Midday plushiness

He always looks annoyed these days, doesn't he? It must be the heat.

Update: Just in case any of you are worried, he's actually not annoyed with life at all. He spents oodles of time purring and being a cuddlemonster.

This is really bugging me

I've seen it several times on the leading networks this evening. American nationals who wish to leave Lebanon will receive a bill for their evacuation costs to Cyprus. From Cyprus they're expected to pay their own costs to get back to the US.

This is beyond outrageous. American citizens are trapped in a war zone, and the US government has not only refused to call for a cease-fire, they've blocked other nations from doing so as well. But if you want out, plan on paying for it.

Are other governments doing this? From what I can tell, no. Governments Help Nationals Flee from Lebanon and Israel:

Leah Byrne, 26, an Ohio native, said that she had tried phoning the embassy nonstop — “literally every five seconds” — after Israeli planes began bombing targets south of her central Beirut apartment last week. “I never got through,” she said.

“We could hear all the bombs, could almost feel the bombs in our bodies,” her partner, Miguel Betegon, a 24-year-old Spaniard, said by telephone from Madrid. “She was worried and I was worried because at the time, the only way to get out of the country was by road” — and she had already been turned away once when attempting to enter Syria.

But Mr. Betegon, an intern at the Spanish Embassy in Beirut who made clear he was speaking only in a private capacity, learned that the embassy was planning a bus convoy to Syria, and was told that his friend could come along.

The three-bus convoy, escorted by Lebanese police, reached the no-man’s-land at the border after midnight. The scene, Mr. Betegon said, was “absolutely chaotic,” including vehicles jammed with people and belongings and other people fleeing on foot. Finally the convoy made it to Damascus, where a Spanish military plane flew the evacuees — 116 Spaniards and 10 other nationals, including Ms. Byrne — to Madrid. The Spanish government covered all costs. (My emphasis added.)

I don't know what the French and British are doing, but I'll be surprised if they're as miserly as our bunch of fucking wackos.

I want to know who made the decision to charge evacuees. Is there not a single person in the cheney administration with an ounce of common decency?

Monday Plush

Busy day for me, but Maxx will keep you company.

A Show of Force

No one should be under any illusions that Bush gives a damn about civilians in either Gaza or Lebanon, or that the U.S. is ever going to play referee in the current crisis. From Suskind's new book:

Relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States were in tatters. The Saudis has been stewing for more than a year, in fact, ever since it became clear at the start of 2001 that this administration was to alter the long-standing U.S. role of honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to something less than that. The President, in fact, had said in the first NSC principals meeting of his administration that Clinton had overreached at the end of his second term, bending too much toward Yasser Arafat - who then broke off productive Camp David negotiations at the final moment - and that "We're going to tilt back toward Israel." Powell, a chair away in the Situation Room that day, said such a move would reverse thirty years of U.S. policy and that it could unleash the new prime minister, Ariel Sharon, and the Israeli army in ways that could be dire for the Palestinians. Bush's response: "Sometimes a show of force by one side can really clarify things."

Ron Suskind
The One Percent Doctrine

I think the Palestinians and the Lebanese have had about all the clarity they can stand.

On Journalism

WAPO legendary reporter Walter Pincus has advice for the rest of the Washington press corps, Fighting Back Against the PR Presidency:

But I believe a new kind of courage is needed in journalism in this age of instant news, instant analysis, and therefore instant opinions. It also happens to be a time of government by public relations and news stories based on prepared texts and prepared events or responses. Therefore, this is the time for reporters and editors, whether from the mainstream media or blogosphere, to pause before responding to the latest bulletin, prepared event, or the most recent statement or backgrounder, whether from the White House or the Democratic or Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.

~snip~

A new element of courage in journalism would be for editors and reporters to decide not to cover the President's statements when he -- or any public figure -- repeats essentially what he or she has said before. The Bush team also has brought forward another totally PR gimmick: The President stands before a background that highlights the key words of his daily message. This tactic serves only to reinforce that what's going on is public relations -- not governing. Journalistic courage should include the refusal to publish in a newspaper or carry on a TV or radio news show any statements made by the President or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public.

Amen.

Bonus plushy!!

Lion kitty Maxx finds wanker republicans rather irritating.

Inevitable

Only a fool wouldn't connect this incident today with all the wingnuttian charges of treason directed at the NY Times. Suspicious Package Sent to The Times

Police and environmental workers responded to The New York Times offices today after an employee in the postal services department opened a letter addressed to the newspaper and saw a powdery substance he believed to be suspicious, the police said.

The incident unfolded at about 12:35 p.m. on the eighth floor of the newspaper’s West 43rd Street offices as the mailroom worker opened the white, business-sized envelope with no return address and saw what he later described as a white powder, the police said.

The letter had a postmark from Philadelphia, the police said, and contained an editorial published by The New York Times on June 28 titled "Patriotism and the Press," with a red "X" written across it, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

How long until some deranged wingnut actually perpetrates a real act of violence on a reporter or editor? Just a reminder, the horrors of Rwanda started with radio talk show hosts urging their followers to take care of the opposition. They went to jail for their part in the genocide that followed.

And yet, in this country, such outrageous speech is met with :: crickets :: Wingnuttians, please look in the mirror - you have become the very people you profess to hate and fear. I have nothing but contempt for the lot of you.

