It's the weekend! :D It'll be gone too soon so enjoy it at the start to make up for the crying you'll do come Sunday night. :D On my end, I'm not going to cry over the fact that I've got a post I started Friday but can't get it into. It's there, it just won't open and I've tried every trick anyone could suggest. You move on. I'm doing my tags first:
democracy now
amy goodman
the common ills
the center for constitutional rights
iraq
barbara lee
kpfa evening news
kpfa
the morning show
sandra lupien
news
iraq
irak
noticias
the daily jot
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
So now let's kick things of with Democracy Now!
Congress Debates Iraq War As US Death Toll Reaches 2500
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced Thursday the US death toll in Iraq has now reached 2500. The milestone was reached on the same day the Iraq war was the subject of intense debate in both Houses of Congress. In the Senate, lawmakers voted ninety-three to six against a measure to withdraw US troops by the end of the year. The measure was introduced by Republicans who claimed to be acting upon a proposal by Senator John Kerry. Five Democrats -- Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Barbara Boxer of California, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts joined Kerry in voting for withdrawal. The House is expected to vote on its own Iraq resolution today. On Thursday, Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert urged lawmakers to support the measure.
House Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert: "They know their sacrifices on foreign shores are keeping the battle against terrorists out of our cities. They know by going in to harm's way, they are keeping Americans safe, and they know that they are helping a proud, but brutalised people to throw off tyranny and stand tall once again. They know that they are liberators, not occupiers. Our men and women in uniform know all this and they are proud of it. It's time for this House of Representatives to tell the world they we know it too - that we know our cause is right, and that we are proud of it. Stand up for freedom. Adopt this resolution."Democrats have accused Republicans of constraining debate by focusing the measure on the so-called war on terror rather than the Iraq war. House rules also prevent Democrats from proposing amendments or alternative resolutions. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi voiced the Democrats' concerns.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: "The entire country is debating the war in Iraq, except the House of Representatives. So finally this debate was going to come to the floor, and then -- a little while, within the past week, well it's going to be about this and that and other things as well because they know the case against this war is so incriminating that they really shouldn't want to bring it to the floor, so they've now expanded what the debate will be about."
That's got to be the smartest thing Nancy Pelosi's said in some time. (I used to really like her and think she was a fighter but that fell apart awhile back.) If she could talk like that all the time, I'd have a lot more respect for here.
Iraq VP Asks Bush For Withdrawal Timetable
Meanwhile, a leading Iraqi official has asked the US for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops. The government says Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi made the request during a meeting with President Bush Tuesday. In a statement, President Jalal Talabani said he supported Hashimi's demand. The Bush administration has firmly rejected calls for a timetable for withdrawal.
Did you get that? I didn't. Elaine made the connection to me. In Congress, you had a lot of blowhard Republicans saying
ACLU Sues Pentagon Over Peace Activist Spying
The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a lawsuit demanding the Pentagon turn over information it's collected on anti-war groups. In December, NBC News revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon database to track intelligence gathered inside the United States including information on anti-war protests and rallies. The database included information on counter-military recruiting meetings held at a Quaker House in Florida and anti-nuclear protests staged in Nebraska. The ACLU has already filed suit against the FBI for spying on peace groups.
I thought we had a "war on terror"? Must be over if the government can spend so much time spying on peace activists. If America is attacked again under the Bully Boy, remember how his administration thought it was more important to spy on those guilty only of using their First Amendment rights, how he cut funding for security, how he wants to build a useless wall but he's still not secured the ports, how he's cut funds to NYC but any small town in the country can claim they have a 'target' and get funds they don't need. (Greg Palast uses his own hometown in his book to demonstrate how the need for a paid parking lot resulted in a non-target being labeled one so that the city's leaderhips could bleed your tax money from the Bully Boy.)
Check out Wally's "THIS JUST IN! JOHN BOEHNER HEADED FOR THE FRONT LINES IN IRAQ!" for a good laugh at the arm chair warriors ready to risk the lives of others. And read C.I.'s "NYT: Dexy puts on the redlight (yet again)" for laugh-out-loud, on-the-money criticism of Green Zone Dexy. Elaine's beat me to posting and her's is called "'The American peopla are demanding answers' (Barbara Lee) ." Typos or missing tags are because I'm really rushing, I keep losing this post.
C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Though it garners no mention on the front page of the New York Times today (headline or text), the Pentagon announced yesterday that the American troop fatality count in Iraq had reached 2500. That wasn't judged to be "news." 'Officials say . . .,' however, was. Congress can take a moment to observe the milestone but the paper of record?
Bombings, kidnappings, corpses discovered -- chaos and violence continues in Iraq.
Kidnappings? Al Jazeera reports that Hasan Eskinutlu, a Turkish technical expert, and a translator have been kidnapped by the Imam Ali Brigade "demanding the withdrawal of Ankara's ambassador from Iraq." Reuters notes that the kidnappers are also demanding "the release of Iraqi prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi jails." That kidnapping took place Thursday and was announced today. The AFP reports that today nine people were kidnapped in villages south of Baghdad by "Gunmen."
Corpses? Pakistan's Pak Tribune notes that three corpses were discovered ("signs of torture with bullets in the head and chest").
Bombings? In Baghdad, at least eleven are dead according to the AFP as a result of a bombing in "inside a massive Shiite mosque" which also resulted in at least 25 people wounded. Also in Baghdad, home of the 'crackdown,' "Mortar rounds," Reuters reports, claimed three lives. Xinhua notes that at least sixteen were wounded.
In Basra, Reuters details the death of Yusif al-Hassan, a Sunni cleric and member of the Muslim Scholars Association at the hands of "[u]nknown gunmen".
Meanwhile the AFP is reporting on rumors in the Japanese press that an annoucement is due out shortly that Japan will be withdrawing their troops from Iraq. The BBC reports assertions that the area of Muthanna will be turned over to Iraqi forces which ""British, Australian and Japanese troops [currently] control". This as China's People's Daily reports that Rodolfo Biazon, Fillipino senator, has stated that Blackwater will be able to "recruite and train people in the city [Subic] to work as mercenaries in war-torn Iraq" based on a new agreement.
The BBC reports that another investigation into an incident involving the death of three Iraqis in US military custody has been launched "triggered by soldiers who raised suspiscions about the deaths" which took place in May.
Finally, as noted by Sandra Lupien on KPFA's The Morning Show, the Republicans postured a great deal in the House this morning as they passed their resolution that troops will not be withdrawn early and that the so-called war on terror would be "won" -- John Murtha noted that those saying "Stay" weren't the ones at any risk. The Associated Press quotes Nancy Pelosi saying, "Stay the course, I don't think so Mr. President. It's time to face the facts. The war in Iraq has been a mistake. I say, a grotesque mistake." We'll close with something noted on KPFA's The Morning Show this morning and on KFPA's Evening News yesterday, Barabra Lee's statement which more than sums it all up:
The president and the Republican majority really refuse to level with the American people about when our troops are coming home, also really if they're coming home. And while we're debating this very bogus resolution, the most substantive decison on Iraq policy in very recent days was taken out by the Republican majority behind closed doors. They stripped from the war suplemental an amendment we offered to prevent the establishment of permanent military bases in Iraq. The American people don't want an open-ended war and occupation. Quietly removing a measure that was approved by both the House and the Senate is a gross abuse of the democratic process and is further evidence that the Republicans are afraid to level with the American people about their real plans for Iraq. Let me tell you, there will be a day of reckoning. The American people are demanding answers they deserve a truthful accounting of how we got into this unnecessary war, how the billions of dollars have been misspent, and when our troops are coming home. And also they really deserve to know if our troops are coming home given recent reports that the administration is considering leaving a permanent force of 50,000 troops in Iraq and indications that establishing permanent miliary bases are not off the table.
One of the pluses to being so late and not being able to get into the post I started is I get to post this in real time. It just went up at The Common Ills:
"Vicepresidente Iraqui le pide a Bush que fije fecha de retirada" (Democracy Now)
Miguel: Benos dias. Aqui estan diez noticias de "Democracy Now!". Buen fin de semana.
Vicepresidente Iraquí le pide a Bush que fije fecha de retirada
Mientras tanto, el gobierno iraquí anunció que uno de sus principales funcionarios le pidió a Estados Unidos que establezca una fecha para la retirada de los soldados extranjeros. El gobierno dice que el Vicepresidente Tariq al-Hashimi formuló el pedido el martes, durante una reunión con el Presidente Bush. En una declaración, el Presidente Jalal Talabani dijo que apoyaba la exigencia de Hashimi. El gobierno de Bush rechazó los pedidos de fijar una fecha para la retirada.
Congreso debate guerra de Irak mientras el número de estadounidenses muertos llega a 2.500
Mientras tanto, el Pentágono anunció el jueves que el número de estadounidenses que murieron en Irak ahora superó los 2.500. Esta cifra fue alcanzada el mismo día en que la guerra en Irak fue tema de intenso debate, tanto en la Cámara de Representantes como en el Congreso. En el Senado, los legisladores decidieron -por 93 votos contra seis- no aprobar una medida para retirar a los soldados estadounidenses de Irak antes de fin de año. La medida fue presentada por republicanos que aseguraron que actuaban en base a una propuesta del senador John Kerry. Cinco demócratas --Russ Feingold de Wisconsin, Barbara Boxer de California, Robert Byrd de Virginia Occidental, Tom Harkin de Iowa y Edward M. Kennedy de Massachussets- se unieron a Kerry para votar a favor de la retirada. Se espera que la Cámara de Representantes vote hoy su propia resolución acerca de Irak. El jueves, el Presidente de la Cámara -el republicano Dennis Hastert- exhortó a los legisladores a apoyar la medida.
Hastert dijo: "Ellos saben que sus sacrificios en las costas extranjeras mantienen a la lucha contra el terrorismo fuera de nuestras ciudades. Saben que utilizando la violencia, mantienen a salvo a los estadounidenses, y saben que están ayudando a personas dignas pero crueles a combatir la tiranía y recuperar su orgullo. Saben que son liberadores, no ocupantes. Nuestros hombres y mujeres militares saben todo esto y están orgullosos de ello. Es hora de que la Cámara de Representantes le diga al mundo que también lo sabemos, que sabemos que nuestra causa es correcta, y que estamos orgullosos de ella. Defiendan la libertad. Adopten esta resolución".
Los demócratas acusaron a los republicanos de restringir el debate al centrarse en la medida sobre la llamada guerra contra el terrorismo y no en la guerra de Irak. Las normas de la Cámara de Representantes también impiden que los demócratas propongan enmiendas o resoluciones alternativas. La líder de la minoría de la Cámara de Representantes, Nancy Pelosi, expresó las preocupaciones de los demócratas.
Pelosi dijo: "Todo el país está debatiendo la guerra en Irak, exceptuando a la Cámara de Representantes. Así que finalmente este debate iba a llegar a la Cámara, y entonces, un ratito, la semana pasada, será sobre esto y aquello y también otras cosas, porque saben que el caso en contra de esta guerra es tan comprometedor que realmente no deben querer que se debata en la Cámara, por lo tanto ahora expandieron los temas a tratar en el debate".
