Connections

From Think Progress:

A new report presented to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project shows 435 instances in which the Bush administration interfered into the global warming work of government scientists over the past five years.....

James Hansen, the government’s top global warming researcher, has also revealed that the Bush administration tried to prevent him from speaking freely about global warming to the media.

Any relation to this post?

Posted on The Human Stain

Conspiracy?

Most people with functioning brains realize that fossil fuel emissions are the primary cause of global warming. That the Arctic sea ice would suffer melting and breakup due to this seems to be a fait accompli. Consider the following article:

Greenwire, 26 January 2007 - Melting ice in the Arctic Ocean could spell a new era of oil and natural gas exploration in the region, according to experts meeting this week in Norway to discuss Arctic challenges.

The Arctic region contains a quarter of the world's remaining oil reserves, experts estimate. It also contains massive natural gas fields in the Barents Sea, including Russia's huge Shtokman field. "By 2040 or 2050, the Arctic Ocean will be navigable and that will mean significant developments very soon," said ArcticNet research group head Martin Fortier....

After reading that article, a quite mendacious thought occurred to me: What if big oil – in collusion with elements of the American government and other foreign government extremists is engaged in a deliberate campaign of global warming denial in order to accelerate the trend? The pot at the end of their rainbow would be vast Arctic exploration and profit capability.

They couldn't be that evil – could they?

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Mass Hysteria

The city of Boston just went through one of it's occasional Chicken Little spasms when everyone over-reacted to the discovery of “suspicious devices” at a variety of locations in the city. Apparently it is too much to ask that elected leaders, police, and fire departments apply a little common sense or analysis to a situation before going public and needlessly whipping up fears throughout the community. So what was the crisis situation that caused this?

Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.

Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.....

Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

After being exposed as quivering bowls of Jello, the “authorities” are lashing out, trying to blame the marketing promotion effort for making themselves and the city look like fools.

An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices. "It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.

"It's a hoax — and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.

Taking their vengeance idiocy to a new height, Menino also added:

............he'll seek to punish those responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years in prison per count and ........ that he is "prepared to take any and all legal action" against the company and its affiliated "for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's incidents."

This is embarassing.
Posted on The Human Stain

Say Duh!

Apparently stem cell research and cloning can have a beneficial effect. In the first known case of it's kind, a functioning brain has been grown inside a neocon head:

It now seems apparent that the information incriminating Mr. Arar originated with Syrian military intelligence. The revelation that Canada and the United States rely heavily on Syrian information exposes one of the most disturbing secrets of the war on terror.......

The Arar case should raise some belated red flags over the real value and true purposes of all this Syrian "co-operation." Whenever one intelligence agency provides information to another, the recipient should wonder: "Why are they sharing this with us? What benefit do they derive?" That question should be asked with special intensity when the information comes from an unfriendly country like Syria.

And yet the Arabist faction within the U.S. government has responded to Syria's maneouvres with almost childlike credulity, believing what the Syrians say -- and even betraying both American principles and American interests by subcontracting torture to them.

The reliance of Western agencies on Syrian information has cost the Canadian taxpayer $10- million in damages. It cost Maher Arar indescribable suffering. And the damage this reliance has done the real security of the West -- that cost goes beyond calculation.

It cannot be. George Bush betraying both American principles and American interests by subcontracting torture? But isn't this type of activity what neocons like Frum and their sympathizers have encouraged for years? A bout of conscience or another rat jumping a sinking ship? I'll bet on the latter.
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Cheney's Punk

Does Tim Russert have a sore hindquarters? Only his proctologist knows for sure. Must be embarassing to realize you were someone elses' pincushion:

....in the Scooter Libby trial, Vice President Cheney’s former communications director displayed notes from 2004 “about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions.” Option 1 was “MTP-VP,” a Cheney appearance on Russert’s Sunday show, which would allow Cheney to “control message.” “I suggested we put the vice president on ‘Meet the Press,’ which was a tactic we often used.”

Never mind the humiliation for Russert, the saddest aspect of this is that much of the media is regularly manipulated – and they don't know it, while the rest is complicit in deceiving the public.

Posted on The Human Stain

America's Taliban

Ed Encho has a good post on Taylor Marsh. Referring to a new book by Chris Hedges titled American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, he writes:

On Monday, the 35th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, George W. Bush played to the rubber fetus crowd with his annual phone call to anti-reproductive rights activists. Pandering to the so-called pro lifers who are all that remain of the red plague that has swept America is vintage Rove, especially on the day prior to the State of the Union Address. The hateful lemmings awaiting Rapture can always be counted on to maintain steadfast and unwavering in support of their exalted king’s holy crusade to call forth a rain of fire from the skies over Tehran. There are increasingly ominous signs that an attack on Iran is imminent with the incessant MSM propaganda of the past week and the yahoos are anxious to get it on. The cult of the glorious reappearing has now consummated it’s unholy union with the ivory tower dwelling ideologues at the American Enterprise Institute and the doomsday clock is moving closer to midnight.

That Bush finds it necessary at this juncture to continue to cater to the whims of the extremist Christian Right speaks volumes as to the disproportionate amount of influence that the lunatic fringe holds over American policy............ Radical clerics like Falwell and Dobson and their ilk are deferred to and treated as king makers for any potential Republican candidate and Senator McCain has puckered up to kiss Dobson and Falwell’s rings with alarming frequency. Why these reactionary zealots are given any credibility at all is a travesty and we will all eventually be the ones who reap the whirlwind. The extremist elements of the Christian Right need to be stigmatized and isolated as the cancer on free society that they truly are and not embraced by charlatan politicians pandering for votes. It only serves to further empower the menace to democracy that is represented by the ravenous wolves lurking amongst the sheep.

