A somewhat more formal introduction...

Greetings. I'm Max Battcher and I've gone by the nick WorldMaker since just about before Dot-Com time began. Currently I'm a College Student, living in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Kentucky is pegged under the current ridiculous "Battleground States" System as a Red State. There is a lot of conservatism here, but most of it comes down to two factors: 1) a Historical libertarian bent in Kentucky politics (the State was founded by settlers who wanted to leave the larger government of neighboring Virginia; interesting fact: Kentucky has the largest number of counties behind only Alaska and Texas) and 2) the mindfucking influence of entities like the Southern Baptists (with whom I have sparred time and time again since Middle School). However, most of those influences can be counter-balanced and I would argue that this State is much more of a swing state than several that currently are Battleground States. (Obviously not in terms of declared "Independents" and "Undecideds", but in terms of actual historical "mind changing".)

I was raised in a liberal Roman Catholic household. I generally use the simple label of "Atheist" to sum up a much more complex belief system. I'm a sometimes paranoid guy and easily given to conspiracy theory. This current school semester I'm working a full time job for "real world experience" as required for my degree. I caved in to the first offer I got and sold out to the city's largest employer. Now I'm trying to preserve what little sanity I have left, as well as my job, in this particular uncreative, Dilbert-esque, highly conservative workplace.

More details on some of this can be gleaned from my website, which is full of sometimes disorganized rants based on whatever is on my mind at the time of writing.

Will there be a draft if Bush is reelected? Hmm. Why is this even a question?

I hate to do reposts, but this is something I wrote for Rox Populi on Wednesday that hasn't been published on Loaded Mouth until now. I've been covering the possibility of a draft for a while now, and with the topic now on the front pages, I want to repost this piece for two reasons: It's a great summary of all my coverage on the topic, and it gets the summary on a PBA blog if the alliance chooses to use it.

"I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period." - President Bush, 10/8/04

Oh, really? That's not the way I see it.

The fact is that in Iraq, a country a bit larger than California, we only have 140,000 soldiers deployed to fight a guerrilla war. The only situation we have to compare this to is the Vietnam War, where at the height of our commitment there, we had 543,000 soldiers deployed to South Vietnam, a country which is only half the size of New Mexico.

Do the math. It doesn't take somebody who is acutely familiar with our military to figure out that to win the peace in Iraq, we'll need hundreds of thousands of more troops -- But it helps that Col. David H. Hackworth has also done the math and arrived at the same conclusion I have. To back up his case, Hack's column includes choice bits like this: "Although Pentagon puff artists insist they’re making quota, recruiters are already saying it would be easier to find $100 bills on the sidewalk outside a homeless shelter than fill their enlistment quotas, even with the huge bonuses now being paid."

Despite Hack's assertions, many on the right still believe President Bush. Power Line says this "rumor is the most vile" in their vengeful diatribe against the Democrats for even mentioning the draft in an election year. Jay Tea at Wizbang has a somewhat well-reasoned argument against the draft being reinstated. I say somewhat, though, because he simply details his perceptions of the legislative and legal process a draft bill would need to go through. Jay Tea never touches upon the numbers which dictate a need for the draft. In fact, I haven't seen anybody on the right take a look at the numbers.

Well, anybody besides Hack, of course. And we all know what he thinks.

Look at the numbers, do the math. If Bush is reelected and allowed to continue his policy in Iraq, the draft question is a no-brainer. The questions we should be asking are if the age limit will be raised and if women will also be drafted.

As (my) luck would have it...

I'm supposed to leave for Cincinnati in less than 24 hours, and now my laptop won't go online at all. Not via wifi, and not even with my dialup connection that I use for backup. Nothing.

So I may not be blogging for a week. I'm going to try and get this fixed tonight... For now, I've learned my lesson: Don't uninstall Norton Antivirus when after you've installed it, and if it hasn't been installed on your computer yet, just don't touch the motherfucker.

Oops, I was suppose to look at assholes this morning, right?

Argh. Yet again, I haven't. What's my excuse this time? I think it's a decent one: Four hours of sleep coupled with a hypoglycemic flare-up of sugar lows have left me tired, frustrated, and unable to hold my concentration or remember things. Basically, I'm very, very off right now.

I was reminded of the asshole contest after reading this:

One thing is for sure, I won't be able to post as much as tas typically does and although I'm an asshole I don't think I can quite reach the high quality levels of asshole-dom (which I suppose is something of a high compliment in the world of blogging where often the person with the most attention wins) that tas has been able to provide (and which first drew me to the site, when I was looking for something of a more liberally bent asshole site to help me cope with the a barrage of Fox News).

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Max Battcher, one of Loaded Mouth's guest bloggers next week. Apparently, he's not that much of an asshole. ;>

This makes the "Testimonials & Stuff" hall of fame.

Fark Headline of the Day

"Video from today's John Stewart appearance on Crossfire where he calls the guy with the bowtie a dick (among other things). Don't miss, it's hilarious"

You've got to listen to it.

This blows away one stereotype...

...and reinforces another.

Men More Willing to Sleep with Their Boss?

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - More men are willing to have sex with their bosses to get a promotion or a salary increase than women, a Belgian human resources weekly said on Friday.

According to the Vacature poll -- based on 12,078 Belgians interviewed -- 12 percent of all men would be willing to sleep with their boss to try to advance their career, compared to only 1 percent of women.

What have we learned here? First off, there's a common assumption that enabled a story like this to come into existence: Women are more likely to whore themselves out to advance their careers, as opposed to using their talent and intellect to do such.

