politicians not for us

We have a government that will do what it wants to do for the next two years.The worst is yet to come. From the present vantage point, it certainly seems a daunting challenge for any President (or Congress) from either party even to begin the task of dismantling the military-industrial complex, ending the pall of national security" secrecy and the "black budgets" that make public oversight of what our government does impossible, and bringing the President's secret army, the CIA, under democratic control.

The nation is built on a capitalistic system where the big corporations control the entire economy, including the US government. Big corporations finance the political campaigns of every elected public official who in turn tends to protect corporate interests first and foremost

republicans--please read

Article I of our Constitution gives Congress not merely the power of the purse. It vests in the House and Senate the authority to "declare war," to "make rules concerning captures on land and water," to "provide for the common defense," to "raise and support Armies," and to "make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces."

In addition, the Senate advises and consents on important military appointments, which is why Lt. Gen. David Petraeus was on Capitol Hill last week for confirmation as the general in command of U.S. forces in Iraq.

War is a shared responsibility. The records of the 1787 convention at which the Constitution was drafted unquestionably demonstrate that. An early version of Article I, for example, gave Congress the power to "make war."

republicans rush to another war

The Bush administration’s urge to provoke Iran is as unmistakable as its preparations for a wider war. Nearly every day, the White House sends obvious signals of belligerence to Tehran, with the same drumbeat heard during the months that led up to the invasion of Iraq.

The President announces that he will deploy Patriot batteries to the region, which can only be useful in shooting down Iranian missiles. The President sends another carrier battle group to the Gulf, with an air wing poised to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

The President replaces the four-star Army officer running Central Command, the Middle East region, with a Navy admiral whose specialty is naval air combat. The President orders an armed raid on an Iranian diplomatic office in northern Iraq, which nearly results in a shootout with Kurdish troops.

According to Mohammed ElBaradei—the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose assessment of Iraq’s feeble nuclear program proved correct—the Iranians have no hope of producing an atomic weapon within the next five years. So the rush to war seems premature.

those for more war

Politicians McCain, Graham, Lieberman, McConnell, Cornyn, and Vitter are currently pushing additional troops for their war on Iraq.

republicans after another war?

As Washington grows weaker in Iraq, it is concerned that Iran not pick up the pieces and establish hegemony over its smaller neighbor. The Bush administration may also be casting about for some issue that will galvanize the American public and give it a pretext to expand its presence in Iraq despite how badly the war has gone.

Any leaders of a failing war effort are always tempted by a strategy of escalation. Announcing open hunting season on all Iranian visitors to Iraq is like playing Frisbee with nitroglycerin. Bush has gone looking for trouble and is likely to find it.

spying on you

The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.
Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."

prtection of public iffy now?

President Bush has signed a little-noticed directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
Consumer, labor and environmental groups denounced the executive order, saying it gave too much control to the White House and would hinder agencies’ efforts to protect the public. Rationale for impeachment?

another testimony re Libby the liar

The former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer today contradicted the account of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, on when Mr. Libby first learned the identity of a C.I.A. agent.

republican liars

Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified Tuesday about two conversations with Libby, Cheney's then Chief of Staff) regarding Plame before Libby told investigators he was surprised to learn about Plame from NBC reporter Tim Russert. She testified that he said Wilson’s wife worked for the "bureau," Miller recalled.

She also said Libby also mentioned that Wilson’s wife worked for a CIA division specializing in weapons of mass destruction before he claimed he heard it from Tim Russet.
When the bosses lie it motivates the underlings to lie also.

Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, s debunked some of the intelligence that was used by Cheney and Bush to justify the war.

McCain double talk

Click on or copy the below into your browser to see that the McCain straight talk is actually double talk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI

grounds for impeachment?

These Republicans are trying to goad Iran in to a fight thereby achieving their strategy which is..., if you can't win the small one, enlarge the problem. I offer proof as follows:

They are trying to goad Iran by seizing Iranians in Iraq .

They are trying to focus the country’s attention away from their misconduct in a war gone bad in Iraq toward Iran.

They have sent warship to patrol off the coast of and threaten Iran.

They are trying to stop European and Japanese banks from lending money to Iran’s oil sector, thereby starving Iran of funds it needs to borrow to modernize its oil industry.

They are attempting to create a diversion and shift the blame for the spiraling chaos in Iraq to Iran.

