The Taliban is back.

The British experience in Afghanistan:
"We had to manoeuvre across open ground for 200 metres. The scene was like a human abattoir. We fought off the Taliban, but were too late to save the French guys. All of us were shaking when we were flown back to base. One of the Afghan survivors said the French had been tied up, then gutted alive by the Taliban. It was one of the most shocking things I had ever heard."

The State of the United ... National Statement of Unitity ... Statement of Unionosity

Finally!! Bush tells the truth to the nation!

Denying the obvious.

Key facts in Bob Woodward's book: State of Denial.

Second lesson on why habeas corpus is important.

They can arrest you without having to give a reason.

Are you a Republican?

Are you a Republican who supports Bush and doesn't mind that they lie to keep the lid on perverts in the party?

Are you anxious to blur the separation of church and state?

Do you really believe in Jesus' teachings?

Do you really care about preventing abortion and allowing people to have as many children as they want?

Do you really support our troops?

Do you really think the War on Terror should involve Iraq?

Do you believe government should act in our interests and protect us?

Do you think the economy is doing well because of tax cuts for the rich?

Do you really believe what is being told to you? Really?

Accountable? Clinton obviously made them forget...

The 9/11 Commission was not told about a Rice/Tenet meeting where Tenet told Rice the US was about to be hit and Rice ignored him. Lying to the Commission is illegal. Do you think anyone will be held accountable?

President Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.

Billmon:
"I think there's a long post, if not a book, to be written about this particular truth, which is the Jeckyll-and-Hyde split between appearances and reality in 21st century America -- the America where prostitutes pose as journalists (or vice versa), "Christian" activists lobby for legalized torture, generals swagger like Rambo in front of the cameras but cringe before their civilian masters in private, libertarian law professors write secret memos justifying the creation of a police state, sworn enemies of big government gorge themselves on pork, vomit, then gorge some more, and U.S. Senators with the racial values of a klavern leader masquerade as "compassionate conservatives."

And then, of course, there's our president, who preaches democracy and freedom by day and rewrites the Geneva Conventions by night."

First lesson on why habeas corpus is important.

Lesson one: jailers treat you like shit, deny you heart medicine, and make you sleep on a urine covered floor when they think no one is watching.

Boxers or briefs?

Why do repressed Republicans insist on crashing and burning in such spectacular ways?

Nancy Pelosi is booed by Republicans as she asks for a recorded vote on the investigation resolution. Boehner blocks Pelosi and also tries to amend his earlier statements to the press.

Attaturk takes us down memory lane to show us Foley's revulsion at Clinton:
"It's vile," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach. "It's more sad than anything else, to see someone with such potential throw it all down the drain because of a sexual addiction."

Update: a list of indiscretions by Republicans.

Update: Via Watertiger, a better list.

Another one bites the dust.

Okaaaaay. Rep. Foley's emails to young pages are very graphic. And if this is what they've found just now, there's going to be a lot more skeletons in this very deep closet.

The thing that is breathtaking is that other congresspeople knew about Foley's ... problem a year ago. And let him continue ... as ... Co-Chair, Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus!

Geeeez!! Fox meet Henhouse, Henhouse, Fox.

Update: Josh Marshall connects the dots.

Who're you gonna believe, ME or your obviously liberal lying eyes?

Buying into the enemy's propaganda! Even though it's our own intelligence agencies! That we trusted! Whose intelligence was good enough to take us into Iraq and then not good enough to excuse the reasons we're still there ...uh...

Ignore that man behind the curtain!

Igor tells the peasants to back off.

Alberto Gonzales warns judges to not interfere.

What waterboarding looks like.

"The fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil." Hannah Arendt.

Somehow...The Onion is too truthful to be funny.

Beating the White House at their own game.

Last one standing wins?

Survivor: The Religious Wars.

Bush compared to FDR.

From BananaPhishZero, a commenter over at Dependable Renegade:

Bush is a modern day cowboy leading his party with a "No plan" towards victory. He continues to preach "Stay the course and be humiliated." The boy king now asserts the party of FDR has become a bunch of cut and runners. If he's so anxious to compare the trials of our own time to the challenges of World War II and others on the right equate what we're now facing with the greatest dangers of the past, it only seems appropriate that we see how GWB stacks up against the man who successfully led America through those darkest days towards victory and peace.

George W. Bush vs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The Economy:

FDR comes in with an enormous depression that left the economy in ruins. Foreclosures outstripped new home construction as businesses closed, factories were boarded up and millions left without work or homes.

GWB slipped into office with some of the most prosperous and productive years in the nation's history. He had a record government surplus. Unemployment and interest rates were both at historic lows, causing a huge surge in home construction and consumer spending.

The Military:

FDR inherited a military that was the 17th largest in the world. Every weapon system in the army was either outdated, or simply non-functional. There were very few experienced officers and most of the men were poorly trained and equipped.

GWB is gifted with a US military that outspent every other military in the world combined, the world's only "superpower." The U.S. weapon systems are a decade ahead of any other including an array of new "smart" weapons and advanced aircraft. American soldiers are the best trained on the planet and the military's ability to project US power was nearly unlimited.