Encuesta muestra disminución en apoyo mundial a políticas estadounidenses y guerra en Irak
Una nueva encuesta realizada en catorce países muestra una disminución continua en el apoyo mundial a las políticas estadounidenses. Según el centro de investigaciones "Pew Research Center", la mayoría de las personas de diez de los catorce países creen que la guerra en Irak ha hecho al mundo más peligroso. Estos países incluyen a Gran Bretaña, donde el apoyo a la llamada guerra contra el terrorismo ha disminuido a menos del 50%. La mayoría de las personas en trece de los países encuestados creen que la guerra en Irak representa una mayor amenaza para la paz mundial que las ambiciones nucleares de Irán.
ACLU demanda al Pentágono por espiar a activistas por la paz
La Unión Estadounidense por las Libertades Civiles (ACLU, por sus siglas en inglés) presentó una demanda que exige al Pentágono que entregue la información que recabó sobre grupos en contra de la guerra. En diciembre, NBC News reveló la existencia de una base de datos secreta del Pentágono para rastrear información dentro de Estados Unidos, incluyendo información sobre protestas y manifestaciones en contra de la guerra. La base de datos incluía información sobre reuniones contra el reclutamiento militar llevadas a cabo en una sede de los Cuáqueros en Florida y protestas antinucleares llevadas a cabo en Nebraska. ACLU ya presentó demandas contra el FBI por espiar a grupos de paz.
Gasto militar mundial supera los 1.1 billones de dólares; gasto de Estados Unidos es 1.600 dólares por cabeza
El gasto militar mundial llegó a una cifra histórica de 1.1 billones de dólares, dentro del cual Estados Unidos representa casi la mitad. Según el informe del Instituto Internacional de Investigación para la Paz de Estocolmo (SIPRI, por sus siglas en inglés), Estados Unidos gastó 1.600 dólares en sus Fuerzas Armadas por cada habitante estadounidense. Mientras tanto, China gastó únicamente 31 dólares por persona, y la India a su vez gastó menos de 19 dólares por persona. El estudio también determinó que el gasto militar en realidad está disminuyendo en Europa, habiéndose registrado los mayores recortes en Inglaterra y España.
Maestros en huelga de Oaxaca protestan contra redada policial
En México, miles de maestros en huelga se congregaron el jueves en el centro de la ciudad de Oaxaca. Esta es la tercer semana que los maestros están en huelga para exigir salarios más altos y más fondos para el sistema educativo de México. La congregación tuvo lugar sólo un día después de una redada policial, que según los maestros causó la muerte de dos colegas y de un niño. En respuesta, los maestros dijeron que ahora pedirán la renuncia del gobernador del Estado, Ulises Ruiz.
Hermenegildo Sánchez, uno de los maestros en huelga, dijo refiriéndose al gobierno: "Nosotros no confiamos pues, no confiamos en ellos. Ahorita con el apoyo de todo el pueblo y las organizaciones, este, estamos tomando nuevamente aquí el Zócalo y nos volvemos a reinstalar hasta que Ulises Ruiz de respuesta a nuestras demandas y se castigue a los culpables de, a los policías, a todos".
Dos mil inmigrantes arrestados en redada del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional
En Estados Unidos, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional anunció que más de dos mil inmigrantes indocumentados fueron arrestados en una ofensiva masiva que comenzó el mes pasado. Funcionarios del gobierno dijeron que prácticamente la mitad de las personas que fueron arrestadas tienen antecedentes penales. Más de 800 personas ya fueron deportadas.
Se prohíbe acceso de periodistas y abogados a Bahía de Guantánamo
Estados Unidos prohibió temporalmente el ingreso de periodistas y abogados a la prisión militar en Bahía de Guantánamo. El miércoles, un grupo de periodistas fue obligado a abandonar la isla por una directiva del Pentágono. Un portavoz del Pentágono dijo que se ordenó que los periodistas se retiraran tras quejas por parte de otros medios de comunicación de que se les negaba el mismo acceso. Pero surgen cuestionamientos acerca de si esta decisión estuvo motivada por el hecho de que los periodistas realizaron una cobertura el sábado tras el suicido de tres detenidos. Dicha cobertura incluía entrevistas con los abogados de los detenidos, quienes criticaron el modo en que sus clientes fueron tratados. Los periodistas trabajan para el "Los Angeles Times", el "Miami Herald" y el "Charlotte Observer". Un portavoz del Pentágono dijo que la orden de revocar los permisos no fue dada por los comandantes de Guantánamo, sino que surgió de la oficina del Secretario de Defensa Donald Rumsfeld. Mientras tanto, también se le prohibió a abogados que representan a detenidos de Guantánamo que visiten a sus clientes en la prisión. Una abogada que representa a un grupo de detenidos dijo que le informaron que la prohibición será levantada el lunes. En una declaración, el Centro para los Derechos Constitucionales -que ha representado a muchos detenidos- dijo: "En un momento en que el gobierno debe ser transparente con respecto a las muertes en Guantánamo, están construyendo un muro para mantenerlas en secreto y está evadiendo la responsabilidad pública. Esta ofensiva contra la libertad de prensa hace que todo el mundo se pregunte qué otras cosas están escondiendo allí... El gobierno de Bush le tiene miedo a los periodistas estadounidenses, a los abogados estadounidenses y a las leyes estadounidenses".
Corte Suprema dictamina que el gobierno puede utilizar evidencia obtenida ilegalmente
Esta noticia es de Estados Unidos. La Corte Suprema dictaminó que la constitución no exige descartar evidencia obtenida mediante allanamientos ilegales. La votación, de cinco votos a favor y cuatro en contra, fortalecerá las facultades de la policía para entrar a residencias sin anunciarse. La corte dictaminó que los costos sociales de descartar evidencia obtenida ilegalmente eran más importantes que los beneficios de proteger las garantías anteriores. En una opinión disidente, el juez Stephen Breyer escribió: "El argumento de los "grandes costos sociales" de la mayoría es un argumento contra el propio principio de exclusión de la Cuarta Enmienda. Y es un argumento que ésta Corte, hasta ahora, consecuentemente había rechazado".
Miguel: Good morning. Here are ten news headlines from this week's Democracy Now!
Iraq VP Asks Bush For Withdrawal Timetable
Meanwhile, a leading Iraqi official has asked the US for a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops. The government says Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi made the request during a meeting with President Bush Tuesday. In a statement, President Jalal Talabani said he supported Hashimi's demand. The Bush administration has firmly rejected calls for a timetable for withdrawal.
Congress Debates Iraq War As US Death Toll Reaches 2500
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced Thursday the US death toll in Iraq has now reached 2500. The milestone was reached on the same day the Iraq war was the subject of intense debate in both Houses of Congress. In the Senate, lawmakers voted ninety-three to six against a measure to withdraw US troops by the end of the year. The measure was introduced by Republicans who claimed to be acting upon a proposal by Senator John Kerry. Five Democrats -- Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Barbara Boxer of California, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Tom Harkin of Iowa and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts joined Kerry in voting for withdrawal. The House is expected to vote on its own Iraq resolution today. On Thursday, Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert urged lawmakers to support the measure.
House Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert: "They know their sacrifices on foreign shores are keeping the battle against terrorists out of our cities. They know by going in to harm's way, they are keeping Americans safe, and they know that they are helping a proud, but brutalised people to throw off tyranny and stand tall once again. They know that they are liberators, not occupiers. Our men and women in uniform know all this and they are proud of it. It's time for this House of Representatives to tell the world they we know it too -- that we know our cause is right, and that we are proud of it. Stand up for freedom. Adopt this resolution."
Democrats have accused Republicans of constraining debate by focusing the measure on the so-called war on terror rather than the Iraq war. House rules also prevent Democrats from proposing amendments or alternative resolutions. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi voiced the Democrats' concerns.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: "The entire country is debating the war in Iraq, except the House of Representatives. So finally this debate was going to come to the floor, and then - a little while, within the past week, well it's going to be about this and that and other things as well because they know the case against this war is so incriminating that they really shouldn't want to bring it to the floor, so they've now expanded what the debate will be about."
Poll Shows Decline in Global Support for US Policies
And a new poll of fourteen countries shows a continuing decline in support for US policies around the world. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority in ten of fourteen countries believe the Iraq war has made the world more dangerous. That number includes Britain, where support for the so-called war on terror has dropped to below fifty percent. A majority in 13 countries believe the Iraq war poses a bigger threat to world peace than Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
ACLU Sues Pentagon Over Peace Activist Spying
The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a lawsuit demanding the Pentagon turn over information it’s collected on anti-war groups. In December, NBC News revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon database to track intelligence gathered inside the United States including information on anti-war protests and rallies. The database included information on counter-military recruiting meetings held at a Quaker House in Florida and anti-nuclear protests staged in Nebraska. The ACLU has already filed suit against the FBI for spying on peace groups.
Global Military Spending Tops $1.1 Trillion; U.S. Spends $1,600 Per Capita
Global military spending has reached a new record high of over $1.1 trillion dollars. The United States accounted for nearly half of the world's military spending. According to the report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States spent $1,600 on its military for every American. Meanwhile China spent just $31 per person. India spent less than $19 per person. The study also determined that military spending is actually decreasing in Europe with the biggest cuts recorded in England and Spain.
Striking Oaxaca Teachers Protest Police Raid
In Mexico, thousands of striking teachers converged in the center of the city of Oaxaca Thursday. The teachers are in the third week of a strike demanding higher wages and more funding for Mexico's education system. The gathering came just one day after a police raid that teachers say killed two of their members and a third child. In response, the teachers said they would now call for the resignation of state governor Ulises Ruiz.Striking teacher Hermenegildo Sanchez: "We don't trust (the government) now. With all the people's support and the organizations, we're here taking over the Zocalo again and we'll stay here until [the governor] responds to our demands and punishes the guilty-- the police officers, all of them."
2,000 Immigrants Arrested in DHS Sweep
Here in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has announced more than 2,000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in a massive crackdown that began last month. Government officials said close to half of those arrested have criminal records. Just over 800 people have already been deported.
Reporters, Attorneys Barred From Guantanamo Bay
The US has barred journalists and lawyers from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. A group of visiting reporters was forced off the island Wednesday under a directive from the Pentagon. A Pentagon spokesperson said the removal was ordered following complaints from other media outlets who had complained they were being denied equal access. But questions are being raised over whether the removals were motivated by the reporters' coverage of the aftermath of Saturday's three detainee suicides. Their articles included interviews with the detainees' attorneys who criticized their clients' treatment. The reporters work for the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer. A Pentagon spokesperson said the revoking of the permissions came not from Guantanamo commanders but from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Meanwhile, lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees have also been barred from visiting their clients at the prison. A lawyer representing a group of detainees said she was told the ban will be lifted on Monday. In a statement, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has represented scores of detainees, said: "At a time when the administration must be transparent about the deaths at Guantanamo, they are pulling down a wall of secrecy and avoiding public accountability. This crackdown on the free press makes everyone ask what else they are hiding down there… The Bush Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys and afraid of American laws."
Police Raid Closes South Central Farm
Here in the United States, hundreds of police officers shut down the fourteen-acre South Central Farm in Los Angeles Tuesday. More than 40 protesters were arrested as they staged an encampment to resist removal from what is considered the largest urban farm in the United States. It took authorities nearly eight hours to forcibly clear the farm. Police bulldozed vegetable gardens and used bolt cutters to remove the protesters who had chained themselves to trees and picnic tables on the property. Since an eviction order last month, occupants have staged an encampment to resist removal from the land they've tended for over a decade.
