Remember when the US military was caught redhanded planting Pro-US propaganda in the Free Iraqi media?

An unclassified summary of results of the inspector general's probe, released on Thursday, said:

"We concluded that the Multi-National Force-Iraq and Multi-National Corps-Iraq complied with applicable laws and regulations in their use of a contractor to conduct Psychological Operations and their use of newspapers as a way to disseminate information."

Yes it's official. Our current military leaders are not only fucking idiots, but as thick in the slime of corruption as their political counterparts.

More on the flip side

I am now happy to report that I was wrong. In addition to the test being an apparent dud, the story itself seems to have been a one shot wonder even here in Hawaii where we are in range of Korean missiles. To my relieved astonishment, the additional revelations of more GOP coverup and lurid details from the Foley case has been the main focus. It seems the public really doesn't care about issues when you wave a juicy sex scandal in their face.

And on a sadder note, the carnage from Iraq is coming back from the page A9 footnote into A3 articles precisely because the violence has gotten so bad that the reports are newsworthy again. Not enough to sway the die hard kool aid swilling sheep of course (does anything?) but it's more ammo to fire into the teetering walking corpse of the GOP.

No Quarter, No Mercy. Let's end the Republican Tyranny.

North Korea's nuclear test is going to blow the Foley Scandal right out of the water and set the Republican Incompetence on a backburner.Yes, even though it is Republican's fault on NK they're going to get away scott clean in the MSM as the chickenshit 'reporters' focus on that holy grail of Republican cocksucking.

National Security.

More on the Flip.

"Those deficiencies were so significant that we were precluded from accomplishing our stated objectives," the auditors said of U.S. officials in Hillah being unable to account for $97 million of the $120 million in Iraqi oil revenues earmarked for rebuilding projects.

This is the face of Republican run warfare. Corruption, war profiteering, tax cuts, troop levels being slashed, and incompetence on a level that is beyond terrifying. Bush's appointed idiots in charge run things like a third world country. What they don't steal, they break. What they don't break, they simply can't find.

Onwards to the flipside.

What do the Republicans get out of this?

We all saw how they started exploiting 9/11 almost before the last bodies were carried away, and I saw no reason to believe they would not stay true to form now.

There was the Roberts stealth nomination of course, the inheritance tax repeal, tax cuts, even padding the Justice department with a few more torture apologists.

But what else could we have missed?

Bush used a "recess appointment" Wednesday to name Alice S. Fisher to lead the agency's criminal division. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the U.S. military prison camp at Guantanamo.

And nothing can be done about it now because everyone with a heart is too busy helping out Katrina victims. Which leaves PLENTY of free time for Republicans to plot and sneak through the shit that would normally be highlighted by the opposition.

Don't Politicize Katrina?

Too late, folks. The Republicans have already started before the dead bodies are even cold.

"I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of fact, of science, including faith," Frist said.

Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design "doesn't force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future."

How about some good old fashioned Aztec explanations of how the world and everything in it was formed? About the only thing I can see getting these damn nutcases to back off the Bible-Thumping is the reminder that everyone ELSE could start teaching their kids about NON-Christian creationism.

Religious science, isn't. And employers don't care about 'fairness in education', either you know the  facts or you don't. This idiotic suggestion to dumb down the classroom does nothing to help American kids prepare for the harsh reality of the  working world....unless Frist intends them all to serve as Pope to the Catholic Church.

The title:

U.S. Held Meetings With Taliban in 2000

Uh huh. Tell us something we didn't already know.

U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan William B. Milam held a secret meeting with an unidentified senior Taliban official in September 2000 and assured him that international sanctions on the Taliban would end if bin Laden were expelled from Afghanistan, newly declassified documents show.

$10 says dumb right-wingers rush to put this article on their blogs and cut-and-paste message boards. Yes, never mind that Clinton was trying to hinder Osama, never mind that Bush kept up the contacts up to the attack on Afghanistan, it must be snark Clinton's fault /snark.

Is there no low Bush-supporters will not sink to?

10 days later and that required report to Congress still not delivered. Between Rove and the Supreme Court it looks like Congress really can't chew bubble gum and walk at the same time.

