Meechigan Football - Mrs.618

The past couple of days have been very somber for not just University of Michigan football fans, university staff and faculty, sports writers and family of Bo Shembechler, but for us " old time townies" as well. I say this as someone who grew up with Maize & Blue blood in her veins.

I am not much of a football fan per say, but growing up 6 blocks from the stadium, Saturdays in the fall always meant football...For one reason or another you may not have been attending the games, but you still planned your life around the. I can honestly say there was never a time in my life that U of M football and Shembeckler weren't synonymous. On nice fall days while jumping in the leaves I never needed to have the radio on as I could always tell who was winning by the cheers and jeers wafting down from "The Big House."

I also learned one of my favorite pass time in those Saturdays, one that I still enjoy today, that is people watching. An hour or so before the game my folks would put the lawn chairs out on the front porch and we would watch all the people passing by, some just enjoying a fall day spent at the game others a bit tipsy and rambunctious, some begging to park in our front yard. ( Something my father forbade)

I did how ever pass up the one opportunity I had ever had to meet the man; it was after his wife Millie had taken ill, but was still doing the everyday normal things a wife and mother do, and that was her grocery shopping. As I was walking into the store I saw the coach and he realized he had been reconized... I could tell that he was preoccupied and did not need the hassle of yet another fan, when he looked up and our eyes met I simply nodded and waved , he smiled an appreciative smile and returned the wave. He was a man with a big heart, one that brought many people joy.

While Meechigan may not have one the game today, I think Bo would have been proud of them, it was a well played game in this amateurs opinion, they got out there, they played hard, and they took the loss with the grace and dignity, that real men are taught. I think both Woody Hayes and Bo Shembechler would be proud of their respective teams today.

So Coach I raise my glass to you, in thanks for the legacy you have left us, not only a great athletic program at the university, the boys you turned into men, but for all those who's life's you have touched
both on and off the field. And most of all thanks for all the great memories you created for us.

Criminal Justice: The Esperanza Fire

[Second of two articles]

In my previous post, I discussed the shameful Ivan Hill case. This case, however, is somewhat better. Prosecutors in Riverside, CA, have charged a suspect in last month's "Esperanza" fire, which killed five firefighters, along with ten other fires. The prosecutor's office says it has "overwhelming evidence" against Raymond Lee Oyler.

Defense counsel, of course, claims Oyler has an "air-tight" alibi for the fire: he was caring for his 7-month-old baby. The alibi is "confirmed" by Oyler's girlfriend and sister (the article is a little ambiguous here, so I am assuming the grilfriend and sister are two people).

The AP article says:

Arsons are challenging to prove because evidence often burns and suspects can be miles away creating an alibi by the time anyone notices flames.

This is true as far as it goes, but it is also misleading. Certainly, a fire -- especially a wildfire like Esperanza -- creates wide-spread destruction, but -- and this is a crucial "but" -- a properly trained, experienced arson investigator can often determine "cause and origin" where the uninitiated eye sees merely chaos. Arson investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and Certified Fire Investigators (through the International Association of Arson Investigators) can have an almost uncanny ability to spot indicators of cause and origin. [As bloggers seem to be held to a much higher standard of disclosure than reporters or White House appointees, I should point out that I am a member of IAAI, but I am not a CFI. Yet.]

At 10 of the fires, investigators recovered remains of incendiary devices: five to seven paper or wood matches wrapped around a cigarette using duct tape or a rubber band. The arsonist lit the cigarette, which slowly burned down until it reached the matches and ignited them, sparking a brush fire. The device allows a time delay of up to 11 minutes that arsonists can use to escape and create an alibi.

[snip]

Thomas Fee, president of the International Association of Arson Investigators, said the DNA evidence could be key to linking Oyler to the other blazes. That DNA allows prosecutors to focus on the similarities between the cigarette-and-match devices used at the June blazes and the one used at the Esperanza Fire.

The way the incendiary devices were constructed can be used to show that the same person crafted them all — a so-called "arsonist's signature," said Fee, who isn't involved in the Oyler case. The signature can be as subtle as the location of the matches on the cigarette's stem or more obvious, such as the brand of cigarette used, he said.

The description of the 'sets' as given in the article, however, may prove to be a problem. For the layman, "five to seven paper or wood matches wrapped around a cigarette using duct tape or a rubber band" may sound like identical sets, but to a fire investigator, they are as different as night and day: paper matches are not the same as wood matches, nor are duct tape and rubber bands identical. Even a rookie lawyer could wreak havoc if that were the only evidence.

On the other hand, it is likely that either the prosecutor's office released ambiguous information to the press or the reporter -- who probably is not an arson investigator -- did not fully understand the information.

A "signature device" is usually virtually identical from fire to fire. The article mentions the case of former South Pasadena fire investigator John Orr, who as convicted of four counts of murder after a fire at a home improvement warehouse, along with dozens of other fires. Orr's devices consisted of three or four paper matches attached to a Marlboro Light, wrapped in yellow lined paper. Orr used virtually identical devices in almost all of his fires; it was this simularity that helped convict him in (I believe) four separate trials. Of course, the fact that authorities found a manuscript, written by Orr, describing his fires in detail that could only be known to the arsonist, didn't help Orr's defense any. (The history of firefighter arsonists is fascinating, but that is an article for another day). The full story of Orr's descent from respected arson investigator and mentor to convicted murderer is told in Joseph Wambaugh's book, Fire Lover.

At the top of this post, I said that the Oyler case was "better" than the Hill case. It is, but only because the authorities were able to identify and arrest Oyler before he had a chance to start even more fires. Certainly, the fact that five firefighters lost their lives makes Oyler's story anything but pleasant.

Should Oyler be convicted, I would hope that part of the sentence imposed would include psychiatric evaluation and treatment. Serial arsonists are a strange breed, and we know nowhere near as much as we should about these people. Back in December of last year, I wrote about Tookie Williams, founder of the Crips street gang, saying:

I believe that executing people like that serves no useful purpose. In fact, keeping mentally ill murderers alive might actually benefit society, in that -- assuming their cooperation -- medical science might be able to develop treatments that could either restore these people to health, or maybe treat someone else before that person becomes a killer.

The same logic applies to serial arsonists.

Criminal (In)Justice: The "60 Freeway Slayer"

This is the first of two articles dealing with the state of the criminal justice system, at least as it is constituted in California.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office was able to convict accused "60 Freeway Slayer" suspect Ivan Hill in the rape and strangulation murders of six prostitutes during a ten-week period starting in November, 1993. The jury also convicted Hill of “special circumstance” allegations of multiple murders and having a prior murder conviction. The death penalty phase of the trial will begin next month.

At the time of Hill's arrest for the "60 Freeway" killings, he was in prison for robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon (which are all felonies), and was set to be released in three months.

Here’s the kicker: the prior murder conviction was in 1989 – Hill served a maximum of four years, ten months for the 1989 murder conviction.

Murder is generally defined as:

[T]he killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).

This means Hill killed someone intentionally; inadvertent killings are (usually) considered manslaughter.

In an interview, LA County District Attorney Steve Cooley said Hill had been convicted of a total of eight killings, implying that (perhaps) the 1989 conviction was for two earlier homicides. If this were indeed the case, Hill would have served two years, five months for each of the killings.

Let’s look at the timeline here:

• 1989: Hill convicted of murder (possibly two, as noted above)
• 1993-1994: “60 Freeway Slayer” killings (first body discovered November 1, 1993; last found January 12, 1994); six dead
• 1994: Hill convicted of robbery, attempted robbery, and assault with a firearm
• 2003: Hill arrested for “60 Freeway” killings, three months before scheduled release for the 1994 convictions (served approximately nine years)
• 2006: Hill convicted in Freeway case, penalty phase to begin next month.

If Hill were convicted in the 1989 cases on January 1 and began the “60 Freeway” killings as soon as he got out, he would have served 58 months, for two murders, before being released to kill again.

This is unconscionable.

Given that Hill’s victims in the current case were all African-American prostitutes, it stands to reason that any earlier victims would also have been African-American – serial killers tend to stick within their own race and to chose a specific demographic (or image) for their victims. Could the fact that the earlier victims were black have had something to do with Hill’s obscenely-early release?

