Assault on Samarra

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. and Iraqi forces moved into the Sunni Triangle city of Samarra late Thursday in one of the largest offensives in several months.

Earlier, explosions in Baghdad claimed more than 40 lives, most of them children.

A brigade-size force of U.S. and Iraqi national guard troops had reached the center of Samarra by early Friday morning, according to CNN correspondent Jane Arraf, embedded with a unit of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division.

Supported by tanks and aircraft, troops were going through the city sector by sector, clearing buildings and mosques. Electricity was being cut to some sections.

Gunfire, explosions and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard as Arraf reported from the scene.

Those Iraqis are going to vote for our puppets if we have to kill them.

No winner. Six billion losers.

I just watched the debate. Since I could not have gone into it with any lower expectations than I did, for either candidate, I guess I was relatively impressed. Kerry did about as well as possibly could have given the utter untenability of his "position" on Iraq, and Bush, while as always utterly wrong on everything, demonstrated more knowledge than I thought he possessed. The most impressive and depressing thing, I'd say, was the apparent sincerity of Bush--he certainly comes across as actually believing the nonsense he says. Unfortunately, that is probably enough to convince lots of voters who don't know the facts.

I'll have to review the transcript, but there were several times when I thought Kerry made great points, and actually stated them fairly clearly and concisely. Most of these, I think, were when he was attacking Bush's positions, rather than defending his own. Of course, that's a much easier job.

Still, plenty of gigantic inconsistencies from both candidates, at the very core, which should have eliminated them from contention long ago. Both are certifiably insane if they really think that they can "win" in Iraq. Hearing Bush, once again, talk about how Saddam wouldn't disarm, even though we know that he had disarmed years earlier. Hearing Kerry try to argue that we should have but shouldn't have gone into Iraq, with more troops but without diverting from Afghanistan, because it was or wasn't a mistake for Bush to do what Kerry had been calling for for years...

One promise from each candidate sure to be broken if he wins: Kerry's statement that he would commit to not retaining bases in Iraq long-term, and Bush's promise that the military will remain all volunteer (which, with stop-loss orders and ready reserve callups, it isn't even now). Bush's lie will be readily apparent sometime next year if he wins; Kerry's lie will only gradually become visible over time, as the bases in Iraq become as permanent as the bases in Okinawa and Germany and Italy. Even in the likely event of the ultimate end of most of the occupation, it seems pretty certain that the US will hold on to one or two heavily-defended bases somewhere in Iraq indefinitely.

There wasn't much funny about the debate; I guess the funniest to me from these slim pickings was when they were talking about nuclear proliferation (always a knee-slapper). Bush, of course, said "nukular," while Kerry correctly said "nuclear." Ever the modern journalist, Jim Lehrer in his follow-up seemed to say something like "newcaleer," sort of a compromise between the two.

Colin Powell wants your children; Michael Powell wants your transmitters

The FCC (Fascist Communication Consolidators) is raiding left-wing micro-radio stations, raiding their homes and taking their equipment. I first read about a raid on KFAR "pirate radio" in Knoxville via South Knox Bubba; now it's Free Radio Santa Cruz in California. (BTW, my niece Beth and her boyfriend Jeremy are students at UCSC. Hi, Beth!)

Guns drawn, agents of the U.S. Marshals Service served a warrant on a tiny Santa Cruz pirate radio station early Wednesday, rousting and frisking the pajama-clad residents of the co-op house from which the station had been broadcasting. No one was arrested.

"This is not a criminal action against people," said Supervising Deputy Cheryl Koel.

The target was Free Radio Santa Cruz, an FM micro-station boasting 35 to 40 watts of power and offering round-the-clock music, activism and other local programming, in addition to such national programming as Radio Pacifica's "Democracy Now"-- all in defiance of federal licensing laws.

The blue-jacketed marshals, along with agents of the Federal Communications Commission, dismantled the station's equipment and carried it to a waiting pickup with a camper shell as a crowd of perhaps 60 people yelled "Shame! Shame!" and "Go home!"

Residents, programmers, friends of alternative radio and enemies of corporate media were joined by two city council members, one council candidate and two congressional candidates. They milled around on the sidewalk and in the street, careful to avoid traffic.

Culinary consultant Joseph Schultz, founder of the legendary but now defunct India Joze, brought vegetable soup.

Mmmm...vegetable soup. (Really--that was in the Mercury News article!)

The Shield of Ignorance

Jonathan at A Tiny Revolution explains how Americans are protected from information:

For almost a year and a half now American citizens have been in very grave danger. This danger, so frightening that it's difficult even to speak of it, is that we might hear an interview with Jafar Dhia Jafar, the father of the Iraqi nuclear program. If that had happened, we might have definitively learned that Iraq had had no nuclear program since 1991, and that as Jafar puts it, the US and UK governments "were lying to their people... I knew they knew they were lying." Fortunately, the US media has protected us with a high-tech, billion-dollar, satellite-based Shield of Ignorance.
...
But it's only now that we're learning of the closest call of all. It turns out the story CBS bumped for the infamous segment on George Bush's National Guard service actually included an interview with Jafar. But the Shield of Ignorance, working just as it was designed, swung into action at the last moment and saved us from knowing something about life on earth.

There's a third paragraph in the middle, but you'll have to go to A Tiny Revolution to read it.

$50.10

Two days ago, oil over $50 a barrel was news. Now it's old hat. I had to dig to find the latest price.

Occupations Suck

JABALYA, Gaza (Reuters) - Twenty-three Palestinians and three Israelis were killed Thursday, Gaza's bloodiest day for more than two years, as Israel's army struck back after a rocket attack killed two Israeli children in a border town.

In the single deadliest incident in a spiral of violence, an Israeli tank shell killed seven Palestinians near a school in Jabalya, Gaza's largest refugee camp, as Israeli forces thrust deep into the militant stronghold for the first time.

