And She is Supposed to Help Keep the USA Safe?

Think Progress points to a story in the Daily Muck:

The capture of Osama bin Laden is “a success that hasn’t occurred yet,” according to White House Homeland Security Adviser Frances Frago Townsend.

As she explained to CNN's White House correspondent Ed Henry last night:

HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we're going to get him. Still don't have him. I know you are saying there's successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That's a failure.

TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.

Well... Time travel is just another success that hasn't occured yet. BUT as soon as it does let me be the first to travel back in time and slap Townsend silly for making an absurd a statement on what is clearly a bush FAILURE.

Townsend is just an example of another Brownie "Heckuva job" comment waiting to come from bush after the next big disaster in the USA. Makes me wonder if we should have a color coded alert system for incompetent and idiot statements put up on the TV screen beside each of our own government employees.

You can watch Townsend throw out GOP talking point after talking point on Charlie Rose (Sept. 2006) about the successes in Afghanistan (even though the Taliban is on the rise again), on Bin Laden getting away at Torah Bora being a mistake only looking at it in retrospect (even though bush handed the military operation there to local friendlies of the Taliban, that was not a mistake in retrospect, that was failure on the spot), and how Iran is so tied into the WOT now (setting the table for the future episodes of "Empire on the Rise"), and how Saudies are our friends (even though they ARE funding the insurgency)... Just think of the usefulness of a warning like that up there flashing on the screen beside their faces each time they start spewing their right-wing-crack and how many of these past failures might have been avoided with a simple Right-Wing-Crack Warning System.

The fact that Townsend is a former Clintonian and helps set the table for MORE WAR now, while spewing GOP talking points so easily, just re-inforces the need, IMHO, to obliterate all right-wing DLC leftovers from the Clinton era out of office along with the faar-right-wing GOP.Just in case you wonder where this right-wing-freak's loyalties really lie now:

Townsend is a former prosecutor who toiled for both Rudy Guiliani and Janet Reno. The Post points out that her husband, referred to in the piece only as "John," was "a classmate of Bush's at Andover and Yale." It adds that her position was occupied previously by "four-star generals who brought decades of experience to the fight," but that her greatest asset is "the president's ear" -- not to mention a contribution of the maximum $2,000 to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in March 2004, an unusual move from a National Security Council staffer, and generally regarded, as U.S. News and World Report put it, as "a pledge of loyalty."

"A pledge of loyalty"??? How fucking republican of her.

The Bush Pledge:
"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."

A little info on John Townsend for shits and giggles ('cause you are curious, right?)

Mr. Townsend, 47, is a partner in the Washington law firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed. He received undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University. He is the son of Vera N. Townsend of Austin, Tex., and the late Col. John D. Townsend. The bridegroom's father was retired from the United States Army.

Just so's you know he is a Lawyer that does a lot of lawyering for the drug industry (ie: Pfizer, Merck), winning cases that keep drug prices artificially high for us. Mr. and his Mrs. Townsend are both major players in a bush criminal world.

Baghdad Burning: Riverbend Nails it...

Riverbend is still alive and kicking, and tells you "why":

Baghdad Burning: "
Why make things worse by insisting on Saddam's execution now? Who gains if they hang Saddam? Iran, naturally, but who else? There is a real fear that this execution will be the final blow that will shatter Iraq. Some Sunni and Shia tribes have threatened to arm their members against the Americans if Saddam is executed. Iraqis in general are watching closely to see what happens next, and quietly preparing for the worst.

This is because now, Saddam no longer represents himself or his regime. Through the constant insistence of American war propaganda, Saddam is now representative of all Sunni Arabs (never mind most of his government were Shia). The Americans, through their speeches and news articles and Iraqi Puppets, have made it very clear that they consider him to personify Sunni Arab resistance to the occupation. Basically, with this execution, what the Americans are saying is "Look- Sunni Arabs- this is your man, we all know this. We're hanging him- he symbolizes you." And make no mistake about it, this trial and verdict and execution are 100% American. Some of the actors were Iraqi enough, but the production, direction and montage was pure Hollywood (though low-budget, if you ask me).

