Putting the ass in asshole:

Another thing to hate Dick Cheney for: acting like "rectal rehydration" is a medical procedure.

He probably thinks electrodes to the testicles is a jump start, too.

Also calls this expression a smile.

Don't Be a Dick (Cheney, that is)

(Via The Borowitz Report)

BAGHDAD —In a development that offers a faint glimmer of hope for Iraq, both Sunnis and Shiites are finding common ground in the view that former Vice-President Dick Cheney seriously needs to shut up.

In the days following the publication, this week, of a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece about Iraq that Cheney wrote with his daughter Liz, hatred of the former Vice-President has, to the surprise of many, become the first thing that Sunnis and Shiites have agreed upon in centuries. 

Iraqi observers in recent days have reported seeing both Sunnis and Shiites reading the Cheneys’ op-ed then tearing it to shreds in a rage. 

“Cheney is an ass!” a Sunni merchant reportedly exclaimed in a Baghdad market on Thursday, to the resounding cheers of several Shiites nearby. 

“Historically, it’s been challenging to find anything that Sunnis and Shiites agree on,” said Sabah al-Alousi, a history professor at the University of Baghdad. “That’s why their apparent consensus that Dick Cheney needs to shut the hell up is so significant.” 

Visiting Baghdad on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the joint Sunni-Shiite calls for Dick Cheney to shut his pie hole were a cause for optimism. 

“If Dick Cheney winds up being the one thing that brings Sunnis and Shiites together, the United States owes him a debt of thanks,” he said, adding that the two sects’ view of the former Vice-President was also shared by the Kurds.

The Hypocrisy of "Justice for All"

(Via Truth-Out)

Those who would use fear to rule are the most fearful

(Via Crooks and Liars)

Larry Wilkinson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, and Larry O'Donnell really let Karl Rove have it on Countdown last night for cheerleading torture from the safe distance of his office:

Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, interviewed by Lawrence O'Donnell tonight (12 March 2010) on the matter of Karl Rove's book and its attempts to justify the use of torture techniques during the Bush administration.

WILKERSON: "Let me say this, I saw - I had the highest clearance, Top Secret SCI - I saw almost everything Secretary Powell saw. I saw no proof of any of the things that Karl Rove indicated, and, as a matter of fact, no proof that any of the interrogation techniques, other than those used by the FBI, early on, had a real impact on actionable intelligence.

And I've got something else to say about Mr. Rove: No political counselor should have - he doesn't have the need-to-know. He shouldn't have access to that kind of classified information. He has NO BUSINESS having access, so if the White House allowed him to, THAT is a no-no. And I will guess that he's getting his information from Dick Cheney, because he did not have access to that kind of information."

"He's trying to sell his book."

On Rove's contention that waterboarding was not torture because doctors were present, Wilkerson said: "Slick it up with some doctors, and slick it up with some other medical personnel present. That sounds like the Nazis... Nuremburg cites the responsibilities of physicians in that regard and it isn't positive what they say about them..."

O'Donnell started the segment pointing out that Cheney and Rove and Mark Thiessen, the big fans/cheerleaders of torture, never served in the military.

O'DONNELL: "As a military man, what does that feel like to watch the cheerleaders safely positioned on the sidelines, their whole lives, try to tell you what is the most effective process and technique in war?"

WILKERSON: "Well, it says to me, and I'll make no bones about it, that they're all cowards. I mean, it's plain and simple, they're all cowards."

Wilkerson, who is no flaming liberal, has it exactly right. It's time we call these assholes what they are: COWARDS!!! Bush, Cheney, Rove and their cohorts committed war crimes out of fear and political expediency. They had no morality and were motivated by the same thing that kept them out of war when they had their chance to fight: they are pussies.

An Amazing Speech by an Iraqi War Vet

Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us - Mike Prysner

Watch it here:

The REAL reason for torture?

