Mike's Blog Round Up
Burning hot hits from The Heretik today (plus a few misses):
Time, time, time, look what's become of me . . . . out of time (and all out of Friedmans) in Iraq. What time is last call at The Green Zone Bar and Grille?
Too Little, Too Late, Sad Story du Jour: is anybody buying what the sellout Colin Powell is now offering? Plus Dick du Jour.
Josef Conrad goes to Washington: "The heart of darkness is the president," the person said. "Nobody knows what he thinks, even the people who work for him."
How green was my concert? Take the pledge. Flat Earth blues. Sandman.
Bedtime stories: Will the nightmare ever end? Plus the story of Oedipus Dix? And spy vs spy? How about the spy who billed me? What happens when the children wake up before the rest of us? Did somebody say impeachment? What's it all about, Arlen ?
Send hot links to The Heretik at joe.ivory.mattingly AT gmail DOT com.
Heretics with nervous tiks?
You forgot this one.
AP - 13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors.
Speaking of the Green Zone. In Baghdad, home to the headquarters of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Division, soldiers enjoy nightly movies in the world-class movie theater Saddam built for his secret police. Popcorn is free, and Sunday is double-feature day, and popular magazines are readily available.
http://tinyurl.com/2oy3k8
How can I contact Nicole Bell and ask her to mention and/or review my liberal blog ROBERTO ANTONIO?
I blog today on a Sunni insurgent leader "allied with Qaeda" threatening the "Persians." Hey, I thought Bush implied that the Iranians were supporting Al Qaeda types. Who exactly is the enemy of the U.S. in Iraq?
Roberto Antonio
Un-f-believable.
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
jesus christ you have to be a moron to enjoy this shit hollwood puts out as movies today!
From the All Spin Zone commentary:
“Could be”?? I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to say “will be”. The U.S. has effectively armed both sides in the ongoing sectarian conflict civil war, and by inference, has required all nation-states in the middle east to pick a side. Iran is working with the Shiites. Saudi Arabia is working and funding the Sunnis."
And the overwhelming view nations get from all of this is that the all powerful, technologically advanced military in the world is led by an incompetent leadership that controls very little in Iraq. So, neighboring nations are forced to pick a side and take matters into their own hands.
Joe O. @ 7:
Ad to this Turkey who is also looking to take matters into their own hands as we see from this article posted just a bit ago:
Iraqi FM: Turkey massing 140,000 troops
"BAGHDAD - Turkey has massed 140,000 soldiers on its border with northern Iraq, Iraq's foreign minister said Monday, calling the neighboring country's fears of Kurdish rebels based there "legitimate" but better resolved through negotiation."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070709/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_turkey
How is this for a retirement epiphany?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070608/news_lz1e8boston.html
Time for the truth about the Liberty
By Ward Boston Jr.
June 8, 2007
Forty years ago this week, I was asked to investigate the heaviest attack on an American ship since World War II. As senior legal counsel to the Navy Court of Inquiry, it was my job to help uncover the truth regarding Israel’s June 8, 1967, bombing of the Navy intelligence ship Liberty.
On that sunny, clear day 40 years ago, Israel’s combined air and naval forces attacked the Liberty for two hours, inflicting 70 percent casualties. Thirty-four American sailors died, and 172 were injured. The Liberty remained afloat only by the crew’s heroic efforts.
Israel claimed it was an accident. Yet I know from personal conversations with the late Adm. Isaac C. Kidd – president of the Court of Inquiry – that President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of “mistaken identity.”
The ensuing cover-up has haunted us for 40 years. What does it imply for our national security, not to mention our ability to honestly broker peace in the Middle East, when we cannot question Israel’s actions – even when they kill Americans?
Today, survivors of Israel’s cruel attack will gather in Washington, D.C., to honor their dead shipmates as well as the mothers, sisters, widows and children they left behind. They will continue to ask for a fair and impartial congressional inquiry that, for the first time, would allow the survivors themselves to testify publicly.
For decades, I have remained silent. I am a military man, and when orders come in from the secretary of defense and president of the United States, I follow them. However, attempts to rewrite history and concern for my country compel me to share the truth.
Adm. Kidd and I were given only one week to gather evidence for the Navy’s official investigation, though we both estimated that a proper Court of Inquiry would take at least six months.
We boarded the crippled ship at sea and interviewed survivors. The evidence was clear. We both believed with certainty that this attack was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew.
