The Other Real World

"New" Counterinsurgency Tactic In Iraq: Don't kill the civilians, provide for them!

2006-10-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

This article (Subscription Required) in the NY Times today should be filed under the heading, "Well, Duhhhhhh!"

We just got married here in The Other Real World, and frankly so dismayed at the state of GOP Politricks, the War in Iraq and the general state of affairs that we took a break from blogging to enjoy the sweeter things in life and love.

The Foley email-perv-cover-up-gate notwithstanding (for the moment), today's NY Times has an article about that pesky old war in Iraq. Rove may be hi-5'ing Bush right now (dude, Foley's controlling the news cycle!) but Iraq still slogs on, a war looking for a strategy, an Army busted by our leaders.

But, never fear, They've come up with a solution...

Right now the Yes Men of the Respectable US Army and Marines have devised a brilliant new strategy. Don't kill the civilians, provide for their safety and welfare first. Friggin' DUH!!! They're just now figuring this out?!?! Who is in charge of this whole shooting match anyway?

Oh Yeah... Oh Crap.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — The United States Army and Marines are finishing work on a new counterinsurgency doctrine that draws on the hard-learned lessons from Iraq and makes the welfare and protection of civilians a bedrock element of military
strategy. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/washington/05doctrine.html

5 years and they've figured out Democracy can't be forced at the end of a gun, and that civility starts with humanity. Someone deserves a medal.

Or the boot.

Short Tempers Flair in Iraq

2006-05-28T00:34:00.000-07:00

No american wants the U.S. to fail in Iraq, no matter what side of the political fence you mow your lawn. But as our leaders proclaim political success by baby steps, the news is filled with images of horror, outrage, despair. As bad as things were under Saddam - it's becoming harder and harder to believe that what exists now is any better.

BAGHDAD, Iraq May 28, 2006 (AP)— An Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were shot to death this week in Baghdad because they were wearing shorts, authorities said Saturday, reporting the latest in a series of recent attacks attributed to Islamic extremists.
A U.S. Marine AH-1 Cobra helicopter, meanwhile, crashed Saturday and its two crew members were missing in Anbar province, a volatile area west of the capital where insurgents are active.
Hostile fire was not suspected as the cause of the crash, the U.S. military said. A pair of bombs ripped through central Baghdad just after dawn Sunday, killing three people and injuring 21, police said. Link (AP-ABC News)

If it's not in their constitution now, they need to add an amendment: the right of people to wear shorts in the dessert. Democracy without shorts is a long-legged form of fascism if you ask me.

It gets worse.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military is bracing for a major scandal over the alleged slaying of Iraqi civilians by Marines in Haditha — charges so serious they could threaten President Bush's effort to rally support at home for an increasingly unpopular war.
And while the case has attracted little attention so far in Iraq, it still could enflame hostility to the U.S. presence just as Iraq's new government is getting established, and complicate efforts by moderate Sunni Arab leaders to reach out to their community — the bedrock of the insurgency.
U.S. lawmakers have been told the criminal investigation will be finished in about 30 days. But a Pentagon official said investigators believe Marines committed unprovoked murder in the deaths of about two dozen people at Haditha in November. (Yahoo - AP)

Is it too late to ask for a do-over?

Leopold Scoop - De-Scoopified?

2006-05-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Update: Since our last post, we've done some more reading about Jason Leopold. While his reporting and writing style are intriguing, upon further reflection (and research), it seems that there may be cause to suspect some of his reporting methods and practices. Apparently Mr. Leopold has a history of reporting things that can not be verified, and in some cases, he has reported things that have later turned out to be factually incorrect.

Salon's article on the subject is worth reading.

Mea Culpa readers. Those of us living in The Other Real World agree with most Americans (69%) who say that this country is headed in the wrong direction - and a big part of that is because of Karl Rove and George W. Bush. Perhaps we're a little too eager to see Rove and the BFEE finally be brought to task in the clear light of the justice system; so eager that we forget to run all the juicy political tidbits through the BDD (Bullshit Detection Device) that separates the real cynics from the amateurs.

We're not going to delete the previous post about Leopold's "Scoop" - as much as we'd like to - but let it remain as a humbling reminder that wishing things to be true doesn't make it so. (Hey: Bushbots, that goes for Iraq too.)

As far as Karl Rove's possible indictment - at this point it's just wait-and-see/trust-but-verify.

Truthout Scoop: Rove to Bush, "I'm gettiing indicted"

2006-05-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

Jason Leopold is reporting on TRUTHOUT that Karl Rove has informed Bush and his new chief of staff, Josh "shake up" Bolten, that he's getting indicted and will resign as soon as it becomes public.

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t Report
"Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.
Details of Rove's discussions with the president and Bolten have spread through the corridors of the White House where low-level staffers and senior officials were trying to determine how the indictment would impact an administration that has been mired in a number of high-profile political scandals for nearly a year, said a half-dozen White House aides and two senior officials who work at the Republican National Committee." Read on..

Much of what Leopold has published on this topic in the past has been right on the money. Could this be the real start of the 12 days of Fitzmas for Rove? It's all pins and needles here in The Other Real World.

Here's why. If Rove is indicted, the White House may finally have to answer some very tough questions. Why did the White House say Rove and Libby were not involved in the the leak, even while they both were allegedly lying to the grand jury and obstructing justice? Did the president ask Rove and Libby if they were lying? WDTPKAWDHKI: What did the president know, and when did he know it, a question that's brought down at least one republican president already.

Fox News White House transplant, Tony Snow, is going to have his hands full answering those questions. Scott Mclellan will be watching with a smirk the size of Texas. Talk about getting out while the gettin's good. Bush can't quit when the excrement hits the cooling device, he's staying right where he is, until Congress says otherwise.

Tony Snow is a tough guy; to his credit he beat cancer , the hardest personal battle any of us may ever have to face. Cancer, as it turns out, was a winning battle for Snow. Saving the Bush Administration from itself will probably be even harder than that. If he loses that one, his job will be waiting for him at FauxNews.

GOP Screw-you-nomics: $20 for Middle Class, $82K for the Rich

2006-05-11T22:18:00.000-07:00

If you ever needed evidence of how today's "Conservative" holds the middle-class in contempt, all you need do is take a look at the latest round of tax cuts. Not only do these cuts benefit the most fortunate amongst us (top 1%), they are a clear message to America during wartime: we're getting richer; your children get to pay for this war.

Here's how the cuts break down: If you earn between $27,000 and $47,000 a year, which is middle income, your tax savings will average $20.
If you earn $47,000 to $82,000, you save $115.
Those with an average income of $82,000 and over will receive savings of roughly $2,099.
But the biggest savings go to the biggest earners. The top 1 percent of wage earners will receive a $13,849, and the top 0.1 percent will save an average of $82,000, which is why this bill was so controversial. [emphasis added - obscenity revealed] ABC News: Link - ABC News

So, why did they free up all that money for the super rich? To invest in the American economy? Not bloody likely... Investors are increasingly moving their money to foreign markets as the dollar loses strength. Guess again.

The real reason they're giving back money to the super rich is because the GOP is gearing up for another war - the final battle against the middle-class. It's going to take a lot of money to fool America into voting GOP again after the mess they've made of America, Civil Liberties, the economy, Iraq, Immigration, FEMA, the CIA, Congress and everything else they've undertaken in the last 6 years. The super-rich have some huge political bills to pay.

If you earn less than $200k a year and you still vote GOP, you're a fool. They've got you duped with "gay marriage" and "abortions on demand" and "your with us or you're for the terrorists" crap while they rob you blind. Halliburton, Big Oil and other favored industries get your money while you hug your bible, wave your flag and say, thank you, sirs, may I have another!

You can keep your bible and your flag, nobody is going to take them away from you. Reconsider your voting choice next November, and you might just get your country back. Otherwise, get ready for the next trillion-dollar war, kiss the middle-class goodbye and start learning a second language for your new job in India.

CIA #1 and #3 Gone - #2 and #4 Losing Sleep

2006-05-08T17:59:00.001-07:00

Looks like the latest casualty of the CIA Shakeup/Hookergate scandal is the number three guy, Kyle Foggo. With the number one and number three guys gone, numbers two and four won't be sleeping easy tonight.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The third-highest official at the CIA, under investigation over ties to a defense contractor linked to a Capitol Hill bribery inquiry, has decided to step down, intelligence sources told CNN Monday.

Kyle "Dusty" Foggo was plucked from relative obscurity by CIA Director Porter Goss to become the CIA's executive director, the agency's No. 3 position. As such, Foggo was in charge of day-to-day operations at the spy agency. Link

Um... exactly how does this make our country safer? It's coming up on five years since 9/11 and the CIA is in shambles.

Stock up on duct tape and tuna, you're on your own.

107 Court Martials, Another 170 Torture Investigations

2006-05-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

I'm not making this up. According to US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Charles Stimson, there have been 107 courts martials and an additional 170 investigations of torture by US troops and agents of our country. The party line from the Kool Aid bunch is that incidents of torture represent "a few bad apples." It doesn't take a genius to figure out that 277 incidents were not isolated, but rather indicative of a policy handed down from the White House, through Rumsfeld on down through the ranks.

GENEVA (AFP) - US officials told the UN's anti-torture body that the United States had held 103 courts martial for mistreatment of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan under a broad clampdown against ill treatment.

Another 170 investigations are still under way, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson said during Washington's first appearance before the UN Committee on Torture since President George W. Bush unleashed a "war on terrorism". Link

These were not 277 isolated incidents. 277 soldiers did not just coincidentally and simultaneously pull torture out of their asses. They were following orders founded in bad policy.

Credit where credit is due. The investigations and reporting are testaments to the American ideals of justice and humanity. The incidents themselves show America at its lowest point - when fear trumped the rule of law.

Good luck to the 277 scapegoats, I hope they learned their lessons. As to the commanders who set the policy and gave the orders, America's shame belongs to you.

Conservative Founder of USA TODAY: Bush Supporters "In Denial"

2006-05-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

Al Neuhart, known conservative and founder of the USA Today newspaper answers a question on a lot of people's minds. Whayt's up with the 34% of Americans who still support President Bush's worst presidencey ever?

According to Neuharth (USA-Today link) Bush's remaining supporters are in denial. In his own words:

How low can Bush's approval rating go? My hunch is it's at or near the bottom. That 34% represents mostly unshakable far-right wingers. Like Bush, Vice President Cheney and company, they are in denial. As were the 24% in the polls who still approved of President Richard Nixon before he resigned in disgrace.

What happened to the 37% who have switched from pro-Bush to anti-Bush? They finally realized they were suckered by Bush and his buddies back then about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, his tie to terrorists and his threat to the USA. [emphasis mine]

Denial didn't help Nixon's supporters. Perhaps the Bushbots with koolaid running hot in their veins could learn from the 24% who still supported Nixon - get out now while the getting is good. Your leaders let you down, it's not your fault.

Goss Resigns Suddenly - CIA In Disarray

Another one bites the dust. This time it's Porter Goss head of the CIA. His resignation was unexpected - despite what the BushBot pundits are selling - and comes only days after it was announced that the #3 person at the CIA is being investigated in connection with the Duke Cunningham Bribery/Watergate Hooker scandal.

"Director Porter Goss resigned suddenly Friday, nudged out after a turmoil-filled 18 months at the spy agency as it struggled to forge a new identity in an era of intelligence blunders and government overhauls...."

"...It was not entirely clear why Goss resigned so unexpectedly. An intelligence official, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position, said Goss had stood up for the agency when there were differences with National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's office, which was created about a year ago...." (AP-Yahoo)

Even if there were differences between Goss and Negroponte, that does not explain why he resigned so unexpectedly. As this story unfolds, it won't look good for anybody.

Bottom line, we're less safe today than we were before 9/11 because Bush keeps appointing the wrong people. Being "the decider" isn't much of a strength if you keep making the wrong decisions. That makes him the "bad decision-er."

Rumsfeld "Faced" by ex-CIA McGovern in Atlanta

2006-05-04T17:32:00.001-07:00

How the Truth Got its Groove Back

Wow, first Stephen Colbert offers stinging criticism of the press and the Bush Administration, and now we have another unscripted moment; Donald Rumsfeld was called to task for comments made in the lead up to the Iraq war that proved not to be true. I must admit, lately I've been worrying about right to free speech in this country. Colbert's performance and today's truth moment courtesy of tough questions by CIA-veteran Ray McGovern give rise to hope.

At least our comedians, ex-generals and ex-CIA directors can speak out. More power to them.

McGovern: "Why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has cause these kinds of casualties?"

Rumsfeld: "Well, first of all, I haven't lied. I did not lie then...."

McGovern: "You said you knew where they were."

Rumsfeld: "I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were."

McGovern: You said you knew where they were, near Tikrit, near Baghdad and north, east, south and west of there. Those are your words..." (Read more of the transcript here - VOA Spin at no extra charge - and watch the video at cooksandliars)

So, Let's take a look at what Rumsfeld did say on ABC's This Week, March 30, 2003

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven't found any weapons of mass destruction?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think -- let me take that, both pieces -- the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. Link

Sounds pretty much like Rumsfeld was either lying, spining or just plain making the shit up. Gee whiz, Henny-Penny, it's time for Rumsfeld to leave the Defense Department.

It's also interesting to note that McGovern and the other protesters at the event were all forcefully removed from the premises. So, while free speech may still get your ass dragged out of an event, at least those willing to face arrest and strong-arm tactics can still get their message out there. A small price to pay if that's what it's going to take for our leaders to start telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but - you guessed it - the truth.

La Cucaracha, Zacarias Moussaoui, Spared Death Penalty

2006-05-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

La Cucaracha, la cucaracha,
ya no puede caminar,
Couple of items today: Not that he deserves the energy spent typing his vile name, but Al-Quaida wanna-be Zacarias Moussaoui will serve the rest of his life in federal prison. No Martyrdom for him – we win. As much as it would please any American to see this guy fry (pay-per-view on Fox?), it’s probably better that he spend the rest of his life living like a cockroach, surviving on scraps of stale prison food in solitary confinement rather than die a martyr for a twisted cause.

porque no tiene, porque le falta,
marijuana que fumar.
Next Item: Our Mexican neighbors are in the process of decriminalizing small amounts of pot, cocaine, smack, meth, ludes, uppers and downers. Their politicians argue that they want to spend their time and resources going after the king pins, smugglers, commercial growers, etc.. Yeah, right.

The Bush administration has so weakened our position in the world, Mexico is just thumbing its nose at us. “Come to Mexico on Spring Break, Gringos, blow your mind south of the boarder! Forget Amsterdam, come to Tijuana!” Given the security and well-known corruption issues in Mexico, it’s hard to imagine that they have the will or ability to actually follow up with the back end of their plan.

Come to think about it, the well-known corruption in our country these days doesn't really give us much room to talk either. Oh well, this is America, hypocrisy is part of what makes us special.

We hope we're wrong on this one and the strength and integrity of the average Mexican citizen makes its way to the country’s leadership. Hasn't worked for the republicans in America, but you never know.

If, however, the legalization of drugs in Mexico is more a sign of drug lords influencing policy, the end result will be more American addicts in boarder states. I’m sure the already overburdened methadone clinics in San Diego are just thrilled to know that Mexico is making heroin legal and therefore easier to obtain.

Actually, decriminalization of some drugs could be part of the solution to the “drug problem.” If people want to smoke pot, let them. Tax marijuana and use the money for education, rehabilitation and enforcement of laws that go after serious drugs like cocaine, meth and smack.

In the meantime, The Other Real World will be applying for a business license to teach Spanish to stoners. “Yo quiero marijuana!”

UPDATE: Looks like the US does have some influence on Mexico. The Associated Press is reporting that Mexican President Vincente Fox is backing off - for now at least - and sending the bill back for modifications.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to sign a drug decriminalization bill Wednesday, hours after U.S. officials warned the plan could encourage "drug tourism."

Fox sent the measure back to Congress for changes, but his office did not mention the U.S. criticism... Link

Iraq: The Big Lie... Finally, Real Hardball from Tweety Bird

2006-05-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

There is definitely one thing we share with Chris Matthews, and that's his nerdy enthusiasm for politics. The similarities end there, though, because Matthews has long since sold his soul to the ruling elites, and therefore lacks the journalistic animal instinct to really go for the jugular and take down even the weakest of the political herd. Most of the time, what he tries to pass off as objectivity comes off as sicophantic pandering.
Please, Mr. Politician, don't hate me. I don't want to ask you these tough questions because - gosh golly - I still want to be invited to all the parties and hang out with the cool kids. But I have to ask you because "they're" making me....
Once in a while Matthews really does play hardball. Today, he hit one out of the park. With any luck, he'll get to like the feeling and start playing big league ball all the time.

Today Chris had Tyler Drumheller, the "CIA’s chief of operations in Europe until he retired last year" and Gary Berntsen "a former CIA field officer who served on the ground in Afghanistan." You can read the article, transcript and watch the video here from MSNBC.

Suffice it to say, the transcript speaks for itself. The adminstration knew the Iraq nuke intel was wrong. They knew the Iraq WMD intel was weak, but they used it because they knew Americans would not support the pie-in-the sky regime change/middle-east democracy dominoe reasons for invading Iraq. I don't want to spoil the whole interview for you, but here's a few choice quotes:

On yellowcake and Niger:

DRUMHELLER: That’s the way it appears. You’re certainly right on the fact that the information that was in the State of the Union Address was inaccurate, and that the yellowcake reporting from Niger, the reports that had come in on the issue of yellowcake were well-known to have been discredited as far back as September and October.

On the likelihood that Vice President Cheney did know about Joe Wilson's trip to Niger, and that he did receive his report, something denied by this administration.

MATTHEWS: What did [George Tenet] mean when I asked him "why didn’t the vice president get a report back from the trip to Africa by Joe Wilson?" That would have cleared this whole thing up. He said to ask him. What does that mean?
DRUMHELLER: I think it means that George didn’t want to answer because he knew what the answer was.
MATTHEWS: Which was he got a report....

Watch the segment. If you're a political junkie, this is your crack. If you're a lingering BushBot, this is your wake-up call.

