Hannity a drooling, autofellating halfwit: op-ed
Hate-spewing gasbag and clueless partisan douchenozzle still doesn't get it.

Sean's constant demonizing of Democrats, repeated ad infinitum, was an attempt to brainwash his listeners. Instead, it made them painfully aware that Sean didn't seem to connect the actual failures, many of them deadly (Iraq, Katrina, unaffordable healthcare, cutting veteran's benefits), to those responsible.

Nothing turns off a working brain more than being insulted with obvious bullshit. For some brains it might take more time than others for the smell to register, but it seemed to click for enough to make Sean's water-carrying efforts a real detriment to the GOP this past election.

Well, yeah - the key being you need some kind of "working brain" to start with.

Bonus: Salon asks... given that the gpuke's hate merchants - Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, Beck, et. al. - have been proven so wrong and so bloody incompentent, why are they given such a platform by the media?

- m

Bushies could bomb Iran nuclear sites in 2007: analysts
Because who has time for diplomacy when the 2008 elections are right around the corner.

The imbecilic assbrains in the White House could choose military action over diplomacy and bomb Iran's nuclear facilities next year, political analysts in Washington agree.

"I think he is going to do it," John Pike, director of a military issues think tank, told AFP. "They are going to bomb WMD facilities next summer," he added.

US journalist Seymour Hersh also said that White House hawks led by short-circuiting cyborg Dick 'dick' Cheney were intent on attacking Iran with or without the approval of the US Congress.

Joseph Cirincione, senior vp for the National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress, also believes the US government could decide to attack Iran.

"If you look at what the administration is doing, it seems that it is going to inevitably lead us to a military conflict," he said, adding that no alternative solution was being sought.

Gee. What a surprise.

- m

Bunnypants' wimp dad wimps out again
At an Arab leadership conference in the UAE, Poppy tearfully faced a shitstorm of criticism aimed at his son, dimwitted warmongering asshole Stupie McPoopypants:

"My son is an honest man," Mr. Bush bleated to members of the audience, who let fly with derisive hoots, catcalls, and farty noises.

"We do not respect your son. We do not respect what he's doing all over the world," a woman in the audience bluntly told the former president.

The 82-year-old Bush, who's obviously been living in a bubble just like his idiot son, appeared stunned as others in the audience whooped and whistled in approval.

The hostile comments came during a quesion-and-answer session after Bush finished a folksy address on leadership by telling the audience how deeply hurt he feels when his "presidential" son is criticized. "This son is not going to back away," Bush said, his voice quivering.

Gawd. You and your battleaxe harpy wife happily raised a privileged, moronic incompetent - a stupid, spoiled, smirking, powerhungry brat who never had to face any kind of consequences for his actions, who lied his way into a war that killed tens of thousands of innocent people, who avoids meeting anyone who isn't a rich, cocksucking sycophant, and you wonder why he's not loved or respected. Well boofuckinghoo, you clueless zit.

- m

Total duhnitude. The both of them.
*****

Ummm, how's that 'bipartisan' thing working out again, Dems?
The party of personal responsibility and accountability are cutting and running, handing their almost half-a-trillion-dollar spending bill to Democrats, hoping it will gum up their agenda like Rush Limbaugh's stanky ass-cheese.

"Other stuff may get pushed off the table," said GOP lobbyist Hazen Marshall. "It kills (Democrats') message."

The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda, one that includes raising the minimum wage, negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, cutting interest rates on college loans and repealing some tax breaks for oil companies.

Well, good riddance, you do-nothing assclowns. Shitbags to the last.

- m

Lame duck chickenhawk turkey chokes fowl before giving it turkee.
*****

So how's that 'bipartisan' thing working out so far, Dems?
Il Ducebag, gleefully waving his tiny little dick at the Democrats, renominates no-talent assclown John Bolton and a bunch of "too conservative and unqualified" judges, and appoints a misogynist wingnut as the new head of family-planning programs at the DHHS.

Preznit Uniter's political fortunes have changed for the worst, but he himself is announcing that he hasn't changed a bit.

He still hates not getting his own way on everything.

His immediate actions after proclaiming his deep desire to work with Democrats in a fresh mood of bipartisanship were to reinforce his preference for right-wing religious goals. This is the new civility in the nation's capital?

Where's the good will and cooperation that Bush promised? It's the same old provocative, bossy attitude of the past six years. But it's not the same old rubber-stamp Republican terrain. If he wants partisan warfare, he'll get it. He's started it and now he's going to be stuck with it.

