9/11 Commission recommendations not followed. Cargo not inspected. A country involved in terrorism given the keys to our ports. Why hasn't the Bush Administration just turned our plan for fighting in Iraq over to the insurgents? Oh wait. They did.
The blog, "IraqSlogger" is reporting that the Pentagon has released a 282 page report on the United States counterinsurgency plan. This is the first such report of this nature since 9/11, and is now available on multiple military websites that can be accessed across the globe.
The report itself does not contain any classified information, but does discuss such topics as "Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance", "Intelligence Cells and Working Groups", "Executing Counterinsurgency Operations", and "Targeting".
So, Bush policy it seems, is to provide an unwavering commitment to an illegal war, decline to offer an exit strategy/timetable because it will embolden the terrorists, but handing them our plan on a silver platter is A-OK.
UPDATE: It is now being reported that jihadist websites are now linking to and mocking the report.
From IraqSlogger:
"Jihadists and their supporters are reading and mocking the Pentagon's new counterinsurgency field manual, which was released publicly and posted on several Department of Defense Web sites Friday even though it addresses such sensitive topics as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting.
One Arabic-language jihadist Web site linking to the Pentagon's 282-page counterinsurgency manual is Tajdeed.net, which routinely calls for the killing of U.S. and British forces in Iraq; praises bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the 9/11 attacks; and whose sponsor, Mohamed al Massari, has called for the assassination of George Bush and Tony Blair."
Thanks George Bush.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Your Government at Work: DoD Posts Counterinsurgency Manual on the Net
The 2006 Weblog Award Winners
Congratulations to all the winners of the 2006 Weblog Awards. I'm still shocked that even in TPT's infancy (just around 6 days old), we were not a finalist in one of the categories! Nonetheless, I digress, so based on 526,974 votes cast in 45 categories over 8 days of voting in early December 2006, here is a shortlist of the winners for The 2006 Weblog Awards (go to their website to view all the winners and finalists):
So, I was surfing through the categories and checking out blogs and links that I was not familiar with (which was quite a few) when I came across the Video Of The Year Category (The Diet Coke and Mentos video was the winner). One of the video finalists was a "Free Hugs" video. It's a powerful video accompanied by an equally powerful song. I thought I would share it with you (We'll consider this 'The Song of The Day'):Categories
Best Blog: Daily Kos
Best New Blog: Lesbian Dad
Best Individual Blog: Lileks
Best Humor Blog: Sadly, No!
Best Comic Strip: Least I Could Do
Best Online Community: FARK
Best Liberal Blog: Think Progress
Best Conservative Blog: Little Green Footballs
Best Centrist Blog: The Moderate Voice
FYI, here is some information about the Free Hugs Campaign.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Macaca Tops List for Politically inCorrect Words for 2006
From The Global Language Monitor:
"Macaca, Global Warming Denier, Herstory and Flip Chart top the list of the most egregious examples of politically correct language found in 2006 by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey.
In 2006, the Political Correctness movement continued to gain momentum to the effect that many were unaware of the extent that it had inserted itself into ordinary English-language conversations, said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor (GLM). The year has been rife with examples that have been nominated by the GLM’s Language Police, volunteer language observers from the world over".
Bill-O'Reilly "Returns To Combat", Visits Troops in Iraq
Well, well, well....Bill-O "returns to combat". John Kasich filled in for Bill O’Reilly, the combat veteran, Thursday night. In explaining his absence, Kasich said that O’Reilly was on assignment and would be back on Monday with a “major breaking news story”. It turns out the that "Culture Warrior" and Phone Sex Enthusiast was visiting the troops in Iraq. I'm guessing he couldn't be one-upped by his fellow faux nitwit, Sean Hannity, since Hannity just returned from Iraq last week.
