Russia Ready To Withdraw From The INF

   It's 2 in the morning on the east coast of the good old USA! I should be in bed but I guess that the 4 gallons of coffee that I drank on Tuesday is not going to let me sleep anytime soon.

   A story from 1913 Intel  says that Russia is on the verge of withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) for two reasons. The first being because Poland, along with the Czech Republic are more than likely going to get approval for their ballistic missile defense (BMD) installations to be put into place by the U.S.

   The second reason being that Moscow has been waiting to hear from Washington on whether new negotiations will be started in order to renew the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which is set to expire in 2009. So far, Moscow is getting the cold shoulder from the "hoods in the house". White House, that is.

    You just have to love this administration. Just like a cancerous growth!

   Condi rice is supposed to be the expert on Russia so what the hell has she been doing trying to play smart in the middle east?

 

Technorati tags: Russia, U.S., INF, Washington, Moscow

 

Bush Orders Review Into Treatment Of Wounded Troops

   It is a shame that it took a newspaper report to get the government and our military to do anything to help our wounded troops who have been in Walter Reed living in such a miserable environment.

   If this had been a civilian hospital it would have been closed down!

   Finally, we hear this from Bushco.

 

 

 

By Matt Spetalnick Tue Feb 20,2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration ordered a review on Tuesday of the care of wounded U.S. troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan after reports that many face neglect in the Army's medical system.

  Democrats controlling Congress demanded a thorough investigation and promised legislation after a Washington Post series exposed deteriorating conditions for hundreds of outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the premier U.S. military hospital.

The controversy poses a public relations problem for President George W. Bush, who has spoken often of America's debt to military personnel wounded in the wars, visited the hospital's wards and honored military amputees at White House functions.

The White House expressed concern at conditions for veterans after reports that many suffering physical and psychological problems lived in shoddy housing on or near the sprawling complex and faced long battles with Army bureaucracy.

 

Technorati tags: bush, wounded troops, walter reed, congress, veterans

400,000 Barrels Of Oil Lost In Iraq, Per Day

   Azzaman tells us that even with the extra security in Baghdad, that Iraq is losing 400,000 barrels of oil per day.

Azzaman, February 20, 2007

Iraq is losing up to 400,000 barrels of oil a day due to attacks targeting its oil infrastructure, a senior oil ministry official said.

Assem Jihad, the ministry’s spokesman, said at current high prices on international markets the loss is massive as it amounts to billions of dollars a year.

Jihad said there were 159 major attacks on oil installations in 2006, about one attack every other day.

Most of the attacks targeted the country’s pipelines, he said.

There were 116 attacks on pipelines mainly those leading to refineries or export terminals in the north.

“These attacks have forced the country’s refineries to operate at nearly 50% of capacity,” he said.

There is no special force to guard the pipelines and the ministry relies on Iraqi security forces which have been engaged in ferocious city fighting against rebels.

The government has earmarked $2.5 billion for the reconstruction of the oil sector this year.

 

Technorati tags: Oil, Iraq, Baghdad, Rebels

Vulture Funds And The Robbing Of Poor Countries

   I seldom make it a point to listen to anything that Jesse Jackson has to say but once in a while he will bring up a subject that should get all of our attention.  The following is one of those subjects.   

                          

Published on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 by the Chicago Sun-Times

Time to Clip the Wings of Vulture Funds

by Jesse Jackson

    They prey upon the poorest nations, taking resources from the most desperate peoples -- billionaire scavengers pocketing the funds that might go to feed children whose families live on less than $1 a day. They are called the vulture funds. They protect their scavengings with fat checks to politicians and lobbyists. One of the leading vulture firms is led by major donors to President Bush. Now it is time to put an end to this disgrace.

Consider impoverished Zambia, a small, poor country where the vast majority of people survive on little more than $1 a day. In 1979, the Romanian government lent Zambia money to buy Romanian tractors. The tractors didn't work well, and U.S. and European agricultural subsidies basically hijack Zambia's potential export markets. Zambia was unable to earn the foreign exchange needed to pay for this and other debts.

In 1999, Romania and Zambia negotiated to liquidate the debt for $3 million. The Paris Club of rich donors -- under great pressure from the global human rights movement -- has finally been moving to write off significant portions of unpayable debts, if the debt relief is used for investment in health, education and other vital needs in the debtor country.

Even as the deal was being signed, the vultures arrived. One of Debt Advisory International's vulture funds bought the debt from Romania for less than $4 million. They then renegotiated with Zambian officials and -- amid charges of bribery and abuse -- cut a new deal on the debt. They are now suing the Zambian government for the original debt plus interest, which they calculate at over $40 million, and they expect to win.

For the United States, with our $2 trillion budget, $40 million is peanuts. In Zambia, it represents vital medicine and textbooks. Martin Kalunga-Banda, Zambian presidential adviser and a consultant to Oxfam, told the BBC's Newsnight, "That $40 million is equal to the value of all the debt relief we received last year."

Investigative reporting by Greg Palast, broadcast on the BBC and Democracy Now, has exposed the vulture funds, defined by the International Monetary Fund as companies that buy up the debt of poor nations on the cheap when it is about to be written off and then sue for the full debt plus interest, often pocketing 10 times what they paid for it.

"Profiteering doesn't get any more cynical than this," reported Caroline Pearce of the global Jubilee debt forgiveness campaign.

Paul Singer, a reclusive billionaire, is said to have essentially invented vulture funds. In 1996, his company paid $11 million for some discounted Peruvian debt and then threatened to bankrupt the country unless it was repaid $58 million. They got their pound of flesh. Now, according to the BBC, they're suing Congo Brazzaville for $400 million for a debt they bought for $10 million.

