June 29, 2003

Gen Franks: deaths of over 200 US servicemen and women don't "spoil" Cap'n Codpiece's "victory" in Iraq
Support our troops - bring them home so they can pummel the living daylights out of chickenhawk warmongerers who use them as poltical gamepieces.

CAIRO, June 29 (Reuters) - U.S. army commander Tommy Franks said on Sunday that recent attacks on American troops did not "spoil the victory" that serial liar and war deserter Smirky McStinkysox lied about during his "mission accomplished!' million-dollar carefully-staged propaganda piece/election commercial.


Thousands Died



Dems to repuke 'investigators': "Carpe' THIS, baby!"
Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee announced Friday plans to stage their own inquiry on the credibility of prewar intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and its links to the al-Qaida terror network.

The announcement by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the panel's top Democrat, marked an unusual split with Chairman John Warner, R-ovelickingtoady, on an issue with strong political overtones ahead of next year's elections. Warner and Levin are longtime colleagues on the committee and repeatedly stress bipartisan cooperation, but Warner refused Levin's original request to begin such an inquiry. - Yahoo News.



June 28, 2003

Experts Question Depth of Victory
"'Mission accomplished'?? WTF was he taking, anyway??"

"I thought we were holding our own until this week, and now I'm not sure," - retired Air Force Col. Richard M. Atchison, a former intelligence officer for the Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for the Middle East. "If we don't get this operation moving soon, the opposition will continue to grow, and we will have a much larger problem."

From the Washingtoon comPost: The wave of more sophisticated attacks on U.S. troops and civilian occupation forces in Iraq is raising new worries among military experts that the 21-day war that ended in April was an incomplete victory that defeated Saddam Hussein's military but not his Baath political party.

Neutralizing Baathist resistance is proving to be a more difficult job than the Pentagon calculated, and the continuing violence is becoming an embarrassment, one U.S. official in Baghdad said.

Retired Marine Gen. Carlton Fulford was even gloomier, predicting "a long, tough haul in Iraq."

"The longer this goes on, the more violent these events will become," said Fulford, a former deputy commander of U.S. forces in Europe. "We learned this in Lebanon and Somalia -- and Iraq is much more challenging than either of these."


The US death toll in Iraq has passed 200.


Admission on forged, bogus Niger claims
Brit authorities on Iraq embarrassed!

'In a blow to the government's credibility Britain was forced to admit yesterday that one of the central allegations against Iraq in last September's disputed weapons dossier was based on information from an overseas intelligence service rather than a British primary source.

'The admission will also fuel speculation that Britain placed the allegations about Niger in the public domain at the behest of the CIA.'

US authorities in Iraq embarrassed!
No, besides that.

BAGHDAD - US authorities in Iraq have been forced to change the name of the planned Iraqi armed forces, after learning that the original title they came up with created an unfortunate acronym in Arabic - it translates to f*ck - link.






Somehow it's turning out to be a nice day outside, though it really bites that it took until almost July to finally get some decent weather.

The bear and her cubs haven't been around lately, but that'll probably change after I dump a few containers of left-over bird seed out back this afternoon. Hopefully soon I'll post the pics I took of them, even though all they'll look like are black blobs. Let's face it, even I'm not crazy enough to try to get close to a momma bear and her babies.


Please welcome
A Rational Animal, Wallybrane's Martian Adventures, mousemusings, and StoutDemBlog!


This is a tasteful family site, dammit!
To all those drooling, itchy mouthbreathers who googled for 'ann+coulter+miniskirt+pics", I don't do gross-out, offensive, nazibimbo skank-porn.



June 27, 2003

Seen at DemoUnderground:

"One screwed an intern, the other the COUNTRY.
Nobody DIED when Clinton LIED."



The Russert/Rove ambush of Howard Dean
"Independant" news agency uses WH-prepped data to bushwack Dem presidental candidate.

As requested: Karl Rove slut/partisan hack Tim 'GE' Russert used administration-prepared talking points/Treasury Department figures to go after Howard Dean on NBC's Press the Meat June 22nd. The 'research,' which was prepared at the request of Meet the Press, NBC and Bush officials said, - surprise, surprise! - didn't include single people or lower-income couples, two groups that benefit little from pReznit Evil's cuts. - Washington comPost.



Cheney accepted gift from known terrorist
Dick 'Chicanery' Cheney received a gift last year worth $2,000 from Yasser Arafat, the long-time Palestinian leader whom the U.S. administration has sought to sideline as an obstacle to peace.

Arafat's gift, an inlaid mother-of-pearl background with a nativity scene in bas relief, was sent to Cheney and his wife. "Nonacceptance would cause embarrassment to donor (Arafat) and U.S. government," the vice president's office said in documents, which were released this week. - link.

