In a word, “yes.” Now to read the post!

wow

Well, they tried to smear him without first painting his military career as a sham and we all saw how well that worked out for them.

to quote lotus @61, LT,”if only we were making this up!”

You know, it’s time we take these bastards to court over this stuff. I’d be first to contribute to the Murtha LitigateTheirAssesOff fund.

Great post. I saw a hearing on cspan several years ago, about 3am. Chris Shays chaired it and did a wonderful job. It was on money being “lost” in the DOD. Trillion a year. When these republican reps. go out campaigning, this would be a good line of questioning, since there are no checks and balances in the legislative branch. Veterans for Peace are doing a good job in Maine asking Collins and Snowe, “Why won’t you debate the Iraq war?” Snowe won’t even meet with families of vets.

Follow the money, indeed. Maybe it’s the only thing that allows Hunter - and the others who are engaging in (or sitting by while others get their hands dirty) attacks on Murtha - to sleep at night. I truly do not know how these people can look themselves in the eye on this - it’s just despicable.

Hey, thanks, Molly, and good morning to all.

Taylor –

Thanks for your research and writing on this! Some days I can barely stand to read this sort of thing, it just makes me want to weep. The horror of this level of greed is staggering. What amount of blood they have on their hands!

You do us all a service, bringing this to everyone’s attention. We should now pick up the ball — spread this info far and wide, especially if we know people in that scum’s district. Or in Murtha’s district — he still needs our support, and Irey sounds like a real piece of work.

Great post! This blog is on fire!

I keep hoping that this trick will backfire in the shameless Repugs. This time they may have bitten off more than they can chew, as Congressman Murtha was a Marine Colonel, and is not one to back down (see his Rove remarks as an example).

Murtha not only served in Vietnam, he commanded troops there. It is one thing for to smear a Lt. that testifies against the Vietnam War after serving (John Kerry) it is another whole thing to hammer a ex-colonel, ya know?

Good morning back to you, Taylor!

I hardly ever get to be here at FDL these days, and getting a chance to be here in the morning is even more unusual. So it’s extra good to get a chance to thank you in person for all your work!

Hi, Taylor, welcome back, and thanks!

That Conason takedown of Irey and her crew is delicious. Imagine running against Jack Murtha when your only visible means of support is Ahmad Chalabi — wotta hoot!

I’d love to see Howard Dean and every Democrat on TV flog this. Thanks, Taylor.

Mrs. K8 - You’ve got it right. We need to spread this information far and wide. People need to know that it’s REPUBLICANS who smear veterans, not the other way around. I’d like Hunter to have to answer some questions. Also, it would be interesting to get people in Hunter’s district riled up about this. Sending emails and demanding answers is a place to start, right after we play Paul Revere.

Ah…Tony Snesko. He used to be a Poway city councilmember. Poway is the home of Brent Wilkes ADCS. Snesko is a born-again Christian. After he left Poway he went to Washington to work on a campaign to get the FCC to censor “indecent” programs.

HELP SUPPORT THE TROOPS ACCESS THE INTERNET:

Read this story:

http://www.localistmagazine.com/iraq.htm

And if you have IT/network equipment you can donate or time, knowledge or money, they could use the help to run these “hajinets”:

Go here:

http://hajjinet.com

HACKING IRAQ
Enterprising soldiers take the internet into their own hands
By Carey Voss

