Sandy Weill, an architect of the economic collapse, is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

conclusively proving that my country's values are firmly in the right place... < /snark>

from time to time on this blog, i have railed against individuals i consider to be high profile examples of what is wrong in this country and the world... karl rove, carl icahn, donald rumsfeld, george bush, lloyd blankfein, bill kristol and a number of others spring to mind... yesterday's post by robert scheer in truthdig added yet another name to my black list - sanford weill...

How evil is this? At a time when two-thirds of U.S. homeowners are drowning in mortgage debt and the American dream has crashed for tens of millions more, Sanford Weill, the banker most responsible for the nation’s economic collapse, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

So much for the academy’s proclaimed “230-plus year history of recognizing some of the world’s most accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists, and civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders.” George Washington, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Albert Einstein must be rolling in their graves at the news that Weill, “philanthropist and retired Citigroup Chairman,” has joined their ranks.

Weill is the Wall Street hustler who led the successful lobbying to reverse the Glass-Steagall law, which long had been a barrier between investment and commercial banks. That 1999 reversal permitted the merger of Travelers and Citibank, thereby creating Citigroup as the largest of the “too big to fail” banks eventually bailed out by taxpayers. Weill was instrumental in getting then-President Bill Clinton to sign off on the Republican-sponsored legislation that upended the sensible restraints on finance capital that had worked splendidly since the Great Depression.

[...]

Although Weill has shown not the slightest remorse, Reed [John S. Reed, Citibank CEO when has had the honesty to acknowledge that the elimination of Glass-Steagall was a disaster: “I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize ships,” he told Bloomberg News. “If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel. So generally speaking, you’d have consumer banking separate from trading bonds and equity.”

sandy weill... somebody we can all look up to...

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YES, let's have another war for oil, the only thing that gives these bastards wet dreams

whether they're operating under the umbrella of PNAC or the FPI, these are truly evil people who, as sincere in their beliefs as i'm sure they are, wouldn't hesitate to kill a few thousand more people in libya than gaddafi has already killed in order to get their greedy hands on libya's oil resources... the fact that they would do it in the name of avoiding a "moral and humanitarian catastrophe" is all the more nauseatingly hypocritical...

U.S.:Neo-Con Hawks Take Flight over Libya

In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage U.S. intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.

The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organized and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Warning that Libya stood "on the threshold of a moral and humanitarian catastrophe", the letter, which was addressed to President Barack Obama, called for specific immediate steps involving military action, in addition to the imposition of a number of diplomatic and economic sanctions to bring "an end to the murderous Libyan regime".

In particular, it called for Washington to press NATO to "develop operational plans to urgently deploy warplanes to prevent the regime from using fighter jets and helicopter gunships against civilians and carry out other missions as required; (and) move naval assets into Libyan waters" to "aid evacuation efforts and prepare for possible contingencies;" as well as "(e)stablish the capability to disable Libyan naval vessels used to attack civilians."

Among the letter's signers were former Bush Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; Bush's top global democracy and Middle East adviser; Elliott Abrams; former Bush speechwriters Marc Thiessen and Peter Wehner; Vice President Dick Cheney's former deputy national security adviser, John Hannah, as well as FPI's four directors: Weekly Standard editor William Kristol; Brookings Institution fellow Robert Kagan; former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor; and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and Ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman.

paul craig roberts sums it up nicely...

The United States government cannot get enough of war. With Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s regime falling to a rebelling population, CNN reports that a Pentagon spokesman said that the U.S. is looking at all options from the military side.

Allegedly, the Pentagon, which is responsible for one million dead Iraqis and an unknown number of dead Afghans and Pakistanis, is concerned about the deaths of 1,000 Libyan protesters.

oh, yeah, we're SO-O-O-OOO concerned about the deaths of libyan protesters...

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When somebody like Max Boot writes an op-ed supporting Obama, my concerns with Obama turn to despair

not good...

President Obama and his aides continue to impress with their handling of Afghanistan. Not only have they approved a major troop increase and a de facto commitment to nation-building, but now they have shifted personnel to make the most effective use of the added resources and turn around a failing war effort.

max boot is right up there with bill kristol, charles krauthammer, michael smerconish, and karl rove in being a neocon to the bone... i've been less than thrilled with the obama administration so far, but to see one of these guys jumping on board is more than deeply troubling...

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If the Bush criminals have their way, the U.S. WILL attack Iran and NEVER leave Iraq

while most of the attention the past week has been focused on iraq, just LOOK at the intense push that the bush criminal cabal has been quietly putting on justifying its psychotic obsession with attacking iran...

from think progress...

