Feeling Safer Yet?

Another Bu$hCo failure. & these are the guys touting themselves as the protectors of the fatherland? Whooooeeeee.

The last of the anthrax-laced letters was still making its way through the mail in late 2001 when top Bush administration officials reached an obvious conclusion: the nation desperately needed to expand its medical stockpile to prepare for another biological attack.

The result was Project BioShield, a $5.6 billion effort to exploit the country’s top medical and scientific brains and fill an emergency medical cabinet with new drugs and vaccines for a host of threats. “We will rally the great promise of American science and innovation to confront the greatest danger of our time,” President Bush said in starting the program.

But the project, critics say, has largely failed to deliver.

So far, only a small fraction of the anticipated remedies are available. Drug companies have waited months, if not years, for government agencies to decide which treatments they want and in what quantities. Unable to attract large pharmaceutical corporations to join the endeavor, the government is instead relying on small start-up companies that often have no proven track record.

My emphasis. I wonder how many of Bu$hCo's friends got contracts? I wonder if Neil Bush got a contract? We may never know.

Goodbye?

Maybe.

-- In Ohio, Dem Sherrod Brown now leads GOP Senator Mike DeWine by six points, 47%-41%. Last month, a Rasmussen poll showed that Brown's lead was statistically insignificant.

-- In Rhode Island, Dem Sheldon Whitehouse is head of GOP Senator Lincoln Chafee by eight points, 51%-43%. A little over two weeks ago, Rasmussen had Whitehouse ahead by only two points.

-- And in Montana, after a series of bad gaffes by GOP Senator Conrad Burns, Dem Jon Tester is ahead of the incumbent by nine points, 52%-43%. They were tied at 47% in August, according to Rasmussen.

Note that all three trailing Republicans are incumbents.

Thank Goodness

& I always dismissed it as wind through the pines. It was a great rationalization. Now I know it's OK. I think, but I wish that one voice would stop telling me to stay home & polish my guns.

Researchers at Britain's Manchester University have said hearing voices is not necessarily a sign of mental illness.

Bluegill Warriors

Maybe our pet bluegill has a future in law enforcement.

That Other Country

The result of the United States' world leadership. Pathetic. I guess Bu$hCo doesn't mind that Poland offered just 10 soldiers, yes, 10, since they allowed use of their soil for the CIA's secret prisons, used for the torture of people.

...an inquiry by the 46-member Council of Europe in June singled out Poland, which is a member of the European Union, and especially Romania, which is due to join the EU in two years, as the two most likely locales for secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe.

But Bu$hCo can't convince our allies to do more in Afganistan, where the real battle against terrorism is continuing, & not very well, by the way.

More than a week after NATO's top leaders publicly demanded reinforcements for their embattled mission in southern Afghanistan, only one member of the 26-nation alliance has offered more troops, raising questions about NATO's largest military operation ever outside of Europe and the goal of expanding its global reach.

The plea for more soldiers and equipment to fight resurgent Taliban insurgents comes as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's forces are suffering the highest casualty rates of the nearly five-year-long conflict in Afghanistan, and as European governments are feeling stretched by the demands for troops there and in Iraq, Lebanon, the Balkans and in several African countries.

More Sad Truth, But Really Great Whitefish

The SideKick & Mrs. SideKick & I went out to dinner last night. At the SideKick's suggestion, I ordered a herb encrusted whitefish filet. It was absolutely great. It was so good I bought dinner to celebrate my new grandfatherhood. It put me in a good mood. We also talked about this article in The Washington Post. One of the interesting things about the present hubbub about the early clusterfuck in Iraq in regards to the Coalition Provisional Authority is that we already knew about it. See here & here & here. There is so much to read on this subject, that I will stop at those three links. However, the present interest is of use, as well. It helps focus attention on Bu$hCo's ideological extremism. Bu$hCo is no fearless leader defended the homeland, I hate that word. He is an ideologue of the worst bent. Here's a bit of Rajiv Chandrasekaran's article in today's WaPo. The article is from his book Imperial Life in the Emerald City. You can buy the book here.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon. To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration. O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Oh, yeah it's important for the rebuilding of Iraq that your views on the constitutional right to an abortion are known to the President. Of course, O'Beirne is the husband of this person:

who said this in Salon. If you want to read it all, just listen to the ad.