Imagine: You’re living in a previously abandoned compound in the desert with three hundred other people. You have a few rudimentary amenities—running water, three meals a day, a bed to sleep in—but your electricity still depends on a generator and telephone lines are just beginning to be installed. It’s hot, people shoot at you, and from time to time, a rocket explodes nearby. In dreams of a more comfortable life, you miss a few simple things: friends and family, junk food, and porn.
As of June 16, 2,498 American soldiers have died and 18,356 have been wounded in the pursuit of Iraqi freedom. The threat of unremitting danger haunts soldiers conducting missions in the streets of Iraq and leaves them physically and psychologically exhausted. Back on the base, the wound-up intensity of constant suspicion and paranoia begs for some release. For most troops deployed in Iraq , the internet is one of the only links to the western world. In the dusty warzone towns, there’s no daily newspaper, no local radio station, no grocery store magazine rack, nocell phone, and no movie theatre. To our troops, these luxuries mean more than access to up-to-date information; they represent a normalized, human state of affairs.
Since the military provides just 6 to 12 computers for every 1,000 or so troops, time limits of 10 to 15 minutes per day are often enforced at Morale Welfare Recreation Cafés (the complicated name for military internet cafés). Anyone who sorts through spam, reads forwarded articles and jokes, then tries to respond to “real” email knows 15 minutes isn’t enough. Josh Hines, a soldier from Conway who recently returned from Iraq , confirmed that the Army lacks internet services and lamented the scarcity of entertainment options.
It should come as no surprise, then, that some enterprising military personnel have engineered an alternative. Hajjinets, the common term for troop-owned ISPs, have sprung to life on almost every base around Iraq. A typical Hajjinet is built and maintained by one or two soldiers and can provide nearly 24-hour internet access (until the region is stabilized and electrical lines can be installed, generators must occasionally be powered down for maintenance). Most Hajjinets are small, serving between 20 and 30 troops, but ISPs serving as many as 300 are known to exist. In a country wracked by war, where even the capital city receives only intermittent electricity, where people’s lives are in constant peril, and where even basic necessities are scarce, this is no small victory.
A Hajjinet’s key elements are satellite service from an international provider, a satellite dish to send and receive data, and a central location inside a base where network hardware is safe from attack. Like an internet-age Frankenstein, a Hajjinet’s hardware must be purchased from an international source, shipped in, then cobbled together by military personnel, many of whom have little previous experience running a network.
One of the major difficulties faced by inexperienced system administrators in Iraq is their lack of knowledge about already-existing Hajjinets—the creators of new Hajjinets are forced to invent an entire network from scratch. In response to this problem, Sgt. Dave Coughanour, system administrator and architect of the Hajjinet at Camp Habbaniyah (located in the Suni Triangle between Fallujah and Ramadi) created hajjinet.com, an online forum for other administrators of troop-run ISPs. Sgt. Coughanour speculates that almost every U.S. military base in Iraq has at least one or two small troop-run networks; however, until more people participate in the online forum, it’s hard to know how many Hajjinets exist, how many troops they serve, and where they’re located.
Sgt. Coughanour…..
STORY CONTINUES………….

Whoa, Taylor, look what crawled out from under that rock. Looks like all roads always lead back to Chalabi.
Thank you so much for your work. You are indefatiguible.

Taylor Marsh, that post is in the finest tradition of necessary muckracking. Truly awesome.

These pukes!

Nice post, Taylor, thanks.

What is that, a free lunch from the military industrial complex buffet?

Some vets aren’t war profiteers.

Some are– Duke and Duncan.

Gee…a spouse of an invasion profiteer..and a pro-invasion Congressman. You’re not REALLY suggesting that Irey and Hunter are in bed together on this, are you? What could POSSIBLY be the mutual benefit in that?

Chris Shays chaired it and did a wonderful job. It was on money being “lost” in the DOD.

molly –

There’s a very creepy fact that’s always troubled me. On Mondy, September TENTH, 2001, Rumsfeld issued a press statement at about 10 in the morning — informing that close to 2 trillion dollars of Pentagon money had gone “missing.” Poof.

Then the next day the wing of the Pentagon which housed civilian workers responsible for audits got hit. All their records gone. Poof.

Creeps me the hell out.

Where do trillions of dollars GO? What do you suppose they’re being used for?

All is not right with the world unless a thread contains:

Fitz!

You got that right, meta. When I saw his name it was a SHAZAAM moment, for sure. Hey, bobbyG, angie.

Glad “anon” picked up on Tony Snesko. He’s a real beauty.

