Former Atlantic City Mayor Robert Levy has plead guilty to bilking the Veteran’s Affairs department of nearly $25K.  More from a story posted on CNN.com:

The 60-year-old Democrat claimed he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Parachutists Badge and successfully completed the Airborne School with more than 100 jumps.

He claimed that he had twice been abandoned in the jungle by his troops for several weeks, which he cited as the basis for suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

It turns out that Levy claimed he was in the Green Berets in Vietnam when he was actually enlisted only.  I guess he was dreaming big after watching First Blood and Rambo First Blood Part II, hell I pretended to be a Ninja after all of the ’80’s Ninja movies, but then again, I wasn’t elected mayor of AC.

What is really surprising (so far) is that this is the only corruption reported on this clown.

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Retired judge and US Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey has refused to answer the question of whether the interrogation technique known as waterboarding violates US law.  For those of you who don’t know, waterboarding is the interrogation technique where the suspect is strapped to a board and either immersed in water or water is poured on them to simulate drowning.  Congress declared waterboarding illegal in 2006.  So what I want to know is how the fuck can Mukasey NOT say this is against US law?  Oh yeah, because our jit-bag government uses it and other “alternative” interrogation techniques as reported in this CNN.com article:

Bush has acknowledged authorizing the use of “alternative” interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists.

Though his administration insists that it does not torture prisoners, it refuses to reveal which interrogation techniques may be used.

I have an idea, let’s line up Bushy-poo, Cheney, Rice, Mr. Mukasey and all of the other neo-con war-birds who are for these methods and have them undergo “alternative” questioning.  After they are interrogated, we’ll poll them to see if they felt they were tortured.  I would have a hell of lot more respect for them if they just said “hell yes we torture them” than tap dancing around and lying.

 I will leave you with a good quote about torture from Reservoir Dogs, Nice Guy Eddie:

Would you stop it with that shit.  You beat on this prick enough, he’ll tell ya he started the Chicago fire.  That don’t necessarily make it so.

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In a CNN.com article entitled “Iran becoming new Iraq on campaign trail”Obama was quoted as saying:

The senator from Illinois added that unfortunately, the Kyl-Lieberman amendment made the case for President Bush that we need to use our military presence in Iraq to counter Iran — a case that has nothing to do with sanctioning the Revolutionary Guard.”

The Kyl-Lieberman amendment passed 76-22 in the Senate last month. It calls, in part, for the Revolutionary Guard to be designated a terrorist organization. While Obama opposes the legislation, he was campaigning when the full Senate took up the bill and missed the vote.

So let me get this straight Obama, this amendment which you oppose, brings us closer to action against Iran (essentially labeling it as a terrorist state) and makes a case for long-term military presence in Iraq to counter the Iranian “threat”.  This seems like an important amendment, and yet you were too fucking busy campaigning to vote against it even though you oppose it.  Obama is the same asshole who goes after the voting records of his opponents on the campaign trail while he has the luxury of not having a voting record.  Obama = tool.

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As I discussed a couple of days ago in my post “Iran as a threat… et tu Blair”the current administration and the military industrial complex (MIC) is ramping up its pre-war rhetoric which has an end-game of aggressive action against Iran.  Cheney has been the latest to deliver the solemn news and a firm warning to Iran as reported by CNN.com:

“Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions,” Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies.

He said Iran’s efforts to pursue technology that would allow them to build a nuclear weapon are obvious and that “the regime continues to practice delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time.”

If Iran continues on its current course, Cheney said the U.S. and other nations are “prepared to impose serious consequences.” The vice president made no specific reference to military action.

“We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Cheney’s words seemed to only escalate the U.S. rhetoric against Iran over the past several days, including President Bush’s warning that a nuclear Iran could lead to World War III.

Please take a moment to let those strong words from Cheney and Bush sink in.  Is this the legacy that Bush is looking for in his lame duck years to capstone his Presidency?  World War III?  I can’t imagine why else they (the Bush administration) are pushing this agenda.  The Bush administration must really have no respect for the collective intelligence of the American people if they feel they can continue to deceive and manipulate information toward a goal of further war.  They must be completely convinced the American people are idiots and won’t recognize the pattern.  This is pathetic and it makes me sick to my stomach.

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A Connecticut substitute teacher was fired for airing The Simpson’s Movie to his classes.  The catch is, his classes were 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  I’m all for free speech, but this was a dumb-ass move.  I’m opposed to the movie ratings system philosophically, but practically as a parent, I can see me using it as a quick gauge for whether the material is appropriate for my kids.  The Simpson’s Movie is rated PG-13 and I can’t see one thing educational, apart from an animation or film course (which wouldn’t be in the curriculum of elementary schools), that would necessitate airing this to 3rd graders.  A local news station in Boston had the story:

School officials said they had warned 30-year-old Aquil Abdul-Salaam that the PG-13 rated film isn’t appropriate for children.

Officials said Abdul-Salaam admitted showing the movie to students at Beecher School between mid-September and Oct. 4. Beecher School is for children in grades kindergarten through seventh grade.

Sadcox has been commenting on the sad state of our public education for some time, and unfortunately this is just another sad example of how low our education standards are in this country.  Thank you Mr. Connecticut fucktard for perpetuating our poor education standards.

