a sad, ssd story of a soldier

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1870805.shtml

Letter Of The Day

Bush's gift to America. Price of oil on Jan. 20, 2001: $22 a barrel. Price of oil on Aug: 8, 2005: $64 a barrel. Increase: 190 percent.

-Keith Nichols, Perry.

and

In his Aug. 8 column, George Will suggests that Ford, GM and Chrysler increase their profitability by "trimming some of the benefits the United Auto Workers won when the Big Three were the world's largest automobile companies."

Well, George, how about this solution: that the United States join the rest of the industrialized world and implement a national health-care system for all its citizens. This would allow Ford, GM and Chrysler to cut $1,500 off the cost of every vehicle!

They would then be more competitive in the marketplace, and they wouldn't have to cut benefits for the men and women, past and present, who do the kind of work in the automobile factories that George Will and his friends couldn't handle for one day.

-Gary Sanders, Iowa City.

--source

the epitomy of incompetence

that's donald rumsfeld, summed up in about 4 words. why?

The ensuing scramble to produce more plates was marred by a series of missteps in which the Pentagon gave one contract to a former Army researcher who had never mass-produced anything. He was allowed to struggle with production for a year before he gave up. An outdated delivery plan slowed the arrival of plates that were made. In all, the war was 10 months old before every soldier in Iraq had plates in late January 2004.

--source

a sure sign that the bushites have run their course

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

--source

Letter of the WeeQ

I enjoyed reading "Iowa's Concrete Lifeline - Life Along Interstate 80" in the Aug. 7 Register.

I spent the summer of 1964, following my junior year of college, working on the road-building crew that paved the sections between Grinnell and Malcom (miles 182 to 191) and Kinzi Manufacturing and Williamsburg (miles 216 to 220). I drove a water truck that piped water to the traveling on-site concrete mixers and was paid $2 per hour.

Along with overtime pay, I earned enough in 12 weeks to pay 100 percent of my expenses for my senior year at Iowa State University. My, how times have changed!

-Robert C. Wemer, Montezuma.

--source

Letter Of The Day

This year average Americans will work 185 days to pay their tax burden. President George Bush has taken 70 billion of those dollars to give to corporations as incentives, while they're moving American jobs to foreign countries.

We stand by fecklessly and do nothing. Who voted for this guy?

-Larry Wohlgemuth, Ankeny.

--source

finally, an editorial that makes a very strong case for national heath care.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050814/OPINION03/508140314/1035/OPINION

in the words of those who were there on 9/11

A rich vein of city records from Sept. 11, including more than 12,000 pages of oral histories rendered in the voices of 503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, were made public on Aug. 12. The New York Times has published all of them.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html

Letter Of The Day

Do commanders in chief go on vacation during war? Have the terrorists gotten the memo, and are they also on holiday?

Fourteen Marines are killed in one incident on the same day President Bush departs for Crawford to start his vacation. I am sure there will be plenty of photo ops of him clearing brush and his mind.

I bet there are a few boots on the ground in the Middle East that would like a vacation, even if it's in West Texas.

-R. D. Smith, West Des Moines.

--source

think this would sway opinion on the bush war?

from Knight-Ridder:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi investigators have uncovered widespread fraud and waste in more than $1 billion worth of weapons deals arranged by middlemen who reneged or took huge kickbacks on contracts to arm Iraq's fledgling military, according to a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials.

...

The contracts under scrutiny total $1.27 billion, nearly equal to the estimated $1.3 billion allocated for the Defense Ministry's budget this year. The money came solely from Iraqi coffers, not from the training budget of the U.S. military or from NATO and foreign donations to Iraq's military.

"There's no rebuilding, no weapons, nothing," said retired Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul Aziz al-Yaseri, who worked in the Defense Ministry at the height of the alleged corruption. "There are no real contracts, even. They just signed papers and took the money."

--source

think that's bad? that's nothin compared to what bush has done to America.

