Wounded Soldiers told not to speak to media?

Could it be that our government and the Pentagon is embarrassed that the word got out how poorly we are treating our vets? Can you believe the wounded soldiers were told not to speak to the media? Our government would like to hide this away but it is too late.

From the Army Times:

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 28, 2007 17:03:08 EST

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.

Soldiers say their sergeant major gathered troops at 6 p.m. Monday to tell them they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.

They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks. Building 14 is a barracks that houses the administrative offices for the Medical Hold Unit and was renovated in 2006. It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access.

The soldiers said they were also told their first sergeant has been relieved of duty, and that all of their platoon sergeants have been moved to other positions at Walter Reed. And 120 permanent-duty soldiers are expected to arrive by mid-March to take control of the Medical Hold Unit, the soldiers said.

The Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities, to include suspending planned projects by CNN and the Discovery Channel, saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: “It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,” referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed.

I would recommend sending this article to your Senator and House representative and make sure you ask that there be an oversight committee to oversee what is happening to these wounded vets and if they are truly getting the benefits due them. With the Pentagon getting involved and tightening up what the media can actually see, there is a good chance that things will deteriorate.

Kerry vs Swift Boat Donor, Fox

Bob Geiger has a great post today at BobGeiger.com.

Picture this:
Kerry sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Bush appoints a man named Sam Fox from St. Louis, a huge donor to all things republican, to be Ambassador to Belgium. Sam Fox also gave $50,000 to the 527 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearing on Tuesday to consider the nomination of Sam Fox. Hmmm! You can't write something this convenient.

All is well until it's Kerry's turn to question Mr. Fox

The tone then changed sharply when Kerry switched gears and, indicating he had concerns about Fox's judgment, said "I assume that you believe the truth in public life is important."

"Yes, sir," answered Fox.

"And might I ask you what your opinion is with respect to the state of American politics, as regards the politics of personal destruction?" said Kerry.

This started a lengthy monologue from Fox in which Bush's nominee railed against how campaigns are funded in the United States, saving most of his bile for 527 groups, saying " I'm against 527s, I've always been against 527s. I think, again, they're mean and destructive, I think they've hurt a lot of good, decent people."

I'm sure some people in the hearing room must have been stifling laughs hearing something like that coming from a man who was a major contributor to the scummiest 527 group ever, but the worst was to come in the next few sentences

"Senator Kerry, I very much respect your dedicated service to this country," said Fox. "I know that you were not drafted -- you volunteered. You went to Vietnam. You were wounded. Highly decorated. Senator, you're a hero. And there isn’t anybody or anything that's going to take that away from you. But yet 527s tried to."

Here's the exchange that followed:

Kerry: I certainly appreciate the comments you just made, Mr. Fox, and I'm not looking for anyone to call me a hero. I think that most heroes died, and do die, and those of us who are lucky enough to get out of there are lucky.

But notwithstanding the comments you made, you did see fit to contribute a very significant amount of money in October to a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, correct?

Fox: Correct.

Kerry: Why would you do that given what you just said about how bad they are?

Fox: Well, Senator, I have to put it in the proper context and bear with me. Marilyn and I have lived the American dream -- there's no question about it. My father came here with the clothes on his back and the Fox family and the Woodman family have truly lived the American dream that's been very, very good to us.
The point I'm making is this: We ask a lot of people for money and people ask us for money. And very fortunately, we've been blessed with being successful financially and when we're asked, we generally give -- particularly if we know who gave it.

Kerry: So, well, who asked you to give to the SBVT?

Fox: I can't tell you specifically who did because, you know, I don’t remember. As a matter of fact, if I…

Kerry: You have no recollection of why you gave away $50,000?

Fox: I gave away $50,000 because I was asked to.

Kerry: But you have no recollection of who asked you to give away $50,000?

Fox: No, sir. I've given away sums much larger than that to a lot of other places and I can't tell you specifically who asked me, no.

There's more so you should go to Bob Geiger's site to read it. But I must also post this part. Barack Obama is chairing this committee. Here's a little of what he said:

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who was chairing the meeting, told Fox that he found his answers to Kerry "somewhat unsatisfying" and said that "The swift boat ads were of a different degree, even in the ugly arena of politics. They were extraordinarily well publicized, that there was essentially a fraud being perpetrated on the American people. It had a profound impact on the election."

And Obama tied a nice bow around the whole afternoon by basically calling Fox, who spent the entire time disavowing any knowledge of the Swift Boaters' mission or methods, a liar.

"To say that you gave because it's ugly out there and somebody asked you to give. I mean, it sounds to me like you were aware of it -- that this was not the best of political practices -- and you thought it was OK to go ahead and contribute to that," said Obama. "By the time you contributed, it was pretty widely noted -- it would have been hard for you to miss the fact that there was something particularly nasty and insidious about these ads. It had been well publicized at this point."

I would have loved to sit in on this committee meeting.

More on the Market from McClatchy

And part of the leadoff of Kevin Hall's McClatchy article:

A steady stream of recent data shows mixed signals about where the U.S. economy is headed. The old sage himself, Alan Greenspan, suggests recession could be looming.

When Greespan speaks, the World listens!

Here's some more of Hall's article:

Fasten your seat belts - some economic chop could be coming.

The Dow Jones industrial index fell more than 416 points, or 3.29 percent, in trading Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was off by 3.86 percent, and the S&P 500 was off by 3.47 percent. It was the largest one-day drop for markets since Sept. 17, 2001, the first day trading resumed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks


Tuesday's drops mirrored a global decline in stock markets as the investor mood turned bearish. Investors, who have been murmuring about a coming "correction" for weeks, are concerned that the U.S. and Chinese economies may be entering a period of cooling.


The drop underscores how connected the U.S. economy is now with the broader global economy. U.S. exchanges sank following a nearly 9 percent drop Tuesday on China's Shanghai Composite Index. It was the Shanghai's biggest one-day drop in a decade, and investors worried that interest rates may soon rise to douse China's sizzling economic growth.


Higher lending rates in China matter to average Americans. Most large American corporations either manufacture there or purchase from Chinese contract manufacturers. Higher lending rates in China would slow economic activity there and raise the cost of doing business. The costs could be passed back to Americans as pricier imported goods.


Adding to the economic uncertainty, oil prices are climbing again, due in part to the Bush administration's escalating war of words with Iran. Just weeks ago, some analysts projected a return to $40-a-barrel oil, but it now trades around $60 a barrel. AAA reports that unleaded gasoline averaged $2.37 a gallon nationwide on Tuesday, compared with $2.14 a month ago.

My question is: when you cut out the middle class, won't this hurt the economy of the US as well as the world?

Market Correction - Will it continue?

There has been some good news in the, over night, Chinese market which was expected by many market experts. But some Asian countries and Europe are still down spooked by what happened in our market yesterday. Are we really in a correction? Will this down trend continue?

From the AP:

Asian, European markets drop for 2nd day Chinese stocks bounced back Wednesday after their biggest decline in a decade, but stock markets elsewhere in Asia and Europe fell for a second day amid investor jitters about possible slowdowns in the Chinese and U.S. economies.

Shares in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Australia and the Philippines all tumbled more than 2 percent after Wall Street suffered its worst day since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

But as the day progressed, several Asian markets trimmed big early losses, and analysts said the sell-off was most likely a temporary correction to cool overheating markets, although they warned that markets would likely remain volatile for awhile.

"We don't need to worry about a big reduction from here, but this correction could continue for the next couple months," said Shinichi Ichikawa, an equity strategist with Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo.

In China, the Shanghai Composite Index rose 3.9 percent Wednesday to close at 2,881.07, rebounding from its 8.8 percent plunge Tuesday — its biggest drop in a decade.

Bullish comments in China's state-controlled media appeared to reassure anxious domestic investors, who account for virtually all trading. China will focus on ensuring financial stability and security, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Premier Wen Jiabao as saying in an essay due to be published in Thursday's issue of the Communist Party magazine Qiushi.

Chinese authorities also denied rumors of a 20 percent capital gains tax on stock investments — speculation that had played a role in Tuesday's plunge.

