In a word, “yes.” Now to read the post!

wow

Well, they tried to smear him without first painting his military career as a sham and we all saw how well that worked out for them.

to quote lotus @61, LT,”if only we were making this up!”

You know, it’s time we take these bastards to court over this stuff. I’d be first to contribute to the Murtha LitigateTheirAssesOff fund.

Great post. I saw a hearing on cspan several years ago, about 3am. Chris Shays chaired it and did a wonderful job. It was on money being “lost” in the DOD. Trillion a year. When these republican reps. go out campaigning, this would be a good line of questioning, since there are no checks and balances in the legislative branch. Veterans for Peace are doing a good job in Maine asking Collins and Snowe, “Why won’t you debate the Iraq war?” Snowe won’t even meet with families of vets.

Follow the money, indeed. Maybe it’s the only thing that allows Hunter – and the others who are engaging in (or sitting by while others get their hands dirty) attacks on Murtha – to sleep at night. I truly do not know how these people can look themselves in the eye on this – it’s just despicable.

Hey, thanks, Molly, and good morning to all.

Taylor –

Thanks for your research and writing on this! Some days I can barely stand to read this sort of thing, it just makes me want to weep. The horror of this level of greed is staggering. What amount of blood they have on their hands!

You do us all a service, bringing this to everyone’s attention. We should now pick up the ball — spread this info far and wide, especially if we know people in that scum’s district. Or in Murtha’s district — he still needs our support, and Irey sounds like a real piece of work.

Great post! This blog is on fire!

I keep hoping that this trick will backfire in the shameless Repugs. This time they may have bitten off more than they can chew, as Congressman Murtha was a Marine Colonel, and is not one to back down (see his Rove remarks as an example).

Murtha not only served in Vietnam, he commanded troops there. It is one thing for to smear a Lt. that testifies against the Vietnam War after serving (John Kerry) it is another whole thing to hammer a ex-colonel, ya know?

Good morning back to you, Taylor!

I hardly ever get to be here at FDL these days, and getting a chance to be here in the morning is even more unusual. So it’s extra good to get a chance to thank you in person for all your work!

Hi, Taylor, welcome back, and thanks!

That Conason takedown of Irey and her crew is delicious. Imagine running against Jack Murtha when your only visible means of support is Ahmad Chalabi — wotta hoot!

I’d love to see Howard Dean and every Democrat on TV flog this. Thanks, Taylor.

Mrs. K8 – You’ve got it right. We need to spread this information far and wide. People need to know that it’s REPUBLICANS who smear veterans, not the other way around. I’d like Hunter to have to answer some questions. Also, it would be interesting to get people in Hunter’s district riled up about this. Sending emails and demanding answers is a place to start, right after we play Paul Revere.

Ah…Tony Snesko. He used to be a Poway city councilmember. Poway is the home of Brent Wilkes ADCS. Snesko is a born-again Christian. After he left Poway he went to Washington to work on a campaign to get the FCC to censor “indecent” programs.

HELP SUPPORT THE TROOPS ACCESS THE INTERNET:

Read this story:

http://www.localistmagazine.com/iraq.htm

And if you have IT/network equipment you can donate or time, knowledge or money, they could use the help to run these “hajinets”:

Go here:

http://hajjinet.com

HACKING IRAQ
Enterprising soldiers take the internet into their own hands
By Carey Voss

Imagine: You’re living in a previously abandoned compound in the desert with three hundred other people. You have a few rudimentary amenities—running water, three meals a day, a bed to sleep in—but your electricity still depends on a generator and telephone lines are just beginning to be installed. It’s hot, people shoot at you, and from time to time, a rocket explodes nearby. In dreams of a more comfortable life, you miss a few simple things: friends and family, junk food, and porn.
As of June 16, 2,498 American soldiers have died and 18,356 have been wounded in the pursuit of Iraqi freedom. The threat of unremitting danger haunts soldiers conducting missions in the streets of Iraq and leaves them physically and psychologically exhausted. Back on the base, the wound-up intensity of constant suspicion and paranoia begs for some release. For most troops deployed in Iraq , the internet is one of the only links to the western world. In the dusty warzone towns, there’s no daily newspaper, no local radio station, no grocery store magazine rack, nocell phone, and no movie theatre. To our troops, these luxuries mean more than access to up-to-date information; they represent a normalized, human state of affairs.
Since the military provides just 6 to 12 computers for every 1,000 or so troops, time limits of 10 to 15 minutes per day are often enforced at Morale Welfare Recreation Cafés (the complicated name for military internet cafés). Anyone who sorts through spam, reads forwarded articles and jokes, then tries to respond to “real” email knows 15 minutes isn’t enough. Josh Hines, a soldier from Conway who recently returned from Iraq , confirmed that the Army lacks internet services and lamented the scarcity of entertainment options.
It should come as no surprise, then, that some enterprising military personnel have engineered an alternative. Hajjinets, the common term for troop-owned ISPs, have sprung to life on almost every base around Iraq. A typical Hajjinet is built and maintained by one or two soldiers and can provide nearly 24-hour internet access (until the region is stabilized and electrical lines can be installed, generators must occasionally be powered down for maintenance). Most Hajjinets are small, serving between 20 and 30 troops, but ISPs serving as many as 300 are known to exist. In a country wracked by war, where even the capital city receives only intermittent electricity, where people’s lives are in constant peril, and where even basic necessities are scarce, this is no small victory.
A Hajjinet’s key elements are satellite service from an international provider, a satellite dish to send and receive data, and a central location inside a base where network hardware is safe from attack. Like an internet-age Frankenstein, a Hajjinet’s hardware must be purchased from an international source, shipped in, then cobbled together by military personnel, many of whom have little previous experience running a network.
One of the major difficulties faced by inexperienced system administrators in Iraq is their lack of knowledge about already-existing Hajjinets—the creators of new Hajjinets are forced to invent an entire network from scratch. In response to this problem, Sgt. Dave Coughanour, system administrator and architect of the Hajjinet at Camp Habbaniyah (located in the Suni Triangle between Fallujah and Ramadi) created hajjinet.com, an online forum for other administrators of troop-run ISPs. Sgt. Coughanour speculates that almost every U.S. military base in Iraq has at least one or two small troop-run networks; however, until more people participate in the online forum, it’s hard to know how many Hajjinets exist, how many troops they serve, and where they’re located.
Sgt. Coughanour…..
STORY CONTINUES………….

Whoa, Taylor, look what crawled out from under that rock. Looks like all roads always lead back to Chalabi.
Thank you so much for your work. You are indefatiguible.

Taylor Marsh, that post is in the finest tradition of necessary muckracking. Truly awesome.

These pukes!

Nice post, Taylor, thanks.

What is that, a free lunch from the military industrial complex buffet?

Some vets aren’t war profiteers.

Some are– Duke and Duncan.

Gee…a spouse of an invasion profiteer..and a pro-invasion Congressman. You’re not REALLY suggesting that Irey and Hunter are in bed together on this, are you? What could POSSIBLY be the mutual benefit in that?

Chris Shays chaired it and did a wonderful job. It was on money being “lost” in the DOD.

molly –

There’s a very creepy fact that’s always troubled me. On Mondy, September TENTH, 2001, Rumsfeld issued a press statement at about 10 in the morning — informing that close to 2 trillion dollars of Pentagon money had gone “missing.” Poof.

Then the next day the wing of the Pentagon which housed civilian workers responsible for audits got hit. All their records gone. Poof.

Creeps me the hell out.

Where do trillions of dollars GO? What do you suppose they’re being used for?

All is not right with the world unless a thread contains:

Fitz!

You got that right, meta. When I saw his name it was a SHAZAAM moment, for sure. Hey, bobbyG, angie.

Glad “anon” picked up on Tony Snesko. He’s a real beauty.

