update Iraq

Read today: Americans might be honoring the dead from U.S. wars, but in no case did any of those dead whom we memorialize today die for "our freedom." They died, instead, because our political classes pointedly understand that promoting war is good for them.

3,464 not counting mercenaries, wounded and killed or wounded Iraqi civilians.

Republicans continue to lie

In defending the Iraq war, leading Republican presidential contenders are increasingly echoing words and phrases used by President Bush in the run-up to the war that reinforce the misleading impression that Iraq was responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Iraq =3,455 killed and counting

we trusted these Republicans

Future historians will shake their heads over how easily America was misled into war. The warning signs, the indications that we had a rogue administration determined to use 9/11 as an excuse for war, were there, for those willing to see them, right from the beginning — even before Mr. Bush began explicitly pushing for war with Iraq. We trusted these Republicans.

In fact, the very first time Mr. Bush declared a war on terror that “will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated,” people should have realized that he was going to use the terrorist attack to justify anything and everything. But, we trusted these Republicans.

When he used his first post-attack State of the Union to denounce an “axis of evil” consisting of three countries that had nothing to do either with 9/11 or with each other, alarm bells should have gone off. But, we still trusted these Republicans.

The question was whether the public would ever catch on. Well, to the immense relief of those who spent years trying to get the truth out, they did. Last November Americans voted overwhelmingly to bring an end to Mr. Bush’s war. Yet the war goes on.

mercenaries in Iraq

Employees of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the security contractors (mercenaries)and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Blackwater's security consulting division holds at least $109 million worth of State Department contracts in Iraq,

Matthew Degn, a senior American civilian adviser to the Interior Ministry's intelligence directorate, described the ministry as "a powder keg" after the Iraqi driver was shot Thursday, with anger at Blackwater spilling over to other Americans working in the building. We have about 30,000 mercenaries operating in Iraq.

republicans did it anyway

Months before the invasion of Iraq, U.S. intelligence agencies predicted that it would be likely to spark violent sectarian divides and provide al-Qaeda with new opportunities in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released yesterday by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Analysts warned that war in Iraq also could provoke Iran to assert its regional influence and "probably would result in a surge of political Islam and increased funding for terrorist groups" in the Muslim world.

The intelligence assessments, made in January 2003 and widely circulated within the Bush administration before the war. But the neocon republicans did it anyway.

our mercenaries in Iraq

In the case of Blackwater Security Consulting, their contact releases the company from "any liability whatsoever" even if it is "the result of negligence, gross negligence, omissionsor failure to guard or warn against dangerous conditions."

The risks are considerable: the latest government figures say 916 civilian contractors (mercenaries)have been killed from the beginning of the war in Iraq in March, 2003 to April 30, 2007.

Iraq 3434

3,434 and the Pentagon is considering maintaining a core group of forces in Iraq, possibly for decades.

US wages declining

Today, American workers' take-home pay represents a smaller share of the nation's total income than at any time in the last forty years. At the same time, corporate profits as a share of national income are at an all-time high.

3422

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War on Iraq continues at 3,422.

a Republican quagmire and oil

Most U.S. soldiers interviewed by NEWSWEEK have long since stopped insisting that their greatest mission is to bring peace and democracy to Iraq. More and more, they talk about their desire to simply protect their buddies, and to get everyone home alive.

We are not winning new friends in Iraq. "We hate Al Qaeda," said Salman Awda, a 55-year-old tractor driver.
"But we hate the American troops more." This is what the
republicans got us into and insist on with no end in sight.

Since they can't win in Iraq, they are now trying to enlarge it to Iran since non who are making decisions are over there fighting. I wonder if their being heavily invested in oil has anything to do with it?

more republican scandals

Partial list of republican scandals:
Paul Wolfowitz in the World Bank With Nepotism.
Federal Employees in the Department of Education With
Corporate Ties.
Bushies in the Election Assistance Commission With Fraud.
Partisan Hacks in the Press With Bought Agendas.
Bernard Kerik in the Department of Homeland Security With the
Nanny and the Publisher and the Mob.
Karl Rove in the White House With the Delete Key.
Lester Crawford in the Food and Drug Administration With Tainted
Stocks.
Bushies in NASA With the Weird Science.
The GOP Leadership in Congress With Dirty Money.
Abu Ghraib
Eavesdroppers at the National Security Agency With the Wiretaps.
Bureaucrats at Walter Reed With Cockroachesack Abramoff on K
Street With the Wallet.
Steven Griles in the Department of the Interior
With the "Special Relationship".
Scooter Libby in the White House With the Faulty Memory.Alberto Gonzales in the Justice Department With the Pink Slips
John Doolittle in Congress With the Campaign Donations
Mark Foley in Congress With the Instant Messages.
Halliburton in Iraq With the Defense Contracts.
Tom DeLay in Congress With the Corporate Funds.
Randall Tobias in the Massage Parlor With Scented Oils.
Rick Renzi in Congress With the Land Deal.
Duke Cunningham in Congress With the Candlestick.
Dusty Foggo in the CIA With the Bribes

Iraq update

Admitted is now 3,442.

puppets want US to leave

The governments of Afghanistan and Iraq have indicated quite clearly that they want the United States to leave their countries. In Afghanistan, NATO cannot defeat the Taliban, and only makes matters worse by the indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians.

Republicans invaded Iraq anyway

Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists in the region, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies.

British to leave Iraq

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War On Iraq is 3,422 and counting, not countintg wounded, contractors/mercenaries and civilians.

GORDON Brown will remove all British forces from Iraq before the next election under a plan to rebuild support among disillusioned Labour voters. The Prime Minister elect is working on a withdrawal plan that could see troop numbers slashed from 7,000 to as few as 2,000 within 12 months.

