Last of Iraqis

i stumbled across the last of iraqis blog the other day... it's the product of an iraqi named mohammed...

i'm a 25 years old dentist i live in iraq (Baghdad) i was born and raised here but unfortunately i'm thinking that the iraqis are going to extinct so i made this blog wishing that i can make a difference or even share my greif with the whole world and give them an idea about what's happening here from the point of view of a civilian living in the war zone not from the politicians nor people who gets their benefits from the conditions.

it's so rare to read an honest, first-person account of life in baghdad, altho' i'm sure i could dig out more if i tried... riverbend, via her weblog, baghdad burning, was one of those voices until she and her family had had enough and escaped to syria...

mohammed offers this up close and personal view of a 25 november suicide car bomb explosion through the eyes of one of his friends, followed by an eye-opening first hand account of an experience with the iraqi police...

The incidents in the last couple of days was really frustrating for me and my hopes for a better future, because again I figured that I was so naïve to think things will improve, it's true that some areas changed from very troubled to "Iraqi normal" areas, that means it's dangerous but like the others not more……
Today there has been an explosion by a suicide car bomb in Bab AlMuatham providence near the square , where many important buildings lies; the ministry of health, a governmental clinic, the dentistry, medicine and pharmacy colleges, the dental technical institute and a very crowded transportation garage all of these near the are of the explosion.
I have many friends who works at that clinic, one of them was so close to the explosion on his way to work , in fact he was two cars away from it…. He was with his mother in the car when the explosion happened, the car was totally destroyed and his mother was seriously injured, he survived the incident with scratches only because the explosion was at his mother's side so she took the shock instead of him, the explosion was so sever that even his mobile phone was broken, his mother is in hospital now, they are doing operations for her.
My friends said that at least 15 people have died in this explosion till now, and many are seriously injured, most of my friend's cars have been damaged by this explosion they said that it was so sever.
Another huge explosion was near my house today, I don't know about it, but the explosion was so strong.
Before that, At Friday I was really sad and heart broken for the poor people who died in AlGhazil market, the sick bastard who planned the explosion placed an explosive pack in the middle of birds-filled cage, because this market is for pets, and they only open at Fridays, more than 15 people have died in this explosion.
What I feared from has occurred, the relative peace and quietness that we have witnessed in the past couple of weeks was just for terrorist's re-evaluation, it seems that the terrorists from all the sides were just planning what to do next, they were planning how to overcome the current changes and achievements, I don't know why but they always seem to succeed, why can't we have peace for at least a month?
Well, I think I know part of the answer, because today as the ministry of anterior has announced in a survey that they made that: 19,000 of it's members can't read or write!!!! 12% of the police force can't read or write!!! I just want to know how could they do their job when they can't even read the cars papers or even the IDs? That's a shocking part of the answer.
Now I know why these incidents happened with me in which I laughed my guts out, once a checkpoint stopped me and the policeman asked for my ID and the car papers, to my surprise, he hold the paper upside down and pretended that he is checking them, he looked at it for a moment and then told me I can go, what a farce.
And now I know why many times when they take the ID and the papers they stare at them like they were comparing a drawings to find the differences!!
I just want to know how could a force that 12% of it can't read or write bring peace and settlement back to a torn-up country like Iraq?

his 4 december post offered this heartbreaking video...

In this video I used a song called "The new country" for a very popular Iraqi singer who is Husam AlRasam, it's not a new song, and it was released when I started blogging.
This song is very popular between Iraqis, I can say that more than 80% of Iraqis have it either on their mobile phones or computers.
There is something strange in this song, whenever I hear it I twitch although I've heard it countless times, believe me in Arabic it's much more effective, because the emotions were lost in translation, but I think the images compensates for that loss.
There is one thing that I want to make it clear, you will notice in the video the name Khansa`, she is a well known Arabic historic character and a poet, her brother died in a battle and she was blind from crying him, then in AlQadesia battle her four sons died too.
I'd like to dedicate this video to all the innocent Iraqis who died for a reason or no reason at all, to all the Iraqis who had to leave their country or home, to all real Iraqis who had to suffer from the situation, for everyone who loves his country, to all the innocent men in the world who died for no mistake they have done and to anyone who cares for the human race.

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Jane Harman is totally and completely full of shit

she finds out all about it in 2003, sucks up to bush, doesn't tell anybody shit about shit, and then comes out NOW and tries to tell us that she's one of the good guys... gimme a friggin' BREAK...!

Rep. Jane Harman said in an interview with MSNBC on Friday that she told the CIA not to destroy videotapes of the interrogation of Al Qaeda terrorist suspects.

"My view then and my view now is it was a bad idea to consider destroying any tapes, and it was a very bad idea to do it," said California Democrat Harman, who is the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment. Harman said she wrote a "classified" letter to the CIA telling them of her opinion when she learned of the existence of these videotapes in 2003.

go directly to hell, jane harman...

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United Airlines sucks the big green weenie

after united airlines declared bankruptcy on my birthday, 9 december 2002, wiping out my entire retirement nest egg of employee stock shares, do you have any idea how it feels to read this little pile of bullshit...?

UAL will give shareholders a special payout of USD$2.15 per share, totaling about USD$250 million, United Airlines' parent said on Friday, marking a rare move by an airline to reward investors.

The US airline industry is still recovering from a five-year slump in which it racked up USD$35 billion in losses. During that time, several airlines went into bankruptcy, including United, wiping out shareholders' investments.

"This shareholder distribution underscores our commitment to creating value for our investors," UAL Chief Executive Glenn Tilton said in a statement.

UAL's move is a sign of the industry's financial recovery as well as the pressure faced by airline managers to reward investors. The payout could put pressure on other carriers in the highly competitive industry to follow suit.

yeah, lemme tell you about the "VALUE" you create for your investors... assholes...

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Olbermann's latest Special Comment

keith's usual straight-from-the-shoulder, tell-it-like-it-is, absolutely invaluable perspective...



