In what must be a concerted effort to prove me wrong the morons over at NRO have written what has to be one of the most ignorant and dangerous things I have read in a long time. It would be hard to overstate how completely moronic some right wingers are. Whats sad is that there are millions of Americans who have their heads so far up their asses that shit like this makes sense to them.

The Soviet Union never killed 3,000 Americans in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania by crashing jets into skyscrapers. The definition of a “serious threat” is different today than it was a generation ago.

Jim Geraghty @ NRO

There are only two ways to read this statement. First is that ’serious threat’ means much less than it did a generation ago. This would imply that Americans are cowards now and would go against Republicans strategy of scaring people into voting Republican. The other possible meaning is that we are under a greater threat now than before. This fits more in context and sounds scarier. I’m pretty sure that this is what he was meaning.

If anyone reading this honestly believes that terrorists could present the kind of threat that the Soviet Union presented during the cold war then you seriously need to educate yourself. In the terrorists wildest wettest dreams they could not come within miles of being the ’serious threat’ that the Soviet Union presented. Dumbasses.

Here is a little history lesson. The Cuban Missile Crisis arguably took the world closer than any other event in history to a thermonuclear world war III. Whats more, the crisis was resolved through diplomacy that if applied to the same “standards” as the right wingers are using against Obama would be considered worse than appeasement.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for any offensive language. Read more at Newshoggers. If you are reading that piece differently please let me know.

William ~ WWJV4.com

Hillary Clinton Wins BIG in West Virginia

Click here to view the embedded video.

Even though I have decided to support Obama I am still very happy to see that Clinton is not only competitive in blue collar states, but overwhelmingly preferred 67% to 26%. I know that it wont happen but showings like this make my dreams of a unity ticket seem almost possible sometimes.

Hagee Flip Flops on Religious Views

Click here to view the embedded video.

Taking a line from the McCain campaign John Hagee has flip flopped on his outspoken attacks on the Catholic Church. Every time McCain flip flops on a position his supporters can chalk it up to pandering for votes (or Alzheimer’s). What is it called when religious leaders flip flop on their beliefs?

The Rest of The News

• A bar owner in Marietta is selling racist Obama – Curious George T-Shirts. Just more proof that we have a lot of work to do still.
• Republican Congressional candidate Mike Erickson is being accused by an Oregon woman of having paid for her abortion. If true this will mark the one millionth Republican hypocrite outed this year. I think he wins a toaster.
• Conservatives are still trying to get amnesty for their big business telecom buddies. Over at DailyKOS mcjoan has listed the names and numbers for the conservative Democrats the Republicans are targeting. If they are yours give them a call.
• Was Einstein an atheist? Personally I could care less what Einsteins religious beliefs are but some people are making a big deal about it.
• In Ohio a father was jailed after his daughter failed to pass the math portion of her GED. As always there is more to the story, but it doesn’t get better. Read about it here at Newshoggers.
• Charges have been dropped against the “20th hijacker” Mohammed al-Qahtani. During his interrogation Mohammed was subjected to what people in a civilized society would refer to as torture.
  

  In the log, U.S. interrogators describe how they ratcheted up techniques on their captive during 50 days starting in November 2002 to extract a confession – by using sleep deprivation, leaving him strapped to an intravenous drip without bathroom breaks and having him strip naked….A special Guantanamo investigator, Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall Schmidt, subsequently told Congress that al-Qahtani was also forced to wear a woman’s bra, dance with a male guard, “perform dog tricks” and was smeared with fake menstrual blood to lower his self-esteem – techniques the general described as “degrading and abusive” but not inhumane.
  Cageprisoners.com

Daily Video

Todays video is John Stewarts interview with the unapologetic neocon Douglas Feith. If there is one think to admire about neocons like Feith, they never get caught up in the little things like reality or facts. Crooks and Liars has a good write up on the interview.

Part 1

Part 2

Thats all for this morning. I’m going to take some more medicine and go lie down for a while. I know that some of the news is actually from this morning but yesterday was a pretty slow news day. Besides I normally start these the night before and then just check for new stuff in the morning. Of course this is an open thread and I’ll make sure and moderate comments through the day.

William ~ WWJV4.com

How does John McCain, the Republican Nominee only get 74% of the vote with no one else campaigning?

Somehow I missed this yesterday. Crooks and Liars has published their top 10 list of McCain’s Out of Touch Moments. My favorite is still the “I’m not running on the Bush presidency.” joke. That one makes me laugh every time.

Here is something that shouldn’t surprise anyone. McCain’s “maverick” image is entirely made up by the media.

John McCain is refusing to release his wife’s tax records. So much to say on this topic that I’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to what he may be hiding. I will say that this is so offensive that even some right wing magazines are attacking them over it.

