Mysterious forces in Montana - Updated

You may recall that small town in Montana that was trying to get Gitmo prisoners transferred to their new and very empty jail. They owe big time bucks on the place and apparently didn't have anybody to put in it. Hard to believe in this incarceration crazy country. But in any event, the Gitmo thing didn't work out so they apparently leased it to this very mysterious private security group.

No one seems to know who they are, or what they're doing there. The story is supposedly that they're going to build some kind of training center, but they freaked the town out when they arrived driving SUVs with local police stickers on the doors. The conspiracy theorists are hot and heavy around this one and the mystery deepens since the company scrubbed its site.

However, nothing dies on the internets. TPM archived the website. I heard a wingnut caller on Alan Colmes radio show last night say it was Czech based group but the first thing I thought of was Blackwater, now known as Xe. I won't be surprised if it turns out this is just another front group for them.

Update: May not be Blackwater after all. This from Open Left suggests it may be some kind of elaborate con job. As they say, story developing... Fascinating.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

Blackwater Christmas - not just a dream

By Capt. Fogg

I don't know what the spectators at the Armed Forces Bowl this New Years Eve will think when they see Blackwater mercenaries parachuting into the stadium as they did December 1st during halftime at the Sand Diego State/BYU game. Indeed, what will the Air Force team think when they see that those aren't our guys in the black uniforms? Are they staging an armed takeover or just displaying the awesome power of a private military?

I'm sorry to contradict Reagan the Great, but when someone shows up to help, I prefer that it would be someone from the legitimate government rather than armed representatives from a country without borders, or laws or accountability. I don't think it will be long, for instance, before the Bushists privatize the "War on Drugs" by giving license to companies like Blackwater to do all the things we won't allow the government to do ( like start a war in Columbia or Mexico or pour water up your nose or worse) and make no mistake, Blackwater has the vehicles, the helicopters, the ships and the intelligence division to allow them to accomplish most any mission, foreign or domestic, our next rogue president might consider to be too touchy to approach in a legal fashion.


If the next rogue president should be Mitt Romney, we can be assured that Blackwater head, Cofer Black, his chief adviser on counterterrorism, will have a lot to say about military affairs and military conduct and indeed he already has had. Romney's decision not to comment on torture was made with the advice of Black. Of course I'm sure Cofer Black's private army will be happy to accept more and better no-bid contracts from whichever idiot the American people choose to make things worse.

As Jeremy Scahill writes in The Nation,

"the Government is in the midst of the most radical privatization in history, and companies like Blackwater are becoming ever more deeply embedded in the war apparatus. Until this system is brought down, the world's the limit for Blackwater Worldwide. . ."

And what are the chances that this profitable enterprise will be brought down now that they have moved beyond the borders of brutal occupation and commercial espionage into retail sales of everything from 9mm pistols to baby clothes? Is the future a kind and degree of fascism unimaginable even in the Europe of the 1930's and 40's? Why not? With the country rallying behind thugs and idiots in blue pinstripes, what chance does freedom have?

Cross posted from Human Voices

Shameless

By Capt Fogg

If anyone entertained notions that the the constant exposure of Republican transgressions and failures would in any way weaken support for them or their champions or would generate contrition in their ranks, they've long since been converted to militant cynics or émigrés to some more rational realm. If anyone thought Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter could be embarrassed by their overt support for a criminal empire or being seen to attack fundamental American values and institutions or even American heroes, they should by now be treasuring their right to keep and bear arms and burying the valuables in the back yard.

Did you really think that billionaire balloon-butt blowhard, who avoided service because of an infected asshole would feel shame for insulting troops who through experiencing war know a bit more about it than he? Of course not, his response is to insult them further. Hell no, he isn't going to call that wounded soldier a phony to his face, he's going to sit on his pus-oozing ass and insult him again and the network that airs him will continue to support him and we will continue to pay to have his slime shipped overseas to our troops and we will pay to have our Congressional whores praise him for his patriotism.

Even Orwell with a toothache couldn't have invented such a scenario nor envisioned the hellacious harpy who hangs around Limbaugh like a bad smell. Who in all of history ever imagined that Ann Coulter could argue against allowing Women to vote? Sure, it's as hyperbolic as anything she writes or says to promote yet another one of her insanely fascist screeds, but her consistent insistence that she and her familiars are brilliant thinkers and the rest of the world from Einstein to Jesus Christ are a bunch of liberal weeny faggots, seems real enough to earn her a straight jacket if not an appointment to a high level security job in Burma.