(thanks to captain quahog 3.0...)

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Assuming that al Qaeda and its "sympathizers" are constantly plotting against us

therefore, we are ALL under suspicion at ALL times...


A heavily armed Hercules team makes a show of
force outside a midtown Manhattan office building

it's absolutely amazing just how fast we're moving to out-and-out fascism... (but it's all for our SAFETY, dontcha know...)

No one sees them coming. There are no flashing lights, no sirens. The black Suburban simply glides out of Fifth Avenue traffic and pulls into a no-parking zone in front of the Empire State Building. Moments later, four men spill out in combat helmets and heavy body armor: Two carry submachine guns; the others, snub-nosed shotguns.

Camera-toting tourists stop jabbering and stare at this intimidating new presence, their faces a mixture of curiosity and fear. Even jaded New Yorkers, many of whom work inside the midtown Manhattan landmark, look impressed.

A stone's throw down the sidewalk, Abad Nieves watches the scene unfold. Nieves is a detective with the Intelligence Division of the New York Police Department (NYPD). Casually clad in slacks and a black leather jacket, he monitors the response of people loitering in the area. Is anyone making notes or videotaping? Does anyone seem especially startled by the out-of-the-blue appearance of a heavily armed NYPD squad?

On this day, Nieves doesn't see anything overly suspicious, but he is pleased that the deployment created a strong impression. Known as a Hercules team, it makes multiple appearances around the city each day. The locations are chosen either in response to specific intelligence or simply to provide a show of force at high-profile sites.

"The response we usually get is, 'Holy s---!'" Nieves says. "That's the reaction we want. We are in the business of scaring people--we just want to scare the right people."

[...]

"Clearly, New York is way in front on this," says Brian Michael Jenkins, a terrorism expert with the Rand Corp. "As the threat gets more diffused, we are going to have less of the kind of intelligence that can be picked up by the feds. We are dealing now with threats that are deliberately operating under the radar. Therefore, we have to aim the radar lower, to the local level."

Although there have been no attacks in New York since 9/11, police officials work under the assumption that Al Qaeda and its sympathizers are constantly plotting against the city.

ah, yes... it's all so terribly LOGICAL... bring it on, and we'll BEG for more...

a commenter to the article...

#27 Its called PROACTIVE police work! I don't understand how some people think, when something bad happens and the police show up they get blamed for not being able to prevent it. When the police become proactive and prevent crimes from happening they receive even more negative criticism (we will never really know how many crimes police officers prevent by them simply being more visible to the general public). In case people forgot New York was ATTACKED on 09/11/01, you think the NYPD wants to relive that again! The police are referred to as our nation's first line of defense for a reason, thats because their job is to protect us from any threat. IF they don't neutralize that threat then history will repeat itself and I'm not talking about the police turning into Nazi Germany. Sometimes you have to think outside the box, great job NYPD and keep up the good work!

yep, yep, yep... keep it comin'...!

(thanks to kevin at cryptogon...)

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Whitehouse (the Senator, not the building) affirms that the president is the SOLE decider

anybody who thinks these findings are at all surprising simply hasn't been paying attention... very clear, observable patterns have demonstrated these specific, criminal, unconstitutional approaches to the rule of law countless times over the past seven years... the "legal propositions" uncovered by senator whitehouse, taken together with the concrete, factually-demonstrated policies that they've informed, have led the united states to, and, some would argue, OVER the precipice to an authoritarian, police state... what more do we have to know to seriously tackle the challenge of getting these criminals out of office...? waiting for 20 january 2009 is simply not acceptable...

Whitehouse said he has “spent hours poring over” secret opinions issued by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) — and he took notes.

Whitehouse is a lawyer, a former U.S. Attorney, a former legal counsel to Rhode Island’s Governor, and a former State Attorney General. He said he sought and received permission to have his notes declassified because he wanted to show the public “what the Bush administration does behind our backs when they think no one is looking.”

“To give you an example of what I read,” Whitehouse said on the Senate floor, “I have gotten three legal propositions from these secret OLC opinions declassified. Here they are, as accurately as my note-taking could reproduce them from the classified documents”:

1. An executive order cannot limit a President. There is no constitutional requirement for a President to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the President has instead modified or waived it.

2. The President, exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the President’s authority under Article II.

3. The Department of Justice is bound by the President’s legal determinations.

it is impossible for the united states to even BEGIN the long road back to regain everything we've lost until the current cabal is removed from office, and, to cling to the myth that electing and inaugurating a democratic president is going to fix things is both wrong and irresponsible...

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Worried about possible criminal charges? Destroy the evidence! [UPDATE: Hayden assures us the interrogation techniques were "legal"]

< duh > it's a no-brainer...

The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.

The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.

The C.I.A. said today that the decision to destroy the tapes had been made “within the C.I.A. itself,” and they were destroyed to protect the safety of undercover officers and because they no longer had intelligence value. The agency was headed at the time by Porter J. Goss. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Goss declined this afternoon to comment on the destruction of the tapes.

[...]

It was not clear who within the C.I.A. authorized the destruction of the tapes, but current and former government officials said it had been approved at the highest levels of the agency.

george...!?!? hey, GEORGE...!?!? TENET...!?!? yeah, YOU...! C'MERE...!! yeah, ok... you too, dubya... ok, guys... siddown... let's have us a li'l chat, k...? huh...? yeah, ok, porter... you can come along too...

[UPDATE]

c'mon, mike... reassure us that there's REALLY no reason whatsoever to be concerned... tell us again that our government has things well in hand and would NEVER, EVER cross a line, ANY line...

CIA Director Michael Hayden said House and Senate intelligence committee leaders were informed of the existence of the tapes and the CIA's intention to destroy them. He also said the CIA's internal watchdog watched the tapes in 2003 and verified that the interrogation practices were legal.

He said the CIA began taping the interrogations as an internal check on the program after President Bush authorized the use of harsh questioning methods. The methods included waterboarding, which simulates drowning, government officials said.

