Politics: Mark Sanford

Oh, boo-hoo. Some pinhead opinionifying over at CNN is drilling in the Deep Well of Gall to tell us all we should not be getting outraged over Sanford's shenanigans. FTA:

We need to understand this situation for what it is: human weakness, poor judgment, personal longing and complicated relationships. The question is, how are we -- each one of us personally -- going to respond? I'd like to make a suggestion:

We should empathize.

I'd like to make a suggestion, too, dumbkopf — pull your cranium out of your rectum. Whatever happened between Sanford and his wife is their fucking problem (literally as well as figuratively). And while we enjoy bwa-ha-haaing at those holier-than-thou hypocrites who preach "fambly valyooos" out of one side of their ass while pillorying anyone who looks like they might have snuck a little sideline of horizontal samba, we empathize with ridiculous modern-day notions of marriage as being between one guy and one gal but not for teh ghey. (I can't imagine any gay person doing more damage to teh "sanctity" of marriage than, oh, Britney Spears, Mark Sanford, and all you other Christo-fascist yobs.)

The *real* issue for us here at La Casa de Los Gatos is, this dumb motherfucker took off work without making any arrangements for anyone else to take up his duties; and flew off to boink his girlfriend after LYING to everybody and their fucking sister-in-law about where he was going. He didn't call in, he didn't check that the whole fucking state hadn't been blown off the map during his absence, he didn't show ANY responsibility whatsoever.

When I accepted the last paid job I had, I had to sign a contract that said that if I missed work for more than THREE DAYS without notifying the office of my absence and giving them a way to contact me, I would be FIRED. And I was not some high-ranking corporate BigDick. Or some governor of a state, responsible for the lives, safety, and well-being of hundreds of thousands of other human beings. Just a lowly corporate worm. But them wuz teh breaks. We had that drilled into our heads by HR. If you want to take time off, fill out a form at least two weeks before you leave, explaining that you will be out of the office, the purpose of your absence (you could just put "vacation time," or "bereavement leave," or whatever, but that form had to be filled in), date of return to work, emergency contact number, approval of your immediate manager and approval of your manager's manager.

If you got hit by a car and were not dead, then you had to instruct your next-of-kin to call the fucking office, for crying out loud, and tell them that you were dying at such-and-such hospital and would return to work (or not) by such a date. So where does this motherfucking yobbo get off, just disappearing into the wild blue yonder? I'm supposed to empathize with this shit? I THINK NOT, mofo. Fuck that! What's so special about Sanford's Holy Taint? What, the rules don't apply to him?

To add insult to injury, the motherfucker paid for his boinking trip with taxpayer money. The state of South Carolina is in the shitpit for money, the unemployment rate is high and climbing, the governor stamps his little feet and whines about not wanting to take Federal money for unemployment so working people who've been laid off can put food on the fucking table for themselves and their kids, and he's got the unmitigated gall to take THEIR money to pay for his horizontal samba? And lie about it? Stealing, lying, cheating, irresponsibility ... this is what I'm supposed to empathize with? I'm supposed to happily susidize Sanford's knob-polishing ventures while surviving on cereal and water?

What planet are these dumb asses from?

And it's not like the guy has shown any shame and remorse for his utterly shameful acts. Today he's whooping on about how, like King David in the bibul, he is NOT, NOT, NOT going to resign. Hey, fuckface — you're not a king. You were *elected* governor. David couldn't be impeached. You can. And I sincerely hope you are. What's more, I hope your wife kicks you out on your ass, and your Argentinian bombshell takes up with someone younger, cuter, and hotter than you. Because you did her a big disservice too, you hypocritical bag o'dicks, outing the whole affair and crying in public about how you done your wife wrong.

Your wife is mega-rich, she'll soon get over your wack crap. And the Argentinian babe is muy hot, so I'm sure there's no shortage of guys lining up waiting for a smile from her. You're the asshole here, not either of the two ladies involved. You hit on another woman after years of mush-mouthing your "Praise Jeebus I R a Xtian man and the Lord totally blesses my schlong" crap. You had the balls to ask your wife's permission to go visit your mistress. Instead of manning up to your responsibility as the father of four young boys and the "Law(d)fully wedded husband" of your wife, who has worked hard to promote your career for close to two decades, you miserable bastard.

You need a come-uppance, man, because you're too fucking arrogant by half. King David, my ass. ESAD, you slavering fuckwit.

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2008 Elections: More of the Same

From Mark Frauenfelder over at BoingBoing, a graphic (in many senses of the word) illustration of the past 8 years with Chimpy McDrunkensot and Dick "dick" Shootemintehface.

Vote for this guy if you want more of the same:

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Hurricane Katrina

Photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune

This entire week has been spent worrying for our friends in NOLA and Louisiana in general and all the other good people who live on the Gulf Coast. Gustav is now a Category 4 hurricane, and given the last horrible fiasco, we are on tenterhooks.

