Why?

Why I'm an independent: this bill, HR 4752 IH, was instroduced to reinstate the draft. By a Democrat.

OKay, so I didn't write this... he speaks for me anyway!

Will Durst: Impeachment? No. Impalement!
I don’t know about you guys, but I am so sick and tired of these lying, thieving, holier-than-thou, rightwing, cruel, crude, rude, gauche, coarse, crass, cocky, corrupt, dishonest, debauched, degenerate, dissolute, swaggering, lawyer shooting, bullhorn shouting, infra-structure destroying, buck passing, hysterical, criminal, history defying, finger pointing, puppy stomping, roommate appointing, pretzel choking, collateral damaging, aspersion casting, wedding party bombing, clearcutting, torturing, jobs outsourcing, torture out-sourcing, election fixing, women’s rights eradicating, Medicare cutting, uncouth, spiteful, boorish, vengeful, jingoistic, homophobic, xenophobic, xylophonic, racist, sexist, ageist, fascist, cashist, audaciously stupid, brazenly selfish, lethally ignorant, journalist purchasing, genocide ignoring, corporation kissing, poverty inducing, crooked, coercive, autocratic, primitive, uppity, high-handed, domineering, arrogant, inhuman, inhumane, inbred, inept, insipid, incapable, incompetent, ineffectual, insolent, insincere, know-it-all, snotty, pompous, contemptuous, supercilious, gutless, spineless, shameless, avaricious, noxious, poisonous, imperious, merciless, graceless, tactless, brutish, brutal, Karl Roving, backward thinking, persistent vegetative state grandstanding, nuclear option threatening, evolution denying, irony deprived, consciously depraved, conceited, perverted, peremptory invading, thirty-five day vacation taking, bribe soliciting, hellish, smarty pants, loudmouth, bullying, swell headed, ethics eluding, domestic spying, medical marijuana busting, Halliburtoning, narcissistic, undiplomatic, blustering, malevolent, demonizing, Duke Cunninghamming, hectoring, dry drunk, Muslim baiting, hurricane disregarding, oil company hugging, judge packing, science disputing, faith based advocating, armament selling, nonsense spewing, education ravaging, whiny, insane, unscrupulous, lily livered, greedy (exponential factor fifteen), fraudulent, delusional, CIA outing, redistricting, anybody who disagrees with them slandering, fact twisting, ally alienating, betraying, chickenhawk, sell out, quisling, god and flag waving, scare mongering, Cindy Sheehan libeling, smirking, bastardly, voting machine tampering, sociopathic, cowardly, treasonous, Constitution shredding, oppressive, vulgar, antagonistic, trust funding, nontipping, tyrannizing, peace hating, water and air and ground and media polluting (which is pretty much all the polluting you can get), deadly, traitorous, con man, swindling, pernicious, lethal, illegal, haughty, venomous, virulent, mephitic, egotistic, bloodthirsty, yellowbelly, hypocritical, Oedipal, did I say evil, I’m not sure if I said evil, because I want to make sure I say evil . . . EVIL, cretinous, slime buckets in the Bush Administration that I could just spit. Impeachment? Hell no. Impalement. Upon the sharp and righteous sword of the people’s justice. Make it a curtain rod. Because it would hurt more.

Another Great One

"Top Ten Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State" - well done.

Veeeerrrrry Interesting...

...even if it is whining from the right.

It's a great article by a conservative journalist, or one who claims to be conservative at least, bemoaning at great length about the failures of Bush, and of the Republican party on general. The article, Bush's Base Betrayal, is chock-full of delicious regrets and lamentations by a right-wing apologist who tries to make a great case for their being so incredibly wrong about everything; too many to list, please check out the article.

Their bottom line these days is that Bush is not conservative, nor are any of the conservative congressmen the conservatives elected to office.

Ordinarily, you would expect me to say, "Ha ha, another example of yet another wingnut finally realizing how wrong they were," or maybe, "Ah! Justice is served, we have been proven correct all along," but no. Not this time. I've had it. I am fed up.

I am fed up with these poor whining asinine cry-me-a-river "conservatives" who spent twenty-plus years spewing bile about how fucking superior they are, how all their ideas come directly from God, how all their candidates are divinely infallible, how they and only they know what is right and what is wrong and what patriotism is and what treason is and what lies are and what character is and what matters.

They swore up and down, they proclaimed far and wide, that they would restore honor and dignity to the white house, defend our constitution, balance the budget, and on and on ad nauseum.

Their supporters called us traitors and America haters and accused us of helping the terrorists.

