Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Doc: Dick Docked Near Dhaka

Police in southern Bangladesh say a woman cut off a man's penis during an alleged attempt to rape her and took it to a police station as evidence.

The incident took place in Mirzapur village, Jhalakathi, about 124 miles south of the capital, Dhaka.  40-year-old Monju Begum, a married mother of three, told police that neighbor Mozammel Haq Mazi forced his way into her shanty and started assaulting her.

Mazi, who denies the accusation, has been admitted to a nearby hospital.  According to a senior surgeon at the Sher-e-Bangla Hospital in Barisal town, it was not possible to reattach the organ.

"We will arrest [Mazi] once his condition gets better.  She fought back and cut off his penis and brought it to our police station in a polythene bag to prove that [he] tried to rape her," said police spokesman Abul Khaer.  "It is quite an unusual incident. As far as I am aware, this is the first time that a woman has brought a severed penis to the police station as evidence."

Monju Begum told police that Mazi, a married father of five, had been harassing her for the past six months.  But Mazi denied the allegations.  "We were having an affair and recently she suggested that both of us can go and settle down in Dhaka," Mazi told reporters.  "I refused and told her that I cannot leave my wife and children, so she took revenge on me."

Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Emperor Has No Clothes

Thai authorities have arrested and charged a U.S. citizen with insulting the country's revered monarchy, the latest of a growing number of people accused of breaching the world's toughest lese-majeste laws.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI), Thailand's equivalent of the FBI, said 55-year-old Lerpong Wichaikhammat had translated an article deemed offensive to the monarchy and posted it on his blog. He was also accused of providing a web link to a controversial biography by an American author of 83-year-old King Bhumibiol Adulyadej, a book banned in Thailand.

Lese-majeste, or insulting the monarchy, is a very serious offense in Thailand, where many people regard King Bhumibol as almost divine. Each offense is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Critics say the law is being abused to discredit opposition activists and politicians, who mostly deny pursuing a republican agenda. The number of complaints, especially those lodged by the military, has jumped ahead of a July 3 parliamentary election.

The law has been a regular feature of the charged political atmosphere in Thailand in the past five years. The generals who overthrew Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 cited his alleged disrespect for the monarchy among other reasons.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Another Great Day For The Constitution

With minutes to spare before midnight EDT, Barack Obama signed a four-year extension of the Patriot Act from Paris, extending post-9/11 powers-- which (for the last ten years) have allowed the government to secretly search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of alleged terrorists.

Hours after the Senate and House passed the law (through votes taken in rapid succession), Obama transmitted a digital signature, finalizing the renewal, ensuring that there would be no interruption in the erosion of our constitutional rights.  During congressional debates, legislators rejected attempts to temper the law enforcement powers to ensure that individual liberties would not be abused.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Whores For Krauts

One of the biggest insurance companies in the world held a party for salesmen where they were rewarded with the services of prostitutes.

Munich Re, the world's biggest re-insurer (that is, a company which acts as an insurance company for other insurance companies), organized a party which was held at a thermal baths in the Hungarian capital Budapest as a reward to particularly successful salesmen.

The company invited about about 100 guests and hired 20 prostitutes.  The hookers wore color-coded arm-bands designating their availability, and the women had their arms stamped after each service rendered.  Guests were able to take the women to four-poster beds at the spa and do whatever they liked.

According to a quoted source, "After each such encounter the women were stamped on the lower arm in order to keep track of how often each woman was frequented.  The women wore red and yellow wrist bands. One lot were hostesses, the others would fulfil your every wish.  There were also women with white wrist bands. They were reserved for board members and the very best sales reps."

Monday, May 23, 2011

Oprah Picking Up The Final "Pieces" With Frey

Saw Oprah's  final interview with James Frey (author of the 'fictionalized' memoir "A Million Little Pieces) the other day-- it was fascinating piece of closure for both the controversial author and the contrite "Empress of Empathy" (as Maureen Dowd once dubbed her).  It was clear from the outset that Oprah regretted the manner in which she ambushed Frey and his editor (Nan Talese) on her 2006 show-- the one in which she confronted the author about his fake memoir (although she specifically said she wasn't sorry for what she said).  After some skillful questioning, Winfrey got Frey to open more than he has done previously, about why exactly he did what he did and when he made the fateful decision to lie to the public:

When I look at a Picasso self portrait-- let's say you look at a cubist self portrait that Picasso has made, it doesn't  actually look anything like Picasso.  Or if it does, it does in ways that might only make sense to him.

