you tell me

ok, um, i'm baffled. had more coffee and apple fritter. then did some pain pills. 8M3PP, which is my usual dose. only i'm sweating, and its 59 degrees in here. jus turned on the heat AT 59. go figure. i havent had any of the explorer hanging either. and everything's running. so you tell me....

got a giggle out of this one

Yesterday's employment report—more than 200,000 new jobs—gets an unusual amount of discussion. The LAT fronts a straight story looking at the economy's strengths. But the WSJ's front-pager reports that opinion polls show Bush getting little credit, a development that has frustrated the White House.

source

watching hunter on tvlad

and its showing hunter going up into some fleabag hotel.

shivers went through my body watching it. reminded me so much of the whore hotel, formerlly the Amsterdam. on lexington & 26th, kitty corner from the armory.

that period deserves not only its own chapter, but probably a couple of books.

the bushies rule by fear

just like a good dictator would.

Cambria County -- In the most current issue of The New Yorker magazine, one article alleges that many of our military's most senior generals are deeply frustrated by the happenings in Iraq, but won't go public for fear they may jeopardize their career. Congressman John Murtha says he knows about these fears

source

FARPOINT FACTOID

no WONDER washington has lost its collective soul on ethics.

The WSJ's Washington Wire (following the Post) notes that the Office of Government Ethics, an executive branch office charged with "preventing conflicts of interest on the part of Government employees," has a position open: Its directorship. Must be a really tough gig though. They haven't found a taker for two years.

Letter(s) Of The Day

today we're blessed with 2, 2 on the same topic no less.

Cal Thomas ("Bush and Rove Finally Start Playing Hardball," Nov. 16) mistakenly attributes the administration's declining poll numbers to a lack of "offense." Thomas suggests that the Bush administration "play hardball with the left" to shape public opinion. I do not find the Bush administration lacking in offense, although I suspect I am using the word differently than Thomas.

I am deeply offended that the administration misled the country into going to war against a nation that had nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I am offended that oil company executives met with the vice president's staff to influence the nation's energy policy. I am offended that the Medicare prescription drug benefit law was written by the nation's pharmaceutical companies.

I am offended that tax cuts for the wealthy are more important to this administration than providing basic services to citizens and communities. It is the offensive actions of this administration that has led to declining poll numbers. It is unfortunate but not surprising that Thomas recommends a hardball strategy rather than dealing with the issues.

-Neal Westergaard, Des Moines.

Cal Thomas says, "Republicans too often compromise their ideals, hoping the Left will like them" (Nov. 20). Exactly which ideals is he talking about? Astronomical spending, ill-conceived military action, rampant cronyism, mixing church and state, lining the pockets of war profiteers, cutting food stamps for kids and elderly, or ineptitude during disaster?

-Norene Kelly, Johnston.

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a letter worth remembering

Regarding your call to convene a national summit on energy policy ("Convene National Summit to Chart Energy Future," Nov. 26):

The editorial failed to mention the National Energy Policy Initiative, a non-governmental, non-partisan, foundation-funded project, and its plan for implementation. For $180 billion (less than one year in Iraq) it returns $140 billion a year to the U.S. economy, revitalizes the auto industry and eliminates oil use by 2016.

This study offers solid solutions. Every citizen should study it for themselves, and any politician who opposes implementation is fighting against American interests and should be removed from office.

-Jere Busenbarrick, Des Moines.

source

Quote Of The Day

comes from the des moines register's editorial board:

"Republicans took control of Congress a decade ago with promises of bringing higher ethical standards to Washington. We're still waiting."

bush just never stops rewriting history

there's an article in today's des moines register from john carlson, a reporter who went to iraq and is making sure everybody knows it. he points out the things bush left out in his 'major speech on iraq' on wednesday.

well, john, here's your chance to come clean and proclaim your allegiance to truth and honesty in journalism. and you barely passed.

President Bush was delivering what was called "a major speech on Iraq" on Wednesday when he mentioned a very familiar name and spoke a few somewhat familiar words.

The president was discussing the training of Iraqi security forces and, to demonstrate the success of the effort, quoted Lt. Col. Todd Wood, an Indianola native who commands the Army's 2-7 Infantry Battalion based in Tikrit.
...
Bush's speech plucked Wood's quotes from four different places in the article and made it appear to be one statement.

