are these the same folks who are always whining about Britney Spears and scanty attire?

Bet she won't look so great in that T-shirt when she's been barefoot and pregnant for a few years in a row. Isn't that the IDEAL Repug woman these days?!!! I guess she will obtain her birth control or abortion one way or the other - even after the Repugs outlaw it ALL!!!!!

Hey, We Still Have Some Standards Here

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 06:17:07 GMT

Hey, We Still Have Some Standards Here

Pat Loses His Playground

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:12:28 GMT

Pat Loses His Playground

What happens when you put words in Jehovah's mouth? He takes away your right to build a Jesus playground. It's a bummer, Pat. We feel your pain.

JERUSALEM - Israel won't do business with Pat Robertson after the evangelical leader suggested Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke was divine punishment, a tourism official said Wednesday, putting into doubt plans to develop a large Christian tourism center in northern Israel.

Avi Hartuv, spokesman for Israel's tourism minister, said officials are furious with Robertson's suggestion that the stroke was retribution for Sharon's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer. "We can't accept this kind of statement," Hartuv said.

Robertson is leading a group of evangelicals who have pledged to raise $50 million to build the Christian Heritage Center in Israel's northern Galilee region, where tradition says Jesus lived and taught.

Under a tentative agreement, Robertson's group was to put up the funding, while Israel would provide land and infrastructure. Israeli officials believe the project will generate tens of millions of tourism dollars.

But the project now is in question in light of Robertson's comments, said Hartuv.

"We will not do business with him, only with other evangelicals who don't back these comments," Hartuv said. "We will do business with other evangelical leaders, friends of Israel, but not with him."

A day after Sharon's stroke on Jan. 4, Robertson suggested the prime minister was being punished for "dividing God's land," a reference to the August pullout from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.

"God considers this land to be his," Robertson said on his TV program "The 700 Club." "You read the Bible and he says 'This is my land,' and for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, 'No, this is mine."'

Robertson's comments also drew condemnation from other Christian leaders and even U.S. President George W. Bush.

The ministry's decision was first reported in Wednesday's edition of The Jerusalem Post.

Christian center planned near Galilee
Robertson's Christian Heritage Center was to be tucked away in 35 acres of rolling Galilee hills, near key Christian sites such as Capernaum, the Mount of the Beatitudes, where tradition says Jesus delivered the Sermon of the Mount, and Tabgha -- on the shores of the Sea of Galilee -- where Christians believe Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fish.

The project underlines how ties have strengthened in recent years between Israel and evangelical Christian groups that support the Jewish state.

Israel was considering leasing the land to the Christians for free. Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson predicted it would annually draw up to 1 million pilgrims who would spend $1.5 billion in Israel and support about 40,000 jobs.

Hirschson, however, is one of Sharon's biggest supporters, and a member of the centrist Kadima party recently founded by the prime minister.

Hartuv left the door open to continuing the project, but only with people who don't back Robertson's statements.

What a shock it must be to Robertson to be actually held accountable for his bizarre statements. Maybe eventually the media here will get around to acting as forthrightly around him as the Israelis have. The idea of this Christian center in Galilee sounded like a mistake anyway (speaking as a Catholic); there are enough tensions in that part of the world without a bunch of right-wing evangelical Americans making it worse. Pilgrims of all religions should be able to visit Galilee without having to endure proselytizing and (no doubt), getting hit up for "donations" from Robertson's cabal.

Hahahaha! Of course, I think everyone but Pat saw that coming. To bad, Pat, no Jesus World for you!

James Comey: An Unsung Hero

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 02:19:24 GMT

James Comey: An Unsung Hero

Comey truly is the kind of career public servant that we should be proud of in this country. It's a shame so many of them have been replaced by political cronies under Bush.

Noone knows if 2006 will be the year the power of the despots in this country will be checked, but if it happens it will be due to people like James Comey who after only three weeks on the job as the number two man in the Justice Department went to John Ashcroft in December of 2003 and told him he had to recuse himself from the CIA leak investigation.

It was also James Comey who appointed his good friend, the godfather to his son, Patrick Fitzgerald as Special Counsel and gave him the power to do the job without interference.

According to the New York Times, it now appears that when John Ashcroft was hospitalized for a gall bladder operation in March of 2004, Andy Card and Abu Gonzales had to go his hospital bed and ask for approval of key parts of the warrantless wiretapping program because his acting deputy refused to certify it.

Pete Williams was on MSNBC today spinning the yarn that James Comey's objections to the NSA wiretapping scheme were only momentary and technical, and that he eventually was part of the effort to get the NYT to sit on the story.

I just wish people would preface any mention of Pete Williams' opinion with a little caveat mentioning his ties to Cheney. How about:
"Ex-Cheney Staffer Pete Wiliams" Let's not act like we don't know this. Geez...

"In 1986 he joined the Washington, DC staff of then Congressman Dick Cheney as press secretary and a legislative assistant. In 1989, when Cheney was named Assistant Secretary of Defense, Williams was appointed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs."
While this tale is I suppose possible it sounds quite unlikely, and its successful perpetuation depends on two things:

1) That Comey himself will not come out and challenge it. Probably true.

2) That nobody in the blogosphere will ferret around in the news vaults and set Comey's relationship to the Administration during his brief stint at the DoJ in its proper context.

In this particular instance the context is set by Orin Kerr over at the Volokh Conspiracy, who unearths this superb bit from the Legal Times in October 2004:

There are a number of candidates who could be tapped to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general if President George W. Bush wins re-election. But perhaps the most obvious choice, Deputy AG James Comey, almost certainly will not be.

Since his confirmation as the No. 2 Justice Department official in December 2003, sources close to the department say Comey has had a strained relationship with some of the president's top advisers . . . .

Earlier this year, after the disclosure of internal administration memos that seemed to condone the torture of suspected terrorists overseas, Comey pushed aggressively for the Justice Department's memos to be released to the media and for controversial legal analyses regarding the use of torture to be rewritten.

In a deeply partisan administration that places a high premium on political loyalty, sources say Comey — a career prosecutor and a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — is not viewed as a team player.

"[Comey] has shown insufficient political savvy," says the former official. "The perception is that he has erred too much on the side of neutrality and independence."

And:"The appointment of Pat Fitzgerald is the kind of decision that the White House isn't thrilled with," says one former DOJ official. "Comey knew what he was doing when he appointed Pat."

Comey announced his resignation from the Justice Department in March 2005. And when BushCo. tried to appoint a Skull & Bones crony to oversee Fitzgerald, Comey did an end run around them and appointed the extremely ethical David Margolis to the task as his parting shot out the door.

Thank you Fitz, Comey, Feingold, Murtha, Cantwell, and Reid for showing that there are still people of courage and honor in American public life.

Thanks to all the brave and tireless people who fought for the underdog; from Bono and Bob Geldof working on debt relief for the Third World, to the Red Cross for providing disaster relief from Indonesia to New Orleans, to Noah's Wish and the Humane Society for rescuing furry family members, and all the volunteers who put their lives on hold to go help those in need.

Here's to 2006: May the Good Guys Win the Big Ones!

Coulter Wows 'Em At U Conn

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 00:58:31 GMT

Coulter Wows 'Em At U Conn

No, she wasn't explaining why she appears on The O'Reilly Factor so much. Instead, she was mocking UConn students for making her job even easier than it usually is.

STORRS, Conn. -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter cut short a speech at the University of Connecticut amid boos and jeers, and decided to hold a question-and-answer session instead.

"I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am," Coulter told the crowd of 2,600 Wednesday.

Before cutting off her speech after about 15 minutes, Coulter called Bill Clinton an "executive buffoon" who won the presidency only because Ross Perot took 19 percent of the vote.

Coulter's appearance prompted protests from several student groups. About 100 people rallied outside the auditorium where she spoke, saying she spread a message of intolerance.

"We encourage diverse opinion at UConn, but this is blatant hate speech," said Eric Knudsen, a 19-year-old sophomore journalism and social welfare major who heads campus group Students Against Hate.

It wasn't the first time Coulter has had trouble at a university speech. In October 2004, two men ran onstage and threw custard pies as she was giving a speech at the University of Arizona.

The UConn Undergraduate Student Government paid the controversial pundit $16,000 to speak -- and DC's own Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute kicked in untold thousands as well -- but Coulter lasted only fifteen minutes before using chants of "You suck, you suck" as an excuse to cut her speech short and go straight to the Q & A section of the evening.

Sample Q & A:

One student asked what she would do if she had a child who came out as gay.

Coulter replied: "I'd say, `Did I ever tell you you're adopted?'"

After a half hour of that, Coulter went back to her hotel room, counted her cash, and licked a Diet Newport for dinner. If she had better legs, we'd swear she was the new Don Rickles.

TODAY: A tragic day in history, December 8, 1961 is the birth day of Ann Coulter.

Victory Strategy

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:54:52 GMT

Victory Strategy

"There's a lack of trust that the president has in Cheney and it's connected with Iraq," a source said.
what a coincidence... I don't trust the Bush regime with anything anymore, and thats connected with Iraq too.

IMPEACH BUSH!

(but impeach Cheney first.)

