Thursday, May 15, 2008

It's Time To Bring Down Rollo Tomasi


Well, as you know, I was stuck in Computer Hell for a good chunk of the day, and the whole time, this doozy of a story was dancing in my head.


Fans of the most-excellent movie, "L.A. Confidential", you know, very well, who Rollo Tomasi is.

For those not in-the-know, he was a fictional person, created by Guy Pearce's character, Lt. Edmund Exley, to both soothe his soul, and provide him the gritty motivation for his job.

From Wikipedia;

Rollo Tomasi... Rollo was a purse snatcher. My father ran into him off duty. And he shot my father six times and got away clean. No one even knew who he was. I just made the name up to give him some personality... Rollo Tomasi's the reason I became a cop. I wanted to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it. It was supposed to be about justice. Then somewhere along the way I lost sight of that

Our Court-Appointed-President (h/t Barry Crimmins) has done mountains more than stealing a purse, and he's put enough bullets in the Constitution to inspire an army of policemen.

But what he did today, using the ceremonious occasion of Israel's 60th Independence Anniversary, to pull out his head-up-his-ass, Rovian, fearmongering, smearing politics, we know we have seen just the maggot-infested depths he, The Commander Guy, is eager to sink to.

Ironically, Keith Olbermann slapped him silly last evening, golf-sacrificing interview, with Mike Allen (who is surely slated to be inducted - unanimously - into the Softball Hall of Fame), for it was nearly two-years ago (30 August 2006) Olbermann issued his first Special Comment, slapping down Rumsfeld and Cheney, for the same Nazi Appeaser bullshit.

So there was the man that uses "The Google", standing in the Israeli Knesset,
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
This is nothing less than specious of the "Golf-less Compassionate" to pull a stunt like this.

And a double pox on the Bush Grindhouse cronies, who claim he wasn't speaking, directing his remarks at Barack Obama, not to mention nearly 70% of the nation.

We'll deal with Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain in the next day or, two, who naturally, heartily backed the comments, and we have already today, with a Garlictorial, slapped down his Sgt. Garcia, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-R, CT), who, as Steve Benen noted, predictably endorsed the Court Appointed President slimy remarks.

And, when he returns back to the Grindhouse, will he dismiss, perhaps arrest, his his Secretary of Defense and his office wife, the Secretary of State, who both have advocated talking to Iran?

Impeachment

Will Bunch, on his Attytood, beat me to the punch, in his great post today, on calling for what I will next.
President Bush went on foreign soil today, and committed what I consider an act of political treason: Comparing the candidate of the U.S. opposition party to appeasers of Nazi Germany -- in the very nation that was carved out from the horrific calamity of the Holocaust. Bush's bizarre and beyond-appropriate detour into American presidential politics took place in the middle of what should have been an occasion for joy: A speech to Israeli's Knesset to honor that nation's 60th birthday.

As a believer in free speech, I think Bush has a right to say what he wants, but as a President of the United States who swore to uphold the Constitution, his freedom also carries an awesome and solemn responsibility, and what this president said today is a serious breach of that high moral standard.

Today, it's a whole new ballgame. I believe this treacherous statement by a U.S. president in Israel is a signal to the Democrats in the House in Washington, that it's time to play its Constitutional role in ending this trauma, before even greater acts against the interest of America are wrongly committed in our name.

This is the price we are paying, for Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the Congress, for not pulling out "The Table", and beginning Impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney, following the 2006 Mid-Term elections.

Well, there's still time, and if the Republicans are serious about giving us "The Change We Deserve", not to mention saving their own skins, they can win back a few points (after all, they have been enablers in this trampling of our country).

It will make for great summer television, not to mention, perhaps, effectively muzzling the faux Commander-in-Chief, keeping him from injecting his bile into the campaign.

What to impeach him on?

Take your pick ...

The Family Closet


Oh, yes, there was another delicious irony of the Court Appointed President's smears today.