The Event:

On 7 December, 1941, the Japanese military staged a massive surprise raid on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In a matter of minutes, not only were 2400 Americans dead, but the US had lost most of the Pacific fleet, severly crippling its already weak military forces. There was fear that the Japanese would stage a full scale invasion of US Pacific territories or even the west coast.

On 11 September 2001, 19 terrorists associated with the group Al Qaeda took the controls of four civilian aircraft, flying two into the World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon and crashing a fourth when passengers fought back against the hijackers. In a matter of minutes just under 3,000 people were dead and the giant towers collapsed in a horrific ruin.

---

The Enemy:

FDR faced off simultaneously with two superior militaries in the world, both of whom had more soldiers under arms, more ships, more tanks and more planes. Germany, Japan and Italy supported their military with enormous industrial resources and boasted research programs that gave them the best weapons in the world. German tanks were better and faster than any the US could field. Japanese Zeros could outperform any other plane. Both the Germans and Japanese were well trained and provisioned, already defeating other forces in the field and had experience in fighting a modern mechanized war.

GWB's enemy is a small, irregular force of less than 10,000 men, most of them poorly armed. They don't have a single plane in their air force, not one ship in their navy and barely a handful of artillery. The most modern equipment they could boast were cast-offs from our own forces that were two decades or more out of date. Their training was erratic. They were outcasts, even among their own people, with little support and no ability to make or repair their equipment.

Wartime Strategy:

FDR swiftly pulled the nation together with a combination of skillful planning, he turned the tide of the fight into bold positive action. Soon, new ships were rolling out of the shipyards to replace the damaged fleet. Newly designed planes and tanks were replacing the outdated models. American forces were on the move making big gains in the Pacific and in Europe.

GWB started out well tackling Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, but long before that fight was done, he drove the nation apart with divisive rhetoric. Then sent American troops plunging into a second fight in Iraq. A country that had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. Soon, those troops were facing a growing insurgency and a lack of any plan for victory.

Wartime Economy:

While fighting the war, FDR not only held the economy steady, he made gains as great as those of the soldiers in the field. He put in place programs that created jobs and turned the nation into an industrial powerhouse that produced decades of good wages and rising standards of living and he capped it all with Social Security, protecting the country from another depression.

During the first five years of his war, GWB racked up flat income growth, a stagnant economy causing the crumbling of the American infrastructure and industrial sector. His record surplus turned into even larger record deficits. A rising consumer debt and a growing trade deficit has made the economy less stable. Meanwhile, GWB funneled funds to his pals, while weakening the same safety measures FDR had put in place to protect the public.

---

Results of the War:

In less than four years between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day, FDR led the nation with the skill to face down any enemy, the well trained military accomplished victory after victory. The dominating German war machine was crushed and Europe set free. The imperial Japanese navy was defeated and Japanese armies on the mainland of Asia were forced to withdraw. Victories were won in Africa, Asia, Europe, and in every ocean. At the end of the war, the army that had started 17th in the world had clearly become the premiere fighting force around the world. Japan and Germany were converted from foes to allies and both became peaceful members of the world community.

At the end of five years, GWB's forces are worn down, stretched thin and facing one hit and run attack after another. The enemy is still on the march, stronger than ever. The insurgency in Iraq is growing, the Taliban are back in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda are recruiting faster than it is losing troops. Exhausted American forces took areas of Iraq and Afghanistan again and again. But with no real plan they gave up those areas and had to fight the same battle time after time. Despite all the surmounting evidence that his tactics aren't working, GWB refuses to change and the war drags on.

Five years since September 11th, GWB hasn't even managed to defeat an enemy two hundred times smaller than the one FDR faced. An enemy with no factories to make weapons, no economy to keep them going, not even a country to call their own - an enemy so small they couldn't fill a basketball arena. With billions of dollars spent, GWB through his boneheaded tactics has let this ragtag militant non-army run circles around the greatest military ever created.

Compared to FDR, GWB is a dismal failure. GWB doesn't even come close to FDR's leadership qualities. Good thing GWB wasn't President during World War II. Bottom line, if America wants to win this war against terrorism, GWB needs to transform himself into a man like FDR. Unfortunately, we know this isn't about to take place. The man or women with FDR's character and courage to lead has not yet stepped forward. Who is this future unknown leader amongst us with FDR's strength and wisdom? Please, who ever you are, America needs you now. We need you to once again shine a beacon of light and lead this nation out of the darkness

R.I.P. United States of America

Patriotboy mourns for the America that was: 1776 to 2006.

Meanwhile, in Iran....

" The House voted Thursday to impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs. The vote came as U.S diplomats continued to press the U.N. Security Council to penalize Tehran if it fails to end its uranium enrichment program.'

So, while all are distracted by the torture bill and all that it means, the House pushes forward on the isolation and containment of Iran. That should piss off China, Russia,.....and Halliburton. Halliburton, who has been selling nuclear equipment to Iran.

The Decidership.