Well done Tweety Bird - you get a cracker and a provisional vote of confidence from The Other Real World. Don't blow it.

May Day - Marching in the Streets

2006-05-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

Looking down on the sea of immigrants and their supporters from my workplace vantage point, 32 floors above Market street in San Francisco, two thoughts occurred to me. The first thought was "holy crap, now that's a demonstration." The second thought came a millisecond after the first, "where the hell is my camera?"

What in the name of blogfarts do we think about the immigration question in The Other Real World anyway?

Good question, with no simple answer. But we'll take a "two worlds" stab at it - let's see if we can manage to over-simplify and/or confuse the issue any more than it has been in recent months.

In the "real world" America is a country governed by the rule of law (in theory at least) and built by immigrants from every corner of the earth. Follow the law, work hard, you can live the dream. Fair enough. Break the law and lady justice will kick you in the nuts and throw you out the door. Call if tough love American style. Now go home and come back legally like our grandparents did. Sounds simple, right?

Wrong. In The Other Real World, America is a country owned by Big Business and built on the back of cheap labor and lower wages for the American middle class. As long as government looks the other way while Big Business hires illegals, we we will continue to see immigrants flooding over our boarders for wages the American worker won't accept. In The Other Real World, immigrants - legal and otherwise - are people too and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Come out of the shadows and get in line. We'll support your path to citizenship if you obey the laws of our land (from now on) and help us in our struggle for dignified wages and honest work for everyone.

As long as we're still in the other real world, let's talk about public election financing, shall we? Because that's where the problem begins and ends. Big Business owns congress, the whitehouse, the media and most of the really cool office equipment . Get Big Business money out of politics and you'll start getting polticians who represent the people's interest, not Exxon's, Enron's and Walmart's.

Colbert Drops a Truthiness Bomb - Bush Shocked and Awed

2006-04-30T19:28:00.001-07:00

Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's in-your-face answer to Bill "Loofah" O'Reilly hosted this year's White House Correspondents dinner. True to form and in character, Colbert delivered a performance sure to be remembered as the bit heard 'round the liberal world. A revolutionary comedy shot fired across the bow of SS Uniter Dicider.

All Hams on Deck. A few quotes from Editor and Publisher:

...He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg...”
...Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq...."
...Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, “photo ops” on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, melting glaciers and Vice President Cheney shooting people in the face.
...He advised the crowd, "if anybody needs anything at their tables, speak slowly and clearly on into your table numbers and somebody from the N.S.A. will be right over with a cocktail..."
...“This was anti-Bush,” said one attendee. “Usually they go back and forth between us and him.” Another noted that Bush quickly turned unhappy. “You could see he stopped smiling about halfway through Colbert,” he reported....
As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling. The president shook his hand and tapped his elbow, and left immediately...."

Oh to be a fly on the wall when Mr. and Mrs. Dubya were alone on the limo ride home. I'm thinking either dead silence or open sobbing.

They've got the video here where you can also send a thank you to Stephen for speaking Truthiness to power.

During next year's event, the Decider will be ordering takeout.

The Other Real World... Out of hiding!

2006-04-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a while folks, and I must admit I feel somewhat ashamed at the reason for our hiatus. Big scandal, you ask? Not really, we hope.

Here's the short version. I've been trying to get my fiancee here from Jamaica since November, 2005. We've been together for 3 years, we're ready to make this real for keeps. At first, I seemed to be getting quite a bit of push-back from the Department of Homeland Security. First, they sent a check back, wasn't filled out to their satisfaction. I wrote them a new check but they sent that back saying the fee had increased $5.00 in the ten days between my receiving the returned check and mailing a new one to them. (would have been nice if they told me the fee would be going up, you think?)

Grrrr. Someone at DHS trying to mess with me? I sent them another check.

Then they write me back saying I needed my fiance's Birth Certificate translated into English. Problem is, her birth certificate was in English, every single word. I wrote them back, having been informed that if I didn't reply my application would be denied, no refund, have a nice life.

Something is going on here, I thought. For some reason the Department of Homeland Security was giving me the run around... Couldn't have anything to do with this Blog, could it?

Paranoia in the post 9/11 world - underground grumblings that the NSA is doing more than just wiretapping suspected terrorists calls - drove me to make a choice. Passionate political speech or a chance at love. In a free country, there'd be no reason for such a choice. Things such as they are (are you still reading DHS?), I wimped out and erred on the side of caution (paranoia) and love.

3 weeks ago I got a letter. My application has been approved by DHS and INS. Her case is now going from the National Visa Center to the Embassy in Kingston. Once they get the file, she passes her medical tests, pays some more fees, gives them a copy of her empty police record, and then she'll be on her way to the USA.

So, was there a connection between ceasing my political anti-Bush/pro-America truth speech and DHS moving forward with the approval of her application? For the sake of us all, I really hope not. But if there was, some day we'll have an interesting story to tell our kids... How I managed to get her to this once great country during its dark ages, when silence was golden.

So, that's my story. I'm still on top of the issues, and I'm ready to come back to the blogosphere.

Are you ready?

Bush Withdrawing MORE troops from Iraq. Thank you Rep. Murtha!

2005-12-22T23:18:00.000-08:00

Recently, Democratic Congressman Jack Murtha was called every name in the book for demanding change of course and troop withdrawal from Iraq. A few weeks later and - Abracadabra - Bush has reversed his stance and is now bringing home more troops than expected:

Bush Authorizes New Cuts in Troops in Iraq (By ROBERT BURNS, APMilitary Writer (via LaTimes: link)

FALUJAH, Iraq -- President Bush has authorized new cuts in U.S. combat troops in Iraq, below the 138,000 level that prevailed for most of this year, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday. Addressing U.S. troops at this former insurgent stronghold,

Rumsfeld did not reveal the exact size of the troop cut, but Pentagon officials have said it could be as much as 7,000 combat troops.

It's the same old story. When Democrats call for strategic withdrawal and a change of strategy, we're called cowards. But then they do the very things for which they've called us cowards! (Caution, thinking about this too much may cause your head to explode).

It's just like when Bush says we don't torture, when we have. Like when he said all wiretaps require a warrant, when under his rule, apparently they really don't. Like when Bush said we would take care of Gulf Coast Katrina victims, and FEMA continues to fall short.

...and we're Back to Iraq....

Murtha threw himself on the Iraq war grenade for the the Dems, our troops, our country and, yes, even Iraq. If anyone deserves a medal, it's him. Then again, he has plenty of his own.

Happy Winter Solstice! Holiday Greetings!

2005-12-21T13:17:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season.

Is that enough to get me on Bill O'Reilly's list? I hope so. I could use the publicity.

If you're an O'Reilly fan, please let him know that The Other Real World is a central front in the War on Jesusmas. I want all Americans of every faith to enjoy whatever holiday they celebrate in late December, but there will be no more Red and Green in The Other Real World.

Now put me on your list O'Reilly! What are you, chicken?

Bok, bok, bok, bok....

Reality Check: Plastic Explosives On The Loose!

2005-12-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

As king Dubya tries to convince the nation that checks and balances are for suckers, and that only he can protect us from danger in a time of war, the cold hard news of reality sets in to remind us that he can't even protect us against ourselves...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Authorities are asking for the public's help after 150 pounds of commercial plastic explosives turned up missing from a private storage site, along with 2,500 blasting caps and 20,000 feet of explosive detonation cord. (FoxNews....G-d forgive me for using them as a reference).

This should scare the stuffing out of anyone with two active brain cells. How can it be, that "after 9/11" (forgive me for that, too), our Government allows 150 pounds lethal plastic explosives to justdisappearr? Read the article. It says that they were storing these explosives at a "private" site. There's a big difference between "private" and "secure." I wonder if this "private" facility is owned by another GOP donor, or if anyone even suggested that it might be a good idea to guard the facility to ensure that plastic explosives don't end up in the hands of evil-dooers. If this "war on terror" is a serious enough to suspend our civil rights, it stands to reason that securing lethal explosives in the homeland is just as critical to winning, if not moreso...

If our Government spent as much time actually protecting American citizens as it does defending the questionable policies of King George, those explosives would be safe under lock and key. It's time to cut the chord on Dubya's political life support and start protecting Americans.

Iraqis Vote In Droves - U.S. Spying on US

2005-12-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

The staggering turnout in yesterday's elections in Iraq by all factions - Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds - gives rise to perhaps a glimmer of hope in the face of violence, uncertainty and confusion. The three steps forward, two steps back and one step sideways situation in Iraq inched forward yesterday, and even if their new found unity was fueled by the common goal of kicking our asses out, at least we had one day of hope amidst years of bad news.

Nothing wrong with hope.

Reality is something different. From today's Washington Post:

For President Bush, the strong turnout for Iraq's election yesterday may represent the best day since the fall of Baghdad 32 months ago because all major factions participated in the political process, according to U.S. and Middle East analysts. But the sobering reality, they added, is that the vote by itself did not resolve Iraq's lingering political disputes.

Sobering reality, proving pesky "analysts" right since 2,000 B.C.*

*not including the analytical dark ages, circa 2000 - 2,005.

* * *

Meanwhile back in the good old U.S.A,, where voter turnouts are considerably less staggering, almost embarrassing really, our Government is showing the rest of the world just how Democracy is supposed to work.... in Bizarro World! The U.S. is spying on its most feared adversary, the U.S.A. That's right, the Government is spying on you and me. Isn't that cool! Thanks BushClause... you're the best!

Also from the WaPo:

President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night.

Bush has seen the enemy, and he is us!

Read the article if you dare. Who knows who's watching websites you visit, the articles you read, what you may post to a message board, or what you write on a cocktail napkin. Before you know it, we won't be able to write, think or say any---- [Censored by Uncle Sam - Now go to FoxNews.com or we're coming after you!]

Republican Politics "Delay" Katrina Aid

2005-12-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

Will this be enough to turn these red states blue? Perhaps now people will realize that voting for today's republican is a vote against your own interest. With the GOP, business and sleaze-ball politics win over the little guy every time. All it takes is a little slight of hand and the smoke and mirrors of "God, Gays and Guns" and millions of good Americans vote against their self-interests come election time.

But now, as the wrath of Katrina has uncovered the very real effects of republican "small government" policies, perhaps we'll begin to see a change next November.

If Opinion pieces like this keep showing up on the editorial pages of red state newspapers, the rest of America may finally wake up and smell the stench. From the opinion page of Mississippi's Clarion Ledger:

As Mississippians on the Coast huddle in tents and burn what is left of their homes to keep warm over the holiday retail season, we should have comfort in the knowledge that our needs will be on the back burner while the House figures out what to do about its leadership — or lack of it.

We have a Republican governor, and in Washington we have a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president. And a state that voted Republican is getting shafted over Republican politics.

It gets worse:

No citizen of the United States deserves this. No matter his or her political affiliation.

Indeed, we all deserve better. We drop billions every month in Iraq without so much as a guffaw from the Republican leadership. But when it comes to helping real, salt of the earth working Americans devastated by the worst natural disaster in American history, the GOP has shown its true shameful colors. No congressional representative, red state or blue, should be able to go home for the holidays until hurricane relief funding is passed.

While Delay and Hastert are opening gifts with their families this HOLIDAY season, Katrina's victims will be looking for the meager gift of hope. This year, in the name of preserving Tom Delay's political future, the GOP has left nothing under the tree.

Fa la, fricking la - a stocking full of vouchers and empty promises.

At least Tom Delay will have a pleasant holiday at your expense. You can make The Hammer's Xmas even jollier by contributing to his defense fund here. Or, if you've had your fill of being dumped on and duped by the GOP, you can learn more about the other guys here.

While Bush Says We Can't Pull Out, Rumsfeld Says We Can

2005-12-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, said on Thursday that he expects 20,000 troops to come home after the December 18 elections and more of the remaining 137,000 over the next year. Didn't he get the memo from "Stay the Course" Bush?

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Thursday he expects some 20,000 U.S. troops to return home from Iraq after next week's elections, and he suggested that some of the remaining 137,000 forces could pull out next year. (Yahoo/AP)

So, when Democrats call for bringing troops home as soon as possible, we're called "cut and run cowards." Any talk of troop withdrawals by Democrats is high treason, they shout over the neo-con airwaves. Then, before they can draw in their next breath of stale air, their own Secretary of Defense says the US is starting to bring troops home as soon as December 18th of this year.

What's the deal neocons? Are you cutting and running? Is this "mission accomplished?" It is for Representative Murtha. He said what our generals were thinking but couldn't say because of their respect for the Commander in Chief. Whether you want to believe it or not, the Bush Administration is listening to Murtha, Generals and other Democrats' reasoning that our troops are actually making things worse by their mere presence, and are viewed by the majority of Iraq as occupiers.

Bush would have you believe that we can't pull out until we declare victory. But that's just so Republicans can use such a victory for political gain. The fact is, we can't declare victory until we pull out. That has more to do with the truth on the ground in Iraq. Because as soon as we leave, the insurgency won't be able to hide behind the excuse that "we are only fighting the occupiers." As ends the occupation, so begins the birth of a Nation. Perhaps not the nation we would have hoped for, but at this point, we don't have a choice. Do we?

U.S. Pulling Out of New Orleans, Staying in Iraq

2005-12-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

We're back in the other real world with some weird real world news. While Mr. Bush spent most of the last week telling hand-picked captive military and government audiences that the U.S. can and must stay in Iraq, for better and worse, his "heck of a job" FEMA agency is pulling out of New Orleans Ninth Ward. Looks like Bush is prepared to face danger in Iraq, but not in the U.S.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency pulled all its workers out of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward yesterday after threats of violence and planned to request additional police or National Guard support, a FEMA spokeswoman said. [Washington Post, FEMA Pulls Out of Lower Ninth]

The message here is clear. Poor, frustrated Iraqis are number one on Bush's list - spare no expense and protect freedom in Iraq. On the other hand, America's poor and victims of Katrina's wrath aren't worth protecting. Doesn't America have the resources to protect its own relief workers and citizens on U.S. soil?

He won't set a time table in Iraq and yet he has already cut and run from the war on poverty and Katrina relief in New Orleans. What's wrong with this picture besides everything?

Unfair and Biased Faux News Refuses to Air Anti-Alito Ad

2005-11-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

Saying Fox news is "Fair and Balanced" is like saying Tom Cruise is sane and compassionate. So it comes as no surprise that Fox is refusing to air an advertisement that would dare use hyperbole in a political advertisement. Actually, to be fair, Fox isn't against hyperbole. Without it, they would be broadcasting dead air. But a political ad that goes against their "fair and balanced" GOP agenda?

Hell no!

(AP) (CBSNews) Fox News is refusing to air an advertisement critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect. Link

Fair? Not from the network that gives airtime to every swift-boating political hack and their inbred brother. No sirree. Balanced? From the network that airs a show proclaiming to be a "no spin zone" whose host calls for the bombing of an American city? Not a chance.

If you want neo-con fundamentalist vitriol then, by all means, keep on filling your head with Faux News. If, however, you're looking for fact-based, balanced reporting, you might just want to put down the kool aid and change the chanel.

Iraqi Leaders Call For US Withdrawal Timetable

2005-11-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

It's true. Iraqi and Arab leaders meeting in Cairo to discuss Iraqi reconciliation finally found some common ground. Although they continue to disagree on how to share power and resources in Iraq, they do agree on one thing. They want US troops out of Iraq.

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Iraqi leaders, meeting at a reconciliation conference in Cairo, urged an end to violence in the country and demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq (link).

So, while congressmen Murtha (my hero) and Democrats are called every name under the sun for wanting a correction of course and a clear exit strategy, the GOP leadership remains silent about Iraqi leaders who are now calling for a US exit timetable.
A timetable only emboldens the terrorists, they reason. Those who dare call for an exit strategy are helping the enemy.

Clearly, Iraq's political leaders have aligned themselves with Michael Moore, the A.C.L.U. and Moveon.org.

Here's the GOP logic (it's a stretch, I know, but go with me on this): if Iraqi leaders call for an exit timetable, they are helping the enemy. Those bastards! Let's bomb the crap out of their country. Wait, didn't we already do that?

Back to the drawing board.

Bombshell, Shmomshell - Libby Leak Spin Doesn't Fly

2005-11-16T22:04:00.000-08:00

The latest tidbit out of the Plamegate scandal vortex is that Bob Woodward admits to being told by another "senior bush administration official" about a Wilson-Plame-CIA connection.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA leak probe on Wednesday ensnared Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, who disclosed that he was told about CIA operative Valerie Plame nearly a month before her secret identity was revealed and apologised to his editor for keeping him in the dark. Reuters

Libby's attorneys and other felony sympathisers say this is a "Bombshell" that will help exonerate Scooter. Hey, everyone was blabbing about Plame. Scooter was just passing on gossip that everyone in the administration was talking about anyway.

From the same article:

Woodward's disclosure cast doubt on Fitzgerald's assertion that Libby was the
first government official to have told a reporter about Plame

Big hairy deal. First of all, what Fitzgerald actually said in his press conference, was that Libby was the first known government official to pass Plame's status at the CIA on to reporters. When Fitzgerald made his statement, he did not know about the other Bush Administration official's conversation with Woodword. He didn't know this information 1) because Libby participated in obstruction of justice; and 2) because Bob Woodward withheld that information from everyone.

The Woodward conversation has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Libby lied to the Grand Jury and the FBI. Period. Nice try slime-balls.

What this does seem to suggest is that just about everyone with security clearance and involved with the Whitehouse Iraq Group was peddling information on Valerie Plame's CIA status. Woodward's revelation shows just how widespread the effort to discredit Wilson was throughout Bush's administration. So add another "Senior Bush Administration Official" to the list: Karl Rove (Discussed Plame with Novak and Cooper), Scooter Libby (who discussed Plame with Miller and Russert), and door number three, Stephen Hadley, Bush's National Security adviser.

If it is Hadley, as reported by RawStory, that means the guy advising our president on national security actually undermined national security by outing Valerie Plame. Why does everyone in this administration seem to care more about political security than actual security?

got irony?

