Weekend-Monday Nov 3-5, 2007 Vol
2067 - The Owls of Minerva
Quote
of the Day
"I don't think they're piling on because
I'm a woman. I think they're piling on because
I'm winning. If you can't stand the heat, get out of
the kitchen. I'm very much at home in the kitchen." --
HillaryLink
"Long story short, I got up there to register as
an independent, said 'Fuck it,' and now I am a Democrat. I certainly don't
agree with all their positions, but they are not bat-shit crazy like the GOP
- that has to count for something. "
-- John Cole, Link
Excerpt:
While today's civilian leaders at the Defense
Department hobbled through what passed for post-war planning
for Iraq early in 2003, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki
warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that
post-war Iraq would require "something on the
order of several hundred thousand soldiers."
He was immediately ridiculed by Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz,
for having exaggerated the requirement.
This evokes vivid memories of how McNamara and his civilian
whiz kids dissed our professional military
- and at such a high eventual price.
The poet George Santayana warned, "Those who
do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
What is increasingly clear is that neither the present-day
Pentagon whiz kids nor their patron, Cheney,
have learned much from history.
They encouraged Bush to insist, "We are not
leaving;"
and Rumsfeld to keep on insisting that this war is "winnable."
But most of those with a modicum of experience in guerrilla
warfare and the Middle East are persuaded that
the war is not winnable and that the only thing uncertain
is the timing of the U.S. departure.
Excerpt:
Although "the judgment of history" has a sonorous
ring, it doesn't necessarily require the long gestation
that phrase might imply: sometimes there's no need for
the owl of Minerva to hang around waiting for
the sun to go down. When one eminent historian, Sean
Wilentz of Princeton, pronounces bluntly that
George Bush the Younger is "the worst president in American
history", and another, Tony Judt of NYU,
calls the Iraq war "the worst foreign policy error in
American history", not many of us will argue with them.
And yet history still doesn't know the half of it.
It has long since ceased to be a matter for debate that the
Iraq adventure began in mendacity and ended in calamity. Not
only has every single one of the original
official reasons for the invasion been falsified, they
have all been stood on their heads. Now even what
many suspected was the ulterior motive - a war for oil
- has gone awry.
Yet the insane Republicans continue to defend the
indefensible.
How many thousands of soldiers will die waiting for the GOP to change their
tune?
Excerpt:
Bush has shoved American politics into the dark realm
of the lunatic right, zipping past Joe McCarthy into
territory previously covered by historical accounts of
Germany in the 1940s. We've lost our right to see an
attorney, to confront our accusers, even to get a fair
trial. Government agents have kidnapped thousands
of people, many of whom have never been heard from again.
Bush even signed an edict claiming the right
to assassinate anyone, including you and me, based solely
on his whims. Torture, the ultimate sign that
civilized society has been replaced by a police state,
was repeatedly authorized by government officials
who smirked the few times reporters had the temerity
to ask them about it.
The 2000, 2004 and 2008 elections have been and will
prove to be decisive moments in American history.
In each case the American people were offered a stark
choice between a future of freedom and one under tyranny.
We must elect--by an overwhelming, theft-proof majority--a
candidate who promises to renounce Bush
and all his works. A reform-minded president's first
act should be to sign a law that reads as follows:
"The federal government of the United States having been
illegitimate and illegal since January 20, 2001,
all laws, regulations, executive orders, and acts of
commission or omission enacted between that infamous
day and 12 noon Eastern Standard Time on January 20,
2009 are hereby declared invalid and without effect."
Guantánamo, secret prisons, extraordinary rendition,
spying on Americans' phone calls and emails, and "legal"
torture would be erased. Bush should never appear
on any list of American presidents. When he dies,
his carcass shouldn't receive a state funeral. It ought
to be thrown in the trash.
I can't understand John McCain's support of Bush's
nominee Michael Mukasey for Attorney General.
When Mukasey was asked about a torture technique called
waterboarding he evaded the question
acting like he didn't know what waterboarding was. McCain
on the other hand clearly knows what
waterboarding is and says that it clearly is torture.
Bush has made it clear that he's not going to send
a nominee that believes that waterboarding is torture
calling that a "litmus test".
John McCain sold out on torture. It looks to me like
Hillary
is more serious about blocking torture than McCain is.
He was in the Air Force for 23
years - shouldn't that count for something?
Since the government is paying the $4,000 a month it takes to care for him,
when his wife
eventually dies, the government takes possession
of their paid for home.
Does anyone know about this?
I heard from a few people, mostly saying, "This
is how Medicare works."
First, tell everyone you know who's near retirement that they can't have
assets in their name.
