The Guys Who Really Have WMD

I did not see this post but it is more than worth reading.

Tom Ricks's Inbox

Sunday, October 8, 2006; Page B03

The following is the concluding paragraph of a letter sent by an Army captain struggling to make sense of his recently ended tour of duty in Iraq. Like many who have spent time there, he offers a summation of his experiences. But his stands out for its eloquence. This excerpt follows his discussion of how the United States might withdraw from Iraq by supporting a partition of the country.

. . So we would leave Iraq, scarred, but hopefully smarter as well. The "long war" is a war of ideas. If Iraq is to teach us anything, it must be that a new idea cannot be beat into a society. I'm a believer in John Stuart Mill's assertion that "All people have the government they deserve," implying that both the choice and its consequences belong to the society as a whole. Rather than putting my faith in the force of arms to transform a society, I put my faith in the force of our ideas. The power of the idea of America had been on the march for half a century -- vanquishing its contrapositive in the form of global communism and gradually changing the face of the world -- until those who didn't really believe it themselves corrupted that idea. "Extraordinary rendition," Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib have all become shorthand for an America (or an American administration) that lost faith in the power of its own idea. Their hypocrisy seemingly exposed, people who had embraced and were gradually working towards that American idea in the world's most volatile regions were emasculated. These liberals, moderates, progressives and reformers have been overwhelmed by a new generation of extremists determined that an open society in which people were free to express themselves, to make decisions about how to live their own lives, and to have a voice in dictating the laws that would govern them was not a desirable one. What gives me some degree of hope is the ultimate vacuity of this alternative to the American idea. But as long as they can point to the adoo baeed -- the external enemy -- to deflect the blame from their own moral and material bankruptcy, they may stay afloat. If we're able to reassert our idea and to hold it up to people as a real choice, I know this current setback can be overcome. No amount of violence inflicted in the name of freedom, however, will be the force to bring it about.

* * *

Tom Ricks is The Post's military correspondent. This feature aims to give readers a snapshot of the conversations about Iraq, Afghanistan and other matters that play out in Ricks's e-mail inbox. Have an interesting document? Send it to TheInbox@washpost.com.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601383.html

Whole bunch of sickos.

ESPECIALLY the Korean-American supporters of the W regime who have wanted a war in their home country all along - and now see a perfect excuse for it. They must be hanged, shot, or beheaded, in the name of the 70 million people of both Koreas who will now suffer due to their politics.

I can tell you that the Marines at the nearby base (where I work at) are already hard at work preparing for an invasion of the Korean Peninsula. The only question is when.

Posted by: April at October 9, 2006 12:06 PM

The fact that W, someone who believes in limiting freedom, is pretending to "protect" and "spread" freedom, shows just how morally bankrupt we have become.

I'm also a strong believer in the people getting the government they deserve. And unless the American people wake up fast, the disgrace that is the W regime is all we indeed deserve.

Hello from Prague!!

NK aside (the headlines are everywhere here), it is so wonderful to be in a place where the arts and culture and history and HUMAN BEINGS are so revered. This is a beautiful city, but also one that loves being a city with a heritage. And yet, it has contemporary social commentary galore.

I walked across the Charles Bridge and looked at the art, the stunning river, and the ancient architecture, heard music coming out of a church, and wandered the cobblestone streets looking at beautiful crafts, including crystal and marionettes.

I will catch up on the blog and the news later, because I feel the need to believe in a world of loveliness for just a while longer.

Peace to all of you. And yes, Casey, I am going into that church and lighting a candle for the world.

Reposted cause I was on the wrong thread.

You know what? The discussion earlier on this message board stuck in my mind.

How do you not only make people listen but give them the tools to fight back all in one neat package that can be bundled and served with full effect?

The key is the language.

I think we can all safely agree that the propaganda is the blow that brought this nation to its' knees.

This is what makes the truly poetic truly dangerous to a government going wrong. A poet will be the first to hear the lie in the tone, or realize the context has been obscured. Any good writer will not only see it, but be able to articulate it.

What I am about to ask is a serious yet rhetorical question that you all should think more about. It is not directed at any one person here:

When someone lies to you, to your face, and you know for a fact they are lying...Are you the type of person that will call them a liar?

If not, why not...?

When trying to give the masses, your friends, your family, the message of what is happening, re-inforce to them what they already know to be true.

Lying is wrong, and good must confront wrong or be consumed by it.

How do you deal with politicians that do not give a damn about you? Again, the key is language. What you say will change everything.

I almost attempted the other day to explain to DW 'the shut down effect' we have been dealing with in Alines case for 23 years, but I did not feel it needed much explaining in that context.

What the police have been doing here is the exact same way corruption works everywhere.

If you demand answers they turn their backs on you. They pretend to listen for a little while, then they freeze you out until you shut up.

They, the corrupted, all depend on one thing. That you are polite and mannered enough not to simply call them a liar to their face and demand to know why they are lying.

If you are not the type of person that will confront them, then and there, they will keep lying and keep spinning and keep drawing it out and drying it up until you could scream.

They DEPEND on you being good and decent. They depend on you being politically correct. They thrive on it.

Being a kind person, and being rude to liars are not mutually exclusive acts.

How does simply calling someone a liar when you know they are lying, to their faces, how does this help?

I will tell you how.

Because in that moment, in that instant when they are exposed, you have just began to hold them accountable.

Even if it does only last a moment, it will be a moment that lying politician can not just walk away from uneffected. It may just last a moment, but it may also just be the ONLY moment in his whole life that they will be held to account.

If your accusations and facts are true, it may be the moment others were waiting for.

If everybody does it, those moments will keep adding up until someone does come along that can nail their ass to a wall for it.