Retro lion kitty

Just for a change of pace.

friday plush

I have lots to say today, and no time to say it. In the meantime, let Mr. Plushy soothe your frazzled psyches.

Thursday evening plush

The news is all bad tonight, but Mr. Plushy always cheers me up. I hope he cheers you up too.

Beirut Bombed

Reuters/Adnan Hajj

Israel has bombed the Beirut Airport and a hezbollah television station. Israel intensifies attacks against Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel blasted Beirut's airport and other Lebanese targets Thursday, bringing its air and naval campaign to the doorsteps of the capital and threatening massive retaliation after guerrilla rockets for the first time reached Israel's third-largest city, Haifa.

The fighting, which killed 57 people, was a dramatic escalation in the battle between Israel and Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group which has a free hand in southern Lebanon and holds seats in parliament. The Lebanese government, caught in the middle, pleaded for a cease-fire.

But Israel said it was determined to beat Hezbollah back and deny the militant fighters positions they traditionally held along the northern border.

"If the government of Lebanon fails to deploy its forces, as is expected of a sovereign government, we shall not allow Hezbollah forces to remain any further on the borders of the state of Israel," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said.

Israel's offensive was its heaviest in Lebanon in 24 years, launched after Hezbollah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers in a brazen cross-border raid Wednesday. Two days of Israeli bombings killed 45 Lebanese and two Kuwaitis and wounded 103. Two Israeli civilians and eight Israeli soldiers have also been killed, the military's highest death toll in four years.

I lay this all at Bush's door. Afterall, he's the one who, against State Department warnings, unleashed Sharon 5 years ago, signalling that the US would no longer be an honest broker in the middle east. Israel has known they could act with impunity ever since.

Kidnapping soldiers is horrible. But the revenge bombings and collective punishment Israel is imposing on civilians in both Gaza and Lebanon is worse.

And frankly, chimpy's statement today that al-Assad, "needs to provide leadership to promote peace" is plain irresponsible. A pox on him, cheney and Bolton too.

Daily beauty

The riotously, ridiculously gorgeous hibiscus growing on my patio.

Your evening Plush

I think he's looking particularly handsome tonight, don't you?

Baffle!!!

Baffle and his crocodilian leetle friend. I blame Watertiger.

Progress!!

Here's today's carnage report from Iraq, via the NY Times. Another Violent Day Kills at Least 50 in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD, July 11 — At least 50 people were killed in Baghdad today in a stunning array of violence that included a double suicide attack near busy entrances to the fortified Green Zone, beheadings, shootings, a series of car bombs, mortar attacks and the ambush of a bus carrying Shiite mourners returning from a burial.

The day’s killings, many of them clearly carried out as sectarian vengeance, raised the three-day death toll in the capital alone to well over 100, and deepened the sense among residents that the violence was not going to ebb anytime soon — and that Iraqi and American security forces were powerless to stop it.

While responsibility was claimed for only one of today’s attacks, many bore the hallmarks of sectarian militias, both Sunni Arab and Shiite, which now appear to be dictating the ebb and flow of life in Iraq and that have left the new government of Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his American counterparts scrambling to come up with a military and political strategy to combat them.

Let's review a few of the day's events (from the NY Times article) :

• In today’s most deadly attack, two pedestrians wearing vests fashioned with explosives blew themselves up near a restaurant outside the walls of the Green Zone yet within a few hundred yards of three busy entrances, Iraqi and American officials said. Soon after the initial blasts, a hidden bomb was detonated nearby, adding to the carnage, officials said. At least 15 Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi police officer were killed in the blasts.

• In a predominantly Sunni area of the Dora district in southern Baghdad, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Shiites mourners from the Shiite holy city of Najaf, where they had buried a relative, government officials and relatives said. The gunmen pulled 10 people from the bus and executed them, according to an Interior Ministry official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

• An hour earlier, in Taji, north of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed another bus, killing one person and wounding five, the ministry official said.

• Two mortar grenades hit a Shiite mosque in Dora, killing 9 and wounding 11 civilians, the Interior Mnistry official said.

• In other violence, a family of five — a father and mother and their grown daughter and two teenage sons — were found beheaded in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Mahdiya in Dora, according to an official at Yarmouk Hospital, the main medical facility in western Baghdad.

• The police and hospital officials also reported that four car bombs around Baghdad killed at least 7 people and wounded at least 18.

• Gunmen raided a company’s offices in the upper middle class Mansour neighborhood, killing three employees and wounding another three, officials said.

• According to the official at Yarmouk Hospital, five bodies were discovered early today in Jihad, the neighborhood where dozens of people were reportedly executed by marauding gunmen on Sunday.

• Wisam Jabir Abdullah, Iraq’s envoy to Iran, who was on vacation in Baghdad, was kidnapped by gunmen from his home today, the Interior Ministry official said.

• In Baquba, north of Baghdad, the mayor of the Um Al Nawa district was assassinated by gunmen, the ministry official said. In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, a drive-by shooting killed two workers in the central market, according to the Interior Ministry official.

• An engineer and his bodyguard were assassinated on their way to work in Kirkuk this morning, according to Col. Adel Zain Alabdin of the Iraqi Police.

I'm trying to imagine living in the middle of that horror and failing utterly.

Conservatives Without Conscience

John Dean's new book is out today, Conservatives Without Conscience. And if you missed his riveting (and somewhat disturbing) interview with Keith Olbermann last night, Crooks and Liars has the video here.

