Torturing The Truth

Naughty, naughty. The crew without a clue continues to make the news long after they should have ridden off into the sunset. Condieliesalot gets caught in a biggie and is the first one being thrown under the bus, who could have foreseen that?  Oh well, you lie down with dogs, you're bound to get a few fleas.  Can you shop for shoes when you're in jail?

In written testimony she lied to the Senate Armed Services Committee and stated that she couldn't recall any specific details about the CIA requesting permission to use alternative interrogation techniques when she had already given verbal permission for waterboarding. 

According to the new narrative, which compiles legal advice provided by the Bush administration to the CIA, Rice personally conveyed the administration's approval for waterboarding of Zubaydah, a so-called high-value detainee, to then-CIA Director George Tenet in July 2002.

Last fall, Rice acknowledged to the Senate Armed Services Committee only that she had attended meetings where the CIA interrogation request was discussed and asked for the attorney general to conduct a legal review. She said she did not recall details. Rice omitted her direct role in approving the program in her written statement to the committee.

A spokesman for Rice declined comment when reached Wednesday.

I'll bet they have a comment, it just can't be printed.

It's a good thing we defeated the Taliban when we did.  Otherwise they might have gotten stronger and be on the verge of taking over Pakistan and its nuclear weapons.  Does anybody really think that getting Saddam Hussein and the mythical WMDs was more important than getting Osama bin Forgotten?  Or that it made the world safer for democracy?  I think not and no matter how many times Cheney, who should be waterboarded until he STFU, says that Obama is making the United States less safe it will not change the fact that Bush and Cheney didn't capture bin Laden, they didn't defeat the Taliban, they didn't secure Afghanistan and now Pakistan is tumbling into the abyss.  Good job boys, I feel safer already.  Not.

Excuse me?  Somebody needs to reread the definition of evil.

Releasing the Justice memos opened a door and the contents repulsed many people. But these were not evil men who drafted the memos. These were not evil people who carried out the methods authorized by them. They were our fellow citizens who were trying to protect us from the real evildoers.

And they did a bang up job, didn't they?  Too bad they didn't start working until after the damage was done.  Perhaps if they had paid attention to a briefing memo entitled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" or followed up on either of the two Clinton plans for al-Qaeda instead of dismissing their concerns as "chicken little" alarmists or ignoring the warnings from intelligence agencies all around the world we wouldn't have traveled to the dark side and compromised everything that America stood for.

I want my country back, with its head held high and our ethics intact.

BBB

Union Of The Snake

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much we interfere in other country's dealings that within a short amount of time they revert to their old ways?  We went to war with Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban and to capture Osama bin Laden.  Seven years later and the Taliban are back in power and threatening us without impunity.  And that crap about improving the lives of women?  It was just that.  Crap.  Afghanistan's freely elected President, Hamid Karzai, rushed a bill through Parliament whose only goal was to keep him in office until they have their next election.  Most world leaders wouldn't put pen to paper and legalise the rape of women, restrict their access to courts, and approve child marriage in this day and age but that didn't stop Mr. Karzai.  Oh no, he rushed the bill through without it being read out loud or debated by the Parliament.  And we keep supporting this guy. You know it's bad when Saddam Hussein had more respect for women.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We get the picture, things haven't changed much since the last Depression.  Corporations, banks and Wall Street are the winners and their employees are the losers.  And will stay that way.  In the waiting line. 

For a country that revolves around its citizens buying things we aren't going to last very long if a majority of the people are unemployed and stuck in places that don't have enough jobs for the amount of people who would like one and therefore can't afford to buy anything.  If people can't afford housing, food or clothes, how can they afford a new car or a refrigerator for the house they no longer have?  The recovery needs to start at the bottom, the top has had help for years and look at the mess they made.  Not that they're suffering.  Yet.

This is my issue with working for a corporate employer.  They require that you be at work at a certain time, eat and sleep at a certain time, dress a certain way, behave according to their rules and that if you break them, you can be dismissed.  For complying they promise to pay you a certain wage on a predetermined schedule and years ago they offered benefits such as a steady job, health insurance, vacation and sick pay and a pension after committing a large percentage of your life to the company.