If everybody does it, and is expected to do it, to toss off that political correctness in the face of liars, then those that lie will not be so eager to keep doing it.

History will belong to those that write it, however, it will be won by those bold enough to speak the truth even when that is all you have.

Confronting liars with the truth, is the only thing we have left.

The courage to actually do it, will also be found in the words of poets.

And while kj was giving us all a beauty call on the previous thread, famed rant-wingnut Neal "Unlike Rush I Actually Mean What I Say" Boortz was busy blaming the North Korean nuke test on, you guessed it, the same old horsemen of the reich-wing apocalypse:

"Ahhhhh ... appeasement. It makes you wonder just how long it will be today before the Democrats start making similar statements. My bet is that some leading Democrat will step forward and demand two-party talks before the sun goes down. I'm betting on either John Kerry or Al Gore. Maybe Hillary!"

What, no Barack Obama?

I'd post the URL for the famously fatuous fathead's eponymous website here, but I'll be hanged if I'm gonna give his site any click-thru links from our own. Feel free to find it for yourself if you want. But please practice safe nanosecs and wrap your computer in a condom first.

or a large garbage bag will suffice in a pinch,
Otter

You can thank NYT columnist and Bush Family Gadfly Maureen Dowd for the following injection of much-needed levity into an otherwise unfunny morning:

-----------------

[snip]

Indeed, the president and his top advisers were IM-ing just last night about the party’s meltdown. I hacked into the OVAL1600 chat room and prepared a transcript. Warning: politically explicit language, reader discretion advised.

Decider: hey

Rover08: ya

Decider: Dick, u here? Don?

DarthV: ya, potus

Rumstud74: ditto, boss

Decider: I called denny to tell him i just can’t quit him ...brokeback party ... did we decide right?

Rover08: ya ... even if we’re now the party of gays and a weak military, let’s not let the Dems paint us that way

DarthV: obvi

Rover08: btw, denny’s toll-free tip # was pretty lame ... 1-800-HORNDOG or whatev ... reporters r joking the spkr’s IM name is fatfallguy06 or CapitolRotunda

Decider: lol

Rumstud74: golly, dont care who gets voted off island, long as it’s not me :)

DarthV: dont worry, rummy, u know we’re BFFs

Decider: wait! I thought I was ur BFF ...

sexylibrarian: hon, sorry to interrupt, but i think denny and rummy should BOTH go ... they’re off the heez. women are hating on Foley and Iraq and it could ruin your admin

Rumstud74: ur a bigger pain than condi, laura ... why dont you go rd a book? read wdwrd’s book ... you sure helped him write it, litl ms tattletale

Decider: haha

sexylibrarian: george!

Decider: u know u r my First Babe ... as that ad goes, u must know karate, cause your body’s kickin’

DarthV: brb ...i’ve got kissinger on teh phone. Can u believe hes never heard of IM?

Rumstud74: hope the nsa’s not snoopin on that conversation

Decider: but I thought we only listened in on terrorists

Rumstud74: don’t ask, don’t tell, kid

DarthV: you’re a scream, rummy

Rumstud74: denny and I both wrestlers ... you think he’d know how to handle some man-on-man grappling w/o all this Henny Penny nonsense. lay the smackdown on nancy pelosi and pin the puny press on the mat

DarthV: you’ve still got the muscles and the moves, Big Guy

Rumstud74: OMG, dick, we gotta shut up Warner on getting outta Iraq and shut up Frist about getting in bed w/the Taliban ... and we gotta yank those pesky videos of snipers shooting at American soldiers off YouTube ...let’s fire up the old censorship machine

DarthV: that’s hot ... censorship is hot ... torture is waaay hot

Rover08: knock it off, you two ... back to biz ... this man-boy lovefest on the Hill is def messing up my mojo with evangelicals ... after all my hard work demonizing gays, my God-gap is shrinking

Decider: if the dems win the house, will they start investigating me?

Rover08: oh ya, that’s why we gotta get back on the offensive with our own agenda: pretending to keep the country safe

Decider: totes!

sexylibrarian: u coming to bed, Bushie?

Decider: do i have to read more shakespeares ... promised boy genius we’d play w/ the fart machine for a few min ... c u l8r ...

Rover08: whoopeeee!

-----------------

wine me dine me IM-nine me,
Otter

Christy knows. You gotta bust 'em on their bullspin.

As Molly Ivins recently pointed out, "You know, it's one thing to tell a whopper yourself -- it's adding insult to injury to call the people who point this out liars themselves."

And when it comes to whoppers, these lying dogs sure believe in supersizing.

you want fleas with that?,
Otter

I saty in a cafe in Bratislava with friends from the States and Europe. They were lamenting the lack of grassroots anti-war activism. They are sophisticated thinkers and they do what they can, as we all do. But talk is cheap, as they say.

I didn't say it though. I did tell them what I do, when I can.

I did not have the guts to say to them: "WELL,where have you and your friends BEEN??? I know so many are discouraged, but it does not help to be blase about the state of the world right now. It's going to take some FIRE. Also feet to pavement.

Karen
Good to hear

“Why should I care about North Korea?” - George W. Bush

In State of Denial, Bob Woodward recounts a conversation between then-Gov. George W. Bush and then-Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar, in which Bush wonders why he should care about North Korea. “I get these briefings on all parts of the world,” Bush said, “and everybody is talking to me about North Korea.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/09/why-should-i-care-about-north-korea/

Monkey
Shows Bush is not the player he thinks he is. Japan will probably go further to the right. The UN will probably be headed by a South Korean. Things will continue to shift around, and Bush will not be able to call the shots. He's ill-informed, has bad advisors & bad intelligence so far, & is running out of money (spending on credit). In the latter way, he's not so different than Kim.

