Bush is over

You know it's tough when the Attack Dog calls out the Pit Bull

We learned today that Dick Cheney's blood clot in his leg is now smaller. Certainly it is smaller than the blood clot in his head, where, it is rumored, his brain was once ensconced. How else to explain rolling out disgraced former bug killing Congressman Tom DeLay to out-Rush Rush in impugning the Democratic leadership of both Houses of Congress? It's not so much that the indicted Dickhead has come galloping to the Bushites defense, but more the timbre of his words. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "are getting very, very close to treason," DeLay said in a meeting with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. This, from a self-absorbed corruption king who treated his power base in Washington as a fiefdom, replete with tribute laid at his feet, a man who gerrymandered the most transparently undemocratic redistricting in Texas history; in short, from a criminal. Oh, and while we're talking about treasonous words, here are some quotes about the current Iraq war bill sure to meet with a Dubya veto, from some other prominent "traitors:"
“This important legislation sets a new direction for Iraq. It acknowledges that America went to war without mobilizing the nation, that our strategy in Iraq has been tragically flawed since the invasion in March 2003, that our Army and Marine Corps are at the breaking point with little to show for it, and that our military alone will never establish representative government in Iraq. The administration got it terribly wrong and I applaud our Congress for stepping up to their constitutional responsibilities.”

-Maj. Gen. John Batiste, USA, Ret.

“This bill gives General Petraeus great leverage for moving the Iraqi government down the more disciplined path laid out by the Iraq Study Group. The real audience for the timeline language is Prime Minister al-Maliki and the elected government of Iraq. The argument that this bill aides the enemy is simply not mature - nobody on the earth underestimates the United States’ capacity for unpredictability. It may further create some sense of urgency in the rest of our government, beginning with the State Department.”
-Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, USA, Ret.

“The bill gives the president a chance to pull back from a disastrous course, re-orient US strategy to achieve regional stability, and win help from many other countries - the only way peace will eventually be achieved.”
-Lt. Gen. Wm. E. Odom, USA, Retired

"Supporting the Iraq Supplemental Bill not only reflects the thinking of the Iraq Study Group but puts teeth to the phrase “Supporting the Troops”. By establishing timelines it returns the responsibility of self preservation and regional sovereignty to the people of Iraq and their government.”
-Maj. Gen. Mel Montano, USANG, Ret

“We must commence a coordinated phased withdrawal of U.S. combat troops and condition our continuing support of the Iraqi government on its fulfilling the political commitments it has made to facilitate reconciliation of the contending secular factions. Otherwise, we will continue to be entwined in a hopeless quagmire, with continuing American casualties, which will render our ground forces ineffective.”
- Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, USA Ret.

Get the picture?

Hats off to you, Dennis

You gotta love Dennis Kucinich. He is to the House what the late, great Paul Wellstone was to the Senate, a progressive voice of conscience and principle. Rep, Kucinich has filed impeachment papers on Attack-Dog-In-Chief Dick "Sureshot" Cheney, the REAL President of the United States. Do I think that Kucinich has an icicle's chance in hell of ever being elected president? No, sadly, I really don't. But I am sure glad he sits on the Hill. Now, as to whether his articles of impeachment against the Vice Emperor will succeed; well, kids, start calling your Congressperson and tell them "I'm mad as hell, and I want that Dick out!"

"Vice President Cheney purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of American forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to national security interests."

Karl Rove Freaks Out

If you hadn't heard the news, the White House Michelin Man went nutso at last Saturday's White House Correspondents Dinner when sultry rock singer Sheryl Crow touched his arm during an exchange on global warming (oh, naturally Mr. Rove is GW denyer - global warming that is; he believes everything the other GW says -- well, actually he writes everything the other GW says). Read the story firsthand at the Huffington Post in a piece by Laurie David and Sheryl herself.

Now if it had been Ms. Crow's ex paramour Lance Armstrong who had touched him, Karlito might have positively swooned...