And it’s Republicans turning on some of the more conservative elements. Murtha may be their match – he will not back down or take it from people who have no principles. They are so up against the wall.
We need more Abramoff info released. What a ring.

The swirling stench is situated around the Dukester, whom Duncan Hunter went to bat for again and again. But in the end it’s the money.

Take a look at this link from Howie:

http://downwithtyranny.blogspo…..randy.html

ah yes! Duncan Hunter of the impassioned Gitmo Aint-No-Torture-Here Defense Team with his servings of scrumptious Lemon Chicken !

Good Morning Taylor. Great post, although very disheartening.

Sick f’n bastards. The pug smear machine knows no limits of decency. Good thing is, the louder they screech, the more we know tehy’re afraid. I don’t know why there are no laws against this type of lying, though.

Q: Is there a “rogue’s gallery” regarding these people? The same names pop up over and over, with newsmax and sbvft alums usually in the mix. Maybe we should create one. Would certainly help w/ the rapid response.

Oh and rest assured a big portion of the “missing” money is being used to pay for governement sponsored propaganda and psy-op manipluation. Takes a lot of “black” dough to run communications programs this organized.

Taylor –

Considering the level of fraud involved in all this, I’d guess that if an enraged citizen were to “borrow” a zip code from Hunter’s district in order to send an email asking direct questions, that citizen’s conscience shouldn’t be too VERY troubled. Eh?

[Or do you have other suggestions for what a person in another state can DO to kick Duncan Hunter’s butt? Other than spread the word in other blogs, I mean.]

I know it’s tough, UrbanP., but we should start by emailing Duncan Hunter what’s going on.

FDL has a whole listing of war profiteering posts, which include Matt O.’s and many others:

http://www.firedoglake.com/cat…..fiteering/

Great post Taylor – connecting dot to dot to dot. The Irey & bus partner info is the kind of story no one seems to be reporting on much – what with all the concerns about flag burning and gay marriage.

Really good stuff – kudos.

Urban Pirate –

I’m wondering if ePluribus Media doesn’t have a sort of “rogue’s gallery” set up already. You know them?

Taylor, have you heard anything recently re whether Cunningham has actually started singing yet, and/or what might be his tune?

Part of the money goes to buy secret operations on the ground all over the globe. Part of it is used to fund the election – by any means necessary – of more Republicans. The rest of it is for penthouses, limo services, and cheap perfume.

That “Fred,” he’s a bizzy boy.

Taylor, thanks for the props re my music blog on your site, in your Net Neutrality piece.

You are Da Bomb.

This should get you to Duncan Hunter’s email:

http://www.congress.org/congre…..istrict=52

OT —

Holy cow! I’m listening to Jon Corzine giving info on a state of emergency for folks along the Delaware River. Lots of Trenton residents will be evacuated.

I’d better go check on my sister, who lives right on the Delaware (Washington’s Crossing, PA).

Actual work is interferring with my fdl time.

We got a giant donation of surgical equipment :) which I need to figure out how to handle, change travel plans, stand on my head, etc.

See you guys soon.

Nice digging, Taylor. I felt your link between Tony Snesko and Amanda Doss (as explained above) was weak, so I backtracked using your links. Wow!

Tony Snesko was painted as an everyman who, due to his outrage at the false portrayal of Kerry’s service record, created his own protest. But his wife works for Duncan Hunter, and so does he! The timeline here is critical — did the Sneskos work for Hunter before Operation Street Corner (Snesko’s protest)? Otherwise Hunter can weasel and claim he hired them after hearing of Mr. Snesko’s “heroic” action…

Talk about turning over the rock!

You’re right, Taylor. In the end it IS the money. Before this Iraq war started I was convinced the incompetence implicit with Bush’s cronyism machine would doom any longterm military venture. That surely has happened. But I had no idea the corruption, greed, nepotism and sheer criminality of the right wing machine would grow so big.

And it has to be far bigger than we even know. With sites like yours, talking point memo, tpm muckraker, warandpiece, etc. exposing so much on your very small research budgets, imagine what would come up if major investigative resources were being applied?

As it is, Cunningham and Abramoff appear to be being encouraged to say as little as possible.

Taylor –

Thanks for the link! You sure make it easy for us!

Wasn’t Josh going to do something like a rogue’s gallery of sorts with timelines, etc.?

Hi Taylor -

Great work! I respect your research and your intestinal fortitude – some really nasty stuff is under the rocks you are turning over.

Thanks.

[PS - did you write for the LA Weekly in the early 90’s… ?]

Mrs. K8, I will check it out. Thanks.

Great post Taylor……Way to lay it out…IF ONLY those MSM trolls could get off their butts
and do this kind of investigative work…WOW

What an amazing post, and what a gross disappointment Duncan Hunter is, even for a Republican congressman.

I don’t agree with Murtha on everything, either, but I am wistful for the days when you could express those disagreements without baseless attacks on the integrity and military service of your intellectual opponents.

This is the fault, I believe, of the GOP noise machine, and 20 years of screaming epithets into the cameras as if it is normal behavior. I see it even in my small rural county, where I serve on a public agency board. We have been called all sorts of names for not voting for outcomes that a local ad hoc group demanded. Others who do not share their views become afraid to speak publicly, because they do not want to be vilified.

Good for Murtha for standing up to them. It isn’t easy to listen to that kind of stuff directed at you, no matter how tough you are.

Great post, Taylor.

kirk murphy – Yep. I was at the LA Weekly in the mid 1990s.

It was amazing when I started to put the beginning of the investigation on my blog over the weekend, Franco, which including links to Sean-Paul that you all shouldn’t miss. All hell broke loose.

IF ONLY those MSM trolls could get off their butts and do this kind of investigative work

The capacity for investigative reporting by MSM prima donnas and journalists is inversely proportional to the number of cocktail weenies they’ve packed away in their fat asses.

Aside from the travesty of throwing Murtha under the bus, which is inexcusable all by itself, the greater question is, why? And the only answer I can come up with is that these people came to power on the back of 9/11 and the Iraq war, and a campaign that painted Democrats as weak on security and defense. The bonus for them was the money that started pouring in from all directions, and just keeps on paying off for them.

Smearing Murtha is the only way they see to maintain a hold on the power that allows them to continue to sit at the (rigged) mega-millions (billions?) slot machine that is Iraq. And in true Rovian fashion, the fact that what Murtha is saying about Iraq carries so much authority and is so credible that it is nearly impervious to challenge on the merits is irrelevant. They see their hold on power slipping, and maintaining that hold is so important to them that they are blinded to the fact that the positions they are taking are not what is best for either this country, or for Iraq.

Follow the money – it shouldn’t be hard, because it just smells so bad – like death, in fact.

I_N_C_R_E_D_I_B_L_E

digging and reporting.

Thank you…

Urban Pirate, here’s another who’s who link for you:
http://tpmmuckraker.com/reference.php

KABOOM!!

Taylor, you ROCK!

Dear God, we’re fighting Vietnam all over again.

Taylor — that bit by “anon” is critical. Means Snesko is tied directly into the VRWC, and that’s what we’re up against here.

We’re not taking on some cheesy DINO-consultant-ocracy; we’re up against the full bore of the Wurlitzer.

Anon, if you’re up for it, please give us a few more details about the relationship between Snesko and whatever group he supported in his assault on indecency, it will help flesh out the other monsters that may crawl out shortly. I’m specifically looking for a relationship between Snesko and Parents Television Council, or FRC, or Heritage Foundation. If we make that connection we know how big this gets — and we know where the weak links may be.

We’re not taking on some cheesy DINO-consultant-ocracy; we’re up against the full bore of the Wurlitzer. – Rayne @ 56

BINGO.