U.S. courts serve to enforce the vulture funds' contracts. The president or Congress could bring an end to the practice. So naturally, the vulture funds lavish attention and contributions on key politicians. Debt Advisory International, for example, was paying $240,000 a year to the lobby firm Greenberg Traurig -- before lead lobbyist Jack Abramoff was jailed.

Singer has more direct political connections. He is among the biggest donors to Bush and the Republican cause in New York -- giving a reported $1.7 million since Bush started his first presidential campaign.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, raised the matter directly with Bush himself, asking him if he knew what his leading backers like Singer and Michael Sheehan were doing, and whether he would crack down on the practice. Conyers reports that the president said, "I don't know anything about this," and vowed to put an aide on it right away. Conyers has promised to pursue the matter.

This is the new global order: the wealthy -- armed with lawyers, lobbyists, courts and retainers -- making fortunes by preying on the vulnerable. Our government says that we want to be a source of hope to the poorest peoples of the world. The vulture firms make us a source of despair -- and an object of hate.

© Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group

 

Technorati tags: Vulture Funds, Scavengers, BBC, Bush Crime Family, Donors

McCain Defends Conservative Christian Butt Kissing

    The McCain train has rolled into Vero Beach, Florida on Monday after a short stop in Orlando. I wonder if he visited his imaginary castle in his mental disneyland.

   He has gone on the defensive over his kissing up to Christian conservatives just to win the presidential nomination. his stop in Orlando was a visit to religious broadcasters.    MORE BELOW

 

AP

"I don't know which part of the party is going to be more influential or not," McCain said. "I've tried always in my political career to have a big tent party where a lot of people are welcome with differing views."

The Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition said after McCain's private meeting in Orlando that he helped repair damage with Christian conservatives.

"He recognized he cannot be president of the United States without reaching out to the evangelicals," Mahoney said. "There definitely is an uneasy relationship between McCain and people of faith, but he is reaching out and he is breaking down those walls. He helped himself in that room tremendously today."

       Herein lies the problem! You must be an evangelical ass kisser if you want to be the president and I have no doubt that John McCain kissed some butt today!

    The so-called Christian right needs to be knocked down a peg or two and they need to go back to their churches and teach about God or whatever crap they are telling the poor folks attending a church in this day and age.

   I don't know about you, but I've had enough of the " religious right " moving our countries politics into a very bad direction. Just think of the last six years for a simple reminder.

    These idiots that McCain is making all nice with are no more true " Christians " than Satan is!

   Go home McCain. We've had enough of you already!

 

Technorati tags: John McCain, Conservative, Christian Right

Who Would American's Vote For?

   Here's an interesting poll that was done by Gallop

Editor&Publisher     February 20,2007

    "While Americans overwhelmingly say they would vote for a black, woman, Catholic, or Hispanic president, they are less likely to say they would support a Mormon candidate, one who is 72 years old, or one who has been married three times," Gallup reported.

Asked if they'd be willing to vote for a "generally well-qualified" candidate with the following characterisitics, here's how the tally went in the Feb. 9- 11 poll.

Black 94%
Jewish 92%
A woman 88%
Hispanic 87%
Mormon 72%
Married for third time 67%
72 years of age 57%
A homosexual 55%
An atheist 45%

Conservatives express more misgivings about candidates from all of the above categories -- except the age question, where they are more disapproving of voting for someone 72 or over.

 

Technorati tags: American, Presidential Preferences

U.K. To Pull Troops From Iraq?

   The BBC says that Prime minister Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

The BBC's James Landale said 1,500 troops were expected to return home in months, rising to 3,000 by Christmas.

    Of course, this could drag on longer if things turn worse in Iraq, which we all know that it will.

           White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe:

"While the United Kingdom is maintaining a robust force in southern Iraq, we're pleased that conditions in Basra have improved sufficiently that they are able to transition more control to the Iraqis. The United States shares the same goal of turning responsibility over to the Iraqi Security Forces and reducing the number of American troops in Iraq."

   I hate it when a White House spokesman speaks. It sends chills up my spin because of the crap that will ooze out of the spokesman's mouth.

   Bring even just a third of our troops home now and the Iraqis will have no choice but to learn their jobs real quick! Make it sink or swim time and I bet that they will learn how to swim quickly.

 

Technorati tags: U.K., Tony Blair, Troops, Iraq

 

Grim Facts About Walter Reed Military Hospital

    Once again I am going to dig into the asses of President Bush and certain members of our military who haven't exactly been doing our wounded ( physically and mentally ) troops from Iraq any real service.

    You all know about the deplorable conditions in which some of our troops have been subjected to while being in Walter Reed. I'm talking mold, mildew,walls falling in or down and a slew of things that just do not work, period!

   As I noted earlier, some of those things have been rectified as of yesterday and the work continues but only after a newspaper did a story on the conditions.

   There should have been no need for any story such as this in the first place and what if the news never came out? I seriously doubt if any repair work would have been started anytime soon.

   This entire incident has been down right shameful and disgusting coming from this country of ours. I'd like to kick some of the Bush Crime Family members right upside their fucking little heads!       MORE BELOW                                 

    From American Progress we have this.

Next year, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system expects to treat 263,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, a number three times what the VA initially projected. "The number of veterans coming into the VA health care system has been rising by about 5 percent a year, as the number of people returning from Iraq with illnesses or injuries keep rising." President Bush has promised that our nation would "keep its commitments to those who have risked their lives for our freedom." "We owe them all we can give them," Bush said after a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "Not only for when they're in harm's way, but when they come home to help them adjust if they have wounds, or help them adjust after their time in service." Yet as the number of soldiers injured in Iraq continues to grow, the VA health care system is "buckling under a growing volume of disability claims and rising demand for medical attention." As of last month, the VA system was experiencing a backlog of 600,000 cases, "with about 168,000 pending for at least six months."

