Flat Daddies

Truly, this is beyond bizarre.
The Maine National Guard hands out life size cardboard photos of deployed service members to their families.

"He goes everywhere with me. Every day he comes to work with me," said Judkins, who works in a dentist's office. ``I just bought a new table from the Amish community, and he sits at the head of the table. Yes, he does."



Here's a thought - end the corporate conflicts, bring the guard home so you don't have to come up with tacky nonsense like this.

After I tore into the dead-from-the-neck-up trailer trash Bush supporters a few posts back, a couple of them called me up and suggested I come over for a couple beers and a friendly game of horseshoes.

Shades of Naked Gun

Kyra Phillips of CNN takes a bathroom break and leaves her mike on. She's more interesting anyway.

Good thing some Mormon fellow was nabbed.

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Do you think Drudge arranges his material for propaganda effect?
Nahh, he wouldn't do that.

"Islamofascism" Says a Lot About You

Eric Margolis has a good piece on LewRockwell.com, The Big Lie About 'Islamic Fascism':

"The latest big lie unveiled by Washington’s neoconservatives are the poisonous terms, "Islamo-Fascists" and "Islamic Fascists." They are the new, hot buzzwords among America’s far right and Christian fundamentalists.
(...)
The term "Islamofascist" is utterly without meaning, but packed with emotional explosives. It is a propaganda creation worthy Dr. Goebbels, and the latest expression of the big lie technique being used by neocons in Washington’s propaganda war against its enemies in the Muslim World.
(...)
There is nothing in any part of the Muslim World that resembles the corporate fascist states of western history. In fact, clan and tribal-based traditional Islamic society, with its fragmented power structures, local loyalties, and consensus decision-making, is about as far as possible from western industrial state fascism.
The Muslim World is replete with brutal dictatorships, feudal monarchies, and corrupt military-run states, but none of these regimes, however deplorable, fits the standard definition of fascism. Most, in fact, are America’s allies."

For a couple of years I've been frequenting a discussion group called Glock Talk because of my interest in weapons and shooting. It's one of the premier sites on the net for firearm discussion and they have tons of forums. When Katrina hit last year I wandered over to their political group and quickly got into some interesting debates with bunches of other members.

It was a real eye opener to waltz into what can only be termed a hotbed of total fucking morons. I don't watch Faux© News and normally avoid "conservative" websites, sticking to reality based information sources so to come face to face with resolute, truculent in-your-face stupidity was a real revelation. I'm glad to trade words with the troglodytes that frequent the place; it's easy enough to smack the morons around, even if they're too dumb to realize it. You can say with certainty that a popular gun related web forum is going to attract what would be commonly called rightwing or conservative mindsets. What's most interesting is the insight it's given me into the character of what I guess is the modern american fascist.

Fascists are boringly, tediously monotonous. They never vary from classic description - the country does not serve the citizen; the citizen serves the country, corporation = government, precious god-like leader, ultra militaristic etc. So in this sense Margolis in his above essay is absolutely right when he dismantles the idea of an Islamic fascism. I'm trying to grasp this new american brand and thanks to the loquacious yahoos at Glocktalk I've come up with some thoughts.

1. They will always pretend to be other than what they are. It absolutely doesn't matter that this new breed mentality goes completely against the dictionary definition of conservatism, they are Conservative Republicans And Don't You Forget It, Bub.

1.a A corollary to the above is that they are completely divorced from reality. Nothing, and I mean nothing, will convince them of anything contrary to pre set beliefs.

2. Strangely held in the same padded room in their skulls as 1.a is a child-like, almost reverent attention to, and belief, of anything a "person of authority" tells them. Bush is God. And if they don't see it on Faux©, it didn't happen.

3. Judging by what I've experienced, there's a tendency for our american fascists to revel in dog pack behavior. This bodes ill for when the SHTF, because when things get rough they'll resort to mob behavior. On an individual basis they may actually be decent types, get them together and they'll prey on any perceived weaknesses.

4. The Other is always after them. They have to have a dire enemy to fight. The world is divided into two distinct camps - one that is true, good, righteous and full of warm puppies, and the Other. This amorphous, shapeshifting enemy has only one characteristic. It comprises of everything they hate.

5. Which gets me to the most interesting facet of their makeup - freudian projection. Of course this isn't new, but the fascists have taken it to unbelievale new heights. Projection:
*"A defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept. It is especially likely to occur when the person lacks insight into his own impulses and traits."
*"Projection is the opposite defence mechanism to identification. We project our own unpleasant feelings onto someone else and blame them for having thoughts that we really have."

I don't know who coined the term Islamofascism, but Faux© repeats it endlessly and our nascent brownshirts are fond of slinging it around as if they know something. And maybe they do.

By the way, I don't own a glock.

Kurt Nimmo has more on the stupid term.

Private Control, US Infrastructure

The madness of privatizing and selling critical sections of the country's commonwealth just keeps chugging along. The traitors at the helms of state and local government literally don't care that the country is being dismantled for profit - either they don't care or are criminally short sighted and venal.

While we waste billions with insane wars this country is falling apart. States and communities are getting hard pressed to find the money to take care of business. One trend that we're going to see a lot more of is to outsource the infrastructure to foreign corporations. It's a quick way for the pols to promise lowered taxes, an increase in jobs and filled in potholes but the reality can be an awful lot different for the hoi polloi.

Take the 157 mile toll road in Indiana. Governor Daniels is leasing it to Cintra, a Spanish company, and Australia's Macquarie Bank for 75 years. He's getting almost $4 billion up front for the deal so he can speed up construction on other projects and keep the pork flowing. The foreign companies love the thought of a long term lease on tolled highways - it's a guaranteed income generator with revenues that will only increase over time. Apparently american CEOs would much rather go for much quicker and higher profits but the foreign guys are much better at planning for the long run.

Cintra is also involved with the highway to hell in Texas, another toll road that is going to set a precedent nationwide. The staggering ugliness of that project is a poster child of this out of control privatization.

It's easy to see where this is going. The danger with foreign control of american assets like highways and ports is self evident to anybody with a brain. Each contract determines such things as maintenance, minimum services, prices charged for services, concessions offered along the tollway and every other aspect of the venture. Ain't going to be any oversight by elected officials. Is the bottom line going to become the overriding factor at the expense of maintenance and safety? Here's just one example - fire and rescue chiefs in Indiana say the toll road policies are going to get people killed.

