Sold to the Highest Bidder

So I totally need a break from the computer at this point, but just when I think I’m about to get away, some brand new insanity or other drags me back in. I feel like Boromir about to come face to face with the Balrog…What is this new devilry?

(Yes, I’m that fried; I’m quoting Lord of the Rings.)

Care of The Heretik, we find out that many of the detainees at Gitmo were sold into capture:

The U.S. Rewards for Justice program pays only for information that leads to the capture of suspected terrorists identified by name, said Steve Pike, a State Department spokesman. Some $57 million has been paid under the program, according to its Web site.

It offers rewards up to $25 million for information leading to the capture of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

But a wide variety of detainees at the U.S. lockup at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, alleged they were sold into capture. Their names and other identifying information were blacked out in the transcripts from the tribunals, which were held to determine whether prisoners were correctly classified as enemy combatants.

One detainee who said he was an Afghan refugee in Pakistan accused the country's intelligence service of trumping up evidence against him to get bounty money from the U.S.

"When I was in jail, they said I needed to pay them money and if I didn't pay them, they'd make up wrong accusations about me and sell me to the Americans and I'd definitely go to Cuba," he told the tribunal. "After that I was held for two months and 20 days in their detention, so they could make wrong accusations about me and my (censored), so they could sell us to you."

Another prisoner said he was on his way to Germany in 2001 when he was captured and sold for "a briefcase full of money" then flown to Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo.

"It's obvious. They knew Americans were looking for Arabs, so they captured Arabs and sold them — just like someone catches a fish and sells it," he said. The detainee said he was seized by "mafia" operatives somewhere in Europe and sold to Americans because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time — an Arab in a foreign country.

A detainee who said he was a Saudi businessman claimed, "The Pakistani police sold me for money to the Americans."

Of course, if you, like the president, believe that taking the word of prisoners who hate America is absurd, you’re probably feeling fairly dubious at this point. Well, try this on for size:

In March 2002, the AP reported that Afghan intelligence offered rewards for the capture of al-Qaida fighters — the day after a five-hour meeting with U.S. Special Forces. Intelligence officers refused to say if the two events were linked and if the United States was paying the offered reward of 150 million Afghanis, then equivalent to $4,000 a head.

That day, leaflets and loudspeaker announcements promised "the big prize" to those who turned in al-Qaida fighters.

Said one leaflet: "You can receive millions of dollars. ... This is enough to take care of your family, your village, your tribe for the rest of your life — pay for livestock and doctors and school books and housing for all your people."

Helicopters broadcast similar announcements over the Afghan mountains, enticing people to "Hand over the Arabs and feed your families for a lifetime," said Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former Qatar justice minister and leader of a group of Arab lawyers representing nearly 100 detainees.

The Heretik notes:

I expect Bush or Cheney tomorrow to discount this story. These unfortunate people who were sold by bounty hunters to U.S. forces will be discounted as people who hate freedom and hate America. Our leaders will say that with a straight face, without irony. Cheney and Bush will be right in one sense. If these unfortunate souls didn't hate America before, they will have plenty of reason to hate us now.

Sigh.

All I can say is that it feels like I have been kidnapped and awoken in another country—a crazy, brutal, careless country, which looks very much like the place I used to live, but bears no resemblance in countless other ways. There’s no other explanation for how so many things could have gone so irreparably pear-shaped in such a short amount of time.

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“President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them.”

Check out Left Behind Child’s post on the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Memorial Day editorial, which he quotes at length.

Ballz.

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Gannon to Take Polygraph

Good lord, for someone who was allegedly distressed by how his life was torn apart with media attention after he was outed as a gay male prostitute masquerading as a White House press correspondent with dubious journalistic credentials, Jeff Gannon sure does like to be on the ol’ telly:

Tonight's the night many (OK, at least a few) have been waiting for: The news personality formerly known as James D. Guckert takes a lie detector test -- on national TV, no less.

The man with the checkered, male escort, past rode to fame recently as White House correspondent for GOPUSA and Talon News, tossing softball questions at press briefings and then taking a hike. Tonight at 8 p.m on widely available cable channel PAX, Gannon will appear on the show "Lie Detector," hosted by Rolonda ("Inside Edition") Watts. Gannon confirms this on his own Web site.

(As a side note, Mr. Furious is madly in love with Rolonda Watts, back from the days she hosted the Rolonda! show, so I’m sure he’ll be tuning in.)

The gimmick for the show, as described on the PAX Web site: "This provocative and often surprising series examines the truth behind real-life stories ripped from the headlines, using the most powerful instrument to detect deception -- the polygraph."

Among the questions Gannon will experience strapped to the machine: Was he fed questions by the Bush administration to use as talking points at White House briefings or was he "just a man trying to overcome his past and pursue a career as a journalist?"

How about this question: Were you having sex with anyone who is employed by the Bush administration? Dunno, seems kind of obvious to me.

Other guests tonight: a man who wants to prove to his girlfriend that he no longer smokes pot; and one of Sen. John Kerry's Swift boat colleagues "who says he was threatened by a political operative, fired by his company and is currently broke because he refused to stand with Kerry at the Democratic Convention."

Wow, sounds like an episode you don’t want to miss!

Yeesh.

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Big Brass Stuff

Just wanted to let everyone know who’s asking to be included that I will update the list of members as soon as I get home from work. The best way to let me know is still by email, so I will already have your email address and don’t have to go fishing through your blog for it. Thanks!

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Question of the Day: Downing Street Edition

Is the Downing Street Memo important to you? Why or why not?

There are, btw, bloggers who don't believe it's important, or that it's not especially valuable for the left to be discussing it, which is why I'm asking the question. It's as viable position as my own, so I wanted to give dissenters/doubters room to express their thoughts and those who support seeking a formal inquiry based on its contents room to talk about why they feel the way they do. For me, there are a variety of reasons why I am moved to action on this issue, which can all be boiled down to this: it just isn't in me not to care.

[UPDATE: Michael Hawkins of Spontaneous Arising says it perfectly:

In the surreal Bushworld of our current nightmare, there are few opportunities to grab the reigns of sanity and work toward a rational solution to the damage that has already been done. This is one of those opportunities -- to begin a process of holding the perps accountable. The Downing Street Memo may not be the smoking gun we all hope for -- it is an informal set of opinions, even if it does indicate that Bush/Blair had decided to invade Iraq long before the U.N. legal process began -- but it is more than enough to put an investigatory process into effect. Let's see that it happens.

That's it. Thanks for letting me borrow your thoughts as my own for a bit, Michael.]

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Can You Resist This Headline?

Bush Calls Human Rights Report 'Absurd'

I couldn’t. I figured it had to be taken out of context somehow. Surely, surely, he hadn’t just out-and-out denounced the Amnesty International report that compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag as “absurd,” because that would be…well…absurd.

But he did.

"It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that promotes freedom around the world," Bush said of the Amnesty International report that compared Guantanamo to a Soviet-era gulag.

Blink. Blink. A moment, please, while I scoop my jaw off the floor.

He also noted that the allegations were made by prisoners "who hate America." Ah, that old chestnut. I can’t imagine why those prisoners would hate a country who, at the very minimum—ignoring momentarily the allegations of abuse and desecration of their holy book—were often kept indefinitely without being allowed to speak to an attorney. Which makes another part of Bush’s press conference even more astounding:

Bush said he expressed concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin about legal proceedings against former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Once the richest man in Russia, Khodorkovsky was convicted Tuesday of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to nine years in prison following a trail widely denounced as politically motivated.

"Here, you're innocent until proven guilty and it appeared to us, at least people in my administration, that it looked like he had been judged guilty prior to having a fair trial," Bush said. "We're watching the ongoing case."