I am certain the Israeli pilots and commanders who had ordered the attack knew the ship was American. I saw the bullet-riddled American flag that had been raised by the crew after their first flag had been shot down completely. I heard testimony that made it clear the Israelis intended there be no survivors. Not only did they attack with napalm, gunfire and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned at close range three life rafts that had been launched in an attempt to save the most seriously wounded.
I am outraged at the efforts of Israel’s apologists to claim this attack was a case of “mistaken identity.”
Adm. Kidd told me that after receiving the president’s cover-up orders, he was instructed to sit down with two civilians from either the White House or the Department of Defense and rewrite portions of the court’s findings. He said, “Ward, they’re not interested in the facts. It’s a political matter, and we cannot talk about it.” We were to “put a lid on it” and caution everyone involved never to speak of it again.
I know that the Court of Inquiry transcript that has been released to the public is not the same one that I certified and sent to Washington. I know this because it was necessary, due to the exigencies of time, to hand-correct and initial a substantial number of pages. I have examined the released version of the transcript and did not see any pages that bore my hand corrections and initials. Also, the original did not have any deliberately blank pages, as the released version does. In addition, the testimony of Lt. Lloyd Painter concerning the deliberate machine-gunning of the life rafts by the Israeli torpedo boat crews, which I distinctly recall being given at the Court of Inquiry and including in the original transcript, is now missing.
I join the survivors in their call for an honest inquiry. Why is there no room to question Israel – even when it kills Americans – in the halls of Congress?
Let the survivors testify. Let me testify. Let former intelligence officers testify that they received real-time Hebrew translations of Israeli commanders instructing their pilots to sink “the American ship.”
Surely uncovering the truth about what happened to American servicemen in a bloody attack is more important than protecting Israel. And surely 40 years is long enough to wait.
Boston served as chief counsel to the Navy’s Court of Inquiry into the attack on the U.S. Navy intelligence ship Liberty. He also served as a naval aviator in World War II on the carrier Yorktown and as an FBI agent prior to his assignment to the Navy’s Judge Advocates General Corps. He is a graduate of the the College of William and Mary School of Law and a resident of Coronado.
It is funny, (not in a humorous way) that the Iraqis are not able to come up with an oil revenue sharing agreement and the insurgents are always labeled as Al Qaeda and violence escalates. In my opinion, if the oil companies were to get out of the picture completely, the Iraqis would be able to come to agreements on revenue sharing and the violence would subside. This seems to be the biggest issue they have been dealing with. Our troops would be able to redeploy to safe areas and and the occupation could end.
http://myfightfordemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-declaration-of-indep...
Colin Powell should slink back into the hole he's been hiding in for the past four years. NOW he tells us how he tried to talk the Deciderer out of going to war?! And he spent all of 2-1/2 hours with the presNOT. WOW, what a statesman Powell is.
[snip]
We have not even been asked to cut into our large-living ways; indeed, we've been encouraged to indulge them. Consumerism is what keeps this Ponzi economy afloat, that and dangerously bundled derivatives on the esoteric hedge-fund market. So instead of conserving and rationing, the way homefront Americans were glad to do in WW2, to be part of the cause, we continue to indulge and consume, and in particular waste oil profligately, as if we weren't over in the Middle East to -- at least in part, whether people can admit it to themselves or not -- secure our access and supply.
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
So what's showing, Live Free or Die Hard & Saw 3?
I remember when Reds, and Up In Smoke came to Edwards AFB.
Of course the popular magazines that were readily available for us was Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler.
The base library had several copies of Mein Kampf and books by Szandor LeVey that were constantly checked out.
I actually went into the military as clean speaking, clean living teatotaler.
"I could've been a contender. I could've been somebody instead of a bum, which I am."
Whenever I see or hear Powell I think of that Brando line. Too bad he didn't have the gumption to be his own man.
ysbaddaden @ 13:
Not sure what their watching these days. "Transformers" should be hot though.
ysbaddaden @ 13:
:lol:
Those bring back memories when I was in the Marines. We had Hustler, Playboy and Penthouse as well. One guy I knew left his porno mags out for his room inspection. The Major, our platoon sergeant, and his squad leader were not amused.
Re: Bedtime stories...
Hillhouse's blog regarding billable spies and I believe she has a book "Outsourced" which I would like to get one of these days....
Very interesting person....
And illuminating blog....
