How's That Bailout Working So Far?

We are being played for fools.

The financial industry is getting billions of dollars, for what? So that they can fire people, that’s what. I thought the idea of the bailout was to help save people’s jobs.

From Bank of America to cut up to 35,000 jobs:

Bank of America Corp said on Thursday it plans to eliminate 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over three years after it completes its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co).

The cuts could affect about 11 percent of the combined companies' roughly 308,000-person workforce. Bank of America employs about 247,000 people and Merrill about 61,000.

I wonder what will happen if the government bails out the auto industry.

The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

Visit The Human Rights Action Center.

The Future Is Now Past

I’m glad that someone at Foreign Policy has been paying attention.

From The 10 Worst Predictions for 2008:

1. “Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary.” —William Kristol

2. “Bear Stearns is not in trouble.” —Jim Cramer

3. “…only a naval power of the United States’ strength could seriously disrupt oil shipments.” —Dennis Blair and Kenneth Lieberthal

4. “[A]nyone who says we’re in a recession, or heading into one—especially the worst one since the Great Depression—is making up his own private definition of ‘recession.’” —Donald Luskin

5. “For all its flaws, an example to others.” —The Economist on Kenya’s presidential election

6. “Arizona’s maverick senator, John McCain, will end up the country’s next President.” –BusinessWeek

7. “These events have the potential to fundamentally alter matter and destroy our planet.” —Walter Wagner

8. “The possibility of $150-$200 per barrel seems increasingly likely over the next six-24 months.” —Arjun Murti

9. “It starts with the taking over of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which has already happened. It goes on to the destruction of the Georgian armed forces, which is now happening. The third [development] will probably be the replacement of the elected government, which is pro-Western, with a puppet government, which will probably follow in a week or two.” —Charles Krauthammer

10. “I believe the banking system has been stabilized. No one is asking themselves anymore, is there some major institution that might fail and that we would not be able to do anything about it.” —Henry Paulson

Maybe we should pay less attention to all of these people in the future.

Some of these people I am not familiar with. Some of them, such as William Kristol, Jim Cramer, Charles Krauthammer, Henry Paulson, and even BusinessWeek; I’ve never much cared for. Only arrogant fools think they can predict the future.

Esmin Green And Edith Rodriguez

“Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.” Pearl S. Buck

“A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.” Samuel Johnson

"…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. " Hubert H. Humphrey

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." Mahatma Gandhi

How selfish we all are. The only reason any of us even consider tolerating multi-billion dollar bailouts of horrendously mismanaged companies is because we are afraid of a trickle-down effect that will hurt us financially. Fear is not always a good reason to do something. Rewarding incompetence is idiotic.

Why give billions to failed corporations, but nothing to Esmin Green and Edith Rodriquez? I think I know the answer. We are hoping to benefit financially in some way from the governments bailouts of troubled companies. We might get some money, or get to keep our jobs. That is our hope, even it the odds are slim. What can someone like Esmin Green or Edith Rodriquez give us? Certainly not money. Perhaps our dignity, if we weren’t so blind and uncaring as a society.

Who is Esmin Green? She is the women depicted in the following article by the NYCLU.

From After Death on ER Floor, NYC Finally Agrees to Some Improvements at Brooklyn Hospital Named in Civil Rights Lawsuit:

The shocking June death and shameful neglect of a 49-year-old Brooklyn woman in the borough’s public hospital psychiatric emergency room had advocates who filed a major civil rights lawsuit against the hospital last year back in court today demanding immediate, urgent reform. Disturbing security videos show employees ignoring the woman’s convulsing body, walking past her as she lay face down and dying for more than an hour. Further, hospital medical records misrepresent her condition in a way that suggests they have been altered or not maintained with the integrity the law requires.

Nicknamed “Killer County” by those familiar with its conditions, Kings County Hospital Center is the subject of a lawsuit filed in May 2007 by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Mental Hygiene Legal Service, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The lawsuit describes the hospital’s psychiatric emergency room and inpatient unit as “a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger,” and seeks an end to abusive treatment in the hospital’s psychiatric facilities where patients are regularly ignored and those that dare advocate for themselves are punished with forcible injections of psychotropic drugs.

Kings County Hospital is the only option for many in the overwhelmingly black, low-income neighborhoods that surround it, including Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Canarsie, Crown Heights, East New York and Flatbush. But for those desperate enough to go to the hospital’s psychiatric emergency room – the notorious G Building – too often there is little help to be found. An investigation by advocates in the lead up to the lawsuit found overcrowded, dangerously unsanitary conditions where patients – including children and the physically disabled – may be ignored and abused.