Taylor – OUTSTANDING work! If we learned anything about the swiftboating of Kerry it is thay we have to dig fast and deep to see who is really involved. Great job!

Urban – I know it is easy to let the repug smear machine wear you down, but I still believe that they HELP US more than they hurt us. Attacking Murtha is like attacking a believed grandfather or uncle – that is how it will play out for the great majority of Americans. It is really no different than Coulter’s attacks on the 9/11 widows – and that really didn’t work out so well for her.

The problem for TEAM LOSER is that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is their ENEMY, and no group (even those with more than one trick) can fight that battle to begin with, and every time they give out a Scarlet E it is less potent, if not impotent, and sound more and more hollow and false.

Is it wrong? Absolutely. Infuriating? Sure. But that still doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to ultimately bringing TEAM LOSER down.

This looks like another case of aspens connected at the roots and yet more evidence that our government is being run as a criminal enterprise.

OT (sorry, Taylor):

‘An amazingly fit and trim…posterior’ and ‘…he helps wash the dishes’…?…That’s the way to win Ben Stein’s heart.

;>)

Mrs. K8 at 9:10

Do you live in NJ, too?

njprogressive

BTW – “…believed grandfather…” should read “…beloved grandfather…” although it still kind of works

EPU –

You are absolutely spot on! And this is precisely the trouble Mr. (or is it “Miss Piggy”?) Rove is in. His power has always stemmed from his lack of conscience — NOTHING is too slimy for him.

But in the end, he’s running out of tricks. Everybody’s SEEN all this stuff before, ad nauseum. So the tricks get more hysterical and desperate, which in turn generates even LESS belief on the part of the public.

It becomes a feedback loop which is actually a downward spiral.

Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of gangsters.

Taylor,

I would hold up your post as the epitome of what investigative blogging can accomplish. Thank you.

I hope that the folks over at TPM Muckraker and elsewhere on the internet start digging into this as well. Maybe the traditional media will get involved someday too, but I’m not holding my breath…

Taylor–an ASTONISHING piece. Great work.

Speaking of right-wing attacks on veterans, in Virginia George Allen is running scared of keeping his seat in November, let alone going on to be president in ‘08.

They’ve hired several nasty people to go after James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan:

We shouldn’t be surprised that the attacks are already coming. Just take a look at the advisors Allen has hired.

Allen has hired Mary Matalin, a long-time advisor to Dick Cheney. He’s hired Chris Lacivita, the architect of the Swift Boat campaign that smeared John Kerry’s war record. And he’s hired Dick Wadhams, a man whose last race featured the despicable intimidation of Native American voters and campaign workers breaking the law. Source: Webb campaign email 6/28 to supporters.

Now they plan to swiftboat Webb. BRING IT ON.

Muckraker has been one of my favorites since it launched. They linked to the Raw Story article, which quoted me and Sean-Paul. I have no doubt they’re on it and they’ve got a bigger budget than I do.

njprogressive –

Not in the area now, I’m in AZ (I call it being “in exile”) now, but I grew up in the Delaware Valley.

Virtually all my relatives are still in that neck of the woods, however. [And I’m so homesick, it ain’t funny.]

Are you in South Jersey? Or in that NYC suburb they call “North Jersey”? ;-)

Operation Street Corner is a website dedicated to Tony Snesko’s campaign to smear John Kerry. New links have been added to the site to smear John Murtha.
http://www.operationstreetcorn…..enmain.htm

There are a lot of pictures of Tony at this website- There is one with his arm around a guy in a blue shirt- he looks like Duncan Hunter but I cannot verify that he is.

No more Marquess of Queensberry rules! These guys in the Republican party understand only three things. Winning, maintenance of power, and getting richer. Plenty richer. The Democrats have much ammunition to use to swift boat the Vietnam avoiding Bush and Cheney. It’s time to “lock and load”. If it’s knuckel-busting their little brains appreciate, then let’s give it to them.

Meta at 18

Oh no! Does that mean we need to call him “The Indefatiguible Taylor Marsh” now? Does KOS know about this?

Find digging and great post, Taylor. Should we try forwarding it to some people in the MSM?

I’m saddened to see what’s become of the Washington Post, but they still have some real journalists (albeit, buried in the back too often)

Taylor –

Was just scoping out your blog again (which I don’t visit hardly enough!) — and I have a question:

Do you REALLY have a peacock?

I was in the Glendale Arizona Public Library one day when a peacock (from a neighboring city park) strolled in through the electric eye door. It was a hoot and a half. And those suckers are REALLY LOUD!

BTW what do you feed a peacock?
—————-

Flood alert –

I’m looking at (live I think, WCAU) film on MSNBC. I can’t believe it — Manayunk (Philly — where the famous bike race “hits the wall”) is flooded. Just got seriously under way half an hour ago.

Mandatory evacuations in Manayunk.

Hey, Jane — be CAREFUL driving in the Northeast! Okay?

Taylor,
Excellent follow up to your post the other day on your site. You do some exhaustive digging and I am way proud to have you on our side. Duncan,et al, will be seeing the blinding light of day just like the rest of the pond scum criminals that are currently on the docket. The DOJ is going to be VERY busy.

icky.

>>>>>>>>>>
That’s when Snesko took his case to Congress. With the help of his congressman, Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, he wrote the amendment to the then-pending Telecommunications Act of 1996 and persuaded the American Family Association to underwrite 550 copies of the pornographic video, which he distributed to all 435 congressional offices.

“Every morning, I did a Jericho walk around the Capitol, just praying for God to do a miracle,” says Snesko, a devout Christian. But House legislators and staffers told him there was little chance that Rep. John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and author of the telecommunications bill, would allow the amendment.

“I sat down in the Longworth [House Office] Building in this window sill and said that I should just go back to San Diego,” recalls Snesko. “I am wasting my time.” As he prayed, he claims the Lord spoke to him, giving him courage to resume his visits. “As I left the 435th office, my pager rang and it was Chairman Dingell’s office, which had called and said, `We are putting your legislation in.’”

Although the bill died in 1994, it was picked up in 1995 — after Snesko visited all 100 Senate offices that summer. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, amended the measure to eliminate broadcast obscenity from early evening broadcasts, as opposed to a complete ban. Today, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 505, says cable programmers that offer sexually explicit material must scramble both sound and vision for nonsubscribers and only transmit from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/…..24137/pg_2

Oklahoma kiddo #70,

Heh, I resemble that remark.lol.

If the The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is part of the swift-boating can’t that become the story.
We saw how the administration would leak something to Judy Miller on a Friday. She’d write about it on Saturday and on Sunday Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld would all be ready to quote from the NYT justifying whatever they wanted to say. In my opinion that should set off alarm bells and whichever media outlet is being used should become the story.
It sounds like this was coordinated (I like your word orchestrated) and the Florida paper was a knowing participant.
Who came up with the headline they used in the Sunday paper article that was in turn pounced on by Drudge? They should be greater consequences than some kind of correction several days after the fact.

Hello HopeSaT, don’t worry. I have Kos in my back pocket. (p.s. Taylor is a she.)

Hello to Jane, wherever you are! Hope you’re safe and warm, and that you saw the great pix of you, especially the one of your dogs walking you.

BTW, the Free Republic of Berkeley just voted to put a referendum on Impeachment of the Prez and Vice Prez on the November ballot. That Kos sure can wield the sword.

Best disinfectant is sunlight. Thanks for shining some on these suckers, Taylor.

My apologies Ms Taylor Marsh ma’am. Great work.

Today is a “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore” day.

Thanks for the corection Meta-man (right?).

OK Kiddo – I don’t take issue with wanting to take the gloves off, and do think that using TEAM LOSER’s tactics against them might, at times, be a good idea.

