08 Aug

Civil War, Shmivil S'mores

From C&L, Bush offers another string of wisdom pearls for us lowly plebes:

 

"My attitude is that a young democracy has been born quite quickly. And I think the Iraqi government has shown remarkable progress on the political front. And that is is that they developed a modern constitution that was ratified by the people and then 12 million people voted for a government.

Which gives me confidence about the future in Iraq, by the way. You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box. And a unity government is working to respond to the will of the people. And, frankly, it’s quite a remarkable achievement on the political front."

 

But if we’re so far from having created one of the most destructive civil wars in global history, then why are we currently drawing up plans for just such a contingency?

The Bush administration insists Iraq is a long way from civil war, but the contingency planning has already begun inside the White House and the Pentagon. President Bush will move U.S. troops out of Iraq if the country descends into civil war, according to one senior Bush aide who declined to be named while talking about internal strategy. "If there's a full-blown civil war, the president isn't going to allow our forces to be caught in the crossfire,"

…

The administration hasn't made its definition of full-blown civil war explicit. But in March, when Iraq's former prime minister Ayad Allawi said the country was already fighting a civil war, Bush disagreed, noting the existence of Iraq's nonsectarian Army and government. If the country did someday meet the definition of civil war and the U.S. pulled out, military officials warn, the consequences would be disastrous. "All the neighboring powers would be drawn in," said one senior military official who has examined the scenarios and is not authorized to speak on the record. "It would become a regional war."

Meanwhile, after proposals to dramatically expand the authority of military courts, our practically Gandhi-esque Attorney General (hey, at least Ashcroft is outty):

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the US government could "indefinitely" hold foreign 'enemy combatants' at sites like the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We can detain any combatants for the duration of the hostilities," said Gonzales, speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"If we choose to try them, that's great. If we don't choose to try them, we can continue to hold them," he said.

In related news, Bush postpones the 2008 elections. (yes, it’s satire … c’mon people! Oh, but the rest of the post was real. Do I have to explain everything?)

07 Aug

The excuses continue

I have, in fact, arrived at my next destination. All signs indicate that you should be lavishing your hearts and minds in my brilliant yet humble exposition on the state of world affairs. Alas, as the saying goes - tough tittie (damn odd expression, n'est pas?). I am at my mother-in-law's house and, right on cue, her adorable (yet mildly demonic) kittie is giving my histamine production a good 'ol workout.

I finally broke down last night and took a Benedryl - whose side effects are possibly worse than the symptoms - and after feeling a bit better tried to get some snoozing in. But for some reason I just kept getting worse and worse and finally got out of bed in order to keep from waking my partner with my wheezing snores. As I'm leaving the room, I realize that I had been using the cat's blanket as my own and had literally been shrouded in a tent of allergens. Yeah, yeah ... go ahead and call the wah-mbulance, but the point is I'm not really up to blogging today.

BUT ... since you spent your hard-earned bucks to visit me, I'll go ahead and leave you with a couple of videos to while away your dreary hours until my next post. The first is a collection of clips from a Japanese tee-vee show where they go around waking people up in crazy ways. WARNING: go to the bathroom BEFORE you watch this. The second video is just a damn clever/cool music video using treadmills. Enjoy!
04 Aug

So much to frag, so little time

Obviously, posting has been light for a couple of days.  Between family visits, birthday of the head matriarch, and float trips down the Colorado river, I've been completely swamped (yeah, cheesy pun intended).  Posting will resume as I find precious moments and will hopefully return to quasi-normalcy after the weekend.  In the meantime, look out for this guy who was last seen hiding under a desk somewhere in the pentagon catacombs.


03 Aug

Mucking up a century of fiscal responsibility

From MyLeftWing, here is another fun little chart of economic indicators, this time measuring household debt in the U.S. La-dee-da-da, all through the century, and the BAM! Curiously, this must be an act of sabotage by some vicious demon or lesser imp, because there is no way such a dramatic downturn could occur during a time period when the fiscally conservative Republicans control all three branches of government.

Seriously, though. This is what happens when you drag a country into war while telling people to go shopping, and then hammer them with the idea that the economy is strong even if their personal wealth doesn’t reflect it. Who wouldn’t spend beyond their means?

In a sense, the ultimate irony of this is that the banks and big business, the two strongest lobbies for such deficit spending, will both bear the biggest brunt of this fiscal irresponsibility when it all comes crashing down. It’s just too bad the common folk will be the ones caught in the middle while Wells Fargo’s ‘former’CFO will be lounging it up in his Caribbean tax shelter.