My head is swimming with questions. Now will the big powers will huff and puff about hungry DPNK and threaten sanctions & interceptions of materials heading in & out.? Can they actually
stop NK from becoming a nuclear state? Wasn't there ample warning? Why couldn't China convince them to stop? Why did the six party talks break down? Why did sanctions backfire in the past and won't they now? Isn't NK in bad shape financially & hungry? Is it the weapons card Kim is playing? What can Japan's new PM do other than talk tough? More sanctions? Wouldn't that make NK even more desperate & unstable? US help? Nukes for Japan? Wouldn't SK want them? Taiwan? How would China react to that? Will the "sunshine policy" die out, between NK and SK? Will they cut off food aid etc now? Wouldn't that only aggrevate the situation? What can the international community do? How will this affect iran? Won't the UN have its hands full? Will Washington want to talk with NK or Iran directly at all? Have they ever? Will more carrots be offered now? Will NK want what Iran gets & vice versa? Why did Bush reverse course from what Clinton was doing (carrot)? Can we invade every country w/WMD? Depose every Saddam? With what army? Was it ever realistic to impose regime change on the so-called 'axis of evil'? What about global proliferation?

Scandals stymie W's momentum

BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF

WASHINGTON - Suddenly, like the fierce "blue northers" that sweep across Texas each autumn, the political winds have turned bleaker for Republicans - and President Bush's private mood has blackened accordingly.
Just two weeks ago, as gasoline prices plummeted and his tough-talking terror counterattack began moving poll numbers his way, Bush turned bullish on the November elections.

"He's on scent and he's driving hard," a longtime political confidant of the President reported early this month. "He's got the microphone and thinks he's controlling the political debate."

First Lady Laura Bush, who is even more in demand than her husband on the political stump this cycle, also was telling aides she thought the tide had finally turned.

Now, however, friends, aides and close political allies tell the Daily News Bush is furious with his own side for helping create a political downdraft that has blunted his momentum and endangered GOP prospects for keeping control of Congress next month.

Some of his anger is directed at former aides who helped Watergate journalist Bob Woodward paint a lurid portrait of a dysfunctional, chaotic administration in his new book, "State of Denial."

In the obsessively private Bush clan, talking out of school is the ultimate act of disloyalty, and Bush feels betrayed from within.

"He's ticked off big-time," said a well-informed source, "even if what they said was the truth."

[Curiously, former chief of staff Andrew Card, who according to Woodward wanted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sacked, rode along on Air Force One with his former boss for the christening of the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush in Virginia yesterday.]

Moreover, Bush's personal disgust with the GOP sex scandal involving ex-Rep. Mark Foley has exacerbated his already-strained relations with congressional Republicans. While publicly embracing House Speaker Dennis Hastert, sources close to Bush say he thinks Hastert and other GOP House leaders have bungled their handling of the Foley affair and look like they've been engaged in a coverup.

Bush has complained, these sources said, that the scandal torpedoes furious GOP efforts to reenergize a dispirited political base - especially Christian conservatives.

"There's steam coming out of his ears over the Foley thing," someone who talks to the President regularly said. "The base is starting to get turned off again."

For all the misery, Bush remains defiantly resolute. He will campaign relentlessly in the next month and has told friends he's determined to prove his Democratic and media enemies wrong on Election Day.

Bush is less worried about his standing with history, telling aides that George Washington's legacy is still being debated two centuries later. But he understands that losing one chamber of Congress will cripple his lame duck-weakened final two years.

"He's remarkably optimistic," a Bush insider said. "Like Ronald Reagan, he has a gift for looking beyond the morass in front of him and sticking to his goals, even if it's not popular."

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/459722p-386715c.html

Now that is scary.

Christy
The Happy Fools - they should have been Jesters rather than Kings.

You know who I feel sorry for? The North Korean people. They rely on foreign aid - 23 million of them. Their farming system broke down years ago and they used to depend on the Soviets.

Hey Karen,

While the WH is being surrounded on election day, it is still not too late to use those same numbers to blockade the WaPo and read them their own words back to them.

Confront them on their lies.

It is not about them, it is a symbol. It is a logistical need we can not afford to let slip one more inch.

Make sure everyone has as much orange as they can wave. Not one person seeing it or being there will mistake it. The entire world will understand.

Lead them to where they need to go and they will follow you.

And speaking of reich-wing Rethuggery, he segued gratuitously, geopolitik is crucial but all politics is local. And it doesn't get any more localized for the likes of us than a story I just posted over at CultureKitchen under the headline "Spreading the News: Feminist Blogger Denied EC, Gets Pregnant."

I'm not going to repost snippets of it here, since quoting myself quoting someone else quoting someone else seems just a little bit too recursive for words. And besides, the otterpost in question probably deserves to be observed in its native habitat anyway.

So I will shamelessly self-promote by flogging the relevant URL for said post here instead, thereby adding to its DCP-sourced hits count at CultureKitchen and providing you with a properly full-bodied reading experience at the same time:

http://www.culturekitchen.com/node/9518

feel free to add your own $.02 because after all MMMV,
Otter

What would it be like to live in Iraq? I did a bunch of reading at Wikipedia & a couple other encyclopedic sources. I felt like reviewing. By the way - why are we there? I don't know.

Does any of this sound new?!! It sounds to me like deja vu!!

"During the British mandate, the country was ruled by British colonial administrators who used the British armed forces to put down rebellions against the government."

"Iraq was granted independence in 1932 by the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces in the country."

