Your Tax Dollars at Work: Torture At Gitmo

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- An Algerian prisoner at Guantanamo Bay has accused his guards of using [water torture] on him, his lawyer said Friday, marking the first allegation that the harsh interrogation technique was used at the U.S. military base.

A human rights commission of the Organization of American States, after being informed of the alleged abuse, said Friday that it has asked the U.S. State Department to ensure that Djamel Ameziane is not mistreated and receives medical care.

Officials at Guantanamo and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but they have said repeatedly that all Guantanamo detainees are treated humanely.

Ameziane, who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since February 2002 without being charged with crimes, told his lawyer Wells Dixon that guards at the base placed a water hose between his nose and mouth and ran it for several minutes. Ameziane said they repeated the procedure several times, nearly suffocating him.

"I had the impression that my head was sinking in water," Ameziane, 41, wrote his lawyer. "I still have psychological injuries, up to this day. Simply thinking of it gives me the chills."

According to Ameziane's account, during the same incident the guards applied pepper spray all over his body, hosed him down, and left him shackled and shivering in wet clothes in front of an air conditioner in an interrogation room.

Confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and at least two other "high-value" detainees imprisoned at the base in southeast Cuba were waterboarded -- an interrogation tactic that produces the sensation of drowning -- but they were waterboarded at CIA secret prisons before they were transferred to Guantanamo.

Dixon said in a telephone interview the alleged abuse happened early during Ameziane's confinement at Guantanamo.

"He was held down and someone essentially shoved a hose in his face, forcing a stream of water down his nose, mouth and into his lungs I guess," Dixon said.

Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a law group that represents scores of Guantanamo detainees, on Aug. 6 filed a petition on behalf of Ameziane with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, asking that it intercede with the U.S. to protect the detainee.

The group said the commission, which is an autonomous organ of the OAS, agreed and issued "urgent precautionary measures" with the U.S. on Wednesday.

An official with the OAS-affiliated group confirmed it has asked the State Department to ensure he is treated humanely, given medical treatment and not transferred to a country where he could be tortured.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is empowered to request that a member state adopt specific "precautionary measures" to prevent human rights abuses, but can also urge the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to order that measures be taken, and can submit cases to the court. The United States is a member of the OAS.

Via Raw Story, link here.

Moving Right Along: Dirty Bush Backs Anti-Choice Rule

New Bush rule: Doctors can refuse to give women abortions

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections. . . .

"Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a medical degree," said Leavitt. "This nation was built on a foundation of free speech. The first principle of free speech is protected conscience."

The proposed rule, which applies to institutions receiving government money, would require as many as 584,000 employers ranging from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes to certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Violations could lead to a loss of government funding and legal action to recoup federal money already paid.

Abortion foes called it a victory for the First Amendment, but abortion rights supporters said they feared the rule could stretch the definition of abortion to include birth control, and served notice that they intend to challenge the administration.

"Women's ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.

Abortion rights groups had complained that earlier drafts contained vague language that might block access to birth control, and they said the latest version has not addressed all of their concerns."

Yes, such a problem these days in America, doctors and nurses being forced at gunpoint to perform abortions against their will. All-pervasive. Unlike child abuse in America. Just ask James Dobson.









More here.

Hope & Fear & Unity Pony DeathWatch

I remember waiting for the O.J. Simpson verdict to be announced.

I remember how I felt after it was announced, too.

Waiting for Obama's VP announcement is triggering traumatic memories of that period of on-tenterhooks waiting.

I'm really worried for my party, and for my country, hoping for the best and fearing the worst.

And I'm not the only one.

I'm not.

Nope.

Wow! Women Writers CAN Be Total Utter Sexist Pigs! Who Knew?

It's late. I shouldn't be writing this.

But really, one just CAN'T MISS this here article in Slate by Dahlia Lithwick:


THE DISTURBING RISE OF THE HILLARY HARRIDANS

To which this here blogger, who is clinging to PUMA Obamism by the very very very very slenderest of threads, a thread made only way way more slender-er by reading articles like this, replies with this historic trifecta:

BLUDGEON ME NOT WITH ROE V. WADE.YOU DON'T OWN ME

And the ever-popular: IT'S MY PARTY AND YOU'LL CRY IF I WANT 2 . . .

Why?

Because I've said it all before, and (sigh) I guess I'm saying it all again.



("Yo, Dahlia Lithwick. Harridan here. You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?")


Don't forget the divine Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy on Obamawin's Law.

Interlude

Blue sky here, not as blue as the deep azure skies of Tibet, but blue enough, nearly cloudless. Walked dog and self to the bayside beach through Crowe's Pasture, got waved at by many oyster-farmers driving through an otherwise quiet meadow. It reminded me of this poem by Czeslaw Milosz.

GIFT

A day so happy.

Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.

Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.

There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.

I knew no one worth my envying him.

Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.

To think that I was once the same man did not embarrass me.

In my body I felt no pain.

When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

Berkeley, 1971

.

Chosen One: "Feisty" Sweetie Wrong On FISA, Centrism, Compromise

"You're feisty. And I like that."

So the Chosen One likes a gurrl to be feisty, does he?

Hmm.

Moi, I like not to be patted on the head.





-----
Here's Anglachel, Above Reproach.

Bad Mood Post

So watch out, gentle readers, one finds oneself in a baaad mood today.

Started out with that front-page Sunday NY Times article on presumptive nominee Barack Obama, "Seeing Tougher Race, Allies Ask Obama to Make 'Hope' Specific."

Well, maybe it started before that. Never mind.

Follow the linky goodness straight to Lambert at Corrente, The Age of the Anti-Cassandra.

Yep. What he said.

And what VastLeft said.

And here's Obama throwing My Hero Wesley Clark under the bus.

And the divine Anglachel on public policy vs. self-interest:

I know, I sound like a broken record, but this all gets back to the argument I've been making all year about having a philosophy of government and political power that sees a need to use the power of the state to secure and improve the lives of ordinary citizens. If you simply don't believe that it is so, that public policy should be nothing more than artful structuring of choices (and not mandating that X shall be available for all, regardless), then policy as such loses its punch. One is as good as another, and all are mere bargaining chips in the hunt for bipartisan unity.