"The Agency was determined that it proceed in accord with established legal and policy guidelines. So, on its own, CIA began to videotape interrogations," Hayden said in a written message to CIA employees, obtained by The Associated Press.

The CIA also decided to destroy the tapes in "the absence of any legal or internal reason to keep them," Hayden wrote. He said the tapes were destroyed only after it was determined "they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative or judicial inquiries."

whatever...

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In custody six years, first charged three years ago, and only NOW will the "unlawful enemy combatant" question be addressed

this is shameful...

read the first sentence of this article and note your own gut response...

Witnesses are expected to take the stand Thursday for the first time since the U.S. government began trying to prosecute terrorism suspects at Guantánamo.

Prosecutors are expected to present about five witnesses to back their case that Salim Ahmed Hamdan — a former driver for Osama bin Laden — should be charged as an unlawful enemy combatant...

i don't know about you, but i immediately keyed in on the words "first time" and "trying..."

"This will be the first time you will hear about some of the evidence that the government has had and wanted to present," said Army Maj. Bobby Don Gifford, a spokesman for the military commissions.

On Wednesday, a military judge rejected a defense request to talk to the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and two other so-called "high value" detainees to bolster their case that Hamdan was at best a minor al-Qaida figure.

again, "first time..." also illuminating are these choice of words - "has had" and "wanted to..."
so, let's put a bit of context around those words, shall we...?

Hamdan has been in custody nearly six years and was first charged more than three years ago.

puts a little bit different spin on those words, doesn't it...?

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the US Government Totalitarians

It becomes pretty clear that the US Government and its private partnerships with major US corporations have been involved in the wholesale spying on US citizens all along.

The Government/Corporate eavesdroppers have long ago concluded that they will have immunity for their crimes no matter what. Normally, the standard meme which has been pushed, (and which has been readily generally accepted with little thought or circumspection), was that, "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear from surveillance and/or searches."

Of course the Information Haves enjoy a complete advantage over everyone else by maintaining and growing a total (insider) knowledge of the Global Information Grid.

Now comes an example of how things really work:

"House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites"

The Senate version is S.519.

It is likely that they expect the operation of the law to go down like this: "Someone has reported an illegal image. Someone is therefore offended, they have personally found that image obscene and have accordingly reported it and you. Therefore we have no choice but to act on the offended party's complaint."

And most likely, even that won't be enough. Parties will be obliged to comb through every bit and byte, through every virtual nook and cranny looking for anything in everything at all, to possibly get offended about. We will have wholesale packet-sniffing enough to satisfy even the most delicate of all sensibilities.

Gee, it seems like it wasn't all that long ago when we all took umbrage at merely this.

How many times have we heard that lawmakers have simply signed onto or voted for a bill because they never read it? That is like saying that they fired a gun in a crowded direction without looking and that explanation should somehow absolve them. Yet what is worse is that they more often do know, and the excuse that they didn't is a lie.

The so-called "SAFE Act" that was rushed through the House yesterday by a vote of 409 to 2, obliges vast numbers of parties to now become "snitches". No longer are court orders obliged, but rather many parties (the list will grow, it always does) are obliged by the bill to snitch and turn over records and data; but now compliance is mandated to snitch on Internet users, based upon broad undefined subjective interpretations of such nebulous concepts as art and drawings.

Explanations exist for why censorship was ever started in this country to begin with: that it was "to protect the children from starting to masturbate". The Irony is, that for that same reason, (and there is little doubt in this writer's mind), that coupled with the fact of the State having its own sexual appetites, totalitarians will eventually one day work government cameras into the bedrooms of both parents and children alike.

A quick check of the decoy sites last night showed that some of the sites had abruptly switched over to foisting hard core fare over their usual mere soft imagery, to unsuspecting down-loaders. Another deception they have also suddenly begun, is mislabeling downloads as uploads, presumably to misinform grand juries.

This totalitarian scheme will surely scale up to and be applied to music and video and file-sharing very soon as well, as the clearly (to us anyway) unconstitutional expedited "SAFE Act" serves as proof-of-concept for wholesale application to vast other areas of liberal arts and humanities as well.

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Sibel Edmonds: "The attacks on our freedom are from within"

luke, ever dedicated to fighting the good fight, has put together several video compilations to help people to understand and spread the sibel edmonds story... here's one of them...



the full post can be seen at these links...

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak
Dailykos
Democratic Underground

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Happy Holidays from one of the truly super-rich, Henry Kravis

henry kravis makes...



more from robert greenwald and brave new films...



and he's always out there, trying to make more...

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The Daily Kos, groupthink, head-in-the-sand POV

sigh... somebody else sucking up to markos...

so much to refute, so little time...

I'm actually here to rant about the various assholes and dickheads who keep saying they will not vote for certain candidates, or that they will only vote for their preferred candidate.

To these very special, unique and precious individuals, I have a message from those of us who have not taken leave of our senses:

Leave.

Now.

Please.

Just leave. Get off this site, get away from us, and go far, far away where your near viral ignorance will not infect the others.

We are on this site to exchange thoughts, ideas, wishes, desires, and above all else, to elect Democrats.

Some of you have seemingly forgotten that, or deemed it unimportant.

[...]

Let me elucidate.

The only thing we need to be worried about is another 4 years of a Republican President.

That's it.

Rather than any of the Republican candidates, I will gladly support and vote for any of the Democratic candidates.

Hillary Clinton?

Bring it on. In 2008, we'll have a bigger Congressional Democratic majority anyway, so it doesn't matter if she's "too beltway" or "too centrist."

Barack Obama?

Hell yeah. It doesn't matter if he caters to ignorant types every so often, because his heart is liberal and with a majority, he'll be firmly on our side.

John Edwards?

Fine with me. Doesn't matter if he caters to whatever's popular at the moment because with a Democratic majority, our agenda is what's popular.

Any of the other candidates?

Whatever. They'll be fine, too.

The bottom line is that if you are not willing to vote for someone other than your preferred candidate, then you really need to piss off.