In this case, the 49-year-old woman had been in the emergency room for nearly 24 hours waiting for treatment. Videos document that at 5:32 a.m. on June 19 – more than a full day after she arrived for urgent care – the woman rolled off of a waiting-room chair and fell face down on the floor. She writhed on the floor until she stopped moving at 6:07 a.m., during which time multiple hospital staff saw her and ignored her. At 6:35 a.m. a hospital employee approaches and nudges the body with her foot. Not until 6:38 a.m. – more than an hour after the patient collapsed, and a half-hour after she last moved – did staff members bring a crash cart and oxygen tank into the area.

Who is Edith Rodriquez?

From Death by vomiting on ER Floor; Murder Weapon: Denial of Universal Health Insurance by Rob Kall:

The Latina who died in the ER, Edith Rodriguez, writhing in pain, on the floor of LA's King hospital blood, was not only killed by the heartless inaction of the doctors, nurses and staff on duty there.

An LA spokesman said that "even the janitors doing an elegant job of cleaning up the vomit did nothing to help her."

Edith Rodriguez is a highly visible case. But there are an estimated tens of thousands of people who die because they don't have health insurance. Compare that to the victims of 9-11 or the 3500 troops who were killed in Iraq. These victims were killed too-- by lobbyists, politicians and health insurance corporations. Where is the outcry? And for Edith Rodriguez, let's be sure that the right people and entities are accused.

How civilized are we?

“I got mine, let me tell ya
I got mine.
I grabbed that money
Out the back door I went flying
Well, ever since the big crap game
I’ve been livin’ on chicken and wine.
I’m the leader of society
Since I got mine.” Anonymous

D'oh!

From Simpsons cartoon rip-off is child porn: judge:

A NSW Supreme Court judge has ruled an internet cartoon in which lookalike child characters from The Simpsons engage in sexual acts is child pornography.

In a landmark finding, Justice Michael Adams today upheld a decision convicting a man of possessing child pornography after the cartoons, depicting characters modelled on Bart, Lisa and Maggie engaging in sex acts, were found on his computer.

The main issue of the case was whether a fictional cartoon character could "depict" a "person" under law.

"If the persons were real, such depictions could never be permitted,"Justice Adams said in his judgement. "Their creation would constitute crimes at the very highest end of the criminal calendar."

But Justice Adams agreed with the magistrate, finding that while The Simpsons characters had hands with four fingers and their faces were "markedly and deliberately different to those of any possible human being", the mere fact that they were not realistic representations of human beings did not mean that they could not be considered people.

From the word 'person' included fictional or imaginary characters ... by Neil Gaiman:

And I suspect the Judge might have just inadvertantly granted human rights to cartoon characters.

I think it's nonsensical in every way that it could possibly be nonsensical. The Simpsons characters aren't real people. They definitely aren't real children. (Given that they first appeared in the late eighties, they're also all over eighteen now...)

The ability to distinguish between fiction and reality is, I think, an important indicator of sanity, perhaps the most important. And it looks like the Australian legal system has failed on that score.

Fascinating

Fascinating, as Mr. Spock so often said on Star Trek. I am fascinated by the fact that two people can look at one thing and come to totally opposite conclusions of what that thing is. I suppose that is why the stock market bounces around so much. But I digress.

Yesterday I wrote about seeing Tom Brokaw on the Today Show. Today I added an update to what I wrote. While googling around the web for information on this subject I found someone who had copied the entire Washington Times article that I linked to in my update. What fascinates me are the comments left at this site.

Here is the first one:

Hell. I never watch any of these Red Star Hammer and Sickle Socialist Propoganda channels and the bubling old left wing incompitents who dispence the Marxist Leninist party mantra to the brain dead masses who beleive this Neocomm vomit!

These people could disembowel each other on the set of the state run nightly News and, other than watching and saying, Sick, Cool, I would say,"Good riddence, to the agents of Communism that have come here to Eff up our great nation and it's proud people!"

Our Revolution needs to be as much against this Ministry of Obama propoganda as the Marxist's and their tratiorous Anti-American pro Socialist poison that they spew on a hourly and minute by minute basis!