Dean explores the authoritarian culture of the modern right wing and tells a chilling tale of G. Gordon Liddy from the Watergate years. At one point Liddy says to Dean (paraphrased), "I have all this knowledge in my head that could hurt the president. You need to shoot me- but not in my home, not in front of my kids. Take me out of a street corner and shoot me there."

Absolutely chilling.

If Dean is right, a good 30% of the american public are beyond help or reason. And we're in real trouble.

Pot, Meet Kettle

Via the AP, a group in Iraq has posted a video claiming the abduction and killing of two american soldiers was in retaliation for the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza in the Youssifiyah area and the killing of her parents and a younger sister. Group: Soldiers killed over rape-slaying:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video Tuesday purporting to show the mutilated bodies of two U.S. soldiers, claiming it killed them in revenge for the rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by American troops from the same unit.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council previously claimed responsibility for killing the two soldiers, who were seized in a June 16 attack near the town of Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad. A third soldier was killed in the attack.

But the statement was the first time the group linked the slaying to the rape case.

A statement by the group said the video was released as "revenge for our sister who was dishonored by a soldier of the same brigade."

It said that as soon as fighters heard of the rape-slaying, "they kept their anger to themselves and didn't spread the news, but were determined to avenge their sister's honor."

"God Almighty enabled them to capture two soldiers of the same brigade as this dirty crusader," said the written statement posted along with the video.

The U.S military has charged five soldiers, including two sergeants, in connection to the March 12 alleged rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza in the Youssifiyah area and the killing of her parents and a younger sister. The U.S. military released the identities of the suspects Monday.

This is dreadful, but is it really so surprising? From the same article:

The U.S. military said Tuesday it condemns "in the strongest of terms" the release of the video showing the two mutilated American soldiers. "It demonstrates the barbaric and brutal nature of the terrorists and their complete disregard for human life," it said in a statement. "Coalition Forces remain resolute in our in commitment to catch the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice."

Ahem. I think at this point the Iraqis think we're just as bad. To them, we are the ravening hordes from Mordor, who have invaded their land on false pretenses and destroyed their society. We've made it clear that we do not value Iraqi life.

On Sunday, Andrew J. Bacevich had an important piece in the Washington Post about this very issue. What's an Iraqi Life Worth?, which is well worth your time. The fact is that we've never valued Iraqi lives. The whole calculus "we must fight them there so we don't have to fight them there" proclaims that. We've said, "sorry if we blow up your country and kill a bunch of you, it's justified to keep us safe."

Actually, I'm pretty sure we're not very sorry. Just look at the hideous rhetoric coming out of the neo-con camp the past few days. This post from Lawrence Kaplan, "A Hideous Truth" paints the whole ugly picture:

How can you win over the heart and mind of someone who sews a dog's head on a girl? Would more U.S. troops alter Iraq's homicidal dynamic? Not really, given that, on the question of sectarian rage, America is now largely beside the point. True, U.S. troops can be--and have been--a vital buffer between Iraq's warring sects. But they cannot reprogram their coarsened and brittle cultures.

Just a thought, but perhaps not breaking that culture in the first place might have made the difference. And perhaps a "kill them all, let god sort them out" approach isn't helpful either.

Actions have consequences. We see it everyday in the endless parade of horrors that is Baghdad. Scores of civilians have died in the past month, and scores more will probably die in the months to come. All of it unneccessary.

This whole fiasco is the stuff of nightmares. It keeps me up at night. I only wish it were keeping someone in the White House up as well. Something tells me those sociopaths are sleeping just fine.

The incomparable Billmon has more.

Lunch time cat blogging

Plushage!!

Monday night lion kitty

We have lapage!!

He's actually sitting in my lap- I had to lean way back to get the shot. The things I do for you plushyfiends.

Bio Diversity!!

Here's something cool, via National Geographic News, tales of biodiversity in the urban jungle. Species Diversity High in U.S. "Urban Jungle," Event Reveals:

BioBlitz happening just miles from the White House might sound alarming, but have no fear.

The Potomac Gorge BioBlitz held last month was a 30-hour safari for seldom seen and underappreciated wildlife.

The blitz revealed more than a thousand species living in the suburban and urban environments of the Potomac River Gorge.

A globally rare species of snail, a beetle new to Virginia, and a species of fly never before found east of Iowa were among the surprises revealed by the blitz.

"A BioBlitz is part contest, part festival, part educational event, and part scientific endeavor," explained U.S. National Park Service (NPS) educator Giselle Mora-Bourgeois.

NPS cosponsored the species hunt with the Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit The Nature Conservancy.

The goal of the event was to provide a quick snapshot of species diversity in and around the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

It's nice to know that the republicans infesting Washington, D.C. haven't killed off all the wildlife yet.

BTW, The Nature Conservancy is an excellent organization. Check them out and throw them a couple bucks if you can.

Shocked and crushed

Oh, woe is me! My hero, the god of snark, James Wolcott has wounded me to the core. Pure Listening Pleasure:

Via Crooks and Liars (bless them, bless them), take a listen as Adam Carolla lays down the radio law to Ann Coulter: "Listen, you bitch, don't call in an hour and a half late and tell me you're 'tight on time.'"

I of course gallantly disapprove of the 'b' word being used against so gentle a centaur as Coulter. But it's hard to quarrel with Carolla's parting shot: "Just take your crappy book and pitch it to your cable outlets."