Rumsfeld said information about the readiness and performance of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces -- one of the most telling measures of progress -- would be included in a classified annex to the report but not made public.

Clever little shithead, isn't he?  Not only does Rummy prevent John Q Public from finding out just how little there actually is to the 'Iraqi fighting forces', but Democratic Members of Congress who try to complain about it will be cited with 'revealing classified information' if they attempt to use the actual numbers from the report to back up their arguments. This has Rove's grubby fingerprints all over it. Damned if you do, look like an idiot if you don't.

Sadly, that's not the worst of it.

The report to Congress, due yesterday, was required under the $80 billion war spending legislation approved in May. It is intended to help answer one of the most pressing questions hanging over the American-led occupation: when the United States might be able to begin drawing down the estimated 140,000 forces in Iraq.(emphasis mine)

This is the kind of thing that can bring down ruling parties. Not as splashy as outright treason, but just as able to get the job done.

More on the flip.

Bush said the London attacks were a reminder of the "evil" of the Sept. 11 attacks and underscored that the United States and its allies were fighting a "global war on terror."

"We will stay on the offense, fighting the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them at home," Bush said.

Yeah, I couldn't believe it either when I saw this.

"I expect he will talk about the strategy for winning the war on terrorism," McClellan said. "He'll talk about (how) in the short term, it's taking the fight to the enemy abroad and in the long term it's spreading freedom and democracy to defeat the extremist ideology of hatred and oppression."

Somebody get McClellan a dictionary. That's not strategy, that's a pipe dream. Looks like the White House is finally slipping on message.

And only a Democrat would be spineless enough and stupid enough to apologize for their statements instead of standing firm and letting others who support them stand up and defend them....and thus delegitimitizing their original statement.

Its a sad sign of the times.

The 'Conservatives' are the new 'liberal' and the 'Liberals' are the new 'conservative'.

I didn't think it was possible to depress me more about Iraq. I was wrong.

Now keep in mind, these are the Iraqis supposedly on OUR side. If that's the sentiment of the people who AREN'T shooting at our boys and girls, one can only imagine what the Iraqis who actually hate our military forces there feel.

And it only gets worse from there.

I'm spending a lot of time convincing seniors nothing changes, and convincing folks there's a problem," Bush said, making his 33rd campaign-style appearance on Social Security since declaring it his top domestic priority in February.

60 days...wasn't that also how long he thought we'd be in Iraq?

"This is just the beginning of a very difficult debate," he told reporters during a news conference Tuesday. While Bush said he expected an eventual breakthrough "like water through a rock," he added again, "We're just beginning the process."

Brain melting from stupidity overload....

Let's see, Judges, Bolton, Iraq, Torture, Newsweek, North Korea, and Stem Cells. All on Larry King Live.

On more on the human rights side, go to this diary'

For the rest of it, I think I'm going to need a bigger shovel....

A White House spokesman yesterday declined to comment on whether Mr. Bush would return contributions from Mr. Noe. She deferred questions about the Ohio coin scandal to the Republican National Committee, saying, "the White House does not raise money.

Now that is just an outright lie coming from the Bush admin. Bush has been doing almost nothing BUT fundraising (on taxpayer's dime no less) since 2001.

Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, would not say whether Mr. Bush is pondering the return of money raised for his campaign by Mr. Noe.

He refused to comment about the involvement of influential Republicans in Ohio's coin scandal.

Politically, he said Democrats should focus their attention on other issues.

"The DNC would be well served to focus its attention and energy behind helping the Democrat Party come up with ideas or solutions that address the pressing issues confronting our nation," Mr. Diaz said.

You know you hit paydirt when Republicans don't want you to talk about it. Especially since last I checked, corruption IS a pressing issue.

The Democrats had the Republicans by the damn GONADS and then they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Just LOOK at the language of this 'compromise' and tell me we didn't just get reamed big time on the details.

Not only do three of the WORST Judges get almost certain confirmation now, but the 'deal' to let the Democrats retain power of the minority is contingent on the GOOD FAITH of the GOP!

People, you should know BETTER then to trust the lying liars of the right!

More on the flip.