Uh…okay. Can someone please define unmitigated temerity to this guy tut suite? (I trust that noting Khodorkovsky’s profession of choice isn’t even particularly necessary.)

Another gem from this morning’s Rose Garden news conference was his urging, in response to questions about stem cell research, that:

…the extra embryos created during fertility treatments — estimated to now number around 400,000 — should be adopted.

"There's an alternative to the destruction of life," he said.

Does he seriously think that most people want to donate the embryos of their biological children to other couples? Most couples, right or wrong or neither, don’t like the idea of another couple raising a child that is biologically their own. It’s their decision, not his, so he can suggest “adoption” all he wants, but if the owners of those embryos don’t want to put them up for donation to another couple, then it’s a moot point. Most couples would likely prefer to donate the embryos for stem cell research, which I might point out is, in fact, an alternative to destruction, which is their only option as long as donation for stem cell research isn’t an option.

And not to get all V.C. Andrews about it, but the thought of 400,000 children being born into the gene pool, all of whom have biological siblings out there that they don’t personally know, is just a weirdfest waiting to happen.

Finally, Bush responded to questions about his bike ride not being interrupted when a plane inadvertently came too close to the White House, prompting evacuations in the area, by noting he was “comfortable” with the decision not to notify him. Whatever.

Noting that his wife, Laura, has said he should have been told of the potential threat, the president joked, "She often disagrees with me."

Yeah, I’m not so sure that’s a joke. However often she disagrees, though, it can’t possibly be enough.

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Cartoonies!

Check out the current I Drew This for a Downing Street Memo 'toon.

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Deep Throat Revealed?

As The All Spin Zone, reporting on the Downing Street Memo, notes, “The Watergate scandal started life as a third rate burglary, worthy of no more than a couple of sentences in the Washington Post,” so it is particularly timely, what with all the writing being down on the Downing Street Memo today (round-ups here and here), that a key Watergate figure, the informant known as Deep Throat, should allegedly reveal himself:

Vanity Fair magazine said on Tuesday that Mark Felt, a former FBI official, had revealed himself to be "Deep Throat," the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to the Washington Post and brought down President Richard Nixon.

Unmasking the identity of "Deep Throat," a key source for Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, would solve one of the greatest political and journalistic mysteries of recent history.

The magazine said Felt, now a retiree living in Santa Rosa, California, had admitted his role in the scandal to his family and had cooperated with the story. It is the first time a major potential source has claimed to be "Deep Throat."

Don’t know if it’s true, as there doesn’t seem yet to be any confirmation from Woodward and Bernstein, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

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Now This Is What You Call An Activist Judge

When a judge interprets a state or the federal Constitution in a way that annoys the Right, he or she is, as we are all painfully aware, automatically damned as a liberal activist judge, even if all evidence (such as being an admitted Republican) points to the contrary. So what exactly do you call a judge like this?

A Kentucky judge has been offering some drug and alcohol offenders the option of attending worship services instead of going to jail or rehab — a practice some say violates the separation of church and state.

District Judge Michael Caperton, 50, a devout Christian, said his goal is to "help people and their families."

"I don't think there's a church-state issue, because it's not mandatory and I say worship services instead of church," he said.

Does that mean that if the offenders decide to go worship the female form at a local strip club, it would count? Because I can’t think of any other place that offers worship services besides religious institutions, also known as places of worship.

David Friedman, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said the option raises "serious constitutional problems."

"The judge is saying that those willing to go to worship services can avoid jail in the same way that those who decline to go cannot," Friedman said. "That strays from government neutrality towards religion."

Huh. Ya think?

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Special Tuesday Blogwhoring

What are you writing about the Downing Street Memo?

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Memorial Day: Honor Our Troops with the Truth

Memorial Day was first celebrated by an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic, three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868. It was a day to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers; today, we mark the occasion with a national holiday that finds families gathered around the flag—and often, a barbecue. Regardless of how one chooses to celebrate, however, the purpose is the same: honoring those who have died for our country.

Since the terrible tragedy of 9/11, when terrorists struck on American soil to devastating results, there has been an increasing sense that supporting our troops is the province of a particular political party. Our president gravely intoned, in an infamous with-us-or-against-us speech, that those who disagreed with the actions taken by a Republican administration and a Republican-led Congress were siding with the terrorists—a sentiment that came to mean, for many on the Right, that even liberal American patriots who might disagree with the president’s course of action were traitors. Dissent, an important and necessary part of any democracy, was suddenly treasonous.

Bush’s entire presidency has relied on his ostensibly unique ability to “keep America safe.” His reelection campaign exploited 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for every ounce they were worth, with his supporters demeaning the possibility that any other political party could oppose his actions yet still be patriotic Americans. And even many of those who oppose the Iraq War supported the Afghanistan invasion, because its purpose was to eradicate the al-Qaida terrorist network which had perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. So what would it mean if this national security president had never wanted to invade Afghanistan, had never wanted to pursue al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden (who remains on the loose to this day)? What would it mean if Iraq, which contrary to administration claims had no weapons of mass destruction with which to harm America or America’s allies, had been the only target all along? And what would it mean if the case for that war had been conceived out of thin air?

It would mean that we all had all been hoodwinked, including our soldiers who had been sent to die by a president who cared not for bringing to justice those responsible for an attack on American soil, and had cared not for the truth. It would mean a national disgrace.

The following is a passage from a recent Salon article by Juan Cole clearly intimating that Tony Blair had to convince George Bush to go after al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and Bush would only do so in exchange for Britain’s support of the Iraq invasion:

Astonishingly, the Bush administration almost took the United States to war against Iraq in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. We know about this episode from the public account of Sir Christopher Meyer, then the U.K. ambassador in Washington. Meyer reported that in the two weeks after Sept. 11, the Bush national security team argued back and forth over whether to attack Iraq or Afghanistan. It appears from his account that Bush was leaning toward the Iraq option.

Meyer spoke again about the matter to Vanity Fair for its May 2004 report, "The Path to War." Soon after Sept. 11, Meyer went to a dinner at the White House, "attended also by Colin Powell, [and] Condi Rice," where "Bush made clear that he was determined to topple Saddam. 'Rumors were already flying that Bush would use 9/11 as a pretext to attack Iraq,' Meyer remembers." When British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Washington on Sept. 20, 2001, he was alarmed. If Blair had consulted MI6 about the relative merits of the Afghanistan and Iraq options, we can only imagine what well-informed British intelligence officers in Pakistan were cabling London about the dangers of leaving bin Laden and al-Qaida in place while plunging into a potential quagmire in Iraq. Fears that London was a major al-Qaida target would have underlined the risks to the United Kingdom of an "Iraq first" policy in Washington.

Meyer told Vanity Fair, "Blair came with a very strong message -- don't get distracted; the priorities were al-Qaida, Afghanistan, the Taliban." He must have been terrified that the Bush administration would abandon London to al-Qaida while pursuing the great white whale of Iraq. But he managed to help persuade Bush. Meyer reports, "Bush said, 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.'" Meyer also said, in spring 2004, that it was clear "that when we did come back to Iraq it wouldn't be to discuss smarter sanctions." In short, Meyer strongly implies that Blair persuaded Bush to make war on al-Qaida in Afghanistan first by promising him British support for a later Iraq campaign.

