Left I on the News  

North Korean Nukes

"The United States is preparing to significantly raise its estimate of the number of nuclear weapons held by North Korea, from 'possibly two' to at least eight, according to US officials involved in the preparation of a report. Specialists said an arsenal of eight weapons indicates that North Korea could use its weapons to attack neighbors, instead of merely deterring a possible attack."

Of course, the idea is preposterous in any case. Why North Korea would be able to attack South Korea with eight nuclear weapons, instead of just two, is completely beyond me, begging entirely the question of what possible benefit they could hope to derive from such an attack. And, whether two or eight, isn't it clear that if they did do such a thing, the United States would drop a hundred nuclear bombs on North Korea and "bomb them back to the Stone Age," to use the famous words of Curtis LeMay?

The fact, of course, is that if there is any attack launched in conjunction with North Korea, the odds are 1000-1 that it will be launched by the United States, not by North Korea. And as if to prove that, consider this statement today from Democratic "liberal" John Kerry:

"Today's report that North Korea has significantly increased its nuclear weapons capability under this administration's watch underscores how their failed policies have made America less safe. Even after the North Koreans made their intentions clear over a year ago by ejecting international nuclear inspectors, the administration dithered and blustered while Kim Jong Il has reportedly quadrupled his nuclear arsenal.

"There is simply no excuse for the administration's continued unwillingness to take realistic steps to address this growing threat. While President Bush has said he's running out of patience with the North Koreans, we are running out of patience with his complete lack of progress in getting the North Koreans to disarm. It is past time for the administration to put aside its failed approach and engage in meaningful negotiations that will lead to a comprehensive resolution of the North Korean nuclear crisis."

North Korea is not a threat to Americans. George Bush, John Kerry, and the gang of power-mad lunatics in charge of the United States are.

From Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib

"A former head of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba has been sent to Iraq to ensure proper prison conditions, after photos apparently showed U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, the military said on Friday."

"Controversy has also surrounded the Guantanamo camp because terror suspects have been held there with no charges or legal representation. Photos of detainees shackled and being forced to kneel in chain link cages sparked international outrage."

Left I and Al Franken on the same wavelength

"State sponsors of terrorism"

The report makes for interesting reading. Here's some of the key "evidence" which causes Cuba to be labelled a "state sponsor of terrorism":

"Cuba remained opposed to the US-led Coalition prosecuting the global war on terrorism and actively condemned many associated US policies and actions throughout 2003. Government-controlled press reporting about US-led military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were consistently critical of the United States and frequently and baselessly alleged US involvement in violations of human rights. Government propaganda claimed that those fighting for self-determination or against foreign occupation are exercising internationally recognized rights and cannot be accused of terrorism. Cuba's delegate to the UN said terrorism cannot be defined as including acts by legitimate national liberation movements -- even though many such groups clearly employ tactics that intentionally target innocent civilians to advance their political, religious, or social agendas. In referring to US policy toward Cuba, the delegate asserted, 'acts by states to destabilize other states is a form of terrorism.'"

"The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987. Although it is a party to six international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, Pyongyang has not taken substantial steps to cooperate in efforts to combat international terrorism."

"Terrorism" deaths falling?

But hey. Deaths from "terrorism" are down.

Bravo Robert Byrd

"Seven hundred and twenty-two American lives have been lost. Unknown thousands of Iraqis are dead.

"Deaths and casualties of Iraqi civilians are in the thousands, but an actual number cannot be obtained. Is it any wonder that Iraqis see us, not as liberators, but as crusaders and conquerors? A growing number of Iraqis see us as we would see foreign troops on the streets of Chicago, New York, Washington, or any small town in America. Surely one can understand the hatred brewing in Iraq when we see the agony of an Iraqi family that has lost a loved one due to an errant bomb or bullet."

Unfortunately, Sen. Byrd still has to open his eyes a bit further. Consider this impassioned paragraph:

"How long will America continue to pay the price in blood and treasure of this President's war? How long must the best of our nation's military men and women be taken from their homes to fight this unnecessary war in Iraq? How long must our National Guardsmen be taken from their communities to fight and die in the hot sands in Iraq? How long must the fathers and mothers see their sons and daughters die in a far away land because of President Bush's doctrine of preemptive attack? How long must little children across our land go to sleep at night crying for a daddy or mother far away who may never come home?"

The U.S. occupation of the Philippines

"A U.S. general told Congress that Filipinos who wanted freedom had 'no more idea of its meaning than a shepherd dog.'

"President McKinley said he spent many sleepless nights agonizing about the Philippines until God told him to keep the islands and 'uplift and civilize and Christianize them.' The President called his program 'benevolent assimilation.' The influential San Franciso Argonaut was more candid: 'We do not want the Filipinos. We want the Philippines. The islands are enormously rich, but unfortunately, they are infested with Filipinos.'

"General William Shafter told a journalist it might be necessary to kill half the population to bring 'perfect justice' to the other half. After General Jack Smith promised to turn the Philippines into a 'howling wilderness' most casualties were civilians. Smith defined the foe as any male or female 'ten years and up,' and told his soldiers: 'I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn the better it will please me.'

"U.S. officers encouraged the use of torture, murder of prisoners, and massacre of villagers, including women and children. A Kansas soldier wrote 'The country won't be pacified until the niggers are killed off like the Indians.' Another white soldier reported brutal 'sights you could hardly believe' and he reached this conclusion: 'A white man seems to forget that he is human.'

"The U.S. had entered a quagmire. 'The Filipino masses are loyal to Aguinaldo and the government he leads,' conceeded U.S. General Arthur MacArthur. He thought the foe 'needed bayonet treatment for at least a decade.'

"By 1902 U.S. Senate hearings and scores of Army court martial trials found that U.S. occupying forces were guilty of 'war crimes.' General Robert Hughes admitted he ordered the burning of villages and murder of women and children. When asked by a Senator if this was 'civilized warfare,' he answered, 'these people are not civilized.'

"President Teddy Roosevelt followed McKinley to the White House and continued to justify the occupation, dismiss Filipinos as 'Chinese half-breeds,' and to insist this was 'the most glorious war in our nation's history.'"

Quote of the Day

"This 'stay the course' idea is wonderful except the course is leading us over Niagara Falls."

- Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command

Battling flags

"'What gives these people the right to throw away our flag, to change the symbol of Iraq?' asked Salah, a building contractor of normally moderate political opinions. 'It makes me very angry because these people were appointed by the Americans. I will not regard the new flag as representing me but only traitors and collaborators.'"

"Already anti-US guerrillas are adopting the old red, white and black banner as their battle flag, tying it to their trucks and sticking it in the ground where they have their positions. This blend of nationalism and religion has proved highly successful in spreading resistance to the occupation."

Time flies

April 2: "A U.S. general vowed an 'overwhelming' response to the murder and mutilation of four American contractors. 'We will pacify that city. ... It will be at the time and place of our choosing,' Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said."

April 6: "U.S. Marines established control Tuesday over portions of this volatile city, following two days and nights of resistance by insurgents. By early Tuesday, one Marine regiment had taken control of a large industrial zone in the southeast quarter of Fallujah, and a second regiment was operating on the north side. 'We are solidly ensconced in the city, and my units are stiffening their grip,' said Lt. Col. Brennan T. Byrne."

April 28: The marines still control the industrial zone and nothing more.

Followup: (Spoke too soon!) April 29: "A new agreement aimed at ending the three-week long siege of Fallujah was announced Thursday under which a force of former Iraqi soldiers and commanders will be mustered into a 'Fallujah Protection Army' and replace U.S. Marines in and around the embattled city. [Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne] said the new army will assume positions from the Marines, taking over the cordon around the city. They will also mount an operation to apprehend or kill insurgents holed up in Fallujah, he said."

Sure they will. And arresting the people who were responsible for burning and hanging the bodies of the dead CINOs, which was the original motivation for the attack on Fallujah? They're no longer even talking about that.

How desperate are the American forces to pull back? This turnover to Iraqi forces comes one day after this story: "A second unit of the Iraqi armed forces has mutinied at Fallujah after being involved in heavy fighting with insurgents."

More followup: This really would be an amazing development, if true. Three days ago the U.S. was claiming they were about to begin "joint patrols" with the Iraqis. Two days ago they announced that they changed their minds because the "Iraqis weren't ready." And now today they're ready to turn the whole thing over to the Iraqis! I say "if true" because now CNN is reporting that this plan is being retracted (or denied). The only certain thing is that the U.S. continues to drop bombs on Fallujah, and, of course, kill more Iraqis.

Freedom of speech...but please, not too loud

"An anti-war group planning a massive demonstration at the start of the Republican National Convention in Manhattan has been denied a permit to rally in Central Park because the crowd would be too large."

Exit strategy

The Gaza "pullout"

Bush, Cheney and the 9-11 Commission

:"The White House said on Tuesday that there would be no recording or formal transcription of the historic joint interview of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney by the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The interview, to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday at the White House, will be recorded by two note takers, one from the White House. Under a pact with the White House that allowed all its 10 members in the interview, the commission is permitted to take a note taker, but not a recording device. The panel said it did not press for a formal transcription of the session, letting the White House decide."

Homeland security

So how's it going? Well, here are three items from today's news:

Item 1: "California state parks, the nation's largest park system, trimmed the number of seasonal lifeguards for the third consecutive year. The department also warned there will be fewer lifeguards at state beaches, lakes and reservoirs this year, though drowning is the leading cause of accidental death in state parks. The cuts come as park attendance is increasing. Last year, park lifeguards rescued a record 10,539 people."

Item 2: "The military is demanding two Sierra Nevada ski resorts return howitzers used for avalanche control, saying the weapons are needed by troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain, under a loan from the U.S. Army, began using five howitzers last year to clear the slopes of avalanche hazards before skiers arrive. The howitzers, fired into snow-covered mountainsides, trigger avalanches while the slopes are empty."

Item 3: "After more than two years of providing round-the-clock security on the Golden Gate Bridge, state National Guard troops are set to leave the landmark on Friday, bridge district officials report. Watching over the more than 116,000 vehicles and hundreds of pedestrians and bicyclists that traverse the bridge each day was costing the guard about $5 million annually."

So swimmers, skiers, and people who drive into or out of San Francisco are now less safe, for want of a few million dollars. In the meantime, more than a thousand times that amount are being spent every month by the U.S. military in Iraq which, by the way, is also making the people of the United States less safe day by day. Quite a deal!

The Donald explains the process of democracy in Iraq

Barbara Starr, CNN: "After June 30, are you in agreement to rule [Ahmad Chalabi] out as a member of the interim government?"

Donald Rumsfeld: "We're not in a position of ruling people in or ruling people out and have no intention to. Clearly, there is a vetting process that's taking place by the United Nations representative Mr. Brahimi, and by the Iraqi people [!!!], and by the Iraqi Governing Council, and certainly the the [?] Americans. And they all look at these people and at some point there will be consensus developed in a manner possibly not dissimilar from that we saw in Afghanistan, where there may be some meetings, whether they're public or formal as opposed to informal or not. But their names will be up and someone will rise to the top and somebodies, plural, undoubtedly, given the nature of the country, and that then will be the interim government for a period until the constitution is fashioned and elections are held sometime next year or the year after [!!]."