Yeah, as long as the Dems don't go back to donning their little pink tutus and knee pads. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath.

-m

Who would Jesus vote for?
Fundie republicans review the GOP front-runners for the 2008 Presidential nomination, and guess what - they're all morally unacceptable.

Rudy Giuliani
Pro-choice
Lived with a couple of gay guys
Dresses in drag
Talks with a lisp
Conclusion: Gay, or a gay symp

John McCain
The McCain-Feingold bill
Supports amnesty and a guest worker plan for illegal immigrants
Publically supported a Mexican for the national GOP chair
Opposes the federal Marriage Protection amendment
Conclusion: kissed Bush's ass so many times that he must be gay

Newt Gingrich
He considers FDR the greatest president of the 20th century. Not Reagan - FDR
Waffled on abortion, gay rights and traditional marriage
Fails to stress pro-life, marriage, or religious liberty issues
A noted adulterer, he has been married and divorced twice, and is currently on his 3rd wife
Conclusion: may not be gay. Unless it's for FDR.

Mitt Romney
Pro-choice
Supports the gayification of the Boy Scouts
He has been endorsed - twice! - by the homosexual "Log Cabin Republicans"
He endorses Ted Kennedy's federal "gay rights" legislation!!
Conclusion: gay. Gay gay gay.

This is gonna be good.
- m

Bipartisanship is for pussies Democra pussies
Republicans plot to bring down Pelosi, and Clinton with her

Senior rethug reichsmarshals said Sunday that they are already coordinating plans to attack Nancy Pelosi, and to associate her in voters' minds with Hillary Clinton.

"Two years of Pelosi gives a good idea of what four years of Hillary will be like," said Tom DeLay, the disgraced, corrupt and indicted scumbag who was involved in the Abramoff corruption scandal. "They are both committed liberals and we will make that clear to the American people."

Because even corrupt, indicted money launderers/wife beaters/closeted gay adulterers/ mistress-stranglers/gay pedophiles/neocon warmongers/illegal spying vote-fixing Bill of Rights ass-swabbing incompetent powermad torture-loving intolerant - did we mention corrupt? - assclowns have to be better at doing the people's business than some ::shudder:: liberals. Right.

Which brings us to...

Screw bipartisanship; it’s time for revenge
"No negotiation. No compromise. Leave them broken and gasping in a puddle of their own urine."

Damn straight. It's a long article, but worth it. I only cut 'n' pasted some of it here.

CNN tells us there’s “little public support” for impeachment. This is a lie. Current polling on public support is conspicuously absent, but polls from earlier this year showed support for impeachment at over 50%, and those polls were only on single issues—impeachment over wiretapping or the war lies only, not Bush’s entire oeuvre of wrongdoing. It’s not a fringe issue, despite the fact that no TV network will give a single impeachment supporter face time. But rather than ride this wave of outrage, exciting a base much broader than the loud minority that the GOP has relied on, the Democrats are adopting a policy of appeasement, assuaging people who will never, ever vote for them.

Impeachment proceedings would drag all of [Bush's] myriad scandals into the light. The TV pundits would have no choice but to acknowledge and discuss them. This, Democrats seem to instinctively fear, would rally the GOP. But they’re wrong. One the main reasons for the loyalty of Republican voters is that they perceive themselves as winners. They are conformists above all. Make losers out of them, and watch how many jump to the winning team, and how quickly.

When the Republicans took over congress, their leadership threw civility in the trash. They ruled ruthlessly and disregarded the impotent complaints of Democrats. The message to Democrats was clear and consistent: we don’t care what you, or the half of the country you represent, do, say, or think. They didn’t negotiate; they didn’t compromise; they wouldn’t even let the Democrats have a room for their mock hearings. They ignored or changed any rules that obstructed their total dominion. It’s imperative that they feel the consequence of those choices now, if we don’t want it to happen again. Instead, like a battered wife, the Democrats can’t wait to make nice again, tripping over each other to take impeachment “off the table.” It’s pitiful.

Bush needs to be impeached because Bush worshippers just plain deserve it. It was they that were giddy with self-righteous rage, so desperate to take Clinton down that they didn’t care how pathetic their excuse was. They need to be paid back, and to know they asked for it. They need to be demoralized and dismissed before they take the government back and damage it further. They need, after all, to know their reign was a colossal failure, a blight on the record. They need to know that now and forever, George W. Bush will be to presidents what OJ Simpson is to all-star running backs. These people understand things in terms of winning and losing, and they need to know that, in the end, they lost.