Obama could be as old as Methuselah, or even John McCain, and all that experience would not do him a bit of good as long as his campaign is . . . not about what he intends to do for the country.

I'll just sit here and stew, thx.

First, Do No Harm

PSYCHOLOGISTS CLASH ON AIDING INTERROGATIONS
From the New York Times:

"They have closely studied suspects, looking for mental quirks. They have suggested lines of questioning. They have helped decide when a confrontation is too intense, or when to push harder. More than those in the other healing professions, psychologists have played a central role in the military and C.I.A. interrogation of people suspected of being enemy combatants.

But now the profession, long divided over this role, is considering whether to make any involvement in military interrogations a violation of its code of ethics.

At the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting this week in Boston, prominent members are denouncing such work as unethical by definition, while other key figures — civilian and military — insist that restricting psychologists’ roles would only make interrogations more likely to harm detainees.

Like other professional organizations, the association has little direct authority to restrict members’ ability to practice. But state licensing boards can suspend or revoke a psychologist’s license, and experts note that these boards often take violations of the association’s ethics code into consideration.

The election for the association’s president is widely seen as a referendum on the issue. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, plan a protest on Saturday afternoon.

And last week, for the first time, lawyers for a detainee at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, singled out a psychologist as a critical player in documents alleging abusive treatment.

“It’s really a fight for the soul of the profession,” said Brad Olson, a psychologist at Northwestern University, who has circulated a petition among members to place a moratorium on such consulting.

Others strongly disagree. “The vast majority of military psychologists know the ethics code and know exactly what they can and cannot do,” said William J. Strickland, who represents the Society for Military Psychology before the association’s council. “This is a fight about individual psychologists’ behavior, and we should keep it there.”

At the center of the debate are the military’s behavioral science consultation teams, informally known as biscuits, made up of psychologists and others who assist in interrogations. Little is known about these units, including the number of psychologists who take part. Neither the military nor the team members have disclosed many details.

Defenders of that role insist that the teams are crucial in keeping interrogations safe, effective and legal. Critics say their primary purpose is to help break detainees, using methods that might violate international law.

In court documents filed Thursday, lawyers for the Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Jawad asserted that a psychologist’s report helped land Mr. Jawad, a teenager at the time, in a segregation cell, where he became increasingly desperate.

According to the documents, the psychologist, whose name has not been released, completed an assessment of Mr. Jawad after he was seen talking to a poster on his cell wall. [Someone noticed Jawad was having psychotic symptoms] Shortly thereafter, in September 2003, he was isolated from other detainees [a really wrong thing to do with someone you have noticed is having psychotic symptoms] and many of his requests to see an interrogator were ignored. He later attempted suicide [what a surprise] , according to the filing, which asks that the case be dismissed on the ground of abusive treatment.

The Guantánamo court is reviewing the case. Military lawyers have denied that Mr. Jawad suffered any mental health problems from his interrogation [tell it to the Marines]. On Thursday, the psychologist in the case invoked Article 31 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s equivalent of the Fifth Amendment.

“This is what it’s come to,” said Steven Reisner, an assistant clinical professor at the New York University School of Medicine and a leading candidate for the presidency of the psychological association. “We have psychologists taking the Fifth.”

Dr. Reisner has based his candidacy on “a principled stance against our nation’s policy of using psychologists to oversee abusive and coercive interrogations” at Guantánamo and the so-called black sites operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The psychological association’s most recent ethics amendments strongly condemn coercive techniques adopted in the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism campaign. But its current guidelines covering practice conclude that “it is consistent with the A.P.A. ethics code for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation and information-gathering processes for national-security-related purposes,” as long as they do not participate in any of 19 coercive procedures, including waterboarding, the use of hoods and any physical assault."

Yes, yes. Of course.

It's sort of like having a medical doctor present during "interrogations" to revive a torturee so they become awake enough to torture all over again, is it not?





Full story here.

Pro-Genocide Racist Reds Fake "Ethnic Minority" Kidz

And they must have thought that nobody would ever notice!

Because, um, why would they?

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected.

"I assume they think the kids were very natural looking and nice," Yuan Zhifeng, deputy director of the Galaxy Children's Art Troupe said.

Why, of course!

No VP For You, Hilly -- AND It's All Your Fault!!

Oh, lookee, boys and girls!

Here's a great -- and so WELL-TIMED -- hit-piece on Hillary!

Wow!

It's like Golden Oldies Night, replaying the top ten Obamist anti-Hillary smears!

I have like SUCH nostalgia happening!

Gimme some spin.

You want Hillary for VP? No way!

She's -- RACIST.

She's -- INCOMPETENT.

She's -- TOXIC.

She's -- TOTALLY OUTTA CONTROL.

Just in case you were wondering why presumptive nominee Barack Obama, who is not man enough to run with Hillary, is still not man enough to run with Hillary.

; )



----
Plus: "If the witch is dead, why is The Atlantic trying to drown her?"

And a reprise: Fucked In The Head
Watch

Kudos to Vast LeftWing Conspiracy.

Update: So maybe they'll "let" Hillary be nominated after all? Isn't that the rulez? Or are they just flogging a Dead Unity Pony?

Shape-ist Commies Fake Uber-Cute Kid Singer

Here's something fun. It might take your mind off the resurrected Unity Pony Deathwatch. Not to mention taking your mind off the painful Karl-Rove-wet dream internecine warfare within the Democratic party, as Obama continues the audacity of putting a virtual Beretta to its head (for its own good, mind you), forcing it to march off at a spanking pace in a direct anti-progressive direction, while reassuring us all that, just as all animals are equal, all directions are equal, but some are more equal than others, so shut the f*ck up, everyone, k?

OLYMPIC CHILD SINGING STAR REVEALED AS FAKE

The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was [LIP-SYNCHING] and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director has revealed.

Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday.

Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.

But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen said in an interview that appeared briefly on the news website Sina.com before it was apparently wiped from the Internet in China.

Lin was seen to perform the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland" as China's national flag was carried into the stadium, a key moment in the three hour ceremony.

