Headlying of the day

Stevens's Reputation 'Sterling,' Powell Says

Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell told jurors in the corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens yesterday that the powerful Alaska Republican had a "sterling" reputation among the nation's military and political leaders.

"He was someone whose word you could rely on," said Powell, who also is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Yep, that's the colon Powell who lied to the world and helped bring about the Iraq war.

Here are some excerpts from his speech to the UN on Thursday, February 6, 2003:

One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents.

Let me take you inside that intelligence file and share with you what we know from eye witness accounts. We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails.

The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to evade detection by inspectors. In a matter of months, they can produce a quantity of biological poison equal to the entire amount that Iraq claimed to have produced in the years prior to the Gulf War.
[...]
We know that Iraq has at lest seven of these mobile biological agent factories. The truck-mounted ones have at least two or three trucks each.
[...]
Ladies and gentlemen, these are sophisticated facilities. For example, they can produce anthrax and botulism toxin. In fact, they can produce enough dry biological agent in a single month to kill thousands upon thousands of people.
[...]
There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction. If biological weapons seem too terrible to contemplate, chemical weapons are equally chilling.
[...]
Iraq could use these small UAVs which have a wingspan of only a few meters to deliver biological agents to its neighbors or if transported, to other countries, including the United States.

He accompanied his presentation with bogus US English translations and bogus sat photos.

These were all lies. Even colon Powell admits in 2005 his presentation was lies. But he just considers them a "blot on his record."

Excuse me, but a 'blot' is an ink stain, what he did was an atrocity, leading to more atrocities, leading to 4,180+ American deaths and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths.

But what would you expect from a guy who was supposed to investigate the My Lai massacre said "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent."*

Later, in 2005 this colon told Larry King "I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai.[...] So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored."

By his own words he was in the unit responsible for My Lai, and he was charged to investigate it. Hmm, no wonder an underling was charged for those murders.

So why should we trust him later when by his own words he knew he'd lied to the UN.

Gosh Mr. Powell, if I'm ever a defendant in a trial? Please, please, don't volunteer to be a character witness!

Addendum one: The wrongwingers talk about the 'angry left', you're g'dam right we're angry! Even at the time we knew it was lies, we were proven right, and every day, 5 1/2 years later, we still have our patriotism being questioned for pointing out the obvious!

Addendum two: Senator Obama, if you get elected, the first thing you should do is bring the country together to solve our, and now the world's, economic crisis.

The second thing you should do is bring all these war criminals to justice.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Oh yeah, oh yeah Siren Sarah; She talks really quick, but thinks really slow

Bump and Update: Sarah Failin' Found Guilty:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin violated ethics laws and abused her power as governor in pressing to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, an independent legislative investigation concluded today.

In a report whose release was the subject of a high-stakes political showdown that went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, investigator Stephen Branchflower concluded that Palin communicated her displeasure with the trooper, Mike Wooten, and allowed her husband to apply pressure to have Wooten fired.

Original post: At first I thought this headline was from The Onion:

Palin Pre-empts State Report, Clears Self in Probe

Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.

Geebus! These people not only have Irony spinning in his grave, they've just killed Satire too!

And while we wait for the Alaskan lawmakers to release the findings of their probe that was stonewalled, let's review just a couple of the lowlights of the timeline:

The Sarah Palin - Troopergate Timeline: A Sordid Trail of Corruption, Squalor and Lies

[...]
July 28, 2008

The Alaska Legislative Council - a bipartisan panel composed of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats – authorized, by unanimous vote, a probe into the “Troopergate” allegations.
[...]
July 31, 2008

In a CNBC interview [...] Sarah Paln responded to questions on Troopergate, saying that she looked foward to an investigation into the charges against her
[...]
August 13, 2008

An audio tape surfaces, proving Monegan’s claims that — while he was never directly told by Palin or anyone to fire Wooten — he was contacted many times by Palin, members of her administration and her husband, Todd Palin in calls and emails that raised issues about Wooten’s employment.
[...]
September 16, 2008

McCain campaign lawyers try to either end the investigation or delay it until after the election. Former Justice Department prosecutor Edward O’Callaghan, now working for the McCain campaign, told reporters that Palin was “unlikely to cooperate” with the Alaskan legislative inquiry into Monegan’s firing because it had been “tainted” by politics. O’Callaghan stated that the McCain campaign was directing an aggressive legal strategy to shut down a pre-election ethics investigation.

Yeah, the probe was tainted & partisan because eight 10 republicans and 4 democrats voted unanimously to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her unethical conduct.

Read the whole thing as we wait for the Alaskan lawmakers to release the (stonewalled by John McCain's team of lawyers that airdropped into Alaska) report.

