Slipping Through the Cracks in the System

It's hard to get someone hospitalized against his will.

It's hard to keep him hospitalized. No one wants to foot the bill, even in this "rich" country.

It's not as if people hadn't noticed VT shooter Cho's sexually harassing behaviors -- taking pictures with his cellphone of women's legs from under his desk, stalking one woman, sending harassing messages to another -- they were noticed. They were reported.

The night [Cho spent involuntarily] at the mental-health facility came a few weeks after police had been contacted by a female student upset over e-mails Cho had sent her, said Flinchum, the Tech police chief.

Cho had been sent to the hospital, and got out again. He didn't meet the criteria of "imminent danger." Hospitals these days are hard to get into, and easy to leave.

. . . Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system, which took no action because the offense seemed too minor, the chief said.

The offense seemed "too minor"?

Some bloggers think that way, as well. You know what wussies women are, eh?

Teachers and fellow students at Virginia Tech lived in fear of Cho Seung-Hui in the 18 months before he struck, it was revealed this afternoon.

. . .at one stage students were so scared of his behaviour that only seven out of 70 turned up for class, forcing lecturers to give him one-to-one tuition.

A lecturer was so frightened by Cho's violent fantasies that she made up a secret codeword so that she could alert security without him knowing.

A pattern had emerged around Cho, a pattern that had been noticed in terms of sexual harrassment, total absence of personal boundaries, and violent fantasies, a pattern that was alarming to many.

These people had alerted the system, the system did what it could -- a single involuntary hospitalization.

The same system is in place today.

So what are we going to do about it?

Virginia Tech massacre
violence against women
sexism

Violence and Virginia Tech: It's All About Exerting Power and Control

"No one imagined what he would do."

But someone was scared of him.

Two grown women were scared of him.

In the end, of course, he pointed out that it was all her fault. His first victim's fault. The Virginia Tech massacre shooter thought "his" girl was going out with someone else?

She can't do that. She's "his."

So he shot her.

Like shooting your own dog, is it not? It's yours. You can do what you want with it.

You can do what you want.

He was possessive, obsessive.

There have been suggestions he was obsessed with his first victim, Emily Hilscher, an 18-year-old veterinary sciences student.

Vivacious and popular, Ms Hilscher was shot with a 9mm Glock pistol bought by Cho last month.

It is said he had become "infatuated" with her although there is no indication she even knew him and, it appears, never mentioned him to any close friends.

He'd stalked women before, taken cellphone pics aimed at them from under his desk, sexually harassed them.

Like some rappers, making music that exploits and degrades women. Like some purveyers of porn, making flicks that aren't erotic, just sadistic, making a buck off feeding sick fantasies of cruelty and revenge.

Like some Dominionists, seeking to have women become the actual property of their fathers until they are married off, to become the property of their husbands. Like some "full-quiver" crackpot Talibangelicals who promote thoughtless, random parenthood to fill the world with the unwanted. Like taking a public pervy interest in your child's sexuality (for very religious reasons! it's not about commodity/virginity, really!) if she's female.

Like some radio hosts, shooting off their mouths, calling women "nappy-headed ho's" and "feminazis."

Like some writers who minimized the incident as a "lover's tiff," a "love row," like some VT security people who failed to follow through after the first shootings because it was just a "domestic dispute."

Like some bloggers, demeaning women who object to being objectified and insulted. Bloggers who think being scared of someone is cowardice, not intelligence, especially when it's a grown woman who says she's scared. (Rondo back to sentence 3).

(Oh, say, does this at all remind us of VT females who reported that they felt threatened by this guy, reported it to authorities, but the authorities considered it too trivial to follow up?)

Ask Markos how this sits with him these days:

The night at the mental-health facility came a few weeks after police had been contacted by a female student upset over disturbing e-mails Cho had sent her, said Flinchum, the Tech police chief. The student declined to press charges, and Cho was referred to the university disciplinary system, which took no action because the offense seemed too minor, the chief said.

It's a continuum.

On a very slippery-slidey slope.

Virginia Tech massacre
violence against women
sexism

Markos Moulitsas is a Nappy-Headed Ho

The funny thing about sexism is like the funny thing about stupidity.

Stupid people are too stupid to know they're stupid. Sexist people don't even know they're sexist.

And when someone tells them, they think it's stupid.

You know, like Markos Moulitsas, who's gotten into a lot of trouble over the years for his sexism (but he isn't! those girls are just hysterical!) and is now in trouble again (but he shouldn't be! those girls are just on the rag!).

So here's the post where he trivializes a female blogger who (uppity woman!) objected (girlie-man girl!) to being the recipient of death threats (pussy!).