"The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression," said Chen, a renowned contemporary composer and French citizen.

"Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in terms of voice, Yang Peiyi is perfect, each member of our team agreed," he said.

He said the final decision to stage the event with Lin lip-synching to another girl's voice was taken after a senior member of China's ruling Communist Party politburo attended a rehearsal.

"He told us there was a problem that we needed to fix it, so we did," he said, without disclosing further details of the order.

Yeah. Like they're doing in Tibet.

It's not genocide. It's culling.
Full link, here.

Obama: Just Not Man Enough to Run With Hillary

It's pretty stupid for a presumptive nominee not to run with someone who would pretty much guarantee a Democratic landslide in the fall, don't you think?

So, why is Obama being stupid?

Why is Obama not happily, eagerly, throughtfully, planfully, excitedly, passionately offering Hillary Clinton the VP spot?

It makes no sense, does it?

He doesn't need 18 million votes?

His ego is too fragile?

He's scared that Hillary Clinton might, periodically, both outshine him and outthink him?

And he just doesn't want to be out-shone nor out-thunk? So he's willing to put the outcome of the election at greater risk to prop up his (male?) ego?

That would be a sure sign of Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome, sweetie. A troubling thought. Makes him look weak. Makes him look like a Schwartzenegger girlie-man. Makes him look like a total, well --- pussy.

Barack Obama needs to cowboy up for the good of the Democratic Party.

He needs to clean up his act.

Obama's current behavior is completely unacceptable. The pandering to the right, screwing up on FISA, backpedalling on choice, calling the Clintons racists, failing to address his sexism, not backing single payer health care, etc. etc.

Wimping out on naming Hillary VP is the worst of his worst, and this failure alone may cost the Democrats the election.

Look how things are shaping up:

In the two months since Barack Obama captured the Democratic nomination, he has hit a ceiling in public opinion polling, proving unable to make significant gains with any segment of the national electorate.

While Obama still leads in most matchups with John McCain, the Illinois senator’s apparent stall in the polls is a sobering reminder to Democrats intoxicated with his campaign’s promises to expand the electoral map beyond the boundaries that have constrained other recent party nominees.

That gap between expectations and reality comes as Democrats enjoy the most favorable political winds since at least 1976. At least eight in ten Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track. The Republican president is historically unpopular. From stunning Democratic gains in party registration to the high levels of economic anxiety, Obama should have a healthy lead by almost every measure. Yet, in poll after poll, Obama conspicuously fails to cross the 50 percent threshold.

ABC News Polling Director Gary Langer asked, “If everything is so good for Barack Obama, why isn’t everything so good for Barack Obama?”

Will Obama be getting over himself anytime soon?

Will Obama be growing some cojones anytime soon?

And if not, why not?

.

------
And here's Big Tent Democrat on Another Reason Why Obama Should Choose Hillary as VP.
Here's VastLeftwingConspiracy on the Huge Unseen Elephant in the Democratic Party Room where Unity Pony was supposed to be.
Here's Alegre on why this race is so close when it shouldn't be.
Here's Anglachel on male privilege and the Edwards story: Yes, it is about the f*cking.
And here's Obama backpedalling on choice. Let's do fill the universe with more unwanted children who can grow up to be miserable and/or criminal and/or murderous like Ted Bundy, Osama, and Dirty Bush, eh?

Authority-Respecting Megachurch Wife Accused of Attacking Stewardess I Mean Flight Attendant

My favorite part of this story is the pastor claiming he would never disrespect authority, in this case, that he would never disrepect the authority of the flight attendant. I like the orange pant-suit part, too. w00t!

HOUSTON, Texas -- The wife of megachurch evangelist Joel Osteen told jurors Friday that she was "dumbfounded" and "shook up" after a flight attendant accused her of assaulting her over a spill on a first-class seat. Victoria Osteen and her husband, Joel Osteen, testified at the trial Friday in Houston, Texas. . .

Continental Airlines flight attendant Sharon Brown claims that Osteen grabbed, elbowed and pushed her before the start of a 2005 flight to Vail, Colorado. Osteen and her husband, who also had been on board and testified earlier Friday, denied that account.

"I love people. I'm guilty of that," Osteen said.

Dressed in an orange pant suit, Osteen was animated while testifying, often moving her hands while she talked. A couple of times during her testimony, she cried.

Joel Osteen called the incident "an unfortunate misunderstanding." He testified that his wife never raised her voice or grabbed the flight attendants, though he said he could not hear his wife's voice from his seat.

"We would never disrespect authority or disrespect" the flight attendant, Joel Osteen said.

The couple are co-pastors of Houston's Lakewood Church, a converted basketball arena that draws about 42,000 people each week. Joel Osteen's weekly television address is broadcast nationally and internationally, and he has written books that have been sold around the globe.

On Thursday, another flight attendant on the plane, Maria Johnson, testified that Victoria Osteen demanded special attention to clean up a half-dollar-sized spill on her armrest.

When Victoria Osteen didn't get her way, Johnson testified, the passenger became verbally and physically abusive to both flight attendants. She said Osteen eventually grabbed Brown by the shoulders, elbowed her in the chest and pushed her out of the way in an attempt to get into the cockpit.

But both Joel and Victoria Osteen, who were called to the witness stand by Brown's attorney, disputed Johnson's testimony.

Victoria Osteen said that when she first told a flight attendant about the spill, she was handed some napkins. She said she responded, " 'It's not my job.' I didn't say it in an ugly tone of voice."

Victoria Osteen denied Johnson's claim that she later grabbed Johnson and pulled her in order to have her see the spill.

Victoria Osteen said she tends to talk with her hands. She said that when she was talking with Brown, she was holding her sunglasses but did not point them at the flight attendant.

Victoria Osteen told jurors that Brown's response was to fling her hands at her and accuse her of pointing and pushing the flight attendant.

"It freaked me out. I asked a simple question," she said.

Brown claims in her lawsuit that after pushing her, Victoria Osteen tried to get into the cockpit. Victoria Osteen denied that, telling jurors she just wanted to get away from the situation.

"I was already freaked out because she was accusing me of stuff I didn't do," she said. "I was dumbfounded."

