Today In Historical Press Agentry

The front page #OTD in 2003. U.S. forces take control in Baghdad. #nytimes pic.twitter.com/mPWPH0l7cq

— New York Times OTD (@OnThisDayNYT) April 10, 2017

On the other hand...

"Some resistance remains" https://t.co/iPfoJnwAhc

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 10, 2017

The Best Recruiter

This needs to be bigger news. Trump appears to be fulfilling his promise to carpet bomb ISIS. Record civilian deaths-1,000 dead this month. https://t.co/rJIuMJvB2v

— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) March 25, 2017

After airstrikes killing as many as 200 civilians, Iraqi officer says rules of engagement relaxed under Trump. https://t.co/fNhYV8XXG6 pic.twitter.com/KYotZcYkY3

— DavidKenner (@DavidKenner) March 25, 2017

I'm old enough to remember a time when "relaxed rules of engagement" meant a war crime. https://t.co/y1DxPVCHcK

— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) March 25, 2017

This is a huge story. If true, it's likely the largest massacre of civilians by the U.S. military since Vietnam. And Iraq is blaming Trump. https://t.co/ozIHYli48z

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) March 25, 2017

Republicans: US may say 100s of civilian deaths in Mosul were accidental. Extremists have tape. - https://t.co/mn2I5fQKni via @thedailybeast

— Elliott Lusztig (@ezlusztig) March 25, 2017

Sounds About Right

Yastreblyansky—

First Israel was fighting to rescue the kidnapped Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel, although they knew the boys were already dead, then to punish the Hamas organization for killing them, though they knew the organization hadn't done it.

Then Israel was fighting to stop firing of thousands of Hamas rockets (which set a kind of record by not even slightly harming a single person during the whole month of attacks), only they didn't know (contrary to their claims) where the rockets were. But they could find some of the tunnels Palestinians had built out of their prison camp to attack their guards on the other side of the border, so they fought to destroy those.

And so on: just a few succinct paragraphs, concluding—

The only true possibility of peace remains what Yitzhak Rabin called the Peace of the Brave, in which Israelis accept that there is a certain amount of ineluctable risk. There is a risk that some Israelis will be hurt if there is peace; if Gazans are permitted to travel in and out of the territory, or if Palestinians in general are permitted to constitute themselves as a state.

Then again some Israelis will certainly be hurt if there is no peace (64 IDF soldiers in the course of the current adventure dead, for what?). The Israeli government seems to have adopted Dick Cheney's "one percent doctrine" in which if there's a one-percent chance that something dreadful will happen you must act, but if there's a 90% certainty (e.g. that America's coastal cities will be drowned over the next century by the ongoing rise in the sea level) you can ignore that. It's the War of the Hysterically Frightened.

Nice touch: Israel's placing a former GOP trickster in this position. If not surprising—considering how much our right-wingers have mucked around there—it is yet more evidence for how well things go, wherever these folks pull the levers.

Patsies

As usual, a pre-made narrative awaited launch—

REPUBLICANS THREATENED TO RUN A WILLIE HORTON-STYLE CAMPAIGN IF OBAMA FREED BERGDAHL IN 2012

In 2012, Rolling Stone ran Michael Hastings'portrait of Bergdahl and his platoon. Hastings remarked about Bergdahl's continued captivity that–

In a sense, Bowe represents a threat to anyone who wants to see the war continue – be they Taliban militants or Pentagon generals. Once the last American POW is released, there will be few obstacles standing in the way of a negotiated settlement. "It's the hard-liners on both sides who want to keep this thing going," says a White House official. "The Taliban is struggling with its own hard-liners. They need space, and this confidence-building measure could give them space."

I hadn't followed read Hastings' piece then, or followed the story for that matter, until recent days. But immediately after Bergdahl's release came the tell in this kind of thing catapulted into instant media uproar.

For years, Obama was a traitor for not bringing the guy home; now he's a traitor for bringing the guy home.

Main sources for accusations against Bergdahl: soldiers enlisted by GOP operatives.

And Obama is to be scolded that "Americans don't negotiate with terrorists" by Oliver North.

The beard style wingnuts adored not so very long ago now makes the father suspect.

As usual: all grist for the mill, 180s being turned, and so on.

Most serious would be the charge that several soldiers died during the search for Bergdahl. Yet if concern for dead soldiers were real, it wouldn't be hard to come up some celebrated names responsible for very much higher death counts during the wars they—not the likes of a Bergdahl—chose to start.

After all his years in captivity, it's not as if Bergdahl had made it home (or even out of medical care) when the character assassination began. He's been unable to defend himself; unsurprisingly, a flag-waving media pack has been only too pleased to spread the smears.

And the "worst of the worst" terrifying terrorists who've been released... appear to have been a mix of working for "our" side—or trying to switch sides—when they were locked away, never to be tried.

So much for the family and hometown celebrating Bergdahl's release. The guy will have to go into hiding if he does make it back to private life.

The media's pack behavior is in no way surprising. Though it is (if this were needed) a depressing demonstration of the ever-accelerating speed with which a powerful agenda can insert character assassination by questionable sources into "the national dialog."

Picture

Getty Images

Words.

Ten Years and Counting

Though I'm usually bad at dates, March 19, 2003 is one I can't forget.

Sam Seder, on this year's March 19 tenth anniversary. Sam makes the important points: about how ten years ago the media screened out anyone who was right about Iraq; how it's as true now as then, that "experts" are used to shut out those who've been right all along; how media treatment hides its own role in ginning up war fever, as well as skipping over the lack of accountability for the Bush administration.

Sam also spoke with much passion about Janeane Garofolo's bravery in speaking out against the war ten years ago. He notes that hers was the only anti-war voice allowed on TV—because she was viewed as a lightweight who could be mocked and used to discredit the case against war. More of that story, from a 2003 interview.

At the other end of the spectrum are the voices with unlimited access. In case anyone were to doubt the truth of Sam's points about access, plenty was heard this week from those whose only post-2003 public speaking should be at the International Criminal Court.

Thanks to various media enablers, there were uncritical forums for the likes of Richard Perle and Stephen Hadley, for instance.

I haven't heard the latter, but was subjected first thing in the morning to the former—

Montagne: Ten years later, nearly 5,000 American troops dead, thousands more with wounds, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead or wounded. When you think about this, was it worth it?

Perle: I've got to say, I think that is not a reasonable question. What we did at the time was done in the belief that it was necessary to protect this nation. You can't, a decade later, go back and say, 'Well, we shouldn't have done that.'

The usual reality-based sources could be relied upon to write more critically of the PR effort. Charles Pierce, for one: on John Yoo, as well as media pundits' anniversary noting, represented by Johnathan Chait's anti-Pierce column bemoaning the loss of "open and rational debate."

