I’m sorry, but in the world I imagine, the Vice President doesn’t get a

TWO MILLION DOLLAR TAX REFUND.

Fuck him. Screw his open bribery and contempt for America. This is one moneychanger the world has suffered long enough. Impeach him, please.

HE OBVIOUSLY WON’T MISS THE INCOME!

Nice way to start a Friday, ain’t it?

The Al Qaeda Myth
Tom Porteous

We now know that Al Qaeda had nothing to do with the London bombings in July 2005. This is the conclusion of the British government’s official inquiry report leaked to the British press on April 9.

That they are threadbare, to say the least. But also that they are cynical, misleading and self serving.

When the Iraq War busted out of the starting gates of this Neocon administration, the Americans most rabid about “kickin’ those Iraqi butts” were the youngest group of adult Americans. Who would have guessed? Right in front of our blurred vision, a new Rambo generation had grown up. Not long ago Gen X-ers were a pathetic group of slothful, pampered, whiny, boring pests whose martial instincts were limited to fighting for the remote control.

But a strange thing happened on the way to the Iraq War. Rambo was a no show. This precipitated humongous bonuses in our military and the instituting of stop-loss to retain military personnel. Then came a huge expansion of mercenary forces because we didn’t have enough military personnel, followed by the lowering of recruit requirements because we didn’t have enough military personnel. And of course the wholesale activation of Guard and Reserve troops who were trying to pay college tuition and now are paying with lives and limbs because the land of the brave couldn’t beg, buy, or intimidate others to fight this new Vietnam.

Continue reading (and you really should) The Ugly ‘D’ Word

This looks interesting…

That we here at TTP only rag on Republicans, well, its mainly because the dems have no power, hence, they can’t hump things up like gods own party, but hey, we still have a Clinton to remark on:

Company Finds Clinton Useful, and Vice Versa

By MIKE McINTIRE and RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

04/12/06 “New York Times” — – Corning Inc., one of upstate New York’s largest and oldest employers, has supported Republican candidates for so long that its chairman once joked that it had not raised money for a Democrat since 1812.

In April 2003, a month after Corning’s political action committee gave $10,000 to her re-election campaign, Mrs. Clinton announced legislation that would provide hundreds of millions in federal aid to reduce diesel pollution, using, among other things, technology pioneered by Corning. It was one of several Congressional initiatives Mrs. Clinton has pushed that benefit the company.

See? We are nothing if not fair.

George Bush didn’t exactly deny Seymour Hersh’s report in The New Yorker that the Administration is considering using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran.

The National Academy of Sciences studied these earth-penetrating nuclear weapons last year. They could “kill up to a million people or more if used in heavily populated areas,” concluded the report, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Continue reading The Human Costs of Bombing Iran

I remarked the other evening to the lovely LH that it was interesting to watch the media FINALLY taking some small moves toward reporting what all normal people have known for years- that the US has been taken over by a crazed cabal of nuts who attacked their own people, imprisoned them without legal recourse, started two (and probably a third soon) optional wars, and lied about it all.

So when a story like this is reported in the Washington Post, you can watch the national media, and thus a large clump of Americans, taking tiny steps toward the truth that many of us have known since mid-morning on 9-11.

Lacking biolabs, trailers carried case for war
White House pushed Iraq bioweapons claim despite evidence to contrary

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile “biological laboratories.” He declared, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.”

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

Granted, a truer- and more helpful- headline would have been “Bush caught further lying to advance war aims” or some such, but that day will come. Remember, we have 3 more years of this madness. I frankly shudder to ponder what might be told in the days ahead, but gratified to see even these tiny steps toward reality.

Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn’t. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn’t do it again?

Continue reading Yes He Would by Paul Krugman.

Everyone should read this excellent book, to gather a glimpse of what life is like in this country for far too many. You’ll never stiff a waitress again.