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Do I wish I could kick Karl's ass when this is over? Sure!
Am I sorry? Well of course. Will I do anything substantive to prevent it in the future? Not really. Do I like answering my own questions? You betcha. - 'War criminal' Rumsfeld faces Congress.

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Talk about childish
Fox News threatens to sue a billboard company over their refusal to post a mocking message near CNN headquarters in Atlanta.

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Banned in Kalamazoo
Only loyal republican stooges allowed to attend Bush photo-op.

When seven sophomores at the school showed up at Wings Stadium in downtown Kalamazoo to see George W. Bush at a campaign rally on May 3 and presented the tickets they had obtained for the event, security officers would not allow them in. The problem, according to these students, was that College Republicans volunteering at the event fingered them as liberals who did not support Bush. And such citizens were not welcome at the rally.

Is this the America you're so proud of, you smirking moron?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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Highly trained by Halliburton, no doubt
Cooks and truck drivers from private firms were working as interrogators of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, many of which were innocent Iraqis, 'picked up at random by US troops and incarcerated by underqualified intelligence officers.'

Flashback, May 2002: US rejects global pact on war-crimes tribunal. Now we know why.




This just in
Rumsfeld to apologize for getting caught not informing Congress about the torture in Iraq.

WWJD?
Why Rummy must resign

It is time now for Mr. Rumsfeld to go, and not only because he bears personal responsibility for the scandal of Abu Ghraib. That would certainly have been enough. The United States has been humiliated to a point where government officials could not release this year's international human rights report this week for fear of being scoffed at by the rest of the world. The reputation of its brave soldiers has been tarred, and the job of its diplomats made immeasurably harder because members of the American military tortured and humiliated Arab prisoners in ways guaranteed to inflame Muslim hearts everywhere.

- from an editorial in the NY Times.

'In newspaper editorials and interviews from Tokyo to Berlin and London, the argument emerged that the onus was now firmly on the United States to convince friend and foe alike that it had not resorted to practices once associated with the government of Saddam Hussein.'

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US Muslim civil rights group, has joined the voices calling for Rumsfeld's resignation.

WH toady Thomas Friedman says he should be fired, and even spongy Cerberus Karl Rove "believes that it will take a generation for the United States to live this scandal down in the Arab world."

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Breaking...
Bush finally forced to "apologize" for the "humiliation suffered" by Iraqi prisoners.

Doesn't it sound a lot like one of those "I'm sorry...we got caught" kind of things?

He also rejected calls for Rumsfeld to resign for his handling of the Iraqi prisoner abuse controversy.

"He is an important part of my Cabinet {He knows too much} and he will stay in my Cabinet {and I'm afraid of him}," Bush said.

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You want fries with that?
"They must also understand that what took place in that prison does not represent the America that I know - except in Texas." - George Dumbass Bush.

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Worthless and weak

George W. Bush is not a Man, neither is he a good Christian. A Man is big enough to apologize when he, or those he commands, commit an act of evil. A good Christian has the humility to admit he was wrong and to move on. George W. Bush can do neither of these. He is not a Man. He is not a good Christian.

The speech of George W. Bush on Al Arabiya TV yesterday was a horrendously snide, manipulative, sinister and downright dishonest piece of political maneuvering, one more befitting an evil seventeen-year-old who has put his hamster in the microwave and then lies to try to get himself off the hook.

Because he is a moral coward, a blatant failure in everything he has done, he is totally incompetent for the job he is in and he is a disgrace to his party, his nation and to the international community.

The final straw is that he gets his aides to say sorry for him.

- Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey.

"[I]t is unpleasant"
QUESTION: Mr. pResident, in a democracy and a free society, as you mentioned, people investigate. But at the same time, even those who are not directly responsible for these events take responsibility. With such a problem of this magnitude, do we expect anyone to step down? Do you still have confidence in the secretary of defense?

BUSH: Oh, of course, I've got some confidence in the secretary of defense and I've got confidence in the commanders on the ground in Iraq because they and our troops are doing great work on behalf of the Iraqi people. We're finding the few that want to try to stop progress toward freedom and democracy. And we're helping the Iraqi people stand up a government. We stand side by side with the Iraqis that love freedom.