A gentle centaur? centaur? is that what James thinks of us? As funny as the linked clip was, I find my self unable to staunch my tears. Manimalphobia is still alive and well.

Sob. One hopes that Mr. Plushy will be able to comfort me.

And hey!! what's with withholding the kitten photos? We know you have a 4 month old kitten in that apartment!!! WE WANT PICTURES!!

Monday plush

Okay, so it's a rerun. Mr. Plushy wasn't being cooperative this weekend and I can't stand the whining. I can't take it, I tells you!!

Take your recycled Plush and be happy about it.

Something lovely

AP/Lech Muszynski

Since Vicki said that my blog has inspired her to change her life, I feel compelled to post something lovely each and everyday. Just in case it inspires someone else.

The pressure, the pressure!!

Photographed in Poland, during a recent heat snap.

Oh, Bobo. Stop displaying your stupidity

I sincerely wish Bobo would stop pulling crap out of his ass and labeling it sociology. In today's column:

What's happening to Lieberman can only be described as a liberal inquisition. Whether you agree with him or not, he is transparently the most kind-hearted and well-intentioned of men. But over the past few years he has been subjected to a vituperation campaign that only experts in moral manias and mob psychology are really fit to explain. I can't reproduce the typical assaults that have been directed at him over the Internet, because they are so laced with profanity and ugliness, but they are ginned up by ideological masseurs who salve their followers' psychic wounds by arousing their rage at objects of mutual hate.

Really?

But a lifetime's record is deemed not to matter any longer. For in the midst of the inquisition all of American liberalism has been reduced to one issue, the war. Just as some edges of the pro-life movement reduce all of conservatism to abortion, the upscale revivalists on the left reduce everything to Iraq, and all who are deemed impure must be cleansed away.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

But that is not the point, for the opposition to Lieberman is not about future actions or even politics as it is normally understood. It is about impurity, the scarlet letter, and the need to expunge those who have transgressed.

No Bobo. It's about replacing a senator who has consistantly backs the Bush administration on issues that matter to us. Issues that we consider vital. It's about his cloture vote on Alito, it's about his support for the bankruptcy bill, it's about his outrageous comment that catholic hospitals shouldn't be forced to provide emergency contraception to rape victims because other hospitals were probably just "a short ride away." It's about him opening for the oposition on the Kerry resolution. It's about his arrogance, his belief that his senate seat is his by divine right. It's about his contempt for the voters in his state, and his belief that his judgement is better than theirs. It's about principles. Our principles.

As Atrios notes, Brooks is nothing more than a concern troll. He closes his column with the hope that the netroots will so offend mainstream democrats that republicans will "scoop them up."

Why Bobo has a column in a major newspaper is baffling to me. Worse, why is he held up as a serious commentator on democratic issues? He is always dead wrong.

The only function bobo serves is to point out the path that dems shouldn't take. And why he thinks that his endorsement of Lieberman will be helpful is a mystery. Oh, wait. No it's not. Bobo is as delusional as Lieberman is.

For Vicki

AFP Jason Gutierrez

Something beautiful for Vicki. May she be inspired everyday to pursue her dreams.

Late nite plusharama

A boy and his minion.

More tigers

Reuters/Jason Lee

Baby plushies of all species of kitty are teh cute.

Awwwww....

AP/Jessie Cohne

Look at his little expression, teh cute.

Friday plush

Lion kitty Maxx wasn't cooperating this morning. "Quit flashy thinging me and give me some breakfast!!"

Afternoon plushy delight

A new theorem is expected shortly.

Ill Advised

Froomkin points us to James Fallows who is blogging the Aspen Ideas Festival for the Atlantic, specifically about a panel that included Sir Richard Dearlove, the former director of MI6 and the author of the notorious Downing Street Memo. Saving this one for Tommorrow.

The speaker in question was Sir Richard Dearlove. He is famous as a former director of MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service, and he was favored on this panel by being addressed as “Sir Richard” when the other people were “Jim” or “Danny.” Without ramming home the point, at four or five instances he suggested that just about everything in the American approach to the war on Islamic terrorism had been ill-conceived.

The minor instances came when the other participants, all American, talked about this or that reorganization of the intelligence agencies or the Department of Homeland Security, and Sir Richard (I can’t really call him “Dearlove,” can I? Maybe “C,” his James Bondish organizational name?) confined himself to a one-liner about such organizational details usually being the least important aspects of creating an effective intelligence system. The Americans talked about the expansion of executive power after 9/11, and worried about the larger tension between civil liberties and military security. “C” wrapped up that discussion in two sentences, saying (a) that whenever civil liberties were being infringed, it was crucial that the change be made through legislation rather than sheer executive action, since it built in at least the chance of political debate; and (b) that what had been done via executive action in the United States “would be illegal in Great Britain, as a matter of common law.”

But the main tension involved the larger U.S. emphasis on a “Global War on Terror.” “Terrorism is an extreme form of political communication,” he said. “You want to be sure that, in your response, you don’t end up amplifying the messages that terrorists are trying to convey.” This understanding, he said, explained why his country approach counter-terrorism in so different a way from America’s.

That’s what I wanted to hear more about – in what ways, exactly, he thinks the United States might have “amplified” the Al Qaeda message, and what a different approach would look like.