   On Walter Reed itself.

Building 18, which for many soldiers "symbolizes the indifference and neglect that many of the wounded say they experience at Walter Reed," "has been plagued with mold, leaky plumbing and a broken elevator." Life for many in the hospital resembles a chapter out of the novel "Catch-22": "The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide." Priest admitted Walter Reed's dilapidated condition was "surprising." "We think that the American -- we know that the American people support the troops, no matter what they think of the war," Priest said on last night's edition of PBS Newshour. "And so, when we started hearing these stories of neglect, and in some cases indifference, it was unbelievable."

Thirty-five percent of Iraq veterans received mental health care after returning home, and 12 percent were diagnosed with a mental health ailment. A Government Accountability Office report found last year the VA "did not spend all of the extra $300 million it budgeted to increase mental health services and failed to keep track of how some of the money was used."

  This is the real clincher!

In a survey conducted last year, the Pentagon Inspector General's office "found that U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan lack sufficient armored vehicles, heavy weapons such as artillery or large machine guns, devices designed to jam signals used to detonate roadside bombs, and communications equipment." "As a result," the survey found, "service members performed missions without the proper equipment, used informal procedures to obtain equipment and sustainment support, and canceled or postponed missions while waiting to receive equipment." Military families are still raising money on their own to buy their loved ones the most state-of-the-art body armor.

   This is our president caring about our troops

    To hell with George Bush, and Dick Cheney! They should be strung up by their balls and beat with a club.

 

Technorati tags: Walter Reed, US Military, Iraq Veterans, VA, GAO, Military Families

Maybe We Deserve to be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires

   Here's a story which falls under the " while you were sleeping " category, dealing with President Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy.

             

 

Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted February 20, 2007.

While America obsessed about Brittany's shaved head, Bush offered a budget that offers $32.7 billion in tax cuts to the Wal-Mart family alone, while cutting $28 billion from Medicaid.

"Now, after she shaved her head in a bizarre episode that culminates a months-long saga of controversial behavior, it's the question being asked by her fans, her foes and the general public: What was she thinking?"-- Bald and Broken: Inside Britney's Shaved Head, Sheila Marikar, ABC.com, Feb. 19

What was she thinking? How about nothing? How about who gives a shit? How's that for an answer, Sheila Marikar of ABC news, you fucking idiot?

I'm not one of those curmudgeons who freaks out every time that Bradgelina moves the war off the front page of the Post, or Katie Couric decides to usher in a whole new era of network news with photos of the imbecile demon-spawn of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I understand that we live in a demand-based economy and that there is far more demand for brainless celebrity bullshit than there is, say, for the fine print of the Health and Human Services budget.

But that was before this week. I awoke this morning in New York City to find Britney Spears plastered all over the cover of two gigantic daily newspapers, simply because she cut her hair off over the weekend. To me, this crosses a line. My definition of a news story involves something happening. If nothing happens, then you can't have "news," because nothing has changed since the day before. Britney Spears was an idiot last Thursday, an idiot on Friday, and an idiot on both Saturday and Sunday. She was, shockingly, also an idiot on Monday. It will be news when she stops being an idiot, and we'll know when that happens, because she'll have shot herself for the good of the planet. Britney Spears cutting her hair off is the least-worthy front page news story in the history of humanity.

Apparently, from now on, every time a jackass sticks a pencil in his own eye, we'll have to wait an extra ten minutes to hear what happened on the battlefield or in Congress or any other place that actually matters.

On the same day that Britney was shaving her head, a guy I know who works in the office of Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush's proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press, mainly because of the controversy over the Iraq war resolution. All the same, the Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.

Not only does it make many of Bush's tax cuts permanent, but it envisions a complete repeal of the Estate Tax, which mainly affects only those who are in the top two-tenths of the top one percent of the richest people in this country. The proposed savings from the cuts over the next decade are about $442 billion, or just slightly less than the amount of the annual defense budget (minus Iraq war expenses). But what's interesting about these cuts are how Bush plans to pay for them.

Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.

Or how about this: if the Estate Tax goes, the heirs to the Mars candy corporation -- some of the world's evilest scumbags, incidentally, routinely ripped by human rights organizations for trafficking in child labor to work cocoa farms in places like Cote D'Ivoire -- if the estate tax goes, those assholes will receive about $11.7 billion in tax breaks. That's more than three times the amount Bush wants to cut from the VA budget ($3.4 billion) over the same time period.

Some other notable estimate estate tax breaks, versus corresponding cuts:

• Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts
• Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut
• Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million cut

And so on and so on. Sanders additionally pointed out that the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who received a $400 million retirement package, would receive about $164 million in tax breaks.

Compare that to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which Bush proposes be completely eliminated, at a savings of $108 million over ten years. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.

Somehow, to me, that's the worst one on the list. Here you have the former CEO of a company that scored record profits even as it gouged consumers, with gas prices rising more than 70 percent since January of 2001. There is a direct correlation between the avarice of oil company executives and the increased demand for federal aid for heating oil programs like LIHEAP, and yet the federal government wants to reward these same executives for raising prices on the backs of consumers.

Even if you're a traditional, Barry Goldwater conservative, the kinds of budgets that Bush has sent to the hill not only this year but this whole century are the worst-case scenario; they increase spending generally while cutting taxes and social programming. They commit taxpayers to giant subsidies of already Croseus-rich energy corporations, pharmaceutical companies and defense manufacturers while simultaneously cutting taxes on those who most directly benefit from those subsidies. Thus you're not cutting spending -- you're just cutting spending on people who actually need the money. (According to the Washington Times, which in a supremely ironic twist of fate did one of the better analyses of the budget, spending will be 1.6 percent of GDP higher in the 2008 budget than in was in 2000, while revenues will be 2.6 percent of GDP lower). This is something different from traditional conservatism and something different from big-government liberalism; this is a new kind of politics that transforms the state into a huge, ever-expanding instrument for converting private savings into corporate profit.

