Korean War Vet on "No-Fly" List for Opposing Bush [Updated x3]

Think of America under George W. Bush as one great big Disney exhibit. We're all in the virtual Soviet Union of 1955 now.

At this point, I should note that I am not only the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence (emeritus) but also a retired Marine colonel. I fought in the Korean War as a young lieutenant, was wounded, and decorated for heroism. I remained a professional soldier for more than five years and then accepted a commission as a reserve office, serving for an additional 19 years."

"I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said. "

The story here isn't only that Professor Walter F. Murphy, emeritus of Princeton University and veteran of the Korean War can't get on an airplane in his own country, although that's a big story in itself. The bigger story is what the American Airlines personnel said.

"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said."

The TSA would of course deny that - they probably already have. But to have someone that close to the scene actually say that? That warrants a bit of investigating.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall and TPM are now on the story.

UPDATE II: This guy "debunks" the story. I don't quite buy it. Quite. He's obviously very knowledgeable on the subject, but, as I said above, the bigger story is what the airline personnel said. It flies straight in the face of this "debunking," and airline personnel surely know more than the average person about the TSA.

With everything we know about this administration and its willingness to inject politics into every facet of governmental machinery, debunking this story requires a lot more than one guy from Wired magazine saying, "It's totally like not true. Trust me." No disrespect to him, but Professor Murphy deserves more than that.

UPDATE III: Looks like the criticism in the comments of Ryan Singel at Wired's Threat Level blog has had some effect. He's changed the title to "Questioning Debunking the 'Professor On Watchlist for Free Speech' Story," with this update:

I've changed the title to reflect the fact that I can't prove that the professor isn't on the list for his political speech. I'm skeptical that's what happened but I'm trying to figure out exactly what did happen.

Also I changed the last sentence to read far left rather than left, so as to be more precise. I do think that Kafka is more germane than Orwell, but I wasn't trying to say that a huge percentage of the populace is crazy. A longer explanation can be found in the comment section.

The ACLU answers questions about the No-Fly list.

Light Break: The National Music Museum

From Metafilter:

The National Music Museum has photos and descriptions of a wealth of odd, beautiful and unusual historic musical instruments, including the schediphon, trombacello, Tristan trumpet, basset horn, lyre guitar, ophicleide... plus a few serpents. And if that doesn't satisfy your curvy horn jones, things get pretty serpentine here.

Football

Steve Clemons: What Will the Blowback from Iraq Look Like in the Decades to Come?

He links to Secrecy News:

"The humanitarian crisis many feared would take place in March 2003 as a result of the war in Iraq appears to be unfolding," says a new report from the Congressional Research Service.

"It is estimated that in total (including those displaced prior to the war) there may be two million Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan, Syria, and other neighboring states, and approximately two million Iraqis who have been displaced within Iraq itself." See "Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis?," (pdf) March 23, 2007.

Two million refugees on top of what death and destruction has already been given. It's something that makes you wonder about people who so breezily and lustfully cheer this war and the far too many who support even wider war. They seem to view it - exactly - as a game, with them simply as audience members.

Go to the links, and to the pdf. There's much more. Like this:

Overall living standards have declined sharply. Direct personal threats, abductions, assassinations, and death threats are commonplace. Many middle class Iraqis with the means to leave have already done so. Religious belief, political or tribal affiliation, or association with U.S. forces or Iraqi authorities all can make someone a target for violence. Dissplacement can be the result of sectarian conflict and general armed violence, local criminal activity, coalition military operations, and fighting among militias and insurgents, all of which have contributed to decreased security and an atmosphere of generalized fear for many ordinary Iraqis.

Throw out the beer cup and the hot dog wrappers, find the car, and go home? Not quite. As Clemons finishes:

We will be paying compounding costs for Iraq a long time.

It's too bad we can't figure out a way to make President Bush and his Rasputinesque Vice President Dick Cheney bear the burden and consequences of this for all time.

The fact is that others will have to clean up this terrible situation, and all of us will pay for it.

"Peter Yarrow Sleepwalks Into Tony Kornheiser's House"

Okay weirdest story ever. Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, had just gotten off a flight from Israel, the story says, and was disoriented. He ended up in sportswriter, radio host, and ESPN host Tony Kornheiser's house. Must have been a treat for Kornheiser. They apparently discussed the incident on the radio show:

Kornheiser: “When did you sense that something was wrong?”

Yarrow: “When your wife came out in that extraordinary negligee.”

What qualifies as a brush with fame for a folkie like me: I met Peter Yarrow a couple of times at the Kerrville Folk Festival, which he's been a part of for over three decades. Not a hard thing to do; Yarrow wanders around and hangs out just like the rest of us schleps.

The Kerrville Folk Festival, by the way, is the Mother of All Folk Festivals in the U.S. Go. Stay for weeks. It's a one of a kind musical experience.

Men-Only Sports-Themed Church

From Fark comes The Church for Men:

The Church For Men meets one Saturday evening a month, drawing about 70 guys dressed in everything but straight-laced shirts and neckties. The service features a rock band, a shot clock to time the preacher's message and a one-hour in-and-out guarantee.

A sermon shot-clock. Hilarious. But I don't understand why it's men only. Shouldn't they have cheerleaders?

Give War a Chance

These people are insane. I mean that literally. Fox News' William Kristol, voice of many in the Modern Republican Party, says that there should have been airstrikes on Iran while the British hostages were there:

WILLIAMS: Well, what was the alternative? To go in and strike them while the hostages were there?

KRISTOL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: I think that’s an overreaction. I think that would have prompted war. I don’t think we want war.

Gee, I wonder what would have happened if there'd been airstrikes on Iran? Hmmm.

To Kristol, and to too many people with far too much power, the fact that those hostages are home and that the situation was resolved peacefully was a bad thing. While we're already in the mess that is the Iraq War, while U.S. generals say our forces are already strapped, he advocates for wider war with their much larger neighbor (Iraq: about 28 mil.; Iran: about 68 mil.)

Would you trust this guy with your children?

Related story here.

Giant German Easter Rabbit Eaten in North Korea [updtd 2010]

Yes, that's what I said:

Sydney Morning Herald: A German breeder of giant rabbits said Saturday that North Korea has canceled its invitation for him to visit the country to help breed the rabbits he sold to the North last year, saying he suspects they have already been eaten.

Karl Szmolinsky was scheduled to visit North Korea later this month after he sold 12 of the giant rabbits which weigh about 10kg each - around three times more than normal rabbits.

But an official from the North Korean Embassy in Berlin recently called Szmolinsky and told him of the cancellation, saying, "We can raise them ourselves so there's no need for the visit," according to the German breeder.

Calling the explanation "ambiguous," Szmolinsky said, "It seems like the rabbits have already been eaten. I will never sell to North Korea again."

Here, bunny bunny.



Snopes.com on the giant bunnies. (2010)

And some almost completely unrelated extras:

• I will make them say "newsie."

• A woman who's had dozens of plastic surgeries to turn herself into Jessica Rabbit. (2010)

• Snake eats kangaroo.

• East German TV, 1957.

• And follow a young, tagged great white shark online as it swims the Pacific.

AG Gonzales: The Goofy Look = He's Actually Goofy

You know that Elmer-Fuddian, "Did someone say my name?" goofy, almost child-like look that Alberto Gonzales is able to carry through Senate committee hearings? I always admired him for that. I thought there was something extra sinister about it - because it doesn't actually look sinister at all. And you know it's hiding something sinister, so... I mean the guy's the U.S. Attorney General. He's gotta have some serious backroom smarts going on behind that goofball face. That's what I always thought.