Still, investors dumped stocks across much of Asia Wednesday, partly unnerved by the 3.3 percent drop in the Dow Jones industrial average overnight. Comments Monday from former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said a recession in the U.S. — a huge export market for Asian companies — was "possible" later this year, also worried some investors.

And from Bloomberg:

China's Market Sideshow Turns Into Main Event: William Pesek
Marc Chandler, New York-based global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., wasn't exaggerating when he called Tuesday's global slide ``a bloodbath in the equity markets.''

Here, it's impossible to overstate the Chinese and Japanese parts of the equation. China needs to be explored because there's as much hype involved in its outlook as potential; Japan because of the global bubble caused by the so-called yen-carry trade.

First, the China angle. ``Fueling interest in the emerging markets has been China itself,'' said Joseph Quinlan, New York-based chief market strategist at Bank of America Capital Management.

U.S. Investors

That's particularly true of U.S. investors. Over the past two years, Quinlan said, U.S. investors sank just over $10 billion into Chinese equities. The 9.2 percent plunge in the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index on Tuesday came at a time when U.S. investors have never been more exposed to emerging markets.

In 2006, Quinlan said, U.S. purchases of emerging-market equities totaled a record $52.7 billion. That followed a stock- buying record of nearly $39 billion in 2005. In 2006 alone, U.S. purchases of Chinese equities jumped to $5.2 billion from $4.9 billion in 2005.

All this means that on a relative basis, China has become the key emerging market for the U.S. ``To a significant degree, as China goes, so go the emerging-market returns of U.S. investors,'' Quinlan said.

There you have it -- the world's most developed markets are more vulnerable than ever to the policies of officials in Beijing, regulators in Shanghai and companies throughout the most populous nation. Yes, China has vast potential. It boasts 10 percent-plus growth, $1 trillion in currency reserves and 1.3 billion people, many of whom are becoming richer by the day.

Brave New World

Yet it also has a banking system that's still a transmission mechanism to funnel money into politically connected companies, little transparency, negligible press freedom and a central bank that reports to the Communist Party. China censors the Internet, undermining innovation in an economy that badly needs it. It faces worsening pollution and widespread risks of social instability.

So welcome to the brave new world of global finance, one in which hiccups in Shanghai will increasingly shake up markets across the globe and raise prickly questions about how stable the No. 4 economy really is. China's stock market is no longer a side show, but a main event.

My suggestion is that you research before you invest.

One Day after Greenspan said Possible Recession!

Greespan spooked the Chinese market and it affected ours! He said there would be a possibility of a recession later in this year. Here's the closing figures for our Stock Market for today:

Dow 12216.24 -416.02 (-3.29%)
Nasdaq 2407.87 -96.65 (-3.86%)
S&P 500 1399.05 -50.32 (-3.47%)
10-Yr Bond 0.451% -0.12

That's quite a scare! 416 points in one day.

Here's more form the AP:

World markets fall after plunge in China
Chinese stocks plunged nearly 9 percent Tuesday, their biggest drop in a decade, rattling markets from Hong Kong to Singapore and as far away as New York amid fears of a slowdown in China's economy.

Investors were also spooked by comments Monday from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said a recession in the U.S. was "possible" later this year.

One day after sending Shanghai's benchmark index to a record, investors dumped stocks to lock in profits amid speculation about a fresh round of austerity measures from Beijing to slow the nation's sizzling economy. The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 8.8 percent to close at 2.771.79, its largest decline since it fell 8.9 percent on Feb. 18, 1997, at the time of the death of Communist Party elder Deng Xiaoping.

Meanwhile, the price of oil fell on speculation that a slowing Chinese economy would slice into demand for fuel. A barrel of light, sweet crude was down 56 cents $60.83 in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"The (rumors) that China is going to impose a capital gains tax resulted in regional markets falling," said S. Sharath, an analyst with MIDF-Amanah Investment Bank in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the benchmark index tumbled 2.8 percent.

But Greenspan's comments also took a heavy toll on Asian markets.

"Our economy is also dependent on the U.S. economy, if there is adverse news, exports from our country is going to drop," Sharath said.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.8 percent, while Singapore's Straits Times index sank 2.3 percent. Markets in Japan and Taiwan, however, registered only modest declines.

The plunge spilled over to New York, where the Dow Jones industrials were down 210 points, or 1.66 percent. In London, the FTSE-100 dropped 2.31 percent, France's CAC 40 dropped 3.02 percent and Germany's DAX lost 2.96 percent.

Major Latin American markets were sharply lower around midday. In Brazil, Sao Paulo's Bovespa index was off 4.1 percent, Mexico City's IPC index shed 3.4 percent, the IPSA index in Santiago, Chile was down 3.8 percent, while in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Merval dropped 5 percent.

Funny that Bernanke is in charge now but Greenspan seems to be the last word

Iran Threat Affects our Economy

The Stock Market was down today in spite of some good news about another buyout of an energy company. One of the main reasons...the political situation with Iran.

Here's a report from the AFP:

Dollar sags ahead of US economic data
Mon Feb 26, 5:19 PM ET

The dollar traded mainly lower Monday as the market braced for fresh data expected to show a slowdown in the US economy, and monitored tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions, dealers said.

The euro rose to 1.3185 dollars at 2200 GMT from 1.3170 dollars late in New York on Friday, after earlier reaching a high of 1.3199 dollars, its highest level since January 3.

The dollar fell to 120.59 yen, from 120.98 yen on Friday.

Jordan Eburne at PNC Bank said the dollar was under pressure "ahead of this week's slew of consumer data that is expected to show a slowdown in the US economy."

The market awaited data on consumer confidence and durable goods orders Tuesday, and several reports this week on the housing market.

On Wednesday, US growth for the fourth quarter is expected to be downgraded to 2.3 percent from the 3.5 percent first estimate, analysts predicted.

The market was also affected by concerns about geopolitics, specifically Iran.

"The dollar is facing moderate pressure as players are cautious about holding long positions on the dollar as the Iran situation has become shaky again," said Ryohei Muramatsu with Commerz Bank.

The dollar was hit by renewed concern about Iran as six key world powers grappling to contain the country's nuclear ambitions held talks Monday in London on how to increase pressure on Tehran.

Do you still think Bush won't bomb Iran?

Military Stretched Thin

Today on CNN, Barbara Starr had a report about how Gen Peter Pace reported to the Sec of Defense and Capitol Hill that says the risk is now "significant," that's the word, "significant," of the US Military being able to meet its obligation if in fact a third crisis now were to break out.

Crooks and Liars has the video here

Rumsfeld's Quick Trigger

Raw Story has some excerpts of Andrew Cockburn's article about Rumsfeld's participation in "1980s "Continuity of Government" exercises, simulations of how government would attempt to function in the event of a major nuclear attack on the United States. The exercises received heavy funding during the Reagan and Bush years, and according to Cockburn, "Rumsfeld loved these games" and never missed any of them".

Goes on to say:

But instead of working to re-establish a functioning US government in the aftermath of a massive disaster, Rumsfeld had other priorities.

A former official in the Defense Department at the time told Cockburn that Rumsfeld, "always tried to unleash the maximum amount of nuclear firepower possible," in retaliation for a Soviet attack.

In the 1989 exercise Cockburn describes, Rumsfeld was successfully shut down by another player in the game who simulated the role of the Secretary of State.

Cockburn thinks the continuity of government exercise had interesting implications for Rumsfeld's real career as a policy and decision-maker.

"It is worth comparing Rumsfeld's behavior in the COG games with his performance in a real war," he observes. "The casual, maybe even irresponsible decisions taken in that war reflect attitudes and reactions better suited to an elaborate game, from which real-life costs and consequences are excluded."

Cockburn has written a book called "Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy" and his article in Salon is a good read. Shows Rumsfeld's mentality when he is free to do what he want's.

Definition of a Republic and a Democracy

re·pub·lic NOUN:

A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president.
A nation that has such a political order.

A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.
A nation that has such a political order.

de·moc·ra·cy NOUN:

pl. de·moc·ra·cies
Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
A political or social unit that has such a government.
The common people, considered as the primary source of political power.
Majority rule.
The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.


Not really much difference in the two, yet the Republicans would have you believe differently.

