when do you call it corruption?

BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.

The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."

--source

the cities are only a hundred miles away

and i'd sure like to go up and protest.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have chosen the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul — in the politically pivotal Midwest — for the 2008 presidential convention, GOP officials said Wednesday.

--story

they do NOT want us there

BAGHDAD, Sept. 26 -- A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers.

--source

Quote of the Day

from a newspaper in connecticut:

The war in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position regarding the terrorist threat, according to officials familiar with the analysis who talked to reporters. In other words, we are less safe than we were before the war.

they lied and nobody cares

WASHINGTON — Adding to criticism of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war in Iraq, a retired senior general who commanded an infantry division in the conflict said Monday that requests by commanders for more soldiers were repeatedly turned down.

"Many of us routinely asked for more troops," retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste said, contradicting statements by President Bush and his senior aides that the administration had given the military all the resources it had asked for.

--source

Website of the Day

HERE

iraq is just a "comma" > bush

the transcript from blitzer's interview with the piece of shit:

BLITZER: Let's move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war, if not already a civil war…. We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see — you see it on TV, and that's the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there's also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people…. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there's a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

something i caught in today's papers that i wanted to keep

for future reference:

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times all lead with a government report finding that the war in Iraq is hurting the fight against terrorism. The classified National Intelligence Estimate, issued last April, finds that the occupation of Iraq has been a crucible for new, more decentralized extremist cells, while global outrage over the war has proved to be a boon for terrorist recruiters.
The NIE represents the opinions of all 16 intelligence agencies and was approved by Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte. It's worth noting, as all the papers do, that a 2002 NIE was used to build the case for invading Iraq. That history makes the report's stark assessment of the war all the more sobering. Since the report is still classified, the papers rely on sources familiar with the document for tidbits, and as a result the stories all sound very similar. TP won't pretend it's surprised that all three papers do their cover pieces on the same day, five months after the report was issued. It sounds, however, as if the slim 30-page report is a little short on specifics as well: There's no attempt to discern the chances of the U.S. being attacked again, nor does the report make any policy suggestions. The report simply states, one sources tells NYT, "that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse."

--today's papers

Letter Of The Day

comes from my old school chum and the father of my neighbor across the street (small towns have that way of doing things like this).

Thirty-eight days into Bill Clinton’s presidency, the WTC was bombed. No one blamed George Bush Sr. Clinton’s Justice Department captured those responsible and put them in prison. No less than 22 planned Al-Qaeda attacks (20 in this country) were thwarted by these arrests.

Clinton tripled the counter-terrorism budget for the FBI, created a national security post and introduced two anti-terrorism bills, all fought by the Republicans in Congress. In 1998, in retaliation for U.S. Embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, Clinton hit targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

The Sudanese government never offered up bin Laden. A man named Mansoor Ijaz claimed he knew a Sudan general who could deliver him and suggested sanctions against Sudan be lifted. Sudan’s regime has killed more than two million Christians, deals in slave trade and state-sponsored terrorism. Sandy Berger deemed him unreliable.

U.S. policy deals with governments, not individuals. After the USS Cole attack, Clinton had Richard Clarke devise a comprehensive plan to eliminate al-Qaida. In December 2000, that plan was presented by Sandy Berger to the incoming Bush administration. It was ignored for nine months. In Bush’s first seven months in office, he was away on vacation 42 percent of the time.

In February 2001, the Hart-Rudman report on national security, which cited a very real terrorist threat, was also ignored by Bush’s people. Repeated FBI warnings involving al-Qaida, flight schools, airplanes and terrorists’ chatter were ignored.

Meetings between Clarke, Berger and the Bush administration were continually postponed. Repeated requests by Thomas Pickard of the FBI for manpower and money increases were denied by Attorney General Ashcroft and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. Finally on Sept. 4, 2001, Clarke’s plan reached the Principal’s Committee and they decided to advise Bush to accept it. One week later, the WTC fell. The next day, they blamed Clinton.

What?

--Gene Beller

attribution

keeping 9/11 in mind

U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next.

The latest milestone for a country at war came Friday without commemoration. It came without the precision of knowing who was the 2,974th to die in conflict. The terrorist attacks killed 2,973 victims in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

--story

why hezollah will never die

take a look at this

Letter of the Day

John Carlson has every right to be offended by a bumper sticker that includes a word he finds offensive ("Can't Escape Dumb and Offensive (but Legal) Messages," Sept. 13). Likewise, the young lady who has the "(Blank) War" bumper sticker has every right to display it.