In the eighties they started spending company money to move production to another country to save costs and increase profits.  When they figured out that the people they laid off could no longer afford their products they didn't discipline the people who had exhibited faulty judgment by eliminating the consumer base, they laid off more people in the States and moved production to even poorer countries where they wouldn't have to pay benefits or worry about workplace conditions and could still give the almighty shareholders their precious dividends and executives received bonuses.  Then they set about systematically dismantling the pension and health insurance for the people who had already fulfilled their end of the bargain and worked faithfully for them for years by claiming that they couldn't afford to keep the deals they made with the employees.  And then the Bush administration shifted large sums of money from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to the already unstable stock market.  End result?  The elderly will eat dog food and ketchup or die of starvation or they can hang on until winter when they can freeze to death.  The middle aged live in their cars and earn just enough to eat a mini meal at Mickey D's once a day and the youth wander the streets aimlessly with no hope for the future and see crime as their only way of getting ahead.  I know I'm a cynic but what's next?  Lining the homeless up against a wall and shooting them so the rich aren't offended by all those lazy people?

At one time we were the greatest country in the world and now all we have is faded glory.  The rich don't notice, they are too busy vacationing or buying homes in other countries while ensuring that they pay less and less to the country that made it possible for them to be a success.  Heck, they even adopt kids from poor countries while forgetting about the ones in the land of their birth. The sad part is that those who aren't rich don't mind getting help to cut their own throat because they no longer have the skills to think critically, question authority before it goes too far and are willing to be spoon fed economic pablum by the pundits instead of looking at their own circumstances and seeing how screwed they are.

We may not be watching Rollerball but American Idol, Survivor and Dancing With The Stars make a nice substitute, don't they?

BBB

1055 Dead, The Majority Were Not Soldiers

I am not an anti-Semite.  Some of my best friends are Jewish, (I've always wanted to use some line just like that), but what I am is anti war.  I don't care  how you dress it up, when you invade another country and the kill rate is 40% women and children as collateral damage, that's not antisemitism and it certainly isn't pikuach nefesh, that's an attempt at genocide.  White phosphorus bombs?  After the napalm photo from Vietnam there is no excuse for using such weapons.  Against any one, including the UN.  But the part in the Bible about turning the other cheek must be in the New Testament and only apply to people who really believe in Jesus' teachings.  Wars don't demonstrate who's right or wrong, but who's left standing.  In other words, history is written by the winners.

Palestine had democratic elections as the world demanded and they mistakenly elected a party the powers that rule the world didn't approve of, therefore that party isn't legitimate and it's okay to indiscriminately kill people until they change their evil ways.  Too bad the world didn't use that same logic against, Bush, Mugabe or Chavez. Chavez at the moment is relatively insulated against being invaded by the US in its pursuit for oil so the rich don't have to change their lifestyle.  And to Elizabeth Wurtzel, all I have to say is waah, waah, waah.  You can't dress up killing civilians on a regular basis and not be compared to a regime that did the same.  Behave like an advanced human instead of an angry monkey and maybe "normal" people might think you have a valid point.

But to communicate with anyone I think of as right-minded (and left-leaning) in any other part of the world is to experience the purest antisemitism since the Nazi era. In fact, in Europe right now, it is de rigueur to liken the current regime in Israel with the Nazi party, and to view the experience of the Palestinians as a form of ethnic cleansing. Hamas and Hezbollah are thought by the French and British to be social welfare organizations, and Israel is viewed as a terrorist state. Here, we honor the linguistic discoveries of Noam Chomsky and otherwise experience him as a quaintly brilliant crank, but in the bookstores in London there are entire sections devoted to his political thought – and he is read as if the distinctions between Leninist and Trotskyite philosophy had genuine consequence in today's world.

And if you don't want to go to Europe because of the negative feelings towards Americans since the Iraq war, imagine how angry Europeans are right now with this even larger injustice building in their back yard.  Perhaps, just maybe, God should have chosen the Jewish homeland and not some politicians from Great Britain and the United States who didn't think about the results of displacing the Palestinians who had lived there for thousands of years since God kicked the Jewish people out the last time for disrespecting his rules. Or whatever reason God determined they should wander homeless.

Any way you look at it, killing children only breeds more generational hatred and hasn't there been enough of that in the world?  And please tell me that the goal was not to have Osama been Forgotten to declare a holy war over Gaza.  2012 will be here soon enough.

BBB

I'm Back, Sort Of

I've been pretty depressed as well as stressed to post lately.  First let me say thank you to Missouri Mule, a beautiful person who helped me through my darkening times.  You pack one heckuva kick and I was glad to be on the receiving end.  Thank you and may you be repaid in kind for the rest of your life.  There are good people on the planet and you are one of the best.  The same goes for the Omnipotent Poobah,  Ponzo and my other anonymous donor. Thank you all for your efforts.   I'm still drowning, but several people have thrown lifelines to delay the inevitable and I don't feel completely alone. 