His (Hedges) unrelentingly frank examination of the Christian Right is as comprehensive and damning an indictment of the perversion of religion for the acquisition of political power that I have yet to come across:

According to Hedges:

In this version of the Christian Gospel, the exploitation and abuse of other human beings is a good. Homosexuality is an evil. And this global, heartless system of economic rationalization has morphed in the rhetoric of the Christian Right into a test of faith. The ideology it espouses is a radical evil, an ideology of death, it calls for wanton destruction, destruction of human beings, of the environment, of communities and neighborhoods, of labor unions, of a free press, of Iraqis, Palestinians or others in the Middle East who would deny us oil fields and hegemony, of federal regulatory agencies, social welfare programs, public education – in short, the destruction of all people and programs that stand in the way of a Christian America and its God-given right to dominate the rest of the planet.

Hedges shines a light on the parasitical false prophets who prey on the weak, the failed and the confused in order to lure them into the flock and turn them into foot soldiers in a political army........

Much to his credit, Hedges does not allow himself to be constrained by the impoliteness of political correctness – a concept that the right has used so effectively in manufacturing animosity. Liberals have a tendency to be overly sensitive when it comes to dealing with zealots and reactionary freaks and the Religious Right benefits immensely from the refusal to engage it on a level playing field. This unwillingness to call this movement out for what they are – fascists with an innate loathing for democracy only allows it to grow stronger and more organized. Hedges states:

Debate with the radical Christian Right is useless. We cannot reach this movement. It does not want a dialogue. It is a movement based on emotion and cares nothing for rational thought and discussion..... These dominionists hate the liberal, enlightened world formed by the Constitution, a world they blame for the debacle of their lives. They have one goal – it’s destruction.

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Insecurity

The more Chimpie keeps trying to convince America that he is a take charge kind of guy, the more apparent it becomes that he's really trying to convince himself. Once again, he tries to remind the press that “I am the decision maker.” (Of course, how this squares with his many claims that he “would listen to the generals on the ground”, remains to be expalined.) Add this to the “I am the decider” outbursts and one might get the impression he doth protest too much. Could it be that Bush knows deep in his heart that the real man occupying the throne is Cheney? Seems that way.

But then again, presidenting is hard work. Poor George.
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How Bush Shames America

The Canadian government has acknowledged wrongdoing and apologized to one of it's citizens, Maher Arar:

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized Friday to Maher Arar for the torture he suffered in a Syrian prison and said the government would pay him and his family $10.5-million, plus legal fees, to compensate them for the "terrible ordeal."

"On behalf of the government of Canada, I wish to apologize to you ... and your family for any role that Canadian officials may have played in the terrible ordeal that all of you experienced in 2002-2003," Mr. Harper said in a letter to Mr. Arar.

The government cannot change what is past, he told a news conference in Ottawa. Mr. Arar was detained in the United States in 2002 and flown to Syria where he was jailed and tortured after the RCMP wrongly labeled him an Islamic extremist. "But we can make changes to ... [reduce the chances] that something like this will ever happen again.""

Now here in the land of the free and the brave – a land where we trumpet our concerns for human rights and are sacrificing American blood to “free” Iraqis and create democracy, one would think that America too would apologize for the wrong actions against Mr. Arar. One would be disappointed - for this is not the land created by our forefathers – this is Bushworld, where disdain, suspicion, and a negligent government runs unfettered.

Here is Bush's chihuahua, Gonzales hiding and dodging:

QUESTION: Canada, as you know, released a long-awaited report yesterday on the treatment of Maher Arar. Since the Department was the agency that allowed his removal to Syria in which he was then tortured, doesn't the Department owe him an apology?

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, we were not responsible for his removal to Syria, I'm not aware that he was tortured, and I haven't read the Commission report. Mr. Arar was deported under our immigration laws. He was initially detained because his name appeared on terrorist lists, and he was deported according to our laws.

Some people have characterized his removal as a rendition. That is not what happened here. It was a deportation. And even if it were a rendition, we understand as a government what our obligations are with respect to anyone who is rendered by this government to another country, and that is that we seek to satisfy ourselves that they will not be tortured. And we do that in every case. And if in fact he had been rendered to Syria, we would have sought those same kind of assurances, as we do in every case.

QUESTION: From the report, he had no connections with any terrorist groups, and he has sought an apology from the U.S. Government.

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Again, I haven't read the report.

The difference between Canada and the United States in this matter is stark indeed. While the Canadians have taken responsibility, have actually conducted an investigation, and have acknowledged deficiencies in their policies, America remains mum. The head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has resigned over this fiasco. Americans are still on the job – ducking and running for cover. You see, no one is ever responsible – for anything, in Bushworld, they never make mistakes.

Inhabitants of Bushworld are just not accountable to their countrymen. While this is depressingly shameful, the saddest aspect of Bushworld inhabitants is that should the slightest recognition of wrongdoing develop, they just don't care. For if you are not one of them, you are inconsequential.

Americans of conscience anxiously await the outcome of Senator Leahy's investigation into this disgraceful affair.
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Religio-Nut Phonies

To the Nitwit in Chief, "Dr." Eric Keroack is a brain. But to some real, credentialed brains in American medical circles, Keroack is an insane schmuck. He also is not certified as a ob-gyn doctor. For evidence of how, in Bush's world, ideology trumps science and reality see:

AlterNet Blogs: The Top Ten reasons you should be terrified that "Dr." Eric Keroack runs Bush's Family Planning Program

Posted on The Human Stain

Sorry

Apologies are in order. I have written a number of times about Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas. In these posts, I have commented upon Roberts' simpering fealty to George Bush. I have even written about how Roberts appeared to wear kneepads and to like having Bush's scrotum pressed against his chin.

Well, apparently it was not Bush's scrotum on the Roberts chin - it was Cheney's.

Ooops, sorry for the mistake Senator.
Roberts posts here, here, here, here.
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Oil Kills

When Bush stood before the nation for his SOTU address, he said the following:

“So we are deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi Army units. With Iraqis in the lead, our forces will help secure the city by chasing down terrorists, insurgents, and roaming death squads.”