So when I was writing the book, I was thinking about it like that-- and I was thinking about it in the ways writers I admired-- and who mean something to me-- wrote.  Writers like Celine, Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac.  These were writers who wrote books about their own lives in some way but they tried to make art out of what they had lived.  And I don't think they were concerned about 'is this fact or is this not?  Is this fiction or non fiction?'  They were just trying to tell a story in the best they could and in a way that made sense to them.

And when I was writing "A Million Pieces", that's what I was trying  to do.  When we originally shopped the book, we shopped it as  a novel and nobody wanted to publish it as a novel.  And at a certain point, I got the opportunity to publish it as a memoir.   Whatever conversations were had, or whatever advice I was given or whatever i was told . . . at this point I don't think is even relevant--  because  there came a day when the decision was made-- is it a memoir. . .  do you want to publish as a memoir or not? . . .  and I said "yes".  And then there came a lot of days where it was "it's time for you to go and promote it" . . . and I went out and I said it was a memoir.

When pressed for further details on the exact  time when he made the decision to say it was a memoir when he knew it wasn't, he fell back on a self-serving re-hashing of his youth:

I started trying to be  a writer when i was 22.  You know-- growing, up I didn't ever really know what I was going to be-- I was just kind of  a troubled kid.  I certainly knew i was never going to be a doctor or a lawyer or work in a bank.

He eventually concluded with a vague statement of quasi-accountability:

I wrote a book and I had a chance to publish it.  it wasn't necessarily how I imagined it but I wanted it published; I wanted it out in the world, and I said "yes".

It seems clear to me that he is covering up for his editor Nan Talese or others at his publisher, who clearly had a role in (knowingly, falsely) selling his book as a memoir.  In the end however, he did take full personal responsibility for the debacle, commenting on his 2006 decision to come on Oprah's show to take his punishment:

I knew that what happened was my fault-- I created that mess, I created that situation and that if I had to come bear the responsibility of what I had done, that I should do it.

Amazing Flood Pictures

Several industrious residents in flood-stricken Mississippi embarked on major construction projects just to protect their houses and livelihoods.  These homes in Vicksburg are all situated along the Yazoo River, a tributary of the overflowing Mississippi River, and their owners have surrounded themselves with tons of earth and sand.  While questions over whether the main levees that protect the area from floods would hold, these farmers took no chances and have so far saved their homes and crops from destruction.






Friday, May 20, 2011

In Case You Wanted To Check Your Status

GOP Governors May Be In Trouble

Less than a year after a cadre of Republican firebrands swept into statehouses from Ohio to Florida to Wisconsin, voters are turning on them—with significant implications for the 2012 presidential election, according to Daily Beast's John Avlon. In pivotal swing-states where voters narrowly elected Republican governors in 2010—like Florida and Ohio (with 47 electoral votes between them)—evidence of buyer's remorse is piling up fast.

Just seven months ago, Republicans swept the Sunshine State with Tea Party-backed candidate Rick Scott winning the governor's office with a 1.2 percent margin of victory.  But instead of consolidating support by reaching out and winning over the reasonable edge of the opposition,Scott continued with his campaign posture of refusing to talk to the press. He canceled a $2 billion federal high-speed rail project and is seeking to delay (and functionally deny) implementation of an anti-gerrymandering reform ballot referendum overwhelmingly passed in 2010.

Now Rick Scott finds himself the least popular newly elected governor in Florida history. Fifty-five percent of Florida voters disapprove of Scott's job in office, while only 32 percent approve, according to a mid-April poll.

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich is struggling as well, after narrowly defeating Democrat incumbent Ted Strickland last fall. A new Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday found Kasich's approval numbers decidedly upside down, with 49 percent of voters disapproving and 38 percent approving of his efforts in office to date. This was a nominal improvement over the previous month, when he had a 46-30 split. But the persistent gender gap facing Kasich is stark—women disapprove of Kasich's job in office by a margin of 51 to 33 percent.

