Well, duh

The Bushite State Department has decided to delay imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia for its ongoing violations of an international agreement calling for improving religious freedoms within its borders.

Fair and balanced

Here's a short piece by a noted journalist and author prescribing a way to get rid of the right-wing craziness that the US is presently immersed in. Nothing spectacular, just the plain old remedy, vote the bastards out.

Ya gotta love him, redux

Hugo Chavez must be driving Bush/Cheney nuts.
Of course, if you're of the school that believes, as I do, that Saddam Hussein's decision in 2000 to abandon the petrodollar as payment for Iraq's oil in favor of the euro was the trigger that set off the US invasion, Hugo's more than gutsy and intelligent, he's on very dangerous ground. Could our next military foray be into Venezuela? Keep your eyes open, looking for pretexts. The preceding link, BTW, is a smart, readable presentation of the dollar/euro/political battle, with historical explanation. A quick way to catch up on who and what are really ruling the world.

How does this guy still have a job?

Rummie, You're doing a heck of a job.

Wow!!!

If you've lost faith in the American judiciary (as, until this morning, I had), check out this item: A federal judge, after much reflection and over the Pentagon's objection that to do so would jeopardize US troops in the field by inflaming the enemy, has ordered the additional Abu Ghraib photos released to the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act. Recall Bush's repeated cliches that the "US won't give in to terr'r" and "They hate us for our freedoms"? Well, US district judge Alvin Hellerstein turned those bullshit slogans on their heads:

Our nation does not surrender to blackmail, and fear of blackmail is not a
legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command.
Indeed, the freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq
and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are
armed.

Fascism watch continued

What clearer evidence could there be?

To the teeming millions of readers of this blog

Sorry, I'm offline for five days. Family wedding in Arizona.

This is news to me

The wire service, UPI, once a strong competitor to AP but for years its lesser cousin, has for five years been owned by the Rev. Moon, whose politics are to the right of Himmler.

So far, not a whisper

from the MSM about the missing billion from Iraq's coffers.

Rooting for Rita

Her projected path looks perfect. First, wiping out the remaining oil derricks in the Gulf, then knocking out refineries in Galveston, then cutting a direct path over barren land to Crawford. You go, girl.

Right on, Arianna

I didn't climb on the Huffington bandwagon right away, but I gotta tell ya, she sees Bill Clinton (Hilary too) for what they truly represent. The worst kind of politicians: unprincipled, unscrupulous, unbridled opportunists who do America no service by their service. I have come to despise them -- for different reasons -- with the virulence I thought I could feel only for Bush and his ilk. At least Bush doesn't pretend to be "one of us."

He who lives by the sword...

Check out these numbers of those recently polled who approve of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq. Not only are they plummeting, scroll down a bit to see the astounding percentage responses to this question:

"Should the United States troops stay in Iraq as long as it takes to make sure Iraq is a stable democracy, even if it takes a long time, or should U.S. troops leave Iraq as soon as possible, even if Iraq is not completely stable?"

Result: "Leave ASAP" is 52%, up from 40% at the beginning of 2005. The tide is turning, bigtime.

More madness

This kind of thing is enough to drive a U.S. taxpayer, especially a conservative one, into tax-protest. But of course we'll not hear a peep about it in the MSM.

Update: It's five-thirty p.m. PDT and so far not a peep from the MSM. If anyone notes a peep about the missing billion, please let me know when and where.

The trial is on

of the St. Patrick's Four. Here's the detailed information and here's a summary.

How powerful a statement is that?!

Elect a madman, you get madness

Like this, and this and this and this and this. Just another day of news accounts from Iraq and the American Empire.

Let the word go forth from this time and place...

that Robert Kennedy should be our next president of the United States.

The coalition of the dwindling

The newly-elected Prime Minister of Norway has told Bush that he will pull Norway's troops out of Iraq. All twenty of them.

Lest we forget

Here's a dispatch from Iraq, a necessary reminder, because while hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their belongings and some hundreds have lost their lives to a natural catastrophe, a similar number of Iraqis are in the middle of a man-made storm. And while Katrina has passed into meteorological history, the agony the Iraqis are suffering has no apparent end.

Just when you thought they couldn't stoop any lower...

They seek to blame the woeful levee-levels around New Orleans on environmental groups to deflect criticism from their own lack of funding of levee projects. Recall, BTW, that the head of the department that employs all U.S. Attorneys is none other than our torture-lover, Alberto Gonzales.

(The person who leaked this memo to the Louisiana newspaper should be awarded the highest environmental medal, something like the Earth Emblem.)

A dog in this fight

For weeks I've stayed away from the question of John Roberts' suitability as Supreme Court Justice, now Chief Justice. But having watched and listened to a few hours of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (and having all the while squirmed and moaned at the ineptness of the questioning by the "liberals") I have concluded as follows:

1. Roberts is a skilled advocate of legal positions, and has brought those skills to the hearing room to support his own nomination. He argues positions very well.

2. He has no soul. This is apparent not only from his demeanor and the content of his "answers" but from his record as well. As to the latter, consider this analysis by a long-time Washington lawyer, a Georgetown Law teacher who litigated civil rights cases for years.

So, do I think he should be a Supreme? No, because it's a job for a human being, not a robot. And, if you look carefully at John Roberts, don't you get a kind of Stepford-wives feeling, like there's nobody there? So maybe we should dub him John Robot?