Lunch Period Poli Sci

*Note: I normally do not post Brooks's articles, but this time, he has truly exposed himself. This is nonsense crap, it might as well be Bush standing up and saying "I'm the Decider", oh, he already did that, and David Brooks wrote this or maybe his psychiatrist was writing it all down. Anyway, get on the couch and read this sideways...

Lunch Period Poli Sci
By David Brooks from The New York Times

College is still probably a good idea, but everything you need to know about America you can learn in high school. For example, if you want to understand American class structure you'd be misled if you read Marx, but you'd understand it perfectly if you look around a high school cafeteria. Continue reading here...

Amazing

In the Middle of the Neo-Conservative Death Cult Machine, Colbert Works His Magic!
Crooks and Liars has the goods! Colbert Does the White House Correspondence dinner

Bush of a Thousand Days

Here's the funniest thing I've seen in a few days. Robin Williams from The Daily Show. It's hard to laugh or even hold your head up with this disgraceful, how TGW puts it, pResident in the White House. Also, when you have time listen to the new Neil Young album. It's beautiful, anyway onto Frank Rich...The Era












Bush of a Thousand Days
By Frank Rich from The New York Times

LIKE the hand that suddenly pops out of the grave at the end of "Carrie," the past keeps coming back to haunt the Bush White House. Last week was no exception. No sooner did the Great Decider introduce the Fox News showman anointed to repackage the same old bad decisions than the spotlight shifted back to Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury room, where Karl Rove testified for a fifth time. Nightfall brought the release of an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll with its record-low numbers for a lame-duck president with a thousand days to go and no way out. Continue on here...

Say Uncle, Rummy

By Maureen Dowd from The New York Times

Even some State Department officials thought it was like watching a cranky, eccentric uncle with an efficient, energetic niece. Continue reading here...

Congressmen Arrested at Darfur Protest

Five Congress members were willingly arrested and led away from the Sudanese Embassy in plastic handcuffs Friday in protest of the Sudanese government's role in atrocities in the Darfur region.

Stuck With Bush

By Bob Herbert from The New York Times

If George W. Bush could have been removed from office for being a bad president, he would have been sent back to his ranch a long time ago.


If incompetence were a criminal offense, he'd be behind bars.

But that's just daydreaming. The reality is that there are more than two and a half years left in the long dark night of the Bush presidency — nearly as long as the entire time John Kennedy was in office. Continue reading here...

Reining in Justice Scalia

Talking Points By ADAM COHEN

"You know what I say to those people? That's Sicilian."
—Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Antonin Scalia has gone too far — and he keeps on doing it.

He made national headlines recently for making a gesture that may or may not be obscene. If it wasn't obscene, it was certainly coarse and undignified.
Read it here...

Drudge Attacking Daily Kos and Air America, Can't Spell?

"Listerners?"
Click on image to enlarge. Drudge must be part of the 'No Child Left Behind Act', ahhhh Poor Drudge...he can't read....

Fox News's Snow to Become New White House Press Secretary

Fox News commentator Tony Snow agreed last night to become White House press secretary after top officials assured him that he would be not just a spokesman but an active participant in administration policy debates, people familiar with the discussions said.

Sure why not? I'll be a shill for this administration. What's the difference? I make a living working for a whole network that is a mouth piece for the White House.

U.S. to Free 141 Terror Suspects

The Guantanamo prison detainees pose no threat, an official says. Most of those still in custody have no charges pending against them.

A Prius in Every Pot

By Maureen Dowd from The New York Times

It's taken over five years, but George W. Bush finally made a concession speech to Al Gore. He conceded that America needs to conserve, by buying hybrid vehicles and developing new energy sources.
Continue reading here...

Fear Mongering Right Gets it Wrong, Surprised?

A Polish-born youth, 16, has been taken into custody but police believe a second youth has fled to Poland.
















See what happens when you assume things without the facts...You look like a gigantic ****UP!

The Lies Spread Over Oceans

I read this yesterday on the train, it's concerning the Japanese History textbooks which have always caused quite a rift between Japan and most of Asia. Now, America's history is being rewritten as well...shameful...
A textbook contradiction
By KIROKU HANAI
Concerning the Iraq war, the examiners changed the phrase "preemptive attack" -- describing the U.S. initiation of hostilities -- to a "military attack." The edited version failed to clarify the U.S. responsibility for starting the war without a cause.