Yeah, but get a blowjob....

Results of the MoveOn.org VIrtual Primary
(sorted by most votes):

DEAN------43.87%
KUCINICH--23.93%
KERRY-----15.73%
EDWARDS---3.19%
GEPHARDT--2.44%
GRAHAM----2.24%
BRAUN-----2.21%
UNDECIDED-2.01%
OTHER-----1.93%
LIEBERMAN-1.92%
SHARPTON--0.53%

And alphabetically, with totals:
BRAUN 7021 2.21%
DEAN 139360 43.87%
EDWARDS 10146 3.19%
GRAHAM 7113 2.24%
KERRY 49973 15.73%
KUCINICH 76000 23.93%
GEPHARDT 7755 2.44%
LIEBERMAN 6095 1.92%
SHARPTON 1677 0.53%
OTHER 6121 1.93%
UNDECIDED 6378 2.01%

There were 317647 votes cast.

Stupid fretards - even with all their calls for rigging the vote, Sharpton is at the bottom of the list. Even Wesley Clark, a write-in, got more votes, with 2968 (0.93%).

And isn't it amazing that the two strongest bashers of the misadministration got the most votes?! You go, guys!!

Bush’s “big lie”
"There is no precedent in American history for the sheer scale of falsification engaged in by the Bush administration, the Republican Party and their media chorus. The 'credibility gap' of the Vietnam War era is nothing compared to the lie machine of the current government."

Snipped from an editorial by the WSWS Editorial Board:

Since the war began, every element of the Bush administration campaign on weapons of mass destruction has been shown to be false...

The Bush administration deliberately lied to the American people and to the world, concocting reasons for war in order to justify aggression against a sovereign state. Not since Hitler and the Nazis dressed up storm troopers as Polish soldiers and staged “attacks” on German positions in 1939 has there been such a flagrant and cynical effort to manufacture a casus belli.

All of the institutions of the American ruling elite are implicated in crimes of staggering dimensions - the White House, the Congress, the judiciary, the military, the media, and the corporate aristocracy.




Bush's illusions
Almost two months after the president said major combat in Iraq had ended, U.S. troops are still being killed and the White House's plans are in disarray.

From an editorial in the St. Petersburg Times:

On May 1, pResident Bush was the star of an elaborately staged event that may come to symbolize his administration's illusion-over-reality approach to the war in Iraq. That evening, the president donned a flight suit, {Ed: had Karl stuff some socks down the front...} climbed aboard a Navy jet and flew to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was kept adrift just off the coast of California so it could serve as a dramatic setting for a nationally televised spectacle. ...

Congress and the American people finally are beginning to raise serious questions about the credibility of the case the Bush administration made against Iraq in the weeks leading up to war. At the very least, the president and other top officials grossly exaggerated the immediate threat posed by Hussein's regime. Claims about Iraq's purported nuclear weapons program and links to al-Qaida were based on transparently phony documentation. And while the search for chemical and biological weapons continues, it already is clear that the White House's specific claims about the scope and location of those weapons have not been borne out.

A scrupulous investigation into charges that the Bush administration intentionally distorted intelligence to fit its political purposes in Iraq should continue. Our government's credibility depends on it. At the same time, though, Americans should be asking similar questions about the credibility of the Bush administration's ongoing postwar effort.


Thousands Died

Operation qWagmire update

  • Two Missing Soldiers Apparently Abducted in Iraq: 6/27
  • Our Soldiers Targeted in a Flurry of Attacks in Iraq: 6/27
  • Another GI Dies in Latest Attacks: 6/27
  • U.S. Soldier Shot Shopping in Baghdad: A U.S. soldier was shot in the head while buying digital video discs on Friday, the shop owner and other witnesses said. A search continues for two more soldiers believed abducted.
  • Thousand More Troops for Iraq: 6/27
  • Our Troops are Paying the Price for a Quick Win War: 6/27
  • Attacks on Iraqi Pipelines Threaten Plan to Export Oil, Fund Reconstruction: 6/27
  • Agency Disputes View of Trailers as Labs: 6/27
  • British Dossiers on Iraqi Arms Challenged: 6/27
  • Iraqi villagers blame British soldiers' 'brutal' searches for massacre: 6/27

    - stories at Yahoo News and BuzzFlash.


    Thousands Died

  • Mandela: Bunnypants lying, warmongering sh*thead
    Mandela unrelenting ahead of Bush tour of Africa.

    Former South African President Nelson Mandela kept up his verbal onslaught against serial liar/Vietnam War deserter Napoleon Bonehead on Friday and implied he would not meet him when he makes his first visit to Africa next month.