On his radio show this morning, Bill Bennett told the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol — who had a personal meeting with President Bush yesterday — that a “conclusion” he drew was that the hearing was “less an argument for getting out of Iraq than going into Iran.” After suggesting that Iran may “have to pay some price at some point on their own soil,” Kristol said that President Bush authorizing an attack of some kind before he leaves office is not “out of the question”:

BENNETT: Do you think there’s any chance that, and we won’t ask you to reveal anything confidential, do you think there’s any chance that we might take some action against some aspect of the Ira…against Iran, let’s put it that way, before the president leaves office?

KRISTOL: We didn’t really talk about that, in all honesty, directly. I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think people are overdoing how much of a lame duck the president is.

but bill kristol is just a propaganda sock puppet, repeating the talking points of his masters... for that matter, so is petraeus...

The top U.S. commander has shifted the focus from al-Qaida to Iranian-backed "special groups" as the main threat to a democratic Iraq — a significant change that reflects both the complexity of the war and its changing nature.

The shift was articulated this week in Washington by Gen. David Petraeus, who told Congress that "unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq."

and, i suppose one could make the argument, as so many already have, that george is merely a sock puppet of dick cheney...

President George W. Bush issued a stark warning to Iran to stop interfering in Iraq on Thursday and characterized Iran and al Qaeda as "two of the greatest threats to America."

In a speech at the White House, Bush, who has accused Iran of backing militant groups in southern Iraq and providing explosives to extremists in the country, said Tehran had a choice in its relations with Iraq.

"(It) can live in peace with its neighbor, enjoy strong economic and cultural and religious ties, or it can continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups which are terrorizing the Iraqi people and turning them against Iran," Bush said.

"If Iran makes the right choice, America will encourage a peaceful relationship between Iran and Iraq. If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners."

i would, however, challenge anyone who called the state-owned china daily newspaper a sock puppet of the bush cabal...

As the Bush administration draws closer to the end of its tenure in office, the prospect of a US military strike against Iran is increasing, partly caused by the serious misjudgment of each other's strategies.

The Bush administration, which calibrated its rhetoric about military strikes against Iran in recent months, is getting more agitated about the Iran issue.

The administration considered Iran would be the biggest beneficiary of its toppling of the Saddam government in Iraq and had expected it to behave.

However, contrary to its expectations, Iran, Washington alleges, has tried every means to enhance its influence in Iraq, therefore becoming the biggest obstacle to improving the security situation of that country.

And the US is increasingly concerned about Iran's role in the Israel-Palestine conflict, Lebanon, Afghanistan and even in the Muslim world where Iran is seen as the leader of the Shi'ites.

Such developments, undoubtedly, has set the stage for conflict between the two countries.

btw, i suddenly realized why the bush criminals are so obsessed with iraq and iran and don't place that much emphasis on afghanistan... it's simple... iraq and iran = oil... afghanistan = only a pipeline route...

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Hayden, McConnell and Mukasey are "highly respected and nonpolitical officials"

IF it is true, according to bill kristol, writing in today's nyt, that...

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of national intelligence, the retired Vice Admiral Mike McConnell, and the attorney general, the former federal judge Michael Mukasey, are highly respected and nonpolitical officials with little in the way of partisanship or ideology in their backgrounds.

THEN why, pray tell, are they behaving that way now...?

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Dear Maureen Dowd... Please go directly to hell, do not pass "Go," do not collect $200...

this is what greeted me in my nyt headline email this morning...

Can Hillary Cry Her Way
Back to the White House?
By MAUREEN DOWD

There was a poignancy about the moment, seeing Hillary Clinton crack with exhaustion from decades of yearning to be the principal rather than the plus-one.

i will not dignify such crap by even opening the full piece to see what modo has to say... the headline itself is quintessential dowd bitch-speak, and in its abject repugnance, is totally unworthy of the op-ed page of any newspaper, especially the gray lady... tears are part of being human, and while it's impossible for me to know what really provoked hillary to cry, be it stress, exhaustion, overwhelming emotion, or political calculation, that such an event becomes the overarching topic of tongue-wagging pundits across the nation is nothing less than despicable...

and btw, maureen, on your trip to the inferno, take your new son-of-a-bitch nyt colleague with you...

