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.

Republicans blocked the vote in the Senate again.

I hope they get a ton of mail and phone calls and emails from their constituents and the rest of the American people that want this war to end! This will come back to bite them.

"The Senate Should Not Fiddle While Iraq Burns"
New York Times | February 17, 2007 06:49 PM

Other Republicans who had helped thwart the earlier debate also said it was time to end the procedural impasse.

"In my view, it is most important that the Senate speak out on Iraq," said Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania. "If we continue to debate whether there should be a debate while the House of Representatives acts, the Senate will become irrelevant. To paraphrase the Roman adage, 'The Senate should not fiddle while Iraq burns.' "

LINK

Here's what my Rep said on the floor of the House. Peter Roskam

Peter Roskam defeated Tammy Duckworth for Henry Hyde's seat in the House of Representative. You know I wished Tammy would have won. Now this double amputee's husband is off to Iraq. Sometime life just isn't fair!

Here's Mr. Roskam's words about Bush's surge plans:

Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to Mr. PETER ROSKAM from Illinois.

Mr. ROSKAM. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, we are here to debate a House Concurrent Resolution, and the root verb of ``resolution'' is resolute. I just want to challenge the House today to consider the resolution of our enemies. I would like to read three quotes to you.

Resolved, by Samba bin Laden. The whole world is watching this war, and the two adversaries, the Islamic nation on the one hand and the United States and its allies on the other. It is either victory and glory or misery and humiliation.

Or how about this? Resolved, in the al Agenda charter: There will be continuing enmity until everyone believes in Allah. We will not meet the enemy halfway, and there will be no room for dialogue with them.

Or how about this, and I am paraphrasing: Resolved, from Samba bin Ladens deputy, who said that the plan is to extend the jihad wave; to expel the Americans from Iraq and extend the jihad wave to secular countries neighboring Iraq, clash with Israel and establish an Islamic authority.

Is there anybody among us who doubts the resolve and clarity with which our opponents are speaking? I don't.

I think what is lacking today in our conversation is the consequences of failure. The previous speaker used the words ``victory'' and ``success.'' He had a very low view of them, and I understand his characterization of those words. He said we have heard those words before. That is what the gentleman from New Jersey said.

But, do you know what? We will hear the word ``failure'' when it is used in the context of this challenge that is before us.

There is no question that there has been great difficulty that has gone before us in this fight. There is no question that there have been great mistakes that have been made, and I am wholeheartedly in favor of us acting as a coequal branch of government and calling for benchmarks and demarcation and holding the administration accountable for its decisions.

But if we fail in this, if we pull out, if we retreat, if we yield, what will happen? Is there anybody really who thinks that Iran, for example, will be less provocative? Is there anybody who thinks that al Agenda will be less provocative?

If we fail, extremism in this world, will it be ascendant or will it be descendant?

Madam Speaker, I close with a simple question, and that is, we need to ask, What is it about this resolution that will do one of two things? Does this encourage our troops, or does this discourage our enemies? I would suggest that this resolution, while it is serious, oh, it is very serious, it is not substantive. This is the ultimate expression of legislative passive aggression. It offers no substantive alternative.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition, and ask my colleagues to do the same.

Link

Bah!! More double speak!! And this man never served in any branch of the armed services! Just another Chciken Hawk playing a chess game with human lives!

The Worst President Ever?

Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, in an Opinion column at USA Today, wrote this:

Mea culpa to Bush on Presidents Day
Plain Talk by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY founder

Our great country has had 43 presidents. Many very good. A few pretty bad. On Presidents Day next Monday, it's appropriate to commemorate them all.

I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid. He was one of the worst. I've personally met every president since Dwight Eisenhower. He was one of the best.

A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying "this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst."

"She's wrong," I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. "It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list," I added.

I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top.

No offence to Al, but the day I found out GW was running for president, I was extremely leery! I wasn't crazy about his father, and having somewhat followed his career as a governor, I was sure I didn't want him as my president. I am still awed at how his presidency even came about.

When the media and people I knew were saying what a down to earth man GW was, he was the type of guy you'd want to have a beer with, I cringed. I couldn't see what they were seeing in him. What I saw was an arrogant, spoiled son of a former president. And when I heard Cheney was his choice for VP, my blood turned to ice.

At that point I knew nothing about PNAC, but I am old enough to remember the Nixon years and the Reagan years. I remembered Iran Contra and all the players involved. And lo and behold, these people were brought back for the GW reign! At that point I knew we were in trouble.