"In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, 'Don't touch me.' How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unfazed, Sheryl abruptly responded, 'You can't speak to us like that, you work for us.' Karl then quipped, 'I don't work for you, I work for the American people.' To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, 'We are the American people.'"

Statement by the NRA

Several days ago, the National Rifle Association posted its statement on the horrendous murders at Virginia Tech. I don't see how anyone could not fail to be moved by the heartfelt compassion of these words, by the deep and abiding solace contained in this commentary:

"The National Rifle Association joins the entire country in expressing our deepest condolences to the families of Virginia Tech University and everyone else affected by this horrible tragedy.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.

"We will not have further comment until all the facts are known."

Gonzo

courtesy of BuckFush.com.

None dare call it conspiracy

If you doubt that there has been a systematic effort on the part of the Bush administration to disenfranchise voters most likely to line up on the Democratic side of the fence, read this report by Greg Gordon of the McClatchy Newspaper group. It is an eye opener.


"For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

"The administration intensified its efforts last year as President Bush's popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won."

Now, as to the Republican mantra about "voter fraud," what do the real statistics have to say about its prevalence? Read "The Myth Of Voter Fraud" by Washington Post reporters Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt to find out just what a smokescreen this claim is, hatched by febrile brain of Machiavellian and sociopathic pudgemeister Karl Rove.

"As Congress probes the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, attention is centering on who knew what, and when. It's just as important to focus on 'why,' such as the reason given for the firing of at least one of the U.S. attorneys, John McKay of Washington state: failure to prosecute the phantom of individual voter fraud.

"Allegations of voter fraud -- someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote -- have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.

"But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch."

Is Internet 2 a scam to kill net neutrality and tame the Wild Wild Web?

Read much of the computer media and the prosody about Internet 2 is decidedly purplish and positive. New bandwidth! Ultra speed! But is there a dark side to the architecture of a new Internet that cuts right to the heart of the executive branch's wet dream of total control over everything that we do (and corporate America's desire to make us pay for the privilege)?

Read this article by Steve Watson at Global Research and decide for yourself.

Here is a sample of the just the sort of controls envsioned for a "new, improved Internet:"

• In a display of bi-partisanship, there have recently been calls for all out mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans alike.
  
• Republican Senator John McCain recently tabled a proposal to introduce legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. It is well known that McCain has a distaste for his blogosphere critics, causing a definite conflict of interest where any proposal to restrict blogs on his part is concerned.
  
• During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News last November, George Bush senior slammed Internet bloggers for creating an "adversarial and ugly climate."
  
• The White House's own recently de-classified strategy for "winning the war on terror" targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for terrorists and threatens to "diminish" their influence.
  
• The Pentagon recently announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and propagandize for the war on terror.
  
• In a speech last October, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff identified the web as a "terror training camp," through which "disaffected people living in the United States" are developing "radical ideologies and potentially violent skills." His solution is "intelligence fusion centers," staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will go into operation next year.
  
• The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress. Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the punishment for non-compliance.
  
• A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web - and their argument is supported by the U.S. government.
  
• A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.
  
• The European Union, led by former Stalinist and potential future British Prime Minister John Reid, has also vowed to shut down "terrorists" who use the Internet to spread propaganda.
  
• The EU data retention bill, passed last year after much controversy and with implementation tabled for late 2007, obliges telephone operators and internet service providers to store information on who called who and who emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU country, and most bizarrely even in the US, can access EU citizens' data on phone calls, sms', emails and instant messaging services.
  
• The EU also recently proposed legislation that would prevent users from uploading any form of video without a license.
  
• The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New Scientist magazine. "At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites."

And they'll probably figure out a way to charge us for it as well

We learned yesterday that the Bush administration has created a database of every single prescription drug user/patient in the country (that would pretty much be all of us). The database was created pursuant to a 2005 law that was intended to prevent the abuse of prescription drugs. Funny that this massive new database of your private medical information is now being (ab)used for a purpose that wasn't intended in or approved by the law.

