Dana and Al Jibouri

Dana and Al Jibouri

Dana Pittard and Abdallah Al Jibouri are two people who, I am quite sure, never expected to be thrown together. And yet, they have come together in the strangest place at the strangest time.

Reading about their experience, I keep thinking about how much easier things might have been, had our President and his administration taken the proper steps to plan and cooperate with the international community, who held their hands out to us after September 11th. If any reader whose eyes should fall upon this blog thinks that I am happy to remind the public, day after day, of the great failure of the Bush administration to do this thing right, you couldn't be more wrong.

Most soldiers had no inkling of the history of the land to which they were assigned their mission, and we cannot fault them for what they have had to do. They had no idea what to expect. They were told what the American public was told - that they would be greeted, by Iraqi citizens, as liberators. Instead, they are approached by citizens saying "Thank you for getting rid of Saddam Hussein - now leave." And here they remain, well over two years after the fall of Saddam - unwanted.

I heard one Iraqi gentleman on a documentary I was watching called "About Baghdad", and he was metaphorically comparing Iraq to a theatre that has been boarded up for 20 years. The doors to the theatre swing open and there is new-found freedom within. Iraqis are joyous to think about the potential for the freedom within that theatre, only to discover that the occupier wishes to tear it down and turn it into a garish tourist trap. Who cannot understand their anger and frustration, after so many years of massacres and oppression?

We have gravely underestimated and misunderstood the hearts, minds, desires, and dreams of the Iraqi people. Men like Dana Pittard and Abdallah Al Jibouri, who call themselves "brothers", could be in Baquba today working small miracles. Instead, they both have to worry, every damned minute, about being assassinated. The Bush adminstration pretends they have nothing to do with that situation. They, and many members of Congress, are on total disconnect.

It's heartbreaking.

Iraq is Achilles Heel of the GOP

The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.

-Jean Baudrillard

Iraq is Achilles Heel of the GOP

I was reading a post at MJW Stickings' 'The Reaction' ,along with the discussion that follows in the Comments section. The topic, which is GOP desperation, was sparked by a Steve Soto piece at 'The Left Coaster', saying that, if VP Dick Cheney sees the need to "shoot at a fellow Republican [Chuck Hagel] over Iraq, it's because the Administration is headed into the dumper by its own making, and the GOP natives are getting restless.

John McCain has been called a "nutjob" by his own. McCain may attempt to marginalize activist/lobbyist Grover Norquist, but political insiders know about the influential Mr. Norquist and his Americans for Tax Reform. (For those who do not know him, Norquist is the man who wants to "cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.") Norquist condescendingly and disrespectfully referred to Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe as "the two girls from Maine". Norquist is attempting to introduce the label of
"ANTI-MAINSTREAM" into his attacks and arguments against moderate Republicans, whom he claims are "out of the GOP mainstream."

The co-opting of the word "mainstream" by radical conservatives will not fly in the face of reality.

Hearing these words of desperation from GOP activists, I sense that there is serious fear of the successful effect of many of the well-organized efforts of grassroots organizations such as DFA and Moveon.org. I can see that fear resonating throughout the right side of the blogosphere. Finally, someone on the other side has caught on to what the GOP has known for at least 20 years. People can harness great power when they organize and unite. The internet has made MoveOn.org an unstoppable powerhouse. Karl Rove has recently invoked their name, not in the hope of dividing the nation between GOP and Dem, but in the direct hope of dividing what he sees as the "traditional/centrist Democrats" from the progressive, free-thinking Democrats (Rove calls them "liberal", GOP code for Satan). Rove fails to realize that Democrats have caught onto the parlor trick known as "label-and-divide", and all it took was the Bush administration's tactical and strategic failures in Iraq to help Democrats (and many Independents) to pull back the curtain and reveal "The Wizard of Rove", aka 'Bush's Brain', for the fat-headed flim-flam man that he is.

A longtime Bush apologist named Joel Mowbray, who inspired Pat Robertson to emulate a terrorist and say he wanted to nuke Foggy Bottom, says that Bush, in his speech, "neither tried to justify the rationale for the war nor was there any shift in his position." I agree with that statement. There was nothing new, at least nothing of any value to Americans looking for a new strategy. You can feel Mowbray's fear of Moveon.org in the next statement:

While the speech contained little news of any sort, it did achieve a very important goal—one that is crucial in the face of the moveon.org crowd’s white noise campaign: it laid out in clear fashion the entire framework of what we’ve done in Iraq, what we’re doing now, where we’re headed, and most significantly, why it’s important that we prevail.

Mowbray is so lost in the fantasy that I find him to be amusing, as I would find a robot, a broken record, or a cult-film about zombies to be amusing.

In the face of all Americans who are paying attention to reality, the only thing that was made "clear" in the Bush speech was that he is never going to change; he will never have the humility and grace that is possessed by the kind of leader who could steer a united nation or the world community toward meaningful peace; and - after the Downing Street memo revelation and confirmation of his lies and misleading - he will never again have the trust of the citizens of the United States.

Bush may have three years left to limp along on his Achilles heel, but he's over and done.

Hear the words of......

"Hear the words of Osama Bin Laden....."

- - George W. Bush

Hear the Words Of....

"I wasn't surprised to hear Bush mention bin Laden. Bin Laden is a very convenient name for him. He totally ignored the name for years. There had been times when bin Laden is brought up, he says ‘Oh, well, I'm not really concerned about him.’ But he always knew in the back of his mind that he could trot him out whenever he wanted in order to justify virtually anything he is doing. Although, you know, you would have to be insane to go to war against North Korea, if he did he would surely be trotting bin Laden out for that, as well."

- - Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance

________________



Hear the words - My Short Poem

Why would your leader throw the words of a murderer in your face?
Why would he lift the killer's words, in his speech, to that much grace?
Why is he now recalling the one he allowed to escape as the towers burned..
When less than two years ago, he told the world he was not that concerned?



_________________

Hear the Words.....

Note: If you are wondering why on earth I'm repeating the words of so many American enemies, it's because I'd like you to think about their words - and ask yourself if any prior President of the United States would have asked you to take the enemy's deluded propaganda-words to heart.

- Hear the words of King George III, American Revolution

"A traitor is everyone who does not agree with me."

- Hear the words of Jefferson Davis, Civil War

"All we ask is to be let alone."

Hear the words of General Valeriano the "Butcher" Nicolau, Spanish American War

"My first action was to gather the peasant population and imprison them in concentration camps."

*well -he didn't actually say it - but he DID it!*

- Hear the words of Kaiser Wilhelm, WWI (.. on King Edward VII)

"He is Satan, you cannot imagine what a Satan he is!"...

"Germany's greatness makes it impossible for her to do without the ocean, but the ocean also proves that even in the distance, and on its farther side, without Germany and the German Emperor, no great decision dare henceforth be taken!"

- Hear the words of Nikita Khrushchev, Cold War

"What the scientists have in their briefcases is terrifying."... "We will bury you."

- Hear the words of Joseph Stalin, WWII

"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves....

"...The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do.".

- Hear the words of Adolph Hitler, WWII

"The great masses of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one."

