Would you be shocked if you found out that this administration was spying on anti-war groups? Would it shock you that this is, in part, part of the terrorist watch program, the one with all of the warrantless wire tapping? No? Me either.
If Bush is refusing to get a warrant to tap your phone, then it can't be for a "real reason." Similar to his refusal to go under oath, he won't because he most certainly isn't going to tell the truth.
The Pentagon's new intelligence undersecretary is recommending the Defense Department shut down a controversial classified database that has been criticized for improperly collecting information on anti-war groups and citizens.
Recommending?
The database has been under critical review since it was publicly disclosed in December 2005.
Anti-war groups and other organizations, including a Quaker group — the American Friends Service Committee — protested after it was revealed that the military had monitored anti-war activities, organizations and individuals who attended peace rallies.
Pentagon officials last year said the program was productive and had detected international terrorist interests in specific military bases. But they also acknowledged that some workers may not have been using the system properly.
So, peaceful anti-war protesters are actually terrorists in disguise?
Why are we so eager to lay down our civil liberties? Why isn't the public storming the castle over this? Why do we not care? Are we that afraid? Or, do we just not care?
A wise friend told me (I don't actually know how accurate this is, but...) the attacks of 9/11 took ten years from planning to execution. With a grin, he remarked it was "Bush to Bush". He also, in his infinite wisdom, declared that if this warrantless wiretapping was working here.... maybe we should try that in Iraq, rather than this so-called "surge". I think he may have a point.
The TALON reports — collected by an array of Defense Department agencies including law enforcement, intelligence, counterintelligence and security — are compiled in a large database and analyzed by an obscure Pentagon agency, the Counterintelligence Field Activity. CIFA is a three-year-old outfit whose size and budget are secret.
Last year, a Pentagon review found that as many as 260 reports in the database were improperly collected or kept there. At the time, the Pentagon said there were about 13,000 entries in the database, and that less than 2 percent either were wrongly added or were not purged later when they were determined not to involve real threats.
Pissed off yet?
Thursday, April 26, 2007
De(a)mon Days
April 27, 1970. That is a day that will live in my heart forever. A day that my dad died for the first time, a day that I saw my mom be a woman, a mom, a grieving mom who lost a son.
To the Hank's and BobMc's of the world, "Fuck you!"
I have given more to this country than you'll ever consider. I have cared more and done more than you'll ever give notion to. I have lost and loved and seen and believed and hated. And in this cluster fuck, you call a liberation, I say no. No more. It is time, beyond time, these courageous men and women come home to the open arms that await them.
It is time the lies end and the truth and justice begin. It is time the Impeachments begin and time that the country and its peoples begin to heal. It is time we stand together. Together in unity for the good of all people and the good of a nation. It it time we be heard. NO MORE! Impeach them for their lies, for their war crimes and begin anew.
Doug, I miss you. Dad did too. I put a picture of you in his coffin. I hope for the sake of a country, for the sake of a peaceful world, no death was in vain.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Terrorism With a Human Face
Let me introduce you to one of my biggest pet peeves. Any and all news agencies that bother to tell me what the pope, Vatican or any religious leader thinks. I don't care. But this, this is a new low, even for the self-serving religious right.
"terrorism with a human face."
What, if anything does that phrase mean to you? To me, it's Bush's carnage on the Iraqi people, it's the lack of honesty and respect this administration has given our troops, our people. It's the sheer lack of caring for those in need, for the working parents without enough food for their children, without health care. It's the victims of Katrina, ignored, homeless, still in pain over the loss of property and loved ones.
To the Vatican? That phrase means Gay marriage and abortion.
Of course, what can you expect from a religion who named one of Hitlers Youth the pope? Do these people bother to even look at what is being done in Gods name in Iraq? Darfur? The KKK? Oh hell no. There's no money in it.
The Catholic Church is the wealthiest business in the world. All tax free, I might add. The hypocrisy and carelessness of the Vatican and this administration belong together. Neither one can see the reality of their "vision" yet they chose to point at a woman's right to quality health care or a basic human right, like marriage and call that "terrorism". Neither of which has a single ounce of reality scrambling about their collect brain. Neither of which belong in government. Both should just step aside, shut up and leave the worlds pain and realities to the sane and rational, to those who care, not just claim to to our face and do whatever money dictates behind our backs.
These actions, these words from the Pope and this administration is the true "terrorism with a human face."
"terrorism with a human face."
What, if anything does that phrase mean to you? To me, it's Bush's carnage on the Iraqi people, it's the lack of honesty and respect this administration has given our troops, our people. It's the sheer lack of caring for those in need, for the working parents without enough food for their children, without health care. It's the victims of Katrina, ignored, homeless, still in pain over the loss of property and loved ones.
To the Vatican? That phrase means Gay marriage and abortion.
Of course, what can you expect from a religion who named one of Hitlers Youth the pope? Do these people bother to even look at what is being done in Gods name in Iraq? Darfur? The KKK? Oh hell no. There's no money in it.
The Catholic Church is the wealthiest business in the world. All tax free, I might add. The hypocrisy and carelessness of the Vatican and this administration belong together. Neither one can see the reality of their "vision" yet they chose to point at a woman's right to quality health care or a basic human right, like marriage and call that "terrorism". Neither of which has a single ounce of reality scrambling about their collect brain. Neither of which belong in government. Both should just step aside, shut up and leave the worlds pain and realities to the sane and rational, to those who care, not just claim to to our face and do whatever money dictates behind our backs.
These actions, these words from the Pope and this administration is the true "terrorism with a human face."
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Building Barriers
Bush's new brilliant idea is building walls around Baghdad, separating the Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. Once again this administration got it wrong.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the construction of a barrier that would separate a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad, saying there are other ways to protect the neighborhood.
Once again he didn't bother to consider anyone involved. Once again he didn't bother to consult the Iraqi's. Once again, the Iraqi's don't matter.
In his first public comments on the issue, al-Maliki said he had ordered the construction to stop.
"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," al-Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa in Cairo, Egypt. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."
He did not elaborate but added "this wall reminds us of other walls," in an apparent reference to the wall that divided the German city of Berlin during the Cold War.
And, one again, he is reminding me and others of past dictators.
Once again, I will repeat myself and echo the words of the majority of Americans and the Majority of Iraqi's. It's time to get out. It's time to stop occupying their country and it's time to stop forcing and demanding and for God sake Shrub, start acting like an adult and not a spoiled child that needs needs a good ol' fashioned ass whoopin' and a long time out. Or, you just might get it.
Spinning a Web of Lies
How many of us have heard the mantra, "We can win in Iraq" or something similar?
I have spent three years listening to this. Again, we are now listing to the minorities in Congress rant this phrase over and over. If it isn't this it's words like "victory" and another personal favorite, "losing is not an option." Which ranks right up there with "If we don't fight them there, we'll have to fight them here". All lies.
We've heard that during WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam.... Can we get some originality in this administration - please!
Back on the Iraq mantra's, what is there to "win" in Iraq? We are bombarded with this "victory" ideal, yet no one can seem to answer that question. Hell, I have yet to see anyone ask. According to Bush's speech leading us into this abyss, it was to find WMD's, oust Saddam and liberate the Iraqi people. Maybe I was dreaming, but it seems to me these points have been "mission accomplished". So, whats to win?
Let's see, Bush's new stock is in coffin making companies? Flag making Companies? Ethnic cleansing isn't "mission accomplished"?
Or could it be, this?
Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies – if the conflict in the country can be resolved.
If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world’s third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking Iran.
Now, with such an honest and God fearing president, that can't possible be true right?
Remember this?
We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages in his own country. These actions killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of September the 11th.
And surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons. Every chemical and biological weapon that Iraq has or makes is a direct violation of the truce that ended the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Yet, Saddam Hussein has chosen to build and keep these weapons despite international sanctions, U.N. demands, and isolation from the civilized world.
How about this?
America believes that all people are entitled to hope and human rights, to the non-negotiable demands of human dignity. People everywhere prefer freedom to slavery; prosperity to squalor; self-government to the rule of terror and torture. America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children. The oppression of Kurds, Assyrians, Turkomans, Shi'a, Sunnis and others will be lifted. The long captivity of Iraq will end, and an era of new hope will begin.
We all know how that worked out, don't we?
Now, this:
We did not ask for this present challenge, but we accept it. Like other generations of Americans, we will meet the responsibility of defending human liberty against violence and aggression. By our resolve, we will give strength to others. By our courage, we will give hope to others. And by our actions, we will secure the peace, and lead the world to a better day.
What about March of '03?
We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people.
I know that the families of our military are praying that all those who serve will return safely and soon. Millions of Americans are praying with you for the safety of your loved ones and for the protection of the innocent. For your sacrifice, you have the gratitude and respect of the American people. And you can know that our forces will be coming home as soon as their work is done.
Well, those are Bush's words, not mine. So, tell me, what's to win? Why are we still there? And what makes Bush or Cheney or any neocon for that matter believe that they are better than these "terrorist producing" states? Maybe it's just me, but when I re-read these speeches, I thought I saw this administration become what they say they are defending us from.
These words and actions are acts of treason. We must impeach now and bring our troops home. It will take decades to recover from the lies and hell the last six years have done to us, to other nations, to our reputation, to our people.
Support our troops with respect and honor they deserve. Demand Impeachment.
*Thanks to Jim at Derosas World for the Link.
I have spent three years listening to this. Again, we are now listing to the minorities in Congress rant this phrase over and over. If it isn't this it's words like "victory" and another personal favorite, "losing is not an option." Which ranks right up there with "If we don't fight them there, we'll have to fight them here". All lies.
We've heard that during WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam.... Can we get some originality in this administration - please!
Back on the Iraq mantra's, what is there to "win" in Iraq? We are bombarded with this "victory" ideal, yet no one can seem to answer that question. Hell, I have yet to see anyone ask. According to Bush's speech leading us into this abyss, it was to find WMD's, oust Saddam and liberate the Iraqi people. Maybe I was dreaming, but it seems to me these points have been "mission accomplished". So, whats to win?
Let's see, Bush's new stock is in coffin making companies? Flag making Companies? Ethnic cleansing isn't "mission accomplished"?
Or could it be, this?
Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies – if the conflict in the country can be resolved.
If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world’s third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking Iran.
Now, with such an honest and God fearing president, that can't possible be true right?
Remember this?
We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. Saddam Hussein also has experience in using chemical weapons. He has ordered chemical attacks on Iran, and on more than forty villages in his own country. These actions killed or injured at least 20,000 people, more than six times the number of people who died in the attacks of September the 11th.
And surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons. Every chemical and biological weapon that Iraq has or makes is a direct violation of the truce that ended the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Yet, Saddam Hussein has chosen to build and keep these weapons despite international sanctions, U.N. demands, and isolation from the civilized world.
How about this?
America believes that all people are entitled to hope and human rights, to the non-negotiable demands of human dignity. People everywhere prefer freedom to slavery; prosperity to squalor; self-government to the rule of terror and torture. America is a friend to the people of Iraq. Our demands are directed only at the regime that enslaves them and threatens us. When these demands are met, the first and greatest benefit will come to Iraqi men, women and children. The oppression of Kurds, Assyrians, Turkomans, Shi'a, Sunnis and others will be lifted. The long captivity of Iraq will end, and an era of new hope will begin.
We all know how that worked out, don't we?
Now, this:
We did not ask for this present challenge, but we accept it. Like other generations of Americans, we will meet the responsibility of defending human liberty against violence and aggression. By our resolve, we will give strength to others. By our courage, we will give hope to others. And by our actions, we will secure the peace, and lead the world to a better day.
What about March of '03?
We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people.
I know that the families of our military are praying that all those who serve will return safely and soon. Millions of Americans are praying with you for the safety of your loved ones and for the protection of the innocent. For your sacrifice, you have the gratitude and respect of the American people. And you can know that our forces will be coming home as soon as their work is done.
Well, those are Bush's words, not mine. So, tell me, what's to win? Why are we still there? And what makes Bush or Cheney or any neocon for that matter believe that they are better than these "terrorist producing" states? Maybe it's just me, but when I re-read these speeches, I thought I saw this administration become what they say they are defending us from.
These words and actions are acts of treason. We must impeach now and bring our troops home. It will take decades to recover from the lies and hell the last six years have done to us, to other nations, to our reputation, to our people.
Support our troops with respect and honor they deserve. Demand Impeachment.
*Thanks to Jim at Derosas World for the Link.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Chicken Pluckin' Fools
What does the population of Los Angeles and plucking chickens have in common?
_"There are jobs Americans aren't doing. ... If you've got a chicken factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what I'm talking about."