British politician William Gladstone once said, "Justice delayed, is justice denied." Justice was not necessarily delayed in Hill's first imprisonment in 1989 (if it was, in fact, his first, which is doubtful), but it was certainly perverted. LESS THAN FIVE YEARS for murder. They've got to be kidding, especially in light of nine years for the 1994 convictions.

Of course, it is possible Hill escaped from prison, but it is much more likely he was paroled. Parole boards, by and large, tend to be made up of well-meaning but incredibly naïve people, the ones who want so desperately to believe that “he didn’t kill” because he didn’t want to kill, not because there were no young African-American hookers in the Super-Max cell block with him. Remember the scene in Backdraft, where Robert DeNiro and Billy Baldwin go to Donald Sutherland’s parole hearing? It’s just like that.

This is particularly ironic in view of last night’s episode of “Law and Order”, in which main plot was that the killer had been convicted of two separate strings of murders and escaped to kill five or six young schoolgirls. In the sub-plot, the father of one of the victims gunned down the mass-murderer after McCoy and company were unable to pursue a death-penalty case against him. The father, in his trial, claimed temporary insanity, but – after being cleverly maneuvered by McCoy – blurted out, “I did what needed to be done.” Although I missed portions of the program, it appeared the killer had managed to avoid execution even after having received the death penalty in his earlier trials.

Pokin' 'Round the Blogs...

Part One

The Blue Girl in the Red State (and there must be an easier way to refer to her) has an interesting post up on the Missouri elections, and the rationale underlying it. Well worth the read.

Just a snippet as an appetizer:

Terry Price, we absolutely know what we have done. We have replaced a senator who had more interest in serving K Street than he had with serving his constituents. We fired a senator who voted to suspend Habeus Corpus and legitimize torture, as well as repeal Posse Comitatus and The Insurrection Acts. We voted against Jim Talent and his 94% endorsement of the policies of George Bush, not against George Bush. We voted against a senator who skipped 65 of 95 Senate Armed Services Committee meetings while touting his service on that committee. We knew exactly who we were voting for, and more importantly, we knew precisely who we were voting against. We too believe the country was headed over a cliff and Jim Talent was reading the map for George Bush as he steered us farther and farther off course.

As I say, well worth it.


Part Two

Bob's Links and Rants -- a neighbor of mine, even though we haven't met -- discusses Rumsfeld addressing the American Spectator Annual Dinner on the 16th, praising economist Milton Friedman.

Then he points out:

This morning's headline?

Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman dies at 94

You're probably wondering, as I was, who else Rummy mentioned in his speech: Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and President Bush.

Just saying.

We should be so lucky.


Part Three

Anntichrist S. Coulter is still raising money for her friend Leola. If you could send them even a couple of bucks, it would help offset some truly horrendous medical bills. And if PayPal doesn't like you, the way they don't like me, Annti has a smail mail address for the fund.

Michigan-Ohio Update & Bo Schembechler

Obviously, the post about the Michigan-Ohio game was written before the news came out about Bo Schembechler's death.

Of course, there hasn't been much definitive information about the exact circumstances of his death, but from what I understand, he had had a pacemaker-defibrillator implanted last month; the pacemaker-defib was apparently working properly -- sending out electrical charges to stimulate a normal heart rhythm -- when he collapsed at the WXYZ studios in Detroit. This would imply to me that Schembechler's heart was damaged to the point where even the pacemaker-defib could not maintain his life.

Granted, I'm not a physician... or even an MD (which, contrary to what the docs believe, does not stand for "major diety"), but it doesn't take a Bill "Cat-Killer" Frist to see that if 'external' electrical charges aren't working, your heart is shot.

This is one of those situations where neither CPR nor an AED would have served any purpose. If an AED had been available, and if the pacemaker-defib had been firing as designed, the AED would probably have read a normal sinus rhythm, and would not have allowed a shock. If the pacemaker had not been firing, Schembechler would probably have been asystolic ("flat-lined" for the "ER"-watching crowd); AED's do not read asystole as a shockable rhythm.

Either way, Schembechler was probably dead before he hit the floor.

Does this mean you should not take a CPR class? Hell, no. Take the clas, cause the person you find probably won't be in Schembechler's circumstances.

BTW, there was a lot of discussion around the office today about Schembechler's death would affect the game. Opinion seemed to be more or less evenly split: either it would drag the Michigan team down (through sorrow, depression, and loss), or it would further energize a team that's already "up" (their own "win one for the gipper" moment).

Either way, it's gonna be a hell of a game.

UCLA, ACLU... What's the Diff?

Okay, the wingnuts are getting a little out of control. I was chatting with a friend about the UCLA police Tasering a student for failure to show identification in the university library.

One of the local loonies overheard us -- one of us said something about an ID dispute -- and he jumped right in... about the "ACLU police" stunning the guy for disputing Intelligent Design. First, he demanded to know when and why the ACLU had established its own police department, and he wanted to know why they were zapping the kid for not believing in "Intelligent Design", which he claimed had been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

We tried to expalin the difference between UCLA -- University of California, Los Angeles -- and the ACLU -- American Civil Liberties Union -- but he kept demanding to know why the ACLU had its own cops.

And we're supposed to reach out to these morons....

Michigan-Ohio Game*

I know that for some people -- my father and both brothers spring to mind -- football is a religion. And I know that Michigan and Ohio have been rivals since Don Imus crept from his mother's womb 103 years ago. And I even know both teams are going into the game with 11-0 records.

But this is just plain silly.

I heard on the radio today that the Department of Homeland Security has designated this weekend's game a "National Special Security Event", which is the same designation used for Presidential inaugurations, national political conventions and the like. This means the Secret Service is in charge of security for the event, assisted by DHS, FBI, DoD, and all the rest of the bureaucratic alpha-bits agencies.

All time off has been cancelled for the Columbus police and fire departments. The city is bringing in the county and state cops, and apparently every other uniformed group including the Cub Scouts.

The rumor mill even says the University of Michigan Police Dept is sending troops to Ohio for the game.

Now, is everyone over-reacting to a flippin' football game?... or do the dweebs at DHS figure this is a way to see a sold-out game?


*It seems to be legally required that every Michigan-based blogger comment on this game. I could give a rat's rectum about football. I was born in Brooklyn, NY, so I'm waiting for the Dodgers to finish off their extended road trip and come back home.

Bush and the Will of the People

I was reading Milton Friedman’s obit on Yahoo today, and I saw a rather ironic quote from Commander Codpiece:

"He has used a brilliant mind to advance a moral vision — the vision of a society where men and women are free, free to choose, but where government is not as free to override their decisions," SEARCH
President Bush said in 2002. "That vision has changed America, and it is changing the world.”

This is truly rich, coming from the man who has used more “signing statements” than all other American presidents combined, the man whose minions stole elections in Florida and Ohio, the man who allowed his mouth-breathin’, Bible-thumpin’, hooker-humpin’, sister-marryin’, rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjit buddies to try to overrule the sovereign State of Florida in the Terry Schiavo case, the man who – proclaiming himself “The Decider” – single-handedly trashed 230 years of American juridical history (along with a certain “Goddamned piece of paper”, the Bill of Rights, the writ of habeas corpus, and a few other Constitutional goodies), the man who ignored the knowledge and recommendations of his own advisors to hurl us into an illegal and insane war, the man who has the unmitigated gall to suggest that disagreeing with him is tantamount to treason.

Of course, to be fair, Bush doesn’t really believe the government should override the peoples’ decisions… he reserves that “right” for himself only.

Oh, and the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 sent along this priceless quote from Dim Son:

"I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them."

As she said, "Only Shrubby could spit out something so stupid".

Do Something Good...

Anntichrist S. Coulter, whose heart is as big as her home state of Louisiana (plus a large chunk of the 47 adjacent states), is raising money to help a friend of hers, Leola Kinchen, who is trying to deal with a brain tumor.

More information on Leola is here.

Now bear in mind, Annti has had her own problems recently, but here she is, doing her damnedest to help someone who really, really needs it.

If every single one of my readerswere to donate a measly five dollars, we could help raise... ummm... $25.00. Or so.

Please, go hit her PayPal button (remember, the money goes to Leola, not Annti). Not that Annti doesn't need it, but right now, she's concentrating on Leola.

Thanks, folks.

More Early Mornin' Bits 'n' Pieces...