Iraqi Leaders: Pres Ill, in Jordan - VP Escaped Bomb Blast

Things aren't going great for the leadership of Iraq. The President, Mr. Talabani is now in Jourdan for tests after having passed out and the Vice President, Mr' Abdul-Madhi was slightly injured in an assasination attempt. Here's more on what's happening:

From ABC News:

Ill Iraqi President in Jordan for Tests
By SHAFIKA MATTAR

AMMAN, Jordan Feb 25, 2007 (AP)— Iraqi President Jalal Talabani fell ill Sunday and was rushed unconscious to a hospital before being flown to neighboring Jordan for an immediate medical checkup, medical and government officials said.

Talabani's son, Qubad Talabani, said his father was suffering from fatigue and exhaustion.

"He did not have a heart attack" or a stroke, he told CNN. He said his father had "made his own way off the plane" when he landed in Jordan.

"He's absolutely up and about, being able to communicate," the president's son said.

Iraq's ambassador to Jordan, Saad Al-Hayyani, told The Associated Press Talabani had not suffered a heart attack or stroke.

And the assassination attempt on the VP from the AP:

Iraqi vice president dodges bomb; 10 die
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
Iraq's vice president escaped an apparent assassination attempt Monday after a bomb exploded in municipal offices where he was making a speech, knocking him down with the force of the blast that left at least 10 people dead.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi was bruised and hospitalized for medical exams, an aide said. Police initially blamed the attack on a bomb-rigged car, but later said the explosives were apparently planted inside the building.

The attack sent another message that suspected Sunni militants could strike anywhere despite a major security crackdown across the capital.

Iraqis also looked to neighboring Jordan for news of their president, Jalal Talabani, who was being treated after falling unconscious Sunday. His son, Qubad Talabani, said the 73-year-old leader was "up and about" and blamed the episode on fatigue and exhaustion.

The Iraqi ambassador to Jordan said Talabani was stable at an Amman hospital. "There's nothing dangerous about his case," Saad al-Hayyani told The Associated Press.

The bomb struck while Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, was addressing municipal officials in the upscale Mansour district, which has many embassies and saw a rise in private security patrols after past kidnappings blamed on militants.

Abdul-Mahdi is one of two vice presidents. The other, Tariq al-Hashemi, is Sunni.

Oscar Night Open Thread

Update: Al Gore got the Oscar and didn't announce his run for the Presidency. Congratulations!

Seymour Hersh has more on Iran in the New Yorker. He also discussed what was in his column with Wolf Blitzer on CNN.

Here's the link to the New Yorker.


And here is the video from Crooks and Liars of Hersh on CNN.

Here's en excerpt:

The President is taking his notion of executive privilege to the extreme—-running covert operations, using money that's not authorized by Congress…Negroponte is too ethical for Cheney…

Hersh: There has been some violence. So America, my country, without telling Congress, using funds not appropriated, I don't know where, by my sources believe much of the money obviously came from Iraq where there is all kinds of piles of loose money, pools of cash that could be used for covert operations.

All of this should be investigated by Congress, by the way, and I trust it will be. In my talking to membership — members there, they are very upset that they know nothing about this. And they have great many suspicions.

We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11, and we should be arresting these people rather than looking the other way…

He — that is one of the reasons, I was told. Negroponte also was not in tune with Cheney. There was a lot of complaints about him because he was seen as much of a stickler, too ethical for some of the operations the Pentagon wants to run.

Poverty in America, worst in 35 years!

Weekly, if not daily, Bush or one of his minion is on TV saying how great the economy is. For who? The upper 10% of the richest of the rich? Even Bernanke admitted in a Senate hearing last week that the devide between the rich and the poor is growing.

Here's the report from the US Census from 2005:
"Almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure".

And that was over a year ago. It would certainly be over 16 Million now.

Many headlines today mention this report:

Severe poverty in U.S. hits high
The Buffalo News - 2 hours, 36 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

Poverty level is at a 32-year high
Baltimore Sun - Feb 25 12:53 AM
Nearly 16 million Americans classified as severely poor, McClatchy report shows The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's haves and have-nots continues to widen.

Here's some of the McClatchy report via the AFP via Raw Story:

Based on the latest available US census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure.

For individuals the "deep poverty" threshold was an income under 5,080 dollars a year.

"The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005," the US newspaper chain reported.

"That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period," it noted.

The surge in poverty comes alongside an unusual economic expansion.

"Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries," the study found.

"That helps explain why the median household income for working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

"These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty -- the highest rate since at least 1975. The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades," the report said.

Just about two more years of Bushco will deepen this devide since he thinks he is the "decider". More like "dictator"!

A Contingency Plan?

It's time to contact your Congress members, both House and Senate. Bush and Cheney are hell bent to get us into a war with Iran. It's not enough that we are in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are playing a bad game of Strategy.

From the AP

U.S. developing contingency plan to bomb Iran: report Sat Feb 24, 7:52 PM ET
Despite the Bush administration's insistence it has no plans to go to war with Iran, a Pentagon panel has been created to plan a bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead from President George W. Bush, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue.

The special planning group was established within the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent months, according to an unidentified former U.S. intelligence official cited in the article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in the March 4 issue.

The panel initially focused on destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and on regime change but has more recently been directed to identify targets in Iran that may be involved in supplying or aiding militants in Iraq, according to an Air Force adviser and a Pentagon consultant, who were not identified.

The consultant and a former senior intelligence official both said that U.S. military and special-operations teams had crossed the border from Iraq into Iran in pursuit of Iranian operatives, according to the article.

In response to the report, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said: "The United States is not planning to go to war with Iran. To suggest anything to the contrary is simply wrong, misleading and mischievous.

"The United States has been very clear with respect to its concerns regarding specific Iranian government activities. The president has repeatedly stated publicly that this country is going to work with allies in the region to address those concerns through diplomatic efforts," Whitman said.

Pentagon officials say they maintain contingency plans for literally dozens of potential conflicts around the world and that all plans are subject to regular and ongoing review.

If we don't speak up, NOW, this will happen. The worst administration ever!

Open Thread Over Night Feb. 24, 2007

Room to talk!

Are we going to attack Iran?

Iran!

The rhetoric for the attack on Iran has been heating up. VP Cheney has been talking about the buildup of our fleet in the Arabian Gulf and a possible strike on Iran. Here's some excerpts from an article in the Australian:

Cheney hints at Iran strike
Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor
February 24, 2007

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has raised the possibility of military action to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
He has endorsed Republican senator John McCain's proposition that the only thing worse than a military confrontation with Iran would be a nuclear-armed Iran.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Mr Cheney said: "I would guess that John McCain and I are pretty close to agreement."

The visiting Vice-President said that he had no doubt Iran was striving to enrich uranium to the point where they could make nuclear weapons.

He accused Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of espousing an "apocalyptic philosophy" and making "threatening noises about Israel and the US and others".

He also said Iran was a sponsor of terrorism, especially through Hezbollah. However, the US did not believe Iran possessed any nuclear weapons as yet.

"You get various estimates of where the point of no return is," Mr Cheney said, identifying nuclear terrorism as the greatest threat to the world. "Is it when they possess weapons or does it come sooner, when they have mastered the technology but perhaps not yet produced fissile material for weapons?"

It seems our admin is getting closer to taking us into another war. The Generals don't seem to like this much. From the Times on Line:

US generals ‘will quit’ if Bush orders Iran attack
Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter, Washington
SOME of America’s most senior military commanders are prepared to resign if the White House orders a military strike against Iran, according to highly placed defence and intelligence sources.

Tension in the Gulf region has raised fears that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly likely before President George Bush leaves office. The Sunday Times has learnt that up to five generals and admirals are willing to resign rather than approve what they consider would be a reckless attack.

“There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran,” a source with close ties to British intelligence said. “There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible.”

A British defence source confirmed that there were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. “All the generals are perfectly clear that they don’t have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them.

“There are enough people who feel this would be an error of judgment too far for there to be resignations.”

A generals’ revolt on such a scale would be unprecedented. “American generals usually stay and fight until they get fired,” said a Pentagon source. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, has repeatedly warned against striking Iran and is believed to represent the view of his senior commanders.