Today they unleashed Vice Pitbull Cheney on those who would dare challenge the premise of the Iraq War or the prosecution thereof; he called such critisism "dishonest and reprehensible." Once again, instead of properly and effectively going after our enemy, this Administration chooses spend valuable time and resources attacking their fellow Americans.

If they put half as much energy into effectively fighting this war, we'd be pulling troops out by now and Osama Bin Laden's head would be on a stick. Who knows, maybe we could have prevented the London and Madrid attacks.

Message to Cheney, all the time you spend attacking war critics is hurting our troops. Start fighting for success in Iraq. Leave the rest of us alone.

Bush Prods China - O'Reilly Loses Grip - Be Afraid

2005-11-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

First it's been a couple of days since my last post, but that's for good reason. Out of respect for veterans past, present and future I decided lay down the political sword and give it a rest for a few days. Watching Dubya play politics with war as he told 60% of America that we are aiding the enemy on a day dedicated to honoring veterans was enough to make everyone in The Other Real World lose interest in politics for a while.

But that's the point for Bush, isn't it? War is politics. It has been all along. It got him reelected, didn't it? With the Iraq War dividing America and drawing our attention, Dubya and his minions have run wild with no-bid contracts, medicare cuts, the dismantling of FEMA, the fusion of religion and government, and another thousand cuts in the flesh of the middle class and poor.

* * *

In case you haven't heard, Bill O'Reilly has officially gone off the deep end. He's creating a list of enemies and posting it on his website. He's worked himself up into a McCarthyesque froth, because San Francisco voted to "discourage" military recruitment on public campuses. The message: everyone in San Francisco can just die.

"Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."
And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead." (MediaMatters)

I don't know about you, but I've already written the FCC, Fox News and several of Bill O'Reilly's sponsors. If encouraging terrorist attacks against your fellow Americans isn't yelling "fire" in a crowded movie house, I don't know what is.

* * *

With his approval numbers hovering in the mid thirties, Bush took his show on the road. God help us all. He's talking about "Freedom" in China.

KYOTO, Japan - President Bush prodded China on Wednesday to grant more political freedom to its 1.3 billion people and held up arch rival Taiwan as a society that successfully moved from repression to democracy as it opened its
economy.

In remarks sure to rile Beijing, Bush suggested China should follow Taiwan’s path. (Newsday)

That's right. Piss off China. Gotta love Bush's bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy.

We've got to get him back to the ranch in Crawford before he unleashes his fury on India.

A Message to All Veterans

2005-11-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

Thank you!

Neocons In Iraq - Chainsaw In a Hornet's Nest

2005-11-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

O.K., check out the end of my post here, referring to an article in the NYTimes revealing, perhaps definitively, that the "evidence" supporting an Al Qaeda-Iraq connection before the invasion in Iraq was bogus and based on information provided by a "known fabricator." In other words, before American and coalition forces invaded Iraq, there were no links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, according to the defense intelligence agency.

Fast forward to present day.

Now, not only is there an Al Qaeda presence in Iraq, there is a new Al Qaeda terror movement based in Iraq that is branching out and attacking other middle eastern countries. A once piss-ant terrorist wanna-be born in Jordan and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is the leader of this movement and he's using Iraq as a launching ground for his all out Jihad on the middle east.

Read this article in the NYTimes with the mind-numbing title, Iraq-Based Jihad Appears to Seek Broader Horizons. Here's a particularly scary snippet:

Having pledged loyalty to Mr. bin Laden in 2004, Mr. Zarqawi has been careful to maintain a deferential tone toward Al Qaeda's leadership. But his active, visible role in Iraq means that Mr. Zarqawi has in many ways eclipsed Mr. bin Laden, who is believed to have been hiding along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border since the American-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001

The hornet's nest that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda was before the war, is now a growing swarm of Iraqi insurgency-trained killer hornets spreading throughout the Arab world. We didn't just poke the nest with a stick, we cloned the queen, took a chainsaw to the hive and stuck a "sting me" sign on the world.

I'm so angy, I can't control my metaphors. We're damned because we did, and we're damed if we don't [fix this mess].

Stay tuned for more posts in The Other Real World's continuing series, Iraq: What The Fuck Do We Do Now?

What is Bill O'Reilly Smoking?

2005-11-09T18:15:00.000-08:00

I did it again. I watched Bill O'Reilly for 30 seconds on Fox, about 29 seconds more than I can usually stomach. Bill was having a love fest with a split-screen of ditto-head "pundits" of one sort or another. They were talking about Bush's problems. Scooter Libby and the CIA leak investigation came up. O'Reilly and one of the pundits were quick to dismiss the matter. "Nobody cares about Scooter Libby," squawked Bill. The lapdog pundit quickly agreed.

Nobody cares about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak investigation. Really?

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey released a poll recently. Let's just see what all of us "Nobodies" think about the Scooter Libby matter. (via PollingReport.com)

"Last week a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity indicted the Vice President's adviser Lewis Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. ... How important an issue do you think this whole situation is to the nation . . . ?"

Great Importance 44%
Some Importance 35 %
Very Little Importance 18 % [The real "nobodies"]
None (vol.) 1
Unsure 2

This poll was conducted in the United States of America. Seems that clearly 79% of us "nobodies" think the Scooter Libby and the CIA leak investigation are important. A clear majority of us nobody Americans think it's actually of great importance.

Which brings me to my next question. What the hell is Bill O'Reilly smoking? Are they passing around cigar-sized doobies around the the green room at The Factor?

I can just see it now. Bill O'Reilly storms into the green room, closes the door behind him and tells his guests to sit the hell down!

Look, these poll numbers for Bush are bad, Okay. If we let on that things are really falling apart for the G.O.P., I'm going to be out of a freaking job and you're going to have to go back to the street corner with your sandwich board sign, preaching the end of times from a bullhorn. You don't want that. And we don't want Ted Kennedy and George Soros and Joe Wilson holding gay weddings in the oval office.

So you are both going to sit down, shut up, and puff on the no spin doobie like you were a child sex slave servicing prepubescent bears in a Libby novel. Got it?!? You're going to smoke all of that joint until your brain disengages completely. Then I'll tell you what to say, and you'll agree, and then we'll get back to talking about important issues...

...like foreign brown people taking sub-minimum wage jobs from perfectly fine American brown people who just don't get how lucky they are. And the war on Christmas and Christians... Hey! Quit laughing, punk. Now give me a hit off that thing and I'll tell you the real deal about Aruba and how we're going to have to bomb the crap out them for letting those brown boys alone with our perfectly good, clean, christian white girl who probably knows how to use a loofah...

O.K., Bill, I think we're all getting a contact high. Time to open some windows and let a little fresh truth clear the air, this time from ABCNews and those whacko liberals at the Wall Street Journal (Via Pollingreport)

In your opinion, do you think the charge against Libby represents a serious crime, or a minor or technical one?" .

Serious 70 %
Minor/Technical 26 % [Bill's pals]
Unsure 4 %

Breath in. Breath Out. In with truth. Out with the bullshit.

There, that's better. Now, about Bush's approval rating...

TKO 4 Arnold, GOP in CA, VA, NJ

2005-11-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

Yawn.. it's getting late here in The Other Real World. But it will be sweet dreams tonite! Here in California, with 83.9% of the votes in ALL of the Governator's initiatives have been rejected by California's voters. In fact, all of the initiatives in the $70 million waste of money disquised as a "Special Election" failed. 73-No, 74-No, 75-No, 76-No, 77-No, 78-No, 79-No, 80-No. No, No and HELL NO! Now get back to work.

So Much for the Republican power grab in CA. Next!

Virgina elected Kaine, a Democratic, as their Governor. When Bush showed up to campaign for the Democratic opponent, he sealed the deal for the Democrat. Next!

New Jersey said no to the G.O.P. and elected Corzine, a Democrat, as its Governor.

G.O.P now stands for Get Over it People. Next!

Fox and Drudge "CIA Leak" story Backfires - Republican Likely Source for Leak

2005-11-08T13:05:00.000-08:00

This is too rich. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) thought they had a slam dunk. Someone leaked information about the CIA secret prisons in foreign countries, so Frist and Hastert thought they would make a big stink about the "leak" because they thought they had nailed a democrat. Take that! Democrats leak too. Neener, neener, neener.

Here's the flash news from Drudge

Sources tell Drudge that early this afternoon House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist will announce a bicameral investigation into the leak of classified information to the WASHINGTON POST regarding the “black sites” where high value al Qaeda terrorists are being held and interrogated.

Slam dunk, right? Suddenly Hastert and Frist actually care about a CIA leak and National security because it helps them politically. If it's a Democrat who leaks, we must have justice!

But then this funny thing called the truth smacks them in the face. Fox News, who jumped on the story and placed a huge headline on their website, found out the hard way... Live by the Drudge, Die by the Drudge.

Trent Lott, a republican, has just told CNN that is was most likely a REPUBLICAN who leaked the information. As reported by Rawstory:

Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) told CNN's Ed Henry Tuesday afternoon that he believed it was a Republican senator who gave information about secret CIA jails abroad to the Washington Post..."[Emphasis mine]

So, what does "fair and balanced" Fox News do? They pull the headline and Frist's picture from the prominent, above-the-fold location and promptly relocate the story under "Latest Headlines." To be fair, they bumped the CIA Leak story alleged to have "harmed national security" for a story on evolution. Lord knows, the theory of evolution vs. creationism is much more important than national security.

When asked about Lott's comments, the once eager to investigate Frist said, "No Comment." Poor Frist, he's going to have to swallow his righteous indignation hard. Imagine having to eat crow after being slapped in the face... Makes you want to cry.

Worlds Colliding - Bush's Comments on Torture Conflict with Reality

2005-11-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

Reading the news these days is a sublimely absurd adventure. Today, Dubya told the world that the U.S. does not condone torture. A noble statement at face value. That's the way things should be. Perhaps in his "mission accomplished" world of slam dunks, Karl Rove and pet goats, that statement seems very real. But in this topsy-turvey world where right is definitely wrong, the reality is that Bush condones and encourages torture.

Why else would we continue to see stories like these?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five U.S. soldiers from the 75th Ranger Regiment have been accused of beating detainees in Iraq, the U.S. military said Monday.

Saying you don't condone torture is one thing; creating policies that encourage and conde torture is quite another.

Bush and Cheney couldn't be more wrong on torture and inhumane treatment. Stories like cause direct harm to our troops at the expense of making Dubya strong against terror for short term political gain. A leader who would subject his troops to torture can not be trusted.

What's next? Outing covert CIA operatives?

Long after Bush has retired to the easy life, our soldiers and career diplomats/agents will still be on the job, facing torture and danger all thanks to Bush's soldier-as-political-fodder policies.

Nice legacy you got there Bush. You're giving Prescott Bush a run for his money.

Bush Knew, No Iraq Al Qaeda Ties

2005-11-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the globe spins a little faster in The Other Real World. The days get shorter, to do lists get longer and posts to the blog get lost in the shuffle. Mea culpa.

Had the opportunity to listen to some talk radio this weekend. Bernie Ward a true progressive gem in Bay Area talk radio, had his old boss, Barbara Boxer on his show as an in-studio guest. A real treat listening to the self-described "Lion of the Left" and the conscience of the Democratic leadership talking about hope in Democratic politics in America. KGO has the archives of shows here. (They usually keep them up for 24 hours, but I'm sure Bernie will post the Boxer interview... it's a gem).

Among other topics, Boxer discussed her vote against the Iraq invasion, "The best vote I ever made." "The intelligence just wasn't there," Boxer said. As it turned out, it just wasn't. From the infamous forged documents from Niger, to the screwy aluminum tubes theory, and the since debunked ramblings of an unreliable source named "Screwball," the "Slam Dunk" case for war turned out to be an air ball. Nowhere close to the rim.

But it gets worse. Many months after the war, Dubya admitted that there were no connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda. As it turns out, he knew before the invasion there were no connections between Saddam and Al Qaeda - read no "war on terror" connections.

To Review. Bush's reason for invading Iraq.

WMDs. Wrong.
Invasion necessary as part of War on Terror. Wrong. Bush knew that was false. Now, according to recently declassified documents, Bush knew that was a lie.
Liberation. Jury is still out on that one. But Civil War is not liberation and that's where it's headed.

Great article in the NyTimes today.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — A top member of Al Qaeda in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.

No wonder "[by] a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans say that President Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war in Iraq..." (Zogby).

With numbers like that, the 2006 election for control of congress becomes even more important. America deserves better, and the climate is perfect for change. If you live in California, vote no, no, no, no, no, no on all the resolutions (except 79 and 80) on Tuesday and send a message to the country. The neo-con corporate power grab is over.

Harry Reid Sticking It Good to the GOP

2005-11-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

Harry Reid had his Mr. Smith Goes to Washington moment today and it was a beauty. Perhaps inspired by the memory of Rosa Parks and her dignified act of defiance, Harry Reid, in his own way, wouldn't give up his seat. Today, on behalf of all Americans his act of closing down the U.S. Senate under Rule 21 said to our leaders, "Enough. America deserves better. We demand answers."

AmericaBlog has a transcript of Reid's statement here. It's worth a read.

It's nice to see a prominent Democratic leader operate with a little testicular fortitude for a change. As the current minority party in Congress and the Executive branch, there is really not much we can do except play defense with resolve and dignity as we prepare for 2006. Today, for all too brief a moment, Democrats were able to play a little offense.

As president Bush held a press conference to announce he was going to ask Congress to do something it had already done a week before (provide funding to combat Avian Flu), Karl Rove was somewhere in background thinking, "This will get the public thinking about something besides 2,000 deaths in Iraq, indictments and scandals." It was a simple plan, really. On Monday, we'll get them jawing over an ultra right-wing activist nomination to the SCOTUS, feed some raw meat to the base. On Tuesday, scare the bejeezus out of everyone with Avian Flu. By Wednesday, Bush is back in control of America's talking points. Harriet Meirs who?

Wrong. Wednesday, we'll be talking about WMD's. On Thursday, Scooter will be in court, and National Security will be on our minds . By Friday, Bush will be asking, "Ain't it time for another vacation?"

Don't Remember What I Know, When I Knew It

2005-10-31T16:57:00.000-08:00

O.K., new plan. I don't remember anything anymore, I'm a busy man. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. If it works for Scooter Libby, it might as well work for the rest of us.

Didn't get my taxes I.R.S.? Oops, I completely forgot.

Do I happen to know the posted speed limit? Well, no officer. It just slipped my mind. I see a lot of speed limit signs, but I don't remember seeing that last one.

Did I prepare for a natural disaster Mr. F.E.M.A.? Dude, I totally spaced that one. You too? No Way!

Pretty good plan if you ask me. It seems to work for President Bush and his Administration. No accountability for Iraq. No Accountability for torture. No accountability for leaking a CIA officer's name. No accountability in the CIA over the botched intelligence that lead us into war. No accountability for the $8 Billion missing in Iraq. No accountability for "secret" energy meetings. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world...

How is your Monday going?

Criminalization of Politics... My Ass!

2005-10-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

Let me spell this out for the kool aid drinking whacko Right. I'll try to keep it simple because this explanation is for the intellectually dishonest.

Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation started because the identity of a C.I.A undercover operative was revealed (that's bad for National Security).

I. Scooter Libby has been indicted for alleged acts of perjury, obstructing justice and making false statements.

Because Scooter (and perhaps others) lied and obstructed Justice, the U.S. Justice Department could not discover why her name was revealed.

In order to prove in court of law that the law was broken, the people (that's you and me) must prove that Scooter knew she was undercover, when he knew she was undercover and whether he intentionally revealed her identity as a C.I.A. undercover agent.

That was kind of a long sentence, take a breath.

Because Scooter lied about what he knew, when he knew it and his intentions, we the people can not find out if he broke the law regarding outing C.I.A. agents. (Again, this is bad for National Secuirty)

Am I going too fast?

Unless we come up with the technology to actually read someone's mind, we must rely on them to tell us what their intentions are.

If Scooter told the truth to the F.B.I. and the Grand Jury, we the people would know what Scooter knew about Valerie Plame, when he knew it and why he revealed her identity.

Patrick Fitzgerald indicted Scooter Libby because Scooter Libby lied about what he knew about the C.I.A. agent, when he knew her covert status and why he revealed her identity.

Perjury, Lying and Obstruction of Justice are serious crimes because, in America (you can salute your flag now), we do not let criminals get away with serious crimes because they lie.

That's not political, that's the law!

Libby Indicted On 5 Counts - Karl Rove Said to Be "Official A"

2005-10-28T17:33:00.000-07:00

No joy in The Other Real World today. As I watched Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference today and listened to him telling America that I. Scooter Libby's alleged lies and obstruction of justice "hurt all of us," the true gravity of this investigation finally hit home. My stomach seemed to collapse on itself as the bottom dropped out of my joy.

This hurt all of us, in many ways. Sure, this is by almost all accounts a damaging political blow to the already weak Bush presidency and national GOP party. But as bad as the damage to the GOP is, the damage to America is much, much worse.

Never mind the dark cloud this casts over the office of President of the United States. Forget for a moment, the end of Scooter Libby's career. The real tragedy is that by outing a member of our intelligence service, the people behind this leak have put every operative Valerie Plame worked with in danger, and everyone working for the CIA front company where she worked as a "Consultant" is also now less able to protect us from would be attackers using horrific weapons.

On 9/11 we learned that there are people in the world who want to attack America in horrible ways. Today, no doubt, those people are still out there plotting to do us harm. Now, because I. Scooter Libby, and perhaps others, thought that politics was more important than National Security, we may be more likely to be attacked by terrorists. Why? Because many of the very people who worked to track would-be attackers have been rendered ineffective by the outing of Valerie Plame, the CIA front company and every foreign operative she may have contacted when overseas.

When terrorists attack America, they don't attack republicans, democrats or independents. They attack all of us.

Next week, I will be asking some republicans I know this question: What is more important to you, the GOP or America?

* * *

In a related story, the infamous "Official A" mentioned in Mr. Fitzgerald's indictment - referred to as the other source for the article that outed Valerie Plame has just been identified by the AP. According to them, the "Official A" who thought nothing of outing a CIA operative working to protect America is none other than "Bush's Brain," Karl Rove.