Speaking of the inevitable, the campaigning or the false suspension of campaigning (the poor widdle baby), the mudslinging and the avoidance of reality continues.    If there is going to be a $700 billion bailout, couldn't we try the trickle up effect?  Please.  Just once to see what it's like?  You know the one where you give every man, woman and child $2500 and they spend it on things they need to.  Like paying the mortgage, going to the doctor instead of the emergency room, catching up on late credit card payments, putting food on the table and buying kids stuff for the next school year.  Maybe a few companies could start building things in America so we aren't constantly buying things from the international discount store.   Because the trickle down effect doesn't seem to have trickled down far enough.

A tropical storm watch in Maine, what a concept.  Somehow when I think of the tropics, Maine doesn't spring to mind.  Tell that to Hurricane Kyle.

Did you know that 2 x 43,112,609 -1 is important?  No it's not how many voters there are for McCain or Obama, it's the new Mersenne prime number. Thirteen million digits.  Now if they could only find Osama bin Laden.

As much as Jehovah's Witnesses are despised, this is one thing that you will never catch them doing.  And for two reasons.  One, they don't participate in politics and two, they believe that you have to live by laws of the country you reside in.  Or as it was explained to me by one of the elders many years ago, that includes even little things like driving the speed limit or cheating on your taxes.  Pastors are supposed to be preaching the word of God, not their interpretation of it and most certainly not to use his name to support a candidate.  It's against the law in this country and then there are those pesky Ten Commandments.  Republicans have gotten so used to breaking the thou shalt not kill, steal, bear false witness or commit adultery commandments, that breaking a few more is no big deal.  Sort of like our former Bill of Rights.  False idols and no other god before me, how quaint.  And we see how they honor their fathers and mothers by reducing any benefits and treating them like parasites because they are living longer than previous generations.  Methuselah would be in a world of hurt if he was alive today.

The Google is at it again.  On the good side they have come out against Proposition 8 and on the dark side they are supporting a bill that removes the copyright protections for cartoonists, songwriters, artists and photographers.  It's called the Orphan Works bill and it is being hotlined behind the closed doors of Congress and will likely be tacked on to the bailout bill with little notice or discussion from the public.

3Bs

I Am Sorrow

Seven years and two wars later and they are going to try new efforts to find the forgotten one.  I will be almost amazed when they find Osama bin Laden just before the election.  There will be celebrations, ticker tape confetti and dancing in the street.  News anchors will have tears of joy in their eyes and all but a few of us will realize that this could have been accomplished seven years ago, but they didn't need the political capital then.  The American people are easily mesmerized by shiny objects and artificial intelligence, aren't they?

Speaking of War Games, mom and I were watching War Games: The Dead Code and I wondered why they didn't bring back John Wood as the original Dr. Stephen Falken. John was responsible for uttering one of my favorite lines as the Bishop of Aquila (there were a few) in one of my favorite movies.  Ladyhawke, one of the most romantic action movies ever made.  I heartily recommend it.  Alfred Molina has a bit part, one just a little bigger than his part in Raiders of the Lost Ark. These lines came straight from the Bishop's mouth right after he watches his mistress dance and Marquet gives his report.

We live in difficult times Marquet.  The famine has prevented the people from paying their proper tribute to the Church.  I raise their taxes only to be told there is nothing left for me to tax.  Imagine.

Gee, that sounds just like today except the church has been traded for corporations. 

Wow, I just found out I could watch a movie and blog at the same time.  I really should explore more of the capabilities of my Mac.  Speaking of which, even though I can't pay for rent or gas, I want the new iTouch.

Obviously, I am a true American.

BBB

Is The Week Over Yet?

When I have money, I shop for groceries and every week I've noticed that prices are up.  Not by a nickel or a dime, but by 30 to 50 cents.  Per item.  My income is fixed, which means I only have a certain amount to spend on food and it is forcing me to compromise on the quality of food that I serve my mother.  Fortunately my garden is growing.  So, how do you know when the Green Zebras are ripe?

The serranos are coming along nicely, the Early Girls are ripening beautifully and I finally have a few green beans.

Talk about emboldening your enemies.  Leaving Iraq is considered to be cutting and running, but this isn't? Afghanistan is blowing up in our faces, just like the 60 Minutes report from a few months ago that those on the hardly ever right labeled as lies and bashing the troops.  I'll be really glad when the mission is accomplished.  Whatever that mission is, because it certainly isn't about capturing Osama been Forgotten or eliminating al-Qaeda influence



Sometimes it seems like the bastion of hope and freedom that was called the United States is just a dwindling light in the rear view mirror.