Palestinian witnesses said the dead from the tank shell blast were all teenagers with no involvement in the heavy fighting that raged through the camp. "The explosion was so big it scattered body parts in nearby houses," a medic said.

Welcome to Fallujah

source

From David Horsey.

No more s'mores, please!

From Rob Rogers.

From Mike Keefe.

Global Warming

The NY Times says global warming is expected to raise hurricane intensity. I guess we'll just wait and see until that happens, eh Jeb? Even Pooty-Poot apparently gets global warming, as Russia will approve the Kyoto protocol.

From Mike Thompson.

Another mark of the beast?

Sorry, this rapture index crap has gotten into my head. But this story about a Cleveland Indians pitcher getting shot in the leg on the team bus as it was going from the KC Royals' stadium to the Kansas City airport would seem to be a sign of the approaching apocalypse. The good news is that rookie Kyle Denney's wound appears to have been superficial. Apparently, the bus was shot from outside--sort of a reverse drive-by shooting. Adding to the strangeness, nobody on the bus called the cops until the bus reached the airport, giving the shooter plenty of time to get away. But the strangest part of all is that Indians' trainers believe that Denney was saved from more serious injury by high white boots, which were part of a USC cheerleader's outfit he was wearing. You know, white pleated skirt and tight sweater. Thank God he was prepared!

It's eyebrow deep, and the Debate hasn't even started

I saw Bush's southeast campaign manager Ralph Reed on the Daily Show telling Jon Stewart what a great debater John Kerry is, how he won debate trophies in high school and at Yale, and how he honed his skills in his 20 years in the Senate. To which I have to ask Reed: Who is this John Kerry, and how is he related to the John Kerry I saw lose every Democratic debate last year?

Not to be out bs'ed, Kerry chimes in with this gibberish:

Asked if he thought Bush were smart, Kerry said: "Absolutely. He's a very clever debater. ... He's president. Anybody who doubts that somebody who isn't smart as president doesn't know what it's all about."

If I understand what this great debater is saying here, no easy task that, I have to take offense on behalf of the billions of people worldwide who believe that Bush is a moron. I'm incensed! Outraged, even! I think I'll challenge Zell Miller to a duel.

Frito Lay-offs

From the Detroit Free Press:

PepsiCo Inc. on Thursday announced that it plans to close four of its Frito-Lay division plants, including one in Michigan that employs about 390 people, as part of a streamlining effort.

The 34-year-old manufacturing and warehouse facility in Allen Park will begin phasing out operations through the end of October, Frito-Lay said. Employees will be offered severance packages based on their time with the company, including transition benefits and job placement assistance.
...
PepsiCo also said it will close Frito-Lay plants in Council Bluffs, Iowa; Beaverton, Ore.; and Visalia, Calif. The announcement came as the beverage and snack-food concern reported net income rose 35 percent in its latest quarter from a year ago, helped by growth in beverage and snack volume, as well as a tax benefit.

PepsiCo said it intends to shift capacity from the four Frito-Lay sites to other locations. It also plans to transfer about 250 of the nearly 780 affected workers to other facilities. The company will continue to employ about 45,000 workers after it completes the plant closures by Dec. 31.

So Pepsi is raking in the cash, but it still is laying off some 530 workers and replacing them with new workers in other locations. I'm guessing the laid off workers were union members making maybe $15 or $20 an hour; their replacements in other states will probably be $5.50 an hour, no union, no benefits. But Pepsi's stockholders are making money--that's all our system cares about.

Liberty and Justice for None

The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership's intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.

The provision, part of the massive bill introduced Friday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would apply to non-U.S. citizens who are suspected of having links to terrorist organizations but have not been tried on or convicted of any charges. Democrats tried to strike the provision in a daylong House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it survived on a party-line vote.

The provision, human rights advocates said, contradicts pledges President Bush made after the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal erupted this spring that the United States would stand behind the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Hastert spokesman John Feehery said the Justice Department "really wants and supports" the provision.
...
Human rights groups and members of Congress opposed to the provision say it could result in the torture of hundreds of people now held in the United States who could be sent to such countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan and Pakistan, all of which have dubious human rights records.

Supporters say the measure would provide a much-needed change to U.S. laws.

"Our laws are not up to date with the war we're fighting," Feehery said. In many cases, he said, the Justice Department "can't keep [terror suspects] in detention, they can't convict them, they don't want to try them. . . . If you can't detain them indefinitely, you sure don't want them in America."

Oh, the poor "Justice" department, unable to detain innocent people like they want. Surely we can find "friendly" countries glad to torture these people on our behalf. To Mr. Feehery I say: It is you and Hastert and Ashcroft and Bush that I don't want in this country. I know Hastert, Ashcroft and Bush have taken oaths to uphold the constitution; by supporting this provision they have violated that oath. Traitors.

Rapture Index up 2

The rapture index was 152 last week; it's 154 now, with "oil supply/price" moving from a 4 to the max of 5 (I think the guy keeping score is even more delusional than I already think he is if he thinks $50 a barrel is the max), and climate moving from 3 to 4. Volcanoes held steady at 2, even though Mount St. Helens seems ready to blow again.

IRV in San Francisco

We're trying to get Instant Runoff Voting back in Ann Arbor, which was the first US city to use it back in 1975. You can read about IRV and how you can support us at our web site. The NY Times has an article today about San Francisco's using IRV in its elections this fall.

It's not working, aWol

Fallujahcide continues. From the NY Times:

Meanwhile Thursday, the United States targeted a suspected terrorist safehouse in Fallujah, killing at least four Iraqis. The military said in a statement that intelligence reports indicated the house was being used by followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to plan attacks against U.S.-led forces and Iraqi citizens.