Victoria Osteen said she told Brown, "If I've done something to offend you, I'm sorry" and then got some napkins and went back and cleaned up the spill.

Reginald McKamie, Brown's attorney, asked Joel Osteen why he said in one of his religious messages that if it wasn't for him, his wife would be in prison.

Osteen said he meant it to be a comical statement about the differences between him and his wife, that he likes routine and considers himself boring while his wife is outgoing and likes to go to new restaurants and new places.

"You don't go to jail because you like different restaurants, do you?" McKamie asked, as the packed courtroom laughed. . .

Via RawStory, here.


And now for something completely different, the divine Vast Leftwing Conspiracy: Man Whose Campaign Destroyed Bill Clinton's Reputation To Allow Him Chance to Repair It.

Lock 'Em Up At Gitmo,and Throw Away the Key (Along With the Constitution Which Is Just A Piece of Paper)

GITMO DETAINEES SUBJECT TO DETENTION EVEN IF ACQUITTED

Some detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba will likely never be released because of the danger they pose, and those tried and acquitted will still be subject to continued detention as enemy combatants, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, made the remarks as Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni, awaited a verdict in the first war crimes trial to be held under a special regime created for "war on terror" suspects.

Morrell said Hamdan, a former driver of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, could appeal the verdict in US courts.

"But in the near term, at least, we would consider him an enemy combatant and still a danger and would likely still be detained for some period of time thereafter," he said.

Morrell said there were plans for at least 20 more such trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba but he said a significant portion of the detainees being held there would neither be tried nor released.

He said efforts were being made to reduce the size of the population through transfers of prisoners to their home countries for incarceration or release.

"But I think, you know, there are still a significant population within Guantanamo who will likely never be released because of the threat they pose to the world, for that matter," he said.

Yes, Hitler's driver, too, was a horrible threat to world peace. As is the whole concept of the um, rule of law.



More here.

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude

Some unusually troubling stories lately.

Scroll down if you want a reprise, but I don't recommend it.

As an antidote, let me make an offering of some advice that I first heard at a friend's wedding:

If we rely on ordinary, dualistic mind, we cannot have deep and lasting love either for our equals or for less fortunate beings, because ordinary dualistic mind depends on the uncertainty of temporary circumstances.

If we believe that mind is continuous, our love for others becomes continuous. If we recognize this continuity, we do not trust temporary, tangible circumstances or take them too seriously.

If we believe in the continuity of mind, then love inconspicuously connects us to the ones we love with continuous positive energy, so that even tangible separations between people who love each other do not reduce the intangible power of love. This love is automatically enduring since it is not easily affected by circumstances.

If we can keep from grasping at others with the selfish fear of losing them, or the hope of possessing them through the unawareness of our ordinary, dualistic mind, then the energy of love increases and its quality of giving energy to others opens and expands. The positive habit of continuity is created by not depending on what occurs each moment as if it were the only moment.

By believing in the continuity of mind, we acknowledge the continuity of all circumstances, including our experiences of love, which are not just for one moment or for one life.

(T. Norbu, White Sail)

You Always Hurt the One You Love

I do apologize to my faithful readers for adding yet another dismal real-life story here, but so far it's samsara as usual, perhaps here with a cherry on top.

I dunno. I'm looking for perky stories, really, I'm just not finding them. ;(

Oh wait.

Skip this awful story entirely and proceed at once to General JC Christian, Patriot's McCain Gozer ad.

There now. Isn't that better? ;)


CARNAGE IN PARADISE AS BOYFRIEND BEHEADS LOVER

A 31-year-old man killed his girlfriend on the Greek island of Santorini on Sunday, beheaded her, then fled in a patrol car, a local official said.

During the ensuing chase, the suspect was shot five times by police and ran over two women doctors who were riding a motorcycle before he was caught, the official said.

The suspect, Athanassios Arvanitis, a cook at a local restaurant, is undergoing surgery at an island hospital, Chrysanthos Roussos, head of the Santorini district, said.

Neighbours said Arvanitis beheaded his girlfriend's dog with a butcher knife following a heated argument. He then killed and beheaded his girlfriend.

The victim, 25-year-old Adamantia Karkali, worked as a teacher at a local village . . .

Initially, Arvanitis roamed the village of Vourvoulos exhibiting the woman's head, neighbours said. Townspeople said they locked themselves in their homes and called the police.

When a policeman tried to handcuff him, the suspect knifed the officer and flung the victim's head into a patrol car. . . . .

Via the Sydney Morning Herald.

Department of No F*cking Comment: If You Are Easily Triggered, Don't Read This Story Either

.



Here's a real Philadelphia story, via the Sydney Morning Herald.

Starved Disabled Girl Was Failed At Every Turn.

For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 19.05 kg.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the [Philadelphia, PA] city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people - her parents, four social workers and three family friends - in her ghastly death.

The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her nappies or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.

And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent."

"It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?"

The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.

Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held today without bail. The social workers - suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case - face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death . . .[and the story actually gets worse . . . .]

So, you know, really I just have no f*cking comment.

.

Contemptible Rove Cited For Contempt of Congress

So, does this mean that there is a God?

House Judiciary Committee votes to cite former White House aide Rove for contempt of Congress

A House panel voted Wednesday to cite Karl Rove, formerly President Bush's top aide, for contempt of Congress as its Senate counterpart explored punishment for alleged misdeeds by other administration officials.

But it was not clear that the Democrats controlling a lame-duck Congress will push their case for abuse of power against a lame-duck president beyond televised talk and vague threats just a few weeks shy of final adjournment. As a practical matter, lawmakers have little time and less willingness to follow through on most charges, let alone punishments, before Bush leaves office.

They're finding plenty of time and political purpose, however, for public reviews of what Democrats say is the abuse of power and politicization across the Bush administration. Rove and the Justice Department starred in Wednesday's proceedings.

No, maybe not.

More here.

Department of No F*cking Comment

Yet another atrocity to document. Weary-making, it is.

