And the lights go out.

I don’t know how long it is going to take to undo this madness we just inflicted upon ourselves. Years, decades I suspect. I don’t even know if I’ll be around to see it. I have seen so much darkness come over our country since 1980 but this, allowing this thuggish man boy of a president the right to drop anyone, American Citizen or not into a black hole of imprisonment from which there is no appeal is not just a blow against the American Constitution but against rights that come down to us from the damned Magna Carta.

What the hell happened to us that this subject even came up? That we (as Americans) are scared enough? Some of the water board apologists are saying how all these concerns will seem quaint when the first nuke goes up. Several things come to mind – one like this gang of clowns would be able to uncover a plot to nuke an American city, two that even if they did find someone – the classic ticking bomb straw man, it’s very likely that their victim could keep his mouth shut until the bomb went off yes? Let’s not assume for a an instant they are not as dedicated to their cause as we are to ours , and if an American knew of a plot to kill Osama wouldn’t you think he could keep his mouth shut under torture until the time had passed? Okay? Shit we’ve seen that in enough movies.

Also our brave heroes have been doing very very little to prevent Nukes from falling into the hands of the terrorists. How can they? They are too busy with Iraq or stealing money from the government to worry about nukes.

I’ve seen where Jack Bauer in 24 is being used as a defense. Jesus it’s a Television show. That’s who stupid and evil we’ve become. We are defending torture because it works on TV.

God in heaven.

Every American who voted for this should be ashamed of themselves.

As for those who figured the Supreme Court will shoot this down, why are you so sure they will and what’s to prevent them from ignoring the ruling, they ignore everything else?

And for the folks who get all faint at calling this fascism, since they haven’t arrested anybody yet – given them time, W hasn’t signed the bill yet and they have been making noises about arresting Journalists.

This walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. It’s a dictatorship. We’ll see how much if the results turn against W in the 2006 elections.

It’s dark out.

And it’s not going to get lighter anytime soon.

Peace out.

THE TORTURE PREISDENT

I don’t have the words anymore, I used to but now I don’t. Our country is about to legalize the use of torture. From the shining city on the hill to the rack and waterboading. God in heaven I’m depressed beyond words. That we are even talking about this shows how depraved and fearful we have become. The beacon of light to the world has become just an empire that will attach electrodes to your private parts.

Because we are afraid.

We were never afraid before ever. Well the right was afraid of the Russians, more afraid than a sane person should be but now not just the wing nuts are scared. Official Washington is scared shitless. I remember when just for a moment it was thought a private plane was going to crash into the capitol building – they ran like panicked sheep – not one representative or Senator said “let them do their worst they will find me at my post.” Cowards the lot of them.

And torture doesn’t work – simply stated torture is good to get people to confess to things you want them to confess to, as far as supplying accurate information, women under torture during the witch trials confessed to flying on broomstick, casting spells and having sex with the devil.

We should be well and truly ashamed of ourselves.

Bin Ladden has scored his greatest victory. His attack has let this country to repudiate the very foundation it was built on – and a house without a foundation will fall. He must be laughing now.

Mark you calendars kids and note this in your diary – this is a red letter day in the fall of America. The men in suits in Washington led by the boy king are turning out the lights. The dark ages are here.

This is what insane people sound like.

I note in the nets that some one from the Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne wants to test their prototype non-lethal microwave weapons crowd control situations in the US, because:
“Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before they are used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.
Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions in the international community over any possible safety concerns, said Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.”
…”(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press”
This is just someone to quote the rude pundit who lives in “monkey fuck crazy land” Lord Jesus Christ can anybody think this is a rational thing to do? And really when was the last ‘riot’ in the United States? When the Steelers won the superbowl was when. Think about that for a moment – at the next sports induced riot – the Air Force uses it’s microwave weapons which per some experts can have the effect of melting people’s eyes in their heads.
That’s great.
Meantime Nancy Grace on her show ‘you are all f-king guilty’ browbeat a woman who’s young son has been missing for 10 days now. Nancy decided that the mother was hiding something and browbeat her mercilessly. Two days later the woman killer her self. Nancy is not sorry – her mouth breathing fans are not sorry and the kid is still missing. Nancy’s not a f-king cop, she holds no office, she’s a TV personality. The woman had not been arrested or put on trial or convicted. Even if the she had killed her son, Nancy’s little stunt makes it very unlikely we will ever know the truth about what happened and we will probably never find the body.
Still it’s probably good for the ratings.
Meantime W is going to Capitol Hill. He doesn’t go much. He doesn’t like to be reminded that he isn’t king and room full of elected representatives give him the jitters – even if they are all lining up to kiss his shoe.
So why is he going? To push for a bill that will allow us to legally torture prisoners. Put it into a bill rather than the weasel legal opinions of his bootlickers in the White House. Prove once and for all that we stand for nothing. That we are more afraid of brown skinned terrorists in caves than we were of Nazi Germany, The Japanese Empire and the Soviet Union combined. That we are a not a nation but a herd of panicked amoral mouth breathing bible thumbing hypocrites who are in the process of stampeding off a cliff like a herd of sheep
Torture. Jesus. He’s going to stump congress for the right to waterboard prisoners. The Wall Street Journal thinks it’s a good idea.
Bod Gess America I guess.
Good God have we really sunk this low?