Check out the current trial of Cheney aide, Libby, for testimony on how Cheney, among others, carefully selected intelligence for use in a political campaign to make the case against Iraq and compare with what they are doing and saying NOW about Iran. Grounds for impeachment?

republican excuses revised

It’s not the American people or the U.S. Congress who are emboldening the enemy, It’s the failed policy of this these Republicanst — going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely based on lies and deception.

Cheney again cited "significant progress" in Iraq and said the war is part of a long-term fight against extreme elements of Islam.

Oh, its now not WMD's in Iraq, spreading democracy in Iraq, or oil. These Repubicans have found a new excuse.

impeach these dictators if

The Bush Regime has made it clear that it is convinced that Bush already has the authority to attack Iran. The Regime argues that the authority is part of Bush’s commander-in-chief powers.

Congress has authorized the war in Iraq, and Bush’s recent public statements have shifted the responsibility for the Iraqi insurgency from al-Qaeda to Iran. Iran, Bush has declared, is killing US troops in Iraq. Thus, Iran is covered under the authorization for the war in Iraq.

Both Bush and Cheney have made it clear in public statements that they will ignore any congressional opposition to their war plans. For example, CBS News reported (Jan. 25) that Cheney said that a congressional resolution against escalating the war in Iraq “won’t stop us.”

According to the Associated Press and Yahoo News, Bush dismissed congressional disapproval with his statement, “I’m the decision-maker.”

Theatening other countries just makes them need the bomb more. Impeach Bush and Cheney if they widen the war on Iraq.

Dear Mr. President:

Dear Mr. President:
In a recent appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General John Abizaid, our top commander for Iraq and the region, said the following when asked about whether he thought more troops would contribute to our chances for success in Iraq:
"I met with every divisional commander, General Casey, the Corps commander, General Dempsey. We all talked together. And I said, in your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq? And they all said no. And the reason is, because we want the Iraqis to do more. It's easy for the Iraqis to rely upon to us do this work. I believe that more American forces prevent the Iraqis from doing more, from taking more responsibility for their own future."

Rather than deploy additional forces to Iraq, I believe the way forward is to begin the phased redeployment of our forces in the next four to six months, while shifting the principal mission of our forces there from combat to training, logistics, force protection and counter-terror. A renewed diplomatic strategy, both within the region and beyond, is also required to help the Iraqis agree to a sustainable political settlement.
Yours truly,

torture, update Iraq,pray

We knew if the Canadian citizen was sent to Canada, he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held and he'd be investigated. We also knew if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. Yet, he was sent to Syria. It's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured.

That has happened a number of times in the past five years by our country controlled by these Republicans. . It is a black mark on us; it has brought about the condemnation of some of our closest and best allies. We cannot defeat terrorism all by ourselves.

We need allies and they won't support us or cooperate if we continue to torture. How stupid are these people?

The number of U.S. Military Personnel they will admit to having sacrificed in America's War On Iraq now stands at 3,075, and counting, not including mercenaries ("contractors") wounded, and innocent Iraqi women and children.

We had better pray that God is a merciful God!

pray for forgiveness

We never see the smoke and the fire, we never smell the blood, we never see the terror in the eyes of the children, whose nightmares will now feature screaming missiles from unseen terrorists known as Americans killing innocent women and children. We pray to God to forgive you if you are for this immoral war.

neocons in 1998

Check out the PNAC letter,document, advocating Middle East domination signed by the neocons in 1998 : Elliott Abrams, Richard L. Armitage, William J. Bennett, Jeffrey Bergner, John Bolton, Paula Dobriansky, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad--former UNOCAL employee, Zalmay Khalilza, William Kristol, Richard Perle, Peter W. Rodman, Donald Rumsfeld, William Schneider, Jr., Vin Weber, Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, and Robert B. Zoellick .

polls,Iraq,more troops, mercenaries

Following his State of the Union address, President Bush’s approval rating hits a new low .The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that he was working to accelerate the deployment of 21,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, suggesting that the influx of American troops is no longer contingent upon the Iraqi government fulfilling its commitments for Baghdad security operations.

In addition, did you know that there are over 25,000 American mercenaries ,civilian "contractors," providing "security" for money that are not subject to the US Military Laws?

Iraq, follow the money

Whatever the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, business is booming. Not long after Bush took office, Lockheed Martin's revenues soared by more than 30 percent, as it was awarded $17 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense, a far cry from the lean years of the Clinton administration.

