We deliver
Going through our google search results, we see somebody was looking for the infamous Preznit Asshole A. Wol quote about the US Constitution. Well, here you go!

Doug Thompson, publisher of Capitol Hill Blue, says he's talked to three people present when Republican Congressional leaders met with President Bush in the Oval Office to talk about renewing the Patriot Act. That act, passed by legislators who hadn't read it, in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 (when most people were shell-shocked and lawmakers in particular disinclined to use their brains), has of course been criticized as containing unconstitutional elements.

All three GOP politicians quote their president as saying: "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

- m

Mr president? Fuck you

"I didn’t cut and run, Mr. President... My helicopter was shot down long after you proclaimed "Mission Accomplished."

- Dem House candidate and veteran Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs in the Iraq war.

Ahhhhh!
Bob Geiger has the Saturday toons up!

The Stephen Colbert "On Notice Board" Generator


Create your own here (thanx to Rox)!
- m
*****

There must be a mistake!

"Foley can't be a homosexual. He's a Republican after all, and thanks to you, homosexual persecution has become one of the party's main electoral strategies. Only a self-hating psychopath could be both a homosexual and a Republican, and you wouldn't have tried so hard to recruit him to run for the senate if that were the case."

- from the General's letter to Ken Mehlman.

- m

Kenny, finding this whole thing hard to swallow.
****

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
Baghdad under total curfew as violence escalates.

-m

"Yore buyin' into enemy propaganda!"
*****

Uhhh, was that wrong?
The GOP House leadership learned of Rep. Mark Foley's penchant for underage gay sex emails months ago and did nothing.

House Majority Leader John Boehner told the Washington Post last night that he had learned this spring of some "contact" between Foley and a 16-year-old page. Boehner said he told House Speaker Denny Hastert, and that Hastert assured him "we're taking care of it."

But the repug-run House page board met with Foley in 2005 to investigate the 'inappropriate, sexually charged online exchanges.'

Foley: What are ya wearing?

Teen: Tshirt and shorts

Foley: Love to slip them off of ya.

Foley, before he resigned in disgrace, was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.

Late last night, the House passed a resolution directing the ethics committee to begin an inquiry into Foley's behavior. The committee has 10 days to report back to the House. But when will Hastert and Boehner be investigated??

Bush: 'criticism = enemy propaganda'
Captain Poopypants says critics who claim that the war in Iraq has made America less safe are "buying into enemy propaganda," same as those guys at the 16 terrist-enabling intelligence agencies in his own misadministration.

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
10 more people found tortured and slain in Baghdad today.

- m

AG Ghraibzales to judges: "watch what you say"
He's supposed to be the country's attorney general, not the president's...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending Preznit Fuckwit's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime. He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general said.

- m

Another corrupt republican prevert out
"Send me an email pic of you as well," writes values 'n' morality party member to child.

Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigns after questions emerged over his gay child-sex emails.
- m

Oh Gawd...
Yet another republican issues a statement that may cause an international incident.

Trent Lott: 'all sand niggers look alike' -

"It's hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what's wrong with these people," he said. "Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me."

-m

Confederate fanboy unveils bill to 'help black farmers'
"Now they can grow all the watermelons they want!"

Dogged by stories of racial insensitivity and facing a lynching in the polls, George 'macaca' Allen introduced legislation yesterday to help dispel allegations that he doesn't care about cottonpickin' niggers.

-m


Update: Now the Sons of Confederate Veterans are pissed off at George Allen.
*****

"Bush says, 'The party of FDR, the party of Harry Truman, has become the party of cut-and-run.' I guess that means the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has become the party of cronyism, lies, perpetual fear and incompetence?"

- headline on the intarwebs.


Bunnypants, unable to handle the truth, resorts to name-calling
Preznit Integritude divides, not unites in face of new, confirmed reports of his incompetency and outright lying.

Faced with new intelligence reports by his own agencies that show without a shadow of a doubt that Iraq is fueling terrorism rather than countering it, a crazed Preznit Liar could do no better than denounce Democrats "for becoming the party of cut and run."

"See, we gotta fight 'em over there so we don't hafta fight 'em over here. We gotta stay th' course. An' an' an' if somebody from al Qaeda is callin' somebody over here, we wanna know about it. September 11th."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi responded (paraphrasing):

“The President needs to work on his slogans. ‘Cut and run’ is no more true than was ‘Mission Accomplished.’ After three and a half years of fighting and the loss of more than 2,700 of our troops, the American people deserve a plan that is going to work in Iraq, not this same old meaningless bullshit. Jackass."

"George Bush has no credibility left on national security," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

"16 of your own agencies, doofus!" Sen. Chuck Schumer added. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

- m

"I'm the Decider! Me!"
*****

Bob Woodward, America-hater
Boob Woodward gets his mouth off Bush's tiny dick, instead whores for his new book called - appropriately enough - "State of Denial."

The Bush administration is concealing the level of violence against U.S. troops in Iraq and the situation there is growing worse despite White House and Pentagon claims of progress, [erstwhile repuke asscandy] Bob Woodward said in advance of a new book.

A senior administration official saw little new in Woodward's charges "except that Bob believes he has a lot of making up to do since the Washington establishment criticized him for being too soft in his first two books (on the Bush administration)."

'Soft'? He was nothing but a puddle of warm, sticky goo.
- m

White House ties to Abramoff stronger than reported
Disgraced lobbyist Jack "who??" Abramoff had limited contact with the White House. If by "limited contact" you mean "no more than two or three meetings a week for three years."

Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, who knew the guy vaguely from somewhere, are up to their shifty eyeballs in Jack Abramoff lovejuice.

Hundreds of contacts between top White House officials and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates "raise serious questions about the legality and actions" of those officials, according to a draft bipartisan report prepared by the House Government Reform Committee.

- m

Oliver Stone blasts fascistic dumbass
"This is not a human being, this a fanatic."

Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted [GameBoy McFartypants] Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years." Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of Sept. 11.

"We have destroyed the world in the name of security," Stone said. "This war on Iraq is a disaster. I'm disgraced. I'm ashamed for my country. I'm also ashamed that America has attacked itself with its constitutional breakdowns. I'm deeply ashamed."

-m

Oh, hey, and while we're at it
Speaking of violating the Constitution... Hoping to avoid even more investigations, the House yesterday approved Bush's illegal warrantless wiretap law.

The House approved a bill Thursday that would grant legal status to President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. Republicans called it a test before the election of whether Democrats want to fight or coddle terrorists.

"The Democrats' irrational opposition to wiping their asses with the US Constitutio uhh giving free rein to our fascist tendencies mmm keeping our great leader from maybe being investigated strong national security policies that help keep our nation secure should be of great concern to the American people," Majority Leader John 'boner' Boehner, R-Asshat, said.

- m

The shame of America
Putting party above country, gpuke scumbags pass torture bill.

Violating the US Constitution in the name of protecting republicans, the Senate OKs bill that would keep Bush safe from war crimes charges.

Tom Malinowski, the director for Human Rights Watch, said Bush's motivation is partly to protect his reputation by gaining congressional endorsement of controversial actions already taken. "He's been accused of authorizing criminal torture in a way that has hurt America and could come back to haunt our troops. One of his purposes is to have Congress stand with him in the dock," Malinowski said.

So we're better than Saddam and other 'evildooers' how??

And to the dems who voted for this, shame on you.
- m

Resistance "to do" list

I hadn't gotten much past "renew passport" when I saw Bitch, Ph.D.'s post on the subject. (Love her!) It's a great start:

• Mail in my registration to vote at my new address today.
• This weekend, talk to Mr. B. about volunteering, money, and a strategy for what to do about the upcoming election.
• As I get to know the other parents at PK's school, ask what they think about the upcoming election, the new law suspending habeas corpus, etc.
• Convince my dad, who lives in a reddish part of a blue state, that he has both the time and responsibility to call *his* local Democratic organization and volunteer to help register/get out the vote.
• Call *my* local Democratic organization and volunteer to help with whatever.
• Join the ACLU.

Any of you all got other suggestions of the peaceful, lawful kind? (Extra points for fun and creative.)

--dg







(image from whitehouse.org)

Friday cat blogging






(Pic via Stuff On My Cat)







Felines learn martial arts in preparation for resistance activities.

--dg











Socks the Cat says, "Where do I sign up?"

Don't say "welcome to the occupation"--say "Vive la résistance!"

War Criminals Protection Act of 2006 passes. The Onion predicted it in '02.

--dg











"Leesten very carefully--I shall say 'zis only once."

Classy!
GOP Congressional candidate accuses Dem candidate who lost her legs in Iraq of "cutting and running."

- m

More smelly eructations from Bill O'Reilly

O'Reilly calls Media Matters and ThinkProgress "hired guns." As though FOX "News" weren't an organ of the Central Committee. . . I mean, Bush administration.

I swear, how can you tell if that man is burping swamp gas or talking?

--dg

"FOX 'News'--brought to you by the ingestion of cruciferous vegetables!"

Once again, Trent Lott makes us proud in Mississippi

Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.

Oh, and while he's at it, "real people out in the real world" don't "obsess" about Iraq.

Asshat.

--dg

(Image from claybennett.com)

That's some catch, that Catch-22.

Rethugs finally resurrect the bill prohibiting the practice of "pretexting" to gain copies of personal phone records, but with a catch: only if state legislation that protects privacy is superseded by federal legislation that is in some cases less strict than the state laws.

Over at AMERICAblog John in DC asks: "Why doesn't the Republican congress want to protect your phone records from complete strangers who can simply buy them on the Internet?" Answer: because government agencies are buying the records from the sleazebags. But if the states are forced to halt their investigations into the practices of the NSA, they'll get what they want that way.

Nasty.

--dg

Spreadin' freedom an' democratude
Ah, screw that. It's just a goddamn piece of paper, anyway.

- m

Sluuurrrrp!
Nummies! Numnumnumnumnums!

- m

Bringing integrity back to Washington
CNN's Jack Cafferty rips Congress a well-deserved new one.

JACK: Ordinarily, we don't do a question two days in a row, but this is important enough to be an exception. The House just passed President Bush's bill to redefine the treatment of detainees, and the Senate's expected to do the same thing tomorrow. Buried deep inside this legislation is a provision that will pardon President Bush and all the members of his administration of any possible crimes connected with the torture and mistreatment of detainees dated all the way back to September 11, 2001.

At least President Nixon had Gerald Ford to do his dirty work. President Bush is trying to pardon himself.

Here's the deal. Under the War Crimes Act, violations of the Geneva Conventions are felonies. In some cases, punishable by death.

When the Supreme Court ruled the Geneva Conventions applied to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees, President Bush and his boys were suddenly in big trouble. They had been working these prisoners over pretty good.

In an effort to avoid possible prosecution, they're trying to cram this bill through Congress before the end of the week when Congress adjourns. The reason there's such a rush to do this, if the Democrats get control of the House in November, well, this kind of legislation probably wouldn't pass.