IN A WAR RIDDLED WITH LIES, PVT. LAVENA JOHNSON "COMMITTED SUICIDE" AND "WAS NOT BRUTALLY RAPED AND MURDERED" We Don't Agree.


by Meg White

"They don't care. They put on a uniform and they say honor and integrity and they have no morals, no honor and no integrity, and I don't even know how to sleep at night.
--Linda Johnson, mother of Pvt. LaVena Johnson

Pvt. LaVena Johnson, 19, was so excited to tell her mother that she was definitely going to be home from Iraq for Christmas, her favorite time of year. The next day, she was dead.

The military's casualty liaison told the Johnson family she committed suicide, found dead in her barracks with a gunshot wound to the head. However, two separate contacts told LaVena's father, Dr. John Johnson, that she was found dead in a contractor's tent. Allegedly, a trail of blood led from the contractor's tent into her tent, suggesting she was dragged there. Her tent was lit on fire, according to the witness who found her body.

More here.

Still more via Jesus' General. I knew about the KBR rape case, hadn't heard about this one. Which contractor was it, this time? So good to spread the American way of life overseas, is it not?

---------

And Big Tent Democrat on Obama's VP pick.

SMH: Chosen One Already Chosen. Tough Luck, Senator John McCain

The headline in the Sydney Morning Herald says it all:

NO CLIFFHANGER, MORE LIKE OBAMA LANDSLIDE.

Seems like the energy is heading that way to me.

Obama is just so Teflonically Reagan-esquely charming.

Well, I'm not so charmed, but it sure looks like all the shit the right-wing liked to throw at Gore and Kerry, shit that stuck, just ain't sticking to the Boy Wonder. So, you know, in a way this could be sorta fun. In a let's-make-Karl-Rove's-skin-crawl kinda way.

If only The Chosen One would choose to start doing and saying the actual right things?

Might I have the audacity to hope?

FISArugula?

Dalai Lama Squeezes Hand of John McCain

And McCain claims this is not torture?




Plus, hat tip to Corrente, a disturbing piece from Salon on domestic surveillance.

Feet to the Fire on FISA

Apparently one is not alone in continuing to have one's panties in a twist about FISA.

More here.


(Yes, it's still blogging lite. So sue me. It's hot, it's muggy, I'm tired of torture, I'm tired of f*cking Unity Pony, I think Obama is made of total teflon, which could be a good thing, perhaps, if he ever started being an actual liberal, but who cares as apparently I have been swimming with muskrats all this time in rl who knew. So it's hot, it's muggy, I just returned from the garden with three Stupice tomatoes to toss into salad with mesclun and cucumbers and lots and lots of arugula arugula arugula and thanks to Miss Thelma Rantilla who taught my 16-y.o. self about specific detail. ;) )

The Brave New World of Dirty Bush

He's a generous guy, our Preznit Toad-Exploder. He's always working hard to give us all a little bit more of his special way of being.

He's Bubble Boy. He's unique.

He's Dirty Bush.

Among his many special gifts:

Moral bankruptcy.

Fiscal bankruptcy.

Foreclosures.

And now, his drowning of America in Grover Norquist's stinky bathtub results in --death by foreclosure.

OWNER SHOOTS HERSELF AFTER FORECLOSURE

A US woman shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that, by the time it foreclosed on her house, she would be dead.

Police said 53-year-old mother Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself shortly after faxing the letter at 2.30pm (4.30am AEST) on Wednesday.

Her husband had petitioned unsuccessfully for bankruptcy three times.

The mortgage company phoned police in Taunton, Massachusetts, who found Mrs Balderrama's body an hour later.

The auction was scheduled to start at 5pm and interested buyers arrived at the property while her body was still inside, Taunton police chief Raymond O'Berg said.

Business -- as usual.

(Oh, and don't miss toe-tapping airport mensroom anon sex solicitor Senator Larry Craig's very special support of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Shhh.)

Damn the Arugula, Full Speed Ahead

Yes, I know it's blogging-lite this week. (Yawn). Netroots Nation in SL hangover or something. There were some great people I heard for the first time there, it was really impressive. Larry Lessig, Van Jones. Others I'd heard of but really liked what they had to say -- H. Dean, Pelosi, J. Dean, Clark. Pelosi especially sounded waaay spinier. I had to get over my Great Kos Purge grudge (well, not get over it, just put it aside for a few days) in order to attend, even virtually, but I'm glad I did.

However, speaking of get-over-itism, my inner Frenchwoman points out that: La lutte continue.

Here is Shakespeare's Sister on the Obamatopians' continuing effort to drag bloodied, half-dead Clintonistas out from under the exact Obama bus used to run them over in the first place, turn them upside down, and shake them hard enough that all their money falls out of their pockets while they beg for mercy and admit that's it all their fault in the first place. Not to mention insulting actual Obama supporters who are now rather pissed off at the Boy Wonder for having sold out on FISA, choice, faith-based programs, etc. etc. during his total tap-dance toward the right.

Catch this letter, one that was actually written, and actually sent out. No really.

Don't it make you want to whip out your checkbook, having seen the error of your immature, unresourceful ways? Don't it make you wanna really get over it, all over again, long after you had already gotten over it? Doesn't it not make you remember why you didn't want to get over it in the first place, and leave a really bad taste in your mouth, or something?

This is from Don Fowler, former chair of the Democratic National Committee:

I supported Hillary Clinton and am proud and pleased that I did. But she lost. Barack Obama won. It's over.

It is time for all Democrats, supporters of Senator Clinton and all other contenders for the nomination, to stand with him to secure his election and the election of Democrats at all levels of competition.

I must confess a bit of fatigue and irritation with people who continue to carp, complain, and criticize the results of the primary and lay down conditions for their support. The Los Angeles Lakers didn't establish conditions to recognize the Boston Celtics as NBA Champions; Roger Federer did not demand concessions before recognizing that Rafael Nadal defeated him at Wimbledon.

It is time to act in a mature and resourceful fashion. It's time to put the primaries behind us. It's time to support Barack Obama without conditions or demands.

Oh yes.

Unconditional positive regard. No naughty carping. Shut up about FISA, dears -- what are you, riding the (cotton) unity pony or something?

Just shut UP.


There. That's better.