Supreme Court: Government Can Use Illegally Obtained Evidence
Back in the United States, the Supreme Court has ruled the Constitution does not require prosecutors to forfeit evidence obtained through so-called “no knock” illegal searches. The five to four vote will strengthen police’s abilities to enter residences without announcing themselves first. The court ruled the social costs of throwing out illegally-obtained evidence outweighed the benefits of protecting previous safeguards. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote: "The majority's 'substantial social costs' argument is an argument against the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary principle itself. And it is an argument that this Court, until now, has consistently rejected."
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Thursday, June 15, 2006
2500 dead
Hot today. First things first, Point of View is a link I'm tossing out here. Why? I owe ES an apology. ES wrote on July 7th and I just now got around to reading that e-mail. (It was a really a nice e-mail.) From the title I thought it was another "Dearest one, I have throat cancer but my father was the President of Yukos Oil and if you will send me your bank account number . . ."
Ava and Jess have been on my ass whenever I bring up e-mails. I haven't been reading the spams and I haven't been reporting them. They help with The Common Ills e-mail and with the public account, they have to stay on the spam. That means more than deleting it but hitting the button to report it or else it will keep coming in the inbox instead of junk box. I don't get that amount of mail and also I always think with junk mail, "Well maybe someone somewhere's making some money by doing this and this might be the only way they have to make money?"
But Jess text messaged me today reminding me that I said Sunday I would start marking spam.
So I went through and read to make sure stuff was spam before marking it and saw ES's nice e-mail. Point of View is ES's website. Sorry for not knowing it was a real e-mail. (ES also had some real nice stuff to say about Kat too, by the way.) ES's e-mail was so nice I'll forgive the fact that it brings up the Year of the Ox. :D That's my Chinese birth year or whatever. They told me that when they interviewed me at The Third Estate Sunday Review.
Speaking of that interview, C.I. delinked from a site Sunday (for good reason). The person who ripped off my "blogging is like losing your cherry in front of the world" is now at that site as quite a few e-mails have pointed out this week (and pointed it out when it happened). I'm glad the site's gone, they waste everyone's time trying to be Details or whatever when they're supposed to be a political magazine. As for being ripped off, I didn't forget. I never read that writer because I might think, "Oh, that's smart" and in reality the truth is the writer just ripped off someone else again. I was telling Tony about the e-mails coming in on that when we were talking today and he said, "Mike, ____ ripped you off twice in an eight day period." I didn't even remember the second time. That's really sad that someone who gets paid to write would rip off some college dude's website when all the writer had to do was say, "I saw this as Mikey Likes It! and I'm going to write about it too because it made me think of . . ."
We're all supposed to be going out in November of 2008, shutting down the sites. If I do that, I'll probably make my last entry about ___ and I'll name ___ and show you what days I wrote the two things and what days ____ turned out and ripped me off. Then we can all know (every community member knows) what a loser and ass wipe ___ is for ripping off some college kid and not giving any credit. ____ got a lot of praise from other site's for being "so original" and "so funny." Anybody notice that ____ hasn't been called that in some time? That's partly because a lot of people know now that ____ ripped off. It's also because when ____ started getting attention for ripping off, ___ had to start writing their own thoughts and, no surprise, there's nothing funny or original about what ____ has to write.
Those were from my first weeks of blogging and maybe I should be honored that someone who gets paid to write would come to my site and steal because they thought it was that good? I'm not "honored." I think it was cheap and sleezy and says a lot about ___. (If the round-robin was
NOT coming out tomorrow morning, I'd write up something for it right now and see if Gina and Krista would run it, but I'll save it for my farewell post.)
So that's me and the e-mails. (Yes, I was glad C.I. delinked. It needed to be done but I understand why C.I. gave them time to get their act together. They couldn't, so they're gone. Nah, nah, nah. :D)
I'm really soloing tonight. Not only am I without my blog twin Elaine (who has a session she does on Thursday evenings) but I'm also without Nina! She's got a friend's bridal shower tonight. Hope she's having fun. (And not putting all her money in some guy's g-string! :D)
Let's get things started with Democracy Now!
Kerry Calls for Troop Withdrawal
Today’s debate comes as major splits continue to emerge within both parties over the war. On Tuesday, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry told a gathering of liberal voters at the "Take Back America" conference in Washington that the Iraq war was a mistake and he was wrong to vote for it. Kerry announced he is introducing a resolution for a withdrawal of troops by the end of the year. Kerry attacked the war's architects as "armchair warriors whose front line is an air-conditioned conference room." In an interview with the Boston Globe, Kerry later added: "It is both a right and an obligation for Americans to… end a war in Iraq that weakens the nation each and every day we are in it." Kerry's proposal would keep some troops in Iraq to train Iraqi soldiers.
Gonna put this on hold on a minute and go out and grab a pizza. No, you won't know this was on hold until you read this but if someone goes, "Geez, slow typer, no kidding, it took him even longer tonight!" I got the house to myself, my folks to my sister somewhere, and I'm hungry so I'm going to run out and grab a pizza. BRB.
Back. Didn't make it. Got half-way there and traffic was so packed and crazy, I pulled into a gas station, grabbed a coke and some candy and headed back. I was going to get one of those pizzas you toss in the oven but they didn't even have any of the big ones. Just those soggy little ones that fill a single plate and seem so big when you're a kid if you don't have to share them with your brothers and sisters. You know the kind I'm talking about, where "pepperoni" is these little tiny bits, flecks of something red. I'll hunt around the fridge or go out later. So I'm parking the car and my cell goes off. It's Cedric and he wants to know if I want to do items with him from Democracy Now!? Does a junkie want a fix! We're on the phone from the car on up to the front porch and then inside the house and he goes, "I thought you said no one was home?" I go, "Just me." He goes, "I didn't hear any keys."
I'm all, "Ma, is that you?" But Ma does the same thing. We all do. If we're the last one in the house and we're making a quick trip, we don't usually lock. I was expecting to be carrying in two big boxes of pizza. But if it's a short trip, we know all the neighbors, they all know us. Cedric was all, "I walk inside, first thing I do is lock the door." I told him that with all my brothers and sisters and they're spouses or dates or whatever coming in and out all the time, locking the door would mean getting up every half-hour to go open the door. While I was telling him that, my oldest bro came by to go through Dad's clothes. Not to steal! He's getting him something for Father's Day and needed to know Dad's size. He goes, "Tell Dad it was me because he's going to know someone went through his stuff."
And boom, he's out. That's how it is here all the time. I'm one of eight kids and it's just me and my younger sister at home now so between that and my grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins and . . . There's no point in locking the door unless you want to be getting up and down and up and down all evening. Dad locks it at night and always says, "You come in after that door is locked, you lock it." Seven kids through me and we never screwed up but my kid sister did just that last week. First time ever.
So anyhow, John Kerry spoke out about the need to bring the troops home on Tuesday. (Same day Hillary got booed and the Take Back America people stabbed CODEPINK in the back, same event.) You're going, "Uh, Mike, 2500!" I know but the Pentagon announced that after Democracy Now! or it would have been in the headlines and I would've made it the first thing up. It's covered in C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot." But 2500 dead in a "cake walk." Good thing it wasn't a steaming pile of crap. Oh, wait! It was. They just lied to us about how it would be a cake walk like they lied about everything else. The blood of countless Iraqis, many coalition forces and American troops are on Bully Boy's hands.
Reporters, Attorneys Barred From Guantanamo Bay
The US has barred journalists and lawyers from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. A group of visiting reporters was forced off the island Wednesday under a directive from the Pentagon. A Pentagon spokesperson said the removal was ordered following complaints from other media outlets who had complained they were being denied equal access. But questions are being raised over whether the removals were motivated by the reporters' coverage of the aftermath of Saturday's three detainee suicides. Their articles included interviews with the detainees' attorneys who criticized their clients' treatment. The reporters work for the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer. A Pentagon spokesperson said the revoking of the permissions came not from Guantanamo commanders but from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Meanwhile, lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees have also been barred from visiting their clients at the prison. A lawyer representing a group of detainees said she was told the ban will be lifted on Monday. In a statement, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has represented scores of detainees, said: "At a time when the administration must be transparent about the deaths at Guantanamo, they are pulling down a wall of secrecy and avoiding public accountability. This crackdown on the free press makes everyone ask what else they are hiding down there? The Bush Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys and afraid of American laws."
Not trying to slam the ACLU or anybody else but more and more it seems like to me that the Center for Constitutional Rights is about the only thing preventing Bully Boy from declaring martial law. They're fierce. (They're also members of the ACLU and I think Dalia Hashad was on staff there until she moved over to Amnesty recently.) They put out the Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush book. Michael Ratner and Michael Smith are part of it but Dalia and Heidi Boghosian may be too. They've got a woman who's co-written a book on impeachment and I'm forgetting her name (she co-wrote it with David Lindorff). C.I. will read that and go, "Mike . . ." And I'll do my puppy-dog face. :D
But they don't take crap. They stood up for the rights of the Guantanamo prisoners (and still do) and they stood up against the illegal spying (and still do) and you name it. Bully Boy can't mess with them. They're like Phoebe on that episode of Friends when she goes, "They think they can mess with us? They think they can mess with us!" :D Heidi's with the National Lawyer's Guild and they're pretty tough too. I did not know that. I really didn't know a thing about the group but I asked C.I. one time, "What's this National Lawyer's Guild?" and I got an earful about Drake and about a hundred other things. I think they're providing the lawyer for Suzanne Smith too. And let me note that Suzanne Smith's mom was a guest on Democracy Now! this morning: "'Our Military is Being Treated as Human Fodder' - Mother of Soldier Arrested for Refusing to Return to Iraq." I must have said that to C.I. once too often, about how tough the Center is, because I got sent an ad on them where it's a crying baby and they say something like, "We didn't just cry." It's a cool ad. Tony's hung it in his room because he saw it and goes, "That's f-ing cool!" They could probably sell that as a poster. Tony framed it and everything.
So there's the Center doing it loud and proud again. I had never heard of them before a year ago. I just mentioned that to Cedric and he groaned and goes "One second." He came back and read me the text of the ad: "WE DIDN'T WHINE ABOUT THE PATRIOT ACT STRIPPING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS." And then a smaller sentence: "WE GOT A KEY PROVISION RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND THROWN OUT." Cedric also goes it's on the back of an issue of The Nation that C.I.'s got like forty or fifty copies of. :D (That's true too.) So I'll ask C.I. if I can have another copy so I can frame it too. :D (Dad's got a copy too. As soon as Cedric told me who was on the cover, I remembered Dad saved that copy. Dad's not going to let me tear it apart though.)
So the Center's left to tell the truth about the Bully Boy again. Not with cautious words but in a strong voice. They've been working with Guantanamo prisoners all this time.
Check out Cedric's "Law and Disorder, Dahr Jamail & Amy Goodman on Falluja, the death of two Iraqi women, Ramadi and more, and Jason Leopold" because Cedric's covering a lot of things including the second part of WBAI's Law and Disorder.
So here's some news on Iraq via C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Iraq snapshot.
Today, Thursday, June 15, 2006, the fatality count for US troops in Iraq has officially reached 2,500. The Pentagon noted the loss of lives today. The Bully Boy marked the milestone by signing a Broadcast 'Decency Enforcement Act (because illegal wars are apparently 'decent') and by apologizing for insulting Peter Wallsten, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who had the 'nerve' to ask the Bully Boy a question while wearing sunglasses. As 2,5000 Americans have now lost their lives in Bully Boy's illegal war of choice, there's something illuminating in his actions a) what he considers 'decent' and b) compassion is trumped by his sense of entitlement that allows him to mock someone who, it turns out, "has Stargardt's disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss."