What's most disturbing is the spectacle of a once great nation selling off it's infrastructure to get a quick fix bandaid to solve it's problems. The US is supposedly the richest country on the planet but doesn't have the cash to run it's highway systems? We don't have the politicians with enough balls or uteri to acknowledge what's wrong and fix it for the long haul. Slowly but surely, america is being disassembled for expediency.

Cluster Fuck

from Billmon

Hypocrisy, thy name is Uncle Sam:

The US is investigating whether Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs in Lebanon violated an agreement that the weapons not be used in populated areas, officials said yesterday . . . "We've heard the allegations that these munitions were used in Lebanon and we're looking into it," a State Department spokesman said yesterday.
Another official confirmed that the sale of cluster bombs was conditional on Israel using them only against military targets in the open, away from civilian areas.
The Guardian US investigates whether Israel violated deal on cluster bombs August 26, 2006
_________________
On March 31, 2003, a United States cluster munition attack on al-Hilla in central Iraq killed at least thirty-three civilians and injured 109. While an egregious incident, this was not an anomaly in the conflict in Iraq, or in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, or in Yugoslavia in 1999. In all of these recent conflicts, and others as well, cluster munition strikes caused significant civilian casualties — casualties that could have been avoided had greater care been taken. Worse still, the vast number of explosive “duds” these weapons left behind have continued to kill and maim civilians long after the attacks, and the conflicts, have ended.
Human Rights Watch Cluster Munitions: Toward a Global Solution January 2004

The little canisters dropped onto the city, white ribbons trailing behind. They clattered into streets, landed in lemon trees, rattled around on roofs, settled onto lawns . . . The deadly objects were cluster bomblets, small explosives packed by the dozens or hundreds into bombs, rockets or artillery shells known as cluster weapons. When these weapons were fired on Baghdad on April 7, many of the bomblets failed to explode on impact. They were picked up or stumbled on by their victims..
USA Today Cluster bombs kill in Iraq, even after shooting ends December 16, 2003

Having the U.S. government investigate Israel's use of cluster bombs is like having the Unibomber investigate the London subway bombings.

Think Progress has a Katrina timeline that would be worthy of note; it's instructive not to forget what really happened when the bushistas begin their public relations blitz this week.

Meanwhile Ernesto is moving northwest across Cuba and is likely to strengthen as it hits water again.

Some Pictures

Painted ceiling in a smoking area.

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Israel: America's rottweiler

Then, They Came for the Professors.

Experts warn: America is coming apart at the seams

Loser Returns to the Crime Scene

So the pathetic failure is going to visit the gulf coast one year after Katrina. What the hell for? Is this another attempt to forestall criticism of his administration's staggering incompetence, is it a photo op? There is nothing, absolutely nothing that they can do to alleviate the pain and suffering that they allowed to happen.

The shitbag and his entourage should stay away from the area out of respect. We can be spared the speechifying, the hand picked peasants to comfort and the phony backdrops. Their very presence is an insult.

Plaudits For Prosaically Pretentious Prose

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest winners have been announced!

She looked at her hands and saw the desiccated skin hanging in Shar-Pei wrinkles, confetti-like freckles, and those dry, dry cuticles--even her "Fatale Crimson" nail color had faded in the relentless sun to the color of old sirloin--and she vowed if she ever got out of the Sahara alive, she'd never buy polish on sale at Walgreen's again.

Christin KeckKent, OH

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If Gilbert had known then what he knew now, he would have seen that the dilemma facing him--to do a good deed for the wrong reason or to do a bad deed for the right reason--had long ago been shown to be two sides of the same coin by the philosopher known as Theragora of Crete even though he was not from Crete at all, but from Malta, which of course was not called Malta when Theragora was there.

Hubert KennedyConcord, CA

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Despite the vast differences it their ages, ethnicity, and religious upbringing, the sexual chemistry between Roberto and Heather was the most amazing he had ever experienced; and for the entirety of the Labor Day weekend they had sex like monkeys on espresso, not those monkeys in the zoo that fling their feces at you, but more like the monkeys in the wild that have those giant red butts, and access to an espresso machine.

Dennis Barry Dothan, AL

Thanx to Feministe

The Lost Dixie Chick Apology

Just discovered - The Complete Text of the Dixie Chick's Apology.

As a concerned American citizen, I apologize to President Bush because my remark was disrespectful. I now realize that whoever holds that office should be treated with the utmost respect.
I hope everyone understands, I'm just a young girl who grew up in Texas. As far back as I can remember, I heard people say they were ashamed of President Clinton. I saw bumper stickers calling him everything from a pothead to a murderer. I heard people on the radio and TV like Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott bad mouthing the President and ridiculing his wife and daughter at every opportunity. I heard LOTS of people disrespecting the President. So I guess I just assumed it was acceptable behavior.
But now, thanks to the thousands of angry people who want radio stations to boycott our music because criticizing the President is unpatriotic, I realize it's wrong to have a liberal opinion if you're a country music artist. I guess I should have thought about that before deciding to play music that attracts hypocritical red necks.
I also realize now that I'm supposed to just sing and look cute so our fans won't have anything to upset them while they're cheating on their wives or getting in drunken bar fights or driving around in their pickup trucks and shooting up highway signs.
And most important of all, I realize that it's wrong for a celebrity to voice a political opinion, unless they're Charlie Daniels, Clint Black, Merle Haggard, Barbara Mandrell, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, Travis Tritt, Hank Williams Jr, Amy Grant, Larry Gatlin, Crystal Gayle, Reba McEntire, Lee Greenwood, Lorrie Morgan, Anita Bryant, Mike Oldfield, Ted Nugent, Wayne Newton, Dick Clark, Jay Leno, Drew Carey, Dixie Carter, Victoria Jackson, Charleton Heston, Fred Thompson, Ben Stein, Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Bo Derek, Rick Schroeder, George Will, Pat Buchanan, Bill O'Reilly, Joe Rogan, Delta Burke, Robert Conrad or Jesse Ventura.
God Bless America, Natalie

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Continuing it's fascination with people finding the Virgin Mary popping up in places like chocolate droppings and firewood, ABC tells us her latest visitation is on a turtle shell in Chicago.

Iraqi Oil Not Being Metered

May 7, 2003 - Common Dreams
WASHINGTON - The US Army has revealed for the first time that a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. has a contract encompassing the operation of Iraqi oil fields, a senior US lawmaker said.
Previously, the US Army Corps of Engineers had described the contract given to Halliburton -- run by US Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000 -- as involving oil well firefighting.
But in a May 2 letter replying to questions from a senior Democratic lawmaker, Henry Waxman, the army said the contract also included "operation of facilities and distribution of products."
"These new disclosures are significant and they seem at odds with the administration's repeated assurances that the Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people."

