War Stories

So the post-Ft. Hood violent backlash against Muslims begins...even when they're not:

TAMPA — Marine reservist Jasen Bruce was getting clothes out of the trunk of his car Monday evening when a bearded man in a robe approached him.

That man, a Greek Orthodox priest named Father Alexios Marakis, speaks little English and was lost, police said. He wanted directions.

What the priest got instead, police say, was a tire iron to the head. Then he was chased for three blocks and pinned to the ground — as the Marine kept a 911 operator on the phone, saying he had captured a terrorist.

This on the same day that more Blackwater bad actions were revealed:

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Cash is king!

And, today, our President delivered a moving eulogy for the victims of the Ft. Hood attack, mentioning each one by name and telling something about their lives.

And "Taps" is the saddest song.

Wild Times

There's suddenly a flurry of action at the end of 2008. I can't hope to cover or even tie together on short notice all that's happening in our political America just this week -- two days.

The FISA vote -- Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has been staunch and articulate on protecting the U.S. Constitution, threatening to filibuster and forcing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to pull the bill from the floor. Dodd has been a total hero, and while I don't know if it will significantly improve his Presidential bid, it makes him the #1 pick for a new, progressive Majority Leader.

Dodd made Orrin Hatch break down into sad nonsense. The bottom line as Ted Kennedy said:

The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.

Not so fun to remember that they are still President, even if the Primary Season sometimes makes us forget.

But the really huge decision affecting us all, the one designed by Rupert Murdoch et al with this Republican Administration to control all of the news we receive by television, radio and print all in one market. And if the market, like most, has only one newspaper, guess who's going to control the agenda?

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin cast the deciding vote to allow monopolistic territorial media control by major corporations:

Free Press: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is ignoring the public will and defying the U.S. Senate. His decision to gut longstanding ownership rules shows once again how the largest media companies — with their campaign contributions and high-powered lobbyists — are corrupting the policymaking process at the expense of local news coverage and independent voices.

“Martin’s FCC relied on slanted research and a rigged process to reach today’s preordained outcome — local media wrapped in a bow for Tribune, News Corp., Gannett and all the rest.

John Kerry's talking about freezing FCC funding in retaliation, not sure how much that will do with the horse already over the gate.

It's clear to me that the only candidate who's just all out declaring themselves the people's warrior to beat back our almost medieval global corporations, get our Constitutional rights and help America save itself. There's things I like about the others, but Edwards is starting to do in Iowa what he's known for doing best: making the strongest closing argument.

Think about it, three lawyers. Can Obama or Hillary do what Edwards did in courtrooms for huge verdicts?

Meanwhile, Blackwater, no joke, shot to death the The New York Times' dog in Iraq, and Ron Paul reveals exquisite literary taste when he calls a spade a spade.

More Balls?

That's the question the electorate has been asking about the Democrats ever since Clinton the 1st left office.

For some reason, they seem to be driving back into Cajoneville at the end of this week. Even The New York Times has noticed it.

To me the big news is that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is not allowing that chamber to fully recess over the Thanksgiving holiday, in order to deprive President Cheney/Bush from making yet another assholic recess appointment.

Next in line is my district's Congressman, I'm proud to say, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who's just nailed a Bush State Department Inspector General, Howard Krongard, who has just perjured himself regarding his brother, Alvin “Buzzy” Krongard, being on the Blackwater Board of Advisors. Since Blackwater is in deep doodoo from killing unarmed Iraqi civilians with impunity, and the Howard's job includes oversight of Blackwater, it sure looks like the now classic Bush/Cheney Corrupt Cronyism we've come to expect, albeit after a lull.

Operation Ass Save: Buzzy just bailed on Blackwater.

The lull dates back to the resignation of disgraced Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. A legal defense fund just happened to open up for Mr. Gonzales (will it scare up as much cash as Scooter's?) and maybe it had something to do with this:

New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici called Iglesias to see about getting indictments against state Democratic officials before the 2006 election. McKay said it's clear from testimony that Gonzales met with Domenici and other New Mexico Republicans -- and with the president -- about the fraud case there.

"It's apparent that he had a conversation with the president about David Iglesias and David Iglesias was fired six weeks later," he said. "There was real live investigation and the Republicans wanted the indictment out in time to help them in the election, and Iglesias said 'no' and they fired him.

"Now if all of that's true and the attorney general was aware of that when he fired David Iglesias, then he has some 'splainin' to do -- and probably in front of a grand jury."

The Democratic candidates are getting some traction at the end of this week. Hillary proved that hers is bigger in the Las Vegas debate (C'mon, lucky number seven!) even though Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is acting like such a gentleman, raising money off one of his supporters calling Clinton a "bitch" to his face, ha-ha-ha.

John Edwards marched with the WGA in Burbank, and even ex-Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is getting into the act, facing down the cowardly T. Boone Pickens, Texas corporate predator and Swift Boat funder.

More balls? Really?

How about Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA):

The Bush administration has taken historically unprecedented steps in its assertions of executive privilege and authority. For instance, the Vice President has fought over relatively modest requests to disclose information such as with whom he consulted when setting the Administration's energy policy. The Vice President's office, during a confrontation with the National Archives over executive branch records, even declared itself an entity outside of the executive branch with enhanced powers to resist the public's right to know about its actions.

These assertions of executive privilege have wide-ranging implications for both Congress' day-to-day oversight of the Bush administration and for efforts to hold the President and Vice President accountable.

That is why I introduced the Executive Branch Prosecutions Act. This legislation would suspend the statute of limitations for crimes committed while the president and vice president hold office. Federal law currently suspends the statute of limitations for crimes related to national security. That suspension should extend to any crime committed by the President or Vice President while in office.

Could it be an outbreak of sanity?

I mean, what could be saner than getting serious about impeaching Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney? "Events sure have changed the situation..."

Oh...and guess who's returning to be honored at the White House...?

Blackguards

They're like orcs from Mordor under the orders and protection of Sauron Cheney.

They're the reason things went bad originally in Falluja. They're paid 4+ times our soldiers for similar jobs, but they take no responsibility for the damage that they do. Out of control -- never under our military's control.

They're private. That's why.

Our corporate mercenaries, your tax dollars at work, outsourced.

And they kill innocent Iraqis.

Condoleezza Rice at State is desperately keeping them out of oversight, even as news of their latest atrocities reach the airwaves. Comically, they are reportedly policing themselves, radical kabuki.

Over at Talking Points Memo they're doing the same quality job running down the Blackwater story as they did turning the Alberto Gonzales scandal, the one Your Liberal Media was letting pass, into his resignation.

They're run by rightwing Christian conservatives, the ones who form the most repressive organizations. The family that financed/founded The Family Research Council. The Prince Automobile family: Republican oligarchists. So if we bring 'em home, do they turn their guns inward on America?

How odd that their very name seems so overdetermined. Blackwater. You see, first Richard Nixon opened the Watergate. Then Bill Clinton had Whitewater.

Under George Bush, of course, the water runs Black.

With blood.