Zip! Pow! Bam! Socialism bad-

... unless you are a corporation facing insolvency....

Day Traders generally ain't worth a damn... Arrogant Gordon Gecko Young Republican wannabes, bragging about how much money they made on blah blah blah. No one knows market movements like those guys, though, (they've lost enough money in one minute's time to be fully aware of sudden spikes the wrong way).

Fly at IBankcoin.com cracks me up daily, along with his flytrap of faithful followers. He's always close to the target, but it's the nature of the daytrading mentality to secondguess themselves. While they are bobbing and weaving, trading jabs- investors are standing back, waiting for the time to unload the haymaker and call it a day. Reminds me of the old Dad and son bull joke...

"No, son, let's walk down, and fuck em all".

Fly's dead on with his assessment of today's news, though -

Wasn’t it nice to find out there is NO inflation, via today’s CPI data? According to the Fed, gasoline and commodity prices went LOWER. Ha.

Something tells me the g-men are trying to save a few bad dollars in social security payments, via juking the inflation data to appear benign.

Forget about what the idiots with pocket protectors say. We have run away inflation. Trade accordingly.

Apparently, (BSC: 32.48 -43.02%) is on the brink of insolvency. As you know, should the worthless assets of Bear Sterns be recognized for what they are (worthless), the world would slip into a black hole and be eaten by dinosaurs.

So, in order to prevent world destruction, the NY Fed, in their infinite wisdom, decided to save Bear Sterns. Very nice.

Let’s sum up the bullshit country we live in:

During the worst housing crisis in 100 years, we’ve learned, NO ONE is allowed to fail. Everyone is too big. From homebuilders to money centers to low-end brokerage houses to monoline insurers, if you need a little scratch, knock on the Governments door and they’ll help you out. This, as you know, is not capitalism. This is socialism heavy, not light, which is disgraceful.

However, none of my bickering or sharp spikes in interpersonal acts of violence will help anyone make money.

Here’s how I see it:

Fuck Dennis Gartman. Ride this sucker out. When I smell panic, there is bound to be some sort of shoe to drop. Just so you know, the Fed is panicking. If you’re the nervous type, hedge some of your downside plays, with a few longs. No big deal.

Inevitably, those betting on the downside will be right, as the recession deepens and little fuckers like Bear Sterns get washed out.

UPDATE: Watching Dubya (for moral and fiscal inspiration) on CNBC: Quotes as fast as I can type them:

"Interesting times ... Envy of the Free world ... ups and downs ... this is not the first time since I've been the President that we've faced economic challenges... corporate scandals and I have the difficult decision to confront the terrorists (lol)... resilient...flexible...Fortunately we recognized the slowdown early and took action... may sound incongruous (nailed it!) to you...robust... once I sign the bill, the signal's clear... tax rebates (bitches!)... buoy the consumer. (keep em bobbing in the ocean?) ... it's coming! Those checks ...second week of May... that's what the experts say (Bernanke, Paulson?)... I respect Ben Bernanke (heckuva job, Bernie!)... we also hold dear the notion that the Fed acts independently (snort!)... adding liquidity... some financial institutions... must repair their balance sheets (no sheet!)... make more credit available (max out, Amerka!)... promote stability... foreclosure disrupts community... temptation for people to limit the number of foreclosures is to put bad law into place... anything short of a massive intervention... deeply concerned about law- ... (hang on, picking myself off the floor... people in office staring)...

