His Brilliant Career -- Aussie Star Shane Warne to Retire -- Takes 700th Wicket Against England's Strauss

Shane Warne. Best wicket-taker EVER. Spin bowler extraordinaire.

Finishing out his brilliant career by clean-bowling top-order batsman Andrew Strauss, to take his 700th wicket at Melbourne.

Warne most recently helped to annihilate England in recent The Ashes test, which Australia won, 3-0, to regain The Ashes for Australia.

GOOD ON YA, WARNIE!

One should perhaps take this opportunity to admit that one's first introduction to cricket came through a wonderful Indian film called "Lagaan" ("Taxes") set in Colonial India, which featured a great cricket match, sudden outbreaks of song and dance, ladies cavorting in monsoon-dampened saris, and snarky portraits of evil, bad-tempered, racist imperialist Brits.

But it was the incomparable Aussie series "Kath & Kim"'s incomparable Sharon Strzelecki who taught me about Warnie and The Flipper.

One has never been the same.




Sydney Morning Heraldhere.
Shane Warne to retire
The Ashes

Merry Tibetan Buddhist Christmas

Peace on earth, good will to men.


May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness,

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May all beings never be apart from the great happiness free from suffering.

May all beings remain in the great evenness of mind
free from passion, aggression and ignorance.



(This means you, too, George).

Special Christmas hat-tip to Buddhist Jihad.

Power & Control Abuser Bush Insults Senator Webb & His Marine Son (Then WH Spreads That Smear All Around Like Bushist Fascist Holiday Cheer)

It was bad enough when Bubble Boy was caught talking with his mouth full.

It was worse when he was caught chewing with his mouth open. Feh.

It was even worse when he was caught sexually harrassing the female Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. (As if she were his pet cow, he came up on her from behind, touching her, touching her without permission, then flounced off as if nothing had happened, to minimize his invasion of another person's physical boundaries. When was the last time Bush gave Poison Putin an unwanted touch? Or Kofi Annan? Ahmadinejad?)

The worst of all was when was Bush was caught -- without any WMDs.
600K dead, no WMDs, oops, sorry.

Bush is always getting caught with his pants down, one way or another, is he not?

This time, Bush was caught trying to exert power and control over the free speech of a newly-elected Senator, one whose own son is now serving in Iraq.

(Unlike Preznit Toad-Exploder's two adult daughters, neither of whom is serving in Iraq, and both of whom remain unemployed slackers at age 25, never having had a real job in their whole lives, just like their bio dad, Dubya.)

It's not pretty.

"How's your boy?" Bush asks, referring to Senator Webb's adult son, a Marine who is now serving in Iraq.

"I'd like to get 'em out of Iraq, Mr. President," Webb responds.

"That's not what I asked you!" Bush snaps. "I said, how's your boy?"


From The Hill:

At a private reception held at the White House with newly elected lawmakers shortly after the election, Bush asked Webb how his son, a Marine lance corporal serving in Iraq, was doing.

Webb responded that he really wanted to see his son brought back home, said a person who heard about the exchange from Webb.

"I didn’t ask you that, I asked how he’s doing," Bush retorted, according to the source.

Webb confessed that he was so angered by this that he was tempted to slug the commander-in-chief, reported the source, but . . . didn’t. . .

A White House spokeswoman declined to give Bush’s version of the conversation.

The horror! The horror!

Sieg heil, we are sorry, we know we must all obey dear fearless leader Preznit Snippy and endure all his divine tyrant temper tantrums and all his unchecked divine megalomania, because he "is" so importantly, our great divine Deciderer, Our Sole Preznit Toad-Exploder. (Depending upon what "is," is.)

Although we are those who must shed our blood to defend free speech, we know we must never ever seek to exercise it, particularly not when we are In The Presence, nor may we ever deviate from the Divine Script.

Next, shall we not be much more careful to be shuffling out of His Presence backwards, whilst bowing? Why, we must ask Helen Mirren what is to be done!

Why, oh why, aren't we treating George Bush properly, as King-Emperor, right now, why, O you librul traitors, why, eh?

Oh, and please spread this story around, media whore media, at closet cupcake Karl Rove's behest, so everyone knows that punishment follows lese majeste.

Well, Karl, you know, sometimes what follows that kind of Bush's War on Democracy Bushist fascist stuff is like, other stuff, like, well, tar & feathers, & offering indictments.

Probably not therapy.


Bush and Webb
Bush rude to Sen. Webb
Iraq War

Update: here's George Will, being stupid and defending the indefensible Bush. One was deeply touched when Will read the riot act to Cheney, after the VP told Senator Jeffords to go fuck himself, was one not?
Update 2: WH deliberately pushed Webb smear, from Editor & Publisher, via RawStory, here.

The Terrible War on Democracy: Bush Kidnaps, Tortures Americans. Shut UP About Your Stupid "Wars" on Christmas & Terror. This War is Real.

This despicable story shows just how far the Bushist fascist War on Democracy has gone. Can you say "TOTAL CONTEMPT FOR THE RULE OF LAW"?

The good news is that the story is finally being told in the usually ball-less American media.

Kudos to Michael Moss, and the NY Times.

One night in mid-April, the steel door clanked shut on detainee No. 200343 at Camp Cropper, the United States military’s maximum-security detention site in Baghdad.

American guards arrived at the man’s cell periodically over the next several days, shackled his hands and feet, blindfolded him and took him to a padded room for interrogation, the detainee said. After an hour or two, he was returned to his cell, fatigued but unable to sleep.

The fluorescent lights in his cell were never turned off, he said. At most hours, heavy metal or country music blared in the corridor. He said he was rousted at random times without explanation and made to stand in his cell. Even lying down, he said, he was kept from covering his face to block out the light, noise and cold. And when he was released after 97 days he was exhausted, depressed and scared.