We need to come up with a prize ... Maybe a bottle of champagne ... A week-end getaway ... Something worthwhile, for the first reporter, or other accredited media person (sorry Jeff Gannon), who asks Dana Perino, at the next White House Press Briefing, if, with the comments he made, was he speaking from personal, family history, when he cited the Nazi Appeasement?

Larisa Alexandrovna has a kick-ass post, chockfull of the dirty laundry in the Bush Family closet, namely the Court-Appointed President's Grandfather, Prescott Bush, the "All American Nazi" and the "All American Traitor".

Be sure to read Larisa's "All the President's Nazis (real and imagined): An Open Letter to Bush"

Blue Girl, from Blue Girl-Red State, also has a post on this;
We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history,” he said - apparently with a straight face - completely forgetting that exercising the Trading With the Enemy Act was even necessary because his grandfather was Hitler's banker, and continued to do business with him for eleven months after Germany declared war on his country! The money Prescott made collaborating with Nazis was used to bankroll the Bush families Texas oil ventures, and the rest, as they say, is history. Some of us, like my esteemed co-blogger, actually opened the book when we took the classes, so we know this stuff that evades Der Chimpenfuhrer.

More on Rollo Tomasi;
However, at the end he knows he must arrest Dudley but also knows Dudley is highly respected and will once again get away with it. Exley shoots him in the back, at last gaining the personal satisfaction of 'catching Rollo Tomasi'.

We still have the opportunity - and some of us believe it is the Congress's duty - to not let this real-life Rollo Tomasi, this foolish idiot, this warmongering, dishonest, lying, torture-promoting cretin get away with it.

Impeachment!

It will bring personal satisfaction to millions-of-millions of people, all around the world.


Bonus Bush Bashing

Go out to Memeorandum for a bevy of posts on this story (and use the Archives Feature, depending on when you go there, where you can pull up articles, based by the hour)

Cliff Schecter: Joe Lieberman Joins The George W. Bush Smear Party

Marc Ambinder: Politics: Did The White House Step On McCain's Speech?

John Kerry: President Bush's Despicable Attack on Barack Obama

Mahablog: Channeling Neville Chamberlain

Brian Katulis - Wonk Room: Bush Tries To Distract From The Conservative Record On Terrorism

Think Progress: Lawmakers Respond To Bush: ‘Bullsh*t’ And ‘Malarkey’ That Is ‘Beneath The Dignity’ Of The Oval Office

John Amato - Crooks and Liars: Matthews rips right wing Talkie Kevin James because he doesn’t know who Neville Chamberlain is

Christopher Orr: The Republican Obama *Wants* to Run Against

Mark D.- Balloon Juice: Barack Obama: Kinda Like a Nazi Appeaser


Garlictorial: Why Wait - Toss Lieberman Over To The GOP Now!


I don't know about you, but this is getting to be pretty nauseating.


There was Senator Joe Lieberman (I-R, CT) joking around, waving his pom-poms, cheerleading for the bombing of Iran, saying that it "Has An Appeal To It".

Hey, Harry Reid, pay attention to this!

Get rid of Joe Lieberman now!

Cut him loose! ... Send him packing! ...

Take a page from the old television program "Branded" ( Chuck Connors "dishonorably discharged from the service, his stripes and brass buttons removed and his sword broken in two"), strip Lieberman of all things Democrat, and kick his ass across the aisle.



It's bad enough that he's been pal'in' around with Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, acting as his guardian angel, endorsed him, trying to keep him from stumbling and bumbling, but he's also taking up the role of being McCain's attack dog.

Lieberman: Obama's Alleged Endorsement By Hamas Shows "Difference" With McCain

But the fact that the spokesperson for Hamas would say they would welcome the election of Senator Obama really does raise the question, "Why?" ... And it suggests the difference between these two candidates.

You want this in the Democrat Caucus?

Greg Sargent, in the post, suggests "One wonders whether Harry Reid will keep this sort of stuff in mind when considering committee chairmanships in 2009."

Why Wait?

It's only going to get worse, become more embarrassing.

Especially, later this summer, when it is possible (and I would say, very likely), Lieberman speaks at the GOP Convention, embracing SB McCain.

