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April 27, 2006
Iraq War Costs Exceed $320B
Remember the War in Iraq that would "pay for itself"? Today, the Washington Post reports that the cost will exceed $320,000,000,000.
Once the war spending bill is passed, military and diplomatic costs will have reached $101.8 billion this fiscal year, up from $87.3 billion in 2005, $77.3 billion in 2004 and $51 billion in 2003, the year of the invasion, congressional analysts said. Even if a gradual troop withdrawal begins this year, war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to rise by an additional $371 billion during the phaseout, the report said, citing a Congressional Budget Office study. When factoring in costs of the war in Afghanistan, the $811 billion total for both wars would have far exceeded the inflation-adjusted $549 billion cost of the Vietnam War."The costs are exceeding even the worst-case scenarios," said Rep. John M. Spratt Jr. (S.C.), the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Posted by Steven at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
On the Cover of the Rolling Stone
In 1972, the band Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show released a song about every rocker's dream to appear on the cover of the 5-year-old Rolling Stone Magazine. Their catchy anthem was a hit. This earned it a place the "classic rock" canon. It also earned the group an appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine; the headline read, "What's Their Names Make the Cover."
This month's cover subject is unlikely to consider it a thrill, or — as the song suggests — "buy five copies for my mother."
In this issue, historian Sean Wilenz lays out that case that George W. Bush is the worst president in history.
One of my favorite parts:
In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton — a category in which Bush is the only contestant.
Great work, Sean.
Update:
This articles mention of Free Republic a couple of days ago elicited the Freeper Quote of the Day:
I have no love for Bush but he atleast beats Clinton, Carter, Johnson, Kennedy, and plenty of others that I don't know too much about because they are old.
Posted by Winston Smith at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2006
Shamelessly Playing the Shame Card
The mouthbreathers at the Jawa Report are whining that Cynthia McKinney hasn't already been whupped in the public square for murdering assaulting a police officer. According to the incident report, McKinney stabbed Officer McKenna — with a cell phone. Cell phone wounds can be very serious; during the 90's, I was attacked with a pager — not a regular one, a SkyTel™ two-way! — and I still wake up screaming at night.
There's no doubt that McKinney is in some hot water, but it's just not getting hot enough fast enough for "Bluto":
A little person would already have their trial date set, but when you're Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), accused of assaulting a Capitol Police officer, and willing to shamelessly play the race card, things go a bit slower.
Yeah, well power has its privileges these days. If a "little person" shot someone in the face, they wouldn't have the option of telling the police to come back 14 hours later to investigate, but that's not how it worked for Dick Cheney. The rabid right has become such unwavering cheerleaders for the Imperial Federal Government — I didn't know the Jawas sided the the Empire, but there ya go — that you'd think they'd be defending McKinney's right to have the NSA tap officer McKenna's phone, if not have the poor guy shipped to "Gitmo" for a little lesson in how justice works these days.
But McKinney isn't Cheney. She's not as Republican, not as male and not as white.
Damn! I just shamelessly played the race card. I just don't know why I hate our freedom sometimes.
Posted by Winston Smith at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2006
$144K a Day Pension
This fat fuck has been rewarded by ExxonMobil with a $98M pension package. My guess is that he can only pack away $225/day in fatty foods, even if it's Kobe Steak everyday. What's he going to do with the remaining $143,775 every day?
A $69.7 million compensation package and $98 million pension payout to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s former chief executive and chairman Lee R. Raymond has some shareholders and economists asking, "how much is enough?""Some folks will ask the question, 'Is this more evidence of big oil taking an enormous windfall and retaining all the riches?'" said Mel Fugate, assistant professor for Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.
The Irving company has drawn criticism from politicians and economists for becoming the most profitable company in history — at consumers' expense, they say.
Exxon benefited from high oil and natural gas prices and solid demand for refined products en route to earning $36 billion last year. The company has defended its profits, saying that other industries have larger profit margins but oil companies' bottom lines stand out because they operate on a much larger scale.
Recent news of Raymond's payout and pension is stoking embers Fugate said had been starting to die out. But with gasoline prices again reaching $3 a gallon at the pump in some areas and big oil companies about to report first-quarter earnings in coming weeks, expect more fallout, economists say.
On Wednesday, Exxon reported executive compensation in a regulatory filing that showed Raymond receiving $48.5 million in salary, bonuses, incentive payments and stock awards.
His compensation package also included $21.2 million from exercising stock options, which the company stopped awarding in 2001.
His $98 million pension payout reflects 43 years of service. But he would have received nearly $17 million less had he retired just last year, according to the company's 2005 proxy statement.
Read the story here.
Posted by Steven at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2006
$70 a Barrel
It's an open secret that the Iraq war was about oil. The pro-war wingnuts argued prior to the Iraq war that it wasn't — it was about disarming the non-armed Iraqi Republic and halting the secret WMD programs they turned out not to have. Some will still claim that the war was about bringing peace and democracy to Iraq despite the current debate on whether or not Iraq is engaged in a civil war or almost engaged in a civil war. Throughout all this, they were always willing to issue furtive admissions that, "Cheap oil would be OK, too."
