The Few, the Proud, the Killers

Ahhh.. the fucking wingnuts. I know this isn't breaking news but it sure is symptomatic of the state of America today.

First this from Salon.com on Murtha's May 17,2006 comments:

"A senior House Democrat with close ties to the military claimed Wednesday that U.S. Marines wantonly killed innocent Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in an early morning raid last November, buttressing a March report by Time."

"Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," said Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam and is among the most influential Democratic voices on military matters. "This is going to be a very, very bad thing for the United States."

Murtha was called everything but an American after his statements by the dishonest, bloodthirsty pussies in the wingnut faction.

Then this yesterday by none other than fuckstick John Warner. By the way, the following quote is from murthamustgo.blogspot.com

"At this time, particularly on Memorial Day...I think we should be calm and reassuring to the American people that the men and women of our armed forces are admirably and professionally conducting their heavy responsibilities." The top Republican said: "I respect my friend, John Murtha. I also was privileged to wear the Marine uniform. But we've got to let the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the investigation system, proceed before we reach any conclusions on this matter"

Sure, sure. Here's a desription of that professional conduct by someone who was there. This from CNN.com:

Lance Cpl. Ryan Briones told the Los Angeles Times that he took pictures of at least 15 bodies and is still haunted by the memory of picking up a young girl who was shot in the head. (Full story)

"I held her out like this," he said, demonstrating with his arms extended, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

Briones' mother, Susie Briones, told CNN her son is now suffering from post-traumatic stress.

"It was horrific," she said. "It was a terrible scene. The biggest thing that comes to his mind is the children.

"Since he was part of the cleanup crew, he had to carry that little girl's body, and her head was blown off," she said. "Her brains splattered on his boots. And that is what affected Brian the most."

Freedom is on the march! That march of freedom is justified in every way by the wingnuts.

Now, here is the really bad part. (What, you thought that was bad enough?) The American media will give little serious coverage of this. Why? It's nothing new really. Boil it down. Marines lose one of their own in an IED explosion and go on an indiscriminate killing spree of anything and everything. After 9-11 (before for the neo-con fuckers) with Americans full support, our military began an indiscriminate killing spree that hasn't stopped yet. We lost about 3000 Americans on 9-11. In Iraq alone we've killed at least 100,000 and they had nothing to do with it.
No the scardicat pussies in this country do not care about this Haditha story, not really. Those pussies want our armed forces to kill and kill and kill some more. Why? Pussies always want others to do their leg work. That's why we call them pussies.
Let's all just be calm and reassuring to the American people. The point blank blowing off of a little Iraqi girls head is so fucking reassuring isn't it?

Rats That Run

What to make of the feds raiding William Jefferson's office and then the followup bullshit from Hastert and Pelosi to return the stuff because congresspeople were special and then a larger pile of bullshit from Gonzales and Mueller about resigning if they had to give the stuff back and then the Decider's timeout for 45 days?
Looks like, I repeat, looks like one of Rove's gimmick plays to me. Why? Thanks for asking.
Dems have the culture of corruption thing going on against the R's. The Abramoff and Cunningham stories are huge, haven't been told, but they are HUGE. Maybe the worst and ugliest in U.S. history. No Dems took money from Abramoff directly and the Dukestir Cunningham thing also involves only R's at this point. The media only has given token coverage to these 2 (did I mention how HUGE ) stories. No better way to misdirect than to make a BIG deal about a DEMOCRAT. Watch the media this week play off of this made-up reality.
Refocus your reality based lens. The only issue is NOT losing the House and/or Senate in November. Why? Bush gets investigated and impeached and possibly removed and Dems gain Presidency in 08. Thus the end of the takeover. There is no other issue. Iran, immigration, flag burning, gay marriage, EVERYTHING has to do with November. R's don't even care about these things. If those "issues" can be whored out to maintain majority status, they're all as the Rover would say "fair game".
The Jefferson thing is just more of the same. Where do you think Abu Gonzales' and Mueller's loyalties lie? With justice and fairness? Gag me with a fucking spoon.
While it may be true that Hastert does have a dog in this fight because he's dirty in the Abramoff thing, when it all washes out it just looks like more of the same.
Once again I believe Karl is winning. It's just about the first of June. Fewer Americans keep up with the news in the summer. Turdblossom has been able to keep the media whores sniffing where he wants them to sniff. All this as he prepares for the fall onslaught. It will be a thing of beauty.