And it’s Republicans turning on some of the more conservative elements. Murtha may be their match - he will not back down or take it from people who have no principles. They are so up against the wall.
We need more Abramoff info released. What a ring.

The swirling stench is situated around the Dukester, whom Duncan Hunter went to bat for again and again. But in the end it’s the money.

Take a look at this link from Howie:

http://downwithtyranny.blogspo.....randy.html

ah yes! Duncan Hunter of the impassioned Gitmo Aint-No-Torture-Here Defense Team with his servings of scrumptious Lemon Chicken !

Good Morning Taylor. Great post, although very disheartening.

Sick f’n bastards. The pug smear machine knows no limits of decency. Good thing is, the louder they screech, the more we know tehy’re afraid. I don’t know why there are no laws against this type of lying, though.

Q: Is there a “rogue’s gallery” regarding these people? The same names pop up over and over, with newsmax and sbvft alums usually in the mix. Maybe we should create one. Would certainly help w/ the rapid response.

Oh and rest assured a big portion of the “missing” money is being used to pay for governement sponsored propaganda and psy-op manipluation. Takes a lot of “black” dough to run communications programs this organized.

Taylor –

Considering the level of fraud involved in all this, I’d guess that if an enraged citizen were to “borrow” a zip code from Hunter’s district in order to send an email asking direct questions, that citizen’s conscience shouldn’t be too VERY troubled. Eh?

[Or do you have other suggestions for what a person in another state can DO to kick Duncan Hunter’s butt? Other than spread the word in other blogs, I mean.]

I know it’s tough, UrbanP., but we should start by emailing Duncan Hunter what’s going on.

FDL has a whole listing of war profiteering posts, which include Matt O.’s and many others:

http://www.firedoglake.com/cat.....fiteering/

Great post Taylor - connecting dot to dot to dot. The Irey & bus partner info is the kind of story no one seems to be reporting on much - what with all the concerns about flag burning and gay marriage.

Really good stuff - kudos.

Urban Pirate –

I’m wondering if ePluribus Media doesn’t have a sort of “rogue’s gallery” set up already. You know them?

Taylor, have you heard anything recently re whether Cunningham has actually started singing yet, and/or what might be his tune?

Part of the money goes to buy secret operations on the ground all over the globe. Part of it is used to fund the election - by any means necessary - of more Republicans. The rest of it is for penthouses, limo services, and cheap perfume.

That “Fred,” he’s a bizzy boy.

Taylor, thanks for the props re my music blog on your site, in your Net Neutrality piece.

You are Da Bomb.

This should get you to Duncan Hunter’s email:

http://www.congress.org/congre.....istrict=52

OT —

Holy cow! I’m listening to Jon Corzine giving info on a state of emergency for folks along the Delaware River. Lots of Trenton residents will be evacuated.

I’d better go check on my sister, who lives right on the Delaware (Washington’s Crossing, PA).

Actual work is interferring with my fdl time.

We got a giant donation of surgical equipment :) which I need to figure out how to handle, change travel plans, stand on my head, etc.

See you guys soon.

Nice digging, Taylor. I felt your link between Tony Snesko and Amanda Doss (as explained above) was weak, so I backtracked using your links. Wow!

Tony Snesko was painted as an everyman who, due to his outrage at the false portrayal of Kerry’s service record, created his own protest. But his wife works for Duncan Hunter, and so does he! The timeline here is critical — did the Sneskos work for Hunter before Operation Street Corner (Snesko’s protest)? Otherwise Hunter can weasel and claim he hired them after hearing of Mr. Snesko’s “heroic” action…

Talk about turning over the rock!

You’re right, Taylor. In the end it IS the money. Before this Iraq war started I was convinced the incompetence implicit with Bush’s cronyism machine would doom any longterm military venture. That surely has happened. But I had no idea the corruption, greed, nepotism and sheer criminality of the right wing machine would grow so big.

And it has to be far bigger than we even know. With sites like yours, talking point memo, tpm muckraker, warandpiece, etc. exposing so much on your very small research budgets, imagine what would come up if major investigative resources were being applied?