Wikipedia
"Iraq's oil infrastructure was damaged when the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) took over. The CPA effected selected reparis. But the IAMB (International Advisory and Monitoring Board) found that the CPA had chosen not to repair the meters on the pipelines. The IAMB told the CPA that they were concerned that the lack of metering made auding Iraq's oil exports unreliable – making it impossible to detect fraud, deception or smuggling.
The CPA's authority came to an end with the meters unrepaired."

UPI May 2, 2006 - Spacewar
"No one knows exactly how much oil is smuggled out of the country because the pipelines are not metered."

July 21, 2006 - Halliburton's Profits Up 51 Percent
"Despite a decline in Defense Department contracts, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former firm Halliburton Corporation reported a 51% increase in its second-quarter profits due to a rise in oilfield service revenue."

From US News and World Report:

"He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes."

These guys were way ahead of the curve.

FARTING GEORGE BUSH DOLL



Words just can not describe the laughter when people see our Pull My Finger Farting George Bush Doll. Not only does he fart, he sings and shakes too! Standing over 8" tall pull the Commander in Chiefs finger and he'll shake, fart and say 7 wacky phrases and a fart song in the off-beat tradition of our great leader.



Thanx to correntewire.

Revolución?

There's deafening silence in the MSM about the tense situation in Mexico. The country is on a knife edge of probabilities after massive vote fraud last month. Just a quick search around news sites netted only only two Mexico stories - a change in border policy concerning illegal immigrants and a piece about Aztecs killing and eating some conquistadors.

In Mexico City tens of thousands of Obrador supporters have been protesting the attempted theft of the presidential election on July 2. They're camped along a 7 mile stretch of la Avenida de la Reforma which basically cuts the city in half. The mood is getting increasingly ugly as the disputed vote drags on with no resolution and president Fox is clandestinely sending army convoys to the area. There already are 3000 kevlar clad federal police surrounding the congress armed to the teeth with water cannons and tanks. People are worried that this could be a replay of autumn in 1968 when Gustavo Diaz Ordaz slaughtered over 300 striking students in the nearby Plaza of Three Cultures.

Meanwhile, violent protests in Oaxaca province in Mexico's south are adding to the overall tension. A grassroots teachers' strike has spread outward into a broad social movement.
"They have shut down highways, taken over five radio stations, burned more than a dozen buses, blocked off the city’s historic square, seized government offices, destroyed the stage for an annual cultural fair and barricaded tourists in their hotels. The state government has lost control of the center of the city, including its own offices, and is working out of improvised quarters with cellphones."

There seems to be a class war brewing down south with widespread dissatisfaction of the status quo. Since Mexico is the fifth largest oil producing country in the world, the overlords won't look too kindly at rising social expectations that might upset the apple cart. But the people are fed up with the heavy hand of authoritarian rule maintained by stolen elections. Mexicans have shown in the past that they have more cojones than their northern neighbors, which is probably why the MSM isn't in a rush to cover their courage.

Chemist Explains How The Latest Bomb Scare Was Utter Bullshit

Apparently everybody's suspicions were well justified:

“So, imagining for a moment that you’re a jihadi and you’re actually going to try to cook up TATP on an airliner, what would you have to do?” I asked.

“Well, firstly you’ve got to understand that TATP isn’t a liquid, it’s a white crystalline powder. Looks like sugar and it makes nitroglycerine look safe. I read in one breathless story that the alleged bombers got the recipe from an ‘al-Qaeda website’. Why would al-Qaeda bother? Everyone who studied chemistry knows the recipe. And it’s on Wikipedia.

“The three ingredients are acetone, sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide. The acetone and sulphuric you can buy at the hardware store without attracting suspicion, but the hydrogen peroxide has got to be virtually full strength. You can’t use the stuff you buy over the counter at the pharmacy because it’s 97 per cent water. Well, you could, but you’d have to buy a lot of little bottles of peroxide and boil off the water, which is very risky. One false move and you’ve burned your house down.

“Anyway, you can premix the peroxide with the acetone – a couple of litres might make a useful amount of TATP – and carry that onto the plane in a single container but you’ve got to keep it cool and the only way I can think of to do that is to carry it in a Styrofoam container with some of those cold bricks from the supermarket. Plus, in your kit you’ll need to have a stirrer and a thermometer and a glass beaker or a stainless steel bowl to mix it in.”

That's the easy part.
Thanks to Cannonfire.

Dixie Chicks' Saga Isn't Over

There's going to be an interesting documentary premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in september. Called "Dixie Chicks - Shut Up And Sing", it's going to expose what the band had to live through after standing up for what they believed in by criticizing Sockpuppet in the lead up to war in Iraq.

"DIXIE CHICKS - SHUT UP AND SING travels with the Chicks, from their peak of popularity as the national-anthem-singing darlings of country music and top-selling female recording artists of all time, through the now infamous anti-Bush comment, and on through the days, months and years of mayhem. The film follows the lives and careers of the Chicks through the writing and recording of their first album since "the incident" - and three years of political attack, making music, birthing babies, bonding, death threats, and laughter. At the end, the film presents a complete reconsideration of who people think they are, who they want to be and who, ultimately, they really are as women, as public figures, and as musicians."

If it's released widely before the Diebold Selection Process this november it could help energize the administration's opponents in a way Karl Rove won't like at all.

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Well, it was bound to happen. With the airports making people dump all kinds of liquids as they pass through checkpoints it was only a matter of time before something or a combination of somethings made people sick. Trouble is, no one knows what did it.

"Shortly before 11 a.m., Transportation Security Administration officers, or security screeners, complained about irritation to the eyes, nose and mouth, said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
(...)
Sixteen officers and three employees at US Airways' ticketing station were taken to three hospitals. All were treated and released by late Tuesday afternoon, said TSA spokeswoman Carrie Harmon and airline representatives."

The war on war photos and photojournalists is all the rage with the wingnut bunch. I think they have to attack the evidence of gruesome war crimes to minimize their impact. It's also handy to demonize the victims to justify what's being done to them. Apologists for Israel were all over the Reuters photographer who added smoke plumes to a Beirut picture.
So which is the greater crime - bombing a residential area with little children or making a child stand next to a bomb for a picture?
Well, some people recognize true evil.

Girding Their Little Loins

Your young ones are frightened 'bout them islamofascist baddies that are out to get'em?
Thanks to Pandagon who thanks shakespearessister who thanks Oddjob we can get the perfect set of jammies to soothe their worried minds and let them sleep with Jeebus©.



