In Nightmares Begin Responsibilities: Katrina's Unhappy Anniversary

While we're aware of recent path of Hurricane Ernesto, and are all aware of the unhappy anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I thought I'd do a deja vu all over again recycling of some of my fave Katrina raves, that hurricane that nobody could have predicted (except for those who had predicted it) and about which nobody could do nothing (except when super-competent FEMA chief James Lee Witt had he been back-to-the-future-ly time-warped in.)


Saturday, September 03, 2005


Nightmares:

Via an interview with BBC News with Lieutenant Commander Sean Kelly of the Northern Command, video here:

NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit.

We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast.

So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you'll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started.

We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it's search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready.

The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.

"WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO GIVE US PERMISSION."

Permission George W. Bush clearly failed to give.

Negligence? Malevolence? Incompetence? Racism? All of the above?

Just asking.

Yes, indeedy.

And how about a little deja vu here?

And a little deja vu here. And here.

All over again.


Katrina anniversary
FEMA
Bush, Katrina
Snakes on a plane
Bush saying he's sorry, sorta, here.

Christian Lady Fired From Church As Satanic Talibangelical Dominionism Spreads North

Can you believe it?

Crappy-"christian" "church" fires an elderly Sunday school teacher with 54 years teaching experience because bizarre Talibangelical male minister forbids adult women to teach adult men.

Who would Jesus dismiss on the basis of gender, eh?

Will Crappy-'christians' be paying attention to the actual words of Jesus anytime soon, or will they be staying with and harping on all the words He didn't say?

And remember, boys and girls--these Dominionists believe in permanent slavery for women and slavery for the poor, and in the death penalty for disobedient children. I'm not making this up. I don't have to.

Hey, kids! Worried about the imposition of medievalist Islamic Shari'a Law? Try pre-medieval Mosaic Law!

[E]nforcement of the Mosaic Law will involve the application of the death penalty for such capital crimes as murder, rape, kidnapping, bestiality, incest, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, idolatry, witchcraft, the offering of human sacrifice, unchangeable rebellion in adolescent children, flagrant negligence resulting in the death of another person, blasphemy, apostasy, the spreading of false doctrines, and Sabbath breaking. The reconstructed society will regard dissenters and heretics as treasonous criminals at war with the law and society."

Full story here and here.

Hat tip to Buddhist Jihad.

Church fires woman teacher.
Talibangelicals
Christian misogyny
Snakes on a plane

Rightwing Blowhards Discover Their Bush is Idiot -- Is Late Really Better Than Never?

What took them so long?

Oh, right. They're stupid.

Pundits Renounce The President

For 10 minutes, the talk show host grilled his guests about whether "George Bush's mental weakness is damaging America's credibility at home and abroad." For 10 minutes, the caption across the bottom of the television screen read, "IS BUSH AN 'IDIOT'?"

But the host was no liberal media elitist. It was Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman turned MSNBC political pundit. And his answer to the captioned question was hardly "no."

While other presidents have been called stupid, Scarborough said: "I think George Bush is in a league by himself. I don't think he has the intellectual depth as these other people."

Well, frickin' duh, Joey.

Maybe you guys should stop PolPot-ishly deriding smart people, for a change?

This is your boy:

"I think -- tide turning -- see, as I remember -- I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of -- it's easy to see a tide turn -- did I say those words?" -- George W. Bush, asked if the tide was turning in Iraq, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006



YouTube catch here.

WaPo story here.

Wonderful YouTube montage here. And here.

NBFH blasts from the past (recent Bush idiocies) here and here.




Bush is Idiot
Joe Scarborough
Dirty Bush
Snakes on a plane

The George Allen Story: Racist Sadist Becomes Virginia Senator, Somehow Avoided Jail for Assaults, Destruction of Property

Well, well, well.

George Allen twice used the word "macaca" to describe a fellow citizen. Senator Allen now claims he made up this word, "macaca," which he used twice, but one letter writer to the Washington Post thinks otherwise:

It also seems worth mentioning that Mr. Allen's mother is a speaker of French and Arabic who came to this country from Tunisia. "Macaca" is a derogatory slur used by speakers of French in reference to blacks, Arabs and dark-skinned people.

Mr. Allen had reason to have knowledge of that particular slur based on his family background and his own knowledge of French.

[Update: looks like someone named George stepped in macaca, big-time, here.]

Judge for yourself, via YouTube, here. [Georgie says he's sowwy, here.]

In the aftermath of Senator George Allen's recent racist remark, let's take another look at some of his earlier, questionable behaviors.

Assess the following:

1. At Niagara Falls, George Allen deliberately dangled his little sister over the railing, threatening to drop her onto the water hundreds of feet below, and thus leaving her permanently terrorized.

2. He attacked his sister's date with a pool cue.

3. George Allen deliberately dragged his sister by the hair, painfully, up a long wooden staircase.

3. He threw his own brother through a sliding glass door.

4. He repeatedly destroyed private property.

5. George Allen broke his own brother's collarbone.

If your next-door neighbor behaved as described above, would he avoid jail time? Would you feel comfortable having someone like him as your next door neighbor?

Or would you call the cops, first chance you got?

Just asking. (More here.)

I don't think sadists should grow up to be Senators--or Presidents, for that matter.

What do you think?





George Allen
macaca
George Allen's racist remark
GET THE SNAKES OFF THE PLANE
Snakes on a plane

Dirty Bush Screws the Troops. Again.

What's dirty Bush done this time?

He's cut in half funding for treatment of war-related brain injuries and research on war-related brain injuries.

You know, the kind of war-related brain injuries one might get while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. IEDS, gunshot wounds, that kind of thing.

Please keep in mind Preznit Toad-Exploder's previous record of supporting the troops:

issuing crappy body armor to save money
giving a hard time to troops who buy their own body armor because the DOD doesn't want to be caught being cheap shits
putting crappy armor on tanks to save money
denying treatment to vets with PTSD to save money
putting out anti-PTSD propaganda to save money
undertreating vets with PTSD to save money

Heckuva job.