First of all, is it at all possible to ignore the many misspelled words? I am the first to admit that I am a rather poor speller, but in this day and age of spell checkers there is no excuse, other than neglect and lack of attention to detail, for poor spelling. Perhaps that neglect and lack of attention carries over into how this commenter processes facts and information. How else does one explain his conclusion that we have a left wing bias in the media, and that Obama is a marxist and a socialist? Has this person been living under a rock for the last eight years? The criticism of the Bush administration has been marginal, at best. If the media had been doing its job, we would not be in Iraq, Bush would never have been reelected, and he (and Cheney) would have been impeached years ago.

One thing that scares me is that this commenter is not alone in how he thinks. A quick surf around the web turns up many others that share his belief that the commies are taking over.

I actually agree with the commenter that most of the media does produce propaganda for “the brain dead masses.” However, I strongly disagree that this propaganda is socialist and/or state controlled. The propaganda is capitalist propaganda, and it is corporate controlled. The corporations control the state through the many lobbyists that they also control. Follow the money. Why is the government bailing out the financial industry and the auto industry? Do a little research and find out how much money these industries have contributed to lobbyists and politicians (of both parties) over the years. The politicians do what the corporations want them to do. If the United States ever falls, it will most likely be because of capitalism run amok. (Believe it or not, I actually have nothing against capitalism. It does however need some regulation. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all that. Regulation does not equal communism. We have always regulated capitalism, we have never been a communist country.)

Most U.S. politicians (including Obama, and the Clintons) are centrists. They only lean a little bit to the left or right, if at all. George W. Bush is an exception. He is an extreme right-wing radical. Fat lot of good his extreme policies did for us. I would have preferred a true conservative in the White House rather than Bush. Of course my true preference would be for a true progressive/atheist in the White House, but that just ain’t gonna happen. The liberal/progressive agenda is almost invisible on the political landscape. There is Russ Feingold and… Well, nobody else. They wouldn’t let Ralph Nader debate when he was running for president way back when. Hell, they wouldn’t even let him attend the debate as an audience member.

Believe what you will, but there is no way that you can convince me that the liberal/progressive agenda, or the socialists, or communists, or Marxists have actual power in the United States.

I am trying to picture Tim Russert, David Gregory, Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer as communists. Kind of hard to do.

Now I am trying to picture Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Rush Limbaugh as communists. Even harder to do.

None of them share their wealth and property like a good communist/socialist ought to.

Now I’m picturing all of them as capitalists. Hmm, very easy to do.

And just who is it that started spreading the “news” that Obama is a no good commie, socialist, marxist, Anti-American, Non-American? Why, it was the no good commie, socialist, marxist, Anti-American, Non-American media. Now, why would they do that?

Fascinating.

Movin' On With Tom Brokaw

Let’s just forget that the last eight years happened and get on with our lives. That seems to be what Tom Brokaw thinks.

Here is what he said on the Today Show this morning (in reference to the Babs and W. kiss):

That is symbolic of where this country is. They want to come together. People want to put the feud behind. We’ve got big, big challenges ahead of us and it is time to get beyond some of these fights that have been going on, and find some common ground. It doesn’t mean we give up our individual, very strong feelings about things, but the country’s on a domestic war footing.

Never mind that George W. Bush should be held accountable for constitutional shredding and other criminal acts. The past eight years amounted only to some sort of feud, it wasn’t a nightmare of incompetence and immorality. Let’s just forget all that and kiss and make up.

The Bush administration has done more than just hurt people's feelings. They have nearly destroyed the entire country. Let’s have some accountability. Let’s have an investigation. Surely, we can do several things at the same time.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana

To me, Brokaw is symbolic of what is wrong with this country. He gets paid big bucks to say idiotic things like this, while patting himself on the back and yucking it up with Matt Lauer and David Gregory. They’re all such nice, good old boys. Just like George W. Bush. I’d never want to have a beer with any of them.



Update:
From Journalists become 'self-reverential' celebrities by Jennifer Harper:

"Anchors and journalists have become part of self-reverential celebrity culture. Everything goes back to 'me.' It's driven somewhat by technological and economical change. Still, I haven't seen them pulled kicking and screaming into this," said Robert Lichter, director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University.

"Anchors can be bigger stars than the nominees at a political convention. They're not only brand names, but whole mini-corporations who supply the news, tell us what it means, and then turn around and be news themselves," he added.

An online poll at MediaBistro.com -- an insiders' journalism blog -- found that 79 percent of the respondents thought it would be a "bad idea" if NBC chose Mr. Gregory as moderator. The Drudge Report referred to the events as "meet the depressed," calling the 60-year-old public-affairs show - the nation's longest-running TV program - a "fading format."