Detainee 200343 was among thousands of people who have been held and released by the American military in Iraq, and his account of his ordeal has provided one of the few detailed views of the Pentagon’s detention operations since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib. Yet in many respects his case is unusual.

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

But when American soldiers raided the company at his urging, Mr. Vance and another American who worked there were detained as suspects by the military, which was unaware that Mr. Vance was an informer, according to officials and military documents. . .Nathan Ertel, the American held with Mr. Vance, brought away military records that shed further light on the detention camp and its secretive tribunals. Those records include a legal memorandum explicitly denying detainees the right to a lawyer at detention hearings to determine whether they should be released or held indefinitely, perhaps for prosecution.

The story told through those records and interviews illuminates the haphazard system of detention and prosecution that has evolved in Iraq, where detainees are often held for long periods without charges or legal representation, and where the authorities struggle to sort through the endless stream of detainees to identify those who pose real threats.

"Even Saddam Hussein had more legal counsel than I ever had," said Mr. Vance, who said he planned to sue the former defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, on grounds that his constitutional rights had been violated. "While we were detained, we wrote a letter to the camp commandant stating that the same democratic ideals we are trying to instill in the fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from simple due process to the Magna Carta, we are absolutely, positively refusing to follow ourselves. . ."

In April, Mr. Ertel and Mr. Vance said, they felt increasingly uncomfortable at the company. Mr. Ertel resigned and company officials seized the identification cards that both men needed to move around Iraq or leave the country.

On April 15, feeling threatened, Mr. Vance phoned the United States Embassy in Baghdad. A military rescue team rushed to the security company. Again, Mr. Vance described its operations, according to military records. . . On the evening of April 15, they met with American officials at the embassy and stayed overnight. But just before dawn, they were awakened, handcuffed with zip ties and made to wear goggles with lenses covered by duct tape. Put into a Humvee, Mr. Vance said he asked for a vest and helmet, and was refused.

They were driven through dangerous Baghdad roads and eventually to Camp Cropper. They were placed in cells at Compound 5, the high-security unit where Saddam Hussein has been held.

Only days later did they receive an explanation: They had become suspects for having associated with the people Mr. Vance tried to expose. . .

Mr. Vance said he began seeking help even before his cell door closed for the first time. "They took off my blindfold and earmuffs and told me to stand in a corner, where they cut off the zip ties, and told me to continue looking straight forward and as I’m doing this, I’m asking for an attorney," he said. "‘I want an attorney now,’ I said, and they said, ‘Someone will be here to see you.’"

Instead, they were given six-digit ID numbers. The guards shortened Mr. Vance’s into something of a nickname: "343." And the routine began. . . .

Five times in the first week, guards shackled the prisoners’ hands and feet, covered their eyes, placed towels over their heads and put them in wheelchairs to be pushed to a room with a carpeted ceiling and walls. There they were questioned by an array of officials who, they said they were told, represented the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"It’s like boom, boom, boom," Mr. Ertel said. "They are drilling you. 'We know you did this, you are part of this gun smuggling thing.' And I’m saying, you have it absolutely way off."

The two men slept in their 9-by-9-foot cells on concrete slabs, with worn three-inch foam mats. With the fluorescent lights on and the temperature in the 50s, Mr. Vance said, "I paced myself to sleep, walking until I couldn’t anymore. I broke the straps on two pair of flip-flops. . ."

Their legal rights, laid out in a letter from Lt. Col. Bradley J. Huestis of the Army, the president of the status board, allowed them to attend [their] hearing and testify. However, under Rule 3, the letter said, "You do not have the right to legal counsel, but you may have a personal representative assist you at the hearing if the personal representative is reasonably available. . .”"

Mr. Vance and Mr. Ertel had separate hearings. They said their requests to be each other’s personal representative had been denied.

At the hearings, a woman and two men wearing Army uniforms but no name tags or rank designations sat a table with two stacks of documents. One was about an inch thick, and the men were allowed to see some papers from that stack. The other pile was much thicker, but they were told that this pile was evidence only the board could see.

The men pleaded with the board. "I’m telling them there has been a major mix-up," Mr. Ertel said. "Please, I’m out of my mind. I haven’t slept. I’m not eating. I’m terrified."
Mr. Vance said he implored the board to delve into his laptop computer and cellphone for his communications with the F.B.I. agent in Chicago.

Each of the hearings lasted about two hours, and the men said they never saw the board again.

"At the end, my first question was, 'Does my family know I’m alive?' and the lead man said, ‘I don’t know,’" Mr. Vance recounted. "And then I asked when will we have an answer, and they said on average it takes three to four weeks." About a week later, two weeks into his detention, Mr. Vance was allowed to make his first call, to Chicago. He called his fiancée, Diane Schwarz, who told him she had thought he might have died.

"It was very overwhelming," Ms. Schwarz recalls of the 12-minute conversation. "He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, and was kind of turning to me for answers and I was turning to him for the same."

She had already been calling members of Congress, alarmed by his disappearance. So was Mr. Ertel’s mother, and some officials began pressing for answers. "I would appreciate your looking into this matter," Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois wrote to a State Department official in early May.

On May 7, the Camp Cropper detention board met again, without either man present, and determined that Mr. Ertel was "an innocent civilian," according to the spokeswoman for detention operations. It took authorities 18 more days to release him.

Mr. Vance’s situation was more complicated. . . . Over the following weeks, Mr. Vance said he made numerous written requests — for a lawyer, for blankets, for paper to write letters home. Mr. Vance said that he wrote 10 letters to Ms. Schwarz, but that only one made it to Chicago. Dated July 17, it was delivered late last month by the Red Cross.