The American people don't seem to learn from their mistakes.  With approval of Congress at an all time low what did the Democrats of Georgia do?  They reelected every one of their incumbents.  The people who have consistently voted against their constituents interests are free to do damage for another two years.  America isn't interested in change, it's interested in maintaining the status quo so it won't have to think.  Reminds me of the Distinguished Gentleman.



Not that the media here in the US would report it fairly, so the BBC has a handy list of some of the McCain/Obama flip-flops. 



BBB

Meanwhile, We Watch And Do Nothing

It is past time for Mugabe to go. Preferably to hell. He and his supporters make Saddam Hussein look like a school boy and considering how he was demonized... Cutting off an opponents wife's feet and a hand and then burning her alive is so far past cruel that I can't believe it really happened. But it did and it wasn't the first time. The week before they burnt a 21 year old pregnant woman to death because her husband dared to stand up to the regime. Harassment by the police is making it difficult for anyone to oppose Mugabe's government, especially if you keep getting arrested for running.

Our lovely Pakistani allies executed a woman they accused of being both a US spy and a prostitute. They say it was the Taliban but after seven years why are there any still around, much less in another country that is supposed to be on our side?

The envy, oh the envy. Other countries get to execute minors and you know the death penalty proponents are jealous. Albeit too soon to use it for the election and won't be considered the least bit hypocritical. If McCain, Kristol, Bush and Cheney have their way, all of Iran will pay for their crimes. As if the crew without a clue needed an excuse to step in and bomb Iran back to the Stone Age. I thought that was what was supposed to happen in Afghanistan, but it got forgotten along with Osama bin Laden. Not enough oil.

Laura Bush is pledging $10.2B for Afghanistan. Was this at the behest of the House of Representatives or has something else been changed in our Constitution without the hassle of being amended? I guess the people of New Orleans should move to Afghanistan if they expect to get any help instead of living under a bridge while supplies get stored in a warehouse at the cost of $1 million a year. And are then given away to states other than Louisiana. Because FEMA didn't think that New Orleans needed any more help. I guess selling one's home at a loss because you can't get back is standard operating procedure. So much for an ownership society. Or a Christian nation.

3Bs

Random Thoughts

Who cares? That's not the point. We were promised dead or alive and so far we have neither. Which is typical of the crew without a clue, never finish a job while you can make excuses for why it doesn't need to be done. They must think we are stupid as they are deceitful.

Haloscan is having issues. Or maybe it's Blogger. Methinks it's Haloscan.

No kidding. Military tribunals aren't working? JAG has only been off the air for a few years, but these show trials have never been about justice, they've been about revenge. Against people who have already met their maker so there must be someone who pays.

Like this guy. Poor schmuck might as well be at Gitmo for all the justice he isn't getting. Wow, prosecutors can openly defy the Supreme Court and that bastion of conservatism seems to think he's innocent. The prosecutors are determined to have him die in jail, that way they won't have to find the real killer.

Waterpipe tobacco smoking isn't safer than smoking cigarettes. Are they sure the kids were smoking tobacco? That isn't the usual drug of choice for a bong waterpipe. Or at least it wasn't when I was that age.

Oh boy, another smoking gun. Too bad it isn't on an episode of CSI or Law and Order because someone would be going to jail. A lot of someones. I guess the big house is only for the little people.

Gee, I'm not alone. Being multi-racial is the way of the future, only designer babies will have all the recessive genes. While the almost never right worries about illegal immigrants, the natives are changing the landscape to a more colorful version.

Sweetest Line Of The Morning

Not because of what he did but because now almost every news story can start in much the same way.

"Bush will lay the wreath at Arlington National Cemetary for the last time."

May there be more last times for Bush, he's caused enough of them for everybody else. 4082 families from the useless war in Iraq. So far. And how the heck can Americans remember their war dead if he keeps hiding them from public view? Bush only trots out the proper sentiment on holidays, the rest of the year he is too busy making sure that the survivors have no benefits when they get out, that they can't afford college or a home, and that they have no other choice but to stay in until they die.

Then while they are out doing their duty, Bush cuts food stamps for their families, closes hospitals near their homes, refuses to help with the foreclosures caused by severe decrease in income for the Reserves and the National Guard, and at the same time eviscerates the education system for young people in the hope that they will have no other choice but to be the next sacrificial victims veterans in the "war on terror".