While Bully Boy marked the milestone with his usual lack of attention or sense of gravity, in Iraq, chaos and violence continue. In Baghdad, the "crackdown" continues. As Bloombergs News notes of the "crackdown" : "Measures include increased checkpoints, a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, and enforcement of weapons laws, the military said in an e-mailed statement today." The AFP reports that the "crackdown" also includes "a vehicle ban [which] was announced for during the Muslim midday prayer hours on Fridays."Despite, or because of, the "crackdown" (but certainly "during" the "crackdown), the AP reports that kidnapping continues in Baghdad (an engineer) as does killing (an engineer and a "a detergent factory worker"). How common are those actions in Baghdad at this point? The Guardian of London reports those two deaths and the kidnapping while stating "but no major violence was reported in the capital." Not noted by the Guardian, but noted by Bloomberg (citing AFP) was the fact that discovered corpses remain a regular occurrence of the illegal occupation: in Baghdad on Thursday, seven corpses were found.
With "26,000 Iraqi soldiers, 23,000 Iraqi police and 7,2000 coalition forces deployed in Baghdad" (Bully Boy figures) for the "crackdown," what's happening elsewhere?
The AP reports that 10 Shi'ites were pulled from a bus and shot dead in Baquba -- "as they were heading to work" notes Reuters. In Qara Taba, Reuters notes an explosion in a graveyard which wounded "[a] woman and her son." In Tikrit, the Guardian notes the storming of "a Sunni mosque . . . killing four people and wounding 15". Reuters notes that three roadside boms in Tal Afar "killed five [Iraqi] soldiers" and wounded at least six; the death of another Iraqi solider in Haweeja; and, in Baquba, the death of "police Colonerl Ali Shakir Mahmoud, director of units protecting oil installations in Baquba".
Meanwhile in Ramadi, Al Jazeera reports that roads were "blocked, and a giant wall of sand has been piled up around the perimeter, and everything went silent preparing for the final onslaught, a scene we saw two years ago in another Iraqi city, Fallujah". Al Jazeera reports that the city is surrounded on all four sides; "jet fighters" and helicopters "hover over the city"; that American troops are preventing anyone from entering or leaving while they have cut "off all electricity supplies . . . as well as drinking water facilities": and that American forces have "shelled medical supply stores, closed down all medical clinics and confiscated all medical supplies". The Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment are hoping to rename "the highway connecting Fallujah and Ramadi" "Darkhorse Drive" according to Marine Corps News. Possibly they should call it "Press Blackout Avenue"?
Stephen Fidler (Financial Times of London) reports that since "victims are killed by between four and 12 bullets, the cost of taking away a life in Baghdad is now $2.40." Reminder -- the US averages the worth of an Iraqi life at approximately $2,500 judging by compensation figures. As noted by Amy Goodman this moring, marine corporal Joshua Belile has stated his "song was intended as a joke and bore no connection to the killing of Iraqi civilians by US Marines." Margaret Neighbor (Scotsman) describes the song thusly: "In a four-minute video called Hadji Girl, a singer who appears to be a marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iarqi woman's family after they confront him with authomatic weapons." As Sandra Lupien reported Wednesday on KPFA's The Morning Show the song included lyrics such as: "the blood sprayed from between her eyes." As Lupien noted today on KPFA's The Morning Show, the apologetic Belile stated that "People need to laugh at it and let it go."
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has found that, "The global refugee population has begun to rise for the first time in four years, largely due to instability in Iraq" according to the AFP, resulting in "644,500 more Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria in 2005".
Along with noting the death of 2,500 American troops since the inception of the illegal war, the Pentagon also stated today that 18,490 troops have been wounded while serving in Iraq. On KPFA's The Morning Show this morning, Phyllis Bennis addressed the realities versus the photo ops noting that the flight in and out of Baghdad earlier this week by the Bully Boy was "One more attempt to add to a list of so-called turning points . . . We have a litany of talking points and turing points. . . . . [Reality in Iraq] is the lack of water, lack of electricity, lack of education and, worst of all, the lack of security." Commenting on the Pew Research Center poll that noted a decline in support for US policies around the world, Bennis noted that there was a line drawn between the government of the US and the people of the US in many minds because of the awareness of the peace movement against the war which "speaks to how much attention it gets globally even when the mainstream press in this country ignores it."
Meanwhile, as 450 Iraqi prisoners were released for US run-prisons in Iraq, the United States Senate voted the emergency funding bill that continues to fund the illegal war in Iraq (as well as other things -- the cost continues to be tacked on in a bill here, a bill there).
In Ireland, Owen Bowcott (Guardian of London) reports that the discovery of the "handcuffed and manacled marine . . . on board a military charter flight at Shannon airport" has led to Ireland's foreign affairs minister Dermot Ahern making statements that random inspections are now on the table involving US planes landing at Shannon. (Bowen reports the handcuffed marine was allegedly being transported to Georgia, reportedly accused of stealing clothes.)Finally, again, the Pentagon has confirmed that 2,500 American troops have lost their lives in Bully Boy's illegal war of choice.
Go read Wally's "THIS JUST IN! IN THE CHURCH OF THE BULLY BOY ..." and C.I.'s "Other Items (Phyllis Bennis on KPFA's The Morning Show)." And haul your ass over to Cedric's Big Mix to get Cedric's thoughts of the day.
democracy now
sarah rich
suzanne smith
iraq
the common ills
kpfa
the morning show
sandra lupien
phyllis bennis
wbai
law and disorder
michael ratner
heidi boghosian
michael smith
dalia hashad
kats korner
cedrics big mix
the daily jotmikey likes itlike maria said paz
the center for constitutional rights
Ava and Jess have been on my ass whenever I bring up e-mails. I haven't been reading the spams and I haven't been reporting them. They help with The Common Ills e-mail and with the public account, they have to stay on the spam. That means more than deleting it but hitting the button to report it or else it will keep coming in the inbox instead of junk box. I don't get that amount of mail and also I always think with junk mail, "Well maybe someone somewhere's making some money by doing this and this might be the only way they have to make money?"
But Jess text messaged me today reminding me that I said Sunday I would start marking spam.
So I went through and read to make sure stuff was spam before marking it and saw ES's nice e-mail. Point of View is ES's website. Sorry for not knowing it was a real e-mail. (ES also had some real nice stuff to say about Kat too, by the way.) ES's e-mail was so nice I'll forgive the fact that it brings up the Year of the Ox. :D That's my Chinese birth year or whatever. They told me that when they interviewed me at The Third Estate Sunday Review.
Speaking of that interview, C.I. delinked from a site Sunday (for good reason). The person who ripped off my "blogging is like losing your cherry in front of the world" is now at that site as quite a few e-mails have pointed out this week (and pointed it out when it happened). I'm glad the site's gone, they waste everyone's time trying to be Details or whatever when they're supposed to be a political magazine. As for being ripped off, I didn't forget. I never read that writer because I might think, "Oh, that's smart" and in reality the truth is the writer just ripped off someone else again. I was telling Tony about the e-mails coming in on that when we were talking today and he said, "Mike, ____ ripped you off twice in an eight day period." I didn't even remember the second time. That's really sad that someone who gets paid to write would rip off some college dude's website when all the writer had to do was say, "I saw this as Mikey Likes It! and I'm going to write about it too because it made me think of . . ."
We're all supposed to be going out in November of 2008, shutting down the sites. If I do that, I'll probably make my last entry about ___ and I'll name ___ and show you what days I wrote the two things and what days ____ turned out and ripped me off. Then we can all know (every community member knows) what a loser and ass wipe ___ is for ripping off some college kid and not giving any credit. ____ got a lot of praise from other site's for being "so original" and "so funny." Anybody notice that ____ hasn't been called that in some time? That's partly because a lot of people know now that ____ ripped off. It's also because when ____ started getting attention for ripping off, ___ had to start writing their own thoughts and, no surprise, there's nothing funny or original about what ____ has to write.
Those were from my first weeks of blogging and maybe I should be honored that someone who gets paid to write would come to my site and steal because they thought it was that good? I'm not "honored." I think it was cheap and sleezy and says a lot about ___. (If the round-robin was
NOT coming out tomorrow morning, I'd write up something for it right now and see if Gina and Krista would run it, but I'll save it for my farewell post.)
So that's me and the e-mails. (Yes, I was glad C.I. delinked. It needed to be done but I understand why C.I. gave them time to get their act together. They couldn't, so they're gone. Nah, nah, nah. :D)
I'm really soloing tonight. Not only am I without my blog twin Elaine (who has a session she does on Thursday evenings) but I'm also without Nina! She's got a friend's bridal shower tonight. Hope she's having fun. (And not putting all her money in some guy's g-string! :D)
Let's get things started with Democracy Now!
Kerry Calls for Troop Withdrawal
Today’s debate comes as major splits continue to emerge within both parties over the war. On Tuesday, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry told a gathering of liberal voters at the "Take Back America" conference in Washington that the Iraq war was a mistake and he was wrong to vote for it. Kerry announced he is introducing a resolution for a withdrawal of troops by the end of the year. Kerry attacked the war's architects as "armchair warriors whose front line is an air-conditioned conference room." In an interview with the Boston Globe, Kerry later added: "It is both a right and an obligation for Americans to… end a war in Iraq that weakens the nation each and every day we are in it." Kerry's proposal would keep some troops in Iraq to train Iraqi soldiers.
Gonna put this on hold on a minute and go out and grab a pizza. No, you won't know this was on hold until you read this but if someone goes, "Geez, slow typer, no kidding, it took him even longer tonight!" I got the house to myself, my folks to my sister somewhere, and I'm hungry so I'm going to run out and grab a pizza. BRB.
Back. Didn't make it. Got half-way there and traffic was so packed and crazy, I pulled into a gas station, grabbed a coke and some candy and headed back. I was going to get one of those pizzas you toss in the oven but they didn't even have any of the big ones. Just those soggy little ones that fill a single plate and seem so big when you're a kid if you don't have to share them with your brothers and sisters. You know the kind I'm talking about, where "pepperoni" is these little tiny bits, flecks of something red. I'll hunt around the fridge or go out later. So I'm parking the car and my cell goes off. It's Cedric and he wants to know if I want to do items with him from Democracy Now!? Does a junkie want a fix! We're on the phone from the car on up to the front porch and then inside the house and he goes, "I thought you said no one was home?" I go, "Just me." He goes, "I didn't hear any keys."
I'm all, "Ma, is that you?" But Ma does the same thing. We all do. If we're the last one in the house and we're making a quick trip, we don't usually lock. I was expecting to be carrying in two big boxes of pizza. But if it's a short trip, we know all the neighbors, they all know us. Cedric was all, "I walk inside, first thing I do is lock the door." I told him that with all my brothers and sisters and they're spouses or dates or whatever coming in and out all the time, locking the door would mean getting up every half-hour to go open the door. While I was telling him that, my oldest bro came by to go through Dad's clothes. Not to steal! He's getting him something for Father's Day and needed to know Dad's size. He goes, "Tell Dad it was me because he's going to know someone went through his stuff."
