July, 2007 archive

. . . Bushie style:

Frustrated by delays in health care, injured Iraq war veterans accused VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in a lawsuit of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental-health treatment.

The lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs, filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed troops on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care, and failed to increase services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

And it’s worse if the troops are female:

As more military women return from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, they are finding that veterans services aren’t meeting their needs. An estimated 8,000 female veterans are homeless and others suffer from mental illness. Female veterans discuss their unique experiences and the rising concern about the services available to them.

I urge you to listen to that segment from Talk of the Nation. And consider how you would react if it were your daughters.

Or sons.

Glenn Greenwald on John Yoo:

In defending the President, Yoo’s Op-Ed yesterday touts the grave importance of Executive Privilege and makes all the claims one would expect. He stresses the “president’s right to keep internal executive discussions confidential”; proclaims that “without secrecy, the government can’t function”; compares Bush’s assertions to George Washington’s; and concludes that by asserting Executive Privilege (nowhere mentioned in the Constitution), Bush “has the Constitution on his side.”

But this isn’t the first Op-Ed Yoo has written on the topic of Executive Privilege for the Wall St. Journal. Back in 1998, when Bill Clinton was asserting the same privilege to resist Congressional demands that his closest aides testify about the President’s deliberations in responding to the various Lewinsky investigations, Yoo became one of the leading spokespeople denouncing the assertion of this privilege.

On March 2, 1998, Yoo wrote an Op-Ed (sub. req’d) for the WSJ Editorial Page (which back then also opposed the privilege only now to depict it as the anchor of a Free Government). In denouncing Clinton’s executive privilege assertions, Yoo began his op-ed this way:

James Madison wrote that a “popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both.”

In other words, Clinton does it, bad. Bush does it, good. The sliding scale of Neocon morality strikes once again.

Pardon me, I think I need to throw up now.

Via Atrios.

One of the joys of working out of my home is being able to see the incoming phone calls. Caller ID is your friend.

(I’m trying to remember the last time I got a real phone call on my land line. Oh, yeah, the church secretary called me today. She doesn’t have my cell phone number. And Second Son called this weekend, because you can’t make collect calls to cell phones, but that’s about the crop for July.)

I’m not getting phone calls or mail any more trying to sell me a mortgage. And the one-half of my mail that used to come from Ameriquest has disappeared.

Actually, it looks like Ameriquest is on the way to disappearing too. No great lost.

Now, it’s mainly “Eric,” trying to sell me satellite television, with a free digital recorder thrown in.

Life’s too short to spend it recording television shows, at least since Hogan’s Heroes went off the air.

I’m quite happy with my cable provider (unlike many of their customers, I know, but I think they give me value for my dollar) and the cable internet connection that never drops (of course, I don’t have any premium channels–you don’t need them to watch Law and Order reruns), and, frankly, if I never hear from Eric again, it will be too soon. But I know he’ll be calling me tomorrow. . . .

Here (click the thumbnail to view):

(click here to view)

John Sherffius Jul 23, 2007 EditorialCartoonists.com

Dan Froomkin:

President Bush is having no success in getting the American public to support him on Iraq.

White House aides have pulled out all the stops in what may be the last and most important sales job of the Bush presidency. They’ve assembled friendly audiences in rebuttal-free zones all across the country so that the self-styled ” Educator-in-Chief” can “help our fellow citizens understand why I’ve made some of the decisions I’ve made” and remind them of this salient fact: “I’m an optimistic person.”

Much of the media coverage — particularly on TV — dutifully relates his constantly repeated assertions and predictions as if they were new and credible. Still, it doesn’t work.

His optimism is falling flat because it’s untethered from reality. The public is rejecting his message because it doesn’t believe him or what he’s selling. In fact, according to the latest polls, an overwhelming majority of Americans have lost faith in both the war and the president’s ability to lead it.

Of course no one believes him. He’s a liar.

Some cartoon the other day (I think it might have been Bizarro) went sort of like this:

“What do you call a gathering of celebrities?”

“Rehab.”

I don’t pay too much attention to celebrities other than reading the daily gossip column in the local rag as I progress through the magazine section to the advice column, then to the highlight of my newspaper day (the comics) or to see what has recently been posted to alt.binaries.multimedia.nude.celebrities (I’m a newsgroup kind of guy).

But I did get seduced to follow the Huffington Post link to this:

Lindsay Lohan was arrested for drunk driving in Santa Monica early this morning — her second bust in less than three months.

According to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept., 21-year-old Lohan was nailed around 2:15 AM near Pico Boulevard and Main Street early Tuesday morning.

And I had just one thought:

If she were some poor black or brown girl from the Southbridge or Riverside districts, she wouldn’t see the light of day for years.

Instead, she’s back on the streets.

Some truck decided to catch on fire on I-95 between here and there and all the roads are clogged, even the escape routes I used to use when I commuted up that way.

Darn it.

Now I’ll have to sit here and try to be creative, when I was planning the drink liberally.

I was cruising around the blogosphere earlier tonight, too tired to do anything creative, until someone re-energized me.

There were many good posts that I did not have the energy to blog about.

So I will take the coward’s way out and just link:

Dick Polman compiling the evidence (that’s evidence, not opinion) on Bush’s lies leading us into a phony war.

Duncan on NeoCons (that does mean convicts who have just escaped, does it not?)

Dan Froomkin on Bush’s Torquemadas.

Tbogg on sociopathy.

An email to Andrew Sullivan on the in(s)anity of William Kristol. (Aside: Given the Mr. Kristol’s batting average of .000 of predicting the future, why the hell does anyone listen to him any more?)