Jebus, what a dumbass.

Transcript of Bush's interview.

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'The dumbest policy on the face of the Earth'
Powell aides go public on rift with Bush
Dick makes Colin uncomfortable.

Colin's chief of staff says the secretary of state is "fed up with apologising" for the misadministration and considers the 'ideological hawks' assclowns.

Has he apologized? Did I miss that?

Sorry, Colin, but at this point you'll forever be remembered as the Bush White House patsy, just another clueless kneepadded lackey for the BFEE.

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The baby Jebus hates hypocritical lying asshats
"Dear God, please take Rumsfeld now."

Bush proclaims May 6th as a "National Day of Prayer."

He's gonna need it.

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You know it's bad when...
'Sudan won re-election to the United Nations' main human rights watchdog on Tuesday, prompting the United States to walk out. Sudan's envoy immediately accused the US delegation of "shedding crocodile tears," and said the United States had turned a blind eye as Iraqi prisoners were mistreated and civilians were harmed in battle.'

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Eye-roll news
Newsmax: We should ignore the accusations of abuse and torture from Iraqis because they're Saddam 'dead-enders' who want to see the US fail in Iraq.




'It was like a college fraternity prank'
Cystic, pasty junkie Rush Limbaugh justified the humiliation and torture of Iraqis, stating that the guards were just "having a good time" "blowing off steam," and that their actions served as an "emotional release."

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Arab world scorns Bush's TV 'apology'
Pressure mounts in US over Iraq torture scandal

Arabs watched stone-faced as the Smirking Moron, droning on about "justice" and Saddam's "trained torturers," failed to apologize (WH spokes-hamster Scott McClellan was sent out and forced to apologize later in his stead).

"Apologies are for losers," said one repuke (paraphrasing).

Accountability, honor, dignitude.

Smell the glove
More details have emerged of the scale of abuse by US troops.

New photos of Iraqi prisoners undergoing 'utter humiliation' have surfaced, as Islamic websites were being flooded with people calling for revenge against the "new Crusaders."

Oh great. Safer from terrism. Right.

Back at the White House Bunnypants privately "chided" Don Rumsfeld for brushing off the whole disaster. The Chimp-in-Chief also expressed minor miffedness that he had to learn from news reports just how bad the situation was, which is kind of bizarre, since (a) he's said he doesn't watch the news, (b) he had admitted he learned of the torture claims in early January, and (c) the Red Cross said it repeatedly warned the US about the situation.

Though he's facing 'rising anger' in Congress at his misadministration's failure to come forward about the mistreatment of prisoners, only Rummy thus far is on the hot seat:

Rumsfeld is to appear at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing tomorrow, and some White House officials fear that a Republican lawmaker will ask him whether he is considering resigning. Some Republican aides on Capitol Hill said he might not survive until Election Day.

Privately, WH officials are said to be "furious."

In a related story, Bush asked Congress yesterday for an additional 25 billion dollars of our money to fund his Iraq fiasco. Dems say he's low-balling, in "an attempt to hide the war's real costs before the fall elections."

Huh. Imagine that.

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And your point is?
Some repuke asshat just reviewed this site and wrote it was "childish" and something else - blah blah blah. Like I cared. I'd like to see what he would've written if in place of Bunnypants and Dick 'dick' Cheney, the names Hitlery and Xlintoon were substituted.

No I wouldn't.
Fuck him.


You.

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WH still persecuting Joseph Wilson
Keith Olbermann to former Ambassador Wilson last night on MSNBC's Countdown:

You do know that they are still going after you, right? We promoted the fact that you would be on this show tonight. Today we received three separate copies of the same e-mail with talking points from the White House, one asking a contact here 'Can you please get this to the Olbermann people. Wilson is on the Olbermann show.' Misspelled my name, by the way, but that's neither here nor there. Another one asks one of our producers 'I understand you have Mr. Wilson on. Can you please call me on this?'

- thanks to Cosmic Iguana!

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Short-bus news, pt.2

The dirty little secret of pResident Bush's bus tour is that he didn't spend much time on the bus.