Barbara Bush Ticked At Aides

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 06:21:21 GMT

Barbara Bush Ticked At Aides

Wasn't it Nixon who said of Barbara Bush, "She really knows how to hate"? Kind of makes a person wonder what she has in store for old Dick and CO. We are so lucky to be living in such times you can't pay for entertainment like this.

The Washington Note

Barbara Bush is allegedly TICKED off at Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Andy Card, nearly all of them -- except Karen Hughes -- for how her boy is faring in the hearts and minds of Americans.

The matriarch of the Bush clan is colder than North Pole ice right now to those around her son who she thinks have undermined him. I'll tell who my sources are if Patrick Fitzgerald gives a call and makes me -- but the sources are very close to Poppa Bush (41), who has been traveling a bit with some of his old entourage, including Brent Scowcroft and others of the first Bush regime.

The role of Vice President Dick Cheney as the administration's point man in security policy appears over, according to administration sources.

Over the last two months Mr. Cheney has been granted decreasing access to the Oval Office, the sources said on the condition of anonymity. The two men still meet, but the close staff work between the president and vice president has ended.

"Cheney's influence has waned not only because of bad chemistry, but because the White House no longer formulates policy," another source said.

"There's nothing to input into. Cheney is smart and knowledgeable, but he as well as Bush are ducking all the time to avoid the bullets.

Cheney may be tougher to dump than Don Regan, but then again, Barbara Bush is one of those wonders of nature (we hear) who knows no limits and can easily surge beyond category 5 hurricane winds.

Should be interesting to watch the role of the First Mother in the coming couple of months. Watch for a lot to change right after the State of the Union address.

Cheney and Chimpy's mom in a cage match -- until only one of them walks out. Any bets on who would win?

Supreme Court Nominee Described As Very Loyal To The President

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 06:24:22 GMT

Supreme Court Nominee Described As Very Loyal To The President

Harriet Miers, at the time staff secretary, is seen on Aug. 6, 2001, briefing President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Someone at MSNBC is a wee bit subversive. Accompanying this AP article about Miers was this picture and caption:

Among a host of qualities that White House counsel Harriet Ellan Miers shares with new Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is the apparent lack of any personal legal agenda. Known for an exacting, no-nonsense style, Miers — like Roberts — tends to avoid the limelight.

Once described by White House chief of staff Andrew Card as “one of the favorite people in the White House,” Miers has been there for President Bush at every turn for more than a decade.

She was Bush’s personal lawyer in Texas, took on the thankless job of cleaning up the Texas Lottery when he was governor, and followed him to Washington to serve as staff secretary, the person who controls every piece of paper that crosses the president’s desk.

In 2004, Bush appointed her White House counsel, calling her “a talented lawyer whose great integrity, legal scholarship and grace have long marked her as one of America’s finest lawyers.” He articulated his high regard for her more memorably during a 1996 awards ceremony when he called her “a pit bull in size 6 shoes.”

Gee, August 6, 2001. I wonder what could be on the cover sheet of that memo Bush is pretending to read. Maybe it was, oh, I don't know...
BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN US

2001. Staff Secretary.
2005. Justice, United States Supreme Court.

Never let it be said that the GOP is not in favor of affirmative action. Priceless.

Urban Survival And The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Situation

Sun, 02 Oct 2005 03:59:04 GMT

Urban Survival And The Gulf Of Mexico Oil Situation

The fact is that capitalism drove the GDPs and with it, the demand for oil & gas, all they way up the Hubbard peak. On the way down, it is no longer part of the solution-- it is part of the problem.

Reporting from The Oil Drum already shows that the situation is worse than the MSM have admitted (though they're starting to come around). The situation is still very murky, and more hard data is needed. But don't trust the happy talk, especially after you eyeball these numbers.

Let me sum up: Hurricane Ivan destroyed 7 platforms and 100 piplines and 0 rigs.

Katrina & Rita destroyed (so far) 90 platforms and (who knows) pipelines and 100(?) rigs.

There are typically around 130 rigs working in the Gulf. Today, there are 23.

There will be virtually no new exploration in the Gulf for the next year or so, assuming everything stays the way it is right now. Plus, with the rigs left in operation, there are several countries bidding to have them work in their waters. Guess who wins? Highest bidder.

Gasoline was up $0.40 at my test location just since last night. Expectations are that it will rise over $1.00 by Sunday night. Two years ago, I could fill my SUV (26 gal tank) for $28. Today, it cost me $28 to fill my buzzie with a 10 gal tank.

Service companies are strained to the max. There is very little equipment available. Dive equipment, generators, winches and the whole lot were destroyed in the storms. Rentals are going out all over the world to get the equipment to do the job. Right now, everything is on an even keel, but one more surprise could put the whole remediation effort over the edge, as well.

It's not only bad, it's very bad.

We may not take too long getting there...nobody likes lines any more than you do. Now let me add it up: A tenuous political situation in DC, New Orleans clusterfibbit, quakes pending west, and oil outages on the horizon. That means rationing and restrictions on travel.

It's pretty funny how "free market" folks keep talking about "demand destruction" as a market-driven solution to this energy crisis. Sure, an expensive product becomes cheaper as it becomes less popular. But for most Americans gasoline and electricity are not luxuries--they are necessities like food and water. "Demand destruction" means that some people cannot drive to work or heat their homes.

The fact is that American consumption needs to be lowered by 8% (=1.5 MMBPD GOM shut-in / 18 MMBPD pre-huricane consumption). In an egalitarian society, one would strive to spread this "suffering" across the population. However, in a market economy some will go on consuming like nothing ever happened--because they can afford $3/gasoline and $15/MMBtu nat'l gas. Others meanwhile will be forced to stop driving to work because what they earn and stop paying their heating bills because what they burn. They will lose their jobs and have their heating cut off. Their consumption may be reduced by ~100% then.

There is your demand destruction, which may very well be irreversible.

The fact is that capitalism drove the GDPs and with it, the demand for oil & gas, all they way up the Hubbard peak. On the way down, it is no longer part of the solution-- it is part of the problem. The point is, in the post-peak or near-peak world the old supply-side models do not work. And we should be worried when we only hear these as "solutions" to the present energy problem.

I'm kind of in-between on this question. On the one hand, it really bugs me that poor folks are having to scramble to deal with this change while rich folks can go on filling their SUVs without a second thought.

On the other hand, though, there's a middle ground between driving as normal and losing jobs: There's carpooling. There's mass transit. There's bicycling and walking. There's moving closer to work. Many of these strategies are more available to poor folks (who often don't have to sell a house before they can move closer to work, for example).

The best we can hope for is that things get bad in the right way: a shock, so that people decide early to make these changes, and then a period where things get a bit better to give them time to make the changes (but not so long that the early adopters feel like they've made a mistake). Thrashing about with prices high enough to crush the poor followed by six months where prices are cheap again, combined with politicians saying things will go back to normal, would cause worse problems.

What we need are aggressive government-sponsered programs in coal-gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synfuels (or similar "alternative" but demonstrated technologies). The "market forces" won't make this happen becuase they are afraid that LNG imports will make coal-gasification uncompetitive.

There is this myth in America that all great technologies were developed without government help. The reality is that the most successful technologies in the fuels and petrochemicals were developed during WWII with aggressive government help-- fluidized cat-cracking for high octane gasoline and synthetic rubber being just two examples.

For personal travel - plug-in hybrids are the best way to curtail transportation demand for gasoline and diesel in the medium term (5-10 yrs). Fuel cells for autos still seem to dominate the popular press and US auto makers as the likely solution, but the technical improvements necessary to make plug-in hybrids in real numbers are far less of a challenge. Plus beefing up the US electrical grid is a lot less daunting than thinking about building a hydrogen distribution system.

The US would be better off using North American coal reserves to generate electricity (and thus displace natural gas consumption) than using the F-T process to generate diesel. I read in the papers a few days ago that GE and Bechtel agreed to begin engineering and design for a 600-megawatt coal-gasification plant in Ohio - finally! This is by far the largest plant to date. Coal gasification doesn't help much with our global warming problem but it greatly reduces particulate, sulfur dioxide and heavy metals emissions. In the Pacific NW and much of their air pollution and the mercury in their tuna come from coal fired electric generation plants in China. I wonder what the cost-benefit calculation would look like to pay the Chinese to replace their existing plants with coal gasification plants. GE would be all for it.

The President needs to take a step beyond conservation and put significant DOE money for plug-in hybrid development. His oil company constituency might not be thrilled, but it wins point on the fuel cost / national security fronts.

http://www.smartmoney.com/bn/on/index.cfm?story=ON-20050929-000767-1118&;nav=pf_hp
This is a link to the following story: "Energy Department Plans Conservation Push." The Bush Administration is launching an aggressive energy conservation campaign next week.

By the way, the WSJ had a story today about how major oil companies are holding down the price of gasoline, because of fears of a political backlash. However, it is having a very negative effect on independent dealers. I think that I saw this in effect earlier this week.

An independent on one side of the street had gasoline at $3.21 for regular. ExxonMobil across the street was at $2.89--basically a 10% difference. The independent lowered his price the next day. He may have lowered it to the point that he was actually losing money on gasoline sales.