That's not only bad government, it's bad capitalism. It makes legalized bribery and political connections more important factors than performance and competition in the corporate marketplace. Beyond that, it's just plain fucking offensive to ordinary people. It's one thing to complain about paying taxes when those taxes are buying a bag of groceries once a month for some struggling single mom in eastern Kentucky. But when your taxes are buying a yacht for some asshole who hires African eight year-olds to pick cocoa beans for two cents an hour ... I sure don't remember reading an excuse for that anywhere in the Federalist Papers.

I also don't remember reading much about this year's budget. It was a story for about half a minute when it came out two weeks ago. It barely made TV newscasts, and even when it did, only the broad strokes made it on air. There was some fuss about the Alternative Minimum Tax and a mild uproar over the fact that the 2008 budget failed to account for estimates of the costs for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But overall, the budget was a non-starter as a news story. As it does every year, it takes a back seat to hot-button issues like gay marriage, the latest election scandal, etc. Already, the 2008 election presidential campaign has gotten far more ink than the 2008 budget. As entertainment, bullshit politics always triumphs over real politics.

Here's the thing about the system of news coverage we have today. If the Walton family, or Lee Raymond, or the heirs to the Mars fortune actually needed the news media to work better than it does now, believe me, it would work better. But they have no such need, because the system is working just fine for them as is. The people it's failing are the rest of us, and most of the rest of us, apparently, would rather sniff Anna Nicole Smith's corpse or watch Britney Spears hump a fire hydrant than find out what our tax dollars are actually paying for.

Shit, when you think about it that way, why not steal from us? People that dumb don't deserve to have money.

 

Technorati tags: Tax Cuts, Media, Estate Tax

The U.S. Navy Buildup In The Middle East

The carrier USS John C. Stennis — backed by a strike group with more than 6,500 sailors and Marines and with additional minesweeping ships — arrived in the region Monday. It joined the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower after President Bush ordered the build-up as a show of strength to Iran.

The additional U.S. firepower has ratcheted up tensions with Iran. But Walsh said the increase aims to reassure Arab allies in the Gulf and prevent misunderstandings that could escalate into outright conflict.

"They threaten to use oil as a weapon. They threaten to close the Straits of Hormuz," Walsh said. "And so it is the combination of the rhetoric, the tone, and the aggressive exercises in very constrained waters that gives us concern."

Since the Stennis was ordered to the region, Iranian leaders have increasingly warned that they would respond to any attack by closing off oil shipping lanes or attacking U.S. interests.   AP     By JIM KRANE

    A University of Maryland/Zogby International poll of Arab public opinion this month showed residents of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other allies believe Iran is far less a threat than the U.S. and Israel.

    The people in the middle east understand things that we ignorant Americans do not. This entire fiasco in the middle east between Iran and the United States is over the Bush Crime Family and the oil industry wanting to take over as many oil producing countries as they can get away with.

    I'm not sure who the aggressor would be in the case between the U.S. and Iran. I see Iran having to sink a few ships in the Straits of Hormuz as a way of keeping the Bush Crime Family from taking anyone's oil out of the region. Yes, the price of the crude would go up but what do you think would happen if the Bush clan got their hands on it?

   Already the price of oil is back on the up-tick just over the threat of a possible confrontation with Iran. I've watched my prices at the pump go from $2.04 per gallon something like two weeks ago up to $2.20 two days ago. If this is not price manipulation then there is no such thing!

   Better watch out with all of the new weapons that Saudi Arabia is buying as of late. They may not be for defense against Iran but for defense against the United States, in time.

 

Technorati tags: U.S.Navy, Iran, Weapons, Oil, Bush Crime Family, Saudi Arabia

 

Accused Terrorist Is Big GOP Donor

 

 ABCNews

Accused Terrorist Is Big GOP Donor

February 19, 2007 1:51 PM

Justin Rood Reports:

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) won't say what it plans to do with thousands of dollars in campaign donations it received from an accused terror financier.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari gave $15,250 to the NRCC since 2002, according to FEC records published on the Web site opensecrets.org.

On Friday, Alishtari pled not guilty to funding terrorism and other crimes, including financial fraud.

The NRCC is the main political group dedicated to helping the Republican party win seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Reached Monday morning for comment, an NRCC spokeswoman declined to discuss the matter on the record.

The indictment against Alishtari unsealed in Manhattan federal court Friday charges him with providing material support to terrorists by transferring $152,000 between banks to allegedly be used to purchase night-vision goggles and other equipment needed for a terrorist training camp.

  

                                                  

  Alishtari, aka Michael Mixon, was paid for his efforts to collect and transfer the funds, which included $25,000 sent from a bank in New York to a bank in Montreal, Canada, the indictment alleges.

Police and FBI agents arrested Alishtari in New York City on Friday. A day earlier, agents raided his Ardsley, N.Y. home, according to the "Lower Hudson Journal News." When a reporter for the paper reached a woman claiming to be Alishtari's wife on Friday and informed her of the charges, she cried and said he was innocent, the paper reported.

The NRCC would not confirm it had received donations from Mr. Alishtari, or that he had received numerous awards from the organization, as is claimed by an online list of personal accomplishments that appears to have been posted by Mr. Alishtari.

The list says he was made a life member of the NRCC's "Inner Circle" and was named New York State Businessman of the Year by the group in 2003 and 2004. 

