BJ Clinton to Obama: Kiss my ass!

Bill Clinton says Barack Obama must 'kiss my ass' for his support

Bill Clinton is so bitter about Barack Obama's victory over his wife Hillary that he has told friends the Democratic nominee will have to beg for his wholehearted support.

Mr Obama is expected to speak to Mr Clinton for the first time since he won the nomination in the next few days, but campaign insiders say that the former president's future campaign role is a "sticking point" in peace talks with Mrs Clinton's aides.

The Telegraph has learned that the former president's rage is still so great that even loyal allies are shocked by his patronising attitude to Mr Obama, and believe that he risks damaging his own reputation by his intransigence.

A senior Democrat who worked for Mr Clinton has revealed that he recently told friends Mr Obama could "kiss my ass" in return for his support.

A second source said that the former president has kept his distance because he still does not believe Mr Obama can win the election.

This is funny, I don't care who you are!

Barack Obama "Uh" Count

h/t: CBS


The Obama Gaffe Machine

I Say It's My Birthday!

h/t: ROBKATL

Godspeed 1463rd Trans Co.

Army Spc. James Cooley, left, of Caledonia, kisses his girlfriend, as Army Pfc. Josh Dietrich, of Grand Rapids, hugs his girlfriend after a send-off ceremony Monday at the Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming, Michigan.

HOOAH! Deployment ceremony pix link.

Don't Tell Me It's Not Worth Tryin' For

h/t: bookhound63

The Thing About This Enemy

What really makes me angry about the whole 'torture' conversation is that opponents of waterboarding and harsh techniques want to make a blanket policy that could apply to any enemy.

If we were at war with the British for example, we wouldn't need to use waterboarding or harsh interrogation because historically the Brits didn't hide among their women and children shooting RPGs at us, nor did they behead our civilians on tape. They didn't plant road bombs or hide caches of IEDs that weasely jihadists could go pick at like little old ladies at a vegetable market.

The enemy we fight isn't just any enemy. They do all of what I said previously and more. Any evil thing you can think of, they do. Putting a man prone and dribbling water on his covered face isn't the same as putting bamboo shoots under his fingernails. That would be torture.

A Senior CIA lawyer advised Pentagon officials about the use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees at Guantanamo Bay in a meeting in late 2002, defending waterboarding and other methods as permissible despite U.S. and international laws banning torture, according to documents released yesterday by congressional investigators.

Torture "is basically subject to perception," CIA counterterrorism lawyer Jonathan Fredman told a group of military and intelligence officials gathered at the U.S.-run detention camp in Cuba on Oct. 2, 2002, according to minutes of the meeting. "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong."

This from the CIA that leaked information to make the President look bad for political reasons. Even they came to the conclusion that waterboarding is permissable because the perception seems to be that it doesn't cause death (or blood or broken bones, presumably).

Until the people of this nation realize that this enemy warrants all our weapons and techniques, we'll be doing a lot of wheel spinning. We just don't have time.

The Oval Office

What a beautiful room. Learn more about the White House here.

Bush Playin' Bball

President Bush with members of the Peace Players basketball team and their coach Monday. June 16, 2008, during a visit to the Lough Integrated Primary School in Belfast, Ireland. White House photos by Chris Greenberg President Bush Meets with Peter Robinson, First Minister of Northern Ireland, and Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland

Bush never lied to us about Iraq

This almost got by me:

In 2004, the Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously approved a report acknowledging that it "did not find any evidence that administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments." The following year, the bipartisan Robb-Silberman report similarly found "no indication that the intelligence community distorted the evidence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction."

Contrast those conclusions with the Senate Intelligence Committee report issued June 5, the production of which excluded Republican staffers and which only two GOP senators endorsed. In a news release announcing the report, committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV got in this familiar shot: "Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses."

Yet Rockefeller's highly partisan report does not substantiate its most explosive claims. Rockefeller, for instance, charges that "top administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and Al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11." Yet what did his report actually find? That Iraq-Al Qaeda links were "substantiated by intelligence information." The same goes for claims about Hussein's possession of biological and chemical weapons, as well as his alleged operation of a nuclear weapons program.