Like Froomkin, I'd like to hear more about that too, but I'd really like to hear why Tony Blair was so hell bent in following Bush into the Iraqi quagmire and why Blair ignored the advice of his intelligence service.

Space News - supernova mystery!!

From our friends at Space.com, comes this tale of a Mystery Object Found in Supernova's Heart:

Embedded in the heart of a supernova remnant 10,000 light-years away is a stellar object the likes of which astronomers have never seen before in our galaxy.

At first glance, the object looks like a densely packed stellar corpse known as a neutron star surrounded by a bubble of ejected stellar material, exactly what would be expected in the wake of a supernova explosion.

However, a closer 24.5-hour examination with the European Space Agency's XMM Newton X-ray satellite reveals that the energetic X-ray emissions of the blue, point-like object cycles every 6.7 hours—tens of thousands of times longer than expected for a freshly created neutron star.

It is behavior that's more commonly seen in neutron stars that have been around for several million years, researchers say.

"The behavior we see is especially puzzling in view of its young age, less than 2,000 years," said study leader Andrea De Luca of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Milan. "For years we have had a sense that the object is different, but we never knew how different until now," De Luca said.

The finding is detailed in the July 7 issue of the journal Science.

Hmmm? what could it be? How very interesting. Maybe it's an alien beacon.

A flesh eating alien beacon! Eeeeeeek!!

The Bugman is Fucketh

Ha! A federal judge has ruled that the Texas republican party cannot replace Tom Delay on the ballot this November. Judge's ruling keeps DeLay on ballot:

AUSTIN - A federal judge ruled today that Republicans cannot replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the ballot for the 22nd Congressional District race.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, a Republican appointee, ruled that DeLay must appear on the Nov. 7 ballot as the GOP nominee for the congressional seat that he abandoned last month.

Sparks said DeLay could "withdraw'' from the race under Texas election law, but that still would not allow the Republicans to replace him on the ballot.

DeLay had sought to have state Republican Chair Tina Benkiser declare him ineligible by moving from Sugar Land to his condominium in Virginia. But Sparks said that would not make him ineligible because the requirement under the Constitution is whether DeLay is an inhabitant of Texas on election day.

Sparks said contradicting evidence raised questions about whether DeLay planned to remain a resident of Virginia, but he said that did not matter because DeLay could not say where he would be on election day.

"The court holds that allowing Benkiser to declare DeLay ineligible at this time would amount to a de facto residency requirement in violation of the United States Constitution,'' Sparks said in his opinion.

Sparks' ruling halts the process of replacing DeLay on the ballot, but the GOP is expected to appeal the decision to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
If the Republicans lose on appeal, DeLay will have to decide whether to campaign for an office from which he already has resigned.

Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth over "judicial activism." I count this as a pick up of one.

Some REAL lion kitty blogging

Mr. Plushy has sworn off attacking the Eiffel Tower until after the World Cup final.

Vive la France!!

A lion kitty

Reuters/Ali Jarekji

Not THE lion kitty, but a lion kitty nontheless. He looks like he just saw a picture of joementum.

Progress, Ramadi Style

Joao Silva for the NY Times

The traitorous NYTimes gives us a snapshot today of the hell that is Ramadi. In Ramadi, Fetid Quarters and Unrelenting Battles The marines there must not have gotten the memo about the progress in Iraq and the insurgency's last throes the administration keeps telling us about. Says Captain Andrew Del Gaudio, 30, of the Bronx, (commander of the US unit there), ""We go out and kill these people. I define success as continuing to kill the enemy to allow the government to work and for the Iraqi Army to take over." The outlook is grim:

That day seems a long way off. The Iraqi government exists here in little more than name. Last week about $7 million disappeared from the Rafidain Bank — most of the bank's deposits — right under the nose of an American observation post next door. An Iraqi police officer was shot in the face and dumped in the road, his American ID card stuck between his fingers.

The governor of the province, Mamoun Sami Rashid al-Alwani, still goes to work here under an American military escort. But many of the province's senior officials deserted him after the kidnapping and beheading of his secretary in May.

The previous governor was assassinated, as was the chairman of the provincial council, Khidir Abdel Jabar Abbas, in April. At a meeting of the provincial cabinet last week, only six of 36 senior officials showed up.

"The terrorists want to keep Anbar people out of the government," said Taha Hameed Mokhlef, the director general for highways, who went into hiding last month when his face appeared on an American-backed television station here showing him in his job. He has since re-emerged. "My friends told me that the terrorists were planning to kill me, so I went to Jordan for a while," he said.

~snip~

One of the "habits of mind" drilled into the marines from posters hung up inside: "Be polite, be professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

The humor runs dark, too. On a sheet of paper hung up in the Government Center, marines wrote down suggestions for their company's T-shirt once they go home. Most are unprintable, but here is one that got a lot of laughs: "Kilo Company: Killed more people than cancer."

The marines at the Government Center have held on, but the fighting has transformed the area into an ocean of ruin. The sentries posted on the rooftops have blasted the larger buildings nearby so many times that they have given them nicknames: Battleship Gray, Swiss Cheese. The buildings are among those that will be bulldozed under the Green Zone plan.

Long story short, after 3 years, the US forces are no closer than ever to pacifying Anbar province.

And yet the republican leadership continues to bleat, "stay the course! stay the course!" like a bunch of brain-dead sheep. Feh.