This revelation is part and parcel of a larger series of possibly impeachable offenses committed by the Bush administration in making the case for the Iraq War, as indicated by (among other resources) the Downing Street Memo, a British memo recently made public in the London Times, which contained the minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials. This memo, reveals, in part, that as of July 2002, Bush seems to have decided to take military action against Iraq, even though a month later, he was claiming he was still willing to “look at all the options” and that there was “no timetable” for war. Additionally, the memo appears to confirm, contrary to the Bush administration’s claims of a “massive intelligence failure,” that the assertions regarding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction instead resulted from an intentional and deliberate manipulation of intelligence to justify the case for war. A war that has turned up no evidence of weapons of mass destruction and has caused the deaths of 1,600 American soldiers, tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, and countless dead and injured Iraqis.

This Memorial Day weekend, I celebrated by turned my anger and frustration at the mistreatment and betrayal of our troops into pulling together an alliance of liberal bloggers 169 strong and growing, dedicated to the pursuit of truth, the Big Brass Alliance. Our intention is to tenaciously pursue this story, even if the mainstream media will not, and vigorously support the efforts of Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and After Downing Street, a Coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005 a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. After Downing Street reports, in response to the release of the Downing Street Memo:

John Bonifaz, a Boston attorney specializing in constitutional litigation, sent a memo to Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to impeach President Bush. Bonifaz's memo, made available today at After Downing Street, begins: “The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution."

On this Memorial Day, I urge you: Support our troops by contributing to efforts to uncover the truth about why they were put in harm’s way. They deserve that much.

Visit After Downing Street to register your support. Sign Congressman Conyer’s letter here. Write to your Congresspeople here.

And if you run a blog of your own and want to join our alliance, which is currently blogswarming this story until the mainstream media hears our collective voice, email me.

This is our country. We believe in truth. And we will fight to get it.

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Big Brass Sign-Up

HaloScan comments don't seem to be working at the moment - they've all disappeared. So please sign up for the alliance by emailing me. Thanks!

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Big Brass Alliance

[UPDATE2: Back to the top again. The most up-to-date list is below. I hope to get information everyone's way later today.]

[UPDATE: Thank you so much to everyone who's already responded. I'm trying to keep the list of bloggers as up-to-date as possible! I've also emailed After Downing Street, to let them know of our interest to support them. My hope is that they will use this collective of willing and able Lefty bloggers as a source to disseminate information about their efforts. If we can't rely on the media to report on important topics, like the Downing Street Memo, then we need to blogswarm. This is my attempt to combine our voices into a big noise that gets heard, to stave off that feeling of helplessness that comes when a blogger inevitably succumbs to the worry s/he's screaming into a void. I thank you for your participation. The official post of the Big Brass Alliance can now be found here. Please feel free to steal the BBA logo and use it on your blog.]

In follow up to this post, I'm working on compiling the list of bloggers who would like to be part of the Big Brass Alliance. (Whether we'll make it in time to support After Downing Street, I don't know, but it will be a good thing to have in place for the future.)

This is the list I have so far:

42
1031 Productions
Adventures of the Smart Patrol
After School Snack
Agitprop
Air America Radio IRC
Albion’s Alchemist
The All Spin Zone
Also Also
Alternate Brain
America, God’s Gift to Humanity
The American Street
Ang's Weird Ideas
The Ape Man
Armchair Generalist
Arse Poetica
Arvin Hill’s Carnival of Horror
Bark Barf Woof Woof
Bearcastle Blog
Big Brass Blog
The Blaghdad Café
Blanton’s and Ashton’s
Blogenlust
Bloggy Bayou
Blog with a View
BlondeSense
Blony
Bluebus
Brilliant at Breakfast
Broken Windows
The Burned Over District
Byzantium's Shores
Capitol Banter
Captain Oblivious
Citizen’s Rent
Common Ground Common Sense
CommonSenseDesk
Commuterrant
The Cranky Liberal Pages
Corrente
Crooks and Liars
The Culture Ghost
Culture Kitchen
Cupie Spew!
Cut to the Chase
The Daily Blatt
Daily Pepper
Damned Empire
Dancing with Myself
Deep End News
Denis DeKat’s Symposium
Desert Rat Democrat
Dharma Bums
Dirty Liberal Words
The Disenchanted Forest
The Disgruntled Chemist
Donkey O.D.
Dr. C
Dr. Forbush Thinks
Earl Bockenfeld’s Radio Weblog
The Emmaus Theory
Entropy Pile
Eponymous
Erratum
An Etherealgirl’s Adventures in Cyberland
Expostulation
Fancy Pants Elitists
Father Jake Stops the World
FC’s Political Links
Feminista
FireDogLake
First Draft
Florida Blues
Francesca's Liberal Wingnut Corner
A Freeway in Hell
Freiheit und Wissen
Freshman 44
Frogs and Ravens
Froth Slosh B’Gosh
The Funny Farm
Genius of Insanity
The Green Knight
The Green Lantern
Hellblazer
Heretic Spire
The Heretik
HorsesAss.org
Iddybud
Idyllopus Press
imtalkinghere
Incertus
In Search of Utopia
Intellectual con Fusion
In the Dark
It’s Morning Somewhere
Jeri Smith-Ready
Jesus Was Not a Republican
Julien’s List
Kenny’s Bunk Port
King of Zembla
Kitchen Sink Collective
Laughing Wild
Left Behind Child
Left I on the News
Left is Right
The Liberal Avenger
Liberal Patriots
Liberty Street
A Lie a Day
The Life of a Liberal Teenager
Linkmeister
A Little Leeway
A Little Left of Centrist
Loaded Mouth
Local Tint
Mad Kane
The Mahablog
Mandate, My Ass
Marceau Marceau
Marching Orders
Me4President2008
Meanderthal
Medbh Sings
Middle Earth Journal
Mike’s Well Hidden Genius
A Mockingbird's Medley
Mousemusings
Musings and Migraines
Myriad Musings
Newshog
Night Light
Niobium
Noblesse Oblog
No Bu**sh** Zone
The OCD Gen X Liberal
Official Reality Check
One Woman Wrecking Crew
Outside the Tent
PA Liberal
Pam’s House Blend
Pansypoo’s Personal Rant Page
Paperwight's Fair Shot
Peevish
Pen-Elayne on the Web
Phantom Scribbler
Pharyngula
Pinko Feminist Hellcat
Pissed on Politics
Poetic Leanings
Poetry in Life
Point Progression
Political Moose
Poor Impulse Control
Pourquoi Pas?
Poverty Barn
Preemptive Karma
Protect America Now
PSoTD
Radical Russ
Radio News America
Ramblings from My Mind
RatBoy
Reading A1
Realitique
Real News Online International
Red Harvest
Republic of T
Revolutionary Paradigm
The Right Left Story
Rising Hegemon
The Roaring Hamster
Rob’s Blog
RobbDogg’sBlog
Rook's Rant
Rowhouse Logic
Rox Populi
Rubber Hose
Running Scared
The Ruth Group
Sassafrass
Scrutiny Hooligans
Seeing the Forest
Shades of Grey
Shakespeare’s Sister
Silent Lucidity
SimianBrain
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
The Snarky Cat
Something Requisitely Witty and Urbane
Spontaneous Arising
Spoof News
StallNine: Spirit of the Blog
Startle the Echoes
SteveAudio
Stone Bridge
Stuff
Sumo Merriment
Swerve Left
The Talking Lion
The Tattered Coat
That Colored Fellas Weblog
That’s Going Too Far!
Thoughts of an Average Woman
A Tiny Revolution
Today in Iraq
T. Rex’s Guide to Life
True Blue Liberal
Trust Me, You Have No Idea…
Two Feet In
Upon Further Review…
VirtualMatter
Waveflux
Welcome to Gilead
What Do I Know?
What It Is Today
Why Are We Back in Iraq?
Winding Road in Urban Area
Winterline
With Fingernails That Shine Like Justice
WordWhammy
You Forgot Poland!
The Young Liberals
Yowling from the Fencepost
Zen Comix

If I've added you to the list and you don't want to be there, or if you'd like to be included and your blog isn't listed, please let me know in comments or via email as soon as possible. I hope to add a section to Big Brass Blog listing the members by Tuesday.