The NRCC "Businessperson of the Year" fundraising campaign, which gave such "awards" to at least 1,900 GOP donors, has been derided as a telemarketing scam by political watchdogs.

Read Brian Ross' previous investigation on the NRCC's "Person of the Year" fundraising campaign.

The online list also claims Alishtari was appointed to the president's "USNRCC White House Business Advisory Group."

An archived Web site for one of Alishtari's companies, GlobalProtector.net, claims it had demonstrated a "Web filter" technology for officials at the Department of Defense's Miami, Fla.-based Southern Command (SouthCom), which coordinates U.S. military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean and oversees the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

SouthCom spokesman Steve Lucas would not confirm or deny any contacts between Alishtari and officials there. SouthCom personnel he spoke with said SouthCom does not use the company's software, and could not rule out the possibility they had received a sales pitch from him or another company representative.

A database of unclassified federal contracts at FedSpending.org does not show SouthCom or any other government branch awarded business to Alishtari's company.

A call to the telephone number which had been listed on GlobalProtector's site connects to a recorded message offering the caller to "spark up your days and nights" by calling a 1-800 phone chat line.

 

Technorati tags: NRC, GOP, Alishtari, GlobalProtector, SouthCom, Bush

100 Deaths From Iraqi Fighters In Two Days!

   The insurgents are at it once again as if that is a surprise.

   A suicide bomber  attacked a funeral in Baghdad on Tuesday killing seven people and injuring at least fifteen more. This brings the death total to more than 100 killed in attacks in the past two days!

   On the other side of Baghdad, eleven more were killed by a car bomb.

                                      MORE BELOW

  

                  

           Al Jazeera asked readers:

"Has any of the Bush Iraq plans worked other than causing the worst destruction?"

   Some of the answers:

Added: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
At best George Bush and his friends and allies are a bunch of arrogant senseless people bent on destroying the world. It is obvious for everybody with some knowledge of the situation that the wars unleashed against Iraq and Afghanistan are lost, creating a completely new situation in the Middle East and the wider world. The US is being cut to the size it really is and Israel is in for a giant storm. Nationalism is sweeping trough the region. Israel which was the main organiser of the war against Iraq and which still continues to propagate war against Iran is in deep trouble. One home made. Arrogance is being punished.
Van Zwam, Dendermonde, Belgium

               * * * *

Added: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
America's self-centred policy created the ugly situation in Afghanistan, they are yet to find any reasonable solution to it. Any policy enuciated by them presently on Iraq will hold no water, as their presence itself is a problem, let alone the surrogate rulers of Iraq placed there by them. They are nursing another haven for terrorism which the world may not be able to cope with.
FRANK AKINTOLA ENGR, UGHELLI, Nigeria

               * * * *

Added: Tuesday, 20 February 2007
To IRAQI FREEDOM, Rochester, USA. Sorry, but the battle by America is not a losing cause it has already been lost. Bush's plan, much like his entire administration is a failure. I am embarassed to be an American citizen. I would welcome any invitation by any country to become a citizen, other than Israel, which is America's 51st state.
Robare, Denver, USA                  Read More Here

 

Technorati tags: 100 Deaths, Iraqi fighters, Bush

Washington Times and WSJ Continue The Murtha Smear Campaign

The legislation I'm putting together...They must have the equipment and the training and they must be certified by the Chiefs of the various services before they can go back.

...so they need to train on that equipment and then take it with them...They're going to have to certify to us that they are ready and they're going to have to stop the extensions.

                             ...JOHN MURTHA

                      

                                     

 

   I post this in response to the totally ' smear job ' that both the Washington Times and the Wall Street Journal published in their papers today on john Murtha.

          Wall Street Journal:

Rep. John Murtha, who's spent more than two decades amassing political clout by doling out defense earmarks, might prefer to "slow bleed" the administration by putting conditions on money appropriated to fight the war.

Washington Times:

Now the action shifts to Rep. John Murtha and his attempt to attach to the supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan conditions that would make it more difficult for Mr. Bush to pursue his new strategy.

   If you wannabe newspapers are going to report the news, then report the news with the entire story and not just the parts that the Bush Crime Family would like to hear!

   You are starting to look like those pathetic fools over at Fox News with their  " Fair and Balanced " bull. " Fairly Unbalanced " would be more like it!

 

Technorati tags: Washington times, WSJ, John Murtha, Bush Crime Family

Appeals Court Rule Detainees Can't Use U.S. Courts

    Guantanamo Bay detainees can't challenge their imprisonment in the U.S. courts, so says a federal appeals court. That will keep one of Bush's provisions intact with his anti-terrorism plan.

   AP

Barring detainees from the U.S. court system was a key provision in the Military Commissions Act, which Bush pushed through Congress last year to set up a system to prosecute terrorism suspects.

Civil libertarians and leading Democrats decried the law as unconstitutional and a violation of American values. The law allows the government to indefinitely detain foreigners who have been designed as "enemy combatants" and authorizes the CIA to use aggressive but undefined interrogation tactics.

But the most criticized provision of the law was the one stripping U.S. courts of the authority to hear arguments from detainees who said they were being held illegally.

   Maybe we need to throw these bum judges out into the street along with the Bush Crime Family. I'm sure that there is a Salvation Army that would let them sleep there at night, if they can sleep with a dirty conscience.

                              IMPEACH! INDICT! IMPRISON!

 

Technorati tags: Appeals Court, Detainees, Bush Crime Family, Terrorism

 

Sexualization Of Girls Increasing Problem

   In a report  by the American Psychological Association, they say that, "Sexualization of girls is a broad and increasing problem and is harmful to girls."                        MORE BELOW

                                             

                                                                                                                          

            AP

The pressure of what experts call "sexualization" can lead to depression, eating disorders, and poor academic performance, said the report, released Sunday.

