For everything, there is a season

Bill Clinton chided the Bush administration today for the process by which it approved the seaport operations deal with the UAE as being "too low level" and "too secretive."

I've finally been privy to hear a couple of repubs recently share their belief that the US would be more secure right now if Bill Clinton was still running the White House. A bitter-sweet moment to learn that finally, a blow-job was of less consequence to some than our national security.

Now, I'm biding my time until some repub mentions Kennedy again and spouts off about Chappaquidick. Not to make light of the incident, but at least he didn't shoot anyone in the face, or run them down with a car a~la~Pickles.

Tim Calhoun

is running for President, and he tells the truth.

Off with their heads

I suppose I don't speak nearly enough on the right of a woman to control her own body. Perhaps if I did, I wouldn't feel the urge to hurl right now after reading:

"Handing out birth control and giving out tax dollars to (family planning) programs have not resulted in fewer abortions and fewer unintended pregnancies," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America. Rather, she said, promoting contraception encourages sex outside of marriage.

"If you subsidize an activity you get more of it," Wright said. "It's encouraging the behavior that leads to more clients for abortion clinics."

Wright's group wants more parental involvement in sex education and contraception decisions. It opposes allowing minors to get contraceptives without parental consent, which Guttmacher's study used as a standard for good state policy.

While some people can read such and envision a fine, church-going woman with neatly groomed children, I see something altogether different, and evil.

I see the like-mindless of the folks in South Dakota who would not only take away a female's right to control her own reproductive system, but would also force women and children alike to give birth to children after being raped, or having been the victim of incest.

I see every horrifying tale of a young girl dragged off by some freak who gets turned on by girls in Saturday morning cartoon character underwear with Disney pajamas -- and has a functioning sperm shooter -- ending with Wendy Wright and her ilk chanting "every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great!" It's just as twisted and wrong as anything can possibly be.

It's also just as wrong to impose your moral judgements, and personal sexual constraints onto a stranger's body. See a gotdamn psychiatrist about your control issues, not your member of Congress.

Don't trouble Bush's beautiful mind with details.

Mother Jones:

"Dean Baker of the Center for Economic Policy and Research has just put out a new, and easily readable, report arguing that the Bush administration's 2003 Medicare bill will essentially "waste" $800 billion over the next decade because it was so poorly designed. Among other things, Republicans in Congress refused to allow Medicare to use its buying power to bargain down the price of drugs—something that is down in virtually every other industrialized country around the world—which would have saved $600 billion over ten years."
. . .
". . . you could also eliminate the $86 billion in subsidies that the government is paying to prevent companies from shifting costs onto the government—a mostly ludicrous provision and "pure windfall" for many companies—as well as the $6.4 billion over the next decade to subsidize health savings accounts. A lot of that money could be used to expand the current drug benefit and still have savings left over. In fact, that's exactly what the House Democrats have been proposing all along, and it's a pretty good start."


This year everyone will have a chance to vote to give leadership of the House to the Dems and watch real progress and change for the better. Unless you'd rather watch billions of dollars go down the toilet, and into the pockets of the big pharmaceutical companies, the insurance companies, and see the elderly struggle to survive.

We're going to need more body bags

Doctors look at the bodies of shooting victims outside a hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad February 28, 2006. Nine bodies of shooting victims were found just south of the city of Baquba on Tuesday, the army said. The corpses were found in wastelands in the hamlet of Tarfaya, the officials said. [REUTERS/Helmiy al-Azawi]

Reminder

Tomorrow is Blog Round-up day, so get those posts submitted preferrably by 9pmPST tonight, thanks.

Email: Culpaenator@gmail.com
There's an email link on the right column of the site.

"A conversation with Machiavelli's ghost"

Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story has the first installment in a series of a recent interview with Michael Ledeen up, it's a must read.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

"That crisis is over," US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad declared. "I think the country came to the brink of a civil war, but the Iraqis decided that they didn't want to go down that path, and came together," the ambassador told CNN. "Clearly the terrorists who plotted that attack wanted to provoke a civil war. It looked quite dangerous in the initial 48 hours, but I believe that the Iraqis decided to come together."

Open mouth, insert foot:

Sunnis and Shiites traded bombings and mortar fire against mainly religious targets in Baghdad well into the night Tuesday, killing at least 68 people a day after authorities lifted a curfew that had briefly calmed a series of sectarian reprisal attacks. At least six of Tuesday's attacks hit clearly religious targets, concluding with a car bombing after sundown at the Shiite Abdel Hadi Chalabi mosque in the Hurriyah neighborhood that killed 23 and wounded 55. A separate suicide bombing killed 23 people at an east Baghdad gas station, where people had lined up to buy kerosine.

~Music

Folks Songs from the Far Right Wing

Quantum Physics with your Coffee

The Double Slit Experiment

The Truth

Ava turns out another great one with "This is the Truth"

Peace, a better way.

Iraqi residents push a cart with a wounded bomb victim in Baghdad February 28, 2006. Ten people were killed in one of the bombs that exploded in Karrada district, a witness said. [REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen]

Daily Show

Guantanamo

All the Children left Behind

Ghulam Rasul was leaving school when two gunmen walked in and opened fire. The 17-year-old died instantly. As other students and teachers fled in terror, the shooting continued. Two more people were hit.

The attack at Kartilaya High School in Lashkar Gar was just one in a series which is crippling Afghanistan's education system. At least 165 schools and colleges have been burnt down or forced to close so far by a resurgent Taliban and their Islamist allies.

Five years after the end of the Afghan war and Tony Blair's famous pledge that "this time we will not walk away", it seems the Taliban and al-Qa'ida are back with a vengeance, and one of their main targets is the country's education system.

The campaign is intended, say educationalists and human rights groups, to terrorise families into keeping children uneducated, unemployable, and a recruitment pool for the Islamists.

Teachers are the main targets. Some have been beheaded, others shot in front of their classes. One was killed while attending his father's funeral.
. . .
The attack at Kartilaya High, which has 4,200 pupils, about half of them girls, was in the centre of Lashkar Gar, the provincial capital of Helmand, where a massive British force is now being deployed. The school is 15 minutes drive from an American base, now being taken over by the British, and just 500 metres from an Afghan police post. Police did not turn up for half an hour after the shooting. The Americans failed to turn up at all.

What are our troops doing in Afghanistan? We're certainly not catching Osama.

Look what you've done to the world, Dub

People across the world overwhelmingly believe the war in Iraq has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks worldwide, a poll for the BBC reveals.

Some 60% of people in 35 countries surveyed believe this is the case, against just 12% who think terrorist attacks have become less likely.


