That is, of course, why Talbani doesn't want to sign his death penalty- not because the mob man suddenly grew a conscience, but because he doesn't want to be the one who does the hanging- he won't be able to travel far away enough if he does that.

Maliki's government couldn't contain their glee. They announced the ratification of the execution order before the actual court did. A few nights ago, some American news program interviewed Maliki's bureau chief, Basim Al-Hassani who was speaking in accented American English about the upcoming execution like it was a carnival he'd be attending. He sat, looking sleazy and not a little bit ridiculous, his dialogue interspersed with 'gonna', 'gotta' and 'wanna'... Which happens, I suppose, when the only people you mix with are American soldiers.

My only conclusion is that the Americans want to withdraw from Iraq, but would like to leave behind a full-fledged civil war because it wouldn't look good if they withdraw and things actually begin to improve, would it?"
(emphasis mine)

Do you get? You got it? Yes... You got it. Now: What the fuck can we do about it?

The entire bush administration has been criminal in every aspect of it's conduct of this entire farce of an illegal war.

The Failure of Conservative Ideology is NOW (AGAIN)

This is an unusually large excerpt from C&L's Barbara O'Brien

A (Pretty) Short History of Wingnutism:
"By now you probably see where we’re going. “American Way” conservatism was the dominant political philosophy in the 1920s, and the nation was governed by its principles through the Harding and Coolidge administrations, from 1921 to 1929. Some historians call this decade “the Republican Era.” The vigorous progressivism of 1900-1916 was vanquished, and the labor union movement lost ground. In fact, the longer one looks at America in the 1920s, the more familiar it gets — corporate profits rising faster than worker earnings; a crackdown on immigration; culture wars led by an aggressive Christian fundamentalist movement; and tax cuts galore. If they’d had iPods back then, you’d hardly know the difference.

Of course, it would come to pass that the Republican who won the 1928 presidential election by a landslide, Herbert Hoover, was probably sorry he won. The stock market crashed in October 1929, which marked the beginning of the Great Depression. The Depression was caused by a number of interacting factors, and since it was a worldwide phenomenon you can’t blame the Republicans for all of it. But in the United States many of those factors were created, directly or indirectly, by “American Way” conservative policies. Among these factors were a wildly overheated stock market (security regulation was socialism, after all) and the maldistribution of wealth that resulted from laissez-faire business policies. Since President Herbert Hoover was a tried-and-true “American Way” conservative, he mostly was at a loss to solve the nation’s economic problems, even though he had almost all of his four-year term to do so. In 1932 the nation turned to a liberal Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt, to make things right.

Righties are quick to point out that the New Deal had a limited impact on the Depression, and that the nation’s economy didn’t really pull out of the slump until the industrialization of World War II — over which FDR also presided. (This is just one of many examples of righties taunting lefties for not cleaning up rightie messes they couldn’t clean up themselves; Iraq is another.) But New Deal programs had a longer-term success in fostering economic stability. Federal deposit insurance, unemployment insurance, Social Security, increased government oversight of securities, and other New Deal innovations made Americans’ economic lives more secure and created a buffer against many of the factors that cause economic depressions.

And considering that rightie counter-arguments to the New Deal usually advocate returning to the same governing philosophy that allowed the Depression to happen, you’ll forgive me if I don’t take them seriously.

Anyway, after the FDR landslide in 1932 it was clear the right wing had fallen from grace. Righties spent the rest of the 1930s seething with resentment and planning a comeback. And just when they had a shot at re-taking the White House — bam, World War II happened. And this made the American Right look doubly stupid, because for the most part righties in the 1930s were isolationists who had not only pooh-poohed the threat of the Third Reich but had actually admired Mussolini.