Bush needs to be impeached because the only language these people understand is power. Their hearts will not be touched by forgiveness. Any mercy is a sign of weakness to them. If you want to earn a thug’s respect, you’ve got to kick his ass up and down the block. No negotiation. No compromise. Slash and burn. Teach these assholes a lesson. Leave them broken and gasping in a puddle of their own urine. Don’t ever let them forget the humiliation and the shame of it.
- Allan Uthman

God damn yeah.

- m

I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here today...


Pic from here.
- m

Murderous attention whore's Fox special to go straight to dvd
No, not mAnn Coulter's. But shouldn't he be under arrest for voter fraud right now??

"Gee, the family values network figured promoting a snuff book might finally be a bad idea." - John in DC.

After a bloodbath of criticism, Fox News said Monday that it has severed its connection with the O.J. Simpson book and killed the TV special “If I Did It.”

“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” said bloated, repugnant scumhole Rupert Murdoch. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.” Christless jerkoff.

A dozen Fox affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special. “I have my own moral compass and this was easy,” said Bill Lamb, general manager of WDRB in Louisville.

What would have been next, a reality program on OJ finding the real killers?

- m

Time-waster
iPod, marquee, and other assorted sign generators.

- m

Click to embiggen.
******

Here we go again
The White House has dismissed a CIA report that found no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said the CIA's analysis was based on technical intelligence collected by overhead satellites and on other evidence like measurements of the radioactivity of water samples.
"The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency," according to the article.

"A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile to it," it said.

- m

That's your opinion, shithead
Drooly McSimpleton in Indonesia (where they're rioting in protest of his visit): "I applaud a society where people are free to express their opinion" - apparently forgetting the whole "you're either with us or against us" thing, the "watch what you say" controversy, the "cut-and-run defeatocrats" crappola, the "disagreeing with me means you're enabling the terrorists" bullshit, the "critics of our illegal wiretapping policy are a grave threat" thing...

- m

"Ah wuz talkin' 'bout me 'spressin' a napinion!"
*****

So funny I forgot to laugh
Fox News, not content with being a parody of the news, creates its own parody of the news.

- m

OSHA - that stands for Oh Shit, Haul Ass, right?
A misadministration hack threatens scientist over asbestos warning -

It took six years to get safety officials to issue warnings to auto mechanics that the brakes they're working on could contain lethal asbestos fibers. But it took only three weeks after the warnings were posted before a former top federal official with ties to the auto industry reportedly pushed to have them removed.

John Henshaw, a former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, called Aug. 15 for the agency to make changes to its warnings.

But Ira Wainless, an OSHA scientist who wrote the advisory bulletin about asbestos in brakes, refused. Wainless cited dozens of studies, including work at his own agency, to show that his presentation of the medical risk to mechanics was solid.

Last week, David Ippolito, an official with OSHA's Directorate of Science, Technology and Medicine, told Wainless that he would be suspended without pay for 10 days if the changes weren't made, according to documents.

Keepin' us safer!

- m

Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Three and a half years later and Awol McStupid still doesn't know what the fuck is going on or what the fuck he's going to do about the violent bloodbath that is Iraq:

Bush was asked about proposals by some members of Congress - including ballless asskisser John McCain - to send more troops to Iraq in an effort to stabilize the country.

"I haven't made any decisions about troop increases or troop decreases, and won't until I hear from a variety of sources," the Decider replied.

Like the little voices in his head. Because listening to the actual troops, the 'generals on the ground,' the think-tank recommendations, Poppy's Iraq Study Group, and the Pentagon just won't do it.

- m

WTF CW: Newsweek takes it up the ass
Newsweek's "conventional wisdom" on Nancy Pelosi:

Old CW: First woman Speaker will be Rayburn redux.
New CW: Botox bumbler blows first play.

Classy. And so professional. As Digby asks, do you really want to go there?


- m
******

US-wide wave of revulsion
Falafel-abusing phone-sex aficionado and creepy pornstar-mustached blowhard: "appalling." World: "umm... yeah..."

A wave of revulsion and open criticism reached a climax this weekend in the wake of revelations that murderer/attention whore OJ Simpson intends to capitalize on the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman with a book and TV 'confession' in a deal brokered by bloated, classless, pus-filled shit-heap Rupert Murdoch. So widespread is the condemnation that even some of the top names on Murdoch's Fox News Channel have urged viewers not to buy the book or watch the interview.