Oh, I get it, Don't you?

Car Bombs Kill 10, Wound Nearly 80 in Iraq

He (al-Maliki) also promised to "cleanse our society" of terrorism, combat corruption and disband militias controlled by political parties and integrate them into the armed forces and the police.

"I'm confident that the militias, and there are more than 11 militias, must be disarmed," al-Maliki said. "There's no difference between one militia and others."

So disband, disarm and bring together and re-arm, it's so utterly Brilliant!

Abuse of prisoners in Iraqi jails continues -report

Bodies of 32 Iraqi police found

Dear Friends,

I was in the intelligence agency of the Army, a branch of the NSA. What the White House did with Iraqi intelligence was sell Americans a shiny used car with a blown engine, bad transmission and leaky rear-end.It was a clear lie, first of omission then of comission. Paul Pillar, this fellow's superior at the CIA, has said the same thing, adding the intimidation of Cheney and others at headquarters as a factor. In weaving this deceit, with no weapons found in Iraq, Mr. Bush and company have had to continue to spin more lies to cover the first.

"Scratch a liar and bleeds a theif." Old southern saying.

John R. Bomar

A Spy Speaks Out , Crooks and Liars has the video here

Bush's Thousand Days : A Third Bush War By Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

35 Years Later

By Bob Herbert from The New York Times

Presidents and politicians may worry about losing face, or losing votes, or losing their legacy; it is time to think about young Americans and innocent civilians who are losing their lives. — John Kerry on Iraq Continue reading here...

CSI: Trade Deficit

By Paul Krugman from The New York Times

Forensics are in. If you turn on the TV during prime time, you're likely to find yourself watching people sorting through clues from a crime scene, trying to figure out what really happened. Continue reading here...

Brilliant Find: Democracy and Despotism

From egalia at Tennessee Guerilla Women: Redneck Mother has a 1946 video clip explaining the difference between democracy and despotism, and like how you can tell if your country is at risk.

Better see it now before Bushie decides to classify it.


Shameful Reminder: Meridian: A Town of Honor

This is an audio slide show from the "liberal" Washington Post. Watch closely for the intermingling of Church and State. When the woman talks of the town being very patriotic, the image is of a group of young people in a circle praying. Thank you Washington Post for advancing this administration's agenda in promoting an illegal war. Thank you very much. Click on title to view the propaganda.....
Another terrible reminder: The 14 Points of Fascism from BushFlash and Mike Malloy

President Bush Visits Stanford

Scotty the Joke Was on You

By Ana Marie Cox from The Washington Post

I 've always had a soft spot for departing White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Watching him give his choked-up goodbye on the White House lawn last week, I realized why. Continue reading here...

The Great Chinese Fake-Out

By Maureen Dowd

Dick and Rummy are in Karl's old office, eating Chinese leftovers. "Serves Karl right, by golly," Rummy says. "He's so arrogant. Won't listen to anybody about anything.
Continue reading here

Keep Quiet

Charged for Free Speech!
A heckler from the Falun Gong spiritual movement who disrupted a White House appearance by Chinese President Hu Jintao was charged on Friday with harassing, intimidating and threatening a foreign official.
Don't You Know This is Bush's America










MASS MEDIA BLACKOUT

"It's hugely embarrassing," said Derek Mitchell, a former Asia adviser at the Pentagon and now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worst fears and suspicions about the United States, into mistrust about American intentions toward China."

The Boss of the World

By John R. Bomar

They say life in the Green Zone is pretty cushy for the leaders and troops of the occupation army and their Iraqi minions: manicured lawns, air conditioning, good chow, and a “businesslike” atmosphere of bureaucratic and administrative duties. Inside the stockade, behind the multiple layers of blast wall protection and three-deep guard posts, aside from the isolation, it’s good duty. Continue reading here...

Science Doesn't Exist in Bush's America

F.D.A. Dismisses Medical Benefit From Marijuana

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana. The Food and Drug Administration statement directly contradicts a 1999 review by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National Academy of Sciences, the nation's most prestigious scientific advisory agency. That review found marijuana to be "moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting."