Please pass the arugula.


(Hat tip to Corrente)

And an older post from TalkLeft, worth a reprise, Obama channeling Scalia and Thomas on choice.

Oh Lookee a WaPo Story On Netroots Blogtopia! (Skippy Coined That)

Liberal Bloggers Brace for Victory.

Oh?

Hmm.

Netroots Nation In Second Life

It's free.

It's fun.

And you can dance your little political hearts out.
Don't miss Netroots Nation in Second Life.


Come on down, fractured little Democratic Party, come on down to Netroots Nation in SL, listen, talk, interact.

Nice big virtual tent, grounded in civil political passion. Please come -- I'm especially extending an invitation to my sublime fellow pumatopians. Let's work on things out while we tango and swing, virtually speaking. Because why not, eh?



READ THIS PIECE BY MELISSA McEWAN ALL THE WAY TO THE END PLEASE OR THE DEMIURGE WILL KILL OFF UNITY PONY.

My favorite paragraph includes her pointing out that

nothing is quite so effective as using Roe v. Wade as This Issue, thusly reframing the argument from "Vote for the Democrat to get what you want" to "Vote for the Democrat to not lose what you've got."

It's a nasty little bit of blackmail, which fails utterly to take into consideration that the veiled threat of losing legal abortion because of one's uncompromising belief in one's own equality and autonomy is so bitterly ironic that it would be laughable if it were not so profoundly sad.

Instead of demonstrations of commitment to protecting Roe as one among many commitments to the basic feminist principle of women's equality, we are meant instead to be motivated by menace and intimidation.

We're supposed to gleefully hop on board with people who ominously warn that failure to do so will evoke tragedy by our own hands -- and, if we succumb, we find that even asking for basic respect, for sexist words and images and behaviors to not be used, is considered too much, an impertinence.

Yes. What she said.


-------
(Previously at NBFH: BLUDGEON ME NOT WITH ROVE V. WADE)

Department of Spare the Rod Spoil the Child

Letting the child's punishment really really fit the child's crime, eh?

WEBSTER – A child abuse suspect who police say repeatedly threw her 8-year-old stepdaughter down a flight of stairs was arrested yesterday in Florida.

Cara LeBlanc, 29, will face charges of first-degree assault and criminal restraint when she returns to New Hampshire, police said.

WBBH-TV in Fort Myers reports that Cara LeBlanc waived extradition in a court hearing this morning.

Webster police Lt. Phil Mitchell said the girl suffered kidney and liver damage, three broken vertebrae in her neck and three broken ribs as a result of the attack Thursday.

"I've never seen a child-abuse case this severe,'' he said yesterday. [Note from NBFH: I have.]

The girl's body was also covered with black and blue welts from having been repeatedly whipped with a belt over a nine-hour period Thursday, he said. The beating ended when the belt broke, police said.

Police say LeBlanc dragged the girl up the stairs by her hair seven times, then pushed her down each time. Leblanc also tied the child to a door by her hands and feet and force-fed her cereal during the ordeal, police said.

Mitchell said the girl was originally listed in critical condition at Boston Children's Hospital.

"She's getting better and is expected to recover, but it's going to take some time before she's well again,'' he said.

Police interviewed her Monday at the hospital.

The girl's father, Dan LeBlanc, took her to Concord Hospital Saturday, police said. Professionals there called police.

She was later taken to Boston for treatment of liver and kidney problems.

Two other children who were in the home during the assault -- a 7-year-old boy who police say is LeBlanc's biological child and a 5-year-old girl -- were not harmed. Mitchell said the state Division for Children, Youth and Families received a court order Monday to take custody of the children.

This is not the first abuse allegation investigated at the LeBlanc home, Mitchell said. Two years ago, police filed a complaint with state officials, but an investigation concluded it was unfounded.

More recently, a complaint was filed with the DCF by a former high school boyfriend of Leblanc's, Bill, who asked that his last name not be used.

He said LeBlanc is the mother of his 11-year-old daughter, who has lived with him for the past several years but still visits LeBlanc.

In March, he said, his daughter told him the 5-year-old was punished by being made to run up and down the stairs of LeBlanc's home for 20 minutes without stopping. The girl was also locked in her room from time to time, Bill said.

"I reported it to the state, but they said it was unfounded,'' he said.

Don't get me started.

No, really, don't.


Full story here.

And a related Spare the Rod Spoil the Child kinda story, here, via Buddhist Jihad.

NETROOTS NATION IN SECOND LIFE -- BE THERE OR BE SQUARE DUDES LIKE CLUELESS JOHN MCCAIN WHO CAN'T EVEN DO HIS OWN EMAIL OMIGOD

Come on down, fractured little Democratic Party, come on down to Netroots Nation in SL, listen, talk, interact, get all politically passionate, and work things out while you tango, virtually speaking.

Couldn't be easier.

Really.


Click on "there's more" and read through Pb's diary. Then click through to nninsl.org.

(And somewhere around here is poor little party Unity Pony with her big round sad eyes, and yes, you can -- you can feed poor little Unity Pony a virtual carrot if she'll open her mouth which she probably won't till she calls for her food-taster; yes, you can -- you can bash her over the head with a virtual FISA stick and rip out her timid centrist IV or feed her to a PUMA or hassle her silly about refried bushist fascist faith-based initiatives ugh.

Or even unaccountably fall suddenly back in love with her, holding her pink little hoof to your heart, offering to put her up for canonization while you tantalize her with platefuls of cheap arugula.

Yes, you can.

It's virtual reality so you can virtually do whatever you virtually wish . . . well, kinda . . . just follow the trail of virtual spangles . . . . or are they virtual sparkles . . . . a virtual trail of blood and sweat and spangles and sparkles and tears . . . a trail of tears that leads to virtual Unity Pony's vast flower-filled suite in Intensive Care at Netroots Nation in SL, metaphorically-speaking.)

We can do it, can we not?

Yes, we can.

People Who Love You Get to Hit You & Hurt You: In Jesus' Name, Amen?

Oh. My. God.

How about a little traditional wife spanking in a Christian marriage?