"What luck for rulers that men do not think."

- Hear the words of Kim Il-Sung, Korean conflict

"Should any enemy attempt to infringe upon our country's freedom and our people's happy life, our People's Armymen will fight to the last drop of their blood to defeat the enemy and defend the country and the people to the bitter end."

- Hear the words of Pol Pot, Viet Nam War

"I want you to know that everything I did, I did for my country."

- Hear the words of George Bush!

"I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president? I don't.

Bush Speech: Covering the Day After

Bush Speech:
Covering the Day After

Juan Cole:

..There are no Iraqi military units that can and will fight independently against the Sunni guerrillas, so all those statistics he quoted are meaningless.

..The people in Fallujah and Ramadi were not sitting around plotting terrorism three years ago. They had no plans to hit the United States. Terrorism isn't a fixed quantity. By unilaterally invading Iraq and then bollixing it up, Bush and Vines have created enormous amounts of terrorism, which they are now having trouble putting back in the bottle.

..Maybe 8 percent of the fighters in Iraq are foreign jihadis. Of the some 25,000 guerrillas, almost all are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who dislike foreign military occupation of their country...Moreover, many of those jihadis fighting in Iraq wouldn't even be jihadis if they weren't outraged by Bush's invasion and occupation of a Muslim country.

TomDispatch.com:

No administration in memory has been quicker to lie in its own interests and never stop doing so, no matter what.

Arianna Huffington on Bush using 9/11 so many times in his speech, and David Gergen calling it Bush's successful "trump card":

It turns out that when the media abdicate their responsibility to tell it like it is -- like they and we all know it is -- and call a deception a deception, our leaders will take advantage of that and, yes, continue to deceive.

Which brings us back to Bush. So 9/11, which he mentioned, by the way, five times in his speech, is his trump card?

Here’s Wikipedia on what a trump card is:

In card games, trumps frequently figure in trick-taking games such as bridge, euchre, and spades. Trumps are cards (usually, all the cards of one particular suit) which rank above non-trump cards...

But this is not a trick-taking game. It’s war -- and a matter of life and death. And if your trump card is a universally acknowledged lie, what does that say about the deck you’re playing with?

At Democracy Now:

Fmr. Pentagon Insider LT. COL. KAREN KWIATKOWSKI Blasts Bush's Iraq Speech and Repeated References to 9/11

I was actually curious as to who he was addressing this speech to. I mean, there were so many things in there that just don't match with reality, whether it's the American strategy, why we're in Iraq, which was supposedly why he gave this address, to explain to the American people why this is worth it, and yet he didn't speak about any of those reasons.

Journalist Patrick Cockburn Calls Iraq a "Bloody Mess" One Year After Handover of "Sovereignty"

..in a way, the atrocities committed by Zarqawi has made it much easier for the administration to pretend that no news is good news. In fact, no news out of Iraq means that something so horribly dangerous is going on that nobody can report it.

Mother of Soldier Killed in Iraq: "The Best Way To Honor My Son's Death Would Be To Bring The Troops Home"

Iraqi Blogger Criticizes Western Media For Excluding Iraqi Voices

Rahul Mahajan: "Bush Trots Out Bin Laden to Justify Anything He is Doing"

..in order to bring any kind of clarity to this situation, the United States has to withdraw. If it withdraws and part of the settlement is, in fact, that all Iraqi forces that will negotiate with each other, which includes the mainstream politicians now, it includes most of the resistance, it includes Muqtada al-Sadr, but it does not include Zarqawi and people like that. Then as the U.S. is withdrawing, and these other factions can easily come together and negotiate and agree to deal with the terrorism problem they have. In the absence of a withdrawal, however, just the reverse dynamic happens, and more and more of the resistance factions feel as if Zarqawi is on their side.

Bush Speech: Nothing Has Changed

Bush Speech: Nothing Has Changed
See my remarks, written directly after hearing almost the same speech from Bush on September 7, 2003.

Excerpt:

BUSH:
"Two years ago [in 2001], I told the Congress and the country that the war on terror would be a lengthy war, a different kind of war, fought on many fronts in many places. Iraq is now the central front. Enemies of freedom are making a desperate stand there -- and there they must be defeated."


BACK THEN, I RESPONDED:
"The central front of a war on terror? Do you mean Pakistan? Saudi Arabia--where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from? Are you speaking of the Phillipines? Indonesia? Iran? Georgia? Azerbijan?

Are you saying the heart of terror was or is in Iraq?

Or are you saying you carefully CHOSE Iraq because she was the weakest nation, knowing you would "bring on" the terrorists from all these other regions once the pre-emptive attack began?

If that is the case, and it appears it IS the case from all you have said, then you were immoral and the cause of the Iraq war was unjust.

You told us, Mr. Bush, that Iraq's regime posed an "imminent threat". That is what you said.

You lied."

I had ended with my hope, which is an unrealized two-year-old hope:

The U.S. needs UN and international cooperation to lighten the overwhelming economic and military burdens.

Mr Bush, you also need desperately to counter these perceptions of U.S. unilateralism. Swallow this dangerous pride, Mr. Bush.
It's getting late.

See my comments from the same day, "HOW MANY "NEW EXPLANATIONS" WILL THERE BE FOR MAKING WAR UPON IRAQ?"

I feel hopeless after hearing the old new Bush speech. It was all hat - and no cattle. I listened for indications that Bush had a strategy - that he knew how to win - not just with slogan-words like "freedom" - but to tell us what winning will really look like. He obviously has no strategy, other than the losing one he's been pursuing for over two years.

Bush said "We will stay in Iraq as long as we are needed — and not a day longer." According to Donald Rumsfeld, that could be twelve years from now. Twelve more years - and not a day longer.

TRANSCRIPT HERE

Clear Path to Victory?!

Clear Path to Victory?!
President Bush will speak to the nation tonight. With no expected move, on his part, to change in the incompetent strategy in Iraq, President Bush expects us to believe there is a clear path to some imagined victory. Prior statements from his administration serve to prove a lack of clarity and historically proven inaccuracy.

NYT-

[Scott] McClellan suggested that Mr. Bush would not signal any change in military or diplomatic strategy. Instead, he said, the president will emphasize that Iraq is making progress despite the mounting loss of life, and that the United States cannot allow the understandable concern about the violent insurgency to deter it from completing the job.

______________

Why I am on a 'clear path' to not being convinced:



Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Feb. 7, 2003, to U.S. troops in Aviano, Italy:

"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:
Sunday, June 26, 2005-

"That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years. Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency."

Vice President Dick Cheney-
March 16, 2003, on Meet the Press:

"I think it will go relatively quickly...(in) weeks rather than months."

Larry King, to Vice president Dick Cheney, May 30, 2005, about the Iraq war:

It's not going to be a 10-year event?

Vice President Dick Cheney:

No. I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. But I think the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

_________________



The only quote that makes sense in the whole bunch:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, US National Security Advisor during the cold war conflict, on Saturday, June 25, 2005:

"Patriotism and love of country do not demand endless sacrifice on the part of our troops in a war justified by slogans."