Letter Of The Day

You really have to give it to the House for finally passing an energy bill. It left no oil company behind, what with the generous federal subsidies it's going to give to the oil and gas industries. (Why are large corporations exempt from the ownership-society concept?)

Considering the time it took for the "great minds" to come up with this bill, you'd think they could have arrived at a national energy-conservation program that would have involved real conservation.

Instead, the one big idea it came up with is to extend daylight savings time.
-Rita Luther,
West Des Moines.

--source

just when you thought there couldn't be any more foolery

from an administration based and operated totally on tom foolery, i give you the winner of the "thank god for 9/11" contest:

The Pentagon would hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing today.

"This year the Department of Defence will initiate an America Supports Your Freedom Walk," Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of "the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation".

--source

rummy is calling out to all Americans to celebrate 9/11. since 9/11 was the start of their dictatorship, no doubt they _would want to celebrate.

and talk about fuckin up

this one takes the cake. and certainly provides even more ammunition to the premise that the 9/11 commission was a whitewash for the bushites.

from today's papers on slate:

Relying on Representative Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and a "former defense intelligence official," the NYT says above the fold on Page One that a secret Pentagon program actually pegged four of the 9/11 hijackers—including Mohamed Atta—as al-Qaida men back in 2000. The secret program, which used data-mining, was called "Able Danger." Again, according to Weldon and the other source, program officials wanted to pass along the tips to the FBI but were overruled by Pentagon lawyers concerned that the military would be overstepping its authority. "We knew these were bad guys, and we wanted to do something about them," the former unnamed DoD official said. That source also charged that the 9/11 commission was told about the scoop but never followed up.

the piece on slate goes on with more details on weldon.

if you need any proof that bush is the worse president ever

take a look at this

Letter(s) Of The Day

today, there are several that deserve the distinction of Letter Of The Day. all from the same source.

GOPAC, a Washington, D.C.,-based Republican action committee, has announced plans to financially support Republican candidates for school boards in Iowa ("Political Group Targets School Boards," Aug. 1).

For what reason would a national organization in Washington, D.C., involve itself in our local school board elections other than to put in place candidates who will promote its political agenda?

With President Bush leading the charge to force his and the far-Christian right's beliefs onto the electorate (limiting stem-cell research, advocating intelligent-design curriculum, providing nonaccountable funding of faith-based organizations and vouchers for private schools) this is not the time to keep from voters the political affiliation of each school board candidate.

The deck is already being stacked by GOPAC. Hopefully the Register and organizations like the League of Women Voters and Women for a Stronger America will do their part to educate the electorate.

-Nancy Theodore, West Des Moines.

and

When does deference to a public official become blind submission? The Register crosses that point in its Aug. 2 editorial, "Bolton's Almost Beside the Point," which is dismissive of President Bush's recess appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.

Let the ruler do whatever he wants, the editorial basically says, that's what he is paid to do - rule. Whatever happened to accountability or the checks and balances system in our democracy?

Further, the editorial is just too dismissive of the role of the U.N. ambassador - a position that has been held by several of our nation's finest public servants over the past 60 years. Check the lineup - Ralph Bunche, Henry Cabot Lodge, Adlai Stevenson, et al.

John Bolton is a disastrous appointment and subservience to presidential power can't change that.

-Herb Strentz, Urbandale.

and

Many modern-day, church-attending Christians seem to have forgotten the fundamental message of Jesus. How can individuals who are trying to imitate Christ support pre-emptive military actions, more deadly weapons systems, the death penalty and more punitive sentencing, tax breaks that expand the separation between the rich and the poor, unrestricted gun access and ownership and minimal foreign aid to needy nations?

How can such actions and attitudes be reconciled with the central messages in the Beatitudes or in the basic edict from Christ that we should love our neighbor as ourselves? Is real Christianity simply too difficult to practice for most people?

Bill McKibben recently observed in a Harpers magazine article that "America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior." Perhaps it is high time for Christians to strive to more closely emulate their leader's teachings.