Full story here.


2006--GET THE SNAKES OFF THE PLANE.

Iraq Veterans
Bush cuts funding for vets
Dirty Bush
Snakes on a plane

GET THE SNAKES OFF THE PLANE

The clueless White House and their media whore media blowhard enablers claim the latest Al Qaeda airliner bomb plot will boost them politically.

They are wrong.

Well, of course, they are, they're the real snakes on a plane.

Bush started a war killing hundreds of thousands of people, killing thousands of US troops, ruining the lives of tens of thousands of Americans. All so Oedipal, just tryin' to out-do his Daddy. He bungled the war in Afghanistan because of it, and now the Taliban are back seeking to resume control.

Bush accomplished all this while letting the actual 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden go free, free to continue to create and fund terrorist plots against us.

This is being competent? This is making us more secure?

Puh-leeze.

Now, in true up-is-downist style, they want to make political hay out of their own massive failures?

Do they really think Osama Bin Forgotten?

All snakes--Dirty Bush, Dirty Dick, Crackpot Rummy, Closet Cupcake Rove, No-Genevas-Gonzalez, Condi, the whole pro-atrocity crowd, plus their media whore media enablers--must go.


2006--GET THE SNAKES OFF THE PLANE.

Heathrow
Al Qaeda terror plot
Osama Bin Forgotten
Snakes on a plane

Bubble Gum, All-Day Suckers: How US Military Courts Respect the Iraqi Dead (Well, after all, it was just a little jihadi girl, eh? No biggie.)

Oh I do feel sure that all those nasty comments about 'ragheads' could not have made it easier for some soldiers to rape and to murder Iraqis.

I feel so sure that comments about killing others made by Coulter, Limpbaugh, Savage Weiner, Malkin, and others might not have contributed to an atmosphere in which heinous acts were permissible.

Oh but what about the pro-torture, pro-atrocity attitudes of the Commander-in-Chief, his VP, and Nutty Rummy? Hmm.

Well, the boys played All-American golf before they murdered this child and her family. Having raped her.

Then, right after that rape and murder, there were All-American barbecued chicken wings.

And today? In court? Why, it's All-American lollipops and Bazooka gum!

Defense Attorney Captain Jimmie Culp was blowing chewing gum bubbles while [defendant Sgt. Anthony] Yribe, sitting to his left, began sucking on a red lollipop during the testimony.

(Reuters)A U.S. military court in Baghdad heard graphic testimony on Monday of how three U.S. soldiers took turns raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before murdering her and her family.

At the hearing into whether four U.S. soldiers should be court-martialled for rape and murder, a special agent described what took place in Mahmudiya in March, based on an interview he had with one of the men, Specialist James Barker. . . Special Agent Benjamin Bierce recalled that Barker described to him how they put a couple and their six-year-old daughter into a bedroom of their home, but kept the teenage girl in the living room, where Barker held her hands while Sergeant Paul Cortez raped her or tried to rape her. . .

Barker also told the special agent he heard shots from the bedroom and shortly afterwards Private Steven Green emerged from the room, put down an AK-47 assault rifle and raped the girl while Cortez held her down.

Barker told Bierce that Green then picked up the weapon and shot her once, paused, and shot her several more times.

Military prosecutors are expected to set out their case against Private First Class Jesse Spielman, 21, Barker, 23, Cortez, 23 and Private First Class Bryan Howard, 19, who face charges of rape and murder among others. . .

Defense Attorney Captain Jimmie Culp was blowing chewing gum bubbles while Yribe, sitting to his left, began sucking on a red lollipop during the testimony.

An Iraqi army medic told the hearing on Sunday he entered the house and found the body of 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi naked and burned from the waist up, with a single bullet wound beneath her left eye.

Special Agent Gary Griesmyer recounted Cortez' account of the day. "While they were playing cards and drinking Iraqi whiskey, the idea came to go out to an Iraqi house, rape a woman and murder her family," he testified.

Cortez said Barker told the young girl to "shut up" after she was raped, Griesmyer said.

Bierce said Barker told him he poured kerosene from a lamp on to the girl. It was not clear who set her on fire.

Barker later signed a sworn statement based on the interview, in which he said that on the day of the attack he, Cortez, Spielman and Green had been playing cards and drinking whisky mixed with an energy drink. They then went to the rear of the checkpoint where they were based to hit golf balls.

Green said he wanted to go to a house and kill some Iraqis, Barker wrote in his sworn statement.

After the rape and murders, he wrote that he began to grill chicken wings.

Full story here.
WaPo, here.
NBFH--"The Pro-Atrocity Crowd," here.

Mahmudiya
Bush, Rummy, Cheney
culture of torture
Marine rape at Mahmudiya

Massive Manatee Spotted in Manhattan's Hudson River

Added to the chronicles of great beasts that have descended upon New York City in the year 2006 is one that is arguably the greatest of them all. A beast, upwards of 1,000 pounds and a cousin to the elephant, which dwarfs the coyote, the deer and the dolphin that preceded it. . .

Over the past week, boaters and bloggers have been energetically tracking a manatee in its lumbering expedition along the Atlantic Coast and up the Hudson River.

John H. Vargo, the publisher of Boating on the Hudson magazine, put out an alert last week, much to the incredulity of some boaters.

"Some were laughing about it, because it couldn’t possibly be true," Mr. Vargo said.

The manatee has been spotted at 23rd Street near Chelsea Piers, West 125th Street, and later in Westchester County. It appeared to be healthy.

Randy Shull, a boater from Ossining, spotted the manatee about 4:30 p.m. yesterday while his 21-foot boat was floating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow.

"It was gigantic," Mr. Shull said. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth.”

It is unusual, but not unprecedented for manatees to travel this far north — the seaweed-munching sea creatures are commonly associated with the warm waters of Florida. . . .

"I’m 70 years old, and I’ve been on the river my entire life," Mr. Vargo said. "I’ve seen dolphins and everything else, but never a manatee."

Full story here.