You want to know the real disgrace of what these people are about to do or are in the process of doing? Senator Bill Frist and Congressman Dennis Hastert and their Republican stooges apparently don't see anything wrong with this.

I really do wonder sometimes what we're becoming in this country.

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
40 tortured bodies found in Baghdad.

A car bomb killed five people and wounded another 34 after it exploded near a restaurant in central Baghdad.

Bombings and shootings kill 21 in and around Baghdad.

A quarter of a million Iraqis are refugees as they flee sectarian violence.

American troops will stand down as Iraqi troops stand up. Which at this point will be the day after Hell freezes over. Along with all the feces and urine that 'rained from the ceilings' in their barracks.

Six in ten Iraqis back attacks on US troops. Slightly more want us to cut and run.

"Weren't we going to be treated like liberators? Weren't we going to be greeted with sweets and flowers?" - Al Franken, to gpuke shill Tony 'shortfingers' Blankley.

Fun fact: not only has Iraq caused more terrorism, the fiasco is now costing US taxpayers $2 billion a week.

- m

Placating the masses
Bribing the sheeple.

Let's see. Two months before an important election and the price of gasoline has dropped by up to 30 percent in some parts of the country, even though the price of a barrel of crude is only down about 15 percent....

Why do I smell Karl Rove's skanky, grublike fingers all over this?

- a Salt Lake Tribune editorial (slightly paraphrased).

- m

America's Mayor defends Clinton's anti-terrorism efforts
Fag hag/showgirl Rudy Giuliani Wednesday further hindered his chances for the 2008 repug presidential nomination by praising Bill Clinton's counterterrorism efforts:

"The idea of trying to cast blame on President Clinton is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don't think he deserves it," Giuliani said, adding he believed Clinton did everything he could with the information he was provided.

- m

"The Big Dog is fahhhbulous!"
*****

Yet another report refutes Bush
The White House is scrambling to try to explain both intelligence assessments, given Smirky McLiar's September 7 claim that "America is winning the war on terra."

In a second blow to the president, a new UN report said the Iraq war was providing al Qaeda with a training center and fresh recruits, and was inspiring a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, where things are going swimmingly hundreds of miles away.

The UN report released on Wednesday jibed with the NIE's conclusions.

- m

From the Department of Schadenfreude . . .

. . . and from my former home state of New York:

Jeanine Pirro, Westchester County District Attorney and Repug candidate for Attorney General of New York, is under investigation by the feds. That's what you get when you try to hire serial adulterer and con artist Bernie Kerik to do your marital snooping for you.

Poor Jeanine just doesn't get it. Long known as one of the hardest of hard-assed prosecutors in New York State - and one who's eagerly trod the backs of minor drug defendants in her Manolo Blahnik'd scramble up the ladder to higher office - she's now claiming that the whole episode is merely another example of the politics of personal destruction:

There is no way — when I have the opportunity to be the first woman attorney general in the history of this state — that I am going to be pushed out of this race because somebody wants to delve into the personal lives of my husband and myself. I’m standing up for myself and I’m standing up for women.

Waaahhh!

Jeanine, honey: When Ken "Javert" Starr wastes more than five years and $40 mil in taxpayer dollars to investigate a public official who got a blowjob on the side and his wife decides to forgive him for it - that's "delving into the personal lives" of a politician and spouse. When the feds accidentally discover (by investigating another slimeball) that you attempted to hire someone to record your husband's extracurricular sexual activities - in violation of the law - that's called "investigation of [an alleged] crime."

And you, a prosecutor.

Eat it, honey.

Oh, and Jeanine: What you're doing ain't "standing up for women." Sit the fuck back down.

-- L

Yeah, that would be America right now. Extraordinary rendition, limitless detention, torture, destruction of habeas corpus . . . doncha just feel a whole lot safer now?

Bleargh. I don't think I've got enough caffeine in me yet to blog about this morning's Senate proceedings. Then again, there may not be enough caffeine in the world to make me feel up to that . . . .

-- L

The fuck??
Catapulting the propaganda. Again: Washington-based public relations firm The Lincoln Group has won another multi-million dollar contract from the taxpayers Pentagon to monitor media coverage of the war in Iraq and produce talking points for US forces.

- m

Huh???????????
Reporter asks Bunnypants if Bill Clinton's allegation - that Bush had no meetings about Bin Laden for nine months after Clinton left office - is true. Smirky's response?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Karen.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. Former President Clinton says that your administration had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after he left office. Is that factually accurate, and how do you respond to his charges?

PREZNIT DUMBASS: You know, look, Karen, I've watched all this finger-pointing and naming of names, and all that stuff. Our objective is to secure the country. And we've had investigations, we had the 9/11 Commission, we had the look back this, we've had the look back that. The American people need to know that we spend all our time doing everything that we can to protect them. So I'm not going to comment on other comments.

But I will comment on this -- that we're on the offense against an enemy that wants to do us harm. And we must have the tools necessary to protect our country. On the one hand, if al Qaeda or al Qaeda affiliates are calling somebody in the country, we need to know why. And so Congress needs to pass that piece of legislation. If somebody has got information about a potential attack, we need to be able to ask that person some questions. And so Congress has got to pass that piece of legislation.

You can't protect America unless we give those people on the front lines of protecting this country the tools necessary to do so within the Constitution. And that's where the debate is here in the United States. There are some decent people who don't believe -- evidently don't believe we're at war, and therefore, shouldn't give the administration what is necessary to protect us.

And that goes back to Jennifer's question, you know. Does being on the offense mean we create terrorists? My judgment is the only way to defend the country is to stay on the offense. It is preposterous to think if we were to withdraw [from Iraq] and hope for the best, things would turn out fine against this enemy. That was my point about, before we were in Iraq there were thousands being trained in Afghanistan to strike America and other places. The only way to protect this country is to stay on the offense, is to deal with threats before they fully materialize and, in the long-term, help democracy succeed, like Afghanistan and Iraq, and Lebanon and a Palestinian state.

But there's a difference of opinion. It will come clear during this campaign, where people will say, get out, leave before the job is done. And those are good, decent, patriotic people who believe that way -- I just happen to believe they're absolutely wrong. So I'm going to continue to work to protect this country. And we'll let history judge -- all the different finger-pointing and all that business. I don't have enough time to finger-point. I've got to stay -- I've got to do my job, which comes home every day in the Oval Office, and that is to protect the American people from further attack.

Now, there are some who say, well, maybe it's not going to happen. Well, they don't see what I see. All I ask is that they look at that terror plot that, along with the Brits, we helped -- helped stop -- people who were going to get on an airplane and blow up innocent lives in order to achieve political objectives. They're out there, they're mean, and they need to be brought to justice.

Uh, then that would be "yes - yes, it is." Geez...

OK, it's a semi-colon, then!

"It's hard to think of a president and an administration more devoted to secrecy than President Bush and his team. Except, that is, when it suits Mr. Bush politically to give the public a glimpse of the secrets. And so, yesterday, he ordered the declassification of a fraction of a report by United States intelligence agencies on the global terrorist threat. ..

"But the three declassified pages from what is certainly a voluminous report told us what any American with a newspaper, television or Internet connection should already know. The invasion of Iraq was a cataclysmic disaster."

- from a NY Times editorial.


Pic from BartCop. Click to enlarge.
- m
*****

Journal: White House blocked hurricane report
The journal Nature reports that the Bush misadministration has blocked release of a report linking global warning to the increase in the number and strength of hurricanes.

Look - squirrels!

- m

Majority of Americans hate America, enable terrists
Poll: public puts primary blame for escaped perpetrator on Preznit Poopypants.

According to the latest Gallup Poll, more Americans blame Preznit GameBoy than President Clinton for the failure to capture Osama bin Laden, dead or alive, RawStory reports.

- m

They are going too far with these genetically modified organisms:














"Maw, get me mah gun, it's another one of them Cheney kittens!"


--dg

Second "grim" NIE on Iraq exists
What's Bush hiding now??

Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called on the White House to release a second, previously unknown national intelligence document that focuses solely on Iraq. Harman says the document has been kept in draft form so that it won't be seen before midterm elections.

"I hear it paints a grim picture. And because it does, I am told it is being held until after the November elections. If this estimate is finished, it should not be stamped 'draft' and hidden from the American people until after the elections," Harman said in a statement.

White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend denied the claim, saying the report in question was commissioned in August and won't be complete until January.

The Knights who say 'NIE.'
/sorry
- m
******

Whoa! This just in -

Jane Harman to John Negroponte: deliver the second NIE before November, fuckwad.

Yes!!!!!!!!!

Hey there, wheatard!
The George Allen Insult Generator.

- m

Sen. Clinton hits back at Rice over 9/11
Hillary totally owns Condoliar with just one quote:

"I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled 'Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States' he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team."

- Hillary Clinton, for the win yesterday.



Little-known fact: Ms Rice is actually a man, baby:


Click to enlarge.
- m
*****

Famous scenes throughout history, II
The 9/11 Commission hearings...

BEN-VENISTE: Isn’t it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

RICE: I believe the title was, “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” Now, the…

BEN-VENISTE: Thank you.

- m

Rice has major meltdown, goes crazy, rants to Fox Newspaper
An angry Condoliar Rice, sand in her vagina, went on the warpath yesterday, exploding over President Clinton’s comments and angrily telling the NY comPost, "we did so do stuff!"

The 9/11 Commission Report contradicts Rice’s claims. On December 4, 1998, for example, the Clinton administration received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks.” Here’s how the Clinton administration reacted, according to the 9/11 Commission report:

The same day, [Counterterrorism Czar Richard] Clarke convened a meeting of his CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] to discuss both the hijacking concern and the antiaircraft missile threat. To address the hijacking warning, the group agreed that New York airports should go to maximum security starting that weekend. They agreed to boost security at other East coast airports. The CIA agreed to distribute versions of the report to the FBI and FAA to pass to the New York Police Department and the airlines. The FAA issued a security directive on December 8, with specific requirements for more intensive air carrier screening of passengers and more oversight of the screening process, at all three New York area airports.

On August 6, 2001, the Bush misadministration received a President’s Daily Brief entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the U.S.” Here’s how the Bushies reacted:

Bunnypants, on his month-long vacation at the Lazy W which would finally bring him back to the White House after Labor Day, told the Brief's courier, "OK, you've covered your ass, now get out."

Played golf, attended fundraisers. Falsified data. Attacked Saddam.

Ms Rice, after 9/11: "Nobody could have anticipated anyone flying planes into buildings!"
- m

Famous scenes throughout history
The Bunnypants dude ranch, Summer of 2001...

CIA agent: "Sir, sir, your Presidental Daily Briefing today is called 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the US'!"

Bush: " :: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... :: Get lost.... "


"Now watch this drive!"
- m
*****

White House refuses to release full NIE
This just in... "The White House refused Wednesday to release in full a previously secret intelligence assessment that depicts a growing terrorist threat and has fueled the election-season fight over the Iraq war," saying it would "jeopardize the lives of agents who gathered the information."