Bush at the ranch

Since becoming president, Bush has made 64 visits here, spending all or part of 413 days of his presidency at his ranch, according to the White House. He was enjoying a month-long stretch at his ranch in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck, devastating the Gulf Coast.

An encampment is there with a cluster of double-wide mobile homes, adjacent to the president's 1,600-acre ranch,where a handful of traveling White House staffers, Secret Service agents and communications staff both work and sleep during Bush's stays here.
There are also bunkers and other facilities that were built for Bush.

Bush also regularly hosts foreign dignitaries at his ranch, which he sees as a valuable diplomatic tool and it's all tax deductible which means that we pay for it.

Republicans fail food safety

Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.

Juices and fruits rejected as "filthy. Prunes tinted with chemical dyes not approved for human consumption. Frozen breaded shrimp preserved with nitrofuran, an antibacterial that can cause cancer. Swordfish rejected as "poisonous."

These were among the 107 food imports from China that the Food and Drug Administration detained at U.S. ports just last month, agency documents reveal, along with more than 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic Chinese cosmetics and counterfeit Chinese medicines.

For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers
the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry.

Corporations and the federal government seem willing to put the interests of business "above the public welfare." Under the Bush administration in particular, DeWaal said,if a proposed regulation does get past agency or department heads, it hits the wall at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Gonzales, a Bushie

An aide to Ashcroft tipped Comey off that White House legal counsel Gonzales and chief of staff Andrew Card were headed to Ashcroft's hospital to get him to sign it. Comey rushed to the darkened room, where he briefed the barely conscious Ashcroft. Gonzales and Card entered minutes later, demanding that Ashcroft comply.

He refused, pointing to Comey, saying he was the attorney general. "I was angry. I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man," Comey testified.

Gonzales and Card then summoned Comey to the White House, where they attempted to intimidate him by telling him that Vice President Dick Cheney and his counsel, David Addington, were in favor of the reauthorization. Comey still refused. And the program went forward without the legal justice department approval.

Comey and other high justice department officials prepared their resignation letters. The next day, having heard about the planned mass resignations, President Bush met alone with Comey, who briefed him on what needed to be done to bring the program under the law.

Several weeks later Comey signed the authorization for a legal program. But during that period it was conducted outside the law.

Then, after Bush's reelection, Ashcroft was not reappointed. In his place Bush sent a new name to the Senate for confirmation - Alberto Gonzales. Every position he had held was the result of his undying loyalty to Bush.

The confrontation in Ashcroft's hospital room had been a turning point in his rise. Comey, who Bush privately derided as "Cuomo", quit.

In his confirmation hearing before the senate judiciary committee, Gonzales was asked about domestic surveillance, and he blithely misled the senators, acting as if he would always uphold the existing law, even though he had pressured Ashcroft and Comey to approve the illegal program

Iraqi secrets

It is estimated that total number of contractors (mercenaries) killed in Iraq is at least 917, along with more than 12,000 wounded
in battle or injured on the job, according to government figures and dozens of interviews.

The new contractor statistics suggest that for every four American soldiers or marines who die in Iraq,a contractor is killed. The contractor casualties were a symptom of a larger failure to send enough troops earlier to provide security throughout Iraq.

The military releases names and biographical information about its wartime casualties, but businesses are not required to provide such information, and the Labor Department refuses to do so,
They don't want us to know.

worth repeating on Iran and Iraq

Why would anyone hate us? The problem is that the military wing of the US government is very different from your neighborhood. After the Soviet Union crashed, US elites declared themselves masters of the universe,the only "indispensable nation" and the like.

All countries must ask the US for permission to have a nuclear program. If we don't like your government, we can overthrow it.

Meanwhile, we sought a global empire unlike any in history: not just a sphere of interest but the entire world. Laurence Vance has the details but here is the bottom line: one-third of a million deployed troops in 134 countries in 1000 locations in foreign countries.

All during the 1990s, the US attempted to starve the population of Iraq, with the result of hundreds of thousands of deaths. Madelyn Albright said on national television that the deaths of 500,000 children (the UN's number) was "worth it" in order to achieve our aims,which were ostensibly the elimination of non-existent, non-US built weapons of mass destruction.

Yes, that annoyed a few people. There were constant bombings in Iraq all these years. And let us not forget how all this nonsense began: the first war in 1991 was waged in retaliation for a US-approved Iraqi invasion of its former province, Kuwait. Saddam had good reasonto think that the US ambassador was telling the truth about non-interference with Kuwait relations. Saddam was our ally all through the Iran-Iraq war and before.

The enemy we are now fighting, the Islamic extremists, are the very group that we supported and subsidized all through the 1980s in the name of fighting Communism. That's the reason the US knows so much about their bunkers and hiding spots in Afghanistan. US taxdollars created them.

republican mess in Iraq

The point that libertarians have been trying to hammer home for many yearsis that the US government under these republicans has become the enemy of the American people and their values. It is not peaceful, it is not friendly, it is not motivated by the Christian faith, but rather power and imperial lust.

We invaded their country, Iraq, based on lies. The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War On Iraq continues at 3,403, not counting our wounded, our mercenaries or the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed and wounded in their country.

last word on Falwell

Jerry Falwell’s professional life and his record speaks for itself.

March 1980: Falwell tells an Anchorage rally about a conversation with President Carter at the White House. Commenting on a January breakfast meeting, Falwell claimed to have asked Carter why he had “practicing homosexuals” on the senior staff at the White House. According to Falwell, Carter replied, “Well, I am president of all the American people, and I believe I should represent everyone.” When others who attended the White House event insisted that the exchange never happened,Falwell responded that his account “was not intended to be a verbatim report,” but rather an “honest portrayal” of Carter’s position.

August 1980: After Southern Baptist Convention President Bailey Smith tells a Dallas Religious Right gathering that “God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew,” Falwell gives a similar view. “I do not believe,” he told reporters, “that God answers
the prayer of any unredeemed Gentile or Jew.” After a meeting with an American Jewish Committee rabbi, he changed course, telling an interviewer on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “God hears the prayers of all persons…. God hears everything.”