My primary question, however, revolves around what truly is offensive. War is obscene.

While the obscenity of war at times can be justified, it is one of the least desirable demonstrations of human behavior. War always should be the last resort, and the unjust war is the greatest obscenity.

Being offended by the [anti-war] bumper sticker is fine. Maybe the more appropriate response, however, is being outraged by unjust war.

- Phil George, Pella.

attribution

watching M*A*S*H

and i'm wondering... why do they show the surgeons scrubbing like mad AFTER surgery? they're wearing platex gloves throughout the whole ordeal, the place is as sterile as it ever got over there, and here we have a shot, a 60 second shot, of them scrubbing, talking about the surgeries they've just completed.

i mean, all i have to ask: what are they washing off?

... probably some blooper contest angle.

HYPOCRISY ALERT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Bush administration official has rejected a claim by a U.N. official that torture in Iraq is worse now than under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
--story

speaking of state sanctioned torture - in ira, in afghanistan, at gitmo, in secret prisons, with extraordinary renditions. hell, America likes torture so much it legitimizes it with the cover of law.

HYPOCRACY ALERT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A Bush administration official has rejected a claim by a U.N. official that torture in Iraq is worse now than under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

--STORY

speaking of state sanctioned torture - in ira, in afghanistan, at gitmo, in secret prisons, with extraordinary renditions. hell, America likes torture so much it legitimizes it with the cover of law.

Quote of the Day

"Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it."
--Andre Gide

attribution

Letter of the Day

Jon von Gillern is sick and disgusted that 30 percent of adults in the United States can't recall the year of the Sept. 11 attacks (Talk About It, Sept. 11).

Do you know what's even more disgusting? More than 30 percent of adult Americans still think Sept. 11 was the work of the Iraqis.

- Donald M. Maze, Marshalltown.

attribution

our very own taliban

Speaking in tongues, weeping for salvation, praying for an end to abortion and worshipping a picture of President Bush -- these are some of the activities at Pastor Becky Fischer's Bible camp in North Dakota, "Kids on Fire," subject of the provocative new documentary, "Jesus Camp."

"I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places," Fisher said. "Because, excuse me, we have the truth."

"A lot of people die for God," one camper said, "and they're not afraid."

"We're kinda being trained to be warriors," said another, "only in a funner way."

--story

republican and democrat shoes

can you tell which are which?

betcha didn't know THAT.

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

--source

what really bothers me is that if any other country did this, the world would be screaming on it's end to terminate this practice.

the numbers

The latest Bush bounce is over. Today, 41% of American adults approve of the way that President Bush is performince his job and 57% disapprove. That's exactly where the numbers were before the President's 9/11 speech.

Overall 21% of Americans Strongly Approve and 42% Strongly Disapprove.

--rasmussen

they're sending george baker to iraq

is that like throwing gasoline on a fire?

Headline of the Day

even though this piece is two years old, it still rings true today as much as it did then.

Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia

when do they start to call it corruption?

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

--story

when do they start to call it corruption?

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What they needed to be was a member of the Republican Party.

--story

i never did like the guy

he looks creepy and evil. and now he evidently has shown his true colors

Muslims Lash Out at Pope's Remarks
Benedict's criticism of Islamic violence draws sharp rebukes and may threaten his Turkey trip.

Letter of the Day

Recently, Donald Rumsfeld accused those like me of appeasing fascists for calling upon the administration to withdraw from Iraq. He accused us of being morally and intellectually confused.

Rumsfeld is intellectually confused. He believes the mission in Iraq is still war.

The repressive regime of Saddam Hussein is gone; the war is over. Clearly, the mission is now peace- keeping, reconstruction and nation-building. Peace in such a complex region requires vision, wisdom, nuanced diplomacy and restraint.

Rumsfeld is morally confused. He believes it necessary to ignore U.S. and international law if doing so allows us to obtain information that prevents a terrorist attack.

Even if torture and abusive tactics led to valuable intelligence, it diminishes us as a people and as a nation.

The "ends justifies the means" is the rationale used by every despot who ever bloodied the soil of this planet.

Our role in the world should be to bear the torch of liberty and preach the gospel of human rights.