Bush is a president that has ignored the will of the people; let a major U.S. city drown while he vacationed and that was after he let New York and Washington D.C., the supposed seat of our government, be attacked; regards the Constitution as "a piece of paper"; illegally spies on American citizens; flaunts his stupidity on a daily basis as he condones torture and asks people to go shopping instead of rebuilding our country's infrastructure and reclaiming our place in the world by fixing ourselves first before trying to remove a perceived splinter from countries who haven't asked for our "help". He's a colossal failure who continues to make things worse in an effort to leave behind a legacy without realizing he has already done so.

It's Memorial Day and the only person I want to be remembering is Osama bin Laden, swinging from a gallows pole.


He should have some company, like those who could be convicted of war crimes but will likely escape any earthly penance and continually wonder why history (if we have one) is so unkind to them.

So please, let's start as many stories about Bush as we can with for the last time.

BBB

I Won't Back Down

The never ending election disgusts and disheartens me. The news is pitiful, just pitiful. And depressing. Thousands of people have died in the last few weeks from Mother Nature's influence and they barely get air time, but some candidate stubbed a toe and our nation needs to kiss the boo boo or the world as we know it will come to an end. Now, if someone could prove that it was a terrorist plot for all those poor people who weren't contributing anything to the US economy to die, that would be front page news. With its own catchy phrase. And whatever happened to missing blond women? They must be with Osama been Forgotten since we haven't heard from any in a while.

My birthday is coming up next week and I have no way to celebrate and nothing to really celebrate. I'm usually happy that of all the people born on the same day, I'm still here. Now all I can think is BFD. I've given up so much to take care of my mom, that I never had a life and by the time she's gone, I won't have the energy to start one of my own.

I joke about how other people's grandkids are going to be responsible for paying off our generation's debt, but it really isn't funny, it's pathetic. I'm in pain, have no money for groceries (the garden won't be producing for a few more weeks) and I'm pretty sure that E does not mean enough on the gas gauge. I try to keep this song in the back of my head but it's getting harder every day.


Plus, they canceled New Amsterdam and a few other shows I enjoyed watching. The replacements look really boring. I am so tired.

3Bs

Go Figure

Baby boomers are leaving California because it's too expensive to retire here and Hispanics prefer Texas to California because it's too expensive to live here. Proving that other regions of the country don't have a lock on prejudice, the commenters want to blame the Hispanics for the state's financial woes. Oh, and the taxes that they have to pay. I remember the seventies and the taxes were higher. Of course we had good roads and even better schools. Hmm, do you suppose there's a connection?

While people are enamored with the Time 100 Most Influential People (Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Peter Gabriel, Mia Farrow and Andrea Agassi are listed under Heroes and Pioneers, not entertainers. Weird.), Electronic House has its Home Of The Year and the runners up available for viewing. They look a little different from my castle. To say the least.

This is so not right. Seven tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart but he's still dead. No Osama in return. No mission accomplished either in Iraq or Afghanistan and our military is so stretched we have to send our troops seven times in seven years. My condolences to Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell's family, may he rest in peace.

Considering the trillion dollars that have been wasted in Iraq, the six billion wasted on a stupid educational program that didn't work doesn't sound like much. Unless the goal is to turn teachers and students into unthinking automatons. Reading may be fundamental but math basics seem to escape this administration.

BBB

Monday Morning Observations

So Robert Gates doesn't believe the Air Fore is doing enough to help the war effort. He says he wants more drones. It's nice to know that with all that expensive training the pilots are reduced to the equivalent of playing video games. What he really wants are more bodies to stop bullets and IEDs because he's running out of criminals and gang members and as he says, the outcome is still in doubt.

"In my view we can do and we should do more to meet the needs of men and women fighting in the current conflicts while their outcome may still be in doubt," he said. "My concern is that our services are still not moving aggressively in wartime to provide resources needed now on the battlefield."

No wonder a Navy officer would rather take a less than honorable discharge than to go into a battle zone they aren't ready for. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the disconnect continues. After watching 60 Minutes last night it is glaringly obvious that the longer we are at war, the more coordinated and dangerous the enemy becomes. And as is typical of the never right wing commenters, they believe the story of the Green Berets is either: propaganda because it is two years old and we're in an election year; Laura Logan is smarmy and condescending (news people aren't supposed to be warm and caring, that's what Oprah is for); or that it's all lies. As if closing your eyes and covering your ears will change the fact that the Taliban are learning how to coordinate attacks and are willing to sacrifice hundreds at a time to rid the country of intruders. If we had found Osama been Forgotten seven years ago we wouldn't be in this mess. Seven years and we're back at the starting point. Minus a few hundred troops and the original objective is nowhere in sight.

Oh boy, you just know fees are going to go up.

