VAST LEFT WING CONSPIRACY

Uh oh... Tom DeLay has "very good evidence" of vast left wing conspiracy.

Pop Torture

Last weekend I was discussing with a right wing friend the possibility that Gonzales would be Bush's next SCOTUS pick. I said that Bush might think twice about nominating him because the confirmation hearings would drag into the light the fact that Gonzales helped the White House enable torture.

His response:
"Have you seen the polling on that? Most people say we are not treating the detainees harshly enough! There is no way Bush is concerned about that."

Not to get all Santorum, but I ran across this today:

"Why babble about brutality and get indignant about tortures? The masses want
them. They need something that will give them a thrill of horror." - Adolf Hitler.

HT: Sullivan, who has been a clear and strong voice from the right opposing the Bush torture policies.

We Have A Winner

The game is over for one Tom Delay.

Congrats Rudy.

Although both Rudy's guess and mine were off the mark by four or five months (inspiring a bit of ribbing from Soup at CC), they were both closer than Rocky's guess, which was off by five years. And Rudy, employing the old Price is Right tactic, edged me out by a few days.

Heck of a Job Watch

Brownie is not only embarassing, he's a liar, too. Under oath, mind you.

And he's back on the Bush Administration payroll, sucking $148,000 yearly from my tax dollars and yours.

Why? Because noone else would employ this three time loser? Because he's running his yap about Bush's boozing? Or is it simply because the Administration can't ditch even its most incompetent and petulant members?

Thank you Captain Fishback

A soldier, patriot and Christian balks at the White House-ordered torture of detainees.

Capt. Ian Fishback, a West Point graduate, contacted the Senate panel with the charges within the last 10 days, saying he was frustrated that his superior officers had failed to respond, said committee aides.

In recent letters to several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Fishback said he witnessed detainees being stripped, deprived of sleep, exposed to the elements and "forced into uncomfortable positions for prolonged periods of time for the express purpose of coercing them into revealing information other than name, rank and service number."

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Friday that one of the sergeants told the group, "We would give them blows to the head, chest, legs and stomach, pull them down, kick dirt on them. This happened every day." The sergeant reportedly described the mistreatment at a base near Fallouja as "just like" Abu Ghraib, saying, "We did that for amusement."

One day a sergeant shows up and tells a PUC [person under control] to grab a pole," Human Rights Watch said one of the sergeants recounted. "He told him to bend over and broke the guy's leg with a mini Louisville Slugger, a metal bat."

In their statements, the three said that collectively they witnessed soldiers delivering blows and kicks to prisoners' faces, chests, abdomens and extremities, pouring chemical substances on skin and eyes, and forcing detainees into stress positions such as holding heavy water jugs with outstretched arms

He told the committee that, over the last 17 months, he first wrote a memo to his company commander, saying the military was violating the Geneva Convention. He said he was told to consider the honor of his unit, and the commander said "he would not stand up for me if I took my issues higher," one of Fishback's letters said.

Fishback said he "immediately took my concerns to my battalion commander," who told him this was a "gray area." He spoke with Army lawyers, he said, and was told the same, that things like "stripping prisoners and chaining them to the floor can be in accordance with the Geneva Convention."

Still frustrated, he called his congressman. Then early this month, he approached the Senate panel, which had held hearings on events at Abu Ghraib.

Fishback said he was especially bothered when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the committee last year, right after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, that the military was obeying the rules of the Geneva Convention.

"I was immediately concerned that the Army was taking part in a lie to the Congress, which would have been a clear violation of the Constitution," he said.

"Interrogation techniques that violated the Geneva Convention found their way into Army systems. The problem was systemic, and it was widespread."

Remember what the right wing did to Dick Durbin when he said we needed to look into the abuse of detainees? It's disgraceful.

Just Some Ongoing Investigations . . .

Frist's cat may be getting skinned by the SEC.

Delay might be getting indicted tomorrow for general sleaziness.

Richard Perle is facing an SEC investigation, pumped up another notch by one Patrick Fitzgerald.

To say nothing about this Republican governor. And this one. And this ex-governor.

Meanwhile the rest of the gang is frantically working to keep their Dear Leader's skeletons in the closet.

Maybe they ought to go back to just 86ing any prosecutor who starts looking up their sleeves.

A Pig and His Pork, II

I can't believe I'm linking to Michelle Malkin, (via Sully).

Is this the beginning of the sphere coming together? Finally, something that all Americans can call foul on.

Now, about government-sanctioned torture . . .