Wounded Animals

Remember the 'angry left' that the wingnuts on the right have railed against since Saint Reagan or before? From what I am seeing in the news and around some of the lefty blogs the right is trying to raise the ante. McGrumpy and Caribou Barbie are increasingly feeding angrier and angrier crowds that shouting 'terrorist' and even 'kill him' with no response from either candidate. They are feeding it and taking energy from it. It's like the seen in Star Wars where Luke is finally facing the Emperor and Darth Vader in person and the Emperor encourages the anger and hate. I can't remember the exact dialogue but it is something like "yes young Skywalker let the hate grow--your transition to the dark side is almost complete". It's the first thing that came to my mind when I read the stories of the angry crowds surrounding.

I don't remember this much outright hate and vitriol in previous campaigns. What is different this time? Could it be that in the previous campaigns they were the assured winners and that this time it is almost assured that they are the losers? Does it go beyond the election itself and actually touch on who they are and the knowledge that they are about to lose control?

The reality is that in the last 8 years they have had power. They have had their boy George in the White House with Darth Cheney in the background pulling the strings. Bush and Cheney were their justification for their extremist views. Bush and Cheney in power validated their hate, war mongering, gay baiting, and yes, racist views. Think back over how often the rallying point for the conservative right has been their derision and resentment of liberals, intellectuals, Europeans or anything else that threatened their carefully constructed alternate and self-serving reality. What is happening now is that it is starting to sink in that they are losing and losing in a big way. The failure of Iraq, Afghanistan, free market capitalism and all the rest is shredding their belief structure. Cap all of the sense of loss with the unthinkable - a black man as President of the U.S. and you have a sense of how dangerous this is really is. If you think cornered and wounded animal then you may get the sense of where we are.

Anybody what to take odds on how soon the "N" word pops up at one of these hate fests?


crossposted at Fallenmonk

You're throwing it all away

By DevilsTower at DailyKos, posted in its entirety, because it's too good to edit:

Really?

Barack Obama once sat on the same school board with a man who had done bad things when Obama was eight years old, and that means Obama hates America. Do I have that straight?

So, my only question for John McCain now: Is this the best you can do?

Twenty one years in the Senate, two terms in the House, twenty two years in the Navy, and lest we forget five years as a POW, and this is it? This is the way that John Sidney McCain III, son and grandson of admirals decides to exit stage far, far right?

Unable to defend his stance on the issues, unwilling to follow the rules of honor he claimed to endorse, undone by his own anger and shadows from his past, this man, this self-proclaimed maverick goes for the sidelines with the most embarrassing series of schoolyard taunts and sophomoric smears in modern times. How crass. How despicable. How utterly and deeply pathetic.

Pitiful is the word, really, both in the sense of contemptible and in arousing a kind of sick feeling of concern. To have done and seen so much, to have had so many opportunities, to have been given a second chance long after most men had given up the game. And then to spend it this way.

Pitiful.

Indeed.

End Of The Freeway

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you ...

Bump & Update: Ms Sparky commented on this post about KBR's dangerous lack of ethical, moral or electrical standards. And it turns out she has been there and done that:

I’m Calling You On Your Crap … KBR!!!

[...]
KBR, you had many many great electricians that have supported our troops since 2003. Many great electricians who wanted to do a good job and do the right thing. Many great electricians who stood up and tried to defend doing the right thing. And what did you do? You totally disregarded them. Totally disrespected them. They were labeled as troublemakers. They were threatened to be sent home. They were sent to crap jobs as punishment. If given a chance, these great electricians may have been able to prevent the deaths that have occurred.

Unlike Ms. Sparky I've never worked in a war zone. But I do know "If you don't have the time to do it right, how are you going to find the time to do it over?"

And I also know if we're going to ask our troops to risk their lives fighting they shouldn't have to die in the shower when they get back to base.

Just the comments on her blog would be a reason enough to link to it, (we'll be adding her soon to our blogroll), but her knowledge and passion about KBR and the fraud they perpetrated on Americans and the deadly conditions KBR knowingly and systemically exposed our troops to makes it a must read.

Original post:

Military improves education on electrocution

The U.S. military is creating an electrical code for U.S. facilities in Iraq as part of an effort to prevent future electrocutions in Iraq. The deaths of at least 18 U.S. service members and contractors in Iraq are under investigation as possible electrocutions.
[...]
The letter also spells out other actions taken to prevent electrocutions, such as creation of a media campaign to educate soldiers about working with electricity. Petraeus said 86,000 facilities are being inspected, and it will be next year before all repairs and improvements are made.