Teacherken over at DailyKos, "You are, so long as this law is on the books, now in a dictatorship. Okay, let's label it properly - we have a new euphemism -- you are now in a Decidership, there is only one Decider and he pretends that he is still a president under a Constitution."

The bright line.

The experience of Germany before WWII, the slow slide into the madness of the Nazis, began with the Enabling Act. We have just passed our own Enabling Act.
"It is probably unrealistic to expect bright lines to be obvious at the moment they are crossed. But they don’t get much brighter than this: Congressional leaders have agreed to suspend habeus corpus, grant the President of the United States the power to torture, and allow the executive branch to operate beyond judicial review. The Administration will be free to dispense with the pretense that Abu Ghraib was a rogue operation of unsupervised underlings. Like a black hole, an Administration exercising unprecedented power accretes still more, with the blessings of those who cede it."

Update: Tristero thinks this bizarre vote in Congress was an attempt to show the world there still was a functioning government in the United States.
"Since the day after the 2000 election, Bush and his goons have been playing chicken with the very structure of the United States Government, double-daring anyone to try and stop them. If Congress does try - and I'm not talking little things like wrecking Social Security, that'll happen and a dictator can afford to let things like that wait a while, I'm talking atomic bang bang and thumbscrews - he will force the private Constitutional crisis into the open. And there is no guarantee that Bush will lose.

And that is the truth. The Congress has been given an awful choice: Vote to approve torture and the suspension of habeas or show the world that yes, you really do have no genuine power to check Bush."

I remained silent.

David Neiwert: How Torture Works.

A reminder from the past:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

He was here just a moment ago....

Echidne links to a NYTimes editorial and suggests we start watching for disappearing neighbors.

All Hail King George.

Specter's amendments to the torture bill went down. Josh Marshall puts it into simple words:

"In essence, it means that the entire criminal justice system in this country becomes discretionary in the hands of the president."

Kos asks us to rebuild the Democratic party with a spine.

Bush plans to party:
"With George W. Bush eager for a star-spangled signing ceremony as Congress adjourns this week for the election season, the House approved the administration bill by a 253-168 margin, while the Senate was expected Thursday to reject the last four amendments standing in the way of passage."

Update: I'm the King of you! by Jelly Pizza.

So we can fight them over there AND fight them over here.

Sheldon Rampton at Firedoglake:
"The Bush administration’s original rationale for war, of course, was that invading Iraq would calm the Middle East and thereby eliminate terrorists. Instead, the occupation of Iraq provided a staging-ground for what have now become daily terrorist attacks against U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike. Worse still, it has become a place where terrorists are developing skills and contacts that they will likely use to attack other targets in places such as Europe and the United States. "

A grievous blow.

Via Greenwald, Jack Balkin:
"If the Democrats do not stand up to the President on this [Bush Administration's executive detention and military commissions] bill, if they refuse to filibuster it or even threaten to filibuster it, they do not deserve to win any additional seats in the House or in the Senate. They will have delivered a grievous blow to our system of checks and balances, stained America's reputation around the world, and allowed an obscenity to disfigure the American system of law and justice. Far worse than a misguided zealot is the moral coward who says nothing and allows that zealotry to do real harm."

We are all terrorists now.

Glen Greenwald found a small paragraph in the declassified NIE report:

"Anti-U.S. and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint." It continues: "We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, propagandize, recruit, train and obtain logistical and financial support."

Glen proceeds to ask,"This NIE finding gives rise to this critical question: Are "leftist" groups one of the principal targets on the anti-terrorism agenda of the Bush administration, and if so, aren't the implications rather disturbing?"

Sshhhh. Don't tell Cheney.

A ceramic power source for electric cars that could blow away the combustion engine.

We do have a bit of a situation.

Science: no faith is needed.

Iran in the crosshairs.

General Wesley Clark says a strike on Iran is very likely:

"Clark thinks a strike on Iran will be a two week bombing, typical of the start to any modern conflict, targeting power, command and control, mobility, etc. Since our ground forces are stretched too thin to invade, there will probably be some special forces teams sent in, but not much else on the ground. Clark does not think BushCo has the guts or political clout to start the draft at this time. Interestingly, Clark is not anti-draft. He feels there is a time and place for the draft, and when the American public is in agreement about that time and place, America will use the draft again. But Iran will not be that time and place."

Update via Kevin Drum: Some in the "Bush administration are pushing for a more confrontational policy toward Iran."

We need a really large burka...

Remember the Taliban announcing their presence to the world by blowing up the huge mountain-side Buddahs?

Art teacher fired because fifth grader saw nude sculpture at principal-encouraged museum trip.

Have his carcass

How could the Democrats, let alone any American, even THINK about supporting this bill, The Military Commissions Act of 2006, which strips people of the right of habeas corpus and federal court oversight, allows torture and forgives past actions (for the CIA and Bush and his henchmen).

How on earth did we get so low so fast?

No Sir! I am not a comma, Sir!

Sgt. Major Myers talks back,

"Mr. President I'm no damn COMMA!!