Maybe our Prez'nint will find him a real good book,
and he'll never have to come out and look~
at what he's done to the world.

Jesus Weeps

Ali Mohammed, 6, a victim of a mortar attack recovers in a hospital, in Baghdad,Iraq, Monday, Feb.27, 2006. Four mortar rounds exploded Monday on a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing four and wounding 16, as Sunni Arabs are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new government if rival Shiites return mosques seized in last week's sectarian attacks and meet other unspecified demands, a top Sunni figure said Monday. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

1300+

WaPo:

BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.

Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- sprawled, blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies had their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

"After he came back from the evening prayer, the Mahdi Army broke into his house and asked him, 'Are you Khalid the Sunni infidel?' " one man at the morgue said, relating what were the last hours of his cousin, according to other relatives. "He replied 'yes' and then they took him away."

Aides to Sadr denied the allegations, calling them part of a smear campaign by unspecified political rivals.

By Monday, violence between Sunnis and Shiites appeared to have eased. As Iraqi security forces patrolled, American troops offered measured support, in hopes of allowing the Iraqis to take charge and prevent further carnage.

But at the morgue, where the floor was crusted with dried blood, the evidence of the damage already done was clear. Iraqis arrived throughout the day, seeking family members and neighbors among the contorted bodies.

"And they say there is no sectarian war?" demanded one man. "What do you call this?''

Someone please tell me that our politicians -- all of them -- can plainly see that it's time for something else. Maybe not demanding peace through acts of aggression and violence?

Cheney's got a Gun

The video.

Fiery Wreck

The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high.

Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they're opposed to the agreement.


Weeeeeeeee!!!

~Music

Brendan Benson: Cold Hands, Warm Heart

Update: Jill Carroll

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American journalist Jill Carroll is alive and Iraqi authorities are optimistic about her release, Iraqi officials said Monday.

Iraq’s interior minister, Bayan Jabr, told ABC News that he believes Carroll will be released, adding that he knows who abducted the 28-year-old journalist last month.

“We know his name and address, and we are following up on him as well as the Americans,” he said. “I think she is still alive.”

Let's hope that during the recent chaos in Iraq that Jill's captors have been busy keeping her safe and secure until they can work out her release without her being injured in the civil strife.

His wife is an animal.

No, really

Caption this.

"liberal" journamalism

Shortly before the American-led invasion of Iraq, Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, warned that the attack would "open the gates of hell." Now, three years later, there is a sense in the Middle East that what was once viewed as quintessential regional hyperbole may instead have been darkly prescient.

Three years after the fact, thousands of deaths later the New York Times prints the thoughts on war from prominent Arabs. Spaghetti monster, almighty.

Michigan Economy

After recording more than 9,000 foreclosures in 2005, Wayne County ended January with 3,364 homes in active foreclosure, the highest of any county in the nation by more than 1,000, according to statistics compiled by Foreclosure.com of Boca Raton, Fla.

Cupid's Last Stand

Flying monkeys, oh my!

Weapon of mass destruction

From The Scotsman, details of Bush's bicycle accident during the G8 summit are released:

The official police incident report states: "[The unit] was requested to cover the road junction on the Auchterarder to Braco Road as the President of the USA, George Bush, was cycling through." The report goes on: "[At] about 1800 hours the President approached the junction at speed on the bicycle. The road was damp at the time. As the President passed the junction at speed he raised his left arm from the handlebars to wave to the police officers present while shouting 'thanks, you guys, for coming'.

"As he did this he lost control of the cycle, falling to the ground, causing both himself and his bicycle to strike [the officer] on the lower legs. [The officer] fell to the ground, striking his head. The President continued along the ground for approximately five metres, causing himself a number of abrasions. The officers... then assisted both injured parties."

The injured officer, who was not named, was whisked to Perth Royal Infirmary. The report adds: "While en-route President Bush phoned [the officer], enquiring after his wellbeing and apologising for the accident."

At hospital, a doctor examined the constable and diagnosed damage to his ankle ligaments and issued him with crutches. The cause was officially recorded as: "Hit by moving/falling object."

No details of damage to the President are recorded from his close encounter with the policeman and the road, although later reports said he had been "bandaged" by a White House physician after suffering scrapes on his hands and arms.


The officer was out of work for 14 weeks due to his injuries from the altercation.

Can George Bush even walk and chew gum at the same time?

The hell where youth and laughter go

BAQUBA, Iraq, Feb. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Gunmen opened fire at a crowd of teenage boys in a football game on Sunday in Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, killing two and injuring six others, police said.

"Unknown armed men in a car opened fire at about 5:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on a crowd of boys playing football in the al-Mafraqarea in Baquba," the Joint Coordination Center of Diyala said in astatement obtained by Xinhua.

(AP Photo/Mohammed Adan)

Sorry

Sorry, Dick.

~Music

It's the Beastie Boys live on Letterman, don't hurt me.

You can't blame a girl for trying.

Point Break

500 Nevada National Guard unit members and about 250 Iraqi nationals recruited from immigrant communities in Southern California play the roles of restive townfolk and insurgents.

Mortar fire keeps soldiers awake at night. Stragglers are taken hostage in the underground tunnel systems. Suicide bombers strike from any direction.

Role-players even portray reporters from the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera television station the fictitious International News Network.

Laser systems are fitted to soldiers' rifles and body armor. Sensors beep when a soldier has been shot or killed.

During the first five days of the training exercises, troops saw continuous fighting with mock insurgents, who had seized control of several towns.

By Saturday, the U.S. soldiers had retaken control and were trying to maintain order in the wooden facade-lined streets where role-players camp out overnight just like the troops in the field. Soldiers keep an eye on simmering unrest.

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, a video went over the airwaves showing an insurgent pretending to behead a prisoner.

The experiences are designed to simulate the worst possible scenarios encountered in Iraq, said Maj. John Clearwater of the National Training Center's public affairs office.

"We stretch the unit out to the breaking point in two weeks," he told The Olympian, which sent a reporter to cover the training mission.


"Insurgents" in Iraq are ordinary citizens defending their families, and homes from -- among others -- the death squads of the Interior Ministry. You can't train a military to know what's in the heart and mind of another human being, and there is no other way to tell who is committing a crime, and who is simply fighting to survive.

When in doubt . . . don't.

More Zombies

In Michigan, even the dead vote.

Zombies in your head

I've mentioned before the death squads in Iraq, and the mounting number of victims, I had no idea it had become this rampant:

Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month in Baghdad alone by death squads working from the Ministry of the Interior, says the United Nations' outgoing human rights chief in Iraq.

John Pace, who left Baghdad two weeks ago, said up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes.

Much of the killing, he said, was carried out by Shiite groups under the ministry's control.