"No!", Bush says, threatening to hold breath until he turns blue.
- m
*****

NIE report does not support Bush claim
"Intelligence report blow to Bush," says the UK Guardian.

"No longer a secret: Iraq war breeds terror threat," brays the normally gpuke-sucking USA Toady this morning.

"Bush administration foreign policy breeds terror," says the BBC.

"Anna Nicole Smith lawyer father of baby," reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

The report (declassified yesterday by the WH for politcal reasons) paints a sobering picture, describing the spreading of a "global jihadist movement."

Bush's war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better, federal intelligence analysts conclude.

Bush and his top advisers have said the formerly classified assessment of global terrorism supported their arguments that the world is safer because of the war. But more than three pages of stark judgments warning about the spread of terrorism contrasted with the administration's glass-half-full declarations. Virtually all assessments of the current situation were bad news.

The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report adds that jihadists are increasing in "number and geographic dispersion."

"If this trend continues, threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide," the report states.

And don't miss "Thank you, President Bush. Sometimes you just have to let an idiot hang himself," over at AmericaBlog.


"Dur?!"
- m
******

From the "Hell, no!" department

"Are you safe yet?" Former Rep. Jim Hightower has condensed the facts of Chimpy McFlydown's craptacular presidency into this poster. It's awesome. Download it here (large) or here (small). Make copies for friends! (I blogged this last month over on TypePad, but am reposting here in honor of yesterday's declassification of the April NIE.)

--dg

aka the Harper's Index of Asshattery

Lying biznich. . .

The flatulent NY Post interview omitted the detail that Condoleezza Rice's Armani trousers spontaneously combusted as she lied her head off about the supposed lack of an anti-terrorism plan left by the Clinton administration. ThinkProgress and The Raw Story fact-check the hell out of Rice, politely offer to dial 911.

--dg

Wake the fuck up, Dems
It's hammer time, say BuzzFlash and the Alternate Brain:

This is THE smoking gun. This is Bush's own 16 revamped intelligence agencies who have concluded that the Iraq War has expanded terrorism. Thousands upon thousands of American and Iraq lives destroyed. Billions of dollars wasted.

Congress will be won or lost based on the ability of the Democrats to bring truth to power on this intelligence finding by ALL of the top 16 Bush spy agencies.

The Dems cannot let Rove divert attention -- which he is already doing -- or spin this into a political tit for tat -- which the media is already doing.

Cool news
Though useless without pics, the CBC reports on a "vibrant" early copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, which will go on display in London soon:

The reproduction is wider than the original, showing a pair of columns flanking the figure that are only hinted at in Leonardo's version. As well, the colours are much more vibrant in the reproduction, including Mona Lisa's yellow sleeves and forest-green gown, and a dazzlingly bold blue sky that was created using expensive lapis lazuli pigment — the same used by Leonardo.

Criminey, is he still yapping?
Broken record: Short-circuiting cyborg Dick 'dick' Cheney has once again left his secret bunker to accuse Democrats of 'defeatism' towards the growing numbers of 'determined enemies' that are in their last throes.


"Time for my blood of puppies transfusion, minion! Chop chop!"
*******

GOP 'patriot' calls bullshit
Erstwhile gpuke hero Mel Gibson blasts Bush over the Iraq war -

"What's human sacrifice if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?" Gibson said.

Wehhhhhhhhhhhh!
Whiny-ass touch-hole Trent "I used to be somebody!" Lott threatens Democrats with 'retribution' if they continue to hold hearings on Iraq.

Sen. Trent Lott is threatening to punish Democrats for using an Appropriations Committee room for an unofficial hearing on Iraq oversight if it happens again.
“They better stop this,” the Mississippi Republican said. “This will be the last one or there will be retribution.”

Lott and other Republicans are upset that Democrats have gone outside the committee process to highlight the Iraq war before the November election.

“They’re abusing the system,” Lott whined.

Gosh - that doesn't sound fair.

Family values
Trouble in paradise? Fox News' giant forehead Brit Hume and wife have spat, tattletale on each other to Roger Ailes, she walks out. Developing... or not.


"No dear, you can kiss MY ass!"
******

Rumsfeld discussing troops for Iraq, Afghanistan with tiny Montenegro, population 7
Rummy was meeting Tuesday with the miniscule country's leaders to discuss the possibility of them sending troop(s) to Iraq or Afghanistan 'as strains on US forces mount.'


"Meep! Blorp. Bzzzzz."
*******

Wehhhhhhhhh!
'AOL is run by a bunch of 'Merica-hating demonrat poopyheads!', whines one of RimJob's troglodytic mouthbreathers, as he reviews their morning headlines:

Angry Generals Rip Rumsfeld: Say Facts Hidden From Public
Earth Headed for Warmest Temps in a Million Years
Gunmen Kill Afghan Women's Rights Activist
Senator Denies New Racial Slur Allegation
Government to Relax Air Travel Carry-On Restrictions
Experts Grapple With 'Kidnapping by Caesarean'

Can you see a trend? Do you think AOL has an agenda, like making the public think the earth is on the verge of extinction, the war on terror is beng lost, and GOP leaders are scoundrels?

But... but... but... Clinton! That darn lie-beral media. Gawd.

Macacacaca
Sen. George 'rebel yell' Allen denies he used racial slurs, push-up bras in college - but "noted political scientist" Larry Sabato - a classmate of Allen's in the 70s - says the senator is a liar.

"The fact is he did use the n-word, whether he's denying it or not," Sabato said in an interview Monday.

Fun fact: Allen also used to stuff severed, bleeding deer heads into black families' mailboxes. Yee-haw!

Americans see political manipulation as gasoline prices plunge
Though the AP charmingly calls it a "conspiracy theory," almost half of Americans believe the recent fall in gas prices has more to do with politics and the November elections than economics.

"I think the big important reason is Republicans want to get elected," said retired farmer Jim Mohr of Lexington, Ill. "They think getting the prices down is going to help get some more incumbents re-elected."

According to a new Gallup poll, 42% of respondents agreed with the statement that the Bush misadministration "deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections."

Bush to selectively declassify intel to make himself look good prior to elections
Smirky McLiar, saying selective leaking of the NIE assessment - made by his misadministration's own top 16 intelligence agencies - for political purposes distorts the findings, will therefore selectively declassify the portions that make him look good.

"Some people have guessed what's in the report and concluded that going in to Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree," Bush said.

He asserted that portions of the classified report that had been leaked were done so for political purposes, referring to the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Losing Afghanistan
And losing the truth. Five years after the Afghan invasion, the Taliban are fighting back, carving out a sanctuary where they - and al Qaeda's leaders - can operate freely.... aw, look! Celebrity babies!

Nothing to see here, move along... Newsweek has scrubbed the cover of their US edition for October 2, 2006, reports Truthout.

The cover of international editions, aimed at Europe and other world regions, has maintained the original title of the story, "LOSING AFGHANISTAN: The rise of jihadistan." The cover for the United States edition features photographer Annie Leibovitz and is titled "My Life in Pictures." We offer the European edition cover and story here.

Yerp, things are going swimmingly, as a suicide bomb that killed 18 in southern Afghanistan proved this morning.

Meanwhile, the resurgent Taliban says Bin Laden is very much alive.

Deja doo-doo
Here we go again -

Iran "probably" has a biological weapons program and "likely" has a chemical weapons research and development program and is "definitely" "seeking" nuclear weapons...

We don't want to take the chance that Iran's conceivably possible smoking-gun may turn into a feasible - perhaps - smoking mushroom-cloud.

We should be crazed
Major ownage must-see: Hero/patriot Keith Olbermann calls Chris Wallace "a monkey posing as a newscaster" and gets righteous all over Bush's cowardly, lying ass.

[removing youtube links because they may be screwing up my eMac]

Facts? What facts? The Daily Show covers how the SCLM handled the contentious, out-of-control Clinton's angry tirade.

[removing youtube links because they may be screwing up my eMac]

Heh - evidently, last night Fox News tried to "disappear" every one of the Bill Clinton/Chris Wallace interview clips from YouTube for :: cough cough : "copyright enforcement" issues. Yeah.... that's the ticket.
*************

Oh how I love the smell. . .

. . . of astroturf in the morning. Liberal bloggers in New Hampshire bust Rethug campaign staff member posing as another liberal commenter on their blog. Dimwit never heard of an IP address, I guess. That and they must not be paying trolls overtime to work from home.

--dg

(via RawStory)

Seen on a bumper sticker in Albuquerque yesterday . . . .


Finally, an abstinence sentiment I can agree with:

PRACTICE ABSTINENCE.
NO BUSH. NO DICK.

-- L

More "values"

Wow, I'm slowly figuring out that I have no "values" at all, according to the "Values Voter Summit." After the gathered Nutbag-Americans heard that Hillary Clinton is a more desirable Democratic nominee than Lucifer and that God the Father will ensure the return of a GOP Congress to Washington, the assembled turned their attention to the most pressing issue of all--Iraq? Er, no. Civil rights and privacy? Um, try again. Gay-baiting? Yep, you got it right.

Bishop Wellington Boone:

This matter of gay — I want the gays mad at me.

“You’re a sissy!” That means you don’t stand up for principles. And I just believe that God hasn’t called us to be sissies on a principle level. We’re called to be, to stand up and be men. I’m not talking about as in gender. I’m talking about man of God, men in the marketplace, and when a U.S. senator or congressman says that he wants me to vote for them, and he’s not biblically based — if he doesn’t have God as his Lord, how can somebody that doesn’t feel the need for God lead me?

It's okay with me if the theocons want to have their party in their own little echo chamber, but when the White House Press Secretary and the Attorney General of the United States are present at the party, then I start to get cranky about this separation of church and state thing. Remember that?

--dg

(links via ThinkProgress)

Mommy, Billy picked on me after I picked on him and made me cry!

Rethuglicans must really be running scared after the Big Dog's spanking of sissy titty baby Chris Wallace: they sent out the Condibot (TM Princess Sparkle Pony) to do damage control. I was interested in Rice's response to Clinton's assertion that the Bush administration did nothing in the eight months before 9/11 to stop bin Laden. What she said: Neener. Did too.

As we say down here, it ain't slander if it's true.

--dg

Props
... to our new contributors, divageek and Lilith!

"Incompetent - strategically, operationally and tactically"
Well, that about covers it! Retired military officers - men who have really seen action - criticize Rummy of bungling the war at a hearing today.


"Gosh!"
*****

IOKIYAR
Ummmm, let me see if I have this right:

George W Bush : devil = bad
Hillary Clinton : worse than Lucifer = funnay

Oh please
Preznit Farty McGameBoy struggles with his 'anguish' over the troops killed in Iraq, the Washington Whore reports. Yeesh. I can practically smell the smegma from here.