- They have usually been ruled by figureheads- many military coups (dictatorships)
- 1968 rise of Saddam Hussein, back during 1980s by US, USSR,
France - against Iran
- 1990 Gulf War followed by UN sanctions, with up to 800,000 Iraqi children dying as a result
- Invaded in 2003 by mostly US coalition on suspicion of WMD and against will of most of world; also possible links to Al-Quaida, which did not actually exist except AFTER the invasion; to remove Saddam; to bring "democracy" to Iraq (the main excuses but real reason probably to deter Iran)
-Interim government established but still 140,000 plus mostly US troops remain in face of insurgency, attacks, sect violence and at least 50,000 civilians dead, voting occurs along ethnic lines, militias prevail, politicians & police constantly attacked
- Religious extremists vs Saddamites who want power back vs nationalists who don't want to be occupied, Kurds who want autonomous region
- Economy has been 95% oil-dominated but Iran-Iraq war ruined economy so the country went into huge debt to foreigners, part of why Kuwait got invaded
- Iraq is hard to reconstruct because it's wrecked & factions keep fighting, Halliburton keeps some of the money
- Speak mostly Arabic & Kurdish but some only Assyrian, Turkman, Armenian, Farsi
- 60% Shiite, 30% or so Sunni, quite a few Christians but also Baha'is. Most Kurds are Sunni. 97% of total are Muslim (Shiite or Sunni)
- Modern Iraq - Kurds in north, Sunnis around Bagdad, Shiites around Basra, and thousands of "marsh people"
- Music - the oud and rebab (like flute & fiddle) & when Saddam still in power, most popular station played rock, pop and hip hop. This has to come to Jordan because of sanctions.

Did you know that in the brain, the color orange stimulates hunger. No, I am not kidding.

Orange is the color of hunger, it is only fitting it is also the color of Revolution.

Do you know what the world needs most right now?

They need one unmistakable image that signals we have not gone quietly into the night. You will have to feed them that image of us.

They need to know that WE THE PEOPLE have found the problems and are aware of the stakes. They need to SEEEEEEEEE IT. They need a reason to believe in us, for just a little while longer.

So ...show them.

Give them a reason to believe, and they will. They are starving for that belief.

I know you do not want to keep hearing it. I do not want to keep saying it.

But I am too hungry now and I will keep going until I drop dead from it or gain satisfaction, so help me God.

Even if you do not bother the WaPo in their little vipers nest, at least bring orange. Lots and lots and lots of it.

Good thing tis the season when lots of that very color just so happens to be floating around.

Georgie is cornered. We will not be able to contain his murderous ways nor insulate ourselves from them much longer. He will kill as many as he likes on whim alone. He has already proven that.

There is no more time.

Otter
I read & posted. I had been reading about South Dakota (former home state) today, along with Iraq and North Korea - because it's another battleground. All of these places repress women.

I put a pumpkin on my step - it's orange and green

As someone pointed out ages and ages ago, NK does not have oil... Ergo, it's not even on PNACs radar for any kind of serious military action. The Cretin did try to tie NK to Syria and Iran after he said 'the international community will respond.' And (so far) it seems he's letting the UN take care of this situation, if the brief statement this morning is any indication. (I actually 'listened' to his mercifully short statement with all of the mispronounced words and stumbling delivery.) The US certainly can't effectively respond in any way, other than DimWit's usual warmongering and fearmongering rhetoric - not unless Herr Boosh reinstates the draft and trains them extra fast, like within days, since the US military is already over-extended in Iran and Afghanistan, and with our guard and reserve troops in those countries, it leaves the continental US totally vulnerable. That means that the only countries who can "respond" include anyone but the US.

NK has wanted a face-to-face meeting with the US for a long time; Herr Boosh has refused, just as he's refused to talk to Iran's leader(s) - all Herr Boosh wants is war, war, and more war to take over oil-rich countries per PNAC objectives, pointing out that he believes those countries need 'regime change' and that means he/PNAC want to install puppet democracies and write their constitutions like they've done in Iraq which give US oil corporations major perks (for major profits). Kim has said the US poses a threat to world peace, and their nuclear bombs are a way to prepare to defend itself because 'the US is a threat.' Totally hate to say it, but Kim has a point; the US is a "threat." The only one to start an illegal war based on lies in the last five years, saying Iraq was a "threat," has been Bu$h, and now he keeps repeating that Iran is a 'threat' and has set his sights on invading Iran next (even with an ineffective military force - unless he reinstates the draft or just decides to bomb Iran to smithereens via the air force). The only country that's a "threat" to any peace and stability anywhere in the world right now is our country under Herr Boosh's "leadership." The US under Herr Boosh can't be relied upon to make peace or broker peace between any warring nations now; all Herr Boosh wants is to invade oil-rich countries and set up puppet democracies where technically only the US/PNAC rules and writes their constitutions and sets up permanent military bases....

