Be INFORMED

Saturday, November 25, 2006

No Civil War In Iraq?

   Here is a report on what our non-civil war in Iraq looks like. This come from CNN.

 

MICHAEL WARE , CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, firstly, let me say, perhaps it's easier to deny that this is a civil war, when essentially you live in the most heavily fortified place in the country within the Green Zone, which is true of both the prime minister, the national security adviser for Iraq and, of course, the top U.S. military commanders. However, for the people living on the streets, for Iraqis in their homes, if this is not civil war, or a form of it, then they do not want to see what one really looks like.

This is what we're talking about. We're talking about Sunni neighborhoods shelling Shia neighborhoods, and Shia neighborhoods shelling back.

We're having Sunni communities dig fighting positions to protect their streets. We're seeing Sunni extremists plunging car bombs into heavily-populated Shia marketplaces. We're seeing institutionalized Shia death squads in legitimate police and national police commando uniforms going in, systematically, to Sunni homes in the middle of the night and dragging them out, never to be seen again.

I mean, if this is not civil war, where there is, on average, 40 to 50 tortured, mutilated, executed bodies showing up on the capital streets each morning, where we have thousands of unaccounted for dead bodies mounting up every month, and where the list of those who have simply disappeared for the sake of the fact that they have the wrong name, a name that is either Sunni or Shia, so much so that we have people getting dual identity cards, where parents cannot send their children to school, because they have to cross a sectarian line, then, goodness, me, I don't want to see what a civil war looks like either if this isn't one.

SEE MORE HERE

U.S. Commitment In Iraq Is Finite

"In the days ahead, the Iraqis must make the tough decisions and accept responsibility for their future," incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoye said during the weekly Democratic radio address. "And the Iraqis must know: Our commitment, while great, is not unending."

SEE MORE @ Yahoo News!

 

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Dems Can't Agree On Ethics Enforcement

    The Democrats want to change the lobbying rules so that alot of the corruption goes bye bye but they seem to have a problem agreeing on how to go about it. Some would like to create an outside investigative office to review the ethics complaints when they come up and others would like to leave the checking up to the members. That is not a good idea in my opinion. Members cannot investigate themselves without some conflicts of interest coming up. Outsiders are the better option for these things.

   More from The Wall Street Journal

 

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Rumsfeld Okayed Prison Abuses

   Yes indeed! Now that Rumsfeld has been thrown into the trash heap, all of his goings on while he was  the Secretary of Defense are beginning to come to the surface!

  Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq according to the prisons former commander. The Bush Crime Family is going to need more than paper shredders to cover all of their sins!

FROM Reuters , here is the story:

  Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

  Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.

  "The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished"," she told Saturday's El Pais.       MORE HERE

Say You're Sorry and Pay Us!

    Two of the men that actor Michael Richards went off on at the  Laugh Factory now want Mr. Richards to apologize in person and they may also want some money! Give it a fucking rest already! The man said he was sorry more than once. Maybe he should say it to the two men's faces, but pay them also? I guess that these two punks got found by some shithead lawyer who wants to make a few dollars! No surprise there!

 Here's the story from Yahoo News

 

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The Wiretapping Issue

    In between the election and the carnage in Iraq and the other top news stories in the past few months, we have forgotten all about the illegal wiretapping issue that is slowly winding its way through the courts.

   Thus far, the program has continued unabated. AHHH, but the Dems are taking over soon. Will things change any?

 

Despite a Year of Ire and Angst, Little Has Changed on Wiretaps

By ERIC LICHTBLAU @ NYTimes
Published: November 25, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 — When President Bush went on national television one Saturday morning last December to acknowledge the existence of a secret wiretapping program outside the courts, the fallout was fierce and immediate.

Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and head of the Judiciary Committee, said his party missed its chance on wiretapping.

Mr. Bush’s opponents accused him of breaking the law, with a few even calling for his impeachment. His backers demanded that he be given express legal authority to do what he had done. Law professors talked, civil rights groups sued and a federal judge in Detroit declared the wiretapping program unconstitutional.

      More HERE

Friday, November 24, 2006

It is time to get out of Iraq!

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers

from ABCNEWS Online

The United States has condemned the violence in Iraq that has left more than 200 people dead.