In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker's new effort to have same-sex couples' hospital visitation rights rescinded is unlikely to improve his approval ratings, especially among the 27 percent of independent voters in the state.

In Maine, Tea Party-backed Republican Paul LePage beat Independent candidate Eliot Cutler by less than 7,500 votes last fall. His stormy tenure has been marked by skirmishes over removing labor-history murals, initially refusing to attend MLK day celebrations and refusing to sign legislation to ban the chemical BPA because—in his words—"the worst case is some women may have little beards." A recent poll found that only three out of 10 Maine residents approved of LePage's job in office.

Avlon believes that swing voters supported Republicans in 2010 because they wanted a check and balance against unified Democratic control of Washington. They wanted to rein in unsustainable spending in the name of generational responsibility. They took Republicans at their word that social conservative evangelizing would be 'de-emphasized' in favor of more urgent economic concerns.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Florida Doctors Sticking It To The Fatties

First, airlines stuck it to fat people (making them buy two seats or outright escorting them off planes)-- but now doctors are getting in on the obese abuse. 

15 out of 105  obstetrics-gynecology practices polled by a Florida newspaper said they have set weight limits for new patients. Some of the doctors said the main reason was their exam tables or other equipment can't handle people over a certain weight, but at least six said heavy women run a higher risk of complications.

"People don't realize the risk we're taking by taking care of these patients," the newspaper quoted Dr. Albert Triana of South Miami as saying. "There's more risk of something going wrong and more risk of getting sued. Everything is more complicated with an obese patient in GYN surgeries and in [pregnancies]," he told the newspaper.

It is not illegal for doctors to refuse overweight patients, but it has medical ethicists worried. So far, the weight cutoffs have been enacted only by South Florida ob-gyns, who have long complained about high numbers of lawsuits after difficult births and high rates for medical-malpractice insurance.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Murderous Muslim Mothers

Police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have filed murder charges against two women accused of killing their daughters.  The women, who were neighbors and are both Muslim, were reportedly furious with their daughters for running away with Hindu men, according to reports.

Zahida, 19, and Husna, 26, were strangled last week after they returned home to make peace with their families.  The girls  fell in love with two Hindu construction workers, eloped and got married before returning to the town of Baghpat.

One of the accused mothers is quoted by the Indian Express newspaper as saying after being arrested, "How could they elope with Hindus? They deserved to die. We have no remorse."

Monday, May 16, 2011

What The Fuck Happened To Federal Ethics Rules?

Republican FCC commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker is planning to leave the agency for a job at Comcast Corp., according to people with knowledge of the matter.  Baker’s move to Comcast comes just four months after she voted, along with three of the agency’s other FCC commissioners, to approve Comcast’s $13.75 billion deal to acquire control of NBC Universal from General Electric Co.

The Genius Of The New York Post

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Koch Brothers Buying Up Our Schools

Going largely unreported is the growing trend of right-wing millionaires and conservative businessmen buying up economic and business program at U.S. universities in a strategic effort to influence politicians and policy makers.

The economic situation brought about by Bush's failed policies has created a perfect storm for such efforts. Severe budget constraints and other problems at universities have allowed a small set of oligarchs to use school donations to interfere with academic integrity on campuses throughout the country. A group of hedge fund managers, working through the Manhattan Institute’s Veritas Fund, have created entire departments dedicated to advancing failed supply side ideas and climate skepticism. John Allison, the former CEO of BB&T Bank, a bailout recipient, has used his corporation’s money to force college campuses to adopt Ayn Rand readings into their programs.

But overall, the Koch brothers are still the dominate players when it comes to meddling with academic integrity.  Think Progress has reported specifically about the Koch brothers' takeover of the Florida State University's economics department (among many others). From those departments come economists, and among those economists are political appointees.  According to Think Progress:

FSU had accepted a $1.5 million grant from a foundation controlled by petrochemical billionaire Charles Koch on the condition that Koch’s operatives would have a free hand in selecting professors and approving publications  (similar conditional agreements have been made with schools like Clemson and West Virginia University). The simmering controversy sheds light on the vast influence of the Koch political machine, which spans from the top conservative think tanks, Republican politicians, a small army of contracted lobbyists, and Tea Party front groups in nearly every state.