Our brave, manly war preznit, who has never served in combat, deals with stress through vigorous exercise. Yet when he is forced to, Bush typically meets each family separately, and offers commemorative coins, poses for photos, or signs autographs.

Then everybody goes home real happy!

Fun fact: Awol McShitforbrains really did refer to the Iraq war as "a comma" (see above post by Lilith. I think.)


The commemorative coin?
*****

Gas prices drop as election looms closer
US retail gas prices dropped nearly 24 cents a gallon in the past two weeks in the rundown to the midterm elections, the Duh Institute reports.

Anti-skank books to debut this Fall
“Brainless: The Lies and Lunacy of A Neo-Nazi Cunt Ann Coulter,” by Joe Maguire, will be released in October.

It’s described by the publisher as an “unbridled look at a woman {sic} who twists the truth, misleads, plays loose with facts and allusions, and has been accused of plagiarism in hammering home her logic-defying arguments. ‘Brainless’ illustrates the dangers, ironies, and hypocrisies of the Mistress of Malice.” It also claims to include “source notes you can verify.”

Another anti-mAnn book, entitled "I Hate Ann Coulter!", will also be released soon, but the authors are remaining anonymous because they're afraid for their safety. "None of us want our real names in the hands of gun-toting, abortion clinic-bombing, wingnuts who follow Coulter," one said to the NY comPost.

"For eight months, Bush did nothing - nothing. No plan. No action. No diplomacy. No intelligence. No meetings." - Wesley Clark on Sunday. "He has been derelict in his duty as commander in chief."

"America is safer"
Oh really.

The fact is that America - and the world - is far less safe than it was before 9/11, and it's all George's fault.

Oh, and by the way - in case you were wondering whether or not Chris Wallace ever actually asked those questions he claimed to have asked, don't worry - Think Progress has checked it out. Would you be surprised to learn that he didn't?'

- the 'Ass-Handing Edition' of DU's Top 10 Conservative Idiots. I swear to God, these get scarier and scarier each week.

Wehhhhhhh!
"Democrats cite a report by 16 different spy services inside the US government to undermine the GOP, the big poopyheads," whines the WH AP's Jeff Gannon Nedra Pickler. If that really is her name.

Teammates: Allen used "N-word," panty-shields in college
Three former teammates of selfhating Jew/Confederate sympathizer George 'macaca' Allen say he repeatedly used racial slurs - including "nigger" - and "demonstrated racist attitudes toward blacks" during the early 1970s.

"Allen said he came to Virginia because he wanted to play football in a place where 'blacks knew their place,'" said one teammate.

"Even if your heart is pure, the things you say and do and the symbols you use matter because of how others may take them," Senator George "Snow White' Allen said in prepared remarks to uppity black educators on Sept. 13. "And why you homies dissin' my Stars and Bars backdrop, anyway?"

Campaign manager/coward Dick 'dickwad' Wadhams did not respond to comments about his unfortunate name or to questions of whether or not Sen. Allen was a) circumcized and b) crazy.

Green Party candidate off Pa. ballot
"Amanda Hugankiss, Phil McCrackin and Heywood Jablowme do not reside in the grand state of Pennsylvania," says judge.

Mwwaahahahahahaha! A judge today ordered Carl Romanelli's name removed from the November ballot because his party didn't have enough signatures. From real people.

Carl Romanelli's candidacy had been challenged by state Democrats. Romanelli's bid was backed by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Anal Leakage), who hoped that Romanelli could siphon votes from his Democratic opponent, state Treasurer Bob Casey.

Santorum has consistently trailed Casey in polls.

"Woot!"
*****

Ned Lamont writes to Schmoe Lieberman
Dear Fuckwit - you've been pwn3d by Bush's 16 major intelligence agencies! Loser!

Senator Joe Loserman
Under the Oval Office Desk
Washington, DC.

Yo, Liarman:

As I am sure you have seen, the New York Times [yesterday] reported that the National Intelligence Estimate concludes “that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.” The NIE represents the consensus view of the U.S. government’s 16 major intelligence agencies. The Times notes that the Iraq War is a major “reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology” and cites one intelligence official acknowledging that the NIE “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse.” Let me put this news in terms that you can clearly understand: Our own intelligence agencies now confirm that the Iraq War is undermining America’s security and credibility at our nation’s peril.

With this report being released on the eve of your major address on Iraq, I and thousands of other citizens in Connecticut expect to hear your response to this news in your speech, considering you have echoed President Bush’s claim that the Iraq War has made our country safer, and that staying the course will help keep us safe. As the NIE now shows, that is absolutely not the case – in fact, the Iraq War has and continues to unnecessarily endanger U.S. national security. Never again can a political leader claim otherwise, lest they deliberately ignore the concrete facts presented to us by our intelligence agencies.

Senator Lieberman, I sincerely hope you will provide answers to these questions in your speech, because there are many who feel that Time magazine was correct when it wrote that when it comes to Iraq, “Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he’s completely lost the plot or he knows he’s spinning a line.”

And then it gets even better!

Bill Clinton's smackdown of Fox News
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee." - Jules, Pulp Fiction - and some guy in the Bible.

[removed youtube links because they may be screwing up my eMac]

In cat news today

If you have an extra $4,000, you can now buy a hypoallergenic cat. It's a relief to see that they don't have an extra tail growing out of their foreheads, but still, that's a lot of money. Apparently they also come with a microchip installed in case they go missing. But one dash into the street, and. . . how about a kitty-sized suit of armor, too?

--dg

Image by tbogg

Commander Comma Splice Meditates on His Legacy

Wolf throws him a softball, and Fearless Leader demonstrates once again what he thinks of the Little People (you know, the ones who are dying in the name of his Oedipal conflicts):

BLITZER: Let's move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war…. We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see — you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people…. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there's a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

Unintended irony: He's just summed up his entire legacy as a "comma." I've got a lot of other words for it, but you know, I don't think I can be any more dismissive than that.

And if you don't already read Tbogg every day, start NOW.

Image courtesy of www.stock.xchng.hu

The Scenic Route??!

Maladministration sockpuppet Dan Bartlett apparently thinks his boss's post-hoc attempts to legalize torture are tantamount to a vacation:

"We proposed a more direct approach to bringing clarification. This one is more of the scenic route, but it gets us there."

Jesus wept.

A Real Rational Animal (unlike Chimpy)
















Photo from www.freephotos.se


Morning, All! Blogger finally let me in, and I'll be giving Maru a hand while her job = suckitude. Props to Maru for keeping WTF going all these years - she was one of the first to blogroll A Rational Animal, and while ARA's been on hiatus, WTF has provided me with untold amounts of vicarious therapy.

And a shout-out to divageek, too - girlz rule!!!

What it was: smackdown extraordinaire

The Big Dog's interview on Fox "News" is the talk of the nation today, while the sycophantic MSM tries to spin Clinton's reaction to Chris Wallace's questions as either "calculated" or "totally flipping out." Can't have it both ways, asshats.

--dg

Got any stock tips for us, Jerry?

This weekend at a gathering of people I sensitively like to call "Nutbag-Americans," Jerry Falwell compared Hillary Clinton to Satan, and assured the pastors and wingnut activists at the Values Voter Summit that God would preserve a GOP majority in Congress this November. It must be nice to know what the Almighty is gonna do.

--dg

New skunk in town. . .

Hey. I'm divageek, from Your Own Private i(da)Ho, a bright blue dot in the red, red state of Mississippi. I want to thank Maru for signing me on to help out here at "WTF Is It Now??" which I've read and loved ever since I followed a link from The Rude Pundit on over here. I feel like Sally Field at the Oscars, yes indeedy.

Breaking news
This just in!!! - Don Rumsfeld plays squash... and sometimes he cheats! A hard-hitting, investigative expose by some moist little whore at the NY Times (thanks to Blah3).

Please welcome...
Lilith from A Rational Animal, if she ever wakes up!

Mwwwaaaaaaa!
Ummmmm, who's crazed? Chris Wallace welched - then he ran out of the room crying after Bill Clinton bitchslapped him into guava jelly, firedoglake reports.


"You're my bitch, Wallace!"
******

Keepin' us safer
Oh really. A new report by the American intelligence community proves that Bush has made the terrorism threat worse -

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites Bush's Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

LOL
From Dependable Renegade -

"You're used to what, this much?"

Blogging 'n' breckie
The Pensito Review is looking for a few good quotes.

Bob Geiger has the Saturday toons up!

:: giggle :: We hate Tom DeLay, too.

It has begun
Winter, that is. More than three inches of snow has fallen in Aspen.

Though here in NJ it's a balmy 62 degrees, we feel your pain. In another few weeks we'll have to bring the indoor plants back inside, after wiping off all the grubs and spiders while screaming like little girls. Eeww.

Saturday morning music
It's never too early for Guns N' Roses and some kickass Slash guitar

[I removed the youtube link because I think it may be screwing up my eMac.]
******

Whoa. Just... whoa
Long, but worth every minute: President Bill Clinton absolutely demolishes Fox News weasel Chris Wallace --

Wallace: When we announced that you were going to be on Fox News Sunday, I got a lot of e-mail from viewers. And I have to say I was surprised, most of them wanted me to ask you this question. Why didn't you do more to put bin Laden and al-Qaeda out of business when you were president? There's a new book out, I suspect you may have already read, called The Looming Tower. And it talks about the fact that when you pulled troops out of Somalia in 1993, bin Laden said "I have seen the frailty and the weakness and the cowardice of U.S. troops." Then there was the bombing of the embassies in Africa and the attack on the Cole.

Clinton: OK let's just --

Wallace: May I just finish the question sir? And after the attack, the book says, that bin Laden separated his leaders, spread them around because he expected an attack and there was no response. I understand that hindsight is always 20/20 --

Clinton: No, let's talk about it.

Wallace: But the question is, why didn't you connect the dots and put him out of business?

Clinton: Let's talk about it. I will answer all those things on the merits, but first I want to talk about the context in which this arises. I'm being asked this on the FOX network. ABC just had a right-wing conservative running their little pathway to 9/11, falsely claiming it was based on the 9/11 commission report with three things asserted against me directly contradictory to the 9/11 commission report. And I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say I didn't do enough claim that I was too obsessed with bin Laden.

All of President Bush's neo-cons that I was too obsessed with bin Laden, they had no meetings on bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right wingers who now say I didn't do enough, said I did too much, the same people. They were all trying to get me to withdraw from Somalia in 1993 the next day after we were involved in Black Hawk Down and I refused to do it and stayed six months and had an orderly transfer to the United Nations.

OK, now let's look at all the criticisms, Black Hawk Down, Somalia, there is not a living soul in the world who thought Osama bin Laden had anything to do with Black Hawk Down or was paying any attention to it, or even knew al-Qaeda was a going concern in October 93.

Wallace: I understand.