The White House is calling the car bomb attacks in the Shiite Sadr City area of Baghdad "senseless acts of violence".

A spokesman says US President George W Bush is committed to working with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, and a meeting between the two leaders in Jordan next week will go ahead.

Supporters of the prominent Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, have threatened to pull out of Iraq's national unity cabinet and parliament if Prime Minister Al-Maliki meets Mr Bush as planned next week.

The group says US troops should be held responsible for attacks in Sadr City because the troops had failed to improve security there.

It claims to have evidence of collusion between US forces and Sunni extremists.

Meanwhile, US Vice-President Dick Cheney will be in Saudi Arabia tomorrow for talks with King Abdullah about the situation in nearby Iraq.

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

     On top of this  we have Richard A. Clarke saying that we need to withdraw from Iraq.

 

by Richard A. Clarke  via New Republic
Post date 11.21.06 | Issue date 11.27.06

Americans tend to think we can achieve almost any goal if we just expend more resources and try a bit harder. That spirit has built the greatest nation in history, but it may be dooming Iraq. As the head of the British Army recently noted, the very presence of large numbers of foreign combat troops is the source of much of the violence and instability. Our efforts, then, are merely postponing the day when Iraqis find their way to something approaching normalcy. Only withdrawal offers a realistic path forward...

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

    This Bush administration has kept us in Iraq for much longer than is necessary and it is time for us to come back home! There is no point in any more of our children getting killed in a war that was never thought out before we invaded.  Bush can claim that this war was about WMD's or liberating Iraq all day long but we all know that this is not now, nor has it ever been, true.   Be a man for once Mr.Bush, admit your mistake and bring our girls and boys home!

 

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Democrats Seeking Government Classified Data

   Senate Democrats are going after more of the classified data on terrorist detainees, their abuse and some of the governments secrecy surrounding the war among other things.  Committee members are also going to be looking into voter fraud and immigration, for starters.

    It is about time that somebody makes this administration account for all of the secrecy that has been on-going with Bushco, Inc! You do not get this secretive unless you have something to hide and this group of fools has had something to hide from day one!

   Here is David Johnston of The New York Times

    Mr. Leahy, who has said little about his plans for the committee, expressed hope for greater cooperation from the Bush administration, which he described as having been “obsessively secretive.” His aides have identified more than 65 requests he has made to the Justice Department or other agencies in recent years that have been rejected or permitted to languish without reply.

    Now that they are about to control Congress, what he and other Democrats regard as a record of unresponsiveness has energized their renewal of longstanding requests for information about some of the administration’s most hidden and fiercely debated operations. In addition, other such requests by committee members deal with subjects like voter fraud, immigration and background inquiries on Supreme Court nominees.   MORE HERE

 

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Thursday, November 23, 2006

Democrats' Victory Is Felt On K Street

Democrats' Victory Is Felt On K Street

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 23, 2006

The Democrats' takeover of Congress this month has turned official Washington upside down.

Labor and environmental representatives, once also-rans in congressional influence, are meeting frequently with Capitol Hill's incoming Democratic leaders. Corporations that once boasted about their Republican ties are busily hiring Democratic lobbyists. And industries worried about reprisals from the new Democrats-in-charge, especially the pharmaceutical industry, are sending out woe-is-me memos and hoping their GOP connections will protect them in the crunch.      More From WaPo

 

   Since both parties have always had lobbyist chasing after them, we can only hope that the Democrats will have the common sense to not kiss up to the big oil and pharmaceutical companies as the GOP has been doing.

      Oh boy. Let us pray!

 

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It Was My Duty To Refuse To Go To Iraq....

It was my duty to refuse to go to Iraq, says first American army officer facing court martial
By Alex Massie in Washington
Last Updated: 1:56am GMT 23/11/2006

The first American army officer to face court-martial for refusing to serve in Iraq said yesterday that it was his duty to recognize and refuse "illegal" orders.
Lt Watada faces six years in jail for his refusal to join his unit
in Iraq. His service would have been due to end next month

Lt Ehren Watada, 28, faces four charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for his refusal to join his unit in Iraq in the summer. Speaking ahead of a pre-trial hearing, the conscientious objector pledged that he would "fight with everything I have for my freedom and that of all Americans. I will face imprisonment to stand up for my beliefs."

