2008 archive
The Terrorists Win 0
Phillies 4, Braves 3.
Bushie Values 0
The dogs get visas (oh, yeah, and try diagramming the first sentence below):
The black puppy with white legs and white spots — named Iraqi by Leitheiser — was one of 24 dogs flown from Baghdad to Newark International Airport in New Jersey this week by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International.
The dogs are set to be reunited with U.S. soldiers who adopted them.
But to hell with the people:
There are close to 10,000 translators in Iraq alone — but until now, only 50 special visas to the U.S. have been available each year for both Iraq and Afghanistan.
For interpreters, like “Timmy,” whose real name CBS News can’t reveal, that lack of special visas is almost a death sentence.
“When we sign the contract, we say, ‘Sign the contract for death, for executing,'” Timmy says.
Speaking of Baseball 0
Radio Times had a great interview yesterday with a veteran of the WWII women’s league and a player in the new women’s National Pro Fastball League. From the website:
Go to the website and search for June 5, 2008, or listen here (Real Audio).
The Philadelphia Phillies Are Terrorists 0
or racists, or something. When someone comes back to the dugout after making a good play, the team does this with the someone:
Links via Phillybits.
Senator Obama’s VP Choice 0
From the Demon Princess (oh, this is good!):
Answers:
1. Caller: “I won’t vote for him unless he does!”
2. Caller: “Should a boy scout invite/take a rattlesnake into bed with him on his first camping trip?”
While I’m on the subject, there was a great letter to the editor in the local rag today. Perhaps a little more blunt than I might have been, but, oh well (judging by the writer’s name, it was written by a woman). Here’s the crucial excerpt:
McFlip Flop 0
He’s ready to lock us ’em up and throw away the McKey.
Glenn Greenwald:
(snip)
There are two critical conclusions highlighted by this episode: (1) whether McCain embraces the Bush/Cheney/Yoo theories of the omnipotent executive is, far and away, one of the most vital questions of the campaign, since the vast bulk of the radicalism and accompanying controversies of the last eight years — from spying to detention to torture to extreme government secrecy — arise out of those theories; despite that fact, those issues have been missing almost entirely from the media’s coverage of the campaign — until now; and (2) despite how central these issues have been, McCain is simply incapable of forming a coherent position on what he thinks about any of this, dramatically changing his answers almost from one day to the next depending on who is asking. This behavior, culminating in his embrace this week of the Bush/Cheney/Yoo theories, severely undermines the two attributes the media relentlessly uses to depict him — his “moderate” ideology and his straight-talking, principled independence.
Bushonomics 3
The facts speak for themselves.
No, Bush and his enablers aren’t responsible for all of this.
Just most of it, through pursuing a war based on lies and selling the economy to foreign powers to pay for it, an oil policy (it is to laugh) based on what enriches oil companies rather than on what averts a most forseeable crisis, and a domestic economic policy based on making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Whenever the Current Federal Administration has had a chance to plan for the nation’s economic future, it has done precisely the wrong thing.
It’s sorta kinda like their foreign policy, come to think of it.
The bleak day began with news from the Labor Department that the unemployment rate ticked up in May by a half-percentage point to 5.5 percent. The last time it jumped so much in one month was in 1986. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also said that employers shed 49,000 jobs, the fifth consecutive month of job losses.
Contracts for deliveries next month of crude oil, called futures, then began climbing because of an escalation of saber-rattling between Israel and Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, whose location in the Persian Gulf means that any conflict would likely affect global oil supplies.
By the time trading settled late Friday, oil futures had posted a record one-day move-up of $10.75 a barrel to $138.54. That was nearly twice the record uptick set just one day earlier of $5.49.
Just Another Day at the Office 0
Go to El Reg for the video.
Bushies: Islamofascist Dupes, Islamofascist Fellow Travelers, or Just Warmongering Dopes? (Updated) 0
I’m betting on the last option:
McClatchy (emphasis added):
A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials’ activities after only a month, and the Defense Department’s top brass never followed up on the investigators’ recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.
The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.
Iran, which was a mortal enemy of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq during his reign, has been the primary beneficiary of U.S. policy in Iraq, where Iranian-backed groups now run much of the government and the security forces.
Addendum, Later That Same Evening:
Oh, yeah, I left out IslamofascistSymps.