You know, objecting to death threats is just, like, so gay! So whiney! So sissy!

Markos is, one supposes, an educated person. In some sense.

So -- what's his frickin' problem?

If he can't say something non-sexist, why can't he just shut up?


(Here's a post from Big Tent Democrat (with whom I am, generally speaking, in love) astonishingly defending the indefensible kos on this matter. Oy.)


Markos Moulitsas
Dailykos
Kathy Sierra

RIP, Kurt Vonnegut

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Kurt Vonnegut

The only difference between [George W.] Bush and [Adolf] Hitler is that Hitler was elected.
Kurt Vonnegut

* George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography.

* Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.
Kurt Vonnegut




All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I've said before, bugs in amber.

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse V
US novelist (1922 - 2007)


WaPo.

Eat Your Words, Big Dick

How's this for a Big Dick smackdown?

NO LINK BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL-QAEDA, SAYS PENTAGON
April 7, 2007

Interrogations of Saddam Hussein and seized documents confirmed the former Iraqi regime had no links with al-Qaeda, a Pentagon report said today, contradicting the US case for the 2003 invasion.

A two-page resume of the report was published in February, but today the Pentagon declassified the whole 120-page document.

According to the inspector general of the US Defence Department, information obtained after Saddam's fall confirmed the pre-war position of the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon intelligence . . .

This position was shored up by interrogations of Saddam, the former Iraqi president, and other top officials captured by the US-led coalition forces in Iraq, the report said.

I'm starting to love Robert Gates. Not completely. Not like I love Richard Clarke. But there is that special little thrill again. Snuffed out quickly by Gates' helping Bubble Boy to deploy thousands more National Guard troops. Oh well. Come on, Robert. Do the right thing. Get us OUT of there.
Robert Gates
Cheney
Iraq

Bubble Boy Screws The Troops - Some More

It's a lovely day in the neighborhood. If you're a Bushist fascist.

And blind, deaf and dumb.

You can sleep so soundly.

Here's a perky NY Times story here of a Vet, severely wounded in Iraq, got all bandaged up, then fell through the Bushist fascist cracks. After seventeen suicide attempts, arson finally got him the inpatient treatment he'd needed all along.

His story also involves severe, sustained child abuse (which the NY Times, typically, minimizes, calling his youth "hardscrabble".)

Well, we don't really want to think about all the unwanted, abused, beaten children in the US who grow up to be homicidal and or suicidal, when we can get our rocks off about saving all the innocent widdle petri dish denizens, do we?.

When that kid was little, the way he got beat around, it was awful,” his uncle, Joseph Frank Ross Jr., a prison guard, said.

Lucky there's no such thing as cause and effect in Bushworld, eh?

Sleep well, Bubble Boy. Sleep well, Big Dick.

No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude 5987x

"Bush visited Walter Reed today. When you've got a problem like Walter Reed that needs solving, what better sight than to see George Bush walk through the door? ... He's created so many disasters, I'm not sure he knows which is which anymore. He walked into Walter Reed, and he said he wanted to have it ready for next year's Mardi Gras." --Bill Maher

"Some people still love him. He also spoke this week at the Cattlemen's Beef Association. They love him, but then again, they're used to being knee-deep in bullshit." --Bill Maher

"The president also had a moving ceremony this week for the Tuskegee airmen, the all black aviation squadron from World War II. A lot of these guys in their late 80s now. They were given gold medals, they were thanked, they were honored, and then the were re-activated and sent to Iraq." --Bill Maher

"In an interview, Rudy Giuliani's wife admitted that Rudy Giuliani is not her second husband. Actually, he's her third husband. She forgot about her first. But Rudy understands. When they started dating, he forgot he had a wife, too." --Jay Leno

"Homeland Security announced that there are 600,000 fugitives unaccounted for in America. And those are just the ones in the Bush administration." --Jay Leno

"An aide to the newly elected Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia was arrested for trying to bring the senator's gun into the Senate office building. Webb said he needed the gun for protection. Apparently, he had an afternoon meeting with Vice President Cheney." --Jay Leno

"According to the L.A. Times, insurgents in Iraq are targeting educated people like professors and librarians. . . . If the intelligent are targeted and killed, then the only ones left to lead the country will be the ignorant. So, at least they are getting closer to an American-style democracy." --Jay Leno

"I think the pressure is starting to get to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Did you hear about today? He tried to fire the cast of 'Boston Legal.'" --Jay Leno

"Of course, President Bush is worried too. He thinks this could hurt his guest attorney general worker program." --Jay Leno