The Enlightenment

Dan Drezner notes that some former Bush loyalists are starting to open their eyes to the magnificent failures of the administration. Why not? No harm in taking potshots at a lame duck after you've helped put him in the pond. Bang! Fiscally irresponsible! Corrupt! Overly moralistic! Loyalty fetish! Incompetent! Where were these folks in November of last year when we were trying to change all this?

I've been wondering lately... where will Bush bottom out? He's hovered around 40% in his approval ratings for a while. But will that ever drop? My guess -- there are 30% of Americans who would support Bush if he took a dump on the American flag, freed Saddam, and banged an intern on a raft in New Orleans. Unless the intern was male, of course.

The 30% Club aren't fiscal conservatives or libertarians (although you can bet some will try to paint themselves with those brushes). They don't believe in merit-based rewards. They aren't concerned with malfeasance of any sort. They just support Bush. That's all they know.

Worst. Administration. Ever.

Hurricane wreckage along the coast?

SEND ICE TO MAINE, ASAP!!

A Pig And His Pork

Last week, John McCain raised the possibility that states might consider taking some of our tax money they had managed to wrestle into the transportation bill and turning it instead to Louisiana. Seems like a stellar idea to me, especially considering the possible $200 billion rebuilding effort that Bush is ready to tack straight onto our national debt.

Some folks in my home state have taken action, as city leaders in Bozeman, Mont., have begun investigating whether they can give Katrina victims the $4 million they got in the federal bill for a downtown parking garage.

How about Don Young (R - Alaska), who managed to suck $223 million of our tax money up to Alaska for a bridge connecting an island inhabited by 50 people to the mainland (despite an existing, and perfectly adequate, ferry service)? What did he say when asked about calls to give up the pork to help rebuild after a disaster of epic proportion?

"THEY CAN KISS MY EAR!"

Young is apparently fond of extending offers to kiss various parts of himself. I'm not sure what the (h)ell to make of this one.

When your taxes are raised to pay for rebuilding the Gulf Coast (or, if the GOP stays in control, your childrens' taxes are raised), be sure to send a nice letter of thanks to Don Young. Enclose a few bucks, so he will read it.

Cronyism

A good, short piece from The New Republic connecting the Katrina disaster to conservativism and cronyism. Here is an excerpt:

The implication from Dowd and Sullivan is that, while cronyism is a constant feature of presidential politics--both cite Bill Clinton specifically--Bush has practiced a particularly egregious version. Krugman blames the pervasiveness of cronyism in the Bush administration on its lack of intellectual seriousness. But all of this may be a little too hard on Bush, if such a thing is possible. The problem may have less to do with the current president than with conservatism itself.

I think this article has something to it. Top level career public servants are vital to passing on lessons learned in the decades preceding and they allow for a certain amount of stability. I think events like Katrina, and both parties are to blame, are caused by politics over policy. Something that is so prevalent in the Bush Administration.....unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the Looters Keep Looting

Yeah, funny story. We had the one billion dollars . . .

One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history . . .

The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army capable of bringing security to a country shattered by the US-led invasion and prolonged rebellion, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.
"It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history," Ali Allawi, Iraq's Finance Minister, told The Independent. "Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but scraps of metal."
. . .
The Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit says in a report to the Iraqi government that US-appointed Iraqi officials in the defence ministry allegedly presided over these dubious transactions.
Senior Iraqi officials now say they cannot understand how, if this is so, the disappearance of almost all the military procurement budget could have passed unnoticed by the US military in Baghdad and civilian advisers working in the defence ministry.
Government officials in Baghdad even suggest that the skill with which the robbery was organised suggests that the Iraqis involved were only front men, and "rogue elements" within the US military or intelligence services may have played a decisive role behind the scenes.

George Bush Aint A Gold Digger . . .

Legendary K.O. remixes Kanye. Good stuff.

Getting Right On It

The staggering amount of our tax money that will go into rebuilding the Gulf Coast is something that some will surely complain about. I think it's a great use of our tax money, though.

So, let's see the federal government get to work.

Unfortunately, they are still wasting our resources scraping every barrel looking for someone else to blame for Katrina's damage.

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department
of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your
district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers
against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise
impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please
describe the case and the outcome of the litigation.

Surprise, surprise.

Self Parody Watch

You think this is a joke?

Think again.

Compare:

It has one more blade than the Quattro sold by rival Schick, a unit of Energizer Holdings Inc., plus a trimming blade on the back of the pivoting cartridge for shaping facial hair, trimming sideburns and shaving under the nose.

Gillette was the first company to sell a three-bladed razor, Mach3, in 1998. Five years later, Schick followed with the four-bladed Quattro.

_________________________________________________________________

The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That's three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture.

_________________________________________________________________

Some had expected Gillette to bring out a four-bladed razor, perhaps a self-lubricating one. Instead, it jumped to five blades, or six including the trimmer, and will sell Fusion-branded shaving gels and after shave balm.