I was afraid of this. Bush and Cheney are itching to get us into another war. If this happens, the oils supply to our nation and others will be curtailed and the price of oil will skyrocket. These are madmen and they have to be stopped and they have to be impeached. They think they can do whatever they want and no one can stop them.

From the Army Times - Army holding down disability ratings

Why would anyone want to join the Army when they don't help their Vets. I can see how this admin "supports the troops". With yellow ribbon magnets and lies:

Update: found this political cartoon by Mike Luckovich that fits right in here.

The Army is deliberately shortchanging troops on their disability retirement ratings to hold down costs, according to veterans’ advocates, lawyers and service members.

“These people are being systematically underrated,” said Ron Smith, deputy general counsel for Disabled American Veterans. “It’s a bureaucratic game to preserve the budget, and it’s having an adverse affect on service members.”

The numbers of people approved for permanent or temporary disability retirement in the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have stayed relatively stable since 2001.

But in the Army — in the midst of a war — the number of soldiers approved for permanent disability retirement has plunged by more than two-thirds, from 642 in 2001 to 209 in 2005, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year. That decline has come even as the war in Iraq has intensified and the total number of soldiers wounded or injured there has soared above 15,000.

The Army denies there is any intentional effort to push wounded troops off the military rolls. But critics say many troops being evaluated for possible disability retirement accept the first rating they are offered during their first informal board — but that if they were to request a formal board, and then appeal the decision of that board, they would receive higher ratings.

The system is complicated — “unduly so,” the Rand Corp. think tank said in a 2005 report — and the counselors who advise troops often have insufficient training or experience. Service members also assume that after months spent in a war zone, the military will look out for them, critics say.

Snip

‘I couldn’t believe it’
Smith said he began hearing tales about two years ago of service members who said they were not getting proper disability ratings based on the VA Schedule for Rating — the document used by both the military services and the VA to determine percentage ratings for disabilities, which in turn sets compensation rates.

“I finally decided to take on a case myself,” Smith said. “It’s been a while since I took a case.”

He found an Army captain whose radial nerve in his right arm had been destroyed in Iraq — the same injury that has left Bob Dole, the World War II veteran and former Kansas senator, unable to use his arm to do more than hold a pen.

Smith followed the captain through the physical evaluation board process. He said that under the ratings schedule, this was an easy call: 70 percent disability. But at his first informal medical evaluation board, the captain initially was offered just 30 percent, and he had to fight to raise it to 60 percent through a subsequent formal evaluation board and then a final appeal.

“His first offer … I couldn’t believe it,” Smith said. “I was just incensed.”

Read the rest here

Late Night Open Thread Feb 23, 2007 - Health Care

Health Care. That and the Iraq war are the most important issues for the voting public.

Many plans have evolved, recently, to try to tackle the Health Care issue. Here's Massachusettes plan:

Massachusetts spurs health-care debate
BOSTON (Reuters) - Working the phones of a health-care hotline in Boston, Kate Bicego does something that is unique in the country: she explains how even the poorest people can get state-funded health coverage.

Nearly a year into its pioneering health-care law, Massachusetts offers both a way forward and a warning that puts the state at the center of a growing national debate over extending health care to millions of Americans.

"We're handling just an incredible amount of calls," Bicego said at the non-profit Health Care for All. "Everyone wants to know about this new program."

Massachusetts has signed up 105,000 of its poorest people for coverage, or about a quarter of the uninsured, since April, when it became the first U.S. state with near universal health insurance.

The law makes coverage mandatory, bringing it within reach of poorer people through subsidies and industry reforms in an attempt to reverse a trend that has left more than 47 million Americans uninsured as traditional employer-based coverage shrinks. For those in Massachusetts earning less than the federal poverty level of $9,800, coverage is provided free.

Hospitals and Insurance Companies are getting into the act as well.

Here's what they are offering:

Hospital group pitches universal insurance
A group of U.S. hospitals on Thursday offered a plan to cover the nation's 47 million uninsured, including mandatory coverage for all and subsidies for the working poor.

The proposal by the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents about 20 percent of the industry, is the latest in a flurry of proposed schemes to solve the growing problem of the uninsured. Since 2000, about 6 million people in the United States have lost their insurance.

The hospital group's plan, estimated to increase federal spending by $115 billion, would build on the employer-based health system, under which most Americans already get coverage.

It would provide subsidies for individuals to buy insurance from their employer if they cannot afford it, or to buy tax-subsidized coverage in the open market.

Currently, individuals buying coverage in the open market don't receive the same tax advantages as employers.

Under the hospital group's plan, individuals would be required to sign up for a health insurance plan. If they don't, the government will do it for them and then those individuals will be assessed taxes to pay for the insurance premiums. The plan also encourages states to automatically enroll more people in public health programs like Medicaid.

Snip

Late last year, the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents managed care companies, presented its own $300 billion 10-year plan to expand insurance coverage.

The best would be a single payer Universal Health Care that is offered to the people in most of the Industrialized world.

Wolfowitz wants to bring the World Bank to Iraq

You just have to read this to believe it. h/t Jenise

From Electronic Iraq

Wolfowitz May Bring Bank Back to Iraq
Emad Mekay, Electronic Iraq, 23 February 2007

WASHINGTON (IPS) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz may appoint a new resident director for Iraq soon, a move that sources inside the Bank say could contradict the institution's policies on engagement in conflict-stricken areas and put his role in the 2003 U.S. invasion back into the limelight.

The move by Wolfowitz, the former number two official at the Pentagon and a main architect of the U.S.-led war, likely means the Bank would release new loans to the occupied Arab nation, despite the deteriorating security situation and recent disclosures of massive corruption in reconstruction efforts.

"This is exactly what he shouldn't be doing and what the [World Bank] board was initially afraid that he would do, which is to use the financial resources of the World Bank to take some of the heat off the U.S. Treasury and U.S. policy," Bea Edwards of the Washington-based watchdog group Government Accountability Project told IPS.

In a previous statement, Edwards argued that "Wolfowitz's apparent determination to use the World Bank to further questionable American military goals in the Middle East is a fundamental distortion of the Bank's mission, a violation of its founding Articles of Agreement, and a reckless waste of donor resources."

The Bank has a policy called Procedure 2.30 ("Development Cooperation and Conflict"), which states that to operate in a country emerging from a conflict, the Bank must first prepare a "watching brief," develop a transitional support strategy, begin transitional reconstruction, then begin post-conflict reconstruction, and finally return to normal lending.

Unlike the Bank's Interim Office for Iraq, which is based in Amman, Jordan, the soon-to-be-named country director would exclusively manage Iraq for the Bank from Baghdad, according to GAP, which first leaked the information, citing inside sources.

This same article is also being posted by the Inter Press News Service here.

This is the reason Bush wanted him in this position.

Open Show Blog Feb. 23 2007

Let's get the news of the day together!

Cheney Day in the News

C-Span's question of the day call-in: What are your thoughts about Cheney.
As you would imagine, the majority of the calls fall on party lines. The Rupublicans love him and the Democrats hate him. One caller said she thinks he's great and wished he could get a heart transplant so that he could run for President.

From Reuters:

Cheney says U.S. wants to leave Iraq "with honor"
Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:51 AM ET
By Caren Bohan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday the United States wants to finish its mission in Iraq and "return with honor", despite the war's growing unpopularity at home and doubts among U.S. allies.

Cheney's visit to Tokyo comes just weeks after Japan's defense minister said starting the Iraq war was a mistake and its foreign minister called the U.S. occupation strategy "immature".

The remarks forced Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whom Cheney meets later in Wednesday, to scurry to reassure Washington that Tokyo's backing for U.S. policy in Iraq was unchanged.

But a survey released on Tuesday showed most Japanese voters agreed with Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma when he said President Bush was wrong to start the war.

In a speech delivered aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Navy Base near Tokyo, Cheney said: "We know that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength, they are invited by the perception of weakness."

"We know that if we leave Iraq before the mission is completed, the enemy is going to come after us. And I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat," he added.

"We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and we want to return with honor," said Cheney, who heads on Thursday for Australia to meet Prime Minister John Howard, another staunch supporter of Bush's Iraq policy.

Strong words for someone who received several deferrals to avoid going to Viet Nam. And do these words sound familiar? Didn't Nixon say the same thing?