-Dean R. Prestemon, Ames.

KUDOS TO ALL THE WRITERS!

and open letter to LEXMARK:

WHY DO YOU HATE YOUR CUSTOMERS SO MUCH?

Letter of the WeeQ

this wins hands down for the Letter of the WeeQ(tm):

I commend Iowa Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin for trying to limit farm payments to $250,000. The existing limit of $350,000, with loopholes that allow landowners with good lawyers to collect millions, is patently absurd. Taxpayers' money is being used to bankroll the biggest corporations so they can continue to force small farmers off the land.

Our senators are not even trying to go far enough, however.

The Department of Human Services will tell you that a single, disabled mother of five children, with no means of support, can collect about $1,800 per month, or less than $22,000 per year. The biggest 10 percent of agricultural producers got 86 percent of the $28 billion in welfare (called subsidies) last year.

It is time we limited ag subsidies to $25,000, or perhaps $20,000, per year. Why should a "proud, independent, self-sufficient farmer" get a bigger welfare check than a poor, disabled woman with five children?

Big farmers will tell you, of course, that they take "big risks," so they are entitled to big welfare checks. The fact is, if you have a multimillion-dollar business, and you still need government assistance, you need to get into another line of work.

-Garry Klicker,
( small farmer who collects conversation subsidies), Bloomfield.

--source

Letter Of The Day

Regarding your photo of neighbors enjoying a picnic lunch in a new unoccupied confinement building:

Buildings do not stink, but fermenting feces and urine do stink beyond your average reader's comprehension. I would be glad to host a picnic 1,000 feet downwind from that building a year from now, but you have to honestly publish our guests' remarks.

-Ron Kielkopf, Fremont.

--source

watching law & order, and i caught the police lt. having an issue about 'the president nominating someone like that, as if he didn't do enough damage to new york city already'.... how can you not associate that with THIS?

Letter Of The Day

The July 26 headline, "Bill Would Expand U.S. Ethanol Use: Agreement Seen As 'Positive Step' for Iowa's Corn Farmers," tells only part of the story.

I applaud increased use of the renewable fuels that should lessen our reliance on Middle East oil. However, in that energy bill the petroleum companies gained ever more lucrative concessions for their profitable enterprises.

They've tossed some "crumbs" to renewable fuels while behind the scenes the oil companies again get the "frosting."
-Olive Wilson,
Primghar.

--source

enronomics strikes again!

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - President Bush has never exercised his veto power, but he brandished it over major transportation legislation for two years, threatening Congress with the V-word should lawmakers break the bank in pursuit of home-state road and bridge work.

So when Congress delivered transportation legislation with a price tag put at $286.4 billion, the administration claimed victory, noting the final amount was just $2 billion above the White House's limit and far below what senior members of Congress wanted.

But as details of the measure came under closer inspection this week, the spending picture got a bit blurry. In a piece of legislative legerdemain, Congress managed to stuff an extra $8.5 billion into the highway bill and still meet Mr. Bush's demands by requiring that the added money be turned back to the Treasury on Sept. 30, 2009, the day the bill expires.

The question of whether that new bottom line translates into financial flexibility or fiscal irresponsibility now depends on who is adding things up.

--nytimes

what did you expect from proven liars? the truth?? mwahahaha

Letter Of The Day

With a world constantly in battle, America's reputation is in a dire need of a tuneup. When I think of the United States, I see three different perspectives foreign nations can view of us.

The first reputation is the arrogant American. In the 2004 election, our presidential candidates boasted the United States as the most powerful nation. They remarked how we have the strongest military in the world. It sure sounds like a challenge to other countries.

Let's not give other nations a reason to test our opinion. We can be proud of our nation without bragging to be better than everyone else. Once we step down from our pedestal, maybe other nations will stop trying to knock us off of it.

Being the "most powerful nation" gives us a responsibility to help less fortunate countries.

Our second reputation is of the world's big brother. We want other nations to think that if they have a problem, we can help. The United States has helped many other countries and should be proud of that.