That being said, remember one HUGELY important difference between us and them: we have the TRUTH. They don’t, they don’t have any choice but to defame b/c they have no truth, only lies. And, as I said before, you can sell lies if you’re successful b/c then no one cares, you can’t sell lies when you are abject failures.

So, go play in the gutter, but always keep in mind that you have even better ammunition.

Hope, you’re blowing it! I’m a woman. Funny how we find ourselves trying to sort out disembodied cyber pixels, isn’t it?

great post Taylor. I noticed several people referring to you as “him” or “he,” kinda funny. Folks, Taylor’s a she, and pretty dishy too. FYI, drop in to the Whiskey Bar sometime today, Billmon is on fire…

Boy that Ben Stein sure is brilliant.

Even in Columbia the drug cartels who kill with impunity also have a habit of pouring money into impoverished areas, sponsoring teams and opening hospitals.

Oh no Ben, there is no hate in the party of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Bob Dornan, James Inhofe, Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich.

None whatsoever.

What a tool.

-GSD

Great post in every way. Thank you.

The Sun-Sentinel/Drudge stuff is the mark of an inside-the-GOP operation. What’s interesting is how the power of the bloggers to quickly pierce through the fog of GOP disinformation has changed the game. It ain’t as easy as it once was.

Do any of you Californians ever get a response from the Seersucker Lady? It makes me sick that we’re going to be stuck with her for another six years. I started getting queasy when she voted for Bush’s prescription bill for the elderly.

Ok I’m a man too (not really)…sheesh.

I’m sooo sorry. I kinda go by the names, bad turtle, bad. I shan’t refer to to gender again unless I know. Sorry.

Sorry.

EPU, at 9:53, I could not agree more.

Another tasty bit of Muck:
Midterm Muck Update

These people make the Mob look like the two-bit pot ring I used to be in.

Yes, Mrs. K8, we have peacocks, including an offspring of the male & female that “belong” to our neighbors, though birds never really belong to anyone. We feed them black sunflower seeds and walnuts. They love, LOVE, love walnuts.

And thanks for stopping by my blog. I’m trying to get back on radio and every eye counts to that end!

As for being a female, thanks cyber ruffian!

EPU’d…BobbyG’s rant to the papers this morning.
_____

Given that it’s by now beyond obvious that the priority function of Congress is to burn up copious quantities of taxpayer-funded FTE on the most inane, quixotic constitutional amendment proposals, I offer one of my own, to address my own pet peeve:

WHEREAS the National Anthem of these United States is every bit as sacred a symbol of the nation as is our American Flag, be it hereby resolved that The Congress shall have power to prohibit the desecration of the National Anthem of the United States by means of gauche musical interpretations, including, but not limited to, tactics such as Mariah Carey (and wannabee) stratospheric vocal trill-ization, Luther Vandross R&B lick-ization, Manhattan Transfer Major 9th/flatted 5th four-part harmonization, blues-riffification in general, or Nashvilification. Hip-Hopization is specifically enjoined. The National Anthem has a distinct and venerable melody in no need of embellishment for the ego gratification of narcissistic music stars, and shall be sung in English in a dignified manner, as written.

ADDENDUM: Stylings by Lee Greenwood shall be exempt from the provisions of this Amendment. However, the Dixie Chicks and all American Idol finalists are specifically enjoined by this Amendment.

Yep, Taylor, sure sounds like Hunter thinks Murtha’s gonna upset his rice bowl.

Nonetheless, sure looks like you’ve turned over an interesting rock. :)

OT –

It really ticks me off that MSNBC can’t spell “DELAWARE River” correctly in its graphics.

It’s NOT “Deleware.” Geez.

Oops! They just fixed it. Hee hee. Think maybe they heard me yelling?

Seriously, though, whom do they hire to work on the graphics? I know there are plenty of folks who can’t spell, and I have nothing against them, but they shouldn’t necessarily be working some place which requires ACCURACY, especially in this day and age of specialized spell checkers.

OK, I guess I’m officially a curmudgeon now.

CNN – Israeli jet just did flyby of Pres Assad’s home in Syria.

Taylor, thanks so much. It looks as though you have been “scooping” everyone on this since last week. Congratulations, now I have to email Duncan.

Naschkatze at 86:

Do you mean Feinstein?

If you do, she’s a tool. I’m a native San Franciscan and had to live through her mayoral rule. Her Husband Richard Blum is a corporate tool and she’s always been easily manipulated by whomever fits her ‘business model’ for furthering her or her husbands careers.

BobbyG,
You forgot Roseanne Barr.-blech.

As for the MSM, why not start with getting the story to Keith?

countdown@msnbc.com

According to this CA-148 Crew List website
http://www.uss-newport-news.com/crew/crew62-63.htm

Bernard Anthony (Bernie) (Now Tony) (Trigger) Snesko is an “Event Coordinator for 4 Congressional Chairmen of the House Armed Services Committee;own and operate Bald R Us.com; National Director for Protecting Our Children.org Capitol Hill, Washington, DC”

Great post, Taylor, great comments EPU and company, and Hope, there’s a whole lotta people out there who are also “mad as hell…” which is why no matter how much History’s Pigs throw at our leaders, the fight is important. And winnable.

This morning at the gas station, an older fellow struck up a conversation with me as we filled our tanks…”would’ve been 10 cents cheaper yesterday” says he. Totally unsolicited he expressed his disgust against the Republicans in the WH and Congress. Did my heart good, I’ll tell you. The American people, too, are “mad as hell…”

And contrary to what the Newsmax [Rupert Murdock empire] stooge was shilling yesterday on MSNBC, it’s not Jon Stewart that’s making Americans cynical…it’s every time we pull up to the gas pump and pay a little more for Bush’s Oil War in Iraq.

They call themselves History’s Actors, but they’re really History’s Pigs…greedy, corrupt and snorting around in their own shit. They’ve been doing it so long they’ve convinced themselves it’s spa mud.

Time for the political slaughterhouse for Ol’ Pork Chop Butt and the fittest prez ever and special sauce for Turdblossom himself. And Matalin, Tokyo Rose for the 21st C.

Thanks Meta and EPU.

Taylor –

Thanks for the peacock info. [Do they “serenade” you in the early a.m.? It was their loudness which surprised me most.]

We don’t have walnuts in the AZ park I mentioned, but they do have pecan trees (giving lots of pecans — lots of folks come by to the park during the season and pick them). Maybe they enjoy mixed nuts? [Har har, that’s what I’m munching on right now, but for me they have to be salted.]

Now that I know eyeballs help you out, I’ll be sure to come by on a regular basis. Consider yourself bookmarked!

Hi H.S. Turtle -

y’all still ’round SF?

Bustednuckles 98 -

Oy yeah, my BAD. Yuck.

“…additionally, Roseanne shall be henceforth Barred from performing…”

an unauthorized punaise-ification.

Israeli warplanes have just flown over the Syrian President’s palace.

The IDF is poised to enter northern Gaza.

OT and the longest post I have EVER written, but…you might want to rethink those vacation/party pics on your puter….