Under Clinton, it did win $2 billion in contracts with the Department of Energy for nuclear weapons activity; recently Bush called for 125 new nukes a year, opening up new contract horizons in that area, as well.

Its stock went from 16.375 in October of 1999 to 71.52 in June of 2002. As professor of finance at the State University at Buffalo Michael Rozeff observes, "the stock market anticipates many events."

Lockheed Martin reported 2002 sales of $26.6 billion, a backlog of more than $70 billion and free cash of $1.7 billion. And that was before the war in Iraq.

Dick Cheney's son-in-law, Philip J. Perry, a registered Lockheed lobbyist who had, while working for a law firm, represented Lockheed with the Department of Homeland Security, had been nominated by Bush to serve as general counsel to the Department of Homeland Security. His wife, Elizabeth Cheney, serves as deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs.

Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, had, until her husband took office, served on the board of Lockheed, receiving deferred compensation in the form of half a million dollars in stock and fees. Even President Bush himself has a Lockheed Martin connection. As governor of Texas, he had attempted to give Lockheed a multimillion-dollar contract to reform the state's welfare system. ( THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG)

Bush and Rove

Libby’s lawyer, Ted Wells, laid out a defense resting on the idea that his client, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, had been made a “scapegoat” to protect Rove.
Cheney is expected to provide the most crucial testimony to back up Wells’s assertion, one of the lawyers close to the case said. The vice president personally penned an October 2003 note in which he wrote, “Not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the other.”

The note, read aloud in court by Wells, implied that Libby was the one being sacrificed in an effort to clear Rove of any role in leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq war critic Joe Wilson.

“Wow, for all the talk about this being a White House that prides itself on loyalty and discipline, you’re not seeing much of it,” the lawyer said.

Democratic Iraq plan

Democrats have united around three basic goals: shifting the primary U.S. mission in Iraq from combat to the training of Iraqis, beginning a "phased redeployment" of U.S. combat forces from Iraq within the next six months and implementing "an aggressive diplomatic strategy" in the region and beyond.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution, Hoyer said Bush's war effort in Iraq represents "the most incompetent implementation of American foreign policy in my lifetime."

more hypocrisy and lies

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" striking a far more combative tone than President Bush did in his State of the Union address the night before. "My God man, wake up from your state of denial and quit trying to fool us with more hypocrisy and lies.

Iraq update

Number of U.S. Military Personnel officially admitted to have been sacrificed in the Republican war on Iraq is 3,062 and counting.

McCain, too late

With his presidential hopes tied to an administration whose Iraq policy he supports but cannot control, John McCain for the first time blamed Vice President Cheney for what McCain calls the "witch's brew" of a "terribly mishandled" war in which U.S. forces are on the verge of defeat.
McCain also for the first time opened the door to the possibility of a U.S. troop pullback to the borders of Iraq should the president's planned troop surge fail. McCain is too late to wake up and smell the roses.

update Iraq

The number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed and officially allowed to be acknowledged in this Republican war On Iraq is 3,059 and counting.

nice people aren't they?

On January 28, 2003 President Bush delivered his State of the Union address, which included the infamous "sixteen words" asserting that, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." That was a lie and he knew it when he read it, from Ambassador Joe Wilson's prior investigation so they outed his wife who was a CIA operative. Nice people aren't they?
,

iraq

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged)
In America'sWar On Iraq 3,05

impeach

If we go into the next presidency having established that a president can lie us into war, spy on us in violation of the law, detain without charge, and torture, we will be throwing away the democracy we've struggled to keep and expand for over 200 years. We all have a solemn duty to work for the impeachment of men who have made our executive branch of government into a monarchy.

impeach gonzales

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the nation's top law enforcement official, has authorized war crimes, dismissed the Geneva Conventions, redefined torture to allow most types of torture, helped establish military commissions that deny defendants the right to a fair trial, claimed the U.S. Constitution does not provide the right to habeas corpus, and defended violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

update Iraq

The U.S. military announced the deaths of 16 soldiers, including 13 killed on Saturday when a helicopter went down northeast of Baghdad. The total number of U.S. Military Personnel sacrificed (officially acknowledged) in America's War On Iraq is 3,041 and counting..

real cost of Iraq passed to your children

The US is spending about $10 billion a month on Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of this year, the total funds appropriated will be nearly $600 billion – approaching the amount spent on the Vietnam or Korean wars, when adjusted for inflation.