I was wrong.

Via 1115.org, the Washington Post:

Alarmed about the raft of allegations, several White House aides tried to raise red flags. But the normal investigation process was short-circuited, the sources said. Bush’s top lawyer, Alberto R. Gonzales, took charge of the vetting, repeatedly grilling Kerik about the issues that had been raised. In the end, despite the concerns, the White House moved forward with his nomination — only to have it collapse a week later.

Think of Bernard Kerik as a hurricane headed for the White House and Alberto Gonazales as the White House's Michael Brown. The guy, I'm now convinced, is a seriously dim bulb. Remember: Bush appointed him his AG from the ranks of his inner circle in Texas. Think of that. Those two probably felt like a couple of frat boys who snuck into the dean's office when Bush made the White House. This has to be applied to Rove too: forget the "Evil Genius" nonsense. Look at the last five years. It's been disaster after disaster with this crew, and they will rightly earn the title of - and go down in history for, their names emblazoned in house-sized letters on the forever-burning zeppelin that is their "legacy," as THE WORST ADMINISTRATION IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. POSSIBLY THE WORLD.

These guys are just dopes. Every single one of them. Just dopes.

Sabres Win President's Trophy: Home Ice

GO SABRES

This is the year, hockey fans, this is the year.

G.W.H.A.T.?

One of the many arguments pushed especially by Dick Cheney and of course by George Bush and of course again by the rivulets of their pissing contest in the Right Wing Blogo- and Radio-sphere (and the Washington Post) is that "If we leave Iraq before the glorious victory we see so clearly in our minds in Technicolor™ then The Enemy Will Follow Us Home."

Uh. Why would that have to "follow us home"? Do they mean like the way they'd follow the guy in the '73 Ranchero home from the fight in the parking lot of the local strip joint? Does anybody really need to follow anybody home to America? I mean it's a big place. Lots of people know about it. And there's maps and everything that show America. Right there next to Cuba. (And Lord knows the terrorists all know where Cuba is.)

That argument is resoundingly silly. If they wanted to hit us here, wouldn't it be easier while we're...over there? Do they think we're in a sword fight? As long as they keep slashing wildly at the lone bad guy then he won't be able to get to the fair maiden and slash off her bodice and have her way with her?

They keep telling us it's a G.W.O.T., a "Global War on Terror," trying to convince us there are nuclear-suitcase carrying terrorists on every street corner from Flint to Taipei. At the same time they say, "We can't leave Iraq - 'cause The Enemy Will Follow Us Home." That just doesn't make sense. Really, it doesn't. Think about it.

Oh look. Somebody smarter than me said the same thing.

H/T.

Blame America (and the UK) First [Update]

Sadly No! stomped this with snarkier boots already, but I can't resist.

Short version of today's Washington Post Op-Ed section:

The terrorists are right and we deserve their wrath.

If you think I'm exaggerating, read it. We deserve it, Kathleen Parker says, because we allow women to serve in the military. Here's a piece:

On any given day, one isn't likely to find common cause with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He's a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating cutthroat thug -- not to put too fine a point on it.

But he was dead-on when he wondered why a once-great power such as Britain sends mothers of toddlers to fight its battles.

She would deny it, of course, but she is making the argument that 1) Women's rights in the West was a bad thing; and 2) it makes us worthy of attack by the more morally-pure extremists in the world. Again, that is not an exaggeration:

In the eyes of Iran and other Muslim nations, we're wimps. While the West puts mothers in boats with rough men, Muslim men "rescue" women and drape them in floral hijabs.

It's "rescue" when a women is taken and put in a hijab. "Rescue." [That deserves a finer point: Parker is speaking broadly about women in the military but also specifically about Seaman Faye Turney, the one woman in the group of captured sailors. And specifically she is saying about her that she was rescued by the Iranians. I don't even know what to say to that.]

It gets worse, and loonier:

Rape, though not a likely risk in this case, is a consistent argument against putting women in or near combat. While advocates for women in combat argue that men are also raped, there is an important difference. Women are raped by men, which, given the inherent power differential between the sexes, raises women's rape to another level of terror.

The absolute lunacy of that is something to behold. Acknowledging that men also are raped, Parker says the difference is that "women are raped by men." I know any reader sees it immediately, but, uh, the men are raped by men too. And that, let me assure Ms. Parker, deserves to be called "another level of terror" too. What would be next in Parker's quest to get the pretty young things with boobs off the battlefield? Getting the more attractive and more feminine-looking men out too? If she acknowledges that men get raped too, then wouldn't they be more susceptible to it? What about shorter men? Or men with unnaturally-long eyelashes and blue eyes? That's gotta be hot to some man-rapers.

The next bit, unbelievably, gets even lower:

What kind of man, one shudders to wonder, is willing to allow his country's women to be raped and tortured by men of enemy nations?

Oh come on, just come out with it already: What kind of man let's his women drive the goddamned truck? What kind of nation allows it's women out of house - period? In short: We deserve to be attacked by fundamentalist terrorists. They at least know how to treat their bitches.

This toe-chewing backwards insanity brought to you courtesy of the Washington Post. Don't worry, America! The Glorious Knights of the Morally Pure Legions of Manly-Man Terrorists are coming to rescue you from your immoral ways! (With hijabs!)

UPDATE: Letting something like this make it to print is one thing. Committing journalistic mortal sin is a whole 'nuther ball of wax.

John Prine Break

The master, 2004, at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.


Fallen Troops on Forklifts

This (via) is what a "CEO president" - and a really bad one at that - gets you.

In an about-face by the U.S. government four years into the war in Iraq, America's fallen troops are being brought back to their families aboard charter jets instead of ordinary commercial flights, and the caskets are being met by honor guards in white gloves instead of baggage handlers with forklifts.

...

"I said, 'That's not going to happen with my son. That's not how my son is coming home,"' said Holley, an Army veteran from San Diego whose son, Spc. Matthew Holley, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005. "If it was 'expeditious' to deliver them in garbage trucks, would you do that?"

Damn. More:

Last year, the U.S. military spent about $1.2 million to bring home the dead on commercial flights. Switching to charter flights will cost far more: The six-month Kalitta contract is worth up to $11 million.

Support the Bottom Line.

"You just don't do that," he [Holley] said. "And doing that with a family watching it, they don't want to see their son's casket being unloaded with a forklift or a belt loader, and this is what Congress saw."

"Congress saw," or looked the other way, for nearly four years. Four years, it should be said, of a Republican-controlled White House and Congress.

Kalitta Charters - the airline that got the new $11 million contract - is owned by drag racer Doug Kalitta. Is he a major donor to the Republican Party? Keeps it all in the family, if so.

More here from last August. And even more. And from even earlier, January, 2006.

Looks like it was Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter who wrote up the bill that changed the policy, and with a lot of help - quickly and personally to the family - from Barbara Boxer.

The Casualty Assistance Officer contacted the office of California Senator Barbara Boxer. The Senator made a few phone calls of her own, and suddenly all reluctance and red tape vanished. The Holleys were allowed to meet their son on the runway at Lindbergh Field. A small honor guard joined them in welcoming their fallen warrior home to American soil.

"There are conservative moonbats as well."

I kid you not. That's what a blogger wrote today.