Now the argument that Iraq was not about cheap oil is that it has had the opposite effect: oil when up. A lot. To me, that is evidence that Iraq is about cheap oil, because every other supposed objective has failed in a similarly reversed manner.
Before we invaded Iraq, Iran had become a country we hated, but didn't hear a lot about. Now it's National Enemy #1, and we're talking about military action. Of course, it's also a major oil exporter, so once, again, our meddling in the oil-rich region is destabilizing the oil market and driving prices through the roof.
Heckuva a job, Bush.
Posted by Winston Smith at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Racist Republic
You know why there are so many Mexicans in the American southwest? Because it used to be in Mexico. That entire section became "ours" thanks to the Mexican-American war, famously lamented by Ulysees S. Grant as, "the most unjust war ever waged by a stronger nation against a weaker." That's all water under the security fence now, but it should serve to remind everyone that the status of Mexicans in our country has a long history, and the United States isn't exactly in the best position, morally, in this story.
If you Google for "Mexican American War," many of the top-ranking links have nothing to do with that history. Instead, they have to do with wingnuts who are trying to spread fear. They aim to recruit the pee-pee-pants conservative coward base into their racist stance against Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal.
The first "defense" you will get is that they are only against illegal immigrants, not legal ones. Right after issuing this clarification, they are likely to lump every single one of the millions of protesters into the "illegal camp."
I attended the march in Dallas last Sunday, and I saw a predominantly middle class crowd largely composed of families. If the parents were not citizens, it's likely that their children are. Whatever the case, I saw people who are clearly established residents and members of the community. Whether or not they are undocumented aliens or not wasn't immediately apparent. The fact that they were standing against the terribly misguided H.R. 4437 means only that they have a conscience; they may also have a green card.
They also bristle at being called racist.
Miles Walters, 16, a sophomore at Richardson High School, said he was scared when people started throwing water bottles and hunkered under a building for protection. “I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad,” he said. “Because we take pride in our country they hate us and call us racist.”
Poor racist baby. What the fuck does it mean to "take pride in our country" by trying to tell a crowd of people who you don't know, who are peacefully exercising American freedoms, that they don't belong here? I haven't proud to be an American since Bush took office, but when I saw those thousands of people rising up against the country-club fuckers who have taken power in this nation, I was proud again. Sorry, kid, you can't make racism acceptable by wrapping it in the flag.
Over at Free Racist Republic, prominent Freeper "Doug From Upland" shared one of his celebrated wingnut song parodies:
With them they're bringing a boatload of drugs
In our streets, you can see grandma get mugged
Leaders, hey --- we are really getting bugged
Oh, Mexico
The country is a hellhole of corruption, we know
We'll be so screwed if we don't stop the flow
Illegals from Mexico
An estimated 350,000 to 500,000 people gathered in downtown Dallas. One — that's right, one — person was arrested for public intoxication. There was no other incident. No violence, no property damage. Despite counter-protesters' attempts to egg on the crowd, nothing happened. Nothing — unless you're a pee-pee-pants conservative coward who thinks having a flyweight empty plastic water bottle tossed at you "violence." Even if you do, this is a far cry from the image "Doug From Upland" paints.
The Freepers and their ilk are swimming in Nazi-era rhetoric, talking about how "certain ethnic groups" are undermining our "national heritage," and "destroying our society." They compare these people to vermin (usually cockroaches). They talk about how there is a "war" — virtual and literal. It's all right out of the Joseph Goebbels playbook.
The racists have come home to roost — and their publisher is Regnery.
Update:
The stench of the racist right has apparently wafted under many nostrils lately. To see a rather alarming survey of it, check out this post at the incomparable Firedoglake blog.
Posted by Winston Smith at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2006
Scott McClellan Won't Comment on an Ongoing Investigation
Does Scott McClellan ever say anything different? Ever?
Posted by Winston Smith at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2006
DHS Pervert Found Innocent by Freepers
By now, you've undoubtedly heard about Brian J. Doyle, the criminal — and criminally stupid — Dept. of Homeland Security official who was busted for attempting to seduce a 14-year-old girl who he'd met online. Of course, the Freepers and their ilk have never met a Republican criminal they didn't love. So, predictably, several Freepers are declaring him innocent by reason of "I Say So."
But strictly speaking I do not see where he used a computer to seduce a child.
Looks to me like he used a computer to seduce a detective.
Age of ReasonI'm curious what crime was committed? Flirting with a role playing detective?
Dead Dog
Um, yeah. What does the term "personal responsibily" mean when these people chant it incessantly?
Posted by Winston Smith at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2006
Hi! My Name is "The Perp"
Read.
Posted by Winston Smith at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)