And if anyone knows about disgusting, it's Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera.

- m

Scumbags Who Don't Respect the Geneva Conventions: a former Air Force linguist weighs in on torture and our military

This is a must-read over at Talking Points Memo:

Our trainers were careful to instruct us on the Geneva Conventions and which interrogation techniques were covered and which were illegal. I have a very clear memory of what they said about waterboarding. As I recall, water boarding was classified as torture and was a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

They told us about the technique for the simple reason that the North Vietnamese used it on American Forces. They wanted us to know about that technique in case we were ever captured by "scumbags who didn't respect the Geneva Conventions."

The military trainers at our Survival School had nothing but contempt for techniques like this, and we were taught that they were international criminal offenses.

So thanks, Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, and Rummy, for helping us join the international scumbag community. We have become the people we despised, and we're exposing our troops to the same treatment that we used to hold up as an example of utter moral depravity.

--dg

Much-needed *snortlaugh* on a Monday

Wonkette has the most hilarious gallery of pics from Dear Loser's Vietnam visit. Go there now!

--dg




















"Cool! The Sorting Hat put me in Beer Bong House, too!"

Nigga, pleeze...
GOP to Michael Steele: stay out of our club, black man

[The Decider]'s political advisers are urging Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele neither to seek nor accept a Cabinet post but instead find a national platform on television or radio. Bush political strategists have told Steele a high-ranking post in the administration's last two years would curb his independence and cramp his style. Instead, they advised, he could be "a black Rush Limbaugh." Steele was interested in heading the Republican National Committee, but his independence displayed during the 2006 campaign was not what the White House wanted there.

- incontinent crank Boob Novak.

Morning in blogtopia
Though the Weblog Awards are refusing to take any more nominations for Jesus's General in the Best Conservative Blog category, it hasn't stopped fans from posting some rather hysterical comments.

The Sideshow, on the perfidy and repug butt-humping of the press corpse.

Bob Geiger has the Saturday toons up!

History's got lots of stuff to it! Or, how our idiot president is embarrassing us today.

Our partisan, misogynist media and a new drinking game.

"The Democrats are the sideshow. Bush self-destructing is the big story in town."

Forgive and forget? Forget it!

A few Bushite pundits even had the enduring gall to issue threats while still scuttling like roaches at the light. Henry Waxman was advised to keep his subpoenas under the bed, and John Conyers to forget his articles of impeachment, because vindictive investigations of the White House would not be in the national interest.

Though the post-victory haze, I perceived a final pathetic spin, based in the fiction that the people still respond to Bush’s supposed charisma: that to lay a Democrat glove-of-impeachment on the president would alienate the electorate big-time. We were being urged to forgive, forget, and all get along. As in forget the lies and the spies, the Constitution and Geneva Conventions, the war profiteering and the body count. Forget that New Orleans’s 9th Ward is still in ruins, forget the inflated homophobia, the decimated middle class, for-profit health care, reproductive rights and embryonic stem cells, and all the small-time insanity, like the Terri Schiavo debacle. Forget My Pet Goat and the War on Christmas? And the accusations of everything from treason to dementia leveled at most of my friends?

Believe me, I have no inclination to forget any single damned thing, or to make any attempt to get along. I want to see every dirty secret dragged out and exposed, until George W. Bush is doing the Nixon perp-walk to the helicopter.

- Mick Farren

What he said!

- m

Turdblossom headed for crapper?
"Anyone who needs new office furniture, raise their hands... not so fast, Karl!"

US News and WR reports that Bush may give Rove the ol' heave-ho:

The rumors that [nasty, election-losing slimeball] Karl Rove will leave sometime next year are being bolstered with new insider reports that his partisan style is a hurdle to [Preznit LameDuck Uniter]'s new push for bipartisanship. A key Bush advisor tells the US News Political Bulletin, "Karl represents the old style and he's got to go if the Democrats are going to believe Bush's talk of getting along." The advisor said a departure might come in "weeks, not months."

I can't believe Jebus McLoyalty would do such a thing to his beloved brain. But it would be pretty cool.