"Significant secondary explosions were observed during the impact indicating a large cache of illegal ordinance was stored in the safe house," the statement said. Explosions continued in the northeastern side of the city for hours.

At least four Iraqis were killed -- including two women and one child -- and eight wounded, said Dr. Ahmed Khalil of the Fallujah General Hospital. Witnesses said two houses were flattened and four others damaged in the strike.

American jets, tanks and artillery units have repeatedly targeted al-Zarqawi's network in Fallujah in recent weeks as U.S.-led forces seek to assert control over insurgent enclaves ahead of elections slated for January. The military says the attacks have inflicted significant damage on the network, which has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, kidnappings and other attacks.

Well, either the highlighted portion isn't true, or it is. If not true, it is just one further piece of evidence that the Bush administration and their sycophants in the military are lying sacks of Cheney. If it is true, they're still lying sacks of Cheney. Because if they have inflicted significant damage on Zarqawi's network, then that network isn't nearly as big a part of the Iraqi resistance as the Bushies try to claim. If it were, and it were experiencing significant damage, then the attacks on the US military and their quisling Iraqi stooges would be declining, which they clearly are not. The paragraphs above were taken from deep within the Times article, the headline of which was Dozens Killed in Multiple Bombings in Baghdad.

By the way, the Iraqi blogger "Riverbend" said this last week:

Our politicians are outside of the country 90% of the time (by the way, if anyone has any news of our president Ghazi Ajeel Al Yawir, do let us know- where was he last seen or heard?).

Well, he showed up on CNN recently:

In recent weeks, U.S. forces have also launched regular airstrikes on the town of Fallouja, west of Baghdad, which is controlled by Sunni Muslim insurgents. Although U.S. military operations supposedly are coordinated with Iraqi leaders, the Americans' increasing reliance on air attacks drew criticism Tuesday from the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi president.

Drawing a parallel between U.S. tactics in Iraq and Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, President Ghazi Ajil Yawer said the U.S. strikes were viewed by the Iraqi people as "collective punishment" against towns and neighborhoods.

Footage of injured and dead women and children being pulled from bombed buildings "brings to mind Gaza," Yawer said in an interview on CNN.

Sounds like the help is getting uppity, George, just like Noriega and Saddam did. What are you going to do this time, George? Re-invade Iraq?

Juan Cole remarks on Al-Yawir's statement:

Collective punishment was a Nazi tactic during World War II, and was forbidden as a tool to occupying powers in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. Al-Yawir's condemnation of the US use of the tactic is the strongest to date from a high-level Iraqi politician. The comments seem likely to create a diplomatic crisis, and bode ill for Bush administration plans to pursue a scorched earth campaign against Fallujah and other cities in al-Anbar province in November. Al-Yawir is from a Sunni tribal background.

Let's hope that the sentence that I highlighted is true. I'd say that it's more likely that Al-Yawir will "regrettably" be killed by a car bomb in the near future--that is, if he ever returns to Iraq.

Let's Move On, Guys!

The presidential race was finally leaving Vietnam behind, but now MoveOn decides it's time to release Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, which MoveOn says "is a beautiful and inspiring portrait of Kerry and Vietnam, but it's bigger than that: it's a gripping, powerful film about how our country wrestles with war." Maybe so, but IRAQ should be the big loser for Bush, not Vietnam. I realize they're stuck with a candidate who finds it very difficult to make Iraq an issue, but sending him back to Vietnam one more time doesn't help.

One amendment is safe

The second amendment, that is. While barricades, cameras, sneak-and-peek searches and other fascist measures have intruded on the already limited rights of the semi-citizens of the District of Columbia over the past few years, they have regained the right to shoot each other:

The House voted Wednesday to end a 28-year ban on handgun ownership in the nation's capital, brushing aside pleas from city officials concerned about a surge in violence and more heavily armed criminals.
...
The legislation would lift the ban on handgun ownership. It also would allow people to have other weapons, including semiautomatic rifles, that are not illegal under federal law.

The measure would mean an end to requirements that firearms be registered and that rifles and shotguns kept in people's homes be stored unloaded and disassembled or unlocked.

I'll confess that I'm not as anti-gun as I was five years ago, when I thought that gun violence was the greatest threat to my life and liberty. Now, I see the government taking over that role, and start to see some sense in the second amendment.

I saw a picture a month or two ago of British troops dismantling an anti-aircraft gun that was on the roof of a building in Najaf. And I knew they weren't dismantling it because they were concerned about bombing raids from Iran or Syria or Russia or al Qaeda. If Najaf was to be bombed from the air, it would be Brits or Americans doing it. And they wouldn't want any interference with that. I also saw Americans from Bush Sr. through Clinton and on to the current cabal foaming at the mouth with the desire to invade Iraq. But they waited until they were absolutely sure that Iraq was effectively disarmed, after a war, 12 years of sanctions, seven years of inspections, and another four months of inspections, before they went ahead with the invasion. Our government does not insist that other countries disarm in order to protect us--it is to prevent those countries from defending themselves if and when we invade. And I guess if the right to bear arms is the only right the Bushies are going to leave to us, maybe we shouldn't give it away too easily. On the other hand, having weapons didn't keep the government from killing people at Ruby Ridge or Waco. I don't own a gun and probably never will. But it took John Ashcroft's attack on civil liberties for me to finally see some sense in John Ashcroft's defense of gun rights. And frankly, I'm not at all happy about that.

$49.51

Oil down slightly for first time in 10 sessions.

Worst reason ever for opposing the war

These are the people picking our pResident:

"Kerry doesn't know what the working-class people do; he hasn't done any physical labor all his life," Sharon Alfman, a 51-year-old cook in New Lexington, Ohio, told a New York Times reporter. It's true. Kerry is a rich boy. But then she added: "Bush's values are middle-class family values."
...
Demonstrating that stupefying ignorance can be bipartisan, another Ohioan interviewed for the same article said she is against the war in Iraq because, like 42 percent of her fellow Americans, she thinks Iraq was behind 9/11: "We shouldn't be over there building them back up because they didn't build our towers back up." She is wrong on so many levels that it makes my brain hurt.