A Michigan State Supreme Court ruled that “Michigan’s 2004 ban against gay marriage also blocks domestic-partner policies affecting gay employees at the University of Michigan and other public-sector employers.”

The over stretching of our military caused by the needless war in Iraq has been reported many times. Yesterday we learned via Newshoggers that over 43,000 injured troops listed as medically unfit for duty have been sent anyhow. If I had voted for Bush it would be time to put another “Support The Troops” sticker on my car so I could feel better about myself.

This was under CBS’ Strange News but its really not strange at all, in fact for those in law enforcement its so common that it made me wonder why it’s even news. Suspect Surrenders After Cop Yells ‘Taser, Taser, Taser!’. In many situations the presence of a taser will be enough and this story is about just one of the hundreds of examples that happen across the country every single day.

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights on May 15th. I’ll have more information on our sidebar (today) and you can read more here. (h/t Alas, a blog)

And finally one more …

12 nuns in Indiana were unable to vote because of the states restrictive voter suppression registration laws. Whats worse is that these horrible laws are being pushed throughout the nation by conservatives under the lie of “voter fraud”. Anyone want to guess which party the poor, disabled, and elderly who are disenfranchised by these laws vote for?

This may sound like a good idea at first,” stated Sister Sandy Schwartz of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary regarding voter ID requirements, “but once you stop to think about who would really be affected, this is going to keep a lot of our loved ones from being able to vote.

Thats enough for today, its Friday and I have a lot to do. Have a wonderful weekend and make sure and thank all the moms you know. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY SUMMER!

p.s. I didn’t forget about Clinton’s comments. I have a story in draft about it that I will try to get out today. If not I’ll cover it on Monday’s RSS Roundup.

William ~ WWJV4.com

A large group of evangelicals are urging a pullback from involvement in politics because they fear that they would become “useful idiots” exploited for partisan gain. I wonder why after happily playing the part of “useful idiots” to the Republican party for the past 15 years they have decided now is the time to back away? Better late than never. The story does say that ultra conservative fundamentalist groups have no intention of breaking away from politics. No surprise.

Since yesterday was a Wednesday there were lots of calls for Clinton to drop out. I still agree with everything I said back in February. According to my (probably wrong) math the popular vote has been split 50.2% Obama 49.8% Clinton. This is too close to call at this point and is the best argument for letting everyone vote.

Lawrence Webb has become the first openly gay African-American elected to public office in Virginia. This is kind of a big deal.

Remember 10 months ago when those scary middle easterners were acting all terroristy on the Seattle ferry? Well the FBI has called off their global manhunt after the two turned themselves in. As it turns out they were just tourists taking pictures. Kind of makes this look pretty damn silly don’t you think?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kathy (from Birmingham Blues ) has posted a guest post at Shakesville that seriously pisses me off. Its about three brave young women who rescued a 17 year old girl who was being gang raped by a bunch of college guys last year. Since that time the girls have been threatened and insulted for standing up for the victim and the DA won’t prosecute. Its just the same ol’ boys will be boys and if you get drunk and they gang rape you its your own fault BULLSHIT. Drinking and driving is a serious crime but apparently drinking and raping is just fine. Now I’m all pissed off again.

Moving on before this turns into a rant.

I wrote the other day about McCains’ pledge to continue the Bush presidency by electing more Bush judges. Well Crooks and Liars has a wonderful post about one of those judges that McCain supported back when I was 12, Robert Bork. If you don’t have time to read it the summery is that Robert Bork is a right wing nutjob and McCain made a loving tribute to him in a speech while fighting for his nomination. I guess George W. Bush isn’t McCain’s first mancrush.

Speaking of Bush, he is proving that even a lame duck still has veto power by threatening to veto both farm aid and housing relief bills on the basis that they don’t kill enough kittens or something. He sure didn’t have any problems when it was rich people in trouble though did he.

Oh and since I’m from KS here is an extra FU for Pat Roberts (R-KS) who also does not support helping out working class families. Just another reason to support Jim Slattery.

CNN showed video of 15 police officers repeatedly beating three suspects in Philly. I’ll try to write more on this as information becomes available. Until then watch the video and let me know what you think.

Have a great day everyone and don’t hesitate to post comments on anything currently going on in the news or across the blogosphere. I probably won’t have time to do any posting the rest of the day but I’ll be around do approve comments. Thanks.

William ~ WWJV4.com

Now I have talked with enough blind and dumb as shit war supporters to never want to do so again. However on the plus side this exposure has led to me deciphering the “Republican Surge is Working Argument Flowchart” which I am sharing with you today. I have included the surge and two common arguments so you can see how it works, but its the same regardless of specifics. In fact I would say it applies to every argument you will ever have with a conservative.

Enjoy and feel free to use or modify this.