Clinton: No, no, wait. Don't tell me that -- you asked me why didn't I do more to bin Laden, there was not a living soul, all the people who now criticize me wanted to leave the next day. You brought this up, so you get an answer. But you -- secondly ...

Wallace: .. bin Laden says, but it showed the weakness of the United States.

Clinton: Bin Laden may have said it -- but it would have shown the weakness if we left right away. But he wasn't involved in that, that's just a bunch of bull. That was about Muhammad Aidid, a Muslim warlord, murdering 22 Pakistani Muslim troops. We were all there on a humanitarian mission; we had no mission, none, to establish a certain kind of Somali government or keep anybody out. He was not a religious fanatic ...

Wallace: Mr. President ...

Clinton: ... there was no al-Qaeda ...

Wallace: With respect, if I may, instead of going through '93 and ...

Clinton: No, no -- you asked it. You brought it up.

Wallace: May I ask you (INAUDIBLE) question, and then you can answer?

Clinton: Yes.

Wallace: The 9/11 commission, which you talk about -- and this is what they did say, not what ABC pretended they said ...

Clinton: What did they say?

Wallace: They said, about you and President Bush, and I quote, "The U.S. government took the threat seriously, but not in the sense of mustering anything like the kind of effort that would be gathered to confront an enemy of the first, second or even third rank."

Clinton: First of all, that's not true with us and bin Laden.

Wallace: Well, I'm telling ...

Clinton: Let's see what Richard Clarke said. Do you think Richard Clarke has a vigorous attitude about bin Laden?

Wallace: Yes, I do.

Clinton: You do, don't you?

Wallace: He has a variety of opinions and loyalties, but yes.

Clinton: He has a variety of opinions and loyalties now, but let's look at the facts: he worked for Ronald Reagan, he was loyal with him; he worked for George H.W. Bush, he was loyal to him; he worked for me, and he was loyal to me; he worked for President Bush, he was loyal to him. They downgraded him and the terrorist operation.

Now, look what he said -- read his book and read his factual assertions -- not opinions, assertions. He said we took vigorous action after the African embassies, we probably nearly got bin Laden ...

Wallace: But what ...

Clinton: Now, wait a minute -- wait, wait, wait.

No, no -- I authorized the CIA to get groups together to try to kill him. The CIA was run by George Tenet that President (Bush) gave the medal of freedom to, and he said he did a good job setting up all these counter terrorism things. The country never had a comprehensive anti-terror operation until I came there.

Now if you want to criticize me for one thing, you can criticize me for this: after the Cole, I had battle plans drawn to go into Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban and launch a full-scale attack search for bin Laden. But we needed basing rights in Uzbekistan -- which we got after 9/11. The CIA and the FBI refused to certify that bin Laden was responsible. While I was there, they refused to certify. So that meant I would have had to send a few hundred special forces in in helicopters, refuel at night. Even the 9/11 commission didn't do that.

Now, the 9/11 commission was a political document, too. All I'm asking is, anybody that wants to say I didn't do enough, you read Richard Clarke's book ...

Wallace: Do you think you did enough, sir?

Clinton: No, because I didn't get him.

Wallace: Right.

Clinton: But at least I tried. That's the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clark, who got demoted. So you did FOX’s bidding on this show. You did you nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know..

WALLACE: Now wait a minute sir…

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: I asked a question. You don’t think that’s a legitimate question?

CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn’t you do anything about the Cole. I want to know how many you asked why did you fire Dick Clarke. I want to know…

WALLACE: We asked..

CLINTON:..

WALLACE: Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday sir?

CLINTON: I don’t believe you ask them that.

WALLACE: We ask plenty of questions of…

CLINTON: You didn’t ask that did you? Tell the truth

WALLACE: About the USS Cole?

CLINTON: tell the truth.

WALLACE: I…with Iraq and Afghanistan there’s plenty of stuff to ask.

CLINTON: Did you ever ask that? You set this meeting up because you were going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers because Rupert Murdoch is going to get a lot of criticism from your viewers for supporting my work on Climate Change. And you came here under false pretenses and said that you’d spend half the time talking about…

WALLACE:

CLINTON: You said you’d spend half the time talking about what we did out there to raise $7 billion dollars plus over three days from 215 different commitments. And you don’t care.

WALLACE: But President Clinton…

CLINTON: ...

WALLACE: We were going to ask half the question about it. I didn’t think this was going to set you off on such a tear.

CLINTON: It set me off on such a tear because you didn’t formulate it in an honest way and you people ask me questions you don’t ask the other side.

WALLACE: Sir that is not true…

CLINTON: …and Richard Clarke…

WALLACE: That is not true…

CLINTON: Richard Clarke made it clear in his testimony…

WALLACE: Would you like to talk about the Clinton Global Initiative?

CLINTON: No I want to finish this.

WALLACE: Alright

CLINTON: All I’m saying is you falsely accuse me of giving aid and comfort to Bin Laden because of what happened in Somalia. No one knew al Qaeda existed then…

WALLACE: Did they know in 1996 when he declared war on the US? Did no one know in 1998…

CLINTON: Absolutely they did

WALLACE: When they bombed the two embassies…

CLINTON:…

WALLACE: Or in 2000 when they hit the Cole.

CLINTON: What did I do? I worked hard to try and kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president we’d have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now I never criticized President Bush and I don’t think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that think Afghanistan is 1/7 as important as Iraq. And you ask me about terror and Al Qaeda with that sort of dismissive theme when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s book to look at what we did in a comprehensive systematic way to try to protect the country against terror. And you’ve got that little smirk on your face. It looks like you’re so clever…

WALLACE:

CLINTON: I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin laden. I regret it but I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could. The entire military was against sending special forces in to Afghanistan and refueling by helicopter and no one thought we could do it otherwise…We could not get the CIA and the FBI to certify that Al Qaeda was responsible while I was President. Until I left office. And yet I get asked about this all the time and they had three times as much time to get him as I did and no one ever asks them about this. I think that’s strange.

WALLACE: Can I ask you about the Clinton Global Initiative?

CLINTON: You can.

WALLACE: I always intended to sir.

CLINTON: No you intended to move your bones by doing this first. But I don’t mind people asking me. I actually talked o the 9/11 commission for four hours and I told them the mistakes I thought I made. And I urged them to make those mistakes public because I thought none of us had been perfect. But instead of anybody talking about those things. I always get these clever little political…where they ask me one sided questions… It always comes from one source. And so…

WALLACE:…

CLINTON: And so…

WALLACE: I just want to ask you about the Clinton Global Initiative but what’s the source? You seem upset?

CLINTON: I am upset because..

WALLACE: …and all I can say is I’m asking you in good faith because it’s on people’s minds sir. And I wasn’t…

CLINTON: There’s a reason it’s on people’s minds. That’s the point I’m trying to make. There’s a reason it’s on people’s minds because they’ve done a serious disinformation campaign to create that impression. This country only has one person who has worked…against terror…under Regan…only one, Richard Clarke. And all I’d say anybody who wonders whether we did wrong or right. Anybody who wants to see what everybody else did, read his book. The people on my political right who say I didn’t do enough spent the whole time I was president saying why is he so obsessed with Bin Laden. And that was wag the dog when he tried to kill him. My Republican sec of defense — and I think I’m the only person since World War II to have a Secretary of Defense from the opposite party — Richard Clarke, and all the intelligence people said that I ordered a vigorous attempt to get Osama Bin Laden and came closer apparently than anybody has since.

WALLACE: alright…

CLINTON: And you guys try to create the opposite impression when all you have to do is read Richard Clarke’s findings and you know it’s not true. It’s just not true. And all this business about Somalia — the same people who criticized me about Somalia were demanding I leave the next day. Same exact crowd..

WALLACE: one of the…

CLINTON: ...So if you’re going to do this for God's sake follow the same standards for everybody.

Dayyum! More at ThinkProgress.

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
Funny, I haven't heard the repukes use that phrase lately...

At least 32 people were killed when a bomb exploded in Baghdad this morning.

College student Dhiyaa Ali told the AP he found bodies and blood everywhere when he ran to help after hearing the explosion from his home. "I went into the flames just to get anyone left out of the fire. I saw a mother holding her child, both of them burned and dead."

Huntin' wassisname down
Bin Laden may have died of typhoid a month ago, a French report says.

“According to a reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that Osama bin Laden is dead,” said the intelligence report.

A senior WH official said of the information, "I wouldn't hold your breath," leaving room for an October surprise by the misadministration.

Friday cat blogging

As are Ozzy and Berry.
*****

Mars face close-up pic from here.

Slow news day, bad work day.


Friday cat blogging

Even SpiceGirl and Jaffa are not impressed with the news today.
*****

Good fucking God
But... but... but... Clinton!

One of RimJob's mouthbreathers finds himself in a quandary when his "moonbat" mom tells him Preznit Privilege is "uncaring" and "unempathetic" to people:

Of course, I know he visits Walter Reed and other military hospitals, and meets regularly with the families affected by 9-11 and the greater WOT {He does?? When was this?? - Ed.}. What the hell did BJ Clinton do in similar circumstances? I want to show her the difference between the two.

Ummm, fuckwit, I don't seem to recall thousands of people getting killed in terrorist attacks and thousands more getting killed or maimed in an unending vanity war when ol' 'BJ' was president. Durrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Asshat.

Washington Blade fires 'former' WH male prostitute
Faux GOP shill James Guckert Jeff Gannon is out on his well-used ass. The Blade's new executive editor explains...

Basically, my concern is that he has a huge credibility problem, for obvious reasons, and if a member of my staff lied about their identity, lied about their name, lied to their editors, lied to their sources, I would fire them. I wouldn't publish them.

News quiz
5-year-old sitcom star? Cartoon character? Childhood reminiscence in new book? See if you can guess the origin of the following quote:

'Mom, there's a rumor that Pop-pop and Mom-mom were Jewish and so were you.'

If you said Senator George 'macaca' Allen just a few weeks ago, you're correct.

Speaking of stuff that smells bad...
Filled with integrity and Jebus's sweet sweet love, repuglicans Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, Roy Blunt and Conrad Burns top the list of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress, the Duh Institute reports.

Hugo Chavez tells the UN he can smell the stink of farting devil Bush
Chavez: is he correct? Or is Dick Cheney the real Satan?

It's amazing how much time and energy the cable news networks wasted spent on this yesterday, on a guy who's a freakin' crackpot. I mean, so what?! What's the big deal?? It hardly merited a sentence, let alone all the bloviating interviews and segments they ran. But since this site does not constitute the most trusted name in news, we can afford to give him a blurb. Besides, he's funny.

The US government is the "first enemy" of its people, Chavez told the UN yesterday. "Their freedoms are restricted through the Patriot Act. They are sent to die in Iraq for no reason. The people of the United States are being deceived."

As he was exiting the U.N. building in New York, Chavez told reporters that Bush is not a legitimate president because he "stole the elections."

"He is therefore a dictator," Chavez said.