All the networks and media will be taking note of it, and you can count on Faux News really trumpeting it ... Hell, they'll have lights flashing and bells ringing ... The graphics and kirons they run while Lieberman speaks will probably come crashing through the television screen.

Dump'em now!

Don't take just my word for it Senator Reid.

The other evening, Jonathan Alter, speaking with Keith Olbermann, noted how Lieberman has been a hatchetman for just about his entire political career.

From the transcript;
OLBERMANN: So, McCain has what in Joe Lieberman? Is he a hatchet man, is he a hatchet man sort of dressed up in independent or bipartisan clothing? What is his role?

ALTER: A hatchet man is a good word to describe him and it‘s a very useful for John McCain. I mean, imagine if Barack Obama had Chuck Hagel or Richard Lugar or respectable Republican senator who is going with him to all of these events, it‘s very helpful with independent voters.

But you got to realize, Joe Lieberman has been a hatchet man going back to when he was first elected to the Senate. He charged Lowell Weicker in 1988 by saying, he was, you know, too close to Fidel Castro which was kind of preposterous at the time. So, what he does is sort of under these almost clerical clothing, he will pull up a knife and stick it in and use his piety and his reputation for morale rectitude as a cover for some very negative politics.

Yeah, you have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, but you have a cancer in your caucus, Mr. Reid.

Cut it out!

No need to let it, or him, linger and hang around.

He turned on the party when he chose to go Independent (after getting his sorry ass kicked) and, by all accounts, he hasn't bothered much to turn around and come back ...

His embrace of McCain should be - and clean your glasses there, Senator - all you need to see, in order to boot him out.

And if you need that spelled out for you, he's working against the Democrats in his embrace of McCain.

Wave'em goodbye!

Adios!

Be gone!

Be done with him.

Let'em him hug and kiss McCain - and Bush - to his heart's content.

If Lieberman had any integrity, he'd make the move himself.


More Reasons To Dump Lieberman Links

Kangro X: Lieberman shows why McCain = Third Term of Stupid

Think Progress: A Liar Loves To Lie

Think Progress: Lieberman Dismisses Iraqis Who Oppose A McCain Presidency

Glenn Greenwald: Things that don't exist in Harry Reid's world

Breaking News! Lieberman Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”; Post-Debate Bombshell - Lieberman Announces Plan C – Will Run In All 50 States; Hires Nader For ‘Underdog” Experience; Pledges To Support “Whichever Party Elects Me”


Action Request

Email this post to Senator Harry Reid, at his Washington Office, HERE (and suggest you select "Congressional Affairs" for the Subject)




Who Can She Turn To?


(Editor's Note: Sorry Garlic Fans - Got cut down yesterday by allergies and homefront, and today, Computer Hell, so we're catching up today)


It was, in a way, like winning the Superbowl, but not getting to jump in front of the camera and shout "I'm going to Disneyworld"!

On Tuesday evening Hillary Clinton wins the West Virginia Primary by some 40-points, and what happens?

Barack Obama dominates the news on Wednesday, garning the endorsements of NARAL, and, significantly, NARAL.

Not to mention, Dana Milbanks' deft and funny application of the infamous Monty Python "Dead Parrot" skit to her campaign ("See? She wasn't dead; she was just pining for the fiords").

Maybe it was punishment, for her robotic, emotionless, schoolmarm speech Tuesday evening.

While the TV Talking Heads fawned over it, Hillary hit her "victory party" with all the enthusiasm of a museum tour guide, mindlessly regurgitating the same spiel, for about the thousandth time.

Maybe she should have borrowed something from the Human Hillary Confetti Machine, Terry McAuliffe, or, at least, could have slipped on Lanny Davis's King Kaiser suit, to, perhaps, liven things up.

But she droned on, moving the goalposts and drawing up new metrics - again - and ignoring reality.

It be over.

It is Obama who holds the keys to the Magic Kingdom, by all the measurable metrics, including, it seems, giving Hillary Florida and Michigan, anyway she wants it.

For Hillary, it is a small world, after all.

Now, much of the punditry is given to what she will do, how will she go, will she exit gracefully.