    Mandela condemned Bush for launching the war against Iraq, saying he was wrong to bypass the United Nations and overthrow Saddam Hussein by force.

    "[F]or anybody, especially the leader of a superstate, to act outside the United Nations is something that must be condemned by everybody who wants peace," Mandela told reporters.

    Mandela has repeatedly condemned Bush over Iraq. In January, he said the smirking idiot "cannot think properly" and in Ireland last week he said the United States and Bush were dangers to the world. - Yahoo News.



    "Liar" removed from US dictionaries

  • "Even the president’s most conspicuous success, his war in Iraq, now appears to have been bogus from the beginning. No one is supposed to say that the administration lied about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction in order to foment public support. The polite word is 'misled.' Either the Bushies were misled by faulty intelligence, or the Bushies misled the nation. Either way, the war and its aftermath will help to further inflate the gargantuan federal deficit, wrestled to a draw in the previous administration but now threatening to explode into the multitrillion-dollar range." - Anna Quindlen, in Newsweek.

  • "George W. Bush misled the nation into war.
    Who says? Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

    On the basis of what? On the basis of information preliminarily reviewed by the intelligence committee as part of its ongoing investigation into the prewar intelligence on Iraq.

    Her remarks received, as far as I can tell, little media attention. But they are dramatic in that these comments are the first findings from an official outlet confirming that Bush deployed dishonest rhetoric in guiding the United States to invasion and occupation in Iraq. This is not an op-ed judgment; this is an evaluation from a member of the intelligence committee who claims to be basing her statements on the investigative work of the committee." - David Corn, in The Nation.

  • Distorted Intelligence
    Hundreds of pages of confidential German law-enforcement records raise new questions about the Bush administration’s core evidence purporting to show solid links between Osama bin Laden’s terror network and Saddam Hussein’s regime. - from MSNBC.


    Thousands Died


    The BBC strikes back in Iraq row
    "Frankly I don't think the BBC needs to be taught lessons in the use of sources by a communications department which plagiarised a 12-year-old thesis and distributed unattributed." - BBC news director Richard Sambrook.



  • "Whoops! Never mind!"
    A cache of missiles were found in Iraq. They were made in the United States.

    Though details of the discovery are classified, sources in Washington say that military and intelligence agencies launched an urgent investigation to find out how the weapons got to Iraq and whether American firms might have violated U.N. embargoes and U.S. laws.

    Recently the inquiry was abandoned when convincing evidence turned up that the missiles had been exported legally from the United States to Iraq in the years before the first gulf war, when American policymakers cozied up to Saddam as a counterbalance to Iranian ayatollahs. - from MSNBC.



    "When he dies," Senator John Tower once said, "they'll have to beat his pecker down with a baseball bat to close the coffin lid."

    Senate 'legend,' racist and playboy Strom Thurmond has died at age 100.



    Alarmist Iraq hype backfires
    Gordon Barthos writes in the Star's editorial page:

    Prime Minister Tony Blair is paying a fierce price for torquing the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

    Blair's tireless leghumping cheerleading for George Bush's drive for "regime change" now looks like folly.

    The PM's postwar "Baghdad bounce" in popularity has become a dead cat bounce, with his Labour party slumping to 38 per cent, its worst showing in a decade, to the Tories' 34 per cent.

    The British media are howling that Blair's staff "sexed up" evidence of banned weapons, falsely said Saddam could launch them on 45 minutes' notice and published a "dodgy dossier" to spook the country. Yesterday, Blair's top spin doctor admitted "a mistake."

    Bush, too, is beginning to see his credibility head south. He claimed Saddam had active ties to Al Qaeda, held horror weapons, was trying to purchase nuclear materiel and had mobile germ labs.

    None of it has proved true.

    Saddam posed no imminent threat to the U.S., and Bush's suggestions to the contrary were deliberately alarmist.

    Most Americans remain persuaded that the war and 8,000 Iraqi deaths were justified, to topple an America-hating, murderous despot.

    But nearly one American in two now believes Bush intentionally misled them about Saddam's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

    Bush's credibility would be lower still, except that a sturdy core of invincibly ignorant people — one American in three — is convinced that these weapons already have been found. Not so.

    Ho ho!






    Light blogging yesterday evening, as I was watching a bear and her two cubs playing in the backyard.


    Majority leader receives new Rove memo
    Quoting from the latest misadministration talking points, Senate majority leader/asshat Bill 'mew!' Frist told NBC's Today Show that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was not the main justification for the Bush Cartel-led invasion of Iraq.

    "I'm not sure that's the major reason we went to war," the Kitten Kevorkian said.

