Due to an equipment failure, the Montlake Ale House is closed tonight, so we’re moving the gathering to Elysian Fields, down by Qwest Field.
I know it’s a bit of a hike, but they serve good beer and good food. And it’s awfully damn big, and usually pretty empty when there isn’t a game going on.
We’ll be back at the Montlake Ale House next week.
New York: Steal the Baby Jesus, that’s OK, Kick the Menorah Go to Jail
NEW YORK, January 9, 2007 – On Sunday, the New York Times ran a story about two 20-year-olds, and an 18-year-old, who were arrested for stealing statues of baby Jesus from nativity scenes over the past two years. They hit the New York-suburban communities of Suffern and Haverstraw several times in 2005 and 2006. The police said they will not charge them with committing hate crimes; each is being charged with 14 counts of petty larceny.
Also on Sunday, WNBC.com reported that a 20-year-old was arrested for kicking a menorah in the New York suburban community of St. James. He is being charged with a hate crime and could face seven years in prison. He is being charged with a felony.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented saying, “This is so interesting. The reason the menorah is allowed in New York City public schools is because the authorities have branded it a secular symbol, and the reason the crèche is barred is because the same authorities have branded it a religious symbol. Yet when a 20-year-old man vandalizes a menorah outside New York he is charged with a hate crime and may spend seven years behind bars for his felony, while three others of the same age who vandalize several crèches outside New York-over a two-year period-are given a slap on the wrist.”
Donohue concluded, “We have long maintained that hate-crime laws evince a bias of their own. This proves it.”
I think we should execute thieves — starting with every CEO in America.*
* Just kidding! Ann Coulter humor.
Hey Goldy,
Are you encouraging the Walmart model again, or is the Elysian Fields a Union house?
I am Republican – What I do best is to be a crying hypocrit. Hail Hitler!
Ask Gregoire when the “Year of the Taxpayer will be” and see how giddy she will be about it.
6 Isn’t it funny how people who pay the least whine the most.
re 1 Anti-Liberal has a victim mentality. He has a slave mentality
re 1: Cartmanic-depressive – To complain about a lack of respect or civility whilst simultaneously doing everything possible to make these unlikely.
This describes anti-pasto.
Newsweek: Gen. Boykin Will Be Ousted By New DefSec
According to Newsweek, controversial Gen. William Boykin (who is behind this week’s U.S. attacks in Somalia) will be ousted by new Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Boykin is notorious for his inflammatory anti-Muslim religion remarks. http://tinyurl.com/yy2rnu
Holy Shit !!!!
Looks like the Commander In Chief is gonna hafta pass muster with the 5 time winner of the “No Rocket Scientist” award and the 99th most influential liarfucking senator.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....twell.html
Anybody see anything wrong with this?
Serious question… do any of you moonbats feeeeel the least bit sheepish about having an empty skirt like Senator Dimbulb “representing” us?
SERIOUS ANSWER: PAY YOUR FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT.
“Last year, despite the mounting evidence of widespread contractor fraud and abuse in Iraq, the Republican-controlled Senate would not act on it,” said Leahy, in re-introducing the War Profiteering Prevention Act on the Senate floor. “Instead, the Congress took a terrible misstep in seeking to end the work of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....38181.html
re 11: MTR. Do you feel the least bit sheepish that the faux first lady killed her boyfriend with a car when she was drunk, that the faux president is a drunken liar and a cokehead and a military deserter?
MTR @ 11:
Serious answer:
I’m fine with her.
If you’re squeamish, you may want to look at the last election results for her chair, then look at the results for her junior colleague’s chair.
At that point, you can conclude that the population of the State of Washington is hopeless, and move someplace more to your liking. There are 49 other states in the Union, after all.
I mean, politics and asthetics aside, let’s look at it from a cold, hard dollars and cents point of view. Wherever you’re living in Western Washington, you could sell that, laugh yourself stupid at what some LEEEEEBERAL paid for it, and buy a much nicer place in exurban Houston. (just a suggestion). You’ll be happier, we’ll be happier. It seems like a win-win to me.
http://www.alternet.org/story/41083
The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
By Charlie Cray, AlterNet. Posted September 5, 2006.
‘What follows is a list of some of the worst Iraq war profiteers who have bilked American taxpayers and undermined the military’s mission.”
No. 1 and No. 2: CACI and Titan
In early 2005 CIA officials told the Washington Post that at least 50 percent of its estimated $40 billion budget for that year would go to private contractors, an astonishing figure that suggests that concerns raised about outsourcing intelligence have barely registered at the policymaking levels.
