Another move

Some time back, I copied all of Roland's Justice Log posts to our WordPress site as a backup.

Now, Roland (aka Rowan) is planning on starting up the Log again.

Follow him over to The Justice Log 2.0.

-- Morgan

Searching for John McCain

I know, Roland doesn't post much here anymore, but I thought I'd borrow his soapbox for a few lines :-).

1. John McCain Votes to Filibuster Minimum Wage Hike

2. McCain's housing policy shaped by lobbyist

3. Bush, McCain plug Social Security

4. McCain blasts Obama’s and Clinton’s attacks on NAFTA

5. McCain in NH: Would Be "Fine" To Keep Troops in Iraq for "A Hundred Years"

6. McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion

7. Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition

8. McCain says overturn the law that legalized abortion

9. McCain Defends Bush's Iraq Strategy

That's it -- I now return you to whatever you were doing before I started talking about John McCain :-).

Spreading a meme

Roland wanted to post this here, but he's crashed for the night so I'm taking the liberty. Hey, I need to use my posting rights once in a while :-).

Info on a few important Senate and Congressional races:

* AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
* AZ-01: Rick Renzi
* AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
* CA-04: John Doolittle
* CA-11: Richard Pombo
* CA-50: Brian Bilbray
* CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
* CO-05: Doug Lamborn
* CO-07: Rick O'Donnell
* CT-04: Christopher Shays
* FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
* FL-16: Joe Negron
* FL-22: Clay Shaw
* ID-01: Bill Sali
* IL-06: Peter Roskam
* IL-10: Mark Kirk
* IL-14: Dennis Hastert
* IN-02: Chris Chocola
* IN-08: John Hostettler
* IA-01: Mike Whalen
* KS-02: Jim Ryun
* KY-03: Anne Northup
* KY-04: Geoff Davis
* MD-Sen: Michael Steele
* MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
* MN-06: Michele Bachmann
* MO-Sen: Jim Talent
* MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
* NV-03: Jon Porter
* NH-02: Charlie Bass
* NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
* NM-01: Heather Wilson
* NY-03: Peter King
* NY-20: John Sweeney
* NY-26: Tom Reynolds
* NY-29: Randy Kuhl
* NC-08: Robin Hayes
* NC-11: Charles Taylor
* OH-01: Steve Chabot
* OH-02: Jean Schmidt
* OH-15: Deborah Pryce
* OH-18: Joy Padgett
* PA-04: Melissa Hart
* PA-07: Curt Weldon
* PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
* PA-10: Don Sherwood
* RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
* TN-Sen: Bob Corker
* VA-Sen: George Allen
* VA-10: Frank Wolf
* WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
* WA-08: Dave Reichert

Pass it on :-). Info courtesy Chris on DailyKos.

Five Minutes To Midnight

It's been too long since I've posted, but even with all that I've seen recently, this jumped out at me:

Five Minutes to Midnight: The War Is Coming, No Matter How Hard We Try to Evade It.

"This Time We Must Not Surrender Five Minutes Before Midnight." -- Adolf Hitler

The war referenced in the linked title is the supposedly necessary and inevitable pre-emptive invasion of Iran.

Res Ipsa Loquitur.
--
(/) Roland X
Remember, remember on the 7th of November...
...vote.

A Plague of Madness

Is this the beginning of the end?

I refer, of course, to the ever-widening circle of war, murder and stupidity in the Middle East. I point no fingers, because every force actively involved in the violence seems to want to inflame the other side as far as possible. Naturally, Israel has the big guns, but that's not the problem. Unsurprisingly, the various terrorist groups who want to destroy Israel are targeting its military, but that's not the problem either (military targets being, you know, legitimate). No, the problem is that both sides seem intent on inflicting as much misery, fear and death to their foes' civilian populations as possible. This is an unprecedented escalation for both sides, but especially Israel, which (while guilty of collective punishment et. al. in the past) has always maintained at least some restraint.

It would seem to me that the wisest course of action for the United States, given our vulnerable position in Iraq and Afghanistan, would be to stay as aloof from the actual fighting as possible while trying to end the violence diplomatically. I'm genuinely, pleasantly shocked that this appears to be what the Bush administration is trying to do, though their politically idiotic statements of unconditional support for Israel aren't helping.

Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone wants to give peace a chance. While browsing the blogs, I found this highly disturbing report on the neocon attitude at Glenn Greenwald's site:

In the past, neoconservatives have danced delicately around the notion that Israel's conflicts should be viewed by the U.S. as its own conflicts. But, to his credit, Bill Kristol yesterday came right out and candidly put his views on the table. In the Weekly Standard, Kristol's column -- entitled "This is Our War" (by "Our" he means the U.S.) -- argues explicitly what many have contended for some time is an unstated belief of neoconservatives: that the U.S. should view the threats to Israel as threats to the U.S., because the enemy is the same, and should join Israel in the destruction of these enemies. Kristol actually argues that President Bush should immediately abandon the G-8 summit in Russia and fly to Jerusalem in order to stand by Israel, in "our" new war, which should be waged against Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, for starters. This article is very significant and I am quoting from it at length:

What's happening in the Middle East, then, isn't just another chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. You might even say this is part of the Islamist war on the West--but is India part of the West? Better to say that what's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States....

Bill Kristol is one of the most influential neonconservative pundits in the country, if not the most influential, and the fact that he is openly advocating this world-view means that we will be seeing much more of it from the neoconservative precincts which led us into the invasion of Iraq.

Mr. Greenwald is measured and quite civil in his assessment of Kristol's position. My take is somewhat less measured: are they effin' nuts?!?

Let's take out the morality question for the moment; I consider both sides of the conflict equally psychotic (this does not, of course, include the majority on both sides who would rather not kill anyone), so the only moral question in my mind is how best to end the killing while being as fair as possible to everyone involved. From a purely strategic standpoint, then, I have to ask: are they effin' nuts?!?

Our military is stretched to the limit. Boots on the ground are out of the question, given we don't have enough troops in Iraq and our forces in Afghanistan are present in laughably low numbers. Providing air support is a joke -- does anyone reading this think Israel needs any help on that front? -- and will only serve to make America that much more hated in the region. So our military assistance is irrelevant for various reasons and all we could do is make our own situation (not to mention Iraq's) worse without helping Israel. What possible reason could America have for getting involved?

Hmm... could it be our own home-grown lunatics who see a chance to "make" the Second Coming happen? Obviously, none of these people have any real representation in the administration (except the increasingly irrelevant Bush), but Rove knows he has to keep them happy, and with Republican poll numbers tanking across the board, he needs a rallying point with the only real base the party has left. The horrific implications make the Iraq debacle look like a slight misstep, but when has something as inconsequential as possibly destroying the world ever stopped the Architect?

I end this post with hope: Gush Shalom, a peace organization in Israel that seems to be making more headway than I would have thought. May your G-d bless and watch over you.
--
(/) Roland X
Hope is a phoenix

The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear...Right?

Wrong.

A Homeland Security Department spokesman was held Wednesday on felony charges of sexually preying on a detective posing as a 14-year-old girl through explicit online conversations. He was quickly suspended without pay from one of the nation's top crime-fighting agencies.

The arrest of Brian J. Doyle, 55, raised doubts about the ability of an agency responsible for safeguarding the country to ensure the security credentials of its own people.

Gee, ya think?

Of course, it can't get much worse than this, right?

Wrong.

When an Orlando mall security officer responded to a complaint about a man exposing himself to a girl in the food court, the suspect hurried out of the mall and ran through the parking lot.

The suspect was Frank Figueroa, then one of Florida's highest-ranking federal law enforcement officers and the former head of a national program formed to target child sex predators.

In a total lack of coincidence, the previous article about Mr. Doyle notes that Operation Predator is run by the Department of Homeland Security:

Homeland Security also oversees an Operation Predator unit, which investigates child predators and pornographers.

That's right, a guy who ran the DHS' anti-child-trafficking program flashed a 16 year old girl...and it may not be the first time:

Homeland Security responded in writing Dec. 5, through Pamela J. Turner, assistant secretary for legislative affairs. Turner said Figueroa had been arrested "for similar behavior" in Amherst, N.Y., in 1977.

The case was dismissed, Turner wrote, "in the interest of justice because the perpetrator was never identified."

At the time, Figueroa was an inspector with the Buffalo, N.Y., customs office.