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Time to Make Some Noise (Redux)

I have my hands full with organizing the Big Brass Alliance right now, which is leaving me little time for much writing this weekend. So I’m rerunning a post that originally ran in January, just after the inauguration, which seems particularly relevant again as this amazing coalition of liberal bloggers is coming together to make some noise.

We must keep our eyes on the ’o6 midterms, to be sure, but voting isn’t our only responsibility…or our only opportunity to effect change. I am heartened, energized, as this group of determined bloggers comes together, and I look forward to making noise with all of you—on behalf of ourselves, our readers, and our democracy.

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After what feels like a very long week, the dismay surrounding the inauguration of President Bush to his second term now seems to be fading away, replaced instead with the dread of what the next four years will bring. Of particular concern is the sense of helplessness, of voicelessness, that we on the Left seem to share. We celebrate isolated incidents of strength from the elected Dems—Barbara Boxer standing up to Condi Rice, the brave baker’s dozen that voted no, the two that voted no to both Condi and Gonzo—but the reality of having no control in any of the three branches is wearing slowly on all of us, perhaps because ’06 seems yet so far away; perhaps because things seem to be getting worse, rather than better.

The chance we have rests firmly in whether or not we have the ability to effectively challenge the tactics of the Bush administration, which requires first addressing the reality of how truly radical their agenda is. There are those who feel that claims we are veering dangerously close to handing America over wholesale to extremists are, in themselves, extreme. But such claims are not extreme; they are part and parcel of the beginnings of an successful offensive strategy.

Our president has joked about his affinity for dictatorships on more than one occasion. In describing his role as governor of Texas, he mused:

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier." (Governing Magazine 7/98)

--From Paul Begala's "Is Our Children Learning?"

And on two other occasions, he referenced again how much easier things would be were a pesky little thing like democracy not in his way:

"I told all four that there are going to be some times where we don't agree with each other, but that's OK. If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.”

--CNN.com, December 18, 2000

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it. "

--Business Week, July 30, 2001

Said once, it’s a joke in questionable taste. Twice, and it becomes discomfiting. By the third time, it tends to raise genuine concerns about the inner feelings of a man who is meant to be leading a democracy. When that feeling stirs in our guts, that creeping sense that something isn’t right, we must listen to our intuition. We cannot keep our heads down, hold our breath, and wait for it all to be over.

In reading Lawrence Kaplan’s intense dispatch from Iraq today, I was struck how with a few very minor edits, an account of the politically mangled Iraq was easily turned into an applicable description of the political landscape in America:

[A] powerful executive branch…exerts significant control over all other branches of the state, being in some cases free from institutional checks and balances […O]fficial corruption runs rampant, [the president] governs more or less unchecked, and endless layers of bureaucracy weigh down the government.

This presents a real problem for [the country’s] liberals. The advantages of democracy, after all, routinely get lost in societies divided along ethnic and religious lines, and, [here], these allegiances are rapidly crowding out all others. As a result, the very things that make for shifting majorities in liberal democracies--civic concerns, economic calculations, political preferences--have increasingly taken a backseat to the latest edict from [religious leaders].

I was reminded of President Bush’s assertion in his inaugural address that he seeks to end tyranny. One wonders, however, whether he is truly interested in pursuit of that goal, or rather in simply replacing the old-fashioned tyranny with a new and improved version. In Bush's view, peace and freedom have become freakishly Orwellian threats; you will submit to our will for you to have peace and freedom, or we'll bring it to you with war and oppression.

The guise of propriety is undermined by close examination of the realities. In a tyrannical governorship, opposition is controlled through intimidation. We associate such intimidation with old school tyrants like, ironically, Saddam Hussein, whose death squads handily eliminated any dissention with all the death or destruction required. In Bush’s updated version, the intimidation is of a less violent but no less perilous sort, where any opposition is crushed with the burden of carrying the tag of treason. Those who seek to make their voices heard by casting a vote for a challenger are subjected to questionable voting machines, prohibitive waits, and excessive challenges by controlling party operatives. With dissenting voices of the minority party's elected representatives silenced at every turn, and the rank-and-file relegated to casting a vote and hoping for the best, real opportunity for change remains elusive. In the new tyranny of liberty, democracy is the opiate of the masses.

What better way to quell the threat of revolt than to offer the chance to effect change once every few years, through the simple and effortless act of casting a ballot. But when those ballots have lost any remnant of power, then they have also lost all sense of purpose, and the act of democracy becomes an impotent gesture, its sole meaning to stave off acts of rebellion against an increasingly centralized and exclusionary ruling class.

We are, to be sure, collectively reluctant to acknowledge that our democracy is slowly becoming little more than a useful tool to mollify and distract any element that would seek to impede the increasingly boundless control of the Right. We tell ourselves that all the things that contribute to the steady march toward authoritarianism—no checks and balances, media deregulation, weak and ineffectual opposition—will be solved as soon as we get another chance to vote. But the vote came and went, and the will of the authoritarians triumphed over the will of change. It will not get easier to undo the damage with the last shreds of our democratic system; it will only become more difficult, and more unlikely.

Yet our tunnel vision controls our response. We look to ’06 with blinders, ignoring the reality that focusing steadfastly onto a democratic solution is the very thing that will eventually render such a solution an impossibility. What will they accomplish in the next two years while we wait? What schemes will deepen their hold on us all while we depend on our votes to save us?

We must not give up on our right and our responsibility to vote, but voting alone will not solve the problems we face. Those of us who can look beyond our next chance to trek to the voting booth must find other ways of making our voices heard in the interim. When Ukraine’s government attempted to undermine their democratic principles, there was rioting in the streets. When will we riot in the streets? I wonder, anxiously, what it will take to shake us from our immutable belief that democracy will solve the problem of its own inevitable ruination so long as we depend exclusively on its fading potency.

Citizens of a democracy, we are taught, address their concerns and protest bad administrations and their dire policies on election days. We are polite and respectful as we register our dissent in quiet booths with drawn curtains. But maybe, just maybe, the pride we take in our civility will become our greatest shame.

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Big Brass Alliance Update

[UPDATE: I’ve got Big Brass Alliance logos available now. You can snag one with a white background here and one with a black background here. And of course feel free to nick the tan background one in my righthand menubar, too. Pam has also kindly set up a unique page at Big Brass Blog for the Big Brass Alliance. Link the logo here. I’m not able to update that page at this point, and Pam’s got an insanely busy weekend, so if you don’t see your blog there yet, don’t worry—it will get updated. The most current list can still be found on the post below. Email me with any questions.]

We are now up to 109 110 members of the Big Brass Alliance. The response has been amazing!

I’ve been contacted by After Downing Street with some information about what we can all do to help, which I will send out soon. Please make sure if you want to be on the list, you’re there—I want to make sure I didn’t miss anyone. And it’s never too late to join, so keep those comments and emails coming! (Preferably email, so I don’t have to keep going hunting through sites for emails to add to the mailing list.)

Thank you, everyone. I’ll keep you posted on what’s happening…

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Zany

Political Wire notes a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll that finds, in part:

An overwhelming 80% of liberals were likely to support [Hillary Clinton in 2008], compared with 58% of moderates and 33% of conservatives.

Does anyone else find it kind of astounding that 33% of self-identified conservatives are willing to vote for Hillary Clinton?!