The federal database of your private medical information is now being used by federal law enforcement to investigate crimes that have nothing to do with prescription drug abuse. We know this because yesterday ABC News disclosed that the feds checked the database to see what prescription meds the Virginia Tech shooter might have been on. How does the mass murder of students and faculty at Virginia Tech have anything to do with prescription drug abuse? It doesn't.

The Bush administration has created a massive database of your private medical records and they're now abusing it. Gee, what a surprise - the Bush administration secretly prying into our private lives in violation of the law. If they wanted this power, they could have sought it from Congress. They didn't. So they took it anyway, even though the law doesn't allow it.

Your privacy is gone, and it's not terribly clear that anyone in Washington cares.

-- John Avarosis, America Blog

The Inexplicable Enrichment of Bush Cronies

If you need any further evidence (or just want a digest of the collective tidbits) of what the most venally corrupt presidential administration in American history has wrought for its friends, patrons, associates and former employees, read this article by Evelyn Pringle. It is guaranteed to set your blood boiling, and inspire fantasies of Robespierrian flirtations with guillotines and such. Unless, of course, you were one of those friends, patrons, associates or former employees.

"Halliburton CEO David Lesar made $26.6 million in 2005, and nearly $50 million since 9/11, an amount that even beats the $24 million that Dick Cheney received in exchange for the guarantee that Halliburton would be the number one military contractor during the Bush administration. "

Iacocca: Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car."
-- Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Motors

Lee Iacocca has had enough and he isn't gonna take it anymore. So, what the hell is wrong with the rest of us?

Read more here.

How much longer?

Have we ever had a presidential administration so lacking a moral compass? One whose flirtations with absolute power and autocratic authority defile the constitution of our nation? Which is worse, that we must endure another eighteen months of this motley crew, or that somewhere close to a third of the American populace STILL believes that they can do no wrong?

Why are we so passive in the face of the affront that the Bush administration presents to the world, to the damage that this most corporate of administrations has done and continues to do to the image of the American republic, to the environment, to our military, to the Middle East, to the future of our children and grandchildren? Are we so easily lulled into somnambulance by the marketplace? By the media? I would estimate that over half the citizenry are as outraged by the morass of arrogance, deception and murder that these hatless shadow figures have perpetrated upon the world. But why are are we not raising our voices in loud unison, asking for their removal from office? Why is ANYTHING off the table when it comes to effigies of humanity like these people?

When Condaleeza Rice has the audacity to say "Iraq will be worth the sacrifice," you have to ask yourself, "what in God's name did this woman sacrifice," whose idea of leadership is shoe-shopping on 5th Avenue while New Orleans is destroyed by a killer storm and her boss' indifference? Have we ever had a secretary-of-state with lower standing in the eyes of global leaders? The sad irony is that not only is she a woman, she is an African-American woman. Administration architect Karl Rove must have blessed himself thricely to have found such a prize, a black female who not only drank the kool-aid of corporatist fascism, but would lie before its alter.

Latin American can be a place of extremes. Oddly, it can produce two kinds of monsters, seemingly from the same clay: leftist revolutionary ideologues who can justify cold-blooded murder in the name of some perversion of social justice, men like Abimael Guzman in Peru, as well as dictators like Pinochet or the generals of Argentina's "Troubles," who have no issue with making thousand of people disappear overnight. The former depends on the young people of large, disenfranchised indigenous populations who dwell in such a state of anomie that they become empty vessels for the message of false power that men like Guzman are able to provide. The Generals, on the other hand, depend on a certain quiet type to draft the policies of oppression; little, colorless men who were the choir boys at church, crossed the street when they saw the big boys lurking up ahead in the shadows, and happily accepted the polemic of fascism as destiny. Alberto Gonzales strikes me as one of these.

No, history will not be kind to such men and women. But neither will history look favorably upon an American people who allowed the charlatans their way, who accepted a parody of democracy not once, but twice, and thus gave the hideous ideology of imperial conquest for profit and perversion leave to sully our flag and our spirit. Overfed, under-informed, but mostly cowed by an irrational fear of an invisible enemy. We have been played. And far too easily.