That would, seemingly, be the the thing to do, however, it is, certainly, in the Clinton DNA, to point the wagon west, to Denver, slash and burn down the house, nomination-or-bust.

Yet, if only one thing is true, the Clintons (yes, both of them) are politically savvy, and they can see that a new day is coming. How (if) she exits, will play out just how much, and where they want to be sitting, in the New Democrat's sandbox.

Change agents, or old school/old political relics?

For now, not much left to do, but slink away, perhaps mournfully, singing this tune;

Who can I turn to when nobody needs me?
My heart wants to know and so I must go where destiny leads me
With not enough votes to guide me and only Bill and Chelsea beside me
I'll go on my way and, after the day, the darkness will hide me

And maybe tomorrow I'll find what I'm after
I'll throw off my snipers, beg, steal, or borrow my share of superdelegates
With Michigan I could learn to, with Florida what a new day
But who can I turn to if you turn away?

With Michigan I could learn to, with Florida what a new day
But who can I turn to if you turn away?


Bonus Hillary Links

Ari Berman: Hillary Inc.

Barry Crimmins: De-electable

Today's Must Read: Al Giordano's "Damn you, Barack Obama" ... It Lays Out What We Are Seeing Now

Hillary's New Campaign Slogan: Keep Hopelessness Alive! ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

Wolcott: Nixon in a pantsuit

Hillary's Smelling Burning Rubber! Or: The Garlic Was Right - Hillary Has Built Her "Field of Voices"


Bonus Bonus

While I think Carmen McRae's rendition is the killer, Sammy Davis Jr. does a good job with it

Sammy Davis Jr. - Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)


This Date ... On The Garlic


Garlic History - On This Day


15 May 2007... On The Garlic


Cold Body Assoc. Denounces Gonzales For Finger-Pointing, Break In Tradition; "Blaming McNulty At This Point In Time Is Scurrilous"; CBA Membership Upset, Fears Could Be "Open Season" On Scapegoats


15 May 2005... On The Garlic


New Garlic Logo!


Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Top Ten Cloves: Things President Bush Didn't Give Up Over Iraq War


News Item: Bush: I quit golf over Iraq war


10. Ek-A-Lec-Tic Reading

9. Giving Dishonest Lobbyist (now convicted and jailed) access to the White House

8. Using The Google

7. Firing U.S. Attorneys over politics

6. Using retired military officers as propaganda tools

5. Letting phony reporter ask softball questions in White House Press Briefings

4. Torturing prisoners

3. Lying about torturing prisoners

2. Outing Covert CIA Agents

1. Commuting Prison Sentences of people that lied about outing CIA Agents for him


This Date ... On The Garlic


Garlic History - On This Day


14 May 2007... On The Garlic

"I'm Shocked ... Shocked To Find Terrorism Going On Here " ... The Results - The Garlic Weekly Poll


14 May 2005... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Poll Results for The Garlic's Weekly Poll May 7 - May 13 2006; Steve Colbert, for his White House Correspondents' Association Dinner Performance, Can Expect ...


Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Hagee Going Emily Litella On Us ...


Never Mind!


Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's endorser, the Reverend John Hagee is going all "Emily Litella" today, sending a letter of apology to the Catholic League, backtracking from his comments that the Catholic Church is the "Great Whore"

McCain Backer John Hagee Apologizes to Catholics

“Out of a desire to advance greater unity among Catholics and Evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful,” Hagee wrote, according to an advanced copy of the letter reviewed by Washington Wire. “After engaging in constructive dialogue with Catholic friends and leaders, I now have an improved understanding of the Catholic Church, its relation to the Jewish faith, and the history of anti-Catholicism.”

In the letter, addressed to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League and one of Hagee’s biggest critics, Hagee pledges “a greater level of compassion and respect for my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Josh Marshall, over on TPM has a question, with Hagee's new-found remorse;
Can we now get him to explain the part about God using Muslim terrorists to create bloodbaths in our streets because the US supports a two-state solution in Israel-Palestine?

