You've heard it, but did it sink in?

Amazing - in 5 years, the Shrubbery Administration went from +236 Billion to -413 Billion. Sounds like a lot. Look at the picture - it is. 8x what Reagan did w/ Reagonomics, >2x what GHW Bush saw at the end of the 80's.

But hey, as long as it's you and me paying, and Haliburton and friends getting the money, who cares?

Click on the picture to see the full size image. Print it out, stick it on your fridge. It'll give you a reminder every day on why TheShrubbery isn't just fracking up the rest of the world, he's doing it here too.

The War on Terror...

Over at Intel-Dump, there's an excellent write-up on how (a) the War on Terror is not only a stupid name, it inflates Al Qeida's status and gives them more power and clout than dealing with them as terrorists, and (b) equating the War on Terror to the days leading up to WWII is just stupid.

Which is one of my biggest issues w/ the Shrubbery Administration - it's based on stupidity, fear mongering, lies and limiting the publics access to knowledge.

Now that the Dem's have control of the US Congress, we'll see if they stand-up and start trying to steer this nation back to a path of reason and fact, or if they just act like politicians. Not going to hold my breath on that one.

Disagree with the Bush Administration, Go to Jail

Flagged by ThisIsTrue from the Rocky Mountain News -

on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people...

Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are
reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on.

Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail.

What - they didn't drop him to the ground 2 seconds after he said it, punch his lights out, and take the kid as well?

Kevin Tillman, brother of San Jose native son and Iraq War fatality, Pat Tillman, put it well in a SJ Mercury News Perspective on Sunday:

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of habeas corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma and nonsense.

Maybe this years election will change things. Or will we just give up the illusion of a democracy, and crown the Shrub "King Bush"?

The Rule of Law vs. The Rule of Power

President Shrub today signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006, claiming, in part, that the future would judge us on "if we did enough to prevent terrorism".

Couple of ridiculous points:

Removing the concept of the "rule of law", with the US Courts as the ultimate arbiter of what is and isn't allowed (enemy combatants would have no right to sue for being improperly held / charged / treated), is truly un-American. Nothing makes the attacks of 9/11 have more impact than if we throw out our democratic ways in the process of fighting terrorism. Even Americans, detained on US soil, could be labelled "enemy combatants", and never have a chance to a non-military tribunal, where hear-say and dubious evidence (resulting from "non-torture" interrogation techniques, including beatings, sleep and food deprivation, etc. Not allowed by US Military code of conduct, but the CIA has their own methods...)

"If we did enough" - we could bomb the rest of the world (ok - we'll keep Britain and Australia, our staunchest allies, and maybe Israel) and that would greatly reduce the chance of future attacks on America. Is that enough?

A key concepts in the Geneva Convention is that a common set of standards to apply to everyone. If Al Qaida capture American soldiers, tried them without proper legal representation, and then executed them, Americans would be horrified at their barbarism. Only difference is the Military commissions Act of 2006 allows us to do it as a government.

And, the law is retro-active, so it applies to any / all exhisting detainee's lawsuits in US court.

When did Clinton join the WWF, and the SmackDown move to Fox?

After the Israel / Hezbollah war, when most of those making sense (i.e. that I agreed with) were on the right side of the fence politically.

But, things have quieted down, so it's back to internal US politics for now. Which means lies, more lies, and the Republican effort to guide the world with "truthiness". I can't say for sure, but I guess they think it's easier to make stuff up, and then invent the stories to support it, then to actually deal with what's happened, and their part in it. Gheez - reminds me of a lot of the idiot managers at the company I work for - easier to whitewash the BS that happened then to fess up that it came from them.

Not a regular Fox News watcher (since "Fox News" has become as oxy-moronic as "Jumbo Prawns"), I didn't catch Clinton on Fox News Sunday (transcript here), but did see the Video on Think Progress

Short review:
(a) Bill Clinton is, and was, a much more intelligent and informed speaker than George W. Bush is, was, or ever will be.
(b) Despite his peccadilloes, he still has more honesty and integrity than, hehe, that mistake for a homo sapien.
(c) Chris Wallace, the Fox News interviewer, thought he (Chris) would get a slam dunk out of his "why didn't you take care of Osama Bin Laden" slam to President Clinton. But Chris forgot something very important - make sure you got a better game than your opposition. Unlike Shrub, nobody ever accused Slick Willy of being an idiot, or even just average thinker. If you're going to invite a moderate-liberal onto the most right leaning main stream media news show, and expect to sucker punch him (or her), then pick someone who hasn't been around the block as much as President Clinton.