O'Beirne blames the feminist movement for the breakdown of the family, the feminization of society, a weakened military, an exaggerated sense of the epidemic of domestic violence, an invented wage gap, and the degradation of motherhood.

Oh yeah, again. The Kid's brand new identical twins, the loving son-in-law, her feminist mother, me, her feminist mother-in-law, her father-in-law, her brother-in-law have just been destroyed by feminism. What a fucking loon.

Billmon writes from the Whiskey Bar:

The reasons for the CPA's FEMA-like failures were both polymorphous and perverse, but the biggest problem (not counting the complete lack of pre-war planning, the petty bureacratic squabbles between Defense and State, the utter cluelessness of Doug Feith and Donald Rumsfeld, and the sheer absurdity of trying to govern Iraq with a few thousand Americans, most of whom didn't speak Arabic and couldn't have found Baghdad on a map before they arrived -- and in some cases even after they did) was the Cheney Administration's deliberate decision to fill the CPA's ranks almost entirely with GOP party workers, campaign donors, hack politicians, think tank interns and assorted relatives of neocon VIPs, like Michael Ledeen's daughter. Thus the nickname. I'm tempted to call it the Mayor Richard J. Daley theory of colonial administration, but his patronage machine actually managed to deliver public services. .... But it wasn't the Washington Post or the New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or any of the other corporate media that originally broke the story. It was the blogosphere's own Josh Marshall, Laura Rozen (of War and Piece) and Colin Soloway, writing for the Washington Monthly, in December 2003. That was almost three years ago. And now -- only now -- it's showing up on the front page of a major national newspaper.

Yes. Thanks for the SideKick, once again, for a great recommendation for dinner & the inspiration for this post. Oh yes, this is a whitefish:

They are a lot of fun in that incarnation, but just as much fun, in the hands of a good person, in this form:

Frank Rich

Via Raw Story, we get this exerpt from today's Frank Rich's column. It's about Bu$hCo's LIES.

The untruths are flying so fast that untangling them can be a full-time job. Maybe that's why I am beginning to find Dick Cheney almost refreshing. As we saw on "Meet the Press" last Sunday, these days he helpfully signals when he's about to lie. One dead giveaway is the word "context," as in "the context in which I made that statement last year." The vice president invoked "context" to try to explain away both his bogus predictions: that Americans would be greeted as liberators in Iraq and that the insurgency (some 15 months ago) was in its "last throes."

The other instant tip-off to a Cheney lie is any variation on the phrase "I haven't read the story." He told Tim Russert he hadn't read The Washington Post's front-page report that the bin Laden trail had gone "stone cold" or the new Senate Intelligence Committee report contradicting the White House's prewar hype about nonexistent links between al-Qaida and Saddam. Nor had he read a New York Times front-page article about his declining clout. Or the finding by Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency just before the war that there was "no evidence of resumed nuclear activities" in Iraq. "I haven't looked at it; I'd have to go back and look at it again," he said, however nonsensically.

Rather than tune this bluster out, as the country now does, let's try a thought experiment. Let's pretend everything Bush said is actually true and then hold him to his word. If the safety of America really depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad, then our safety is in grave peril because we are losing that battle...

Local Global Warming

I wish the Packers were this hot.

Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group released a report Thursday analyzing temperature increases in various locations throughout the state. According to the report, Green Bay's average temperature is up 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit since 2000, compared with the previous three decades (1971-2000).