Because of the earlier arrest, Turner wrote, ICE has initiated a review of all background investigations of employees who work on Operation Predator. She did not say whether a prior arrest would preclude work with the unit.

In Figueroa's defense, he has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer insists that the '77 case, which was dropped, is irrelevant. Our nation is founded on laws that protect people charged with crimes. In America, we are all innocent until proven guilty.

That, however, is the very point I'm making here. These two cases raise an important question: just who is Bush talking about giving unlimited spying power to? The Bill of Rights was written specifically because men are not angels. Brian Doyle and Frank Figueroa may well be innocent of the charges they are accused of, but the simple truth is that these crimes are committed, and we know they're committed more widely than anyone really knows. What kind of havoc could a sexual predator, or a violent bigot, or a stalker looking for revenge wreak with the power of the DHS or NSA, and no one watching the watchmen?

What was that question about why people with nothing to hide might be afraid of Big Brother?

There is a reason that Congress was given the power to hold the executive branch accountable. There's a reason FISA was created. There's a reason the Founding Fathers warned their heirs -- us -- of the dangers that arise when we give leaders too much power during wartime. That reason is staring us in the face at this very moment -- whether we travel down a road paved with the best of intentions or are undermined by those whose intents are evil from the beginning, the final destination ahead is always abuse, fear, and ultimately, tyranny.
--
(/) Roland X
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions."

He Said He Was A Uniter

My apologies for yet another long dearth of posts; I've been focusing on Street Prophets and my local group's local blog, but I'm sharing this one around -- it's that time again -- and thought it would make a good re-inauguration of the Justice Log. It certainly fits the subtitle.

Every so often, I feel compelled to return to this issue, the heart of what shows that Bush is evil -- not just his administration, nor Bush himself merely incompetent -- but the man himself, the puppet sitting in the Oval Office. He bears responsibility, no matter how he might try to avoid it.

I know there were still a few people who remained dubious about Bush on September 12, 2001. I got into arguments with one on an email list -- so many of us became hawks briefly, it was all too easy. For me, it was personal. I'm a native New Yorker. I was born there. My father had worked at the American Stock Exchange, and my uncle was working there on the 11th. His story was harrowing, but he made it out alive.

What I remember most about that day, ironically enough, is not the hours waiting to donate blood, hours well spent with a few hundred of my closest friends, nor the fact that it is the only day I have ever simply "blown off" work, nor that I was awakened by a dear friend I had not spoken to in months if not years, calling from 3000 miles away, to tell us that the Towers had been hit. What I remember most is the shock, the sheer, unbelieving shock, as I stared at the television, still unable to process what was happening. When I woke up, there was a single tower bleeding smoke into the sky, and I tried to look around it -- yes, while watching it on a TV screen -- to find the other. It had already fallen.

Over the next few days, I was prone to wandering aimlessly. At work, I would drift into the storage room where someone had kindly set up a TV. There was, of course, constant coverage. The gaping holes in the city continued to vomit smoke for weeks. People ruminated darkly about the number of dead, wept at the sight of the bereaved survivors who would never have closure, and wondered when the news became part of the first act of a Bruckheimer disaster film.

And there was Bush, Mr. Uniter, claiming that the time for partisan division was past. Gore went to him in a show of support. New Yorkers were cheering a man most had certainly voted against. Even Falwell was unable to get away with bashing the Usual Suspects (read: us). For a brief, golden moment, it really looked like we might come together as a nation, that Bin Laden's monstrosity would become his final folly. A French newspaper declared "we are all Americans," and it seemed true. In the wake of the tragedy was hope: all things were possible, for we were America, and we had been reminded of who we really were.

For the true Axis Of Evil -- Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld -- that simply would not do.

Rove was already plotting to use the attacks against the slender Democratic majority in the Senate (horrors! Democrats with power!), Cheney opened fire on the separation of powers with all guns blazing, and Rumsfeld started the plans to "sweep it all up, things related and not." There was no spirit of compromise, unity or bipartisanship within this cabal, only the realization that this second Pearl Harbor could also be America's Reichstag fire, if they worked hard enough at it. Of course, that would mean deliberately and viciously taking a sword to the dream of unity America found that nightmarish day.

