coming June 30th, to a theater of war near you....

The New Illuminati

Founded in 1997, the Project for the New American Century is an organization that promotes the broad based ideals and plans for, literally, a 21st century American Empire. Their basic doctrines - keep in mind this is 1997 - call for an increase in military strength and US military presence around the world (including "the ability to sustain multiple large scales wars around the globe simultaneously."), and a policy of diplomacy-with-force, all in the name of "morality". Once again, that was written pre-Bush, pre-9/11, pre-Iraq 2. Pretty scary stuff by itself. Now take a look at some of the founding members of the PNAC: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Gary Bauer, and Jeb Bush.

Religion and Politics

This is fucking outrageous:

Cardinal: No Communion for Pro-Abortion Politicians

We're supposed to be shocked that John Kerry supports a women's right to choose, but the fact that the president thinks we're in a real life Tim Lahaye novel is supposed to be cute.

Recent Bush Interview

When asked about the abundance of Bush hatred in the world, he responded, "It's like Napoleon. When he was the king you know, people were just constantly trying to conquer him, you know, in the Roman Empire. So it's history repeating itself."
In his most recent interview Bush also claimed that he blocked his own sex scenes. But when Cheney was asked to confirm, he categorically denied that Bush ever blocked his own sex scenes.

A Right Uppercut from the Religious Left

From CNN: Church group slams Bush on Clean Air Act (thanks mcgeggy)

The New-York based group, which represents 50 million people in 140,000 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox congregations, said it was sending its two-page letter to the president on Thursday, as people all over the country celebrate Earth Day. It took out a full-page ad in The New York Times, scheduled to run in Thursday's editions, calling on Bush to leave the Clean Air Act's new source review rules in place.

"I want to emphasize that their faith should direct them as they vote," she said. "Responsible Christians should weigh the teachings of Jesus Christ, especially as they speak of those who are poor and marginalized."

Headlines

Bush Hails His Environmental Record On Earth Day

This ranks up there with some of my other favorites, such as "Simpson to Pen Screenplay Based on Ron Goldman's Life," "Affleck and Lopez Make Oscar Case for Gigli," and "Dahmer to Open Drive Thru."

Horseshit

This is absolute horseshit.



...the policy banning photos like this one has been in effect since 1991 for the purpose of respecting "the sensitivities of bereaved families." Hiding the human cost of war seems, to me at least, a touch more disrespectful.

new from Saddam Song Records
How the Vote Was Won (GOP Remix)

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• Whole Lotta Rove
  
• Iraq n' Roll
  
• Moby Dick Cheney
  
• Bring 'em On! (Home)
  
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• Roadmap to Heaven
  
• Living Loving Military Aid
  
• Going to Fallujah
  
• Houses of O'Reilly
  
• Cashmir
  
• Condoleezalambra
  
• D'sy C'Utt'r
  
• When the Limbaugh Breaks
  
• Oil for One
  
• The Karl Rover
  
• Hannity Mountain Hop
  
• No Coulter
  
• Hats Off to (Don) Rumsfeld
  
• Trampled Under Freedom
  
• Boogie with Al-Sadr
  

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6. What Is and What Should Never Be
   
7. Your Time Is Gonna Come
   

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War Coverage

Here is a good article in the Guardian demonstrating the lethal double standard that Arab news agencies are held to.

The war on al-Jazeera

ABB All-Stars

Link:

In fact, there’s enough of these Hall of Fame lefty ABBers to field a team in an old-timers league. If hired to manage a lefty ABB old-timers team, I’d make Chomsky my ace starting pitcher, with Michael Parenti starting at catcher and batting leadoff since on occasion he still shows signs of his old firebrand self. Zinn, with his lanky frame, would fit well at first base. I’m not sure of his fielding ability so I’d stick Edward Herman at second base where his potential defensive weaknesses could be hidden. He had Tommy Lasorda as a tutor, so I’d pencil in Tom Hayden at the all-important shortstop position. (I can't imagine Hayden and Herman turning many double plays, though.) She turns 60 this summer so that makes Molly Ivins eligible for the old-timers league. I’d put her at third base and hope she still has enough pop to bat cleanup. I’d stick James Weinstein in right field, Victor Navasky in center and, in the hope that some of Fidel’s baseball acumen has rubbed off, I’d assign Saul Landau to left field. For my closer, I'd bring in Studs Terkel, with his 91 years of wisdom and optimism, to seal the victory.