Later, after 9/11, people were still saying Bush was a great president. I still didn't see this. I wondered why he wasn't heard from for over 24 hours after 9/11. I heard about the school in Florida that he was at at the time of 9/11. I heard about Air Force One flying around until they decided to land somewhere safe. Then I heard about the Saudis being flown out of the country when there was a ban on all aircraft from flying for days after 9/11. I knew, when other didn't, that something was terribly wrong. So many people were singing his praises, but I was wondering what they saw in this man and was I the only one feeling this way.

That feeling of being alone was only exacerbated by the news stations, the Main Stream Media, saying what a great job Bush was doing. This feeling of being alone didn't pass until Air America Radio came to be and I realized I was not alone.

Then came Iraq and the lies to get into a war with Saddam! But that's another post all together!

Did any of you feel like I did? Alone in dreading Bush's presidency?

Another open thread for Feb. 16, 2007

If you've got any comments, here's an open thread. Fill it up!

House Passes Iraq Resolution

That's good news! It passed 246-182

2 Dems voted against - Marshall (Ga) and Taylor (Ms)

17 Republicans voted with the Dems!

6 Did not vote

See the vote talley here

Now the Senate must vote on this. They are arguing on the Senate floor about having to vote tomorrow. The Senate needs 60 votes.

Quds. The New Enemy?

Newsweek has a Web Exclusive that explains the Quds. In a speech the other night, Bush "annointed" a new enemy. Of course this enemy is from Iran. Here's a few excerpts from this Newsweek article:

President Bush officially anointed a new enemy of the United States on Wednesday: the “Quds Force.” After a week in which his administration contradicted itself repeatedly over the threat from Iran, Bush settled on what he said were the known facts. The sophisticated weapons being used against U.S. troops in Iraq “were provided by the Quds Force,” a paramilitary arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the president said at a news conference in the East Room. “We know that. And we also know that the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. That’s a known. What we don’t know is whether or not head leaders of Iran ordered the Quds Force to do what they did.”

It's funny how noone really believes this admin since the truth came out about Iraq. But Bush and his cronies are still trying to use the same tactics they used in the buildup to the war with Iraq.

This Newsweek article goes on to explain just what the Quds are:

The Quds Force was created by the IRGC—the powerful institution created to defend Iran’s 1979 Islamist revolution—toward the end of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. Its purpose: to conduct operations inside Iraqi territory, especially the Kurdish region that operated somewhat autonomously from Saddam Hussein’s government. “Quds” means “Jerusalem” in Arabic, and the goal of the Islamist revolutionaries who started the group was to take over Jerusalem after capturing Baghdad. Even after the Iran-Iraq War ended in 1988, the Quds Force, or Quds Brigade as it is also called, maintained three major foreign operations: supporting the Kurds in Iraq against Saddam, backing the Muslim Bosnians against the Serbs and working with Masoud and his Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. After Masoud was assassinated by Al Qaeda operatives on Sept. 9., 2001, Quds Force members helped the U.S.-assisted Northern Alliance cross the Kokcha River between Tajikistan and Afghanistan and advance toward Kabul to oust the Taliban, according to Iranian officials.

These Qud forces helped us with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Now they are our enemies according to Bush. More proof that Iran, at one time, was willing to help the US.

Here's the link to the rest of the story

Good News for Air America!!

Bankruptcy judge approves sale of Air America Radio

Posted 2/16/2007 12:30 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal bankruptcy judge approved on Friday the sale of the liberal talk radio network Air America Radio for $4.25 million to Stephen L. Green, founder of a New York real estate firm.
The approval of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain essentially transfers all the assets of Piquant LLC, parent company of the New York-based Air America, to a group including new and current investors.

It gives a majority stake to Green Family Media LLC, an entity controlled by Green, and a minority stake to Democracy Allies LLC. That group includes RealNetworks Inc. Chief Executive Robert Glaser and two former Air America board members.

Air America was launched in 2004 and has lost money ever since. Its most prominent personality was the comedian and author Al Franken, who left the network on Wednesday to run for nomination to a U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota.

Green is the founder and chairman of SL Green Realty Corp., a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns 34 Manhattan office buildings and has a total of 27 million square feet of space under its control. He is also the brother of Mark Green, a longtime New York politician who has appeared frequently as a guest on Air America.

Lawyers for Green asserted that he offered "the only chance for the debtor to avoid liquidation." Air America Chief Executive Scott Elberg said Friday that if the sale was not approved, the network would soon be closed down.

