This Evil Bill

This evil bill is about protecting torturers from prosecution.

This evil bill overturns habeas corpus--for all of us.

This evil bill is about deliberately dis-establishing the rule of law.

This evil bill is about establishing dictatorship.

This evil bill is about making torture legal.

This evil bill just "passed."

This evil bill is the most disgusting horror that the Bushist fascists have forced on the American people--to date.

There is a cancer now on not just the Presidency, but on our whole democracy.

They have voted to establish a class of persons who are now officially non-persons, a class for whom the rule of law no longer exists. Once it was slaves, Indians, Jews, women; the designated subhuman class now consists of -- whomever the dictating executive dictates.

The Nazis killed six million people, and yet were treated with dignity and tried at Nuremberg according to the rule of law.

These evil people who wrote this bill are opposed to the rule of law and are intent upon establishing a new sub-human class, and this evil action shames our country.

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




Those who voted to overturn the rule of law and legalize torture:

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)

SHAME ON EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. SHAME.

Take action via Amnesty International, here.
[Senator Clinton, speaking against this evil bill, here.]
CIA torture
pro-torture
Dirty Bush

Goebbels, Hitler: Lie Long Enough, People Will Believe You -- Well, Until Finally They Wake Up From Their Bushist Fascist Nightmare

In the wake of the National Intelligence Estimate proving that Preznit Toad-Exploder's Oedipal adjunctive war on Iraq has emboldened jihadist terrorists, rather than reducing their threat, more attention is being paid to the lead-up to 9/11.

In a desperate attempt to do Rovian spin on their unbelievable negligence--totally disregarding all Clinton administration warnings about Al-Qaeda--Bubble Boy's fave lapdog Condi Rice called President Clinton's discussion about having left his successors detailed plans on defeating Al-Qaeda "false."

Condi's nose is growing long and longer.

Take a gander, here, at a warning memo from Richard Clark about Al-Qaeda. Look in Clarke's book, where he notes that there were zero principal meetings about Al-Qaeda.

Condi's a liar. Condi's quite a liar.

Condi's quite the liar for her bosses.

Doesn't she know that lying's wrong?

Why should she?



Current Republican Senator George "Macaca" Allen doesn't know that racism is wrong.

He doesn't even know that leaving a bloody deer-head in a black family's mailbox is wrong.

"Bubble Boy" Bush and "Big Dick" Cheney and "Psy-cho Ops" Rummy don't even know that torture is wrong.


Any other questions, boys and girls?







An article on some well-deserved anti-bushist-fascist backlash, here.

Torture Recipient John McCain Caves In, Supports Dirty Bush's Pro-Torture Program

Above, Americans in Vietnam practice their water torture skills on another human being, which back in the olden days, they would have gotten in a lot of trouble for. (Well, maybe. Think of all the punishment Lt. Calley failed to receive for orchestrating the slaughter of hundreds of innocent civilians.)

OK, at least they might have felt bad about it.

That was then, this is now. Now, torture's as American as apple pie!

Dirty Bush somehow has rammed through his morally incorrect pro-torture bill, here.

Oh look. Lawless Bush has managed to undermine the foundation of our entire legal system, and is getting away with it. He's even repealed habeas corpus.

Well, that sure makes me mad enough to boil someone in oil!

Better yet, thanks to Preznit Toad-Exploder, America no longer cares about torture, really, because our frog-torturer president never felt anyone else's pain right from the get-go, did he? Some say that's kind of a sociopath thing, the utter lack of empathy thing.

The many classical forms of torture now made "legal" by Bush, with the apparent consent of McCain and rest of the morally incorrect, utter pussy Republicans:

Chinese water torture

American "waterboarding" water torture

Bamboo slivers under the fingernails

Thumbscrews

Marinating people in excrement

Sleep-deprivation torture

You get the picture. See, these forms of torture don't involve "serious" threat of death. Oh, and if you uninintentionally, accidentally cause serious bodily injury, that doesn't count, either. Same for cruel and inhuman treatment, too, because if it's accidental, it won't count. The ultra-"oops!" defense. Thank Yoo very much!

Shame on all these Bushist fascist moral perverts.

But, well, I wouldn't want to think about the hefty cases of PTSD that will be coming down the road for our brave band of American torturers, even with their shiny new Bush-granted "legitimacy."

Nope.

One feels sorry for them. The torturers will suffer for what they've done, not only in the next life, but in this one.