-- From Ted Rall. I met some extremely poor people on the streets of Caracas last spring, who had clearly been drinking, and who were speaking quickly in Spanish, which I barely understand. But I am convinced beyond any doubt that these Venezuelans had a far greater understanding of what is going on in the world than the majority of American voters do.

Delusion Rules

Here's another great column from former Moonie Times writer Paul Craig Roberts (I've figured out why he's "former," the Moonie Times (aka Washington Times) part I don't understand).

The US might be a superpower, but it is not a country that controls its own fate. Delusion does.

Much of the US public is deluded about the invasion and occupation of Iraq and its consequences and about the state of the US economy.

Just as Americans are deceived into believing that Iraq was involved in the September 11 terrorist attack on the US and threatened America with weapons of mass destruction, Americans are deceived into believing that they benefit economically from outsourcing, offshore production, and an unprecedented trade deficit.

The deceivers emphasize the lower prices, not the lost incomes and destroyed careers, that result when American workers are replaced by cheaper foreign labor. The deceivers allege that the trade deficit means that we get to consume more of the world's goods than we produce, with the added benefit that foreigners pay for our excess consumption by investing in America.

The truth of the matter is that "foreign investment" in the US today consists of Asian central banks, mainly Japan and China, using surplus earnings from massive trade surpluses to prop up the US dollar by purchasing US government bonds.

By propping up the dollar, Asians keep their goods and services cheap, thus worsening the US trade deficit. Washington goes along because Asian countries use their export surpluses to finance the US budget deficit.
...
It is inevitable: America's mounting debts will produce a crisis. The dollar's value will plummet, and US living standards will drop. Everything will become more expensive for Americans.

The perilous condition of the dollar is one of the reasons Bush invaded Iraq. What keeps the overvalued dollar up is the fact that it is the currency in which the Middle East bills its oil. Every country has to purchase dollars in order to pay for its oil, and these purchases keep the dollar afloat.

Just prior to the US invasion, sanctions on Iraqi oil had run their course and were about to be removed. Saddam Hussein intended to bill Iraqi oil in Euros, which could have started the abandonment of the dollar by the oil producing countries. Instead of fixing our economic problems, we started a war.

The REST of the story.

Getting the most from retirement

A funny story, via Polizeros (no other attribution given as to whose story it is):

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. So here's a story.

I went to the supermarket the other day. I was only in there for about 5 minutes. When I came out there was a city cop writing out a parking ticket.

I went up to him and said, "come on, buddy, how about giving a senior a break?" He ignored me and continued writing the ticket. I called him a worthless municipal employee. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for worn tires.

I called him a blue suited imbecile. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first, then he started writing a third ticket.

This went on for about 20 minutes. The more I abused him the more tickets he wrote. I didn't care. My car was parked around the corner and this one had a "Bush-Cheney" bumper sticker on it. I try to have a little fun each day now that I'm retired. It's important at our age.

Kerry getting there, one very slow, very awkward step at a time

From AP:

"We should not have gone into Iraq knowing today what we know," Kerry told ABC. "Knowing there was no imminent threat to America, knowing there were no weapons of mass destruction, knowing there was no connection between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, I would not have voted to support war."

Good going, John! Seriously! You have finally realized that being a flip-flopper is preferable to being a stubborn stay-the-course ignoramus, something you have no chance of beating Bush on anyway.

Now John, just because those of us who haven't jumped on your bandwagon have finally gotten you to go this far, don't expect us to jump gleefully on now. First off, we're wondering how we can trust someone who defended his vote last month, already knowing those three things, when the only thing that has changed since then are the poll numbers. Secondly, we still have to wonder about either your intelligence or your integrity if you EVER seriously believed that Iraq was an imminent threat to America or that there was a connection between 9/11 and Saddam. Even the WMD stuff was clearly questionable two years ago, but the "threat" and the 9/11 connection were clearly bogus. You didn't ever really believe that crap, did you John? I guess right now I'm hoping that it's your integrity that's lacking, and not your intelligence. Nobody with integrity gets this far in politics, but brainiacs like Carter and Clinton are somewhat preferable to morons like Reagan and Bush.

Most importantly, John, is what are you going to do about it? Now that you finally say that you would have voted against the war, does that mean that you now recognize it as illegal? And doesn't that mean that you should END IT, not try to drag some accomplices in on it for appearances?

Israel continues to kill in Gaza

Israel Pushes Into Gaza Strip, Killing 3.

While the Guard's away, the 'canes will play

Wayne Madsen wonders why Florida's National Guard is off getting shot at for no apparent reason in Iraq when they're needed back home:

There are clearly not enough professional and trained disaster recovery people in Florida to deal with the current spate of hurricanes. Most of the most critical Guard and Reserve units, particularly medical and civil affairs personnel, have been called up to Iraq. The only thing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has managed to do was cordon off my mother's neighborhood and refuse to allow anyone to retrieve belongings from damaged buildings until FEMA deems them structurally sound. Knowing Jebbie Bush and his billionaire friends, the Gulf front buildings are likely to be condemned to make way for expensive beachfront condos.

I consider the repeated disaster response SNAFUs in Florida to be Jebbie's and Dubya's fault. Neither Jebbie nor his brother cannot [sic] be allowed to claim any credit for adequately responding to this unprecedented series of hurricanes, which are obviously caused by global warming. Moreover, the global warming reason for the unprecedented series of destructive hurricanes in the Atlantic is something the educationally-challenged Dubya has called "silly science."

Last year, California and other western states faced huge fires while many of their trained firefighters were stuck in a quagmire ten thousand miles away.