If he had gone to Iraq, his service would have been due to end next month. Instead, if convicted, he could face six years in prison.

READ MORE

Lost In The Desert

By Maureen Dowd
New York Times

Wednesday 22 November 2006

Iraq now evokes that old Jimmy Durante song that goes, "Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go and still have the feeling that you wanted to stay?"

It's hard to remember when America has been so stuck. We can't win and we can't leave.

The good news is that the election finished what Katrina started. It dismantled the president's fake reality about Iraq, causing opinions to come gushing forth from all quarters about where to go from here.

The bad news is that no one, and I mean no one, really knows where to go from here. The White House and the Pentagon are ready to shift to Plan B. But Plan B is their empty term for miraculous salvation.

      Crossposted from TruthOut

More Violence In Iraq

Violence `spiking' all over Iraq
DEATH TOLL MOUNTS AS DECISIONS NEAR ON NATION'S FUTURE
By Hannah Allam and Zaineb Obeid
McClatchy Baghdad Bureau via MercuryNews

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis are dying in record numbers and fleeing by the tens of thousands from an anarchic nation where armed men rule the streets and there's little faith in government institutions, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday.

The 3,709 Iraqis killed in October was the highest monthly toll since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Hundreds of the bodies turned up bound and blindfolded, with signs of torture and execution-style killings.

FOLLOW ME!              

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The Baker Report

CSKendrick of Daily Kos takes a look at the up-coming Baker Report in a very interesting piece.     Let's go take a peek, shall we?

 

Iraq: Handicapping the Baker Report, Part One
by cskendrick
Wed Nov 22, 2006

We're probably not going to get the Baker Report for a while. However, that's no reason not to take a peek at the working papers being used by the think tank that's feeding the Baker Commission its information.

Alan Schwartz's "Scenarios for the Insurgency in Iraq" is done for United States Institute of Peace, which happens to be the institution backing up the Iraq Study Group.

...The commission is headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, a close friend of the Bush family, and former Indiana Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, who also cochaired the 9/11 Commission, and is being coordinated through the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), a government-funded think tank.

Saddle up. Lock and load. :)      FOLLOW ME!

 

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

More Marines May Be Needed In War

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Marine Corps may need to increase in size to sustain deployments to
Iraq and
Afghanistan without sacrificing needed training or putting undue stress on the corps, the new Marine commandant said Wednesday.

At a breakfast meeting with reporters, Gen. James Conway also warned that it could take years to adequately train and equip the Iraqi security forces — longer, perhaps, "than the timeline that we probably feel ... our country will support."

"This is tough work, it doesn't happen overnight," and patience by the American people will be needed, he said. On the plus side, he said Marines he's talked to in recent days are encouraged by the progress they are seeing among Iraqi forces.      More From Yahoo News

 

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140 Bodies Found In Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 140 bodies have been found dumped across Baghdad over the past three days, police said Wednesday.

Police said 52 bullet-riddled bodies were found Wednesday, with 20 of them blindfolded, tied up and possibly tortured.

Police also discovered 29 bodies on Tuesday and 60 on Monday.

The dead are thought to be victims of Sunni-Shiite sectarian revenge killings.                  MORE                         

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Texas Redistricting Cost GOP

    You know what? you have to love those long-ranged GOP members. I'm speaking of Tom Delay. Thanks to his push for the redistricting that was done in Texas, the Democrats now will wield most of the power!

    Here is the story from the Dallas Morning News:

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Two Texans managed to win junior leadership slots Friday as House Republicans picked the team they hope will return them to power. Both Texas senators also hold junior leadership slots. But Democrats are taking over Congress in January. And on that side of the aisle, it's a shutout for Texas.

Not a single Lone Star lawmaker will hold a top-ranked job, a far cry from the days when Fort Worth's Jim Wright was speaker, or the more recent years when Republicans Dick Armey and Tom DeLay served back-to-back terms setting the agenda as majority leader.

