This is outstanding:
Blackwater Bullies The Army
(Larry Kaplow, Rod Nordland, Mark Hosenball and Michael Hastings – Newsweek) The colonel was furious. “Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers.” He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad’s Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company…Unlike nearly everyone else who enters the Green Zone, said an American soldier who guards a gate, Blackwater gunmen refuse to stop and clear their weapons of live ammunition once inside. One military contractor, who spoke anonymously for fear of retribution in his industry, recounted the story of a Blackwater operative who answered a Marine officer’s order to put his pistol on safety when entering a base post office by saying, “This is my safety,” and wiggling his trigger finger in the air. “Their attitude was, ‘We’re f—ing security; we don’t have to answer to anybody’.”
Nice…the free market in action over in Iraq. Alan Greenspan and Ayn Rand’s cadaver nod in approval.
A U.S. Embassy staffer, who did not have permission to speak on the record, said, “It’s a few bad eggs that seem to be spoiling the bunch.”
Why does that excuse sound so familiar?
Priorities of Tyranny – One Way DNA
(Richard Willing, USA TODAY) “Since 2006, the Justice Department has yet to spend any of the $8 million set aside by Congress for DNA tests for convicts to prove their innocence while it has used $214 million to collect DNA from convicted criminals and improve crime labs, records show. “DNA evidence is such a powerful tool in proving guilt or innocence that it’s inexcusable not to use it,” says Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the chief sponsor of a bill to provide more funding for what is known as innocence testing.“ (h/t TPMmuckraker)
Karl Rove Linked to Siegelman Prosecution
(Harpers) “For months, the Alabama Republican machine has attempted to brush off claims about Rove’s involvement as some sort of fantastic speculation. Those efforts have just been exploded. We are one step closer to understanding why Karl Rove left the White House, and perhaps also why Alberto Gonzales stepped down as attorney general. The Siegelman case is emerging, as we predicted, as the most damning exhibit yet in the story of the Bush Administration’s use of the Justice Department as a partisan political tool.“
Al on Sports
College Football – MLB Divisional Round
Those rare extended periods of seemingly historical events lining up one after the other, where the second you think it can’t get any better than it already is, something else happens…like Stanford converting a 4th and 20, then scoring to go up on 2nd ranked USC by a point with less than a minute to go. Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Texas and Rutgers all lose last week. The ACC claimed one of those victims, with Maryland taking out Rutgers, but the most brutal ass-kicking of them all was South Florida over West Virginia. That game is one I saw, along with Auburn beating Florida (even the most passive football fan should never miss this annual matchup!), and the euphoria has carried over from 7 days ago, as 6TH RANKED Boston College took it to Bowling Green today, winning 55-24.
USC (2) has now officially lost to unranked Stanford, LSU (1) is down by three in the third quarter to a pissed off Florida team, and Wisconsin (5) already lost to Illinois. Simply put, Boston College is going to at least move up ahead of Wisconsin. Next week vs. Notre Dame, and after that it’s a bloodbath with away games at Virginia Tech, Clemson (in Death Valley, where they won in 2005), Maryland, at home against Florida St. and Miami. Right now, I’m worried most about Virginia Tech and Florida State, with Maryland as the trap game. If they were to make it through that run undefeated, then win the ACC championship game, there wouldn’t be any way the polls could rob them of a shot at the big game. No doubt, they will get robbed in the end, but I’m purposely denying myself a taste of that gruesome reality.
Al on 9/27: “As for the team coming out of the national league, I’m having a hard time figuring out how teams are going to hit against the Diamondback pitchers. If Webb is hitting on all cylinders, he can pitch forever, and their bullpen is better than anyone else’s, especially in the late innings with Lyon, Cruz and Valverde.“
The Phillies weren’t that good of a team, but Chicago had a roster that looked to be built for October. In game one there was a meltdown of sorts, with their most dominant reliever Carlos Marmol giving it up in the 7th, first with a solo homerun, and then two more hits plus a walk for another run. That ended up being the difference, along with Ted Lilly not earning his money in game 2. The Diamondbacks are the most dangerous team besides the Red Sox. I think that’s going to be the world series matchup, and if I had to take one pitching staff or other other, it’d be hard not to take Arizona’s.
