Andy Rooney's Memorial Day Comment
Sun May 25, 2008 at 10:00:18 PM PDT
This won't be much of a diary for my part. Andy is sometimes mocked and often parodied - which is a bit like dissing a beloved grandad - but his piece tonight was simply beautiful.
What should we remember on Memorial Day? I remember uncles, cousins and friends who went off to SE Asia. A couple of them didn't make it back. At least one of them didn't make it back in one piece. As Rooney says, they didn't give their young lives, their lives were taken from them. I remember them, but I also remember the cruel deceit that took them, and took the lives of uncounted thousands of innocent men, women and children.
More below.
MSM: Like blackbirds landing on a telephone pole
Mon Mar 10, 2008 at 11:00:22 AM PDT
The Seattle PI columnist, Joel Connelly (the dean of Seattle political commentators), today called on his colleagues in the media to stop parroting the lies and half truths about Barack Obama coming out of the Clinton and McCain campaigns.
A gnarled hand grasped my wrist as I was leaving a Bill Clinton speech in Pahrump, Nev., and pressed into my hand a picture of Sen. Barack Obama with fellow candidates.
"They say Obama refuses to salute the flag," said the lady, a Puget Sounder transplanted to the high desert.
Back in Las Vegas, I checked out the picture. The refuse-to-salute claim was a fraud. True, Obama was standing with his hands clasped at an Iowa meeting, while Bill Richardson put his hand over his heart. But the photo was taken during the singing of the national anthem.
"We pick a presidential candidate, and then we pick on him," Adlai Stevenson, another eloquent candidate from Illinois, once observed.
More below.
Undercover Surge: 12,000 "Sand Sailors"
Mon Apr 09, 2007 at 09:15:58 PM PDT
The Seattle PI reported today that three sailors based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island were killed in Iraq.
The three sailors were members of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 at Whidbey Island.
The three were killed by enemy forces during combat operations, the Pentagon said. A Navy veterans' Web site said the trio were traveling in a convoy that was attacked. Their detachment was sent to Iraq earlier this year.
It turns out that 12,000 US sailors, called "individual augmentees" by the Pentagon and "sand sailors" by folks in the field, are serving in ground operations for which they are likely completely untrained.
More below
Iraq Survival Test: You Fail (with video)
Sun Mar 25, 2007 at 02:29:06 PM PDT
Question One:
You are driving toward an intersection (perhaps you are on your way to pick up a kid from school or a few groceries, or perhaps you are a resistance fighter, or perhaps all of the above) being followed closely by another car. Suddenly, you realize that the gunfire you hear is coming from directly in front of you. You cannot reverse, because of the car behind you. Do you:
A) Stop, exit your car with hands raised.
B) Speed through the intersection in the hope that whoever is shooting will miss.
C) Kiss your sweet ass goodbye.
Join me below for the correct answer.
Bush and Blair: Two horsemen of the Apocalypse
Fri Jul 28, 2006 at 11:32:03 AM PDT
I took a day off from work today to get some things done around the house, but after a quick check of CNN to assure myself, given the current birth panging of freedom, that the Golden Gate Bridge or the Statue of Liberty hadn't been laid waste while I slept, I was soon sucked back into the numbingly repetitive nightmare from which I cannot wake. Yes, I watched their press conference.
They repeated the same old lies. Blair was somewhat articulate. Bush rambled like Nixon on the tapes, only in public and sober. Let's be clear: Any hope we might have held that Blair would finally break with the L. Ron Hubbard of freedom, are now finally, emphatically dashed. There was a kind of sweaty camaraderie between the two as they fielded questions from almost skeptical reporters this morning, Bush's meanderings translated into fruity English by his very own Jeeves. It was the fellowship of Leopold and Loeb, partners in homicidal crime, who also were congenitally incapable of grasping the enormity of their actions.
More below
BREAKING: Clinton, Schumer to support Bolton?
Wed Jul 26, 2006 at 10:36:24 AM PDT
Updated: David Brooks calls out "kingpin" Kos
Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 01:06:11 PM PDT
So, it has come to this on the hallowed op/ed pages of the NYT:
The Keyboard Kingpin, aka Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, sits at his computer, fires up his Web site, Daily Kos, and commands his followers, who come across like squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom on those who stand in the way," writes Brooks. "And in this way the Kingpin has made himself a mighty force in his own mind, and every knee shall bow
More below.
Cancel the primaries: Tapper, Koch say it's Clinton in '08
Wed May 31, 2006 at 10:05:29 PM PDT
Sometimes, after a gruelling day at work, it doesn't pay to turn on the news. The big political story on ABC's Evening News tonight featured Jake Tapper's reporting on Senator Clinton's Senate nomination acceptance speech in Buffalo. But his lede had nothing to do with the Senate race in New York. It was all about how "presidential" her speech seemed to him and what a shoo-in she was for the nomination in 2008. Not to worry though. This bald assertion was supported by the Democrats he chose to feature in his on-air piece. (In fairness,
his web piece is a little more balanced, but who will read that?)
More below.
