Just waking up...
I love it when I set my alarm clock and it doesn't go off. Sigh. Anyways, I'm not going to be able to pay attention to the blog until about 4am because I'm working an extra night tonight, and it was decided that on this extra night, instead of me sittion there and relaxing because it shouldn't be busy, I'll instead spend the first 4 hours of my shift in training for software I could learn how to use in 15 minutes. Sigh. So, you'll hear from me after 4am.
Lazy Saturday Open Thread
How come CBS is the network of sitcoms featuring short, balding, fatass husbands, yet it's required that their sitcom wives are pretty, skinny, and have a great rack?
I'll be back whenever
I've decided to take a few hours tonight to do some research into Brad Blog's election fraud story screw it, I just need a break, so I won't be paying attention to the news. As far as I'm concerned, the news has been pretty boring this week anyways, so it's no big loss. I'll probably reply to a few comments, but don't expect any real posts from me today.
To my sporadic bloggers: If you have anything you've been looking to get off your chests, you're more than welcome to (ab)use my blog today.
In the interest of being somewhat balanced...
Earlier this week I commented on Respectful of Otters' post about the BBC documentary "Guinea Pig Kids." Rivka from Respectful of Otters left a comment saying her second post on the matter was based off her reading of the transcript of the documentary. I personally haven't read it yet, but I'm posting the link to it because I criticized her for not seeing the documentary but I wasn't aware that she had read a transcript of it after making her initial post.
Jay Tea from Wizbang has commented on my criticism of his blogger ethics. Given my, err, history of having an attitude with anything regarding Wizbang, I'd like to ask that this shouldn't be taken as a call to arms of sort, especially since his responses to me were more fair than my posts about him.
If (and I'm hoping that) time allows, I'll be conducting a Loaded Mouth audit before the end of the year. Some issues I've posted about certainly deserve a second look, especially the Darfur situation.
Here's one good reason why Peter Beinart is a dick
Because she supports him.
...I just had to reply to one of her commenters. He said:
The main man in MoveOn is $zillionare Geroge Soros who heads several large international corporations. Their statement is at best misleading and at worst an outright lie. Hhowever they do have a point and the fact that an America bashing liberal from Nev is the new Senate leader demonstrates their power in the Dem Party.
And I replied:
Let me get this straight: the Democrats promoted to minority leader somebody who is pro-life, soft spoken, has nothing but praise of Scalia, and is friends with and respected by a few Republican senators... And that's still not enough with you? What do you people need to be satisfied? We bend over backwards just to please you and it's never enough.
Just more proof that the right is absolutely fucking insane. If they think Harry Reid is an extreme, hardcore liberal, then they have no grip on reality whatsoever, and I'm honestly surprised that they're smart enough to breath and tie their own fucking shoes. Fucking seriously.
Taricani gets home confinement
Last month, I commented on the federal government's case against Providence reporter Jim Taricani. Given the free speech implications of this case and how many revelations have come out in the past week, I've wanted to pen a longer comment on it. But here's the scoop in a nutshell: Taricani is not going to prison, but he shouldn't have even been tried anyways because the federal prosecutors already knew who his secret source was more than 2 years before his trial.
That bears repeating.
A reporter was, essentially, placed on a show trial by Bush administration federal prosecutors because he wouldn't reveal the identity of one of his sources. The federal prosecutors already knew who the source was, but they decided to try Taricani anyways, without providing evidence in court that they already knew who the source was.
This is some scary shit. Say goodbye to freedom of the press under Bush, folks, because if reporters dare to use secret sources when reporting about corruption in the government (any type of government, apparently, since Taricari's expose was limited to Providence City Hall) the Bush justice department will make sure you pay. It's all part of Bush's agenda to make that pesky media just another rubber stamp body for his obviously unquestionable "mandate."
This guy is a fucking dictator. I'm just waiting for him to grow a skinny little mustache...
...Additionally, the cruelty of aspect of this should also be noted. Taricani had a heart transplant in 1996 and needs special medical attention, yet the prosecutors brought him to trial and get a 55 year old man with a medical whose life is threatened without proper medical care in prison. Unbelievable.
Pogo til you get used as a reference
Michael Hussey is enjoying that nifty feeling a blogger gets when an organization uses their work as a reference. In this case, The Project on Government Oversight has cited an entry he wrote in their motion against that known asshole John Ashcroft.
Giggling with evil glee
Headline: "Santa charity run ends in mass brawl and five arrests." Yes, that's right, a bunch of people dressed up as Saint Nick started beating the shit out of each other. Does it get any better than that?
Osama's going to drop a nuke on the mini-golf course
At least that's what our government thinks, based on the fact that mini-gold courses are listed on the terror target list. What's next, terror at the bowling alley? "Mark it eig--" BOOM!! Will GutPundit save the day?!
Email update
The Brad Blog replied, so there's one down. Still waiting on Verso, though...
I literally got the email 30 seconds ago. And I'm kind of tired, having trouble with my reading comprehension tonight.. So, more later.
Will blockquoting soon become illegal?
Just read about this rather scary libel court case over at EFF.
Last week the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU) filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case that could undermine a federal statute protecting the free speech of bloggers, Internet service providers, and other individuals who use the Internet to post content written by others. The case in question is a libel suit filed against women's health advocate Ilena Rosenthal after she posted a controversial opinion piece on a Usenet news group. The piece was written not by Rosenthal, but by Tim Bolen, a critic of plaintiff Terry Polevoy...
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that Rosenthal is liable because posting the comments makes her a "developer" of the information in question, and she therefore becomes the legal equivalent of its creator for the purposes of the lawsuit. If the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, the implications for free speech online are far-reaching. Bloggers could be held liable when they quote other people's writing, and website owners could be held liable for what people say in message boards on their sites.
So if somebody says something false, anyone who quoted it could be held liable? Nevermind what happens to blogs, what happens to newspapers at that point?
Why won't Bush and Rumsfeld order the armor?
Via Memorandum, "Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military Vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army."
So, just why hasn't this order come in yet? Can the right please cut this "blame the reporter" crap and be critical, for once, of the assholes they helped put in charge? The rest of the nation would thank you for actually noticing reality.