"It's a low point," said former Dallas congressman John Bryant, a Democrat. "It's not like it was, there's no question about that."  MORE

 

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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

F.B.I. Ordered To Give Up Records

 

(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to submit “proper disclosures” to the Court and Judicial Watch by December 15, 2006 concerning the U.S. government’s evacuation of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family from the United States immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

                                       More From Judicial Watch

 

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DoJ Quashes Wiretapping Inquiries

By Onnesha Roychoudhuri  via In These Times

Though Maine resident Doug Cowie just celebrated his 75th birthday in October, it was only this past January that he retired from the Maine Public Utility Commission (PUC) where he worked for 18 years. It would be easy to think of Cowie as an innocuous grandfatherly type—particularly after his response when I told him some of his e-mails ended up in my spam folder: “Your what folder?”—but he is one of a growing number of Americans who are acting, in lieu of Congress, as the only check and balance on the Bush administration’s domestic spying program.

        ...MORE             

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Bush, Rove Get Criticized From Martinez Pick

Bush, Rove Face Criticism From Activists Over Martinez Choice

By Catherine Dodge

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Grassroots grousing over the plan to install Senator Mel Martinez as Republican national chairman reflects the new reality facing President George W. Bush and his top political strategist, Karl Rove: The party faithful aren't as faithful any more.

The choice of the Florida lawmaker represents both the president's penchant for picking long-time Bush family loyalists and Rove's view that Hispanic voters are vital to the future of the party.

Read More From Bloomberg

 

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Bush Sr.: My Son Is An Honest Man

By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - Former President George H.W. Bush took on Arab critics of his son Tuesday during a testy exchange at a leadership conference in the capital of this U.S. ally.

"My son is an honest man," Bush told members of the audience harshly criticized the current U.S. leader's foreign policy.

Read More From Yahoo Mews

 

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Reno Files Challenge To Terror Law

Nov 20, 10:27 PM (ET)

By MATT APUZZO

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Attorney General Janet Reno and seven other former Justice Department officials filed court papers Monday arguing that the Bush administration is setting a dangerous precedent by trying a suspected terrorist outside the court system.

It was the first time that Reno, attorney general in the Clinton administration, has spoken out against the administration's policies on terrorism detainees, underscoring how contentious the court fight over the nation's new military commissions law has become. Former attorneys general rarely file court papers challenging administration policy.

   MORE HERE

 

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Let The Lawsuits Begin!

   It looks as if the lawsuits will begin in Florida.

   Vern Buchanan (R) won a tight race down in Sarasota County by some  369 votes over Christine Jennings (D).  This is a house race and supposedly 18,000 votes were not registered by the voting machines that were in use.

    The Florida Elections Canvassing Commission says that after recounting the votes that Buchanan won the race.  It is interesting to note that this commission is made up of Gov. Jeb Bush,Tom Gallagher, and Sen. Daniel Webster, all who are Republicans.

    Ms. Jennings is calling for a new election, as well she should.

      More from NYT

Monday, November 20, 2006

Another GOP Rat Flaps His Face!

   It seems that the GOP is having  personnel problems as of late.

   It is reported in Harpers that GOP rat Ken Adelman is now jumping off the ship. Remember him? He was one of the brilliant idiots in the ' Iraq war brain trust' unit. He and Rummy and Cheney had a lovers quarrel and now they're all in morning. Especially after that ass-kicking they took from the Democrats on election day!

   Anyway, Adelman is now saying that the prez is ultimately responsible for the debacle in Iraq. Well, Yeah! Hello stupid! You should be also Mr Adelman, since you backed him up every step of the way!

       READ MORE

Bushco Dictatorship Signing Statement

   It looks as if our stupid little dictator-wanna-be is back into his signing statements again! We may be in more trouble than most people realize!

    Bush signed into law a resolution that will keep the government running thru the 8th of December. That's well and good, I guess. BUT, Bush added a little addendum to it which was a signing statement dealing with the recent elections.

   "The executive branch shall construe the recent congressional elections in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President as Commander in Chief. The election of the Democrat Party will not hinder the Executive from protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks. This will assist in achieving the shared goals of the Executive and the American people who desire freedom."

    What this means is that The Executive does not recognize the Democratic controlled congress!

    You can bet your ass that I will have more to say about this little shit's activities!

Fear Of Freedom

   While browsing through the New York Times , I ran across this  post in the Opinion section. It makes for some interesting reading.

