"Oh My God, Not The Secret Service, Damn It"

Uh, where were you when there was outrage over the Bush era criminal activities?

President Barack Obama, speaking for the first time about allegations that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes, said Sunday that "of course I'll be angry" if those accusations are proven true by an investigation.

Obama said the agents represent the United States and are supposed to conduct themselves with the highest levels of dignity anywhere in the world. "Obviously, what's been reported doesn't match up to those standards," Obama said in a news conference wrapping his appearance at a Latin America summit.

Ah, the faux outrage!

Recess Appointment Invalid? Give Me A Break!

"I can't imagine how anybody could maintain under the circumstances that your appointment and your service is valid," Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) told Cordray at Tuesday's hearing. "And I can't imagine then … how the actions you are taking will be upheld, and I think that's a very, very serious consequence for our nation."

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said: "There's no question there's going to be constitutional challenges" to Cordray's appointment.

Cordray said he and his staff have discussed the potential for legal challenges to the appointment by businesses affected by any new rules. But Cordray said it wasn't clear whether those challenges would succeed and that he believed the appointment was valid.

"I have been appointed as director," Cordray said. "There may be issues about that … but I now have legal obligations I'm supposed to carry out for this bureau. I'm going to do that."

The Republicans are all up in arms about this particular recess appointment. I find their complaints to be incredibly bogus when one first considers how many recess appointments Bush made, and second, how we had endure the fucking idiocy of John Bolton's recess appointment as the American representative to the United Nations. The man with the most reckless mouth in history at the UN (shaking head).

Republicans need to shut the fuck up. They are running in circles nowadays, and quite frankly, the rhetoric is just not convincing too many outside of the viewers of Fox News (all three million of them, in a country of 350 million people). Yawn .....

Let's Really Honor The Vets This Year - Donate

As we remember the fallen veterans that have served this country over the years, let us not forget what the Bush administration has done to our current set of vets coming back from "the war on terror."

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of portions of troops’ remains by cremating them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burial at sea.

The mortuary in Delaware, the main point of entry for the nation’s war dead and the target of federal investigations of alleged mishandling of remains, engaged in the practice from 2003 to 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was not disclosed to relatives of fallen service members.

Courtesy of The Washington Post.

Thousands of veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding a grim job market. Veterans who served since 9/11 experience a 12.1% unemployment rate, which is higher than the national average, while one in three male veterans are jobless.

Courtesy of Think Progress.

Let's keep Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen in our minds this day, as we begin to understand why the many veterans of Bush's "war on terror" support the Occupy movement.

The Secret Bipartisanship Of The Patriot Act

I was having a conversation with someone at my local watering hole last Friday, and when I indicated my dislike for the current president, he nearly went apoplectic on me! When he asked me why, and I started to explain all of the things that Obama has failed to accomplish when compared to what he campaigned on, I got the regular meme recited back to me that most liberals and progressives chant. That being the statement that Obama (1) has done incredible things and (2) what he hasn't been able to accomplish is because his "hands are tied" by Congress. He even said something akin to "after all, he's only the President."

I started to delineate all the areas of compromise made by the President, mostly with himself and the Democratic party, and the faux bipartisanship the Obama administration believes they have accomplished.

Actually, there is an interesting piece by, you guessed it, Glenn Greenwald, on the actual bipartisanship that exists up on the Hill.

First, consider what Democrats and Republicans just jointly did with regard to the Patriot Act, the very naming of which once sent progressives into spasms of vocal protest and which long served as the symbolic shorthand for Bush/Cheney post-9/11 radicalism:

[snip]

This will be the second time that the Democratic Congress -- with the support of President Obama (who once pretended to favor reforms) -- has extended the Patriot Act without any changes. And note the rationale for why it was done in secret bipartisan meetings: to ensure "as little debate as possible" and "to avoid a protracted and familiar argument over the expanded power the law gives to the government." Indeed, we wouldn't want to have any messy, unpleasant democratic debates over "the expanded power the law gives to the government." Here we find yet again the central myth of our political culture: that there is too little bipartisanship when the truth is there is little in Washington but that. And here we also find -- yet again -- that the killing of Osama bin Laden is being exploited to justify a continuation, rather than a reduction, in the powers of the National Security and Surveillance States.

