They keep one-upping themselves....

barbara bush gives money TO HERSELF and calls it a tax-deductible chariatable contribution.

Disaster profiteering - what a bitch. What an evil, morally bankrupt family.

What crappy people republican voters are.

Just a quick remark about going to war with Iran.

Um, we don't have any money, guys.

In fact, we're about $9 trillion away from having any money. How much money is that you ask? It's SOOOOOO much money that the people in charge of, um, spending it DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH THAT IS.

It would be nice if that were the end of that topic.

Operation Swarmer, or Potemkin village? (updates: 1)

As noted, about 1,500 troops were involved, 700 American and 800 Iraqi. But get this: in the area they’re scouring there are only about 1,500 residents. According to my colleague and other reporters who were there, not a single shot has been fired.

If true, and this operation is simply being staged, then wow. They're actually willing to make up entire battles in their quest to lie to the American public. Just when you thought they couldn't out-do themselves...

By the way: doesn't that violate US anti-government-propoganda laws, in the highest possible manner?

UPDATE 1:

Confirmation that it was all a hoax from the BBC:

In this instance, key terrain may have been seized but no enemy forces were apparently engaged.

But the massive press coverage was not just the result of a semantic misunderstanding.

Unusually, high-quality photographs and video footage of the initial deployment were made available to the press towards the end of Day One of what was billed as a campaign that would last several days. Some international media were given unusually swift military "embeds" to the area.

Pure propoganda.

Bush voters sicken me.

Everything you need to know about gw....

A staffer talking about rumors that gw may add an "elder statesman" onto the staff:

The more it becomes public, the more unlikely it is that it will happen.

If you think about it for a minute, you realize this answers almost EVERY question you might have about gw - cowardly, power-hungry, petty, immature, ...

Shorter Scott Shane.....

"The Senate Intelligence Committee is partisan. Everyone says so. They blame each other. It's too bad."

That's really all we learn from Mr. Shane. It's too bad he wasn't curious about the actual cause of the partisan nature of the current committee. If had been, some of those 1000 words might have been spent reminding us of the following facts:

(a) To block the NSA hearings, at the insistence of the White House, Frist wanted to make the Intel Committee like other committees - i.e., republican rubber-stamp outfits.

(b) Pat Roberts, the republican White House lapdog refuses to live up to his non-partisan promise to investigate how the bush administration sexed up the WMD evidence. In fact, Roberts is an active part of the cover up.

(c) Roberts also believes that the outing of covert intelligence operatives is no big deal. Just in case you forgot: Roberts chairs the INTELLIGENCE Committee!

Now if Mr. Shane had reminded us of these and other facts, even quickly, he would have had some dots that could easily be connected to show a sharp pattern of republican obstructionism and rubber-stamping of questionable or illegal administration policies. Instead, Mr. Shane simply fritters his 1000 words away drawing yet another false moral equivalence: Democrats blame republicans, and republicans blame Democrats (who can say, truly, where the truth lie?). The readers could, Mr. Shane, if only you saw fit to provide them with relevant and known information.

To say nothing of the goddamn flash ad that blocks part of the NYT page and can't be closed...

Blogging issues....

Been fiddling with the stylesheet, with the help of a friend (thx!)... I'm not a big fan of narrow-column reading - too much time spent by the eye readjusting to a new row. So we made the main column a bit wider. Now that I'm in changing-shit-around mode, there'll probably made a few more changes - though nothing quite as noticeable as the width.

Consider this an "under construction" sign. :)

Conservative says: To Hell With Conservativism - We're In Power Now!

I was actually shocked (shocked!) to see an ersatz conservative actually speak the truth about the ersatz nature of republicans/conservatives today.

From the WaPo:

Dinh, now a Georgetown law professor, urged the CPAC faithful to carve out a Bush exception to their ideological principle of limited government. "The conservative movement has a healthy skepticism of governmental power, but at times, unfortunately, that healthy skepticism needs to yield," Dinh explained, invoking Osama bin Laden.

What was Dinh thinking? His party has achieved electoral victory based upon two things: (1) voters being stupid and mean, and (2) the truth about republicans being somewhat hidden from stupid people. In one fell swoop, (2) is gone, becuase this guy had to open his big mouth.

Hey Dinh - Osama bin WHO? Perhaps you're referring to Osama bin I-don't-really-spend-much-time-thinking-about-him? Jackass.

To All Black Folks Thinking About Turning Republican...

Don't do it - it's only worth it for white folks, bro.

Abramoff:

U.S.: The $1.2 Million Allegation and the Bush Presidency

Allen:

Allen, 45, was arrested Thursday by police in Montgomery County, Md., for allegedly claiming refunds for more than $5,000 worth of merchandise he did not buy, according to county and federal authorities.

$1.2 million *might* be worth committing crimes over. $5000 isn't. If you're thinking about doing it for the money, it ain't worth it. If you're thinking about doing it for the ideology, then you're just plain stupid.

Headline I Never Imagined...

Police Storm Sorbonne to Dislodge Students

I have no feel for the issue they're dealing with, but I would assume that storming the Sorbonnne was the last thing the French police wanted to do.

Anti-abortion people: Completely Unserious

It's mindboggling just how unserious they are. They've been well-trained to think and say one and only one thing - without anything remotely resembling thought. The second you ask them to think?

BAM!!!

A deer caught in headlights.

Anti-abortion people: they really are just like the electorate at large. They give no thought to anything resembling a consequence of what they do - smart money says they don't know how to think at all.

Stupdest. Lie. Ever.

Via insta-lying-dumbass:

"The press had better hope we win this war, because if we don't, a lot of people will blame the media."

republicans started the Iraq war, and republicans lost the Iraq war. republicans.

Really, the only thing I don't understand is: why didn't insta-jackass go whole-hog, and blame the loss on democrats? Is it possible that insta-fucktard is somewhat responsive to reality?

Lies, Damned Lies, And Then What george bush Says

SusanG over at Kos' has a wonderful partial summary of what our illiterate, bigoted, apathetic, delusional, ignorant electorate has voted for, in voting for republicans.

I'm usually ok with our idiotic electorate voting idiotically - it's their bed, after all. Foreign policy - war, in particular - is a singular exception to this aplomb. For there, our idiots are voting for the deaths of innocents that never got to vote. We sometimes talk about voter disenfranchisement in Florida and Ohio - that's nothing compared to the several-orders-of-magnitude difference in both numbers (100,000) and stakes (death) between domestic and foreign disenfranchisement.

Missouri discovered a new Commandment!

And it reads:
(I hate linking to registration-only sites.)

You shall not make for yourself another religion, whether in the form of anything that is in Israel across the sea, or that is in Arabia beyond the desert, or that is in many-armed India. You shall not bow down to these religions or worship of them; for I the CHRISTIAN THEOCRACY your State am a jealous state, punishing Jewish children for the iniquity of Jewish parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but at the same time showing my steadfast betrayal, in the form of tax cuts for the rich, and also war, death, and woe to those foolish enough to show love to me, and keep my commandments.

You America-hating fools deserve what you vote for. I hope there really is a God, just so that you jackasses can meet her.