War: What It's Good For

Now that Israel and Lebanon have taken a breather from their strikingly asymmetrical war, why not catch up on what the hell all that was about anyway? I still think the one person who really has a clue is Michael Chossudovsky, but Sy Hersh, as usual, is well worth perusing. And now John MacArthur has a piece in Harper's detailing the interesting realpolitik(al?) relationships between the US, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudia Arabia way back when George I was busy covering up for the CIA's and Reagan's monumental crimes.

I've been wondering lately, as I've often wondered about other wars, how all these different views and sources fit together. To some extent, they just don't, in part (I guess) because half of what insiders tell reporters are either outright lies or are cover stories that they may have been told and actually believe. I think the key to understanding why most wars get started is best viewed through what Paul Wolfowitz said about the latest adventure in Iraq:

The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason.

As Noam Chomsky told Bill Maher, "There are lots of reasons to go into Iraq." I can think of several right away. In any case, I think that's true of most wars, and the case of Israel's war on Lebanon is no different. While Chossudovsky put his finger on the biggest reason--energy and security cooperation with Turkey which would do an end run around China and Middle Eastern oil--the infamous Clean Break document had to be a factor too, as did the Administration's desire to test their Iran plan in miniature, as did Israel's desire to decimate Hizbullah. As with Iraq, if you're a callous geostrategist, there are so many reasons to go to war that it's practically impossible to resist. Again, to a certain type of mind that non-sociopaths find hard to comprehend. We must comprehend it, and anticipate its moves, if we're ever to stop this global madness.

Boil That Frog

Ever eager to consolidate as much power as possible, now Bush doesn't just want to arrest American citizens without charge and "try" them in military tribunals, he wants direct control of the National Guard in the event of an "emergency." (We're sure he'd never engineer an emergency.) Guess what? The House loved that idea so much, they passed the bill. Fortunately, America's governors are fighting back.

A Cure for Ricky

Finally, Rick "man-on-dog" Santorum can rest easy: Andrew Sullivan reports that some Iraqi fundies are calling for goats to don diapers to help keep goatherders chaste. As Santorum and Bill O'Reilly are fond of telling us, once fags start getting hitched, next thing you know you'll be marrying a goat. Even worse: a gay goat. (Even worse: a gay terrorist-loving Wahabbist Lamont-supporting goat.)

So here's a thought: Ricky and Billy can help lonely rural men resist their sweating bestial yearnings by selling animal diapers. Hey, why not go even further: put anti-bestiality Bible verses on them in case the bestially inclined decide to "change" the diapers often.

Of course, there is a downside here. You know full well that once they start selling animal diapers, animal lingerie will follow soon after....

(Via the NYT Opinionator.)

I Can't Even Think of a Title

I guess you could say that last Saturday "we" crossed a journalistic line in America, but what famous line to compare this to is beyond me (suggestions are welcome). Bloggers have been getting increasingly influential in journalism and politics--whether deservedly so is a different issue--but last Saturday Pam of AtlasShrugged...(are you sitting down?) interviewed UN ambassador John "mustache" Bolton.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I don't know how to characterize this, as my chin is still on the floor. It was surprising enough that Bush's Dick went on the Limbaugh Miracle Hour--but at least Limbaugh, like Larry King, is a huge media personality. I could even see (god forbid) somebody like Ron Silver interviewing Cheney, just for the extra low marketing value. But Pam? She's not just a batshit crazy blogger, she's.... Oh, I give up.

I guess this is a new low in our long, seemingly endless descent into the journalistic abyss. Or a turning point. Or something.

My "favorite" part:

Such stock we're putting in the Lebanese government, who is totally kowtowing to Hezbollah. You put every remark by the crying Siniora, I mean, another Godfather moment. You remember Godfather, Frank Sinatra, it was supposed to be Frank Sinatra, he's crying, you're godfather. Same thing happens, somebody slap him. So how could you have so much faith in the Lebanon government? I mean, I want to believe, John. I believe in you. I want to believe.

Jeebus.

(Via atrios.)

Armed Madhouse

If you're a bluish blogger, I probably don't have to promote the BBC's Greg Palast, one of the few investigative journalists left in this country. His reports on BBC's Newsnight have revealed how the last two presidential elections were stolen, that Al-Qaeda investigations were stymied from the top down before 9/11 (he even predicted the stealing of the 2004 election a week or so beforehand) and the two plans (both Foggy Bottom and Hell's Bottom) for divvying up Iraq's resources. Oh, and how George Bush, Jr. avoided the draft and went AWOL--reported in 1999, long before Rathergate. The NYT and 60 Minutes both have killed stories that Palast fed them. So no, if you don't know where to look (per usual), you wouldn't know 99% of the biggest stories in American journalism, all brought to you by a fellow citizen broadcasting across the pond.

The point? This: Palast's last book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (available on DVD as Bush Family Fortunes), was revealing enough. But if you want to know what the American lapdog media didn't tell you for the last five years, read Armed Madhouse. Like the NYT's David Cay Johnson's Perfectly Legal, it's extremely disturbing and well-researched. But unlike Johnson's revelations about the corruption and dismantling of the US tax system, Palast's book is incredibly funny. Although it reveals how wrong things have gone in this country, it doesn't leave you feeling empty and angry; it leaves full of laughter-induced endorphins. Frankly, that's how to make the most troubling news you haven't heard palatable.

Read Armed Madhouse. But only if you want to know the truth and not live in denial.

BONUS: Palast, a former economist who studied under Milton Friedman, gives the skinny on Tom Friedman's disastrous "globalization," showing which "protectionist" countries have the smallest gap between rich and poor and which world leader has led the charge for social welfare and proper use of gov't oil revenues.

SUPER HAPPY BONUS: It's no coincidence that I posted this after quoting Ned Beatty's speech in Network. In the middle of Armed Madhouse, Palast deconstructs and interprets Beatty's speech to show just how wrong the fact-averse Tom Friedman is when he lavishes his "expertise" on globalization to NYT readers. What a fucking hack.

Death in Lebanon

Death is the new black in Lebanon. If you can stomach it, here are some photos.

I'm Mad as Hell and I'm not Going to Take It Anymore

While square miles of Lebanon are being leveled, whole families being shredded by Israeli bombs (Oh, poor, defenseless Israel! They have to butcher children!), we thought it apt to repeat a bit of Ned Beatty's speech from Network. Why? Because even thought nobody reads this rag this rag is on the motherfucking money. And we mean "money."

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!! Is that clear?! You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, Reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU WILL ATONE!

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality -- one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.

And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Beale: But why me?

Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

Beale: I have seen the face of God.

Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

Children are being butchered because entire national governments care more about dollars than lives. Ever has it been, ever shall it be.

Of Beatty's (Chayevsky's) speech, I take exception only to 1) Union Carbide, which merged with Dow while I was working there ("Welcome to Day One of the New Dow!") and 2) that bit about social benefits. Anybody alive today either knows or suspects that Chayevsky was being satirical or that, unfortunately, we just wound up getting fucked by the Great Big Corporation of America anyway. We'd offer to help Tom "I can see my own colon" Friedman to stuff his olive tree, Lexus and flat world up his protuberant ass, if he hadn't done so many years previously.

Why do I mention this? Because history invariably comes down to economics. Karl Marx wasn't right about much, but he was dead-on when he inverted Hegel and declared that history was about the material.

Again, ever has it been, ever shall it be.

If you don't believe me, scroll down and read why we're backing Israel's devastation of Lebanon.

Just to make clear, Israel, backed by the Bush administration, has butchered around 1000 Lebanese, many of them nowhere near defensable targets. Hizbullah, by contrast, has killed around 60 Israelis, the majority of them soldiers. Who's the "terrorist" here, Nasrallah or Olmert? Gosh, I'm sure it's the bad guy in the turban....

The Litani River, by the way, is more than 50% between the borders of Israel and Syria, and it was goal of founder Ben Gurion to rope off Israeli territory at that mark. But we're sure it's all about that defenseless Western client state defending itself against a poorly armed third-world army.

BONUS: We hate to mention this, since it affects all those persecuted Christians in America, but Qana, that place where Red Blogistan thinks Hizbullah staged lots of Lebanese "deaths" (hope those other 950 "deaths" were staged), was the place where that Jesus fellow turned water into wine. I know, I know, it's just a Bacchanalian myth retold in the Bible, like the Buddhist myth of the Enlightened One walking on water, but we're dealing with the Bible here, and everyone knows it's the Word of God. By the way, does anyone suspect, as I do, that Serapis or Orpheus was a model for "Christ"?

Ad Buyers Fall Behind on Predicting the Future

"Comedy writers are always fighting the last war," realitique has learned that Raw Story has learned that Time has learned.

