Fox News Wants to Attack Iran

(Video from Brave New Films)

The morons at the state-run FOX News network are, once again, beating the drums of war. They did it before with Iraq, and they're doing it again with Iran. And it's the same old shit - Iran has WMD and they're connected to 9/11. Therefore, let's attack 'em!

The problem is, of course, that last time the rest of the media followed along like sheep and was complicit in allowing Bush to attack Iraq. No hard questions, just rah, rah, rah.

Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films have put together this great video documenting the techniques that FOX News uses in an attempt to push the administration's agenda -then and now.

Let's hope people have wised up in the last years. Like Bush says, "Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, uh, I won't get fooled again!"

Abdul the Reluctant Martyr

Video from Modern Man)

Apparently some terrorists are less committed than others. Abdul is one of them. He would "rather grow up than blow up."

This very funny video is from Modern Man, a group of three very funny old guys (in other words, my age), who wrote this song in an attempt to become famous. According to their website, they were "transparently trying to get a fatwa issued on themselves for the sake of notoriety."

Although most people believe that terrorists must have had their funny bones surgically removed, I'm guessing that there are some out there who might see this and think, "That Abdul is a funny guy. Maybe I will follow in his footsteps."

And Modern Man will have done their part in saving the world.

Stu Bykofsky Is a Sick Bastard

(Video from FOX News)

The right-wing warmongers have finally shown their true colors, just in case there was any doubt.

Stu Bykofsky, a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, has recently written an article that is so stunning to read that you think he must be engaging in some sick form of satire. But no such luck. He's apparently serious.

His thesis is that, since America is so divided, what it really needs is another massive terrorist attack to bring it back together. He believes that the way to get people to unite in the fight against terror is to suffer and die in another attack. That way we'll know who are enemy is. Here are some excerpts...

"One month from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America."

"America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater. What would sew us back together? Another 9/11 attack."

"The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago's Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda."

"If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America's righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail."

Presumably Stu is not advocating an attack on himself or his family or his friends. As long as it's thousands of other poor souls, though, what the hell, it's apparently worth the price.

I'll give him credit for one thing, though. He asks the right question in regard to his own words:

"What kind of a sick bastard would write such a thing?"

Exactly.

By the way, take note of the way FOX News handles this guy with kid gloves, trying to put the best possible spin on his words, and then try to imagine how they would react if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama had said the same thing.

My prediction for Stu: This is going to blow up in his face, and he'll be looking for another job within a week.

Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!

(Video from Maury Povich)

Franklin Roosevelt said...

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

A lot of Americans have forgotten these wise words. But you can't really blame them, what with Bush and Co. constantly using fearmongering as a tool to try to keep people in line. Their not-so-subtle message is...

"Terrorists are everywhere. They're gonna get you (and your little dog, too)." The ONLY way you can save yourself is to support the Iraq war and vote Republican come election day. If you don't, you are unpatriotic and not a true American.

Their constant mantra is "9/11, 9/11, 9/11," a shameful exploitation of that national tragedy that is an insult to the memory of the victims and their families. The national press doesn't help matters by reporting every potential threat as if it's the end of the world.

Are there terrorists out there who want to harm us? Of course there are. We see the latest evidence of that in the botched attempts to attack London and Glasgow. But is it too much to ask that we intelligently go about assessing the threat so that we can come up with sound and logical strategies to combat it rather than trying to scare the bejesus out of everyone?

After all, if we spend all our time cowering and hiding under the bed, the terrorists have accomplished what they set out to do.

Students to Bush: Knock Off the Torture

(Video from The Divine Comedy)

Presidential Scholars are some of the best and brightest high school students in America. When a group of 50 of them visited the White House recently, they surprised President Bush with a letter they had composed, which stated that they "believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."

The letter continued...

"We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants."

Deputy press secretary Dana Perino responded to the letter this way...

"The president enjoyed a visit with the students, accepted the letter and upon reading it let the students know that the United States does not torture and that we value human rights."

Well, there you go. The United States does not torture. I guess it's just been a big misunderstanding. Move along. Nothing to see here.