As it is, Cunningham and Abramoff appear to be being encouraged to say as little as possible.

Taylor –

Thanks for the link! You sure make it easy for us!

Wasn’t Josh going to do something like a rogue’s gallery of sorts with timelines, etc.?

Hi Taylor -

Great work! I respect your research and your intestinal fortitude - some really nasty stuff is under the rocks you are turning over.

Thanks.

[PS - did you write for the LA Weekly in the early 90’s… ?]

Mrs. K8, I will check it out. Thanks.

Great post Taylor……Way to lay it out…IF ONLY those MSM trolls could get off their butts
and do this kind of investigative work…WOW

What an amazing post, and what a gross disappointment Duncan Hunter is, even for a Republican congressman.

I don’t agree with Murtha on everything, either, but I am wistful for the days when you could express those disagreements without baseless attacks on the integrity and military service of your intellectual opponents.

This is the fault, I believe, of the GOP noise machine, and 20 years of screaming epithets into the cameras as if it is normal behavior. I see it even in my small rural county, where I serve on a public agency board. We have been called all sorts of names for not voting for outcomes that a local ad hoc group demanded. Others who do not share their views become afraid to speak publicly, because they do not want to be vilified.

Good for Murtha for standing up to them. It isn’t easy to listen to that kind of stuff directed at you, no matter how tough you are.

Great post, Taylor.

kirk murphy - Yep. I was at the LA Weekly in the mid 1990s.

It was amazing when I started to put the beginning of the investigation on my blog over the weekend, Franco, which including links to Sean-Paul that you all shouldn’t miss. All hell broke loose.

IF ONLY those MSM trolls could get off their butts and do this kind of investigative work

The capacity for investigative reporting by MSM prima donnas and journalists is inversely proportional to the number of cocktail weenies they’ve packed away in their fat asses.

Aside from the travesty of throwing Murtha under the bus, which is inexcusable all by itself, the greater question is, why? And the only answer I can come up with is that these people came to power on the back of 9/11 and the Iraq war, and a campaign that painted Democrats as weak on security and defense. The bonus for them was the money that started pouring in from all directions, and just keeps on paying off for them.

Smearing Murtha is the only way they see to maintain a hold on the power that allows them to continue to sit at the (rigged) mega-millions (billions?) slot machine that is Iraq. And in true Rovian fashion, the fact that what Murtha is saying about Iraq carries so much authority and is so credible that it is nearly impervious to challenge on the merits is irrelevant. They see their hold on power slipping, and maintaining that hold is so important to them that they are blinded to the fact that the positions they are taking are not what is best for either this country, or for Iraq.

Follow the money - it shouldn’t be hard, because it just smells so bad - like death, in fact.

I_N_C_R_E_D_I_B_L_E

digging and reporting.

Thank you…

Urban Pirate, here’s another who’s who link for you:
http://tpmmuckraker.com/reference.php

KABOOM!!

Taylor, you ROCK!

Dear God, we’re fighting Vietnam all over again.

Taylor — that bit by “anon” is critical. Means Snesko is tied directly into the VRWC, and that’s what we’re up against here.

We’re not taking on some cheesy DINO-consultant-ocracy; we’re up against the full bore of the Wurlitzer.

Anon, if you’re up for it, please give us a few more details about the relationship between Snesko and whatever group he supported in his assault on indecency, it will help flesh out the other monsters that may crawl out shortly. I’m specifically looking for a relationship between Snesko and Parents Television Council, or FRC, or Heritage Foundation. If we make that connection we know how big this gets — and we know where the weak links may be.

We’re not taking on some cheesy DINO-consultant-ocracy; we’re up against the full bore of the Wurlitzer. - Rayne @ 56

BINGO.

Taylor - OUTSTANDING work! If we learned anything about the swiftboating of Kerry it is thay we have to dig fast and deep to see who is really involved. Great job!