Commenting on the lack of awareness that Time and possibly Raw Story possibly have shown, realitique editor Rob P*** noted, "Like, I think companies buy air time in chunks or something, you know, ahead of time, not, like, 12 hours before a show airs. Anyway, an intrepid reporter might want to make a fucking phone call to check that out before writing an 'article,'" P*** speculated.

I Have Seen the Face of God

Every hellish year that passes under the rule of the Boy King, Ned Beatty's speech to Howard Beale in Network becomes clearer. The world is one holistic system of dollars.

This is widely ignored in the War on (Some) Terror, and especially in Israel's operations in Lebanon. Never mind that Israel provoked Hizbollah, not the other way around, when they kidnapped two Palestinians, the war has nothing to do with self-defense or anything like "terror" or "democracy." If the war was about self-defense, Israel's wholesale slaughter of Lebanese civilians (one third are children) would make even less sense. But it's not about that at all.

It's about oil.

We linked to the following articles in an earlier post, but since Juan Cole is the only one to even bring up the subject--and he was just toying with the idea--we think it bears repeating:

• The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil
• The Secrets Clark Kept
• Lebanon as a new target: The Neocons Policy of "Constructive Chaos"

UPDATE: Chossudovsky elaborates on events in Lebanon.

Come October, we or Israel may start slaughtering Syrians and Iranians.

UPDATE: Dahr Jamail reports from amid the devastation in Lebanon. Read it if you want to understand why the Lebanese don't see Hizbollah as a "terrorist organization."

That Extreme Left

The other day, one of our mystery reporters, who often defends the national news media against my protestations, asked me what publication represented "the left" or "the far left." I told him there was none. Yes, there may be some publication, but I'm unaware of anything out there. But that might mean that I don't know what O'Reilly's "far left" is. That's true.

I have no idea.

All day, I've heard ignorant pundocrats declare that "radical left," "extreme left" and "far left" commenters were against Lieberman and that only the "far left" of the Democratic Party supported Lamont. Only the most misinformed or rectally expulsive would even posit that Lamont's supporters would somehow be unrepresentative of the majority of Americans.

Yes, Cokie (she puts the "coke" in "Cokie") Roberts, David "I Sold My Brain for Merlot" Brooks and Charles "More Bloodletting, Please" Krauthammer support Lieberman, as does Rove. But no normal Democrat does.

And yet people like Cokie Roberts declaim on national news shows that "the far left" has taken over the Democratic Party, kicking those "moderates" to the curb.

On the basis of what? Nothing. There isn't one shred of evidence for anything that these national news assholes say about anything. All they do is assert.

If they were interested in evidence, they'd know that 60% of the population thinks that the Iraq War was a mistake and we need to get out. If they read polls, they'd know that the GOP is running scared. If they hadn't lobotomized themselves, they'd know that the GOP is doomed.

And yet you hear them asserting that the Democratic Party is making a mistake with Lamont. That "most Americans" want "security." That Democrats oppose the war at their electoral peril. Whomever asserts such is simply full of shit. They haven't read the polls.

Read the polls, Dems.

Bush is in the toilet. And he's not getting out anytime soon.

But they can't be bothered with "reading." Public opinion and the law are dead-set against them. Maybe next December they'll realize that that's the case.

There's a point here, and that is this. There is no "far left" or "exteme left." In fact, there's barely a "left." What there is is a "moderate" or "centrist" position, and that's the one represented by Ned Lamont or Howard Dean. Fiscal responsibility? getting out of a war we were lied into? Not "far left" positions. If anything, they're conservative positions. Civil liberties? Same thing.

Far left? Bullshit.

What's happened is what many other commenters have noted: The political center has shifted to the far Right. Now John Dean is the "left," which is absurd. Right now, the Constitution is the "far left." So be it. Most Americans are leftists. What do we want?

Rule of law.

UPDATE: The NYT agrees.

What're You Lookin' at, Sugartits!?

Oasys mobile now offers a free re-enactment of Mel Gibson's infamous rant as a ringtone. (Click the blue Play button to listen.)

Cokie Calamity Scream Insanity

Somebody, please, sew Cokie Roberts' mouth shut. She's always muttered gibberish, but now she's talking backwards and twitching. In the This Week Without David Brinkley* segment I linked to, Cokie is off her rocker and George Will is only half off his. The only one making any sense is the non-pundit Sam Donaldson (please, come back, Sam!). What mystifies me is that few, if any, pundits seem to've read any polls for the past year. If they had, they'd know that Ned Lamont's positions are held by the majority of Americans, while Lieberman/Bush's are in the gutter.

*Al Franken's invention

Mosaic: What American TV News Is Not

Tired of one-sided, rah-rah Israel news coverage? Link TV has compiled reports from several Middle Eastern news agencies, including one from Israel. What's suprising is how balanced most of them are. Most show both sides (sometimes more) of the story and don't play the sympathy card. But they do show some of the carnage, so you can know what this war is costing Israel and Lebanon. Listening to a statement from Nasrallah, the head of Hizbollah, on one of the broadcasts, I was surprised at how sane and reasonable he sounded--unlike, say, Bush and Rice.

DISCLAIMER: I deplore the deaths of civilians everywhere, but it just ain't right to show only Israeli deaths, especially when Lebanese deaths drawf theirs.

Loser

Just now, from CBS radio news: "[The Mexican court's decision to only a partial recount] doesn't sit well with losers."

That's a stunning example of bias, almost as bad as the NYT and WaPo Israel-only headlines this morning, as if more Lebanese weren't killed in the last 24 hours than Israelis.

But what CBS news doesn't seem to understand is that, owing to the recount, Obrador is not a "loser." The election remains unresolved. With any luck, though, when the anemic recount finishes in late August, Obrador will refuse to accept the result.

Beirut: Before and After

Juan Cole links to a site with before-and-after aerial imagery of devastated Beirut. (He also helpfully contrasts Iran's "blowhard" Ahmadinejad and mass-murderer Olmert.)

UPDATE: After an investigation of 20+ cases, Human Right's Watch concludes that Israel is guilty of war crimes (a pesky problem they've had since their inception). The concluding paragraph is telling:

The Israeli government has blamed Hezbollah for the high civilian casualty toll in Lebanon, insisting that Hezbollah fighters have hidden themselves and their weapons among the civilian population. However, in none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in the report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah was operating in or around the area during or prior to the attack.

Now I understand that HRW has to thoroughly investigate cases, but anyone watching and reading non-US news could conclude that after a few days. Every day, Israel blows up a slew of civilians, and every day they apologize, say it was a "regrettable error" and claim Hizbollah was active nearby. At the same time, they claim they don't target civilians (really? what about blowing up power plants in Gaza?) and that they use "precision guided" weapons. We also hear that their intelligence is "faulty." Anyone who cared about sparing civilians would 1) not be bombing anybody, 2) would bomb only when the intelligence was good (which you can't always know). If after a few days of blowing up lots of women and children (hidden Hizbos, Rush?) you haven't figured out that your intelligence sucks, then you are either in a vegetative state or are lying.

The latter is clearly the case here.

If you want some idea of why all this is likely happening, check out the links near the bottom of the first paragraph of this post. (If you don't want to read the screed about 9/11, use the scroll bar.)

UPDATE: Israel bombs bridges in norther Lebanon. The area is not an Hizbollah stronghold. No doubt, Israel has (or will) argue that destroying the main route out of Beirut was necessary to stop incoming shipments of missles. But considering that this campaign has been in the works for years and that Israel started the conflict when they 1) shelled a family on a picnic at the beach in Gaza, and 2) kidnapped a doctor and his brother shortly thereafter, provoking Hizbollash to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, it strains credulity to believe that bombing the bridges has much to do with resupplying Hizbollah's rockets.

What, then, prompted the action? The reporter in the above video speculates that it was Nasrallah's recent warning that if Israel "bombed the heart of the capital, [Beirut,]...Hizbollah would launch missiles against Tel Aviv. In other words, Israel wanted an excuse to move north.

Raw Gets a Memo

Raw Story's obtained a 91-page Republican memo outlining strategies and messages for senators this election cycle.

Pentagon Coverup?

As if you had to ask. In any case, here's the scandalous Vanity Fair article about the Pentagon cooking intelligence about 9/11. I'm impressed that the magazine went as far as it did. If only another high-profile publication would go as far as the rest of the national media didn't go. If you want to read the most damning, least controversial, easiest to confirm book on the subject, read Nafeez Ahmed's The War on Truth.

This book only scratches the surface, but it's the most important surface. Ahmed doesn't even deal with the obvious controlled demolition of the WTC; he mostly details who knew what when, based almost exclusively on worldwide journalistic sources. Frankly, that's all you need to conclude that elements of the US and other Western governments were complicit. Look at more of the details and it's far, far worse than you might think.

UPDATE: Four of the 9/11 widows that Ann Coulter hates so much are calling into question the entire 9/11 Commission and its report.