Into this crucible came George W. Bush, widely described as Prince Hal become Henry V, at last come into his own. Here was the moment for the Cowboy President to be his own man, to do what he believed was right and unite the country as he claimed to wish all at once. All he had to do was not be irredeemably evil and hopelessly incompetent. As we have learned, that would have meant standing up to the aforementioned Axis, but no matter what came Before, Bush was -- and is -- the actual President. He could have done the right thing almost through benign neglect.

Instead, he personally spearheaded Rove's two-front war, one against al-Qaeda and the other against Democrats, particularly the Senate majority. I'm sure I don't have to list the travesties he supported with relish, but Iraq and the idiotic union-busting on the DHS were the beginning, and our warning signs. The Patriot Act was just a warm-up. Every stream of toxic rhetoric since then has started, one way or another, from the desk of President George W. Bush, and all he had to do was just say no.

He could have been remembered as a great leader if he had only tempered his greed. America could be as much a political hyperpower as it was a military one if he'd simply compromised, just a little, with other countries, other opinions. Instead, he became the Cowboy Caricature, with his blindingly idiotic lies ("they didn't let the inspectors in"?!?) and equally moronic rhetoric ("bring it on" worked great, didn't it?). Bush could be at 70% popularity right now, instead of half that, if he had just found common cause with all of America instead of trying to carve out 51% -- which is exactly what he got -- on one day in November of 2004. We could still have a nation leading the world towards something better, in a more prosperous environment, if Bush hadn't been a spoiled child with an Oedipus complex.

There are a million reasons to resist this Constitution-shredding Dominionist plutocrat, ranging from the environment to protecting the First Amendment. For me, though, this is at the heart of what Bush is: America's greatest enemy. Bin Laden wishes he could do a tenth as much damage to the country.
--
(/) Roland X
Fleeing the Chenon tyranny, the last Battleblog, Galactikos, leads a rag-tag fugitive web, on a lonely quest; a shining concept, known as Truth.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

Hunter sums up our times in a single paragraph:

It's so painful, it burns. Perhaps "leaders of any group will turn out to be liberals" is indeed true, and perhaps there are a hundred perfect reasons for it to be true that are not part of an insidious secret plot by All Those That Oppose Us. Jesus McCracker McBain, it has been shown time and time again that liberalism is directly correlated to knowledge. I'm going to tattoo it onto my forehead, or paint it on my car: It's not a conspiracy, you're just stupid.

The Thing Speaks For Itself.
--
(/) Roland X
Go read the whole thing. Seriously.

Promoting Linse's Law

This meme is sheer genius, so I thought I'd share:

As a corollary to Godwin's Law, I propose "Linse's Law":

As a debate between pro-war and anti-war pundits grows longer, the probability of the pro-war side accusing the anti-war side of being unpatriotic becomes 1.

I heartily recommend the rest of the post, particularly the quiz: do you know the difference between patriotism and jingoism? Well, sure, you do, but I have to wonder: do they?
--
(/) Roland X
jin·go·ism n. c.f. Republican Party.

Pegging the Hypocrisy Meter...Again

You know, I think I've finally figured out what Duby'a true talent is: reaching new heights of sheer, unadulterated hypocrisy.

"The stakes in the global war on terror are too high and the national interest is too important for politicians to throw out false charges," the president said in his combative Veterans Day speech.

Yeah, no kidding, Dubya. Imagine starting a war with the wrong friggin' country based on exaggerations and outright lies. A war that virtually eliminated our ability to fight terrorists in their real centers of power and allowed enemies who have openly stated their hate and fear of America to build nuclear weapons. A war in which our leaders then compromised our moral authority (when they realized how badly they screwed up) by encouraging and possibly ordering the torture of POWs, most of whom are innocent civilians caught in poorly conducted sweeps run mostly by teenagers who don't speak Arabic. Oh, and throw melting children with phosphorous on top, and covering it up for a year.

Yeah, I think the national interest is kind of important to be letting that kind of crap happen.

Mmmaybe Bush shouldn't be talking about the stakes of a conflict he's all but conceding to the enemies who, you know, actually want to kill us.
--
(/) Roland X
Okay, this time Res Ipsa didn't quite Loquitur. Even I still need to rant about these nutjobs sometimes.