Because the US is borrowing to finance the war, the cost will be borne by future generations. "And it's still going to be one of the most expensive wars we have ever fought," he says.

Unlike in previous major wars, the United States has cut taxes at the same time it has increased military spending. "It's fair to say all of the money spent on the war has been borrowed," says Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington.

But eventually everything has to be paid for. Congress looks only at its cash outlays, not at the war's future costs. For example, an estimated 42,000 light trucks are in use in Iraq. Although it costs something to run them, the major cost will be replacing them. "That's not factored into the cost of the war," she says. The same is true of the cost of taking care of injured veterans in the future.

can you believe it?

Newsnight has uncovered an extraordinary letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran offers to withdraw military backing for Hamas and Hezbollah as well as give open access to their nuclear facilities, but Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.

the truth about Iraq

The truth: There is only one U.S. policy guaranteed to work if we are resolved to keep Iraq in the U.S. camp. That is to send an army of 500,000 to 750,000 U.S. troops into Iraq for an indefinite period, to pacify Baghdad, retake and hold Anbar and secure the borders against jihadis.

Even that kind of commitment, beyond the present capacity of the U.S. Army and Marines, would not secure America's position, once the inevitable withdrawal began.

It is over. What we need to face now are the consequence of the folly of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice in launching this unnecessary and unprovoked war, the folly of the neocon snake oil salesmen who bamboozled the media into believing in this insane crusade to bring democracy to Baghdad in the belly of Bradley fighting vehicles and the folly of the Democratic establishment in handing Bush a blank check for war out of political fear of being called unpatriotic.

how can we stop it?

It a system of savage capitalism at its worst, bordering on the tipping edge of fascism. It's based on corporatism, patriotism and nationalism backed by iron-fisted militarism and "homeland security" enforcers. It's waging a permanent war on humanity, intolerant of dissent and opposition in an age where the law is what the chief executive says it is and
checks and balances no longer exist.

and how much goes unreported?

A U.S. Marine pleaded guilty on Thursday to shooting a defenseless Iraqi grandfather dragged from his house in the middle of the night in what his squad informally called "Operation Vigilante."

all about oil for corporations

The mounting U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries may enable Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, UNOCAL, and other giant corporations to lay claim to "the number-one prize in world oil." But the extension of U.S. military power and economic domination into this region comes with very grave risks.

chickens coming home to roost

The real significance of the Libby trial is that it could demonstrate how far George W. Bush went in 2003 to shut down legitimate criticism of his Iraq War policies as well as questions about his personal honesty

Iraq War--a sham and shame on us

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 3,020.

President Bush was driven by a visceral hatred of Saddam Hussein, which he privately demonstrated in expletive-laden tirades against the Iraqi dictator. In May 2002--months before he asked Congress for authority to attack Saddam-Bush bluntly revealed his ultimate game plan in a candid moment with two aides.

When told that reporter Helen Thomas was questioning the need to oust Saddam by force, Bush snapped: "Did you tell her I intend to kick his sorry mother fucking ass all over the Mideast?"

HUBRIS connects the dots between George W. Bush's outbursts at Saddam Hussein, the bitter battles between the CIA and the White House, the fights within the intelligence community over Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the real reason Valerie Plame was outed, and a top reporter's ties to wily Iraqi exiles trying to start a war.

Written by veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, this is the inside story of how President Bush took the nation to war using faulty and fraudulent intelligence. It is a news-making account of conspiracy, backstabbing, bureaucratic ineptitude, journalistic malfeasance, and, especially, arrogance.

democrats trying to stop corruption

The new Chair of the Judiciary Committee has his set his sights on a real crack-down on the fraudulent reconstruction program. His War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 would create "criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world."

Leahy cited many allegations of fraud and abuse by contractors previously noted here, including Custer Battles bilking the government out of $50 million; overcharges and fraud by Halliburton and subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (and here); and Northrop Grumman and Bechtel's continuing to win sweetheart deals despite recent massive fines and corruption. And, of course, the billions of dollars that has simply gone missing.

repblicans lining their pockets

After the first Gulf War, Iraqis re-established electricity within three months, despite sanctions. Four years into the US occupation there is no water, nor reliable electricity in Baghdad.