Note to Assrocket

Powerline's Assrocket is so prone to talking out of said orifice that this should come as no surprise:

Will this be the first big win for the lefty bloggers? Maybe so. But that depends, obviously, on what happens in the general election. In all likelihood, Lieberman will win:

Quinnipiac's July 20 poll of 2,520 Connecticut voters showed Lieberman, running as an independent, ahead in a three-way general election with 51 percent compared with 27 percent for Lamont and 9 percent for Republican Alan Schlesinger.

In order for this to be a victory for the Nutroots, doesn't Lamont have to actually win? Otherwise, the Lamont primary victory will just be more evidence that the left-wing blogosphere hurts the Democratic Party by pushing it to the far--that is, unelectable--left.

Um, actually, it would demonstrate the exact opposite. The only reason Lamont would lose in such a race (following his meteoric rise in the polls, thanks in part to Blue Blogistan) is because it's one of those uncommon three-way races. If Lieberman wasn't such a turncoat and would respect his party's judgment, then he'd bow out and Lamont would serve the Republican challenger his ass.

NOTE: Just gotta say, John is so routinely full of shit and devoid of sense that I'm surprised that anyone would hire him as a lawyer. That's true of the other two bloggers at Powerline, but as stupid as they are, their meager intellects and knowledge of the world eclipse Assrocket's. Now that's saying something.

Crime Database

A private citizen in DC finally did for free what the city never bothered to do for years (despite pleas and protestations): The citizen build a comprehensive database of crimes committed in the city. Can you imagine how many more criminals would be caught and prosecuted if we had this for every municipality in the US? You could display the data however you wanted, determine trends and anticipate where you needed to deploy police (in both time and space) to curb crime. This is an idea that is long past its time. If anyone wants to point it out to their mayor and chief of police, please do so and here's the kicker: The tool would save loads of time and money, because it would make police work more efficient. Any city council and mayor's office would be behind it if it would save money. Plus, you could make connections about crimes committed across the US, graph trends, connect with cities implementing effective strategies and read police reports, incarceration status and contextual statistics as well as link to news coverage.

I am in awe.

How to Expand Your Favorite War

Yet more confirmation of what the current war is about and how the hawks plan on starting it. (Note: Subscription only. Either put up with a short ad or go to bugmenot.)

ADDENDUM: The story details how Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle and others are trying to minimize Condi Rice's role. But it's not as if Condi's trying to negotiate a settlement; she seems to be stalling for time.

Israel May Be Bombing the Red Cross

Not only is Israel sacrificing their own citizens as well as far more of Lebanon's for "the greater good," but now it looks like their bombing the Red Cross. And does anybody still believe they're demolishing a clearly marked UN observation post, killing four, was accidental?

Qana

Photographs and video of both last weekend's tragedy and the massacre of 1996. (Warning: View at your own risk. Extremely graphic.)

The Passion of the Mel

An excellent, educational article about Gibson's recent anti-semitic blunder. The writer has several informative paragraphs about the obstacles independent producers face if they want to distribute a film themselves. (Via C&L.)

While I'm not at all surprised at Mel's Nazi predilections, given his father's Nazi-loving history, I am surprised at what he said: that "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." What does that even mean? What has this pitiful excuse of a man been reading? Smoking? Mel: Do you mean to tell me that the Jews started the Revolutionary War? the Civil War? Vietnam? the Mexican War? the many wars your newest film subjects fought that destoyed their civilization? WTF?

BONUS: We lefties (née "moderates" or "centrists") feel uncomfortable promoting Hitch because of his back-stabbing and drunken rants. But his prosodic gift has never failed him. He still excels at nastily dismembering worthy subjects. It was true for his Christmas essay and it's true for his current dissection of Mel Gibson. Read and enjoy. It's not as vicious as South Park's "The Passion of the Jew" but think of it as an expensive wine--many complex and complementary flavors.

Why We Keep Losing

Matt Stoller at MyDD performs a reportorial service for the netroots by draining the DC campaign-consultant swamp. Guess why the dems can't market themselves worth a damn? Because prominent consultants who've repeatedly ruined campaigns are being paid by corporate interest to undermine Democratic efforts. The latest? Medicare.

The solution? Spread the word and call your representatives and senators. If they get flooded with calls and emails telling them the very people they rely on to lose win elections are being paid to make them lose, they will be very, very angry with those consultants and stop listening to them. If they have any sense (fingers crossed) they'll see that what Gore's doing is working: When you stick to principle and speak truth to power passionately, people perk up and listen, give to your campaign and vote for you come election day. Cf. the campaigns of Paul Hackett and Ned Lamont. They're the future. The netroots are the future. The current crop of consultants is a dead end.

UPDATE: Corrupt consultants notwithstanding, here's a very hopeful survey conducted by NPR. Maybe somebody in the DNC will read it.

Why We Fight

There is no War on Terror. Terror is a psyop, a way for a government to instill fear in the populace and focus hatred on a cutout enemy. 9/11 was the ultimate psyop, the biggest special operation ever conducted--and the best implementation of "shock and awe." Sometimes, as in the case of Hamas or the IRA, averages joes become terrorists without the government's help, but not usually. Right now, the war in Lebanon has nothing to do with kidnapped soldiers. The operation has been in the works since at least 1996, with the details being fleshed out more recently. It is the expansion of the fake War on Terror to include Syria, Libya*, Iran, Sudan and Somalia. The true nature of the war, planned in secret, is never mentioned, and journalists seem utterly ignorant of it, despite the sheafs of publicly available documents. The war is really about economics, i.e. power. It's about access to Caspian basin oil and the rerouting of energy transportation to cut off China and Russia (and possibly to undermine OPEC). It's no surprise that the only man who seems to know this is an economist and isn't American. Read the details here. Read what General Wesley Clark never revealed during his presidential campaign (maybe because he oversaw the destabilization of Yugoslavia by the KLA and Al Qaeda, our biggest ally in the War on Terror). More details about the origin of the current war, the "clean break" document, here.

FUN FACT: Guess what Condi Rice's area of expertise is? Central Asian oil.

BONUS: Chomsky explains why America is a terrorist state.

SUPER HAPPY BONUS: A surprisingly entertaining and brief history of the Middle East.

*Given our rapproachment with them, thanks to negotiations begun under Clinton, I guess they're off the menu. But who knows?

Sunday Mecha-Blogging

Only $300k--and an option to star in the next Anime hit.

A Scanner Darkly

Wow. See it. Not only does it highlight our current proto-fascist tendencies, but it's brutally funny.

A Brief Moment of Gratitude

I should've written this, oh, 11 months ago, but who's counting? Anyway, in case I need help this hurricane season, though I'll probably stay with my peeps in Baton Rouge, I'd like to formally thank readers PDS and Abby Taylor for offering--in the first week of the disaster, no less--whatever I needed to get by, including cash and housing. Fortunately, my ex-girlfriend's parents footed the bill and let us keep the FEMA money and the bedbugs (I'm not kidding), but I thank the god I don't believe in for people like Abby and PDS. Lein Shory also offered to take us in, including the four cats and dog. But once the power came back on in Laurel, we repopulated our little 4-acre mansion with fluffy, annoying pets, including a few from New Orleans and I commenced catching up on a couple of missed seasons of Sex and the City.

P.S. I don't remember, exactly, but Gnat's Trumpet may have offered help as well. In any case, he and (sigh) Pursuit encouraged us to evacuate and showed some sympathy. They deserve credit for that.

Kristolnacht

The predictably rah-rah Israel "reporting" in these sad United States has it wrong. Nothing new here; they always have it wrong, which is why we still have supporters of Israel here. Now don't misunderstandimate me, I think Israeli citizens have every right to a peaceful life there, but they don't have the right to treat Palestinians as second-class citizens and go around butchering civilians there and in south Lebanon. (Not that civilians are doing that.) Click here for the skinny on the current Israel-led conflict. We should mention as well that, unbeknownst to our benighted national media, this is the beginning of the widening of the "long war" which includes Iran, Syria, Libya (thanks, Dubya) and (I guess) others. It's all about the oil, folks. Well, and domination of Asia and preservation of Empire. Reporters might want to "read" or "research" the "clean break" document authored by Perlowitz et al. back in '96, when Netanyahu was busy dismantalling the peace process. Call it Kristolnacht.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall weighs in, sees ominous clouds gathering over Mordor....

Marshall v. Reynolds

Josh Marshall responds to the Perfesser's false claim. I love hate to pick, but writing "Glenn Reynolds falsely claimed" is verbose. At this point, just write "Glenn Reynolds." The man is an out-and-out fabulist.

Watching Beirut Die

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain was in Beirut with a camera crew for the commencement of hostilities. Read. Learn.