As reported in the Washington Post:

Late Friday, three people close to the investigation, each asking to remain unidentified because of grand jury secrecy, identified Rove as Official A.

According to the article's sources, Karl Rove may indeed be "Official A." In The Other Real World, though, Karl Rove gets an F for failing our country and placing partisan politics above national security.

NYtimes says Libby To Be Indicted, Rove STILL Under Investigation

2005-10-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

The first Fitzmas Plamegate hard scoop is coming out of the NY Times in what appears to be an ongoing investigation in the CIA leak case. The NY Times is reporting that I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, will be indicted tomorrow for making false statements. Karl Rove, according to The Times, is still under investigation for crimes associated with the investigation.

" ...I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, expected an indictment on Friday charging him with making false statements to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak inquiry, lawyers in the case said Thursday.
Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said." NYTimes

If we are to believe the integrity of the New York Times - after all it was the NY Times that gave Judy Miller a blank check to sell bogus WMD claims - it seems that at least one Bush Administration official will be prosecuted, and possibly convicted of a crime related to covering up the deceptions that led our nation, the great United States, into war.

It seems highly unusual for a Federal Prosecutor to extend the term of a Grand Jury. But it does happen, and the Grand Jury can be extended up to 36 months. If Fitzgerald does extend the term of the Grand Jury, he does so most likely because he feels there is reason to believe that Karl Rove broke the law.

Judy Miller has provided the Bush Administration with one last gift. If she didn't hold out as long as she did, perhaps the NYTimes would be informing us of two possible indictments this evening, instead of one indictment and a continuing investigation.

Fitzgerald has kept his investigation and intentions relatively close to the vest. So, until he speaks, nobody knows for sure. So keep those browsers pointed to the only definitive source.

Finally! Fitzmas Comes Friday

2005-10-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow's articles are beginning to trickle in as media sources compete for the top spot in the heap of the day's best Plamegate/Treasongate scoops. For those of us who have worn out our left-click buttons refreshing web pages for the latest information, and entertaining ourselves playing out frog-marches in our minds and on our blogs, it seems like our answers will come on Friday.

From the Washington Post:

Thursday, October 27, 2005; Page A01
The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation presented a summary of his case to a federal grand jury yesterday and is expected to announce a final decision on charges in the two-year-long probe tomorrow [Friday], according to people familiar with the case. (Emphasis added)

The bad news? One more day of guessing and waiting.

The Good news? If Fitzmas does come on Friday, the holiday becomes a three-day weekend.

Fin. Times: Fitzgerald Plamegate Indictments Confirmed!

2005-10-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Fitzmas is here! Fitzmas is here! Holy Crap! Fitzmas is here!

The Financial Times has confirmed the scoop of the decade. Indictments will be handed down. Justice, at long last, is here. This morning people all over the country will awaken to breathe the fresh air of truth and the rule of law. For some, a dream come true. For others, their darkest fears confirmed.

Here's a quote from the article entitled, Indictments in CIA leak case ‘about to be handed down’:

On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week. (Hat Tip Political Wire)

America Mourns Rosa Parks

2005-10-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

Rosa Parks, a quiet seamstress who changed a country with a simple defiant act, has passed away. The debt society owes Rosa for igniting the sparks that ultimately ended the horrible wrong of inequality and racism in America can hardly ever be paid in full. The only way we can begin to repay the debt is to remember Rosa and the struggle for absolute equality in America.

Many have argued, perhaps rightfully so, that we still have a long way to go in that struggle. With the memory of Rosa's almost divine intervention in our hearts, we must and will continue her cause. In humble memory of her sacrifice, we will never send freedom, dignity and equality to the back of the bus.

Fitzgerald to Seek Indictments - Rawstory Reports

2005-10-25T11:57:00.000-07:00

Here is the link:

From the article:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided to seek indictments in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and has submitted at least one to the grand jury, those close to the investigation tell RAW STORY.

Fitzgerald will seek at least two indictments, the sources say. They note that it remains to be seen whether the grand jury will approve the charges.

There are so many rumors floating around the blogosphere, it's hard to separate the truth from wishful thinking. Rawstory seems to be right about 75% of the time. Let's hope this is one of those times.

They say, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." They also say, "To make an omlette, you have to break a few eggs." Confused? Me too.

NY Times: Bombshell... Cheney was Libby's Source!

2005-10-24T19:14:00.000-07:00

That's it folks. The sticky glob of political poo has finally hit the fan. The New York Times has just reported that Vice President Dick "Halliburton" Cheney was Libby's source for Valerie Plame's name. How do we know that? According to the NYT that information comes from notes Scooter took during his meeting with the vice president on June 12, 2003.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

"Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation ...appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said."

"The notes...for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson's husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV" [edited by TORW] For the complete story click here.

Doesn't scooter have a shredder in his office?

Maybe there will be one waiting for him underneath the Fitzmas tree.

Very Serious Times

2005-10-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

This in from Reuters:

After a Cabinet meeting, Bush was asked whether he agreed with Republican suggestions that Fitzgerald may be overzealous and that possible perjury charges would be little more than legal technicalities.

"This is a very serious investigation," Bush said. Rove sat behind the president in the Cabinet room; across the room sat Libby.

Rove and Libby were probably text-messaging each other during the Cabinet meeting. I can see it now.

Scooter: WTF! u threw me under da bus.
Turd Blossom: My guy's the pres. What you got bitch?
Scooter: If I go down, u go 2
Turd Blossom: I'd h8 to c yr wife's naked pics on drudge.
Scooter: U wouldn't dare.
Turd Blossom: Hail Satan.

It's all in the Flame...um.. Name. The Plame Flame Name Game

2005-10-21T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Left Coaster has an interesting post on the possible significance of the now almost infamous Valerie "Flame" reference in Judy "The Stenographer" Miller's notes from her meeting with Scooter Libby:

"...Judith Miller having written down "Valerie Flame" is also suggestive since it indicated that her source had this error. Was it a document? Was it someone who had read "Flame" in some document? It appears that's a mystery for Patrick Fitzgerald to solve."

A great read for sure. Check it out.

Reading the article, I got to thinking... There's something almost too familiar, too obvious in the name "Valerie Flame." I was inspired to post a comment - republished here on TORW:

IMHO, I think during their two-hour lunch, Libby told Miller about "operation Valerie Flame," meaning, of course, The Cheney Cabal/WHIG's operation to intimidate, smear, attack and discredit Wilson. Valerie "Flame" as in her career will go down in Flames, along with Wilson's credibility, when they pulled off their dirty tricks black operation. This kind of vernacular can be found between the covers of many Political/Spy thrillers by Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy, probably just the kind of books read by Libby/Rove when they vacation at the underworld resort by the boiling waters of the Haites river.
Operation Valerie Flame. Has a dark, twisted ring to it, doesn't it?

One more thought. Flame is also a term used in chat/email circles. According to lisacraig.com's "Email Etiquette" guide (link) "Flames are scathing messages and harsh words expressing a lot of hostility toward someone."

Fitzgerald is no idiot. He is no more likely to ignore the significance of the "Valerie Flame" reference than he is to overlook Miller, Rove and Libby's feigned memory lapses.

The Valerie Plame/Flame name game is really serious business. Fitzmas can't come soon enough.

To get your scoops straight from Federal Prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, bookmark his newly launched website. Or if you hear anything juicy post a comment here... I need my Fitz Fix!

Rove, Libby Advised: In "Serious Legal Jeopardy"

2005-10-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Scooter and Turd Blossom have been advised that they may be in serious legal jeopardy. This just in from the New York Times, perhaps in an effort to try and salvage some credibility.

Among the charges that Mr. Fitzgerald is considering are perjury, obstruction of justice and false statement - counts that suggest the prosecutor may believe the evidence presented in a 22-month grand jury inquiry shows that the two White House aides sought to cover up their actions, the lawyers said.

Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby have been advised that they may be in serious legal jeopardy, the lawyers said, but only this week has Mr. Fitzgerald begun to narrow the possible charges. The prosecutor has said he will not make up his mind about any charges until next week, government officials say.

Justice is a dish best served tepid like chow in a prison cafeteria. Fuck Yeah!

If and when the indictments are handed down, get ready for the attacks on Fitzgerald from the usual suspects on the right. Look for phrases like, "overzealous prosecutor" out for political gain. And the newly popular ditto-head standby, "criminalization of politics." We might even start to hear some oldies like "frame job," "liberal conspiracy," and even the obscure, "media revenge for the WMD snow job." If we're lucky, they might even dust off the old "minor technicalities" defense.

No matter how you phrase it, it comes out the same: Denial. No wonder folks like Bill O'Reilly are considering throwing in the towel. At least he'll have time to visit his heroes in prison.

O'Reilly Considers Retirement - Judy Miller Grand Jury Slip Up

2005-10-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

O.K., a little liberal guilt here in TORW. We seem to be enjoying our daily dose of Plamegate leaks and indictment speculations just a little too much. Nobody's perfect in TORW. We'll get to work on that.

Check out TalkLeft. They've got breaking news on fake martyr Judy Miller. Seems the Cheney cabal's favorite stenographer didn't mention her June 23 meeting with Scooter Libby in her first grand jury appearance. She later "corrected" her testimony after Fitzgerald showed her security logs of her June 23 visit with Scooter "The Leak" Libby at the WH annex.

Funny how a looming charge of perjury will jog someone's memory.

* * *

O'Reilly Talks of Retirement: Crooks and Liars has the video from a Katie Couric interview with Bill O'Reilly. It's worth the download just for the laughs. Seems the tall overbearing blowhard is starting to crack under the pressure of his great Cultural War. He's considering retirement. We couldn't be more thrilled.

A Dash Of Torture, A Splash of Broken FEMA & A Twist of TreasonGate

2005-10-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

Frontline, a PBS show with a history of hard-hitting fact-based reporting, hit the airwaves with a fascinating show, The Torture Question. You can see it here.

TORW has long held that torture is wrong, no matter who does it and for what reason. As a Nation, we can't go around forcing "freedom" and our ideals on countries if we engage in the very acts we use to justify our invasions. This isn't a "liberal" or "conservative" issue. It's a Human Rights issue - which is precisely why the Senate recently voted by a 90 to nine margin to include anti-torture provisions in their latest military spending bill in direct defiance of President Torture.

And then there's this:

WASHINGTON - The Army tells NBC News its Criminal Investigation Division is looking into an Australian broadcast report with video that allegedly shows U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan burning the bodies of two Taliban fighters, then using the incident to taunt Taliban forces. MSNBC

That's bad. Just after the invasion of Iraq, America and the world were appalled at the images of the desecrated bodies of U.S. contractors and soldiers by Iraqi insurgents and other evil doers. How Barbaric, we thought. We're nothing like these people. But when you see reports like these, you have to wonder, if we are "nothing like them" what drives our own people - however much of a minority as they represent - to do these things? War is ugly, but does it necessarily have to turn good men into animals?

All the more reason to set a time-line and get out.

Good luck, Iraq, and no thanks for all the IED's.

* * *

Meanwhile, homeland security head Michael Chertoff has this to say about FEMA:

"There are many things that did not work well with the response," Chertoff said in written testimony to a House panel investigating the federal response to Katrina

"We are not where we need to be as a nation in the area of preparedness," he acknowledged. Houston Chron/AP

Help us Duct Tape Man!

* * *

TreasonGate: It's going down. It's going down big. The latest rumor news includes tidbits like two leaking Cheney Staffers (Rawstory), the revelation that Bush knew Rove was involved in the leak scandal two years ago, and that he made Rove's life "miserable" over his involvement (NYDailyNews). Seems like someone in the WH is leaking this information to make Bush look good. Unfortunately, they are so off their game right now, the leaker didn't realize that his revelation shows that Bush knew about the leak and did nothing. Oops.

I'm just waiting for Fitzmas (DailyKos) like everyone else - it's been a long time coming and it might actually be the turning point that wakes this country of this Neocon nightmare. I'm feeling guilty about being this excited over the impending indictments. But I'll get over that.

March, Froggies, March!

Who is Mr. I. F. Orgot?

2005-10-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

In The Other Real World, we had a childhood scapegoat on whom we placed all the blame. His name? One Mr. I. Dunno, he did it.

Who Broke Mom's flowerpot?

I Dunno.

Who ate all the cookies?

I Dunno.

Who tried to feed sunny delight to the goldfish?

I Dunno.

As we got older, our parents and role models slowly disavowed us of the notion that we could blame everything on Mr. I. Dunno. We learned that Mr. Dunno was blameless - that good boys and girls should always tell the truth and take accountability. We learned to say, "I did it," "I'm sorry," and the much cooler version, "My Bad." Some of us were even taken to our local church or synagogue where instructors there drove the point home. God hates liars. Lying is on God's list of top ten do's and dont's, slipping in at number nine, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

Scooter Libby, Karl Rove and Judy "the stenographer" Miller may also have learned these lessons in childhood, but now that they're all grown up, they've created an adult scapegoat with a rap sheet a thousand times longer than Mr. I. Dunno.

Meet Mr. I. F. Orgot. He's been thrown under the bus by all the major players in the PlameGate CIA leak scandal.

"Mr. Libby, who told you about Valerie Plame?"

"I. F. Orgot."

"Ms. Miller, you've been in jail for the last 85 days to protect your source. Would you now tell us who your original source is?"

"I. F. Orgot."

"Mr. Rove, we know you confirmed Ms. Plame's identity to Karl Rove, will you now tell us who your original source is?"

"I. F. Orgot."

This "I. F. Orgot" guy sure does get around. I'm sure the Grand Jury will include him in their indictments. I wonder if Mr. I. F. Orgot will be charged with obstruction of justice and perjury just like all the others...

I guess we'll have to call on my old chum.

I Dunno!

Democracy Without Free Speech in Iraq

2005-10-15T01:02:00.000-07:00

As much as I dislike Dubya, and his unjust preemptive strike against a country that had no WMDs and posed no immediate threat to our country, I have to wish, hope and pray that somehow, for the sake of Iraq, they're able to get their Democratic Groove on. We are not cheering for chaos on election day in Iraq in TORW, for the sake of the innocents in Iraq.

That being said, our wishes, hopes and prayers may not be enough for a united Iraq. For the very Democracy and democratic principles we promised them are hardly anywhere to be found outside the Green Zone and the barricaded polling places.

Outside where the innocent Iraqis try to survive amid terror and exercise their basic right to free speech and peaceful expression of dissent are being arrested!

TORW suggests taking a look at some exceptional reporting from the Boston Globe, in today's must-read article, Iraq's Sunnis, facing strife, look to the voting booth and democratic process:

At the Sunni mosque in Firdos Square, where US troops and Iraqis toppled Hussein's statue after the 2003 invasion, a young imam said Shi'ite police arrested him and a guard last week after seeing them putting up posters denouncing the constitution.'

'We as Sunnis are really afraid of the Interior Ministry and the gangs" said the imam, Amar Mohaidin. ''The most important thing is a just government."

There you have it. In this election they have two choices, support the constitution or go to jail. They must have taken that one out of Saddam Hussein's playbook.

The Dying BushCo Propaganda Beast

2005-10-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

BushCo’s propaganda beast is a thirsty animal. Time after time, BushCo has gone to the well of deception and drawn up buckets of the cruel waters of spin to slake the thirst of the parched beast. When the media and public starts to turn away form the animal, they feed the beast with lies to scare them into submission.

They granted a male prostitute with questionable credentials a full-access pass to feed the beast with deceitful, leading questions. They purchased news and commentary to push their programs. The beast demanded more; so they played with terror alerts to make the beast roar with fear-inspiring growls. They staged scripted “town hall” meetings where only their supporters were allowed to attend, provided they bring buckets of gushing blind-support to pour down the beast’s parched gullet. Still, the beast cried out for more.

They said “Mission Accomplished”,

Gulp, More!

They outed a CIA operative, and then tried to tell us she wasn’t an operative at all.

Chug-a-lug, More!

They blew the response to Katrina, and then sent their attack dogs out to fetch more water for the beast, barking “Blame the Locals, but don’t play the blame game with us!”

Slurp, slurp, more! The beast is dying of thirst!

Today, Bush staged another “carefully choreographed” event (video! via Democratic Underground), this time with soldiers hand picked to spin their responses and water the beast from afar.

Wait, the well is dry! The propaganda monster is slowly dying from its unquenchable thirst. The public, once afraid of the sharp claws and loud roar and eyes blazing with fear, now sees the monster for what it really is: a mythical creation of an arrogant group of aristocrats to scare us into submission.

The beast is now a cowering shell of its former self - its once loud roar muffled to a whimper. We’re not afraid any more.

The latest NBC/WSJ poll speaks of the beast’s demise:

For the first time in the poll, Bush’s approval rating has sunk below 40 percent, while the percentage believing the country is heading in the right direction has dipped below 30 percent. In addition, a sizable plurality prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress, and just 29 percent think Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court. [Emphasis Added]

With possible – more likely probable – indictments looming from Fitzgerald that could possibly take down BushCo’s beast-keeper, Karl Rove and other key administration officials, we could very possibly witness a King Kong plunge from this GOP state building of corruption, incompetence and deceit.

Watch out below!

-------------

Update: You know it's getting bad when Faux News runs a headline like "Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged."

Olbermann Nails It - Bush Plays Politics with Terror

2005-10-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt, many of us living in The Other Real World have long suspected the Bush Administration of using "terror alerts" as the means to a political end - that BushCo's strategy was to scare America into trusting them. Katrina taught us that, in the end, political cronyism and survival is more important than the safety of America.

Today on MSNBC, Kieth Olbermann did something few in the media have been brave enough to do - report on and document the many links between political events and terror alerts. From today's Bloggermann/MSNBC Countdown:

"I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration, followed by a“terror event” - a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning... "

"...But, if merely a reasonable case can be made that any of these juxtapositions of events are more than just coincidences, it underscores the need for questions to be asked in this country - questions about what is prudence, and what is fear-mongering; questions about which is the threat of death by terror, and which is the terror of threat."

