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The Flip Side of Freedom of Speech
I also covered the second day of Seattle Pride events. The city seems to have grown into the idea of the parade coming out of the "gay ghetto," which is Capital Hill, and into the public venue. There are some, though -- and I do mean some, not all -- who still seem to have a big problem with it.
This is not a matter of Christians vs gays, not at all. It's something else and I wish I knew why they are so preoccupied with other peoples' lives that they would spend their weekends doing this. Maybe they don't like the beer gardens. Maybe it's the drag queens. Maybe it's the school board or the Christian churches that support the gay community. Maybe it's the idea that there is a gay community.
One woman asked them, "Why are you here?" and they couldn't answer. This is the one weekend of the year for celebration of LGBT Pride. What is their problem? They seem to spend an awful lot of time being obsessed about it.
As you can see from the pics, not everyone agreed with those who showed up at the parade just to express their opposition. Some didn't take much notice of it at all. Others were focused on entirely different priorities than the people who were there to protest.
The two lesbians on the bus in front of me were in a hurry to get home and finish making pickles. Maybe those particular people just don't like pickles.
It's a mystery to me.
Amazing blog post from an Arab woman:
I mentioned in one of my posts that a junior member of parliament in the Green Zone brothel makes 30'000 dollars a month plus fringe benefits. Now do you want to know how much the matron makes? No joke here.
Jalal Talabani makes 1 million dollars A MONTH plus fringe benefits. This heavy hooker has pocketed in 2 years, 24 million dollars! Whilst the majority of the Iraqis don't have a piece of bread...
http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/
IS THIS HOW AMERICANS WANT THEIR TAX MONEY SPENT?
Michael Winship | Cheney: "Oh, How I Wish He'd Go Away!"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062607S.shtml
"The Bush White House man who wasn't there isn't the president," say Michael Winship. "It's Vice President Dick Cheney, who, if you believe in karma, may be returning in the next life as an especially pernicious mildew. Or, if the gods are feeling larky, decorative kale."
CIA Archives Reveal a Lawless Past
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062607R.shtml
"The CIA declassified nearly 700 pages of secret records Tuesday recording its illegal activities during the first decades of the Cold War, publishing a catalog of adventures that run the gamut of spy movie clichés from attempts to kill foreign leaders and intercept domestic mail to garden-variety break-ins and burglaries," according to MSNBC's Alex Johnson.
I love this:
I have no idea what you are talking about. How can a hotel in France be released from a prison in America? Has the world gone stark raving bonkers?
Posted by charlieb at the Guardian
Meanwhile, Glastonbury Fest got rained on hard, much of the UK is flooding, people are dying from heat in Italy, Greece and Romania, and southern CA may not have rain til September.
Tell me it's not global warming ..
Two interesting things are cropping up (at least):
- the story about the UK defense contractor that was in cahoots with the Saudis and is being investigated by the US Justice Dept is now in the Washington Post, after being in the Observer a couple of weeks ago
- speculation that I'd heard among the few Republicans I know is suddently getting print "legs" - suppose Cheney became too ill to continue when he has his pacemaker replaced later this summer and was replaced by someone like Fred Thompson who might be more viable in 2008?
- I was told Chris Matthews was giving Ann Coulter a full hour on the tube following her deathwish for Edwards, and that Larry King dropped Michael Moore for Paris Hilton.
It's all too much.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070626/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq
GOP support for Iraq war slips
WASHINGTON - Republican support for the Iraq war is slipping by the day.
~~~~~
"We must not abandon our mission, but we must begin a transition where the Iraqi government and its neighbors play a larger role in stabilizing Iraq," Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to Bush.
Voinovich, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released his letter Tuesday — one day after Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the panel's top Republican, said in a floor speech that Bush's strategy was not working.
~~~~~
Lugar and Voinovich are not the first GOP members to call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Gordon Smith of Oregon made similar remarks earlier this year. But their public break is significant because it raises the possibility that Senate Democrats could muster the 60 votes needed to pass legislation that would call for Bush to bring troops home.
~~~~~
Earlier this year, Voinovich and Lugar said they doubted the troop buildup in Iraq would work. But they declined to back a resolution expressing opposition to the troop increase because they said it would have no practical effect. The two senators also refused Democratic proposals to set a timetable for troop withdrawals.
Other Republicans, including Sens. Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine, expressed similar concerns about Iraq but recently have said they will wait until the September assessment before calling for a change in course, including possible troop withdrawals.
Voinovich and Lugar said they still would not support a timetable for troop withdrawals and are unlikely to switch their vote. But softer alternative proposals are in the works that could possibly attract their support.
After the Fourth of July recess, "you'll be hearing a number of statements from other (Republican) colleagues," predicted Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a longtime skeptic of the war strategy.
Warner spokesman John Ullyot said the senator is drafting a legislative proposal on the war, but declined to discuss the details. The measure would likely be offered as an amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill on the floor next month.
In the meantime, Democrats say they will try again to set an end date on the war and cut off funding for combat.
{{{Nope, no rush on deadlines yet.... How many of these clowns are up for re-election in '08? I know Coleman is for sure (and I plan to vote for whoever's running against him). Challenge to Voinovich: WHAT, in your opinion, is "our mission" in Iraq....? Hmmmm??? WE THE PEOPLE know the illegal war's objective is for US corporations to get control of Iraq's oil fields, but do you have a different reason other than the fear- and warmongering party line from Georgie and Dickie???}}}
Oh - and Talabani - if he really gets a million per month - he has just met with Ahmahdinejad who was saying the US and Brits are behind the Iraqi insurgency, and they seemed palsy-walsy.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/26/africa/ME-GEN-Iran-Iraq-U.S..php
and what's this about Tony Blair being middle east envoy?
On a miscellaneous note, I was thinking today about the pitfalls of contracting with private agencies by the government. I haven't seen "Sicko," but I was thinking how I have personally witnessed Medicare fraud. For example, would you want your parents' Medicare being billed as "foot surgery" by someone who merely clipped their toenails? Luckily, the perpetrator in this instance was busted. There was much more that went on.
It seems when there is a buck to be made, ethics can quickly go out the window.
One last - why aren't we hearing more about the Libby and Abramhoff scandals? How many have been sent to prison r/t Abramhoff? Nine?
Where is everybody?
NonnyO
You are such a reliable purveyor of news!!
It's all too much.
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 01:01 AM
Agreed! I'm on 'criminal overload' at the moment.... I'm getting bored reading about the endless crimes, the long lists of crimes that go back even decades. I still want to get the hell out of this Dali painting!
~~~~~
Where is everybody?
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 01:06 AM
Not sure about anyone else, but I had my computer turned off earlier. When the sun beats in the west windows my AC doesn't work efficiently, even when I close the shades, and my PC starts to overheat, so I shut it all down.
