Kerfuffle

Apparently, some basic fact checking is all that's needed to demonstrate (again) what lying sack of poop Dick Cheney really is

The so-called "Underwear Bomber" story has been pumped and pumped hard by the GOP this week.  Their talking points have been repeated by habitual liars like Karl Rove, Pete Hoekstra and others on the cable news channels.  But the Republican's Darth Vader himself finally emerged from the ether to offer his memory-and-facts-be-damned take of the story.  As is to be expected, he found several points to criticize about the current administration, while completely forgetting or ignoring that the administration in which he served as co-president did exactly the same things and then some.

And what are Democrats doing about it?  Not much, it seems.  They're just letting these asshats bullshit their way through hypocritical and baseless talking points unchallenged.  I have to give Republicans props for sticking to the script, and knowing they can get away with saying almost anything since Democrats do have a penchant for spinelessness, and the media can't be bothered to fact-check all that much.

While FOX News,  with their fact-challenged straight face, is now promoting themselves as "Hard News, Real Reporting," MSNBC actually did some real reporting on this subject last night.  And all they needed to do was some Google searching to demonstrate what an evil asshole of a liar Richard B. Cheney is...

Well played, Rachel Maddow.

Don't let the door hit you on your ass on the way out: A look back at the Worst Presidency Ever

Sure, Keith Olberman's a little biased against George W. Bush.  So are most all decent, thinking people.  I mean, c'mon.  Look what he and his comrades have done to the the United States of America.  Sad but true. 

From MSNBC via FDL...

Jeez, what a schmuck.  Tuesday can't come soon enough.

What could YOU do if you received $500,000 a minute, indefinitely?

Well, according to the Washington Post, you could do a lot on $720 million a day. For example...

[You] could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity...

As you may have guessed, especially if you read this thing with some regularity, $720 million is what we spend on the Iraq war every fucking day. And what are we getting for that sizable expenditure? Beats me, other than the deaths of thousands of fine American soldiers. And a whole lot more soldiers who are permanently physically and /or mentally disabled. Let's not forget to include the evaporation of any respect from the world community. Of course, there's the generation of more terrorists who really hate our country.

So, tell me: do you feel safer? Are the Iraqi's better off? Have we won their hearts and minds yet? Before you answer, consider this one other little item:

Geneva - The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Friday there were now 1 500 confirmed cases of cholera in northern Iraq and one case in Baghdad.

The provinces of Sulaymaniyah, Kirkuk and Arbil are mainly affected in the north, where contaminated water supplies have been blamed for the outbreak.

Up to 29 000 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a possible early sign of cholera, have now been reported.

Yeah, that's right. Iraq is on the verge of a major cholera epidemic. Oops! I guess not having a reliable water supply and proper sewage treatment... after we bombed them out of service, and have failed to rebuild them like we said we would... might be contributing factors. Before we stepped in to help out over there, cholera was pretty much down to maybe a dozen cases a year. But is sure is a cute little bacterium.

Credit where credit is due. Thanks, Mr.Bush. Heckofajob, there.

Posted without comment

Courage Wanted

"Is There Courage in This Generation?" is the title of a great post by writer Doug Muder (aka Pericles) that started as a diary at Daily Kos, and was rightly promoted to the Kos front page.

It leads off like this...

"I asked myself: What can I do to end this war if I'm willing to go to prison for it?"

I heard that statement this afternoon. But unfortunately it came from an old man remembering something he did a long time ago.

In fact I was listening to three old men: Daniel Ellsberg, Mike Gravel, and Robert West. Thirty-five years ago they came together to publish The Pentagon Papers and puncture the public's illusions about the Vietnam War.

To understand what The Pentagon Papers were, imagine that Donald Rumsfeld had the true and secret history of the Iraq War locked in safe somewhere. Imagine what would happen if somebody opened that safe.

Worth a read right here.