July 1984: Falwell is forced to pay gay activist Jerry Sloan $5,000 after losing a court battle.During a TV debate in Sacramento, Falwell denied calling the gay-oriented Metropolitan
Community Churches “brute beasts” and “a vile and Satanic system” that will “one day be utterly annihilated and there will be a celebration in heaven.” When Sloan insisted he had a tape, Falwell promised $5,000 if he could produce it. Sloan did so,
Falwell refused to pay and Sloan successfully sued. Falwell appealed, with his attorney charging that the Jewish judge in the case was prejudiced. He lost again and was forced to pay an additional $2,875 in sanctions and court fees.

October 1987: The Federal Election Commission fines Falwell for transferring $6.7 million in funds intended for his ministry to political committees.

February 1988: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a $200,000 jury award to Falwell for “emotional distress” he suffered because of a Hustler magazine parody. Chief Justice William H.Rehnquist,usually a Falwell favorite, wrote the unanimous opinion in Hustler v.
Falwell, ruling that the First Amendment protects free speech.

February 1993: The Internal Revenue Service determines that funds from Falwell’s Old Time Gospel Hour program were illegally funneled to a political campaign. The IRS forced Falwell to pay $50,000 and retroactively revoked the Old Time Gospel Hour’s
tax-exempt status for 1986-87.

March 1993: Despite his promise to Jewish groups to stop referring to America as a “Christian nation,” Falwell gives a sermon saying, “We must never allow our children to forget that this is a Christian nation. We must take back what is rightfully ours.”

1994-1995: Falwell is criticized for using his “Old Time Gospel Hour” to hawk a scurrilous video called “The Clinton Chronicles” that makes a number of unsubstantiated charges against President Bill Clinton — among them that he is a drug addict and that he arranged the murders of political enemies in Arkansas. Despite claims he had no ties to the project, evidence surfaced that Falwell helped bankroll the venture with $200,000 paid to a group
called Citizens for Honest Government (CHG). CHG’s Pat Matrisciana later admitted that Falwell and he staged an infomercial interview promoting the video in which a silhouetted reporter said his life was in danger for investigating Clinton. (Matrisciana himself posed as the reporter.) “That was Jerry’s idea to do that,” Matrisciana recalled. “He thought that would be dramatic.”

November 1997: Falwell accepts $3.5 million from a front group representing controversial Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon to ease Liberty University’s financial woes.

April 1998: Confronted on national television with a controversial quote from America Can Be Saved!, a published collection of his sermons, Falwell denies having written the book or had anything to do with it. In the 1979 work, Falwell wrote, “I hope to live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!” Despite Falwell’s denial, Sword of the Lord Publishing, which produced the book, confirms that Falwell wrote it.

January 1999: Falwell tells a pastors’ conference in Kingsport, Tenn., that the Antichrist prophesied in the Bible is alive today and “of course he’ll be Jewish.”

February 1999: Falwell becomes the object of nationwide ridicule after his National Liberty Journal newspaper issues a “parents alert” warning that Tinky Winky, a character on the popular PBS children’s show “Teletubbies,” might be gay.

September 2001: Falwell blames Americans for the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say,‘You helped this happen.’”

November 2005: Falwell spearheads campaign to resist “war on Christmas.”

February 2007: Falwell describes global warming as a conspiracy orchestrated by Satan,liberals, and The Weather Channel.

Spirituality is about morality and ethics. Religion has become about power and institutions. Forgive me if I don’t cry.

the real Falwell

He said at an evangelical conference that the antichrist was a male Jew alive in the world today. He later apologized for his remarks but not for holding the belief.

He warned parents that Tinky Winky, a character on the children's TV show "Teletubbies," was a gay role model .On "60 Minutes" he labeled Muhammad a terrorist. He expressed racist views.

Perhaps his most provocative came Sept. 13, 2001, when he appeared on "The 700 Club," the Rev. Pat Robertson's TV show, and blamed pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, the ACLU and others for Sept. 11, 2001."I point the finger in their face and say,'You helped this happen,' " he said.

To Falwell, religion was about political influence and power.

republican war update

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) In America's War On Iraq now totals 3,401 not counting US mercenaries, civilians,the wounded or the war on terror.

war mongers vs. Iraq

The republican war mongers belittle those who speak out against the war, saying that we are emboldening the enemy. Reading between the lines, freedom of speech is treasonous if you question the motives and actions of those who got us involved in the Iraq war. We can only wish that there had been more “good Germans” speaking out about the policies of Adolf Hitler before the Holocaust became reality.

The number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War On Iraq is 3,386 and continuing in the fifth year with no end in sight, not counting mercenaries (contractors), our wounded, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

another Republican failure

Republican failures just keep coming:
The Bush administration's top education official admitted on Thursday that the U.S. college financial aid system is broken.
With scandal sweeping through the $85-billion student loan business, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings told a congressional panel there is a desperate need for change.

Committee chairman George Miller grilled Spellings at a hearing about what he said was chronic inaction by her agency.
"The U.S. Department of Education has been conspicuously missing in action," said the California Democrat.

Republican war

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War On Iraq is now 3,381, not including military wounded, private contractors (mercenaries) and all the Iraqi civilians that have been killed.

republicans failed again

The tainted Chinese ingredient that was incorporated into U.S. pet food and later made its way into chicken and pig feed was neither wheat gluten nor rice protein as advertised, but was seriously contaminated wheat flour,government investigators said yesterday.