10:42 PM: Bill Kristol: “It’s the tears. She pretended to cry. The women felt sorry for her. And she won.”

i don't hesitate to reveal that i'm no fan of hrc, but, that notwithstanding, NO ONE deserves this kind of bullshit...

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Tom Tomorrow: "And the hits just keep on coming!"

for some reason, my daily salon email has stopped coming and so i forget to check it out, and occasionally miss my faves... while i don't post every tom tomorrow, he does enough great work to warrant regular appearances, and this is one of 'em...

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The Iranian time travel program

i sure like the way tom tomorrow thinks...



tom tomorrow is no doubt inspired by the neocons' truly amazing ability to take even the basest of lies and spin it to the benefit of their born-loser masters, as so clearly illustrated in the following...

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol claimed that the reason Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in mid-2003 was because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "I believe we invaded a neighboring country in 2003 and removed their dictator and that sent shock waves through the region and at the time people were quite worried," said Kristol, later adding, "This is yet another feather in the cap for the invasion of Iraq." NPR's Juan Williams responded by calling Kristol the "iron glove," asking, "So you want us to start invading everybody everywhere? That'll stop all nuclear proliferation?" Kristol replied that if it works, it's "a pretty good thing."

the brilliant, long-term, highly strategic, and faultless tactical execution of the bush administration simply WILL NOT BE DENIED...

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Ya know what I'm REALLY sick of?

the amount of bandwidth, pixels, column inches and raw verbiage devoted to the likes of rush limbaugh, bill o'reilly, ann coulter, melanie morgan, bill kristol, and their ilk... i ran across a term in another blog a couple of weeks ago - "feeding the trolls..." it doesn't exactly apply to what's going on with those cited above but i think the general idea is right on... why the hell are we paying any attention whatsoever to these worthless people, wringing our hands, and bemoaning their latest outrages, when the fate of our country is at stake...? people who ought to know better like media matters, think progress, americablog and atrios should, imho, stop letting themselves get jerked around by these nitwits... (or maybe i'm overestimating them)... what's even more nauseating is watching our congress, ferchrissake, being sucked right in by submitting motions and resolutions, all while fulminating, weeping and gnashing their teeth... give it a rest, folks... our constitution is being abrogated while we waste time on bill o'reilly...? that's simply not acceptable...

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Don't provide free exposure for this sorry excuse for a human being

once again, think progress posts on bill kristol...

Today, on Fox News Sunday, Kristol argued that the violence in Iraq does not constitute a civil war:

We’re not in a civil war. This is just not true. American troops are attacking al Qaeda. They’re attacking some elements of the Shi’a militias. They’re doing other things, helping with reconciliation. They are not in the middle of a civil war. It’s not true.

i really do wish think progress would cease giving exposure to this sad excuse for a human being... if you go back and count up the number of times think progress has posted on bill kristol, i think you would come up with a surprisingly large number... sure, i suppose an occasional post is warranted, but not to this degree... by focusing so intensely on somebody like this, even though it's in a negative context, they create the impression that he has more influence than he does, and, in fact, may actually GIVE him more influence than he deserves...

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Oh, puh-l-e-e-e-e-eze, of COURSE Libby's clemency was politically timed for maximum advantage

just like my previous post, should this be in the least surprising...? c'mon... i don't think it was ed gillespie... i think it was karl rove... karl rove is still firmly ensconced in the white house, still spinning his evil webs of dark political manipulation... why WOULDN'T something like this issue from his dark, dark mind...?

This morning, the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol — who accurately predicted the President’s decision to commute Libby’s sentence — suggested the order was timed to provide political cover for the decision by attacking President Clinton.

“Here’s why the president acted the way he did. He knew Bill Clinton was joining Hillary in Iowa on July 4th. No, I’m serious,” Kristol said. “So on July 2d, Ed Gillespie, who’s a very canny Republican operator, said, Let’s pardon Libby. Clinton will rise to the bait, and we could spend the last half of the week debating the unbelievable Clinton pardons against the defensible Bush pardon.”

Kristol concluded, “I regard this as an extremely clever Machiavellian move by the president. It cheers me up about the Bush White House, and I’m really heartened.”

what kristol is "heartened" about is that the dark arts are still emanating from the white house...

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Bullshit walks, talks, edits the Weekly Standard, and defends Dick Cheney

from fox news sunday via think progress...

