Saturday, January 13, 2007
Talk about the good stuff ...
Well, the good stuff doesn't matter when you hear things like this:
I been in Third World toilets where kids had to scavenge through trash dumps for used food to find the day's meal. These kids are having to scrounge dud and leftover ordnance to make the little money to feed themselves.
Remember, this isn't some African or Afghani backwater. This is the place where people tamed fire and invented the wheel. This is the place where up until 4 years ago, the streets of Baghdad resembled Manhattan more than they do post-WW2 Tokyo now. We have set these people back five hundred years thanks to the Chimp's illegal war.
I want you to read the whole post; learn what's been wrought in our name. Yeah, we've built schools and shit, but when a modern nation (regardless of what you thought of Saddam, Iraqi culture was more on par with the West than with their Middle East contemporaries) is reduced to having their children scrounging discarded ordnance or being sold to pedophiles, the bad far outweighs the good.
...
In the first incident in West Amarah three brothers Hussein Sabri Matanch (Aged 18) and Rafael Qasim (Aged 12) and Jasim (Aged 9) were trying to dismantle a mortar shell to get at the copper inside it so that they could sell it to scrap dealers. Here's how eyewitnesses to their deaths describe what happened ...
I been in Third World toilets where kids had to scavenge through trash dumps for used food to find the day's meal. These kids are having to scrounge dud and leftover ordnance to make the little money to feed themselves.
Remember, this isn't some African or Afghani backwater. This is the place where people tamed fire and invented the wheel. This is the place where up until 4 years ago, the streets of Baghdad resembled Manhattan more than they do post-WW2 Tokyo now. We have set these people back five hundred years thanks to the Chimp's illegal war.
I want you to read the whole post; learn what's been wrought in our name. Yeah, we've built schools and shit, but when a modern nation (regardless of what you thought of Saddam, Iraqi culture was more on par with the West than with their Middle East contemporaries) is reduced to having their children scrounging discarded ordnance or being sold to pedophiles, the bad far outweighs the good.
Saturday in the park
I'll blogwhore like the 4th of July*. Chapter 14 of my novel The Captains is up at The Practical Press.
*Apologies to Chicago.
Who dies
Remember how I said we missed everybody in Somalia? Well, here's who we didn't miss:
I wonder what those poor bastids thought before they died, when the night sky opened up like the Gates of Hell. I wonder if they thought they'd angered their gods? I wonder if they died thinking they'd done something so wrong, yet been totally unaware of. Buncha goatherders trying to be comfortable after a hard day's work. Something you and I do every day, and for that they died. They were killed in your name, to keep you safe from 'terrorists', and their blood is on your hands as well as mine. It will be unless we get these assholes out of the White House real soon.
The herdsmen had gathered with their animals around large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes. But lit up by the flames, they became latest victims of America's war on terror.
It was their tragedy to be misidentified in a secret operation by special forces attempting to kill three top al-Qa'ida leaders in southern Somalia.
...
I wonder what those poor bastids thought before they died, when the night sky opened up like the Gates of Hell. I wonder if they thought they'd angered their gods? I wonder if they died thinking they'd done something so wrong, yet been totally unaware of. Buncha goatherders trying to be comfortable after a hard day's work. Something you and I do every day, and for that they died. They were killed in your name, to keep you safe from 'terrorists', and their blood is on your hands as well as mine. It will be unless we get these assholes out of the White House real soon.
Great thanks to Dr. Attaturk for the link,
2 F.U.s
President Bush's new operation to secure Baghdad will begin in earnest with a push by thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops in the first week of February, and its chances of success should be evident within a few months, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told lawmakers yesterday.
If the plan works, the United States could begin drawing down troop levels by the end of the year, Gates said. If the Iraqi government does not deliver troops and political and economic support, he said, the United States could withhold many of the 21,500 additional troops Bush has ordered to secure the most violent parts of Iraq. [my em]
...
Hmmmm ... Didn't I hear this horseshit* from Rummy in 2003? I wonder what these guys are thinking now?
TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey Army National Guard troops currently in Iraq will be staying an extra 125 days as part of President Bush's new policy to send more troops to the region, news that was met by anger from political leaders and disappointment from the troops' families.
A total of 159 troops from a reconnaissance unit and a battalion support unit will be affected, including 148 who are New Jersey residents; the others come from Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York.
...
I caught an interview with NJ Governor Corzine this morning, who's rightly pissed. He visited this very same unit a few months back and to a man they said they couldn't wait to get home. Well shut up, bend over, and take it, guys. You've got your President's legacy to protect.
Not only has the Chimp and his carnival of idiots brought our active duty forces to the breaking point, he's misused our citizen soldiers to the point of leaving us vulnerable at home.
Update:
And then there are the guys who are just losing it because they've been there too long:
... Between Christmas and New Year's 2006, five U.S. soldiers committed suicide after being informed they'd been ordered to serve an additional tour in Iraq ...
*Tip o' the Brain to Atrios for the link.
White House Dog Barney Resigns
"I'm not going down with this administration," Barney told press at a news conference on the front lawns of the White House at 11am EST today.
Barney, pictured left, told press, "the writing is on the wall. No way in the world am I going to become Dick Cheney's dog."
Meanwhile, Barney intends to devote himself to his favorite pastimes, which include rolling in fæces, licking his genitals and chewing on dead birds.
"The White House is a bit too loathsome for a dog like me," he told press, explaining his need to distance himself from politics.
"Last time I went hunting with Dick Cheney, he needed to lock himself away from the press for twenty-four hours while he sobered up. So you see, I have no plans at this stage on becoming his dog."
The vice-president, responding to Barney's remarks, told press: "F%#*ing dog $#%$ !#@! if he comes near me I'll *$#! shoot him, or my name isn't @%*! Cheney."
Barney used the press conference to promote his forthcoming autobiography, Bait and Switch: Peril on the White House Lawn.
From Brainsnap.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Desperation and oversight
You can tell the White House is desperate*. They're counting on Michelle Malkin "to fight the new media war".
Back to the real war. If you think Gord is the only one who knows Bush has to be stopped now, Colonel Murtha's got a surprise for you:
Most vets know this but for you others, don't piss off a stubborn old Marine.
Update:
More from Jim Webb on 'PlanB, C, D'.
And while these serious men try to undo the damage done to this nation, an idiot caves.
Back to the real war. If you think Gord is the only one who knows Bush has to be stopped now, Colonel Murtha's got a surprise for you:
...
Murtha announced his intention to use the power of the purse try and close US prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, eliminate the signing statements President Bush uses to secretly expand executive power and restrict the building of permanent bases in Iraq.
And starting February 17, Murtha will begin holding "extensive hearings" to block an escalation of the war in Iraq and ultimately redeploy US troops out of the conflict. Murtha predicts that a non-binding resolution criticizing Bush's expansion of the war would pass the Congress by a two to one vote. But he believes that only money, not words, will get the President's attention.
...
Most vets know this but for you others, don't piss off a stubborn old Marine.
Update:
More from Jim Webb on 'Plan
And while these serious men try to undo the damage done to this nation, an idiot caves.
*Link via Atrios.
No shit ...
Nicole at C & L:
Every time I called for 'Spectre' we needed to level something the size of a city block or two.
Seems we missed everybody we were gunning for in Somalia but we sure killed a buncha people.
First, the AC-130 is not a precision weapon in any practical term ...
Every time I called for 'Spectre' we needed to level something the size of a city block or two.
Seems we missed everybody we were gunning for in Somalia but we sure killed a buncha people.
Webb comes through for Vets
At last, something positive. What a relief...
Bob Geiger
This bill deserves to pass. A lot of today's combat Vets have a Hell of a lot more combat time than WWII or even Vietnam Vets. Those that don't, will, unless a miracle occurs. Even normally non-combat troops are in more peril than ever before. Combat or not, they are all in our service, however much we dislike what they are made to do, and we owe 'em big time.
