Call it treason dammit

There's no other definition for what's going on among the crackpot con crowd. The same people who held mass burnings of Dixie Chick albums because they had the audacity to say out loud they were embarrassed by George W Bush (former wingnut hero, now disowned) and demanded we not criticize the Commander in Chief because, respect for the office, are now openly calling for armed rebellion against the US government. There's an huge industry making millions, if not billions, on anti-Obama paraphenalia and that's okay because, that blackity black guy in their White House is not the POTUS they voted for.

Ed Kilgore sums out the treasonous haterage of the right:

It’s ironic that people who almost certainly think of themselves as patriots—perhaps as super-patriots—are deliberately courting the impression that loyalty to their country is strictly contingent on the maintenance of laws and policies they favor, to be achieved if not by ballots then by bullets. Republican politicians should be repudiating such people instead of celebrating them, accepting their money and support, and even adopting their seditious rhetoric.

Hell, Republican politicians spoon fed them this seditious rhetoric. Millions of beer-bellied chickenhawks gobbled it up like free pizza at the local dive bar and regurgitated it into lame brained bumper stickers, tshirts and viral emails. The masses of eagerly deluded now jam into events like the NRA convention, where lifelike runbber target dummies in the likeness of the President of the United States is a hot seller. The perfect gift for your Republican dad. And if your buddy isn't that political, well there's the bleeding ex-wife dummy you can shoot to death to satisfy the urge to murder. But this is all perfectly acceptable because there was that one time some random librul drew a Hitler moustache on a picture of George Bush and carried it around at an anti-war rally.

When schoolteachers were being arrested for wearing anti-war tshirts within 25 miles of their guy, Mr. Mission Accomplished, this proud angry mob was all about love your country or leave it. But dare to suggest that billionaires who gamed the system to bleed our national treasury dry should pay a few thousand more in taxes and you gotta "water the tree of liberty with blood" because, tyranny. We thought their heads were going to explode when they lost the elections. Instead it appears, their brains melted into toxic jelly.

An accidental army of paranoid gun nuts

It appears James Yeager isn't ready to give up the limelight just yet. He apparently took down yesterday's crazed video but Yaeger has a new warning today.



If you can't watch the video, here's the basic text:

Now, I don't condone anybody doing anything rash. I do not condone anybody committing any kind of felonies up to and including aggravated assaults or murders. Unless its necessary.

Right now, it is not necessary. I understand that my video was very volatile. You have no idea how many people that sent me emails and texts and call me like 'Right on! My shit's clean. My bag is packed. You tell me when and where.' You have no idea how quickly I accidentally assembled an army. I assure you, a quite formidable army. But now is not the time. It's not time yet.

But, it is time to get ready!

I remind you Yeager runs a training camp for gun nuts and terrified upper middle class people prepping for a breakdown in society that guys like Yeager promise is just over the next horizon. And if necessary, he'll crash civil society himself with "volatile" videos like this. Good for his business don't you see?

I don't know if he's just a shameless grifter looking to promote his product or an actual lunatic. Either way, he probably belongs on locked psyche ward where he can't poison the public discourse with this insanity.

Happiness is a warm gun

Deposed Tea Party darling Joe Walsh effectively encouraged treason at a rally this week.

At his most aggressive, he told dozens of supporters to "defy and or break the law and engage in civil disobedience" if faced with federal health care law restrictions or new gun laws.

He paraphrased Thomas Jefferson in saying, "We may have to shed blood every couple hundred years to preserve our freedoms."

That would be the freedom to die with a belly full of lead or lack of preventive health care. Of course, that does not include freedom for persons possessing lady parts to make their own reproductive choices. Nor would it cover freedom to sanctify marriages between choice of life partners unapproved by conservative dictum. Which in this case should really be spelled dickdom. Or should that be dickdumb?

And this is rich:

He insisted the Tea Party makes up a majority of the so-called silent Americans and emphasized a platform based on freedom and personal responsibility manifested in four political aims: to cut taxes; limit the size, scope and influence of government; remove debt and respect the rule of law.

So says the deadbeat who failed to pay $100K in child support payments as ordered under the rule of law. Hard to believe his "silent" majority of Tea Party pals didn't manage to get him re-elected.

Vincent Bugliosi rips Bush a new one

expatbrian

In case you missed this over at C & L, I think it's the best thing on YouTube today. Bugliosi is given a platform before the Senate Judiciary Committee to defend his new book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. The repubs on the committee got a little more than they bargained for.

General Accuses Bush Administration of War Crimes

expatbrian

Well George, remember what you said about "listening to your commanders in the field"?

A retired Army general who spent 10 months in Iraq and led an investigation into the atrocities at the Abu Ghraib prison there accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing war crimes and called for those responsible to be held accountable. Full article here.

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account,"wrote Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.