And who's going to shoot the protesters at Kent State, George??? Have you thought of that? (Unfortunately, I'll bet that's one thing he has thought of.)

It sounds like a joke, but...

Al Gore gives Kerry advice on how to debate Bush. And it's pretty good:

Senator Kerry can also use these debates to speak directly to voters and lay out a hopeful vision for our future. If voters walk away from the debates with a better understanding of where our country is, how we got here and where each candidate will lead us if elected, then America will be the better for it. The debate tomorrow should not seek to discover which candidate would be more fun to have a beer with. As Jon Stewart of the "The Daily Show" nicely put in 2000, "I want my president to be the designated driver."
...
If Mr. Bush is not willing to concede that things are going from bad to worse in Iraq, can he be trusted to make the decisions necessary to change the situation? If he insists on continuing to pretend it is "mission accomplished," can he accomplish the mission? And if the Bush administration has been so thoroughly wrong on absolutely everything it predicted about Iraq, with the horrible consequences that have followed, should it be trusted with another four years?

The biggest single difference between the debates this year and four years ago is that President Bush cannot simply make promises. He has a record. And I hope that voters will recall the last time Mr. Bush stood on stage for a presidential debate. If elected, he said, he would support allowing Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada. He promised that his tax cuts would create millions of new jobs. He vowed to end partisan bickering in Washington. Above all, he pledged that if he put American troops into combat: "The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well defined."

Comparing these grandiose promises to his failed record, it's enough to make anyone want to, well, sigh.

Fallujacide continues

The WSWS has a good article on the daily terror bombing of Fallujah. Excerpt:

The overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people are deeply hostile to the US subjugation of their country. The daily US abuses and killing of Iraqis are simply adding to the reservoir of anti-US sentiment and providing a fresh stream of recruits and sympathisers to the various armed resistance groups. The methods used by the US in Iraq are no different from the Nazi occupiers during World War II or the colonial powers of the 19th century: their aim is not to win over the Iraqi people, but to cow them into submission.

What's left of Najaf's old city is being demolished

According to two letters Juan Cole received.

Did you realise they are demolishing the old city of Najaf, just like that?! This is an act of unbelievable vandalism and ignorance, and it is in the style of Saddam.

Time to Flip-flop, Mr. President

From Juan Cole:

Many in the CIA have concluded that "There's no obvious way to fix it. The best we can hope for is a semi-failed state hobbling along with terrorists and a succession of weak governments."

When you are deep in a hole, the first rule is to stop digging. Whatever Bush has been doing in Iraq for the past 18 months demonstrably has not worked. He desperately needs a change of mind on these policies. He needs to try something else.

The image of him giggling about Kerry changing his mind on Iraq takes on a chilling aspect when you think of him as Captain Joseph Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez. Hazelwood told the helsman to steer right and then went to bed. The helsman didn't steer far enough right, and plowed into the Bligh Reef and disaster. Part of the reason was that corporate cost cutting had left the ship without radar. If you think about it, in fact, a wrecked oil tanker is a good image of Bush administration Iraq policy.

Bush should stop slapping his thigh and guffawing about that flipflopper Kerry and being to think seriously about changing his mind on some key policies himself. Otherwise, an Iraq as failed state could pose a supreme danger to the United States, the kind of danger that the Bligh Reef posed to the Exxon Valdez.

Pakistani Khan Jobs

So many scandals, so little time. Two involving our "allies" in Pakistan seem to have dropped off the radar screen: Scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan’s sharing nuclear technology with Iran, Libya, North Korea (and who knows who else?), and the disclosure that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an al Qaeda agent who had been turned, had been captured in order to score a few political points just before John Kerry's speech at the Dem convention.

Just in case you've forgotten.

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss

Literally? Saddam to Declare Candidacy for Iraqi Elections.

A friend in need

Fifteen Saudis (and four others) gave their lives (and about 3000 others) to rescue Bush's foundering pResidency in September 2001. Three years later, the Saudis still got his back: Saudis to Boost Oil Production Capacity as Price Hits $50. From what I've read, however, the Saudis won't be able to make a huge dent in the oil squeeze this time. They were pumping pretty fast and furious already.

Makes sense to me

The blogger currently known as Whatever it is I'm Against It has a theory:

I have a theory. Colin Powell said Sunday about the Iraqi insurgency: "Yes, it’s getting worse, and the reason it's getting worse is that they’re determined to disrupt the election." My theory: what if the reason the Bushies are insisting on a totally unrealistic deadline for sham elections is to provide just this excuse for their failure to get the insurgency under control?

Why, that would mean that they are totally unscrupulous in addition to being completely incompetent! Since that hypothesis matches all currently available data, I'd suggest that it is far closer to the truth than most current theories.

I don't think you can do anything sincerely, Tony

Blair apologizes for being an idiot, but not for being a criminal:

"And the problem is, I can apologize for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologize for removing Saddam," Mr. Blair said, adding, "The world is a better place with Saddam in prison, not in power."

The same could be said for you, sir, if you were in prison. Lock Blair, Bush, Putin and Saddam all in the same spider hole, and the world would be much better off.

Ordering Pizza

Xymphora is a really good blog! Here are selections from some recent posts.

On Pakistan's contributions to the "war on terror:"

Pakistan, with the assistance of the Bush administration, continues to successfully stage-manage its supposed rounding up of al Qaeda members, all handled perfectly to depict Pakistan as a strong American ally in fighting the war on terror, and ensuring that the American aid money keeps flowing. Do the math: Musharraf talked on the telephone with George Bush on February 24, 2003, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was allegedly captured on March 1; Musharraf met with Bush on September 22, 2004, and Farooqi was allegedly killed on September 26. It's like ordering pizza.