However, when helping one country means attacking another, that can make America look like we can't mind our own business. Standing up for someone doesn't mean pushing someone else down.

Finally, we have the reputation of spreading democracy. I am totally for democracy in America. I would love if other countries chose to give it a try. We have to remember, though, that other countries have different cultures. What works best for us may not be the best for a culture that has a different background. Let's not shove democracy down other nations' throats. Let them make their own decisions.

The more we look at ourselves, the less we'll have to look out for ourselves.

--By DREW SEVERSON, Garner
--source

from my own hometown paper too, albeit i don't know and haven't heard who Drew Severson is, i sure would like to meet him.

whjy i hate republicons

A piece inside the Post looks at the Scorpions, who were originally created by the CIA to infiltrate Iraq before the war and be behind-the-scenes helpers. Things didn't go so well back then. The WP says most of the prewar missions were "delayed or canceled because of poor training or planning." After the invasion, the Scorpions found employment doing what one "intelligence official" called "dirty work." Oh, and in case you're worried that such talk might get Congress curious, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee said he knew all about the program and isn't interested in investigating: "We're not spending a lot of time going back and dissecting tactical programs."

--source

i can jus hear that chairman now: "so what if they did something wrong, we're not looking backward, we're looking forward."

today's P.S.A.

Search Results

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Also try: poopy joe.com, poopy joe, poopy diapers, poopy pants

*giggle*

a sad milestone has now passed

we have lost 2000 coalition troops in iraq.

http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx

i'd probably like his hat too

i don't know who nathanial is, but i'm sure he's latino, and that's enough for moi. given george's propensity for latinos, i would say he's in the same boat.

"I bought this Scout hat. It's hard to describe but it's kind of like a Scout cowboy hat. I had it with me but we weren't supposed to wear our hat so I had it between my knees.

"The president shook hands with me and pointed down and said, ‘I like your hat.'
--source

if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, then....

could it be a duck?

Out with the "War on Terrorism", in with the "War on Global Extremism". Could there be a new medal in the words. The "Global War on Extremism Campaign Medal".

When recruiting numbers get down, look for Rumsfeld to try any ploy to get more warm bodies. "Extremism". Now that doesn't sound as scary as "terrorism".

http://forums.military.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/409192893/m/8500001110001/inc/1

QUACK! QUACK!!

remember PLAMEGATE?

where the revenge of karl rove ran into obstacles, like outting a CIA undercover agent, a federal crime? it all started with some phone calls, and karl's bed partner bob novak whispering sweet revenge nothings one night before bob proceeds to out her in his column.

well, it seems to get more ludicrous every time there's a new story about the case, which is over 2 years old now.

Mr. Novak offered a possible explanation for the disconnect on Monday, suggesting in his column that he could have obtained Ms. Wilson's maiden name from the directory Who's Who in America, which used that name in identifying her as the wife of Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador.

--source

well, i couldn't have put the same reaction a friend of mine over on DU had, into better words:

He could well have figured out that Joseph Wilson's wife was named Valerie Plame. So could have their neighbors, their insurance broker, their pool cleaner, and the maitre'd at a local restaurant. That is, needless to say, all very much beside the point. Mrs. Wilson claimed to work as a consultant with a company named Jennings Brewster. As far as their neighbors, their insurance broker, their pool cleaner, the maitre'd or Mr. Robert Novak could have known, this was a legitimate company that drew revenue for consulting services rendered. What none of these people could have determined from "Who's Who in America" or any other public source was that Jennings Brewster was in fact a CIA front company gathering intelligence on weapons proliferation, or that Mrs. Wilson or Ms. Plame, or whatever, was a covert operative for the Central Intelligence Agency. No public source said that. The CIA tried desperately to prevent Mr. Novak from printing that. And the fucking New York Times should stop pretending that this point isn't obvious to any child who looks into the matter with a shred of honesty. Are they fucking kidding me?