a couple of ideas I strongly reject... purpose of government ought to be to help the individuals... (ouch, couple of Bush corporate supporters just felt stabbing pains in their necks)... it sounds reasonable in a speech, I guess... market is in a process of correcting itself (to the bottom)... checks...second week of May... we want to help you refinance your notes!... 300, 000 families (and their mortgage lenders!)... walked across the street in Midland Texas and said I need a little help (Daddy!)... foreign country... hard to renegotiate the note... (no speaka da english)... industry wide standards ... (AAA ratings for all!)... whole purpose is to help people stay in their houses (and keep paying those mortgages!)... beginning to help, problem we have is, a lot of people aren't responding to letters send out... pay attention.... toll free numbers (wake up Amerka- we'll gladly ADJUST your finances to uh.. a better deal, yeah, thats it)... complete transparency... too complex... better confidence...strengthen oversight (oh noes!)... rough period... long term negative effects on the economy... without paying taxes (taxes is teh bad!)...
Congress... uncertainty...major source of uncertainty... (when is he going to mention terra again?)... if Congress doesn't act, capital gains will be taxed at a higher rate (oh the poor are worried about that!)... waste some of your money... Challenge congress to cut earmarks.. (Iraq is a biiiiiiiiggg earmark)... sent Congress a budget... priority... put those troops in harm's way... beyond that... non-security spending (all money for war) ... calm people's nerves (oh, THAT'S what he's doing?! My bad)... whether or not this country is confident enough to open markets overseas (China needs YOUR MONEY)... dangerous for this country to become isolationist ( I LUV Dubai!) ... made it clear... important agreement...national security... most Americans don't unnerstand... terrible signal... false populism.. (them, the people, bad)... work the issue hard... a confident nation accepts capital from overseas (keep buying our dollar, Please?!)... NAFTA has been good... best way to describe govt policy is like a car in a rough patch... its important not to over-correct... important to be steady... deal with the issues as we see em (yeehaw,bitches!)... respects- uh....

Uh-oh question and answer time... chuckles gonna wing him some. Expect laughs and lot of "uhs". Okay, got to stem the cerebral hemorrhaging... can't take it anymore.

Oh shit- "we got to figure out what the enemy is saying on their telephones" Christ on crutches, this bastard is full of shit.

Going Down?

CAPITALISM THREAT RED!!
(Ooogah! Ooogah!)



Carlyle Group's Mortgage bond fund collapsing - someone besides me will blog it better, I'm sure...

Retail sales decline because of High gas prices...

Dollar falls below 100 Yen...

Olbermann rips Clinton, justifiably.
I would beseech her to give up for the sake of the party and, uh, the country- but Amerka, apparently, has teh spoken. They are lackwits and popularity-chasing buffoons, even among the Progressives, and they are playing right into the hands of an extremely weak Right wing. And that right wing may walk away with this election because of our power hungry candidate. Hillary defers gracefully and she might be receiving long term gains for 2012. But, you know, my fellow Americans can't see past next fucking week, so I don't expect anyone with the foresight greater than that of a housefly to prevail.

ACLU reports that we are one minute closer to Midnight

And once again- Corporate corruption and LACK of REGULATION makes America unsafer

Today's investment tip: Stock up on Salvia and Ammo Now!

And remember kids- it could be worse- at least the Zombie assault hasn't begun!

A Tale of Two Headlines

Both under "Terrorism" on MSNBC this morning...

Judge: Detainee's abuse claim not believable

Bush vetoes bill banning Waterboarding

A judge ruled Friday that an Australian man's claim that he had been mistreated in custody in Pakistan before being sent to the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay could not be believed.

President Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

Justice Peter McClellan of the New South Wales state Supreme Court ruled against Mamdouh Habib in the man's defamation suit against a Sydney newspaper, which Habib said had implied he lied about being tortured.

"The Bush administration continues to insist that CIA and other nonmilitary interrogators are not bound by the military rules and has reportedly given CIA interrogators the green light to use a range of so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, and exposure to extreme cold," Daskal said. "Although waterboarding is not currently approved for use by the CIA, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to take it off the table for the future."

"I am satisfied that Mr. Habib's claims that he was seriously mistreated in the place of detention in Islamabad cannot be accepted," McClellan said.

The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said.

He said Habib was "prone to exaggerate," "evasive" and had made claims about mistreatment in Pakistan and Egypt which could not be sustained.

Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Bush "will go down in history as the torture president" for defying Congress and allowing the CIA to use interrogation techniques "that any reasonable observer would call torture."

Habib, an Egyptian-born immigrant, was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001. He says he was held there for 28 days and was interrogated by Americans before being transferred to Egypt, where he alleged he was beaten, shocked with electricity and nearly drowned while under interrogation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Bush often warns against ignoring the advice of U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq. Yet the president has rejected the Army Field Manual, which recognizes that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information, said Reid, D-Nev.

The intelligence bill would limit CIA interrogators to the 19 techniques allowed for use by military questioners. The Army field manual in 2006 banned using methods such as waterboarding or sensory deprivation on uncooperative prisoners.