After World War II righties rebounded with a fury. They did this in large part by taking the issue of national security away from the Democrats. It’s important to understand that the Right managed this not because of anything they actually accomplished, but through a “compilation of hysterical charges and bald-faced lies,” to quote Kevin Baker in this Harper’s article, “Stabbed in the Back,” which I vigorously urge you to read.

Much of the Red Scare and McCarthyist hysteria of the late 1940s and 1950s were as much about slapping down liberals and Democrats as it was about national security. See the Kevin Baker article for details. See also Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Vintage/Random House, 1962), in particular pp. 41-42 (emphasis added):

The inquisitors were trying to give satisfaction against liberals, New Dealers, reformers, internationalists, intellectuals, and finally even against a Republican administration that failed to reserve liberal policies. What was involved, above all, was a set of political hostilities in which the New Deal was linked to the welfare state, the welfare state to socialism, and socialism to Communism. In this crusade Communism was not the target but the weapon, and it is for this reason that so many of the most ardent hunters of impotent domestic Communists were altogether indifferent to efforts to meet the power of International Communism where it really mattered — in the area of world politics."

Go read it. See if you can easily pick out the parallels to many of the problems of today, and maybe begin to realize that not only has "The Great Republican Experiment" failed miserably, but that now is not the first time it has failed miserably.

Never again.

ctblogger takes a well deserved bow...

Via ConnecticutBLOG:

"I'm a big fan of Steve Gilliard's popular national blog The News Blog, so it came to a pleasant surprise that he picked little ol' me as one of his favorite state/local bloggers for 2006.

Juan Melli and CT Blogger-They do the dirty work of local and state politics, which will never lead to glory or riches, but is needed because if you think federal government has problems.....these guys are heroes to me."

"blush"

Congratulations are certainly in order. I have said this before: "ctblogger seems to really know what is going on across CT."

And it is true. So, congratulations from your peers and your fans! And Take a well deserved bow for all of the hard work that you do!

Michelle Malkin proves the Right -Wing-Nutosphere is WRONG

Across the right-wingnutosphere they were shouting out how much the soldiers hated Kerry. So much so that they refused to eat with him. Some on the left questioned the authenticity of the photo, as well as the premise of their "soldiers hate Kerry" blathering.

Below are 2 pictures. One that Malkin, Powerline, and other idiot-wing pundits of sub-mediocrity used as proof that "soldiers hate Kerry" because he was eating alone. The second photo is one that Malkin used to prove that the first photo was real.



If I am not mistaken Malkin has just proven her entire team on the idiot-wing were flat out wrong in writing that the first picture proves that the soldiers hate Kerry because they refuse to eat with him.

As for what Malkin's tosses into her trashcan:

If not, I owe a big apology to Sen. Kerry and to readers.

Well, I guess you and your entire lying and incompetent idiot-wing do owe Kerry an apology... You were stupid enough to prove that yourself.

Whiskey Bar A--GO-GOne?

I just went to check the rumors about the Whiskey Bar... And it appears to be a dead end link now. (or it is being kosed? or something?)

Site Temporarily Unavailable
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact the webmaster/ tech support immediately to have them rectify this.

error id: "bad_httpd_conf"

According to Swopa at Firedoglake:

Looks like somebody made a New Year's resolution that will make us all a little sad. The deservedly legendary Billmon posted the picture above at the Whiskey Bar late last night.

We can only hope that he will find somewhere else to put his enormous talents to use for the good of all. I hear that the MSM could use some decent pudits to replace the duds that have almost always been wrong on almost every issue for years now.

Anyways... Best of luck, and may his dirty glass always be filled to the rim with the finest of whiskeys.

Putting it in words even the WSJ can understand

The Wall Street Journal has announced that they will be giving out free copies of its rag on January 2nd to celebrate their redesign:

“Nearly half a million copies will be free and The Wall Street Journal Online — normally a paid service — will also be free that day.”

In otherwords:

They want to try and put lipstick on a pig...