Petraeus added, "All leaders understand the urgency of completing the required actions."

One of the soldiers killed was Green Beret Sgt. Ryan Maseth of Pittsburgh, who was electrocuted in January while showering in his barracks in Iraq.
[...]
In a statement, Casey praised the changes, but said he'd like them to be implemented in Afghanistan as well.

There's so much wrong here it's hard where to start.

I'll start with Petraeus saying "All leaders understand the urgency of completing the required actions." Well, no general, if leaders like yourself understood the urgency then they wouldn't have waited to implement these changes since last January! They would also implement them at EVERY US military base. And if it was 'urgent', they really shouldn't have tried to cover it up.

And it's not like Sgt Maseth was the only one electrocuted in a shower built by KBR.

Second, I'd just like to mention that THERE IS AN ELECTRICAL CODE THAT EVERY ELECTRICIAN IN THE U.S. IS REQUIRED TO PASS A TEST BEFORE THEY GET A LICENSE! Oddly enough, it's called the National Electrical Code.

(Sorry about the shouting, but I've worked for electricians and I've hooked up distro for major concerts. The mistakes that had to be made for the incidents described in the reports have been known, and mandated, for civilian workers for over 50 years.)

Third, there's one basic rule about working on electrical equipment: Turn the damn electricity off before you work on the equipment!

Which obviously wasn't an option for Green Beret Sgt. Ryan Maseth.




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

A Failure To Elucidate

Unleashing the hounds

Gandhisxmas of Pygalgia has a frightening quote from Noam Chompsky: (my bold)

McCain is supposed to be a specialist on national security issues. Why? Suppose that some Russian pilot was shot down bombing heavily populated areas in Kabul and tortured by Reagan's freedom fighters in the l980's. Well, we might feel sorry for him, but does that make him an expert on National Security? But McCain is an expert on national security because he was shot down bombing heavily populated urban areas in Hanoi and he was tortured by the Vietnamese. Well, we feel sorry for him, but he is no expert on National Security. But you can't say that. These elections are run by the public relations industry. The intellectual community goes along. Issues are marginalized. The focus is on personalities, on Jeremiah Wright's sermons, Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter, or whatever it may be. In that terrain, the Republicans have a big advantage. They also have a formidable slander and vilification machine which has yet to go into full operation.

And here it comes, via Morse at Media Needle, Greg Sargent of TPM, and especially Dana Milbank of the Washington Post:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a McCain confidant, told The Post's David Broder that the campaign would "go down in history as stupid if they don't unleash" Palin. Well, the self-identified pit bull has been unleashed -- if not unhinged.

Barack Obama, she told 8,000 fans at a rally here Monday afternoon, "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist!" This followed her earlier accusation that the Democrat pals around with terrorists. "This is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America," she told the Clearwater crowd. "I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country." The crowd replied with boos.

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

(pic via JJ of Unrepentant Old Hippie copying Victor Juhasz's illustration in Rolling Stone)

crossposted at Rants from the Rookery

I'm up in the world, but I'd give the world to be where I used to be

(l-r: Dad, Mom, Uncle Robert, early'90s?)

My own blogging around here might be a little sparse for a bit. Mom's hip surgery went well, but her recovery hasn't.

She's back in the hospital, not doing so well, and the fantastic team of doctors, nurses, and other talented health workers at St. Joseph's in Orange, CA, are trying to get her back on track for her cancer treatment. It's a world-class facility, and Mom couldn't be in a better place, except back at home. My sister Johanna has been point-person on Mom's adventure, and bro Matt has been helping mightily as well, since they live closest to Mom.

Good thoughts are appreciated, as are prayers to your favorite deities; Christian, Buddhist, Druid, it's all good.

And I'll be glad to pass on any messages from readers here. All are welcome.

And keep dropping by, because the finest team of bloggers I know work here, they write amazingly well, and I'm proud to have them on the team.


(The Ink Spots, a fave of Mom way back when)

I'm laughin' straight to the bank with this

John McCain says he has an economic plan. I'm pretty sure he's full of shit. After all, he was a supporter of Charles Keating, and we know how that worked out:



The Obama Campaign has put the boxing gloves on, and finally gone after McCain for being a fraud and hypocrite about Keating at this website: www.keatingeconomics.com:

The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s.

John McCain was accused of improperly aiding his political patron, Charles Keating, chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. The bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee launched investigations and formally reprimanded Senator McCain for his role in the scandal -- the first such Senator to receive a major party nomination for president.

The message of this site, clearly, is that the failed philosophy and culture of corruption that created the savings and loan crisis are still alive in the current crisis -- and in John McCain's plans for our economic future. It's about time they smacked his ass.