Shelby Foote Has Died

Shelby Foote Has Died

Sadly, I just learned that novelist and Civil War historian Shelby Foote has passed away. He was 88. His sweet southern drawl and keen knowledge pulled me into the stories which Ken Burns put together so well in his Civil War series. I thought he was a beautiful man, in every way. He will be greatly missed.

Headlines

Headlines

Chinese Bid for Unocal Adds Fuel to Fire
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Google
Bloomberg
Reuters
LA Times

These moves highlight a startling trend of aggressive competition between the established economy of the United States and the speeding locomotive of the Chinese economy. China's dependence on petroleum imports (already 40% of its demand) is rapidly growing. With the likelihood that all domestic oil production will peak by 2020 or sooner, industry pushes China and the rest of the world into a cold war of finite resources.-LINK-Your Village Voice

Anonymoses - Charlotte's Billy Graham is the exemplar
"Forget all those fakes. Billy is the real deal, and he apparently showed it in New York."

WRAL.com:
Poll: More N.C. Residents Disapprove Bush's Handling Of War
Poll Conducted by WRAL and News-Observer, Raleigh, NC


Audit questions $1.4b in Halliburton bills
Expenses at issue from Iraq contracts
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff, June 28, 2005

U.S. Sen. Feingold Calls on Rumsfeld to Stop Collecting Personal Information of High School Students
(wisdems.org)

Feingold pushes Bush for withdrawal timetable

Steve and Jen's News Blog - Fight the FEC!
- "People are journalists by their actions, not their tools."
- "Once they make rules about what people can say, they won't stop. Unless the blog is campaign-related, they need to leave it alone." - Steve Gilliard comment


Fred Phelps "has only to look in the mirror for evil"
Metro West Daily News, by Deborah Gauthier
(Phelps promises to picket the funerals of the "Godless fag American soldiers when the pieces come home.")

Kidnapping in Italy
A few months ago, Jeanne at Body and Soul wrote about a controversy in Italy over the CIA's apparent abduction of an Egyptian imam in Milan. The man was rendered to Egypt, where he was reportedly tortured. An Italian judge's office has announced that he has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents involved in the kidnapping.
At War and Piece, Laura Rozen has an update. With half the CIA's Italian ops' cover and real names all over the Italian press, which has come from considerable help from the Milan prosecutor's office, is this revenge for the US's killing of Italian agent Nicolo Calipari? Or a battle between agencies in the Italian government?

Don't Miss:
General admits to secret air war
By Michael Smith

Raw Story:
The Unofficial War
(Raw Story’s tracking of the unofficial war graphic

Brad Blog: Congressional Members to Hold 'Downing Street' Town Hall Meetings on July 23rd!

AfterDowningStreet.org:
Downing Street Minutes to Hit House Floor
Your help is needed. Please contact your Congress Member right away and ask them to contact the Judiciary Committee staff and commit to taking part.
Phone: 1-877-762-8762


Axis of Logic:
Why the American Press Remains Paralyzed

'Spikes of Activity' In The DSM
Saturday, June 25, 2005

PSoTD:
Tracking the Congressional roll call for investigating the Downing Street Memo


Ex-Guantanamo inmates allege Holy Qur’aan sacrilege
(this is not much different than the infamous Isikoff Newsweek article)
Related:
NYT: "Senators Laud Treatment of Detainees in Guantanamo"
("Operation Happy Talk" - "Whether or not people are being fed orange chicken," Ms. Musa, of Amnesty International, said, "does not get at the heart of the issue." [TCI]


New York Times continues to pimp the Judy Miller case as world shattering, it matters to you news
The Common Ills

Ayn Clouter at the American Street - Check out the wittiest satire to come along in the wake of the wishy-washy Ten Commandemnets decision.


"Seek and You Shall Find"

Colonial Theater Reborn in Fredricksburg, VA.
A Fredericksburg theater troupe teamed with Historic Kenmore recently to give four performances of an 18th-century Restoration comedy on the lawn at Kenmore.

Art experts seek long-lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci
AP/Globe and Mail June 20

Recent Events Clearly Prove That Race Still Matters
Wilmington Journal 6/27/05

WTOP News: Hull-Less Barley Makes Beer Tastier
As we look at gas prices and our dependency on foreign oil, this could be another big boost to agriculture. Hull-less barley is easier on ethanol production equipment because it is less abrasive.

"We got in the wrong way. Let's get out the right way."

Iraq: "We got in the wrong way. Let's get out the right way."

I believe this will be a very effective soundbite. It will be part of a new MoveOn.org campaign. Regardless of what fathead Karl Rove says, MoveOn.org has had it right all along. They get to Karl - and it shows. By invoking their name, he aims to make them poison to mainstream Democrats. I certainly hope they won't buy into Karl's attempt to cow them. They needn't be afraid, if they trust the hearts of fellow Democrats. This is an important time in political history - for political courage, conviction, and fierce defense of the people who are not afraid to show it.

I wanted to share a letter I had written to my Congressman James Walsh today. I have removed some personal information for my own privacy.

Dear Congressman Walsh:

On the day before you voted "YES" to the Iraq War resolution in October, 2002, I had called your office to entreat you not to do so. I recall getting emotional - even though I'd tried to hold back. I was upset because I had followed developments closely - solemnly studying and analyzing known facts and opinions. I knew this war was wrong and that our President was misleading you. I am so sorry it has come to this sad point - with the Downing Street memos revealing that all I had anlayzed and personally concluded was true.

I cannot abide by what I know this President has done, Congressman Walsh. I just cannot do it. It isn't possible, in a moral sense, for me to turn my head and forget the damage that has been done by a President breaking faith with the American people.

I am asking you to examine your own conscience. I have many relatives, including my own father.. who are veterans of American wars. We look to the people who lead this nation to do what is right.

Please do the right thing. This madness in Iraq cannot go on. The civil war we've unleashed (and contributed to) with our inadequate show of force, poor planning, strategic incompetence, compounded by the bold-faced lies told by our leaders - only serve to weaken and endanger our military men and women - and our nation's reputation around the world.

I would ask you to join many of your Republican counterparts in the House and press this President for a timetable to get us out of this liars' mess.

Although I realize how politically fragile you feel, a refusal to press for an investigation into questions that the Downing Street memo have raised would not engender a lot of respect for the moral courage I thought you might have.

We're out here watching. We, the American public, know what's happening. The fantasy being played out in Washington, D.C., with a deliberate denial of the horror we see every day on our television screens and no real plan for short-term success, is becoming more and more damaging to you folks in the Congress every day. Your aproval rating is somewhere near 19%. Why is there such a "disconnect" between what is real and what is being fantasized by so many Republicans today? Do you think the public doesn't see it? When did we stop being one America? Why are decent and intelligent people who are paying the closest attention ignored? Why would you care to play a willing part in this great fantasy?

You are a politician, but you are first and foremost, a human being. Could you look me in the eye in another year or two and tell me that you need my son to be drafted to (or to volunteer for) a war which you believe we can be truly proud to fight?

I hear Donald Rumsfeld saying that the insurgency will last another twelve years. Then, I hear our President saying he refuses to set timetables for our departure from Iraq. It isn't hard to understand how any rational person could surmise that we stand a chance of having to send our military men and women to Iraq for twelve more years unless we move definitively toward an exit strategy.