Adult women dressed as school girls in music videos, bikini-clad dolls in hot tubs, and sexually-charged advertisements featuring teenagers were among the many examples cited.

Such omnipresent images -- on television and the Internet, in movies and magazines -- can also have a negative effect on a young girl's sexual development, the study cautioned.

Also cited was a Skechers shoe ad that features pop singer Christina Aguilera dressed as a school girl in pigtails, with her shirt unbuttoned while licking a lollipop.

The popular Bratz dolls, the study noted, depict "girls marketed in bikinis, sitting in a hot tub, mixing drinks, and standing around, while the 'Boyz' play guitar and stand with their surf boards," it said. The dolls come dressed in miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas.

   I'm no fan of Aguilera, but she did look hot in the pigtails, don't you think? Advertising does go a bit over board at times and maybe they should get a little more mature adults for their ads. That will never happen because sex, at any age, sells!

 

Technorati tags: Sexualization, Girls, New Study

Walter Reed Army Medical Center Getting Much Needed Repairs

   Bad publicity will sometimes get good things accomplished such as the repairs that are needed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It looks as if those repairs were started yesterday after a Washington Post story over the weekend spoke about the mold and mildew and the suicides of some patients.

   The hospital has even managed to fix a broken elevator!

   This is kind of pathetic when one of the premier military hospitals in the country has certain buildings falling apart and then has the nerve to place wounded patients from Iraq in these buildings. This is our country/administration caring about our troops?

Washington Post

Spec. Jeremy Duncan, whose room has a moldy wall that was featured in one photograph in the Post series, has been moved to another room while workers make repairs. Duncan will be able to return to his room when the work is completed, Weightman said.

Weightman said the medical center has received an outpouring of concern about conditions and procedures since the articles appeared and has taken steps to improve what soldiers and their families describe as a messy battlefield of bureaucratic problems and mistreatment.

"We're starting to attack how we'll fix and mitigate" some of the problems, he said.

Social workers will now be stationed around the clock at Mologne House, the 200-room hotel on the post where many of the outpatients live. Plans are being developed to better train other staff members who deal with outpatient needs.

The Army will also consider moving some outpatients to its other medical centers throughout the United States and will determine over the next weeks whether more workers are needed at Walter Reed.

 

Technorati tags: Walter Reed, Army, Pentagon

 

Those Hot Tempered Iranians

  First off, let me say that this one is not about any of the crap that is going on in and with Iran.

   This one is about an Iranian who just happens to live in the United States and what he did to his family. the man needed some anger management counseling, I think.

Chicago Sun-Times

February 20, 2007

BY SCOTT FORNEK Staff Reporter

A 55-year-old refugee from Iran beat his wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law to death with a three-pound hammer one by one after they questioned his masculinity, prosecutors said Monday.

" 'I do the job,' " Daryoush Ebrahimi told police who arrived at the murder scene, according to Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Sanju Oommen. "He said the women had disrespected him and said that he was not a man."

He was beating himself on the head with the hammer when police arrived to find the three dead bodies, police said.

Investigators are still seeking a precise motive in the slaying of Ebrahimi's 44-year-old wife, Karmin Koshabeh, and her sister, Karolin Khooshabeh, 40, in the couples' second-floor apartment, and the death of his mother-in-law, Ileshvah Eyvazimooshabad, 60, in her apartment across the street -- beyond what authorities called "a recurring theme of disrespect."

All three victims were bludgeoned and stabbed.

Ebrahimi is Assyrian, but came here on refugee status from Iran Nov. 29, said Commander David Sobczyk. He graduated from college in Iran and was an engineer who owned his own company before coming to this country, his lawyer said. He was to start a job Monday as a mechanical engineer in northwest Indiana.

He has four children -- 31, 28, 26 and 17.

 

Technorati tags: Iranian, Refugee, Chicago

 

Clinton Or McCain?

   The Charlotte Observer in Charlotte, North Carolina asked readers this question in a poll.

If the presidential election came down to Hillary Clinton vs.
John McCain, which would you prefer?

Hillary Clinton          John McCain                
10 votes (30%)          17 votes (52%)             

Neither; I'd look at third party
6 votes (18%)

   It is not a good thing to see John McCain preferred by more people over Hillary Clinton. I'd have a tough time making a choice but Hillary would be the lesser of two evils in this case. This country does not need McCain in the White House as he has been showing himself to be another Bush.

Technorati tags: Hillary Clinton, John McCain, President, Poll

Iraq Tanker Blast Leaks Toxic Gas

Al Jazeera   TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2007

At least five people have been killed and more than 100 injured when a chlorine gas tanker exploded north of Baghdad.

Many were hospitalised after inhaling the gas fumes released in the blast in Taji, about 20km from the capital.

Five more people were killed and 11 hurt when a car bomb blew up near a petrol station in southern Baghdad.

Police said they were investigating whether the tanker explosion was caused by a bomb or was an accident.

The explosion took place after the driver of the truck parked it in front of a Shia-owned restaurant on the main road from Baghdad to the north of Iraq

Chlorine gas, which is toxic and can irritate the respiratory system, is used for water purification.

Five more people were killed and at least 19 wounded in a second car bomb attack at the Al-Rasheed food market in western Baghdad, officials said.

 

Technorati tags: Iraq, Blast, Toxic Gas, Chlorine

 

Pro-Taliban Fighters Behead Afghan Spy

    From Al Jazeera we are told that an Afghan refugee has been beheaded by pro-Taliban fighters who just left the body by the roadside. the Afghan had been accused of spying for the United States.

   The poor guy lost his head over George Bush and that's a waste.

 

Technorati tags: Taliban Fighters, Afghan Refugee, U.S.