- m

Karl Rove busted after removing the 'W's from White House keyboards in a fit of pique.
*****

The failed Pelosi speakership
Dems in disarray as Nancy Shrew has first flop

Sigh... our liberal media at work:

As new Congress organizes, Pelosi backslides on ethics - USA Toady

Crowning majority leader, Democrats are all smiles and bile - the WaComPo

Her own worst enemy: Pelosi loses big on Hoyer-Murtha race - whore and longtime Bush rump swab wHoward Fineman, Newsweak

Murtha-Hoyer debate has raised real questions about Pelosi's judgment - CBS Evening News

US House Democrats split in leadership feud - AFP

Speaker Pelosi tempts disaster - the NY Times

Nancy Pelosi suffers an embarrassing defeat - Rooters

Pelosi rebuffed over her choice for House post - the NY Times again

Meanwhile, it's all bluebirds and butterflies on the other side of the aisle...

Lott gets a second chance - USA Toady

Lott's return to leadership shows party independence from Bush - Bloomberg

GOP set to elevate leadership team - the AP

It's a great morning as House republicans wake up with Boehner - Close enough

House repubs welcome rising Boehner - Kidding

Boehner firmly embraced by GOP - Now I'm just being silly

More here and here.

- m

Pretzelnit McMoran appoints anti-contraception troglodyte as deputy assistant secretary for population affairs

Wow, the Trent Lott Method (see previous post) might actually be considered real "family planning" by the Misadministration's newest appointee to the Department of Health and Human Services:

The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."

Um, since this post oversees the distribution of contraceptives, especially to low-income women, I see a slight conflict of interest here, don't you?

(Fave comment on this from FARK.com: Has he nominated an Amish Secretary of Energy yet?)

--dg

(link via TPM)

Get. Me. The. Brain. Bleach. NOW.

Doughy pantload Jonah Goldberg on Trent Lott's election as Senate Minority Whip:

He was elected precisely because he has the skills a minority whip needs: an intimate knowledge of the institution, and the ability to shake down colleagues for votes. Lott is detail oriented, collegial with an Old World gentility — as well as a certain sexual confidence befitting a former cheerleader at Ole Miss.

Huh? First of all, is he talking about Lott's Southernness when referring to "Old World gentility?" (More code words!) I suspect he means "antebellum world view" instead. And as far as "sexual confidence" relating to male cheerleading at Ole Miss goes. . . well, that's just baffling. Except for maybe Jonah Goldberg, I suggest that associating Trent Lott with sex of any kind would be very effective birth control/STD prevention. Ewww. See? Now you need the brain bleach, too. SORRY.

--dg

Asshat of the week

Rethug Roy Blunt (R-MO), on being elected Minority Whip in the House today:

One-hundred-forty-nine Democrats demonstrated yesterday that they are willing to buck Nancy Pelosi. We’ll work each day to give those Democrats a viable alternative to her liberal, San Francisco agenda.

Okay, all of y'all in the heartland, get out those decoder rings. Lessee. . . "liberal, San Francisco" = gay. But the gay-baiting f*cked y'all over in the election, didn't it?

And what would Blunt's alternative be? The conservative, wife-beating, closeted man-whoring agenda? No, thanks.

--dg

(link via TPM)

Changin' the course
As things continue to go remarkably well in Iraq, four US soldiers were killed in Iraq today, with 10 killed total in past 2 days.

With the insurgents in Iraq increasing their attacks in order to influence the US elections, the Iraq minister says some of the hostages taken during Tuesday's massive kidnapping have been tortured and killed.

As we adapt to win, Awol McJebus wants to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq for "a last big push."

Keepin' us safer bonus: reinvigorated al Qaeda in South Asia.

- m

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!
Nice hooters!

America's Mayor© and republican presidental contender has his boobies greeted by pal Donald Trump.

- m

Sorry, I'm washing my hair that night
Newly elected Congressman tells Bush to bag it.

While his fellow incoming freshman were attending a private White House reception with [Doofie McIdiot] Monday night, Rep.-elect Keith Ellison had what he considered a more important appointment to keep.

"I went to the AFL-CIO reception, because I wanted to meet and greet leaders of labor, and get to know them," Ellison, D-Minn., said Tuesday. "Those are the people who I came here to support."

"It wasn't even a close call," added Ellison.

In a related story, maybe CNN's Glenn Beck - who is white and of German descent - should prove to us all that he's not a fucking Nazi: Beck to Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress: "What I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'" Disgraceful.

- m

Fair und balanced
Leaked Fox News internal memo, written by the network's vice president: “Be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled Congress."

