“Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life’s blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.

“I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

“Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

posted by Michael 12:29 AM

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

The Gospel According to John

From the only guy with a real set of nuts in America, Mr. Conyers:

First, this attempt to tie riots to the Newsweek article stands in stark contrast to the assessment of your own senior military officials. On May 12th, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff had reported on his consultations with the Senior Commander in Afghanistan about whether there was a causal relationship between the Newsweek story and the riots thusly: "[h]e thought it was not at all tied to the article in the magazine." The only conclusion that can be reasonably drawn is that, in contrast to career military officers, political operatives sought to score cheap political points by spreading falsehoods about Newsweek.

Second, there is - of course - a sad irony in this White House claiming that someone else's errors or misjudgments led to the loss of innocent lives. Over 1,600 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives in the Iraq war, a war which your Administration justified by falsely claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. To date, your Administration has consistently blocked Congressional inquiries into whether such claims were the result of intentional manipulation of intelligence or, as you assert, a mere "failure."

Moreover, your loquacious response to this matter stands in stark contrast to your response to a recently released classified memo comprising the minutes of a July 22 meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet which calls into question the credibility of assertions made by your Administration in its drive to war. Among other things the memo indicates that Administration officials were working to ensure that "the intelligence and facts were fixed around the policy," implying that intelligence was deliberately manipulated to prop up the case for war. The memo also indicates, contrary to contemporaneous statements to the American people and the Congress that the President had already "made up his mind to take military action." When asked about this memo, you claimed that you "don't know about the specific memo" - two and one half weeks after its release and ten days after receiving a letter detailing its contents from 89 Members of Congress (which has still not been answered).

Outrage? Hell Yes. Traction? No. The Newsweek deal is prototypical Rove. When the shit flies, man the smoke machines. Divert, blame, project, deny, throw out the Constitution, principles, your children. Anything is fair game.

So what's the game here? What is so friggin important that it overrides every American institution and tradition? I'm with Jerry on this. It's money, honey. The protection of an old world order that has its feet stuck in the tar and is fading fast. You don't think that Big Business hasn't seen the future and found it in Bangalore? You don't think the corporatists don't see a society that's entertained and consumed itself into irrelevance and is manning the lifeboats by sucking out every ounce of weath before the inevitable collapse? You don't think they see the coming workforce of illiterate knuckleheads that we've generated and say, "screw this, we're outta here?"

Get real. The reason these guys persecuted Clinton had nothing to do with blowjobs or partisan politics. It was a survival move. Clinton made the new economy work and demonstrated there is a better America without blatantly feeding the military/oil combine. Those guys had no standing in the Clinton 90s and were scared to death. Almost everything worked. So Billy had to go, so did any vestige of the new world order he ushered in.

So now we're in the middle of the smackdown of cynicism, the ultimate I got mine, fuck y'all attitude that usually comes with legacy wealth and a gimme Yale degree. The rest of this stuff, the evangelical fervor, the erosion of Constitutional rights, the insanity of endless war is despicable, but it's a sideshow.

There are only two real truths in life. Follow the money. Behind every great fortune lies a great crime. Words to live by.

posted by Leftcoast 11:06 PM

The Gameplan

From today's Washpost, yet more insight into the plan to convert us all to Jeebus-diddling Repignicanspawn. See, the government further starves the poor by cutting off secular government funding. The poor, starving, have to go to Repignican-approved churches, which GET federal funding, for assistance in obtaining eats. The churches brainwash the vulnerable into Talibamericans. Ruthless cynicism ruthlessly executed.

Just when I think I can't be scared any further by the depths the repigs will go, viola! And we haven't seen anything yet, I'm afraid.

posted by Blackdogred 3:19 PM

Social Security pop quiz

No need to fill blanks. Not hooked on fonics, just aks yourself, yes or no.

1. Do fewer American workers and employers contribute to Social Security and Medicare when jobs are "outsourced" from the US to China, India and Mexico?

2. Do you hear any "old media" reminding you of that fact?

3. Do the names George Meany, Lane Kirkland, Leonard Woodcock and John Sweeney mean anything to you? If not, you are part of the more than 75% of organized labor who don't know the names of the AFL-CIO leaders who watched and did nothing as Dems and Repigs colluded for four decades to jack America's jobs.