- Rick Whitten, Madrid.

attribution

Quote of the Day

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,"
--Secretary Michael Wynne

attribution

Quote of the Day

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,"
--Secretary Michael Wynne

attribution

abc's the path to 9/11

i was a fool and recorded it on my dvr, and then relied on that to watch the 2nd part. well. when it came time for bush to enter the middle, i went to fast forward and somehow inadvertantly deleted the recording. and of course, there's no undo in DVR-land. so i'm left to wait til abc.com releases it on their website. part I is available, but not part II. so i have to wait. but from what i saw gave me a sense of 'hey bush you fuckd up' even as far as the zacarias moussaoui segment. so until tomorrow when i can comment further, i'll wait.

that comes to 80 million per terrorist

More than 5,000 terrorists have been captured or killed in the five years since the 9/ll attacks, CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden said today.

--source

the fix is in folks

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press,'' Cheney told moderator Tim Russert, "I'll even bet you a dinner that we hold both houses.''

--source

ahhhh, it all makes sense now

The director of ABC's controversial "Path to 9/11" docudrama has ties to an evangelical Christian group whose goals include "transform[ing] Hollywood from the inside out," according to research by readers of prominent blogs.
--source

halliburton, the new ameriken mafia

NEW YORK (AP)--Halliburton (HAL) subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root charged millions to the government for recreational services never provided to U.S. troops in Iraq, including giant tubs of chicken wings and tacos, a widescreen TV, and cheese sticks meant for a military Super Bowl party, according to a federal whistle-blower suit unsealed Friday.
Instead, the suit alleges, KBR used the military's supplies for its own football party.

Filed last year in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., by former KBR employee Julie McBride, the lawsuit claims the giant defense contractor billed the government for thousands of meals it never served, inflated the number of soldiers using its fitness and Internet centers, and regularly siphoned off great quantities of supplies destined for American soldiers.

McBride was hired by KBR in 2004 as a "morale, welfare and recreation" coordinator at Camp Fallujah, a Marine installation about 35 miles west of Baghdad. She was fired the next year after making several complaints about KBR's accounting practices, the suit says, and was kept under guard until she was escorted to an airplane and flown out of the country.

-SOURCE

bush: we don't need proof

WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A U.S. general in Iraq on Friday said he had no proof of Iranians supporting armed militants in his area, which stretches north of Baghdad and borders Iran.

The comments from Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner follow repeated accusations by American officials that the Shi'ite-led Islamic state is fueling sectarian violence in Iraq by funding, training and supplying Shi'ite groups there. But scant evidence has been offered.

--source

what's wrong with corporate america

The bonuses must be rewards for shipping all those great products on time. This week, Microsoft handed out almost $1 billion worth of
stock-based bonuses to more than 900 company executives. Eight top executives took home a total of $81.4 million, with the highest bonus-
-$22.5 million--going to Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes. Other massive payouts include $8.4 million to Entertainment
and Devices Division President Robert Bach, $4.5 million to Human Resources Senior Vice President Lisa Brummel, $18 million to Platforms Group Co-President Kevin Johnson, $3.8 million to CFO Christopher Liddell, $7.1 million to General Counsel Brad Smith, and $16.2 million to COO Kevin Turner. Sadly, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer don't receive bonuses under the company's compensation program. I hope they've saved
up enough for retirement.

Letter of the Day

it's been a while, yes i know. but it's back!

In a recent statement concerning the war in Iraq, Sen. John McCain said, “It grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be.”

Thousands of people protested, signed petitions and contacted their representatives to try to keep this atrocity from happening, but to no avail.

The good senator should have been listening.
— Kenneth Polsley, Blanchard.

attribution

to the repukes, knowledge is sinful

The WP goes inside with several senators saying a report on the intelligence that was available to administration officials before the invasion of Iraq will probably not be released in its entirety until after the November elections. This report will compare public statements made by Bush administration officials about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and the intelligence that was available to them. The Senate will vote today on whether to declassify two of the chapters that, although those appear to be less controversial than other sections of the report, still promise to provide campaign fodder for the Democrats.
--today's papers

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military in Iraq said on Monday that three soldiers killed by kidnappers in June do not appear to have had any involvement in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family in the same area.

In an unusual move prompted by concern among the dead men's families over media reporting of the two events, the military said: "The criminal investigation into the crimes committed against the Iraqi family in Mahmudiya is still ongoing.