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Friday Blogwhoring

What's going on?

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Stay Golden, Ponyboy

The U.S. military is on the offensive in the War on Terror to prevent terrorists from reaching America's shores, President Bush said Friday, adding that 20 years from now, historians will look back on the Iraq war as "America's golden moment." (Link; emphasis mine.)

Eh, I wouldn’t bet the ranch on that one just yet, bonzo. Unless your latest budget includes a line item to replace all historians with realistic pre-programmed cyborgs, the real, flesh-and-blood types are likely to mitigate any possible success you might yet eke out of the invasion with the mendacity that betrayed the trust of Congress and the American people to get us into this war, not to mention the entire picture book of detainee abuse that reads like a Where’s Waldo? in which the hard-to-find little geek in glasses has been replaced with an even harder-to-find prisoner who isn’t getting brutalized and/or humiliated.

Moment of a great shame, maybe. Golden moment? Not so much.

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Friday Cat Blogging

Big Jim in his favorite
place—directly in my way.


Matilda in her favorite
place—lounging upside down along
the ledge, in the sun from the skylights.


Olivia almost asleep on the big pillow;
a moment of peace for the rest of us.

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I Don’t Wanna Look

Public Entitled to See Abu Ghraib Photos, Judge Says

A federal judge has told the government it will have to release additional pictures of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, civil rights lawyers said.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein, finding the public has a right to see the pictures, told the government Thursday he will sign an order requiring it to release them to the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawyers said.

[…]

The judge's decision stems from a lawsuit the ACLU filed in October 2003 seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. The ACLU contends that prisoner abuse is systemic.

So far, 36,000 pages of documents and the reports of 130 investigations, mostly from the FBI and Army, have been turned over to the ACLU. The group is seeking documents from the CIA and the Defense Department as well.

I remember when the video of Nick Berg’s beheading was first made available for viewing, I wrestled with my decision about whether to view it or not. I had the page on the monitor in front of me, my cursor hovering over the link to the video. Part of me felt obligated; I didn’t feel I had the right to shield myself from the images of what’s going on in the world. Part of me felt desperately sad for those who knew him, which in turn made me feel voyeuristic and intrusive. And part of me was scared of what I’d see. In the end, I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it. I kept thinking about his family, and what it felt like to know that strangers were looking at their loved one being killed in such a gruesome way, and the discomfort with being another nameless, faceless downloader of their anguish trumped my sense of duty to be as well-informed as modern media allowed me to be.

I spoke to Mr. Furious on the phone the evening. “I watched it,” he said. His voice seemed weird.

“You did? I almost did, but then decided not to.”

“Be glad,” he said. “I wish I hadn’t. It was horrible. I’ll never get that image out of my head.” He described it to me, and I can’t remember what he said at all; I just remember that when he said the word “hack,” my mind involuntarily brought up an image of the two of us, teenagers, back in the publication room, pasting up the newspaper after school, dancing around to a tape of Morrissey b-sides and rare tracks that Mr. F had mixed and titled Morrissey Mania. A strange synapse just firing off a random image of a happy moment; a self-protection mechanism.

I am a terrible coward.

If the pictures from Au Ghraib become available for public consumption, I don’t want to see them. The ones I’ve seen are bad enough—and these will be even worse.

And yet, I think I need to look; I think I ought to know exactly what’s been done on my behalf by the government to people we were supposed to be saving. Fuck, just the thought of it makes me want to cry.

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Two Good Pieces to Check Out

What we talk about when we talk about love by Bitch PhD—very interesting stuff.

The L Word: A Post-“Nuclear” Sapphic Fantasy by Nancy Goldstein—a fun way to start the weekend.

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Buh-Bye, Ralphie

Looks like Microsoft has been paying attention to the Kraft kafuffle and seeing that it’s possible for a gigantic corporation to brush off the rightwing loonies after all instead of caving into their demands of intolerance. So they’ve canned Ralph Reed as a consultant.

Good.

Too bad they needed to be embarrassed into ditching the enemies of the diversity they claim to support.

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Durham Cross Burning Update

Pam’s got a follow-up on the cross burnings in Durham, including images of vigils and speculation about motives. One of the interesting things Pam notes is that the possibility that they were a message of intolerance against the LGBT community isn’t really being considered with any seriousness, in spite of…

…the Westboro Baptist Church members' recent visit to picket the Durham School of the Arts production of The Laramie Project and several gay-accepting churches in the area, including St. Luke's Episcopal -- where a burning cross was actually found. I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but come on people…

No kidding. Plus, incidents of violent crime against gays have been increasing steadily, almost in direct proportion to the frequency with which anti-gay legislation is being proposed, with the impetus in the sudden rise tracking with the president’s first big push for an anti-gay marriage amendment. The GOP leadership has made the hatred of gays a major political motivator; why anyone would not suspect that perhaps cross burnings immediately following a visit from a prominent anti-gay crusader could be related is beyond me.

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Bushspeak

I have no idea how this made it into USA Today, but it is totally fucking hilarious!!!

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

Repeat offender

President Bush uses some phrases over and over:

What he says: "I appreciate that question."
When he says it: Several times in every news conference, usually immediately after a complex or tricky question.
Why he says it: This means he needs a second to collect his thoughts.

What he says: "Thank you for giving me a chance to come by and say hello."
When he says it: At the beginning or end of a news conference.
Why he says it: He's signaling that, although this is part of his job, it isn't his favorite part.

What he says: "We're making progress."
When he says it: When he's pressed on difficult issues, such as overhauling Social Security or ending North Korea's nuclear program.
Why he says it: He's saying that he's working on it.

What he says: "I look forward to working with (Congress, Democrats, Russians, Iraq's government, etc.)."
When he says it: In response to questions about the lack of progress on changes to Social Security, withdrawal of troops from Iraq, immigration laws, nuclear proliferation.
Why he says it: Bush is suggesting that others aren't playing ball yet, but he'll get what he wants eventually.

[…]

That's all folks

To connect with viewers, he tries folksy remarks:

"In this job, you've got a lot on your plate. ... You don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing (in history) will be?' "

"I readily concede I'm out of my lane (discussing complex Medicare issues). I'm not pretending to be an actuary."

"The Crawford Pirates are the (Texas) state 2A, Division II champs, and we look forward, don't we, to wave the championship banner above the Crawford High School."

"The Oval Office is the kind of place where people ... walk in and get overwhelmed in the atmosphere, and they say, 'Man, you're looking pretty.' "

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

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! The thing is, that Ari Fleisher is credited with offering insights to put this thing together. It must be payback for the soul-wrenching guilt he feels after being compelled to exist as a professional liar for years. Either that, or he’s still an asskisser, but thought this would somehow come out as a positive thing for the pres. Seriously—I was dying laughing. It’s like it’s kinda straightforward, but it’s also totally snarky. It’s also accompanied by this image of Bush that is captioned as stated:

Viewers should watch President Bush during
news conferences as well as listening to him.
Maybe I’m nuts (or optimistic), but this whole thing just came across as a not very subtle attempt to say, “Wake up America—you’re being governed by an idiot!”

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Friday Limerick

The Downing Street Memo reveals
That Blair made desperate appeals.
Bush said, “I agree;
Oust Saddam with me.”
Thus began the shadiest of deals.

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Friday Blogrollin’

Infravision, which I totally love because it’s half written in Swedish, so I can’t understand it, but continue to try to read it, anyway.

Daily Pepper, filled with all kinds of good stuff; this is a recent favorite.

Democratic Veteran, who should have been added long ago. Great stuff, always.

Blog with a View, which is a truly unique and interesting blog, not always political, a visual diary with entries accompanied by original art and poetry. A recent favorite entry is here.