The military specifically prohibited waterboarding in 2006. The CIA also prohibited the practice in 2006 ... But the administration has refused to rule definitively on whether it is torture. Bush has said many times that his administration does not torture.

After six months, he was sent to the U.S. military base at Bagram, Afghanistan and then Guantanamo Bay. He was returned to Australia in January 2005.

Australian judges continue to believe that George Bush's policies haven't been resulting in kidnapping and torturing their citizens. I guess Australia believes that if the U.S. eventually releases their citizens after torturing them it's okay. The U.S. government decided that Habib was innocent after all.

Fortunately for Canadian citizens, their judicial system isn't so trusting of countries who want to torture their people.

The acclaimed Army officer who literally wrote the book on counterinsurgency weighs in on 24, its impact on the U.S. military’s view of torture, and the implications for the fight against terrorism: Torture is NOT ACCEPTABLE (from Foreign Policy.com)

Why Torture doesn't work (also from Foreign Policy.com)

UPDATE: I noticed that Frederick has been on fire lately, check his blog out...

UPDATE 2: Funny shit of the day : Whiny Cops -More Proof that the Internet has EVERYTHING. This site is for cops to whine about other cops giving them tickets and not letting them slide "for the brotherhood". It's fucking hilarious to see our "Proud men in blue" nominating their fellow officers for Dick of the Month. The whole point of the website seems to be that cops think they should only treat citizens like shit, not each other. The indignant cop who put this site up might get a little more respect from me if it was just a site for anyone to bitch about the poor common sense of traffic officers. But the attitude that Cops should get favorable treatment when breaking the law is just bullshit.

Olbermann Special Comment

C&L has the video from Keith Olbermann's newest Special Comment:

President Bush is a Liar and a Fascist

Logan Murphy also has the full transcript there...

I officially apologize to Keith Olbermann for doubting him recently...
Thank you Keith Olbermann- one of the few journalists left.

EXCERPT
Mr. Bush, you say that our ability to track terrorist threats will be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger.
Yet you have weakened that ability!
You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger!
This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough even for you to understand.
For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.

You.
By your own terms and your definitions — you have just sided with the terrorists.
You got to have this law or we’re all going to die.
But practically speaking, you vetoed this law.

It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an Ex Post Facto law, which could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive, and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.
But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn’t even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.
“The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.” Believed?

Don’t you know?
Don’t you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you?
Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here?
If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business — come out and say it!
There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.
You’re a fascist — get them to print you a t-shirt with “fascist” on it!

What else is this but fascism?

Did you see Mark Klein on this newscast last November?
Mark Klein was the AT&T Whistleblower, the one who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood I-T desk, how he personally attached all AT&T circuits — everything — carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your web browsing into a secure room, room number 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.
Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy — a spy both patriotic and telepathic — might able to divine had been sent or spoken by — or to — a terrorist.

Everything!

Every time you looked at a naked picture.
Every time you bid on eBay.
Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat.
“My thought was,” Mr. Klein told us last November, “George Orwell’s 1984. And here I am, forced to connect the big brother machine.”
And if there’s one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, is that he is — you are — a liar.

“This Saturday at midnight,” you said today, “legislation authorizing intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications will expire. If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they are planning, will be compromised…You said that “the lives of countless Americans depend” on you getting your way.

This is crap.
And you sling it, with an audacity and a speed unrivaled even by the greatest political felons of our history.
Richard Clarke — you might remember him, sir, he was one of the counter-terror pro’s you inherited from President Clinton, before you ran the professionals out of government in favor of your unreality-based reality —

Richard Clarke wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
“Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.”

You are a liar, Mr. Bush, and after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.
And your minions like John Boehner — your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them — they should just keep walking, out of Congress and if possible, out of the country.
For they — and you, sir — have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
The lot of you, are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic, to whom “Freedom” is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for, when you want to get away with its opposite.
Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as “protecting America.”
Thus, Mr. Bush, your indiscriminate domestic spying becomes the focused monitoring, only of “terrorist communications.”
Thus, Mr. Bush, what you and the telecom giants have done, isn’t unlawful, it’s just the kind of perfectly legal, passionately patriotic thing for which you happen to need immunity!
Richard Clarke is on the money, as usual.