Please, in the name of God and what is right - truly right for our nation and its reputation and inner-strength - act now.

Thank you for listening.

Downing Street Memo Revelation Missed By Media

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Will Miller and Cooper Go to Jail?

Ernest Judith and Matthew Go To Jail
Hah! Whoever said the press was protected by the First Amendment? Perhaps those Founding Idiot Fathers did, but surely not the Supreme Court!

At Press Think, Harry Shearer recently commented:

You quote a National Review writer thusly: "Readers expect a certain amount of American-ness in their reporters. They expect that since the source of these reporters’ liberties is the U.S. Constitution, then perhaps they owe the U.S. a tiny bit of loyalty." Don't conservatives, and Christians, and the Founders, believe that the source of these reporters' liberties (and those of the rest of us) is (to use one formulation) Nature and Nature's God, not the Constitution?

Behold the face of God.

Moses, Git Out the Courthouse

"Moses, Git Out the Courthouse"
A New Hit by The Supremes...

NY Times Promises Less Clarity for the Sake of Keeping Conservatives Happy

NY Times Promises Less Clarity for the Sake of Keeping Conservatives Happy
The New York Times is promising that the paper will back off from publishing clearly and realistically. In Bill Keller's stated quest for a more 'even-handed' (less "urban" - ahem) treatment of stories, you can see he is pandering to Conservatives, even though he avers that he is not. (It seems as if they are already beginning the bamboozling). If this is a route they choose, I believe that the blogosphere will take a bit of the power, credibility, and the left-minded audience the NY Times once had. The last bastion of clarity for people who respect intellect and clarity - the Internet. Who knew?

I could use some newspaper to line my catbox.


See NRO Commentary

D.C. Dick is the New Baghdad Bob

D.C. Dick is the New Baghdad Bob
...or maybe just "delusional dick"....

12 Years to Defeat Insurgency

Defeating Insurgency Could Take as long as 12 Years, Rumsfeld Says
Did you hear that? Twelve years.

I'm a Blogcritic

I'm a Blogcritic

My first Blogcritics column. It's a political opinion piece. I appreciate founder and publisher Eric Olsen's willingness to give my voice wings at the popular website.

Tar Heel Tavern #18

Tar Heel Tavern #18

Don't miss Mandie's fantastic collage. It's the 18th edition of the Tar Heel Tavern. While you're at her site, give yourself an extra treat. Take a look through her gorgeous photos.

photo/poem

The train to yesterday is leaving last evening
Get on board before you age another day
Your loved ones will greet you on the platform
They've missed you more than words could say


photo and poem by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Weird Coincidence - Leonardo

Weird Coincidence - Leonardo

I bought the most beautiful table candles at a store last week. I brought them home and put one in my bedroom and the other on my kitchen table. When the sun shines through them, the colors in the glass holders become even more vibrant.

I went to Trade Street Journal to do some reading and saw a familiar name. I asked myself, "Where have I seen that name recently?" I looked at the stickers on the glass table candles and sure enough, the name "Leonardo" was on them. It was so strange - so coincidental. On the same day I'd purchased those beautiful glass candle vases, I went to one of my favorite blogs and read about the company who sold them. Not only that, the Dan Brown book "The DaVinci Code" was sitting right by my side. I checked out their website and they have a lot of lovely products.

Kristen Plucks Plumage Off Chickenhawk Rove

The GOP Used NYC
photo by Ethan Camwell, taken April 2001

Kristen Plucks Plumage Off Chickenhawk Rove
Leaves behind a bare little lump of lies in her awesome wake!

Anyone who has read the Iddybud blog for a long while knows how I feel about Kristen Breitweiser, widow of Ron Breitweiser, who died at the World Trade Center on 9/11. I believe Kristen is a courageous woman; a voice of reason; an inspiration; an American heroine.

Today at the Huffington Post, Kristen has written her opinion of Karl Rove's recent divisive and ill-conceived comments.She shames Karl Rove - she's the right one to do it - and he deserves it.

"Karl when you say, “Conservatives saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and prepared for war,” what exactly did you do to prepare for your war? Did your preparations include: sound intelligence to warrant your actions; a reasonable entry and exit strategy coupled with a coherent plan to carry out that strategy; the proper training and equipment for the troops you were sending in to fight your war? Did you follow the advice of experts such as General Shinseki who correctly advised you about the troop levels needed to actually succeed in Iraq? No, you didn't...[..]

.....For the record Karl, does Iraq have any connection to the 9/11 attacks? Because, you and your friends with your collective “understanding of 9/11” seem to be contradicting yourselves about the Iraq-9/11 connection, too.[..].Of course, the Downing Street memo clarifies many of these things, but for the record Karl: Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11; there were few terrorists in Iraq before our invasion, but now Iraq is a terrorist hot-bed. America had the sympathy and support of the whole world before Iraq. Now, thanks to your actions, we find ourselves hated and alienated by the rest of the world..[..]

....Karl, please “understand” that the reason we have not suffered a repeat attack on our homeland is because Bin Laden no longer needs to attack us. Those of us with a pure and comprehensive “understanding of 9/11” know that Bin Laden committed the 9/11 attacks so he could increase recruitment for al Qaeda and increase worldwide hatred of America..[..]

....what Bin Laden could not achieve by murdering my husband and 3,000 others on 9/11, you handed to him on a silver platter with your invasion of Iraq - a country that had nothing to do with 9/11."

You tell that lying little chickenhawk weasel, Kristen!

A Word of Warning to Democrats Who Won't Stand Up and Fight

A Word of Warning to Democrats Who Won't Stand Up and Fight

John Cory, a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, asks:

"What the hell is wrong with you Democratic politicians? Why do you turn on each other? Why won't you stand by your own words and ideals? Why do you keep apologizing for telling the truth? And why can't anyone see McCain's true colors? Or Lieberman or Biden?

And why in God's name do you expect folks like me to come support you after you turn tail and run?

We know the truth out here. We will stand with anyone who stands up for us. Where are you?"

I couldn't say it any better. It's simple. I am willing to support Democrats when they show they are willing to support what we can all see is clear truth, regardless of what the cable news networks are screeching on and on about.

9/11 is Bush's political life-saving oxygen. His administration doesn't care who they have to suck the life out of in order to win. Bush’s poll numbers are sinking lower than Great-Grandma's bosom, and Rove is using 9/11 to try to get Bush's poll numbers up again.

I'm not going to get all hot under the collar about Karl Rove's ignorant comments. It's his job to be an asshole and to inflict damage upon the Democrats - if he can. He's very good at what he does. And, as far as the media goes, he gets away with it - even when he's purposefully dividing America. 9/11 is Bush's political life-saving oxygen. His administration doesn't care who they have to suck the life out of in order to win. Bush’s poll numbers are sinking lower than Great-Grandma's bosom, and Rove is using 9/11 to try to get Bush's poll numbers up again. I think many Americans see right through his shenanigans - and you Democrats, by backing down from your own convictions, are showing that you have lost faith in the critical thinking skills of independent Americans. I regret seeing Karl Rove and Company get the better of you.