Who didn't see this coming? Relief agencies and charities are being overwhelmed by the increasing amount of people who need their services.

“It started increasing, and it just became overwhelming,” said Maxwell Amsong, a professionally trained chef who oversees food services at the nonprofit Christian mission, which served about 16,000 clients last month, a 23 percent rise over March 2007.

The story is retold over and over: 40 percent more clients for the Salvation Army in Panama City, Fla.; 20 percent more for Urban Ministries of Raleigh, N.C.; almost 200 percent more for the Community Ministries Food Pantry in Boise, Idaho.

It’s a double whammy. At the same time that the sagging economy is producing more mouths for relief agencies to feed, it is also drying up donations to help feed them.

Muslims want to adopt Mecca time instead of Greenwich Mean Time because they think Mecca is the center of the earth. I guess Miller time is out of the question.

All About The Benjamins

Some people are plainly delusional. The Iraq war has had no effect on our economic woes? Is he serious? I'm all for finding and punishing Osama been Forgotten but we aren't doing that. We are wasting lives and precious resources in our foolish pursuit of whatever this week's excuse for being there is and we have had to borrow billions to do it. Generations after us will be paying for the economic policies of the last eight years and we continue to run up the bill. Bailing out corporations is okay but helping the average American worker isn't. What is okay is to lower their hourly wage to levels that won't sustain a middle class. And the more money you try to save (if you're saving any), the more businesses will go out of business and even more people will be unemployed.

Mass murder on a global scale. Not bombs, gasses or bullets, just a lack of food. It's no longer known as starvation, it's called food insecurity. What's going to be insecure are governments who don't look out for the welfare of their people.

But they do look out for the welfare of the rich. The rich don't feel guilty about being rich, they feel guilty about being seen as rich. Of course their lavish lifestyles prevent them from hiding their largesse but I'm sure they'll find some way to justify it. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic is an apt description of the direction we are headed.

Remember when doctors were rich? Heck, remember when you could get into see your doctor when you needed them? Doctor shortages are in our future. Our near future.

Happy day.

In What World Is This Right?

JollyRoger tagged me with an E award, so I thought I'd start this morning's posting with a rant about how the Marines still don't have Mine Resistant Armored Vehicles after five (5) freaking YEARS of war in Iraq, where most of the soldiers lost have been from IEDs. To say nothing of using up resources needed for the fight in Afghanistan where they have to scrounge around for everything in order to conduct the search for Osama been forgotten, the supposed perpetrator of 9/11. Too bad Bush forgot about avenging the deaths of people who were just going to work in his rush to get revenge for some perceived slight to his father. The power of the Presidency is supposed to be used to benefit the American people, not settle childhood issues. If the bozos who pass for Generals and Commanders (as in chief) nowadays were in charge during WWII, we would be speaking German on one coast and Japanese on the other.

Without the technology of today, in the 1940s they were able to effectively build ships, artillery, airplanes and anything else that was needed to fight two successful campaigns on opposite sides of the world and get the job done in less time than we have spent in Iraq. And that's not counting the previous two years of practice warfare in Afghanistan that we've botched so badly that some Afghanis believe that we are allied with the Taliban.

Eventually the haze of bemused anger clears and then I remember, oh yeah, we used to make things back then. Things that could be touched and used, not bought and sold as "futures". There were working steel mills and oil companies that had the country's best interests at heart, instead of their bottom line and how much they should give their shareholders.

Since then, we've come a long way baby. Unfortunately, most of it has been downhill with nothing to show for it except obscene profits by companies who would rather locate their businesses offshore to avoid paying taxes to their country or wages and benefits to their workers.

Meanwhile, our soldiers are dying because they can't get good, dependable equipment. Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?

3Bs

Family Values

In my family, lying was not tolerated. Neither was fudging the truth or playing one parent against the other. Penalties were swift and harsh, ensuring that we never made the same mistake again. Unfortunately, the crew without a clue who are currently running the country into the ground weren't raised in the same way. It's sad how with all of their education they are still ruled by their reptilian brains.

Feith told Jeffrey Goldberg in The New Yorker that “My family got wiped out by Hitler, and ... all this stuff about working things out — well, talking to Hitler to resolve the problem didn’t make any sense to me. The kind of people who put bumper stickers on their car that declare that ‘War is not the answer,’ are they making a serious comment? What’s the answer to Pearl Harbor? What’s the answer to the Holocaust?”

