I'm sorry - what are you talking about?

Sorry, Spanky
 

All is forgiven. Spanky will embrace Pombo now.

Sorry, Spanky
 

Does this mean poker season is back on?

Sorry, Spanky
 

You bet your sweet bippy. The kid is a free man. I will actually be in town for most of the summer.

Sorry, Spanky
 

Welcome back, stranger.

In yo' face, McCain
 

So what happens if you feel that your signing statement to the McCain Amendment (which, you may recall, required that US Military adhere to the standards of the US Army Field Manual) might be inadequate? Well, you change the friggin' manual. Duh.

• The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards...
  ...The detainee directive was due to be released in late April along with the Army Field Manual on interrogation. But objections from several senators on other Field Manual issues forced a delay. The senators objected to provisions allowing harsher interrogation techniques for those considered unlawful combatants, such as suspected terrorists, as opposed to traditional prisoners of war.
  
  The lawmakers say that differing standards of treatment allowed by the Field Manual would violate a broadly supported anti-torture measure advanced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). McCain last year pushed Congress to ban torture and cruel treatment and to establish the Army Field Manual as the standard for treatment of all detainees. Despite administration opposition, the measure passed and became law.
  
  For decades, it had been the official policy of the U.S. military to follow the minimum standards for treating all detainees as laid out in the Geneva Convention. But, in 2002, Bush suspended portions of the Geneva Convention for captured Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Bush's order superseded military policy at the time, touching off a wide debate over U.S. obligations under the Geneva accord, a debate that intensified after reports of detainee abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
  
  Among the directives being rewritten following Bush's 2002 order is one governing U.S. detention operations. Military lawyers and other defense officials wanted the redrawn version of the document known as DoD Directive 2310, to again embrace Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.
  
  That provision — known as a "common" article because it is part of each of the four Geneva pacts approved in 1949 — bans torture and cruel treatment. Unlike other Geneva provisions, Article 3 covers all detainees — whether they are held as unlawful combatants or traditional prisoners of war. The protections for detainees in Article 3 go beyond the McCain amendment by specifically prohibiting humiliation, treatment that falls short of cruelty or torture.
  
  The move to restore U.S. adherence to Article 3 was opposed by officials from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and by the Pentagon's intelligence arm, government sources said. David S. Addington, Cheney's chief of staff, and Stephen A. Cambone, Defense undersecretary for intelligence, said it would restrict the United States' ability to question detainees.
  
  The Pentagon tried to satisfy some of the military lawyers' concerns by including some protections of Article 3 in the new policy, most notably a ban on inhumane treatment, but refused to embrace the actual Geneva standard in the directive it planned to issue.
  
  The military lawyers, known as judge advocates general, or JAGs, have concluded that they will have to wait for a new administration before mounting another push to link Pentagon policy to the standards of Geneva.

Geez. I can't believe McCain let THAT one slip by.

Gattigap

I hate everyone
 

I hate everyone
 

I thought it was Tom DeLay who built his fortune on the bloody carcasses of our invertibrate breathern.

Free the Orkin 7,000,000,000!

I hate everyone
 

Damn, you're right..... My bad.

"Tax Dollars Being Sucked Up a Hog's Butt."
 

Friends,

I learned tonight that my cousin is running for the State House of Representatives for the Great State of South Carolina.

The incumbent for this particular district is retiring, and the vacuum created by his absence is generating interest from any number of interesting characters. Including, as it appears, my cousin.

I never would've thought my cousin to be political material, as I've never seen him as the backslapping type. But let me just say that I give him large, brass, Stephen Colbert-style balls for the way he's conducted his campaign.

He has declared that he's accepting no donations at all. In a recent article by the hometown paper on the various candidates, my cousin was quoted as saying "I'm getting tired of having my tax dollars being sucked up by a hog's butt each and every time I turn around."

And that's not an offhand comment made to a reporter. This is from the man's stump speech.

With political instincts this strong, I sense something in the air, and it ain't just the aroma of livestock. I feel a Malcolm Gladwell tipping point approaching, and it's the mover's and shakers on this here board that can make it happen.

Sure, my cousin isn't "accepting" donations, and the issue of receiving outside-the-state money seems to be taboo in this particular race. But, friends, with quotes like these simply BEGGING for bumper stickers and T-shirts, can't you just imagine the possibilities?

(C'mon, Spanky. He's running as a Democrat, but he's a South Carolina Democrat. Fucker will be to the right of Pombo on most issues. You'll raise money for him, right?)

Join me. Contribute to the newly-created Foreign Friends to Elect Richard '06 Fund, and we'll create the bumper stickers, buttons and logowear that will turn heads from SoHo to Toronto to Charlotte to San Francisco to Santa Monica.

Gattigap
Foreign Campaign Chairman

"Tax Dollars Being Sucked Up a Hog's Butt."
 

how old was your sis when she married your cousin?

zarkawi, rIp
 

Good day fro Bush and Anmerica.

But i doubt that the Liberals can be happy for us. I expect you guys here, Ironsped, gatti, Ty, Sidd, SPH (why not pay up?) actually are dismayed by this vicotory as much as they are enamored of freedomfigheters like zarqkwawi over U.S. Troops and much like they still defend Saddams' regime against the justification for war.

No good news for Dems, Everything is bad. Bush's fault and the republicans and the majority of Americas who voted fror him. If Hillary was the president who did this guy, she'd have Bill over there tooting his sax down the streets of Baghdad in front of the funeral procession with his fellow liberals showering him with rose petals.

Well, keep it up. When we win and the liberals balk, I think it energizes the conservative base in middle american to keep yuo traitors out of power in the country.

Dead livberal freedom fighter:

http://drudgereport.com/az.jpg

boohoohoo, haha.


http://www.tvdance.com/bush-gore/images/1anew.gif http://www.tvdance.com/bush-gore/images/1anew.gif http://www.tvdance.com/bush-gore/images/1anew.gif

zarkawi, rIp
 

how's NYC?

"Tax Dollars Being Sucked Up a Hog's Butt."
 

That's it? C'mon, I know that it's still early in Detroit, but stretch a bit, and let's get that swing loosened up.

zarkawi, rIp
 

bush made Zarqawi. Without bush, he'd have been another two-bit Baghdad thug who would have died unknown to the world in some unnamed centuries-old blood feud. I'm happy he's gone because he was an obstacle to stability in Iraq and a danger to our troops, but bush gets no points for moving in a general direction toward square one in Iraq. If outside counsel screws up, I don't yell "Hooray!" when they fix it.

I'll give bush credit for one thing - he correctly guessed his advisors were right when they said he shouldn't put up another "Mission Accomplished!" banner over the White House. Way to go!