Digby on human nature, brutality, and the Current Federal Administrator.

Phil Hoskins on Family Values.

Upyernoz on the Fighting 101st.

Susie on Republican panty sniffers.

Jason on the Hand of God.

Jon Swift (by heavens, he’s one of the best writers on the innertubes!) on the inimical influence of the Harry Potter stories.

Brendan on impeachment.

Phillybits on Phillybusters.

I know.

The updates have become infrequent.

That is because Waste of Newsprint is running true to “conservative” (I put the work in quotation marks to differentiate between conservatives and those who call themselves conservative, but are actually radicals in sheep’s clothing) form, applying one standard to Republicans and a different one to Democrats.

Ho-Hum.

One of my neighbors used to have a second job at the local outlet of a major national retailer. I won’t mention who it was, but, when I was growing up on Pine View Farm, the arrival of its catalog, twice a year for the big catalog and then in the fall for the Christmas catalog, were Big Events.

She was required either to carry no purse of to carry a see-through purse. She had this little clear plastic purse she used only when she was going to her second job.

The school systems are taking the cue.

(Aside: When I was in school, we had book bags. Later on, when attache cases became fashionable, we had attache cases. Same difference. And none of us, not even the baddest kids–and we had some pretty bad kids–would have thought of bringing a firearm to school. Fists were enough.)

It has come to this in the quest for safe schools: Cloth backpacks, for decades a fixture in the lives of most high school students, will be banned from the hallways of Montgomery County’s Wissahickon High School starting this fall.

If students walking between classes want to use a backpack, it must be made of clear plastic or mesh so its contents can be seen at a glance. Cloth backpacks can be carried into the school in the morning but must be stored in lockers.

Tomorrow, Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Center City Philadelphia.

We’re going to try to be there.

No guarantees, of course.

There never are.

Speaking of lies, the courts seems to have had enough. It’s slapdown everytime the Current Federal Administration tries to justify its concentration camps.

A federal appeals court ordered the government yesterday to turn over virtually all its information on Guantánamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures and setting the stage for new legal battles over the government’s reasons for holding the men indefinitely.

(snip)

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington unanimously rejected a government effort to limit the information it must turn over to the court and lawyers for the detainees.

The court said meaningful review of the military tribunals would not be possible “without seeing all the evidence, any more than one can tell whether a fraction is more or less than half by looking only at the numerator and not the denominator.”

Advocates for detainees have criticized the tribunals since they were instituted in 2004 because the terror suspects held at Guantánamo have not been permitted lawyers during the proceedings and have not been allowed to see much of the evidence against them.

P. Sabin Willett, a Boston lawyer who argued the case for detainees, called the ruling “a resounding rejection of the government’s effort to hide the truth.”

Via Huffington Post.

With apologies to Kommandant Klink

Ever heard life insurance defined:

The life insurance company is betting that you won’t die. You are betting that you will die. And you hope the life insurance company wins the bet.

Since I entered the world of 1099s, I have been shopping for health insurance.

I do have excellent secondary coverage, but I want primary coverage so I can cover my younger son.

The policy I finally settled on (have you ever shopped for medical insurance?) through my professional society involved a $10,000 deductible and a monthly premium of almost $600.00, but it did include good emergency room coverage.

And, bluntly, what type of coverage is a young person most likely to require?

Yesterday, I got word that the application was denied.

For both of us.

For me, because I am Old.

I’m not in bad health, but I do have That Bad Smoking Habit, high blood pressure (well under control), and very mild sleep apnea. In other words, I’m not atypical for someone who’s lived almost six decades.

My son got denied because he had kidney surgery several years ago to correct what the doctor (an internationally renowned pediatric kidney surgeon, though we did not find that out until later) was pretty sure was a congental problem that, today, would have been detected early, but, when he was born, probably would not have been.

As I said, I have excellent coverage.

But what about my son?

This health care system that is designed to benefit the insurance companies and, frankly, no one else, has got to go.

Upyernoz has a related tale.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Bushisms: Iraq lies, aggregated. It’s a pretty appalling collection.

Via Phillybits.

They’re ready. They have demonstrated adequate incompetence.

A trash fire started by township supervisors burned down their municipal building, authorities said.

(snip)

A new township pickup truck with just 100 miles on its odometer was also destroyed, supervisor Galen Beachy said. Luckily, most of the township’s plowing equipment and the records were stored elsewhere, he said.

I cannot improve on its eloquence.

This has been my first edition of What Atrios Said.

ASZ has the goods on another person who arrogates to himself the privilege of telling us how to conduct ourselves.

I have no problem with persons who let their faith guide their votes. That is their right.

Frankly, I have no problems with someone who wishes to discuss his or her faith as it relates to his or her political beliefs.

I do sort of draw a line when someone wants to tell me that “God wants you to vote for X.” God talked directly with Moses and Elijah. I do not think he talked directly to Pat Robertson, despite Mr. Robertson’s claims to the contrary.

And I have a lot of problems with hypocrites. But, then, my two or three regular readers know that.

Mr. Coy C. Privette . . . was arrested for aiding and abetting prostitution, while Tiffany here was arrested for six counts of prostitution. (SIX COUNTS! The guy’s 74 years old! What kind of drugs is he on, and why didn’t they do a toxicology test or something! SIX COUNTS!) I suppose this is a big story in Kannapolis, NC. Since Mr. Privette tries to influence politics in this country as a leader of a conservative Christian group that supports Republican causes, it should be a big story everywhere.

Well, it’s happened.

The Current Federal Administrator has officially exempted himself and his hirelings from the Rule of Law:

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

Has the Current Federal Administration no shame?