How's that "transparency" campaign promise working out for America? When Obama campaigned on this rhetoric, and when he especially spoke distastefully about The Patriot Act, it is no wonder that his Administration works "in bipartisanship fashion" secretly to not only extend this horrible assault on American's rights, but enhance it to include spying on American's internet and mobile phone usage. And someone on another blog had the audacity to criticize me for mentioning a thought I had about moving to China ... as if only in China and countries like China, have privacy rights been trampled on!

So first they conspire with the GOP to extend the Patriot Act without any reforms, then seek to expand its most controversial and invasive provisions to obtain the Internet activities of American citizens without having to bother with a subpoena or judicial approval -- "they" being the Democratic White House.

And people actually want to argue with me that this President is better than not only what we had for the past 8 years with Bush, but will continue to be better than what the "other side" will put up in 2012 for votes?

The way a republic is supposed to function is that there is transparency for those who wield public power and privacy for private citizens. The National Security State has reversed that dynamic completely, so that the Government (comprised of the consortium of public agencies and their private-sector "partners") knows virtually everything about what citizens do, but citizens know virtually nothing about what they do (which is why WikiLeaks specifically and whistleblowers generally, as one of the very few remaining instruments for subverting that wall of secrecy, are so threatening to them). Fortified by always-growing secrecy weapons, everything they do is secret -- including even the "laws" they secretly invent to authorize their actions -- while everything you do is open to inspection, surveillance and monitoring.

China or America - spying on its citizens is just another job by the government. You tell me where the difference is.

Hey, Anderson Cooper, What About The Lies WE'VE BEEN TOLD BY OUR LEADERS?

I find it extremely interesting that CNN through Anderson Cooper's 360 program, is aggressively calling out Egypt's hypocrisy, the dictatorship's lies, the government's thugs, etc. Interesting, because, I do not see this same aggressiveness toward Bush, the neocons and the Republican party in general, for the totalitarianism of its eight year rule that brought us two unfunded wars which have driven this country into financial ruin. Why isn't Mr. Cooper as angry over the lies and overtly and well debunked statements (Iraq had WMD, Iraq and Al-Qaida were in bed, spying on Americans is for our safety, just to name a small fraction of the bullshit) thrown at us as a people of this country)?

What makes this even more interesting is just how much America has been in bed with Mubarak. Even who or what takes over, if Mubarak can be dethroned and his vice president also banished, is this country still going to use thuggery and continue its ease in taking anyone the U.S. wants to disappear, and do the dirty work for this country?

In a way, I wish the people of America really were concerned with this, because lessons in a peaceful overthrowing of dictatorship is something Americans need to learn and understand. Our own government acts with repression of rights, with controlling market prices, enriching the rich at the expense of the shrinking middle class and the poor. The uber rich and those that surround them in America are no better than Mubarak and his regime.

Obama Administration Not In Line With Moratorium On Foreclosures

What a stupid, pompous and Bush like stance, coming out of the White House.

White House senior adviser David Axelrod signaled Sunday that the Obama administration is opposed to a national moratorium on foreclosures, even as pressure from Congress, labor unions and consumer groups mounts for the federal government to take action.

Calling the growing evidence that lenders have used inaccurately prepared and even fraudulent documents to foreclose on homes a "serious problem," Axelrod said it had already "thrown a lot of uncertainty into the housing market that is already fragile."

"I'm not sure about a national moratorium, because there are, in fact, valid foreclosures that probably should go forward, and where the documentation and paperwork is proper," Axelrod said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Tell me again, why I should support this administration and vote this election?

[cricket sounds]

Even with the mounting evidence of bank fraud in foreclosures, and with several banks (BofA for one) completely putting a hold on all foreclosures in all 50 states, THIS ADMINISTRATION "is not sure" that is the best way to go? For whom? The banks, of course. This is an administration, to be sure, that has NOT GOT IT'S PRIORITIES set to help the people. Please, please, don't be caught up in the orations of the President. Don't get fooled because he can talk in complete sentences and Bush couldn't. Their goals are one and the same, and these past two years shows that ... in fact, it shows the Obama Administration taking Bush's position to the extreme. Government transparency? Check. Health care for all (with public option)? Check. I have repeated this shit over and over, so no need to go into the record again. We all know Obama and friends ain't all that.

