Headlines - Sunday

"We understand you've changed the name

of your company from Blackwater to Xe and

you wish to be referred to from now on as the

'CEO Formerly Known as Prince'

 

 

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Charles Krauthammer, the Dr. Pangloss of carnage, castigates Obama today for failing to pay sufficient homage to the "miracle" that the U.S. has created in Iraq. No I haven't been drinking. Yet. He really said that. Here is the full quote:

When you become president of the United States you inherit its history, even the parts you would have done differently. Obama might argue that American sacrifices in Iraq were not worth what we achieved. But for the purposes of current and future policy, that is entirely moot. Despite Obama's opposition, America went on to create a small miracle in the heart of the Arab Middle East. President Obama is now the custodian of that miracle. It is his duty as leader of the nation that gave birth to this fledgling democracy to ensure that he does nothing to undermine it.

A small miracle indeed.  I am sure the hundreds of thousands of dead, their many relatives, the maimed, and the displaced all wish that they could thank Mr. Krauthammer in person.

Chuckles' partner in crime, William Kristol, also appears on the Post online today to mindlessly parrot Republican talking points about Judd Gregg's withdrawal (it was all about the census and Rahm Emanuel), while he gasps at the outrageousus partisanship exhibited to date by Obama and his administration (yes, Obama.)  I only post so that you can enjoy the many comments generated by the grinning death's skull.  Maybe he will boost readership after all. 

I guess Charles missed this:

In an analysis of trends in suicide attacks worldwide since 1981 (pdf), researcher Assaf Moghadam presents a pretty shocking statistic:

Iraq accounts for 1,067 suicide attacks in the period under review — "a number that accounts for more than half (54.8%) of all suicide attacks since 1981. The sheer volume in which this tactic has struck Iraq is even more impressive since no suicide attacks were recorded in Iraq prior to the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Matt Duss comments: "Understand, this is what George W. Bush's strategy of 'fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here' entails. Luring terrorists to Iraq to blow themselves up in markets and mosques wasn't some tragic side-effect of Bush's plan, it was in fact a component of Bush's plan. Let's not pretend to be confused when Iraqis fail to show appropriate gratitude."

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Since the late 1970s, Henry's Turkey Service has been shipping mentally retarded men from Texas to Iowa to work in the West Liberty plant. Henry's has acted as the workers' employer, landlord and caregiver — paying the men a reduced wage for their work at the plant and then deducting from their pay the cost of room, board and care. Payroll records indicate the men are left with as little as $65 per month in salary. - des moines register 

 

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In its (falsely) reassuringly subtitled booklet "The Food Defect Action Levels: levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans," the FDA's center for food safety and applied nutrition establishes acceptable levels of such "defects" for a range of foods products, from allspice to peanut butter.

Among the booklet's list of allowable defects are "insect filth," "rodent filth" (both hair and excreta pellets), "mold," "insects," "mammalian excreta," "rot," "insects and larvae" (which is to say, maggots), "insects and mites," "insects and insect eggs," "drosophila fly," "sand and grit," "parasites," "mildew" and "foreign matter" (which includes "objectionable" items like "sticks, stones, burlap bagging, cigarette butts, etc."). - nytimes

 

I'm planting a ginormous garden this year.

 

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Priceless: George Bush personally passes the hat to fund his own library! Ha ha ha ha ha.........
 

 

Who could have ever imagined that Bush would have trouble raising money for his own very liberry? And ironically, they're blaming the economy... that Bush created:
 

"It's a bad environment," says one [friend]. Bush is taking no chances: He's making donor calls himself, and even his dad, the 41st president, is helping out, as are former aides like Karl Rove. In the future, say associates, look for Bush to host fundraising events in order to meet a goal of completing construction in 2013. But for now, "he's laying low," says one.

Yes, the former chimp-in-chief himself is putting the fun back in fundraising. And what a great cause. Who wouldn't want to visit Georgie's Presidential Fun House?

But uh-oh! It'll take at least ten, maybe fifteen bucks to cover the costs of crayons, coloring books, non-toxic black redacting markers, and pretzels. Of course, with some real effort, a little luck, and just a touch of arm-twisting, Junior, Rover, and Daddy should be able to scrape up enough pennies.

Although one never knows - He may end up using the cash to pay bail.

 

Maybe George could get some cash from this guy:

 

Remember all that loose cash in Iraq that floated around and was never accounted for? Bricks and bricks of $100 bills, millions stuffed into sacks that were never subjected to any oversight whatsoever? Millions that could have been put toward more, um, constructive projects? Yeah, me too:

Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents.