Unscrewing the Inscrutable, the observations and inanities of a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy®, Brent Rasmussen.

Check ’em out. You’ll be glad you did.

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Tom DeLay is a Big Crybaby

NBC clashes with Tom DeLay on Law & Order

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representative Majority Leader Tom DeLay accused NBC on Thursday of slurring his name by including an unflattering reference to him on the NBC police drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

DeLay's name surfaced on Wednesday night on the show's season finale, which centered on the fictional slayings of two judges by suspected right-wing extremists.

In the episode, police are frustrated by a lack of clues, leading one officer to quip, "Maybe we should put out an APB (all-points-bulletin) for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt."

In a letter to NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker, DeLay wrote: "This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse."

But, of course, all the slimy rhetoric he spouted to actually put more judges in danger is just fine.

The Texas Republican went on to suggest the "slur" against him was intended as a jab at comments he had made about "the need for Congress to closely monitor the federal judiciary."

Gee, YA THINK??

"The script line involved an exasperated detective bedeviled by a lack of clues, making a sarcastic comment about the futility of looking for a suspect when no specific description existed," Reilly said.

He added: "It's not unusual for 'Law & Order' to mention real names in its fictional stories. We're confident in our viewers' ability to distinguish between the two."

Unless, of course, you're a complete moron. Or Tom DeLay. I always get those confused. I love how he calls it a "slur." Apparently, he's not familiar with Jerry Orbach. (Rest in Peace, Jerry.) Quips like this were a regular part of his dialogue. And ever heard the phrase "ripped from the headlines," Tom? Moron.

Some leading Republicans used harsh terms to condemn judges earlier this year after courts failed to intervene to save the life of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after her feeding tube was removed at her husband's request but against her parents' wishes.

At the time, DeLay said, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

Producer Dick Wolf, creator of the "Law & Order" franchise, took a swipe at DeLay in his own statement on Thursday, saying, "I ... congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show."

*Snicker.*

The show's season finale drew 14.5 million viewers, but DeLay wasn't one of them. An aide said he heard about the show through his wife, who learned of it from someone else who saw the episode.

At the time, DeLay was actually trying on panties, which apparently got in a twist.

I love these Republican Extremists. They can spout whatever foul, vile lies they want... they can sputter unctious innuendo to put Americans in danger, but if someone says something about them personally, well... it's temper-tantrum time.

Yet more proof that our country is being run by eight-year-old schoolyard bullies.

UPDATE: As usual, Crooks & Liars has video.

All bolding mine.

(Cross-posting in the night...exchanging glances...)

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This Could Get Interesting…Finally

Raw Story reports that a coalition of citizen groups, calling themselves After Downing Street and including Veterans for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, 911Citizens Watch, Democracy Rising, Code Pink, Global Exchange, Democrats.com, Velvet Revolution, and Gold Star Families for Peace, among others, are seeking a formal inquiry into the possibility that Bush committed impeachable offenses in making the case for the Iraq War.

The formal Resolution of Inquiry request, written by Boston constitutional attorney John C. Bonifaz, cites the Downing Street Memo and issues surrounding the planning and execution of the Iraq war. A resolution of inquiry would force relevant House committees to vote on the record as to whether to support an investigation.

The Downing Street Memo, official minutes of a 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair, members of British intelligence MI-6 and various members of the Bush administration, notes that MI-6 director Richard Dearlove said, “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”

Bonifaz says the minutes were the impetus for his request.

“The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people,” Bonifaz wrote in a memo to the ranking House Judiciary Committee Democrat John Conyers (D-MI), outlining the case (read his memo here).

[…]

“The president, among other alleged crimes, may have also violated federal criminal law if the evidence from the Downing Street memo is proven to be true, including the False Statements Accountability Act of 1996,” Bonifaz wrote.

[…]

“Within 48 hours after the attack on Iraq, the president wrote a letter to Congress indicating that Iraq posed a serious and imminent threat to national security and if he knew that was not true at the time he submitted that letter it is a clear violation of the False Statements Accountability Act of 1996,” Bonifaz said.

Under this Act, amending 18 U.S.C. § 1001, it is a crime knowingly and willfully (1) to falsify, conceal or cover up a material fact by trick, scheme or device; (2) to make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or (3) to make or use any false writing or document knowing it to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; with respect to matters within the jurisdiction of the legislative, executive, or judicial branch.

[…]

Bonifaz and others ask that citizens of all party affiliations and backgrounds help support his request by writing to their Congressional leaders. They are also seeking other groups to sign on.

Anyone feel compelled to set up the Lefty Blogger Alliance, or the Blogging with Liberal Objectives Group, or some other name that isn’t taken (who can keep track?) so that we can throw our weight, such as it is, behind this thing?

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Mean Boring Bush Makes Little Girl Cry

Oh, no…ha ha ha.

[Brittany Fish], who is now 7, was abducted from her scooter in Syracuse a year ago and found alive a day later in DeWitt. She was in Washington to meet the president in honor of National Missing Children's Day. About 30 people were invited to meet the president, including Fish and her mom, Patty DeMore.

[…]

Apparently Bush launched into a rather long-winded speech about the significance of the Oval Office. Brittany - usually a bundle of giggles - got antsy, complained she was bored, then started to cry…

After the meeting, the president called Brittany over to him for a one-on-one chat.

"He apologized for being so boring and gave her a presidential pin," [Brittany’s stepfather James DeMore] said.

James DeMore said he wished more than one parent was allowed to attend the ceremony.

"I'm really the Bush supporter of the house," he said. "Patty's a Democrat."

Then I’m surprised Patty wasn’t in tears right along with her poor kid.

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I’ve been tagged…

…by Camera Obscura, so off I go:

Three names you go by (that won't give away your identity): Well, my identity isn’t much of a secret, so I’m not too worried. Mr. Shakes calls me Liss, my mom calls me Lissa, and my friend Cecil calls me Mellie.

Three screen names you've had: The screen name I had when Mr. Shakes and I met online was Sarcasticunt. You’ve got to give me credit for truth in advertising! Other than that, I usually just use my real name.

Three physical things you like about yourself: My eyes are pretty good, I’m told. I like my hands—they’re old lady hands; they’ve always been wrinkled and kind of strange, but unique, and my sister and nephew have the same hands. I have a chip in one of my teeth of which I’m rather fond as well.

Three physical things you don't like about yourself: Even though there are plenty of things not to like (like being overweight or being short), I can’t really say that I’m especially bothered by any of my physical shortcomings. Maybe I should be, but whatever—I am who I am, and I’ve got other things to worry about!

Three parts of your heritage: Scottish, Irish, Norwegian.

Three things you are wearing right now: Wedding band, trousers, sweater.

Three favorite bands / musical artists: Morrissey, David Bowie, Ben Folds.

Three favorite songs: Shakespeare’s Sister by The Smiths, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths, Rubber Ring by The Smiths (Do you detect a theme?)

Three things you want in a relationship: Love, humor, happiness.

Three physical things about the preferred sex that appeals to you: Depends on whom I’m looking at, as each person has his or her own interesting features. Mr. Shakes: eyes (especially the lines around his eyes when he smiles), the freckles on his hands and arms (millions of them!), the way his top lip rests against his teeth (I can’t explain it; it just does it for me).

Three of your favorite hobbies: Reading, writing, films.

Three things you want to do really badly right now: Take a vacation, vote Bush out of office, and take another vacation.

Three things that scare you: Dominionism, the fragility of life, trusting someone new.

Three of your everyday essentials: Nicotine, caffeine, blogging.