UPDATE: From the great Glenn Greenwald:

"...there is no shortage of Democrats and progressives who hurled all sorts of accusatory rhetoric at Bush and Cheney for -- as Hayden put it -- "state secrets, targeted killings, indefinite detention, renditions, the opposition to extending the right of habeas corpus to prisoners," etc., yet now either turn a blind eye to or actively defend Obama as he does exactly the same thing, and sometimes worse."

Long piece, but precisely what is in my head that I can't bang out on the computer any better.

We Just Need To "Buck Up" So The President Says

Admonishing his own party, President Barack Obama says it would be "inexcusable" and "irresponsible" for unenthusiastic Democratic voters to sit out the midterm elections, warning that the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years.

"People need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up," Obama told Rolling Stone in an interview to be published Friday. The president told Democrats that making change happen is hard and "if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place."

Sorry dude, but I think you've got the story backwards. YOU need to shake off this lethargy and get YOUR ass to work! We, the ones you keep wanting to make go away, but want to vote Democratic party ticket anyway, we got you and the majorities into the House, Senate and White House. We did that, Mr. President, and now you tell us to be satisfied with what little you have accomplished because it is "hard?" Hmmmm, now where have I heard before that being president is "hard" work? Oh yeah, that was Bush's favorite line, wasn't it!

And to now use the phrase that we want to take our ball and go home, that's just hitting below the belt to YOUR OWN minions, prezzie darling. You really just fucking lost the last few of those that were still trying to convince the rest of us to just give you another chance. Name calling, in this age of politics, is for the other side, damn you, not to be used against those that have expressed frustration that you are simply a loser at being president, and that you have NOT, let me repeat, NOT done what you said you would do. Don't throw that piece of shit health care at me because you and I and most of the progressives know you caved in from day one, and never ever tried to put the bill out there that we all NEEDED, let alone wanted. Don't toss out the stimulus package as an accomplishment, because we all KNOW it was TOO LITTLE and was only a band aid on what is yet to come. Catering to big business on all levels over WE progressives is an insult, and you sir, can reap the rewards of that insult. Go ahead and count on your corporate dollars, cuz they ain't gonna do shit when it comes time to actually vote ... we the PEOPLE have to actually submit a ballot, not your corporate donors. So you suck it up.

Prez, old buddy, we are sitting this one out, and tough shit for you and your corporate cronies. Not a dime has been coming into your coffers from we out here in fringe land as you like to call us while your hand is out begging. Nada dollars and nada votes. Remember, as John reminded readers, Bush got his agenda passed quite regularly, and he did it with 50 to 55 votes! So this excuse of a "super majority" problem isn't going over well with those of us that fucking gave you the damn 60 you needed! Don't you get it at all? We gave you the power to push the agenda, and YOU FUCKING CAVED at each and every battle. Sure you talk a good talk, but you ain't walked the good walk ... and now a lot of you will be walking ... bye bye.

If I'm going to be lied to, have my privacy invaded, be asked to agree to Democratic positions just because that is what the "party" has decided it stands for, etc., I might as well go back to letting the idiots run the show. At least when we go down the drain, we can blame it on them, because right now, the stink is all over you, Obama, and your entire majority in the House and in the Senate. It was your one and only chance to do something great, and just like most rookie quarterbacks, you called the wrong calls, threw the ball short, and your coach (ahem, Rahm, ahem) have called for punting way too fucking much.

Good luck trying to pry us from sitting on our hands this year. You dealt this hand of cards, and it's just too bad for you that the progressives are not going to ante up in this election.

"Stop Whining?" WTF?

This is, I believe, the third time that Obama (twice) and Biden (once) have recently belittled the Democratic base heading into this election. It's now clearly a White House strategy, for at least its wealthiest fundraisers, to knock the base of the party. That base would include labor, Latinos, gays, women, environmentalists, health care advocates, and more.

[snip]

The President, rather famously, routinely refuses to stand up to conservative Democrats and Republicans, and it's likely the primary reason we're about to lose the House. The President insisted on compromising out the gate on the stimulus - rather than asking for the amount of money we needed, he asked for half, then gave another 35% away in near-useless tax cuts, cutting the impact of the emergency legislation even further. The entire country, all of us with friends and family members currently out of a job, are paying dearly for this mistake. So for him and his to tell us and ours to stop whining is pretty pathetic. It's also a pretty idiotic strategy a month out from a crucial election.