The more these "coincidences" sink in, the more I'm beginning to realize that the Bush Administration is slowly turning us into potential Katrina-like Victims - the people who stayed because they'd been warned before, and the hurricane never came.

In his commentary, Olbermann points out 13 such terror warnings never happened, turned out to be false, or based on old information. He also shows a corresponding political cause/effect relationship to each of these incidents. If, as he suggests, the Bush Administration is using the "terror of threat" to deceive America and gain political advantage, they do so at the risk of making America less safe.

A jaded public is a vulnerable public. Those contributing to that vulnerability simply for short-term political advantage have taken politics to a new low. Unfortunately, this time, they're taking us with them. Outing an undercover WMD expert is more important to them than our safety - so why should we be surprised when they compromise our safety with bogus terror alerts?

Bombs and Bras in The Other Real World

2005-10-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

We're back in The Other Real World after a few days off. The real world never stops spinning, so here's a few thoughts on a few days' rotations.

Let's start with Britney Spears' bra. On second thought let's end it right here. If I hear one more word on Britney's bejeweled boobie sling, I'm going to lose it! I don't know what's more disturbing, the number of headlines about the on-again/off-again bra auction, or the mere fact that Britney would auction her underwear at all. Hey Britney, here's a hint for you: Send Cash!

Meanwhile, in Iraq, the battle for freedom continues:

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Friday, 7 October: 05.02 CET) - US forces bombed and destroyed eight bridges on the Euphrates River in western Iraq to keep insurgents from crossing them, news agencies quoted the US military as saying late on Thursday.

I've got two points on this issue. First, while I agree that securing Iraq's borders is a necessity for even a remote chance of "success" (whatever that is), destroying Iraq's infrastructure is no way to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. If these bridges are crucial crossing points for the foreign elements of the insurgency, aren't they also crucial crossing points for the Iraqi people and their economy? Why not post Iraqi troops there and use those bridges as checkpoints? Which brings me to my next point.

Who do you suppose will get the contract to rebuild those bridges? I guess with 8 bridges out, there will be enough work for all the usual suspects; from bases to bridges, BushCo's darling Halliburton and Bechtel will be busy for decades. Freedom marches onward.

If I wasn't such a slave to the Bush economy of debt, and I had no conscience, I'd put all my non existent discretionary income into Halliburton stock.

As at is, I can't afford the latest toll increases on California's Bridges ($5 to cross the Golden Gate) - good to know that my tax dollars will be going to pay for eight new bridges in Iraq.

Speaking of wasted tax dollars, one of the reasons I was out of town this weekend was because of San Francisco's fleet week. I don't have anything against fleet week or the military, per se, but what I do have is a problem with is hearing the roar of the Blue Angels' jet engines as the nation struggles with high gas prices - and there are still men in Iraq driving around in Humvees without armor.

New rule in The Other Real World: no military "shows" during war time or when the nation is recovering from its biggest natural disaster ever. Ground the jets. Give the money to the hurricane victims.

Bush's Era of Accountability - Redefined

2005-10-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

The problem with those of us living in The Other Real World, is that we take things too literally. When Bush was campaigning for the Presidency, he kept touting a "New Era of Accountability." Now, when most of us hear "New Era of Accountability" we think of people, businesses, and Government being more accountable. Silly us. What Bush actually meant, and what most of America and the world now understand, is that Bush's "new era" is an era of NO accountability.

Before Bush, "Accountability" seemed to be a 70%-of-the-time occurance. So, we all just assumed that Bush meant MORE accountability. Again, silly us.

What we have now is The Great Era of Less Accountability. A new age of no-bid contracts, faulty reasoning and no repercussions. It's the wild west and scorched earth policy all rolled up into a tidy little package.

Approve faulty intelligence and lead our nation into a quagmire? Good for you! You get a medal. No Accountability.

Write and approve policies that violate the Geneva convention and put our troops in danger? Heck of a job! We'll find a medal for you. No Accountability.

Are you the guy who decided not to put armor on all Humvees? You the man! No Accountability.

Well, Mr. Bush and the GOP, you might think you are not accountable to anyone but yourselves - and for the time being you may be right since you hold all the power. Enjoy this "New Era" of hubris and arrogance while you still can. Before you strap on that Halliburton party hat, and get into your "Club Gitmo" jumpsuits, you might want to take a look at these CBSNews poll numbers:

Bush Approval:
37% appr0ve, 58% disapprove.

Country on right track?
26% right track, 69%, wrong track

Those are some serious numbers.

Here are some more serious numbers: 11/06 and 11/08.

Goss: No 9/11 Accountability - The Broken Promise

2005-10-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

9/11/01 will live in history as the worst failure of the world's most powerful intelligence agency. Over the years, the CIA, FBI and armed services have performed countless acts of heroism and bravery in the name of defending America and its noble notion of justice. But on 9/11 they dropped the ball.

Perhaps 9/11 happened because of a failure of imagination at the CIA. It could even have been negligence due to shifting priorities to a country that posed no threat. Perhaps, this one time, career intelligence professionals got it wrong because they allowed their political leaders distract them. It's becoming clearer by the day, on Bush's watch, we'll never learn the truth of the matter.

Whatever the reason, America deserves three things from its government: Justice, Accountability and a Promise to learn from their mistakes and make our country safer.

On the Justice front, we're still after OBL and we've caught all -- scratch that -- SOME of his "Number two's" and "Right hand men." We went after Saddam Hussein because of WMD's. There were none. We promised peace and democracy to the Iraqi people, but the jury is still out on that one. It's real hard to deliberate during a Civil War without being just a little bit prejudiced by all the crap blowing up around you.

As far as Accountability is concerned, today we learned that we'll have none of that.

WASHINGTON - Contrary to recommendations, CIA Director Porter Goss will not order disciplinary reviews for the agency’s former director George Tenet and other officials who have come under fire for their performance before the
attacks of Sept 11, 2001. AP/MSNBC

BushCo doesn't do accountability. That's not an "American Value" of theirs. It is in The Other Real World.

With justice at risk and accountability in the dumpster, the child left behind is The Promise - that our government will learn from 9/11, keep us safer and never drop the ball again. Katrina taught us that we still have a lot to learn, but with BushCo and current evil version of the GOP in control, that promise will be broken.

Without accountability there will be no justice and we can never be safe.

How does Porter Goss sleep at night?

With these schmucks in power, those of us living in The Other Real World will be sleeping with one eye open.

Bush Cronie Gets Nod - Delay Indictment #2

2005-10-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

There's no more shock and awe in GOP politics these days. The "Contract with America" has been replaced by the "Buddy System." As we learned with Michael "The Arabian Horse" Brown, when it comes to filling crucial positions in government, it's all about "Who You Know" rather than what you've done. Bush's latest SCOTUS nomination, Harriet Miers, is long on connections, but short on Judicial experience. She's never even been a judge.

Even some right-wing babbling heads are crying foul.

"But her qualifications for the Supreme Court are non-existent. She is not a brilliant jurist, indeed, has never been a judge. She is not a scholar of the law. Researchers are hard-pressed to dig up an opinion. She has not had a brilliant career in politics, the academy, the corporate world or public forum. Were she not a friend of Bush, and female, she would never have even been considered. Pat Buchanan MSNBC

Geez, Pat, want some cheese with that whine?

C'mon, Pat, this is George W. Bush we're talking about - you act as if you expected him to live up to his promises. Bush isn't into promises, he's into paybacks. Harriet Miers was in charge of spinning Dubya's National Guard "service" during his campaign, and now that bill is coming due.

This nomination should be fun to watch. Stay tuned.

In other news, Tom Delay has been indicted once again by a Texas Grand Jury. The charge in this indictment is money-laundering.

AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay on a new charge of money laundering Monday, less than a week after another grand jury leveled a conspiracy charge... AP

Poor Tom. Everybody is out to get him. He needs some time on the couch with Dr. Phil.

Must.... resist... visualization.

Sunday Funny

2005-10-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

(Click to Enlarge)

Saturday In The Park

2005-10-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday in the park
You’d think it was the Fourth of July
     -Chicago (Web Site)

Had that feeling all day long, until I got home and took a look at my calendar.  It’s the first of October. What am I supposed to do with this feeling now?

No politics today.  That would kill the mood.  Instead, I’ll leave you with this.

Saturday Haiku
Mystery meadow.
Grass dew upon my footpath;
No concrete between.

Bush Gets a Bump. Delay Steps Aside, Iraqi Troop Readiness Stalls

2005-09-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

A few quick ones today.

First, in a recent Fox News Opinion Dynamics Poll President Dubya's approval got a 4 point bounce, up to 45% vs. 47% disapproval. So, if you were wondering if all of our President's visits to the Gulf Coast and the republican "Blame [The Local Democrats] Game" were doing any good, you've got your answer.

Some Kool Aid Whiners have implied that The Other Real World wouldn't report any bush approval rating improvement. They have their answer too.

No big surprises in the Delay indictment. Not a surprise he was indicted, or that he would defend himself by saying the indictment was a political attack, lacking any merit because, after all, the prosecutor Robert Earle is a Democrat. That's a great answer if you're on a strict Kool Aid diet. But truth tastes much better than flavoured sugar water.

As a May 15 Los Angeles Times Magazine article reported, "Over the years his[Earle's] Public Integrity Unit has prosecuted 15 elected officials, including 12 Democrats." Dallas Morning News MediaMatters.org:

He's gone after 12 Democrats and 3 Republicans. If he's such a political hack, why has he gone after people in his own party 4 times more often than Republicans? Um... truth... goes down easy. Next!

Last, and apparently least, the number of Iraqi troops that are ready to "stand up" and fight without the assistance of US troops has dropped from three battalions to one.

The number of the Iraqi army's 86 battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one, top U.S. generals told Congress yesterday, adding that the security situation in Iraq is too uncertain to predict large-scale American troop withdrawals anytime soon. WashingtonPost.com

Not good. "Stay the course" only works if you're headed in the right direction. When are we going to pull over and ask for directions?

The Coalition: Excuse me, but we've been driving around in circles for a couple of years. Could you show us the Right way out of Iraq?

Iraq: We don't care what route you take, just go!

59% of America: They've got a point.

Seriously, Laura Bush isn't doing that good a job as first Dubya. It's her job to keep him off the bottle*, and to be the voice of reason who says, "Honey, we're lost. Pull over."

_______

*Caution: Tongue-in-cheek reference to a National Enquirer article. TORW thinks the average reader knows National Enquirer has a huge credibility problem, and that there is probably no truth to the drinking allegations. But, to be fair, if we were in Bush's situation, we'd be liquored up all the time.

Iraq Solutions In The Other Real World

2005-09-28T00:16:00.000-07:00

Can't say enough good things about the Bulldog Manifesto , a political blog and a source for clear, insightful, concise progressive commentary. The Bulldog's bark has definitely inspired its share of rants in The Other Real World.

In a post entitled "Brief Analysis of the Latest Pew Research Center Report" the Dog discusses some interesting numbers from that report. Among them, the report points out that 63% of Americans believe that Bush does not have a “clear plan for bringing the situation in Iraq to a successful conclusion" That's a pretty staggering number.

But this is worse:

"by a margin of (71%) to (18%), the American public believes... Democrats in Congress have not presented a “clear alternative for how to deal with the situation in Iraq.”

That right there is what you call the old pachyderm on the premises that nobody wants to talk about, the "clear alternative" not expressed by the democrats.

We can blame a lot of that perception on the passive complacency of some Democrats who seem to be taking the "safe" route of letting the GOP fall on its own rusty sword. Moreover, our Democratic leaders have been somewhat complacent in allowing the Right Wing Propaganda Machine to define them. Cindy Sheehan seems to speak more to the outrage of America than do most of our leaders.

So, what do we do? There's the Rub-a dub dub.

We need solutions. We need a message and it's about time we begin to base that message on solutions. Let's get the ball rolling:

The Democratic leadership - perhaps lead by Dean, who doesn't hold office, and Clarke who's got a military record - should convene a summit; invite the best military minds available (I'm sure there are plenty retired and forcibly retired Generals around with brains and maybe even an axe to grind). Get all of the best politcal minds (oxymoronic though it may seem) to come also. Lock them away for about a week - old-school shadow-government style - and come up with a clear military/geopolitical solution that sets a swift time-line for a quick best-chance strategy that brings our troops home within a year.

Then present the plan in a united front (let's define ourselves this time) and stay on message until the troops are home. Here's a couple ideas. First, Guess what middle eastern countries? You're sending in troops to secure the borders. You need a stable region from which to drain our ecomomy with your oil.

Meanwhile, we ship out Iraqi Security Force Trainees, thousands at a time, to so-called "coalition" countries. Each gets six weeks training, then it's back to secure their own country. It's much easier to train these guys when they're not getting blown up. In six months, one more push with Iraqi forces in the lead. Six months later, we're outta there. Good luck and thanks for all the oil, er, um, freedom... no... wait... thanks for making a moron look tough for a couple of years.

* * *

Got any bright ideas of your own? Post 'em here and don't forget to give a a shout out to the Bulldog Manifesto.

Michael Brown, "Everybody's Fault but Mine"

2005-09-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

After the largest natural disaster to hit America in modern times, who would you look to for leadership and accountability. The President? Sure. Local Officials? Yes, of course. The director of FEMA? The man with "Federal Emergency" actually in his job title? No Way!

Michael Brown, former director of FEMA, now on the payroll to investigate himself (great gig!), testified in front of congress today. It was his big moment; his time to be a stand-up person; his shining mia culpa moment. Let's see if he had any regrets.

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional,"

"I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together," Brown said. "I just couldn't pull that off." AP News/Yahoo

In other words, Brown regrets not blaming the local Democratic officials earlier. Way to take one for the team, Brownie. Blame it on the Democrats, and if you can, try to slip Bill Clinton in there somewhere. Have another drink of Kool Aid.

But wait. Brownie couldn't even take one for the team. Backed into a corner of the intersection between incompetence and negligence, Brown deflected blame from himself and dropped an f-bomb on the Bush Administration.

Brown also said he warned Bush, White House chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin that "this is going to be a bad one" in e-mails and phone conversations leading up to the storm. Under pointed questioning, he said some needs outlined to the White House, Pentagon and Homeland Security Department were not answered in "the timeline that we requested." AP/Yahoo News

A political appointee who blames the guy who appointed him. That's gotta be one for the record books.

Michael Brown, former director of FEMA, The Other Real World has a suggestion. In the afterlife, as you decend to the pits of hell, you might be asking yourself, "Why me?" For an answer, might we suggest you put a little Led Zeppelin on your Ipod?

Nobody's Falt But Mine

Led Zeppelin

* * *

Nobody's fault but mine

Trying to save my soul tonight

It's nobody's fault but mine

* * *

Devil he told me to roll

How to roll the log tonight

Nobody's fault but mine

* * *

Brother he showed me the gong

Brother he showed me the ding dong ding dong

How to kick that gong to life

Oh, it's nobody's fault but mine

* * *

Got a monkey on my back.

Gonna change my ways tonight

Nobody's fault but mine

* * *

I will get down rollin' tonight

Nobody's fault but mine.

Got a Clue? Fox's O'Reilly Needs Your Help

2005-09-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

The Other Real World isn't perfect, but then again the original one has flaws of its own. In both worlds, humans are just human animals, and no matter how hard we try, how "sophisticated" we become, we can't deny the animal within.

If you touch fire, you pull your hand away - that's the animal in you. When you hear a loud noise, your head turns to pinpoint the sound - the animal again. As you approach a three-car wreck on the freeway, you promise yourself, "I'm not going to look." You creep along in traffic, thinking how stupid those idiots in front you are, "It's just an accident - idiots - drive!" As you approach the flares on the highway, you avert your glance to the white line in the road, anything to distract yourself from the gruesome scene, and keep you from being an idiot "Lookie Loo." But then you pass by the crumpled mess of cars - your head turns on its own - and before you know it, the animal within takes over and you're an idiot too - staring like a country bumpkin circa. 1932... "Golly, look at them Auto-Mo-Biles. They done crashed each other but good!"

In The Other Real World, Fox News is that three-car pile-up. As we flip through the cable news channels, we think to ourselves, "Don't watch Fox News. It's propaganda. It'll just piss us off." Click, CNN, looks and feels like news on speed. Click, MSNBC, has a news sort of feel, with lots of fluff. Click, CSPAN, somebody wake me if something happens. Click, Fox News, must resist. Keep on clicking. Oh, who's that? O'Reilly? What's that schmuck saying now... "Golly!" The animal in us takes over the remote control.

Those people out there [the demonstrators in D.C.], they don't have a clue! -Bill O'Reilly, 9-29-05

Oh crap, another three-car pile-up in The Other Real World. What does he mean by that? Recently, a CNN/Gallup poll came out showing that 59% of Americans think going to Iraq was a mistake. In the same poll 67%, almost 7 in 10 people, disapproved of the way the Bush Administration is handling the war in Iraq. 63% of Americans think we should withdraw either all or some of our troops from Iraq.

Seems to me that a very clear majority of Americans support the views of the anti-war demonstrators. But they're not "clueless" as Bill O'Reilly suggests. He got it wrong. The problem is not that a significant majority of the American people are "clueless." The problem is, we know too much.

We know there were no WMD's in Iraq.
We know there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11.
We know that the Iraq war has made the world less safe.
We know that the Bush Administration, frightened the world into fighting an unjust war.
We know that the Bush Administration "Fixed the Facts" [lied] to justify the Iraq War.
According to the DOD, 14265 US soldiers have been wounded in Iraq, and over 1,900 have been killed, as Iraq slips into an undeclared Civil War.
Bush's so-called "noble cause" to bring freedom to Iraq, means creating a fundamental Islamic State with close ties to Iran.

These are the facts, Mr. O'Reilly. These are the reasons those "clueless" people, and 59% of Americans think the Iraq War was a mistake. We don't base our opinions on the swill served up at Fox News, or the Talking Points cooked up by Karl Rove and the GOP. It's the facts that are fueling the anti-war movement. You can call us names. You can marginalize us by grouping us in with fanatics. You can wrap yourself in the flag and call us unpatriotic. You can do all these things, and much more; but the one thing you can't do, is change the facts.