LINK

Open Thread for my Sam Seder Show friends

It's all set and ready to go!!

Possible 1 Million Iraqi will have left Iraq by years end

AP's article on the mass displacement of Iraqis due to the ongoing civil war:

Unrelenting violence and insecurity in Iraq could cause as many as 1 million Iraqis to flee their homes this year, the world's migration body said Friday.

"The numbers of people that are being displaced are increasing every day," said Jemini Pandaya, spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration. "The security situation is not improving. It's not changing."

Pandaya said the organization's estimate was made "on the assumption that security conditions will continue much as they are."

The possibility of neighboring countries, such as Syria, closing their borders would mean even more of the displaced would only be able to get as far as other parts of Iraq.

On Thursday, the U.N. refugee agency appealed to the European Union to do more to protect refugees fleeing Iraq, saying the war was the cause of the biggest displacement of people in the Middle East in recent history.

Read the rest here

Recently, President Bush said he would allow more Iraqis in this country.

Before we invaded their country, this was not the case. Saddam was bad but people had electricity and water. Had they put the Iraqis to work rebuilding their country right after the invasion, much of this would not be necessary.

Sam Seder Show on Air America

One of my favorite radio shows is the Sam Seder Show on Air America Radio, 9AM to 12 noon EST.

I have been listening to his show since Air America first came on the air. His first show was with Janeane Garafolo and was named Majority Report Radio and was on in the evening. Now he is alone and has moved to mornings.

Sam is a great supporter of the netroots blogosphere. He has many from the Liberal blog world on his show. Kos from Daily Kos, Atrios from Esheton, Firedoglake, Liberal Oasis are just a few.

If you have a chance, listen in on his show. Here's the stream addy:

http://play.rbn.com/?url=airam/airam/live/live.rm&proto=rtsp

or you can link from here.

If you have an XM radio, you can listen at AARXM 167.

Reid: Senate cloture vote on Iraq resolution this Saturday

From Think Progress:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he will delay the Senate’s recess and hold a cloture vote on the Iraq resolution on Saturday. “Time is of the essence,” Reid said, and we are “determined to end the silence and find a new direction.”


Link

Senate Dems To Force Up Or Down Vote On Bush's War Plan
Washington Post | Shailagh Murray | February 15, 2007 01:41 PM

Senate Democratic leaders abruptly switched course in the Iraq war debate today, shelving a complicated non-binding resolution that has run into procedural hurdles, in favor of a House version that simply states Congress's objections to President Bush's troop escalation plan.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this afternoon announced that the Senate would take a rare Saturday vote on whether to proceed to consider the House resolution, which is expected to pass that chamber Friday, with some Republican support.

Read the entire article here.

Congress opened debate on the measure on Tuesday and is expected to vote by Friday. Read the Resolution Here.

US Building New Secret Spy Base in Australia

From Raw Story again. What a great news site!! I reccommend it highly.

Secret new US spy base to get green light

AUSTRALIA'S close military alliance with the United States is to be further entrenched with the building of a high-tech communications base in Western Australia.

The Federal Government is about to approve the base after three years of secret negotiations with Washington.

The Age has been told the base, which will be built on defence land at Geraldton, will provide a crucial link for a new network of military satellites that will help the US's ability to fight wars in the Middle East and Asia. It will be the first big US military installation to be built in Australia in decades, and follows controversies over other big bases such as Pine Gap and North West Cape.

The deal has come to light amid heightened political debate over the alliance with the US and in the same week that the US finally told Australia it would not allow it to buy its best fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor.

Check out the rest here.

Auditors find poor accounting in Iraq

Another "Ya Think?" moment. With this government it never stops!

AP's story of...

Billions wasted in Iraq
The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted, overcharged or poorly tracked $10 billion in taxpayer money, federal investigators said Thursday.

The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee that Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors.

That problem could worsen, the Government Accountability Office said, given limited improvement so far by the Department of Defense even as the Bush administration prepares to boost the U.S. presence in Iraq.

David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, Congress' auditing arm, said his agency has been pointing out problems for years, only to be largely ignored or given lip service with little result.

"There is no accountability," Walker said. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."

"People should be rewarded when they do a good job. But when things don't go right, there have to be consequences," he said.

And further down in the article, surprise, surprise...

Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Investigation...

Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who chairs the panel, has pledged scores of investigations of fraud, waste and abuse — with subpoenas if necessary — on the Bush administration's watch. He decried the overpricing identified by the DCAA, a figure that has tripled since last fall.