Should a woman be chosen, she would be only the second female in the coveted post. Martha Rountree, who helped create the show, hosted it from 1947 to 1953.

Is this the mediabistro.com poll that is referred to? (Who knows? The Washington Times does that idiotic linking thing where it only links to itself.) If so, when I checked it had 65% saying “no” to the question “Do you think David Gregory is a good choice for MTP?” No mention of a “bad idea.”

"When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose"

Why does so much of the talk about fixing the economy take a top-down approach, instead of a bottom-up approach? In other words why are we talking so much about corporate welfare, while so many people think that welfare for the poor is a dirty word?

Do the rich really need more money? How much worse can things get for someone who is already poor and homeless? The middle class and the poor have suffered through an economic crisis for years, and the government didn’t care and did nothing to help them. Instead they helped corporations ship jobs overseas. However, when an economic crisis starts to effect the rich the government is ready to give them billions of dollars. Something is wrong with this picture.

From Guest Blogger: Michael Zweig's Proposal for Economic Stimulus:

We set out to design an economic stimulus package that would provide direct relief to distressed workers while bringing the economy towards full employment. But we found that, as important as job creation is, most distressed workers have jobs – just not good ones. So in addition to short-term stimulus we propose longer-term structural reforms that provide universal health care and make it much easier for workers to organize unions.

For the past 35 years we have lived through one of the greatest redistributions of wealth away from working people to the corporate elite that this country has ever seen. Worker productivity has gone up while wages adjusted for inflation have gone down. That’s what class warfare looks like, and the working class has been on the losing side for almost two generations.

When we criticize the increasing inequality around us and call for economic justice, others denounce such talk as “class warfare.” But the complaint is itself part of the war, designed to change the subject. A market economy can produce great wealth, but what’s the point if the working people who create it don’t live better for it?

Still Hot After All These Years

In the old days atheists were hot because of being burned at the stake and all. These days atheists supposedly are still hot, but for a different reason.

From Atheists hot? You better believe it by Danny Westneat:

Why in heaven's name were atheists sponsoring a road-race water station?

"Because we like that people are running on a Sunday instead of going to church?" said Wendy Britton, 43, a financial consultant from Bellevue and lifelong God-denier.

Joking aside, the atheist presence at the marathon isn't the half of it. Suddenly atheists are hot.

And everywhere. Wearing Santa hats while wrapping gifts for charity. Giving blood in groups of 15. Manning pledge-drive phones at Seattle public radio station KUOW.

Membership in the five-year-old Seattle Atheists has soared — to 122 dues-paying members plus 600 more on the event list.

It has a budget surplus. It's planning ads in Metro buses. It has its own line of "atheist activewear" — T-shirts to mark the wearer as out and proud in their disbelief.

They even have a local hero, Ron Reagan, son of the former president. He has cut radio ads that end with: "Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist. Not afraid of burning in hell."

Mel Gibson was so 2004. Now it's the passion of the rational.

Read more here.

God As Product

God is supposedly all powerful, yet it seems he still needs promotion as much as any other product.

He said, she said.

From Pro-God Christmas Ads Take On Atheist Bus Campaign by Katherine T. Phan:

Two Christian-based groups have purchased advertisements with Washington D.C. Metro buses to counter the atheist "Why Believe in a God?" bus campaign with their own pro-God Christmas ads.

The Center for Family Development, a Catholic-based non-profit in Bethesda, Md., plans to raise $14,000 to run a campaign called "I Believe Too," which consists for 10 buses with side posters, 10 buses with tail posters and 200 interior bus posters.

The pro-God ads will read: "Why Believe? Because I created you and I love you, for goodness' sake - GOD."

"Our goal is to counteract the AHA with a positive, upbeat ad of our own that identifies God as our true and loving creator," said JoEllen Murphey, a mother of four from McLean, Va., who was among those outraged over an atheist bus campaign run by the American Humanist Association.

Murphey is partnering with the Center for Family Development in the grassroots effort.

The American Humanist Association began running a $40,000 holiday ad campaign last month in an attempt to reach out to those who might be interested in humanism, which rejects a belief in God and an afterlife. The ads declaring, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake," are currently displayed on the outside and inside of 200 Metro DC buses and will run throughout the Christmas season.

The ads by the atheist group have sparked a public outcry, resulting in hundreds of complaints sent to the transit agency over the ads.

God either exists or he doesn’t. No one knows for sure. Why are people spending advertising money on uncertainty?