   Fear Of Freedom

By WADDAH ALI
Published: November 20, 2006

UNDER Saddam Hussein, if you were not a member of the Baath party, you wouldn’t get rations, you’d be forbidden to carry on studying, you wouldn’t be on the earth but in the sea.

              MORE HERE

Bush Would Understand Israeli Attack On Iran

Bush: I would understand if Israel chose to attack Iran

By Yossi Verter, Haaretz Correspondent

The United States lacks sufficient intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities at this time, which prevents it from initiating a military strike against them, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told European politicians and diplomats with whom she has recently met.

Rice mentioned three reasons why the United States is currently unable to carry out a military operation against Iran: the wish to solve the crisis through peaceful means; concern that a military strike will be ineffective - that it would fail to completely destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities; and the lack of precise intelligence on the targets' locations.

U.S. President George W. Bush and President Jacques Chirac of France met several weeks ago. Bush told his French counterpart that the possibility that Israel would carry out a strike against Iran's nuclear installations should not be ruled out.    More From Haaretz

Sunday, November 19, 2006

CIA Analysis Finds No Iranian Nuclear Weapons

 Brendan Smialowski  @ AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A classifed draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter has said.

Seymour Hersh, writing in an article for the November 27 issue of the magazine The New Yorker released in advance, reported on whether the administration of Republican President George W. Bush was more, or less, inclined to attack Iran after Democrats won control of Congress last week.

A month before the November 7 legislative elections, Hersh wrote, Vice President Dick Cheney attended a national-security discussion that touched on the impact of Democratic victory in both chambers on Iran policy.

"If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran," Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion.

Cheney said the White House would circumvent any legislative restrictions "and thus stop Congress from getting in its way," he said.

MORE HERE

The Importance Of Henry Waxman

by mcjoan @ DailyKos
Sun Nov 19, 2006

 

Ron Suskind proves Frank Rich's point that "[e]lections may come and go, but Washington remains incorrigible. Not even voters delivering a clear message can topple the town's conventional wisdom once it has been set in the stone of punditry."

Suskind writes

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the soon-to-be chairman of the Government Reform Committee, is a classic pit bull. He has dreamed of subpoenas -- issuing them, and placing witnesses under oath -- for 12 years.... Democrats should be able to both investigate and lead, but it will take an embrace of Republican-style discipline (hardly a Democratic strong suit), an appreciation for deferred gratification (think inauguration day, January 2009) and a shrewd division of labor between pit bulls and show horses.

You'd think of all people, Ron Suskind who has worked so hard to uncover the malfeasance and misfeasance of the Bush administration, would have better understanding of the critical need for information gathering.

MORE HERE

More Of The Same? Not This Congress

November 14, 2006
BY JESSE JACKSON  @ Chicago Sun Times
As Democrats take control of the House and Senate, many wonder whether it makes a difference. The corporate lobbies aren't gong anywhere -- they started to hedge their bets by contributing to Democrats late in the election. The foreign policy establishment that led us into Iraq and continues to support a global economic posture that benefits the capital but undermines work isn't going anywhere. Does it make a difference?

Yes, it does, in ways that are big and small. First, the agenda of the country will change. Consider the six-point agenda that Democrats will pass through the House in the first 100 hours. They will vote to raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade; cut interest rates on student loans in half and expand Pell grants; lower drug prices by removing the ban on Medicare's negotiating bulk purchases; revoke subsidies to Big Oil and put it in renewable energy; revoke tax breaks for companies outsourcing jobs and take commonsense homeland security steps like requiring chemical companies to have their defense plans reviewed.

Second, the new congressional majority will force the administration to face oversight and accountability for the first time. Perhaps the worst aspect of one-party rule is that Congress stopped holding the executive branch accountable. The result was billions looted in the reconstruction of Iraq, regulatory agencies simply handed over to the companies they were supposed to regulate and a lawless president checked only by the courts. Many commentators warn Congress against holding hearings, using subpoena power, inquiring into the presidential lawlessness, claiming it would descend into partisan spitball fights. That's nonsense. Accountability is vital and exposing the waste, fraud and abuse that has gone on would be a national service.                MORE HERE