Dear Matt Drudge, please suck my goddamn fucking cock
I knew the right would start shaking this aspect of the Rumsfeld questioning story like an abused baby. Drudge: "RUMSFELD SET UP; REPORTER PLANTED QUESTIONS WITH SOLIDER."
The reporter emailed the soldier about questions to ask. Yup, that's true. And I betcha the reporter forced this soldier to ask Rumsfeld damaging questions against his will! And then I betcha the reporter orchestrated all the other soldiers to cheer the questioner on! I mean, that's the only explaination that makes sense because we all know that our soldiers just love going into battle situations with flak jackets instead of real body armor! They would fight naked if they could!
Christ... The fact that the right is more concerned with the ethics of a reporter instead of our soldiers lives just speaks fucking volumes, doesn't it? What a bunch of fucking assholes. Grilling a reporter just because he dared to give coverage to an important story about how our troops are being protected. Who's the real patriot now?
I can't believe I just saw this fucking banner ad
And I can't believe that "services" like this fucking exist.
Bush wants you to eat shit. Literally.
The Environmental Protection Agency is close to issuing new guidelines making it easier for sewage authorities to dump partially treated wastewater during heavy rainfalls, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post...
Some scientists, environmentalists and state and local officials object to blending because it could foster the spread of disease. But others, including local sewage agencies and some government officials, say the approach strikes a safe middle ground between releasing untreated sewage and spending billions on plant upgrades.
God forbid that the government would ever have to spend money to make people safer!
The debate over how to process waste comes as much of the nation's wastewater treatment infrastructure is crumbling, and federal officials estimate it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to cope with the increased demand for sewage treatment.
And who let the sewage system fester to this point, anyways?
[HT: Confined Space]
What the fuck...?
I'm not sure what to say about the murder of Dimebag Darrell from Pantera and Damageplan. Hell, I only have one Pantera album and I never learned who the band members were, and I didn't even know that they had broke up with some members forming Damageplan. I'm kind of out of the loop with popular metal these days, but I can say that I have enjoyed his music, and this is just shocking. Then the gunman took out three fans when he was probably trying to murder other band members. Jesus Christ! Thank god a cop happened to be in the area at the time, heard to shots, and rushed to the scene and shot this guy dead, because I don't even want to know what kind of gun he had and whether or not this incident could have been much, much worse if he wasn't around. I've heard of some sick shit happening in the metal and hardcore communities, from the gang ups on Seth Putnam to people being beat to a bloody pulp by an assaliant wielding a cue ball, but this... Holy shit.
As someone who semi-freqiently goes to metal shows, on top of playing in a speed metal/power violence band a few years back, I'm not sure what to think about this. It scares the shit out of me. I don't usually see bigger bands so maybe I don't have to worry, but this is something that's always going to be on my mind now. How did this guy even make it into the club with a gun? Sounds like a bouncer or two really, really fucked up... Jesus.
Bush is demanding the Supreme Court to allow a shoving of the Ten Commandments up your ass
Well, actually, as Chepooka points out, Bush actually wants the Supreme Court to all the commandments to be placed in government buildings. Kind of funny how Bush is now advocating Supreme Court be filled with activist judges. While we're on this activist streak, I want my local hero school to have a picture of Anton LeVey on display. Hey, fair's fair!
(And, keeping with the spirit of the season and all, make sure you get your loved ones a copy of the [ahem] Anton LaVey Christmas album!)
(I'm not joking.)
(No, seriously, it fucking exists.)
Get it right...
A sacked CIA official is suing the agency for allegedly retaliating against him for refusing to falsify his reports on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to support the White House’s pre-war position, The Washington Post said Thursday.
Described as a senior CIA official who was sacked in August “for unspecified reasons,” the plaintiff’s lawsuit appears to be the first public instance of a CIA official charging that he was pressured to produce intelligence to support the US government’s pre-war contention that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were a grave threat to US and international security.
“Their official dogma was contradicted by his reporting and they did not want to hear it,” said Roy Krieger, the officer’s attorney.
This list just isn't complete
The Times in London gives us a handy-dandy list of Canadian colloquialisms for anyone traveling and wishing to pretend that they come from Northern Canuckistan. I'm disappointed, though, because the list excludes anything about mullets, maple doughnuts, and hockey. What the eh?
Recommended reading
News Writer calls Adam Wermach our Moses because she thinks that he's the person to redefine liberalism and connect all the squabbling voices of Democratic special interest groups into one unifed voice. She details an interview Wermach, a former Sierra Club president at 23 and now the founder of Common Assets at 27, had with Alternet:
In an interview on Alternet, Werbach, who I think is about 27 now, said plainly and flatly that liberalism is dead --Death is a very powerful experience, and out of it can come rebirth – all these wonderful opportunities. It’s sort of like we’ve been driving around with a dead body in the car for a while now. So the first thing really is to stop and kick it out.-- but it wasn't killed by a right-wing conspiracy. Liberalism essentially had a built-in extinction clause.
[Werbach] I’m talking here of the Depression-era, New Deal project, which Democrats championed, and that was liberalism. And it has been incredible. The liberal project created minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek, Social Security. It was muscular militarily and ended fascism. It led toward civil rights. That’s our heritage. But in my mind, it was betrayed in the late '70s and early '80s, and at this point is a ghost.
[...]
Well, the liberal project was largely an economic project. It said people are rational economic actors and if you give them survival-based services, they will vote for you. Most Americans today are not survival-oriented; they’re fulfillment-oriented.
[Alternet] In a sense, you’re saying we’re a victim of our own success?
[Werbach] Yes, yes, that’s well said. We have changed the circumstances for most Americans and now we find ourselves unable to speak to them.
The interview, and post itself, is very enlightening and should spark much discussion on what liberalism is now and what should we be fighting for?
In another must-read piece, David Neiwert joins the Atrios v. Drum v. Beinart fray, and he's decidely on Atrios' side, which is what I'm sticking to. His piece is long, but an intelligent must-read. It even has some zingers:
More to the point, why exactly should we drive out the faction that proved, in fact, to be right about the Iraq war? Perhaps so people like Beinart won't have to be constantly reminded reminded just how wrong they were?