I'm a lot angrier with Dick Durbin for giving me temporary encouragement for exposing the torture at Guantanamo, and then sending my confidence crashing to the ground with an apology that never should have been made. I've been so upset that I've held my tongue - until now.

Democrats - until you show some moral courage, I do not consider you as individuals who share my personal values.

Where is your conviction? Why is it that you continue to fail to convey your values to the public in a meaningful way? Is it because you are afraid of what CNN's "Inside Politics" might say about you because you got tough with the White House? The cable news pundits are constantly playing catch-up with citizen's media these days. News is being swiftly analyzed and disseminated by the blogosphere, and the talking heads on cable news often focus on the wrong stories - or take too long to get around to talking about the right ones.

Many in media have chosen to deem the Downing Street memos as worthless, and we know that those official governemnt documents contain the proof of the worst deception ever deliberately committed by a sitting President. Just today, Paul Krugman raised the fact that the Fourth Estate is lagging behind the bloggers, and he says: "Once the media catch up with the public, we'll be able to start talking seriously about how to get out of Iraq."

Democrats - you are in danger. You must start trusting and listening to the people you are sworn to represent. You are looking cowed and weak-spined.

Change - or I assure you that you will suffer political death through abandonment.

Ever the optimist, I'd be the very last one to shut the door on you, but I cannot deny there are great rumblings among many Democrats.

Fight for us - fight for America.

May I suggest reading Sun Tzu's "Art of War"? In order to be successful leaders, you must be convincing ones.

Listen to John Cory. Listen to Hoffmania. Listen to Markos.

Liberals aren't killing our troops. I'll give that credit to the war cheerleaders who couldn't give two shits about the lack of armor for our forces in Iraq, or about the lies that put them there for no discernable reason. The same people who couldn't care whether this administration has a victory strategy, or whether we have the manpower to fight the war effectively.
American politics has reached a new low these past two three days. And given the desperation of the war cheerleaders, it's only going to get worse. It's the only way they can cover their spectacular failures.

The best way to tell the anti-war folks to fuck off would be to succeed. Pacify Afghanistan. Defeat the insurgency in Iraq. Destroy Al Qaida.

But that would require a level of competence utterly and completely absent in this administration.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

"It's hard to stop suicide bombers, and yet they're able to do incredible damage."

-George W. Bush, in a press conference today


A suicide bomber in a vehicle killed six U.S. Marines today (three of them women) when it exploded near their convoy in Falluja. Incredible damage, indeed.

Growing Freedom Through the Diversity of Free Press

Growing Freedom Through the Diversity of Free Press

Why would some Egyptians, many of whom you might think would welcome Condoleeza Rice's call for political reform in their nation, denounce the secretary of state, instead? What moves them to make racist and sexist comments about her for meddling in Egypt's domestic affairs?

At The New Republic, Joesph Braude points out that the popular media in Egypt, while not being particularly accurate, does not suffer from what Paul Krugman calls "the tyranny of even-handedness", a disturbing media-trend which results in the effect of ethical numbness and intellectual paralysis when viewing most American cable news shows and stories. The claim to "fair and blanced" may be a great cover for the radically conservative Fox News network, and the Wall Street Journal may try to tell you that most Egyptians appreciated and loved Condi's recent message to the Egyptians, but the truth is that the majority of Egyptians are not hearing rosy stories - and this is probably for the best. Although many of the news stories coming from the Egyptian media have been "wildly inaccurate", they still capture grains of truth. Braude writes:

By delivering her speech when she did, Rice walked into the middle of a nasty schism within the country's media. Neither side in this conflict thinks particularly well of the United States. And yet for precisely the rationales that undergirded Rice's speech, it is in America's interest to see the conflict grow.

One line from the article jumped out at me, and reminded me of how the stupidity of the Bush foreign policy in Iraq has, for the most part, damaged world perception of our best intentions to support democracy around the world (Although I realize there has been a long-standing anti-American sentiment to begin with, the conniving Bush and the neocons have made things harder for everyone in this world, including our own U.S. military):

"...the article asserted that Egyptians do not want "American-style democracy, like the kind one finds in Afghanistan or Iraq."

If America is not particularly worried about Egypt's political reform being a carbon-copy of American-style democracy, then there could be an upside to all of this. According to Mr. Braude, "some of Rice's bad press in Cairo should be viewed as an acceptable price to pay for the political reforms the U.S. government has been demanding" in the region.

Overall, I think Mr. Braude brings about an important lesson for us all. Delivering the news isn't supposed to be a squeaky clean process where you can present every point of view in every story - and still expect that story to make sense. Media, when editors are only concerned about what is viewed as "fair and balanced", does not inspire a population to change. It doesn't educate the public, but serves to confuse them. It doesn't inspire them to dream about what could be - it is a perfect vehicle for political stagnation and propaganda. The current that is moving political reform along in Egypt may be hastened when the public is given straight stories and are trusted to use their critical thinking skills to decide what is right for their own political culture. That's what democracy is all about.

There is one (uneven/loose) parallel I draw, between U.S. media and Egyptian media, from reading that "tens of millions of Egyptians get their news not from any newspaper but from the national radio and television stations owned by the government."

In many ways, especially in the U.S. Cable News business and "talk-radio", the "free" media seems to have become little more than a tool for government propaganda - especially in the case of Fox News, which is the most highly-rated TV news network. Even in White House press conferences I have watched these past five years, American reporters do not seem to sufficiently challenge or question the White-House line. Their supine obedience helped to buy us a war we never needed to wage in Iraq.

Think of America and American media when you read Mr. Braude's final paragraph:

If Rice's clarion call for democracy in Cairo is to be honored, the United States should be prepared to exert considerable pressure on Mubarak to loosen his grip on the fourth estate--not tighten it, as he and his apologists may be tempted to do after the election. Either way, America is in for some unwelcome headlines in Cairo. But some of those unwelcome headlines will be a sign of growing freedom--and therefore welcome indeed.

The Bush administration has an invisible grip on American media. There are elements of White House intimidation and fears of market retribution in the stifling of the American press. The recent assault upon public broadcasting should be ringing alarm bells. There is a flaw in the system of capitalism that is severely damaging our First Amendment rights. If we Americans do not yet see that, in the aftermath of being deceptively thrown into an unecessary war that has taken so many lives and promises to take more, then God help us, we will lose the freedom for which our ancestors fought and died.

While I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Braude's appeal to the White House to put pressure on the government of Egypt to loosen their grip on the media, I think we'd best look at ourselves and clean our own house. As trend-setters in the world, we Americans should serve as a wonderful example of freedom of the press. Instead, our own Fourth Estate lies in shame. It's been placed in the laps of the Fifth Estate - the second superpower - the Internet - to deliver the truth.

Newspaper on Bush Impeachment:"Why Not?"

Newspaper on Bush Impeachment:
"Why Not?"

