ZZZ

Treaties are “quaint”.

The old “Congress is just another name for the Duma” argument. He knows they would approve it anyway, so why not just eliminate that unnecessary step in the interest of expediency?

Morning Attaturk and all,
Things got all fussy since we,ve decided that the constitution can be amended with an act. It’s just easier that way. Or not act in Nancy’s case… Shaking my head at what we’ve given up on … our constitution. My history professor explained that they wrote that thing as a warning where the power drunks would most likely attack.

stubborn, power mad, war mongering, petulant idiot

Yup. The kind of guy with whom you’d want to suck up a brewski, eh?

This got EPU’ed but I think it bears repeating.

OT, but there’s been a huge watermain break in downtown Cleveland.

Streets are buckling around it, businesses without water, which means they will have to close, which means lost revenue. It happens here every 2-3 years like clockwork.

It will now get fixed of course, but at emergency rates vs. regular rates.

But BushCo doesn’t think we need to address the problem of decaying infrastructure in this country.

These people are literally running this country into the ground.

Speaking of power mad, Attaturk…

…did Rezko and co-defendants also give money to George Bush and the Clintons?

http://www.margieburns.com/blo…..01879.html

Oh boy. Dirty politics will backfire on the Clintons if they’re not careful.

Chip Reid on Imus this morning talking about the Preznit’s “exuberance” at the White House yesterday. Loosey-goosey. Are the media tap-dancing around telling us that the guy has totally lost it?

And isn’t it nice that OPEC has told Bush high oil prices are his own fault for “mismanaging” the economy, adds the screen crawl.

Or is he so giddy because the only person standing up standing in his way is a general he’s getting rid of and it’s next stop bomb, bomb, bom…

Decaying infrastructure is writ large in my home town, where an Interstate bridge collapsed into a river. Apart from payments to the victims, the new bridge will cost upwards of $400 million to replace. It’s being thrown up in record time (owing largely to the looming Republican convention) in bitter Minnesota cold.

Seems as though decaying infrastructure applies to the United States government as well. Bush tap dances while America crumbles.

ZZZ

Hey wake up!

Speaking of power mad, crazy Bush, what about that comment he made yesterday about His Purty Face?
Y’all prolly spewed on that yesterday, but now that I’m working again, I’m missing the play by play And the color.

morning firedogs, great post Attaturk! I have a fresh batch of steaming poo. let me know when to fling!

Do I have to?

My mom used to have a saying for why common sense things don’t get done.

“Too much like right.”

I think of it when this topic comes up.

Let’s see- we’re facing massive job losses to other countries, an economy in recession, consumer confidence in decline, housing prices in free fall, yada, yada…

A major across-the-country infrastructure improvement project would help alleviate all these things, but it won’t happen because it’s “Too much like right.”

Maybe if Haliburton or The Carlyle Group got involved…

Fling it the second McCain moves into flinging range. Otherwise, it’s best stuffed back in your pants.

WRT Chimperor and McBatshitCrazySaint-

The crazies are running the asylum.

The 2002 measure, along with the congressional resolution passed one week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks authorizing military action “to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States,” permits indefinite combat operations in Iraq, according to a statement by the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs.

congress just does not get it

this president is a despot, he has unlimited power, can claim he has the right to do anything he wants to do and will use the supreme court to agree with him

there is only one solution

I am sorry, we cannot wait “to see” if there are elections, this president can “use any necessary force”

he interpreters that to mean he can suspend elections, suspend the Constitution, take whatever he wants from this land and use the awesome power of our armed forces at his whim

we cannot afford to wait for elections

I keep saying, with each and every exposure they become more and more brazen

does anyone think their brazen behavior is gonna stop at what they have already done?

think again, they will become even more desperate to hang on to these reigns of power, they will become even more brazen to do whatever the hell they want to do

I CANNOT believe they are going to forfeit all this power to Hillary or Obama

I cannot

So……we’re all wearing pants?

morning again, Attaturk…moving to a cafe with wifi hotspot near you..*g*

Cool new picture of Helen Keller.

Good morning!

Too much like right.

Beautiful irony.

Random thoughts:

Dare we hope that Congress will not leave the henhouse unguarded for one New York minute until the door hits Junior in the butt?

Anyone but me curious about the Times Square IED incident?

Concerning Bush’s endorsement of McCain, anyone remember the curse of the Klopmann diamond? Mr. Klopmann comes with it.