Much of the statistical information provided to Pace and his team comes from the Baghdad Medico-Legal Institute, next to the city's mortuary.

He said that in last July alone the morgue received 1100 bodies, about 900 of which bore evidence of torture or summary execution.

The pattern prevailed throughout the year until December, when the number dropped to 780 bodies, about 400 of which had gunshot or torture wounds.

"It's being done by anyone who wishes to wipe out anybody else for various reasons," said Pace, who worked for the United Nations for more than 40 years in countries such as Liberia and Chile. "But the bulk are attributed to the agents of the Ministry of the Interior."

At best, under Saddam, Iraq was a "controlled" civil war. It's not our war, but the results will be our cross to bear for all time. Thanks George Bush.

Hat tip Eric Jaffa

Jill Carroll

As we wait through today's deadline set by the captors of Jill Carroll, I hope you'll offer up whatever positive vibes/prayers/thoughts you can spare. Perhaps through this latest violence, her captors will realize that there is a precious shortage of reporters to tell the story of the occupation of Iraq, and return her safely to her family. Godspeed Jill.

Wanker of the Day

John McCain.

In a world gone mad

An injured father consoles his injured son, both victims of car bomb explosion, in a hospital in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Feb.25, 2006. A car bomb exploded Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least six people, including two women, and injuring more than 52, police said. The attack occurred as Baghdad and three nearby provinces were on a second day of a daytime curfew aimed at dampening the wave of sectarian violence that has killed more than 140 people since the bombing of a Shiite shrine.(AP Photo/Alaa Al-Marjani)

Mission not Accomplished

A boy injured by a car bomb explosion looks up while recovering in a hospital, in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Feb.25, 2006. A car bomb exploded Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing at least six people, including two women, and injuring more than 52, police said. The attack occurred as Baghdad and three nearby provinces were on a second day of a daytime curfew aimed at dampening the wave of sectarian violence that has killed more than 140 people since the bombing of a Shiite shrine.(AP Photo/Alaa Al-Marjani)

Oh, why not?

The world is a big circus anyways.

Notorious Afghan prison in flames

Hundreds of Afghan security forces have surrounded a notorious high-security jail where an uprising by up to 2,000 prisoners is under way.

Taleban and al-Qaeda members as well as ordinary criminals are involved.

Sources have told the BBC that seven people have been killed during the rioting, although top Afghan officials have denied any deaths.

Scores of security forces continued to arrive at Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi jail as negotiation attempts apparently failed.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary, outside the prison, said US and Nato forces were also at the scene, and that drones were circling overhead.

Afghan army rapid-reaction troops had arrived on the scene earlier.

Our correspondent said gunshots could still be heard from within the prison walls.

Trouble apparently started at about 2200 (1730 GMT) on Saturday in Block 2 - which houses 1,300 inmates - after a change in prison uniform rules.

By Sunday evening local time, up to 750 inmates jailed for ordinary criminal offences in another block had begun burning furniture in support of the Block 2 prisoners.

Some reports said the riot developed into an escape attempt, with prisoners trying to get over the walls.

An official told the BBC that Taleban and al-Qaeda elements were responsible for the violence.

"It's the work of al-Qaeda and Taleban. By making things violent, they want to escape the prison. So far no-one has succeeded doing this," Gen Salam Bakhshi, director of Afghan prisons, told the BBC.

Negotiations by loudspeaker had apparently failed to make a breakthrough.

Prison guards said four or five people had been wounded, but the rioters told the authorities there were many more.

"They have control of the wounded prisoners and they are not giving them to us so that we can treat them. We have doctors and ambulances ready here," said Afghanistan's deputy justice minister, Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai.

Hundreds of prisoners remain barricaded inside a women's wing, our correspondent says.

A senior official told him that two female prison guards had been taken hostage by prisoners.

Recent escalated violence in the Afghan region led to further deployments of allied troops just last week, although their number seems far too little, and too late to quash what appears to be a strong, coordinated insurgency among the Taleban and al Quaeda.

~More Music

Led Zeppelin: Stairway to Heaven, live video

Caption this.

Saying Good-byes

I worked up the nerve to say my good-byes to Kevin, Olaf, and Lady Penelope over at Catch.com -- they were the first blog to link to me, and they're a great bunch.

I hope you'll stop in and wish Kevin all the best with his future endeavors.

Another movie trailer mashup

Of all the unlikely -- Toy Story 2 and the Requiem.

Danger, Will Robinson! Sensory Overload!

Who thinks up this stuff?

Is it a viable treatment for the Phelps clan from Westboro Baptist?

~Music

Pink Floyd: The Wall

I grieve for you.

A relative grieves near the coffin of one of 12 members of an Iraqi Shi'ite family in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, February 25, 2006. Gunmen stormed a house near the Iraqi city of Baquba on Saturday and killed 12 members of the same Shi'ite family, Interior Ministry sources said.

Bush strategery is working

A man checks the bodies of 12 members of an Iraqi family as they lie on the ground outside a hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad February 25, 2006. Gunmen stormed a house and killed 12 members of the same Shi'ite family, Interior Ministry sources said. The attack came amid heightened sectarian tensions following the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine on Wednesday that raised fears of civil war.

A CNN news analyst actually said that the bombing of the mosque that ignited the increased violence in Iraq proved that the Bush strategy in Iraq is working. [REUTERS/Helmiy al-Azawi]

National Security

A report by Congressional investigators last year concluded that the Treasury Department doesn't give enough weight to national security concerns when reviewing acquisitions of U.S. companies by overseas investors.

Where the hell did they file that one?

Opera fans?

A Night at the Opera.

White House discovers explosive emails

The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. Senior aides had sent the emails in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald revealed during a federal court hearing Friday.

The emails are said to be explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to discredit Plame Wilson’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to the investigation said.

Sources close to the probe said the White House “discovered” the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004. Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his wife’s undercover status to reporters.

Cheney was not under oath when he was interviewed. He told investigators how the White House came to rely on Niger documents that purportedly showed that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African country.

Anything Cheney is hardly shocking anymore. Hell, just a week or so ago he shot his lawyer in the face!

Sheryl Crow

All the prayers and positive thoughts I can send your way, and to the other 200,000 women who will face the same as you this year, darlin'.

Maher

Bill Maher translates rap.

You get help from whomever's left living, little girl.

An Iraqi resident carries a girl who got injured after a car bomb attack in Baghdad February 23, 2006. Four policemen were injured in the attack targeting an Iraqi police patrol, witnesses said. [REUTERS/Ali Jasim]

You go to worship in the mosque that's left

An Iraqi boy is seen from a bullet-riddled window of Abi Ayoub al-Ansari mosque in northeast of Baghdad. (AFP/Ali Yussef)

Ohio Senate racing in circles

By now everyone knows my opinion of Sherrod Brown. It's a deeply ingrained opinion from my years living in Lorain county, Erie, and Cuyahoga county Ohio.