Chris got schooled. He's just lucky he's not Bill's type, and the only stains on his clothes afterwards were in his jockeys, and not down the front of his shirt!

Hezbollywood - Behind the Scenes

EU Referendum has just finished their3 week effort to document the Hezbollah play reported in the world press as the "Massacre At Qana". It's here.

If you get the gist after the first few parts, skip ahead to "Part 7" aka "Caught In the Act", where my favorite actor, Mr. Green Helmet gets caught directing in front of the camera.

There's the APs first attempt at crushing the Mr. Green Helmet story, where AP Hack-In-Training described "Abu Shadi Jradi pulled bodies out of wreckage for hours..."

And the second attempt to cleanse Mr. Green Helmut with this AP write-up on Salam Daher, saying he's a natural hero, who dug for hours to recover bodies.

Is it Abu Shadi Jradi or Salam Daher? How good can AP be on fact checking if they can't even get his name right. And if he's a resuce working, how come there are hundreds of pictures of Qana, hours of video, not one showing him digging. Scores of pictures showing him carrying bodies, with great emotion. Ok - sometimes taking detours over harsher / more picturesque terrain, sure. From one staging area to another, sure. But digging, nah.

Which leads us to Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive hack for Associated Press, says "that you can't get competitive journalists to participate in the kind of (staging) experience that is being described" (see this).

She also said "It's hard to imagine how someone sitting in an air-conditioned office or broadcast studio many thousands of miles from the scene can decide what occurred on the ground with any degree of accuracy," Guess it's fine to sit thousands of miles away and not actually review the arguments, or use your brain, but you can say that nothing hokey happened a degree of accuracy.

From the photo evidence on the web, these were not unstaged events, with the media critically recording what was going on. It was choreographed, scripted, with each news organization given time to get their shots, with clear lines of sight. Over and over.

But really, go take a look at EU Refererndum. It's got much more info, and I'm just summarizing what they said.

UNIFIL to save the day. Yeah, that'll happen.

So the UN has passed a resolution today, calling for the Israeli withdrawl to happen in coordination with the Lebanese Army moving in, aided by UNIFL, augmented to 15,000 soldiers, under an extended mandate.

Wikipedia entry on UNIFIL:

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, was created by the United Nations, with the adoption of Security Council Resolution 425 and 426 on 19 March 1978, to confirm Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restore the international peace and security, and help the Lebanese Government restore its effective authority in the area.[1] The first UNIFIL troops arrived in the area on 23 March 1978; these troops were reassigned from other UN peacekeeping operations in the area (namely UNEF and UNDOF).[1]

They've been doing a wonderful job of restoring the peace and enabling the Lebanese government from to restore authority in the area.

But, sounds like not all members of UNIFIL were so enamored with the role. Remember the UNIFIL base that was hit by the IAF, killing 4 observers? 1 week prior to the bombing, one of the observers (Canadian Maj. Hess-von Kruedener) sent an email to a former collegue, lamenting about the way Hezbollah has been launch missles from right next to their post, and then hiding behind it. Remarkably, he comments on the Israeli restraint, "The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity." (Summary here)

Bloggers turning the tide

The American Thinker has an interesting article on Mr. Green Helment, including links to a Washington Post Op-Ed (Framing The Storey), as well as a clips showing Mr GH clearly directing the TV crews to keep filming, and get better shots! from Sweetness & Light

Catch the news about IDF finding Iranian Revolutionary Guards amongts the Hezbollah dead? Here's a link to the story.

How about the video of rockets being fired from Kfar Kana (Qana / Quana), and the rocket launchers then being driven into residential areas and hidden? Map showing why Kfar Qana is key to Hezbollah, and some IDF videos available here

More links to media hijinx...