And so they won the day (how they won is still in dispute, but that's a different post). And what did we get for our trouble? What priceless gems of political change did the conservatives bless us all with?

The most vile, disgusting, loathsome, contemptible, diabolical cesspool of corruption and this nation has ever known. And that is an understatement.

There has been a lot of regret from the right these days, and all of it takes the same positition as the author of the article cited above:

The main cause of conservatives' anger with Bush is this: He talked like a conservative to win our votes but never governed like a conservative.

Oh, please! Here's what they're saying: "He lied to us! He lied to us! He said he loved us but now he acts like he wants to break up and... wwaahhh!"

Well, too bad conservatives, too bad, too little, too late. The problems you've caused are your responsibility, and you can't squirm your way out of it by claiming the head lemming led you astray. You own it. You knew exactly what you were voting for. You don't like the results? Guess what: conservatives put these criminal bastards into power and kept them there. Conservatives did it. Remember 2004?

A war of choice, started by America, with no end in sight, based on lies. A huge budget surplus turned in to an even greater deficit. America's reputation abroad irrevocably soiled. Hundreds of thousands dead and maimed and crippled for life. Constitutional protections and freedoms trampled underfoot. Insults to our environment, to our very lives. Yes, these problems are conservatives' fault, not the fault of Republican faux-conservatives or "rinos" who are now conveniently available for accusation.

Or, were you conservatives just a bunch of gullible saps who are so easily swayed by the inane ranting of the drug-addled, opiate-addicted voice of your party on talk radio, and the rest of his hissing choir of serpentine character assassins and liars, that you will flush all reason down the crapper and make fear and ignorance the crowning virtues of your conservative vote? Were you so easily fooled? Are you gullible or stupid or lying? Experience would suggest the latter. Either way, it appears that conservatives cannot even be trusted with their votes.

Like I Said So Many Times... "Conquest"

Any of the poor gullible sods who think we are "bringing democracy to Iraq" are sadly mistaken.

The new American embassy in Iraq

The fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River here will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City, with the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq’s turbulent future.

“The presence of a massive U.S. embassy — by far the largest in the world — co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country,” the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq.

The designs aren’t publicly available, but the Senate report makes clear it will be a self-sufficient and “hardened” domain, to function in the midst of Baghdad power outages, water shortages and continuing turmoil.

It will have its own water wells, electricity plant and wastewater-treatment facility, “systems to allow 100 percent independence from city utilities,” says the report, the most authoritative open source on the embassy plans.

Besides two major diplomatic office buildings, homes for the ambassador and his deputy, and the apartment buildings for staff, the compound will offer a swimming pool, gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation building.

Security, overseen by U.S. Marines, will be extraordinary: setbacks and perimeter no-go areas that will be especially deep, structures reinforced to 2.5-times the standard, and five high-security entrances, plus an emergency entrance-exit, the Senate report says.

I find it sickening that my tax dollars are used for global conquest.

Proof That Hell Has Frozen Over

Robertson speaks to teens:

The Rev. Pat Robertson, a noted Republican famous for lambasting leftist groups, turned his criticism to the Republican Party in his speech at the Third Annual Virginia Federation of Teenage Republicans Convention... The founder of the Christian Broadcast Network charged the Republican Congress as "abandoning" fiscal responsibility... "This is our government at work, and unfortunately it is run by Republicans," he said. In light of the NSA wire-tapping revelation, which he called a "tool of oppression," Robertson admonished the Bush administration for "encroaching on" Americans' personal liberties.

Wha--!? Wh-wh-Whaa--!?

...a student at Osbourn High School, said he thought Robertson was the quintessential Republican... but stated a difference in opinion on the relationship between religion and government. "...I believe in complete separation of church and state."

Whew! Thank goodness for small favors.

Anyway, that is the same Pat Robertson who described, in no uncertain terms, George Bush as God's instrument on earth, His divine messenger. Blessed and infallible. Now he turns around and bites the hand that has fed him so generously. Could it be that he has been seduced by the polls? I cannot believe he would come up with this on his own. I think he is yet another example of the big, powerful rats that are streaming in droves from the sinking ship of state.

Hell hath surely frozen over.

Mentally ill troops forced into combat!

Mentally ill troops forced into combat:

"U.S. military troops with severe psychological problems have been sent to Iraq or kept in combat, even when superiors have been aware of signs of mental illness, a newspaper reported in its Sunday editions."

Oh, lovely. Thanks to George Bush, we now live in a world where reality and bizarre tabloid headlines have merged into one. But... it's real.