• What the media aren't telling you about the Iraq Study Group report
  Thursday, December 7, 2006 7:35PM
• Four of six major papers left out prescient warnings in coverage of 2002 Iraq war vote
  Monday, December 4, 2006 6:15PM
• WSJ's Miniter baselessly linked same-sex marriage to rise in out-of-wedlock births
  Wednesday, November 29, 2006 9:31AM
• Print reports portrayed Medicare drug price reform as problematic for Democrats, ignoring internal drug memo laying out industry concerns
  Tuesday, November 28, 2006 3:47PM
• Media glossed over new Senate minority whip Trent Lott's pro-segregation, anti-civil rights past
  Thursday, November 16, 2006 3:02PM
• Print media fail to note that Saddam verdict released two days before U.S. elections despite unfinished judgment
  Monday, November 6, 2006 6:57PM
• WSJ gave credence to Republican boasts of early voting successes, providing no independent evidence
  Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:28PM
• Journal editorial claimed military met recruitment goals because "troops believe in mission," ignored lower aptitude requirements for new soldiers
  Thursday, October 12, 2006 12:32PM
• A special Media Matters for America report: debunking the Foley myth machine
  Wednesday, October 11, 2006 4:59PM
• Echoing Drudge and Savage, Dobson and Henninger claimed Foley scandal is "sort of a joke" and a "prank[ ]" by pages
  Friday, October 6, 2006 3:57PM
• Journal editorial falsely claimed Pelosi "vot[ed] to revoke the Boy Scouts' charter for its ban on gay scoutmasters"
  Thursday, October 5, 2006 4:38PM
• In Foley scandal, conservatives find plenty of excuses and plenty of people to blame (other than the GOP)
  Wednesday, October 4, 2006 3:47PM
• Media conservatives obsess over Foley's sexuality
  Tuesday, October 3, 2006 5:31PM
• WSJ's Miniter falsely asserted Shimkus told Foley "to cut off all direct contact with underage pages"
  Tuesday, October 3, 2006 12:23PM
• In Foley coverage, scant mention of three other Republican congressmen embroiled in major scandals
  Monday, October 2, 2006 1:40PM

The fancy redsign will not hide the fact that The Wall Street Journal will sell you short on the facts. Sorry! I am not buying. Even for free.

"Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are.
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha charade you are.
And when your hand is on your heart,
You're nearly a good laugh,
Almost a joker,
With your head down in the pig bin,
Saying "Keep on digging."
Pig stain on your fat chin."

Disappearing Government Info List Still Growing

Looking for the facts? You will have a hard time under the lying bush administration considering they will do anything they can to hide them from you:

"Disappearing Info List Still Growing:

Readers keep finding examples, so we keep growing our list of information products "disappeared" by the Bush administration which appear to have contradicted its policy preferences. We're up to 28. You can see the complete list here. The latest:

* For more than a year, the Interior Department refused to release a 2005 study showing a government subsidy for oil companies was not effective.

* The White House Office of National Drug Policy paid for a 5-year, $43 million study which concluded their anti-drug ad campaigns did not work -- but it refused to release those findings to Congress. (Thanks to skeptic)

* In 2006, the Federal Communications Commission ordered destroyed all copies of an unreleased 2004 draft report concluding that media consolidation hurt local TV news coverage, which runs counter to the administration's pro-consolidation stance. (Thanks to Jim Tobias)

* After Bush assumed power in 2001, the Department of Labor removed from its Web site "Don't Work in the Dark -- Know Your Rights," a publication informing women of their workplace rights. (via the National Council for Research on Women)

* The Department of Labor also removed from its Web site roughly two dozen fact sheets on women's workplace issues such as women in management, earning differences between men and women, child care concerns, and minority women in the workplace. (via the National Council for Research on Women)

* In February 2004, the appointed head of the Office of Special Counsel -- created to protect government employees' rights -- ordered removed from a government Web site information on the rights of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in the public workplace. (via the National Council for Research on Women)"

This is definately a knowledge base worth adding to for future reference. If you know of any other interesting tidbits that may have been left out try sending them in to the Daily Muck Hot Tips. They also accept Hot Tips on any other Muck they may be able to rake deserving politicians through...