I believe he just told Beinart to screw. Heh. Here's another snippet:
Beinart and Drum are right in pointing out that progressives have done a poor job of articulating a vision for a progressive war on terrorism. But blaming antiwar liberals is a convenient way of scapegoating the bloc that so far has been right in this whole debacle. The problem has been an utter lack of vision from the current Democratic leadership, and progressive leadership generally, including folks like Beinart, Drum, and the TNR. They have bought too readily into the right-wing paradigm of what a war on terror should be about.
They've also bought into the right-wing paradigm of what's wrong with liberalism: namely, the antiwar left. This is self-serving not just for those on the right but for the liberal hawks who now seem too chagrined to acknowledge that they were wrong and -- gulp -- Michael Moore was right.
Are they fetuses? Nope. Then fuck'em!
Via Rimone, there are already homeless Iraqi veterans in the streets.
The economy's doing great!
Merry Christmas -- Yer fired!
Hit by rising health care and energy costs, employers announced more than 100,000 job cuts in November, capping the first three-month stretch above that level since early 2002, an outplacement firm said Tuesday.
Yanukovych tried having Yushchenko killed
Well, OK, nobody has any proof of that right now, but Yushchenko was deliberately poisoned during the Ukraine presidential campaign, and who do you think wanted him dead?
Heros and Villains
Majikthise is looking for your heros, if you've created one. And she has another request:
As Dr. Pharyngula noted, we need to fill the Rogues Gallery, too. If anyone would care to envision an avatar for, say, some University of Tennessee law professor, Senate Majority leader, or what-have-you... The rule is that the villain has to be identifiable without actually supplying his or her real name.
Hee hee, this could be fun...
Speaking of villains, Majikthise also talks about Rumsfeld getting dissed. (Rimone, in all fairness, sent me a different link to this yesterday morning, but it wasn't posted since I was heading for bed. And hey, why not link to the same blog twice in one post? I'm a PBA member, she's a PBA member, it's my duty, damnit! Long live the Alliance!)
Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.
"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson, 31, of Nashville, Tenn., concluded after asking again.
Rumsfeld answered with something to the effect of how you can't go into a war with the army that you want. The lack of responsibility from these people amazes me, but hey, at least they're halfway honest, right? A bullshit artist would have sympathized with the soldier and lied to him about how all that armor is on the way, just you wait! But the Bush administration doesn't even lie. They have this "bend over and take it" attitude with everything and everybody. Amazing. Simply amazing.
OK, one comment
On Jay Tea's so-called Blogger Code of Ethics, he says that bloggers are responsible for what's said in their comments section. I couldn't disagree more, probably because I'm a blogger and not a babysitter. If a comment isn't authored by me, then I will not be held responsible for its content. And just because somebody posts a comment to this blog doesn't somehow mean that I agree with the commenter if I don't censor them, it just means that I, to the best of my ability, allow people to say what they want.
I don't get why it's so difficult to understand this concept. I also don't get why it's so difficult to comprehend that it's extremely difficult for a blogger to monitor all of they're comments when they receive thousands of comments per day. I don't see why this blogger should be held accountable for something he didn't do, especially when he tends to take time off from his blog on the weekends and probably didn't even know this shit was happening. And I don't think it's reasonable to demand that such a blogger draft additional admins to monitor the comments section for the convenience of some whining crybaby bloggers on the far-right who don't like what that blog's commenters are saying.
In short, he, nor is anybody else, accountable to you. So stop acting like you're entitled to make demands against somebody who is guilty of no crime, because he doesn't owe you a thing.
Why do I do this to myself? Why?
So I was reading Wizbang just now, because I just love punishing my eyeballs, and I came across this post by Jay Tea which start with the sentence, "Recently, I excoriated another blogger for what I viewed as unethical conduct."
Jay hyperlinked "excoriated" and "another" linking to his posts about the blogger in question. While both posts were about Kos, I was also fingered by name.
Do I really want to read this bullshit right now? Because I haven't yet. I suppose I'll have to, since part of it is about me... Grrrrr.
(Ironically, one of Jay's posts is titled, "A BLOGGER'S CODE OF ETHICS." I guess liberals just don't have ethics.)
Fuck it. I'm not wasting anymore time responding to this stupid Blogger Award bullshit, whether it's on Wizbang or a PBA site. It's fucking bullshit. As far as I'm concerned, all the people who have had negative responses attributed to comments simply haven't bothered to fucking read what I've had to say before jumping to conclusions about it. So fuck it. No more. The issue is fucking over with, got it?
Blogging and Journalism: Where do you draw the line?
Something I read about blogging and journalism from the comments on this Blondesense post has been bothering me. First I'll post part of News Writer's comment concerning the Brad Blog election fraud piece:
I get frustrated myself, because the Blogs seem to have, generally speaking, a lower standard of acceptable proof than I do.
And Steve Bates replied:
Once again, NW, blogging is not journalism, and most bloggers, with a few exceptions such as your estimable self, are not journalists. It's not a reasonable expectation: we don't have budgets; we don't have sources; we have legitimate motives for blogging other than reporting news. IMHO, floating memes and passing on the occasional rumor are legitimate blogging activities. If there's an analogy for blogging in the media world, it isn't the newsroom... maybe it's talk radio, or the op-ed page. Neither of those operate under the constraints you describe, and neither should the blogs be expected to do so.
What responsibilities do bloggers have towards journalism? We spend much of our time criticizing the accuracy of our media, but how can our criticism be taken seriously when we can publish whatever we want and not apply the same high standards which we brandish against the mainstream media to ourselves? And does a blogger become a journalist, even if it's only for a limited time, when we write actual stories and do actual research? Is the Brad Blog's Curtis/Election fraud story blogging or journalism? Is my piece on the ties of corruption between Bush, Ben Barnes, and GTech blogging or journalism? Can a regular, highly opinionated blogger cross the line and become a journalist? And when bloggers pen stories based on suspicion and speculation, are we supposed to let them off the hook just because they don't have budgets?
Ever get the feeling that you're being ignored?