Florida Afterglow

Home now from W's brothers state. Home to Ohio. Hard to believe that I could be so glad to get back to a state that is ever so slowly turning into Mississippi but after a good taste of Fla. that is still how I feel.
Here are three anecdotal pieces from our trip to Fla. that made me want to kiss the ground on return to the Akron-Canton Airport.
Number one. Traveling north on Route 41 from Delbor Wiggans State Park towards Cape Coral there is a very large billboard on the east side of the highway the likes of which I haven't seen (yet) in northeast Ohio. On the lit billboard is what appears to be a 6-12 month old crawling, diapered baby. A large telephone number to call on the right bottom and four large block lettered words on the top right. Those words?
"Please don't abort me."
Now to each their own and all that. And of course I believe in totally free expression, however, that billboard made me ask myself who are these people and what in the fuck are they really trying to accomplish?
Number two. Perhaps my favorite. Wife and I walked 1 block from our hotel to a Subway for a late afternoon sandwich. After we were in line I noticed a white SUV backing over, yes over, a concrete parking curb from an adjacent parking lot thusly presenting anyone inside the Subway with a clear view of the SUV's rear window. On said window the owner had placed two lines of block letters. Not a decal. Not a bumpersticker type of thing. The owner obviously felt passionate about what those two lines said because he had customized the letters. What did those lines say?
Line 1: "Reagan made us strong"
Line 2: "Bush will keep us that way"
My reaction? The same as with the billboard. Who are these people and what in the fuck are they trying to accomplish?
Number three: As mentioned in my other post the local paper The News-Press appeared to have a right bent (big fucking surprise). However, late in the week even I was a tad surprised in seeing a full page ad advocating, if you can call it that, against the service workers union. "Don't be trapped" read the ad with pictures of large cockroaches on the page. The ad was saying if a person joined the union, much like a trapped cockroach, they couldn't get out. A full page, large block lettered ad against the service workers union. Now set aside the obvious comparison of service workers to cockroaches which is a story in itself, what kind of people are these and what the fuck are they trying to accomplish?
Intimidating and silencing opponents comes to mind. Much as the "Support the Troops" magnetic decals program (saw a bunch of those too) was intended to pre-empt any opposition to invading and killing brown people in foreign countries and takiing their stuff, so too these three examples. When ideaology holds positions which are faith based and devoid of facts this method of communication must be employed. Everyone who understands the facts knows that women do not abort 6 month old babies, Reagan and Bush did not make us strong and unions don't trap people like cockroaches but that doesn't matter to those who would silence all opposition.
Nice place to visit but wouldn't want to live there? Nope, not really even a nice place to visit. Fuck 'em

The Ft. Myers/Cape Coral area has been suffering from a drought. 7 inches of rain below normal since the beginning of the year. Now the good news. It took us Ohioans visit to bring relief of course. It has rained twice since we got here and today it is a good soaking rain. Fucking Florida can't do anything without the help of us northerners.
On the bad news side of things the local paper The News-Press (what kind of name is that?) has two opinion columns today. One from Dick Morris, the other from Jonah Goldberg. Nothing else needs to be said. This area is getting the unvarnished truth!

Remember what I said about Bush's lies? How he actually means the very opposite of what he says? I couldn't possibly have been handed a better example than W's comments this week. Every fucking sentence is deceitful.
By the way, I'm blogging from Cape Coral, Fla this week.

"I am going to continue to remind our hemisphere that respect for property rights and human rights(see Abu Graib, secret rendition, W's torture legislation signing statement) is essential for all countries in order for there to be prosperity and peace. I'm going to remind our allies and friends in the neighborhood that the United States of America stands for justice;(secret detainees, no due process, Guantanomo) that when we see poverty, we care about it and we do something about it;(poor in U.S. have increased each year for the last 4 years) that we care for good -- we stand for good health care.(Christ)

I'm going to remind our people that meddling in other elections is -- to achieve a short-term objective is not in the interests of the neighborhood. . . . I want to remind people that the United States stands against corruption at all levels of government, that the United States is transparent.(gold plate that statement, can you fucking believe that one ?) The United States expects the same from other countries in the neighborhood, and we'll work toward them.

Thank you very much. I'm concerned -- let me just put it bluntly -- I'm concerned about the erosion of democracy in the countries you mentioned"(Yeah, me too W. there has been so much erosion in U.S. democracy over the last 6 years that I don't believe there is enough good soil left to grow anything on)

From the ACLU web site 3-14-06


"According to the documents released today, the FBI initiated a classified investigation into the activities of the Thomas Merton Center, noting in a November 2002 memo that the center “holds daily leaflet distribution activities in downtown Pittsburgh and is currently focused on its opposition to the potential war on Iraq.” The synopsis of the document is provided to “report results of investigation on Pittsburgh anti-war activities.” The FBI memo points out that the Merton Center “is a left-wing organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism.” ...... The ACLU has filed Freedom of Information Act requests in 20 states on behalf of more than 150 organizations and individuals. In response to these requests, the government has released documents that reveal monitoring and infiltration by the FBI and local law enforcement, targeting political, environmental, anti-war and faith-based groups."
Now I am fully cognizant of the fact that W. and his fierce force of Bushlidites are only listening and spying and collecting e-mails and trolling call numbers of al Qaeda. How do I know this? W. said so. And really now, come on, why would we suspect them of spying on ordinary Americans?