[Exchange transcribed by Left I from a live press conference this morning]

The hidden cost of war

"While attention remains riveted on the rising count of Americans killed in action -- more than 100 so far in April -- doctors at the main combat support hospital in Iraq are reeling from a stream of young soldiers with wounds so devastating that they probably would have been fatal in any previous war.

"More and more in Iraq, combat surgeons say, the wounds involve severe damage to the head and eyes -- injuries that leave soldiers brain damaged or blind, or both, and the doctors who see them first struggling against despair.

"The neurosurgeons at the 31st Combat Support Hospital measure the damage in the number of skulls they remove to get to the injured brain inside, a procedure known as a craniotomy. 'We've done more in eight weeks than the previous neurosurgery team did in eight months,' Poffenbarger said.

"About half the [900 so far in April] wounded troops have suffered injuries light enough that they were able to return to duty after treatment, according to the Pentagon.

"The others arrive on stretchers at the hospitals operated by the 31st CSH. 'These injuries,' said Lt. Col. Stephen M. Smith, executive officer of the Baghdad facility, 'are horrific.'

"'Three or four months from now 50 to 60 percent will be functional and doing things," said Maj. Richard Gullick. 'Functional,' he said, means 'up and around, but with pretty significant disabilities,' including paralysis.

"The remaining 40 percent to 50 percent of patients include those whom the surgeons send to Europe, and on to the United States, with no prospect of regaining consciousness. The practice, subject to review after gathering feedback from families, assumes that loved ones will find value in holding the soldier's hand before confronting the decision to remove life support."

Quote of the Day

"At first I was angry and upset, but then I realized that it wouldn't make a difference. The Puppets are illegitimate, hence their constitution is null and void and their flag is theirs alone. It is as representative of Iraq as they are - it might as well have 'Made in America' stitched along the inside seam."

New album from Patti Smith

Smith's collection album, Land, released in 2002, is one of the great albums of all time. A must-have for any serious music fan, with one powerful song after another.

Followup: Cursor steers me to a new interview with Smith on the occasion of the release of the new album. Here's one quote: "When I was writing these songs I was thinking about the disenfranchised. And I realised that what has happened is that the disenfranchised have become a majority, not a minority. It is really those global concerns - rather than any personal ones - that I wanted to express on this album."

More followup: The new album is available at the iTunes music store.

Joint patrols in Fallujah

Jaw-dropping news from California

Tax amnesty reels in $1 billion
"Californians who dodged taxes by hiding their money in questionable tax shelters have coughed up more than $1 billion under the state's just-ended amnesty.

"Fewer than 900 taxpayers tried to protect their money from taxes, but that equaled roughly 2 1/2 percent of all the personal and corporate income taxes that the state will collect.

"The 296 corporate taxpayers tallied so far include companies in the oil and gas industry, financial services, retailing and even some large accounting firms. The average check from corporations is $1.3 million, but the uncounted number of companies with Bay Area ties each paid at least $25 million.

"The average check from individual taxpayers was $1.2 million, but some paid much more. So far, an unidentified Atherton taxpayer holds the Bay Area record with a check for $8.7 million." [Looking at that statistic differently, a sidebar to the article notes that $654 million was paid by 568 individuals]

"You begin to wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg. It does make you wonder whether there is large-scale cheating going on by some very wealthy and privileged individuals on these kinds of tax shelters.''

ElectionWatch

Followup: Actually this is even stranger than I thought. Watch the latest Bush ad (which is the one I saw on TV) on their website. It actually doesn't say "soft on defense" at all. What it says is "John Kerry has repeatedly opposed weapons vital to winning the war on terror." Among those weapons? Stealth bombers! Gee, I wasn't aware that there were any terrorists in the world who had such sophisticated anti-aircraft defenses that one would need stealth bombers to attack them. The whole ad is, of course, just one more part of trying to convince the American people that the invasion of Iraq was part of the so-called "war on terror."

The funniest thing on the Bush website, however, appears immediately below the anti-Kerry video. In a list of "latest headlines," the top item (as I write this) reads: "Winning the War on Terror Tour kicks off"! Not to be confused with the Madonna "Reinvention" Tour or the Britney Spears Onyx Hotel Tour. Will they have nice black T-shirts with the tour stops on the back, I wonder?

NASCAR values?

Life (and death) in Fallujah

"As soon as we arrive and begin unloading the patients, the hospital staff tell us there is a pregnant woman in premature labor who needs to be brought from her house. And so we are off again, to another part of town. This time there is no warning from the driver, only a rifle crack as U.S. snipers open fire on our ambulance.

"The bullets pierce the walls of the vehicle above our heads. Thank God I'm on the floor. Another shooter blows out our headlights, and I hear the Brit, who is in the front seat, scream as pieces of engine spray into the cabin. Then they take out our front tires.

"It is madness. We are in a clearly marked ambulance, with a flashing, noisy siren, and they are shooting at us. We in the back huddle on the floor, clutching each other like lovers as another bullet rips into the engine. The driver throws the vehicle into reverse, hitting a curb at tremendous speed and taking out the rear tires. We screech back to the hospital on rims alone."

March for Women's Lives

Whatever the exact size, it appears virtually certain that this was the largest march ever in the history of the United States. Isn't that big news? Evidently not. The New York Times describes the march as "the first large-scale abortion rights demonstration here in 12 years." The Washington Post goes one step further, describing the march as "the largest abortion rights gathering in history." They do quote Kim Gandy, President of NOW, describing the march as "the largest march of any kind in this country," but the Post doesn't endorse that claim, evidently. They do report that "some veteran [police] commanders said the crowd was at least the biggest since the 1995 Million Man March, which independent researchers put at 870,000 people." Much later in the article, the Post reports this rather convincing fact, which didn't appear in other accounts of the march:

"Organizers announced yesterday afternoon that they had surpassed a million marchers, reaching that conclusion after they said they had passed out more than a million stickers. Alice Cohan, the march director, said 2,500 trained volunteers were given stickers -- reading 'count me in' -- that they pasted on people as they got off buses or entered the march area."

It gets worse. USA Today, at least the online version, doesn't carry the story at all, at least not on its front page and not on its news page. Watching local TV news last night (ABC), this was about the seventh story, distinctly underplayed, with a significant amount of coverage for the few hundred counterdemostrations. 300 compared to 1.15 million is 0.025%. The percentage of people who vote socialist in U.S. elections is significantly larger than that - have you ever seen them mentioned in stories on U.S. elections? Not bloody likely.

The largest march in U.S. history. I'll even go for "probably the largest march in U.S. history" or "thought to be the largest march in U.S. history." Doesn't that warrant top of the fold coverage in the papers and lead story coverage on TV? Evidently not.

Followup: A day later, what's the biggest story on cable news? The ramification of this huge march for women's rights? Even the ramification of the march for the Presidential election? No, the big news is whether John Kerry threw away his medals or just the ribbons to the medals more than 30 years ago. Yesterday's events? No longer relevant, if they ever were.

More followup: Well, I did find one online newspaper which led with this story as the most important story of the day under the headline "More than one million women protest Bush’s conservative policies" - Granma International

Those wacky press spokespeople

But the funniest moment came when a reporter said something like, "Since there isn't any significant progress in the Fallujah negotiations, how long before you go in?" To which Kimmitt replied, "I have to take issue with your question. There's been lots of progress in the negotiations, unfortunately it's all been on one side." Would someone please get this man a dictionary? Surely someone who can afford to employ a professional sign maker in the middle of a war can afford one of those.

Israel & Palestine; Bush & Kerry

Quote of the (Yester)Day

"The new administration seems to be paying no attention to the problem of terrorism. What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, 'Oh, my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this?'"

- Paul "Jerry" Bremer (currently acting Iraqi dictator), speaking in early 2001 shortly after the Bush administration had taken office

The not-so-hidden cost of war

"An Army sergeant from Sheffield Lake who recently returned from Iraq allegedly drowned his wife in the bathtub of their West Coast apartment on Wednesday."

"His family said yesterday that James Pitts underwent a 'horrible change' while in Iraq. He visited them in Sheffield Lake for several days last week, but they soon became uncomfortable and asked him to leave, Brittany Pitts said.

"'He came back and all he talked about was death and killing people and how it didn't bother him because he did it for so long in Iraq,' Brittany Pitts said. 'Me and my husband were scared, we all were. He would say things like - 'I could kill you and no one would ever hear it.''

"According to the charges filed yesterday, investigators asked Pitts if he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of being deployed in Iraq. Pitts said, according to the documents, 'That's for people who are weak minded.'"

Guerrilla warfare

"Urban-bag designer Tom Bihn's sales have doubled since a French-language presidential insult mysteriously made its way onto the bilingual washing instructions for hundreds of his laptop bags and backpacks.

"The labels read: 'Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui.' ('We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him.')"

[Editor's stylistic note: In this, and in many posts referring to events in Latin America, I always eliminate any accent marks (along with smart quotes, em dashes, and other things like that), because they cause problems on some browsers and appear as strange symbols. I prefer to have the story appear nearly correct on all browsers, rather than absolutely correct on most and look really bad on some. I am aware, as are the editors of the paper in which this particular story appeared, that desoles has two (or should that be "deux"?) accent aigus on it, and that vote has another one. Unfortunately, unlike the German u with an umlaut which can be rendered alternatively as "ue", there is no substitute for other accent marks (to my knowledge, anyway).]

The coalition of the pressured

"The Ministry of Defence is resisting US pressure on Britain to extend its sphere of military influence in Iraq to some of the most violent parts of the country, including the capital Baghdad."

Sovereignty

First, this:

"The United States wants to limit the sovereignty of the temporary Iraqi government scheduled to take power July 1 by denying it the authority to pass new laws, Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday."

"Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Grossman made clear to the House and Senate Armed Services committees earlier this week that U.S. military commanders will continue to exercise final authority over not only the 160,000 U.S. and coalition troops, but also all Iraqi police, security and army units."

"Yesterday, Grossman hinted at other limitations on Iraqi authority as he disclosed that a supplement to the well-publicized transition administrative law is being drafted and will spell out just where the new government can and cannot operate." [Note - the American government will determine wherethe Iraqi government can and cannot operate].

"Grossman said, however, that 'in many, many, many other parts of Iraqi life, there will be a very important Iraqi face on an Iraqi government.'"

Three simple questions

The U.S. government says their policy of not allowing pictures of flag-draped coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq to be photographed is to "protect their privacy rights." How exactly could someone's "privacy" be violated when we see pictures of coffins when we don't even know who's inside? Even if just one coffin was pictured and we knew exactly who that person was, how would even that violate their "privacy" rights? By the time their coffin returns to the United States, the dead person's name will have been published in the paper, on various web sites, and shown on CNN. Showing pictures of a family weeping at graveside would definitely violate their privacy. But pictures of coffins being unloaded from planes?