For a beautiful (and sad) photo memorial of Katrina, please drop by Gilbert Mercier's blog. The man has both the photographer's eye and a wonderfully developed sense of irony.

We hear the Republicans might reschedule their convention. They claim it's because of Hurricane Gustav, but we greatly doubt that. Those mean motherfuckers couldn't give a shit about New Orleans, and more specifically, poor black (or any other shade in the fucking rainbow) Democratic voters in New Orleans. We secretly suspect they're postponing because so many Reputzlicans have weaseled out of attending that it'll be a gigantoflop.

Of course, Nero II is babbling about how "better days" lie ahead. We assume his poorly developed sense of irony does not permit him to realize that the "better days" the whole world is looking forward to are the days after he leaves office, hopefully in chains, hopefully for the Hague. Hopefully, his good buddy Johnny MacNuts will be eating cake in one of his many mansions, but NOT the one in which we seat our President.

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Politics: Keith Kicks Ass

Ever since our media turned into a ragtag bunch of lickspittles who edit press releases then regurgitate them down the beaks of an apathetic public, we have despaired over the fate of the nation.

Must say Keith Olbermann is a welcome change.



He's right. It's time to impeach. Especially now, since Cheney's fingerprints are all over this manufactured "war" in Georgia. Georgia attacks and kills Russian peacekeepers and bombs South Ossetia which voted for independence over a decade ago in a vote with 95 per cent turnout and 99 per cent in favour of separatism, monitored by UN personnel. Georgia carries out an attempted ethnic cleansing of the tiny Ossetian minority, half of whom have already fled to Russia as refugees. And Saakashvili has the gall to ask the US to intervene on his behalf.

And who the hell created an interrogation room in the White House? This must be investigated.

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Politics: Mmmm, Peach Mint

Vincent Bugliosi makes a convincing case for trying the nasty weasels who have been ruining this country for nigh on a decade now. For murder.

What is wrong with John Conyers and the rest of the House? Nancy must have pictures of Mr. Conyers doing something REALLY bad, for him to fold so easily. Only Dennis Kucinich, the Mighty Munchkin of Justice, speaks for those of us who believe the wrongdoers must be held accountable.

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Politics: "Not-Impeachment" Hearing

Raw Story tells us that on Friday, July 25, at 10 am, the House Judiciary Committee will hear from these witnesses in the scheduled hearing on Gee Dumbya's Imperial Preznitwitcy:

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
The Honorable Maurice Hinchey (D-New York)
The Honorable Walter Jones (R-N. Carolina)
The Honorable Brad Miller (D-N. Carolina)
The Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Representative from New York
The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Representative from Georgia, 2008 Libertarian Nominee for President
The Honorable Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Founder and President, High Roads for Human Rights (former Mayor of Salt Lake City)
Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law
Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82, Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Vincent Bugliosi, Author and former Los Angeles County Prosecutor
Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
Elliott Adams, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

Rep Conyers assures us that this hearing is not for purposes of impeachment. However, we would like to call attention to a few facts: nearly every single person on this list has, at one time or another, spoken strongly in favour of impeaching G. Dumbya Boosh.

The Mighty Munchkin of Justice, Dennis Kucinich, has been pursuing impeachment tirelessly for some years now. Recently, Rep. Kucinich vowed that he will keep the issue on the table by introducing Articles of Impeachment until he gets his hearing. Well, this looks like his hearing. We know that Rep. Kucinich has shown more courage than the rest of Congress put together &mdash considering that he represents a mostly white, centrist district, he has taken progressive positions throughout his career.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey has been pushing for impeachment since 2005, and risked losing the most recent election because of his unwavering stance against the war in Iraq.

Rep. Walter Jones, the man who gave us "freedom fries," has reversed his position on the war in Iraq several years ago and has since been pushing for a "time horizon" or, in the common parlance, a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Rep. Jones' district includes Camp LeJeune, which has lost much of the flower of its youth to a bloody, senseless war.

Elizabeth Holzman was on the House Judiciary Committee back in Nixon's day and was instrumental in moving the impeachment of Nixon forward. She has been openly outspoken on the topic of impeaching Bush.

Bob Barr, former Republican Rep from Georgia, now the Libertarian presidential candidate, stated in 2006 that Bush's actions in spying on Americans were illegal. Barr has stated that Congress should have started impeachment proceedings a long time ago.

Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, was talking about impeachment early in 2007.

Professor Stephen Presser of Northwestern testified before Congress the last time they impeached a President.

Conservative legal scholar and former ADA Bruce Fein has been calling for the impeachment of VP Cheney since 2007.

Vincent Bugliosi, former DA and writer, has just published a book titled The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Due to a media-imposed blackout, the book was supposed to die a quiet death. Thanks to the Internet, it took off and has become wildly successful. Whatever else Mr. Bugliosi might be, he is in our humble opinion likely to be strongly for the impeachment of Li'l Boots.