I sent out a couple of emails this week. My first one was to a representative at Verso Publishing concerning that photo. Verso published "Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq," which featured the photo in question on the cover, along with some photoshopped additions like an American flag on the soldiers helmet and an enhanced urine stream. I simply asked if they had any credits for the photo, perhaps they could tell me who snapped it or what news organization published it, but I haven't seen a reply. Nor do I expect to. If Verso is unable to release simple information like this and the photo itself is of questionable authenticity, then I'm going to lean towards it being faked. But I really don't know.
I also sent an email to The Brad Blog concerning a need to suppliment their election coverage with either footnotes or links to their evidence. No reply.
Maybe these people are just busy or something. Though it's odd that I can't get answers from them when people like The Big Trunk from Power Line replied to two of my emails within 24 hours.
I betcha there's nothing elephant about them down there
Hustler covers GOP convention delegates doing naughty things with women they weren't married to when they are in NYC. Nothing like good ole moral values, eh?
[HT: Rimone]
Absolutely fucking shameless
Colgate is telling 4400 to get fucked and die. But dig executive perks.
Colgate-Palmolive Co., which announced Tuesday it is eliminating 4,400 jobs, disclosed in a regulatory filing that many of its top executives and officers are given allowance of up to $11,500 a year to spend on anything from pet sitters to running shoes to karate lessons to movie rentals...
Twenty top officers are each eligible for an $11,500 yearly allowance. Between 110 and 120 vice presidents are eligible for $10,000 allowances and 650 executives are eligible for allowances of either $2,000 or $4,000, depending on their rank. Not every eligible executive uses their allowance, the company said.
And just how much did their job cutting CEO rake in last year>
The company's highest paid executive, chairman and CEO Reuben Mark, made $10.4 million in salary, bonus and stock awards.
Some people just need to be left swinging from a tree branch, don't you think?
And the Pentagon knew in June that this was happening
One special agent, interviewed by FBI Inspection Division officials in May, said he knew as early as November 2003 that the Abu Ghraib prison population included "ghost detainees," a name given to Iraqis imprisoned without being registered according to the requirements of the Geneva Conventions.
Several agents who helped conduct interrogations at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 reported seeing naked or nearly naked prisoners in isolation cells; one said he saw a detainee, who was handcuffed to a railing with a nylon sack on his head and a shower curtain draped around him, being slapped by a soldier to keep him awake.
KIA1000
Guardian: "The number of US troops killed in action in Iraq hit 1,000 yesterday after a soldier was shot dead on patrol in Baghdad."
Clear Channel and Fox "News" form an Axis of Evil
Via Green Boy @ Needlenose, Fox News will soon be doing radio news for Clear Channel.
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest radio station operator, has picked Fox News Radio to be the primary source of national news for most of its news and talk stations, officials announced Monday.
The five-year agreement initially covers more than 100 radio stations. [...]
No terms of the deal were disclosed. But Fox, a unit of News Corp., says if all options in the agreement are exercised, its radio service could have more than 500 affiliates by the middle of next year.
It should be noted that some Clear Channel stations are independent. One local CCS in my area, 920WHJJ, became Providence's Air America Radio provider. But one has to wonder how long that will last for...
The Slaves of Falluja
Tinheart details all of these new found freedoms we're giving to the people of Falluja.
Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned. [...]
One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons.
Dictator Bush
...News Writer passed along this link from South Knox Bubba: Side-by-side photos of Bush and Kim Jong Il sporting a very similar brown jacket...
Some random comments on the Beinart/Drum/Atrios thing
I've spent some time reading Kevin Drum's and Atrios' opposing responses to Peter Beinart's "A Fighting Faith" article in TNR which makes the very blunt suggestion that Democrats need to divorce themselves from Michael Moore and MoveOn, and adopt the same hardline anti-totalitarianistic stance against Islamic fundmentalism as they did against communism in the late 1940s. Or, in other words, the Democrats better shift even farther to the right and start supporting more wars in order to be taken seriously.
Anyone who has read this blog for two seconds knows what position I'll take on that opinion, so I'll save the long winded discussions for Drum and Atrios. They're smarter than me and you'll learn more from them anyways. I would, though, like to point out a couple things in Beinart's discussion of John F. Kennedy's militaristic platform that disturbed me.
For Schlesinger (who, ironically, has moved toward a softer liberalism later in life), in fact, it was conservatives, with their obsessive hostility to higher taxes, who could not be trusted to fund America's cold war struggle. "An important segment of business opinion," he wrote, "still hesitates to undertake a foreign policy of the magnitude necessary to prop up a free world against totalitarianism lest it add a few dollars to the tax rate." After Dwight Eisenhower became president, the ADA took up this line, arguing in October 1953 that the "overriding issue before the American people today is whether the national defense is to be determined by the demands of the world situation or sacrificed to the worship of tax reductions and a balanced budget." Such critiques laid the groundwork for John F. Kennedy's 1960 campaign--a campaign, as Richard Walton notes in Cold War and Counterrevolution, "dominated by a hard-line, get-tough attack on communism." Once in office, Kennedy dramatically increased military spending.
I bolded Richard Walton's name because I was surprised by Beinart's reference to him, because Walton is definitely not somebody who would agree with the conclusions Beinart came to about how liberals need to take a more hawkish, pro-military stance to save the Democrat party. Walton is a Rhode Island native, and through my involvement with the RI Green Party a few years ago, I've been lucky enough to meet Walton a few time. (I've blogged about one of these meetings; for full disclosure, the times I've seen him outside of official Green Party functions were at two of his birthday parties, held in his backyard.) Walton is a journalist (even working for Beinart's employer,The New Republic, if memory serves me correctly. But don't quote me on that), political activist, and author of a few books. As an author, he can take credit for being the first person on the left to take a critical stance against the policies of JFK, and write books from that standpoint. I haven't read any of Walton's books (yet), but I believe that his main contention against JFK was his use of military forces in Southeast Asia -- Vietnam. I imagine that Walton was against the Vietnam War before 1965, which was after JFK's death and before Vietnam really became the War in Vietnam.