As reporter Kris Hundley notes, Koch virtually owns much of George Mason University, another public university, through grants and direct control over think tanks within the school. For instance, Koch controls the Mercatus Center of George Mason University, an institute that set much of the Bush administration’s environmental deregulation policy.  One of the key candidates to replace Gary Locke as Commerce Secretary is none other than Tim Roemer, a former "distinguished" scholar at the Mercatus Center.

Details on other academic programs bought and paid for by Koch money:

West Virginia University
: Koch funds an array of academic programs at West Virginia University, a public university. One Koch-funded academic at WVU, economics professor Russell Sobel, has written a book blasting regulations of all types. He even argues that less mine safety regulations will make coal miners more safe. A similar arrangement has been made with WVU as with FSU in accepting at least $480,000 from Koch.

Brown University: Amity Shales, a pop-conservative writer who argues that the New Deal made the Great Depression worse, an odd theory promoted by Charles Koch himself, has been a featured speaker at Koch-funded programsat Brown. Moreover, Koch’s donation of at least $419,254 to Brown has underwritten a number of research projects in the Economics and Political Science deparments, including a paper arguing that bank deregulation has helped the poor.

Troy University: The Charles Koch Foundation helped fund a gift of $3.6 million to establish the Center for Political Economy last year. The Center’s stated goal is to push back against the belief following the financial crisis that markets need regulation.  Currently, the Center’s only staffer, Professor Scott Beaulier, is a board member of the ExxonMobil-funded attack group, American Energy Alliance, and a former staffer for Koch’s think tank at George Mason.

Utah State University: The Charles Koch Foundation has given the school nearly $700,000 to hire five new faculty members, and establish a program for undergraduates to learn about Charles Koch’s management theories.  Charles Koch’s book, “The Science of Success” (a book Forbes mocked for proclaiming a “Marxist faith in ‘fixed laws’ that govern ‘human well-being’”) is part of the required reading list for the program.   Professor Randy Simmons, one of Koch's hand-picked professors, helps select students (who must provide information about their ideological interests when applying) for the Koch program. Simmons has also written a string of papers against environmental regulations.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Rick Santorum Caught Up In Ensign Scandal

Politico reported this week on GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum's involvement in the Ensign scandal.  According to the Special Counsel's report (released this week), Doug Hampton called Santorum for personal advice on his wife's extramarital affair with Ensign.  So how did Rick "Mr. Moral" Santorum help out his friend? By ratting him out to John Ensign:

Rick Santorum alerted Sen. John Ensign in 2009 that the husband of Ensign's mistress wanted to go public with the affair that ultimately ended the Nevada Republican's Senate career, according to a Senate ethics committee report released Thursday.

To cover up a violation of the Ten Commandments, Rick "Holier than thou" Santorum committed another sin-- lying about it to the press.  How's that for family values?

Friday, May 13, 2011

Details Now Clear On The John Ensign Affair-Resignation-Investigation

It turns out that disgraced Senator John Ensigns (NV) would have been expelled from the Senate had he not resigned.  The details are really appalling-- can't believe that anyone would disagree that this guy is a real scumbag.  In a nutshell, here is the sequence of events (Rachel Maddow's coverage follows afterward):

The Hamptons and Ensigns are best friends from way back. In fact, Cynthia Hampton is Darlene Ensign's bridesmaid at her wedding to John.

John Ensign becomes the sole source of financial support for the Hampton family, including subsidizing the education of their children.

In this context, John Ensign pursues Cynthia Hampton (the wife of his best friend), and the affair starts.

When Doug Hampton finds out about the affair (Christmas 2007), things start coming apart. John Ensign promises Doug Hampton to leave his wife alone, but he pursues her even harder, driven by what he calls "love."

In early 2008, C Street (see here) becomes involved — first, trying to get Ensign to stop the affair, then negotiating on behalf of John Ensign with the Hamptons. Both Tom Coburn and Doug Coe (C Street's leader) are involved.

Once the affair ends, Ensign retaliates-- immediately ending all financial support for the Hamptons. Cynthia and Doug Hampton are both fired, all payments for their home are stopped, and school tuition payments for the Hamptons children are withheld. The Hamptons lose their house, and they are ruined financially.