Corruption, waste and profiteering marks the failed Iraqi Reconstruction effort – over $50 billion spent on private contractors with little return and billions unaccounted for.

Not only did the Republican Congress turn its back on its Constitutional responsibility for oversight, it even attempted to surreptitiously oust the one individual who was uncovering some of the corruption – Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen.

republicans don't respect rule of law

Having twice been told by the United States Supreme Court that its detention policies at the Guantánamo Bay detention camps are unlawful, the Administration has now launched an attack on the lawyers representing those detainees.

In a radio interview yesterday, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, Cully Stimson, said that major American law firms would suffer financially once that representation became know to the firm's corporate clients. To speed that process along, he then read on the air a list of prominent law firms that have been involved in the Guantánamo litigation.

What is truly "shocking" is that a senior Administration official would demonstrate so little appreciation for the role of lawyers and the rule of law. Five years after the first detainees were brought to Guantánamo and denied any access to lawyers until the courts intervened, the Administration seems either unable or unwilling to learn from its past mistakes. What Mr. Stimson condemns are precisely the values we should be trying to defend in the war on terror.

republicans never learn

The dynamics of the Middle East region have also changed over the years, and it is no longer clear what the payoff is for Washington in return for overlooking rights violations. It is not certain, for example, that the Egypt of 2007 can deliver the kind of influence it once wielded when it was seen as the political and cultural center of the Arab world.

The United States is so unpopular in the region now, that its support is enough to undermine a government’s legitimacy with its public. We forget that the USA interferred in the government of Iran as far back as the 1950s. The CIA fueled coups that led to overthrow of the democratically elected governments of Mohammed Mosedegh in Iran because he wanted to nationalize their own oil. We are again interferring over there. We continue to reap what we sew. When will we ever learn?

these Republicans want more war

Speculation in Washington focuses on when, not if, either Israel or the U.S. will bomb Iran-- possibly with nuclear weapons. Bush announced the deployment of an additional aircraft carrier battle group to the Persian Gulf, and the deployment of Patriot air missile defense systems to countries in the Middle East.

The accusation sounds very familiar: namely, that Iran possesses weapons of mass destruction. Iran has never been found in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and our own Central Intelligence Agency says Iran is more than ten years away from producing any kind of nuclear weapon. Yet we are told we must act immediately while we still can!

The truth is that Iran, like Iraq, is a third-world nation without a significant military. Nothing in history hints that she is likely to invade a neighboring country, let alone America or Israel. I am concerned, however, that a contrived Gulf of Tonkin- type incident may occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran. How do we stop these republicans?

struts and smirks

When are the American people and their representatives in Congress and the military going to wake up and realize that the US has a war criminal in the White House who is destroying all chances for peace in the world and establishing a police state in the US?

How many innocent women and children are being slaughtered? How many caskets of our soldiers have you seen? Why don't we don't see these questions answered in the media?? Oh, but we see a lot of Bush as he struts and smirks. And I thought we have a free press!

violence we do will be returned

As a fresh wave of U.S. troops heads to Baghdad—part of a last-ditch "surge" meant to stabilize and rebuild the Iraqi capital—it's worth asking whether we've already lost the larger battle in Iraq. They say don't talk about the past--that's because they want us to forget we are in Iraq because of THEIR lies, incompetence,and deceit.

The ongoing violence is creating a generation that is undereducated, unemployed, traumatized and, among boys in particular, ripe for the vengeful appeals of militias and insurgent groups. Already some of these kids are taking up arms—mostly against members of the opposite sect, whether Sunni or Shia, but often against American troops as well.

Instead of training them to rebuild their country, they are being trained to use weapons to destroy it. If the pattern isn't changed, we will be fighting these same youths in the future for peace in the Middle East. What goes around comes around.

Democrats pass bills for the people

So far, the Democratic House of Representatives have passed important bills that: tighten budget deficit-control rules. make homeland security measures more stringent, allow Medicare prescription-drug negotiations, raise the minimum wage, allow funding of stem cell research. The Repubican Leaders opposed them all but some Republicans defected. Hurrah to Democrats for representing the people.

republican neo-cons jump off this war for another

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan, said a rueful John F. Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs. George W. Bush knows today whereof his predecessor spoke. For as he prepares to "surge" 20,000 more U.S. troops into a war even he concedes we "are not winning," his erstwhile acolytes have begun to abandon him to salvage their own tattered reputations.

