No blogging today.

Got a wdding today at 4 and I gotta make myself pretty.  Trust me, I'll make up for it this weekend.
 

See ya!

I'm done for the day.  The Mrs. and I had dinner and martinis and now I'm done for the night.  Just a reminder, I'm looking for someone to take over blogging duties at The Alternate Brain.  If you're interested, let me know in the comments or email me.  Have a good evening.
 
Pleasant dreams.
 

Remember Fallujah?

From Asia Times:

[. . .]

Fallujah had always been a little different from the rest of Iraq. An American non-governmental organization project manager told me with bewilderment of his meeting with a women’s group from the town who shocked him by being more radical than the men. “We must be willing to sacrifice our sons to end the occupation,” they told him.

Combining rigid religious conservatism, strong tribal traditions and a fierce loyalty to Saddam Hussein, Fallujah battled five different US commanders who were brought in to tame the wild western province of the country. According to Professor Amazia Baram, an Iraq expert from the University of Haifa and the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace, Saddam found greater loyalty in the 300,000-strong city of Fallujah than he did even in his home town of Tikrit. He never executed Fallujans, though he did kill Tikritis who were his relatives, and Fallujans dominated his security and military services. Their proportion of the intelligence services was the highest in the country. . .

[. . .]

Situated on a strategic point bridging the Euphrates River in the desert, Fallujah is the center of a fertile region on the outskirts of the desert leading to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Its location makes it a smuggling center. After the latest war, Fallujah did not suffer from the same looting seen in other parts of the country, as there was less reason to be hostile to the former regime and its institutions. Saddam had given Fallujah virtual autonomy. The religious and tribal leaders appointed their own civil management council even before US troops arrived. Tribes assumed control of the city's institutions and protected government buildings. Religious leaders, whose authority was respected, exhorted the people to respect the law and maintain order. Local imams urged the public to respect law and order. Tight tribal bonds also helped preserve stability. Trouble with Americans started soon after they arrived, however.

[. . .]

Referring to Iraq’s Highway 10, a former American marine currently working very closely in a civilian capacity with the marine commanders in Fallujah explained to me, “Fallujah sits on a major artery between Baghdad and the rest of the world. There is no fucking way we will let them stand in our path. We’re trying to rebuild the country. Fallujah is in the way. We will be moving massive amounts of people and material in the region. We would have been using the western route a lot more if it was safe.” I asked him who was in control of Fallujah. “I can tell you who is not in control,” he said. “The marines.” He told me of kidnapping incidents he knew about. “People disappear into the hole of Fallujah,” he said. “The mujahideen control the city.” He was suspicious of anointed warlord General Jassim's ability to control the city, telling me, “I don’t trust Jassim or the Fallujah model.” He was convinced that the status quo in Fallujah would have to be corrected. “The situation will change,” he said. “We should have never gone inside the city. This is not a Marine Corps mission. The marines are a mobile, self-sustainable fighting force. The Marine Corps doesn’t do occupation. We would kick ass shutting borders. The Corps does short displays of massive power. The Marine Corps goes into violent situations, kicks ass and then lets the army handle things. The Marine Corps cannot handle logistics or stay long.” The planned handover of sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30 would not reduce the need to reassert control over Fallujah, he said, adding, “What will be gone after June 30? A three-letter acronym and some Bush flunkies and third-stringers.”

[. . .]

So this was Saddam's 'resource area', the pool from where he drew his most trusted people. Of course we didn't have any human intelligence assets on the ground, unless you count Chalabi's people who sold us a bushel of bullshit anyway. Did we think we could march in there and they'd just roll over? Of course we did. Fucking amateurs. Even the fucking Marines can't get in there without unacceptable losses. So what's this city gonna be when Iraq finally elects a new government? Or will the new PM Allawi just order the place leveled? Let's see what his new security force does. Don't be surprised if the bodies come out wholesale or, on the other side of the coin, turn into an autonomous region known as Fallujahstan or some shit.

Wisdom

From Kevin T. Kieth at Lean Left:

What people embrace, and what they shun, tells you who they are. In the last two days, Bush has heavily pushed a Constitutional Amendment to deny basic rights to gays, while Kerry and Edwards both spoke against it and refused to take part in the Senate-floor disgrace it represented. Simultaneously, Kerry spoke to a meeting of the NAACP leadership which Bush had explicitly refused to join.

[. . .]