It's possible that the majors may be using the fear of a political backlash to drive independents out of business.

I don't think that it is a coincidence that the Bush Administration is launching an aggressive nationwide cappaign next week to encourage energy conservation. My prediction: no outside Christmas lights this year.

The only question is when George dons a Cardigan sweater and gives us the Jimmy Carter speech--better late than never.

Warning: Some Breasts but No Torture Porno

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 00:23:00 GMT

Warning: Some Breasts but No Torture Porno

I love this Quick Time video from Truth Out.

The above is a link to footage from the protest in front of the Lily White House, including a very reasonable request that George Bush vacant the premises.

Let's make someone hear us everyday until the war ends.

A Day of Civil Disobedience

Washington, DC | 09.26.05

If There's No News, Is It Good Or Bad

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 05:04:50 GMT

If There's No News, Is It Good Or Bad

We are still in the phase of finding out, after Rita's landfall, exactly what the level of damage will be. Today's MMS report has 100% of the oil shut down with 81% of the platforms still evacuated and 68% of the rigs. The 17-miles of road leading to the LOOP terminal are still underwater. One can take the Valero comment that it will take between two weeks and a month for repairs to be completed at their refinery at face value.

Further it is not unreasonable to expect that there may be serious off-shore damage

Energy Industry analyst Jon Kilduff of FIMAT told CNN there are reports of some missing semi-submersible offshore rigs, but no details were available.
Kilduff said that, even in the best case scenario, it will take "10 to 14 days" days to return refineries to full operations. He warned that structural damage is not the only concern; refineries depend on electrical power that may have been affected by the storm.

The news from the Houston Chronicle that tankers were being brought in to ensure that existing gasoline supplies get distributed is encouraging.

The north Houston and Pasadena terminals that supply Shell stations were open again today with enough gasoline to fill up at least 30 tankers with 270,000 gallons of fuel. The tanker drivers have instructions to start with gas-needy I-45, I-10 and Highway 290.
Exxon Mobil was bringing in tanker trucks from as far away at New Jersey and Illinois. Company officials said they delivered 531,000 gallons of gasoline to 14 retail stores in the Houston area on Saturday, the equivalent of the normal daily demand for the entire Houston market.

If the refineries are down for a month then the already weakened stock positions will get worse. And further, as the Guardian points out, the supplies are not reaching everyone:

The principal problem was a petrol shortage in an area that is usually the hub of the US oil industry. Long lines of cars formed outside Houston petrol stations yesterday. The shortage also affected salvage work. In Port Arthur, where the levees stood up to the storm surge but torrential rain left extensive flooding, a policeman said the local force was hamstrung by shortages. "We've got no gas. We're just about ready to burglarise some of the transport businesses to get some," said the officer, who did not want his name used. "We're attempting to find fuel wherever we can," a police spokeswoman, Wendy Billiot, said, confirming that petrol could be commandeered. "If it's necessary, we are considering that option."

We should now be seeing the refineries starting to produce the heating oil for the winter. If a significant part of that possible production has to be redirected to the production of gasoline then that heating oil stock build-up will not take place.

And in this regard I think I would rather be called wrong by suggesting that there may be a problem with heating oil this winter as a result, than sit complacently saying that there won't be a problem, The United States is, I believe, the only nation that stores most of its fuel in crude form, rather than as refined product, and that means that if the refineries can only produce at a certain rate, if the reserve stocks aren't there then it is going to be a cold winter. I think it might be better to know that now, that when calling the fuel oil salesman in December, only to be told that there isn't any.

Bush's Booze Crisis?

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 05:21:38 GMT

Bush's Booze Crisis?

The National Enquirer is just out with a bombshell. The tab reports on its website today — for issues available in New York tomorrow and nationwide on Friday — that George W. Bush is back on the sauce, caught by Laura downing a shot after he learned of the Katrina crisis.

His worried wife yelled at him: "Stop, George."

Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against "falling off the wagon" and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.

"When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot," said one insider. "He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: "Stop George!"

"Laura gave him an ultimatum before, 'It's Jim Beam or me.' She doesn't want to replay that nightmare -- especially now when it's such tough going for her husband."

Actually, we sort of glad to hear the president is drinking again. "Brownie, you’re doing a hell of job," makes a lot more sense coming from a drunk man.

...Isn't it appalling that the only remnant of independent media left in this country is the freeping National Enquirer?... To paraphrase Johnnie Cochran:

"If the White House don't sue ... It must be true!"

Judge Releases Catawba Documents

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 04:30:40 GMT

Judge Releases Catawba Documents

Just the kind of things to tweak one's curiosity when a story with words like "heavily edited," "FBI document" and "election fraud" (not to mention "federal campaign contribution laws" and "straw contributions") runs as a very obscure News Brief in a relatively obscure paper. This needs research to tie the links together, so consider this as an appetizer:

(via Columbia SC State)

A heavily edited version released Monday of an FBI document used to seize records in an investigation into possible election fraud sheds little additional light on the case.

The FBI is in the early stages of a probe, led by the Justice Department’s Public Integrity section, of allegations that companies with ties to the Catawba Indian Nation may have violated federal campaign contributions laws. The allegations include possible “straw” contributions made by one contributor in the name of another.

Among the few new disclosures is that the Washington, D.C.-based FBI agent who led an Aug. 31 search of New River Management & Development, SPM (formerly Southern Property Management) and Kapp Investments in Columbia specializes in cases of public corruption and fraud against the government.

Nearly half of agent Amylynn Miller’s 17-page affidavit, described as a “road map” to the investigation, was entirely withheld from public disclosure by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bristow Marchant.

My guess is that the name "Ralph Reed" and the axis of Abramoff-Delay-Tom Davis is lurking somewhere underneath the black ink of the "road map" on these documents..

New Orleans Suspends Reopening of City

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 04:01:40 GMT

New Orleans Suspends Reopening of City

In the raucous French Quarter, about a half-mile from where Nagin made his announcement, businesses were getting up and running, and bars were serving cold beers to National Guardsmen and passers-by.

A sign against US President George W. Bush and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is hung in front of a house in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, three weeks after hurricane Katrina hit the city. Hurricane Katrina's relief supremo urged New Orleans to hold back on plans to let tens of thousands of evacuees return home from Monday, warning the storm-wrecked city remained unsafe.(AFP/Omar Torres)\

Poll: 43 Pct. of Evacuees Want to Go Home

Forty-three percent said they want to move back home when they can. About the same number of evacuees — 44 percent — said they want to permanently relocate, and most of them wanted to stay in Houston, said the poll published Friday.

The slow response to the storm strained faith in government. Six in 10 said the experience has made them feel that the government doesn't care about people like them.

But their religious faith has been strengthened, eight in 10 said. And 90 percent were hopeful about the future.

More than half of their homes were destroyed. Two-thirds were renting their homes and a third were owners.

Almost three-fourths don't have insurance to cover their losses.

More than half didn't have health insurance, a usable credit card with them, or a bank or checking account from which they could withdraw money.

Nearly three-fourths heard before the hurricane hit that an evacuation order had been given; a fourth did not.

More than two-thirds said they didn't evacuate because they didn't realize how bad the storm and its aftermath would be. More than half — 55 percent — said one factor was that they didn't have a car or a way to leave. Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Gulf Oil Operations Still in Disarray

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 06:14:35 GMT

Gulf Oil Operations Still in Disarray

An oil well damaged by Katrina spilled oil into coastal waters Wednesday near Port Fourchon, 100 miles southeast of New Orleans.

The Gulf of Mexico, the nation's largest energy center, was still reeling yesterday, four days after Hurricane Katrina, crippling gasoline supplies in some pockets of the country. In the face of the turmoil, the government stepped up its release of strategic oil stocks to refiners.

The Bush administration said it approved a loan of six million barrels from the emergency reserve to Exxon Mobil, and another one million barrels to Placid Refining. A third company, Valero, will receive 1.5 million barrels. The new supply is, however, far less than what is needed to make up for the expected loss of production from the gulf - a region that accounts for over a quarter of domestic oil supplies.

Much of the gulf area's production and refining remained shut yesterday, but the first signs emerged that at least some parts of the region's intricate energy infrastructure were slowly coming back. Two important pipelines that supply oil products to the East Coast began limited operations again, supported by emergency power supplies. And a huge oil-importing terminal in Louisiana provided reassurance that it would resume receiving oil tankers soon.

Still, nine major Louisiana refineries remained without power, according to the Energy Department. At least four others were running at reduced capacity. In all, at least 1.8 million barrels a day of refining capacity is still down, or about 10 percent of the nation's total.

Retail gasoline prices have surged in recent days to over $3 a gallon in many parts of the country. Prices increased as much as 50 cents a gallon overnight, with Illinois, Michigan, Texas and Pennsylvania reporting some of the biggest increases.

The nationwide average for premium fuel was $2.95 yesterday, up from $2.88 on Wednesday and $2.42 a month ago.

Two days before the Labor Day weekend, when millions of people typically hit the roads for the last big summer holiday, President Bush asked Americans to curb their gasoline consumption. "Americans should be prudent in their use of energy during the course of the next few weeks," Mr. Bush said yesterday. "Don't buy gas if you don't need it."