A Los Angeles fire captain is in serious trouble:

“A veteran Los Angeles city fire captain tortured a female acquaintance before he strangled her last summer, an accusation that makes him eligible for the death penalty, according to a Los Angeles County grand jury indictment unsealed in court Wednesday. "

Or, he’ll be scouted by the Bushies for recruitment to Club Fed/Gitmo… [emphasis added]

A 23-year department veteran, Del Toro had been the supervisor of Fire Station 1 in Lincoln Heights and had trained firefighters in stress management and prevention of sexual harassment, despite a history of domestic violence allegations against him. The case highlighted the Fire Department's failure to track domestic abuse within its ranks.

This is absolutely inexcusable.

Homicide investigators followed a trail of blood from the body to Del Toro's home, sources said.

Yup, that’s stupid enough to be a Bushie.
_____
Daily Kos front-pager DarkSyde has an interesting article comparing George W. Bush to Wile E. Coyote: [emphasis added]

It's really difficult to judge which is more pathetic: That George Bush has to rely on Daddy's friends to bail him (And the entire nation) out from the consequences of his own piss-poor decisions, again, or that Baker and Gates may now have to essentially beg Iran and Syria to pitch in and save the Bush Family name.

Yup, that works.

Early Mornin' Bits 'n' Pieces

Heard a couple of interesting things on NPR this morning on the way in:

• In a story on a terrorism class being held at the Joint Special Operations University, an instructor referred to the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) as "Thousands Standing Around" and as the "Take your Shoes off Agency" (which was really reaching, but quite appropriate).

It's no great secret that I do not hold the TSA in high esteem. They, like the rest of TSA, are still preparing for the last attack, instead of thinking about the next. Certainly, anyone who has spent any time at a major airport since 9-11 can recall all those white-shirted losers standing around looking official (when they're not stealing from passengers, groping a pregnant woman's breasts, or missing [fake] bombs). Just Google "TSA screener arrested" and see what pops up: ten pages of stories. Ten PAGES.

• There was also a story on "faith-based investing", which is, to me, a terrifying concept. One "faith-based investor" said he's not homophobic, he just doesn't want to invest in companies supporting the "homosexual agenda".

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the only people I've heard using the term "homosexual agenda" are the fundamentalist neocons... who tend to be homophobic to the hilt and/or closted gays: the Ted Haggards, the Mark Foleys, the Ken Mehlmans.

In his (her?) Kos diaries mentioned a few weeks ago, Dogemperor -- a walk-away from a dominionist church -- refers to a "dominionist glossary" (if I can find the link, I'll update this post); I believe "homosexual agenda" was listed as one of the "code phrases" understood by dominionists (and other mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjits), and totally missed by others.

One of the local wingnuts here also said there was a "clear correlation between the homosexual agenda and the prevalence of birth control, partial-birth abortions, and sexual immorality".

• The lovely yet talented Mrs 618 was watching C-Span last week, and saw an interview with an author who wrote about "selective literalists" - those whackos who pick and choose certain parts of the Bible (usually from Leviticus) for "literal" interpretation, while completely ignoring passages that don't agree with their preconceived notions of right and wrong. More on this later.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled work day.

Chattin' With Mr. C.

I was chatting earlier today with Mr. Conservatard, discussing the various possibilities for the remainder of the Bush reign. Mr. C. said he believes the administration will be pushing to pass as much legislation – Bolton to the UN, wiretapping, the rest of his “unitary executive” crap – as they can before the 110^th Congress takes over. I tend to agree with him on all but one point: he said Bush was formulating these plans.

Garbage.

Bush couldn’t formulate a glass of chocolate milk given a gallon of Hood’s finest and a jug of Hershey’s syrup.

There’s no doubt somebody is formulating something, but I’m inclined to believe it’s Cheney and Rove, or possibly Poppy’s “A-Team” that Junior had to call in to bail out his butt yet again.

As Digby points out: [emphasis added]

I hope people understand that James Baker and Robert Gates are in the Bush family business not the "wise old sage who will do what's right for the country" business. Indeed, their entire lives have been devoted to bailing out Bushes. (And they haven't always been successful. Jimmy may have pulled one out for Junior in Florida, but he was called back, much against his will, to get Poppy re-elected and failed.) Their job is simply to try to save Junior from ignominy and that is not necessarily what is in the best interest of the US or Iraq.

Digby then quotes the ever-wonderful Molly Ivins:

Jim Hightower's great line about Bush, "Born on third and thinks he hit a triple," is still painfully true. Bush has simply never acknowledged that not only was he born with a silver spoon in his mouth -- he's been eating off it ever since. The reason there is no noblesse oblige about Dubya is because he doesn't admit to himself or anyone else that he owes his entire life to being named George W. Bush. He didn't just get a head start by being his father's son -- it remained the single most salient fact about him for most of his life. He got into Andover as a legacy. He got into Yale as a legacy. He got into Harvard Business School as a courtesy (he was turned down by the University of Texas Law School).

He got into the Texas Air National Guard -- and sat out Vietnam -- through Daddy's influence. (I would like to point out that that particular unit of FANGers, as regular Air Force referred to the "Fucking Air National Guard," included not only the sons of Governor John Connally and Senator Lloyd Bentsen, but some actual black members as well -- they just happened to play football for the Dallas Cowboys.) Bush was set up in the oil business by friends of his father.

He went broke and was bailed out by friends of his father. He went broke again and was bailed out again by friends of his father; he went broke yet again and was bailed out by some fellow Yalies.

Ivins hardly paints the picture of Bush as a master thinker (he’s probably more of a master baiter).

Despite his claims of being “The Decider”, Bush seems to lack even the most rudimentary decision-making skills. Hell, he probably needs Laura – or at least his valet – to tell him which shoe goes on which foot (“George, your shoes are on the wrong feet again”… “But, Lauuuuraaaaa, theeeese are the only feet I haaaaaaave!”).

Obviously, Mr. C. is right in that the Bushies will try to get their agenda passed before the grownups return, if for no other reason than to give the Democrats as much trouble as possible when they try to reverse Bush’s assorted disasters. Face it, the more problems the Republicans accumulate, the harder it will be for the Democrats to solve them. The harder the Dems have to work, the more the Republicans can bitch about how the Democrats aren’t doing anything. And you know those lying sack-o-shit Republicans will very conveniently forget just who caused all these problems in the first place.

An Attaboy for (gasp!) Curt Weldon???

Much as I hate the Bushites and everything they stand for, I do have to give one of them some credit. Curt Weldon (R-PA) is a long-time member of the Congressional Fire and Emergency Services Caucus. As such, he (and the other 340 members of the Caucus) have been a voice for America's first responders.

I hope that at least a few of the newly-elected Democrats will take his place in this important group.

For your services to America's firefighters and EMS personnel, Mr. Weldon, thank you.

On the other hand, for your unswerving support of that lying sack of shit George W. Bush and his insane policies, STFU.

A propos of absolutely nothing, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is also a former volunteer firefighter.

You have to give these people credit, especially the volunteers. They're the ones that run into buildings everyone else is running out of. They don't get paid anything near what they're worth to American society (if they get paid at all), and their budgets are usually among the first to be cut (along with the cops).

Volunteer firefighters have to meet the same training criteria as the full-time paid guys, yet they often have to do it on their own time and at their own expense.

Now that we're done -- for a while -- with the requests for campaign donations, why not kick a few bucks towards your local fire department?

Impeachment? No Effin' Way.

There's been a lot of discussion on the Internets the last couple of days about how the Democrats might consider impeaching George W. Bush for his actions as preznit.

I don't think any reasonable person doubts there would be sufficient evidence to at least get him impeached (remember, impeachment is Fed-speak for an indictment, not a determination of guilt). One commentator on NPR the other day pointed out that there would be at least as much evidence -- if not more -- against Cheney (sorry, no link, 'cause I can't remember who said it or when). There's certainly no lack of websites demanding Bush's removal from office (here, here, here, just to pick the first three from Googling "impeach bush").

No, if the decision were made to offer articles of impeachment, the problem would be knowing when "enough is enough". The boy has been so incredibly stupid, so amazingly arrogant, and so genuinely horrifying as preznit, we could probably come up with at least 500 articles -- each one a separate and discrete offense.

Badtux has pointed out that Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi has pretty much ruled out impeachment for reasons of simple math. The speaker is, of course, next in line after the Vice President.

More to the point -- as Badtux said at the end of his piece -- we'd wind up with (ulp) Preznit Cheney.