4. Doesn't it make sense to create more full time jobs in the US if we want to have more employers and workers contributing to Social Security and Medicare? And doesn't make sense to create more full time jobs in the US if we want to reduce the "twin towers" of foreign debt and negative trade balance?

5. Did you know that under current AFL-CIO humpty dumpty John Sweeney, the unionized percentage of the US workforce has dropped from 14.5% to less than 8%?

6. Have you ever heard of Andrew Stern and James R. Hoffa, Jr.?

7. Are you aware that Stern is challenging Sweeney's leadership of the AFL-CIO, and that he was "frozen out" of the 2004 Democratic National Convention because he was critical of Crapout Kerry's feeble economic policies.

8. Did you know that both men supported Howard Dean for president of the US?

9. Do you understand the direct connection between the outsourcing of jobs from the US and how having less companies and workers contributing to the "trust fund" sets up the possibility of another funding crisis down the road?

9. Can you imagine what might happen of Stein and Hoffa had enough of a warchest to get serious about organizing Wal-Mart employees?

10. Do you think more jobs would be created for Americans in the US if Howard Dean was the next president of the United States?

posted by Groom 2:31 PM

An Intelligence Test for Americans

A high crime or misdemeanor is:

(a) lying about a half-assed blowjob from a ditzy intern, or;

(b) lying about how, when and why you decided to launch an unnecessary, disasterously planned and poorly executed war that has so far consumed more 1,600 American (and countless other) lives, cost taxpayers more than $200 billion and is about to ignite a bloody civil war that will inflame the entire Middle East?

Take as long as you need to think about it.

posted by Jerry Bowles 1:14 PM

Killing NPR

Got in car to go to work this morning, turn on radio, and both NPR stations here in DC (WETA, WAMU) are in Spring Membership Drive (I hate that euphemism), and my first thought was that it's time to pony-up my fair share (being the responsible person I am). My second thought was of this fat bastard

and of his assigned mission to destroy virtually the last media outpost that isn't a propaganda organ of Bushco, so eff them. My third thought: it's not an accident that Tomlinson has made his agenda public just as virtually every NPR radio station in Absurdistan is going into it's major Spring fundraising drive. Think about this: Repigs will be able to claim simultaneously that the drop in funding (by disaffected Liberals withholding their usual contributions as protest) proves NPR's Liberal bias AND that since funding is down there is no demand for NPR and therefore government funding can be cut.

This is an example, a metaphor, for EVERYTHING the mouthbreathers want. It is an example, a metaphor, for the blueprint the mouthbreathers wish to use to get EVERYTHING they want. And more importantly, it is an example, a metaphor, for EVERYTHING the emmeffing mouthbreathers believe.

UPDATE: The Good General has PBS' evening schedule under Tomlinson. (And you all do have the General bookmarked, right? Thought so.)

posted by Blackdogred 1:00 PM

And Now for Something Completely Different

Another gem from the primeTime sublime Community Orchestra

SONGS THAT WILL NEVER WIN A GRAMMY

The New pTsCO CD brought to YOU by Corporate Blob Records - 8 pop songs (and 1 instrumental) subverted beyond the commercial realm. All the vocals were digitally manufactured with an IBM personal computer and the latest voice synthesis technology developed by AT&T and the Yamaha Corporation. Mastering by Andy VanDette at Masterdisk Studios, New York City.

YOU GET:

- Curb Your God
The Grand Opening Number featuring 7 singers advocating the virtues of limiting the influence of one¹s External Transcendent Moral Authority. (well, maybe not) Note the quotes: a fragment of What the World Needs Now by Burt Bacharach sung by a robot and the Ken-L-Ration Dog Food Jingle ("My Dog's Better Than Your Dog...") which occurs during the last section in the low brass.

- I Want You
A love song - a sort of pathologically obsessed recomposition beyond recognition of Billy Joel's I Love You Just The Way You Are with Sting's Every Breath You Take. (well, maybe not)

- Betty Poptarts
The ballad of the record with contributions by Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton, both George Bushes, a group of TV commercial announcers, some evangelist I can¹t remember the name of, Betty and Ken. Refers to those individuals who look for paths to happiness outside of themselves in ideas of a political, religious or materialistic nature, pre-organized for effortless convenience which enables one to escape from the real issues which are within oneself.