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said . . . "Despite the current leadership's intolerant views, President Bush will continue to reach out to members of the NAACP and African-Americans from across the country."

The . . . NAACP . . . is too "intolerant" for the Bush White House. This was said the day after Bush's call for Senate support for a Constitutional Amendment to deny civil rights.

[. . .]

Entire post.

Like I said, Bush is so blatant about it that it's criminal. He's set the nation back 50 years. Asshole.

Prayers

Two that Mrs. F. sent me from work:

FRIENDSHIP PRAYER

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the
crotch of the person who screws up your day
and may their arms be too short to scratch...
AMEN

It is called the Gypsy curse and here is the rest of the poem.

"May crabs as big as lobsters infest their balls, and when they're old and feeble and just a physical wreck, may they fall right through their assholes and break their fucking neck!"

Remember

Kerry and Edwards on Imus this morning at 07:45. It's on MSNBC and 660 WFAN radio here in NYC. Click here to find the cable or radio outlet near you.

Dog's empty, I'm done, off to the fucking mines. It's Little Friday!!!!

Oh, BTW, I'm looking for a new plebe over at The Alternate Brain. If you want to be part of the team over there, email me (see my profile).

Why?

Why would this be a big deal to the Secret Service if they weren't expecting something? Yes, my tinfoil hat is on.

(New York -WABC, July 9, 2004) — For so many commuters it's a horrifying thought: The busiest commuter railroad in North America, the Long Island Railroad, has come up with a contingency plan to bypass Penn Station, its main drop off point, during the Republican National Convention.

If it's used, 274,000 daily passengers would be let out in Queens and Brooklyn. Eyewitness News' N.J. Burkett has the Eyewitness News exclusive story.

Eyewitness News has learned that the Long Island Railroad has been thinking the unthinkable for months. That plan has been handed over to the U.S. Secret Service, and clearly a total shutdown of Penn Station cannot be ruled out.

Commuters running for their trains tonight called it a nightmare in the making, and said they can't even think about a situation where they couldn't get to work or into the city.

Last week, in a secret meeting with railroad officials, the Secret Service asked for and was given a detailed contingency plan in the event Penn Station were to be shut down during

The Long Island Railroad can bypass Penn Station entirely with trains that terminate or originate in Brooklyn or Queens. Passengers can change over in Jamaica to the E, J or Z subway lines. In Woodside they can transfer to the Number Seven line. Trains to Hunters Point Avenue also can connect with the Number Seven line. And commuters to and from Lower Manhattan could connect at Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn with ten different subway lines including the 2, 3, 4 and 5 trains.

New Jersey Transit has already announced plans to reroute some of its trains through Hoboken.

MTA officials confirmed to Eyewitness News today that their contingency plans exist. They're just hoping they don't have to use them.

MTA Spokesman Tom Kelly said today, "There's been on request from the Secret Service or any other law enforcement agency to close Penn Station. We expect to operate with normal service during the convention week."

Beverly Dolinsky, LIRR Commuter's Council: "It's the Secret Service that is calling the shots. The Long Island Railroad and the MTA have to do whatever they say. That's the bottom line. Is there room on the subways for all of these people? No one is saying we can't do it, it's just going to be a nightmare."

More than anything, commuters are worried they simply won't have any warning.

Tonight a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service refused to comment on the story.

Oy, this is gonna be even more ridiculous:

(New York- WABC, July 14, 2004) — Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is making his final offer to an anti-war group planning a massive rally on the eve of the Republican Convention.

The group, United for Peace and Justice, wanted to use Central Park for a demonstration that could draw 250,000 people. Kelly says Central Park is out of the question.

Instead, he says demonstrators can march directly past Madison Square Garden and rally on the West Side Highway.

Closings here and here.

Health Care

Okay, I might sound like a Communist but I think there should be universal (socialized, if you will) health care for our seniors. What we're doing to people (I'm talking the government now, not these rat bastid corporations who fuck with their employee retirement benefits) on fixed incomes is disgraceful. I saw what my mom got from Social Security and the meager pension from 1199 (now SIEU) when she retired was a joke. Thank God that when she was stricken with thyroid cancer, she went quickly.

I know it sounds harsh, but a lot of my customers are old folks, and I see what they pay for medications (they may be old but they can sure talk). We know their situation and we work with them on their car repair bills, but that's beside the point. The problem is that they can't afford the necessaries, and on Long Island a car is a necessity, including food and medications. I wouldn't want my mom in that situation.