As a high-ranking member of Veterans for Peace, Elliott Adams has been pressing John Conyers and the House Judiciary Committee to impeach Bush for some time.

And Frederick A.O. Schwartz is the author of that fine document, Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror. What say you? Pro-impeachment, or anti?

We're guessing sentiment for impeachment runs high in this crowd. Please do your part. Urge your congresscritter to support Dennis in his attempt to bring the crooks and liars to justice. (And if Dennis is your Congresscritter, pat yourself on the back for having the good sense to have elected him!)

Let Conyers, Pelosi, and the Judiciary Committee know that you support impeachment. You can contact the members of the Judiciary Committee here. AFAIK, there has not been a poll on impeachment since 2005. Sentiment has changed a great deal since then. Perhaps pressuring polling companies to re-examine this issue would be a good idea?

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Politics: Mmmm, Peach Mint

My favourite flavour.

You will be happy to hear that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez today displayed their solid steel gonads to the White House. Which were so big, they needed a goddamned wheelbarrow to schlep them!


No, really. Conyers basically told the Gang of Thieves, Crooks, and Liars that they had better get him the documents he had requested, including unredacted FBI reports related to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s probe into the leak of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Operative quote:

“Both the rules and our previous oversight activity concerning the Fitzgerald investigation plainly encompass the current inquiry, and the notion that our oversight concerning criminal law enforcement should somehow stop at the gates of the White House has no proper basis.”

Um, YOW? Yowza, yowza, yowza? Been a long time since we heard such ass-kickin' plain talk from the representatives of We The People, yes?

(Pant, pant, pant, gasp)


And as if that wasn't enough, in a further display of gonadal wherewithal, Chairman Conyers and Chairwoman Sanchez went on to tell reptilian slime repository and FAIL-laden human impersonator KKKarl Rove, through his lawyer, that said maggot had better drag his pasty segmented behind before the committee on the date stated or the crack in it might be widened by lawful but forceful means. Operative quote:

“As Committee staff made clear, and as we indicated in our May 1 letter, the proposal that we somehow seek to separate the Siegelman matter from the broader issue of politicization of the Justice Department is unacceptable,” the two lawmakers wrote.

This hearing is related to the important matters of the unlawful prosecution and imprisonment of Governor Siegelman and the politicization of the Department of Justice.

In related news, Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment are now before the committee, and The Mighty Munchkin of Justice is pressuring the committee to consider them forthwith. If you want impeachment, help Dennis out by letting Conyers and Sanchez, and Dennis, and your Rep know that you support his request and they better get off their ass and review the damn thing. You have 21 days to take these actions. Also please contact all your friends, relatives, neighbours, colleagues, even those who don't support impeachment - the mood of the country is changing, and they may have changed their minds. Operative quote:

The Ohio lawmaker said that it is now “incumbent” for the Judiciary Committee to review evidence he presented. He promised that if the committee failed to hold any hearings on the resolution within thirty days, he would repeat his efforts. He told one reporter Wednesday, “Leadership wants to bury it, but this is one resolution that will be coming back from the dead. … I will be bringing the resolution up again, and I won’t be the only one reading it.”

Don't forget to call, write, or email &mdash or do all three. If at all possible, impeachment may be the one thing that could prevent Winky McMonkeyBrain from starting a third war with Iran.

From the fine folks at ICHC

Given how successful we've been lately in Iraq and Afghanistan, we DO NOT WANT or need to start the next Presidency and Congressional Session tied up in foreign disasters. We have plenty of domestic disasters to deal with. So please, please, please, call, email, and write!

Kucinich has also warned the Judiciary Committee that if they don't get to it post-haste, he's going to present 60 (SIXTY!) articles of impeachment on the next go-round. Please thank him for his efforts. YAY Dennis! You rock! Operative quote:

“The minute the leadership said ‘this is dead on arrival’ I said that I hope they believe in life after death; because I’m coming back with it,” Kucinich vowed in an interview with the Sleuth this week. “It’s not gonna die. Because I’ll come back with more articles. Not 35, but perhaps 60 articles.”

[...]

For Kucinich, impeachment is more than simply a political windmill at which to tilt, he says. It’s about preserving the sanctity of the republic’s founding document.

“What we’re witnessing here,” he says, “is the not-so-slow-moving destruction of our Constittuion.”

Raw Story has the videos, copies of the letters, and more information at each preceding link.

Meanwhile, further displays of courage continue to erupt from other quarters. McClatchy, one of our few actual news organizations left, is reporting that Major General Antonio Taguba, who spoke out against the Bush regime's routine use of torture on detainees, is accusing the Misadministration of war crimes, and calling for those responsible to be held accountable. Operative quote:

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Be still, our beating heart! Our collective goddammit beating heart!!