Secondly, it's ironic that this belief is perpetrated by a bunch of sluts who have no shame: Men!

Blogger eats another post!

Argh. I'm trying to update, but failing.

Anyone who claims the media is "liberal" is a goddamn fucking moron

iN DEMAND, a pay-per-view cable channel, is refusing to air a blockbuster movie from this past summer, one that easily cleared the $100 million mark at the box office.

That movie is Fahrenheit 9/11, and the date the refuse to run it is November 1, one day before election day.

This is getting fucking ridiculous. F9/11 was also one of the documentaries offered to Sinclair Broadcasting, for free, to air so they could comply with equal time laws after running an anti-Kerry documentary. But they won't air it, and the FCC won't force them obey the law because, quite frankly, they are in the pocket of the GOP. And in other news, the Republican National Committee has led a coordinated effort across multiple swing states to disenfranchise thousands of Kerry voters, and Florida has switched to tocuh screen voting machines that provide no recounts and can be hacked by a chimp.

And they call this freedom? Did I miss the "Freedom to get Fucked Up The Ass" amendment in the Bill of Rights?

Hope you've already had children, buddy

Being that offensive takes talent

If you do one thing this weekend, go see Team America: World Police. Oh my fucking gawd, it's hysterical. I nearly shit my pants by the end of it.

..."I'll rip your balls off and shove them up your ass so when you shit, you shit on your balls!" Genuis.

Pitch in a couple bucks where it could really count

I'm going to copy David and also post this: Rogue's husband has been dicked around with by the police for years, and now he's in a situation where he could face jail time. He really needs a lawyer, not some bullshit public defender who doesn't give a fuck if he goes to jail or goes home. Lawyers are expensive, so Rogue could use a couple bucks. I think it's a worthy cause.

For those of you disappointed that I haven't mentioned the O'Reilly sex scandal...

Remember, you asked for it!

...I'm not proud.

Loaded Mouth's Official Reaction to the Reaction on John Kerry mentioning Dick Cheney's daughter in the Debate

Big fucking deal.

Uhm, not quite

Bush, before the deabte:

In an indication of the acrimony ahead, Mr Bush was quoted yesterday as having told a private lunch of supporters: "'I'm going to be real positive while I keep my foot on John Kerry's throat."

Heh. What a dipshit.

The economy's doing great!

Halliburton is on a hiring spree -- For jobs in Iraq, of course. For $80,000 a year, you too can drive a truck and risk losing your head. Literally! And just think, we could hire actual Iraqis to do these jobs and not only save the American taxpayers millions, but give a job to someone who may get bored and just start fighting against us when they can't find gainful employment.

Of course, do to all this, we'd have to surgically remove Halliburton's lips from the prick of the Bush administration.

It takes a political climate this desperate, this much in bed with huge corporations, that caused Kerry to remind voters that he was a lawyer in the second debate.

Blair is such a bloody wanker

Get a load of this.

London: Secret government documents show that Tony Blair was warned by his own advisers a year before going to war that there was no growing threat from Saddam Hussein and that invading Iraq would be illegal.

Confidential papers, including a secret memo from Jack Straw to the prime minister, say that Iraq had not "stepped up" its weapons programmes and that invading Iraq would be "legally very difficult".

They advised that the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme should be emphasised to help make the legal case for war even though intelligence showed "the pace of Saddam Hussein's WMD programme" had not speeded up.

The secret papers, which the Independent Foreign Service has seen, show the government was warned a year before the invasion of Iraq that intelligence on WMD in Iraq was "poor".

So Blair knew, a year in advance, that Iraq likely had no weapons of mass destruction, yet he told his citizens a year later that Saddam could launch an attack on Britain within 45 minutes. He knew he was lying. He knew there was no credible intelligence tying Saddam to stockpiles of WMDs.

Nobody can tell me that this information wasn't passed onto the Bush administration in a timely manner.

I guess this article blows a hole through that "Every intelligence agency in the world said Saddam had WMDs so we had to attack!" bullshit argument.

It's a grand, grand, GRAND coalition!

Start feeling safe, Americans! Azerbaijan is sending "151 to 300 troops" to Iraq! Woo hoo! I betcha John Kerry couldn't pull together a coalition like this!

It was professionally done

The removal of equipment from Iraq's "mothballed nuclear facilities" that could be used to make atomic bombs, that is. While the fabulous Bush administration had US soldiers guarding the oil ministry in Baghdad, unknown parties went to Iraq's unguarded nuclear sites with fucking "heavy machinery and demolition equipment," in a removal process that lasted until at least "early 2004."

If this were a just world, Republicans and Democrats alike would look at this news and ask, "Is it possible for Bush to be any more incompetent?" Then again, I'm not sure if I want to pose such a question because I fear what the answer will be.

Operation Clark County is on FIYUH!

The Guardian's mission to have non-Americans influence our elections has resulted in 7000 people requesting the name and address of a Clark County voter. And the project isn't even a week old yet.

And they wonder how we could ever compare Bush to Hitler

Police in Oregon fired pepperballs at Kerry supporters who were protesting a Bush campaign visit. There was also a crowd of Bush supporters onhand, but nothing happened to them.

Is Bush president of Japan, too?

Headline: "A-bomb survivors denied medical benefits."

Sure you can vote, as long as you're not a Democrat!

Needlenose has a list of states where the Republicans, either through front groups or party members who just happen to be state governors, have repressed the Democrats right to vote by destroying thousands upon thousands of their voter registration cards. And Republicans have the gall to try (and fail) suing Michael Moore for "bribing voters" by giving slackers some clean underware. Unfuckingbelievable.