Army Gen. David Petraeus will lead this effort and plans to assign 15,000 of the troops to Baghdad in an effort to quell the ever increasing sectarian violence and mayhem that is everyday life there. The problem that makes this whole crusade a fools errand is that the Iraqi's are just not in agreement with Bush's plan. The hearts of Iraqi citizens are not with us – they are opposed. As stated so well by Joseph Galloway, we may see sickening scenarios like this in the near future:

The new U.S. commander in Iraq plans to parcel out the newly arriving American soldiers in small groups attached to Iraqi forces in widely scattered Baghdad neighborhoods.

How those soldiers will be supplied and supported and protected is the primary question. It's one thing for Americans to fort up in the Green Zone or at the huge U.S. base at Baghdad Airport by night and venture out by day to patrol a mean city's streets.

It's quite another for them to spend their days in those streets and their nights in vulnerable Iraqi army and police stations scattered throughout the city. Their lives will depend on Iraqi troops whose training and equipment leave much to be desired, and whose loyalty in the sectarian civil war is suspect.......

It's not too great a leap to look back to a chilling situation that American advisers to some South Vietnamese Army units found themselves in during that war. When a South Vietnamese battalion was surrounded by Viet Cong or North Vietnamese Army regulars, the enemy would break out bullhorns and shout: "Give us the Americans and we will let you go free!"

What happened then? The best Vietnamese commanders stood and fought, the Americans by their side. Others accepted the enemy's invitation, threw down their weapons and ran for their lives, leaving the few Americans to their fate.

Why do we continue to sacrifice American lives in an effort that realists know is doomed to failure? It's still all about the oil. From Chimpie's lips at the SOTU:

"Extending hope and opportunity depends on a stable supply of energy that keeps America’s economy running and America’s environment clean. For too long our Nation has been dependent on foreign oil. And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists — who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments ... and raise the price of oil ... and do great harm to our economy."

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Corporate Censorship?

CBS News' Lara Logan has been submitting informative and honest reports from Iraq. She doesn't color anything – facts only. Maybe that is why this report was not broadcast on television. A sobering observation of our involvement in Iraq, it reports the obstacles to our success and portrays the animosity of Iraqi civilians towards the US. Did CBS get pressure from the White House or was it in their best interest not to air the segment? While it is available on the web – why didn't they air it?

Posted on The Human Stain

Chimpie's Pipedream

From his War is Good SOTU speech:

“We are carrying out a new strategy in Iraq — a plan that demands more from Iraq’s elected government, and gives our forces in Iraq the reinforcements they need to complete their mission....

So we are deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi Army units. With Iraqis in the lead, our forces will help secure the city by chasing down terrorists, insurgents, and roaming death squads.”

This is why it won't work – this is the reality in Iraq:

In a miniature version of the troop increase that the United States hopes will secure the city, American soldiers and armored vehicles raced onto Haifa Street before dawn to dislodge Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias who have been battling for a stretch of ragged slums and mostly abandoned high rises. But as the sun rose, many of the Iraqi Army units who were supposed to do the actual searches of the buildings did not arrive on time, forcing the Americans to start the job on their own.

When the Iraqi units finally did show up, it was with the air of a class outing, cheering and laughing as the Americans blew locks off doors with shotguns. As the morning wore on and the troops came under fire from all directions, another apparent flaw in this strategy became clear as empty apartments became lairs for gunmen who flitted from window to window and killed at least one American soldier, with a shot to the head........

Many of the Iraqi units that showed up late never seemed to take the task seriously, searching haphazardly, breaking dishes and rifling through personal CD collections in the apartments. Eventually the Americans realized that the Iraqis were searching no more than half of the apartments; at one point the Iraqis completely disappeared, leaving the American unit working with them flabbergasted....

American officers tried to persuade the Iraqi soldiers to leave the slum area for better cover, but the Iraqis refused to risk crossing a lane that was being raked by machine-gun fire. “It’s their show,” said Lt. David Stroud, adding that the Americans have orders to defer to the Iraqis in cases like this.......

One Iraqi soldier in the alley pointed his rifle at an American reporter and pulled the trigger. There was only a click: the weapon had no ammunition. The soldier laughed at his joke.

The frat-boy keeps hoping while the meatgrinder rolls on without meaning.

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War is Good

From Bush's SOTU speech – his appeal for continued bloodshed:

“Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq — and I ask you to give it a chance to work.”

Sure, why not? After all, he's not fighting – he's got no skin in the game. The family is home, all snug in their beds. Fighting? Injury? Death? Why that's for the lower class.
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Hired Guns

Did anyone else catch this little Chimpie gem in the SOTU speech?

“A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. And it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.”

Sounds like a call for mercenaries to me. Chimpie tried this stunt in New Orleans until public outcry made him stop. While our nitwit in chief talks about them "serving abroad", I don't believe it for a second. Do Americans want mercenaries roaming their streets during times of crisis?

Bush continues to sink America into the slime.
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Lies, Lies, Lies

Excerpts from Bush's SOTU speech:

First, we must balance the federal budget. We can do so without raising taxes. What we need to do is impose spending discipline in Washington, D.C.......

So let us work together to reform the budget process ... expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress ... and cut the number and cost of earmarks at least in half by the end of this session.

We are carrying out a new strategy in Iraq — a plan that demands more from Iraq’s elected government, and gives our forces in Iraq the reinforcements they need to complete their mission.

So we are deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi Army units. With Iraqis in the lead, our forces will help secure the city by chasing down terrorists, insurgents, and roaming death squads.

My fellow citizens, our military commanders and I have carefully weighed the options. We discussed every possible approach. In the end, I chose this course of action because it provides the best chance of success.