Go and read the whole thing.

 

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Michael Moore targeting banksters for next film. Hell yeah.

 

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Republicans: spare me your new newfound "fiscal responsibility"  

http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/02/12/republicans-spare-me-your-newfound-fiscal-responsibility/ 

 

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Karl Rove and Chris Wallace Lead Graduates of

Quail Hunting School in a Fair and Balanced Bit

of Birdsnuffing

 

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4 more banks have hit the skids for a total of 7 this month and 13 so far this year. Anybody want to guess when we'll pass last year's number of 25?

The latest from The Bank Implode-O-Meter:
Pinnacle Bank, Beaverton, Oregon
Corn Belt Bank and Trust Company, Pittsfield, IL
Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast, Cape Coral, FL
Sherman County Bank, Loup City, Nebraska

 

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The next time someone tries to tell you how much Cons care for their country and the common man, point them here. Show folks just how much they put the nation before their own interests: http://entequilaesverdad.blogspot.com/2009/02/happy-hour-discurso_14.html

 

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McCain says Obama needs to work on bipartisanship.

No, really.

Alzheimer's sufferer John McCain said on Friday that President Barack Obama should include Republicans in his plans sooner if he really wants their support after the bitter debate over the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.

The Arizona senator said many other issues coming up will require a bipartisan effort that he said has been lacking so far from Obama and the Democrats.

"I hope they've learned a lesson," he said. "The message of the election was, sit down and work together. They obviously are not doing that," he said.

Jeebus Christ on a hotdog. Enough already.

 

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It all depends on what the meaning of "dangerous" is - And to WHOM it's dangerous: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/02/it-all-depends-on-what-meaning-of.html

 

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Obama on Tuesday will return to the site of his nomination to sign the most important bill of his presidency: the $787 billion economic stimulus measure. The president will make his legislative victory official at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. In his weekly address yesterday, he said the bill, passed by lawmakers in Washington on Friday, marked a "major milestone on our road to recovery," but warned of tough times ahead. "This historic step won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning," he said. "The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our response must be equal to the task." Read it at The Wall Street Journal

Note to Obama: you have to sign this bill because the country is out of money. Please stop flying around the country and wasting more of it for photo ops. 

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"This is one of the most expensive pieces of legislation Congress has ever approved. Including interest, as I've said, it's expected to cost $1.1 trillion. To put that figure in perspective, consider this: if you spent $1 million a day, every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spent $1 trillion. This is an extraordinary sum of money. It deserves an extraordinary level of scrutiny."

But that's hardly the point, now is it?

Liver Lips, if your boy Chimpy and your pals in the GOP had not dug such a deep multi-trillion dollar deficit hole with your unfunded tax cuts and unwinnable wars in the middle east and deregulating the market, we would not be in such a perilous condition.

So how many millions of dollars a day did the GOP have to deficit spend to double the national debt (and then some) in the past 8 years?

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Yesterday on his Fox News television show, Glenn Beck professed his deep concern for Beverly Eckert, a 9/11 widow who died in Thursday night's plane crash in Buffalo. "After the attacks, she became a vocal activist for families of 9/11 victims", Beck said in praising Eckert. "She pushed for the 9/11 Commission. She demanded answers from the government, and helped win the passage of the Intelligence Reform law."

Here's Beck 'professing his deep concern' on 9/5/09 (right after calling survivors of Hurricane Katrina who remained in New Orleans "scumbags"):

"You know, it took me about a year to start hating the 9/11 victims' families. It took me about a year. Um, and I had such compassion for them and I really, you know, I wanted to help them, and I was behind — let's give them money, let's get them started, and all of this stuff. And I really didn't — all the 3,000 victims' families, I don't hate all of them, I hate about, probably about ten of them. But when I see 9/11 victim family, you know, on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up.' I'm so sick of them. Because they're always complaining. And we did our best for them. And again, it's only about ten.

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Oh gee. Rove may be forced to testify as Obama's lawyers get involved.

"The president is very sympathetic to those who want to find out what happened," Obama's White House counsel Gregory Craig said in a statement yesterday to The Washington Post's Carrie Johnson. "But he is also mindful as president of the United States not to do anything that would undermine or weaken the institution of the presidency. So, for that reason, he is urging both sides of this to settle." http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bushs_lawyer_now_encouraging_Rove_to_0214.html

Considering how well both sides 'settled' on your stimulus plan, Mr. Obama, I can see why you have faith this issue of IGNORING THREE CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS can be resolved.

This doesn't sound like a case of 'no one is above the law' to me. It doesn't sound like change either.