    "If you talk to most of the American people today, to have Saddam Hussein and his rogue regime out of there is something the American people want, it's something they deserve," he bleated. "After all," he left unsaid, "the preznit has told us Saddam was responsible for 9/11, so it MUST be true!"

    Frist went on to say that Saddam's brutal record as a dictator alone was sufficient justification for his ouster. He later received a fruit basket from Karl Rove, as did the useless stenographer who "interviewed" him on the program. - link.



    June 26, 2003

    Breaking news
    ScottB writes: CNN is reporting now that a Special Operations forces member has been killed and eight wounded by "hostile fire" in southwest Baghdad.

    U.N. Panel to Bush Cartel: you're full of sh*t
    You f*cking liars.

    UNITED NATIONS, 42 minutes ago - The U.N. terrorism committee has found no evidence to support the misadministration claims of a link between Iraq and al-Qaida, and the United States has provided the committee with no proof, officials said Thursday.

    The alleged connections were cited by the Cheney/Bush Cartel as one of the key reasons for going after Saddam. - link.

    I'm sure the WH will stand by their lies story, and the gelding dems will continue to nance about with pink panties on their heads.


    Thousands Died

    Update

  • The White House, in a possible CYA/quid pro quo, is saying that it stands by the CIA's conclusion that the mobile trailers found in Iraq were intended for making biological weapons, dismissing a conflicting assessment from the State Department's intelligence division.

    "I think that the agencies that are charged with the review of this, and have the most expertise on it, have rendered their judgment in a very public setting and it speaks for itself," spokes-tool Ari 'the Liar' Fleischer lied to the WH propaganda presstitutes reporters.

    The press corpse, busy lubing themselves, passed on questioning him about the fact that Britain sold the trailers to Iraq for the purpose of inflating weather balloons with hydrogen.



  • GOP rejects deeper probe on Iraqi arms
    The House has rejected two attempts by Democratic lawmakers for additional inquiries into the handling of intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs.

    Democrats sought to include the inquiries in a bill authorizing 2004 intelligence activities. That bill, whose details are mostly classified, was expected to be approved late Thursday or early Friday.

    Democrats have questioned whether prewar intelligence was inaccurate or manipulated to back up serial liar/war deserter Smirky McAWol's push for war, but the repukes have said there is no sign of wrongdoing and have accused Democrats of raising the issue for political reasons.

    More utter, unbelievable, APPALLING bullsh*t here.



  • Dog show
    The House of Representatives has voted to award a congressional gold medal, the highest civilian honor Congress can bestow, to Bunnypants' poodle Tony 'Piddles' Blair.

    The resolution recognizes Mr. Blair's enthusiastic humping of aWol's leg support for the United States in the war in Iraq, and after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

    Some, though, noted that Blair is now under intense pressure to explain his government's lies use of information regarding WMD in Iraq before the start of the Bush Cartel-led war.

    Congressman Jim McDermott, a Washington state Democrat who opposed the war in Iraq, said Congress would be "cheapening" the significance of the medal by awarding it to Mr. Bush's lapdog Blair. - link.



    Former congressman's brother held in slaying
    The brother of former Oklahoma Congressman JC Watts is under arrest after turning himself into police.

    State investigators are gathering evidence at the scene of the shooting, outside Watt's BBQ restaurant. The victim had apparently been working for Lawrence Watts, the owner of the restaurant, for about a week.

    Investigators say 53-year-old Watts turned himself in around 10:30 Wednesday morning, saying he had shot a man. No charges have been filed. DA Greg Stidham says the fact that Watts is the brother of former Oklahoma congressman JC Watts won't be a factor in the investigation.

    Duh!
    Students at Stuyvesant High School in New York's class of '04 are planning ahead for the centennial graduation next year and when some of them heard that pReznit Stupid was on the list of possible commencement speakers, they spoke up.

    V.P. of the class of '04 Sophia Mokotoff said, "He's not an eloquent speaker. Students feel he wouldn't provide the inspiration." - link.



    Operation qWagmire updates

  • 2 more U.S. soldiers killed by Iraqi ambushes
    BAGHDAD, Iraq - Assailants launched a wave of ambushes against U.S. forces, dropping grenades from an overpass, blowing up a vehicle with a roadside bomb and destroying a civilian SUV traveling with U.S. troops, soldiers and Iraqi police said Thursday. Two U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were killed.

    The onslaught was part of a spiraling series of attacks on coalition forces despite assurances that the troops are mopping up resistance. On Tuesday, six British soldiers were killed in a southern town, undercoring the spread of anti-coalition violence.