Moreover, officials said, some of that contaminated flour, mislabeled as gluten,was mixed into fish food in Canada and exported to the United States,where it was fed to fish raised for human consumption. Republicans have failed toprotect our food supply.

republicans credit card war

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has approved more
than $609 billion for the wars, a figure likely to stand as lawmakers rework their latest spending bill in response to a Bush veto. Requests for $145 billion more await congressional action and would raise the cost in inflation-adjusted dollars beyond the cost of the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
This time, the war bill is going directly on the nation's credit card. They even cut taxes on the wealthy, which adds even more to the ballooning national debt.

Like all debts, however, the bill for this republican war on Iraq will eventually come due. Economists foresee substantial increases in government spending to rebuild the nation's exhausted armed forces, care for its disabled veterans and cover rising interest payments.

boycot Chinese products

Over the years, the poison has been loaded into all varieties of medicine made in China — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products., some of which are making their way into the US.
The Chinese government is not prosecuting those responsible. Don't buy anything from China until their government ensures that their products are safe, and they prosecute their violators.

update Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in Republican America'sWar On Iraq is 3,333, not counting mercenaries, the wounded and civilians.

Christian Taliban

Can you imagine a contingent of religious zealots, with their contempt for secular values (and such manifestations of secular order as the U.S. Constitution) - and with their zest for holy war - in control of our Defense Department which is the most potent fighting force with its weaponry in human history?

who controls government

Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed overlords of politics and government. The White House, the Congress and, increasingly, the judiciary, reflect their interests. We appear to have a government run by remote control from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute.

why no Iraq exit plan?

For all the talk about timetables and benchmarks, one might think that the United States will end the military occupation of Iraq within the lifetimes of the readers of this opinion editorial. Think again.

There is to be no withdrawal from Iraq, just as there has been no withdrawal from hundreds of places around the world that are outposts of the American empire.

As UC San Diego professor emeritus Chalmers Johnson put it, "One of the reasons we had no exit plan from Iraq is that we didn't intend to leave." The United States maintains 737 military bases in 130 countries across the globe. They exist for the purpose of defending the economic interests of the United States, what is euphemistically called "national security."

In order to secure favorable access to Iraq's vast reserves of light crude, the United States is spending billions on the construction of at least five large permanent military bases throughout that country.

new total for Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America'sWar on Iraq is now 3,351, not including mercenaries, civilians or wounded.

Tenet tells on Cheney, et al

White House and Pentagon officials, and particularly Vice President Cheney, were determined to attack Iraq from the first days of the Bush administration, long before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and repeatedly stretched available intelligence to build support for the war, according to a new book by former CIA director George J. Tenet.

another Republican Scandal

Randall L. Tobias, the deputy secretary of state responsible for U.S. foreign aid, abruptly resigned yesterday after he was asked about an upscale escort service allegedly involved in prostitution, U.S. government sources said.
Tobias resigned after ABC News contacted him with questions about the escort service, the sources said. ABC News released a statement last night saying Tobias acknowledged Thursday that he had used the service.

spirituality vs religion

Spirituality is about ethics and morality; organized religion is about power. Worse, religion connected with government is about power without accountability.

republicans making us weaker

Does the President and wannabe McCain think terrorists are puppy dogs? He keeps saying that terrorists will "follow us home" like lost dogs. This will only happen, however, he says, if we "lose" in Iraq.

Of course, nothing about our being "over there" in any way prevents terrorists from coming here. Quite the opposite, the evidence is overwhelming that our presence provides motivation for people throughout the Arab world to become anti-American terrorists.

Some 100,000 Iraqis, probably more, have been killed since our invasion. They have parents, children, cousins and fellow tribal clan members who have pledged revenge no matter how long it takes. For many, that revenge is focused on America.

At the same time, investing time, energy and resources in Iraq takes our eye off two far more urgent tasks at hand:
one, guarding the homeland against terrorism much better than the pork-dispensing Department of Homeland Security currently does the job;
and two, systematically dismantling Al Qaeda all over the world, from Canada to Asia to Africa. On both these fronts, the Bush administration's focus is sorely lacking.

Republican attack dogs fall flat

First, there was the G.O.P.-incited flare-up over Ms. Pelosi’s request for a military jet to transport her from Washington to her home district in California—the same service that had been provided to her Republican predecessor, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, for the previous five years.

The Republican National Committee, The Washington Times, the Drudge Report and a small army of Congressional Republicans fanned out to claim that Ms. Pelosi was simply trying to live like a queen at the taxpayers’ expense.

The story riled up elements of the G.O.P. base, but it quickly fell apart when—rather inconveniently—it came to light that Ms. Pelosi had made the request on the advice of the Pentagon and with Mr. Bush’s blessing, and that she also offered to simply fly commercial if the arrangement would be too complicated.

Then there was the Speaker’s recent trip to Syria, aggressively decried by the same chorus. Again, never mind that Republican members of Congress had taken identical trips in the preceding weeks and months, or that Ms. Pelosi’s own delegation included a Republican House member, David Hobson of Ohio.

At the tail end of her trip, her critics even stirred up chatter that Ms. Pelosi would next head to Iran—something she quickly put the kibosh on, though not before the massively influential Drudge Report gave it some play. They lie and lie until some people believe them.

human cost of Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America'sWar on Iraq is 3,332 and is growing faster, not counting the "contractors/mercenaries", or the wounded or any civilians.

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq is 3,323 and growing.

McCain

To this ‘hero’ of the Vietnam War, the White House means not only prolonging the Iraq war and the death of more Americans and slaughter of Iraqis, which he has strongly endorsed , but also the genocide of innocent Iranians. Given that he is lagging behind in fundraising, it comes as no surprise that he should target Iran, lie about Iran’s aspirations to destroy Israel, and hope to receive AIPAC’s blessings and be bank-rolled by them. No doubt, in spite of inciting mass murder, the mainstream media will boost his popularity with the backing of AIPAC, and he will be the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican elections - the war hero who learned nothing from Vietnam and the killing massacre that went on there.

food contamination

FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food leading to people dying and getting sick, and leading to an unprecedented recalling of food products. Republicans do not like regulation of owners, they do not like spending money except in Iraq because it doesn't benefit owners, and they have a hostility toward government. The poisonous result is that a program like the FDA is going to suffer at every turn of the road,"

more republican scandals?