Brian Clarey of Yes Weekly, the alternative weekly newspaper in Greensboro, NC, has written about Ralph Nader's and others' calls for the impeachment of George W. Bush in the aftermath of the Downing Street memo leak. Clarey writes:

"And why not? The US Constitution outlines the grounds for impeachment thusly: “The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

President Clinton was impeached in 1998 by the House for perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power, though the Senate later acquitted him of these charges in a close vote. Richard Nixon, who resigned before the impeachment process reached a vote, also had charges of obstruction and abuse leveled against him.

Clinton had an affair with an intern. Nixon took the fall for a GOP rife with corruption and intrigue rather than give the names of his shady cronies, with whom he was inextricably linked. Both did what they could to prevent the truth from surfacing and both paid a price."

Unless I am mistaken, I believe this is the first newspaper I've seen to support an impeachment of Bush. There is a comment on the newpaper's website (after the article) by a "Jim McDermott." He doesn't identify himself as Congressman Jim McDermott, who has been an outspoken critic of the President. I can't help but wonder, though...


UPDATE: Dave Zweifel had this piece, titled "We've seen enough to impeach Bush," in the Madison Capitol Times on June 20th.

The Relevance of the Downing Street Memo

The Relevance of the Downing Street Memo

In November 2003, critics of the Iraq war could not believe their own ears. Neocon Richard Perle admitted, quite freely, that the attack upon Iraq was initiated with naked contempt for international law. He was proud of the part he had played in the illegal war.

At the time, defenders of the British government had said, in short, "Oh, no! Not Britain. We would never agree that the rule of law should be ignored, like the United States is doing."

The Downing Street memos show that Britain was, indeed, willing to participate in the political bamboozling of the masses in order to join the "US hegemon" in the war upon Iraq.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Perle gave away the game that day, and the Downing Street memos' leak has forever connected and sealed the Perle admission with the lies of Bush and Blair.

Read these excerpts from the Guardian article, November 20, 2003 (LINK):

"International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law..."

____________________


"..Mr Perle's remarks bear little resemblance to official justifications for war, according to Rabinder Singh QC, who represented CND and also participated in Tuesday's event.

Certainly the British government, he said, "has never advanced the suggestion that it is entitled to act, or right to act, contrary to international law in relation to Iraq".
[*note: see Downing Street memos - the divergence in opinion may have been there, but the intent was to go along with the U.S. - regardless. The plan was to help the U.S. to establish a casus belli for war. They ultimately failed to convince the Security Council.]


The Pentagon adviser's views, he added, underlined "a divergence of view between the British govern ment and some senior voices in American public life [who] have expressed the view that, well, if it's the case that international law doesn't permit unilateral pre-emptive action without the authority of the UN, then the defect is in international law".

Mr Perle's view is not the official one put forward by the White House. Its main argument has been that the invasion was justified under the UN charter, which guarantees the right of each state to self-defence, including pre-emptive self-defence. On the night bombing began, in March, Mr Bush reiterated America's "sovereign authority to use force" to defeat the threat from Baghdad.

The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has questioned that justification, arguing that the security council would have to rule on whether the US and its allies were under imminent threat..."

Note: I rediscovered this Guardian article while going through my own archives here at Iddybud. Sometimes blogging really pays off.

The Iraq War: Where Are We Going With It?

The Iraq War:
Where Are We Going With It?

"I think it has been a remarkable success story to date when you look at what has been accomplished overall and I think the president deserves credit for it."

- Dick Cheney offers his assessment of US policy in Iraq in Autumn, 2004.

Statements like this one may have helped George W. Bush to win the 2004 American election (along with those "special" Diebold machines, a very Bush-friendly Ohio Attorney General, and scaring the living shit out of Americans with exaggerated tales of terror), but in the end, they have not helped him to convince the public that he is winning the fight for Iraq.

Bush's war has been a failure, so much so that the U.S. may now be resorting to the act of deliberately initiating civil war in Iraq in order to achieve its political goals.

Here's the conundrum: A powerful resistance front in Iraq, including the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) and the Sadrists, will refuse any kind of dialogue with Iraq's new Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari unless there's a definite timetable for the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces. Back in America, the public is screaming for a timetable for a pull-out of U.S. troops, and Republicans like Walter Jones of North Carolina are making public appeals in Congress for something concrete from the Bushites.

No one really seems to want the U.S. troops to be where they are today - except the neocons and the Bush administration, who sent the troops there on the wings of the most dreadful lie ever told to America.

In March, 2004, while Bush was preparing to return to the UN for the proposal of a new resolution, he had said:

"Al-Qaida wants us out of Iraq because al-Qaida wants to use Iraq as an example of defeating freedom and democracy." -(LINK)

We know this is not exactly the truth. It wasn't only Al-Qaida. An overwhelming number of everyday Iraqis would like the U.S. to leave.

Before the public lowers the boom on Bush - seeking to impeach him for the disaster he created when he misled the nation - his administration must find the fastest way out.

The American public thinks Iraq is a mess. Consult any current public poll and you'll see for yourself.

Sunni Arabs and Kurds are virtually on the brink of civil war in northern Iraq at this time. The Kurds claim the city of Kirkuk as their own, and they want Kirkuk to be the capital of the Kurdish region, a goal that inspires ire in most Iraqis. Kirkuk has been described, even by U.S. officials, as a “powder keg.” It also happens to sit on top of one of Iraq’s richest oilfields. What the Kurds want most of all is to control Northern Oil - part of the Iraqi National Oil Co, in charge of the oilfields west of Kirkuk. It is apparent that Sunni Arabs will not settle peaceably with the Kurds on this issue.

In the absence of a realistic political solution, Iraq may eventually be forced to disintegrate, which would be a geopolitical nightmare - destabilizing the entire Middle East. Interestingly, a significant number of Kurds would like to see this happen, after years of seeing their people murdered at the hands of brutal dictators. The Bush administration fears that self-determination, desired by most Kurds of northern Iraq, could lead to the establishment of an independent Kurdish state and seriously challenge US control of the oil resources of northern Iraq.

According to a June 10th article in the Asia Times by Pepe Escobar, there are neocon-friendly forces in Washington DC who are planning a "divide-and-rule" plan for Iraq, which would be a way to keep a weakened Iraq from being united and democratic, and this is in direct opposition to what the President has told the American people he wants to achieve. The objective would be "the perpetuation of Arab disunity."

Escobar says:

The plan would be "sold" under the admission that the recently elected, Shi'ite-dominated Jaafari government is incapable of controlling Iraq and bringing the Sunni Arab guerrillas to the negotiating table. More significantly, the plan is an exact replica of an extreme right-wing Israeli plan to balkanize Iraq - an essential part of the balkanization of the whole Middle East.

The act of the U.S. resorting to 'Iraqification' - using Shi'ites and Kurds to fight Sunnis - is a sign that we know we have lost any vision we may have had about "winning" the war. It has been an unwinnable war all along, and President Bush was never up-front with the American public about that fact. (Just as he was never up-front while leading the American masses toward war).

Escobar continues:

"Call it Iraqification; what it actually means is sectarian fever translated into civil war. Operation Lightning - the highly publicized counter-insurgency tour de force with its 40,000 mostly Shi'ite troops rounding up Sunni Arabs - can be read as the first salvo of the civil war......'Iraqification' means in fact 'Salvadorization'. No wonder old faces are back in the game."