Three careers you have considered / are considering: When I was a kid, I wanted to be the world’s foremost bat expert. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a journalist. In college, I decided to be a professor, then chucked it and sold out to corporate America instead.

Three places you want to go on vacation: Britain (because I have friends there that I miss), Florence (because Mr. Shakes says it’s beautiful), and Mexico (because I have friends there who opened a bed and breakfast, and I’d really love to see it).

Three kids' names you like: Henry, Harrison, Catriona.

Three things you want to do before you die: Read every book that’s on “the list,” see every film that’s on “the list,” and discover the secret to immortality.

Three ways you are stereotypically a boy: I like kung fu movies, I’m a terrible housekeeper, I’m an excellent parallel parker.

Three ways you are stereotypically a girl: I could spend insane amounts of money on shoes, I cry at movies, I’m a great cook.

Three celeb crushes: Colin Firth, George Clooney, Chow Yun Fat.

Three people to play next: The Green Knight, Maurinsky, and Erinberry.

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Stepford Rides Again

Erica Jong rips Laura “Pickles Stepford” Bush a new one:

Now that Laura Bush is back from the Middle East and can take off her black scarf, it's time to ask why she is promoting freedom for women in the Middle East when the rights of American women are being systemically eroded by her husband's initiatives. Is it the same reason why her husband promotes democracy abroad while the Patriot Act and the suspension of the Geneva Convention dilute democracy at home? Is wearing the headscarf the last refuge of a desperate housewife? Of course women in the Middle East need the vote, an end to domestic violence and free access to contraception. But so do we. Odd that it is always easier to proselytize for feminism abroad while ignoring deteriorating womens' rights at home.

I’ve noticed that in certain corners of the Lefty blogosphere (not around here, thank you, Shakers), women’s claims that their rights are being eroded is met with a certain skepticism, if not outright denial. Here’s just a smattering of examples for any reality-changed blokes or birds that might swing by:

Michigan:

The Michigan House voted Tuesday to require medical clinics to offer women considering an abortion the chance see an ultrasound of the fetus.

The House voted 69-37 to send the bill to the Senate.

State Rep. Dave Robertson, R-Grand Blanc Township, introduced the bill. He has said he hopes giving women the option to see an ultrasound of the fetus would prevent them from having an abortion.
[…]
"Women will be given the opportunity to see the miracle of life through the miracle of today's technology to truly make an informed choice," Robertson in a news release.

Florida:

A woman has been charged with evidence tampering and child neglect after arranging an abortion for her 17-year-old daughter during an incest investigation.

The girl's 40-year-old stepfather was charged Friday with familial sexual battery. The 33-year-old mother also was arrested. Both are free on $5,000 bond. The girl and her sister have been placed in state custody.

Palm Beach County sheriff's detectives wanted to perform a paternity test on the fetus as part of the investigation, but they say the mother took her daughter to a Broward County clinic for an abortion without notifying them.

Florida again:

Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Wednesday that requires physicians to tell Florida parents when a minor daughter seeks an abortion. Bush signed a similar bill into law in 1999 but the courts blocked it, finding it violated the privacy provision in the Florida Constitution.

[…]

The law applies to girls 17 and under who aren't married and don't already have children. Unless it's a medical emergency, doctors are required to notify a parent in person or by phone 48 hours before the abortion or, if that's not possible, by certified mail 72 hours in advance.

California:

The husband of a transgendered woman who is now physically (and legally) a woman has been deported because their union is being recognized as a “gay marriage,” which only became an issue after the wife casually mentioned to an immigration officer that she had had sex reassignment surgery.

To look at her today, that’s hard to believe: Ganzon is an elegant and very feminine woman with a slender figure, large brown eyes and a smooth complexion. “You look at me now, my soul, my heart—I am a woman,” she says. Her husband agrees. “It didn’t matter to me [that Donita had a sex change,]” he says. What's more, her driver’s license, marriage certificate, and passport all have her down as a woman.

[…]

“Being transgender is more common than cystic fibrosis,” Debra Davies-Soshoux, one of Ganzon's and Javellana’s attorneys, says, “but it has to do with sex, and people in this country are uncomfortable with anything that has to do with sex.” The National Center for Transgender Equality logs at least one call a week from transgender people who have been fired from their jobs. Transgenders are often the victims of hate crimes, and are murdered at 16 times the rate of average Americans.

The only thing that separates Donita Ganzon and me is my ability to give birth; this is simply another example of the definition of womanhood being reduced to reproductive abilities. Simply unacceptable.

And in the military:

Three California congresswomen tried unsuccessfully Wednesday to get the House to allow overseas troops and their relatives to get abortions at military hospitals and clinics.

The military currently allows its doctors to perform abortions only in cases of rape, incest or where the mother's life is endangered, and the government does not pay for the procedures.

Democratic Reps. Susan Davis of San Diego, Jane Harman of El Segundo and Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana argued that servicewomen in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere shouldn't have to return to the United States or go to a foreign hospital if they need an abortion.

During debate on a defense spending and policy bill, the three offered an amendment to allow overseas troops and family members to get abortions at military facilities, as long as they pay for them with their own money.

The House defeated the proposal 233-194. Past attempts to loosen the military's restriction on abortion have also failed.

That was about three minutes of searching. Interesting that Ms. Bush doesn’t seem to show nearly as much interest in making sure the rights of women in her own country are protected.

(Hat tips to Feministing and Feministe.)

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Culture of Life: Bush-Style

Mustang Bobby:

Via Slate comes a nice side-by-side comparison of Bush's stance on the death penalty versus his stance on stem-cell research. Here's the capper:

· "I happen to believe that the death penalty, when properly applied, saves lives of others. And so I'm comfortable with my beliefs that there's no contradiction between the two." - April 14, 2005

· "The use of federal money, taxpayers' money to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is—I'm against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it." - May 20, 2005

So, let me see if I have this straight -- Bush says that killing people saves lives, but using a piece of subatomic goo that could lead to cures for diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimers and save millions of lives is murder.

Okay, I give up.

And that, of course, does not even begin to take into account the contented delirium he experiences each time he has the opportunity to drop bombs on brown people.

On a semi-related warmongering-type note, in case you’ve not heard, one of the revelations associated with the release of the Downing Street Memo is that Tony Blair only agreed to support the Iraq War in exchange for Bush supporting the Afghanistan invasion.

Think about that for a moment.

Bush had to be convinced to go after al-Qaida. Blair agreed to go into Iraq to get us into Afghanistan.

Digby says:

Tony Blair had to make a deal with Bush that he'd support him on Iraq to get him to go after Al-Qaeda. Is there anything more pathetic --- and frightening --- than that?

I’d have to say no.

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Try a Little Common Sense

Today, Harry Reid gave an address at the National Press Club called “The Use of Power: An Agenda for Reform.” Here are some highlights (via Harry Reid’s war room):

Our common sense reform agenda will take our economy from sluggishness to prosperity. A prosperity where a rising tide lifts the boat of every American who is willing to work hard.

When it comes to the economy, the Washington Republicans offer the same old answers and then try to change the subject. But the growing trade deficit and a runaway national debt that puts us into hock to China and Japan show that this Administration and this Congress have lost control over America’s economic destiny.

Democrats stand ready to win back America’s prosperity. We’ll end the tax breaks that encourage companies to take jobs overseas. Restore fiscal responsibility. Spur innovation. Open the doors to college. And make work pay more than welfare.

And if we want our companies to be ready to compete in the world economy, we have to hold down health care costs. Today, Starbucks spends more on health care than on coffee. Today, GM spends more on health care than on steel. Today, we can’t ask our companies to go head to head with foreign competitors with this burden on their backs.