"According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect," Waxman said.

Read more here.

Today's News and Links

From Think Progress:

CNN: White House Now Blames Briefer For Going Too Far On Iran Intel

Today, CNN reported that the White House is now blaming the anonymous intelligence briefer who presented the information. According to CNN’s Ed Henry, the White House says the anonymous intelligence briefer went “a little too far” in stating the evidence. But, as Henry said, “that begs the question why the administration has taken so long to clarify those comments.” Watch it Here

And from Raw Story, plenty of news. Here are the headlines and the link:

Exclusive: Top Republican aide says leadership won't force members to vote in favor of Bush 'surge'

2008 candidate looks to revoke Bush's 2002 Iraq authority...

Justice Department leaks own talking points to reporters

Cheney ally blasts Pentagon's report on pre-Iraq war intel

Waas: Cheney's 2002 phone call set stage for CIA leak probe

And here's Raw Story's Link

Olbermann's Good News!!

From Think Progress

MSNBC extends Olbermann’s contract. “Keith Olbermann will continue to be a thorn in Bill O’Reilly’s side for at least four more years,” MSNBC reports. Olbermann has agreed to a “second term” with NBC News that “will take him into 2011.” Besides hosting “Countdown,” Olbermann will now “contribute occasional essays to ‘NBC Nightly News’ and there will be two prime-time ‘Countdown’ specials a year on NBC.”
More Here

Now we'll still have a liberal voice on MSNBC that airs the news the others don't.

Congrats Keith!! Hope you're making more money!

Chinese Horoscope - Year of The Pig

Chinese New Year starts on February 18. It's the Year of the Pig. Now don't take that as an insult. You might like the description.

THE PIG

The Pig is a fun and enlightening personality blessed with patience and understanding. People born under the sign of the Pig enjoy life and all it has to offer, including family and friends. They are honest and thoughtful and expect the same of other people. Pigs can be perceived as oblivious or gullible because they do care about others so much that they will do just about anything for a friend in need.

PIG FACTS:

People born in the Year of the Pig share certain characteristics. The Pig Sign is an abbreviated way of characterizing that individual’s personality. Following are features associated with the Sign of the Pig.

Twelfth in order, Chinese name—ZHU, sign of honesty

Hour—9pm-10:59pm Month—November

Western Counterpart—Scorpio

CHARACTERISTICS

Hardworking, Giving, Willing, Helpful, Materialistic, Gullible, Oblivious, Obstinate

Were you born in a Pig year? 1911*1923*1935*1947*1959*1971*1983*1995*2007

And from Raw Story:

Chinese soothsayers: Year of Pig signals conflicts before new world order

Read the very interesting Raw Story article here

Now here's a real Ya Think?

BBC is reporting that "Iraq Invasion Plan Delusional"!

The US invasion plan for Iraq envisaged that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by December 2006, declassified Central Command documents show.

The material also shows that the US military projected a stable, pro-US and democratic Iraq by that time.

So who was the braintrust that said this?

The documents - in the form of PowerPoint slides - were prepared by the now-retired Gen Tommy Franks and other top commanders at the time.

The documents were presented at a briefing in August 2002 - less than a year before the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003.

The commanders predicted that after the fighting was over there would be a two- to three-month "stabilisation" phase, followed by an 18- to 24-month "recovery" stage.

They projected that the US forces would be almost completely "re-deployed" out of Iraq at the end of the "transition" phase - within 45 months of invasion.

These papers were ordered by NSA, an independent research institute at George Washington University. The NSA said it received the documents last month, after making a request in 2004.

More here

Open Thread

What's happening today? No Anna Nicole please, I am up to here with Anna Nicole!!!

What will Ed Schultz say today about Air America? He's really got a tantrum problem!
Anyone else think he acts like Limbaugh?

Soldier lost limb, Has to pay back Recruiter because he didn't finish tour of duty!

This is the epitome of the old saying "Insult over injury".

The recruiters for the military have been combing the country at High Schools, Colleges and shopping malls offering bonuses if you sign up. So some young people sign up, go to war, get injured and sent home. Then this young person is contacted that they have to give back all or part of the bonus because they didn't fullfil their tour of duty. Our Compassionate Conservative Government at work!

Here's the story:

Soldiers Back From War Fight Different Battle

PITTSBURGH -- Soldiers who were paralyzed, suffered brain damage and lost limbs owe the government enlistment bonus money.