I suspect Herr Boosh will waste his breath and get a lot of TV time and sound bytes talking about NK being a 'threat' - but it will be just that: talk (oh, and he will manage to segue into 'war on terra' and 'ter-rirists' and fear, and support the troops by keeping them in Iraq to stay the course to 'victory' - the usual Bu$hSpeak). It's hard to fathom how or why he would do anything other than participate in UN sanctions against NK. On the other hand, he is the mentally unstable Dictator-in-Chief (Gee, thank you, Rubber Stamp Congress for voting for the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that gives DimWit dictatorial powers; you bloody fools!), and he could "decider" to do something totally insane that would never occur to any of us who don't have the ability to follow his megalomaniacal and paranoid thought processes....

~~~~~~~~

North Korean Nuclear Test Another Bush Failure
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100906Z.shtml
North Korea's apparent nuclear test last night may well be regarded as a failure of the Bush administration's nuclear nonproliferation policy. Since George W. Bush became president, North Korea has restarted its nuclear reactor and increased its stock of weapons-grade plutonium, so it may now have enough for 10 or 11 weapons, compared with one or two when Bush took office.

Oops... I meant to write 'overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan....'

Mea Culpa!

Echoing Drudge and Savage, Dobson and Henninger claimed Foley scandal is "sort of a joke" and a "prank[ ]" by pages

Summary: James Dobson and Daniel Henninger both echoed a claim previously made by Matt Drudge and Michael Savage that the sexually explicit communications that Rep. Mark Foley allegedly engaged in with former congressional pages were "sort of a joke" or a "prank[]" on the part of the former pages.

-snip-

On Focus on the Family, Dobson was responding to a New York Times column by Paul Krugman, in which Krugman wondered how Dobson would respond to the Foley scandal given Dobson's earlier criticism of former President Bill Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. From Krugman's column (subscription required):

It will be interesting, by the way, to see how Dr. Dobson, who declared of Bill Clinton that "no man has ever done more to debase the presidency," responds to the Foley scandal. Does the failure of Republican leaders to do anything about a sexual predator in their midst outrage him as much as a Democratic president's consensual affair?

In response, Dobson again criticized Clinton and then suggested that the sexually explicit instant messages allegedly sent by Foley to underage male pages were the result of "sort of a joke":

DOBSON: We condemn the Foley affair categorically, and we also believe that what Mr. Clinton did was one of the most embarrassing and wicked things ever done by a president in power. Let me remind you, sir, that it was not just James Dobson who found the Lewinsky affair reprehensible. More than 140 newspapers called for Clinton's resignation. But the president didn't do what Mr. Foley has done in leaving. He stayed in office, and he lied to the grand jury to obscure the facts. As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a -- sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages.

more...
http://mediamatters.org/items/200610060004

The New York Times: The White House and Mr. Abramoff
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100906Y.shtml
The New York Times: "The sordid Mark Foley controversy has diverted public attention from another major Washington ethics scandal - the influence peddling involving the disgraced former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff. That's good news for the Bush administration, given freshly heightened suspicion that its dealings with Mr. Abramoff and his sleazy K Street operation were far cozier than it is willing to admit."
Excerpt:
Meanwhile, the idea that Mr. Abramoff exerted no influence with the administration seems about as believable as Mark Foley's early claim that his only interest in 16-year-old pages was "mentoring."

"North Korea's apparent nuclear test last night may well be regarded as a failure of the Bush administration's nuclear nonproliferation policy."

er, what nonproliferation policy?

Posted by: monkey at October 9, 2006 03:41 PM

Dobbie's gonna go to hell for lying, since the IMs were not a joke of any kind....

Anyway, how on earth can Dobbie or the religious reich compare Foley's sexual predation directed at minors ... to Clinton's adultery with a stupid intern who was at least a consenting adult??? Makes no sense whatsoever.

And, it seems Foley did have sex with at least one of the pages, but he may have been over 18 by then and was not still a page at the time. The IM chats could still be classified as Foley trying to 'groom' the minor for later when the page was over 18....

The 'ISSUE' is the cover-up for at least six years by the Republican leadership who knew about Foley's predeliction for sexual predation directed at minors who were pages, and they did NOTHING to protect the minors. They are guilty of protecting a sexual predator in their midst, which is just as evil as the sexual predation itself. The pages were at least warned about Foley by outgoing pages (or whomever), and the pages exhibited more responsible behavior than the so-called adults who were trusted to protect the pages in their charge. Unless more pages come forth with information, it seems at least a majority of the pages had enough common sense to avoid Foley.

er, what nonproliferation policy?
Posted by: aimzzz at October 9, 2006 03:52 PM

My thought, too, since there was a story a few months ago that he's planning on starting new nuclear testing in NV again (if the testing hasn't already begun and no one's reported it yet), in addition to proposing spending more money on adding more 'nooculer' bombs to the US arsenal. (I don't remember reading that any legislation passed about it, but since no one ever turned down any of his spending bills, I'm sure there's money allocated for more bombs floating around there somewhere, even if it's borrowed money....)

There are enough nuclear bombs in the world between all countries who have nuclear weapons to blow everyone on the planet to smithereens. Why are more bombs necessary? Isn't it time to stop stockpiling weapons (nuclear, in particular) and making PEACE in the world...?

It's past time to start electing US leaders who advocate peace and getting along with our neighbors on this ever-shrinking planet.

Dobsons version of "Focus on The Family" sounds more like the Don protecting "the family", iffen ya knows what I means?

Focal on the Fecal
aka "who YOU doin?"

Monkey
Did the pages play "sort of a joke" on poor Mister Foley, kind of like the soldiers at Abu Graib did kind of a "college hazing" sort of thing there? Boys will by Boys.

Shall we review?

What Rush Limbaugh actually said about Abu Graib:

let's not get too crazy and call them Nazi-like. ... Worse happens in frat houses across America ... bad pictures with some guys playing naked Twister. It's bad, but we don't want to get too crazy."

What Rush Limbaugh actually said about Congressional pages:

But you know as well as I do that young kids make fun of gay people. They make fun of the way they talk; they make fun of the way some of them walk and so forth. Who knows what the word around town about fellow Foley was. Who knows? We all know that young people gay bash. Young people do a lot of stuff. They don’t have the maturity to understand this kind of stuff…

I tell you, folks, you’ve got this page out there; you probably have a bunch of pages laughing and making fun of Foley and the way he comes on to them, and he’s gay and so forth, so they egg him on and so forth….

(I found these by Googling - Media Matters etc)

Had to check out Coulter's latest:

"But now, the same Democrats who are incensed that Bush's National Security Agency was listening in on al-Qaida phone calls are incensed that Republicans were not reading a gay congressman's instant messages. "

NOW THAT IS REALLY SILLY, ANNE COULTER!

Democrats are on their high horses because Republicans in the House did not immediately wiretap Foley's phones when they found out he was engaging in e-mail chitchat with a former page about what the kid wanted for his birthday.

SHE CHANGES THE SUBJECT TO COMPARATIVE WIRETAPPING

Maybe we could get Democrats to support the NSA wiretapping program if we tell them the terrorists are gay.

HUH? THE ISSUE IS ABOUT BEING GAY?

(no link needed - Anne Coulter is irrelevant)

Speaking of "irrelevant," didn't Bush used to say that about the UN & now he comes crawling to them immediately!

If you wanted to drop by and say hi, they've reopened the blog at JK's place:

http://www.johnkerry.com

I just posted to say "hi"

WASHINGTON Oct 9, 2006 (AP)— The U.S. Army recruited more than 2,600 soldiers under new lower aptitude standards this year, helping the service beat its goal of 80,000 recruits in the throes of an unpopular war and mounting casualties.

The recruiting mark comes a year after the Army missed its recruitment target by the widest margin since 1979, which had triggered a boost in the number of recruiters, increased bonuses, and changes in standards.

The Army recruited 80,635 soldiers, roughly 7,000 more than last year. Of those, about 70,000 were first-time recruits who had never served before.

According to statistics obtained by The Associated Press, 3.8 percent of the first-time recruits scored below certain aptitude levels. In previous years, the Army had allowed only 2 percent of its recruits to have low aptitude scores. That limit was increased last year to 4 percent, the maximum allowed by the Defense Department.

The Army said all the recruits with low scores had received high school diplomas. In a written statement, the Army said good test scores do not necessarily equate to quality soldiers. Test-taking ability, the Army said, does not measure loyalty, duty, honor, integrity or courage.

Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a private research group, said there is a "fine balance between the need for a certain number of recruits and the standards you set."

"Tests don't tell you the answer to the most critical question for the Army, how will you do in combat?" Goure said. But, he added, accepting too many recruits with low test scores could increase training costs and leave technical jobs unfilled.

"The absolute key for the Army is a high-school diploma," Goure said.

About 17 percent of the first-time recruits, or about 13,600, were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems, including misdemeanor arrests or drunk driving. That is a slight increase from last year, the Army said.

Of those accepted under waivers, more than half were for "moral" reasons, mostly misdemeanor arrests. Thirty-eight percent were for medical reasons and 7 percent were drug and alcohol problems, including those who may have failed a drug test or acknowledged they had used drugs.

more...
http://tinyurl.com/jq6hr

Dwahzon is French? Who knew?

parlez vous um, er....,
Otter

CNN poll shows huge gains for Democrats

RAW STORY
Published: Monday October 9, 2006

A new poll just revealed by CNN indicates that Republicans will have an uphill battle ahead of them in the 29 days before the midterm elections.

With 52% indicating they believe there was a deliberate cover-up of the Foley affair and an equal number reporting they believe Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) should resign, more Democrats are indicating that they are enthusiastic about voting than Republicans.

Most astonishing, however, is that while 58% of Democrats consider themselves likely to vote, just 44% of Republicans see themselves heading to the polls this November.

In all, the news agency is reporting that the Democratic lead among likely voters has nearly doubled--from 11 to 21 points in the last week.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/CNN_poll_shows_huge_gains_for_1009.html

Gee, just read we have invaded S Korea, so to speak, way in advance of diplomacy.

Also read that evangelicals are not blaming the GOP for Foley, since it's his homosexuality that's the cause. Notice how quickly the coupling of gayness and predatory behavior, when 95% is done by heterosexuals. Again, the baiting.

In the same lefty NYT that seems to be campaigning for Lieberman, the Independent, these days.

Prague friends always wove stories about Europe having too much history and the US too much geography. A beautiful city undamaged by WWII.

We hope to go one day. Enjoy for all of us, Karen.

Gee, just read we have invaded S Korea, so to speak, way in advance of diplomacy.

Also read that evangelicals are not blaming the GOP for Foley, since it's his homosexuality that's the cause. Notice how quickly the coupling of gayness and predatory behavior, when 95% is done by heterosexuals. Again, the baiting.

In the same lefty NYT that seems to be campaigning for Lieberman, the Independent, these days.

Prague friends always wove stories about Europe having too much history and the US too much geography. A beautiful city undamaged by WWII.

We hope to go one day. Enjoy for all of us, Karen.

I just tried to post, but wouldn't allow another post so quickly, asking to try again. I hadn't posted. Whats up?

Sorry! A new computer and no MOUSE. I'm going crazy.

Democrats quick to pounce on N. Korean test
With election a month away, candidates charge Bush neglect

By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
Updated: 32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The shock waves of the North Korean nuclear weapons test rumbled through the 2006 campaign Monday, with Democrats quickly seizing the chance to argue that President Bush and the Republicans had neglected the North Korean threat.

Bush had warned in his 2002 State of the Union speech of the menace from what he called the “axis of evil,” the regimes in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. “I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer,” he declared. “The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.”

That speech created an expectation that President Bush might take military action against the North Korean regime, but Democrats charged Monday that Bush had let Korean despot Kim Jong Il continue his weapons building.