As I listen to all the brouhaha about torture (Was it legal? Was it effective? Were there other alternatives?), something occurs to me that hasn't been brought up. Is it possible that the principals in this situation (Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, etc.) tortured for the reason that they WANTED to do it? These guys were (and are) power hungry, and they felt they could do anything, so my thought is they are really sick, warped individuals who like having the power of life and death over people. They brought a sense of hierarchical entitlement from their years in the corporate business world, ordering employees under their command to do as they were told or hit the bricks, and here they were, at the pinnacle of power in our world.

In the medieval times, kings would have the people they captured in battle tortured for their amusement and gratification. These are men and women who seem to me to be about on that level. Maybe they didn't care if they got information. It's just so COOL to be able to make someone else water board someone. Add to this the fact that they never had the chance to prove their manhood on the battlefield, having, as Cheney has said, "other priorities," and you have a group of individuals who needed to show just how tough they are.

And as I watch and hear Dick Cheney in the media arrogantly beating his chest and saying "these things worked," my thought is that maybe he's not talking about stopping attacks really. Maybe he means he got his rocks off, and that's what it was all about.

The wall comes down:

(Via The Valleywag)

Hope and change has come to Google Maps. The official residence of the vice president, obscured until Dick Cheney's last days in office and residence, now shines in satellite sunlight.

A reader tipped us off that Google Maps now showed a clear overhead image of One Observatory Circle (above), the address which has served as the home of the vice president since 1974. It's the first glimpse Google users have gotten of the place.

Kate Hurowitz, a Google spokeswoman, explained in an email:

Google Earth and Maps are regularly updated as new imagery becomes available. Our most recent update, which went live last week, included updated imagery of the Washington D.C. area from several providers. The imagery of the Naval Observatory comes from Digital Globe.

The changeover happened on January 18 in Google Earth, the search engine's 3D mapping service, and on Thursday in Google Maps. In other words, the vice president's house was revealed on Google the same week Cheney moved out and Joe Biden moved in.

What can you say?

700 billion fluffy nothings

Staggering bailouts? Body counts? Global warming stats? They're just numbers, silly

(Via Mark Morford)

(No excerpts this time. This is all too good!)

Relax, people, it's just a number.

It's just a bunch of zeroes. It's merely 700,000,000,000, and if you look closely and blur your eyes just right and then hit yourself in the face with a brick, you'll soon see that each and every one of those cute little circles is filled with goodness and candy and the sweet sighs of puppies and pie.

Really, what could such a ginormous number possibly mean to everyday hard-workin' plebes like you and me? What does all that wild speculation about imminent recessions and the total collapse of the U.S. economy and "the end of Wall Street" actually mean for us all on a day-to-day basis? In a word, nothing. In five more: happy safe terrorist-free nothing. After all, "the fundamentals of our economy are sound." And besides, we're all just "a nation of whiners." There now. Better?

Don't you already know? If eight miserable years of Bush have taught us anything, it's that numbers like these don't actually mean anything, or have any real effect or significance, be they astronomical bailouts, soldier body counts, the costs of a lost war, evidence of global warming, insane oil profits, you name it.

This is what you must remember: When you see all kinds of frightening data flit across the screen, when you hear all sorts of dour forecasts and prognostications and when you're hammered by endlessly grim pie charts and downward-pointing arrows and scowling rich white men sitting before congressional panels, well, just remember you are simply in the realm of the gods, that the swirl of terrifying numbers is merely how they rearrange the furniture up there on Mount Olympus.

In other words, it has absolutely nothing to do with your hopes and dreams or future tax bills or the price of a double latte at Dunkin' Donuts. OK, it actually does -- disastrously so -- but it's best not to think about it too much. Fair enough?

I know, it's tough not to feel a little shaken, unnerved, openly disgusted. A $700 billion bailout of a Bush-gutted economy by an already nearly bankrupt U.S. Treasury? Two trillion for a failed war in Iraq? Ten trillion in national debt and a $480 billion budget deficit (not counting the $700B for the bailout and it could be much more) and a record trade deficit, with all those numbers nearly double (if not far more) of what they were in 2001? Why, you'd almost think someone -- or maybe an entire administration, perhaps the most irresponsible in modern U.S. history -- was largely to blame. But they're not! Because they're just numbers!