Ahh..a Max Boot column in my Sunday Akron Beacon Journal. It's like waking up to the disgusting smell of someone's septic system that's not leeching properly. Now Boot is odious, no question, but for the Beacon to print this rancid shitbags flatulence is quite telling. Here's a few gems, I mean turds: "Until now. If civil liberties agitators, grandstanding politicians and self-righteous newspaper editorialists have their way, we will have to give up our most potent line of defense because of largely hypothetical concerns about privacy violations."

You have to love a fascist who is resolute don't ya'? "Civil liberties agitators"
No comment really needed. Of course, one person's civil liberties agitator is another persons' terrorist, right? I wonder if Boot thinks all judges and lawyers and righteous politicians(alright I know there aren't many) who do their jobs are civil rights agitators? And if Boot is correct wouldn't the Constitution and the Bill of Rights really only be the fuel for this agitation? What the hell were those friends of civil rights agitators, the Fouding Fathers, thinking when they wrote those jihadist papers? Jesus.
But the stench from Boot is pervasive, like a true pile of doo-doo. This paragraph really displays his bitterness at W's falling popularity. Like when your favorite team loses you blame the refs, the weather, etc."Qwest is supposed to be the hero of this drama for having, in USA Today's words, ``the integrity to resist government pressure.'' That is not a compliment often paid to a company that has been accused of massive fraud and whose former chief executive is charged with 42 counts of insider trading. Maybe Qwest should tout itself as bin Laden's preferred provider."

Bin Laden's preferred provider. That's a good one no? A company does the right thing and, you know, questions the feds and doesn't roll over and of course ipso facto, must be one of Bin Laden's boys. Qwest is just the telco worlds version of Jack Murtha, the New York Times, the Dixie Chicks and hundreds of others who are all actually just civil liberties agitators.
"Much of this silliness can be traced to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which for the first time made judges the overseers of our spymasters. This was an understandable reaction to such abuses as the FBI's wiretapping of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. But FISA is a luxury we can no longer afford."

Checks and balances, like FISA, are a luxury since 2001. did you know that? A luxury!
And of couse today unlike in the 60's the FBI,NSA,CIA have all experienced a conversion, a baptism and would never ever do bad things against Americans again. Isn't that right?
And then to top off his 'I'm mad and I'm going to throw a tantrum column. Nobody likes my neo-cons anymore so I'm going to take my surveillance gear home so you can't play with it, nah nah nah nah.' Boot closes with this:
"The administration has nothing to be ashamed of. The only scandal here is that some people favor unilateral disarmament in our struggle against the suicide bombers."

The opposite is true of course. W. and the Bushlidites have EVERYTHING to be ashamed of except for maybe the 'no call' list law. The only fucking unilateral disarmament I favor is to disarm the neo-cons once and for all and throw their asses in federal prison for a while. Is that enough civil liberties agitation for you, you prick?

Honest, I haven't been drinking



Changing Their Story ?

Concerning the phone call number trolling story originally revealed in the USA Today story.


A retired AT&T communications technician, in an affidavit tells
this story:

According to a statement released by Klein's attorney, an NSA agent showed up at the San Francisco switching center in 2002 to interview a management-level technician for a special job. In January 2003, Klein observed a new room being built adjacent to the room housing AT&T's #4ESS switching equipment, which is responsible for routing long distance and international calls.
"I learned that the person whom the NSA interviewed for the secret job was the person working to install equipment in this room," Klein wrote. "The regular technician work force was not allowed in the room."
Klein's job eventually included connecting internet circuits to a splitting cabinet that led to the secret room. During the course of that work, he learned from a co-worker that similar cabinets were being installed in other cities, including Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego.
"While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T's internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal," Klein wrote.
The split circuits included traffic from peering links connecting to other internet backbone providers, meaning that AT&T was also diverting traffic routed from its network to or from other domestic and international providers, according to Klein's statement.
The secret room also included data-mining equipment called a Narus STA 6400, "known to be used particularly by government intelligence agencies because of its ability to sift through large amounts of data looking for preprogrammed targets," according to Klein's statement.