Escobar writes that the Sunni-Arab guerillas "have the means to destabilize the country for decades, if they're up for it." If I am reading Escobar's Asia Times article correctly, and I hope it isn't true, then I can assume he is telling us that the U.S. desires to keep these diverse political terrorist-groups at each others' throats - which would mean a sustained civil war.

Many Kurds, who have hoped for independence, are dancing with anticipatory joy.
A Kurdish citizen in Iraq has written:

"...of the Kurds who took part in the elections, a whopping 98 % expressed a desire for a civil divorce. In the branch of science called politics, the fancy name for this kind of behavior is called self-determination. It is considered a political axiom in much of the world except in the lands administered by dictatorships. Now that Iraq is a ward of Uncle Sam, you would think that the Kurdish desire to go it alone would have been respected and accepted. ......to paraphrase Senator John Edwards, help is finally on its way to the Kurds and Kurdistan, and it is with some sadness that I note, not from the children of Jefferson, but from the disciples of enforced ignorance who have vowed to destroy Iraq. When their work is complete, we will take our place behind East Timor as the newest freed nation in the world. Then, and only then, I will rise for the dance of liberation and emancipation in honor of all those Kurdish patriots who shed their blood so that I could see freedom........I can’t wait for the RIP sign to rise over the abomination that cost five million Kurds of Iraq 250.000 deaths in 35 years on the watch of one monster from Tikrit. When that day comes, and if by some magic I were granted a wish, I would have loved nothing better to do than rush the news to the high heavens and inform Winston Churchill, the British Colonial Secretary, that his out of wedlock bastard has, finally, thank God, died. After rejoicing in his heartache, I would have looked up for Uncle Omar of Halapja and cheered him up with the good news that the flag of Kurdistan now flutters over the memorial that honors him and his friends in the city of Halapja."- By Kani Xulam, KurdishMedia.com

Nikolas K. Gvosdev, editor of The National Interest is not so sure that "democracy" will provide the solution to what ails Iraq. He says:

Consider Bosnia, where efforts to forge a unified country among three hostile ethno-religious groups has proven extremely difficult — even when the parties share a common language. We forget today how Bosnia's first free elections in November 1990 were cited as a triumph for democracy. Sixteen months later, Europe's most destructive conflict since the end of World War II erupted.

Bush was unprepared for what would happen once he sated his thirst for deliberate revenge and tackled Saddam, unilaterally, while lying our nation into the war. What he has done, by going into this half-assed, is to not only increase terrorism, but also to open Iraq up to civil war (whether it's intentional, as Escobar contends, or not). The greatly increased risk of political influence upon vulnerable regional Iraqi populations by anti-American forces in Middle Eastern nations (such as Iran) cannot extend a promise of security, stablity, freedom or democracy anytime soon.

Great job, Bush administration.

June Brashares, RNC Protestor, Goes On Trial

June Brashares, RNC Protestor, Goes On Trial

A trial in Manhattan's Criminal Court has begun for June Brashares, the Code Pink activist who was mauled on the floor of the Republican National Convention when young GOP goons realized she had gotten in with an anti-Bush sign. They ganged up on her and attacked her, literally dragging her from the convention hall. They're trying to say she had shoes on and kicked a man, but June has sworn she was weaering no shoes at the time - and an ABC reporter will be able to attest to that fact. Worse, June was injured herself - and it was captured on camera. You may wish to follow the developments of this case. The RNC would love to crucify her, I'm sure.

I'd recommend Rox Populi for a blogger's insight. There is a statement from Brashares at the blog, icluding this excerpt:

"..the courts shouldn’t be going after people for expressing their opinions at political events, we need justice in regards to the U.S. Administration that has lied and is lying about its actions that have resulted in the unnecessary death of thousands upon thousands of people."

DSM: White House Can't Raise a Reasonable Defense

DSM: White House Can't Raise a Reasonable Defense
So they spin and hope the media will comply, as they have in the past

White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said that the Conyers letter was "simply rehashing old debates that have already been discussed."

What do you do when "old debates" about a President's deliberate (political) intent to lie our nation into war, risking hundreds of thousands of precious lives, which was something we'd suspected he was doing all along, are confirmed by an official set of documents, leaked straight from the British government?

What if you'd suspected that someone had deliberately poisoned your family dog and, two years down the line, you received official evidence of the intentional killing? Would you simply say, "Aw, heck - that was something we'd discussed a long time ago" and forget about asking any more questions or seeking justice and/or reparation?

Come on, people. I don't think so.

There are some very lame defenses coming from the lips of Scott McLellan. The White House must be terribly worried about this Downing Street memo leak.

As a citizen stated in a letter to the St. Petersburg Times' editor recently,

"1,700 dead U.S. soldiers and 100,000-plus dead Iraqis, and [the Iraq war's] $300-billion price tag, was based on fabrications and plain old-fashioned lies."

..and another citizen writes:

"Years from now when our children and their children ask us what we did when we discovered that all the killing, maiming and destruction done in our names was based on faulty information, what will we say?"

Scott McLellan and the White House would tell you to tell your children it was just an old debate and that it never deserved to be revisited. I find no honor in that type of argument. How about you?


Story Linked at Common Ills

Fixed Means Just What You'd Think It Means

Fixed Means Just What You'd Think It Means

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey told MSNBC's Hardball host David Gregory that "fixed," the word used in the Downing Street memo, does not mean "cooking the books." Woolsey's defense is "British usage" of the word "fixed." Yet, British sources have confirmed the meaning of "fixed" and it isn't any different than the good old American definition. In the Downing Street memo, no matter how Bush-defenders slice and dice it, the word "fixed" envelops the scope of deliberate political manipulation...moving the masses toward a war they knew they were going to wage - a war that would be inevitable because, in the words of one of the British documents:

"In practice, much of the international community would find it difficult to stand in the way of the determined course of the US hegemon."

Woolsey told Hardball that he doesn't think there is really any basis for the allegation that "fixed" means "fixed", in the sense which we all understand the word. The contents of the documents prove his ridiculous claim as wrong. Media Matters provides a list of sources with information that directly refutes Woolsey's shallow defense.





This blogpost made 'Top Story' at Findory.com

Jay Rosen on Media and Downing Street Memo Story

Jay Rosen on Media and Downing Street Memo Story

Press Think's Jay Rosen speaks at the Huffington Post about the Downing Street memo story. He reiterates (and relates to the DSM story) what he has said in the recent past - that the traditional press is "no longer sovereign over territory it once easily controlled." Rosen says:

"Now if there's something newsworthy coming out of the U.K. but neglected in America the political blogs in America and other activists online keep talking about it. Quickly the story's unjust obscurity will reach a political player who can change that by acting in a newsworthy way, lending fresh facts and additional reason to cover the story.

By such means the appeal of news judgment starts to take shape."

Crazy Americans

Crazy Americans

Oh! How cute! Saddam likes Doritos...and he hates Fruit Loops!

Now let's kill him!

Good.

Good.

I didn't say "Impeachment"-the Washington Post did!