[Weekly Standard editor William Kristol] said the exemptions for the president and vice president were “reasonable enough.” He called it “a pain in the neck” to have “some bureaucrat” from the National Archives “come and inspect your safe to see whether you’re locking it up properly each night.”

defending the bush/cheney/rove cabal has now officially descended into the realm of surreal absurdity... national security and the rule of law is really nothing but bureaucracy and a pain in the neck...? my god, we've sunk low...

Surrealism
Pronunciation: s&-'rE-&-"li-z&m also -'rA-
Function: noun
Etymology: French surréalisme, from sur- + réalisme realism
: the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations

here's one surrealistic perspective



and here's another...



on the whole, i have to say i prefer dali...

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I don't care what Bill Kristol says, George, DON'T PARDON LIBBY

george, you're a miserable, rotten, s.o.b., and damn near everybody knows it, even bill kristol... your polls are in the toilet - 29% according to pew - and you've turned about as radioactive as a president can get... you may think you've got nothing to lose by pardoning scooter, but i beg to differ... yes, as outrage has piled on outrage, i've thought that, certainly, THIS ONE would be the straw, and i've been repeatedly proven wrong... but, george, might i remind you that there are such things called odds, and even YOU aren't immune... this one may be it, george... think about it...

President Bush: Don't Pardon Scooter Libby

Scooter Libby, former Assistant to the President and Vice Presidential Chief of Staff, has just been sentenced to 30 months in jail for obstruction of justice and perjury during the investigation of who revealed the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. Libby disclosed during the trial that he was acting on the orders of "his superiors." Others in the White House may still face indictments.

President Bush is probably considering pardoning Libby, just as his father did more than a decade ago for six high-level officials who broke the law in providing arms to Iran and the Nicaraguan contras.

This isn't a failed real estate deal, or a stained blue dress -- this is the national security of the United States. Valerie Plame was a covert agent working to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Her husband, Joe Wilson, tried to expose the administration's lies in rushing us into the invasion of Iraq; in petty retribution for his efforts, Bush administration officials leaked his wife's identity to the press.

The former President Bush called those who reveal the names of covert operatives "the most insidious of traitors." Regrettably, we cannot be sure that justice will be served in this case. His son, President G.W. Bush, has the unilateral power to pardon Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and anyone else involved in leaking Plame's identity.

Sign this petition and add your name to the list of Americans calling on President Bush to publicly renounce the use of his presidential pardon for Scooter Libby. Then, forward the petition link on to some friends -- let's ALL tell the President that his "get out of jail free" card should NOT be used in cases of endangering national security.

(click here to sign the petition...)

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This is wrong, very, very wrong

i posted yesterday on the new votevets ad...

Iraq veteran Gen. John Batiste “has been asked to leave his position as a consultant to CBS News” over a new VoteVets ad criticizing the Iraq war.

swell, just fucking swell... it isn't the batistes of the world that need the ax, it's the kristols and the kondrackes that need to go... what the hell is the matter with cbs...? here's olbermann interviewing batiste...



you can contact cbs news here...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Larry Beinhart and the moral conundrum that is Iraq

larry is writing at the huffpo...

There is a great moral conundrum in the Iraq situation.

The pro-war position that we cannot abandon the mess we've made does have great certain moral authority. There are now millions upon millions of Iraqis whose lives have been ruined in this war and millions upon millions more whose lives continue to be at risk due to the chaos that was unleashed by the war and during the time that America has been in charge of the country.

To abandon them and fail to establish a secure and decent level of civilization is reprehensible.

[...]

According to both the Army's old and new counter-insurgency manuals, it takes 40 troops per 1,000 members of the civilian population. Iraq has 26 million people. That means 670,000 troops. Not just for three months, or six months, or a year. Insurgencies and civil wars go on for a long, long time. Five years if we're very lucky. Ten years is reasonable.

[...]

[T]here are a lot of people who supported the war. Lots and lots of them.
They should go. George Bush likes wearing uniforms. Let him march in Baghdad. We might say that Dick Cheney is old and feeble, but he can certainly do secret administrative duties from an undisclosed location in Iraq. John McCain can run the POW camps. Hillary Clinton, who voted for the war, can serve, as an example to women. John Kerry, who promised to fight the same war better and smarter, and who voted for it, can serve. I would pay good money to see Bill Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz in uniform. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity would make great MPs, or failing that, do great at KP, or digging latrines.

unfortunately, i agree... there IS a moral conundrum... but, besides the sheer number of military personnel required to unscrew the light bulb AND the nasty problem of who those people would be, we also have to face the fact that it is our VERY PRESENCE that's creating a great deal of the violence... they don't want us there and, for god's sake, who can blame them...? using the war supporters to staff the war for the duration may be a cute idea, but, as beinhart surely would admit, totally impractical and unrealistic...