But while tapping the reserve and bringing in additional imports will provide a quick injection of oil into the system, they will do little to get refineries hit by the storm up and running again. What is certain already is that Hurricane Katrina produced what economists had feared most, a dislocation of oil and gas supplies on a global scale and the prospect of even higher energy prices.

"We have lost a lot of supplies at a time when we were very vulnerable," said Roger Diwan, a managing director at PFC Energy, an oil consulting firm in Washington. "How high prices go will depend on how quickly refiners can get back on."

PFC Energy estimated that 820,000 barrels a day of refining capacity was badly flooded and would remain without power for weeks.

The prospect of a sustained drop in refining operations pushed the price of oil products on the New York Mercantile Exchange up again yesterday. Gasoline futures for October delivery closed at $2.409 a gallon, up 15.37 cents. The September contract expired at $2.61 a gallon on Wednesday. Crude oil futures closed at $69.47 a barrel, up 53 cents.

Gasoline stocks have fallen for nine consecutive weeks and are at their lowest since November 2003. Last week, they dropped by 500,000, to 194 million barrels - enough to supply the country's total gasoline consumption of 9.4 million barrels a day for about 20 days.

"The United States is facing a major gasoline crisis and is starting from a nearly empty tank," Barclays Capital said in a note.

The White House has already approved more loans from the strategic oil reserves than the 5.4 million barrels it released after Hurricane Ivan, which hit the gulf last September. The administration also relaxed shipping rules to allow foreign ships to transport oil and gasoline between American ports to make up for shortages in some sections of the country.

"By utilizing the resources from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, we will help minimize any potential supply disruptions as a result of the hurricane," Samuel W. Bodman, the energy secretary, said in a statement.

But the real problem, said Frank A. Verrastro, the head of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, "is the refining capacity, not crude."

The first hurdle to overcome is the lack of electrical power.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, an import terminal with a capacity of 1.2 million barrels of crude oil a day, said it had suffered only minimal damage but had not been able to take deliveries from oil tankers because it was waiting for power to be restored to its onshore storage operation in Galliano, about 74 miles south of New Orleans.

"I really feel confident that we will be going as soon as we have energy," said Tommy Martinez, executive director of the agency that regulates the terminal. Port Fourchon, which serves offshore rigs, platforms and the offshore oil terminal, is still struggling to get back to full capacity.

Ships that use the port, which is about 100 miles south of New Orleans, still cannot sail through the clogged waterways that connect it to the Mississippi River and other shipping channels, said Ted M. Falgout, the port's executive director. Bridges along those waterways are not operating because they do not have power.

The pipelines that transport oil or refined products to the Northeast, the Midwest and the Southeast reported some limited improvements.

Valero, the nation's largest independent refiner, said it had restored power to its refinery in St. Charles, La., and that a quarter of its employees had managed to return to work. Initial reports from the company suggested that it would take as long as two weeks to restart the flooded refinery.

Chevron said that that its refinery in Pascagoula, Miss., which has a capacity of 325,000 barrels a day, had escaped "catastrophic damage" thanks to a dike that has held up. But the plant remain shut.

The delays at refineries and pipelines rippled through the system. One gasoline wholesaler, Petroleum Traders , reported it was being cut off by BP and Marathon, which have contracts that allow them to supply their own distributors first during supply shocks. Exxon Mobil and Chevron also warned of gasoline disruptions.

To make up for the domestic shortfall, oil companies began taking measures to increase their imports of gasoline and diesel fuel from Europe. Bloomberg News reported that as many as 10 tankers were booked by companies, including BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips, to ship about 130 million gallons of gasoline.

But even if imports grow, much depends on how quickly oil production can be restored in the gulf.

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 1.5 percent of global oil production but with little spare production capacity anywhere around the world, its impact is being felt far beyond the region's storm-hit coast.

More than 90 percent of the gulf's daily oil output was still closed. Natural gas production was down by 79 percent, a slight improvement over Wednesday, the Interior Department reported. That did not ease the pressure on the markets, with natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange rising 2.5 percent, to $11.757 a thousand cubic feet.

Since Aug. 26, more than 7.4 million barrels of oil, or 1.3 percent of the gulf's yearly production, has not been produced as a consequence of the storm.

Another uncertainty looms over the gulf's energy infrastructure.

When Hurricane Ivan hit the gulf last September, it created underwater mud slides that uprooted crucial underwater pipelines, delaying the return of full production for six months. In all, that storm cut oil production by 43.8 million barrels.

So far, there is no indication of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the gulf's 33,000 miles of underwater pipelines, a seabed grid that links thousands of offshore platforms to refiners and storage tanks on the coast.

"For all the talk of political uncertainty in Nigeria or Russia or Venezuela last year, the biggest single loss of production was from Ivan," Mr. Verrastro at the study center in Washington said. "Our definition of risk might be changing. The weather is becoming one of the biggest factors."

With hundreds of thousands of people homeless, oil companies were facing more basic problems, even such previously simple tasks as contacting employees. Chevron is advertising a toll-free number for its workers.

"On the top of our agenda is finding where our employees are," said Mickey Driver, a Chevron spokesman in Houston. "It's a major concern for us."

Pro-War Demonstrator Spells USA Correctly

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:49:58 GMT

Pro-War Demonstrator Spells USA Correctly

The war was based and sold on lies. Nothing this administration has said has been accurate or truthful. A majority of the American people now believe this.

Smearing a mother who lost her child for no valid reason won't change this.

The rapidly dwindling minority of Americans who continue to search for some rationale for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq has been driven to the brink of breakdown by the success of Sheehan's protest. Go to the website of William F. Buckley's National Review magazine and you will find Sheehan described in headlines as "nutty," dismissed by columnists as "the mouthpiece... of howling-at-the-moon, bile-spewing Bush haters" and accused of "sucking up intellectual air" that, presumably, would be better utilized by Condoleezza Rice explaining once more that it would be wrong to read too much into the August 6, 2001, briefing document that declared: "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S." Human Events, the conservative weekly newspaper, dismisses Sheehan as a "professional griever" who "can claim to be in perpetual mourning for her fallen son" -- as if there is some time limit on maternal sorrow over the death of a child.

Fox News Channel spinner-in-chief Bill O'Reilly accuses Sheehan of being "in bed with the radical left," including -- horrors! -- "9-11 families" that are still seeking answers about whether, in the first months of 2001, the Bush administration was more focused on finding excuses to attack Iraq than on protecting Americans from terrorism. And Rush Limbaugh was on the radio the other day ranting about how, "(Sheehan's) story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real..." (Just to clarify for Limbaugh listeners: Cindy Sheehan's 24-year-old son Casey really did die in Iraq, and his mother really would like to talk with President Bush about all those claims regarding WMDs and al-Qaida ties that the administration used to peddle the "case" for war.)

The pro-war pundits who continue to defend the occupation of Iraq are freaked out by the fact that a grieving mother is calling into question their claim that the only way to "support the troops" is by keeping them in the frontlines of George W. Bush's failed experiment. Bush backers are horrified that Sheehan's sincere and patriotic anti-war voice has captured the nation's attention.

What the pro-war crowd does not understand is that Cindy Sheehan is not inspiring opposition to the occupation. She is merely putting a face on the mainstream sentiments of a country that has stopped believing the president's promises with regard to Iraq. According to the latest Newsweek poll, 61 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handing of the war, while just 26 percent support the president's argument that large numbers of U.S. military personnel should remain in Iraq for as long as it takes to achieve the administration's goals there.

The supporters of this war have run out of convincing lies and effective emotional appeals. Now, they are reduced to attacking the grieving mothers of dead soldiers. Samuel Johnson suggested that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. But, with their attacks on Cindy Sheehan, the apologists for George Bush's infamy have found a new and darker refuge.

So a surrogate war has produced a surrogate antiwar movement. This time, mass protests would only cloud the issue. As the parent of a dead soldier, Sheehan has so much moral authority precisely because so few Americans including so few of us who supported the war risk sharing her plight.

But if Sheehan's vigil says something important about Iraq, it also says something important about President Bush. Sheehan, after all, has only one demand: She wants to confront the president face to face. The demand is so provocative because one of George W. Bush's defining qualities is his aversion to exactly this sort of challenge. According to former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman, "There is a palace guard, and they want to run interference for him." Former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill described Bush as "caught in an echo chamber of his own making, cut off from everyone other than a circle around him that's tiny and getting smaller and in concert on everything."

If our president could take the time to dress up in a flight suit and travel to an aircraft carrier, an executive version of a Super Bowl touchdown dance, why can he not take the time to answer Cindy Sheehan?