Here's their site for your perusal. Looks like they could double as halloween costumes.

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The republicans are known for their bottom line simplistic messages and propaganda child speak but the latest reason not to pack up and leave Iraq tops them all.
Sockpuppet says if U.S. troops were to pull out "before the mission in Iraq is complete, the enemy will follow us home."

The first thing is, what fucking mission? And to suggest that the resistance in Iraq who wants to oust the invading army will want to keep up the struggle all the way to our shores is assinine. The fighting and now the civil war in that country is all about the occupation and it's depredations, period. I guess they have to keep it nice and simple for their core supporters.

It can't be any clearer that the US has lost everything in Iraq after today's shootings in Baghdad. Whether the killing spree was sectarian vilence or another false flag attack to divide the country and keep the fear level high, it doesn't matter. It comes even after widespread anticipation of trouble - extra thousands of american soldiers and cars were banned for fear of car bombings.
The soldiers are standing next to a powder keg.



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Liberal Rapture shows us that "Snakes on a Plane" is actually an allegory about our current situation.
"See we are the people on the plane. The good old U.S. A. is the plane. And the snakes are well... you know...We are trapped in mid air until January 20, 2009 - and the snakes have control."

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Wingnuts accused of projection? Say it ain't so. But No More Mr Nice Blog makes the case that hyping every bogus islamo/fascist/booger story is what they love to do, yet turn around and accuse photographers of faking their pictures.
Boy do I agree. As a matter of fact, you can call projection a defining endemic pathology of the fascists and their kool aid drinkers. Think strident homophobes in office who turn out to have, shall we say, ambivalent personal lifestyles.

That Earpiece Thing Again

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Sockpuppet's handlers better do some maintenance on his communication device, the boy is stammering and gargling his instructions a bit much. Notice how the execrable Faux© staff pretends that he just said something noteworthy.

Also, as Gameboy walks away from the mike, look how he pushes at his ear, as if the earpiece was falling out.

Israel Shops for Peacekeepers

Never shy to ooze hubris, our 51st state stamps it's feet and looks pouty face at some countries who offer to send peacekeeping troops to Lebanon.

"Gillerman said Israel would be "very happy" to accept troops from Muslim countries it has friendly relations with.
"But to expect countries who don't even recognize Israel to guard Israel's safety I think would be a bit naive," he said.
Malaysia's Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar dismissed Gillerman's remarks, saying, "we're going to be on Lebanese territory ... we're not going to be on Israeli territory."

Funny how that innocent victim shtick starts to wear thin. The IDF invaded and occupies foreign soil, and they get to decide who sends troops?

Buffoonish Woman Won't Take a Hint

Katherine Harris of election stealing fame tried to hold a rally yesterday but encountered a few minor difficulties.

"None of the nine officials listed on her event flier appeared, leaving Harris on her own to address a group of about 40 supporters, reporters and campaign-staff members.
The most prominent official on hand was former state Rep. Allen Trovillion, who left office four years ago.
Harris spoke in an airplane hangar that seemed to highlight the modest size of the crowd. She said a last-minute location change -- required because a tree fell on the hangar where the event was supposed to be held -- kept crowd numbers down.
Airport officials, however, said no hangar had been damaged by a tree and that the rally was in the hangar that had been originally booked."



So she lied about who supports her and the hanger thing, at least the massive crowd got free balloons.

Yet More Chaos Capitalism

US rushes precision-guided bombs to Israel - July 22
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, The New York Times reported on Saturday."

US rushes aid plan to counter Hezbollah support
- August 19
"THE Bush Administration is rushing to assemble a plan to help rebuild Lebanon, hoping that by competing with Hezbollah for the public's favour it can undo the damage the war has inflicted on its image and goals for the Middle East."

What sort of universe do our fascists occupy? They are so divorced from humanity that they think they can play god with capricious impunity, immune from the consequences of their actions. They'll say anything, do anything with imperial hubris, expecting us to forget what was said and done yesterday and support them while they pull this scam yet again.

Never mind that the US was deeply involved with Israel in planning the calculated savagery. Forget that the pretend diplomacy was meant to give the zionists plenty of time to finish obliterating Lebanon's infrastructure, and vetoed a UN resolution condemninig their atrocities in Gaza. Don't bother with all that. Since now that the Israelis got their ass kicked militarily while the agenda for wider war is delayed, it's time to play Good Cop and put on a smiley face. However:

"A major rebuilding investment would put the US in the position of subsidising

both the Israeli munitions that caused the damage and the reconstruction work

that will repair it."

Indeed. But that Chaos Capitalism, it's been such a sweet deal for Halliburton.

In that second headline above it's obvious the scumbags think it's only their their projected image that needs attention, along with corporate profits of course. Not the rotting bodies under the smashed buildings, not the worst oil spill in Mediterranean history or the fact it will take decades for Lebanon to recuperate from the damage. In the bizarro world of neo fascism they think we'll gloss over their crimes and they can play at being Great Humanitarians while they throw even more of our tax dollars at the smoking ruin they helped to create.

Teachin' em That Good ol Wretched Excess

The Golden Arches are giving away toy hummers with their happy meals. So now along with your kids engorging on overpriced slop you can indoctrinate them into a future of driving gas guzzling behemoths. It's hard to believe what the promotion guys were thinking when they came up with a campaign this stupid. I'm sure I'm not the only soul that sees the bad karma of joining supersized fries with a cinder block on wheels that drips with overconsumption smugness.
The giveaway runs through August so you better hurry if you haven't gotten the Laser Blue H2H model yet.

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Do you stay up at night worrying about all those liberal movies out there? Over at celebpolitics you can peruse the Top 100 Most Liberal Movies to make sure your Netflix queue isn't contaminated. I'm really surprised that Bob Roberts didn't make the cut.

Thanks to shakespearessister.

Employee of the Month

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The New Normal

Mrs Lipstick and I were going to get our passports and do some traveling this winter. With this latest phony fear injecting contrivance, I'm reassessing that decision. It's probably safe to assume that restrictions won't ease much and with each new incident it'll only get worse.

Plus I'd hate to be abroad when some crap happens and my bags go missing.

When The Levees Broke

Spike Lee is going to present a four hour, four part documentary on HBO about Katrina and the aftermath later this month.
From the HBO site:
"On August 29, 2006, the city of New Orleans was forever changed when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, breaching levees, flooding neighborhoods, and killing more than a thousand residents. One year later, acclaimed director Spike Lee presents this four-hour, four-part HBO documentary event that recounts one of the United States' most profound natural disasters through words and images. In addition to revisiting the hours leading up to the devastating Category 5 storm, the film tells the personal stories of those who lived to tell about it while also exploring the underbelly of a nation where the divide along race and class lines has never been more pronounced."
This page has the schedule.

