Prince of Evil

Holy Crap, won't someone please tell this rancid, bent piece of shit that he is not welcome, not relevant, and no longer in a position to terrorize the United States? On this day, Former Vice President Dick Cheney nearly burst on national television from pent up hate and rage as he attempted to counter President Obama on issues of security and  torture, apparently anticipating war crime charges and special prosecuters.

House of Sods

"So long, and thanks for all the money. Sorry about your kids."

When discussing Halliburton in polite company, the phrase most apt which comes to mind is "pigfuckers". Next to the obscenity that is Big Oil culture, there are no social graces left to offend.

Last week David Lesar of Halliburton announced plans to move the company's corporate headquarters to Dubai. Apparently it's not cool to be an American anymore, what with the war and all and the dollar not as strong as it was. Company spokesmen sited several reasons for the move, not the least being that there's more oil over there, even though they appear to be in the food services business now. Among the reasons they didn't mention: the freedom to trade in petrodollars, whatever they're based one, and the fact that there's no extradition treaty with the United States. This later will be mighty comforting to major players like Dick Cheney, when he resumes his chair with the company, and Alberto Gonzales, who will undoubtedly reprise his role as Counsel to Halliburton after dutifully serving his country in these trying times. Unless, of course, he should be disbarred.

It should be noted, too, that under this administration "offshoring" has become the rule of the day. After all, it wasn't so long ago that US Central Command was officially moved to Diego Garcia, a sand bar in the Indian Ocean 'owned' by the British government. While there, of course, they are fed by Halliburton.

At least we know, now, where Ken Lay probably ended up after he retired, about the time of his closed casket funeral.

I say fuck 'em. Get out.

Scooter Libby: Felon

Four time convicted felon Irving Lewis 'Scooter' Libby is headed for the Big House. Lying, Perjury, and Obstruction of Justice; a perfect trifecta to avoid indictment on the primary crime. Chief of Staff to the Vice President; Assistant to the President; Protege of Paul Wolfowitz; founding member of the Project for a New American Century. Scooter gets around.

The question of the day seems to be if and when to pardon Scooter. Will he be pardoned? Of course. In the end there were three people who could have leaked: Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and Mr. Libby. Four if you count Rove; I don't. They've protected Rove more than they have the President. So Scooter takes the fall on a perjury charge, and no one gets hit with treason. And the 'when' is largely irrelevent: the President has a 29% approval rating. What's he got to lose? Let's look back.

Ford pardoned Nixon before charges were even filed, which is said to have cost him the next election. Fact is, he would never have won, but it was a black eye for the whole party. They traded missiles to Iran four years later to get back in the White House.

Carter granted amnesty to Vietnam era draft evaders, which was kinda like a pardon. He was not reelected.

Reagan pardoned Mark Felt and Edward Miller soon after being elected, but probably didn't know that Felt was Deep Throat. In the pardon he cited the Carter amnesty as justification, with great disdain.

George H. W. Bush couldn't wait to pardon Casper Weinberger and the whole crew from the Iran Contra affair. Had to, or his name might have come up: he was involved in Iran in both 1980 and the ensuing Contra affair.

Bill Clinton pardoned expat financier Marc Rich, accused of illegal trading with Iran. What the fuck is it with Iran? Here's what's interesting: who do you supposed Rich's lawyer was? You guessed it: Lewis 'Scooter' Libby. And Scooter wasn't alone: several former Reagan White House Staffers appealed on Rich's behalf at the eleventh hour.

Bush Jr. hasn't pardoned Bush Sr., as it might appear unseemly. One of his first acts as President, however, was to bury the records of his father's years in the White House, so we may never know his involvement in -- yes -- Iran.

And now Scooter. Should we assume that President Ahmadinejad himself will come out for Scooter?

All up in there!

God, I love this country! Who would have pictured Strom Thurmond as the gift that keeps on giving? It seems that Al Sharpton has learned that his people were once owned by Stroms people. Oopps. That'd be "Uncle Strom" to you: racist, rapist, segregationist, dixiecrat. Oh, and it gets better: geneologists have suggested that Reverend Sharpton might be a descendant of Thurmonds great great grandfather. Now Al wants a DNA test to see if he's got the taint. Man, that's gotta burn.

Sharpton 'shocked' by link to Thurmond's family

Doris Strom Costner, a distant cousin who said she knew the late senator all her life, said Sunday she "never heard of such a thing."

"My momma never would talk to me about nothing like that," Costner said of ancestors who owned slaves. "She only talked to me about good things."

No Safe Harbor

"It's OK. I'm alright."

Cheney OK after blast outside Afghan base

After a long week on the run from a verdict in the Scooter Libby trial, Dick Cheney cheated death yet again as a suicide bomb exploded at the main security gate at Bagram air base in Afghanistan. 23 people were killed and many more injured, but the Dick made his flight.

Maj. William Mitchell said it did not appear the explosion was intended as a threat to the Vice President. However, a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Cheney was the target of the attack.

"We knew that Dick Cheney would be staying inside the base," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone. "The attacker was trying to reach Cheney."

The event comes several days into Mr. Cheney's spontaneous and hastily extended 'round the world trip, which so far has included stops in Japan and Australia, and suprise visits to Singapore, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, back at home and seeming to correspond with the Vice President's jaunt, jury deliberations resumed in the Scooter Libby trial today with one less member, as the Judge overseeing the case removed one juror and declined to seat an alternate.