In New Jersey, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez — in a tight race with Republican Tom Kean Jr. — issued a statement saying that the Korean nuclear test “illustrates just how much the Bush administration’s incompetence has endangered our nation.”

Charge that Bush ignored Korea
“We invaded Iraq, the country that didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, and ignored Iran and North Korea, the two that did,” Menendez said.

A potential 2008 Democratic presidential contender, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin issued a statement denouncing Bush for using the vehicle of six-nation talks involving China and Japan to try to persuade North Korea to forego its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Sunday’s nuclear test, Feingold said, showed “the weakness of the Six Party approach as well as the danger of this Administration's hands-off approach to North Korea.”

He added, “the stakes are too high to rely on others to address the North Korean crisis.”

Where Democrats usually criticize Bush for what they call a “go it alone” strategy in Iraq, on Monday some Democrats took the opposite tack, criticizing him for being too multilateral and not unilaterally negotiating with North Korea.

“Bush aided and abetted the outsourcing of American jobs, and now he’s outsourced our diplomacy as well,” Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean cracked.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15199174/

Marjorie: "I have no mouse and I must scream"

it's an ellison wonderland out there,
Otter

“Why should I care about North Korea?” - George W. Bush

Posted by: monkey at October 9, 2006 01:53 PM

Because Korean-Americans vote for you in droves, moron!

(Of course, monkey, you're not the moron. W is.)

Posted by: DiAnne at October 9, 2006 05:01 PM

And look who's the castrated gay man here...

MANN COULTER.

Posted by: DiAnne at October 9, 2006 02:22 PM

The sunshine policy is dead.

Go hit some South Korean news websites, and they'll be full of South Korean right-wing nationalists asking to surrender their country's military command and sovereignty to the US Republican Party once and for all. They claim that the left-wing regime's "sunshine policy" has only prepared South Korea for a communist takeover by the North Koreans. Pure baloney.

They would rather sell out themselves to be safe, than to be independent and sovereign.

Apparently, thirty-five years of brutal Japanese rule a century ago is now completely forgotten.

Honestly, any country that wants to surrender its sovereignty does NOT deserve it. But the question is, is South Korea even worth the trouble of annexing into the Union?

Ally
Thanks for weighing in on SK & NK & also the Mann.
I was waiting!

Statement of John Kerry on Reports of North Korea’s Nuclear Missile Test

Washington -- Senator John Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ranking Democrat on the committee’s Asia Subcommittee, issued the following statement on reports of North Korea’s successful test of a nuclear missile:

“Reports of North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon is an extremely dangerous and destabilizing event. Weapons of mass destruction pointed at our allies and strategic partners represents a shocking failure of President Bush's security policy, and a threat to the interests of peace and stability in the world.

While we’ve been bogged down in Iraq were there were no weapons of mass destruction, a madman has apparently tested the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

Tough talk followed by weak action or no action isn’t a policy. The Administration must finally wake up and start doing the diplomacy necessary to address this threat. The North Korean regime should be condemned in the strongest possible terms, and the international community must together take the steps necessary to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons once and for all.

We can’t afford a nuclear arms race in the region, with Japan, South Korea and even Taiwan believing they have to match North Korea. Nor can we afford to have a rogue nation even Donald Rumsfeld labels “an active proliferator” sell nuclear weapons to hostile regimes or terrorist groups.

Getting this right will require this Administration to demonstrate the leadership they’ve failed to provide as years of absent or bungled diplomacy allowed the threat to grow exponentially. Even when told this test was coming, the Administration sat on the sidelines and hoped others would do the job. If Japan and South Korea could send their leaders to China, surely George Bush could have sent a top level negotiating team with a mandate to stop this test from going forward. We need to get off the sidelines.”

Damn! Kerry has a book from way back where he talks about nonproliferation and ways to fight terrorists, Mafias etc.

People didn't listen. I'm going to check out his blog.

Posted by: DiAnne at Apple store at October 9, 2006 06:46 PM

Apple Store... great!

I'm definitely considering switching to a Mac for my next machine myself. Can't go bluer and smarter than that in the computing world!

I won't be able to give up PCs completely because some of my favorite programs don't have Mac versions, but Macs can now run Windows natively, so that should help.

Ally
This machine is incredible - the one with Intel core 2GHz iMac.

Also, Robert Fisk is weighing in - this is worth reading, especially the conclusion. Interested to know what people who read this think about it. I just received it via email but I always watch for Fisk.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1814843.ece

People didn't listen. I'm going to check out his blog.

Posted by: DiAnne at October 9, 2006 06:51 PM

Well, if people were actually smart enough to listen, Kerry would be our President now, and this crisis would be handled in a more intelligent manner.

But then, at least here in SoCal, we were far more likely to listen to reactionary immigrant demographics. We're in serious trouble when *South* Korea is considered our communist enemy, and the yellow flag of our puppet state South Vietnam is the real flag of Vietnam - two "truths" propagated by our immigrant communities into the mainstream.

Posted by: Otter at October 9, 2006 05:50 PM

Dwahzon is French?? What made that connection for you? Well, the name certainly isn't though the person does have some French ancestors.

Didn't we do all that work toward a Nuclear Freeze back in the early '80s? My son was a "Baby Against Bombs!!" US & USSR de-escalated some of their big stuff. For us, it was probably an excuse to build more for the benefit of the profiteers. Perhaps we can use the N Korea thing as a wake up call.

All Nine Nuclear Powers Are Violating Non-Proliferation Treaty
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100906A.shtml
"As North Korea becomes the eighth confirmed nuclear power (Israel is not confirmed but considered the ninth) some of the blame has to go to the original five nuclear powers," writes Scott Galindez. "When the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect in 1970, the five countries who had nuclear bombs - the