On the aerial bombardment of Iraqi cities:

The Americans are losing, and losing badly. They are not just losing the battle of hearts and minds, as that part of the war was lost a long time ago. They are also not suffering under the PR problems that you would think would be caused by ever increasing numbers of American casualties, as those statistics are either hidden from the American public or apparently are of no concern to it. They are actually losing in the good old fashioned way that would have been understood by the Ancient Greeks. Each time they have a battle, the Americans suffer more debilitating casualties than the resistance. The Americans are losing for the simple reason that they are running out of troops. This explains the more and more ridiculous stories we see of attempts to deal with the lack of American troops. It also explains the reliance on aerial bombardment of civilians. Aerial bombardment is completely useless against the resistance, who are highly mobile and simply evacuate the area, leaving the women and children and old men to die under American bombs. If these bombs are killing any members of the resistance, it is by sheer luck. The increasing American reliance on the war crime of aerial bombardment reflects the desperation of an army that is out of answers. With every battle it cedes more and more ground to the resistance, and suffers a disproportionate number of casualties. The Americans can no longer even afford to fight the resistance in the mano a mano fights that might lead to American success, as the Americans can no longer afford to take the rates of casualties they would suffer. They can't replace the troops they would lose. Each case of aerial bombardment increases the fury of the Iraqi people, and thus the size and determination of the resistance. It is a vicious cycle the Americans can't hope to win.

The attack on Iraq has turned into one of the main embarrassments in American military history. Bush has based his whole election campaign on fighting the war on terror by fighting the war in Iraq, so he has no possible exit strategy. It will be interesting to see how much permanent damage he does to the American military. Once the neocons have tired of Iraq, it's on to Syria and Iran. Will there be enough of an American army left to fight these new illegal wars? How much will the draft help? Will the draft undermine the success of the completely volunteer army? Will the American Empire be over before it has a chance to begin?

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

Bush fails on Reagan's question when it comes to health care:

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- A new report suggests Americans are worse off than they were four years ago in terms of their ability to afford and maintain medical coverage.

Yeah, but on everything else, he fails even worse! So stop complaining! Four more years!

(Don't worry; that's my freeper parody.)

Welcome to New Europe

Where the train collects damages from the person it runs over:

Railway demands cash from man who was paralyzed after being run over by train
Poland's state railway is claiming compensation from a man who caused delays to its services by being run over by a train -- but said it may forgive the debt after learning his house had burned down. "We are acting in accordance with article 415 of the Civil Code, seeking damages from a person who caused delays in rail traffic," a spokesman said yesterday. Pawel Banaszek, 19, who was paralyzed in the August, 2003, incident, caused $738 worth of losses because of delays. Half the amount was written off and he was paying the rest in $28.70 monthly installments from his $215 disability pension. Gazeta Wyborcza said the man was beaten up in a bar fight and left for dead on the rails, but court officials said there was no conclusive evidence a fight had taken place. Prosecutor Robert Strzeminski said, "We didn't have any evidence of a beating ... so we had to treat it as a simple train accident."

I'd say Banaszek could use a good trial lawyer about now.

Kucinich calls for hearings BEFORE the election

IraQuagmire is a catastrophic success. You can send faxes to members of the House Subcommittee for National Security following the procedure given here. (Unfortunately, not one of those one-click things!)

Will your kid pay for her own college--before she gets to kindergarten?

Four-year-old Marla Olmstead painted those. I'm no expert, but they certainly wouldn't look out of place at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs. Marla's painting have already sold for more than $40,000.

An open letter to Michael Moore

The Socialist Equality Party candidate for Congress from my district has written Mikey a letter, asking him to reconcile the strongly anti-war, anti-corporate sentiments of Fahrenheit 911 and his other work with his support for John Kerry.

From John Sherffius.

From David Horsey.

While Horsey's sarcasm about this sort of ridiculous attack ad is on target, the question in the last frame makes me think: Was Lincoln really a good choice? Was a war that resulted in the death of 620,000 Americans and wounding of over a million more really the best option for 1861? (And those are just military casualties.) Slavery had been abolished relatively peacefully in the British Empire some three decades earlier, and the economics of southern slavery were already failing. American slavery might well have collapsed after secession, and the southern states might have returned to the Union anyway. There might have been less animosity, much of which has wrongly been directed at the "freed" slaves and their descendants in the last 140 years. In 1860, there were close to four million slaves in the United States. Today, there are somewhere around one million African Americans in prison, and probably three times that many who are on probation or otherwise under the control of the criminal justice system. Like Saddam Hussein, American slavery was a very bad thing. But, also like Saddam, time was not on the side of slavery, and its decline was very likely if not inevitable without a war. Also, some 36,000 African-American soldiers died fighting on the Union side, and I'm sure there were many more on the Confederate side as well (counting personal slaves, cooks and the like, as well as some who actually served as soldiers).

Also, just as ridding Iraq of a tyrant was not the original stated reason for the current war, neither was freeing the slaves Lincoln's stated reason for prosecuting the civil war--preserving the union was. Even the emancipation proclamation didn't actually free any slaves, since it technically only applied to areas that were currently not under federal control. (Sort of like Iraqi "sovereignty," it was a publicity stunt.) I believe that Honest Abe was more honest than Bush as the quagmire of the Civil War dragged on for four years; I think he pretty much stuck to "preserving the union" as the main reason--the emancipation proclamation was much more a tool to help win the war than a reason for it. But Lincoln could have chosen not to challenge secession militarily, and thereby at least postponed America's bloodiest war.

I'm not totally anti-Abe, although I've read articles by people who are. But to suggest that he was for sure the best choice for 1860, or that his policies were best for that time, is certainly highly debateable. Slavery had to go, but it seems pretty likely that there may have been ways to accomplish that which didn't kill hundreds of thousands of people and left smoldering animosities which linger to this day. (And, BTW, slavery still exists in America today, and I'm not just talking about Wal-Mart.)