Slapstick Politicks has a post up today, one that was linked by Michelle Malkin and I'm sure is making the rounds as we speak. I got the tip from Gavin M. at Sadly, No!.

Background:

City officials said today a statue honoring slain Navy SEAL Danny Dietz will be erected July 4 despite opposition from a Littleton group claiming it glorified violence because he is depicted holding an automatic rifle.

Go look at the photo. Simply saying "because he is depicted holding an automatic rifle" is just a little soft, I think. It's not just any old assault rifle. It's an M4A1 assault rifle with a grenade launcher, a bear of a gun. And his chest is strapped with what I think are grenades (not sure). They and the rifle dominate the piece. The photo is a pretty spot-on rendering of the last photo taken of Dietz before he was killed in Afghanistan - after truly courageous actions - in 2004. It's set to be erected in a park near where Dietz grew up.

Again, it's in Littleton, in the community from which came the students that were at Columbine High School that day you need no reminding of. The people protesting: Just a handful, it seems, one of them the mother of a student who was at Columbine at the time of the attack, Linda Cuesta. She subsequently has become a gun control advocate. Hardly surprising. Another is the mother of a four-year-old who plays in the park.

The sculpture is what the Dietz's want for their son and it's a beautiful thing to do for him. I think kids will forget it's there, frankly, in a short time, and it'll become another thing in the park. The thing that stood out to me about the story was how Malkin and El Presidente, the writer at Slapstick Politics, treated the protestors, especially of Cuesta, the mother of the Columbine student, who was called by Malkin and Slapstick a "moonbat." Their term for Liberals, of course. One comment at SP:

"For moonbats it is not really about the statue--its about the guns." Yeah, well, Linda Cuesta has a thing about guns. Uh... Does anything really need to be said about why?


I left El Presidenta a comment:

The mother of a kid who was at Columbine during the shootings works for gun control - and you are dim enough to toss her under the "moonbat" label for that.[?] She may very well be a republican - have you checked?

Dense.

His response I think is very revealing:

She may be a Republican. She is for gun-control. On that issue, she is a moonbat, as well as for believing that a statue with a soldier carrying a weapon promotes violence.

There are conservative moonbats as well. In this situation, regardless of her political position, her thoughts on gun-control and what causes violence would easily put her into the moonbat category.
El Presidente | Homepage | 04.06.07 - 7:12 pm | #

That cracks me up, I gotta tell ya. "Conservative moonbats." My head is spinning.

The thing revealed by the comment is what is true about so many on the Bush side of the politcal aisle: They will eat their own in a heartbeat if you are not with them lock step. And it doesn't matter if you're a Republican: If you get out of step it is open season on you for the citriolic smears of people like Michelle Malkin and the Slapstick Artist. And Rush Limbaugh. And Orrin Hatch. And on and on and on...

Shorter Wall Street Journal:

There are no such things as Republican Members of Congress. If there were, they would not go to Syria. Ever. Now arrest Nancy Pelosi.

Glenn Greenwald reviews Pelosipalooza.

UPDATE: When shown this, the Wall Street Journal said, "Newt Gingrich? Never heard of him. Can we arrest Nancy Pelosi now?"

90-year old Fish Caught Off Alaska

Is that you, Mr Limpet?

The 44-inch, 60-pound female shortraker rockfish was caught last month by the catcher-processor Kodiak Enterprise as it trawled for pollock 2,100 feet below the surface, south of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

Brit Sailors and Armchair Heroes [Update]

You gotta a have a whole factory of blind spots and hubris to sit in a safe spot on the sidelines and call people in far away places, in circumstances the details of which are murky at best, "cowards." But blind spots and hubris is what these folks are about, and they scream "coward" on a regular basis (h/t). This time it's the Brit sailors who were taken captive by the Iranians. Read that Digby post. Truly ugly stuff.

As I said here, in the story about a U.S. Navy admiral publicly questioning the actions of the captured sailors (which is a mind-bogglingly wrongheaded thing to do), these people are talking out their asses. We know next to nothing about the details of the capture, and what reports we do have show a dire situation. They could have displayed tremendous courage as events unfolded. Being captured - or being killed - does not mean somebody wasn't courageous. Ask a wounded vet. Or the family and friends of one who didn't make it.

But to cretins like these, that doesn't fit into the broader context of what they're doing: they've confused supporting this war (and advocating for more war) with heroics, and being against it with cowardice. Imagine how twisted the scenery inside those heads must be when they can even extend that to people in the military right now. Like those sailors.

Again, they know next to nothing about the details of the capture. And what we do know makes it look like they were in an untenable situation:

U.S. and British officials said the incident occurred during a routine inspection of a merchant ship near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, which flows between the two countries and empties into the Gulf. The inspections were part of an ongoing operation to intercept smugglers, insurgents and terrorists, and to protect Iraqi oil terminals, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.

The inspection went without a hitch and the British inflatable rafts that the service members use were on the way back to their mother ship when six Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval vessels surrounded them, Pizzey reports.

Inflatable rafts. Six naval vessels. (More on what's called an "ambush.")

I'm extremely happy that it didn't turn into a firefight. How ugly could that have been? Maybe those sailors had a thought about that somewhere along the lines too, and made the brave choice.

UPDATE: Obviously they knew knew exactly that:

"It was clear they arrived with a planned intent," said Air. "Had we resisted there would have been a mighty fight that we could not have won and with consequences that would have major strategic impacts."

Bravo. That. Takes. Guts...and Brains.

We Ain't Seen No U.S. Attorney Scandal Yet [Update x2]

LATE UPDATE - Friday night at the News Dump: 
Gonzales aide Monica "The 5th" Goodling to resign. Letter of resignation noted here, and ooooh, she is not a happy camper:

"I am hereby submitting my resignation to the office of attorney general," Monica M. Goodling said in a three-sentence letter. There was no immediate reason given, but her refusal to face Congress had intensified a controversy that threatens Gonzales' job.

Three quick sentences? Was she being pressured too hard by team Rove and Gonzales to take a fall? We'll see.-- Oop, guess not. "May God bless your richly as you continue your service to America," the letter ends, according to FOX.

Hey! Maybe God can bless Gonzales with the ability to tell the truth! In front of everybody! Testify!

LATE UPDATE II:You're not off the hook yet.

---

TPM digging yet deeper. Now about U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose of the District of Minnesota, appointed in February, 2006.



That was long before the current USAt. firing scandal. And her placement: after another resignation, of USAt. Tom Heffelfinger. Seems there's a revolt in her office:

Now the local CBS affiliate seems to have the scoop. Apparently, the Gonzales Justice Department, already embroiled in a rapidly escalating scandal, was so worried about another shoe dropping (okay, more bad publicity) that they sent an emissary to the local office to beg the four to stay put.

The "four" being members of her top staff.

It’s a major shakeup at the offices of new U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose.

Four of her top staff voluntarily demoted themselves Thursday, fed up with Paulose, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.

It's John Ashcroft in drag.

Another update from TPM here.

And yet more about the Rachel Paulose appointment. And an interview with Paulose showing that she's a graduate of the Condoleezza Rice school of public speaking. Here's here's Part 2. Highlights: Pornography and terrorism. The buried aces in the Texas Hold'em game of Modern Republican politics.

The fired USAt., Tom Heffelfinger in his own words on March 13. And in his own words on March 23.

And even more at DKos.

Pelosi in Syria; Gingrich in China

Glenn Greenwald takes apart another Right Wing hypocrisy.