Now, I am hardly a Constitutional scholar, nor am I an attorney, but it seems there are a few different ways a possible impeachment ploy could work out. None of them are really good, at least from my point of view.

1. Bush is impeached, tried, and removed from office. This leaves Cheney as president (someone shoot me). As we saw with the Nixon administration, the new president gets to name a new vice president. Cheney would probably nominate someone even worse than he is. We (as in the American people) lose.
2. We impeach Cheney first; he's tried and removed. Bush gets to name Cheney's replacement. W would probably pardon Cheney (the way Ford pardoned Nixon) then re-nominate him. Otherwise, Bush would name some other moron -- like Santorum. We lose.
3. We impeach Bush and Cheney together. If they're both removed from office, the presidency would land in Pelosi's lap.

This would be a win, except for one thing: I think a lot of people -- maybe even a majority -- would view it as a power grab by Democrats. It would be a safe bet that some Republicans who might vote to convict Bush and Cheney (Snowe, Collins, McCain come to mind) if there were a Republican Speaker, would not do so with a Democratic Speaker. So we go through all the aggravation of impeachment and a trial, and come out with... nothing. All we would have done is make both of them martyrs. Kinda like the way the Republicans made a martyr out of Bill Clinton.

I think (and I've said this before) we should let Bush serve out his term, go back to Crawdad in disgrace, and spend eternity being remembered as...

Worst. President. Ever.

At least Warren Harding would be happy.

Yeah. What Badtux Sez.

In my piece "Post-Election Catch-Up", the prolific commenter Anonymous left me about a 500-line conspiracy-theory-"9-11 was no terror attack" piece of crap. I say piece of crap because most -- if not all -- of the allegations have been proven false.

Turns out Badtux got the same thing. Fortunately, the penguin saved me from having to respond to the conspiracy-theory-commenter (go read his rebuttal, and be glad I didn't post my own 500-line response).

"Why, Rummy, Why?"

I was chatting with a conservative coworker today, and asked him what his take was on Rumsfeld's resignation/firing. I was hoping to get a reasonable response, perhaps similar to responses posted by other bloggers: "Rumsfeld quit to avoid removal from office", "this is as close as Bush'll ever get to admitting we need to make a change", and so on.

Instead of a logical response, I got a tirade: "Why do you think he retired? He was sick and tired of you liberal commie-lovers targeting him"... and on and on and on...

No semblance of rational thought. None whatsoever.

And yet we have to reach out to these morons and try to work with them for the common good.

BadTux, the (Not) Wrong Penguin

BadTux, whom I have quoted in the past, is usually a very sane and competent writer on a variety of topics. Imagine my joy when I thought I had finally caught him in a boo-boo of truly egregious proportions:

Thus why I haven't exactly been jumping up and down for joy, because the only resort that Congress has, in that case, is to impeach Bush. And as Nancy Pelosi noted, that ain't happening. Impeachment is off the table for the simple reason that the Democrats don't have the 60 votes in the Senate. They could create a circus, but that's about it.

Of course, I read the whole piece, screaming (silently) at the monitor... "BadTux, you fool, don't you see????"

Then, way down at the end of the post...

All the way down...

At the very bottom...

Not to mention that impeaching Bush means... President Dick Cheney. Somehow I doubt that Darth Cheney would be an improvement!!

Rassafrassin' penguin ruined my day.

But I suppose I should have known he would have spotted the most terrifying part of impeaching Bush.

A Man of Many Talents...

The Dark Wraith (who very kindly added my humble offering to his blogroll, as well as -- apparently -- that at Big Brass Blog) is a man of many talents:

[...] a college teacher and writer who specializes in economics, finance, mathematics, business administration, computer hardware and software skills, and English grammar and composition. His extensive writings on the history of the English language appeared on About.com in the avatar of the Selig Wraith in the Medieval History Forum; and he now writes on economics and politics as the Dark Wraith, under which pen name he also publishes and hosts Big Brass Blog. In addition, he serves as the editor and publisher of the blogScream News Wire service.

He is also quite gifted in the graphics field:

Graphic courtesy of The Dark Wraith, used by permission.

I am SOOOOO glad I'm not George W. Bush....

Post Election Catch-Up

First, congratulations to all the Democrats -- both candidates and workers -- who showed that, despite Bush's best attempts, democracy is not dead yet.

Second, I would like to take this opportunity to reach out to our Republican brethren, in the spirit in which they reached out to us in 2000 and 2004:

YOU LOST! WE WON!!!!

GET OVER IT!!!

LOOOOOOOO-SERS!!!!!

Third, on a more sedate and appropriate note, many bloggers have pointed out that our work has just begun. My good friend, Mr. Conservatard, reminds us:

I am sure that quite a few questions will be going thru every Americans head next week, and the Democrats better have answers. The questions will probably look like the following examples. Now that the Democrats have some power in the government, what are they going to do with it? What is the best way to fix the mess of Iraq? What are the Democrats plans to help the economy? What are the Democrats plans to reverse six years of the Bush regime’s attack on the Constitution? How are they going to reverse the ecologically devastating policies of the Bushtard/Big Oil cabal?

None of these questions have simple answers. If the Democrats are smart they will be open with the American public about the complexity of the problems and that any solution will not be perfect. The conservatards have spent a lot of time and money to fool the American public into allowing them to use the military as a tool. A tool called “The War on Terror” that was in reality a tool to help the conservatards advance their neo-conservative imperialistic agenda. You can take it to the bank that the conservatards and their masters will not easily put the crack pipe of power and money down without a fight.

Mr. C is quite right in his assessments (I especially like the phrase "the crack pipe of power"). Of course, Mr. C is not the only one to advance such cautions: Kos and company, Digby, Atrios, Billmon, and many others have said similar things.

They are all 100% correct.

Now is not the time for gloating (at least, not too much). Now is the time when we as Democrats, with our newly-minted majority*, have to reach out. I'm not saying we have to suck up to the Republicans, but neither can we show their arrogance and disdain for "non-believers."

And like Georgia10 at Kos, I'm having kind of a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of victory. Of course, I'm considerably older ("older than dirt", as my son says) and remember handing out flyers on the streets of NYC for Johnson, Humphrey and Kennedy. But after 12 years of Republican rule on capitol Hill and six years of Bush's phony-cowboy hell, it'll take some time to accept that the grown-ups are back in charge.

*And while our majority is slim, remember that Bush and his sycophants claimed 51% was a "mandate" (No, Mehlman, not that kind of man-date. Idiot.)

Damn! The Dark Wraith Does It AGAIN!!!

Graphic Courtesy The Dark Wraith; Used by permission


From Dark Wraith:

The Republicans have retained and even expanded their control of the House. They have won Senate seats where they should have lost, and they have taken a couple more they shouldn't have won. Several governorships have gone from Democrats to Republicans.

GOP faces are all over the TV, smirking, waving, smugly preening themselves before the cameras, talking about the "future," "the people's vote of confidence," and all manner of other sound bites that make you just sick to your stomach.

Yes, an election has been stolen. Again.

What, exactly, was it that you thought would happen? That the Republicans would play fair? That the rigged electronic machines, the tainted software, and their corrupted manufacturers from 2000 and 2004 had all simply vanished into thin air?

That the party of a President who had committed all manner of crimes both personally and by proxy through his subordinates would simply let all Hell break loose in a free-for-all hanging that could very well include humiliating disclosures, removals from office, and even prison terms?

That a party corrupted to its core even as it is insanely convinced of the rightness of its vision would merely stand down and let that vision of the Republic get savaged in such a way that it might be generations before people once again would forget how wretched that vision always turns out to be in practice?

And from his response to a comment:

Of no small importance in this regard is the plan by Republicans in some districts to have those sleezy voter qualification "challengers" slithering around at the polling sites trying to intimidate people. My own method in this regard is to simply walk up to them with my camera and take their pictures. I'll make sure a policeman is nearby when I do it. Any trouble they make will result in immediate, on-the-spot charges being filed against them. I am most definitely not in the mood to mess around.

They've had their fun being the school-yard bullies for six years; now it's their turn to get the swirlies. If my life experience is any indication of what's going to happen, school-yard bullies are great on offense but have a really hard time with defense: they tend to stick to offensive tactics even when they need to go to defensive mode (with which they are entirely unfamiliar), and that's where they'll get their come-uppance. My bet is that they'll get physical even in the presence of law enforcement officers, which will ensure their removal.

