America's Mayor: Urban Legend

Rudy "Noun-Verb-9/11" Giulani is out of control.

As Arianna Hufington posts, "Giuliani's latest testosterone-fueled rant found him arguing that if we hadn't invaded Iraq, Saddam (who had no nuclear program) would be "becoming nuclear right now," and making the jaw-dropping and stomach-turning claim that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "are kind of debating whether to invite" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar Assad "to the inauguration or the inaugural ball."

What kind of outrageous statement is this and why isn't the media calling America's Mayor to task?

The myth of Giulani's role on 9/11 is exactly that. A myth. Rudy Giuliani was responsible for moving New York City's Emergency Command Center into World Trade Center Tower 7, AFTER the 1993 bombing of the WTC. When it was revealed that radio communications during the '93 attack were faulty, he waited 8 years before finally approving a no-bid contract to Motorola, who supplied the city with... more faulty radios. This was discovered in March of 2001 when a firefighter was trapped in a basement of a burning house was calling for help that wasn't heard by other members at the scene, but was heard by firefighters two miles away. This happened six months before 9/11, and instead of doing something about it, the city's answer was to swap back to the old radios.

The IAFF (Firefighter's Union) has put out a video setting the record straight. Who are you going to believe? The firemen who lost their bretheren on 9/11, or the "pandering lunatic" seeking the GOP nomination for President of the United States?

Also check out: Crooks & Liars - NYC to Investigate Giulani, faulty 9/11 radios

Say It Ain't So, Charlie!

Charles Schumer says he will vote in favor of Michael Mukasey's nomination as the next Attorney General... A shocker? Not really. Schumer was uncharacteristically quiet during the qustioning of Mukasey since the waterboarding issue came up. Schumer kept quiet because he actually recommended Mukasey.

"This is an extremely difficult decision," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement, adding that Mukasey "is not my ideal choice."
...Schumer's announcement followed a private meeting Friday with Mukasey to discuss waterboarding."I deeply oppose it," Schumer said of waterboarding. "Unfortunately, this nominee, indeed any proposed by President Bush, will not agree with this. I am, however, confident that this nominee would enforce a law that bans waterboarding."

So instead of saying he made a mistake and sit there with egg on his face, Schumer will just slink back into the corner of the room... with egg on his face, hopefully never to be heard from again.

Damn you, Chuck. I'll never believe another word you say, ever again.

Diane Feinstein has also decided to back the AG nominee, but that's not a surprise, is it?

UPDATE: Nov. 6, 2007

Schumer, Feinstein ‘surprise’ thwarts efforts on Mukasey

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) effectively thwarted plans by the activist left to use the weekend to mobilize ahead of Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee vote and pressure wayward senators to reject the nominee, activists said.

“It was a surprise attack,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office for the American Civil Liberties Union, which wants the Judiciary Committee to defeat the nomination. “There was a limited opportunity to say much about what Schumer and Feinstein had done because the timing was very cleverly calculated to avoid scrutiny.”

King George on Mukasey

BUSH on Mukasey: “He’s a good man, he’s a fair man, he’s an independent man, and he’s plenty qualified to be the attorney general,” Mr. Bush said at the airport here. “And I strongly urge the United States Senate to confirm this man, so that I can have an attorney general to work with to protect the United States of America from further attack.”

This "plenty qualified man" also said he didn't know what waterboarding was and then when he found out, refused to make a call on determining whether it was considered torture or not until AFTER his confirmation. Well Mike, how about if we call it what it actually is: SIMULATED DROWNING. But to tell the truth, it's not simulated at all. It's real drowning and stopping just short of killing the victim.

As Senator Pat Leahy said, "...no American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture.”

Krugman on Giuliani

When is someone going to call out Giuliani for the warmongering, lying asshole that he is?

PAUL KRUGMAN, NY Times: “My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States? Eighty-two percent,” says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad attacking Democratic plans for universal health care. “My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 percent, under socialized medicine.”

It would be a stunning comparison if it were true. But it isn’t. And thereby hangs a tale — one of scare tactics, of the character of a man who would be president and, I’m sorry to say, about what’s wrong with political news coverage.

Read Krugman's article here.