"When DeLay was cheating and having sex with all these women, that's when he earned the nickname 'Five-second DeLay.'" --Jay Leno

"According to the latest census survey, the number of people without health insurance has dropped by two million. Duh -- they're dead because they didn't have health insurance." --Jay Leno

"The liberal assault on our president continues, folks. Yesterday the Democrats pulled out their most underhanded weapon yet -- Republicans. . . . Senator Hagel wasted no time in mavericking the president [on screen: Hagel criticizing Bush and saying the U.S. is not a monarchy]. Of course it's not a monarchy. What an outrageous thing to say. The president should confiscate Hagel's land and revoke his privilege." --Stephen Colbert

"Rudy Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner, was in the news today. . . . We thought Rudy Giuliani was [his third wife's] second husband. It turns out it's her third husband. He'll never forget 9/11. But anniversaries, he's got to write those down. ... In addition to this, Rudy's first wife was his cousin. And they say a New Yorker can't win in the South." --Bill Maher

"Looks like the Democrats are starting to get a little ballsy. The House of Representatives voted today to order President Bush to bring the troops home by September of next year. It passed barely. The Republicans, except for two, all voted against that. Republican Sam Johnson of Texas said, 'This bill literally hands the enemy our war plan.' Which would be embarrassing ... since it's written on a cocktail napkin." --Bill Maher

"Dick Cheney again this week was in the hospital. He was experiencing discomfort in his leg. And the doctor asked Cheney if he stretches. Cheney said, 'Are you kidding? I linked 9/11 with Saddam Hussein!'" --Bill Maher

"Alberto Gonzales still fighting for his life. Bush said this week that Gonzales has his full support and he has no plans to fire him. Of course, he made that statement in front of a big sign that said 'Adios Amigo.'" --Bill Maher

"You can tell it's Spring. Laura Bush's smile is beginning to thaw." --Bill Maher

"I love the springtime. It's a time of renewal when the old U.S. attorneys are plowed under ... and the new ones are beginning to sprout. It's a time when Rudy Giuliani picks out his Easter dress." --Bill Maher

"Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said today that the toughest part about getting married to his current wife was finding a wedding song that they both haven't used before." --Jay Leno

"President Bush said today that he has legal opinion on his side in the Alberto Gonzales case. President Bush can claim executive privilege, according to his lawyer -- Alberto Gonzales." --Jay Leno

"Commenting on the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq this week, President Bush said, 'It can be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home.' He then added, 'But -- we need to stay crazy and not do that.'" --Amy Poehler

Caring for America's Post-Born Children: Anyone Gets to Have a Kid. No Competence Required.

DA SAYS PARENTS INVENTED GIRL'S SYMPTOMS

You all must know that there was an American Society for the Protection of Animals (ASPCA) well before there was any interest in protecting American children from their own parents, do you not?

Proponents of government-forced maternity, due to their personal, specific religious agendas, actively seek to increase the number of unwanted children in America, and don't much give a crap about what happens to these innocent beings once they are born.

Have another kid, they say, it's just like going to the store and getting an extra carton of milk. No biggie.

But, bad parents, you know, parent badly.

Like these parents of the late Rebecca Riley.

BROCKTON -- Saying there was a "much more sinister aspect" to the case, a prosecutor alleged yesterday that a couple charged with poisoning their 4-year-old daughter made up symptoms of mental illness so she would qualify for government benefits.

Michael and Carolyn Riley were twice rejected for Supplemental Security Income after doctors with the federal program examined their daughter Rebecca and found no indication that she suffered symptoms of bipolar disorder or attention deficit disorder, Frank Middleton, an assistant Plymouth district attorney, told a judge in Plymouth Superior Court.

The couple, whose 13th wedding anniversary is this week, sat before Judge Carol Ball with their wrists and ankles in shackles. They pleaded not guilty to murder charges brought by a Plymouth grand jury.

Middleton said Carolyn Riley's aunt testified to the grand jury that her niece told her she wanted to get Rebecca on medication so she could receive benefits.

In August 2004, Carolyn Riley took Rebecca to see Dr. Kayoko Kifuji and told the Tufts-New England Medical Center psychiatrist that Rebecca would kick, spit, hit, and laugh when punished, Middleton said. Eventually, Kifuji diagnosed Rebecca with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity.

In March 2005, an SSI doctor rejected the family's application for benefits, and Carolyn Riley returned to Kifuji, Middleton said. This time, according to the prosecutor, Riley said Rebecca had mood swings, trouble sleeping, and was "driving her crazy."

In May 2005, Kifuji diagnosed her with bipolar disorder. The Rileys tried again to secure the benefits, but were rejected again and appealed the decision to an administrative law judge.