An hour or so on Tuesday was all he logged, though that seemed plenty for the startled residents of some small towns in rural parts of Ohio, who had never seen a motorcade quite like this one. After all, it is not every day you see three buses moving along on back roads, preceded and followed by Chevy Suburbans carrying men with large guns, and helicopters overhead. One woman who was mowing her lawn ran indoors, leaving the lawn mower idling in her yard.

Our dear leader.

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GOP Disney forbidding distribution of film that bashes the Boy King
The White House Walt Disney Company is blocking Miramax from distributing the new documentary by Michael Moore that "harshly criticizes" Emperor Snippy.

'The film, Fahrenheit 911, links Bush and prominent Saudis - including the family of Osama bin Laden - and criticizes Bush's actions before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.'

Fun fact: Rumor has it that that little pussy Michael Eisner had his panties in a knot when he realized that the Bush Cartel could revenge themselves by reneging on the great tax breaks they bestow on Disney's holdings in Florida, where Bush brother Jeb! is Lord High Governor.

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Not-so-swift vets for "truth"
The background of Kerry attacker John O'Neill, "crazed extremist" and Nixon boytoy:

Three years after Colson first brought him to the White House to meet with Nixon, who encouraged the young O'Neill to "get" Kerry and the protesters in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he launched his legal career with a coveted clerkship in the United States Supreme Court. No doubt it was mere coincidence that O'Neill clerked with William Rehnquist, the controversial conservative who was Nixon's favorite justice and who went on to be appointed chief justice by President Reagan.

...his law firm boasts long-standing and powerful connections with the Bush White House.

With an oil and litigation practice focused on the defense of major energy and industrial firms, the dozen partners in Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson have clout that exceeds their firm's small size. Their corporate clients include Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Reliant Energy, Koch Industries and Eastman Kodak. More important, among the name partners is Margaret Wilson, the former general counsel to George W. Bush during his second term as Texas governor. (She succeeded Alberto Gonzales, who currently serves as White House counsel.)

In 2001, Wilson went to Washington with the new president, who appointed her deputy general counsel in the Department of Commerce. During her tenure as Bush's counsel in Austin, she was implicated in the Service Corporation International funeral home scandal. State government whistle-blower Eliza May accused Wilson of participating in an effort to "intimidate" her from pursuing an investigation of SCI, a major Bush campaign donor.

- Joe Conason.

Meanwhile, Kerry's crewmates are defending his record.

"I was there and I know John Kerry deserved every one of his medals,'' said Kerry crewmate Del Sandusky. "John O'Kneel is a partisan, lying asshat with shit for brains and a bankroll from the RNC," he should have added.

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Operation FUBAR
Senators call for Jack D Ripper Rummy's head on a platter.

It has become the explosive turning point of the Iraq war, leading in all the wrong directions.

A scandal involving sadistic abuse and humiliation of prisoners by U.S. soldiers blew wide open Tuesday when the military acknowleged more than 20 cases of deaths and assaults are under investigation, not only in Iraq but Afghanistan, too.

Outraged U.S. politicians, who demanded to know how such rampant abuse could possibly have happened, worried even more cases will come to light.

And there's fear degrading, graphic pictures of Iraqi prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison that have infuriated the Arab world will embolden terrorists and lead to more bloodshed in the Middle East.

Senators demanded Rumsfeld appear on Capitol Hill before the armed services committee to answer some tough questions, including why he didn't receive an internal Pentagon report on abuse at Iraq's main prison that was completed in February or inform Congress of the magnitude of the problem.

"We need to have a hearing with (him) as soon as possible," said Republican Senator John McCain. "Congress should have been notified of this situation a long time ago."

Update: After staying up all last night trying to pronounce "abhorrent," the Chimp-in-Chief today performed interviews with Arab television to let them brown-skinned folks know that Amerkins love freedom, dammit.

"There will be investigations. People will be brought to justice," Bunnypants said. He stopped short of apologizing.

Damn fucking computer ate every one of my posts today and there was no retrieving them. I've had to start from scratch. Grrrrrrrrrrr.




Short-bus news
The Smirking Moron rode across job-strapped Ohio on Tuesday in a bus emblazoned "Yes, America can." It turns out the bus was made in Canada, by Prevost, a firm jointly owned by the Swedish Volvo Bus Corp. and Britain's Henly's Group PLC. Prevost's manufacturing facility is in St. Claire, Quebec.