For those who lost someone that day – our sympathy and compassion. To have someone taken from you like that is almost beyond understanding.

For those who served – our deepest respect and gratitude. You risked life and limb heroically simply because it was your job. Let others fear the fanatics – as long as we have people like you the republic is in no danger.

For those who did this and those who planned this – oblivion. I will not even waste my thoughts on you.

For those who have used this to further their own political agendas, to secure their own power to exploit this for partisan political gain – go to hell.

Stop telling lies about us and we’ll stop telling the truth about you.

As we careen into the weekend before the 9-11 wallow ABC has found itself in the middle of a media storm.

It seems that ABC is going broadcast a 2 night mini series called “The Path to 9/11”. That parts okay – WTC just came out, it’s 5 years time to look. The trouble is that the film was driven by some partisan right wing hacks – who seek to place the blame for 9/11 at Clinton’s feet and since they weren’t able to find enough real things went and made shit up.

Fair enough – the truth as a well know liberal bias so being right wing hacks they did that.

Then they went and managed to totally screw themselves.

In order to get the right kind of buzz about the film, someone sent 900 copies to right wing blogs, Rush Limbaugh and other folks sympatric to the cause of blaming Clinton. They began to crow about the piece and that’s when the left blogs picked the story up.

Again this should not be a surprise, there are dozens of sites out there dedicated to highlighting the right’s latest whopper (for example, the other day it turns out the much praised decline in civilian deaths in Baghdad actually didn’t happen – the reporting was wrong – I’ve seen several posts about it pointing this out) so this was to be expected.

Up till now, ABC had been dumb but not stupid. Passing out all those promo copies wasn’t the brightest idea but not fatal.

Then Madeline Albright asked to see a preview copy.

ABC said no.

Bill Clinton asked to see a preview copy.

ABC said no.

And that’s when it became a complete disaster for ABC.

Bill’s monster lawyer sends one hell of a nasty letter to ABC. And the shit well and truly hit the fan.

The press is now all over this and people are showing up saying “this is fake, that isn’t true, and we made that up on the set.” Etc etc.

ABC is slowly backing away – at first they said the people complaining haven’t seen the whole show – which got the question why not send it to us like you did with all those friendly geeks? They wouldn’t for obvious reasons (it stands to reason that people are going to find even more problems if they get to look it) that ABC don’t need. So at first they were talking about making cuts now the rumor is they are thinking of pulling it entirely.

And the blogsphere has dredged up the comments made by the right wing hacks about the Reagan miniseries that ended up getting pulled. If my not so good memory serves my response when I found out what the deal was, was, Christ there was enough bad shit about Reagan that was true? Why go and make shit up? They were just being stupid and lazy is why and they got smacked for it.

In this case not only are they stupid and lazy, they are trying to bolster the rapidly shrinking rep of one George W Bush who, when told that a second airplane had hit the World Trade center sat on his ass and did nothing for about 5-7 minutes and then spent the rest of the day in the air coming back to Washington only that evening. It was a preview of the out of touch non-response he would perfect when New Orleans flooded.

To try and create an action figure out of this lump of clay is pretty tough going. So in addition to not showing the My Pete Goat scene, they have decided to lie about Clinton.

Now Clinton wasn’t perfect about Osama. But at least he, unlike W and his circle jerk of advisors didn’t ignore his existence until the towers came down and then when they wanted to attack Iraq, they ignored his existence again, and now with Iraq a complete Clusterfuck (albeit a cluster fuck with nicely painted schools) they have hauled him out again. It makes you dizzy to think about it.