Like these: 47 million Americans without health insurance (up 30 percent from eight years ago). The U.S. dollar now worth roughly half of its 2001 value. More than 150 signing statements challenging over 1,100 provisions of federal law from a president who could give a flying constitutional crap for legal precedent. Oh, and yes: 4,170 dead U.S. soldiers (so far), 100,000 brain damaged and wounded, and tens of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians. But again, who's counting? Not Bush or McCain, that's for sure. So why should you?

Remember this, citizen: Numbers are intangibles, totally inconsequential, wispy insubstantial things to be fawned over by liberal scientists and math geeks and tax accountants and people who care about, you know, stuff. As such, when those numbers turn really dark and frightening and dangerous to the stability of your job and your life and your future, well, we can't really hold anyone accountable.

Certainly not Bush and his cronies, who've handed every tax break, gutted old law, nefarious new law and contorted FDA/EPA regulation over to Big Energy and the military suppliers and the same cretinous Wall Street players who mangled your money in the first place. Certainly not crusty, untouchable Alan Greenspan, now deemed to be the master architect of this collapse, whom John McCain once worshipped like a god.

And certainly not those greedy Wall Street cretins themselves, many of whom knowingly manipulated a flawed system and floated trillions in worthless paper so as to better make their boat payments. Who cares if that paper had little pictures of your kids' futures on them? Personal note from Wall Street bankers: F--k you for caring.

(By the way, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested, it's probably best not to threaten all those Wall Street CEOs and upper-tier execs with yanking their multimillion-dollar golden parachutes, because they might balk and choose not to participate in the riskiest bailout in U.S. history. Don't forget the golden rule, abused citizen: The gods always win.)

Wait, what the hell do you think you're doing, staring in justifiable panic as your stock portfolio and your 401K and your nice, sturdy bank's own valuation shudder and slip by 10, 20, 40 percent in the space of a week, or maybe collapses altogether? What are you doing, suddenly discovering your home is worth a fraction of what it was or that you can't really afford to send your kids to college anymore or that you can't get a loan for your small business and your credit rating is suddenly meaningless? Get away from the screen, citizen. Remember: It's just numbers. This isn't about you, whiner.

Here's a fun number: Nearly $40 billion in profit for Exxon in 2006, the biggest of any U.S. company, ever. By the way, the price of a barrel of oil just jumped its highest amount in history -- $25 in a single day -- thanks to all the violent instability in the U.S. market. Turns out, given the bizarre machinations of How It's All Set Up, the energy markets are loving this meltdown, and Bush's oil cronies (among others) are getting richer than ever. Go figure.

It just keeps going. The Dow, for the first time in history, moved more than 350 points four days in a row. The value of the U.S. dollar just sank even lower, which now means a cup of coffee in Paris will cost the average American about $147. And what about the $600 billion Congress is about to rubber-stamp for Pentagon spending and Homeland Security? Best not to think about it. They pray you don't.

Here's an idea: Maybe we can force all the oil companies to bail out the U.S. economy, given how, thanks to Bush administration's unchecked rapaciousness and Dick Cheney's oily sneer, their total profits for this year will likely outstrip the combined value of the "war" on drugs, terrorism, God, country, megachurch DVDs, and your children's children's future. You think?

I know, it's all a bit confusing for the everyday plebe, all these massive sums and baffling lexicons of financial jargon and sullen overlords of finance and government slapping each other around like nervous children. Best you don't pay too much attention. Best you don't ponder too deeply much how all those numbers intertwine and feed into and off of each other.

And best you don't contemplate the biggest number of all, the one that sums up the overall odds that you, the average wary Bush-ravaged tax-paying American, will emerge largely unscathed from this historic debacle.

That number? Oh, about one in a million.

Connecting the disconnected

"Yeah, I know it's a fake turkey, but this is MY photo op, asshole!"