The quotes accurately represent Wood's view of the Iraqi soldiers that his battalion has spent the better part of a year training. It's just that Bush's speechwriters carefully avoided the chief frustration faced by the American soldiers — at least the ones in Tikrit.

hey john, it's called cherry picking. something the bushisistas have mastered. they do it all the time to mislead you into thinking one thing, while the truth is something else.

the beginnings of civil war

BAGHDAD — A controversial oil exploration deal between Iraq's autonomy-minded Kurds and a Norwegian company got underway this week without the approval of the central government here, raising a potentially explosive issue at a time of heightened ethnic and sectarian tensions.

--source

Letter Of The Day

Once more it has been suggested that support for our troops is the same as support for the war. I served from 1968-1972. Part of my time was spent in Vietnam and part in California.

The entire time was spent in opposition to the war. I was a member of an organization of active-duty officers and enlisted persons, all of whom opposed the war. We participated in marches and demonstrations opposing the war. We were very active and vocal in our opposition to the war. Yet, we were the troops.

-Arthur Behn, Des Moines.

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ya know?

ya listen to these service members, always seems to be men, talk about how 'they've never been happier' with lost limbs.

one has to wonder, what the hell kinda life did they lead before going to iraq??

didja see cbs news tonite?

how in the HELL are the iraqis supposed to defend themselves with only clubs and knives? this is why we haven't succeeded. we destroyed their equipment, disbanded their armies, and now we're whining that they can't defend themselves?

Quote of the WeeQ

"The people of Fallujah love Cindy Sheehan."
--Farouk Abd-Muhammed, a candidate for National Assembly (Iraq)

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Letter Of The Day

Things have not been going well for Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin.

First, Grassley received a lot of flak regarding his part in obtaining $50 million in pork for the proposed rain forest. People have discovered that a tent full of man-made trees in zero-degree weather is a poor investment.

Then Harkin was denied naming rights to a new $200 million federal building. Well, you can't really blame him, he voted for it.

But not to worry, folks. Members of the Senate voted themselves a $3,000-plus raise to soothe their sorrows. With a national debt of $27,000 for each person in the United States, they obviously thought we could afford it.

But the question remains, how and when are we going to retire this debt? You can bet the family farm that that question will not be answered before their next $3,000 raise.

-Wendell Koch, Waterloo.

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Quote Of The Day

"The ability to live somewhere is a right. The ability to travel is a right. Freedom from being punished twice for the same crime is a right. Freedom from being punished for a crime that is created after the fact is a right. Those rights are protected by the U.S. and Iowa constitutions — for everyone."
--Des Moines Register Editorial Board

wanna bet we're being set up for a lie?

from today's papers:

The Post says Karl's Rove's lawyer asked Novak (no relation to that Robert) to testify because he thinks it could somehow help Rove. We're not going to have to wait long for the details: "Viveca Novak is expected to write a firsthand account after she is deposed."

see what's key here? "somehow help rove" is code-speak for coverup.

today's MUST READ

seems things haven't gotten much better in iraq than what they were under saddam. and they talk about progress in iraq. some progress.

BAGHDAD — Shiite Muslim militia members have infiltrated Iraq's police force and are carrying out sectarian killings under the color of law, according to documents and scores of interviews.

--source

Letter Of The Day

The abortion rate went down under Bill Clinton and up under George W. Bush. Clinton understood that the way to decrease abortions was to provide hope. When a poor woman gets pregnant, it is one more brick on a load she has no hope of ever carrying, one more mouth she can't feed, one more child she has no health care for.

If we truly want to reduce the number of abortions, we have to provide our poor women and their children with health care and day care. (Five million more have slipped into poverty under Bush.) And we need to cover mental health as well, including treatment for drug and alcohol abuse so the baby has a chance to be healthy and the mother isn't living in despair.

-Jeff Clingan, Van Meter.

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seems every culprit is represented well

take a look at this:

According to the police commander in the city, the 10 men allegedly involved in the assassination plot were caught with a document containing orders to carry out the killing from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's former vice president and a man considered by many to be the leader of the insurgency. Investigators also found three car bombs, as well as other documents linking the men to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, and to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the deputy to Osama Bin Laden.