The lengths of absurdity that these scumbags will go to to backtrack on their criminal behavior is directly proportional to their culpability and criminal exposure. And this story is a doozy of bad logic and laughable premises, so I'm betting that they're expecting rather severe indictments. He could have figured it out by himself? How? How on earth could he have done that? If any public source made any such claim, that public source should be added to the investigation. As it stands, the FIRST public source to state that Valerie Wilson was a CIA employee was Mr. Novak's column, which is why he's at the center of the shitstorm. As well he should be.
--source

the dog ate my homework excuse only a republicon could get away with using.

on john roberts (the nominee, not the dittohead on cbs)

caught this tidbit on TP this morning:

Roberts also advocated narrowing the reach of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, arguing that the law should bar only voting rules that discriminated intentionally and not those that merely had a disparate impact.

ya know what that tells me? roberts is the type of guy who will let 'unintended consequences' be without consequences.
and that, my friend, is how evil is born.

bush style democracy

WASHINGTON, July 31 - As the Pentagon was making its final preparations to begin war crimes trials against four detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, two senior prosecutors complained in confidential messages last year that the trial system had been secretly arranged to improve the chance of conviction and to deprive defendants of material that could prove their innocence.

--source

you'll see that the pentagon did their usual cover-up investigation, and concluded that their own prosecutors' charges were without merit.

c'mon now. the pentagon has proven time and time again to be pathological liars. so, who ya gonna believe?

Letter Of The Day

Many of the freedoms the founders of this country included in the U.S. Constitution, such as protection from unwarranted searches and the right to a trial, have been discarded by the current administration.

You can now be arrested without any charge, held indefinitely, denied the right to contact family or a lawyer, transferred to a foreign country that openly engages in torture or executed - all without any burden of proof, standard of evidence, legislative oversight or appeal. No judicial process whatsoever except a "tribunal" the president himself constructs, which some top military officers have denounced as nothing more than a sham kangaroo court.

On July 15 in a chilling decision a panel of federal appellate-court judges upheld Bush's sovereign right to designate anyone he chooses a legal non-person, throwing away the Geneva Conventions, American military and domestic law and the U.S. Constitution. One of the jurists on that panel was John G. Roberts.

Four days after he affirmed Bush's autocratic powers, Roberts was rewarded with a nomination to the Supreme Court.

Roberts is not the warm, fuzzy shoo-in he is being sold as in the media. His disdain for the freedom traditionally protected by the U.S. Constitution makes Roberts the exact opposite of the kind of person who should sit on the Supreme Court.
-Jay Miller,
Hills (IA).

--attribution

Letter Of The Day

Twenty-seven children in Iraq are blown up while reaching for candy ("From Smiley-Faces to Blood and Death," July 14). President Bush still says, "We've taken the fight (over there) so that we don't have to fight them on our streets."

The same day I'm sitting with a friend for a nice lunch out. Those children died so that I could safely go out to lunch? Innocent Iraqis are dying so we can be safe here.

The terrorists were not in Iraq, but they are now. The blood of the Iraqi people is on our heads because of bad decisions made by our administration. We can't now change that.

What we must do is make sure that we in some way become worthy of their sacrifice, put our shoulders to the wheel and live exemplary lives. Sacrifice to aid those who are helpless and powerless.

-Jan Fleming, West Des Moines.

--source

the "well DUH" Post of the Day

WASHINGTON - Thirty percent of U.S. troops surveyed have developed stress-related mental health problems three to four months after coming home from the Iraq war, the Army's surgeon general said Thursday.

--source

would anybody like to argue that?

in case you didn't know

the lawyers objecting to how our military treated detainees, wrote some memos. you can see them here.

a turd blossom? bush will give you a raise.

The top pay for senior White House aides, including Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Legislative Affairs Director Candida Wolff, mushroomed to $161,000 at the beginning of July, according to a list sent to Congress and obtained by National Journal, RAW STORY can reveal.

--source

just disgusting. aint it.

i know, let's play NAME THAT WAR

WASHINGTON, July 25 - The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, senior administration and military officials said Monday.