This is what King Bush had to say about the American workers.
Some of these workers have a different spin on that:
Three weeks ago, Dawn Zimmer became a statistic. Laid off from her job assembling trucks at Freightliner's plant in Portland, Ore., she and 800 of her colleagues joined a long line of U.S. manufacturing workers who have lost jobs in recent years. A total of 3.2 million — one in six factory jobs — have disappeared since the start of 2000.
"They are building a multimillion-dollar plant in Mexico and they are going to build the Freightliners down there. They came in and videotaped us at work so they could train the Mexican workers," said Zimmer, 55, who had worked at Freightliner since 1994.
(snip)
"It is pretty crystal clear to our members that when their plant closes down, they know where their jobs are going," said Thea Lee, policy director at the AFL-CIO.
Princeton economist Alan Blinder, who was vice chairman of the Federal Reserve during the Clinton administration, says the number of jobs at risk of being shipped out of the country could reach 40 million over the next 10 to 20 years. That would be one out of every three service sector jobs that could be at risk.
Those lost manufacturing jobs are fueling an intense debate over globalization — the increasing connection of the United States and other economies.
That debate will play out in Congress over the coming months as the Bush administration tries to muster the votes needed to pursue its free-trade policies.
So, what do these two seemingly different things have in common? The ever growing insanity of the GW administration. Roughly the population of LA is the amount of factory workers who lost their jobs to outsourcing since Bush took office. Remember "Outsourcing is good for America?" I guess 3 MILLION people may disagree.
Now, the witless wonder makes another astute observation about chicken plucking and the American working class.
Can we say "out of touch" here? He really doesn't know, does he? He can't see the suffering he's caused, and we all how how much suffering that is, in the last six years. He can't feel for the working moms and dads just trying to feed their kids who find themselves unemployed - thanks to his "outsourcing is good for America." When does this end? When do the American people, want they want, need, beg for matter? Will they ever with this crew? Or are they that heartless? Does only their financials matter?
One more question. Why isn't this blaring from every television and radio station? Murdock?
Someday: March 17 Action (music by Nickelback)
Woo Hoo! Gunners in the house!
Standing ovation ensues!
John McCain bomb bomb Iran song beach boys style
It's official, McCain has completely lost it.
McCain, campaigning Wednesday in South Carolina, answered a question about military action against Iran with the chorus of the surf-rocker classic "Barbara Ann."
"That old, eh, that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran," he said. "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, ah ..."
His audience laughed, but MoveOn.org called the comment dangerous.
"America has lived through six years of a reckless foreign policy," an announcer says in the ad. "We're stuck in Iraq. More than 3,000 Americans are dead. And thousands more wounded.
"Now comes John McCain with his answer to what we should do about Iran. John McCain? We can't afford another reckless president."
The head of MoveOn said McCain displayed "more out-of-control bravado."
"The point is, a presidential candidate just doesn't kid around about bombing other countries, especially countries with high tensions, and especially where a diplomatic solution is our only hope," Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, said Friday.
McCain's comments, posted on YouTube.com, had been viewed at least 118,056 times as of Friday morning.
I honestly believe that the power and warmongering of these insane GOPers has gone straight to their heads.
His "joke" is not funny. It is a slap in the face to every single American GI and every single family member. Granted diplomacy is not one of the strong points of this administration, hell, with these "people" it isn't a point at all.
So, what's funny McClueless? That all the "brown" people aren't dead yet? Exxon doesn't control all the worlds oil? Fragments of the Constitution still remain? Pictures of Iraqi children -dead or worse? Your lack of respect for our troops? Their families? Our Fallen? Our disabled? What?
I have a great sense of humor. I really do. In fact, when you are laughed right out of this and any future campaigns, you worthless hack, I'll be laughing the loudest!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Another One Shits on the Carpet
Hank Dagny said...
I had to scrape alot of white global warming off of my car in April.
Baseball games were cancelled in near record numbers due to cold weather.
Two feet of snow fell in Cleveland the 2nd week of April.
Your article should of been titled: Global Warming - continuing the lies.
I watched the Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. Even they said where it is cold, life is scarce. Where it is tropical, life is abundant.
If global warming was even a fact, you should be rejoicing not hand wringing.
You are probably too young or too twisted to remember that in the 1980's the earth was going to freeze over by 2000 if we didn't stop the car pollution. Now the communist (and the environmental movement is loaded with communists) say we will all fry.
Bottom line is you are a leftist and a moron. If you are visiting Stram's site - and like it - then you are a traitor also.
April 19, 2007 2:29 PM
The above is a comment left by a troll on the Global Warming post. His comment about Strams site is over a piece our friend Stram did on an 18 year old Marine that died in action. Head over to 15 Seats and see all the shit stains this asshole left all over poor Strams carpet.
This Hank person calls himself a patriot and us traitors. I would assume that by his logic bombing the shit out of an innocent country, occupying said country and agreeing to such carnage is patriotic. The evil left on the other hand, who sees this for what it is, an illegal aggressive occupation, well we are just traitors for speaking out against such blatant bullshit being done in our name. Of course by hanks standards, that would make us traitors. Well of course it would, this coming from a "man" who agrees to wiping out our civil liberties. Well... shit! That would make HIM the "commie" now wouldn't it.
I'm not even going to get into his total lack of intelligence. I think his so-called reasoning on global warming says it all....
I had to scrape alot of white global warming off of my car in April.
Baseball games were cancelled in near record numbers due to cold weather.
Two feet of snow fell in Cleveland the 2nd week of April.
Your article should of been titled: Global Warming - continuing the lies.
I watched the Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel. Even they said where it is cold, life is scarce. Where it is tropical, life is abundant.
If global warming was even a fact, you should be rejoicing not hand wringing.
You are probably too young or too twisted to remember that in the 1980's the earth was going to freeze over by 2000 if we didn't stop the car pollution. Now the communist (and the environmental movement is loaded with communists) say we will all fry.
Bottom line is you are a leftist and a moron. If you are visiting Stram's site - and like it - then you are a traitor also.
April 19, 2007 2:29 PM
The above is a comment left by a troll on the Global Warming post. His comment about Strams site is over a piece our friend Stram did on an 18 year old Marine that died in action. Head over to 15 Seats and see all the shit stains this asshole left all over poor Strams carpet.
This Hank person calls himself a patriot and us traitors. I would assume that by his logic bombing the shit out of an innocent country, occupying said country and agreeing to such carnage is patriotic. The evil left on the other hand, who sees this for what it is, an illegal aggressive occupation, well we are just traitors for speaking out against such blatant bullshit being done in our name. Of course by hanks standards, that would make us traitors. Well of course it would, this coming from a "man" who agrees to wiping out our civil liberties. Well... shit! That would make HIM the "commie" now wouldn't it.
I'm not even going to get into his total lack of intelligence. I think his so-called reasoning on global warming says it all....
Gonzo's Crumbling Cookie
This is the way Gonzo's cookie crumbles.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confronted a fresh call for his resignation from a fellow Republican Thursday as he struggled to survive a bipartisan Senate challenge to his credibility in the case of eight fired prosecutors.
"The best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Sen. Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record) bluntly told Gonzales, one GOP conservative to another.
Disagreeing, Gonzales told the Oklahoma Republican he didn't think resigning would put the controversy to rest.
The exchange punctuated a long day in the witness chair at a Senate hearing for the attorney general, who doggedly advanced a careful, lawyerly defense of the dismissal of the prosecutors. He readily admitted mistakes, yet told lawmakers he had "never sought to deceive them."
Nope, not deceive, just fire some judges who were not sympathetic to the bushies, lose 5,000,000 e-mails.....
Gonzales sat alone at the witness table in a crowded hearing room for the widely anticipated hearing. There was no doubt about the stakes involved for a member of
President Bush's inner circle, under pressure to resign since the dismissals of the prosecutors.
"The moment I believe I can no longer be effective I will resign as attorney general," Gonzales said after first making it clear he did not believe it had come to that.
The White House offered support. Spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters, "I think the president has full confidence" in his attorney general.
Struggling to save his credibility and perhaps his job, Gonzales testified at least 45 times — before lunch — that he could not recall events he was asked about.
Returning for an afternoon session, Gonzales faced fresh challenges to his credibility, including from Republicans. "Why is your story changing?" asked Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, noting that the attorney general was now accepting responsibility for the firings after initially saying he had played only a minor role.
In response, Gonzales replied that his earlier answers had been "overbroad" and the result of inadequate preparation.
Preparation? What's to prepare for? I mean, if you're being summoned to answer questions honestly, and that is your intent, then what's to prepare for? Unless, of course, you need to attempt to get your stories straight.
Interestingly enough, even the republicans in the senate are turning against him, calling for Gonzo's resignation. Bush, of course insists upon standing by his latest scapegoat. One would think that these victims of loyalty would learn. This administration will not protect them, they will not help them, they sit high above on their golden thrones and watch as their riches pile high and their loyalist pay the price.
If one of these scapegoats would sing, tell all, we could impeach this idiots, end a war, save lives and use congress to tackle real issues, like health care, stem cell research, things that would actually help the basic American.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Delusions of Reality
Why I felt the need to take my fever and go slumming in the Red Zone, is beyond me. Maybe I was looking for humor, their whacked out ideas can be called comedy at times. Maybe I feel a need to understand where their lack of sanity comes from. Maybe I'm just a gluten for punishment. Either way, I happened across this at Red State.
More chemical weapons found in Iraq
Acting on a tip from neighbors, members of the Stryker Brigade's Alpha Company found 31 barrels of nitric acid Saturday in the walled-off front yard of a house that had been raided less than two weeks earlier.
Then the wingnuts (leaving out our white phosphorous) continue with this:
Well, that's no big deal. Don't you remember the President's statement that Saddam had, among other WMDs, Botulinum Toxin, which is used here in the US, by Nancy Pelosi and others, in the form of Botox? And don't you also remember the derision with which that warning was met by the reality-based community, which did an Olbermann on Mr. Bush, saying that it was absolutely ridiculous to be concerned about Saddam's having "botox?"
Oh give it up!!
The reasons for invading Iraq were WMD''s, bio chemicals and the al-Qaeda link. There wasn't any. NONE. Got that? NONE.
Thanks to the arrogance, lies and total stupidity of this administration, there are now. Yet these wingnuts insist on grasping at straws and insisting this invasion was the right thing to do. What a load of BS, eh? To think, bush actually had the audacity to call his little illegal war of aggression "Operation Iraqi Freedom".
What makes the remaining 23% cling to these lies and spins? Why can't they see the truth? Why can't they separate the fantasy from the reality?
So, the bad guys are making chemical weapons in Iraq...chemical weapons are classified by the UN as WMDs...so there are WMDs in Iraq...wait. That can't be right. The reality-based community said they weren't.
Ditto al-Qaeda in Iraq - they definitely aren't there. Wait...
I rest my case!
More chemical weapons found in Iraq
Acting on a tip from neighbors, members of the Stryker Brigade's Alpha Company found 31 barrels of nitric acid Saturday in the walled-off front yard of a house that had been raided less than two weeks earlier.
Then the wingnuts (leaving out our white phosphorous) continue with this:
Well, that's no big deal. Don't you remember the President's statement that Saddam had, among other WMDs, Botulinum Toxin, which is used here in the US, by Nancy Pelosi and others, in the form of Botox? And don't you also remember the derision with which that warning was met by the reality-based community, which did an Olbermann on Mr. Bush, saying that it was absolutely ridiculous to be concerned about Saddam's having "botox?"
Oh give it up!!
The reasons for invading Iraq were WMD''s, bio chemicals and the al-Qaeda link. There wasn't any. NONE. Got that? NONE.
Thanks to the arrogance, lies and total stupidity of this administration, there are now. Yet these wingnuts insist on grasping at straws and insisting this invasion was the right thing to do. What a load of BS, eh? To think, bush actually had the audacity to call his little illegal war of aggression "Operation Iraqi Freedom".
What makes the remaining 23% cling to these lies and spins? Why can't they see the truth? Why can't they separate the fantasy from the reality?
So, the bad guys are making chemical weapons in Iraq...chemical weapons are classified by the UN as WMDs...so there are WMDs in Iraq...wait. That can't be right. The reality-based community said they weren't.
Ditto al-Qaeda in Iraq - they definitely aren't there. Wait...
I rest my case!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
United We Stand
I know it seems I've been derelict in my duties lately, and for that I apologize. I have an URI and all I seem to care to do is sleep. Except in times like this.