This is where matters stand tonight, in the here and now. I have spoken with many of you in person. I respect you and the arguments you have made.

The war on terror we fight today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others. That is why it is important to work together so our Nation can see this great effort through. Both parties and both branches should work in close consultation. And so I propose to establish a special advisory council on the war on terror, made up of leaders in Congress from both political parties. We will share ideas for how to position America to meet every challenge that confronts us.

Americans can have confidence in the outcome of this struggle — because we are not in this struggle alone. We have a diplomatic strategy that is rallying the world to join in the fight against extremism.

We will work together? We are rallying the world? We have discussed every possible approach? We can balance the budget? We have a new strategy? The Iraqi's will be in the lead?

Don't believe a word of it.
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Contrasts

Honor

An excerpt from the comments made by Sen. Chuck Hagel during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting to craft a resolution disapproving of Bush's planned escalation in Iraq:

“Part of the problem that we have, I think, is because we didn't -- we didn't involve the Congress in this when we should have. And I'm to blame. Every senator who's been here the last four years has to take some responsibility for that. But I will not sit here in this Congress of the United States at this important time for our country and in the world and not have something to say about this. And maybe I'll be wrong. And maybe I have no political future. I don't care about that. But I don't ever want to look back and have the regret that I didn't have the courage and I didn't do what I could to at least project something.........

I don't know how many United States senators believe we have a coherent strategy in Iraq. I don't think we've ever had a coherent strategy. In fact, I would even challenge the administration today to show us the plan that the president talked about the other night. There is no plan. I happen to know Pentagon planners were on their way to the Central Com over the weekend. They haven't even team B'ed this plan. And my dear friend Dick Lugar talks about coherence of strategy. There is no strategy. This is a ping-pong game with American lives.

These young men and women that we put in Anbar province, in Iraq, in Baghdad are not beans. They're real lives. And we better be damn sure we know what we're doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder. We better be as sure as you can be. And I want every one of you, every one of us, 100 senators to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think. Don't hide anymore; none of us.

That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we're not willing to do it, we're not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don't debate this, if we don't debate this, we are not worthy of our country. We fail our country.”

Dishonor

To every Republican Senator who weaseled their way out of taking a stand by saying while they don't support the plan – or have doubts about the plan, they could not vote for the resolution. This would be expected from worms like Norm Coleman. But it is especially repugnant from the 'ranking' member of the committee – Richard Lugar. Senator, with your experience and service – when will you take a true stand for country over politics. There truly is right and wrong – your comments were depressingly sad and a tragic dis-service to America. For shame.

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Life is Sacred

It just warms the heart. Makes one all comfy and cuddly to know how much Bush really cares. He has declared today to be the 'National Sanctity of Life Day'. With any momentous pronouncement such as this, there are certainly massive amounts of pictures that can be used to celebrate the occassion. Let's look through just a few:

How we all remember Katrina:





Oh, and let's not forget the 'noble cause' in Iraq:





Here's hoping that Bush celebrates the day with remembrance too.
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Disgraced

Senator John McCain appeared on Meet The Press this morning and made many incredible statements. The most egregious statement was made in a segment discussing Iraq and why Bush - despite his many declarations that he listens to his generals on the ground, is disregarding his generals – pushing ahead and sending additional troops into the Iraqi civil war. McCain was queried about what he thinks about Bush not listening to the generals and the removal of Gen. Casey: (emphasis added)

MR. RUSSERT: Senator, we heard President Bush, throughout the last four years of the war, saying “Whatever the commanders tell me about troop levels, that’s what I’ll do.” This is what General George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq said on January 2: “The longer we in the U.S. forces continue to bear the main burden of Iraq’s security, it lengthens the time that the government of Iraq has to make the hard decisions about reconciliation and dealing with the militias. And the other thing is that they can continue to blame us for all of Iraq’s problems, which are at base their problems.” President Bush disagreed with General Casey, so he’s removed. Why didn’t the president listen to his generals when they advised no more troops?

SEN. McCAIN: Because it was clearly a failed policy. From the beginning, many of us knew that it was a failed strategy. It was based on the mistaken belief that the Iraqi army and police would be able to take over the responsibilities far more quickly than they were able to. And after the bombing of the Shia mosque, the, the crisis accelerated, and we saw and are seeing a steady deterioration of the situation. And if we continue it as we are, within months we would see a total breakdown in Iraq. We cannot afford it, in my view, as I said. Baghdad is a city of six million people—two million Sunnis, four million Shia. We would see a bloodletting in Baghdad of—that would make Srebrenica look like a Sunday school picnic. We can’t expect Americans to sit outside Baghdad or outside the borders and watch such a thing go on. It was a failed policy; it was pursued too long. We now have a new strategy headed by one of the finest military people we have, and I believe we can succeed. But I believe that there’s no doubt, in retrospect and at the time, that the policy that was pursued wasn’t going to work.

So all the talk about “as they stand up we will stand down” was a lie. From his own lips, McCain states he knowingly supported sending young Americans to their death on a mission that he knew would not work. He knowingly sent Americans to their deaths - for a failed policy he knew would not work, he supported an administration implementing a failed strategy that he knew would result in death for young Americans.

June 29, 2005
"Our strategy can be summed up this way -- as the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down," Bush said.......

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told "Larry King Live" that he was satisfied Bush made his case. "I think the president laid out tonight an excellent scenario of what the realities are and what we face.......

Dec 4, 2005
MR. RUSSERT: The difficulty is our only exit strategy appears to be, as the president said, when the Iraqis stand up, Americans stand down.

SEN. McCAIN: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Iraqis are not standing up as quickly as we need them to do. Jim Fallows wrote a long piece in the Atlantic Monthly........ Let me read it for you and our viewers a little bit. "In short, if American troops disappeared tomorrow, Iraq would have essentially no independent security force.....The moment when Iraqis can lift much of the burden from American troops is not yet in sight. ...Measured against what it would take to leave Iraqis fully in charge of their own security, the United States and the Iraqi government are losing ground. Absent a dramatic change.......America's options will grow worse, not better, as time goes on."