Happy Mother's Day

(click image)

CNN.com - Poll: Clinton outperformed Bush

CNN.com - Poll: Clinton outperformed Bush

"In a new poll comparing President Bush's job performance with that of his predecessor, a strong majority of respondents said President Clinton outperformed Bush on a host of issues. Respondents favored Clinton by greater than 2-to-1 margins when asked who did a better job..."

Well, we knew it was true, but I never expected to see it in print. Sure, there's a bunch of things progressives can seriously criticize Clinton for, but he was still about 108,000 times better president than the snickering murder-monkey.

Bush Claims Tens of Millions of Americans are Involved with Al Qaeda

Everyone else has already blogged this all day, but I just had to give my 2 cents. Bush Claims Program That Monitors Tens of Millions of Americans ‘Strictly Targets Al Qaeda’... is that an insult, or what? Why did so many people love this guy?

Just Observing: This nation may be the home of the brave, but...

...is it the land of the free? Apparently not.

In a hastily called hearing yesterday, Judge McGinty made a highly unusual and outrageous decision to force Carol to undergo a state psychological exam as part of her pre-sentencing investigation. From the very start of Carol's case, the judge has openly said that she must have mental problems for resisting an unlawful and brutal encounter with Cleveland Heights police... He went even further in yesterday's hearing, saying that her opposition to the Bush regime makes her "delusional."

Her crime? Openly expressing her opposition to the Bush regime.

Who will be the next Martin Niemöller?

The Pendulum Swings

Bush Regimes Failures Help Democrats:
"Americans said Democrats would do a better job dealing with Iraq, gasoline prices, immigration, taxes, prescription drug prices, education, and civil liberties. On 'moral values,' the public prefers Dems to the GOP, 50% to 37%, and on having 'new ideas,' Dems have an even bigger lead over Republicans, 45% to 21%."

Krugman: "Who's Crazy Now?"

Since Krugman's columns require a subscription, here's the text:

The truth is that many of the people who throw around terms like "loopy conspiracy theories" are lazy bullies who, as Zachary Roth put it on CJR Daily, The Columbia Journalism Review's Web site, want to "confer instant illegitimacy on any argument with which they disagree." Instead of facing up to hard questions, they try to suggest that anyone who asks those questions is crazy.

Indeed, right-wing pundits have consistently questioned the sanity of Bush critics; "It looks as if Al Gore has gone off his lithium again," said Charles Krauthammer, the Washington Post columnist, after Mr. Gore gave a perfectly sensible if hard-hitting speech. Even moderates have tended to dismiss the administration's harsh critics as victims of irrational Bush hatred.

But now those harsh critics have been vindicated. And it turns out that many of the administration supporters can't handle the truth. They won't admit that they built a personality cult around a man who has proved almost pathetically unequal to the job. Nor will they admit that opponents of the Iraq war, whom they called traitors for warning that invading Iraq was a mistake, have been proved right. So they have taken refuge in the belief that a vast conspiracy of America-haters in the media is hiding the good news from the public.

Unlike the crazy conspiracy theories of the left — which do exist, but are supported only by a tiny fringe — the crazy conspiracy theories of the right are supported by important people: powerful politicians, television personalities with large audiences. And we can safely predict that these people will never concede that they were wrong. When the Iraq venture comes to a bad end, they won't blame those who led us into the quagmire; they'll claim that it was all the fault of the liberal media, which stabbed our troops in the back.

Reprinted from Paul Krugman's column in The New York Times

Bonus Link: Poll: Dim View Of Bush, GOP, Bush Disappoints On Key Issues; Democrats In Congress Trump GOP

Question of the Day:

Could our government's refusal to provide life-saving healthcare to all be considered a form of genocide?

Consider the apalling condition of the U.S.'s low rank for newborns' survival

America may be the world’s superpower, but its survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among modern nations, better only than Latvia... Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia... another report humbling to the American health care system... showed that white, middle-aged Americans are far less healthy than their peers in England, despite U.S. health care spending that is double that in England.

“Our health care system focuses on providing high-tech services for complicated cases. We do this very well,” [Emory University health policy expert Kenneth Thorpe] said. “What we do not do is provide basic primary and preventive health care services. We do not pay for these services, and do not have a delivery system that is designed to provide either primary prevention, or adequately treat patients with chronic diseases.”

Why They Liked Ike

"President Dwight Eisenhower, Republican, uttered these words on November 8, 1954:

"'Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.'

"In addition to being a war hero, a decent fellow, a moderate Republican before they began to go extinct, President Eisenhower apparently was also quite the prophet. Little George W. Bush was about 9 years old at the time...'