if the u.s. was able to take the high road, to admit that going into iraq was an extremely bad idea, that we've screwed the pooch, not once, but dozens of times, we could consider calling a global conference of nations interested in middle east peace, not just peace for iraq, but for the israeli-palestine mess as well... these nations would participate based on interest and sincerity of intent, and would not be included or excluded based on membership or non-membership in the "axis of evil" and, without question, would include israel, palestine, and iraq, and their respective religious leaders... it would be a long, hard diplomatic slog, probably lasting several years, but, if cease fires could be negotiated on all sides for the interim, maybe something worthwhile could come out of this potential regional conflagration...

the myth that's been perpetrated by the bush administration and swallowed by everyone, hook, line and sinker is that, as a country, we are alone and isolated... we may be, but that's only because bushco has decreed it to be so...

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A neo-con endorsing a "responsible democrat?"

interestingly, thomas de zengotita, posting at huffpo, comes at an issue that i have been grappling with in my own mind, just from an unexpected angle...

In this debate with Robert Kuttner hosted by The American Prospect, Bill Kristol, gave us a preview of how neocon thinking is evolving now that the Bush boat is foundering. He was arguing that "responsible Democrats" are going to have to deal with the same world (Islamic terror, Iraq, etc.) that the Bush administration has been dealing with. His point was that, when that time comes, there won't be that much difference in content (as opposed to style) between a "responsible Democratic" administration and the Bush regime.

Then, sort of being humorous, but not really--he was actually blushing-- he said something to the effect that he thinks that it might a good thing for this country if a responsible Democrat were to win the next election so that the nation as a whole will realize this truth. Then he mumbled something about how he's tempted to come out and support Hillary--but of course he wouldn't do that because that would only hurt her chances...

Think that over...

actually, i have thought that over...

in reading zengotita's post, once i got past the initial "oh-my-god" reaction, i have to say i'm not surprised by anything he has to say... for some time now, i haven't considered hillary a democrat (at least by MY definition), and to hear kristol pining for a "responsible democrat" and then mentioning hillary in a moment of embarrassment, surprises me not at all...

i have been speculating of late on what kind of on-going horrors we will be facing if the new president is sworn in on 20 january 2009 and the same constitution-shredding, signing statement power grabbing, rule of law be damned measures put in place by bush and his minions are still in effect... do i want hillary swearing that we can "trust her" to uphold the constitution...? speaking for myself, i have to say, no way in hell...

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This is one cloud that AIN'T goin' away

(thanks to think progress...)

when bill kristol looks in the mirror, is there a reflection...? i think not...

In this week’s Weekly Standard, editor Bill Kristol writes that Bush must pardon Libby immediately. “If the president does intend to pardon Libby, there is no reason to wait,” he writes.

Asked to comment further on his editorial, Kristol claimed this morning that pardoning Libby would remove the “cloud hanging over his White House and over the war.” He added that if Bush waits, “Fitzgerald will keep repeating that there’s a cloud over the White House, and Bush will be passive, and it will demoralize his supporters.”

here's the cloud over the white house... this is one cloud that AIN'T goin' away...

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Cheney is an enemy of the United States

there is a relatively small group that has done an unbelievable amount of damage to the core structure of our country... some of them, like dick cheney, are very visible and well-known... likewise, karl rove, alberto gonzales, and, even though he is now gone, donald rumsfeld (although i think gates has picked up right where rummy left off)... less visible are the hard-core members of the white house staff, people like stephen hadley and david addington, and there are undoubtedly others i am either forgetting or am unaware of... then there are the extremely influential neocons, both inside and outside the government - feith, wolfowitz, kristol, norquist, cohen, armitage, bolton, and their ilk...

"Cheney has become the administration's enemy within, the man whose single-minded pursuit of ideological goals, creaking political instincts, and love of secrecy produced an independent operation that has done more harm than good," Michael Duffy writes in the forthcoming edition of Time.

it is THESE people, along with cheney, who are the real "enemies within..." they are not just enemies of the administration... if there's to be a purge, and let's fervently hope and pray that there will be, THESE are the ones that have to go... until then, blabbing about darth's waning influence is just that - blab...

NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell noted that while the White House maintains "that the vice president remains the president's most trusted counsel," many are now questioning how badly Cheney's image has been damaged.

like i said... it's just blab...

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