 

Impeachment Activity

   First up for this Tuesday morning is an article about the grass-roots effort to get the ball rolling regarding the impeachment of George Bush, which our congress doesn't seem to want to pursue.

Original Article

Impeachment Activity

by LiberalWithBalls

Sun Feb 18, 2007

No, unfortunately, not from the Democratic Congress (who still feel, for some unknown reason, that an illegitmately elected office holder, who also happens to be the World's biggest War-Criminal and desecrates the U.S. Constitution each day that he remains in office, is yet entitled to to serve out his full 8 years).

However, several progressive minded activist groups got together in New York this weekend for an "Impeachment Summit": HipHopCaucus.org, Progressive Democrats of America, WorldCantWait.org, Independent Progressive Political Network, Climate Crisis Coalition, AfterDowningStreet.org, Gold Star Families for Peace, A28.org, Democrats.com, ImpeachBush.org, CodePink, for example.

They were brought together by the adamant refusal of Congressional Democrats to even begin any serious investigations of Bush's pre-war lies and ongoing war crimes.

   So, the groups outlined a plan to mobilize the overwhelming 58% majority of Americans who simply wish the Bush regime was over. It was a similar mobilization that swept Democrats into power in 2006.  The goal is simple: to mobilize an even larger majority and thereby create overwhelming pressure on Congress to impeach Bush and Cheney.

Specifically we have a 6-point plan:

1. On March 17, March on the Pentagon to end the Iraq War and Impeach Bush and Cheney.

    2.    Gather 50 prominent Americans for a press conference on the Capitol Steps to demand impeachment.

    3. Hold Town Hall Meetings across the country on impeachment, modeled after the Vermont Town Meetings that have endorsed impeachment resolutions.

    4. Organize a bus tour from Washington DC to college campuses across the country with the message "Impeach Or Die".

    5. Launch a grassroots advertising campaign called "Bush is Over" modeled after the "War is Over" ad campaign created by John Lennon during the Vietnam War.

    6. On April 28, hold creative local impeachment events across the country, including assembling crowds to spell "IMPEACH!" in large outdoor spaces like beaches, monuments, and parks.

The group wants to build a huge, visible grassroots movement.

This War is not going to ever end as long as Bush-Cheney remain in power.
When the 58% who want this nightmere to end grows to 70-75%, all that remains then is to finally storm the gates.

It is up to "we the people" to literally take the Nation back.

 

Technorati tags: George Bush, Dick Cheney, Impeachment

 

Death Squads and Manipulated US Forces in Iraq?

     My,My,My!

    This report has some interesting things to say about some of the happenings in Iraq, such as

“Dirty squad” rumors

There are many unconfirmed rumors of “dirty squads,” composed of Americans and Iraqis who conduct assassinations across the city.

Some attribute these alleged death squads to the activity of private security firms using mercenaries.

Other Baghdadis report rumors of a squad run by American officials directly, that sends a mix of Iraqis and Americans in their hits. One Iraqi described these as rumors of the Americans operating in “the Israeli style,” in a way similar to Israel’s use of Palestinian mercenaries and informants to carry out assassinations of other Palestinians.

Another rumor holds that the alleged “dirty squads” are units of a shadowy Iraqi corps called Brigade 36, led by a Kurdish officer named Fadhil Jamil Burwari.

     and this

US forces manipulated?

Death squad rumors are circulating at high levels as well. In Hayy al-`Adil, an Iraqi MP apparently manipulated US forces into intervening in an Iraqi government raid on his offices by claiming that the Iraqi troops storming his facilities were a death squad.

Iraqi army forces surrounded and entered the offices of `Abd al-Nasir al-Jannabi, a Sunni religious shaykh and member of parliament, finding a cache of weapons. Jannabi called the US Army by telephone, claiming that the Iraqi troops raiding his office were death squads. According to Baghdad sources, US troops intervened on the scene, even forcing the Iraqi units to return confiscated weapons.

PM Maliki and MP Jannabi harbor longstanding animosity. In recent parliamentary remarks, Jannabi attacked Maliki heavily, to which Maliki replied to Jannabi by alleging that the government has a file proving Jannabi’s involvement in kidnappings, saying that an investigation was ongoing. The involvement of US forces in the dispute between them reflects just how dependent the US is on local tips for intelligence, which often allows locals to manipulate US military power to their own ends.

 

Technorati tags: Iraq, Death Squads, US Military, Mercanaries

 

U.S. Sides With Iran's Allies in Iraq Civil War

   Here's a nice little piece from Iraq Slogger which is saying that even if the surge in Iraq lowers the death count in Baghdad, the U.S. could be stuck in the country for decades, not just a few years, or months.

                  Iraq Slogger:     Entire Article

New Foreign Affairs Piece Urges U.S. Step Back From Conflict

 February 19,2007

James Fearon, professor of political science at Stanford:

"In fact, there is a civil war in progress in Iraq, one comparable in important respects to other civil wars that have occurred in postcolonial states with weak political institutions. Those cases suggest that the Bush administration's political objective in Iraq -- creating a stable, peaceful, somewhat democratic regime that can survive the departure of U.S. troops -- is unrealistic. Given this unrealistic political objective, military strategy of any sort is doomed to fail almost regardless of whether the administration goes with the "surge" option, as President George W. Bush has proposed, or shifts toward a pure training mission, as advised by the Iraq Study Group.

    As the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad proceeds, the weak Shiite-dominated government is inevitably becoming an open partisan in a nasty civil war between Sunni and Shiite Arabs. As a result, President Bush's commitment to making a "success" of the current government will increasingly amount to siding with the Shiites, a position that is morally dubious and probably not in the interest of either the United States or long-term regional peace and stability....

