From Holden: Little Scottie could not resist a gentle jab at my buddy Les Kinsolving today. Q Two brief questions on Capitol Hill, if I might. MR. McCLELLAN: Brief I like. (Laughter.) Q Okay. (Laughter.) MR. McCLELLAN: Les, are you listening? Q I’m listening very carefully. Intently. (Laughter.) But it takes more than a gentle jab to stop Les from being the homophobic ass that he is. Q Reuters, on page 1, The Washington Times, report from Atlanta that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just reported a new rise in HIV/AIDS and syphilis among homosexual men, who account … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with Les

From Holden: Former U.S. presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry (news – web sites) (D-MA), lays flowers on the casket of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel during his military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC, December 2, 2004. Gavriel, from Haverhill, Massachusetts, died November 19 while fighting in Al Anbar Province in Iraq (news – web sites) and his funeral is the 99th ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. REUTERS/Jason Reed Link. Penelope Gavriel (Seated 4thR) receives the U.S. flag that draped the casket of her son, Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel, from Marine Staff Sgt. Charles … Continue reading Moral Values in Action

From Holden: So much for those post-Thanksgiving sales: The nation’s retailers had a disappointing start to the holiday season, reporting sluggish sales for November after a much hoped-for surge in Thanksgiving weekend business failed to materialize. As merchants released their first solid results for the season on Thursday, the downbeat reports came from across the sector, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Limited Brands, Federated Department Stores Inc., Gap Inc., and Bombay Co. Upscale retailer Nordstrom Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc., which have consistently surpassed Wall Street’s projections over the past year, had strong gains but still were below estimates [snip] … Continue reading Damn! More Bad Economic News And I Have No Clever Bush Boom Headline Prepared

From Holden: Big Time Dick’s big time feet are still growing: “On Nov. 21, Vice President Dick Cheney (along with approximately six Secret Service agents) visited the Johnston & Murphy retail store at Tyson’s Corner Shopping Center in McLean. Cheney has been a longtime Johnston & Murphy customer, but recently found it necessary to make a personal visit to the store because his shoe size changed to a size 10EEE. Continue reading Somebody Should Lay Off the Crullers

From Holden: Novak at the Universtiy of Wisconsin: Many audience members lined up after Novak’s remarks to ask questions. It was late in the questioning when someone asked about his decision to publish the name of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush White House critic and former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Novak is at the center of a Justice Department probe into who leaked Plame’s identity and said he would be “murdered” by his lawyer if he talked about the case in public. “To the regret of many people,” he said, “I am not a criminal … Continue reading The Douchebag for Liberty Respects His Audience

From Holden: One of the first acts Georgie took upon entering office in 2001 was to pull the U.S. out of the International Criminal Court. Since them he has been pressuring countries participating in the ICC to give American war criminals a get-out-of-jail-free card. Two years ago, Congress passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, which ended military aid to countries that refused to grant amnesty to U.S. nationals suspected of committing war crimes abroad. Now comes a provision in the 2005 omnibus federal spending bill — obviously part of the administration’s foreign policy agenda — that would bar economic assistance … Continue reading Allies Balk at Exempting U.S. from International Criminal Court

From Holden: My fabled Bush Boom remains illusive as new jobless claims rise again. In the week ending Nov. 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 349,000, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 324,000. The 4-week moving average was 336,500, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 332,250. The Times continues its whorish ways by noting that analysts expected new jobless claims to increase by 7,000 rather than 25,000 in an article entitled “Jobless Claims Rise 25,000 but Still Show Recovery”. Continue reading If A Bush Boom Booms In A Forrest and Only the Unemployed Can Hear It…

From Holden: The Chimpster: “Opps. Looks like Barney left his calling card on the lawn. Pick that up, would ya’ Condi? Goes with your new duties, ya’ know.” Continue reading A Rare Morning Caption Contest

From Holden: I seem to be stuck on the topic of Iraq this week. And why not, with the U.S. military doing everything it can to serve up a Dien Bein Phu-style defeat while our media averts its gaze? Here is an interesting interview of unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail. A couple of snippets: On his impressions of U.S. soldiers in Iraq: I’ve had a fair amount, but not so much this trip. I make it a point to avoid them now since they are such constant targets. They are being attacked at least 100 times a day as of late. … Continue reading Stuck on Iraq

From Holden: Rosy Scenario, that is. James Wolcott leads us to yet another hair-raising account of travel in Iraq, this time from Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter who advises us to: Forget the rosy picture the Pentagon is painting for the public-the situation there is in meltdown right now. And it’s only getting worse. Continue reading Rosy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

From Holden: Thank Dog we still have a fairly independent judiciary: A federal judge yesterday questioned the Bush administration’s broad definition of its powers to indefinitely imprison alleged Taliban and al Qaeda fighters at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, especially those who have never taken up arms against the United States. U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green’s questions came as the Defense Department argued during a hearing that it has properly imprisoned 550 people as “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay, based on at least some evidence that they were Taliban or al Qaeda members or assisted or supported … Continue reading Rolling Back the War on Terra

“These decades, generations and centuries of comic perversion of law and God, these self-serving acts of coercion, these instant laws that flip-flop or are enacted on a moment’s notice according to your need of the day, these farcical unions imposed on unwilling people have always been carried out with total contempt for the savage … I stand here in a world filled with rising and angry voices which will no longer tolerate their lives being manipulated by the perverse whims of greedy men.” –Leon Uris, “Trinity”</i Go read Steve’s posts of late on colonial warfare. A. Continue reading In Which Athenae’s Fenian Upbringing Rears Its Head