From the way Beinart just nonchalantly referenced Walton, though, you wouldn't have known this about the man. I realize this is only a small mention of a somewhat remote political activist who separated himself from the Democrats a long time ago, but was it done on purpose? What point was there in Beinart referencing Richard Walton's work when he could just find another author who would be in more agreement with him to reference? Was this code to older Democrat activists who haven't heard from Walton in a while to think, "Well, if pacifists like Walton support Beinart, then maybe I should, too?" I know, it's pure speculation, but I can't help but wonder if Beinart was attempting to influence his readers by referencing a pacifist while not actually mentioning that Walton is a pacifist.
The other thing that bothers me is Beinart's glowing advocacy for JFK's hardline militaristic stance against communism. Does this mean that Beinart supported the Vietnam War, and continues to cling to the ghost of that war like one of those pathetic Swift Boat Veterans who embody conservative attitude of us being able to "win" that war if only the media wasn't involved? Because, in my view, you can't support JFK's stance against communism without at least acknowledging that it led to the Vietnam War. If this is truly what Beinart thinks, then he hasn't learned anything from our past history. But if Beinart doesn't think that Vietnam was a valid war, while continuing to maintain that JFK's anti-communist policies are models that needed to be applied to today's Democrat party, then I think this is a highly hypocritical stance and Beinart really needs to rethink his positions because he can't have it both ways. If we don't learn from our past mistakes, then we are condemned to repeat them.
I love how "liberalism" is listed as a deciding factor on the Rapture Index
Yet "Neoconservativism" is nowhere to be found. I guess holding up a woman's right to be able to choose whether or not she needs an abortion is infinitely more evil then bombing the everloving shit out of arab countries for no good reason, murdering tens of thousands of people in the process.
Christ, these people are so goddamn fucked in the head. They are absolutely fucking insane. There's no other way to explain it.
Loaded Mouth presents today's completely pointless photo of a dumb jock losing his ability to procreate
If I were flithy stinking rich...
I would have placed the highest bid for that half-eaten girlled cheese sandwich and ate it live on prime time television.
Fark Headline Kneeslapper(s) of the Day
"Urine samples stolen from court building. Police resort to having to tell suspects: 'Urine trouble'"
Or this one works: "Scientists train giant African rats to detect land mines. Reportedly go 'BOOM' when one is found"
And this one just rules: "Amputees hit the slopes, mostly with their faces and rear ends"
Should I Laugh or Should I Scream?
First off, I'll once again thank the great tas for the posting rights. I hope I'm not abusing them.
Now, I'm going to bite a whole post from Atrios because it is just too damn perfect to mess with:
Family Values
Yesterday:
Bush introduced Mike and Sharla Hintz, a couple from Clive, whom he said benefited from his tax plan.
Last year, because of the enhanced the child tax credit, they received an extra $1,600 in their tax refund, Bush said. With other tax cuts in the bill, they saved $2,800 on their income taxes.
They used the money to buy a wood-burning stove to more efficiently heat their home, made some home improvements and went on a vacation to Minnesota, the president said.
"Next year, maybe they'll want to come to Texas," Bush quipped.
Mike Hintz, a First Assembly of God youth pastor, said the tax cuts also gave him additional money to use for health care.
He said he supports Bush's values.
"The American people are starting to see what kind of leader President Bush is. People know where he stands," he said.
"Where we are in this world, with not just the war on terror, but with the war with our culture that's going on, I think we need a man that is going to be in the White House like President Bush, that's going to stand by what he believes.
and today...
A Des Moines youth pastor is charged with the sexual exploitation of a child.
KCCI learned that the married father of four recently turned himself in to Johnston police.
Rev. Mike Hintz was fired from the First Assembly of God Church, located at 2725 Merle Hay Road, on Oct. 30. Hintz was the youth pastor there for three years.
Police said he started an affair with a 17-year-old in the church youth group this spring.
Here's a picture of the toolbag in question:
Look at that nice photoshopped haze surrounding him. What a fucking moron.
The Bush Agenda
Attempting to use a spending bill to ban abortions.
U.S. Gag Rule Included in Emergency Spending Bill
Language slipped into the Omnibus spending bill--expected to pass Congress today--permits medical personnel, hospitals and insurers to privately ban abortions and even to bar employees from making referrals.
A behind-the-scenes maneuver by anti-choice adherents in Congress and the White House could result more scenes like the one that confronted a woman in 1998.
The woman, whose identity has been kept confidential, needed an emergency abortion when her water broke only 14 weeks into her pregnancy, but the Manchester, N.H., hospital where her obstetrician, Dr. Wayne Goldner, had privileges refused admission. The hospital said all abortions were banned under a new affiliation with a religious hospital and the woman had to travel in a taxi 80 miles to another facility.
Since then, pressure by the Attorney General of New Hampshire resulted in reversal of the hospital merger and the return of doctors' ability to provide abortions in Manchester. Across the country, states faced with the wholesale expansion of anti-abortion religious healthcare also used their own state laws to prevent summary denial of abortion care to women.
But states may be prevented from taking action in the future.
Because of 104 words slipped into a 3,500 page spending bill that rushed through Congress in the last two weeks, similar stories of abortion service denial may emerge across the country. The add-on language permits doctors, medical personnel, hospitals, insurers and health maintenance organizations to privately ban abortions with impunity, and even to prevent employees from making referrals. No reason need be given for these private bans. No exceptions are required for women who are raped, in emergency need, or facing death or disabling impairment.
We need to get Lorenna Bobbit to become a Congressional lobbyist. Placing her in the company of all those studdy, old white men may make a few of them think twice before slipping provisions like this into spending bills. Or any other bill, for the matter.
Fucking crybabies
It's official: Only one organization files complaints with the FCC. (Unless there's a Super Bowl.)
According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.
This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.
Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners’ statements.)
Can I slap Bush silly? Please?
I listened to BBC Worldservice as I got dressed last night, and they aired a quote from our der leader concering the terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia. It was the standard canned garbage that came with one huge lie (which is also standard): Bush claimed that terrorists were attacking free nations like Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Uhm... When in fuck did Saudi Arabia become a free nation? Did they install a democray overnight or something? Did I miss this?
And speaking of things that I don't want to research...