I must say, these kids are pretty ballsy to ask the President to his face to please, pretty please, stop torturing people. It gives me renewed hope for the future of the nation.

Jack Bauer Saves America Again!

(Video from CNN)

Okay, I admit it. I enjoy watching "24." It's exciting television. But I always keep in mind that it's only a TV show. Many conservatives, however, seem to have a hard time making the distinction between TV and real life. They're in love with "24" and Jack Bauer because they see it as a validation of Bush's pro-torture policy. It proves to them that we have to torture if we don't want to be destroyed by the terrorists.

The latest conservative to prove my point is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who recently, while participating in a panel discussion on torture and terrorism law, remarked...

"Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles...He saved hundreds of thousands of lives...Are you going to convict Jack Bauer? Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?’ Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don’t think so.”

Scalia apparently was defending torture, believing that the ends justify the means. Of course, the ticking time bomb scenario portrayed every 10 minutes on "24" is, in reality, a very rare occurence. If we're going to use a TV show to justify our policy on terrorism, I think we're in even deeper trouble than I thought.

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Close Gitmo!

(Video from Boston Legal)

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Bush administration set up a whole new system of justice for suspected terrorists who had been rounded up willy-nilly in various places (often turned in by folks for cash rewards).They opened up a brand-spanking new jail in beautiful Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They thought it would be a swell idea if these people weren't allowed to have lawyers and weren't even charged with anything. They would just keep them locked up and occassionally torture them.

Well, the chickens are finally coming home to roost. Court after court has ruled that the symstem is unconstitutional. The latest blow to their fun new system came from the Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri.

The court wrote, "The president lacks power to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain al-Marri. We have found no authority for holding that the evidence offered by the government affords a basis for treating al-Marri as an enemy combatant, or as anything other than a civilian," and ordered the Bush administration to transfer the prisoner to the criminal court system.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out on this issue over the weekend. It makes sense to me. From Meet The Press...

POWELL: Guantanamo has become a major, major problem for America’s perception as it’s seen, the way the world perceives America. And if it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow, but this afternoon. I’d close it. And I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, “Well, then they’ll have access to lawyers, then they’ll have access to writs of habeas corpus.” So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about?

We'll see if Bush will listen to the voices of reason. He hasn't in the past, so I'm not holding my breath.

(The video once again showcases my favorite lawyer, Alan Shore. He says it much better than I could.)

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Azzam the American

There are dickheads and then there are dickheads. This guy makes most dickheads look like Mr. Rogers. What would possess someone to leave his California home and become a spokesperson for Al Qaeda?

Perhaps it was the fact that he was homeschooled. Or maybe it was all that Death Metal music he loved so much. He even wrote the occasional music review for a local magazine. Check out his review for an album called Acts of the Unspeakable:

The Bay Area quartet crank it up to a good fast grind on many of these tunes, notably `Tortured Moans of Agony,` Battery Acid Enema`, Blackness Within` and `Skullptures` ... This is an excellent release from some Death Metal pioneers!

Ah, yes. Battery Acid Enema. Talk about your romantic ballads. They don't write 'em like that anymore!

Then there is his review for a band called General Surgery.

This is basically a Swedish `supergroup` of death, featuring members of Dismember, Afflicted and Creamatory...Lyrically, the quote on the back cover pretty much sums it up: `Murder is the only way to kill time.`

This guy has apparently been a dick from way back.

By the way, his real name is Adam Yahiye Gadahn. He's been indicted for treason and is on the FBI'S Most Wanted Terrorists list. If you see him in your neighborhood, give 'em a call.

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Mickey Mouse Joins Hamas

In a shocking development, Mickey Mouse, the quintessential American mouse, has given up his American citizenship and joined Hamas, widely considered to be a terrorist organization.

Asked what motivated him to do such a surprising turnabout, Mickey squeaked, "I guess I just got tired of being exploited by the Disney corporate machine. They made me work 18-hour days, fed me really shitty cheese, and wouldn't let me shack up with Minnie. Hey, I've got needs."

When asked for comment, Minnie said, "To tell you the truth, I was going to dump him anyway. We had some fun times, but lately he's become such a twit."