Bukowski: The Genius of the Crowd

I just finished watching a documentary on Charles Bukowski that I highly recommend.

About an hour into the film, Bukowski read from one of his more famous poems, "The Genius of the Crowd". What really struck me were the first five lines.

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

Robert Goulet Dead at 73

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer-actor Robert Goulet, whose rich baritone voice made him an instant success when he played Lancelot in the original 1960 Broadway hit "Camelot," died on Tuesday at age 73.

The performer, who suffered from the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was awaiting a decision on whether he could receive a lung transplant...

Here's Goulet singing from Carousel.

Bill Maher - For Halloween, Fear Global Warming

Not the Fearmongers

FEMA: Fraudulent Embarrassing Moronic Administration

By now we've all heard that in an attempt to show how great FEMA was handling things while fires raged in southern California, external affairs director Pat Philbin staged a fake news conference. How insane is it, that an organization under the Office of Homeland Security, after their response in New Orleans (or lack of) to Hurricane Katrina, has to stage a news conference to show the country how much better they are handling the latest disaster?

Of course, the White House claims not to know that this happened and does not condone it. Yeah, right.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was not appropriate that the questions were posed by agency staff members instead of reporters. FEMA was responsible for the "error in judgment," she said, adding that the White House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it.
"FEMA has issued an apology, saying that they had an error in judgment when they were attempting to get out a lot of information to reporters, who were asking for answers to a variety of questions in regard to the wildfires in California," Perino said. "It's not something I would have condoned. And they - I'm sure - will not do it again."

An error in judgement?! Perino also reported that any action taken against those responsible would be handled by FEMA. And to her credit she was right.

CNN reports that John "Pat" Philbin, the Director of Public Affairs responsible for FEMA's recent faked news conference, is effectively receiving a promotion... Philbin is slated to become Director of Public Affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

Heckuva job, Pat.


UPDATE: Philbin denied!

Olbermann: “…We’re told that a high ranking member of the Bush administration reviewed someone’s record, found him lacking and then severed ties with him. An event some have long prophesied as the first horseman of the apocalypse.”

Permission to Fly?

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan Administration, and editor of the Wall Street Journal and The National Review, puts BushCo. in perspective and highlights the Evil Empire's latest attempt to subjugate the citizens it claims to protect for freedom's sake.

Excerpt below:

...the Bush administration wants to take away the American people's freedom to travel within their own country by airplane. Not content with an 80,000 "no fly" list, a subset of a 500,000-750,000 "watch list," the Bush administration's Transport Security Administration has proposed new rules that will require Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being allowed to board a domestic flight.

...What American wants his travel plans dependent on a government bureaucracy capable of putting US Senator Ted Kennedy on the "no fly" list and capable of issuing US visas to two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers six months after they allegedly died in the 9/11 events?

...A country in which people cannot make airline reservations without the government's permission is not a free country.

Read the entire article here.

How Do We Perpetuate the War?

Just Miss Bin Laden Again.

Col. David Hunt, FOX News:

We know, with a 70 percent level of certainty — which is huge in the world of intelligence — that in August of 2007, bin Laden was in a convoy headed south from Tora Bora. We had his butt, on camera, on satellite. We were listening to his conversations. We had the world’s best hunters/killers — Seal Team 6 — nearby. We had the world class Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating with the CIA and other agencies. We had unmanned drones overhead with missiles on their wings; we had the best Air Force on the planet, begging to drop one on the terrorist. We had him in our sights; we had done it. Nice job again guys — now, pull the damn trigger.

Unbelievably, and in my opinion, criminally, we did not kill Usama bin Laden.

You cannot make this crap up; truth is always stranger and more telling than fiction. Our government, the current administration and yes, our military leaders included, failed to kill bin Laden for no other reason than incompetence.

The current “boneheads” in charge will tell you all day long that we are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan to stop terrorists there so they do not come here. Nice talk, how about — just for a moment — acting like you mean what you say?

Climate Change Benefits? Less Colds!

Dana Perino: " ...this is an issue where I'm sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true that many people die from cold-related deaths every winter. And there are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals... "

...Say what now?... Well she got the "ridicule" part right.