Drifting

President Ford died. He was the president that pardoned Nixon. Nothing much to post yet so here is a little relaxing music from Andy McKee to brighten your day and to help keep your mind off of the coming cycle of unrelenting hero worship that will inevitably spin out of the right wing media monster.

Violent Perversions Concerning Lieberman's Campaign Money?

According to ConnecticutBlog and MLN, this is the kindof people that Lieberman takes his campaign money from.

An analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group, found that the Connecticut Democrat, who won re-election last month as an independent, received about $73,000 from a variety of industry sources over the past two years.

Among the donors were Linda McMahon, chief executive officer of Stamford-based WWE Entertainment. McMahon said in an e-mail that she gave money to Lieberman because "I make contributions to a variety of candidates whom I respect.

snip

"If you're going to portray yourself as a champion against sex and violence on TV and in video games, it certainly doesn't look like you're completely serious if one of your big contributors makes its money from sex and violence," said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics.
...
Asked why he accepted their money, Lieberman first joked, "I really don't get anything [contributions] from that industry.""

Now if that doesn't beat all? Joe is in the middle of a fight against video game violence and he takes money (and denies it!) from the ultimate in violent TV producers:

The WWE.

If you think it couldn't get any worse here well, YES! it can. Not only do they feature violence BUT violent sexual content as well:(warning!)

.

That was taken from WWE's Raw. And if that doesn't expose the ultimate in hypocrisy than how's about a video game version of all of this violent content, "WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW", where they tout such features as:

• Spanking mini-game - in bra and panties matchups, a female wrestler could enter a "spanking" mini-game. The meter mechanic from the chop battles are retained, but the player must perfectly time the button press three consecutive times to win. If the player does so, a cut scene of the two female wrestlers kissing is played.
• Also added to the game was the Clean/Dirty system, which influenced each wrestlers tactics. Players can choose if the wrestler is clean, dirty or neutral. A clean or dirty wrestler has a meter that can be filled up by performing special clean/dirty actions or moves. Clean wrestlers with a full meter can enable a temporary rush of invincibility while dirty wrestlers can perform an illegal move.

[update]More Courtesy of JoeJoeJoe at MLN

More on an hidden feature in WWE similar to the Grand Theft Auto feature that sent Phony Joe into convulsions:

WWE Raw 2 Cheats
"Hint: Nude Characters
Either create a female character, or edit one of the existing ones and give them all pure black clothes (0,0,0 for all 3 options). Then have a match in any PPV arena and on the Titantron they will appear naked."

Violence, cheating, violence against women, sexual content... These games have it all, mirroring the WWE's television productions.

Lieberman falsely claims to carry the banner in the fight against violent videogames and violence on TV... He is really only a perverted spokesman for hypocrisy in action.

The baby at the end of this video might be me...

OK, so I don't really know who made this video, but how did they get a baby pic of me at the end there drinking my "Baba"?



They say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too, yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to everyone that isn't me on my birthday...

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

WAR IS OVER (If you want it)

Why War with Iran? Dollar dropped in Iran asset move

Why the US really wants war with Iran:

BBC NEWS | Business | Dollar dropped in Iran asset move:
"Iran is to shift its foreign currency reserves from dollar to euro and use the euro for oil deals in response to US-led pressure on its economy.

In a widely expected move, Tehran said it would use the euro for all future commercial transactions overseas."

The last country that tried to switch to selling their oil in Euros? Iraq... Not long before they were illegally invaded under the bogus threat of impending mushroom clouds.

Cue the drumbeat of war...

Sound familiar?

