Wrongfooting Saddam

This memo, another from a growing collection of British prewar documents, tells of a meeting between a UK official and Paul Wolfowitz, then with the Pentagon. In it, the Brit shows what a charade our prewar machinations were, as we tried to trick Saddam into some mistake that would give support to our invasion of Iraq.

It was apparent to me in the weeks before the invasion that all of the public relations, from Bush's speeches to Colin Powell's dog and pony show before the UN, that war was inevitable (to borrow a word from the Downing Street Minutes). We were bombing strategic targets in the north and south of Iraq, we were obfuscating on the subject of WMD, not presenting the weapons inspectors with our claimed sightings of caches of weapons, and then, when finally some information was given to the UN inspectors it turned out to be "garbage on garbage."

I just watched a PBS interview with an important journalist who believes the quiet about the Downing Street Minutes (which is no longer quite so quiet) is the calm before the storm, that some major news organization will put all (or most) of the pieces together and publish a definitive proof that Bush/Cheney/Rummie and the gang weren't serious in any attempt to "solve Iraq" except by invasion. The evidence--not just documents and observations by insiders, but their conduct too--is inconsistent with any other conclusion.

Update: As to the legitimacy of the "wrongfooting Saddam" memo, check out this Guardian article about the memo, published almost a year ago. There's no doubt about its authenticity.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

Now we learn about the massive underfunding of pensions for employees of major corporations, and the insolvency of the federal agency that supposedly insures against just that.

(If you think you just heard the death knell for Bush's "privatization plan" for Social Security, you're right.)

Suicide bombers explained

It's not about Islamic fundamentalism. It's not lunacy, or the product of misfits in their culture. Those who commit suicide by detonating explosives to cause damage to the enemy do so to get the enemy the hell out of their country.

Call me crazy

but I think this story about the Pentagon's corruption (with the complicity of Bush administration officials, including Andrew Card, the President's Chief of Staff), the the aborted sale/leaseback of Boeing transports will become the first significant scandal to touch Bush. Because John McCain was the driving force to squelch the deal, he's in the driver's seat. He could ride this scandal to the White House.

For background on the deal, a story appearing in WaPo before the sale/leaseback arrangement was killed, go here. As you can see, this was politics at its slimy worst.

BBC, Thanks

A new feature on the BBC website will follow events in Iraq, including comments and details as they occur, on a daily basis. Think any of our networks will follow suit?

Under the radar

There are so many stories that go unreported by the MSM that it's difficult to list them all, but here's one that's so far under the radar that even sonar doesn't reach it: The charges against two lobbyists for AIPAC, a group supporting the Israeli interests in the Middle East, of obtaining secret documents from a Defense Department official, Larry Franklin, and Franklin's connection to high officials in the Bush administration. For details, check out the invaluable online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Viva Chavez

You just gotta love this guy. Not just spot on, but cheeky too.

What a fine kettle of fish

Spreading democracy? Free and fair elections throughout the Middle East, throughout the world? Well, Bush, be careful what you pray for because now, in southern Lebanon, you've got it.

Dictator watch

My third watch, following the Fascism Watch and the Orwell Watch, probably merely a supplement to each, is my just-launched Dictator Watch, that reports most recently on Time magazine's revelation the the CIA is no longer automatically included in Bush's briefings and discussions of national security. We can't have any of those pesky independent agencies listening in on the neocons' plans, can we?

Marla Ruzicka

Remember her? The young American woman who worked in Baghdad, trying to get a count of civilian Iraqi war dead, and was killed in a suicide blast a few months ago? Well, here's a revealing, well-written piece about her life and last days.

A Brit looks at the US press

Some memorable quotes, including this one about the result of the Bush administration's constant attack on those who report its mistakes:

The result of this climate of fear and caution is that few Americans have any
idea of the circumstances in which 1,600 of their countrymen have lost their
lives in Iraq, the hideous injuries suffered by both Iraqi and American victims
of suicide bombers, or even the profound responsibility that lies with Rumsfeld
for mishandling practically every facet of the occupation. The mission to
explain has been replaced by the mission to avoid.

If you ever doubted

the similarities between the wars in Iraq and Viet Nam, check out this story, and, in particular, the photo.

Orwell Watch

In addition to my fascism watch (actually, to supplement it), I'm instituting an Orwell Watchto track instances (not all of them, there are so many) in which the Bush administration is delivering us to 1984.

Here's a prime example of its employment of "the memory hole" called to my attention to by a website of the same name.

The smoking bullet in the smoking gun

Ya know, the massive pre-war airstrikes inside Iraq by the US, that were contemporaneously reported by AP and others, struck me at the time as worthy of comment, since the US had no authority to conduct such attacks--even under its twisted reading of the UN resolution that the Kurds and Shiites be protected (which the Brits and the US claimed justified their armed clearance of the "no-fly zones" in the north and south of Iraq). But not being a blogger, I thought about it but did nothing but think.

Now this article in The Nation puts those attacks into the context, revealed by the Dowing Street Memo and confirmatory testimony and paperwork, of a pre-planned attack on Iraq, wholly inconsistent with Bush's statements to Congress and--as if it matters anymore--entirely in violation of international law.

It is a "high crime" to wage illegal war. Bush has committed an impeachable offense and should be removed from office.

Query: Will the Democrats follow Conyer's lead to that end?

Oh, Wouldn't it be loverly?

If the Iraqi workers' unions successfully resisted privatization of Iraq's oil, so that Bush and his buddies ended up without their spoils after all?

I am speechless

with outrage. Is this how we support the troops--by killing them after they've been wounded in battle?

The Tillman tragedy

So, the Army--that's gotta include Rummie, DOD boss--knew NFL star Pat Tillman was killed by "friendly fire" and lied to hide the fact until weeks later. Now that the truth is out and Tillman's parents are publicly expessing their outrage, will he give them a call? Will Bush? Or will they, as is their habit, somehow dodge the issue of these lies, as they've dodged all others? Or will they, as is their more habitual habit, somehow find something to tar Tillman's parents with?

It makes sense to me now

I've been truly baffled about my fellow citizens' behavior, that is, the behavior of those who, despite his lies, continue to trust Bush to govern. Well, now I understand, and I forgive them. It's genetic. Their systems produce too much oxytocin.

Why I march

As readers of this blog know, I weekly march in protest of the war in Iraq, carrying a sign that counts the dead and wounded G.I.'s and Iraqis, and demands that Bush order our immediate withdrawal. We (five regulars and an average of five irregulars) cover a two-mile loop in downtown SB, singing peace songs and chanting anti-Bush slogans. I also hold the sign up at various intersections here in SB, about two hours a week. In both settings the response by passers-by is overwhelmingly supportive, with the honks and thumbs-up outnumbering the middle-finger salutes and jeers by a two to one margin, and the favorable ratio is increasing weekly.

I call attention to this because some friends have wondered why I persist, especially since the 2004 election gave Bush the White House for four more years, and there doesn't seem to be much articulation of a protest movement, or a demand for withdrawal from Iraq, in Congress or on other streets of the U.S.

Well, my answer is simple. I just can't not protest, not simply in this blog with a readership (maybe) of five or six like-minded souls, but in some way that maybe will be noted by someone who'll reflect for a moment on this ongoing outrage and maybe, just maybe, be affected in some positive way. Maybe someone will see the figures (to date)--1667 dead G.I.'s, and 12,222 wounded; 24,000 dead Iraqi civilians; $300,000,000,000 wasted--and be affected. Maybe.

To me, the question isn't Why do we march?, but Why aren't more people marching? I've seen little discussion of this question, particularly in view of the polls showing that a large majority of Americans feel that the war in Iraq isn't "worth it." Here's one columnist who's asked the question, Why isn't there more protest? His answer--not comforting--is that Americans aren't sufficiently moved to react because the body count isn't high enough. Well, if he's right, then I suppose all we have to do is keep marching and wait a while.

Maybe I'm a bit crazy

but isn't it big news that the Iraqi government has just today formally asked for, and received,an extension of the UN mandate authorizing the continued occupation of Iraq by US and coalition troops? I mean, given the fact that Iraq's "duly constituted sovereign government" could theoretically ask for an end to the occupation at any time, shouldn't it be important that it didn't, both to the Bush administration (which is probably nearly passed out in relief) and to the anti-occupation Westerners, like me (who is deeply disappointed). Maybe neither side wants to publicize the event for its own reasons and so no news is no news.

You're not alone

According to Rasmussen's polls, the percentage of persons (44%) who believe the US is winning the war on terr'r has fallen to its lowest level ever.

The insurgents' latest weapon

is poisoned watermelon. (Scroll down to middle of story.)

Four more years!

How comforting. Cheney says the war in Iraq will be over by the end of Bush's term. Of course he's right. Sometime before election day 2008, Bush will have declared the conflict over so that whoever the neo-cons put up to run for his office will be able to claim victory.

Basra revisited

Remember Basra? That's Iraq's second largest city, the port city that's occupied by British troops, not American. It's been relatively quiet, without the car bombs and razor wire that pervades Baghdad and the towns in the "Sunni Triangle." So what's its status? Well, according to the Iraqi general who's in charge of the place, not good, not good at all.

Downing Street Memo remembered

Here's a site, with a lengthy exposition, related to the status of the Downing Street memo, or rather its lack of status in the MSM. It's actually an entire website devoted to tracking, and calling the MSM's attention to, the "smoking gun" document.

Next time you're in eastern Pennsylvania

drop in and have a beer, and congratulate the owner, at Keystone Pub.

Body count

"Things are getting better in Iraq." So goes the Bush/Cheney refrain, repeated in news conferences and interviews. Well, to check just one "metric" (Rummie's word), here are the numbers of American soldiers who've died, showing that the contrary is true. May's total of coalition soldiers killed is exactly the same as May last year, both of which are among the highest totals since the war began.

Update: The coalition troop body count for May 2005 turns out to be higher than a yearago.

MoJo radio

News Flash! Mother Jones magazine is launching a radio program, starting June 5. An hour-long show will be carried on Air America Radio, available here in SB on 1340AM. Listings for other areas are available on the above website. For those of you (us) who tire of Al Franken, this is good news indeed.

Fascism watch

Further to my previous post--I've decided to maintain a fascism watch. The latest sighting: MTV.

I don't like the sound of this

"Widening the focus against extremism?" With this administration, such a concept can only mean one thing. Two, actually: Perpetual war and invasion of civil rights.

You heard it here first (or maybe for the hundredth time): We are becoming a fascist state.

Support our troops?

I'm not certain this is a message I still want to convey. We chant, "Support our troops! Bring them home! Stop the war! Now!" during our weekly peace march here in SB, but I'm having new thoughts about its nature, its message. Kinda like this blogger's sentiments. Some of our soldiers are blackening American traditions and images abroad, and I wonder whether the chants fortifies this, somewhat.

A new form of guided missle

I have a good friend who's an animal activist, a dog-lover in particular. He's not gonna like this story. The lesson: War makes us monsters, all of us.

A professor's outlook for Iraq

Read it and weep.

And now as if Baghdad residents hadn't suffered enough,

cholera.

Finally...

According to Gallup, one half of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of his presidency. First time he's hit that mark, ever...

Why do they hate us?

No mystery there: I hate us.

Meanwhile, in our other war

May has been a violent month in Afghanistan, with shootings, kidnapings,bombings. And this is the war we "won"!

Infuriating

A headline in the NYT today blares, "Eight Soldiers Killed in Two Days," and is echoed in headlines on my AOL portal and in dailies throughout the US. Like suddenly the war in Iraq is on again. What bullshit. Check out the deaths, by daily tally, during the month of May here. There have been many days when the two-day total exceeds eight, including one in which eight were killed in a single day.
So...the awareness of our public is dependent on a the caprice of the layout person at the NYT? Or the headline writer? Wouldn't you think that the papers, and the TV could at least support the troops enough to keep their deaths on the front page, maybe a little boxed article or something? No--instead of "support our troops" the MSM's motto is, "Forget our Troops."

What can we do

to stop killings like this?

"Proud to be an American?"

This lengthy NYT article about US military prisoner abuse in Afghanistan leaves no doubt: Our military is no different from other nations'. It is a cruel tool of a war-mongering empire that is due to fail as have all others before it because of the inherently bestial nature of war. We were taught, as citizens of previous empires were taught, that we have a special place in history, that we are a benign force. Wrong. We're not only not special, we're more dangerous than any previous force because of our global dominance.

I pray for all of us--for America, sure; but more urgently for the rest of the world.

Baghdad seething

Riverbend's latest post, describing Condi Rice as The Vampire and relating the horror of car bombs in Baghdad, concludes with this compelling observation:

Detainees coming back after weeks or months in prison talk of being forced to eat pork, not being allowed to pray, being exposed to dogs, having Islam insulted and generally being treated like animals trapped in a small cage. At the end of the day, it's not about words or holy books or pork or dogs or any of that. It's about what these things symbolize on a personal level. It is infuriating to see objects that we hold sacred degraded and debased by foreigners who felt the need to travel thousands of kilometers to do this. That's not to say that all troops disrespect Islam- some of them seem to genuinely want to understand our beliefs. It does seem like the people in charge have decided to make degradation and humiliation a policy.

By doing such things, this war is taken to another level- it is no longer a war against terror or terrorists- it is, quite simply, a war against Islam and even secular Muslims are being forced to take sides.

We have guided missles, why can't they?

It's a bit chilling, but it seems the insurgency in Iraq has found a way to make sure their car bombs get to the target. Duct tape.

"The officer said that in two of the recent Baghdad bombings, investigators
had found indications that the men driving the cars had been bound with duct
tape before the attacks. He said the foot of one of the attackers, in a
marketplace bombing last week that killed 22 people in south Baghdad, had been
found taped to his vehicle's accelerator. In another case, the officer said, the
attacker's hands were taped to the vehicle's
wheel.
"The implication was that those planning the
attacks wanted to be sure that the vehicles would continue to their targets even
if the drivers were killed by American or Iraqi gunfire as they
approached."

Modern medicine, modern war

There have been various reports of this before, but here's a chilling one: The prevalence of brain trauma among US soldiers who're wounded in Iraq. Our modern medicine saves their lives, keeping them from being counted as war dead, but at what cost?

What does it take

for the "smoking gun" story to get legs. For weeks (two-plus, now) bloggers have been beating the drum about the "fix the facts" memo that surfaced in Britain and so far, besides some random mentions, nothing, nada, nichts, in any MSM publication, including cable TV. Maybe the publication of the entire memo in the NYT Review of Books will change that, but I wouldn't hold my breath, especially in light of Newsweek's recent cave-in on the Koran-flushing story.

If Nixon had managed equally to cow the press, he'd have served out his term and been hailed as a much-maligned leader of the free world.

My hope: The Bushies weather all of these early storms, only to have all the revelations pile up at the end of his term so that he leaves in disgrace and his Republican successor loses to anybody in a landslide.

Surprise, surprise

Rummie, and now Condie, have made surprise visits to Iraq of late. Here's another example of how the media is cowed by the administration's verbiage. These visits aren't surprises to anyone but the media and the Iraqi insurgents. Obviously both our military and the administration knows of the visits in advance. The only people who're surprised are the media and the Iraqis, who, if they were told, would make the visits impossible due to the overwhelmingly negative response, and possible danger, the visits would engender.

Now isn't that special...

Iraq, according to the International Drug Control Board, has now become a key artery for smuggling drugs that are grown in Afghanistan. The route through porous borders and a fractured security system takes heroin, speed and marijuana, from their source to the Mediterranean and then into the European marketplace.

So--with all the money and lives we've expended, we've managed to turn Iraq from a harsh dictatorship into a violent hotbed of terrorism and a major drug-trafficking center. I suppose if we drop some more cash and bodies into the fray, we can add civil war to the list.

Update about the AWOL MSM story

It's been a couple of days now, and still no MSM story about the British memo about how the Bushies predetermined the attack on Iraq and "fixed the facts" to justify it, all as reported in my previous post, "I'm soliciting suggestions." Several bloggers have commented on the MSM silence, and 88 Congresspersons have jointly authored a letter to the President to inquire about the story (while noting the MSM silence on the subject), but still so far nothing from NYT or WaPo or any of the TV channels, not even cable, so far as I can see.

I just don't get it

With CEOs' salaries skyrocketing (even after all the scandals involving over-compensated corporate managers), it turns out that the workers' pensions will fall to the axe because of United Airlines' bankruptcy reorganization. Result: its defined-benefit plan will pay $800 per month as a pension to an employee who'd been promised $1700.

Isn't it time Americans woke up to what's afoot in America? Apparently not, so long as the same companies that are sucking up our money own the media that doesn't report it.

I'm not making this up

Halliburton's KBR unit, the one that's been all over the news in the last two years for overcharges and missing documents in its Iraq rip-off, was just awarded bonuses of millions of dollars by the Defense Department for its "very good" work.

This essay from a Louisville, Kentucky, paper, says it all

Louisville, Kentucky? How can a city in a red state have such a blue paper? No, not blue. True blue.

I'm soliciting suggestions

for a word to be applied to that temporal gap between when a story is reported in the foreign press, or on a blog, and when it is finally (if indeed it ever is) picked up by MSM here in the US. This powerful piece of information about Bush's predetermination to attack Iraq and "fix the facts" to justify the invasion lay outside of US news for at least a week until just now, when the Chicago Tribune finally gave it a small half-column. Now, let's see if it gets any further legs or whether it'll be washed away by stories about runaway brides and weird pop singers.

Two questions arise from this news story

in today's NYT.

First, where on Earth does the reporter get the phrase, "fully and freely elected democratic government" in describing Iraq's present set of office-holders? The nation was under occupation and a large segment of the populace boycotted the election because of the Sunnis' outrage at the US presence in the country. That phrase certainly isn't necessary for the story that follows (about the selection of a cabinet) and is clearly the product of the same herd instinct and bias that characterized the reporting of events in Iraq since Bush set his eyes on it. It's an indication, and an obvious one, of how colored the US reporting is on this war, notwithstanding the mea culpa the NYT has previously expressed over just that bias.

Second, if Iraq can have a Human Rights ministry in their government, why can't we?

Ooops, here it comes

This mass grave isn't Saddam Hussein's doing. It's apparently the product of some pissed off Shiites getting even with Sunnis, from deeds back in the day. Or not. Either way, it's a dangerous turn of events.

Whazzup?

I just finished a book by George Johnson, who writes, among other things, science pieces for the NYT. Fire in the Mind. A super read, an in-depth analysis of various scientific theories--math, physics, geology, biology--juxtaposed against native American tales and myths, all with a view to explaining why we seem to have a "fire in the mind" to learn about ourselves and our meaning. He concludes thus (I'm leaving out some really good stuff):

"Sometimes the intelligence of our species seems like a tiny flame
flickering on the periphery of a vast blackness, trying to illuminate the
void. Who gave us this burden? Will anyone or anything beyond our
celestial campsite ever care? If this web is just something we are
spinning for our own amusement, it will die along with its
creators.

"...[I]t is hard not to believe that we are all
participating in something universal, something holy, that the pageant must
unfold beyond our planet. Perhaps we are merely one among a myriad of
players--gathering bits, abstracting concepts, building great edifices of
theory, these mathematical Towers of Babel, that reach higher and higher above
the plains. High enough, perhaps, to make out, just barely, the
rhythm of other dancers, the flickering of other fires."

Was that conclusion just Johnson's late-night musing, or perhaps--more cynically--his way of satisfying his editor with a final phrase signaling a role for faith, or at least an instinct for mysticism? I'm not sure, but to me it doesn't matter. While I disagree with some people's interpretation of the quote attributed to Einstein ("God does not play dice with the universe"), namely, that Einstein was expressing a belief that something mystical was at work in the universe, I am coming to believe that we humans aren't anywhere near capable of knowing everything--even of seeing everything. I believe Einstein was saying something like, "We don't know what game is afoot, because we can't see God or the dice, or even ourselves."

That I truly believe, for me anyway. I'll always be playing dice in the dark. The question then becomes, Why play at all?

Cofer the Beheader

This quote of our counterterrorism chief, seeking bin Laden's head in a box, reveals all one needs to know about the propensitites of Bush appointees.

A reason to watch Entertainment Tonight

Here's a take on why "serious bloggers" should keep connected to the topics of lesser significance. Does this mean we must watch all the trash on TV? No, but we score no style points for ignorance, either.

Now just a goddam minute

Now they're going after PBS. We'll lose not only Nova, Amercian Experience and Now, but the Antiques Road Show too, the latter not on political grounds, but because it's competitive with, and hence to be absorbed by, commercial television, just like Siskel and Ebert were.

Thank God for the NYT

Not just that it (and a few other MSM outlets, such as the LA Times) more than occasionally provides an outlet for news that's not reported by the other sources, such as this one on the recent ouster of the UN investigator of prison practices in Afghanistan, but that it's a big enough source that its stories can't be ignored. Right? Let's see if the story is picked up anywhere else. I'll report back on this.

Soft Patch or Hard Times

With increasing inflation and declining GDP, there has been mention by the economic pundits of the possibility of stagflation. This phenomenon last occurred in the seventies, when inflation soared and the economy remained flat, so that there was no apparent fiscal or monetary remedy that wouldn't either trigger higher inflation or drive the economy downward. We're probably not headed there yet, but there are ominous signals--and little indication that anything in being done to stem the tide, while both the U.S. trade imbalance and federal deficit continue to grow unchecked. If I were a dollar-holder, or a treasury bond trader, I'd be looking to get out pronto.

There's got to be something wrong with this poll

I simply don't believe that 63% of Americans believe that the bible is literally true. Just don't believe it, that's all.

What's wrong with America?

Here, in detailed presentation, are two features of American global policy that I detest: Its militarism and its blind, greed-driven dependence on oil. There are others: Its crass materialism and dollar-dominated corporatism, the inequities of world wealth that it causes and perpetuates, its aspiration to empire and a few others. But the first two--they're the ones that are going to ruin our nation and destroy the planet first.

This scathing report

on the status of Iraq's security forces, detailing the absenteeism, lack of training, absence of morale (contrary to the recent representation of the US military command): Is it contained in some left-wing opinion piece? No--it's found in a news analysis by Business Week Online.

Condi's solution to terrorism

The surest way to deal with the ever-increasing numbers of terrorist activities around the globe, despite the assurances of Bush and Rice that the US is winning the "war on terr'r" is to stop publishing the embarrassing statistics. Especially since last year, the administration's attempt to minimize the numbers of attacks was found out and the report revised upward.

So--no more annual report on global terrorism will be submitted by the new Secretary of State. What you don't know won't hurt us, is Condi's motto.

SIP's

This new Amazon.com feature sounds interesting. Surely it's the basis for a new board game.

Where's the outrage?

I'm not posting regularly, nor am I on the Internet much, because I've traveled to Tucson for several days and I'm relegated to a dialup connection. As a result, I haven't yet checked Google News to see whazzup, but I'll be surprised to find broad Mainstream Media coverage of this outrageous situation about armored vehicles in Iraq. This is at least the third separate time the absence of armor has been raised--the first being within three months of the invasion, the second being about three months ago, and still we've heard only muttering about it on the MSM.

Meanwhile, Rumsfeld and his Pentagon minions roll on: mindless, callous criminals. And more mindless and callous than they? The MSM, which allows them to do so.

Bottoming out

I watched a Frontline TV show last night called, "The Architect," devoted entirely to Karl Rove's activities and orchestration of Bush's electoral victories and the rightward shift of the Republican Party which has lately led to its dominance in Washington and in many states. (Rove declined to be interviewed for the show, which was co-produced by The Washington Post).

There wasn't anything new in the presentation for those who follow politics and certainly not for those who've read Bush's Brain. However, I came away with a sense that the Democrats, at least many of those in power, haven't yet gotten the fundamental message that the show demonstrated: The way to achieve political strength is by perseverance, organization and adherence to a resonant message.

Rove's drive as a youth stemmed from Goldwater's loss in 1964, a nadir for the Republicans--and for the conservative message. From that bottom there was nowhere to go but up, and within four years Nixon was in the White House, followed by Ford and, with but a brief interruption, twelve more years of conservative rule, during which time Rove rose in the ranks and plied his trade by carving out a rightist agenda of low taxes and capitalist hegemony over the economy. Now, in the wake of the damaged image of the Democrats caused by the Clinton presidency he's aligned the Republicans with the religious right, armed them with the "war on terror" and is firmly in control of the national pulse, with his candidate cutting taxes, cutting federal programs, opting out of treaties, gaining control over strategic resources and calling out religious slogans to invigorate the faithful to support his causes and his candidate.

Well, the Democrats have bottomed out now, too. True, the 2004 presidential race was no landslide, like those Goldwater, Dukakis and McGovern suffered. But the Republicans hold sway in all three branches of the federal government and in most states. They have the resonant messages, too: The "Ownership society and "culture of life" being the latest.

I've been watching the Democrats in Congress lately, during the confirmation hearings of Gonzales, Rice, Negroponte, and, most recently the brute, John Bolton. With the exception of a few members of Congress, including Barbara Boxer, from my state, the Democrats' responses are pitiful. Where's the outrage that Bush should appoint and retain those who failed America during his first term? Where's the message that we've lost thousands of lives and limbs in a war that wasn't necessary? Where's the demand that these appointees be held accountable?

The Democrats must adopt an affirmative message and a consistent means of its delivery. It has always been the party of the working class, it has always protected minorities, the environment, the freedoms of press and religion--causes that are now being trampled by the Republicans. The Democrats must now, as any twelve-stepper knows, acknowledge the problem and, one day at a time, take steps--forward and upward--to correct it, starting at the bottom.

What a difference two years make

The famous square in Baghdad where Saddam Hussein's statute was toppled is shown in two telling photos. The first--taken as the statue fell--shows the square nearly empty except for some US troops and a handful of Iraqis. The second, taken last week, shows tens of thousands of Iraqis rallying to protest the US occupation. (BTW, during the first anniversary of the invasion the square was blocked off for security reasons.)

What a dolt

When asked about his reaction to attending the funeral of the Pope our wise and eloquent leader had this to say: "It was one of the highlights of my presidency."

I kid you not. The quote was reported by no less stolidly supportive newspaper that the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/pope/3124793

And there's this gem casting aspersions on the worth of US debt securities, as reported by the NYT. Not just doltish, demonic.

The Whites get richer and the Blacks get poorer

Economic recovery? Compassionate Conservatism? Equality, Liberty, "Ownership"? Not for Blacks in America.

I don't get it

Nascar Dads, whose wages, in real terms, are steadily declining under Bush, and big-money investors, whose stocks--according to the S&P 500, the broadest-based index of publicly-traded shares--have experienced the first-ever five-year decline during Bush's watch, are among his ardent supporters. This can't be based on his performance. How come he's still their darling? Any ideas? What am I missing?

Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Given the benefits of pot smoking--new ones being discovered every day--who caused marijuana to be made illegal? There are hundreds of sites, but check out this succinct recital of the feds' intervention in the age-old debate.

Give that woman a Pulitzer

for reporting, under the name Riverbend, what the media is like in Iraq. And in the US, too.

Surprise, surprise

The US will likely establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan. Who'da thunkit?

Irrational irrationality

Who the fuck does Alan Greenspan think he is, all of a sudden becoming the guru on oil supply, demand and prices? He may know something about the effect of interest rates on borrowing and investing, but what magic wand has he recently found to predict inflation based on future oil exploration and refining?
Answer: None.

Many oil experts, contrary to Greenspan's expression of calm, orderly adjustment to price and demand, have told us the Earth's production has now peaked and that as the third-world nations, particularly India and China, adopt our Western ways, we're in for decades of creeping price increases. And maybe not creeping.

Under the radar

The lack of job growth under Bush's regime (worst job rebound after a recession--ever), as well as the decline, in real terms, of purchasing power by workers over the last four years, has simply slipped out of public debate. We hear about economic growth in the US economy, but there's no expansion of earnings for the middle and lower classes.

Of course, what else should I expect from a Republican administration.

What a fucking hypocrite

Bush has sunk to a new low--and he's already a champion at such sinking--with his "right"eous expressions of condolences on the death of the Pope. Only once in Bush's administration did the Pope's intervention become relevant, and Bush, bleeding from the lips to make war, cast aside the Pope's prayers that he not invade Iraq.

Bush is a man incapable of truth and principle. He's a monster, now, hopefully, seen as capable of anything--even lies and politics--while pretending to mourn over the death of a true spokesman of peace.

If there's an afterlife--as Bush and his minions claim--may Bush rot in Hell.

Neocon-fection

Here's the video of William Kristol's pie-ing during a speech at a college in Indiana--a Red State, BTW.

Is this the United States we want?

We're building military outposts throughout the world, holding onto territories by force of arms. Anyone who fails to see the parallels to all other previously failed empires is blind.

April Fool!

The price of gasoline hits new highs, the number of new jobs created plummets, inflation continues to increase, the stock market drops--and the deceased Terry Schiavo and the soon-to-be deceased Pope dominate the American news. The MSM in the second quarter of 2005 is carrying on in its new-found tradition: without insight, without truth, without genuine purpose except to entertain in the basest manner possible. For Bloomberg's story about today's economic developments, check out this story from a source that's decidedly pro-business.

Democracy?

These stories of lists of persons who're escorted out of Bush's "conversations" is old news, I know. But they trouble me still because nobody's complaining about them. Have we become so complacent about the loss of first amendment rights peaceably to assemble and express ourselves that it's no longer outrageous when those rights are obviously breached?

Riverbend remembers

Two years after the US invasion of Iraq, this woman blogger in Baghdad recalls the endless days and nights of shock and awe--and tells us how hard it is to be shocked and awed by the misery of occupation anymore.

Is it just me?

Or are there a few others out there who don't have a clue why the US peddles armaments to other nations, even momentarily "friendly" nations. I mean, whazzup with that?

Talk about your soft targets

These attacks on hospitals have got to stop. The Marines began last autumn's assault on Fallujah by storming the city's main hospital, the justification being that it was a source of figures and photos of dead Iraqis that revealed the extent of our devastation of the city by pre-invasion bombing. Anti-US propoganda, they said. Now we're doing it again, this time in Ramadi.

Happy Easter, everybody. He is risen. But too far, apparently.

The silence is deafening

Iraq Body Count, a website that keeps track of reported civilian deaths, reports that the frequency of attacks and deaths is spiraling upward, and has risen sharply since the "democratic" election in January, 2005. I keep wondering when, if ever, the US citizenry will learn of this. If anybody out there spots a MSM news item to this effect, please advise.

Who are those guys?

I'm acquainted with some of these folks, but not many. I'm talking about the 76% of Americans who, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, actually believe Jesus rose from the dead.

How can so many people believe something for which there's not only no scientific support, but which is actually contraindicated by accepted tenets of physiology? Are many of these believers the same people who believe there were WMD in Iraq? Do they believe because it makes them--makes their existence on the planet--more comfortable than acceptance of the alternative, namely that the story of Jesus is a fable, well-intended and finely based, but, after all, just a tale--a tale that tells us how to live a moral life, but doesn't demand that we do so in order to achieve some eternal reward?

Perhaps so. After all, it wouldn't be the only occasion in which human understanding has been based on what's comfortable, what's comforting. For centuries, Westerners believed the Earth was the center of the universe in spite of solid, contrary observations; or that the Earth was flat, even though sailboats appeared to sink, but then emerge, on the horizon. The idea of a spherical, isolated planet--one object of billions massed and scattered through the universe--wasn't acceptable until supporting proof was undeniable, and until we'd been sufficiently conditioned to accept it, to adopt it within our sense of things, to make it comfortable.

So--what about this idea? Maybe, someday we humans will become evolved enough to quit this bullshit about the existence of a God and/or Allah, with sons and spokemen like Jesus and Mohammed and Krishna and so on. Maybe we have to kill each other, fight and litigate and destroy each other for a few more centuries until we tire of these silly notions and just plain stop and become that which we truly are: Billions of animals trying to find a way to survive in peace on Earth.

Home, sweet home

Here's what the Bushies are up to in my old home town. Remind me never to say "It can't happen here."

It takes a student of Islam

to recognize a Christian radical.

"The cynical use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case
repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim
fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan. These tactics
involve a disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of
public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on
them. President George W. Bush and Republican congressional leaders like Tom
Delay have taken us one step closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood
model."

Breaking the silence

I've been so overwhelmed by Bush's recent machinations that I didn't know where to begin to post in reaction. His cabinet appointments--keeping Rummie, elevating Condi, appointing Gonzalez, to name a few--and his other appointments--Bolton, Negraponte, Wolfowitz--are enough to silence anyone. Now his assault on Alaska, his ramroding bills through Congress for war funding and diminishing social programs. It's too much!

But, guess what? It's precisely what he did in his first term. Recall when we couldn't believe his early actions, his appointments and agenda? We thought "he can't mean it," "it can't be happening." But it was, and it is again. Make no mistake, Bush/Cheney are out to transform the United States into a Christian fascist state--and the media is allowing it to happen. Even the Democrats are stifled, their occasional dissent but a whisper in the wind.

I told one of my fellow peace marchers that it's an exciting time, in a way. We are allowed to witness an historical earthquake, the end of a democracy, the finest democracy on Earth. Exciting, but painful indeed.

Whither the dollar?

Today's report, showing a sharp rise last month in the foreign purchase of US debt instruments (treasury bonds, corporate securities) appeared on its face to be good news for the dropping dollars. Indeed, it brought a quick reaction of the Forex market, in which the dollar gained a penny against the euro, which fell from $1.34 to $1.33.

But the underlying data are troubling, because, as has been rumored in recent weeks, it appears that the foreign governments (Japan, China, chiefly) in fact cut back their purchases, whereas foreign-based private hedge funds increased theirs mightily last month. As the Reuters analysis points out, monthly fluctuations in the amount of these private purchases are great, leaving the prospect of an upcoming period, not long from now, when there'll be neither private nor governmental foreign purchase of our equity and our debt, which presently accounts for one fourth of the market for such securitites. Such a vacuum would immediately cause a rise in interest rate of our debt to attract purchasers, and could trigger further inflationary fears. The likely result: The dollar would weaken even more as it cheapens, the dollar debt would become yet less attractive, and the interest rate needed to peddle that debt would rise further, starting a spiral of inflation, increase of interest rates for all kinds of borrowing in the US, and loss of buying power for US consumers, a credit-saddled bunch, who are, after all, the only engine our economy has.

It could get real ugly, real soon.

Scott Ritter for President

This second part of a three-part interview with former UN weapons inspector Ritter, long an opponent to the Iraq invasion, nails the neocons perfectly. They thrive on our fears and whenever we become complacent about their "war on terror" grab their well-placed microphones to frighten us anew. As I've long said, both Osama and Bush gain from our fear, and the US media profits from it. It takes insight to recognize this awful symbiosis and courage to voice it. The question is, what can be done about it?

Rain, rain go away

I don't want to wish ill on anybody, really I don't, but if there's going to be a huge wildfire season this summer, wouldn't it be wonderful if it took place in Montana?

I told you so

For months I (and other bloggers) have been predicting the economic catastrophe that the NYT is now, finally, suggesting.

The story about the capture of Saddam Hussein

in a "spider hole" was fabricated? Hmm. Could it be so? Absolutely, say I. After the Jessica Lynch bullshit and the Army's tale about recent shooting of the Italian agent who freed the woman reporter I don't believe a thing that the military tells us about the goings-on in Iraq. Actually, I haven't believed a military-minded person--ever. To me, men and women in the higher echelons of the military--any nation's military--is inherently untrustworthy on account of having a warped sense of humanity,demonstrated by their voluntary decision to join and direct martial force against fellow human beings. That decision, in my view, disqualifies a person from engaging in human discourse.

"What a revoltin' development this is!"

A signature line from an old radio show, "The Life of Riley," starring William Bendix. (Shows you how old I am!) It's apropos the Bushies' likely reaction to the Iraqi leaders' response to the question whether the US will be allowed to maintain permanent bases in Iraq.

The "f" word

Finally, somebody (somewhat) responsible has uttered it, and backed it up with reasoned analysis. And for a frightening, compelling review of the traits of fascism, and how they translate into the actions of the Bush regime, check out this.

I gotta hand it to Bush and his advisors

They benefit no matter what happens in Iraq. If a pro-US government is formed, the US can keep its bases in Iraq and can suck up its oil, etc. If the present squabbling continues, the US can stay too, since no founded Iraqi administration will be formed to speak with a sufficiently authoritative voice to oust our military. Only if a passionately anti-US government prevails, and it can speak with one anti-US voice, will the US be compelled to leave--and that's not going to happen so long as the anti-US violence continues, which, in turn, is assured by the continued US presence. Like I say: Brilliant.

Greenspan's an idiot, a fascist, or worse.

A national sales tax? Oh, boy. Just what our out-of-whack economy needs, with the poor, who are growing poorer, and who'd be hit disproportionately with such a tax, bearing the burden of equalizing our federal income and outgo.
The man's got no clue about the need for government to be fair-minded and just in its efforts and impacts. He's a money-monger; he's the first one Christ cast from the temple. He does nothing but crunch numbers and mumble conservative platitudes, while Wall Street and Congress bow and scrape. His solution for fixing imbalances is never to tax the wealthy, but rather to do what comes naturally: tread on those who holler faintest.

Don't despair

I've not been posting, I know it. I'm distracted by a book I'm reading at the suggestion of Kyle. Toward the End of Time, by Updike. Magnificent writing, too good to put down. Posts will reappear later today, maybe.

Somebody do something, somebody say something

Now we're gonna lay antipersonnel mines in Iraq, to be triggered by laptop computer. Isn't there something we can do to stop this madness?

Pat Buchanan on Bush's interventionist foreign policy

How can someone who's completely full of shit on most issues be so right on about Bush's international policy of intervention to spread democracy?