You also know my thoughts on Paul Hackett, and I developed those opinions during his congressional race, and through referrals to him from Rep. Louise Slaughter, as well as Atrios.

Since my initial outrage over what's transpired, I've been contacted at least daily by one or another of Brown's supporters. Why? First of all, if you're so damned confident that Brown will win, why bother with me? I'm also confused by the insistence that I support Brown, or I'll be betraying the party. I don't currently live in Ohio, so it's not like I'm with-holding a vote. I think it's highly likely that others who do live in Ohio and share my feelings about Brown -- when confronted with the decision on election day -- won't have any choice but to vote Brown. So, all y'all win. Unless Brown doesn't have what it takes to win the office, which I can't do anything about.

To be clear, I didn't post my link to Steve Gilliard's post until after a Brown supporter in the previous thread asked me to read a thread at Kos about Brown. If you keep stirring this before wounds have healed, all it will serve to do is drive a long felt wedge within the party, and frighten independents from voting Dem come November.

Your anger is displaced. What Brown, Reid, and Schumer did to Paul Hackett was not his fault, he was the victim. Expecting his silence on the matter is as twisted a demand as I can imagine. You can either drop the matter, or continue to hear things you don't like.

The "Mending Fences" Tour

"Breathtakingly Stupid":

Saturday's Rasmussen poll was one of the first points brought up and Brown was dismissive, saying that according to other polling, Hackett was 30 points down (no link; I'm unsure where that figure comes from). The Mother Jones article was cited several times by attendees regarding Reid's and Schumer's involvement, as well as the fundraising calls. Brown explicitly made no apologies for anything he or his campaign have done, stating that Reid, Schumer and the DSCC had offered him no help whatsoever prior to Hackett's withdrawal.

Brown said that Hackett's main fundraising sources were 'New York gays and Hollywood elites' (I think that was the phrase), and that "of course" his campaign contacted these groups and tried to convince them to give money to him rather than Hackett. A later question addressed whether he would be willing to sit down with Hackett and try to work out some kind of rapprochement; Brown paused for a moment, but to his credit he did voice his willingness.

Gilliard goes on to clarify some points, but I believe this goes only to demonstrate that Sherrod Brown is an asshole of epic proportions. The alternative is a repub, it's a bitch, but we were fucked the moment the machinations went into gear that led to Hackett's resignation.

[Hat tip to Prior Aelred]

~Music

The Village People: YMCA

TGIF

Cat Blogging

"Mission Accomplished"

Basra, Iraq:

In Basra, where the curfew was not in effect, gunmen Friday kidnapped three children of a Shiite legislator. The son and two daughters of Qasim Attiyah al-Jbouri — aged between 7 and 11 years — were abducted by several armed men near the family home, police said.

Also, news from Baghdad:

Twenty bodies of people who were killed overnight and this morning have been brought to the morgue, a police source said. About 200 Iraqis have been killed in Baghdad alone since Wednesday, prompting officials and politicians to appeal for calm amid growing concerns of a slide into all-out civil war.

Jeebus, I'm glad it's not an all-out civil war.

Just an FYI to all repubs . . .

Josh Marshall has a cache of Abramoff emails. Don Young has tripped himself up, who's next?

You're with us, or you're against us

The announcement came on the heels of comments from the second in command at the Pentagon, who said Thursday that people who publicly oppose allowing a Middle Eastern company to take over management of some U.S. ports could be threatening national security.

Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the Senate Armed Services Committee that blocking the deal could ostracize one of the United States' few Arab allies.

"The terrorists want our nation to become distrustful," England said. "They want us to become paranoid and isolationist, and my view is we cannot allow this to happen. It needs to be just the opposite."

It seems that it's a tad late for the pre-emptive, illegal wiretapping administration to start worrying about appearing to be paranoid, n'est ce pas? I smell a steaming pile of shit downwind.

Would we be any less alarmed at a POTUS outsourcing US ports to say, a European country, let alone the volatile middle east?

Till the war-drum throbb`d no longer

Iraqi soldiers are reflected in a pool of blood at the site where a roadside bomb exploded in central Baquba city, northeast of Baghdad. Gunmen have shot dead 130 people in two days of sectarian violence in Iraq after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine, prompting renewed political paralysis and warnings of civil war(AFP/Ali Yussef)

More Monty Python

The fish slapping dance.

Worst. President. Ever.

Americans are growing more concerned about the likelihood of another major terrorist attack in the U.S., a new Harris Interactive poll shows, amid an increase in dissatisfaction with the government's efforts to prevent an attack. Indeed, 66% of Americans say a major terrorist attack is likely in the next 12 months, up from 55% in June 2005.

A slim majority of Americans -- 52% -- say the Bush Administration has done a good or excellent job of preventing a terrorist attack since Sept. 11, 2001, down from a 70% positive rating two years ago, according to the poll of 1,016 adults conducted Feb. 7-14, 2006. But about 47% of U.S. adults polled say the government is doing only fair or poorly at preventing terror attacks, up from 30% in 2004.

Can we try to get this impeachment ball rollin' again, people?

Caption this.

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Citing “credible research" showing that children raised by Republican parents are more likely to be intolerant and egotistical, state Sen. Bob Hagan has sent out a request for co-sponsors of a bill to ban registered Republicans from adopting children or acting as foster parents.

~Music

Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody

You had to see this one coming.

Spongeback Mountain

"Waiting and Praying"

Baghdad Burning.

But, Saddam had rape rooms.

Body bags of Iraqi journalists and other unknown dead civilains lie outside the morgue of a local hospital in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad. Gunmen have killed at least 127 people in Iraq in sectarian violence that flared after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine and reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques(AFP/Dia Hamid)

South Dakota sold its women into Slavery

For a million dollars.

The aftermath

"Death to America which brought us terrorism," they chanted in Samarra.

More than a hundred are killed following the attack on a key Shia Muslim shrine.

Gun Shows

Perhaps even those of you not living in Michigan have heard of the New Baltimore slayings of Feb.15, committed by a man, age 27, and a young woman, age 19, who first met on the internet.

As details unfold, the story grows more gruesome. First, a young pregnant woman is strangled to death, then the pair leave to get beer before spending hours torturing the husband with things like bleach injected into his veins.