Yep, the French part of the Great White North.

Hee hee hee.

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The scandal grows
Twenty-five prisoners have died while being held by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, two of them murdered by Americans, US Army officials said Tuesday.

And wait till THIS comes out: 'A legal loophole could allow four American civilian contractors allegedly involved in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners to escape punishment, US military officials and specialists said yesterday.'

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Oh good lord
Detroit newspapers interviewed Squinty the Smirking AssClown on the "presidential bus" in Michigan yesterday.

Let's listen in to his opening remarks...

Thanks for coming. I'm going to be talking to the people of Michigan and Ohio about how to -- a strategy, a plan, a vision to make America a safer, stronger and better place.

And the best way to deal with an enemy is to find them and bring them to justice before they hit us again.

Let me finish. Is to find people and bring them justice; is to hunt them down. The long-term solution is the spreading of freedom and democracy.

Now, it is a heavy task, particularly in the world, because some don't believe that if the color of your skin is brown, or your religion is Muslim, you can't self-govern. Obviously, I have a different view, and it's one that is an inherent part of my foreign policy.

WTF?????

Then he hammers home the fact that yes, he IS a disengaged flaming idiot:

Q: Have you been shaken at all by anything that's happened in the last month?

Bunnypants: Yes, I have. I've been shaken by the reports of abuses to the prisoners in Iraq. I'm shaken because I know that this doesn't reflect the values of our country. And I spoke to the Secretary of Defense about that again today. And I said, I need a full report on whether or not these abuses are widespread, or whether they're contained to a particular unit. And there are ongoing investigations, and he will get those to my desk as quickly as possible.

Q: Are you concerned that there was a report completed in February that apparently --

pReznit Gameboy: I haven't seen --

Q: -- Myers didn't know about yesterday --

Il Ducebag: Well, if Myers didn't know about it, I didn't know about it. In other words, he's part of the chain -- actually, he's not in the chain of command, but he's a high ranking official. We'll find out.

Q: The question is, should something causing --

The Smirking Moron: I just need to know --

Q: -- concern, raised eyebrows --

The Oaf of Office: Exactly. I think you'll find the investigation started quickly when they found out what was going on. What I need to know is what the investigators concluded.

Yes, that's right - he hasn't even looked at the Taguba Report, the one that told of the "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuse" of Iraqi prisoners, the one that was flashed all over the internet and around the world.

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Colin Powell wants out
'My "legacy" is in the crapper.'

Secretary of State Colin Powell is exhausted, frustrated, and bitter, uncomfortable with George W. Bush's agenda, fatigued from his battles with the Pentagon, and tired of continuously getting bitchslapped by Dick Cheney, reports Wil Hylton in the June 2004 issue of GQ magazine.

'I got a small but precious glimpse of the show when, shortly after I interviewed Colin Powell, I met with Condoleezza Rice in her office at the White House, a bright and white and airy room that looked like a wedding cake turned inside out, where Rice sat prim and pretty beneath an Impressionist painting in a black business suit and bright red lipstick, smiling politely as she lied through her teeth about the war between the State Department and the Pentagon, as though no such conflict could possibly exist, not in her immaculate White House, and the century-long battle between the two agencies had, in fact, come to a screeching halt on January 20, 2001, when she and the Texan came to town.' ...

"I can tell you firsthand that there is a tremendous barrier between Cheney and Powell, and there has been for a long time. It's like McCain saying that his relations with the president are 'congenial,' meaning McCain doesn't tell the president to go fuck himself every time," Powell's friend and mentor, Harlan Ullman, said. Then he added, "Condi's a jerk."

And Colin's a pussy. If he had any integrity he would've resigned a long time ago. He made his bed, allowed Karl to have his way with him in it, and now he has to lie in the sticky wet spot.

Boo-fucking-hoo, you whore.

_________________________________________________
Did you know...
There's an interesting correlation with low IQ, low income and voting for Dumbya.

_________________________________________________
Declassifying documents for political gain
The party of accountability busted on secret files

The misadministration is allegedly coming under fire for allegedly allowing political concerns to determine what is allegedly sensitive national security material after a series of declassifications occured that critics allege were timed for 'strategic advantage.'