NOTE: Perhaps the most touching part is reading how the young Marines treated the refugees. That means a lot to me, knowing first hand how kind and friendly kids armed with M-16s can be. No, I'm not kidding.

Life's Little Victories

I saw this comic by Keith Knight on Salon the other day and told him it was spot on. He was kind enough to write back. Since I don't blog nearly enough about this city (partly because I can cry only so much), here's an accurate portrait of our "little victories"--just the beginning of a litany of them.

BONUS: Knight's website is here.

A Funny Coincidence

Remember the extremely suspicious "suicide" of Britain's David Kelly, a former weapons inspector, right before a WMD report came out in the UK? Well, it's kinda lookin like he was kinda sorta, you know, assassinated. For more UK, US, USSR, Israeli, French and other Western assashenanigans, read the brilliant, thoroughly researched The Assassination Business.

Brownie: "Bite Me"

While we're busy linking to Raw Story (happens now and then), here's a heads-up on the Playboy interview with Michael Brown. Now we're no fan of Brownie, but we're under the impression that Brownie was the least of the severe problems last August. In light of our previous post about Normie's dad, we can't think of any reason to buy Playboy other than to "read" the Brownie interview, but if you're "moved" to purchase the magazine (available in an expanded online edition!) you'll get to read this memorable line, which took Brownie only one full year to come up with:

Dealing with horses' asses taught me how to deal with the federal government

Oh, yeah, and some other shit happened today, somewhere southeast of Europe. I think some people over there are killing each other or something. Nothing our "federal government" should bother with, though.

Coleman Disturbed by Automotive Shenanigans

In other news, White House shill Norm Coleman's father, was caught screwing in a car near a pizzeria. Coleman did not "condone" his father's behavior and was "deeply disturbed" by what he had "learned." We don't know what kind of crap his father fed the Congresscritter while he was being reared, but I have a slightly different take on the matter: Give pappy a big fat cigar! Pour him some brandy and pat him on the back. Why? Well, first of all, sex is natural, sex is fun. But more than that: The elder Coleman is (ahem) 81! And his automotive partner? 38! How cool is that? Christ, when I'm 81, I hope I'm caught in a car with a filly half my age. That's friggin' inspiring.

NOTE TO COLEMAN'S FATHER: While we applaud your conquest, you might've tried to get a room in the nearby hotel or maybe opted for a parking spot off the beaten path. Ask a local teenager for directions (and maybe some new techniques--and a condom).

Iran: the Next War Is Closer Than You Think (Reprise)

Joshua Kurlantzick called it last April, after Seymour Hersh revealed Rummy's monkey business in Iran. Recently, Raw Story followed up on Hersh and Kurlantzick's revelations about the MEK and covert operations in Iran. Now, Rolling Stone, which along with Mother Jones, GQ, Harper's, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story, routinely shames the national MSM by doing the job most major papers refuse to do, has yet another revelatory report on our war plans for Iran--the next target in a long line of oil-rich targets. (Via Raw Story.)

N.B.: The story isn't just by anybody, it's by James Bamford, the highly connected polymath who revealed the inner workings of the NSA. His last piece for Rolling Stone focused on The Rendon Group, the DC PR outfit contracted to sell you the Iraq War. In living color.

UPDATE: Powerline's "I donated my brain to science but they wouldn't take it" Scott presents Michael Ledeen's rebuttal of James Bamford's article. Never mind that all Ledeen ever does is lie, but he's still covering for his neocon proteges vis-a-vis Joseph Wilson. Note: if you're a Republican and think Joe Wilson lied, just cut your own head off and save the Islamofascists the trouble.

Is It Fascism Yet?

While John Dean's busy warning Americans about the rise of Authoritarianism and creeping fascism, the GOP faithful are busy humming patriotic tunes with their fingers in their ears. Not that they'll pay attention to this (or to anything else resembling reality or fact), but for their benefit, here's a list of 14 indicators of fascism. Guess what? It ain't lookin' good, folks.

UPDATE: Another take on the same theme. The author doesn't think we're "on the verge of becoming a fascist state" but argues it could happen with the right amount of putsch push. (This heat-sensitive frog feels water a bit warmer than that but our tendency to adjust to changing circumstances means there's no telling where, exactly, the boiling point is.)

Huckabuck

And, you know, while we're busy not blogging about politics or New Orleans, we thought it about time to give a local venture a little press (we stress "little," because we get as much traffic as the local antique store on a Monday). There's a kewl new search engine in town--literally--called Huckabuck. Why should you care? What's the skinny? According to its promoter, Paige, whose PR experience we question (see above), asked real nice for us to write about it. (I even offered her a chance to post about it, but she preferred that I do it--and no, they're not paying me or giving me a gift basket or anything.) Huckabuck is so non-non-non-non-non-egregious because it lets you "tune" your search with a cool little equalizer thingee. Meaning that you can emphasize (or de-emphasize) results from six different search engines, including Google and Technorati. So it's a blogger's dream. Can't find what you're looking for? Just re-tune your search. Meta-search-engines have been around for years, but this is the first one that lets you do this. Tres cool.

Kewl Tewl

Here at realitique™, our hard-working volunteer staff likes to take a break now and then from the hustle and bustle of commenting on commentary and reporting the news that other people are reporting to showcase a nifty short film, a funny post or anything else that keeps newsheads sane by distracting them from the evils they witness daily. In that regard, we present a neato new blogging tool that even Red Blogistanis can comprehend. (Sorry, but it's almost impossible to get through an entire one-paragraph post without insulting American righties or their Beloved Leader.) So anyway, here you go: the pop-up politician.

An Explanation

Longtime (sometime) reader PDS commented on the previous post as follows:

Rob: I am most curious as to what swayed you to believe 9/11 was perpetrated by our executive branch and intelligence services, per your post a few days ago. I ask this literally, not rhetorically.

If your premise is true, do you not find it ironic to be making predictions about "Democrats" taking back the House, etc.? Do you really think a government responsible for 9/11 will simply resign itself to the viscissitudes of an election, or that merely electing a handful more Democrats will do the trick?

I really must add one last comment and suggestion, which I will make because (I am hoping) there must be some kind of blogging leeway accorded to the person who made the first comment ever on your blog: Since you began this project, I have seen you go from agnostic to atheist and now from a professed "independent" to enthuisiastic use of the word "we" in a number of recent posts, which I take to mean Democrats. I must say I am almost more startled by the latter change than the former.

If you having any interest in taking requests from long time readers, it would be interesting to see a post or two explaining your evolution along these lines some time.

PDS:

While I appreciate most comments, I appreciate thoughtful ones most. I'm not sure you were the first to comment on my blog--that may have been Lein or my ex-girlfriend Amanda (yes, ladies, I'm available)--but you were were one of the earliest, and like Gnat, you've always been cordial or at least reasonably polite. Maybe it's my Southern upbringing, but that means a lot to me and is why I've berated one or two (ahem) readers for bad manners.

1. What swayed me about 9/11? The evidence. I came out of the 9/11 closet near the beginning of the year--and posted about it. Since then, I've posted numerous times about the administration's complicity in 9/11. If you want the quick-and-dirty version, watch Loose Change, 2nd Edition, or Steven Jones' presentation on the use of high-explosives in the WTC. If you want the most damnable reportorial evidence, read The War on Truth (which I've mentioned a couple of times on the blog). If you're too busy with all that (which I wouldn't doubt, given your job and child), just tell me where I can find the Boeing in front of the Pentagon. That's all. Just show me physical evidence of a jetliner. Don't worry, the Pentagon has yet to produce a single frame of footage showing anything resembling that.