But, I don't mean to cover the details of a sadistic killing spree, or even get into the press comparing the pair to Bonnie and Clyde. I'd like to focus on what seems to be the catalyst of the crimes this pair committed after getting together. After becoming engaged in January, the two 'celebrated' their engagement by 'stealing' a handgun at the Gibralter Trade Center in Mount Clemens. The GTC is not a gun shop, but more a flea market, or gun show. I've been there, as well as other gun shows. A seller has a display table that isn't all that large, and they stand right behind it watching their goods. If by some chance the owner was distracted enough to miss the theft, anyone witnessing such would call out the crime as most rather cherish these shows, and wouldn't tolerate anything to give more reason for the anti-gun crowd to condemn them. Let's just say that I personally have a hard time believing the details regarding how the weapon was acquired.

Emboldened by their untraceable weapon, the couple begin to plan and chose a victim.

While I am an advocate of gun rights, I'm not a member of the NRA, and I strongly advocate the shutting down of gun shows everywhere. It would be a good riddance.

~Music

Black Sabbath: Paranoid

Nothing to see here, folks.

It's just anthrax.

More trouble for Noe

Coin dealer Tom Noe used $13.5 million in state investment money to build and improve opulent homes, pay off sizeable debts, pad a dwindling bank account and spend lavishly on a major golf tournament, according to auditors’ findings released Wednesday.

And Noe did it all under the nose of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, which failed to follow its own investment rules or to keep track of what Noe was doing, the findings show.

The latest evidence shows that the moment Noe got his hands on the money, he set about creating 'phantom' transactions.

Thanks, W

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen targeted 27 Baghdad mosques and killed three Sunni imams Wednesday in the wake of a bomb attack at one of the holiest Shiite sites.

The wave of attacks followed an early morning bombing at the Al-Askariya "Golden Mosque" in Samarra. The strikes, involving small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds, all happened between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., police said.

Three of the mosques were burned down, and in addition to the imams, three guards also were killed. One imam was kidnapped.

Eventually, someone will stop to think of who got Iraq into the state of chaos and lawlessness it's now enduring. Our terror alert should be raised, as if we come out of this unscathed it will be a miracle.

Jimmy?

President Bush is taking a battering from fellow Republicans, even the governors of New York and Maryland, over the administration's support for a decision that gives an Arab company control of some commercial operations at six major seaports -- including Miami-Dade's.

But he got a boost Monday from an unlikely source, frequent critic and former president Jimmy Carter, who downplayed fears that the deal poses a risk.

''The overall threat to the United States and security, I don't think it exists,'' Carter said on CNN's The Situation Room. ``I'm sure the president's done a good job with his subordinates to make sure this is not a threat.''

I think this is the first -- possibly only Dem -- I've heard speak up on behalf of this deal. Puzzling.

Breaking

State Sen. Charlie Wilson could be disqualified as a Democratic candidate in Ohio’s 6th district later today, a move that would deal an embarrassing blow to his party’s chances of holding one of the most competitive open seats in the country.

Will update as available.

Update: 4:45 -- Charlie Wilson failed to qualify. Via Roll Call:

State Sen. Charlie Wilson failed to qualify as a Democratic candidate in Ohio’s 6th district today, dealing an embarrassing blow to his party’s chances of holding one of the most competitive open-seat races in the country.

Caption this.

Osama in Dubai July '01 says French Intel.

Two months before September 11 Osama bin Laden flew to Dubai for 10 days for treatment at the American hospital, where he was visited by the local CIA agent, according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.

The disclosures are known to come from French intelligence which is keen to reveal the ambiguous role of the CIA, and to restrain Washington from extending the war to Iraq and elsewhere.

Bin Laden is reported to have arrived in Dubai on July 4 from Quetta in Pakistan with his own personal doctor, nurse and four bodyguards, to be treated in the urology department. While there he was visited by several members of his family and Saudi personalities, and the CIA.

The CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.

The American hospital in Dubai has denied the report, as well as has Washington.

The article also mentions wealthy Gulf princes flying private jets on hunting trips to areas sympathetic to Bin Laden, and there is no doubt of the truth to the lavishness of the hunting trips. A hunting enthusiast's website -- AccurateReloading -- is the pet project of a member of the UAE royal family, Saeed Maktoum.

Reports of Bin Laden living on dialysis have long circulated, and I've often thought if there was a dialysis machine, there would be a way to track it down.

If indeed the CIA did speak with Bin Laden such a short time before the attacks of 9/11, I'd certainly like to know what the hell they discussed.

All that Remains

Iraqi Shi'ites walk outside the damaged al-Hadi Shi'ite shrine, the Golden Mosque, in the town of Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad February 22, 2006. A dawn bomb attack wrecked a major Shi'ite Muslim shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Wednesday, sparking protests, some of them violent, and forcing an urgent government appeal to avoid sectarian reprisals. [REUTERS/Stringer]

Oil

is thicker than blood.

It's Wednesday

Monkey Blogging

[Note: This video is in vfs and takes a moment to load. May not be suitable for dial-up.]

Today's buzzwords in Iraq

Sectarian violence.

Sectarian violence.

Sectarian violence.

Sectarian violence.

Sectarian violence.

Heh.

Goin' nowhere in a hurry.

Wednesday Blog Round-Up

John from Blogenlust has a nice write-up on how current US attitudes towards Iraq are affecting progress in the region.

From our friend Oscar Wilde [the reader/commenter] across the sea:















DOES it matter?--losing your legs?...

For people will always be kind,

And you need not show that you mind

When the others come in after hunting

To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter?--losing your sight?...

There's such splendid work for the blind;

And people will always be kind,

As you sit on the terrace remembering

And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter?--those dreams from the pit?...

You can drink and forget and be glad,

And people won't say that you're mad;

For they'll know you've fought for your country

And no one will worry a bit.

-- Siegfried Sassoon 1918.


EconAtheist has an interesting article posted about a man being shot to death by a by-stander as he sat atop of a police officer. He's up for debate on the right to carry a concealed weapon.

Olaf @ Catch.com has an interesting tale of a former labor secretary, and caps it off with a report on last night's Hannity and Colmes -- of all people as guests -- Arianna Huffington and Ann Coulter? Together?

Michael of Informed Dissent is back online, and has some advice for the Donald.

And last but not least, Eric Jaffa of SpeakSpeak.org discusses a recent documentary on the early days of Air America, "Left of the Dial".

Will anyone hear us?

An update on Americans' views toward the war in Iraq finds some of the more pessimistic views Gallup has measured since the war began. A majority of Americans continue to say the war was a mistake and say that they oppose the war. Fewer than one in three Americans say the United States is winning, the lowest percentage Gallup has measured on that question to date.

The Feb. 9-12 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds 55% of Americans saying the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, while 42% disagree. On only one other occasion -- last September following Hurricane Katrina -- did more Americans, 59%, say the war was a mistake.