In an interview later with CNN, Chavez said he had good relations with President Clinton, but of Bush he said, "With this cowboy you can't even talk ... the Texan who walks around shooting from the hip."

Today, during a tour of Harlem, Chavez said "Bush is an alcoholic, a sick man with a lot of hang-ups. He walks like John Wayne. He doesn't know anything about politics, he got there because of Daddy."

Now back to our regularly-scheduled program...


"Pull muh finger! Heh heh."
*****

Why we are really in Iraq
Frank Rich doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, but hey, it's another book destined to piss off rightwing circlejerkers.

Bush dragged the US to war so the GOP could win midterm elections -- and the press went along for the ride, says the NY Times' Frank Rich.

Rove decided Bush needed to be a "war president." The problem, however, was that Afghanistan was fading from American minds, Osama bin Laden had escaped, and the secret, unglamorous -- and actually effective -- approach America was taking to fighting terror wasn't a political winner: "How do you run as a vainglorious 'war president' if the war looks as if it's winding down and the number one evildoer has escaped?"

The answer: Wag the dog. Attack Iraq. "Here, ready and waiting on the shelf in-house, were the grounds for a grand new battle that would be showy, not secret, in its success -- just the political Viagra that Rove needed for an election year."

This quick 'n' easy war was perfectly designed to appeal to George W. Bush. Rich draws a quick but brilliant sketch of Bush as a lazy, entitled boor, lacking in any real ideology beyond crony-capitalist Republicanism, who above all wanted to win and was accustomed to winning -- because he had always played with a rigged deck.

Clicky.
*******

Majority of America-hating Americans hate Congress with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns
77% of terrist-enabling traitors from both parties say the rethug-led Congress sucks major monkey ass, should pack up their bags and go fuck themselves.

Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The poll also found that [the Insane Warchimp] had not improved his own or his party’s standing through his intense campaign of speeches and events politicizing surrounding the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Smirky's own approval rating was a measly 37 percent, virtually unchanged from the last poll taken in August.

UN expert: Iraq torture may now be worse
Spreadin' freedom an' democratude: 'Torture in Iraq may be worse now than it was under Saddam Hussein, with militias, terrorist groups and government forces disregarding rules on the humane treatment of prisoners, the UN anti-torture chief said Thursday.'

House repukes back criminal-in-chief on torture
Rethugs voted against Bush's torture bill before they voted for it.

Committee republicans "performed a series of procedural gymnastics" in order to save Bunnypants' ass on detainee abuse and illegal wiretapping.

The House Judiciary Committee first rejected Bush's plan, with three Republicans joining committee Democrats.

Embarrassed Republicans then summoned absent members, called for another vote, and approved it 20-19...

Holding the revote while two Dems were out of the room.

Flip... flop
Bush was for sending troops into terrist-harboring countries before he against it and before he was for it again.

I think I just hurt myself.

In a news conference last week, Squinty McNumnuts said he could not send troops into Pakistan to search for whatsisname, bin Laden, without an invitation from the government. "Pakistan's a sovereign nation," he had drivelled.

In a news conference this week, Bush now says he'd send troops into Pakistan if he receives 'good intelligence' that Osama is there.

Maybe he'll get some 'good intelligence' somewhere around - I don't know, late October?

But IOKIYAR!
Though it's well-known that the republicans have used their close ties with evangelical leaders to motivate and influence morons voters, it's the liberal churches that are being investigated by Bush's IRS.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!
George Dumbya Bush, at the Waldorf in NYC, welcomes Mahmoud Abbas to "Washington, D.C."

Heads up
Conservative websites Newsmax and the American Expectorator claim spongy slimemold Karl Rove has been promising GOP insiders an 'October surprise,' Raw Story reports.

"The US desires peace, and would never invade a country under false pretenses..."
"Freedom, by its nature, cannot be imposed. It must be chosen." - Farty McWarMonkey, in his address to the UN five fucking years ago yesterday.

PSM
With work reaching new levels of suckitude, I'm looking for a daily guest/co-blogger for this site - please let me know if you're interested.

Unfinished Tolkien work to be published
This could be so cool...

An unfinished tale by JRR Tolkien has been edited by his son into a completed work and will be released next spring, the US and British publishers announced Monday.

Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on "The Children of Hurin," an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned. Excerpts of "The Children of Húrin," which includes the elves and dwarves of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and other works, have been published before. The new book will be published by Houghton Mifflin in the United States and HarperCollins in England.

Yeah, baby.
****

Bringing integrity back to DC
House Majority Leader John "boner" Boehner (R-Obviously) just... can't... say whether a fellow republican, indicted and found guilty of influence peddling, should get his corrupt ass out of Congress.

Fox News' Chris WALLACE: This week Bob Ney, one of your Republican colleagues in the House, agreed to plead guilty to influence-peddling. Now, he has stepped down as chairman; he's still a member of Congress. This is a man who is basically admitting that he sold his vote. Should he spend another day in the House?

BOEHNER: Bob Ney clearly admitted to making some big mistakes. And he's going to pay dearly for the mistakes that he's admitted to. But he's also checked himself in for alcohol abuse. And right now my prayers are with him and his family. It's a sad day for the Congress and a sad day for Bob Ney.

WALLACE: Should he resign from the House?

BOEHNER: That's a decision that he and his family are going to have to make.

I was going to doctor this interview up a bit, but you know, I don't think I can improve on it.

Worthy cause
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Incontinent traitor assreamed for trashing The Daily Show
Jon Stewart responds to Bob "Douchebag Vampire Demon" Novak:

[I removed the youtube link because I think it may be screwing up my eMac.]]

WH lied to NYC first responders
A new 60 Minutes report says thousands are now getting sick because the White House scrubbed info about the air quality at Ground Zero.

The head of the EPA at the time of the attacks, Christine Todd Whitman, put out releases saying the "air is safe to breathe" when not all the test results were in. Now, 25% of the NYC fire departments who worked at Ground Zero have lost a significant amount of lung function.

"People hear what they wanna hear," Whitman tells 60 Minutes. "America's Mayor," Rudy Giuliani, 'declined' to be interviewed for the story. Profiles in courage.


"Go fuck yoreselves, blue state poopyheads."
*****

See, it's OK, I'm a Hebe!
Hey, them's funny-lookin' stars on your Confed'rit flag, Senator... George 'macaca' Allen says he 'embraces his Jewish ancestry,' which he recently discovered through a magazine article.

"How does one not know that his grandfather was a Jew?" asked Samuel Heilman, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York.

Really. Dumbass, racist, or chickenshit? And what kind of person doesn't ask why his grandpa was imprisoned by the Nazis?

Allen's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, ... heh: Dick Wadhams Dick Wadhams Dick Wadhams Dick Wadhams :: giggle ::

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
Torture, rocket attacks, mortars, truck bombs, suicide bombers... more than 45 - some reports say as many as 65 - people have been killed in and around Baghdad and Mosul within the past 24 hours, including 5 US soldiers.

In fact, things are going so swimmingly, the misadministration may be sending more troops to Iraq.


"Neeeeeyuurrrrrrm! Pow pow pow!"
******

News you may have missed this weekend
Loyalty to Preznit Fuckwit McFartypants and the GOP were the only criteria in assigning people to help rebuild Iraq. No wonder everything is so fucked up over there.

The "ideal candidate"? Someone who had worked for the Republican Party in Florida during the presidential election recount in 2000 -

Résumés of immensely talented individuals were thrown in the trash because 'their adherence to the President's vision for Iraq' was 'uncertain.' Instead, the positions were handed to prominent Republican National Committee contributors.

"I'm not here for the Iraqis," one worker noted. "I'm here for George Bush."

To recruit the people he wanted, [mouthbreathing a-hole] Jim O'Beirne sought résumés from the offices of Republican congressmen, conservative think tanks and GOP activists. He discarded applications from those his staff deemed ideologically suspect, even if the applicants possessed Arabic language skills or postwar rebuilding experience.

O'Beirne, who's married to loudmouth conservative harpy-shill Kate O'Beirne, has not responded.

Leiberman fundraiser in NYC hosted by republicans
Unbelievable...

Dan Gerstein, the reptilian, hairy-palmed spokesman for Whiny-ass Loserman's campaign, said the fundraiser will be co-chaired by mayor Mike Bloomberg and another republican, former NY Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, along with shameless fellow-quisling and former Democrat Ed "lookit me! how'm I doin'!" Koch.

Well, that didn't take long
Bush's approval numbers drop 6 points in three days -

The latest Bush bounce is over. Today, 41% of American adults approve of the way that [Smirky McLiar] is performing his job and 57% disapprove. That’s exactly where the numbers were before the president’s 9/11 speech.

'Thursday (which was the first three-day cycle post-9/11), Bush's approval had risen to 47. Since then, it's dropped 6 points,' AmericaBlog reports

Handy list
The top ten worst people in the Bush misadministration.


I'm pretty sure this is from whitehouse.org
******

Self-righteous, sphincter-faced Douchebag of Liberty a humorless asshole
Senile, incontinent traitor and pompous attention whore Boob Novak slams Jon Stewart for being a "self-righteous comedian" - even though he's "never seen [The Daily Show] in my life."

"I will go to my grave never having had sex with a woman uhh... had a normal bowel movement ummm... smiled seen it,” he added, drooling into his gruel.


Nr Novak.
*****

Stayin' the course, adapting to win, smelling like ass
Iraq shootings, bombings leave 8 dead, on top of the 30 from yesterday.

Iraq carnage a fucking disaster.

The US military has imprisoned a photographer in Iraq the past 5 months for being a 'security threat,' but has not filed charges against him or held any kind of hearing. The photographer, Bilal Hussein, is a member of the Associated Press team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, where things are going swimmingly, a suicide bomber has killed 4 NATO troops that were handing out candy to children, and Alliance casualty figures hit a five-year high.


"Woo! That really does smell like ass! I rock!"
****

As if things weren't bad enough
Hey Pope, dude, what the fuck were you thinking??

It may have been do bears shit in the woods? because it certainly wasn't using the words 'Mohammed' and 'evil' in the same sentence shouldn't be a problem for anyone, hmmmm?

Islamic militants have vowed holy war on "worshippers of the cross" after Benny Ratz pulled some 14th-century quote out of his ass that dissed the prophet of the Religion of Peace and Very Short Fuses.


"Boo!"
******

Is Boehner really that much of an idiot?
Or has chronic masturbation clouded his brain?

"Playing politics with terror -

"Is John Boehner more interested in keeping the House than protecting Americans? We're just wondering."

- A WaPo editorial says House Majority Leader/asshat John 'boner' Boehner should apologize for being such a complete and utter dickhead.

Giving comfort to the enemy
Bush: Nazi-loving terrist appeasers jeopardizing national security

Preznit Stupid warned Friday that the nation’s ability to defend itself would be undermined if the enemy-emboldeners in the Senate -- who are obviously more interested in protecting terrorists than in protecting the American people -- refused to go along with his position of rewriting the Geneva Conventions in order to shield him retroactively from accusations of war crimes de-vague-ify "outrages upon human dignity, " something the president knows nothing about, obviously.