And Matt, over at Think Progress asks "Hagee Promises ‘Greater Compassion And Respect’ For Catholics; Will He Do The Same For Gay Community?"

Hmmm ... I wonder if Hagee had to write that letter with SB McCain, or one of his lobbyist staffers, standing behind him, twisting his arm?

I'm sure the Zigzag Express people wouldn't be looking to build up some markers, for when they start lobbing Jeremiah Wright bombs at Obama ... That they can point to the Elmer Gantryesque repentance of Hagee to push back with ...

Don't go out for popcorn on this movie.

It was just last month, Hagee pulled a Chinatown, and went "My Sister-My Daughter" over his comments blaming gays for Hurricane Katrina;

Hagee backs off comment connecting gays with Katrina

Hagee Reneges On Retraction Of His Katrina Comments: ‘God Always Punishes Unconfessed Sin’


Oh yes, this is going to a such a fun-filled general election campaign ...


Sadly No Slaps Down Prom Dress Boy On Bush Legacy


I think, we can expect to see these things trickle out, through the end of the year, and into the next.


The dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds of the Right Wing Freak Show, looking to lay down some gold, frankincense and muir at the alter of our first-and-only Court-Appointed President's legacy.

It seems Commissar Goldberg is about to talk or write about it.

You may remember the new Definer of Fascism from the pages of The Garlic, when we noted the reaction to his book in our "The morning after always looks grim if you happen to be wearing last night's dress".

There's a great interview (with Goldberg splaying all over the place) by Salon's Alex Koppelman ("We're all fascists now");
In the book, Goldberg attempts to convince readers that six decades of conventional wisdom that have placed Italy's Benito Mussolini, Germany's Adolf Hitler and fascism on the right side of the ideological spectrum are wrong, and that fascism is really a phenomenon of the left. Goldberg also attributes fascist rhetoric and tactics to Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and describes the New Deal's descendants, modern American liberals, as carriers of this liberal-fascist DNA. In a sense, "We're All Fascists Now," as Goldberg puts it in one of his chapter titles.

Larisa Alexandrova weighed in also, with her 'Springtime For Hitler' post;
Either Jonah Goldberg is putting on a new production of the Producers or his latest book is a cry for help from a fractured and disoriented mind.

Titled... wait for it... Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, it is a retelling of history through the lens of propaganda.

Recently, Commissar Goldberg put out the call to his RWFS, and his National Review minions - "I thought it'd be interesting to know what NRO readers think Bush's legacy will be. Please send thoughts — hopefully constructive".

We noted the other day, Spencer Ackerman's brilliant definition of the Bush Legacy, recommending Obama adopt it on the stump;
Welcome to the next four years. These people have plunged the country into two failing/failed wars and killed hundreds of thousands of people. (Also, they pulled off a housing crisis and a healthcare crisis and an environmental crisis and when an entire city drowned the administration left the black people to die.) There’s no alibi: when conservatism had its chance to govern, this is what it yielded. If I was one of them, I’d bitch about Rajiv Chandrasekaran or Jeremiah Wright or whatever was necessary to distract people from what I did when I had the chance to do it. Get ready for years and years and years of this puerile and tiresome nonsense.

Probably not the legacy-building constructive narrative Commissar Goldberg is looking for ...

Heck, it's probably registering on Goldberg's Liberal Fascism Meter as we speak

Well, if he doesn't like that one, Brad, over on Sadly No, came up with another gem today.
I highly encourage you all to send Jonah your thoughts on this matter, be they constructive or otherwise.

For my part, I think pictures speak more than a trillion-kabillion words, so I’ll let them speak for me. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bush Legacy

You gotta go over to the post and check it the pictorial Brad lays out - Pretty much on-target!

And Brad adds;
To sum up: Bush has been a smarmy, destructive asshole for the past eight years and he has left the next president with an extremely large pile of shit to deal with. And you, Jonah, dutifully enabled the stupid SOB for years until you realized that he was starting to cost the GOP votes. Lest we forget...

A "smarmy, destructive asshole ..."

Yep, sure sounds like the Court-Appointed President (h/t Barry Crimmins) we have had over the past seven-and-a-half-years.