Ariel Dorfman, here.
Russian torture, here.
NY Times, here.
CIA torture
pro-torture
Dirty Bush

Dirty Bush & His Pro-Atrocity Crowd: Water Torture By Any Other Name Would Be -- Waterboarding

While it is not clear exactly what techniques the White House wishes to keep, sources have said those previously used include nakedness, prolonged sensory assault and deprivation, the imposition of "stress" positions, and water submersion to the verge of drowning. Bush has said none of those amounts to torture.

None of those amounts to torture, says Bush. How about we try them on him and see if he agrees with himself? National TV would be nice. But not just Bubble Boy. Rummy, too, and Cheney. Plus some loudmouth media whore media blowhards.

Sigh. I get quite weary of blogging against torture, how about you? You know, having to blog against torture. You'd think the whole thing would be self-evident.

Call me a silly starry-eyed card-carrying Buddhist if you will, but I think that people ought to know right from the get-go that one should really not be inflicting pain on others.

Not intentionally, anyhow.

Because that's, you know, wrong.

So I think that when one comes across people who appear to get off on intentionally inflicting pain on others, for whatever rationale, that, um, you know, there's something really really wrong with them.

And it's quite disturbing to be living in a country where Bush, Cheney, and Rummy, three powerful people, fit into that category. That our country is being run by three people who have something really really wrong with them.

It's disturbing that Preznit Toad-Exploder earned his nickname by purposely blowing sentient beings to bits when he was young. For fun.

It's disturbing that Dirty Dick "Shooter" Cheney finds recreational amusement in blowing to bits captive sentient beings who have zero chance of escape.

It's disturbing that Don "Psycho-Ops" Rumsfeld finds no moral quandary in ordering the torture of captive sentient beings while labeling it as "not torture because I said it's not torture." Water-torture by any other name Orwellianly becomes "waterboarding." The label itself minimizes it, making it sound like, you know, kinda fun. It's summer, hey, let's all go waterboarding!

It's winter, hey, let's all have a little bit of fun at Abu Ghraib! Piling prisoners in pyramid piles is no worse than piling up pyramids of cheerleaders! And we don't call cheerleader pyramid piles torture, do we? Honestly, Abu Ghraib Sgt. Graner's own defense lawyer said that--in Graner's defense! (I'm not making this up! I don't need to. I never need to.) Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, CIA's not-so-secret secret prisons, it's all the same government-supported sadism.

The point of torture is not to cause death but rather to cause suffering. Intense, unbearable suffering such that the torture recipient come to wishe that he or she were dead, so that suffering will cease. Is that clear, boys and girls?

Is it also clear that these our three sadists-in-chief--Bush, Cheney, Rummy--believe it's moral to cause unbearable suffering to captive sentient beings? Is it clear that their hysteric horde of followers now think that torture is as American as apple pie?

There's something really really wrong with these people.

They can't tell right from wrong.

Or, worse, they can tell right from wrong, but they choose to do evil anyway.

A Song on the End of the World

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea.
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.

On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.

And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born,
No one believes it is happening now.

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world.
There will be no other end of the world.

Warsaw, 1944
Czeslaw Milosz

None Dare Call It Torture, Well, Bubble Boy Doesn't Dare, Anyhow, Since It Would Make Him A War Criminal, Would It Not?, at WaPo, here.
Excellent article by Tom Malinowski at WaPo, here. Moral correctness at its best.
WaPo on "Bubble Boy's Last Stand for Torture Tantrum: Give Me Torture Or Give Me Breath! which I'll hold till I turn purple!! and then you'll be sorry!!)", via WaPo, here.
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Stand Against Torture, here.
Colin Powell finally shows some spine, along with the two Geneva Convention Republicans, here.
Upcoming worldly karmic consequences, here.
Iraq torture
Geneva Conventions
Bush, torture

9/11 2006: Remembering 9//11/2001

"I blame the entire Bush leadership for continuing to work on Cold War issues when they back in power in 2001. It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier. They came back. They wanted to work on the same issues right away: Iraq, Star Wars. Not new issues, the new threats that had developed over the preceding eight years"

"And I said, 'Paul, there hasn't been any Iraqi terrorism against the United States in eight years!' And I turned to the deputy director of the CIA and said, 'Isn't that right?' and he said, 'Yeah, that's right. There is no Iraqi terrorism against the United States."

By June 2001, there still hadn't been a Cabinet-level meeting on terrorism, even though U.S. intelligence was picking up an unprecedented level of ominous chatter. The CIA director warned the White House, Clarke points out.