Wal-Mart Carries the Communist Banner

Walmart goes all Communist:

Wal-Mart hosts Communist Party:
"US retail giant Wal-Mart has set up a new branch of the Communist Party at its China headquarters after allowing unions to operate in its stores earlier this year.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, known for it's anti-union stance in other countries, opened the new branch at its head office in the southern city of Shenzhen."

They do everything they can to bust unions in the USA, but love them AND the Communist Party in China.

Do you think American Wal-mart employees that must rely on State controlled medicare in the USA should feel just a bit slighted by their Communist lovin' employers and the GOP that is so closely tied to the Wal-Mart Corporation?

And BIG business loving conservatives call Liberals communist? heh. Gives a whole new meaning to the words "better dead than red." GOP red that is....

NORAD Tracks Santa 2007

NORAD Tracks Santa

According to NORAD Santa was last seen over Peru and will soon be entering the United States of America.

"For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa. The tradition began after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. store advertisement for children to call Santa on a special "hotline" included an inadvertently misprinted telephone number. Instead of Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations "hotline." The Director of Operations, Colonel Harry Shoup, received the first "Santa" call on Christmas Eve 1955. Realizing what had happened, Colonel Shoup had his staff check radar data to see if there was any indication of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Indeed there were signs of Santa and children who called were given an update on Santa's position. Thus, the tradition was born. In 1958, the governments of Canada and the United States created a bi-national air defense command for the North American continent called the North American Air Defense Command, known as NORAD. Canada and the U.S. believed they could better defend North America together as a team instead of separately.

NORAD carried out its first Santa tracking in 1958 after inheriting the tradition from CONAD. Since that time, Canadian and American men and women who work at NORAD have responded to phone calls from children personally. Additionally, media from all over the world call NORAD on Christmas Eve for updates on Santa's location. Last year this Website was visited by millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts. This year, the information is provided in six languages.

NORAD relies on many volunteers to help make Santa tracking possible. Hundreds of volunteers spend part of their Christmas Eve at the Santa Tracking Operations Center answering phones and emails to provide Santa updates to thousands of inquiring children worldwide."

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Merry Fucking Christmas Jodi Rell - Gag on this!

In a recent Courant article they talked about "a gubernatorial ritual," where "Gov. M. Jodi Rell handed out her Christmas gag gifts Tuesday to an appreciative, sellout crowd of more than 900 at the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce pre-holiday breakfast."


In honour of that I thought that we should give Jodi her very own internet gag gift:

A Jet Ski so that Rell won't have to try and cover up any family members (ie: Mike Rell) involvement in a theft of a Jet Ski ever again.

Colonel Barone was Sergeant Brelsford’s immediate supervisor
during the first 6 months of Sergeant Brelsford’s 1995-1996 jet ski
investigation and was Director of Law Enforcement at the
conclusion of Brelsford’s investigation. Vito Santarsiero
complained to Barone about the "delay" in completing the
investigation. . According to Barone, after this conversation,
Barone explained to Brelsford that "other principal parties" were
interested in the consequences of the investigation and ordered
Brelsford to "wrap this thing up." Barone explained that by “other
principal parties” he meant “the other suspects, Michael Rell and
the Lieutenant Governor because it was her son.” As Sergeant
Brelsford's supervisor, and a high ranking DEP official, Colonel
Barone had a direct conflict of interest in the investigation of the
allegations concerning Sergeant Brelsford’s 1995-1996 jet ski
investigation, which unavoidably involved the competence and
integrity of his supervision of Sergeant Brelsford during the
1995-1996 jet ski investigation and the communications he made to
Sergeant Brelsford at the direction of Vito Santarsiero.
[PDF update] http://www.ct.gov/ag/lib/ag/press_releases/2002/enviss/dep.pdf

This may be really old news, but remember that this just typifies modern day GOP politics. Steal, lie, cover up... Oh yeah! And promote those who help you in your efforts. Rinse and repeat, at least, until you finally get caught. Just ask the DeLays, Noes, Cunninghams, and Rowlands of the GOP party.

Merry Fucking Christmas Jodi Rell.