Four years on from the first Senate Intelligence Committee report, war critics, old and newfangled, still don't get that a lie is an act of deliberate, not unwitting, deception. If Democrats wish to contend they were "misled" into war, they should vent their spleen at the CIA.

Partisanship in Congress? Why, I'm shocked!

Happy Birthday US Army

Happy 233rd! HOOAH!


Army's birthday and Flag Day celebrated

h/t: mtnlaurel

Time Out

I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones

Illegal Crackdown

From the "It's About Time Dept":

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has signed an executive order requiring contractors and others who do business with the federal government to make sure their employees can legally work in the U.S.
Bush signed the order Friday and the White House announced the order Monday.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez planned an afternoon news conference to discuss the order and other ways the administration has stepped up its crackdown on illegal immigration.

The order says federal departments and agencies must require contractors to use an electronic system to verify that the workers are eligible to work in the U.S.

The order is aimed at cracking down on hiring of illegal immigrants. But people who overstayed visas or came to the country legally but do not have permission to work, such as some students or those awaiting work permits, also could be snagged with the system.

"It is the policy of the executive branch to enforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detection and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens," in the executive order says.

June 6, 1944

D-Day Airborne and Beach Assault

The Normandy beaches were chosen by planners because they lay within range of air cover, and were less heavily defended than the obvious objective of the Pas de Calais, the shortest distance between Great Britain and the Continent. Airborne drops at both ends of the beachheads were to protect the flanks, as well as open up roadways to the interior. Six divisions were to land on the first day; three U.S., two British and one Canadian. Two more British and one U.S. division were to follow up after the assault division had cleared the way through the beach defenses.

Disorganization, confusion, incomplete or faulty implementation of plans characterized the initial phases of the landings. This was especially true of the airborne landings which were badly scattered, as well as the first wave units landing on the assault beaches. To their great credit, most of the troops were able to adapt to the disorganization. In the end, the Allies achieved their objective.

Read this beautiful page about that day.

G'itmo: Model Prison

From Rear Admiral Mark H. Buzby via the WSJ:

There is much talk in the media, in our capital and elsewhere about the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I have paid close attention to this dialogue, and after a year in command, it is clear that there are two Guantanamos: the one that exists in popular culture, and the one most discover when they actually see conditions there.

We house enemy combatants in one of several facilities according to their compliance with camp rules. Highly compliant detainees, approximately 20% of the population, live in Camp 4. Here they enjoy a communal, barracks-style environment, with movie nights, classes in Pashtu, Arabic and English, shared meals and prayers, and up to 12 hours of recreation per day.

Many of the enemy combatants, however, fail to comply with established rules. Offenses often include head-butting, kicking, biting and splashing young soldiers and sailors with feces and urine "cocktails."

These detainees are housed in Camps 5 and 6 – modern, climate-controlled facilities modeled after existing U.S. prison facilities in the Midwest. They get a minimum of two, soon to be three, hours of outdoor recreation per day adjacent to three to five other detainees. And they are held in a block of single-occupancy cells where they communicate with other detainees, guards, medical staff, library assistants and mail delivery personnel. Prayers are led five times a day by a detainee-appointed Imam. Each cell contains an arrow that points to Mecca.

By the way,

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - The military expects a confrontational hearing when the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and four alleged confederates are brought before a Marine colonel presiding over their war-crimes tribunal.

At an arraignment scheduled for Thursday, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was expected to make his first public appearance since being captured in Pakistan in 2003, held in CIA custody at secret sites and transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.

God Bless the US Military.

US - Iraq Forces Agreement

The US media has been forwarding the notion that the US Military is somehow imposing itself on Iraq, and that the agreement that's being worked out is in jeopardy because of that. Since the Military makes statements all the time about their goals, expectations and intentions, one can again come to the conclusion that the US media has some sort of agenda.




h/t: bottomlineupfront