And I noticed that a lot of folks seem to think that W and his boys had something to do with 9/11 happening in the first place. I’m not that much of a tinfoil hat type – these clowns have shown the only thing they really know is how to screw things up so I have trouble buying into they made it happen. At worst I think they thought maybe if a plane or two was high jacked (“highjackings in the conventional sense” to us Ms. Rice’s unlovely phrase.) they could use that to their advantage. It’s how they think. It’s all power not governance – Katrina proved that.

However I can understand the feeling. W and his boys have milked 9/11 until it has mooed with pain and are still using it right now. It’s proven so useful to them, it’s human nature not to speculate that maybe they had something to do with it.

One last ABC note: some twit suggested that democrats upset with this miniseries should wait for the one about the buildup to the Iraq war – which will show W in a bad light.

Right – like ABC is going to make that. And since people won’t have to make stuff up to show W and crew in a bad light before the Iraq war just how does that make things balanced? Let us tell lies about Clinton we’ll let you tell the truth about W? Huh?

Meantime W is going to be here in NYC for 9/11. Jesus haven’t we suffered enough?
Very last thing. Lieberman’s little trolls have been trumpeting a poll that has Lieberman way ahead of Lamont. Trouble is the poll comes from a company whose president just pleaded guilty to making shit up to please their customers. Snark!

I keepy saying: what a putz.

Hauling out the Umbrella

Ever since 1938 – whenever one side (more typically right wing but let’s be fair her for a second) did not approve of negotiations between the United States and some foreign power – Russia, China whatever, the image of Munich is hauled out.

Well they are doing it again. Donald – you can see the skull beneath the skill real good can’t you now – Rumsfeld has accused opponents of the war of being appeasers. That loaded phrase. Shit the man did everything but wave an umbrella around.

And today in a ‘non-political speech’ (non political in that tax payer money paid for it but only die hard W loyalists could attend) W said we are in a struggle equal that against the Nazi’s and communism. I’m not sure if he said Islamo-facism (I didn’t have the stomach to read the full transcript of the speech, the highlights were horrid enough) but I’m fairly sure he if he didn’t it was by mistake.

Listen to compare what we are dealing with now and World War 2 or the Cold War is just patent bullshit. We are not facing as in World War 2 the largest industrial country in Europe armed to the teeth with the most modern weapons with a massive and highly trained modern Army, nor are we dealing with a country armed with atomic weapons under a secular system originated in the west – Marx was a German for Christ’s sake. He lived in England for many years that was actively hostile to the American system. What we ARE dealing with is a loosely organized group of stateless groups with divergent aims who typically lurk in the shadows and strike at civilians because they lack the means to do anything else. They are mad dogs and should be regarded as such but THEY ARE NOT A THREAT TO THE CONTINUED EXISTANCE OF THE UNTIED STATES. BANDS OF BROWN PEOPLE IN TURBANS ARE NOT GOING TO CROSS THE GOD DAMN BORDER AND TAKE OVER YOU COWARDLY GIMPS. Now stand up and show some courage you pusses.

Sorry one shouldn’t type in all caps but, you get angry at the fear these bastards have mongered.

Meantime Conrad Burns – Asshole GOP Senator from Montana has said that America is full of terrorists who drive cabs by day and kill by night.

Well maybe not in Montana – which is about as white a state as you can get. But really this is just being stupid. By the by Islam is a religion not a race. Muslims come in all skin colors so the dark comments about searching Muslims is of course another example of “privileged and pampered white persons fear of the brown people” I suspect it is a guilt deflector, they know on some level they don’t really deserve this lifestyle but project their own judgment onto the brown other. We are all twisted.

W wants to go to war with Iran – well why not. After a while they are bound to do things better yes?

He is also more than willing to let brave men and women die rather than admit he made a mistake.

9/11 is coming up and I for one am dreading the wallow in inappropriate nostalgia that is coming. I do find it interesting that 9/11 conspiracy theories are well becoming more popular. And I think I understand why, this Administration has used 9/11 to justify every damn thing they have done since then. They have milked it until it has mooed with pain and then some. Seeing how useful it has been to them, it does not surprise me that some folks would start to think they made it happen on purpose.

I don’t think so. At the worst I suspect they thought something was going to happen, maybe an airplane “highjacking in the traditional sense” to use Ms. Rice’s unlovely phrase but not the actual attack as it took place. You can’t fake being that flat footed.

I simply think anything that big is beyond them. Yes they are murderous greedy power mad blood crazed lunatics but they have shown themselves to be Utterly Incompetent Murderous Greedy Power Man Blood Crazed Lunatics. As deep throat said in the movie “Don’t by the hype, these are not bright guys.”