This stuff is scary as hell, and it has been happening for quite a while…

“Tacit’s technology, called Illumio, finds the people you know who have the information you seek and asks them if they are willing to let you extract it from their hard drives. This is a scaled down version of the software that Tacit sells to the likes of corporations like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. The software works in the background, scanning what people research and write to gather intelligence, allowing companies to figure out who knows what. “

The asking part is just politeness on their part. Nothing new, right? But here is the scary part…

“After Sept. 11, In-Q-Tel, the CIA-funded venture capital firm that invests in start-ups with technologies that have the potential to help the CIA, approached Tacit. In-Q-Tel now has about a 3 percent stake in Tacit.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..ry_id=6542

So, you post here or anywhere for that matter. You have therefore an IP address. Question for everyone is, what is your “Threat” profile. The thing with social networking technology is that it will “find patterns.” But the datamining is much easier if the operators have a profile in mind already, filtering all the IP address to see if there are multiple overlaps in the areas identified as threatening. If anyone reaches the next level of threat, it is so easy to fill in the IP address info into a full profile of everything about you (how many people here submitted their taxes on-line, from the very computer they are using?) Imagine if that info comes up on someone with a famous name, or useful connections, or anyone with growing influence? Once that is flagged it would be easy to go in and datamine their personal computers, especially any incriminating pics, anyone? Sure, they can’t use that as “evidence”, but it never needs to make it public for it to be used to strongarm critics. And once they know something incriminating is “there” it is easy to set-up the circumstances to get the evidence legitimately (FISA warrants, anyone?) Don’t have anything incriminating, you say? How do you know? We don’t know what their threat profiling contains, but they sure as hell do. Why would their profiles be only for terrorism, when you can get so much dirt on Americans Who Piss W Off.

erasing bucket bong pictures as we speak…

angie – what do you think Israel is doing with the Syria thing?

just watching the Gaza footage …

Hoot! Good one BobbyG!

Boxer is the only one who writes me back.

siun– i think they are going after Khaled Meshal who is supposedly in Damascus. This could certainly blow. They have started firing and entering northern Gaza just now.

EPU…81

We do have the truth on our side. And that is necessary. But sometimes I wonder if it is sufficient. I hate to say it, but are there not very, very rare occassions when the ends perhaps do justify the means? And when I say “swift boat” Bush and Cheney, we can do it without lying, and reducing ourselves to their bottom-drawer level. I think. I never cared all that much for soft-ball. Hard-ball is my game of choice.

hmmm…

Gaza, Damascus…

next stop – Cairo? Tehran?

Mrs. K8 at 9:35

Neither–central Jersey [too far south for the folks in Bergen County, too far north for the Philly ‘burbs]! I work in north Jersey. Truth be told, it’s too small a state to be divided up into pieces.

And a pretty serious show of force.

And Busted…70

I just want to give those guys, the Republicans, one of your special order, supreme Knuckle sandwiches.

OT –

Via Atrios –

Wingnut political consultant convicted in Texas of child sexual assault.

Story here:

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/3243076.html

OfT
MSNBC Question of the Day
Do you think the New York Times was wrong to report on sensitive government programs?
Yes
39%
No
61%
* 20381 responses

Kirk – that’s what I was thinking … once they get rolling

Angie – do you have a source on Khaled Meshal? I’m heading to google as well

Here ya go, siun

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Mashal

So, if Assad doesn’t “help”??? What? They’re gonna bomb HIM?

Yeah, that’ll be helpful.

nj progressive –

You’re right about that! Although my Garden State pals and I often engage in good-natured joshing about locality rivalries. I now have nieces and nephews both in Central and North Jersey, too. We’ve got the region pretty much covered. [And when I lived overseas I engaged in a constant mission to try to convince Europeans that the best tomatoes in the world come from New Jersey. Stupidly, they (especially the Italians) didn’t seem to believe me! :-) ]

That’s why I’m so concerned about this flooding.

Are you near Trenton? Hope all is well with you and your family!

Siun,
sorry to jump in when you were asking Angie, but I think I can help. I can’t be sure, but I think the Israelis think Syria was behind the attack on the guard post & kidnapping the other day. There is a top Hamas commander living in Damascus who probably ordered that attack. Apperently he doesn’t take his orders from people in the West Bank, but from Assad, who probably also funds him, supplies weapons, etc.

The Israelis are sending Assad a signal, one he would probably be wise to heed….

Mrs K8 122-

My rant to the papers yesterday…
_____

Uh, hello? Mr. Presidunce? Things just a bit unusually soggy lately around DC?

Let me help you out here. Warmer air holds more moisture (until it can’t anymore). The air around the planet is significantly warmer than it used to be, increasingly so. Global Warming, Sir, and by now the overwhelming scientific consensus is that human activity that produces increasing volumes of greenhouse gases is a major and growing cause, one whose destructive effects are only going to worsen unless we act to counter the problem.

I would think your maladministration’s intractably Convenient Denial is proving to be decidely INconvenient to countless thousands of Americans living within 500 or so miles of you this week.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled ignorance. Sorry to disturb your Serenity.

Angie – got it! thanks!

and CyberRuffian – thank you. I have been swamped with some other stuff and did not realize that Israel thinks Syria is the source.

OT, but since the buzzing of Assad’s palace (I’d moon him if I had a chance) has been brought up 2x, I’ll put in my 2 pennies:

Be on the lookout for a nasty incident during the current Gaza operation which the Israelis will pin on Hezbollah and tie directly to the Iranians.

fyi– Scott Wilson did a chat at Wapo about the situation in Gaza this morning from Gaza. He took one of my questions. It’s a thoughful chat, imho.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..00914.html

EPU and OK kiddo:

I thought we agreed awhile back that it was time to play by “Chicago Rules”. Everyone take a moment of silence and remeber Sean Connery explaining the Chicago rules to Kevin Kostner as Elliot Ness. …………

Ok, now back to work. Taylor, upthread you pointed out that there are several other investigative articles (( BTW must digress to tell what a really neat piece of investigation this was. I say this as a former public corruption prosecutor)) in the archives.

I nice little project, in keeping with the camapaign them that the Dems TRIED to launch, but I heven’t heard much about lately (what with all the threats to flammable flags and all), to wit, “the culture of corruption”; would be to take all of those lovely articles, combiine and distill them into a st of talking points and HOT LINK in the talkings points memo itself.

How totally sexy would that be?

And then, pretend you are Ken Melman of the left, and send off that talking points memo to every Dem in office, every dem candidate you like and all of the MSM.

If we could get it outbefore noon on Thursday, what do you think would be our chances of dominating the Sunday spinning heads shows?

What a nice experiment. And if it works, what a scalable, replicable netroots project do we have, up and ready to roll on little notice, everytime we see an opening?

What say you all?

Want to do our own version of the the Mighty Wurlitzer? Want to let them feel what it’s like to be on the recieving end of a massive, net roots think tank?

The Hertitage Foundation cannot match us in size, speed or moxy.

What about a sort of “reverse thread” we work and rework the draft of the talking points and add the links in a coments thread, and at the back end, someone from the administration (goddeses?) pulls out the final product and gives out some assignments to get it eamiled where it needs to go?

We are always carping that we want to DO something. Every now and then, when the opportunity presents itself, we caould do a talking points memo, and send it out. all w/o leaving the comfort of our computers.

We would be a giant, free form, ad hoc, virtual think tank. (in between long bouts of Plame and our other regular proagramming)

Kirk at 104

Only in my dreams…We live in San Antonio, TX. My hubby is a Military Doc. We go home every few months. My family is there and I miss San Francisco more than I can say. Thank you foe asking Kirk and for all you positive input in the threads. Makes being in this sh*thole a little easier. BTW 8 days until Iraq (Husband deploys)

Bobby –

LOL!!! You’ve got some serious snark skills. Of course, you also have the truth on your side, which always makes snark much more effective.

These destructive bastards have got to go!

BobbyG,

You’re Star-spangled Banner amendment is hilarious. Don’t show it to any wingnuts, though – they might think it is serious and cut and paste it to some yay-hoo US Representative from Kansas or Idaho or……

OK Kiddo – There is nothing wrong with hardball; but if you are going to use the truth to play hardball than it can’t be synonomous with “swiftboating,” and you shouldn’t, and shouldn’t allow anyone else, to call what you are doing “swiftboating.”

As for ends justifying the means? My take on TEAM LOSER is that it is a reprise of McCarthyism and will suffer the same fate from the same inherent weaknesses:its OWN lies, corruptinos, contradictions, arrogance and general over-reaching. And those who ultimately brought McCarthy down, after McCarthy had started to accuse the Army of being infiltrated by communists, didn’t do it by adopting McCarthy’s tactics.