The Great Revulsion

By Paul Krugman

"I have a vision — maybe just a hope — of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country." Continue reading here...

West Point Grads Against the War

WHY DIE FOR A LIE?

WHY KILL FOR A LIE?

WHY TOLERATE LIARS?

Proud to be a Dissenter

I shall not conform to anything on Faux News
In response to my post on Howard Kurtz's fluff piece about Brit Hume, CJR Daily calls The Era a dissenter.


















Click on image to enlarge
Hume's "first thought" on hearing of London attacks: It's "time to buy" futures
From Media Matters

Our Dirty War

By Bob Herbert

I said, "Some of these folks have never been heard from again, right?"

"Yup," said Curt Goering. "That's right."
Continue reading here...

Fools

Click on photo to enlarge



















To this day it's still on the White House website. Hat tip to The Democratic Underground....

Moving to the Right

Hey, I have a great idea! Let's write a fluff piece on Brit Hume. You know the guy over at the Fascist network Faux News. Let's give it real appeal, some zing, and some Christian pandering. Brit Hume, you know, the guy who covered a phony story Carl Cameron made up about John Kerry getting a manicure.

Let's do it! Brit Hume, Americorp's #1 TV anchor. We really need a fluff piece to support Faux News. Let's see, who can we get? The Washington Times? No, no, no, how about The Drudge Report? No, ...I've got it! The Washington Post and Howard Kurtz, thank you sooo much, you really are providing a wonderful service to America,
oops I mean Americorp. Let the fluff blow.....

Brit Hume's Path Took Him From Liberal Outsider to The Low-Key Voice of Conservatism on Fox News
It was a different era, a different administration and a very different Brit Hume. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah....

The Republican "Party" Song

Song by The Era

War Profiteers

U.S. Contractor Admits Bribery For Jobs in Iraq

Philip H. Bloom admitted his part in a scheme to give more than $2 million in cash and gifts to U.S. officials in exchange for their help in getting reconstruction contracts for his companies. The court papers unsealed yesterday paint a picture of how Bloom, a businessman with operations in the United States and Romania, used gifts of cash, cars, plane tickets and jewelry to secure lucrative reconstruction contracts from December 2003 to December 2005.
The corruption just goes on and on and on...A Bright Career Unravels in Iraq

The Decider Sticks With the Derider

While Thomas Friedman asks for Bush and Company to go stand in the corner, Maureen lets loose another mutiny on Rummy and friends.

The Decider Sticks With the Derider
By Maureen Dowd
At first Rummy was reluctant to talk about the agonizing generals' belated objections to the irrational and bullying decisions that led to carnage in Iraq. The rebellious retired brass complain that the defense chief was contemptuous of advice from his military officers and sabotaged the Iraq mission with willful misjudgments before and after the invasion. Continue reading here...

Bush is F'n Crazy

Bush keeps Iran military option

US President George W Bush says all options, including the use of force, are "on the table" to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, a claim the US rejects. Uh oh, where have I read that line "a claim the US rejects" before? See Ted Rall's article below. A guest editorial on Informed comment is completely logical.
A Canadian Fix for the Iran Crisis? Can do, or CANDU?
Click on picture for video: Bush: "I'm The Decider and I Decide What Is Best"
Tip of the hat to Crooks and Liars

No Bravery

A nation blind to their disgrace






A 4 Minute Video
Click on title or flag for the video
Hat tip to NotASheep and Freeway Blogger

The Streets are Full of Blood

"Choices (The streets are full of blood) or How I learned to love the Iraq war" Song by The Era aka Pitchfork about the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld/Neo-Con Death Cult machine who created this horrible war. Click the blue/title if you wanna listen...
Bonus song #1 "I have a Republican erection"

I read this article in the Japan Times today while riding the train to work. Ted Rall really hits the nail on the head in this article about the media's complicity in support of the Bush administration viewpoint of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

The Danger of Hugo Chávez's Successful Socialism
By Ted Rall

When the hated despots of nations like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan loot their countries' treasuries, transfer their oil wealth to personal Swiss bank accounts and use the rest to finance (in the House of Saud's case) terrorist extremists, American politicians praise them as trusted friends and allies. But when a democratically elected populist president uses Venezuela's oil profits to lift poor people out of poverty, they accuse him of pandering. Continue reading here...