Removing Federal Prosecutors puts pressure on the others to drop investigations of Republicans. New scandals are brewing.

Rep. Gary G. Miller (R-Calif.), under investigation by the FBI for a series of land deals, is now facing Democratic ads alleging that he lied about a land sale that he declined to pay taxes on.

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) still faces FBI scrutiny of his work as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and this month, his campaign filings showed that he has racked up $892,951.69 in legal fees since July.

And for the first time, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) reported significant legal fees -- $15,620.60 -- in his campaign filing this month, as he tries to stave off accusations that he used taxpayer-funded congressional staff and resources to do political work.

"winning hearts and minds" in Iraq

Excerpts from Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell's report on the Haditha incident (the killing of innocents).
Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes.

These comments had the potential to desensitize the Marines to concern for the Iraqi populace and portray them all as the enemy even if they are noncombatants.
Yet the Military says we cannot win in Iraq without winning the "hearts and mind" of the people.

and another republican scandal

The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Doherty, one of the two Education Department employees who oversaw the initiative, acknowledged yesterday that his wife had worked for a decade as a paid consultant for a reading program, Direct Instruction, that investigators said he improperly tried to force schools to use. He repeatedly failed to disclose the conflict on financial disclosure forms.

another neocon republican scandal

The World Bank's board on Friday delayed a final decision on bank chief Paul Wolfowitz's role in a promotion he arranged for his girlfriend and referred some issues to a committee for further investigation.

update Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq is 3,315, not including "conractors" and civilians,as is continuing.

USA like Germany?

What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. . .between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . .From Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1938-45

they are not civilized

The civilized republicans have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement. They rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their 'vital interests' are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death.

These people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the 'sanctity' of human life, or the conscience' of the civilized world. [3304 sacrificed (officially acknowledged) to date in Iraq.]

the religious right

The evangelical Christian movement conjures up a very negative picture is of a narrow, bigoted collection of pious people who wish to impose their politics and religion on the United States.

It is reinforced by the likes of James Dobson, an influential religious leader who recently pronounced a Republican presidential hopeful, Fred Thompson, as insufficiently Christian.

Warren's church draws more than 20,000 worshipers each Sunday, has a $30 million budget and his global offshoots are mushrooming. Dobson's Focus on the Family organization in Colorado publishes books, magazines and weekly newspaper columns and has a radio show.

Their approaches to American political and social life could not be more different.
Warren, to the consternation of some anti-abortionists on the religious right, invited Senator Barack Obama, Democratic of Illinois and a presidential candidate, to his church to talk about their mutual efforts to battle AIDS and world poverty. Warren is the establishment's favorite evangelical leader, comfortable going to Harvard and the Aspen Institute to preach about Jesus and tolerance.

"Dobson thrives on a role as a political kingmaker" said Charles Kimball, a religion professor at Wake Forest University, in North Carolina. And Dobson is willing to use almost any tactic, however incendiary and divisive. On his radio programs, publications and speeches, his favorite targets are gay civil unions, which Dobson would have you believe threaten the fabric of a moral society.

Dobson deeply immerses himself in Republican Party politics. He was part of a regular conference call with White House operatives during the 2004 campaign and was consulted by Karl Rove, the Bush adviser, before the nomination of two Supreme Court justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito. He has a close working relationship with a former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich.

Warren, though less political, resembles the Billy Graham, an evangelical minister, of an earlier generation. Graham drew the ire of fundamentalists in the 1960s by reaching across ecumenical and racial lines in his crusades.

Dobson is following in the footsteps of two preachers, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, the Batman and Robin of the religious right who have long traded on fear mongering and personal invective.

Ralph Reed, a creative religious-right political operative, once noted the movement succeeded by flying below the radar. Its leaders could rally the faithful without alienating the larger population.

That worked until they overreached. Reed, a victim of personal greed, was ensnared in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and rejected as a political candidate in his home state of Georgia.

Then there was the Terri Schiavo case, where the religious right browbeat the U.S. Congress into intervening, under false pretenses, to try to force the authorities to keep alive a brain-dead woman. Much of the American public was appalled. It was a turning point.

Republican 2008 candidates beware: It is going to be a lot harder to fly below the radar screen especially if you are traveling with Jim Dobson.

racism

Being an old white guy myself, I am always amazed and saddened when old white guys come to the defense of white guys who spew racist downers toward people of other races.

It goes to prove that racism is still alive and well in our country and will destroy it unless we quit trying to protect these nitwits

another Republican Scandal

World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz personally dictated the terms under which the bank gave what it called his "domestic partner" substantial pay raises and promotions in exchange for temporarily leaving her job there during his tenure, according to documents released by the bank's executive board yesterday.

Wolfowitz joined the bank in 2005 after working at the Pentagon, where as the neocon republican deputy defense secretary, he was a principal architect of the Iraq war.

winning hearts and minds

A preliminary U.S. military investigation indicates that more than 40 Afghans killed or wounded by Marines in a village near Jalalabad last month were civilians.

update Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America'sWar on Iraq continues to average about 3 a day and now totals 3,299.

if you join the military?

The decision to extend Army tours is a further buildup of a war that has no end in sight. The republican failed strategy in Iraq continues to stress U.S. forces to the breaking point.

Senior Army leaders have said it is approaching the breaking point. Military soldiers are were extended again and again and again, so finally no one believes them, Also if you join the military, you may not be able to get out when your term is up.

war without end

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America'sWar On Iraq is 3,282 and couting in the republican war without end that they started based on lies and manipulation.

a republican blunder

The invasion of Iraq was the biggest diplomatic blunder in the history of the United States. It is not worth the fight. The invasion of Iraq has brought on Civil War and genocide there and has placed the US troops in a meaningless meat grinder.