Our families will never get ahead while they are getting battered down by health care costs that total $10,000 a year.

And our country will never be what it should be as long as the color of your skin or the size of your bank account determines whether your children can see a doctor. We can do better for them. And they are expecting nothing less from us.

Many of the jobs of the future will be jobs that come from new energy saving industries. Today, Japan’s and South Korea’s head start on innovation means they are running away with those jobs. We have to get back in that race.

Americans are getting fed-up every time they go for a fill-up. They know that our reliance on Mideast oil is making America less safe. They want us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make this nation energy independent. We can get there – but only if we start putting America’s security and prosperity first.

And Democrats will continue to stop George Bush from privatizing Social Security while we say “yes” to shoring up Americans’ pensions and making our retirement system more secure.

This is our agenda – an agenda for reform, an agenda to do the people’s business. And for them we will continue to fight.

[…]

This week’s events mark our chance to forge a common sense center that embraces an American agenda for reform. As Democratic Leader, I will be working aggressively to advance the work the American people sent us to do. And I hope that Republicans of good faith will join with us to get this job done: To strengthen our national security. To make America energy independent. To restore economic prosperity and opportunity. To help our families and business afford their health care. To boost Americans’ retirement security and protect their Social Security.

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll have more to say on all these fronts. But I pledge today, that in everything we do, the lesson of this week – that we can build on the common sense center – will remain front and center.

The common sense center. It’s a nice thought, but as I recall, both people on the Left and the Right were pretty pissed off about the filibuster compromise. And so many of the issues we’re facing aren’t compromisable because the Left has already suggested centrist solutions and the Right continues to reject them. How do you give the LGBT community equal rights in a centrist way? How do you find the center between people who want abortion to be safe and legal and accessible and people who want it criminalized outright? Where is the center between the position that stem cell research should be legal and stem cell research should be illegal? The problem is that people on both sides of an issue have to have common sense.

On marriage equality, the common sense solution is to separate civil marriage and religious ceremonies, requiring everyone to register a civil union and leaving the religious aspects to the church. Will the Right ever capitulate to such a change? On abortion, the common sense solution is to encourage the use of birth control, make sex education (which can include but should not be limited to abstinence as an option) a priority, and make abortions as safe and immediately available as possible, so that they are done as early as possible. Will the Right ever support even one of those steps? On stem cell research, the common sense solution is simply that it should be legalized, because there is no reason it shouldn’t be; the misinformation campaign that invokes inappropriate comparisons to cloning, abortion, etc. should cease immediately. Will the Right agree to approach the topic with the rationality it deserves?

I hope Harry’s on to something; I really do. I just haven’t seen much common sense floating around lately.

As a side note, it’s nice to see he’s been reading my blog:

As of this month, more time has passed since 9-11 than the time between Pearl Harbor and the defeat of Japan. During those three years and eight months – sixty years ago – we invaded North Africa and Normandy. We freed people from the Philippines to France. Hitler lay dead and Tojo was in chains. We had defeated fascism around the world and had begun to build the new United Nations.

But today Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, our homeland is still not secure, we’re still not energy independent, and – in many ways – Americans are less safe than we were before 9-11.

(Just kidding.)

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Crackpots

The Green Knight links to the following report in Editor and Publisher:

The congregation of Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church in Elkins, W.Va., has voted to fire its minister after he wrote a column for the local daily, the Inter-Mountain, supporting gay rights.

"Gay and lesbian Christians are no different than the rest of us," the Rev. Jeff Falter wrote in a Feb. 26 article. "They deserve full equality in the church and in society, for they are my brothers and sisters, people for whom Christ died."

That’s about the most innocuous statement I can imagine a Christian minister making. It is, in fact, simply a recitation of the primary tenet of Christianity.

I am as flabbergasted (and disgusted) by the reaction to Rev. Falter’s statement as I am by the reaction to Nightline’s tribute to fallen soldiers. How anyone can read a political agenda in the recognition of soldiers who have died, simply by reading their names and showing their pictures, is totally beyond me.

The Right is getting increasingly bizarre. They have lost all perspective, including and especially on that which is, ostensibly, solidly within their purview: moral values and supporting the troops. There’s nothing moral about turning people who want to worship away from a church, or firing a minister who claims that Christ died for everyone, and there’s nothing supportive about politicizing the honoring and remembrance of fallen soldiers, or denouncing the reading of their names as anti-war propaganda. They waved bye-bye to the deep end long ago; we’re into certifiably, unrelentingly irrational territory now. Nothing can deter them from reacting with shocking vitriol to anyone who disagrees with them, in spite of their constant assertions that they are the true Christians, the true patriots.

It would be hilarious if ideological hatemongers just like them weren’t running the country.

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Totally Nutzoid

Good jumping Christ! What the fucking fuck is wrong with Phil fucking Spector?! I mean, I know he’s got a shitbucket full of problems, what with being a murderer and all, but, come on, what the fuck?!

(Via Norbizness, who aptly describes this photo as “uncaptionable.”)

And I'm fairly certain that's a wig made out of the cat hair from Mike's place.

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Draft Warren

Okay, after being a bit dubious about a possible run for California governor by Warren Beatty, Ezra’s convinced me. Let’s draft him and get the Gropinator the fuck outta there. Even if he’s terrible, he can’t possibly be as bad as the Austrian Arschloch who’s running the joint now. You know what they say about Desperate Times…

(But I’ll still fight ya on Hillary, Ez.)

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Pictures of the Day

Care of Pam, who notes:

He's not running for office again, but Chimpy can't help himself. He wants BABY.

You just cannot separate that man from bald heads.

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Don't Fuck With His Rep

The Fixer at Alternate Brain responding to Amnesty International’s charges that the prison at Gitmo is the "gulag of our times" and that American leaders may face international prosecution for mistreating prisoners:

I don't know about anybody else, but my reputation means everything to me. As most of you know, besides being a writer, I'm a semi-retired mechanic. Keeping a reputation for ethics and integrity when swimming in a sea of sharks ain't easy, but I (my boss and the guys I work with too) have managed to do it for over 30 years.

The reputation of my country means a lot to me too, and this just pisses me off…

25 years ago, I joined the military to protect this nation from the USSR, the people who invented the word 'gulag'. We have become what despise the most.

In the comments thread, his co-blogger Gordon agrees:

It damn sure is turning into something I didn't sign up to defend, either.

We talk a lot about what supporting the troops really means, and the Left and the Right seem to have very different ideas about that. One of the things that I believe we owe to our troops who have already served is retaining the principles for which they were fighting. Asking them to have risked their lives to defend democracy only to destroy it at home and abroad is the worst kind of betrayal. I can’t begin to imagine how it feels to be someone like Fix or Gordon, whose service is mocked by a half-assed Texas guardsman that speaks of ideas like liberty and freedom while he crushes dissent and undermines the democracy he’s sworn to uphold.

Well, mock it all you like, flyboy. It’s people like the men of Alternate Brain who are the real guardians of America, not sniveling bullies who wield its power while destroying its greatness in equal measure, and it’s they who are our heroes.

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We Must Repeat

We just don't fucking learn.



This image is from yahoo's news page (tip 'o the energy dome to PusBoy and his commentary). Have we really learned nothing? Don't they realize how dehumanizing and humiliating this is? Dont' they realize how much further this will enrage the Iraquis?

I can't even make a Newsweek joke; this just disgusts me. I'm sure the genius that thought up this procedure was patting himself on the back for not making the prisoners wear a number. After all, that would be too nazi-like, right?

STOP TREATING PRISONERS LIKE ANIMALS.

(Cross-posted while sputtering more obscenities)

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