April 29, 2003
While anxiously awaiting the new Entertainment Weekly, imagine my surprise when I found this in my mailbox instead — practically duplicate covers for Time and Newsweek.
Yep, I subscribe to both — Time so I can digest the right-wing point of view without overdosing on too much rhetoric, and Newsweek because of my incurable crush on the beautiful mind of Anna Quindlen (without whom NW would dissolve into just another WH mouthpiece).
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Health & Wellness,
Media
I’ve seen other reports of higher death and injury tolls, but this will do for a recounting of the latest firing-into-the-crowd story:
FALLUJAH, Iraq — US troops shot dead 13 Iraqis including at least six children at a pro-Saddam Hussein rally, overshadowing the arrest of a key weapons advisor to the toppled president.
US commanders said Tuesday that the shooting was in self-defence, without confirming the death toll, while in Baghdad a huge explosion rocked the capital, where a top US general announced fresh troop deployments to enforce order amid the chaos.
Witnesses in the town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, told AFP that US troops had opened fire late Monday on demonstrators marking Saddam’s birthday, killing 13 and wounding 45.
“The shooting broke out when 500 protestors carrying portraits of Saddam and Iraqi flags approached a school manned by US troops,” said resident Mohammed Hamid.
Another witness, who asked not to be identified, said six of those shot dead were children aged just seven or eight. …
Best line in the whole article:
US President George W. Bush vowed Monday to see Iraq through to democracy and said that the US-led occupation was already improving the lives of Iraqis “hour by hour”.
Gag me.
Well, at least we know why another 4,000 U.S. troops are being added to the 12,000 already in Baghdad.
Of course, as good Germans Americans, you will obey orders to divert your attention immediately to the heartwarming homecomings throughout the U.S.
I’m as happy and relieved as anybody to see even one intact soldier exit an airport gate and collapse into the arms of his loved ones.
But who’s thinking about the soldiers who are en route to Baghdad as I write this?
Brace yourself, folks — the “war” is far from over.
(And guess what? It’s only beginning in an entirely new way for me: I just found out that my well-meaning, patriotic — but incredibly shortsighted — young cousin, who’s been making noises about enlisting, finally did the unthinkable, and is now waiting for the call that will tell him when and where to report for boot camp.
I love him dearly, but I could slap him silly for being such an idiot.)
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
George W. Bush,
Iraq
Whatever you do, try not to dwell on the idea of Young Master Bush getting cozy with a girlfriend (it’s bad enough that we must confront the fact that Dubs & Pickles had to have done the nasty at least once in order for the Stepford Wife to pop out Jenna and Baby Babs — although rumor has it that Georgie firmly adheres to the belief that the production of twins proves they did it twice).
That said, try not to think of a hippopotamus while you read this:
The White House made a number of recess appointments last week as Congress fled for spring break. One was April H. Foley, a “homemaker,” according to campaign contribution disclosure documents, from South Salem, N.Y. She was named to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank. The appointment is good until Congress adjourns next year.
So why a homemaker for this job? Well, “early in her career,” the White House announcement says, she was director of business planning for corporate strategy with PepsiCo Inc. and director of strategy for Reader’s Digest Association. More recently, she was president of the United Way of Northern Westchester County, N.Y. Not all of it, just the northern part.
Still not locked in on the merits? Did we mention she used to date George W. Bush when both were at Harvard Business School and has remained friends with him?
The only other (even remotely interesting) mention I was able to dig up on April Foley was in a most amusing piece written last fall, on Georgie’s tendency to channel Mommy Babs:
“From his mother I see that feistiness, that street-smart person who has a good nose for people, a good political nose,” says nasal-obsessed Bush friend April Foley.
Now, if you want to hear what that rascally Larry Flynt has to say about another of Dubs’ girlfriends… Well, never mind — we’re not going to get into the abortion rumor here. We have no need to delve into any unfounded abortion rumor. With all the other documented facts about Junior’s sordid past, we don’t need no stinking abortion rumor.
No, there’s already plenty of other skull and bones skeletons in Georgie’s closet.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
George W. Bush
April 28, 2003
Secret exposure: U.S. tested chemical weapons on own citizens
Earlier this year news that the army would conduct bio-terrorism tests in central Oklahoma sent a near panic through some communities.
