First Door on the Left

Marine who appeared in `Fahrenheit 9/11′ killed in Iraq

A U.S. Marine and one-time recruiter who appeared in Michael Moore’s acclaimed documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11″ has died in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Although Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar willingly appeared in a segment of the 2004 film, his father, Raymond, said Tuesday that his son didn’t realize that it was for a movie critical of the war.

Let’s stop right here for a minute.

I’m not buying it, and I cannot believe that his father would say such a thing. I am not going to dishonor the memory of this remarkable man by believing that he was stupid enough to be duped by Michael Moore. He would have to have been stupid, or at least incredibly naive, to willingly appear in a movie by Michael Moore and not know that it was going to be critical of the war. I am simply not going to believe that of Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar.

The story continues…

Raymond Plouhar said that all his 30-year-old son ever wanted to do was serve his country.

“I remember when he fell in the bathtub and cut his chin when he was 6 years old, and the only way I could get him to go to the hospital was to tell it was a MASH unit,” Raymond Plouhar said. “I’m proud that my son wanted to protect the freedom of this country whether we all agree with the war or not.”

The younger Plouhar died Monday of wounds suffered while conducting combat operations in the Al Anbar province of Iraq, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

Plouhar, of Lake Orion, about 30 miles north of Detroit, was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, First Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

He signed up for the Marines immediately after graduating from Lake Orion High School, where he wrestled and played football, his father said in a telephone interview.

The 57-year-old Plouhar said his son took four years off from active duty to serve as a recruiter in Flint after donating one of his kidneys to his uncle.

During that time, the Marine was filmed as part of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” about the Bush administration’s actions after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Raymond J. Plouhar was an outstanding young man and a credit to the Marines. We were lucky to have him on our side. My sympathies go out to his family and friends.

I saw this story on the evening news tonight. “Bush Jogs With Wounded Soldier.” I don’t understand how George W. Bush is able to look this young man in the face, let alone go jogging with him.

James J. says “Apparently, Superman is not an American anymore” and links to this New York Post gossip column.

Okay, I confess… I really just wanted an excuse to post this picture…

Glenn Greenwald…

The Bush lynch mob against the nation’s free press

Any doubts about whether the Bush administration intends to imprison unfriendly journalists (defined as “journalists who fail to obey the Bush administration’s orders about what to publish”) were completely dispelled this weekend. As I have noted many times before, one of the most significant dangers our country faces is the all-out war now being waged on our nation’s media — and thereby on the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press — by the Bush administration and its supporters, who are furious that the media continues to expose controversial government policies and thereby subject them to democratic debate. After the unlimited outpouring of venomous attacks on the Times this weekend, I believe these attacks on our free press have become the country’s most pressing political issue.

Documenting the violent rhetoric and truly extremist calls for imprisonment against the Times is unnecessary for anyone paying even minimal attention the last few days. On every cable news show, pundits and even journalists talked openly about whether the editors and reporters of the Times were traitors deserving criminal punishment. The Weekly Standard, always a bellwether of Bush administration thinking, is now actively crusading for criminal prosecution against the Times. And dark insinuations that the Times ought to be physically attacked are no longer the exclusive province of best-selling right-wing author Ann Coulter, but — as Hume’s Ghost recently documented — are now commonly expressed sentiments among all sorts of “mainstream” Bush supporters. Bush supporters are now engaged in all-out, unlimited warfare against journalists who are hostile to the administration and who fail to adhere to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief about what to print…

The media is guilty of publishing stories which might harm the political interests of the President, not which could harm the national security of the United States. But Bush supporters recognize no such distinction. Harming the “Commander-in-Chief in a time of war” is, to them, synonymous with treason. Hence, we have calls for the imprisonment of our national media for reporting stories which tell terrorists nothing of significance which they did not already know, but which instead, merely provoke long-overdue democratic debates about whether we want to be a country in which we place blind trust in the administration to act in total secrecy.

Click on the headline (at the top of the quote) to read the entire article.

It’s all pretty much what I said yesterday, but better written and documented. Well worth your time.

These people write as if two billion dollars were a big deal…

‘Breathtaking’ Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid

WASHINGTON, June 26 — Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion.

A hotel owner in Sugar Land, Tex., has been charged with submitting $232,000 in bills for phantom victims. And roughly 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.

There are the bureaucrats who ordered nearly half a billion dollars worth of mobile homes that are still empty, and renovations for a shelter at a former Alabama Army base that cost about $416,000 per evacuee.

And there is the Illinois woman who tried to collect federal benefits by claiming she watched her two daughters drown in the rising New Orleans waters. In fact, prosecutors say, the children did not exist.

The tally of ignoble acts linked to Hurricane Katrina, pulled together by The New York Times from government audits, criminal prosecutions and Congressional investigations, could rise because the inquiries are under way. Even in Washington, a city accustomed to government bloat, the numbers are generating amazement.