Liquid Bombing the Constitution

By Kurt Nimmo at Another Day In The Empire

"As usual, the latest non-terrorist event is being exploited to further erode our constitutional liberties. “Following the foiled United Kingdom bomb plot, the Bush administration is expected to use the terrorist threat to regain the upper hand in congressional debates and push for government action before the November elections,” reports the War Street Journal. “Republicans appear to be circling around a new strategy to advocate stronger counterterrorism laws and expand domestic surveillance, while pushing back against civil libertarians.”
Note how, as usual, “civil libertarians” endanger us all in their zeal to appease and enable terrorists, never mind that said terrorists are more often than not government patsies or clueless unfortunates caught in the wrong place at the wrong time."

I've predicted for some time now that the fearmongering fascists are going to force people to do some extraordinary things just to fly in an airplane.

Heah Cum De Boogeyman

Why do I get the feeling that we're just waiting around for the fascists to kill us?

"This year, terror alerts won’t do it. It’s time for another big bang and the people that brought you 9/11; the bush administration, assorted neo-cons, British Intelligence and Mossad are ready to take this years blueprint and hand it to the independent contractors. It’s not if, it’s when. So, in the primary stages we get to know that they are ‘Johnny on the spot’ and looking out for our safety and well being- even though, unfortunately, they will be unable to prevent what is going to occur.
Iraq has degenerated into civil war. Hezbollah kicked Israel’s butt. Israel war-crimed the Lebanese landscape on world TV. Prime Minister Blair has made it crystal clear that he is a lying sack of shit. So you have the architects of 9/11 all in trouble together and back to working the same old same old on the same confused electorate and; will it really work again? Will it work one more time? Can Lucy hold the football for Charlie Brown one more time and convince him that, this time, she won’t pull the ball away at the last minute? Is America that fucking stupid …and afraid?"

That Huge, Dastardly, Imminent Terror Plot

From MSNBC:

"Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests - August 12

LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.
A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports."

So, tell us again O high and mighty Fearmongering Overlords, how you stopped this heinous conspiracy in the nick of time.

Another Terror Drill To Monitor

As Alex Jones and others have pointed out, the modus operandi of the fascists is well known. When they want to accomplish a goal they'll use tried and true methods that work for them - propaganda, false flag attacks, character assasination and murder. One consistancy in their machinations is the use of exercise drills that take place the same time they pull their stunts. Sometimes the training maneuvers simulate the very same terror attacks that the fascists carry out:

"It is clear that at least five if not six training exercises were in operation in the days leading up to and on the morning of 9/11. This meant that NORAD radar screens showed as many as 22 hijacked airliners at the same time. NORAD had been briefed that this was part of the exercise drill and therefore normal reactive procedure was forestalled and delayed."
(...)
"The drill scenario also explains a comment made by air traffic control personnel which was featured in a July 2004 BBC television report. Click here for that video clip and article. The controller is told that a hijacked airliner is heading for New York and responds by saying, "is this real world or an exercise?"

The same scenario was in place in London when a crisis management company was running a terror exercise that acted as a cover on 7/7 last year:

"The exercise fulfils several different goals. It acts as a cover for the small compartamentalized government terrorists to carry out their operation without the larger security services becoming aware of what they're doing, and, more importantly, if they get caught during the attack or after with any incriminating evidence they can just claim that they were just taking part in the exercise."

Our growing awareness of this method of obfuscation probably led to the cancellation of one of the planned exercises last year. The army's Northcom command wanted to simulate a scenario where terrorists blow up a ship carrying a 10 kiloton warhead in the harbor at Charleston SC. Operation Sudden Response was going to involve FEMA and other agencies. There were a lot of strange goings on behind the scenes like a 4 star general getting sacked, and because of the intense publicity and most likely the speculation that it could go live, it was cancelled.

"Exercise A Kele" (meaning hot radiation) is going to be a drill in Hawaii that will begin August 15 and last several days:

"The mock half-kiloton nuclear explosion would take place at the entrance of Honolulu Harbor and would result in immediate casualties of nearly 400 people within 2,000 feet of ground zero, Teixeira said.
But because it will take place near government centers of the state Capitol and City Hall, "the electromagnetic pulse could knock down 30 percent of our communications ability," he added."

I guess there could be endless speculation that such a small yield wouldn't do that much damage, that the radiation would dissipate over the ocean so that basically they'd get a lot of bang for the buck. A lot of shock value and the needed springboard to launch the next wars on the fascist wish list. Who knows?
But we should keep in mind their cultish obsession for numbers, dates, astrology and pagan rituals. August 17 is Portunalia, the Roman festival for Portunes, the god of ports and harbors.

President Pretends to Read a Book

We're supposed to believe that Gameboy is reading Camus' "The Stranger" while on vacation at his pretend ranch in Texas.Quite apropos, actually. It's an absurdist tale about a guy, his innate disconnection with reality and his total lack of moral fiber or sense of remorse. Who kills an arab.

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When taking time out from using his finger and mouthing the words, Sockpuppet gets his jollies from forcing staffers to run in 100 degree heat. If you survive you get a t shirt and a photo.

Total Shutdown of Alaskan Oil Field Averted

Western portion of the pipeline will be vigilantly monitored, company says.

Are Israeli Tanks Being Blown Up By American Missiles?

Israel's Merkava tanks are taking heavy losses in the invasion of Lebanon. According to IsraeiNationalNews:

" IDF officials admit that the biggest surprise of the ongoing war against Hizbullah is the ease by which terrorists have destroyed IDF tanks. At least 30 tanks have been totally destroyed or seriously damaged in bomb and anti-tank rocket attacks involving state-of-the-art Russian anti-tank rockets. About one-half of the military personnel killed in southern Lebanon were inside tanks."

Back in the 80's there was the Iran - Contra scandal where the Reagan administration traded weapons to Iran for help in freeing hostages held in Lebanon. A thousand TOW missiles (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) were part of the weapons deal that was sent to them. Current versions are capable of penetrating more than 30 inches of armor, or "any 1990s tank," at a maximum range of more than 3,000 meters. They were sent in exchange for money which was used to support anti Sandanista terrorists in Nicaragua. (A more lucrative source for money was Ollie North's cocaine trafficking.)