As I have watched the tennis game we play with a live hand grenade called politics in the country over the last few years, I am often surprised at the utter disconnect between the "leaders" at the top (no matter what part of the political spectrum) and the "just folks" who make up the majority of the reality here. Those in power seem to have absolutely no understanding of what it is like to live in our culture, day to day, and are fairly disinterested in finding out about it. except in so far as it helps them get elected.

Health care is a matter for insurance companies and corporate health care providers to decide, even though the people most affected (the general population) benefits NOT AT ALL from their obscene profits. Foreign policy is decided based on the biggest benefits for oil companies and war contractors, and the people who do the dying (again the mass of the populace) barely factor into the equation. Media control is given over to massive companies, ignoring the fact that the airwaves are supposed to belong to the people, and everyone suffers except those who reap the profits of the bottom line.

How can this be? How can the majority of the people suffer to give more and more benefits to a shrinking minority of wealthy and powerful entities? Bush, Cheney, and the others at the top of the heap seem to have no awareness of the effect their decisions have on others. Are they really so blind to the devastation their works have wrought on so many?

I hope that change is coming. Obama makes the right noises, and certainly he can be no worse than the monsters who have ruled America for the past eight years. And at least he has the experience of growing up without a trust fund or a rich Daddy to pull his bacon out of the fire when he fucked up.

But will it be enough? Has our country strayed so far from the path of benevolence and generosity that we will only see what's in it for us? Is the Constitution really "a piece of paper", as Dubya has called it, or are the principles contained in it more important than that?

There has been no empathy or compassion that I have seen from the Bush administration that is anything but window dressing. There is no connection to the people who support them and keep them in power. I hope there are some breaks in that veneer of caring, and the underlying contempt is starting to show through. I hope that those most affected by the sick policies of the current leaders will finally repudiate them and cast them out. McCain is just Bush version 2.0! 

But it is amazing how steadfastly the very victims of BushCo cling to the lies.

935 Lies

Ya know, I just can't "get over it"! This is for you, Dubya!

(Via My Damn Channel)

What a Dick!

(Via truthout)

Here we are in the final throes of the Bush administration and someone has foolishly let Darth Cheney off his leash again.

He immediately set off on a celebratory visit to Baghdad to praise the "huge accomplishment" of increased security wrought by the now-ending surge in the number of American troops. A large "BOOM" or two marked his pronouncements and another 40 Iraqi civilians died at the hands of a suicide bomber.

The vice president swiftly got down to repeating one of the old lies he loves so well, telling us how Iraq and the late dictator Saddam Hussein were connected to the events of 9/11.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive” - Sir Walter Scott

Friday Random 10 plus 5

I posted this earlier but for some reason it disappeared, so here it is again. After a brief hiatus, a random selection of songs from my iMac, chosen by the Party Shuffle function:

Around the Sun Redux - Album Sampler/R.E.M./Around the Sun Redux - Album Sampler

Memorial Day/James McMurtry/Childish Things*

Highway 61 Revisited/Bob Dylan/Highway 61 Revisited

Imaginary Diseases/Frank Zappa/12/2/72 --Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City, MO

Secure Yourself/Indigo Girls/Indigo Girls

Eon Blue Apocalypse/Tool/Lateralus

Climbing The Walls/They Might Be Giants/The Else

Future Boys/Electric Six/Senor Smoke

Gimme luv and turn on the light/New York Dolls/One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This

You Left A Song/Heather Nova/Storm

Radio Spot and Intro/Warren Zevon/1978-04-24 - The Roxy

Sold Me/Seether/Disclaimer II

I`d Rather Be The Devil/John Martyn/Solid Air

Pull_Out/Death from Above 1979/You're A Woman, I'm A Machine

Up Around The Bend/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Chronicle, Vol. 1

To Be Myself Completely/Belle and Sebastian/The Life Pursuit

*Speaking of James McMurtry, he's got a great new political rant of a song that he's giving away at various places around the 'net, including here.The lyrics are a scathing broadside against a certain lame duck prez:

Another unknown soldier

Another lesson learned

Kick the gas can over

Strike a match get back and watch that sucker burn

Keep smiling for the camera

Keep waving for the crowd

Don't let up for an instant

Stay the course and make your mama proud

You're the man

Show'em what your made of

You're no longer daddy's boy

You're the man

That they're all afraid of

But you're only Cheney's toy

Another unknown soldier

Who's seen it all before

All in the name of Jesus

Behind the razor wire and shackled to the floor

Just keep smiling at the cameras

And keep that twinkle in your eye

We don't need to know the answers

Just hit your marks and say your lines

You're the man

Show'em what your made of

You're no longer daddy's boy

Take a stand

Give 'em what they paid for

But you're only Cheney's toy

They'll take a fork and turn you over

While the fat lady sings

One more pin on one more shoulder

Is all the future brings

For another unknown soldier

Who don't know his own name

And he don't get any older

And he can't see for the shrapnel in his brain

Ain't you grand

When the guns are blazin'

Bring 'em on

Cheney's toy

Bring 'em on

Cheney's toy

Thanks for the freebie James!

Friday Random 10 plus 5

It's been a while since I let the iMac pull up a random bunch o' songs with the Party Shuffle function, so here goes:

Around the Sun Redux - Album Sampler/R.E.M./Around the Sun Redux - Album Sampler

Memorial Day/James McMurtry/Childish Things

Highway 61 Revisited/Bob Dylan/Highway 61 Revisited

Imaginary Diseases/Frank Zappa/12/2/72 --Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City, MO

Secure Yourself/Indigo Girls/Indigo Girls

Eon Blue Apocalypse/Tool/Lateralus

Climbing The Walls/They Might Be Giants/The Else

Future Boys/Electric Six/Senor Smoke

Gimme luv and turn on the light/New York Dolls/One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This

You Left A Song/Heather Nova/Storm

Radio Spot and Intro/Warren Zevon/1978-04-24 - The Roxy

Sold Me/Seether/Disclaimer II

I`d Rather Be The Devil/John Martyn/Solid Air

Pull_Out/Death from Above 1979/You're A Woman, I'm A Machine

Up Around The Bend/Creedence Clearwater Revival/Chronicle, Vol. 1

To Be Myself Completely/Belle and Sebastian /The Life Pursuit

Now THAT'S an ecclectic mix. Dylan, They Might Be Giants, Zappa, Indigo Girls, New York Dolls---it's enough to make yer head reel!

For the hell of it, there's another James McMurtry song available for free here. It's called Cheney's Toy, and the lyrics are pure gold:

"Cheney's Toy"

Words and Music by James McMurtry

Another unknown soldier

Another lesson learned

Kick the gas can over

Strike a match get back and watch that sucker burn

Keep smiling for the camera

Keep waving to the crowd

Don't let up for an instant

Stay the course and make your mama proud

You're the man

Show'em what you're made of

You're no longer daddy's boy

You're the man

That they're all afraid of

But you're only Cheney's toy

Another unknown soldier

Who's seen it all before

All in the name of Jesus

Behind the razor wire and shackled to the floor

Just keep smiling at the cameras

And keep that twinkle in your eye

We don't need to know the answers

Long as we're safe, just hit your marks and say your lines

You're the man

Show 'em what you're made of

You're no longer daddy's boy

Take a stand

Give 'em what they paid for

'Cause you're only Cheney's toy

They'll take a fork and turn you over

While the fat lady sings

One more pin on one more shoulder

Is all the future brings

For another unknown soldier

Who don't know his own name

And he won't get any older

And he can't see for the shrapnel in his brain

The end of 2007

Here is the last day of the year. What can be said about a year of such personal and societal upheaval? While the BushCo fascists shred the Constitution (if your safe, you don't need all those messy freedoms, right?) with the complicity of the Democratic so-called opposition (who fold more often than a road map), the Middle East goes further to hell (just as predicted when the Cheney-ites started this worthless and immoral war) and our media utterly loses interest in the real issues of our society (2007 was the deadliest year for American Soldiers in Iraq, though they seem to think no one cares) to focus on Paris, Brittany, and Brittany's little sister.