Bailout Fever

From A Better Bailout by Bruce A. Jacobs:

Many of us have noticed how swiftly the trumpeted rigors of capitalism wilt into a mumbled version of CEO socialism when the market produces actual consequences for the titans of industry. But since the deregulation era has seen monopolies mega-merge themselves into something approaching a state labor apparatus, the "too big to fail" argument has taken on a good bit of public-interest weight. We have to save the rulers, the claim goes, so that the little people will still have jobs.

But there is an alternative. What if we specifically bailed out consumers and jobs instead of vaguely funding CEO fiefdoms? What if our federal money directly underwrote relief and procedural reform for X number of mortgage- and fund-holders, and X number of productive auto industry positions, instead of filling discretionary coffers for CEOs who have already proven their blindness and greed? After all, in the event of a bailout, someone, whether CEO or public servant, is going to have to make the judgment of how to throw government money toward productivity. Who is more trustworthy for the task: the CEOs who Lear-Jetted their companies into fiery crashes in the global race for sound investment and well-made sustainable transportation, or a fleet of independent auditors charged with instilling fiscal discipline? Do you go with the proven screw-ups or with the feasible benefits of a new set of eyes? Or, at the very least, with a buttoned-down set of stipulations for how the money is used and with clear legal consequences for failure to comply?

The heart of it, I think, is not whether there is a bailout, but who we choose to bail out.

Fancy Inaugural Balls

From Inaugural planners must consider tone, given tough times by Jim Acosta:

When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, he also faced a financial crisis. He gave voters a now famous pep talk about the failing economy and then skipped the fancy inaugural balls because they sent the wrong message.

Who You Calling Intolerant?

Merriam-Webster defines intolerance as “unwilling to grant equal freedom of expression especially in religious matters.” So, when freedom of expression is granted equally in Olympia, Washington; why is it that the atheists are the ones who are intolerant?

From Intolerant Atheists Post Sign Next to Baby Jesus:

An intolerant atheist group unveils an anti-religion placard in the Washington state capitol building, joining a Christian nativity scene and holiday tree on display during December....

Atheist Christmas Cards

This seems slightly oxymoronic to me.

From Greeting Card Company Order of St. Nick Finds Niche With "Atheist Christmas Cards":

Do atheists celebrate Christmas? Famous atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris do, and humorous greeting card publisher Order of St. Nick is betting that millions more do as well. The company has just expanded its selection of "atheist Christmas cards," available for sale online at www.AtheistHolidayCards.com.

The cards feature a mix of standard atheist iconography such as Charles Darwin and evolutionary monkeys, along with tongue-in-cheek sayings such as "Evolve Your Beliefs." Another card, featuring a red-nosed reindeer, reads, "The red nose isn't weird... It's an evolutionary advantage."

"Nearly 15% of Americans identify themselves as 'non-religious,' but surveys have consistently shown that 95% of Americans celebrate Christmas," says Andrew Shaffer, Order of St. Nick's owner and creative director. "That's nearly 30 million atheists, agnostics, secularists, skeptics, and humanists who are being overlooked by mainstream card companies at this time of the year.

Read the rest here.

Stephen Colbert: Atheist Christmas Cards are "Un-American":

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Tip/Wag - All Wag Christmas Edition

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Bush Says The Darndest Things

From Bush says some voters backed Obama ‘because of me’:

President Bush told an interviewer that his presidency may have helped Barack Obama win the White House.

"I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he told Charlie Gibson of ABC News, according to a transcript released by the network Monday. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

With all due respect (which is none) Mr. George, we didn’t welcome you into our living room very often. We couldn’t stand you. You lied almost all of the time. We usually turned off the television, or gave you the finger.

I think most people voted for Barack Obama so that he could spend the next four years undoing the policies of George W. Bush, as well as implementing the policies of Barack Obama. I don’t care much about seeing Obama on television, even though he can be inspiring. I want to see him turn our country around from the death spiral that George W. Bush set it on.

$8.5 Trillion

We pay a lot of people a lot of money to prevent things like this. Lots of economists, lots of politicians, lots of talking heads. Fat lot of good they do us. Maybe they all should be fired.

From Economic rescue could cost $8.5 trillion by Jim Puzzanghera:

Reporting from Washington -- With its decision last week to pump an additional $1 trillion into the financial crisis, the government eliminated any doubt that the nation is on a wartime footing in the battle to shore up the economy. The strategy now -- and in the coming Obama administration -- is essentially the win-at-any-cost approach previously adopted only to wage a major war.

And that means no hesitation in pledging to spend previously almost unimaginable sums of money and running up federal budget deficits on a scale not seen since World War II.