The couple had scheduled an appointment with SSI around Dec. 13, 2006, the day Rebecca was found dead in her Hull home, said Bridget Norton Middleton, a spokeswoman for the Plymouth district attorney's office. . . Michael Riley's lawyer, John G. Darrell, disputed Middleton's allegations that his client seemed indifferent when emergency officials came to the couple's house after Riley called 911 to report his daughter's death.

"Laughing when punished"? That deserves another good hard smack, does it not? And a little more medicine really works to stop that damn kid's crying.


Full story, here.

child abuse
unwantedness
Dirty Bushworld

Dirty Bush & GonzoGate: US Atty Fired for Being Too Hard on Child Molesters

There's nothing like primary sources.

Link here, to letter from the House Judiciary Committee, and learn that Bush and his henchman Gonzo fired one US Attorney, Mr. Charlton, because he wanted to videotape interviews with child molesters.

Well, we couldn't have that, could we?

First, you videotape pedophiles, next, you might prosecute them!

The GOPedophile Protection Party won't stand for it!


(And for more fun, lookee here, and repeat after me: "consciousness of guilt, consciousness of guilt, consciousness of guilt.")

Via RawStory, the NY Times, briefly giving up its Judy-Miller-Whitehouse-stenographer role, calls Bush's nasty, bumbling comments "nasty and bumbling," here.
Bush
Gonzalez
US Attorney scandal

Bubble Boy's Don't Ask/Can't Tell Policy -- INVESTIGATING CIA LEAK BY DOING NOTHING

ANSWER: ZERO. Squat. Bupkus. Nada. Nothing. Niente. Zip.

QUESTION: What did the White House do to investigate Rove's role in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame?

WaPo here.

WHITE HOUSE SECURITY CHIEF REVEALS -- NO PROBE OF PLAME LEAK THERE
NEW YORK Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The White House had first opposed Knodell testifying but after a threat of a subpoena from the committee yesterday he was allowed to appear today.

Knodell said that he had started at the White House in August 2004, a year after the leak, but his records show no evidence of a probe or report there: "I have no knowledge of any investigation in my office," he said.

Rep. Waxman recalled that President Bush had promised a full internal probe. Knodell repeated that no probe took place, as far as he knew, and was not happening today.

More via Editor & Publisher, here.

CIA
Plame
Dirty Bush

When's the Last Time YOU Non-Violently Defeated a SuperPower, Freddie-boy?

LOUDMOUTH ACTOR AND REICHWING SHILL DUMPS ON MAHATMA GANDHI

I'm so sick of listening to loudmouth bottom-feeding stupids like Fred Thompson.

And John McCain, who apparently is unaware of how communicable diseases are communicated. (Quick, let's make him the post-Frist Senate tele-doctor!)

And let's not talk about flat-earthers like Bubble Boy, and sexist sadist pigs like Big Dick Cheney. And the whole pack of rabid reichwingers and their enablers -- Rummy, Rove, Bolton; Coulter, Limpbaugh, Dogbeater/Kiddywhipper Dobson; liar Snow, psychotic freepers and their robot horde -- may they all receive their full karmic reward at once.

Yuh, folks, Gandhi's un-American, but torture's as American as apple pie, is it not?

Death, destruction, deceit, dishonor: the core Bushist fascist family values.

I am reminded of this exchange between a reporter and Mahatma Gandhi.

Reporter: Gandhi-ji, what do you think of Western Civilization?

Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

Fred Thompson
Gandhi
Dirty Bush

Say, Why DO They Call Him "Preznit Toad-Exploder," Anyhow?

Why do they call George W. Bush, "Preznit Toad-Exploder"?

Well, impressionable American boys and girls, it's like this.

It's sort of like calling James "Dogbeater" Dobson "Kiddie-Whipper Dobson."

Or calling him "Dogbeater Dobson" for that matter.

Well, besides Bubble Boy's actual childhood sadistic sentient-being-intentional-suffering-and-death-causing toad-exploding history, there's, you know, stuff like this: LEGAL EXPERT: BUSH MAY HAVE ORDERED TORTURE.

Via RawStory:

The administration has been almost pathological in trying to find ways to keep these people from ever seeing a real judge or a real lawyer," Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, told the Associated Press, "and the reasons are obvious."

Turley, among many legal analysts, believes that the likelihood that torture tactics were used on the detainees has heightened the administration's state of secrecy for fear of public retribution. The law professor also suggested that President Bush not only knew about the torture program but may have ordered it.

"It seems pretty clear that they've been tortured," Turley told the AP, "and that the president knew they were being tortured, and may have even ordered their torture through techniques like 'water boarding'."