To spur your curiosity, let me offer a few topics for your investigation:

a. Pakistan's ISI (intelligence services) were more or less built by the CIA. The ISI, in turn, created the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Do you find it odd that the head of those services not only paid Mohammed Atta through a cutout (Omar Sayeed Sheik) but also met with Tenet, Powell, Armitage, Rice, Goss and others right before and after 9/11?

b. View the photographs from Shanksbury. Then show my any physical evidence of a crashed jetliner there. Debris was scattered for miles. According to my knowledge of fifth-grade physics, that's not possible unless the plane blew apart in midair--say, as the result of a missle strike.

c. Please explain how the first three steel-framed buildings in history to collapse from fire did so, all on the same day. Remember, all three buildings were structurally redundant, had survived intense fire before and were barely smoking right before they collapsed. Again, physics is not on the government's side here. You don't have to look to kooks for evidence; physicists, fire experts and demolitions experts say that too.

d. Please account for the report of French intelligence officials that a CIA Middle-East station chief met with Bin Laden in a Dubai hospital two months before 9/11. I think, but can't remember for sure, that this was the same station chief that granted visas (over objections) to most of the alleged hijackers.

e. Please explain why the Rowley memo as well as the warnings from Israeli and Russian intelligence regarding 9/11 were ignored.

f. Please explain why 5 separate military/police exercises, some of which involved hijacking planes, were being held the morning of 9/11.

g. Please explain why the remaining 8 fighters available on 9/11 to defend American airspace were sent away from the jetliners, whose locations were known.

h. Please explain why the entire war on terror precisely matches the plans for the second rendition of The Great Game as outlined in Zbigniew Brzezinski's book and as echoed by Wolfowitz in PNAC's defining document "Rebuilding America's Defenses."

i. Please explain why we used Al Qaeda to help destabilize Bosnia (after using them to do the same to Afghanistan, which according to conservatron "logic" makes Carter the winner of the Cold War) and paid, via Zawahiri, $50M to not attack our forces there, but did not make a similar deal for them not to attack us elsewhere.

j. Please explain why at Tora Bora we didn't surround Al Qaeda but instead left a wide opening for them to flee to Pakistan through.

k. Please explain why a highly irregular number of put options were put on United and American airlines shortly before 9/11. Also explain the coincidence that a high-ranking CIA official was a former head of the bank the options were bought through.

l. Please explain why president Bush waited for a while after Andrew Card told him that the U.S. was "under attack." Explain also why Bush was reading at a school after he was told that an airliner had hit the WTC.

m. Please explain the coincidence that WTC 7 was brought down, even though its fires were minimal, especially considering that one or two floors had been hardened for use by Giuliani's EOC. Explain also why the CIA and other gov't agencies were using the building. And explain what happened to the billions of dollars in gold stored beneath the WTC.

n. Explain why the Joint Chiefs of Staff cancelled flights the day before (or close to it) 9/11.

o. Explain why John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial planes the summer before 9/11.

p. Explain why, under Bush, Reich Marshall Rumsfeld was designated as the sole arbiter of military flights intercepting civilian jets.

q. Explain Operation North Woods.

r. Explain why we evacuated a number of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters "by accident" at Tora Bora.

s. Explain why president Eisenhower thought the USSR wasn't much of a threat and why he stridently warned the populace against the military-industrial complex.

t. Explain why we fought in Vietnam and why we conquered Hawaii, the Phillippines and Cuba, why we forced China and Japan to trade with us and why we started a war with Mexico.

u. Explain the 40+ interventions we started and/or funded after WWII, all under the pretext of the Cold War, which nearly no one in a position of power believed was real.

v. Explain why we offered the Taliban either a "carpet of gold" or a "carpet of bombs...before the snows fall in October" shortly before 9/11, why we had a plan for war with Afghanistan, according to Brzezinski's geostrategy, and why we attacked that nation in October, 2001.

w. Explain why several hijackers were quartered near US military bases.

x. Explain why a significant number of the alleged hijackers are still alive.

y. Explain why we invaded Iraq over WMD, given that we sold Saddam the precursors for that WMD and turned a blind eye as he slaughtered his own subjects and thousands of Iranians.

z. Explain why we bombed Afghanistan after the Taliban told us they'd hand over Bin Laden for house arrest and an international criminal tribunal.

For fun, look into why a former member of the UK Parliament and the former head of German intelligence both think, along with 100+ US scholars, that 9/11 was an inside job.

3. Your second paragraph contains by far the most penetrating question you've ever asked me, the equal of which probably no reader has asked. As you may have guessed, I can't answer it, except to say, all I have left is hope. If "we" lose in November, I may well flee the country ahead of the totalitarian state you refuse to see coming (why the denial, PDS?).

4. The last two presidential elections were almost certainly stolen. The evidence is overwhelming, if you choose to look at it. So no, I'm not so confident in 2006 or 2008.

5. I haven't changed a whit since you started reading, except that I've become massively more informed. For years, I have technically been an agnostic. I still am. But I live as an atheist. I do not understand why people have a problem with this. Unlike Bush, I do not flip flop. I know what I think and why (he doesn't even think). I have no reason to believe there is a god; if there is one, he is nothing like the god most religions describe; that's what evidence and logic indicates. Since I can't prove a negative, I can't say for certain that there is no god. Therefore, I am an agnostic. But I live without doubt, when it comes to the divine. I live without guilt or morality--though not without empathy, which the GOP rejects. I don't think there's a god. If there is a god, I don't care and reserve a small bit of contempt for him--whatever's left over from what I feel for most Republican congressmen, the Bush family, Reagan and Ayn Rand. As I wrote in one of my unpublished novels, "If god wasn't dead, he should be executed."

So, no, you haven't seen anything except a greater willingness for me to forthrightly state what I think.

6. Yes, I am independent. That hasn't changed. Most progressives would say the same. But as our corrupt system of government makes it all but impossible to have a third party, I vote for Democrats. I hope never to vote for a Republican again. They disgust me beyond description. Unfortunately, I live in Louisiana, so it's in our interest to vote for slimy, scum-sucking conservatives. Until those despicable asswipes are kicked out of orifice, we have no choice. Happily, most New Orleanians, including conservatives, hate Republicans as much, if not more, than I do. I wonder why.

Death from Above

Our nonexistent national news media loves to whip up patriotic fervor by showing green-screen smart-bomb attacks on targets but never shows the effects of those attacks. During the first Gulf War, for example, Americans weren't shown the highway of death, a miles-long stretch of highway which we bombed, slaughtering possibly thousands of fleeing Iraqis, leaving a trail of charred corpses pointing at Baghdad. To get an inkling of its horror, you had to watch last year's Jarhead. But thanks to Link TV, now you can see what's actually happening on the ground in Lebanon as Israel indiscriminately massacres civilians (we do the same in Iraq daily). You need to signup with YouTube to watch it--it's quick and easy--but if you don't like that, try bugmenot.com. And what are we doing about the bloodshed? Nothing. Kinda reminds you of last August, don't it? (Video via Raw Story.)

Make Nice? Yeah, Right

I never thought I'd see an almost 180-degree reversal in the national mood. But it happened months ago and despite the "bounce" that so many Washington media whores keep seeing in Bush™'s poll numbers, such a bounce exists as much as support for the Iraq War among our generals. As we approach the upcoming Lieberman-Lamont fisticuffs in Connecticut, the Democratic and media establishments in Washington are beyond anxious; they're hysterical. Even Rush Limbaugh is worried. Meanwhile, a few Democratic politicians seemed to've noticed that, you know, Blue Blogistan is way ahead of the curve on this one. Our mood is the nation's mood: anti-Bush and anti-GOP. Anti-authoritarian. While Establishment consultants fret over Democrats being anti-Iraq-War and pro-sanity, the rest of the electorate is feeling at peace with themselves over how they're about to vote. We ain't ready to make nice. Far from it. And make no mistake about it, though Republican gerrymandering may thwart a number of easily won races against the GOP, at worst at least one house of Congress is going to topple--or at worst be too close for the K Street Patronage Machine to ram through every last piece of corrupt legislution that Bush™ wants. Lamont is about to kick Lieberman's whiny bitch ass. And come November, we're gonna clean the floor with the rest of the appeasers in the House. And no consultant's cozy job in DC will be safe....

UPDATE: Nitwit Assrocket weighs in on Blue Blogistan's "crusade" against Lieberman: "Today's liberal movement is more about anger and hate than it is about policy, and Lieberman just doesn't fit in, no matter how he votes."

This from a man who thinks Il Duce is an undiscovered genius.

Bloodbath

Let's be clear. Iraq is not teetering, it is not on the verge, it is not on the brink, it is not descending (unless by that you mean further). There is no longer any debate here. Iraq has plunged headlong into the abyss of civil war. Not that anyone in Washington, including our execrable national media, has noticed. No, it's all Palestine all the time, with bloodthirsty autocrats like Bill Kristol and friends calling for "escalation." To what point, Mr. Kristol, should we "escalate"? The escalator here is going one way: down. It's long past time we got off.

Unless, of course, you and your puppet boy king started all of this in September, 2001. Then, at least, we know you meant the world to go this way all along.

Yes, Bush was right when he spoke of a "grave and gathering threat." He just got the country wrong. As the rest of the world knows, the United States of America is the greatest threat to world peace. It is impossible to overstate the case.

UPDATE: Lookee here, somebody agrees with me (incidentally, my opinion's based on the extensive work of academic types who developed a thorough, statistical taxonomy of civil war, much of which, I think, this author relied on).

Media? What Media?

Friends, not only is our national "media" not liberal, it's nonexistent. Witness their latest non-coverage of a now-infamous event, covered not because it happened (and maybe it's not all that newsworthy) but because blogs covered it. That's right. Assuming it wasn't much of a story in the first place, why noting that other people were noting its occurrance as actually increasing its newsworthiness is as absurd as the event itself. Yes, I am referring to the Bush backrub*.

The Carbetbagger Report gives the gory details.