"Diana, start talking, sending e-mail and letters and faxes to the alderman, mayor, governor, congressman, senators, Red Cross, Amnesty International, A.C.L.U., Vatican, and other Christian-based organizations. Everyone!” he wrote. "I am missing you so much, and am so depressed it’s a daily struggle here. My life is in your hands. Please don’t get discouraged. Don’t take 'No' for answers. Keep working. I have to tell myself these things every day, but I can’t do anything from a cell."

The military has never explained why it continued to consider Mr. Vance a security threat, except to say that officials decided to release him after further review of his case.

"Treating an American citizen in this fashion would have been unimaginable before 9/11," said Mike Kanovitz, a Chicago lawyer representing Mr. Vance.

On July 20, Mr. Vance wrote in his notes: "Told ‘Leaving Today.’ Took shower and shaved, saw doctor, got civ clothes back and passport."

On his way out, Mr. Vance said: "They asked me if I was intending to write a book, would I talk to the press, would I be thinking of getting an attorney. I took it as, 'Shut up, don’t talk about this place,' and I kept saying, 'No sir, I want to go home.’"

. . .Mr. Vance is back in Chicago, still feeling the effects of having been a prisoner of the war in Iraq.

"It’s really hard," he says. "I don’t really talk about this stuff with my family. I feel ashamed, depressed, still have nightmares, and I’d even say I suffer from some paranoia.'

I'd say you suffer from PTSD.

May you sue the living crap out of everyone involved.

May those who have made war on our Democracy wind up in Gitmo.

For Christmas. For ever.




Full NYTimes story here.

detainee abuse
Bush's War on Democracy
Nathan Ertel
Donald Vance

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude (#8)

Ho ho ho.

"A new poll shows that one in five Americans believe they can't trust President Bush. To put it another way, more Americans would be comfortable accepting a ride from Nicole Richie." -- David Letterman

"They had the Iraqi Commission report and President Bush says he will not make a decision about getting us out of Iraq until 2007. He says he wants to give it some careful thought . . . unlike getting us into Iraq." -- David Letterman

"Here's an interesting lawsuit. A judge has ruled that because all paper money feels the same, the government discriminates against the blind. I think that's unfair. The government doesn't discriminate against the blind. Hey, isn't that who got us into Iraq?" -- Jay Leno

"The president of Iran . . . is holding a conference on whether or not the Holocaust actually took place. . . . The good news? The conference is being catered by Taco Bell." -- Jay Leno

"President Bush has received a copy of the 96-page Iraq Study Group report. When they gave it to him, President Bush said, 'Don't tell me how it ends!' They said, 'Uh, it doesn't.'" --Jay Leno

"Dick Cheney's daughter, who happens to be a lesbian, is pregnant. ... That's great. It gives Dick another chance to get out the shotgun." -- David Letterman

"The Christmas tree at the White House fell over. Actually, it didn't fall over. What happened was President Bush was standing next to it when a photographer walked in. I guess the tree was trying to distance himself from President Bush." -- Jay Leno

The long anticipated Iraq Study Group report was delivered to President Bush recently. He promised to take it just as seriously as all the other Iraq reports stuffed down between his desk and the wall." -- Amy Poehler

"You know the part of the Iraqi report that concerns President Bush the most? Having to read it." --Jay Leno

"Exciting news from the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who is a lesbian, is pregnant. I think President Bush is a little confused about the big news. He immediately called the Lebanese Ambassador to pass on his congratulations." -- Jay Leno

"Mary Cheney said today she doesn't care if it's a boy or a girl, so long as it grows up to be a gym teacher." -- Jay Leno

Conservative Crank Even Stupider Than Ahmadinejad: Swears Soy Makes Boys Too Girly

God save me from these people.
Really.

Columnist claims soy products reduce penis size, make men gay

A column published today on conservative website World Net Daily claims that use of soy products leads to reduced penis size and higher rates of male homosexuality.

In "A devil's food is turning our kids into homosexuals," author James Rutz claims that soy raises human estrogen levels, causing the shifts.

Maybe instead of calling these idiots, the Bushist fascists, merely "Orwellian," we need to add "as if they just popped out of a fabulous Stanley Kubrick movie scripted by Terry Southern, and ran rampant over the landscape, wreaking havoc and making zero sense."

To wit:

General Jack D. Ripper (to Group Captain Lionel Mandrake):
Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?

Mandrake:
Well, no I... I can't say I have, Jack.

Ripper:
Vodka. That's what they drink, isn't it? Never water?

Mandrake:
Well I . . . I believe that's what they drink, Jack. Yes.

Ripper:
On no account will a commie ever drink water, and not without good reason.

Mandrake:
Oh, ah, yes. I don't quite . . . see what you're getting at, Jack.

Ripper:
Water. That's what I'm getting at. Water. Mandrake, water is the source of all life. Seven tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, you realize that . . seventy percent of you is water.

Mandrake:
Unhhh, God . . .

Ripper:
And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids.

Mandrake:
Yes. (Chuckles nervously)

Ripper:
You beginning to understand?

Mandrake:
Yes. (Chuckles. begins laughing/crying quietly)

Ripper:
Mandrake. Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?

Mandrake:
Well it did occur to me, Jack, yes.

Ripper:
Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?

Mandrake:
Ah, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Yes.

Ripper:
Well do you now what it is?

Mandrake:
No. No, I don't know what it is. No.

Ripper:
Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face?

(Window in the office is shot through by automatic weapons fire.)

Oh well. Turns out, it wasn't the fluoride, it was the soybeans.

Ahmadinejad
Bushist fascists
soy, homosexuality

News Flash: Ahmadinejad Even Stupider Than George W. Bush! (or, "An Inconvenient Holocaust")

Guess what, boys and girls?