More here, about Bush ordering torture in Iraq at Abu Ghraib -- and it ain't pretty.

Bush
Iraq War Vets
Vets with PTSD

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude No. Eleventy-Twelve

"Yesterday, I. Lewis Libby, a.k.a. 'The Scooter', the vice president's chief of staff found guilty on four of five counts ranging from obstruction of justice to lying to a grand jury. Yes, we got the guy -- the one-man cancer on this White House has been removed." --Jon Stewart

"Obviously, this has come at a bad time for the White House. Usually, you want the conviction of a high-ranking official and the veterans-sleeping-in-moldy-rat-holes stories on different days." --Jon Stewart

"The White House feels very strongly this is yet another case of activist jurors destroying the lives of the disabled. These $5-a-day zealots were determined to put a man in jail just because a few details slipped his feeble mind." --Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee

"This whole scandal came to light when Robert Novak became the first person to publish details outing the CIA operative. And it really would be a shame if amidst all the legal wrangling and the heated words about this case we lost sight of the one essential truth that I think all parties can agree on: Bob Novak is a HUGE douche bag." --Jon Stewart

"In the Valerie Plame case, Scooter Libby was found not guilty . . . on one of the five charges. . . . But the media is instead focusing, of course, on the four counts of perjury, lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice for which Libby was convicted. It's typical. They always see the glass as 80% guilty." --Stephen Colbert

"We have received word that many hundreds of American troops are being held in deplorable, squalid conditions. What kind of people would treat our soldiers in this horrible manner? Funny story -- turns out, it's us.

In a bombshell story, the Washington Post has reported that several buildings at the military's Walter Reed Medical Center are so poorly maintained that they are pits riddled with water damage, black mold, and in the case of the notorious Building 18, rampant infestation of cockroaches and rodents at Walter Reed. I can understand this kind of thing if you were running, I don't know, some kind of fast-food restaurant. Or, let's say, a hospital for cockroaches that had been injured in some kind of vermin battle.

"Why aren't we hearing the other side of this issue? Yes, there is tons of black mold growing in the walls where we house our wounded soldiers. But nobody mentions, mold can be used to make cheese . . . and penicillin. You might say Walter Reed's walls are dripping with medicine." --Jon Stewart

"The president has said no one supports the troops more than him. So, if you take him at his word -- and I see no reason not to -- anyone leaving the army is necessarily going into a less supportive environment, and that can't be an easy transition. . . . [These shoddy conditions] are a halfway house, so that soldiers can get accustomed to their terrifying, new Bushless world. You just can't throw them back to their family and friends, where God knows what will happen to them. You need to ease them into it with six months to a year of squalid aftercare in some type of bureaucratic limbo" --Daily Show correspondent John Oliver

"Those brave Americans who put themselves in harm's way. . . . I'm talking, of course, about the members of Congress who toured Walter Reed last week. Someone had to have the courage to walk through that hospital and then have the press document their disapproval. These folks have been fighting to improve the conditions for our wounded soldiers ever since the very beginning of two weeks ago." --Stephen Colbert

"It's hard for us civilians to understand the kind of sacrifice it takes for a congressman to respond to a Washington Post article, so let me put this into perspective for you: They can't just look out their window to see what's happening at Walter Reed. No, they have to get into a car. Walter Reed hospital is more than six miles from the Capitol. . . . Getting to Walter Reed from the Capitol is a march through hell, one that evidently takes more than four years to make" --Stephen Colbert

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fitzmas . . .

Oh my.

Somebody's been convicted of a felony.

How did that happen?

I thought those pesky reporters had to keep their mouths shut.

Damn.

love and kisses,

Sealed vs. Sealed



Libby trial
Cheney
CIA leak

Dirty Bush to Hicks Defense Atty: Shut Up and Quit

I so like when we "defend democracy" by killing a huge bunch of random people while undermining the rule of law, do not you?

Imagine if one could imprison without trial for five, count them, five years, random people like -- Big Dick, Bubble Boy, Rummy, Condi . . . and treat them to the notoriously wonderful food at Gitmo along with Caribbean waterboarding for free. Plus the continual luxuriation of solitary confinement.

Imagine.

MAJOR MICHAEL MORI, the defence lawyer for David Hicks, could be removed from the case after threats from the chief US prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, to charge him under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

The intervention may derail Hicks's trial, and possibly prompt his return to Australia. It would take months for a new lawyer to get to grips with the case and the new military commission process.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has told the US that any action leading to further delays would be unacceptable and would prompt him to demand the return of Hicks, 31, after five years in Guantanamo Bay.