That the President was willing to veto this eavesdropping, means there is no threat to the legitimate counter-terror efforts underway.

As Senator Kennedy reminded us in December:
“The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity.

No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he’s willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.”

And that literally cannot be.

Even Mr. Bush could not overtly take a step that actually aids the terrorists.
I am not talking about ethics here.
I am talking about blame.
If the President seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it means we can safely conclude… there is no baby.
Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow…

You would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists…

You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people…

You would not merely be guilty of stupidity…

You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir…

You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again… it is that you are never responsible.

As recently ago as 2006, we spoke words like these with trepidation.
The idea that even the most cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in our history — George W. Bush — would use the literal form of terrorism against his own people — was dangerous territory. It seemed to tempt fate, to heighten fear.

We will not fear any longer.

We will not fear the international terrorists — we will thwart them.

We will not fear the recognition of the manipulation of our yearning for safety — we will call it what it is: terrorism.

We will not fear identifying the vulgar hypocrites in our government — we will name them.

And we will not fear George W. Bush.

Nor will we fear because George W. Bush wants us to fear.

Romney goes bye-bye

A loser speaks out: Watching Romney drop out of the race...

... says Porn and welfare is to blame for my single-fatherhood... ...Europe is facing destruction because of immorality and lack of religion... ...Says Chinks are outbreeding us, we will lose if we don't change gear and breed more... ...Say to get off the oil tit... (well one truth for every four bullshit statements)

oh here he goes - We are being held hostage by Ahmadinejad. Shit. Does this mean I have to raise my hand before I go get my welfare check so I can buy porn?

High taxes on private sector kills the country. Govt workers make more than Corporate officers... Huh??? What the fuck is he talking about? He must be including lobbyist kickbacks to Republican Congressmen.

Unions bad, corporations good

Islam believes in a government run by religion. (Talk about talking out of both sides of his mouth) They hate everything we believe. They hate our freedom. To fight them, we sent the bravest soldiers in the world. He takes a swipe at our military intelligence. We apparently didn't have enough money to stop 9-11.

And give the veterans the care they deserve.. Woo Hoo. Like this tickturd gives a good goddamn. He wants to spend more. I don't know where he plans on getting this money, except maybe by cutting education, healthcare, and wages to american employees.

"Just like Ronald Reagan did" "We are a nation at war" "they would retreat, declare defeat"
He's hitting all the same bullshit talking points. Oh, they are booing McCain now, hehe

"OSAMA BIN LADIN" OH MY GOD! "I cannot be a part of surrender, but I am giving up"

"in this time of war" about six times...

No wonder this vapid lying scumbag is getting the boot. Thank God this dick is gone.
"We cannot allow the leader of the United States to retreat in the face of extremism"

No shit. We need Obama, Hillary, or whoever becomes President to fully destroy what remains of the Republican party. People that can lie over and over to Americans like Romney just did ARE Extremists: religious extremists, economic extremists, and right wing radicals who have just screwed America over the past 7 years. It it far past time for these people to go.

I smile when I think of every Republican bushbot dollar that went to this idiot in vain. I am doubly happy when I think of every dollar that Romney has lost as a result of this failed bid.

It is not over yet. McCain/Huckabee is coming. One more conservative crony has fallen by the wayside, a victim of being just another clueless bush acolyte. We have more work to do.

UPDATE: POLISHIFTER: Fuck This Election
UPDATE 2: Empire Burlesque on Romney: American Psycho

Bush:We should have bombed Auschwitz

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Military "Mutiny" against White House treason

The only ones who can stop the war now are the troops and their officers. The weak-willed servants of the almighty dollar in congress won't do it. Here are several articles and organizations that concern the military's growing rebellion against George Bush's occupation of Iraq...

Troops refuse to patrol

Courage to Resist

Winter Soldier

Generals Speak out against Iraq War

Appeal for Redress

Military Families Speak out

And here's a Mother Jones article that elaborates on the current situation in Iraq :
Awakening-Nightmare

Patriot Act Pakistan

Where one World Leader leads, others follow...



Musharraf, taking notes at the foot of the master...

Conspiracy to terrorize

Crooks and Liars has Keith Olbermann's latest special comment :
Bush's Criminal Conspiracy of Torture

C&L has the full video and the full transcript as well.