Morons and Magic: A Reply to George Monbiot

Here is David Ray Griffin's reply to George Monbiot's rejection of the 9/11 truth movement.

In Bayoneting a Scarecrow The 9/11 conspiracy theories are a coward’s cult.” (Guardian, February 20), George Monbiot accuses members of the 9/11 truth movement of being “morons” and “idiots” who believe in “magic.” Having in his previous attack---“A 9/11 conspiracy virus is sweeping the world,” Guardian, February 6---called me this movement’s “high priest,” he now describes my 9/11 writing as a “concatenation of ill-attested nonsense.”

If my books are moronic nonsense, then people who have endorsed them must be morons. Would Monbiot really wish to apply this label to Michel Chossudovsky, Richard Falk, Ray McGovern, Michael Meacher, John McMurtry, Marcus Raskin, Rosemary Ruether, Howard Zinn, and the late Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who, after a stint in the CIA, became one of America’s leading civil rights, anti-war, and anti-nuclear activists?

If anyone who believes that 9/11 was an inside job is by definition an idiot, then Moncbiot would have to sling that label at Colonel Robert Bowman, former head of the U.S. “Star Wars” program; Andreas von Bülow, former State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Defense; former CIA analysts Bill Christison and Robert David Steele; former Scientific American columnist A. K. Dewdney; General Leonid Ivashov, former chief of staff of the Russian armed forces; Colonel Ronald D. Ray, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense; all the members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, Veterans for 9/11 Truth, and Pilots for 9/11 Truth; and most of the individuals listed under “Professors Question 9/11” on the “Patriots Question 9/11” website.

One of the reasons these people reject the government’s conspiracy theory is that, if they were to accept the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Centre, they would need to affirm magical beliefs. A few examples:

The Twin Towers came straight down, which means that each building’s 287 steel columns all had to fail simultaneously; to believe this could happen without explosives is to believe in magic.

At the onset of each tower’s collapse, steel beams were ejected out as far as 600 feet; to believe that these horizontal ejections could be explained by gravitational energy, which is vertical, is to believe in magic.

Virtually all of the concrete in the towers was pulverized into extremely fine dust particles; to believe that fire plus gravity could have done this is to believe in magic.

WTC 7 and the towers came down at virtually free-fall speed, meaning that the lower floors, with all their steel and concrete, provided no resistance to the upper floors; to believe this could happen without explosives is to believe in magic.

Pools of molten metal were found under each building. Because steel does not begin to melt until it reaches about 1,540°C and yet the fires could not have gotten over 1000°C, to accept the fire theory is to believe in magic.

Monbiot, regarding the 9/11 truth movement’s conspiracy theory as a wrong-headed distraction, fails to see that the obviously false and truly distracting conspiracy theory is the official 9/11 myth, which has been used to justify imperial wars and increased militarism, thereby distracting attention from global apartheid and the ecological crisis. We focus on the 9/11 myth because, until it is exposed, getting our governments to focus wholeheartedly on the truly urgent issues of our time will be impossible.

Ann "Cuckoo" Coulter

Ann Coulter called Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot," the other day before the American Conservative Union. Dick Cheney and Mitt Romney were present. Can we now call Dick Cheney's daughter a "dyke?" Does that mean we can now call Ann Coulter a "deranged fascist bulemic bitch?" Oh, we did already? Do you think she and Rush share their recreational drugs?

Do we need 9/11 conspiracies to condemn the Bushite regime?

I think George Monbiot may have gotten the last word in on the 9/11 truth split within the progressive community: "I believe that George Bush is surrounded by some of the most scheming, devious, ruthless men to have found their way into government since the days of the Borgias. I believe that they were criminally negligent in failing to respond to intelligence about a potential attack by Al Qaeda, and that they have sought to disguise their incompetence by classifying crucial documents. I believe, too, that the Bush government seized the opportunity provided by the attacks to pursue a long-standing plan to invade Iraq and reshape the Middle East, knowing full well that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. Bush deliberately misled the American people about the links between 9/11 and Iraq and about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. He is responsible for the murder of many tens of thousands of Iraqis.