Colonel Davis has accused Major Mori of breaching Article 88 of the US military code, which relates to using contemptuous language towards the president, vice-president, and secretary of defence. Penalties for breaching the code include jail and the loss of employment and entitlements.

Major Mori denied he had done anything improper but said the accusations left him with an inherent conflict of interest.

"It can't help but raise an issue of whether any further representation of David and his wellbeing could be tainted by a concern for my own legal wellbeing," Major Mori told the Herald. "David Hicks needs counsel who is not tainted by these allegations."

Major Mori, who has been to Australia seven times, will seek legal advice. The issue will also have to be raised with Hicks when his legal team next sees him. . . Colonel Davis said Major Mori was not playing by the rules and criticised his regular trips to Australia.

"Not playing by the rules"? What? You mean there are rules?

Here's why someone wants Hick's lawyer to shut up and quit -- his counsel knows how to call a spade a spade. So, you know, let's ruin Mori's career, just like we ruined Lt. Cmr. Charles Swift, that other uppity counsel.

Courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald.

David Hicks
Gitmo
Dirty Bush

Dirty Bush to Vets: Shut Up and Die

Lookee here.

The happy couple. With their happy little boy. You can't tell from this picture that when the happy little boy becomes a bit older, he'll think it's fun to stuff lit firecrackers down the throats of toads who don't want to die. But he thinks it's fun, so the toads will explode, thanks to Bubble Boy, the toad-exploder, who will grow up to be president.

Other families have happy little boys and girls, too. But some of them grow up to be exploded.

In Bubble Boy's Oedipal Iraq war. Some are exploded like the toads, some are wounded. Physically wounded, psychologically wounded, or both.

Bubble Boy doesn't want to pay for troops with PTSD to be treated for the PTSD his splendid little Oedipal war gave them. Suicide saves dough, does it not?

Bubble Boy doesn't want to pay for brain injury treatment for troops with brain injuries his splendid little Oedipal war gave them. They're not Terry Schiavo, are they?

Bubble Boy wants all the rest of the wounded troops who were wounded fighting his splendid little Oedipal war to just shut the f*ck up. He wants them to shut up and die.

More here. And here. And here.

Way to support the troops, Preznit Toad-Exploder!

Vets
Iraq War Vets
Vets with PTSD

Big Fat Dick Outed as Big Fat Dick

Oo oo. Someone hasn't paid attention to his or her pronouns.

Some very special Senior Administration Official (SAP) is leaking information again -- and this time, he's leaking all over himself.

Eee-ew.

"I would describe my sessions both in Pakistan and Afghanistan as very productive. . . ."

You would, would you, Big Dickie?

"Cheney Outed as Mystery Official", via RawStory, here.

AP coverage here.

Way to keep secrets, Dick.


(For more fun, catch this ace slapdown of the Bushist fascist media whore media, at No Quarter.)

Oh, and how about this also from No Quarter, poor Big Dick Cheney, now masquerading as big fat victim. Gag me with a spoon, big fat Dick. I mean, don't even.

Imagine How it Would Have Been -- At Long Last, President Gore

OSTROY; Al Gore Will Not Only Run, but He Can and Will Win in '08
With an Oscar Appearance, and a Hit Documentary Gore Is Suddenly Very Cool
Gore

Feb. 27, 2007 — Make no mistake: Former Vice President Al Gore will be our next president.

I am as confident about that assertion as I am that George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst president ever. Gore is the right man at the right time, for many reasons. And it's clear that the momentum and buzz is shifting his way big time.

At Sunday's Oscar ceremony, Gore's movie producers took home the coveted prize for best feature documentary for "An Inconvenient Truth," his scorching red-flag raiser on global warming.

Gore joined them on stage and was graceful, poised and presidential. And it didn't hurt his hipness quotient any to be getting a little Leo DiCaprio love either. The politician also joined the Hollywood star on stage during the Oscars. That's right, Al Gore is suddenly cool.

It gets even better. In October, Gore will also likely be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for being the planet's biggest advocate in the fight against climate change. His prestigious nomination in this exclusive club puts him in the company of such independent thinkers, statesmen and activists as Dr. Martin Luther King, President Jimmy Carter, Elie Wiesel and Mother Theresa.

Now let's talk chops. Gore's an enlisted Vietnam vet who served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, two terms in the Senate, and eight years as vice president in one of the most successful administrations ever. Let's not forget that he won the popular vote in 2000, and as many say, the Electoral College as well.