    As long as the Bush administration remains absolutely committed to propping up the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or a similarly configured successor, the U.S. government will have limited leverage with almost all of the relevant parties. By contrast, moving away from absolute commitment -- for example, by beginning to shift U.S. combat troops out of the central theaters -- would increase U.S. diplomatic and military leverage on almost all fronts. Doing so would not allow the current or the next U.S. administration to bring a quick end to the civil war, which most likely will last for some time. But it would allow the United States to play a balancing role between the combatants that would be more conducive to reaching, in the long run, a stable resolution in which Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish interests are well represented in a decent Iraqi government. If the Iraqis ever manage to settle on the power-sharing agreement that is the objective of current U.S. policy, it will come only after bitter fighting in the civil war that is already under way."

 

Technorati tags: U.S., Iraq, Iraq Civil War, Iran

 

Russia to Target Poland and the Czech Republic Over U.S. Missile Defense System

    Remember the story about Russia getting a little miffed because the U.S. wants to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic?

   Well, the Russians, as they have been prone to do, are saying that both of these countries will be targeted by Russian missiles if they let the U.S. proceed with the plan.

President Vladimir Putin has said he does not trust U.S. claims that it wants to deploy missile defense components in Europe to counter threats from Iran, and warned that Russia could take retaliatory action.

   Not that I care for Putin all that much, but if I were him I would not trust us either. Not with the Bush Crime Family residing up in the warlords castle.

   By the way. Unless Iran plans on waiting for many years to attack anyone, these missile defense systems will not be up. At last report, they were a few years away, which that may have changed so I guess that I'll have to look it up.

 

Technorati tags: Russia, U.S., Poland, Czech Republic, Missile Defense System

 

XM And Sirius Announce Plans To Merge

   Just a little bit of business news for you.

  It looks as if  XM and Sirius satellite radio service's are going to merge. This will no doubt raise some anti-trust issues with the the Federal Communications Commission  which  has said once before that the merger would go against the current FCC regulations.

    The deal also has to be approved by both companies shareholders.

   I, for one, do not think that this merger should be allowed until there is more competition from other satellite radio providers.

                           

    NYTimes

“The hurdle here, however, would be high as the commission originally prohibited one company from holding the only two satellite radio licenses. The companies would need to demonstrate that consumers would clearly be better off with both more choice and affordable prices,” Mr. Martin said.

Even if the deal does not face resistance from the F.C.C., it is likely to encounter opposition elsewhere. The National Association of Broadcasters, a trade association for television and radio stations, is already speaking out against a merger.

“In coming weeks, policymakers will have to weigh whether an industry that makes Howard Stern its poster child should be rewarded with a monopoly platform for offensive programming,” the group said. “We’re hopeful that this anti consumer proposal will be rejected.”

 

Technorati tags: XM, Sirius, Satellite Radio, FCC, Howard Stern

McCain Bad Mouths Rumsfeld In SC.

   If this isn't the pot calling the kettle black,almost.

   Senator John McCain, still mouthing off down in South Carolina, said that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would be remembered as one of the worst Defense Secretary's ever because of the mis-management of the war in Iraq. McCain said that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground in order to succeed in Iraq.

    This is another one of McCain's flip-flops as it was just in November when McCain said of Rumsfeld,"While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service," as opposed to this remark today, "I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history.We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement — that's the kindest word I can give you — of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war."

       McCain spoke to a crowd at a Hilton Head Island retirement community so that would explain his memory loss. There were 800 McCain supporters at Hilton Head and most were no doubt lifelong GOP supporters who would never switch parties for any reason.

  Rumsfeld did many stupid things during his run but one must remember that he was doing what President Cheney, oops, Bush told him to do.

   He had no say in the troop level deployment and McCain would know this to be true.

 

Technorati tags: John McCain, Donald Rumsfeld, SC, Worst Defense Secretary, Hilton Head

 

Clinton Visits South Carolina

   Democratic presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton is down in South Carolina campaigning for support on this fine Monday.

   Right off the bat she has had to deny that her campaign paid money for an endorsement from a SC black politician who just happens to carry some weight in the state.

   I have to wonder about this deal myself, especially after Senator Jackson's consulting firm snagged a $10,000 per month deal with Hillary's group not to long after Mrs. Clinton got the endorsement. Jackson said that he could have made more money from other candidates.

                

 

    Clinton did chat with the AP today.

    Clinton, who spoke to the AP during her first trip to this early voting state since announcing her White House bid, also said South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from its Statehouse grounds, in part because the nation should unite under one banner while at war.

"I think about how many South Carolinians have served in our military and who are serving today under our flag and I believe that we should have one flag that we all pay honor to, as I know that most people in South Carolina do every single day," the New York senator said.

"I personally would like to see it removed from the Statehouse grounds."

   Maybe Mrs. Clinton should just worry about her presidential bid and not about what kind of flag is being flown in a particular state of the union!

 

Technorati tags: Hillary Clinton, South Carolina, Contract, Confederate Flag

Iran Deny's Delaying Payments For Nuclear Reactor

   Due to earlier commitments, there will be no posting at this site until 6 PM this evening, ( EST ).

   I leave you with this concerning an earlier post about Iran not making nuclear power plant construction payments.

   Iran is denying that the payments aren't being made and has said that things will go on as planned.

AP   Iran broke the schedule of payments this year under the $1 billion contract, said a Russian official, who asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Iranians blamed the delay on the need to switch payments from dollars to euros.

But Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, denied that Iran had been late in making payments.

"Iran has had no delay whatsoever in making payments for the Bushehr nuclear power plant to the Russian ... company," Saeedi was quoted as saying by the news agency, IRNA.

   We'll see what happens, will we not?

 

Technorati tags: Iran, Nuclear Reactor, Russia