And Amy Goodman over at Democracy Now! tells us that former Senator Mike Gravel is calling for an independent investigation into 9/11 and the prosecution of Stupie O'Stutters and Demon McVampire, otherwise known as our not-at-all-esteemed Leaders.

Dang! It never rains but it pours, yes? Let's hope all these separate actions with a common goal bear the kind of fruit we want &mdash that these criminals receive their just desserts of investigation, impeachment, and imprisonment. Personal Responsibility! The people demand they take some!

These hypocrites and liars were so willing to call for personal responsibility on the part of the sick, the weak, the poor, the suffering, the helpless, the ill and disabled. When it comes to their own responsibility for anything, the only thing they're quick to show is a clean pair of heels. It's time to turn that around now.

Crossposted over at Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus

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Happy Kamehameha Day!

Day late and a dollar (or more) short, as usual.

La Casa de Los Gatos and Ms. Manitoba and FoTPC (who rarely shows up anymore, dammit) would like to wish all our peeps a very happy Kamehameha Day.

King Kamehameha the Great is remembered, says Wikipedia, for:

the Mamalahoe Kanawai, Law of the Splintered Paddle, which protects human rights of non-combatants in times of battle.

How'dja like them apples, Dumbya-who-will-be-remembered-for-taking-a-crap-on-human-rights?

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Mmmm ... Peach Mint

Please let MSNBC hear from you about impeachment.

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Politics: Impeach!

Well, folks, the Mighty Munchkin of Justice has just brought 35 (thirty-five) articles of impeachment against Gee Dumbya.

The last president got impeached for having his cock sucked. This one's gonna get impeached for being a cocksucker.

Should we get our hopes up? True, the little weasel is flying around Europe at taxpayers' expense even as we rage and rant and slide into poverty (or, if you're in Iowa, into Hurricane Katrina territory). Reuters is calling it his "farewell Europe" tour. What's he hoping to accomplish? Other than spending our much-needed funds, that is.

Operative snippet:

With less than eight months to go before Bush leaves office, European leaders are expected to offer him little if anything to narrow the gap with Washington on issues like climate change, a resurgent Russia and a defiant Iran.

Mindful that Bush is even more unpopular across much of Europe than he is at home, the White House itself has no lofty hopes for Bush's trip, which is expected to draw large protests in countries where anti-Bush sentiment runs highest.

He has the gall to flap his gums about the need for a "stronger dollar" (pretty cheeky, considering that he practically single-handedly shoved it down the toilet and pulled the flush).

In an article with the Web header of 'Yurp' says Auf Wiedersehen to Dubya, the online edition of German magazine der Spiegel states, in less than adoring terms, what German politicians of every stripe think of the lame fuck, er, duck.

Our northern neighbour, Canada, observes at the CBC site that Europe is awaiting the little creep's final visit with "relative indifference." Pertinent quote:

[...] officials in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana say only a few small protests are expected this time.

Local media reports say this is because Bush is on his way out as U.S. leader and no longer attracts the same sort of attention when he visits.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Independent is pointing out (no doubt to the collective joy of the 75 per cent of the U.S. that wishes the Chimp-in-Chief would disappear on an extended vacation already and never return) that the Chimp is going to receive a less than warm welcome:

But leading voices in the worlds of the arts and politics, including the novelist Iain Banks, the artist David Gentleman and the human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, have now joined forces to call for Mr Bush to face a war crimes trial in the Hague.

Labour MPs and the cross-party Coalition Against the War in Iraq are preparing a national demonstration against the visit. They will deliver protest letters to Downing Street and carry handcuffs as a symbol of their claims that the President is a war criminal.

Andrew Murray, the chair of the Stop the War Coalition, said: "George Bush should be in The Hague facing war crimes charges over the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed in Iraq since 2003, not being entertained in Downing Street. Gordon Brown doesn't need a policy brief for this meeting, just a pair of handcuffs."

Perhaps Banksy can show up and graffiti the schmuck. A little red paint, some duct-taped-on photographs of dead Iraqi children with missing limbs and broken bodies. You get our drift.

People with conscience and a soul believe the prick belongs in the dock at The Hague on war crimes charges. The blinding spotlight of U.S. coverage of the issue has been noteworthy for its complete and total absence.

Hey, media schmucks! Get a clue. The guy is almost universally disliked, despised, hated, and deplored. Get with the program and give Kucinich, Conyers, Wexler, and their like coverage for their impeachment calls.

We fervently hope that the brainless, worthless, graceless swine returns to a full impeachment.

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Politics: Rep. John Conyers Offers

A high-quality butt-kicking to that ambulatory slimeball KKKarl Rove.

Will it happen?

We here at this blog, your hosts at La Casa de Los Gatos, are so thrilled by this eventuality that we force ourselves to blog with an icepack on our repro bits as we swelter in the 100-degree temperature.