"George Tenet was saying to the White House, saying to the president -- because he briefed him every morning - a major al Qaeda attack is going to happen against the United States somewhere in the world in the weeks and months ahead. He said that in June, July, August.
Clarke finally got his meeting about al Qaeda in April, three months after his urgent request. But it wasn't with the president or cabinet. It was with the second-in-command in each relevant department. For the Pentagon, it was Paul Wolfowitz. Clarke relates, "I began saying, 'We have to deal with bin Laden; we have to deal with al Qaeda.'

Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, said, 'No, no, no. We don't have to deal with al Qaeda. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.'
Clarke went on to add, "There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever." When the interviewer pointed out that some administration officials say it's still an open issue, Clarke responded, "Well, they'll say that until hell freezes over."Clarke says the last time the CIA had picked up a similar level of chatter was in December, 1999, when Clarke was the terrorism czar in the Clinton White House. Clarke says Mr. Clinton ordered his Cabinet to go to battle stations -- meaning, they went on high alert, holding meetings nearly every day. That, Clarke says, helped thwart a major attack on Los Angeles International Airport, when an al Qaeda operative was stopped at the border with Canada, driving a car full of explosives.
Clarke harshly criticizes President Bush for not going to battle stations when the CIA warned him of a comparable threat in the months before Sept. 11: "He never thought it was important enough for him to hold a meeting on the subject, or for him to order his National Security Adviser to hold a Cabinet-level meeting on the subject."
Bush never thought it was important enough?

Well, well.

Stupid is as stupid does, is it not?




(Media whore media story, here. More, here.)


9/11 anniversary
Iraq War lies
Bush

Just a Little Note for Our Search Engine People

I've recently noted a huge upsurge in traffic reaching this blog via searching for "Iraq power drill torture" or "power drill torture Iraq" or "torture drill Iraq power" or something like that. It's disturbing.

This is, after all, a Buddhist blog, people.

Today there appeared another interesting trafficker, an Iranian person who Googled "President of Iran Hungry Hungry Hippo." I'm not kidding. I don't have to.

Any how, I don't think any of you really belong here. Convince me otherwise if you wish.

Otherwise, really, go away.

Thanks.

Deja Vu All Over Again, Again, As Fifth Anniversary of Al-Qaeda Attack Approaches

On the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, . . . President Bush wandered alone around the Situation Room in a White House emptied by the previous day's calamitous events.

Spotting Richard A. Clarke, his counterterrorism coordinator, Bush pulled him and a small group of aides into the dark paneled room.

"Go back over everything, everything," Bush said, according to Clarke's account. "See if Saddam did this."

"But Mr. President, al Qaeda did this," Clarke replied.

"I know, I know, but . . . see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred."

Reminded that the CIA, FBI and White House staffs had sought and found no such link before, Clarke said, Bush spoke "testily." As he left the room, Bush said a third time, "Look into Iraq/Saddam!"

There was no linkage between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The Bush administration knew this, and invaded Iraq anyway. They put together a propaganda barrage pushing their lies until seventy per cent of Americans falsely believed Saddam was responsible for 9/11.

Five years after 9/11, a Senate report finally reveals the truth. There was no linkage between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

However, there is a linkage between Bush's Oedipal invasion of Iraq and the increasing moral and fiscal bankruptcy of this country, our failure to destroy Al Qaeda, our actual enemy, and the growing threat of Islamist fundamentalism, both Shi'a and Sunni.

Meanwhile, boys and girls, Osama Bin Forgotten. Al Qaeda, the medievalist energizer bunny, just keeps on ticking. And it looks like there's a nuclear Caliphate arising to take over the Middle East--but it will be Shi'a, not Sunni.

So it goes.

"Nothing America could have done would have provided al Qaeda and its new generation of cloned groups a better recruitment device than our unprovoked invasion of an oil-rich Arab country.

Nothing else could have so well negated all our other positive acts and so closed Muslim eyes and ears to our subsequent calls for reform in their region.

It was as if Usama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting, "invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq."

-- Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies

WaPo update on Bush's bogus linkage here.


Estimated US death toll, here: 12,000 dead, 25,000 badly wounded?
Estimated Iraqi death toll may reach 180,000, here.

9/11 anniversary
Iraq War lies
Bush

RUMMY: NO IRAQ PLAN BEYOND THE CAKEWALK

Guess what, boys and girls?

There's more Bushist fascist dirty laundry heading your way, and it's chock-full of stinky skid marks.

Secretary of Defense, Donald "Psycho" Rumsfeld didn't just have a really BAD plan for post-war Iraq, he had ZERO plan.