Iran needed the armaments for it's eight year war with Iraq, and used most of them up. Because of that, they developed an extensive homegrown arms industry that back engineered arms from various countries. It's ony common sense that they would copy the best stuff including the TOWs from the US. They've been so successful that they don't import arms from abroad but create their own locally, and it's no secret that they supply missiles to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It would be highly ironic that Israeli tanks are getting destroyed by american made missiles or their technology, because what emerged from the Iran - Contra revelations was that Israel itself was the source of the TOW missiles to Iran.

Pravda Predicts Nuclear War In 10 Days

Time to stock up on bottled water?

"Such was the conclusion reached in the U.S. Russian generals and political scientists disagree only about its exact starting date.
Our world is on the brink of another world war. It will originate August 22nd in the Middle East. The prediction was presented not by Vagna or Nostradamus but by an American political scientist Bernard Lewis in the acclaimed publication of Wall Street Journal. He is a man with close ties to the Bush administration as well as to the non-conservatives pushing for the radical solution of the “Iranian Threat.”
Lewis believes it will be precisely Teheran who will unleash the ultimate conflict by attacking Israel. Why August 22nd? Perhaps simply because Washington has set a deadline for the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has demanded a complete wrap up of the nuclear program by that day. It is obvious that Teheran has no intention to comply. Curiously, this year the night of August 22nd happens to be night Muslims will celebrate the journey of their prophet Mohammed to Jerusalem and his ascension into heaven. According to Lewis the followers of Mohammed have a perfect opportunity to enrich their celebration by throwing an attack on Israel. An immediate retaliation will follow."

If this is true, look for some sort of provovation to force the Iranians to respond. Pointing to the Muslim faith as a catalyst for a suicidal attack is all the rage in wingnut echo chambers, and most idiotic in my estimation. However, the date makes all the sense in the world to pentagon war planners, because they prefer to attack using their stealth and night vision technology in darkness.

The new moon is August 23.

Is The Airport Idiocy Part Of This Program?

MK-ULTRA never went away.

Total Fucking Insanity

We have completely lost our fucking minds. Our overlords are demented, criminal psychopaths and the clueless ignorati who believe in them and follow their insane orders are just as pathologically braindead.

Our latest foray into bizarroland is this phoney airliner terror charade. We've got worldwide disruption of air travel now because the fearmongers are pretending they caught some dangerous swarthy types about to blow some planes out of the sky. These staged propaganda stunts always fall apart with the slightest scrutiny and this one is no different.

Just a few simple questions need to be asked.
What self respecting terrorist is going to want to risk blowing their complicated plot wide open by trying to pull off a "dry run"?
We're supposed to shiver with fear when these supposed perps are linked to al qaeda when al qaeda is a phony CIA straw dog?
If this insidious plot to kill-americans-because-they-hate-our-freedoms involved the new and improved liquid cocktail trickery, where various death wish mooslims carry the ingredients aboard planes and mix them together to form an explosive powerful enough to bring them down, why the fuck are they forcing passengers to do this in the middle of the fucking terminal?





Have we truly become this batshit insane?

Gulfnews Quote

Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor:

"The US cannot lead the world anymore.
The Israeli war against Lebanon has destroyed the last vestige of honour that the US could use to justify its hegemony.
(...)
The conclusion from the four-week-old war against Lebanon is that the US would have defended the Lebanese had Syria assaulted them, but Israel can create havoc in the country and destroy the nation with full backing from the US. This morally ill and unjust attitude by a superpower should have no place in the world of the 21st century."

Interesting way of looking at it. If it was Syria obliterating the nation the US would have saved lives. But since it's Israel committing murder, well here, have some more cluster bombs.

What's Up With The Number 19?

Ever since 9/11 and the odd numerology involved, I've been paying more attention to numbers in the headlines. Since the perpetrators of black tuesday wanted us to believe that there were 19 arabs involved, that number, if the numerologists are correct, has special meaning to the cult driven New World Order types. What's strange is that the number 19 shows up in a wildly disproportionate amount of headlines:

Bombs kill 19 in Baghdad - August 8

19 injured in riot in central China - August 9

At least 19 Iraqis, three US troops dead - August 7

19 people arrested in drug and prostitution bust - August 8

At least 19 dead as tropical storm crosses southern China - August 4

With the latest fearmongering ploy:

19 people held on suspicion of plotting to blow up planes - August 11

There are a whole lot more if you go further back than a week. I don't know whether the number means something special to the shadow government types or is just one half of a Steely Dan song, it shows up as the amount of people in a situation a lot more than coincidence would suggest.

The Tipping Point is Here

By Larry Chin

"When all the factions of the New World Order unify behind a major geopolitical event, it usually signals disaster. These significant moments usually come when there is unanimous elite support for violent, large-scale criminal activity.

September 11 and the birth of the “war on terrorism” was one such moment, as was the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan that followed.

In these moments, the true criminal nature of the world’s elite is readily apparent. So is the ignorance of the duped and manipulated mass populaces.

We are in the midst of another such moment as you read this, perhaps the most dangerous single collective moment since 9/11."

Why Don't We See Blunt Questions Like This?

This is a clear example of what journalists in this country aren't able to do - confront Israeli propaganda efforts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS2ESHKhBQY

The Brilliantly Profitable Timing of the Alaska Oil Pipeline Shutdown

by Greg Palast

"Why shut the pipe now? The timing of a sudden inspection and fix of a decade-long problem has a suspicious smell. A precipitous shutdown in mid-summer, in the middle of Middle East war(s), is guaranteed to raise prices and reap monster profits for BP. The price of crude jumped $2.22 a barrel on the shutdown news to over $76. How lucky for BP which sells four million barrels of oil a day. Had BP completed its inspection and repairs a couple years back — say, after Dan Lawn’s tenth warning — the oil market would have hardly noticed.
But $2 a barrel is just the beginning of BP’s shut-down bonus. The Alaskan oil was destined for the California market which now faces a supply crisis at the very height of the summer travel season. The big winner is ARCO petroleum, the largest retailer in the Golden State. ARCO is a 100%-owned subsidiary of … British Petroleum."

When I heard about the Alaskan shutdown my bullshit antenna started quivering. Aside from reaping a bonanza by choking the supply, a little digging shows that output was drastically declining from the oil fields up there.

"By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, June 7, 2005;
PRUDHOE BAY, Alaska -- Oil keeps flowing through a maze of aging wells, pumps and pipelines that poke through the snow on this desolate North Slope tundra.
But this vast field is ailing: Output has fallen by nearly 75 percent from its peak in 1987 and is expected to continue dropping.