Stuff on my frog

Reuters/Pawan Kumar

What will we tell the children?

Fourth of July plushy

Maxx wishes you a happy holiday.

Osama who?

The CIA has closed the division that was focused on hunting down Osama Bin Laden and his top lieutenants. C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

~snip~

Michael Scheuer, a former senior C.I.A. official who was the first head of the unit, said the move reflected a view within the agency that Mr. bin Laden was no longer the threat he once was.

Mr. Scheuer said that view was mistaken.

"This will clearly denigrate our operations against Al Qaeda," he said. "These days at the agency, bin Laden and Al Qaeda appear to be treated merely as first among equals."

Allow me to make a lucky guess- all those assets are now required in the hunt to find a reason to bomb Iran.

What do I win?

Bonus sleepy plushy

Lion kitty is very sleepy after a day of being a huge cuddlemonster.

Mr. Plushy is a cuddlemonster

Here he is, all you whiners.

A Freebie for Lamont

So Lieberman is petitioning to be on the ballot
in November, even if he loses the democratic primary.

A few hours ago, CNN aired joementum's interview with John King, during which Lieberman said (I'm paraphrasing) that he thinks he knows that he's the best person to represent Connecticutt, and that his opinions on the issues are more important than those of the democratic voters' in his constituency. And anyway, you never know what riff-raff might show up on primary day.

In other words, Daddy Lieberman knows best. That's outrageous.

So here's a freebie for Mr. Lamont. Here's your new campaign slogan:

ALL politicians serve at the pleasure of the voters.

What part of that concept does Mr. Lieberman not understand?

Take that to the voters. Say it every single day. Say it over and over and over. And the expansion of that is this, "If Mr. Lieberman thinks he knows better than the voters, than how the heck can you expect him to represent your interests if you send him back to Washington? It's the voters' decision, not Joe Lieberman's. The fact that he doesn't get that disqualifies him for office."

Get out there and smack him, Mr. Lamont. We're counting on you.

Billmon has a question

Billmon notes today's WAPO story about the hurdle to closing GITMO, what about those pesky inmates? Retired general Barry McCafferty has his own solution:

If detainees are released in their own countries and appear back on the battlefield fighting the United States -- as the administration has contended will happen -- "it may be cheaper and cleaner to kill them in combat than sit on them for the next 15 years," McCaffrey wrote.

Billmon asks:

So what exactly is Gen. McCaffrey proposing? That we stop taking prisoners? Should we slit their throats -- and pull ourselves down to the same level as the jihadis in Iraq who cut the throats of two U.S. soldiers last month? Is that really where this is heading?

Isn't that where we already are? We might not be slitting peoples throats, but we sure as hell are shooting them full of bullets and bombing them.

The day Cheney intoned his pronouncement that this war would be fought in the shadows, that we'd have to go to the darkside, we were on our way down to that level.

The only question left is, just how far will we sink?

Bobo attempts science

Bobo attempts to explain human bonding. With predictable results.

If I had $37 billion to give to charity, I'd give some of it to a foundation that would invent an Oxytocin Meter. That way we could predict who is headed for success and who for failure.

~snip~

I figure if we can hang Oxytocin Meters around people's necks, we can tell who is involved in healthy relationships and who isn't. If you walked into an office where nobody is having an oxytocin moment, then you'd know you're in a dysfunctional organization and it's time to get out of there.

Because, of course, everyone who isn't in a healthy relationship is doomed to failure. Bobo has the analytical skills of roadkill.

If I had $37 billion, I'd build a rocket and shoot Bobo into the sun.

Teh cute

Litz's kitty Jolene. What a little scamp.

On Hamdan

Billmon has a must read post up on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision. Crime and Punishment. It's long, but well worth your time:

In a civilized world, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney would all be working the phones right now trying to scare up some really good criminal attorneys – preferably ones with a hands-on experience in international war crimes litigation.

Who knows? Now that Milosevic is dead, maybe some of his old mouthpieces are available.

But of course, this is not a civilized world, which means the odds the Republican Guard (ours, I mean) will ever face trial are only slightly shorter than the chances Osama bin Laden and his sidekick Dr. Zawahiri will someday be called to account in a court of law for their crimes against humanity. This picture, I’m afraid, is probably going to remain only a scene we’d like to see.

Nevertheless, the Cheney Administration’s top officials have been formally notified that they face potentially enormous personal legal liabilities as a result of their actions in the war against Al Qaeda. They are, as the corporate lawyers like to say, exposed. At least this seems to be the conclusion some of the county’s better legal minds have drawn from Judge Stevens’s opinion in the Hamdan case.

Cheney and Bush in the dock for war crimes. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I agree with Billmon though. It's not likely to happen.

Froomkin weighs in today as well, Overreach Overturned.

And in reasserting the rule of law, the high court has opened the way to what could be major legal action over other executive branch violations of established statutes -- about domestic spying, for instance. The ruling even raises the possibility that U.S. forces and Bush administration officials could be tried for war crimes.

The rousing of the legislative and judicial branches is the ultimate nightmare of the unilateralists within Bush's inner circle, most notably Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, David S. Addington. They had argued that nothing -- not Congress, not the courts, not traditional notions of basic human rights -- should limit the president from pursuing the nation's enemies however he saw fit.

The legislature roused? Yeah, I'm sure they're going to rouse themselves to pass legislation giving Bush the authority to do whatever the hell he wants.

