There is a RICH tapestry of good, bad, fun, sad, & everything in between for "this day in history," so let's dive in!
The Army-McCarthy hearings began on the television machine on this date in 1954. How did those turn out again for 'ol "TailGunner" Joe?! ;D
President Nixon died on this date in 1994. Here is what Hunter S. Thompson had to say about the occasion: http://www.theatlantic.com/...
Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan on this date in 2004. For the sake of his family & those who knew & loved him, may the full story of what happened that day come out soonest.
OK, let's bring on the fun! John Waters is 63 today; he is in my absolute favorite Simpsons episode EVER! Here are a couple clips from it:
Jack Nicholson is 72 today; here is the trailer for As Good As It Gets (the movie that SHOULD'VE WON "Best Picture" instead of Titanic that year). Why, pray tell, did I pick THIS particular movie when there's SO MANY others? Because, Nat King Cole's "I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)" is in the trailer and on the soundtrack, and Hubby & I danced to this song as "our dance" at our wedding!
And, yes, I know today is Earth Day. In what will, I'm sure, separate me from most people at DailyKos & perhaps even some here is that I don't get too terribly worked up about environmental issues. I don't drive an SUV, I recycle paper & aluminum, we have a compost pile for Hubby's garden, I don't want animals hunted to extinction, and we try to do a few other things to limit our impact. But, it's really difficult for me to be concerned over what might happen to our planet years and years and years from now when I'm concerned about whether or not I'll have to dip into savings yet again just to pay bills. Yep, that makes me a bit selfish, I know. Here's what George Carlin had to say on the subject.
Mr. Carlin infrequently steers me wrong. Let's Countdown.
Keith’s Back in Da’ House! :D
#5 "Torture Policies" AKA "Tortured Reasoning" AKA "Vice" AKA "Waterboarding Washout" - Our nation began the heavy – duty waterboarding to get detainees to admit to a connection between AQ, 9/11, & Iraq that didn’t exist. So, what’s the way to justify the invasion of a country that had nothing to do with the worst attack on our soil in history? Some water, a blindfold, a board, and a few "friends" - I think I’m gonna be sick. A Senate Armed Services Committee report from Senator Carl Levin indicates the drive to obtain information – ANY information – to prove a link between 9/11 & Iraq began in the early months of 2002 – specifically June 2002. We had
...a perfect storm of ignorance & enthusiasm.
Wow, that sums up GWB & his ilk perfectly. OK, I’m REALLY gonna be sick. Did y’all catch that timeline that Keith specified? Waterboarding began months before Jay Baybee’s initial memo attempting to legally justify what was going on; an FBI official walked out of a session in the interim, and the FBI boss told agents not to participate in any further sessions. DICK doesn’t think the Obama Administration is taking the threat to America seriously because of the closing of Gitmo, the discontinuation of the "techniques," etc.
#4 "A Few Bad Apples" AKA "Bad Apples" AKA "Trickle – Down Torture" - Donald Rumsfeld personally approved of 15 humiliation and/or torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib. Fmr. Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski was made the "fall guy" for what was allowed to happen. So, CONTRACTORS were giving orders to military personnel at Abu Ghraib, and when said military personnel went through their chain of command to question what was going on, their chain of command told them to do what the CONTRACTORS said. Hm...nothing like the desire to "privatize" our nation’s safety. Lynndie England & Charles Graner are still serving time for doing EXACTLY THE SAME THING that CIA personnel did described in the memos that President Obama said would not face investigations or prosecutions because they were following what they believed to be a legal order. My God, how the f*ck did this happen?! Well, that question’s only semi – rhetorical. Wow, Gen. Karpinski is PI$$ED!
** Keith talked about what happened to his nephew on his baseball blog. What a damn cool story! I’m just glad Jacob didn’t get hurt! AAAaaaaWWWwww! A kitty decided it wanted to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field! I hope someone gave it a Wrigley Dog! Judge James Zagel has put the kibosh on Impeached Gov. PottyMouth’s reality TV dreams. A dude in Kenya pit the snake that had chased him up a tree – DAMN! **
#3 "Prosecuting Torture" AKA "The Path to Justice" AKA "Best Case Scenario" - Many people (count me in this group) want a Special Prosecutor named yesterday to investigate the torture memos & all the ilk surrounding them. But, haste may not be the best idea, according to former federal prosecutor Elizabeth De LaVega; well, that’s a damn lovely thing to say to impatient lil’ ‘ol me!
Potential targets or subjects who might previously have felt comfortable enough to speak publicly and further incriminate themselves will clam up...Information that was previously public may be transformed into secret grand jury material. So there will be no public narrative...
OK, DICK, keep flappin’ that pie – hole! As horrible as the last few days have been with all the horrible details of what went on at Gitmo & other places seeing the light of day, what would be more horrible is if we never heard or learned anything else.
WPITW – The country commissioner of Warren County Ohio is saying thanks but no thanks to stimulus coin for more busses for the county’s rural residents to get better access to county services. BillO is still obsessed with GE & its profits. Look at all those down red arrows associated with Pirate Murdoch, FAUX News, & NewsCorp! Senator Ben Nelson thinks too many people
...get their news from entertainers (who) tell them what to be angry about today.
Keith & Rachel "share space" with Glenn Beck, the Mannity, Boss Limbaugh, & BillO! EEEeeeeeeWWWWWwwwwww!
#1 "Politics of Torture" AKA "The Torture Party" AKA "GOPanic" - The horrible information released over the last few days have most of the GOP acting...well...even more like themselves. Senator Arlen Specter repeated TurdBlossom’s talking points like a good little automaton. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher repeated DICK’s talking points about the release of the memos in a Congressional committee hearing like a good little automaton. And, y’all aren’t going to believe these words coming out of my proverbial pie – hole, but WAY TO GO, SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON! I’ll give y’all a moment to pick yourselves off the ground from the shock of me actually saying something nice about her. ;D It would appear to me, as well, that the Obama Administration may not be in full control of where all this information ends up and/or what actions may result.