And that, Mr. President, is this:

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Classy, I know, but what can I say – it’s from the heart.

Ok, so it’s morbidly hilarious too.

May I present to you… the case against invading Iraq and bringing down Saddam Hussein – by Dick Cheney in 1994.

And may I just say that it’s hilarious that he uses the word “quagmire”.

I just love hypocrisy:

Click here to view the embedded video.

My husband’s question from last night really does make me wonder… why wasn’t this played repeatedly before the ill-fated invasion??

Apparently, we don’t even have the secret FISA courts to protect us now.

And let us not forget that the FISA court itself was considered a draconian breach of civil liberties. Even if they did decide that some of Bush’s wiretapping program was illegal.

So the Bush administration’s tack continues – when they get caught explicitly violating the law, they change it.

How, with this supposed Democratic majority, did a law which allows Fredo and company oversight on eavesdropping get passed??? Sure, it’s only supposed to apply to foreign calls “routed through the U.S.” (um… gee, define “routed”… and what do you want to bet that big telecom starts “routing” a whole lot more through the U.S.?), but with no one to check up on them, do you really think these guys are going to play by the rules?

Hell, I’m married to a foreign national. Does that mean that any call he makes is a “foreign call routed through the U.S.”?

Yes, I know, there’s always the “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about” argument, but folks, these are people who keep changing the definition of what is wrong.

We’re at high speed, ³/₄ of the way down the slippery slope, friends, and the speed bumps we elected to slow us down decided to grease themselves instead this weekend. Probably because Mr. Bush told them they wouldn’t be going on vacation if they didn’t give him the bill.

The rest of America is used to being forced to sacrifice vacations for their bosses, unfortunately – so why the Hell did these guys decide they didn’t owe us the same thing?

Check here for the roll call vote on the bill in the House. Then call your representative and tear him or her a new one, if he or she deserves it.

Don’t worry… they won’t be listening in because you’re not a foreign national, right?

Wonder what damage you can do in 150 minutes or so?

I just hope more people from within like Mr. Koppel start speaking out, and soon.

(Snagged from Mother Jones…)

So the right-wingers are all busy invoking Clinton’s last-minute pardon of Marc Rich as a way of obscuring the truth about Scooter Libby’s “pardon”. I’ve already mentioned that and am not going to get into it again, so that’s not the exciting fact I wanted to present to you this evening.

I just wanted to mention this, because I found it so funny this evening.

Guess who Marc Rich’s lawyer was?

No really, guess…

His lawyer was Mr. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Seriously.

I just thought that was really, really funny.

*turns on megaphone*

People of the American Empire: Bush’s pardon commutation of Scooter Libby’s sentence has nothing to do with Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton isn’t even the issue here. Bill Clinton has nothing to do with the current situation! Bill Clinton does not sit in the White House (much as he’d probably like to). Bill Clinton does not have the power of the pardon right now. And Bill Clinton’s administration did not out covert CIA agents.

Love Bill Clinton or hate him, I don’t care. He’s not the president. He did a lot of stupid things, but he didn’t do this one.

Whatever Bill Clinton did, and I absolutely agree that his last-minute pardons soured his credibility considerably, that does not change this fact:

George W. Bush, who promised that whoever leaked Ms. Plame’s identity would go to jail, has not only failed to cooperate in prosecuting those who leaked the information, but has made sure that a man who lied to block the investigation of the leak is not punished. George Bush is effectively pardoning a guy who kept the Special Prosecutor from being able to investigate a breach of national security. Don’t tell me there wasn’t a quid pro quo. Don’t tell me there was “no crime”, and thus Libby shouldn’t be prosecuted for obstructing the investigation – if the White House ensures that no one can investigate the crime, it does not mean that no crime occurred just because the White House is assisting in the obstruction of justice. Even if no crime occurred (and you’re a fool if you believe one didn’t, but let’s hold that aside), obstructing an investigation and lying to a grand jury is still a crime!!!

What part of that do you right-wing wingnuts not get?

And if Bill Clinton had done the same in a matter of national security, I’m sure you fine folks would have made sure he was held accountable. As well he should have been, were that the case.

It doesn’t matter how many crooks and clowns he pardoned, because none of that changes what George W. Bush has done.

Do yourselves a favor, guys… try thinking beyond your stupid talking points. Use your brains. Stop smoking crack. It’ll do you good.

And just because Clinton chose to comment doesn’t give you guys a right to continue to misdirect the argument, either. Clinton isn’t even a player here.

Heckuva job, Bushie.

Let’s not even pretend not to be hypocritical and corrupt.

But this, my friends, is really stupid.

This post at Language Log discusses a NYT has an article which presents Iran’s reaction to the “evidence” of Iranian involvement in bringing weapons to Iraq.

You see, some of the material allegedly of Iranian origin apparently has dates in MM/DD/YYYY order on it. And the Iranians (quite rightly, it should be supposed) think that’s a little weird.

Now, for those of you who’ve never paid any attention to anything outside of the U.S., you should note that the U.S. is one of the few places in the world where such a format is used. Iran, however, is, in fact, not one of those places. You know, because the rest of the world isn’t like us just because we think we’re the best place ever.

Most of the rest of the world – this includes Iran – uses DD/MM/YYYY format. And some larger Asian countries use YYYY/MM/DD format. But most places, outside of the U.S., do not use the MM/DD/YYYY format. This is probably one of the first things you learn if you, you know, leave the country.

So basically, um… unless the Iranians are just being really clever in labelling their munitions or documents or whatever this was about, we are, yet again, being assholes. Well, I take that back. We the people are not. Our not-so-democratically-elected government, on the other hand, wins the Golden Rectum Award for this one. C’mon guys… if you’re going to manufacture evidence, at least get the freaking dates right.

And if the rest of our government outside of the administration doesn’t jump all over this to stop involvement in Iran we simply cannot afford, cannot do, cannot live with, we are one seriously damned broken country.

I’m seriously ashamed by this.