- Lesson 1
English as a 2nd language for nonearthlings taught by native speakers.

- Dance of the Bouncing Hornballs
A kind-of-but-not-really interlude: the instrumental track of the record.

- Just Do Me Tonight
Picture if you will, a man, a lonely man who sits at the same seat in the same neighborhood bar night after night. He doesn¹t have many friends and is unable to give or receive love - a junkyard of memories and unresolved emotions. At the end of the night he "scores" with a big, boobed, blonde bimbo from Brooklyn. Recorded live in the lounge at Murphy¹s Sea Bay Inn, Normandy Beach, New Jersey.

- Hannibal Lecter¹s BBQ
Progressive Rock so progressive it isn¹t Rock anymore. What if Hannibal Lecter invited you over for a neighborhood barbeque one sunny, Saturday afternoon?

- Rainbow Seeds of Mass Destruction
What if Samuel Beckett wrote a screenplay for a Disney movie about a cockroach who became president? A song of political propaganda gone awry. The line "Jesus was a Republican" got edited out for aesthetic, not religious or political reasons. The 2nd half is an electronic soundscape of a nuclear fallout with TV commercial announcements. Advertising of commodities during nuclear fallout may seem absurd to most; but remember: comparable to the World Cup or the Super Bowl, Armageddon will be televised and commercial time will be very expensive.

- It Will Be Over Before Ya Know It
An inspirational song of joy and hope designed to uplift the wrinkled hearts of the masses and create eternal peace, love and understanding throughout the world and its neighbors. (well, maybe not)

Listen to samples.

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:45 AM

Get Over It

Kos and Atrios have both weighed in on the NYT’s decision to start charging for its Op-Ed columns (and other content) instead of having these columns available for free for anyone who signs in on its site. Atrios is calling it “the worst business decision ever,” move over the Edsel and “new Coke,” and believes the Times will live to regret this decision.

Let me clue them both: the expense involved with keeping media infrastructure as vast and, yes, reliable as the New York Times is overwhelming. We bloggers get to let our free flags fly, having occasional fund-raisers, charging a couple of bucks for banners, but where would we be if the New York Times didn’t give us original fodder for our posts? And what, pray tell, is the business model that supports a network of overseas bureaus if it is not supported by either: one, advertising, which for print at the moment is suffering a long and painful decline; or two, individual subscriptions? Do you want Richard Melon Scaife to foot the bills? Or Buschco?

So bloggers, cough it up. Besides, it will give you the pleasure of sending the online subscription department a threat to cancel each time Bobo gives you his red state, blue state “insights.”

posted by Evelyn 11:45 AM

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Nurse Frist and Harry Reid have stopped talking. The rumble is on. Reid has scheduled a conference call strategy briefing tomorrow, May 18, at 11:45 a.m. Eastern time (8:45 a.m. Pacific). You can listen in and ask questions here.

http://www.democrats.org/briefingcall

Hot damn, this could be a lot of fun.

posted by Jerry Bowles 7:49 AM

Tom DeLay wants you unchurched Yankees to get cancer and die

When Newsweek publishes a badly sourced (but not necessarily untrue) story about desecration of the Quran at Gitmo millions of Islamists riot and dozens advance to the heavens. When the Saudi-owned Texas manufacturer of cancer causing gasoline additive MTBE spends $1.5 million to lobby Congress and leans on the Tom DeLay to shield producers from liabilities brain-dead America doesn’t bat an eyelash. Concerned that they would face stiff penalties and a loss of business, the Riyadh-based company SABIC, which is,effectively, a Saudi government (thus owned by the royals)industry, hired the lobbying firm of Miller & Chevalier to massage Congress. Their client list includes Wal-Mart, Envirocare of Utah, French nuclear giant Framatome, and Advanced Micro Devices, among others. Bandar’s pals then bought more influence, building a “research and development center” in DeLay’s home base, Sugarland, Texas. SABIC claims to be the largest non-oil company in the Middle East (what happened to The Bin Laden Group?).