O'Reilly and Geraldo [Updated]

Holy moly, this is a whopper. Oliver Williis:


Bill O'Reilly Loses His Damn Mind

In the entire, dark, black history of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, this is probably the craziest clip ever. A young girl was tragically killed by a drunk driver. But this was not enough for O'Reilly. Instead, because the criminal was an illegal alien he added this incident to his ongoing crusade against the brown people. Luckily Geraldo was on the show and he - to his credit - called out O'Reilly's xenophobia for exactly what it was. This drove Bill O'Reilly insane. I was almost certain he was going to reach across the table and hit Geraldo.

Geraldo to the rescue! Woo hoo!



Hisssssss!



UPDATE: It gets worse for O'Reilly. The father of the victim responds to O'Reilly.

Running of the Jew Counters

Any day now, we'll see this Jew counter running.

I kiss you. Goodbye.

Brits Were "Gathering Intel" on Iran

Wow. This has an interesting twist. A British news service, Sky News, crew was on the boat with the crew five days before they were captured. And the captain of the crew told the correspondent:

"Secondly, it's to gather int (intelligence). If they do have any information, because they're here for days at a time, they can share it with us.

"Whether it's about piracy or any sort of Iranian activity in the area. Obviously we're right by the buffer zone with Iran."

Sky News knew how explosive that would be, so they held it. Now that the Brits are home safe - let the explosions begin. (Not real ones, of course.)

U.S. Admiral: Brits are Cowards [Update x2]

That's the gist of it, in any case, and it's an unbelievable thing to say, and trust me - you'll be hearing a lot more about it.


The US naval chief said Thursday he thought US military personnel would have fought against Iranian forces and not been taken prisoner as were 15 recently freed Britons.

Asked if a situation like the one faced by the British sailors and marines who were just released after being held by Tehran could have happened to US sailors, Admiral Michael Mullen, chief of Naval operations told CNN television: "My expectation is that American sailors are never seized in a situation like that." He goes on to say that the sailors didn't need to "ask permission," that they could have fought to not be captured, which is what American sailors would have done.

1. What in the hell is a U.S. Navy admiral doing saying something like that about an ally during a time of war? It is unbelievable.

2. It ties in perfectly with the ugliness of the non-enlisting Right Wing blogosphere's criticisms of the British sailors, calling them "cowards" for not fighting the Iranians. Non-enlisters calling active sailors "cowards." A normal day for these kind of cretins. (And, of course, nobody but the British Navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard knows the details of what happened, so they're completely talking out their asses.)

3. Do these idiots have any idea how much better they, us, and the world are off exactly because the situation didn't go to a firefight? It is not a stretch to say - nobody could in these times say it is - that we could very well be at war with Iran right now if it had. And with whoever else jumped in. It could have been the worst of the worst possible outcomes from the entire travesty that is the war in Iraq. Whoever gave whatever orders that led to the situation - now gladly resolved - to come out the way it did deserves an instant knighthood.

The sad part about those non-enlisting pro-war frothers is that, for many of them, it's actually what they want. Pathetically sick bastards.

UPDATE: This post linked, for the headline I'm sure, by a right wing blogger…in Iran. Dire stufff. Top post right now:

It's thirty minutes past midnight in Tehran and in three and half hours if Operation Bite takes place Iran will be attacked by America. If it does take place it will be similar to September 11, 2001 in the sense that the world will be a very different place; it will be the event that will have triggered World War Three.

LATE LATE UPDATE: Well - I was totally and completely wrong. This hasn't made a ripple of news. Well, I guess it's a good thing.

LTiTunes

Something to take home for the kids.

Perps for Pollen

From LiveScience:


All the pollen-covered cars in the South may be an eyesore to drivers, but the yellow dust might be a bandit's best friend. Pollen can make it difficult for crime scene investigators to lift fingerprints from outdoor surfaces, since the dust absorbs the moisture people normally leave behind.

And pollen predictions for this year:

The levels are not far behind in the rest of the region. A reading of 120 [particles per cubic meter] is considered extremely high in the Southeast. So far, this week's high in Atlanta is 748, set on Monday.

Time for the GWOP!

Republican Reps Talks to Syrians

Pelosi already did it, but she's a Dem. It's easier to go against Bush. So kudos to these guys. 
You may or may not agree with them on a whole lot of things, but this is a big one:

A visiting U.S. congressman held talks with President Bashar Assad Thursday, a day after a congressional delegation headed by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sparked controversy by meeting the Syrian leader.

U.S. President George W. Bush has rejected direct talks with Damascus and criticized Pelosi for her visit.

Commenting on Bush's criticism, California Republican Darrell Issa said the president had failed to promote the necessary dialogue to resolve disagreements between the U.S. and Syria.

"That's an important message to realize: We have tensions, but we have two functioning embassies," Issa told reporters...

"We have two functioning embassies." And we should be talking to them. You have to try. Another Republican rep. on his trip:

"I don't care what the administration says on this. You gotta do what you think is in the best interest of your country," said Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, who was part of the delegation.

Good on ya, Rep. Wolf.

As for not talking with enemies, how did it work out with North Korea? The Clinton administration kept discussions with NK going - and kept nukes out of NK. The Bush administration comes in, cuts off talks - boom - there are nukes in NK.

That's a colosall failure. They should be using it as an example for Syria. And Iran.

Update: Hatch & Limbaugh Lam-inaters, Inc.

Via Avedon Carol, Hilzoy has an update on where Hatch and Limbaugh may have gotten their coordinatied talking points about fired U.S. attorney, and fellow republican, Carol Lam:

However: in the course of researching this, I think I have figured out what accounts for this bizarre set of obvious factual errors. Everything that Hatch says about Lam is in fact true of one of her predecessors, Alan Bersin. In an article on Carol Lam in the National Review, published a couple of days before Hatch went on MTP, Byron York writes this (while discussing how Lam was chosen for the US Attorney's job):

"It wasn’t an easy job; the position of U.S. attorney for the Southern District had been wracked by politics in the previous decade. In 1993, Bill Clinton replaced the Republican U.S. attorney, a career prosecutor and veteran of 20 years in the Justice Department, with Alan Bersin, a law professor who had no prosecutorial experience but who had been a classmate of Clinton’s at Yale and head of the Clinton campaign in San Diego. (Bersin pledged to vigorously pursue Clinton priorities like environmental law.) In March 1998, Bersin resigned to become head of the San Diego school system. "

Gives a glimpse of the mechanism by which talking points fly around the Republican back room. NRO to Limbaugh to your U.S. Senate. Beautiful.

50 Helicopters Lost in Iraq

Fifty. That surprised me.

Another one today. Hopefully they're alright, as it apparently didn't explode.

Free at Last

Bizarro world at TaylorMarsh.com. In the words of The General: "My people's war against Taylor Marsh."

Rachel Maddow Keeps Digging

Via Huffington Post and related to the Hatch & Limbaugh Lam-inating Service, Air America's Rachel Maddow has been trying to get in touch with Sen. Hatch:


You don't call, you don't write...orrin hatch

I've just about exhausted myself trying to get someone in your office to call me back this week. Please apologize to your adorable receptionist on my behalf - the poor man now gets audibly exasperated as soon as I say "hello".

And as I guessed in the first post:

And second, Carol Lam was an Assistant US Attorney at the time of Clinton's campaigns, and she therefore couldn't have also been a campaign manager for any presidential candidate without violating the (ironically-named) Hatch Act, which restricts political activity by federal government employees.