These people have worked all their lives, most of a generation who'd worked at the same company for 30 or 40 years, and they have squat to show for it, thanks to the care they need in their advancing years. I know many who've taken out reverse mortgages on their houses, just to pay medical bills that their Medicare won't. We can send billions upon billions of dollars overseas, run up the fucking deficit like money was free, and our seniors are starving to pay for medication.

I got an idea. Why not repeal the Bush tax cut and use it to pay for universal health care for seniors? These people have given the best part of their lives to this nation, why not take care of them when they turn 65? I'll pay more if I know the money would go there. You know, what we've given to Halliburton as we outsource yet another war would cover it. Or all the bucks wasted on the Star Wars shield. Or all the millions upon billions Bush has thrown away, or given away, in other places. It's not just the Republicans, but they've been so blatant about it it's criminal. And it's criminal to have our old folks cutting pills in half to make them last longer.

I swear, if you have a mom and dad, or aunt and uncle, or care about someone who's a senior, you have to vote Democratic in November. And then we all have to crawl up their asses until they do something. The rich will always be able to afford the best doctors and still eat. The rest of us will be old someday and probably will have to make the decision the Bush cronies won't have to.

At least with Kerry and a Democratic Senate (hopefully), more could be done than with the current situation. Not when the pharmaceutical corporations have the ear of the White House and Congress by the balls.

I feel better now. Gotta go get the Mrs. at the station. Have a good evening.

Pleasant dreams.

Can I get an Amen?

You have to, have to, have to go and read this from Jesus' General. Son of a bitch, I nearly peed myself laughing.

General J.C. Christian has outdone himself this time.

Bush daughters to work on daddy's campaign

I can just imagine what these two little party sluts are going to do. Fluffers for the guys working the phone banks? The Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie of the 'Political Life'. I can see the headline now:

Barb and Jenna found this morning in hotel room, passed out and nude. Police and Secret Service find multiple DNA samples. Larry Flynt claims possession of videotape.

I'm giggling my motherfucking ass off!

You must be shitting me, again

From Kicking Ass:

D-Bunking, Kerry/Edwards style
Last week, Ken Mehlman, manager of Bush's reelection campaign, sent a letter to the Kerry/Edwards campaign requesting that they release video of a fundraising concert that took place in Radio City Music Hall on July 7th. Republicans claim that they are "outraged" by some of the language used that night ever since.

Daily Kos readers quickly pointed out the hypocrisy. The Bush/Cheney campaign called for Kerry to condemn remarks made by entertainers — yet they showed no indignation when the Vice President of the United States used the same language on the Senate Floor.

Now, Kerry/Edwards campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill sends her own personal smackdown directly to the Bush-Cheney Campaign:

Over the past several months, allies of the President have questioned John Kerry's patriotism while your staff has criticized his service in Vietnam. Republicans and their allies have gone so far as to launch attacks against his wife and your campaign has run $80 million in negative ads that have been called baseless, misleading and unfair by several independent observers.

Considering that the President has failed to even come close to keeping his promise to change the tone in Washington, we find your outrage over and paparazzi-like obsession with a fund-raising event to be misplaced. The fact is that the nation has a greater interest in seeing several documents made public relating to the President's performance in office and personal veracity that the White House has steadfastly refused to release. As such, we will not consider your request until the Bush campaign and White House make public the documents/materials listed below:

Cahill goes on to list documents related to Bush's military records, Halliburton, Medicare, the prison abuse scandal, and more. She concludes:

We also wanted to wish you a happy anniversary. As we are sure you and the attorneys representing the President, Vice-President and other White House officials are aware, today marks one year since Administration sources leaked the identity of a covert CIA agent to Bob Novak in an effort to retaliate against a critic of the Administration.

In light of the fact that the Administration began gutting the laws protecting the nation's forests yesterday, we hope you will accept the paper on which this letter is written as an anniversary gift. (The one year anniversary is known as the "paper anniversary.")

Check it out for yourself!

Go Mary Beth! I love women who can roll up their sleeves and go at it with the big boys. I love capable women in leadership positions. So you can see why I'm so in love with Mrs. F. Ms. Cahill's significant other is a lucky person, just like me. You know, BTW, that I've nominated Mrs F. for Commerce or Treasury Secretary in the Kerry Administration. I haven't heard back. So on the off chance that anybody from the Kerry campaign reads my blog, take this as a reminder. And don't worry, the only baggage she has is me, and I promise to behave. Honest.