The sad part of all this is that there would be no need for MTBE as a fuel additive if the federal government rationalized the shipping cost of “made in the USA” ethanol additives from “Corn Belt” states in the Midwest to New England and the Mid Atlantic states where they are most needed. MTBE came into the picture big time because some in new math victims in Congress and in successive White House administrations somehow concluded that it was "too expensive" to ship ethanol from the Midwest to the East Coast. Funny, how come it isn't too expensive to ship oil from Saudi Arabia to the US? But since Lord Cheney is the Junta COO, too much ethanol would be "bad for business" and Tatalej Greenspan would raise an eyebrow and say "too much ethanol might dampen the positive effect of free market forces.” But the dirty little secret is that going "all in" with ethanol would provide the economic juice to turn a few key Red states Blue.

The folks along the I-95 corridor between Bayonne and Bangor don’t call it “cancer alley” for nothin’. By the time New England GOP senators filibuster this puppy to death it will be time to change the name of I-95 to the Tom DeLay Carcinogenic Highway. One more reason that Nurse Frist's "nuclear option" is nothing but a limp noodle on a bull elephant.

posted by Groom 3:35 AM

Monday, May 16, 2005

Blue state journalist in search of red state stories

For those trying to get a handle on Red state thinking, one useful source is Rose Aquilar's Stories in America blog. The top of the blog description reads,

Journalist Rose Aguilar leaves the liberal bubble of San Francisco to bring you personal stories from people living in states that overwhelmingly voted for George W. Bush for President.

Having just returned to Japan from my wife's mother's funeral in New Haven, Indiana, I am not terribly surprised by what I read here. I note, in particular, the following exchange,

Are you a fan of the President?

Jane: Yes, I like him.

What do you like about him?

Jane: He's just a friendly, outgoing person and I like the fact that he does admit that he has a faith in God and that he seeks his will and I think that's what we need for our country. We have turned from what our country was founded on and we have gone to the other extreme as a country.

Which is what?

Jane: To just whatever anybody wants to do. There are no guidelines; there are no rules. We have a friend in Arizona who was appointed a federal judge several years ago and the only thing that they could find wrong with him was that he was an active Christian and I think that's wrong. I think we should be allowed and not be criticized for our faith. I think Bush is criticized for it.

To folks like Jane a friendly, outgoing personality and faith in God trumps all concern with particular issues. They seek stability in a world where, it appears, rules no longer apply. They feel that their faith is despised and look for leaders who seem to share it—not, I observe, those who appear to pander to it.

posted by John 11:42 PM

Rope-A-Dope over GitmoKoranGate

Can one hope that the publishing company that brought us Woodward and Bernstein will eventually rise from its knees and call out the team that wants to destroy a free press in this country? Further, does anyone wonder if Michael Isikoff is regretting all the time he spent on the “real” story of pursuing semen-stained Gap dresses?

Juan Cole is excellent on the Newsweek flap/apology. Good quote here:

As a professional historian, I would say we still do not have enough to be sure that the Koran desecration incident took place. We have enough to consider it plausible. Anyway, the important thing politically is that some Muslims have found it plausible, and their outrage cannot be effectively dealt with by simple denial. That is why I say that Bush should just come out and say we can't be sure that it happened, but if it did it was an excess, and he apologizes if it did happen, and will make sure it doesn't happen again (if it did).

posted by Evelyn 12:56 PM

What's It All About, Karl?

Business. It's about business. The business of the Bush administration--Dick Cheney, COO--is business. These guys don't give a rat's ass about the evangelicals and their homophobia and their pro-life (except for the death penalty)agenda. The Jesus Freaks are marks, easily led by cheap emotion and useful in building an electoral majority. The reason the Bushies want the judges they've nominated is not because they are social conservatives; it is because they are pro-business judicial activists who will allow industry (especially the energy industry)to rape and pillage the world without the burden of paying decent wages, providing a safety net for workers, or meeting minimum environmental standards. Everything else is a distraction from the true agenda.