Speaking of Nixon here's some excerpts from his speech on Viet Nam in 1969:

Before any American troops were committed to Vietnam, a leader of another Asian country expressed this opinion to me when I was traveling in Asia as a private citizen. He said: "When you are trying to assist another nation defend its freedom, U.S. policy should be to help them fight the war but not to fight the war for them." ...

My fellow Americans, I am sure you can recognize from what I have said that we really only have two choices open to us if we want to end this war. -I can order an immediate, precipitate withdrawal of all Americans from Vietnam without regard to the effects of that action.
-Or we can persist in our search for a just peace through a negotiated settlement if possible, or through continued implementation of our plan for Vietnamization if necessary a plan in which we will withdraw all our forces from Vietnam on a schedule in accordance with our program, as the South Vietnamese become strong enough to defend their own freedom.
I have chosen this second course.

-The South Vietnamese have continued to gain in strength. As a result they have been able to take over combat responsibilities from our American troops.

Let me now turn to our program for the future.
We have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the South Vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all U.S. combat ground forces, and their replacement by South Vietnamese forces on an orderly scheduled timetable. This withdrawal will be made from strength and not from weakness. As South Vietnamese forces become stronger, the rate of American withdrawal can become greater.
I have not and do not intend to announce the timetable for our program. And there are obvious reasons for this decision which I am sure you will understand. As I have indicated on several occasions, the rate of withdrawal will depend on developments on three fronts.

We have not learned from the past!

And just for fun....a Cheney toon at the NYT

Protests in Italy and the Czech Rep. on US Radar Bases

Two Countries, two protests, Italy and the Csech Republic. These bases that the US plans to build are part of the admin's plan to build missle defense systems. Have you heard this from the MSM?

From Italy:

Italians Protest Planned U.S. Base Expansion
Thousands of people are expected to protest in the northern Italian city of Vicenza Saturday against plans to expand a U.S. military base there.

The protest comes as relations between Italy and the United States are under some strain. Friday, a judge indicted 26 Americans accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric in Milan as part of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.

And last week, another Italian judge ordered that a U.S. Marine should stand trial for the killing of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.

And from the Czech Republic:

Some 300 people protest U.S. base in CzechRep
Some 300 people protested in Jince against the plans to station a U.S. radar station in the Brdy military district some 70km southwest away from Prague today.

They branded posters reading "No to bases in CR," "No to war," "No to imperialism."

Most of them signed a petition for a referendum to be held on the base.

A female participant in the protest action told CTK that people miss information about the radar base. She said she tried Freephone which the Central Bohemia Region has launched.

"I learned lies. For instance, that the radar will be built within the European Union," the woman told CTK.

She also said that information about the impact of the radar on people´s health is missing. In other countries similar facilities are built outside populated areas, here they should stand close to municipalities.

The esteem of the US has fallen throughout the world. We've become what we faught in the past.

Open Thread for Thursday, Feb 22, 2007

Here's some space to post your comments on what's going on today.

Reaction to Cheney's trip to Japan and Australia

You won't hear this on the MSM but if you do a little googling and read some of the blogs, you can read what is really happening.

First Japan....
From the Times On Line (h/t Jenise):

From The TimesFebruary 21, 2007
Cheney hit by Tokyo chill
Richard Lloyd Parry in Tokyo

Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President, landed in Tokyo last night for what promised to be a frosty series of meetings, after weeks of outspoken criticism of American policy from within the Japanese Government.

Japanese Cabinet Ministers have openly denounced US policy in Iraq as childish and accused the Bush Administration of being cocky. The latest blow was last week’s agreement on North Korea’s nuclear programme which is privately regarded by many in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Government as an American betrayal. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, could hardly have been more dismissive of Mr Cheney’s visit. “Since the other party is coming over,” he said yesterday, when asked what was the point of Mr Cheney’s visit, “it must have some point for the other party.”

The surge of bad feeling towards Japan’s greatest friend and ally is symptomatic of the unease which has spread since Junichiro Koizumi stepped down last September after five years as the country’s most dynamic postwar Prime Minister. After an impressive first month, in which he began to mend strained relations with China and South Korea, Mr Abe’s popularity has gone into a slump, and he has appeared increasingly incapable of controlling his Cabinet.

And from Australia:

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Cheney visit prompts protests
Ten people have been arrested in Sydney during violent clashes between police and protesters at a rally ahead of the arrival of US Vice-President Dick Cheney.

The protest, organised by Stop the War Coalition at Town Hall, turned nasty when about 200 people attempted to break a line of police and march to the US Consulate in Martin Place.

The officers, supported by a line of mounted police, held their positions as activists attempted to break through.

Ten people were arrested in the scuffle with police which calmed after officers negotiated with organisers to allow the group to march on the footpath during busy peak hour traffic.

Superintendent Ron Mason, from The Rocks Local Area Command, said police supported the right to demonstrate as long as there was no disruption to the community.

He said an application from the demonstrators was received but it was unreasonable for demonstrators to block busy streets during peak hour.

"Police have been negotiating for days with this group and they agreed to hold a static demonstration at Town Hall,'' Supt Mason told reporters.

And more on how Australians feel about Iraq from the Australian:

Public loses heart for Howard's war
Matthew Franklin
January 23, 2007

PUBLIC opinion is hardening against the Iraq war, with 62 per cent of voters opposing John Howard's handling of the conflict.
The issue is looming as central to this year's federal election, with 71 per cent of voters saying the issue will affect how they vote.
The findings, in a Newspoll conducted at the weekend exclusively for The Australian, came just days after the Prime Minister offered unqualified backing for US President George W. Bush's escalation of the war.

The poll, among 1152 respondents, also found 56 per cent opposed the Government's treatment of alleged terrorist David Hicks, who has been imprisoned by US authorities in Cuba for five years without being put on trial.

Public support for the Iraq war has fallen steadily over recent months.

A Newspoll conducted in October found only 31 per cent of 1200 respondents wanted Australian troops to remain in Iraq for "as long as necessary" - down from 45 per cent in December 2004.

Last month, another Newspoll found more than 70 per cent of Australians believed the war was not worth fighting.

The new Newspoll found 44per cent of voters strongly opposed Mr Howard's performance on Iraq and 18 per cent partly opposed.

Only 9 per cent strongly supported the Government's handling of the war, while 19 per cent were partly in favour.

Cheney Attacks, Pelosi Strikes Back

In the delusional world of VP Cheney, the Democrats are now and have always been the enemy. The past six years, with the Republicans in full power of this country, there was a certain amount of control over the Dems. Whatever the Dems said was turned back at them with the spin of the administration and was helped by the gullible, power seeking media. And for awhile, the people of this country believed and went along with this. Not any more. The majority of people are now really seeing what Cheney and this admin have done to this country.

Cheney has used his time, outside of this country to take swipes at the Dems again. This time Pelosi is speaking up.

From the AP:

Cheney slams Iraq plan advocated by Dems
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
Thu Feb 22, 4:20 AM ET

Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday harshly criticized Democrats' attempts to thwart President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq, saying their approach would "validate the al-Qaida strategy." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) fired back that Cheney was questioning critics' patriotism.

"I hope the president will repudiate and distance himself from the vice president's remarks," Pelosi said. She said she tried to complain about Cheney to President Bush but could not reach him.

"You cannot say as the president of the United States, 'I welcome disagreement in a time of war,' and then have the vice president of the United States go out of the country and mischaracterize a position of the speaker of the House and in a manner that says that person in that position of authority is acting against the national security of our country," the speaker said.

The quarrel began in Tokyo, where Cheney used an interview to criticize Pelosi and Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., over their plan to place restrictions on Bush's request for an additional $93 billion for the Iraq war to make it difficult or impossible to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq.

"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the al-Qaida strategy," the vice president told ABC News. "The al-Qaida strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."

In the interview, Cheney also said Britain's plans to withdraw about 1,600 troops from Iraq — while the United States adds more troops — was a positive step. "I look at it and see it is actually an affirmation that there are parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well," the vice president said.

Pelosi, at a news conference in San Francisco, said Cheney's criticism of Democrats was "beneath the dignity of the debate we're engaged in and a disservice to our men and women in uniform, whom we all support."