We have sat back and watched the double-standard corruption of a stolen presidency. We have screamed "enough!" and our voices were cast aside under the guise of "patriotism". We have sat on the sidelines, bound and gaged, as this administration led us into an illegal war and defied engineers who demanded the levees of New Orleans be replaced. My God! Spend money there?? What about the Carlyle group? Halliburton? .... wait.... I mean the troops...
We fought for truth when we heard the lies, we fought for honesty in the middle of corruption. We stood for sanity while they insisted we be afraid and pointed at maps calling blobs WMD's. We heard the people cry over their flag draped coffins while they used them as pawns for political gain. We heard "stay the course" while mothers, Iraqi and American, wept. We heard, "...in the last throws.." and knew lies. We heard, "troop surge" and saw truth.
The only thing we have not seen, the only thing we have not heard these last seven years in hell, is justice. We have demanded, cried and begged for it. Now, with the power of the pen, we may see it.
Please join me. Sign this, pass it to your readers, your friends, your enemys, anyone, everyone. The time is now to end the madness, the corruption. The last mother has cried out at the needless death of her child. The last child has wept at his parents grave site. The time is now for the American people to stand up and demand to be heard. The only way for us to be heard, is in one voice.
We have sat back and watched the double-standard corruption of a stolen presidency. We have screamed "enough!" and our voices were cast aside under the guise of "patriotism". We have sat on the sidelines, bound and gaged, as this administration led us into an illegal war and defied engineers who demanded the levees of New Orleans be replaced. My God! Spend money there?? What about the Carlyle group? Halliburton? .... wait.... I mean the troops...
We fought for truth when we heard the lies, we fought for honesty in the middle of corruption. We stood for sanity while they insisted we be afraid and pointed at maps calling blobs WMD's. We heard the people cry over their flag draped coffins while they used them as pawns for political gain. We heard "stay the course" while mothers, Iraqi and American, wept. We heard, "...in the last throws.." and knew lies. We heard, "troop surge" and saw truth.
The only thing we have not seen, the only thing we have not heard these last seven years in hell, is justice. We have demanded, cried and begged for it. Now, with the power of the pen, we may see it.
Please join me. Sign this, pass it to your readers, your friends, your enemys, anyone, everyone. The time is now to end the madness, the corruption. The last mother has cried out at the needless death of her child. The last child has wept at his parents grave site. The time is now for the American people to stand up and demand to be heard. The only way for us to be heard, is in one voice.
Good for the Goose?
I am not now, nor have I ever been a fan of Don Imus.
I have sat on and thought about and then re-thought my position on his firing. I'm still bouncing. The one thing I still agree on, is that these rules should be followed by all.
In the Southwest, everyone has a story of heavily pregnant women crossing the Mexican border to deliver their "anchor babies." At East Coast hospitals, tales of South Korean "obstetric tourists" abound. (An estimated 5,000 South Korean anchor babies are born in the US every year). And, of course, there's a terrorism angle.
Was that offensive? How about this one?
Coulter writes that Democrats "choose only messengers whom we're not allowed to reply to. That's why all Democratic spokesmen these days are sobbing, hysterical women. You can't respond to them because that would be questioning the authenticity of their suffering." As an example, she cites the Jersey Girls, four World Trade Center widows who argued for the commission to investigate 9/11. Then she directly questions the authenticity of their suffering, saying they are "reveling in their status as celebrities... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much."
Okay, what about this?
During a speech Thursday at a GOP event, Todd Rokita said 90 percent of blacks vote Democrat.
"How can that be?" Rokita said. "Ninety to 10. Who's the master and who's the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?"
State Rep. William Crawford, who is black, said Rokita's statement suggested blacks are ignorant and uninformed.
Maybe this?
Rev. Jackson, the one protesting outside an NBC studio last week, once referred to Jewish people as “Hymies” and to New York as “Hymietown.” You can look it up in the Washington Post in January 1984.
O'Reilly sexually harasses a woman, he slams her on his show... and *poof!* all gone! the magic of Fox news at its best.
What about the shit that spews from his mouth? What about Rush, our moral authority drug addict? What say him? Shouldn't Sterns be swinging from the Neocon gallows by now?
I am most certainly not defending what Imus said. Not at all. Any one who knows me knows, without a doubt, I hate any and all forms of racism. The above is a very short list. We all know, within the last three years alone, we could fill pages!.
So, why Imus? Why is this filling ever single airwave? Hell, it even took over the Anna Nichole baby, DNA, who's the daddy story! Remember, I am not defending him. Rokita made his whoops-ie last week. Did you hear about that? Was that being aired on all stations? Did every reporter repeat the phrase over and over and... Now, that is my point!
Is this another smoke and mirror, slight of hand media help for the GOP?
I agree Imus needed to apologize and hell, fire him for it. But fire them all. Liberty and justice for all seems to suddenly be a fairy tale here. Why should a "shock-jock" wanna be hack be held to higher standards than journalists and those in government?
I find that question frightening. Don't you?
I have sat on and thought about and then re-thought my position on his firing. I'm still bouncing. The one thing I still agree on, is that these rules should be followed by all.
In the Southwest, everyone has a story of heavily pregnant women crossing the Mexican border to deliver their "anchor babies." At East Coast hospitals, tales of South Korean "obstetric tourists" abound. (An estimated 5,000 South Korean anchor babies are born in the US every year). And, of course, there's a terrorism angle.
Was that offensive? How about this one?
Coulter writes that Democrats "choose only messengers whom we're not allowed to reply to. That's why all Democratic spokesmen these days are sobbing, hysterical women. You can't respond to them because that would be questioning the authenticity of their suffering." As an example, she cites the Jersey Girls, four World Trade Center widows who argued for the commission to investigate 9/11. Then she directly questions the authenticity of their suffering, saying they are "reveling in their status as celebrities... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much."
Okay, what about this?
During a speech Thursday at a GOP event, Todd Rokita said 90 percent of blacks vote Democrat.
"How can that be?" Rokita said. "Ninety to 10. Who's the master and who's the slave in that relationship? How can that be healthy?"
State Rep. William Crawford, who is black, said Rokita's statement suggested blacks are ignorant and uninformed.
Maybe this?
Rev. Jackson, the one protesting outside an NBC studio last week, once referred to Jewish people as “Hymies” and to New York as “Hymietown.” You can look it up in the Washington Post in January 1984.
O'Reilly sexually harasses a woman, he slams her on his show... and *poof!* all gone! the magic of Fox news at its best.
What about the shit that spews from his mouth? What about Rush, our moral authority drug addict? What say him? Shouldn't Sterns be swinging from the Neocon gallows by now?
I am most certainly not defending what Imus said. Not at all. Any one who knows me knows, without a doubt, I hate any and all forms of racism. The above is a very short list. We all know, within the last three years alone, we could fill pages!.
So, why Imus? Why is this filling ever single airwave? Hell, it even took over the Anna Nichole baby, DNA, who's the daddy story! Remember, I am not defending him. Rokita made his whoops-ie last week. Did you hear about that? Was that being aired on all stations? Did every reporter repeat the phrase over and over and... Now, that is my point!
Is this another smoke and mirror, slight of hand media help for the GOP?
I agree Imus needed to apologize and hell, fire him for it. But fire them all. Liberty and justice for all seems to suddenly be a fairy tale here. Why should a "shock-jock" wanna be hack be held to higher standards than journalists and those in government?
I find that question frightening. Don't you?
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Stem Cell Research is Bad for Bush Business
Not a soul out there thinks that I think this administration is semi-sane. Not one would think I believe they have our best interests at heart. Now, I think, is just one more nail in the GOP coffin. Why wouldn't they like the idea of helping their fellow man? Why would the idea of stem cell research be bad?
President Bush continues to celebrate the recent passage of Medicare legislation and to advocate for a federal medical malpractice bill that would limit the legal rights of severely injured patients.
Both measures have been vigorously supported by drug manufacturers, insurance companies, HMOs, nursing homes and medical device companies, as well as doctors and lobbyists. And both would deliver paybacks to Bush's elite fundraisers.
(snip)
In the final push for Medicare prescription drug legislation, the pharmaceutical industry, HMOs and related interests spent more money and hired more lobbyists in 2003 than ever before, according to The Medicare Drug War, a new report by Public Citizen. The pharmaceutical and managed care industries spent a combined $141 million last year. Drugmakers and HMOs hired 952 individual lobbyists in 2003 – nearly half of whom had "revolving door" connections to Congress, the White House or the executive branch.
Drug industry and HMO executives and lobbyists also rank among President Bush’s elite fundraisers. Twenty-one executives and lobbyists achieved "Ranger" or "Pioneer" status. These Rangers and Pioneers have collected at least $3.4 million for Bush so far.
Ah ha! If Bush's main contributions come from drug companies and HMO executives, my wondering would stop here. Knowing that these "people" are driven by cash, is the exclamation point. He can not let down his best buds. For example, stem cell research could mean less insulin produced, less pricey medications needed.
All of this makes me wonder further, just who does this idiot work for? Drug companies? Oil companies? Halliburton? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem to be the American people.
ITMFA!
President Bush continues to celebrate the recent passage of Medicare legislation and to advocate for a federal medical malpractice bill that would limit the legal rights of severely injured patients.
Both measures have been vigorously supported by drug manufacturers, insurance companies, HMOs, nursing homes and medical device companies, as well as doctors and lobbyists. And both would deliver paybacks to Bush's elite fundraisers.
(snip)
In the final push for Medicare prescription drug legislation, the pharmaceutical industry, HMOs and related interests spent more money and hired more lobbyists in 2003 than ever before, according to The Medicare Drug War, a new report by Public Citizen. The pharmaceutical and managed care industries spent a combined $141 million last year. Drugmakers and HMOs hired 952 individual lobbyists in 2003 – nearly half of whom had "revolving door" connections to Congress, the White House or the executive branch.
Drug industry and HMO executives and lobbyists also rank among President Bush’s elite fundraisers. Twenty-one executives and lobbyists achieved "Ranger" or "Pioneer" status. These Rangers and Pioneers have collected at least $3.4 million for Bush so far.
Ah ha! If Bush's main contributions come from drug companies and HMO executives, my wondering would stop here. Knowing that these "people" are driven by cash, is the exclamation point. He can not let down his best buds. For example, stem cell research could mean less insulin produced, less pricey medications needed.
All of this makes me wonder further, just who does this idiot work for? Drug companies? Oil companies? Halliburton? Because it sure as hell doesn't seem to be the American people.
ITMFA!
Friday, April 13, 2007
Where'd They Go?
How long is 18 minutes? How long is 18 minutes missing from your favorite CD? How long was an 18 minute gap on Nixon's tape? Being a betting person, I'll bet it's actually not quite as long as this White House losing five million e-mails. Nope, that was not a type-o. 5,000,000 How in the hell do you "lose" them? Only one word comes to my mind. DELETE.
In the Nixon era, 18 minutes lost on a tape meant a few prison sentences and an impeachment (or would have been if Nixon had not resigned.)
Flash forward 30ish years, what will 5,000,000 "lost" subpoenaed e-mails mean? My guess? Nothing, the Presidential Records Act calls for the saving, not the deletion, of White House records. Looks like a crime has been committed here. Yet we all know what happens next - nothing.
Senate Judicial Committee Chairman Pat Leahy requested information from the White House regarding the recent firing of 8 U.S. attorneys. Amazingly, the newspapers tell us:
FIVE MILLION e-mails were lost by the White House according to a just released report from CREW called "WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act." FIVE MILLION...that's insane.
Maybe it's insane for the rest of us. Not for the Bush White House. In any even, does anyone believe this? Not Leahy:
“They say they have not been preserved. I don’t believe that!” Leahy shouted from the Senate floor. “You can’t erase e-mails, not today. They’ve gone through too many servers. Those e-mails are there, they just don’t want to produce them. We’ll subpoena them if necessary.... Like the famous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, it appears likely that key documentation has been erased or misplaced. This sounds like the Administration’s version of ‘the dog ate my homework.’”
The secretive government is at it again!
Bush decided that many White House emails would contain "politically sensitive" information and should not get into the hands of pesky Democrats. So, several top officials were issued laptops with which they could tie into the email system of the RNC. This they used whenever the occasion called for it. Pretty neat, eh?
Have we had enough yet?
In the Nixon era, 18 minutes lost on a tape meant a few prison sentences and an impeachment (or would have been if Nixon had not resigned.)
Flash forward 30ish years, what will 5,000,000 "lost" subpoenaed e-mails mean? My guess? Nothing, the Presidential Records Act calls for the saving, not the deletion, of White House records. Looks like a crime has been committed here. Yet we all know what happens next - nothing.