And a final question - why does the U.S. government think that dead people have rights, but they don't acknowledge that the hundreds of living people imprisoned in Guantanamo and Bagram and elsewhere, and the tens of thousands imprisoned in Iraq at Abu Ghraib and other prisons have any rights?

Followup: Looks like I have to add a fourth question. Referring to the 350+ photographs of flag-draped coffins that were released to the Memory Hole website, the military spokesperson on TV said that it was a mistake, and that "those pictures were never meant to be made public." Really? What exactly were they made for, then? George Bush's private viewing pleasure? If a picture is taken of a tree falling in the forest, and no one looks at the picture, did it make a sound? (Huh?)

Human (wind)shields

The story hasn't yet appeared in the Western press (no surprise there):

"Four arrestees, including a 12 year-old boy, Rabbis for Human Rights Executive Director Rabbi Arik Ascherman, an additional Palestinian and an ISM activist, were used as human shields in Bido yesterday, Thursday, April 15. After local Palestinians and Israeli activists saw a young boy being beaten by border police, the boy's mother sent a Palestinian man to try and help him and Rabbi Ascherman also approached the police. Both were arrested, along with a Swedish ISM activist.

"The boy, crying, shaking from fear and eventually cold, was sat on the hood of a jeep and tied to the bars protecting the glass. The other three arrestees were bound and placed in front of a second jeep. After the arrests, local Palestinians began throwing stones, a number of them hitting the jeeps. The unit commander was Shahar Yitzhaki.

"Rabbi Ascherman repeatedly requested over the next few hours that they not be used as human shields, that the boy receive medical attention, and that the officers identify themselves. He also asked to lend his coat to the child and to stand in front of the child to protect him from stones. All these requests were met with physical and verbal threats, orders to 'shut up,' and/or derision.

"'He was a shield for them,' Saeed Badwan, a 34-year-old labourer, said of his only son. 'When I saw him on the hood of the jeep, my whole mind went crazy...It's a picture you can't even imagine. He was shivering from fear.'"

Connections

"[Ahmed] Chalabi's nephew Salem has been put in charge of the trial of Saddam Hussein. Salem is a partner in Zell and Feith, a Jerusalem-based law firm headed by a West Bank settler, in which Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of Defense for Planning, is also a senior partner when not in the US government."

Condo-lie-zza talks to Republicans and Democrats...separately

"National security adviser Condoleezza Rice made a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Thursday, answering 'question after question after question' about the troubled Iraq campaign, one lawmaker said of the closed-door session.

"Rice fielded questions from Republicans for more than an hour and was to meet later in the day with Democrats."

That trusting Al Franken

As Left I on the News has discussed on more than one occasion, there were countless people (including Left I) who saw right through Powell's exercise in misleading the world on the day it was delivered; it really didn't take that much perception to do so, frankly. Just the willingness to open your eyes.

Anonymous sources

The administration speaketh, the press publisheth

In related news, the "administration" said today that "up is down" and "black is white." The Washington Post dutifully reported their assertions.

"Casualties" back in the news

To be honest, while the BBC was guilty of inadequate defense of the English language, at least (today, anyway) they aren't guilty of hypocrisy. Their story on the crash in North Korea manages to avoid the word "casualties" altogether.

Fired for telling showing the truth

The story which reports this news notes that "Under a policy adopted in 1991, the Pentagon bars news organizations from photographing caskets being returned to the United States, saying publication of such photos would be insensitive to bereaved families." However, "policies" of the Pentagon are not laws, and furthermore an individual is not a "news organization." My guess is that Ms. Silicio and Mr. Landry have strong cases for unlawful termination. What will be interesting will be to see if any news organizations, or any politicians, come to their defense. We shall see.

The coalition of the somewhat willing

"Tony Blair has ruled out sending more British troops to Iraq despite the worsening security situation. The Prime Minister told the Commons yesterday that the Government was satisfied there were sufficient troops in Basra. 'We don't have plans to increase that number,' he said."

Quote of the Day

"[The US simply should not expect] to be paid back, to receive anything for eliminating a policy that was never morally, legally or politically justified. The only thing that you will get in exchange of the elimination of that policy is that we will cease denouncing that policy."

Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation

"Intense combat in Iraq is chewing up military hardware and consuming money at an unexpectedly rapid rate -- depleting military coffers, straining defense contractors and putting pressure on Bush administration officials to seek a major boost in war funding long before they had hoped.

"Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, charged that the president is playing political games by postponing further funding requests until after the election, to try to avoid reopening debate on the war's cost and future.

"Weldon described the administration's current defense budget request as 'outrageous' and 'immoral' and said that at least $10 billion is needed for Iraqi operations over the next five months. 'There needs to be a supplemental, whether it's a presidential election year or not,' he said."

Followup: As if to illustrate my point, in this morning's news the University of California system breaks a 40-year promise (and practice) to admit all eligible California students by rejecting 7600 students. "Not enough money," you know. "We just can't afford it." And for those of you who are thinking these students weren't "really" qualified, and that U.C. has been admitting students who didn't "deserve" to be there anyway, here are some facts: "one of [the] rejected students has a 3.9 grade point average and a score of 1,210 out of a possible 1,600 on the SAT. [The] average grade point average [of the rejected students was] 3.46 [out of 4.0]."

A small victory for justice

"Five Cuban exiles who had been accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro were sentenced Tuesday to seven to eight years in prison.

"Luis Posada Carriles and the other men were arrested after Castro announced a plot to kill him during an Ibero-American summit here in November 2000, though Panamanian courts ruled there was not enough evidence to accuse the men of attempted murder.

"Posada, accused of being the ringleader, and Jimenez were sentenced to eight years for endangering public safety and falsifying documents, the Supreme Court said. The five were exonerated of the most serious charge facing them, possession of explosives.

"Posada was tried and acquitted there [not clear where "there" is] of bombing a Cuban jetliner. He has acknowledged organizing Cuban hotel bombings that killed an Italian tourist and injured 11 other people in 1997."

"Luis Posada Carriles, a notorious anti-Cuba fascist responsible for the bombing deaths of scores of people, was captured Nov. 17 along with three accomplices after infiltrating Panama in an attempt to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro.

"The revolutionary government in Havana has called for Posada's extradition to face trial for his many crimes against Cuba. But the U.S. government is pressuring Panama not to do it. [Note: the pressure was successful; the trial was finally held in Panama]

"Posada is a well-known CIA operative. He contracted two Venezuelan men to place a bomb on a Cubana Airlines plane departing from Barbados in 1976. The bomb destroyed the plane in flight, killing 73 people, including the Cuban national fencing team.

"Posada was convicted in Venezuela for his role in the bombing. But he managed to 'escape' from a prison there in 1985. [Note that the AP claim that Posada was acquitted of this crime is false]

"Castro, who had just arrived in Panama City's airport for the Tenth Ibero-American Summit on Adolescents and Children, made an immediate declaration to the press announcing Posada's presence in Panama. Castro revealed that Posada sneaked into Panama on Nov. 5 with false papers and an array of weapons and explosives.

"On Nov. 21, in the third roundtable devoted to the case on Cuban television, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque revealed the identities, addresses, occupations and other vital data on each of Posada's accomplices, including everal who have so far eluded capture. He listed the cars they were driving in Panama, the routes they took and the weapons they possessed.

"Six of the eight are Cuban-born, he said. Four are now U.S. citizens living in the Miami area.

"About 20 pounds of C-4 explosives belonging to the terrorist gang were found in the house of Jose Hurtado, Posada's driver. [Note that it was Cuban anti-terrorist 'spying' of the type which produced this kind of information, that resulted in the conviction of five Cuban heroes for 'spying' in the United States]

"After 15 months of investigation of this latest crime, it seems that Panamanian prosecutor Dimas Guevara doesn't think several boxes of the powerful C-4 explosive are enough to warrant murderous intent. According to Granma International newspaper, Guevara concluded, 'Among the charges established was the possession of a dangerous high explosive that would be used for a specific purpose, but the detonating fuse wasn't found. That's why we couldn't charge them with attempted homicide.' [!! Does that mean no one can ever be charged with murder if the murder weapon isn't found?]"

Coalition of the fleeing, part II

"The Dominican Republic has announced it will withdraw its 302 troops from Iraq within a matter of days." (Source)

By the way, it was just earlier today that we heard this:

"The White House said on Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq was stable despite plans by Spain and Honduras to withdraw their troops."

And once again, we read:

"The White House hopes to secure a new United Nations resolution for Iraq that would help encourage other nations to help with security and rebuilding."

Condi's slip?

"I think that we do have to take very seriously the thought that the terrorists might have learned, we hope, the wrong lesson from Spain."

FCC Alert

Bush Campaign Spent $50 Million in March

Wishful thinking, part II

"'The problem of Sadr is bigger than Sadr. It is the whole Shiite community and the holy shrine,' [Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq] said. 'We have just about eliminated all his influence across the south.'" (Source)

Sovereignty

1. Supremacy of authority or rule as exercised by a sovereign or sovereign state.
2. Royal rank, authority, or power.
3. Complete independence and self-government.
4. A territory existing as an independent state.

Really! Who knew? So the Cuban government could declare that the prisoners should go free and the U.S. government would obey, right? The Cuban government could declare that the U.S. was no longer welcome in Cuba and the Americans would just vacate the base in Guantanamo, right? I mean, do they have "supremacy of authority or rule" or not?

I think we all know the answer.

The marriage amendment

Many people might be under the impression that this is a small group, and, as far as the number of married couples involved, it probably is. But transsexuals are a lot more than just the "T" thrown in at the end of the phrase "LGBT." According to the Mercury News, "there are an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 transsexuals living in California." That's a lot of people.

War means killing

But in two articles recently, the Los Angeles Times gives us a little more of the reality of war, and the mentality of at least some of the American soldiers who are fighting it.

"'I was in a full adrenaline rush,' said Pfc. Ian Barton, 19, of Reno. 'Nothing else mattered. I wanted to kill something. After the first few minutes, I started to have fun with it.' Thomas, his platoon partner, agreed. 'I was smiling,' he recalled.

"For some, the fight whetted an appetite for action. 'I'm ready to go back out again,' Barton said. 'I want to blow up as many as I can.'" (Source)

"Taking a short breather Friday, the 21-year-old Marine corporal explained what it was like to practice his lethal skill in the battle for this city.

"'It's a sniper's dream,' he said in polite, matter-of-fact tones. 'You can go anywhere and there are so many ways to fire at the enemy without him knowing where you are.'

"'Sometimes a guy will go down, and I'll let him scream a bit to destroy the morale of his buddies,' said the Marine corporal. 'Then I'll use a second shot.'" (Source)

Spanish withdrawal

"Sunday, Spain's prime minister ordered the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq as soon as possible, fulfilling a campaign promise made after terrorist bombings that al-Qaeda militants said were reprisal for Spain's support of the war."