This is just the start, but, I don't think Cheney will win this one. Not many people believe him anymore!

Over Night Open Thread

Lots to talk about. Have at it.

Bush's Contrary Appointments

Bush is at it again. He's about to make another appointment. This time to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This is the agency charged with protecting the public from dangerous consumer products.

From past appointments you know that Bush will choose someone wrong for the job. He's considering an anti-regulatory industry lobbyist for the job. That's right. Someone who lobbied for looser business regulations, at the expense of public safety.

His name: Michael Baroody.

Think Progress has more:

– Asbestos Regulations: NAM opposes tougher rules regulating asbestos and in 2003, teamed up with the asbestos industry and spent $180,000 opposing asbestos reform legislation.

– Highway Safety: In 2000, NAM successfully killed a bill in the Senate that would have helped reduce safety risks to motorists by requiring tire manufacturers to report accident data and potential defects to the National Highway and Transportation Safety Board.

– Global Warming: NAM’s official position states that scientific data have “not confirmed evidence of global warming that can be attributed to human activities” and calls for “voluntary” measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It “opposes any federal or state government actions regarding climate change that could adversely affect the international competitiveness of the U.S. marketplace economy.” In 2001, Baroody wrote to Bush and personally thanked him for rejecting the Kyoto Protocol.

More here

GQ's Will S. Hylton: Impeach Cheney

Well this is very interesting. How to impeach Cheney by Will Hylton. Says we have a timid Congress. I agree! He's drafted Six Articles of Impeachment.

THE PEOPLE V. RICHARD CHENEY
Resolved, that Richard B. Cheney, vice president of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that these articles of impeachment be submitted to the American people
By Wil S. Hylton

Hylton explains Impeachment and what is needed to impeach:

When the Founding Fathers crafted the U.S. Constitution, they wanted to be sure that the president, vice president, and other ranking officials could be evicted more easily than the British monarchy. To ensure that the process would be swift and certain, they made it simple: Only two conditions must be met. First, a majority of the House of Representatives must agree on a set of charges; then, two-thirds of the Senate must agree to convict. After that, there is no legal wrangling, no appeal to a higher authority, no reversal on technical grounds. There is not even a limit on what the charges may be. As the Constitution describes it, the cause may be “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but even these were left deliberately vague; as Gerald Ford once pointed out while still serving in the House of Representatives, the only real definition of an “impeachable offense” is “whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

What bothers me is the two thirds of the Senate. The House could do it's share, but the Senate? We'd need a bunch of repubs to jump to the left on this one. It would help if something come of the Libby trial and Cheney is brought up on charges.

Here's the reason Cheney could be impeached and the charges:

But none of these apply to Vice President Cheney, and not only because it was Cheney (and not God, or George W. Bush, or anybody else) who selected himself as vice president back in 2000. With Cheney, there are also no lingering questions about capacity, motive, or malice. Over the past six years, as the country has spiraled into military misadventure, fiscal madness, and environmental meltdown, the vice president has not merely been wrong about the issues; he has been duplicitous, deceitful, and deliberately destructive to the American democracy. These things can no longer be denied by rational minds:

That in the buildup to war in Iraq, the vice president, lacking confidence in the true casus belli, conspired to invent additional ones, misrepresenting the available intelligence, crafting new “intelligence,” and then spreading these falsehoods to the public, perverting the democratic process that he is sworn to uphold.
That as the war devolved into occupation, the vice president again sabotaged the democratic system, developing back channels into the Coalition Provisional Authority, a body not under his purview, to remove some of the most effective staff and replace them with his own loyal supplicants—undercutting America’s best effort at war in order to expand his own power.

That in his domestic capacity, the vice president has been equally reckless with the trust of his office, converting the vice presidency into a de facto prime ministership, conducting secret meetings with secret policy boards to determine national policy and then refusing to share the details of those meetings with the other branches of government.

Finally, that the vice president has repeatedly promoted the interests of a corporation, Halliburton, over the interests of the nation, causing untold harm to American economic, military, and public health.

For these and other offenses against the nation, Vice President Cheney, clearly, is guilty of crimes against the state.

The rest of the story and Hylton's Articles of Impeachment are here

Open Thread for Feb. 21, 2007

Today the Libby jury goes into deliberation.

The Brits are getting out of Iraq, should be completely gone by this time 2008.

Cheney is in Japan.

Denmark withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Sen. Thomson moves to Rehab

I'm sure there is more to come.

First Brits announce withdrawal from Iraq, Now Denmark

Blair announced yesterday that there would be a staged withdrawal from Iraq. Here's the AP on it:

Blair to announce Iraq withdrawal plan
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer
38 minutes ago



Britain will withdraw nearly half its troops from Iraq by the end of the year if local forces can secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair planned to announce Wednesday.

Around 1,500 of Britain's 7,000-strong force will return home shortly, a British government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before Blair's statement. Britain has long been America's biggest coalition partner in Iraq.

Another coalition member, Denmark, was also expected to announce plans to begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq, Danish media reported. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen had earlier said he hoped Denmark would begin scaling back its 460-troop contingent this year, without setting a precise timetable.

Blair's office said the British leader would make a statement on Iraq and the Middle East to Britain's parliament following his weekly House of Commons questions session. It would not disclose the content.

But the official said Blair planned to outline a strategy which would leave about 4,000 British soldiers in southern Iraq by the end of 2007 if the security there is sufficient.

So why can't we do the same thing? Why can't we do what Murtha has been saying for awhile? Pull out and give the Iraqi government a chance to take over.

And the odd thing is, Bush is praising what Blair has announced. Why? Why is he praising what Blair is doing but "stay the course" for America?

What a mess this admin has created. And still they cannot admit a mistake.

UPDATE from Think Progress:
Don’t forget Lithuania. Lithuania is “seriously considering” withdrawing its 53 troops from Iraq, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said Wednesday. “It was the first time that Lithuania, a staunch U.S. ally, indicated it would reduce its commitment in Iraq.”

New Open Thread for Evening Feb 20th

I'm leaving the other open thread open for the time being. Some great stuff posted in the comments.

Lots happening:

Libby trial going to jury tomorrow.

Brits withdraing troops from Iraq

Negroponte signed order that intel be objective and absent political motivations.

Audit: US terror statistics Flawed

New maps show SF Bay drowning

And this:

Congress responds to Walter Reed report. “Seizing on an investigative report by The Washington Post’s Dana Priest and Anne Hull, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) will introduce legislation next week to require more frequent inspections of hospitals providing treatment to active-duty military personnel.” Meanwhile, Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Patty Murray (D-WA) “wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates today demanding an inspector general’s investigation into living conditions for the returning soldiers at Walter Reed.”

Lots to discuss!

From the AP - Flawed Anti -Terror Data!

Really! Anti- Terror Data Flawed. Surprised? I'm not. This admin cooks the books on everything to make their case look good. It seems nothing they've said is true.

Here's what they've done:

Audit: Anti-terror case data flawed
WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 even though no evidence linked them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit said Tuesday.

Overall, nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics on investigations, referrals and cases examined by department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated. Only two of 26 sets of department data reported between 2001 and 2005 were accurate, the audit found.

Responding, a Justice spokesman pointed to figures showing that prosecutors in the department's headquarters for the most part either accurately or underreported their data — underscoring what he called efforts to avoid pumping up federal terror statistics.

The numbers, used to monitor the department's progress in battling terrorists, are reported to Congress and the public and help, in part, shape the department's budget.

"For these and other reasons, it is essential that the department report accurate terrorism-related statistics," the audit concluded.

Read the rest, here's the LINK

New Blog you MUST read!

PTSD = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

There's a new post at PTSD Combat blog. It's from the Navy Times and speaks to the Vets being granted permanent disability today. Here are some excerpts and the link:

Fewer Vets Granted Permanent Disability Today Than in 2001

In 2001, 10 percent of soldiers going through the medical retirement process received permanent disability benefits. In 2005, with two wars raging, that percentage dropped to 3 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Reservists dropped from 16 percent to 5 percent.