Because it was going to be a CAKEWALK. Got that?

Psycho Rummy PURPOSELY ordered the U.S. military NOT TO MAKE ANY POST-WAR PLANS.

Oh, my, boys and girls.

Can you say "criminal negligence"?

Can you say "unimaginable frickin' hubris"?

Can you say "impeachable offenses all over the frickin' place"?

[B]efore the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said in an interview.

In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said ''he would fire the next person'' who talked about the need for a post-war plan.

Well, Rummy sure fired Shinseki.

Scheid said the planners continued to try ''to write what was called Phase 4,'' or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like security, stability and reconstruction.

Even if the troops didn't stay, ''at least we have to plan for it,'' Scheid said.

''I remember the secretary of Defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that,'' Scheid said.

''We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today.

''He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war.''

They got around that for a while, didn't they?

Full story here.

Oh, and how about the Senate finally figuring out that the evidence showed no linkage between Saddam and Al Qaeda, and sort of coming clean about it, having cleverly kept these inconvenient truths hidden during the last presidential election, here.

And here. GOP strategies to cling to power by smearing Dems, here.


There's just not enough contempt in the whole universe to heap on these immoral, sadistic liars.

There isn't.

Rumsfeld made no postwar plan
Dirty Bush
Bushist fascists

Lawless Bush Admits He Ran Secret Prisons

BUSH ADMITS SECRET CIA PRISONS

Sydney Morning Herald

US President George Bush on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of previously secret CIA prisons around the world.

WaPo here.

Independent UK, here.

Once, one was worried about medievalist Islam destroying America.

But our home-grown Talibangelical Bushist fascist racist sadist authoritarian know-nothings are doing a much better job of destroying America--right here, and right now.

Dirty Bush, Dirty Dick, and Rummy are feckless, reckless, and out of control.

They are working hard to leave the rest of us fiscally and morally bankrupt.

Twenty-first century barbarians, they kidnap and kill at will.


How low can they go?

When will they pay for their crimes against our nation? Anytime soon?

secret CIA prisons
Dirty Bush
Bushist fascists

Oedipal Tragedy: Arrogant Bush Junior Creates the Civil War His Very Own Daddy Warned Against, and Even Sistani Cannot Stop It.

I no longer have power to save Iraq from civil war

The most influential moderate Shia leader in Iraq has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers, admitting that there is nothing he can do to prevent the country sliding towards civil war.

Aides say Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is angry and disappointed that Shias are ignoring his calls for calm and are switching their allegiance in their thousands to more militant groups which promise protection from Sunni violence and revenge for attacks.

"I will not be a political leader any more," he told aides. "I am only happy to receive questions about religious matters."

It is a devastating blow to the remaining hopes for a peaceful solution in Iraq and spells trouble for British forces, who are based in and around the Shia stronghold of Basra.

Thanks a lot, Bubble Boy. Thanks a lot, Preznit Toad-Exploder. Thanks Dirty Dick. Thanks, Rummy. You sure are reaping what you sowed. Too bad it was a crap crop, eh?

Some people, when they discover themselves trapped in an Oedipal tragedy, take self-punitive measures. Will this be happening anytime soon?

Just asking.

Bushist Fascists Stoop to Smear and Smear Again--How Low Can WaPo Go?

This WaPo editorial is quite a piece of tripe (no offense to tripe).

It pretends that naming Armitage as a Novak source magically ends the Plame affair.

Voila! "It was just silly old Dickie's inveterate gossipmongering!"

(Say, wasn't that Turdblossom's made-up cover story all along? Why are the media whore media still flogging it? Perhaps because the party-line dimwits at WaPo and the Times appear to be still buying it? They're still publishing it. Ee-ew.)

The bizarre piece of Bushist fascist propaganda came right from Closet Cupcake Karl Rove (or the guy whose recent WaPo editorial was utterly refuted by facts printed on the same paper's very own front page?).

How the mighty have fallen. How the fourth estate has crumpled into total whoredom. Poor Kay Graham, in her grave, and spinning like a top.

Good refutation of tripe "editorial" by Larry Johnson, here.

Johnson reminds us that:

Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published.

He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed. (Washington Post, 27 July 2005)

Well, perhaps if the CIA had only TOLD Novak that she was undercover, thus blowing her cover, Novak wouldn't have blown her cover, eh? It's the CIA's fault for not blabbing, don't you get it?

Emptywheel's analysis, here.