"There was never a plan to go to four," he said. said Peter Hoffman, president of Gillette's blades and razors business, who said Fusion was in the development pipeline for several years.

_______________________________________________________________

But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened—the bastards went to four blades. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to five blades.

Sure, we could go to four blades next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, three worked out pretty well, and four is the next number after three. So let's play it safe. Let's make a thicker aloe strip and call it the Mach3SuperTurbo. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we're a business, that's why! ...

Here's the report from Engineering. Someone put it in the bathroom: I want to wipe my ass with it. They don't tell me what to invent—I tell them. And I'm telling them to stick two more blades in there. I don't care how. Make the blades so thin they're invisible. Put some on the handle. I don't care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!

UPDATE: I emailed this to Sully. He put it up on his blog, but in a serious breach of blogger etiquette, he failed to give me the hat tip. Damn you, Sullivan. Damn you.

The Tombstone of Arthur Lawson

"If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

Fire Brownie

I mean, the Irish canned George O'Leary for this, and he hadn't even proven himself a failure at his job yet.

update: 2GL speaks, the administration listens?

Activist Governors

Most, if not all, of my conservative friends claim to support the idea of gay marriage. Perhaps that reflects the generational nature of the backlash against the idea. However, several of these folks claim that judges should not declare bans on gay marriage unconstitutional, but that the legalization of gay marriage must come from legislatures. I tend to believe that marriage is a fundamental right that should not be denied to consenting adults based on their sex alone, but I understand and respect the process argument.

So, how about when a state legislature legalizes gay marriage, and the governor promises to veto it? Why should Arnold have more power than nine of our finest judicial minds?

Nostradomer?

Turns out that a Notre Dame Law Student posted a warning on his blog days before(8-26) Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. MSNBC covered this story as well as the NY Times. Can't link because I am using a sorry ass Mac, but look below for the URL. Here is an excerpt from his blog

"At the risk of being alarmist, we could be 3-4 days away from an unprecedented cataclysm that could kill as many as 100,000 people in New Orleans. Such a scenario is unlikely -- the conditions would have be just right (or rather, just wrong) -- but IMHO, it's not nearly unlikely enough to feel good about things. If I were in New Orleans, I would seriously consider getting the hell out of dodge right now, just in case. Once the evacuation orders are issued, if it comes to that, it'll inevitably be an absolute madhouse, despite officials' best efforts. "

Oh, and here is another excerpt, in case some elected official tries to tell you we had no idea.

"What the hell is the point of even having such a thing as "mandatory evacuations," if you're not going to order them right now (or better yet, about 24 hours ago) for New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi?!? Don't the officials down there get it?!? ONE OF THE MOST INTENSE HURRICANES IN RECORDED HISTORY IS 24 HOURS AWAY FROM QUITE POSSIBLY DESTROYING THEIR CITIES!!!" Posted 8-28

Oh, and one more eerie posting before Katrina hit: 8-28

"I don't mean to trivialize what is going to happen to New Orleans and environs by highlighting my petty concerns... but the thought keeps entering unbidden into my head: "Damn. I wanted to go to Mardi Gras in 2007." Partying with friends in the French Quarter, and crossing that particular item off my life's to-do list, was my big plan for my final semester of freedom, before entering the dreaded real world. But now I'm not sure there will be a French Quarter in 2007."



http://www.brendanloy.com/page2.html

NY TIMES ARTICLE
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/technology/05blog.html?ei=5070&en=df6a0af6dc68b39f&ex=1126584000&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1126152056-9nl+EvKkq1vhMpyPMu5/Zg

Remembering Rehnquist

A former clerk of the Chief and professor from my law school, reflects upon the life of a lawyer's lawyer.

And, from this day forward, Miller's Lite it shall be.

The Haves and the Have Mores

I've been biting my tongue about the federal response to the third-world-esque chaos that is currently New Orleans. As Bush defenders must be weary of saying after all of his tragic mistakes - let's not lay blame, let's just try to get this thing fixed. Well, no more. As our hearts are breaking for the plight of the poverty stricken who are starving and dying in our own American city, this is what we get from Mr. Bush:

"'The good news is - and it's hard for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house - there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch.' (Laughter)." - president George W. Bush, today."

As Sullivan said...

Just think of that quote for a minute; and the laughter that followed. The poor and the black are dying, dead, drowned and desperate in New Orleans and elsewhere. But the president manages to talk about the future "fantastic" porch of a rich, powerful white man who only recently resigned his position because he regretted the failure of Strom Thurmond to hold back the tide of racial desegregation.