The Disney corporation is currently engaged in preliminary discussions with Mighty Mouse about the possibility of him assuming Mickey's duties.

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Nuclear Nuts

How safe are we from a possible terrorist attack on a nuclear plant? The question has been raised anew after William E. Clark, who was the security chief at the Palisades nuclear power plant near South Haven on Lake Michigan, told Esquire magazine that he had been a government assassin.

The magazine article suggested that Clark was "emotionally unstable," which is a polite way to say he's nuts. If he really is nuts, that certainly raises some troubling questions about the screening process that applicants are subjected to before they're hired. How exactly does it happen that a nut becomes the head of security at a nuclear power plant?

Add that to the fact that nuclear power plants are still vulnerable to attack from the air, and you have to wonder what the hell the Bush administration's priorities are when it comes to protecting us from terrorism.

Hey, at least they're on top of the toothpaste threat at the airport.

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Why Do the Terrorists Hate Us?

(Video from Fox News)

There was an interesting exchange in yesterday's Republican debate between Rep. Ron Paul and Rudi Giuliani. It centered on the question of why the terrorists attacked us on 9/11. The mainstream Republican theory, of course, is that "they hate us for our freedoms." Rep. Paul made the case that they didn't attack us for who we ARE, but for what we DO.

Although I'm sure that Al Queda doesn't approve of our lifestyle and form of government, I think the fact that we feel the need to have a giant footprint in their neighborhood is a much greater motivating factor for them. Of course, that didn't stop Giuliani from demanding that Paul retract his statement (which he declined to do).

It's a little like the kid in 6th grade who's always getting bullied. He doesn't hate the bully because of his cool lifestyle. He hates him because he's always beating him up. Maybe we should stop acting like the world's bully, and look for ways to get along with the rest of the world. As a start, perhaps we could stop trying to impose our values and way of life on other countries.

Just a thought.

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Do They Think We're Idiots?

(Video from Fox News)

I, for one, am getting pretty tired of Bush and Tenet and the rest repeating the mantra that "we don't torture." They admit, however, that they use "enhanced interrogation techniques." When asked about them, they say, "we don't talk about techniques."

Do they think we're not able to recognize a euphemism when it's hurled at us? More to the point, do they think we've forgotten about Abu Ghraib?

America has always prided itself on occupying the moral high ground. We're always the first to point the finger at other countries for human rights abuses. Look at what we've become. Is this the America that we want to portray as a model to the rest of the world?

In the video above, Steve Harrigan continues the silly journalistic tradition (pioneered by Rick Sanchez of CNN) of letting themselves be abused in the name of news, as he volunteers to be waterboarded. My favorite quote from the video is when he exclaims, "It took less than 20 minutes to break me." I'm not sure what vital information he gave up, but I suspect that the shameful secret he confessed to was that he works for Fox News.

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Men of Honor?

(Video from NBC News)

Two prominent men have recently stepped forward to tell the truth about how we got into Iraq. The question for both of them is "What the hell took you so long?"

George Tenet, the former CIA director, has written a new book in which he tells us that the Bushies did not pay attention to his dire warnings about 9/11. He also claims that there was no significant debate about the wisdom of invading Iraq before launching the attack.

Carne Ross, a British diplomat who was Britain's top expert on Iraq at the UN before the start of the war, has also written a new book. In it, he describes the case for war which was presented by the U.S. and Britain as "a gross exaggeration of what we knew." He goes to say that Britain's behavior at the U.N. at that time "was, at best, manipulative and, at worst, dishonest."

Of course, most of what they're now saying can be filed in the No shit, Sherlock file. Most people have already figured all this out. So while these men should be given credit for finally telling the truth, the question has to be asked, "Why didn't you scream this to the world when it could have done some good? Why didn't you resign in protest? Why didn't you do everything you could to stop these idiots from launching a war that you knew was bullshit? How many lives could you have saved?"

Tenet says that he tried to work within the sytem to stop it. Ross now says, "I am ashamed that I didn't speak up earlier. I was afraid to. Friends of mine who were encouraging me to suggested I should have. I was too afraid. I was too attached to my career. I regret it."

Too little, too late.

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