No. 3: Bechtel: precast profits
The San Francisco-based construction and engineering giant received one of the largest no-bid contracts — worth $2.4 billion — to help coordinate and rebuild a large part of Iraq’s infrastructure. But the company’s reconstruction failures range from shoddy school repairs to failing to finish a large hospital in Basra on time and within budget.
No. 4: Aegis Defense Services
The General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates 48,000 private security and military contractors (PMCs) are stationed in Iraq. The Pentagon’s insistence on keeping a lid on military force requirements (thereby avoiding the need for a draft) is one reason for that astronomical growth, which has boosted the fortunes of the “corporate warriors” so much that observers project the industry will be a $200 billion per year business by 2010.
No. 5: Custer Battles
In March, Custer Battles became the first Iraq occupation contractor to be found guilty of fraud. A jury ordered the company to pay more than $10 million in damages for 37 counts of fraud, including false billing. In August, however, the judge in the case dismissed most of the charges on a technicality, ruling that since the Coalition Provisional Authority was not strictly part of the U.S. government, there is no basis for the claim under U.S. law. Custer Battles’ attorney Robert Rhoad says the company’s owners were “ecstatic” about the decision, adding that “there simply was no evidence of fraud or an intent to defraud.”
No. 6: General Dynamics
Most of the big defense contractors have done well as a result of the war on terror. The five-year chart for Lockheed Martin, for instance, reveals that the company’s stock has doubled in value since 2001.
No. 7: Nour USA Ltd.
Incorporated shortly after the war began, Nour has received $400 million in Iraq contracts, including an $80 million contract to provide oil pipeline security that critics say came through the assistance of Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq’s No. 1 opportunist, who was influential in dragging the United States into the current quagmire with misleading assertions about WMDs.
No. 8, No. 9 and No. 10: Chevron, ExxonMobil and the Petro-imperialists
Three years into the occupation, after an evolving series of deft legal maneuvers and manipulative political appointments, the oil giants’ takeover of Iraq’s oil is nearly complete.
Baby Jesus Stolen! (See @1)
Roger Rabbit Media, LLP reported tonight that Jesus has been stolen by the wingnuts. The wingnuts have wrapped Jesus around themselves to justify their selfishness, cruelty, greed, dishonesty, lying, bigotry, and warmongering.
Last week, the same crowd of wingnuts reportedly stole the American Flag, and wrapped that around themselves, too.
Sources say police were contacted about the latest incident. Police say they’re investigating. No word on when indictments might come down. However, RRM has learned that at least three wingnuts were struck by lightning last week, two of whom were killed.
MTR at 11: A question containing a faulty premise is a logical falicy. It presumes to require the person answering it to accept the faulty premise before forming an answer. In court, it would be result in the following exchange:
Prosecuting Attorney: “When did you stop beating your mother?”
Defense Attorney: “Objection – assumes facts not in evidence”.
Judge: “Sustained. Re-phrase the question, or better yet, just move on”.
Hairy Poon Tang: Good to see you back giving slanted information.
Funny how that works department: Senator Edward M. Olympian Drowner Kennedy and John I Spoke French in Vietnam Kerry applauded when Bechtel won the Big Dig project in Boston. Why Hairy why?
Looks like Wikipedia disagrees with Hairy Poon Tang!
On April 17, 2003, following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, USAID awarded a $680 million reconstruction contract to Bechtel. Although Bechtel’s contract was awarded by competitive bid, this job placed the company in the spotlight along with other American firms like Halliburton who have come under intense international scrutiny for receiving no-bid contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq. Critics in both the United States and allies like Britain have questioned the process by which the U.S. awarded Iraq contracts to American companies.
On May 5, 2003, The New Yorker ran an article revealing that the bin Laden family had passively invested several million dollars in The Fremont Group, a private equity fund owned by the Bechtel family. The bin Laden family, prominent in the Saudi construction industry, has renounced al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
In 2004, a contract was awarded to Bechtel in Romania for building the A3 freeway. The contract came under criticism from the European Union because it was awarded through negotiation, not competitive bid. In 2005, the new Romanian government held up the project to renegotiate the contract. It was reauthorized in 2006.
In 2005, Bechtel was awarded a contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to install temporary housing for the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief effort. Bechtel installed more than 35,000 trailers and mobile homes, serving nearly 100,000 disaster victims, within six months, a record pace for federal emergency programs.
http://www.slate.com/id/2090636/ – Isn’t the Slate Moonbat! based?