" But none of this is sufficient. To qualify as a true opponent of the Bush regime, you must also now believe that it is capable of magic..."

From "Bayoneting The Scarecrow, " published in the February 20, 2007 Guardian.

A sad day for botany

Whoaaa! I always figured Michael Savage (nee Michael Weiner*) for a A+++ certified whack-job, but I didn't know quite how much until I read this revealing piece on him by Ron Russell at the East Bay Express. But the most depressing bit of news was to learn that this far right wing sociopath has a M.S. degree in botany from the University of Hawaii and a Ph.D in ethnobotany from UC Berkeley. And of course he once-upon-a-time was a bonafide celebrant of the counter-culture, much like another landsman turned rightie, David Horowitz. Not too many botanists of my acquaintance become super-fascistic hate mongers. How did a guy who once wanted to explore Allen Ginsberg's rectum become a veritable caricature of over-the-top vitriol?

*It's ok, Mike, we're all self-hating Jews here.

















I would love to know what turns certain lefties into over-the-top right-wingers as they age. It is brain-shrinkage? Or is there some more fundamental heart of darkness that was always there to begin with, like a nascent bud, and suddenly comes to flower?

One more reason to hate Karl Rove (as if we need any more)

According to a former aide to disgraced former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney, Karl Rove was the recipient 4 years ago of the secret offer to "deal" from Iran that I first noted some months ago. Here is an interview between Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the largest Iranian-American organization in the US. He is author of the forthcoming book "Treacherous Triangle - The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States." Yes, this is the same report that our book-smart but competence-challenged Secretary of State Rice claims to have known nothing about.

At the time Iran said it would consider far-reaching compromises on its nuclear program, relations with Hezbollah and Hamas and support for a Palestinian peace agreement with Israel. Now, how many lives might have been saved if the USA and Iran had achieved some sort of rapprochement? Your guess is as good as mine, but may our least favorite fat man's sleep be forever visited by the ghosts of maimed and dead Iraqi children and American GIs.

The right wing attention to detail

The latest wingnut website to appear on the scene is OurCountry.com. This media-rich site purposts to be the Internet's version of the Comedy Channel's "Daily Show," albeit with a lurch to the right. The home page consist of about a dozen video streams, at least half of which make fun of Hillary Clinton. At least one features the slim, trim blonde spokeswoman for "MoveAmerica Forward" another right wing organization heavy into cheerleading the Bush/Cheney agenda under the guise of "supporting the troops." Others feature an African-American MC, in order to scream "we're not racist, see?" at the target audience whom I figure are a panoply of Rush and Howard listeners and Maxim readers.

Here's a description from UPI:

A Burbank, Calif.-based, self-described "politically incorrect comedy network" launched Tuesday with comedy, games, networking and user-generated video.

Now in a beta test, the nine-channel Ourcountry.com is a media company funded by private equity, founder Lex Troxler said in a news release.

Troxler developed and launched Ourcountry.com after he said he noticed other sites censoring posters they didn't care for politically.

"There ought to be a place for people who make no apologies politically, and enjoy comedy that pulls no punches," he said.

Some of the video shorts included "Border Bloopers" and "Feed the Supermodels."

Ourcountry.com's development team includes Troxler, a high tech entrepreneur and producer of "FahrenHYPE 9/11"; Gabe Abelson, a one-time comedy writer for late-night hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman, and Floyd Brown, former executive director of Young America's Foundation.

Anyway, back to the right wing attention detail. On a previous post of mine, I have received two comments from (I presume) employees of OurCountry.com, probably because they are big sponsors of the gatheringofeagles.org pro-war demonstration in DC on March 17, whose website I referenced. The first said:

"It’s time to move america forward, good luck to all the pro-troop caravans, check out what OURcountry is doing to help support our troops!"

