A Letter from Kevin Tillman

Here is a link to a letter from Ranger Kevin Tillman of his thoughts on his brother Pat's birthday. Very well said.From truthdig.com.

White House Christmas List

It's so disconcertingly unreal to hear a commentator like Peggy Noonan decry the Left for its savagery. People like her truly are ostriches with their heads in the sand; they can't really be as unintelligent as they appear. Here is a quote from Paul Krugman's latest that tells us a lot about what goes on when comparing the right wing to the left:

"The current Congress has shown no inclination to investigate the Bush administration. Last year The Boston Globe offered an illuminating comparison: when Bill Clinton was president, the House took 140 hours of sworn testimony into whether Mr. Clinton had used the White House Christmas list to identify possible Democratic donors. But in 2004 and 2005, a House committee took only 12 hours of testimony on the abuses at Abu Ghraib."

Yeah, the supposed misuse of that Christmas list was heavy, apparently worth much more time than an international torture scandal. The Christmas List is almost as infamous a crime as Travelgate. This sounds like a freakin' joke, but it's for real.

The Axis of Evil Prevails

Early on in his Presidency, George Bush initiated his scare tactics strategy by limning the "Axis of Evil", North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. My simple observation is this : under his aegis hasn't the President witnessed, participated in, and exacerbated a world crisis in each of these countries ? As he said, "Bring it on !"

In Iraq we suffer with our servicemen and and women caught in the sights of a little understood civil war with thousands of Americans dead or wounded. Today Johns Hopkins reported that 655,000 Iraqis have died because of this war. The President's response to this was first of all that it certainly wasn't true, but in any case it showed that the Iraqis were able to tolerate some level of violence.This sounds like a costly way to earn your freedom.

We have wrangled with Iran (the winner of the Iraq War) over their nukaloor ambitions to edge of sanctions, which are certainly soon to follow.

Now this week we've reached crisis over North Korea over their pitiful atomic testing, so there has been a rush to blame some previous President (guess who) about stopping Kim Jong Il.It seems that the most important, most efficacious messages from the White House are those that blame other Americans.
As I see it,under Clinton the NKs were being, if not contained, at least slowed down, but nothing at all was accomplished in the six Bush years that followed. You see the current administration plays the game of diplomacy by refusing to communicate with this so-called Axis. Also,it doesn't help matters when your Secretary of Defense serves on the board of a company that sells several light water reactors to the most atomic member of "The Axis of Evil."

Profiles in Cowardice

Dennis Hastert Can't Sing National Anthem

The last six years have provided more than enough tales out of Washington that I like to call( in contradiction to JFK's book ) Profiles in Cowardice. Denny Hastert's daily lies from his exalted position (still Speaker I believe) are just the latest. Note that not all Profiles feature Republicans;they are by far the majority, but there are a few spineless Dems in there too.For instance, my own Democratic Senator here in Florida voted in favor of torture last week! As this Foley scandal flourishes, each day Hastert and his cohorts try every squirmy trick they know to snake out of actually telling the truth and taking responsiblity for their actions, which, as we all know, makes things worse.

Update: Stick a fork in Denny - he's surely done.

Quote of the Day

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."

-William O. Douglas-

With passing of the President's Torture Bill, I see Darkness at Noon.

Your Liberal Media at Work

Above is a slide from Fox News reportage on the Foley matter, but notice he is labeled as a Democrat. How is this possible ? Fox News did this not once but several times. It appears that Fox News is trying to fool the ignorant into believing that Foley's scandal is somehow bipartisan.

Birds of a Republican Feather

When you go into that voting booth in November, remember these three musketeers : Brown, Bush, and Foley. By the way, shouldn't Mr. Brown have rolled up his sleeves too for the proper hands-on look ?

Heavy Irony

Bob Geiger points us to what he calls "a tsunami of irony" considering this week's news about teen predator Mark Foley on the White House website. President Bush has proclaimed September 28th as "Child Health Day, 2006." The President's proclamation advises us as adults to be "educating and empowering them (our kids) to avoid risky behavior." You really can't make this stuff up.

New Republican Program

Ed Stephens says Congressman Foley (R-Stupid) has begun a new program NCBL, No Child's Behind Left.

From The Carpetbagger Report: Yesterday afternoon, a TPM reader asked what may soon be the most common question of the campaign season: "If the GOP can't even keep a bunch of 15 year olds safe, how can they keep America safe?"