Remember these republican neoconservatives who are now abandoning Bush to leave him swinging in the wind by himself. Google the following names if you want to see their excuses: Ken Adelman, Professor Eliot Cohen of Johns Hopkins, Richard Perle, Frank Gaffney, David Frum, James Woolsey, the ex-CIA director.

Almost all the neocons have now departed the seats of power in the Bush administration and retreated to their sinecures at Washington think tanks, to plot the next war – on Iran.

Meanwhile, brave young Americans, the true idealists and the casualties of the neocons' war, come home in caskets, 20 a week, to Dover and, at Walter Reed, or learn to walk again on steel legs.

no more votes for McCain

I made a mistake. In the past, I voted for John McCain. Fool me once shame on him. Fool me twice shame on me. I knew he was raised in the culture of war and military solution. I thought he learned, being a POW. He has now revealed himself as a war hawk to a situation in Iraq that needs a political solution, and he apparently is not willing to see the difference. I was wrong. Too bad. No more votes for Mc Cain, ever.

culture of war vs peace

The Iraqi War is heading toward becoming another Vietnam War where the Americans would eventually leave after having had thousands of their young men and women massacred and after having inflicted tremendous crucial suffering and death on millions of Iraqis.

Those that were born and raised in the culture of war like the current US President cannot comprehend that what goes around comes around. They cannot understand what the Master Teacher of Nazareth said: What you do to others it will be done to you afterwards. They reject categorically what the same Master Teacher of Nazareth said that he who kills by the sword will die by the sword.

pray for the USA

read today: Sometimes you look around and wonder how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. America has become the antithesis of everything she purports to be. We are the greatest purveyors of violence the world has ever known; the largest weapons dealers on earth; and death and misery are our principal exports. Everything is for sale here, even men’s tormented souls—at least, those who still possess them.

Our imperial leader, an impish little man with clear sociopathic symptoms, is incapable of empathy for the struggles of the common people, as those born into wealth and privilege often are. The man with his finger on the nuclear detonator is mentally ill, incapable of remorse—a fact that should terrify every world citizen. I do not say this out of malice or to demean the president; it is simply a statement of fact based upon quantifiable evidence that any student of psychology would easily recognize.

The fact that such a misfit could ascend to the presidency is testimony to the effectiveness of the capital system. Under capitalism, political power is not derived from the people, as would be the case in a democracy; nor does it not flow from the bottom up—it matriculates from the top down. It is really quite simple: The men and women who are in office were put there by people with immense wealth to represent the interests of the wealthy, to make money for them. And that is exactly what they are doing.

loyalty to our country

Letter to the Spooks:
You may be tapping my phone, scanning my e-mails and collating my other electronic communications, but you don't know me. If you were to really know me, you would need to hear hundreds of stories, visit hundreds of places, and meet hundreds of people. Only a few of them are listed on my credit cards.

But you are not only misinformed. You are also a thief. You are stealing my privacy, my civil liberties, my peace of mind, and the incalculable pleasure of not having to worry about what someone else is doing to you. You are also a vandal. You are throwing rocks at the Constitution, scrawling graffiti on our national conscience, wrecking our reputation, and scratching the face of America.

Do know why good Americans stood up to Joseph McCarthy? You're judging people without knowing the rules of the game. You're determining who is a good American without knowing what that means. You're mistaking loyalty to the ambitions of a particular set of politicians at a particular moment as loyalty to a country, its land and its people.

police state already?

The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.

It was not previously known, even to some senior counterterrorism officials, that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have been using their own "noncompulsory" versions of the letters. Congress has rejected several attempts by the two agencies since 2001 for authority to issue mandatory letters, in part because of concerns about the dangers of expanding their role in domestic spying.

Officials at the Pentagon’s counterintelligence unit say they plan to incorporate those records into a database, called Portico, on intelligence leads. The agency houses an antiterrorist database of intelligence tips and threat reports, known as Talon, which had been collecting information on antiwar planning meetings at churches, libraries and other locations.

Iraq

3017 died and counting

Democrats trying to lower drug costs

Despite years of lopsidedly favoring GOP lawmakers with campaign cash and other benefits, the drug lobby continues to wield tremendous power in the Democratic-controlled Congress. It also still has the backing of the White House: President Bush said yesterday that he will veto the Democratic proposal if it lands on his desk.