The Holocaust

How many people, and especially how many Americans, know the real story of the Holocaust? Eleven million people were killed by Nazi genocidal policies, not six million. Jews were definitely the largest group, but Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs, along with people with physical or mental disabilities, were also targeted (and killed) because of genetics. Others, including Jehovah's Witnesses, gays, dissenting clergy, Communists, and Socialists were killed because of what they thought or did, rather than who they were.

Today an international court ruled that the massacre of up to 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 was an "act of genocide." Did the Nazi actions against groups other than Jews qualify as genocide? You bet they did. Hundreds of thousands of Roma (Gypsies) were killed, along with three million Soviet prisoners of war and nearly two million Poles and other Slavs. Every one of these qualifies as genocide a hundred or a thousand times over.

Will you see these people remembered on "Holocaust Remembrance Day"? Not any place I saw (except, of course, for Left I on the News).

The picture George Bush doesn't want you to see

The picture was taken by Tami Silicio, a soon-to-be-unemployed contract employee from the Seattle area who works the night shift at the cargo terminal, and is published in the Seattle Times. From the man in the foreground in motion, it is clear this was not a carefully staged picture, but most likely a picture she took quickly and probably secretly.

Freedom of the press? Freedom of the grave

"U.S. troops shot to death two employees of U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya on Monday and wounded a third in the central city of Samara, the station said.

"Correspondent Asaad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh were killed. Cameraman Bassem Kamel was wounded 'after American forces opened fire on them while they were performing their duty,' the station announced. (Source)

Powell's aide: "He's pro-war too. Honest."

"A senior aide to Mr. Powell asserted this weekend that the secretary was not as opposed to war as some people presume, no matter what the implications in the book.

"'The portrait of Powell in the Woodward book is pretty consistent with what everybody knows,' the official said. 'We were with the president if we had to do this. We set up an exit ramp for Saddam, and he didn't take it. Powell in the end was very comfortable knowing that.'"

Dept. of Wishful Thinking

"American commanders clearly favor a solution in Najaf that disarms Mr. Sadr's militiamen without requiring American troops to enter the city."

"Fallujah's civic leaders joined American officials Monday in calling for insurgents battling Marines here to surrender their weapons in return for an end to the U.S. siege of the the city."

The coalition of the fleeing

"Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Sunday he had ordered Spanish troops pulled out of the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq as soon as possible."

"The commander of British troops in southern Iraq, Brig Nick Carter, admitted that he would be powerless to prevent the overthrow of Coalition forces if the Shia majority in Basra rose up in rebellion. Brig Carter, of the 20 Armoured Brigade, who has been in Iraq for four months, said British forces would stay in Basra with the consent of local Shia leaders, or not at all."

Unlikely Quote of the Day

In 3 1/2 hours of interviews with Woodward, an assistant managing editor at The Washington Post, Bush said the secret planning was necessary to avoid "enormous international angst and domestic speculation" and that "war is my absolute last option."

Iraqi soldiers revisited

Despite these effusive words of praise, I am forced to note that Goodman fell into the same trap that so many do, referring to the 10,000 Iraqi "civilians" who have died (along with 670 American soldiers). Not only did she omit the 50-100 contractors, and 100+ "coalition" soldiers from other countries, but more importantly (from a numerical standpoint, anyway), she also didn't note the thousands, probably tens of thousands (the number is virtually completely unknown) of Iraqi soldiers who have died as a result of this war, nor the thousands of Iraqi "insurgents" who have died resisting the occupation. And, as I have on previous occasions, Left I on the News is forced to note that Iraqi soldiers (as well as Iraqi insurgents) are people too. They were no more guilty of anything than the "innocent" Iraqi civilians, and no more deserving to die. Defending your country against a foreign invasion, or a foreign occupation, is an honorable thing to do, not something that makes you "guilty." And, of course, these people were just as human as the civilians, with mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and lovers. Left I totally rejects the idea that their deaths are any less important, or any less a part of the price the Iraqi people have had to pay for this invasion, than the deaths of "innocent civilians."

Was Amy Goodman implying otherwise? Was she shying away from including the soldiers for fear she would be thought a "supporter of Saddam Hussein" as a result? I hope not, and I doubt it. More than likely she was just slipping into the same formulation that so many other people (nearly everyone, in fact) use. But progressive journalists like Goodman know enough to think for themselves. Hopefully in the future she, and other readers of Left I on the News, will make sure their listeners understand the full price of this illegal, immoral war, and remind them of all the people who have died as a result.

A word on language

Cuba counterattacks

A few hours later, the Cubans counterattacked:

"A few hours after the UN vote against Cuba in the Human Rights Commission (HRC), the island's government called on the same agency to investigate the situation of the prisoners detained by the United States on the Guantanamo naval base.

"'The international community has a right to know what is happening there,' stated Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque during a press conference at the Havana Ministry.

"The resolution presented by Cuba is aimed at an investigation and report on the prison conditions of the detainees and the cessation of all violations of their rights. Moreover, Cuba has asked for a special rapporteur on issues of torture to pronounce on the situation at the U.S. base, and a follow up discussion on the issue at the next HRC session in 2005.

"Perez Roque announced that he is to ask the 22 nations who voted against Cuba yesterday to co-sponsor the resolution. "We likewise hope for sponsorship from the European nations whose parliament has mandated them to give priority attention to prisoners on the base."

The Madness of King "President" George

"He admits (for the first time?) that the US is militarily occupying Iraq but claims that those who resist are rejecting "freedom" and "self government." This is like the rapist giving sermons on the need to respect the physical integrity and dignity of his victims."

"We must first deal with the problem that George seems genuinely mad. There was a riddle in nearly every sentence. He spoke like someone dramatically out of touch with what everyone else knows. The whole scene was a bit wacky, as if the uncle who everyone knows is crazy came to the family reunion and was humored because he is family. People were going easy on George just because he seemed like he was speaking about another planet."

"The urgent moral priority of our time is to dismantle the warfare state, disarm the nukes, roll back the empire from every corner of the globe. We want to live in a country even a crazy man can head and not have it be dangerous for us or the world. If George or his successors want to play violent games, someone could just bring them a set of plastic army men and they could have at it all day in the West Wing. Let them live out their fantasies of death and dominion with toys rather than the real world."

Headline of the Day

"Bush and Blair: Things can only get better"

Quote of the Day

Q: (Egyptian President) Hosni Mubarak is saying the new U.S. policy on the West Bank could escalate violence. How do you respond to his concerns?

BUSH: Yes, I think this is a fantastic opportunity."

The Democrats attack Bush's "mistakes"

"Mission accomplished."
"We found the weapons of mass destruction."
"Bring 'em on."

George Bush's biggest mistake (in this context, anyway) was invading Iraq in the first place, and being responsible for the death of more than ten thousand people with no legal or moral basis for doing so. How curious (and hardly surprising) that the Democrats only want to remind us of the mistakes in which they weren't equally complicit. Of course, as noted just a couple posts below, the invasion of Iraq wasn't really a "mistake" in the traditional sense; it was a very deliberate action. Again, as noted below, Bush's real mistake was in underestimating the Iraqi people.

But even on their terms, couldn't the Democrats at least claim Bush's biggest mistake was pulling troops and special forces off the hunt for Bin Laden and sending them to Iraq to pursue the goal of U.S. empire overthrowing someone who had nothing to do with 9-11? They're sitting there with aces in their hand and they play the seven?

Another (mis)leader caught lying

"Former [Danish] intelligence officer Major Frank Soeholm Grevil...told the reporters at the Berlingske Tidende newspaper he had sent 10 reports to the [Danish] prime minister which concluded that the coalition was unlikely to find weapons of mass destruction.

"[Danish Prime Minister] Mr Fogh Rasmussen later told the Danish parliament in the run-up to the war, which began on 20 March 2003, that he was convinced Iraq was in possession of such weapons.

"'This is not something we just believe. We know,' he said." [Emphasis added]

Today's Donsense

Q     What degree of certainty can you give those families, sir, that after these 90 days that's it, they're coming home, they won't be extended again?

SEC. RUMSFELD:  Well, I've said -- and the commanders of those forces will be communicating directly with them, and that's the proper chain for these communications to take, not to the press.  It's better if their families and the individuals are told directly.  But what we've said very carefully and very precisely is that we expect that they will be in Iraq for up to 90 additional days.  We have said that we expect that they could be deployed for up to 120 days.  That is to say, when you go from Iraq you may go to Kuwait for a period and then you may be deployed en route and being transported, and then you have leave and that's still part of the deployment.  So that's why the extra period between 90 and 120.

And we have said that, to the extent people are needed there beyond that period -- that General Abizaid comes up and says, look, I said I only needed these people for this period, but the situation on the ground is such that I need roughly that same number of people or some more or less for a period beyond that -- we have said and General Pace has said that plans have been put in place so that we can move other people in there to fill their shoes.

Now, you said what assurance can you give people.  That is what we have said, and we have also added the other comment, and the other comment is look, our country is engaged in a global war on terror.  We have things we simply must do.  And as with everything, there's always the final phrase that we will do what it is we have to do to be successful.

Q     So at the outside, it could be extended again?

SEC. RUMSFELD:  You could put it that way, if you wanted to cause people concern.  On the other hand, you could take what I said and report it that way, which I would find accurate.

Incidentally, the press is making a big deal about how, "in contrast to Bush," Rumsfeld was willing to "admit mistakes" in his press conference. What mistakes? "I certainly would not have estimated that we would have had the number of individuals lost ... that we have had lost in the last week."

Sorry, not being able to foresee the future with perfect accuracy is not a "mistake." Launching a war on false pretenses and killing tens of thousands of people in the process, that's a mistake (albeit an intentional one). Underestimating the cost in money and troops it would take to "win" the war they were launching, that's also a mistake, at least from their point of view (although again, quite a deliberate one). The real, unintentional mistake that Rumsfeld (and Bush et al.) committed? Underestimating the desire of the Iraqi people to be free of foreign domination.

IronyWatch

"This is a murderous organisation which seeks impossible objectives by the most violent of means."

- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, talking about the American and British governments al Qaeda (Source)

MIA - Missing in America

"Brandon Hughey is a teenager living among strangers, thousands of miles from his friends, family and home in San Angelo, Texas. The 18-year-old is one of two American servicemen who recently deserted their units and fled to Canada to claim asylum as refugees. 'We plan to argue that the war in Iraq is illegal under international law and that I have a right not to choose to participate,' he says." (Source)

Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation

Kerrywatch

"'I think that could be a positive step,' the Massachusetts senator said, approving of the Bush-Sharon action regarding both refugees and Israel's borders. 'What's important obviously is the security of the state of Israel, and that's what the prime minister and the president, I think, are trying to address.'"

U.S. troops beat civilian to death

"An Iraqi has died of his wounds after US troops beat him with truncheons because he refused to remove a picture of wanted Shiite Muslim leader Moqtada Sadr from his car, police said today.