The comments added much to the short post; a couple of typical ones—

Michael Cotter
I don't recall "let's have a more open and rational debate" being said much in the winter of '02-'03, do you? Let's ask Phil Donahue.

Matthew Pensinger
Chait seems to miss the fact that a truly "rational" debate wouldn't be "open" to the idiots who beat the drums for the fulfillment of PNAC's Strangelovian dreams.

It's a hard read, but the dying Tomas Young's last letter—an open one to Bush and Cheney—and Chris Hedges' interview with Young get at the reality of what those cool and calculating Strangelovians unleashed.

The Banality of Delusion

"Manpower, junior size... The Jefferson High School drum and bugle corps in Roanoke, Virginia started the junior commando rally with a fanfare and a drum roll... school children awaited the opening of the rally that was to number them as part of America's junior army to collect scrap for our armed forces."
Photographer: Howard Liberman
Library of Congress
NPR story this morning:

"Exiting Iraq, U.S. Brigade Traces Invasion Route."

From comments by soldiers at a stop on the way to Kuwait:

"...our job is done here (I just can't wait to get home...)"

"... we started really well; I don't know if there's more we could've done..."

"... we came here to liberate: freedom for a country. Things are gonna happen...but our main objective we came here to do has been accomplished..."

From a pep talk by their captain:

This is our nation's life work, right here...there are guys who have honorably retired from the army and have not seen this thing resolved. But you'll see it tonight: we're about to put "The End" on a big chapter in the book of military history.

Correspondent Mike Shuster does acknowledge, "That may be true for most of the American troops who have served in Iraq, but not for the 50,000 who will remain for another 15 months, nor for the Iraqis themselves."

Which is followed by audio from Tuesday's Baghdad suicide bombing that killed 61 police recruits.

The battalion's commander "says the US has done everything possible to stabilize Iraq." In his own words,

We've given them enough time to get it right themeslves, to secure the election, secure the population, defeat anti-government forces. It's time to go home and, you know, wish them the best of luck with the future. But at the same time, it demonstrates our commitment to the people of this country; we'll be strategic allies, our friendships are eternal...

Why do all the quotes have the same tone of corporate happy talk made in the wake of a horrendous executive decision?

Sure, the grunts have to tell themselves this stuff.

And they've had so many years of practice: with policies like the hijacking of the National Guard into the Bush wars along with stop loss; add the lack of job opportunities at home, and enlistees as a group have spent year after year in something they want to believe has had a purpose.

But the smugness of that commander's "best of luck" to our "eternal" friends is in no way real "history" or defensible sentiment. It's not even the least bit convincing as a form of "declare victory and get the hell out."

We certainly won't be "out." And the suffering we've unleashed won't end.

Our victory is, of course, conventional wisdom among our self-regarding deemers of what is to be the conventional wisdom.

Yet there are still a few non-believers. Robert Parry, for one, persists in trying to inject some pesky reality.

Terrain and Resources

IL Federal Art Project, WPA
Artist: John Buczak
Library of Congress
I always think I'm attuned to changing language—and ready to bristle at new euphemisms and manipulative usages. But until waking to the sound of this on Monday, the military "Human Terrain System" got by me for years.

Immediate reaction—
in this country, we're Human Resources; the whole world is potential Human Terrain.

NPR's story, "Marines Tap Social Sciences In Afghan War Effort," opens with a visit to a sympathetic (and apparently blond) figure, who

...stood out at a recent meeting that Marine and Afghan army commanders held with local farmers and shopkeepers. Tall and fair, the 36-year-old researcher was dressed in an Afghan headscarf and Marine uniform, the only woman in the group.

The segment continues with a board member of the American Anthropological Association, a group that for years has pointed out the ethical problems. Morning Edition's tone implies that some pesky academics object to this program's good intentions.

David Price, a member of the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, provides more detail: Human Terrain Systems Dissenter Resigns, Tells Inside Story of Training's Heart of Darkness.

A statement by that dissenter, John Allison, "Summary Critique of Human Terrain Systems from a Trainee's Perspective," is at the end of Price's piece. Judging from Allison's account, the program's rationale is that "experts" will reveal the secrets of the native mind, while lending a humane, social sciences face to the occupiers as they pacify the formerly inscrutable.

With retired military recruiting the social scientists and cashing in on the contracting fees.

Davis describes the culmination of the training course: a war-game exercise set in a Midwest town "where environmentalist-separatists had taken over" a power plant and "broken away from US control." The trainees are to

1. 'Find out more details on the criminal activity.'
2. Find out the best conduits to pass 'information' (PsyOps and InfoOps) to the local population.
3. ... produce a 'Research Plan' to understand the situation at the ... power plant – people's concerns, desires, etc., and identify those who were 'problem-solvers' and those who were 'problem-causers,' and the rest of the population whom would be the target of the information operations to move their Center of Gravity toward that set of viewpoints and values which was the 'desired end-state' of the military's strategy.

When other Americans are viewed this way, you just know the approach toward the occupied—what with their dark skin and wrong religion—will go so very well.

In other news of our noble military endeavors, there's the transcript at the end of this account of Gen. McChrystal's recent chat with the troops. He is asked this—

On escalation of force, have you considered engaging the local community on the issue? We could explain at the brigade/battalion level what behavior we find threatening, and how we are trained to react when we feel threatened. We could negotiate with the community leaders over mutually agreeable actions and reactions that are better understood by both and gives part ownership of the issue to the community and empowers them in line with our approach to reintegration.

If nothing else, the social sciences in Afghanistan have imprinted some jargon on this questioner.

In a gee-whiz response, McChrystal admits he can't answer, but

...we certainly ought to be doing that. We have so many escalation of force issues, and someone gets hurt in the process, and we say, 'They didn't respond like they were supposed to.'

...in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it. That doesn't mean I'm criticizing the people who are executing. I'm just giving you perspective. We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force.

As I read this on Monday, Wikileaks has revealed one case of the military surveying the Iraqi human terrain—and finding video game targets.

Chris Floyd writes about counting upon the American people to rise up at this shocking revelations of this video.

...A few days late for April Fool, but, one gets the idea.

Back in the Homeland, some human resources owned by this guy are turned into ex-resources.

Blankenship may not own West Virginia outright, but it's not for lack of effort.

If there are any penalties to be paid for this latest disaster, they will be a very small calculation against the profits of unregulated, non-union mining. All goes well, when you're a Person in terms of dumping corporate profits into political control, but not a person subject to criminal prosecution.

While, those wacky French do this—

The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into allegations of "workplace harassment" at France Telecom following a spate of suicides at the company...

In other recent news: it's so good to know those paragons in the Catholic hieararchy control our elections and Supreme Court.