New definition of the "Hatch Act": Laying an explosive egg on live TV.

There's more, of course, over there. And more Maddow here.

She Probably F**ked Herself to Get that Purple Heart Pregnancy

Too funny by lightyears.

Using membership dues paid in part by federal tax dollars, the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) hired the Washington, DC, public relations firm, Creative Response Concepts, best known for the 2004 "Swift Boat Veterans" ads against John Kerry, to launch a public relations effort supporting the failed and unpopular abstinence only education policies.

.

Where do you start? "Swift boats?" The swifter the safer, maybe?

How about Cat Stevens: "Longer [Swift] Boats are Coming to Win Us?"

I should just leave it there...

Obligatory Cat Stevens video.

And another.

Oh, what the hell, another. (Into White.)

Poem of the Week, Continued

Inspired by the last, Rumsfeldian post, I googled "poem," "unknown" and "know." I found this:


The Unknown Citizen

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

-- W. H. Auden

I unfortunately don't know enough about HTML to widen the post area to get the line breaks right. But Auden'll live.

Change the "Bureau of Statistics" to the 'Busheau of Statistics" (or "Fudge Motors, Inc."- Hoot!) then, well, it's just about right, isn't it?

Poem of the Week

From Poem of the Week, naturally. And it's a special one:

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Support the Reserves?

Via DKos, a new twist in the fired attorney story:

"I want to make sure they didn’t fire me because of my military duty," Iglesias said. "When I was away from the office, it wasn’t like I was going on vacation in Europe."

How many reasons are they up to now for the firing of USA Iglesias? At this point, it hardly matters, because if this one sticks around, it'll become a large - larger - story.

And back to Oregonians for Honest New Mexicans.

TPM Muckraker has more.

U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin Fudges on Resume?

This is one of the U.S. attorneys general appointed in place of one of the questionably-fired USAs. [not "USAGS," dumbass]

Consorium News:

The 38-year-old Griffin claims on his official Web site that he prosecuted 40 criminal cases while at Ft. Campbell, where he was stationed from September 2005 to May 2006. But Army authorities say Ft. Campbell’s records show Griffin only serving as assistant trial counsel on three cases, none of which went to trial.

I guess they'll need another replacement.

Pet Food Recall-US Wheat Gluten Supplier Identified

ChemNutra.

The Logic of Over-the-Top Suspicion [Updatedx5]

Watch this video of one more Bush supporter and a few more lies, via Rachel Maddow. Another day, another couple of lies. This one about Carol Lam, former U.S. Attorney General [d'oh!] based in Sand Diego, who was fired in the recent USAt. firing scandal.


One revealing aspect of this story is that all of these USAs [ed.] were appointed by Bush, and now, no surprise, Bush supporters are going after them with a vengeance. (More cannibalism here.) Here's what Bushite Republican senator Orrin Hatch said about Carol Lam, who, again, was appointed by President Bush in 2002:

She's a former law professor; no prosecutorial experience; and the former campaign manager in Southern California for Clinton. Full Quote from TPM.

Liar Hatch: Carol Lam blah blah blah.

Fact: Orrin hatch is a liar (okay, he could just be an idiot). First - go here (The Sideshow) Updated here:

Tuesday she checked with Carol Lam's people, who said that not only had she had nothing to do with the Clinton campaign, Hatch was also, um, misspeaking, when he said she was a former law professor with no prosecutorial experience - she had 15 years worth of experience, though she'd never been a law professor.

And here (top item) is a (cached) Associated press bio on Carol Lam:

NAME: Carol Chien-Hua Lam

BIRTH DATE-AGE: June 26, 1959; 47

EDUCATION: Yale University; Stanford Law School

CAREER: Assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego, 1986-2000; San Diego Superior Court judge, 2000-02; U.S. attorney in San Diego, 2002-February 2007; legal counsel for San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc., February 2007-present.

Did she throw a professorship in there somewhere? It's possible, but, according to above link, she did not. And she had, per that bio, 15 years of prosecutorial experience when she was appointed…by President Bush. Was she a Clinton campaign manager? The above link says no. And you've gotta think that an assistant U.S attorney might be disallowed from such a thing, and Carol Lam was just that during all the years of Clinton's presidency (and five years prior).

[UPDATE: Our liberal media still hasn't reported on Hatch's Lam-inating of the facts. I'll keep checking.]

[UPDATE II: Dang, I looked and looked last night but could not find where I'd seen the following Limbaugh link. It was FireDogLake. Yesterday their link to the Limbaugh transcript allowed you to see the whole show - but it's inaccessible now. Hmm. Sorry for the late acknowledgement, FDL.]

And Rush Limbaugh told the same lies about Lam the other day [yesterday, it turns out] on his radio show (cached Google - Limbaugh hides behind a subscription):

Carol Lam was a campaign manager! These people would normally be made ambassadors, but Clinton put her in as a US attorney.

"Clinton put her in as a U.S. attorney." No, Bush put her in as U.S. attorney.

Rush Limbaugh: Liar.

Fact: Rush Limbaugh is a liar.

A point that can not be made too often.

Back to the headline, The Logic of Over-the-Top Suspicion. When you've been lied too as many times as we have, it is illogical and irrational to think that anything that comes out of their mouths is the truth. They're lying. About anything important, anything especially regarding claims of innocence on a charge like this one. We would be irresponsible to think that they weren't lying at this point. We've been lied to too many times.

UPDATE III: Go here for the story of how these lies apparently came to be.

UPDATE IV: Oh my geehad just when you thought it couldn't get worse for Hatch - it can. And it has. Via TPM, Hatch has an explanation for his lies:

My comments about Carol Lam's record as a U.S. Attorney were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing politically connected U.S. Attorneys. I accidentally used her name, instead of her predecessor, Alan Bersin, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

As Josh Marshall said:

The simple fact is that Hatch's explanation makes no sense. He's saying: In the course of attacking Carol Lam I inadvertantly used Lam's name when describing facts that may or may not apply to, Alan Bersin, a guy Bill Clinton appointed to the same office back in the mid-1990s.

Does that make any sense at all? Of course not.

There's more over there.

UPDATE V: Rachel Maddow has the letter from Hatch saying I misspoke, but she still like totally sucks. What a man.

Still no word about Limbaugh's apology...

Matt Drudge is a Liar

Michael Ware is a reporter.

New Kuwaiti Cabinet Minister

Good news from Badnewslandia:

Kuwait's new education minister was greeted by protests as she took the oath of office, after she refused to wear a headscarf in parliament.

A number of MPs shouted and jeered as Nouria al-Sbeih, Kuwait's second female cabinet member, completed her oath.

Guts.

Python Strikes

Terry Jones Unloads:

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this - allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world - have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God's sake, what's wrong with putting a bag over her head? That's what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it's hard to breathe. Then it's perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can't be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

There's more.

Via

Update to Bush, Tillman Story

Background. From the Marine Corps Times (http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/03/ap_tillmanfriendlyfire_bush_070331/):

In his memo, McChrystal said he had heard Bush and Brownlee “might include comments about Cpl. Tillman’s heroism and his approved Silver Star medal in speeches currently being prepared, not knowing the specifics surrounding his death."

Go back to this post and read the speech that Bush gave two days after that memo was sent. One can logically assume that the White House Correspondents Association Dinner speech was one of those "...speeches currently being prepared..."