Any of the Democratic candidates is better than the best Republican candidate.

nah... i ain't going to bother refuting it... it would be a waste of time... all i can say is that, anybody who can still, in december 2007, spout such unbelievably simplistic and patently absurd nonsense as the following...

The only thing we need to be worried about is another 4 years of a Republican President.

and...

Rather than any of the Republican candidates, I will gladly support and vote for any of the Democratic candidates.

does not deserve the time spent in refutation...

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Sunset, high desert, 5 December, 5:45 p.m.

ok, ok, ok... here's another one...



take a look at brother tim's comment on yesterday's sunset pic...

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Laughing so hard, the tears are rolling down my face

i wasn't going to post on this, but i realized, after i caught myself laughing out loud so hard that tears were rolling down my cheeks, it was simply too good to resist...

Last night on PBS’s Charlie Rose, former senator Fred Thompson added his own conspiracy theory to the mix, stating that Iran may have deliberately “leaked” the information on their lack of nuclear program to distract the U.S. “Nobody knows” if Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, he declared:

We’re just going to have to wait and see, why they would start it up and they would move away without telling anybody.

oh, my freaking lord... why "would they move away without TELLING anybody...?" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, fred, you flaming, bag'o'shit, moron... they TOLD EVERYBODY, REPEATEDLY, ZILLIONS OF TIMES, AND NOBODY IN THE WHITE HOUSE WAS LISTENING... go back to tennessee, you fool...!

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HRC has run a textbook DLC campaign – center-right messaging to gain the nomination of her center-left party

and maybe she's goin' down... that would be just hunky-dory with me... i've gone from a mere distaste for hrc to a solid loathing as she has revealed more and more of her true colors... i suppose it's good news that, this early in the campaign, people are getting a clue...

In polls that coursed through the professional community of political consultants in Washington last week, it now appears that Senator Clinton’s presidential candidacy may be buckling under the weight of the burden of messaging against her base.

[...]

There is no doubt that Senator Clinton’s top campaign staff believe they are now out of control of their presidential campaign which has assumed a new and unwanted dynamic. Now some of Senator Clinton’s top staff believe that they are in a dangerous and potentially lethal tailspin.

[...]

Last week, the Clinton campaign made the conscious decision to go ‘negative.’ In this particular case, this is a last ditch attempt to hold her faltering candidacy together. If their desperate measure is not successful, Senator Hillary Clinton’s bold attempt to become the first woman president of the United States of America will collapse.

[...]

At this point in the arc of history, the American public is fed up with the excesses of Republican neoconservativism led by Cheney, Bush, Bolton, Ledeen, Abrams, Pipes, Hadley, Libby and Rice and its stealth faction in the DLC led by Senator Clinton and her husband aided by their merry band of neocons clustered around Al From, Howard Wolfson, Stanley Greenberg and James Carville, all of whom supported the ill-fated wars of the Bush Era. In 2002, encouraged by her husband and their minions in the DLC, Senator Clinton led the charge against Iraq, and she has been at the forefront of the pack calling for another surge of jingoistic bellicosity against Iran.

michael carmichael, the author of this post on global research, and occasional blogger on his own site, planetary movement, i believe, hits the nail on the head... the american public is indeed increasingly fed up, altho' not to the extent i believe they SHOULD be... it's not just the excesses of neoconservatism and its enablers in the dlc that is behind our rapid descent into the the second ring of suburbs of a police state...

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smell those red herrings

Here's a little more information shedding light on that recent contrivance, the National Intelligence Estimate:

from Pravda: "Russia and USA sign secret defense memorandum"

Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation, General Yury Baluyevsky and his counterpart, U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen, signed a memorandum on defense cooperation in Washington.

The memorandum specifies the plan of defense cooperation and the compatibility of the armed forces of the two countries in 2008. It was a very fruitful, productive discussion that both parties benefited from, and the chairman desires to keep the content of those discussions between him and his counterpart,” Navy Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for Mullen, said."

It was former world chess champion Garry Kasparov that disclosed on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher that:

[Russian President Vladimir] Putin makes an open friendship with Iranian President Amadenijad because Putin has but one item in his geo-political agenda: He needs high oil prices and tensions in the Middle East help him to keep oil prices at an all time high. So that's why he sells nuclear technology to Iran, he sells missiles to to Hezbollah and Hamas via Syria, because it helps Putin to stay in power. If the oil price goes down, the Putin regime goes down."

And from Garry Kasparov's WSJ op ed:

Opposition activists--or just those who happen to be in the way of the [Putin] administration--are harassed and arrested on false charges of drug possession, extremism, or the latest trend, for owning illegal software."

It is clear the 5th Estate has every intention of foisting the Telcom Immunity down our throats. It was clear that the PATRIOT Act was similarly concocted long before 911. It is clear that file-sharing is to be the next big bugaboo, like the drug laws against marijuana or the First Amendment abridgments against child pornography.

Striking a deal with Russia to target file-sharing as equivalent to Terrorism, would account for why the US Intelligence Community is willing to issue an NIE now admitting that Iran is of no imminent nuclear threat to the US. Such a secret deal is not beyond consideration. Yet the timing also reeks of a red herring to distract us from the Telcom Immunity shenanigans the 5th Estate is currently up to, including Sen. Arlen Specter's S. 2402, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Substitution Act.

Government and corporations have clearly already been invading privacy to snoop for private concerns such as the likes of RIAA and MPAA. The specter of making file sharing a giant bugaboo like government creates out of whole cloth in so many other areas, shows us well, what they are already likely up to.

Enough information has already been leaked to create a reasonable belief that virtually all electronic communications are already being intercepted, diverted and mined at some point for myriad purposes - most of which probably have little to do with preventing acts of terrorism, but rather intend to work all manner of machinations to serve ever-increasing political control by those who are already Haves.