[Hattip: Rimone]

I'd like to see Cheney or Edwards do this

Unless you're an exreme political wonk of (former) Green Party insider, you probably haven't heard of Pat LaMarche. She is the Green's vice presidential nominee, on the ticket with David Cobb, who's found getting attention so tough that he had to get arrested with the Libertarian's Badnarik at the second debate just to get a morsel of national attention. In fact, for any third party candidate not named "Nader," the media has ignored them even if they are more popular than Nader. I'm still torn on whether or not they should be ignored given the importance of this election cycle. One half of me thinks, "Fuck'em, I know I agree more with the Greens, but we're got to get Bush out of office." But another side of me wishes they would get more coverage, because there's a slew of issues that they stand for which haven't even been mentioned.

Pat LaMarche has tried to bring attention to one of these issues: Poverty. She's done it in the most honorable way possible by going to 14 cities and sleeping on the streets, all part of her "Left Out" tour. I've heard about this through Greens, but the link I provided goes to a story in the Providence Phoenix, my local altweekly. I know it's not the NY Times, but I'm happy that some elements of the media are paying attention to LaMarche's plight and discussing an issue that really has been left out.

Why Republicans are fucking assholes, part 99,756,987,324,544...

The FCC, headed by Colin's son Michael Powell, has ruled that Sinclair Broadcasting can air an anti-Kerry documentary just days before the election without giving equal time to an anti-Bush documentary. Powell tried reasoning this decision:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said he knows of no precedent that would allow the commission to block the airing of a program.

Perhaps this dipshit needs to be introduced to something called the Equal Time law, which includes this provision:

Stations who gave time to candidates on regularly scheduled newscasts, news interviews shows, documentaries (assuming the candidate wasn't the primary focus of the documentary), or on-the-spot news events would not have to offer equal time to other candidates for that office.

Since John Kerry is the primary focus of this documentary, the law clearly states that Sinclair must give equal time to the Kerry campaign. But they won't. Therefore, what they are doing is illegal.

But I guess we can't expect a Republicans to uphold the law, now can we?

Somebody needs to write this book

"Curious George and the Dildo."

I think it would be a hit.

Bush explained

By Astarte.

Women’s Pay: I don’t believe all of that crap about the seventy-six cents to the dollar. You dolls are just not as smart as us white men. We’ll give you that ability to go to Community College so you’ll shut the fuck up and go home and have babies. That is, those of you who aren’t pathetic whores who have as many abortions as possible just to mess with God’s plan. You’re made to be fucked and to have children. Deal with it.

That's only part of it. Read it all, bunky.

So what does "Culture of Life" really mean?

"Culture of Life" is the phrase Bush uses to obfuscate his views on abortion. While we all know that Bush will make abortion illegal and is nuts enough to believe that embyros created by in vitro fertilization qualify as life, the media won't say so because Bush's handlers carefully choose which words to put in his mouth. I wrote a piece about this last month that cuts through the crap by showing where the media gets stuck and what questions they refuse to answer. Today, Newswriter has a piece that cuts through the crap and clearly defines and cites the origins of this "Culture of Life" bullshit.

It's just so obvious. Why won't our wonderfully "liberal" media report the obvious for once?

In trying to be a proper Red Sox fan, I'll do my best La Shawn Barber impression, since she's the zen master of ignoring reality

Red Sox: 2, Yankees: 0! Woo hoo! We're so going all the way!

Assholes, assholes everywhere...

I've been ignoring the Biggest Asshole in Blogging contest. There will be an update Saturday. I pwomise.

Why Republicans are fucking assholes, part 99,732,878,799,784

In Las Vegas, Voters Outreach of America, a GOP front group, went on a massive voter registration drive, then threw out everyone who tried registering as a Democrat.

Oh, by the way, this group also did work for another fucking asshole named Ralph Nader.

...Voters Outreach is pulling the same shit in Oregon.

...dKos has more.

...feministe has more, too.

Darfur: It just gets worse

The Telegraph reports:

An upsurge of fighting in Darfur has forced a further 220,000 people to flee their homes for refugee camps and severely disrupted the international relief effort, the United Nations said yesterday.

...the UN officials and aid workers say that the humanitarian situation continues to worsen.

"Continues to worsen." That's actually code for the two things are being done to help Darfur: Jack and Shit. The crisis there has become so unsafe that the UN currently can't deliver food to 50,000 refugees.

Since Bush admitted in the first debate that what's happening in Darfur is, indeed, genocide, has he done anything about it?

1-800-TUMOR

Some more research proves that cell phones cause tumors. Whee! Dial and die!

Yes, we all know Saddam is an asshole, but...

Headline: "Investigators unveil Iraqi mass grave containing 300 bodies."

I got into a conversation about politics and the war at the gym today, and I was asked how we could allow a dictator to murder his own people. I certainly don't condone the murder of anyone, anywhere, at anytime. And I recognize the fact that Saddam is a murderer, and it would be a good thing to know that he's out of power if we weren't royally fucking things up in Iraq. And I hate to belittle stories like this, but... A mass grave of 300 people ain't exactly the holocaust. In fact, looking at what's happening in Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Uzbekistan, trumping the finding of a mass grave like this serves as a pretty weak justification for a war which has killed 20,000+ Iraqis.

Free Blogplosion

Via Rimone, the Freeway Blogger has pictures of work by all his little blog children.

