It Would Be Funny...

...if it weren't so pathetic, obvious, and predictable.

Guerrillas fired mortar shells and used small arms to attack the major US military base in south Afghanistan, Qandahar Airfield, on Saturday. The operation was the third major attack by insurgents during the past week.

[...]

The bold attacks come as President Barack Obama addressed West Point cadets, declaring victory in Iraq and predicting a similar positive outcome in Afghanistan. Obama alleged that the US was withdrawing from a now-democratic Iraq that would not be a platform for attacking the US, implying that Afghanistan would be brought to a similar end-state.

  Juan Cole

Of course we could have declared victory years ago –that "Mission Accomplished" moment would have been a good point.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

No Habeas For Your Corpus

That is, if you're being detained by the Americans in Bagram. Glenn Greenwald comments on the awesome hypocrisy of the Obama Administration.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Today's Notable Quote

"From where I sit, the entire Republican Party should head to OZ – looking for a brain, a heart and a pair of testicles." -- Helen

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Today's Best Oil Spill Quote

"Everything in that marsh is dead as we speak," [Louisiana] Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said after touring the clogged marshes. "Had you fallen off that boat yesterday and come up breathing that stuff, you probably wouldn't be here, either."

Oh Well, Maybe the Nukes Will Do Us In

...before the oceans are smothered in oil.

Hillary says it's beyond doubt that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship in March, and there will be consequences.

Why not? Things are totally FUBAR anyway.

North Korea denies the charge, and hey, it's not like we haven't experienced the Tonkin affair, the sinking of the Maine, and who knows how many other phony provocations in between.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Wanted: More Tar, More Feathers

Kentucky's Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul is criticizing President Barack Obama's handling of the gulf oil debacle as putting "his boot heel on the throat of BP."

Paul says Obama's criticism of the oil company sounds like an attack on business and "really un-American."

  Yahoo

Reaping What We Sow

"A lot of [the leaked oil from the BP rig] is diffused now in deep layers," said Felder, who is coordinating a seven-volume scientific encyclopedia on the Gulf. "It's like it's under the rug. You can't see it on the surface, so it's kind of out of sight, out of mind. But it's not out of mind to most of the biologists who are concerned about its long-term effects."

There are many uncertainties about how much has spilled.

[...]

Originally, BP and the federal government said 42,000 gallons were flowing per day. Then the number was upped to 210,000 and that's been the best case scenario, with calculations that the spill didn't start until April 24.

The best case scenario seems increasingly unlikely. On Thursday, BP acknowledged more oil than that is pouring into the Gulf. The company said its makeshift tube put in place to suck up the leak is siphoning 210,000 gallons a day into a barge — the full amount of oil the company said was leaking. Yet, there's still lots of oil flowing out into the Gulf that can now be seen live on a webcam.

"Anyone can look at that and determine that even though it can't be metered or measured, it's significantly less than it was," said company spokesman Steve Rinehart. "That suggests pretty clearly that taking 5,000 barrels a day (210,000 gallons) out of that stream puts a real dent in it."

  

How encouraging. A dent. And only after...how many weeks of unfettered gushing?

"Originally, BP and the federal government said 42,000 gallons were flowing per day."

The federal government obviously taking BP's word for it. And so I repeat the quote of the century from Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation: "The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene, and the perpetrator cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage."

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Headline of the Month

(Yahoo news): "An island long used by the U.S. government for secret disease research may be sold to the public."

Caveat emptor.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Quote of the Century

"The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene, and the perpetrator cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage." -- Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation

And Don't Forget About Marja

Farmers from the district of Marja, which since February has been the focus of the largest American-led military operation in Afghanistan, are fleeing the area, saying that the Taliban are terrorizing the population and that American troops cannot protect the civilians.

The departure of the farmers is one of the most telling indications that Taliban fighters have found a way to resume their insurgency, three months after thousands of troops invaded this Taliban stronghold in the opening foray of a campaign to take control of southern Afghanistan.

[...]

Over 150 families have fled Marja in the last two weeks, according to the Afghan Red Crescent Society in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

Marja residents arriving here last week, many looking bleak and shell-shocked, said civilians had been trapped by the fighting, running a gantlet of mines laid by insurgents and firefights around government and coalition positions.

[...]

Mr. Khan, the governor’s adviser, expects a further exodus of civilians. “People are just waiting for the harvest to be over and then they will leave,” he said.

[...]

A Taliban resurgence was not entirely unexpected, especially now as the poppy harvest ends, freeing men to fight, and as the weather warms up. But the military had seen Marja as a “clear and hold” operation in which the first part, clearing the district of militants, would be wrapped up fairly quickly. In fact, clearing has proved to be a more elusive goal.

  NYT

As though we had no previous experience and couldn't have foreseen that.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Agency Overhaul

The US agency that regulates offshore drilling was broken up into three separate agencies Wednesday as part of a move to end cozy industry relationships exposed by the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, officials said.

The shake-up came a day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told lawmakers the Minerals Management Service, which issued lucrative offshore exploration leases and was also responsible for enforcing safety rules, needed to be cleaned up.

  Raw Story

So now when oil companies want to pillage, they'll have to go through three agencies instead of one. They'll still get there, but more federal agents will get a chance to line their pockets.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Tar & Feathers May Be Too Good

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume."

"We will fix it. I guarantee it. The only question is we do not know when."

---BP Group CEO Tony Hayward