So wait, he's hip, he's brilliant, he's highly experienced. Is America ready for a real leader after two terms of a guy who makes Jim Carrey's "Dumb and Dumber" character seem downright cerebral? You bet your asinine Bush-isms it is.

I even have the perfect campaign slogan for Gore: "Imagine how it would've been."

Just imagine what the country would be like today had he become president in 2000 and not Bush. Imagine an America without this bloody debacle in Iraq. Imagine an America that commands the respect of its allies and is feared by its enemies. Imagine an America that puts the environment before big corporate interests. Imagine having a president who strives to bridge the gap between rich and poor, where the middle class, not the wealthy, gets the tax breaks, and where the minimum wage is not a shameful $5.15. Pretty powerful stuff on the campaign trail, huh?

--Andy Ostroy

MoDo wrote a column lauding Gore just now, as well. Jurassicpork captures it here.

Link here.

Scooter Scooter Scooter -- What kind of a name is that for a grown man?

Waiting for the jury to come in after the Libby trial?

Don't bother with the MSM (mainstream media, for our stout handful of non-blogtopian gentle readers). Go directly to coverage at firedoglake.

Say, Jimmy, isn't firedoglake doing what the Fourth Estate is supposed to do, that is, before it morphed into the loudmouth useless braindead Bushist fascist media whore media? Wasn't all of the media supposed to be defending truth, not truthiness? Truth, justice and the American way -- as Sidney Blumenthal does, here.

But let's take time to tippy-toe down Memory Lane, just a bit. Reviewing the arguments presented in the Libby trial, one does love the little constellation of, um, like NINE , count them, NINE persons to whom Libby somehow managed to "blurt" a CIA covert agent's identity!

But hey, it didn't happen that way, people. It was all about Rove. It was all about Twinkie Sneezing. It was all about being SO BUSY Defenderering the Universe. But In the end, boo-hoo, just as Bubble Boy had become the Deciderer, somehow Libby is now revealed as the Forgetter-er.

Oopsie.

Three words:

Unique
Importance
Anger

Good mnemonic, UIA. Why, it's almost like CIA, is it not? Alliterative irony? Libby's behavior with regard to "Wilson's wife" was Unique -- testimony suggested he was acting in unusual ways, calling people he never called, going way out of his way. Libby's behavior showed the Importance to him of this information-- making time for special two hour lunches, even though he's so busy being the Defenderer of the Universe. Libby's behavior was driven by Anger -- to which many witnesses testified.

On a totally different note, hmm, can anyone say "Sealed vs. Sealed"?

Oh, and here's a little photo of Richard "Big Dick" Cheney. And a big one.

Cheney at Auschwitz. Golly. We're feeling really Jungian today, have you noticed?

The Libby trial summation somehow is just making me feel, so, so -- sentimental! Sentimental about Big Dick!

How about you?




Libby trial
CIA
CIA leak

HAPPY TIBETAN NEW YEAR! LOSAR TASHI DELEK!

I'm betting that most of you may not know that it's Tibetan New Year. Looky here, the big-deal Washington Post doesn't even know that it's Tibetan New Year -- but, it is.

So do wish Bill O'Reilly "Losar Tashi Delek!" and if he doesn't say that phrase right back atcha, tell that loudmouth he'd better stop waging his ugly war on Tibetan New Year!

Happy Year of the Fire Pig, people!


Let's hope that all those naughty Bushist fascist piggies who so richly deserve to be thrust on a spit, and roasted over a blazing fire until they're searing hot and cracklin' good -- achieve all that they so richly deserve! Yee haw!


Link here to Buddhist Jihad, Losar Edition.
(Pilgrims and Monks Throwing Tsampa (Flour) into Air, Celebrating Tibetan New Year, Kathmandu, Nepal by Alison Wright)
Tibetan New Year
Fire Pig

Scooter's Twinkie-Sneeze Defense

So, what's with Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby's twinkie-sneeze defense, anyhow?

His lawyer brings out 6 journalists who testify that Scooter didn't sneeze on them -- so therefore Scooter didn't sneeze on anyone else?

Holds up on the classic level of "it wasn't me it was the twinkie" thing.

Secondly, their testimony seems to be more about suggesting that Scooter was not leaking, not about Scooter not lying. Or that Scooter was leaking just a little bit. Hunh? So? And?

Plus, it seems that our own aspens-esque Scooter "What kind of name is that for a grown man?" Libby turns out to be, according to defense testimony, the actual oh-so-busy personal DEFENDERER OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! Wow!


How stupid do his lawyers think the jurors are?

Purty stupid.