Politburo Leader Frist Backs Gulags

Bill Frist (R - Siberia): objectively pro-gulag:

Bill Frist on the existence of overseas "black sites" where the Bush administration secretly holds detainees in the war on terror:

I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that.

Well okay then.
--
(/) Roland X
Once again, Res Ipsa Loquitur.

Governor Girlie-Man

Yeah, America's moral authority is in the toilet and the focus from the good news is rightly on our victory in Virginia. Still, I want to take a moment to do the happy dance here:

To call California a disaster for Arnold is the biggest understatement of the year. Schwarzenegger spent $50 million of taxpayer money in an election in which every single ballot initiative failed, and failed handily (the closest prop, the parental notification one, failed by over 5 percent).

Pwn3d.

The Governator now has to decide whether to follow his brain or his ego in leaving Sacramento. He can do the smart thing, declare "mission accomplished," and go back to his movie career, or he can run for reelection and be totally spanked and humiliated by whichever otherwise-unknown Democratic apparatchik ends up winning the nomination.

Either way, I'm looking forward to '06. ;-)
--
(/) Roland X
Pwn3d: to be beaten, dominated, or made a fool of in any contest, especially in a Net-related context. *eg*

Feel the Love

Opera's being flaky; let's try this again.

DeLay's cronies admit the truth: they think their right-wing theocon sheep are wackos too:

How anybody could vote Republican until they do a full fumigation to get rid of DeLay and Co. is beyond me. Check out what (indicted) DeLay aide Mike Scanlon says here:

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

As is rapidly becoming the Justice Log tag line, Res Ipsa Loquitur.
--
(/) Roland X
"Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope. The death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender." -- the Book of G'Quan

Moonbat Conspiracy Theorists

...yeah, that's us:

This powerful and probing report takes a hard look at the election of 2004 and supports the contention that the election was stolen. The report has received almost no coverage in the national media.

The GAO is the government’s lead investigative agency, and is known for rock-solid integrity and its penetrating and thorough analysis. The agency’s agreement with what have been brushed aside as “conspiracy theories” adds even more weight to the conclusion that the Bush regime has no business in the White House whatever.

Almost a year ago, Rep. John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the GAO to investigate the use of electronic voting machines in the Nov. 2, 2004, presidential election. That request was made as a flood of protests from Ohio and elsewhere deluged Washington with claims that shocking irregularities were common in that vote and were linked to the machines.

...

Online Journal.com reported that the GAO report stated that "some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes."

...

The chief executive of Diebold, one of the major suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren "Wally" O’Dell, went on record in the 2004 campaign vowing to deliver Ohio and the presidency to George W. Bush.

Emphasis mine.

Some of the GAO’s findings are: 1. Some electronic voting machines "did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected." In short, the machines; provided a way to manipulate the outcome of the election. In Ohio, more than 800,000 votes were cast on electronic voting machines, some registered seven times Bush’s official margin of victory.

2: the report further stated that: "it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works, so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate." Very many sworn statements and affidavits claim that did happen in Ohio in 2004.

As some readers may remember from the time.

These findings are even more damning when we understand the election in Ohio was run by a secretary of state who also was co-chairman of Bush’s Ohio campaign. Far from the conclusion of anti-fraud skeptics, the GAO’s findings confirm that the network, which handled 800,000 Ohio votes, was vulnerable enough to permit a handful of purposeful operatives to turn the entire election by means of personal computers using comparatively simple software.

As a recent commenter said, "Res Ipsa Loquitur" (The Thing Speaks For Itself).
--
(/) Roland X
George W. Bush: The only two-term president to lose both elections.
Or: Worst. President. Ever.

Republicans Declare War; Democrats Strike Back

As pretty much everyone who reads this blog no doubt knows, Bush nominated Scalito to replace O'Connor. Not only should this have shored up his base (though there's reason to doubt that he succeeded), it also distracted nicely from the whole Plame game scandal.

Fortunately, Minority Leader Reid was having none of it. In a brilliant piece of political theater, he forced the Senate into a closed session to discuss the virtual rape of pre-war intelligence, which ties back to the Plame scandal, the whole Iraq mess, and why we're trapped there instead of focusing on Al-Qaeda and its vile cousins.