This is What Political Censorship Looks Like

Hello, kids!

This is Sandy Wax.

This the person who fired Melanie Martinez.

She fired Melanie Martinez because she didn't like a video that Melanie made SEVEN YEARS before she was hired to be a host on a PBS kiddie show.

The video Melanie made seven years ago made fun of abstinence-only sex education programs. Clearly this disqualifies her for becoming the beloved host of a show like The Good Night Show for children 2 to 6 years old. Because wondering about abstinence-only sex education is so much on the minds of children 2 to 6 years old or something?

Oh dear.

PBS KIDS Sprout has determined that the dialogue in this video is inappropriate for her role as a preschool program host and may undermine her character’s credibility with our audience. As a result, PBS KIDS Sprout has decided that she will no longer appear as host of The Good Night Show.

Be sure to tell YOUR kids about that they must be very very very careful never to do anything in the past that a boss far far far in the future might not agree with politically.

Except if you're famous like George Carlin, or something.

But if you're just a girl, you better watch what you say.

This is a funny column by Mark Morford about PBS's stupid, un-American decision. It's called "Dumb People Make Children Cry."

This is Sandy Wax's address. You could practice some free speech on Sandy.

Sandy Wax
President
PBS Kids Sprout
2000 Market Street, 20th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Phone: 215-667-2750
Fax: 215-667-2701
email: sandy_wax@comcast.com
info@sproutsletsgrow.com
Sprout_Network@comcast.com

BUSH CAN'T TELL SHI'A FROM SHINOLA, AMBASSADOR REVEALS

Via Raw Story, here.

"A year after his 'Axis of Evil' speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi-Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States.

The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President. . . it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

[Ambassador] Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, "I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!"

Muslims, schmuslims. Why should Preznit Toad-Exploder fill his Decidering Beautiful Mind with silly things like "facts"?

He's a busy man, one all too busy still trying to finish "My Pet Goat," five years after the attack he failed to prevent.

There's no such thing as global warming. The Iraq insurgency is in its last throes. And, as always: war is peace, up is down, black is white, incompetence is inevitable, freedom is slavery, torture is normal, the rule of law is quaint, pollution is "Freedom Dirt."

Blockhead.

Boor.

Egomaniac.

The Bush trifecta of shame.

Crappy-Christian Red State Statutory Rapist Gets 45 Days

ADULT FORNICATOR AND STATUTORY RAPIST GETS PUNISHMENT OF 45 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL

An Arizona judge has sentenced [a 39-year old adult male] to 45 days in county jail for having sex with [an underage girl] he 'took as his third wife'(sic). . . Fischer was the first of seven members of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints (FLDS) to be tried for plural marriages to minors.

"I don't know if we've sent a strong enough message to these people," said Gary Engels, an investigator with the Mohave County Attorney's office.

About 7,000 FLDS members live in the twin border towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

Members of the group, which broke with mainstream Mormons in the 1890s over polygamy, believe that only those in plural marriages can reach the highest level of heaven.

Warren Jeffs, the church leader or "prophet," is a federal fugitive from charges in both states stemming from his alleged arrangement of "celestial marriages" between teenage girls and older, married men.

The county prosecutor, Matt Smith, had asked Judge Steven Conn to sentence Fischer, 39, to some prison time. Fischer faced a minimum sentence of probation and a maximum of four years in prison.

As part of the sentence, Fischer must complete three years probation and register as a sex offender. He must report to jail by November 1.

Although polygamy is unconstitutional in Arizona, it is not a crime (hunh?). Law enforcement largely left the FLDS alone until about 18 months ago, when Mohave County began investigating allegations of sex with underage girls.

Relying on birth certificates and testimony of former church members, a jury convicted Fischer last month of sexual contact with a minor and conspiracy for having sex with a 16-year-old.

More here.

As I Google it, the age of consent in Arizona is 18. This adult guy was fornicating with a 16 year old.

But we'd rather the state be protecting petri dishes, would we not?

And promoting government-forced maternity.

And complaining about the sex lives and marriages of consenting adults, rather than preventing sexual contacts between adults and children (who cannot give consent).

Oh, and also protecting a rapist's right to breed.

Yippee.

governmend-forced maternity
Snakes On a Plane
crappy-Christians
Bushist moral and fiscal bankruptcy

"Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States": Dirty Bush & Dirty Dick Ignore CIA, Intel Warnings; Cover-up Fatal Errors After?

9/11 PANEL SUSPECTED DECEPTION BY PENTAGON

Via WaPo, here:

Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission . . .

"We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied. . ."

"I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described," John Farmer, a former New Jersey attorney general who led the staff inquiry into events on Sept. 11, said in a recent interview. "The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years. . . . This is not spin. This is not true."

(I was shocked, shocked to think that our Fearless Leaders would lie to us, were not you?)

The 9/11 Norad Tapes

Via Vanity Fair, here, and you can listen to the tapes themselves.

8:46:36NASYPANY: Hi, sir. O.K., what—-what we're doing, we're tryin' to locate this guy. We can't find him via I.F.F. [the Identification Friend or Foe system]. What we're gonna do, we're gonna hit up every track within a 25-mile radius of this Z-point [coordinate] that we put on the scope. Twenty-nine thousand [feet] heading 1-9-0 [east]. We're just gonna do—we're gonna try to find this guy. They can't find him. There's supposedly been threats to the cockpit. So we're just doing the thing … [off-mic conversation] True. And probably right now with what's going on in the cockpit it's probably really crazy. So, it probably needs to—that will simmer down and we'll probably get some better information.

American 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center four seconds into this transmission.

(I was shocked, shocked to speculate that a fictional military exercise might have been cooked up in order to white-out and obscure oh say an evil Veep's usurpation of power at a time of national emergency, while his Preznit froze like a deer in the headlights, were not you?)