Move America Forward's Shady Dealings. Max Blumenthal has some great information about the front group that has bankrolled the Creepy Caravan tour to attack Cindy Sheehan. Here's a little about Sal Russo:

"If Kaloogian wants to fight corruption, he should get up, turn the light on, and take a look in his own slimy bed. After all, Move America Forward's "Chief Strategist," Sal Russo, who handled Bill Simon's hapless 2002 gubernatorial campaign, is knee-deep in unethical business dealings and scandals."

and this: "That's right. Move America Forward's Sal Russo ran tax shelters and bilked campaign donors out of $200,000. Oh, and then there's the little thing about Russo and Simon being in bed with a major drug trafficker, something they still can't explain" ...read on

Freeper Bust Update: 08/28/05 "Ken Robinson, of Richardson, Texas, who described himself as a Vietnam veteran, was carrying a sign at a “You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy!” rally. The sign read, “How to wreck your family in 30 days by ‘b**** in the ditch' Cindy Sheehan and a picture of the sign appears above in this post. .” Kristinn Taylor, an event organizer with FreeRepublic.com, heard about the sign and rushed up to Robinson. “This is our rally and you can't do that here,” he said, only for Robinson to insist he was within his rights....

“Just get outta here!” Robinson yelled, and aimed a kick at Taylor's midsection. Taylor called for security, and a young Woodway policeman quickly showed up."

As I said before, you can't make this stuff up.

The Malignant Narcissism of the US press

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 04:18:44 GMT

The Up-is-Downism of the US press

To follow on to Scott Peck's People of the Lie, one of the current memes in the business press is that oil prices are high because there market speculation over "instability in Venezuela."

This sort of flagrant public hypocrisy would be bad enough coming from any individual, but coming from people who are providing investment advice, they amount to malfeasance. Consider these points that might weigh in judging the stability of a country stable:

1. Government. The legitimacy of the vote for Hugo Chavez is almost unquestioned. The legitimacy of the vote for George Bush is widely questioned. Chavez handily survived a recall election in which his opposition had a huge media advantage. Could George Bush do the same?

2. Financial. Venezuela has balanced its budgets. The US is running massive government deficits. Venezuela has a huge trade surplus, becoming a creditor nation. The US is running a huge trade deficit and is becoming a debtor nation.

3. Social. Chavez is loved by the 70% of the population that is poor and hated by the 10% of the population that is wealthy. Bush's disapproval is approaching 60%, while his approval may have fallen below 40%.

4. Global. Venezuela is at peace. The United States is in an intractable war. Venezuela is widely admired among its peers in Latin America and is building ties to Asia. The US is increasingly disliked among its European peers, and is on a path to confrontation with Asia.

Calling Venezuela "unstable" amounts to up-is-downism. It is Washington, DC that is unstable, so unstable that they want to assassinate an elected leader (and indeed overthrew him several years ago, but were checkmated by his superior planning).

Financial advisors who obey their fiduciary duty should be advising investors to move investments out of this most unstable of nations, not printing what amounts to Administration propaganda.

Over the past few years this anxious opposition has made several attempts to get rid of Chávez, with the tacit encouragement of Washington. They organised a coup in April 2002 that rebounded against them two days later when the kidnapped Chávez was returned to power by an alliance of the army and the people. They tried an economic coup by closing down the oil refineries, and this too was a failure. Last year's recall-referendum, designed to lead to a defeat for Chávez, was an overwhelming victory for him.

All You Need to Know About Republicans...

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 08:36:03 GMT

All You Need to Know About Republicans...

This pretty much says it all:

A painting of the United States sinking into a toilet now on display in the cafeteria of the state Department of Justice has raised the ire of the California state Republican Party, which is demanding that Attorney General Bill Lockyer remove the image.

The painting -- part of an exhibit of more than 30 works by lawyer artists and pieces with overt legal themes -- has an American flag-painted continental United States heading into a toilet. Next to it are the words: "T'anks to Mr. Bush."

The artist, Stephen Pearcy, a Berkeley lawyer with a house in Sacramento, won earlier notoriety for hanging an effigy of an American soldier on the outside of his home here with a sign saying "Bush lied, I died." Angry residents tore the effigies down.

To support his thesis, Pearcy recites a litany of government actions he objects to including torture of detainees, censorship, hiring "more cops rather than teachers," SUVs and lack of corporate accountability.

In front of Pearcy's painting is a pair of ceramic Western boots whose creator, Corrine Singleton, said represented Western justice.

Other artists also expressed political sentiments:

John K. Landgraf, who created the Blind Justice in her cell with blood spattered across it, said "the current administration's constraint and abuse of Justice (for whatever reason) cast an ominous shadow over our nation's moral integrity."

Another artist called for an end to genocide in Rwanda.

"I don't know why we need to tolerate the cheap artwork of a gadfly with a world view that is so offensive to a majority of the people," said Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the California Republican Party.

Didn't I see Ms. Hanretty leaving WalMart the other day with a shopping cart full of Bill of Rights toilet paper? I think I did!

An American VFW Patriot

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 01:22:27 GMT

An American VFW Patriot

OMFG, if you've lost the VFW, you've lost the war. I did notice on seeing tapes of the VFW audience, some members with held their applause. The vets aren't happy and that is not good for a "national security" president.

Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)

So maybe all americans need to be protected with bullshit protection flaps.....

Looks like the vaunted White House advance screening/purging operation has slipped a bit. Back in the day, this dude would have never gotten through the door. He would have been "rendered" a couple miles down the road to the protestors' paddock.

The thing around his neck says Army and if he's 73, I'm guessing he was in Korea??

The photographer got his name and age, which means that Mr. Moyer was willing to give out that information. Brave guy twice over. Once for fighting in Korea and twice for being willing to stand up to the Rovian slime machine.

AP caption says he served in the post WWII occupation of Germany, in Korea and in Vietnam.

Why does it take our senior generation to tell us like it is. How can anyone make a more profound statement than that of Mr. Moyer. I can only guess that with age, comes the innate ability to know who is really the cause of that "clusterf***" called Iraq.

What Would They Say If His Approval Was Lower

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 23:14:34 GMT

What Would They Say If His Approval Was Lower

President Working Vacation is taking a vacation from his vacation this week to visit Idaho, the state giving him the highest approval rating at 59%.

In preparation for the big event, the Idaho Statesman asked its readers to submit letters to President Bush telling him one thing he could do for the state of Idaho. The people of Idaho didn't hold back:

"What would I ask President Bush to do for Idaho? That question seems so selfish and ignorant when you look at what Bush has done to "make the world a safer place." Don't you read the news that you choose to bury in the back pages of your own newspaper? I would think you could come up with a better question than that. How about "What would you ask President Bush to do for the world?" Answer: Stop embarrassing America and resign immediately."
[...]

"There is a simple thing you can do for the state of Idaho and more importantly for the country. First resign and then leave the country, because you're a disgrace and an embarrassment to Idaho and the country as a whole."
[...]

"Please don't do anything for Idaho. Your being a "uniter not a divider" has done more than any other person in history to completely paralyze our political system. Your efforts to help the people of Afghanistan and Iraq are obvious to everyone who watches the nightly news. Your economic policies have spiked energy prices and stagnated or dropped wages for the average American.
I'm sorry you weren't allowed to open the Alaskan wilds to oil drilling. I'm sure your rich oil buddies could have used a few million more.

Thanks for the offer, but please, don't do anything for Idaho.

Ouch. I wonder what they're saying in Rhode Island (29% approval)?

WHAT BOTHERS A VACATIONING PRESIDENT MOST?

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 22:23:39 GMT

WHAT BOTHERS A VACATIONING PRESIDENT MOST?

And George Bush is getting the worst of it at Unconfirmed Sources, where Bush is planning a military strike against Sheehan and also where world leaders are finally joining Mr. Bush in condemning Cindy Sheehan's example of free speech. On Spoof Wolfowitz advises Bush to bomb Cindy Sheehan, and Bush claims he sympathizes with Sheehan, claiming he is a mother, too.

You know a story has legs when the comedians get hold of it and won't let go. Andy Borowitz certainly hasn't missed the story.

President George W. Bush said today that he understands and respects the views of those who are calling for him to cut short his summer vacation, but warned that an immediate withdrawal from Crawford, Texas would "send a terrible signal to the enemy."

"The enemy would like nothing better than to see me cut short my vacation and get back to the White House," Mr. Bush told reporters. "They hate my freedom."

While the president said that he would withdraw from Crawford "soon," he refused to set a timetable for his departure from the ranch, saying that much work there still needs to be done.

Mr. Bush, who has been spending much of his vacation clearing brush, said that he is making great progress in training ranch hands to take over that job for him, but cautioned that they are not yet prepared to do the job themselves.

"Once the ranch hands have shown that they are able to clear the brush on their own, I will withdraw from Crawford, but that day has not yet come," the president said.

I have been waiting for Billmon to write about Cindy. Here is the link

But, instead of feasting on Hanoi Jane, the wing nuts are driving themselves nuts trying to figure out how to take down Vacaville Cindy: a woman who looks and sounds like she spends her free time organizing church socials and helping her husband clean out the garage -- that is, when she isn't busy searing George W. Bush's butt with a white hot poker for dragging the country into an unnecessary and failed war in Iraq

Over at the revealingly-named Powerline, General Aldo and the gorillas posted the following dispatch from one of their cheeseburger-eating scouts

The bad guys hang at the Crawford Peace House, a dump of a house that looks like Hippie Central with dozens of cars, vans, SUVs and campers parked on the grass. Add portable toilets for ambience and you get the picture. This is the staging center for protests at the ranch nine miles up Prairie Chapel Road.