John keeps hitting the nail on the head on this one, and I concur. I do not understand the abusive tone from the White House concerning the progressives, the GLBT groups, minorities, etc. And, if that was not enough, I get hit over the head from the "other" side of the progressive agenda (you know, the DK group) to just hold my nose and vote for the Democrats in my voting pool because, you know, they are better than the Republicans. Ya think?

How's this for NOT being better than the Republicans. From Glenn Greenwald:

At this point, I didn't believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record. In response to the lawsuit filed by Anwar Awlaki's father asking a court to enjoin the President from assassinating his son, a U.S. citizen, without any due process, the administration late last night, according to The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to dismiss the lawsuit without hearing the merits of the claims. That's not surprising: both the Bush and Obama administrations have repeatedly insisted that their secret conduct is legal but nonetheless urge courts not to even rule on its legality. But what's most notable here is that one of the arguments the Obama DOJ raises to demand dismissal of this lawsuit is "state secrets": in other words, not only does the President have the right to sentence Americans to death with no due process or charges of any kind, but his decisions as to who will be killed and why he wants them dead are "state secrets," and thus no court may adjudicate their legality.

Kind of makes me sick to my stomach to know that the President I voted for, and actually had such high hopes that he would be so much more different than the Bush regime, turns out to be actually far worse than Bush. I know, I am shaking my head at that, because it's so obscene, but I personally believe it to be true. Bush's administration knew they were fucking with civil liberties and all that, but at least they tried to hide it. Obama's administration is just in your fucking face with the same crap of arguments that Bush's team threw out.

I'm stymied at this, for sure, and there is absolutely no way in hell I'm putting any more Democrats in office. Let the Republicans take over. At least we know they are nutjobs (most of them). We expect more from Democrats. We expect more from the so called liberals we elect.

I'm not eating the pablum any more. I'm done with it. Let this country go to hell, because we can't fix it if our only choices are "more of the same, please" regardless of party!

Gonna go back to my football game, and try to stay cool! Hey, just noticed the temperature dropped to 95! Yippee! This calls for an early cocktail, ahem.

So, Who Actually Buys The Government's Statement That 75% Of The Gulf Spill Is Gone?

I'm really having a difficult time understanding the Obama administration's position with regard to the BP oil spill. At each and every step in what should have been a government controlled investigation, the Obama administration sidestepped the issue and allowed BP to call all the shots.

Now, the government is saying that "all is good," that 75% of the oil has been cleaned up, and in proving that the water is safe, Obama even orchestrated a photo op with his daughter and him in the water off the coast of Florida!

What part of all of the above reminds you of Bush, his "good work, Brownie" comment, and his planned photo op with firemen in NOLA after Katrina?

Yep, all of the above, gosh darn it! No one has been allowed to investigate, tabulate, videotape, explore, examine, view, work at, work with, work for, or even fucking view the spill site unless you either "work" for BP (wherein you signed a document that says you'll be fired if you so much as sigh in the direction of media, and probably contains a lot worse, but I can't say for sure right now, except I would not put it past BP to have a "we'll sue you" clause in it as well), or your are controlled by our corporate government, which of course, means again, you work for BP and not the American people.

Just like the Bush administration refused to let reporters into the really bad areas of NOLA, how they controlled the "reports" of the levees being fixed, and withheld pertinent information about the trailers they tried to herd NOLA residents in (especially those from the Ninth Ward), and basically ignored anyone's opinion about the conditions that didn't work for the inner circle of the Bushies. It was all about "the right party" during that era, and making sure that all the public agencies were staffed by those that bought the party agenda, and regurgitated it verbatim.

Now, with our new and viewer friendly president, whom we expected "change" in how government was going to be run, is pulling the same shit as the Bush administration did! No transparency, no cracking down on the parties responsible, no real investigation, and whooooaaaa nellie, the unbelievable cover-up of the depth of the disaster such that Obama was willing to put his own daughter at risk by actually getting into that seriously infested water. That's a mind blower to me.