Also check out: Max and the Marginalized - "Dana Dana"

Zeitgeist

Zeit·geist [tsahyt-gahyst]n.

The taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period or generation. Zeitgeist is German for “time-spirit.”

I finally had some time to sit down and watch "Zeitgeist" today. It is mind-numbing. It's also a must see. So when you have a chance, sit down, take a deep breath and watch it. I'm sure some people will be offended by some of the content, whether it be religious, political or conspiratorial, but in my opinion, it is healthy to question oneself.

As far as the quote below, part of it is in the movie, which stirred enough interest in me to look for its origin.

The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

...For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence -- on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice... It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.

...I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed...

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed - and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

...It was early in the 17th Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world's efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.

And so it is to the printing press -- to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news -- that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

John F. Kennedy
April 27, 1961
Address to the American Newspaper Publishers

Chris Matthews: Journalist?!

I know, I know, it shocked me as well. Chris Matthews posed some serious questions to Warmonger of the Day, Joshua Muravchik of the American Enterprise Institute. Muravchick wants to bomb Iran now and came across as a blubbering fool unable to answer legitimate concerns of the repercussions of such an action.

No Need To Worry About Voter Disenfranchisement

...Minorities Die Young Anyway

What does it say about the Bush Department of Justice when its top ranking voting rights official says photo ID requirements do not disproportionately disenfranchise elderly minority voters because they die first?

NY TIMES: In a speech to a Latino group earlier this month in Los Angeles, Mr. Tanner said that a disproportionate share of elderly minority voters did not have identification, but added that it was not a widespread problem because of their life expectancy.

“Creating problems for elderly persons just is not good under any circumstance,” Mr. Tanner told the National Latino Congreso... “Of course, that also ties into the racial aspect because our society is such that minorities don’t become elderly the way white people do. They die first.”

Nah, he couldn't have said that... could he?

What a moron. Click here to send a letter demanding his ouster through Barack Obama's website.

Glenn Beck Makes Me Vomit

How many times do I have to ask, "Where's the outrage?!"

Glenn Beck is probably the lowest of the low. He's actually giving O'Reilly and Hannity a run for their GOP money. On his radio program today, (do I have to wonder why these douchebags have radio programs?) Beck was ranting about people who, in his estimation, hate America and went on to say, "I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today", referring to those who have been devastated in the San Diego area due to the fires of the last two days.

What an asshole.

More War Money Please

...Actually I Don't Think He Said Please

Nevermind about that $35 billion for providing health care to 10 million children in the United States for the next 5 years. Remember the United States? Bush vetoed that faster than you can say "nukular".

And oh, by the way, give me $46 BILLION MORE FOR THE WAR IN IRAQ! It's an "emergency".

From Congress Daily, 10/22/07:

The amended foreign aid request in President Bush's supplemental package would fund infrastructure and development projects in Iraq and Afghanistan and extend to projects beyond the Middle East. That could provide Democrats with added leverage in their battle with Bush over unrelated domestic spending. Afghanistan is a major aid recipient in the amended request -- about $322 million would be for diplomatic operations there, including $160 million for construction of residential housing and the remainder to provide security for U.S. personnel. Another $100 million is included to help prepare for that country's elections in 2009 and $225 million for the central government to help extend its reach and build trust in outlying regions. The request would provide $115 million for power generators in Kabul and electric power in the northern part of the country and $5 million is for "reconstruction opportunity zones" to help build the economy. Another $50 million would be used to build a road from Kabul to Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, and $5 million is included to help protect Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Iraq would receive about $239 million for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, while another $125 million would go for economic aid, including $100 million for restarting state-owned enterprises and $25 million for a new private-sector development fund. Another $240 million is requested for Iraqi refugees, with about $160 million to aid refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, and $80 million to aid displaced refugees inside Iraq.

Well, as long as it's important...

Watch the CNN video.

UPDATE: Oct.23, 2007 - Bush’s Request for Wars Increases to $196 Billion

Representative David R. Obey, Democratic of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, criticized Mr. Bush for pushing the extra financing even as the president attacked Democrats as spendthrifts.