Naturally, it's the liberals' fault. Or as Tintin translates from Ross Douthat's column on the NYT "Pope-Ed Page"—

Roman Catholic priests like to schtup altar boys because liberals in the 70s promoted free love.

From another Tintin post:

It's totally unfair for liberals to blame the Pope for the current pederasty kerfuffle because the Roman Catholic Church is just so enormous that, in fact, the Pope has absolutely no power over it and can't do anything to discipline pedophile priests no matter how hard he tries.

To mark April 1, I had planned to post some typical "things are great—look how well the rich are doing" story.

I couldn't find it on that date, it was there—in Forbes—

What The Top U.S. Companies Pay In Taxes
Christopher Helman, 04.01.10, 3:00 PM ET

As you work on your taxes this month, here's something to raise your hackles: Some of the world's biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy a far lower tax rate than you do--that is, if they pay taxes at all.
The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income, but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion.
...

Exxon tries to limit the tax pain with the help of 20 wholly owned subsidiaries domiciled in the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands that (legally) shelter the cash flow from operations in the likes of Angola, Azerbaijan and Abu Dhabi. Exxon has tens of billions in earnings permanently reinvested overseas. Likewise, GE has $84 billion in overseas income parked indefinitely outside the U.S.

Forbes' motive in covering this at all, of course, is to catapult the "US corporate taxes are exorbitant" propaganda

... it's the tax benefit of overseas operations that is the biggest reason why multinationals end up with lower tax rates than the rest of us. It only makes sense that multinationals "put costs in high-tax countries and profits in low-tax countries," says Scott Hodge, president of the Tax Foundation. Those low-tax countries are almost anywhere but the U.S. "When you add in state taxes, the U.S. has the highest tax burden among industrialized countries...

And to conclude

"The average Joe should be in favor of lower corporate taxes," says Hodge, "because ultimately they are paying the corporate income tax. Either as workers, getting lower wages and fewer jobs, or as consumers, paying higher prices, or as retirees, getting lower dividends and earnings on their investments."

What do dates mean, anyway—when the owners can play April Fool jokes on us proles every day of the year.

Before the week was out, there was this latest No-One-Could-Have-Predicted pose by our financial geniuses:

Prince, Rubin Say They Didn't Recognize Citi's CDO Risk in Time.

December 2004 (I): Ukraine, Ohio

Grand Lake Theater

Late last month:

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on [November 24] said the United States does not accept the results of Ukraine's presidential elections as legitimate, citing "credible reports of fraud and abuse."

Powell has said plenty of other things with a straight face throughout his career.

But the irony is not lost on Columbus-based The Free Press, as it continues ongoing election coverage, including numerous county by county reports of November 2 vote-rigging, undercounting, and withholding of voting machines.

Citizens groups file legal action to force a recount—which will be conducted largely in precincts picked by a key figure in the fraud, Ohio Secretary of State and Bush campaign co-chair, J. Kenneth Blackwell. As The Free Press describes in its final report of the month, Ohio's official non-recount ends amidst new evidence of fraud, theft and judicial contempt mirrored in New Mexico.

Clever Sister forwards this, from the Ukraine—

A third exit poll, by Frank Luntz, a pollster for the U.S. Republican Party, and Douglas Schoen, of the Washington based market research company Penn, Schoen & Berland, showed Yushchenko winning with 56 to Yanukovych's 41 percent, Schoen said. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.

"Crap - that was Kerry's problem," adds CS, but "Yuschenko's American wife worked for Reagan & Bush Daddy."

It happens that the Columbus area is the site of an actual prosecution of charges connected to the Iraq war. The nature of the prosecution—

At a time when some U.S. troops in Iraq are complaining they have to scrounge for equipment, six Ohio based reservists were court martialed for taking Army vehicles abandoned in Kuwait by other units so they could carry out their own unit's mission to Iraq.

The six receive six-month sentences for theft, destruction of Army property and conspiracy to cover up the crimes.

The sentence comes just a few days after Rumsfeld's encounter with some other guardsmen. Also reported by whitehouse.org: MEDIA ALERT: CORRECTED TRANSCRIPT OF SECRETARY RUMSFELD'S FRIENDLY, NON-CONTENTIOUS BULL SESSION WITH JOYOUS, 100% GUNG-HO NATIONAL GUARDSMEN IN KUWAIT.

After a few weeks at boot camp, the son of Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant has left the marines. It was a medical discharge: Sonny, Jr. injured himself wearing a pack.

I've spoken to Sonny, Jr. when he's phoned Jesus' BAA. As I've spoken to Sonny, Sr., and the daughter: they're all mouth-breathers.

It comes as no surprise that Sonny, Jr. couldn't march and carry a pack at the same time—really not a cheap joke, just a fact. And I'm happy for Jesus' BAA, that her son will not be In Harm's Way. But I also know how puffed up she will be that Sonny, Jr. "served in the Marines." While he's safe, and other people's sons die for her Leader.

October 2004: A Nightmare On Pennsylvania Avenue

2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes...
With what's at stake in the coming election, a couple brave members of our Department try talking sense into Cruella and Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant.

Since one of these is faculty, Cruella puts on a show of listening, while the guy—who really is quite conservative—talks reality about Bush.

Another time, I hear a youngish guy talking to Cruella. I haven't seen him before, but know he is Not Faculty. He's quite soft spoken and I pick up almost nothing, except an occasional, "Bush" ... until Cruella explodes, "Of course you'll LIE! You're A DEMOCRAT!"

I've been biting my tongue for months—yet another reason to curse the length of American campaign seasons! Now, I can't take it any more. I get up, walk across the room, and say with as innocent an expression as I can muster, "Cruella, are we supposed to talk about politics at work?"

She blasts back: "Oh, we talk about it all the time!"

She pauses, as something occurs to her. Then: "Don't tell me I hired a LIBERAL?!"

I smile, say nothing, then: "Oh my gawd, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE HIRED A LIBERAL!!"

Me (slowly, patiently): "Cruella, what do you think 'liberal' means?"

Now, in all the years I will know her: ask a question, and she will unhesitatingly blurt out some load of bullshit. The less she knows about a subject, the more confident she is of her bullshit—of course, this personality identifies with Bush, or with any thug who never admits to being wrong.

But just this once, on being asked to explain what a "liberal" is, Cruella slows down and hedges enough to show she has no idea of how to even bullshit an answer: "Now... that's a... tricky definition ..."

Rescued as Ghengis walks through the door, she turns to him: "WE HIRED A LIBERAL!"

Ghengis jerks his head toward her: "In my office!" She follows him there, and the door closes.

For an uncomfortable moment I imagine they are discussing what to do about the LIBERAL in their midst. But I calm down, knowing they have bigger fish, so must be working on plans for the frying.

By now, the visitor has turned his attention to Jesus' BAA. Soon to be heard saying, "We did too find so many WMD in Iraq!"