Fun fact: he was talking about republicans.


Bush: total nutcase, or just stoned?
*****

Sweet sassy molassy!
I saw this a couple of days ago, but it still cracks me up: President Bush uses Little Richard as translator -

[I removed the youtube link because I think it may be screwing up my eMac.]

Mmmmmmmm...
The Saturday toons!

Rock on!
Whoa - another great flash video from our friend Stranger at Blah3: Breaking the Law.

Overmedicated to the point of total pussification
This shithead:


Pic from Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, via The Sideshow.
******

Bush: is he really that fucking stupid??
Preznit Dumbass, getting absolutely snippy at a news con Friday, fought back against a Republican revolt in the Senate over his wishes to "clarify" the "very vague" Geneva Conventions - "What does that mean, 'outrages upon human dignity?' That's a statement that is wide open to interpretation" - and took vehement exception that the United States had lost the moral high ground to adversaries. "It's flawed logic," he snapped, illogically.

"When conservative military men like John McCain, John Warner, Lindsey Graham and Colin Powell stand up to the president, it shows how wrong and isolated the White House is," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "These military men are telling the president that in the war on terror you need to be both strong and smart, and it is about time he heeded their admonitions."

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "Instead of picking fights with Colin Powell, John McCain and other military experts, President Bush should change course, do what the American people expect, and finally give them the real security they deserve."

"Weakening the Geneva Convention protections is an unnecessary step and will put our military members and others defending our nation at risk by jeopardizing the protections they currently are provided. What is being billed as 'clarifying' our treaty obligations will be seen as 'withdrawing' from the treaty obligations. It will set precedent which could come back to haunt us," repub Lindsey Graham wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Friday cat blogging
... cat jihad on my face late tonight ...


Jaffa the Long-Suffering.
*****

Noe, Nay
Bringing integrity back to Washington

Today's "corrupt republican Congressman agrees to plead guilty" story comes to us from Ohio --

Rep. Bob Ney agreed Friday to plead guilty to two criminal charges in the congressional corruption probe spawned by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. A formal admission of guilt would make Ney the first lawmaker to confess to crimes in a Republican-heavy scandal that erupted at the dawn of the election year.

After months of stoutly denying wrongdoing, Ney signed a formal plea agreement that outlined charges of conspiracy and making false statements by not disclosing gifts he received from Abramoff on financial disclosure forms required by Congress.

We're sorry; who's weak on terror?
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) fires back at recent comments made by repuke douchebags Bill Frist and John Boehner, among others:

"In light of the rantings that went on for 30 minutes by two colleagues from the other side, I’d like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism; America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party that has sent six and a half billion a month to Iraq while the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. That led this country to attack Saddam Hussein, when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. Who captured a man who did not attack the country and let loose a man that did.

Americans are tired of boneheaded Republican leadership that alienates our allies when we need them the most. Americans are most certainly tired of leadership that despite documenting mistake after mistake after mistake, even of their own party admitting mistakes, never admit they do anything wrong. That’s the kind of leadership Americans are tired of." {.....}

"I’m not going to sit here as a Democrat and let the Republican leadership come to the floor and talk about Democrats not making us safe. They’re the ones in charge and Osama bin Laden is still at loose."

{Via Crooks and Liars.}

Friday cat blogging


Berry tries to hypnotize me into giving him more Friskies Treats.
*****

LOL
"Connecticut woman gives birth to baby weighing almost 15 pounds; believed to be Connecticut's biggest baby ever, other than Joe Lieberman." - headline on the intarwebs (actual story here).

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
Escalating violence in Iraq escalates even further: "Forty bodies, 60 bodies -- it's become a daily routine."

The bound bodies of dozens more torture victims were found in Baghdad in the past day, officials said on Friday, fuelling anarchic sectarian passions as political leaders square off over an issue some say could mean civil war. In all, police retrieved 49 bodies in the 24 hours to Friday morning, most shot in the head after being trussed and tortured.

Six US soldiers were killed on Thursday, four around Baghdad, including two in a suicide car bomb attack that also wounded 25 Americans.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, things are still going swimmingly -

The Taliban have ousted Afghan security forces from a district headquarters in the western Farah province after days of heavy fighting, police say.

Update: next step? Dig giant Maginot trenches around Baghdad to "improve security."
*****

Senate panel defies stupid, evil dictator-tot
The Senate Armed Services Committee, finding their nutsacks under the torn and crumpled goddamn pieces of paper that were once the Constitution and the Geneva Convention, blocked Bush's plan to hold and torture prisoners indefinitely.

Kudos to republican Senators John Warner (the committee chairman), John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins.

Fun fact: "torture" is now called "alternative interrogation practices."


President Bush: like Beelzebub, only dumb?
*****

A defining moment for America
How very special! We, as Americans, should be so proud.... wait, what???

The president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture.

[Preznit Flopsweat McFartypants] rarely visits Congress. So it was a measure of his painfully skewed priorities that Mr. Bush made the unaccustomed trip yesterday to seek legislative permission for the CIA to make people disappear into secret prisons and have information extracted from them by means he dare not describe publicly.

Didn't Saddam do almost the same thing? Isn't that why are troops are dying in Iraq? Doesn't this make us just as bad as those terrist-loving countries?


George W Bush: as bad as Saddam?
******

The new repuke talking points are out!
Fearfearfearfearfearterrafear

During a Tuesday meeting of the House Republican conference, chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Idiot) unveiled a handy new rhetorical device aimed at furthering House Republicans tough-on-terrorism national security agenda.

Instead of referring to military tribunals as, well, the military tribunals that they are and have been known as throughout their entire existence, House Republicans should start referring to them as “terrorist tribunals,” to emphasize the bad guys they will be trying. (Very clever. Never mind that good ol’ American adage “innocent until proven guilty.”)

But even after Pryce’s instructions, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Boner) needed a reminder. When he rose to speak about next week’s floor schedule, he mentioned “military tribunals for suspected terrorists.” He then caught himself, looked at Pryce, and asked, “What is it again?”

Pryce corrected Boehner, who then amended his speech with the by-the-playbook phrase “terrorist tribunals.”

Adapting to win
2 US soldiers among the 17 dead as violence rages in Iraq.

Death squads threaten Iraq's politics.

Girlie-man
Ahnold Schwarzenegger finally agrees to one debate in the gubernatorial race. With questions chosen and asked by a single moderator -- a "former" Republican lobbyist/legislator.

Bushies lying about Iran's nooculer capability
IAEA chief: House of Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence report on Iran contains serious distortions and outright lies.

UN inspectors have protested to the US government and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and dishonest."

"This (committee report) is deja vu of the pre-Iraq war period where the facts are being maligned and attempts are being made to ruin the integrity of IAEA inspectors," said a Western diplomat familiar with the agency and IAEA-U.S. relations.

Defeatocrats would rather hug terrists!
Maybe that should read Bushies would rather face-fuck their corporate whore buddies than keep us safer -

When it comes to homeland security, the Bush administration has repeatedly allowed corporate profits to trump safety.

It gets funnier - or worse, actually:

Michael Chertoff seems determined to outdo his commander in chief in ratcheting up fears of Al Qaeda whenever he wants to score political points. This week, he raised the specter that if the government starts too many expensive antiterrorism programs it could further a plot by Osama bin Laden to “drive us crazy, into bankruptcy” through overspending on homeland defense. He warned darkly about the dangers of trying to protect the country from “every conceivable threat” — an idea no one has ever espoused. The issue has always been the need to set priorities, and in that respect, Mr. Chertoff’s department has become a laughingstock. It compiled one list of possible targets that included a petting zoo and a popcorn factory while the government provided only a pittance for our vulnerable subways.

- from a NYT editorial.

Who believes Bush now?
"Since the horror of 9/11, we've learned a great deal about the enemy. We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy."

Duh!

President Bush’s performance through the fifth anniversary memorials and remembrances of Sept. 11, 2001 was pathetic. It offered nothing that could assure a now thoroughly disbelieving nation that he’s steering the nation on, or better, back onto, the right track. It’s going to be “stay the course” versus “cut and run” on Iraq for the core of GOP foreign policy going into November.

But, since the current Iraq situation is degenerating into sheer chaos, “staying the course” means sinking deeper and deeper into a disaster of epochal proportions. Everything embodied in that since word, “Iraq,” is not only the worst foreign policy disaster in US history, it is one of the dumbest missteps in recorded world history.

As far as “cut and run” goes, it is Bush and GOP that are “cutting and running - cutting and running from reality," as Sen. John Kerry quipped last weekend.

The GOP has nothing but fear and name calling to bring its voters into line by November. Slow to awaken, the American public nonetheless is not in the same place it was then. Polls show a majority, at last, now believes there’s no connection between the “War on Terrorism” and the invasion of Iraq.

The more folks arrive at that conclusion, the more the rage against Bush is growing. The more Bush asserts it, the more the public will grow resentful.

- Nicholas F. Benton, Falls Church News Press.

Wehhhhhh!
Pompous conservative jackass now one sorry fuckwit

Who knew, in 2000, that “compassionate conservatism” meant bigger government, unrestricted government spending, government intrusion in personal matters, government ineptitude, and cronyism in disaster relief? Who knew, in 2000, that the only bill the president would veto, six years later, would be one on funding stem-cell research?

A more accurate term for Mr. Bush’s political philosophy might be incontinent conservatism.

Time to hand over this sorry enchilada to Hillary and Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and Charlie Rangel and Harry Reid...

- Christopher Buckley, whiny-ass douchehole.

Integritude
"I was pressured by Bush-Cheney campaign officials to become a butt-boy Pioneer for George Bush."

Tom Noe, the GOP fund-raiser at the heart of Ohio’s biggest political scandal in a generation, claimed that pressure from the Bush-Cheney campaign led him to commit the campaign-finance crimes for which he was sentenced yesterday to federal prison.

The RNC has denied the charges, and will return of the money that Noe laundered "if authorities order it to do so." Nice.

Stayin' the course, adapting to win
Death toll nears 100 on grim day in Baghdad

Police found the bodies of 65 men who had been tortured, shot and dumped, while car bombs, mortar attacks and shootings killed at least 30 people and injured about 76 more. Two US soldiers were also killed, one in Anbar province and the other near Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, things are going swimmingly.

Tony Snow denies WH linkage of Saddam to Zarqawi
Bunnypants never said that Saddam had sex with that terrist, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

"There was no direct, operational relationship, but there was a relationship," WH spokesliar Tony Snow told reporters, defending nearly four years of rhetoric closely linking Iraq and Al-Qaeda fighters to justify the war.

"They were in the country, and I think you understand that the Iraqis knew they were there. That's the relationship," said Snowjob.