Not that Democrats are necessarily rolling over on Alito, though the early news is discouraging. In spite of Armando's note of optimism, the article in question (warning: it's the NYT, so the link may not be good for long) isn't as promising:

"I have not heard any of my Democratic colleagues in the Gang of 14 talk of using the F-word - filibuster," Mr. Nelson said, adding that he hoped that the coalition ends up playing no role in the Alito nomination. "We would hope that the process would work without requiring anything from us."

Let's just say the article isn't about "give 'em Hell Harry."

Nevertheless, it looks like we're on the brink of total political warfare here. The theocons clearly believe they're about to break Roe v. Wade, and it's equally clear that the plethora of scandals dogging the steps of the GOP make a Democratic resurgence a real possibility in 2006. That would, essentially, put an end to their dreams of theocracy.

The last time the stakes were this high, Robert Kennedy and Rev. King were assassinated. We still won. This may be the last gasp of reactionary madness, but only if we beat it back. Otherwise, we could be looking at The Handmaid's Tale. All the commentary on the nomination indicates that this is the fight the theocons wanted, though they may be unhappy to learn that Alito's anti-choice stand is being heavily downplayed by the White House. Regardless, they got the fight they wanted. It's time to make them regret it.
--
(/) Roland X
Hope is a phoenix

Class Act

George Takei came out of the closet today, or at least the story hit the wires today. Now, I'm one of something like three people for whom Sulu was my favorite character in classic Trek. (I imagine that's about to change. 8^) So for me, this is a bigger deal than most, though as a caveat I feel honor-bound to add that I'm also not as big a Trek fan as most Trekkies. I just have too many interests to get really involved with just one.

Still, this grabbed my attention. I love the character of Hikaru Sulu -- the quirky background character who was more D'Artangan than Bruce Lee (that would have been so easy in the 60s, but Gene had balls the size of suns), quiet and unassuming yet was in command of the Enterprise during what may have been the greatest fleet battle of their time (Organia), and surprisingly multitalented for anybody, let alone a second banana in an old TV series. However, I try to be careful not to idolize actors. While I've always liked George Takei in an abstract sense, I also tend to wait until I see some real evidence of a celebrity's integrity before making a judgement.

Well, I just saw integrity in spades today. To reveal his homosexuality in the current social climate took extraordinary courage, and this quote (found on Wikipedia, though it obviously has a separate origin) shows admirable insight:

"It's not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It's more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen."

From a personal standpoint, Mr. Takei had every reason to just continue living his life quietly -- his revelation involves considerable risk for no tangible gain. He did the right thing solely because it was the right thing to do. I can imagine no higher praise for anyone than to make such a statement about them.

On the other hand, the number of Sulu slash stories is about to explode, so it's not all good. ;^)

Kudos, Mr. Takei, and may you and your partner live long and prosper for many years to come.
--
(/) Roland X
Straight but not narrow

Let Them Eat Cake

No, really.

On Aug. 31, Bahamonde e-mailed Brown to tell him that thousands of evacuees were gathering in the streets with no food or water and that "estimates are many will die within hours."

"Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical," Bahamonde wrote. "The sooner we can get the medical patients out, the sooner we can get them out."

A short time later, Brown's press secretary, Sharon Worthy, wrote colleagues to complain that the FEMA director needed more time to eat dinner at a Baton Rouge restaurant that evening. "He needs much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes," Worthy wrote.

"Restaurants are getting busy," she said. "We now have traffic to encounter to go to and from a location of his choise (sic), followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc. Thank you."

Seriously, this deserves to go down in history right alongside the famous encapsulation of epic, detached cluelessness in the title. I'd go on for quite a while about how horrifically this shows how little those in charge cared about the thousands of (black/poor) people suffering and dying, when it was their job to protect those people...but really, what can I add? This speaks for itself.
--
(/) Roland X
Just when I thought I couldn't be any more disgusted...

Criminalization of (Iraqi) Politics

This article is on the Guardian, but as I write this, it's the top story on Excite:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's election commission announced Monday that officials were investigating ``unusually high'' numbers of ``yes'' votes in about a dozen provinces during Iraq's landmark referendum on a new constitution, raising questions about irregularities in the balloting.