Clouds of clay dust and other substances were dropped to see if weather radar could detect a bio-terrorist attack. The army was up front and told those concerned what they were doing and promised there was nothing to worry about.
But it hasn’t always been that way when the army was testing the atmosphere.
Oklahoma City and a local solider endured a secret exposure.
It was in the 1950s and America was in the height of the Cold War. … Little did Americans know they were already under attack — by America. …
The U.S. government was preparing for germ warfare by secretly spraying biological agents on its own citizens. The tests were conducted in 239 cities, including one of Oklahoma’s most prominent communities. …
Speaking of “Saddam gassing his own people” (one of the Right’s favorite comebacks when they run out of all other illogical arguments for waging war), here’s the latest in a growing number of reports that it was Iran that gassed the Kurds — not Iraq:
The Portugal News has received a full transcript of a report by a former CIA senior political analyst that states that Iran was responsible for the mass murder of 5,000 Kurds by chemicals at the Iraqi township of Halabja in 1988. …
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Homeland Insecurity,
Iran,
Iraq,
Oklahoma
Fund-raiser for GOP pleads guilty in case of child pornography
A prominent Republican fund-raiser who once said former President Bill Clinton was “a lawbreaker and a terrible example to our nation’s young people” pleaded guilty yesterday in Baltimore Circuit Court to production of child pornography.
Richard Anthony Delgaudio, who was sentenced to two years’ probation before judgment, admitted to taking lewd photographs of a 16-year-old girl he met in East Baltimore’s Patterson Park in 2001. In some of the photos, he was engaged in sex with her, court records show.
Delgaudio, 50, of Burke, Va., is a frequent talk-radio guest and national figure in conservative politics. He is president of the Legal Affairs Council, a group that helped pay the legal bills of former Reagan administration officials Oliver L. North and Caspar W. Weinberger after they were charged in connection with the Iran-contra affair.
In his pornography case, there was additional evidence that Delgaudio took erotic images of at least one other, younger teen-ager, but that evidence was not admissible in court because police improperly stopped and searched Delgaudio, a judge ruled. …
In yesterday’s ruling, Judge John M. Glynn ordered Delgaudio to stay away from Patterson Park and the neighboring Butchers Hill area. The judge also publicly acknowledged Delgaudio’s humiliation.
“Mr. Delgaudio has been very active in the state of Virginia and around the country. He was a respected member of the community,” Glynn said. “This type of thing is a mortifying experience.” …
In a letter to the judge, Delgaudio’s attorneys — Bruce Fein and Howard L. Cardin — wrote that he was remorseful and did not know the girls were underage.
Delgaudio, who has no prior record, was arrested in November 2001 with a book of obscene photographs he had taken of 15- and 16-year-old girls, according to court documents. The teen-agers went with him on several occasions to a hotel on Pulaski Highway…
Well, boo-f–king-hoo for this sick freak’s “humiliation” and “mortification.”
You think five grand and staying clean for two years is punishment? You think it fixes anything?
How about making this pervert pay all costs for the lifelong therapy his young victim should have after being exploited like so much meat? He’s off the hook, and she’s the one who’s going to encounter colossal obstacles to maintaining psychologically healthy relationships for the rest of her life.
Two years’ probation, my ass. How about two years’ community service at a battered women’s shelter? Better yet, how about two years’ of being forced to sit in on group therapy sessions for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse?
Ah, screw it — just lock the bastard up. Prison inmates take a dim view of child abusers.
Incidentally — just for the hell of it — let’s see what kind of person we’re looking at in Richard Delgaudio: He led the drive to eliminate ebonics in California, pushed for the passage of the state’s anti-immigration initiative (Proposition 187), and worked on the defense of baton-wielder Laurence Powell (and even threw a “homecoming” dinner and rally for poor “Larry“!), one of the four white LAPD cops who beat the crap out of unarmed black motorist Rodney King.
And besides campaign fundraisers for Reagan and that bastion of old-style bigotry, Jesse Helms, “Delgaudio’s resume includes fund-raising for legal defense money for [Oliver] North and Casper Weinberger.”
(I’ll tell you something else, too — half the ultra-conservative sites that made any mention whatsoever of Delgaudio have scrubbed all pages containing his name. Go ahead, Google him.)