Yeah. Uhhhhh-huh. OK, but I'd hate to think of the implications a statement like that could mean, especially, say, in regards to Rick Santorum and his kids' dog.

Texas court considers reinstating conspiracy charge against corrupt scumbag
Texas' highest criminal court agreed today to hear prosecutors' request to reinstate charges against indicted, tiny-dicked slimehole Tom DeLay on the allegation that he conspired to violate state law.

Catch and shoot event "angers some"
Gee, ya think??

Republicans on Tuesday distanced themselves from campaign activities that encourage college students to "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" and shoot cardboard cutouts of leading Democrats with BB or paintball guns.

Funny - if it had been the other way around, a bunch of people would have been hauled off by the Secret Service...

Karma's a bitch
Airline to ABC: suck it, asswipes.

American Airlines is prepared to pull its 'extensive' advertising from ABC in order to protest its portrayal in the network's recently aired propamentary The Path to 9/11, according to a source. The carrier also said it is considering legal action against the network.

"Iraq had nothing to do with the war on terror until the Bush administration decided to invade it. " - from an editorial in the NY Times.

Bush's shameful 9/11 address to the nation
What he said:

George W. Bush once again used the tragedy, loss, and despair of 9/11 to try and con the American people out of their unalienable right to dissent from his war and policies that have so terribly damaged their country. More than half of the President's 9/11 speech was dedicated solely to the purpose of trying to link Iraq to the so-called war on terror and, too, to try and create fear among the people that should they not continue to go along with his falsified war in Iraq, terrorists would literally try to kill them in their homes. Never in the history of this once great nation has any President so demeaned the office, so badly molested the people's goodwill, and so blatantly abused his authority.

The President of the United States is a vile, pathetic, revolting, and small person.

- the PDB.


"He looked like he had to go to the bathroom..."
*****

Seen over at Blah3.

Campaign speech rehash 'nonpartisan'
GOP, Dems spar over Bush speech as White House denies exploiting Sept 11

"Maybe the defeatocrats are more interested in protecting the terrrists than protecting the 'merican people," said 5-year-old House Majority Leader John Boehner, partisanly.

"Rather than try to defend their own failed record, Republicans have resorted to the desperation politics of fear," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. "It is long past time for Republicans to be honest with American people and stop questioning the patriotism of those who recognize that the president's Iraq policy has not worked, is making us less safe and must be changed."

"The president spoke for his administration, not for the nation," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. "This was a political move, designed to tap the overwhelming public sentiment to destroy al-Qaida as a way to bolster sagging public support for the war in Iraq."

Reid and Pelosi circulated a letter they sent to the television networks and cable news channels asking for equal coverage of Democratic viewpoints on terrorism and Iraq. "There has been a complete absence of balance in the news coverage of national security issues," they wrote.

Producer receives death threats over Bush movie
Bush assassination film set for U.S. release -

The movie opens with demonstrations against Bush as he visits Chicago in 2007. As he leaves a hotel after delivering a speech, he is shot by a sniper in a nearby building.

"The reaction of the general public was very good ," Gabriel Range, the British producer/director, said in an interview about the opening night response.

I bet!

The Bush ecomnitude
US trade deficit "soared above forecasts," hits record high.

Politicizing our national tragedy, II
Dems sorta protest as Bush uses 9/11 to argue for neverending war in Iraq.

"I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat," Bush lied Monday night.

"The president should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning to commandeer the airwaves to give a speech that was designed not to unite the country and commemorate the fallen but to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had nothing to do with 9/11," Sen. Edward Kennedy said in a statement. "There will be time to debate this president's policies in Iraq. September 11th is not that time."

"Partisanship would have been the one casualty the American people would have accepted following 9/11, but it remains the one thing the president refuses to give up," said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel.

Yeah...

"We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power."

- Dick 'dick' Cheney yesterday, not talking about himself or his misadministration.


Pic from whitehouse.org.
*****

Skepticism as Bush calls for unity
In a televised address from the Oval Office last night, Farty McGameboy worked mightily to brainwash the public that only by voting republican can we be safe from any more terrist attacks.

"Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country," he bleated.

But Americans are growing increasingly skeptical of Bush's handling of the "war against terra"...

America-haters say Bush politicizing terrorism
In a swing district of Colorado, Dems, Independents and even republicans aren't buying Chimpy McLiar's terrism scare card.

[I]nterviews over the last three days here found Republicans, Democrats and independents all expressing degrees of skepticism about Mr. Bush’s motives in delivering a set of high-profile speeches on terrorism and the war in Iraq two months before Election Day.

“I think people already have their minds made up,” said former Bush supporter Michael Mason. “The whole thing could end tomorrow, and they would still hate his guts. The damage has been done.”

Republicans are resurrecting the “same old plays from the same old playbook,” said Democrat Ed Perlmutter. “The war on terror is clearly an important subject, but they have made a mess of it.”

“I think it is a calculated attempt on the part of the president and Karl Rove to push terrorism before the election,” said Patrick Bassett, a Democrat.

Robin Dodich, a retired teacher and self-described independent who was part of a small group of antiwar protesters along the parade route, called Mr. Bush’s recent actions disgusting.

“Republicans believe their party is in trouble and they want to help their campaigns,” Ms. Dodich said. “It is almost like Bush is frantic.”

Keith Olbermann to Bush: May this country forgive you
Fat chance.

"How dare you, Mr. President, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections… how dare you or those around you ever spin 9/11."

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter. And all the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and - as I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul - two more in the Towers. And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors. I belabor this to emphasize that, for me... this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.

And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft", or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here - is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante - and at worst, an idiot - whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government, by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation’s wounds, but to take political advantage. Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people. The President - and those around him - did that.

They promised bipartisanship, and then showed that to them, "bipartisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused; as appeasers; as those who, in the Vice President’s words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."...

When those who dissent are told time and time again as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American… When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"… look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:
Who has left this hole in the ground?
We have not forgotten, Mr. President.
You have.
May this country forgive you.

Preznit Poopypants' reality
Life on Planet Stupid

[T]he nation needs to hear a workable plan to stabilize a fractured, disintegrating country {No, the OTHER one - Ed.} and end the violence. If such a strategy exists, it seems unlikely that Mr. Bush could see it through the filter of his fantasies.

It’s hard to figure out how to build consensus when the men in charge embrace a series of myths. Dick Cheney suggested last weekend that the White House is even more delusional than Mr. Bush’s rhetoric suggests. The vice president volunteered to NBC’s Tim Russert that not only was the Iraq invasion the right thing to do, “if we had it to do over again, we’d do exactly the same thing.”

It is a breathtaking thought. If we could return to Sept. 12, 2001, knowing all we have seen since, Mr. Cheney and the president would march right out and “do exactly the same thing” all over again. It will be hard to hear the phrase “lessons of Sept. 11” again without contemplating that statement.

- from a NY Times editorial.


With apologies to Peter Max.
******

Osama's always bin a priority!
Oh really?

After letting bin Laden escape at Tora Bora, Bush called off the hunt and instead prepared for war in Iraq -

That was December 2001. Only two months later, Bush decided to pull out most of the special operations troops and their CIA counterparts in the paramilitary division that were leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq, said Flynt Leverett, then an expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council.

"I was appalled when I learned about it," said Leverett, who has become an outspoken critic of the administration's counterterrorism policy. "I don't know of anyone who thought it was a good idea. It's very likely that bin Laden would be dead or in American custody if we hadn't done that."

"But... but... Saddam tried to kill my dad!"
*****

American Airlines threatens to sue Disney/ABC
Via AmericaBlog:

Dear Asshole,

I think it is important for you to know that ABC had more factual errors in The Path to A Smearjob than Rush Limbaugh has Happy Hard-on pills, and we are looking at possible legal actions as a result. According to the 9-11 Commission report the airline was not American, it was US Airways. You didn't even get the airport right.

See you in court, scumbag.

Sincerly,
Roger Frizzel
Vice President, Corporate Communications
American Airlines

PS: you forgot this nail-biting scene, cocksucker:

Heh heh - that was cool!
After sitting in wet trousers reading My Pet Goat as Americans were dying by the thousands, after bunker-hopping in fear around the country the remainder of the day, September 11th ends in laughs for President Bush -

Preznit Poopypants: But the day ended on a relatively humorous note. The agents said, "You'll be sleeping downstairs. Washington's still a dangerous place." And I said no, I can't sleep down there, the bed didn't look comfortable. I was really tired, Laura was tired, we like our own bed. We like our own routine. You know, kind of a nester. Like the way things are. I knew I had to deal with the issue the next day and provide strength and comfort to the country, and so I needed rest in order to be mentally prepared. So I told the agent we're going upstairs, and he reluctantly said okay. Laura wears contacts, and she was sound asleep. Barney was there. And the agent comes running up and says, "We're under attack. We need you downstairs," and so there we go. I'm in my running shorts and my T-shirt, and I'm barefooted. Got the dog in one hand, Laura had a cat, I'm holding Laura --

Pickles Stepford: I don't have my contacts in, and I'm in my fuzzy house slippers --

Stinky McGameboy: And this guy's out of breath, and we're heading straight down to the basement because there's an incoming unidentified airplane, which is coming toward the White House. Then the guy says it's a friendly airplane. And we hustle all the way back upstairs and go to bed.

Pickles: [laughs] And we just lay there thinking about the way we must have looked.

Peggy "Droolz" Noonan: So the day starts in tragedy and ends in Marx Brothers.

Dumbya: That's right -- we got a laugh out of it.

Sigh....

Who?
"Perhaps the Bush administration would have better luck if they started blowing smoke into bin Laden's cave instead of blowing it up each other's asses." - from this week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots.


"Just relax, George, it won't hurt a bit."
****

Things are going swimmingly
A suicide bomber blew up a bus full of Iraqi army recruits in Baghdad on Monday, killing 12 people and wounding seven. A roadside bomb targeting a US military patrol killed three civilians in western Baghdad.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber wounded 55 people and killed six policemen at the funeral for the governor who was assassinated on Sunday.

Makin' progr...
Shit. "Tortured screams ring out as Iraqis take over Abu Ghraib."

The UK Telegraph reports that just a week after Abu Ghraib was turned over to Iraqi authorities, prisoners are again being tortured.

Stayin' the course
A "very pessimistic" report says the situation is "dire" in Western Iraq

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the US military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

"It's hard to be optimistic right now," said one Army general. "There's a sort of critical mass of tough news," he said, with intensifying violence from the insurgency and between Sunnis and Shiites, a lack of effective Iraqi government and a growing concern that Iraq may be falling apart.

Clicky.
*****

Increase in number of America-hating defeatist traitors, poll shows
More Americans than ever before hate America, blame Bush for 9/11 -

The percentage of Americans who blame the Bush administration for the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington has risen from almost a third to almost half over the past four years, a CNN poll released Monday found.

Numbers are expected to decrease after tonight's presentation of ABC's Attack of the Giant Clenis, Part 2.