Is our president really that beholding to major, non-American corporations, and to the bloody oil money, that he'd put the entire American population at risk just so that BP can "save some money?" This doesn't just impact the gulf area, we are talking about saying it is ok to fish and SELL the fucking fish and EAT the fucking fish (and shellfish) that are in these waters, when they don't even have a test to determine the toxicity of the Corexit used to disperse the oil? They are relying on SMELLING THE FISH? You have got to be kidding me.

You put tainted fish into the open markets across America, and you have no clue the level of contamination contained, and that's ok with you as POTUS? Wow ...

I realize that Obama hasn't lived up to his various promises such as comprehensive health care reform, repealing DADT, rejecting DOMA, closing Gitmo, having an open and transparent government, etc. But to literally put the entire American population at risk by falsely claiming that 75% of the oil has been cleaned up from the Gulf is not about not living up to any promise, but is a clear and deliberate act to expose the American people to real danger at the expense of allowing a corporation to skate through. That's pretty darn bad.

When it is factually provable that Alaska has not fully recovered from the Exxon Valdez oil spill many moons ago, it is not believable that a spill that was so much larger and dangerous by the tenfold than Exxon Valdez, magically in a few months, has just cleaned itself up! This is horse pucky as my grandfather would say. I am just amazed that these statements can come from the Obama administration, and that they don't feel any sense of duty to humanity to double down on the safety factor. No, it's business as usual. Drill some more, it's ok, there's no oil here ...

We should start a campaign to send Obama and his family fish caught from the Gulf waters on a daily basis and see just how much of it he eats, or he allows his family to eat. Any takers? Any guesses as to whether or not he'll actually eat anything caught in those still contaminated waters?

Uh huh. I thought so.

I'm With Julian Assange - Keep The Light Shining On Our Actions

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Friday that he was disappointed by criticism from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates over the release of about 76,000 pages of U.S. documents related to the war in Afghanistan.

Gates said Thursday that the massive leak will have significant impact on troops and allies, revealing techniques and procedures.

Assange rejected that assessment Friday, saying in a release that Gates "has overseen the killings of thousands of children and adults" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[snip]

"Secretary Gates could have used his time, as other nations have done, to announce a broad inquiry into these killings," the statement said. "He could have announced specific criminal investigations into the deaths we have exposed. He could have announced a panel to hear the heartfelt dissent of U.S. soldiers, who know this war from the ground. He could have apologized to the Afghani people.

"But he did none of these things. He decided to treat these issues and the countries affected by them with contempt. Instead of explaining how he would address these issues, he decided to announce how he would suppress them.

"This behavior is unacceptable. We will not be suppressed. We will continue to expose abuses by this administration and others."

It is these types of stories, well not really stories, real things is better, that get me pissed off the most about Obama and his presidency. I am pretty fucking sure that most of us that voted for Obama actually thought he would pull down troops, bring out soldiers home, and end these two ridiculous and unwinable wars. Most of us, again I am sure, did not in our wildest imagination figure that he would increase the number of troops in Afghanistan. Either Obama knows he is wrong but the money controllers (those corporate people that dictate what goes on in Washington) really have a hold on his nads, or the dufus believes he's doing "the right thing," which is kind of very hard for me to take.

When Bush was in the White House, I knew he was on drugs. But with Obama, man, I feel like I'm the one on drugs. It's like (said as if Cheech to Chong) -- dude, deja vu.

Who thought Obama and the Democrats would continue the tyrannical war policy of the last eight years?

Who knew?

Nuke 'Em Or Duke 'Em

Now why is this not news to me?

Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.

Hmmm. No wonder there's a supp0sed ban on the use of white phosphorous. But the U.S. felt no compulsion not to use it.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

August 6 is just around the corner, 65 years after first atomic bomb dropped in Japan. My piece, here.

And for what it looked like in Fallujah, here are some graphic pictures to remind one of what war is really like.

What Is The Point Of A Majority If You Can't Get Anything Accomplished?

While I certainly can't speak to Bennett's motivations or state of mind, I think his observations about Republicans are critically important. The party that once liked to throw around the "party of ideas" moniker has become devoid of almost all thought. Indeed, in most GOP circles, ideas themselves are suspect -- they're probably the result of some kind of egg-head intellectual who reads books instead of watching Fox News.