September 10, 2006

Chicago Bears 26 Final
Green Bay Packers 0

Who, Among Us, Would Have Ever Thought

That torture, the legalizing of torture, would ever be debated in any division of our, government Of the United States of America? This is such a disgusting fucking spectacle, that I just don't have the energy to get really pissed off. The historical legacy Bu$hCo so sorely wants will be nothing but toture, vaniety wars, & absolutely no accountability. I hope the spoiled brat is happy. I agree with this assessment, as well.

I am beyond being able to assess the political implications, one way or the other, of this spectacle. Regardless of which version of the bill finally passes, this debate is a black mark on the soul of the nation. Of course passage of a pro-torture bill will diminish U.S. standing internationally and jeopardize the safety and well-being of U.S. servicemen in future engagements. But merely having this debate has already accomplished that. Does anyone honestly believe that if Congress rebuffs the President in every respect that the rule of law and the inviolability of human rights will have been vindicated? Of course not.

The Republicans have defined deviancy down for the whole world, including every two-bit dictator and wild-eyed terrorist.

Feeling safer?

Ann Richards, Again.

Molly Ivins tells some stories. Ms. Richards was the kind of Democrat that we need, liberal, funny, tough, honest.

At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin' and greetin' at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock's personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, "Bob, my boy, how are you?"

Bullock said, "Judge, I'd like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer."

The judge peered up at me and said, "How yew, little lady?"

Bullock, "And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department." Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie's palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. "And who is this lovely lady?"

Ann beamed and replied, "I am Mrs. Miles."

Via Susie Madrak.

Crapheads

As I've said before, sons-of-bitches is way too kind for these ReThug bastards.

Atrios is right when he says the right-wingnuts will drop these first responders like a hot rock when health care becomes an issue. Not germane my ass.

Yesterday, Republican Senators blocked Senator Clinton's proposal to fund almost 2 billion for medical treatment for sick 9/11 responders. As reported in NYC's Daily News:

Senate leaders invoked parliamentary rules, saying Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) amendment to a measure funding port security was not "germane." – NY Daily News

As I have repeatedly explained this past week (1,2,3), the federal government’s response to the environmental effect of the WTC Ground Zero site almost precisely follow the profits over safety business model sometimes adopted by corporations.

Trenches?

This* is the result of Rumsfeld's of a new military?

"Current arrangements pretty much designed for the Cold War must give way to the new demands of war against extremists and other evolving 21st-century challenges," Rumsfeld said.**

....

Iraq's interior ministry has announced plans to increase security in Baghdad by digging trenches around the city, and surrounding it with checkpoints.*

Apparently, Iraqis need to learn from Rumsfeld. Eh, not so much.**

But one clear winner in this first major war of the 21st century is likely to be Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
(April 11, 2003, ed.)

What A Relief

I was really worried about this test. You can't imagine how worried I was.

An international research team led by Prof. Michael Kramer of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK, has used three years of observations of the "double pulsar", a unique pair of natural stellar clocks which they discovered in 2003, to prove that Einstein's theory of general relativity - the theory of gravity that displaced Newton's - is correct to within a staggering 0.05%. Their results are published on the14th September in the journal Science and are based on measurements of an effect called the Shapiro Delay.

Amur Tiger Time, Sad Edition

Too bad.

The smallest of three rare Siberian tiger cubs born at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium died Thursday, zoo officials said.

Respiratory problems likely caused the 5-week-old cub's death, the zoo said. But results of a necropsy performed Thursday won't be available for several weeks.

Zookeepers noticed the cub was lethargic Wednesday when its mother, Toma, allowed her three cubs to leave the den where they were born Aug. 8. Veterinarians tried to treat the cub, but its condition worsened.

The 4-pound female was half the size of her brother and sister, the zoo said.

There are only about 400 Siberian tigers in the wild and about 190 in U.S. zoos. Their mortality rate in the wild is about 30 to 40 percent.

Mary Landrieu, Mary Landrieu

Credit where credit is due. Mary Landrieu says it right.