Sell your house to your kids (if you can trust them) and put your savings
in their name.
If you don't, the government will take everything you have when they get
a chance.
But my focus was how dare they do this to a 23-year veteran?
Some poor bastard signs up in the National Guard because he needed health
care and heard
that crap about "one weekend a month anmd two weeks a year" and now he's
stuck in Fajullah.
We ask these men to charge machine gun nests, then we screw them when they
get old and sick.
Note: one reader said they asked, and received a waiver from the
VA.
Hey, it might not work for you, but it can't hurt to ask.
Plus, how the hell can it cost $4,000 a month to care for these oldsters?
I can see $4,000 for one, but $40,000 for ten? No way.
> OK, I like Feingold, I respect him, but
I gotta ask: > Why did he, personally, allow the Patriot
Act to become law?
> You seem to be pretending it was a tie vote to
go to war with Iraq, > and it fell to Hillary to decide this issue
for America and the world.
um ..I am confused.
Why did Feingold "personally" allow the
Patriot Act but Clinton was unable to stop the rush to war?
I don't understand the logic here.
Couldn't Clinton have done back then what Dodd
did recently?
Doesn't she have as much power as any other Senator?
I prefer Dennis because he has been consistent.
But I will still vote for whoever the Democratic
candidate is, no matter who that turns out to be.
Just asking.
Ducks
Ducks, that's a good question, because if I fail to
be clear, one should ask me to be.
The answer is each senator, apparently, has
the power to stand up and block federal action.
So they can't really say, "This
outrage is unconscionable"after the fact if
they sat on
their hands when they had a chance to stop it all along
and chose not to - wouldn't you agree?
So in that context, fans of Feingold might want to
chill that "man with the conscience" tag.
Going back the other way, sure Hillary is "responsible"
for the Iraq War vote,
but the issue isn't her
personal failure. She voted with 76 others. She's just as
guilty as the other 76, which is why it's unfair to call
this "Hillary's war."
Put another way, Feingold, Edwards and Hillary had
similar positions on the Iraq war in that
none of them saw a reason to stand up and block the oncoming
disaster. And, of course,
Obama will claim he would have stood up, had he
been a senator at the time.
"Our president is a liar. That's because he comes
from a party of liars. All the Republicans know how to do is lie. They look in a mirror, pick
out the worst things they're doing, and then blame the Democrats for it. Bush let Osama go? Blame
the Democrats! Bush bankrupted the country while Clinton left us with hundreds of billions
of dollars of surplus? Call the Democrats fiscally irresponsible. The Republicans have nothing
left to stand for, nothing left to run on. All they can do is lie. Because to admit the truth
would require a few hundred impeachments and or permanent stints at Gitmo." --
John Aravosis, Link
There is so much going on in the Live
Chat Room, The
Forum and The BartBlog
that I think many of you are missing out on. Next time you have a few
minutes,
check those exciting links out because you're missing a lot of fun if you
don't.
Also, it's been more than a year since we considered a Tequilafest.
We're thinking of having the next one in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's centrally
located,
we have clean and cheap hotels and Southwest will fly you here for a song.
Plus Sam owns a bar here and everybody wants to meet her, right?
Think about a date - what's good for you? Maybe we could do it the
no-football weekend before the Super Bowl, the weekend of January 25th.
Excerpt:
After the speech Clinton came down to the rope line
and started shaking hands
and talking to people. He saw me in the crowd.
I was the only one there wearing
a bright yellow t-shirt that said Church of Reality on
the front.
So I yelled to him to make the campaign about reality,
talk about reality.
And he stopped and listened and then he started to tell
a story about reality.
Excerpt:
Schumer declared that Mukasey was not his "ideal
choice," but praised his "integrity and independence."
Feinstein declared, "He is not Alberto Gonzales."
Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, also indicated
he may vote for Mukasey. Calling him a "marked improvement"
over Gonzales. Feingold told the New York Whore Times, "He
may be the best we can get from Bush."
I don't want to hear another word about Saint Feingold
being a man of integrity.
How can he be a man of integrity and approve a pro-torture,
lying son-of-a-bitch?
Geez, Pee Wee Herman is a "marked improvement"
over Gonzales, but would he make a good A.G.?
* That
was late Friday - since then, Feingold came to his senses.
Excerpt:
"Democrats can no longer be a part of the savaging
of the U.S. Constitution," Feingold said Saturday.
Hey Russ, why were you ever a part of "savaging the U.S. Constitution?
Didn't you take an oath?