Notice it does not "include comments about Cpl. Tillman’s heroism [in any way that could be later called directly about his death] and his approved Silver Star medal."

It's evident that if not Bush, then the people writing his speech knew about the circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman's death.

Old Dog

Get the Apple, Boy. Get the Apple

Dog saves owner with Heimlich maneuver. (Via)

Parkhurst said she was home alone with the dogs Friday afternoon when she decided to snack on an apple.

Suddenly, she said, a chunk of the fruit became wedged in her windpipe.

“It was lodged pretty tight because I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I tried to do the thing where you lean over a chair and give yourself the Heimlich, but it didn’t work.”

Parkhurst said she then began beating her chest, an action that might have attracted Toby’s attention.

“The next think I know, Toby’s up on his hind feet and he’s got his front paws on my shoulders,” she recalled. “He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest.”

Toby’s jumping apparently managed to dislodge the apple from Parkhurst’s windpipe.

“As soon as I started breathing, he stopped and began licking my face, as if to keep me from passing out,” she said.

Nine Months of Pregnancy in 30 Seconds

This is fun.

Australian "Terrorist" David Hicks: 9 Months

Hicks has spent more than five years in U.S. custody, most of it on Guantanamo. For the first two and a half years he had no access to a lawyer. For the first five he was not tried. Now he's had his trial.

He's been sentenced to nine months in prison. Nine months.

And he had to agree to certain things:

Australian David Hicks pleaded guilty at the Guant‡namo Bay Navy Base yesterday to supporting terrorism in exchange for a nine-month prison sentence under a plea deal that forbids him from claiming he was abused in U.S. custody.

Can you believe that? A deal, in an American court, that stipulates what he can say? WTF?

Via

Pat Tillman's Mom

Pertaining to the last two posts, an excerpt from Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick's radio show.



From

Did the President Deceive Pat Tillman's Family?

Did President Bush know how Pat Tillman died just a week after his death and go along with the deception of his family? A speech may hold some clues.

Two days after a memo was sent (link to post below) by an Army general warning that "our country's leaders" might face "public embrassment" if they spoke wrongly about Tillman, President Bush spoke at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. He closed that speech talking about Tillman:

The loss of Army Corporal Pat Tillman last week in Afghanistan brought home the sorrow that comes with every loss, and reminds us of the character of the men and women who serve on our behalf. Friends say that this young man saw the images of September the 11th, and seeing that evil, he felt called to defend America. He set aside a career in athletics and many things the world counts important: wealth and security and the acclaim of the crowds. He chose, instead, the rigors of Ranger training and the fellowship of soldiers and the hard duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Corporate Tillman asked for no special attention. He was modest because he knew there were many like him, making their own sacrifices. They fill the ranks of the Armed Forces. Every day, somewhere, they do brave and good things without notice. Their courage is usually seen only by their comrades, by those who long to be free, and by the enemy. They're willing to give up their lives, and when one is lost, a whole world of hopes and possibilities is lost with them.

This evening, we think of the families who grieve, and the families that wait on a loved one's safe return. We count ourselves lucky that this new generation of Americans is as brave and decent as any before it. (Applause.) And we honor with pride and wonder the men and women who carry the flag and the cause of the United States.

May God bless them, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

The warning in the memo from Gen. McChrystal:

I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public," McChrystal wrote on April 29, 2004, to Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command.

"Unknowing statements" would be ones that contained words like "killed by a terrible enemy" or something along those lines. Words the kind of which President Bush utters every time he gets a chance. But words like that could have gotten get Bush in trouble if it later came out that he knew about the fratricide.

That speech does it. It could be about a guy who…died in a friendly fire accident.


Crossposted here

Memo: Pat Tillman's Killing "Might Cause Public Embarrassment" for Bush

if that's not true, then it's certainly true that a whole lot of higher ups in the Pentagon knew about it [link fixed]. (Via)

Just seven days after Pat Tillman's death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth — that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades.

This is beyond sick. Imagine being Pat Tillman's mother or father or his friend today. Jesus. Sick bastards.

Look at what this Major General of the Army wrote one week after Pat Tillman's death:

"I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public," McChrystal wrote on April 29, 2004, to Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command.

They were worried about embarrassing George Bush, while his parents were being told a lie about his death. Someone should go to prison for this.

And notice what the memo says: "...might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public."

If they become public? Are you kidding me? That implies intent to hide the story. I can't believe I'm reading this shit.

No sports in Greece for Two Weeks

Bizarre:

Greek authorities have cancelled all team sports matches for two weeks after a mass brawl between rival women's volleyball fans left one man dead.

A volleyball match. Crikey.

On a related-only-in-my-mind note, I was in Greece for several months in the 80s and at one point required medical treatment of, uh, a delicate nature. It turned out to be bad timing to have a medical problem of any nature in Greece...since all the doctors in the country were ON STRIKE.

Doctors. On strike. That was a new one to me.

I had to go to a Red Cross unit, where patients were being treated in a large room with beds divided by curtains. I was, uh, opened, with a small scalpel, not deeply, after a spray-on anesthetic had been applied. And the table of surgical tools resting on my back. They ended up on the floor, and they had to pry my fingers from the doctor's - if that's what he was - neck. I'm probably exxaggerating about that, but I remember a bit of a commotion, at least.

Greece. I miss the place.

Folk Music Blog

Looks promising. Has stuff like this Richard Shindell video:

Bottomfeeders

Hit the baby and go get the Little Thom CD Bottomfeeders at the great Portland internet store, CDBaby. You can even listen to some samples over there.

Or get it by the song straight to your computer at iTunes.

That is all.

UPDATED: "Political" and "Performance Related"

Via TPM Muckraker, Kyle Sampson, in his opening statement to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary just now:

Thus the distinction between ‘political’ and ‘performance related’ reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial.

The chief aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is right now saying to the Senate that, well, you just saw it. But if there's not difference between "political" and "performance related" firings, then why, on January 19, did Gonzales say to this same committee:

I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it."

Recap:

Mr. Gonzales to the Senate: "I would never fire an AG for political reasons."

Mr. Gonzales' chief aide, to the Senate: "Firing an AG for political reasons is fine."

Which one is it, guys?

UPDATE: From commenter RobbyLove at TPM Muckraker:

Ok. Now wait a minute.

First he says that these USAs were near the end of their 4 year terms and that's why they were considering them.

NOW he says they were selected by asking other people who they felt were underperforming.

Someone needs to pin him down on that.

Yup.

Oregonians for Honest New Mexicans

I hereby announce the launch of the brand new and extremely great political action committee, Oregonians for Honest New Mexicans.

Thank you.

I'm launching the committee in response to a bunch of lying New Mexicans I read about over here (via over there). They call themselves New Mexicans for Honest Courts, but that title is a GREAT BIG NEW MEXICAN LIE. And this proud honest Oregonian ain't gonna take it.

The Lying New Mexicans for New Mexican Lies put out this ad, which is, according to their mandate, full of lies and distortions.

And just who runs this river of New Mexican lies? Linda Chavez Krumland, says the Web site.

Now I haven't confirmed this, but I'm pretty sure that Linda Chavez Krumland, with her husband Tom, run a Toyota dealership in Roswell. I mean I'm really pretty fantantiscally sure.

[UPDATE: CONFIRMED Here's the reg. form for this PAC of lies, with phone number, and here's the phone number entered into Google. Roswell Toyota.]