I am an American soldier and if you have no more respect for me than that, then I say to you sir that your words and indeed your deeds can only lead me to believe you are ignorant at best and a coward at worst and certainly not deserving of my respect and since you are in fact the President of the United States I must say I tend to believe you must be the later."

Try dogcatcher.

Apparently nobody loves John Bolton.

And the next sound you will hear...

ESPN fakes cheers for Bush 41.

And the other other file, please.

The superduper secret Iraq NIE file that hasn't been tagged NIE to prevent sharing with Congress needs to be publicized as well. Before the elections. We need to thank Jane Harman for outing this.

You call this a death ray? It doesn't even slow them down!

I guess the question we need to ask now is:

Should you wear tin foil to keep the rays off, or will they make you bake faster?

Stick a yellow ribbon on your SUV.

The Asylum Street Spankers, folks!

Make love not war.

Looking past the sandbagging Wallace attempted to do on Clinton on Fox, remember what Clinton was going to talk about in the first place, his Clinton Global Initiative. The man has raised 7.3 BILLION to work on energy and climate change, global health, poverty alleviation, and mitigating religious and ethic conflict.

I wonder what Bush will do with his time after he's done prezniting.....

We were just following orders.

Dan Froomkin from the Washington Post quotes Ariel Dorfman about torture:

"Dorfman concludes: "Can't the United States see that when we allow someone to be tortured by our agents, it is not only the victim and the perpetrator who are corrupted, not only the 'intelligence' that is contaminated, but also everyone who looked away and said they did not know, everyone who consented tacitly to that outrage so they could sleep a little safer at night, all the citizens who did not march in the streets by the millions to demand the resignation of whoever suggested, even whispered, that torture is inevitable in our day and age, that we must embrace its darkness?"



It smears us all and takes us down to the lowest denominator of ugliness and hate. We do not have to put up with those who are okay with torture because that is not who we are. Americans are better than that.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear....

If you only have time for one thing, make time for this. Keith Olbermann speaks. Oh my god, does he speak!

"The "free pass" has been withdrawn, Mr. Bush…

You did not act to prevent 9/11.

We do not know what you have done, to prevent another 9/11.

You have failed us — then leveraged that failure, to justify a purposeless war in Iraq which will have, all too soon, claimed more American lives than did 9/11.

You have failed us anew in Afghanistan.

And you have now tried to hide your failures, by blaming your predecessor.

And now you exploit your failure, to rationalize brazen torture — which doesn’t work anyway; which only condemns our soldiers to water-boarding; which only humiliates our country further in the world; and which no true American would ever condone, let alone advocate.And there it is, sir:

Are yours the actions of a true American?"

Military again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers

In the old days they called this indentured servitude.

Mainstream media, my ass.

Look at Attaturk's catch on the different covers of Newsweek for different countries.

Messy attempts to shift the statements made by Clinton during the interview by Wallace to make Clinton look bad. And then modifying one's statements to fit the 'surprise' at the nasty attack.

And then, the internet tubes:

Trying to present oneself as a liberal commentor on the blogs and casting doubt on recent polls.

Basically lying and denigrating the power of the blogs and their activist readers.

Selling information obtained by illegally spying on internet activity, although NTodd shows how to not have your communications tracked.

Orcosphere

Mustang Bobby came up with a wonderful word: Orcosphere.

Rolls off the tongue deliciously and explains where all the trolls come from, doesn't it?

The rulers of the manure pile.

The top ten.

OOo! Look, something shiny!

Mustang Bobby reminds us to remember, keep a tight grip on the facts. The White House is counting on distracting you from reality.

Update: If you aren't distracible, stay terrorized.

It's not hard work when you ignore reality.

Clinton didn't get Osama although he tried and when his term was up, he gave Bush all the files and the brilliant and dedicated Richard Clarke. Bush said to the CIA man who came to tell him about Osama that he could leave now he had covered his ass. Bush ignored Tenet, Clarke, and the historical file titled 'Osama Determined to Strike in U.S.'

First military action Bush does when he becomes preznit? Bomb Iraq.

Maybe if we yell fire before they do....

Hmmm. Republicans are noticing that voters are noticing that Diebold voting machines aren't all that... reliable.

Gee. What to do...

Let us see the April National Intelligence Estimate for ourselves.

Via Josh Marshall, demand your elected officials release the April National Intelligence Estimate ("Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States") to the public. This is the report that shows that the Iraq war has actually assisted making terrorism rather than preventing it. It is the worst kind of cover-up.

Bush gets an F in punctuation.

Just a comma, not a question mark? As in WTF???

How about an exclamation point! As in You gotta be kidding me!!

Update: photo.

Contributing to hopelessness.

Syria pleads to be heard.

SPIEGEL: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked Syria for its role in preventing the attack. In return, however, you sharply criticized America's Middle East policies. Why didn't you take advantage of this rare gesture of goodwill?

Assad: Ms. Rice didn't thank us for our policies, only for our response to the attack. But this attack happened precisely because of American policies in our region.

SPIEGEL: Why should the Americans be at fault?

