A nation of lawlessness

It's a simple as this. Representatives of our country should not be committing crimes. Representatives of our country should not be committing torture.

Barack Obama did the right thing by releasing the "torture memos" yesterday. Glenn Greenwald has a cogent argument as to why Obama deserves credit.

One could, and IMHO, should argue that the torturers need to be prosecuted (we cannot abide by an "I was just following orders" defense).

But one should not argue, as former CIA director Hayden has, that the crimes ought to be left in the shadows.

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk

Ladies and gentlemen there are still two wars going on

Loose lips

Barack Obama is making a tour of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other port of calls.

It's protocol for these kind of trips, especially into war zones, to remain secret to guarantee the safety of VIP travelers.

So it's peculiar that John McCain would publicly announce Obama's plans from a podium during a campaign stop before Obama's plane was even in the air.

McCain's inadequacy for the job of president becomes ever more evident.

In addition, Mr. Surge™, John McCain has gone negative with this ad that is coincidentally about Iran and Afghanistan:

The oily argument and the greasy truth

Bush oil buddy gets Iraq deal

Anyone surprised by this, really?

A close associate of the resident of the White House signs an illegal deal for Kurdistan oil, and briefs White House staff before doing so.

Tell me again, Georgie. It's not about blood for oil? Then what?

Ever notice how Creepy Joe™ Lieberman sneaks into town to face the least threatening audiences

Face it. Senator Lieberman is afraid of his constituents. So he goes to elementary schools to talk about the environment. It's the Bush mold. You'll never look bad in front of a group who is afraid to challenge you, or whom is handpicked to love you.

Where are the town meetings on Iraq? Where's the tough talk on the econony?

Where's your Senator when you need him?

Let's see, is it "the surge is working" or "we're winning in Iraq"

John McCain's spin doctors and speechwriters will be up late figuring out how to sugarcoat these turds.

Iraq is clearl a failed mission, measured against every set of standards the Bush administration has tried to apply.

Never is a long time

Speaking in Denver yesterday, and after being interrupted repeatedly by Iraq war protesters, John McCain declared that he would "never surrender in Iraq."

Sounds like a hundred year war to me.

But considering, as Attaturk at Firedoglake does, that McCain has a record of being very wrong on Iraq, he ought to be encouraged to run on the war issue. I think the American public would be interested in hearing just how wrong he's been.

Still, it's hard to imagine that there is a roomful of people anywhere in America who would cheer McCain's bellicose boastings. But yesterday in Denver there was.

The real horror of war

Impossible difficult to watch, but required viewing for anyone who needs a counter to someone who talks tough about the glories of war. WARNING: This is graphic and disturbing video.

If the Iranians have American and Iraqui blood on their hands, what's that red stuff on your fingers?

Creepy Joe™ Lieberman, a chickenhawk for the ages, is again saber rattling for Pat Buchanan on MSNBC's Morning Joe, who, uses the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon as a pretext for the bombing of Iran.

Creepy Joe™ Lieberman does "the creep"

Thanks to myleftnutmeg for pointing this one out.



Someone let Joe know that when you talk to the ones "they" point to, you're likely to hear what "they" want you to hear.

The taxpayers pay the mercenaries, but the mercenaries don't pay taxes

Why am I surprised that KBR, formerly part of Halliburton, and a major beneficiary of the blood and misery of the war in Iraq, has established a tax-sheltered company in the Caymans. They take American treasure, but don't make any paybacks. It's all perfectly legal, of course, and another example of why corporations ought to be held to account for their actions, particularly when they are using your money to steal their way to success.

Privatizing immorality

Bad enough that Bush is fighting an immoral war with hired contractors. Once again, one of those contractors seems to be involved in bad business that has nothing to do murdering and injurying innocent civilians.

It appears that DynCorp, a major defense contractor, has been caught transporting prostitutes in armored vehicles designed to carry employees - one of who died because the armored vehicle he was supposed to be using was otherwise occupied.

Where's the outrage?

Sunday it seemed like news that would shake the world. The Pentagon had unleashed its minions disguised as "experts" on a gullible press corps, and the mainstream media had lapped up the bogus testimony like kittens over a tea saucer filled with milk.

And the righteously indignant press corps filled front pages and talk shows with defiant and fiery invective about remaking the media, and rediscovering the truth. Or not.

The story, as outrageous as it is, is dying with a whimper.

I guess it doesn't have the import of a flag pin.

Is it any wonder that newpapers are dying and that TV and radio news commentators resemble less the front page than the comic page?

Some journalists are actually doing their jobs

Bill Moyers interviewed Leila Fadel, a journalist who has been covering the war in Iraq for McClatchy since 2005. She was in New York to receive a Polk Award for foreign reporting.

For a sense of what Iraq is really like (since the Pentagon has proven itself totally untrustworthy in providing information), listen to the interview here.

Things are swell in Sadr City

(New York Times photo)

If you can't beat them, build a wall around them. Perhaps if the US could get enough concrete to build a wall around each and every individual citizen of Baghdad, they would achieve the security they have proclaimed, intermittently, for years.

Of course, the same concrete might be used to build schools in the US, or roads, or repair bridges, but defeating the great satan of Islamofacism appears to be more important to this administration.

The American ostrich

Frank Rich offers another extraordinary column on the things that embittered Americans don't want to think about. While it's true that most Americans would rather avoid the horrible truth (most of us would rather avert ourselves from unsettling thoughts, and be distracted by things less troubling), Rich feels that even if the media presented us with the truth, as Errol Morris does in his new documentary, we wouldn't want to hear it.

The weak slat under the bed of democracy

Bill Moyers addressed truth, journalism and government in a speech he delivered at the Ron Ridenhour Prizes.

Some essential considerations for those of us who forget that aside from the government, the press is the only profession namechecked in our Constitution.

The idiots speak, the targets shift

George Bush proved himself ever a re-setter of the goal posts as he readies the dowry of an immoral war for the next president. Claiming that we are on the right track and making measurable progress, he refuses to allow any more significant troop withdrawals despite earlier promises.

His pathetic strategy is being echoed by Johm McCain in his stump speeches and on Sunday, Frank Rich pulled the argument for war apart like the carefully folded and re-folded hideous origami it is.