Senate Judicial Committee Chairman Pat Leahy requested information from the White House regarding the recent firing of 8 U.S. attorneys. Amazingly, the newspapers tell us:
FIVE MILLION e-mails were lost by the White House according to a just released report from CREW called "WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act." FIVE MILLION...that's insane.
Maybe it's insane for the rest of us. Not for the Bush White House. In any even, does anyone believe this? Not Leahy:
“They say they have not been preserved. I don’t believe that!” Leahy shouted from the Senate floor. “You can’t erase e-mails, not today. They’ve gone through too many servers. Those e-mails are there, they just don’t want to produce them. We’ll subpoena them if necessary.... Like the famous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, it appears likely that key documentation has been erased or misplaced. This sounds like the Administration’s version of ‘the dog ate my homework.’”
The secretive government is at it again!
Bush decided that many White House emails would contain "politically sensitive" information and should not get into the hands of pesky Democrats. So, several top officials were issued laptops with which they could tie into the email system of the RNC. This they used whenever the occasion called for it. Pretty neat, eh?
Have we had enough yet?
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Rules of Engagement
Sara:
Years ago, just before I headed off to Navy boot camp, my aunt took me aside and read me a list of rules to live by. She was the first female in our family to enter the armed forces. She was Army and sent to Vietnam.
She told me that rule number one was never be alone with a male, enlisted or officer. Rule two, if you find yourself in trouble, don't fight it and never report it.
I went to boot camp in Orlando Florida. At that time it was women only, so there were no problems there. Then, being the person I am, I went through Air Crew School. I was one of the first women to go to that school and serve in an Air Crew Squad. I needed to work four times as hard as our weakest link to be considered half as good as he. I did it, I graduated. I was one of twenty women out of a class of eighty. Sixty attended graduation ceremony. Four of us were women.
Later, at my PDS, I heard horror stories of rape and sexual harassment. Never once, did I forget my aunts list of rules, maybe that's why I was one of the lucky ones. I knew a girl, a yeoman, who reported a rape by her boss. He was a Chief, she was a second class. She did time for harassment and defamation of character, he was transfered. More than likely, to commit his crimes once again. I heard she needed a medical discharge, a section eight.
I told many of my stories to my aunt after I got out. She was glad that things had gotten better. Better?
I had hoped and prayed that things my aunt and other women had braved would have made it better for people like your daughter.
It is a disgrace to women who serve and a shame for the hell they have to go through just to have their voices heard. I have always felt a pang of guilt. I told others of my aunts rules. Maybe if more spoke up, maybe if more got the media involved and maybe.... Maybe by just hearing your daughters story, it will give hope and take away the loneliness of those still in pain.
She is a brave and wonderful woman, just like her mom.
The above is a comment I wrote in response to this article. PLEASE read it! It shows once again how this "parental" government supports the troops.
ITMF'sA!
Years ago, just before I headed off to Navy boot camp, my aunt took me aside and read me a list of rules to live by. She was the first female in our family to enter the armed forces. She was Army and sent to Vietnam.
She told me that rule number one was never be alone with a male, enlisted or officer. Rule two, if you find yourself in trouble, don't fight it and never report it.
I went to boot camp in Orlando Florida. At that time it was women only, so there were no problems there. Then, being the person I am, I went through Air Crew School. I was one of the first women to go to that school and serve in an Air Crew Squad. I needed to work four times as hard as our weakest link to be considered half as good as he. I did it, I graduated. I was one of twenty women out of a class of eighty. Sixty attended graduation ceremony. Four of us were women.
Later, at my PDS, I heard horror stories of rape and sexual harassment. Never once, did I forget my aunts list of rules, maybe that's why I was one of the lucky ones. I knew a girl, a yeoman, who reported a rape by her boss. He was a Chief, she was a second class. She did time for harassment and defamation of character, he was transfered. More than likely, to commit his crimes once again. I heard she needed a medical discharge, a section eight.
I told many of my stories to my aunt after I got out. She was glad that things had gotten better. Better?
I had hoped and prayed that things my aunt and other women had braved would have made it better for people like your daughter.
It is a disgrace to women who serve and a shame for the hell they have to go through just to have their voices heard. I have always felt a pang of guilt. I told others of my aunts rules. Maybe if more spoke up, maybe if more got the media involved and maybe.... Maybe by just hearing your daughters story, it will give hope and take away the loneliness of those still in pain.
She is a brave and wonderful woman, just like her mom.
The above is a comment I wrote in response to this article. PLEASE read it! It shows once again how this "parental" government supports the troops.
ITMF'sA!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Too Short a Life
April 11, 2007 -
Marine Lance Cpl. Lance T. Graham
(An undated letter to his father, postmarked March 14, 2005)
Hey there Old Timer,
Just writing to say Hi and to let you know I'm OK. We've been really busy and I don't have a lot of time to write. I can't call because I need to get a calling card online and I need a credit card which I don't have. ... Also there is only 4 phones and 11 computers for 1500 marines with a 30 minute time limit so it takes awhile to use them. Those Wiley X glasses I sent back ... Yeah, I could use those. Sorry, I know you will probably be upset but could you send them to me. With the bore snake. The bore snake is like a long sock (green I think) that's the size of the barrel .223 cal. [...] How is everybody doing? How is Melanie? We are doing 24HR patrols when we're not escorting the colonel and Sgt. Mason around. It's long hrs little sleep and crappy chow. Gotta go now we're heading out.
Love Lance
Graham, 26, of San Antonio, Texas, died May 7, 2005, when suicide bombers struck his convoy near Haditha in Al Anbar province.
Marine Cpl. Dale A. Burger Jr.
Sept. 6, 2004
hey jen. well i wasnt one of the seven killed today. but my best friend mike allred, the guy in almost every picture i have from over here, was one of them. i found out a couple hours afterwards. i just got done writing a letter to his parents. it was one of the hardest things i've ever had to do. he was the closest thing to a brother i ever had.
I am doing ok though. i just got back from a pretty nasty place. we came out fine, but there was quite a bit of fighting going on. things are really starting to get worse around here.
its good to hear that your coming home. i should be home by december or January if i'm lucky. i really dont want to miss christmas but its looking like im going to.
well jen, i gotta get going. i havent slept in a couple days so i'm about to fall asleep. talk to you soon, be safe.
your brother,
dale
Sept. 14, 2004
well things are really starting to pick up lately. not in a good way either. its good to hear that your home. hows mom doing? keep reassuring her that i'll be ok. and do me a favor. this isn't something i can tell mom.
if i don't make it, make sure [to take care of our sisters] especially rachel. and make sure mom takes care of herself. i seriously think she'd lose it if i was killed. everytime i talk to her on the phone she cries. just make [sure] shes taken care of, you know. ok jen, i gotta get going. i still got work to do. love you and miss you.
your brother,
dale
Burger, 21, of Bel Air, Md., was killed Nov. 14, 2004, in Fallujah.
Marine Staff Sgt. Anthony Goodwin
May 23, 2003
Mom,
Finally was able to open the card you sent. I thank you so much. Looking forward to seeing you and dad both upon my return. I am glad to know that although my career path is at times difficult for you to endure, you understand and support my unwavering duty and dedication. I have chosen a rough path to say the least and it demands great sacrifices from all those involved. Remember, with great pride, that there are not many who are willing to give so selflessly, and those who do are needed and truly deserving. I thank you for being there with that smile or that hug when I needed you to be. I love you mother.
Anthony
Goodwin, 33, of Mount Holly, N.J., died during his second tour on May 9, 2005, after being shot in Qaim.
Army Col. Theodore Westhusing
May 10, 2005 (E-mail to his mother and brother)
Sorry dear mom, didn't save the note. Tim is a great brother.
VBIEDs [car bombs] really are a nightmare. Life is worthless over here to so many. Killing everywhere and always ongoing. So many people don't care and have appeared to have given up. But I won't, I need to be here to help them...... Innocents suffer. Terrible stuff. Kids that would break your heart, and mothers too. We did a squatter removal mission yesterday that just breaks the heart. Had to fire on a vehicle that wouldn't stop at our checkpoint, wounding the driver. The people in these temp villages have no were to go and are targets too, so they need to be protected. We try to, the best we can.
And the graft and pursuit of money off this thing and all that, it is just pathetic.
Oh well. Only thing to do is drive on and do your best. Love Ted
Westhusing, 44, was found shot to death June 5, 2005, in his Baghdad trailer. The Army ruled the shooting a suicide, but Ted's brother, Tim Westhusing, believes his brother was murdered.
Unlike this administration, I prefer to put names and faces and stories to the fallen and their families. After all, these are real people with real families and real lives. They pay taxes and love their moms. They are proud to be an American soldier. Proud of their honor, proud to serve.
The DESERVE our respect. And they get it, from everyone except those who believe they are nothing more than a pawn is a game of chess or a political propaganda tool. These are men and women of the United States Armed services, not machines to be placed in harms way over and over and... not to be used as target practice, not to be placed in the center of anothers countries civil war.
My God, can you imagine reading one of these from your son, after knowing about his death? What would his death mean to you? What about this war? Isn't it time we force this administration to respect our boys and bring them home? At the risk of repeating myself, together we can make this happen, together we can have peace once again. Together we must demand a change of course in Iraq. We must not allow another country to become our victim. We must demand impeachment. We must do this now!
Global warming: no more excuses
First, science confirmed the reality of global warming. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court's reprimand of the Bush administration has cut through the legal impediments for dealing with climate change.
Global warming is an environmental challenge to be addressed, not avoided, and the court's decision clears the legal and bureaucratic landscape for deciding how best to proceed. Real conversations can begin. Monday's split decision, with its impatient tone, swept aside excuses and stalling by the Environmental Protection Agency for its refusal to regulate greenhouse gases, including the carbon dioxide in auto emissions.
States, including Washington, prodded the administration to take a lead on climate change, but the EPA responded with claims that it did not have statutory authority, that links to rising temperatures were not established and domestic decisions could complicate foreign-policy issues.
If EPA drags its feet in the future, the court said, the reasons better be grounded in science, not legal and political conjecture.
This ruling will ripple through the lower courts looking at other cases of the EPA refusing to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions. But it all represents a larger, one-two punch on global warming.
At the first of the year, a panel created by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization reported the existence of global warming as unequivocal, and found a very likely link to human causes. Their conclusions came after cycles of research and periodic pronouncements since 1988.
For the United States, the way is much clearer for discussions about emissions from automobiles, power plants and other manufacturing, and how industry, the public and government can work together. Automakers were among the first to propose a legal and scientific rapprochement.
In another beneficial ruling for the country, the court unanimously ruled the EPA had enforcement powers over power plants that renovate or add capacity that increases their levels of air pollution. The agency was told to quit sheltering scofflaws.
In the absence of federal leadership, and in light of the Bush administration's refusal to enforce the laws on the books, individual states tried to go their own way. The frustration is understandable, but the best hope for real progress is through coherent national policy.
That is most likely to come with a change of administration, but the court made clear that EPA has lost its license to ignore statutes it does not like.
The same message was repeated in another arena. A federal judge in Seattle slapped down the administration for arbitrarily editing passages of the Northwest Forest Plan.
In a scant three months, the reality of global warming has been reinforced by science and the law.
First, science confirmed the reality of global warming. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court's reprimand of the Bush administration has cut through the legal impediments for dealing with climate change.
Global warming is an environmental challenge to be addressed, not avoided, and the court's decision clears the legal and bureaucratic landscape for deciding how best to proceed. Real conversations can begin. Monday's split decision, with its impatient tone, swept aside excuses and stalling by the Environmental Protection Agency for its refusal to regulate greenhouse gases, including the carbon dioxide in auto emissions.
States, including Washington, prodded the administration to take a lead on climate change, but the EPA responded with claims that it did not have statutory authority, that links to rising temperatures were not established and domestic decisions could complicate foreign-policy issues.
If EPA drags its feet in the future, the court said, the reasons better be grounded in science, not legal and political conjecture.
This ruling will ripple through the lower courts looking at other cases of the EPA refusing to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions. But it all represents a larger, one-two punch on global warming.
At the first of the year, a panel created by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization reported the existence of global warming as unequivocal, and found a very likely link to human causes. Their conclusions came after cycles of research and periodic pronouncements since 1988.
For the United States, the way is much clearer for discussions about emissions from automobiles, power plants and other manufacturing, and how industry, the public and government can work together. Automakers were among the first to propose a legal and scientific rapprochement.
In another beneficial ruling for the country, the court unanimously ruled the EPA had enforcement powers over power plants that renovate or add capacity that increases their levels of air pollution. The agency was told to quit sheltering scofflaws.
