Dumbass. If starvation got rid of the devil, LA would be heaven on earth!

WASHINGTON - During a court appearance on Monday, a D.C. detective described interviewing a woman found in her Southeast home with the decomposing bodies of her four daughters. Detective Mitch Credle said Banita Jacks, 33, told him she thought her children were possessed by demons. She said she did not feed the girls because she thought if they grew weaker, the demons would leave, Credle said.

The bodies of the girls, ages 5 to 17, were found Jan. 9 when U.S. marshals served an eviction notice at the family’s apartment in southeast Washington. Police said Jacks lived in the apartment with the decomposed bodies for several months.

Jacks called her oldest daughter Brittany a “Jezebel,” a prostitute who she said was a bad influence on the other girls, Credle said.

… so much for the dream of bucolic farm life. The air there will kill you faster than the smog here, according to Discovery News. (Be sure to click and look at their little “worst offenders” slideshow):

Feb. 29, 2008 — Like flatulence that never dissipates, gaseous ammonia and other odorous gases resulting from animal manure can attach to dust particles, leaving behind matter that is both unpleasant and unhealthy for humans, according to new research that evaluated the levels of dust stink.

The study, which will be published in next month’s Biosystems Engineering journal, is among the first to quantify dust gas emissions. Dust from structures housing cattle, laying hens and pigs was studied, with the dust particles produced mainly from feed, manure, bedding, soil and the animals’ dry skin.

Co-author Jongmin Lee explained that an attraction-producing force, known in physics as the Van der Waals force, causes gas molecules to bond with those of the dust. The resulting bond is weaker than most chemical bonds, but it’s enough keep the gas stuck to the dust.

“The reverse of adsorption, desorption, is the transfer of gas from dust particles to the surrounding air, and the principles are the same as for adsorption,” Lee, a researcher in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, explained to Discovery News.

He added that heat can permit the gases to volatize and separate from the dust.

Lee and colleague Yuanhui Zhang therefore created a closed cylinder device that both introduced heat and then allowed for the measurement of the released gas from dust that was scraped off of barns, pipelines and exhaust fans from animal structures located in Illinois. They focused on ammonia, one of the smelliest gases produced by animals.

Based on their findings, laying hens and pigs produced far more ammonia dust than cattle did. The researchers attribute this to the way in which the animals were housed.

Someone must have really hated Mr. Van der Waals to name that “force” after him.

The Worst Preznit evar, pontifericating on the art of diplomancy:

Setting aside his stated reluctance to enter the presidential campaign, President Bush on Thursday strongly criticized Barack Obama’s expressed readiness to meet with foreign leaders cast as tyrants, warning that such discussions “can be extremely counterproductive” and “send the wrong signal.”

~~~

The president said that “sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro” would lend the status of the American presidency to the new Cuban leader.

To which we respond: Oh, Really??

I guess President Dumbshit figures it’s better if you just have your picture taken engaging in a little Cosplay or hand-holding with the tyrants, instead.

AP headline: “Police Have Suspect in Ark. Shooting”

bolding all mine.

At least she didn’t do a poll dance

Oregon town votes to strip mayor of office over MySpace. Feb. 27: Photos on MySpace of the mayor of a tiny Oregon town in lacy underwear have cost her her office.

ARLINGTON, Ore. - The mayor of an Oregon town who once stripped to her underwear and posed on a fire truck has been stripped of her office.

Almost overnight the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade was in full flower, and Captain Black was enraptured to discover himself spearheading it. He had really hit on something. All the enlisted men and officers on combat duty had to sign a loyalty oath to get their map cases from the intelligence tent, a second loyalty oath to receive their flak suits and parachutes from the parachute tent, a third loyalty oath for Lieutenant Balkington, the motor vehicle officer, to be allowed to ride from the squadron to the airfield in one of the trucks. Every time they turned around there was another loyalty oath to be signed. They signed a loyalty oath to get their pay from the finance officer, to obtain their PX supplies, to have their hair cut by the Italian barbers. To Captain Black, every officer who supported his Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade was a competitor, and he planned and plotted twenty-four hours a day to keep one step ahead. He would stand second to none in his devotion to country. When other officers had followed his urging and introduced loyalty oaths of their own, he went them one better by making every son of a bitch who came to his intelligence tent sign two loyalty oaths, then three, then four; then he introduced the pledge of allegiance, and after that “The Star-Spangled Banner,” one chorus, two choruses, three choruses, four choruses. Each time Captain Black forged ahead of his competitors, he swung upon them scornfully for their failure to follow his example. Each time they followed his example, he retreated with concern and racked his brain for some new stratagem that would enable him to turn upon them scornfully again.

Without realizing how it had come about, the combat men in the squadron discovered themselves dominated by the administrators appointed to serve them. They were bullied, insulted, harassed and shoved about all day long by one after the other. When they voiced objection, Captain Black replied that people who were loyal would not mind signing all the loyalty oaths they had to. To anyone who questioned the effectiveness of the loyalty oaths, he replied that people who really did owe allegiance to their country would be proud to pledge it as often as he forced them to. And to anyone who questioned the morality, he replied that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was the greatest piece of music ever composed. The more loyalty oaths a person signed, the more loyal he was; to Captain Black it was as simple as that, and he had Corporal Kolodny sign hundreds with his name each day so that he could always prove he was more loyal than anyone else.