"Bill O’Reilly came to visit the Camp Striker, Iraq dining facility Dec. 15. O’Reilly visited the Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) and other units at the Baghdad base camp to thank them for their service, he said. O’Reilly had lunch at the dining facility (Comment: Was falafel on the menu?), greeting Soldiers and civilians alike before autographing hats and shirts emblazoned with the title of his latest book, “Culture Warrior.” He posed for photographs with Soldiers, as well."I wonder if O'Reilly gave the troops some advise on torturing the "enemy" and tactical movements?
Time: Janie and I (and YOU) is the 'Person of the Year'
Time Says You're the 'Person of the Year'
Magazine Awards Annual Recognition to Internet Community
Dec. 17, 2006 — - According to Time magazine, you and I are the "person of the year". Pfffft, I've been saying the same thing EVERY year!
"Yes, you, along with everyone else in the "digital democracy" blew other contenders, including North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and President Bush, out of the water (though both made it into the magazine's list of "People Who Mattered.) In an age where MySpace, YouTube and blogs rule, Time chose to recognize the power of the common people who create and use content on the Internet."
Steve Young at The Huffington Post writes:
So, I'll be expecting my check in the mail and brass monkey award very soon. I rule!Anyone who was anyone and everyone who wasn't: Time's Person of the Year.
George Bush. Check. Nancy Pelosi. Check. Donald Rumsfeld. Check. Mel Gibson. Check.
John Mark Carr. Check. Michael Richards. Check. Kim Jong Il. Check. Larry the Cable Guy. Check.Dick Cheney. Check.
The guy Cheney shot. Check.
Every single member of the Duke lacrosse team, including the manager, who wasn't even at the party. Check.
Osama bin Laden, who hasn't even made as much as a threatening tape in months. Check.
O.J. Simpson, if he did it, even though he did, along with his unemployed editor. Check.
Bill O'Reilly, like he needed any help with promoting himself. Check.
Carrot Top, who's not even a good punchline for an industry joke anymore. Check.
Barack. Now in first name needed only class. Check.
Tom Delay who didn't have to redistrict Time's voting to get himself in. Check.
Ken Lay, and he didn't even have to live out the year to make it. Check.
My old friend Mel Kardos who really hasn't done much since sinking that basket to put us within 10 points of Carl Sandburg Junior High thirty years ago. Check.
Even Britney Spears made it. She alone might be palatable, but did they have to include Kevin Federline? Talk about turning the knife.
And, oh yeah. Whomever it is who decides that Federline's name or picture belongs in any entertainment rag. Check.
Janie's Song of the Day
Mmmmm, Eddie Vedder singing a Phil Ochs song, with lyrics updated by Tim Robbins. Could my Sunday morning get any better?
Friday, December 15, 2006
Song of The Day (Elvis, 'In the ghetto')
Yeah, so I'm an "Elvis Guy". This is one of my favorites from The King.
1,000 Servicemen and Women Call for Iraq Withdrawal
Bush's overall job approval rating is 34 percent, which is another all-time low for the president in the poll. Now, The Nation is reporting that nearly 1,000 servicemen and women have publicly surfaced to oppose a war in which they are serving.
"After appearing only seven weeks ago on the Internet, the Appeal for Redress, brainchild of 29-year-old Navy seaman Jonathan Hutto, has already been signed by nearly 1,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, including dozens of officers--most of whom are on active duty. Not since 1969, when some 1,300 active-duty military personnel signed an open letter in the New York Times opposing the war in Vietnam, has there been such a dramatic barometer of rising military dissent."Seriously, what else needs to happen to convince Bush that his "war" is such a ridiculous and terrible mistake? I wonder how long it will take for the righties to start calling these troopers "cowards", "traitors", and "terrorist sympathesizers"?
100 million blogs by 2007??!
The BBC has a piece today that suggests by the middle of next year the number of blogs worldwide will reach about 100 million.