Is Adnan Hajj 2 people, or is has he sold photos under more than 1 name? @ The Jawa report

Mr Green Helmut in action with "This Ones Alive" @ Pajamas Media

Same Building, destroyed twice @ PowerLine

Bridge Hit, damaged car appears, people run over bridge, but bridge is gone, damaged car now someplace else @ PowerLine

More Adnan Haff photo editing @ Jawa Report

Hezbollywood - What really happened at Qana? @ OpEd News

Hezbollywood 2 - The Directors Cut @ EU Referndum

There are many great blogs out there talking about these items, so I'll stop with the links - if you want to find more, try Google

But, back to the issues:

1. Hezbollah and / or it's supporters photo-shopping photos to make them look worse
2. Hezbollah and / or it's supporters are clearly staging events
3. Hezbollah is controlling media access in southern Lebanon and Beirut
4. Major news services are *NOT* using any independent fact checking, or even the basic review of photos their using, in the rush to get the news out
5. Major news services feel they have *NO* responsibility to go back and admit their mistakes, fraud, or the less sensational truth when it comes out.

Media Manipulation II

If it bleeds, it leads.

One of the key mantra's of many major news organizations these days, especially the NY Times. I haven't bothered looking at the times to much in years, but just the a few days ago, a friend mentioned that he was getting tired of all the front page, above the fold photos of the hurt or injured in Lebanon.

Always showing just injuries on 1 side is clearly biased.
Showing clearly staged photos is fraud.
New York Times Busted in Hezbollah Photo Fraud

Media Spin - What Dubya can learn from Nasrallah

I've been avoiding doing a political blog for a while, but am finally getting fed up with junk news, staged stories and photo-shoots, photo editing, and very biased reporting on the Israeli / Hezbollah war.

• Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Their reported aim is to drive Israel out of the Shaba Farms area of the Golan Heights (they claim it's part of Lebanon, the UN states it's part of Syria). They are terrorists not because they fight the Israeli defense Forces, but because they launch rockets into civilian areas in Israel, not at military targets. See Wikipedia's entry on Hezbollah.
  
• Hezbollah shields itself within civilian areas of Lebanon, including Beirut and Qana, forcing Israeli counter-attacks to hit civilian areas.
  
• Hezbollah controls media access to most of southern Lebanon, as well as most of southern Beirut. They control the image, whether still photos or video. See PowerLine bloc, Little Green Footballs, et al. When the same building gets destroyed 10 days apart, and the same woman looses her house (and very different houses) 2 weeks apart, someone's putting a lot of spin on.
  
• Hezbollah and many of their supporters are barbarians. I know that sounds harsh, but I can't think of a better word. When the IDF bombs killed civilians, did you see Israelis dancing in the street and celebrating? No - you saw a government investigation, and a national discourse on it. When Hezbollah hits Haifa, or Nahariya, or Tiberias, do you see discussions on what happened and how? No, you see dancing in the streets.
  
• Hezbollah is supported, funded and armed by Syria and Iran. While Syria and Iran may not control day-to-day operations of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, their continued support (and money and weapons) shows they certainly approve of it.
  
• Iran and Syria are not peace-loving nations. "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television. (CNN, August 3rd, 2006). While many corrupt states in the Middle-East like to fan the anti-Israel / anti-Semitic flames, Iran and Syria are extreme in their blame for all problems on Israel and Jewish conspiracies.
  
• Remember the Qana attack that killed 54? Ever hear that it was 28 I'm not saying 28 isn't horrible, but responsible / reliable governments tend not to exagerrate. Know those rockets that are hitting Haifa? Know where they're coming from? Qana.
  
• How about the 40 people killed today in Houla? Or was it just one? When the Lebanese PM re-states the number, there's a lot of spin going on. You don't see the Islamic Republic News Agency printing an update though...
  
• Yes, even the US got the initial death count wrong after 9/11, but when the numbers are consistently inflated, someone's spinning every bit of news that goes by.

I'd better stop now.

But, for further reading:

Ben Caspit, on what the Israeli PM should be saying.
The American Thinker