Bennett has to be frustrated that his career his is ending because members of his own party were outraged that he tried to solve problems by working with other senators (i.e., his job). But the more important point is that the development itself is evidence of a Republican Party with a kind of reflexive sickness -- an allergy to substance, problem-solving, compromise, and reason.

Interesting point from Steve Benen.

I was reading an earlier piece at Benen's site, The Washington Monthly, concerning the lock step approach to governing adhered to by the current Republican party by threatening members who "stray" from their ideological viewpoints with such things as taking away chairmanship of committees, among other things. While that has been common knowledge by most people, whether in politics or not, what comes to mind, as was noted in the article I read, was why the Democrats don't take the same type of approach. The point was made that if the Democrats HAD taken this road, most of the agenda that Obama tried to pass WOULD have passed. Instead, the inept Democratic party caved in all the time on everything that the Republican party did not like since Obama came into office and the Democratic party took over Congress. And even WITH the caving, the Republican party stayed together on it's "NO" votes, regardless of how much the Democrats gave them in concessions.

Imagine how much better the economy and life would be right now if only the Democrats figured out that they ain't gonna get no bipartisanship votes. We stormed the White House and Congress in 2008 for the sole purpose of overriding the bullshit that had been passing for government the past eight years under the Bush Administration, and right after that, the Obama Administration started playing pussyfoot with the other side. The end result is the complete mess we have today. Nothing major by way of any reform ... all half ass crap that doesn't go far enough to change the direction this country is heading in. And, of course, the failure of Obama to even attempt to try to push through the more progressive concepts he (supposedly) ran on. In fact, it is quite clear that Obama is distancing himself from the man we all rooted for during the campaign.

And for what? That is my big question. No one on the Hill that has an "R" next to his name likes him. Many, in fact, despise him, still think he's not an American citizen and is a Muslim! And the Blue Dogs ... well they mostly just shit on him, like good little doggies.

What is the point of a fucking majority if you can't get anything accomplished?

Still The Party Of No, And "No," They Haven't Really Educated Themselves On What They Are Saying "No" To

BACHMANN: We’re, we’re, we’re hoping that President Obama’s policies don’t succeed, exactly as you said. And of course, David Axelrod unfortunately seems to be wanting to smear people who disagree with the president. We’ve seen that over and over at Tea Party events, at gatherings where people say, “look, I don’t like this idea of out of control spending and accumulating deficits that our kids have no possibility of paying back.” And to think that those of us, we who disagree with that very ill-thought out idea are being smeared, I think that’s really wrong.

H/T to Think Progress.

You know, I am just so fucking tired of hearing and reading this crap. "Out of control spending and accumulating deficits" are what the REPUBLICAN PARTY did to this country for eight years -- and Obama is still making this country pay for two wars, while they (both Repugs and Democrats) still talk about initiating a third war with Iran.

Not one fucking word out of these guys and gals' mouths about the money going down the crapper for these wars. Nada. This country is not mad because of "out of control spending and accumulating deficits" caused by the Obama Administration. Yes, they are being told that it is Obama's new policies that are fucking them over, but that's because those that attend the teabagger events are morons who don't know their ass from a hole in the wall, and believe whatever FOX tells them. I don't have any excuses for those in Congress that just outright lie to the American public. I have no idea why they say what they say, and why the media just lets them lie and lie and lie.

If anyone in Congress is FUCKING SERIOUS ABOUT STOPPING THE OUT OF CONTROL SPENDING AND ACCUMULATING DEFICITS, just stop the damn wars! Why in God's name are we putting our country's money into two countries? Why are we bankrupting our country and forcing our citizens out of work and into homelessness? Why are we even arguing about having HEALTH FUCKING CARE for every American citizen? WHY?????????

It's not a Democratic thing. It's not a Republican thing. As an American, we should be wanting, no demanding, our government stop these wars and give us back our money to be used for Americans' needs. God knows there are many needs here, and the billions and billions of dollars lining the corporate schmucks' pockets that benefit from war spending is disgusting.

Ms. Bachmann, if you want this to stop, just vote no next time on the war spending bills. That is where the "out of control spending and deficit accumulation" is coming from, and get your foot out of your mouth and learn something about the fucking government that's called your "job," bitch. Do something constructive instead of lying like a snake on a daily basis and supporting the ever-so-popular non-grassroots teabaggers. Spouting off at the mouth that you want Obama policies to fail is just so third grade.