"The motorist was stopped late yesterday by US troops conducting search operations on a street in the centre of the central city of Kut, Lieutenant Mohamad Abdel Abbas said.

"After the man refused to remove Sadr's picture from his car, the soldiers forced him out of the vehicle and started beating him with truncheons, he said.

"Qassem Hassan, the director of Kut general hospital, identified the man as Salem Hassan, a resident of a Kut suburb. He said the man had died of wounds sustained in the beating."

"A spokesman for the US-led coalition could not confirm the incident."

What better time to remind readers of the case of Nazem Baji. On October 20, the AP reported that had been shot in the head by U.S. troops while his hands were bound with plastic handcuffs. The U.S. military said that had "no information" about the incident. Since that day, Baji has disappeared from history, never to be mentioned by the mainstream media, and certainly not by the U.S. military or the U.S. government, again. No doubt Salem Hassan will meet the same fate.

Followup: There's now been plenty of time for the U.S. news cycle to catch up to the Australian cycle. As of mid-day Thursday, a search on Google News reveals links to the Borneo Bulletin, the New Straits Times (Malaysia), and The Melbourne Herald Sun; Yahoo News yields similar results. This is clearly a story that the U.S. media don't want to touch with a ten-foot pole.

Bush ensures the indefinite continuation of terrorism

"In a historic policy break, President Bush on Wednesday endorsed Israel's plans to retain West Bank settlements in any peace accord with the Palestinians. Bush also ruled out the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel." (Source)

Here's something for Jews to think about on Passover. Moses (backed by God, or so he said) visited the ten plagues upon the Egyptians to back up his demand to "let my people go," including the widespread death of livestock, the destruction of crops, and ending with the death (murder?) of the first-born son of every Egyptian household. Why is it no one refers to him as a "terrorist"? He did achieve his demands by quite literally terrorizing the Egyptians.

Followup: I just heard John King on CNN describe this development by saying "the U.S. has now abandoned it's traditional role as an honest broker." He said it with a straight face! Amazing!

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

"During a question-and-answer session with the audience, retired college professor Walter Daum angrily accused Kerry of backing an imperialist policy in Iraq and called on the candidate to demand the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

"'You voted for this,' Daum shouted. As he spoke, a group stood silently and unfurled a large sign that read, 'Kerry take a stand: Troops out now.'" (Source)

Quote of the Day

"I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it."

- President George "Got through Yale on open-book tests" Bush at his press conference

Random notes from the Bush press conference

Bush: "People are sacrificing their lives in Iraq from different countries. We ought to honor that, and we ought to welcome that."

Left I: We welcome it? I wonder if their friends and relatives feel the same?

Bush (Answering one question): "There was nobody in our government, at least, and I don't think the prior government that could envision flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive scale.

Bush (Answering the very next question): "I asked for the briefing. And the reason I did is because there had been a lot of threat intelligence from overseas. And so, I -- part of it had to do with the Genoa G-8 conference that I was going to attend."

Left I: The Genoa G-8 conference, of course, was the one in which the city was defended by antiaircraft batteries to prevent against an attack on the conference from the air, including someone attempting to fly an airplane into the building housing the summit.

Bush (asked about whether the "coalition" is mere window dressing): "One of the things I've found, John, is that, in calling around, particularly during this week -- I spoke to Prime Minister Berlusconi and President Kwasniewski -- there is a resolve by these leaders that is a heartening resolve. Tony Blair is the same way."

Left I: Perhaps Bush should have talked to the Polish Prime Minister, who told Polish radio yesterday "We rule out increasing our (Iraq) contingent. The government plans rather to decrease rather than increase the contingent." Or perhaps he could have mentioned Thailand, whose whose 443 troops have been ordered not to leave their camp. Or he could have mentioned the fourth largest member of the "coalition," Ukraine, whose troops simply pulled out of Kut when it was attacked by insurgents. Well, I'll say this for George Bush. Evidently he's easily "heartened." Or else just a plain ol' liar. Your call.

Bush: "I'd like to get another U.N. Security Council resolution out that will help other nations to decide to participate."

Left I: That's funny, we're still waiting for the last U.N. Security Council resolution you said you wanted, but then ducked out on when it appeared the vote wasn't going your way. As far as some new resolution, the interesting thing about this claim is that, although I've heard it several times now in recent weeks from the administration, as far as I can tell they aren't doing anything about it. Not that a Security Council resolution is actually going to "help other nations to decide to participate" anyway; some actual security might be required for that.

How to avoid "killing"

Earlier today, I encountered this in a post at Counterspin Central, referring to Muqtada al Sadr: "I'm afraid the United States has no choice but to take him out." I replied in a comment (not necessarily at my most eloquent):

"'Take him out'? The 'Sopranoization' of American politics. How about using the English language? You support KILLING him.

"'Thou shalt not kill', remember? I don't remember seeing 'Thou shalt not take someone out' anywhere.

"Don't obfuscate your meaning with childish, Bush-like language. What's next, calling him an 'evil-doer'?"

American soldiers, and American bombs, are killing people. They are not "squeezing" cities, or "debriding" cities, or "cleansing the poison," or even "taking people out." They are killing people. Let's call things by their right names.

Happy tax day, from the Republicrats

"In 1993, the richest Americans paid 30 cents on the dollar in taxes to the feds. At the end of the Clinton administration, they were paying 22 cents. And when the Bush cuts come in, they'll pay 17.5 cents. That means the super-rich have gotten a 41 percent reduction in their tax burden from both Democrats and Republicans."

Kerrywatch

"While we may have differed on how we went to war, Americans of all political persuasions are united in our determination to succeed. The extremists attacking our forces should know they will not succeed in dividing America, or in sapping American resolve, or in forcing the premature withdrawal of U.S. troops. Our country is committed to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful and pluralistic society. No matter who is elected president in November, we will persevere in that mission."

Next, let's consider that word "extremists." Apparently Mr. Kerry thinks that attacking foreign troops who are occupying your country is an "extreme" thing to do. Lucky thing for us Americans he and his kind weren't around in 1775, denouncing Paul Revere and Patrick Henry and George Washington as "extremists."

Now what are these "extremists" up to? According to Kerry, they are bent on "dividing America," "sapping American resolve," and "forcing the premature withdrawal of U.S. troops." Well isn't that just like an arrogant American - "it's all about us." No, John, the insurgents in Iraqi just want one thing - U.S. troops out of their country. And there will be nothing "premature" about it, since the penetration should never have occured in the first place.

Kerry, like Bush and the vast majority of Democratic and Republican politicians, want to convince us that we have to "stay the course," we have to "succeed," we have to "win." Apparently they've never heard about "throwing good money after bad" or "two wrongs don't make a right." We can't correct a mistake by continuing to make the same mistake! We can't make up for the deaths of 750+ coalition troops, 50-100 coalition "contractors," and 10-20,000 Iraqi civilians and soldiers by continuing a policy which will result in the death of more Americans, more Iraqis, and others. Iraq is not "ours" to "win."

Arrogant Americans like Kerry (and Bush, of course) think that it is up to the American people to decide who runs Iraq, or Venezuela, or Haiti, or Cuba, and to tell the people of those countries what kind of political and economic system they should follow. It is not. It is up to the people of those countries - the Iraqis, the Venezuelans, the Haitians, the Cubans, etc. to determine their own future. The U.S. should get the hell out of Iraq. Now. Before they do more damage and kill more people.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

- John Kerry, 1971. Ancient history according to Kerry. "No longer operative."

Spinning themselves dizzy

First paragraph:

"U.S. forces used heavy firepower Monday to regain control of strategic roads around Iraq."

Paragraphs 30 and 31 (!):

"Convoys carrying troops, tanks, construction equipment and supplies snaked south, setting up a huge encampment in an abandoned Iraqi army munitions dump in the desert about 12 miles outside of Najaf.

"To escape attack or detection, the convoys often used back roads. Other convoys traveled the same route to Najaf that hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims used recently to reach the city for the Arbain holiday."

"Before Tuesday's helicopter crash [yes, that's another helicopter shot down, this isn't referring to the one from a day or so ago], a U.S. convoy was attacked near the same site, and two Humvees and a truck were burning, said witnesses, who also reported U.S. casualties.

"On route to Najaf, the force's 80-vehicle convoy was ambushed Monday night by gunmen firing small arms and setting of roadside bombs north of the city. One soldier was killed and and an American civilian contractor were wounded, officers in the convoy said."

Incidentally, for those keeping score at home, here's a statement you'll see in a lot of places: "The top U.S. military spokesman said about 70 Americans and 700 insurgents had been killed this month." However the Post article linked above is the only one I've seen so far to mention this: "In all, about 880 Iraqis have been killed in the violence, according to an AP count based on statements by Iraqi hospital officials, U.S. military statements and Iraqi police." And the "70 Americans" doesn't include the nine "missing" Americans from the same convoy from which Thomas Hamill was taken hostage, although news reports at the time from foreign sources claimed that that they had seen nine bodies. In other words, once the American military gets around to acknowledging what happened, the count is already up to 79 (although if those 9 were civilians, as I believe is the case, they'll soon be "disincluded" in the count).

Irony is Dead Dept.

"These [the Iraqi insurgents in Falloujah, Najaf, Kut, Sadr City, etc] were people that were trying to make a statement prior to the transfer of sovereignty that they would get to decide the fate of Iraq, through violence."

- George Bush, evidently under the impression that invading a country with 150,000 troops and killing tens of thousands of its citizens doesn't constitute "deciding the fate" of that country "through violence."

Picture Caption of the Day

The caption for this picture as it appears in the San Francisco Chronicle, which, following Dave Barry, I swear I am not making up:

U.S. Marines knock in a door while conducting a house-to-house
search for weapons and insurgents in Fallujah on Monday.

Followup: My bad. I thought the caption read "knock on a door." I guess it really isn't funny like I thought. Oh well. Still a nice demonstration of how the U.S. goes about "winning hearts and minds."

Another day, another 3,950 jobs gone

"DuPont Co. will eliminate 3,500 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force, by the end of this year as part of cost-cutting plans it announced late last year.

"The Wilmington-based chemical giant said Monday it will cut about 3,000 positions, roughly two-thirds of them in the United States and Canada, and expects to trim 500 jobs through attrition. DuPont also will eliminate 450 contractor positions, most of them in the United States." (Source)

Photo caption contest

Jesus Christ! What is that moron saying now?

And in case you forgot...

"We speak with an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild which recently sent a delegation to Haiti. He says he saw hundreds of corpses being dumped by morgues in Haiti and describes bodies coming in with plastic bags over their heads and hands tied behind their backs, piles of corpses burning in fields and pigs eating their flesh."

Iraq=Palestine

I know it's not a simple statistical problem, but if the hundreds of Iraqi civilians in Fallujah were really "caught in the crossfire," wouldn't half of them have been killed with bullets fired by Iraqis and half killed by bullets fired by Americans? Why is it I'm willing to bet any amount of money that that isn't even remotely true, and that the truth is that 99.8% of them were killed by American bullets?