The pitching staff for Colorado came out of nowhere, so it seemed. I’m not entirely sold on the concept just yet. Likewise the brilliant future of Joba Chamberlain. It would have been easy to include one of him all covered in buzz-plague from last night, but it’s not the rookie’s fault the Yankees are down 0-2. Once again there are playoff games at stake, and once again Alex Rodriguez can be struck out with three pitches he’d have been able to handle back in September. Luckily, I’m a Red Sox fan.
More Hilary care
This is from an interview with Jon Cohn that I got Via Ezra Klien:
First, we have to remain committed to the goal of quality affordable care for everyone. If you don’t have that as a core principle, you’ll never get there. That has to be one of those principles that we’d take in to whatever the negotiations are. There are a lot of ways of getting there. Working to lower costs, and being able to improve quality by the changes we make with respect to prevention and chronic care management, will meet a second goal, which is that it has to be affordable. We’re going to have a system to include everybody, but it’s going to be affordable for everybody.
What she says about controlling costs is crucial. It is time to stop treating imaginary diseases, or at least stop forcing other people to pay for the treatment of invented diseases like Restless Leg Syndrome; plus, it would make more sense to focus on prevention, maybe a tax deduction for health club memberships or personal training. Trying to treat every ailment with a dangerous and expensive medications, that generally have severe side effects, not only does not make people healthier it contributes to an expensive health care system that does not work. It looks like Hillary understands this issue and is saying some smart things about it, maybe she is presidential material.
Read the whole discussion here
Omar testifies against Bird
A discussion of The Wire broke out in a post at The Trader’s Den, one I put up for a classic Phil Lesh and Friends show. The person I’m conversing with (rick m) about a character I’ve featured here in the past, Omar, said this, “His court testimony against Bird in season 1 is an absolute classic.” Even if you’ve never seen the show, this clip is worth checking out.
Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN)
(TPMmuckraker) “Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-IN) earmarks over $7 million for a technology start-up incubator to be built in his state. The first five businesses to take up residence in the new building are all clients of the lobbying firm PMA. PMA is Visclosky’s largest political contributor. Nothing to see here, folks.“
Al: Where will this end up? Assuming that politicians aren’t all a bunch of scheming crooks prior to being elected, wouldn’t it be fair to say that the private money involved in the process is a bad thing overall? Maybe this guy has been a douchebag his entire life…I don’t know anything about him, but even if the idea I just mentioned doesn’t apply to him in particular, we can’t assume that the amount of corruption within our government isn’t fueled by the need to raise cash on a constant basis. How many politicians have to end up in jail before the root causes are finally examined in an honest way?
22,000 US Soldiers Denied Healthcare
(from DailyKOS) “The Pentagon has informed thousands of American soldiers in Iraq that their Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was a pre-existing condition from before they ever joined the military. In other words, NO TREATMENT, NO INSURANCE, NO NOTHING!
More than 22,000 soldiers serving in Iraq have been kicked out of the US military entirely – booted from a war zone straight to the streets – for seeking treatment for the psychological effects of combat and brain injuries. Now, they’re jobless, without medical coverage, and in immediate need of medical treatment that Bush’s Pentagon/VA absolutely refuses to provide.”
Even evangelicals are are starting to figure it out
Republicans pretty much suck at governing and it looks like many of their supporters know this.
“They are making a very grave miscalculation if they nominate a pro-choice candidate like Giuliani,” said Richard Land, a Tennessee evangelist and the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“Most evangelicals have been voting Republican because they were given a bright-line choice between a pro-life candidate and a pro-choice candidate. If that issue were taken off the table, then other issues get oxygen, issues where evangelicals are not nearly as certain that Republicans offer the best answer. Issues like economic justice, racial reconciliation, the environment.
So with the exception of abortion even Richard Land realizes that the Democrats are better equipped to govern.
Their was also this tidbit:
Another could be that issues like abortion, which were more prominent in the relative peace and prosperity of the 1990s, have been trumped by war and the threat of terrorism in the 2000s.
“Some of the social issues have receded a bit,” Green said. “The rise of the social issues was fairly dramatic toward the end of 1990s and start of the new century. But after 9-11, foreign policy again became a very important thing. People’s priorities do change with events.”
In other words, when things are going well the country can worry about stuff that really doesn’t matter, like whether or not the president is getting a blow-job in the oval office, when things get screwed up these same people go looking for people who can actually govern. The republican party will make a come-back about the same time the country solves all the problems created by Bush and his pals, and people can start worrying about trivial stuff, like who is getting a blow-job or who wants to marry who.
The whole article can be viewed here