Word of the review came as Sunni Arab leaders repeated accusations of voter fraud after initial reports from the provinces suggested the constitution had passed. Among their allegations were that police took ballot boxes from heavily ``no'' districts, that some ``yes'' areas had more votes than registered voters and that supporters of the charter were allowed to vote in crucial provinces where they do not live.

American-style democracy, indeed. If it's good enough for Bush, it's good enough for the Iranian-backed politicians the Cheniacs support as well.

Honestly, does this surprise anyone? After Florida and Ohio, I find the notion that the administration's party operatives disguising themselves as advisors in Iraq would have the slightest qualm about voter fraud laughable.

The good news: this is actually being covered by the American media. Is our once-pathetic Fourth Estate finally struggling to free itself from bondage, perhaps shaking off (at last!) the Svengali-esque control of Rove and his ilk? Only time will tell.
--
(/) Roland X
Zoe: "It's a fair bet the Alliance is going to know what's coming."
Mal: "No. They're not going to see this coming."

Not Getting It

Jonah Goldberg proves how completely he doesn't get it by getting it this once (linked to Washington Monthly because I try not to link directly to Wingnuttia):

We already know that lots of conservative are skeptical about Harriet Miers, but what's more interesting is the number of conservatives who are turning their guns on George Bush himself. Here's a sampler:

...

Jonah Goldberg: Bush's instincts about where his principles should be are often right. But in this case the principle seems to be that Bush's instincts are principle enough.

The last sentence is all you need to know about both George W. Bush and the rutting morons who have placed their faith in him for the last five years. "The principle seems to be that Bush's instincts are principle enough" is the defining trait of George W. Bush's vision of the presidency. He has no other principles, which is the entire gorram problem.

(Oh, and for the record, I feel compelled to add that the idea of Goldberg's statement about Bush's principles being "often right" is so laughable, given the unbroken string of policy failures this administration has presided over, as to border on self-parody. What, was this culled from the Onion or something?)

Ye gods. I was stunned by the attacks on 9/11 -- I have an uncle who works at the American Stock Exchange about a block away from the site, and my father used to work there -- and even now, I kick myself for the second chance I gave this idiot. The difference is, I learned my lesson (and fast). Liberals and conservatives alike have been making excuses for this shaved chimp for years, like battered wives saying how their abusive husband is "really a good man" and he's just doing what he has to do.

Democrats have to win in 2006 if there is to be any hope for the republic in the foreseeable future, but IMHO it would behoove Republicans to disavow this venal, corrupt administration ASAP. Then again, what do I know? Whenever movement Republicans give Democrats "advice," all I see is them throwing a drowning man an anvil.
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(/) Roland X
Which I must admit, I'm not averse to doing in this situation... *G*

Don't Mince Words

Hunter of Daily Kos tells us what he really thinks of those who prostitute their minds and souls to the evil, corrupt SOBs running our country:

At Blogs For Bush, which bills itself as the Whorehouse... er, "White House" of the Blogosphere, the ever effervescent Mark Noonan writes about the DeLay indictment:

...

This is not the actions of a political Party engaged in seeking a majority - it is the action of a Party determined to destroy its opponents entirely and sieze all power for itself...it is, in short, the stuff from which civil wars are made...

I really do urge our Democrats to step back from the edge - you are sitting in a lake of gasoline and you are playing with fire. We on our side will only put up with so much before we start to pay back with usury what we have received.

...

Mark... may I call you Mark? I feel when someone has shown me the insides of their own rectum, we're pretty much on a first name basis... I have some words for you.

Whitewater. Rush Limbaugh. "Drug Dealer" Bill Clinton. Swift Boats.

Vince Fucking Foster.

Playing with fire, you say? Because the indictments ringing Tom DeLay finally reached up that one, final step from his ring of closest advisers to DeLay himself? Because the SEC has launched a formal investigation into the same behaviors by Bill Frist that put Martha Stewart recently in prison? Because one of the single most visible, highest profile Republican money men has been indicted for fraud, is being investigated for client shakedowns, and has his close business associates being investigated for a mob-connected murder?