  • "We are losing the peace"
    Baghdad, Iraq - As the Iraqi summer deepens with spiking temperatures, scorching winds and choking dust, there is growing unrest in the politically volatile slums east of the Tigris River, where more than 1 million residents have seen a precipitous decline in their quality of life since the war.

    Set against the implicit American promise that a "regime change" would improve life, conditions here are causing concern among military commanders about a potential violent backlash against the U.S. occupation.

    "We are losing the peace," said Maj. Bob Caffrey, Special Forces civil affairs officer. - from here.

  • Further attacks on Allies predicted by US general
    "The mission has changed. This is an insurgency now."

    The man nominated to be the next senior commander of United States forces in Iraq warned today of continuing attacks against American and British soldiers and said a large occupation force would keep a prolonged presence there.

    The officer, Army Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, also said it was important for the allies to provide proof that Saddam Hussein was dead or alive, since his death or capture could deny Baath Party guerrillas a rallying point.

  • "The cost to US democracy could be felt for years to come."
    "A fawning press corps has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect Bush from the consequences of his dishonesty. The New York Times led its 'Week in Review' section with an astonishing piece of equivocation by David E. Rosenbaum arguing, among other absurdities, that if Bush didn't actually KNOW he was peddling phony 'intelligence' about Iraqi nuclear weapons, its nonexistent links to al Qaeda, or even who benefited from his tax cut schemes, then it's unfair to say he lied." - from Gene Lyons's latest column Back to Basics, at HNN.

  • Senators finally call for price tag on huge Halliburton contracts Iraq rebuilding
    ''We must reorganize our military to be there a long time.''

    The United States faces a huge task rebuilding Iraq and restoring security and the White House needs to spell out how much it will cost, two senior senators just back from the Middle East said on Wednesday.

    ''There's a massive bill that's going to land in the laps of somebody, most likely the American people,'' said Joe Biden, the senior enabler Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. - MSNBC.






  • War lies

  • Dems discover cache of genitalia, push for deeper probe on Iraqi WMD
    June 26, 2003 - WASHINGTON (AP) -- The early stages of a House Intelligence Committee's review of prewar intelligence on Iraq has found that the administration ignored doubts about Iraq's chemical and biological weapons capability, the panel's top Democrat said.

    Rep. Jane Harman also said intelligence linking al-Qaida to Iraq "is conflicting, contrary to what was claimed by the administration."

    Two Democratic amendments are to be considered today. One by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas would require the U.S. comptroller general to study U.S. intelligence-sharing with U.N. inspectors before the war.

    The other by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio calls for the CIA's inspector general to audit all telephone and electronic communications between the CIA and Dick 'dick' Cheney relating to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

  • State Dept. challenges Iraq trailer lies story
    The State Department's intelligence unit has challenged a determination by the CIA that mobile trailers found in Iraq were intended for making biological weapons, The New York Times reported today.

    The newspaper quoted U.S. government officials as saying a classified June 2 memo from the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research stated that it was too early to decide the trailers were proof Iraq had a program for making biological weapons. - link.

  • Suckas!
    Secretary of State Colin Powell was bluffing the UN when claiming that Iraq had a robust program of weapons of mass destruction, according to the Norwegian weapon inspector Jorn Siljeholm.

  • It depends on what the definition of "lie" is, I guess
    "But a lie is, well … that’s really more an exaggeration. Unless, of course, it’s a misstatement. Except in cases involving weapons of mass destruction, when often it’s simply a matter of 'over-hype.'

    "Actually, it’s all fairly hard for me to keep up with. All I know is that under George W. Bush the pundits who had no trouble calling Bill Clinton a liar have suddenly decided lying is a very subtle, hard-to-define, complex matter." - Josh Marshall, in The Hill.



    Thousands Died

  • June 25, 2003

    Hearing little voices in his head...
    Mine usually just tell me it's time for a refill.

    "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East." - Squinty the Red-eyed Crackfiend, to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas at Aqaba.


    Priorities
    Emperor Snippy went on to say "If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."




    News you won't see on TV
    More on the U.S. spying report, and how the cowering little lapdogs in the media rolled over once again for Commandant Karl:
    "'It's a big story in Russia and it led the French news today,' said Martin Bright, the Observer's home affairs editor. Bright said that he had agreed to interviews with NBC, CNN, and Fox News Channel - and that all three had called and canceled. But the report that the U.S. is spying on U.N. Security Council members - and seeking allied intelligence agencies to do the same - has quickly spread throughout the world."

    "What might be most telling about the episode, however, is not that the U.S. is spying on U.N. Security Council. Rather, the story is significant in that it reveals much about the way that the Bush administration has handled its foreign policy: clumsy or arrogant or righteous, depending upon your point of view, but indisputably alienating to most of the rest of the world. The media maelstrom the memo has set off as far away as Sydney and Moscow is indicative of how much the U.S.'s reservoir of goodwill has dried up." - from Salon.