This is a good one to write your legislators about. I did.
Bob Geiger
Keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2006, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) did more for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on his first day in the Senate than the man he ousted, George Felix Allen, did in the entire previous Congress.
Going unnoticed in the frenzy of Democrats assuming control of Capitol Hill and George W. Bush seeking to plunge the country deeper into the Iraq quagmire, Webb introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, legislation that will provide the newest Veterans with educational benefits like those received by men and women who served in the three decades following World War II.
This bill deserves to pass. A lot of today's combat Vets have a Hell of a lot more combat time than WWII or even Vietnam Vets. Those that don't, will, unless a miracle occurs. Even normally non-combat troops are in more peril than ever before. Combat or not, they are all in our service, however much we dislike what they are made to do, and we owe 'em big time.
This is a good one to write your legislators about. I did.
A tip o' the Brain to WKMaier, one of Lurch's fine commenters.
Entitled Criminality
P.M. Carpenter
[The president's most revealing comments on his prosecution of the Iraq war came not on the air last night, but beforehand in a private confab with Congressional leaders.
In his speech, Mr. Bush spoke vaguely and inconclusively about the consequences of Prime Minister Maliki's failure to cooperate with the administration's "New Way Forward": "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people."
Seeing how the support of both fell through long ago, the remark was as baffling and empty as it was vague and inconclusive. But we're used to that, so let's forgo beating that dead horse among the accumulating herd of dead horses.
In his earlier White House meeting with Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi and Congressional others, however, Mr. Bush, according to the New York Times, brusquely framed the same issue this way: "I said to Maliki this has to work or you're out." (So much for "free elections" - G.)
No more chances. No more bilateral negotiations with our own uncertain ally. No more Mr. Nice Guy permitting a sovereign nation to conduct its business with sovereignty. The prime minister either gets it right or he's gone -- presumably at the hands of an American-orchestrated coup.
The ultimatum says a lot about Mr. Bush's own sense of entitlement -- his inner assurance that he and he alone should be in charge and stay in charge of this mess, no matter how many times he fails, fails again and keeps on failing. After all, how many chances has the president had to get things right in Iraq? How many times has he covered failure, excused failure or promised success while mired in the abyss of certain failure?
Others are rightly subject to accountability and finality, was the one reasonable side of Mr. Bush's message. The other was that he, for reasons unproffered, is regally exempt from that human condition -- although the adverb "regally" is proffer enough, in his mind.
Another remark to Congressional leaders was even more revealing of the president's insular, bubbled mind. Asked time and again why this fourth or fifth "new way" would prove victorious when the past three or four haven't, Mr. Bush finally blurted: "Because it has to."
Simple as that. Reality be damned. We, meaning 150,000 human targets, are now fighting with the brigades of a hope and a wish and a prayer. The commander in chief can "will" victory and victory shall ensue.
Why? How? Well, simply "because it has to."
That's more than delusional, the frame of mind most commonly attributed to Mr. Bush. That's criminal negligence wrapped in fraudulent faith and served on a plate of pure, willful hokum.
Entitled criminality -- that's what we have in charge. And the ways in which Congress can unseat or deal with it are even more problematic than the war itself.]
Note to Congress: Just STOP the sonofabitch, any way you can.
Folks, if it appears like I've gone crazy over this shit, it's only because I've gone crazy over this shit.
[The president's most revealing comments on his prosecution of the Iraq war came not on the air last night, but beforehand in a private confab with Congressional leaders.
In his speech, Mr. Bush spoke vaguely and inconclusively about the consequences of Prime Minister Maliki's failure to cooperate with the administration's "New Way Forward": "If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people."
Seeing how the support of both fell through long ago, the remark was as baffling and empty as it was vague and inconclusive. But we're used to that, so let's forgo beating that dead horse among the accumulating herd of dead horses.