'In several recent cases, the administration first refused requests for information by saying that releasing it would jeopardize national security, then released that same information itself at a moment when it became politically convenient to do so -- leaving the impression that it was safe to release all along.'

Oh really. Imagine that. Huh.
Go figure.

/headpounding
They're just figuring this out NOW?? #ucking whore liberal media.

_________________________________________________
When we're the evildoers
'Blame Bush for the Gestapo-like behavior by US forces' - Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey.

President Bush is again refusing to take responsibility for any of the horrors happening on his watch. This time it is the abuse of Iraqi prisoners carried out by low-ranking military police working under the direct guidance of military intelligence officers and shadowy civilian mercenaries. Our president launched this war with the promise to the Iraqi people of "no more torture chambers and rape rooms. The tyrant will soon be gone." What went wrong?

- Robert Scheer.

Meet the new boss... same as the old boss.

The latest atrocity: French TV will air tape of US helicopter killing 'nonthreatening' Iraqis.

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Next on CNN...
Help assuage your pain and ennui with the CNN drinking game.

Amateurs. I'm pretty sure we can do better than that. Here's my version:
"Terrorist threat," "Iraqi insurgents": a shot
"John Kerry... medals": a shot and a piece of chocolate (approx. 1 oz.)
"(Insert celebrity's name here!)": two shots
"Bill Clinton's memoir": a shot and a beer
"Monica Lewinsky": a shot, a beer, and a man (may substitute with a cigar)
"Rick Santorum... Bill Frist... sex scandal": buy yourself a bottle of Chateau Petrus

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Middle-finger news
"Pat isn't with God. He's f -- ing dead." - Pat Tillman's brother Rich at the memorial service.

Retired diplomats to Bush: “Nice going, asshat.”

_________________________________________________
WH cabana-boy ignored prison torture warnings
Former Iraqi human rights minister Abdel Basset Turki said Bush lackey Paul Bremer knew way back in November that Iraqi prisoners were being abused in US detention centers - and did nothing.

CIA officers, private contractors allegedly involved
Between October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Prison and Porn Playhouse, numerous incidents of 'sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several prisoners by at least six US military police, and were actively encouraged by intelligence officers.'

When one Iraqi prisoner was so stressed by questioning -- possibly by CIA officers -- that he died, his body was packed in ice for a day and then taken from the jail with a mock intravenous drip in his arm to disguise his death.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of HRW, claimed the bold behaviour of the soldiers in posing for extremely graphic photographs with the prisoners "suggests they had nothing to hide from their superiors" Among the alleged abuses were: breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees... beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair... threatening male detainees with rape... sodomising a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick.

Abuse story a blow to US claims of moral high ground
No shit.

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Why Kerry must target Cheney
'The more that is unearthed about the march to war in Iraq, the more it becomes clear that the vice-president, Dick Cheney, is the psychopathic lying draft-dodging warmongering cyborg in control of {Sorry - ed.} puppet master in the Bush White House.'

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On the short bus
pReznit Privilege boards Air Force One to start photo-op bus tour of beleaguered country.

Mr. Bush was not, however, getting around on Trailways. Campaign aides said Mr. Bush's bus had three rooms, including a kitchenette, as well as a flat-screen television, black leather sofas and chairs, and the presidential seal displayed on a back wall {LOL - as a reminder? Ed.} . Name cards were placed on the chairs this morning for Mr. Bush and the first lady, as well as for Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's chief political adviser.

The bus was also outfitted with extensive security and communications equipment. In an additional safety precaution on a trip that was a logistical nightmare for the White House, I-94 east into Kalamazoo was shut down shortly before rush hour so Mr. Bush's eight-bus caravan of support staff and a large press corps, could have the Interstate to themselves.

Name cards?????

Hopalong Noodlehead is touring key states that are suffering massive unemployment under his regime to declare that "Prosperity hinges on this election."

Duh.

The fix is in
The BFEE's private fiefdom of Iraq. Hey, it's a little #ucked up right now, but what else did you expect with those assclowns running it?