    Heh!
    Secretaries Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz explain moral necessity of nation bombing building to assembled limp-wristed press nancys.

    Secretary Rumsfeld: Good morning. The President cannot join us for this brief right-wing policy advertisement with you fine sedated members of the press, as he is currently still kung-fu skull-cracking Arab madmen in dreamland...
    - link.




    ...and the enemy is us
    "[these mosques who are]...turning them into absolute missiles of hatred for anybody who disagrees with them..." - Rush 'pigboy' Limbaugh, completely missing the irony.

    A brave patriot with a very strong stomach brings us the Rush Transcript: 'An effort to transcribe, publish, and index Rush Limbaugh's radio show. The intent is to inform the public as to the content of the show, and to promote criticism of the same.'


    Actors Guild Warns Against Blacklisting
    The entertainment industry must not blacklist people who speak out against war with Iraq, the Screen Actors Guild said.

    "Some have recently suggested that well-known individuals who express `unacceptable' views should be punished by losing their right to work," the union said in a statement posted Monday on its Web site. "Even a hint of the blacklist must never again be tolerated in this nation." - link.







    "If not backing the president is treason, shouldn't all the people who tried to impeach President Clinton be behind bars right now?" - Bill Maher.

    Song playing in my head: "My Sharona"
    Scene playing in my head: Maximus, using two swords, scissoring his opponent's head off in Gladiator.
    This morning's royal p*ss-off: not only was it about 3 degrees outside, but the damn car wouldn't start.

    I guess it's going to be another one of those days.


    Top GOP Magazines, Week of 2/24/03


    • Inside Trader's Digest
    • Tax Shelters Illustrated
    • Ladies Stay-At-Home Journal
    • Landfill and Stream
    • Popular Creationist
    • U.S. News and World Domination


    CORRECTION: Last week we mistakenly reported that Saddam Hussein had warned dissenters to "Shut up" if war breaks out or be considered "enemies of the state." In fact, it was Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly who made the remarks. We apologize for the error.

    - from Ironic Times.




    New!
    Not satisfied with the clutter and with the template codes imploding, I've added one of those Bravenet Guest Maps. You should see the little white box for it above the message board (which seems to be out-of-service again). Please give it a try!



    In Other News
    In a day laden with irony, George W Bush pardoned a turkey, instead of the other way around. Or something like that. (link).



    US TV networks 'kissed ass', says Wolff
    Michael Wolff, media commentator and New York Magazine columnist, has accused American television networks of "kissing ass" in their coverage of the Iraq war in return for a relaxation of media ownership rules in the US.

    Wolff put forward what he described as the "semi-conspiracy theory" that major media companies in the US meekly followed the flag-waving agenda of the Bush administration in order to persuade the FCC to change its regulations.

    "Ass kissing has gone on to a profound degree. It's pervasive throughout all these news organisations," said Wolff.

    He added the FCC's decision to relax media ownership rules came shortly after the end of the war.

    "Any reporter in America who would see that quid pro quo in any other business says: 'No, that doesn't happen in the news business'," Wolff added. - from the UK Guardian.

    Operation Quagmire update

  • "The army is getting bogged down in a morale-numbing fourth generation war in Iraq that is now taking on some appearances of the Palestinian intifada," noted one recent comment on the website Defense and the National Interest, while another on the same site predicted that the Pentagon's plans for rotating new units into occupation duty could well "melt down" the army's personnel system within the year. - Jim Lobe in the Asia Times, via Salon.

  • 'The political fallout from the unexpected hazards of occupying Iraq {Ed: jeebus.} is starting to be felt in Washington, although it remains unclear who, if anyone, is to be held responsible for what is seen as inadequate postwar planning {Ed: who wrote this, Karl Rove?} .

    The misadministration 'does not look kindly on leaks of unfavourable news. However, according to several advisers and analysts, the White House is directing its displeasure at certain figures in the Defense Department and "neo-conservative" lobbyists.'

    There is talk that Condo 'Oilslut' Rice, as well as Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell, may not remain if serial liar pReznit Privilege gets a second term.

    'White House advisers say, while the determination to get it right in Iraq remains, there is little appetite for confrontation with Iran or North Korea, at least not before the election.' - link.

  • The fact that Hussein's gone doesn't make lying right - Robert Scheer tries, but not hard enough: 'With the administration's core rationale for invading Iraq - saving the world from Saddam Hussein's deadly arsenal - almost wholly discredited, the Republicans now want us to believe that any distortions of the truth {Ed: lies lies LIES, dammit!!!!} should have been forgotten once we took Baghdad...