“It’s amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously when he says we cannot afford $20 billion in investments in education, health, law enforcement and science, which will make this country stronger over the long term,” Mr. Obey said in a statement.

“But he doesn’t blink an eye at asking to borrow $200 billion for a policy in Iraq that leaves us six months from now exactly where we were six months ago.”

Mr. Bush, appearing at the White House with veterans and relatives of soldiers, warned Congress to move quickly to approve the added spending, though he did not make his final supplemental proposal until three weeks into the fiscal year.

Kasparov on Real Time

Former World Chess Champion and current candidate for president of Russia Garry Kasparov was Bill Maher's guest on HBO's Real Time, and told it like it is in Russia, the U.S and the Middle East.

If only there were more straight shooters in the political arena, we wouldn't be in the global mess we're in now. A riveting interview.

World War III

Yes, Bush has hit a new low with his latest press conference. He used the term "World War III". And he said it with a smile on his face.

BUSH: "But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

He said this while smiling and chuckling.

My bewilderment turned into outrage. What the hell is so funny about this? Why is this diluted bastard giggling like a schoolgirl? I was going to write about it but Bob Cesca beat me to the punch.

CESCA: They're marketing Iran with more psychotic voracity than Michelle Malkin attacking an injured baby...
Is it any wonder why we occasionally succumb to outrage fatigue: that deflated, windless sense of numbing futility we feel when confronted with the illogical and the absurd? We've only begun to dig into the upper strata of lawlessness this regime has perpetrated over the last seven years. And now, in this desperate dying twilight of their existence -- now that they're gravely unpopular and on their way out the door -- reckless and without anything to lose -- why shouldn't they do all the crazy shit they've talked about? Bomb Tehran? Yeah, that'll be awesome and hilarious. More war means more war powers. If you thought the administration's war powers were crazy huge, just imagine their World War powers. Score!

...Just like so many powerful men, he appears to be able to switch off his conscience (if one exists in the first place). It's the same switch that allows him to say "we don't torture," or to smirk and laugh while discussing Iraq casualties and World War III. "Everyone else" won't include him because he'll always be safe. He'll always have Crawford and the twins; his fake accent and his delusional view of history; his nicknames and his eh-eh-eh laugh.

The rest of us -- unless we can find a way to stop this Iran drumbeat -- won't be laughing so much.

What A Way To Go

Houston Chronicle:

Prosecutors have dropped charges that a Lake Jackson woman caused her husband's death by giving him a sherry enema, leading to alcohol poisoning.

...Michael Warner, a 58-year-old machine shop operator, died at the couple's Lake Jackson home on May 21, 2004. According to an autopsy report, Warner had been administered an enema with enough sherry to get a blood alcohol level of 0.47. That is almost six times the level that can lead to a driving while intoxicated charge.

At the time Tammy Jean Warner was indicted, Lake Jackson police detective Robert Turner said that Michael Warner was a longtime alcoholic who sometimes used enemas to get drunk because a medical condition made it painful for him to drink.

...In a 2005 interview, Warner said her husband often drank alcohol, but that he had been addicted to enemas since he was a child. She said he often used alcohol in that manner to get drunk.

This story gives a whole new meaning to "dead-ass drunk", doesn't it?

Ann "Eva Braun" Coulter

I try to stay away from the subject of the ever-evil Ann Coulter, but this one I couldn't pass up. Hawking another crap-ass book, Coulter sticks her large foot in her larger mouth again and makes a blatant anti-semitic comment.

From Media Matters:

During the October 8 edition of CNBC's The Big Idea, host Donny Deutsch asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter: "If you had your way ... and your dreams, which are genuine, came true ... what would this country look like?" Coulter responded, "It would look like New York City during the [2004] Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like." She described the convention as follows: "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America." Deutsch then asked, "It would be better if we were all Christian?" to which Coulter responded, "Yes." Later in the discussion, Deutsch said to her: "[Y]ou said we should throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians," and Coulter again replied, "Yes." When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."

Is there any group that the new Queen of Mean doesn't hate? (She inherits the name since Leona Helmsley kicked the bucket.) Democrats, liberals, progressives, Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, gays, and now Jews - you name it, Ann hates it. But hate sells, and Coulter knows this all too well.