Here are the choicest speaking truth-to-power excerpts:

"The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush."
...
"All of it is now — after one revelation last week — transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the re-focusing of our entire nation, towards keeping this mock president, and this unstable vice president, and this departed wildly self-over-rating Attorney General — and the others — from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country."
...
"Instead, he was forced out as Acting Assistant Attorney General, nearly three years ago, because he had the guts to do what George Bush couldn’t do in a million years: actually put himself at risk for the sake of his country, for the sake of what is right."
...
"Water-boarding, he said, is torture.
Legally, it is torture!
Practically, it is torture!
Ethically, it is torture!

And he wrote it down.
Wrote it down somewhere, where it could be contrasted with the words of this country’s 43rd President: “The United States of America does not torture.”

Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush.

Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush.

Water-boarding had already been used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a couple of other men none of us really care about — except, Sir, for the one detail you’d forgotten — that there are rules, and even if we just make up these rules, this country observes them anyway, because we’re Americans, sir, and we’re better than that.

We’re better than you.

And the man your Justice Department selected to decide whether or not water-boarding was torture, had decided, and not in some phony academic fashion, nor while wearing the Walter Mitty poseur attire of flight-suit and helmet.

He had put his money, Mr. Bush, where your mouth was.

So, your sleazy sycophantic henchman Mr. Gonzales had him append an asterisk suggesting his black-and-white answer wasn’t black-and-white, that there might have been a quasi-legal way of torturing people, maybe with an absolute time limit and a physician entitled to stop it, maybe, if your administration had ever bothered to set any rules or any guidelines…
And then when your people realized that even that was too dangerous, Daniel Levin was branded “too independent” and “someone who could (not) be counted on.”
In other words, Mr. Bush, somebody you couldn’t count on to lie for you."
...
"And they should look into their own committee’s history and recall that in 1973, their predecessors were able to wring even from Richard Nixon, a guarantee of a Special Prosecutor (ultimately a Special Prosecutor of Richard Nixon!), in exchange for their approval of his new Attorney General, Elliott Richardson.

If they could get that out of Nixon, you — before you confirm the President’s latest human echo tomorrow — you better be able to get a “yes” or a “no” out of Michael Mukasey.

Ideally, you should lock this government down financially until a special prosecutor is appointed — or fifty of them — but I’m not holding my breath. The “yes” or the “no” on water-boarding will have to suffice.

Because, remember if you can’t get it, or you won’t with the time between tonight and the next presidential election likely to be the longest year of our lives, you are leaving this country, and all of us, to the water-boards — symbolic and otherwise — of George W. Bush.
Ultimately, Mr. Bush, the real question isn’t who approved the water-boarding of this fiend Khalid Sheik Mohammed and two others.

It is: why were they water-boarded?

Study after study for generation after generation, sir, has confirmed that torture gets people to talk, torture gets people to plead, torture gets people to break, but torture does not get them to tell the truth.

Of course, Mr. Bush, this isn’t a problem if you don’t care if the terrorist plots they tell you about, are the truth or just something to stop the tormentors from drowning them.

If, say, a President simply needed a constant supply of terrorist threats to keep a country scared…

If, say, he needed phony plots to play hero during, and to boast about interrupting, and to use to distract people from the threat he didn’t interrupt…

If, say, he realized that even terrorized people still need good ghost stories before they will let a President pillage the Constitution…

Well, heck, Mr. Bush, who better to dream them up for you… than an actual terrorist?

He’ll tell you every thing he ever fantasized doing, in his most horrific of daydreams — his equivalent of the day you “flew” onto the deck of the Lincoln to explain you’d won in Iraq.
Now if that’s what this is all about — you tortured not because you’re so stupid you think torture produces confession — but you tortured because you’re smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction — well, then you’re going to need all the lawyers you can find because that crime wouldn’t just mean impeachment, would it, sir?

That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison. "
...
"But at last this frightful plan is ending with an unexpected crash, the shocking reality that no matter how thoroughly you might try to extinguish them, Mr. Bush, how thoroughly you tried to brand disagreement as disloyalty, Mr. Bush, there are still people like Daniel Levin who believe in the United States of America as true freedom, where we are better, not because of schemes and wars, but because of dreams and morals.