And while I am on my rant, this is a MUST READ, all of it:

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

[snip]

You finally got mad when.. when... wait for it... when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all OK with you but helping other Americans... well fuck that.

Finally, Some Justice For Katrina

According to TPM:

A third New Orleans police officer was charged today in connection with the 2005 shootings of unarmed civilians by police on Danziger Bridge, which took place less than a week after Katrina hit the city.

Michael Hunter will plead guilty to obstruction of justice and misprision of felony charges, his attorney tells WDSU in New Orleans. In the past month or so, two other officers have pleaded guilty to charges related to covering up the killings.

Hunter allegedly drove the truck full of officers to the bridge, where they would, according to the government, kill two unarmed civilians and seriously injure four others. And he then allegedly lied to investigators about what happened.

It was a white man's dream, Katrina, and a free for all with regard to putting the "black man" in his place. All the press coverage about the "rapes, murders and thefts" never really panned out and were disproved over time. The killings on the bridge never rang true to me, and finally, almost five years later, justice is being served.

I've never gotten over the disgraceful reaction from the Bush Administration toward the people of NOLA, nor can I get those images of bodies floating in the water, all bloated, from my head, much in the same way I cannot rid myself of the images of 9/11.

Five years later, and much of the 9th ward is still not rebuilt. Go figure, eh?

Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Allowed To Proceed

Good call.

A federal judge in Illinois has refused to dismiss a lawsuit against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by two Americans (pdf) who claimed they were detained and interrogated in Iraq.

David Vance and Nathan Ertel, who traveled to Iraq in 2005 to work for a security firm, filed suit against Rumsfeld and the U.S. government alleging that they were taken into custody and interrogated by the military because of suspicion that their company was providing arms to insurgents. They claim they were placed in cages, strip-searched and questioned using "physically and mentally coercive tactics," before they were finally released weeks later.

Rumsfeld filed a motion to dismiss. However, Judge Wayne Anderson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Friday allowed one claim against him to go forward, finding the two contractors pleaded enough details to implicate the former secretary.

As For Blogs I Like ...

Probably the person I quote most when it comes to politics on my blog, is Glenn Greenwald.

Today he had an interesting post up dealing with the lack of difference between the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration, especially when it comes to denying citizens fundamental rights because, you know, we are terrorized!

But, I did find this quote he excerpted from Atrios to be quite funny:

Just adding to the post below, at some point it became clear that the consensus of official Washington, including many Democrats, the scribblers at Kaplan Test Prep Daily, the Great Minds at Very Serious Think Tanks, and guests at Sally Quinn's table dancing parties, is that torture is awesome, the rule of law only applies to Al Gore, Bill Clinton's penis, and all people who don't have important DC jobs, and all it takes to nullify the constitution is to call someone a terraist. I don't know how to change this, and electing the Hopey Changey guy didn't help much. I think they're playing Calvinbill a bit more fairly, but they're still playing it.

Well, perhaps you had to be there ...

James K. Galbraith"s Opinion

Quite frankly, I could not agree more with this assessment.

I'm tempted to say that the United States is plainly unable to cope with the economic crisis in a serious way. The barriers are philosophical, procedural, and constitutional. So long as economic thinking is mired in a world that disappeared with the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971, so long as any action requires 60 Senate votes, and so long as political capital erodes from the start of a fixed four-year presidential term, we're stuck.

Technically it would have been fairly easy, 10 months ago, to get this bus back on the road. There could have been open-ended fiscal assistance to stop the budget hemorrhage of the states and cities. There could have been a jobs program and effective foreclosure relief. There could have been a payroll tax holiday. There could have been a strategy for sustained massive effort on infrastructure, energy and climate. There could have been prompt corrective action to resolve, instead of coddle, the worst of the banks.

I mostly don't blame President Obama; he and his team went as far as they felt they could. I blame the head-in-the-sand politicians in Congress, the over-optimistic forecasters, the half-educated press, and the power of the financial lobby. I blame the avatars of fiscal virtue, the public debt scare-mongerers, the astrologers for whom thirteen significant digits (a trillion) for the stimulus package was just too much. I blame the Senate, which hands the balance of power to small states at the expense of disaster areas like California, Florida and New York. I do blame the Bush-Obama financial policy team, who either believed that "credit would flow again" if you stuffed the banks with money, or knew that it wouldn't.