And boom, he's out. That's how it is here all the time. I'm one of eight kids and it's just me and my younger sister at home now so between that and my grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins and . . . There's no point in locking the door unless you want to be getting up and down and up and down all evening. Dad locks it at night and always says, "You come in after that door is locked, you lock it." Seven kids through me and we never screwed up but my kid sister did just that last week. First time ever.
So anyhow, John Kerry spoke out about the need to bring the troops home on Tuesday. (Same day Hillary got booed and the Take Back America people stabbed CODEPINK in the back, same event.) You're going, "Uh, Mike, 2500!" I know but the Pentagon announced that after Democracy Now! or it would have been in the headlines and I would've made it the first thing up. It's covered in C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot." But 2500 dead in a "cake walk." Good thing it wasn't a steaming pile of crap. Oh, wait! It was. They just lied to us about how it would be a cake walk like they lied about everything else. The blood of countless Iraqis, many coalition forces and American troops are on Bully Boy's hands.
Reporters, Attorneys Barred From Guantanamo Bay
The US has barred journalists and lawyers from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. A group of visiting reporters was forced off the island Wednesday under a directive from the Pentagon. A Pentagon spokesperson said the removal was ordered following complaints from other media outlets who had complained they were being denied equal access. But questions are being raised over whether the removals were motivated by the reporters' coverage of the aftermath of Saturday's three detainee suicides. Their articles included interviews with the detainees' attorneys who criticized their clients' treatment. The reporters work for the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald and the Charlotte Observer. A Pentagon spokesperson said the revoking of the permissions came not from Guantanamo commanders but from the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Meanwhile, lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees have also been barred from visiting their clients at the prison. A lawyer representing a group of detainees said she was told the ban will be lifted on Monday. In a statement, the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has represented scores of detainees, said: "At a time when the administration must be transparent about the deaths at Guantanamo, they are pulling down a wall of secrecy and avoiding public accountability. This crackdown on the free press makes everyone ask what else they are hiding down there? The Bush Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys and afraid of American laws."
Not trying to slam the ACLU or anybody else but more and more it seems like to me that the Center for Constitutional Rights is about the only thing preventing Bully Boy from declaring martial law. They're fierce. (They're also members of the ACLU and I think Dalia Hashad was on staff there until she moved over to Amnesty recently.) They put out the Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush book. Michael Ratner and Michael Smith are part of it but Dalia and Heidi Boghosian may be too. They've got a woman who's co-written a book on impeachment and I'm forgetting her name (she co-wrote it with David Lindorff). C.I. will read that and go, "Mike . . ." And I'll do my puppy-dog face. :D
But they don't take crap. They stood up for the rights of the Guantanamo prisoners (and still do) and they stood up against the illegal spying (and still do) and you name it. Bully Boy can't mess with them. They're like Phoebe on that episode of Friends when she goes, "They think they can mess with us? They think they can mess with us!" :D Heidi's with the National Lawyer's Guild and they're pretty tough too. I did not know that. I really didn't know a thing about the group but I asked C.I. one time, "What's this National Lawyer's Guild?" and I got an earful about Drake and about a hundred other things. I think they're providing the lawyer for Suzanne Smith too. And let me note that Suzanne Smith's mom was a guest on Democracy Now! this morning: "'Our Military is Being Treated as Human Fodder' - Mother of Soldier Arrested for Refusing to Return to Iraq." I must have said that to C.I. once too often, about how tough the Center is, because I got sent an ad on them where it's a crying baby and they say something like, "We didn't just cry." It's a cool ad. Tony's hung it in his room because he saw it and goes, "That's f-ing cool!" They could probably sell that as a poster. Tony framed it and everything.
So there's the Center doing it loud and proud again. I had never heard of them before a year ago. I just mentioned that to Cedric and he groaned and goes "One second." He came back and read me the text of the ad: "WE DIDN'T WHINE ABOUT THE PATRIOT ACT STRIPPING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS." And then a smaller sentence: "WE GOT A KEY PROVISION RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND THROWN OUT." Cedric also goes it's on the back of an issue of The Nation that C.I.'s got like forty or fifty copies of. :D (That's true too.) So I'll ask C.I. if I can have another copy so I can frame it too. :D (Dad's got a copy too. As soon as Cedric told me who was on the cover, I remembered Dad saved that copy. Dad's not going to let me tear it apart though.)
So the Center's left to tell the truth about the Bully Boy again. Not with cautious words but in a strong voice. They've been working with Guantanamo prisoners all this time.
Check out Cedric's "Law and Disorder, Dahr Jamail & Amy Goodman on Falluja, the death of two Iraqi women, Ramadi and more, and Jason Leopold" because Cedric's covering a lot of things including the second part of WBAI's Law and Disorder.
So here's some news on Iraq via C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Iraq snapshot.
Today, Thursday, June 15, 2006, the fatality count for US troops in Iraq has officially reached 2,500. The Pentagon noted the loss of lives today. The Bully Boy marked the milestone by signing a Broadcast 'Decency Enforcement Act (because illegal wars are apparently 'decent') and by apologizing for insulting Peter Wallsten, reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who had the 'nerve' to ask the Bully Boy a question while wearing sunglasses. As 2,5000 Americans have now lost their lives in Bully Boy's illegal war of choice, there's something illuminating in his actions a) what he considers 'decent' and b) compassion is trumped by his sense of entitlement that allows him to mock someone who, it turns out, "has Stargardt's disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss."
While Bully Boy marked the milestone with his usual lack of attention or sense of gravity, in Iraq, chaos and violence continue. In Baghdad, the "crackdown" continues. As Bloombergs News notes of the "crackdown" : "Measures include increased checkpoints, a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, and enforcement of weapons laws, the military said in an e-mailed statement today." The AFP reports that the "crackdown" also includes "a vehicle ban [which] was announced for during the Muslim midday prayer hours on Fridays."Despite, or because of, the "crackdown" (but certainly "during" the "crackdown), the AP reports that kidnapping continues in Baghdad (an engineer) as does killing (an engineer and a "a detergent factory worker"). How common are those actions in Baghdad at this point? The Guardian of London reports those two deaths and the kidnapping while stating "but no major violence was reported in the capital." Not noted by the Guardian, but noted by Bloomberg (citing AFP) was the fact that discovered corpses remain a regular occurrence of the illegal occupation: in Baghdad on Thursday, seven corpses were found.
With "26,000 Iraqi soldiers, 23,000 Iraqi police and 7,2000 coalition forces deployed in Baghdad" (Bully Boy figures) for the "crackdown," what's happening elsewhere?
The AP reports that 10 Shi'ites were pulled from a bus and shot dead in Baquba -- "as they were heading to work" notes Reuters. In Qara Taba, Reuters notes an explosion in a graveyard which wounded "[a] woman and her son." In Tikrit, the Guardian notes the storming of "a Sunni mosque . . . killing four people and wounding 15". Reuters notes that three roadside boms in Tal Afar "killed five [Iraqi] soldiers" and wounded at least six; the death of another Iraqi solider in Haweeja; and, in Baquba, the death of "police Colonerl Ali Shakir Mahmoud, director of units protecting oil installations in Baquba".
Meanwhile in Ramadi, Al Jazeera reports that roads were "blocked, and a giant wall of sand has been piled up around the perimeter, and everything went silent preparing for the final onslaught, a scene we saw two years ago in another Iraqi city, Fallujah". Al Jazeera reports that the city is surrounded on all four sides; "jet fighters" and helicopters "hover over the city"; that American troops are preventing anyone from entering or leaving while they have cut "off all electricity supplies . . . as well as drinking water facilities": and that American forces have "shelled medical supply stores, closed down all medical clinics and confiscated all medical supplies". The Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment are hoping to rename "the highway connecting Fallujah and Ramadi" "Darkhorse Drive" according to Marine Corps News. Possibly they should call it "Press Blackout Avenue"?
Stephen Fidler (Financial Times of London) reports that since "victims are killed by between four and 12 bullets, the cost of taking away a life in Baghdad is now $2.40." Reminder -- the US averages the worth of an Iraqi life at approximately $2,500 judging by compensation figures. As noted by Amy Goodman this moring, marine corporal Joshua Belile has stated his "song was intended as a joke and bore no connection to the killing of Iraqi civilians by US Marines." Margaret Neighbor (Scotsman) describes the song thusly: "In a four-minute video called Hadji Girl, a singer who appears to be a marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iarqi woman's family after they confront him with authomatic weapons." As Sandra Lupien reported Wednesday on KPFA's The Morning Show the song included lyrics such as: "the blood sprayed from between her eyes." As Lupien noted today on KPFA's The Morning Show, the apologetic Belile stated that "People need to laugh at it and let it go."
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has found that, "The global refugee population has begun to rise for the first time in four years, largely due to instability in Iraq" according to the AFP, resulting in "644,500 more Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria in 2005".
Along with noting the death of 2,500 American troops since the inception of the illegal war, the Pentagon also stated today that 18,490 troops have been wounded while serving in Iraq. On KPFA's The Morning Show this morning, Phyllis Bennis addressed the realities versus the photo ops noting that the flight in and out of Baghdad earlier this week by the Bully Boy was "One more attempt to add to a list of so-called turning points . . . We have a litany of talking points and turing points. . . . . [Reality in Iraq] is the lack of water, lack of electricity, lack of education and, worst of all, the lack of security." Commenting on the Pew Research Center poll that noted a decline in support for US policies around the world, Bennis noted that there was a line drawn between the government of the US and the people of the US in many minds because of the awareness of the peace movement against the war which "speaks to how much attention it gets globally even when the mainstream press in this country ignores it."
Meanwhile, as 450 Iraqi prisoners were released for US run-prisons in Iraq, the United States Senate voted the emergency funding bill that continues to fund the illegal war in Iraq (as well as other things -- the cost continues to be tacked on in a bill here, a bill there).
In Ireland, Owen Bowcott (Guardian of London) reports that the discovery of the "handcuffed and manacled marine . . . on board a military charter flight at Shannon airport" has led to Ireland's foreign affairs minister Dermot Ahern making statements that random inspections are now on the table involving US planes landing at Shannon. (Bowen reports the handcuffed marine was allegedly being transported to Georgia, reportedly accused of stealing clothes.)Finally, again, the Pentagon has confirmed that 2,500 American troops have lost their lives in Bully Boy's illegal war of choice.
Go read Wally's "THIS JUST IN! IN THE CHURCH OF THE BULLY BOY ..." and C.I.'s "Other Items (Phyllis Bennis on KPFA's The Morning Show)." And haul your ass over to Cedric's Big Mix to get Cedric's thoughts of the day.
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Wednesday, June 14, 2006
The Beat of Black Wings
Look! It's Hillary!!! From Isaiah's latest, Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Beat of Black Wings/ The Screech of the War Hawk" which captures the war monger perfectly. :D
Isaiah said he saw a Getty Images photo yesterday evening and that inspired today's comic. I looked and looked but couldn't find one by them. I found one by Reuters and you can click here and see it -- for a real short time. Yahoo only keeps their photos for a real short time.