It's painful to witness the know-nothingism on display. If there were ever a reckoning for Bush, et al, these people will be like the Germans who still say, "The only thing Hitler ever did wrong was to lose the war."

Meanwhile, their fine, upstanding party engages in stuff like this—

Terry Anderson, a Democrat running for a state Senate seat and a former hostage in Lebanon, walked out of a debate with the Republican incumbent, Senator Joy Padgett... over Ms. Padgett's use of a photograph of him with an official of the Hezbollah terrorist group. Mr. Anderson said that the photograph in a Padgett brochure suggested that he was soft on terrorism, when in fact the picture was taken when he returned to Lebanon to confront the terrorists who held him captive from 1985 to 1991.

This in Ohio—which in terms of national election-rigging efforts is shaping up to be the Republicans' latest version of 2000 Florida.

Columbus-based Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, on Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote—

The Republican "November Surprise" to steal the 2004 election is in full force here in Ohio. With polls showing a dead heat, the GOP is staging an all-out attack on a fair vote count in the Buckeye State.

Fitrakis and Wasserman outline some highly creative techniques for infringing on the voting rights of "the wrong people."

Methods ranging from this—

Under an archaic Ohio law, both the Republican and Democratic Parties, or any slate of five candidates, may embed official election challengers inside polling places. The New York Times reported on Oct. 23 that the Republican Party intends to place thousands of lawyers and other GOP faithfuls inside the polls to challenge voters. Republican insiders confide here that the key goal is to jam lines and frustrate new voters... This is certain to be a major tactic in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County and other Democratic strongholds. The GOP is not planning to challenge voters in Republican districts.

To this—

Secretary of State Blackwell ruled that any voter registration form on other than 80-pound weight bond paper would not be accepted. This is an old law left over from pre-scanning days. Many voters who had registered on lighter paper, had their registration returned, even though the forms had been officially sanctioned by local election boards.

Because—

No Republican has ever won the presidency without carrying Ohio. This year the GOP seems determined to win it, no matter what they have do to the electoral process.

The more intense the activity, the more likelihood of slipping up, and some GOP e-mail traffic becomes public—

OCTOBER, 2004: Recently, we at GeorgeWBush.org happened to notice that our mail server had a default "catch-all" mailbox, which for the past several months had been quietly gathering any and all e-mails addressed to [INSERT-ANYTHING-HERE]@georgewbush.org. We felt the need to share.

GeorgeWBush.org being another project of the whitehouse.org team.

Attached to two of the E-mails are spreadsheets labeled, "caging." These files contain names and addresses of Jacksonsville,FL residents of predominately black areas—evidence of plans to target these voters and keep them "caged," through election day challenges.

In the years to come, the caging planners will be rewarded with high positions in government, and in that criminal enterprise, the Republican Party.

This year, it's up to We The [wrong] People to spend every possible moment before deadlines registering new voters—in hope that increased numbers can outweigh the vote suppression efforts.

And it's up to us to convince everyone we know to vote Democratic.

A month ago, Clever Sister forwarded the plea she sent to an ex-pat friend who prides himself on not voting. Besides outlining just how bad things here have become in four years, CS sends thorough directions on overseas registration, absentee voting, and all possible voting options and sources of information.

Among her entreaties—

Bush stole the election by only 537 votes in Florida!
Every vote counts this year.
SO your vote could be the one that rids us of Bush.

In spite of the media spin & news blackout
NBC owned by GE
FOX very right wing
CNN Time Warner
50% of the country gets it & wants Bush out...

We spend every free hour working to defeat Bush –
don't let the polls fool you: they are bullshit!
They don't call people with cell phones, people with caller ID don't answer - they only call elderly republicans!

And I've been typing my fingers to the bone, trying to get through to a friend I've known since 6th grade. From all I know of her history, I would expect her to be turned off by the pitch to the authoritarian personality. But then again, decades of right-wing propaganda and corporate media consolidation have done their work.

It all leaves my friend, like so many, as easily misled—all her time is taken up by work and family problems. She isn't exposed to "news" until her husband tunes in Fox. She believes that she was able to repair the car and squeak by one more year because Bush gave her a "tax rebate." And, there's no convincing her the latter is actually an "advance," to be repaid many times over in the future.

And she keeps bringing up what her has husband told her: that gunshots were fired at a Bush campaign office. CS tracks that down as being reported only in TN: by local papers saying, by the way, there was a bank robbery in progress across the street!

That's all it takes to create a legend to terrify my friend, distracting her from the fact that she has a draft-age son. So I keep trying anything—excessive caps and all—to get her attention:

I met Max Cleland briefly at a rally a couple months ago. He's a Viet vet/TRIPLE AMPUTEE who was head of Vets' Admin, then senator from Georgia. He lost his Senate race in 2002 after Rove ran ads calling him unpatriotic & comparing him to Osama! He was very popular in Georgia, & the election was conducted on touch screens controlled by a Republican company, so it's probable that he actually won.

But I mention it because this gang slimes anyone they run against, and they MAKE UP EVERYTHING! There's absolutely no relation to reality, but they lie over & over until a lot of the public believes it.

I was just reading a long article about past campaigns by Rove, & the tactics he uses over & over (including a phony recount in '94). One time, Rove printed up smear literature against HIS OWN candidate, to make it look like the other side was pulling dirty tricks!

They're getting away with sending inadequately equipped troops to be sitting ducks. All the years Kerry's been in Congress, vets from all over the country (not just his own state) knew they could go to him when they had problems with the VA, & he's always helped them. But how many people who won't admit that Bush is exploiting the military will fall for the lies about Kerry? They have to paint him as opposite of what he is: someone who knows what war is like, deeply cares about vets, & wouldn't go looking for unnecessary wars.

And on that last point—there's new confirmation of what's seemed apparent all along—

Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade?. If I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
...

According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."

June 2006 (II): 666

That is, calendar date 06-06-06. pennypostcards.com

Which soon was followed by an anti-climactic 06-07-06.

Perhaps some fundies were quietly raptured away, or at least went into hiding on the 6th. As far as I can tell, though, it was just another day in another month and year, here in the world Cheneybush hath wrought.

Responding to the suicides of three Guantanamo detainees, camp commander Rear Admiral Harry Harris

...said he did not believe the men had killed themselves out of despair.

"They are smart. They are creative, they are committed," he said.

"They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us."

A Tiny Revolution notes Other Ways They Are Waging Asymmetrical Warfare Against Us. Including such clever subterfuges as, Not Being A Terrorist, and, Being [a civilian] 4 Years Old.

The Homeland's Leader has been plagued by asymetrical terroristic disrespect from people like the wheelchair-bound man who did not rise in Dear Leader's presence.

This month, it's terroristic wearing of sunglasses, by a blind reporter.