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This isn't the first time the U.S. has been exposed to a coup d'etat

some things simply can't get enough exposure... i posted on this bbc documentary [RealPlayer file] back at the end of july... it links george bush's grandfather, prescott bush, to the attempted coup exposed by general smedley butler in 1933, during the presidency of fdr... we seriously need to keep in mind just what kind of family is running our country...

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

scott horton wrote this in harper's at about the same time as the bbc documentary was aired...

A key element of the plot involved a retired prominent general [Smedley Butler] who was to have raised a private army of 500,000 men from unemployed veterans and who blew the whistle when he learned more of what the plot entailed. The plot was heavily funded and well developed and had strong links with fascist forces abroad. A story in the New York Times and several other newspapers reported on it, and a special Congressional committee was created to conduct an investigation. The records of this committee were scrubbed and sealed away in the National Archives, where they have only recently been made available.

The Congressional committee kept the names of many of the participants under wraps and no criminal action was ever brought against them. But a few names have leaked out. And one is Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the incumbent president. Prescott Bush was of course deep into the business of the Hamburg-America Lines, and had tight relations throughout this period with the new Government that had come to power in Germany a year earlier under Chancellor Aldoph Hitler. It appears that Bush was to have formed a key liaison for the group with the new German government.

Prescott Bush, of course, went on to service as a U.S. Senator from Connecticut, and his son, George H.W. Bush emerged from World War II as a hero.

The Plot Against America portrayed in this episode of the BBC series “Document” gives fascinating insight into a dark and little known piece of American history in which the nation stood on the brink of betrayal. The role of the most powerful political dynastic family in the nation’s history in this whole affair is shocking.

it's truly astounding that prescott bush went on to become a u.s. senator AFTER his involvement in the plot... and no less astounding that the records were sealed...

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International law applies to ALL the nations of the world, including the U.S. and George Bush

in a lengthy, well-researched, and well-written post in democratic underground, that co-blogger mettle was kind enough to point me to, poster time for change offers a comprehensive view of the prospects for holding george bush accountable for his crimes, despite the almost certain fact that it will not happen as a result of action taken in the united states...

here's his conclusion...

U.S. law is irrelevant to the charge of war crimes or crimes against humanity

No doubt one major reason for George Bush’s vehemence in pushing through the Military Commissions Act (MCA) was to immunize himself against punishment for the many crimes he has committed. By legalizing Bush’s abuse of his prisoners, that MCA violates our Fifth and Sixth Amendment guarantees to due process and a fair trial, as well as the Geneva Convention requirements for the treatment of prisoners of war. Bush’s attempt to nullify the Congressional “torture ban” attached to the MCA by issuing a signing statement to the effect that he is not obligated to be restricted by it, signaled his intention to violate our Eighth Amendment protection against “cruel and unusual punishment”, as well as the Geneva Conventions and The international Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984.

Of course, neither the MCA nor any other law that Bush might demand or Congress might pass in the future either nullifies our Constitution or makes it legal to violate international law, as far as the international community of nations is concerned. As was made quite clear at the time the Nuremberg Tribunal was created, international law applies to ALL the nations of the world. As much as George Bush, Dick Cheney, or certain members of Congress or the U.S. public may not like it, those laws apply to our country now just as much as they applied to the Nazis for whom the Nuremberg Tribunal was created in 1945. Robert Jackson, the Chief U.S. prosecutor for the Nuremberg Tribunal, made that quite clear. He said:

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole … If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.

can't happen soon enough for me...

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"Today's political crisis cannot be overstated"

i much prefer the term "constitutional crisis" to "political crisis," but, regardless of the terminology, we are in some seriously deep shit, and i flat out don't get why it isn't headline news on every media outlet in the country... yeah, call me naive...

Election Year 2008 may represent a last-ditch opportunity to save the American Republic and its noble promise of “unalienable rights” for all mankind. Today’s political crisis cannot be overstated.

For the past seven years, George W. Bush has mounted an unprecedented assault on the nation’s Constitution. He has followed a neoconservative path toward an imperial system built on an all-powerful Executive, an ill-informed and frightened public, and a military dispatched globally on ill-defined missions in an endless war.

In this Brave New World, up is down.

President Bush tells us that he values “freedom” and “liberty” as he tramples on our most treasured constitutional rights: habeas corpus protections against arbitrary arrest, the Fourth Amendment’s requirements for search warrants, the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a fair trial, the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Bush also shows contempt for the principle of free speech. Whenever he faces criticism, he deploys his government subordinates and the powerful right-wing media to attack the citizens who dare dissent.

From the Dixie Chicks to Valerie Plame, we have seen what happens to Americans who get in the way of Bush’s political/media machine.

yes, indeed, robert parry, that's precisely how i see it too... robert parry and his consortium news is one of few credible truth-tellers out there, and no one should ignore what he has to say...

The clever neoconservatives recognized that the vulnerability of a modern democracy was through its media. If independent, honest sources of information could be cut off – and if the public could be overwhelmed by misinformation and fear-mongering – the neocons knew they could dominate the political process.

The neocon strategy was aided and abetted by a Washington press corps that had lost its way, seduced by the financial rewards of lucrative careers.

The political system failed, too. Many Republicans worked hand in glove with the neocons, while many Democrats chose to accommodate, rather than resist.

That is still the state of play as we enter this pivotal election year. So what can be done?

I believe that this battle for the survival of the American Republic will be won or lost primarily on the battlefield of information.

So, just as the neocons promote false narratives to confuse the American people, we must tell honest narratives and get this information to the people.

robert parry is entirely reader-funded and offers free access to his website... think about helping him out... he's always scraping to stay in business...

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Want a piece of taxpayers' money? Who ya gonna call? DHS!

more from robert greenwald and brave new films at homelandsecurityforsale.org...

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From Utah, up close and personal law enforcement technology

from brasscheck tv...

It's hard to imagine a robot like this being actually useful in a military combat setting where 99.99% of all fighting is done at the distance of 100 meters or more.

No, these robots are made for handling people, personal and upclose.

And where does this typically happen?