And Osama been Forgotten (again!) doesn't make the list? What's up with that? Meanwhile in secret prisons around the world we were using and filming torture excuse me, enhanced interrogation techniques, on people who were severely wounded by gunfire and people think it's okay because their prison wasn't specifically mentioned by a judge? If it's wrong in one prison, it's wrong in every other. Dad didn't let us split hairs like that.

The CIA destroyed the tapes in November 2005. That June, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. had ordered the Bush administration to safeguard "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay."

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a nearly identical order that July.

At the time, that seemed to cover all detainees in U.S. custody. But Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the terrorism suspects whose interrogations were videotaped and then destroyed, weren't at Guantanamo Bay. They were prisoners that existed off the books — and apparently beyond the scope of the court's order.

Ahh, the humanity. Or lack thereof. What bothers me the most about this is that it was so widespread. So many people went along with the program, never questioning themselves or their orders but all too willing to put to the question anybody that fit a certain profile. By deciding that people were guilty and trying to get information by any means necessary to confirm their suspicions, any moral high ground was lost to the dustbins of history. Just like every other debacle of this Bush league administration, no one could have anticipated that the truth would eventually come out.

Well, it's out now and even some of Bush's staunchest supporters are willing to question the administration's behavior.

House minority leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters yesterday that he supports a thorough congressional inquiry.

"I think that we need to get to the bottom of why the tapes were made, why they were destroyed, under what authority were they made, and under what authority were they destroyed," Boehner said.

I'm thinking of teaching Shadow some doggie tricks, now all I have to do is figure out how to use the Demowienies ability to roll over and play dead as an example.

3Bs

Humanity Is Lacking

I want my country back. If you are captured in the war on terror, then you should be considered a prisoner of war and entitled to all the legal protections thereof. Unless the country you happen to offend is America, in which case you can count on justice denied. Sort of like one of those third world countries we used to feel superior to.

A man tries to kill himself by slicing his throat open with a sharpened fingernail after being held at Gitmo for over six years where only 80 of the 305 prisoners are actually suspected of committing a crime and the Supreme Court has doubts about whether these guys should be receiving adequate representation and due process? They can't see or call witnesses that can help them, they don't know the evidence against them and they have been there for many years without a trial. Why is there even a debate? One might think that the United States thinks that God died and crowned us king and that everyone who isn't melanin impaired is just an animal deserving to be caged or put down. Except that we give our animals more respect.

Breathing while black definitely has disadvantages. Not only are you ten times more likely to spend time in prison, but over 52% of people polled believe that the death penalty is most appropriately used on black people. There is no polite way to say this, but the US is a fucked up country.

How did we fall so far, so fast? How did the "United States" turn into a squabbling, fearful of our own shadow, whiny, blubbering ball of cowardice? It isn't the fault of some long haired, bearded nutjob on the other side of the world, that would be what used to be the free press and our current form of government masquerading as compassionate conservatism. They've done a wonderful job of changing the land of the free into the home of the incarcerated.

Next thing you know they'll make it illegal to defend anyone of color.

In Memoriam

It's amazing how easy it was to dismantle the foundations and freedoms that this country was built on. As someone pointed out, nowadays it's always 1984 in America.

More recently, there has been the post 9/11 creation of a virtual avalanche of legislation and commissions designed to protect the country at the expense of the Bill of Rights. The two Patriot Acts of 2001 and 2006 and the Military Commission Act or 2006 have collectively limited constitutional rights to free speech, freedom of association, freedom from illegal search, the right to habeas corpus, prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, and freedom from the illegal seizure of private property. The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments in the Bill of Rights have all been disregarded in the rush to make it easier to investigate people, put them in jail, and torture them if necessary. A recent executive order of July 17th, 2007 goes even farther, authorizing the President to seize the property of anyone who "Threatens Stabilization Efforts in Iraq." The government's own Justice Department decides what constitutes "threatening stabilization efforts" and the order does not permit a challenge to the information that the seizure is based on.

One would have thought that the systematic dismantling of the Constitution of the United States would have been enough to satisfy even the most Jacobin neoconservative, but there is more on the horizon, and it is coming from people who call themselves Democrats. The mainstream media has made no effort to inform the public of the impending Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. The Act, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Jane Harman of California, was passed in the House by an overwhelming 405 to 6 vote on October 24th and is now awaiting approval by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is headed by Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. It is believed that approval by the committee will take place shortly, to be followed by passage by the entire Senate.

Whatever. We are so screwed and the majority doesn't even notice. Or care. Why do I get the feeling that Osama been forgotten laughs a little more each day?

A little music to remind you how easy it is for things to change. The focus is bad, but the song rocks!



Or how about this one from a little earlier?