From Drew Sheneman.

From Joe Heller.

From John Trever.

From Rob Rogers.

Anyone know if Rob Rogers of Pittsburgh is really Gary Larson? His people really look like Far Side people.

From Kevin Siers.

From Clay Bennett.

From Jeff Parker.

From Mike Keefe.

$50.11

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Oil prices remained above the $50 a barrel mark early Tuesday, a day after piercing the milestone for the first time, on fresh threats to Nigerian exports.

In electronic trading, U.S. crude futures climbed 47 cents to $50.11 a barrel, although that was off the record $50.47 it reached earlier in the day.

Blog rolling

A couple of selections from the Bush Wars blog:
On the wild fluctuations in polls:

In other words, the trouble with the polls this time involves a fundamental problem of definition. Electoral polls always depend on a set of assumptions about who is and who isn’t a “likely voter.” But this year--owing to the near-unfathomable combination of a widely despised president who threatens to draw out enormous numbers of people who don’t usually vote, and a challenger who seems intent on convincing them to stay home--no one has any clear idea of who’s going to show up on November 2.

On the Kerry campaign "strategy:"

The question was never whether this election would be a referendum on Bush--that was bound to be the case--but whether John Kerry and the Democrats would be the ones telling that story to the people. Here is a summary of Kerry's line on the Bush scandals:

• Tax cuts: I am not a tax-and-spend liberal!
• Economy: Not too good. Everyone can see that, right? But there is this offshore tax break I'd eliminate...
• Iraq: I would conduct needless and immoral foreign invasions more responsibly.
• Cronyism: Huh?

It's impossible to see how diehard partisans of the Democrats can endure this campaign without learning a thing or two, but they seem to be holding up thus far. Their collective wailings and gnashings fall along two main lines: Kerry is regrettably timid, or Kerry is hewing to the "middle" to woo those fabled centrist swing voters. Indeed, some true-blue Dems (the clinically delusional ones) still rise to defend Kerry's craven non-strategy of standing back in the weeds while Bush, theoretically, sinks Bush.

There's just one trouble with all three critiques: They assume that the men and women charting the course of the Democratic party are some of the dumbest people on earth. Can they not see that this election offers dramatic and even unprecedented potential for galvanizing anti-Republican reaction and bringing new voters out of the woodwork?

Of course they can see this. They refuse to act on it because new blood would mean new demands of a very old sort on a political machine that has spent the past generation trying to rid itself of public association with "special interests," in this case meaning the people. Who needs the headache of taking them back aboard? Better to keep on flouting them and hope they will vote for you anyway, out of desperation. The voters that Democrats thereby leave on the table are their traditional base. But no more.

But they could win so easily. Yes. So what? Given the choice between winning what might prove an unruly victory and running yet another me-too campaign that will likely lose (but without upsetting their real base, which consists largely of the same funding sources as the Republicans), they take the second path every time. The Democrats are not stupid. They are cynical. They have no interest in changing the rules of the game, and toward that end they are even more loath than Republicans to invite new people into the "process."

World War III may have to wait

From AP:

Israel would not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear installations with a single air strike as it did in Iraq in 1981 because they are scattered or hidden and intelligence is weak, Israeli and foreign analysts say.

Israeli leaders have implied they might use force against Iran if international diplomatic efforts or the threat of sanctions fail to stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons.
...
Recent Israeli weapons purchases could be crucial in a possible strike.

In February, Israel received the first of 102 American-built F-16I warplanes, the largest weapons deal in its history. Military sources say the planes were specially designed with extra fuel tanks to allow them to reach Iran.

In June, it signed a $319 million deal to acquire nearly 5,000 U.S.-made smart bombs, including 500 "bunker busters" that can destroy six-foot concrete walls, such as those that might be found in Iranian nuclear facilities.

Military and strategic analysts in Israel and abroad say even with the new weaponry, Israel lacks the ability to carry out a successful strike against Iran's nuclear installations.

The article never even hints that, conversely, Iran has no real hope of being able to destroy Israel's long-established nuclear weapons program either.

Catastrophic Sovereignty

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. jets pounded suspected Shiite militant positions in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City on Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 40. Elsewhere, insurgents detonated two car bombs, killing seven members of the National Guard in the latest attacks targeting Iraq's beleaguered security forces.

It's probably not in the definition, but it seems as though a nation might be said not to possess full sovereignty when it's capital city is being bombed by a foreign power daily and that power has 130,000 troops occupying the country.

Saturday is new billboard day!!!

The Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace has rented two billboards for October:

On I-94 near Belleville Road, visible to westbound traffic.

US-23 near Whitmore Lake Road, visible to southbound traffic.

Loved by all in Iraq

"Riverbend," the Iraqi woman who writes the blog Baghdad Burning, is not a big fan of our pResident, nor his Iraqi stooge:

I prepared myself for several minutes of nausea as Bush began speaking. He irritates me like no one else can. Imagine long nails across a chalk board, Styrofoam being rubbed in hands, shrieking babies, barking dogs, grinding teeth, dripping faucets, honking horns all together, all at once and you will imagine the impact his voice has on my ears.