C.I. read it and knew the song Isaiah's was thinking of right away. (I didn't, but Dad was bragging he did -- and he probably did because he's really into music and he hauled out the CD to prove it so I'm sure he did.) Here's a section of Joni Mitchell's "The Beat of Black Wings" song:
"They want you -- they need you --
They train you to kill --
To be a pin on some map --
Some vicarious thrill --
The old hate the young
That's the whole heartless thing
The old pick the wars
We die in 'em
To the beat of -- the beat of black wings"
What's the point of screeching Hillary the War Hawk cartoon? She got booed. She got booed and hissed yesterday. She was supposed to get an easy time of it and the group, Take Back America, had even stabbed a group in the back to make sure but here's Medea Benjamin writing about it in "Peace Activists at Hillary Clinton’s Speech Try to Take Back 'Take Back America':"
The Take Back America conference, an annual event held in Washington DC this year from June 12-14, is supposed to be a venue for prominent progressives to gather and debate the major issues of our day. Their aim is to "provide the nation with new vision, new ideas and new energy." But choosing New York Senator and probable presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as a keynote speaker and then stifling dissent against her pro-war position hardly seems the stuff of a new vision for America.
The peace group CODEPINK is widely known for bringing its anti-war message to the halls of power, including inside the Republican National Convention and at President Bush's Inauguration. But it has also targeted Democrats such as Hillary Clinton who support the war. "We have a campaign called Birddog Hillary," says CODEPINK's New York coordinator Nancy Kricorian. "We follow her around the entire state asking her to listen to the voices of her constituents and stop her support of Bush’s ‘stay the course’ policy in Iraq. So far, she hasn’t been listening." Fearing that CODEPINK would openly confront Clinton on her pro-war policy, the organizers of Take Back America entered into negotiations with CODEPINK a few days before the conference. "We had lengthy discussions where they pleaded with us not to protest during her keynote breakfast address," explained Gael Murphy, one of the cofounders of CODEPINK. "Instead, we were told that we could distribute flyers explaining Hillary's pro-war position to the crowd inside and outside the hotel, and we would be called on to ask her the first question after the speech. We agreed."
However, when CODEPINK showed up on Tuesday morning in advance of Clinton’s speech, the security guards refused to allow them to pass out flyers, even outside the hotel. "Take Back America violated the agreement from the moment we arrived,” said Ms. Murphy. "Even though we had a table inside the conference, burly security guards blocked us and informed us that it was a private event, that we were not welcome, and they escorted us out of the building. We telephoned the conference staff who then told us that we couldn’t enter the hotel, couldn't leaflet the event, the hallways--anywhere. They went back on their word and tried to quash even peaceful, respectful dissent."
You can click here to find info on how to contact your Senators and tell them troops home by the end of 2006 (it's a link to John Kerry's page). Now let's get things started with Democracy Now!
More Than 1,000 Protest Bush in Baghdad
The President's visit was protested in Baghdad. Earlier today, more than one thousand people took to the streets calling on the US to withdraw from Iraq. The demonstrators waved Iraqi flags, carried signs and chanted slogans including "No, No to the occupiers."
It ended up being 2,000. Where's the coverage of that? You can't turn on the TV (even now) without seeing the publicity stunt of Bully Boy walking around the heavily fortified Green Zone. The Bubble Boy went to Bubble Land and it's news?
GOP Rep: Wife in DC At "Greater Risk" Than Iraq Civilians
Meanwhile, a Republican Congressmember is coming under criticism for making comments downplaying the dangers of life in Iraq. Speaking Monday on the House floor, Iowa Republican Steve King said: "My wife lives here with me, and I can tell you… she's at far greater risk being a civilian in Washington, D.C. than an average civilian in Iraq."
You know what then? King and his wife should move to Iraq. He can commute. That would be great for the nation. He can bring with him eye witness reports on Iraq. So, since it's so safe there, they should both move there immediately.
I say "both" because I know these big talking Republican Congress members love to shoot off their mouths. So to make sure his wife doesn't get stuck there by herself, they should both move. I'm sure his constitutents would grant him a waiver because he could also be representing the American soldiers serving in Iraq. And he'd go down in history as the first (of many to come) Congress member of our fifty-first state, Iraq.
Here's something C.I. passed over this morning. Isaiah's comic was great and a great surprise but it meant C.I. was rushing like crazy this morning and wasn't able to include the item about to highlight. Mia sent it to C.I. (and she's cool with me spotlighting it here). This is from Nicole Colson's "An Interview with Lynne Stewart: 'They Want the Fear Level at a High Pitch':"
COLSON: YOUR CONVICTION rested in part on your reading a press release from your client to a Reuters reporter in 2000. But it wasn't until two years later, after the September 11 attacks, that you were indicted. Why do you think the government waited so long? Do you think the indictment was politically motivated?
STEWART: TO ANSWER the last question first, there definitely were political motivations. I somehow have a glimmering that it never would have happened if there hadn't been 9/11.
But of course, the Bush administration was anxious to keep the fear level at a very high pitch. If you remember back to April 2002, which is when I was arrested, they had the Patriot Act in place, they had all this stuff going on, and they had very, very little to show for it--a few enemy combatants that were picked up in Afghanistan, but nothing else.
So I think they reached back and used this to drum up--or trump up I guess--a sense among people that there was something to be feared, and that they were on top of it and were taking care of it. I think this was exemplified by the fact that Ashcroft, the Attorney General, then went on Letterman to beat his chest and say what a great bunch of guys they were.
So definitely, I think [my arrest] was to keep the fear level at a high pitch--because when people are afraid, they tend to give up decision-making power and allow the "authorities" to do it.
HOW DO your trial and conviction fit in more generally with broader attacks on civil liberties?
THE ACTS that are the basis of the indictment took place in 2000, so that's pre-Patriot Act. But there's no question in my mind that the Patriot Act gave a certain aura to what the government had done in my case, which made it much easier for the judge to find that listening in on attorney-client conversations was okay.
The judge made absolutely no rulings that said anything the government had done was constitutionally wrong--even though it was a wholesale invasion of probably the First Amendment, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth.
I do think that my case really goes to the heart of the Bill of Rights, and the Bill of Rights is diminished by my conviction. I think that's exactly what this administration and this government wants to see happen.
Lynne Stewart should have never been convicted. She didn't break any law. What's she was accused of was breaking some sort of agreement. You're not supposed to be convicted for that. As long as the conviction stands it makes every American less safe.
We're talking about a grandmother with cancer. They not only pulled her law lic., they want to put her in prison. This is nonsense. Free Lynne Stewart!
No, here's my slogan: "Free America! Free Lynne Stewart!" As long as she stands convicted, we all do.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Iraq snapshot.
In the United States, following the actions of the so-called Take Back America leadership to silence the activist organization CODEPINK from registering their objections to war monger Hillary Clinton, Clinton's opponent in the primary, Jonathan Tasini, has issued his own comments at The Huffington Post where he wonders: "So, the question to real progressives through the country -- and funders who enable the organizations that want to stifle debate -- is simple: how are the progressives different than Republicans and pro-war Democrats if they suppress debate about the centeral electoral issue, the Iraq war?"
Hillary Clinton, though protected, was still booed. As was George Bush Snr. in Harrogate Friday. The protests are not going away which is why the Granny Peace Brigade was back in Times Square last Saturday and why they have "announced [that] they are taking their anti-war tour to Washington."
Something that won't be taking place in Baghdad anytime soon is the Arab League conference which has been postponed again. The conference has been postponed, again, due to the instability in Iraq (that would be the continued chaos and violence). As Amy Goodman noted today, a recent Pew Research Center poll has found a decline in support for US Policies. As Al Jazeera has noted, the poll finds that the US involvement in Iraq "is the biggest threat to Middle East stability."
A feeling that was shared by the protestors that rallied against the Bully Boy when he visited Tuesday. As Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show today, "some 2,000 protested" chanting slogans such as "Iraq is for Iraqis!" and calling for an end to the occupation. Today, as RTE News noted, protestors also made their presence felt at the Iranian consulate in Basra. Gulf News reports that they attacked the embassy and "set fire to a reception area of the building" as a result of a broadcast on "Iranian satellite station which they said had insulted a Shiite cleric in Iraq."
Meanwhile the photo-op sucked up a great deal of news space but few found the time to note that Bully Boy managed to grab time to lean on Nouri al-Maliki, occupation puppet, about Iran. Whether 'rebels' were discussed or not, the Turkish Press reports that al-Maliki desires "a dialogue with rebel groups." Roula Khalaf (Finanical Times of London) reports that "a national reconcilliation initiative that could include a conditional amnesty offer and negotiations with some some armed insurgent groups" is being prepared.
While al-Maliki's "crackdown" takes place in Baghdad, the usual violence occurs. Ceerwan Aziz offers an eyewitness account of one bombing for Reuters:
The blast sent shrapnel flying in all directions as huge balls of flames moved skyward. People fled the scene screaming and crying. The charred body of a dead man sat upright, engulfed by huge flames. A teenage boy was also on fire. He managed to grab a rod extended to him, and was pulled out of the inferno. I counted four bodies, but couldn't tell if they were dead or seriously wounded.
The Associated Press also reports four dead from the car bomb in Baghdad. Reuters notes two other car bombs in Baghdad today (this during the "crackdown"), one that claimed the lives of at least two (wounded at least seven) and another that wounded at least one person. The AP notes that a man driving his car in Baghdad was shot and killed while a roadside bomb (not covered by Reuters) took the life of one "police commando." This during the "crackdown," when, as the AFP points out, over "50,000 Iraqi and US troops patrolled the streets of Baghdad".
Outside Baghdad, CNN reports that four were killed, in Baquba, during a gunfire attack on "electronic stores" and that a skirmish of some form occurred in Diyala with officials reporting five dead and three wounded. In Mosul, the AP notes a roadside bomb that wounded four police officers. In Najaf, Reuters notes that "a construction contractor . . . working for the Iraqi government" was killed by "gunmen."
Meanwhile the WRA (Women's Rights Association) is reporting "a massive increase in reported cases of sexual abuse in Iraq." The report has found, among other things, that "nearly 60 women have been raped in Baghdad since February, while another 80 were abused in other ways." Note, that is in Baghdad only. That is reported rapes only. And that is only since February.
Go check out Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's point of view.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Guantanamo, Armed Madhouse, and more
Tuesday, one day closer to the weekend. Dad says when I start counting the days like that, I'm getting old. :D Let's kick things off with Democracy Now!
U.S. Refuses to Close Guantanamo
Meanwhile the Bush administration is once again rejecting calls to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison following the suicide of three men on Saturday.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack: "Look, we have no desire to be the world's jailers. We look forward to the day at some point where it would close down but the fact of the matter is that right now it houses some very dangerous people who right now are not only a threat to American citizens but other people around the world."
Meanwhile in Washington, the Center for Constitutional Rights held a press conference condemning the administration's treatment of detainees at the military base.
Attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez: "It does seem that the administration will continue to try and put a spin on this when I think it's very simple and very clear what happened. We are holding human beings in indefinite detention, with complete uncertainty about their fate, under conditions that are stressful and oppressive. There is a reason why our constitution ensures the rule of habeas corpus, there is a reason why the magna carter incorporates the rights to challenge imprisonment by the king and its because that kind of detention leads to the exact results we saw this weekend, a kind of desperation and futility that would make someone rather die that continue to be held like that."
They refuse to stop doing anything illegal. That's Guantanamo, the war on Iraq, the spying on Americans. And it's all part of the same push. Bully Boy's useless to them at this point, they're setting up the country for the long haul and it's going to be a different country than anything our parents or grandparents could have pictured. You need to start using your voice and making it heard. Silence (or continued silence) will destroy the country.