What utter cowardice. What pathetic anti-American pedantry. What laughable protestation. The crimes of campaign money laundering, of fraud, of conspiracy, the violation of the laws of the nation, to be answered with stern visions of potential gunfire if Democrats have the audacity to pursue it.

...

Your party has set aflame the entire political landscape, and now, once burned, you warn sternly from the branches of a burnt-out tree about "playing with fire". You used the ashes of one of the great liberal cities of America, New York City, as war paint for your own sick, racist dreams. You shudder at a burning flag, yet are willing to snip-and-cut basic tenets of the Constitution as needed or convenient.

...

Welcome to the world of the politics of personal destruction, you tubthumping, chin-jutting, Bush humping gits. Welcome to the nasty and partisan world that Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and a legion of insignificant lowest-rung toadies like yourselves nurtured into fruition daily with eager, grubby hands, and now look upon with dull-faced faux horror.

...

Step back from the edge? You poor boy, asleep in the back of the car the whole trip, finally waking up and wondering where you're at.

...

You can't even see the edge from here. You left it behind a hundred miles back.

So don't give me chest-thumping crap about civil wars, if your politicians are indicted. Don't give me visions of a lake of fire, if all those who find you loathsome refuse to suck at your teats of scientific ignorance in the name of religion, racism in the name of freedom, and corruption in the name of the New World Order.

Or, as a great playwright once put it:

"Oh? And when the last law was down, and the devil turned round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws being all flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down (and you're just the man to do it) d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"

DeLay has no place left to hide from his crimes, and the poor sods who have sold their souls to this monstrous pack of traitors have no place left to hide from the truth, except in citadels built from the mortar of their own frightened denial. They want to believe that they are righteous when they are only self-righteous, that their leaders are virtuous when they are corrupt, that their beliefs are noble when they are vile, and that all their enemies are cut from the same cloth. Wish as they might, however, John Kerry is not Osama bin Laden and George Bush is not Thomas Jefferson.

I truly do believe that we can alter what is possible through perception and will. But such power comes from wisdom, and whenever someone tries to alter reality from a place of towering hubris, Truth will repay such arrogant folly many times over. They have sown the wind, and now they decry the whirlwind as partisan?

No. This is not backstabbing, revenge, or even justice. This is simple physics: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The madmen who have hijacked the once-noble institutions of the Republican party and the government of the United States have acted with absolute contempt for honesty. The bitter harvest is clear for all with eyes to see: the death and tragedy in Iraq, the return of the drug lords in Afghanistan, the price of blindness and neglect in what was once New Orleans, $3 a gallon gasoline, a government deficit so massive it beggars the imagination and the near-universal hatred of a world that gave us nearly universal, unconditional support a scant four years ago.

And the storm is still just now breaking.

I am saddened that so many -- a full 40 percent of the American people -- still don't want to see the truth. I can't blame them, though. It is something terrible and painful to see, like watching a beloved uncle slowly dying of a cancer he refuses to admit exists. But our Uncle Sam does have a cancer, and only by confronting him with the truth can he be saved. Joining in his denial will only prolong the pain, and if we wait too long, even that mightiest of relatives may perish.

The time to awaken is upon us. Either this country chooses to face the consequences of its leaders' actions, allowing us to begin to face their mistakes, or it will remain blind and embark on a path that ends in a nation indistinguishable from Oceania.

There's just one problem for the would-be Big Brothers of God's Own Party: there is a real resistance out here. We pay attention to facts, rescue the past from the memory hole and continue to point out inconvenient truths. The simplest and most important one is this -- they are not America, no matter how much they pretend to patriotism and decry their enemies as 'anti-American.' We are all America, and their delusional, hateful Frankenstein's monster of corporate mega-greed, xenophobic bigotry, and budding theofascism is only a tiny, insignificant portion of the legendary Melting Pot.

Most Americans would be shocked if they saw it for what it is -- their dropping poll numbers are the result of a few more coming around to the truth all the time -- and the monster is coming apart at the seams. If it weren't, would they be desperately be threatening violence like Chicken Little screaming about the sky falling? Then again, for them, the sky is falling, but it's really just the ceiling of their little bubble of falsehood caving in. And really, what's one more lie among friends after so many?
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(/) Roland X
And the Truth Shall Set Us Free
(those poor bastards are on their own, though)