Don’t have time (and I’m probably too lazy) to go back and look it up, but I seem to recall that Bechtel’s backed out of one or more large projects in Iraq because the suppliers and subcontractors they were REQUIRED to use screwed up so badly, and that the lack of infrastructure and civil order made building anything like trying to stack china in an earthquake.
Bechtel has a long history of doing work in the Middle East, and generally has maintained a reputation for doing pretty good work. It may be that in the current situation, they’ve been unable to lower their standards to be on a par with Halliburton and other companies with oh-so-close ties to the current administration.
re 19: So you see this information as triumphant affirmation of Bechtel? What planet are you from?
re 19: So you see this information as triumphant affirmation of Bechtel? What planet are you from?
21/22 (re: 19) The last item Puddy cites might be taken as an impressive piece of work by Bechtel, unless (and I don’t know whether it’s the case or not) they charged more to haul in 35,000 trailers than it should have cost to rebuild or replace the dwellings that all those people were displaced from. I DO know that an outfit subcontracted by Halliburton was sticking us taxpayers for $2000 a pop to staple plastic tarps over damaged roofs, which in many cases exceeded what it would have cost to re-roof the structures.
In any case, for those who benefitted, it was no doubt an improvement over sitting in the astrodome with Mama Bush proclaiming that they’d never had it so good.
@16
Your source is hardly credible or balanced.
@21 Do you just have a general “disdain” for large corporations? Who make profits, and employ 1000’s?..
Bechtel, General Dynamics, and Haliburton are special in that they are capable of taking on projects that are of the size and scope as presented in Iraq.
They are also able to begin work immediately and have no “up to speed, ramp up” time as they handle these projects regularly.
I have no problem with these companies being awarded contracts no bid.
I have no problem with them making large profits doing so.
Just so that I’m clear. Profit is good.
I do have a problem if these companies broke the law. If they did, and are found guilty, then they should face the harshest penalties.
Hindsight being what it is… what would you have done with the post regime change reconstruction?
WINGNUT BLOGGERS’ GREATEST HITS FROM GLENN GREENWALD:
* accusing AP photographer Bilal Hussein of abetting terrorism on the ground that he photographed a hostage in Iraq immediately prior to his execution and also after, even though the photograph in question only showed the corpse of the hostage;
* accusing Bilal Hussein of photographing an ongoing execution on the streets of Baghdad, even though he had nothing to do with those photographs;
* accusing The New York Times travel section of jeopardizing the lives of Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld by including photos of their vacation homes even though: (a) the Times photographer sought and obtained permission to take the photos beforehand, (b) other media outlets, including right-wing ones (such as Newsmax and Fox), had published the same information long before and (c) the whole notion that such photographs could jeopardize the security of the most-well-guarded officials in the world was beneath the level of judgment of which an average 8-year-old is capable;
* accusing Democrats of inventing or forging — and the media of touting — a fake RNC memo regarding the Schiavo controversy, even though the memo was entirely accurate and was authored by Republicans (accusations repeated by, among others, the always gullible, right-wing-blog-fan Howard Kurtz);
* insisting that the Iranian legislature enacted a law requiring Jews and other religious minorities to wear color-designated clothing identifying them as such, and continuing to repeat the claim after the story was revealed as a total hoax;
* repeatedly claiming — from the mouth of Glenn Reynolds — that we have not taken military action against Iran because they are blackmailing us with the nuclear weapons they already secretly possess, a claim repeated by Reynolds as recently as yesterday;
* Michelle Malkin going on Fox News the night of the midterm elections to announce that blogger Dan Riehl has “called the race for George Allen,” prompting a smirking, condescending Brit Hume to observe — correctly — that when you have a blog, you can say whatever you want, and that it doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong. Hume didn’t know how insightful that observation was, or how perfectly chosen was the receipient of his observation.
I SEE PUDDYBUD AKA MWS HAS CRAWLED OUT FROM UNDER HIS ROCK. EARTH TO PUDDY: SLATE IS A DLC, INSIDE-THE-BELTWAY DOMINATED RAG. EVER HEAR OF THE NEW REPUBLIC? NEED I SAY MORE?
IF I GET SOME TIME, I’M GOING TO POST PUDDYBUD’S GREATEST HITS.
Denver Versus New Orleans
Donald Luskin posts a comparison, which has been making the rounds, between Denver (and its surrounding region)’s response to the current weather emergency and the behavior of New Orleans.
“Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event— may I even say a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” — with a historic blizzard of up to 44″ inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10’s of thousands.
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit – or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted.
Nobody – I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O’Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Bar bara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.
Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV’s to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn’t ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people – total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is “Work or Die”.
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ’sittin at home’ checks.