Religious Leaders Call on U.S. To Abolish Torture
Twenty-seven religious leaders including megachurch pastor Rick Warren and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, have signed a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now -- without exceptions." The group's statement appears in a series of newspaper ads bought by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. The statement reads in part "Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation."
Bully Boy doesn't care. He only trots out Jesus when it's time to bash gays. He doesn't care about religious leaders and he didn't care when they were against the war. He is not a godly person just another cheerleader for occupation and the destruction of democracy. We've given up so much in this country. I'm reading Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse right now (thank you to C.I.) and I'm only on page 52. Palast is writing about how there were two plans, the invasion and the occupancy and how Colin Powell was all for the invasion (at least as early as Feb. 2001). That's as far as I've gotten so far. Rebecca's reading Katha Pollitt's new book and she wanted to finish it last night and if I were as fast a reader as she is, I'd be reading now and posting tomorrow. But it's probably going to take me a few days to get through this book. I really enjoy it so far and can't imagine a surprise ending coming along that makes me go, "WTF!" :D C.I. got a copy for Betty too and she's wanting to read it but still trying to get used to her new job at work (she was promoted -- congratulations to Betty) and she thinks it may be July 4th before she's feeling like she can handle her new job. (She can handle it, probably can handle almost anything. She's just a worrier.) It really is an Armed Madhouse. Read the book!
20,000 Ordered To Evacuate from Florida Due to Hurricane
And in Florida, more than 20,000 people have been ordered to evacuate along the Gulf of Mexico as the first tropical storm of the hurricane season, Alberto, made landfall this morning.
"Where is Wally's grandfather?" Tony asked me that, Nina asked me that. There were thirty e-mails to The Common Ills about that. C.I. tried to address it in a morning entry today but ran out of time and asked if I could mention it? Sure can. Wally's grandfather isn't waiting for hurricane's to hit land. After last fall, when the warning sounds, Wally drives out and they drive back to Wally's mom's house.
Wally thinks it's cool that so many people were asking about his grandfather. He said his grandfather's reading Armed Madhouse (Wally got his copy same place I got mine) and as soon as his grandfather gets done, he's starting on it. We started talking about what we were going to do with it after we were done reading?
With The Center for Constitutional Rights' Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, we both ended up passing our books on because we wanted to get the word out. (I whined in California about that and C.I. gave me a copy -- another copy. :D) A few weeks after we'd passed ours on, we were both like, "Man, I wished I'd kept that.) It's important to pass books on that we everyone's arming themselves with knowledge. But I've been laughing a lot while I'm reading Palast's book and I'm thinking I'll be selfish and keep this one. (I did promise Tony he could borrow it and Nina's reading it right now while I'm posting. She's a fast reader and can probably finish the whole thing in one sitting.)
Did you know the illegal war almost ended today? It didn't really but read Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY TRIES TO HOLLER 'TROOPS HOME NOW!'" and laugh. And the hit on campus today that had everyone stopping me?
Did someone say "uninformed"? Yes, John F. Burns and Dexter Filkins are back for a reach- around and it's called "A Jihadist Web Site Says Zarqawi's Group in Iraq Has a New Leader in Place." If it reads like the two were scanning their laptop late at night until they could find some war porn, well, there's a reason for that. You get the usual nonsense you've grown to expect from the Go-Go Boys of the Green Zone. (Translation, yes, guys and gals, they swallow.) Best example may be when they repeat, with no questions, the claim that Zarqawi (or "Zarqawi") has been confirmed through DNA tests. I can remember a few reporters, mainstream ones even, asking when that nonsense was put foward about Saddam Hussein's two sons, "And where would you have gotten the DNA?" That doesn't occur to Burnsie and Dexy. Someone said it, so they swallow. The whole thing reads like snowballing (and, no, that doesn't have to be a winter or outside sport). That covers two-thirds of the article. The first third? They're playing Al Qaeda Idol. As though an upset has thrown the contest from Taylor Hicks to Katharine McPhee! Now there's nothing known about the new 'winner' and, in fact, the name may be a fake (the whole idea of a 'replacement' being 'crowned' may be a fake) but they've got space to fill and they're not about to tell you that Ramadi has been surrounded last week and we're probably about to see another slaughter as we did with Falluja (twice, actually).
That's from C.I.'s "NYT: Dexy and Burnsie enjoy a reach around, Tavernise and Mizher go blank" and I heard over and over, "That was hilarious!" It was too.
Ma asked me to put up something here, Nora Ephron's "Farewell to Teflon:"
I feel sad about Teflon.
It was great while it lasted.
Now it turns out to be bad for you. Or, put more exactly, now it turns out that a chemical that's released when you heat up Teflon is in everyone's blood stream -- and probably causes cancer and birth defects.
I loved Teflon.
I loved the no-carb ricotta pancake I invented last year, which can be cooked only on Teflon. I loved my Teflon-coated frying pan, which makes a beautiful steak. I loved Teflon as an adjective; it gave us a Teflon president (Ronald Reagan) and it even gave us a Teflon Don (John Gotti, whose Teflon-ness eventually wore out, making him an almost exact metaphorical duplicate of my Teflon pans). I loved the fact that Teflon was invented by someone named Roy J. Plunkett, whose name alone you might have thought would have insured Teflon against becoming a dangerous product.
Ma also had some e-mails asking why she didn't post Saturday? Two big reasons. 1st one of her kids had a HUGE problem. (Not me! I'm an angel! :D) Second, when she'd finally dealt with that, it was already Sunday (after midnight Saturday) and she had the Blogger/Blogspot problem that The Third Estate Sunday Review had. She said she'd put in a full day and then some and when she lost her post, she just shut off the computer and went to bed. Good for her because she had a really, really, really crappy day Saturday. One of her non-angel kids screwed up pretty big! (I think it's funny, the screw up, and laughed my ass off about it Saturday afternoon. I'm the only one who thinks it's funny.) It's not one of the kids who still live at home (which eliminates me and my kid sister). It is one of the kids who always likes to tell me, "When you get older you're going to have be more responsible." And man did I love repeating that Saturday afternoon! :D I'll be a pain in the butt and add one more thing, my own opinion: Don't come over on Saturday and take up everyone's time with your problem if you can't even show up for a planned family get together the next day. Someone who is "older" needs to learn to "be more responsible." (And that's serious, I'm not joking. That was just crap, that's what that was. Dump your problems on everyone, get everybody worked up and then, the next day, you can't even show up for a lunch that was planned months ago. Next think you know, you'll forget Father's Day too.)
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Iraq snapshot.
In the United States, Suzanne Swift was arrested Sunday. Swift, 21, served one tour of duty in Iraq. The military listed her as AWOL. Sarah Rich, Swift's mother, has stated, "she went to Iraq once and she was my hero she decided not to back and she's even more my hero."
Meanwhile in Iraq, it's time for another quick photo-op as Bully Boy primps in the Green Zone. As Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show, Bully Boy "flew eleven hours to spend less than five hours." Lupien also noted that "Today's visit is Bush's second since the invasion" referring to his Nov. 2003 Thanksgiving visit which was "confined to the airport and limited to several hours." The visit, which is sure to provide distraction and suck up real news time, was unannounced -- with occupation puppet Nouri al-Maliki being given only five minutes notice. As Aaron Glatnz declared to Andrea Lewis and Philip Maldari, also on today's KPFA's The Morning Show, "It doesn't change anything."
Glantz, journalist and author (How America Lost Iraq), was speaking of Zarqawi's death, but may as well have been speaking of Bully Boy's latest publicity stunt. As Glantz noted, "15,000 Iraqis in prison without charges, no electricity . . . water" -- that's reality. Andrea Lewis asked why the electricity was still now workable (over three years after the illegal invasion was launched). Glantz explained, "Your tax dollar is not going into rebuilding Iraq. It's going to the military and Haliburton . . . 100 million is going to build a new prison."
CNN's Nic Robertson took a look at the business of war. Robertson found that "private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers" and that business is so good for Blackwater that it's expanded with a new headquarters in North Carolina.
War's good for the financial profits of some and for Bully Boy photo ops within the safety of the Green Zone, it's not good for Iraqis or American forces. Yesterday, the official fatality count for American troops was eight away from 2,500 and today the number stands at 2,497 -- three away. The number of Iraqis?
As Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) noted on yesterday's Flashpoints, no numbers, only estimates/guesses. (My own? Half a million. And Rebecca noted Cockburn's appearance here.) Deaths when covered often come with vague details. Last month, Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, thirty-five and pregnant, was killed along with Saliha Mohammed Hassan as Nabiha's brother attempted to drive her to the hospital. Reporting for IPS, Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed have found those who dispute the official press releases. A human rights investigator maintains "that both women were shot in the back of the head by U.S. snipers." Redam Nisaif Jassim, brother of Nabiha and driver of the car, states "The Americans offered me 5,000 dollars" but he declined.
Not even photo-ops stop reality so the chaos and violence continued across Iraq. All the usual features of the illegal occupation were present today. Corpses discovered? In Baghdad, the Irish Examiner reports that eight corpses were found. The AFP reports: "A professor at the College of Engineering was shot dead" and that the corpse count had climbed to fourteen ("shot . . . signs of torture"). Reuters identified the professor: Muthana Harith Jassim. CNN identified him as Hani Aref Jassim.
Car bombs and roadside bombs went off throughout Iraq. In the most noted incident, Kirkuk saw several explosions. Among the sites targeted in Kirkuk, the Associated Press notes "an insititute for the disabled." The AFP estimates the day's death toll to be "[a]t least 32 people" throughout Iraq while CBS and the AP estimate that it was "more than 50" were killed today. The Telegraph of London reports that bombings also took place "in Mosul, Tall Afar and Baghdad."
Attacks on police? Many. Two, noted by Reuters, were in Kut where one was killed (two wounded) and in Kerbala which took the life of "a police captain and wounded 2 of his bodyguards." CNN notes one police officer killed ("five others wounded") in Baghdad.
Wednesday will mark the much touted occupation puppet's attempt at a "crackdown" on Baghdad. The Associated Press reports that "tens of thousands of Iraqi and multinational forces" will be "securing roads, launching raids against insurgent hideouts and calling in airstrikes" Expect more chaos and violence for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, questions are being asked regarding the statements of Dermot Ahern, Minister for Foreign Affiars of Ireland. As RTE News reports, Ahren has stated that the civilian aircraft "carrying a US marine who was in military custody" which landed at Shannon Aircraft did so without "the consent of the Irish Government." Questions also exist as to the identity of the US marine, why he or she was being transported through Shannen, and why he or she was in "military custody."
Now don't forget to check Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's point of view. And be sure you read her "A difference of opinion" from yesterday too.
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U.S. Refuses to Close Guantanamo
Meanwhile the Bush administration is once again rejecting calls to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison following the suicide of three men on Saturday.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack: "Look, we have no desire to be the world's jailers. We look forward to the day at some point where it would close down but the fact of the matter is that right now it houses some very dangerous people who right now are not only a threat to American citizens but other people around the world."
Meanwhile in Washington, the Center for Constitutional Rights held a press conference condemning the administration's treatment of detainees at the military base.
Attorney Gitanjali Gutierrez: "It does seem that the administration will continue to try and put a spin on this when I think it's very simple and very clear what happened. We are holding human beings in indefinite detention, with complete uncertainty about their fate, under conditions that are stressful and oppressive. There is a reason why our constitution ensures the rule of habeas corpus, there is a reason why the magna carter incorporates the rights to challenge imprisonment by the king and its because that kind of detention leads to the exact results we saw this weekend, a kind of desperation and futility that would make someone rather die that continue to be held like that."