The Holocaust never happened!

Iran's President Ahmadinejad, more lately known as "Karl-Rove-in-a-Turban," has held a conference in Tehran in a valiant attempt to de-create "An Inconvenient Holocaust"!

One must admire his depth of spin.

And don't forget: WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. UP IS DOWN. ARBEIT MACHT FREI.

ANTI- HOLOCAUST "CONFERENCE" BEGINS IN IRAN

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran hosted Holocaust deniers from around the world Monday at a conference examining whether the Nazi genocide took place, a meeting Israel's prime minister condemned as a "sick phenomenon."

The 67 participants from 30 countries included former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and Holocaust skeptics who have been prosecuted in Europe for questioning whether 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis or whether gas chambers were ever used.

"The number of victims at the Auschwitz concentration camp could be about 2,007," Australian Frederick Toben told the conference, according to a Farsi translation of his remarks. "The railroad to the camp did not have enough capacity to transfer large numbers of Jews," said Toben, who was jailed in 1999 in Germany for casting doubt on the Holocaust.

Full story here.

Looking forward Ahmadinejad's next conference, "Promoting Civil Disobedience to the Law of Gravity."

Ahmadinejad
Holocaust "Conference"
Iran

Congressman Tried To Shut Up Foley's Page

When there's a Bushist fascist sex scandal, it's way better to just shut UP about it, is it not?

Well, sure, if you know what's good for you. From the official report:

[T]he instant message could have been attached to an e-mail sent to Rep. Kolbe but not opened and read," the report reads, but adds, "If Rep. Kolbe was not shown the instant message he should have asked for it."

Still later in the report's account of Kolbe's involvement in the page scandal, it is stated that, according to the former page, Kolbe warned him, “it is bes[t] that you don't even bring this up with anybody.... [T]here is no good that can come from it if you actually talk about this. The man [Foley] has resigned anyway.”

An image of that portion of the report follows:

A few days after that conversation -- after the national media had circulated several Instant Message conversations between Foley and former pages, including some that involved discussions of penis size -- Kolbe left the former page a voice message, which, according to the page, said, "It looks like you did some talking."

Ah, those famed Bushist fascist family values.

GOPedophile protectionism, first, last and forever.

Via RawStory.

Iraq = Bush's Botched Joke

What's so funny about Iraq, Bubble Boy's botched joke?

Nothing.

Seems way less funny than his famed knee-slapper where he crawled around on all fours, looking under furniture, not finding those pesky WMDs.

Maybe it's time, you know, not to elect dyslexic megalomaniac cheerleaders as President. Maybe it's time to, you know, stop Khmer-Rouge-esquely dumping on the intelligent for being intelligent, and start dumping on morons for being morons.

I'm ready to return to leaders with foresight that actually works.

Any Republicans out there with a conscience? Anyone feeling bad about the actions of your selected/elected moron fearful fearless leader?

The one who's led America into moral and fiscal bankruptcy? The one who promotes torture, while gutting habeas corpus? The one with zero respect for the rule of law?

You should. You bought him, he broke it. All of it.

Abu Ghraib, Gitmo.

Haditha.

Katrina.

Iraq.

Who will be the last to die for Bush's botched joke?



Robert Gates
Bush's botched joke
worst president ever
Iraq Study Group

America's Talibangelicals--Preborn Pain? Si! PostBorn Pain? No!

Jesus, it is said, wept even for the post-born, but America's Talibangelicals do not.

America's Talibangelicals weep for the "pre-born" (sic) and want us to weep for them, too, here. They're considering a bill that concerns the pain of the "preborn" (sic).

Yes, and while America's many millions of post-born unwanted children remain un-adopted, and un-fostered, neglected, physically and/or sexually abused, America's Talibangelicals focus on promoting government-forced maternity, increasing the numbers of unwanted children, and adopting the dear little teeny weeny lonely fwozen embryoes with their big round sad eyes, embryoes who call out to us from their lonely petri dishes, here.

Yes, and one finds it so interesting that those like James Dobson who support the pain of the preborn bill, while not supporting any pain of the postborn bill, are those who support the whipping of infants. Which would likely, you know, involve pain. For the postborn. So I guess that's why they won't be pushing to do research on that.

Yes, and one finds it so interesting that those like Dobson who support the pain of the preborn bill believe in belt-beating their children, as they themselves were belt-beaten before them, which, you know, involves pain. For the postborn. So I guess that's why they won't be pushing to do research on that.

Yes, and one finds it so interesting that those like Dobson who support the pain of the preborn bill believe in belt-beating their own puppies, which, you know, presumably involves pain. For those post-born doggies. So I guess that's why they won't be pushing to do research on that.

One wonders, sometimes -- did ALL the mothers of all these preborn-obsessed Talibangelicals, at one time or another, angrily reveal that they wished their kids had never been born? Or what?

Anyhow, this is a picture of one Miss Brown. She was postborn and unprotected. She was beaten to death by her family.

Not that the Talibangelicals think there's anything wrong with that.

Not enough to write a law about, anyhow. When the U.S. House reconvenes in December, lawmakers will take up a key initiative on the pain felt by preborn babies during an abortion. The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., in 2004. Because THIS is what's really important, people!

Preborn, si! Postborn, no!

preborn pain bill
Talibangelicals
child abuse
government-forced maternity
James Dobson

Here's Why Bush Should Not Have Cut and Run from Afghanistan: Teacher of Girls Disembowelled

Too bad that our boy Bubble Boy refused to concentrate on Afghanistan and finish the job.

But then, Toad-Exploder's always had a soft spot for the Afghan Taliban, has he not? He hosted them so very charmingly in Texas, while they were the world's acknowledged leaders in oppressing women.