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Cool
The 100 greatest guitar solos of all time. Plus the tabs! Includes my favorite, 'Sweet Child o' Mine.' Baby.
/Axl

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Pundit poop
As requested - we present Bill Maher bitchslapping Rovian cabana-boy Chris 'Tweety' Matthews of Hardball on the repuke-generated John Kerry medals 'controversy':

MATTHEWS: Bill Maher, what do you make of this fight over whether he threw ribbons or medals in 1971, a third of a century ago?

BILL MAHER, HOST, “REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER”: Why are you covering this? Why are you taking this bait, seriously? Why are you even letting them bait you into covering this complete nonissue? This guy has medals. This guy has ribbons. The other guy didn‘t go. That‘s the whole story.

The other guy is a draft dodger. They were both rich kids in the ‘60s. One of them went to where the bullets were flying and one of them found a way not to go and then he lied about that. Stop covering the medals.

A little present for Tweety.

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Kee-riced
Florida senator given opulent 'Cheney Suite' during brief hospitalization.

'He learned that the room, the only empty one the hospital had, was prepared just in case anything might happen' to Crashcart Dick Cheney, 'who was in town to deliver the graduation speech Saturday at Florida State University.'

I don't know why this makes me want to puke up green slime, but it does.

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Staff quits the 'mouthpiece of the US-led coalition'
Winning hearts and minds while bringing democracy to Iraq.

The head of an Iraqi newspaper quit and said Monday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication.

On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were ''celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse.''

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A 'massive fix to justify Bush's revenge'

The message was implicit. Saddam Hussein had to be stopped NOW before he brought death and destruction to the West.

But the real axis of evil lies far closer to home, right in the Oval Office. It lies in the blind prejudice of men like US Vice President Dick Cheney, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz.

Men who believed America, the sole and triumphant superpower, had the right to change the world at a whim.

Clever, shadowy men who manipulated a fool of a President into unleashing a Pandora's Box of endless war that really does now threaten the entire world.

...As it turned out, Saddam was one telling the truth and our leaders, Bush and Blair, were the ones telling lies.

- terrorism expert Kevin Toolis.

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Bush as guilty as abusive soldiers
'The electrodes' switch is in Washington'

"...there are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq."

George W. Bush's words appeared on page A7 of Saturday's Washington Post.

On the front page, a photo featured a hooded Iraqi prisoner balancing himself on a box after his American jailers told he would be electrocuted if he fell. On the jump page, A16, two soldiers gloated while standing over a group of Iraqi prisoners forced to pile naked on one another.

"I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated. Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people." So says George of this new scandal.

You know what this means: We have caught Bush in still another lie. .... One way or the other, he is just as guilty as the soldiers who abused the inmates.

No way can Bush dismiss this incident as one that fell through the cracks. Under Bush, the cracks in the system have been awfully wide and numerous. At best, the degradation of these Iraqis fits a pattern of sloppy management of the war in Iraq.

- Bruce S. Ticker.

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Rethugs announce convention event schedule
The following is the "first final" list of events for the Republican National Convention in New York City, August 30 to September 2.

AUG. 30 6 p.m. -- OPENING PRAYER read by Mel Gibson, while being flogged with a spiked leather strap wielded by Ann Coulter, who will enjoy it a little too much.

* TOM RIDGE raises National Alert Level to RED.

* LEST WE FORGET -- HONORARY ROLL CALL of All Members of (and Friends of) Bush Administration Who Might Very Well Have Been Killed In Vietnam If It Hadn't Been For Nasty Trick Knees, Anal Cysts, Recurrent Headaches, and Highly-Placed, Overly-Protective Parents. (Sponsored by Tyson Chicken)

Heh. Read more here.

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They all make me sick

The reason for the tandem testimony by Bush and Cheney is, of course, all too obvious. But it is still awfully embarrassing when the leader of the most powerful country on the planet must, when discussing issues of national security, be accompanied by a minder.

The absurdity of the president and vice president demanding that there be no official record of their meeting with the commission would be the subject of a congressional outcry and a constant media battering of the administration if Bush and Cheney were members of another political party. Just imagine if Bill Clinton had asked that there be no recording or official record of obviously troubling and politically damaging statements he made during the interviews and inquisitions of the Republican-sponsored "sexgate" investigations of the late 1990s. The screams of outrage would still be echoing today.