They refuse to stop doing anything illegal. That's Guantanamo, the war on Iraq, the spying on Americans. And it's all part of the same push. Bully Boy's useless to them at this point, they're setting up the country for the long haul and it's going to be a different country than anything our parents or grandparents could have pictured. You need to start using your voice and making it heard. Silence (or continued silence) will destroy the country.
Religious Leaders Call on U.S. To Abolish Torture
Twenty-seven religious leaders including megachurch pastor Rick Warren and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, have signed a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now -- without exceptions." The group's statement appears in a series of newspaper ads bought by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. The statement reads in part "Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation."
Bully Boy doesn't care. He only trots out Jesus when it's time to bash gays. He doesn't care about religious leaders and he didn't care when they were against the war. He is not a godly person just another cheerleader for occupation and the destruction of democracy. We've given up so much in this country. I'm reading Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse right now (thank you to C.I.) and I'm only on page 52. Palast is writing about how there were two plans, the invasion and the occupancy and how Colin Powell was all for the invasion (at least as early as Feb. 2001). That's as far as I've gotten so far. Rebecca's reading Katha Pollitt's new book and she wanted to finish it last night and if I were as fast a reader as she is, I'd be reading now and posting tomorrow. But it's probably going to take me a few days to get through this book. I really enjoy it so far and can't imagine a surprise ending coming along that makes me go, "WTF!" :D C.I. got a copy for Betty too and she's wanting to read it but still trying to get used to her new job at work (she was promoted -- congratulations to Betty) and she thinks it may be July 4th before she's feeling like she can handle her new job. (She can handle it, probably can handle almost anything. She's just a worrier.) It really is an Armed Madhouse. Read the book!
20,000 Ordered To Evacuate from Florida Due to Hurricane
And in Florida, more than 20,000 people have been ordered to evacuate along the Gulf of Mexico as the first tropical storm of the hurricane season, Alberto, made landfall this morning.
"Where is Wally's grandfather?" Tony asked me that, Nina asked me that. There were thirty e-mails to The Common Ills about that. C.I. tried to address it in a morning entry today but ran out of time and asked if I could mention it? Sure can. Wally's grandfather isn't waiting for hurricane's to hit land. After last fall, when the warning sounds, Wally drives out and they drive back to Wally's mom's house.
Wally thinks it's cool that so many people were asking about his grandfather. He said his grandfather's reading Armed Madhouse (Wally got his copy same place I got mine) and as soon as his grandfather gets done, he's starting on it. We started talking about what we were going to do with it after we were done reading?
With The Center for Constitutional Rights' Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, we both ended up passing our books on because we wanted to get the word out. (I whined in California about that and C.I. gave me a copy -- another copy. :D) A few weeks after we'd passed ours on, we were both like, "Man, I wished I'd kept that.) It's important to pass books on that we everyone's arming themselves with knowledge. But I've been laughing a lot while I'm reading Palast's book and I'm thinking I'll be selfish and keep this one. (I did promise Tony he could borrow it and Nina's reading it right now while I'm posting. She's a fast reader and can probably finish the whole thing in one sitting.)
Did you know the illegal war almost ended today? It didn't really but read Wally's "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY TRIES TO HOLLER 'TROOPS HOME NOW!'" and laugh. And the hit on campus today that had everyone stopping me?
Did someone say "uninformed"? Yes, John F. Burns and Dexter Filkins are back for a reach- around and it's called "A Jihadist Web Site Says Zarqawi's Group in Iraq Has a New Leader in Place." If it reads like the two were scanning their laptop late at night until they could find some war porn, well, there's a reason for that. You get the usual nonsense you've grown to expect from the Go-Go Boys of the Green Zone. (Translation, yes, guys and gals, they swallow.) Best example may be when they repeat, with no questions, the claim that Zarqawi (or "Zarqawi") has been confirmed through DNA tests. I can remember a few reporters, mainstream ones even, asking when that nonsense was put foward about Saddam Hussein's two sons, "And where would you have gotten the DNA?" That doesn't occur to Burnsie and Dexy. Someone said it, so they swallow. The whole thing reads like snowballing (and, no, that doesn't have to be a winter or outside sport). That covers two-thirds of the article. The first third? They're playing Al Qaeda Idol. As though an upset has thrown the contest from Taylor Hicks to Katharine McPhee! Now there's nothing known about the new 'winner' and, in fact, the name may be a fake (the whole idea of a 'replacement' being 'crowned' may be a fake) but they've got space to fill and they're not about to tell you that Ramadi has been surrounded last week and we're probably about to see another slaughter as we did with Falluja (twice, actually).
That's from C.I.'s "NYT: Dexy and Burnsie enjoy a reach around, Tavernise and Mizher go blank" and I heard over and over, "That was hilarious!" It was too.
Ma asked me to put up something here, Nora Ephron's "Farewell to Teflon:"
I feel sad about Teflon.
It was great while it lasted.
Now it turns out to be bad for you. Or, put more exactly, now it turns out that a chemical that's released when you heat up Teflon is in everyone's blood stream -- and probably causes cancer and birth defects.
I loved Teflon.
I loved the no-carb ricotta pancake I invented last year, which can be cooked only on Teflon. I loved my Teflon-coated frying pan, which makes a beautiful steak. I loved Teflon as an adjective; it gave us a Teflon president (Ronald Reagan) and it even gave us a Teflon Don (John Gotti, whose Teflon-ness eventually wore out, making him an almost exact metaphorical duplicate of my Teflon pans). I loved the fact that Teflon was invented by someone named Roy J. Plunkett, whose name alone you might have thought would have insured Teflon against becoming a dangerous product.
Ma also had some e-mails asking why she didn't post Saturday? Two big reasons. 1st one of her kids had a HUGE problem. (Not me! I'm an angel! :D) Second, when she'd finally dealt with that, it was already Sunday (after midnight Saturday) and she had the Blogger/Blogspot problem that The Third Estate Sunday Review had. She said she'd put in a full day and then some and when she lost her post, she just shut off the computer and went to bed. Good for her because she had a really, really, really crappy day Saturday. One of her non-angel kids screwed up pretty big! (I think it's funny, the screw up, and laughed my ass off about it Saturday afternoon. I'm the only one who thinks it's funny.) It's not one of the kids who still live at home (which eliminates me and my kid sister). It is one of the kids who always likes to tell me, "When you get older you're going to have be more responsible." And man did I love repeating that Saturday afternoon! :D I'll be a pain in the butt and add one more thing, my own opinion: Don't come over on Saturday and take up everyone's time with your problem if you can't even show up for a planned family get together the next day. Someone who is "older" needs to learn to "be more responsible." (And that's serious, I'm not joking. That was just crap, that's what that was. Dump your problems on everyone, get everybody worked up and then, the next day, you can't even show up for a lunch that was planned months ago. Next think you know, you'll forget Father's Day too.)
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Iraq snapshot.
In the United States, Suzanne Swift was arrested Sunday. Swift, 21, served one tour of duty in Iraq. The military listed her as AWOL. Sarah Rich, Swift's mother, has stated, "she went to Iraq once and she was my hero she decided not to back and she's even more my hero."
Meanwhile in Iraq, it's time for another quick photo-op as Bully Boy primps in the Green Zone. As Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show, Bully Boy "flew eleven hours to spend less than five hours." Lupien also noted that "Today's visit is Bush's second since the invasion" referring to his Nov. 2003 Thanksgiving visit which was "confined to the airport and limited to several hours." The visit, which is sure to provide distraction and suck up real news time, was unannounced -- with occupation puppet Nouri al-Maliki being given only five minutes notice. As Aaron Glatnz declared to Andrea Lewis and Philip Maldari, also on today's KPFA's The Morning Show, "It doesn't change anything."
Glantz, journalist and author (How America Lost Iraq), was speaking of Zarqawi's death, but may as well have been speaking of Bully Boy's latest publicity stunt. As Glantz noted, "15,000 Iraqis in prison without charges, no electricity . . . water" -- that's reality. Andrea Lewis asked why the electricity was still now workable (over three years after the illegal invasion was launched). Glantz explained, "Your tax dollar is not going into rebuilding Iraq. It's going to the military and Haliburton . . . 100 million is going to build a new prison."
CNN's Nic Robertson took a look at the business of war. Robertson found that "private military contractors are earning billions of dollars in Iraq -- much of it from U.S. taxpayers" and that business is so good for Blackwater that it's expanded with a new headquarters in North Carolina.
War's good for the financial profits of some and for Bully Boy photo ops within the safety of the Green Zone, it's not good for Iraqis or American forces. Yesterday, the official fatality count for American troops was eight away from 2,500 and today the number stands at 2,497 -- three away. The number of Iraqis?
As Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London) noted on yesterday's Flashpoints, no numbers, only estimates/guesses. (My own? Half a million. And Rebecca noted Cockburn's appearance here.) Deaths when covered often come with vague details. Last month, Nabiha Nisaif Jassim, thirty-five and pregnant, was killed along with Saliha Mohammed Hassan as Nabiha's brother attempted to drive her to the hospital. Reporting for IPS, Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed have found those who dispute the official press releases. A human rights investigator maintains "that both women were shot in the back of the head by U.S. snipers." Redam Nisaif Jassim, brother of Nabiha and driver of the car, states "The Americans offered me 5,000 dollars" but he declined.
Not even photo-ops stop reality so the chaos and violence continued across Iraq. All the usual features of the illegal occupation were present today. Corpses discovered? In Baghdad, the Irish Examiner reports that eight corpses were found. The AFP reports: "A professor at the College of Engineering was shot dead" and that the corpse count had climbed to fourteen ("shot . . . signs of torture"). Reuters identified the professor: Muthana Harith Jassim. CNN identified him as Hani Aref Jassim.
Car bombs and roadside bombs went off throughout Iraq. In the most noted incident, Kirkuk saw several explosions. Among the sites targeted in Kirkuk, the Associated Press notes "an insititute for the disabled." The AFP estimates the day's death toll to be "[a]t least 32 people" throughout Iraq while CBS and the AP estimate that it was "more than 50" were killed today. The Telegraph of London reports that bombings also took place "in Mosul, Tall Afar and Baghdad."
Attacks on police? Many. Two, noted by Reuters, were in Kut where one was killed (two wounded) and in Kerbala which took the life of "a police captain and wounded 2 of his bodyguards." CNN notes one police officer killed ("five others wounded") in Baghdad.
Wednesday will mark the much touted occupation puppet's attempt at a "crackdown" on Baghdad. The Associated Press reports that "tens of thousands of Iraqi and multinational forces" will be "securing roads, launching raids against insurgent hideouts and calling in airstrikes" Expect more chaos and violence for Wednesday.
Meanwhile, questions are being asked regarding the statements of Dermot Ahern, Minister for Foreign Affiars of Ireland. As RTE News reports, Ahren has stated that the civilian aircraft "carrying a US marine who was in military custody" which landed at Shannon Aircraft did so without "the consent of the Irish Government." Questions also exist as to the identity of the US marine, why he or she was being transported through Shannen, and why he or she was in "military custody."
Now don't forget to check Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's point of view. And be sure you read her "A difference of opinion" from yesterday too.
democracy now
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patrick cockburn
flashpoints
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trinas kitchen
greg palast
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the center for constitutional rights
the daily jot
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