Mission Unaccomplished

As Iraq stands down, Afghanistan steps up. Anyway you look at it, American troops are dying in record numbers in campaigns that supposedly had been won. As in declared victory, mission accomplished, that sort of thing. A sophisticated, coordinated ambush. What's up with that? And where is that Osama guy?

Then there are the injured and the reservists. Brought home and forgotten. Their lives shattered as well as their bodies, minds and spirits. A blip in the news for a few days and on to the next big scandal.

Ouch! And I thought I had a low opinion of the West Coast Lieberman, but someone called chastegoddess ventured this opinion after learning that our Demowienie "senator" was going to vote with the Republicans on telecom immunity.

Feinstein's recent votes are no surprise to me. I lived in San Francisco before, during and after her tenure as mayor, and I know from first-hand observation that she is one of the best politicians money can buy. That woman would put her own people back in concentration camps if she thought the Nazi vote would help her career or bank account.

Guantanamo by the numbers. With an average weight gain of 20 pounds, they are being fed very well. The other stats aren't as funny.

Swede Potato Soup with Fried Spaghetti Squash and Toasted Pepitas. Don't let the name fool you, it's a vegan soup. Made with rutabagas. One of these days I just might try it.

Monday Morning Blues

Alameda County police are going to start scanning the irises of sex offenders and collect them in another database. It sounds good until you realize that with very little effort, people's rights are being infringed upon and terminated. Just being a passenger in a car will be considered a good enough reason to scan you.

"The way the technology is evolving, there will be a hand-held camera in six months," Melley said. In the future, he said, "an officer will be able to have a hand-held iris recognition scanner on his or her belt, and as part of a routine traffic stop could simply ask the driver and/or passengers to look into the camera."

In other news designed to increase hysteria, there is more to this story than meets the eye. In this day and age there is very little about childbirth that isn't managed to the nth degree. Her doctor had to have known throughout the pregnancy that she was a Witness and should have been prepared. For the story to say that she died because she refused blood is irresponsible. I'm not a Witness and I also refuse blood transfusions, they could have made plans beforehand.

Bush doesn't care one whit about what Congress, the nation or anyone else thinks. Like most megalomaniacs he believe that he's right and everybody else is wrong. Vetoes, signing statements and executive orders are the way he subverts the Constitutional process and the people's will. There won't be much in the way of a recognizable Republic when he gets done. Obviously, just the way he wants it.

Is our economy in trouble? If it isn't, why are rap stars starting to use Euros in their videos? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Back to the whittling down of the former Bill of Rights. The government position on email seems to be that if you sent it, then the government has the right to read it because you have no expectation of privacy since you used and ISP. How else is it supposed to arrive at its destination and why would I think that if I've addressed it one individual that others should read it along the way?

Iris scanning, GPS locators, illegal tapping of phones and people turning in other people because they are scared and suspicious of their own shadow. They think terrorists are everyone but them. If you suspect something you should report it. Now, who thinks that they are safe? If someone on the street doesn't like the way you look or act, you could find yourself in jail and having to defend yourself against accusations that are nowhere near the truth. Meanwhile, Osama sits halfway across the world laughing at how little it took to disrupt our freedoms and force a change in our way of life. To something a little closer to the Taleban model.

How Much Longer?

Bush definitely needs a muzzle to go with his straitjacket. He should only speak when spoken to and in monosyllabic words only. He has run roughshod over this country for way too long and every single one of his appointments has been surrounded by controversy, lies, half-truths, deceptions and a belief that the average (not a corporation or rich) American citizen is stupider than he is. If he ever leaves office, there won't be much of a free country left. But that seems to be the plan, doesn't it?

Almost two years ago I wrote a little post called "Scalia Believes Lethal Injection Is Illegal", it's nice to see that I was right. The death penalty needs to be abolished. Completely. Then the crew without a clue can decide that they can use all the prisoners who would have been on Death Row to fight out of control forest fires, volunteer for scary medical experiments or anything else that is considered dangerous to law abiding citizens. Just sayin'.

Snowflake memos are unlike their namesakes because they are all the same. The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Or, do your best to terrify the American people into becoming warmongering soulless zombies in fear of everything and everyone who isn't exactly like themselves. Batshit crazy and he wants everybody else to be like him.

It's Iraq, Stupid. So true but you wouldn't know it from the debates, actions of the candidates or the press. Let's make war on another country since we can't finish the last two we started. Anybody know where that Osama guy is going to escape from the next opportunity to capture or kill him? Kill as many innocent people as you can instead of the one that deserves to pay. Nice political strategy. For a fool.