You make up your own mind about Richard Delgaudio. Mine’s made up already.
And this pig had the audacity to join the chorus of “moral” indignation against Clinton. No, I’m not surprised. Just disgusted.
See also:
Richard Delgaudio at Conservative Babylon
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Bill Clinton,
Crime,
Race/Ethnic Issues,
Republican Sexcapades,
Republicans
Nope, I didn’t write it — it’s an e-mail forward, courtesy of DU’s talkinghand. But I love it — I’m copying and pasting it into an e-mail for all my misguided RW acquaintances, and encourage you to do the same — they’ll hate it, but they won’t be able to argue with it (that is, if they get it)!
As mindless liberals reflexively attack our elected wartime President, George W. Bush, over his brilliant and inspired handling of the near-crisis brought about by the sinister North Korean communist regime and the inept foreign policy of the failed Clinton administration, it is important that we true conservatives remember the nature of the Korean dictator and charter member of the Axis of Evil.
He is the pampered and spoiled product of his country’s ruling elite and the son of his country’s former leader. Born to the wealth and high social standing of his family’s political dynasty, he has enjoyed a life of privilege far removed from concerns of his exploited countrymen. Despite an obvious lack of merit, talent or aptitude, he received the best accommodations his country could offer. He was a notorious playboy and immoral rake until he reached an age at which most men have matured. He produced nothing and accomplished nothing unconnected to his family’s name, and owes his current political position to solely his father’s cronies.
Surrounded by sycophants and toadies, he adheres to a discredited ideology that most of his countrymen would reject if they were not routinely and massively propagandized. He is unconcerned with the economic devastation his party’s ideology has visited on his country, except as to avoid complete disaster and cynically manipulate each crisis to the passing advantage of his party and the ruling elite.
Paranoid and contemptuous of foreign opinion, he has alienated almost the entire world with disjointed, bellicose, but often colorful rhetoric that most other nations find frightening. His erratic foreign policy consists solely of slogans intended to further propagandize a fearful domestic audience rather than assure his neighbors. Often, he unpredictibly reverses his own national policy and acts unilaterally to further a political ideology that is incompatible with democracy.
These are the differences between Kim Jong Il and our own beloved and respected leader. Liberals are blind to those differences.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Asia,
George W. Bush,
Humor
Got a hot date in Lafayette Square?*
Well, forget it — it looks like barring U.S. citizens from the White House (which we bloody well own!), blocking traffic, throwing Jersey barriers around the Washington Monument, installing Orwellian surveillance cameras on the mall, surrounding the city with Stinger missiles, and generally turning Washington, D.C., into a virtual arms compound wasn’t enough for the paranoid Bushy Bunch; now the city’s famed Lafayette Park is off-limits.
The hell with it. Who wants to feel like a damned criminal at every turn? I’ll take my tourist dollars where the atmosphere isn’t quite so 1984, thank you very much.
I’m glad I got to actually touch the Lincoln Memorial, and wander completely unsupervised all over Arlington National Cemetery… What’s next — the Vietnam Wall behind bulletproof glass?
No wonder everything’s so screwed up in Washington — I’m sure the city’s feng shui is a mess.
* First one to identify the movie the “hot date in Lafayette Square” line is from is a… you guessed it!
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Homeland Insecurity,
Washington, D.C.
No, not Iraq — Afghanistan. Seems Washington has seen fit to end combat… twice (note the date on each article):
U.S. officials have concluded after 10 months of war that the combat mission of U.S. conventional military troops in Afghanistan is largely over and that whatever fighting remains is likely to be carried out by small numbers of Special Forces troops and CIA operatives.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today he will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss a formal declaration ending combat operations by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and shifting their role to promoting stability in most parts of the country.
Speaking of Afghanistan, were you aware that Rummy was planning on a trip there? Well, he’s canceled it — and he’s not saying why.
Let’s try to figure out why, shall we? Could it be the ongoing rocket attacks on U.S. targets, or land mines (that just killed 22 troops (including ten U.S. soldiers)? Could it be the “factional fighting” on the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan border? Could it be the warning of suicide attacks by those to whom the Afghan warlords refer as “many bin Ladens“?