"The blogging phenomenon is set to peak in 2007, according to technology predictions by analysts Gartner. The analysts said that during the middle of next year the number of blogs will level out at about 100 million. The firm has said that 200 million people have already stopped writing their blogs."The BBC report also included data from Technorati, a blog tracking firm, which claimed that 100,000 new blogs were being created every day, and 1.3 million blog posts were written.
Moreover, Technorati is tracking more than 57 million blogs, of which it believes around 55% are "active" and updated at least every three months.
Dr. Matt: Janie, we've got our work cut out for ourselves.
NJ OKs Civil Unions
I've spent the last seven years living in the land of Tony Soprano and acid wash jeans. Each morning I wake up to the smell of toxic waste, the welcoming sight of industrial complexes, and the sound of Bon Jovi playing on someone's (maybe everyone's) radio.
But today, despite all of New Jersey's benefits I list above, I've never been more proud to live in my state:
"New Jersey legislators have approved civil unions for gay couples and Governor Corzine is expected to sign the bill. It passed in the state Senate and the Assembly yesterday, by a significant margin. The civil unions give gay couples all the benefits of married couples. They include adoption rights, hospital visitation and inheritance rights. The Garden State will be just one of five states offering gay couples the same protections and benefits as marriage."
In October, the NJ State Supreme Court ruled in Lewis v. Harris that same sex couples should be afforded the same rights as straight couples. The court gave the Senate 180 days to pass legislation to this effect. It took them less than two months.
While this isn't exactly marriage, this is one step in the right direction. Hopefully one day, the rest of the nation will be as enlightened as New Jersey.
Temporary Leave of "Absence"
Janie and I are both extremely swamped with our own personal lives right now, so our blogging will be a bit truncated over the next few days. We have some interesting ideas on to make TPT a unique and important asset to the political blogosphere (I hate that word). So, watch for some major developments with TPT over the next few months. For now, we are going to stick with a diverse array of topics and themes and just have fun with it. Look for original content coming soon as well.
~Dr. Matt
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Well Said: Defining Catastrophe
A rhetorical change I’m noticing since the ISG report came out is that we have to stay in Iraq “to prevent a wider regional war,” aka “the new thirty years’ war” and so on. That suggests that our mission is no longer preventing “full-blown civil war,” which used to be what we had to prevent, or “increased sectarian strife,” which is what we had to prevent before that, or “increasing insurgent violence” which is what we had to prevent before that. The pattern has always been:
1. Declare that we must stay in Iraq to prevent some Bad Thing from happening.
2. Bad Thing happens anyway.
3. Declare that we must stay in Iraq to prevent some Worse Thing from happening.
4. Worse Thing happens anyway.
5. Reiterate sequence.
At no point does the “Sensible Center” consider that the previous failures implicate our ability to fulfill the new mission, which is always paradoxically grander in scale while being a retreat from previous ambitions.
Senior Marine Corps official: dubyah has weakend the military and is jeopardizing the war on terror
From the Washington Post:"We are concerned about gross readiness . . . and ending equipment and personnel shortfalls," said a senior Marine Corps official. The official added that Marine readiness has dropped and that the Corps is unable to fulfill many planned missions for the fight against terrorism.
It seems that our military leaders, who kept telling us that the war in Iraq was not weakening our military, and that we are ready to fight lots more wars wherever they may arise. Well, they were lying.
Now our military leaders want a permanent increase in the size of the military - apparently, we now don't have enough men and women to meet our global needs, all because of the Republicans' wars. But that's not all. The military now wants even more authority to totally screw the National Guard and the Army Reserves. Basically, anyone in the Guard or the Reserves who thought they were already drafted, just wait until you see what they're going to do to you next.The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel, as senior officials in both services assert that the nation's global military strategy has outstripped their resources.
It is an absolute disaster. Our military leaders are admitting that Bush's war has made us weaker.