Assad: Because they contribute to hopelessness in our country, and to silencing the dialogue between cultures. And then there is the condescending language -- the expression "islamofascism," which President Bush used, is a prime example. The pope's recent comments are also part of it. Such statements complicate the situation and create this need for revenge.

He wasn't even whiny as he used multisyllabic words and complex sentence structures.

Look at President Clinton take a criticism and answer it head on. He would not let it go, would not be diverted until he made all his points. Chris Wallace could only laugh feebly and try to shift the topic.

Crooks and Liars has more.

Honoring our soldiers by letting them be seen and heard.

How Canada treats their war dead. Like acknowledging them as their bodies are flown back home.

British troops in Afghanistan are exhausted.

US military families speak out.

Cracks in the facade.

Ex-Diebold consultant talks about the Diebold machines and the possible hacking of the machines in 5000 machines on election day in Georgia in 2002.

Hey, y'all. Hold my beer and watch this!

Cheney is obviously the master military mind because once he stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. And watched tv.

Clinton shows Bush how to be a president.

Keith Olbermann asks Clinton what piece of advice Bill would give George. Clinton gives two. Listen to an intelligent man speak.

The chicken or the egg.

Is this the sign the world is ending? Or is KFC on the phone?

Wait, we didn't get to yell surprise, complains Bush.

Bin Laden already dead from typhoid? Was this to be the October surprise? Watertiger provides links pro and questionable.

More news. Osama is very ill in this one.

The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
[a man puts a body on the cart]
Large Man with Dead Body: Here's one.
The Dead Collector: That'll be ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There's your ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not dead.
The Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm not.
The Dead Collector: He isn't.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn't: I'm getting better.

Update: Watertiger shows off her excellent photoshopping skills.

The Gropenator

Vetoes universal health bill for Californians. Too much bureacracy, he says.

We have become worse than Saddam.

Billmon shows us.

Look at what Bush did.

We were hit by terrorists on 9/11 and had the sympathy and support of the world, but look what Bush did with it.

We were appreciated as the world's only superpower, but look what Bush did with it.

We were beginning to reduce the gap between the poor and rich, but look what Bush did with it.

We were able to keep lobbyists and corporations from setting up camp inside the White House, but look what Bush did with that.

We were protecting the environment and the national lands, but look what Bush did with it.

We were a country that supported science and education, but look what Bush did with them.

We were able to function peacefully with many religions and not let government interfer with individual civil rights, but look what Bush did with them.

We were able to act maturely and diplomatically on the world stage, but look what Bush did with it.

We were able to honor our many treaties and keep the peace with other nations, but look at what Bush did with it.

He-Man

Henry Waxman is singlehandedly protecting the Constitution.

What on earth?

What on earth could possibly be wrong with electronic voting?

What on earth could possibly be wrong with the NSA partisan activities resisting the fight about the warrantless wiretapping?

What on earth could possibly be wrong with breaking the Geneva Convention?

What on earth could possibly be wrong with the American people that we aren't loudly protesting this? What on earth are we thinking? Why is this acceptable in any shape or form?

And what will it take to wake people up?

The blame game begins.

Abu Gonzales had it wrong about the abducted Canadian.

On Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Gonzales had intended to make only a narrow point: that deportations are now handled by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice.

The spokesman, Charles Miller, said the attorney general forgot that at the time of Mr. Arar’s deportation, such matters were still handled by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was part of the Department of Justice.

[snip]

The attorney general’s refusal to take responsibility for the government’s conduct in the case comes when the treatment of people detained in the campaign against terrorism is again at the center of public debate.

The CIA runs away from its secret prisons.

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

Bush denies Iraq is collapsing into civil war and says he believes his men over there, even though Iraqi kidnap victims are unwitting suicide bombers, toture is worse now than under Saddam, more and more civilians are dying, and our intelligence is pitiful or indifferent.

Take duct tape and plastic wrap to the bomb shelter....

Fearmonger Karl Rove promises October Surprise to anxious Republicans.

What will it be? A conveniently timed terrorist attack? A sadly necessary bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities? A deadly virus that prevents people from voting?

What will it be, Karl?

They want to bomb Iran now because they know no one else will be insane enough to do it later

The neocons smell blood or maybe defeat and come hell AND high water, they are going to take out Iran while they have a chance...even if everyone of us says no. Include social security in that too.

Bush gives the same type of speech directed at the Iranians as he did to the Iraqis before he started a war with Iraq.

I'm ok, you're not ok.

Gee....guess we get to repeat history as the House Republicans vote for a new kind of poll tax.

In short, the Democrats do well when everyone votes. The Republicans do well when fewer people vote. The one man one vote is a Democratic ideal. The property owner voter is the Republican ideal.

Women now have to meet a doctor's criteria to get Plan B.

Are you now or have you ever been a loose woman?

Avast!

ARrrrrrr. Jist in time fer Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrrr.

Me name is Black Lizzie. Wot's yers? Arrrrrrrrr.

Talk like a pirate day shifts to other species.

Oh. Well then, if we're already there....

we might as well finish it, right?