My Previous Diary: 100% Crap
Sat May 27, 2006 at 10:47:03 AM PDT
I wrote a diary last week with links to a video purporting to contain the confessions of "army ranger" Jesse Macbeth to war crimes in Iraq. I know there has been at least one other diary questioning/deconstructing said video. Well, now it has been verified by
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and indefatigable independent reporter
Dahr Jamail that Macbeth is a fraud.
More below
Iraq Winter Soldier: Confessions of an Army Ranger
Sun May 21, 2006 at 04:07:55 PM PDT
Former Army Ranger Jessie Macbeth gives Pepperspray Productions a devastating glimpse into the realities of our war in Iraq. This young soldier's affect in the clip provided seems that of a man who has been profoundly traumatized. Watch it
here and judge for yourself.
More on the other side.
WaPo: Al Gore has the "Midas touch"
Sun May 07, 2006 at 01:15:17 PM PDT
Al Gore has been some strikingly good press lately. This from the
Washington Post (scroll down) is a prime example:
White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten recently said the Bush administration is trying to get back its "mojo." The man President Bush defeated in 2000 has already found his -- at least when it comes to raising money.
Former vice president Al Gore sent an e-mail to Democratic donors recently to "commemorate" the final 1,000 days of the Bush administration.
"I am here to tell you that we simply cannot afford to wait 1,000 days to put the brakes on the Bush agenda," wrote Gore, adding that "the level of cynicism and crass political calculation . . . is truly breathtaking."
More below.
U.N. Chief in Haiti Found Dead
Sat Jan 07, 2006 at 03:35:45 PM PDT
He was a 29-year veteran of the Brazilian military and by all accounts a reflective man who took his mission seriously. Some time last night, Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar stepped out on the balcony of his hotel suite overlooking the tropical lushness of Port au Prince and shot himself.
According to the AP:
``His unexpected death leaves us all bereft, and we offer our most sincere condolences to his family,'' said Damian Onses-Cardona, a spokesman for the U.N. mission in Haiti.
More below.
Hastert postpones House leadership elections : Delay is still running the show
Wed Dec 07, 2005 at 04:11:04 PM PDT
In
a truly astonishing move - even by today's standards - Denny Hastert has postponed the resumption of congressional business for two weeks to give Tom Delay time to deal with his legal problems, and to avoid a contentious leadership debate.
(Please forgive me if this is already posted. Let me know and I will remove it.)
More below.
UPDATED: CBC Blows Lid Off Iraq Torture Story
Sun Nov 27, 2005 at 11:15:20 PM PDT
UPDATED: This fine documentary is now available online at the link below. Please excuse me if this link has already been posted. I've been away to Colorado for the holiday. A belated happy Thanksgiving to all!
This evening, the CBC's FIFTH ESTATE aired A FEW BAD APPLES, an hour-long documentary on torture (no longer merely alleged) at Abu Ghraib.
"A Few Bad Apples" tells the story... of the "bad apples" that the White House argued were, alone, responsible for the abuses in Abu Ghraib -- as well as another, bigger, story about politics and the war in Iraq.
More below.
UPDATED: CBC blows lid off Iraq torture story
Wed Nov 16, 2005 at 09:49:38 PM PDT
UPDATED: This fine documentary is now available online at the link below. Please excuse me if this link has already been posted. I've been away to Colorado for the holiday. A belated happy Thanksgiving to all!
This evening, the CBC's FIFTH ESTATE aired
A FEW BAD APPLES, an hour-long documentary on torture (no longer merely alleged) at Abu Ghraib.
"A Few Bad Apples" tells the story... of the "bad apples" that the White House argued were, alone, responsible for the abuses in Abu Ghraib -- as well as another, bigger, story about politics and the war in Iraq.
More below.
Colorado Voters Nix Repug Tax Cuts
Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 08:17:59 AM PDT
We should be trumpeting this from the rooftops! CNN is covering Denver's 'teacher merit' initiative and not even mentioning this
far more important story.
Colorado residents have voted to suspend their Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, the strictest government spending limit in the nation, and give up more than $3 billion in tax refunds to help the state bounce back from a recession. Fiscal conservatives were dismayed at the outcome Tuesday night and worried about its impact on other states considering similar spending limits.
We bomb Iraq and send our jobs to these thugs
Sun Oct 09, 2005 at 08:56:44 PM PDT
The Guardian has published
a most disturbing piece in their Monday edition. I think it's fair to speculate that, if the Chinese authorities would so brazenly murder a dissident, rural activist Lu Banglie, in front of a Western reporter, they must be killing many more outside the feeble light of the world's attention.
More below.
Whistleblower: NOLA will be toxic for a decade
Sat Sep 10, 2005 at 10:07:48 PM PDT
The Independent is publishing
an interview in its Sunday edition with Hugh Kaufman, an expert on toxic waste and responses to environmental disasters at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The pollution was far worse than had been admitted, he said, because his agency was failing to take enough samples and was refusing to make public the results of those it had analysed. "Inept political hacks" running the clean-up will imperil the health of low-income migrant workers by getting them to do the work.
And, of course, those workers won't have prevailing wage protection, safe housing or health care. Not in Bush's ownership society... More below.