The good guys fill with gas and diesel and dine on cheeseburgers at the Coffee Station where the walls are adorned with enlarged snapshots of President Bush working the crowd and dining on a Coffee Station burger. That won’t happen this year, and perhaps never again because of the bad guys.

I would be happy if someone could offer me proof that the Powerline post is a "gag" to bait those of us who feel no sorrow at the prospect that W might never again be seen working the crowd or dining on a cheese burger at the Coffee Station. I may not agree with all that Cindy Sheehan has to say, but she has the right to express her views. It baffles me how someone on one hand can attack Mrs. Sheehan for traveling to Crawford to make a point to the president, while on the other implying admiration for Republicans who traveled to Crawford to give the president a message of their own. This cannot be taken seriously. A "pilgrimage" to the ranch of Dubya Bush? I mean really...

Blogging The Freeway to Hell

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 06:19:56 GMT

Blogging The Freeway to Hell

The Freeway Blogger is spreading enlightment at about a hundred signs a month.

New Zealand billboard causes stir;

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 18:22:35 GMT

New Zealand Billboard Causes Stir

Rejected by hell. Embraced by red state America. Yee Haw, ya gun-totin', bible readin', six grade dropoutin' rednecks!!

A decision is due to be made today whether a billboard labelling President Bush an 'evil bastard' is appropriate, NZ City of New Zealand reports Monday. The publication provides a few details:

The Hell Pizza billboards have been erected around Auckland and Wellington. Half of the poster is taken up with a photo of the president and the other half has the phrase 'Hell: Too Good For Some Evil Bastards.'

Outdoor Advertising New Zealand is reviewing who is behind the boards and whether the Advertising Standards Authority needs to become involved.

Hell's media manager, Matthew Blomfield, says they expected to cause a bit of a stir. He says it is meant to provoke discussion and be a little edgy, instead of bland, boring advertising.

Mr Blomfield is hoping reaction will be balanced between those who find it funny and those who are upset by it.

-----------------

And there's the problem. This is ridiculous, the comments thus far are ridiculous, and this is why we lose, because we fight like juveniles.

ChangeAmerica.net:

We lose because Diebold does the counting, and Blackwell distributes the machines, and the MSM is asleep.

If anything happens to Satan DeLay can easily run hell......

As far as Bush is concerned 100,000 dead innocent Iraqis can't be wrong!!!! Bush: "Torture away, Gonzales said it was fine" Geneve Convention does not apply to the Bush Family....

Excellent! I hate billboards, but what the hell? I like this one! Do they deliver to the U.S.?

Quote of the Week

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 03:19:24 GMT

Quote of the Week

"Jessica Simpson has seen more combat action than our president." -Randi Rhodes

ADDITIONALLY:

ContactMusic reports "Jessica Simpson wants to know where missing footage of her and husband Nick Lachey's harrowing trip to Iraq got to - because she thinks Americans would like to see just how bad conditions are there..."

The pop singers-turned-reality TV couple travelled to the war-torn nation to visit US troops as part of a recent ABC TV variety special, and they were both left shellshocked by what they saw.

But all the controversial moments and harrowing footage of the trip didn't appear in the fun-filled TV show.

Simpson says, "It was unbelievable. They didn't show a lot of what really went on with the enemy attacks and the shelling. There was so much stuff that went on and somehow the tapes got mysteriously misplaced.

"It put everything in perspective for me. It really did teach me the definition of sacrifice. I can't even fathom being out there right now. I was ready to come home."

More on Turd Blossom

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 06:02:38 GMT

Damage Control

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 22:17:05 GMT

Damage Control

An honorable man

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 06:24:21 GMT

An Honorable Man

Salt Lake Tribune

I'm appalled that anyone would dare question President Bush's statements about the imminent collapse of Social Security or our triumphant success in Iraq. Blue state crybabies don't seem to understand that Americans trust the president to do what he wants, because what he wants is the right thing. It's obvious that if you criticize Bush, you're against the truth.

All of Bush's past predictions have proved true, including his prediction about WMD in Iraq. Remember, just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. Many Americans believe in angels, which are also invisible, except when they appear in TV shows.

Just listen to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh - they'll give you the unvarnished truth. Fox News is also an unbiased source of the truth. It even says so on their Web site, which proves that modern technology stands for what's right.

And you can be sure that when President Bush decides to invade France, or slay dragons, or woo the fair Dulcinea, whatever reasons he gives for doing so will be true, even when they change repeatedly. If something is true and honorable, then it's also right.

Honorable people only support the truth, and President Bush is an honorable man. I don't know how anything could be clearer than that.

J. Bryan Larsen
Murray

Send The Twins[The Iraq War Song]

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 02:49:18 GMT

If You're Desperate And You Know It, Send The Twins[The Iraq War Song]

[Sung to the tune of 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands']

If you cannot get recruits, send the twins.
High school parents are a drama, send the twins.

If insurgents are looking frisky,
Syria is testing scuds,
North Korea is too risky, send the twins!

If we have no allies with us, send the twins.
If we think that Amnesty International has dissed us, send the twins.
So to hell with calls for peace
Let's look tough for posterity
Follow your own lead, Mr. Bush, and send the twins.

If you believe your own bs, send the twins.
If oil is really worth it, send the twins.
If they've got people that hate us,
and that's good enough for you,
The Downing Street Memo, is not true?
Send the twins!

If you never were elected, send the twins.
Your poll numbers have gone down, send the twins.
If you think your mission's just,
c'mon now, WTF?
Send the twins!

If your corporate fraud is growing, send the twins.
If your ties to it are showing, send the twins.
If your politics are sleazy,
and hiding ain't that easy,
And your manhood's getting queasy, send the twins!

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, send the twins.
For our might knows not our borders, send the twins.
Disagree? We'll call it treason,
Let's make war not love this season,
Even if we have no reason, send the twins!

The Religious Right's Golden Rule

Fri, 27 May 2005 06:16:08 GMT

The Religious Right's Golden Rule

Inspiration: Rick Santorum compares Senate Democrats to Adolph Hitler
and Santorum's Infamous Man on Dog Interview

Quote of the Day

Wed, 25 May 2005 19:33:59 GMT

Quote of the Day

now it is true that i believe this country is following a dangerous trend when it permits too great a degree of centralization of governmental functions. i oppose this--in some instances the fight is a rather desperate one. but to attain any success it is quite clear that the federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it. the political processes of our country are such that if a rule of reason is not applied in this effort, we will lose everything--even to a possible and drastic change in the constitution. this is what i mean by my constant insistence upon "moderation" in government. should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. there is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. among them are h.l. hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. their number is negligible and they are stupid.

- president eisenhower letter to his brother, edgar newton eisenhower, on 8 november 1954.

you know...i kinda like ike.

The Filibuster Deal

Tue, 24 May 2005 16:41:12 GMT

The Filibuster Deal

St. Frist, the patron saint

of catkillers, fundamentalists, and the undead: seems like his nuclear option was more bluster than "shock and awe"...

Seems to me that the biggest take-away is that this is a no-confidence vote for Senator Frist. These seven Republicans undercut his agenda and committed not to follow his lead on the nuclear option. While that deal can be broken at any time, any Senator who signed the document and then votes for the nuclear option is set up for a flip-flop charge at their next election. It puts them on the defensive if they choose to break the deal later.

Reid is simarly undercut but he was not the one who staked his reputation on this issue. In fact, he may even have approved but was unable to enter into the negotiations as leader. Can the minority leader negotiate with anybody on the other side, or is there a tradition that the leadership only deals with the other side's leadership?

Now, on the merits, it's clearly a loss that these three get confirmed. But maybe that was inevitable anyway, and now there's a majority of Senators who have committed not to go nuclear, regardless of the firmness of that commitment. That repudiation leaves Frist weakened, which can only be a good thing.

Given the last head count, it looked like Frist was going to have enough votes to pull the trigger on the nuclear option tomorrow and get all the judges through. This deal bloodied his nose and will keep at least two of the five, maybe three, from getting through.

Was it everything we wanted? No. But we wound up getting a lot more than we would've, and the first round of press spin is marking this round to the Democrats.

Frist is dead in the water for '08, the conservative base is going to howl for a while and turn on its moderates, Dobson has steam coming out of his ears, etc. All in all, the 2006 midterms are going to be great for us.

Conservatives Love 'South Park'

Tue, 03 May 2005 04:33:51 GMT

Conservatives Love 'South Park'

By FRANK RICH

Conservatives can't stop whining about Hollywood, but the embarrassing reality is that they want to be hip, too. It's not easy. In the showbiz wrangling sweepstakes of 2004, liberals had Leonardo DiCaprio, the Dixie Chicks and the Boss. The right had Bo Derek, Pat Boone and Jessica Simpson, who, upon meeting the secretary of the interior, Gale Norton, congratulated her for doing "a nice job decorating the White House." Ms. Simpson may be the last performer in America who can make Whoopi Goldberg seem like the soul of wit.