    'To be sure, many Americans were never fooled, and many more have become upset at seeing continuing casualties and chaos in Iraq after Bush's pricey aircraft carrier photo op signaled that the war was over. But much of our public has been too easily conned. For contrast, consider that in Britain the citizens, Parliament and media have been far more seriously engaged in questioning the premises of their government's participation in the invasion of Iraq.

    'This administration's behavior is an affront to the nation's founders and the system of governance they crafted. It is sad that we now have a president who acts like a king and a Congress that is his pawn.'

    I need a drink.

  • Prime Minister Tony 'Piddles' Blair said today the security situation in Iraq was serious and may require more troops, as British forces reportedly gave town leaders 48 hours to surrender the gunmen who killed six British soldiers. - CBS News.


    People Died

  • Rare ‘Alien’ fish netted off Irish Coast
    A marine species which provided the inspiration for the Alien films has been netted off the Irish coast.

    Global warming may have attracted the rare South American species, the Black Widow, into deep water fisheries off the south west. The bulbous black fish traps males for mating and they stay attached for the rest of their lives. Normally, the fish can keep males alive on its body for 30 to 40 years by feeding them blood. The dead Black Widow was netted by trawler skipper Sean Conneely 200 miles off the coast (link). Unfortunately, there was no picture.

    And in a related story...

    Strident, asexual anorexic harpy/QTip impersonator defiles living rooms
    Ann 'the man' Coulter joined the panel on ABC's The View to discuss the goverment-funded study on women's sexuality. Annthrax was arguing that the study was bogus and was asked by the panel if she had ever seen two women 'getting it on.'

    It took a deep breath, thought about the question and then said 'Yes, the Hillary interview wth Katie Couric.' - seen at the fretard site this morning. Fortunately, there was no picture.



    Officials: Bushies f*cked up on Bin Laden drone aircraft
    Officials say that within days of fraudulent f*ckup Napoleon Bonehead taking office in January 2001, Bill Clinton's top terrorism expert on the National Security Council, Richard Clarke, urged National Security Adviser Condoleezza 'Oil Me!' Rice to resume the drone flights to track down Osama bin Laden.

    In January 2001, the White House was told that Predator drones had recently spotted bin Laden as many as three times and officials were urged to arm the unmanned planes with missiles to kill the al-Qaida leader. But the administration failed to get drones back into the Afghan skies until after the Sept. 11 attacks later that year. - Yahoo News.

    But here's another interesting piece, from the same story:

    At a White House meeting of Bush's national security principals on Sept. 4, 2001, senior officials discussed several ideas, including use of the drones, as they finalized a plan to accelerate efforts to go after al-Qaida amid signs of a growing threat of a domestic attack.
    Weren't we told that the administration never got intelligence about any domestic threats? Are they now admitting they were aware of the threat and didn't alert military or domestic security to be on alert? And if there were growing signs of an attack, wtf was Hopalong Nincompoop doing taking that long vacation at his Texas fleapit????



    Bush credibility gap - a slow, quiet crumble
    'Many voters thought that former Vice President Al Gore had trouble telling the truth. Mr. Gore might have been more experienced and more knowledgeable about the workings of government, but Mr. Bush resonated with people as a down-to-earth guy they could trust.

    'In the past few weeks some questions have begun to arise about just how candid this White House is being in a variety of areas. Slowly and quietly, a credibility gap is opening, and this White House needs to be careful. If not, the gap may open wide enough to swallow up Bush's high poll numbers.'

    - from the CS Monitor.


    People Died

    Saddam’s Secrets
    "No one needs further proof that Saddam was a bad man. What matters is to reclaim America’s credibility."

    From Newsweek: 'The scientists were supposed to hold the key to Iraq’s WMD. They still insist the weapons were destroyed.

    'While Bush aides try to look calm, the search grows increasingly feverish. They predicted they would find Saddam Hussein’s arsenal of mass destruction as soon as Iraq’s experts could dare to tell the truth. Now the regime is gone, and Saddam’s best-known WMD officials are dead or in U.S. custody, shielded from the regime’s monstrous reprisals. There’s only one problem. What the survivors are saying is not what the White House wants to hear.'


    Thousands Died .... and the Dems are afraid of appearing "too partisan".

    Repuglican values, part 2
    WASHINGTON, June 24 - A top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons told Congressional committees in closed-door hearings last week that he had been pressed to tailor his analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration's views, several Congressional officials said today. - link.




    Democrats' values
    ...... ...... ..

    Oh wait, they don't seem to have any.