In his earlier White House meeting with Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi and Congressional others, however, Mr. Bush, according to the New York Times, brusquely framed the same issue this way: "I said to Maliki this has to work or you're out." (So much for "free elections" - G.)
No more chances. No more bilateral negotiations with our own uncertain ally. No more Mr. Nice Guy permitting a sovereign nation to conduct its business with sovereignty. The prime minister either gets it right or he's gone -- presumably at the hands of an American-orchestrated coup.
The ultimatum says a lot about Mr. Bush's own sense of entitlement -- his inner assurance that he and he alone should be in charge and stay in charge of this mess, no matter how many times he fails, fails again and keeps on failing. After all, how many chances has the president had to get things right in Iraq? How many times has he covered failure, excused failure or promised success while mired in the abyss of certain failure?
Others are rightly subject to accountability and finality, was the one reasonable side of Mr. Bush's message. The other was that he, for reasons unproffered, is regally exempt from that human condition -- although the adverb "regally" is proffer enough, in his mind.
Another remark to Congressional leaders was even more revealing of the president's insular, bubbled mind. Asked time and again why this fourth or fifth "new way" would prove victorious when the past three or four haven't, Mr. Bush finally blurted: "Because it has to."
Simple as that. Reality be damned. We, meaning 150,000 human targets, are now fighting with the brigades of a hope and a wish and a prayer. The commander in chief can "will" victory and victory shall ensue.
Why? How? Well, simply "because it has to."
That's more than delusional, the frame of mind most commonly attributed to Mr. Bush. That's criminal negligence wrapped in fraudulent faith and served on a plate of pure, willful hokum.
Entitled criminality -- that's what we have in charge. And the ways in which Congress can unseat or deal with it are even more problematic than the war itself.]
Note to Congress: Just STOP the sonofabitch, any way you can.
Folks, if it appears like I've gone crazy over this shit, it's only because I've gone crazy over this shit.
Did the president Declare "Secret War" Against Syria and Iran?
Again, The Washington Note:
So far, this is just a rumor, but experience leads me to believe the worst of Bush.
I'm not sure whether he is committing our suicide or our murder, but he is going to get an awful lot more people killed even than he already has. All in vain, for nothing but his own unbalanced vanity.
I'm gonna quit being nice about this: Bush is an evil insane sociopath and must be hauled out of the White House in irons - TODAY.
At the very least, will SecDef and the Brass PLEASE just stop doing what he says? It isn't mutiny, but rather a patriotic duty of the highest order. The motherfucker's CRAZY!
Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.
The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.
Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed to try and prompt a military response from Iran -- to generate a casus belli for further American action.
If this is the case, the debate about adding four brigades to Iraq is pathetic. The situation will get even hotter than it now is, worsening the American position and exposing the fact that to fight Iran both within the borders of Iraq and into Iranian territory, there are not enough troops in the theatre.
Bush may really have pushed the escalation pedal more than any of us realize.
So far, this is just a rumor, but experience leads me to believe the worst of Bush.
I'm not sure whether he is committing our suicide or our murder, but he is going to get an awful lot more people killed even than he already has. All in vain, for nothing but his own unbalanced vanity.
I'm gonna quit being nice about this: Bush is an evil insane sociopath and must be hauled out of the White House in irons - TODAY.
At the very least, will SecDef and the Brass PLEASE just stop doing what he says? It isn't mutiny, but rather a patriotic duty of the highest order. The motherfucker's CRAZY!
A Quiet Response to a presidential Visit
WaPo
Bush is still just running a campaign. He can't really make soldiers thunderously applaud, but he can easily make them attend his deluded lie-fests and keep them quiet. And they're useful for photo ops. Even dead ones.
Look for Bush to pretty much stick to military bases to promote his bullshit. They're the only safe places left for him.
The same thing happened to Lyndon Johnson - another parallel to Vietnam.