Digby last month, after the wheelchair incident—

There's an interesting simple psychology involved in such things. If someone can coerce those in a group to help him attack a single member they become his accomplices. For instance, getting everybody in the press corps to laugh at a reporter's baldness makes those reporters part of the president's gang. And, of course, it intimidates them. If they stray, they too will be subject to that kind of public humiliation. It's the evil fratboy theory of social relations, very primitive stuff. That Bush may be reduced to plying this unconsciously with senior citizens in wheelchairs is not surprising, given his poll numbers.

Back on 666 day, Dave Neiwert pointed to "The targets of the psy war"—the targets being the American public. The media serving to "catapult" the administration's propaganda.

Neiwert quotes Craig Unger—

For more than two years it has been widely reported that the U.S. invaded Iraq because of intelligence failures. But in fact it is far more likely that the Iraq war started because of an extraordinary intelligence success—specifically, an astoundingly effective campaign of disinformation, or black propaganda, which led the White House, the Pentagon, Britain’s M.I.6 intelligence service, and thousands of outlets in the American media to promote the falsehood that Saddam Hussein’s nuclear-weapons program posed a grave risk to the United States.

Unger interviewed former intelligence and military analysts who had worked in a variety of agencies, and "at least nine of these officials believe that the Niger documents were part of a covert operation to deliberately mislead the American public."

Unger's sources, says Neiwert, confirm "from the inside [what] some of us observed from the outside fairly early on," that—

...The entire meaning of the Iraq war -- and by extension, the "war on terrorism" -- is inextricably bound up in the psychological manipulation of the voting public through a relentless barrage of propaganda.

This is why the both the runup to the war and its subsequent mishandling have been so replete with highly symbolic media events -- many of them played repeatedly on nightly newscasts -- that have proven so hollow at their core, from the declarations of imminent threat from Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, to phony images of Saddam's statue being torn down, to flyboy antics aboard airline carriers, to meaningless "handovers" of power. It also explains why certain important and humanizing symbols of wartime -- civilian casualties, the returning flag-draped coffins -- have been so notably absent from our views of the war.

The role of the media in this manipulation cannot be understated. The abdication of the media's role as an independent watchdog and its whole subsumation as a propaganda organ bodes ill for any democracy, because a well-informed public is vital to its functioning.

Hell being co-workers, no special date is needed. For that matter, the fundies at work don't talk specifically about the EndTimes™ stuff, although they no doubt fall for it. Instead, what I generally have to hear is inane conversation about whatever comes up in the course of the work day.

Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant phoned the faculty secretaries to ask what each of their bosses wants to drink with a lunch she's planning. When one of the faculty happened to walk in, she asked him directly. The answer: "A sweet German white would be good!"

Jesus' BAA waits for him to leave, takes a deep breath, then asks Cruella: "What's a sweet German white?"

Cruella—unhesitating expert on all subjects—shoots back, "A coffee drink!" A fraction of a second later: "No! It's a beer!"

It must be painful for Jesus' BAA to be Cruella's subordinate, rather than being the ordained authority herself. And Cruella is never more sure of herself than when she's inventing a snap answer to something she knows nothing about. Jesus' BAA has her peculiar mentality of aspiring to reach the top of the Administrative Assistant heap,while also being so unacquainted with ungodly, worldly things that she cannot understand a mild joke from a faculty guy. Yet, she does so want to Improve Herself into understanding what faculty are talking about. On the other hand, who knows if she wants to understand such talk mainly to learn what forces in need of conversion she is up against.

Getting started on this topic leads to another notable date this month: 6/16, when a non-faculty staffer stopped by on some business or other.

His usual topic of discussion with Cruella and Jesus' BAA is American Idol, but that's over for the season. Now, this guy is so completely deadpan that I can't know for certain about what follows. Though it's possible he's genuinely reaching for a topic, he sure seems to be baiting the most unlikely of persons. Either way, he asks Jesus' BAA if she realizes that today is Bloomsday? And—cherry on top!—has she ever read Ulysses?

That line cannot be topped for this month. Anyway, in another week Jesus' BAA is at away at Camp Su-Mo-Fo. In her absence, there's a surrogate provider of daily annoyance.

Red State Girl is forever trying to browbeat secretaries into crowning her Social Director. This time around, it's this e-mail—

Thursday June 29th GIRLS NIGHT OUT!!! Please let me know if you are going so I can make reservations at Olive Garden right after work or 5:00 pm. For anyone interested I still have not seen The Breakup with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston so perhaps a movie after.

Hope to see you all!

Clever sister responds:

Yuummmm!
Olive Garden!!!!!!
Eyetalyan food!!!!
Can we go ?

Sure—to CS it might be a bit of amusing tourism, but I'm stuck spending my days with these people. Anyhow, GIRLS NIGHT OUT soon is cancelled, due to lack of interest.

Later the same day...(the demands never end). From the subject line, I thought Red State Girl was going into competition with Jesus' BAA and her camp crafts—

Date: 6/22/2006 1:33 PM
Subject: Egg Cartons

My nephews are raising Rhode Island Red and another variety of laying hens, 20 in all and will be selling brown eggs for 4H. They will need lots of egg cartons because these hens can lay 2 or more eggs a day each...

So I have been asked if I could collect egg cartons...Just drop them on my desk if I am not there.

Thank you in advance!

Clever Sister:

it will cost her if she wants any damm egg cartons from me!

May 2006 (I): Do Not Touch Your Dial

An irresitable invitation: Department Gals' Day Out—


Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant is in the midst of caring for the post-Caesarian puppy bounty: "I have hives so bad! I'm allergic to newsprint, with the puppies being potty-trained. I thought it would get better, but it's not!"

Mid-month, Jesus' BAA takes a day off to prep the party she's throwing at home, for her [special needs] church camper-parishioners. The day before, she announces she'll have to start hiding things tonight, because: "Deaf people are the biggest thieves you've ever seen! They take everything that isn't locked down!"

It suggests a level of psychological projection I don't want to think about.

Another day, a rapt audience of Ghengis, Cruella, and Jesus' BAA listen to Dr. G. Zuss tell an anecdote:

After the announcement that I was leaving X University to come here, a friend who's a ... [pausing to come up with a euphemism] ... liberal thinker... said, "That's the worst news I've heard since Bush won!"

Jesus' BAA gasps, "Oh, no!" as Ghengis and Cruella laugh heartily.

Which may not even have been sucking up by those two; they may have laughed to think Bush won, so the no-good librul was PO'd!

An amused Dr. G. Zuss says to Jesus' BAA, "Don't look at me that way!"

Turning red, she insists the story doesn't bother her.

Dr. G. Zuss gets sly: "Now, I know you have a Bush sticker on your vehicle!"