Urban - I know it is easy to let the repug smear machine wear you down, but I still believe that they HELP US more than they hurt us. Attacking Murtha is like attacking a believed grandfather or uncle - that is how it will play out for the great majority of Americans. It is really no different than Coulter’s attacks on the 9/11 widows - and that really didn’t work out so well for her.

The problem for TEAM LOSER is that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is their ENEMY, and no group (even those with more than one trick) can fight that battle to begin with, and every time they give out a Scarlet E it is less potent, if not impotent, and sound more and more hollow and false.

Is it wrong? Absolutely. Infuriating? Sure. But that still doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful to ultimately bringing TEAM LOSER down.

This looks like another case of aspens connected at the roots and yet more evidence that our government is being run as a criminal enterprise.

OT (sorry, Taylor):

‘An amazingly fit and trim…posterior’ and ‘…he helps wash the dishes’…?…That’s the way to win Ben Stein’s heart.

;>)

Mrs. K8 at 9:10

Do you live in NJ, too?

njprogressive

BTW - “…believed grandfather…” should read “…beloved grandfather…” although it still kind of works

EPU –

You are absolutely spot on! And this is precisely the trouble Mr. (or is it “Miss Piggy”?) Rove is in. His power has always stemmed from his lack of conscience — NOTHING is too slimy for him.

But in the end, he’s running out of tricks. Everybody’s SEEN all this stuff before, ad nauseum. So the tricks get more hysterical and desperate, which in turn generates even LESS belief on the part of the public.

It becomes a feedback loop which is actually a downward spiral.

Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of gangsters.

Taylor,

I would hold up your post as the epitome of what investigative blogging can accomplish. Thank you.

I hope that the folks over at TPM Muckraker and elsewhere on the internet start digging into this as well. Maybe the traditional media will get involved someday too, but I’m not holding my breath…

Taylor–an ASTONISHING piece. Great work.

Speaking of right-wing attacks on veterans, in Virginia George Allen is running scared of keeping his seat in November, let alone going on to be president in ‘08.

They’ve hired several nasty people to go after James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan:

We shouldn’t be surprised that the attacks are already coming. Just take a look at the advisors Allen has hired.

Allen has hired Mary Matalin, a long-time advisor to Dick Cheney. He’s hired Chris Lacivita, the architect of the Swift Boat campaign that smeared John Kerry’s war record. And he’s hired Dick Wadhams, a man whose last race featured the despicable intimidation of Native American voters and campaign workers breaking the law. Source: Webb campaign email 6/28 to supporters.

Now they plan to swiftboat Webb. BRING IT ON.

Muckraker has been one of my favorites since it launched. They linked to the Raw Story article, which quoted me and Sean-Paul. I have no doubt they’re on it and they’ve got a bigger budget than I do.

njprogressive –

Not in the area now, I’m in AZ (I call it being “in exile”) now, but I grew up in the Delaware Valley.

Virtually all my relatives are still in that neck of the woods, however. [And I’m so homesick, it ain’t funny.]

Are you in South Jersey? Or in that NYC suburb they call “North Jersey”? ;-)

Operation Street Corner is a website dedicated to Tony Snesko’s campaign to smear John Kerry. New links have been added to the site to smear John Murtha.
http://www.operationstreetcorn.....enmain.htm

There are a lot of pictures of Tony at this website- There is one with his arm around a guy in a blue shirt- he looks like Duncan Hunter but I cannot verify that he is.

No more Marquess of Queensberry rules! These guys in the Republican party understand only three things. Winning, maintenance of power, and getting richer. Plenty richer. The Democrats have much ammunition to use to swift boat the Vietnam avoiding Bush and Cheney. It’s time to “lock and load”. If it’s knuckel-busting their little brains appreciate, then let’s give it to them.

Meta at 18

Oh no! Does that mean we need to call him “The Indefatiguible Taylor Marsh” now? Does KOS know about this?

Find digging and great post, Taylor. Should we try forwarding it to some people in the MSM?

