Instahoglets 27th Feb. 06

More in the Newshog's series of punchposts with a dose of snark. The theme today is my favorite description of the sociopathic machine that has become the Bushevik takeover of the GOP - "Power without grace".

(Oh, and welcome, Daou Report readers. It's a huge honor to be selected as Peter's featured blog today.)

If you have a spare few minutes today, you may wish to ponder why the same nations that would prefer to deny Iran any nuclear power industry at all are falling over themselves to sell India, a nation that avoided the NPT to develop nuclear weapons in secret, more nuclear technology and more weapons capable of fighting a nuclear war. The US and now France both have agreements to increase nuclear sales to India in terms that would make security moms quiver in fear if they knew the details - even though Indian military thinkers still wish to perfect it's nuclear attack trifecture with a view towards always-enemy Pakistan and to China. The double standard is breath-taking.

And talking of double standards did you know the Bush regime has so far refused to give India a reciprocal agreement to separate civilian and military nuclear plants and research? They demand it of India and Iran but don't apply it to themselves.

Regulars know we love a good woodshedding here at Newshog. Here is a state of the art example, as Brad at Sadly No! blog delivers a sound asskicking to pimply pundit Ben Shapiro after Shapiro attacked Al Gore and advocated "Republicans in Congress must stop delicately tiptoeing with regard to sedition and must pass legislation to prosecute such sedition."

Shapiro was channelling Sen. Lindsey Graham at the time, a man who has said ""The administration has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements," with a view, no doubt, to locking up all the dissenters in the new labor camps Halliburton built for King George.

Look, there are two possible explanations why the brownshirts are coming out with totalitarian crap like this. A)They expect King George to declare martial law and rule forever, therefore there will never be a Democrat in the Oval Office to whom they will be the dissidents. B)They are terminally short-sighted in the planning department. Evidence for A - every single one of George's domestic security programs. Evidence for B - the failure to plan for an Iraq occupation, drug prescriptions, oil "addiction" and many others. Take your pick.

I can't snark this from ABC News, it would be like gilding a lily:

Prosecutors call it a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. And it keeps getting worse. Convicted Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham actually priced the illegal services he provided.

Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for Cunningham's sentencing hearing this Friday.

James Joyner is the latest Bushevik to join the mob of once-were-neocons yelling "All we are saying, is give civil war a chance" over Iraq. First he agrees with Stephen Green that "a civil war is the nastiest way to get a good result," and then says that if a full-scale civil war starts up "we must stand aside and let them fight it and then try to salvage a relationship with the eventual victors."

I feel sullied. I am for a withdrawal of coalition troops from Iraq because I think coalition troops have become a part of the problem, not the solution - but to have someone like Joyner agree with me in such circumstances for such venal and heartless motives! Leaving the Iraqis, that Joyner's ilk decided to invade in the first place, to kill each other simply because it's no longer in America's interest...that is the thinking of a true sociopath.

Vexed by paranoid American insistence over unneeded secrecy in technology transfers to the UK, the British government is seemingly looking to cancel an existing contract with Lockheed for 150 advanced fighters and instead buy French aircraft.

That seems like it is simply an arms business feud at first look, but I would say that it is a sign of a major crack in the cross-Atlantic alliance which has held for so many decades. Blair was really pissed with Bush over Kyoto and many of his ministers are angry at being led into the war in Iraq. In general, everyone is peeved at the Bush regime's high-handed attitude, even British conservatives. Now comes the revenge - a realignment of the UK as preferring military alliances with Europe rather than the USA which would radically alter geopolitics in this century. (Just remember - the current Defence Minister, John Reid, is an old-style socialist and former communist. Want to bet how much he loves Bush?)

Finally, The Busheviks walk away from yet another international agreement on human rights:

The United States announced its opposition to the proposed new U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday, putting the U.S. administration on a collision course with many U.N. members, key human rights groups, and a dozen Nobel peace laureates.

Because the Prezididn't will decide what the world's rights are. It's a power given to him by the AUMF, dontcha know? (Never mind that he can't ride a bike, wave and talk at the same time. I wonder what happens if he whistles while he's pissing?)