Incidentally, according to the Fallujah hospital director, "most" of the 600 were "women, children, and the elderly," which, as he points out, does not suggest that the rest, even if men aged 16-60, were actively engaged in combat. Even if the man is exaggerating, or spinning the truth towards his point of view, we're still talking about a lot of civilians killed in Fallujah, not the odd few who might have actually been "caught in a crossfire."

Followup: Jeanne over at Body and Soul has a nice roundup of press coverage on the ongoing massacre in Fallujah, comparing various press reports, so I'll just refer readers there, as well as to tonight's Flashpoints, which has more ongoing eyewitness reports from Iraq (audio download not online as I write this, but it will be by later tonight).

More followup: This from Knight-Ridder via Left is Right:

"A doctor [in Fallujah] said: 'I was in my home for days, unable to leave, even to treat the sick, for fear of being shot. One morning, I decided I had to make it to the hospital, but just before I left, I saw my neighbor walk from his house. An American sniper shot him, once in the head. I was afraid to go out to him, to treat him. I watched him die.'"

The "death count" in Iraq

The numbers of these deaths have never been available anywhere to my knowledge. But today's article on Thomas Hamill (see item below) finally gives us part of the answer: "About 30 [Halliburton] employees have died in Iraq and Kuwait." Note - this is just Halliburton employees, so it doesn't include the four Blackwater employees who died in Fallujah, or many, many others, whose deaths have, most of the time, appeared in the paper one day, only to drop from view (and from any counting) immediately. So the number is at least 34, but I would guess is much higher, possibly as high as a hundred. Their families and friends haven't forgotten them, I'm sure. But the American government and the American press certainly have.

"Civilians" and civilians

"Thomas Hamill, a struggling Mississippi dairy farmer, went to Iraq in September to make serious money and to put his family, at long last, back on solid financial footing.

"Mr. Hamill did not want to leave his family for a one-year hitch driving fuel trucks in Iraq, his family and friends said on Sunday. But he thought the job offered his wife, Kellie, who is recovering from heart surgery, and their two children the best chance of climbing out of what had become a burdensome debt.

"Not long before he signed on with Halliburton last fall, Mr. Hamill sold his last few dozen cows, ending a family-owned dairy that his father and uncle started more than 30 years ago, Mrs. Hamill said. The sale did not quite cover his debts.

"Before he decided to head to Iraq, Mr. Hamill had been working two jobs, milking his cows one day, driving a milk truck the next day on a route connecting Noxubee County's other dairy operations, friends said. But it was not quite enough.

"'He just got behind with low milk prices and all and high feed prices, had to close the dairy out,' said Victor B. Allsup, 69, a dairy farmer who said he has known Mr. Hamill since he was a young boy."

Taking the oath

Of course, we know why George Bush won't swear to tell the truth when he testifies appears before the Commission. He knows he wouldn't look good with a 10-inch-long nose.

Quote of the Day

"That's a good question."

- Iraqi overlord Paul Bremer, when asked on Meet the Press to whom he would be handing "power" on June 30.

Inane Quote of the Day

"Every day I pray there is less casualty." - George Bush (Source)

Quote of the Day

"My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic, it's awful."

- Anonymous senior British army officer, speaking from his base in southern Iraq.

Iraqis against the occupation

"Up to 200,000 Iraqi believers, many of them Shias, crowded into the precinct of Baghdad's largest Sunni mosque yesterday to denounce the American occupation and pledge solidarity with the people of Falluja as well as the uprising led by the Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

"'The Americans consider themselves a safety valve against sectarian conflict, but this is an excuse for extending their stay. Here in this mosque and in this gathering we have the proof that all groups are united. We all want the coalition to leave this country,' [the speaker] said."

"It was unfortunate for the coalition that the anniversary of the ousting of the Saddam Hussein regime fell on a Friday, allowing preachers to use the occasion for mass protests at the occupation instead of the celebration of freedom which the coalition must once have hoped for."

Ralph Nader's Message to America's Students

We have been down this road before.

U.S. troops sent to war half a world away. American foreign policy controlled by an arrogant elite, bent on projecting military power around the globe. A public misled into supporting an unconstitutional war founded on deceit and fabrications.

As the death toll mounts, we hear claims that the war is nearly won, that victory is just around the corner. But victory never arrives.

As the public loses confidence in the government, the government questions the patriotism of any who express doubt about the war.

When a presidential election arrives, both the Democrat and Republican nominees embrace the policy of continued war.

The military draft comes to dominate the lives of America's young, and vast numbers who believe the war to be a senseless blunder are faced with fighting a war they do not believe in, or facing exile or prison.

The year was 1968. Because voters had no choice that November, the Vietnam War continued for another six years. Hundreds of thousands of Americans like you died, were maimed, or suffered from diseases like malaria. A far greater number of Vietnamese died.

Today, the war is in the quicksands and alleys of Iraq. Once again, under the pressure of a determined resistance, we see an American war policy being slowly torn apart at the seams, while the candidates urge us to "stay the course" in this tragic misadventure. Today's Presidential candidates are not Nixon and Humphrey, they are now Bush and Kerry.

Once again, there is one overriding truth: If war is the only choice in this election, then war we will have.

Today enlistments in the Reserves and National Guard are declining. The Pentagon is quietly recruiting new members to fill local draft boards, as the machinery for drafting a new generation of young Americans is being quietly put into place.

Young Americans need to know that a train is coming, and it could run over their generation in the same way that the Vietnam War devastated the lives of those who came of age in the sixties.

I am running for President, and have been against this war from the beginning. We must not waste lives in order to control and waste more oil. Stand with us and we may yet salvage your future and Americas' future from this looming disaster. (Source)

What did the FBI know, and when did they know it?

"In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a 'threat assessment' by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

"'There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines,' an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it."

Preventing Terrorism

"The 9-11 Commission is supposedly focusing on all aspects of the attack -- all aspects except the one that is by far the most important question: why did the hijackers knowingly give up their lives to destroy the World Trade Center?

"President Bush has a ready answer. He tells us it's because they hate American freedoms, American democracy, and American prosperity.

"Of course, there are people around the world who are cranks, malcontents, or
Stars-and-Stripes-phobes who simply don't like America --for all kinds of reasons.

"But how could any intelligent person believe that there are hundreds --more likely, thousands --of people around the world who would knowingly sacrifice their lives just to protest American freedom, democracy, or prosperity?

"There was only one possible motive for the 9-11 attackers: they were protesting the way the American government has been using force for half a century to overrule the wishes of people in the Middle East and elsewhere.

"So if the 9-11 Commission has any interest in preventing future 9-11s, why isn't it discussing the role U.S. foreign policy played in creating 9-11 -- and is continuing to play today?"

Alas, they aren't solutions that will be forthcoming anytime soon. And so terrorism will continue. Increase security on planes? Terrorists will bomb trains. Increase security on trains? Terrorists will bomb buses. Increase security on buses? Terrorists will bomb sporting events, or theaters, or hotels, or any place where people gather in large numbers. There are an infinite number of targets for terrorists. Only addressing the causes of terrorism, and answering the question "why do so many people around the world hate the U.S.," can put an end to it. And, as Harry Browne says, that's unfortunately a question that the 9-11 commission isn't asking.

Opportunities for young people

You know, Cuba has a large group of mostly young people (16,000 of them) who also believe in getting an education, a job, and seeing the world. They're called doctors. Wouldn't it be nice if the U.S. followed that model, and those were the jobs we were "exporting" around the world?

Bush and the Bible

It is true that "the truth will set you free." Which I guess means that "freedom" is something the Bush administration doesn't know a thing about. Except as a convenient word to throw out when casting about for another excuse about why the U.S. invaded Iraq and has sent tens of thousands of people to the "freedom of the grave."

*Followup: I should have attributed this. Here's the quote - "Jesus died for somebody's sins - but not mine" - Patti Smith, Gloria (best version of the song Gloria ever recorded, and there are many)

Left I plea for help

"In her much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice delivered a powerful rebuttal Thursday to critics who say President Bush brushed off warnings of a major terrorist attack inside the United States - warnings that poured into American intelligence agencies like a torrent in the summer of 2001.

"But on the critical question of what the Bush White House did in response to those warnings, Rice's performance was markedly less effective. Repeatedly, she described a White House inner circle that spent its time on broad strategy and left it up to the bureaucracy to decide how to meet the escalating threat, with no real follow-up from the White House."

Quote of the Day

"Ms. Rice, does the buck stop anywhere near you?"

- Jon Stewart, posing an imaginary question to Condo-lie-zza Rice that we can only wish one of the comissioners had asked, as Rice repeatedly pointed the finger at everyone and anyone other than herself and her boss during her testimony.

Faces of war

Less than a year ago Kyle Crowley graduated from high school. Today, he's a picture on a wall, a memory, one of two Bay Area boys who met their fate in the last week in Iraq. Here's what the San Jose Mercury News says about the other one:

"When Hollywood casts a Marine, it thinks Rambo -- biceps bulging and a string of bullets slung across a camouflaged chest.

"Lance Cpl. Travis Layfield seemed born to that role.

"Family and friends gathered Thursday in Fremont to remember Layfield, 19, who was killed by hostile fire Tuesday in Iraq. They recalled a young man who, from almost Day One, was fascinated with the military, wars, soldiers and guns.

"He was a Marine in every sense. And so much more.

"'His heart was so big,' said his cousin Ashley Mills, 19, of Tracy."

There is no more important task for the antiwar movement than to make sure that young people know that this is what war is all about. Not glory. Death. Death for U.S. empire. Death to put money in the pockets of Halliburton. Death to re-elect George Bush. Death for oil. Not to mention the "opportunity" to inflict a similar death on the young people of Iraq and other countries.

Nine more Americans (probably Americans) were killed when a U.S. oil convoy was destroyed this morning, plus a British soldier was killed elsewhere in Iraq this morning. More than 50 coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq in the last week, along with an unknown number, but probably 500 or more, of Iraqis. STOP THE MADNESS! OUT NOW!

The Washington Post gets testy

"This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."

Budget shortfall in your city or state causing the closing of schools, hospitals, and other services? Let's demand a refund of 40% of Bush's salary! At least it'll be a start.

By the way, in discussions of the infamous Aug. 6 PDB, it was commonly reported and discussed (by analysts, commissioners, etc.) that Bush was in Crawford at the time (or left for there the next day; it's a little unclear). I didn't hear a single one of those talking heads note that it was the start of a one-month vacation. Who does George Bush think he is, taking a one-month vacation? A Frenchman or something? Some people, by the way, are speculating that he wasn't just there on vacation, but that he was deliberately staying out of Washington because of the perceived Al Qaeda threat. Could well be!