Which Jesus' BAA also denies, claiming she doesn't put on stickers because they make a mess. Then she goes on (and on, and on) about how her husband's vehicle is "plastered with them," and he's been asked to be the county chair for [local Rethug running for governor], but she told him not to, it's just asking for headaches...

It could mean she's toning down her political activity, since realizing the boss is somewhere vaguely left of Joe McCarthy.

And that, I gather, is mainly due to the anti-science stance of the current regime.

When not trying to impress the Chief, Cruella is busy as ever with American Idol commentary. In one morning's phone conversation with her Good Daughter:

I was in shock! She did an awful job, she deserved to go!
...Taylor has a fan base: he's never been in the bottom…
To be honest, I thought Chris would win...incredibly market-savvy: that's the kind of music people listen to...
... [Some other name I don't catch] is awesome! He's phenomenal! He's so emotional when he sings!

Another morning, after a favorite has been bumped, "I was devastated! Absolutely devastated!"

Though Idol takes up the airwaves, some news still seeps out, if not into the consciousness of Cruella and the others. The Hartford Courant publishes "Mentally Unfit, Forced To Fight"

The U.S. military is sending troops with serious psychological problems into Iraq and is keeping soldiers in combat even after superiors have been alerted to suicide warnings and other signs of mental illness, a Courant investigation has found.

...Once at war, some unstable troops are kept on the front lines while on potent antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs, with little or no counseling or medical monitoring.

And some troops who developed post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq are being sent back to the war zone, increasing the risk to their mental health. These practices, which have received little public scrutiny and in some cases violate the military's own policies, have helped to fuel an increase in the suicide rate among troops serving in Iraq... accounting for nearly one in five of all Army non-combat deaths.

Earlier in the month, Ray McGovern attended a talk in Atlanta by Donald Rumsfeld, and managed to get out some questions. Prior to that, protestors were removed—to the applause of the audience at the Southern Center for International Studies.

In this interview, McGovern says of the encounter, "I suppose the good news is that finally someone had a chance to ask Don Rumsfeld—if I were in Washington, I never would have got into a session where Rumsfeld spoke." McGovern also quotes a pre-event leaflet distributed by The World Can't Wait:

There's going to be a question-and-answer period, but please adhere to these guidelines. Refrain from using the word 'lie' in relation to the war in Iraq. Do not question the secretary’s personal responsibility for torture. And please don't discuss first use of nuclear weapons against Iran. If you violate these guidelines, you'll be immediately removed from the auditorium, flown to an undesignated prison location somewhere in Eastern Europe and tortured. Thank you for your cooperation.

From the LA Times on May 18 there's a piece by Laura K. Donohue—originally headlined "Battlefield: U.S."—currently posted by the Times as "Pentagon spies are watching you"—! It succinctly describes the ever-growing list of methods of surveillance of Americans—the methods that have come to light, that is.

But, to paraphrase the Reich-wing's, "you have nothing to worry about if you have nothing to hide" — you have nothing to trouble you if stay tuned only to American Idol.

April 2005 (I): Pope-a-palooza

In a "concerned" voice, Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant to Cruella: "You're a Catholic aren't you? What direction do you think the church will go now?"

Meaning: she's seriously worried they'll annoint a librul...

Smoke machine at film location, London
Photo: Andrew Dunn.

I listen to Cruella reassure Jesus' BAA that the pick will of course be a conservative, because "everyone wants to change things to suit their lifestyle, but you can't just have things different from how they've always been...

Clever Sister predicts: "they'll appoint one of those fascist Africans."

As on all topics, Cruella continues broadcasting her opinions: she doesn't want an Italian; doesn't think an African will be named; but there's a Venezuelan who's "very well-regarded"—which I take to mean "fascist"— that's her guy.

At some point a faculty member tries prodding Cruella about whether it might be time for some liberalization, and she declares, "As much as we might like that, we can't always have what we would like!"

I enjoy the bland insincerity of those "we"s, particularly about what "we" would "like"!

Ideological bent of this office aside—and that ideology is nothing, if not "bent"—the national media are ecstatic, what with the mix of wealth, power, fame, and pseudo-piety this circus offers.

As she follows the daily coverage, Clever Sister e-mails me tidbits like:

• Inquiring minds want to know:
  Pope was not embalmed, only 'prepared' for public viewing, Vatican says
  [I'd say he was pickled, or he'd rot before the funeral – cs]
• Bush ordered flags at ½ staff and will go to funeral. Did Carter do that when previous one died?
• Criticism in France over lowering of flags as government abuse of power
• People who watched the funeral live heard Bush being booed. There will be no mention of this in our free media.

After the funeral on April 8, Bush declares it "one of the highlights of my presidency." But Mr. Appropiate's excitement was also quite visible during the event—where he was snapped in the midst of supposedly grieving world leaders, smoochin' Laura [photo here, if you dare].

The election of a new pope may not be as exciting as "American Idol" voting, but it seems just as drawn out. The background on Vatican smoke signals is offered by these people, who will rent you a smoke machine suitable for staging your very own papal election!


Among events this month not subject to media frenzy: the death in Iraq of Marla Ruzicka. As much as the death of a young blonde might inspire media circusry, this particular blonde's work and death are not high on the list of what our spinmeisters want to publicize.

But then, as Jane Reitman reports in Rolling Stone, it happens that several days before Ruzicka's death "she had obtained a document that was her holy grail: a detailed report showing that the U.S. military keeps its own civilian-casualty records, something the Pentagon has repeatedly denied."

Despite her unembedded independence, the very visible and sociable young American woman was known and liked by US reporters in Baghdad and Kabul. So, this being the loss of someone in their milieu, there were pieces in Time, the Washington Post, and Newsweek.

As much as war stories need exposure, it's inevitable that the coverage of this particular death is full of the personalization that so predominates what we get as journalism. Now, if only more untold stories had an advocate who could throw a good, boozy party, maybe the press would feel motivated to cover those stories from time to time.

It may not be a blockbuster missing blonde story, but yes, there is some coverage— largely as the sad story of a dead young American. Journalist Jill Carroll—who will later be kidnapped in Iraq—recalls her friend's death:

If she were still here, she'd be most worried now about her driver's family, and who will take care of all the other Iraqi families she was working with. She would point out, this happens to Iraqis every day, and no one notices or even cares. There are no newspaper articles or investigations into what happens to them. For most of them, there was only Marla.

The quote comes from this column, by James Carroll (no relation to Jill). Written while Jill was still in captivity, James connects Marla's life and death with Jill's seriousness about being in Iraq to bring the war home to American readers:

...Jill Carroll published an account of the death of an American aid worker, a report much noted [after Jill's kidnapping] because of similarities to her own situation.