Before the invasion Bush told us ““Our mission is clear in Iraq. Should we have to go in, our mission is very clear: disarmament.” (( George W. Bush 3/6/2003 )) So a successful Iraqi mission would mean that Iraq would no longer have WMD. Got it. But wait, they never had WMD to begin with so weren’t we then successful by default?

Oh no, no, no once we were in Iraq our mission expanded. In fact George Bush said “Our forces have been given a clear mission: to end a regime that threatened its neighbors and the world with weapons of mass destruction and to free a people that had suffered far too long.” (( George W. Bush 4/13/2003 )) Now, Bush wasn’t very clear about when our troops were given this “clear mission” that very clearly differed enormously from the “mission” the American people and Congress had approved of.

It wasn’t long, however; until Bush declared “mission accomplished”. On May 1, 2003 on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush, and his prominent codpiece, told the American people that we had achieved success in Iraq and that major combat operations were ended. Yay! We were victorious, but wait, that was certainly not the end.

As I’m sure we all know too well, Iraq quickly fell apart and the “insurgency” began killing our soldiers faster and faster. Baghdad was torn apart among sectarian lines, Bush, who did not know the cultural differences among the Iraqi people, was going to have to again redefine our mission if we were truly going to be successful. So a year later Bush stated “We will see that Iraq is free and self-governing and democratic. We will accomplish our mission.” (( George W. Bush 5/4/2004 ))

With the increasing violence, turbulent political infighting, and broader divisions among Sunni and Shiite lines Iraq was quickly becoming a “quagmire”. It became obvious that the Iraqi government and the Iraqi soldiers and police would not be able to control their country anytime soon so Bush once again changed the definition of success by adding a new “mission”. “And our mission is clear there, as well, and that is to train the Iraqis so they can do the fighting; make sure they can stand up to defend their freedoms, which they want to do.” (( George W. Bush 6/2/2005 ))

As I told you in Part 1, not only was our mission and definition of success changing but the justifications for the war were changing as well. In order to keep up with the new reason to remain in Iraq, which was that it was a hot spot for international terrorism, our mission once again changed to keeping Iraq from becoming a safe haven for terrorists. “In the coming days, there will be considerable reflection on the removal of Saddam Hussein from power and our remaining mission in Iraq…By helping the Iraqi people build a free and representative government, we will deny the terrorists a safe haven to plan attacks against America.” (( George W. Bush 3/11/2006 ))

At the beginning of 2007, to justify the troop surge, Bush once again changed our mission in Iraq. We now had to provide a secure environment in which the Iraqi government could then effect change and take control of their own country. “In fact, we have a new strategy with a new mission: helping secure the population, especially in Baghdad. Our plan puts Iraqis in the lead.” (( George W. Bush 1/13/2007 ))

We now hear that the surge has been successful, violence is down, success is at hand. Of course, like everything else in regards to Iraq, there is debate over the statistics and the assertion that it is working on the security front. There is not debate, however; on if the surge is having any effect on the political front. It’s not. But don’t worry we have yet another “mission” this one perhaps the most vaguely worded and unmeasurable to date. “It’s a new mission. And David Petraeus is in Iraq carrying it out. Its goal is to help the Iraqis make progress toward reconciliation — to build a free nation that respects the rights of its people, upholds the rule of law, and is an ally against the extremists in this war.” (( George W. Bush 6/28/2007 ))

When one looks at the constantly evolving rhetoric, justifications, and definitions of “success” in Iraq it is confusing, it can be overwhelming and that is exactly what this administration wants. A population pushed into apathy by their deception, fear mongering, and overused rhetoric. That is the only way that this travesty could be allowed to be carried on for YEARS.

As citizens it is our responsibility to know what is going on in our government, especially when we have men and women dying for an unjustified, undefined, and unprepared for war. Our administration will tell you that to question their authority and policies is treasonous and emboldens the terrorists. I tell you that not to question them is dangerous, lazy, and threatens the very foundations of our country.

The justification for the use of force against Iraq has changed so much so over time that even those who support the war aren’t sure which argument to use. In the beginning we were told that Saddam had WMD, that there was credible intelligence he was connected to Al Qaeda, and was an imminent threat to America. These sounded like great reasons to at least address the situation with Saddam but Bush went several steps further and invaded a sovereign nation without UN support.

On December 14, 2003 Saddam was captured and the administration now told us that our liberation of the Iraqi people was complete and weren’t we good democracy spreaders? WTF? But by and large the American public bought into this, after all Saddam was a pretty evil guy. For some that change in rhetoric was a little to hard to swallow and the anti-war movement picked up speed.

Soon it was shown that the original reasons for invasion were, well, lies. The administration then stated that Iraq was a pivotal point for the global war on terror as Islamic terrorists from surrounding nations were gathering there to attack our forces. We had to fight them in Iraq to keep them from following us home. (Apparently the terrorists are really bad with directions.)