- m

Time for a major bitchslapping
From the WTF were they thinking?? files, Time magazine asks nasty, corrupt, indicted criminal scumbag Tom DeLay - who is so like six months ago - to help pick their person of the year.

Time magazine goofed -- badly -- on Tuesday when it included former congressman Tom DeLay on a panel to discuss the candidates for its annual Time Person of the Year designation.

Time's Person of the Year award is by far the most prestigious and widely discussed year-end prize -- and that's exactly why DeLay shouldn't have been a part of the process.

Tom DeLay? Tom DeLay? What a terrible choice. Think about it. Time couldn't find anyone more suitable than DeLay, a disgraced ex-congressman? Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel introduced DeLay by saying that he'd had "some legal problems in Texas" {Some...legal...problems. He was indicted for criminal charges, not for forgetting to pay a parking ticket. - Ed.} and noted that DeLay personified the power figures in Washington who had been voted out of office.

I don't know, I think a drunken, ex-closeted gay wife-beater would've been a little closer to the mark.

Next in Newsweek: Time editor found in compromising position with Rupert Murdoch's wallet...

- m

Pudgy, impotent gasbag pwns self
How bleating, limpdicked Rush Limbaugh got his comeuppance

In trying to make Michael J Fox look as bad as possible, the hateful, bile-spewing junkie sealed his own doom -

The stem-cell issue had become a pivotal part of Claire McCaskill's campaign in Missouri (and the initiative ultimately passed).

Here is the irony. If Republican Jim Talent had defeated McCaskill, the Republicans would have held on to control of the US Senate. Not only did Limbaugh hurt Talent, he ended up screwing the whole Republican Party.

Heh. Suck it, shitbag.

- m

Rethug values: pressing charges for assault=whining

Grover Norquist is a beacon of morality, as usual:

"Bob Sherwood’s seat [in Pennsylvania] would have been overwhelmingly ours, if his mistress hadn’t whined about being throttled,” said Mr Norquist. Any lessons from the campaign? “Yes. The lesson should be, don’t throttle mistresses.”

Um, I can think of a few different lessons here.

--dg










Kitty can too.

A must-read

The Columbia Journalism Review has posted "Into The Abyss," an oral history of journalists covering the Iraq conflict from the beginning to the present. Some of the reading/listening is completely riveting:

And I went in there thinking that this is probably going to be something like what I saw in Afghanistan, which was cheering crowds and people throwing their turbans off, and everybody happy to see the American forces. And that wasn’t the case at all. To me, it looked like we’d pried the doors off a mental institution, and there were a bunch of people standing around with their jaws hanging open. Some people were absolutely horrified, people were crying, some people were cheering, some people were — you could tell how afraid they were. Some people, you could sense that there was emotion that they didn’t want to express, so they didn’t. There was a lot of uncertainty.

There's much more, and I highly recommend it, especially as an antidote to all the simplistic crap we've been fed about the war by The Decider and the rest of his ilk. They're the ones who really need to read it.

--dg

(thanks to Lex for the link)

Future RNC chair Martinez distributed Schiavo memo

Mel Martinez admits memo detailing political advantages of supporting legislation in the Schiavo case originated from his office.

This is an important moral issue, and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this moral issue. . . . this is a tough issue for Democrats.

I sense a theme here with the Rethugs and their memos. Keep being stupid, y'all!

--dg

CIA says memos linking White House and Justice Dept. to interrogation methods exist

Oh, yeah. And as Andrew says, these will be slightly useful as evidence in the war crimes trials. Someday. I wanna see them, too, don't you?

--dg

From the Department of "Duh! But it's nice to have (still more) proof."

Leaked Fox "News" memo shows plan to spin post-election news in support of Rethug talking points, proves (once again) that Fox is an organ of the Central Committee. . . er, a Rethug mouthpiece:

The elections and Rumsfeld's resignation were a major event, but not the end of the world. The war on terror goes on without interruption.

"Yup, good thing we'uns still got that war on terror, otherwise we'd have nuthin' to scare people with." Asshats.

--dg

Senate votes to reinstate Iraq corruption watchdog
The same one the party of integrity and accountability tried to kill just last week or so.

The Senate voted on Tuesday not to shitcan the federal agency responsible for tracking waste and fraud in Iraq reconstruction projects. The office has focused on problems involving companies such as Dick Cheney's "former" company Halliburton, which routinely hid information about its work in Iraq from the public by lying about it.

- m

"Stupid fucking Senate..."
*****