So, you see, Virginia--there are motherfuckin' snakes on the motherfuckin'plane:

GET THE SNAKES OFF THE PLANE


9/11 Norad Tapes
Snakes On a Plane
pro-torture
moral and fiscal bankruptcy

Oh, and just wanted to give a hi! and a wave to a recent visitor from Iran, via Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari, who arrived somehow here after googling 'porno pix' (linked to our story about JimmyJeff GannonGuckert). Repressed a little, are we?

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS GLOBAL WARMING, LOVE FROM KATRINA (& KISSES FROM TORNADOS, FOREST FIRES, HEATWAVES & OTHER ANOMALOUS WEATHER EVENTS)

DEAR DIRTY BUSH AND DIRTY DICK--

NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED THAT WEDNESDAY WILL BE THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE WEEK...AS HIGH TEMPERATURES APPROACH 100 DEGREES. HEAT INDICES ARE LIKELY TO REACH AROUND 110 DEGREES WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON...WITH ISOLATED VALUES NEAR 115 DEGREES POSSIBLE.

PEOPLE WHO REMEMBER THE BEGINNING OF AUGUST 1975 WILL FIND SIMILARITIES TO THIS SPELL OF HOT WEATHER.

DON'T READ MORE ABOUT THIS, HERE.

THIS WILL BE AN EXTREME EVENT. THE HEAT WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SERIOUS LIFE THREATENING SITUATION IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN...ESPECIALLY FOR THE ELDERLY...CHILDREN...AND THOSE WHO WORK OUTSIDE BETWEEN 11 AM AND 6 PM EACH DAY.

PEOPLE SHOULD PLAN ON ALTERING THEIR DAILY ROUTINE...IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE RISK OF HEAT EXHAUSTION...OR WORSE...BEING A CASUALTY OF LIFE THREATENING HEAT STROKE.

AVOID STRENUOUS OUTDOOR ACTIVITY...ESPECIALLY FROM LATE MORNING THROUGH THE EVENING...AND SPEND TIME IN AIR CONDITIONING IF POSSIBLE.

MAKE SURE ROOMS REMAIN PROPERLY VENTILATED IF AIR CONDITIONING IS NOT AVAILABLE...BY OPENING WINDOWS AND USING FANS. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR THOSE IN THE URBAN CENTERS.

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN HIGH HUMIDITIES ARE EXPECTED TO COMBINE WITH HOT TEMPERATURES RESULTING IN HEAT INDICES OF 105 DEGREES OR GREATER. AVOID PROLONGED WORK IN THE SUN OR POORLY VENTILATED AREAS. ALSO...DRINK PLENTY OF WATER AND TRY TO STAY IN AN AIR CONDITIONED ENVIRONMENT.
(Unless you're too poor to have air conditioning or too poor to live in an area where the electricity fails to fail. If you're poor, according to Preznit Toad-Exploder when he was an legacy grad student at Harvard, that's your own damn fault. So there.)

AVOID READING THE DREADFUL LIBRUL MEDIA LIKE this AND THIS HERE STORY IN THE WAPO, DEAR DIRTY BUSH AND DIRTY DICK, IT WILL ONLY MAKE YOUR BLOOD BOIL, AND THATS NOT GOOD. REALLY THINGS HAVE BEEN HOT ALL ALONG. GOD MADE IT THAT WAY FOR A REASON. GOD MADE WHITE-OUT, TOO, AND THAT'S HOW WE'RE REALLY GOING TO GET RID OF GLOBAL WARMING. HA HA.

LOVE & KISSES, from

ALL THE ABOVE-MENTIONED NON-EXISTENT WEATHER EVENTS THAT DON'T REALLY MATTER HA HA


oh and ps dont get upset when those reality-based libruls start shouting GET THE SNAKES OFF THE PLANE! 'n stuff its just some metaphor or something dont worry about it really i swear







global warming
Snakes On a Plane

Happily, There's No Such Thing As Global Warming Which Is Why This Melting Glacier In Peru Is Illusory. Yo--Illusory? What A (Buddhist) Concept!

Regard each and every phenomenon of this world as being dreamlike;
Like a magical illusion;
Like a bubble in sparkling water,
Like a shadow,
Like dew,
Like a flash of lightning . . .


Yes, Virginia, just as mega-scientist Michael Crichton says, there's really no such thing as Global Warming.

That's why this here WaPo Story about this here Quelccaya glacier in Peru is misleading. Although it certainly seems to be melting, is not really melting.

Is that clear? This here other glacier melting doesn't matter either.

OK, so it's melting, but not in an important way. In way more like, who cares, glaciers have been melting for, like, forever. Man didn't make this mess. OK?

All the Know-Nothing Dirty Bushist NaziCons say so. And so does Dirty Bush. And also Dirty Dick.

Of course, they also say that invading Iraq was a good thing, that up is down, black is white, torture is virtuous, laws are for pussies, clean is dirty, dirty is clean, war is peace, poverty is happiness. And if you're not happy, who cares, because God's Great Vacuum-Cleaner is going to suck you all up to Heaven real soon, so why bother.

Or maybe God, annoyed by the horrid hell on earth the Know-Nothing Dirty Bushists have created, will turn some of the Bushist perpetrators into, oh, say, pillars of salt. Or smite them soundly in some other way that each one richly deserves. Beyond mere tar and feathers and a permanent trip to Gitmo.


But the glaciers will still go on melting, until--


1. Someone yells, "Snakes! We got motherfuckin' snakes!"

(This part's pretty much accomplished. All but the 30% diehard Know-Nothing Dirty Bushists agree that there are indeed Snakes on Our national Plane).

Recognizing this truth, the rest of us need to follow the lead of Samuel L. Jackson, and take all appropriate action to--

2. "Get these motherfuckin' snakes off this motherfuckin' plane!"

Metaphorically speaking.




(Oh, and looky here, what's this? Something dreadful this way comes!