See, it's gay marriage that is so ruining happy traditional sadomasochistic Christian marriages like these.

"What is Christian Domestic Discipline?

A domestic discipline marriage is one in which one partner in the marriage is given authority over the other and has the means to back the authority, usually by spanking.

A Christian Domestic Discipline marriage is one that is set up according to Biblical standards; that is, the husband is the authority in the household. The wife is submissive to her husband as is fit in the Lord and her husband loves her as himself. He has the ultimate authority in his household, but it is tempered with the knowledge that he must answer to God for his actions and decisions. . . .

CDD is so much more than just spanking. It is the husband loving the wife enough to guide and teach her, and the wife loving the husband enough to follow his leadership. A Christian marriage embodies true romance and a Christian man a true hero.

Though this seems unusual in today's United States, this kind of marriage has been practiced throughout history and is still practiced in many parts of the world today."

Mm, that's a fine argument, lady, and one which would support many other interesting traditional practices such as child prostitution,slavery, boiling in oil, and the death by a thousand cuts, eh?

It's a great site, right from its top to its (bruised) bottom.

There's a page called "When to Show Mercy." There's info on after-care, applying aloe to wounds. Everyone is referred to as a "lady" or a "gentlemen."

Don't miss the glossary for gentlemen husbands.

Which includes:

Corner time: An alternative form of punishment where a wife is required to stand facing a corner, often with her bottom on display, before, during, or after a spanking.

Diaper Position: Spanking position where wife lies on her back with her legs raised upwards toward her head.

TMI, but hey, it's inspirational. Really. It inspired me to write this post.

Call me buddhist for the past 30 years, but before that, I spent 10 years in Sunday School, from which I graduated, btw, and I sure don't remember Jesus teaching any shit like this

Regular garden-variety Talibangelicals also don't bother practicing the Beatitudes, much less the Golden Rule, but them I'm used to.

But these Christians -- they're really special. So Story of O Meets The Last Supper kinda special.

These people -- I don't know -- God help them. They're um like so deluded, how can they stand it?



Hat tip to Jesus' General.

And some related kiddie-spank posts via Buddhist Jihad.

What Goes Around Comes Around: Rummy, Dirty Bush, Big Dick Recycle Commie Brainwashing at Gitmo

This is a nice story.

It's the kind of actual in-depth journalism that, had the NY Times been so doing all along, one wouldn't still be thinking of the New York Times as belonging to the media whore media.

The cool thing is that Rummy/Dirty Bush's 21st century All-American torture techniques were originally designed by their original designers TO ELICIT FAKE CONFESSIONS.

Haha.

I mean, really, hahaha.

WASHINGTON — The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say . . . was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Original report, here.

Unity Pony Flutters Sparkle-Ridden Eyelashes

Oh my GOD.

Markos comes out as a PUMA Obamist!

In the New York Times, no less! Be still my heart!

"I will continue to support him,” Mr. Moulitsas said in an interview. “But I was going to write him a check, and I decided I would rather put that money with Democrats who will uphold the Constitution."

w00t!




Guess I'll have to stop calling him a nappy-headed ho, eh?

Sayin' It Don't Make It So. (well unless you say it 3x thats different)

What is it about the Unique Power of Three?

Third time's a charm? Three's a crowd?

Is it the short form of the Big Lie?

Well, way back in my days with the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (had I forgotten to mention that, dear?) the mantric formula for membership consisted of a three-fold chant -- "I am a W.I.T.C.H., I am a W.I.T.C.H., I am a W.I.T.C.H.! -- and poof! The deed was doned.

Who knows, but there is certainly something very special about three if you're a Bushist fascist with the Great Egg of Torture all over your face (and what's that other sticky stuff there, dear? No dont tell me.).

If one asserts a fact thrice, it becometh fact, for those who create their own realitiez.

Except, some uppity judges think that that's really stupid.

They're so uppity they make, like, literary references 'n stuf.

As in --

The Hunting of the Snark

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true."

From AP:

The three-member court was particularly pointed in its criticism of the argument that says s evidence is reliable because it appears multiple times.

"The government insists that the statements made in the documents are reliable because the State and Defense Departments would not have put them in intelligence documents were that not the case. This comes perilously close to saying that whatever the government says must be treated as true.

Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true."

COURT: GITMO LOGIC NONSENSE

Does this mean someone's starting to wake up from the long Bushist fascist nightmare? God, one hopes so.

------
But on the downside, here's another hammer to the ankles of Unity Pony: A New Campaign Charge: You Supported Clinton.

Yet on the upside, there's Two Great Men Stand Up For Marriage.

Official No Blood for Hubris Mental Health Interlude

"According to the Washington Post, Barack Obama and actress Scarlett Johansson are email buddies. Apparently they email each other back and forth. So, you've got a 23-year-old gorgeous, blonde actress emailing a married presidential candidate. Well, what could go wrong there? Not to be outdone today, John McCain admitted he had been exchanging flirty emails with Angela Lansbury." --Jay Leno


"CNN reports that John McCain is aggressively trying to win over the independent vote. Yeah, of course, to John McCain, independent means anyone who can make it to the toilet without help." --Conan O'Brien


"And John McCain is campaigning very hard. Every day I pick up the newspaper, he's someplace else. He's got a new strategy. Well John McCain just announced he wants to do a series of town hall meetings where he'll meet with the public. Yeah, it's all part of McCain's 'Speak Up, I Can't Hear You' tour." --Conan O'Brien


"McCain came out this week with a list of 20 possible running mates. He would not reveal the names of all of them, but he said they all share certain traits, like knowing CPR. He said he wants someone who is ready take over on day two." --Bill Maher


"Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have all been arguing, claiming that they're the most qualified person to answer the White House phone at 3 a.m. Yeah, McCain said, 'I'm the most qualified, because I'm usually up at that hour peeing anyway.'" --Conan O'Brien


"John McCain is now crisscrossing the United States campaigning. Or, as they're calling it, Antiques Roadshow." --Jay Leno


"We're leaning more and more about John and Cindy McCain. He's on this big biography tour. I guess his wife Cindy is worth over $100 million because the family made money selling Budweiser beer. So he has a wife 20 years younger than him, free beer, and unlimited money. I think I speak for all guys when I go, 'Why is he running for president?'" --Jay Leno


"Did you hear about this? Two State Department employees were fired -- this is a bit of a scandal -- because they were looking at Barack Obama's passport file. Not only that, but the same person was also looking at John McCain's Civil War records." --David Letterman


"John McCain's daughter is in the news. John McCain's daughter says that a lot of guys don't want to date her because her dad makes her too high-profile. Yeah. That's part of the reason. It's also because McCain's daughter is 63 years old." --Conan O'Brien


UPDATE: Yes, you read it here, an entire post that is naught but a vast festival of ageism, posted by oneself, apparently unable to blog more at present about Elephant-in-de-Room Dem on Dem internecine bloody warfare.