It was true that there were some foreign fighters coming to Iraq to attack American soldiers but the overwhelming bulk of the insurgency were pissed off Iraqis who didn’t like an American occupation. When faced with this truth Bush again began touting the Al Qaeda connection in Iraq, a connection that had never been substantiated and remains largely guess work today.

He began talking almost obsessively about a group called “Al Qaeda in Iraq.” Now, in America that sounds like a local Iraqi chapter of the supposed 9/11 masterminds. In truth that is probably not even close to what the group actually is.

The group’s real name is Tanzim Qaidat Al Jihad fi Bilad Al Rafidin: Organization of Qaidat Al Jihad in the Land of Two Rivers. It is important to know that the word “al qaeda” means base so really this is a different group with no proven connections to the other Al Qaeda we hear so much about. They had a horribly long name and shortened it to basically “base of operations in Iraq.”

Not only do they most probably not have any real connection to Al Qaeda, they also account for only 5-10 % of the Sunni insurgency. The rest are again, angry Iraqis who don’t appreciate being occupied by arrogant American infidels. (( About.com: Al Qaeda in Iraq ))

None of these facts kept the Bushies from spouting off about the danger of Al Qaeda taking over Iraq and then forcing America to somehow submit to Islam. (I have never understood this argument but hear it all the time.) But faced with an angry left wing blogosphere, discontented Congresspeople, more people calling for truth in the media, and the nose dive of Bush’s approval ratings it was soon time for another reason to stay in Iraq, Iran.

I noticed that right after a press conference in which Bush cited Iran’s assistance with the insurgency (which coincidentally followed the adoption of the Kyl/Lieberman amendment) our media began reporting as fact Iran’s contributions of weaponry and manpower to the Sunni insurgency.

The truth of the matter is that once again there is no clear cut connection between Iran and the “terrorism” in Iraq. However, since Iran is now designated a state sponsor of terror, it lends new credence to the lie that Iraq is a hot spot for international terrorism.

Scott Ritter, an UN weapons inspector, is very vocal about the lies and deception regarding the case against Iran and you can find excerpts of an article he wrote outlining how Bush is once again using rhetoric and not facts to advance his own agenda here on MyDD.

I’ve laid out how the argument supporting the Iraq war has changed from preventing Saddam from being an imminent threat to America, to liberating the Iraqi people, to fighting foreign terrorists, to fighting Al Qaeda, to fighting Iranian terrorists and how each of these arguments are exaggerations or flat out lies.

This is just one aspect of the constantly changing rhetoric regarding the “war on terror”. Tomorrow we will discuss the many faces of “success” in Iraq. Stay tuned and feel free to comment.

This morning I read on BBC News that Samina Malik, a 22 year old poet, was found guilty under UK’s anti-terrorism laws of having articles “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”. This comes after being found not guilty of the serious crime of “possessing an article for a terrorist purpose”. You see Samina Malik committed the grave crime of writing poems and possessing books supporting Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and Jihad. So despite having no proof of any intent to act on her feelings and thoughts the UK has found her guilty of having those feelings and thoughts.

Let’s focus for a second on the crime she was found guilty of; having articles “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”. Keep in mind she was found innocent of “possessing an article for terrorist use”, so her crime lacked any intent and was based solely on possession of these books and poems. I can think of hardly any crime that has greater impact on civil rights and freedoms as criminalizing the possession of a book. Through history the worst tyrannies always started by censoring the people and restricting their freedoms of expression.

When books are challenged, restricted, removed, or banned, an atmosphere of suppression exists…. The fear of the consequences of censorship is as damaging as, or perhaps more damaging than, the actual censorship attempt. After all, when a published work is banned, it can usually be found elsewhere. Unexpressed ideas, unpublished works, unpurchased books are lost forever. ~ Robert P. Doyle

For us here in America the threat is even greater. Unlike the UK where Samina Malik faces jail for owning books and writing poetry we live under threat of imprisonment without even those weak charges. At the word of our government any of us could be denounced as an enemy combatant and imprisoned or tortured, without any legal recourse. So I guess the bright side of this story is that Samina Malik lives in the UK and not America. There she gets a public trial where the world can hear her story. Had Samina the misfortune of living in America she would have disappeared into Guantanamo or been flown to Egypt or Syria for torture.

This brings us to the important question, what’s on your bookshelf? If the thought police bust down your door, or check your phone records, or snoop through your computer files and internet history, what can they find? Could they paint you as a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer? You see, it doesn’t matter what the answer is, the fact that you had to spend even half of a second thinking about the answer is proof that our freedoms are far from secure. If we don’t start taking a stand and fighting for our rights as people this country will fall quietly to fascism, with the whole world ready to peacefully follow under the false pretense of safety and security.