PBS: Operation Iraqi Freedom

A chronology from Frontline:

March 25

In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, units of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division engage in fierce battles witlh Iraqi forces and paramilitary.

By now, there have been more setbacks: A brutal three-day sandstorm has been swirling across southern Iraq and Fedayeen fighters are leaving the cities and attacking supply lines of the lead units. Five days into the invasion, the American advance on Baghdad stalls.

Back in Washington, retired generals have been appearing on television and commenting that the war is not going as well as it should because there are not enough combat forces on the ground.

Reference piece documenting the atrocities.

~Music

Black Sabbath: War Pigs, live 1970

Don't ask me, I don't know.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R., PA, may testify in the death penalty trial for Zacarias Moussaoui. As a witness for the defense.

Caption this.

[Reuters]

Reminder

Tomorrow is Blog Round-up day, so get those submissions in tonight.
culpaenator@gmail.com

I'm shocked.

Almost 100 prisoners have died in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since August 2002, according to the BBC's Newsnight programme.

A group called Human Rights First obtained the figures.

Of the 98 deaths, at least 34 were suspected or confirmed homicides, the programme said.

The Pentagon told Newsnight it had not seen the report but took allegations of maltreatment "very seriously" and would prosecute if necessary.

The report defines the 34 cases classified as homicides as "caused by intentional or reckless behaviour".

It says another 11 cases have been deemed suspicious and that between eight and 12 prisoners were tortured to death.

But despite this, charges are rare and sentences are light, the report says.

Shocked that there have only been 98.

Where . . .

*is* the flying spaghetti monster when you need her?

Bush threatens Veto

On UAE port deal.

The suffering, the sorrow, the glory of pain.

An injured Iraqi girl sits on a bed in Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad following an explosion, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Freedom needs many body bags.

The bodies of bombing victims lie inside a hospital after a car bomb attack in Baghdad February 21, 2006. A car bomb parked at a Baghdad market killed 21 people and wounded at least 25 on Tuesday in one of the worst attacks for weeks. An Interior Ministry official said the 25 wounded were nearly all civilians, while a hospital source said medics were treating at least 32 people injured in the explosion. [REUTERS/Thaier al-Sudani]

The Supremes

You can get stoned, but only if you're going to talk to God after doing so.

GWB

Strategic Thinker

How Sherrod Brown lost Ohio for the Dems

Asked by Hardball host Chris Matthews about rumors that photos exist showing him playing with human body parts, Hackett denounced the rumors and challenged anyone who could substantiate them to confront him.

"I have heard those stories, and they're absolutely preposterous," Hackett said. "I invite anybody who wants to make those allegations to come onto your show. I'll meet them here."

Hackett said he believes that the rumors came from Brown's campaign because he heard that from "multiple different sources throughout Ohio, all pointing in that direction."

Swift-boating Veterans is intolerable no matter which side of the political spectrum a candidate is on.

Poverty isn't Pretty

American journamalists have turned a deaf ear for as long as I can remember to the people the well-to-do would just as soon forget:

The flickering television in Candy Lumpkins's trailer blared out The Bold and the Beautiful. It was a fantasy daytime soap vision of American life with little relevance to the reality of this impoverished corner of Kentucky.

The Lumpkins live at the definition of the back of beyond, in a hollow at the top of a valley at the end of a long and muddy dirt road. It is strewn with litter. Packs of stray dogs prowl around, barking at strangers. There is no telephone and since their pump broke two weeks ago Candy has collected water from nearby springs. Oblivious to it all, her five-year-old daughter Amy runs barefoot on a wooden porch frozen by a midwinter chill.

It is a vision of deep and abiding poverty. Yet the Lumpkins are not alone in their plight. They are just the negative side of the American equation. America does have vast, wealthy suburbs, huge shopping malls and a busy middle class, but it also has vast numbers of poor, struggling to make it in a low-wage economy with minimal government help.

A shocking 37 million Americans live in poverty. That is 12.7 per cent of the population - the highest percentage in the developed world. They are found from the hills of Kentucky to Detroit's streets, from the Deep South of Louisiana to the heartland of Oklahoma. Each year since 2001 their number has grown.

Under President George W Bush an extra 5.4 million have slipped below the poverty line. Yet they are not a story of the unemployed or the destitute. Most have jobs. Many have two. Amos Lumpkins has work and his children go to school. But the economy, stripped of worker benefits like healthcare, is having trouble providing good wages.

Even families with two working parents are often one slice of bad luck - a medical bill or factory closure - away from disaster. The minimum wage of $5.15 (£2.95) an hour has not risen since 1997 and, adjusted for inflation, is at its lowest since 1956. The gap between the haves and the have-nots looms wider than ever. Faced with rising poverty rates, Bush's trillion-dollar federal budget recently raised massive amounts of defence spending for the war in Iraq and slashed billions from welfare programmes.

For a brief moment last year in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina brought America's poor into the spotlight. Poverty seemed on the government's agenda. That spotlight has now been turned off. 'I had hoped Katrina would have changed things more. It hasn't,' says Cynthia Duncan, a sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire.

I bet those Bush healthcare savings accounts would fix all this. If these folks would just tighten their purse-strings a bit and start putting their extra money aside . . .

Oooh, Veronica's mommy is po'd @ Mr. President

She even opened up the comments for nearly 3 whole hours on her rant about US ports being run by the UAE. The General showed up with what I thought were some suggestions that were right up her alley, and now no more comments. Shuckey darn.

King Kong

In 30 seconds, starring the bunnies.

Valley of the Wolves

Jon Stewart weighs in on the Turkish movie staring Gary Busey.

Goin' down . . .

Pollster John Zogby: On Bush, his overall approval/disapproval rating is 40%-60%, but he has his lowest support yet from those groups who make up his political base. Among both conservatives and those who consider themselves very conservative, 61% approve of the job he is doing. He gets only 32% of independents, and only 73% among Republicans – his lowest rating yet. Even rural voters give him just 50% approval, and 59% among those who say they are born again spiritually – marking the lowest ratings from both of these demographic groups. And Bush remains low among men, married voters and investors.

As for Iraq, his approval/ disapproval rating stands at 37%-63%; just 12% of Democrats approve of his handling of the war, compared to 88% who disapprove, which are percentages similar to our last poll. Among independents, 26% approve of his war leadership, while 74% do not, which is down slightly from our last survey. Only 68% of Republicans support his handling of the war.

On his management of the war on terror, Bush wins 43% approval, down from 67%at the time of his re-election almost 16 months ago.