~~~

Milo carefully said nothing when Major —— de Coverley stepped into the mess hall with his fierce and austere dignity the day he returned and found his way blocked by a wall of officers waiting in line to sign loyalty oaths. At the far end of the food counter, a group of men who had arrived earlier were pledging allegiance to the flag, with trays of food balanced in one hand, in order to be allowed to take seats at the table. Already at the tables, a group that had arrived still earlier was singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in order that they might use the salt and pepper and ketchup there. The hubub began to subside slowly as Major —— de Coverley paused in the doorway with a frown of puzzled disapproval, as though viewing something bizarre. He started forward in a straight line, and the wall of officers before him parted like the Red Sea. Glancing neither left nor right, he strode indomitably up to the steam counter and, in a clear, full-bodied voice that was gruff with age and resonant with ancient eminence and authority, said:

“Gimme eat.”

Instead of eat, Corporal Snark gave Major —— de Coverley a loyalty oath to sign. Major —— de Coverley swept it away with mighty displeasure the moment he recognized what it was, his good eye flaring up blindingly with fiery disdain and his enormous old corrugated face darkening in mountainous wrath.

“Gimme eat, I said,” he ordered loudly in harsh tones that rumbled ominously through the silent tent like claps of distant thunder.

Corporal Snark turned pale and began to tremble. He glanced toward Milo pleadingly for guidance. For several terrible seconds there was not a sound. Then Milo nodded.

“Give him eat,” he said.

Corporal Snark began giving Major —— de Coverley eat. Major —— de Coverley turned from the counter with his tray full and came to a stop. His eyes fell on the groups of other officers gazing at him in mute appeal, and, with righteous belligerence, he roared:

“Give everybody eat!”

“Give everybody eat!” Milo echoed with joyful relief, and the Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade came to an end.

– Joseph Heller, Catch-22

It’s nice to know the Lord has a spokesman:

God is disgusted with California legislators – at least some of them, according to an evangelical chaplain who ruffled feathers this week in the same Capitol where he leads Bible studies for lawmakers.

Ralph Drollinger, who played basketball at UCLA in the 1970s and now heads Capitol Ministries, criticized lawmakers who participate in a separate fellowship group that embraces people of all faiths without insisting that they accept Jesus Christ as Messiah.

“Although they are pleasant men in their personal demeanor, their group is more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior,” Drollinger wrote on the Capitol Ministries’ Web site.

Or, Tim Russert, buffoon or dupe?

First of all, hola to Martini Revolution readers. I’ve been on sabbatical, hiatus, vacation, winter break, busy doing important shit which actually pays the bills for my magnificent estate. Ashamed as I am to admit it, I have a job, of sorts, and was moving to a new office. So I haven’t had time to enlighten you with my brilliant commentary, okay? I feel bad about this, but not as bad as I would feel if my daughter’s tuition came due and I couldn’t cut a check.

But back to the topic at hand: John McCain’s de-evolution from a principled maverick into a Neocon-propaganda spewing caricature.