In addition, the Army will press hard for "full access" to the 346,000-strong Army National Guard and the 196,000-strong Army Reserves by asking Gates to take the politically sensitive step of easing the Pentagon restrictions on the frequency and duration of involuntary call-ups for reservists, according to two senior Army officials.
And let me just add, I'm really tired of our uniformed military leaders lying to the country in order to cover Bush's ass. They told us they could handle all of these wars. And they lied."The Army has configured itself to sustain the effort in Iraq and, to a lesser degree, in Afghanistan. Beyond that, you've got some problems," said one of the senior Army officials. "Right now, the strategy exceeds the capability of the Army and Marines.
H/T to Americablog
Some advice from The Rude Pundit to expand my traffic: Mention Britney's 'Monkey'
The Rude Pundit writes, [Some] advice to young bloggers wishing to see their traffic expand exponentially...the key is Britney's exposed genitalia. "Apparently, if one includes a mention of a pop star's genitalia in the title of a post during a time period when said genitalia has been copiously photographed, oh, the bounty that will follow."
Dr. Matt: I'm not that desperate for traffic......yet.
This town is a white Christian town in a Christian nation
During a council meeting, City Councilman Stephen Vengrow (New Providence, New Jersey) spoke out against the city purchasing a Hanukkah banner, declaring: "This town is a white Christian town in a Christian nation. It's about time someone reminded the Jews, Hindus, Mormons, Buddhists, and other guest-Americans that this is our country and they better start getting with the program."
As always, Jesus' General addresses this matter like any "French-hating heterosexual" should.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Ever wonder what insanity looks like: Soy Causes Gayness
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327
A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals
by Jim Rutz at WorldNetDaily
There's a slow poison (Comment: Typical win-nut scare tactic....nice touch) out there that's severely damaging our children and threatening to tear apart our culture. The ironic part (Comment: It if were true, it would be "irony". You should give dubyah a lesson on what is and isn't "irony") is, it's a "health food," one of our most popular.
Now, I'm a health-food guy (Comment: Chicken wings with light beer is not "health food"), a fanatic who seldom allows anything into his kitchen unless it's organic. I state my bias (Comment: duuuuuuh) here just so you'll know I'm not anti-health food.
The dangerous food I'm speaking of is soy. Soybean products are feminizing, and they're all over the place. You can hardly escape them anymore.
I have nothing against an occasional soy snack. Soy is nutritious and contains lots of good things. Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens.
Estrogens are female hormones. If you're a woman, you're flooding your system with a substance it can't handle in surplus. If you're a man, you're suppressing your masculinity and stimulating your "female side," physically and mentally.
In fetal development, the default is being female. All humans (even in old age) tend toward femininity (Comment: That explains finding my grandfather wearing my grandmother's dresses!). The main thing that keeps men from diverging into the female pattern is testosterone, and testosterone is suppressed by an excess of estrogen.
If you're a grownup (Comment: It's evident you are not), you're already developed, and you're able to fight off some of the damaging effects of soy. Babies aren't so fortunate. Research is now showing that when you feed your baby soy formula, you're giving him or her the equivalent of five birth control pills a day (Comment: where's the citation for this "research"). A baby's endocrine system just can't cope with that kind of massive assault, so some damage is inevitable. At the extreme, the damage can be fatal.
Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality (Comment: Again, no scientific citation for this so-called "research"). That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products. (Most babies are bottle-fed during some part of their infancy, and one-fourth of them are getting soy milk!) Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because "I can't remember a time when I wasn't homosexual." No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can't remember a time when excess estrogen wasn't influencing them.
Doctors used to hope soy would reduce hot flashes, prevent cancer and heart disease, and save millions in the Third World from starvation. That was before they knew much about long-term soy use. Now we know it's a classic example of a cure that's worse than the disease. For example, if your baby gets colic from cow's milk, do you switch him to soy milk? Don't even think about it. His phytoestrogen level will jump to 20 times normal. If he is a she, brace yourself for watching her reach menarche as young as seven, robbing her of years of childhood. If he is a boy, it's far worse: He may not reach puberty till much later than normal.