SEN. McCAIN: Well, I have great respect for Jim Fallows. I have a different view of the progress that's being made. I do agree that there are difficulties,......... But I do believe that the training is improved. The Iraqi military is performing pretty well...... but I think that our commanders, General Abizaid and others who have been on this program, would attest to the fact that we are making progress......

Now McCain wants to send more troops. Originally advocating an additional 100,000 soldiers, then calling for 40,000 more, he now feels comfortable with 15,000 - 30,000. As stated so well by Glenn Greenwald:

Advocating this war because one believed -- mistakenly -- that it would produce certain positive results imposes a certain level of culpability for what has happened. But continuing to advocate this war while knowing -- as McCain and so many like him do -- that (a) it is achieving nothing positive and (b) there are no viable and realistic options for achieving anything positive, places one in a different moral universe entirely.

Seems like 'straight talk' is just normal political BS after all.
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Chimpies' Chihuahua Gets Whupped

Recognized as a good companion animal, chihuahuas are alert, intelligent, and very adaptable to varying environments. Often guilty of exhibiting an excessive level of devotion to one person, the chihuahua, while physically frail, having no concept of its' own size - will often confront larger animals and be seriously injured.

Such was the case this week with Attorney General Gonzales, when he ran into the big dog on the block – Senator Patrick Leahy, during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Gonzales was justifiably brutalized by Leahy over the treatment of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, who was detained by US authorities and subsequently sent to Syria. Upon arrival there, Arar was systematically tortured for almost a year. After enduring that depravity, he was suddenly released – without being charged of any crime.

LEAHY: You know, I live about an hour's drive from Canada and go up there often. And in Vermont, we tend to get a lot of Canadian news, just radio and so on. But something that made the news here in the United States was the question of Maher Arar...... He's a Canadian citizen. He was returning home from a vacation. Plane stops at JFK in New York and continues on to Canada. He was detained by federal agents at JFK airport, 2002, on suspicion of ties to terrorism. He was deported to Syria.......He was held in abhorrent conditions there and those sending him back must have known he was going to be tortured. The Canadian government has apologized for its part in this debacle. In fact, the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police actually resigned over it....... This country has not said anything at all that we made any mistake or had any apology............

GONZALES: Senator, I've got some very definite views about this particular case, as you know...

LEAHY: Well, go ahead.

GONZALES: ... beyond litigation. What I want to do is, hopefully, in the next few days – I'm happy to sit down with you and Senator (Arlen) Specter and give you more information.

In fact, we may be able to publicly say more about this shortly. I'm just not at liberty, at this time, to...

LEAHY: Let me ask you this: Why aren't you at liberty? I don't understand that. It's not a matter of executive privilege.

GONZALES: No, sir, again, and I'm not ...

LEAHY: It's only the president that can ...

GONZALES: No, I'm not suggesting that I will not be able to answer your questions. I'm just suggesting I can't do it today.

LEAHY: Why?

GONZALES: I just – sir, I'm not – there is not a position – I can't represent the position of the executive branch on this particular issue. But I think, in a relatively short period of time, there's more information that I should be able to share with you, and hopefully, that we can share publicly.

LEAHY: But why was he sent to Syria instead of Canada?

GONZALES: Well, again, Senator, I'd be happy to answer these questions I think we can say a lot more about it, if you just simply give me some additional time.

LEAHY: Can you tell me why (then attorney-general John Ashcroft) took steps to ensure that he wouldn't be tortured? Of course, he was.

GONZALES: I believe that piece of information is public. There were steps. I think General Ashcroft confirmed this publicly, is that there were assurances sought that he would not be tortured from Syria.

LEAHY: Attorney-General ...(laughter) ... I'm sorry. I don't mean to treat this lightly. We knew damn well, if he went to Canada, he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held. He'd be investigated. We also knew damn well, if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured. You know, and I know, that has happened a number of times, in the past five years, by this country. It is a black mark on us. It has brought about the condemnation of some of our closest and best allies. And it is easy for us to sit here comfortably in this room knowing that we're not going to be sent off to another country to be tortured, to treat it as though, well, Attorney-General Ashcroft says we've got assurances. Assurances from a country that we also say, now, we can't talk to them because we can't take their word for anything?

GONZALES: Well, Senator, I ...

LEAHY: I'm somewhat upset.

GONZALES: Yes, sir, I can tell. But before you get more upset, perhaps you should wait to receive the briefing ...

LEAHY: How long?

GONZALES: I'm hoping that we can get you the information next week.

LEAHY: Well, Attorney-General, I'll tell you what I'll do: I'll meet you halfway on this. I'll wait next week for that briefing. If we don't get it, I guarantee you there will be another hearing on this issue. Canadians have been our closest allies – longest unguarded frontier in the world. They're justifiably upset. They're wondering what's happened to us. They're wondering what's happened to us. Now you know and I know, we're a country with a great, great tradition of protecting people's individual liberties and rights. You take an oath of office to do that; I take an oath of office to do that. I believe, in my basic core nature, in that. My grandparents, when they immigrated to this country, believed that. Let us not, let us not create more terrorism around the world by telling the world that we cannot keep up to our basic standards and beliefs. So I'll wait a week, I'll wait a week, but I won't wait more than a week for that briefing.

You can see the video here.

Leahy also had this to say in his opening statement:

Today, this Committee holds an important hearing to examine the operations of the Department of Justice – the federal agency entrusted with ensuring the fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. I take our oversight responsibility very seriously.

In the 32 years since I first came to the Senate – during the era of Watergate and Vietnam – I have never seen a time when our Constitution and fundamental rights as Americans were more threatened by their own government............