Juan Cole spends a bit of time deconstructing McCain’s pitiful and disingenuous attempt at a gotchya on Obama’s response to a Russert hypothetical postulating al Qaeda’s seizure of Iraq at some point in the future:

‘ MR. RUSSERT: . . . do you reserve a right as American president to go back into Iraq, once you have withdrawn, with sizable troops in order to quell any kind of insurrection or civil war?

SEN. OBAMA: . . . Now, I always reserve the right for the president — as commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad. So that is true, I think, not just in Iraq, but that’s true in other places. That’s part of my argument with respect to Pakistan. . .’

As Cole points out, the question was a hypothetical about future events occurring after an American withdrawal from Iraq, a nuance Sen. Corkscrew blithely ignored. Cole also points out the disingenousness of Russert’s hypothetical and McCain’s premise that al Qaeda was capable of establishing or sustaining a viable regime in Iraq, or even a friendly regime similar to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Moreover, the allegation that he makes about there being ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’ that could well take over the country is part lie and part insanity. The Sunni Arabs are no more than 20% of the Iraqi population. How could a tiny minority from within them take over the whole?

The technical definition of al-Qaeda is operatives who have sworn fealty to Usama bin Laden. There were only a few hundred of them. I doubt whether more than a handful of such individuals are in Iraq.

But McCain’s intellectual dishonesty or sheer, mind-numbing stupidity goes deeper than that, because even among Iraq’s Sunnis, Osama bin Ladin and al Qaeda are widely despised.

Polls conducted at the end of 2006 showed that:

Overall 94 percent [of Iraqis] have an unfavorable view of al Qaeda, with 82 percent expressing a very unfavorable view. Of all organizations and individuals assessed in this poll, it received the most negative ratings. The Shias and Kurds show similarly intense levels of opposition, with 95 percent and 93 percent respectively saying they have very unfavorable views.

~~~

Views of Osama bin Laden are only slightly less negative. Overall 93 percent have an unfavorable view, with 77 percent very unfavorable. Very unfavorable views are expressed by 87 percent of Kurds and 94 percent of Shias. Here again, the Sunnis are negative, but less unequivocally—71 percent have an unfavorable view (23% very), and 29 percent a favorable view (3% very).

Get that? Iraqis as a whole hate al Qaeda and Osama. And for good reason: al Qaeda views Iraq’s 80% Sunni Shia (thanks Andrew) and Kurdish populations as apostates and enemies.

But even among the 20% Sunni population which Osama might troll for support, he and his organization are mainly reviled. This is predictable, as many Iraq Sunnis were Baathists, or simply more secular than the fundamentalist al Qaeda, and also because Iraq’s Sunnis grew to resent being murdered by al Qaeda’s small contingent of foreign cutthroats and murderers. While the administration and its pro-war flacks like McCain have tried to portray the “Anbar Awakening” to the surge or increased American military activity in those regions, this is simply untrue. Sunni rejection of Al Qaeda is typically accompanied by more of a hands off approach, turning away from confrontation with Sunni groups, and arming their former enemies while giving them more autonomy and less interference from US or Iraqi Central government forces. The awakening movements have succeeded largely by lowering our profile in those areas.

As the mission in Iraq grew more costly, more bungled, and more protracted, Bush and the few remaining war pimps like McCain have struggled to put forward a rationale for the fiasco, stubborn and unwilling as they are to admit the most monumental fucking mistake in the history of American foreign policy. The rationales which were put forward before the war, destroying the phantasmagorical WMDs, and liberating a grateful population to establish a secular, pro-western democracy are, as the late William F. Buckley not, irretrievable failures.

The last resort is fear — and the attempt to tie the whole misbegotten, ill-executed Iraq failure into the meme of 9/11 and the war against terror. It may be disingenuous, and unconscionably stupid for Bush and McCain to present the war in this light, but it is all too predictable given the complete absence of remorse for ruinous decisions and utter lack of intellectual integrity. McCain, for better or worse, has saddled himself to being pro-war, and he intends to ride it into the ground.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Montgomery County authorities say a man stabbed his brother-in-law during an argument over who should get the Democratic nomination for president.