So, yes, I expect trouble; and, yes, I'm so looking forward to it.

And as far as getting myself a bloody nose or two, which is a real possibility when thugs run amok are in the mix, if I remember my old days properly, a bloody nose is pretty fun if I get to have some bloody knuckles with it.

Oh, hell, just go read the whole thing.

One thing for sure: I wouldn't want to be one of those Rethug "challengers" when the Wraith shows up.

Violent Crime Alert

From the "Coastal Journal", which is part of the Portland (ME) Press-Herald, from October 13, 2006:

Joshua [redacted], age 18 of Phippsburg, was arrested for Unauthorized Taking. [He] picked flowers from displays along Front St.

And I thought we had serious crime problems in Detroit....

Billmon on Haggard

From Billmon the other day:

Rocky Mountain High

You know you're in a pretty tight spot when you're a fundamentalist preacher with a high political profile and your defense is: "I only bought crystal meth from that gay hooker."

Maybe Jimmy Swaggart could survive something like that, but then Jimmy isn't gay.

Good luck in your future endeavours, Ted. You're going to need it.

Or, to quote that other Haggard (Merle):

I'd like to hold my head up and be proud of who I am / But they won't let my secret go untold / I paid the debt I owed them, but they're still not satisfied / Now I'm a branded man out in the cold

Update 8:00 PM ET:
Ted Haggard, the beleaguered pastor of a Colorado Springs evangelical church who had denied having sex with a male prostitute, has been fired by an oversight board, which found him guilty of "sexually immoral conduct."

So much for Christian forgiveness. God help me, but at this point even I feel sorry for the guy.
Posted by billmon at November 4, 2006 03:13 PM

I almost hate to say this, but I don't feel sorry at all for Haggard (Ted, that is). He's a typical, hypocritical, mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin, rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idjit... who just also happens to like smoking crystal meth and having sex (paid sex, at that) with men.

By his own logic (if one can call it that), he should be condemned to an eternity in Hell.

Of course, maybe once he feels the full brunt of his brethrens' "Christian forgiveness", he'll vote Democrat in an effort to save his soul.

I just LOVE seeing these bastards get their just desserts.

Mini-Update

First, some good news: Anntichrist S. Coulter is out of the hospital. Not in tip-top shape, but still with us. The lovely yet talented Mrs 618 and I send our wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

_____

In my previous post (yeah, I know, last week), I recapped some of the more popular and well-known examples of Republican "Family Values". Today, I stumbled across a list of Rethugs involved in various pedophile cases. Go read the full list here. Here are just a few:

• Republican County Board Candidate Brent Schepp was charged with molesting a 14-year old girl and killed himself three days later.
• Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.
• Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
• Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

Between the pedophilia and the run-of-the-mill corruption, how anyone can claim (with a straight face) that the Republicans stand for "family values" is beyond me.

Thanks to ArmChairSubversive for compiling the list.

_____

Daily Kos diarist "dogemperor" recently finished a three-part series on "Racists and Dominionists" (Part I, Part II, Part III), as well as numerous other postings on dominionists and similar groups. The recent series illuminates some of the instances in which seeming disparate groups -- tax protestors, sovereign citizens, common-law-court believers, racists, anti-abortion extremists, militias, neo-Confederates, etc -- come together, and the disturbing consequences of those convergences. The series is well worth the read (as are the rest of dogemperor's pieces), although some basic knowledge of the various fundamentalist/extremist/hate groups might be helpful (which is available here).

In the past, I've posted a few pieces about the convergence of anti-government extremists and the current administration (here and here, for instance). This series has energized me to resume work on a series of pieces trying to demonstrate and clarify the connections between the administration and various anti-government extremist factions -- those whom it would label "terrorists".

_____

Mr Conservatard is considering a new name for himself and his blog. Drop by, read his commentary on the renaming issue and let him know what you think. Personally, I think it should stay the way it is.

More later....

Family Values and Moral Superiority

1. Rep Jim Kolbe (R [of course] - AZ) is under Federal investigation for "inappropriate behavior" while on a camping trip with several underage Congressional pages.
2. Rep Mark Foley (R [of course] - FL) resigned after "inappropriate" emails to underage Congressional pages.
3. Rep. Bob Ney (R [of course] - OH) entered a plea of guilty to assorted corruption charges.
4. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff (R [of course] - K Street) entered guilty pleas to a whole range of corruption charges
5. White House aid Susan Ralston (R [of course] - Karl Rove's butt) quit after it was proved she had had extensive contacts with Jack Abramoff
6. Governor John Rowland (R [of course] - CT) resigned after admitting to numerous counts of bribery and corruption
7. Governor Bob Taft (R [of course] - OH) resigned after being convicted of corruption charges
8. Gropernator Arnold Schwarznegger (R [of course] - CA) has admitted to several instances of "inappropriate behavior" with various women during the course of his professional body-building and film careers

On the other hand, both Michael Moore and Teddy Kennedy are fat.

To your average mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idiot, the second argument is much more persuasive.

What gall they have to call themselves the "family values, morally superior" party.

We Got Us A NAAASTY Station Here!

The radio station I posted about earlier today just ran another clip, this one of the Dickless Cheney. As before, there was very soft music in the background. As Cheney faded out, they brought up the music... that wonderful recording by Harvey Fierstein (I think. Or was it Nathan Lane?)...

"If I only had a heart..."


I know what station I'm gonna be listenin' to in Gitmo (since everyone who doesn't worship LordGodKing Dick-n-George is gonna wind up being declared an "enemy non-combatant" and shipped off...)

The Rude One, Drudge, and Foley

The Rude Pundit, in his own inimitable fashion, picking up where the Drudge of Matt left off, has additional ways teenage pages can play practical jokes on Congresscritters:

1. You can put a whoopee cushion on the child predator's seat in the House of Representatives. When he sits on it and creates a fart sound, he will still be a child predator.

2. You can pretend to be a lobbyist and shake the child predator's hand with a joy buzzer. When he jumps back from the jolt, he will still be a child predator.

The remaining eight are just as insightful.

And if you happen to be near Cookeville, TN, ya might want to catch his show.

The Amazing Neocon Mentality

I just heard an interview on the radio, some reporter talking to some mouth-breathin', Bible-thumpin', hooker-humpin', sister-marryin', rifle-rack-in-the-pickmup neocon wingnut idiot.

This MO-ron had the following points to make:

• He's annoyed with the Republicans for getting us into Iraq without an exit strategy, but even more annoyed with the Democrats... because we don't have an exit strategy. All we want to do is "cut and run."
• He says Bush has accomplished what he wanted in Iraq, so now we should get out and let "those people fix their own mess."
• He can't see why service members object to having their tours extended time after time. Paraphrasing here, 'You go to Iraq for a couple of months, do some stuff we trained you to do, and you come home.'
• We should "stay the course" and "finish the job we came to do." This was less than 30 seconds after he made the first two points above.

Keep drinking the Kool Aid, asshat.

Oh, Man... We DID It!

Thank you to the visitor from San Francisco on Oct 6, about 10:00 AM (Eastern)... You were my 1000th visitor.

You win a free drink of water from your office cooler.

Just A Quickie...

Not that kind of quickie, you perverts!

One of the local radio stations just dedicated a song to George W Bush.

"If I Only Had A Brain", from The Wizard of Oz.

R.I.P.

This is "Jesus' General" today:

The general is right.

Do YOU Want to be Able to Save a Life?

I've mentioned a couple of times that I teach First Aid and CPR for the American Red Cross. The Red Cross and the American Heart Association are the two largest groups that teach the course. If you haven't taken a CPR course in the past, you should. You could save a life. It might be your spouse, your child, your parent, or even a complete stranger. If you haven't renewed your certification in the last few months, you definitely need to get the updated course; there have been lots of changes to the program (at least, to the ARC version; I haven't done an AHA course in 20-some years).

Until just recently, taking a classroom course was the only way to learn these critical skills. But now, according to an article a friend sent me, the AHA has a home-study course. You purchase an inflatable manikin, watch the program materials (I think on a DVD), and practice to your heart's content. You don't get certified in the skill, as you do with the ARC or AHA, but you have the skills to save a life.

The AHA anticipates 3 people learning the skill for each manikin purchased (the assumption that the buyer will pass the manikin around to family members is probably valid).

