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Denial, It's the Republican Way.

The Blame Game

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Ah, Hypocrisy. Where Would the GOP be Without You?

What is Up With this Teleprompter Noise?

So not only are right wingers stupid, they have collective amnesia?  You would think no public official had ever read off a teleprompter until Obama... or is that they're pissed he does it so well while Shrub managed to fuck up even when reading his speeches?

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

It's All His Fault!

What Is It Good For?

Goofus and Gallant

The Blackwater Problem

I have been suspicious of the move to use private contractors for government work (especially military) since the days of Reagan. It appears to be cheaper only on paper. For instance rather than have a buck private drive a truck we pay a private contractor over $100,000/year to do it. Instead of training and deploying army electricians on bases in war zones we hire KBR at outrageous rates who then electrocute our soldiers. Perhaps the most bothersome is that security for the State Department as well as the army (which confuses the crap out of me. Shouldn't soldiers be the best people to provide security?) is provided by the shadowy mercenary company Blackwater (renamed to Xe Services). We are allowing civilians to operate for profit in war zones with fully armored vehicles, automatic weapons, and apparently little or no culpability for their actions.

And now the inimitable Jeremy Scahill has dug up this frightening story:

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."
...
...the former US marine who worked for Blackwater in Iraq alleges that he has "learned from my Blackwater colleagues and former colleagues that one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information about Erik Prince and Blackwater have been killed in suspicious circumstances." Identified as "John Doe #1," he says he "joined Blackwater and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel." It is not clear if Doe #1 is still working with the company as he states he is "scheduled to deploy in the immediate future to Iraq." Like Doe #2, he states that he fears "violence" against him for "submitting this Declaration." No further details on the alleged murder(s) are provided. The Nation

Not only are these people war profiteers and mercenaries, they're also religious crusaders and zealots. The damage that the Christian Right has managed to do to the integrity of our government and military during the rein of King George the Shrub is deep and systemic. Can we weed these people out and shut them down? They are at war with the American way of life while claiming to be protecting it. Fascism wrapped in an American flag and carrying a cross...

The Line-up

If there were ever a group of men that should all be in prison for the rest of their lives, here they are. Even the best of them, Colin Powell, is guilty of taking us into a war by lying to us.

Where's My Vote?

Holy Shit! Iran Erupts!

When our elections get stolen (two times in a row) we just sit back and take it. Anywhere else they riot. Are Americans just a bunch of weak pussies? Considering how scared we are of the Guantanamo prisoners, I guess we prove it over and over, huh?

Let Bygones...?

Approval Ratings

String 'em Up Anyway!

I don't think I'm alone by any means in believing we need war crimes tribunals like the Nuremburg trials for the Bush administration and the people that actually tortured prisoners. The CIA agents and others that tortured prisoners took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. We are supposed to be a land ruled by law, not the whim of a dimwitted Texan and his evil manipulators.

Learning from Peru

From Harper's Magazine:

Presidential Accountability

By Scott Horton

The president ran a vigorous counter-terrorism program. With super-secret clearances, he caused terrorists and their helpers to be “disappeared” and tortured for intelligence value. Several of them died in the process. His assistants succeeded in keeping all of this under wraps for years, but then, after he left office, prosecutors began a painstaking process of establishing the facts. The penalty? Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori sentenced to twenty-five years for crimes essentially identical to those committed by George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney. Former President Bush, behold what the future may hold in store:

The former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori was today convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to 25 years in what was described as a landmark ruling for human rights cases in Latin America. A three-judge panel found the 70-year-old guilty of authorising a military death squad during the state’s “dirty war” against Maoist rebels in the 1990s. The 15-month trial, held at a special forces police base just outside the capital, Lima, was the first time a democratically elected Latin American leader had been tried on home soil for human rights abuses.

“This court declares that the four charges against him have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt,” Judge Cesar San Martin told the courtroom.

Are We Liberators Yet?

A statue built for Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoes at former U.S. president George Bush, is seen in Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) Baghdad, January 27, 2009. An Iraqi town has unveiled a giant monument of a shoe in honour of the journalist who threw his footwear at former U.S. President George W. Bush. Picture taken January 27, 2009. REUTERS/Sabah al-Bazee (IRAQ)

Iraqi shoe hurler inspires art in Saddam hometown

via

"Values"

As he was departing Washington D.C., former President G.W.Bush said, "I'm leaving with the same values I came in with" while sporting his trademark smirk. I guess from his actions while in office that those values would be stealing the public wealth for private gain, pissing away the lives of our soldiers in a senseless and illegal war, condoning the use of torture, and ignoring the rule of law. It's so nice to have that fool gone. Now to put his stupid ass in prison where it belongs.