In so called "civil disturbances." You know, situations where people take to the streets to demonstrate their opinion about something.

Paid for by the military and then adopted by "civilian law enforcement."

i just love that it's being marketed as "protection" for soldiers...

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Time for a re-post on Mark Penn, HRC's Karl Rove

as hrc seems to be taking a hard turn toward the nasty, now hurling both ridicule and accusation - mostly in obama's direction - i think it's time to repost the item i put up back at the end of this past april that provides a wee bit of detailed background on the man i increasingly think of as hrc's karl rove, mark penn...

from the wapo...

In the four months since Clinton officially became a candidate, [Mark J. Penn] has consolidated his power, according to advisers close to the campaign, taking increasing control of the operation. Armed with voluminous data that he collects through his private polling firm, Penn has become involved in virtually every move Clinton makes, with the result that the campaign reflects the chief strategist as much as the candidate.

If Clinton seems cautious, it may be because Penn has made caution a science, repeatedly testing issues to determine which ones are safe and widely agreed upon (he was part of the team that encouraged Clinton's husband to run on the issue of school uniforms in 1996).

If Clinton sounds middle-of-the-road, it may be because Penn is a longtime pollster for the centrist Democratic Leadership Council whose clients have included Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

If Clinton resembles a Washington insider with close ties to the party's biggest donors, it may be because her lead strategist is a wealthy chief executive who heads a giant public relations firm, where he personally hones Microsoft's image in Washington.

And if some opponents see Clinton as arrogant, her campaign a coronation rather than a grass-roots movement, it may be because of the numbers wizard guiding her campaign and the PowerPoint presentations he likes to give on the inevitability of his candidate.

markos, atrios, david sirota, and many other bloggers working feverishly for the grassroots/netroots/unwashed masses have cited case after case of the stupendously arrogant, elitist, inside-the-beltway, dlc-anointed, democratic campaign consultants that are so pathetically out of touch with the real democratic/progressive base... today's wapo offers up the quintessential profile of one of those very folks, and then tries to make it look like hillary is passively acquiescent while he calls all the shots... i say bullshit... he's there because she wants him there... the first part of the article talks about how gore fired him from his 2000 campaign for all of the same reasons hillary apparently wants him...

fine, hillary,,, you're the candidate... you're the one that wants to be president... you choose the campaign staff you want... just don't come calling on me to vote for you...

p.s. penn's firm, penn, schoen & burland, is owned by burson-marsteller, and guess who's burson's ceo...? and guess what's featured on burson's home page...?

Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn discusses the Internet's affect on U.S. campaign politics on Council of PR Firms' podcast [mp3]

from penn's burson-marsteller bio...

Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen and Berland. As CEO of Burson-Marsteller, Mr. Penn oversees a global network of 94 offices and 1600 employees that brings world-class public relations to companies around the world. As President of PSB, a position he has held since 1975 when he was an undergraduate at Harvard, Mr. Penn focuses on providing research-based communications strategy to political figures, corporations and crisis situations.

Mr. Penn has been called "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine; "The king of polls" by the London Times; and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times. On his wall are notes saying "you were brilliant" from Tony Blair after his historic third win and "thanks" from Bill Clinton after his impeachment acquittal along with photos of Penn working with CEOs including Bill Gates and Bill Ford, Jr. The Washington Post, in "Politics and Policy by the Numbers" summed up his influence in the White House and the corporate boardroom as a "unique vantage point: adviser to the preeminent innovator of the past decade in the realm of politics, Bill Clinton, and the preeminent innovator in the realm of business and technology, Bill Gates."

just the kind of guy to be advising hillary about how to relate to the electorate in the 2008 campaign, the most critical presidential election in the history of the united states...

hrc sold her soul a very long time ago... whether mark penn holds the marker is immaterial... she has a person like mark penn working for her because she's that kind of person herself... period...

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John Bolton uses the Karl Rove tactic on the Iran NIE

you all know the karl rove tactic, i'm sure... that's where, on the biggest public platform you can find, using the biggest megaphone around, you point-blank accuse someone else of doing precisely what you routinely do yourself... it's jaw-droppingly effective because it's the essence of the "BIG LIE..." when you hear it, you can only shake your head and marvel at the incredible chutzpah of someone who could lie like this... here's one of the principal "POLITICIZERS" of intelligence in the entire world, one of the neocon vampires who lied us into an illegal war in iraq, accusing people in the intelligence community of POLITICIZING intelligence... it's breathtaking...

I really think the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have to look at how this NIE was put together because there are a lot unexplained points in here. […]

I think there is a risk here, and I raise this as a question, whether people in the intelligence community who had their own agenda on Iran for some time now have politicized this intelligence and politicized these judgments in a way contrary to where the administration was going. I think somebody needs to look at that.

so, WTF does having "their own agenda" mean...? is that an agenda that calls for NOT wanting to go to war...? NOT bombing another country back into the stone age...? does "contrary to where the administration is going" mean "contrary to death and destruction"...?

please, dear lord, spare me from this kind of man and this kind of thinking...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Sunset, high desert, 4 December, 5:49 p.m.

after the outstanding photos brother tim posted last week of mobile bay, i'm almost hesitant to put up another one of my own...

really...?

NAH... not really... ;)

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The Center for Constitutional Rights ad Fox News won't run

obviously because it's so "EXTREMIST...!"



(thanks to casey at open your mind's eye...)

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Israel's response to Annapolis

f.u. AND the horse you rode in on...

Israel said Tuesday it is seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move is undermining the newly revived peace talks held last week in Annapolis, Md.

A Housing Ministry spokesman said 307 units would be built in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem.

Israel captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area. The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

as gary kamiya says in today's edition of salon...