While we waste out blood and money in Iraq the terrorists are growing, the influence of the US is dwindling and our actual enemies are growing stronger. The War in Iraq has divided our allies and unified our enemies.

There is no historical evidence that setting a timetable for troop withdrawal will embolden the insurgents, the history of insurgencies proves this. The Irish were willing to wait for 750 years, the Spanish waited for 700 years and the Hindis waited for 1100 years. The Bush Administration has placed OUR foreign diplomatic future in the hands of the Iraqi Arabs who hate our guts.

war on or is?

Today's slogan, war on terrorism, reverses its true meaning. The US war on Iraq is based on lies making in unjustified, thus this WAR IS TERROISM.

republicans wanted war on Iraq

Just four months after the Sept. 11 attacks, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz dashed off a memo to a senior Pentagon colleague, demanding action to identify connections between Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime and al Qaeda.
Wolfowitz's memo, released Thursday, is included in a recently declassified report by the Pentagon's inspector general.

The memo marked the first days of what would become a controversial, yearlong Pentagon project (Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense) to convince the most senior levels of the Bush administration that Hussein and al Qaeda were linked -- a conclusion that was hotly disputed by U.S. intelligence agencies at the time and discredited in the years since.

same republican lie again

Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his LIES of al-Qaida links to Saddam Hussein's Iraq on Thursday as the Defense Department released a report citing more evidence that the prewar government did not cooperate with the terrorist group.

However, a declassified Pentagon report released Thursday said that interrogations of the deposed Iraqi leader and two of his former aides as well as seized Iraqi documents confirmed that the terrorist organization and the Saddam government were not working together before the invasion.

The Sept. 11 Commission's 2004 report also found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network during that period.

THEY TELL THE SAME LIES OVER AND OVER SO SOME WILL BELIEVE.

mispoke means lied

A local hospital source and a resident said six people, including two children and a woman, were killed in the missile strike on a home in the centre of the city, 110 miles south of Baghdad.

A former captain in the Scots Guards who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq describes both operations as troops are dying in Iraq for a 'doomed project' and a political and military shambles in a book to be published next week. 3275 SACRIFICED AND INCREASING.

U.S. Senator John McCain said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday he misspoke in his recent upbeat comments about security in Baghdad, where he traveled under heavy military protection. Did you notice that when these republicans lie and they get caught in it, they always say they "misspoke"?

republican progress in Iraq?

The number of Americans killed in combat or other violence rose to 53 in Baghdad in the first seven weeks of the push, from Feb. 14 to April 2. That is up from 29 in the seven weeks before then.

one reason for wars?

The power and influence of Israel and the Zionist power influence US political institutions (Congress, the Executive branch, the mass media, the two major political parties and electoral processes), their economic leverage on investment and financial institutions (state and trade union pension funds, investment banks), their cultural domination of journals, the performing arts, magazines, films and newspapers.

Zionist political, economic and cultural power is directed exclusively toward maximizing Israel’s military, economic and political expansion and superiority in the Middle East even when it conflicts with other US imperialist interests.

McCain

The delegation, led by Senator John McCain, arrived at Shorja market on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armoured vehicles as attack helicopters circled overhead. Soldiers redirected traffic, restricted access to the Americans and sharpshooters were posted on the rooftops.

They wore bulletproof vests throughout their hour-long visit. Then he prclaimed prgress in Iraq because he could walk down that street. What a phoney shill for continuing the Republican War without end.

the Iraq mess

Donald Vance2007 recipient of the Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize

Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran, had been a long-time supporter of the war in Iraq. But that changed last April when, serving as a security contractor in Baghdad, he was detained by U.S. forces and held without charges for more than three months at Camp Cropper, one of Iraq’s most notorious military prison camps.

There, Vance and a colleague, Nathan Ertel, were denied counsel and were largely prevented from communicating with the outside world. They were held in isolation in extremely cold cells without adequate clothing or blankets.

Vance was also subjected to sleep deprivation, interrogation for hours and periodically denied food and water for long periods. The U.S. military eventually released both Vance and Ertel without explanation, admitting that they had done nothing wrong.
Vance secretly kept notes on his time at Camp Cropper and smuggled them out in a Bible.

He took his story public in December, offering a detailed and verifiable account of his experiences to the New York Times. His report has provided a rare and credible inside account of the Pentagon’s detention operations — and is one of only a few stories to emerge since the abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib.

Vance has also filed a lawsuit in federal court, charging former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the government with torture and violating Vance’s rights of habeas corpus.

Ironically, Vance was arrested in a military sweep that he helped to instigate. An employee of Shield Group Security at the time of his arrest, Vance had been working as an unpaid informant for the F.B.I., sending reports about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including possible illegal weapons trading.

When American soldiers raided the company, Vance and Ertel were arrested and detained with the others. For reasons that are still unclear, the military failed to believe or act on Vance’s story, holding him even after the F.B.I. confirmed Vance’s activities were legal and that he had been acting in the interests of the U.S. government.

Vance, a resident of Chicago, joined the U.S. Navy after graduating high school. He started doing security work in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. He is working on a book about his experiences in Iraq.

Iraq continues

Number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in the fifth year of America's Republican war on Iraq is 3,257 killed, not counting the "contractors", the 30-40 thousand wounded and all the Iraquis.

war,war,war

If the republican war is enlarged in the next 20 months to include Iran -- if that happens -- for the next 20 years the United States is going to be bogged down in a war which spans Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and then you can forget about American global leadership, regardless of which party governs the USA.

how they sell war

These republicans promoted the misguided and destructive war in Iraq by targeting our concerns about vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. The continued occupation of Iraq or an attack on Iran will likely be sold to us in much the same way.