See also Windspike's "High Quality Messages From Ike: Some Things the "Right" Still Needs to Learn"

Hey, Petroleum Addicts: Looking for Info?

If so, then here are some resources with a ton of stuff to poke around in. Explore! Have fun!

Oil Industry Statistics from Gibson Consulting

Energy Information Administration - EIA - Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government

Wha--?

George Bush's brother, Marvin Pierce Bush, was in charge of the security at the WTC on 911!
"Did you know that Bush's brother, Marvin Pierce Bush, was in charge of the security at the WTC on September 11? They had everything in place. That is why they were able to plant all of the explosives over the previous weekend when the buildings were closed down for "maintenence"."

Another Take on Flight 93

ANOTHER VIEW ON FLIGHT 93

"'But maybe the 'why' can be answered in part by 'who' made Flight 93. It arrived packaged and promoted by Universal Studios, which is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns NBC, which is all owned by General Electric, media giant and major weapons contractor. What's more according to la.indymedia.org , General Electric donated $1.1 million to GW Bush for his 2000 election 'run.' MSNBC is an NBC joint venture with MS or Microsoft that kicked in $2.4 million to get GW Bush elected. Now, where do you think the movie's point of view is coming from?'"

All one can say is hmm...

LOL!

In this article, Bush says, "Within your lifetime, advances in technology will make our air cleaner and our cars more efficient -- and the gasoline engine will seem as antiquated as the rotary phone and the black-and-white TV."

Ha Ha Ha! All these years later, he tries to salvage his reputation by imitating Al Gore!

As If We're Surprised

Chevron Memo Raises Suspicion

"A Chevron memo is raising suspicion that oil executives intentionally reduced refining capacity in an effort to boost profits. The 1995 memo, obtained by Consumers Union, reads: 'If the U.S. petroleum industry doesn't reduce it's refining capacity, it will never see any substantial increase in refinery profits.'

In the last 20 years, 18 of California's 32 refineries have shut down. The industry is now seeing record prices and profits at the pump."

Conservative Extremism... No Longer an Oxymoron

Bush says job market best in years. How nice for his campaign contributors. For the rest of us, "...a full-time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in America at market rates."

But, hey, this government says fast-food work is classified as manufacturing, so those good jobs should be some consolation, right?

Tip-o-the-hat to Mike of the North

This is Supposed to Happen TODAY!

Bush Defector To Demolish 911 Lies On May 6

3 Heads are Better Than 1?

Dig this, truthseekers. Keep an eye on other sides' blogs!

More on the Repukes' Failure to Protect America

Remember my post about how Clinton ran a more effective war on terror? Well, here is another that describes wonderfully how security could not be in worse hands under the Bush crime family.

According to polls, the public perceives Republicans as stronger on national security than Democrats. Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the past century, Democratic presidents have been the dominant force in protecting our country.

The fact that so many Americans perceive Repukes to be the best choice for national defense is evidence that they are pushovers for packaged PR poopoo, and easily seduced by diabolical political image-crafting. Reality certainly has no place in the Bush supporters' world.

Historically, Democratic presidents have been much stronger than Republican ones in protecting the United States against real threats. They include WW I (Wilson), WW II (Roosevelt), the (Truman) Doctrine to contain the Soviet Union, and Kennedy’s nuclear confrontation with the same country during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In each case, there was a strong adversary where the outcome was truly uncertain. In the showdown with the Soviet Union, the world as we now know it could have been destroyed. In more recent times, Clinton led a successful NATO effort to stop the genocide in Kosovo -- without loss of American life.

Over the past century, Republican presidents have managed but one war successfully -- the first Gulf War. In that war, the Republican President led a massive coalition against a small country with little air or sea power and where the outcome was certain. The outcome of the current war in Iraq was thought to be certain, too. However, it has been the worst justified and most poorly managed war in history, even topping our fiasco in Viet-nam.

And yet, they're perceived as the experts, just because they talk tough. There mouths have gotten us into the mess we're in today.

Clinton on Terrorism
In 1998, Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States and bombed two U.S. embassies. In response, Clinton increased anti-terrorism budgets, launched cruise missiles at al-Qaeda training camps and tried to capture or kill bin Laden and his lieutenants. Clinton also authorized the CIA to assassinate bin Laden. In addition, Clinton arranged to receive a pipeline of daily reports on al-Qaeda activities. His staff considered him obsessive on the subject.