Impelled by his overwhelming oedipal issues, George W. Bush cut and ran from Afghanistan, leaving our actual enemy Osama Bin Laden alive, and leaving the Taliban strong enough there to work over time to retake the country.

In service of that aim, the Taliban now are free to do this:


Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls
Ghazni, Afghanistan

The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.

Mr Halim was one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taliban and US and Afghan forces.

The day we arrived, an Afghan policemen and eight insurgents died during an ambush in an outlying village. Rockets were found, primed to be fired into Ghazni City during a visit by the American ambassador a few days previously.

But, as in the rest of Afghanistan, it is the civilians who are bearing the brunt of this conflict. At the village of Qara Bagh, the family of Mr Halim are distraught and terrified. His cousin, Ahmed Gul, shook his head: "They killed him like an animal. No, no. We do not kill animals like that, it would be haram. They took away a father and a husband, they had no pity. We are all very worried. Please go now, you see those men standing over there? They are watching. It is dangerous for you, and for us."

Fatima Mushtaq, the director of education at Ghazni, has had repeated death threats, the notorious "night letters". Her gender, as well as her refusal to send girls home from school, has made her a particular source of hatred for Islamist zealots.

"I think they killed him that way to frighten us, otherwise why make a man suffer so much? Mohammed Halim and his family were good friends of ours and we are very, very upset by what has happened. He came to me when the threats first began and asked what he should do. I told him to move somewhere safe. I think he was trying to arrange that when they came and took him," she said.

The threats against Ms Mushtaq also extend to her husband, Sayyid Abdul, and their eight children. "When the first letters arrived, I tried to hide them from my husband," she said. But then he found the next few. He said we must stand together. We talked, and we decided that we must tell the children. So that they can be prepared, but it is not a good way for them to grow up."

Ms Mushtaq is familiar with the ways of the Taliban. During their rule she and her sister ran secret schools for girls at their home. The Taliban beat them for teaching the girls algebra.

Link via The Independent here.


cut and run
Taliban
teacher disembowelled

War On Christmas Peace Wreath

Peace?

Hah!

What a Satanic notion!

WOMAN FACES FINES FOR WREATH PEACE SIGN

DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, "Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing."

Jensen, a past association president, calculates the fines will cost her about $1,000, and doubts they will be able to make her pay. But she said she's not going to take it down until after Christmas.

Next thing you know, they'll be wanting Peace on Earth, or something!

Let's all sport flaming peace wreaths on our lawns. That's the way to celebrate the real spirit of Christmas, is it not?




peace wreath
war on Christmas
Colorado peace wreath



Update: board members refuse to support ban on Christmas peace wreath, so they get fired. Don't we love Democracy in America, free speech, all those things people die for?
Later update, here: Silly wabbit, peace is for Satanists!' department--Oh dear. Satanic forces win, god-warriors resign. In disgrace (well, depending on whose side you're on).

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a happy thanksgiving image. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

One would hardly want to celebrate thanksgiving by posting an image of Lord Jeffery Amherst handing out smallpox-infected blankets to the Indians, as part of our first efforts in genocide and biological warfare, would one?

Well, come to think of it, Dick Cheney would, but he may be in his last throes, or something. For one hears that this Dick is "profoundly disturbed" by Bubble Boy's treatment of Rummy. Hunh? All he did was fire him, he didn't waterboard him, an idea whose time as definitely come.

Oh my. One would SO prefer that Cheney be "profoundly disturbed" by having started a war over nothing which has killed 600K+ sentient beings, and having led his country down the road of moral and fiscal bankruptcy.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving
American Indian genocide

Ego-Crazed Talibangelical Fundamentalist Loses State Senate Race, Concedes By Insulting Winner's Hindu Religion

Via RawStory:

After Minnesota State Senator Satveer Chaudhary defeated challenger Rae Hart Anderson, he received a rather unexpected congratulatory email, RAW STORY has learned.

Anderson, a Christian, spent most of the concession urging Chaudhary, a practicing Hindu, to convert to Christianity.

Dear Satveer:

Congratulations on winning the District 50 senate race.

Your phone is "busy" . . . no doubt with good wishes!

I've enjoyed much of this race, especially the people I've met . . . even you!

I see your deficits -- not all of them, and your potential -- but not all of it. Only your Creator knows the real potential He's put in you. Get to know Him and know yourself . . . you'll be more interesting even to you!

The race of your life is more important than this one -- and it is my sincere wish that you'll get to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He died for the sins of the world, yours and mine -- and especially for those who accept His forgiveness. His kingdom will come and His will be done -- on earth as it is in heaven. There's more . . . . I love belonging to the family of God. Jesus is the way, the truth and offers His life to you and each human being. Pay attention . . . this is very important, Satveer. Have you noticed Jesus for yourself . . . at some moment in time, yet??? . . .

Jesus Christ lives in His earth family by His Spirit. He said He'd be back, and He said it first. You could invite Him to make the race of your life 'eternal'. God waits to be gracious to each person that knows they need to be forgiven. Do you? I think you do. Just ask. Christ won eternal life for you and said so. Take Him at His Word. Take some time to get acquainted with this power-filled Jesus . . . God with us. You could be a temple of the living God, by invitation --- yours, TO GOD. :) There's nothing like belonging to Christ . . . not winning, not money, not degrees . . . it's the best.

Good wishes and better wishes . . . until you wish for the best!