Research in 2000 showed that a soy-based diet at any age can lead to a weak thyroid, which commonly produces heart problems and excess fat. Could this explain the dramatic increase in obesity today (Comment: Apparently uber high fat diets have nothing to do with obesity)?
Recent research on rats shows testicular atrophy, infertility and uterus hypertrophy (enlargement) (Comment: What "research"? He must be using the "Paris Business Review" as his source of "data"). This helps explain the infertility epidemic and the sudden growth in fertility clinics. But alas, by the time a soy-damaged infant has grown to adulthood and wants to marry, it's too late to get fixed by a fertility clinic.
Worse, there's now scientific evidence that estrogen ingredients in soy products may be boosting the rapidly rising incidence of leukemia in children. In the latest year we have numbers for, new cases in the U.S. jumped 27 percent (comment: I can't stress enough how wrong that is, please refer to pages 12 & 13 of Cancer Facts and Figures. AML has increased by 1.8% per year since 1988 while CLL has decreased by 1.9% per year since 1992.) In one year!
There's also a serious connection between soy and cancer in adults – especially breast cancer (Comment: errrrrrrr, wrong again. A recent review of the literature found:"There is no clear evidence that phytoestrogen intake influences the risk of developing breast cancer". That's why the governments of Israel, the UK, France and New Zealand are already cracking down hard on soy (Comment: Crack, hard...where's Mark Foley?).
In sad contrast, 60 percent of the refined foods in U.S. supermarkets now contain soy (Comment: And 100 percent of your readers that believe you are idiots). Worse, soy use may double in the next few years because (last I heard) the out-of-touch medicrats in the FDA hierarchy are considering allowing manufacturers of cereal, energy bars, fake milk, fake yogurt, etc., to claim that "soy prevents cancer." It doesn't (Comment: G. dubyah Bush prevents cancer....right?).
P.S.: Soy sauce is fine. Unlike soy milk, it's perfectly safe because it's fermented, which changes its molecular structure (Comment: Hey Einstein, ALL phytoestrogens are metabolized in the gut and go through a series of "molecular changes") . Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, but avoid tofu (Comment: You should avoid sharp objects, small children, and operating heavy machinery).
~~~~~~Dr. Matt: It's quite comical and scary when really, really uninformed people like Rutz attempt to rationalize human behavior via their junk science. I only touched the surface on how wrong Rutz's little commentary actually is. The plain and simple fact about soy and soy products is: "we don't know". Some studies show phytos to be protective for a variety of cancers, others show no effect, and a few show increased risk. The same conclusions are true for the relief of menopausal symptoms, CHD, cognitive impairment, and osteoporotic fractures. So, please, if you are interested in a topic, do the research yourself. One place to start is PubMed. The last place to take advise is from wing-nut freaks like Rutz.
Song of The Day (Placebo, 'Running Up That Hill')
"Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" was the first single from Kate Bush's 1985 album Hounds of Love. Written by Bush, it features highly literate lyrics and impassioned vocals. It was released as a single in the UK on August 5, 1985, with the album appearing on shelves on September 16, 1985.
Placebo's cover of the Kate Bush classic was first released as a bonus track on their 2003 release, "Sleeping With Ghosts", but has been featured recently on Fox's T.V. shows The OC and on Bones in 2006.
Tom "Criminal" DeLay plays the typical blame game
From Newshounds.us: Tom DeLay told an astounded Alan Colmes last night that liberals and the media were the cause of the problems in the Iraq war. Colmes repeatedly made the point that the president is the commander in chief, that it was neither liberals nor the media who planned and executed the war effort. Yet DeLay insisted it was all the liberals/media's fault.
From C&L: Colmes points out how silly his rant is because there's no basis of truth to it, but it's DeLay and the truth has no real place in his Republican propaganda. Hey Tom, over 60 people were killed in Iraq today, but I understand it's going much better than how the media portrays it.