And ultimately, sir, these men, these patriots, will defeat you and they will return this country to its righteous standards, and to its rightful owners, the people."

Well, there's ONE real journalist out there, telling it like it is.

Other Olbermann Special Comments

And by the way, I'm done with my part of providing information on this blog.

You, the sons and daughters of America, have to rise to the occasion in your own homes. You have to stand up for what you believe this country is supposed to stand for. My house is not your retreat any longer. It's not your home for feeling as if you are rebelling against the status quo by arguing and bickering. All the information is out there. All the facts about this fascist terrorist in the white house have been laid bare for all to see.

It's time to stop leaning on excuses and pseudo-activism. You either cower in your own little homes, allowing them to herd you where they will - or you ACT.

It's up to all of us to prove that this is NOT A NATION OF SHEEP. It is up to us to save our country from these bloody handed bastards.

For make no mistake, these men are destroying the United States of America far faster and far more completely than any third world nutjob could ever hope to.

There's a thousand ways to stand up for your country and make it a better place. There's only ONE way to let it down and see it ruined forever - and that's by remaining locked into your see-no-evil stare, going about your daily business as if there is nothing wrong.

America needs you. Are you going to sit there and do nothing? If you do, you've got no one to blame but yourselves. In the end, it will take us all, to fix our corrupt government and our maimed democracy. Get out there and lend a hand to your fellow Americans. Speaking out is good, but actions speak louder than words. Vote, run for office, give your time and your money to worthy organizations and people who are out there right now fighting for our country while we let the battle pass us by because we don't want to trouble ourselves to get involved.

Our country is only as great as we make it. If we let the vermin and the corporate leeches and the fat rich ticks suck our country dry, then we don't deserve it.

Bush versus Bush

Something really big is happening.

Bush senior has stood aside for too long. He had high hopes, he gave a thousand second chances, but in the end, the father knows his final duty to his son, his country.

Baker was the first hammer blow. Dubya, losing on all fronts, finally went to his dad's men for help. What he got was Baker. Bush was led to believe that Baker's ISG was supposed to set the course for more illusions about Iraq. He was wrong.

Gates was the second hammer blow. But without any other options, Bush pushed Gates instead of another of his loyalist cronies, who were sure to be grilled much more than Gates ended up being. Gates was a thousand times more up front than ANY of the Republicans who we have seen expound on Bush's policies, as they repeated them verbatim.

I have been holding out on my judgement on Gates. My fellow liberals want to throw him to the wolves, but I have some good things from some people close to him. Gates holds no sense of loyalty to Shrub.

And the day after Gates attains his position, the ISG comes down hard on "staying the course"= which they had to. Bush senior knows what the entire Republican party (except perhaps Lincoln Chafee) does not- Iraq IS a Failure and Immediate withdrawal is necessary for all the reasons I have expounded upon before. Plus One: The House of Saud is no longer happy with Iraq. The seismic echoes from Baghdad are being felt more and more in Saudi Arabia. Bush Sr. knows what he has to do.

So the orders have come down from Daddy Bush- which is another reason he was crying in Jeb's arms the other day. He has just orchestrated the final nail in his own son's political coffin. But only after George jr had put so many nails in the Republican party's coffin.

Bush has ruined the Republican party for the next decade, maybe longer. Bush Sr. can't let his son drunkenly screw the pooch any longer. It's over for Dubya, and a father cries for a son that even he has to admit is a complete and utter failure.

It's about goddamn time Bush whipped his son's miserable ass.
It's about time.

A thousand failures.

The news of American government is often bleak and full of incompetence. Failures abound all around us, even as our corporate sponsored media puts happy faces on corpses.

American Government in ... "action".

It's a story of U.S. government officials letting people die, and refusing to lift a finger as the situation spirals downward because they are too worried about their own asses. It's a familiar tale these days.

This story is yet another microcosm of how inept our government has become. Anyone who is in charge is frozen in fear for themselves. Time and time again, they fail to perform their duties which rolls downhill in a domino effect of disaster. Our entire country is wallowing in selfish, cover-your-own-ass thinking that destroys Everything that America is supposed to be based on.
Everywhere you look there is failure after failure in this government's policies. The men who SHOULD be most outspoken about these failures are the men who have failed. And when they fail to acknowledge their failures - they fail to acknowledge a need to correct the many mistakes they have made. Nothing can be learned in their constant mental state of denial.