    In Bush We Trust?
    "George W. Bush is a liar."
    "There, I said it -- the 'L' word. Someone in Washington had to."

    - - John Moyers, editor-in-chief of TomPaine.com.:

    "Presidential Brain Karl Rove must be worried. Rove knows that any president's popularity rests more on whether voters think he's a believable and admirable leader than on the substance of issues. George W. Bush has that going for him - people might not like his policies (if they understand them at all), but they like his swagger and certitude, and they trust him to do what he says.

    "But that trust could crumble if questions linger about whether the White House deceived us into war. Few of the president's allies could or would defend that - even GOP-TV (a.k.a. Fox News) would have trouble explaining away that one."

    Puh - I wish. Though I'm sure it would go something like You Live Your Life's "Presidental Jeopardy".






    Republican values
    The party of honesty, integrity and accountability...

    Rep. Darrell Issa, the driving force behind the effort to recall Gov. Gray Davis, was prosecuted with his brother in San Jose in 1980 for allegedly faking the theft of Issa's Mercedes Benz sedan and selling it to a car dealer for $16,000, according to court records. Issa, in a phone interview with The Chronicle Tuesday, blamed his brother for the car theft. - SFGate.com. Dumbass.



    June 24, 2003

    Quote of the day
    "Paul Wolfowitz told Vanity Fair magazine that the whole "WMD" scenario was just a generally agreed-upon p.r. scam to 'cover' the invasion. The man who championed, planned and demanded the invasion has admitted they made up the reason for war out of nothing. But try saying that on television! No, 'the President was misled by confusing and contradictory intelligence reports.' Tell that to the guys on the ground in Iraq taking rocket grenades in the chest."

    - - from The Seven True Things That You Can't Say On Television (or anywhere else), by Rich Procter, via Blah3.com.


    Thousands Died

    "The Road to Coverup Is the Road to Ruin"
    "We have heard a lot about revisionist history from the White House of late in answer to those who question whether there was a real threat from Iraq. But it is the President who appears to me to be intent on revising history."

    - Transcript of Sen. Robert Byrd's speech, 6/24/03: here. Please read and pass around!



    Ironically enough, it was "My Way"
    A 25-year-old man has been stabbed to death for singing a Frank Sinatra classic out of tune during a birthday party - Sydney Morning Herald.



    News from Fasciststan
    Fux Nooze is reporting that a Senate committee with all its Democratic members absent voted to limit filibusters of pReznit Evil's judicial nominees Tuesday. Democrats oppose changing Senate filibuster rules for judicial nominees, but repukes have a one-vote majority on the Senate Rules Committee and expected to win the committee vote in any case. Democrats are expected to fight the measure on the Senate floor, if they can find that moldy case of testicles the French left behind in 1775.

    Robert Byrd speaking now...
    "The longer questions are allowed to fester, the greater the risk that the American people will lose confidence in their government. Many of my colleagues here were willing to trust the administration and vote for the war against Iraq. Trusted so much they gave the president sweeping authority to commit war. Despite my opposition, the Senate voted to blindly trust the president with unprecedented power to declare war. I have witnessed deceit, coverup...they misled the people."

    I'll look for the transcript later.

    Wow.

    Operation Quagmire update
    "25 attacks on US-led forces in 24 hours".

  • The BBC is reporting 6 British soldiers have just been killed in southern Iraq. A further eight were wounded - three of them seriously - after coming under attack in a separate incident.
  • Tuesday also saw reports of an attack on US troops in Ramadi, to the west of Baghdad.
  • Army doctors refuse to help burned Iraqi children.
  • In the UK, Tony 'Piddles' Blair's popularity index nosedives to minus 13 - Sky News.

  • Liar or moron?
    Can Bush be both ignorant and a liar? Yes. There's no reason to choose between the two. Timothy Noah explains, in Slate.


    The Psychology of Fanaticism
    "Wonder why the WMD are MIA? The answer may lie in the DSM -- the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. I know it can sound a bit cheap to call people you disagree with nuts, which is why I refer you to the psychiatric literature. And keep an open mind, something the Bushies stopped doing a long time ago."
    - Arianna Huffington, via email from MikeB.



    "Denial and Deception."
    "Why are so many people making excuses for Mr. Bush and his officials?

    "There is no longer any serious doubt that Bush administration officials deceived us into war. The key question now is why so many influential people are in denial, unwilling to admit the obvious."

    Because they're whores? Because then they'll have to explain to us just where the hell they've been the past year or so?? Because they'll have to admit they're nothing more than kneepadded, Anal-Eeze-coated, bushlicking, enabling, Rovian pillowsluts?

    - Paul Krugman, patriot, in the NY Times.