Ditka to replace Jack Ryan

Can you believe this? Mike Ditka, the asshole who is so out of it he can't find his ass with both hands tied behind his back, running for Senate. Yeesh! Thank God he's a Republican.

Wondering when this would happen

Stole this from Kos:

Dirty Tricks 'R Us are at it again.

Opponents of John Kerry have hired a Dallas-area private investigator to gather information aimed at discrediting his military service, say several veterans who served with the Massachusetts Democrat in Vietnam.

Several veterans who have been contacted in recent days accused the private investigator, Tom Rupprath of Rockwall, of twisting their words to produce misleading and inaccurate accounts that call into doubt the medals Mr. Kerry received for his service.

"They're just distorting things," said Jim Wasser, who served with Mr. Kerry. "They have nothing to go after John Kerry for, so now they're trying to discredit him."

Mr. Rupprath was hired by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the recommendation of Merrie Spaeth, a Dallas public relations executive assisting the anti-Kerry group.

The Republicans are really sweating Kerry's war record. It's easier to attack Kerry's heroism than it is to defend Bush and Cheney's cowardice.

These nutless wonders have no shame.

I gotta remember this

A classic line, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Xan at Corrente. They've got a bunch of them, culled from the paper here, but this one I liked the most.

"Kerry and Edwards kind of remind me of Batman and Robin. Bush and Cheney remind me of Pinky and the Brain."

On the Gay Marriage Amendment

I listened to that certifiable idiot Rick Santorum's [R-PA] diatribe from the Senate Floor yesterday on the 'sanctity of marriage'.

Number one, I got a problem with the phrase 'sanctity of marriage' when 50% of the marriages in this country end in divorce. I know gay couples who are together twenty years or more, beautiful, loving relationships that would be the envy of heterosexual couples. Why shouldn't those relationships be looked up to? Why aren't they 'sanctified'? When two people, regardless of race, age, or gender, are so committed to each other that they want to spend the rest of their lives together, who are we to say it's bad?

Number two, why is it all these Christo-Fascist assholes who yell the loudest about this, are the ones who are caught with their pants around their ankles? Newt Gingrich was fucking an intern while he was still married, Ol' Rush, same thing. Where's the sanctity of their marriages, where is the commitment they made? And did they make the commitment so lightly, frivolously, and if so, where's the sanctity in that?

Call me a hopeless romantic, but asking someone to marry you should be the hardest decision of your life, next to deciding to have a child. I'll comment on that someday too. Marriage should be forever, or at least that's where your mind should be when you pop the question. If you want to preserve the sanctity of marriage, make it harder for heterosexual couples to get divorced.

That fucking moron Santorum, and the rest of his ilk, should think about the children of divorce, rather than a loving couple wanting to spend the rest of their lives together. If you want to do something good, enact laws to protect these children who are often used as pawns by people who shouldn't have been married in the first place. People who, were it not so easy to get out of a marriage, might have thought twice about it in the first place, let alone have children whose little minds they'll fuck up later.

Seems that everything's in play for use by these Jesus freak lunatics in the game of politics. This whole furor over gay marriage is political, and a waste of time, and after all the bullshit yesterday, the question will be decided where it should be, at the state level. Rat bastids.

Oy!

Well, the dog's empty and I'm off to the mines. Have a good day.

Update 14:05: From Glen at A Brooklyn Bridge:

Marriage, Cafeteria Fundamentalism, and the Rights of Straight Americans

The little engine that couldn't. Sound and fury conveying nothing. Whimpers. Pick your own apt phrase. Happily, the Federal Marriage Amendment is going nowhere. So far, proponents can't get a simple majority necessary to bypass normal rules and introduce this obscenity to the full Senate, where it will crash and burn again. Last I heard, eleven of the twelve senators from New England are lined up against it. (Sununu was being coy.) Most of New England's senators are Republicans. Good.

[. . .]

Yay!

Night

Got shit to do. Have a good evening.

Pleasant dreams.

Oh, am I really?

President Handpuppet said today that America is safer today than when he took office. Fine. Then how come we're basically expecting a terrorist attack before the election? Wasn't that nitwit Ridge on TV just the other day saying we have an almost-orange terror threat? I guess we're safer because we know this, but then they tell us to go shopping. President Shit-for-brains, Governor Pataki, Mayor Trollberg, they're all tell us to spend money. I mean it's our responsibility to keep the economy going, right? Gotta spend that fucking tax cut.