Dayumn, Rep. Conyers. May we offer you a pair of hobnailed boots? Or, better yet, spike-soled shoes? We could rub a little Scotch bonnet over the spikes first. In the interest of an unique experience, y'unnerstand.

Let's hope this causes the fetid little porker to squeal on everyone else in the chain of command at the Bush-Cheney Misadministration.

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2008 Elections: Our Choices

The likely nominee, who just received the endorsement of our former choice for nominee:

The man who has kept his eye on the prize, which is the redemption of this nation, fixing everything that's broken, bringing back pride and dignity to working people, and making the pledge to cut poverty by half by the end of the next decade.


A woman who has her faults but also has many great qualities, among them intelligence, tenacity, toughness, the willingness and the ability to fight for what she wants, and a genuine commitment to social justice issues.




Or, the ghastly zombie who fills us all with loathing and horror, celebrating his 69th birthday with the Worst President in American history as a great city drowned and died.


We must never take our eyes off the prize, people. No matter what happens, a Democrat must sit in the White House next year so that we can begin the long, painful task of rescuing our nation from the pits into which Clueless George and his cabal of crooks and thugs has flung it.

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Politics: Oh Pleez Oh Pleez Oh Pleez Oh Pleez

Can it be? Will the Democrats finally get up on their hind legs and subpoena that worthless fat turd and shit-impersonator (he'd need a couple of eons of evolution to be able to impersonate humans) KKKarl Rove, and throw his pasty, flabby, tuchus in jail if he fails to comply?

Pleez Mr. Conyers, Pleez Oh Pleez Oh Pleez!

The Birmingham News is reporting in a breaking story today that the Democrats have rejected Rove's offer to flip them off and refuse to testify in person about his role in the Justice Department scandal regarding the firing of attorneys tasked with enforcing the nation's laws, and in the unethical prosecution and imprisonment of former Governor Don Siegelman.

If you have a religious belief, please light a candle/sacrifice a relative/braid flowers in your hair and dance naked around the garden in the moonlight or whatever it is your particular religion prescribes. This vile slimebot must be forced to testify, then prosecuted and jailed for his role in corrupting the very meaning of justice.

If you don't have a religious belief, or just want to express yourself differently, blog the issue, write Conyers and thank him, write your Rep. and thank them for taking this belated and long-awaited stand, or urge them to vote with Conyers to hold Rove responsible. Here is a PDF copy of the letter Conyers sent to the slimebag and his attorney. Read it and dance around the house with your underwear on your head. But draw the blinds first. There's a limit to the tolerance of neighbours and passers-by.

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World: War Crimes

Image from Court of Impeachment and War Crimes Blog

Well, well, well. We haven't always liked former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad. In fact, when Anwar Ibrahim was running against him and he brought Anwar down and even had him set up, arrested, and jailed, we thought he was one of the most disgusting politicians and human beings we had ever come across.

But this week, Mister Ten Per Cent has almost completely redeemed himself in our eyes. He just called for Tony Blair, George Dubya, and John Howard to be tried for war crimes based on their actions in Iraq. From The Australian:

In a speech at Imperial College in London overnight, Mr Mahathir called for an international tribunal to try US President George W. Bush, Mr Howard and former British prime minister Tony Blair for their part in the conflict [...].

Spokesman Mohammed Shafiq said Mr Mahathir, who was in office from 1981 to 2003, wanted to see the trio tried "in absence for war crimes committed in Iraq".

"He said that people have to stop killing each other and use arbitration, negotiation and discussion as an alternative to violence, war and killing."

On the war in Iraq, Mr Mahathir spoke about "the thousands dying, the economic war, the power of oil and how we could utilise some of these tools to have a leverage against the people who commit countries to war", Mr Shafiq said.

[...]

More than 450 people attended the speech and about 200 more had to be turned away.

Why isn't any other Leader of Teh Free World stepping up and putting their support on the line? Mahathir is saying what millions of ordinary people have been thinking for a long time. Tony Blair is a war criminal. Gee Dubya is a war criminal. John Howard is a war criminal. These three stinking fetid pigballs are responsible for the deaths of one million human beings, maybe more.

We went into a secular nation that was not threatening us in any way based on the 935 lies of Gee Dubya Pigball, and we killed women, children, old people, sick people, the disabled. We destroyed families and homes, and now we can't even leave because the entire country is trembling on the verge of a civil war that threatens to destroy more millions. We took that secular nation where women had jobs and freedom, and we turned it into an Islamic fundamentalist state where honor killings have become the order of the day. From The Guardian:

Last year 133 women were killed in Basra - 47 of them for so-called 'honour killings', according to the Basra Security Committee. Out of those 47 cases there have been only three convictions for murder.

Since January this year, 36 women have been killed.