Well, I try with news. But, as I said... overload. I'm getting burned out on caring when my/our elected representatives in Congress don't DO anything to rid us of the criminal cabal. I figure if the majority of people in this country wants the criminals gone, why don't the Congress Critters...? It doesn't make ANY sense. WE can deal with focusing on impeachment (nothing will get done without it anyway and/or the Critters will only roll over and continue to give Georgie and Dickie everything they demand). Why can't Congress Critters focus on impeachment and still get other things done? No multitasking ability? Or are they being blackmailed and/or bribed to leave the criminal cabal in office...? Nothing has any common sense logic to it.
Re: your thread:
Things were much simpler in the days before the religious reich took over our government.
Whatever happened to "live and let live"?
Or am I "only" being defensive because two very dear friends of mine for many years happen to be gay guys (we never discuss their gayness or my straightness; too many other things to talk about). Or, additionally, am I "only" being defensive because we've gotten to know Ally over the years and her being a transgender person is never an issue for us; we just know she's a nice person?
What consenting adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms is no one's business but their own.
Or am I just feeling grumpy because its still warm in here and I'm tired because I didn't get enough sleep last night...?
Okay, I'm off my treadmill - for the time being.
'-)
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/index.html
Leaving No Tracks
{Part 4 of the four-part WaPo series on Chinkster. This one has to do with the environment. As with the first three, to view any documents or links, you have to read the article at the web site.}
Religious extremism, no matter whose religion, is the fervent - out of control - hatred of others - that we call terrorism. Sadly they belong in every group, in every religion. Those signs above aren't worth discussing because they are not coming from anyone's loving, compassionate and forgiving god. I can find bible texts to refute those little snippets that are taken out of context. And in fact those snippets were probably added by Pope Gregory 5th since he rewrote a lot in order to delete the Gospel According to Mary plus others. He was empowered by God to put women in their place - lowly and submissive - in the patriarchal church of the time. Not a lot has changed in the hate-filled-lot. They need to lighten up and have some fun, especially when there's a fun-filled-festival happening.
"I figure if the majority of people in this country wants the criminals gone, why don't the Congress Critters...? It doesn't make ANY sense."
Because darling.... They are IMPLICATED.
georgies family is not the only oil invested family in DC.
Let's take what we know about the Abramoff scandal.
Theses congress critters have their wives and their kids on their payrolls, and on each others payrolls.
As an example ,Diane Feinstein california.
Shes a staunch dem... right? Our party respects her, she made some bad votes but has always been considered a tried and true democrat.
Why would she go silent?
Well, because her husband is making MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars from...Iraqi Rebuilding Contracts.
I am talking like 100 million dollar contracts.
Who would you betray for 100 million dollars?
I mean, seriously, we all have a price. 100 million dollars is a whole lotta money.
Would you betray your own nation for it, if you thought no one would notice? What if the only betrayal required of you was silence?
The dems did the exact same thing the repellicans did at the thought of invading a middle east country, they got dollar signs in their eyes and completely forgot to mention they knew georgie was LYING.
Why won't congress go after georgie...?
Because THEIR OWN war profiteering would immediately come into focus.
Me, too, I am sick of it.
OOOPS, wait.
Did I say millions...?
It is actually BILLIONS.
"SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein. "
Do you know what I would say if I could say it to her face...?
I am not sure of all the words, but most of them would rhyme with 'witch'.
"He was empowered by God to put women in their place "
See, thats why you should join our as yet unnamed Tree Religion.
I have decided it will be founded by women, and run by women, with the hope of saving men from themselves.
Sorry guys,...yall know I love yall. But you just have too many tendencies to blow things up.
Until we have a religion that no longer tolerates or justifies those tendencies, the Trees are for me.
Ummmm.... Amen.
Christy
Well said. I knew about Feinstein for a long time and the two parties we have (the two main ones) are quite different but there is alot of pork barrel and greed stuff in both and way too much influence by lobbyists. You literally have to buy your way into office. Out of state people even contribute to campaigns of state legislators to try to change swing states from the bottom up and often without the knowledge of local voters. It's legal but secret and it happens in both parties.
Woz, NonnyO
The intolerants are best ignored except they have too much influence in the world now, regardless of which religion. The fact that they show up makes me wonder about their own self doubts, just as Rick Santorum's obsessions do. There are many closet cases in the upper echelons of power, just as there were with the Nazis. At the DNC convention, some of the protesters were from the Phelps organization that shows up at military funerals and harasses people. There was so much hate in the air like I had never experienced, like I associated with KKK, and I had to be comforted by the cops who told me they were nuts.
Christy
I already joined 30 years ago and we've made some progress but sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back.
I checked my email before getting ready for work & was shocked by photos of the flooding in the UK. Then I opened the file that shows deformities in babies born dead in Iraq after exposure to depleted uranium. Available on request but I don't know whether to post or discuss. It's life-changing. I imagined things like this and I've worked in medical settings for a long time, including pediatrics, and also head injury. I've seen medical books with these things yet not like this. The only reason to look would be to further galvanize you. It's doing that to me right now to the point where I don't even know what to do yet with the energy. There will never be justice for what has been done. There can't be. It's like the Holocaust or Hiroshima.
Ummmm. 30 years ago?
I was only 3 so it could not have been my tree church. I only accidently started it a week or so ago.
I already have a congregation of two. I guess since theres more than just me mumbling to myself, that makes us a church now.
The only required ritual is treehugging. Please feel free to repent while your down there.
Now all we need is a forrest to test a theory.
Christy
I actually do hug trees when I need to. It works. Some people use the term "tree hugger" for an environmentalist (derogatorily). It shows that they don't understand anything. I'm old enough to be your mother.
CIA Family Jewels
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB222/index.htm
NMP...
Do what the SCOTUS can not do. Err on the side of non censured speech.
Post the photos, even if for no other reason than they are being heavily censored and kept away from our eyes as a society.
I do not know if I can look at them. I lost my morbid curiousity long ago and I need no further galvanization. I have looked at some before and do not think I can live with anymore of those images in my head.
But you should post them anyway. People should see the truth even if they did not mean or want to see it.
"I'm old enough to be your mother."
When you put it that way it makes me feel funny.
My mom bugs me. Shes been bugging me since the early 70s.
She is the best teacher I could have ever had.
This is how I received it:
How We're Treating Future Iraqi Children
http://www.xs4all.nl/~stgvisie/VISIE/extremedeformities.html
Karma abounds.
HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Dems force Cheney flip-flop on secret docs
Dick Cheney's office is abandoning a justification for keeping the Vice-President's secret papers out of the hands of the National Archives.