I believe in Curses

So the Sox are down two games to none, they again prove that they can't give Petey the run support he needs after pitching a great game, and Schilling's ankle finally breaks down in the first game of this series and he needs surgery.

Great.

The Sox season is done, folks.

Beating a debate horse

Nick says that Kathy from Random Thoughts on Politics had the best debate coverage of the Progressive Blog Alliance. I agree; she was very comprehensive, timely, and well-written with quick fact checking abilities. I only wish I had been reading her blog during the debate.

Here is Nick's rundown of how the rest of the Alliance blogged the debate. David also has debate coverage and rundowns from both sides of the fence. I'd have to say, coming from somebody who focused mainly on dKos and Atrios for my blog debate coverage tonight, I should have focused more on the PBA blogs. We did a better job.

Caption it!, because now it's time for the cheap shots

As we can obviously tell from this photo, Laura has the telltale "I'm using a vibrator right now, ha ha hah!" grin on her face, and Jenna's just fucking stoned. Barbara looks normal, though. She must have missed the party.

Just click it

Via Digger's Realm, Right Moment offers the debate reaction in pictures. Heh.

Matt? Who dat?

You may notice Matt said half the things in tonight's debate live blogging. He's my friend and he'll be guest blogging here next week, although he really isn't a guest blogger. He's posted on Loaded Mouth before with some frequency, but he hasn't had time to post in a while. Since the site is getting more hits now and many new readers haven't seen other bloggers on here besides yours truly, I figured a reintroduction was needed.

My sister Kerry will also be guest blogging next week. And I'm still up for getting another guest blogger in the mix. I don't want beg, but.. Heh.

Live blogging the debate!

9:06 - "Chase down the al-Qa'ida..." Matt: 'The al-Qa'ida? The fuck?'

9:08 - Bush has never said that he's not worried about Osama? Bull.

9:09 - Don't get a flu shot, you youngins! Die!

9:09 - "I haven't gotten a flu shot and I don't intend to." Matt: 'Buuuullshit!' Me: 'He hasn't had a medical exam this year, either.'

9:11 - Bush is trying to keep himself from emitting that stupid fucking smirk. Watch him.. He so wants to play frat boy. I'm surprised he's kept himself contained so far.

9:12 - Matt: 'But he's saying you can buy into it, the government isn't going to fucking pay for it!'

9:15 - Hmmm, seems like Bush has his old nose back.

9:17 - "I'll tell you what pay-go is.." Wow. That joke fell flat.

9:18 - "I'll pay you to goto community college!" Matt: 'Oh boy!'

9:19 - dKos has already debunked Bush's OBL comment. Bwwwahaha... 0wned!

9:20 - Matt: '30%? Try 100%, Kerry.'

9:22 - On Kerry's coment about how one can go overseas and make beter money, I'll make a post about my research into working in India later. It's not pretty for the Bush administration.

9:23 - Bush: "Woooh!" What a dick.

9:25 - Kerry had a great rebuttal on the Pell Grants.

9:26 - Bush's corny attempts at a knockout blow, "Kennedy is the conservative senator from Massachusetts!," followed with a shit-eating grin, are just pathetic.

9:30 - Commissar is live blogging and providing Sox/Yankees updates, too. He's Republican, but I can respect the baseball thing. :)

9:31 - Matt: 'He quoted the Bible? That should catch Bush off-guard.'

9:33 - We should all be involved with abstinence programs, Bush? Goddamn. My loins are killing me!

9:34 - Matt on the health savings accounts: 'Why the fuck would people want a high deductable?'

9:35 - Matt: 'Bugy and horse days? How fucking ignorant do you have to be to say bugy and horse? It's horse and buggy!"

9:36 - Kerry says Bush blocked drugs from Canada. Matt says, "Thank you, Kerry," for mentioning it.

9:36 - Yankees still up by a run. Bastids.

9:37 - "I was deeply concerned about seniors picking between prescription drugs and food!" Well, stay concenred Bush, because they're still choosing.

9:39 - Kerry is continuing his streak of being cool, calm, collected, and very presidential. Keeping his eyes in the camera is the big plus.

9:41 - So leading news organizations aren't credible anymore, Bush? Matt: 'He fucking zinged himself!' Me: 'What a dick.'

9:42 - Matt: 'Why is it that people goto Canada for drugs? Why is it that people have dual citizenships with England to get health coverage? Why is it that Hong Kong citizens in China keep their Hong Kong IDs? They all want socialized health care!'

9:44 - After Bush talked about Medicare checks: 'But in 2009, fuck you!' Bonus random comment, 'One of which was to stick a broom up my ass and go rrrrrRRRR!'

9:45 - Matt: 'Back in the 90s when companies allowed pension plans to go into mutual funds and the stock market went down, people lost money. Is that what Bush's social security plan is?'

9:48 - Yankees still up by 1 in the 5th inning. Bastids.

9:49 - Matt: 'I'm waiting for Bush to take a shit and fling it at Kerry. He just has that gorilla attack look on his face.'

9:50 - Bush just said that the middle class got most of the tax cut. That's an absolute lie.

9:51 - Don't you love how Bush gets that dumbass grin on his face whenever he thinks he makes a point? "Look, Mommy, I made a point! Aren't you proud of meeeee?!"

9:56 - "4000 people a day coming over the border." Zing! Matt: 'So you're saying you were inept when you were the governor of Texas, Bush?'

9:58 - Matt: 'Don't quote that!' Sorry, folks.

9:59 - What does the No Child Left Behind Act have to do with minimum wage?

10:00 - The Sox only have one hit right now. Do you believe in curses?