USA vs. Iranian hostages

No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilized.

update Iraq

3246 brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers sacrificed and thousands wounded for life ,and the beat goes on in the fifth year of this republican war.

dead in Iraq?

A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.

It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.

more republican justice?

About one-third of the nearly four dozen U.S. attorney's jobs that have changed hands since President Bush began his second term have been filled by the White House and the Justice Department with trusted administration insiders.

No other administration in contemporary times has had such a clear pattern of filling chief prosecutors' jobs with its own staff members, said experts on U.S. attorney's offices.

Those experts said the emphasis in appointments traditionally has been on local roots and deference to home-state senators, whose support has been crucial to win confirmation of the nominees.

"If we have eight U.S. attorneys dismissed because they were not 'loyal Bushies,' then how many of the remaining U.S. attorneys are?" asked Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), borrowing a phrase that Gonzales's former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, used in an internal e-mail to describe criteria by which prosecutors were chosen to be fired.

These jobs are serious prosecutorial jobs that require judgment and an understanding of the laws that are to be enforced. They are not meant to be steppingstones, or to give people turns at political jobs.

more republican scandals

oh, these republicans:
1. "The national forest planning rules are like the Constitution for our national forests, and the Bush administration tried to throw out the Bill of Rights," said Earthjustice lawyer Trent Orr, who argued the case before the court on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club and the Vermont Natural Resources Council.

2. IT LOOKS LIKE another story of endangered ethics on the Bush administration's environmental staff. Last week the Interior Department's inspector general submitted the results of an investigation of Julie A. MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, to congressional overseers.They should investigate for themselves the document's troubling descriptions and take action to ensure that Ms. MacDonald and other managers at Interior make policy fit the science, not the other way around.

republicans work fast

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform grilled General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan on Wednesday over allegations that she tried to give a no-bid job to a business associate, intervened in a contract dispute with a technology company, and had a White House official brief top political appointees at the agency on targeting Democrats and helping Republicans in 2008. All that in just 10 months running the agency.

republicans and the law

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought more information yesterday about a presentation by a White House aide given to political appointees at the General Services Administration that discussed targeting 20 Democratic congressional candidates in the next election.

Six political appointees at the GSA who participated in the videoconference said Doan asked at the conclusion how the agency could help GOP candidates win in the next elections, according to a letter Waxman sent to Doan. This may violate the law.

how republicans govern

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought more information yesterday about a presentation by a White House aide given to political appointees at the General Services Administration that discussed targeting 20 Democratic congressional candidates in the next election.

At a hearing Wednesday about the GSA, Waxman said the presentation and follow-up remarks allegedly made by agency chief Lurita Alexis Doan may have violated the Hatch Act, a law that restricts federal agencies and employees from using their positions for political purposes.

republican religious hypocrisy

To her detractors, Monica Goodling was an enforcer of political loyalty who was not squeamish about firings -- of interns or of senior officials. "She forced many very talented, career people out of main Justice so she could replace them with junior people that were either loyal to the administration or would score her some points," said a former career Justice official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Goodling, now on an indefinite leave, most recently served as senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and as Justice's liaison to the White House.

Her name appears on several e-mails about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are eager to ask her about those dismissals.

Goodling enrolled in law school at American University but transferred to Regent, founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson in Virginia Beach.

Apparently, she is one of those hypocritical religious republican conservatives that tout their "faith" but refuse to tell the truth by taking the fifth and refusing to testify.
Figures!

republicans and voting

The charge against these republicans is not that they fired prosecutors for 'political' reasons.

The charge is that they fired Federal prosecutors for not using their law enforcement powers to help the Republican party.

A destructive pattern of partisan political actions at the Justice Department started long before this incident, however.. Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.

Iran & neocon republicans

Former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi chillingly noted that the Pentagon's plans to attack Iran were drawn up "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States." Writing in The American Conservative in August 2005, Giraldi added, "The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.

Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites ... As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States.
Chew on that one a minute.

The Pentagon's plan would be in response to a terrorist attack on the US, but not contingent upon Iran actually having been responsible. How outlandish is this scenario: another 9/11 hits the US, the administration says it has secret information implicating Iran, the US population demands retribution and bombs start dropping on Tehran.

more on Nazi Germany USA

In addition to the OFAC list, there exists a
TIDE List , (Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment), for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States.

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean.

The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state and local law enforcementr. But they have become a source of irritation -- and potentially more serious consequences -- for many U.S. citizens and visitors.

TIDE is a vacuum cleaner for both proven and unproven information, and its managers disclaim responsibility for how other agencies use the data.

Nazi Germany USA

Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists,
Office of Foreign Asset Control's list (OFAC List) made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list.

Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

The lawyers' committee has documented at least a dozen cases in which U.S. customers have had transactions denied or delayed because their names were a partial match with a name on the list, which runs more than 250 pages and includes 3,300 groups and individuals.

The lawyers' committee documented other cases, including that of a couple in Phoenix who were about to close on their first home, only to be told the sale could not proceed because the husband's first and last names -- common Hispanic names -- matched an entry on the OFAC list.

Reminds me of Nazi Germany, republican (Bush-Rove-Cheney) style.

Iraq

3241

liars all?

Gonzales said earlier this month that he had not seen any memos or participated in discussions about the removal of eight U.S. attorneys, characterizing himself as detached from the details of the plan. But the new documents released by the Justice Department late Friday show that Gonzales held an hour-long meeting with his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, and three aides just 10 days before seven of the dismissals were carried out, on Dec. 7.

The documents are the latest disclosure to conflict with the Justice Department's version of events. They undermine days of effort by the White House and the department to shift attention away from the issue.

republican spin

The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us.

more republican lies

Although President Bush said Saturday that he wants Gonzales to remain in his post, political support for that position continued to erode yesterday because of the disclosure Friday that Gonzales had chaired a November meeting where the firings were discussed -- contrary to Gonzales's past assertion that he was "not involved in any discussions about what was going on." Why don't we just admit "HE LIED." like they all do.

tip of the iceberg?

Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.

The committee's examination of the Jan. 26 videoconference could raise questions about the role of Jennings, the White House official who works for Rove.

After Jennings and Doan spoke during the videoconference, one regional GSA administrator offered the suggestion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could be excluded from the opening of an environmentally efficient federal courthouse in San Francisco, which Pelosi represents, according to Waxman's letter. GSA manages the nation's federal courthouses.

Jennings's name has recently surfaced in investigations of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys around the country. He communicated with Justice Department officials concerning the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide, as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, according to e-mails released this month.

For that exchange, Jennings, although working at the White House, used an e-mail account registered to the Republican National Committee, where Griffin had worked as a political opposition researcher.Jennings is a longtime political operative from Kentucky.

He served as political director for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2002 before joining the White House. The stink grows.

republican ignorance of Iraq

The longer the Americans remain in Iraq, the more violence the Americans bring down on Iraq, and the more the Americans are seen as facilitating the persecution of the Sunnis by the Shiites, the more legitimate the call of the Wahhabi fanatics become.

While Republican strategists may speak of the rise of al-Qaida in Iraq, this is ignorance of what is really happening. Rather than foreigners arriving and spreading Wahhabism in Iraq, the virulent sect of Islamic fundamentalism is spreading on its own volition, assisted by the incompetence and brutality of an American occupation completely ignorant of the reality of the land and people it occupies. This is the true significance of Baghdad,

supporting the troops?

Three troops a day are killed in Iraq in their civil war each month approximately 500 are listed as casualties (ten times more are unlisted casualties who suffer physical, emotional and mental injuries from Iraq) and countless numbers of Iraqis are killed every day.

So, when we call for a withdrawal by August 31, 2008, it means there will be 1,500 more U.S. troops killed, more than 8,000 officially injured and many tens of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men killed. In 2007, if the supplemental passes, Congress will have appropriated $165 billion, and in 2008 it is likely much more will be spent.

AND still the republicans resist. How are THEY supporting the troops?

update Iraq

The number of only U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America'sWar On Iraq to date is 3,236, and counting.

justice, republican style

In the aftermath of the surprise firing of U.S. Attorney Margaret M. Chiara, questions outnumber answers. Was she dismissed for political reasons? For poor performance? To make way for someone else? Western Michigan's legal community does not know what to think.

Michael H. Dettmer,a lawyer in Traverse City, Michigan, described Chiara as "a very competent manager." Asked about the assertion by Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty that Chiara's forced resignation stemmed from poor performance, Dettmer said, "It's not performance-related unless you're not performing as a puppet for the people in Washington in the Justice Department."

common sense vs.more lies

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met with senior aides on Nov. 27 to review a plan to fire a group of U.S. attorneys, according to documents released last night, a disclosure that contradicts Gonzales's previous statement that he was not involved in "any discussions" about the dismissals.

Some of the prosecutors have objected to McNulty's assertion that the firings were related to their performance, and two have alleged that they were pressured by elected officials over the political corruption investigations of REPUBLICANS they were conducting.

Republican Attorney General Gonzales and other Justice Department officials have said that his chief assistant Sampson quit because he withheld information from other officials and Sampson's action may have led them to give misleading testimony before Congress.

Sampson's attorney has disputed that characterization and has said that others in the Justice Department were fully aware of "several years" of discussions with the White House about dismissing the prosecutors.

Common sense tells us that more lies will be forthcoming.

torture

To the amazement of the audience, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said, with a twinkle in his eye, that "Americans don't mind torture, they really don’t." Then he smiled broadly, almost gleefully, and said that the US had used certain interrogation techniques on "Shaikh Mohammed, one of the "high value" targets," techniques that "you really don't want to know about, but they got really good results."

So what's the problem? With torture, you can get a subject to confess to anything and everything just to stoop the torture.

That's the problem, AND it is a sick society that condones it.

Afghanistan

Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under U.S. investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country early, officials said Friday.

A spokesman for the Marine unit, Maj. Cliff Gilmore, said that it is in the process of leaving Afghanistan but he declined to provide details on the timing and new location, citing a need to preserve security.

As many as 10 Afghans were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made an escape. Injured Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away.

iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 3,234

our greatest danger

Only with the complicity of Congress have we become a nation of pre-emptive war, secret military tribunals, torture, rejection of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, undue government secrecy, extraordinary renditions, and uncontrollable spying on the American people.

The greatest danger we face is ourselves: what we are doing in the name of providing security for a people made fearful by distortions of facts. Fighting over there has nothing to do with preserving freedoms here at home.

use Justice to get Hillary?

Some of the thousands of pages of e-mails released this week underscore the extraordinary planning and effort, at the highest levels of the Justice Department and White House, to secure Rove aide Griffin, a job running one of the smaller U.S. attorney's offices in the country.

New documents also show that Justice, Rove and other White House officials were preparing for President Bush's approval of the appointment as early as last summer, five months before Griffin took the job.

They tried to cover their tracks and mislead Congress That has turned this into a fiasco for them. I think the others were just part of a smoke screen Why? read on.

Documents show that Arkansas Federal Attorney Cummins was clearly a target of Sampson's. He was recommended for removal as early as March 2005.

Within days, the e-mails show, Justice officials had arranged to hire Griffin into a political position in headquarters, at a salary of $142,900, then transfer him immediately to work in the U.S. attorney's office in Little Rock and await his nomination.

Did these Republican Neocons use the US Attorney's Office to move a Rove political operative into Arkansas because of Hillary Clinton? Use your common sense

update Iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 3,228

Limbaugh and hell

I have heard some awful comments from Rush Limbaugh but his comments about the John Edwards and Mrs. Edward's cancer are the most despicable I have ever heard from a commentator. He must surely be going to hell with the rest of his ilk.