We have a democratic government in which Congress is entitled to know and review government actions. The President and Vice President of the United States should not be operating a secret and separate regime in which their official acts and policies cannot be known by the people’s elected representatives..............

This Committee has a special stewardship role to protect our most cherished rights and liberties as Americans and to make sure that our fundamental freedoms are preserved for future generations. There is much work to be done to repair the damage inflicted on our Constitution and civil liberties during the last six years......

Finally, after a neocon, fascist government for six years, there are real Americans back in positions of power.

Thank you Senator Leahy.
Posted on the Human Stain

Sigh - It Hurts So Much

What an embarrassment for America:

MR. LEHRER: Today, the United Nations issued a report that said 34,000 Iraqi civilians have died in sectarian violence in the last year. What's the message of that, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Message is we better help this government stop the sectarian violence. I hear all kinds of different numbers, but the fact is that too many have died........ Because otherwise, the violence - in my judgment, and I think in the judgment of others - if we don't help them stop it, it's going to get a lot worse, believe it or not......

MR. LEHRER: Just today, another 35 people were killed in bombings; 80 over the weekend.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, there is a difference between - look, death is terrible...... And it's going to be hard to make Baghdad zero - to make it bomb-proof.....

MR. LEHRER: But to be very direct about it, Mr. President, you had a few years here and you've been in charge. And you've made a lot of decisions; you've made a lot of judgments about things and they haven't worked. And so now you've made a new one. So why should anybody expect the new ones to work when the prior ones did not?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, actually - I will sound defensive - but some of my decisions actually have worked,..........

MR. LEHRER: Mr. President, do you have a feeling of personal failure about Iraq right now?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I'm frustrated at times about Iraq because I understand the consequences of failure. I want the Iraqis to succeed for our own sake..... Failure - and this is what is hard, I think, for the American people to understand and one of the reasons why I appreciate talking to you is that people have got to understand that if we fail in Iraq, it is likely there will be safe haven from which people will be able to launch attacks from America......

MR. LEHRER: Let me ask you a bottom-line question, Mr. President...... if it's that important to all of us and to the future of our country, if not the world, why have you not, as president of the United States, asked more Americans and more American interests to sacrifice something? The people who are now sacrificing are, you know, the volunteer military - the Army and the U.S. Marines and their families. They're the only people who are actually sacrificing anything at this point.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, you know, I think a lot of people are in this fight. I mean, they sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night........

MR. LEHRER: And you're an optimist - you're optimistic about it all at this point?
PRESIDENT BUSH: I am. No question there's a - look, a year ago if we'd been having this discussion prior to the Samarra bombing, I'd have been - look what happened. And then the enemy responded....... And I spent a lot of time thinking about it, Jim, obviously. You mentioned five weeks. This is what presidents do; they take time, they listen......

Posted on The Human Stain

America - Poorly Served

The following excerpt is from an address by Bill Moyers to the Media Reform Conference on January 12, 2007:

Theodore Roosevelt, bolting a Republican party whose bosses had stolen the nomination from him, declared: “It is not to be wondered at that our opponents have been very bitter, for the lineup in this crisis is one that cuts deep to the foundations of government. Our democracy is now put to a vital test, for the conflict is between human rights on the one side and on the other special privilege asserted as a property right. The parting of the ways has come.”

Today, a hundred years after Teddy Roosevelt’s death, those words ring just as true. America is socially divided and politically benighted. Inequality and poverty grow steadily along with risk and debt. Many working families cannot make ends meet with two people working..........,

Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow – not someone known for extreme political statements – characterizes what is happening as nothing less than elite plunder: “The redistribution of wealth in favor of the wealthy and of power in favor of the powerful.” Indeed, nearly all of the wealth America created over the past 25 years has been captured by the top 20% of households, and most of the gains went to the wealthiest. The top 1% of households captured more than 50% of all gains in financial wealth....... Of the early American democratic creeds, the anti-Federalist warning that government naturally works to “fortify the conspiracies of the rich” proved especially prophetic.......

When Teddy Roosevelt dissected the “real masters of the reactionary forces” in his time, he concluded that they “directly or indirectly control the majority of the great daily newspapers that are against us.” Those newspapers – the dominant media of the day– “choked” (his word) the channels of information ordinary people needed to understand what was being done to them.

And today?...... The third basic pillar of American democracy – an independent press– is under sustained attack, and the channels of information are choked.

A few huge corporations now dominate the media landscape in America......Two thirds of today’s newspaper markets are monopolies. As ownership gets more and more concentrated, fewer and fewer independent sources of information have survived in the marketplace. And those few significant alternatives that do survive, such as PBS and NPR, are under growing financial and political pressure to reduce critical news content.......

What does today’s media system mean for the notion of the “informed public” cherished by democratic theory? Quite literally, it means that virtually everything the average person sees or hears outside of her own personal communications is determined by the interests of private, unaccountable executives and investors whose primary goal is increasing profits and raising the company’s share price. More insidiously, this small group of elites determines what ordinary people do not see or hear. In-depth news coverage of anything, let alone of the problems people face day-to-day, is as scarce as sex, violence, and voyeurism are pervasive. Successful business model or not, by democratic standards, this is censorship of knowledge by monopolization of the means of information.......

By no stretch of the imagination can we say the dominant institutions of today’s media are guardians of democracy........

Posted on The Human Stain

Gallantry Par Excellence

The days of chivalry are once again in vogue. It is wonderful to see men defend a womans' honor by rising to her defense, beating back all manner of dastardly foes. Women have not seen support such as this for many decades. Profoundly gratified and appreciative for the newly found sensitivities being exhibited by men, women are clamoring for more, but are wondering why it took so long for these expressions of support and concern to be voiced.

