Under the radar

The ACLU and other groups have sued Rummie and the DoD to release the videos and photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the many that weren't revealed previously. Seymour Hersch said that they were more horrific than the original photos, including screams of detainees audible on the videotapes while they were being sodomized.

The district judge who's handling the case is disgusted with the DoD's repeated delays in production of the material under the Freedom of Information Act, the latest maneuver by the DoD being to claim some law-enforcement restraint on production. (A quickie series of quotes by the judge, Rummie and the DoD can be found here and NYT's take on the DoD's latest ploy to avoid compliance with the District Judge's order, go here.)

Bottom line: Despite Bush/Rummie's assurances that their investigation of the abuse scandal with be so transparent that it will show how democratic and forthright the U.S. is, the administration is doing all it can to obstruct the revelation of the prisoner abuses and to bring to justice those (including Rummie, Gonzales and the generals) who caused them to occur.

Take heart: The District Judge who's handling the case doesn't appear to be cowed by the Bushists. The awful photos and videos will indeed be made public, and not too long from now.

Treasongate

For a succinct and entertaining summary of the Rove/Plame/Niger/Yellowcake-gate affair, check out this story, the conclusion of which is telling: The real story is how Rove's actions reveal the degree to which this administration is dedicated to its lies and its wars.

Mystifying

Check out these recent polling results on various questions relating to the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. While in several polls a large majority of those polled state that they feel Bush has done a poor job of handling the war, to other questions a majority answers that they approve the military operation--even though a majority also believes the invasion/occupation has worsened the terrorist situation around the world and has made the US less safe from terrorism.

These disparities of public opinion tell me that a majority of US citizens are conflicted about our actions and policy in Iraq, but are coming slowly to the realization that Bush has made a gross error by invading Iraq in the first place and has placed our nation in an impossibly costly and strategically disastrous position. As I've said for years, "It's Iraq, stupid!" If we want to have any chance to change the direction of our nation's politics and policies, we must continue--day by day--to hammer home the evil idiocy of that awful war.

Tangled webs after a thousand deceptions

Could it be as simple as this? Karl Rove and Scooty Libby (the two men closest to Bush/Cheney, respectively) indicted for perjury for testifying before a grand jury that they first learned of Valerie Plame's status from news reporters when those same reporters deny same? This testimonial conflict, supported by the implausibility of Rove/Libbys' stories, taken together with today's new account of the State Department memo that was circulated on Bush's Africa-bound airplane (surely a smoking gun on the issue of whether Plame's employment by the CIA was "secret"), may spell the end of Bush's holier-than-thou administration. Just as a "third-rate burglary" wrecked Nixon's reign, this tiny crack in Bush's impervious imperium may bring down the entire structure.

Let's hope--it's just a hope--that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is the Archibald Cox/Leon Jaworski of the new millenium.

One step backward, one step backward

The "new constitution" in Iraq will likely curtail womens' rights, far more limiting than womens' status under Saddam Hussein's regime. Makes all that killing worth it, eh?

Back in the USSA

In response to the urgent pleas of scores of you devotees, I resume my posting after a month's vacation in NW USA and Alberta/B.C., Canada.

Amazing, isn't it?, how Bush slithers through his lies and treasonous conduct. A month ago, after months of urging by us bloggers, the Downing Street Memos finally made the bigtime, bringing to the fore the "smoking gun" proof of Bush's lies about WMD before the Iraq invasion. At the time, we knew the Bushists would manufacture some detour--a Supreme Court nominee, another war, something--to wipe the Downing Street Memos from our memories. But no--there's been an unexpected detour: The Karl Rove story.

Fact is, however, the latter isn't anywhere near as important the the former, and now Bush's war-inducing lies have disappeared into history, as will the Karl Rove story, as will even the outrageous Iraq war when the Saddam Hussein trial starts. The latter will be carried ad nauseum by the networks, obliterating the war news and Bush will once again escape the fallout from his criminal conduct. Worst president ever, no contest.

Take care

I'm off for an extended trip (look out, trout!), be back in about a month. Meanwhile, don't you people let Bush get away with any more shenanigans.

Secrets and lies

Here's a report by a retired military man, detailing the sustained effort by the Bushies to plump for invasion and to keep spreading favorable press about the war in Iraq in the face of reality. We're still being fed lies and misinformation by Bush/Cheney/Rummie/Condi, and we've simply got to demand that the media call them to account. Otherwise, we'll be in for another decade of war in the Middle East and beyond.

Just another day in Iraq

For a sense of the terror and outrage of our occupation of Iraq, check out the list of entries and news summaries for today (6/15) that are shown down the right-hand column of the blog.

It's getting uglier and uglier

So now, the Kurds in Kirkuk--a northern Iraq city with a pool of oil under it--are abducting and imprisoning Arabs and Turkmen, who oppose Kurdish control over the city, and in some cases with the knowledge of the US and Iraq military. What the hell?

Leaked memos

Here, in a sequence (pdf format) are the various memos, including the Downing Street Minutes, that have given rise to all the recent blog (and, finally, a bit of MSM) hullabaloo.

Enjoy.

Recon by fire

Stories like this, where our soldiers shoot at cars that are speeding toward a checkpoint, or are driving too slowly toward a checkpoint, or are turning around to avoid a checkpoint--whatever--are becoming common. It's part of the reconnaissance by fire tactic (more like a syndrome) that we adopted in Viet Nam, where our troops fired indiscriminately into the jungle to see if there were any VC or NVA in the bushes and in the process killed thousands of locals.
Slopes, gooks, Arabs, what's the difference?

A prediction

I don't do this often, and when I've done it in the past (as with the ruination of the dollar and the replacement of Cheney on the ticket in 2004) I've been wrong. So, with a miserable track record, I presume nevertheless to predict this: A catastrophic attack, or a discovered threat of one, within the next few days. With Bush/Cheney in such shit as now, what else could one expect?

The Times--the original Times

The Times of London, which broke the Downing Street Memo on May 1, has done it again, this time with a memo about how Bush/Blair were intent on seeking a legal justification--in particular, the use of the UN--to invade Iraq. Doncha wish our MSM would do some spadework on this issue?

Here's the actual memo, as published by the Times.

Freeway blogger

This site--especially for me, an inveterate sign-displayer--is inspiring. And fuuunny.

Lehrer sucks

I just watched PBS Friday night news with Jim Lehrer. He gave the shortest possible shrift to the Downing Street memo and its significance. When a transcript of the show is made available I'll post it. Amazing. We are really being isolated, even by the "liberal" media.

More about suicide bombers

Here's an elucidation of the study of suicide bombers that I referred to in a previous post. It's important for Americans to understand what we're fighting, and how they're fighting us. It's brutal, all of it, but are we less--or more--brutal than they? In answering, remember, we invaded their country and presently occupy it. If they invaded ours, and you were powerless against their overwhelmingly powerful force, what would you do?

This is absolutely delicious

Private contractors from the US, working in Iraq and armed to the teeth (and immune from suit by reason of Tribune Bremer's previous decree), have fired on civilian Iraqis and US soldiers, causing deaths and injuries. Now, the Iraqi Interior Ministry, with the blessing of the US military, want to impose controls on these contractors, whose impunity and huge salaries are envied by our poorly paid grunts.

Could we be talking about a civil war in Iraq between American troops and American contractors?

Winning their hearts and minds

Ah, This'll do it, no doubt. The Pentagon has decided to outsource to private PR firms its propaganda effort directed at foreigners. (The military is forbidden by law from spreading propaganda among US citizens--oh right!) .

I love this part:

"The contract calls for the firms to produce print articles, video and audio
broadcasts, Internet sites and novelty items, like T-shirts and bumper stickers,
for foreign audiences."

Bumperstickers? T-shirts? What slogans? "They dropped clusterbombs on my village, but all I got was this lousy T-shirt"?

It's Iraq, stupid

I can't believe that those in charge of the Democrats' positions can read the tea leaves, or even the polls. This nation hates this madness in Iraq, and the Left must jump on it. Now, tomorrow and until the Right dies from loss of blood.