I didn't say "Impeachment"-the Washington Post did!

"If Karl Rove – that is, politics... drove Iraq policy, then President Bush would merit not only defeat, but impeachment."

- Fred Hiatt, Washington Post, January 26th, 2004

See "An Open Letter to Fred Hiatt and the Washington Post" by John Atcheson (at Truthout.org)

Atcheson says:

"It’s too late for defeat, but with the release of the Downing Street Memo and other internal British documents made available to the Post as reported on Sunday June 12, 2005, the evidence that the war was politically motivated and that the administration used deceptions, distortions and outright lies to justify it, is now overwhelming. By your own assessment, it is time for impeachment proceedings to begin....

.....It’s time, Washington Post. We all make mistakes. And it’s very hard to admit them. Particularly when papers in the Knight-Ridder chain and the Guardian got it right all along, while you and your editorial page clung to increasingly transparent lies."

John Edwards Speaks About Howard Dean in Wisconsin

John Edwards Speaks About Howard Dean in Wisconsin

"Howard Dean and I, and Dave (Obey), all of us are fighting for the same thing. We're fighting to give regular, decent Americans a fair chance. We're trying to stop the extraordinary damage that is being done to this country by George Bush each day. All of us may not use the same words, but we are completely united in that cause. The media needs to report the "thrust" of a message rather than picking sound bites. What most people care about is not discussion between politicians but what we can do to make their lives better."

-From WisPolitics - Edwards Tells Wausau Dems to Keep the Faith

_______________

Other Edwards-in-Wisconisn news:

The following are the results of a recent Democratic straw poll held in Wisconsin:

Which politician would be your preferred Democratic presidential candidate in 2008?

Total votes: 299

Russ Feingold: 116 votes (38.8 percent)
Hillary Rodham Clinton: 59 votes (19.7 percent)
John Edwards: 32 votes (10.7 percent)
Bill Richardson: 27 votes (9 percent)
Evan Bayh: 20 votes (6.7 percent)
Mark Warner: 12 votes (4 percent)
John Kerry: 5 votes (1.7 percent)
Ed Rendell: 3 votes (1 percent)
Tom Vilsack: 3 votes (1 percent)

WisPolitics President Jeff Mayers interviewed John Edwards on June 12 via telephone. You can read the interview here. Edwards was visiting Wisconsin in support for Congressman Dave Obey. Edwards spoke about his willing assistance to grassroots political activists and he calls upon us to stand by our core set of convictions:

"We need to build this party, strengthen this party from the ground up, not from Washington, D.C. down. Which means helping recruit good, local candidates. Making sure we have a good, strong grassroots organization so that we have the foundation that we need. And in terms of what it is we say, and making it clear to the country what it is we believe, I think we ought to fight for our core set of convictions. I don’t think we should change what we believe. I don’t think we should change our positions, or nuance our positions. I think there’s strength in conviction. We should stand by our convictions."

Who D'You Think You're Fooling, W?

Who D'You Think You're Fooling, W?


Seen at Biomes Blog (Thanks, Mark).

Oh, well - at least George W. is thinking a lot more about Iraq lately - so says Wonkette.

Pol Pot or Pot Roast?

Pol Pot or Pot Roast?




"It's not Pol Pot at Gauntanamo -





It's Pot Roast!"

- Tom Price, Republican Congressman from Georgia, on the floor of the House today

Price was hyperbolically whining for an apology from Sen. Dick Durbin, while totally neglecting to lend honest intelligence to Durbin's call to ethics and honor, which Durbin strongly and clearly sent.


Price

I think my message above graphically matches Congressman Tom Price's whiny hyperbole.

No one should apologize for waking Americans up to the truth and the call to honor and decency.

____________________________


Statement of Jamal al-Harith, former detainee at Guantanamo Bay:

I was moved [to Camp Xray/Gauntanamo Bay] on or about 11 February 2002. Before take-off I was hooded and shackled. Mittens were placed on my hands and earphones over my ears. Chains were placed around my legs and my waist. Goggles were placed on my eyes and the straps on the goggles were so tight they cut into my ears. A medical patch was placed on my forehead which I believe contained a muscle relaxant.

On arrival at Guantanamo I was placed on a barge to get me to the main camp. Whilst on the barge, US military forces kicked, slapped, elbowed and punched me in the body and head and they said repeatedly “You are now property of the United States Marine Corps.”

I was taken to Camp X-Ray, the prison camp for detainees. My goggles and hood were removed but I was told I must keep my eyes closed and I was not allowed to speak or move. My clothes were stripped off. I was placed in a shower. My chains were released so I could wash.

I was later placed in a wire cage of about 2 metres by about 11/2 metres to 2 metres. During my imprisonment by the United States Forces, I was deprived of access to my friends and family. I was never allowed any legal advice and never informed of any specific allegations or charges against me. I was repeatedly questioned to try to make me confess to something I had not done.

During the time I was detained by United States Forces I was subjected to systematic abuse which I have been informed amounts to torture under international law. I was assaulted on a number of occasions. This included being punched, kicked and slapped. In addition, I was subjected to a procedure called “short shackling” in painful “stress positions” for many hours at a time. This caused deep flesh wounds which have left me with permanent scarring on my wrists and ankles.

On occasions, unmuzzled dogs would be brought to my wire cage and encouraged to bark in a ferocious and threatening way. I was intentionally subjected to extremes of heat and cold for most of my stay whilst in Guantanamo. For long periods of my detention in Guantanamo I was kept in a filthy cage for 24 hours per day with no proper sanitation and no regular access to cleaning material. I was denied access to necessary medical care.

I was harassed in practising my religion. I was deprived of adequate food. I was deprived of adequate drinkable water. I was also deprived of communication with my family and friends. Very powerful spotlights were kept on during the night-time period which made it hard to sleep properly.

On "Obstruction"

On "Obstruction"

Toxic waste and shit are being pumped, by a strong, unnatural force, through the sewer pipe.
If that waste and shit escape the pipe, the ocean will be poisoned and diseased.

So what do you do?

Wouldn't you do everything you could do in order to to stop the force behind the waste and shit?

(Even though you realize 'God' may blow the shit through the pipe while you're on recess?)

Skippy Speaks and Will Soon Be Three

Skippy Speaks and Will Soon Be Three


Par-tay!

Skippy The Bush Kangaroo is having a Blogiversary soon. It will be their third. Go and wish them a Happy 3rd - and hear Skippy, himself, on the radio.

Love ya, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo-ers.. Happy Happy Joy Joy.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

"We are talking here about creating the right political preconditions for moving populations toward a war, quite a different matter from not having decided on the war."

- -Tom Englehart, speaking about the page-11 David Sanger NYT piece ("Prewar British Memo Says War Decision Wasn't Made") that focused on the second of the Downing Street memos. Engelhart claimed that Sanger wrote as if reflecting a situation in which no "political decisions" had been made." Sanger employed no caveat or alternative possible explanation. Englehart feels that was a very bizarre way for Sanger to have showcased his piece.


See my own comments about Sanger's article at this June 13 post. I had given the article my "Most Misleading Headline of the Day" distinction.