Rimone sent me this election fraud story from The Brad Blog, claiming that a Republican Florida Congressman commissioned a programmer to code a program which would take votes away from Democratic candidates. Brad's story is a lot easier to follow then anything I've read from Madsen, but I still have a problem with it mainly because to endorse it, I would have to invest hours of my time into researching Brad's claims since he doesn't provide links or footnotes to the sources of his evidence.
I'm annoyed by this. When I wrote a story detailing the links of corruption between Bush, Ben Barnes, and GTech, I linked to the articles I derived my evidence from. Most of the articles I obtained through Lexis/Nexis queries, so I converted the text to HTML and uploaded them to Loaded Mouth and served the links myself. This is how I believe things should be done, when and if possible. Anybody reading my story knows exactly where I got the information from, what date it was published, who published it, and is able to read the article on demand. So maybe I'm just polite and considerate by saving people valuable research time, but it puzzles me on why other authors don't do this. Why let there be lingering questions about your work?
I've emailed my concerns to the Brad Blog. For the time being, I can't endorse their story, nor can I just drop everything to research it right now.
I don't think I'm going to attempt to touch this one
Via Skippy, jfern's dKos diary discusses a new update by Wayne Madsen to his election coverage. I've questioned his previous articles, and in the first comment to this diary, one Kossack wastes no time in being critical of this new Madsen piece:
I haven't read the entire article, but it seems to have a few inconsistencies. For example, anyone who wants portability to Unix isn't going to use Visual Basic. Also, I haven't been able to confirm the Ray Lemme suicide story by Googling.
Should I fire up Lexis/Nexis to see if this supposed suicide got some coverage? I could, but I'm not even going to bother. I spent a few hours researching Madsen's last story to no avail, and I refuse to do so again. Madsen needs to start backing up he's claims.
Just in time for Christmas!
You friends, loved ones, and friends that you don't particularly love are dying for Loaded Mouth gear!
Get them the official Loaded Mouth shirt! Guaranteed to increase their cock by 3-5 inches! [Disclaimer: Currently, there are no physical benefits for women who own the shirt unless let a boyfriend/sexual partner borrow the garment. For women whose sexual partners are other women, there are really no physical benefits, but I'll lie and say that this garment doubles as a Cloak of Invisibility if that gets you to buy it.]
Get them the uber-communist official Loaded Mouth bumper sticker!
Come on, this stuff isn't too offensive. You know they want it. Click the images to order! Act now before supplies don't run out!
Free speech for whom?
Sheelzbub at XX details some hypocrisies of who does and does not have the right to speak freely.
And this double-standard extends to outright censorship. Eminem, being a White guy, seemed to get a free pass with a lot of folks, who lavished him with sympathy and support when he got drubbed by the FCC. Problem was, poor widdle Marshall Mathers wasn’t the only person to get burned. Not that you’d know it by the way everyone was acting.
Like Eminem, the FCC also censored Sara Jones’s song “Your Revolution”, and we heard nary a peep of indignation about it. Which story of censorship made the papers? Which story of censorship occupied the press? Here’s a tip–it wasn’t Jones’s. I suppose it’s easier to back up a violent homophobe than a feminist. Or maybe it’s just more palatable to shut women up. We’re supposed to be polite and never drop F-bombs. Men, however, can do that. Sometimes, you’ll even be nominated for an award. [...]
Madonna has been repeatedly ripped for being too sexual (MTV banned two of her videos–"Justify My Love,” which was kind of lame, and “What it’s Like to be a Girl", which was innocuous but deemed too violent). Sisquo’s “Thong Song” is apparently just fine. As is anything by Nelly. And you know, I don’t really care about either song, but why is it that women who are sexual or angry are such a threat? Radio stations pulled The Dixie Chicks’ song “Goodbye Earl,” about a woman who drowns her abusive husband because it was “man-hating", but the Guns ‘n Roses song “Used to Love Her but I Had to Kill Her” poses no problems to the tender sensiblilites of the status-quo patriarchs. Killing abusing husband: bad. Killing nagging wife: good. Okay, I get it now.
Well, at least this is some good news coming out of Iraq
Swopa at Needlenose does three things with his latest post on Iraq:
That last item would be the good news.
Link about
Newswriter has a piece on Bernard "Rambo" Kerik's background. Why this guy is ever getting a promotion is beyond me.
And jmknapp's dKos diary has vote spoilage maps of Cuyahoga County, OH, that you must check out. Must must must.
...And, yet another and, because of problems with Blogger and general laziness, I neglected to mention last week's Washington Post story on just what Bush's version of abstinence education really means. Rimone and Trish Wilson have the details.
The Five O'Clock Follies
Here's what the military says.
A series of large military offensives over the past few months culminating in the battle for Fallujah has given U.S. military commanders here a sense of having gained ground against Iraq's fierce insurgency, but they predict no easy victory in pressing the attack and remain particularly concerned about a rising campaign of intimidation.
And here's what's actually happening.
Insurgents in Iraq mounted a third straight day of serious attacks yesterday, killing 17 people when they opened fire on buses delivering workers to an ordnance disposal site.
At least 70 Iraqis, many of them members of the police and security forces, have been killed since Friday in attacks across central and northern Iraq.
It's great that we're "gained ground," since we're apparently going to be needing that ground to bury more bodies in.
Oh yeah, we have no clue where bin Laden is. This, no doubt, is due in part to the military using press conferences to publicly state where exactly they were searching for bin Laden. I mean, fucking duuuuh!
I can't believe people voted for this dipshit.
Why is there a global lack of outrage against what's happening in Darfur?
The Telegraph has an interesting perspective on the topic.
Aggrieved by Sudan's decision - since rescinded - to expel Save the Children from Darfur for complaining about an air raid that narrowly missed their clinic in Tawila, I entertained uncharitable thoughts that are still valid.
Apartheid in South Africa, I recalled, brought virtually the whole world into action against it. Yet something identical to apartheid between Arab and African in Sudan, which has kept a ruinous civil war going for a generation and recently provoked suffering in Darfur on a scale beyond anything South Africa experienced, provokes no global outrage.
The government of Sudan in Khartoum has a far shrewder sense of how the world wags than we have and knows that it can do much as it pleases in Darfur with impunity.
Some argue that Iraq is at the root of our pusillanimity, that it has sapped the will and confidence of Britain and America, and cost them political capital and credibility.