Annapolis will fail to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians because it was not intended to succeed. It was a charade. And in the Middle East, charades don't just leave things the way they are -- they make them much worse. The tragedy is that Olmert seems to realize the urgency of cutting a two-state deal. But there is a giant gap between seeing the goal and achieving it, and only the United States can fill it. Olmert can take the politically explosive yet necessary steps only if the United States clearly states in advance what needs to be done and then forces both sides to do it. Bush completely failed to do that. He called for the conference almost in passing. He never set an agenda. He refused to outline what the U.S. vision of peace is. Going forward, the only thing he offered the two beleaguered leaders, Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, was a promise to monitor the process -- which in these circumstances is like promising a dying man that if he calls you on your cellphone, you'll be sure to check the message.

yep... charade... that says it all...

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Biden on Bush and the Iran NIE

i'm no biden fan, but this is the kind of statement that every member of congress ought to be making, out loud, in public, from every platform available...

For many reasons, war with Iran is not just a bad option, it would be a disaster. So I want to be crystal clear on this: if the President takes us to war with Iran without Congressional approval, I will call for his impeachment.

i know this isn't the first time he's said this, but i don't think it can be repeated too often... i just wish he'd take action to impeach the s.o.b. anyway...

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Bomb-crazy Podhoretz sees conspiracy in Iran NIE

here was the thought i offered yesterday about norman podhoretz' reaction to the release of the nie stating that iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons...

talk about a gut shot to darth and his bomb-mad buddy, norman podhoretz...

here's podhoeretz today...

Podhoretz — who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 — aired a nasty conspiracy theory yesterday, attacking the authors of the NIE and accusing the intelligence community of deliberately “leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush:”

I must confess to suspecting that the intelligence community, having been excoriated for supporting the then universal belief that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, is now bending over backward to counter what has up to now been a similarly universal view (including as is evident from the 2005 NIE, within the intelligence community itself) that Iran is hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons. […]

But I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again. This time the purpose is to head off the possibility that the President may order air strikes on the Iranian nuclear installations.

well, ya know, norm - can i call you norm? - i agree with you... i believe the intelligence community was doing exactly that, releasing the nie to undermine george bush and throw a monkey wrench into the insane plans of this administration to engage us in another illegal war...

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United Airlines CFO from hell wants airline mergers; hello Teamsters!

jake brace, united airlines chief financial officer, is not a nice man... for some reason, he has managed to stick around at least since i began work there back in 1995, and has occupied the cfo slot since before bankruptcy was declared on my birthday in 2002, a move which wiped out all of my employee stock shares, which were to have been my retirement nest egg...

i was part of the merger team when united and u.s. airways were engaged to be married in 2000, a union which was turned down by the bush administration... it was an ugly mess in a company which was already one of the leaders in rotten treatment of their employees (see below)...

now, jake wants to get bigger... can you smell the greed...?

The US airline industry should consolidate sooner rather than later, and preferably before the end of President George W. Bush's administration, the chief financial officer of UAL said on Monday.

With the US economy slowing and oil prices soaring, US carriers are under pressure to save their fledgling recovery. UAL has been one of the leading proponents of mergers, but has not launched any offers for rivals.

"We want consolidation to happen sooner rather than later and we think that doing something now and getting it done in this administration is a good thing," UAL's CFO Jake Brace said at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington.

The transition to a new administration could create obstacles to mergers and hinder the progress of carriers pursuing consolidation, said Brace. For that reason, UAL, which is the parent of United Airlines would like to see mergers soon.

"If we were able to control that outcome, that's what we'd do," Brace said.

He declined to say whether he views the Bush administration as receptive to airline consolidation proposals. But he said some industry watchers believe it is.

oh, ya, right... "SOME industry watchers believe it is..." puh-l-e-e-e-e-eze... you're so coy, jake...

and if you don't believe me about rotten treatment of employees, check this...

The Teamsters union is seeking a membership vote to represent mechanics at United Airlines, the group said on Monday.

The Teamsters filed a petition with the National Mediation Board, saying it hoped to conduct a vote within the next six weeks.

United's 10,000 active and furloughed mechanics have been represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) since 2003.

Teamsters represent 40,000 airline workers, including 9,000 mechanics and related employees at 11 airlines. These include UPS, AirTran and Frontier Airlines.

"United's airline mechanics deserve a strong voice that will stand up to management's attack on their economic security and on the flying public's safety," Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said in a statement.

Stephen MacFarlane, assistant national director of AMFA, said the Teamsters "have every right" to pursue United mechanics but AMFA will represent its position.

there's an old maxim in employee relations - you get the union you deserve...

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Guess who just HAS to comment on Chávez' defeat? Why Lehman Bros. and Goldman Sachs, of course!

in an article on the defeat of venezuela's constitutional referendum, guess who has to have their say...? why, none other than reps of two of the world's super-rich, monied elites, that's who...

"Apart from shelving a package of undesirable reforms indefinitely, the defeat should revitalize the opposition," Gianfranco Bertozzi of Lehman Brothers said.

and...

"President Chavez lost an important battle but hardly the war," Alberto Ramos of Goldman Sachs warned investors in a research note from New York.

hmmmmmm... i wonder why THEY would be so concerned...? (ya, right...!)

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HOT from the NYT: U.S. intelligence says Iran NOT working on nuclear weapons [UPDATE: "A miracle"]

and HASN'T been since 2003... holy crap...! talk about a gut shot to darth and his bomb-mad buddy, norman podhoretz... THIS oughta cause a tsunami among the rest of the neocons too...

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to be major factor in the tense international negotiations aimed at getting Iran to halt its nuclear energy program. Concerns about Iran were raised sharply after President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III,” and Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.

The finding also come in the middle of a presidential campaign during which a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear program has been discussed. The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.”

wow...! somebody in u.s. intelligence must be damn tired of being asked to sling bullshit or this would never have seen the light of day...

here's the white house spin from stephen hadley, spinner extraordinaire...

Today’s National Intelligence Estimate offers some positive news. It confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons. It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen.

But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem. The estimate offers grounds for hope that the problem can be solved diplomatically — without the use of force — as the Administration has been trying to do. And it suggests that the President has the right strategy: intensified international pressure along with a willingness to negotiate a solution that serves Iranian interests while ensuring that the world will never have to face a nuclear armed Iran.