I visited the Fully-Abandoned Orange Cheeto on a mission for a friend, and learned that being concerned about FISA makes one a "traitor" and a "purity troll." O-kay. I went elsewhere and learned that I am not allowed to be a PUMA Obamist for that would betray PUMA purity. O-kay. Then I went to the Confluence and learned about widespread cyber-attacks against PUMA bloggers. O-kay.

It all makes me want to put a big paper bag over my head and go into a deep corner of the room and have a good long sulk. And then rip out Unity Pony's IV.

How about you?

Oh Frabjous Day Upon Which Barry & Hilly Will Strongly Assert the Utter Non-Death of Unity Pony !!!

It's Unity Day, progressive Dem boyz and girls!

Let's all be very nice to one another, okay? No more petulant PUMA-bashing! No more reminding the bloggerboyz of their long-term pustulant intra-party bad manners!

Why?

Because -- we like you! We really like you!

We really like us! (We like us?)

Whatever.

Anyhow, let's all cheer for the
Barry-Hilly Dog & Pony Unity Pony Show in Unity, New Hampshire!!

In celebration of this important media event occasion, I announce my a new personal political career goal -- turning timid centrist Barry into a dyed-in-the-wool progressive! What do you think about that, prog-Dem boys and girls? I mean, if he'll say anything to get elected (and he has, he has), why shouldn't he be saying what I want him to say, eh?

Feet to the fire 24/7. Power to the people.

Every solicitation for money I get -- and I'm getting a lot -- I am returning by mail, marked with comments, like "FISA?"? "Single payer universal health care?" "Endless list of liberal dem pet cause principled stands to be taken asap?"

I want Barry to know how I really feel, because Hilly already knows how I feel, and I don't care how Hilly feels anymore, alas, due to her losingness. Sorry, Hilly. I have listened to Barry's call for getting overness, and I've gotten over it. (Sniffs. Wipes away tears. Chokes a little). I'm throwing you under the bus, Hilly. Rilly. Under which you have already thrown yourself, I'd like to point out, Hilly. Really. It's for our own good. It's just not about you anymore.

Now, it's all about Barry. I don't know how to love him -- as he is.

But I see no reason why he should not change his ways. Barry is just so very Cirque-du-Soleil Mongolian acrobat flexible, is that not a good thing? Can I not use this flexibilitude therefore to mold him, scold him, knock him into shape? Can I not use netroots nation power and tiny-donor checkbook power to create real new shiny new new change, for a change?

I mean, why not?

It's so -- creative class-y!

I want a real progressive president.


Why can't I just make one up?



.

Would Someone Please Hold Obama's Feet to the Fire So I Don't Have To? I'm a Little Busy Today. Thx.

Yes, I know that Unity Pony is back on life support.

Too many frickin' spangles. Too much arugula. I told her so, but would she listen, the bitch? Nah.

The cure is here, via Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy posting at correntewire. (One really needs the hypertext to appreciate the brilliance of this post, and of the most of the comment thread that follows).

(Those of you who litmus-test party loyalty are directed to this here post here wherein VastLeft endorses you-know-who, just as I did, but he did it a day earlier).

Some of us have become personae non grata by noticing again and again how far from a tonic for what ails Bush-afflicted America Barack Obama really is. One of the great, undertold stories of this campaign is the complete meltdown of the left blogosphere, where virtually no intelligent intra-party debate remained possible because major forums like Daily Kos and Democratic Underground — and practically every A-list blog’s comments threads — turned into echo chambers for Clinton hate and Obama infallibility.

Nearly every leading blog put its thumb on the scale for Obama, willing into reality the idea that this equivalating fellow with minutes’ worth of experience in the Senate was an ideal standard-bearer for progressive values – despite rhetoric that gave ground to the radical right with every syllable, and despite throwing Democratic constituencies under the bus at every turn.

Go read it. All the way to the arugulous end.

Oh come on. What do I have to do, beg?

Threaten?

"Read his post, and its hypertext, and the comment thread, or else I'll kill off Unity Pony?"

Work with me here, people.

Takes two sides to do the Unity Pony Tango.



After you're done, read Arthur Silber. It's good for your complete recovery from Bushist fascism and its ceaseless moral bankruptcy. at powerofnarrative).

(And send Arthur some money, like good progressive bodhisattvas, eh?)

And what's up with FISA? Can we hold everyone's feet to the fire so they support Feingold and Dodd, pretty plse.? Thx?

Here's Act Blue re FISA accountability (h/t to JC)

And here's another condescending post to make Unity Pony just a little sicker than she already is. Not to mention, this one, Invisible Women. I hadn't even noticed how de-materialized I've become.

Happy Blogiversary to Us!

Lookee, lookee -- it's our third blogiversary, for a blog that was started by mistake, and is still mistaken. How did we manage?


We must feature blasts from the past. We'll no, we mustn't, but we are anyhow because why not.

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

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

Canned Hunts: Killing For Fun

First We Maim Your Minds. Then We Dump You. It's Hard Work. Still.
In Nightmares Begin Responsibilities
Bubble Boy: Sending Our Kids Out to Die For His Right to Remain a Maroon
Huzzah! Bubble Boy Brings Back Burqas

Who Will Rid Me of These Booger-Chomping, Testosterone-Deprived, Sniggering Sexist Fratboys?

None Dare Call It Sexist


And one's own weal favowite:

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