Maybe we can get this team to Portland...

War Coverage

18 schoolchildren among the dead, police say

Every report I have heard about this mentions the children that were killed in this awful attack, but our reporters go out of their way to not report the children killed in the US attacks. When CNN shows pictures of the children killed by insurgents, they're doing a service. When Al Jazeera shows the bodies killed by Americans, it's propaganda.

Compare and contrast

From George Monbiot:

In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion. In the 19th century, two immigrant preachers cobbled together a series of unrelated passages from the Bible to create what appears to be a consistent narrative: Jesus will return to earth when certain preconditions have been met. The first of these was the establishment of a state of Israel. The next involves Israel's occupation of the rest of its "Biblical lands" (most of the Middle East), and the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques. The legions of the Antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to earth.

What makes the story so appealing to Christian fundamentalists is that before the big battle begins, all "true believers" (ie those who believe what THEY believe) will be lifted out of their clothes and wafted up to heaven during an event called the Rapture. Not only do the worthy get to sit at the right hand of God, but they will be able to watch, from the best seats, their political and religious opponents being devoured by boils, sores, locusts and frogs, during the seven years of Tribulation which follow.

From George W. Bush's interview with Washington Post editor, Bob Woodward.

‘History,’ and then he took his hands out of his pocket and kind of shrugged and extended his hands as if this is a way off. And then he said, ‘History, we don’t know. We’ll all be dead.’

...Kevin Drum has an interesting piece on Liberals and Religion and how one should argue with fundamentalists without ridiculing their beliefs. I respectfully disagree. When people start dying because of one's CHOSEN outrageous and contradictory religious views, in my book, they lose their "don't make fun of my beliefs" privileges. This holds true for Heaven's Gate and the Branch Davidians and it should hold true for the Left Behind clowns as well.

Not a Bad Idea

Senator Chuck Hagel, "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?"

As long as it's a real draft, no college deferment, everybody of the proper age serves. Let's see how many wars these fuckers start when it's their kids that will be doing the fighting.

No Shit

U.S. Says June 30 Not 'A Magical Date' for Iraq

If you thought it was, then you probably believe that Saddam and OBL, right after planning 9/11 together, used aluminum tubes with uranium from Niger to make horrible WMD that would be delivered by remote control airplanes which would trigger Armageddon. Luckily the Almighty clued President Dinklips in, and He rallied the forces of good to crush the evil non-believers. Being the altruistic Man that He is, He then turned Babylon into a Shining light of democracy for all the world to marvel at.

Your Tax Dollars at Work
Propaganda Edition

Found this via TPM.
Must Read

Taxpayers unwittingly paying for Republican National Committee's propaganda

The courage of our convictions?

These two articles caught my attention and got me thinking. Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions and Chemist May Have Destroyed Evidence.

When I was in undergrad, I took a class on constitutional law. In the portion where we discussed the rights of the accused, we learned that there are two models through which to view criminal prosecution. First, there was the “civil liberties" view, which essentially held that it is more acceptable to release a guilty man rather than to convict an innocent man. Conversely, the “crime control" model stated that it was more acceptable to convict an innocent man than to let a guilty man go free. At first glance it would seem that the current attitude in America is much closer to the “crime control” model. For example, being “tough on crime” is invariably viewed as a political positive. Couple that with the negative connotation of constitutional violations being viewed as “technicalities” and its clear that Americans are much more concerned about locking up bad guys than they are with protecting the rights of the innocent.

Of course, what occurs in reality is far different. The real model of criminal investigation and prosecution is simple: regardless of guilt or innocence, the only acceptable outcome is a conviction and the appearance of crime control. Period. And what is most fucked about this reality is that it is the worst possible outcome. For the appearance of justice, innocent people are incarcerated and the guilty go free. Consequently, we're less safe in our communities and less secure in our rights.

Every Vote Counts II

Here's a quick followup link to the Diebold conspiracy - and it's really starting to look like a conspiracy. A pretty shocking read.

Every Vote Counts

Diebold appears intent on supplying shit equipment, no matter what the cost. Link via the Agonist

Yet despite warnings from the state's chief elections officer, Diebold continued fielding poorly tested, faulty software and hardware in at least two of California's largest urban counties during the Super Tuesday primary, when e-voting temporarily broke down and voters were turned away at the polls.