This doesn't seem to leave Bush anyone to continue to try to appeal to other than the 101st fighting keyboarders.

Katrina videos

Benjamin Chappetta has filmed some stunning video footage of the most hardest hit regions of Katrina.

Update on Paul Hackett

No longer a candidate, Paul Hackett has taken his first public step to stay involved in congressional politics. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Political Action Committee announced today that Hackett, a major in the Marine Reserves, has joined its board of advisors.

He'll work with other board members including Wesley Clark, the retired general and former presidential candidate, and Leslie Gelb, the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, to get more modern-day veterans elected to Congress.

"Anyone who was upset about what happened to my Senate campaign should support IAVA PAC to help ensure it happens to no one else," Hackett said in a statement released by the PAC. "As a candidate for the House and Senate, I got a crash course in party politics that wasn't always pretty. IAVA PAC represents the best hope to get early institutional support to others who face the same challenges I did. I want to be sure that they do not suffer the same
fate that I did, by helping them build campaigns that can run strongly
without party support."

For more on IAVA PAC just click the link.

Now I can go back to Michigan . . . for now.

~Music

Reuben Sutherland: The Doves

Make Snowballs

As Cheek sat with a finger crooked over the key that would reveal his future, it mattered little that he was an elite athlete. All he wanted to be was a Harvard man.

He wanted it so much he had applied for early admission. He wanted it so much he applied nowhere else. He wanted it so much he retook the SAT last June to prove he had not lost any brain cells since taking it a decade earlier, when he was squeezing in high school correspondence courses around practices and competitions.

Cheek clicked on the message. "Appreciate the effort," he read. "Obviously, we receive many great applicants." Two months later, the rest of his rejection is a blur.

"I was devastated," Cheek said. Then he smiled. It was Sunday afternoon, the first day of the second week of the XX Winter Olympics, and the whole world, it seemed, was laughing with Cheek, who has become the unofficial good-will ambassador of these Games, the breakout Gets-It guy.

It started when Cheek won a gold medal in the 500 meters. He announced he was donating his $25,000 United States Olympic Committee bonus to Right to Play, a humanitarian organization based in Toronto that is focused on helping disadvantaged children through sports. The next day, Right to Play's Web site, which had been averaging 14,000 hits a day during the previous two weeks, received 93,329.

Since Cheek spoke up, Gap, the United States clothier, has pledged $25,000, joining others in a money chain that has surpassed $300,000.

Green Fields of France

by Eric Bogle

Well, how do you do Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile neath the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

And I see by your gravestone, you're only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen
Well I hope you died well, I hope you died clean
Or poor Willy Mcbride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the pipes lowly?
Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down?
And did the band play 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers Of The Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in nineteen-sixteen
In that faithful heart are you always nineteen?

Or are you a stranger without a name?
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered, and stained.
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

And I can't help but wonder young Willy McBride
Do those that lie here know why that they died?
And did they really believe you when you told them the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?

Well the suffering, and the sorrow, the glory of pain
The killing and dying they were all done in vain
For young Willy McBride it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again...


Hat tip to "Oscar Wilde" from the comments

PeacetakesCourage

Bravery

How the elderly are faring in Bushland

An elderly couple using a charcoal grill to heat their home while they slept were found dead Sunday, apparently of carbon monoxide poisoning, officials said.

Firefighters found the bodies of Clarence Johnson, 86, and Lottie Johnson, 95, in their bedroom after a neighbor who saw smoke called 911.

How are your Grandparents doing?

The thin green line.

In a recent study -- commissioned by the Pentagon -- Andrew Krepinevich of the independent Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a West Point graduate who served in a variety of Army roles, including a stint on the strategic plans and policy division, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University made some startling assessments that, of course, Donald Rumsfeld says to ignore:


Krepinevich says the Army can deploy no more than 13 brigades to hardship tours at one time. It now has 19 brigades deployed. To fill the gap, two Marine brigades have been sent to Iraq. "Stop loss" and "stop move" orders have been implemented. The reserves have been well tapped out. Active duty personnel now are commonly on their third rotation into Iraq.

The effects of this flawed strategy have been dramatic. The Army has no strategic reserve to call on if another threat were to develop. Divorce rates, domestic abuse and all kinds of mental and physical problems are on the rise among active duty soldiers. In sum, the Army is headed for a "catastrophic decline in recruitment and retention" unless something is done. The "thin green line," Krepinevich says, will break. And don't look to NATO, the United Nations or private contractors for more help, or expect Iraqi forces to develop without many years of effort.

By all accounts, that sounds like reality. I wouldn't expect the Donald to deal with it.

Repubs use the force

The Daily Show

"Last throes of the insurgency"

Iraqi medical workers stand near the coffin of a colleague outside a hospital in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, February 20, 2006. An Iraqi nurse was gunned down on Monday by insurgents on his way to work, witnesses said. [REUTERS/Helmiy al-Azawi]

I *love* NewOrleans

[REUTERS/Sean Gardner, str]
Members of the Krewe of Carrollton travel down Canal Street as thousands of revellers turned out to enjoy carnival festivities in New Orleans, Louisiana, February 19, 2006. Mardi Gras parades began rolling in New Orleans on Sunday, a symbol for many of both the city's proud commitment to its singular heritage and the deep uncertainties that cloud its recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Ohio Senate

Rasmussen reports:

Overall, 29% of the state's voters agree with Hackett and say he was betrayed by party leaders. Fifteen percent (15%) say he was not, but a majority of voters (55%) have no opinion on the topic. Among Democrats, 31% say he was betrayed and 24% say he was not.

Following Hackett's withdrawal, Republican Senator Mike DeWine has gained ground in his campaign for re-election. DeWine now leads Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown by nine percentage points, 46% to 37%


Brown's support among Democrats has fallen from 77% in January to 69% this month.

Brown has lost 8% already and this was before his staffer, Dan Lucas, was named as one of the swiftboaters. DeWine now holds a 9 point lead over Brown, and has double the cash on hand for the campaign.

The survey also found that 33% of Ohio voters believe the withdrawal of Hackett will make it harder for Democrats to win this seat in November. Seventeen percent (17%) believe it will make victory easier to obtain. Democrats are evenly divided on this point.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of Ohio voters believe DeWine will be re-elected while 29% expect Brown to defeat the incumbent. Republicans overwhelmingly expect a DeWine victory while Democrats are evenly divided.

Sure, bloggers like myself may well quit blogging about the topic, but the repubs are going to use this all through the campaign. Also, don't forget the Christmas party last year that Brown and his wife Cheryl -- the Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter -- attended causing rumors to stir after rather loud altercations with Hackett supporters that left guests shaking their heads, as well as the plagiarism whether you agree it was wrong or not.