Even though a Category “5″ blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.
In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world’s social problems evaporate.
It does seem that way, at least to me.
I hope this gets passed on.”
Update… Friend Rick Gaber adds:
“The response to Hurricane Katrina was by far the largest — and fastest — rescue effort in U.S. history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm’s landfall. … By the end of the week, 50,000 National Guard troops in the Gulf Coast region had saved 17,000 people; 4000 Coast Guard personnel saved more than 33,000.” (And despite media stories to the contrary, FEMA is NOT — and was never supposed to be — a first-responder agency.) — Popular Mechanics, March 2006
re 24: If all a Bechtel or Halliburton does, for the most part, is hire subcontractors, then I do not see what we need them for.
It’s corporate welfare.
re 26: … and I assume the Denverites have already rebuilt the city themselves?
Apples to Oranges.
re 26: A weather event of, :”Biblical Proportions”????!!!!!!!!!
What huge snowstorms are described in the Bible?
re 26: acoulteration – providing outward trappings of evidence in order to acculturate viewers to believe obvious lies.
re 26: Looks like you Denverites do not understand the law of supply and demand. If you were good conservatives you’d have been price-gouging each other.
You shirked your free-market responsibility!
dear fuckheadless, it isn’t about REBUILDING.
it’s about the way the adult citizens behaved and reacted in an emergency situation vs the way nanny stae kiddies behaved and reacted in an emergency situation.
i do realize the distinction is impossible for a fucking moron such as yourself.
A-L: ONCE AGAIN YOU CUT AND PASTE RIGHT-WING B.S. OBVIOUSLY THERE WAS NO PROBLEM IN N.D. BECAUSE 1) HARDLY ANYBODY LIVES IN N.D. COMPARED TO NOLA 2) THOSE WHO DO LIVE THERE DON’T LIVE CRAMMED TOGETHER LIKE THOSE IN A MAJOR U.S. CITY LIKE NOLA AND 3) THE GOVERNOR DIDN’T CALL FOR HELP.
DONALD LUSKIN IS TOTAL IDIOT, A PSYCHO STALKER OF PAUL KRUGMAN.
YOU REALLY EXPECT PEOPLE TO SWALLOW THIS CRAP LIKE YOU DO?
re 32: So, sitting INSIDE a building, dwelling, or vehicle as it snows OUTSIDE is to you the equivalent of being inside a building, dwelling, or vehicle that is rapidly flooding you out to the point of drowning!!!!!!!!!!!!????????? and all your food is being destroyed.
Would all the happy, smiling, shiny people of Denver have rescued their neighbors if they had to drive their SUV’s through 6′ of H2O??
I think not.
DEAR DUMB FUCKHEAD AND DUMBER FUCKHEADLESS… A FEW HEADLINES FROM THE CATEGORY 5 STORM
Pilots search for motorists in Colorado
National Guard Rescues Colorado Drivers
Winter storm traps drivers east of rockies
Snowstorm Traps Drivers East of Rocky Mountains in 10-Foot Drifts …
YOU LOUSY PIGFUCKING PRICKS JUST NEVER SEEM TO MANAGE TO GIVE CREDIT TO THOSE WHO CAN GET ALONG WITHOUT THEIR MOMMY GOVERNMENT AND OF COURSE YOU BELITTLE THEM FOR IT.
PERSONALLY, I HOPE YOU… AND EXPECT… YOUR MOMMY GOVERNMENT TO FUCK YOU PATHETIC VICTIMS OF LIFE THE WAY YOU SO GREATLY DESERVE.
SING ALONG NOW LITTLE VICTIM FUCKS..
“Rescue me, I need you,
And your love too,
Come on and rescue me,
Rescue me
Come on and take my hand”… BECAUSE I AM A VICTIM MENTALITY TOTAL DUMBFUCK.
re 35: So, when did the National Guard become separate from the Federal government in Colorado?
Bush’s excuse for not allowing the National Guard to go into NOLA earlier was that the Governor had not specifically “asked” for the help ( Bush lied about this — big surprise), so his hands were tied. He said he had to wait for them to ask him for the use of the National Guard.
Why didn’t Colorado’s Governor need to ask for the Guard?
re 35:
anti-liberal says: “…Come on and take my hand”… BECAUSE I AM A VICTIM MENTALITY TOTAL DUMBFUCK.”
I have to admire you for your self-awareness.
luskin (v.): 1. to secretly desire the status and intelligence of one’s opponent while engaging in a systematic misrepresentation of him/her. 2. to stalk
DUMBFUCK (N): HEADLESS LOOPY