Learn CPR. You really could save a life.

Take a course at the Red Cross or the Heart Association, or even the home study program.

But please, please learn CPR (and first aid, of course).

Gettin' There...

Back on March 12, I mentioned that I would be "thrilled when I broke a thousand" visitors. Well, as of a few minutes ago, I'm at 959.

Of course, being more or less a masochistic sort, I then looked at the stats for TBogg, Kos, and Atrios (6,369,222; 319,684,223; 94,590,499, respectively). At that point, I was at 535.

Four hundred-twenty visitors and six months later, here's where we stand now:

• TBogg: 8,613,124
• Kos: 419,990,987
• Atrios: 118,148,582
• Me: 959

To put this in some kind of perspective, here are the daily averages for "the other guys":

• TBogg: 9,496
• Kos: 537,723
• Atrios: 110,960

My daily average? Four.

On the other hand, I alone am married to the lovely yet talented Mrs 618, and they're not.

Therefore, I win.

"WE Deserve A Break... Don't We?"

Remember the old McDonald's advertising campaign, "You deserve a break today"? The fine folks at Mickey D's are probably wishing they could get a break today: the company is in the news. Twice. In lawsuits. As a defendant. As if being sued for serving hot coffee wasn't bad enough, right?

The McStrip-search Case (or, "You wanna get nekkid with that?")

In the first case, we have yet another "strip search" scam - a person purporting to be either a law enforcement officer or a high-ranking corporate officer - calls a fast-food restaurant, and tells the manager that an employee -- invariably female -- is involved in some sort of criminal activity. The caller directs the manager to to search the "suspect", in a progressively intrusive manner.

In this case, the caller claimed to be a senior manager of the local McDonald's franchisee. The court record shows he called collect, and used the name of an actual manager in the company.

During the trial, a private investigator was to testify that between 50 and 70 similar strip-search hoaxes has been perpetrated against fast-food joints since 1999 (the investigator was not allowed to testify). The attorney for the McDonald's corporation acknowledged that 12 to 14 of the incidents specifically targeted McDonald's.

The crux of the plaintiff's case is that both McDonald's and the franchisee were (or should have been) aware of the previous scams, and failed to protect her properly. McDonald's says that the franchisee was made aware of the scam in 1999 and again in 2001; additionally, theMcDonald's training manual for franchisees bans strip searches of employees or customers. The franchisee, however, claims they were not made aware of the previous scams until after the lawsuit was filed. A U.S. District Court judge granted a summary judgment for McDonald's, but let the case against the franchisee go ahead. In an earlier case invol;ving a similar situation, another judge also gave McDonald's a pass.

Nightline or one of those shows did a program on a similar case last year. That case involved a caller claiming to be a police officer.

As a former cop, I can pass along this useful information:

1. The cops will not call you collect. The police department is perfectly willing to run up its own phone bill.
2. The cops will not ask someone else to do their job for them (especially if the job involves strip-searching an attractive young lady). The potential liability issues for the cops would scare any cop, plus whatever evidence was obtained in this manner would be inadmissible.

This scam has been around for at least seven years. You'd think that all the restaurant chains would have made these scams known to all their employees and franchisees, if for no other reason than to head off negative publicity like this.

Part of the reason the McDonald's corporation was removed from the case was that the plaintiff was not able to prove that McDonald's breached any legally-recognized contract to protect her; additionally, the corporate attorney who acknowledged the other scams targeting McDonald's claimed those incidents were too remote in time and place to give McDonald's effective notice of the problem.

If I were the chairman of McDonald's, I would make damned sure that every corporate employee, every franchisee, and every franchisee's employee was made aware of this scam. It produces bad publicity for the company (and the franchisee), plus McDonald's will eventually run into a judge who'll say something along the lines of, "this has happened x number of times, and you're still claiming you know nothing about it? I don't think so."

[The information for this part was drawn from reports of the arguments in U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th District. The arguments were heard on September 15.]

The McFlab Case (or, "you wanna supersize your gut with that?")

The second case involves an on-going lawsuit in New York, against McDonald's. This time, it's a case of parents blaming false and misleading advertising (implying that McDonald's was a healthy meal choice) for leaving kids fat and unhealthy. A U.S Circuit Court of Appeals judge in New York refused to throw out the case, saying the plaintiffs had provided enough specific examples of allegedly misleading advertising to allow the case to go to trial.

McDonald's and other fast-food chains (many of the chains are facing similar lawsuits) claim these cases are just further examples of Americans blaming others for their own bad habits (a claim I happen to think is justified... but false and misleading advertising is never justified).

The case was initially dismissed (twice) by the judge; the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit restored several parts of the second (amended) complaint, allegations that McDonald's:

• created the false impression that "its food was nutritionally beneficial and part of a healthy lifestyle if consumed daily";
• failed to disclose the use of additives that made the food less healthy than represented;
• acted decptively when it said it would provide nutritional information to consumers.

I've pointed this out in the past - if you are so concerned about health food, get a clue: McDonald's ain't health food. Neither is Burger King, Wendy's, Arby's, Roy Rogers, Popeye's, Hardee's, Friendly's, Big Boy, Steak & Shake, Denny's... NONE of them. I don't care who you talk to, no one with any sense is going to claim that burgers, fries and soda will "help build strong bodies twelve ways" (and yes, Wonder Bread had to stop saying that after they got sued back in the 70's).

If you want your kids to eat healthy, cook for them yourself.

Similarly, a couple of years back, some Hindu sued McDonald's, claiming his religious beliefs were violated when McDonald's served him fries that had been cooked in grease that contained beef by-products. Again, if your religious beliefs prohibit you from eating beef, don't go to a burger joint, idiot.

In summary, it appears McDonald's got out of the first case through sheer luck (but they'd better get on the ball before the next pervert tries the same scam). The second case is a perfect example of why the trial-by-jury system actually works (since, all my bitching to the contrary notwithstanding, it really does work, at least most of the time) - did the parents rely on false and misleading advertising, or are they just blaming a "deep-pockets" corporation for their own failures? If the advertising is, in fact, found to be false, McDonald's should pay (and pay big); on the other hand, if the jury sides with McDonald's, the plaintiff should bear the entire cost of the corporation's defense.

Just as an aside: for more information on stupid/needless/retaliatory lawsuits, check out the "Stella Awards" newsletter (named after the gal who sued McDonald's for the hot coffee). It's produced by Randy Cassingham, who also is responsible for "This Is True", a compedium of incomprehensible actions gathered from around the world. He's got a couple of other good sites, too. None of the information in this post came from Cassingham's newsletters; it's just I think he deserves a plug for his efforts.

In Memoriam: Ingeborg Joseph, 1941-2001

Note: Although this posting was written on September 9, it is dated Sept 21 to keep it on top for a while.

In an earlier post, I mentioned Zipcard2. She came across my site through a link from D. C. Roe, who is coordinating an effort to have an international group of bloggers pay homage to the 2996 victims of the 9-11 attacks. She reminded me, indirectly, that I had neglected to post my memorial.

Ingeborg Joseph was, perhaps, not a “mover and shaker” in the world at large. In fact, I was unable to locate much biographical information on her (thanks to that miserable Times Select firewall). For a smaller subset of the world, however, Ms. Joseph left an indelible mark. She was an import manager for the Rohde & Liesenfeld shipping agency, and perished in the World Trade Center on 9-11. She was 60 years old at the time of her death.

To view the remembrances of those who knew her, visit her page on Legacy.com.

Zipcard lost two friends in the attack, both NY firefighters. I lost three friends, all police officers. The almost 3,000 victims left behind millions of friends and loved ones.

To Ingeborg Joseph, to Zipcard’s firefighters, to my police officers, to all the victims of those cowardly attacks, rest in peace.

To the survivors, to those who volunteered at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania, to those who donated blood, money, or supplies, to the brave service members rooting out the terrorists overseas, to the cops and firemen and emergency medical personnel who put it all on the line every day, thank you and God bless you.

To those who plotted and carried out these dastardly attacks, may you all rot in your own personal versions of Hell for all eternity.

As Charlie Daniels put it:

And you never did think that it ever would happen again. In America, did you? You never did think that we'd ever get together again. Well we damn sure fooled you. We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again in America. You never did think that it ever would happen again.