10:00 - "Well, again the President didn't answer the question." Zing!

10:02 - Bush says he doesn't have alitmus test for judges? Right. And I have a two foot cock.

10:03 - Matt: 'My professor told me there's a town in Massachusetts that has the best public school system in the country, but they are in danger of losing their accreditation because No Child Left Behind requires constant growth, and this town would have to have 104% of their high school grads going to college." Wow, Bush can't do math!

10:07: Kos: 'And he is starting to yell. Furious George can't be denied forever!'

10:07 - Bush says that Kerry will turn over security to other nations. There he goes again... Seriously, that's what Kerry should have said.

10:09 - Matt, after Bush talked about guns: 'So the whole state of Texas is going to be arrested?'

10:11 - "That's what Osama bin Laden's handbook said." Zing!

10:12 - In the interests of being fair and balanced, Commissar: "Kerry is going to double the number of special forces. He is gonna train them personally, he fought in Nam you know... And using stem-cell research, he's going to clone them."

10:13 - Matt: 'Come on, say it: This is a president who had the black voters of Florida disenfranchised. Come on, say it! Saga!"

10:14 - Matt: 'Because he doesn't know what the fuck to say, Bush is going back to education.'

10:15 - Indeed, Kos: 'Notice also, how in every question dealing with jobs or minimum wage, Bush answers with some "education" blather.'

10:21 - Yankees homered, 3-0. Fuckers.

10:23 - Commissar: 'Bush started with a good answer about prayer, but got all tangled up and wandered off the point. Close, but no cigar. Bush said Christian, Jew, or Muslim; but insults all pagans and Wiccans by omission! Intolerant Bush! An omission which Kerry seized on by invoking Native American beliefs.'

10:25 - "I guess you could say it was love at first sight." Matt: 'And then she suuucked mah dick!' Me: 'I'm quoting that one!'

10:27 - Matt is playing Snood and making fun of Kerry's final statement. 'And I'll make blowjobs legal!'

10:29 - Woo hoo, the Sox got another hit!

10:30 - Kerry just stuck something in his pocket as he walked away from the lectern! The right wing blogs will claim he cheated and talk about it for two months, you heard it here first!

Blogger seems to be bogged down...

I imagine I'm not the only person trying to live blog the debate tonight. So, because of this, there won't be too many updates... Sorry.

Notes

My new guest blogging post at Rox Populi is live. And, with any luck, I'll be live blogging the debate later tonight.

Lying British Bastid

Prime Asshole Tony Blair is being called upon to apologize for saying that Saddam could launch missiles at the UK within 45 minutes.

Gee, wasn't this what the Hutton Inquiry was all about? Didn't PA Blair gloat about Lord Hutton's report clearing him of all the charges against him? Didn't PA Blair say he would resign if the report was critical of him, meaning that he lied? Well, now that he's admitted to lying, when will PA Blair up and fucking resign?

More of the same in Darfur

It never stops...

A month of fresh violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur has driven more than 200,000 people from their homes, the United Nations has said.

Insecurity is also blocking aid to the 1.5 million displaced people inside the region, according to the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan.

...nor does the story ever seem to change.

Mr Pronk last week told the UN's Security Council that Sudan's government has failed to keep its promise to end violence in Darfur over the past month.

He said attacks on civilians continued and that both pro-government forces and rebel groups had broken a truce.

Mr Pronk said the army had continued its attacks, sometimes with helicopter gunships and neither the government nor the rebels had respected the ceasefire signed on 8 April.

International law? Bah, that doesn't apply to us!

Human Rights Watch says the US is violating international law because we're hiding 11 terrorist suspects in secret locations. I kinda, sorta think these prisoners are being showered with pig's blood as I type this.

But I thought the UN weapons inspectors were incompetent clods!

Apparently not.

An Iraqi minister has said United Nations nuclear inspectors are welcome to return in response to concerns of an "apparent systematic dismantlement" of Saddam Hussein's once-vigorous nuclear program.

So there was no plan to win the peace or guard Saddam's still existing weapons facilities from the 80s? "Mission Accomplished?" Hell, couldn't we goad Poland into guarding these facilities?

Miserable failure on a stick.

They're onto something here...

The Guardian is organizing to get Bush out of office. Of course, they're in the UK, so that might raise a few eyebrows. But not only do I like their idea, I'm urging Americans to take participate in it, too.

Here's the deal: Goto guardian.co.uk/clarkcounty and enter your email address. The Guardian will then email you the name and address of a random registered independent voter in Clark County, Ohio -- a crucial swing county in a crucial swing state. You then mail that person a letter, pleading your case about why they need to vote for so-and-so on November 2nd. And that's it.

Pretty simple, right? And it only takes 10-20 minutes of your time, so hop to it!

[Crossposted to Rox Populi.]

Reading things this stupid makes me wish I owned a gun...

Let's play Spot the Moron!

Chris Paxos, 26, who recently lost his job as a salesman for a small building maintenance company, adds: "I'm going to vote for Bush because he believes if you make money you get to keep it. And he's for gun rights."

Does Mr Paxos have a gun? "No, but my parents do. I grew up around guns and I think you should be able to keep them."

Argh.

First of all, even if Bush believed that you get to keep the money you make, you don't have a job to make money with! Fucking duh! To make money, you need a goddamn fucking job!

Secondly, when has Kerry ever said he was going to take away everyone's guns? When? The guy's a fucking hunter, for christssake. There's pictures of him in an orange vest, wielding a rifle. Do these people think that's just a show, and when he's elected, he'll tattoo a peace sign to his forehead and force the military raid any home that has weapons? I mean, fucking honestly.