'scuse ME...?!?! "solved diplomatically — without the use of force — as the Administration has been trying to do...??" you're a bald-faced liar, hadley... we would ALREADY have bombed iran, probably with tactical nukes, and the middle east would ALREADY be engulfed in mass destruction, had there not been so much resistance and very likely covert sabotage WITHIN the administration ranks... the only reason there has been ANY diplomatic effort at all is because that resistance left little choice...

[UPDATE]

ray mcgovern's take...

For those who have doubts about miracles, a double one occurred today. An honest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program has been issued and its Key Judgments were made public.

With redraft after redraft, it was what the Germans call “eine schwere Geburt”—a difficult birth, ten months in gestation.

i'm still thinking that some people in the intelligence community are working feverishly to short-circuit what i'm sure is the still-very-much-alive plan to bomb iran... commenter ed from liberal doomsayer thinks it's about a feeble attempt to burnish bush's "legacy..." i disagree... while i think that's precisely the spin that hadley is attempting to put on it, i think this juicy little revelation caught the white house completely flatfooted and, now that it's out there, there isn't a damn thing they can do about it except pretend they're all for it...

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S. 1959 and telecom immunity: yet ANOTHER letter to Harry Reid

i strongly encourage everyone to contact their own senators as soon as possible...

Dear Senator Reid,

I am writing to urgently request your cooperation on two issues.

The first is retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that is being considered for inclusion in the current bill updating FISA. Inclusion of this provision would be a serious mistake. The telecommunications companies are responsible, just like the rest of us, for obeying the law, and being asked to violate the law, even if the request comes from the president of the United States, does not release these companies from criminal accountability. Our nation has always prided itself on adherence to the rule of law and, just because our president chooses not to follow the law, does not invalidate compliance with the law. You must oppose this provision at all costs.

Secondly, S. 1959, the Violent Radicalisation and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, is coming up for Senate review after passage by the House. Given the sweeping abrogation of civil liberties, aided and abetted by a deliberate, seven-year campaign to instill fear in our citizens by the Bush administration, this legislation is both superfluous and potentially dangerous. Superfluous because the work is already being done and has been done for many years by the FBI, and numerous universities and think-tanks.

Representative Harman believes this type of inquiry could benefit the country. I see no need for duplication of existing efforts, but, moreover, I also see the establishment of this commission as a platform for launching additional assaults on our constitution and our civil liberties. The Center for Constitutional Rights asks precisely what is meant by the term "extremist belief system," as set forth in the bill, and that was my precise question when I first read the text of the bill.

In today's climate, Senator Reid, a person like myself who vigorously opposes the war in Iraq, any military intervention in Iran, the Patriot Act, the Protect America Act, the Military Commissions Act, domestic surveillance, the suspension of habeas corpus for terrorist detainees, torture in any form, extraordinary rendition, secret CIA prisons, and the entire concept of the unitary executive, I could easily be characterized as holding an "extremist belief system" myself. In fact, if you follow traditional media, as I'm sure you do, you will quickly agree that many of my fellow citizens who share similar perspectives are already being lumped into that category. The day that those of us who are passionate about the founding principles of our country are labeled as "extremists" is the day that the United States as we have come to know it will be officially pronounced dead.

Senator, we simply cannot permit our country to continue to abandon our founding principles. You, sir, have, in my opinion, been far too willing to proceed down this path and your leadership in preventing it, if it exists at all, has been less than visible to me. It's time that you drew your own line in the sand, as well as one for the Senate Democrats you purport to lead. Do everything in your power to resist telecom immunity and S. 1959.

Best regards,

let's hope i'm not just wasting more bandwidth...

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America's mayor

tom tomorrow's take on mr. 9/11...



most of last week's news rolled up into one compact package...

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Loose Change, 2d edition (complete)

if you haven't seen it, take the time to watch... (note: it's 89:22...)

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Dana Perino: "It is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room"

so be goddam grateful that we even bother answering your questions at all, you senile old bat...



and here's the ugly guts...

The White House press secretary [Dana Perino] then blasted the reporter for using her "bestowed" front row position in the press room to make "absurd and very offensive statements."

"Helen, I find it really unfortunate that you use your front row position, bestowed upon you by your colleagues, to make such statements," Perino said. "This is a -- it is an honor and a privilege to be in the briefing room, and to suggest that we, at the United States, are killing innocent people is just absurd and very offensive."

Thomas asked Perino about civilian casualties in Iraq: "Do you know how many we have since the start of this war?"

"How many -- we are going after the enemy, Helen," Perino said, ducking the question. "To the extent that any innocent Iraqis have been killed, we have expressed regret for it."

The longtime White House correspondent who has gone after presidents from both political parties responded, "Oh, regret. It doesn't bring back a life."

But Perino refused to get sentimental over civilian casualties.

"Helen, we are in a war zone, and our military works extremely hard to make sure that everyone has the opportunity for liberty and freedom and democracy, and that is exactly what they are doing," Perino said. "I'm going to move on."

is dana perino really such a naïf that she thinks the u.s. ISN'T killing innocent people...? and, yeah, i understand she isn't going to ADMIT to it from the podium of the presidential press briefing room, but, seriously, folks...

(white house transcript here...)

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Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure - "I am Not GAY"

Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure

do ya suppose THIS'll do him in...?

Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.

They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay." Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.

the article comes complete with audio clips of David Phillips, Mike Jones, Greg Ruth, and Tom Russell, talking about their sexual encounters with the senator, AND this disclaimer...

Audio clip disclaimer: Some of the audio interview excerpts contain explicit descriptions of sex not appropriate for children and listeners who find such content offensive. The Statesman provides the excerpts so Idahoans can hear these accounts and decide for themselves about accusations against Sen. Craig.

c'mon, larry... 'fess up... you'll feel SO much better about yourself...

(thanks to john at americablog...)

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We should be JUMPING!

we shoulda jumped a LONG time ago...

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