The State Department has issued new guidelines to rein in and monitor Blackwater USA, the private contractor that provides heavily armed security for U.S. diplomats serving in Baghdad. Under orders issued by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, video cameras will be mounted in Blackwater vehicles and federal agents will ride with the security contractors who escort diplomatic convoys. [video of Blackwater]Mr. Bush, Tear down this wall!
More than a thousand Iraqis marched in west Baghdad on Saturday in a rare public demonstration to protest against a wall they say the U.S. military is planning to erect around their neighbourhood. Carrying an Iraqi national flag and banners condemning the wall the marchers in the predominantly Shi'ite district of al-Washash chanted "No, no to the wall. No, no to America."
[Strange turn of events, don't you think? Those Iraqis sure are appreciative of all that democracy we've given them.]
Five more years of what?
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- Lawmakers today overwhelmingly endorsed a new five-year presidential term for Gen. Pervez Musharraf, according to unofficial results, but the legitimacy of the vote has yet to be decided by the Supreme Court. The lopsided balloting, held simultaneously by Pakistan's national parliament and four provincial assemblies, was denounced as a sham by Musharraf's opponents. The government praised it as a show of orderly democracy.Dead Dirty Harry
A controversial American sculptor has shocked the royal family with a piece showing Prince Harry having been killed in action in Iraq. The sculpture by Daniel Edwards shows the prince clad in an army uniform with a vulture at his feet and clutching a locket of his dead mother Princess Diana. It goes on show in London next week as part of a contemporary art fair.Pay for your own mess
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
"Three Democratic leaders want an income tax surcharge to finance the Iraq war operations. How very ... responsible. The plan is also fair. Middle- and lower-income taxpayers would pay an extra 2 percent, but the rich would pitch in 15 percent more. The Bush administration, with congressional complicity, chose this unnecessary war. President Bush wants another $190 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. It will help add to the national debt indenturing future generations, thanks mainly to the two Bush presidents and Ronald Reagan. Bloomberg News quotes U.S. Rep. David Obey, a surcharge proponent: "If this war is important enough to fight, it's worth paying for." Exactly. Stop fighting and don't pay, now or when the grandkids are staring dazedly at the titanic bills."
[Better yet, make those who supported this war pay for it. Those of us, the 21% who were right, shouldn't have to pay shit!]
The forgotten
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 6 — A suicide car bomber detonated his payload next to an American military convoy on the main road leading to the Kabul airport early Saturday, killing one American serviceman and at least four civilians, American and Afghan officials said. The attack, which came on the sixth anniversary of the American-led invasion in 2001, destroyed the soldier’s vehicle and wounded numerous people, officials and witnesses said.
[Operation Enduring Freedom's sixth anniversary and we're still riding around their country, doing what again? We should have been done there 5 1/2 years ago.]
Real tough guy
A young woman of color in Los Angeles had her wrist broken by a school security officer after not cleaning up a piece of dropped birthday cake to his satisfaction. During the attack he said, "hold still nappy head." The girl, 16 year-old Pleajhai Mervin, was subsequently expelled and arrested for littering and battery. Because as you can clearly see from the video still above, this teenage girl was battering the shit out a full grown, beefy security guard.[That slob needs his fatass kicked.]
Another real bad ass
Officer punches, pepper sprays 15-year-old girl
[This 15 year old girl's crime? She broke curfew. These men need to be punished. And I don't mean administratively.]
You can lose your hearing, too
It is known by some as "hillbilly heroin" - OxyContin (oxycodone) abuse has become so extensive in Appalachia that Kentucky officials have sued Purdue Pharma, the manufacturers of the prescription painkiller. The lawsuit was filed by General Greg Stumbo, Kentucky Attorney General. The lawsuit, which aims to recover millions of dollars, is claiming reimbursement for drug abuse program costs, law enforcement and Medicaid prescription payments.
[Maybe Limbaugh can join in on a class action lawsuit since the sanctimonious idiot popped so much OxyContin that he lost 100% hearing in one ear, and 80% in the other. He's real stable and has wonderful self-control. That, his suspected pedophilia, his three divorces, and his hatred for our military, makes him a wonderful role model for wingnuts, huh? -- Wow.]
Damn, a subsidy?
Hundreds of families living in housing subsidized by Fairfax County taxpayers exceed income caps designed to ensure that only the neediest receive assistance, a review of county records shows. In the most extreme cases, Fairfax is underwriting rents for families making well into six figures: One household getting help makes more than $216,000 a year; another, $184,000. Dozens of others -- making $60,000, $70,000, $90,000 -- exceed eligibility caps. And they do so with the tacit approval of county housing administrators, who do little to encourage occupants to move on when their fortunes improve.
[WTF? Subsidizing incomes of $216,000 and $184,000? ... What a country ...]
Smacked her corporatist's ass!
In a scathing attack, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards went after front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Friday, calling her a "corporate Democrat," comparing top Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn to former Bush aide Karl Rove and assailing Penn's ties to Blackwater USA, ... Edwards said in an interview with the Associated Press while campaigning in Iowa. "I also saw this morning that Sen. Clinton's primary adviser, Mark Penn, who is like her Karl Rove -- his firm is representing Blackwater."And this phony bastard wants to be president?