I wish people this stupid didn't have the right to fucking vote.

What a bunch of fucking assholes

It's amazing to read Digby's compilation of Free Republic commenters on Reeve's death and then remember how the right side of the blogoshpere went absolutely insane when Kos merely said "Screw them," about 4 dead mercenaries in Fallujah. Where's all the rage from Allah now? Does this mean they think comments like, "Wonder if Hell is handicapped accessible.." are perfectly OK?

God, I'd expect this crap from the knuckle-scrapers on God Hates Fags, who haven't said a thing about Christopher Reeve. As bad as freepers are, I never expected them to be this bad.

Equal time.. Like they care

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, whose TV stations wouldn't air an episode of Nightline critical of the Iraq War, now wants to air a "documentary" which is highly critical of John Kerry a few days before the election.

Now a filmmaker who made a pro-Kerry documentary is offering to let Sinclair air it for free. Other stations would have already aired it, but...

The filmmaker says several television outlets have approached him about airing his film, "Brothers in Arms," but backed away when faced with the equal time restraint, which might force them to air a film about Bush.

Equal time, hmmm.. That's funny. Doesn't this mean that what Sinclair's doing is illegal? And since they now have pro-Kerry documentary they can air, free of charge, there's no excuse for them not to give equal time to the Kerry campaign.

But what if they don't?

Well, the good news first...

The Yankees pitching sucks.

Now of Curt only had a good ankle to pitch from...

Live blogging, light blogging, and guest blogging

I may be live blogging tonight's deabte, though I've never live blogged anything before and I'm not quite sure if I'll be good at it. But I'm up for a challange.

And posting may be kind of light today because I'll be working on a post for Rox Populi. It's a topic I've already posted on here and I want to present it to her audience, because making another big post about it here will make me feel like I'm beating a dead horse. I'll post a link to it, instead.

And speaking of guest blogging, I'm still looking for another guest blogger next week. Blog for Loaded Mouth and, uhm, impress your friends! Or something. Email me if you're interested.

Pushing favors to the bottom...

David Scott Anderson is working on a project to bring schoolbooks to Costa Rican Schoolchildren. Project Apollonia is an ongoing project of In Search of Utopia to help in this effort.

That's it on my Googlebombing schedule today.

War of Attrition, Part Two

Earlier today, I posted this angry comment to Rogue Angel's blog.

What galls me is the Nixonian attitude of this bullshit, and who that attitude is obviously bleeding into the Bush administration, how it handles the war in Iraq, and how the supporters of that war are treating it.

I'll argue this from the point of a hawk, which I'm not, so any right leaning people who read your blog get it: The Number One thig we should have learned about warfare from Vietnam was that a war of attrition is the least effective war to combat an enemy who practices guerrilla warfare, especially in a country that has a population of millions with a strong current of nationalism running through them. When we kill 10 of who we say are the enemy, but really only one or two are and the rest are innocent civilians, we do nothing to help our cause. Absolutely nothing. The only thing we have done after bragging about killing 10 Iraqis is caused 20 more to become so extreme that they'll take up arms against us. And this is exactly what we tried in Vietnam: pump up the bodycounts, say we've killed so many of them and use that as the basis of victory. Vietnam defenders still use this as the basis of victory, saying that the media lied about Tet because we killed so many of the North Vietnamese that we halted their military strategy to take the cities, and therefore we must have won the battle. Wrong. We lost. Bodycounts are the worst thing to rely upon when you're fighting against guerrilla warriors.

I'm so sick of these imbeciles who haven't learned this after Vietnam. They still think we could have won. They're all like the former high school jock who came thiiiiis close to winning a state football championship. The attitude is not only sickening, but it's lead to more than a thousand new deaths. I hope these blowhards, most of who are probably too chickenshit to fight the wars they support, are fucking happy with the blood they have on their hands.

[/pissed]

After I rolled out of bed tonight, Rimone sent me this link.

HERSH: I got a call last week from a soldier -- it's different now, a lot of communication, 800 numbers. He's an American officer and he was in a unit halfway between Baghdad and the Syrian border. It's a place where we claim we've done great work at cleaning out the insurgency. He was a platoon commander. First lieutenant, ROTC guy.

It was a call about this. He had been bivouacing outside of town with his platoon. It was near, it was an agricultural area, and there was a granary around. And the guys that owned the granary, the Iraqis that owned the granary... It was an area that the insurgency had some control, but it was very quiet, it was not Fallujah. It was a town that was off the mainstream. Not much violence there. And his guys, the guys that owned the granary, had hired, my guess is from his language, I wasn't explicit -- we're talking not more than three dozen, thirty or so guards. Any kind of work people were dying to do. So Iraqis were guarding the granary. His troops were bivouaced, they were stationed there, they got to know everybody...

They were a couple weeks together, they knew each other. So orders came down from the generals in Baghdad, we want to clear the village, like in Samarra. And as he told the story, another platoon from his company came and executed all the guards, as his people were screaming, stop. And he said they just shot them one by one. He went nuts, and his soldiers went nuts. And he's hysterical. He's totally hysterical. And he went to the captain. He was a lieutenant, he went to the company captain. And the company captain said, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents."

You read those stories where the Americans, we take a city, we had a combat, a hundred and fifteen insurgents are killed. You read those stories. It's shades of Vietnam again, folks, body counts...