Condo-lie-zza

But here's the most amazing thing - amidst a thousand reporters, commentators, talking heads, analysts, bloggers, and even members of the 9/11 commission, only a single person, blogger Billmon, seems to have recalled that the title of this PDB was revealed in an article by Bob Woodward in the Washington Post in May, 2002! Not exactly an unknown reporter in an unknown paper. Yet no one seems to have remembered this. Amazing.

Emergency protests demanding an end to the war and occupation of Iraq

WashingtonPost.com vs. Washington Post

The people united will never be defeated

"Thousands of Iraqi sympathisers, both Sunni and Shiite Muslim, forced their way through US military roadblocks in a bid to bring aid from the capital to the besieged Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah.

"Troops in armoured vehicles attempted to stop the convoy of cars and pedestrians from reaching the western town where US marines have met ferocious resistance in a two-day-old offensive against the insurgents.

"But the US contingents were overwhelmed as residents of villages west of the capital came to the convoy's assistance, hurling insults and stones at the beleaguered troops.

"Some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Baghdad, a US patrol was attacked just moments before the Iraqi marchers arrived, and armed insurgents could be seen dancing around on two blazing military vehicles.

"Two US Humvees attempted to stop the marchers but were forced to drive off as residents joined the marchers, shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater).

"US troops armed with machine guns and backed up by armour again blocked the highway further west, but were forced to let the Iraqis past as they came under a hail of stones.

"'No Sunnis, no Shiites, yes for Islamic unity,' the marchers chanted. 'We are Sunni and Shiite brothers and will never sell our country.'

"'It is a form of jihad (holy war) which can also come in the form of demonstrations, donations and fighting. The people who are occupied have the right to fight occupation, whatever the means they use.'"

Credit to Louis Proyect for the title of this post.

Common enemies

"'From Palestine to Iraq: one people, one blood, one enemy!' the crowd chanted, while setting alight pictures of US President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

God bless Robert Byrd

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Tennyson got it right -- someone had blundered. It is time we faced up to the fact that this President and his administration blundered as well when they took the nation into war with Iraq without compelling reason, without broad international or even regional support, and without a plan for dealing with the enormous post-war security and reconstruction challenges posed by Iraq. And it is our soldiers, our own 600 and more, who are paying the price for that blunder.

"The harsh reality is this: one year after the fall of Baghdad, the United States should not be casting about for a formula to bring additional U.S. troops to Iraq. We should instead be working toward an exit strategy. Pouring more U.S. troops into Iraq is not the path to extricate ourselves from that country.

"Where should we look for leadership? To this Congress? To this Senate? This Senate, the foundation of the Republic, has been unwilling to take a hard look at the chaos in Iraq. Senators have once again been cowed into silence and support, not because the policy is right, but because the blood of our soldiers and thousands of innocents is on our hands. Questions that ought to be stated loudly in this chamber are instead whispered in the halls. Those few Senators with the courage to stand up and speak out are challenged as unpatriotic and charged with sowing seeds of terrorism. It has been suggested that any who dare to question the President are no better than the terrorists themselves. Such are the suggestions of those who would rather not face the truth.

This Republic was founded in part because of the arrogance of a king who expected his subjects to do as they were told, without question, without hesitation. Our forefathers overthrew that tyrant and adopted a system of government where dissent is not only important, but it is also mandatory. Questioning flawed leadership is a requirement of this government. Failing to question, failing to speak out, is failing the legacy of the Founding Fathers.

All of Byrd's speech is well worth reading. Yes, yes, a long time ago Byrd was a member of the Klan. BFD. A long time ago I supported Barry Goldwater. People change. Byrd's words and actions of forty years ago don't in the slightest diminish what he has to say today.

Frank & Ernest comment on Iraq

The view from inside Iraq

"And now Muqtada Al-Sadr's people are also fighting it out in parts of Baghdad and the south. If the situation weren't so frightening, it would almost be amusing to see Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom describe Al-Sadr as an 'extremist' and a 'threat'. Muqtada Al-Sadr is no better and no worse than several extremists we have sitting on the Governing Council. He's just as willing to ingratiate himself to Bremer as Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom. The only difference is that he wasn't given the opportunity, so now he's a revolutionary. Apparently, someone didn't give Bremer the memo about how when you pander to one extremist, you have to pander to them all. Hearing Abdul Aziz Al-Hakeem and Bahr Ul Iloom claim that Al-Sadr is a threat to security and stability brings about visions of the teapot and the kettle…

"Then Bremer makes an appearance on tv and says that armed militias will not be a part of the New Iraq… where has that declaration been the last 12 months while Badir's Brigade has been wreaking havoc all over the country? Why not just solve the problem of Al-Sadr's armed militia by having them join the police force and army, like the Bayshmarga and Badir's Brigade?! Al-Sadr's militia is old news. No one was bothering them while they were terrorizing civilians in the south. They wore badges, carried Klashnikovs and roamed the streets freely… now that they've become a threat to the 'Coalition', they suddenly become 'terrorists' and 'agitators'.

"And as I blog this, all the mosques, Sunni and Shi’a alike, are calling for Jihad..."

Tens of thousands of people are dead a result of this war. It's time to put an end to it now. And I don't mean by escalating the American response.

Education and training

Not that WalMart or McDonalds actually require an engineering degree from SF State, mind you. Not for the jobs they're hiring for, anyway.

Those changing Iraqi villians

No point, really, just a little history. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? If history is rewritten every day, and no one remembers the past, did it ever happen? The U.S. typically wants people to forget history. Left I wants them to remember.

Planning for a long, long stay

"U.S. Marines seized portions of this volatile city Tuesday and vowed to remain here until they have rid it of Islamic extremists, Saddam Hussein loyalists and common criminals who they said operate freely here."

Second verse, same as the first

"Including casualties Monday and Tuesday, at least 18 American Marines and soldiers and 99 Iraqis have been killed since Sunday. In the same period, a Salvadoran soldier and one from Ukraine also were killed."

Meanwhile, there are increasing references to the four Blackwater employees killed last week as "private security guards." Yeah, just like the old guy down at your local mall. Only with machine guns and their own helicopters.

Followup: Switching metaphors, it appears that the fat lady isn't even close to stopping singing: "Up to a dozen Marines were reported killed in new fighting in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Reports from the field said dozens of Iraqis attacked a Marine position near the governor's palace in Ramadi, a senior defense official said." I admit it's hard to determine if the fat lady is still singing over the din of the excrement hitting the fan.

Quote of the Day

Asked if he was leaving the door open to send more troops if asked, [Australian Prime Minister John] Howard said: "We don't have any plans and I'm not even looking at doors. I'm sort of quite content with the room I'm in." (Source)

Looking-glass Quote of the Day

"It was only six weeks ago that Haiti was on the verge of total security collapse. We prevented a blood bath and a coup from taking place." - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (Source)

Sinking deeper

A decision by the Pentagon to increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq is a reversal of its plan to steadily reduce the U.S. force level there. Since the war began a year ago, senior military leaders have given frequent assurances to troops and their families that Iraq duty would be no longer than a year.

Now, those assurances have met the reality of Iraq. On Monday, a senior official with U.S. Central Command said that the return home of about 24,000 U.S. troops who were scheduled to leave in the next few weeks would be delayed as their replacements arrive.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!

Vanishing civilians

"An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.

"Before U.S. reinforcements could arrive, the firm, Blackwater Security Consulting, sent in its own helicopters amid an intense firefight to resupply its commandos with ammunition and to ferry out a wounded Marine, the sources said."

And, make sure to read that again. These "civilians" have their own helicopters.

Job losses - is it Bush, or is it capitalism?

"Bank of America Corp., the No. 2 U.S. bank, on Monday said it plans to cut 12,500 jobs over the next two years as a result of its $48 billion purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp."

"Bank of America said about 30 percent of the cuts will be through attrition."

Of course the executive of B of A says this move will bring "$1.6 billion of cost savings." And he's exactly right. Under capitalism, that's exactly what workers are. Not people. Costs.

"New" political cartoonist

Their arrogance knows no bounds

"Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that American judicial authorities are looking into prosecuting the former Haitian president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, on corruption charges."

Hopefully there weren't any readers of my blog left with any remining illusions in Colin Powell. I'd hate for this to be the pinprick that burst your bubble.

Kay knew from the start

"The CIA's former weapons hunter in Iraq realized within days of arriving in Baghdad last summer that dictator Saddam Hussein was no longer stockpiling a banned arsenal, according to a new report.

"David Kay, with whom the Bush administration placed its hopes of finding Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, sent a startling E-mail to CIA Director George Tenet in early July 2003.

"'I wrote that it looks as though they did not produce weapons,' Kay reveals in an interview with the new Vanity Fair.

"It wasn't until late January this year that Kay told the Senate Armed Services Committee that 'we were almost all wrong' on Iraq.

"Kay told Vanity Fair, in its 22,000-word opus, 'The Path to War,' that he was actually ready to come home in mid-December. Tenet said no.

"'If you resign now, it will appear that we don't know what we're doing and the wheels are coming off,' he said Tenet told him. 'So I said, 'Fine, I'll wait.''"

Depleted uranium, depleted news

"Army officials at Fort Dix and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are rushing to test all returning members of the 442nd Military Police Company of the New York Army National Guard for depleted uranium contamination.

"Army brass acted after learning that four of nine soldiers from the company tested by the Daily News showed signs of radiation exposure."

The story remains completely unreported elsewhere in the U.S. press (except, of course, on Democracy Now!). And, needless to say, considering how reluctant the U.S. is to test Americans, any testing of (or concern for) Iraqis is also completely non-existent. My attempt at a clever headline for this post is, unfortunately, inaccurate. The news about this event, and the concern for the health of American soldiers and the Iraqi people, isn't "depleted" - it never existed in the first place.

"Western values"

"Commercial hunting of baby seals is back and even bigger than when it stirred a global outcry two decades ago.

"On ice patches of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the hunt looks nearly as brutal as ever. For as far as the eye can see, dozens of burly men bearing clubs roam the ice in snowmobiles and spiked boots in search of silvery young harp seals. With one or two blows to the head, they crush the skulls, sometimes leaving the young animals in convulsions. The men drag the bodies to waiting fishing vessels or skin them on the spot, leaving a crisscross of bloody trails on the slowly melting ice.

"The [Canadian] government will allow the killing of up to 350,000 baby harp seals, or more than one in three born." [Emphasis added]

Chauvinism

The New York Times: "7 U.S. Soldiers Die in Iraq as a Shiite Militia Rises Up"

Los Angeles Times: "7 U.S. Troops Killed as Shiite Anger Erupts"

San Jose Mercury News (print headline): "Shiite cleric's follower's erupt into armed violence - Eight Americans killed in coordinated outbreak"

Notice anything missing from the headlines? Like dead Iraqis? Or even the one dead Salvadoran "coalition" soldier?

Not all U.S. papers (and certainly not all non-U.S. papers) were so chauvinist. For example this from USA Today: "Rioting across Iraq kills nearly 61", while the article breaks down that number into "at least 52 Iraqis, eight U.S. troops and a Salvadoran soldier" (suggesting that the headline writer wasn't very good; it should read "at least" 61, not "nearly" 61. What is "nearly" 61? 60?).