But the United Nations is equally supine. Whatever Khartoum did, the UN would not be able to persuade the Security Council to use sanctions against Sudan or to embargo its increasingly valuable oil exports, in which China has a big interest…
That cringing feeling
Driving around and listening to the AM dial last night, I stumbled upon one station playing audio from NBC's Press the Meat, aired earlier that day. At this point, it was the middle of the interview and I didn't know who Russert's guest was. After listening for a few minutes where he still wasn't introduced, I couldn't even tell if the man was a Repubican or Democrat.
Russert's guest turned out to be Nevada Senator Herny Reid, the new Minority Leader for the Democrats. Should we be able to tell right off the bat whether or not the leader of the Senate Democrats is, you know, actually a Democrat?
The Bush Agenda
The Independent in London lays out Bush's plans to murder the environment until it's bloody fucking dead.
George Bush's new administration, and its supporters controlling Congress, are setting out to dismantle three decades of US environmental protection...
The administration's first priority is the controversial plan to open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. Two years ago the Senate defeated plans to exploit the refuge - home to caribou, polar bears , musk oxen and millions of migratory birds - by 52 votes to 48.
But with the election of four Republican senators in favour of the drilling, and the disappearance of one who opposed it, the administration now has the votes forvictory.
It plans to follow with an energy bill - also defeated in the last Congress - which would investigate vast new tracts for exploitation for oil and gas. It will also encourage the building of nuclear power stations, halted since the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.
Far more radical measures are also under way. Joe Barton, the Texas Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who is to help push through the energy bill, has also announced a comprehensive review of the Clean Air Act, one of the world's most successful environmental laws.
Environmentalists predict the emasculation of the Act, which has cut air pollution across the country by more than half over the last 30 years. Not to be outdone, the Republican chairman of the House Resources Committee, Richard Pombo, has announced a review of the Endangered Species Act, for the protection of wildlife. The law has been the main obstacle to the felling of much of the US's remaining endangered rain forest. And in a third assault, Congressional leaders have also announced an attack on the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires details of the environmental effects of major developments before they proceed.
Ah, fuck it, who ever needed clear air the breathe and woods to hike in?! And the nuclear energy industry was always so profitable. They never needed subsidies from the government to stay afloat, nooooo!
Fuckers.
Oh, this is just fucking lovely
And will they care if you have already paid your taxes?
A plan to allow private firms to chase delinquent taxpayers has cleared the House and Senate, allowing companies that often gave largely to Republican candidates a gift – not only to they get to go after taxpayers – they get to keep as much as 25 percent commission for every dollar they track down. Excerpted from Sunday’s Washington Post.
Who owns the facts?
What's wrong with this paragraph from Power Line?
The Washington Post contrasts the U.S. Army's effort to get the facts about the Fallujah campaign into the public domain with an anonymous left-wing blogger's effort to undermine the Iraq war effort by posting gruesome photos which allegedly were taken in Fallujah. Guess who wins?
If you said, "Power Line's mistake is that they trust the military to give them actual, unbiased facts," then you're a winner! While I could get into another discussion about the Five O'Clock Follies, I'll instead opt for quoting some passages from a book I've been reading on and off lately, The Warfare State by Fred J. Cook, published in 1962. (All bolding is my doing.)
This sudden outburst of extremism that swept the nation and fastened with the virulence of the plague on the great munitions state of California had been made possible by one of the top-secret, virtually unknown decisions of the Eisenhower era. By the end of his eight years in office, Eisenhower had become genuinely disturbed with about "the military-industrial complex"; but, with the inconsistancy and confusion that marked so many of his official deeds, he seemed utterly to fail to realize what he himself has done to augment its power. In this category, no single act was ever more questionable than the secret directive Eisenhower's top-level National Security Council issued in 1958 authorizing the Military to propagandize the public. [...]
The results became swiftly evident in the next three years. Military officiers from the ranks of Lieutenant and Captain to General and Admiral, both active and retired, took to the public platform hand-in-hand with fanatic propagandists of the Radical Right and delivered themselves of rabble-rousing call to arms, of denunciations of the methods of diplomacy and peace, of tirades in which they called into doubt both the intelligence and the patriotism of their own civilian superiors in government.
Here are some of the typical utterances: [...]
Rear Admiral Chester Ward (USN, retired), former judge advocate general of the Navy, speaking at "Project Alert" in Los Angeles' Cocoanut Grove, topped Admiral Stump by accusing White House advisers of shifting national policy "from a priority on freedom to a priority on peace." Admiral Ward emphatically opposed this "priority on peace." He indicated that he did not favor preventive war, but if it were called a "pre-emptive strike," though the megatonnage would be the same, that would be all right with him. "I believe," he said, "that the side will win which uses the most effective weapons and uses them first."
So it went. At one Los Angeles "Project Alert" in 1961 Colonel Mitchell Paige, a retired Marine Medal of Honor winner, got so carried away that he told his audience Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren ought not to be just impeached; he should be hanged. This was too extreme even for the sponsers of the rally. Colonel Paige was cut off hastily, and the director of this particular anti-communism endeavor apologized for him. Later the Colonel was brought back and told his audience apologetically that the feeling about hanging sometimes "just comes over me."
It had better not "just come over" America.
Cook documented some fine examples of why the military should never be trusted to disseminate information. Given the mindset and inherent biases of the military, we shouldn't rely on them for any facts at all. Period. The fact that Power Line, who I consider to be a reflection of the right at large, relies on the military to provide them with the facts concerning a battle that they staged bothers me. The fact that Power Line lambastes the Washington Post with the implication that the are liberally biased just because they search for balance in their reporting goes further to irritate me, because this is an example of the right's mindset. How can we ever get through to people who uncritically accept whatever propaganda the government feeds them while dismissing all dissention as ridiculous?
[Crossposted to the PBA HQ.]
Got Cock?
Via MetaFilter, something tells me that the corporate types at PETsMART pissed off their web designing firm.
Winning over hearts and minds
Juan Cole has some of the latest Abu Ghraib photos that an AP reporter found using Google.