I say all of the above. Not that Rummy would ever be in actual physical danger himself, mind you — but he might have a bit of trouble explaining that the fighting bloody well isn’t over… and never was.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Afghanistan,
Donald Rumsfeld,
Iraq
April 27, 2003
Y’all remember the outrage at the exposure of American POWs on Iraqi television?
No doubt about it: It was a clear violation of the Geneva Convention. No argument from me on that.
But at least the Iraqis let the Americans keep their damned clothes on, and didn’t humiliate them by scrawling anti-American epithets across their chests with Magic Markers!
Fury Rages After U.S. Forces Display Iraqi Thieves Naked
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| “Some of them [Iraqi inhabitants] gave us the idea so we took the clothes and burned them before we pushed them out with thief written on their chest. It was quite successful.”
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| A Muslim member of the Delta Squadron 10 Engineer Corps is alleged to have written “Ali Baba, Haram” in Arabic across the men’s chests before they were evicted at gunpoint from an amusement park in the city.
The phrase scrawled across the men’s chests in black marker pen is a reference to the tale of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and can be roughly translated as the vernacular for “sinful thieves”..
|
|
The United States was at the center of a new human rights row after four alleged Iraqi thieves were paraded naked in a Baghdad park by U.S. occupation forces on Friday, April 25.
The humiliating spectacle of young men running to hide their shame was captured by at photographer for Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper, which quoted a U.S. officer as saying the deterrent was effective. …
“If these pictures are accurate, this is an appalling way to treat prisoners. Such degrading treatment is a clear violation of the responsibilities of the occupying powers, said [Amnesty International] Director Kate Allen said.
The four victims had their clothes burned before being publicly humiliated in the Zawra Park which is said be plagued by thieves trying to reach U.S. weapons store, said Mirror.
The degraded prisoners had the words “Ali Baba, Haram” — “Thief, Unclean” — scrawled in Arabic on their chests. …
Group Commander Eric Canaday, of 10th Engineer Corps, is quoted in Dagbladet as saying, “I think our job is to keep people out of the park to prevent theft of weapons.”
Lt Canaday added: “We have talked with the Iraqi inhabitants. Some of them gave us the idea so we took the clothes and burned them before we pushed them out with thief written on their chest. It was quite successful.”
The U.S. soldiers were seen chasing the Iraqi men shouting “Ali Baba, Ali Baba”. All four ran as fast as they could to hide their nakedness, according to onlookers.
Three of the young men got away…
[20-year-old Zian Djumma] told Dagbladet, “This was terrible. Now I only want to go home and find a hand grenade and throw it at the soldiers. Not only against those who did it to us but at everybody. I hate the Americans for this.” …
Here is the Dagbladet article, with pictures. And here is Amnesty International’s statement.
And if you’re one of those xenophobic types who dismisses all “foreign” news sources, here’s an AP link for you.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Iraq
Has Andrew Sullivan finally begun to see the light? Maybe just a teeny-tiny little splinter of light?
Andy, Andy, Andy… You’re so bright, and such a good writer… When, oh when are you going to realize that your own political party hates your gay ass? They always have, and they always will.
Dear, poor, misguided Andy — come into the light! Remember, even David Brock found his way after a lifetime of crimes you couldn’t even begin to approach — and if we can forgive him, we can forgive you.
I’ll even introduce you to some boys who can help you shop for something other than those constipated Ivy League shirts and ten-pound Cordovan shoes I’m sure you wear.***
*** First one to identify the movie the “ten-pound Cordovan shoes” line is from is queer!
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Gay Republicans
Methinks Shrubby’s attempt to exploit 9-11 for his 2004 campaign stands a chance of backfiring in his smirky little face: No offense to Alabama, but it might get a bit dicey if he tries to convince two more states — plus the District of Columbia — to change state election laws so that he can qualify for inclusion on the ‘04 ballot.
Believe it or not, both Alabama and West Virginia — as conservative as they may be — are hard to call on this one — so don’t expect either to cave in immediately (as Idaho and Indiana, sadly but expectedly, already have).
Alabama has a Republican governor, but the state legislature is Democratically-controlled. However, if the Dem legislators do the right thing and refuse to kowtow to the Gov, there will likely be a major anti-Dem backlash. On the other hand, the Alabama Repub legislators have been notorious lately for blocking all sorts of Dem-proposed bills — and if the Repubs cry “partisanship” over this one, they’ll expose themselves as the true hypocrites.