ALL PEOPLE WHO LEAD OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE CONSIDERING PREPARATIONS TO MITIGATE THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF 100 DEGREE HEAT AND HEAT INDICES OF 105 TO 110 DEGREES THIS COMING TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY. THIS SERIOUS HEAT EPISODE REQUIRES SPECIAL PRECAUTIONS FOR THE ELDERLY ...SHUT-INS...CHILDREN ... ANIMALS... AND THOSE WITH HEALTH PROBLEMS... ESPECIALLY RESPIRATORY. THIS SPELL OF NEAR RECORD HEAT MAY PROVE DANGEROUS TO HUMAN HEALTH...IF SAFEGUARDS ARE NOT APPLIED.

Ptui! More of these Gol-durn pussy nannystate announcements! Moi, I so prefer the abortionists-of-the post-born, drunken-abusive-Daddystate approach, do not you?)


Quelccaya glacier melting
Peru glacier
global warming
Snakes On a Plane

Wook!! It's Officiaw Snowfwake Adoption Week at No Bwood for Hubwis!!

Wook!

This, to the weft, is a snowfwake!

Next, bewow, is Our Fearwess Weader cuddlwing a saved snowfwake!!

We just wove to see our Fearwess Weader snuggwing up to widdle widdle white babies born fwom embwyoes saved fwom a tewwible death!


We wove to see him decidering to do this, because thus, our Fearwess Weader is saving innocent wife!

Now, guilwty wives is a another thing entirewy.

Guiwlty wife pwetty much means evewwyone who is post-born. So, you know, scwew them. Once they're born. You know, wike in social Darwinism -- survival of the most obnoxious, evewwy man for himself. Hahaha. Oh woops except we don't beweive in Darwin and evowution and sewial time and stuff, do we? Oopsie.

Anyway, in these difficult Pwe-Wapture Times, we're so happy here that Our Fearwess Weader is standing up for those poor widdle embwyos, embwyos we've worried about before, here, and asking evvewybody to:

adopt the cute lil' fuzzy lil' "snowflakes," the widdle sweet teensy weensy fwozen embryoes that are weeping weeping in their sad sad sad lonely abandoned-orphanage petri dishes.

We've decidered ourselves to refer all our fearwess bwog weaders to the Snowfwake Adoption Service, here, so you can have your vewwy own snowfwakes.

The Snowfwake Adoption People have received over a million dollars of your tax money!

Wow! How wucky is that?

Here's what siwwy ol' bio-ethicist Arthur Kaplan has to say about snowfwake adoption!

Wooking at these shots, one does wonder -- is evewwy snowfwake diffewent?

Hmm.

Oh, and here's a picture of an actuaw siwwy widdle post-born baby -- we don't wike nannystates so we don't want to spend money on twying to pwevent things wike a siwwy post-born baby's vewwy own pawwents bweaking it!



But hey why twy? It's wike Iwaq. Tewwible things just you know, just happen.

Oh weww.



embryo+adoption
Bush and Snowflakes
Bush veto
government-forced maternity
abortion
anti-abortion
women's rights
reproductive rights

Sexism, Lies, & Videotape: Dirty Bush -- A Boor for All Seasons

Eee-ew.

First Dirty Bush regales the newly-elected Chancellor of Germany at the G8 with endless pig jokes until she shrivels up her face in revulsion -- well, hey, of course, there was boar on the menu (boor/boar? say, is that a "minimal pair"?), so naturally Preznit Toad-Exploder assumed that a girlie-girl Chancellor would want to talk, not about the Middle East, but about cooking. Or food. Or like pigs or something. Hey, Freud didn't know either -- what does a woman want, eh?

Then, later, he gropes her.

Bush is oblivious to physical boundaries, oblivious to protocol, oblivious to everything. He puts his hands on her because he thinks he can get away with it. God knows why she didn't smash him in the face.

Possibly because -- she's the frickin' Chancellor of frickin' Germany?

Say whut? Not just some secretary this time. He picks -- THE FRICKIN' CHANCELLOR OF FRICKIN' GERMANY.


Bubble Boy thinks he can get away with it because she'sstill just a chick. Which totally trumps being frickin' Chancellor of frickin' Germany, eh?

Eee-ew.

What a creep.

And there's a theme here.

Tell me about Dirty Dick Cheney thinking that if "the little woman" sent Joe Wilson on a trip, that that made his trip somehow by definition worthless. Hunh?

Tell me about Dirty Dick Cheney, some say, and Closet Cupcake Rove, some say, spreading it all around that Valerie Plame couldn't possibly be a NOC because, well, because she's a girrrl! As in a secretary. Hunh?

Earth to Bush-huggers. Yo. Being sexist is a really really bad thing to be. So is saying really stupid stuff.

Thought you'd all like to know. Inventing fire would be, on the other hand, a good thing. Let me know when you feel up to it, Bush-huggers.

You know, that new concept: fire?

Not holding my breath. Well guess we better leave inventions to the libruls instead of the totalitarian D-students, eh?

Oh, and may I take this opportunity to express disgust, revulsion, vicarious embarrassment at Bubble Boy's table manners? Those really bizarre ones the displayed during the incident transcribed here? Stuff he should have learned better than when he was, oh maybe, five?

Regard the Dirty Bush/Blair 'shit' video, and enjoy the so-called leader of the free world not only talking with his mouth full, and chewing with his mouth open. Yuk Yecch.

He's playing 'ya like seafood?/see-food' or something? Where was pearlsy/swiney college dropout Mommy Barbara Bush when she was supposed to be teaching little Bubble Boy manners, sucking down six quarts of martinis instead? Did she teach him nothing, or is he on drugs, or what? What is wrong with Bubble Boy, clinically speaking?

Yeah, this guy's gonna be saving Western Civilization someday real soon. What a boor.

What a maroon.


Bush, Merkel
Bush's table manners
G8
Bush gropes Merkel

Dirty Bush Has New Medicare Policy: Serfs Get Death While Big Dicks Get Life

Preznit Toad-Exploder (yes, we coined that phrase) has a brand-new policy that will cut payments for cardiac care for poor Americans. Oh, and it will reduce other kinds of expensive life-saving medical care, too.