What to do? Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger's poll numbers have sunk, the right's latest effort to grab a piece of the showbiz action is a new and fast-selling book published by Regnery, home to the Swift Boat Veterans, and promoted in lock step by the right-wing media elite of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page and The New York Post. "South Park Conservatives: The Revolt Against Liberal Media Bias," by Brian C. Anderson of the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, gives a wet kiss to one of the funniest and most foul-mouthed series on television. The book has even been endorsed by the grim theologian Michael Novak, who presumably forgot to TiVo the "South Park" episode that holds the record for the largest number of bleeped-out repetitions (162) of a single four-letter expletive in a single television half-hour. Then again, The Weekly Standard has informed us that William Bennett, egged on by his children, has given the show a tentative thumbs up.

Cynics might say that conservatives, flummoxed by the popularity of Jon Stewart, are eager to endorse any bigger hit on Comedy Central: The animated adventures of four obstreperous fourth graders in the mythical town of South Park, Colo., outdraws "The Daily Show" by a million or so viewers. But Mr. Anderson has another case to make. He quotes "South Park" profanity without apology and cheers the "scathing genius" with which it mocks "hate-crime laws and sexual harassment policies, liberal celebrities, abortion-rights extremists."

In one episode he praises, "Butt Out," a caricatured Rob Reiner journeys from Hollywood to South Park to mount a fascistic antismoking campaign that "perfectly captures the Olympian arrogance and illiberalism of liberal elites." Mr. Anderson also applauds last fall's "South Park" adjunct, "Team America: World Police," the feature film in which the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, portray Michael Moore as a suicide bomber and ridicule the antiwar activism of Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn and Janeane Garofalo by presenting them as dim-witted, terrorist-appeasing puppets (literally so, with strings) who are ultimately blown to bits at a "world peace conference" convened by Kim Jong Il. (The film is out on DVD, with an expanded marionette sex scene featuring coprophilia, on May 17.)

So far, so right. Among their other anarchic comic skills, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone have a perfect pitch for lampooning what many Americans find most irritating about liberals, especially Hollywood liberals: a self-righteous propensity for knowing better than anyone else and for meddling in everyone's business, whether by enforcing P.C. speech codes or plotting to curb S.U.V.'s and guns.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the publication of "South Park Conservatives": Emboldened by the supposed "moral values" landslide on Election Day, the faith-based right became the new left. Just as Mr. Anderson's book reached stores in early April, Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, true to their butt-out libertarianism, aimed their fire at self-righteous, big-government conservatives who have become every bit as high-handed and meddlesome as any Prius-pushing movie star. Such is this role reversal that the same TV show celebrated by Mr. Anderson and his cohort as the leading edge of a potential conservative victory in the culture wars now looks like a harbinger of an anti-conservative backlash instead.

In the March 30 episode, Kenny, a kid whose periodic death is a "South Park" ritual, lands in a hospital in a "persistent vegetative state" and is fed through a tube. The last page of his living will is missing. Demonstrators and media hordes descend. Though heavenly angels decree that "God intended Kenny to die" rather than be "kept alive artificially," they are thwarted by Satan, whose demonic aide advises him to "do what we always do - use the Republicans." Soon demagogic Republican politicians are spewing sound bites ("Removing the feeding tube is murder") scripted in Hell. But as in the Schiavo case, they don't prevail. Kenny is allowed to die in peace once his missing final wish is found: "If I should ever be in a vegetative state and kept alive on life support, please for the love of God don't ever show me in that condition on national television."

This remarkably prescient scenario, first broadcast on the eve of Terri Schiavo's death, anticipated just how far the zeitgeist would swing in the month after the right's overreach in her case. A USA Today poll a week later found that Americans by 55 to 40 percent believe that "Republicans, traditionally the party of limited government, are 'trying to use the federal government to interfere with the private lives of most Americans' on moral values." In other words, what Hillary Clinton's overreaching big-government health care plan did to the Democrats a decade ago is the whammy the Schiavo case has inflicted on the G.O.P. today. And like the Democrats back then, the Republican elites have been so besotted with their election victory and so out of touch with the mainstream they didn't see their comeuppance coming. At the height of the feeding-tube frenzy, Peggy Noonan told her Wall Street Journal troops that federal intervention in the Schiavo family brawl was a political slam dunk: "Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive." (Italics hers.)

Oops. But what's given the Schiavo case resonance beyond the Schiavo story itself is that it crystallized the bigger picture of Olympian arrogance and illiberalism on the right. The impulse that led conservatives to intervene in a family's bitter debate over a feeding tube is the same one that makes them turn a debate over a Senate rule on filibusters into a litmus test of spiritual correctness. Surely no holier-than-thou Hollywood pontificator could be harder to take than the sanctimonious Bill Frist, who, unlike Barbra Streisand, can't even sing.

The same arrogance that sent Republicans into Terri Schiavo's hospice room has also led them to try to police the culture of sex more rabidly than the left did the culture of sexism. No wonder another recent poll, from the Pew Research Center, finds that for all the real American displeasure with coarse entertainment, a plurality of 48 percent believes that "the government's imposing undue restrictions" on pop culture is "a greater danger" to the country than the entertainment industry itself. Who could have imagined that the public would fear Focus on the Family's James Dobson more than 50 Cent?

But in this crusade, too, few on the right seem to recognize that they're overplaying their hand; they keep upping the ante. One powerful senator, Ted Stevens of Alaska, has proposed that cable and satellite be policed by the federal government along with broadcast television - a death knell for even the Sirius incarnation of Howard Stern, not to mention much of Comedy Central. A powerful House committee chairman, James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, topped that by calling for offenders to be pursued through a "criminal process." Last week President Bush signed a Family Entertainment and Copyright Act that allows "family-friendly" companies to sell filter technology that cleans up DVD's of Hollywood movies without permission or input from the films' own authors and copyright holders. That sounds innocuous enough until you learn that even "Schindler's List" isn't immune from the right's rigid P.C. code. As the owner of CleanFlicks, the American Fork, Utah, company that goes further and sells pre-sanitized DVD's, once explained to The New York Times: "Every teenager in America should see that film. But I don't think my daughters should see naked old men running around in circles." And so Big Brother can intervene to protect our kids from all that geriatric Holocaust porn.

On the first page of "South Park Conservatives," its author declares that "CBS's cancellation in late 2003 of its planned four-hour miniseries 'The Reagans' marked a watershed in America's culture wars." It did, in the sense that the right's successful effort to stifle what it regarded as an un-P.C. (i.e., somewhat critical) treatment of Ronald Reagan sped the censorious jihad that's now threatening everything from "The Sopranos" on HBO to lesbian moms on PBS. Of course "South Park" is also on this hit list: the Parents Television Council, the take-no-prisoners e-mail mill leading the anti-indecency charge, has condemned the show on its Web site as a "curdled, malodorous black hole of Comedy Central vomit." Should such theocratic conservatives prevail, "South Park" conservatives will be hipper than they ever could have imagined - terminally hip, you might say.

Italy Media Reveals Iraq Details

Mon, 02 May 2005 03:14:31 GMT

Italy Media Reveals Iraq Details

The U.S. military released a report last week clearing American troops in the March gunfire incident that injured Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and killed Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent, as they were driving to the Baghdad airport. Italian reaction has been outraged, and the Italian government is expected to issue a report on Monday contradicting many of the U.S. findings.

But here's a question: do you think the Italian computer whizzes will be any more competent than their American counterparts when they release their report? The U.S. report is full of redactions, as you can see in the picture above, but once again an American agency has used the searchable PDF format to distribute a report, and all you have to do is save the report as a text file in order to recover all the redacted parts.

A Greek medical student at Bologna University who was surfing the web early on Sunday found that with two simple clicks of his computer mouse he could restore censored portions of the report.

He passed the details to Italian newspapers which immediately put out the full text on their own websites.

The missing text contains the names and ranks of all of the American military personnel involved in the killing of Nicola Calipari, the Italian agent who was given a state funeral and awarded Italy's highest medal of valour.

It also reveals the rules of engagement in operation at the military checkpoint near Baghdad airport which have been contested by the Italian authorities.

The censored sections include recommendations that the American military modify their checkpoint procedures to give better and clearer warning signs to approaching vehicles.

The official Italian report on the incident expected to be published this week will accuse the American military of tampering with evidence at the scene of the shooting.

The Americans invited two Italians to join in their inquiry, but the Italian representatives protested at what they claimed was lack of objectivity in presenting the evidence and returned to Rome.

A direct link to .doc format

The report is really sad reading. The US soldiers were clearly devastated when they realized what they'd done (and the name of the US soldier who shot at the car sounded Italian American), and the Carabinieri agent/driver who had been on the phone throughout with Italian officials alerting them to the progress of their travel to Bagdhad airport was a wreck. What a tragic mess. Bush should have apologized from the beginning, as opposed to niggling over who's fault it was leading to this absurd stand off between the US and Italians. US troops killed the agent of an allied agent rescuing their citizen who had been held hostage by terrorist kidnappers. Say you're sorry, and move on.