*His good-ole-boy indiscretion may be the least indiscrete, offensive act of his entire career. On a sliding scale from backrub to slaughter, that's not bad.

More on our nauseating non-media later.

Marshall Whittman Takes the Bus to Crazy Town

I stopped reading the allegedly progressive Whittman a while ago, when he started spouting DC conventional wisdom. In other words, Liebermanesque war-mongering and Bush™ fellating: exactly the opposite of what every poll for months has shown the majority of Americans want. Well, he's at it again, foaming at the mouth over the "soul of the Democratic Party," which is under assault from enraged leftists who repeatedly, calmly mention that Iraq is in a civil war and we need to get the hell out. Yes, these enraged lefty bloggers are taking the Donkey down the path to perdition. Not only that, we lefties are "Swift-Boating" Joe in a "vile...disinformation campaign." A few lowlights:

Truth will not deter the left wing practitioners of swiftboating. Just as their right wing brethren sought to make a coward out of a war hero, the left wingers seek to make a right winger out of a long-standing liberal.
...
It is fashionable among Democratic pundits and politicians to express contrition about their support for the war and beg for forgiveness from the lefties. Joe's great "sin" is that he stands by his original position and expresses optimism about America's eventual success in Iraq. However, it is far more popular and acceptable in the Democratic Party to express defeatism and doom. And this is the party that the American people will trust with their security?

And here is a message for those moderates who are refusing to vigorously support Joe - they are coming after you next. Limousine Liberal Lamont is merely a tool for the nutroots to help achieve their ultimate objective. The goal of the activists and the celebrated nutroots is to move the party to the left on critical issues such as national security and trade. And the ultimate result will be that Democrats will only be able to visit the White House on a tourist pass.

Note to Marshall: The president who Joe's rimming barely has a 30% approval rating. Add Whittman to the long list of Red Blogistanis whose every utterance is exactly the opposite of the truth. Sadly, such Blogistanis are too dim-witted to even notice.

Read Whittman's entire witless ravings here.

Monstrosities

The English language has no adequate words to describe acts such as this. Unfortunately, our nation is being run by people who condone, even sanction, actions such as this. Want to know how our intelligence-security services and Executive branch perpetrated 9/11, slaughtering 3000 of our innocent citizens? Want to know how Israel can murder hundreds of innocent Lebanese? Want to know how Hitler and Stalin could exterminate millions? Read John Dean's latest book. Or, for the quick-and-dirty version, read Arthur Silber.

I'm sure the lonely, wandering conservatron will think I'm exaggerating. Again, unfortunately, I am not.

The Shame of It

As Sylvester the cat's son said. While Bush™'s assumption of (largely unexercised) dictatorial powers are disturbing enough, what's merely embarrassing is that, unlike the suave, educated proto-dictator Putin, Our Leader can't put a sentence together. He makes the United States look like a goddamned backwater. I guess that's what we get for loving anti-intellectuals and what the Bush crime family gets for raising that fucktard in a house devoid of books.

Say, is there anyone in Europe we could pay assloads of money to keep that stupid rat bastard of ours? I hear we have a few CIA "camps" he could attend....

Welcome to the Armaggedonalypse

Or the Apocaggedon. Or something. Anyway, wingnuts are more prone to hyperbole than their (non-ignorant) counterparts on the left. (Examples: Ken Lay compared to the crucified Christ, Rick "See the Fetus" Santorum comparing pro-filibuster Democrats to Nazis, some TNR hack calling lefty bloggers "blogofascists.") Still, even after John Gibson announced the War on Christmas, Newt and friends' recent announcement of WWIII or IV takes us beyond the rhetorical pale of the pale they formerly took us beyond. While the technique itself is not surprising, the announcement, per usual, took us off guard. And per usual, they're whipping up their authoritarian base. The rest of us could laugh if we weren't so busy crying over the armed madhouse this country has become*.

As if it weren't as obvious as Bush™'s lies, this is yet another brazen Orwellian attempt to frame the discourse in an insane fashion before an impending election. And this time, the GOP's collective back is to the wall; so who knows what crazy Rovian shit they have planned.

This conflagration in the Middle East, however, is far, far from being a world war, though it could turn into one. It is three separate but loosely connected conflicts, not one of which has much to do with terrorism--unless you mean Israeli and American terrorism against the populations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Gaza. But that's par for the course. While Israel's reaction to Hizbollah is inexcusably extreme and targets the very people who did nothing against them, we follow suit in other parts of the Middle East. At the same time, Hizbollah just makes everything worse by provoking via violent extremism the last nation on earth that needs provoking to do something violent and extreme.

And what is Il Duce doing about it? Trying to give Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel a friggin back rub.

Maybe that's because Our Beloved Leader doesn't know what the fuck is going on.

*Get Greg Palast's new book, Armed Madhouse, here. No, I don't get a cut.

Dr. Miracles

An excellent, funny short film.

William Kristol Takes the Bus to Crazy Town

I used to think neocon high priest Bill Kristol was one of the marginally sane practitioners of realpolitik (albeit a 9/11 co-conspirator and mass-murderer) but clearly that's not the case. He's bugshit crazy.

UPDATE: As usual, Tom Tomorrow predicted this in his quickly-becoming-reportage-rather-than-satire comic strip.

Clinton Got a Blowjob

Hilarious.

Israel: WTF!?

Not that Israel is known for "restraint" or, you know, general decency, but their latest response to Hezbollah has been a bit, um, over-the-top. Kidnap two of our soldiers? Why, we'll bomb civilian neighborhoods! If you've been wondering what the fuck is up with the little nation that could, Steve Clemons has a hypothesis that experts agree with and that no one is reporting on.

Fight or Flight

I hate to be alarmist or dreary or apocalyptic, but if we lose in November (that is, if the election is stolen yet again), it would be prudent to leave the country. Maybe nothing will happen around November 2008, but there's a decent chance that we'll see an actual Reichstag fire in this country. Yes, 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax attacks seemed like the Reichstag fire, but technically the next attack would qualify. 9/11 and the anthrax attacks merely set the stage for state control of every citizen's life. Another attack would be perpetrated as an excuse to declare martial law and gain absolute control over the nation.

So: if we lose in November, pack your bags and get the fuck out of Dodge. (If you live in Louisiana, you already have your bags packed and know what it's like to look at all your belongings with pathos and imagine that none of them will be there when you return.) If that doesn't work, then it's time for alternative solutions. One of these is a velvet revolution, where millions of American's mass in the streets and demand change. The other? Severe but necessary. I won't clarify what I mean, but midwestern militias will understand. It will be time for more radical solutions to the problem of governmental oppression. Either way, you'll need a coleman stove, lots of batteries, flashlights, water and canned food. Best also if you purchase a few tools used by hunters and the vice president. You'll be needing them.

And no, I am, most assuredly, not kidding. I'm busy making plans.

Borat

November 3 can't get here soon enough, and I'm not saying that just because of hurricane season.

Stupid Motherfucker of the Day

Blackfive. (Unnamed high-ranking Administration officials tell me that he also wanted to assert that Satan directly hired Joe Wilson and that the sky is green, but I couldn't confirm it.)

Profile in Courage

Okay, maybe a bit high-fallutin' a title, but Keith Olbermann is the only person outside of Comedy Central to host an actual news show. (I'm sure it's been noted many times before, but how sad is it that the only news shows on television are satirical? That's what happens when the MSM is dead and all you have left is Samizdat.) The unbelievably incompetent NYT (at least they report 10% of the news!) has a profile.

The Situation in Lebanon

Radio god Mike Molloy points to this Lebanese blog for on-the-scene reporting on the Israeli atrocities in Lebanon.

UPDATE: Predictably, Juan Cole has more.

John Madden for Vagicil

Bored as I am? Watch this. (Via The Great Society via Atrios.)

Ted Stevens' Internets

Ted Stevens' crazy rant last week was entertaining enough without commentary. But The Daily Show turned his sparkling turd into bars of gold.

Ivo Errs

I hate to pick on Ivo Daalder, because he's an excellent and sane analyst, but in his criticism today of Bush™'s nonexistent foreign policy, Daalder concluded that

While there has been a shift in foreign policy during Bush's second term (one Jim Lindsay and I wrote about here some 9 months ago), it's not so much a shift from unilateralism to multilateralism as it is a shift from relying on the use of force to doing nothing.
...
It was this combination of unilateralism, preemptive force, and regime change that made Bush's foreign policy revolutionary.

(Emphasis mine.)

I hate to say it, but Daalder is wrong. Far from being "revolutionary," Bush™'s foreign policy has been America's standard practice for nearly two centuries. Almost every war this country has fought, including the Revolutionary War, has flowed from a pretext. Our stated reasons for war are almost always about selling the war to the public. This has held true from as early as the Mexican War onward. Even our involvement in the much-lauded WWII was largely artifice (allowing that the cause was good), owing more to our repeated provocations of Japan than of the actual (anticipated) Pearl Harbor attack.