In the absence of federal leadership, and in light of the Bush administration's refusal to enforce the laws on the books, individual states tried to go their own way. The frustration is understandable, but the best hope for real progress is through coherent national policy.
That is most likely to come with a change of administration, but the court made clear that EPA has lost its license to ignore statutes it does not like.
The same message was repeated in another arena. A federal judge in Seattle slapped down the administration for arbitrarily editing passages of the Northwest Forest Plan.
In a scant three months, the reality of global warming has been reinforced by science and the law.
For more information please see Al Gore's site and Live Earth. It's our job to leave our children and grandchildren a healthy and clean planet. It's our responsibility. We have a narrow window to change this course of destruction. Sign the petitions, call your congressmen, demand (again) a change of course. The children of the world will be thankful.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Playing God?
Someone PLEASE give these jackass's a blow job! We really need to impeach them! FTF? For the cause..? ;o)
Enemy of the People?
Those of you who know me, know my story, you'll see why I needed to post this.
Another Enemy of the People?
Demonstrating our right to peacefully gather/protest/march, puts us on an FBI watch list?
Well, hell! It's no wonder this administration likes the idea of warrantless wiretapping. He isn't looking for terrorists, he's eliminating the opposition - and all in the name of keeping you safe.
Spins, smoke and mirrors, outright lies, secrecy, extreme racism... There it is neocons! This is your man, you voted for him and twice, I might add.
Tell me, are we really that afraid of another attack? And even if we were attacked, it would be nothing compared to the attack the Iraqi's have endured for over four freaking years! Hell , shrub has killed more Americans than those that died on 9/11. I believe the US death toll in Iraq is now pushing 4,000. Don't get me wrong, I am not descrating the memory of the victims of 9/11, I'm saying that this idiots actions and words are.
Wouldn't bringing the orchestrator of 9/11 to justice be more worthy of their memory than invading an innocent country and causing years of death, fear and destruction? Is shredding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights doing the families of these 9/11 victims a great service? Is spying on Americans, for whatever reason keeping us safe while our ports remain open and unguarded? Is stretching our military to it's breaking point and demanding that we, as well as our soldiers and their loved ones be patient and shut up about Iraq being "patriotic"? Is putting a scholar, and ex-marine at that, on an FBI watch list because he's critical about bush & co helping you sleep better at night?
Demand Impeachment! Call you senators and congressmen. Let them know, we DEMAND America back!
Another Enemy of the People?
Demonstrating our right to peacefully gather/protest/march, puts us on an FBI watch list?
Well, hell! It's no wonder this administration likes the idea of warrantless wiretapping. He isn't looking for terrorists, he's eliminating the opposition - and all in the name of keeping you safe.
Spins, smoke and mirrors, outright lies, secrecy, extreme racism... There it is neocons! This is your man, you voted for him and twice, I might add.
Tell me, are we really that afraid of another attack? And even if we were attacked, it would be nothing compared to the attack the Iraqi's have endured for over four freaking years! Hell , shrub has killed more Americans than those that died on 9/11. I believe the US death toll in Iraq is now pushing 4,000. Don't get me wrong, I am not descrating the memory of the victims of 9/11, I'm saying that this idiots actions and words are.
Wouldn't bringing the orchestrator of 9/11 to justice be more worthy of their memory than invading an innocent country and causing years of death, fear and destruction? Is shredding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights doing the families of these 9/11 victims a great service? Is spying on Americans, for whatever reason keeping us safe while our ports remain open and unguarded? Is stretching our military to it's breaking point and demanding that we, as well as our soldiers and their loved ones be patient and shut up about Iraq being "patriotic"? Is putting a scholar, and ex-marine at that, on an FBI watch list because he's critical about bush & co helping you sleep better at night?
Demand Impeachment! Call you senators and congressmen. Let them know, we DEMAND America back!
Tuesday Topic: One Million Blogs for Peace
One Million Blogs for Peace(370 participating blogs and growing!)
Find and post a photo of the Iraq War.
What does this photo say to you about the war?
Do you think this photo could change others' minds about the war?
To me, this photo shows the true victims of this illegal war. Meanwhile shrub and dick and rummy smirk from the sidelines, this shows the real truth.
This shows the total disregard this administration has for it's fellow human beings. Anyone who can look at this and not feel, not care, has no heart, no conscience.
This is the Iraqi reality.
This is what we have done.
This needs to stop.
NOW!
I do wonder what a neocon would say if this picture was of American children?
Monday, April 9, 2007
Enough!
Enough!
Enough of the rhetoric, enough of the lies, enough of the spin, enough of the name calling and anti-war bashing. Enough! We have had enough. The proof that Iraq is falling deeper into hell at the hands of this administration is out there. It's staring us in the face. Why the shrub administration and their asskissing followers refuse to see this is a complete unknown.
Recall that Bush saw Baghdad not as the final destination of his global war on terror but as a point of departure. He imagined that liberating Iraq might trigger a flowering of Arab democracy. He was counting on Saddam Hussein's ouster to jump-start a regional transformation. He expected a forthright demonstration of U.S. military might to enhance America's standing across the Muslim world, with friend and foe alike thereafter deferring to Washington.
None of that has come to pass. Baghdad has become a cul-de-sac. Having plunged into a war he cannot win, Bush will not relent. Iraq consumes his presidency because the president wills that it should. He has become Captain Ahab: His identification with his war is absolute.
As a consequence, the "global" effort aimed at eliminating Islamic terror, launched back in September 2001, has narrowed in scope. Today the global war is global in name only. In reality, it has become a war for Mesopotamia.
For his part, the president increasingly preoccupies himself with tactics at the expense of statecraft. Much as Lyndon Johnson once reviewed lists of targets to be bombed in Hanoi, Bush now ponders how many brigades will be needed to impose order on a handful of neighborhoods around Baghdad.
Ritualistic allusions to freedom as the antidote to terrorism still occasionally crop up in presidential speeches, but rhetoric no longer translates into action. An administration that once touted its expansive and principled approach to preventing another 9/11 has abandoned principle. Now there is only Iraq and the effort to ensure that today's news out of Baghdad isn't any worse than yesterday's.
Our political attention, then, needs to turn to whether the president's would-be successors can do what Bush cannot: acknowledge our failure in Iraq and look beyond it.
He will of course, not take the advice of experts. He will not listen to the cries of the Iraqi people. He will, however, do as the Carlyle Group et al. tell him to. It's a shame, really that in seven years, he was allowed to destroy a nation, it's good standing and the will of it's people. He has devastated Iraq. He has blamed others for his "missteps" his "errors in judgment" or as I like to call them, his "complete arrogant incompetence."
We, and the world, can not afford another administration such as this one. We can not afford the religious right to pluck away at our given liberties and freedoms over a book they have never read. We can not afford more Katrina's and ignorance of global warming. We can not afford more out souring of jobs and higher health and education costs.
Enough! It's time for us to speak even louder. Time to march on the White House, call our congressmen and women and demand to be heard. Time to canvas and talk and support those with our bests interests at heart. The time for dictatorship and war mongering is over. The time for the people is now.
Enough of the rhetoric, enough of the lies, enough of the spin, enough of the name calling and anti-war bashing. Enough! We have had enough. The proof that Iraq is falling deeper into hell at the hands of this administration is out there. It's staring us in the face. Why the shrub administration and their asskissing followers refuse to see this is a complete unknown.
Recall that Bush saw Baghdad not as the final destination of his global war on terror but as a point of departure. He imagined that liberating Iraq might trigger a flowering of Arab democracy. He was counting on Saddam Hussein's ouster to jump-start a regional transformation. He expected a forthright demonstration of U.S. military might to enhance America's standing across the Muslim world, with friend and foe alike thereafter deferring to Washington.
None of that has come to pass. Baghdad has become a cul-de-sac. Having plunged into a war he cannot win, Bush will not relent. Iraq consumes his presidency because the president wills that it should. He has become Captain Ahab: His identification with his war is absolute.
As a consequence, the "global" effort aimed at eliminating Islamic terror, launched back in September 2001, has narrowed in scope. Today the global war is global in name only. In reality, it has become a war for Mesopotamia.
For his part, the president increasingly preoccupies himself with tactics at the expense of statecraft. Much as Lyndon Johnson once reviewed lists of targets to be bombed in Hanoi, Bush now ponders how many brigades will be needed to impose order on a handful of neighborhoods around Baghdad.
Ritualistic allusions to freedom as the antidote to terrorism still occasionally crop up in presidential speeches, but rhetoric no longer translates into action. An administration that once touted its expansive and principled approach to preventing another 9/11 has abandoned principle. Now there is only Iraq and the effort to ensure that today's news out of Baghdad isn't any worse than yesterday's.
Our political attention, then, needs to turn to whether the president's would-be successors can do what Bush cannot: acknowledge our failure in Iraq and look beyond it.
He will of course, not take the advice of experts. He will not listen to the cries of the Iraqi people. He will, however, do as the Carlyle Group et al. tell him to. It's a shame, really that in seven years, he was allowed to destroy a nation, it's good standing and the will of it's people. He has devastated Iraq. He has blamed others for his "missteps" his "errors in judgment" or as I like to call them, his "complete arrogant incompetence."
We, and the world, can not afford another administration such as this one. We can not afford the religious right to pluck away at our given liberties and freedoms over a book they have never read. We can not afford more Katrina's and ignorance of global warming. We can not afford more out souring of jobs and higher health and education costs.
Enough! It's time for us to speak even louder. Time to march on the White House, call our congressmen and women and demand to be heard. Time to canvas and talk and support those with our bests interests at heart. The time for dictatorship and war mongering is over. The time for the people is now.
Monumental Ignorance, Arrogance and Lies
Where ever you look you see the "Iraqi Debate". The shrub administration is arguing with the Democrat lead congress, the left is fighting with the right all over what to do about Iraq.
We did the damage to their country. If they asked us to stay and help, would anyone have a problem with that? Would the right have a problem leaving if they asked us to ?
"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order," Ali A. Allawi concludes in "The Occupation of Iraq," newly published by Yale University Press.
It does seem as though he disagrees with he shrub administration. We have heard, from the right, how safe Baghdad is and how well things are going and much progress is being made. We have heard lies. This rhetoric is all said to serve the needs of the corporate sponsors of the right.
Allawi writes with authority as a member of that "new order," having served as Iraq's trade, defense and finance minister at various times since 2003. As a former academic, at Oxford University before the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq, he also writes with unusual detachment.
The U.S.- and British-educated engineer and financier is the first senior Iraqi official to look back at book length on his country's four-year ordeal. It's an unsparing look at failures both American and Iraqi, an account in which the word "ignorance" crops up repeatedly.
First came the "monumental ignorance" of those in Washington pushing for war in 2002 without "the faintest idea" of Iraq's realities. "More perceptive people knew instinctively that the invasion of Iraq would open up the great fissures in Iraqi society," he writes.
What followed was the "rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance" of the occupation, under L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which took big steps with little consultation with Iraqis, steps Allawi and many others see as blunders:
• The Americans disbanded Iraq's army, which Allawi said could have helped quell a rising insurgency in 2003. Instead, hundreds of thousands of demobilized, angry men became a recruiting pool for the resistance.
• Purging tens of thousands of members of toppled President Saddam Hussein's Baath party — from government, school faculties and elsewhere — left Iraq short on experienced hands at a crucial time.
• An order consolidating decentralized bank accounts at the Finance Ministry bogged down operations of Iraq's many state-owned enterprises.
• The CPA's focus on private enterprise allowed the "commercial gangs" of Saddam's day to monopolize business.
• Its free-trade policy allowed looted Iraqi capital equipment to be spirited away across borders.
• The CPA perpetuated Saddam's fuel subsidies, selling gasoline at giveaway prices and draining the budget.
Hmm... It does seem that once again the Left was right!
Of course, we all know about the smoke and mirrors and we know how the right will discredit this man for his "unpatriotic views"... oh wait... Well, I'm sure they'll think of something. The one thing we all know they won't think about is the ones who matter most. The Iraqi People.
In his 2006 memoir of the occupation, Bremer wrote that senior U.S. generals wanted to recall elements of the old Iraqi army in 2003, but were rebuffed by the Bush administration. Bremer complained generally that his authority was undermined by Washington's "micromanagement."
Although Allawi, a cousin of Ayad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister in 2004, is a member of a secularist Shiite Muslim political grouping, his well-researched book betrays little partisanship.
On U.S. reconstruction failures — in electricity, health care and other areas documented by Washington's own auditors — Allawi writes that the Americans' "insipid retelling of `success' stories" merely hid "the huge black hole that lay underneath."
