Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Instahoglets 11th April 07

Time for another generous helping of snark, news and blogroll goodies.

  • After all the noise they made about the Associated Press' "fauxtography" a while back, you'd thing the wingers would be careful about photos - but no. "Healing Iraq" blog explains how they were duped by a cropped pic of Baghdad into thinking the demonstrations in Najaf weren't all that big.

  • Raw Story reports that Halliburton have finally left Iran - two years after announcing their pullout. Sanctions? They only apply to companies that can't afford an offshore mail drop.

  • Smintheus at Inconvenient News gets detailled about the Bush administration's support for the Iraqi contestants for the "Most Likely To Cause A War With Iran"award - the utterly-nutterly MeK terror group.

  • Global warming is coming to your backyard. Heat waves, storm surges and droughts are just part of what's predicted for the US by scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  • Shirlington Limousine is suing the US Department of Homeland Security for allegedly shutting the company out of government contracts after it was mentioned as a bit player last year in Republican Rep. Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham's downfall for taking more than $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.

  • PoliBlog looks at the new Red Cross report on Iraq which says the "conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population." Steven Taylor is a conservative who is understandably miffed at the way he and others were misled by the Bushies. He writes:
    One would have thought (indeed, I did think at the time) that high-level decision-makers in the administration understood that one could not go in, remove the government and much of the state apparatus (e.g., the entire security apparatus and much of the bureaucracy) and then expect a replacement to simply spring out of nowhere. However, apparently they did think that and I was wrong to assume that anyone understood an iota of what they were doing. As such, we are have this tragedy before us.

  • The Carpetbagger watches as Lee Iococca gets his righteous rant on at the Busheviks:
    "Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

  • Many have written today about the White House's failure to find a "war czar". But The Galloping Beaver puts his finger on why they're having the trouble.
    If things were going well in either Iraq or Afghanistan it is a simple fact that Bush, or Cheney, would be taking all the credit for anything that looked like success. The US already has civilian and military leadership in place for both theatres. This spells quagmire faster than you can say "fall-guy". Bush/Cheney aren't looking for a war czar. They're looking for a scapegoat.
    And doesn't everyone who they might ask just know it.

  • Russia has decided that Bush is a nutcase who only listens to warmongering neocons and his Rice Crispies. So they're taking steps. It's the new Cold War, same as the old Cold War.

  • If you're looking for detailled blogging on the current pet food recall, Dave at The Glittering Eye is your go-to guy. Start Here.

  • Remember those RNC emails from the likes of Rove and his deputies, using RNC accounts to conduct White House business where they wouldn't be covered by WH records-keeping rules? The ones the Senate warned the RNC not to destroy? Well, the White House says it has LOST A BUNCH! Convenient, that. Nico at Think Progress has the details.

  • And finally, what's the one common mark of all dictatorships? They don't like to let people leave. The federal government disclosed details yesterday of a border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave the United States, create a terrorism risk profile of each individual and retain that information for up to 40 years.

    Somehow I think that this book - Getting Out : Your Guide To Leaving America - has not yet hit its peak popularity.
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