Rae Hart Anderson

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude No. 7a

"On Tuesday night, in an ironic turnaround, Iraq brought regime change to the U.S."
--Amy Poehler

"Germany is filing a war crimes lawsuit against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly allowing the torture of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Man, that's when you know you've crossed the line -- when Germans are accusing you of war crimes." --Jay Leno

"Yesterday, Bush had lunch with the new Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. I believe the main course was Rumsfeld's head on a platter."
--Jay Leno

"I don't want to say that George Bush is a lame duck, but this morning, Cheney shot him." --Bill Maher

"President Bush, on Wednesday, held a news conference where he vowed to work with the new Democratic majority. Which, if true, can only mean one thing -- the Democrats have a nuclear bomb." --Amy Poehler

"On Thursday, the Army launched its new recruitment slogan, 'Army Strong,' which replaces their previous slogan, 'Army of One.' Meanwhile, the Navy is sticking with their recruiting slogan, 'Iraq: It's Almost Entirely Landlocked.'" --Seth Meyers

"Today is Veteran's Day, so that won't affect anyone in the White House."
--Seth Meyers

"Next week, President Bush is going to Vietnam. So, it looks like he's finally going to finish up that National Guard duty."
--Jay Leno

"The only thing that really broke for conservatives on Tuesday was gay marriage. You know what state bucked the trend? Arizona. Conservative Arizona. I love Arizonans. They don't care if gays get married as along as they're not marrying a Mexican."
--Bill Maher

"Tomorrow President Bush is leaving for Vietnam. I guess this time his father couldn't get him out of it." --David Letterman

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on the interstate. Nothing is moving. Suddenly a man knocks on the window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, "What's going on?"

"Terrorists down the road have kidnapped George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. They're asking for a $100 million ransom. Otherwise they're going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We're going from car to car, taking up a collection."

The driver asks, "How much is everyone giving, on an average?"

"Most people are giving about a gallon."



Hmm.


.

More On The Mysterious Mr. Gates: Nuke-War Averter?

Some say that the mysterious Mr. Gates averted nuclear war between India and Pakistan in 1990.

When Robert M. Gates came calling

Siddharth Varadarajan

New Delhi : Robert M. Gates, the man named by President George W. Bush as his nominee for the next U.S. Secretary of Defence, is a consummate Beltway insider with an extensive record of service within the American intelligence establishment going back at least three decades. . . .

In South Asia, however, he is perhaps best remembered for the `mission' he undertook to Pakistan and India in May 1990 during a time of military tension between the two neighbours. In a subsequent retelling by Seymour Hersh in New Yorker magazine, the U.S. envoy is said to have helped avert a nuclear war between Pakistan and India . . .

In the spring of 1990, the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir was in full flow. Concerned by Pakistan's decision to maintain the forward deployment of troops deployed near the border for the Zarb-e-Momin military exercises conducted at the end of 1989, India decided to send two tank units to the Mahajan range in Rajasthan for "training" purposes.

Although none of these military deployments on either side were of any real offensive significance, the situation began to deteriorate after a series of fiery declarations by Benazir Bhutto, who was Prime Minister of Pakistan at the time, and V.P. Singh, who was Prime Minister of India. Ms. Bhutto spoke of a "thousand year war" to "liberate" Kashmir, while Mr. Singh told the country to be psychologically prepared for military conflict and warned Pakistan that it would not last "even thousand hours of war".

It was in this context that the Bush (Sr.) administration decided to despatch Mr. Gates on a peace mission. Travelling first to Islamabad on May 20, 1990, he met President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Army Chief Mirza Aslam Beg and counselled restraint. In New Delhi, he met Mr. Singh, the External Affairs Minister, I.K. Gujral, as well as Raja Ramanna, who was Minister of State for Defence. Two week after his return to Washington, the crisis de-escalated.

According to Hersh, the U.S. had picked up evidence that Pakistan was on verge of deploying its nuclear weapons during the crisis and it was this fact which made the Gates mission all the more urgent.

CIA
Robert Gates

"Daddy's Friends" Come to the Rescue to Clean Up After Junior's Vile Iraq Mess: Featuring The Mysterious Robert Gates

We are glad that pro-torture, pro-war-over-non-existent WMDs guy, megalomaniacal/delusional Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is, well, history.

Bubble Boy's Daddy's friends have now been called up to clean up all of Bubble Boy's mess. (As Daddy's friends were once called upon to get Bubble Boy into Harvard, and to get Bubble Boy out of having to serve in Vietnam, and then to get Bubble Boy out of the National Guard early).

Calling on former CIA director, Robert M. Gates.

And, while one was fully prepared to begin to dump on Robert M. Gates about Iran-Contra, whilst Googling him this evening one stumbled on some interesting reality-based stuff that one thought to bring to your attention.

GATES: JIMMY CARTER BRINGS DOWN SOVIET UNION

Robert Gates, the subsequently director of the CIA, and at that time a member of my staff, reveals in his book that as early as 1978, President Carter approved proposals prepared by my staff to undertake, for example, a comprehensive, covert action program designed to help the non-Russian nations in the Soviet Union pursue more actively their desire for independence - a program, in effect, to destabilize the Soviet Union.

We called it, more delicately, a program for the "delegitimization of the Soviet Union". But that was a rather unusual decision. He took some others along these lines, too. So his public image to some extent was the product of his great emphasis on arms reductions and a desire to reach an agreement on that score with the Russians. But it didn't quite correspond to the reality, and it certainly didn't correspond even to the public reality in the second half of the Carter Administration. [Reagan got false credit for Carter's decisions]

Full interview with Zbigniew Brzeszkinski, here.

Frontline:

GATES: MILITARY UNDERSTANDS THE TRUE COSTS OF WAR

Gates: One of my experiences over the years, in Washington, as I have watched different Presidents deal with the military and I worked in the White House for four Presidents and attended decision meetings under five, is that contrary to mythology, the biggest doves in Washington wear uniforms. And I think that particularly after Vietnam they are very leery of feather-merchants of civilians, greying notions of using military force to accomplish a range of objectives however sensible or justified they may be.