Drug companies spent more on lobbying than any other industry between 1998 and 2005 -- $900 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. They donated a total of $89.9 million in the same period to federal candidates and party committees, nearly three-quarters of it to Republicans.

progress from November elections

Since the November elections, Exxon has stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a nonprofit advocating limited government regulation, and other groups that have downplayed the risks of greenhouse emissions, and the House of Representatives has passed the 911 Commission's recommendations for Homeland Security.

McCain won't have a chance

Although escalation would help Bush retain what remains of his political base, it is totally unnecessary. Also, the president doesn't have to throw more troops to their deaths to rhetorically say he has done all he can do to help Iraqis help themselves.

The president is apparently trapped in his own psychological maladies. Deep down, he knows that Iraq is an unsalvageable mess, but he is an avoider of bad news and cannot accept it mentally.

Psychologically, he just hopes to postpone defeat in any way he can. Defeat in Iraq means a failed presidency for him. The likely outcome of this mental trap is to attempt to keep the lid on Iraq’s escalating civil war until he can hand off the problem to his successor.

If he does this, republican hawks like John McCain won't have a prayer in 2008, no matter what they say.

join the military, Iran is next

American troops backed by attack helicopters and armored vehicles raided an Iranian diplomatic office in the dead of night early Thursday and detained as many as six of the Iranians working inside.

There was a tense standoff later in the day between the American soldiers and about 100 Kurdish troops, who surrounded the American armored vehicles for about two hours in this northern Iraqi city.

The attack was denounced by senior Kurdish officials, who are normally America’s closest allies in Iraq but regarded the action as an affront to their sovereignty in this highly tribal swath of the country.

Bush is trying to goad the Iranians into attacking us which would be preferable to our plans to attack them.

Iraq mess

None of the existing military commanders have said, when asked, that additional troops would solve the fundamental cause of violence, which was the absence of national reconciliation. They all said the same thing: we don’t need additional troops at this point; we need to get the Iraqis to assume the responsibility they’re supposed to assume. So what does Bush do, he removes the military commanders.

Even Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the replacement commander, in the past talked about the need to train and embed U.S. forces in the Iraqi army. Now, newly appointed, he is singing the Bush party line. But a "surge" could provide some political cover for an eventual withdrawl. If the Iraqi government doesn’t make political progress then all the troops in the world won’t make any difference. What a mess they have gotten us into.

Iraq

3014 and continuing, $357 BILLION and continuing

the real human cost of Iraq

The actual human cost of the invasion and occupation of Iraq exceeds 50,000 troops and their families who have suffered death and often life-long disability-- of whom the 3,000 are just one tragic part.

fiscal conservative republians?

The USA, our country, announced on Dec. 15 that it lost about $450 billion in fiscal 2006. Its auditor found that its financial statements were unreliable and that its controls were inadequate for the 10th straight year. On top of that, the entity's total liabilities and unfunded commitments rose to about $50 trillion, up from $20 trillion in just six years. To put the figures in perspective, $50 trillion is $440,000 per American household and is more than nine times as much as the median household income

where are the neo-con Iraqi casulaties?

Go to the site http://icasualties.org/oif/ and look up the Republican names, Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld. Let me know if you find anyone listed with those names as casulaties of the Iraq war. ( 3003 killed as of today and counting )

faces of the Iraq war

If you want to understand how stupid this inhumane, senseless, misguided Iraq war (based on the lies and deceit of the Republican neo-cons grand design) is, go to the following site and read the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16432610/

at least 3,002 US dead in Iraq

at least 3,002

blind leading the blind

Saddam’s execution was for killing 148 people, not for genocide and other crimes he is alleged of committing. There was such a rush to get rid of Saddam, before he could be tried for the far more serious crime of using chemical weapons to slaughter vast numbers of Kurds and Iranians. I conclude that any trial for those crimes would reveal the participation of the U.S. and would highlight photos of Rumsfeld happily shaking hands with Saddam.

That would hardly suit the Bush administration, so it’s my guess that the hurried hanging was planned by the U.S. all along. I suspect that that is why the killings at Dujail, though a relatively minor offense, formed the initial charge. There was no real question about that charge, so a quick conviction was assured.