MediaMatters' story on the current anti-Fitzgerald, anti-Plame/Wilson propaganda infestation, as part of a concerted effort to trivialize treason, here.

Facts? Ha!

If they have no facts, why, let them just fake!

And faking it is what the entire reichwing noise machine is up to, from sea to shining sea.

Why, at WaPo and at WhiHou and the Grey Lady and throughout the media whore media empire, it's a veritable Cheney-cum-Goebbelsfest of vitriolic partisan propaganda 24/7.

No kidding.

Say, boys and girls, does this sound familiar?

Never allow the public to cool off;
never admit a fault or wrong;
never concede that there may be some good in your enemy;
never leave room for alternatives;
never accept blame;
concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong;
people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one;
and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

Yes, these are the kind of un-American fascists we really need to be worried about.

"There is only so much room in a brain, so much wall space, as it were, and if you furnish it with your slogans, the opposition has no place to put up any pictures later on, because the apartment of the brain is already crowded with your furniture."

Oh, and I'm not telling who was responsible for the above, but he had a nasty little moustache, was abused as a child, and went on to massacre millions.

These days, a nasty little man without a moustache whose childhood was also nasty, is the heir to that same philosophy of propaganda, and this nasty man helped prop up a government (led by one who in his youth derived pleasure from deliberately exploding toads) that has killed tens of thousands, promoted torture and racism and sexism, and pissed away billions and billions of your tax dollars while lining the pockets of his fatcat buddies.

When will we be tossing the m-f Bushist fascists off the m-f plane?

Plame affair
CIA
Bushist fascists

Say "Bushist fascist, Bushist fascist, Bushist fascist" 50 Times Real Fast And This Whole Bushist Fascist Nightmare Will Go Away?

NBC anchor Brian Williams interviewed President Bush. He asked him about his poll numbers and President Bush said, 'The key for me is to keep expectations low.' I think you can accurately say, 'Mission Accomplished.'" --Jay Leno

"The one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans was marked by President Bush with a moment of silence. A little different than a year ago, when President Bush marked the occasion by a week and a half of silence." (Jay Leno)


"I think President Bush gets confused. He said progress is being made in New Orleans and he hopes one day New Orleans will be a democracy. You know hurricanes, they hate freedom." (Jay Leno)

"Today is the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Not only that, it's the six-month anniversary of when President Bush found out about it." (Conan O'Brien)

"NBC News was also marking the anniversary [of Hurricane Katrina], but they had to settle for lesser celebrity guests, like this guy who took some time from a tour of New Orleans to tell Brian Williams about all the reading he's been doing this summer [on screen: President Bush saying he's read 'three Shakespeares' this summer]. The point is that he read three Shakespeares this summer, and that's a great way to kick off eighth grade!" (Jimmy Kimmel)

"Yesterday the president of Iran challenged President Bush to a televised debate. President Bush turned down the debate, but did challenge the Iranian president to a game of 'Hungry Hungry Hippos.'" (Conan O'Brien)

"The entire case against John Mark Karr was completely bogus. It was based on a bunch of ridiculous claims he just made up without any basis and facts. The good news? Today, the White House offered him a job." (Jay Leno)

"CNN, to mark the fifth anniversary of 9/11, is going to be re-playing their original coverage of that day. Let's just hope that President Bush doesn't tune in and go, 'Oh my God, they've done it again!'." (Bill Maher)

US, Aussies Lied About WMD Failure

Australian WMD expert and diplomat reveals deliberate attempts by the Bush Administration to conceal their complete failure to find WMDs in Iraq, ostensibly the reason Bush invaded Iraq.

The letter by Dr. John Gee

outlines in detail interference by the CIA and the Bush Administration in first reports about the weapons hunt to avoid finding that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

Dr Gee, one of Australia's leading chemical weapons experts, briefed Mr Downer on his concerns after his resignation. He bluntly told him that he believed Iraq had no such weapons.

The John Howard government colluded with the Bush administration to hide this failure for six months; Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer is now in hot water for having been caught in a bald-faced lie intended to hide their failure until after the 2004 elections.

In a news conference . . .at the time, Mr Downer gave no indication that Dr Gee had told him there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or that the CIA was distorting the weapons hunt.

Instead he said that the weapons hunt was "a work in progress".

Ultimately, . . . the Iraq Survey Group publicly concluded six months later that there were no such weapons in Iraq. Until then, neither Mr Downer nor the Prime Minister, John Howard, would acknowledge this.

Full story from the Sydney Morning Herald, here and here.

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