US, France, China, Great Britain, and the USSR - agreed to work to reduce and eventually eliminate their nuclear arsenals. Now, 36 years later, no disarmament talks are taking place between those countries."

Welcome to the Nuclear Club
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100906E.shtml
Norman Solomon writes: "For more than 50 years, Washington has preached the global virtues of 'peaceful' nuclear power reactors - while denying their huge inherent dangers and their crucial role in proliferating nuclear weaponry. The denial meant that people and the environment would suffer all along the nuclear fuel cycle, from uranium mining to nuclear waste, and that the 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island would be followed by the continuing horrors of Chernobyl."

Hey now... in our rush to go pop champagne corks over at the risen-from-the-dead Kerryblog, please let's don't forget that the DCP still needs all of us and vice versa... after all, the DCP blog has been here for us during all of the long dark times, and it wouldn't be fair to jilt it like a spurned lover just because there's another pretty face in town again...

:0)

ménage à blogues,
Otter

Posted by: Otter at October 9, 2006 07:59 PM

Well stated, Quilligan.

On CNN today, a key Republican figure suggested that North Korea's nuclear test was good for the GOP.

"[I]f there's any chance that this story can move the Foley story just a notch or two over to the left, this is excellent news for Republicans," said GOP strategist Bay Buchanan, appearing on CNN's The Situation Room along with host Wolf Blitzer.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Video_N._Korea_Nuke_test_excellent_1009.html

FOX News has followed its recent blunder of misidentifying Republican Mark Foley as a Democrat by doing the same with Senate hopeful Sheldon Whitehouse, showing him as a Republican when he is in fact the Democratic candidate for US Senate from Rhode Island.

The error was made on Saturday's episode of Beltway Boys and repeated throughout the weekend.

In November's general election, Whitehouse faces moderate Republican incumbent Lincoln Chafee, whom FOX likewise misidentified as a Democrat.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Fox_mislabels_Chafee_challenger_as_well_1009.html

I'm sure it was just a joke, or a prank...

The principle of Occam's Razor applies here, marc, in spades (with two aces and a run in hearts)...

prank the monkey,
Otter

Prague friends always wove stories about Europe having too much history and the US too much geography. A beautiful city undamaged by WWII.

We hope to go one day. Enjoy for all of us, Karen.

Posted by: Marjorie G at October 9, 2006 05:57 PM

Marj and Karen, Yes, too much history,in that beautiful city. In 1968 (as the Czechs endured yet another of their several unwanted invasions/takeovers ), one Czech writer said, "Prague is in the heart of Europe. The problem is that the heart is always beating. . " Karen, have a pivo for us!

The mid-term elections are still 30 days out and anything could happen between now and then (and probably will, ahem)... but the latest round of political polls is still encouraging to the likes of us. Reuters has a good round-up piece on several of them here: http://tinyurl.com/eh7be

WWSD: what would scooby do,
Otter

Posted by: Otter at October 9, 2006 08:35 PM

Are you suggesting I have a tale reduction?

Only if is a monkey tale towed by an idiot, full of sand and furry, dignifying nothing.

draggin' the line,
Otter

for anyone interested :0),

Dick has a thread started over the the Kerry blog, and there is already a troll who needs to be addressed.

Just in case anyone's interested.

http://blog.johnkerry.com/2006/10/kerry_to_administration_get_of.html#comments

Well, that explains what Mr. B. has been doing with his idle hours lately...

:0)

Posted by: Otter at October 9, 2006 07:59 PM

Hear, hear -- or is it, here, here??

But you're right -- this has been a pretty amazing community over the last 2 years.

Hey, Carol:

You may remember what I told you a couple years back about what to do when it smells like troll spirit on a blog:

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time, and it annoys the pig.

And as the late great Ann Richards pointed out, "You can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it's still a hog."

So pay no attention to those trolls behind the curtain, folks. Just call them Monique, wish them a more intelligent and useful future in their next lives, and go do more productive things with your own time instead.

:0)

depose premier boosh and his repolitburu apparatchiks *now*,
Otter

Thanks for the reminder, Otter.

Sometimes it's just fun to annoy the pig anyway. :0)

Just saw an interview with the filmmaker of "So goes the nation," pretty much slamming the Kerry campaign, that we didn't speak to the what the people wanted.

Attempting to be even-handed showed a lot of creds to the GOP. Interested if they mention the reluctant media (who wanted Bush for their business), or the fear factor.

Said the voting machine issue wasn't part of his conclusion.

Not looking forward to a view that was too outside the process (they started 13 days before the election).

Said Hillary could be packaged by the "A" team (that I might add weren't helping Kerry with ideas like he should go along with the gay amendment).

Wow it was Columbus Day today. Columbus didn't discover gold but he discovered slaves, and gave young girls to sailors against their will. So not much to celebrate - another myth.

(source - Thom Hartmann - radio)

Voters May Be Too Embarrassed to Vote Republican

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/288066_shlaes10.html

Really good argument for deproliferation of the world's nuclear weapons

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1891568,00.html

Really good

Posted by: Otter at October 9, 2006 07:59 PM

Awww....you say the sweetest things.

Posted by: Carol at October 9, 2006 11:28 PM

Craving bacon?

Posted by: Otter at October 9, 2006 07:59 PM

Seriously...Otter is right. And this is the perfect place to speak out about some of the grassroots issues I'm having as a precinct captain.

Yes, both the Dems and Repubs are doing it...the calling. I cringe at making these calls. Their unwelcome and dead ineffective as far as I'm concerned.

I went to a lunch for one of our candidates a few weekend ago and that went well. We had a good showing for it but in all honesty, I think the good showing was due to luck and circumstances rather than anything the hostess and I did. (Basically, they lived near the church along a crop-walk route and the party was on Sunday.)

So in essense, as precinct captain, I'm asked to follow their guidelines and report back to my manager on the effectiveness of my (our) calls.

I will be asking my manager today if I am allowed to use the list to invite people to a general neighborhood party. I'd like to skip the questions and just invite everyone and have all the candidates there from both parties.

I think if we show openess and acceptance and co-operation it would help the party and the country at large.

Is this feasable? Anyone have any suggestions?

I just don't know. All I know is that the calling is depressing me.