Call me silly, but I don't remember Bill Clinton or one of his minions telling me about an imminent attack and then to go shopping. That's the upside of these threats for the Mrs., although she doesn't need a Presidential decree to go shopping.

Now, I'm a 'kill 'em all and let God sort out the mess' kinda guy and that's the way I think we should fight any war against our true enemies. It's the way we should have fought the war in Afghanistan. Fuck 'em, level the place. Fuck that outsourcing shit we did there with the Northern Alliance. We should have carpet bombed from the fucking Pakistani border to Iran and all points north and south. If anybody survived, we'd send the infantry and armor in to determine friend or foe. Guess what? Odds are we should have got Osama bin Forgotten and most of the heirarchy. What do we do? We send 20,000 troops in and bribe the friendlier (or more mercenary) groups of cutthroats to kill the others. And then what do we do? We attack fucking Iraq.

Iraq who the U.S. Navy and the RAF flew Combat Air Patrols over 60% of the country. We had Saddam contained, we could watch him, and best of all, we weren't losing American lives. But no we have to take over. We basically looted them, and when the yelling started, we gave them 'sovereignty'. You know what we have there now? A mini-Afghanistan, before we rearranged the rocks. Yeah, I feel safer, now that more people have more reasons to blow my ass up. Fucking idiots. I think I'll go shopping.


Update 18:45: MaxSpeak has something to say on the subject as well:

There are people who want to kill us all, something to which I take exception. Now if you are spying on these people to find out and thwart their plans, why would you make announcements that hint at what information you have gleaned, in the absence of the wherewithal to actually round up the would-be miscreants? Doesn't that tip off the bad guys on where to tighten up their security?

[. . .]

Instead of holding dog-and-pony shows for the press, shouldn't that chump Tom Ridge be figuring out how to ascertain whether a small plane flying towards the Capitol is a threat or just the governor of Kentucky?

Yeah! Like he says, MaxSpeak, you listen!

Update 19:00: Juan Cole has his $0.02 to add:

Some honest US officials in Iraq are finally admitting that US forces are not meeting a vanguard of international terrorism there but rather some 20,000 angry Baathists who fear for the fate of Sunni Arabs in the new regime.

[. . .]

Ha-ha! again

Froomkin clarifies (and rocks).

The microfilm that was "inadvertently destroyed" is not the same as the microfilm that AP is suing to have released:

The microfilm that the Pentagon reported destroyed was housed at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Denver and consisted only of a few months of payroll records -- albeit some of them from during the hotly contested third quarter of 1972.

The Associated Press lawsuit that Tomlin filed is for the microfilm of Bush's entire personnel file from the Texas Air National Guard. Those records are in Austin.

Gee, I thought that "all" the Bush service records had already been released? That's what Bush promised, so it must have happened, right?

Missed one didja, you fucking asshole. Let's see how this archive gets 'inadvertantly destroyed'. I stole Lambert's whole post from Corrente, but you can see it here with comments.

Couldn't have said it better

Than the Democratic Veteran:

Preznit Incoherent Idiot was in the terra-tory of my fellow Rocky Top Brigaders yesterday...and he's still trying to avoid that the most obvious threat Iraq represented to Americans was the Death of over 800 of them at the hands of the 1600 Crew.

[. . .]

I guess his corporate and religious masters are still paying the bills at Stupid republican Speechwriters, Inc. If anyone believes that Preznit No Job Ever Done Right has succeeded in any aspect of foreign policy, please raise your hands now...ahhh, thought so.

Entire post.

Another one bites the dust

Manila says it will withdraw troops from Iraq
Philippines agrees to pullout ‘as soon as possible’

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 10:37 p.m. ET July 12, 2004

Philippine officials held an emergency meeting on Tuesday on saving a hostage in Iraq amid confusion after a senior official visiting the Middle East said troops there would leave, but the military said no such orders had been received.

The meeting at the foreign affairs department comes after Qatar-based al-Jazeera television station showed Philippine deputy foreign minister Rafael Seguis offering to withdraw Philippine forces “as soon as possible.”

[. . .]

Let's see, the Spanish, the Thais, and now the Filipinos. They are all beginning to realize they've been snookered by President Axis of Evil. I hope we can regain the credibility we've lost over the past four years.

I'm off to the mines. Later.