So it appears that BP, knowing that output was falling rapidly, tried to milk their aging and deteriorating piping system without instituting needed maintenance and repairs right up to the point of catastrophic failure. Lax goverment oversight never cared to look for corrosion problems.
Shutting it down now seems like a wonderful win - win marketing strategy, doesn't it? And let me venture a guess that after waiting for the middle east to explode in flames, BP will once again turn on the spigots and reap yet more monstrous profits.

The Planned Incarceration of Americans

Covert History reminds us that earlier this year Halliburton was awarded nearly $400 million to build new concentration camps.
Shades of Rex 84.



You can look up your local accommodations here.

Remember, perennial gasbag Newt Gingrich is calling supporters of Ned Lamont who won against Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut democratic primary - insurgents.
As we've seen in Iraq, the term insurgents is just a whisker away from the term terrorists.

The Planned Demolition of Lebanon

The death and destruction continues. With our help.

"By now, it should be apparent that Israel’s military campaign has nothing to do with Hezbollah’s capturing of the two Israeli soldiers on July 14. The present plan, which was drawn up more than a year ago (and of which high-ranking members of the Bush administration were fully briefed) is designed to establish a new northern border for Israel at the Litani River and create an “Israel-friendly” regime in Beirut."

(...)

"The media portrayal of the current conflict is blatantly absurd. It has nothing to due with “captured soldiers” or Israel’s “right to defend itself.” This is a traditional war with clear territorial and political objectives. The border controversy is nonsense. Israel is trying to seize more land to realize its vision of “Greater Israel,” while reducing an adjacent Arab country to a “permanent state of colonial dependency.”

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The oil spill from Israeli attacks is causing massive environmental damage. Nobody can get to it to even assess the damage. The entire Mediterranean is at risk.

"The Israeli navy has maintained more than three weeks of sea blockade, preventing ships from entering or leaving Lebanese ports without its prior approval."

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Civilians are told to flee. But wait, civilians are told to stay out of cars.
One million Lebanese are refugees. That's one quarter of the population, equivalent to 75 million americans.

Steal This Election

How To Hack A Diebold Voting Machine

The Next 9/11

Robert Fisk in Beirut:

"And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11."

I've been thinking this for years. I believe Fisk means the muslims that are being slaughtered from Lebanon to central asia will seek revenge on the Israel/UK/US axis. But when the new high profile and very ugly event happens, it won't be coming from Iran or Saudi or the Sudan, it will have been cooked up by the warmongers in the Pentagon, M16 and Mossad.

This is the MO of the New World Order. It's best summed up in the motto of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency - המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים ""By way of deception thou shalt do war." War is the ugliest of human conditions. It's also the best way to further control and reap enormous profits. Of course people are not very inclined to go to war so the most effective way is to fool them into it.

It's the modern equivalent of the Hegelian Dialectic. Hegel broke it down to an exchange of theses and antitheses resulting in synthesis. Another way of saying it is problem, reaction and solution. You want to get something done so you set up a situation (problem), be ready with a way to solve it (reaction), and voila - you get the desired result (solution). This is the way our modern fascists do things because it works without people realizing the manipulation of events. Say you're Mayor Daley in Chicago, 1968 and you don't want that big demonstration at the Democratic convention. You send in some agents provocateur posing as protesters to break some glass, then send in your cops to break some heads. Solution - empty streets.

This is the process to kickstart all wars. To set up the clash of civilizations, steal the resources of energy rich nations and fill Haliburton's coffers we got 9/11. This ruination and resource grab in Lebanon was set in motion by the stage managed cross border incursion and supposed capture of some soldiers. And the next phase of the fascist's agenda is most ambitious and will require another, monstrous 9/11.

At this point we probably can't stop them from pulling it off. Our overlords are several moves ahead of us in this chess game. From past performances they have a tendency to bring something in from left field, to do the unexpected, so there probably won't be planes flying into buildings that were wired with thermite explosives. The only thing we can do is refuse to be fooled by their extravaganzas. The one sure way to expose the real perpetrators, when the next 9/11 happens, is to ask yourself the most important question you can:
Qui bono - who benefits?

What a Difference 10 Years Makes

Are These The Real Reasons For The War In Lebanon?

Israel is the master of false flag attacks, pulling stunts and blaming patsies in order to obtain their desired goals. Their murderous rampage in Lebanon was initially blamed on Hezbollah guerillas who the Israelis say initiated a cross border raid that killed and captured IDF troops.

This bullshit story was a deliberate lie to excuse the carnage because the two Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanon. The craven, soulless media have perpetuated this cover story to allow Israel to continue it's ethnic cleansing and war crimes, aided by the fascists in Washington who can't rush despicable weaponry fast enough to their blood brothers in Tel Aviv.

So what are the real reasons for this invasion and conquest? Aside from eventually drawing Syria, Iran and who knows who else into a region - wide war to reshape the middle east, two long term zionist goals are being met by spilling Lebanese blood.

1. Armies don't run on solar power.
"Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World's largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?
Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of Lebanon."



"The bombing of Lebanon is part of a carefully planned and coordinated military road map. The extension of the war into Syria and Iran has already been contemplated by US and Israeli military planners. This broader military agenda is intimately related to strategic oil and oil pipelines. It is supported by the Western oil giants which control the pipeline corridors. In the context of the war on Lebanon, it seeks Israeli territorial control over the East Mediterranean coastline.
In this context, the BTC pipeline dominated by British Petroleum, has dramatically changed the geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean, which is now linked , through an energy corridor, to the Caspian sea basin."

2. Water wars


the litani river

"If the water resources in your country are rapidly decreasing, and the neighbouring country has an intact water supply... and if you think that in the future you will need the other countries water supply... then you will not attack that country saying you need their water. If you attack that country you will do so for another reason, hiding your real objective behind a wall of deception and lies."

Water is in short supply in the region and Israel has always coveted the Litani river which flows to the sea just miles from it's border. The zionists openly state their goal is the river and may end up just annexing a sizable chunk of Lebanon. Is this the reason Israeli planes dropped leaflets telling the Lebanese to flee for their lives to the northern section of the country? If so, a quarter of Lebanon's population might end up as permanent refugees while the world sits idly by and watches.

Hizbullah rockets cannot be fired from buildings (ie the one bombed in Qana)

But the IDF would prefer that you didn't know it.

"The type of missiles being fired by Hizbullah at Israeli cities cannot be fired from within houses, mosques, hospitals or even UN facilities as has been suggested by the IDF. Due to the massive "back-blast" caused by the rocket launchers of these missiles, they can only be fired from open ground. To fire them from within a building would result in the instant death of the missile crew and probable destruction of the missile before launch. Most of the missiles are truck-mounted and are fired - on open ground - from the backs of flat-bedded trucks or larger four-wheel-drive vehicles."