They must pay the money back because they didn’t fulfill their tour of duty.

Bob Truska, who was in the Navy, got an honorable discharge for what the Navy calls a personality disorder.

One year later, he got a bill for more than $3,000, part of his $7,000 enlistment bonus.

Bob said, “I didn’t know of anything I had to pay back after I got out of the military.”

The Navy said his honorable discharge “does not exempt him from recoupement of the unearned enlistment bonus, and his personality disorder is not a disability but could interfere with assignment or performance of duty.”

According to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, each month from October 2005 through October of 2006, at least 600 members of the military and as many as 1,100 have owed bonus debts totaling anywhere from $2.5 million dollars each month to $4 million.

The money comes from skyrocketing enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses being offered to lure recruits and keep experienced troops in uniform.

Just this past year, the Army doubled its top bonus from $20,000 to $40,000.

Here's the LINK

The U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st in Child Welfare

This is a damning article, from the AP, about the US and Britain's lack of Child Welfare. This is what happens when Corporations rule. And it's what happens when you have a government that is more interested in war than talking care of it's children.

Here is some of the article:

The United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.

The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings, while the U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report released Wednesday by UNICEF in Germany.

One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worse in the U.S. and Britain — despite high overall levels of national wealth — because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families.

"What they have in common are very high levels of inequality, very high levels of child poverty, which is also associated with inequality, and in rather different ways poorly developed services to families with children," said Bradshaw, a professor of social policy at the University of York in Britain.

"They don't invest as much in children as continental European countries do," he said, citing the lack of day care services in both countries and poorer health coverage and preventative care for children in the U.S.

United States questioned the comparisons made by the study, while Britain said it failed take into account recent social improvements.

The study also gave the U.S. and Britain low marks for their higher incidences of single-parent families and risky behaviors among children, such as drinking alcohol and sexual activity.

Shame! The most powerful nation in the world and our kids are ignored.

Here's the LINK

Other World Powers Meet to form a "Multipolar World"

From The Times, February 15, 2007

Giants meet to counter US power
Jeremy Page in Delhi

India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.

It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.

More Here

Wategate Journalist on Bushco

Veteran reporter Carl Bernstein says the lack of truth and candor from the Bush administration is unprecedented in his experience.

Comparing the Nixon administration's press relations to those of Bush, Bernstein says, "Nixon's relationship to the press was consistent with his relationship to many institutions and people. He saw himself as a victim. We now understand the psyche of Richard Nixon, that his was a self-destructive act and presidency.

"The Bush administration," Bernstein continues, "is a far different matter in which disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth -- a willingness to lie both in the Oval Office, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the office of the vice president, the vice president himself -- is something that I have never witnessed before on this scale."

RAW STORY has more

A Republican's reason for voting against the surge

A Florida Republican explained on the House floor today that he would not support President George W. Bush's troop escalation because it was bound to be a failure. Rep. Ric Keller criticized an earlier surge policy, warning that "the benefits were temporary, the body bags were permanent."

The junior congressman's speech may signal softening of support among the House Republican caucus for the president's "new direction forward in Iraq."

Rep. Ric Keller is in his fourth term as the Representative from the area of Orlando, FL. He took the House floor earlier today to say that he would vote to support the Democratic non-binding resolution that "disapproves" of the president's plan to escalate the number of troops in Iraq by more than 20,000.

"Interjecting more young American troops into the cross hairs of an Iraqi civil war is simply not the right approach," said Keller.

The Florida Republican offered a harsh criticism of Bush's approach, noting that it had been tried before and failed.

LINK

What's happening today?

Libby's defense misled the court. Many of the judge's decisions on what he would allow in court pertaining to classified evidence was based on Libby's defence saying Libby would testify.

Nearly a dozen Republican congressmen broke ranks with party leaders Wednesday to endorse a resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send more than 21,000 additional troops to Iraq. More Here

Former Bush National Security Council official Flynt Leverett, speaking on Wednesday at a forum held by the New America Foundation, told a crowd in a Senate office building that in 2003 then-Secretary of State Colin Powell received a “grand bargain” offer from Iran and was rebuffed by the White House. Read more at Raw Story


The Bush administration plans to allow thousands of Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.casualties.
More Here

Blog Name Change

This blog was formerly called the Abramoff Journal. Since Mr. Abramoff is now in jail, I am using this blog in a more general sense and will cover more topics. This blog is of a liberal persuasion and I will endeavor to post factual information concerning the government of this country.

Watch for more posts soon!