Marla Ruzicka was a Californian, attached to an NGO, attending to the needs of desperate Iraqis. She and her driver were killed when they were caught in a crossfire between a suicidal insurgent and US soldiers. Marla Ruzicka was Jill Carroll's friend, and her story is infused with grief. But the story also takes careful note of Ruzicka's driver...To Jill Carroll, the death of this Iraqi man weighed as much as the death of her American friend. If Jill Carroll were filing the report of her own kidnapping...we would know the name of her murdered driver, and his death, too, would have grave importance to us -- because it surely did to her.

March 2008: Tie A Yellow Ribbon...

Or make that: slap the ribbon on something that opens so that something else can be pumped in?

... When the "something else" might just be a reason for BushCo to invade a country?

[Image: Photoshop recreation of megastore parking lot sighting—
from a day I had no camera on me]

At Editor & Publisher, Greg Mitchell has been doing a "Five Years Ago" series about abysmal media coverage of the war. The whole series is not available, though some elements are online in other places—

— Questions We Wish They'd Asked Five Years Ago
— Five Years Ago 'Embeds' Got Ready for War Duty in Iraq: How Did That Work Out?
— And, on some journalists who got it right, there's this.

The series is based on Mitchell's book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed on Iraq. Amy Goodman's interview with Mitchell is here.

On the March 19 anniversary, Scott Horton posts: Six Questions for Aram Roston, Author of The Man Who Pushed America to War.

The discussion of Ahmad Chalabi paints the very striking picture of a master con-man out-conning the con-men who run BushCo. The con artist's maneuvers being enabled by his charming the uncritical members of our media into promoting his stories.

But, no surprise there: this bunch was charmed by Commander Guy.

Horton and Roston look at how Chalabi used his understanding of what kind of people inside The System could be worked. As during the Clinton administration, when he befriended right-wing congressional staffers who then helped push policies contrary to the administration's.

And, there's his outfoxing of the CIA—

"In the early 1990s, the CIA invented and paid for the Iraqi National Congress with U.S. taxpayer money, built up Chalabi as its leader and let him spend that money, and then in the mid 1990s, it cut him off. But then he used the credibility and the organization they gave him, and headed to Washington, D.C. to lobby for money overtly, bypassing the CIA completely. In fact, he was basically at war with them. And that animosity proved useful because they had bureaucratic enemies in D.C."

While a fancy foreigner like Chalabi can outmaneuver amateurs like the CIA, BushCo has things well in hand here in HomelandWorld.

On March 10, Scott Horton's reaction to the Elliot Spitzer sting: "It looks like the Bush Justice Department just bagged themselves another Democratic Governor."

On the 22nd, Horton offers evidence of "More Political Taint in the Spitzer Case".

Though I can't find the source, at the time I read a comment to the effect of:

Proof the Spitzer sting was engineered by political operatives in the DOJ—the news broke on a Monday morning instead of a Friday evening...

March 2005: Families, Valued (Or Not)

This appears in the women's room at work... Can the arrival of $1 store Spring décor be far behind?

I return with an inter-office envelope; slip the jar inside while hoping no one opens the door; bring the concealed object back to my desk; scan it when the others have left for the day.

More of the label:

Angelic™
Raspberry Cordial
Creme Pour Le Corps
Angelic™ presents a heavenly hand and body moisturizer, especially formulated…for the feel and touch of silky elegance... [followed by a list of not so heavenly chemical-laden ingredients]
Mostly Memories™ Ozark, MO
An Angel will whisper the right way in your ear

A product that promises to make you hear voices? Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant needs no additional help with that...

And this will keep doctors away? We have quite a few "doctors" here—is this wish not subversive?

The arrival of March each year since 2003 means yet another anniversary of the horror that is the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Marking 3/19 last year was Bush's "no WMD under here" performance.

Early this month, U.S. military open fire on the car of released hostage, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena.The circumstances are highly questionable, like everything about the occupation.

First published in Year One of the "war," Harper's posts Sam Smith's "The revision thing: A history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies"—compiled from quotes by Administration officials and assorted henchman.

And not to forget the earlier "war on terror" front, there is this 3/19 account of random disappearance, torture, and death of civilians in Afghanistan, 'One huge US jail'.

In Shock and Awe measures for the home front, Republicans—along with enough hopeless Dems—are about to pass the bankruptcy bill. It's another win in the class war of the rich against the rest of us, and another step toward what Paul Krugman calls "The Debt-Peonage Society".

Then, there's the Schaivo exploitation circus. Juan Cole looks at the Republicans' "disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them." It's the "Islamization of the Republican Party," says Cole, and it brings us "closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model."

As Bush interrupts his vacation to sign grandstanding legislation, a breathing tube is removed from the infant son of a non-white Texas mother —against her will. The treatment of that particular mother is the result of legislation signed in 1999 by life-lovin' Governor George W. Bush—a law that allows hospitals to remove life support from patients, against the wishes of their guardians.

And in a bizarre piece of timing: the moment Schaivo becomes the big media story, Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant is in the midst of family dicussions about an elderly aunt just placed on life support.

The medical verdict is that the situation is hopeless, and the uncle consents to ending support. Jesus' BAA complacently wears her "All Is For The Best And Is In Heaven's Plan" look.

Then, there's some business about a resident talking—Bible in hand?—to the uncle... Most of the family—including Jesus' BAA —are upset at the resident's interference, but the uncle decides to continue life support.

About ten days later, I see Jesus' BAA with her most Rapture™ ready expression: she says tells me she is on her way to buy a get-well card for her aunt, who has come out of the coma.

The unexpected development is wonderful, of course. What is not so wonderful is the smugness of Jesus' BAA's new position: All Is For The Best And This Was Heaven's Plan All Along. Also not wonderful is the inevitable next step: she now considers herself an expert on a situation like Schaivo's.

One encouraging thing about the larger issue: the Republicans' gambit backfires, as normal people find they resent the political intrusion into such a difficult private matter.

Interestingly, Cruella tries talking sense to Jesus' BAA about Schaivo. Which she does by laying on some fundie-speak very unlike her usual manner: "Just look at your Bible! It says the wife follows the husband!"

Funny in itself, but the real howler is the idea of Cruella's not being the boss in that marriage!

The pitch goes nowhere with Jesus' BAA.

But at a later date, she lets the holiness slip long enough to reveal a little of the ol' Sin Of Jealousy. While Cruella is away for a week in Vegas, Jesus' BAA bursts out to the student helper: "I don't know how she has a disabled husband and can afford to go, and my husband works and I can't afford a trip!"

Clever Sister reacts:

ha ha! why can't she use her tax cut to go on a trip?
or go into debt & help the economy!

Cruella's trip is a Family Values get-together with her mother and her daughter [the good daughter— not the other, overly independent one].