No, the difference between Bush™'s foreign policy and the policies of previous administrations has nothing to do with the use of "preemptive military force" but instead with brazenness. Bush™ does what the West has always done; he just doesn't care what others think of it and his attempts to cover up his real agenda are so laughable that it's a wonder that by now the GOP hasn't imploded. That they have not owes an America-sized debt to the power and efficiency of the Republican propaganda machine and the suckers who haven't yet caught on to the lie.

Creeping Fascism Quote of the Day

As John Dean notes in his recently released book, Authoritarianism comes naturally to those of a conservative bent and it's almost exclusively found among Republicans, most of whom* love to follow He Who Leads**. (May his sheep multiply and his cattle grow fat on the grass of the field; selah.) If there are any liberal Authoritarians, they're few and well hidden--perhaps because liberalism and Authoritarianism are diametrically opposed. On that note, we present what Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) regarding the Supremes' recent Hamdan decision:

The President is always right.

As Nixon famously declared, "If the president does it, that means that it is not illegal***."

Mmm, yeah.... Fuck that pesky "constitution"....

But the few actual conservatives left in America shouldn't worry, and above all they shouldn't smear the good name of Our Beloved Leader® by describing such actions as "Authoritarian" or "fascistic"--because as everyone knows, fascism requires uniforms. I mean, it's not as if Bush™ is using signing statements to subvert Congress' laws or surveilling everyone's email, phone traffic, medical records, financial transactions or Web-surfing history. Or, for that matter, using fake terror plots and alerts and live terrorists to keep the public in a state of fear.

That's the stuff of fantasy.

*Yes, I know there are some libertarian Bushians, but many of them seem intent on defending everything this Empire Administration does.
**Why do I keep thinking of Voldemort and Sauron?
***A previous version of this post got the quote slightly wrong. Thanks to YouTube, I've corrected it.

Bush Pilot

Brilliant.

Guide to Fascism

In case former readers like PDS still don't understand what fascism is or how to smell it when you run across it in your local grocery store, here's a handy guide. Hey, criticism and insults only matter if they come from the left, not the right. Right?

Adam Corolla to Anne Coulter: Blow

Lest this past week find you short of lefty shadenfreude, here's Adam Corolla (for once) doing a public service. Give him a medal.

Minimalist SciFi Comedy

Approximately four readers know that I have intimate knowledge of minimalist filmmaking, since I have in my possession the 30-min., single-angle, ennui-filled attempt at porn that my aged aunt and uncle recorded a couple of years ago (a few of you have--wince--seen it). Be that as it may, here's a great example of where SciFi might go next: the way of the handheld documentary. Or as Burroughs would put it, "Louder! Funnier!"

Goddamned Liberals

Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things—every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.

—Matt Santos, The West Wing
(Via Simply Left Behind via C&L.)

Um...Yeah....

So I skipped over the umpteen million humongous stories last weekend to give Pursuit shit, which he's long deserved. In part to bump that post from the top of the page, in part because the headline was too sweet to pass up, here's its replacement: Hasselhoff in Chandalier Accident.

No, for once, I'm not kidding. Reminds me of that Woody Allen line from Zelig where he refers to someone dying in a gardening accident. The original Raw Story headline read "loo chandalier accident" but unfortunately it looks like no loos were involved.

So anyway, Evil Twin Knight Rider was accosted by a light fixture. Go figure.

UPDATE: See comments for Schroeder's info: there may have been a loo involved....

Pursuit of Ignorance

The stupidest shit on the planet. He makes Jeff Goldstein and Assrocket look like sincere, well-read geniuses. (Sorry, but he's too stupid to figure out how to give each post a permalink, so I have to link to his entire blog.)

That said, he appears to be an excellent cook. A pity he strays into other territory of which he knows so little that he's living proof that you can actually know less than nothing.

UPDATE: Lein (formerly known as the Savant--and he really is wise) asked me why I hate Pursuit so much. Well, I don't. It's just that our country has been overtaken by evil, selfish pricks and handed over wholesale to the second generation of robber barons, and it's people like Pursuit--stupid, incurious, insecure, fearful dicks--who are stirring the pot in which we're boiling. (PDS: Did I finally insult him more than 8 times? Are you ever going to call him on his many insults of his betters? Of course not.) Let's be as clear as Coulter: People like Pursuit are traitors. What's pathetic is they don't even know it.

Ann Coulter Must Be Fragged

Last night, my neighbor's dog Harvey emailed me the following:

Ann Coulter must be fragged.

She must be eliminated from this earth.

She is the cause of all evil. She is the cause of all your pain.

The Great Triumverate of Glory--the Ghost of Stalin, Osama Bin Laden, and Harvey Fierstein--will never reign supreme until this vile, subhuman firenewt is
destroyed.

Until she is gone, we will never be able to create the world we yearn for, that world where we indulge in which glorious Communism rules over all, where we
spend our time indulging in the most decadent and promiscuous homosexual carnalities, and then pray to Allah six times daily.

She is preventing this.

She must go away.

A quick demise is too good for her. One must acquire hollow point bullets. Two to the kneecaps. Two to the elbows. (That way, even if we are interrupted, her life will still be constant agony.) The bleeding will need to be stopped, or she will expire too quickly. Then we will apply nails, just as the great Romans did to her precious Nazarene. But we will be more creative. One to each shoulder and hipbone (which will be prominent). Then we will move to the boxcutter, that sacred instrument of our beloved hijackers. We will saw off her ears, her lips, her nose, her hair. Will will cut off her penis. Her shrieks will delight us. But do not harm the eyes--not yet. Now we will finish her. Take your sharpened knife, and cut into her lower abdomen. Do it quickly. Reach in and grab hold of her entrails, pull them out, and show them to her. Then stab her in both eyes. If she lives a moment more, so much the better. Revel in her agony.

When you do this your troubles will go away.

Right now you feel lonely, but afterward you will not.

Right now you despair, but afterward you will not.

You will be a wondrous, Communist Islamic Homosexual, just as you were meant to be.

You will be all-powerful.

You just have to do it.

Frag Ann Coulter.

Frag Ann Coulter.

Frag Ann Coulter.

Do it.

Do it.

DO IT!!!!

A Year without a Fitzaclaus

No Fitzmas. Ever.

But, hey, you know, he could always OD on amphetamenes and drown in the toilet.

Or maybe rat on someone even bigger....

The Hypocrisy of Sean Hannity

One of our mystery reporters (the one who guest-blogged for me last year) asked me to post this for him:

Every time Ann Coulter and her latest cracked jeremiad plays on talk shows, it seems, comes the inevitable attempt by her apologists to draw parallels with someone on the left -- never with examples given. Al Franken, they say, is just as irrational and hateful from the other end of the spectrum, or Michael Moore -- although, to my knowledge, Franken has never openly wished that Timothy McVeigh had bombed Fox News, and Moore has never openly called for the assassination of Pres. Bush.

But, you know, there may well be a Coulter of the Left, and he beat her on criticizing 9-11 widows by about four years. He also said shortly after Pres. Reagan's death that he "ought to be turning crispy brown about now," and that the Army was "looking for a few good homosexual rapists" after Abu Ghraib broke. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Ted Rall.

And the larger point here isn't necessarily that there actually is someone on the liberal side who can be, on occasion, just as vicious and irrational as Coulter. The point here is that you see Rall's work on the web, or in alt-weeklies in places like Berkeley and Madison. You're not seeing Rall on the fucking "Today" show, are you, and he's not #1 on Amazon, is he?

Course not -- although he is, every now and then, on 'Hannity & Colmes,' just like Dreamboat Annie. The treatment each received on the show for saying essentially the same thing -- that certain 9-11 widows are capitalizing on their husbands' deaths -- was, shall we say, just a tad different.

Hannity to Rall, 6/8/04:

You are mean. You are cruel. You are thoughtless, and you are a hateful human being. You don't have a soul. And you don't care about anybody but yourself. And you do this for shock value so that your name could be noticed. You're a slob. You're an absolutely -- you're a hateful human being to do this to families that are suffering. There's no excuse for it. There's no rationale for what you're doing. You're mean, cruel and thoughtless.

Hannity and Coulter, 6/6/06:

HANNITY: I share a lot of your views. But I want you to explain to everybody what is the foundation of Ann Coulter? Because a lot of people, when I mention your name to liberals they melt. You are like Alka-Seltzer in water. They bubble, fizz, give off their energy. You are the anti-Christ to them. Who is--what is the Ann Coulter? Where does your philosophy come from?

COULTER: Well, that's the toughest question I'm probably going to get on the book tour. In as much as I don't like talking about myself, I'm a Christian, and everything comes from being a Christian. Everything I do, I mean, from the interview that Alan was just reading from to Human Events.