I’m saddened to see what’s become of the Washington Post, but they still have some real journalists (albeit, buried in the back too often)

Taylor –

Was just scoping out your blog again (which I don’t visit hardly enough!) — and I have a question:

Do you REALLY have a peacock?

I was in the Glendale Arizona Public Library one day when a peacock (from a neighboring city park) strolled in through the electric eye door. It was a hoot and a half. And those suckers are REALLY LOUD!

BTW what do you feed a peacock?
—————-

Flood alert –

I’m looking at (live I think, WCAU) film on MSNBC. I can’t believe it — Manayunk (Philly — where the famous bike race “hits the wall”) is flooded. Just got seriously under way half an hour ago.

Mandatory evacuations in Manayunk.

Hey, Jane — be CAREFUL driving in the Northeast! Okay?

Taylor,
Excellent follow up to your post the other day on your site. You do some exhaustive digging and I am way proud to have you on our side. Duncan,et al, will be seeing the blinding light of day just like the rest of the pond scum criminals that are currently on the docket. The DOJ is going to be VERY busy.

icky.

>>>>>>>>>>
That’s when Snesko took his case to Congress. With the help of his congressman, Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, he wrote the amendment to the then-pending Telecommunications Act of 1996 and persuaded the American Family Association to underwrite 550 copies of the pornographic video, which he distributed to all 435 congressional offices.

“Every morning, I did a Jericho walk around the Capitol, just praying for God to do a miracle,” says Snesko, a devout Christian. But House legislators and staffers told him there was little chance that Rep. John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and author of the telecommunications bill, would allow the amendment.

“I sat down in the Longworth [House Office] Building in this window sill and said that I should just go back to San Diego,” recalls Snesko. “I am wasting my time.” As he prayed, he claims the Lord spoke to him, giving him courage to resume his visits. “As I left the 435th office, my pager rang and it was Chairman Dingell’s office, which had called and said, `We are putting your legislation in.’”

Although the bill died in 1994, it was picked up in 1995 — after Snesko visited all 100 Senate offices that summer. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, amended the measure to eliminate broadcast obscenity from early evening broadcasts, as opposed to a complete ban. Today, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 505, says cable programmers that offer sexually explicit material must scramble both sound and vision for nonsubscribers and only transmit from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/.....24137/pg_2

Oklahoma kiddo #70,

Heh, I resemble that remark.lol.

If the The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is part of the swift-boating can’t that become the story.
We saw how the administration would leak something to Judy Miller on a Friday. She’d write about it on Saturday and on Sunday Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld would all be ready to quote from the NYT justifying whatever they wanted to say. In my opinion that should set off alarm bells and whichever media outlet is being used should become the story.
It sounds like this was coordinated (I like your word orchestrated) and the Florida paper was a knowing participant.
Who came up with the headline they used in the Sunday paper article that was in turn pounced on by Drudge? They should be greater consequences than some kind of correction several days after the fact.

Hello HopeSaT, don’t worry. I have Kos in my back pocket. (p.s. Taylor is a she.)

Hello to Jane, wherever you are! Hope you’re safe and warm, and that you saw the great pix of you, especially the one of your dogs walking you.

BTW, the Free Republic of Berkeley just voted to put a referendum on Impeachment of the Prez and Vice Prez on the November ballot. That Kos sure can wield the sword.

Best disinfectant is sunlight. Thanks for shining some on these suckers, Taylor.

My apologies Ms Taylor Marsh ma’am. Great work.

Today is a “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore” day.

Thanks for the corection Meta-man (right?).

OK Kiddo - I don’t take issue with wanting to take the gloves off, and do think that using TEAM LOSER’s tactics against them might, at times, be a good idea.

That being said, remember one HUGELY important difference between us and them: we have the TRUTH. They don’t, they don’t have any choice but to defame b/c they have no truth, only lies. And, as I said before, you can sell lies if you’re successful b/c then no one cares, you can’t sell lies when you are abject failures.