Soldiers go to VA to try for more benefits, but the department had a staggering 400,000-case backup on new claims in fiscal 2006, according to VA. For that reason, Van Antwerp faces another wait at VA. Cases there have an average of a one-year wait. ... [M]any of the soldiers leaving Walter Reed face post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies have shown that if soldiers receive treatment within a year, they fare much better. ...

On Christmas Day, six soldiers spent their time at Walter Reed picking up trash, mopping floors and emptying garbage. “I was planning to go home for the holidays,” said Spc. Ruben Villalpando, who dropped from sergeant rank when he came up hot for marijuana on a urinalysis while at Walter Reed. “There’s a 100 percent urinalysis policy for med hold.” In other words, every soldier in the medical hold company is tested for drugs.

The other five soldiers also came up hot, he said. Not only did Villalpando lose his holiday, the reduction in rank means that if he does receive a disability payment, it will be lower than it would have been a month before.

I was angry and saddened yesterday, when I read the Walter Reed article of how our vets were treated. This article just adds sand to the wound! Compassionate Conservatives!?! To whom are they compassionate?

Here's the LINK

NYT - Trial Spotlights Cheney’s Power as an Infighter

NYT thinks that the Libby Trial testimony leads back to Cheney:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 — A picture taking shape from hours of testimony and reams of documents in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. shatters any notion that the White House was operating as a model of cohesion throughout President Bush’s first term.

The trial against Mr. Libby has centered on a narrow case of perjury, with days of sparring between the defense and prosecution lawyers over the numbing details of three-year-old conversations between White House officials and journalists. But a close reading of the testimony and evidence in the case is more revelatory, bringing into bolder relief a portrait of a vice president with free rein to operate inside the White House as he saw fit in order to debunk the charges of a critic of the war in Iraq.

The evidence in the trial shows Vice President Dick Cheney and Mr. Libby, his former chief of staff, countermanding and even occasionally misleading colleagues at the highest levels of Mr. Bush’s inner circle as the two pursued their own goal of clearing the vice president’s name in connection with flawed intelligence used in the case for war.

The testimony in the trial, which is heading for final arguments as early as Tuesday, calls into question whether Mr. Cheney, known as a consummate inside player, operated as effectively as his reputation would hold. For all of his machinations, Mr. Cheney’s efforts sometimes faltered as he tried, with the help of Mr. Libby, to push back against critics during a crucial period in the early summer of 2003, when Mr. Bush’s initial case for war was beginning to fall apart. In some of their efforts, Mr. Cheney and his agent, Mr. Libby, appeared even maladroit in the art of news management.

While others on the White House team were primarily concerned about Mr. Bush, the evidence has shown that Mr. Libby had a more acute concern about his own boss. Unbeknownst to their colleagues, according to testimony, the two carried out a covert public relations campaign to defend not only the case for war but also Mr. Cheney’s connection to the flawed intelligence.

In doing so, they used some of the most sensitive and classified intelligence data available, information others on Mr. Bush’s team was not yet prepared to put to use in a public fight against a war critic.

Here's the LINK

Open Thread Feb. 20, 2007

Here's a new thread.

Newest from Raw Story:

Breaking: Three American women kidnapped in West Bank...

A new cold war? That's what Russia says may happen

From Raw Story:

Poles and Czechs to cooperate in US missile talks as Russia warns WARSAW (WIRE SERVICES) - Poland and the Czech Republic said they would work together in talks with Washington on the missile defense shield it wants to set up in central Europe, even as Russia threatened retaliation.

"We are trying to set up an information-sharing system for discussions on this proposal," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said during a press conference with his Polish counterpart Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

"We have agreed that both countries are likely to give (Washington) a positive answer. Talks will begin after that," Topolanek said.

snip

Russia has objected to having the shield stationed on its doorstep and threatened to pull out of a treaty with the United States limiting short and medium-range missiles.

In a statement, a key Russian general warned Monday that Poland and the Czech Republic "risk being targeted by Russian missiles if they agree to host U.S. missile defense bases," writes Vladimir Isachenkov for The Associated Press.

This admin of ours is itching to get into another war. Two fronts aren't enough it seems. The longer Bushco is in office, the more destruction happens worldwide.

Our Conservative Supreme Court

The Supreme Court throws out $79.5 Million Tobacco Verdict. Throws out punative damages against Phillip Morris, according to CNN just now.

And what is worse is what they will be ruling on this year. Per Think Progress quoting the LA Times:

Justice Antonin Scalia is “poised to lead a new conservative majority” on the Supreme Court. “Between now and late June, the court is set to hand down decisions in four areas of law — race, religion, abortion regulation and campaign finance — where Scalia’s views may now represent the majority.”

The conservatives are loving this:

"I'm looking forward to the next 10 to 12 years," said Terry Eastland, the publisher of the conservative Weekly Standard.

Scalia's another arrogant, self important neocon:

"Justice Scalia has had a bigger impact off the court than on it," said law professor Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina. "In his speeches and his opinions, he is trying to reach a wider audience."

Scalia does not grant media interviews, but in recent years he has spoken regularly at colleges and law schools, and he rarely fails to make news with an off-the-cuff comment. When asked to explain his role in the Bush vs. Gore decision that halted Florida's recount in the 2000 presidential race, his standard rejoinder is: "Get over it."

The original retort from the winger..."Get over it"! I will never get over a stolen election. The Supreme court has usurped my right of voting. This , I will never get over. This type of things happens in countries with Dictators, not the United States of America.

Update on Court Rulings today. Of course this one has not been aired yet by the MSM.

U.S. appeals court backs Bush, denies Gitmo detainees
POSTED: 10:58 a.m. EST, February 20, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Guantanamo Bay detainees may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling upholding a key provision in President Bush's anti-terrorism law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 that civilian courts no longer have the authority to consider whether the military is illegally holding foreigners.

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

The ruling is all but certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court, which last year struck down the Bush administration's original plan for trying detainees before military commissions.

The Military Commissions Act was crafted in response to that decision and the president hailed it as a necessary tool for bringing terror suspects to justice.

From the BBC - US 'Iran attack plans' revealed

Deny, deny, deny! The Bush admin has been denying this through the media. Of course the US press won't print this. I wonder who the source was for the BBC?

US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.
It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.

But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.

Two triggers

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.


The Natanz plant is buried under concrete, metal and earth
Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

read the rest here

New Thread Feb. 19, 2007

Science group:
Warming a mounting threat
The world's largest general scientific society on Sunday joined the concern over global climate change, calling it a "growing threat to society."

Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments.

I love the shore line, but I wouldn't live close to the water right now!

Sad how some people just won't believe this is happening. The same people that won't believe Bush is the worst president ever; and just now on CNN Wolf Blitzer said there was a poll and 2% of the people think Bush is the greatest president ever. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Suburban Poor

I received an email from a member of a progressive group I belong to. The contents was an article from our local paper, The Daily Herald, about the Suburban Poor. There have been many indications of this but, until recently, it went unreported. Here are excerpts of this article along with the link:

Poor among plenty
For the first time in history, more poor people are living in the nation's suburbs than in the cities. Soon that may be true in the Chicago area; the number of those living in poverty in the collar counties has risen dramatically since 1999.

BY MARNI PYKE
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Thursday, February 15, 2007

More and more suburban residents are barely scratching out a living, a report on Illinois poverty indicates.

More than 386,000 people in the collar counties of DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will and suburban Cook are among the have-nots, the study by the Mid-America Institute on Poverty of Heartland Alliance indicates.

And the number of those in need in the suburbs grew by 25 percent between 1999 and 2006, a rate that surpasses Chicago's rate of 8 percent.

"Poverty is a reality, not an urban phenomenon," said report researcher Amy Rynell of Heartland Alliance, a Chicago-based charitable organization.

In Illinois, the numbers of the poor come to 1.48 million, while in Chicago the tally is 573,486.

Heartland uses federal guidelines to define poverty as one person earning less than $10,210 a year or a family of four with an income of less than $20,650.

Experts say the poor are seniors, people with disabilities, domestic violence victims, young adults trying to make it on their own, single-parent families, new immigrants, individuals with health problems, and the unemployed.

They're also people with jobs, say social workers on the front lines.

"They're working hard, holding down two jobs and trying to find child care," explained Victoria Bran, director of the Rolling Meadows Police Neighborhood Resource Center.