Anyone else hoping that the man who taught constitutional law has the “opportunity” to rectify the egregious abuses? (Oh, good morning egregious, when you get here . . . .)

Anyone else wonder what the world is thinking of our campaign circus?

bluejeans and a t-shirt. ;-)

The SFO Chronicle’s Robert Scheer gives http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..EVDSLU.DTL>a more accurate assessment than the WaPoo. Scheer lambastes the media for (in my words) “aiding and abetting” that failure by its news coverage. Such as its ignoring the Iranian prime minister’s recent triumphant processional into Baghdad, while giving fawning coverage to the president’s furtive touchdowns at ultra-secret bases far from anywhere. (h/t Juan Cole).

The money quote uses Bill Kristol as a symbol of the administration’s “success” in Iraq:

The leading neocon publicist, William Kristol, has even been rewarded for never getting it right with a premier spot on the New York Times opinion pages, so yes, in the punditry business, one does fail upward.

“Chip Reid on Imus this morning talking about the Preznit’s “exuberance” at the White House yesterday. Loosey-goosey. Are the media tap-dancing around telling us that the guy has totally lost it?”

Bush is as anxious to leave the White House as we are for him to go. After all, there’s much brush to be cleared and million dollar speaking fees to collect. Let’s also not forget his cut of the 8.8 billion nobody can locate.

No, all the sadness is down the hall in Darth’s office. The head of the Dept. of Sinister is probably getting all misty eyed as we type. There’s much mayhem left to make, and shredding of what’s left of the constitution to do and so little time.

I think everything we do here is in self defense. We are defending the ideals this country was founded upon. We are defending the most important document in the world today, the Constitution. We are defending the rights of all citizens, not just those who agree with us.

And I agree with Malcolm X when he said he would defend himself “…by any means necessary.”

Many years in Asia taught me patience. My patience is wearing thin.

By. Any. Means. Necessary.

Peace Love Light

I am curious, Barbara, about the IED incident, but need more facts…

“Anyone else hoping that the man who taught constitutional law has the “opportunity” to rectify the egregious abuses?”

I’m surprised this isn’t brought up more often as a huge plus for Sen. Obama, particularly following the abuses of this administration.

Hang on . . . someone will manufacture some facts before long . . . could be terrahrists, ya know . . . booga booga!

The NYC Subway was an Iranian IED, planted by their partners in Al Quida with assistance from Hamas and Hezbollah.

Boxturtle (now you don’t have to watch Fox News today, no need to thank me)

Anyone else wonder what the world is thinking of our campaign circus?

From Ireland

And, let’s be honest, it’s pure showbiz.
A black guy and a white woman are duking it out for the Democratic nomination while the Republican frontrunners is an old age pensioner who, if last week’s allegations of an affair are correct, is rather more sprightly than we gave him credit for.
Lagging behind him until recently were two men, one of whom thinks that Satan was the brother of Jesus while the other doesn’t believe in evolution.

I hear ya…it’s interesting that in the last few days we’ve had a ricin incident and now this…

WTH? I keep hitting “enter” and the page for ask dot com comes up?

Hey, SteveBoston, would you (and any other new england types) like to do a pups meet-up?

Shrub’s sense of community is “Every man for himself; grab what you can until the cops come.” He then nobbles the cops and beds the press so he never has to leave. And he’s not shy about stealing the community chest to pay for his wars of aggression and to buy overpriced, privatized services that any half competent government could provide at a fraction of the cost.

Molly Ivins had him pegged: born on third base, thinks he hit a triple. Only a half-wit great grandson of millionaires could be so blind to his own limitations and on what foundation legitimate prosperity lies.

Ah, jeez. See what I mean? We were in Ireland and Scotland last year, and once people realized we (aka The Americans) were open to snark, they really unloaded on BushCo.

I suppose it’s Sally Fieldish of me, but I’m really bothered by the fact that we have become object of well-deserved ridicule.

There is a real benefit here. Perpetual, unending war and occupation of other countries is literally bankrupting the country and so it will collapse into a big heap of shit in the near future…and the harm will stop. The occupation will end, the war will end, all by economic attrition is nothing else.

If the USA is to be a torturing, spying, war-mongering aggressor nation then it is necessary and GOOD for it to collapse and fall apart. It will hopefully serve as a lesson to other nations and, also hopefully, the “United States of America” will be a name hated, denegrated, and spat upon forevermore – serving to help prevent others from following along.