The Italians have some questions (from Corriere della Sera)

The decision on the part of the US to publish its final report on the death of Nicola Calipari without awaiting the conclusions of the Italian members of the Joint US-Italian commission is the latest slap in the face to Italy from the United States. This example, as if another were needed, confirms that the Italian members were permitted no input--not even into the timing of the release. Italy will respond tomorrow afternoon with its own report which will be handed to the government and forwarded to magistrates investigating the shooting. While Premier Silvio Berlusconi is back to claiming that no ransom was paid and repeating "our unquestionable friendship with the United States", the Italian team is rushing to complete a report contesting point by point the US findings to which video files and photographs of the behavior of US troops while manning checkpoints will be attached. Among the video attachments is a file showing what is considered to be a typical "dirty trick"--a patrol laughing and joking about the corpse of an Iraqi motorist whom they shot in cold blood behind the wheel of his van.

ACCUSATIONS LEVELED AT THE USA. In its conclusions, signed by Ambassador Cesare Ragaglini and General Pierluigi Campregher, the Italian team faults the Americans for refusing a dynamic reconstruction of events. The Italians specifically mention "tampering at the scene of the incident" and of the Toyota Corolla, a key piece evidence, in which the Italian intelligence officers and Guiliana were traveling. At the end of its investigation, the Italians even proposed concluding the report by saying it was impossible to attribute responsibility. The US military rejected this compromise, saying it would completely exonerate the patrol to close any loophole permiting further legal action on the part of the Italian judiciary.

THE "BLOCKING" POSITION. This arrangement differentiates the type of checkpoint. This type of arrangement, underscores the Italian findings, is not subject to any rules because it is generally employed "on the battlefield" and in fact does not incorporate signposting and barbed wire. The Italians particularly fault the US decision of placing "it at the end of an elbow curve." The report then concentrates on the crime scene investigation carried out together with US officials. "The scene of the incident"--they write--"was altered and the soldiers were unable to indicate their positions at the time of the shooting. They add that the alteration prevented the investigating team from determining the source of weapons fire. Not only that: but according to the Italian team, "between the illumination of the spotlight and the warning shots far more than the three seconds alloted by the patrol would have been required for the driver to come to a complete stop".

THE HIDDEN NAMES. In the US version of the report, 12 names were blacked out in the interests of military secrecy. Italy believes in confidentiality, but in the report the Americans wrote that it was not possible to determine which servicemen were part of the patrol on 4 March. "The soldier who fired", says the USA, "was Hispanic." But the Italian delegation suspected that "at least three soldiers opened fire." "Testimony," says the Italian team, "was contradictory and in some cases totally unreliable."

COMMUNICATIONS. In the report to be handed to the Italian government tomorrow, the CIA station chief was informed of the operation and in the early afternoon he was given the details of the rental car. Also, "US Command was informed 25 minutes before the shooting that the hostage [Mrs. Sgrena] was released." In any case, the Italians underscore that confidentiality is absolutely routine, even between allies, in such a mission. The statements of the SISMI station chief in Baghdad affirm that he was on the phone with Calipari when the shooting occurred. "It was the [SISMI Station Chief] who asked that all [US-manned] checkpoints be informed and was told that "there were not any checkpoints". Shortly later, on the request of the [SISMI Station Chief], a US military officer contacted the patrol and this demonstrates that it would have been possible to warn the soldiers that the automobile with the released hostage on board was on the road leading to the airport.

I really hate the way that Americans often seem to lose their sanity the minute the word "communist" is mentioned, since it seems like such a knee jerk reflex, especially since the cold war ended around 15 years ago. However, I think that Sgrena's attitude toward the US was probably not the most favourable, as I can't imagine a European communist paper employing a giddy yay america type person. While communist papers and parties in Europe are dinosaurs, as not many are interested in them, I think that the general view of the US in Europe has nothing to do with being communist or not.

I simply see European attitudes as being one's of suspicion and disbelief at the rhetoric and actions of the current US government.

However, a lot of Europeans are just as supicious of their own governments as these are just as opaque in the way they do things.

The US government has for a long time, and this adiminstration in particular, classified things reflexively, whether secrecy was actually required or not.

In many ways it'll be scarier if the redactions show nothing of interest at all: not protecting anybody's privacy or any actual secrets. (A quick scan suggests exactly that.) It leaves open the question, "Why is the government keeping that information secret? Why is the government keeping so much information secret?"

There are many things that people would like to know to keep an eye on their government. Not all of that information should be released, for national security reasons, but it's always been the government who makes that decision. This lack of a check on the power of government makes people increasingly nervous as crimes (e.g. Abu Ghraib) are discovered anyway.

FOLLOWING YOUR CONSCIENCE....

Sun, 24 Apr 2005 03:13:20 GMT

FOLLOWING YOUR CONSCIENCE....

Everitt Middle School guidance counselor Margo Lucero decided to make a wee change to the Pledge of Allegiance on Wednesday. Here it is:

One nation, under "your belief system"....

Lucero said she didn't intend to be offensive but rather wanted to mark the sixth anniversary of the Columbine High School slayings by evoking a sense of tolerance.

"Given the anniversary of Columbine, it was a spur-of-the- moment choice that I made, intended to acknowledge differences that lie in our society," Lucero said. "It's not a reflection of the district, and it was not my intention to offend anyone, rather to include (everyone)."

These liberals and their politically correct nonsense. The pledge of allegience means, and forever will: "one nation under MY belief system."

How about "One nation, under the hegemony of corporate interests, with liberty to shop at the mall."

"...if it's OK for biology teachers to decline to teach evolution and for pharmacists to refuse to dispense certain medications, why shouldn't teachers have the right to modify the pledge for reasons of personal conscience?"

Hey, why just pharmacists? How about if we protect everyone who refuses to do part of their job for reasons of conscience? Would that be cool or what!

SUV owner: Oil change, please.

Jiffy-lube worker: Sorry, but for reasons of conscience, I refuse to help maintain your pollution-spewing, gas-guzzling behemoth.

SUV Owner: WTF?! Look, kid, I need to get this done on my lunch hour. Get moving, OK?

J-L worker: You can't make me; I have a right to not help you rape the environment. Take your monstermobile to Wallyworld; they're more in line with your way of thinking, ya scumbag!

The POA is not an oath.

That is correct. It is a pledge institutions make children, whose attendance is compulsory, say in order to indoctrinate them with toadyism.

Stink bomb pharmacies that refuse to fill legal perscriptions. Harass pharmicists who refuse to fill legal perscriptions. Discriminate against religious nuts and force them to live with the Amish.

I'm with Robin Williams: One nation under Canada.

Bleeding Hearts for Bolton

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:09:20 GMT

Bleeding Hearts for Bolton

I am hesitant to telescope the critique of Bolton into nothing more than an objection to his character. But I would go much further. Absolutely--the issue is why he blew up at subordinates, not the fact that he did so. Bad temper in the office = annoying. Refusal to accept intelligence info you don't like = dangerous and insane.

But I don't necessarily agree that UN ambassador is such a meaningless appointment in this climate. Given Bush's isolationist and warmongering positions, Bolton's nomination serves as a huge and unequivocal screw-you to the rest of the world. That's not nothing, given everything else Bush is doing to squelch any remaining global goodwill we have.

However, one thing that occurs to me after yesterday's dramatic events is that I'm getting increasingly uneasy about the focus on Bolton's "abuse" of subordinates. Don't get me wrong: the guy sounds like a prime grade asshole, and it might do a world of good to send a message to ambitious DC bureaucrats to rein in that kind of behavior. On the other hand, let's be honest here: if everyone who abused subordinates were blackballed from senior positions in Washington, the city would be a ghost town. I'm a little fearful that this line of attack could end up accomplishing little except elevating the politics of personal destruction — on both sides — to ever pettier and more vicious levels.

This is not a trivial point, but - putting aside everything I've outlined below about why he is the wrong man for the job - let's focus just on the question of abuse of subordinates. There are at least four kinds of bosses in this world:

1. Those who don't abuse subordinates at all - The best

2. Those who abuse, but only with a valid justification - Understandable at times, but not very nice

3. Those who abuse for no reason at all - I think most of the people Kevin is talking about actually fit into this category.

4. Those who abuse for an invalid justification - for example race, gender, sexual orientation, disability OR for whistle-blowing to uncover fraud OR retaliation for putting forward valid intelligence information.

I don't think the stance taken on Bolton can be extended to anyone apart from those who fit into category 4,

There's never going to be another committee hearing: the longer this goes on, the worse it gets for Bolton and for the administration. Sometime in the next two weeks Bolton will withdraw his nomination either due to a previously unsuspected medical condition (perhaps cancer of the moustache ?), or to spend more time with his family. Or maybe a nanny problem, but they already used that excuse for the similarly embarrassing Kerik.

John Bolton misuses intelligence the way communists use it in police states -- against his internal enemies.

This is Bolton's real problem, the one that sent everyone scurrying to the doors. If the NSA intercepts show that Bolton used our intelligence services to spy on people within our administration, as is now suspected, then he is toast.

This fits into a pattern of behavior by hard-line conservatives to intimidate others into submission using thug-style tactics. Republicans have been making a case for years that there is a Democratic pattern of behavior that hurts the country. If liberals can't see the ugly totalitarian patterns of the Republican Party and start interpreting events in that light, we'll become hens pecking the grains of individual issues off the floor.

Also it's good to see one or two Republicans at last showing occasional signs of independent thought.