I don't see him complying with this. And the chorus of "Judicial activism!!" is already in full throat. I have to ask though, did none of these wingnuts take civics in high school or college?

As Eugene Robinson asks, what part of "rule of law" don't they understand?

Overlord with minion

Because Flory was worried that lion kitty Maxx had killed his minon.

Your blogofascist overlord

Kneel, mere mortals!! and welcome your feline overlord.

Redistricting

The NY Times editorial board gets it right on yesterday's redistrictinig decision, A Loss for Competitive Elections

The Supreme Court, in a badly fractured decision yesterday, largely upheld Tom DeLay's gerrymandering of the Texas Congressional districts. Instead of standing up for a fair electoral landscape, the court produced a ruling that did little to ensure the vibrancy of American democracy, and that itself had an unfortunate whiff of partisanship.

Given the strong negative feelings that voters have about Congress — in a recent Times poll, just 23 percent of those surveyed approved of the job lawmakers were doing — it is startling how few races are expected to be competitive this fall. This is largely because of increasingly sophisticated partisan gerrymandering that uses high-powered computers to draw lines that in many cases make voters all but irrelevant.

That's me, irrelevant, white, democratic voter. Where is my equal protection?

I would like to see a constitutional amendment that mandates fair election maps and mandates protection of voter rights and fair and auditable elections. The court should be embarrassed by their decision yesterday. The decision basically said that extreme gerrymandering for partisan reasons that specifically intends to dilute or erase votes from the opposition is constitutional.

And that is outrageous.

Mid day Maxx

Busy day for me, but Maxx will keep you company. And Peepers too.

Bobo on art

Bobo Brooks has a few things to say about American art. (Not that anyone gives a fuck) One Nation, Under One Roof:

That's because around 1960 the art world and much of the intellectual world lost faith in the idea that history has a storyline and that America has a distinct role in it. This week, Blake Gopnik spoke for the art establishment in his review of the museums in The Washington Post, arguing that there is no essentially American culture — no transcendent thing we Americans share simply because we happen to inhabit the same nation-state.

So the artists have gone off to have a conversation about themselves.

Huh? I think Pearl hit him in the head too many times.

And today, when America is unpopular and the whole concept of Americanness is encrusted with clichés and conspiracy theories, they'll feel thrilled to get back and touch the real America, the real conversation, which has been so triumphantly presented in the old Patent Office Building in downtown D.C.

Perhaps we could all celebrate with a trip to Red Lobster. After we get through un-crusting our clichés.

late night extra plush

Maxx's fans are so demanding.

tiger babies

For absolutely no reason at all. Except that they're Watertiger's pipples.

9/11 Changed History

Via Attaturk, past sound bites updated for chimpy's america. 9/11 Really has changed everything.

A sampling:

"Fuck Liberty, I want to live!!!"
--Patrick Henry

Go see the rest.

Political Gerrymandering is Just Swell

The Supreme assholes have said that it's perfectly okay for political parties to gerrymander election maps even though they're plainly designed to marginalize and effectively eliminate votes of the opposition party. Justices Back Most GOP Changes to Texas Districts.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld most of the Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay but threw out part, saying some of the new boundaries failed to protect minority voting rights.

The fractured decision was a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democratic incumbents out of office.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Hispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosing under the plan.

Guess what, as a democrat living in Austin, TX, I don't have a chance to elect a candidate of my choosing either. The justices may be right under the law, but they're morally wrong. When the texas GOP carved up the Austin democratic voting block and plunked those voters into republican districts they effectively wiped out my vote and denied me the representation of my choice.

Gerrymandering is wrong whichever party does it. Districts in every state should be drawn on demographics without regard to party affiliation. I suppose that would put too much power in the hands of the voters, eh? Can't have that.

Feh, a pox on all of them.

Maxx and his minion

Lion kitty Maxx and his minion "Peeper" continue their blogofascist assault on the Eiffel Tower. Oh, the perfidity!!

Bad Treason!! Bad!!

Billmon helpfully explains the difference between Good treason and bad.

The National Review on the bad treason:

President Bush, who said on Monday morning that the exposure “does great harm to the United States of America,” must demand that the New York Times pay a price for its costly, arrogant defiance . . . Publications such as the Times, which act irresponsibly when given access to secrets on which national security depends, should have their access to government reduced. Their press credentials should be withdrawn. Reporting is surely a right, but press credentials are a privilege. This kind of conduct ought not be rewarded with privileged access.

And the National Review on the good treason:

The cable was classified, but contained nothing sensitive to national security, just a politically embarrassing policy recommendation. A whistleblower leaked the cable to Mr. Mowbray. He reported on the memo on National Review Online on Wednesday morning . . . [When detained] Mowbray appropriately refused to identify the whistle-blower who had given him the document in the interest of having the public fully informed . . .
The only reason, then, to hold Mr. Mowbray against his will in the building must have been to intimidate a young reporter who had made your life difficult. I regret to say that I have found your conduct in this entire visa controversy, slipshod, deceptive, and, now, even thuggish.

I ask for a personal assurance from you that Mr. Mowbray will be allowed to continue his reporting at the State Department with no risk of similar incidents in the future, and indeed without any harassment at all.

Any questions?

Well, no. Glad we cleared that up.

I wish someone would explain to TNR about electronic archives.