The only Talking Heads we care about in The Other Real World are the ones that decided to "Stop Making Sense" a long time ago:

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to...
-Talking Heads, "I'm Still Waiting"

Hum... perhaps Bill O'Reilly is a Talking Heads fan too.

Update: Weather Man Quits - Will Study Katrina Conspiracy Full-Time

2005-09-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

POCATELLO - To the rest of the country, Scott Stevens is the Idaho meteorological who blames the Japanese Mafia for Hurricane Katrina. To folks in Pocatello, he's the face of the weather at KPVI News Channel 6.

The Pocatello native made his final Channel 6 forecast Thursday night, leaving a job he's held for nine years in order to pursue his weather theories on a full-time basis. " Idaho State Journal Online

This guy was probably pulling down $75K a year doing the one of the easiest jobs on earth. He'll spend the rest of his life, running from the Japanese Mafia and searching the globe for mad scientists and their weather machines.

Who does this guy think he is!?! He's probably not even a member of the International Spy and Rubber Chicken Breeders Union Local 212. He's taking food out of the mouth of Uhohseven's seventh cousin twice removed, agent 007, a.k.a James Bond. We don't take too kindly to scabs here in The Other Real World. It would be a real shame if he happened to get run off the road by a long-haul rubber chicken trucker. Accidents happen all the time.

Scott Stevens, it takes a special man to take on the Japanese Mafia. But nobody crosses the International Spy and Rubber Chicken Breeders Union. Do yourself a favor, Scott, go back to television. Weather machines and rubber chicken unions will mess you up.

The Other Real World has an offer for you Scott, one we hope you can't refuse. If you give up your wacky weather machine conspiracy theory, we'll make you the first unpaid intern here in The Other Real Word. Heck, we'll even make you our official meteorologist. Think of the prestige! Think of the Women!.

Wacky Conspiracy Wednesday!

2005-09-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

I threw my back out today. I'm getting old. Don't want to talk about it. My doctor gave me some golf ball size pain pills and some muscle relaxers. Suffice it to say, I won't be operating any heavy machinery in The Other Real World today. I won't be doing any heavy lifting in terms of political commentary either. That would harsh my mellow mood.

The DoomsDae Crew turned me on to one of the wackiest conspiracy theories I've heard in a long time. If anyone knows about conspiracy theories, it's the DoomsDae Crew. To this day, they are convinced that Joe Montana never had a back problem, that he was in drug rehab when the 49ers said he was having back surgery. And that's one of their more reasonable conspiracy theories.

This conspiracy theory not only takes the cake, it takes Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines hostage (medication-induced metaphor). There's a weather man in Idaho who thinks that the Japanese Mafia caused hurricane Katrina using weather machines developed by the Russians. Check it out:

POCATELLO, Idaho (Wireless Flash) – Here’s a theory that’s sure to cause a storm of controversy: A meteorologist in Pocatello, Idaho, claims Japanese gangsters known as the Yakuza caused Hurricane Katrina.

Scott Stevens says after looking at NASA satellite photos of the hurricane, he is convinced it was caused by electromagnetic generators from ground-based microwave transmitters.
The generators emit a sound wave between three and 30 megahertz and Stevens claims the Russians invented the storm-creating technology back in 1976 and sold it to others in the late 1980s. Flashnews.com

The Other Real World wants to know: what's going on in Idaho? Someone ought to go check out those potato fields - there's something special growing between the rows.

$1 Billion Stolen From Iraq Defense Department

2005-09-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Reuters is reporting that the Iraq Defense Dept. has learned quite a bit from the American military and the Bush Administration. If you want to take care of your friends, send them on over to the Defense Dept. and tell them to help themselves to all the cash they need.

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Large-scale corruption in Iraq's ministries, particularly the defense ministry, has led to one of the biggest thefts in history with more than $1 billion going missing, Iraq's finance minister said in an interview.
"Huge amounts of money have disappeared. In return we got nothing but craps of metal," Finance Minister Ali Allawi told British newspaper The Independent in a report published on Monday. "It is possibly one of the largest thefts in history." CNN/Reuters

This is the kind of freedom we're bringing to Iraq - an Islamic Republic with a shot of corruption and a twist of civil war. We'll take ours on the rocks.

There's a couple of questions floating around The Other Real World these days. How can we clean up the mess in Iraq? Can we?

Rove's Bush-Bot Fizzles - Katrina Rating Drops After Speech

2005-09-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

This one's gotta be a real melon scratcher for Karl Rove. He's got the Bush propaganda engine running on high octane and the gas pedal glued to the floor. Not even a million Oxford and Harvard monkeys in a room with a super computer could have conjured up such powerful images as the ones Bush recited in his prime time speech last Thursday.

While some talking-head media wonks made FDR and Hoover comparisons, Rove sent the varsity squad out on the streets to blame the environmentalists and local government officials. He knew he could count on Rush Blowhard and Bill Oreilly to blame the poor, local African-American people for being, well, poor and black.

The lesson plan was nothing new, Prof. Rove's Crisis Management 101: attack, distort and then attack some more - Swiftboat the hell out of everyone.

That's so old school. Somebody's gotta teach Karl the new math: Bush's numbers on his Katrina response are dropping faster than the waterline in New Orleans:

September 18, 2005--Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans now say that President Bush has done a good or excellent job responding to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. That's down from 39% before his speech from New Orleans - Rasmussen Reports

The American public is waking up from the Rove-Bush dream.

Good morning sleepy head! There's fresh coffee in the pot.

Thanks to DoomsDae Crew for the Pic.

Fox Poll... Bush Approval at 41% Disapproval at 51%

2005-09-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

You know things are going bad for Dubya when "Fair and Balanced" Fox News comes out with a poll showing Bush's approval ratings in a free-fall. Two weeks ago, the kool aid network had Bush's approval at 45%, now it's slid another 4% down to 41%.

Even Fox "News" can't spin numbers like these:

"Do you approve or disapprove of the job George W. Bush is doing as president?"
Approve 41%
Disapprove 51%
Unsure 8%

Speaking of "Fair and Balanced," I checked out the Fox News website. Since Bush's number have dropped significantly, for some reason I can't seem to find a link to the results of the Fox News Opinion Dynamics Poll on FoxNews.com*. I guess "Fair and Balanced" means not reporting bad news. That's neither fair or balanced.

*UPDATE: The Fox News Poll isn't featured at all on the Fox "News" front page. But, if you click on the "Opinion" tab and then select "Fox News Polls" you will find the article. The Other Real World thinks a headline like "Poll: Bush Rating at Record Low" warrants at least a mention and a link on the front page. But, I guess Fox had to make room for more important story, "Fashion for Relief."

Bush Federal Disaster funds "Slashed" and "Tossed Aside" Says 2004 Article

2005-09-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

A little research* turned up quite an interesting 2004 article from the Best of New Orleans with this ominous title:

As FEMA weathers Bush administration policy changes, some insiders fear that concerns over terrorism are trumping protection from hurricanes and other natural hazards.

This article is a must read. This part of the article says it all:

Among emergency specialists, "mitigation" -- the measures taken in advance to minimize the damage caused by natural disasters -- is a crucial part of the strategy to save lives and cut recovery costs. But since 2001, key federal disaster mitigation programs, developed over many years, have been slashed and tossed aside. FEMA's Project Impact, a model mitigation program created by the Clinton administration, has been canceled outright. Federal funding of post-disaster mitigation efforts designed to protect people and property from the next disaster has been cut in half. Communities across the country must now compete for pre-disaster mitigation dollars.

As a result, some state and local emergency managers say, it's become more difficult to get the equipment and funds they need to most effectively deal with disasters. In Louisiana, requests for flood mitigation funds were rejected by FEMA this summer. ...In North Carolina, a state also regularly threatened by hurricanes and floods, FEMA recently refused the state's request to buy backup generators for emergency support facilities. And the budget cuts have halved the funding for a mitigation program that saved an estimated $8.8 million in recovery costs in three eastern North Carolina communities alone after 1999's Hurricane Floyd.

There you have it, documented evidence that the Bush Administration, the Republican controlled Congress and FEMA took away crucial disaster mitigation recovery support from Louisiana and other hurricane prone states. Some programs were "tossed aside" while other programs were slashed. On top of that, when Louisiana requested flood disaster mitigation funds, they were denied! That says a lot about the priorities of the Bush administration. They focused their money and attention on the most politically expedient topic, Terrorism, and shifted funds away from flood protection and mitigation efforts.

FEMA couldn't properly respond to the Katrina disaster because they "outright cancelled" a "model mitigation program."

This pretty much says it all (same article):

...Pleasant Mann, a 16-year FEMA veteran who heads the agency's government employee union, wrote members of Congress to warn of the agency's decay. "Over the past three-and-one-half years, FEMA has gone from being a model agency to being one where funds are being misspent, employee morale has fallen, and our nation's emergency management capability is being eroded," he wrote. "Our professional staff are being systematically replaced by politically connected novices and contractors."

If this isn't a smoking gun, I don't know what is.

* * *

*Editor's Note: Somewhere I heard about FEMA reducing natural disaster programs in lieu of terrorism by as much as 75%. I either heard this on the radio or read it somewhere, and like an idiot, I didn't bookmark the site or write down the source from the Radio. If anyone knows about the specifics of this figure, please post it in a comment here.

Not a Normal Hurricane?

2005-09-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Long speech tonight from the Recover-er in Chief. Not one of his worst speeches, but overall my first impression was that he was more genuine in his optimism for the future, and less genuine in his empathy for the devastation caused by government missteps.

I think tomorrow, most of the pundits will be talking about his Hooveresque "Opportunity Zone." Chris Mathews invoked the names of Roosevelt and Hoover in his initial response to Bush's speech. The problem with making those comparisons, is that Roosevelt and Hoover came through for America when they needed them. I know I'm going to piss off a lot of the knee-jerk koolaid brigade when I say this, but the Bush can't come through for us. He had more than four years to fix our emergency and disaster response systems, and he blew it. Those systems are down.

After we were hit on 9/11 Bush's minions went around saying that 9/11 wasn't "normal" and that "nobody expected" the attack. Now, four years later, his Administration's response to their fist big test was a complete failure. Why?

Because Katrina wasn't a "normal" hurricane.

Let me ask a silly question here, what the hell is a "normal" unexpected disaster? That's what unexpected is! Something that is not "normal." Bush has had four years to put the right people and programs in place to prepare for the "unexpected" or "un-normal."

The world saw the Bush administration's ability to deal with non "normal" events. They blew it. Plain and simple.

So, now we're supposed to believe they're going to be able to handle a recovery effort that isn't "normal." Yeah, right. Not even a Clydesdale could swallow that pill.

I watched the speech on MSNBC and after it was through (finally!), I was still watching Chris Matthews as he cut to Rita Cosby a few blocks away from where the president had made his recovery pitch to the country. Chris asked her about the response to Bush's speech. Cosby didn't miss a beat. Standing in front of a group of local residents and recovery workers who had watched Bush's speech, she said they were "highly sceptical" of Bush's promises. When Bush repeated the 877 number for evacuees during the speech, the residents around her laughed and said, "when you call the number, you'll be on hold for a long time."

That's the problem. When the victims of hurricane Katrina called out to Bush, his government put them on hold.

Your call is very important to us at the Whitehouse, but we're busy helping other valued customers like Halliburton, KBR, Big Oil and Iraq. Your expected hold time is....... one week...... please stay on the line.

More Bad Numbers for Bush - Gillette Learns To Add

2005-09-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

O.K. this is a two-fer post. Either that, or the dreaded American non sequitur flu is spreading through The Other Real World today. Anyone know the cure?

First, let's take a look at the latest poll numbers from the WSJ/NBC News poll.

Bush Overall Approval
Approve: 40%
Disapprove: 55%

Bush and Hurricane Katrina
Satisfied: 38%
Dissatisfied: 58%

More bad numbers on Bush's handling of Iraq: 58% say they disapprove. Ouch. Another 60% say rebuilding the Gulf Coast should be a greater priority than establishing democracy in Iraq. Ouch again. That's gonna leave a mark.

It gets worse for "stay the course" Bush. 55% say the U.S. should begin reducing troop levels, mostly, responders say to redirect Iraq funding to Katrina relief. Reducing spending on Iraq is Americans' top choice for financing the recovery from Katrina, with 45% pointing to that option.

Think those numbers were bad? How about these? 75% of Americans now say the U.S. isn't adequately prepared for a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. Are you kidding me? 75%. That's a big number. That's no mandate - it's a landslide. Even more so if you consider that most Americans who voted for Bush did so because he said that only he could make them safer. Boy did they get a surprise when Katrina came to town. Guess what, you were tricked. You were conned. You heard what you wanted to hear, and didn't believe your eyes. Next time, turn off Fox and read a newspaper.

Bush isn't just taking a beating in the polls, he's up against the ropes waiting to be saved by the bell. Only problem is, the bell doesn't ring for another three years. Did I hear someone say "Rope-A-Dope"?

Down Goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!
(Substitute Bush for Frazier, you get the point.)

Now on to Gillette. Here's a company that's just phoning it in. In the last three years or so, razors went from 2 to 3, to 4 blades. Kind of excessive, you might think; but, hey, you gotta admit, you do get a pretty close shave. Heck, with a few strokes with a 4 blade razor, you can pretty much shave your face back to prepubescence. I'm shaving so close these days, my voice is cracking and I'm going broke on acne medication.

So Gillette's R&D people, after millions of dollars in research and development, have come up with a brilliant idea: 4 + 1 = 5. Today, they unveiled their plans to dump 5-bladed razors on the shaving public. What ever happened to ingenuity? One more blade? That's the best they can do. One more blade. Friggin' Genius.

They'll be serving gazpacho soup in hell before I buy a 5-blade razor.

In The Other Real World, we're holding out for 10 blades. Until then, Gillette, leave us alone.

Solutions in the Air

2005-09-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

We don't have all the answers here in The Other Real World. We live in complex times, with even more complex problems. It seems that in this highly polarized political climate, issues get reduced to absolutes of political ideology - left or right, them or us, right or wrong. It also seems we'll never find "real world" solutions to our complex troubles with such simplistic, black or white, left or right solutions.

When natural disasters, acts of war, or other such incidents impact America (sorry rest of the world, we've got our own problems right now), they don't impact any one group - Republican or Democrat - they impact everyone.

We're sure nobody in New Orleans or the Gulf Coast was thinking about a political party as they fled up to their attics as the storm surge and levee break inundated their homes.

Those men and women in helicopters hauling people out while politicians bickered - we're sure they weren't thinking about the RNC or the DNC. There were people below them who needed help, so the Coast Guard and other first responders lowered the line and plucked them from their sinking homes. Theirs was not a political solution, but one that worked.

Here in The Other Real World we think America deserves innovative solutions. We are looking up at that chopper above us and waiting for the line to drop down and rescue us from this flood of toxic sludge. Only problem is this: The leaders in the chopper above have built themselves one hell of a political flying machine, but they can't afford the fuel and in their infinite wisdom, they didn't install a rescue line. What do they need a rescue line for anyway? They're safe up there in the chopper. Besides, they spent most of their time arguing over what color to paint the helicopter anyway.

If our leaders don't get it together and start providing us with some better solutions, The Other Real World has but one message to America - Republicans, Democrats and everyone else.

Look out below!

Bush takes responsiblity... The Other Real World Shocked

2005-09-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

A quote then a comment:

"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said. Fox News

Dubya, you did something right! The Other Real World is issuing a one-day cease fire on the Bush Administration in honor of Bush's admiting a mistake and taking responsibility - it's the right thing to do.

FEMA Head Resigns - Bush Takes Aim at Working Americans

2005-09-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Bungling FEMA director Michael Brown resigned today... Equine organizations everywhere will be competing for his services. The Other Real World was all prepared to have a crow appetizer and actually thank Dubya for at least cutting a few heads as a sign of leadership. It wouldn't have been easy, but we would have said, "Good move, Bush, now get back to work."

"President Bush stated today that he did not know about the firing of Mike Brown who had quit as FEMA Director." BayouBuzz 9-12-05

As it turns out, though, Brown resigned after being called back to Washington by Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security. President Bush missed another opportunity to show true, decisive leadership and even perhaps change public perception about his response to Katrina. Granted, he did travel in a convoy through the destruction in New Orleans today, America needs to see that, so half a kudo to Dubya. But instead of being in the forefront of the FEMA/Katrina fix, by publicly acknowledging that he demanded Brown's resignation, he says he doesn't even know about the resignation. Like Nancy Pelosi says, Dubya seems "Oblivious, in denial, dangerous." Either that, or he doesn't have the stones to fire an incompetent underling. That's a nice piece of leadership there, Bush. Let others do the dirty work while you pose for photo-ops.

From the oblivious to the sublime. The Other Real World agrees, hurricane Katrina was a horrible, devastating disaster. The immediate response to the disaster by all levels of government was an abominable embarrassment of a klusterfuck. The only silver lining The Other Real World can see to this whole mess, is that at least there will be jobs for the depressed region as America rebuilds; people who had no jobs or prospects before Katrina, might just have a better chance as the Gulf Coast participates in its own rebuilding.

Now it seems that the only people who will be making any money on the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast are Halliburton and other contractors. George Bush has assured that workers will be denied "prevailing or average pay." In other words, he's sticking it to the working man and woman.

President Bush yesterday suspended application of the federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas... The Davis-Bacon Act, passed in 1931 during the Great Depression, sets a minimum pay scale for workers on federal contracts by requiring contractors to pay the prevailing or average pay in the region. Suspension of the act will allow contractors to pay lower wages. Washington Post

Why does George Bush hate America's working class? Not only do working class people of the Gulf Coast have to figure out a way to put their lives back together, now they have to figure out how do it making lower wages.

When the going got tough, Bush stood up for corporate profits. Way to go Bush! You the man. Your mamma's real proud of you.

...and Jesus would be proud of you too, because he loves corporations so much. Didn't he say, "Blessed are the Board of Directors?"