Yield

In 1958 the stock markets yield dropped below the yield of bonds. It stayed that way for fifty years. Until now.

From Stocks vs. bonds by Mark Hulbert:

But what is the "proper" relationship between bond yields and dividend yields? Is today, along with the period prior to 1958, "normal" -- and the last 50 years the exception? Or is it just the opposite.

The memory of the Great Depression lingered for years after it ended, for example, which is one reason why stocks' dividend yields remained so high.

In contrast, the Baby Boom generation (at least possibly until now) had no traumatic memory similar to their parents' memory of the Great Depression. That in turn helps to explain why stocks' dividend yield slipped in the 1960s and beyond, relative to bonds' yields.

The bottom line? If enough investors become sufficiently traumatized by what's going on right now, and as a result more or less permanently expect stocks' volatility to remain a lot higher than bonds' volatility, then stocks' dividend yield is likely to remain above bond yields.

The Buck Does Not Stop Anywhere Near George W. Bush

I think that the W in George W. Bush stands for wimp and weasel. Come on George, the least you can do is be a man and admit that you screwed up.

"The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn't just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence. And, you know, that's not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess." George W. Bush

Yes George, I wish the intelligence had been different too, and by that I mean your intelligence. A smarter man would not have dismissed the actual intelligence which said that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

Not only is Bush one of the most immoral men on the planet, he is also not really a man. A real man would face reality and tell the truth. Not Bush, however. He still is in his own little fantasy world, and he is still telling lies.

From Bush: My Biggest Regret Was Failure Of Iraq Intelligence by Greg Sargent:

Of course, Bush made the decision to overlook all the good intel -- not to mention the claims of those poor forgotten inspectors -- saying that Saddam wasn't really a threat at all, or certainly not one requiring the response Bush himself ordered.

One overlooked thing about this is that not only Bush, but many supporters of the war -- Dems and liberal hawks included -- also have a vested interest in pretending that the good intel never existed and those inspectors never said what they said. Those inconvenient historical facts reflect rather badly on them, too. With so many opinion-makers having vested interests of their own in telling the story this way, history has been tidily rewritten, and Bush is able to make this claim without a peep of objection from his big-time network interviewer.

From Bush Goes Out Dodging by Matthew Yglesias:

It’s stunning that the President is still trying to mislead people about this rather than taking responsibility for his actions. French President Jacques Chirac didn’t feel compelled “looking at the same intelligence” to invade Iraq. Neither did German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder or the leaders of any number of other countries. No intelligence received by the White House ever justified the more extreme claims made by members of the administration, and some of the pre-war intelligence (that from the State Department INR Bureau, for example) was spot-on. The administration deliberately went out of its way to re-write intelligence reports as less ambiguous than they really were — compare the classified and unclassified version of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq — and to ignore reports that didn’t match the administration position.

Last, at the actual moment during which Bush pulled the trigger on war, inspectors were on the ground in Iraq. Hans Blix and Mohmmaed ElBarradei were in an excellent position to improve our knowledge of Iraqi WMD activities. And both Blix and ElBarradei were saying that there were no weapons stockpiles and no active WMD programs. There were busy asking the United States to hand over whatever contrary intelligence we had so that they could check it out. But instead of listening, Bush plunged the country into a disastrous war. It wasn’t a decision he made alone, but it was his decision; not something “the intelligence” made him do.

Bush behaves like a little child, a bad little child who is also a bully and a liar. If only he had been given some adult supervision over the last eight years.

Let’s hope that such a weak, pathetic, immoral creature like Bush never becomes president again.

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS day.

Winter Soldier Testimony

From Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress:

War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill earlier this year to testify before Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war. Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, “Winter Soldier on the Hill” was designed to drive home the human cost of the war and occupation—this time, to the very people in charge of doing something about it.

Former Marine sniper, Sergio Kochergin:

Another thing I want to touch on is, problems with equipment are another big problem. Where is all the money going that is given to the military? During my first deployment, I had a Vietnam-era flak jacket without a plate. My M-16 was made back in the late ’70s. We did not have enough night-vision goggles for everyone. While Marines are patrolling in the Hummers every day and get blown up, because the only protection they have are the flak blankets hanging from the doors, while generals and colonels and other high-ranking officers that leave a base once in awhile have brand new, fully armored Hummers that are always spotless clean sitting on the base, while other Hummers are bleeding with our brothers’, sons’, daughters’, sisters’ blood every day.

Read more here.