You either believe in a system or don’t; you either believe in the majority’s ability to see shit for what it is or you don’t. I guess at the end of the day I believe that if you adopt your foe’s illegitimate tactics you become your enemy, and to me, if that TEAM LOSER is replaced, then the new regime will be no different from the old one. So no, I don’t think the means in this instance can justify the ends – destroying the village to save it never really works out very well.

Ed*ard Teller -

LOL! yeah, some people won’t get the joke.

Mrs K8 – Thanks. What a mess in the Atlantic states, a harbinger of Global Warming effects to come.

Read Flannery’s “The Weather Makers.” Scary, depressing book. Utterly scientific. e are on the cusp of major planetary deep shit.

1,181 DAYS AND THE KILLING GOES ON AND ON AND…

Frist, thanx Taylor for your post. I find that your posts on issues of political economy and social politics are extremely sharp…maybe it’s ‘cuz yer younger er sumpthin’ and have a few more unencumbered brain cellz left (don’t tell my college student daughters I said that!!). But this post on Hunter and the glimpse it gives us of the circulatory system of federal contracts and elected political officials and parties has finally convinced me that our system is completely corrupted and that this November and the subsequent 2 years on thru November of ‘08 are our last opportunity to save representative democracy or at least implement representative democracy for maybe the first time since 1877.

The complete control of the network media by the corporate oligarchy and the consolidation of control by that same oligarchy of the Democratic Party establishment is now completely exposed to anyone who can spend more than 5 minutes thinking about politics today.(See the Billmon posting on the Swiftboating of KOS and the progressive blogosphere.)

There is a battle to the death goin on inside the Democratic Party beween the forces of democracy (DNC/Howard Dean/Russ Fiengold et.al.)and the corporate stooges of the DLC, DSCC and the DCCC. I am terribly worried about the ability of Schumer and Emmanuel to sabotage enough encumbant Democratic races to keep control of both houses with the Republicans.

Secondly, Evil Parallel Universe @81: YOU GO GUY!! We must hit ‘em back everytime they throw a low blow er try and use institutions like the justice system or constitional amendments to change the political subject. But let’s remember to hit ‘em “high” and don’t feed an issue that is distracting…always bring the argument back to the real issues. The “truth” IS on our side but it only works to turn political behavior if it works to focus the argument.

So I say Swiftboat ‘em with the truth by makin the connections between the Swiftboaters and Chickenhawkism and makin the connections beween the Swiftboaters and corpoate political corruption. It’s easy…we already own the Iraq War as an issue so we need to connect that now to the looting of the treasury and the purchasing of our political system and the courts.

Keep it simple, the Iraq War and political corruption….throw the fuckers out!!!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, DON’T WASTE TIME QUESTIONING YER OWN ASSUMPTIONS, THEY’RE ABOUT TO STEAL GRAMMA’S UNDERWEAR!!!

loosehead,

I second that, heartily. Let’s do it.

Here is the recipe for a drink called the Boom Shaka Laka. Do you supppose this is Brent Wilkes’s favorite cocktail?

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink7596.html

Correction – “…if that is howTEAM LOSER is replaced… “

Ed*ard Teller – That has an unwelcome ring of plausibility.

Janet

Yeah, Bobby, it’s SO exciting to be living “on the cusp of major planetary deep shit” at the exact same time that the evil bastards in control of the mechanisms of gov’t just don’t give a DAMN about the “little guy.”

“May you live in interesting times” is a curse indeed.

Hi Norske– nice to ’see’ you!

Hey Norske, ol’ pal!

I was asking about you just last night, and RBG was kind enough to tell me that you’re still around here, ‘though not as often as before.

[That goes for me double, offline life intervenes, so it’s especially good to happen to be at FDL when you drop by. Glad to see you’re still throwing those one-two punches. Love your energy and the way you encourage us all.]

Janet,

which brainstorm – the national anthem standards amendment being taken seriously by wingnuts or a staged incident during the Gaza op?

Norske rocks, BTW….

Mrs K8 -

Flannery recounts in his book how scientists from a variety of displines have melded and organized findings that, taken together, portend sad disturbing trends. One example:

They’ve pulled together habitat and migratory pattern reearch of more than 1,700 species, have found an average poleward (N and S) nesting migration of roughly 20 miles per decade since around 1950 – AND, concomitantly a vertical migration of about 80 feet per decade. The critters are moving away from the heat, voting on climate change with their “feet.”

EPU,
I don’t think that switching to rapid response tactics and proactively driving the story will turn us into a lefty version of them.

You are so very right. WE MUST SPEAK ONLY THE TRUTH as best we can fathom it. Hence my desire to hot link in the talking points memo.

But the fact that they have misused some very effective techniques does not mean that we should shy away from using those same teniques for good. (kind like the good superman/bad superman dichotomy. Do you use the x-ray vision to look through walls and see the bad guys doing the crime or do you use the x0ray vision to look through Lois Lane’s panties?)

The x-ray vision stays the same, it’s how and why it is used that makes one a hero or a perv.

HopeSaT, I’m in SF and feel lucky to be here. I will hold you and your family in my thoughts as your husband is headed for service in Iraq. You are really brave people.

Twin Planets,
Tony Snesko was a Poway city councilmember in the 1990s. He ran for mayor in 1994 and lost. He went to Washington DC circa 1996 and started working on his legislation to get smutty shows on cable scrambled and then later blocked. His wife Valerie worked for Hunter since at least 2001- maybe much earlier. On a site dedicated to his military group, Snesko says he is the “Event Coordinator for 4 Congressional Chairmen of the House Armed Services Committee” but the information is not dated.

FirePups — here’s a brief roadmap to the biggest chunk of the VRWC.

Heritage Foundation > TownHall.com > every publicly ID’d payola recipient

TownHall.com > every ugly mouthpiece (Coulter, Malkin, you name it)

Heritage > Media Research Council > Parents Television Council > 90,000 angry wingnuts writing hate-mail to the FCC about the Jackson Boob Deployment

Media Research Council > CNSNews.com > GOPUSA.com > TalonNews.com > Jimmy/Jeff Man-Whore in the White House Gaggle Gucker/Gannon

SwiftBoatLiars > CRC4PR > Media Research Council

Good gravy, the network of connections goes on and on…

Hezbollah is a Shi’ite party in Southern Lebanon. Hamas is a Sunni party primarily in Gaza but increasingly in the West Bank. The likelihood that Hezbollah could be linked to something in Gaza is remote. The Israelis are trying to up the ante trying to show that the detention of the Israeli soldier will be ultimately more costly to Gazans than its worth. This is their Plan A. If this does not pan out and the soldier is not returned or ends up dead, they will go with their standard Plan B which is to go in and shoot the place up.

Ot,
Bush junta gets biatch slapped in court over DHS attempts to overhaul personnel rules. court say’s it’s illegal and limts the scope of collective bargaining. also affect Pentagon plans.
One for the little guy’s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..44_pf.html

Locally, DuncanH and his fellow North County Republican Congressmen, the ever lovely Brian Bilbray and Darrell Issa, are posturing in defense of a large cross at a war memorial. Gonna propose a bill for their fellow congressmen to bloviate about. Never mind that this issue has already been litigated to death.

Don’t these guys spend any of their time on the real business of the country?

BTW, Bilbray was my congressman a few years ago, before we voted the rascal out. During the Clinton impeachment, he’d been strutting around Washington pretending to be a maverick, basking in the light of national press as he wrestled with how he would vote. Uh-huh. I was corresponding with him at the time and when, as expected, he voted to impeach, I wrote to ask why. He said that in the end, it came down to how he would explain his vote to his daughters.