And I think that they try, perhaps even un-consciously, not only to exaggerate the level of forces that will be required to accomplish a specific objective but the casualties as well, in the hope of forcing a sanity check on the politicians or on the civilian experts who have no concept of what it is like to sit there and watch a young soldier bleed and die. And I think that these guys also think that war in the situation room is too clinical. And that we don't have an appreciation for what it is really like, and that they would prefer to avoid the use of military force at all cost.

GATES: OBJECTIVES IN GULF WAR LIMITED: QUAGMIRE IN IRAQ TO BE AVOIDED

Q: If you gave yourself a luxury of hindsight is there anything you would do that you didn't do to try and alter that ending of the [Gulf] war?

Gates: I do not believe I would have made decisions or recommendations differently in terms of how we dealt with the end of the war. All of the alternatives to the way things turned out in my judgement would have resulted in the American troops still being in Iraq today. And I believe that the American people would not tolerate that.

We accomplished the objectives we set for ourselves. Our objectives do not include the total destruction of Iraq; it did not include the total destruction of the Iraqi Army. We wanted to maintain the territorial integrity of Iraq, we didn't want Syria taking a piece here and the Iranians taking a piece here and somebody else taking a piece there.

We wanted the territorial integrity of Iraq. We believe that enough army divisions were left for the regular army to be able to protect Iraq from intrusions into its territory. But its ability to invade its neighbours have been destroyed--the Republican Guards. So I think you have to keep coming back to what the objectives were in this war.

Why we were there in the first place and not over time began to expand those objectives in retrospect, and those of expansion would have resulted in, in what I believe would have been a quagmire.

One is pleased to note some sense in Gates that there is inherent virtue in both planning and in quagmire avoidance.

'Ray.


CIA
Robert Gates
Rumsfeld
2006 election

For Dems: New Dawn; For Bushist Fascists: Last Throes

One loves the sweet smell of subpoenas in the morning, does one not?

WaPo here. World reaction here.

DON'T MAKE GEORGE ORWELL SPIN IN HIS GRAVE. VOTE OUT BIG BROTHER.

War is NOT Peace.

Slavery is NOT Freedom.

Up is NOT down.

Right is NOT wrong.

Torture is NOT mandatory. Habeas Corpus is NOT optional.

Bushist Fascism is NOT healthy for children and other living things.



During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
George Orwell




WaPo here.
CIA torture
human rights
George Orwell

Get Out the Vote

CIA: Keep Our Torture Secret

C.I.A. Wants Prison Tactics Secret

They want their torture kept secret?

Hmm. Why would that be?

There's no transparency for torture?

Can you say, "consciousness of guilt"?

The Central Intelligence Agency has told a federal court that Qaeda suspects should not be permitted to describe publicly the "alternative interrogation methods" used in secret C.I.A. prisons overseas.

In papers filed in the case of Majid Khan, a Pakistani who is among 14 so-called "high-value detainees" recently transferred to the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, Justice Department and C.I.A. officials argued that allowing Mr. Khan to disclose details of his treatment could cause "extremely grave damage to the national security."

"Many terrorist operatives are specifically trained in counter-interrogation techniques," says a declaration by Marilyn A. Dorn, an official at the National Clandestine Service, a part of the C.IA. "If specific alternative techniques were disclosed, it would permit terrorist organizations to adapt their training to counter the tactics that C.I.A. can employ in interrogations."

Hey, Marilyn, I think they've already figured out about the hold-your-breath-till-you-turn-blue thing, don't you?

. . Lawyers for Mr. Khan, who lived in Maryland for several years and is accused of researching how to blow up gasoline stations and poison reservoirs, have alleged that he was tortured while in American custody and falsely confessed to crimes.

Do you suppose that the guy may have falsely confessed because of the, you know, torture?

Intelligence officials have acknowledged that some terrorism suspects were subjected to harsh [sic]interrogation techniques, including sleep deprivation, exposure to heat and cold and a simulated drowning technique. Human rights advocates believe the methods amount to torture, which is banned by international law, but United States officials deny the charge."

Well, see, according to Bushist fascism, if you don't actually call it torture, then it's not torture, right?

WaPo here. NY Times here.

CIA torture
human rights

Talibangelical Minister John Compares Self to Botched Joke

American Crappy-Christian Talibangelicals?

Ya gotta love 'em.

There's James "Dog-beater" Dobson, who proudly belt-beats his own Dachshund, Sigmund Freud (I'm not kidding), and advocates grown men showering naked with little boys and comparing penis sizes in order to avoid the boys growing up to be homosexual. Chuck Colson, the reformed Nixon crook. Wellington Boone, proud user of the "faggot"-word. Pro-abusive marriage, anti-no-fault divorce Talibangical Tony Perkins.

Now, the spotlight's on toothy Talibangelical Minister Ted Haggard, one reluctant foot out of the closet, a guy who does similes like NO ONE else does!

Haggard says he's like Kerry's recent Bush joke, here.

Yes, Virginia, just ask Jesus!

Being an openly anti-gay secretly very gay meth-mad fundamentalist minister who commits adultery with a handsome male prostitute (Mr. Mike Jones, inset below) during a three-year paid affair, is SO like Kerry making jokes about Bush being stupid!! Is it not?

Hoo-AH!



"Pastor Sacked For Sexually Immoral Conduct," here and here.
Ted Haggard
Talibangelicals & prostitution
anti-gay rights
More Bushist fascist creeps

Talibangelical Quits Over Gay Sex Scandal: Won't Make Male Lover An Honest Man

On and on it goes, round and round it goes. In a spin. Lovin' the spin they're in. That ol' black magic called -- Bushist fascist family values!