To which I replied with a long, healthy blast of anti-Bush fervor. Lo and behold, I get ANOTHER comment from OurCountry:

"Would you like to run a link exchange? we can link you from both our main site (www.OURcountry.com) as well as our blog (www.OURcountryblog.com). We can give you a custom banner, or just a regular text link. If you'd like to discuss please feel free to email me.
Bo - bo@ourcountry.com"

I guess they didn't bother to read my blog.

As far as the whole concept of conservative humor goes, Jay Derveth on the Hindsight Factor said it best:

"Decades ago, a conservative believed in small government and fiscal responsibility, eschewed social engineering and interventionist nation building, and while their methods may have differed, in most ways they shared the same long-term goals as the rest of us. Today, a conservative is a bitter, overweight drug addict who publicly ridicules the sick and disabled. A conservative is a woman bloated with ambition who lies to congress in order to drag our country deeper into conflict. A conservative is a dangerous fascist seeking to create a list of women who have had abortions. A conservative is an armed xenophobic vigilante who has taken it upon himself to guard against illegal immigrants. And a conservative is a dark, soulless coward who publicly condones waterboarding from the most respected office in the country.

"Is it fair that these people now define conservativism? Not by a long shot. Is it a double-standard? Maybe. But it’s true. Conservatives sold out their ideals to the most sensationalist elements and these new conservatives (and so-called neoconservatives) have ushered us into an uglier world. No matter how much they try, how badly they may want it, these things will never be funny. They aren’t even in the same ballpark as funny. In fact, they are so far outside that they are starting to wonder if the ballpark ever really existed."

A Gathering of Kool Aid Drinkers, part 2

Maybe I'm a masochist, but I've been monitoring this web site (www.gatherofeagles.org - no, I refuse to dignify it with a hyper-link; you can find it if you want), which is one of the organizations behind the counter demonstration (they call themselves "pro troops" but I call them "pro war") planned for March 17 in DC. The level of invective in some of the comments left on this site is incredible and somewhat alarming. Dissenters are routinely called the most scurrilous names, and their webmaster even deleted a recent comment that actually had some facts in it about just how well the Bush administration "supports the troops" (we don't want the facts to get in the way of blind allegiance to a right wing agenda, do we?). I was so impressed by that comment that I copied it, before the wingnut commandos eliminated it from their web site. I reprint it here in its entirety:

"The right-wing spin machine is in full force, trying to convince America that a Democratic plan to prevent deployment of troops into the middle of a civil war without sufficient equipment and training is equivalent to 'not supporting the troops.' This is absolute nonsense. It is, in fact, the Republican Bush administration and their former lapdog Congress who have repeatedly sent our armed forces into conflict inadequately equipped and under-prepared. Our military has been broken by Bush's military adventure in Iraq, and the right wing propaganda machine refuses to face the facts: 1) Service members in Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced shortages of force-protection equipment, including up-armored vehicles, electronic countermeasure devices, crew-served weapons and communications equipment (American Forces Press Service, February 15, 2007), 2) the military has been borrowing gear from units stationed in the United States, reducing their ability to respond in case of other military threats around the world (San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2007), 3) two army brigades heading to Iraq due to the escalation are skipping their counterinsurgency training session at the Army's premier training range (San Francisco Chronicle, February 4, 2007), and 4) the Arkansas National Guard's 39th Brigade Combat Team, scheduled to return to Iraq next year, is 600 rifles short for its 3,500 soldiers (NY Times, February 22, 2007). Meanwhile, we at home have to read about how GIs recovering from injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, a mere five miles from the White House, were found living in rooms infested with mold, soiled carpet and cockroaches (Washington Post, February 18, 2007). Who indeed 'supports the troops?' It is clear that the Bush administration only supports our brave men and women as cannon fodder for their failed policies, and little else."

Another day in the reality-based community

"In the summer of 2002, after I had written an article in Esquire that the White House didn't like about Bush's former communications director, Karen Hughes, I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

"The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'"

-- Ron Suskind, from "Without A Doubt," NY Times Magazine, 10/17/2004

I've always figured that the senior aide was Karl Rove. Now read the previous post for a report from the reality creators. Yes, that is synonymous with kool-aid drinkers.