licentious radio

Sunday, August 31, 2003
[11:45:48 PM]

General Sanchez admitted a US helicopter *did* purposefully try to knock down that banner in Baghdad.

This is *very* good news. Up until now, US military PR officers would insist atrocities and stupid decisions were under investigation, though it would later turn out that was false.

Here is a situation where the PR officers adamently denied with 100% certainty that the Americans had done what hundreds or thousands of Iraqis had witnessed them doing.

When the Iraqis protested, at least one person was killed by American soldiers. Americans provoke, Iraqis protest, Americans kill.

Now, the Americans claimed the guy they shot had shot at them. Maybe he was holding a video camera like the reporter we shot near the airport?

I want to believe that Sanchez is on the right track. The military planning was obviously catastrophicly bad. Huge improvements should be trivially easy. Just giving American soldiers signs to tell drivers to stop would make a huge difference. Sanchez actually mentioned that. Please, let's get some sanity going. Maybe it will spread.

On the other hand, maybe the so-called "investigation" was that somebody handed General Sanchez the videotape of the incident....

[11:28:55 PM]
"I'm going to do exactly what Bill Clinton did. And if you liked the economy under Bill Clinton, America, you[base ']re going to love it under John Kerry." --John Kerry

[2:05:06 PM]
Democrats in California should not go lightly on Schwarzenegger. Character is important. Schwarzenegger's true character is not one *any* of us want in government.

Schwarzenegger's first success was based on using steroids and dirty tricks to beat other weight-lifters at a male beauty contest. In other words, he succeeded with reprehensible behavior, much like a Bush. In polite society, that would be a red flag. If we thought he had changed his basic character since then, we'd be happy to give him a pass. There's no evidence of change. Seven years of adultery and serial groping of women should be the second and third strikes that disqualify him.

Democrats should point out loudly and consistently that character matters, and that Schwarzenegger has the wrong stuff.

I also think Democrats should be willing to ask questions of conservative voters. For example, do you *really* want a governor who has posed for full-frontal nude photographs for money? Personally, I don't think that should disqualify a person, but I bet the main base of the Republican party would disagree. It strikes me as perfectly legitimate to point out that a particular candidate doesn't conform to the values of a particular constituency.

[1:00:49 PM]
"300 bigots and lunatics protesting around a carved rock, worthy of nonstop coverage. 100,000 people protesting a war, worthy of brief snide commentary." --Atrios

[11:44:50 AM]
You can see Bush's re-election strategy taking shape -- war on the Korean peninsula.

Unlike the phony urgency for war in Iraq, Korea will be a true crisis that Americans will *have* to back the government on.

Throw in just another Al Qaeda attack or two, and Bush will have four more years -- years that will do the world in for an extra decade.

[11:39:49 AM]
Title 36, Chapter 10, Section 176, (g): "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature."

Good thing for Bush there are no penalties for breaking this particular law. Since he's done it repeatedly, under a "three strikes" law, he would be imprisoned for life.

[11:24:01 AM]
Condi Rice is -- apparently -- a total whore, willing to say anything, no matter how stupid, to maintain her place in the Bush & Co. org chart.

She made her name and fortune by falsely portraying the Soviet Union's strength. How someone like that could remain in favor when it turned out the Soviet Union was rotting to the core, explains the essential truth -- they knew they were lying.

Now we have Condi giving it up for Bush again -- suddenly the German resistance to Allied occupation was on a par with the Iraqi resistance.

It's a total lie.

Over the years, how many Americans were killed per week by Germans -- after the surrender? Zero.

The "Werewolves" never amounted to *anything*.

Rice can read a history book as well as anybody. She's just lying.

The most interesting thing is that Rice and Rumsfeld are still taking orders from Rove. You can bet *that* adds a lot of credibility to the United States as we start begging our allies to put *their* soldiers in harm's way in Iraq -- instead of ours.

[10:48:59 AM]
Regarding Democrats and the nomination to run....

*Someone* will be the nominee. That's not in doubt. That person will have unprecedented depth of support. Perhaps JFK was loved, but -- for those with eyes to see -- the urgency of removing Bush from power surpasses the affection for JFK.

Unfortunately, the necessary qualification for the Democratic nominee is *not* the ability to beat other Democrats. What we need is someone who will beat the vile, race-baiting, war-mongering dirty tricks of Rove/Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld.

The Democratic primaries do not test your ability to fight against the Republican Axis of Evil.

The man who wants to lead the Democrats should take the fight to Bush and Rove. Victories will demonstrate his ability to win. And victories against Rove/Bush are more important than victories against Dean or Gephardt or Lieberman or Kerry.

Dean's Carter strategy could win the nomination, without giving him the experience to beat Rove. Kerry could win the nomination, but lose out because morons think Bush is friendlier. Both candidates would be light-years ahead if they take on Rove now, and have a record of success to point to during the election campaign.

Two easy targets: go after Rove himself for illegally exposing a CIA agent -- working on nuclear proliferation issues. No flag-waver will support exposing our agents, and the subject of her work makes the crime much more significant than a matter of law. It also shows the utter contempt the Bush regime has for national security.

And go after Rumsfeld. I think allowing the looting of Iraq's nuclear facility during the war is the ultimate blunder -- every supposed reason for going to war was made an absolute lie, as was the claim that the "plan" was a good one. For that one event, Rumsfeld and his clique should be shown the door.

You could go after Rice, too, although the case is harder to make. Her job is to reconcile the various bureaucracies on a single policy. She is clearly the worst failure in the administration, and has been caught in even more lies than most of Bush's cronies.

At the 2000 election theft, Democrats gave up the fight because they didn't realize how bad Bush would be. Bush's rhetoric was all about "uniting" and "moderation". We now know how badly the Democrats were taken.

Democrats won the majority of votes in the nation, and they won the most votes in Florida -- despite numerous election fraud schemes there. Only the Supreme Court's decision to override Florida law and stop the vote counting put Bush in power. Scalia's rationalization for aborting the election was specifically irrelevant -- there was no urgency to declare a winner, except the fear that the winner would be Gore.

Democrats have an obligation to correct their mistake, and apply more pressure on Bush than any opposition party has ever applied. This is how the Democratic candidates for nomination can demonstrate that they are up to the task of beating Bush.