From the sound up in Long Island out to SanFrancisco Bay, and ev'ry thing that's in between them is our home. And we may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves, but you outside people best leave us alone. Cause we'll all stick together and you can take that to the bank. That's the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks. You just go and lay your head on aPittsburgh Steeler fan and I think you're gonna finally understand.

Tragedy, Great Loss or Accident?

Blatantly stolen from Peter of Lone Tree at BlondeSense:

Just mailed to me from a friend:

Maybe you've heard it before but it bears repeating:

President Bush was visiting a primary school and he dropped in on one of the classes, where they were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked the President if he would like to lead the discussion of the word "tragedy". So, the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a "tragedy."

One little boy stood up and offered: "If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him that would be a tragedy." "No," said Bush, "that would be an accident."

A little girl raised her hand: "If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy." "I'm afraid not," explained the president. "That's what we would call a great loss."

The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Bush searched the room. "Isn't there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?" Finally at the back of the room a small boy raised his hand. In a quiet voice he said: "If Air Force One, carrying you and Mrs. Bush, was struck by a friendly fire missile and blown to smithereens that would be a tragedy." "Fantastic!" exclaimed Bush. "That's right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?" "Well," said the boy, "it has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn't be a great loss and it probably wouldn't be an accident either."

Offered Without Comment

[Other than my appreciation for Nena making this available, of course]

NEVER BEFORE

Written on 18 Sep 01
By Nena Wiley


Never before had I been paralyzed by terror and anguish;
so consumed, so compelled.
But I was on Tuesday.

Never before had I sat under my Nation's starry skies,
with only the sight of fighter jets and the only sound; of freedom.
But I did on Wednesday.

Never before has our family gathered together and
made a "Plan A" to save our lives in case of disaster.
But we did on Thursday.

Never before had I witnessed so many American Flags,
heard so many anthems nor seen so many remembrance candles.
But I did on Friday.

Never before had I seen so many many American heroes,
nor heard of such brave acts across our land and skies.
But I did on Saturday.

Never before had I felt our Nation to be united
in grief, prayer, anger and resolve.
But I did on Sunday.

Never before had I been glad to be interrupted
by commercial breaks on television.
But I was on Monday.

Never before had my soul wept beyond tears,
nor had my heart bled red, white and blue.
But they did that week.

Dear God, Please....never again.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ***

Please feel free to reprint and/or distribute with proper credit.

Today's Laugh

Swiped without apology (but with much gratitude) from Anntichrist S. Coulter:

Laura Bush bought her husband a parrot for his birthday, and told Dick Cheney, "The bird is so smart! George has already taugh him how to mispronounce over 200 words!"

"That's impressive, all right," Cheney said. "But you do realize that he just *says* the words, right? He doesn't understand what they mean."

"That's okay," she replied. "Neither does the parrot."

Sullivan via BarkBark - A "Must Read"

As Mustang Bobby says, Andrew Sullivan "hits this one out of the park":

If you need proof that this administration's first priority is not a humane and effective counter-terror strategy, but a brutal, exploitative path to retaining power at any price, you just got it.

Read the Sullivan piece first, then read Bobby's take on it:

Mr. Sullivan is correct (and may I be so bold as to say that a certain blogger has pointed this out before): this kind of campaign is not about the promotion of ideas for the country, it is most assuredly the means to maintain a grasp on power for no other reason than just to be in power. The sooner we all see that and the sooner the perpetrators of that dictatorial mindset are escorted off the field, the better and safer this world will be.

Amen, brother.

THIS One's Gettin' Blogrolled NOW...

Found this through a link from FireDogLake:

Dear Leader's Daily Thought.

I thought I was going to pass coffee through my nose when I read the post entitled "America is Safer. But not yet Safe."

_____
Update: added the (forgotten) link to FDL.

OMFG, Part II

Look, I'm trying to be nice, I really am.

Vice President Cheney, quoted today in the Washington Post:

The vice president said U.S. allies in Afghanistan and Iraq "have doubts" America will finish the job there. "And those doubts are encouraged, obviously, when they see the kind of debate that we've had in the United States," Cheney said. "Suggestions, for example, that we should withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq simply feed into that whole notion, validates the strategy of the terrorists."

This is the VICE PRESIDENT of the United States? Saying, in effect, that an open debate on the wisdom of our involvement in a fer-real shootin' war is encouraging the bad guys?!?

And the really sad part is how many people still support this administration.

Earth to Hindrocket: HELLLLOOOOOO?

John Hindraker on PowerLine Blog:

[...] I think it's really important to work hard to get a Republican majority in the Senate[...]

Umm, Johnny, you guys already have a Republican majority, remember? And not just in the Senate, but in the House, as well. Plus, you guys have the White House and the Supreme Court.

I promised I would try to be a little more polite to those on the "other side", but Jesus...

What planet do some of these guys LIVE on?!?

_________

UPDATE 09-11-06: Some of the other bloggers who picked up on this (and that number is pretty damned near universal) have received comments claiming that Hindrocket's comments were meant to be "ironic", "tongue-in-cheek", etc. I don't think so. Somewhere (maybe Digby), I read a response to one such comment; the respondent points out that the administration has made such a habit of blaming the "demo-islamo-franco-fascist liberals" for their own failures, that it's entirely likely that some of these folks might not realize the Rethuglicans really do have majorities in the House and Senate.

Personally, I think they're just dumb as a box of rocks, as the lovely yet talented Mrs 618 says.

Another Date That Shall Live In Infamy...

Almost 65 years ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the nation after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines, and Wake and Midway Islands. FDR said, “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

In the Pearl Harbor attack alone, the Navy and Marine Corps suffered a total of 2,117 deaths; the Army lost 228. In addition, at least 57 civilians were killed. Admiral Bill Halsey, speaking on the day of the attack, said, “When this war is over, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.”

As horrific as the Pearl Harbor attack was, it was carried out against military targets – the U.S. Naval Base and Hickam Field.

The attacks of September 11, on the other hand, specifically targeted civilians (including – perhaps not inadvertently – a large number of Muslims who worked in the WTC in a variety of capacities). This is, of course, a basic tenet of terrorist operations – target those least able to defend themselves, those whose death by “random” violence will generate terror in the hearts and minds of others (witness various attacks by the Red Army Faction, Sendaro Luminoso, Baader-Meinhof, Black September and the myriad other Islamic terror groups).

The (estimated) 2996 fatalities included 343 New York fire fighters, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers, most of whom died while trying to rescue trapped victims (I am assuming that at least a few Port Authority officers were killed in the crash and initial explosions, although I am not 100% positive of that). Of the rest of the victims, hundreds died as the planes plowed into the towers. Others burned or suffocated in the choking toxic smoke, while dozens jumped to their deaths. Most, however, were killed during the dramatic collapse of the Twin Towers.

A gravely-injured New York City swept aside decades of racial, political, sexual, and religious rivalries (and, regrettably, some hatreds) and pulled together, working with one goal: to recover. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani already had his hands full running one of the most troubled, unruly cities on Earth; suddenly, he had to deal simultaneously with the worst terrorist attack in history. Giuliani, who was also dealing with personal problems that affected his official performance, led the city in the aftermath of the attack better than perhaps any other man could have. As a result, he was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2001.

As news of the attacks spread, there were spontaneous outpourings of grief and sympathy around the world, both from traditional friends like Britain and France, as well as some more unexpected places like Russia, North Korea, Iran and Iraq. [I had links to several websites that gathered photos of these memorials, but I can’t locate them at present.] The attacks united the world in horror and revulsion against the terrorists.

Speaking to rescuers at “Ground Zero” on September 14, George W. Bush said, “I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”

We soon learned that “the people who knocked these buildings down” were members of a radical/fundamentalist Islamic group known as Al-Qaeda, a group also tangentially implicated in the 1993 bombing at the WTC. Bin Laden and his followers (as do most of the terrorists these days) practice a perverted form of Islam, and visualize a world-wide “caliphate” of fundamentalist Islamic supremacy.

Bush subsequently announced his determination to hunt down Al-Qaeda, and capture or kill its leaders, operatives, and supporters. His announcement was greeted with almost universal acclamation. It was as if every government, every nation, every person on Earth, had said, “They attacked you without provocation. They attacked innocent civilians. Go ahead, hunt them down and kill them. F**k them.”