Run Dick, run.

Look Over There!

You've got to love finding a rank of headlines like these -- literally back to back, on the front page of a major news portal. Context is everything when a candidate floats near the top:

Gen. Pace: Military capability eroding

Cheney asks Pakistan to counter al-Qaida

Iraqi VP narrowly escapes assassination

Four jailed cops killed in Guatemala prison

Giuliani keys on the economy and taxes

Fuckin' Giuliani and his GOP talking points. Huge balls. Followed by, of course, the clincher:

Killer jaguar had mean twin named Osama

Governor Terminates Caged Man

I don't know much about Stanley 'Tookie' Williams, but...

This is Tookie:









This is the Warden who executed Tookie. Any Questions?

Acting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger hails from a country which should know better. Tonight he allowed a lynching in the State of California, nothing less than a blood lust revenge killing apparently designed to send a clear message to kids everywhere. I don't know much about Stanley Williams, but I liked his message better.

Scalito

THOUGHT BUBBLE: "You know, paint a little mustache on him, and he'd be the real deal."

Prince of Darkness

Evil bastard. What happened to Paul Wellstone, Dick?

aka: "Scooter"

.

You gotta love how Patrick Fitzgerald managed to sneak in the phrase, "also known as 'Scooter'" into the indictment without laughing. And while I'd like to think "Scooter" would be Mr. Libby's bitch name when he's being traded for cigarettes in Leavenworth, most us us must know it'll never happen. Mr. Libby will never see the inside of a penitentiary, and while he may ultimately be convicted of multiple felonies for his indiscretions he will certainly be among the first pardoned by the "President" on his way out the door. We can only hope that such a day comes sooner rather than later, with Bush resigning in disgrace as the rule of law begins to catch up with him.

Meanwhile, Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove is allowed to walk the streets.

Miers Withdraws

Well, of course she does. Gee, and on the same day that the White House has long expected indictments to be handed down Come on, she was never -- ever -- going to be a Supreme Court Justice. One has to wonder if her nomination wasn't always a stalling maneuver anyway, so that Mr. Bush could come back strong in the wake of whatever comes down from the grand jury. And a ballsy maneuver at that: pure Rove. Who would seriously believe that at this moment in time, in your second term, with a new and clone-grown ultra conservative Chief Justice safely ensconced and control of both houses beginning to slip, that this administration wouldn't follow through with the perfect trifecta? No one. "I know her heart"? Come on, Mr. Bush -- you've known her heart so well all this time and yet you never saw fit to appoint her to the Appellate Court or a District bench? With pay back due to the right, the ultra right, Big Energy, Big Corporate and Big Pharma, and nothing standing in your way, you're going to give them this little shriveled gem of a loyal house counsel? Give us a break.

She disqualified herself in about eight different ways when she called you "the most brilliant man" she'd ever met. With your administration in jeopardy, indictments printing, endless war in the news and the economy in the shitter, you'd be wise to keep her around if you trust her so much as your lawyer, but you couldn't possibly have had any expectation that she would be confirmed.

She's been a stall. The other shoe has yet to drop.

Perp

Can George Bush be tried as an adult?

With all the indictments and allegations floating around in Washington these days, one has to ask.

The fish rots from the head. There is no way that Rove, Libby, Hannah or any other mid level staffer at the White House leaked the name of a covert CIA operative without explicit approval from the President and/or Vice President. Worse than that, two of the three have already admitted discussing her with the press, while in fact neither of them had reason to know in the first place. The question therefore doesn't have to be who leaked to the press, the question is, who leaked to Libby and Rove? Rove, after all, was a political aide at the time. In all probability, not even the VP had a need to know agent's name, only -- at best -- that there were assets in the field close to the source. 'Need to Know' is a very small club; that's the point. And the only guy in the White House who we know could have known was George W. Bush.

Microdots

Ever wonder why printer companies want you to register your new $79 printer as though it were a handgun? In the United States, the federal government evidently considers your right to print and share documents a threat. Did they not 'get' the whole Guttenberg thing?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has revealed what many have long suspected -- that the US Secret Service has struck a deal with the major printer manufacturers to add unique and hidden markers to printed documents showing where, when, and by whom they were printed. If you aren't familiar with the EFF, now would be a good time to get acquainted. Do blogs also burn at Fahrenheit 451?

This matters. If this doesn't piss you off, you deserve it.

EFF Reveals Codes in Xerox Printers

Secret Code in Color Printers

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Big House Whipping Boy

It took a new grand jury less than 4 hours to pass down new indictments against Tom Delay, which appeared to outrage him:

"Ronnie Earle has stooped to a new low with his brand of prosecutorial abuse," DeLay said in a statement. "He is trying to pull the legal equivalent of a 'do-over' since he knows very well that the charges he brought against me last week are totally manufactured and illegitimate. This is an abomination of justice."

Right. Tom's on his way to becoming Minority Whipping Boy of the Big House. But in true Republican form, he won't be going down alone:

It seems that while enjoying a lobbyist funded european junket to arrange pay-to-play favors from the Republican controlled Congress (that'd be "selling influence"), one of the 'lobbyists' he met with was former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Oops.

It was announced today that Mrs. Thatcher will be questioned by police as part of the corruption probe which has forced DeLay to step down.

Hope your friends remember you, Tom, when you're being traded for cigarettes in a West Texas Big House.

Bitch.