Help America Not Vote

It's pretty much as we thought- a new study concludes that electronic voting systems are fairly easy to hack, and without paper ballots and regular audits, the hack will be undetectable. The WAPO has the details, A Single Person Could Swing An Election:

To determine what it would take to hack a U.S. election, a team of cybersecurity experts turned to a fictional battleground state called Pennasota and a fictional gubernatorial race between Tom Jefferson and Johnny Adams. It's the year 2007, and the state uses electronic voting machines.

Jefferson was forecast to win the race by about 80,000 votes, or 2.3 percent of the vote. Adams's conspirators thought, "How easily can we manipulate the election results?"

The experts thought about all the ways to do it. And they concluded in a report issued yesterday that it would take only one person, with a sophisticated technical knowledge and timely access to the software that runs the voting machines, to change the outcome.

The report, which was unveiled at a Capitol Hill news conference by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice and billed as the most authoritative to date, tackles some of the most contentious questions about the security of electronic voting.

The report concluded that the three major electronic voting systems in use have significant security and reliability vulnerabilities. But it added that most of these vulnerabilities can be overcome by auditing printed voting records to spot irregularities. And while 26 states require paper records of votes, fewer than half of those require regular audits.

No wonder the republicans fight this issue so hard.

If democrats don't get on the ball and make this a national issue, we can kiss honest elections in this country goodbye. Forever. That is, if we haven't already.

Little socialist squirrel

This little liberal accosted me and demanded a free meal.

The Face of blogofacism

The horror!! Look at the narrowed eyes, the cruel paws, the way he has crushed the peep beneath him! No wonder the right wing is all a-twitter!

Other species plush

AFP/Valentina Petrova

"Arny and Bessie : A one month old Eurasian Lynx named Arny (L) cuddles up to her mother Bessy at the Sofia Zoo, in Sofia. Arny is the first Lynx born in the Bulgarian Zoo."

Teh cute.

Polar Bear Porn™

AFP/Maxim Marmur

My, my. What will we tell the children?

Monday plush

By request.

How much is enough?

Frank Herbert has a question in his column today (sadly, subscription required), Playing Politics With Iraq:

I wonder whether Americans will ever become fed up with the loathsome politicking, the fear-mongering, the dissembling and the gruesome incompetence of this crowd. From the Bush-Rove perspective, General Casey's plan is not a serious strategic proposal. It's a straw in the political wind.

I wonder too. He goes on:

We've had enough clownish debates on the Senate floor and elsewhere. We've had enough muscle-flexing in the White House and on Capitol Hill by guys who ran and hid when they were young and their country was at war. And it's time to stop using generals and their forces under fire in the field for cheap partisan political purposes.

The question that needs to be answered, honestly and urgently (and without regard to partisan politics), is how best to extricate overstretched American troops — some of them serving their third or fourth tours — from the flaming quicksand of an unwinnable war.

He's right, the country has had more than enough of these clowns. I fervently hope that the country has finally wised up to their antics and will throw the mofos out.

OT, but how can a newspaper that has the brilliant columnists Frank Herbert and Frank Rich give space to a nimrod like Bobo?

Perhaps a mummy ate it

I despair that Billmon will ever take pity on me and post the conclusion of his adventures in Luxor.

Woe is me.

Okay, so I'm whining. But don't we need some distractions this summer? I know I do.

Spinners

Billmon has an interesting post up about how the AP is trying to report on reality, while not straying too far from the approved narrative of, "Bush had a really good two weeks!! huzzah!!" Making the News Fit the Spin. The important part of the post comes at the end, where Billmon sums up just what is wrong with our media.

My purpose here is not to rag on the AP, or the reporter in question, who's far from the worst of the bunch. As Juan Cole says, he is trying to correct the record -- he's just not being very direct about it. But all that only goes to show how thoroughly the official propaganda continues to shape the coverage -- even when the journalists involved understand that the propaganda is misleading or flat wrong.

Breaking the cycle would require the herd to challenge the spin and disinformation they're being fed, instead of letting it become the baseline that has to be timidly corrected later as the facts come to light. The burden of proof, in other words, would have to be put on the spinners, instead of reality. And it would have to be put there by the journalistic herd as a whole -- or at least, by the dominant group within the herd -- and not just by a few mavericks and dissidents.

But of course we no longer have that kind of journalism in this country -- and never really did, other than for a few brief years after Vietnam and Watergate. An experiment in journalistic truth telling (or at least, lie debunking) that today's corporate media bosses and the watchdogs of the authoritarian right are both determined never to allow again.

I suspect he's right. Depressing, isn't it?

Wankiferousness of the highest sort

So Jason Zengerle admits that his source fed him a bogus email and yet he refuses to divulge who the source is.

Steve Gilliard claims that he did not write the email I attributed to him in this post. After doing some further investigating, I'm afraid to say that he is correct. He did not write that email. I apologize to Gilliard for not checking with him before publishing my post, and I regret the error.

Gee, damn fine journamalism ya go going there. You guys got spun, and badly. You participated in a smear campaign and the best you can say is, "so sorry, old chaps. Nothing to see here, move along"?

Regretting the error isn't good enough. You may think this is a "minor error" but we do not. Either tell us all or get the fuck out of journalism. That goes for your editor, Franklin Foer, as well. (Frankly, I expect better of him.) Your whole operation is an embarrassment.

(Via Atrios)

By popular demand

....your saturday night plush.