Global Americana Institute

Good Idea From Juan Cole

The classics of American thought and history have been little translated into Arabic. Worse, even when they have been translated, they have appeared in small editions and fairly quickly go out of print.. Worse still, the distribution system for Arabic books is poor, and there are few public libraries, so that many books that have been published in the past are no longer available to most readers. We have therefore begun a project to translate important books by great Americans and about America into Arabic, and to subsidize their publication so that they can be bought inexpensively. We are also subventing their distribution.

The Fear Factor

By Bob Herbert

However one feels about Zacarias Moussaoui — that he's a madman with a martyr complex who had very little to do with the Sept. 11 plot, or that he's a terrorist with the blood of thousands on his hands — his sentencing trial and contemptible public behavior have reacquainted us with the awful physical suffering and profound emotional agony unleashed by the Sept. 11 attacks. Continue reading here...

Enemy of the Planet

By Paul Krugman

Lee Raymond, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was paid $686 million over 13 years. But that's not a reason to single him out for special excoriation. Executive compensation is out of control in corporate America as a whole, and unlike other grossly overpaid business leaders, Mr. Raymond can at least claim to have made money for his stockholders. Continue reading here...

The Slaughter Spreads

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Last month villagers along Chad's border with Sudan told me how brutal militias were attacking their towns, murdering their babies, raping their daughters and burning their huts, while shouting racial slurs against blacks. Now those impoverished Chadians may find themselves not only attacked by genocidal marauders but also ruled by them. Continue reading here...

Coming home — disillusioned

By Christopher H. Sheppard

Three years ago, I was a Marine Corps captain on the Iraqi/Kuwaiti border, participating in the invasion of Iraq. Awestruck, I heard our howitzers thunder and watched artillery rockets rise into the night sky and streak toward Iraq — their light bathing the desert moonscape like giant arc welders. Continue reading here...
Hat tip to Crooks and Liars for the heads up

The Rummy Mutiny

By Maureen Dowd

When Donald Rumsfeld was 10, his operating principle, as described by his dad, was: "If it doesn't go easy, force it." Not much has changed in the last 63 years. Goodness, gracious! Will that dadburn Rummy ever follow any of his own rules? Continue reading here...

The Generals Are Talking About You Rummy

The widening circle of retired generals who have stepped forward to call for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation is shaping up as an unusual outcry that could pose a significant challenge to Mr. Rumsfeld's leadership, current and former generals said on Thursday. Meanwhile the idiotic White House Defends Rumsfeld's Tenure

Now that's Justice

Jailed for refusing to serve in an illegal and immoral war

Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, 37, was found guilty of five charges of disobeying orders after he refused to go to Basra last June. Flt Lt Dr Malcolm Kendall-Smith was based at RAF Kinloss in Scotland. He claimed his actions were justified as the UK involvement was illegal

Weapons of Math Destruction

By Paul Krugman
Now it can be told: President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney based their re-election campaign on lies, damned lies and statistics. Continue reading here...

Where is the Good News?

Blast kills 25 near Iraqi mosque
A car bomb has killed 25 people and injured about 60 at a Shia mosque in a town close to the Iraq city of Baquba.
In other violence in Iraq on Wednesday:
* Gunmen killed three members of the Iraqi security forces in the Mosul area

* Two Iraqi army soldiers are shot dead near the northern oil refinery town of Baiji

* Gunmen killed two lorry drivers are kcarrying goods for the US military on a road between Ramadi and Rutba

* A car bomb killed at least two people at a market in Tal Afar

* Two policemen and a civilian were killed when a roadside bomb hit a police patrol in central Baghdad

* Two US soldiers were killed by a bomb just south of the city and a third died in a separate attack in Baghdad

* A bomb at a market in the town of Khalis killed two civilians and wounded at least 20

Steak Night at the Deer Camp

A South Arkansas message to George
By John Bomar
Hey George, I hate to have to tell you this son, but they’re talking bad about you out at the deer camp. That’s real bad. When you’ve lost the deer-camp-boys you’re in big trouble around here. Continue reading here...