The latest examples of modern chivalry are the furious, concerted efforts being espoused by hordes of right wing nuts to defend Condoleeza Rice from the horrific attack that was hurled her way last week by that known hater of womans' rights, Senator Barbara Boxer. Who knew that the likes of Bill 'phone sex harasser' O'Reilly, Rush 'prostitute habitué' Limbaugh, and Tony 'toadie' Blankley of the republican owned Washington Times, cared so much about a womans' honor?

So what was this horror of horrors all about? Last Thursday, Rice was appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to defend the Bush/McCain escalation plan for sending 21,500 additional troops into Iraq's civil war -

SEN. BOXER: Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families. And I just want to bring us back to that fact.

Seems like an obvious statement of fact so far. Boxer then continues:

SEN. BOXER: Do you have an estimate of the number of casualties we expect from this surge?

RICE: No, uh, Senator...I don't think there's any way to give you such an estimate.

SEN. BOXER: Has the President, because he said 'expect more sacrifice', he must know...

RICE: Senator, I don't think that any of us, uh, have a number. That, of expected casualties. I think that people understand there is going to be violence for some time in Iraq. And that there will be more casualties and...Let me just say, you know, I fully understand the sacrifice that the American people are making and especially the sacrifice that our soldiers are making. Men and women in uniform. I...I visit them. I know what they're going through. I talk to their families. I see it. (pause) I could never...and I can never do anything to replace any of those, uh, lost, uh, men and women in uniform. Or the diplomats...

SEN. BOXER: Madame Secretary, if you please...I know you feel terrible about it. That's not the point. I was making the point as to who pays the price for your decisions. And the fact that this administration would move forward with this escalation with no clue as to the further price that we're gonna pay militarily. We certainly know the numbers. Billions of dollars that we can't spend here in this country. I find really appalling that there's not even enough time taken to figure out what the casualties would be. Thank you very much.

The real HORROR of this exchange is Rice's statement that the US government, led by our Chief Chimp, and assisted by the other immoral administration acolytes have supposedly made no estimates of the casualties this escalation will bring. No wonder the right wing mouthpieces and nutzoids are wildly spewing about, trumpeting this phony victimization story. Could it be that the Bushies are deliberately witholding casualty estimates due to potential political damage?

According to Jon Soltz, an Iraq War vet and co-founder of VoteVets.org:

"The Pentagon knows how many casualties they estimate for any of the actions the additional troops will be taking part of. It’s basic war planning," Solz told us this morning. "Depending on what happens, that number could go up or go down, but they know what they expect."

"Normally, the military shouldn’t have to release those estimates, but given that the administration is asking more troops to pay for its mistakes, they should be up front about how many they believe are going to make the ultimate sacrifice," he explained.

Could the truth be so sad as to reveal an adminstration that simply does not give a damn about death or injury suffered by American citizens – as long as it's not their kids of course. As Sen. Boxer pointed out so ably – they really have no skin in the game. So when America hears the news announcements that the Bush twins and other age eligible members of the frat boys' family have enrolled to fight in this 'noble crusade', maybe then Bush could gain some believability and credibility.
Posted on The Human Stain

That Was Fun

Sunday morning was quite enjoyable watching as Lieberman got bitch slapped by Sen. Chuck Hagel on 'Meet The Press'. Turncoat Joe deserved it for his vile insinuations and will surely get more in the near future as his Senate colleagues grow increasingly tired of his self absorbed, boot licking, sniveling, Rethuglican shtick.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Lieberman, let me show you the latest poll on all this about American attitudes. Support of the president sending 22,000 more troops to Iraq, 36 percent, opposed 61. Is it possible for a commander in chief to conduct a war where two out of three Americans, nearly, oppose his latest initiative and now believe that the war is not worth fighting?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Well, it makes it harder, that’s for sure................ Look, we all want to bring our troops home as soon as possible. We all want to find the right exit strategy. But my own sense of history tells me that in war, ultimately, there are two exit strategies. One is called victory; the other is called defeat. The president offered a proposal the other night that holds the hope of victory in a critical battle for the Iraqis and for us. With all respect, the other proposals represent the beginning of a retreat, of a defeat. And I think the consequences for the Middle East, which has been so important to our international stability over the years, and to the American people, who have been attacked on 9/11 by the same enemy that we’re fighting in Iraq today, supported by a rising Islamist radical super-powered government in Iran, the consequences for us, for—I want to be personal—for my children and grandchildren, I fear will be disastrous. That’s why I want to do everything I can to win in Iraq. And, and, and I think that’s what my, my oath of office requires me to do.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Hagel, talk about that if you would. Are you advocating retreat and defeat, and do you believe we are fighting the same people that brought about September 11th?

SEN. HAGEL: First, as I said before, I am not, nor any member of Congress that I’m aware of, Tim, is advocating defeat. That’s ridiculous, and I’m offended that any responsible member of Congress or anyone else would even suggest such a thing. Senator Lieberman talks about his children and grandchildren. We all have children and grandchildren. He doesn’t have a market on that, nor do any of my colleagues. We’re all concerned about the future of this country. But we have an honest disagreement here, and that’s what democracies are about. (emphasis added)

Now, the fact is we can talk all we want, and we can go to all the specialists in the world, the fact is, the Iraqi people will determine the fate of Iraq. The people of the Middle East will determine their fate. Now, when we continue to interject ourselves in a situation that we never have understood, we’ve never comprehended, and I think after four years it’s becoming quite clear of that, that tells us something very, very clearly. And we now have to devise a way to find some political consensus with our allies, especially the people in the Middle East, that is going to require to find a political framework for some progress with the Israeli-Palestinian issue. It’s going to require listening to our allies in the Middle East.

You know, Tim, I hear this talk about generals and military involvement. The two top American generals in Iraq in November and December, the last 60 days, both in open testimony and interviews took exactly the opposite approach of what President Bush was talking about on Wednesday night. Now, someone is, is not listening here. There is a major disconnect. And we talk about the future for our country. The future of the Middle East as a region is in play now at a very, very defining time.......