That's Basra alone. Just one city in Iraq. Who knows how many more women are being murdered in honour killings, or for failing to conform to the fundie codes of dress and behaviour that did not exist in this country when Saddam Hussein was in power.

It's a sad and shameful day indeed when a democratic nation does more harm to the rights of women in another land than its totalitarian dictator.

Meanwhile, somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden laughs his ass off watching us drown under the rising tide of debt, the cost of financing two wars, the armless, the legless, the wounded and maimed who come back to a system that can't take care of them. We can't give health care to our own children, but we're creating hundreds of thousands of potential recipients of health care, disability payment, and support services that we haven't bothered to put in place or pay for.

All the people associated with this crime against humanity need to face the gallows for their part in it. While Blair rakes in the millions, Howard has disappeared, afraid to face his countrymen, and Gee Dubya is relegated to dancing in front of reporters and acting like a cheap drunk with foreign dignitaries.

They all need to be in the Hague. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, Pearle, Rice, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Dumbya, Gonezales, Tenet, the whole bloody lot. For shaming this once-proud nation. For destroying our system of laws. For thinking up ways to violate human rights. For approving torture. For planning and carrying out the murder of a million people. For causing soldiers who obeyed orders to commit suicide in despair due to homelessness, depression, injuries physical, mental, and spiritual. For failure to care for those they put in danger. For burdening the nation with inflation, debt, suffering, death, poverty, joblessness and misery.

A pox on all their houses! May they suffer every day of the rest of their lives from nameless fears and miseries and sickness, plague and disease.

Where are the European politicians and the other Asian politicians and the African politicians? Why are they not standing behind Mahathir in this moment? If the whole world called for these war criminals to be tried, and made it unsafe for them to travel outside the country, perhaps they would understand how much suffering they have created.

Here's to hoping Paraguay arrests the Chimpenfuehrer when he tries to flee there, and turns him over to an international tribunal.

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Politics: The Drumbeat For War in Iran

Persian Gulf regional map

Attention, people! The Bush/Cheney Misadministration is starting the drums beating for a war with Iran. Seymour Hersh warned us about this two years ago. Now that the elections are only six months away, what better present could the crooks and thugs in power deliver to John McInsane's presidential ambitions than to start yet another war?

Here's the evidence: Yesterday (April 11th, 2008), the Times told us that "new satellite photographs" have uncovered a secret launch site in Iran for long-range missiles. Iran has always claimed that this site and the launches therefrom are part of their civilian space program, by the way.

Yesterday (April 11th, 2008), AP informed us that a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Typhoon, trespassing in Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf (in order to access which body of water, vessels must first pass through the Straits of Hormuz, Iranian waters) "encountered"

... a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf and warned it away by firing a flare, the Pentagon said Friday.

Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not come as close.

The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official said the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way without incident.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said there were no signs any boat was armed.

Question: How exactly did the USS Typhoon "try unsuccessfully" to establish radio contact? Do they have Farsi speakers on board? Or was it the old tourist stratagem of "If they don't speak English just shout louder and slower"?

The Iranian authorities are claiming that there was no incident.

Today (April 12th, 2008), in the WahPoo, Staff Writer Karen deYoung tells us that Robert Gates, General Betrayus, and Ambassador Ryan Crockoshit have determined that Iran is the biggest threat to Iraq.

Consider this: Iraq is majority Shi'a. Iran is majority Shi'a. They are two of the very few majority Shi'a nations in the Islamic world.

The Sunni tribes of Iraq form the backbone of the "insurgency," about which not word one has been said of late. Saudi Arabia, home of Gee Dumbya's good friends, is Sunni. The Saudis follow the fundamentalist Wahhabiya flavour of Islam. Most of the hijackers who destroyed the twin towers were Saudi nationals.

Which of these players poses a greater threat to the U.S.?

We're fairly confident that, if asked, the Shi'a majority in Iraq would gladly embrace Iran as good friends and allies. It wasn't that long ago that Iranian President Ahmedi Nejad was greeted with flowers on an official visit to his good friend Nouri al-Maliki.

Don't let Gee Dumbya and his gang of thugs lie us into another war.

Crossposted over at Out of Iraq Bloggers' Caucus

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2008 Elections: John McCain

AP/Mary Altaffer

won't release his medical records, despite repeated requests, says Raw Story.

Senator McCain, you're in your 70s. Your grandfather died young (61 years), your father died at the age of 70, relatively young also. You've had repeated bouts of a particularly lethal form of cancer:

In 1993, McCain had a cancerous mole removed from his shoulder that proved to be melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, according to medical records he released in December 1999 when he was diagnosed with a recurrence [emphasis ours, Ed.] of the disease.

Melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer, blamed for 7,700 deaths annually in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. The organization also notes that 47,700 Americans will be diagnosed with the disease this year.

The Wall Street Journal says McCain's had four melanomas removed.