Officials working for Cheney had tried to claim he is separate from the executive branch, but they will no longer pursue that defense, senior administration officials tell The Politico.
The decision follows a threat by Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the No. 3 House Democrat, to try to cut off the office’s $4.8 million in executive-branch funding.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4679.html
AHHHHHHH!!! HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHA!
I heard from tv watchers that Elizabeth Edwards took on MannCoulter and that when Michael Moore started to talk about the employees of whatever tv show he was on not having good health benefits, they cut to a commercial.
& bye bye Tony Blair. You will not be missed. Dull Gordon Brown has similar policies and the only thing he will respond to is pressure from the people of the UK and US. He is a big US watcher so we need to pressure him, not just them.
& Britain is flooding. We can expect more of this in the future. Droughts for points south such as Italy and California.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6240038.stm
Britain got as much rain in an hour as it gets in a month. The US housing market now has much excess housing unsold as it usually has in a year. Stranger and stranger.
The US housing market now has much excess housing unsold FOR A MONTH as it usually has in a year.
Hiall,
Here's the clip of Elizabeth Edwards confronting Mann Coulter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/06/26/elizabeth-edwards-makes-l_n_53899.html
Posted by: Christy at June 27, 2007 09:10 AM
Thank you :)
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 10:46 AM
Posted by: Carol at June 27, 2007 10:57 AM
That Coulter sodomite is not worthy of any TV network appearance, much less EE's time.
Why aren't those homophobic picketers going after their own first - like Coulter?
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 10:46 AM
The only good thing is that Gordon Brown is NOT a Tory.
The British seem to have the same doldrum that we do - two conservative parties to choose from, just the matter of who's the lesser of the two evils. Sure, the Lib Dems are out there, but they're not large enough yet.
Some people use the term "tree hugger" for an environmentalist (derogatorily). It shows that they don't understand anything. I'm old enough to be your mother.
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 09:44 AM
And thanks to Reagan-Bush, "do-gooder" is just as much of a derogatory term.
What has this country come to?
Yeah, well, people still call us 'liberals' thinking it will hurt our feelings, so why not use whatever terms we like and to hell with what they think eh?
I have hugged many trees and never once been ashamed of it, nor regretted it.
I am a liberal treehugger and many other labels could be put on me, none of which would probably fit and that's fine.
Here is something fun:
"You Kent Always Say What You Want," TheSimpsons 400th Episode
http://free--expression.blogspot.com/2007/06/you-kent-always-say-what-you-want.html
John Edwards on Hardball tonight. Big flap about the EE/Mann confrontation. Press making a really big deal of it, at least MSNBC showed clips that I personally (my own humble opinion) think favored Mann. They show Mann saying "Oh, so this is a wife of a Presidential candidate asking me to be quiet?" And they also made some ugly comments about Edwards using sympathy for death of son and her medical problems to raise money.
This gets SOOOOOO ugly.
Breaking News:
Senate subpoenas White House and Vice President Cheney on warrantless wiretaps. MSNBC.
Statement from the Senate Judiciary Committee:
Chairman Leahy issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice, the Office of the White House, the Office of the Vice President and the National Security Council for documents relating to the Committee’s inquiry into the warrantless electronic surveillance program. […]
“Over the past 18 months, this Committee has made no fewer than nine formal requests to the Department of Justice and to the White House, seeking information and documents about the authorization of and legal justification for this program,” Chairman Leahy wrote in letters accompanying the subpoenas to Bush Administration officials. “All requests have been rebuffed. Our attempts to obtain information through testimony of Administration witnesses have been met with a consistent pattern of evasion and misdirection.”
Posted by: woz at June 27, 2007 02:23 AM
:-) I sense you have read some of the same historical books I have. That section of my books has been in boxes for years so I can't quote my sources, but I was aware of some of what you said.
One of the early popes advocated keeping the masses illiterate, uneducated 'because ignorant people are easier to control' (paraphrasing), only I can never remember the name of the pope. Christianity has always been an obstacle to learning, and with modern ignorant (= uneducated or untaught) people, they want to drag us backward in time to when the church was the only authority. (Seriously; a museum devoted to rewriting archaeological and geological time?!? Dinosaurs existing at the same time as humans?!? These people are nuts! They advocate and participate in keeping themselves uneducated if they believe this stuff! We desperately need another Age of Englightenment!!!)
The early church also advocated beating wives; the husband was forbidden killing his wife, but he could beat her. How utterly sadistic and cruel can religion BE? (Rhetorical question. I've also read about the Inquisition and one of my specialized areas of interest is Tudor England, so I'm disgustingly aware of the five year reign of Bloody Mary and the death she brought to that island nation because of religion.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christy: Trees... I suggest oak trees. It was one of the sacred trees of the ancient druids. There was a massive oak tree just outside my bedroom window in the house where I grew up, and I came to love that old tree. I believe it is still standing. (Also, after allergy tests, oak seems to be the only pollen/wood to which I'm not allergic. I tested positive for all the conifers and most of the other deciduous trees.) I can actively imagine myself dancing widdershins under a full moon in a grove of oak trees with a sacred spring nearby to honor my ancient and long-dead Celtic ancestors.... ;-)
Posted by: Christy at June 27, 2007 08:35 AM
I was aware of Feinstein's husband's connection to the military-industrial complex (and therefore Feinstein's ties), that the couple is making out like bandits in Georgie's illegal war crime (invasion & occupation of Iraq).
Thanks for finding that info, however, and we need to keep that in mind whenever the subject of war profiteering comes up. It's not only the neoCons who are raking in big bucks, but also Dems with intimate ties to Georgie's illegal war who keep on voting to fund it so they can continue to make a huge profit off of our taxpayer dollars (in spite of the voters who want our troops out of Iraq immediately, not leave them there and keep funding the illegal war for oil so others may die; worse, the military is participating in their war crimes on their behalf).
Mann is obviously a media distractor away from Cheney, as is Paris Hilton. If they need another one, they will probably try to crucify Michael Moore somehow.
Let's keep the spotlight on Cheney, Libby, Abramhoff etc. and on the incompetency of the 2008 contenders of the opposition.
Let's also expose economic and international messy problems under this administration - how they have caused everything to fall apart.
What happens if Cheney refuses a subpoena?
Contempt of Congress? Any consequences and how enforceable?
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 02:05 PM
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 02:07 PM
Absatively-Posolutely correct! We need to stay focused on the crimes of the criminal cabal in office, not these sideshows that are geared for infotainment evening snooze...! (IMHO, of course.) While I sympathize and empathize with EE completely and entirely, responding to Coulter plays right into the hands of 'Pubs/Cons who love to roll in the mud and in the end it only gives Coulter and her idiotic ideology more publicity, not EE or her husband's campaign. Why participate in neoCon absurdity?