Katrina. Iraq. Global Warming. Terrorism. The major mistakes that are common knowledge to Americans, but yet still those who NEED to be held accountable have not been. Still they pass the buck and blame everyone but themselves.

Then there are: Work related Hazards. Immigration/Border control issues. Crime. Healthcare, housing, and pyschological care for our veterans. Living wages and healthcare for our poverty stricken citizenry, whose numbers increase every day. These "small" issues that affect the very heart of our nation in thousands of ways.

It starts with every last one of us- We are the stewards of our own future. How our country's destiny may wax and wane is in our own hands. Are the people of America up to the task?

This is not just some politician's job. It's not "out of my hands". No- it definitely IS NOT! When you surrender your rights like that you not only surrender yourselves- but your weaken all of your countrymen and women.

Pull up your sleeves and work for the common good and the betterment of America. That is Exactly how we can save our country from threats both without and within.

Again, I ask - I beseech you all to dig deep and ask YOURSELF:
"Am I going to sit here and do nothing or am I going to make a difference?"

Our Future is a shared one. Do your part.

Bush's Vietnam Field trip

Olbermann's special comment on Bush's trip to Vietnam:

Full Article

EXCERPTS:

It is a shame and it is embarrassing to us all when President Bush travels 8,000 miles only to wind up avoiding reality again. And it is pathetic to listen to a man talk unrealistically about Vietnam, who permitted the “Swift-Boating” of not one but two American heroes of that war, in consecutive presidential campaigns. But most importantly — important beyond measure — his avoidance of reality is going to wind up killing more Americans.

And that is indefensible and fatal.

Asked if there were lessons about Iraq to be found in our experience in Vietnam, Mr. Bush said that there were, and he immediately proved he had no clue what they were.
“One lesson is,” he said, “that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while.”

“We’ll succeed,” the president concluded, “unless we quit.”

If that’s the lesson about Iraq that Mr. Bush sees in Vietnam, then he needs a tutor.
Or we need somebody else making the decisions about Iraq. Mr. Bush, there are a dozen central, essential lessons to be derived from our nightmare in Vietnam, but “we’ll succeed unless we quit,” is not one of them.

The primary one — which should be as obvious to you as the latest opinion poll showing that only 31 percent of this country agrees with your tragic Iraq policy — is that if you try to pursue a war for which the nation has lost its stomach, you and it are finished. Ask Lyndon Johnson.

The second most important lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: If you don’t have a stable local government to work with, you can keep sending in Americans until hell freezes over and it will not matter. Ask Vietnamese Presidents Diem or Thieu.

The third vital lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: Don’t pretend it’s something it’s not. For decades we were warned that if we didn’t stop “communist aggression” in Vietnam, communist agitators would infiltrate and devour the small nations of the world, and make their insidious way, stealthily, to our doorstep. The war machine of 1968 had this “domino theory.”
Your war machine of 2006 has this nonsense about Iraq as “the central front in the war on terror.”

The fourth pivotal lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush: If the same idiots who told Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon to stay there for the sake of “peace With honor” are now telling you to stay in Iraq, they’re probably just as wrong now, as they were then ... Dr. Kissinger.

And the fifth crucial lesson of Vietnam, Mr. Bush — which somebody should’ve told you about long before you plunged this country into Iraq — is that if you lie your country into a war, your war, your presidency will be consigned to the scrap heap of history.

(...)

And these lessons from Vietnam, Mr. Bush, these priceless, transparent lessons, writ large as if across the very sky, are still a mystery to you. “We’ll succeed unless we quit.”
No, sir.
We will succeed against terrorism, for our country’s needs, toward binding up the nation’s wounds when you quit, quit the monumental lie that is our presence in Iraq.
And in the interim, Mr. Bush, an American kid will be killed there, probably tonight or tomorrow. And here, sir, endeth the lesson.

Full Article

Crooks and Liars has the video up

Other Vietnam-related Insights: Kissinger says Military Victory Not possible

Impeachment is TOO Good.