Now Verizon and Bellsouth are demanding a retraction by USA Today. They're now saying they didn't turn over records to the feds. True? Perhaps only AT&T cooperated. Now we have this from AT&T:

“There has been a lot of speculation in the news media. The fact is, AT&T does not allow wiretapping without a court order nor has it otherwise given customer information to law enforcement authorities or government agencies without legal authorization.”

Here's the crux of what happened with Qwest from the original USA Today story:

The NSA, which needed Qwest's participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard.
Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.
In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.
Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.


And to cap it all off there is also a May 6 Presidential Memorandum that may suggest W. gave
Poindexter the power to tell telcos it was ok to lie about this issue. Sounds about right don't you think?

W. the Front Man


Before W. was selected like a draft pick in 2000 by the Supremes, the Bushlidites had a plan. After all how can a group of neo-cons do any conning without a plan. To take over the whole world would require some planning don't you think? What was this plan? Since the Soviets are gone as a threat, now's the time to take what we want, wherever we want to take it from and position our military throughout the Middle East so that China or others don't beat us to the black gold. This was the Richard Perle, Wolfowitz, Cheney and many others position.
But how to enact the plan? They needed a frontman like Reagan only more useful in the art of deception. Someone who was without conscience. Someone who could lie like it was natural to him. W. was their man.
W. has no interest in governing, never did. What he likes is frat boy style campaigning. That's all he's done since he's been in: campaign. Every event is a photo op. A public relations opportunity. War in Iraq? Campaign opportunity. I believe, personally, he started the Iraq mess in March 2003 instead of waiting in order to have it under control enough for the "mission accomplished" moment before the re-election campaign for 2004. Look at what he just did. Riding on a dunebuggy down by the border for a video clip for the Bushlidite media to run. Pathetic. 5 years almost since 9-11 and NOW, all of a sudden, NOW we MUST do something about the brown people coming from the south? Campaigning, see? An opportunity to campaign.
So the neo-cons needed a front man and W. needed somebody to do his job because he was only going to be 'their' president if he could just campaign all the time. The neo-cons agreed to take care of running the country while W. was campaigning. They've really done a good job haven't they? One might suggest that what I'm saying is a fairy tale or some shit. But think back to when Dick Cheney was given the job of selecting a V.P. candidate for W. Didn't you think when Cheney picked himself something was up? Well Christ, someone had to run the country. But you see Cheney had been around, knew stuff, lots of stuff. He agreed to run the country for W. but on his terms. The secrecy and cold blooded militarism is Cheney's game. Who knows why, as long as W. got to campaign and Dick got to atttack everybody but only secretly.
So W. is working hard doing his thing, campaigning, this time with a brown people backdrop and Cheney is busy running the country secretly this time to attack Iran. Working out real well don't you think?

THE NEW NORMAL



Just heard Andrea Mitchell ask a question nobody even knows anything about. Is the phone number trolling without oversight "the new normal"? WTF Honestly, no one and I mean no one knows anything about this stuff except the Bushlidites and less than 24 hours later a poll is out saying 63% of Americans think the headline news story is ok even before they read about it. Then today it's "the new normal". That my fellow Americans is a state controlled media. The Soviets couldn't clean the sticker burrs off the shoelaces of the Bushlidites and their enablers. They are the best at" illusion,collusion,deception, misinformation and outright lies this world has ever seen. On Thursday Bush gave out four reasons his phone number trolling without oversight shit doesn't stink and on every single one, he lied knowingly. "..the intelligence activities ...are lawful"
Oh sure that's why they couldn't really tell anybody, right, cause they are lawful. That's why you keep stuff secret, because it's lawful. National security my ass. Does anyone believe an enemy of our country would have an edge somehow if they knew our government was trolling all U.S. citizen's call numbers? Yeah, Richard Reid (shoe bomber) was stupid but come on. Remember when AG Gonzales said we were reminding al Qaeda if we talk about illegal wiretapping. All bullshit.
"...privacy of ordinary Americans(who?) is fiercely protected." Huh? They're trolling all Americans phone calls and keeping them on hand and that's protection by the fierce force? No thanks. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of ...Americans.." Remember when he said " whenever we're eavsdropping on terrorists that means a search warrant?" Same M.O. I have my own thoughts about W. and I'll get into them sometime but for now, I believe most of W's public comments are lies. In many cases it's not just that they are lies but that the exact opposite of what he says is really the truth.
"Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates." When you are trolling how is it again that you can tell when you're focusing on an al Qaeda link? How exactly do you get that focus thing right randomly with millions of call numbers from 'ordinary' Americans?
All lies. W and the Bushlidites ( band name no?) together with their corporate co-conspirators are the fascists I've always feared would come from the R's someday. That's the real "new normal".