But Bush and Cheney will get their pass from the commission, the Congress and a cheerleading media. The willingness of major media to go along with the charade is particularly galling, but not surprising in an era when the White House press corps tends to ask probing questions along the lines of "how high?" in response to presidential press secretary Scott McClellan's regular requests that they jump to the right.

- John Nichols.

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Kerry mildly mentions aWol, Cheney's 5 deferments
during French manicure

"I think a lot of veterans are going to be very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard, and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do, criticizing somebody who fought for their country and served."

Now if you'll excuse me, my sommelier is waiting...
/groan

Good GOD. He's got to do better than that.

In some good news, hero/patriot Wesley Clark may be on Kerry's list for VP.

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'Sadistic abuses'
"This is how military intelligence wants it done," the email says. "We have had a very high rate with our style of getting them to break," the email adds. "They usually end up breaking within hours."

Meanwhile, clueless stepford wife Laura 'Pickles' Bush called US troops 'the face of American compassion abroad.'

_________________________________________________
Pinch-hitting for MWO...
David Brock, with support from former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, has launched a watchdog site 'to closely monitor conservative commentators and journalists and, when they make erroneous or misleading claims, to point them out and set the record straight.' Please welcome and support Media Matters for America.

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Strategic catastrophe
'As I say in the literally first paragraph of the book, Karl Rove, a week after the Novak article appeared, called Chris Matthews of NBC and said, "Wilson's wife is fair game," that it was OK to go after somebody's spouse because you disagreed with what her husband said. And now remember, when you talk about partisan, what I did was my civic duty to hold my government to account for what it had said, a pattern of deception to the Congress of the United States and the American people, including these 16 words in the State of the Union address.' - Joseph Wilson explains things to pathetic WH toady Tim Russert on Meet the Press.

_________________________________________________
Howdy. I'm a total #ucktard and I'm yore preznit.
How dumb can a president get?

Don't get me started.

'Now, when the idea of American freedom, of US democracy is brought up, it will be a pathetic joke, a travesty of the true ideals.'

Bush's inadequate grasp of the English language, his inability to communicate, screams in the face of the travesty of Iraqi prisoner tortures. Now, more than ever, the US faces the hatred, scorn and wrath of the Arab world. It takes a smart, articulate leader to respond to such horrors. Bush fails in so many ways.

"I shared a deep disgust that those prisoners were treated the way they were treated," Bush said. "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. And so I didn't like it one bit."

His comments are not nearly good enough. They are pathetic, thoughtless blurtings of a fool. It is a time like this that we need a leader who has the ability to communicate, to eloquently express the horror, shock, and apology that is necessary. Obviously his speechwriters weren't able to supply him with words with any resemblance to the words of a thoughtful leader. The real Bush came through with a gigantic thud.

- read more of Rob Kall at OpEdNews.com.

My neighbors probably hate me, but I like dandelions.

Tigger was back at the feed bowl this morning, but there was still no sign of the kittens.



'Getting the memo'
Bremer retracts critical statement after major asspounding by Karl and Dick.

WH patsy Paul 'pussy' Bremer, the US administrator in Iraq, assumed the position and took back his statement that the Bush misadministration was doing nothing to prevent terrorism.

On Feb. 26, 2001, Bremer had said, "The new administration seems to be paying no attention to the problem of terrorism. What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, 'Oh, my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this?' ... They've been given a window of opportunity with very little terrorism now, and they're not taking advantage of it."

On Sunday, after a locked-door session with a lubed-up Karl Rove and Dick Cheney brandishing battery cables*, he said he regretted the statement.

*Alleged.

Accountability
In a related story, like a whiny chickenshit snivelling little brat pointing fingers when it looks like he's gonna catch it from dad, Bush lied again, this time to the 9/11 commission, the cowardly lying little fuck.

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Pressure mounts on Cheney over smears against diplomat and 'outing' of CIA wife
From the 02 May 2004 Independent:

Vice-President Dick Cheney was under mounting pressure last night after he and his senior officials were accused of smearing a former ambassador and outing his wife as an undercover CIA officer in a deliberate act of revenge hatched inside the White House.