"The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life." - Adolph Hitler, in a speech at the Reichstag on March 23, 1933

"No matter what amount of talent is employed in the organization of propaganda, it will have no result if due account is not taken of these fundamental principles. Propaganda must be limited to a few simple themes and these must be represented again and again. Here, as in innumerable other cases, perseverance is the first and most important condition of success."Mein Kampf; the James Murphy translation. February, 1939

For President Bush, Impeachment isn't enough, by far.

3000 dead Americans. 25,000 seriously injured, some of whom will never lead normal lives ever again. A world that used to respect America for it's freedoms now fears and despises us for our hypocrisy. Lady Liberty's hands have been bloodied by a madman and a fool. An idiot who was so convinced that he was right that NO price was too high. No Constitutional law was important enough respect as he blundered along his destructive path. No immoral act was too shameful for him to lower our country to, in his so-called quest to "protect" us.

President Bush and his advisers, with the power of Congress behind them after 9-11 began making big changes to our Government. The first blow to the Constitution was the "Patriot" Act. Then he began spying on everyone whose agenda was suspect, chiefly not on terrorists, but on anti-war protesters.

He bought media sources and inserted pro-war, pro-fear propaganda wherever possible. He dropped taxes on the rich, effectively paying off Corporations and the affluent to help support his policies. To pay for these tax-cuts his Congress cut benefits for welfare and college tuition assistance. Who cares? The middle class doesn't mean anything.

He controlled the rich with promises of more tax cuts, and controlled the poor with threats of terror and inspiring fear among the common man. He used his religion as a bludgeon, he told us he did NOT NEED Complex reasons for his actions. He played the prophet while his Pharisees in Congress played the politics of sucking on the teat of Lobbyist cash. They scaled back the EPA, OSHA, and countless other important agencies for money from the Corporations. They traded the health and welfare of the very people of America for Corporate gold. They gave tax cuts to oil companies and cut alternative energy programs. President Bush appointed CEO after CEO of industry hacks into positions of "oversight".

He looted our Budget. Only one of his harmful plans didn't go as planned- And if you are retired, you better thank God for that. His privatization of Social Security would have worked as well as letting Halliburton "assist" in Iraq. In short it would be a nightmare that bled our nation's elderly dry. But as gullible as the American public was on WMD, and torture and spying - they didn't quite trust Grandma's money to Bush's Cadre of Larry Kudlow scumbags.

So, no- Impeachment is Not Enough. Although the best possible action for America would be removing this fool from the Office of the President as soon as we can.

But embarrassing this man isn't enough. He doesn't know what shame is. He's a cruel, vindictive little man who has disgraced our nation. He deserves more than simply losing a job that his Daddy's money got him.

I want him to apologize personally to every family who has lost a soldier for LYING TO THEM. I want him to ask forgiveness for sending those troops to die for a Lie.

I want him stripped of all possessions- I want him homeless, barefoot and befuddled. I want him starving and dehydrated for a week while under camera lights like he left so many Katrina victims. I want him to KNOW what it is to not have anything. Not Daddy's money, not his oil buddies bailing him out. I want "W" to be branded into his forehead like the mark of Cain.

I want him to walk the breadth of Iraq, wearing an irradiated uranium collar made from the shrapnel that our troops are exposed to. I want him to stop in every Iraqi city to see what he is responsible for. I want him to hold a dead Iraqi child killed by an airstrike in his guilty hands. I want him to bury that child in front of its family.

But most of all I want him to UNDERSTAND. I want him to OPEN HIS EYES and see the truth of what he has wrought on the world. I want him to comprehend how he has hurt America, Americans, and how his actions will hurt Americans for years to come.

I am an atheist, but I even wish there WAS a god, who could render a more perfect judgement than I on the miserable excuse for a human being that George Bush is.

But, I expect I will be lucky to get even an impeachment. I know one thing, for the rest of American history, the time President Bush II was in office WILL be considered a dark time in America's past. He will be vilified. Eventually we will ALL know the full list of his crimes and his "legacy" will be treated accordingly.

Another Day, Another Bush lie

From Crooks and Liars:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/23/the-strategy-in-iraq-has-never-been-stay-the-course-right/

President Bush ... "It's never been stay the course"




Do the people who have "Stayed the course" with their support of this President EVER get tired of his out and out bullshit?

UPDATE: Billmon tells us more... http://billmon.org/archives/002869.html