‘More than 40′Giuliani speeches interrupted by calls'.
During a recent appearance before the National Rifle Association, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani rudely interrupted his speech to take a brief call from his wife, Judith, on his cell phone. Apparently, this is not a new phenomenon for Giuliani. John Fund reports today that it might not be a mere coincidence: “He has taken such calls more than 40 times in the middle of speeches, conferences and presentations to large donors.” Giuliani’s explanation for the calls? 9/11.
[Come on Republicans, is this the best you have? I read in a magazine, - while in the dentist's office the other day, - an article that said Mrs. Mitt Romney was the only 'original' wife of all the Republicans running for the 2008 Republican nomination ... I'm not sure if I read that correctly ---- Some 'family-values', though, huh?]
What a shame
The three-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones cries as she addresses the media during a news conference outside the federal courthouse Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 in White Plains, N.Y. Jones plead guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs,. She also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud scheme.
[She was a class act with her public statement. She was hell of an athlete and probably didn't even need the enhancement. What a shame.]
Today a hell of a long time ago
The epoch of the modern Hebrew calendar is 1 Tishrei AM 1 (AM = anno mundi = in the year of the world), which in the proleptic Julian calendar is Monday, October 7, 3761 BCE, the equivalent tabular date (same daylight period).
"The Decider"
"My job is a decision-making job. And as a result, I make a lot of decisions."
The Supreme kinkmeister
The Limbaugh Award
He's back...
Bush's blatant lie this week;
'Never really thought about war'
[George] Bush, interviewed “in the room where I make decisions,’’ said that he “never really thought about the decision to put men and women in harm’s way’’ when he was running for president.The facts about Bush's real intentions;
Seated first in the Oval Office, the interviewer for Al Arabiya told the president: “Here it comes to my mind that how hard it is on you, Mr. President, to take like -- a big decision like war, for example -- is it that easy to take a decision such like war….
“No, it's the hardest decision a president can make,’’ Bush said. “And when I campaigned for office I never really thought about the decision to put men and women in harm's way. I never thought that that would happen ....
"In 1999, author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz, struck a deal with the campaign of George W. Bush about a ghost-written autobiography, which was ultimately titled A Charge to Keep : My Journey to the White House, and he and Bush signed a contract in which the two would split the proceeds. The publisher was William Morrow. Herskowitz was given unimpeded access to Bush, and the two met approximately 20 times so Bush could share his thoughts. Herskowitz began working on the book in May, 1999 ...And of course, there was Bush's first Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill;
“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: "One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade….if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”
And what happened at [George] Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations."Everything changed with 9/11?" Save your phony rhetoric, wingnuts - this all happened before 9/11 -- And besides, that talking point doesn't work anyway since your boy already answered that question;
“From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11."
BUSH: The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.George Bush, the egregious liar, came into office determined to invade Iraq and used 9/11 as his excuse to do so. And, the cost to this nation can never be re-paid.
QUESTION: What did Iraq have to do with it?
BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?
QUESTION: The attack on the World Trade Center.
BUSH: Nothing....
He's a despicable liar and he deserves a noose, but we will have to settle, for now, with giving the Liar-in-Chief, his 4th Limbaugh Award.
Congratulations, you treasonous piece of shit -- You are #32.
Past winners of the prestigious, but infamous,
Limbaugh Award
Phony Patriot Pig - Rush Limbaugh - 9/30/07
Big Stretch 'the truth' - Bill Sammon - 9/23/07
Mr. Straight Talk - John McCain - 9/16/07
Sycophant - General Petraeus - 9/9/07
His own Idaho - Sen. Craig R-Idaho - 9/2/07
Turd Blossom - Karl Rove - 8/26/07
The Exterminator - Tom Delay - 8/19/07
Big 'Rooster' - Mitt Romney - 8/12/07
Total Suck Up - Glenn Beck - 8/5/07
General Gonzo - Alberto Gonzales - 7/29/07
Pro Liar - Tony 'Snowjob' Snow - 7/22/07
Bush bin Lyin - George W. Bush - 7/15/07
Freed Felon - Scooter Libby - 7/8/07
Mr. Overrated - Rudy Giuliani - 7/1/07
Crazy Lying Okie - James Inhofe - 6/24/07
Pro Liar - Tony 'Snowjob' Snow - 6/17/07
Mormon Moron - Mitt Romney - 6/10/07
Bye Week - 6/3/07
Commander Guy - George W. Bush - 5/27/07
Pat's Brother - Bay Buchanan - 5/20/07
Used Car Salesman - John Boehner - 5/13/07
Uncultured Wussy - Bill O'Reilly - 5/6/07
Mr. Overrated - Rudy Giuliani - 4/29/07
Turd Blossom - Karl Rove - 4/22/07
The Decider - George W. Bush - 4/15/07
Lying Chickenhawk VP - Dick Cheney - 4/8/07
Mr. Straight Talk - John McCain - 4/1/07
Attorney General - Alberto Gonzales - 3/25/07
Fox mouthpieces Sean Hannity and
Victoria Toensing - 3/18/07
Fox News guy - Brit Hume - 3/11/07
VA Secretary - Jim Nicholson - 3/4/07
Rep. Michele Bachmann - (R-MN) - 2/25/07