The Illinois report echoes a national study by the Brookings Institution that found - for the first time in history - more of America's poor are living in the suburbs than in cities, a total of 1.2 million people in 2005.

snip

Other findings were that nearly 24,000 households a month use food pantries in Kane, Will, DuPage, Lake and McHenry counties and that a growing number of people in the Chicago region are paying more than one-third of their income toward rent.

State officials, meanwhile, say that in spite of the grim news, employment is increasing. Between 2005 and 2006, the unemployment rate went from 5.4 percent to 3.9 percent, Illinois Department of Employment Security economist Norman Kelewitz said.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says yes, maybe more people have jobs, but they're not necessarily well-paying jobs.

"Incomes are not rising and the cost of living continues to go up," he said. "Costs for education, energy and health care are continuing to go up."

That's a sentiment shared by Maureen Murphy, association division manager at the Lake County branch of Catholic Charities.

The agency serves between 25,000 and 27,000 people a year and has noticed a dramatic increase in need.

Job losses and a high cost of living are hurting Lake County residents, Murphy said.

"If you work for a minimum wage in Lake, you have to work 133 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

We are told daily that the economy is good, we have low unemployment. But the jobs aren't the same. Many subrbanites are having to get two jobs to afford the basics when 6 years ago one job sould suffice. And the cost of health care has risen so fast that people have no healthcare Insurance or policies that don't cover much.

Libby Trial, Novak and Newsweek's Mystery Man

Newsweek has a new article on the Libby trial. During Robert Novak's testimony, he mentioned a man that no one in the trial had heard about before. Seems he's very well connected in the White House. Here's an excerpt:

A Man of Mystery
Richard Hohlt is the heavy hitter you've never heard of.

By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
Feb. 26, 2007 issue - Robert Novak, as usual, had a scoop to unload—only this time, it was from the witness stand. Testifying last week in the trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the conservative columnist gruffly described how he first learned from two top Bush administration officials that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. But then Novak injected a new name into the drama—one that virtually nobody in the courtroom knew.

Asked by one of Libby's lawyers if he had talked about Plame with anybody else before outing her in his column, Novak said he'd discussed her with a lobbyist named Richard Hohlt. Who, the lawyer pressed, is Hohlt? "He's a very good source of mine" whom I talk to "every day," Novak replied. Indeed, Hohlt is such a good source that after Novak finished his column naming Plame, he testified, he did something most journalists rarely do: he gave the lobbyist an advance copy of his column. What Novak didn't tell the jury is what the lobbyist then did with it: Hohlt confirmed to NEWSWEEK that he faxed the forthcoming column to their mutual friend Karl Rove (one of Novak's sources for the Plame leak), thereby giving the White House a heads up on the bombshell to come.

So the plot thickens once again. And it all goes back to the White House. There's more and it's interesting so here's the link.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Good and bad in the year of the pig. I'm rooting for the Good!!

This is Disturbing. Are we that insensitive?

From the AP:

Human Compassion Surprisingly Limited, Study Finds

SAN FRANCISCO—While a person's accidental death reported on the evening news can bring viewers to tears, mass killings reported as statistics fail to tickle human emotions, a new study finds.


The Internet and other modern communications bring atrocities such as killings in Darfur, Sudan into homes and office cubicles. But knowledge of these events fails to motivate most to take action, said Paul Slovic, a University of Oregon researcher.


People typically react very strongly to one death but their emotions fade as the number of victims increase, Slovic reported here yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


"We go all out to save a single identified victim, be it a person or an animal, but as the numbers increase, we level off," Slovic said. "We don't feel any different to say 88 people dying than we do to 87. This is a disturbing model, because it means that lives are not equal, and that as problems become bigger we become insensitive to the prospect of additional deaths."


Human insensitivity to large-scale human suffering has been observed in the past century with genocides in Armenia, the Ukraine, Nazi Germany and Rwanda, among others.


"We have to understand what it is in our makeup—psychologically, socially, politically and institutionally—that has allowed genocide to go unabated for a century," Slovic said. "If we don't answer that question and use the answer to change things, we will see another century of horrible atrocities around the world."


Are we that insensitive or is it that we are unable to solve the problem directly and try not to think about it? This is definately a flaw in the human psyche. Is there a way to change this? I hope so.

Sunday Talk Shows Feb 18 Schedule

Meet The Press:

Exclusive! Showdown in the House and Senate over Iraq. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow with reaction. Plus two Senators opposed to the troop surge: Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) & Jack Reed (D-R.I.) Then, insights from NBC's Richard Engel just back from Iraq.

ABC's This Week:
In a Sunday Exclusive, George is "On the Trail" with GOP front-runner and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass. and his wife Ann to discuss his bid for the White House. Fareed Zakaria, Katrina vanden Heuvel and George Will on the 'Roundtable.' And Michael Douglas on teaching kids to talk to each other.

CBS's Face the Nation:

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Delaware.
Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee
2008 Presidential Candidate

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana
Foreign Relations Committee

Doyle McManus
Washington Bureau Chief, The Los Angeles Times

Josephine Hearn
The Politico

Fox News Sunday

The House OKs its non-binding resolution opposing the president's Iraq War plan. Now what?

We will speak with Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House

CNN's Late Edition

• Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada: majority leader
• Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky: minority leader
• Gov. Bill Richardson, D-New Mexico, former Energy Secretary
• Tony Snow: White House press secretary
• Penn Jillette: entertainer and magician
• Michael Steele: former Lt. Gov. of Maryland
• Marc Morial: president and CEO, National Urban League
• Donna Brazile: Democratic strategist


Tony Snow(job) on Meet the Press and Late Edition! What will you watch?

Open thread February 17, 07

Ex-envoy says Iraq rebuilding plan won't work

By Sue Pleming
Sat Feb 17, 10:32 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Kiki Munshi was showcased by the media in September as a seasoned U.S. diplomat who came out of retirement to lead a rebuilding group in Iraq.

Now she is back home, angry, and convinced that President George W. Bush's new strategy of doubling the number of such groups to 20 along with a troop surge of 21,500 will not help stabilize Iraq.

A diplomat for 22 years, she quit her job last month as leader of a Provincial Reconstruction Team -- groups made up of about 50 civilian and military experts that try to help Iraqi communities build their own government while strengthening moderates.

"In spite of the magnificent and often heroic work being done out there by a lot of truly wonderful people, the PRTs themselves aren't succeeding. The obstacles are too great," Munshi said this week in Washington, where she was pressing her view at the State Department and to Congress.

"Once again we are proceeding to lay people's lives on a line drawn with faulty information. Once again the fantasies of the 'policy-makers' drive decisions without much link to the realities on the ground," said Munshi, who retired from the foreign service in 2002 .

Her postings included Romania, India and Sierra Leone before Iraq, where Munshi said he had felt a "moral obligation to sort out the mess we have made there."

LINK

Tens of thousands protest expansion of US base in Italy

This from a nation that was an ally as Bush invaded Iraq! Now that Berlusconi is no longer in charge, the people speak. Italy! Not only did they charge CIA agents in a trial, but now they are marching against the expansion of US bases in Italy.

From dpa German Press Agency vis Raw Story:

Vicenza, Italy- Tens of thousands of people marched through
the streets of Vicenza on Saturday to protest against plans to expand
a United States military base in the northern Italian city.
"We came to say 'no' to war," said one participant.

Organizers said well over 100,000 demonstrators attended the rally
while authorities spoke of 80,000. Around 1,500 policemen in riot
gear were on standby. Several police helicopters flew over the
scene to monitor the largely peaceful demonstration, which was up to
six kilometres in length.

The march passed off without incident, Italian state television
reported afterwards.

The rally was organized by left-wing militants and local residents
who oppose the expansion of Camp Ederle, home to the US 173rd
Airborne Brigade.

Around 2,750 US soldiers are currently stationed at the base which
is to be enlarged by 2010 to accommodate a further 1,800 US soldiers
currently stationed in Germany under an agreement forged by US
President George W Bush with former Italian premier Silvio
Berlusconi.

The current government of Romano Prodi has endorsed that decision,
despite protests from part of the Vicenza population, backed by
far-left members of the premier's supporting centre-left coalition.

Read more here.