We need to stay on the trail of lies and crimes committed by Dickie and Georgie and their criminal cabal like a pack of bloodhounds...! (The supreme irony is that while bloodhounds have the best noses, they are remarkably gentle and non-vicious, more likely to slobber all over their finds with affection than anything. So, I suggest we let the bloodhounds find the crimes, and then let loose with whatever is the nastiest breed of dogs to tear them apart, something akin to a pack of little rat terriers - er, yes; I learned a lot from the PBS Nature shows on dogs! ;-))
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 02:07 PM
I've not yet heard of any ramifications regarding the subpoena with which Condisleazy has not complied....
Dickie will only treat any subpoenas the same way, with disdain, giving an attitude that he's above the law, above constitutional mandates, and he doesn't have to abide by the constitution he swore to uphold. His sock-puppet may be the face of the de facto dictator and share the same attitude, but the dictator behind the curtain is still Dickie, ably assisted by Turd Blossom in a major supporting role.
Texas is flooding now as well as the UK.
Must be divine retribution for Bush & Blair, global warming, karma or a combination.
http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/06/27/700550.html&cvqh=itn_rain
NonnyO
If Condi and Cheney can be in contempt of Congress and nothing can be done, then the Executive Branch is a dictatorship. EVerything else is a farce and we pay for it.
Posted by: NonnyO at June 27, 2007 02:29 PM
I think the only reason E Edwards would take on Mann is because of a direct hit on not only her husband but her dead son. Women do not start wars but if anything can stir them to seek justice and to go into action it's an attack on their family.
NMP,
Obviously this did not leak on a Friday (re: subpoenas), but the Mann thing is obviously a slam at the Dems, at least what I saw of it seemed that way. I hate this season of politics because the networks and pundits seem to turn like a chameleon.
They are trying already to crucify Michael Moore for going to Cuba, although that story is a little lengthy, but try as they might, that movie just might make a big impact. Sicko.
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 03:30 PM
Yes, you are absolutely correct. We are already in the midst of a constitutional crisis, have been for years now, Georgie and Dickie are already de facto dictators... I just wish Lamestream Media bobbleheads saw this for the crisis it is and started holding the top two criminals and their co-conspirators responsible for their malfeasance. This isn't news to progressive bloggers who have been aware of this for years; but the word has to get to those who don't have access to REALITY outside of Lamestream Media snooze.
~~~~~~~~~
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 03:34 PM
Well, I wouldn't take on a mama bear defending her cubs, or a woman in defense of a good mate, but then I have a bit of common sense. However, with the way Lamestream Media twists things to favor the neoCons, things always look better for the Cons, not the ones who are defending what's 'only' moral and just.
You're correct in that this needs to be addressed, but by the time the bobbleheads get done with their talking points, Coulter will look like the one who needs sympathy, so it's eminently unfair to JE, EE, and their family. IMHO, Coulter needs a muzzle (and I'd prefer she go back under the rock that sheltered her slimy self)!
And I still want the primary publicity to be on the many lies and crimes of Georgie and Dickie. We haven't gotten anywhere near the time for primaries, so this Edwards-Coulter thing will die down by then (and Edwards may not be a chosen candidate anyway, so it could be a moot point sometime next year). Coulter's actions are reprehensible, slanderous, and scandalous, but at this point the controversy only serves as a diversion away from the many lies and crimes of Georgie and Dickie and their ilk. It's a red herring. We all know Lamestream Media follows those red herrings and doesn't focus on the criminal cabal running this nation.
In the here and now, we still need major publicity to focus on the lies and crimes of Georgie and Dickie and the vile creatures who support them and/or act as their mouthpieces. Their crimes are major, their lies are the reason we're in a war of their choosing for profit; their refusal to abide by laws and the constitution, and what voters know could affect whether or not more lies could get us into yet another war based on more lies that force our military personnel to participate in more of their war crimes, and it could affect whether or not we can rid ourselves of their dictatorial control of this country.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eavesdropping_subpoenas
White House, Cheney's office subpoenaed
The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans.
Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee also is summoning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs, committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced.
Leahy, D-Vt., raised questions about previous testimony by one of Bush's appeals court nominees and said he wouldn't let such matters pass.
"If there have been lies told to us, we'll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate," Leahy told reporters. He did just that Wednesday, referring questions about testimony by former White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
{{{More on link; the article is fairly long. AAAAARRRGH!!! There's that bloody "war on terrorism" phrase again. WHEN will Lamestream Media figure out that there is NO 'war on fear' and that the only war going on is the illegal war crime started by George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney in Iraq based on lies for US oil corporations to gain control of Iraqi oil...?!?!?!?!?!?!?}}}
“Four years and $19 billion dollars later, there’s pathetically little of the overhyped and overspun ‘standing up’ of Iraqi security forces to show for our investment. The massive waste and lack of progress is yet another example of how the Administration’s mistakes and misjudgments have created a disaster in Iraq,” Kerry said. “It’s obvious from this new report that the Administration cannot be counted on to get it right or tell it straight. I intend to work closely with my colleagues in coming weeks, as the Senate reviews the Department of Defense budget, to see what steps we can take to end this waste. Blank check after blank check has only driven us deeper into the red.”
Senator John Kerry
(press release)
http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/06/062707_court.html
{For those needing a magnifying glass, the license plate on the vehicle reads 'Supreme Court.'}
I'm surprised Coulter is still tolerated in a free society. I have been going around promoting free speech and the ACLU but there is such a thing as "hate" crimes - you have to actually make a threat against someone, not just say you wish something bad would happen to them. Yet others have gotten into hot water for signs, drawings, statements less incendiary and caustic. She gets air time. People eat it up. One of these days a line will be crossed that will offend everyone. When you have a psycho like that, they keep pushing that line.
I don't think Michael Moore going to Cuba is much of a big deal. We have a big prison on Cuban soil, after all. If Kerry was in office, it would be legal to go to Cuba and I would have gone to take photographs there. An old boyfriend went there along with Bonnie Raitt and a bunch of other people, to promote musical exchange between Cubans and Americans.
See/hear at http://www.toddsmallwood.com
Television and its audience love controversy - too bad nothing "real" is shown. I don't see a difference between cable news networks and shows like Jerry Springer or Survivor. Fiction such as The Simpsons or King of the Hill or comedy such as John Stewart or satire in print such as the Onion or trash like tabloids probably has more truth to it than alot of what is presented as news. If I try to watch cable news, my face turns red and bile comes up into my throat.
I just did something I don't usually do. I just
bought a trashy tabloid like thing, the Globe, cause once again on their cover they are claiming georgie is cheating on Laura.