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We’ve seen this before with Iraq, it is a pattern (an algorithm if you will), it starts with “intelligence” about how somebody somewhere else is to blame for something (or our problems) and it ends with the US attacking that somebody.  In the Iraq example, it started with the “intelligence” regarding WMD’s, it turned into Iraq is a terrorist sympathizer, and finally into Iraq is a terrorist state and is somehow responsible for 9/11.  If that past (and very much present) mistake wasn’t enough, now we’re worrying about Iran?  You’ve got to be shitting me.  The military industrial complex and its “think tanks” are ramping up for another aggressive mistakewar.  And as a part of this pre-war propaganda and media hype, Blair has decided to reaffirm he is a solid “Bush-man” and make his opinion on the subject known.  Below are a few blurbs from a BBC news story:

But on a more serious note he spoke of what he called an extremist Islamic ideology.

“This ideology now has a state - Iran - that is prepared to back and finance terror in the pursuit of destabilising countries whose people wish to live in peace.”

“There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone.

“I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone.”

They have no intention of leaving us alone?  Hold the phone pal, what exactly have they done to the US, or the UK for that matter?  Since 1979, they’ve pretty much kept out of Western  affairs.  AND, if they are involved in Iraq now, it is exactly because we have provoked them.  I’m not defending Iran, I think we should just get the hell out of the region and let them sort it out for themselves.  Look at Vietnam, we are trading with them again, hell they are the new India in terms of high-tech off-shoring.  Blair, please do us a favor and shut the fuck up, when do you start working for Halliburton anyway?

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The mainstream media (ABCnews in this case) is starting to report the same sentiments from my original post about Ann Coulter.  In this particular article on ABCnews entitled Ann Coulter: Marketing Genius?, they had the following things to say:

“I think [her comments] are highly calculated,” said Liam O’Brien, an expert in media criticism and pop culture at Quinnipiac University. “I’m not sure she knows what trigger on which verbal gun she is going to pull at any given moment, but I think at any particular time, she has three or four of these things that are controversial and inflammatory enough to get national press notice above and beyond whatever the topic is of her book or the talk show.”

Coincidence or not, a few of Coulter’s book releases have, in fact, coincided with a remark that has ignited a media frenzy.

Big surprise, unfortunately, her base of extreme right wing morons and village idiots will still buy her books.  Let’s hope the Coulter haters wake up and stop giving her the attention and stop buying her books.  People need to start expressing their opinions with their wallets.

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First it was smoking bans, seat-belt laws and a myriad of seemingly benign legislation bent on controlling society at the cost of your personal freedom.  Now it is baggy pants.  Yep, baggy pants.  Are you serious?  As if there isn’t enough going on in our world, let alone our communities, that baggy pants are an issue.  All across the country these types of legislation are either in place now or in the proposal phase.  The elected officials are attempting to make a positive correlation between baggy pants and crime.  Here a couple of blurbs from a recent ABCnews.com article on the subject:

“If we have kids going around wearing pants below their butts, it’s not nice, not decent,” says Timothy Holmes, a city commissioner in Opa-locka, Fla.

In Atlanta, City Councilman C.T. Martin says he’s trying to raise standards and instill values in today’s youth.

“Bill Cosby started this conversation, and we let him down,” Martin says, referring to the comedian’s controversial criticism of the parenting skills, grammar and values of poor blacks.

Laws like this are extremely dangerous, I agree with Cosby, it goes back to parenting, you can’t legislate your way out of this.  Just because you wear a mini-skirt, it doesn’t make you a whore, the same goes with baggy pants (the crime part that is, not your inclination to be a whore).

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Ann Coulter made the news again Friday with her comments that “we want Jews to be perfected”.  Ann has increasingly said and has been quoted with absurd cartoon-like radical right wing sentiments.  Her latest can be seen in a CNN.com article quoted:

Asked by CNBC host Donny Deutsch what the U.S. looks like in her dreams, Coulter said it would look like the Republican National Convention in 2004

“People were happy,” she said, according to a transcript provided to CNN by CNBC. “They’re Christian. They’re tolerant. They defend America.” When Deutsch responded, “It would be better if we were all Christian?” Coulter said “Yeah.”

Deutsch, himself Jewish, continued to press Coulter on her remarks, asking, “We should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians then?”

“Yeah,” Coulter responded, adding “Well, it’s a lot easier. It’s kind of a fast track.”

“You can’t possibly believe that,” Deutsch responded. “You can’t possibly. You’re too educated.”

“Do you know what Christianity is?” Coulter replied. “See, we believe your religion, but you have to obey. We have the fast track program.”

In my opinion, Coulter is now officially playing a character, she is a satire of her former self.  Coulter knows her place and it is a niche that plays to the extreme right wing, and she knows this caricature that she is playing will make the press and sell books.  And, like Howard Stern, make enough controversy and the people that hate you will buy your books too.  I liken it to Jessica Simpson on her former reality show, she played up the ditsy blond thing for the cameras because it worked and made it popular.

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Relationships with Turkey have been strained due to a House resolution to label the World War I massacre of Armenians by Turkey “genocide”.  According to a CNN.com article regarding this matter, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the US, and Turkey has not allowed France to fly over it’s airspace since a similar resolution was passed there last year.   Turkey’s response to the resolution was:

A top Turkish official warned Thursday that consequences “won’t be pleasant” if the full House approves the resolution.

Why are we so stupid?  The US was not involved in the Armenian-Turkey conflict during WWI and Turkey is currently a NATO ally and critical access point for the US in the middle east.  There is little good to be gleaned from this resolution, why doesn’t the House of Reps just fly over to Turkey and take a big stinking shit on the Prime Minister’s lawn, it would probably be less offensive.  The issue here isn’t whether there was actual genocide or not, but rather why are we getting involved now after 90 years… we need a better foreign policy in this country.

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