While acknowledging that Mukasey was "competent"
and far better than Tortureboy Gonzales,
Feingold said, "When it comes to the issue of executive
power, Mukasey had not testified clearly
or convincingly that the president (should) respect the
laws of the land. "That is a disqualifier."
So why not stand up like Dodd did and declare the nomination dead?
Why is it only Republicans can declare something dead, but our side can't?
Something about a homo-bashing preacher in Obama's
camp has Kos' panties in a bunch.
Danny Detroit
I heard something about that, but unless it's over-the-top crazy, do we
care?
Doesn't everybody have a few friends who they'd rather not be photographed
with?
Michael B. Mukasey, the nominee for attorney general,
is doing an elaborate tap dance
around the issue of waterboarding and torture to steer
clear of potential legal problems
for the C.I.A. and members of the Bush administration.
With this much choreography, there is one obvious
conclusion:
contrary to statements by President Bush, we do torture.
Sam
Last issue, I asked what the WYLY Brothers got for funding Bush's attacks
on McCain in 2000.
I was hoping their were on the NYSE and I could track their oil holding since
oil went from $19 a
barrel under Clinton to $95 a
barrel under Der Schimpanse.
Tit for Tat How to make millions working with the BFEE
Excerpt:
Texas tycoons Sam and Charles Wyly, who emerged late
last week as the secret financers of a TV blitz
attacking Sen. John McCain's environmental record, have
put their wealth at the disposal of George W. Bush.
In addition to buying those $2.5 million "independent
expenditure" commercials, which aired in NY, CA and
Ohio under the sponsorship of the so-called "Republicans
for Clean Air," Charles Wyly is a Bush Pioneer.
A lot of public money has been entrusted to the care
of the billionaire brothers by Bush appointees
at the University of Texas since 1998.
That year, the university's financial managers invested $90 million
with Maverick Capital Fund, an investment firm founded
and controlled by the Wylys. In addition to a
substantial share of whatever profits are earned from
the investments, the deal awards the Wyly firm
almost $1 million annually in fees.
The Wylys are not the only major Bush contributors
and friends who have obtained control over a share
of UTIMCO's estimated $12 billion in assets. Longtime
Bush contributor Henry Kravis was awarded
a $50 million investment deal in 1996.
So there you have it.
Give the Bush bastards millions for their campaign and get multi-millions
or billions back.
Event
In March 2000, Texas oil men Sam and Charles Wyly
-- major contributors to Bush -- funded a $2.5 million
advertising campaign that ran a series of smear ads against
McCain in California, New York and Ohio.
McCain himself referred to the brothers as "Wyly coyotes" and
asked a campaign audience in Boston,
"Are we going to allow two cronies of George W. Bush
to hijack this election? Tell them to keep their
dirty money in the state of Texas, my friends. Don't
spread it all over New England and America."
But now McCain seems to have a different relationship
with the coyotes.
Sam Wyly and his wife Cheryl have given McCain's political
action committee a total of $10,000.
"So now we find out that the person who is responsible
for all the country's troubles since 2000 is: Hillary
Clinton!"
-- Jon Stewart, after watching the men gang
up on Hillary last debate
Subject: Could America become a dictatorship
like Pakistan?
What concerns me most about the "state of emergency"
in Pakistan, where Musharraf has seized power
and suspended their constitution, is that it makes me
wonder if it could happen here in America.
What process does America have in place to prevent
Bush, or even Hillary, from doing the same thing?
What would happen if Bush decided to declare a state
of emergency and suspend our constitution?
Would the military enforce it? Would we become a dictatorship
like Pakistan is or Iraq was under Saddam?
We live in a time where the most crazy paranoid conspiracy
theorists are often proven right.
I want to know what would America do. I think it's time
Americans started asking questions
about what prevents this from happening here.
"He did not impart fear to the children, to the
press assembled there. Then he followed the oath he took."
-- Andrew Card, saying Dubya
did the right thing by freezing in the classroom on 9-11, Link
Andy, really?
Bush took an oath to read the Goat book to kids when we were under attack?
If Bush had an IQ of 5, he could've said, "Something
has come up, kids, I need to go to work."
But no, he sat there shaking because, as always,
he didn't have a goddamn clue of what to do.
Isn't it typical that Joe Scarborough derides Dennis
Kucinich for believing in U.F.O.'s
but praises Bush for having conversations with God?
Joe, the Wailuku Photographer
We live in a nation where people KNOW there's no God,
so they mock others who believe in something to make themselves feel more
secure.
I don't mind the other Dems and their supporters going
after Hillary.
It's primary season and they want to win just as Hillary
and her supporters do.