Coulter, when she's not busily licking the puss off Limbaugh's anal sores, likes to compare Democrats and in fact anyone not promoting wars of aggression for the sake of war and aggression, to women -- or in her kinder moments to homosexuals. It's women looking for handouts, you see who elect Democrats says she:

"If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat [sic] president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women."

Of course it wasn't women who elected two felons to office by a landslide in 1972, it was Republicans; Republicans who love war, profit from war, hate freedom and profit from suppressing it. Perhaps women are after all, a bit more opposed to syphoning off incomprehensibly huge sums to benefit companies like Blackwater and Halliburton with relationships to the administration so close it's almost sexual. Perhaps women are a bit more opposed to killing children by the tens and hundreds of thousands to promote a more friendly business atmosphere in some other country, but only a bit. The simpering sisters for safety and security did their part to put the shiftless shitweasel who used his father's presidency to sell worthless Enron stock, sell energy deals to the Taliban and get interest free loans and handouts for his failed businesses from the bin Laden family, into office.

Have no doubt, we don't have a say in what happens any more and by "we" I mean the private citizens. Smiling Christian-face fascists like Mark Mays, CEO of Clear Channel who broadcast Limbaugh over our airwaves through 1200 outlets is as supportive of Mr. Butt-boils as he can be because he supports the truth and it doesn't matter how many letters he gets from whomever sends them - the gravy train will roll on. it's not our truth, not our country, not our radio spectrum, it's his. It's not our country. It belongs to clean cut Jesus jabberers like Erik Prince who has made billions from Iraq who thinks he's doing the Lord's work by soldiering for a fortune - our fortune, although if you ask him to tell us how much he's ripping us off for, he'll all but tell you to Fuck off because it's "private" which means that our money is his private property. The Lord works in mysterious ways, after all, and the Lord has granted Blackwater immunity from all law as effectively as ever the Devil did. So go ahead and get the FBI to investigate. They'll have Blackwater mercenaries standing guard for the Lord just in case the law or the secular government gets in the way. You can't trust the military or the cops any more - some of them are women and Democrats, I hear.

Cross posted from Human Voices

Short takes

I'm already overblogged here today so I'm just going to throw up a few links I'm not going to get to but are worth reading.

Nitpicker, who worked as a press liason, in Afghanistan has a fascinating account of his experiences with Fox News reporters. [via]

Steve Benen makes mincemeat of Fred Barnes' lame defense of the Bush in the attorney purge scandal. This one is hilarious, even by Fred's usual low standards. I especially like this knee slapping quote.

What should Bush have said when Democrats first took after the firings? Something like this: “It’s an outrage that Democrats would attack, solely for political gain, a president’s constitutional authority to name U.S. attorneys and remove them from office. President Clinton removed all 93 federal prosecutors in 1993, as was his right. I have removed 8, none of them for political reasons. That Democrats are now willing to play political games with our criminal justice system is a shame, and I will vigorously oppose their efforts.”

You want to call Barnes and say, um Fred, that's exactly the lie Bush told. The scandal arises from the fact that he's been exposed as a liar.

Capt. Fogg reminds us that Bush has his own little private army at his beck and call that is "loyal only to the highest bidder and restrained by no law or treaty." They call it Blackwater.

In light of the latest chlorine bombs being set off in Iraq, T.A. Frank reminds us again that our own chemical plants are unsecured and the Bush administration refuses to do anthing to secure them. Be sure to click the links on this one.

I join Michael van der Galien in congratulating Capt. Ed on his new gig. I have to admit I had my doubts about Ed's integrity when he had that tete-a-tete with Rove back in 04, but he's since proven himself to still be one of most reasonable conservatives in the Blogosphere. I've put him back on my blogroll.

And finally a plug for my long time commenter Lester, who has engineered a debate on the new Blogtalkradio between "an observant shia muslim and a lamentable right wing blogger." The show will air on Wednesday, 9:30am CST. Should be interesting. Be sure to tune in if you can.