Which is why I got such a kick outa seeing one of them in that Wonkette display.

Rayne – Did you see the link to what CNS said about Murtha earlier in the year? They actually questioned his military heroism. It’s Kerry all over again.

EPU 81 and Oklahoma Kiddo 112 -

I see far more overlap than difference in your respective views (though I’m no doubt missing most of EPU’s due to lack of omniscence on my part. But EPU already knows this).

The Repub Religio-Corporate image machine’s near monopoly on the emotional brands of “disgust”, “fear”, “derision”, and “anger” has been winning markets since before Reagan took the Califonia governor’s office from Pat Brown. (Nope, not Moonbeam. Moonbeam’s Dad.)

We have the truth on our side, and have for a long time. We also have an ethical system which rightly holds public corruption in contempt, and despises those who plunder the commons.

So do the vast majority of our fellow citizens – nothing new there.

What is new is our power to accurately describe the Repugs’ systematic looting of the public purse for private/corporate gain. The big story may be a yawner, but the human touch – like Cunningham’s armoire fetish – will always provide the derisve hook.

For most Americans, the roads are crumbling, the schools uncertain, and our incomes insecure.

We progressives only have to pick the most culturally dissonant samples from the Rethugs’ endless stream of moral effluvia, and point them out floating in the Republican punchbowl.

The disgust response will kick in reflexively.

So we don’t have to touch the Rethugs’ turds.

We just have to provide an alternative punchbowl.

I think the Repugs’ criminal meltdown will provide a long, slow burn – there’ll be quite a thirst.

And their market share will fall as energy and interest rates ascend, while the housing bubble deflates and buying power contracts –

– IF progressives can link the very raw, real, primal emotions of disgust, fear, derision, and anger to the failed corporate and theocratic servants of the Radical Republican War Party.

Since they’ve already forged the links, all we have to do is polish ‘em, picture them, and publish them.

Then stand aside of the gag reflex.

[Thanks again to Taylor for uncovering and publishing these links.]

Meta-my-sister

Thank you for ‘holding down the fort’. Maybe next time I’m in town we could get coffee, Mmmm Peet’s. I like the one on Market St. best, but It can be your choice. My guy leaving has me pretty wound up so thanks to all for your kind wishes and patience.

Loosehead – I don’t disagree with using “hardball” tactics so long as the truth is used. Swiftboating is synonymous with lying – so using the truth as a tool, no matter how harshly and heavily weilded cannot be swiftboating. And whether swiftboating is an effective tactic at this point in time is to me open to serious question – and I will use the example again of Coulter and her “swiftboat” attack on 9/11 widows. Not that it didn’t work against Kerry, but just b/c it worked then and there does not mean that it will ever be a winning or even useful tactic again.

I think I saw a new thread…meanwhile

Sirota at Huffington Post and Froomkin at Washington Post are must reading today. The Rethugs/Corp thugs are giving us the rope with which to hang them for their corruption and lies.

Also, sharing an enote I just got.
Just an FYI: Beginning in eight days, telemarketers will be able to call your cell phone at your expense. To stop them from being able to call you, just call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone and it just takes a couple of seconds to take your name off their list.

Kirk at 152

You know, you can’t polish a turd.

You got it, Hope, anytime. Peet’s anywhere, I love them all. Mmmmmmm. Stay close to the Lake and we’ll keep you going.

The brave and stalwart Republican Senator Orrin Hatch says that the flag-burning amendment is the most important thing that the Congress could be doing right now.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/…..riorities/

[Born in 1936] Hatch attended Brigham Young University and, in 1959, received a degree in History. In 1962, he received a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh Law School.For fourteen years after graduating, Hatch worked as an attorney at law in Pittsburgh and Utah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_Hatch

After getting his law degree, the super-patriot Hatch had a window of opportunity of at least six years to offer his services in Vietnam, for the country he claims to love so much, but did not. To this day, if the record is correct, Hatch has not spent a single day serving his country in uniform. Well, maybe he was in the ROTC, but his bio does not show it. Boy Scouts, maybe.

His priorities apparently did not include saving his country from the wicked Vietnamese. Now he presumes to lecture us on the meaning of patriotism, calling this flag-burning amendment the most important thing the Senate could be doing right now.

I have a suggestion, and that is for the Congress to pass an amendment to the Constitution which will abolish the Congress as the second branch of government. Since the Congress is not doing anything useful anyway, this makes much sense. This is also eminently wise and useful because of the huge savings that will accrue from getting rid of a whole branch of government. We will come closer to Grover Norquist’s dream of making the government so small that it can be drowned in the bathtub.

After we amend the Congress out of existence, there remains the question about the Supreme Court, since there will be no need for anybody to adjudicate the laws, since there will be no one making laws except the president, who can adjudicate his own laws. But since there will be no Congress, who will amend the Supreme Court out of existence?

We will leave to Grover as to how to solve this conundrum. After that, his only remaining problem is how to make the presidency go away.

Taylor:
Don’t know if it was covered up thread, but the pic of Hunter holding the plate of food you used came from a press conference he did a year or so to convince everybody how well the “prisoners” at Gitmo had it. He was claiming the food he was holding was a typical meal at Gitmo.

C-Span covered the whole thing — an unintentionally hilarious event involving an otherwise tragic situation.

Kirk – Reagan sold “Morning in America” to originally get himself elected Preznit, which is 180 degrees from what his alleged progeny sell these days. Not that I liked his policies, but I wouldn’t tar him with the same brush as his “alleged” political progeny. The other major difference between Reagan and his “progeny” is that Reagan talked the talk on the so called “buzzword” issues, but did very little about them, unlike the true believers of today’s TEAM LOSER.

ET, the Gaza one.

BobbyG – another exception – Jimmi Hendrix

OT but the SCOTUS today came down with another fractured decision more or less saying that the Delay driven redistricting in Texas was legal and that states can redistrict pretty much whenever they want. The only positive note was that one particular gerrymander that affected primarily Hispanics needs to be redrawn.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/w…..htm?csp=24

I see this as another dilution of the notion of one man one vote. While we all get one vote, the value and meaning of that vote is being seriously debased by the creation of noncompetitive incumbents only districts. The only objection that SCOTUS has to this is not to be too blatantly obvious about it. Otherwise, it’s OK. This explains in part why lawmakers don’t listen to us. They don’t have to.

Prairie Sunshine at 155

Thanks! You can also get off the telemarketers list online at:

http://donotcall.gov

Taylor Marsh 10:59am — No, I didn’t read it, generally avoid anything that emanates from under the VRWC’s rocky home…

But you certainly made the case for me with that one from CNS.

Wurlitzer. VRWC. They are loading up the BIG artillery, gang.

Anon 10:53am — thanks for that bit; now we have to dig in that 1996 timeframe. I wonder if OpenSecrets.org has ‘96 campaign donations…and in particular, if Snesko has a trail between him and members of the Heritage Foundation? Like Gary Bauer, for example…?

Kathryn in MA 162 -

Yep. There’s an element of personal seriousness in my otherwise snarkiness there. I in fact don’t like it when performers gotta ego out by improvising on the National Anthem, it’s transparently all about them, i.e., ‘adore ME, I’m so cool and talented.’

The blues lick shit is the worst.

BobbyG – Except never attack Marvin Gaye’s 1984 (it might have been ‘83) NBA allstar game “Hard it Through the Grapevine” version – which is the bestest version of the national anthem EVER.

And that should “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” but you all knew that already.

EPU -

Hear ya, yeah.

I’m pretty traditional in a lot of ways. I likes

- coffee flavored coffee;
- donut flavored donuts;
- bagel flavored bagels;
- potato chip flavored potato chips;
- National Anthem flavered National Anthem, unsweetened.

A boring guy.