For their part, U.S. officials have often largely blamed Iraq's explosive violence for the failures of reconstruction and poor governance.
Blame the victim. That does sum up this administrations views, doesn't it?
A message to you king shrub: YOU support the troops - bring them home - NOW!
We did the damage to their country. If they asked us to stay and help, would anyone have a problem with that? Would the right have a problem leaving if they asked us to ?
"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order," Ali A. Allawi concludes in "The Occupation of Iraq," newly published by Yale University Press.
It does seem as though he disagrees with he shrub administration. We have heard, from the right, how safe Baghdad is and how well things are going and much progress is being made. We have heard lies. This rhetoric is all said to serve the needs of the corporate sponsors of the right.
Allawi writes with authority as a member of that "new order," having served as Iraq's trade, defense and finance minister at various times since 2003. As a former academic, at Oxford University before the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq, he also writes with unusual detachment.
The U.S.- and British-educated engineer and financier is the first senior Iraqi official to look back at book length on his country's four-year ordeal. It's an unsparing look at failures both American and Iraqi, an account in which the word "ignorance" crops up repeatedly.
First came the "monumental ignorance" of those in Washington pushing for war in 2002 without "the faintest idea" of Iraq's realities. "More perceptive people knew instinctively that the invasion of Iraq would open up the great fissures in Iraqi society," he writes.
What followed was the "rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance" of the occupation, under L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which took big steps with little consultation with Iraqis, steps Allawi and many others see as blunders:
• The Americans disbanded Iraq's army, which Allawi said could have helped quell a rising insurgency in 2003. Instead, hundreds of thousands of demobilized, angry men became a recruiting pool for the resistance.
• Purging tens of thousands of members of toppled President Saddam Hussein's Baath party — from government, school faculties and elsewhere — left Iraq short on experienced hands at a crucial time.
• An order consolidating decentralized bank accounts at the Finance Ministry bogged down operations of Iraq's many state-owned enterprises.
• The CPA's focus on private enterprise allowed the "commercial gangs" of Saddam's day to monopolize business.
• Its free-trade policy allowed looted Iraqi capital equipment to be spirited away across borders.
• The CPA perpetuated Saddam's fuel subsidies, selling gasoline at giveaway prices and draining the budget.
Hmm... It does seem that once again the Left was right!
Of course, we all know about the smoke and mirrors and we know how the right will discredit this man for his "unpatriotic views"... oh wait... Well, I'm sure they'll think of something. The one thing we all know they won't think about is the ones who matter most. The Iraqi People.
In his 2006 memoir of the occupation, Bremer wrote that senior U.S. generals wanted to recall elements of the old Iraqi army in 2003, but were rebuffed by the Bush administration. Bremer complained generally that his authority was undermined by Washington's "micromanagement."
Although Allawi, a cousin of Ayad Allawi, Iraq's prime minister in 2004, is a member of a secularist Shiite Muslim political grouping, his well-researched book betrays little partisanship.
On U.S. reconstruction failures — in electricity, health care and other areas documented by Washington's own auditors — Allawi writes that the Americans' "insipid retelling of `success' stories" merely hid "the huge black hole that lay underneath."
For their part, U.S. officials have often largely blamed Iraq's explosive violence for the failures of reconstruction and poor governance.
Blame the victim. That does sum up this administrations views, doesn't it?
A message to you king shrub: YOU support the troops - bring them home - NOW!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
The Crucifixion of Christ, American Style
In honor of Easter and our "self-proclaimed" Christian Administration, I think this is a must read.
Believe or not, it's a great and truthful read. Let me know what you think.
Believe or not, it's a great and truthful read. Let me know what you think.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
A conversation with John Edwards
I found this on Salon this morning, you can read the whole interview here.
Elizabeth has announced that you plan to hire a tutor to help home-school your two youngest children, Emma Claire and Jack, in the fall so the family can be together on the campaign trail. Have you realized how many conservative votes you could get if you play up your plans for home schooling?
I hadn't thought about that.
I assume that evolution will not be part of the curriculum.
It'll be part of our curriculum.
If there is one word that I have heard from you in this campaign -- in your criticism tonight of "incrementalism" and in your New Hampshire speech last month about "transformational change" -- it's the word "bold." I didn't hear this from you four years ago at this time.
You probably never heard it from me.
What changed?
Circumstances. I think things have changed for America. Our standing in the world has gone down. The war in Iraq has gone downhill. Our healthcare systems have become more dysfunctional. And both climate change and energy use have gotten worse. I think it's what's needed under the circumstances. I think it's also combined with me being more seasoned and more comfortable with taking stronger, bolder positions.
If someone who was in a campaign 10 years ago had published a pamphlet that some interest group was really upset about -- with the oldest technology in the world, a printing press -- it would have been a somewhat similar flap.
Sure, sure. Bloggers by nature, as you know, are right at the edge. That's how they operate. It's how they get their message across and how they get heard.
Do you have any sense of the role that blogging and the Web will play in this campaign?
I think we all are learning. But I have a sense of it. I think they're going to play an important role. That's what it feels like to me.
In your speech tonight, referring to terrorism, you talked about how Bush and Cheney want us to cower. . . .
They believe in a parental government. They don't believe it in the sense that they think that big government should solve all the problems. But they believe it in the sense that they don't exhibit confidence in the power of Americans to do great things and be strong and courageous. And that's amazing for a Republican president. And they tap into fear as the mechanism for accomplishing it. I just think it completely underestimates America.
The larger sort of question is: Do you buy the notion, as Cheney has said, that what the Bush administration calls the "war on terror" is a struggle that will be going on all of our lives?
There is a struggle that certainly will go on for some time. But I do not define the struggle the way he does. He wants to talk about this as war, the war on terror. And this struggle is one that has many layers. One layer is the only one they like to talk about, which is violent, radical Islam. Is this a threat to the security of the world? It absolutely is. But there are many components of that struggle that they never talk about, which are the underlying causes, which is the underlying capability of the terrorists to recruit. It is a multi-causal thing. It is young people not being educated, being educated in madrassas, living lives of poverty and hopelessness; corrupt regimes. There are multiple contributors to the undercurrent that allows terrorism to be a force in the world. Can we stamp it out entirely no matter what we do? Probably not. If we do all the things today that we should be doing, we can weaken it to the point that America and the rest of the civilized world can manage it.
So it won't be the defining issue of the 'teens and '20s of this century?
I think that depends on what we do. It depends on what we do.
Last question. Do you regret voting for the Patriot Act?
No, no. What I do regret -- put this in there if you're going to write it -- is that it was hurried, it was rushed, it wasn't challenged the way it should have been. There are provisions in there -- sneak-and-peek search provisions, provisions about libraries -- that never should have sailed through like they did. That I do take responsibility for voting for. I along with the other members of the Senate who voted for this. But there were things that needed to be done. We had huge problems with the sharing of information that needed to be fixed. But it should have been done the right way.
Please read the whole interview, I just hit some highlights of it.
As Democrats, we have a nice selection for '08. While the right, thinks that Cheney running could be their "secret weapon". Ah, can't you just see the humor!
I think it's not to early to really look at the candidates, see what they stand for, who they are and maybe help each other make some choices. Let me know what you think of this interview and Edwards. With any luck, between us, we may find a solution to the clusterfuck that has become our government and our country.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Appropriate Behavior?
British sailors and marines freed by
Iran said Friday they were blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells and tricked into fearing execution while being coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.
They said there was no doubt the 15 crew members were in Iraq's territorial waters when they were seized by heavily armed boats of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. They also said their jailers had singled out the only woman among the captives for use in propaganda.
Iran, which has been celebrating the incident as a victory, quickly rejected the charges, dismissing a news conference held by six of the freed personnel as "propaganda" and "a show." Iranian state TV accused British leaders of "dictating" the crews statements.
Appearing a day after being flown home to reunions with their families, the eight sailors and seven marines reported undergoing constant psychological pressure and being threatened with seven years in prison if they did not say they intruded into Iranian waters.
They said their captors also lined them up against a wall one night to the ominous sound of weapons cocking behind their heads.
"At some points I did have fears that we would not survive," Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, 20, the youngest sailor among the captives, told The Associated Press in an interview.
Speaking at the news conference with five colleagues, the boat team's commander, Royal Navy Lt. Felix Carman, said the prisoners were harshly interrogated during 13 days in custody and slept in stone cells on piles of blankets.
"All of us were kept in isolation. We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options: If we admitted that we'd strayed, we'd be on a plane to (Britain) pretty soon. If we didn't, we faced up to seven years in prison," he said.
You'll forgive my sarcasm but, "oh poor baby!" Life must have been hell at the hands of the evil Iranians. Isolation? Coerced confession! Dear God! Water boarding? Nope. How were these confessions "coerced"?
"We were interrogated most nights and given two options. If we admitted that we had strayed, we would be back on a plane to the UK pretty soon. If we didn't, we faced up to seven years in prison," the statement said.
Yes, those poor Brits were ill treated, pulled out of Iraqi waters and held captive for days!
"If what they described is accurate, then that would not seem to be appropriate behavior and action," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "It's unfortunate that the Iranians ever detained the sailors to begin with."
Appropriate behavior? What is that exactly? Plucking nobodys off the streets of foreign countries, holding them, without charge, for years? What about this?
Did the British sustain these injuries?
Yes, that's a human being covered in feces.
Make no mistake, I feel for them. I feel for their families, the not knowing, the wondering, the fear... But, as a country that advocates this type of behavior, who the hell are we to tell the Iranians what is and is not acceptable behavior?
The right loves throwing the "slippery slope" in my face as bullshit liberal propaganda. So, I guess this is just my turn to throw it back with a little, "Told you so jackass!"
This isn't a slippery slope, this isn't "propaganda" this isn't "keeping America safe". This is white washing. This is the typical "do as I say .." crap from this administration.
Now, spin it. What if, we treated our prisoners in the same fashion as the Iranians treated them? BUT The Iranians treated the British as we treated our "POW's"? Outrage? oh, you betchya! Now, our government wants us to hate these evil Iranians. They want us to be outraged and angry and demand justice.
I can't. I may be a lot of things, but a hypocrite just isn't one of them.
Iran said Friday they were blindfolded, isolated in cold stone cells and tricked into fearing execution while being coerced into falsely saying they had entered Iranian waters.
They said there was no doubt the 15 crew members were in Iraq's territorial waters when they were seized by heavily armed boats of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. They also said their jailers had singled out the only woman among the captives for use in propaganda.
Iran, which has been celebrating the incident as a victory, quickly rejected the charges, dismissing a news conference held by six of the freed personnel as "propaganda" and "a show." Iranian state TV accused British leaders of "dictating" the crews statements.
Appearing a day after being flown home to reunions with their families, the eight sailors and seven marines reported undergoing constant psychological pressure and being threatened with seven years in prison if they did not say they intruded into Iranian waters.
They said their captors also lined them up against a wall one night to the ominous sound of weapons cocking behind their heads.
"At some points I did have fears that we would not survive," Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, 20, the youngest sailor among the captives, told The Associated Press in an interview.
Speaking at the news conference with five colleagues, the boat team's commander, Royal Navy Lt. Felix Carman, said the prisoners were harshly interrogated during 13 days in custody and slept in stone cells on piles of blankets.
"All of us were kept in isolation. We were interrogated most nights and presented with two options: If we admitted that we'd strayed, we'd be on a plane to (Britain) pretty soon. If we didn't, we faced up to seven years in prison," he said.
You'll forgive my sarcasm but, "oh poor baby!" Life must have been hell at the hands of the evil Iranians. Isolation? Coerced confession! Dear God! Water boarding? Nope. How were these confessions "coerced"?
"We were interrogated most nights and given two options. If we admitted that we had strayed, we would be back on a plane to the UK pretty soon. If we didn't, we faced up to seven years in prison," the statement said.
Yes, those poor Brits were ill treated, pulled out of Iraqi waters and held captive for days!
"If what they described is accurate, then that would not seem to be appropriate behavior and action," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "It's unfortunate that the Iranians ever detained the sailors to begin with."
Appropriate behavior? What is that exactly? Plucking nobodys off the streets of foreign countries, holding them, without charge, for years? What about this?
Did the British sustain these injuries?
Yes, that's a human being covered in feces.
Make no mistake, I feel for them. I feel for their families, the not knowing, the wondering, the fear... But, as a country that advocates this type of behavior, who the hell are we to tell the Iranians what is and is not acceptable behavior?
The right loves throwing the "slippery slope" in my face as bullshit liberal propaganda. So, I guess this is just my turn to throw it back with a little, "Told you so jackass!"