My differences with the Akron Beacon Journal


From the April 13 editorial entitiled "Leaking from the Top"
Joseph Wilson proved an annoying presence to the Bush White House as the year 2003 unfolded. The former American diplomat had traveled to Niger a year earlier to assess allegations that Iraq had sought to buy uranium there. The Bush team had been pushing that version of events as part of its drumbeat for war. Wilson disagreed, calling the transaction 'highly doubtful' saying so publicly on the op-ed page of the NY Times.
No surprise that the White House would attempt to counter Wilson, even challenge his credibility by releasing classified information to reporters. That has long been the practice in Washington, often adding to the quality of the debate. Republicans and Democrats have operated in this way. Of course, part of the routine involves decrying such leaks, the president recently described as a 'a shameful act' the leaking of information about unauthorized domestic surveillance by the NSA.
The embarrassment is having your hypocrisy so plainly on view, especially with your approval rating hovering int eh troubling 30's. On Monday, the president explained to an audience that sharing the intelligence information 'was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying in my speeeches' about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. The White House did declassify an earlier National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in July 2003. Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor looking into the controversy, filed court papers last week asserting that the White House wasn't so benign in its purpose> He pointed to 'a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr Wilson.'
His source? Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff of Vice President Cheney, already indicted on perjury and obstruction charges in the case. Fitzgerald says Libby told the grand jury that the president approved Cheney's request that classified information be shared with the media> The Fitzgerald account adds that Libby let the word slip, telling two reporters, among other things, that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA (in a covert capacity).
In all this lurks the misguided criminalization of political acts. Still, imagine the Republican firestorm if Bill Clinton and friends had taken steps that resulted in the outing of an intelligence operative.
Evident, too, is the Bush practice of selectively deploying intelligence information. The White House paid attention to what it wanted to hear. It hyped the aluminum tubes. It oversold the shopping trip to Niger. On Wednesday, the Washington Post recounted the muddy intelligence concerning mobile 'biological laboratories' the president and others touted. This is old news, to a degree. it is also relevant today, a reminder about a rush to war and the lack of care in doing so. Saddam Hussein has been toppled. Yet disorder, division and violence afflict Iraq, and more than 2300 Americans have died.


My letter, surprisingly, printed in the April 25th edition.

All wet about the leak ( their title)

In your April 13 editorial headlined 'Leaking from the top', you wrote about Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation: 'In all this lurks the misguided criminalization of political acts.' Oops, your Fox News slip is showing.
So when the CIA petitioned the Justice Department to open an investigation into one of its own being outed, was that a political act? Was the CIA out to get the president? Was Justice also involved in 'misguided criminalization' by opening an investigation? And when was it, exactly, that perjury and obstruction became political acts?
It isn't 2003 any longer. Solid information has emerged over the past three years: that there were no WMD in Iraq, no uranium purchases, no aluminum tubes for nukes, no mobile labs, no connection with 9-11 or al-Qaeda.
A rush to war is not it, either. It was a fabrication for war, a pretense for war, and Wilson correctly pointed this out. The threat of this no-name ex-ambassador, understood clearly by Karl Rove, was that if voters came to realize the White House duplicity about Iraq before the 2004 election, Bush would be in trouble. Wilson had the duplicity goods. It was a coverup of lies and twisted information. Why else would the White House have retracted the 16 words from the State of the Union about uranium from Africa?
What you call muddy intelligence was muddied. It was cherry picked. Wilson pointed that out, and the White House went after him. This is all clear now to anyone who wants to know the truth. You say this is old news, but the Beacon Journal surely hasn't explained these facts in their proper narrative.
You quote Bush's words about his 2003 selective declassification but fail to raise the question: Why didn't he do this in a press conference? Wouldn't that have been the most effective, efficient and transparent way 'for people to get a better sense'instead of secretly, through Libby and others, and only then to a few reporters? No, the president is not being truthful about this either. He wanted Wilson quieted and his credibility smeared; most of all, he wanted other CIA personnel afraid to speak up. It was a 'shock and awe' moment.
You also fail to include Bush's comments made previously about wanting to find out who the leakers were so they could be dealt with in all this. Of course he already knew these answers, didn't he? No, instead, your editorial is saying to me the same thing that Fox News is saying: Nothing to see here, move along. It's just 'the misguided criminalization of political acts.' Everybody has done and will continue to do this stuff. No big deal.
Almost 2400 of our best are dead because of these political acts. By God, that's a big deal-and it sure as hell is a criminal act.