--source

one just has to wonder.... just who is in charge here?

FARPOINT FACTOID

• Consumer credit has skyrocketed from $672.2 billion to $2.1 trillion;
• Outstanding household debt has grown $2.7 trillion, to $10.764 trillion;
• The trade deficit has plummeted from negative $150.7 billion to negative $756.8 billion;
  The total of foreign-owned U.S. assets has shot from $1.7 trillion to $11.5 trillion.

SOURCE

fallujah, and american chemical weapons

Vivid images show civilians, including women and children, who had been burned alive in their homes, even in their beds. This use of chemical weapons – at the order of the Bushist brass – and the killing of civilians are confirmed by former American soldiers interviewed on camera. "I heard the order to pay attention because they were going to use white phosphorous on Fallujah," said one soldier, quoted in the Independent. "In military jargon, it's known as Willy Pete. Phosphorous burns bodies; in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone. I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 meters is done for."

read more, much more @ http://www.chris-floyd.com/fallujah/

Letter Of The Year

and finally, we have a winner for the annual Letter Of The Year award. the register was chocked full of great letters today.

Powerful new evidence emerged recently that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns. Phosphorus melts the flesh down to the bone.

Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud, and anyone within 150 meters is dead. As evidence, dozens of high-quality color close-ups show bodies of Fallujah residents, some still in their beds, whose clothes remain largely intact but whose skin has been dissolved or caramelized or turned the consistency of leather by the shells.

The use of phosphorus is a betrayal of core American values, is barbarism of the first order and displays the darkness of spirit that animates this ruthless administration.

—Frank P. Belcastro, Dubuque.

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Letter of the WeeQ

I agree with Rekha Basu's column on torture ("Torture Policies Abuse Credibility," Nov. 13). We all know about the black hole at Guantanamo, and we know about the ugliness at Abu Ghraib, and reports are starting to leak out about a secret CIA gulag of interrogation cells all over the world.

So, what do Republican leaders in Congress want to do? Well, they want to investigate the leak rather than the reports. Meanwhile, our President is telling us, "We do not torture," but it's sounding more like, "We do not call it torture."

—Roy Applegate, Spencer.

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Letter Of The Day

it's a long one, but worthy of the award.

I've had my bellyful of articles in the Register reporting how pheasant hunters are whining and crying because they are increasingly not allowed to hunt the private farmland in Iowa. I have little sympathy for these "sportsmen" from my experiences on our farm.

More than 30 years ago, I used to go hunting with my dad. He'd shoot a couple of squirrels or rabbits, just enough so Mom could pan fry them for a couple of weeks' worth of meals. He'd ask the farmer who owned the land for permission to hunt, and seldom was he denied.

The farmer knew there would be no full-scale ravaging of the wildlife since it was just the two of us — Dad shot only what we could eat. The farmer also knew there would be no vandalizing since we lived nearby and neighbors didn't — and still don't — destroy each other's property.

This relationship between farmer and hunter is long gone, and many examples prove it on our farm. We allowed pheasant hunters from the southern United States out on our land one year. They came in with a convoy of trucks and just as many dogs to run the fields for this thing they called a sport.

They didn't come just one day, but several, and "harvested" so many birds that we didn't see any pheasants for several years on our place. Since then, hunters, who haven't asked permission to hunt, have cut our fence wires, shot our "no trespassing or hunting" signs and killed our pets.

We've had trappers tie snare traps to our fence lines, only to find that the trapped animal tried to eat its leg off to get loose since the trapper didn't check snares as required by law. One morning, a kid who lost his head when a pheasant flew up shot across our highway and peppered the front right panel of my pickup. If he had shot a couple inches away from his mark, I would have been hit.

The Register's articles don't depict these particular types of experiences we have endured out here in the country, and the Department of Natural Resources really is only interested in selling the hunting licenses to shore up the budget. All the suburbanites who can afford their quarter-million-dollar homes, and those who come from out of state and have the financial means to bring in a half-dozen extended-cab pickups with purebred dogs to hunt, should surely be able to afford to lease or buy a 40-acre parcel where they don't need to care if they shoot the hell out of everything.

—Robin Crabtree, Madrid.

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