West Virginia, believe it or not, is also Dem-controlled — and they’ve got a Democratic governor, too.
And don’t give up too easily on D.C., either. It’s never mattered that the White House in sitting right in the center of town; Washington, D.C., is still a city in its own right, and a heavily Democratic one at that.
Since I’m a cynic and a pessimist, I actually do expect AL, WV, and D.C. to fold — but not without a fight.
As for my own state — let’s just see Georgie try to bully California into accommodating him, after giving the Golden State the biggest screwing in history from the moment he moved into President Gore’s house. (Now, let’s hope my faith is justified, and I’ll still be able to fly the bear with pride come this summer.)
In any case, no matter which way the states go, there’s a larger issue at hand: George W. Bush was installed in the White House on the premise that state election deadlines do count.
Start invalidating election laws, and it will be time to call Cruella de Harris on the carpet for real this time — as well as the Supreme Court of the United States.
Hey, Fat Tony — care to re-open the case of Selection 2000 and be forced to invalidate the entire Bush II “presidency”?
It’s time somebody teach Georgie that he can’t change every damned rule, every damned time, to suit his own damned agenda.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Election 2004,
George W. Bush,
New York,
September 11,
United States,
Washington, D.C.
Don’t ask me where this pic came from — I have no idea; one of my li-buh-rul friends forwarded it to me. (And I apologize profusely for the resulting gags and spit-takes this has undoubtedly caused — but I couldn’t resist.)
I’ll make up for it with my favorite Dubya joke:
So, one day in the far, far future, Dubya dies and goes straight to Hell, where Satan is waiting for him.
“I don’t know what to do,” says Satan. “You’re at top of the list, but there’s no room in Hell right now. You definitely have to stay here, so I’ll tell you what I’m going to do: I’ve got some folks here who weren’t quite as bad as you were. I’ll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I’ll even let YOU decide who leaves.”
Dubya thinks this sounds pretty fair, so Satan leads him down a long corridor, and opens the first door. Inside is Ronald Reagan and a swimming pool. Ronnie keeps diving in and surfacing, getting out, diving in and surfacing … over and over and over again, forever.
“No, sir,” says Dubya, “that isn’t for me.”
Satan leads him to the next room. Inside is Richard Nixon with a sledgehammer and an enormous pile of rocks. All he does is swing that hammer, breaking big rocks into little rocks, over and over and over.
“No, I don’t think that’s for me,” says Dubya.
Satan opens the next door. Inside, Dubya sees Bill Clinton tied to a Barcalounger, with Monica Lewinsky on top of him, doing what she always did best.
Dubya blinks and looks again. He rubs his eyes. Then he smiles.
“Right, sir,” he says to Satan. “This, I can can handle, for all eternity.”
Satan smiles, too. “OK, Monica — you’re free to go!”
Posted by: Sapphocrat
Filed under:
Free Speech,
George W. Bush,
Humor
A senior United Nations envoy has called on the United States to take prompt action over the fate of three teenage boys being held with other terror suspects in its prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Olara Otunnu, the special representative for the rights of children in war, told BBC News that the UN expected America to fulfil its obligations under international law.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has defended the detention of the boys — aged between 13 and 15 — at Camp Delta, saying they are “enemy combatants”, captured while fighting for the Taleban or al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the boys were being held “for a very good reason — for our safety”.
“They may be juveniles — but they’re not on a Little League team anywhere,” he said at a news conference along with Mr Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on Friday.
“They’re on a major league team, and it’s a terrorist team. Some have killed. Some have stated they’re going to kill again.” …
If the teenagers were found to have been fighting as child soldiers, Mr Otunnu said, they should be demobilised, reintegrated and rehabilitated. …
“We do not sentence children to jail. We do not punish them. We give them healing and get them rehabilitated.”
One of the youths has been identified by Canadian media reports as a Canadian citizen wanted by the US over a grenade attack in Afghanistan which killed a US soldier. …
“That the US sees nothing wrong with holding children at Guantanamo and interrogating them is a shocking indicator of how cavalier the Bush administration has become about respecting human rights,” [Amnesty International] spokesman Alistair Hodgett told the Associated Press news agency.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