She's right about the styrofoam. Eeewww! She continues:

You know things are really going downhill in Iraq, when the Bush speech-writers have to recycle his old speeches. Listening to him yesterday, one might think he was simply copying and pasting bits and pieces from the older stuff. My favorite part was when he claimed, "Electricity has been restored above pre-war levels..." Even E. had to laugh at that one. A few days ago, most of Baghdad was in the dark for over 24 hours and lately, on our better days, we get about 12 hours of electricity. Bush got it wrong (or Allawi explained it to incorrectly)- the electricity is drastically less than pre-war levels, but the electricity BILL is way above pre-war levels. Congratulations Iraqis on THAT!! Our electricity bill was painful last month. Before the war, Iraqis might pay an average of around 5,000 Iraqi Dinars a month for electricity (the equivalent back then of $2.50) - summer or winter. Now, it's quite common to get bills above 70,000 Iraqi Dinars... for half-time electricity.
...
I can't seem to decide what is worse- when Bush speaks in the name of Iraqi people, or when Allawi does. Yesterday's speech was particularly embarrassing. He stood there groveling in front of the congress- thanking them for the war, the occupation and the thousands of Iraqi lives lost... and he did it all on behalf of the Iraqi people.
...
Allawi actually said "thank you" nine times. Nine times. It really should have been more- at least double that number of Iraqis died yesterday... and about five times that number the day before. Looking back on the last month alone, over 350 Iraqis have been killed either by American air strikes, fighting, or bombs... only 9 thank yous?

The elections are already a standard joke. There's talk of holding elections only in certain places where it will be 'safe' to hold them. One wonders what exactly comprises 'safe' in Iraq today. Does 'safe' mean the provinces that are seeing fewer attacks on American troops? Or does 'safe' mean the areas where the abduction of foreigners isn't occurring? Or could 'safe' mean the areas that *won't* vote for an Islamic republic and *will* vote for Allawi? Who will be allowed to choose these places? Right now, Baghdad is quite unsafe. We see daily abductions, killings, bombings and Al-Sadr City, slums of Baghdad, see air strikes... will they hold elections in Baghdad? Imagine, Bush being allowed to hold elections in 'safe' areas- like Texas and Florida.

Yeah. Imagine.

Why did Jeanne kill 2000 in Haiti?

Kevin Pina has one of the reasons. Excerpt:

One of the first victims of the campaign of political reprisals the population met upon suspected Aristide supporters, under the direction of the "freedom fighters" in Gonaives, was the destruction of the Biwo Pwoteksyon Civil or Civil Protection Office. This politically benign institution had been established in cooperation with the local municipal government by grants provided by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and administered through the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF). PADF's own website confirms this, "PADF's emergency response and reconstruction efforts are complemented by community training in disaster preparedness. Mitigation training promotes the development of civil action plans that enable communities to identify priorities and reinforce key infrastructure. Last year, 23 local civil protection committees were formed and over 5,000 people were trained in disaster awareness, leading to safer communities." Unfortunately, with the first disaster of the destruction of constitutional authority in Haiti, ushered in by Washington, Paris and Ottawa, all of those hard earned tax dollars USAID invested in preparing for the type of calamity that just hit Haiti were wasted as well.

It is exactly this type of disaster in northern Haiti that USAID and PADF's programs were set up to manage. There were components that monitored incoming tropical storms and provided an advanced warning and preparedness network designed to plan a response BEFORE disaster struck. Plans included advising communities in advance of approaching storms and preparing for them by storing large supplies of drinking water, food, medical supplies and portable tents for those displaced from their homes. When Tropical storm Jeanne hit these structures no longer existed and all of the trained and competent participants in the program had long been driven out of the area and their offices pillaged and burned. No where was this more evident than in Gonaives where many associated with the Aristide government and his Lavalas party, were reportedly dragged through the streets and burned alive.

Instead of reasserting control of the State and rebuilding the necessary infrastructure that was destroyed following the coup of February 29th, Latortue followed a policy of benign neglect and accommodation with thugs in the region that has led to needless death and suffering in the wake of Tropical Storm Jeanne. In all fairness, the fault does not lie exclusively with the US-installed government. The Bush administration shoulders much of the blame for the current situation with an ill-conceived regime change that has replaced what they considered a failed state with an even more failed state.

Sprawl Kills

From AP:

A report to be released Monday found that people who live in areas with a high degree of sprawl are more likely to report chronic health problems such as high blood pressure, arthritis, headaches and breathing difficulties compared to residents in less sprawled-out areas.

The differences remained even when researchers accounted for factors such as age, economic status and race.

"People who live in more sprawling areas are more likely to have chronic health problems over time," said Roland Sturm, co-author of the report by Rand Corp., a nonprofit research group. "People drive more in these areas, they walk less."

Researchers said the findings suggest that an adult who lives in a sprawling city such as Atlanta, Georgia, will have health characteristics similar to someone four years older, but otherwise similar, who lives in a more compact city like Seattle, Washington.

Hurricane Jimmy hits Florida

Our best ex-president ever takes on the ongoing scandal of the Florida election system:

The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair.
...
some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida.

The most significant of these requirements are:

• A nonpartisan electoral commission or a trusted and nonpartisan official who will be responsible for organizing and conducting the electoral process before, during and after the actual voting takes place.
...
• Uniformity in voting procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their social or financial status, have equal assurance that their votes are cast in the same way and will be tabulated with equal accuracy. Modern technology is already in use that makes electronic voting possible, with accurate and almost immediate tabulation and with paper ballot printouts so all voters can have confidence in the integrity of the process. There is no reason these proven techniques, used overseas and in some U.S. states, could not be used in Florida.

It was obvious that in 2000 these basic standards were not met in Florida, and there are disturbing signs that once again, as we prepare for a presidential election, some of the state's leading officials hold strong political biases that prevent necessary reforms.

Four years ago, the top election official, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign committee. The same strong bias has become evident in her successor, Glenda Hood, who was a highly partisan elector for George W. Bush in 2000. Several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities in 2000, and a fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons.
...
Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, naturally a strong supporter of his brother, has taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future.

It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation. It is especially objectionable among us Americans, who have prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure democracy. With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida.

-- Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed from today's Washington Post.

Another great quote

I don't think that Iraq will have a perfect election.

And if I recall looking back at our own election four years ago it wasn't perfect either.

-- General John Abizaid, on NBC's Meet the Press yesterday, via Liberal Oasis.

I never realized how thoughtful we are here in America: Lowering our electoral standards so that Ir