Can I get an "Amen?"

Amen!

---

Keep an eye on Halliburton at halliburtonwatch.org.

9/11 Memorial: Berry Berenson

2005-09-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

9/11 rocked The Other Real World into a state of shock and sadness. Berry Berenson, someone I knew from a magical time in Jamaica - a fellow ex-pat and a lover of life - was taken from the world on 9/11 and some of the magic went with her. Anyway, I found this article on Berry, please take a moment to remember her and those taken from us four years ago today.

Recalling one of the thousands killed on 9/11
By Jerry Tallmer (Downtown Express)

It is not possible to think one by one of 3,000 people none of whom you ever met. It is, however, possible to think of one human being you've met, even briefly, sometime in your life, and it is of that human being I have been thinking more and more through these past four years, and will be thinking about on this coming Sunday, September 11, 2005.

Her name was Berenthia (Berry) Berenson Perkins, a.k.a. Mrs. Anthony Perkins, and she, along with 91 other persons - five of them mass murderers - was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, Logan Airport, Boston, to LAX, California, when it crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, New York City at 8:46:40 a.m., on the beautiful balmy blue-sky Tuesday of September 11, 2001.

Berenson Perkins was flying home from a summer holiday at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod. She was 53 years old, but my memory of her goes back to when she was in her gorgeous, vivacious mid-20s, and is stuck there. I would guess the woman of 53 was no less a knockout than the girl - the newly married young mother to be - of 25.

I interviewed her once, maybe twice, at her and Tony Perkins's upper-floor brownstone apartment. She was three months married, seven months pregnant. My story would go on to mention what she'd worn at their wedding in Wellfleet - a granny dress, American Indian jewelry and pearls - and when she and Perkins subsequently got remarried in Central Park, I would cheerfully write: "The bride wore barefoot." A nice conscientious young copy editor changed that to"The bride was barefoot," thereby letting the air out of the whole story.

But now, here in Chelsea, her husband the actor was somewhere unseen upstairs, calling down occasionally: "Berry, telephone for you." His wife was with great good humor, despite her bulging prenatal discomfort, trying to keep command of a helter-skelter scene which included a collie named Murray, another collie (son of Murray) named Gregory, a number of cats, two unidentified girlfriends of Berry's and an all-purpose household maid named May.

Gregory, the younger collie, did No. 1 on the couch on which Mrs. Perkins was lounging, and then, removed to the floor, did No. 2 on the hooked rug, leaving May the maid and Mrs. Perkins, collapsing in laughter, to dash here, there and everywhere with paper towels. No pretense. No embarrassment. No "side." No nothing. The interview " how she'd met her husband" proceeded from there.

She'd met him at a party given by the actress Ruth Ford, a co-star of Perkins's in the film "Play It as It Lays," and then had had the bright idea of getting to see him again by playing reporter and interviewing him for Andy Warhol's newspaper.

Oh, oh, the Beautiful People. Well, yes, Berry Berenson - writer, photographer, sometime actress - was indeed a goldfish at swim in a sea of Beautiful People. It was her natural element. She was not only born to privilege, but to cultural privilege. The younger daughter of diplomat Robert L. Berenson - her sibling actress/model Marisa Berenson - Berry on her mother's side was the granddaughter of famed Paris designer Elsa Schiaparelli. She was also the great-niece of Bernard Berenson, the aesthete and art collector to whose villa in Italy the whole world of chic regularly repaired.

Yes, she was all that, but she was also the girl who set her cap for Tony Perkins, 15 years her senior, whom she must have known had had more than one of what Time magazine used to call a "great and good friendship" with, among others, Tab Hunter and Rudolf Nureyev. She set her cap for him, got pregnant by him, married him, had two children with him - sons Osgood and Elvis Perkins - and stayed loyal to him for the 19 years from the marriage in 1973 to his death of complications from AIDS in 1992.

This was the woman who was killed by Mohamed Atta al Sayed and his fellow fanatics on the morning of September 11, 2001. Killed by what somebody - I forget who - pegged as the fusion of 13th-century mentality with 21st-century technology - and you know what? She was precisely in almost every way what Islamic fanaticists most hate, most dread, and would most destroy everywhere throughout the world: the free, bold, imaginative, competent, sexually aware, gay (in the original sense), courageous 21st-century woman.

Long before "Psycho," or "The Trial," or "Pretty Poison," or "Catch-22," or five dozen other movies, Tony Perkins starred in a picture called "Fear Strikes Out." It was about a Red Sox baseball player named Jimmy Piersall who had a number of emotional problems - he once hit a home run and ran the bases backwards, to make some sort of point - but at this remove I like to think that that title, "Fear Strikes Out" may have also applied to Berry Berenson Perkins as those bastards were taking over the plane, cutting throats and roaring at 700 miles per hour toward the north tower.

I don't know if she still had her shoes on or if the bride - the wife, mother, widow - wore barefoot. I only know that I am, four years later, even more goddamned angry.

Impeach Bush

2005-09-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

It's time to mobilize. It's time to stand up and demand accountability. It's time to join the Coalition to Impeach Bush.

The Other Real World has had enough. America is floundering under the leadership of an incompetent oaf. The office of the President of the United States is under siege by those who would do us harm.

Bush's failures are almost too many to list; from leading America into an unjust war, to mismanaging and under-supplying that war, to his miserable guitar strumming slow and inappropriate response to Katrina and all points in between, his actions and in-actions have placed America in danger.

Heard the Word of Blog?

The Other Real World wishes to thank the The Bulldog Manifesto for inspiring this post..

Friday Funny

2005-09-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Evacuees won't starve if we give 'em fishing poles!

The Only Game In Town

2005-09-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

Got an email from a friend of The Other Real World:

I don't even know what to comment on your blog. Politics are everywhere. How about something on Bonds? Life? Love? Travel?

Politics are everywhere. She's right. But things are different now, really different. The last year has been filled with juicy political fodder: Terry Schiavo, the war in Iraq, Gas Prices, Karl Rove, etc. Yes sir, political wonks from both sides have had a healthy share of greasy, deep-fried issues to choose from the political buffet. That's what we do, scarf it down like bulimics with tapeworms.

But the Katrina disaster and the hobbled response of our government cuts right to the core of the very meaning of government. At its base, government is there to protect its people against common enemies and natural disaster. That's it. Everything else is politics, slop for the piggies on both sides of the aisle. But when our government completely fails in its obligation to protect its citizens, you can throw politics out the window. Now the issue becomes survival - not politics - but a matter of life or death.

Bush was elected with a "mandate" because Americans feared for their lives. With Osama Bin Laden on the loose, we probably had a right to be affraid. Dubya and Dick went from coast to coast telling America that they were the only choice to keep the country safe. They convinced a majority of America that when the excrement hits the cooling device, they would be there to save us.

So here we are facing a very real disaster, hurricane Katrina (That Bitch!) and the floods in Louisiana. The turds have hit their mark.

Dubya and Dick were on vacation and couldn't be bothered. Michael Brown, Director of FEMA, looked back on his 12 years dealing with Arabian Horses and another few years of raising money for the republicans, and used all that knowledge to completely screw up FEMA's response. As the days progressed, and the situation worsened, they finally called out the big guns. Unfortunately, they were called out to spread blame and protect FEMA and George Bush, instead of thousands, upon thousands of helpless Americans.

"...But a deeper review of the agency's history, the records of its top managers and internal memoranda reveal far deeper problems than a momentary burst of poor decisions. Over the past four years, the Bush administration has replaced competent leaders with people long on political connections but short on disaster management expertise. At the same time, the war on terrorism has drained the agency's resources and reduced its effectiveness." USA TODAY

We found out last week that our Government can't protect us. Now it's a matter of life and death, and we're on our own unless we stand up and demand accountability and an immediate fix to our broken safety net. America is bound to fall from its high perch from time to time. The safety net is the only thing that keeps us from becoming a memory on a map. Without it, when we fall, we don't get up. Game over. End of story.

Perhaps one day we'll get back to talking about baseball, travel, love and life here in The Other Real World. Right now, though, we are working without a net, so we're going to focus on keeping our balance... and finding someone who knows how to build a sturdy net.

Katrina Haiku *

2005-09-05T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Other Real World
Katrina destroys;
Nature ‘s whim claws at the weak.
President inept?

Chris
New Orleans nearly lost,
Nation on its knees crying,
Bush balks, surprise? No.

Renarf
Music is silenced
As creativity drowns.
New Orleans is gone.

Sylvia
Human tragedy
Environmental mess
Teflon President

The Other Real World thanks to Barbara Bush** (two for one)
"So many of the
people in the arena
were underprivileged anyway,

“So this… (she chuckles
slightly) is working very well
for them.” Bush Mom Says.

**She really said this. Truth kicks the crap out of Fiction once again.

Arvin
Show us the future!
Katrina reveals it all.
We fight or we die.

Mandy
Storm devastates land,
Evacuation commenced,
Lives taken again.

Chris
Pols point at each other,
Feds get all the scapegoat blame,
N.O. pols dodge blame.

(Fair and Balanced in The Other Real World! )

*submissions encouraged - submit yours today!

Images of Failure

2005-09-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Bush returns early to sign a bill to save the brain-dead Terry Schiavo

Bush plays guitar as Katrina comes ashore.

* * *

From Polling Report: Bush & Katrina

Approve %37
Disapprove %57
Unsure %6

Some people visit The Other Real World and get very upset. They equate a call for competency with hating Bush, no matter what. We in The Other Real World were behind the president 100% on 9-12-2001. Surprisingly, he seemed like the man to make us safe and defend America's honor. With his overall approval rating now at 38% and his disapproval a staggering 55%, it seems that most people agree with The Other Real World, George Bush is the worst president ever.

Russert Shreds Chertoff (click image for video)

2005-09-04T10:34:00.000-07:00

Our Leaders are Embarrasing and Insulting Boobs

2005-09-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

I'm watching a press conference right now. All the Big Wigs are there: Brown, Chertoff, Rumsfeld, Assistant Deputy Directors, Generals and every other Klusterfuck to be put in a position of power. They're the Big Guns. They are patting each other on the back and making excuses. The latest excuse is that Katrina and the resulting floods were just too damn big. We have to keep things in perspective.

Perspective?

As they are holding press conferences and staging photo-ops, people are dying! They are more worried about saving their asses than helping people. Every one of them should be wading in water chest-deep helping to rescue people.

In the background they're showing images of the full force and capabilities of our Government: troops, mammoth hovercrafts, helicopters, convoys, cranes, truckloads of water and supplies. That's what we need to see. That's what we should have seen days ago! I can imagine cutting them some slack for the first 2-3 days after the hurricane, but 5 days after the event, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast turned into a third world country. Now it's even being reported that some of the efforts are being staged as Photo-ops:

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time. The people in the area were once again left to fend for themselves, said ZDF. DailyKos

So, while people are dying - I can't stress this enough - Bush and our leaders are busy fighting for their political lives, spending valuable resources to save their sorry asses. I don't care that the job is "overwhelming." Who gives a crap that the disaster was "more than anyone expected." It's your fucking job to deal with the unexpected, and not to be overwhelmed. We're not paying you to rescue George Bush. You're being paid to rescue Americans!

STOP THE PRESS CONFERENCES!

STOP THE PHOTO-OPS!

GET THE FUCK OFF MY T.V. SCREEN!

The Other Real World has stopped spinning on its axis, frozen in a state of shock and anger.

Hey Big Oil! How 'Bout Some Katrina Relief?

2005-09-03T11:48:00.000-07:00

This has been a year of record oil profits for Big Oil. With the recent Oil Company Welfare Act passed by Bush and the Republican congress, Exxon, BP and all the Big Boys are making record profits. We need an American Oil revolution. We need to force oil companies to turn over their profits to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

As prices around the country soar as high as $6.00 a gallon, those of us in The Other Real World are wondering what Big Oil is doing with all that extra cash? Bush and Congress have given you the right to stomp all over the American consumer. It's time for payback.

Instead of giving eight-figure bonuses and buddy loans to your top executives, how about knocking off a couple of commas from the figure for the next year? Americans on the Gulf coast could sure use the help.

Never going to happen.

Halliburton and KBR will win all the contracts to rebuild the Gulf Oil infrastructure, they'll continue to gouge the American consumer for profits, taxpayers will be forced to pay for Big Oil's "recovery," and Dick and Dubya will laugh all the way to the Bank.

Christian News: NO Now free of Southern Decadence and Sodomites

2005-09-02T16:05:00.000-07:00

What has happened to Christianity in America? In the aftermath of America's worst national disaster Agapepress, which provides "reliable news from a christian source" is now saying that the hurricane was a blessing. I'm not making this shit up:

“New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion -- it's free of all of those things now," Shanks says. "God simply, I believe, in His mercy purged all of that stuff out of there -- and now we're going to start over again." Agapepress, Sept 2, 2005

That is Bush's base speaking. Perhaps now we know why Bush waited so long to go into N.O. after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. To Bush's friends and the press arm of the American Family Association, victims of this hurricane are nothing but "witchcraft workers." Is that the white evangelical christian term for poor black people?

The Other Real World wants to know, if the tens of thousands of victims in N.O. were all middle class white folks, how much quicker would help have arrived in New Orleans? There would have been 40,000 troops on the ground 8 hours after the storm. Heck, Bush would probably have been in New Orleans the day after the hurricane instead of 5 days later.

It's four years after Bush's favorite day, 9/11. If this had been a terrorist attack, what we're seeing is the kind of response four years of Bush's "hard work" will bring us. We're screwed. But then again, that's been their plan all along.

Mission Accomplished*

*Offer not valid in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf Coast, and anywhere else competency is required.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" - Georege Bush

2005-09-01T16:53:00.001-07:00

That is a lie. No only were the levee breaches predicted, they were reported to the Bush Administration. Louisiana and the Army Corps of Engineers asked for millions to fix the 17th street levees in New Orleans, but Bush rebuked them and offered only 20% of what was needed.

"In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness."Editor and Publisher

The rest of the money was diverted to the war in Iraq and HOMELAND SECURITY. If Bush took money away from the levee fixes and put some of it into Homeland Security, why wasn't Homeland Security better prepared to deal with the aftermath of the hurricane? What are they doing with our money? If this had been a terrorist attack, the response would be the same, absolutely disgraceful.

Now we know that America isn't safer at all. We now have U.S. citizens who have been living in feces and waste for 5 days without food or water. We dropped water and food supplies for tsunami relief days after that event. It's five days after this American disaster, and they can't drop fucking pallets of water?

I am so tired of hearing Bush defenders say, "this is not a time for politics." The time for politics was back when New Orleans asked for money to fix their failing levees. Bush played politics with their safety and took away their money. But now that thousands upon thousands of Americans are suffering in part because of his politics, we can't ask questions?

Absurd! Those of us living in The Other Real World want answers now. We're not going to give you weeks to work on your spin, Mr. "President."

If the majority of the victims of this hurricane were rich white people, there would have been 50,000 troops on the ground 12 hours after the hurricane. The only reason Bush is paying any attention to this disaster is because of all the gas and oil processed in the Gulf Coast. Fuck the oil companies, save the people!

Tax Cuts & Iraq War instead of New Orleans Levee Projects? You Betcha!

2005-08-31T19:16:00.000-07:00

As Police in New Orleans abandon the search for survivors to protect against looters, and as survivors wait for help from the Feds and National Guard (75,000 of whom are in Iraq), George Bush has finally done the presidential thing and ended his vacation early to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

He didn't race back to D.C. in the middle of the night like he did for Terry Schiavo; instead he stopped in San Diego yesterday to make a speech to drum up support for the Iraq War. Turns out, that was a very ironic choice. Seems "crucial" projects to shore up levees were halted. Why? To preserve Bush's tax cuts for corporations and the richest Americans, and pay for the WMD-inspired invasion of Iraq. The Times-Picayune exposed the diversion of funds in a series of articles.

...over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain... 'Times-Picayune'as reprinted in Editor and Publisher

Coming home two days early from a five week wartime vacation doesn't even begin to make up for the fact that lives could have been saved if Bush didn't divert $250 million in flood protection to pay for tax cuts for the rich and the war in Iraq. The only trickle down the 15,000 people at the Superdome felt from those tax cuts was the rain coming through the roof as their city flooded behind broken levees.

We need the George Bush of 9/12/2001. The guy we've got now just isn't working out.

Hurricane Katrina - No Match for the Human Heart

2005-08-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

The thoughts and prayers of The Other Real World are with everyone impacted by Hurricane Katrina's wrath. Once again Mother Nature has served up another reminder that when all is said and done, she's in charge. When she gets in one of her moods, the best you can do is head for high ground, hold on to someone you love and say a prayer.

Just ask the Dinasours. They didn't have a chance.

The only thing that gives humans a fighting chance is their heart: The heart it takes to face devastation, pull yourself together and begin to rebuild. The heart it takes to reach out for help and the heart it takes answer the call. The heart of a nation - a world- acting as one with dimes and dollars to rescue the least among us with hardly a thought that, next time, it could be us.

If you can, give what you can to the Red Cross National Disaster Relief fund.

Deadlocked - Iraq Constitution Sputters and Stalls

2005-08-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

This Just in From Iraq:

BAGHDAD - A top Sunni Arab negotiator said Saturday that no agreement has been reached on the draft constitution and called on Iraqis to reject it in an Oct. 15 referendum. A government spokesman indicated talks were hopelessly deadlocked and said “this is the end of the road.” MSNBC

With news like this, it seems we're going to be in Iraq for a long, long time. How can we turn this around? Our deadlines don't seem to be working. Calls from our President aren't working. But we need to get this right.

We can't just keep doing the same things and expect the situation to improve. It's time to overhaul our strategy, but we need people in power who have the intellectual honesty to admit that we're on the wrong track. How can things change if you don't acknowledge there's a problem?

Protesting War Policy: Supported by 87% of America

2005-08-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

To all of you neo-jerk, Bush bots out there, pay very close attention to the latest AP-Ipsos Poll

Do you think it is OK for people who oppose the war in Iraq to express their opposition publicly, or not?