--source

i know, i know!

BUSH BULLSHIT

or bushit for short.

from today's papers on slate

The NYT notes that Scotland Yard's initial assertion that the man police shot was "directly linked" to the case is among what the paper calls "a series of incomplete characterizations" and "in some cases, public misstatements about the evidence."

(By the way, the Post reefers the story of the slain man, but it's worth noting that while the man's death was the paper's leadstory on Saturday, the revelation of his innocence is on A24Sunday.)

--source

i can understand burying the truth and corrections on page B70. but when it's as important as this, then they should be placed in the same spot used when blurting out the (now known) untruths.

PLAMEGATE and the men who brought it to you

and covered by one of the best, most accurate "reporters" of our time, this story has legs i never would have put on her. soupy is exactly how this lying and thievin (mis)administration would like for it to get, so nobody will ever know the truth, except those who are trying to convict America because of it.

josh marshall, you have my extreme gratitude for allowing us to see the truth.

Ever wonder why George Tenet's July 11, 2003 mea culpa about the Niger uranium snafu seemed so protective of the White House?

Maybe that was because it was written by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

Unless I'm mistaken this is one of several interesting (if not that surprising) tidbits in the Friday Times article on the Plame investigation. Says the Times ...

"Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr., were helping to prepare what became the administration's primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been included in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address six months earlier. They had exchanged e-mail correspondence and drafts of a proposed statement by George Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to explain how the disputed wording had gotten into the address. Mr. Rove, the president's political strategist, and Mr. Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coordinated their efforts with Stephen Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, who was in turn consulting with Mr. Tenet."

This tells us a few things.

One, the seamless (or perhaps 'seamy', take your pick) integration of the political and national security staffs at the White House in organizing the push back against Joe Wilson and the controversy he'd ignited about the White House's use of phoney intelligence about an Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

Read the whole article and you'll see that these two were working together on this with a number of top White House officials.

Two, these were the two men who we know had conversations with reporters about Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. And it would seem that in the days leading up to the leak they were involved in active and detailed collaboration and/or dialog with Director Tenet about the Niger matter and the origins of Wilson's trip.

Another piece of the puzzle is suggested by a new article out from Bloomberg, which says that Rove's and Libby's testimony before the grand jury conflicts with testimony from the reporters whom they spoke to. Specifically, Libby reportedly told the grand jury that he heard of Plame's identity from Tim Russert. But Russert told the grand jury that that's not so.

Now, I know we've got a few balls in the air already. But let me note one other point.

A few days ago a former high-level administration official who was on Air Force One going to Africa with the president (and think for a moment how many now-former administration officials were on that flight in a position to vouch for this fact) told Bloomberg News that he saw Ari Fleischer "perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife."

So Perhaps Libby and Rove found out about Plame from Fleischer, who would have been calling back to the White House. Or perhaps they got it from their research and authorship of the Tenet mea culpa. It seems quite conceiveable that they got it from both directions. Remember, Libby would have had no shortage of access to former CIA officers and CIA personnel on loan to the administration who could have given him more backstory on Plame. The two channels might even help explain the two versions of her name that were in circulation.

In any case, there was no shortage of channels through which they might have gotten the information. But each, it seems, in his grand jury testimony, has claimed he learned the information from journalists -- even though the journalists disagree.

Letter Of The Day

The Register published July 10 an article about the lack of adequate mental-health care ("State of Mental Anguish"). Now, in a July 14 editorial, the Register advocates shutting down the veterans health-care system, issuing cards to veterans and throwing them into the private sector ("Vets' Health Care Needs Overhaul").

Where in this system are they going to find treatment for the post-traumatic stress syndrome the Register admits may affect 30 percent of the soldiers returning from Iraq and/or Afghanistan? Is the private sector going to work hard to find shelter for homeless veterans, offer addiction treatment, run outpatient clinics, assist with drug costs?