This is all brought to you by Bush, Cheney, the GOP, AND THE DEMOCRAPS! Spying, torturing, war-without-end…they are ALL complicit. And last but NOT least, the voters deserve a solid share of the blame for the impending destruction of the USA. Great work! From “model” nation to pariah in less than a decade.

Make that well-deserved ridicule, mistrust and scorn. How the mighty have fallen.

No, he has a bad case of senioritis, had it since birth. He’s left the building because he thinks his job’s already over.

“The Walter Pincus Page”

Loved that.

Crikey;, you really had me going there for a minute. My terrible swift tongue was out of its holster.

I suppose it’s Sally Fieldish of me, but I’m really bothered by the fact that we have become object of well-deserved ridicule.

Flying nuns are pretty ridiculous too.

Does someone have a latest count/estimate on the number of Iraqi deaths since our invasion? Or, the most reliable source?

Actually, Mark Twain made fun of the US in general, and that was well over 100 years go. I think snark and self ridicule are pretty healthy. It’s the total lack of that aspect of humor here that makes me leery. There’s such a thing as taking one’s self too seriously!

So our reputation’s been shot? Well…that’ll just take work to repair. Probably generations, at the rate The Shrub is wrecking things.

Iraq body countsays approx 90.000

Me too, but — just like the anthrax scare — it’ll get completely swept under the rug or down the memory hole, depending on your metaphor of choice. Can’t have those facts out there while the GOPers keep claiming that “we haven’t been attacked since 9/11″ and all.

Please barbara, do speak. I was being absolutely honest. I have come to believe that the best thing overall, for the people stuck here in the USA AND the rest of the people around the world, that the impending collapse of the USA is the best outcome.

Honestly, if we are going to be torturers (we are and not a single government official is ruling out future torture…please read FBI head Mueller’s latest testimony before Congress that DOESN’T rule out torture), if we are going to be in perpetual war and occupation (Bush WILL do the agreement with Iraq, and worse, the Democraps will treat such an agreement as if it really is binding and valid!) – there is a rumor going that Adm Fallon will be removed from his position in the near future so that he can be replaced with a lackey (another Petraeus) who will not be opposed to attacking Iran – if we are going to be a surveillance state (the government admits to widespread warrantless reading and tracking of our mail…and then there is the spying on our phonecalls, emails, etc) then it really is for the best that we collapse as a direct result of all that.

The only way to get this shit fixed, or at the very least, eliminated, is for the entire system to disappear. Collapse is inevitable in any case. ALL nations, all empires, are temporary. Nothing is forever and we as a nation are hellbent and accelerating to an ignoble collapes under the weight of our own shit.

The more things change . . . yeah, pretty much. Add to that, though, nuclear capability, violence run amok, immediacy of information access, global interaction, and unprecedented fear-and-power-mongering in dangerous hands (here and abroad)– the playing field has shifted quite dramatically.

Thank you. What grief, tragedy, and waste. It looks so stark the way you wrote.

The problem with this is that what’s in place is systemic. And systems change cannot easily be effected by collapse. The rubble is still toxic, as we learned in New York City. The system may require an oncologist in order to come anywhere close to healing.

Just from the initial FOX writeup, I would guess they might hint at anti-war protestors. It was an empty recruiting office where a prior protest had ben held.

Illegally invade and occupy a country, bomb the crap out of the people, murder thousands upon thousands of innocents, steal their natural resources, replace a dictator with a religious autocracy, threaten their neighbours with the same treatment….and then after lunch clear some freakin brush

Lordy, there aren’t enough kleig lights in all the world to illuminate the filth and corruption of BushCo and all it’s parasitic worms subsidiaries.

what would McCain’s photo-op relaxation activity be?

Grilling for his fawning press corps.

what would McCain’s photo-op relaxation activity be?

watching snuff movies

I think the threat to brush at Crawford is almost over. If the mesquite can hold out for 11 more months, I think it has it made.

You’re so right! But isn’t that the job of Congress? And bless their little pointy heads for the occasional flashlight. I still believe that impeachment was (sadly) the best and maybe only way for this to happen.

“…to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States,…”

Thanks very much, Congress. A few simple words, hell to pay for YEARS and YEARS and YEARS!

The next time someone stands on a pile of rubble and makes aggressive statements, do us a favor and don’t go all brain dead and patriotic.