You know what I told him? I said, fella, I said: you've complained to the captain. He knows you think they committed murder. Your troops know their fellow soldiers committed murder. Shut up. Just shut up. Get through your tour and just shut up. You're going to get a bullet in the back. You don't need that. And that's where we are with this war.

You know, I was really hoping that my rant on Rogue Angel's blog was misplaced. I tend to shoot my mouth off before thinking sometimes (see the A-list blogs rant), and given the life and death circumstances of what I talked about, I had hoped that I again jumped the gun.

Unfortunately, upon a second viewing, I don't see any inaccuracies with my rant.

For those unfamiliar with what a war of attrition is, it's exactly what Sy Hersh described. It's an attitude that fosters killing anyone who the US can consider an "enemy," whether or not they are innocent, simply to pad the bodycount numbers and fluff up the war effort. And when an Army captain says, "No, you don't understand. That's a kill. We got thirty-six insurgents," to explain the deaths of dozens of innocent Iraqis, then that captain has the attitude. And if one lowly captain is infected with the mindset that we need to fight a war of attitrion, I'm wondering how much of the military has the same virus.

Everyday, Iraq looks more and more like another Vietnam. In Vietnam, Army captains and generals padded the bodycount numbers as much as they could, killing as many people as they could to do such, so the media reports about the war back home looked better. We're doing a great job in Vietnam, look at how many gooks we killed today! We're winning!

But it was all a lie. We weren't winning. Not only were we in a country where we shouldn't have been fighting a war in the first place, but we weren't even fighting the war properly. And it only leads to mass murders and horror stories on all sides.

"I'm not sure I can think of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up."

Bwwwhahaha! This Sox/Yankees series is already a classic before the first pitch is thrown. I might be forced to watch game 2 instead of the debate tomorrow, but duty comes from fandom...

*poof* go the prisoners

Lauren has a story about al-Qa'ida suspects under our custody who just kinda, sorta disappeared. It's worth noting that they just kinda, sorta disappeared after Congress voted down the torture bill. I kinda, sorta wonder if their testicles are getting electrocuted as I type this.

Come on, Salon...

I like you guys and all, but this statement from your article on Bush and earpieces is completely false.

Did the device explain why the normally ramrod-straight president seemed hunched over during much of the debate?

"Normally ramrod" my ass. Anybody whose ever seen Bush under pressure, like at a press conference where he doesn't know the questions beforehand, can attest to the fact that this man leans over his lectern like a vulture over a dead body. It's practically his MO, he's horrible at unscripted public performances. Your reporters and editors should know this, especially if you're going to be dealing with conspiracy theory, since it's important that all your facts are credible before jumping to conclusions.

What are they thinking?

When I see headlines like, "GOP Senate candidate warns of lesbianism," I know the rabid right has gone completely insane. I mean, honestly, do they expect statements like this to net them more votes? This is more likely to get men all across America giving each other high-fives and dreaming about new videos. I can just hear the chants from brainless wonders at a kegger... "LESBIANISM! WOO HOO!"

I wonder how they'll ignore this warning

The Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank at Tel Aviv University, says what many of us already know about the War on Terrorism.

The war in Iraq did not damage international terror groups, but instead distracted the United States from confronting other hotbeds of Islamic militancy and actually "created momentum" for many terrorists, a top Israeli security think tank said in a report released Monday...

But the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said that instead of striking a blow against Islamic extremists, the Iraq war "has created momentum for many terrorist elements, but chiefly al-Qaida and its affiliates."

Jaffee Center director Shai Feldman said the vast amount of money and effort the United States has poured into Iraq has deflected attention and assets from other centers of terrorism, such as Afghanistan.

Let me add that our war in Iraq has likely placed the country in a climate similar to that of Afghanistan in 1996, which fostered the unhindered growth of terrorist organizations.

For anyone questioning the motives and partisanship of the Jaffee Center, they've also said that leading a strike on Iran right now would set back their nuclear program. I'm not too familiar with this group, but from my initial impression of them, they don't appear to be peaceniks.

0wned!

Wizbang just got served by The Progessive Blog Alliance.

phe@r.

Cha-Ching

Reading this Needlenose post about how our occupation of Iraq has gone wrong reminds me of a conversation I had with Richard Walton. Walton is an author (the first author on the left to criticize the Kennedy administration, I believe), respected political elder in Rhode Island whose op-ed pieces get published in the Providence Journal, member of the Green Party, and former vice presidential nominee for the Citizens Party back in 1984. In 2000 when I was still a Green, I was able to have a beer with Walton, and despite being mostly sober, I couldn't pass that up.

He had just returned from a trip to Baghdad with other activists. I don't remember specifics about our discussion, but one thing that sticks out was his comment about how many American business people were in Iraq. He defined them as "vultures," there to network, make connections, and trying to cash in when the next war inevitably came to Iraq.

I keep that in mind while reading this quoted portion of Needlenose's post:

...we forgot that when an economy is bleeding, the first priority is to pump in money. Instead, we created a monstrous bureaucracy, with hundreds of contract officers and a "wedding cake" hierarchy of contract layers that drips dollars slowly and excludes most Iraqi companies from participating at senior levels.

Why don't we hear about this in the debates?

Bush has talked up a storm in the debates about how we need to curb frivolous lawsuits to lower the cost of insurance?

Well, it's all a lie.

.."False Alarm," by Stephanie Mencimer in October's Washington Monthly. It's an eye-opening exposé of how the insurance industry -- aided by gullible reporters -- has hyped a "lawsuit crisis" by disseminating dubious stories of idiotic lawsuits.