Download WMP Video
Notice how insane Delay acts on FOX, but when he's on MSNBC—Tom is such a terrific fellow and respects liberals and Nancy Pelosi oh-so-much.
H/T to C&L for the video and partial transcriptBarnicle: I would get the sense just from your persona on TV that you absolutely hated Democrats and were inclined to blame them for everything, from psoriasis to the war in Iraq. Not so?
DELAY: Not so. I have the utmost respect for legitimate liberals, Democrats that fight for what they believe in. I enjoy the fight. I‘m passionate about what I believe in. I fight very hard for what I believe in.
BARNICLE: What do you think about Nancy Pelosi? Do you like her?
DELAY: I like her. I think she‘s an honest liberal. She‘s fighting very hard for what she‘s doing. I disagree with everything she stands for and—and am willing to fight with her toe to toe…
Ricky has a plan for the Iran: Bus Drivers Can Topple The Country!
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/11/santorum-iran-bus-drivers/
Rick Santorum's Plan For Iran: With Our Help, Bus Drivers Could Topple The Government
This morning on MSNBC, outgoing Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) unveiled his plan to "confront" Iran. Santorum said that the United States should have supported a bus driver strike that occurred a few weeks ago. According to Santorum, "We should have quietly gone in there and given them a whole boat-load of money so they could sustain the strike and continue to cause unrest within Iran to try to topple the government." Watch it:
IMUS: What do we do, then, when you say confront them — Iran?
SANTORUM: Well, I've (inaudible) forward a whole bunch of different thing. For example, there was a bus driver strike a few weeks ago in Iran. We did nothing to support it; we should have. We should have quietly gone in there and given them a whole boat-load of money so they could sustain the strike and continue to cause unrest within Iran to try to topple the government. And we did nothing to support that strike.
And as a result, they crushed the strike and another labor movement, which of course, as you know, like in Poland and other countries, was the key to the overthrow of the government because it's an organization that is based in democracy to try to topple these types of regimes that we see in Iran and we didn't do anything. That's one example.
But there are a host of examples of what we could be doing to be much more engaged and involved in Iran, but the State Department — a lot of folks don't want us to do it because we don't want to antagonize Iran. While Iran is killing our people in Iraq right now, I just think it's foolish.
IMUS: We're talking with Senator Rick Santorum.
By the way, I was just thinking as you were talking — because I wasn't listening…
First Post: The Truth Will Set You Free
The "conservative" neocon movement/cult of our Great Country believes the terms "liberal" and "progressive" are disparaging. Apparently, in their cloud of ignorance and dogma, they fail to realize that these terms are analogous with advancement, promotion, and progress. The "conservative" neocon cult want to convert this Great Nation into a zealot paranoid nation of drones and sheeple who cannot and will not question those who, apparently, reside in seats of "leadership". More precisely, if those seats of "leadership" are filled by an individual carrying an (R) next to their name.
The zealots have had their "little run" and left behind a nation divided wider then Moses at the Red Sea and the Grand Canyon combined. They have left behind death, destruction, debt, and utter and complete failure. We, the progressives, must and shall begin to take back our Great Country in 2007 and continue in 2008. Nov 2006 was just the start. We can not sit back quietly and hope for the best in the future. We cannot be satisfied and lazy. We must be pro-active and continue to fight back for our country.
It's time to make our Great Country what our fore-fathers and-mothers wanted Her to be, a shining beacon of light that the World respected, feared out of respect (and not thuggish dubyah-like terror), and looked towards for guidance. So, in closing of my first post my fellow Americans, Progressives, Liberals, Moderates, and Independents, let us not fear or hate or worry. Jesus was a Liberal, and this Great Country is inherently progressive, so lift your knowledge filled and I.Q. rich brains and let us take back and lead our Country.
~Dr. Matt