He'll own that legacy, that moniker, for perpetuity.


Bonus Links

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Dear Jonah: I Am Not Serious, Either

E&P Staff: Jon Stewart Goes After Jonah Goldberg and 'Fascism' -- He Responds

The Hon. Dr. St. Rev. Bradley S. Rocket, Esq, PhD, MD: A tantalizing peek at history’s greatest book


This Message, Brought To You By ... The GOP!


Leave it to the nitwit Congressional Republicans.


Attempting to take a proverbial shower, to get their own, self-generated slime off themselves, they go "Hey, let's come up with a nifty slogan ... That oughta do it!"

And what do they - drumroll, please - come up with?

"The Change You Deserve."


From NYT The Caucus;

In a memo to be sent to Republican members today, the leadership hints at a new slogan building on the change message that has already been shown to have political resonance with a public unhappy with the nation’s direction.

“Through our “Change You Deserve” message and through our “American Families Agenda,” House Republicans will continue our efforts to speak directly to an American public looking for leaders who will offer real solutions for the challenges they confront every day,” said the memo prepared for lawmakers.

The real solutions for the challenges we confront everyday is a boatload of impeachments, followed by new Congressman that uphold the Constitution, possess ethics and integrity, but that's a horse to run on another day.

Because, this GOP Cleansing Shower gets ... Well ... You just can't make this stuff up

GOP's New Slogan Already Being Used To Market Anti-Depressant
What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that "the change you deserve" is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism. (Hat tip to Bluestem for catching this gem.)

Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment "of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults." Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - "electric shock-like sensations also called 'brain zaps.'"

Maybe their fearless leader, John Boehner should start using this stuff ...

The drug could provide him with a little more empathy and humanity ...

Or, it just might help him with his crying jags.


Bonus Links

John Cole: This Will Be Rich

Steve Benen: Republican ‘re-branding’ poised to launch

New GOP/RNC Slogan - “Two Parties Enter ... One Party Leads” – Echoes Through Senate Today; GOP Taunts Dems After Shooting Down Pullout Vote; Takes On New ‘Mad Max” Slogan To Laud Majority And Cool Down Cut-And-Run Charges


This Date ... On The Garlic


Garlic History - On This Day


13 May 2007... On The Garlic

Happy Mothers Day ... And Let's Hear For Queen Noor!


13 May 2005... On The Garlic


Bush Ready To Pull Bolton; Will Nominate Dave Chappelle; Senate Says They'll Vote "Up, Down and Sideways" For Comedy Central Star; Bolton Goes Ballistic

Top Ten Cloves: What The Two Pilots In The Cessna Were Talking About During DC Evacuation


Monday, May 12, 2008

Breaking News! White House To Supply Burma With Pre-Fab Convention Center


Bush Wants To Streamline Media Reports, Provide Easy Access For Junta Flyovers


Ceding to mounting critics, the Bush Grindhouse has ordered FEMA to deliver, immediately, a replica, pre-fab Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to the cyclone-stricken country of Burma (also known, by the thugs who took it over, as Myanmar).

Indicating that lessons have been learned from New Orleans, and Hurricane Katrina, FEMA officials estimated that the pre-fab convention center can be airlifted and set-up within 48-hours.

"The President," offered White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, "doesn't like seeing these people scattered, without food or water, all over the country ... If they had a place to gather, like the Convention Center, they can pick each other up, offer support to each other, until help arrives ..."

Since Cyclone Nargis hit Burma 10-days ago, with scores-of-thousands dead, more injured and displaced, relief efforts have been hampered, due to the junta itself, and also, a relief ship of supplies sinking off its' coast. Some aid boxes have been distributed, carrying the names of Junta generals, in a twisted, PR effort.

No word if food and water, or other resources, would be shipped with the pre-fab Convention Center, Perino indicating that "we still have, using our New Orleans plans, a few days to decide on that", adding that, if any are sent, we "certainly will have the President's name on those boxes".