And you were tortured as a POW. You have to release your records. It's not an option for you. People, if the man does not release his medical records and his tax records, how can you vote for him? We're no spring chickens here at La Casa de Los Gatos, and we know the impact aging has had on our health.

And what about mental functioning? Eight years of a dumbkopf in the highest position in the land &mdash a man who can't string eight words into a correct sentence &mdash is plenty enough. Every time we walk into a room and find ourselves thinking, "Now, what did I come here for?" we wonder if that's what is making McCain repeatedly confuse Sunni with Shi'a, and putting al Qaeda in training in Iran, and telling undoubtedly horrified Israelis that Purim is the Jewish version of fucking Halloween, wouldja believe? And we're decades younger than that old fart.

You can't be serious, Senator. You owe it to voters to let them know if you're suffering from something that will make you hit the wrong button at the wrong time. If you can't keep yourself from hitting Rick Renzi, how can we trust you alone with Hu Jintao or Vladimir Putin? Assuming, of course, that you can remember who they are.

In other, more heartening, news, ABC's Martha Raddatz apparently found only one McCain supporter among the troops in Iraq, although she implied that there may be more. (Sure. They're probably Stateside already.) And this was after Snarly McCrashcart showed up to give his rah-rah talk on how they goddamned well volunteered for the fucking war and they could just fucking fuck themselves and stay there till Der Leader was good and ready for what remained of them to come home. Yeah, fuck you too, Dick. Send your worthless taxpayer-titsucking daughters to the frontline, why don't you? Surely they don't have "other priorities," do they? Video clip of Dick at Raw Story, in case you need to go on a diet.

Incidentally, it appears as if the vultures of the press, always ready to attack Hillary Clinton for any reason they can think of (boobs! She has boobs! Cackle! She cackles! crying! She CRIED! &mdash whatever, you worthless turds) haven't said word one about McCain's dragging his feet on releasing either his medical records or his tax records. Senator Clinton has released her tax records; Senator Obama released his a long time ago. Senator McCain, how about you step up to the plate and release yours?

While you're about it, please get your eyes checked. We're aghast at a Reuters headline telling us you "... see Iraq success." What the hell is this success, and where are you seeing it? All we see is about one million dead Iraqis, 2-3 million Iraqi refugees, Iraqi women forced into prostitution to feed their families and murdered for failing to adhere to sufficiently oppressive dress codes, millions of wounded and maimed Iraqi men, women, and children, over four thousand dead Americans, thirty or forty thousand wounded American troops, and goodness knows how many psychologically destroyed human beings. If this is your definition of success, perhaps we shouldn't allow you within a mile of the nuclear button. We're thinkin' you'd feel positively successalicious if you could press it and blow all of us up.

For those of you who think "success" means your friends, relatives, and fellow-citizens return pronto with all limbs intact, here's a petition you can sign to end the war in Iraq.

For those of you who'd like to impeach the sanctimonious, smarmy shits who are responsible for all that death and suffering, check out this PDF, sign it, encourage your neighbours and friends and relatives to sign it, and send it to the appropriate Congresscritter.

Somebody should ask McCain and that "ass-kissing chickenshit" (Admiral Fallon's words) General Betrayus whether success includes thousands of the people you trained taking their training and their weapons over to the other side.

Crossposted over at Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus

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Politics: Bush Sinks To New Low

Here's the Chimperor, throwing a baseball while the not-so-adoring crowd gives him a well-earned reception:



Enjoy! Does it sound to you like voices in the crowd are screaming "Impeach!"

Hope he has nightmares every night from now till that epic &mdash what? &mdash 298 days later?

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Iraq: The Successifying

Chimpy McDimwit has just given an interview to the Times of London in which he claims that the violence now erupting in Iraq is "a very positive moment in the development of a sovereign nation that is willing to take on elements that believe they are beyond the law."

That violence includes fighting raging in Kut, where some 42 people have already died and over 100 have been wounded; Baghdad, where Iraqi authorities have imposed a curfew from 11 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Sunday after hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets against Maliki's government setting off days of clashes between government troops and Shiite Muslim militia fighters &mdash leading a Canadian newspaper to speculate that the militias that support the various factions of the Iraqi government are trying to eliminate smaller factions before the coming elections. U.S. Embassy workers in Iraq have been told to remain in secure buildings. Two Americans have died in the attacks so far; Hilla, Karbala, and Diwaniya; and Basra, where Nouri al-Maliki has personally showed up to posture right before he gets his ass kicked all the way back to the Green Zone. Incidentally, multiple rocket attacks are taking place inside the "secure fortress" of the Green Zone, indicating that perhaps it is neither as secure nor as fortress-like as the morons in charge and their sycophants in the press would have us believe.