You heard that right: while big-time haves such as Big Dick Cheney (who will continue to sashay around America with his own personal team of doctors (hey, who's paying that bill?)) get the best care available, the have-nots of America, deprived of that high standard of care, will die.

Oh, my. How pro-life is that?

Dr. Alan D. Guerci, president of St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, N.Y., said the new formula would cut Medicare payments to his hospital by $21 million, or 12 percent. 'It will significantly reduce payments for cardiac care and will force many hospitals to reduce the number of cardiac procedures they perform," Dr. Guerci said.

A coalition of patient organizations, including the Parkinson’s Action Network and the Society for Women’s Health Research, told the government in a letter that the new system 'could have a devastating impact on payment for critical treatments for seriously ill patients, with reimbursement for some essential procedures cut as much as 30 percent."

The basic payment for surgery to open clogged arteries, by inserting a drug-coated wire mesh stent, would be cut by 33 percent, to $7,590. The payment for implanting a defibrillator, like the one used by Vice President Dick Cheney, would be cut 23 percent, to $22,000, while the payment for hip and knee replacements would be reduced 10 percent, to $14,500.

"This is a bit of a catastrophe," said Dr. Herbert Pardes, president of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

Well, Bubble Boy is a bit of a catastrophe, is he not?

Full story here.



Bush
Cheney
Bush, catastrophes

Israel Invades Lebanon: Regional War Threatens World Stability, Preznit Bush Makes Pig Jokes

I'm not making this up. I don't have to.

I never have to.

I love to have a D-student preznit and fearless leader of the Free World. Don't we all?

Full story here.

Do especially enjoy the perky American media whore media headline which tries to make lame excuses for Bubble Boy's bizarre, sophomoric, pathetic, entirely inappropriate behavior.

This incident has risen to a hot number two on my Dirty Bush hit list, coming right after his number ONE so-funny fake search for the Weapons of Mass Destruction we invaded a country to capture, but which didn't actually exist.

Oh well, everybody makes mistakes hahahaha: 100K Iraqis dead so far, a bloody Civil War in progress, Islamic theocracy, increased regional instability, big-time American moral and fiscal bankruptcy, downplaying 2500+ US troops dead, tens of thousands maimed, tens of thousands of troops bringing it all back home to the USA with florid, screaming cases of PTSD which Rummy will try to ignore so he can save some pennies. Hahahahahaha.

That was the greatest.

But, yep, the pig thing's soared right up to number two, right above Dirty Dick wearing his best snow-shoveling clothes to Auschwitz.

Cheney
Bush
Iraq War
Israel Invades Lebanon


Update, via the Sydney Morning Herald, here: "Humiliating Spectacle of a World Leader Caught Without a Foreign Policy."

One must respectfully disagree. Bubble Boy has a foreign policy, and that foreign policy is:

no gay marriage, no exit ever from Iraq; Bolton isn't a total joke; the rule of law is a total joke; torture, atrocities, kidnappings haved been officially Decidered to be good, even if those damn activist judges are trying to clip my Genevas-free wings; AND--God really really wants me to start a war in Iran.

Update 2: How about "Roast Pig Guest Stars On Bush Visit to Germany," here.

Update 3: At Crooks & Liars, scroll down & check out the video of that porcine press conference in Germany--it's even worse than print reports suggest.

Note in particular the undisguised look of utter contempt German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives Bubble Boy when he nervously attempts to fob off a complex question about the Middle East with yet a third lame pig joke.

Bush, Merkel
Bush
G8
Bush, pig jokes

Cheney In Plame Sights

Former career CIA officer, WMD expert, and undercover spy Valerie Plame along with her husband, career diplomat and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, filed a civil lawsuit today against VP Dirty Dick Cheney, Karl "Closet Dumpling" Rove, and Scooter (what kind of a name is that for a grown man?) Libby, among others.

Ms. Plame had been working for years as a CIA NOC (specializing in Iran's WMDs) until her cover was blown (and her entire spy network sacrificed at Bubble Boy's altar of ego).

Iraqi WMDs. Wilson.

Iranian WMDs. Plame.

Gee. Think Deadeye Dick Cheney might have been gunning to get two birds with one stone?

Let's take another trip down Memory Lane:

[W]e have plenty of enemies. Plenty of enemies abound. Unpredictable leaders willing to export instability or to commit crimes against humanity. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism . . . These and more. Many more.

As our analysts know, as our collectors of intelligence know - these are our enemies. To combat them we need more intelligence, not less. We need more human intelligence.

That means we need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country. (Applause)

Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.

Those are the words of Preznit Toad-exploder's Father, George H.W. Bush. Wonder what he thinks of all this, eh? It's all so Oedipal, ain't it? You can tell poor Bush I wishes he'd had a smart son.

You know, one like Clinton.

See "Leaked Spy Guns for Cheney, Rove" at the Sydney Morning Herald, here.
WaPo here.

Here's a link to donate to the Wilsons' Legal Fund.

Cheney
Bush
Rove
Plame

The US Pro-Atrocity Crowd: Those For Whom Nothing Is Forbidden

The yowling pro-atrocity crowd, big-time sadists who try to sell toleration of torture, kidnapping and murder to the American public as if they were selling a brand new flavor of Coke, are responsible for all the actions that ensue consequent to promoting utter moral emptiness.

When leaders tolerate torture, kidnapping, and lawlessness, when they desecrate the US Constitution through their arrogance and black-heartedness, it is hardly a surprise when underlings follow their lead.

Hence the pre-meditated rape of a fourteen-year-old child becomes somewhat predictable.

As does the pre-meditated murder of the victim and her family (including a six-year-old child) by a group of American soldiers who could no longer tell right from wrong because Bush and Cheney and Rummy cannot tell right from wrong.

In the public sphere ruled by the media whore media, they tolerate anorexic spinsters publicly advocating death for their political enemies; they tolerate tubby druggie fornicators who believe in stiff sentences for others and flabby sentences for themselves; they tolerate Talibangelical blowhards who promote political assassinations and pray openly for the deaths of others.

Who needs a rape room, when a whole country is regarded as fair game for vengeance?