This is what I cut brush with.
It’s called a *Bush Hog*

Perhaps Jeff Bergner is related to neocon operative Kevin Bergner? All in the family after all…

http://www.taylormarsh.com/arc…..p?id=25897

I see…however, I think that what I feel is an impending collapse will actually take care of the cancer because I am not talking about a collapse that will still have a coherent national entity at the end of it with a recognized federal authority (just a much poorer one). I am seeing a collapse such that the country ceases to exist. No more. No more federal authority and no more systems.

The dollar is falling and likely to totally tank (think Argentina on steroids). C’mon! The Iraq Debacle itself is going to cost on the order of $3 trillion dollars, end or no end in the near future. We borrow money for everything and make absolutely nothing. All the money thrown away on truly idiotic, criminal, and ruinous war and occupation is literally draining away all discretionary funds (perhaps that is a BIG part of the intent by the GOPers…FORCING the government to dump all the New Deal and Great Society programs due to complete lack of funds). Couple that to SSN and Medicare/Medicaid and…there is no money.

At this point, I will be rather surprised if I will see any SSN money when I am of age. I will even be surprised if I see much by way of military retirement benefits should I remain in the service for the required 4 more years. I don’t expect much to come from my mutual fund or IRA either. The economy tanks and so does the market, making all that paper worthless.

I have been taking steps over the last few years, small ones but there none the less, to prepare to deal with a collapse. There are decent odds that I (and you) are living at a period that will see the end of the USA. If not you and I, then certainly our kids. The system cannot be sustained and when financial collapse comes, along with massive civil unrest and violence that springs from that, and that will pretty much eliminate the power of the “ruling criminal elite” and the systemic poison infecting this country’s veins.

I kept looking for Gene Wilder when Bush was doing “Puttin’ on the Ritz” yesterday.

OT
Does any one know any thing abt this site? I got it from a Rep friend and want to know if it is real or fear mongering news.

http://www.globalincidentmap.com:80/home.php

The AUMF authorized making Iraq the 51st state.

I use this one:

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Based on their website and the map, it appears they just scan the news and post known incidents. I didn’t see any on the map that haven’t been in the news.

To 61: I think my Reply is not working. When I saw the Bush shuffle, I was struck by what being a cheerleader prepares one to do. Just not to be the leader of the free world.

OT,

Carlyle group is missing margin calls. Praedor you may be right.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…..refer=home

You’ve really thought this through, haven’t you? Apparently I’m still in some measure of denial or hope. And there’s the rub, isn’t it? Where does the one leave off and the other begin? I hope to heaven you’re wrong. I fear you may be right. I guess I’ll just go shopping.

Put a zero on that 90,000 minimum,please. No reliable count of those families blown to smithereens. A million here a million there just as long as it’s not our boys,right?

Yeah, I tried to think of any other president in this century who would have done that. Let’s see: TR, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton? Nope, I think he’s uniquely foolish among presidents.

Just don’t go shopping on 3-19-08 5th year anniversary!

TO 69, Yes, that’s what so daunting. I had a major disagreement last night with someone arguing that the numbers are not “in the thousands”. Denial works on alot of levels, doesn’t it. And Killer W has done such a good job of concealing even the numbers on our side. It is so amazing to me that the VietNam lessons were completely rejected. No doubt there would be much more outrage if we still had the draft. Does McCain really mean to send our young troops over there for 100 years, more or less. To repeat myself, I could never get it in my mind why we were invading Iraq. Finally, Greenspan said yes, it was for the oil. I would not have believed that at first; Im way more cynical now. Just saying. I was really upset by last night’s conversation; I think I got some idea of how far apart/incompatible these points of view can be.. Never mind the bodies or the money or the reality of invading/destroying that country. What have we become?

Michael Moore has the numbers on his web site.

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS (IRAQ): 3974
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED (IRAQ): 29320
IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS: 151000
‘EXCESS’ IRAQI DEATHS: 655000

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Nice pic and story, thanks.

Constitutional creativity

BushCo leads the way in developing new ways to bypass such pesky Congressional prerogatives granted by the Constitution as the Senate’s role in treaty-making.

Next up: pre-emptive blanket pardons to legalize anything, up to death squadding, that designated agents do to serve their Preznit. Dubya could even pardon them for future offenses, so that he can retain their license-to-kill services even after he nominally leaves office next January.

Who says the right is devoid of ideas?