Solve the following equation: Take a car in front of you. Determine approximately the year it rolled off the assembly line. Now to that number add the number of Jesus fish, Jesus fish eating Darwin amphibifish, Jesus fish in Latin, Jesus fish in Aramaic, stickers representing crosses and magnets shaped like ribbons. Divide that by the number of “I love America,” “GOD Bless America,” “God Bless America And Fuck All Y’All That Ain’t Givin’ Props to Jesus,” “God Bless America And Smite the Homos,” “Land of the Free,” “These Colors Don’t Run,” “United We Stand (Unless You’re Brown)” and other … Continue reading An Uncharitable Post That Demonstrates Why Liberals Always Lose

From Holden: A few tid-bits from a reporter’s account of his experiences traveling on the highway that connects Baghdad with the Baghdad International Airport: The situation on the airport road has become a metaphor for the entire Iraq mission. More than 18 months after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the world’s most powerful military cannot guarantee the safety of Iraqis, foreigners and its own troops who use one of the country’s most important routes. A near miss… On Nov. 8, the Iraqi Interior Ministry reported that two SUVs were caught in an explosion as a convoy traveled through the Amiriyah … Continue reading Put the Pedal to the Metal on RPG Alley

Burning them might be more efficient. Unless, of course, they’re saving the firewood to burn the actual gays: A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for “the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle.” Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the “homosexual agenda.” “Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle,” Allen said in a press conference Tuesday. Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is … Continue reading Department of NOW Can We Make The Nazi Comparison?

From Holden: Impeach all Republicans, I say. From illegal wars to voter suppression, we have so many causes for action. A Senate impeachment trial opened Wednesday against [Republican] Nevada Controller Kathy Augustine, with a prosecutor describing how state employees turned her office into “campaign central” during her 2002 re-election bid. In opening arguments, Dan Greco said staffers on state time wrote campaign speeches, solicited donations and even asked donors to Augustine’s opponent why they were not helping her campaign. “They did what they were told because they were afraid. They were afraid of losing their jobs. They were afraid of … Continue reading Maybe This Will Catch On Elsewhere

From Holden: I stole this image from this place after seeing a comment posted by Mad as Hell over here. He looks good in orange, doncha think? Continue reading Holden’s Wet Dream

From Holden: Continue reading Ahem… Let’s Just Say Pakistan is Not a Red State

From Holden: Wow. Someone actually had the nerve to mention the ever-increasing U.S. casualty count today. But, while both the road to Jordan and the road to the Baghdad International Airport in the hands of the insurgents, Little Scottie is still in la-la land. Q Can I ask you, the number of U.S. casualties spiked last month to, I think, 134. Should Americans brace for this level of violence through the Iraqi elections? Or is this because of the Fallujah offensive? MR. McCLELLAN: There were tremendous sacrifices for the efforts to bring stability to the Fallujah area, both Iraqi forces, … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: Chimpy: “I’ll crush your head!” Continue reading Yer Afternoon Caption Contest

From Holden: Before the right side of the blgosphere get’s too excited about re-organizing the UN, they should check this out: A blue ribbon international panel, appointed in the backdrop of sharp differences between member states on the legality of US-led attack on Iraq, has recommended “preventive” and “pre-emptive” wars must have approval of the Security Council, something, which had eluded the American coalition. It looks like the international community wants to draw a bold line under the portions of international law and the UN Charter that the U.S. violated by invading Iraq. Continue reading Calm Down, Freepers

From Holden: The consumer comfort index falls like a lead pigeon. U.S. overall consumer confidence made a sharp downturn last week, erasing most of the gains made over the past month, according to the latest ABC News/Money Magazine poll. The consumer comfort index fell to negative 9 in the week ended Nov. 28 from negative 4 a week earlier, according to the poll, released Tuesday. ABC News attributed the drop to lackluster post-Thanksgiving holiday sales and high gasoline prices. According to the latest survey, 40 percent of respondents expressed confidence in the economy, down from 43 percent the week before. … Continue reading No Comfort for My Bush Boom

From Holden: The Times sums up Tom Ridge’s tenure as Secretary of Fatherland Security in one neat paragraph: Mr. Ridge announced six national “orange alerts” (be very afraid but not so afraid that, as Mr. Ridge once reminded Americans, you fail to appreciate President Bush’s leadership). They didn’t make the nation more secure, but somehow came at politically opportune times. During the campaign, Mr. Ridge seemed deeply concerned for the safety of residents of swing states like Florida and Ohio, sending deputies there on numerous occasions. Continue reading Politically Alert

From Holden: The Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a complaint with the German federal prosecutor alledging that war crimes were committed in Iraq by ten senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Former CIA Director George Tenet, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Dr. Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Major General Walter Wojdakowski, Major General Geoffrey Miller, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry L. Phillabaum, Colonel Thomas Pappas, and Lieutenant Colonel Stephen L. Jordan. Here are a couple of audio files courtesy of Talk Radio News Service. Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional … Continue reading Rumsfeld’s Nuremberg?

From Holden: U.S. military leadership in Iraq knew as early as December 2003 that abuse of detainees was widespread, counterproductive, and illegal. A confidential report to Army generals in Iraq in December 2003 warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees, a finding delivered more than a month before Army investigators received the photographs from Abu Ghraib prison that touched off investigations into prisoner mistreatment. The report, which was not released publicly and was recently obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that some U.S. arrest and detention practices at the time could “technically” be … Continue reading No More Bad Apples

From Holden: It’s very depressing to read something like this in the Times: As military officials here prepare to start letting the first residents return to Falluja, possibly as soon as mid-December, they face an unusual challenge: how to win back the confidence of the people whose city they have just destroyed. Generally, I’d say that it’s nearly impossible to regain trust that you never had in the first place, particularly from people that you just bombed with white phosphorus and napalm en route to destroying their entire city. Establishing trust may be possible in a generation or two, but … Continue reading The U.S. Military: Not a Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community