This is my first visit back to Ohio since the St. Valentine's Day Massacre -- and early in the campaign -- but I think 'swift-boating asshole' is going to be sticking in a lot of people's craw on election day.

Spin

~Spin~

Colbert Report

The Word

Oh nooooooo!

Mr. Bill

Updates

The missing private jet from Germany was found in pieces -- along with six bodies -- near the Iranian border. No word on a cause for the crash.

Also, the bodies of the 10 missing crew members of the 2 helicopters that crashed near the horn of Africa have been recovered.

Plagiarism, the clear choice?

This is from the Cleveland news last November:

-- Rep. Sherrod Brown wrote to Sen. Mike DeWine last Friday, voicing concern about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's labor record.

Brown's language was crisp -- and was plagiarized.

Roughly 90 percent of what Brown, an Avon Democrat, wrote in his letter was lifted from an Internet posting by a blogger, as Brown's office acknowledged Monday when The Plain Dealer presented the similarities.

Brown had not credited the blogger, Nathan Newman of NathanNewman.org, or any other source.
. . .
"We couldn't decide who to respond to -- the person who sent us the letter or the person who wrote the letter," joked Mike Dawson, DeWine's communications director. "So we decided not to respond to either."



As much as I'd like to see the repubs lose control of the House this fall, this is not the way to do it. All of you know that, too.

Hi from Cleveland!

Back in my home town for a few days, so posting may be a bit lighter than normal 'til I return. Carry on.

Moharram

[REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl]
Iranian actresses perform in a modern religious play in Tehran, Iran February 17, 2006. The play was performed to commemorate Imam Al-Hossein and his family during Moharram.

What is play?

[REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash, str]
A child arranges bricks at a brick factory in Gadopur village, 30 km (19 miles) from the northern Indian city of Allahabad, February 18, 2006. Although India is expected to grow at more than 7 percent in the year ending March 2006 with finance planners in New Delhi highlighting its record foreign reserves, rising middle class incomes and booming stock market, around 26 percent of its population, 260 million people, live below the poverty line.

~Music

Kelly Clarkson: Because of You

Caption this.

Tale of Galahad

From Monty Python

All I need to know about the screwing over of Ohio.

In an interview with The Plain Dealer, Hackett said he knew the source of the rumors but didn't want to elaborate.

He referred a reporter to Clermont County Democratic chairman David Lane, who said Friday that he has "seen no proof that a Democrat" was behind the rumors.

He said Hackett might have mentioned him because he had told Hackett last fall that Dan Lucas, an aide to Brown, had said to him shortly after Brown entered the race that "there are things out there about Paul that I don't think he [Hackett] really wants to be made public."

DeWine just got himself another term in the Senate. The article tries to paint a picture of a man who simply couldn't hack [no pun intended] the world of politics. People will speak of things like sucking it up for the good of the "team" -- Brown's clan is not any team I want any part of.

Whose failure?

I'm too lazy today to go search for the quote from whomever it was that listed the philanthropy of the American people among the 'failures' of the Katrina efforts -- but I will show you this report from the Red Cross that disputes those words by showing the impressive generosity of the American people.

A Must Read

If you like beautiful, articulate, intelligent women who also have a bit of a poet in their soul.

The path to victory

The Colbert report.

Uh oh.

I think Rummy just got caught telling a whopper.

"Under the Gun"

WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi writes of her time in Iraq, and leaving it behind:

I began going to Iraq in October of 2002, when it was still ruled by Saddam Hussein. I covered the war from the Kurdish northern area, moving to Baghdad after the regime fell. For about a year after the U.S.-led invasion -- from the spring of 2003 to 2004 -- reporting in Iraq was challenging, but didn't always seem life-threatening. I shared the job of running our Baghdad bureau with my colleague Yochi Dreazen. We had a small staff of dedicated Iraqi employees who assisted us in gathering news. We could go almost anywhere in Iraq on a moment's notice and discover fascinating stories. We traveled in a regular car, unprotected. I wore Western clothes -- pants and T-shirts, skirts, sandals -- and walked freely around Baghdad, chatting with shopkeepers and having lunch or dinner with people I met.

I tried to make a home in Iraq, a task that seemed feasible at first, but grew more and more difficult. In the quest for a safe place, I moved eight times. Each location was more heavily fortified than the last. For a time, I lived with other journalists in a villa with black marble floors and wood-paneled walls and a garden dotted with orange and date trees, in the upscale neighborhood of Mansur. We left that house in 2004, after, within the space of a few weeks, a car bomb exploded outside our house and several foreigners were abducted and beheaded in the neighborhood.

The Hamra Hotel, where we maintained an office, is now barricaded behind blast walls, cement road blocks, checkpoints manned by armed guards and iron gates installed at the entrance. But even that didn't deter an attack on the hotel last November, when a truck packed with 1,000 tons of explosive detonated at the gate. Fortunately, it was too early for anyone to be in our office. It was demolished.

My Iraq assignment, at first a source of pride, eventually became my family's worst nightmare. They battled enormous anxiety, struggling to support my decision to stay in Baghdad. My grandmother, who lives in Iran, couldn't comprehend that I had volunteered for the post and kept insisting I immediately resign. I tried to protect them by being vague and downplaying the danger. I called and emailed after every massive explosion. My younger sister and only sibling, Tannaz, got engaged last summer. She had one request: "Your only gift to me is if you stop going back to Iraq. I just want you alive and at my wedding."

She paints a very vivid picture of the decline of the country into total chaos. The decision to leave Iraq came when the security firm that was hired for the reporters warned that insurgents were plotting to kidnap an American journalist. Fassihi's friend -- Jill Carroll -- was kidnapped at gunpoint, and her translater murdered two days later. Well worth your time to read, and there's even a short audio interview.

Raid

An Iraqi woman sits with her children as U.S. Army and Iraqi troops check her house during a 'knock and search' mission near the northern city of Tikrit February 17, 2006. U.S. Army troops with the 101st Airborne Division and Iraqi soldiers conducted the joint operation using helicopters and ground troops to search for weapons caches and disrupt insurgent activity near Tikrit. [REUTERS/Bob Strong]

Glaciers

The Ilulissat fjord, on Greenland's western coast. Over the past five years, glaciers in Greenland have been breaking off into the Atlantic nearly twice as fast as previously thought, contributing one-sixth to a sea level rise, US researchers said(AFP/File/Slim Allagui)

Happy Anniversary

To me! I've been so upset over what happened to Paul Hackett that I forgot. February 4th was my one year anniversary between my original hijacked site and this one. Thanks to all of you for sticking around and commenting, reading, and the great emails. Here's to another wonderful year *clink*