So, go play in the gutter, but always keep in mind that you have even better ammunition.

Hope, you’re blowing it! I’m a woman. Funny how we find ourselves trying to sort out disembodied cyber pixels, isn’t it?

great post Taylor. I noticed several people referring to you as “him” or “he,” kinda funny. Folks, Taylor’s a she, and pretty dishy too. FYI, drop in to the Whiskey Bar sometime today, Billmon is on fire…

Boy that Ben Stein sure is brilliant.

Even in Columbia the drug cartels who kill with impunity also have a habit of pouring money into impoverished areas, sponsoring teams and opening hospitals.

Oh no Ben, there is no hate in the party of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Bob Dornan, James Inhofe, Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich.

None whatsoever.

What a tool.

-GSD

Great post in every way. Thank you.

The Sun-Sentinel/Drudge stuff is the mark of an inside-the-GOP operation. What’s interesting is how the power of the bloggers to quickly pierce through the fog of GOP disinformation has changed the game. It ain’t as easy as it once was.

Do any of you Californians ever get a response from the Seersucker Lady? It makes me sick that we’re going to be stuck with her for another six years. I started getting queasy when she voted for Bush’s prescription bill for the elderly.

Ok I’m a man too (not really)…sheesh.

I’m sooo sorry. I kinda go by the names, bad turtle, bad. I shan’t refer to to gender again unless I know. Sorry.

Sorry.

EPU, at 9:53, I could not agree more.

Another tasty bit of Muck:
Midterm Muck Update

These people make the Mob look like the two-bit pot ring I used to be in.

Yes, Mrs. K8, we have peacocks, including an offspring of the male & female that “belong” to our neighbors, though birds never really belong to anyone. We feed them black sunflower seeds and walnuts. They love, LOVE, love walnuts.

And thanks for stopping by my blog. I’m trying to get back on radio and every eye counts to that end!

As for being a female, thanks cyber ruffian!

EPU’d…BobbyG’s rant to the papers this morning.
_____

Given that it’s by now beyond obvious that the priority function of Congress is to burn up copious quantities of taxpayer-funded FTE on the most inane, quixotic constitutional amendment proposals, I offer one of my own, to address my own pet peeve:

WHEREAS the National Anthem of these United States is every bit as sacred a symbol of the nation as is our American Flag, be it hereby resolved that The Congress shall have power to prohibit the desecration of the National Anthem of the United States by means of gauche musical interpretations, including, but not limited to, tactics such as Mariah Carey (and wannabee) stratospheric vocal trill-ization, Luther Vandross R&B lick-ization, Manhattan Transfer Major 9th/flatted 5th four-part harmonization, blues-riffification in general, or Nashvilification. Hip-Hopization is specifically enjoined. The National Anthem has a distinct and venerable melody in no need of embellishment for the ego gratification of narcissistic music stars, and shall be sung in English in a dignified manner, as written.

ADDENDUM: Stylings by Lee Greenwood shall be exempt from the provisions of this Amendment. However, the Dixie Chicks and all American Idol finalists are specifically enjoined by this Amendment.

Yep, Taylor, sure sounds like Hunter thinks Murtha’s gonna upset his rice bowl.

Nonetheless, sure looks like you’ve turned over an interesting rock. :)

OT –

It really ticks me off that MSNBC can’t spell “DELAWARE River” correctly in its graphics.

It’s NOT “Deleware.” Geez.

Oops! They just fixed it. Hee hee. Think maybe they heard me yelling?

Seriously, though, whom do they hire to work on the graphics? I know there are plenty of folks who can’t spell, and I have nothing against them, but they shouldn’t necessarily be working some place which requires ACCURACY, especially in this day and age of specialized spell checkers.

OK, I guess I’m officially a curmudgeon now.

CNN - Israeli jet just did flyby of Pres Assad’s home in Syria.

Taylor, thanks so much. It looks as though you have been “scooping” everyone on this since last week. Congratulations, now I have to email Duncan.

Naschkatze at 86:

Do you mean Feinstein?