Fabulous live-blogging continues at firedoglake.
Nice piece by Sidney Blumenthal at Salon, here, all about Scootie's hubris problems, and more!
(One must bow down before the recent incisive Super-Libbyguy Personal Defenderer of the Universe Defense, which is that poor Scootie has SO much on his mind (absorbing info that appears each day in the New York Times) that he had NO MENTAL SPACE left to remember things like that he forgot Valerie Plame's identity before he remembered ti! Thus, therefore his failure to remember was just you know one of those things, even though he was SO BUSY SAVING THE UNIVERSE that really you'd think he wouldn't have had ANY TIME IN HIS SO BUSY UNIVERSAL-DEFENDERER SO BUSY SCHEDULE MUCH LESS ANY INTEREST in taking Judith Miller for a two-hour "working" lunch at the St. Regis? Hmm?)
Libby trial
Plame, CIA
CIA leak

BIG DICK CAUGHT WITH PANTS DOWN: TIME TO NUKE IRAN

Some say nuking Iran will be just a wag-the-dog war thing to take pressure off Bush's failures in Iraq and the lies that led up to that war.

Some say waging war on Iran will deflect blame away from Richard "Big Dick" Cheney.

Some say nuking Iran is why Cheney had deep-cover NOC and (hmm) Iran WMD non-proliferation expert Valerie Plame outed in the first place.

Three wars at once.

Losing each and every one of them?


Some say -- it's the Bush trifecta!

What do you say?


I think we're all really really f*cked.


Libby trial
Cheney, CIA
CIA leak
Iran War

Will Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby Finger Scooter Libby? So far he's fingering Big Dick.

So, wow, it turns out that serial draft-dodger, sadist-in-chief, "last throes" guy Richard "Big Dick" Cheney was the driving behind the propaganda conspiracy that outed undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.

One is shocked, shocked.

Is one not?



Links to the official DOJ website with transcripts of Scooter's testimony, here.

Scooter Libby's trial continues, masterful live blogging continues at firedoglake.


Unofficial excerpt from Scooter's Grand Jury testimony:

Fitzgerald: And do you have a nickname?

Libby: Yes, Scooter.

F: Can you give us a description of how you got the name Scooter?

L (joking): Are we classified in here?

Is this man insane? He was making snarky jokes about classified info while being questioned by Fitzgerald, under oath? Isn't this the same lame joke he tried when questioned by FBI agent Bond?

Talk about inappropriate and un-funny. Quick, let's look under the sofa, we might find those pesky WMDs.



But wait, wait.

It's time for another

No Blood for Hubris Official Mini-Mental Health Interlude:

"Some good news. Finally, President Bush is going to do something about global warming. He became alarmed when another chunk of ice fell off his mother."
--David Letterman

Libby trial
CIA
CIA leak
Libby GJ testimony

Shame on Us for Not Having Ended This Bestial War

Via Welcome to Pottersville: Welcome to Pottersville: Supergirl Strikes Again

FBI's Bond Fingers Scooter "What kind of a name is that for a grown man?" Libby

"Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to remember what you said."

--Mark Twain



WaPo story here.

One of the FBI agents who interviewed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby during the CIA leak investigation testified yesterday that the vice president's then-chief of staff did not acknowledge disclosing the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to reporters, asserting that he was surprised when another journalist later told him about her.

FBI agent Deborah S. Bond also testified that Libby said that, while he was preparing to be interviewed by investigators in the fall of 2003, he came across a handwritten note he had made during a phone conversation with Vice President Cheney.

The note made it clear that, shortly before June 12, 2003, Cheney had told Libby that Plame worked at the CIA's counterproliferation division . . .

Libby's conversation with Cheney took place nearly a month before Libby telephoned Tim Russert, NBC's Washington bureau chief.

According to Bond, Libby said that, during that call, Russert mentioned that "all the reporters" knew that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife worked at the CIA.

Libby told the investigators that "it was as if it was the first time he'd heard it," Bond said.

-------------------------

"Earlier today, President Bush pardoned the White House turkey. It was just a practice run for Scooter Libby." --David Letterman

"Scooter Libby, who got indicted, has set up a legal defense fund to help pay his legal bills. It's pretty good, for a $1,000 donation you get a hand-written thank you note and the name of a CIA agent." --Jay Leno

"Libby was indicted on two counts of obstruction of justice, three counts of perjury, and one count of not being as smart as Karl Rove." --Jon Stewart

"What did Scooter Libby say when he bumped into President Bush at the White House? 'Pardon me.'" --Jay Leno

"Outside the courthouse, Libby's lawyer said all he wants to do is clear his client's good name. I don't know. "Scooter"? Is that a good name?" --Jay Leno



Libby trial
CIA
FBI testimony
Cheney testimony