FORT BENNING, Ga., Jan. 11 -- The pictures were just what the White House wanted: A teary-eyed President Bush presenting the Medal of Honor posthumously to a slain war hero in the East Room, then flying here to join the chow line with camouflage-clad soldiers as some of them prepare to return to Iraq.
To ensure that there would be no discordant notes here, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, the base commander, prohibited the 300 soldiers who had lunch with the president from talking with reporters. If any of them harbored doubts about heading back to Iraq, many for the third time, they were kept silent.
Bush is still just running a campaign. He can't really make soldiers thunderously applaud, but he can easily make them attend his deluded lie-fests and keep them quiet. And they're useful for photo ops. Even dead ones.
Look for Bush to pretty much stick to military bases to promote his bullshit. They're the only safe places left for him.
The same thing happened to Lyndon Johnson - another parallel to Vietnam.
Bush Makes Same Mistake Twice
Via The Washington Note:
Bush has gone crazy. The Afghanistan campaign should have been the focus all along and deserves to succeed. He's widening his war in order to lose it on all fronts.
As a last-ditch effort, President Bush is expected to announce this week the dispatch of thousands of additional troops to Iraq as a stopgap measure, an order that Pentagon officials say would strain the Army and Marine Corps as they struggle to man both wars.
Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq.
According to Army Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata and other senior U.S. commanders here, that will happen just as the Taliban is expected to unleash a major campaign to cut the vital road between Kabul and Kandahar. The official said the Taliban intend to seize Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city and the place where the group was organized in the 1990s.
"We anticipate significant events there next spring," said Tata.
Bush has gone crazy. The Afghanistan campaign should have been the focus all along and deserves to succeed. He's widening his war in order to lose it on all fronts.
The president who cried wolf
Keith Olbermann's 'Special Comment' on the Chimp's latest outrage. Transcript and Video. Do not miss it.
This list goes on and on and is mesmerizing on video. Beautiful!
Again, do not miss this one. Also at Crooks and Liars.
Bush's strategy fails because it depends on his credibility.
And to Iran and Syria - and, yes, also to the insurgents in Iraq - we must look like a country run by the equivalent of the drunken pest who gets battered to the floor of the saloon by one punch, then staggers to his feet, and shouts at the other guy's friends, "Ok, which one of you is next?"
I read this list last night, before the president's speech, and it bears repeating because its shape and texture are perceptible only in such a context.
Before Mr. Bush was elected, he said nation-building was wrong for America.
Now he says it is vital.
He said he would never put U.S. troops under foreign control.
Last night he promised to embed them in Iraqi units.
He told us about WMD.
Mobile labs.
Secret sources.
Aluminum tubes.
Yellow-cake.
This list goes on and on and is mesmerizing on video. Beautiful!
And after all of that, now it is his credibility versus that of generals, diplomats, allies, Democrats, Republicans, the Iraq Study Group, past presidents, voters last November and the majority of the American people.
Oh, and one more to add, tonight: Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.
Mr. Bush, this is madness.
This becomes your legacy, sir: How many of those you addressed last night as your "fellow citizens" you just sent to their deaths.
And for what, Mr. Bush?
So the next president has to pull the survivors out of Iraq instead of you?
Again, do not miss this one. Also at Crooks and Liars.
Quote of the Day
Moderate:
Off to work ...
By the way...congratulations Messrs. Kristol, Kagan and Joseph on your overwhelming success. Our soon-to-be-dead children thank you also...
Off to work ...
Parallels
You know how, when I start going off about something, I break into my usual rant of: "I've lived all over the world and can say that people are more alike than different"? Of course you do, I never shut up about it. Our pal Scout Prime understands that too and draws some striking parallels between Baghdad and NOLA after the Bush administration began 'working hard' on their behalf.
Translations
Especially in this time, we really need to know what our Preznit is telling us. Since you can't figure out anything once his lips start moving, comedian Elayne Boosler compiled a list of words the White House uses and translates them into stuff reg'ler folks like you and me can understand:
Lots more on her post. Heh ...
...