If you do, she’s a tool. I’m a native San Franciscan and had to live through her mayoral rule. Her Husband Richard Blum is a corporate tool and she’s always been easily manipulated by whomever fits her ‘business model’ for furthering her or her husbands careers.

BobbyG,
You forgot Roseanne Barr.-blech.

As for the MSM, why not start with getting the story to Keith?

countdown@msnbc.com

According to this CA-148 Crew List website
http://www.uss-newport-news.com/crew/crew62-63.htm

Bernard Anthony (Bernie) (Now Tony) (Trigger) Snesko is an “Event Coordinator for 4 Congressional Chairmen of the House Armed Services Committee;own and operate Bald R Us.com; National Director for Protecting Our Children.org Capitol Hill, Washington, DC”

Great post, Taylor, great comments EPU and company, and Hope, there’s a whole lotta people out there who are also “mad as hell…” which is why no matter how much History’s Pigs throw at our leaders, the fight is important. And winnable.

This morning at the gas station, an older fellow struck up a conversation with me as we filled our tanks…”would’ve been 10 cents cheaper yesterday” says he. Totally unsolicited he expressed his disgust against the Republicans in the WH and Congress. Did my heart good, I’ll tell you. The American people, too, are “mad as hell…”

And contrary to what the Newsmax [Rupert Murdock empire] stooge was shilling yesterday on MSNBC, it’s not Jon Stewart that’s making Americans cynical…it’s every time we pull up to the gas pump and pay a little more for Bush’s Oil War in Iraq.

They call themselves History’s Actors, but they’re really History’s Pigs…greedy, corrupt and snorting around in their own shit. They’ve been doing it so long they’ve convinced themselves it’s spa mud.

Time for the political slaughterhouse for Ol’ Pork Chop Butt and the fittest prez ever and special sauce for Turdblossom himself. And Matalin, Tokyo Rose for the 21st C.

Thanks Meta and EPU.

Taylor –

Thanks for the peacock info. [Do they “serenade” you in the early a.m.? It was their loudness which surprised me most.]

We don’t have walnuts in the AZ park I mentioned, but they do have pecan trees (giving lots of pecans — lots of folks come by to the park during the season and pick them). Maybe they enjoy mixed nuts? [Har har, that’s what I’m munching on right now, but for me they have to be salted.]

Now that I know eyeballs help you out, I’ll be sure to come by on a regular basis. Consider yourself bookmarked!

Hi H.S. Turtle -

y’all still ’round SF?

Bustednuckles 98 -

Oy yeah, my BAD. Yuck.

“…additionally, Roseanne shall be henceforth Barred from performing…”

an unauthorized punaise-ification.

Israeli warplanes have just flown over the Syrian President’s palace.

The IDF is poised to enter northern Gaza.

OT and the longest post I have EVER written, but…you might want to rethink those vacation/party pics on your puter….

This stuff is scary as hell, and it has been happening for quite a while…

“Tacit’s technology, called Illumio, finds the people you know who have the information you seek and asks them if they are willing to let you extract it from their hard drives. This is a scaled down version of the software that Tacit sells to the likes of corporations like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. The software works in the background, scanning what people research and write to gather intelligence, allowing companies to figure out who knows what. “

The asking part is just politeness on their part. Nothing new, right? But here is the scary part…

“After Sept. 11, In-Q-Tel, the CIA-funded venture capital firm that invests in start-ups with technologies that have the potential to help the CIA, approached Tacit. In-Q-Tel now has about a 3 percent stake in Tacit.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....ry_id=6542

So, you post here or anywhere for that matter. You have therefore an IP address. Question for everyone is, what is your “Threat” profile. The thing with social networking technology is that it will “find patterns.” But the datamining is much easier if the operators have a profile in mind already, filtering all the IP address to see if there are multiple overlaps in the areas identified as threatening. If anyone reaches the next level of threat, it is so easy to fill in the IP address info into a full profile of everything about you (how many people here submitted