$3.50 just to find out its about Condi, again.
Also says he hates Queen Elizabeth and he was drunk the entire time he dealt with her.
They are also still insistant that Laura has been living at the Hay-Adams Hotel and is threatening divorce over the booze and cheating.
It is basically more of the same, but as NMP says it probably has more truth to it than anything I've seen on CNN.
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 09:28 AM
The babies? Deformed? Depleted uranium? Yes, nmp. This has been part of our news stories for months now - 6 months ago at least is when I first heard it on radio and saw it on TV. Iraqis pay the cost of the US using uranium in weapons.
Why? Why is America the only country in the world allowed to use these weapons of mass destruction, with the destruction continuing for ever afterwards? No wonder George wanted to fight over there. If he'd tried to fight at home with this stuff he would certainly have been impeached - on a stake.
It will be ignored by your president and those who develop the stuff, and order it to be used, will get away with it. Just like the drug company who developed and supplied the billions of dollars of agent orange to Vietnam. American soldiers were compensated by the drug company. But neither that company, nor the US government owes any compensation to the deformed Vietnamese being born every day. Still.
The most heartbreaking documentary I ever saw was the one on Vietnam decades after the war. A man was sobbing whilst rocking his teenage daughter in his arms. His daughter had no eyes but large bulges where they should have been. She had no speech. All she could do was cry - with no tears of course. She had no intellectual responses. The man sobbed, not because she'd been born this way, but because he couldn't imagine that anyone would care for her when he died. His other children were born with deformities but not as bad as the girl with no eyes.
Christy
Agreed (tabloid = more truth than cable news?)
We need to expose the Mann literally and figuratively for the sodomite that he truly is.
That'll end the Mann's reign once and for all. He's a phony, he's a sodomite, and he deserves nothing more, nothing less than the Biblical punishment for sodomy.
Woz
One person who has never ignored depleted uranium is my Congressman McDermott, who is a psychiatrist who worked with Vietnam Vets, who went to Iraq many times since the Gulf war on behalf of depleted uranium victims, and can be see in M Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. The right is trying to get rid of him (Gingrich, Boehner etc.) through a legal case involving free speech (he listened to whistleblowers). I contribute to his legal defense fund whenever I can, even if only 10 bucks at a time, and I try to see him whenever he's in Seattle instead of Washington DC. We in his district have his back and he has ours. He has also been in over 200 countries and often on behalf of AIDS/Africa.
And in the ugliness of war, there are some bright lights as there were recently for some disabled orphaned Iraqi children, found alone and starving, in an orphanage. The soldiers gave them water and got them to a safe place. The man who was in charge of the orphanage had fled long ago and the children were left chained to their beds on a concrete floor in their own faeces, with lots and lots of food stores on shelves.
And now, those children are growing healthier every day and are able to manage a smile for the soldiers who saved their lives and now visit them. And a smile for the camera too. In the face of utter chaos, is the compassion we need to harvest. We harvest hate by the things we do. Thanks to those soldiers, some Iraqi children will have a better life.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article855194.ece
Ford blasted for crushing 'Think' cars
Environmental activists occupied the roof of Ford's Norwegian headquarters south of Oslo on Tuesday. They're calling for Ford to reverse its decision to destroy hundreds of Norwegian-produced electric "Think" cars, after Ford pulled the plug on the venture.
The early-morning demonstration by Greenpeace was set to be followed by another protest action at Oslo's City Hall. Drivers of "Think" cars still on the road in Norway planned to gather at the City Hall, and then drive out to the Ford headquarters at Kolbotn to also make their voices heard.
Norway's government minister in charge of transport, Torild Skogsholm, also has protested Ford's decision, calling it "incomprehensible." She notes that "we have use for the cars in Norway... and it's amazing that Norwegian-produced cars are being destroyed in California."
They're all furious over Ford's moves first to abandon its Norwegian electric car venture called "Think Nordic," and then to decide to crush the "Think City" cars that had been exported to the US, mostly to California to satisfy air pollution requirements in place at the time. When those requirements were eased, Ford had no more political need for its electric car venture and literally pulled the plug.
{More on link.}
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/27/colberts-w%c3%b8rd-on-closing-guantanamo/
Colbert’s Wørd on Closing Guantanamo
Fuel Rationing in Iran Prompts Protests
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/world/middleeast/27cnd-iran.html?hp
There are tyrants all over the world and it's always the people who lose.
Dragnet over the green zone - Iraqi minister suspected of assassination attempt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601896.html
(Green zone is supposed to be the safe part)
Floods in UK and Texas
Blackouts in NYC and Greece
Everytime I call my mom, she says the world is coming to an end.
Well there's floodin' down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down
Well there's floodin' down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down
And I've been tryin' to call my baby
Lord and I can't get a single sound
Well dark clouds are rollin' in
Man I'm standin' out in the rain
Well dark clouds are rollin' in
Man I'm standin' out in the rain
Yeah flood water keep a rollin'
Man it's about to drive poor me insane
Well I'm leavin' you baby
Lord and I'm goin' back home to stay
Well I'm leavin' you baby
Lord and I'm goin' back home to stay
Well back home are no floods or tornadoes
Baby and the sun shines every day
-------------
the sun shines every day where stevie ray is,
Otter
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-ridley/is-dennis-kucinich-god-h_b_53853.html
Is Dennis Kucinich (God Help Us) Right (Seriously, God Help Us)?
http://www.charlierose.com/home
Tonight on Charlie Rose
Nancy Pelosi
{Check your local listings if you want to catch this.}
I have not seen this wet of a summer in Louisiana since I was a kid.
Two years ago it was like a drought, now its monsoon season.
It is the End of The World, as we know it.
On December 21st, 2012, we will all know it.
Posted by: NonnyO at June 27, 2007 07:34 PM
Precisely why I boycott Ford alongside Toyota and the Koreans.
Thanks for sharing.
Everytime I call my mom, she says the world is coming to an end.
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 08:40 PM
And my mom agrees...
Christy:
But Feinstein is Pacific Heights. What do you want from the woman? And Marin County accross the Golden Gate is like the third richest county in the US (not that anyone is counting).
Chuck in Houston
ex-SE Portland (Hosford GS 1975, Cleveland HS 1979)
"What do you want from the woman? "
I hope that was a rhetorical question.
Because otherwise I may just pop a cork.
Otter:
If it keeps on raining,
Levee's gonna break.
If it keeps on raining,
Levee's gonna break.
And when the levee breaks,
Moma you got to move.
(Led Zeppelin adapted from someone I'm sure.)