Morning, all. Taylor, thanks for a great and important post. Turning over these rocks and shining some daylight on the filth underneath is a great public service.

On a Murtha-bashing-related note, I see that TPM has found another right-wing propagandist, named Marc Marono (with a name like that the jokes just write themselves), being rewarded for his obedient shilling. In January, he co-wrote an article for esteemed journalistic website CNSnews.com suggesting that Murtha faked his Purple Heart injuries. Gee, that sounds familiar. They just use the same lies over and over, don’t they?

Marono is now working for James Inhofe’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he spends his time attacking the scientific consensus on global warming.

Looseheadprop 128 – freakin brilliant. I’m in.

“So I say Swiftboat ‘em with the truth by makin”
We GOTTA call it Truthboating !

As a resident of Hunter’s district, I can only say that e-mailing him will have no effect. And good luck replacing him; unless he contracts Cunningham syndrome, the knuckledraggers will still re-elect him. A better target would be the S.D Union Tribune, now trumpeting their “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalism” to sell newspaper subscriptions. Perhaps e-mail their newsroom and ask if they are tracking the FBI investigation. Reading the paper, you can sense that they would just love another chance to “play with the big boys” of the national media. After their dismal record on covering local politics (Enron By the Sea, for one), they want to show readers that they are now a more valuable fishwrap. E-mails from interested people outside their area on this subject would suggest to them that they need to take a hard look at Hunter. After all, they editorially supported Cunningham for years, and endorsed him in ‘02. They also endorsed Hunter, and perhaps wouldn’t want to get burned again.

lhp 128

“…combiine and distill them into a st of talking points and HOT LINK in the talkings points memo itself.

How totally sexy would that be?

And then, pretend you are Ken Melman of the left, and send off that talking points memo to every Dem in office, every dem candidate you like and all of the MSM.

If we could get it out before noon on Thursday, what do you think would be our chances of dominating the Sunday spinning heads shows?

What a nice experiment. And if it works, what a scalable, replicable netroots project do we have, up and ready to roll on little notice, everytime we see an opening?”

YES!

Fourth Generation Warfare – ideally plays to our tactical and operational strengths.

“Nor is Fourth Generation warfare merely something we import, as we did on 9/11. At its core lies a universal crisis of legitimacy of the state, and that crisis means many countries will evolve Fourth Generation war on their soil.

America, with a closed political system (regardless of which party wins, the Establishment remains in power and nothing really changes) …[edit…kjm]… is a prime candidate for the home-grown variety of Fourth Generation war – which is by far the most dangerous kind.”

[ Understanding Fourth Generation War by William S. Lind - http://antiwar.com/lind/index.php?articleid=1702 ]

I reject Lind’s views on culture/diversity, but learn from his discussions of conflict. Nope, not armed conflict (Lind’s focus). The idea of 4Gw has been extended far beyond armed modalities, and accurately describes successful strategies employed by civil society against coprorate domination.

The corporate world has long waged an ideological jihad against people, creatures, communities, ecosystems – anything that seemed to hinder the faith-based assertion that we should sacrifice the living world for lifeless economic theories.

The radical Bush Republican cult wages an ideological war against Constitutional government.

I love your idea for a powerful non-violent force for the next round under Chicago Rules.

Winning may be everything – for the Constitution and the living world.

HopeSpringsATurtle says

Kirk at 152

“You know, you can’t polish a turd.”

I didn’t actually, but I’m happy to defer to those with empirical data – however lamentably it may have been obtained.

While deferring, I’m going to work on tightening up my referents and antecedents – and polishing those elusive links…

Thanks :)

(PS – Sometime ask my mom about the perils of chocolate chip crumbs on the kitchen counter…
Only confirmed pet-lovers may wish to ask, however…)

HopeSpringsaTurtle – when your guy goes overseas, let us know what he needs re stayng in touch; http://www.hajjinet.com – we could take up a collection.

see ya all on th enew thread

HopeSpringsaTurtle – if you’re still here = I’m in SA, too. gotta run, can’t find my blogger pw to post at your site. But maybe it’s time to set up a local FDL’ers meeting, plot some non-blogging political action.

Kirk at 104

Hope -

Apologies for missing you at 104:

“Only in my dreams%u2026We live in San Antonio, TX. My hubby is a Military Doc. We go home every few months…(ellipssi mine – kjm)…. BTW 8 days until Iraq (Husband deploys)”

I hope all is well for you over the next days and over the months he is away.

I’ll be thinking of you both today – off to hike in Point Reyes. Rain and hail today – June 27th. Hope you get off to cool places whenever you can.

Wow – SF to San Antonio. I thought my culture shock moving from Santa Barbara to Philly was bad…

Good luck to you and your guy.

Duncan Hunter and Tony Senesco go back a long way. When Hunter left the military he had no job. At that time Senesco had his own business as a courier service and he gave Hunter a job.

Tony did serve as a Poway City councilman for one term. Hunter provided Senesco some D.C. connections and Tony made a couple of trips to D.C. when he was still a Poway council member.
And the rest is history, Hunter, Senesco and Senesco’s wife.

As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter worked closely with Duke Cunningham and the two local companies [ADCS Inc. of Poway, CA and Audre Inc. of Rancho Bernardo, CA].

Duncan Hunter also received $245,670 from missile defense contractors; $46,000 from Wilkes, Wade and their associates; $7250 from Audre Inc. (Cunningham/Abramoff connection). Hunter pushed the military to buy $2.5 million in Audre software in Feb. 1997; and there’s more of same, etc., etc.

It was Duncan Hunter who, as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, investigated the Abramoff scams – a conflict of interest?

Wow – SF to San Antonio. I thought my culture shock moving from Santa Barbara to Philly was bad%u2026

If you want serious culture shock, try Germany to San Antonio…

We still feel like strangers in a very strange land.

Whoa — he is suspicious! I wrote to the skank and it was like getting on an airplane. You have to give him your name, address, and be further checked by two other methods.

tr – you ain’t seen culture shock till you move from BOSTON to rural (pop.7000) OKLAHOMA. Trust me. I’d have survived a lot better if the internets had existed then.
From Okla. to San Antonio seemed like a return to cultural metropolis, in contrast.

looseheadprop 10:39am — finally working my way back here.

Yeah, we need a wide-area Daisy-cutter shock-and-awe kind of coverage with unified talking points.

There once was a website that did something comparable prior to the ‘04 elections, NotGeniuses.com with “Flood the Zone Fridays”. You might look up their old work (think they are now dormant although the site may still be up) and use that as a model.

We could set up a non-indexing website (means it wouldn’t be searched by Google, users would have to know the URL to find it); trusted users would be encouraged to subscribe via RSS so that new messaging would be pushed to them through their email (means no distribution list maintenance or hassles from ISP’s about spamming). We could ask focal points in the Roots Project to be responsible for either inviting folks to subscribe to the feed or to email key folks in their state, who in turn push out the message.

Does that work for you?

Lady 12:09 pm — thanks for that clarification on Hunter and Senesko (Senesco? Snesko?), certainly covers the whole picture.

And yeah, conflict of interest there with Hunter. Much.

Gad, they are the skankiest bunch of scumbag crooks, none of them have any ethics what so ever. Grrr….

tejanarusa 178 and TR at 181

If you check back to this thread, I would love to get together here in SA. There is going to be a “Drinking Liberally” meeting at The Blue Star on July 16th. Sounds like a good place to get to know eachother. I don’t have the link to DL but I’ll bet someone does..Look forward to hooking up and in Kirk’s words, “polishing some links..”

I just sent a lovely note to Rep. Hunter and authorized it for publication on Congress.org.
I hope others are shaming this guy. Since they can look in the mirror regardless of what they do…shame is the only option. But thousands of people need to openly shame these people.