To tamp down the brewing storm (and silence Doug Hampton), John Ensign arranges an illegal lobbying job for him, using blackmail and the power of his office to make it happen. These actions become the basis for the DOJ investigation of Ensign.

Ensign persuaded his parents to lie about a Hampton payoff in such a way that has also put them at risk of prosecution by the Justice Department.



In the end, everyone involved with this mess has had their lives ruined-- John and Darlene Ensign, John Ensign's parents, Doug and Cynthia Hampton, the Hampton children. But Senator Tom Coburn (member of the infamous, hypocritical C street gang) is still in the Senate-- a man who was complicit in the Ensign scandal (but lied about it), who helped negotiate financial payouts to hide Ensign's extramarital affair-- is still bragging about his support of the "Defense of Marriage" act.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Like A Good Neighbor

Muslim leaders in Buffalo, New York are upset that a homeowner who lives next door to a newly opened mosque has posted a sign on his front lawn that reads "Bomb Making-Next Driveway."  Homeowner Michael Heick lives along a heavily traveled road in the town of Amherst, a Buffalo suburb.  The next driveway on the same side of the road is the entrance to the Jaffarya Islamic  Center.

Heick told local media outlets that he put up the sign because he was frustrated with how the mosque and town officials handled his complaints that the mosque was built too close to his property and that its bright lights violate local codes.  "The place is too close. I don't care what people think," he told the Buffalo News. "This is a way to get answers now. I get none from the town. The intent was to catch the eye of the people who I have a problem with."

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

MI, IL, CA, PA, MA and NY Are Thankful Florida Has A Dumb-Ass Governor

The U.S. government has awarded $2 billion for high-speed rail in critical corridors, excluding any funding for Florida after its GOP governor stubbornly refused to accept any projects for its cash-strapped state.  The new grants to Michigan, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York were made possible after the Obama administration revoked a $2.4 billion grant to Florida that would have developed a high-speed rail link between the cities of Tampa and Orlando.

In a widely criticized move (which many claim was motivated by politics, not merit), Republican Governor Rick Scott said he did not want his state to have to pay for operating costs in the future-- despite the fact that his own  Florida transportation officials had said the rail line would operate at a profit in its very first year (2015).

Monday, May 9, 2011

Erasing Women From History


Faith (and misogyny) has outweighed fact at Di Tzeitung, a Hasidic newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York. The ultra-Orthodox Jewish publication ran a doctored copy of the iconic “Situation Room Photo”-- scrubbed from the picture: the two women in the room. According to their version of history, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with her hand clasped over her mouth, and Audrey Tomason, director of counterterrorism, weren’t there.


The newspaper later apologized for violating White House instructions against altering photos. "We should not have published the altered picture, and we have conveyed our regrets and apologies to the White House and to the State Department," the newspaper said. In a written statement issued later that day, the newspaper went further, saying that its decision to leave women out of photos is religiously mandated and that the right to do so is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Bush Torture Czar: Don't Forget About Us!

Andrew Cohen has been keeping tabs on the criminally stupid John Yoo (author of the Bush torture memos):
Former government lawyer John Yoo taking credit on behalf of the Bush administration for the Navy Seals'  strike against Osama bin Laden is like Edward John Smith, the captain of the Titanic, taking credit for the results of the 1998 Academy Awards.

Yet front and center here is Yoo, the fallen author of the infamous torture memos, the man whose "flawed legal reasoning" and "professional misconduct" on the topic of "enhanced interrogations" nearly turned him into a criminal defendant, publicly pitching the case that he and his former bosses are "vindicated" by the way in which the Al Qaeda leader was hunted down and killed. Having long ago caught his finger in the hinge of history, Yoo is inexplicably back for more, clearly unrepentant about the terrible damage his consistently poor judgment cost the United States.

