First Door on the Left

Borrowing a caption from a right wing nut (which he used on a slightly different photo)…

“See you on the flip side, buddy.”

The rabid righties are definitely in full gloat mode this morning. The next time I hear one of them even mutter the term “pro-life” I am going to upchuck directly in his or her face. I swear I will.

Update: They are all passing this photo around and using it as masturbatory fodder…

(Click to enlarge if you feel the need.)

Also see: “The Right Wing Brain Dead Speaketh.”

Iraqi TV Says Saddam Hussein Executed

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Saddam Hussein, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq with a remorseless brutality for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a U.S.-led war that left his country in shambles, was taken to the gallows and executed Saturday, Iraqi state-run television reported.

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

Also hanged were Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court.

State-run Iraqiya television news announcer said “criminal Saddam was hanged to death and the execution started with criminal Saddam then Barzan then Awad al-Bandar.”

He’s dead. Do you feel safer?

My youngest brother gave me a book for Christmas. This book:

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

I finished reading it last night. Though it’s really about the Great American Dust Bowl of the 1930s, it will give you a taste of what John Edwards is talking about when he talks about the “two Americas.”

This book scared me. Highly recommended. (Click on the image to order.)

This picture, supposedly showing John Kerry dining alone in a mess hall in Iraq, has been making the rounds of the right wing blogosphere over the past couple of days…

Here is the same picture, lightened up a bit…

It looks like this was all just another attempt by a bunch of right wing bloggers to hang on to what little relevance they may have left. Crooks and Liars has the details.

Gather up the kids, Ma, we’re goin’ to town. There’s gonna be a hangin’!

At least that’s what NBC News is reporting…

Saddam to be hanged by Sunday

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148 killings in 1982, will have his sentence carried out by Sunday, NBC News reported Thursday. According to a U.S. military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins this Sunday.

The hanging could take place as early as Friday, NBC’s Richard Engel reported.

The U.S. military received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer Saddam to Iraqi authorities, NBC reported on Thursday, which is one of the final steps required before his execution. His sentence, handed down last month, ordered that he be hanged within 30 days.

Meanwhile, his lawyer is doing what he can to delay the proceedings, claiming that hanging Hussein “would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war.”

Saddam Lawyer Seeks Mercy; 5 Troops Die

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – Saddam Hussein’s lawyer made a last-ditch effort to impede his execution Thursday, beseeching world leaders to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted dictator to Iraqi authorities who plan to hang him.

The plea from Saddam’s attorney came as the U.S. military reported the deaths of five more troops and announced that Iraqi forces, backed by American forces, captured an al-Qaida in Iraq cell leader believed responsible for the June kidnapping of two soldiers who were found tortured and killed.

With at least 72 more Iraqis killed in sectarian violence, U.S. officials and Iraqis expressed concern about the potential for even worse bloodshed following Saddam’s execution. The lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said transferring Saddam to Iraqi authorities could be the trigger.

“If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war,” al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

You would think the Iraqis would show a little consideration and schedule this party for a time when Bush & Co. could more openly celebrate. It would seem impolite of them to throw a kegger this weekend, what with the Ford funeral and all.

Mark Noonan (always good for a laugh) at Blogs for Bush is gloating over the fact that his hero, Geroge W. Bush, was recently named “most admired” in a Gallup poll. His post is here: “Who is Admired?”

Mark never has been one for facts. It was not a Gallup poll… is was a poll commissioned by AP-AOL News and conducted by Ipsos International. Mr. Bush was indeed named “hero of the year” by 13% of those who responded to the poll. Mark fails to note, though, that 25% of the poll’s respondents named George W. Bush “villain of the year.”

AP Poll: Bush, Britney Get Thumbs-Down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bad guy of 2006: President Bush. Good guy of 2006: President Bush. When people were asked in an AP-AOL News poll to name the villains and heroes of the year, Bush topped both lists, in a sign of these polarized times.

Among entertainment celebrities, Oprah Winfrey edged out Michael J. Fox as the best celebrity role model while Britney Spears outdistanced Paris Hilton as the worst.

Bush won the villain sweepstakes by a landslide, with one in four respondents putting him at the top of that bad-guy list. When people were asked to name the candidate for villain that first came to mind, Bush far outdistanced even Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader in hiding; and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who is scheduled for execution.

The president was picked as hero of the year by a much smaller margin. In the poll, 13 percent named him as their favorite while 6 percent cited the troops in Iraq.

This is typical of those on the right… they only see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.

Colbert: “But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

Be it known, as the Republicans deify Gerald Ford over the coming week just as they did Ronald Reagan…

Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq

Former president Gerald R. Ford said in an embargoed interview in July 2004 that the Iraq war was not justified. “I don’t think I would have gone to war,” he said a little more than a year after President Bush had launched the invasion advocated and carried out by prominent veterans of Ford’s own administration.

In a four-hour conversation at his house in Beaver Creek, Colo., Ford “very strongly” disagreed with the current president’s justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. In the tape-recorded interview, Ford was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney — Ford’s White House chief of staff — and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served as Ford’s chief of staff and then his Pentagon chief.

“Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction,” Ford said. “And now, I’ve never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do…”

Describing his own preferred policy toward Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Ford said he would not have gone to war, based on the publicly available information at the time, and would have worked harder to find an alternative. “I don’t think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly,” he said, “I don’t think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer.”

The years have not been particularly kind to either Rumsfeld or Cheney, have they?

  

Bush Recalls Ford’s Integrity, Instincts

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) – President Bush on Wednesday remembered former President Gerald Ford as a “man of complete integrity who led our country with common sense and kind instincts” and helped restore faith in the presidency after the Watergate scandal.

“On Aug. 9, 1974, he stepped into the presidency without ever having sought the office,” Bush said. “He assumed power in a period of great division and turmoil. For a nation that needed healing and for an office that needed a calm and steady hand, Gerald Ford came along when we needed him most.”

The president, who personally expressed his condolences in a phone call late Tuesday night with former first lady Betty Ford, called the former president a “man of integrity” who devoted the best years of his life to the nation. Bush said Ford commanded the Oval Office for 2 1/2 years with commonsense and kindness.

Ford “reflected the best in America’s character,” Bush said.

Who’s he kidding? George W. Bush does not remember a thing from the 70s. He didn’t even get sober until 1986.

He may vaguely remember being AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard, but other than that, nothing.

Former President Gerald Ford Dies at 93

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (AP) – Former President Gerald R. Ford, who declared “Our long national nightmare is over” as he replaced Richard Nixon but may have doomed his own chances of election by pardoning his disgraced predecessor, has died. He was 93.

The nation’s 38th president, and the only one elected to neither the office of president nor vice president, died at his desert home at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.

“His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country,” his wife, Betty, said in a statement.

Ford was the longest living former president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who died in June 2004, by more than a month.

Rest in peace, Mr. President.

(Some, including myself, would argue that Gerald Ford was not the only president never elected to that office.)