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:51 AM

Vets Health Care Access Hijack Alert! Email your Congressman

With the nation deeply divided over the “nuclear option” and the nomination of John “Holmes” Bolton you might get the impression that Harry Reid, Nurse Frist, Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Crapout Kerry and the even the Swifties no longer have anything in common as Americans. But they’re all veterans and if they tried today to get an appointment to see their VA health care provider their chances would be as good as winning the lottery.

In one malicious, underreported stroke, the nation’s largest public health system- 10 million patients, 1300 hospitals and ambulatory care centers- has eliminated the ability of its patient population to schedule appointments with their primary care provider. With the VA’s new “Advanced Clinic Access” (ACA) system no veteran can make an appointment in advance; you call at 8AM the same day and depending on the wait time in the phone tree, you might get one of the 6 or 8 appointment slots the VA makes available at your primary care location. If the telephone clerk isn’t having a bad hair day you might be told to call back at 1PM to see if any of the afternoon slots have had “cancellations.” Can’t get an appointment. Can’t schedule one in advance. You are told to call back at 8AM the next day to try for one of those slots. It’s the equivalent of turning on the TV at 10PM and watching air blow six lottery balls into six slots and checking to see if you’ve won. The only difference is that you’re gambling with your health and the Bushco VA- where no class conflict is left behind- has rigged the odds. It’s not about the quality of VA health care service; it’s about 10 million patients losing the ability of having the peace of mind of knowing when they can gain access to it. If you’re not one of those six or maybe eight lottery balls that pop up at 8AM each morning at your location its access denied.

The VA will spend $33.4 billion of its $70 billion FY 2006 budget on health care. Offering excellent care with modest copays and no copays for veterans with low incomes the VA patient population is exploding. With today’s economic shakeout and for-profit “managed care” shops like Nurse Frist’s family cashbox, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) upping the ante, middle class veterans who a decade ago would have had found it socially unacceptable telling their wife and kids and coworkers they were using VA are flocking to the system.

According to the blablazo of VA collateral material, "ACA is a national initiative being implemented to reduce wait times and improve veteran’s access to quality care. The ultimate goal is for every patient to be able to obtain medical care when needed, at a time and setting that is clinically appropriate and convenient to the patient. ACA means your provider will have appointments available on a daily basis to better meet your same day needs." GL comment: appointments have always been available on a daily basis, scheduled in advance thus providing the patient the comfort of knowing when he or she will next visit their provider. Now, all appointments are the same day because the VA only provides appointments for what they call “same day needs.” Urgent problem, annual checkup, or routine appointment, fuhgeddaboudit. Call on the same day and become another lottery ball. Even though the VA public relations machine has been working overtime to sugarcoat the reality of the system, most vets either don't understand it, are mad as hell and don't know what to do about it because it's being rammed down their throats, aren't even aware that its been implemented, or are so accustomed to red tape that they default and accept whatever is being offered. What's being offered is the opportunity to go find healthcare elsewhere.

ACA scheduling encourages patients to call in on the same day, only when they need to be seen. Try and be a walk-in, a VA cop with a gun and some mace will escort you out to your car in the parking lot. Does Jim Ray in Stuttgart, Arkansas, cleaning his Colt 44 magnum, know when to be seen? What about Arnulfo, who's busy separating stems and seeds down in Rio Grande City, Texas? Or Roberta Jo, who was in Desert Storm and earns money making home-made meth in Garden City, Kansas? Or old Sourdough Slim, who got a Purple Heart in Korea, and runs a lapidary shop in the retirement haven of Quartzite, Arizona? The bottom line is most VA patients don’t know when to be seen. Don't know when they need to be tested for prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, heart disease. That's why doctors schedule appointments in advance in the first place. All that has gone by the wayside. Tell Senator Kerry or Congresswoman Harman or Senator McCain that by the time you make it through the phone tree and become on of the lottery balls that gets a same day appointment, it could be too late. They won't have the same problem. They're in high cotton.