Perino offered that the President, in a telephone call with Senior Gen. Than Shwe, urged the Junta leader to to find a cathedral he could stand and front of and give a speech, promising complete and thorough aid and assistance, but "not have to worry" about actually following-up and delivering any of it.

Shwe advised the President, according to Perino, that as soon as the pre-fab convention center is up-and-standing, Shwe, and other Junta officials, will make a fly-over, to access the damage.

"This is a tough one for us," admitted Perino. "The tragedy and destruction there wasn't caused by broken levees, so we may have to tweak things as we go along."

Perino deferred, and wouldn't answer, questions if a pre-fab convention center will be sent to earthquake-stricken China.


Bonus Links

VOA News: As Many as 10,000 Dead in Burma Cyclone

CNN: Cyclone victims face 'long-term' food shortages

IPS News: Cyclone Nargis Exposes Junta's Anti-People Attitude

Breaking News! Burma Junta Contracting Blackwater For Internal Security; Could Mean Exit From Iraq For Embattled Mercenary Firm; Radio's Limbaugh Charges "Phony Monks" Stirring Up Trouble


Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At Jenna Bush's Wedding


News Item: Jenna Bush wedding is a First Family affair


10. Rumor has it, the twins got so trashed, they popped out of the cake at the Bachelor's party

9. We're in Crawford, I thought the President would be in his brush-clearing clothes

8. Someone said he's introducing himself as "Commander Guy of the Bride"

7. Do you believe that Jack Abramoff sent an ashtray he made in prison as a wedding gift

6. I don't see a lapel pin on the President, do you?

5. I heard Bill O'Reilly sent a case of loofahs, with the Fox News logo on them

4. Make yourself scarce ... Rumor has it Cheney wants to go hunting in the morning

3. I don't know how appropriate it is for Condi Rice to be wearing those boots...

2. I heard more than a few people used those Bush Coins to put in their gift envelopes

1. Did you catch the friends of the groom? ... Did you see them roll out a banner - "Mission Accomplished" - right after the I Do's?


This Date ... On The Garlic


Garlic History - On This Day


12 May 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Ways AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. Will Justify Giving Phone Records To NSA


12 May 2005... On The Garlic

Mineta Broadcasts Klaatu and Gort Landing For Real; Rumors and Misinformation Add to DC Panic, Hysteria Over Stray Plane; Code Red Highest Since 9/11; President Not Notified for Fear of Another Book Reading

Conservatives To Fete DeLay Tonight; Last Chance For Favors In Case House Leader Censured or Expelled

Top Ten Cloves: What Vice President Cheney Told Appeals Court About His Energy Meetings To Win Verdict


Sunday, May 11, 2008

Don't Cry For Me, Lanny Davis ...


We, soon, very soon, likely won't have to listen to Lanny Davis piss-and-moan, with his undying promotion of Hillary Clinton.


To be honest, whenever I see Davis come on the television, I instantly start thinking of the movie "Men In Black" and the scene where Agents K and J go to retrieve a watch from a locker, and encounter the guardians of said-watch, the tiny Grand Central Station Locker Creatures.

I half expect Lanny Davis to start belting out;

"Hillary is back! The keeper of the light! All hail Hillary! All hail Hillary! Oh Hillary can you see by the dawn's early light..."

Davis took to whining again the other day, complaining about his appearance on CNN, the night of the North Carolina and Indiana Primary, calling it "Worst experience I ever had on television".

Well, most were late, as Barry Crimmins picked up on it immediately, that night, and duly noted;

While waiting for the Indiana totals, the cable networks marked time by reeling in some of the slack from the jaws of their commentators, who finally seemed to have worked through the denial stage of their grief over the terminal status of the Clinton campaign. Serious hilarity ensued on CNN when Clinton family bootblack Lanny Davis, accustomed to leisurely swatting softballs in such surroundings, was asked to try to explain how his candidate could possibly garner the Democratic nomination. His clumsy response looked even shiftier as Davis squirmed in a suit last worn by Joseph Bologna as King Kaiser in the "Boss Hijack" sketch in My Favorite Year.