03 Aug

The GOP double-standard

I’m too lazy to do anything but plagiarize August, but I’ve been really interested in this story: 

You might remember our good friend Jason Mattera, the spokesman for the conservative college group Young America's Foundation, who rudely refused to give press credentials to a Campus Progress reporter at YAF's annual convention because, well, he felt like it.

Well, a writer for the Washington Monthly was gracious enough to use his credentials at the event to write some additional material for Campus Progress. Jason Mattera's response to this was to call the writer a closeted gay and kick him out of the conference. 

Mattera already has a history of inept public relations- for example, his famous helming of a "whites only" scholarship to oppose Affirmative Action, while he himself was receiving a minority scholarship grant. But I think it's very important to consider this concept: it's perfectly fine for a college conservative to be an inept, bigoted coward, but it might actually be a problem when his actual job is media spokesman for his organization. 

For the record, after Mattera's last tantrum with Campus Progress, the head of YAF backed Mattera completely. It's really a perfect example of how conservatives treat the most inept of their lackeys. Mattera's one more act of making a public embarassment out of himself from getting the Congressional Medal of Freedom.

03 Aug

Big money in Net Neutrality

According to Roll Call, the Net Neutrality issue has bogged down passage of the new Telecom Bill as being just “too controversial (and technical) to deal with at the height of a heated election season.”  TPM has another take:

But there may be another reason that the Senate's GOP leadership is holding back on the bill, the paper tells us: it's generating a ton of campaign donations to Republicans, especially helpful in tight races. Why decide an issue today, when you can make millions by putting it off?

As it happens, "net neutrality" is a dream issue for Senate fundraisers, as it pits two prodigiously deep-pocketed interests (the telecom giants on one side, the internet giants on the other) against each other. Wishing to influence the outcome, both sides are reportedly writing checks at a furious pace, fueling a "torrent of campaign cash" for the GOP.

Sigh.

01 Aug

Lamont and Colbert: Rise of the Relevant

C & L has a rough transcript.
01 Aug

Babies and Mommies are gross!

From Pandagon:

 

The above image generated over 700 protest letters to the editor of BabyTalk magazine. Some of the comments:

“I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine.

“I immediately turned the magazine face down”

“Gross.”

“I shredded it. A breast is a breast — it’s a sexual thing. He didn’t need to see that.”

“Gross, I am sick of seeing a baby attached to a boob.”

A poll of more than 4,000 readers showed that, 25% of responses to the above cover were negative, citing the photo inappropriate.

The depths of American hypocrisy and mysoginy never cease to amaze me.  Go read the full article.

01 Aug

Down with Chancellor Wal-Mart

Germany bids auf wiedersehen to Wally-World (emphasis added):

Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt of the University of Bremen didn't mince words in their study called "Why did Wal-Mart Fail in Germany?"

The authors wrote: "Wal-Mart's attempt to apply the company's proven US success formula in an unmodified manner to the German market turned out to be nothing short of a fiasco."

One example of that might be that Wal-Mart's American managers pressured German executives to enforce American-style management practices in the workplace. Employees were forbidden, for instance, from dating colleagues in positions of influence. Workers were also told not to flirt with one another.

A German court ruled last year against the company's attempt to introduce a telephone hotline for employees to inform on their colleagues.

High labor costs may have been a big hurdle for Wal-Mart Germany, as well as workers who tried to resist management's demands which they felt were unjust.

One Wal-Mart employee told the newsmagazine Der Spiegel that management had threatened to close certain stores if staff did not agree to work to working longer hours than their contracts foresaw and did not permit video surveillance of their work.

This is what happens when a citizenry feel empowered to oppose unfair business practices. If only Americans workers enjoyed the fair protection of a government by and for the people.

01 Aug

If you're hetero and you know it clap your hands

Tidbit from TPM:

Rev. Johnson is insinuating that if the Stricklands really weren't gay, why, they'd file a lawsuit and go to court so they could prove it and clear their good name. Until that happens, Johnson says, he's "withholding judgment" on the Stricklands' sexuality.

The Columbus Dispatch has more:

In an interview Thursday, Johnson perpetuated the rumor by suggesting that the Stricklands file a lawsuit and go to court to prove they are heterosexuals. If Lankford's claim is untrue, Johnson said, "It's slanderous and they've got a case. I'm withholding judgment until the facts are in."

When it comes to the Stricklands' sexual orientation, it appears that for some Ohio Republicans, the burden of proof lies with the Stricklands.