In Basra, police chief Major General Abdul Jalil Khalaf survived a suicide car bomb attack around 1:00 am on Thursday (2200 GMT Wednesday) in which three policemen were killed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross put the toll from the Basra clashes at 20 dead but other, unconfirmed reports said 40 were killed. Altogether, about 130 are reported killed and hundreds injured. Saboteurs have also blown up a key oil pipeline, which Iraqi authorities estimate will take approximately 72 hours to repair. Needless to say, this has sent oil prices back up again.

In addition, gunmen have kidnapped Tahseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Baghdad security plan launched in February 2007 to stabilize the capital. Sheikhly has appeared frequently at news conferences alongside U.S. officials. The abduction occurred in the afternoon, according to officials in the Interior Ministry. The attackers shot and wounded at least one of Sheikhly's guards and ransacked his home before fleeing with him.

Mr Bush, who had spent the morning being briefed on Iraq by the Pentagon before an imminent announcement on US troop levels, said that despite “substantial gains” since the US military surge began last year, much work was needed to “maintain the success we’ve had”.

During his interview with the Times, Bush disparaged those who want US troops to come home, and reinforced his power, saying as he has before, "I'm commander in chief."

He averred that decisions would not be made by those who “scream the loudest” in calling for troops to come home.

“I understand people here want us to leave, regardless of the situation," he said, "but that will not happen so long as I’m Commander-In-Chief.”

How long before Drunky McCokespoon goes back to chopping brush in Crawford and leaves the rest of the world in peace?

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Politics: Are They ALL

growing balls? Ovaries? Reproductive bits indicative of strength, fortitude and large-scale deweaselment?


Raw Story is telling us, this morning, that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has asked the (in)Justice Department to open a grand jury investigation into whether President Bush's chief of staff and former counsel should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

The idea of Harriet Myers and Josh Bolten in the hoosegow has us faint and trembling with delight.

A clarification: We don't necessarily want to inflict misery on other people per se. Seriously. We don't want people tortured or murdered or beaten up or jailed. We would prefer that people live peaceful happy lives as far as that is possible. What we do want is fairness and justice. If the law is going to drag some poor crack-smoker to the hoosegow, then it must also drag the rich coke-sniffer to the hoosegow.

Thus, if some of the people investigated during the baseless Whitewater scandal got to sit in the pokey, some of the people involved in the lies that led us to war in Iraq, the disappearance of billions from our treasury, the gifting of taxpayer dollars to companies like Halliburton and Blackwater, and the myriad crimes of this Misadministration must also be investigated, convicted as justified, and either spend their time in the pokey or start singing like canaries so we, the people, can find out exactly how, when, where, how often, and by whom we've been screwed. Because make no mistake about it, we have been screwed.

We want the rule of law. If it sweeps some of our idols and role models into its dragnet, well, we'll be unhappy but we'll live with it.

When Harriet Myers and Josh Bolten dared to tell the people that they would not be held accountable for their acts, that sent a very troubling message to the nation and the world. No one is, or should be, above the law. No one. Not kings, priests, presidents, businessmen, politicians, and certainly not the toadying shallow minions of a petty, egocentric sociopath who has treated the country like his personal poop-box for seven years. Because if any one person is above the law, then what incentive is there for any other person to obey it?

The article states, in part:

Pelosi, D-Calif., demanded that the department pursue misdemeanor charges against former White House counsel Harriet Miers for refusing to testify to Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors in 2006 and against chief of staff Josh Bolten for failing to turn over White House documents related to the dismissals.

She gave Attorney General Michael Mukasey one week to respond and said refusal to take the matter to a grand jury will result in the House's filing a civil lawsuit against the Bush administration.

So this is about the federal prosecutors that the Bush Maladministration fired in their effort to turn the Justice Department into their pathetic spineless tool. Finally.

Nancy Pelosi, if you can push this through, our admiration for you automatically rises ten notches, and we will back off on beating you about the head and shoulders verbally.

If you haven't been following the Justice Department scandal, you can find great detail about it here. Just search for justice department.

If you don't necessarily want that level of detail, we've blogged the issue here, here, here, here, and here.

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Politics: If It's Legal, They Don't Need Immunity

Image from DailyKos

Chimpy McTardibus, L33b3r Ov T3H |=R33 WUR7d, assures the American People today that the telcos' spying on the American People was legal:

[...] Bush said. "What we asked them to do was legal, and now they're getting sued for billions of dollars."

Telephone and Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon and SBC are facing about 40 lawsuits from customers who say their privacy was violated as part of Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program" he says began after 9/11. Only if they are found to have violated privacy laws would these companies face the "billions of dollars" in penalties Bush warned against.

Well, if it's legal, they have nothing to worry about, Mr. Bush. So sign the existing FISA law.

No retroactive immunity for telcos! They have way more money than John and Jane Q. Public, and can well afford a day in court. Besides, they'll win anyway. Because spying on every man, woman, and child in America is LEGAL, dammit, legal, legal, legal.

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