Cole also makes a note of US civil rights attorneys filing a suit against Donald Rumsfeld in Germany. After looking at these latest atrocities.. Excuse me, photos, I'm wondering how the Germans say "tossed salad."
Monday is Radio Mouth day!
This week, it's the Dead Milkmen's "I Dream of Jesus," a cute little song about a teenage kid finding Jesus in a bottle that's so non-offensive that even my catholic mother kind of liked it the one time she heard it, five or so years ago. It came off the album, "Not Richard, but Dick," which has been out of print since the mid-90s. And since I scoured the used record stores until I found the last copy, you'll never get your grubby little mits on it. And this is the only song I'll let you hear from it. I've got the power! Moohahaha!
Why I'm quitting the 2004 Weblog Awards
Because of statements like this:
KOS, isn't that french for asshole??
Can liberals be honest about anything?
I think Daily Kos should be eliminated for publishing the cheat and allowing it to stay on the site.
Kevin does all this work to put out a fun poll and these civilization-impared Moonbats gotta poop in everyone's stew.
How about you just move Daily KOS and all their automated votes to a special category. "Best parody of an intelligent blog" [...]
The denizens of Daily Kos have left me no alternative.
I hope the participants in this year's Koufax awards are extremely proud of your hosts action yesterday. I'm fairly certain sure last years winner for Best Group Blog (Daily Kos) will be...
I also noticed, in my perusal of the comments, that Kos himself has not spoken up. He hasn't denounced the cheating, hasn't deleted the script, hasn't renounced the fraudulent votes.
All this because one Kossack decided to write a program that rigged the polling for the 2004 Weblog Awards. Read that over again in case you missed it: ONE KOSSASK. That's it. Yet, to the rabid conservatives running the show, that's tantamount to the whole left being at fault.
I've tried telling them this fact, but they won't listen. I've also tried telling them that Daily Kos is the largest blog in history, receiving at least a couple thousand comments a day, and it shouldn't be Kos' responsibility to read every single comment that's posted to every single diary entry on his site. But, unfortunately, this goes straight over their heads. Furthermore, I can't speak for Kos, but I don't think he gives a rat's ass about some awards hosted by a far-right blog that are only going to be won by other far-right blogs. Besides, I think he takes the weekends off these days, like most normal people.
While I would extend some appreciation to Kevin for running these awards, he's burned any respect I had for him by jumping right on the "fuck the liberals" bandwagon that his readers started. It was one person, Kevin, that did this. That's all. This isn't some mass liberal conspiracy, it's simply one fucking person. But since you and your friends are now using these awards as a sledgehammer to bash liberals with, then I see no reason to support you or the awards. Please remove the link to my blog from your competitiion.
Fuck this
To: kevin -at- wizbangblog -dot- com
Subhject: Request to be removed
Dear Kevin,
Because of the highly partisan nature of your "2004 Weblog Awards," I no longer feel comfortable with my blog, Loaded Mouth, being a contestant in the "Best of the Top 1750 - 2500 Blogs" category. I request that my blog be removed from the list.
Thank you,
tas
No comment
Until now, I've refrained commenting on Respectful of Otters' attack on the BBC documentary Guinea Pig Kids," which I made a post in support of last Thursday. I read it when somebody brought it to my attention and emailed the link to me. This was my reply to them:
On Rivka's piece.. I know it's gaining steam as a story and it might hurt my credibility if I don't comment on it right now, but I'm going to refrain from commenting on it. It falls under the "I think he/she missed the point" category to me, and it seems like Rivka has an agenda against the sources the BBC used but he didn't really touch upon the actual facts that the BBC claimed to document; about how children are being forced to take drugs against their will.
My thoughts haven't changed, and the only reason why I am making this post addressing Rivka's criticism is because it hit Blogdex and now I can't ignore it, even though I don't think it's honest enough to warrant being mentioned.
But I'm afraid that I can't provide much of a rebuttal because I haven't been able to locate a place where I can download this documentary and watch it. The BBC has a link allowing internet users to listen to it, but they made it a Real Player file and fuck them for doing so, because Real is the shittiest program on the face of the planet and whoever was involved in coding it should be dragged out into the street and shot because the goddamn thing hardly ever fucking works. (Or, in other words, I can't get the BBC file open and I refuse to troubleshoot Real Player again for another couple of hours.)
At this point, I really don't have time to research the story any further, nor do I have the interest to. So I'm just not going to comment on the matter anymore. I've linked to all sides, and that's fair enough for me.
Creative Anarchy
Otherwise known as Jello Biafra's favorite sporting event: Pranks! Listening to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! on NPR yesterday (yes, I was that bored, stop snickering), they mentioned one story about some anonymous pranksters in Louisana. The idea they came up with is so precious... On last Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, they shot superglue into locks on the doors of major retail chains. So when all the psychotic shoppers snaked themselves around the buildings at ungodly hours of the morning that only third shifters like me should be allowed to be u, showered, and dressed in, these shoppers were stuck outside as the managers could open for business because they couldn't open their doors.
Hee hee hee...
Do you have any pranks in mind that would halt the process of rampant consumerism this holiday season? Any that you think should be put into practice? I'm taking suggestions. Feel free to post anonymously, if you wish.
About that photo
Was it photoshopped? Is it really? It's questionable. The majority of vocal Loaded Mouth readers say it's faked, but Ron said it was on the cover of a book called "Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq." Indeed, Amazon proves Ron to be correct. I found this comment from its author, Tariq Ali, on the photo:
[Interviewer] [...] The cover of the new one features a fairly famous photo of a young kid urinating on an American soldier, maybe he's British—Is he American?
Tariq Ali: No, I think he's American, though a big debate goes on the net as to who the soldier really is. And it's a symbolic photograph, really, to show the role kids play. I mean, I talk about it in the book. Kids are the most sensitive of creatures and feel the pain of their elders much before the parents even realize it and react—and are very angered by being occupied and do all sorts of things.
So the author claims that it's a real, and famous, photo, though he's not sure if the soldier being urinated upon is an American. I think this warrants some more research, so I may take a trip to the bookstore later today, see if I can find the book and photo credits, find out who snapped this picture that's supposedly real. This all depends on when I roll out of bed, for I've been up (and out) all night.
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