Had Bush maintained that focus, he would probably still be enjoying the same astronomical approval ratings he had in late September of 2001. Had he turned lose the full might and power of the United States to track down those Al-Qaeda monsters, they would be dead and rotting by now. Had he had the balls (and I’m not sure any president would have) to release some of the “specialized” units from the CIA (the semi-civilized contract killers, torturers, and assorted other mayhem-makers), the terrorists and their sympathizers would have gotten a taste – just a taste – of what exquisite forms of torment might await them if they tried to pull this shit again.

Path To 9-11? Or Path To Disaster?

Over at Daily Kos, DemFromCT has further analysis of the “Path to 9-11”/ABC/Disney brouhaha, in which he mentions (in passing) the fact that even a number of conservative commentators are starting to be troubled by Disney’s obsession with the” mockudrama.” Following the link to an AlterNet article, one sees that ThinkProgress has assembled a list of well-known conservatives expressing opposition to either the program or ABC’s inept handling of the situation: [I am assuming the emphasis was added by ThinkProgress]

• John Podhoretz, conservative columnist and Fox News contributor:

The portrait of Albright is an unacceptable revision of recent history and an unfair mark on a public servant who, no matter her shortcomings, doesn’t deserve to be remembered by millions of Americans as the inadvertent (and truculent) savior of Osama bin Laden. Samuel Berger, Clinton’s national security adviser, also seems to have just cause for complaint. [NYPost, 9/8/06]

• James Taranto, OpinionJournal.com editor:

The Clintonites may have a point here. A few years ago, when the shoe was on the other foot, we were happy to see CBS scotch “The Reagans.” [OpinionJournal, /7/06]

• Dean Barnett, conservative commentator posting on Hugh Hewitt’s blog:

One can (if one so chooses) give the filmmakers artistic license to [fabricate a scene]. But if that is what they have done, conservative analysts who back this movie as a historical document will mortgage their credibility doing so. [Hugh Hewitt blog, 9/6/06]

• Chris Wallace, Fox News Sunday anchor:

When you put somebody on the screen and say that’s Madeleine Albright and she said this in a specific conversation and she never did say it, I think it’s slanderous, I think it’s defamatory and I think that ABC and Disney should be held to account. [Fox, 9/8/06]

• Captain’s Quarters blog:

If the Democrats do not like what ABC wants to broadcast, they have every right to protest it — and in this case, they had a point.
[Captain Quarter’s blog, 9/7/06]

• Bill Bennett, conservative author, radio host, and TV commentator:

Look, “The Path to 9/11″ is strewn with a lot of problems and I think there were problems in the Clinton administration. But that’s no reason to falsify the record, falsify conversations by either the president or his leading people and you know it just shouldn’t happen. [CNN, 9/8/06]

• Seth Liebsohn, Claremont Institute fellow and produce of Bill Bennett’s radio show:

I oppose this miniseries as well if it is fiction dressed up as fact, creates caricatures of real persons and events that are inaccurate, and inserts quotes that were not uttered, especially to make a point that was not intended. [Glenn Greewald’s blog, 9/7/06]

• Richard Miniter, conservative author of “Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror”:

If people wanted to be critical of the Clinton years there’s things they could have said, but the idea that someone had bin Laden in his sights in 1998 or any other time and Sandy Berger refused to pull the trigger, there’s zero factual basis for that. [CNN, 9/7/06]

• Brent Bozell, founder and president of the conservative Media Research Center:

I think that if you have a scene, or two scenes, or three scenes, important scenes, that do not have any bearing on reality and you can edit them, I think they should edit them. [MSNBC, 9/6/06]

• Bill O’Reilly, Fox News pundit:

Ok, we’re talking about the run up to 9-11 and this movie that they’re re-cutting now — and they should because it puts words in the mouth of real people, actors playing real people that they didn’t say and its wrong. [O’Reilly radio show, 9/8/06]

It would seem to me that with a line-up like this expressing reservations about the program, ABC and Disney ought to think seriously about scrapping the whole project.

Of course, it’s not just the pundits – on both sides of the fence – that pose potential problems for Disney. There is also a movement afoot to boycott the various Disney enterprises… including Disney World, Disneyland, and Euro Disney. In a way, this is a delightful development: many on the far right are angry with Disney for the gay-pride parades and other gay-friendly activities at the Disney parks, and now the left is angry with them. Kinda sounds like a “no win” situation to me.

Oh, my… John Aravosis at AmericaBlog has a post up with yet another factual error from the movie:

[…] I have the entire "Path to 9/11" video. And one of the very first scenes makes it explicitly clear that American Airlines had Mohammad Atta in its grasp, warning lights flashing on the computer screen, yet the airline simply blew off the threat and helped Atta kill 3,000 Americans.

Unfortunately, it's a total lie.

Here's what the "Path to 9/11" claims American Airlines did on the morning of September 11. According to Disney/ABC, American Airlines had Mohammad Atta at its ticket counter and a warning came up on the screen when he tried to check in. The AA employee called a supervisor who kind of shrugged and said, blithely, just let him through. The first employee, shocked, turned to her supervisor and said, shouldn't we search him? The American Airlines supervisor responds, nah, just hold his luggage until he boards the plane. The scene is clearly intended to make American Airlines look negligent.

Only problem? It never happened.

First off, Disney/ABC got the airport wrong. The warning for Mohammad Atta's ticket popped up in Portland, Maine, not at Boston Logan as the tv show claims (this is on page 1 of the September 11 Commission report).

Second, the security rules at the time said nothing about searching a passenger who has a "warning" pop up, they only required that the bags be held until the passenger boarded. The Disney/ABC tv show, on the other hand, clearly tries to imply that American Airlines violated the security rules in letting Atta go. This simply isn't true. (This is also on page 1 of the report.)

But most importantly, Disney/ABC implicated the wrong airline. And I quote the Director of the FBI:

On September 11, at 6:00 AM, Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al Omari boarded a U.S. Airways flight leaving Portland, Maine en route to Boston's Logan Airport.

The 9/11 Report, on page 1 of all things, makes clear that it was in Portland that Atta's warning came up. And FBI director Mueller makes clear that Atta flew US Airways Express from Portland to Boston. So, Disney/ABC, in the first ten minutes of its error-riddled tv show - a show about to be broadcast to the entire English-speaking world this Sunday - paints American Airlines as one of the most irresponsible air carriers on the planet. An air carrier that is directly responsible for killing 3,000 Americans because its own employees are too lazy to follow safety rules.

And Disney/ABC got it totally wrong, defaming one of the largest airlines in the world.

An Opposing View

I received a comment on my post, "The Fundamentalist Redneck Fourth Reich, Part II", from a blogger calling herself Zipcard2. Her comment was as fierce in her defense of Bush as my original post was in criticism.

Out of curiosity, I paid a visit to her blog. While I don't necessarily agree with her viewpoint on certain things, I found that we do have some common ground. For instance, we both support the Patriot Guard Riders, a group that gathers at the funerals of our servicemen and women killed in action, to help protect these solemn moments from (admittedly) obnoxious protesters. Further, it appears we both believe it is incumbent upon the United States to find and exterminate those who were responsible for the 9-11 attacks. (We do disagree, however, on lots of other things)

She also has an interesting article by Jim Hoffman on the "Pentagon No-757-Crash Theory". It's well worth the read.

Now, this may sound bizarre, but I have asked her for permission to blogroll her here, as an opposing point of view. If she agrees, I hope we can start a dialog, where her vitriol (and I mean that in a nice way) counters mine (yeah, I can get a little hot under the collar). And maybe -- just maybe -- readers of both blogs might realize that "the other side" has valid points to make also.

As I said in my comment on her blog, quoting Voltaire, ""I might disagree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

OMFG.

Dubya, via Atrios:

And so, here on Labor Day, I say to the union members who are here, happy Labor Day, and thanks for supporting leadership that is progressive, smart, capable, and has your best interests at heart.

Oh, my frickin' God. How much BS can the boy cram into one sentence?

Talk about escaping from the "reality-based community."

If there has ever been an administration less "progressive, smart, capable" or that has the middle class's "best interests at heart", I have yet to see it.

This administration has been plagued by one scandal after another, including the outing of a covert CIA operative, an illegal war, warrantless spying on American citizens, repeated violations of international laws and treaties, and so much more.

The activities of the current bunch are much, much worse than Teapot Dome or Watergate (both of which, of course, were brought to you by Republicans).