Not only do the three generations get to commune with each other, but they do it in a truly magical setting—where "liberal" is a good thing, seeing as it precedes "slots."

February 2007: I Hate Breathing

Band poster, found on a utility pole.

Which about sums up the years of this regime and all that it's pulled off, from the "Clear Skies" style attacks on the environment, to the toxic acts on all other fronts.

This month, there's some rare media coverage, as the Washington Post begins a series exposing conditions at Walter Reed.

Weekdays I'm surrounded by people who believe anything approaching journalism must be a lie invented by a fantastical "liberal media." Or, if they acknowledge any facts, they convince themselves that these things could have happened only because evil bureaucrats do bad things they know they must hide from the godly Leader's disapproval.

From mid-month, Cruella is on a Carribean cruise for 2½ weeks. She takes off nearly as much time as Bush, but I'm free of her presence pretty often, even if I'm trapped in a room with Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant.

While Cruella is gone, Jesus' BAA emails (cc: Ghengis) to inform me that she will be conducting a candidate for a muckety-muck administrative job from office to office, for the various faculty muckety-mucks to check him out.

"I will be out of the office from 2:30 – 3:00 pm on Wednesday. On Thursday, I will be out for a few minutes at 8:30, 9:00, 2:30, and 3:00. Please arrange your breaks around those times."

It's to highlight what a bad employee I am, taking breaks as I do.

I send the schedule to Clever Sister, who says, "But which minutes will she be gone? Shouldn't you know precisely which ones?"

During one of the Jesus' BAA-less minutes, Dr. G. Zuss exits his office and remarks that His assistant sure likes the heat on high. I check the thermostat between her desk and his office: it's on 80. I turn it down, and leave Jesus' BAA a helpful note, just so she will be sure to know she has done something displeasing.

This is strictly for her own good—just as she looks for reasons to inform on me to Cruella, for my own good. Could this deflect some of Cruella's tirades from Jesus' BAA to me? That would be suspicious of me to think so, as Jesus' BAA has no selfish motives, but does only godly things in everyone's best interst. So the least I can do is return the favor.

I note the goings on to Clever Sister, who replies, "wtwjp - what temperature would jebus prefer?"

On the 21st, Tony Blair announces troop withdrawals from Iraq. Reading the news at her computer, Jesus' BAA looks crushed.

Clever Sister later says she heard ABC mumble the news to make it sound as if Blair were sending more troops.

On the 27th, Cheney is in Afghanistan, where he is the apparent target of a bomb that doesn't touch him, but kills a number of other people. Presumably, to the great relief of Jesus' BAA, after the terrible scare she got a year ago.

Driftglass notes:

"'Behold a Pale Horse: and his name that sat on him was Death,
and Hell followed with him'

...I am also very confused by the story itself, since we know that the Taliban has been utterly defeated in Afghanistan.

How?

Well, because our government said so:

For your RDA of irony, we'll shall cite this from the People’s Daily January, 2002:

The United States on Tuesday formally announced that the Taliban has been completely defeated and can no longer control any territory in Afghanistan."

January 2007: Hello, And A Goodbye

The 110th Congress is sworn in, Democrats becoming the majority party. Which would be helpful, if the Party only had a majority of Democrats.

Bush issues "Warm Congratulations Note Welcoming New Democratic Congressional Leadership..."

The regime rolls out marketing of "The Surge." It's been promoted in the right wing media by American Enterprise Instute operative Frederick Kagan. To connect with the masses, the term appears to already have been vetted in consumer culture. It's been a Coca Cola product. And one recent morning, a student gets on my bus wearing a brand-name backpack, with the prominently placed model name, "Surge."

At the office, Ghengis subscribes to a number of magazines that I have to place in the waiting area. The "Surge" cover story in the January 15 Time includes a photo of Bush, Cheney, Rice, and others, captioned, "NO HOLIDAY: Bush huddled in Texas with top aides after Christmas to plot Iraq policy." Oh, the pain of gazing on their sacrifice...

On the reverse of that page is a column by William Kristol: things are great in Iraq now, but will be perfection if we only we take a lesson from "the just verdict for Saddam" and "commit to victory." The layout is two text columns split by a large vertical graphic: a noose, positioned as if hanging from beyond the top of the page.

Besides regularly documenting their influence, Glenn Greenwald writes about the nepotism that has gained Kagan and Kristol their visibility: "Our country's tough guys and their moms and dads."

In other Ghengis reading matter, he commands that a book be ordered: The Nature of Leadership: Reptiles, Mammals, And the Challenge of Becoming a Great Leader. I'm very surprised he feels in need of this, as I expect he could teach reptiles a trick or two...

Alberto Gonzales appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 18. He "comes prepared with a menu of empty, platitudinous buzzphrases that he repeats over and over no matter the question," complains the earnest Mr. Greenwald, but that's SOP for a Bush flunky. Further, why would it be a surprise for a Bush Attorney General to claim the Constitution does not ensure the right of habeus?

The Libby trial opens on January 22. As Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant has sniffed to Informed Non-Citizen IT Guy: "There was no crime!" I know her kind has the marching orders, so only takes in the upsidedown-world stories of Faux TV.

But it's always breathtaking to see who the J's BAAs of the country accept as being on their "family values" team. Especially with Scooter being among the illustrious ranks of right wingers whose Family Values include being published authors of porno novels, with Scooter's little example including child sex slavery and bestiality. And on literary merit, some of Amazon's reviewers make good points, as in, "If there were a prison for bad writing, Libby would be doing a life term."

One morning at work, a burst pipe has cut off heat to the executive suite and a suite across the hall. I find the place over-heated normally, so I'm not too uncomfortable. But beyond my glass fish-bowl space I can the opposite room, and a shivering secretary. Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant scurries around looking for a space heater—for the Chairman. There are people around here who run heaters in summer, so I wouldn't expect anyone to let go of those babies easily. It takes J's BAA a while, but some suck-up finally makes the sacrifice. The Chairman's comfort is attended to, and Jesus' Best looks ready to be Raptured away at any moment, in reward for such devotion.

Speaking of our earthly master, he has reacted to the news of a major corporation's capital flight that will have a devastating effect locally: "it will be horrible for real estate values."

Priorities, priorities.

Another day this month, I'm in the hallway, walking toward a bulletin board where seminar announcements are posted. From a distance, I see a poster with this mug:

It's bad enough that Jesus' BAA and assorted department fundies are always putting church fund-raising crap in the lunch room; now I'm fuming at the brazenness of posting this in a public space.

Until I get a little closer, and realize: this is a scientist (and Certified Genius)What can I say, but that my brain is being nibbled away by the years spent in this environment...


At the end of the month, Molly Ivins loses her fight with cancer. The loss of her voice is incalculable, especially when we still have to endure another year of a fake Texan in the White House. But Molly's work and memory live on.