If the Superdelegates are being subjected to Lanny Davis's sniveling, his Hillary-running-through-his-veins, essentially touting Hillary's entitlement to the nomination, than they should step forward now, so we can all wave goodbye to Lanny Davis-Clinton.

Please!

Bonus Links

TPMtv: Lanny Inanity!

MyDD: Lanny Davis Takes His Toys and Goes Home

James Wolcott: Lanny Davis: Looks Liberal, Tastes like Chicken


Today's Must Read - The Military-Media Dog-and-Pony Show


Actually, it's not fair to title it in this manner - it disparages dogs and ponies quite unfairly.


And, you'd likely see in the MSM, a story about a green puppy, before you see them cover the Pentagon bag-job of the contingent of military analyst puppets ...

Opps ... It looks like the green puppy story wins.

It is beyond outrageous that the Bush Grindhouse, and their Orwellian gang of thugs actually instituted this program, but that the media in this country marched in lock-step with it ... We can only hope that, when it comes time for these nitwit networks to renew their FCC licenses, this gets brought up and, hopefully, penalties result from it (like taking away their license would be a good start)

And just to add a little extra layer of unbelievability to it, Glenn Greenwald, yesterday, in his "How the military analyst program controlled news coverage: in the Pentagon's own words" laid out just how "in-your-face", SOP, nonchalant they went about doing it.

On the question of whether the Pentagon maintained an illegal covert domestic propaganda program -- and on the broader question of whether the American media's political coverage is largely shaped and controlled by the U.S. Government -- I don't believe it's possible to obtain more conclusive evidence than this:

So the Pentagon would maintain a team of "military analysts" who reliably "carry their water" -- yet who were presented as independent analysts by the television and cable networks. By feeding only those pro-Government sources key information and giving them access -- even before responding to the press -- only those handpicked analysts would be valuable to the networks, and that, in turn, would ensure that only pro-Government sources were heard from. Meanwhile, the "less reliably friendly" ones -- frozen out by the Pentagon -- would be "weeded out" by the networks. The pro-Government military analysts would do what they were told because the Pentagon was "their bread and butter." These Pentagon-controlled analysts were used by the networks not only to comment on military matters -- and to do so almost always unchallenged -- but also even to shape and mold the networks' coverage choices.
Read the whole piece, as it contains copies of emails where they discuss this criminal action like they were discussing the days' weather.

But Wait, There's More!

And related to this is something that Barack Obama needs to weave into his stump speeches, for it captures the essence of the Bush Grindhouse most perfectly.

There was a document dump related this story, and it it, in one of the emails, TPM's Josh Marshall gets tagged by the Pentagon phonies as being a "Bush-bashing, uber-liberal"

Spencer Ackerman, writing on Think Progress, weighed in, defending Marshall.

And Ackerman pens the above-referenced recommendation for Obama;
Welcome to the next four years. These people have plunged the country into two failing/failed wars and killed hundreds of thousands of people. (Also, they pulled off a housing crisis and a healthcare crisis and an environmental crisis and when an entire city drowned the administration left the black people to die.) There’s no alibi: when conservatism had its chance to govern, this is what it yielded. If I was one of them, I’d bitch about Rajiv Chandrasekaran or Jeremiah Wright or whatever was necessary to distract people from what I did when I had the chance to do it. Get ready for years and years and years of this puerile and tiresome nonsense.

Nice to see the wisdom of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid keeping certain things "off the table"

But there is still time ...


Bonus Links

NYT: How the Pentagon Spread Its Message

Ron Beasley: Quote of the Day +

Brave New Films: What's Wrong with a Little PsyOps?

Think Progress: Only Two News Networks Willing To Explain Their Role In Pentagon Propaganda Program

Cirque de Military Analysts


This Date ... On The Garlic


Garlic History - On This Day


11 May 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Signs HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson Is Getting Ready To Cancel Your Contract


11 May 2005... On The Garlic

Garlic Exclusive! Dems Seek Arrest, Charges of Senate Leader Frist, and Others; Say Nuclear Threat Violates Patriot Act; AG Gonzales Opens Investigation

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things The Courts Are Letting United Airlines Do To Their Retirees