Bush, as the Commander in Chief, and as a "war president" as he likes to call himself, is ultimately responsible for the actions of his military underlings.

"The detainees suffer permanent hearing loss, persistent and debilitating pain in limbs and joints, major depressive disorder, severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders, such as panic attacks." The men were later released and were never charged with any crimes.

We may be Democrats or we may be Republicans, but we are all Americans. Is this what our founding fathers envisioned and is this what is acceptable now in the United States of America? If we are patriots, is not our first patriotic duty to uphold our own Constitution and abide by our own laws? Or are we ready and willing to uphold that Constitution only when the going is easy but when the going gets a little tough, when we feel a little insecure, we forget all that and start behaving like the very barbarians we are supposed to detest?

"With this evidentiary record, this report provides the most detailed account available thus far of the experience of detainees in US custody who suffered torture — a war crime — at the hands of US personnel. Additionally, this report provides further evidence of the role health professionals played in facilitating detainee abuse by being present during torture and ill-treatment, denying medical care to detainees, providing confidential medical information to interrogators, and failing to stop or document detainee abuse.

Just what justification is there, once we are smacked in the face with evidence of actual war crimes, to not take some kind of action against those who are responsible? Just what excuse for our actions do we expect to be acceptable by the international community? Or are we so arrogant, that we no longer care what anyone else thinks?

The report was released Tuesday, the same day documents made public by the Senate Armed Services Committee presented during a hearing on the administration’s interrogation policies showed a pattern of humiliation, abuse and even torture inflicted on detainees was a deliberate policy of the Bush administration.

Jonathan Fredman, chief counsel to the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, discussed with U.S. military officials how interrogators could use the "wet towel"technique against detainees to extract information.

Fredman added that the "wet towel"technique would only be defined as torture "if the detainee dies."

Just what kind of a fucking country are we, anyway?

John McCain: Traitor or Moron?

expatbrian

John McCain exposed himself as a fellow traitor to the US constitution with this response to the US supreme court decision on Guantanamo Bay detainees.

"The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country," McCain said to applause from a crowd of supporters in New Jersey.

"Our first obligation is the safety and security of this nation and the men and women who defend it," he continued. "This decision will harm our ability to do that."

No John, the first obligation of our government and of it's president, as stated in the oath of office. is to uphold the constitution of the United States in all instances. And the function of the Supreme Court is to make judgements based on their reasonable interpretation of that document. That's the law. It doesn't change depending on which country our current enemy comes from or what warfare techniques they choose to employ.

If you want to be President of the United States, it's about goddamn time you started acting like one instead of a too old Alzheimer's patient who can't make up his mind. Our country needs leadership, not another two bit oil whore like the current megalomaniac. And part of that leadership, indeed the most important part of that job, is to uphold the constitution that this country has depended upon and grown successfully under for over 200 years.

You don't understand the economy, you don't have a clue about the needs of poor and working class Americans, you publicly change your stance on issue after issue and don't even realize it, and now you have publicly said that you support violating the law as set forth in the US constitution. You also seem to believe that you are better equipped to interpret the constitution than the justices that have been appointed to do so. That's not called being presidential, John, that's called being a traitor and a moron.

cross posted from World Gone Mad

Ted Stevens & James Peake Hate Veterans

expatbrian

At Memorial Day events in Alaska, both Senator Ted Stevens and VA secretary James Peake decided that, instead of honoring veterans, it was a good day to try to screw them over - again. Stevens warned of a "mass exodus" from the military if the 21st Century GI Bill goes into law without major changes.

In other words, don't give them full college benefits after their tour is up (like he got after WWII service) because, heaven forbid, they might want to actually get out of the military when they are supposed to and use those benefits. They might not stay in the military so they can be rotated back to Iraq over and over and over again until they get wounded or killed, their marriage falls apart, or they finally commit suicide.

Instead of that Ted, why don't you reinstate the draft and solve all of those problems once and for all? Maybe because you're a political coward and don't give a shit about our soldiers? Or even worse, maybe because some rich donors son might have to go "serve his country" along with all of the poor ones that already are? Can't have that.

Peake did his part to humiliate the vets by insisting that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is over diagnosed, attaching a stigma to PTSD that the mental health and veterans community have worked hard to remove.

Now isn't THAT a load of Bushco doublespeaking crap. Does anyone agree that the VA should be a completely independent agency and the head of it should NOT be appointed by the president? On the other hand, does anyone remember the VA ever being so political and involved in conflicts like this before? I don't.

"What Stevens and the Bush Administration said this weekend was unfounded and disappointing," Begich said. "While Stevens had his college education fully paid for after serving in WWII, he now wants to hold today’s veterans hostage by not offering them full college benefits. Our veterans deserve care and support for their service, but Stevens and the Bush administration prefer to deny them those benefits."

Peake and Stevens. Two more war criminals for the firing squad.