—Yes, 87 percent
—No, 12 percent
—Not sure, 1 percent

So, when you hear people say that people who protest Bush's war policy "hate America" and that they are a bunch of "whacko extremists," know this: 87% of Americans disagree and think it's OK for people express their opposition publicly. In fact, people who want Cindy Sheehan and her crowd to shut up are the ones who really hate America.

The arguement from the support-Bush-no-matter-what crowd has always been, "If you protest the war, you hurt the troops." 87% of America must not think that way. In fact, a poll out today shows that 58% disapprove of the way the Bush Administration has conducted the war and 53% of Americans think the war was a mistake. That's a clear "mandate" majority if you ask me.

The majortity of Americans opposed to this whole mess aren't the extremists - the 37% of you who support Bush's Iraq policies and the 40% of you who approve of Dubya's job as president are.

Why do these Republicans Hate America

2005-08-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

Some great quotes from an informative story on DailyKos:

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."
-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"You can support the troops but not the president" -Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
-Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate George W. Bush

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years"
-Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
-Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

So, when some Democrats question Bush's war policies, they are seen as unpatriotic. But when Republicans do it, it's o.k.? The message here is, if you speak out against military action when a Democrat is president, you're a true patriot. But if you speak out when a Republican is president, you're aiding and abetting the enemy.

Why do Sean Hannity, Joe Scarbough, Karen Hughes, Tom Delay and George Bush hate America?

Military Putting Pentagon Slogans on Gravestones

2005-08-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

This is so ridiculous and insulting I don't even know where to begin. Unlike fallen soldiers, marines and seamen from WW I, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and other conflicts, today's fallen vet gets a pentagon slogan on their gravestone.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.

Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge..." AP Via Yahoo News

So why is this a problem in The Other Real World? It's simple. Every soldier in Arlington Cemetery died protecting our freedoms. Each gravestone marks the life of a brave American soldier. It is insulting to place Pentagon slogans - read: political messages - on any veteran's gravestone. No soldier dies for a political party; they die because their leaders call on them to protect their country. What makes the sacrifices of Iraq and Afghanistan vets any more important than the the vets of previous wars?

Political slogans belong in political campaigns, not on the gravestones of our fallen heroes. Does the pentagon think that if there's no slogan on a soldier's grave, a mourner won't know they died protecting our freedom? I guess it's time to go back to all of the gravestones from previous wars and write things like "Died fighting communism" or "Died in Somalia on a Peace Keeping mission."

How low will this administration sink? What's next, G.O.P stickers on caskets?

But it gets worse. Some families don't get a choice. Some families find out that slogans go on the grave marker whether they like it or not. From the same article:

Nadia and Robert McCaffrey, whose son Patrick was killed in Iraq in June 2004, said "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ended up on his government-supplied headstone in Oceanside, Calif., without family approval.

"I was a little taken aback," Robert McCaffrey said, describing his reaction when he first saw the operation name on Patrick's tombstone. "They certainly didn't ask my wife; they didn't ask me." He said Patrick's widow told him she had not been asked either.

"In one way, I feel it's taking advantage to a small degree," McCaffrey said. "Patrick did not want to be there, that is a definite fact." AP Via Yahoo News

Are you kidding me? First Bush's attack dogs go after Cindy Sheehan. Now they're using fallen soldiers to promote a political agenda.

I keep underestimating Bush and the Neocons; just when I think they've sunk as low as possible, they take it down a notch.

Watch out below!

Pat Robertson Has a Truth Problem

2005-08-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

Here's Pat Robertson early in the day: "I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out...'Take him out' could be a number of things including kidnapping."

Uh, Pat, you were on live TV when you made your statement. It was recorded for posterity when you said, "if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

Someone must have pointed this out to Pat. Because later in the day he issued this statement: "Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration." Washington Post

That's two commandments in two days, Pat, only eight more to go! At this rate, your eternal damnation could be sealed as early as next week. Although, since you are seen as a "Christian Leader" bearing false witness and advocating murder just might be just enough to send you to those "lakes of fire" you're always talking about...

Speaking of people changing the story and cheap transitions, today Dubya said ""So long as I am the president, we will stay, we will fight and we will win the war on terror." VOA News

But, wait a minute, let's take a little trip in the way-back machine to August of 2004:

CBS News In an interview on NBC-TV's "Today" show, Mr. Bush vowed to stay the course in the war on terror, saying perseverance in the battle would make the world safer for future generations. But he suggested an all-out victory against terrorism might not be possible. Asked "Can we win?" Mr. Mr. Bush said, "I don't think you can win it..."

The hypocrisy and lies are starting to pile up from my fellow Americans on the conservative side of the political aisle. The Republicans hold all the power now, and it seems the only way they think they can hold on to it is through deception and character assassination.

America deserves better. Enough with the lies already!

Pat Robertson Calls for illegal Assasination

2005-08-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it... It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop. This man is a terrific danger, and this is in our sphere of influence." CNN: Watch the Video here

I'm not a Christian, but I respect the religion. If you're a regular viewer of the 700 Club, or a fan of Pat Robertson, perhaps you can explain this to me. Where in the bible does it say that Jesus advocates political assassination?

It's official: Pat Robertson is a Terrorist.

This is just the kind of religious extremism we're fighting against in this "war on terror."

Put Pat Robertson in Gitmo! He'll enjoy the "tropical paradise."

Update: 1bc. (or is it the year zero?)

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". Luke 23:34

Oy!

Let's buy Cindy Sheehan a meeting with Bush!

2005-08-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Recently, Dubya left Cindy Sheehan in the dust as he dashed off to a fundraiser. While Spc. Rusty W. Bell was dying in Iraq of "non-combat related injuries" CNN Special, his Commander in Chief rubbed elbows with his kind of people - probably not regular heroes like Specialist Bell - but the kind of store bought heroes Bush just loves. These Big Money Heroes "have contributed at least $25,000 to the RNC, and many are "rangers," an honorary campaign title bestowed on those who raised $200,000 or more for Bush, or "pioneers," those who have raised $100,000 or more." CNN

Dubya needs to "get on with [his] life," which means raising money for Republicans fighting to hang on to their seats in the 2006 elections, and just chillin' on the ranch in Crawford. He's got no time to meet with Cindy Sheehan. He's a busy man. But never too busy to raise some cash.

So, why don't we start up a collection. If everyone who supports Cindy just ponied up a couple of bucks, we could buy her access to Bush! He may be able to say no to a grieving mother who sacraficed her son, but he just can't say no to money.

Looks like he'll meet with Cindy for the bargain basement price of $25,000. But that's probably not enough for more than a handshake. If we can somehow pull together $200,000, we can make Cindy a "Ranger" in Bush's army of fundraisers, then Dubya will have to invite her to one of them big money ho-downs.

Cindy: Mr. President, could you please explain for what noble cause did my son give his life?

The Commander In Chief: Hey, there, Crying Girl. Heh, heh, that's my name for you: Crying girl. Thanks for the money. We're gonna save all those embryos from gettin' killed by those Liberals.

Cindy: But, Mr. President, my son.

The Commander in Chief: Heh, your son, which one's he. I'll sign a picture for him.

Cindy: He's dead Mr. President.

The Commander in Chief: Did you git you some barbecue?

Cindy: But Mr. Preside---

The Commander in Chief: Thanks again 'fer the contribution. God Bless. I gotta mosey on along and shake some hands, kiss a few cheeks...

Hail to the chief fundraiser.

Red State Republican: Iraq looking like "Vietnam"

2005-08-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

Let the smear campaign begin. Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebraska, and a Vietnam vet from a redder than red state has stopped drinking the Kool Aid. He's a republican, but he's doing something Republicans just don't do these days. He's telling the truth! Someone pinch me.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A leading Republican senator and prospective presidential candidate said Sunday that the war in Iraq has destabilized the Middle East and is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, who received two Purple Hearts and other military honors for his service in Vietnam, reiterated his position that the United States needs to develop a strategy to leave Iraq. Hagel scoffed at the idea that U.S. troops could be in Iraq four years from now at levels above 100,000, a contingency for which the Pentagon is preparing. AP via Myway news AP News - My Way

Republicans... telling the truth. Go figure. What's next? Fat-free bacon milkshakes. An Academy Award for Keanu Reeves. A "Just Say No" PSA from Rush Limbaugh. George Bush says, "I screwed up on Iraq, My bad." A new federal law declaring Darwin's Theory of Evolution an illegal pyramid scheme? Uh, wait a minute, too possible to be funny.

Congratulations Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. He's learned what progressives have been saying for quite some time. Kool Aid will rot your teeth, turn your brain to mush and cause a complete meltdown of your credibility system. Nothing beats drinking from the crystal clear waters of truth.

The sad part of this whole story will be unfolding in the days to come as the nitrous burning, supercharged neocon smear machine shifts into overdrive. With Cindy Sheehan taking care of her mother, they can divert one of their pit (bull!) crews to the Hagel Smear 500.Get off the track while you still can, Chuck, these guys race for keeps. Either that, or leave the dark side - reject the Neo-Jerk reality of Dubya & Co.'s world. Live in and race with those of us living in The Other Real World.

We're getting ready to blow the doors of this sucker!

Explosion in San Francisco - Yikes!

2005-08-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Reality check time. This explosion happened about 3 blocks from where I work. San Francisco Chronicle

I was on a conference call at the time, and really didn't notice much besides flickering lights. They're doing some work on the floor above us, so I just figured the problem with the lights had something to do with that.

I'm the Emergency Warden on our floor, so someone came to my cubicle to tell me what had happened. "Hey, there was just an explosion a couple of blocks away. You better turn on the news and see what's going on."

With that, I excused myself from the conference call. "Sorry everybody, I've got to get off this call, someone has just informed me there was an explosion near here. I gotta make sure everything's o.k." My boss chimed in from the safety of his office in San Jose, "Get out!"

As safety officer, I think it would have been bad form to bolt out the office screaming "We're under attack! Run for your lives!" I was actually pretty calm at the time. Sure, my heart picked up an extra beat or two, but I know panic, and this wasn't it. I just walked around the floor making sure everyone knew the emergency plan. We're on the 32nd floor. If anything happens, we're supposed to listen for alarms and instructions, and then evacuate down 4 floors on the stairs. At least that's what we're supposed to do in a fire, and that's all they'd trained me to do. Keep everyone calm, make sure people don't use the elevators, and then sweep the floor to make sure everyone is out safe, then head on down after them.

I joined some very serious looking coworkers in one of the conference rooms. They were watching the news. People in some of the buildings in and around the blast area were being evacuated. The rest of us, for the time being, were instructed to "shelter in place."

I thought about the term "shelter in place" as I watched the news. Crap, I knew I should have kept an emergency tent in my cabinet. Better grab some of those bagels in the break room.

Then, I had another thought. Dude, this could be a terrorist attack. You're the safety warden and you're cracking jokes? Nice....

Then I started thinking a little more seriously about terrorist attacks. This sucks. Terrorists really bum me out.

As a so-called "Liberal," you'd think that my first thought would be "it's Bush's fault!" but it wasn't. Farthest thing from my mind, actually. My mind turned instead to a panicked ferry ride across the bay on 9/11. On that day, I wasn't the safety warden. I was scared just like everyone else. My boss called into the office, "Get out of downtown. Go home. Don't take the bridge." I stood on the stern of the ferry watching the city get smaller in the distance behind the white foam trench in our wake.

I stared through tears as I tried to absorb the last email I had received before leaving the office in a panic that day. It was from Rebbecca, a friend of mine in Jamaica, a country I called home for 2 years. I was only three months into my first corporate job since returning from the life of an expat in Jamaica. I lived in a small village on Jamaica's South Coast. While there, I met and became very close to about a dozen other expats living on the island. One of them, Berry, was on one of the planes that hit the towers.

So, today as I listened to a local newswoman start to hint at there possibly being an "electrical" cause to this explosion, I thought of Berry and the night a group of us expats and as many Jamaicans hiked out to mystical place called "Back Seaside" under a full moon. I remember Berry's laugh that night, filled with joy and an unspoken celebration of life. It still warms my heart to this day.

With some good fortune, we will find out that today's explosion was just a gas leak or an electrical blast. In the meantime, some of my thoughts will be with the woman injured in the blast and her family; what's left over will be thinking about Berry, that laugh, and yet another reminder that life is a celebration, every moment a gift. We could all stand to spend more time Back Seaside, under a full moon, dancing for no reason at all.

Candlelight Vigil Supporting Cindy Sheehan Tonight

2005-08-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

MoveOn.org and other groups are organizing a candlelight vigil in support of Cindy Sheehan. I'll be at my local vigil tonight to support Cindy because the whacko right continues to smear her mercilessly. Here's a gem from America's "favorite" pill freak, Rush Limbaugh:

"I mean, Cindy Sheehan is just Bill Burkett. Her story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real, including the mainstream media's glomming onto it. It's not real. It's nothing more than an attempt. It's the latest effort made by the coordinated left." Media Matters

Her son's death was "forged documents"? What in the name of reason does that mean? Rush wants us to believe he wasn't killed in Iraq, that Army Specialist Casey Sheehan was neither a specialist nor in the Army.

I guess that's what he means. It's hard to understand people who are under the influence of Oxy Contin and Vicodin.

What's all this business about the "coordinated left?' So, now they want us believe that Americans should not exercise their right of free speech, assembly and peaceful protest. That's just great. The only political party that can organize is the Republican party, and only if they're organizing to either support Monkey Boy Dubya, or to smear a mother who lost her son in a "noble cause."

I hope the Republicans are proud of themselves. And I sincerely hope they keep deluding themselves into thinking that the voting public will forget their atrocious behavior come election time.

I keep hearing idiots like Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, Bill O'Liely, Rush Pill Freak and others say that the Democrats don't have a plan. Well, they do. They plan to let the Republicans slime themselves out of power, and then put policies in place that will strengthen America's standing in the world, provide for America's soldiers and vets, health insurance for everyone, a strong economy, responsibility from our Corporate Citizens, and a Clintonian balanced budget. In short, we will not sell out our future to the benefit of Halliburton, KBR and Big Oil.

The Other Real World #4

2005-08-15T20:39:00.000-07:00

(Click 2 enlarge) Posted by Picasa

Cindy Sheehan is Breaking my Heart

2005-08-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

As I watch Cindy Sheehan getting tossed about in the cable news spin cycle, my heart is breaking. I just watched Chris Matthews and Anderson Cooper grill Cindy, and I couldn't help but feel a little disgusted. Through endless grillings by the MSM, Cindy stays on message: she wants to know for what "Noble Cause" did her son die? The pain of her grief permeates her every word, and as I watch her I feel like I'm intruding, like we're all intruding on her grief at some level.

God Bless Cindy Sheehan, her son Casey and the entire Sheehan family. May Casey rest in peace, and may she find hers.

Lowering the Bar for the Noble War?

2005-08-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

I'm in LA this weekend. Drove down the I 5 at abut 85mph and people were passing me left and right: trucks, cars, little old ladies in volvos, Uhaul trucks with empty car carriers in tow. I tried to get the guy's attention as I passed. "Hey, you forgot your car!" I gotta start driving faster.

Made it here in about 4 hours. Safe and sound.

So, after some fish tacos and beer, I log on to my buddy's computer, and I find this from the Washington Post:

"The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say." Washington Post

Cindy Sheehan is camped out right now in front of Bush's Crawford Ranch with the simple question: for what "nobel cause" did her son die? I think I undertand now why Bush hasn't answered her. He doesn't know. The "cause" keeps changing. From WMDs, to a Liberation that would "pay for itself," to a stable, constitutional government with a military and security force strong enough to defend itself and against enemies from within and on its borders. But now the mission is "significantly less" than that. An Islamic state, perhaps? Care for a side of Civil War?

Bush can't give Cindy or the other parents camped outside his all-hat-no-cattle Ranch an answer because every time he's got one figured out, just as he's steppin' outside, someone calls him back, "Hey George, git back in here, we've rustled ourselves up a whole new 'splanation for this whole Iraq ho-down, and we gotta change ya'll's programming. Tell him what to say Dick."

We can't set a time line, but we'll start pulling people people out "by next spring." Isn't that a mixed message? Doesn't that demoralize the troops a thousand times more than a mother who just wants to know why Bush keeps changing his plans? Recently, he's said "When the Iraqis can 'stand up' we'll 'stand down'. Now he'll just be happy to get the troops out by the 2006 elections. Now there's a Noble cause for you.

The Other Real World #3

2005-08-11T20:24:00.000-07:00

(Click to Enlarge) Posted by Picasa

Drudge Attacks Mother of Fallen Solder

2005-08-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

The right wing of this country is VERY NERVOUS about Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, who is camped out in front of Bush’s Crawford Ranch and demanding answers from Bush. La Times. She wants to know exactly what “noble cause” lead to her son’s death in Iraq.

So, what does the right wing do? They attack a mother who paid the ultimate price for her country, with the life of her son. Yesterday, Matt Drudge took a quote out of context from an earlier interview and used it to suggest that Cindy Sheehan changed her mind. Unfortunately for Matt Drudge, finding the original article isn’t that hard; and anybody who reads the article knows that Cindy Sheehan’s views have not changed.

From the article in The Reporter, a Newspaper out of Vacaville, CA:

"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached." The Reporter

Media Matters, once again, debunks the right wing spin from Drudge: Media Matters

Today, Matt Drudge is using an email from an obscure relative, an aunt and self-appointed spokesperson for the family to show that they are against Cindy. What Matt Drudge wants his readers to believe, is that an Aunt has more validity speaking for “the family” than the Mother, Sister and Father of the soldier killed in Iraq. DrudgeReport

So, when his dishonest, out of context quote was proven to be a lie, did Drudge back down? No, instead he now wants us to believe that the Godmother of Casey Sheehan, the fallen soldier, has more authority to speak on his behalf than his Mother.

How low will Republicans and their mouthpieces sink? Why can’t they respect the heartfelt opinion of a fallen soldier’s mother? Can they only answer criticism by attacking a mother who has lost her son? Is that what they mean by “Family Values?” Give me a break.