At Least It's Football Season, And I Can Take My Mind Off Of How Bad This Country Sucks

The outlook is not bright for this country. On the one hand, we have a party (and people who ascribe to that party's beliefs -- whether they understand them or not) that is hell bent on saying "no" to anything the POTUS has to offer. On the other hand, we have a party, it's members and believers, and the POTUS struggling with an agenda that has been taken out of their hands and framed by lies, deceit and underhanded politics by the other side.

The mood of the country in 2008 was clear as Democrats (and progressive Independents) were elected to every branch of the government across the board. Obama stumped throughout the country with the mantra of "change we can believe in," and it was the basis upon which he was elected President. There was absolutely no interest in continuing along the path that the Bush Administration and the Republicans had forced down the American public's throat. That much was CLEAR.

I have no clue what happened between Obama being elected, and the present status of politics in Washington. It is like nothing has changed. Absolutely, nothing. The corporations are in control, as usual, and have taken over the talking points in every media that exists, be it television, radio, newspapers or the internet. The naysayers are minimal in numbers, in reality, but the corporate interest groups that do not want "change we can believe in" are mobilized and well financed enough to keep things status quo, while also making it appear that mainstream Americans, by a clear majority, don't want change!

And now, the SCOTUS may very well rule in a narrow manner on a case before it that will allow corporations unlimited abilities to contribute to campaigns. It's not enough that corporations dominate the landscape and dictate to America what they want Americans to believe, to buy, to do, etc. We've been fighting the lobby groups for a number of years now, but if the ruling goes the way of the corporations, Americans can basically kiss this country goodbye. The expansion of wealth to a minor few, at the expense of the American worker, will become so extreme, that it will not be possible for this country to move forward. It will fail, plain and simple, because of economic stress among the majority of Americans.

What disturbs me the most is the complacency of the liberals and progressives. Sure, the blogs and netroots are all over it, and it is impressive that through ActBlue the netroots raised about $400,000 in four days to distribute to the progressives in congress that are bucking the Republican minority and the President on the public option part of the health care reform bills currently pending in congress. Perhaps, despite the probability of failure, it is these progressive blogs that will work tirelessly to replace the DINO to real Democrats and real Independent and progressive congresscritters.

If after all the work done on the ground in this country to elect politicians that were supposed to change the framework of government, all we get is more of the same, there really is nothing left to do but just wait for the self-destruct button to finally be hit.

And we have no one else to blame but ourselves.

The Pictures Made Me Do It

In fact, Huckabee defended the utility of waterboarding within 30 seconds of agreeing with Hannity that Obama’s release of interrogation photos was “hurting our nation’s defenses.” Fox reporter Catherine Herridge said that “these pictures of humiliation” can be “a primary factor of suicide bombers.”

It’s not the pictures that recruits suicide bombers; it’s what the
pictures depict. Torture — ordered by Bush and Cheney — damaged America and increased the risk of another terrorist attack, and revealing the truth of what happened doesn’t change that fact.

I have so many things to say about politics over the past four months, but, quite frankly, the things that are of interest to me are already beaten to death between AMERICAblog, DailyKos, FireDogLake and Huffington Post, so why the fuck bother, eh?

In fact, most of those blogs now pay their posters, which I am not in any fashion in disagreement with, it's just that I cannot quit my day job, hence there is no possible way for me to post some political commentary that hasn't already been espoused by the left side of the room.

But, still, the above quote from Think Progress made me feel like at least reminding my readers of the legitimacy of the opinion piece: pictures of our country torturing people is not what has fanned the hate for Americans and their supporters among the Middle East -- it's been the fact that for the past eight years our entire governmental administration supported this option. It was the ideology of the government that was the recruiting tool, and not simply "the pictures."

UPDATE: I found this additional piece funny, from Think Progress:

VENTURA: It’s drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you — I’ll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

Dick Cheney: "A Trash Talking Coward From The Sideline"

Some powerful stuff being said. Finally.




"This guy is nothing but a trash talking coward from the sideline."