PAUL RANTS

Posted by Paul at April 27th, 2007

Four years after the fact, former CIA head George Tenet reveals all in his new book about the Cheney/Pentagon push to invade Iraq:

There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat.

Hey, why worry about imminent threats? Just send the troops in, stir up trouble between sects, get blown apart by IEDs, lock down oil wells, and employ contractors. Oh, and there’s the billions in fraud and the torture, but let’s not split hairs… Gee, couldn’t they have at least pretended to have a serious debate?

I told the president that strengthening the public presentation was a ‘slam dunk,’ a phrase that was later taken completely out of context.

So the lies they would tell the public were a slam dunk, not the evidence of WMDs. Nice. Go tell the families of the dead, George. Thanks for finally letting them know. Go polish your Medal of Freedom that you took for keeping your mouth shut. Go count your book royalties that the families of the dead made possible. Slam dunk.

Arianna Huffington takes George Tenet apart.

UPDATE: Officers: ex-CIA chief Tenet a ‘failed’ leader

Posted by Paul at April 26th, 2007

How did it come to this? Mike Gravel, the Democratic candidate that dared utter the phrase “military industrial complex” in the recent debate is marginalized as a feisty old guy with no hope of wide support. One thing for sure: the candidates had better stop hemming and hawing and talk about what is really wrong with the current administration.

One thing they agree on: the Iraq occupation is a bad thing. Congratulations for noticing, candidates. Seventy percent of the American people agree. A courageous stand, indeed. But why is Iraq such a bad thing? Because the Vice President and the Pentagon fabricated a case to invade for profit, and outed a CIA agent when someone disagreed. I wish it was some kind of fringe conspiracy, but the former director of the CIA just confirmed as much in his new book (Guess we don’t need left-winger Mike Gravel to tell us what’s what.).

So, can we impeach Cheney, now, for God’s sake?? Hillary, Obama, somebody… grow some indignation already. Any presidential candidate that does not support the impeachment of the Vice President has no business running. Dennis Kucinich has more integrity than the rest of them put together (save for Gravel) for calling Cheney to account for his actions. The writing is on the wall and the world is waiting. Bush is on his last legs and no one has the fucking temerity to knock him over with a feather? This is your moment, you milquetoast, focus-grouped automatons. TAKE IT! Or else, get out of the way so Gravel or Kucinich can lead, because, as someone once said, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

UPDATE: Gravel: Why Hillary Scares Me

Posted by Paul at April 18th, 2007

Here’s a good example of what not to say after a group of innocent college students are murdered in their classrooms. As devastated families and friends grieve, this chickenhawk media provocateur wannabe (and others like him) has the gaul to blame the victims for getting shot. I guess if it had been his son or daughter he would have wondered aloud, “Why the hell didn’t you just rush the guy?” The notion that rather than protect themselves they should have somehow disarmed a maniac with two semi-automatic handguns is not realistic (They were engineering students, not military commandos). Such a reaction is not only the height of insensitivity, it’s another transparent device to be contrary, to try and stand out in a saturated media market. Well done…

Posted by Paul at April 14th, 2007

One of the best kept secrets in Los Angeles is the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area (I’m free to write about it here since this website is also a well kept secret). Besides the expansive field above, there are several mountain trails, some that lead to hidden green spaces. There’s a lake, a waterfall (both man-made), picnic tables, playgrounds, a Japanese garden, and views like this of Downtown (You can also see most of the westside and the ocean):

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area is in the hills south of Culver City, off of La Cienega Blvd. It’s a great place to walk, and unlike popular Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, you won’t trip over the dog leashes of any personal assistants. On Saturdays and Sundays it costs five dollars per vehicle to visit; weekdays are free. My wife and I went Friday and we had to look hard to notice any other visitors. If you see a large middle-aged caucasion guy huffing and puffing on one of the hiking trails, that’s me trying to reverse my high cholesterol. And this is me blogging about it to remind myself to go.

Posted by Paul at April 14th, 2007

April Winchell on a lesson learned by the Rutgers women’s basketball team from Al Sharpton and his ilk about the Don Imus debacle:

…at the end of the day, a black woman’s self worth is in the hands of some old white guy you never heard of.

Who knew?

Posted by Paul at April 14th, 2007

Anti-establishment but never preachy, accessible to the young and old, Kurt Vonnegut could make you laugh out loud, feel better informed and more cool for having read him, while still impressing your nerdy science fiction friends. Tattered paperback copies of Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five were ubiquitous emblems of my otherwise misspent 20s; likewise for the generation before mine, and hopefully for more to come. So it goes…

Posted by Paul at April 7th, 2007

And after the 15 marines and sailors were seized they were subjected to random interrogation and rough handling, and faced constant psychological pressure, they said. — BBC News

What? No waterboarding, no stress positions… no murder? Looks like the British sailors captured by Iran were fortunate compared to anyone unlucky enough to be captured by the United States. But hey, we’re not as bad as those rogue terrorist groups that chop heads off and video tape it, right? Just among actual civilized nations we’re the most barbaric. Incredibly, the Bush administration has managed to make Iranian Prime Minister Ahmadinejad look like a true statesman.

And now, this.

Posted by Paul at April 4th, 2007

Kieth Richards: ‘I Snorted My Father’

What I found truly amazing about this story is not so much that Kieth Richards snorted some of his father’s ashes mixed with cocaine (Here’s to you, Pop! Snorrrt…), but that he was still doing cocaine as recently as 2002..! The guy is indestructible. Fell out of a coconut tree last year and landed on his head. Drank (drinks?) like a fish. Nearly died of heroin use in the seventies (I heard he got a complete blood transfusion in Sweden or some place, so he could continue his habit unabated. Rumor? Maybe not…). But snorting coke at age 60? After forty plus years of drug abuse? OK, it was cut with some cadaver ash but that just makes it more hardcore in my book. Meanwhile, rock stars half his age are in rehab. Truly amazing… An inspiration to us all.

Hail, hail rock and roll.

UPDATE: Alas, Kieth was only kidding. April fools! 

Posted by Paul at April 4th, 2007

The spectacle of John McCain walking through a Baghdad street market under heavy guard (100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawks, 2 Apache gunships) after claiming the streets of Baghdad were now safe is a new low, even for him. The former maverick and straight talker is now the official Bush/Cheney see-no-evil candidate. He embodies everything the electorate is fed up with: lying to our faces and then proving his lies wrong with his own actions, as if we’re too stupid to notice. I’m not sure even Bush would do something this blatantly hypocritical and ridiculous. Senator McCain is out there on his own — his fundraising is down, the right wing can’t stand him no matter how much he panders to their Evangelical base, and the rest of the country knows he’s just an old fool trying desperately to manufacture some support for an unpopular and unwinnable war. Maverick, indeed… Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney have nothing to worry about in the Republican primary; even actor and former senator Fred Thompson now has a good shot at the nomination. Like a right-wing Howard Dean, it’s all over but the shouting; looking forward to the inevitable meltdown when it finally dawns on McCain how out of step he is with the rest of the nation. Let’s see how many flip-flops and idiotic statements he can muster in the meantime.

UPDATE: Oops! He “misspoke!”

UPDATE: McCain challenge falters as top aids quit