More than 600 of the devices froze or displayed unfamiliar screens and error messages on the morning of Election Day, for failure rates of 24 percent in Alameda County and about 40 percent in San Diego County.
Diebold Elections executives were told in October by state officials to ensure every piece of its voting systems was fully tested and approved by national and state authorities.
But Diebold resisted, arguing that the encoders did not need testing and approval because they were a "peripheral" device on its voting systems and that the devices were common, commercial products.
That was true for the hardware. But not the software.

I thought the way to succeeed in business was to provide the best product and/or service possible. Diebold's repeated efforts to do anything but that, show there are some other motivating factors at work.

Coalition of the Willing

Honduras Follows Spain, Pulls Out of Iraq

It looks like it is finally exercising some of that free will.

für die Bushenjugend

(thanks mcgeggy)

haben sie irgendwelche fragen?

I don't know about dignity...  

...but I love it when I'm on her.



Over at Eschaton, Atrios has linked to an article claiming that Condi was overheard saying, "As I was telling my husb—" and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, "As I was telling President Bush." And come to think of it, I remember hearing rumblings about this during the 2000 election... we'll keep digging.

Welcome Mr. Ambassador

Bush continues to surround himself with fine upstanding individuals, selecting John Negroponte as the US ambassador to Iraq.

"John Negroponte is a man of enormous experience and skill" and "has done a really good job of speaking for the United States to the world about our intentions to spread freedom and peace," said Bush.

A quick look at Negroponte's resume shows that he is indeed a man of enormous experience and skill - I mean, it's not everyday that a Nun leads a worldwide petition against your appointment to the UN. Besides that prestigious achievement, Negroponte also showed his talents as the former ambassador to Honduras by supporting Contra death squads in the killing of hundreds of civilians, laundering money from a corrupt government, increasing 20-fold the US military aid to Honduras, ignoring the full spectrum of human rights violations (including dropping nuns out of helicopters to their deaths), and perhaps most skillfully of all - deporting and "silencing" those who had damaging evidence against him since being appointed to the UN in 2001.

Now he's going to Iraq. One thing that's certain - as a representative of the Bush administration and the current US policies, he'll fit right in.

What conspiracy?

Link:

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview on Sunday.

Heads I win, tails you lose

Link:

"The opportunity for terrorists to try to influence the election, as was the case last month in Spain, appears to be an opportunity that would "be too good to pass up for them," Rice said. I think that we do have to take very seriously the thought that the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain," Rice told "Fox News Sunday."

So let's all get this straight, shall we? Herr McDumbass has done such a fantastic job on the war on terra that he deserves a second term. However, should the terrists strike before the election, it will all be in an obvious attempt to "influence the election" so that Americans, like the Spaniards, will vote out the party currently in power. So therefore, you HAVE to vote for Bush... I mean, you don't want to give into the terrists, do you? DO YOU?

Note to reader: please disregard the fact that the U.S.S. Cole was attacked on October 12, 2000, less than four weeks before the 2000 Presidential election. This had nothing to do with influencing the election in favor of Bush. We know this because it occurred before September 11, 2001. And EVERYTHING changed on September 11.

Cheney addresses the compassion crowd

Link:

Earlier in the day, Tom Mauser, whose son, Daniel, was killed with an assault weapon in the Columbine High School killings five years ago, tried to enter the convention hall where the NRA was meeting, seeking to urge Cheney to support extending the assault weapons ban.

Mauser was turned away by a security guard as several conventioneers applauded. A couple of conventioneers yelled "Get a life" and "Vote for Bush."

Variations on a theme
Over the last two weeks, we here at Ludis have grown tired of hearing the phase "moved heaven and earth to prevent an attack." Apparently, Senor McDumbass has too, as he's now saying he would have "moved mountains" to stop an impending attack. In an effort to help Bush's overburdened speech writers, I have taken the liberty... no the freedom, to develop the following talking point variations. Insert the following line after "Had we known that they were going to fly airplanes into our buildings,"

1. We would have moved our collective bowels to combat the horror known as September the eleventh.
2. We would have moved on up to the eastside to a deluxe apartment in the sky to counter that dastardly deed.
3. We would have moved over bacon, here's something meatier to thwart this tragic strike.
4. We would have moved your cheese to defend against those evildoers.
5. We would have moved Alabama's Ten Commandments monument to a much more prevalent location so it could be appreciated by everyone in our great Christian nation to avert them terists form carrying out their mission.