Who needs to follow the rules of civilized society, when its leaders do not?

Abu Ghraib, Haditha, Guantanamo, Mahmudiya, Nahiba Jassim, Abeer Qasim: this is our foreign policy under George Bush.


Five U.S. soldiers charged in Iraq rape-murder case

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case that has outraged Iraqis, as documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday showed the rape victim was aged 14, and not over 20 as U.S. officials have said.

Days after former private Steven Green was charged as a civilian in a U.S. court with rape and four murders, four serving soldiers were charged with the same offences, the U.S. military said in statement. . . . All five were charged with conspiring with Green, accused by U.S. prosecutors of going with three others to a house near the checkpoint they were manning outside Mahmudiya, near Baghdad, and of killing a couple and their two daughters. The five could face the death penalty. . .

[The rape victim's] identity card and a copy of her death certificate obtained by Reuters, however, show she was 14.

Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was born on August 19, 1991 in Baghdad, according to the identity card, provided to Reuters by a relative. Issued in 1993, it features a photograph of her at 18 months, wide-eyed and with a lick of dark hair over her brow.

A copy of her death certificate, dated March 13, gives the same birth date. She was found at home by a relative on March 12 and had died from "gunshot wounds to the head, with burns", said the document, signed by doctor Wael Habib and a registrar. . . Abeer's sister Hadeel was aged six when she died of "several gunshot wounds".

Full Reuters story here. WaPo here.



Cheney
Bush
Coulter
Malkin

Link here to a story at Editor & Publisher on how our media whore media minimized rape by labeling the child as 'a woman.'

Current Haditha story, here.

Yo-hoo. Mexico's Liberal Calderon Ain't No Conservative (& Why Would Anyone Believe what the Rove-Whipped US Media Whore Media Says, Anyhow?)

Yoo hoo. Rove is pulling the wool over your eyes, people. Wake up.

No matter how many times the US Press throws around the label "conservative," Mexico's barely-newly-elected president Felipe Calderon's a liberal.

Let's think: are conservatives interested in improving relations with Cuba and Venezuela?

Answer: oh, ask Pat Robertson.

Let's think: are conservatives interested in alleviating poverty?

Answer: come on.

Let's think: are conservatives interested in not toeing the Bushist fascist party line?

Answer: uh, NO.

(God I hate what American media has become. And you?)


Calderon Shows Constructive Profile to Cuba, Venezuela

Mexico, Jul 8 (Prensa Latina) The ruling presidential candidate Felipe Calderon affirmed he will seek "constructive, beneficial" relations with Cuba and Venezuela. . . Referring to relations with the US, he will relate to that country "without lowering the head or looking down."

Shortly before the press conference, he sustained his foreign policy will be based on respect for self-determination, non-intervention, and human rights defense.

Calderon noted he not only intends to promote good diplomacy in the region, but also economic and commercial relations.

Calderón: No walls needed

Creating jobs in Mexico the key to ending illegal migration, he says

MEXICO CITY – Felipe Calderón said Friday that as Mexico's new president he will work closely with Washington to build infrastructure and jobs in some of his country's poorest regions to stop the stream of illegal migration to the U.S.

"Walls and troops won't solve the problem of migration," Mr. Calderón said. "Migration can only be stopped with opportunities of employment, and that's why I will push for a trilateral policy with the United States and Canada to generate jobs" . . . Mr. Calderón, a Harvard-educated lawyer, said Friday that he hoped to reach a migration accord with the U.S., something that has eluded President Vicente Fox for nearly six years. . . . His administration will launch a program, with the U.S. and Canada, called "For Our Land," to generate projects to improve infrastructure, Mr. Calderón told the foreign journalists. . . .

"You can do more with paving 1 kilometer of road in Zacatecas, or Michoacán, than 10 kilometers of wall in Texas, or Arizona, and that's something both sides of the border need to understand. . . "

Calderón said he would seek help for Mexican farmers who will face losses in 2008, when NAFTA will allow U.S. corn and bean imports.

He also vowed to bridge the gap between rich and poor, calling it a lifelong personal project.

So, don't believe what you read in the papers or what you hear on TV. Take this useless Rovian spin with big grain of salt.

Pillars of salt. Salt salt salt.

The salt that Gandhi used to win freedom from Britain.

Or -- think Clinton -- con salsa.


Mexico
Felipe Calderon
Rove

"Smear him! Out her! -- Dirty Bush Admits He Directed Dirty Dick to Swiftboat Wilson -- A Timely Revelation to Celebrate Independence Day!!!

What shall we celebrate here on Independence Day?

Let's celebrate putative Freedom of the Press, even though the current media whore media keeps on doling out feckless, reckless, useless Bushist fascist propaganda crap, 24/7.

Let's just celebrate what the press could be and should be -- even though it isn't.

Oh well.

It's so nice when not-really-elected Preznits like Dirty Bush direct their underlings to smear and defame respected career diplomats and destroy the careers of family members, is it not?

All to defend the pack of lies one used to justify the killing (by so-called "pro-lifers") of 100,00 Iraqis & 2500+ Americans, maiming 20K Americans, and generally turning Iraq into a Shi'ite medievalist theocracy.

So much nicer when the Preznit and his Orc minions are taking particular care to destroy precisely those careers that might negatively impact one's future hopeful wishful upcoming war on Iran, don't you think?

Well, well.

That explains it.


Does it not?


Bush
Plame
Rove

JAG Lawyer Prevents Desecration of Constitution -- No Thanks for Navy Hero

Gitmo win likely cost Navy lawyer his career

'Fearless' defense of detainee a stinging loss for Bush


Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift -- the Navy lawyer who beat the president of the United States in a pivotal Supreme Court battle over trying alleged terrorists -- figures he'll probably have to find a new job. Of course, it's always risky to compare your boss to King George III.

Swift made the analogy to the court, saying President Bush had overstepped his authority when he bypassed Congress and set up illegal military tribunals to try Guantanamo detainees such as Swift's alleged al-Qaida client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan.