Strategy = Pin the Tail on the Donkey
Mission= Quagmire
Mission Accomplished= Premature Evacuation
Mandate= 29%
Sectarian violence= Civil war
...
Habeus Corpus= So 1776
9/11? = 9/11
Family values = One million Iraqi dead
Abortion is murder= One million Iraqi dead
Stem cell research is murder=Three thousand Americans dead
Culture of life= Three thousand Americans dead
Iraqis are free= Except the women
...
Lots more on her post. Heh ...
Thursday, January 11, 2007
U.S. Troops Raid Iranian Consulate in Iraq
The dumb sonofabitch is already trying to start a war with Iran. WaPo:
I don't care much for Iran's aid against the US in Iraq, but I certainly understand it. Iraq is well within their sphere of influence, being right next door and all.
Blow up the trucks carrying war materiél, arrest or kill their agents, sure, but don't invade their goddam consulate, fer chrissakes! That's like invading their home turf.
I hope the Iranians are smart enough and cool enough not to rise to Bush's bait. So far, so good.
Hey, I got an idea! There are Kurds in Iran as well as in Iraq. Put some dead Iraqi Kurdish criminals in Iranian military uniforms and display their corpses near a car bomb that killed GIs with the detonator in their hands. That's pretty much how Hitler justified invading Poland to start WWII in Europe. Nobody'll remember.
Bush has to go NOW, head first or feet first, makes no difference.
U.S. troops raided an Iranian consulate in northern Iraq late Wednesday night and detained several people, Iran's main news agency reported today, prompting protests from Tehran just hours after President Bush pledged to crack down on the Islamic Republic's role in Iraqi violence.
Iran released news of the raid through its Islamic Republic News Agency in a dispatch that was broadly critical of Bush's plan to deploy about 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.
The IRNA report said that U.S. forces entered the Iranian consulate in Irbil, in Iraq's Kurdish-dominated north, and seized computers, documents and other items. The report said five staff members were taken into custody.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry appealed to the Iraqi government to obtain the release of its personnel.
I don't care much for Iran's aid against the US in Iraq, but I certainly understand it. Iraq is well within their sphere of influence, being right next door and all.
Blow up the trucks carrying war materiél, arrest or kill their agents, sure, but don't invade their goddam consulate, fer chrissakes! That's like invading their home turf.
I hope the Iranians are smart enough and cool enough not to rise to Bush's bait. So far, so good.
Hey, I got an idea! There are Kurds in Iran as well as in Iraq. Put some dead Iraqi Kurdish criminals in Iranian military uniforms and display their corpses near a car bomb that killed GIs with the detonator in their hands. That's pretty much how Hitler justified invading Poland to start WWII in Europe. Nobody'll remember.
Bush has to go NOW, head first or feet first, makes no difference.
Your local government ...
Or at least my local government. Over the past few weeks, I've had some legal issues pertaining to the ownership of my house. Basically whether my parents' divorce was filed properly, and my mother had sole ownership of the house I currently live in at the time of her death. Their divorce was final in 1983, my father is deceased 15 years, my mother 11, and in New York, I can't get into their divorce record without a court order (an avenue which time will not allow me to pursue). So for the past few weeks, I've had to chase this down indirectly. This chase has led me from the Supreme Court of the State of New York, to the Court of Suffolk County, to local courts, and back.
In all this, dealing with countless court officers and civil servants on every level, all I can say is that I am pleasantly surprised. I was given courtesy and helpfulness on a scale I thought government employees totally incapable of. I thank you all for your help and I'm sorry for harboring the misconception that most of you were cynical, apathetic, and bad tempered. You made my task far easier than I expected and I am extremely grateful.
In all this, dealing with countless court officers and civil servants on every level, all I can say is that I am pleasantly surprised. I was given courtesy and helpfulness on a scale I thought government employees totally incapable of. I thank you all for your help and I'm sorry for harboring the misconception that most of you were cynical, apathetic, and bad tempered. You made my task far easier than I expected and I am extremely grateful.
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