Protecting pedophiles, killing 600,000 people, establishing a state of permanent lies, morally and fiscally bankrupting America, promoting civil vitriol, poisoning the air and water and civil discourse. Scooter "What Kind of a Name is That for a Grown Man" Libby promoting bestiality.

George Bush attacking John Kerry for attacking George Bush's stupidity, only Boy George is so stupid he fails to notice who John Kerry was attacking. Oh well.

Bushist fascist wife-beating, contempt for the rule of law, corruption, kidnapping, torture, sadism.

Really, what's left?

GOP -- 24/7, manifesting every one of the Seven Deadly Sins -- and THEN some.

Evangelical leader quits after gay sex allegation
Ted Haggard, accused of affair with gay man, resigns from national post

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The leader of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man in monthly trysts over the past three years.

The Rev. Ted Haggard, a married father of five who has been called one of the most influential evangelical Christians in the nation, denied the allegations. His accuser refused to share voice mails that he said backed up his claim.

Haggard also stepped aside as head of his 14,000-member New Life Church while a church panel investigates, saying he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations. . . .

The allegations come as voters in Colorado and seven other states get ready to decide Tuesday on amendments banning gay marriage. Besides the proposed ban on the Colorado ballot, a separate measure would establish the legality of domestic partnerships providing same-sex couples with many of the rights of married couples.

Accuser cites hypocrisy

Mike Jones, 49, of Denver told The Associated Press he decided to go public with his allegations because of the political fight. Jones, who said he is gay, said he was upset when he discovered Haggard and the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage.

"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," said Jones, who added that he isn't working for any political group.

Jones, whose allegations were first aired on KHOW-AM radio in Denver, claimed Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month over three years. Jones also said Haggard snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.

Haggard and his attorney, Martin Nussbaum, did not return calls Thursday night from the AP.

Jones said that he had advertised himself as an escort on the Internet and that a man who called himself Art contacted him. Jones said he later saw the man on television identified as Haggard.

All the pretty little Bushist fascists.

"Blacks and bays, dapples and greys . . "

All the pretty little . . .

Bushist fascists.



Ted Haggard
Talibangelicals & prostitution
anti-gay rights
Dobson, Foley, Haggard, Bushist fascist sick puppies

Elephants Self-Aware, Unlike Bush

So, elephants are self-aware? Good for them.

If Bush and his band of fascist sadists were self-aware, they'd have some sense of shame.

Would they not?

Elephants can recognize themselves in a mirror and use their reflections to explore hidden parts of themselves, a measure of subjective self-awareness that until now has been shown definitively only in humans and apes, researchers reported yesterday.

The findings confirm a long-standing suspicion among scientists that elephants, with their big brains, complex societies and reputation for helping ill herdmates, have a sufficiently developed sense of identity to pass the challenging "mirror self-recognition test."

The test, which in this case required construction of a huge, "elephant-proof" mirror at the Bronx Zoo, where the experiments were conducted, provides an index of an animal's ability to conceive of itself. It is a quality of self-consciousness that some scientists believe is a prerequisite for the emergence of empathy and altruism.

Such animals, the thinking goes, are in a position to use what they know about themselves to make inferences about other beings and their needs. . .

Empathy? Altruism?

"Inferences about other beings and their needs . . . say, what class of beings does that not remind us of?

Elephants, pictured above, pay homage to their dead.

Pro-torture Bushists call themselves pro-life whilst murdering 600,000+ of the post-born, and they just don't bother going to any funerals.

Sadism si!

Empathy? No.


WaPo here.

CHENEY ADMITS TORTURE

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.

The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however, consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that's banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that prohibit torture. Some intelligence professionals argue that it often provides false or misleading information because many subjects will tell their interrogators what they think they want to hear to make the water-boarding stop.

Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have said that a law Bush signed last month prohibits water-boarding. The three are the sponsors of the Military Commissions Act, which authorized the administration to continue its interrogations of enemy combatants.

The radio interview Tuesday was the first time that a senior Bush administration official has confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding against important al-Qaida suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Mohammad was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, and turned over to the CIA.

"Water-boarding" means holding a person's head under water or pouring water on cloth or cellophane placed over the nose and mouth to simulate drowning until the subject agrees to talk or confess.

Or agrees, under water torture, to "confess."

What might you agree to, under water torture, gentle readers?


Just asking.


More here.

Cheney admits torture
Cheney, sadism

The Big Lie

The Big Lie

"Well, uh-uh-uh, w-w-we, listen, we've never been 'stay the course', George!"

By The Silent Patriot, via YouTube.

[A story that failed to appear on our media whore media network news last night.]



Oh, and here are some informative stories on some people [who are supporters of The Big Lie] currently running for office:

Jon Kyl
Rick Renzi
J.D. Hayworth
John Doolittle
Richard Pombo
Brian Bilbray
Marilyn Musgrave
Doug Lamborn Rick O'Donnell
Christopher Shays
Vernon Buchanan
Joe Negron
Clay Shaw
Bill Sali
Peter Roskam
Mark Kirk
Dennis Hastert
Chris Chocola
John Hostettler
Mike Whalen
Jim Ryun Anne Northup
Geoff Davis
Michael Steele
Gil Gutknecht
Michele Bachmann Jim Talent
Conrad Burns
Jon Porter
Charlie Bass Mike Ferguson
Heather Wilson
Peter King John Sweeney
Tom Reynolds
Randy Kuhl
Robin Hayes
Charles Taylor
Steve Chabot
Jean Schmidt
Deborah Pryce
Joy Padgett
Melissa Hart
Curt Weldon
Mike Fitzpatrick
Don Sherwood Lincoln Chafee
Bob Corker
George Allen
Frank Wolf
Mike McGavick
Dave Reichert