Let’s just take one thing. Why not take American troops, put them on the border? I hear a lot from this administration about this border being porous, all the terrorists leaking in there. The terrorist problem isn’t the biggest problem today in, in Iraq. Are terrorists there? Yes. It is Iraqis killing Iraqis, Tim. It’s Shias killing Shias. That’s the biggest problem, that’s not going to be solved by the American military.

Sen. Hagel is normally disappointing, talking a good game of 'independence' from Chimpie – but then falling in line and voting/performing as told to. In this instance, he stands out just fine – heres' hoping his conscience continues.
Posted on The Human Stain

Worse and Worse

Despite protestations to the contrary from the Bush administration, the situation in Iraq has not improved since the invasion and we continue to send brave Americans into a situation where we should not be:

Nearly four years ago, the soldiers of Sledgehammer Brigade stormed into Baghdad as liberators, a conquering force that swept 350 miles from Kuwait to Iraq's capital in just three weeks.

Now, as President Bush orders more US troops to Iraq, the first soldiers into Baghdad will be among the first to fight there for a third tour.

But this time, there is no euphoric anticipation of quick victory. This time, public support for the war has plummeted. This time, the mood of the brigade is stoic, its combat-hardened soldiers grimly aware that their future leads to a maze of random danger............

At a recent intelligence briefing for Sullivan's officers, Chief Warrant Officer Chad Barrett described a chaotic, corrupt environment in Iraq that had deteriorated since the brigade's last deployment. "It's a hard situation we're in, and everybody knows it," said Barrett, who worked in intelligence during 2005 in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a notoriously violent Shi'ite stronghold........

The brigade's mission for this deployment has yet to be announced, Sullivan said, but the job will not resemble the straight-ahead battles of the invasion blitzkrieg, when front lines and the objective of regime change were well defined.

In April 2003, the brigade was greeted in Baghdad by smiles, waves, and cheers. Doherty recalled being able to leave his base, drive into the city, and pick up a pizza. "If you tried to do that now, you'd be dead," Doherty said. After that first summer, the brigade returned to west Georgia to train for what turned out to be a second, deadlier tour of duty.

For the third deployment, the mission could include intense, house-to-house fighting in the most dangerous streets of Baghdad, where the president has insisted that American and Iraqi government forces must regain control.

These soldiers are professionals, they will not complain, they will do their duty for America. What they really need is a government that will do it's duty towards them. God speed.

Posted on The Human Stain

Living in BushWorld

This headline caught my eye:

Opposition to plan surprises Bush team
But they believe Congress won't have time to stop them

Opposition to plan surprises Bush team? Are they that clueless?

Here we have a President with 35% (or lower) approval ratings, a president who refuses to listen to the will of his countrymen, a president who spies on American citizens, a president who condones torture, a president who flouts the Constitution, a president who rejects stem cell research, a president who is beholden to corporate interests, a president who shames and dishonors our country – and they wonder why his plan to send more Americans to die in a war of choice that was based on lies is opposed?

We reap what we sow.

Posted on The Human Stain

Neocon Pukes

One of the most reprehensible things a human being can do is to falsely encourage conflicts for other people to fight and die. Twisting false data and creating nonexistent data to enable attainment of political goals through conflict – as long as there is no personal risk, is the definition of depravity and immorality. Yet this very behavior is one that is conducted everyday in America's 'conservative' think tanks. These dishonest activities are funded by some of America's largest corporations and wealthiest individuals. But don't stop there – foreign corporations and individuals also play the game. Why do they do this – for the betterment of mankind? For world peace? Sadly, no. The activities of these 'think tanks' are directed towards the attainment, consolidation, and perpetuation of power. To say that money is a major factor just states the obvious. The existence of these institutions is not intended to better your lives as citizens but to better the lives of a selected few at your expense. Now of course, they do not want total anarchy, because that would disrupt revenue flow, but some conflict is okay if it helps to redirect the flow where it should 'rightly' go.

Excerpted from Ed Encho's post at Taylor Marsh:

With Wednesday’s prime time address, George W. Bush has just stomped down on the gas pedal for the Rapture bus by going against the advice of every sane person outside of his recently reinforced bubble. It's full speed ahead for the neocons who pursue their fever dreams while flipping the bird to Jim Baker, Poppy, the 110th Congress and approximately 80 percent of the American people. You know that something is rotten when even arch-conservatives like Ollie North and other movement big guns like George Will and David Brooks of the damned liberal New York Times are running as fast as they can in the opposite direction.........

Bush has chosen to throw in with extremist right-wing Israeli warmongers and their domestic operatives in choosing to escalate the carnage by adopting the so-called ‘surge’ that was advocated by rabid neocon fanatics. This is a lie and is only concerned with keeping the ship of fools firmly on course for a rendezvous with the iceberg of an attack on Iran.........

The two-headed monster that is McLiebercain was walking point for the escalation and has been beating the war drums by recently appearing in front of a highly enthusiastic home crowd at that fetid nest of fifth columnist neo-fascist snakes known as The American Enterprise Institute. The AEI is where much of all that is foul with the self destructive foreign and and repressivedomestic policies of the Bush junta is cooked up.......

These ideologues should be mocked and marginalized and removed from any position where their insane wet dreams of hegemony and empire are allowed to affect the American political system or influence our foreign policy. Their pathological hatred for anything remotely Islamic is not only racist at most base levels, but their tunnel vision and myopia in aligning themselves with the most extremist elements of right-wing Israelis is counterproductive; as though instigating a war of civilizations is in the best interests of either the United States or more temperate elements within Israel. Their worldview is insanity of the same sort of proportion that has triggered some of history’s most disastrous bloodbaths and resulted in the murders of millions of innocents, and that was before nukes were widely available........

Amen to that.
Posted on The Human Stain