Also, Bush refused to allow Saddam to speak freely to the public or to historians, who might have learned whether Republicans had urged Hussein to attack Iran during the last months of Carter’s presidency and how much help Reagan had given Saddam in his war against Iran and how many of his “WMD's” were made in the USA.

If Saddam Hussein was executed for the murder of 146 men and boys, what punishment shall we prescribe for the American leaders who snookered us into the Iraq war based on a pack of lies? How many have died as a result, either directly by American weapons, or indirectly as a result of this illegal unwarranted invasion, carried out so incompetently and wastefully?

For those of you saying we hate America or should leave on the next plane:
We represent the real America. We believe in the American Constitution and its laws. We don’t condone torture in any form. We take pride in our standing as a leader of the free world. We believe in active diplomacy with the rest of the world; with advocating other nations to seek diplomatic resolutions.

And yes, we believe Saddam deserved proper justice (before an international court of law), not revenge before an unruly mob. The fact we express ourselves with a free press shows that most of us know the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately, some of you do not.
And don't give me that bull**** about "hating Bush". We red-letter Christians hate the sin, not the sinner. You and your ilk do not represent the real America. Perhaps you should be boarding that plane before any of us?

crimes against humanity

Witness the tacit US support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war in which Saddam Huessin first used chemical weapons against his enemies. Beyond merely political support, we also gave Saddam intelligence, equipment and some sources indicate, the actual chemical weapons used by Saddam.

Back then, Saddam was a convenient ally against another enemy, as was Bin Laden. The US only turned against Saddam when it became apparent that he was no longer willing to listen to us and to do our bidding. Ditto for Bin Laden.

In some ways, Saddam’s execution today shows the short sightness of US policy. How many other dictators do we support today who will turn against us in the near future? Now for the day when Buckaroos Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeldt, Pearle, Wolfowitz and the rest of their cabal join him and be accountable for their crimes against humanity?

I worry about people who profess to have a love for Christ and then think it is just fine to kill someone else. Did I hear ‘turn the other cheek’ in that bible you folks are thumping.

other hidden costs of war

Other Costs of War (not seen in the "media")
The incidence of respiratory illnesses, endemic diseases and mystery illnesses from Iraq outnumber the incidence of the brain and limb wounds, according to Stephen Robinson, a Desert Storm veteran and executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center. Yet these conditions are more or less off the media radar.

"Iraq is not an OSHA-approved workplace," Robinson said. "So people are having extreme environmental exposures. Extreme heat and extreme cold and fine sand. The sand in Iraq is approximately two microns. It's respirable. If any bacteria, any petroleum products, any chemical or biological agent lands on or bonds itself to that silica, it then can be ingested through the fine sand into your lungs."

Soldiers also are contracting endemic diseases in Iraq, such Leishmaniasis, a blood-borne disease transmitted by the bite of a sandfly. It can linger in the bloodstream for years and may manifest itself initially as fatigue and malaise, Robinson said. Or it can lay dormant for a long time and tamper with the immune system.

A big question, though, according to John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America, is whether the system can withstand the influx of both War on Terror veterans and Vietnam veterans who are filing belated Agent Orange-related claims as fallout from their exposure manifests in their older years.

"They don't understand how the Vietnam veterans are seriously affected with diabetes and prostate cancer so many years after the fact. We're twice as likely to have prostate cancer if we've been exposed to Agent Orange," he said. "All these things are coming out now when we're in our 50s and 60s."

$ and lives ruined by Republican goof

"What you see is the U.S. deeply involved in this fight against an insurrection and increasingly trying to bring order to a low-level civil war," Anthony H. Cordesman, an analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said by telephone in Washington. "There's no way you can do that with 140,000 troops in a country of 27 million without having casualties." He added: "This pace of casualties is likely to go on until we can change or find a new approach."

With 111 fatalities, according to iCasualties.org, December was not only the deadliest month of 2006 for U.S. troops, but the deadliest in two years. The military death toll, admitted to be at least 3000 dead, in Iraq now exceeds the number of people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which Bush has often cited as justification for the war.

A Pentagon report in December gave a grim assessment of the war, acknowledging that violence soared to its highest level this fall, with anti-U.S. fighters achieving "strategic success" by unleashing a spiral of sectarian killings by Sunni Arab and Shiite Muslim death squads. According to the report, the violence had reached record highs, with 959 attacks per week.

These Republicans just can't admit that they goofed.