Yes, but how does it help to say, "Voting
for Hillary means you want more of 2000 and 2004?"
Obama's schoolboy gaffe showed everyone how naive and
inexperienced he is.
But here's where I draw the line, once the primaries
are done and if Hillary is our nominee,
our choices will be Hillary, Ronmey or most likely Rudy
the cross dresser.
I know my vote will go to Hillary and whomever she
picks to be the vice president, since Rudy is
cut from the same cloth as Captain Doofus regarding staying
in Iraq and talking smack to Iran.
If Hillary is the nominee and you decide to stay home
or vote for the 2008 version of Ralph Nader you lose
all rights to complain, bitch, moan, protest, call in
to a progressive talk show or write a post on a progressive blog.
Hell you can't even start a blog because to me you fully
endorse another four years in Iraq and you fully endorse
a war with Iran and that's what you're going to get with
Mitt or Rudy in the White House.
JCSpeedRacer
JC, that's the sanest letter you've ever written - congrats :)
"Mark, tell your wife that the bedroom is the foundation
where the home is laid every day."
-- Captain Oink
Butt Rush,
is that why all three of your wives left you?
Because you were laying the home (and young Dominican boys) instead of
them?
"When the whole condoms-in-high-school business
started I said, 'Why stop there? Give them pack of cigarettes for the nightstand
at the end of the night!' "
-- The vulgar Pigboy, who says teen who practice safe sex
should try lung cancer, too.
Excerpt:
A federal judge yesterday issued a rare ruling that
ordered Secretary of State Kinda Sleazy Rice
and more than 10 other prominent current and former Bush
cromies to testify on behalf of two
pro-Israel lobbyists accused of violating the Espionage
Act at their upcoming criminal trial.
The opinion by U.S. District Judge Ellis directed
that subpoenas be issued to officials who include Rice,
national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, comb-licker
Paul D. Wolfowitz and one-bullet Douglas Feith,
plus Richard Armitage, the bastard who blew Valerie Plame's
identity on orders from the Evil Dick.
Their testimony has been sought by attorneys for Steven
J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, former employees
of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
or AIPAC, who are accused of conspiring to obtain
classified information and pass it to members of the
media and the Israeli government.
She could not spell truth if you gave her the
"ruth" and I am going to believe the tripe she places in print?
She is a lying golddigger and and that's all she'll ever
be.
JChilds
Good thing we have honest guys like Bush & Cheney in the White House,
right?
"Yet another prominent Republican has been caught
in a gay sex scandal. I think GOP stands for 'Grab Our Penises.' ... It's another anti-gay,
anti-gay marriage Republican. Washington state Representative Richard Curtis admitted to police he
left his wife at home dressed up in women's clothing, which were red stockings and a black sequin
lingerie top. He had sex with a man in an adult boutique, then went to a hotel with the guy
and had sex with him again still dressed in the women's clothes. So not only is the guy a hypocrite,
he's also a little tramp too. ... After all this, the guy says he is not gay. Even Larry Craig is saying,
'Shut up.'"
-- Jay Leno
Andrew Cunanan killed 5. The Son of Sam killed 6. Richard Speck killed 8. Ted Bundy killed 23. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 at Va Tech. John Wayne Gacy killed 33. George W Bush killed 3,849 American
soldiers and the toll climbs higher every day.
Do you think all those that have bad mouthed Hillary,
and have emailed you to call you an idiot,
will change their minds when she is leaving office after
eight successful years in the White House?
Will they admit they were wrong about her?
Or will they try and say they supported her all the
way.
Will in Indiana
Will, they might hate her more when she leaves
the White House.
Look how they hate her husband, the most successful Democrat
since FDR.
Hillary's being measured against the non-existent absolutely perfect candidate
that exists only in their minds.
They don't deal in reality - they just dream about the way things ought
to be.
That's why I keep telling them it's useless to ask for a pony.
Event
After the October 30 Democratic presidential debate,
numerous media figures commented that moderator
Tim Russert (R-Whore) had acted as, in the words of The
New York Times, Hillary's "third toughest opponent."
During the debate, Russert asked a total of 30 distinct
questions (not including follow-up questions).*
Fourteen were either questions directed to Clinton or
questions directed to other candidates about Clinton.
Many media outlets took note of Russert's focus on Clinton.
Russert has received media attention for his
conduct toward Clinton in previous debates as well, including
criticism following a debate he moderated
in 2000, when Clinton was running for Senate against
then-Rep. Rick Lazio (R-Laughable.)"
Russert shouldn't be allowed to host these events because he's mentally ill.
The poor bastard is a one-trick pony who thinks about only one thing:
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