Who gave Bush permission to go into Iran?

And look at the comparisons of the axis of evil countries to our bestest friend Pakistan.

The best of the worst.

The top ten.

Bush would rather die.

Keith Olbermann takes Bush to the woodshed over the bizarre press conference on Friday and demands he apologize to the American people.

Bush doesn't care about the morale nor dignity of the United States. He's trying to save his ass. So support torture so he can stop being afraid of the Hague. Quick! Time is running out!

Just a reminder of what a real president can do.

Our country's voice has been diebolded.

Diebold makes no attempt to properly protect the voting equipment. Hecate goes in depth on the subject.

Who knew that being stripped naked was humiliating?

Josh Marshall: Only the weak, scared, and evil torture.

Update: Dan Froomkin describes Friday's press conference and Bush's explanations as to why he wants to 'clarify' the Geneva Convention's definition of torture and what questions were NOT asked.

Update: Okaying Bush's torture modification will put Congress in trouble. "Jordan Paust, Professor of Law at the University of Houston warns Congress that to write legislation that tampers with due process rights of prisoners would subject members of Congress itself to a violation of the Hague Convention, which is itself a war crime."

You want fries with that?

Don't eat the rice, the corn, the beef, the fish .... and whatever else they aren't telling us about....

But our spinach wasn't under a terrorist attack after all.

Strangling our freedoms.

Fighting for the right to habeas corpus.

Photographer for AP held in detention for 5 months.

Corporate attempts to spy on board members and journalists.

Creating Terrorists over there so we don't ...uh... create them over here.

Webb nails it. "We didn't go in to Iraq because of terrorism. We have terrorists in Iraq because we went in there."

We have met the enemy and he is us.

The warmongers twitch and mutter about Iran. Apparently we aren't afraid enough. They will need another Pearl Harbor moment.

So...are we the terrorists if we strike Iran with nukes first?

Countdown to meltdown.

26 fragile states that may harbor terrorists....up from 17 in 2003.

25 stories you won't read/ hear about from the mainstream media.

10 reasons John Bolton is so angry.

The 10 worst people in the Bush Administration. (The writer had a hard time deciding.)

Only 10 years to get our act together before we melt the planet.

No brains and zero options.

The Mushroom Cloud.

Tristero tells us not to underestimate Bush:

Folks, many people have made the mistake of misunderestimating Bush again and again. He can't be that stupid. He can't be that vindictive or violent. He can't be that immature. He can't be that incapable of remorse or that messianic and delusionally religious.

It's time to face the fact that Bush is all these things and many more. He has been consistent from the earliest days of his regime - consistently incompetent, delusional, and violent. He does not bluff. He does exactly what he wants to do. And there is nothing he wants more right now than to use nukes on Iran. It's not merely because he's a kid with a cool popgun, but one shouldn't misunderestimate his impulsiveness and immaturity. It's also because he, and the other rightwing lunatics genuinely believe that since 1945, liberals have severely crippled America by making such a big deal out of nukes.

When Johnny comes marching home again.

"I hear people talk about “the reality of war”. Unless you have lived it….unless your spouse or child has been deployed, the war is not your reality. At a speech given by a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, it was said that this is the first time in history that the full impact of war has been borne by military families alone, and that it is brutally unfair to expect so small a population to bear such fear and trauma and grief alone."

Nothing but oil.

When we have taken over the oil fields in Iraq, why on earth do we need to experiment with alternative sources?

Talk like a pirate day Sept 19th.

Pirates! Avast!

The five As and links to other videos.

Tortured soul.

Snow tries to explain the inexplicable.

Bush's press conference illustrates the vagueness of the language in the Geneva Convention about torture because we apparently need to torture except we don't torture unless it's terrorists who know about the nuke and you have only 15 minutes to find out and you luckily have a waterboard and a car battery on hand even though it's been proved that information gathered under torture is unreliable and it makes us lose our moral high ground and threatens our soldiers but Bush doesn't care because he really really wants to torture and wants his people to back him up.... except when they don't.

It will always be the grunts not the brass that take the fall anyway.

Update: excellent work on the specifics of torture. "..the question must be placed in its historical and international context -- namely, whether Congress should grant the Executive branch a fairly unbounded discretion to use such techniques where such conduct would place the United States in breach of the Geneva Conventions. And that, of course, changes the calculus considerably. Does Congress really want to make the United States the first nation on earth to specifically provide domestic legal sanction for what would properly and universally be seen as a transparent breach of the minimum, baseline standards for civilized treatment of prisoners established by Common Article 3 -- thereby dealing a grevious blow to the prospect of international adherence to the Geneva Conventions in the future?"

Whys and wherefores.

If Osama is like Hitler, why did Bush and co. dismantle the CIA unit that was searching for him?

If the Pope is Catholic why is he pissing off Muslims?

Al Qaeda opens a branch in Algeria.

Why we pump oil explained by Don Young (R-AK).

Bush poll and oil prices graphic.

Rep. Bob Ney 's (R-OH) statements of innocence before he pled guilty.

Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice.....

Iranian intelligence is challenged as being unsubstantiated or false by the IAEA. Haven't we seen this movie before?

BBC links to the actual report and the response.

Darth will be pleased.

Google has gone to the dark side.

Heavens!

Bush's crusade of glory.

(More of Watertiger's photoshopping skills.)

But will it be counted?

Good site to see first hand what electronic voting can or won't do. A Diebold representative was on the scene and knew less than the blogger Avi Rubin.

He also links to a Princeton report on Diebold system.

Voting problems in Maryland.

Lou Dobbs discusses.

Taking one for the preznit.

John Aravosis cuts to the quick.

Hole in the head, more likely.

Keith Olbermann is my hero! Shames Bush by discussing the inability to fill the hole in the ground from 9/11.

Robert Scheer joins in.

And what was the point of this war, exactly?

Top soldiers quit in Afghanistan. The former aide-de-camp to the commander of the British taskforce in southern Afghanistan has described the campaign in Helmand province as “a textbook case of how to screw up a counter-insurgency”.

We apparently have lost Anbar province which is a third of Iraq, even though some pundits cannot admit it.

The Best War Ever!

How did we get from 9/11 to Iraq?

K, when we are done destroying stability in the Middle East, we will set our sights on Africa!

Update: Senator Rockefeller states the obvious. We'd be better off if Saddam was still in power and we had concentrated on weeding out al-Qaeda.

You have only one day to talk back to Bush.

Only one day: election day. Don't be distracted by the Rovian red herrings nor the smears nor the red alerts nor the capture of the latest number 2 al-Qaeda guy. You need to stay focused. They are going to do everything in their power to make you fail.

Silencing the journalists

Journalists are our canaries in the mine and the only thing at this moment protecting our democracy.

Greg Palast, an investigative reporter, faces charges from Homeland Security. (Who the hell talks about America as the Homeland, anyway? This term just reeks of a bad WWII movie.)

Iraq going dark?

Buying them off, getting them fired, being indifferent to them being killed or held hostage, wanting to bomb their buildings, rewriting history ignoring facts, the neocons show their hatred of the truth.

"How are nations ruled and led into war? Politicians lie to journalists and then believe those lies when they see them in print."
-Austrian journalist Karl Wiegand, explaining the causes of the First World War. Quote taken from Crooks and Liars.

At the top of the pile.

The top 10.

This week's 10 assclowns by the blogger jurassicpork.

Nine Eleven.

Not everything changed on that day for most Americans except our naivete. Protected by our continental isolation and good neighbors, we felt safe from others. On 9/11 we finally joined the world community, many of whom had been suffering terrorist attacks for decades. We had the door to our ivory tower brutally kicked in and came face to face with what our foreign policies had wrought.

Given a different president with a more worldly perspective, we could have taken the generous support and understanding we were given on that day and fought against terrorism. But instead .... here we are.

Here are some photographers who were there.

Watertiger was there.

Papers, please.

I thought the need for passports at Canada and Mexico was a done deal. Apparently not. The American Civil Liberties Union today joined with Citizen Against Government Waste and the Cato Institute to oppose the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).

It's hard work, I tells ya!

BUSH: There – it’s – you know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.

Bush pretends to be interested in what Iranian President Mohammed Khatami has to say, even though he has worked hard against any real diplomatic connections.

Krugman explains it all.

Paul Krugman on why most Americans think the economy is passing them by.

Ten major events ignored by the mainstream media.

Em Eye See Kay Ee Why and A Bee See

Even though they have offered a variety of reasons to duck the criticisms, ABC/Disney is sure their movie shows EXACTLY what happened. Their overseas ad negates all their excuses as lies.

Rightwing evangelical behind the making of the 9/11 movie. Reason was to circumvent the 'Hollywood' types and make more pro-American movies. ABC ignored an FBI consultant and ignores the outrage today.

Besides Clinton, apparently American Airlines and Sandy Berger are to blame for 9/11 as well.

Torches and pitchforks time.

Update: Americablog's John Aravosis is liveblogging the New Zealand issue of 9/11. It's bad.

Who owns 9/11?

In response to the ABC propaganda film, NTodd from Dohiyi Mir goes back in time and applies facts. Notice the dates of the postings and realize these facts have been known and available for years. What is ABC's excuse?

The neocons do not own the memory of 9/11 even though they try. It is in the fabric of this country's history and what makes us American.

Rumsfeld was going to have a short war, so shut up!

Remember the pulled Reagan movie?

It was pulled because the right got their knickers in a major twist. Now it's our turn.

ABC is staggering under the outraged reactions of those who want the truth not a propaganda movie, who want to honor the dead and the day without politicizing it. ABC tried to say it wasn't yet completely edited (although copies had been sent out to rightwing bloggers and pundits), now they are apparently thinking of pulling it. Scholastic is now backing away from the massively biased student program.

Encourage them.

Update: Remember what really happened pre-9/11.

ThinkProgress shows conservatives as well as liberals calling for the 9/11 film to be corrected or pulled.

How very unusual....