The justices agreed, ruling 5-3 Thursday in favor of dismantling the current tribunal system.

Despite his spectacular success, with the assistance of attorneys from the Seattle firm Perkins Coie, Swift thinks his military career is coming to an end. The 44-year-old Judge Advocate General officer, who was recently named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the country by The National Law Journal, was passed over for promotion last year as the high-profile case was making headlines around the world.

"I may be one of the most influential lawyers in America," the Seattle University Law School graduate said, "but I won't be in the military much longer. That irony did strike me."

Swift's future in the Navy now rests with another promotion board that is expected to render its decision in the next couple of weeks. Under the military's system, officers need to be promoted at regularly scheduled intervals or their service careers are essentially over.

"The way it works, the die was cast some months ago," he said. "The decision has been made. I don't know what it is yet." But he thinks his chances are slim.

Asked if he believes he was passed over for promotion last year for political reasons, Swift would not speculate.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm not going to worry about it. I didn't volunteer for this. I got nominated for it. When I got it, I just decided to do the best I could."

Swift has worked under two officers as a member of the small team of lawyers defending "enemy combatants" being held at Guantanamo Bay. Both of them spoke highly of Swift Friday and said they gave him very high ratings on his annual review, called a fitness report.

"He's doing a fantastic job," said Swift's current boss at the Office of Military Commissions (tribunals), Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan.

Sullivan spoke of the crucial importance of the case decided Thursday by the Supreme Court. "It's a fundamental constitutional question about the powers of the president," Sullivan said. Asked about Swift's aggressive legal challenge of the commander in chief, Sullivan saluted Swift's "moral courage."

"He has been absolutely fearless is pursuing his client's interests. And also he has exhibited an extraordinary level of legal skill. His legal strategy has been brilliant.

"We all take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and he has certainly done that, literally."


Full story here.


Charles Swift
Bush
Guantanamo

The Neo-Pro-Slavery Crowd: Bush, Cheney, Rummy

What happens when you create a class of human beings who are designated as having less than human status?

You get gassed Jews in Nazi Germany.

You get massacred intellectuals in China and Cambodia and the Soviet Union.

You get Hutus massacreing Tutsis.

You get Shi'a murdering Sunnis, and Sunnis murdering Shi'a.

You get oppressed women in Taliban countries.

You get torture and atrocities in Iraq.

You get the American Gulag of prisoners in Club Gitmo.


That is how it's done. One creates a class of persons who, by virtue of your having designated them as comprising that class, one no longer has to treat as one would treat a "fellow" human.

Quoth Cheney, "The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people."

Aha. Bad people.

Not really people at all. Not good people. There are laws for good people, but bad people are you know, bad.

Then, everything changes, morally speaking. You get to have power and control over them. You get to torture them. You get to round them up. You get to kidnap them. You get to put them into concentration camps. You get to imprison them without trial.

You create a new reality merely by claim--claiming that this class is so awful, so bad, so inferior, that we rightly may to do anything we want to them.

Sound familiar?

From the Dred Scott Decision, Mr. Chief Justice Taney delivering the opinion of the Supreme Court:

In the opinion of the Court the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument....

They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit (sic) . . . This opinion was at that time fixed and universal in the civilized (sic) portion of the white race . . . And upon a full and careful consideration of the subject, the Court is of opinion that, upon the facts stated in the plea in abatement, Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri . . . and not entitled as such to sue in its courts . . . .

No rights for the inferior. They don't deserve them. End of story.

We have created in Guantanamo -- or rather Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney have created -- a new class of being, for whom laws do not apply.

They're vermin, they're insects, they're less than nothing.

One may drive them mad and not feel remorse. One may cause them physical and mental suffering and feel no remorse.

Because they are bad.

Thus, down the road, you get to kill them or disappear them or do whatever you wish.

Why have we gone so far down along this road?



torture
Rumsfeld
Bush
Geneva Conventions

Lawless Bush's Sick Trifecta of Shame: Losing Three Wars At Once

Like all those who somehow never expect the Spanish Inquisition (though clearly Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam are all suited up in their Cardinal's berrettas and gowns, ready to rush in, crucifixes a-blazing), Bush never seems to expect the trifecta, does he?

You know, I remember campaigning in Chicago and somebody said, would you ever spend a deficit? And I said, only if we're at war or we had a recession or there was a national emergency. Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta. (Laughter.)" -- 3/1/02 -- The Marriott Hotel, Des Moines, Iowa

Hyuk. Hyuk.

He didn't expect planes to be flown into buildings.

He didn't expect Katrina.

Can we expect the Decider-er to be waking up from his unexpecting slumber anytime soon?

Never mind.

Let's just talk about Bubble Boy's wars.


Iraq is a mess. Afghanistan's a mess.

Now experts admit that Bubble Boy is losing the war on terrorism, too.

What percentage of experts on terrorism say so?

Eighty-four percent.

US LOSING WAR ON TERROR, EXPERTS SAY


WASHINGTON - The United States is losing its fight against terrorism and the Iraq war is the biggest reason why, more than eight of 10 American terrorism and national security experts concluded in a poll released yesterday.

One participant, a former CIA official who described himself as a conservative Republican, said the war in Iraq has provided global terrorist groups with a recruiting bonanza, a valuable training ground and a strategic beachhead at the crossroads of the oil-rich Persian Gulf and Turkey.

"The war in Iraq broke our back in the war on terror," said the former official, Michael Scheuer, author of Imperial Hubris, a popular book highly critical of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts. "It has made everything more difficult and the threat more existential."

Scheuer is one of more than 100 national security and terrorism analysts surveyed by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

Asked whether the United States is "winning the war on terror," 84 percent said no and 13 percent answered yes. Asked whether the war in Iraq is helping or hurting the global anti-terrorism campaign, 87 percent said hurting. Eighty-six percent said the world is becoming "more dangerous for the United States and the American people.

More here. Link to Foreign Policy re: the Terrorism Index, here.



torture
war on terror
Bush
Geneva Conventions