Should the Vice-President be personally implicated - which Mr Wilson believes he is - the outcome would be devastating for both Mr Cheney and Mr Bush as they campaign for re-election.

We can only hope.

And from today's SJ Mercury News, Joseph Wilson writes 'White House officials went after me and my wife, a CIA operative, after I questioned their claim that Saddam was pursuing nuclear weapons. Here's how they did it, and why it was so important to them:'

The Bush administration lied to get us into war, and it lied when it said the war in Iraq was part of the struggle against terrorism.

The invasion of Iraq may have been about other things: among them, the president's vision of bringing the "Almighty's gift'' of freedom to the Middle East, at the barrel of a gun. But it was not about weapons of mass destruction, and it was not about terrorism. Not until we attacked and gave Al-Qaida the best recruitment tool it ever had.

Americans have been bombarded in recent weeks with overwhelming evidence that our government has bungled its way into the desert equivalent of a quagmire. Former administration loyalists Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke essentially said so, arguing that the White House was so focused on overthrowing Saddam Hussein that it pushed aside other priorities, including fighting Al-Qaida.

With the publication of my book Friday, I added my voice to that group. I believe The Politics of Truth will shine a light on leaders who refuse even to entertain information that could challenge their assumptions and keep them from making grave errors of judgment. Like invading Iraq.

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Rats
Tigger moved the kittens from the igloo on the deck to who knows where after the bf was out there grilling Friday night.

I'm pretty sure he was grilling hamburgers.

Anyway, I haven't seen her since. I'm hoping she moves them back once it starts raining.

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Did you know...
The Smirking Moron-in-Chief had proclaimed May 1st Loyalty Day?

As Americans, we work to preserve the freedom declared by our Founding Fathers, defended by generations, and granted to every man and woman on Earth by the Almighty. On Loyalty Day, we are reminded that we are citizens with obligations to our country, to each other, and to our great legacy of freedom and democracy.

Yeah, good luck with that. What a #ucking tool.

Torture and humiliation by American soldiers replace torture and humiliation by Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi prisoners faced numerous "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" by US.

US military intelligence officers may have encouraged abuse.

Torture at Abu Ghraib: How far up does the responsibility go?

Iraq war veteran criticizes Bush
"I don't expect our leaders to be free of mistakes. I expect our leaders to own up to them," said Army National Guard 1st Lt. Paul Rieckhoff.

Rieckhoff called his comrades in Iraq "men and women of extraordinary courage and incredible capability. But it's time we had leadership in Washington to match that courage and match that capability."

In response, republicans circulated doctored photos of Rieckhoff in a wedding gown, sacrificing a small child in front of an altar to Cthulhu.

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Ick
Did draft-dodging liar Dick Cheney get married and pork his harpy wife into producing a hellspawn just so he could avoid the draft?

Cheney's five draft deferments - and six years in college - during Vietnam emerge as a campaign issue.


"OK, it ain't much, but can a lesbian top that?!"

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California says 'hasta la vista, baby' to Diebold
California's Secretary of State withdrew his approval of Diebold's electronic voting machines throughout the state on Friday, unless they met 23 new security conditions.

Diebold "broke the law. Their conduct was absolutely reprehensible. Their conduct should never be tolerated from anyone doing business again with the state of California," Kevin Shelley said, and called on California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer to open a criminal and civil probe of the company.

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Iraqi general receives hero's welcome as US marines bug out of Fallujah
The people of Fallujah have been liberated from the liberators by the former oppressor who is greeted by the mythical flowers and candy supposedly meant for us (thanks to BuzzFlash).

Pic from Bartcop


Happy Mission Accomplished day!
One year after he strutted around the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln like a toddler who had just made his first poopy in the grown-up's john, Chimpy McFlightsuit made no apologies for declaring "major combat operations" over on May 1, 2003.

"There are no longer torture chambers or rape rooms or mass graves in Iraq" Bunnypants sputtered in a news conference Friday.

594 US soldiers have died since Il Ducebag stuffed himself like a summer sausage into a flightsuit and grinned like the smirking moron he is last May 1st. 732 have died since the beginning of military operations last year. We lost 136 soldiers and 1360 Iraqis last month, Fallujah is handed over to a former Saddam General, and al Sadr holds Najaf.