Greg Palast is one of my personal heroes. I paid $100 for a signed pre-release copy of his latest book, Armed Madhouse (from Powells), and get his newsletter. The latest came up today and it talks about stuff I was yammering about, just more lucid, hard-hitting, and, well, better. In talking about the suggestions from the ISG:

They’re kidding, right?

James Baker III and the seven dwarfs of the “Iraq Study Group” have come up with some simply brilliant recommendations. Not.

Baker’s Two Big Ideas are:

1. Stay half the course. Keeping 140,000 troops in Iraq is a disaster getting more disastrous. The Baker Boys’ idea: cut the disaster in half — leave 70,000 troops there.

But here’s where dumb gets dumber: the Bakerites want to “embed” US forces in Iraqi Army units. Question one, Mr. Baker: What Iraqi Army? This so-called “army” is a rough confederation of Shia death squads. We can tell our troops to get “embedded” with them, but the Americans won’t get much sleep.

2. “Engage” Iran. This is a good one. How can we get engaged when George Bush hasn’t even asked them out for a date? What will induce the shy mullahs of Iran to accept our engagement proposal? Answer: The Bomb.
>>>>>Read more

Right on. Here’s his homepage, gregpalast.com. I’d really recommend any of his books, especially if you don’t like blatantly political stuff. He’s more into smarm than politics, and numbers than heresay.

So, I’m sure you couldn’t avoid but hear that there was a group of white-haired old men meeting for the last 9 months talking about how fucked we (well, mainly our soldiers stuck there) are in Iraq. Now the news has been going on a full-out deepthroating of this Iraq Study Group, despite the fact that a) none of their work is in the slightest way binding or 2) these ten dudes had to come in and tell the fucking federal government, the billions of dollars and thousands of workers, elected and appointed, what they should do, and iii) they didn’t come up with a single new idea.

Fucking. Pathetic.

We have an executive branch that cannot…I don’t even know the word to use, it gets into such a philosophical arena, the nature of conscioiusness, cognitive abilities, etc…cannot think. These people have such a severe disconnect from the reality of what’s happening, at least the public faces of the fiasco, Bush, Lieberman, Cheney, Rummy (rot in hell), and the rest, that it’s hard to understand what their motivations are. It’s like trying to guess the motivations of a sea sponge. Except it’s a sea sponge that’s been responsible for the deaths of 3,000 soldiers (and over 6,000 civilians in Katrina and on 9/11), countless (countless!) civilians in foreign countries, and the squandering of our reputation and treasure around the world (funneling it conveniently into coroporate pockets, Dem and GOP).

These people, in the Congress, decided that they couldn’t come up with anything on their own. So they hired HW’s old hand James Baker (noted oil hitman), current SecDef nominee Robert Gates (former Reagan Iran-Contra hand), and some other stiffs to tell them how bad it was. Is this what we give these people such massive resources for? To not be able to analyze facts on their own? Why would the leading deliberative body in our nation not be able to…welll…deliberate? It makes me fucking batty. Moonbatty.

This is seriously like an oracle or wise man situation, where the king asks some learned subject to advise him. Shouldn’t the fuckin’ King be able to see the probability of this fucking happening? It blows the mind. How many anti-war folks were RIGHT ABOUT THIS? This war generated the largest protest rallies ever. Vietnam took 5 years to generate that kind of opposition. The incredibly asinine Iraq invasion started protests when it was a THEORY. I believe I’ve heard ONE major press figure (and I can’t even remember who, it was a link on Eschaton I believe) say that we oughta start listening to the people who were right in the first place, namely the anti-war left & center, and (though it can be dangerous and stupid) the libertarians.

Ah well. I’m going to go douse myself with a bucket of cold water. Perhaps some naked racquetball to take the edge off. I give you all permission to go “EW!”

Go check it out on her blog

Modest Mouse(crazy loud intro screen on that site)
The Moon & Antarctica
“Third Planet”

Everything that keeps me together is falling apart, I’ve got
this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over
My boss just quit the job says he’s goin’ out to find blind spots and he’ll do it
The 3rd Planet is sure that they’re being watched by an eye in the sky that can’t be stopped
When you get to the promise land your gonna shake that eyes hand

Your heart felt good it was drippin’ pitch and made of wood
And your hands and knees felt cold and wet on the grass to me
Outside naked, shiverin’ looking blue, from the cold sunlight that’s reflected off the moon
Baby cum angels fly around you reminding you we used to be three and not just two
And that’s how the world began
And that’s how the world will end

A 3rd had just been made and we were swimming in the
water, didn’t know then was it a son was it a daughter
When it occurred to me that the animals are swimming
around in the water in the oceans in our bodies and
another had been found another ocean on the planet
given that our blood is just like the Atlantic
And how

The universe is shaped exactly like the earth if you go
straight long enough you’ll end up where you were

Everything that keeps me together is falling apart, I’ve got
this thing that I consider my only art of fucking people over.

I’m Grabulater, the Disco Bandit. Right now I’m a level 3 Chill Crook. Refer me if you play. You might end up battling this:

Paper Towelgeist.

I stopped playing this a while ago, then started, because, well, it’s awesome.

i want the terrorists to win, apparently. via pz myers

SQUIDMAS

Culture warriors, rise the fuck up.

The Pixies
Surfer Rosa
“Where is My Mind”

Stop

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head’ll collapse
But there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?
Where is my mind?

Way out in the water
See it swimmin’

I was swimmin’ in the Carribean
Animals were hiding behind the rocks
Except the little fish
But they told me, he swears
Tryin’ to talk to me to me to me

Where is my mind [3x]

Way out in the water
See it swimmin’?

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head’ll collapse
But there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind [3x]

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah

I first heard this song on a couple tabs of LSD with my then-girlfriend Amy. John Otter had found us helpless, locked us in his room, and played this record as he did his chores.
Funny guy that John

pokin around the world today. i got a bag of chips that says “a mediterranean vacation in a bag!”
I do not agree. there are no delicious greek meals in here, or craps tables, or screaming jet-setters at Ibiza yanking their tops off.
No. Bad chips, no vacation in you.

Dumb bitch sees bird in pic from ferris wheel, possibly moth, decides it’s an angel.

From Bad Astronomy

Hahahahahahahahahaha