This isn't a slippery slope, this isn't "propaganda" this isn't "keeping America safe". This is white washing. This is the typical "do as I say .." crap from this administration.
Now, spin it. What if, we treated our prisoners in the same fashion as the Iranians treated them? BUT The Iranians treated the British as we treated our "POW's"? Outrage? oh, you betchya! Now, our government wants us to hate these evil Iranians. They want us to be outraged and angry and demand justice.
I can't. I may be a lot of things, but a hypocrite just isn't one of them.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
OLBERMANN::LARRY JOHNSON (EX-CIA) EXCORIATES ST.McCAIN
Thanks goes out to Undeniable Liberal for this video.
I know what part(s) pissed me off. What about you?
Katrina's Bitter End
A tribute to all Katrina victims, those who suffered, who still suffer and to those who will forever suffer. May you find peace and justice.
I've Stopped Venting - Just for a Minute
This is an artist and his work. He, get this, paints on tortillias.
His work is amazing! I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to paint on that small a canvas.
This is my smallest painting. It's actually a three foot by three foot painting, my self portrait. (No laughing please...) I have made my life as a designer so I really don't paint that often anymore but if I did, I'd wish to have one half of this mans talent. I'm amazed!
This painting was actually sold several years ago, it's a bad picture of it, but my only picture of it.
WTF!!
Activist arrested for feeding homeless in Orlando
MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Police have arrested an activist for feeding the homeless in downtown Orlando, Florida.
Eric Montanez, 21, of the charity group Food Not Bombs was charged with violating a controversial law against feeding large groups of destitute people in the city center, police said Thursday.
Montanez was filmed by undercover officers Wednesday as he served "30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle," according to an arrest affidavit. The Orlando area is home to Disney World and Universal Studios Florida.
The Orlando law, which is supported by local business owners who say the homeless drive away customers but has been challenged in court by civil rights groups, allows charities to feed more than 25 people at a time within two miles (3.2 kilometers) of Orlando City Hall only if they have a special permit. They can get two permits a year.
Police collected a vial of the stew Montanez was serving as evidence.
Police spokeswoman Barbara Jones said in an e-mail it was the first time anyone had been arrested under the feeding ban.
Montanez was charged with a misdemeanor.
MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Police have arrested an activist for feeding the homeless in downtown Orlando, Florida.
Eric Montanez, 21, of the charity group Food Not Bombs was charged with violating a controversial law against feeding large groups of destitute people in the city center, police said Thursday.
Montanez was filmed by undercover officers Wednesday as he served "30 unidentified persons food from a large pot utilizing a ladle," according to an arrest affidavit. The Orlando area is home to Disney World and Universal Studios Florida.
The Orlando law, which is supported by local business owners who say the homeless drive away customers but has been challenged in court by civil rights groups, allows charities to feed more than 25 people at a time within two miles (3.2 kilometers) of Orlando City Hall only if they have a special permit. They can get two permits a year.
Police collected a vial of the stew Montanez was serving as evidence.
Police spokeswoman Barbara Jones said in an e-mail it was the first time anyone had been arrested under the feeding ban.
Montanez was charged with a misdemeanor.
Shock and Horror in Safe Baghdad, eh McCain?
If McCain is right and Baghdad is so safe, then why would we need to "train for "shock and horror""?
Army Lt. Col. Donald Robinson is no stranger to bloodshed. As a civilian he served as a trauma surgeon at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, a city so violent he says doctors call it the "Knife and Gun Club."
Nothing in Camden could fully prepare him for what he saw as chief of surgical and critical care at the U.S. Army's premier medical facility in
Iraq, however. He put in long hours there from December 2004 through July 2005.
Improved body armor and medical care mean more soldiers survive war injuries in Iraq than in past conflicts, and Robinson said well-trained army medics are making a big difference.
But Robinson said the injuries caused by Iraq's dreaded improvised explosive devices are unlike anything seen in combat before, posing constant challenges for army field surgery specialists in a conflict that has been dubbed the "Superbowl of Trauma."
So, this "Iraq is going swimmingly", I assume, is just another smoke and mirror lie by our war mongering administration.
Now as head of the Army Trauma Training Center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University of Miami, Robinson's job is to prepare other army medics bound for Iraq for what he calls the "shock and horror" of a conflict in which more than 3,250 American troops have been killed and over 24,000 wounded since the U.S. invasion four years ago.
About 1,000 soldiers and medics have completed the army trauma training program in Miami since it began in 2002, in the early stages of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. That number includes 264 military personnel since Robinson began running the program in February 2006.
I see the "surge" must be going well too, putting an end to all the violence. Right?
I am sick to death of the false reporting and "non" reporting because it may make bush look bad. Like he could ever look good! (well, maybe with a noose...) What ever happened to REPORTING the news? Aren't they supposed to just tell it, not give an opinion, not give it a little spin? Am I the only one pissed off over being treated like a child? Spoon fed lies to keep me compliant? Quiet? Sacred and unquestioning?
By the right, I am un-American. I hate the troops. I'm un-patriotic.
BULLSHIT!
It is the unquestioning right and those they bow to and those they truly serve who fit that bill. Not I. We, the left, have proven this over and over again.
"I've seen people freeze, standing across the table from me going 'holy shit!' I've seen it," he said.
"I think the only way you can get over that is to be trained to understand that, yes, it's devastating, but you sort of have to disassociate yourself or distance yourself away from what you're looking at."
This is what we are sending our troops to and WE don't support them?
Robinson declined to comment when asked about the recent scandal over shoddy conditions and bureaucratic delays for wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the flagship U.S. military hospital.
The revelations have compounded a deepening public disquiet with the war in Iraq.
"I have my own thoughts about that. But in all honesty, we were told by our bosses that's out of our lane and we don't have an opinion," he said.
Truer words have never been spoken. We are not allowed an opinion, unless our government gives us one. Democracy? Communism? or just plain Fools are we?
Army Lt. Col. Donald Robinson is no stranger to bloodshed. As a civilian he served as a trauma surgeon at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, a city so violent he says doctors call it the "Knife and Gun Club."
Nothing in Camden could fully prepare him for what he saw as chief of surgical and critical care at the U.S. Army's premier medical facility in
Iraq, however. He put in long hours there from December 2004 through July 2005.
Improved body armor and medical care mean more soldiers survive war injuries in Iraq than in past conflicts, and Robinson said well-trained army medics are making a big difference.
But Robinson said the injuries caused by Iraq's dreaded improvised explosive devices are unlike anything seen in combat before, posing constant challenges for army field surgery specialists in a conflict that has been dubbed the "Superbowl of Trauma."
So, this "Iraq is going swimmingly", I assume, is just another smoke and mirror lie by our war mongering administration.
Now as head of the Army Trauma Training Center at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University of Miami, Robinson's job is to prepare other army medics bound for Iraq for what he calls the "shock and horror" of a conflict in which more than 3,250 American troops have been killed and over 24,000 wounded since the U.S. invasion four years ago.
About 1,000 soldiers and medics have completed the army trauma training program in Miami since it began in 2002, in the early stages of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. That number includes 264 military personnel since Robinson began running the program in February 2006.
I see the "surge" must be going well too, putting an end to all the violence. Right?
I am sick to death of the false reporting and "non" reporting because it may make bush look bad. Like he could ever look good! (well, maybe with a noose...) What ever happened to REPORTING the news? Aren't they supposed to just tell it, not give an opinion, not give it a little spin? Am I the only one pissed off over being treated like a child? Spoon fed lies to keep me compliant? Quiet? Sacred and unquestioning?
By the right, I am un-American. I hate the troops. I'm un-patriotic.
BULLSHIT!
It is the unquestioning right and those they bow to and those they truly serve who fit that bill. Not I. We, the left, have proven this over and over again.
"I've seen people freeze, standing across the table from me going 'holy shit!' I've seen it," he said.
"I think the only way you can get over that is to be trained to understand that, yes, it's devastating, but you sort of have to disassociate yourself or distance yourself away from what you're looking at."
This is what we are sending our troops to and WE don't support them?
Robinson declined to comment when asked about the recent scandal over shoddy conditions and bureaucratic delays for wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the flagship U.S. military hospital.
The revelations have compounded a deepening public disquiet with the war in Iraq.
"I have my own thoughts about that. But in all honesty, we were told by our bosses that's out of our lane and we don't have an opinion," he said.
Truer words have never been spoken. We are not allowed an opinion, unless our government gives us one. Democracy? Communism? or just plain Fools are we?
More than a Feeling
The following was in the opinion section of the New York Times this morning.
I think this just says it all!
President Bush and his advisers have made a lot of ridiculous charges about critics of the war in Iraq: they’re unpatriotic, they want the terrorists to win, they don’t support the troops, to cite just a few. But none of these seem quite as absurd as President Bush’s latest suggestion, that critics of the war whose children are at risk are too “emotional” to see things clearly.
The direct target was Matthew Dowd, one of the chief strategists of Mr. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, who has grown disillusioned with the president and the war, which he made clear in an interview with Jim Rutenberg published in The Times last Sunday. But by extension, Mr. Bush’s comments were insulting to the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and spouses have served or will serve in Iraq.
They are perfectly capable of forming judgments about the war, pro or con, on the merits. But when Mr. Bush was asked about Mr. Dowd during a Rose Garden news conference yesterday, he said, “This is an emotional issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people in our country.”
Mr. Dowd’s case, Mr. Bush said, “as I understand it, is obviously intensified because his son is deployable.”
Over the weekend, two of Mr. Bush’s chief spokesmen, Dan Bartlett and Dana Perino, claimed that Mr. Dowd’s change of heart about the war was rooted in “personal” issues and “emotions,” and talked of his “personal journey.” In recent years, Mr. Dowd suffered the death of a premature twin daughter, and was divorced. His son is scheduled to serve in Iraq soon.
Mr. Dowd said his experiences were a backdrop to his reconsideration of his support of the war and Mr. Bush. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is something deeply wrong with the White House’s dismissing his criticism as emotional, as if it has no reasoned connection to Mr. Bush’s policies.
This form of attack is especially galling from a president who from the start tried to paint this war as virtually sacrifice-free: the Iraqis would welcome America with open arms, the war would be paid for with Iraqi oil revenues — and the all-volunteer military would concentrate the sacrifice on only a portion of the nation’s families.
Mr. Bush’s comments about Mr. Dowd are a reflection of the otherworldliness that permeates his public appearances these days. Mr. Bush seems increasingly isolated, clinging to a fantasy version of Iraq that is more and more disconnected from reality. He gives a frightening impression that he has never heard any voice from any quarter that gave him pause, much less led him to rethink a position.
Mr. Bush’s former campaign aide showed an open-mindedness and willingness to adapt to reality that is sorely lacking in the commander in chief.
I think this just says it all!
President Bush and his advisers have made a lot of ridiculous charges about critics of the war in Iraq: they’re unpatriotic, they want the terrorists to win, they don’t support the troops, to cite just a few. But none of these seem quite as absurd as President Bush’s latest suggestion, that critics of the war whose children are at risk are too “emotional” to see things clearly.
The direct target was Matthew Dowd, one of the chief strategists of Mr. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, who has grown disillusioned with the president and the war, which he made clear in an interview with Jim Rutenberg published in The Times last Sunday. But by extension, Mr. Bush’s comments were insulting to the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and spouses have served or will serve in Iraq.
They are perfectly capable of forming judgments about the war, pro or con, on the merits. But when Mr. Bush was asked about Mr. Dowd during a Rose Garden news conference yesterday, he said, “This is an emotional issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people in our country.”
Mr. Dowd’s case, Mr. Bush said, “as I understand it, is obviously intensified because his son is deployable.”
Over the weekend, two of Mr. Bush’s chief spokesmen, Dan Bartlett and Dana Perino, claimed that Mr. Dowd’s change of heart about the war was rooted in “personal” issues and “emotions,” and talked of his “personal journey.” In recent years, Mr. Dowd suffered the death of a premature twin daughter, and was divorced. His son is scheduled to serve in Iraq soon.
Mr. Dowd said his experiences were a backdrop to his reconsideration of his support of the war and Mr. Bush. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is something deeply wrong with the White House’s dismissing his criticism as emotional, as if it has no reasoned connection to Mr. Bush’s policies.
This form of attack is especially galling from a president who from the start tried to paint this war as virtually sacrifice-free: the Iraqis would welcome America with open arms, the war would be paid for with Iraqi oil revenues — and the all-volunteer military would concentrate the sacrifice on only a portion of the nation’s families.