Yoo wants America and the rest of the world to know that "President George W. Bush, not his successor, constructed the interrogation and warrantless surveillance programs that produced this week's actionable intelligence." Got that? Yoo wants to transfer credit from the White House team that actually got bin Laden to the White House team that famously did not. He wants to do so despite good evidence to the contrary. And he wants to do so without any expressed accountability or remorse for the impact many of those extralegal Bush-era "programs" wrought upon our rule of law and  standing in the rest of the world. Abu Ghraib? What Abu Ghraib?
And here is Andrew Sullivan's take on that report:
So let us be very clear. The war criminal Dick Cheney presided over the worst lapse in national security since Pearl Harbor, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 people. This rank incompetent failed to get bin Laden at Tora Bora, and then dragged the US on false pretenses into a war in Iraq, empowering Iran's dictatorship, and killing another 5,000 more Americans on a wild goose chase. He presided over the deaths of more than 8,000 Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqis during his criminally incompetent years in office.

On the other hand, the man who abolished torture as soon as he took office, Barack Obama, captured and killed Osama bin Laden, and captured a massive trove of intelligence, more than two years later. No Americans died in the operation.

What on earth are we debating? How have these delusional maniacs managed to even get us onto this turf? Because they have to. Because when the full truth of these past years are fully in focus, they will be revealed as some of the greatest criminals ever to have wielded power in America.

Couldn't have said it any better.

This Is Virginia's Idiot Attorney General

Incredible Headline

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Hitler Hates That Bin Liden Is Dead

Playing It Dangerously on Cinco de Mayo

"You do not want to be between Michelle and a tamale," joked the president. "It’s true. It’s true. But she’s moving, though, so she can afford to have as many tamales as she wants," said Obama in a nod to his wife’s "Let’s Move" healthy campaign.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Obama Gets Shit Done, No Excuses

Dan Froomkin of HuffPo has done a good job contrasting Obama with Bush, our former dunce president:
As he announced the death of infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden on Sunday night, President Barack Obama struck an extraordinary contrast with his predecessor, George W. Bush.  Obama has now succeeded where Bush failed. And it was impossible to hear Obama declare that "justice has been done" without thinking about how long it went undone.

"Shortly after taking office," the president explain Sunday night, "I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda."  By contrast, the tactics and the rhetoric of Bush’s “war on terror” -- most notably his decision to invade Iraq and the torture of Muslims in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere had served as al Qaeda’s most potent recruiting tools.

The Bush record on bin Laden, of course, starts with him failing to prevent the attacks in the first place. As has been exhaustively documented by now, during the summer of 2001, his White House waved off repeated warnings of an imminent attack from former counterterrorism director Richard A. Clarke and then-CIA director George Tenet.

Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, were said to be more focused on their pet issue, missile defense, and the hunt for a reason to attack Iraq. Bush, according to Bob Woodward, said he wasn't interested in "swatting flies."

The unsuccessful attempts to engage Bush culminated in a briefing he got while vacationing on his Texas ranch. As investigative reporter Ron Suskind reported in his book, "The One Percent Doctrine," an unnamed CIA operative flew to Crawford to call the president's attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

"All right," Suskind reported Bush saying after hearing out the operative. "You've covered your ass, now."

Bush’s post-9/11 swagger may go down as one of history’s worst examples of false bravado. After the invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban government quickly fell and al Qaeda retreated into the hills. But in December 2001, when bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora, Bush didn’t pull the trigger.

As the months and years went by after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- and Bush’s initial bluster about capturing the al Qaeda leader “dead or alive” became a source of embarrassment -- Bush began to insist that bin Laden himself wasn’t so very important.

"I truly am not that concerned about him," Bush said at a White House press conference on March 13, 2002. And of course the following March, he shifted America’s focus to Iraq, which proved to be a gigantic diversion.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Mission (Truly) Accomplished

Bye, bye-- no virgins for you!

It has been 9 years and 8 months since the Twin Towers fell.

It has been 9 years and 5 months since Bush let Bin Laden get away at Tora Bora.

It has been 9 years and 2 months since Bush dismantled the CIA unit hunting Bin Laden in order to prepare for the Iraq war.

It has been 8 years since Bush distracted the nation by starting a phony war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

It has been 2 years and 4 months since Bush ultimately failed to obtain justice for all those that died on 9/11.

Now come reports that Obama has fulfilled his campaign promise-- Bin Laden is dead and U.S. intelligence services have his body.  The president will be addressing the nation shortly.

Early reports say that Bin Laden was killed in a drone attack somewhere in/near Pakistan in the last few weeks and that a positive DNA match was made via a mitochondrial match against the brain tissue of Bin Laden's sister who died of cancer last year.