"Thus far, however, no evidence has been discovered implicating Babineau, Tucker or Menchaca in any criminal involvement with the Mahmudiya incident."

--source

MSM on issues

cbs is in favor of the lobbyist reform bill

yes or now?



i'm only guessin here but i would say true. yes.

well, HOORAY FOR IOWA

Iowa Tops Forbes' Quality-Of-Life Rankings

watching the blogs, i ran across this

On the one hand, by exposing the problems, flaws, and conservative agenda behind ABC's 9/11 docudrama "The Path to 9/11," the left runs the risk of driving up interest in the broadcast, which means more people may be inclined to watch the misleading "film," just to see what all the fuss is about. On the other hand, this docudrama does a genuine disservice to the public, and the more we do to highlight the program's mistakes, the better informed the public will be.

Following up on yesterday's item, ThinkProgress added that the "The Path to 9/11" was written by a far-right activist.

The writer of the movie is an unabashed conservative named Cyrus Nowrasteh. Last year, Nowrasteh spoke on a panel titled, "Rebels With a Cause: How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood's Next Paradigm Shift." He has described Michael Moore as "an out of control socialist weasel," and conducted interviews with right-wing websites like FrontPageMag.

Of course, as Nico noted, the real problem with this docudrama is that it's being presented to the public as a neutral, reliable historical drama. ABC is telling viewers that it's is "based on the 9/11 Commission Report." Nowrasteh claims he "wanted to match the just-the-facts tone of the report," and describes the project as "an objective telling of the events of 9/11."

But it's not. It repeats many of the same anti-Clinton, far-right talking points that have been debunked for years.

--carpetbagger report

markin the day he won the trifecta

WASHINGTON - President Bush will visit Ground Zero to mark the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the White House announced yesterday.

--source

working to keep a repeat of what happened in ohio, history

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Activists filed a civil-rights lawsuit Thursday claiming Secretary of State Ken Blackwell deprived people of their voting rights during the 2004 presidential election and seeking to have him removed from overseeing the general election in November.

The plaintiffs, who range from the Ohio Voter Rights Alliance for
Democracy to the head of a Columbus neighborhood association,
accuse Blackwell of distributing fewer voting machines per person
in black neighborhoods, purging voter registrations and disproportionately assigning provisional ballots to blacks. Those provisional ballots then were disqualified at higher rates than in nearby precincts that were mostly white, the plaintiffs allege.

--source

Letter of the Day

The signing statements George W. Bush issues when signing legislation into law are very troubling. I would think that with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court that the president could get legislation exactly enacted to his whims.

The fact that he chooses to ignore major parts of the laws he signs appears to be part of his arrogant view that he is above the laws enacted.
— Mark Challis, West Des Moines.

attribution

like cats?

go HERE for a shot of a kitty as small as the tips of my fingers.

and HERE for a shot of one laying down, stretched out on the couch.

and where that came from

gotta luv today's papers

they sure know how to segue....

In a pointed attack on the media, he added: "Any kind of moral and intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can severely weaken the ability of free societies to persevere." There is too much criticism of American atrocities, he said, and not enough praise for those who win medals for valor.

Inside, the WP reports that the commander of the platoon that allegedly massacred two dozen Iraqi civilians in Haditha was initially recommended for a medal for his conduct in the incident.

Quote of the Day

"Turkey is bombing American occupied Iraq to stop the flow of terrorist."
--mike_c

attribution

Letter of the Day

Bravo Richard Doak for plain talk debunking neocon man rhetoric, which usurped the principles that built America ("Let Us Mourn Conservatism, but Hope It Manages a Revival," Aug. 13 column).

Real conservatives defend and enforce the Constitution rather than shred it. Real conservatives support individual freedoms rather than fear-mongering to establish a fascist police state. Real conservatives keep the bills paid rather than bankrupting future generations. Real conservatives don't resort to Orwellian doublespeak promoting obfuscation.

Real conservatives don't make war on false pretenses, prepare for martial law, nationalize the National Guard, build domestic concentration camps planning for "domestic upset," steal elections, tap your phones, track your Internet use, monitor your library habits and operate in secret. Real conservatives don't have anything to hide or lie about.

In short, real conservatives believe in government by the people and for the people. Is it too late to restore what America stood for?

- Stephen Spooner, Johnston.

attribution

Headline of the Day

Brown says White House wanted him to lie