Meanwhile, over at Nurse Frist’s HCA, the nation’s leading for-profit health care provider, the motto is “it’s about caring, it’s about access… you don’t want to wait.” HCA earned $1.24 billion on reported revenues of $23.5 billion. They operate 190 hospitals and 90 outpatient centers in 23 US states, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. They must be telling the truth because TV star Judge Judy Hatchett is on their board of directors. By the way, the "advanced" clinic access program was first developed by Kaiser-Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, in California and borrowed by the VA. When you call your VA to schedule a same day appointment on the same day, the first thing the voice prompt tells you that is that if you have an emergency to call 911. Write your congressman and senator before you die waiting for some "Advanced Care Access".

posted by Groom 4:21 AM

Sunday, May 15, 2005

The Walrus And The Bullshitter

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of wives--and clubs--and oil-for-food--
Of neocon unborns--
And why my moods are boiling hot--
And why Iran has horns."

"But wait a bit," the Senate cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Bullshitter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A lot of smoke," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Piss and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Senators dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" Senators cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?"

If Bolton gets in at the UN (a proposition now getting 50/50 odds), Bush will have bought an insurance policy against impeachment: War with Iran and/or North Korea. And no worries about being dogged by a free press; experience shows that the rationales and lies can always be fixed around the war crimes.

posted by Michael 8:04 PM

Today's Reading Assignment

Mark Lilla, on religion and America and American politics, in today's NYT Book Review.

posted by Blackdogred 5:04 PM

Meanwhile, in Colombia

Three billion dollars buys about two weeks of war in Iraq. But it's enough US military aid to put Colombia right behind Israel and Egypt on the goodie list. In the name of the "war on drugs" of course. A hit of crack cocaine (or what passes for it) still costs less than a #4 value meal at the corner of 62nd and Cottage Grove in Chicago. Now, on the heels of a Rice-a-roni visit, the government of butcher boy Alvaro Uribe is doing the drug lords a nice little mitzva "reducing" the criminal charges against top right wing narcoterrorists who control one third of his country and about the same portion of the federal legislature, letting them continue their wicked ways and avoid extradition to the United States. Just one more way a good Harvard eduction can help you move product. Drop a couple dimes on me at the Yale game, Alvaro.

posted by Groom 2:51 PM

The Big Lie (Continued)

"This war came to us, not the other way around. The United States, along with the rest of the free world, believed somehow for a number of years that people in this region didn't care about freedom. We cared about stability. And what we got was neither. We got a malignancy that was growing that came to haunt us on the fine September day in 2001." War criminal Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad yesterday.

It's 1984. Do you know where your sons and daughters and spouses are?

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:26 AM

A Traitor In Our Midst:
George Bush “Wins” on Social Security

Congressman Robert Wexler, who represents the Palm Beach and Broward County areas of Florida, just handed Bush and the Republicans what they have been longing for on the Social Security debate—one Democrat, just one, to support a change in the system so they could claim “bipartisan” support for their mischief. Wexler, breaking ranks with the heretofore disciplined Democrats, has made their day. There ought to be a way to kick him out of the party and strip him of his Democratic credentials!

And we wonder why the Democrats are sucking wind, among other things. This potty has zero discipline when it counts. And in Wexler’s case, this isn’t a matter of principle, it’s a matter of narcissism, bennies from the White House, and more air time on the talk shows.

posted by Josh 9:24 AM

Osama’s hidden agenda

Since Bandar can no longer suppress the fact that most of the insurgents in Iraq are Saudi citizens- just like the 9/11 terror teams- it’s time to ask the question that nobody wants to ask. Why are these Wahhabi zealots disrupting the “democratization” of Iraq rather than overthrowing the royals at home? What’s the motivation? It’s the call of Osama. Not much different than when, three decades ago, Fidel sent his best general and top political rival Gen. Ochoa and 50,000 crack Soviet-trained Cuban troops up the river of no return in Angola. Threat reduction. Since the Junta and the House of Bush are the guarantors of global “energy security” and the protectors of the House of Saud why not let US taxpayers pick up the tab to “contain” Saudi/Wahhabi adventurism in Iraq, Indonesia, and the Philippines and elsewhere around the globe. If the Junta were to eliminate Osama they would be facilitating the collapse of the House of Saud since, without his charismatic presence, the focus of the zealots would shift back to the toppling royals at home. Are the Tora-Bora caves really the Grassy Knoll in disguise?

posted by Groom 8:04 AM