Chuck in Houston
Christy:
No, it was a serious question. You have to think of any political actor in the context of who they are, which in a sense is why they are. San Francisco is often thought of as a Liberal bastion, which it is in many respects. It's also a power city, and historically has had very strong ties to what Eisenhower called the "Military Industrial Complex." For example, the University of California system runs Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos (used to be out of a floor inthe Kaiser building in Oakland, I think). Not to mention Navy facilites. Heck, the GLomar Explorer is (I think) still moored up under the Interstate bridge over the Sacremento (around Maritnez). Life is complicated, as far as I can tell.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck:
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2007/july/mytown-sanfran.php
"What do you want from the woman? "
Well, ok, then.
I want her to... DO HER JOB AND UPHOLD THE US CONSTITUTION ....instead of being a war profiteering b*tch that makes money off of the blood she LET a tyrant spill with lies.
If she can not do that, then I want her to RESIGN g*ddamnit.
If none of them are there any longer to ACTUALLY do our bussiness, then they also need to resign.
I want her to shut up her ugly war profiteering pie hole and quit pretending like we are so stupid we can not tell the difference between war profiteering and representing WE THE PEOPLE.
I also want her to withdraw from the democratic party because WAR PROFITEERS should never be welcome in any party. Most certainly not the one I want representing me.
Yes. Yes, I know, I may want SO MUCH, but not so much I stood to gain BILLIONS from the deaths of others while lying to you.
The CONTINUED deaths of others.
While we all sit here and want, her and her hubby are laughing all the way to the bank.
I want war criminals prosecuted.
That is what I want.
Anyone think Tony Bleh will be able to solve the Israel/Palestine situation singlehandedly as middle east envoy?
Otter:
"though she's cleverly disguised as a Catholic grandmother at a country club, she's our kind of gal" Ha Ha! That's a D'Alessandro for you (or however you spell it). I have no idea but Baltimore Stevedores come to mind. I am sure it was a complicated situation, or negotiation, as I think of things these days. Extenuating circumstances and etc. Not that anything like that would ever happen in New Orleans....
Funny thing about life -- the older I get, the more everything seems the same.
Chuck Fighting Cynicism in Houston
You could be standing neck deep in a sh*t filled sewer, covered with syphilis sores and shoving a crucifix up your ***, and you'd still have the moral high ground over Ann Coulter.
& that is what the Rude Pundit had to say
Chuck said:
Funny thing about life -- the older I get, the more everything seems the same.
Now that is true.
Christy:
People in Congress represent the people that put them there. As long as it costs hundreds of millions to get in the game (I suppose), it seems to me to be counter-productive to condemn congress people for doing what they have to do to get and stay elected. In business school I think they call that "Game Theory." You want criminals prosecuted. I want a sustainable economy. How we get that?
Chuck in Houston
NMP:
With a Democrat President and a commission including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair we might have a fighting chance.
Chuck in Houston
Anyone think Tony Bleh will be able to solve the Israel/Palestine situation singlehandedly as middle east envoy?
Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2007 11:25 PM
Apparently the concensus among those who chose him is that he is too close to GWB and Israel to be credible. So, why the heck did they choose GWB's recommendation? Again?
By the way, on topic, I have never been able to understand why some hetereosexuals feel threatened by homosexuality (or vice-versa I suppose). To my mind, some issues are strictly personal, and this falls in that category. But, judging by events, I'm in a small minority on that.
Chuck in Houston
" seems to me to be counter-productive to condemn congress people for doing what they have to do to get and stay elected. "
What they do is pervert the system and do it in such ways that most of their population at large never have any true idea of what their own representatives are doing.
Condemn them for not being able to show an ounce of intergrity or honesty at any point it mattered?
You damn right they should be condemned, by whom? honest people who will no longer tolerate paying the salary of a war profiteer.
There are still honest people in this world, she chose not to be one. She had a choice, she chose power and money no matter who died.
Screw her. I feel more sorry for the dead people that made her rich beyond all reason.
NMP/WOZ:
What? Did this Tony Blair Israel/Palestine thing emanate from Goerge Bush??????
If so, I may have to reconsider my above post....
Chuck in Houston, as Ignorant as Ever
"You want criminals prosecuted. I want a sustainable economy."
Well, it just so happens the war criminals are the ones that screwwed up the economy.
And still are.
Christy:
Senator Feinstein is not dead and I bet she makes hundreds of choices every day. I very much disagree that people in Congress distort the system. Whether or not the system distorts Congress is a different matter (direction of causality). Also, I have found, at work for example, that it is very easy to say "this is wrong" or "this was done wrong" in retrospect but very hard, on the other hand, to say what has to be done and to make that work, beforehand. So call me an old fogey (I've heard much worse). On balance I'll take Feinstein. And San Francisco.
Chuck in Houston
Christy:
To my knowledge, no one ever jumped over a chasm in two leaps.
Chuck in Houson
Meaning:
LEAP (1) War Criminal
LEAP (2) Economic Criminal
Chuck in Houston
And no, I don't want just any criminal 'prosecuted'.
I said I want WAR criminals prosecuted.
Thanks to georgie and his merry band of theives, including Diane Fienstien, we are now a nation that tortures people for really no reason at all. We invade other nations for lies and steal their resources. We have destabilized the entire Middle East and a World War is very seriously 100% possible thanks to war criminals from the United States of America.
Did you see those babies, deformed hidiously by DU...? But yet we are suppossed to arrest hookers and junkies and pretend we are not a joke.
This ain't me wanting to let a pothead walk free or try a corrupt cop. No No No.
I want WAR criminals prosecuted because there was a time not to long ago that we refused to tolerate letting them rule us.
I want them prosecuted because I want the world to see we are still a nation of LAWS with standards good enough we can punish our own for global acts of ATROCITY.
If Diane Fienstien is found to have participated in those acts, then we should not hesitate to prosecute her along with the rest of them.
Until we get someone in that will not loot our own treasury, we have no economy.
Besides which, just to be an old codger, on this old DCP, which has always meant so much to me, I would enjoy hearing more about how in heck we can responsibly extricate ourselves from Iraq et al without making a bad situation worse rather than how horrible it is that we are in the situation that we are in, which I already know.
Chuck in Houston
"LEAP (1) War Criminal
LEAP (2) Economic Criminal"
There is no other reason to become a war criminal, except for money.
Money, power, land that don't belong to you. Billions of dollars in contracts.
georgie is not doing what he is doing cause he thinks its funny. There is TRILLIONS of dollars MISSING.
There is only one way to RESPONSIBLY extricate ourselves from Iraq.
Redeploy troops and arrest and try the war criminals responsible for starting it in the first place.
Chuck:
In Australian media about 4 weeks ago - at around the time the Queen was being *entertained* in the US by your president. And long before the actual change over of leadership in Britain, Tony Blair was announced as the United Nations envoy to the middle east peace process. This was news to everyone - except GWB who made the announcement - and the rumour was squashed. But like all good rumours, it wasn't actually squashed. We were just waiting for the change over to be followed by the announcement.
Chirsty:
OK, we leave Iraq (hang everyone you want). Iran takes over Iraq effectively. Saudi Arabia changes its geopolitical orientation (and the Gulf States follow). Russia puts the squeeze on European gas. The world economy goes into a depression. People everywhere panic. People starve and die. Others over react and wars increase. That's a solution?
Chuck in Houston
Ummm, I am not sure you noticed, but Iran is already effectively in control of the political situation in Iraq. It is to their benefit the chaos continues as long as our troops are there.
Saudi Arabia should have been invaded on Sept 15th 2001. Saudi Arabia has always been a problem.
Russia is already putting the squeeze on the gas supply and between them and China buying up all that oil now available on the black markets, guess what? The World Economy is already destabilized.
People are already panicking and starving and dying. People are already over reacting to a situation we decided to create with bombs.
And no matter what kind of doomsday scenario you come up with, it still does not change the fact that our troops can not be sustained and the war criminals that created the situation must be punished as harshly as possible.
Yes, it is a solution. It is pretty much the only option we have at this point.
Christy:
Iran is in control insofar as they don't have to deal with the US military. Remove the US military, and then I agree withyour statement.
So, if Russia and China (great benefactors of human rights -- not!), get a bigger opportunity to do so, that is good? Everything in this respect is relative.
As for people over-reacting or starving or dying, Christy, with all due respect, and I tremble to say this, but I don't think we've seen anything yet. No matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse.
As for your last point, "sustainability" is becomeing one of my favorite words (assuming it is one). And that is my entire point. Justice cannot be served if it cannot be sustained.
So, what is the solution again? That the US withdraw instantly and entirely from politics in the Near East after having been very much involved for the last, say, seven decades?
Chuck in Houston
Gonzales was in Seattle today at the Westin Hotel Ballroom - he had guards stationed at each exit and his audience was about 50 odd nerds - he answered zero questions from the press and he talked to the nerds about policing their companies for software piracy (some of the outsource). What a joke.
Posted by: Christy at June 27, 2007 09:41 PM
The state I am in hasn't seen this much rain in seventeen years. They have been in drought pretty much the past few years, and the resort at the bay of the Missouri River went out of business summer before last because the water was so low and dried up, and ruined the fishing.
The day I moved I got three hours rain-free while the moving crew was there, and the minute we were all done it just POURED. It poured so hard that the rain was actually dancing in the street. Last year (we have rolling hills here, not mountains, with alot of grass and wildflowers) the scenery here was dry and brown, this year it is beautifully green!
My beloved Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada/California border, has a huge wildfire that is only 40% contained and they have been fighting it for days. The winds there have been unusually strong, and they are to continue to be so at least three more days. The fire spreads wildly when the wind blows that hard because the sparks and flames fly from tree top to tree top, and the place is covered with beautiful pines.
It is one of the most beautiful places on the face of this earth, and it sounds like if it doesn't get contained South Lake Tahoe and all it's casinos, resorts, restaurants, and ritzy homes are at huge risk. The fire has already burned hundreds of homes, and the homes up there are multi-million dollar ones. The fire is headed for a peninsula on the lake where people have built their homes up on long stakes because they are right on the beach, and I got treated to a boat ride a couple of years ago to the peninsula to see the homes. They are SO beautiful.
I spent every year as a kid at Lake Tahoe, and we took our kids there every year too. It will take years to recover and regrow.
I love this discussion tonight. It is reminding me of the old Guardian Talk section. We need a few more time zones represented.
Re Iran/Iraq - wonder what Ahmadinejad and Talabani talked about these last couple of days?
I also re recommend going to http://www.dailykos.com and go to recommended diaries and read the one by Jerome de Paris. He translates directly from Le Monde, talks about peak oil and it's good. I'm going to read it again and then go to bed.
I get so tired up getting up at 6 AM.
"get a bigger opportunity "
We owe China trillions of dollars to fund Iraq. How much bigger of an opportunity do they need when they can do it at will anytime they like...?
"but I don't think we've seen anything yet. No matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse."
No, we have not seen the worst of it yet, the only thing we can do is move our children the hell out of the way.
"So, what is the solution again? That the US withdraw instantly and entirely from politics..."
I never said instantly withdraw and I am not sure where you thought I did. I am not even sure why you would suggest I said that.
I said redeploy our troops. The situation as is can not be sustained and the chaos we created can no longer be controlled by us in any measure.
The only hope we have of redeeming ourselves is to make sure it can never happen again.
The ones who created this must be made an example of.
As for people over-reacting or starving or dying, Christy, with all due respect, and I tremble to say this, but I don't think we've seen anything yet. No matter how bad things seem, they can always get worse.
Posted by: Chuck at June 28, 2007 12:51 AM
I agree, Chuck.
Posted by: not my president at June 28, 2007 12:53 AM
And American taxpayers paid for that non-event and its guards? Absurd.
Things ALREADY ARE getting worse.
Simply believing our troops presence there is holding off the inevitable does not actually make it so.
It is getting WORSE every day.
We apparently didn't learn from Vietnam and some seem not to graph that we lost that war. That's why we had the Swift Boat Vets.
I was listening to some retired general who said that if we withdrew from Iraq today, it would take 18 months at a minimum. There are too few border crossings now and we would have these huge convoys to get out of there.
Here is the gist of the Jerome a Paris diary. That guy knows his peak oil.
It's not Jerome though - it's his translation from Le Monde of the chief ecoomist of the International Energy Agency.
The contention is that without Iraqi oil we'll hit peak oil by 2015.
And as long as US occupies Iraq, production will not increase.
Africa is suffering the most from expensive oil.
China's demand for oil will not slow.
Non OPEC oil will start to run out soon.
China will continue to grow their economy.
The consuming nations will continue to make demand outstrip supply.
We do not know how much Saudi oil is left and cannot trust their numbers.
The projections for what China will need outstrip what is known about what Saudi Arabia has and can produce.
Yet people are not reducing rate of consumption in US or China.
Christy:
This has got to be my last post tonight (work is tough these days).
On China, why make a bad situation worse?
On moving folks out of the way -- there ain't nowhere to go!
On "bugging out," OK, if that's not what you are advocating, what is it you are advocating? Insofar as you say that we have no control over the situation, I guess that's why I am assuming that that is your position. When you say we need a sustainable position, I agree (and that assumes we do have some control). So what does that look like?
On "making examples," when has that ever stopped something from happening again? Not that it hurts, but is that the most effective tactic at the moment?
Sorry I can't be more responsive at the moment but I have to turn in.
Chuck in Houston
NMP:
I totally agree: as a society we learned absolutley nothing from Vietnam. I'm tempted to say it's even worse: what we think we learned from Vietnam is absolutely wrong. Where to start?
Chuck in Houston
PS: See, don't trust me. My prior post was not my last post. Sorry!
You all are talking about redeploying out of Iraq.
What happened to the Coalition anyway?
You never hear about that any more.
What about Afghanistan?
Most countries of Western Europe are getting tired of being there, not to mention Canada.
& most of the middle eastern countries oppose that war as well as the Iraq war, believing as I do that they accentuate terror not contain or constrain it.
The new Pew survey shows that US is becoming less popular -
only 9 percent favorable in Turkey, for example.
Russia is also unpopular but Putin is much more liked in his own country than Bush is here.
World opinion of China is going down.
US used to be liked by moderate Arab nations like Kuwait and Jordan - that support is evaporating too.
I need to read the Pew Report.
I need to read the Family Jewels from the CIA.
The source documents are a little tough to find. NPR site is good. Then getting the time to read them - forget it.
Time spent reading source documents is much more time effective than time spent watching mainstream media though.
We can not put the genie back in the bottle.
Remember when Rumsfeld couldn't imagine why people were getting upset about a few broken jars? Never mind that they were the oldest unbroken evidence of civilization.
take the path of safety, far from this danger.
We have crept into this corner of grief,
turning the water wheel with a flow of tears.
While a tyrant with a heart of flint slays,
and no one says, "Prepare to pay the blood money."
Rumi, probably 12th century Afghanistan
"On China, why make a bad situation worse?"
It is pretty much as bad as it can get already on paper. China has control over our economy already and we can all thank georgie for that.
'On moving folks out of the way -- there ain't nowhere to go!'
Yes there is.
The place we originally all intended to invade needs serious boots on the ground.
Afghanistan could serve as a theatre large enough to redeploy large numbers into.
And with that many freaking soldiers there, we might just accidently stumble upon bin ladens luxury bat cave after all.
NMP:
I would love to read about the family jewels (not by any neans that we are alone in that).
As for Europeans, I am pretty sick of hearing them whine while for decades now they refuse to step up to the plate and provide some direction. Message: Physician: heal thyself.
Anyone that thinks that Russia or China or India is some kind of utopia ought to go and live there a bit (and bar themselves from working for a horrible "multinational corporation" while they are there).
Chuck, Cynical as Ever, in Houston
PS: Why is Kuwait considered "moderate?" Compared to what?
As for immediate withdrawl from Iraq, I do not think it is possible.
As was stated it would take some 18 months.
However I see no reason why that 18 months can not be a COMPLETE withdrawl from Iraq.
We never should have been there in the first place and we should leave Iraq to the Iraqis. There is nothing there for us but death, shame, humiliation and all of it for lies.
They also had all kinds of doomsday scenarios that would happen if we just 'left Vietnam' and virtually none of those things came to pass.
I know Iraq is fundamentally different, but the propaganda is still the same.
Christy:
On Iraq, we probably agree. I just don't have the energy tonight to say my piece.
All:
Sorry if I sound negative tonight. I'm just in a bit of a funk I guess.
All the Best!
Chuck in Houston
I want the US military out of Iraq as soon as humanly possible for one reason and one reason only: to stop committing war crimes.
The FACT that the original invasion based on lies was a war crime in and of itself makes our US military personnel war criminals (after the fact, if not participatory war criminals if they suspected and/or knew the whole premise for the war was a pack of lies - as I and others did before the order was given to invade, since there were references in Lamestream Media to refute Bu$hCo lies, albeit the mentions were only in passing).
Staying in Iraq now that everyone knows the whole war was based on lies from the beginning (or should know if they've been paying attention to anything other than Faux Snooze) makes our US military personnel war criminals, along with Georgie and Dickie and their criminal cabal.
That's why I supported Lt. Watada's stance. He knew the Iraq debacle was a war crime. He didn't refuse to serve anywhere else, doesn't believe all wars are unjust or illegal as long as one's own country is not the aggressor but only engages in war as a defensive measure, but he knew he was due to be sent to Iraq to help Georgie and Dickie and their partners in war crimes, and he refused to go to Iraq, refused to commit war crimes on their behalf, which would have made him a war criminal. He followed his military duties to the letter, and per the Nuremberg judgment, he refused to follow an illegal and immoral order, which is within the rights of all soldiers under the Geneva Conventions.
Belatedly, the UN needs to be brought in to resolve this whole cock-up, the same UN that Georgie and Dickie symbolically told to f*** off when they decided the inspectors were wrong about WMD, when they were right all along. The US oil corporations might not like it that their profit margins are cut into, but getting adults in there to arbitrate for a fair resolution all the way around is the only solution (and, let's face it: the US dictated Iraq Constitution that mandates giving virtually everything related to oil to the US oil corporations is criminal coercion, if they make the Iraqi parliament pass that nonsense as 'law'). Bringing UN peacekeepers in gets our people home and not coerced into adding to the war crimes they've already participated in, willingly or not, thanks to following the orders of Georgie and Dickie and their criminal cabal.
Our military personnel can't be that "patriotically" deaf, dumb, and blind that they don't know this already. Those who have a conscience will be suffering from depression over that sad fact for the rest of their lives. Following Georgie's and Dickie's orders in the commission of a war crime makes them war criminals, not the heroes Lamestream Media propaganda claims they are. (And I write this knowing my nephew spent a year in Afghanistan with his guard unit, but I want him to stay home with his family where he belongs, not be recalled to go serve in Iraq to commit war crimes for Georgie and Dickie.)
Our nation, our Congress Critters, have allowed psychopathic war criminals to tell us what to do, coerced people into committing war crimes on their behalf, all this time, and Lamestream Media has cheered them on.
When can we, as a nation (not just bloggers) call 'bull$h*te' on these war criminals "leading" us and say "Enough!"???
black top pavement cover me
like a chemical reaction or a steamroller spreading randomly
there's a distant buzz and low frequency
it tickles my ear,rumbles under my feet
and it shakes the leaves off of every tree,violently
what pretension ever-lasting peace
everything must cease
institution on the hill
like a beacon in the mind of an ancestor to ignite a people's will
there's a shadowed stain on the west facade
it has spread like decay to enshroud the fraud
and the descendants find it oh so odd, ohh so odd
what pretension everlasting peace
everything must cease
grave memorial hewn white stone
like the comforting caress of a mother or a friend you've always known
it evokes such pain and significance
what was once is reduced to remembrance
and the generations pass without recompense
what pretension everlasting peace
everything must cease
what pretension everlasting peace
everything must cease
"cease"
by bad religion