I mean, I do think Christianity fuels all of my books, because you are called upon to behave in a certain way as a Christian, and that is to fight lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy. That fuels everything.

HANNITY: All right. And I want to remind people, tomorrow, Book Review in Huntington. We're going to be there together from 2 to 6.

BONUS: Coulter afflicted by rhetorical Tourette's Syndrome.

Zarqawi Killed in Air Strike

About time. And no, we're not "winning" in Iraq, if such a thing could even happen. But no matter what you think of the war or the insurgency, most of which has nothing to do with Zarqawi, this is a good day.

AFTERTHOUGHT: And, well, yeah, it would've helped if we'd killed him in his terrorist training camp in the Kurdish no-fly zone which we controlled when we knew exactly where he was. But then we couldn't've dangled him like a shiny fishing lure in front of rabit Rightists as a manifestly absurd excuse to invade Iraq, now could we? That's okay; it was worth it. Because we're winning in Iraq!

You Could Be Preznit!

I've always wondered what Condi sees in him. (BTW, even if she's a mass-murderer, you just know somebody that pent-up is fantastic in bed. Way to go, George!)

How to Steal a US Presidential Election for the Second Time

Here.

Too bad Hillary and her spineless ilk don't yet get that this country is even less Republican-friendly than in 2000. People like this are in a shrinking minority in this country, let alone the world.

The loser of both the 2000 and 2004 elections, faux-president Bush, didn't get any "capital" from the last election, and yet he spent it, much like he spends the Chinese money that America doesn't have. Now he's flat broke and facing more than two years of pretending to govern. I shudder at the possibilities of what might happen before his term ends.

Evolution Exposed!

Damn it, the Bible was right all along! (PZ Myers via C&L.)

P.S. I'll be voting for the GOP from now on!

No-Shit News Item of the Day

Here. (Via Raw Story.) Still, it's nice to know....

Pat Robertson Takes on Jack La Lanne

Pat Robertson claims to leg-press 1000 lbs. (Thanks, Abbytaylor.)

He's supposedly leg-pressed 2000*.

P.S. 1000, maybe. But 2000? Come on. We're sure it has nothing to do with him pushing his "age-defying" protein shake....

BONUS: Jack La Lanne's site is here.

*Previously, this figure read "20000." That was a typo.

Pentagon "Releases" 9/11 Video

And it tells us nothing new. So no end to speculation that an airliner didn't hit the Pentagon, and even if the video had settled that, no end to the overwhelming reasons to believe that our intelligence-security services were deeply involved in the operation (cached).

God Speaks

His name is Murry Waas.

P.S.: Washington Press Corpse: this is the guy to emulate.

Iran, Plane Crashes

I've been procrastinating about this for a couple of months. Given our rapid movement toward war with Iran, it's hardly germane, but I want to post it before we "do something" about that country. Sad to say, but I'm the only one who (to my knowledge) noticed the following. I'm sure there were plenty who did, in various intelligence circles, but I'm the only one who's bothered to mention it in public [pats self on back].

Early this year, a year after Seymour Hersh reported that the US was messing around in Iran (again) and many months after the unacknowledged Joshua Kurlantzick reported that the US was supporting the now oft-reported crazy MEK in conducting covert operations in Iran, three planes "crashed" in Iran. No big deal. Except that the crashes were timed close together (again, no big deal) and two of them killed a number of the sort of people you'd want to kill if you were aiming to topple the government (okay, well, pretty convenient).

It's late and I have a job, so here's the homework:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/12/06/tehran.crash/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/09/iran.crash/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/19/world/main541219.shtml

Two of the crashes were within a month of each other, early Jan. 2006 and Dec. 2005. The other one was in 2003. In the most recent two cases, the plane was transporting the "elite" Revolutionary Guard. Given that we're messing around inside Iran with Rummy having a near blank-check to take covert action, this is highly suspicious.

As the CBS piece notes, in the December 2005 crash, "All aboard — 18 crew and 284 passengers — were members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite group under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The guards protect Iran's borders and defend ruling hard-liners in this ultraconservative society." It also notes that several of the victims were "high-ranking officers of the Guard."

That's who we're trying to get rid of--the ruling hard-liners.

In the latest crash, in early February, 11 high-ranking Revolutionary Guard officials were killed. Iran's news service, IRNA, reported that "the guard's Commander of Ground Forces, Ahmad Kazemi, along with the commander of the 27th Rassoulollah Army Division and the chief of intelligence, died in the accident."

The chief of intelligence died. Pretty convenient. Now I don't know what's going on or who did this (it could be coincidence, but it stinks of something else), but I would be amazed if we weren't involved, either directly or through a third party, say, the Iranian crazies that are buddy-buddy with the neocon establishment (you know, the MEK):
http://www.wetdogdesign.net/realitique/iran-kurlantzick.htm.

Put this in the context of the recent reports of serious planning for attacks on Iran and the outed-agent Valerie Plame was working on Iran, and the Plame leak begins to look suspicious (I'm not saying it wasn't more than a political maneuver, which everyone outside of Power Line acknowledges, but there may be something else at work).

Rob

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I think the first, earliest crash was just an accident. It's the latter two that look suspicious. But hearing about the first one raised my suspicions about the ones that followed. As usual, for something this (ahem) important, I get no comments whatsoever.

Data Strip-Mining

Greg Palast, the BBC reporter who proved that the 2000 election was stolen and unearthed not one, but two US plans for Iraqi oil, has the skinny on the latest domestic warrantless wiretapping record-collecting move by the unrepentent monarchists in the White House. Think it's bad? Oh, yes, it's bad. But (as usual) it's much, much worse. Read. Weep.

Georgie McCarthy

Cheap shot or accurate description? You be the judge (via Crooks and Liars).

The (Last) Mayoral Debate

Last night's run-off mayoral debate between candidates Landrieu and Nagin was striking. All of them were, I suppose, since the moderaters routinely asked pointed questions and were clearly engaged in the answers given--unlike, say, Bill Schieffer. But last night, John Snell acted like a wife who'd been cheated on and was addressing her husband who'd just come home to pick up a few things for another night in a hotel. "Did you think about me when you were fucking her? huh?" he may as well have asked. He brought up the past--Nagin's Bring Back New Orleans Commission plan, which he called "pure fantasy," the undisclosed budget and the fiscal health of city hall. And yet, unlike the wife in my example, he was fair. He grilled Landrieu too (but Landrieu isn't running N.O. right now and doesn't have to answer for un-picked-up debris). It was beautiful. Because anyone running for an important office should be grilled. The rest of us are grilled in important job interviews, but politicians rarely are. Dare I hope that one day we could have presidential debates like that?

Lein Shory Irate Savant Leaves the Closet

My friend Lein Shory has been through more than his fair share recently, and unfortunately that means his blog Irate Savant is at an end. We salute it, we'll miss it and we hope to see it in some other form (such as an epistolary novel, say, with pen-and-ink drawings). But to hell with all that. What we care about is Lein's son, Logan, and his health. If you have any spare change, if or when Lein puts up a paypal button, please give the bastard some loot. God knows, he needs it.

P.S. Lein was the best writer in our class at LSU. His blog proves it. I know no publishers or agents read this rag, but in case one shows up, give him a chance, people.

P.P.S. Those readers who remember occasional commenter and blogger LNS should know that LNS was Lein--in his normal, non-fictive voice.

BONUS: Lein's new, non-fiction blog dealing with his current crisis with his son is Ad-Hoc Existence. Unlike friends and cousins, I didn't lose my house in Katrina, but given the state of things in New Orleans, I can't help but relate to Lein's situation. He's going through what New Orleans itself is going through.

SUPER BONUS: Okay, maybe not. But anyway. Lein was a big reason I started this blog. I'd wanted to start one in the winter of 2002 but opted instead for talking to myself about how we needed "regime change" in Washington. I kept reserving my rants for my beleaguered (but otherwise well-treated) girlfriends until Lein gave in and started Irate Savant. That was the kick in the ass I needed. So I started ranting in public. Next I plan to quit my job and start handing out tracts on Bourbon Street.

Hold the Corps Accountable

The Times-Picayune reports (again) that the Corpse of Engineers built New Orleans levees using obsolete data. Where's the prosecution? A few people in that organization need to be tried for negligent homicide, don'tcha think?

NOTE: Since the man who made the disastrous decision is dead, maybe not. But the article doesn't addresses neither the porous-soil issue that was central to the 17th St. breach nor the issues with most of the breaches, which weren't due to overtopping. Using outdated storm data was unconscionable but how that may have affected issues like sheet-pile too short for the soil is a big question. The half-assed guess that the Vicksburg office signed off on was made by someone for some reason. Who? What? I imagine the T-P will tell us eventually.