Heck, we spend that much money every week on George W. Bush’s War in Iraq.

Let’s try to keep things in perspective, folks.

Limbaugh Detained At Airport For Drugs

(CBS4 News) WEST PALM BEACH Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was detained at Palm Beach International Airport for the possible possession of illegal prescription drugs Monday evening.

Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic when customs officials found a Viagra prescription that did not bear his name. Instead, the bottle of pills had the names of two doctors on it according to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents examined the 55-year-old’s luggage after his private plane landed at the airport from the Dominican Republic. The matter was then turned over to the Sheriff’s Office. Investigators seized the drugs – used to treat erectile dysfunction – from Limbaugh.

Limbaugh was detained for about three hours and was let go after cooperating with officials. He could be facing a second-degree misdemeanor violation if the State Attorney’s office presses charges.

Limbaugh entered a plea deal back in April in a previous case where his charge of fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions was dropped under the condition he continue undergoing treatment for addiction.

Limbaugh had admitted to being addicted to pain killers on his radio program and had entered a rehabilitation program prior to that arrest.

Rush was such a great help to Cap’n Ed. It is sad to read that he has fallen off the wagon.

Continue Reading »

Remember last week when Ricky Santorum found all those WMDs in Iraq? You know, the one that have been AWOL for the past three and half years or so?

That was a big story in the right-wing blogworld and media for a day or two. Suddenly, they all stopped talking about it. I searched and searched and was unable to find a single mention of Little Ricky’s WMDs today.

I think we need to talk about this.

I think we should talk about every day between now and the November elections.

Bush Slams Leak of Terror Finance Story

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush on Monday sharply condemned the disclosure of a secret anti-terrorism program that taps into an immense international database of confidential financial records.

“For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America,” Bush said. He said the disclosure of the program “makes it harder to win this war on terror.”

Bull.

Mr. Bush must think these people against whom we are fighting are the dumbest people on the face of the earth. Does he really believe they were not aware that we were monitoring their financial transactions or listening in on their telephone calls? Does he really believe the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times told them anything they did not already know?

If the terrorists are so damn stupid and we’re so damn smart, why haven’t we won this war already?

Mr. Bush is playing politics here; nothing more, nothing less. Anybody who believes differently really is a dumb ass.

P.S. Posting may be a little light today. Markos is running a little late in getting this week’s marching orders out. (Not that I’d get them anyway, but hey… a fellow can dream.)

P.P.S. That picture is priceless. You have to see it full size…

James Joyner links to this article in the Washington Times…

Conservative bloggers seek a place on the political Web

Conservative bloggers brought their message, and marching orders, to Capitol Hill yesterday morning.

The 16 panelists at a training session for Republican congressional staffers did not deny that liberal blogs control both a larger audience and most of the attention of the political blogosphere.

However, a smaller network of bloggers and technology strategists has been collaborating with influential Republicans, including the White House, for more than a year.

Did you get that? Liberal blogs control both a larger audience and most of the attention of the political blogosphere. I wonder why that is.

James in quoted in the article…

“We’re not that powerful,” said Outside the Beltway blogger James Joyner. “We’re never going to be like Walter Cronkite was 25 years ago.” Mr. Joyner estimates his Web site has about 10,000 daily readers.

The quote I found most entertaining, however, was the one attributed to Mark Tapscott…

However, Mark Tapscott said conservative bloggers like himself could become more independent and critical of Republican leaders if the party loses power or control of their agenda. Mr. Tapscott said Republican leaders “need to consider the possibility” of conservative bloggers “putting together a third party,” within the next several years.

Let’s see… I think my dream ticket would be Michelle Malkin for president and John Hinderacker for vice president. How about yours?

 

If you are so inclined, you may even post your dream ticket from the liberal side of the blogworld.

The New York Times has revealed yet more of the Bush administration’s classified information to the world…

U.S. General in Iraq Outlines Troop Cuts

WASHINGTON, June 24 — The top American commander in Iraq has drafted a plan that projects sharp reductions in the United States military presence there by the end of 2007, with the first cuts coming this September, American officials say.

According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon this week by the commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to 5 or 6 from the current level of 14 by December 2007.

Malkin and her Army of Photoshoppers are, of course, out in full force. You have to give them credit. This is as close as most of them are going to get to actually doing something (in their minds, anyway) in defense of our country. Hey, it’s a lot closer than Richard Cheney ever got!

I don’t think it’s the New York Times they need to be pissed at, however. They need to be pissed at whoever within the Bush administration keeps leaking all this classified information to the New York Times. (My guess would be Rove… he’s done it before.) Because — there is not one of them who could ever convince me that they would not be cheering the New York Times for publishing this information if a Democrat was currently in the White House.

They’re not worried about the security of our country. They’re worried about saving George W. Bush’s butt. And in order to do that, they need to stop up the leak. Their war is not with the New York Times. Their war is with that leak. That is who they should be Photoshopping against.