“Was It Aye or Nay, Senator” 0
It is hardly a “tired negative attack” to point to a plain fact from the record. Unless, of course, you are McMaverick.
From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link for a the full analysis:
McCain actually voted twice, in 2005 and 2006, to defeat a Democratic amendment that would have set up an independent commission along the lines of the 9/11 Commission. At the time of the second vote, members of both parties were complaining that the White House was refusing requests by Senate investigators for information.
The McCain campaign accused the Obama campaign of “tired negative attacks” for pointing out and documenting McCain’s gaffe.
La Plus ca Change . . . . 0
What Digby said.
The 1,000 Years War 2
Mired in Iraq forever!
Delaware Liberal finds a bright side. We can be a colonial power.
(Aside: Of course, Bush is late to the game. The United States has already been a colonial power. Just ask the folks in the Phillipines and Puerto Rico, just to pull two names out of the hat.)
Bushonomics 0
Failure to regulate, because the monied class is always right. Follow the link for the full release:
The delinquency rate includes loans that are at least one payment past due but does not include loans in the process of foreclosure. The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process was 2.47 percent at the end of the first quarter, an increase of 43 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2007 and 119 basis points from one year ago.
(snip)
The foreclosure start rate differed considerably by loan type. For example:
- • Prime fixed rate loan foreclosure starts increased 7 basis points to 0.29 percent over the previous quarter and prime ARM foreclosure starts increased 49 basis points to 1.55 percent.
- • Subprime fixed foreclosure starts increased 28 basis points to 1.80 percent and subprime ARM foreclosure starts increased 106 basis points to 6.35 percent.
- • FHA foreclosure starts decreased 4 basis points to 0.87 percent and VA foreclosure starts increased 11 basis points to 0.39 percent.
And Duncan expects that bank failures are next on the Bushonomics agenda.
Stray Thought 0
Publishers Clearing House flyers are perfect for stuffing Republican Party postage paid business reply envelopes.
Looking Back 0
The BBC has a fun little quiz on the Republican and Democratic primary races. Take it here.
Hate Crimes, Hateful Crimes 0
It is difficult to conceive of a hate crime more hateful than this. I want to launch into a tirade, but words fail me.
But the story speaks for itself:
Rachel Gross, executive director of the Germantown Jewish Center, stood in a toddlers’ playground at the synagogue at Lincoln Drive and West Ellet Street, and pointed to a half-dozen foot-wide holes dug in the sand.
Shards of glass had been hidden inside.
“Glass was buried all over,” said Gross. “It was clearly intentional. There is no other conclusion than someone did it on purpose, and they did it to hurt children.”
She said the playground has been shut since April 15, when the glass shards – most about two to three inches long – were discovered. The perimeter of the 40- by 35-foot playground is surrounded by yellow caution tape and orange netting to keep children out.
This weekend, members of the community will be joining together to clean up the playground.
Firefox . . . 2
. . . sucks is less than desirable.
I described earlier why I started using Firefox.
Jeez oh man it is so klunky and unreliable. I will allow that it does load certain websites faster than Opera, and it is more tolerant of sites that are not W3C compatible (but, frankly, Opera’s insistence on W3C compatibility is one of the things that has endeared it to me over the years). But Firefox sucks is less than desirable.
I’d start using Konqueror but for on thing: Mouse gestures. Firefox has an addon that lets me use them, though it has nowhere near Opera’s mouse gesture capability.
When I’m writing a blog post, it does funny things to my highlighting; it gives me problems I’ve never had with a real browser. (If you saw the “Milestones” post before I fixed it, you know what I mean.)
I can’t wait till I have to time to rid myself of this beast.
Drumbeats 1
War.
More war.
They love war.
War makes them feel like men.
It’s their Viagra:
Both Olmert and Bush are badly wounded and looking for salvation. Olmert is facing corruption allegations that could drive him from office. Bush is wildly unpopular, desperate to salvage his legacy and fighting irrelevance as the general election begins in earnest — with even the Republican candidate trying to keep him at a distance.
It’s in this environment that the Jewish Telegraph Agency reports: “Ehud Olmert will urge President Bush to prepare an attack on Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported.
“Citing sources close to the Israeli prime minister, Yediot Achronot reported on its front page Wednesday that Olmert, who is due to hold closed-door talks with Bush in Washington, will say that ‘time is running out’ on diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program.