Remember the story of the guy who won a $500,000 lawsuit against a lawn mower manufacturer after he hurt himself while using the mower as a hedge clipper? It never happened.

How about the guy who won a $300,000 jury verdict against a ladder manufacturer after he fell off a ladder he'd set in a pile of manure? Pure baloney -- there was no manure. And the story of the woman who threw a drink at her boyfriend in a restaurant, then won $100,000 suing the restaurant because she slipped in the puddle and hurt herself? More baloney.

All those stories were reported in the mainstream media and, Mencimer says, all were either totally fictitious or wildly distorted.

Yes, but, but, aren't more people suing and costing the insurance companies millions of dollars?! No.

the rate of lawsuits has been falling since 1975, and the median jury award to plaintiffs who manage to win has dropped from $65,000 in 1992 to $37,000 in 2001.

Kerry needs to bring this up in his finally meeting with the monster.

Saudi Arabia to women: Fuck you

With all the talk about how Afghan women now have the right to vote, it's important to remember that Saudi Arabian women still don't. But if they did, Bush would use them as political pawns, too!

You forgot... Fiji?

155 Fijian soldiers have been deployed to Iraq. Let me be the first to say that I feel safer already.

So that's what the bulge in Bush's back was!

From the Guardian.

President Eightball

It would appear that the President has skipped another medical exam -- his 2004 exam, to be exact.

Isn't that odd.

I'm sure there's [snort] a viable [snort] excuse for the [snort] President to skip his [snort] doctor's appointment.

[snort]

Do you ever get the feeling...

That if Bush was caught by a photographer in the Oval Office while Barbara gave him a BJ and Jenna fucked him up the ass with an 18" strap-on, millions would still support him?

Hell, I think his poll numbers would jump.

Let's play word association

What do you think when you read this?

The Bush administration will delay major assaults on rebel-held cities in Iraq until after U.S. elections in November, say administration officials, mindful that large-scale military offensives could affect the U.S. presidential race.

The first word I think of is "murder."

The second is "despicable."

The third is "disgusting."

What other proof does one need to be convinced that Bush doesn't give a damn about the lives of our soldiers fighting in Iraq? Senior administration officialls essentially just came out and said, "We know Iraq is fucked, but we're not going to do anything about it before the election because it could cost Bush votes." How can anybody support a man who would rather see people die then lose votes? How can anyone say this man has morals or even credibility?

This is truly sick. The only thing Bush should be voted into is a straight jacket and a date with the International War Crimes Tribunal.

Hey! Where's all the assholes?!

I haven't given up on Loaded Mouth's "Biggest Asshole in Blogging" award, I just haven't had time to handpick the nominees yet. I'll narrow the field down to fice and post the canadidates later this week.

From the Guardian

I'm not much for that whole "thinking" thing right now

I went door-to-door in New Hampshire today, campaigning for Kerry where it matters. This meant I had to work on first shift hours, and now I'm all discombobulated and likely to pass out before midnight. So if I pull a Bush and go AWOL, you know why.

...I just made a bite size image of our der leader. Feel free to steal it.

Guest bloggers

Are still needed. You know you wanna.

Why do the media and pollsters give Nader preferential treatment over other third party candidates?

Who is the most popular third party/independent candidate running for president? If we're to believe this graph, it's not Nader -- he doesn't even come in second.

These are the latest statistics from Ballot Access, a website which keeps track of how many state ballots non-major party candidates will appear on. It clearly shows the Libertarian's Badnarik with a commanding lead, Constitution Party's Peroutka coming in second. Nader is at third with only the potential to overtake Peroutka, but he's still eating Badnarik's dust.

So if more Americans will have to opportunity to vote for Badnarik and Peroutka, why is it that not one polling agency bothers to name them as a candidate when they ask potential voters who they'll be casting their ballot for? If Badnarik and Peroutka are on more state ballots than Nader, then there's no questioning the fact that they've had more grassroots support, and thus, they are more popular than Nader. Let's not forget that the Republicans contributions of money and volunteers to Nader have been invaluable in his effort to get on as many state ballots as possible, along with all the media atention he has received since January. No other third party candidate has had this backing, and yet, Nader still hasn't reached the levels of popularity obtained by Badnarik and Peroutka. Hell, his popularity even against Green's Cobb is questionable, since it was Cobb who beat out Nader for the nomination at the Green Party convention.

Yet whenever we see a poll telling us who Americans will vote for, Nader is the only other candidate listed if it goes beyond Bush and Kerry. Why don't pollsters ask potential voters, "Who do you intend to vote for: Kerry, Bush, Badnarik, Peroutka, Nader, or Cobb?"

You probably already know that members of the Libertarian and Constitution Parties lean to the right, and if they weren't in the race, some of their voters would instead cast their ballots for Bush. So third party candidates who could spoil the election for Bush are being ignored by the media and the pollsters while they have no problem with giving all their attention to the candidate who's most able to take votes away from Kerry.

Why are Badnarik and Peroutka blacked out of the media and polls when they have more support than Nader? Isn't that a bit biased?

[Crossposted to Rox Populi.]

Sunday is Cartoon Day!

As always, a couple by Ted Rall.

Sunday is Radio Mouth Day!

This week, it's brit rap/rock/pop/whatever... Pop Will Eat Itself, "I was a Teenage Grandad." PWEI had a couple of hits in the UK, but they only real spalsh they made stateside is serving as one of Trent Reznor's original influences for NIN. PWEI co-founder Clint Mansell still has a career, though. He's mostly known for composing the brilliant scores for the movies "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream."