It's NOT really there, it's NOT really there, it's NOT really there....

And then, just like the little kid, burying his face in his arms, trying to squeeze out scary sights and sounds, we have the reality denial of the veteran "supporters" like Tim Susengill, who, banging out randomly upon his keys, eventually produced the following mantra of delusion and reality denial:

You should call yourself New American Pacifist, not patriot. Your stuff is old, reminds me of the SDS garbage from the 60's. Fundamentalist terrorism is ugly stuff. I guess you think we should politely ask them not to hatch plots to massacre thousands of innocent people, and assume that they will cease and desist out of the goodness of their hearts. You need to study a little history about cultist anti-democratic movements - fascism, communism, and now islamic fundamentalism. They are all cut out of the same cloth, and won't be stopped by nonsense like you propagate. By taking the offensive in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and now Iraq, in the long run, millions of lives will likely be saved. Already millions of people have been saved from the brutal tyranny of the Serbs, the Taliban, Al Queda, and the Baathists. There is a lot more work to be done, to be sure. Your leftist babble is a distraction, and an insult to the true patriots of this free and resilient nation, the soldiers now fighting to defend your right to spew garbage into cyberspace, and the veterans of previous conflicts. I'm quite sure you don't really give a damn about those folks, as you have anointed yourself as a spokesperson of the people, and a 'patriot.' Nice scam, bet it makes you feel real satisfied, and gives you a temporary feeling that you are somebody special. Too bad that you are really fooling yourself, and whatever insecurities you are trying to compensate for go unaddressed.
Tim Susengill

And, Tim, while I'd happily kick you hard in the nads in the name of demonstrating my marked nonpacifism, as you're safely out of reach, I'll content myself with the following response:

Timmy:

LOOK at the video and SEE FOR YOURSELF POWELL AND RICE ADMITTING HUSSEIN WASN'T A THREAT!!!
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/powell-rice-wmd.wmv

It’s not “garbage” if YOUR GUYS ARE RECORDED SAYING IT ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

But here’s betting you don’t even have the balls to look at it. Watch the 30-second clip and THEN you have the right to debate with me – otherwise you’re just covering your face in your hands and saying “It’s NOT really true!” over and over like a little kid.

You’re damned right I wouldn’t serve in Iraq. Where are the WMD (that Reagan, Rumsfeld, Baker, Cheney and Bush Sr originally gave him and he since destroyed in front of UN inspectors)? Where are the mobile labs? Where were the terrorists (BEFORE the invasion, that is)? Where were the links to Al Qaeda? Why didn’t Bush do a damned thing when he received the 30-odd worldwide notices that Al Qaeda was planning to strike in the US within early September using planes as missiles on DC and NY? I don't believe in spilling innocent blood in the name of corporate profits and misguided empire-building. And I most EMPHATICALLY don't believe in emulating the worst of the Nazi torture chiefs in the name of spreading "democracy".

I quote the Post, Times, CNN, Pentagon, post photos, film footage, official government documents and the actual words of the people you support. You get in my face making all these claims, but without a damned thing to back up what you say.

So who’s spewing GARBAGE then, champ?

OPEN YOUR EYES.

OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF THE TRUTH.

Quote of the Day:
Michael from Adam's eyes the Film remov'd
Which that false Fruit that promis'd clearer sight
Had bred; then purg'd with Euphrasy and Rue
The visual Nerve, for he had much to see
--John Milton

Fun with Morons....

One of the fun things about a blog where you tell people the truth and just say "fuck 'em if they don't like it" is the wacky correspondence you get from the whitebread Cro-Magnon set. Take, for example, this little gem from "Mikey", that arrived in my mailbox just today:

Your just another liberal crybaby.

So, setting aside a longheld personal aversion to beating up on the mentally handicapped, I put together a nifty little quick reply:

"Michael, Michael, Michael:
First, that’s “you’re”, but I guess you’re now way past the point where elementary grammar lessons will help.

Now, unless you’re sending your email to me from the desert sands of Iraq, you’re just another chickenshit Republican who pretends to support a war he doesn’t have the balls to serve in. Run along little boy, until your testicles drop."

There now, wasn't that fun?

:-D

NAP

Stupidity of the Day: "I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that."
--Britney Spears

Bush Earns Angel Of Death Wings

This month a major Bush milestone was quietly passed, virtually unnoticed by the media.

As of this month, George W. Bush has sent a soldier to die for every day he has been in the White House.

Of course, that is only the official Pentagon-approved® body count. Other countries, where they have been quietly shipping the bodies, tell an entirely different story.

Then, of course, there is the international report of the highly-respected medical journal the Lancet, which had the temerity to publish the number of Iraqis killed in Bush's grand adventure -- though, of course everyone knows that non-white people don't actually matter -- well, at least not as much.

This must certainly be a greater honor than when he became the governor who ordered the most executions in modern US history, a task which, according to conservative cheerleader and bad-tie aficionado Tucker Carlson, he rather enjoyed.

Congratulations, Mr. Bush; I have no doubt you'll wear it proudly, as the only military decoration you legitimately earned.

Quote of the Day:
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he pass'd;
And the eyes of the sleepers wax'd deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still.
--Lord Byron

She sure as hell speaks for me -- and you. You just may be too fucking stupid to realize it....

Quote of the Day: "If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out."
--Cindy Sheehan

Silencing the Critics Revisited

Check out former NSA agent Wayne Madsen's state-by-state rundown of the massive number of indictments, convictions and legal proceedings against the ethically-lobotomized current GOP.

And wait'll you read what happened to the man sent to investigate Republican Tom Feeney.

If you don't know, four years before Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell -- the man in charge of counting the 2004 "election's" votes in the most critical state, who also just "happeneed" to be the BUSH CHENEY ELECTION CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRMAN -- broke new boundaries in jaw-droppingly brazen election theft by blocking voter registrations, supplying a hugely disproportionate dearth of voting machines in Democrat voting strongholds, scrubbing voter lists, announcing FBI terrorist reports that the FBI claimed it never issued, forbidding the media from observing vote counting and finally LOCKING THE VOTES FROM PUBLIC INSPECTION AND DECLARING THEM "NO LONGER PUBLIC RECORDS" (!), Florida Republican Congressman Tom Feeney ordered programmer Clint Curtis to write a program that would SWITCH VOTES IN VOTING MACHINES AND THEN ERASE ITS TRACKS -- at least if you believe the programmer's own SWORN AFFIDAVIT AND TESTIMONY BEFORE THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE (on video here).

The man sent to investigate Feeney, Department of Transportation veteran investigator Ray Lemme, a man with a family and solid reputation, disappeared en route to work. He was found dead in a Georgia hotel room, along with a suicide note oddly devoid of fingerprints. Two eyewitnesses reported seeing three strange men talking in a very disturbing manner outside his room the day of his death, and although, according to official reports the crime photos had been "accidentally destroyed", Madsen's team did discover and publish them, showing that, prior to allegedly slitting a main artery in his elbow, Lemme apparently also beat and strangled himself, in what a doctor said appeared to be a "classic mob hit".

At least the case has recently been reopened, though this is likely cold comfort to Madsen, who may well be thinking of the odd deaths of other prominent Bush investigators such as Gary Webb, who, after warning friends he might soon be "suicided" over his new expose, allegedly commited suicide by shooting himself in the head -- twice.

Not to mention Steve Kangas, Danny Casolaro, James Hatfield, Mark Lombardi, Bob Stevens, Brian Quig and a host of others

But, gentle readers, if you REALLY want to give yourselves a case of the willies, read about the List here and here.

And consider whether or not to finally take seriously the soundbyte "It's time for regime change at home".

Quote of the Day: "Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so." -- Bertrand Russell

In Case You Didn't Already Know... Ted Rall RULES....

Brilliant columns; brilliant cartoons. The raw, bloody, unadulterated truth from a journalist who's spent significant (unembedded) time in the Middle East, and isn't afraid to shout out the truth everyone else in the media is too chickenshit to say without ass-covering and watering-down.

Read him here. What he's got to say might just save some lives. And will definitely move you.

Quote of the Day: "If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges, and Governors, shall all become wolves."
-- Thomas Jefferson

The Story You Never Heard About Casey Sheehan and Iraq's New "Democracy"

Photo: The only visible "rebuilding" here was to replace the toppled Hussein statue with a new "Freedom" piece in Huria Square, next to the Palestine Hotel. Someone wrote underneath "all "donne" (done) go home." Picture courtesy of ActionLA.org

The smaller lies, about jubilant throngs toppling Hussein's statue, or the "heroic rescue" of Jessica Lynch or the "grateful newly-liberated Iraqi" woman "indignant" at Camp Casey participants or even the WMD that both Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell ADMITTED ONFILM WERE NON-EXISTENT pale beside the grandaddy lie of them all: that Bush and his ill-conceived invasion and flustercluck of an occupation are all about America bringing "freedom and democracy" to the poor unworthy ignorant sandpeople (after, of course, making them
the beneficiaries of a little Bush-style compassionate conservatism).

First, let's not forget Wolfowitz's blunt disclosure of the real reason we're mired in sand, blood and depleted uranium dust, or how our latter-day Pontius Pilate looted the Iraq treasury (and "lost" $9 billion of US taxpayer-funded aid money down a convenient rabbit hole) before fleeing the occupied zone.

My money says the DU, raw, flowing sewage, and other sources of misery and high civilian mortality are a deliberate campaign to permanently clear vast swaths of Iraq to make it a completely compliant gas pump for the Bush Cartel.

But I digress. Read on, if you've got the constitution and moral strength to stare the damning truth in the face:

Why Casey Sheehan Was Killed
by Aaron Glantz

Since President Bush won't meet with Cindy Sheehan to explain why her son Casey died in Iraq, I thought I would put forward the information I have. Like Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, I was in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004. I was there as an unembedded journalist. Unlike Casey Sheehan, I wasn't killed.

I had traveled to Sadr City to cover the Bush Administration's undemocratic attack on the movement of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada Sadr. It didn't matter that the cleric had millions of followers or that he was scion to an important political family with a history of standing up to tyranny. (His father was killed by Saddam's regime for fomenting revolution in 1999. His uncle, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, was killed for leading an insurrection against Ba'ath rule in 1980.)

It didn't matter that Sadr's forces were providing food aid to the poor, or organizing traffic patrol and garbage duty in an atmosphere with no basic services.

The problem for Bush and his Iraq Administrator L. Paul Bremer was that Sadr was against American occupation. So he had to be dealt with. First his newspaper was closed. Then his top advisor was arrested. Then, Bremer announced an unnamed judge was demanding Sadr be arrested on charges of murder.

"He's effectively attempting to establish his authority in place of the legitimate Iraqi government," US Administrator Paul Bremer told reporters. "We will not tolerate that."

That was the last straw. Until April 4, 2004 Muqtada Sadr had urged his followers to protest peacefully against American occupation. But the American assault lead him to urge his followers to "terrorize the enemy."

In the first 48 hours of fighting Sadr's followers seized police stations and government buildings across the country including the Governor's Office in Basra. At least 75 Iraqis and 10 American servicemen were killed, among them Army Specialist Casey Sheehan. As an unembedded journalist I saw only the Iraqi casualties (the U.S. casualties being taken away to military hospitals). My translator Waseem and I weaved through roads closed by American tanks until we arrived at Sadr City's al-Ubaidi hospital.

There, I interviewed 15 year old Ali Hussein. He lay in the hospital - an American bullet lodged in his gut. He was barely able to lift his head, but he wanted to say a few words to the American reporter: "I was standing in my door-way and I was shot," he said. "I don't have anything to say to the Americans. It's just between them and God."

A few miles away at Baghdad's Mustansuriye University, hundreds of students marched through the center of campus. They chanted: the dead want a brave people so we won't follow the law of Bremer.

"We will act according to the situation that we face," said Wassam Mehdi Hussein, head of the Islamic Union of Iraqi Students standing by al-Sadr's declaration of jihad against the occupation. "We will use any means peaceful and violent."

Another Mustansuriye student, Ali Mohammed, noted the violence started when the American military closed Sadr's newspaper and arrested his top advisor.

"We don't want to fight the Americans," he told me. "We are very grateful to them. They are very dear to us because they released us from Saddam. But at the same time we want them to do something for humanity. A lot of people are suffering from hunger and sitting at home having no work.'

"These things make the situation bad and then we turn to explosions. We want to respect them and we want them to respect us."

A year on, such respect still isn't forth-coming - even to Americans like Cindy Sheehan, who deserve to know the truth of why their sons have been killed in Iraq.

Pacifica radio network reporter Aaron Glantz is author of the new book "How America Lost Iraq" (Tarcher/Penguin). More information at www.aaronglantz.com

Quote of the Day:"Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy." - Henry Kissinger, "Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs in Vietnam"

We Are Most Fucking Definitely Not a Focus Group.....

Hee hee.

Update: An Iraq War Vet's Moving Letter to the Waco Memorial Vandal

Operation Truth, the largest Gulf War veterans site on the net, had some words for Larry Northern, famed gunclub hobbyist president and hater of those that dare question his royal simian hineyness.

The stirring, incredibly sad text of the post follows. What a tragic, unnecessary waste of lives.

A Message to the Crawford Memorial Vandal
On Monday night, a vandal in a pickup truck ran over hundreds of small white crosses that had been installed in Crawford, Texas as a simple memorial to the Troops killed in Iraq. The vandal, who police say is Waco resident Larry Northern, was soon arrested, and OpTruth's Perry Jefferies managed to find his e-mail address. Here's what he had to say:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Northern:

I am a Veteran of the Iraq war, having served with the 4th Infantry Division on the initial invasion with Force Package One.

While I was in Iraq,a very good friend of mine, Christopher Cutchall,was killed in an unarmoredHMMWV outside of Baghdad. He was a cavalry scout serving with the 3d ID.Once he had declined the award of a medal because Soldiers assigned to him did not receive similar awards that he had recommended. He left two sons and awonderful wife. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West.

One of my Soldiers in Iraq was Roger Turner. We gave him a hard time because he always wore all of his protective equipment, including three pairs of glasses or goggles. He did this because he wanted to make sure that he returned home to his family. He rode a bicycle to work every day to make sure that he was able to save enough money on his Army salary to send his son to college. At Camp Anaconda, where the squadron briefly stayed, a rocket landed inside a tent, sending a piece of debris or fragment into him and killed him. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West.

One of my Soldiers was Henry Bacon. He was one of the finest men I ever met. He was in perfect shape for a man over forty, working hard at night. He told me that he did that because he didn't have much money to buy nice things for his wife, who he loved so much, so he had to be in good shape for her. He was like a father to many young men in his section of maintenance mechanics. They fixed our vehicles with almost no support and fabricated parts and made repairs that kept our squadron rolling on the longest, fastest armor advance ever made under fire. He was so very proud of his son-in-law that married the beautiful daughter so well raised by Henry. His son-in-law was a helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry Division, who died last year. Henry stopped to rescue a vehicle belonging to another unit on what was to be his last day in Iraq. He could have kept rolling - he was headed to Kuwait after a year's tour. But he stopped. He could have sent others to do the work, but he was on the ground, leading by example, when he was killed. On Monday night, August 16, you took it upon yourself to go out in the country, where a peaceful group was exercising their constitutional rights, and harming no one, and you ran down the memorial cross erected for Henry and for his son-in-law by Arlington West.

Mr. Northern - I know little about Cindy Sheehan except that she is a grieving mother, a gentle soul, and wants to bring harm to no one. I know little about you except that you found your way to Crawford on Monday night in August with chains and a pipe attached to your truck for the sole purpose of dishonoring a memorial erected for my friends and lost Soldiers and hundreds of others that served this nation when they were called. I find it disheartening that good men like these have died so that people like you can threaten a mother who lost a child with your actions. I hope that you are ashamed of yourself.

Perry Jefferies, First Sergeant, USA (retired)

Quote of the Day: "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come." -- Victor Hugo

Bad news for the Chimp in Chief....

Seymour Hersch makes some distressing predictions for the Chimp Corps.

Quote of the Day: “We will export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defense of our great nation.” -- George W. Bush

Cool! 20K!

Great!

Since installing this counter a little over a month ago, we've reached 20,000 hits! Folks from all over the world -- Mexico, India, Uruguay, Thailand -- are popping in for a visit, not to mention the good folks at the Washington Post and the... folks... at FOX >cough< "news". Very cool. Welcome, one and all.

Much appreciated. Hope to enlighten and perhaps even amuse.

And, crass as it may be to ask, since these graphics and stories take some time to put together, and since we're getting by on part-time wages, if you can drop a few tax-refundable bucks in the kitty, you'd go a long way toward encouraging us to continue.

More tomorrow.

Quote of the Day: "A slave is one who waits for someone else to free him." -- Rosellen Brown

From the "We knew they were bugfuck insane, but now THIS?!?" department.....

...if Mad Magazine will kindly forgive the liberal paraphrasing.

Well, the party of the sanctimonious mule-boners, the rabid anti-homo, closeted boy buggerers, the Jesus-preaching mass murdering torturers, the fetus-at-the-dinner-table family values team, the American-ideals-championing terrorist backers, the free-market-touting plutocrats, the freedom-touting prison wardens, the "pro-life" executioners, the Homeland Security-protecting drunk driving gun nuts, the tough-guy draft dodgers, the governmental honesty-restoring liars and cheats, the "heritage-cherishing" destroyers of our political legacy, the coalition-building destroyers of national and international solidarity have managed yet again to blow minds with a remarkable "twofer" that is surely worthy of joining the annals of illustrious hypocrisy for which they have no historical or contemporary peers:

Larry C. Northern, president of the local gun club and model citizen showed his support for our troops by driving his pickup over their memorial crosses.

Also today, the Associated Press has just reported that Bush's Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, while under the Reagan Administration (and before his dark days with rabies-berserk Republican pitbull Kenneth Starr) wrote that a different sort of memorial -- one erected in honor of aborted fetuses -- would be an effective way to draw attention to America's "Abortion Tragedy".

Words fail at this point, folks.

Quote of the Day: As I walk through this wicked world
Searching for light in the darkness of insanity
I ask myself "Is all hope lost?"
"Is there only pain and hatred and misery?"

And each time I feel like this inside
There's one thing I wanna know,
What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?
--Nick Lowe

Vince, a word or two.....

Family and friends came to visit this past weekend, one of them being a young, idealistic patriot and intellectually curious young man with a bright future -- assuming he doesn't follow in the footsteps of some of his friends and head for Iraq.

Vince, this one's for you.

Please read it and think. In fact, if you go back over this page's postings and read the links, you may find some news you're not seeing in the LA mainstream press and hearing from your schoolmates.

You're a bright young man with a good heart. Far better to enrich lives than to destroy them for a living.

best of luck,
New American Patriot

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

For a much-needed rest from beating off the horses during his 52nd week of vacation since TAKING office, all hat and no cattle Georgie lit out and yallerbelly skeedaddled when the posse came to town.

But high noon approaches, friends and neighbors. A showdown's a-comin' 'tween the Bush clan and the townsfolk. And the town ain't big enough for the two of us.

Quote of the Day: Brave Sir Robin ran away, bravely ran away away. When danger reared his ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about, he turned his tail, he chickened out. Bravely taking to his feet, he beat a very brave retreat. A brave retreat by Sir Robin. -- Monty Python

What's Bush So Afraid of?

Why is Bush hiding from Cindy Sheehan, whose son he so recently sent to die in Iraq?

Said Ms. Sheehan: "All we're asking is that he sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us."

For the record, Ms. Sheehan sent us a very kind letter thanking us for a recent posting. It takes guts to do what she's doing, and the pain of losing your son to a cause that was long ago proven to be a lie must be unimaginable.

You can lend your support here:

meetwithcindy@gmail.com

Or pester the White House here:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
comments@whitehouse.gov

And, if you happen to be in that neck of the woods, you can even drop by to join in.

Quote of the Day: "Some in the name of peace, prepare us for war, in the name of liberty, prepare us for submission, in the name of courage, prepare us to be fearful. Let all Americans challenge war, submission, and fear!"

-- Rep. Dennis Kucinich

A Bushco Primer: Silencing the Critics -- Permanently

RIP Nicola Calipari, 1953-2004
This weekend, a Kentucky loyalist put a Rumsfeld muzzle on a pesky critic, thus personifying current Bush Administration media strategy, both domestically and abroad.

But to avoid straining reader credulity, let's backtrack a little to look at some previous examples of US government >cough!< "public relations".

While I'd hoped to prime visitors with a short history of Operation Northwoods, the attempted murder of Judi Bari and destruction of Earth First, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the 15 years in which the FBI ran COINTELPRO , or the scores of declassified government experiments on Americans -- including injections or administration by other means of live cancer cells, hepatitis, malaria, plutonium and various psychoactive and experimental drugs -- orphaned children, mentally retarded, crippled, elderly or imprisoned victims without their knowledge or consent over the last century, not to mention three decades of federal government radiation experiments on US citizens , in the interest of brevity, I can only direct you to find about these mind-numbing atrocities yourself, in a hair-raising afternoon's reading.

And while some have postulated that the 2003 anthrax attacks, which seemed conveniently aimed at Bush policy opponents, were a deliberate attempt to shut said opponents up, to maintain our strict policy of only posting iron-clad, verified and verifiable information, we want to avoid venturing into the twilight of speculation.

That said, let's look back seven months, to when CNN executive Eason Jordan claimed at the World Economic Forum that the US military had deliberately targeted and killed a dozen journalists in Iraq. Transcripts have been withheld from the public, but secondhand reports of the comment were enough to send uptightwingers into a feeding frenzy that ultimately ended in Jordan's resignation and public recant of the statement.

Unfortunately, what Jordan dared to publicly admit at the Forum was a demonstrable, if chilling, truth: on March 10, 2003, BBC war correspondent Kate Adie announced on the radio that a senior Pentagon officer had told her that once the war commenced, any "unauthorized" journalists in Iraq would be deliberately shot at, even if it meant killing them. The actual audio files are no longer available, but I've copied the transcription for posterity here and here.

This time, the Pentagon has been uncharacteristically true to its word: on July 1st, al-Sharqiya television director Ahmed Wael Bakri became the 17th verified nonembedded journalist killed by American troops.

So, while shocking, horrific and reprehensible, these killings were certainly not unannounced. Still, the details of these publicly-announced "deliberate targetings" on the part of the Pentagon cannot help but impart a queasy mix of anger, horror and dread:

Consider the events of April 8, 2003. Early that morning, Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayyoub was reporting from the network's Baghdad bureau. He was providing an eyewitness account of a fierce battle between US and Iraqi forces along the banks of the Tigris. As he stood on the roof of the building, a US warplane swooped in and fired a rocket at Al Jazeera's office. Ayyoub was killed instantly. US Central Command released a statement claiming, "Coalition forces came under significant enemy fire from the building where the Al-Jazeera journalists were working." No evidence was ever produced to bolster this claim. Al Jazeera, which gave the US military its coordinates weeks before the invasion began, says it received assurances a day before Ayyoub's death that the network would not be attacked.

At noon on April 8, a US Abrams tank fired at the Palestine Hotel, home and office to more than 100 unembedded international journalists operating in Baghdad at the time. The shell smashed into the fifteenth-floor Reuters office, killing two cameramen, Reuters's Taras Protsyuk and José Couso of Spain's Telecinco. The United States again claimed that its forces had come under enemy fire and were acting in self-defense. This claim was contradicted by scores of journalists who were in the hotel and by a French TV crew that filmed the attack. In its report on the incident, the Committee to Protect Journalists asserted that "Pentagon officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists."

In a chilling statement at the end of that day in Iraq, then-Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke spelled out the Pentagon's policy on journalists not embedded with US troops. She warned them that Baghdad "is not a safe place. You should not be there."...

The US military has yet to discipline a single soldier for the killing of a journalist in Iraq.... The military has faced almost no public outcry at home about these killings....

In many of these cases, there is a common thread: The journalists, mostly Arabs, were reporting on places or incidents that the military may not have wanted the world to see--military vehicles in flames, helicopters shot down, fierce resistance against the "liberation" forces, civilian deaths...."

The international advocacy group Reporters Without Frontiers called upon Donald Rumsfeld to prove the three unprovoked April 8th, 2003 killings weren't deliberate, but their requests have been met with predictable silence.

Three weeks later, after US troops shot and killed 15 civilian protesters in a town fifty miles west of Bagdhad on the Euphrates River, Fallujah began its transformation from a staunchly pro-American center to one of the most dangerous places in the country for so-called "coalition" troops.

Then in November, 2004, as events came to a head, over 7,300 US and Iraqi troops, complete with armor and air support, swept into the city, determined to root out any resistance to American occupation.

A horrific bloodbath raged across the city for ten days, and as the US military blocked humanitarian aid from the Red Cross, an Italian war correspondent shocked readers with these reports of US war atrocities committed in the beseiged city:

"....I wanted to tell about the bloodbath in Falluja through the refugees' tales....

"In one attack on a hospital the Americans killed 20 doctors. The Marines are shooting at everything that moves. Fallujah is dying under the criminally indifferent gaze not only of the United States but also of the Iraqi Government.

"...We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans. People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave.

Since the beginning of the month, which is not yet finished, 109 Marines have been killed, a figure already greater than that of the earlier attack on Fallujah, last April. But it is above all the Iraqis who are paying the highest tribute : 2,085 killed in the attack;… many observers say that the problem is that many of the bodies were unrecognisable because they were so carbonised that the use of napalm was suspected.

At the same time... [there is] an investigation conducted by the Iraqi Health Ministry, in conjunction with the Norwegian FAFO Institute for applied international studies and UNDP, into the health of Iraqi children. The report states that since the beginning of the war (March 2003) the number of Iraqi children under the age of 5 suffering from acute malnutrition has doubled, passing from 4 to 7.7%. Further, over 400,000 are suffering from chronic diarrhea and protein deficit."

On February 4, four months after reporting on the seige of Fallujah, Giuliana Sgrena was kidnapped by gunmen outside Baghdad University. Two weeks later, her abductors released a video in which Sgrena pled for her life, begging Italians to put "...pressure on the Italian government to withdraw its troops."

In response, tens of thousands of Italians marched in Rome, demanding Italy secure Sgrena's return and withdraw its troops from Iraq. The Italian government entered into negotiations for Sgrena's release (unofficially said to involve a payoff in excess of $1 million), and on March 4, she was left by her captors in an abandoned vehicle.

Sgrena claims that before her release, her abductors warned her the US would try to kill her. She claims they said: "The Americans don't want you to go back."

Her account of what happened next -- corroborated by the Italian government -- is completely different from the Bush Administration's official story.

Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini said 51-year-old undercover military intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and two fellow agents arrived in Baghdad after having contacted the kidnappers. Calipari had already freed two Italian hostages. They checked in with both U.S. airport authorities and forces patrolling the area. They had been issued US security badges to allow free passage through the country after rescuing Sgrena from the abandoned vehicle where her kidnappers left her.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi confirmed that Calipari had alerted the US military he would be escorting Sgrena to the airport, in direct contradiction to the State Department's claims. He reported to the Italian Senate that a diplomat in the Baghdad airport had also informed U.S. soldiers that Calipari and Sgrena were en route to the airport.

After picking up Sgrena, the agents drove to the Green Zone, through the mandatory series of elaborate US checkpoint processes, and then entered a special secured road. As they drove out of the Green Zone, news of Sgrena's release had already been wired around the globe by Reuters and Al-Jazeera.

According to Sgrena, while the State Department asserted she was being escorted along Bagdhad's notoriously dangerous airport road, in fact the rescue car had been travelling on a completely different route, a highly-secure road only accessible through the Green Zone and reserved for the exclusive use of ambassadors and top military brass.

She recounts that they drove slowly to the airport, keeping their lights illuminated for identification, in a celebratory mood, until their car was suddenly struck by a storm of bullets.

Says Sgrena, the car wasn't at a checkpoint at all; "...less than a kilometer from the airport", a tank parked along the roadside opened fire after they had passed, with no warnings or attempts to stop the car.
The State Department said US soldiers opened fire out of self-defense and fear, but Sgrena maintains emphatically that Calipari had thrown himself over her when the shooting began, and the bullet that ripped into her lung had entered through the back seat of the car; only the driver escaped injury, adding weight to her insistence that the shots hadn't come from the front or sides, but from behind while the car was driving away.

Calipari was killed instantly by a bullet in the temple, and a four-inch bullet also entered Sgrena's shoulder, then broke apart, puncturing her lung.

"Our car was destroyed. And then the driver got out and was shouting 'we're Italian, we're Italian'."

When the shooting stopped, the driver had called Prime Minister Berlusconi's office on the phone to report the car been struck by 300 to 400 bullets. As he was speaking, U.S. soldiers ordered him to hang up the phone.

Notably, American officials have refused to release the car to the Italian government for inspection, and the Pentagon's subsequent "investigation" of itself found that >surprise! Don't blink!< the US military was completely innocent of any wrongdoing or even error in the incident, an explanation that did nothing to mollify already angry Italians.

CNN said Sgrena had suggested the Americans may have targeted her on purpose because the U.S. opposed negotiating with kidnappers.

"The fact that the Americans don't want negotiations to free the hostages is known. The fact that they do everything to prevent the adoption of this practice to save the lives of people held hostage, everybody knows that. So I don't see why I should rule out that I could have been the target."

The Pentagon story as reported by the Post showed some glaring inconsistencies:

Marine Sgt. Salju Thomas, a military spokesman, said soldiers "fired on a vehicle approaching a checkpoint in Baghdad at a high rate of speed."

...A few hours later, a statement from the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Baghdad said ...soldiers with the 3rd Infantry "killed one civilian and wounded two others when their vehicle traveling at high speeds refused to stop at a check point here today. About 9:00 pm, a patrol in western Baghdad observed the vehicle speeding towards their checkpoint and attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car. When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

The statement did not explain how bullets fired into the engine block hit the passengers. It said the surviving intelligence agent "was treated by Army medics on the scene but refused medical evacuation for further assistance."

Finally, a State Department official in Washington said the Italians did not tell either the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad or U.S. military commanders about Sgrena's release, even though a U.S. hostage coordinator had been working closely with them on the case.

The first puzzling claim is that the car was speeding to a checkpoint and refusing to stop. It begs the question Why on Earth would they speed or refuse to stop at a checkpoint?

Next, we have bullets fired into an engine block that completely missed the driver yet managed to strike Calipari and Sgrena in the back seat.

Finally, the Post even points out that a US official was working closely with the Italians, yet the State Department claimed the embassy and military weren't informed.

Was Sgrena, as certainly looks likely, another of the Pentagon's "targeted journalists"?

Donald Rumsfeld almost certainly knows. But here's betting all we're going to get is a lot more... silence.

Quote of the Day: "Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again." Paul Simon

You Are Hated

Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are
You well heeled big wheel, ha ha, charade you are
And when your hand is on your heart
You're nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying "keep on digging"
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find?
When you're down in the pig mine
-- Pink Floyd, Pigs

Aside from promising them liberation, then instead installing our own puppet government of bloodthirsty, crazy, lying, murderous despots propped up by the same creepy ghouls that used to crack skulls for Hussein; jailing, raping, torturing and murdering their children;
cluster bombing, napalming, irradiating and infecting their families; kicking down their doors and destroying their lives in the middle of the night; "disappearing" their loved ones without a word of explanation; stealing their money (oh, and oil of course); and indiscriminately rounding up and brutally torturing their neighbors, friends, family and acquaintances what could the people of Iraq possibly have against America, land of the free, home of the brave, that gave the world the Big Mac, rock and roll, cadillacs and MTV?

Well, maybe it might be our complete, utter, appalling, damning, inhuman INDIFFERENCE...

and so I'm pointing the finger at YOU goddamn it, sitting on your fucking vinyl couch, eating your fucking potato chips, too fucking intellectually and morally lazy to learn about the rape, torture, mass murder and brutal supression of hundreds of thousands of relatively defenseless civilians -- far, far too many of them women, children and the elderly -- all being done in YOUR name, and being paid for by YOU.

If you haven't made phone calls to officials, questioned "policy" with the people you know, contacted the press, donated money and DEMANDED answers repeatedly, YOU'RE the problem.

YOU'VE got blood on your hands.

Now, GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS.

Call, email, write to Congress and the White House.

Pester the Hell out of the media.

Organize. Talk.

Get to fucking work.

Right now, innocent people are being murdered. And, if you're not trying to fight the monstrous, unprecedented, insane slaughter, their deaths are your fault.

To paraphrase, either you are with the human race, or you are with the mass murdererers.

Quote of the Day: "I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again." -- 15-year-old Anne Frank, before being taken to her death in the Nazi concentration camps

Escaping Hell

I am a deserter.

One morning in December, 2003, I put my family into an old car, bought for $600, and left the military base in Colorado Springs, where I was on leave. I did not want to return to Iraq. I did not want to participate in this war based on lies. I did not want to kill any Iraqi civilians. I did not want to participate in the slaughter. I understand my fellow citizens consider me a coward and a traitor. But I don't give a damn. To each his own conscience. I also know that I will never benefit from an amnesty. When one is in the military one does not desert. But I take responsibility for this. I can live with this. Not with Iraq.

My name is Joshua Key. I was born in 1978 in Guthrie, in central Oklahoma. My family worked on a ranch. We had a hard time making ends meet, but I loved the outdoor life, amongst cowboys, and where we didn't have to wear shoes until we started school. I married Brandi after high school. We were the same age, and from the same background. I dreamt of becoming a welder, but I didn't have money for school. So I looked for work doing anything. But there was no future in Guthrie, which has no industry. We went to Wisconsin, then returned, as we found nothing. Our future seemed dim, and we already had two children.

The recruiter promised me a paycheck, a health care plan, instruction in a skilled trade, and no overseas deployment. He lied.

It was then I met the recruiters from the Army. It was February, 2002. They knew how to talk to me, that's for sure! They held out the prospect of leaving Oklahoma and living a grand adventure. They told me that not only was I going to serve my country, but I was going to afford my family exceptional advantages: a good health care plan, a regular paycheck, money for study after leaving the Army, and I'd learn to build bridges, which would be a marketable skill in civilian life. Not only that, they told me, because I was the head of a family, I'd be assigned to a regiment that would never be sent overseas.

My recruiter promised me this while looking me straight in the eye. By April 1st I had signed up for three years; it was a done deal. I was content, happy to be involved with something bigger than myself, something that would assure the future of my family. I left for boot camp in Missouri, leaving Brandi pregnant with our third child.

How could we explain that the most powerful army on earth, with the greatest technology, would lack food and water for their troops?

But right away I became disenchanted. The promises of the recruiter and the reality were two different things. I wasn't there to build bridges, but to learn to destroy them; I was assigned to mine training, to become a sapper. I called Brandi: "I've been fooled!" After several months of training I was re-assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado, to the 43rd Company of Combat Engineers. Brandi came to live on the base with the kids. And, in the fall of 2002, the rumours about Baghdad began.

Everything was done from the perspective of fighting in the desert, against Iraqi troops. The war games became more intense. Whole regiments were kept on stand-by. Be ready to leave from one day to the next, we were told. And myself, I kept on believing, clinging to their promises. I couldn't believe they'd lie to me. I wanted to put the question to an officer, but I was made to understand that I should keep quiet if I didn't want my family to suffer. I was trapped.

The war started on March 19th, 2003. Our equipment was on the trains, ready to leave for Kuwait. It was a long journey. There was still hope that the war would be over fast. On April 1st we were told "In ten days boys, you're leaving." I was in shock. The only way to boost our morale was to tell ourselves that at least the cause was just: that Saddam had the most bloodthirsty regime on the planet, that he possessed weapons of mass destruction, a super powerful army, and that to rid the world of the al-Qaeda terrorists we had to capture Iraq.

Dirty, hungry, sleep-deprived, we were ready to open fire on anything that moved, always on edge.

Obviously learning via television that France, Germany and Canada would not support the war shook me up. But President Bush ordered us to go to war. It was not open for discussion.

I arrived in Kuwait on April 10th, and we were stationed in the desert until the 27th. In a furnace. With two bottles of water per day, as opposed to the six necessary ones. And on one meal per day, as opposed to three. We couldn't understand: how could we explain that the most powerful army on earth, with the greatest technology, would lack food and water for their troops? We were dehydrated, we were hungry; in the dunes with the sand getting into everything. We waited, cleaning our weapons.

On the 27th, after a stopover of a few hours in Baghdad, we flew into Ramadi. We were then told that the little wooden bridge, the only approach to this city of 300, 000 wouldn't support the weight of our tanks. Our company, approximately 100 men, would have to go in alone, on foot. At that point we shit in our pants. We had hardly arrived, and they ordered us to go out on patrol. I told myself "What is this madness? I'm a combat engineer, trained to disarm land mines in the desert, not an infantryman." Oh well, I was wrong.

So I started on night patrol throughout the city. One man three metres in front, one three metres behind. My blood ran cold. With my machine gun in hand. This drove the inhabitants mad, and I think that was the goal. We created an escalation; they shot at us, so we could shoot back at them.

We were like zombies, moving through a fog.

In the beginning certain residents would come out of their homes to applaud us. This astonished me. It was explained to me that this was a reflex from the Hussein regime, where people were ordered to acclaim the military so they would not be executed. They weren't happy to see us, as some believed, but they were full of fear. Often, of course, we were spit on, stones were thrown at us. And then the fire fights, the rocket attacks, and the grenade attacks multiplied. When we reached Fallujah, there was the real nightmare. Buddies were disappearing one after the other without any word from or about them. Wounded, dead, we would never hear about anything. Three of my friends had a leg blown off.

At one point there were so many attacks and mortar rounds incoming that upon awakening we would ask ourselves "Is today my day?" We would dream of being wounded, so we could return home. All, and yes all, thought that losing a limb [would be preferable to] remaining in this Hell. Several guys shot themselves in the foot or the leg. One of my buddies used his M-16 to break his own ankle. I never came close to doing it, but the idea of self-mutilation crossed all our minds. At one point our CO put out a memo: if you injure yourself, or figure out another way to get sent home, rest assured you'll be sent back here for another twelve to 18 months.

We were always based in the centre of town. No running water, no shower, no toilets. Our uniforms were stained with blood, we smelled of our own shit. In Ramadi we slept in what had been one of Saddam's palaces, which had been pillaged and ransacked. Elsewhere, we'd manage to find an opening into a bombed out house. In fact, we were continually sleep deprived. I believe it was intended. It left us nervous, anxious, ready to open fire on anything that moved, always on edge. We were like zombies, moving through a fog.

There's an expression for the look in our eyes: "the thousand yard stare."
There's an enormous difference between the bases you see on TV and the units like ours, stationed in the city centre. The bases in the "Green Zone" are in the middle of nowhere, huge, and well-equipped. The grub is good there, the soldiers have the latest uniforms, and they're immaculate. They can phone home to their families when they want, they have access to the Internet. They're delighted to be in Iraq, and to smile at the cameras. No danger, no revenge, none of the chaos that the cameras are always filming in the villages, the streets smashed, the neighbourhoods bombed out, and especially never the rest of us, the troops in the "Red Zone", soaked in sweat and blood, wearing gear dating from Vietnam, faces constantly horrified, and our eyes... there's an expression for the look in our eyes: "the thousand yard stare", a fixed look to hide the fact that, otherwise, one is well and truly lost.

The raids were the most traumatic. We'd get the word the night before: "Ok boys, tomorrow you're doing two takedowns." We were given satellite photos of two houses which, according to CIA intelligence, were the hideouts of the terrorists we were supposed to capture. At four in the morning we began our surprise attack. I placed a big charge at the front door of one of the houses. I beat a hasty retreat, the door was pulverized, we rushed forward, machine guns in hand, picking our way through the rubble.

There were tears and howls. We never found anything like what we'd been told, but what violence! Our adrenalin was pumping at maximum because we figured that any moment we were going to be killed. We did come across some men who were still alive, who we'd drag outdoors and tie up, and herd onto trucks, even though they'd hadn't done anything suspicious. That was always the case.

I never signed up to kill fathers, mothers, children.

We were ordered to take aim at everyone, but I never pointed my weapon at a child. I felt only a strong compassion. I'm not GI Joe, I'm just a civilian who's trapped inside a military uniform. I'm a guy who feels betrayed by his own country. And who asks himself: "I'm here, for what?" There aren't any weapons of mass destruction, no planes, no tanks, no army. Just families, people who we're terrorizing, and whose lives we're tearing apart.

To my buddies I'd say: Imagine you're at home back in the States, in the middle of drinking a beer. And then we show up at your house in the middle of the night. You'd go crazy, right? You'd fight back! You'd want to kill everybody! Man, if it was me, I'd want to do things a thousand times worse than what they have.

We rain down gunfire on their heads from our helicopters, our tanks are in their cities, the interrogations, the check-points, the nine o'clock curfew, it's all totally arbitrary. At any time you can be thrown in prison. At any moment your car can be blown up. You shoot first, think later. How many Iraqis have been killed simply because of the language barrier? I remember a father and his little boy who were machine gunned, in two seconds, because they didn't understand the meaning of the word "Stop!" I was horrified. They didn't have any weapons. They were totally innocent.

After that I refused to open fire indiscriminately, preferring to give people the benefit of the doubt. It's clear it was us who was in the wrong. But I never signed up to kill fathers, mothers, children. Otherwise, if we had scrupulously followed military procedures, Iraq would be empty!

After fourteen months on the run in the US, while surfing the Internet, I discovered the underground railway to Canada.

At night, we'd talk among ourselves: when do you think we'll be ordered back out on patrol? The struggle for democracy, the hunt for terrorists, we can't buy it any more! If you knew the attention and personnel devoted to protecting the oil wells as compared to the safety of the cities, and of the people who died in the process...
I wrote to Brandi every day, or at least I tried to. Never mind what. Often the same phrases, over and over. The mail was the only means of communications with our families. No telephone or internet, like the troops in the Green Zone. Problem was, the Iraqis quickly came to understand that the best way to hurt us was to interdict the mail. They'd pinpoint when it arrived and, when they could, plant explosives or steal our mail. But I understand. In their place I'd have done the same thing.
In mid-October, after eight months in Iraq, I suddenly got word that I was to receive two weeks of leave State-side, to visit my family, before coming back for another tour. I thought: this is my chance. I never want to come back here. My flight landed in Kuwait, Ireland, Atlanta, Dallas, Colorado Springs...

The night of my arrival, I talked to Brandi. She'd been living in a state of high anxiety, not reading the newspapers, or watching the TV news. Three times she'd called headquarters because she heard rumours I'd been injured in a mortar attack.

They didn't even bother to return her calls!

Together, we made the decision to leave. It was necessary to go quickly, and to tell no one. I bought an old Camaro to replace my van, because the Army knew the plates. We quickly wound up our personal affairs, and then we headed out for the east. In full daylight, like we were going for a quick visit. We left Colorado behind, crossed Kansas and then Missouri. Finally we stopped in Philadelphia. We needed to get lost in the crowd of a big city, where we wouldn't attract any attention. When I found a job I made the mistake of not staying sufficiently mobile. I was now legally a deserter, a fugitive from justice — the FBI had called my mother; they were searching for me.

It's going to take years before America leaves its trance and faces the truth about the atrocities going on in Iraq.

I started doing day jobs as a welder, and we moved from motel to motel. For fourteen months. Total paranoia. I was afraid to be noticed, afraid of the knock on the door, afraid to talk on the telephone. Toward the end, I became convinced that Social Security or my income tax records would be used to track me down. I had to do something. Then, while surfing the Internet, I discovered the underground railway to Canada. and I contacted Jeffrey House, the Toronto lawyer who is working to get his government to grant sanctuary to American deserters. Brandi was now pregnant with our fourth. The baby was born after some complications and a month in hospital. But,
when Brandi had regained her health, we hit the road for Canada.

As we approached the border at Niagara Falls, in March, I felt like my life was totally up for grabs. My driver's license had expired, I had no other papers except for my military ID. I had already decided that, if I was arrested by the American police, if I was told to get out of the car, I'd jump off the bridge. I hadn't subjected my family to this fugitive life only to be thrown in prison.

When the Canada Customs officer told us to stop and roll down the window I was totally stressed out, in complete shock. "Where are you going?" he asked. "For how long? Those are your four kids? ... Have a good stay in Canada." He didn't even look at my ID!

The War Resisters Support Committee welcomed us warmly to Toronto. We were given a place to stay, a bit of money. My two eldest children, five and six, went to school and learned Chinese! And Jeffrey House launched the procedure for me to seek refugee status. That's going to take a long time. But I know that from now on, my future, and my kids' futures, are in Canada.

I see a therapist. I suffer from post-traumatic stress. I have insomnia, nightmares, and hallucinations that flash me right back to Iraq. That's the way it is. That's not going to go away. Unfortunately, it's going to take years before America leaves its trance and faces the truth about the atrocities going on in Iraq. I am not a conscientious objector. I believe there are just wars. But this isn't it.

Mick Lowe translated the above article, written by Annick Cojean for Le Monde magazine, no. 68. Joshua Key, born in 1978, in Oklahoma, served eight months in Iraq before going AWOL. He and his wife Brandi (also of Oklahoma) arrived in Toronto in March of 2005, with their four young children. They are currently seeking refugee status.

As of three months ago, official reports said that over 5,100 soldiers were officially AWOL , though the true figures may well be upwards of six times as many.

Soldiers who need help can get it here, at the GI Rights Hotline. It is a nonprofit volunteer network giving assistance to soldiers regarding discharges, AWOL status and discrimination/harrassment.

Be patient, however; they're known to get pretty busy.

Quote of the Day: Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door. –- Bob Dylan

Happy Bin Laden Memo Day

Tomorrow marks exactly four years to the day since Chief Chimp received a Presidential daily briefing with the title "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the United States."

And, while he swore up and down we were "ghunna GIT 'im", after awhile that game stopped being fun, and so, with characteristic ADHD aplomb, President Pan Troglodytes eeped and ooped out the simian equivalent of "Frankly, my dear, I just don't give a damn"....

So suprise surprise, Bin Laden still "ain't gitted"; in fact, he's FAR from it....

Meanwhile, in a crazy, geographically-challenged move eerily reminiscent of an earlier whack job megalomaniacal despot, C. Chimp brazenly lied and sent tens of thousands of young patriotic, idealistic Americans into the desert in what was (unbeknownst to said soldiers) really just a giant, ruthless smash-and-grab of a tenor that would have put the Assyrians to shame....

Some Americans are paying a terrible price for this. As, of course, have many, many innocent Iraqis.

But the GOP has more important concerns than getting our men and women in uniform home safely or preventing further war crimes, concerns such as chowing down on some serious prime-grade pork.

Priorities, priorities, as they say in Hollywood.

Quote of the Day: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." -- Matthew 5:3-10

"You have heard it said, 'Love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.' But I tell you: Love thine enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." -- Matthew 5:43-45

Bullet Bags for Bush -- The Wonder Years

Displaying the singular tact and deep humanitarianism for which he is so deservedly reknowned, Chief Chimp hosted an Army recruiting drive for the BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA.

(Start the indoctrination young, 'cause with them Eye-rakees refusin ta stay beat and just pipe their dang oil straight into Bush Inc.'s personal oil tankers, we sure need the 10 to 18-year-old set learning the joys of triage and how to jerry-rig their own humvee armor -- though it's doubtful they issued new merit badges on such short notice.)

To add to the belief-beggaring, appalling tastelessness of the maneouver, two days after the kids had just witnessed the horrific death of four scout leaders in a freak accident, Bush PULLED A NO-SHOW AT THEIR MEMORIAL, and 300 KIDS COLLAPSED FROM THE HEAT while waiting in vain for his majesty to appear.

>sigh....<

People, you just can't even make shit like this up.

American Conservative: Cheney Has Given Order for Plans to NUKE Iran....

In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

--Philip Giraldi, former CIA intelligence analyst.

Quote of the Day: "Of the tyrant, spies and informers are the principal instruments. War is his favorite occupation, for the sake of engrossing the attention of the people, and making himself necessary to them as their leader."
-- Aristotle