And you simply will not believe this:

The owner of Roswell Toyota offered an apology Thursday to local veterans upset about a fighter-jet flyover at the grand opening of a car dealership Nov. 10.

An Air National Guard flyover for the opening of an auto dealership? WTF? He got the flyover with help from a buddy in Congress, Rep. Daniel Foley—who had turned down a flyover for the Veterans administration!

But wait there's more!

Tom Krumland said he had invited the entire public to the grand opening event on a radio program but not veterans groups specifically.

“Let me apologize if we offended anyone,” he said, adding that there was nothing he would ever exclude veterans from.

What did this patriotic and honest court-loving New Mexican say?

Santiago Vasquez, junior vice commander of the VFW post, said New Mexico veterans were “incensed” by the flyover and comments made by Krumland to KOB-TV.

In a Feb. 1 story on the KOB-TV Web site, Krumland, in reference to the flyover, said, “If we offended anybody, then they’re unpatriotic.”

That would be unpatriotic veterans he was referring to.

More later...

Poem of the Week

Recommended by Steve Clemons of the Washongton Note, the Poem of the Week. Put here to force my brain around words other than the drivel of news, and because reading poetry slows my brain down. Makes it hurt, really, in a good way.

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
'Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Sabres over Capitals 3/21/07

Go to about the 3 minute mark for the goal by Drew Stafford. Beauty.

EMail to MSNBC and Norah O'Donnell

Regarding this travesty of reporting. (Contact info here.)

Dear MSNBC

What an appalling performance by Norah O'Donnell with Sen. Leahy. Is the job of your Chief Washington Correspondent to parrot the White House's press secretary? O'Donnell said, and I quote: "Tony Snow said today that 'you guys want the truth, and in this interview you're going to get the truth from Karl Rove.' What's wrong with that?"

That is shocking. As a viewer I can only take from this that O'Donnell agrees with Tony Snow. While that's obviously her right as a person, as a reporter isn't it her job to give viewers unbiased information? I can picture her saying, "Tony Snow said today that 'you guys want the truth, and in this interview you're going to get the truth from Karl Rove.' How do you respond to that?" Then we get the White House's side and Leahy's side. That's fair reporting. For O'Donnell to inject herself into the story - I don't know what to say. It's just shocking. Aside from all the reasons that many of us viewers might not believe that we're "going to get the truth from Karl Rove" under the White House's proposal - it's just awful reporting.

A short time later O'Donnell said: "...and Tony Snow said today 'I thought this was a fact-finding mission, not a ratings-finding mission' - that you're trying to create a courtroom atmosphere."

That's just unbelievable. Again, aside from parroting - in a tone and in the wording of agreement - the WH press secretary, which you have to admit is just flatly wrong for a reporter to do, O'Donnell here does worse. A reporter could and should with Snow's statement point out the glaringly obvious without a bit of bias: that a "courtroom atmosphere" is, when you think about it for about a millisecond, a pretty darn good place for a "fact-finding mission." What exactly about speaking under oath goes against finding facts? Doesn't it actually improve the chances that you're going to get the truth? It of course does.

Again: appalling. Terrible, and appaling. [Note to self: That's "appalling," dumbass]

Video of the clip here.

15 British Sailors Seized by Iranian Forces

"We may well find that this is a simple misunderstanding at the tactical level."

Hope so.

Tony Snow: Congress Has No Oversight Ability

From TPM Muckraker we get to watch Tony Snow say:

The executive branch is under no compulsion to testify to Congress, because Congress in fact doesn't have oversight ability.

If you don't think that's a significant quote, it's not because you're not a constitutional scholar. It's because you didn't pay attention in elementary school. We should all know this. Think of the one glaring example: impeachment. Would Tony Snow say that Congress didn't have that ability? That oversight ability? Would he have said that when they impeached President Clinton? It's unbelievable that we live in a time we're such a thing could even be uttered by a White House official without that official immediately turning bright red, pissing his pants, and calling out for his momma.

Here is an excellent report (pdf), prepared for Congress in January, 2006, on congressional oversight of the presidency. The summary:

Congressional oversight of policy implementation and administration has occurred throughout the history of the United States government under the Constitution. Oversight — the review, monitoring, and supervision of operations and activities — takes a variety of forms and utilizes various techniques. These range from specialized investigations by select committees to annual appropriations hearings, and from informal communications between Members or congressional staff and executive personnel to the use of extra congressional mechanisms, such as offices of inspector general and study commissions. Oversight, moreover, is supported by a variety of authorities — the Constitution, public law, and chamber and committee rules — and is an integral part of the system of checks and balances between the legislature and the
executive. This report will be updated as events require.

And a great excerpt:

The authority to oversee derives from these constitutional powers. Congress could not carry them out reasonably or responsibly without knowing what the executive is doing; how programs are being administered, by whom, and at what cost; and whether officials are obeying the law and complying with legislative intent.

Video Montage to 2006-7 Buffalo Sabres

A thing of beauty. Wish I could post the goal from last night by Briere. Not up yet.

NYC: Illegally Parked Cars Shown on Web Site

The debate about them here, and the Web site here.

It's pretty funny. One story, with photo, at the site: "If you look closely at the 2nd photo, you can see the officer eating at the Chinese restaurant in the window."

Man Has Piece of Pizza Tattoo on Head

With pineapples.

Heaven's Gate Survivor Speaks

Remember them?

When I asked about the dropouts who later killed themselves, Rio was impassive. “People ask: ‘Why would they do that?’ ” he said. For him, their copycat suicides only further proved the point. “It doesn’t make sense to give up everything. Unless... you know. Unless you know what they knew. And what I know.” Which is? “That DO was the second coming of Jesus Christ. That’s what I’m here to help people understand.”

Flaunt Your Culture

A truly warped person:

She said, "It made me very angry, and I grabbed it. When you come to the U.S. you have to become an American. You can't flaunt your culture on us."

I hereby invite people from around the world to "flaunt their culture" on us whenever or wherever they like. Especially Mongolians - they're just so colorful and austere.

And in the same breath this candidate for sainthood said, "I praise God in this. I give Him all the glory," and, of the two people who disappeared, "I hope they are at the bottom of the river."

Two New Links: Romenesko

I just added two new links to the news and blog rolls: Poynteronline and the Obscure Store and Reading Room, both run by Jim Romenesko. More on him at Wikipedia.

Why We Need to Fight the Right People

Because they're really sick bad horrible twisted people.

John Prine

The song that won't go away.

Tony Joe White

Just found this looking around the world in the box on my desk at work - which I get paid to do - and found this. I remember this song from my young days, most likely the version by Brent Brooke from 1970, but TJ White wrote it in 1962. Here's him playing it in 2006:



Here's another one of his songs you might recognize. 1969:

Memorize This Quote

But first, guess who said it:

So let’s get something straight right now. To point out that our military has been overextended, taken for granted and neglected, that’s no criticism of the military. That is criticism of a president and vice president and their record of neglect.

Yup. It's George W. Bush, not "s'portin' the troops, on the campaign trail in 2000.

More here.

The History of International Women's Day

Born in the worker's rights movement. More here.

Cheryl Hines Saves Man From Murder Charge

The story doesn't say that, but I'm sure that's what happened.

