It’s All Because…

Funniest YouTube video I’ve seen in, oh I don’t know, forever?…

(h/t Eli)

Lying Liars

So just to get you in the mood, why don’t you just take a couple of minutes and watch the video. Sean Penn pretty much sums it up doesn’t he?

Now if you still have any doubt, move on over to Hugh’s List and have a look, then come back…

OK, now that you’ve seen the video, and read Hugh’s List, how can we NOT impeach these bastards?

John Conyers has said that he only needs three more votes to begin impeachment proceedings.

We’ve reached the impeachment moment for Vice President Dick Cheney. We are now at what Rev. Lennox Yearwood calls the lunch counter moment in the impeachment movement. We’ve pushed the cosponsor list for H. Res. 333 up to 14. Chairman John Conyers says that if we get 3 more he’ll begin the impeachment proceedings. And many Congress Members must be recognizing that there is no other path available. Cheney and Bush have repeatedly refused to comply with subpoenas, ordered former staffers not to comply with subpoenas, and announced that the Justice Department will not enforce contempt citations from Congress. When a special prosecutor attempted to hold this administration accountable, Cheney’s chief of staff obstructed justice, and Cheney persuaded Bush to commute his sentence. There is no course left for Congress but impeachment.

Please, contact your congressional representatives, urge them to support, or better yet to co-sponsor, H Res (House Resolution) 333, Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution against Darth Cheney.

If we begin with him, the rest will fall like so many bowling pins.

Invisible Hurricanes

What kind of fuckery is this?

I went to the airport yesterday, as I am often wont to do on beautiful, clear, cool, Saturday afternoon in July and found that the price of 100LL avgas (aviation grade 100 octane low-lead gasoline) has risen to $5.00 per gallon.

This morning I was greeted by this in the New York Times.

Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.

These mechanical breakdowns, which one analyst likened to an “invisible hurricane,” have created a bottleneck in domestic energy supplies, helping to push up gasoline prices 50 cents this year to well above $3 a gallon. A third of the country’s 150 refineries have reported disruptions to their operations since the beginning of the year, a record according to analyst

There’s a very good diary up at dKos today which discusses these oh-so-convenient disasters which seem to have befallen the oil industry.

It’s the plot of a thousand old TV shows: wife discovers that the husband is worth more dead than alive. Scratch one husband. There’s a business version, too, where some unscrupulous store owner takes a torch to his own place.

Of course, the guys hauled in by Columbo or Mannix were just generated by the imagination of some screenwriter. In real life, it’s hard to think that a business could profit from a disaster — could actually pull in more bucks when their own facilities were wrecked. And a situation where the bigger the disaster, the bigger the dollars that rolled in, is too ridiculous even for TV. Though that would make you feel a little differently about the hurricane season, eh?

Thing, is, there’s this odd little situation with the oil industry. A couple of years ago, Katrina delivered what looked like a devastating bunch of lemons to their Gulf Coast facilities, but the optimists in the petro biz turned it into record-setting lemonade. Far from being hurt by the storm that drowned an American city and turned thousands into nomads, the oil companies racked up their best quarters ever.

Of course the reason for those record profits was a restricted supply of oil that just barely kept up with demand, allowing companies to raise their prices over, and over, and over. So it’s a good thing that last year the hurricane season was quiet. Some of the big political concerns overseas have died down, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to bomb Iran for at least another week. So with no disasters in the past year, the market should be much better. Only it’s not.

Maybe I’ll go get a glider rating.

Marketing War

No, this did not come out of “The Onion”, this is real news from the Washington Post. It turns out that our failure in Iraq was caused by poor marketing techniques. Who knew?

In the advertising world, brand identity is everything. Volvo means safety. Colgate means clean. IPod means cool. But since the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, its “show of force” brand has proved to have limited appeal to Iraqi consumers, according to a recent study commissioned by the U.S. military.

The key to boosting the image and effectiveness of U.S. military operations around the world involves “shaping” both the product and the marketplace, and then establishing a brand identity that places what you are selling in a positive light, said clinical psychologist Todd C. Helmus, the author of “Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation.” The 211-page study, for which the U.S. Joint Forces Command paid the Rand Corp. $400,000, was released this week.

Helmus and his co-authors concluded that the “force” brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to enemies’ competing brands. While not abandoning the more aggressive elements of warfare, the report suggested, a more attractive brand for the Iraqi people might have been “We will help you.” That is what President Bush’s new Iraq strategy is striving for as it focuses on establishing a protective U.S. troop presence in Baghdad neighborhoods, training Iraq’s security forces, and encouraging the central and local governments to take the lead in making things better.

[...]

In an urban insurgency, for example, civilians can help identify enemy infiltrators and otherwise assist U.S. forces. They are less likely to help, the study says, when they become “collateral damage” in U.S. attacks, have their doors broken down or are shot at checkpoints because they do not speak English. Cultural connections — seeking out the local head man when entering a neighborhood, looking someone in the eye when offering a friendly wave — are key.

The most successful companies, the Rand study notes, are those that study their clientele and shape their workplace and product in ways that incorporate their brand into every interaction with consumers.

Reading this made me want to puke this morning. I picked up a tee-shirt last week which says:

nation of sheep
ruled by wolves
owned by pigs

How true. We have got to change our government.

Here’s some marketing for you…

New marketing strategerey … “Iraq = War Crime”

(h/t Daily Kos)

From The “What Were They Thinking?” Department

This morning’s laugh-out-loud news story, from Editor & Publisher:

First Plame Case Film Set to Roll — With Kate Beckinsale as Judy Miller?