Yes, veterans are "only one segment of the population," but they deserve treatment geared to their special needs. The veterans' health system does an admirable job striving to meet those needs. The private-hospital sector leaves much to be desired.

Don't do this to our veterans. If we can spend "precious public dollars" sending them to war, we should come up with the money to care for those who make it back.
-Markoline Johnson,
Des Moines.

--attribution

PLAMEGATE timeline

HERE

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING??

On July 22, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) denounced the latest efforts of the Bush Administration to block the release of the Darby photos and videos depicting torture at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison facility. On June 2, 2004, CCR, along with the ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense, and Veterans for Peace filed papers with the U.S. District Court, charging the Department of Defense and other government agencies with illegally withholding records concerning the abuse of detainees in American military custody. Since then, the organizations have been repeatedly rebuffed in their efforts to investigate what happened at the prison.

--source

thieves stick together like bees on honey, don't they?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- During the tumultuous presidential recount in 2000, John Roberts flew to Florida and volunteered advice to Gov. Jeb Bush, whose brother was trying to clinch the election.

--source

Letter Of The Day

A June 30 editorial said President Bush's "bigger task is to convince the Iraqi people to fight for his vision of their future."

Years ago, we couldn't figure out why the South Vietnamese couldn't be trained to defend their own country. The North Vietnamese had no difficulty defending their country. Same people. One group fought to the death, one did not.

Now in Iraq the government-sponsored armies and police forces are unable to defend their country. They are ineffective.

Meanwhile, the insurgents are very effective, tenacious fighters. Same people, one group fights to the death, one group does not.

Why? We asked the South Vietnamese to die for our goals, our vision of what their country should be like. It didn't work.

Today we are asking the Iraqi army and police forces to fight and die for President Bush's vision, his goals, his agenda. It isn't working. It never has, and it never will.

-Barbara Paulding, Russell.

--attribution

they succeeded in washing rove off our televisions

i just wonder how much it cost them.

for all three networks to not even mention rove, given the heavy sunday carryover, it's simply amazing how they all bowed to bush and didn't mention rove all night.

mediawhores. every last one of them. and that includes you john roberts.

looks like bush is CREATING more terrorists

WASHINGTON - New investigations by the Saudi Arabian government and an Israeli think tank — both of which painstakingly analyzed the backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to fight the United States — have found that the vast majority of them are not former terrorists and became radicalized by the war.

--source

it's out, and it's a doozie

Report Shows Rove May Have Lied to FBI, A Felony

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0507/S00227.htm

and here too:

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=11391&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported


all i can say is

WOW

iraqi democracy on the march

taken from TP:

Meanwhile, the papers mention that another dozen Sunni Muslim men were found dead after being arrested by Iraqi police over the weekend. The NYT mentions the usual signs of torture. "Now when anyone is arrested, his family expects him dead within a few days," one moderate Sunni leader told the Post.

--source

that's the bush legacy, iraqi democracy in all it's gory fashion.

Letter Of The Day

On the front page of the June 30 Register we had news of the death of an orangutan ("Zoo Faulted in Indah's Death"). Meanwhile, buried on page 8A, there was a short news item concerning the loss of 17 American troops in Afghanistan after their copter was shot down ("17 Feared Dead After Afghanistan Copter Crash").

The Bush administration does not have to censor the miserable news coming from the Middle East when there are so many accommodating editors around. How sad.
-Lloyd E. Anderson,
Ames.

--attribution

Quote of the Day

"The losers sat in the back of the plane with the techies."
--Rolling Stone author, Matt Taibbi, on The Daily Show, July 12, 2005

an open message to matt taibbi

you were hot, man, on jon's show tonite. a hot man being hot is not something i get every day out here in north iowa. but even when i lived in manhattan, you would have been my dreamboat for a man with the way you are capable of bringing more than just plain words to life.

bravo boy. bravo. i think i'll run over to amazon and put my first order in for spanking the donkey.

for those of you who are not aware of whom i speak, take a look at some of his work