LOS ANGELES- A man who was cleared of murder when outtakes from the HBO comedy "Curb Your Enthusiasm" put him at Dodger Stadium when the crime occurred will get $320,000 in a settlement with the city.
The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to settle the police misconduct lawsuit filed by Juan Catalan, who spent nearly five months in jail before footage from the show cemented his alibi.

Catalan, 28, was arrested for the May 2003 slaying of Martha Puebla, 16, outside her Sun Valley home. He told detectives he was innocent and was at a Dodgers game when the crime occurred.

His defense lawyer, Todd Melnik, went through footage of crowd shots from the televised game between the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, but did not find his client. Then he learned that the HBO comedy starring former "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David had been shooting at the ballpark that day.

"There he was in the outtakes," said Gary S. Casselman, the attorney handling Catalan's lawsuit.
...

Catalan was not a fan of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" before his time in jail.

"He is now," Casselman said.

Is there anything she can't do?

He Might As Well Just Say "Gergen Gergen Gergen Gergen Gergen..."

I got this CNN story and quote from CNN contributor David Gergen via TPM. It will make your head explode:

"This is an administration that has been mostly free of scandal over the last six years and now they have the taint that they cannot erase."

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Report: Israel on Alert After Kidnapping Iranian General

Israel Puts Embassies on Security Alert Following Reports It Kidnapped Irania (Via)

March 06, 2007 2:12 PM
Brian Ross and Hoda Osman Report:

Israel has issued a worldwide security alert to its embassies in the wake of reports it may have kidnapped a top Iranian general in Turkey, a senior Israeli official tells ABC News.

"This could be a reason for the Iranians to respond against us," said the official...

Great.

Hi

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heagh heagh heagh

Tony Lagouranis: Former Army "Torturer"

From Metafilter: Confessions of a Torturer: An Army Interrogator's Story.

And there, as an army interrogator, he tortured detainees for information he admits they rarely had. Since leaving Iraq he’s taken this story public, doing battle on national television against the war’s architects for giving him the orders he regrets he obeyed.

Ai yai yai. What a world.

More here, here, here, and a response from the Army (Jan., 2006).

Speaking of Idiot Savage, Here's Some Freddy Mercury

I was just writing about this guy. Rock it, Freddy.

Melissa Etheridge Indirectly Punks Idiot Savage

Puke on that, asshole.

More from Gen. J.C. Christian, patriot.

Don't Fear the Rabies Shots

People are still afraid to get rabies shots:

The man — who lives east of Edmonton — did not get vaccinated after he was attacked in August 2006 and is now in serious condition in hospital, said Dr. Karen Grimsrud, a provincial health officer.

Grimsrud said the Alberta man woke up in the middle of the night when the bat bit him, but he didn't show any symptoms until January.

"Once you develop the neurological symptoms, there's very little that can be done," Grimsrud said Friday. "All we can do is make them comfortable."

It used to be 26 shots—directly into the stomach. And it hurt, they say, a lot. BUT THINGS HAVE CHANGED. Read:

DON’T WORRY; it’s not twenty shots in the stomach anymore. Today, the rabies vaccine has only 5-7 shots in the arm and the butt. The shots are spread out on different days, and they help your body fight the rabies virus, so you don’t catch the disease. If you get the shots started in time (usually within 7 - 10 days), you shouldn’t catch the virus at all. Your body fights it off. Without the treatment, a person bitten by a rabid animal will probably die.

That's my community service report for the day. Best of luck and health to the poor guy in Edmonton.

Can You Read This: 少許 托馬斯 Blog?

I don't speak Chinese, but found an online translator to translate "Little Thom's Blog" into traditional Chinese characters: 少許 托馬斯 Blog.

If you can read it, can you tell me how it came out?

Merle Haggard Pens a Song For Hillary

Oh man, this is going to grow someone onions in the bathroom, which is a country expression I just made up.

About half-way through his set at Spokane’s INB Performing Arts Center Monday night almost 70-year-old country star, Merle Haggard played a song he told the audience he’d just finished up that morning.

It had a one-word title, he said, and was likely to “piss off” at least half of the audience. A few might even walk out, he said. But, an assistant brought out a music stand and Merle started crooning about a woman named “Hillary.”

“The country needs to be honest,” he sang. “Change needs to be large.”

“Let’s put a woman in charge.”

Too funny.

Here's a gem:

Steve Clemons

He's smarter than you, he's better connected than you, and he's talking about the latest U.S./Iranian news.

Repeat Post

Because it deserves more play. Via The Sideshow, a new song from Richard Thompson. Free.

As a commenter pointed out, "Dad" refers to Baghdad.

Don't Ask

Just enjoy. Really. I mean it.

Say It Ain't So, Jack

Put on your spittle-guard. Loony people will soon be freaking out about this story (via):

24 star Kiefer Sutherland has accepted an invitation from the U.S. military to teach army cadets it is wrong to torture prisoners.

Sutherland, who plays agent Jack Bauer on the show, has agreed to talk to cadets at the West Point military academy in New York state after army chiefs claimed the show's torture scenes are influencing its newest recruits.

More here from the New Yorker.

Interesting Things

• One less thing to worry about.

• Via: The Complete Sherlock Holmes.

• From Romenesko's Reading Room, everybody leaves a tip:

Go-go bar patron severs finger in bar stool accident

With blood gushing from his left hand, the 46-year-old man somehow stayed in his seat for 15 minutes before finally alerting a bartender. "I don't know if he was watching the dancers or embarrassed," says a cop. The finger tip was recovered.

Bad Music Radio

From Metafilter, Bad Music Radio. Just in case the music you've been listening too is too good and you need to bring yourself down to Earth again.

I Will Not Say "Down Under" Once in This Post

Australia rocked by 'lesbian' koala revelation

Female koalas indulge in lesbian "sex sessions", rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers.

The funniest part is that this is a paper from New Zealand—hence the "Australia rocked" headline.

Violet the Octupus

Another one from Biomes Blog.

Octopus Opening a Jar

Via Pharyngula:

Phasers on "Suck It"!

Second link from Steve Gilliard. Too damn funny.

Take the Sunni/Shia Test

Take the test. I got one wrong.

Brains on Display

That really says it all.

Mixed Doubles?

This article has a photo of Maria Sharapova in a bikini alongside it. I can't remember what it's about.

Chimps Make Bush Baby-Kabobs

From the L. A. Times:

The chimps were repeatedly seen using their hands and teeth to tear the side branches off long straight sticks and peeling back the bark and sharpening one end of the sticks with their teeth, the researchers report in Thursday's online issue of the journal Current Biology. Then, grasping the weapon in a "power grip," they jabbed into tree-branch hollows where bush babies — small monkey-like mammals — sleep during the day.

After stabbing their prey, they removed the injured or dead animal and ate it.

Man's Best Coat

That's ruff:

The Humane Society of the United States said it purchased coats from reputable outlets, such as upscale Nordstrom, with designer labels — Andrew Marc, Tommy Hilfiger, for example — and found them trimmed with fur from domestic dogs, even though the fur was advertised as fake.

Largest Squid Caught

36 ft., 990 lb. colossal squid caught off New Zealand.

If calamari rings were made from the squid they would be the size of tractor tires, he added.

No Balls

Really, no balls:

As the General Assembly debates global warming and the death penalty, Myers (R-Washington) has something else on his mind: the outsized plastic testicles that truckers dangle from the trailer hitches of their pickups.

Blogger Ate

i changed over to the new version of Blogger and it ate my link list, a couple of link lists, and changed the colors and all kinds of nonsense.