By E&P Staff

Published: July 19, 2007 1:55 PM ET

NEW YORK The first major Hollywood film inspired by the Plame/CIA leak case is ready to roll and, surprise, the main focus apparently will not be on a character based on Valerie or Joe Wilson, Bob Novak or even Patrick Fitzgerald — but rather on Judith Miller. And she may be played by Kate Beckinsale, who is quite a few years younger than the real thing.

Or as London’s Daily Telegraph puts it today in a headline: “Kate to play Hack.” Rotten Tomatoes has a slightly different take: “Leggy Brunette to Play Beleaguered Reporter.”

Edie Falco, fresh from “The Sopranos,” is targeted to play the Bill Keller role as the editor of the jailed female reporter, Variety reports. Matt Damon would be the prosecutor, and up-and-comer Vera Farmiga would play the dashing CIA agent.

News has emerged that Rod Lurie, known for his fine Capitol Hill drama “The Contender,” will direct the film, titled “Nothing But the Truth.” Lurie is the son of famed editorial cartoonist Ranan Lurie and former film critic for the New York Daily News and many magazines. He created the Geena Davis television series “Commander In Chief” and reputedly holds liberal views.

According to Variety sources, the lead is a Washington reporter who outs a CIA agent, then is jailed for refusing to reveal her source. Shooting may begin in October.

If it happens, this would beat to the screen a planned fact-based film based on the memoir being written by Plame.

OK, just a couple of observations…

I liked Kate Beckinsale in THE AVIATOR, but as Judith Miller?….please.

Putting the main focus of this story on Judith Miller rather than Wilson/Plame or Fitzpatrick just stinks on ice.

And what’s up with turning Bill Keller into a woman?

All I can say is, I’d sure like to have some of what they’re smokin’.

But Vera is a stroke of genius.

(h/t Cliff Schecter)

Defunding The Occupation

Did your congressperson sign this letter?

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to inform you that we will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of all our troops out of Iraq before you leave office.

More than 3,600 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 26,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisors gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues.

We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA); Rep. Barbara Lee (CA); Rep. Maxine Waters (CA); Rep. Ellen Tauscher (CA); Rep. Rush Holt (NJ); Rep. Maurice Hinchey (NY); Rep. Diane Watson (CA); Rep. Ed Pastor (AZ); Rep. Barney Frank (MA); Rep. Danny Davis (IL); Rep. John Conyers (MI); Rep. John Hall (NY); Rep. Bob Filner (CA); Rep. Nydia Velazquez (NY); Rep. Bobby Rush (IL); Rep. Charles Rangel (NY); Rep. Ed Towns (NY); Rep. Paul Hodes (NH); Rep. William Lacy Clay (MO); Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR); Rep. Albert Wynn (MD); Rep. Bill Delahunt (MA); Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC); Rep. G. K. Butterfield (NC); Rep. Hilda Solis (CA); Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY); Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY); Rep. Michael Honda (CA); Rep. Steve Cohen (TN); Rep. Phil Hare (IL); Rep. Grace Flores Napolitano (CA); Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL); Rep. James McGovern (MA); Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH); Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL); Rep. Julia Carson (IN); Rep. Linda Sanchez (CA); Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ); Rep. John Olver (MA); Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX); Rep. Jim McDermott (WA); Rep. Ed Markey (MA); Rep. Chaka Fattah (PA); Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (NJ); Rep. Rubin Hinojosa (TX); Rep. Pete Stark (CA); Rep. Bobby Scott (VA); Rep. Jim Moran (VA); Rep. Betty McCollum (MN); Rep. Jim Oberstar (MN); Rep. Diana DeGette (CO); Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA); Rep. Artur Davis (AL); Rep. Hank Johnson (GA); Rep. Donald Payne (NJ); Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (MO); Rep. John Lewis (GA); Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY); Rep. Neil Abercrombie (HI); Rep. Gwen Moore (WI); Rep. Keith Ellison (MN); Rep. Tammy Baldwin (WI); Rep. Donna Christensen (USVI); Rep. David Scott (GA); Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL); Lois Capps (CA); Steve Rothman (NJ); Elijah Cummings (MD); and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).

If not, why not email, write, or call them and ask them why they didn’t.

How The News Works

One of my very favorite cartoonists doesn’t disappoint.

Salon carries Tom Tomorrow regularly.

Bushism Of The Week

“More than two decades later, it is hard to imagine the Revolutionary War coming out any other way.”—Martinsburg, W.Va., July 4, 2007.

In the words of the friend who sent me this, “I have no words…………….except, Fuck Bush”.

America’s Mayor?

Not so much.

Fascism Unmasked

by Stephen Fleischman

Defining Fascism is a little like describing an elephant in the dark. It depends on what part of the animal you’re touching. If you’re holding the trunk, you can say it’s a fat snake. If you’re holding the tail you can say it’s a whip.

There’s a rancid smell of fascism in the air lately and nobody is doing anything about it; like the apathy of the German people before the Reichstag fire in February of 1933. Political scientist, Dr. Lawrence W. Britt, published the results of his study of Fascism in Free Inquiry Magazine defining 14 of its characteristics, but he, too, describes the symptoms, not the cause.

Let’s go to the source—Benito Mussolini, strongman of Italy before World War II, who instituted Fascism and coined the word.

Mussolini defined Fascism as Corporatism. When corporations take over government by whatever means, by buying up politicians or getting their hands on the wheels of power, they are merging corporate power and government—that’s Fascism. All the other depredations of democracy follow.

It’s a dictatorship; it’s a loss of freedom; it’s condoning torture: it’s controlling mass media; it’s fraudulent elections. It can be all of those things.

Sound familiar? Where did Habeas Corpus go? Who’s violating the Geneva Conventions? Who’s surveilling American citizens without warrants? What is Guantanamo Bay? A concentration camp? Harboring enemy combatants at the moment, but being prepared for naughty, dissident American citizens one day, maybe?