Josh Marshall: If you didn't know that bin Laden and Bush were the two polar opposites in the global battle between good and evil, you'd think the two were coordinating their media blitzes.

Include Mom and Apple Pie.

Condi refuses to read memos from diplomats. "She announced in the meeting, according to one participant, that people write memos only for each other and that no one else reads them. She said she didn't and wouldn't read them. Instead of writing reports, the diplomats should "sell America," she insisted. "We are salesmen for America!"

Speaking truth to power.

OH. MY. GOD. Watch this! (via Eschaton, a fantastic political commercial.)


Update: Keith Olbermann continues the theme. (via Americablog.)

Tvs that spy and lie.

A tv of the not so far away future? One that adjusts ads to what you watch? Keeps track of your choices? Fahrenheit 451 anyone?

Speaking of tvs, tell ABC to tell the truth about 9/11. They have only let rightwing bloggers have a copy, they didn't send a copy to Clinton or any of the Democrats involved. This is as blatant a piece of propaganda as we will ever see. They're even sending information packets to school for the kids! They attempt to explain themselves. It's Blame Clinton for everything!

Update: an hilarious post illustrating the ties between ABC and Disney.

Further update 9/7: Here come the lawyers.

Be afraid! Vote Republican!

Now we are being told that we are safer but still not safe enough. The translation means we need to feel safe enough to keep the bomb-them-all Republicans in power and afraid enough to not trust the therapy-giving latte-drinking appeaser Democrats.

Remember when we have our next terrorist attack just who it is who has been at the helm since 2001. Just who it is shifting focus away from al Qaeda and Osama. Remember this quote, " So I don't know where he (Osama) is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you." George Bush in a press conference.

Ten of the worst.

The top ten.

Why don't they blame The Pet Goat?

One really good reason to boycott ABC network: their weird attempt to rewrite 9/11 and ... wait for it ... blame Clinton! Even the BBC is airing this falsehood. Update: the heat is on!

One of the 33%.

I recently met a woman working in the physical therapy field, cheerful, hardworking, and religious. (Attested by a few mild comments and the gold cross about her neck.) She indicated she didn't listen to the news because they didn't tell the truth. I nodded my assent but was aghast at her next statement. She knew there were really good things going on in Iraq.

If we had bombs going off and 50 to 60 people were dying daily in the United States, would we be considering how well our schools were painted?

If we had been suddenly invaded to remove our leaders and then had a civil war break out, would we listen to the hand-picked politicians put in place in the rickety puppet government?

If we were being threatened with death because we were the wrong religion in the wrong neighborhood, would we keep working? Would we even stay?

If policemen were being targeted or were targeting civilians themselves, would we rely on them to protect us?

If the occupying forces shot at us on a whim, lied constantly, gave us no jobs, and ignored our desperation, would we not fight them?

This woman as big and loving as her heart may be will not be swayed by facts. She will not listen to the truth. She has decided her stand and will not shift.

She is one of the 33% that will never question her support of Bush.

Update: Nicole Belle points out the difficulties in talking to those who will not be swayed by facts.

Bracewell discusses intellectual impairment of those who support authoritarian power.

Update 9/7. Another example of a non-thinking voter.

Iraqis speak up.

What the Muslim world sees as necessary to deal with the mess in Iraq.

al-Sistani says he cannot stop the civil war from happening.

The summer of goodbyes.

What is actually happening in Iraq. Bush wants more of the same.

OMG! The nerds are spawning!

Eeeek!

Bush's tantrum over the term Civil War.

It is NOT! Is too!

Nobody could have anticipated...

"I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." Bush after Katrina, trying to shift blame.

Nobody could have anticipated a civil war in Iraq? Oops, look at what Poppy said,
"We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different — and perhaps barren — outcome."

Nobody could have anticipated the economy would tank.

Nobody could have anticipated that racism doesn't win votes. Could Rove be losing his touch?

Nobody could have anticipated Bush's death spiral in the polls.

Nobody could have anticipated the shit hitting the fan. (via Atrios)

The economy is great! Rinse and repeat!

Paul Krugman pops the bubble.

Scrapping the bottom of the barrel.

Why on earth is racism rearing its ugly head? We've had several politicians crash and burn recently with utterly breath-takingly dimwitted candor. Jane Hamsher thinks she knows why.

SATs and three Shakespeares

Why are the SAT scores so much lower? They've lengthened the test, made some questions harder and added writing sections. Even good students are failing. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

Bush the reader of three Shakespeares. I wonder if he passed his SATs?

Student wins the right to wear an anti-Bush t-shirt. Learning first hand the freedom of speech.

Those in power get to rewrite history:

So they can make a movie blaming Clinton for 9/11, that Iraq didn't work out the way the neocons planned, George's fall in the polls, the worsening economy, Bush's perverted desire to rub bald heads and Laura's bizarre choice of lipstick. When in doubt, point fingers at good ol' Bill!

(But Bush, Clinton didn't fall as low as you in the polls....even when he was being impeached he was at 73%, higher than Ronald Reagan ever got. That must smart.)