In 1999, Clinton exercised widespread precautions to prevent terrorist attacks of any kind at the crucial turn of the century. These precautions and public awareness helped to prevent further attacks, including one at the Los Angeles airport.

During presidential transition, he personally warned Bush that al-Qaeda would be his “gravest and greatest” threat and passed to the new administration his plan of attack in special briefings to Vice President Cheney and National Security Advisor Rice. According to a senior Bush official, the Clinton plan contained all the steps that were eventually taken after 9/11.

Bush on Terrorism
At the outset and again during the spring and summer of 2001, the Bush White House repeatedly received expert advice on the gravity of the threat as well as many warnings from around the world of an impending attack. These warnings, described as the most urgent in decades, specified the use of hijacked aircraft as weapons. For example:

In March, Italy warned us of a very, very secret al-Qaeda plan.

In April (and again in July), Afghanistan warned us of a huge attack on America and aircraft suicide missions.

In June, Germany warned us of plans to use commercial aircraft as weapons.

In July, Egypt warned us that 20 al-Qaeda members had slipped into the U.S.; 4 of them had received flight training.

In July and August, England warned us of multiple airplane hijackings and that al-Qaeda was in the final stages of preparing a terrorist attack.

In August, Russia (Putin) warned that suicide pilots were training for attacks on U.S. targets.

In late summer, Jordan warned us that aircraft would be used in a major attack inside the U.S.

During this period, President Bush received 40 separate CIA briefings on the al-Qaeda threat. One of the last ones said al-Qaeda was “determined to attack the United States.” The CIA Director personally told the White House to expect a significant attack in the near future that “will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties … attack preparations have been made, will occur with little or no warning … this is going to be a big one.” At no time did the President take control, call agency heads together, go into crisis mode, or warn the public.

Like the President, none of the national security officials reporting directly to him showed serious concern. For example, on the day of 9/11, the Secretary of Defense still had not appointed a counterterrorism executive and his Department had no mission to counter al-Qaeda. And, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had not been asked to furnish military options. National Security Advisor Condi Rice was supposed to give a speech, the same day of the attack, on the threats of tomorrow. This speech omitted any reference to the imminent al-Qaeda threat or to Osama bin Laden.

Following the attack, the President evaded all responsibility and, for a year, attempted to block formation of a congressionally-created investigative commission. When that didn’t work, he stonewalled the commission for more than another year -- creating much delay and limiting access to witnesses and sensitive records. The White House obstructionist tactics finally forced the Commission to threaten use of subpoenas.

The end result was a two-year obstruction of the 9/11 investigation, even though it could only strengthen our national security. What was our Commander-in-Chief thinking about? There is just one explanation – fear that his month-long August vacation in Texas had left the nation unprepared and vulnerable to one of the greatest threats of our time, and, further, that public knowledge of this would endanger his reelection.

Sickening, isn't it? To know that this is reality, not just some weird movie?

A major distraction from the war on terror has been Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Diverting our military power from a high-level threat to a nonexistent one will come back to haunt us some day. Bush could have easily avoided this war by simply allowing international experts on the ground in Iraq to finish their search for illegal weapons. Instead, he overstated inherently uncertain intelligence, forced the inspectors to leave Iraq, and invaded.

We’ve heard hundreds of times from the Administration that everyone else believed as they did that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Actually, there were dissenting views from within our own intelligence community, from other countries (Germany, for example), and from international inspectors on the ground in Iraq... Bush told the nation he would invade only as a last resort but did not do so. There is no greater abuse of office by a president than misleading our nation into war.

Republicans cannot afford to lose Congress in the upcoming fall elections. If they do, the Democratic Congress will hold hearings on the legality and constitutionality of various Bush Administration actions, including how we went to war in Iraq. To avoid losing Congress, the Administration will continue to use the fear generated by 9/11 and promote a new and credible national security threat. They believe this will play to their advantage in the elections. In truth, our national security could not be in worse hands.

We are less safe than ever.

My guess is that their evil will continue. I hope I am wrong.

Off My Usual Topic: This is Truly Amazing

I usually write about politics. But this story caught my eye and held it. This sort of thing is really amazing: Laser Makes Solids Transparent.

If humanity were not on a collision course with oblivion, this is the sort of thing that would give me hope for the future. For the present, it is just nice to know what might have been. Perhaps someday, someone, somewhere, will know what good we were capable of.

The Founders' Revenge

The Founders' Revenge: How the People Can Fire George W. Bush

...it's called a RECALL.

Frist on High Gas Prices: It’s Clinton’s Fault

Bill Frist is one of the stupidest fucking assholes on the planet.