Incidentally, there were three other American soldiers killed on the same day in two other incidents; virtually no news sources used the number eleven when counting the numbers of Americans killed in Iraq yesterday. Double-digit numbers are too frightening to mention. Unless they refer to Iraqis, of course. Then they're not even worth mentioning.

Capitalism - it's even worse than you thought

Yesterday:

Many firms in U.S. avoid income taxes
"Most American and foreign corporations operating in the United States paid no income tax from 1996 to 2000, government auditors said Friday.

"Using data collected by the Internal Revenue Service, the auditors found that 71 percent of foreign corporations paid no federal income tax. During the same time, 61 percent of American corporations paid no income tax.

"In 2000, the most recent year for which data was available, an estimated 94 percent of American corporations and 89 percent of foreign corporations paid less than 5 percent of their total incomes in taxes."

Today:

Erasing workers' pay surprisingly prevalent
"As a former member of the Air Force military police, as a play-by-the-rules guy, Drew Pooters said he was stunned by what he found his manager doing in the Toys R Us store in Albuquerque, N.M.

"Inside a cramped office, he said, his manager was sitting at a computer and altering workers' time records -- secretly deleting hours to cut their paychecks and fatten his store's bottom line.

"Pooters quit, landing a job in 2002 managing a Family Dollar store, one of 5,100 in that discount chain. Top managers there ordered him not to let employees' total hours exceed a certain amount each week, and one day, he said, his district manager told him to use a trick to cut payroll: Delete some employee hours electronically.

"Experts on compensation say the illegal doctoring of hourly employees' time records is far more prevalent than most Americans believe. Workers have sued Family Dollar and Pep Boys, the auto parts and repair chain, accusing managers of deleting hours. A jury found that Taco Bell managers in Oregon had routinely erased workers' time. More than a dozen former Wal-Mart employees said in interviews and depositions that managers had altered time records to shortchange employees. The Department of Labor recently reached two back-pay settlements with Kinko's, totaling $56,600, after finding that managers in Ithaca, N.Y., and Hyannis, Mass., had erased time for 13 employees."

MIA - Missing in America

Bush and Blair made secret pact for Iraq war
"President George Bush first asked Tony Blair to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power at a private White House dinner nine days after the terror attacks of 11 September, 2001.

"The discussion implies that, even before the bombing of Afghanistan, Blair already knew that the US intended to attack Saddam next, although he continued to insist in public that 'no decisions had been taken' until almost the moment that the invasion began in March 2003."

Rewriting history

The most objectionable part of the article doesn't involve historical revisionism so much as historical erasure. In his arrogant Western way, Burns writes "Falluja marked a watershed in the effort to transplant to the Arab world a facsimile of American society, with democratic norms and institutionalized tolerance." The idea that the events in Falluja were somehow "Arab" in nature, and foreign to the oh-so-wonderful and noble "American society," requires that Burns has forgotten all about the decades of lynchings which occured right here in the good old U S of A, not to mention the more recent murder of Matthew Shepherd and so much more. It requires one to think that the events in Falluja were somehow more morally repugnant than dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or firebombing the city of Tokyo, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. It requires one to think that it is somehow "noble," or a "Western value," to kill tens of thousands of Serbs, Iraqis, Afghans, and others by dropping bombs on them from the air, letting them be torn apart by the force of the bombs, rather than tearing the victims apart with one's bare hands. And, of course, it requires the arrogance to think that becoming "a facsimile of American society" is something that Iraqis desire, or that Americans have the slightest right to try to impose upon them.

But what can I expect from a man who imagines that Iraqis actually did greet Americans with flowers? Or, even more preposterously, that "when June ends, Iraq will be a sovereign state again." Right. A sovereign state totally under the control (well, as much as it is now) of foreign troops.

Headline vs. story

"An Israeli official said the government would continue to finance settlement projects in Gaza that were 'in the pipeline,' as well as those that were deemed necessary for security, such as fences. But he said, 'expansion of greenhouses, and that kind of stuff, that will be halted.'"

Needless to say, if the Israeli government actually did halt financing of settlement projects in Gaza, there is plenty of money available from Zionists in the United States and elsewhere to take up the slack.

Jobs, a followup

Quote of the Day

"People will see that it's consistent with the welcoming nature of America."

- Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security, discussing the new plan to fingerprint and photograph every person entering the United States from any country other than Canada or Mexico.

Airplanes crashing into buildings - who knew?

"A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.

"She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was 'an outrageous lie'.

"Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used 'state secrets privilege'."

Jobs

Illustrating the completely bogus nature of the "unemployment rate" in America, jobs increased by 308,000, but the number of "unemployed" people actually rose by 182,000, because "more job seekers renewed their searches last month, but were unsuccessful." Remember, if you're too discouraged (or too realistic) to look for work, you may be out of work, but, just like the uncounted dead Iraqi civilians, you don't count. And one little-reported aspect of the unemployment situation remains the same - "The average duration of unemployment has been more than 20 weeks, a 20-year high." Please note that that's the average; that means that many people have been unemployed for a lot longer than 5 months, some for a year or more.

And, just for an exercise in spin, compare these two sentences. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics: "In March, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons increased to 4.7 million, about the same level as in January." Compare this to the AP version: "The number of people who worked part time for economic reasons rose to 4.7 million in March, up from 4.4 million the previous month." Notice the difference? By the way I have no idea how they determine who is working part time because they "want" to, and who is working part time for "economic reasons," whatever that means.

And from the other side of the pond...

"Sections of the security forces in Northern Ireland saw themselves as above the law and conducted a one-sided dirty war in which solicitors representing republicans were apparently seen as legitimate targets, according to a series of damning reports published yesterday.

"They paint a picture of agents allowed to set up murders and loyalists given army intelligence which may have been used to kill nationalists.

"The investigation by retired Canadian judge Peter Cory into four of the most controversial killings of the 30-year Troubles makes disturbing reading, even with 10 pages blanked out by the government, which had already caused fury by delaying publication of the reports for nearly six months."

"Civilians" killed in Iraq

I wonder if the U.S. government will take this opportunity to remind the world that the Geneva Conventions don't cover "irregular forces" who don't fight in uniforms?

This picture, I presume, is not one of the people killed in Fallujah. But the Washington Post elaborates on the people who were, the people who have been trumpeted in headlines and TV news shows and talk shows as "civilians":

"The four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were among the most elite commandos working in Iraq to guard employees of U.S. corporations and were hired by the U.S. government to protect bureaucrats, soldiers and intelligence officers.

"The men, all employees of Blackwater Security Consulting, were in the dangerous Sunni Triangle area operating under more hazardous conditions -- unarmored cars with no apparent backup -- than the U.S. military or the CIA permit."

Stupid (and dangerous) cops

"In 1995, Miami police officers shot two fleeing suspects in the back and then planted guns near their bodies. After years of investigation, a partially successful federal prosecution that charged a pattern of planting guns during four police shootings from 1995 to 1997, a four week trial and three days of deliberations, three officers were convicted for their roles in covering up the truth.

"Suspicions were raised when the guns were examined: they had no fingerprints, and one was loaded with the wrong ammunition."

More Air America follies

If you ever make the mistake of confusing "liberal" with "left" or "progressive," listen to Air America for awhile to disabuse yourself of that notion.

Want to listen to good, progressive radio where you will learn something every single day, guaranteed? Listen to Democracy Now! and Flashpoints, both of which archive their shows on the web so you can listen to them anytime. Guaranteed to be way more worthy of your precious time than anything I've heard so far on Air America.

The terrorists are coming!

Yeah, I guess that's why they denied a visa to this guy:

Hea culpa

"Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said at a briefing of the U.S.-led occupation administration, the Coalition Provisional Authority: 'The Marines are quite pleased with how things are going in Fallujah, and they're looking forward to continuing the progress in establishing a safe and secure environment and rebuilding that province in Iraq.'"

"'We will respond,' said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt. 'We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city. It's going to be deliberate. It will be precise and it will be overwhelming...We will reestablish control of that city and we will pacify that city.'"

Mea culpa

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was an early supporter of an organized effort to move Jews into the eastern sector, and he bought a house in the walled old city's Muslim Quarter in 1987."

The missile shield

CINOs - Civilians in Name Only

Another story in the Mercury News reports that men such as these "can earn more than $15,000 a month" (for the math challenged that's $180,000 a year!). Way more than actual soldiers are paid.

Historical revisionism on Air America

Spinning the economic news

The very next paragraph, the 11th in the story, gets to the heart of the matter: "Even if companies slow the speed at which they lay off workers [which, according to the previous paragraph describing the four-week moving average, they aren't anyway], they haven't been in a rush to hire."

Well, this is bizarre. As I was writing this commentary, the headline changed, from the one above, to this: "Jobless Claims Fall, Manufacturing Grows." The second half of the headline is backed up by these "facts": "The Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing activity grew strongly in March. The group's manufacturing index clocked in at 62.5 last month, up from a reading of 61.4 in February. The performance in March was better than analysts expected. A reading above 50 signals expansion, while one below that mark suggests contraction." As I have written before, this kind of "index" is as bogus as it gets. Actual data about "manufacturing growing"? Non-existent, certainly in this article. Indeed the only manufacturing data in the entire article reports exactly the opposite: "Construction spending dipped 0.1 percent in February, following a 0.8 percent decline the month before as bad weather in some parts of the country delayed the start of projects."

Ashleigh Banfield - terminated

I know that my favorite broadcast journalist, Amy Goodman, calls her "Ashes Banfield" because she alleges that on Sept. 11, before going live on a broadcast, Banfield smeared ashes on her face for more "realism." Be that as it may, Banfield went on to become one of NBC's best reporters and MSNBC's best anchors, in Left I's opinion. In a way she was very similar to the BBC's Orla Guerin (story below). Instead of putting on a show with a centrist "expert" and a rightwing "expert" telling us what Iraqis or Palestinians or Americans or Israelis think, she actually went out and talked to "regular" Iraqis, Palestinians, Americans, Israelis, etc., and let them tell us what they thought. When reporting stories, she reported stories, instead of spinning them. Yes, she had just a small dash of Geraldo Rivera in doing so, but in a good way.

So why was she fired? Danny Schechter, whose blog alerted me to this story, says it all started with a speech she gave last April 24th, in which she questioned whether the war coverage was journalism, for which she was reprimanded. Here's some of what she said:

"You didn't see where those bullets landed. You didn't see what happened when the mortar landed. A puff of smoke is not what a mortar looks like when it explodes, believe me. There are horrors that were completely left out of this war. So was this journalism or was this coverage? There is a grand difference between journalism and coverage, and getting access does not mean you're getting the story, it just means you're getting one more arm or leg of the story. And that's what we got, and it was a glorious, wonderful picture that had a lot of people watching and a lot of advertisers excited about cable news. But it wasn't journalism."