Meanwhile, I am ending the year unemployed and at loose ends. No telling what 2008 will hold, but I'm ready to open up a brand, spanking new year and look forward with hope and faith that things will get better. After all, this IS the year that G Dubya will be flushed down history's toilet, and that right there feels good. It's like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer for eight year; it feels so good when you stop.

Anyway, I wish everyone who may occasionally read this little blog a happy and IMPROVING new year. Wherever you are, whoever you may be, let's all look forward with humor and generosity, and give this sucker another chance, eh?

Sometimes this is just too easy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, was found to have an irregular heartbeat during a doctor's visit Monday morning, his office said.

The real news in this story is: DICK CHENEY HAS A HEART?!!?

Quote for the Day (Rat Who Already Left the Sinking Ship Division)

He didn't know he was lyin' then, but he's pretty sure he's not lyin' now:

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem. It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the President himself. - Scott McClellan

These assholes would throw their mothers under the bus to take the heat off themselves. Sorry, Scotty, but if you lie down with pigs you do get shat upon---oh, yes!

Cheney reaction

I found this in a collection of photos that Vanity Fair has online. It's a shot taken by official photographer David Kennerly during an early campaign swing with President Ford through Dallas on October 9, 1976, when Chief of Staff Dick Cheney took a spin on the bumper cars. Judging from his expression, he either just ran over a kitten or made a small child cry.

Nowadays he has to shoot cage-raised birds to feel this good. Or invade a coutry starting in "I".

Bush is all heart for other rich white guys, though

"I hope this little rug rat ain't sick!"

Watching Dubya vow to veto Health Care for Children on "ideological" grounds is so revealing. He is so lacking in empathy, a quality without which he cannot understand other people's suffering, even that of little children. If you're not rich, white, and Republican, he just doesn't relate to you. "Hell," says Dubya. "My kids are doing just fine, and Cheney's too!"

Meanwhile, he ups the ante in the hellhole we call Iraq, spending enough money there inflicting suffering in one month to give Health Care to millions of children for a whole year. There are the man's priorities, laid out for everyone to see.

How's that whole compassionate conservative thing coming, eh?

Scary As Shit

(Cartoon Via Big Fat Blog)


(Via the Daily Kos)

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

[SNIP]

She seemed lost. The first time in my life I have ever heard her sound off rhythm, or unsure of why she is doing something. She knows that there is something rotten in the Naval Command and she, like many of her associates are just hoping that the election brings in someone new, some new situation, or something.

"Yes. We're gong to hit Iran, big time. Whatever political discussion that are going in is window dressing and perhaps even a red herring. I see what's going on below deck here in the hangars and weapons bays. And I have a sick feeling about how it's all going to turn out."

This is truly scary. Our leaders are preparing to flex their muscles again, and no one seems willing to stop them. not the media (who aren't reporting this, by in large), not the Democrats (who act more like they want to kiss Bush's ass than represent the people who elected them), not the military (who are being purged of the opponents to the unilateral approach to military action). In this instance there's not even the pretence of trying to whip up some international support. It's an administration who does what it wants to do regardless of the consequences to the world or our own citizens.

Is this really what it has come to? Is this what we want our nation to do? For myself, I say no, no, a thousand times NO! We will not get off so easy this time (and I don't think we got off very easy in Iraq, which still drags on). BushCo wipes its ass on the Constitution and on the lives of those it puts in peril. We need to speak up and stop this madness.

Just wonderin':

"Please Lord, smite our enemies, which is everyone not in this room."

Ya know, here we have an administration that has lied to get us into an unwinnable, immoral war, trampled on the Constitution, and used every trick known (and some not known) to hold onto power. And yet still, if one talks about impeachment, one is called a "fringe" loony. It seems to me the fringe loonies are the ones who need to be impeached . . . .