Mr. Bush’s comments about Mr. Dowd are a reflection of the otherworldliness that permeates his public appearances these days. Mr. Bush seems increasingly isolated, clinging to a fantasy version of Iraq that is more and more disconnected from reality. He gives a frightening impression that he has never heard any voice from any quarter that gave him pause, much less led him to rethink a position.
Mr. Bush’s former campaign aide showed an open-mindedness and willingness to adapt to reality that is sorely lacking in the commander in chief.
Fox, The New Pork
Show of hands... who out there remembers Sam Fox?
Here's a hint. He's the wingnut that contributed to the swift boat ads against Senator Kerry in the 2004 presidential race.
It seems as if, yet again, bushco has rewarded his loyal scumbags.
Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation in the Foreign Relations Committee, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.
(snip)
"It's sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate," Kerry said in a statement.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he plans to ask the
Government Accountability Office to issue an opinion on whether the recess appointment is legal.
Recess appointments are intended to give the president flexibility if Congress is out for a lengthy period of time, such as the four-week adjournment in summer. But Dodd said the law was not intended to circumvent lawmakers' approval.
"This is really now taking the recess appointment vehicle and abusing this beyond anyone's imagination," said Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "This is a travesty."
Bush also used his recess appointment authority to make Andrew Biggs deputy director of
Social Security. The president's earlier nomination of Biggs, an outspoken advocate of partially privatizing the government's retirement program, was rejected by Senate Democrats in February.
Welcome to the kingdom of the shrub! We have no say, we have no voice. Our wants and needs mean nothing here in the kingdom, only his. He calls health care of the elderly "pork". He calls billions of dollars of annual profit for Exxon, free enterprise. He sends young men to war, without cause, without proper training or body armor. He calls the ELECTED president of Iran a dictator. Maybe he should look into a mirror?
Fox, a 77-year-old St. Louis businessman, gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat group. He is national chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition and was dubbed a "ranger" by Bush's 2004 campaign for raising at least $200,000. He is founder and chairman of the Clayton, Mo.-based Harbour Group, which specializes in the takeover of manufacturing companies.
Fox has donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes since the 1990s.
In answer to questions about the Swift Boat donation, Fox has said he gives when asked, insisting he was not involved with the writing of the ad scripts and never saw them before they aired but had been aware of the general thrust of the group.
Fox issued a statement saying he is "delighted and honored" to accept the ambassadorial appointment.
"As the son of a man who fled Europe to find freedom and a better life, I am especially humbled by the opportunity to return to that continent as this nation's representative," he said.
Do you think he cares that he's "delighted and honored" to be serving a communist dictator and best and a hitler clone at worst?
Do you think that we, the people, the tax payers should sit back while this continues? We, the tax payers, pay shrubs salary. Yet he cares not for us, just his own "pork".
Here's a hint. He's the wingnut that contributed to the swift boat ads against Senator Kerry in the 2004 presidential race.
It seems as if, yet again, bushco has rewarded his loyal scumbags.
Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation in the Foreign Relations Committee, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.
(snip)
"It's sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate," Kerry said in a statement.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he plans to ask the
Government Accountability Office to issue an opinion on whether the recess appointment is legal.
Recess appointments are intended to give the president flexibility if Congress is out for a lengthy period of time, such as the four-week adjournment in summer. But Dodd said the law was not intended to circumvent lawmakers' approval.
"This is really now taking the recess appointment vehicle and abusing this beyond anyone's imagination," said Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "This is a travesty."
Bush also used his recess appointment authority to make Andrew Biggs deputy director of
Social Security. The president's earlier nomination of Biggs, an outspoken advocate of partially privatizing the government's retirement program, was rejected by Senate Democrats in February.
Welcome to the kingdom of the shrub! We have no say, we have no voice. Our wants and needs mean nothing here in the kingdom, only his. He calls health care of the elderly "pork". He calls billions of dollars of annual profit for Exxon, free enterprise. He sends young men to war, without cause, without proper training or body armor. He calls the ELECTED president of Iran a dictator. Maybe he should look into a mirror?
Fox, a 77-year-old St. Louis businessman, gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat group. He is national chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition and was dubbed a "ranger" by Bush's 2004 campaign for raising at least $200,000. He is founder and chairman of the Clayton, Mo.-based Harbour Group, which specializes in the takeover of manufacturing companies.
Fox has donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes since the 1990s.
In answer to questions about the Swift Boat donation, Fox has said he gives when asked, insisting he was not involved with the writing of the ad scripts and never saw them before they aired but had been aware of the general thrust of the group.
Fox issued a statement saying he is "delighted and honored" to accept the ambassadorial appointment.
"As the son of a man who fled Europe to find freedom and a better life, I am especially humbled by the opportunity to return to that continent as this nation's representative," he said.
Do you think he cares that he's "delighted and honored" to be serving a communist dictator and best and a hitler clone at worst?
Do you think that we, the people, the tax payers should sit back while this continues? We, the tax payers, pay shrubs salary. Yet he cares not for us, just his own "pork".
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Neil Young - Vampire Bush
Our friend Jim Derosa suggested Neil Young. Here you are Jim! Great song, truthful video. Enjoy!
Gorillaz- Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head (LIVE)
I have decided that the left peace seekers, aka the sane and rational, need some anti-bushco songs. Know any? I know a few and over the next few days I'm going to be a music posting fool.
Let me know what you think!
Accountability
WASHINGTON - President Bush denounced "irresponsible" Democrats on Tuesday for going on spring break without approving money for the Iraq war with no strings. He condemned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, too, accusing her of encouraging a terrorism sponsor.
I spent yesterday sitting in the sun at a place called Cuppers, drinking coffee with my son. During my several double shots of espresso with a shot of hazelnut, we had an interesting, and long conversation about accountability.
If we pick apart that one statement my by the clueless wonder, we can see that he has absolutely no idea what the word means.
He states that those irresponsible democrats went on spring break.
In truth, the new congress has done more in the first 100 days than the old congress has done in years.
He wants approved money for his Iraq war with no strings.
We'd like a president without them too... but...
He needs to be accountable for the disaster Iraq is in, not be spoon fed more ammo to continue. He needs to be accountable for the deaths and maiming of thousands of American soldiers. It was HE who put them into harms way without just cause. It was HE who sent them into a war with no plan and no exit strategy. It was HE who, even after all of these errors, sent them there without body armor or proper armor for their vehicles. Now, he is, again, demanding "his way or else." Accountability.
He is accountable for the destruction of a nation. Ours. He has destroyed our good name and our good standing within the world. He has spent our great grandchildren into bankruptcy. He has lowered the middle class to borderline poverty. He has allowed gas costs to skyrocket and Exxons profits to be in the billions.
He has chastised Pelosi for talking to Syria. Something he refused to do. He called them all terrorists and axis of evil people. How can you claim this, without ever sitting down with them? Stupidity does not eliminate accountability. Neither does arrogance.
He has lost a great city, then never bothered to care about it or it's people. Almost three years later there is little progress in the city of New Orleans. Yet the money fraud is still continuing to rise.
He has lost two twin towers, three airliners, over three thousand American citizens. Using that as his excuse, he waged a war of aggression, an illegal war, never once caring about the families of the 9/11 victims, never caring about the where or how's of Osama.
While I believe the Congress needs their break, I don't see how responsible it could have been to flop a file on your desk and head out AGAIN on vacation. Especially when that file proclaims, "Osama BinLadan said to strike within the U.S." Accountability.
He has lost the backing of this country. He has lost the faith of damn near 80% of all Americans. Yet, there he stands, believing he's on some mission from God, and proclaiming for all the world to here, "It's my way, or else!"
With Congress out of town, Bush tried to take the upper hand over Democrats who are making increasing forays into foreign policy as his term dwindles and his approval ratings remain low.
Speaking a day before he heads out of town for six days for events in the West and an Easter break at his ranch, the president said Democrats are failing their responsibility to the troops and the nation's security by leaving for their own recess after passing bills to fund the war that contain time lines for American withdrawal.
Given his promised veto of anything containing a deadline — and the likelihood that his veto would be sustained on Capitol Hill — Bush said Democrats are merely engaging in games that "undercut the troops."
"Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than in providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq," Bush said. "In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership — Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds."
Wait! Did that just say he was heading... where...? Vacation AGAIN!!?? Let us all hope and pray this time, he didn't leave behind any discarded files.
Accountability.
"Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than in providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq," Bush said. "In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership — Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds."
Nearly two months ago, Bush asked for more than $100 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Congress has approved the money, but the Senate added a provision also calling for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008. The House version demands a September 2008 withdrawal.
These bills still must be reconciled before legislation can be sent to the president.
"They need to come off their vacation, get a bill to my desk, and if it's got strings and mandates and withdrawals and pork I'll veto it," the president said. "And then we can get down to the business of getting this thing done."
Not so fast, Democrats responded.
"Americans want compromise, not a cowboy-style showdown," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn D-S.C.
It is time we hold him and his buddies accountable. They did this. They reap the profits of death, we pay the price. We must make them accountable.
I spent yesterday sitting in the sun at a place called Cuppers, drinking coffee with my son. During my several double shots of espresso with a shot of hazelnut, we had an interesting, and long conversation about accountability.
If we pick apart that one statement my by the clueless wonder, we can see that he has absolutely no idea what the word means.
He states that those irresponsible democrats went on spring break.
In truth, the new congress has done more in the first 100 days than the old congress has done in years.
He wants approved money for his Iraq war with no strings.
We'd like a president without them too... but...
He needs to be accountable for the disaster Iraq is in, not be spoon fed more ammo to continue. He needs to be accountable for the deaths and maiming of thousands of American soldiers. It was HE who put them into harms way without just cause. It was HE who sent them into a war with no plan and no exit strategy. It was HE who, even after all of these errors, sent them there without body armor or proper armor for their vehicles. Now, he is, again, demanding "his way or else." Accountability.
He is accountable for the destruction of a nation. Ours. He has destroyed our good name and our good standing within the world. He has spent our great grandchildren into bankruptcy. He has lowered the middle class to borderline poverty. He has allowed gas costs to skyrocket and Exxons profits to be in the billions.
He has chastised Pelosi for talking to Syria. Something he refused to do. He called them all terrorists and axis of evil people. How can you claim this, without ever sitting down with them? Stupidity does not eliminate accountability. Neither does arrogance.
He has lost a great city, then never bothered to care about it or it's people. Almost three years later there is little progress in the city of New Orleans. Yet the money fraud is still continuing to rise.
He has lost two twin towers, three airliners, over three thousand American citizens. Using that as his excuse, he waged a war of aggression, an illegal war, never once caring about the families of the 9/11 victims, never caring about the where or how's of Osama.
While I believe the Congress needs their break, I don't see how responsible it could have been to flop a file on your desk and head out AGAIN on vacation. Especially when that file proclaims, "Osama BinLadan said to strike within the U.S." Accountability.
He has lost the backing of this country. He has lost the faith of damn near 80% of all Americans. Yet, there he stands, believing he's on some mission from God, and proclaiming for all the world to here, "It's my way, or else!"
With Congress out of town, Bush tried to take the upper hand over Democrats who are making increasing forays into foreign policy as his term dwindles and his approval ratings remain low.
Speaking a day before he heads out of town for six days for events in the West and an Easter break at his ranch, the president said Democrats are failing their responsibility to the troops and the nation's security by leaving for their own recess after passing bills to fund the war that contain time lines for American withdrawal.
Given his promised veto of anything containing a deadline — and the likelihood that his veto would be sustained on Capitol Hill — Bush said Democrats are merely engaging in games that "undercut the troops."
"Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than in providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq," Bush said. "In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership — Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds."
Wait! Did that just say he was heading... where...? Vacation AGAIN!!?? Let us all hope and pray this time, he didn't leave behind any discarded files.
Accountability.
"Democrat leaders in Congress seem more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than in providing our troops what they need to fight the battles in Iraq," Bush said. "In a time of war, it's irresponsible for the Democrat leadership — Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds."
Nearly two months ago, Bush asked for more than $100 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Congress has approved the money, but the Senate added a provision also calling for most U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq by March 31, 2008. The House version demands a September 2008 withdrawal.
These bills still must be reconciled before legislation can be sent to the president.
"They need to come off their vacation, get a bill to my desk, and if it's got strings and mandates and withdrawals and pork I'll veto it," the president said. "And then we can get down to the business of getting this thing done."
Not so fast, Democrats responded.
"Americans want compromise, not a cowboy-style showdown," said House Majority Whip James Clyburn D-S.C.
It is time we hold him and his buddies accountable. They did this. They reap the profits of death, we pay the price. We must make them accountable.
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