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Israel Turns Southern Lebanon Into Rubble.



Israeli artillery sits on the border and has fired 50,000 shells into Lebanon's villages.

Chris weakened and was downgraded to a tropical depression this morning. Storms have acted in strange ways the last several years, taking 90 degree turns and forming where they shouldn't. Maybe we should ask the boys up at HAARP.

So far it's been a slow season. Wonder if they'll run through all the names again.

MSM Deliberately Villainizes The Iranian President, Again

It looks like the war for our heads has heated up as much as the physical war on the ground in the middle east. The dead-from-the-neck-up rubes have to have a steady diet of two minute hate drills to recognize their enemies in the lead up to wider war. If you listen to the radio you'll hear advertisers peddle there widgets, and they know they have to repeat the phone number at least 3 times for it to get it imprinted.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hates jews according to the propagandists. But it doesn't take much reading to find out what he really says.
"Ahmadinejad: Destruction of Israel is solution" blares one headline. "France slams call to destroy Israel" shouts another. Sounds apocalyptic.

His actual quote is “Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate ceasefire must be implemented."
"Ahmadinejad called on all Muslim states to “cut their open and secret political and economic ties with the fake and outlawed Zionist regime” in response to its attacks against Lebanon."

Israelis and their apologists have pulled this crap many times before. They'd love you to think that every attack on zionism is an attack on jews. They want you to believe that criticism of Israeli policies is antisemitic as a way to silence disapproval of say, genocide of Lebanese civilians. Zionism is a political movement, judaism is a religion. When Ahmadinejad condemns the Israeli government for war crimes the apologists want you to think of ovens. They want to turn the tables on their accusers and make them look like the bad guys. In this case, the fiends that have to be drawn into a wider war.

New Position For Chris

Israel Resumes Bombardment of Beirut

I wonder if anyone else sees what I do in this article from ABC. It has the usual slant which looks at the conflict strictly from Israeli eyes, and has that flavor that led Jon Stewart to declare that "Goliath should stop whining". But it goes on to quote Ehud Olmert dictating to the world about what it has to do to stop the carnage:

Any international force ".. has to be made up of armies, not of retirees, of real soldiers, not of pensioners who have come to spend leisurely months in south Lebanon, but, rather, an army with combat units that is prepared to implement the UN resolution," the prime minister said in The Times.
"I think it has to have about 15,000 soldiers. I think that's more or less what the international community understands."

Who the hell does this strutting jackass think he is? Unilaterally ruining an entire nation, using state terror to slaughter innocent civilians and turning a million people into refugees fleeing for their lives, then ordering the world community around to his exacting specifications? It's obvious that this devastation has nothing to do with terrorism, but is a land and water grab and a drive to destroy a resurgent Lebanon. Any call to the UN or NATO to send a "peacekeeping" force is a cynical ploy to solidify the damage already done.

It's also breathtaking hypocrisy. Israel has ignored over 60 UN resolutions "condemning or censuring it for its actions against the Palestinians or other Arab people, deploring it for committing them, or demanding, calling on or urging the Jewish state to end them." In other words the Israeli state is an outlaw entity, giving the rest of the world the finger for decades as it went about subjugating the Palestinians and invading it's neighbors. The prime minister of Israel and the IDF also know that Hezbollah would consider any peacekeeping force an outside, occupying invader that would get the brunt of the resistance. And it would take at least weeks to set up giving the Israelis plenty of time to continue their ethnic cleansing. Olmert's demands bring new meaning to chutzpah.

And the bombs keep falling.

Tropical Storm Chris

Why my parents moved to Florida is beyond me. Four hurricanes went over their heads or right by them last year.

What The Fools Believe

In my existence I've rarely seen the levels of sheer outright idiocy than the reaction of the determined ignorati to the carnage in the middle east. It's like the insistant stupidity of the Bush Cargo Cult, which looks at a moronic failure and sees a heroic war savior, only it's worse. With Sockpuppet there's Rove, slick propaganda efforts and a prostrate media. In Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon there's only blood and naked suffering. With a million displaced people, an entire country being destroyed and possibly thousands killed and more on the way, this poses a real problem for the fascist apologencia.

I decided to hold my nose and do a scatological survey of how the little brown shirts try to fit the square pegs of reality into the round holes of ideology.
Sorry, I'll go look at it but I refuse to link to idiocy.

Outrages are coming fast and furious but the latest is the Qana massacre. Scenes of over 50 dead women and children pulled from an targetted house tend to sour most people to what Israel is doing. Most people.

Malkin and her ilk try desperately to paint the Hezbollah resistance as cowards who hide amongst the general population. Since it was only women and children who died at Qana, they have to turn 180 degrees and say the men were all terrorists and out trying to kill Israelis. Bonus - the men are really wimps for leaving their women in danger.

Ynet claims the Lebanese brought invalid kids into the building and killed them for propaganda value.

Atlas Shrugs has pictures of Hezbollah rocket! shrapnel! Claiming little pieces of metal that fly from exploding bombs are proof that Arabs are subhuman beasts. By the way, Pammy at Atlas and Grouchy Old Cripple stress that jewish women soldiers are real babes compared to those mooslims.

At NRO Rich Lowry says Hezbollah is celebrating Qana, while Michael Ledeen can't wait for the fireworks in Syria and Iran, as if Lebanon isn't enough slaughter.

The American Thinker opines that the bodies at Qana that were dug out from pulverised concrete were gray colored, thereby meaning that they had really died several days earlier.

The Bullwinkle blog maintains the fiction that Israel is pure as the driven snow and would never ever target civilians. So take that anti semetism elsewhere, Adolph.

LGF and Limbaugh maintain the photos taken at the destroyed building were staged and rescue workers hauled the same dead little girl around for hours, in and out of the rubble.
Really.
Actually this looks like a typical case of a bullshit contention that reverberates around the idiot echo chamber so much it becomes an established fact to the kool aid crowd. It's also a fine example of projection syndrome, where you paint your supposed enemies with your own disorders. Only truly sick people would look at grieving emergency relief workers and think the dead children were props.

It's no wonder we tout a reality based community, I need a shower.

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Steve Watson gets an insight into this neocon mindset.

Something must be in the air. Glenn Greenwald writes about this startling phenomena too:
"..among the American pro-Bush movement, there is no bit of reality-denial too extreme to be rejected. "