16 Joe O.
My first shit asked for my copies of Hustler.
Not sure if his Korean wife was amused.
If boosh has a heart of darkness, what does that say about his religiosity?
If darth chainey says we have to fight from the Dark Side, does that make boosh's heart his undisclosed location?
Powells problem was that Cheney an Rumsfeld had already painted him as a goody two shoes wimp.
bush was not going to listen to Powell because Powell thought it would have been a mistake to pursue the Republican Guard all the way to Baghdad under #41.
Powell will be forever tainted with his appearance before the U.N. General Assembly.
For him to now say that he tried to talk Bush out of going to Iraq is interesting but just another professed failure on his part.
Powells footnote in History will be a sad one. I for one had hoped for much more from this man.
Miles Mogulescu| BIO
Is Fred Thompson Another Jack Abramoff?
Posted July 9, 2007 | 05:03 AM (EST)
Based on reports in the LA Times that Fred Thompson was hired and paid by a pro-choice organization to lobby the Bush I White House on its behalf, and the Thompson campaign's denial that he ever did the lobbying, its starting to look like Fred Thompson engaged in either criminal fraud or political fraud.
If Thompson took money to lobby on behalf of a pro-choice group, told them he had multiple conversations with White House Chief of Staff John Sununu on their behalf, and never actually had those conversations, he may have committed criminal fraud. Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is serving over five years in federal prison for taking money from Native American tribes to lobby on their behalf and then doing the opposite.
On the other hand, if Thompson did serve as a paid lobbyist for a pro-choice organization, then his claim to be the one potential Republican presidential candidate to fully embrace the "pro-life" cause is a fraud. He was willing to sell it out to the highest bidder.
The LA Times reports that according to a 1991 document and 5 witnesses familiar with the matter, Thompson was hired by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association to lobby the Bush I White House to withdraw a gag rule that prohibited federally funded clinics from providing abortion counseling. As the LA Times says, "The abortion 'gag rule' was then a major political flashpoint. Lobbying against the rule would have placed Thompson at odds with the antiabortion movement that he his now trying to rally behind his expected declaration of a presidential bid."
Radically Moderate @ 20:
powell has always been a puppet. his role in the My Lai fiasco is his first documented foray into lying for the sake of preserving the status quo and covering peoples' asses.
now he runs aroung screaming into every available microphone how he tried to stop the Iraq war, when his own actions provided the ultimate justification.
powell is a red herring, still serving the purpose of distracting people from what boosh is doing. I guess we should soon expect another round of interviews of the medal of freedom winners.
maybe powell can tell us why rummy still has an office in the pentagon.
When boosh talks about his enemas, does that mean he and Pickles are kinky?
Joe O. @ 8:
Basically, all the pieces are in place for a World War III flashpoint. Who do we side with when the Turks attack the Kurds? Our allies in NATO, or our allies against Bin Laden.
George Bush is an idiot with NO CONCEPT of the world, world events or world history. The neocons are madmen that believe a) that a nuclear war can be kept "limited"..WRONG, b) that events can be contained...WRONG, c) that the rest of the world will sit idly by as the Middle East starts to burn...WRONG.
These psychopaths are going to get us all killed. Pray that our children forgive us for what we've unleashed.
And Colin Powell can burn in hell. He knows what he has done by selling himself out to this Administration. The same with John McCain. Men who understand WAR, and understand the politics of WAR.
Shame on them both. Shame on General Betryous, another traitor who should be swinging at the end of a rope for selling out his oath to the CONSTITUTION, so he could get another star.
A pox on them all.
Heart of Darkness, indeed. And it's an interesting tie-in with Powell. Powell's current claims contradict his previous accounts. Before, Powell's said that he didn't question much at all, because Bush's mind had been made up. A related issue is who Bush actually bothered to talk to about his decision before it was made, because it was a very, very small circle, most likely including Cheney, Rove and Laura, and probably Rice, but that's about it. If we knew the full truth about Bush's actual decision-making, it likely would be even scarier than Reagan having the beginnings of Alzheimer's in office.
Liberal AND Proud @ 24:
And I hope that Dick Cheney lives long enuf to wind up at the end of a rope.
Colin Powell can say what he wants, bu his deeds speak louder. He knew it was wrong but aided and abetted the war criminal Bush in foisting a war of aggression upon the world. Powell still won't acknowledge his complicity. He still needs to step up to the plate and renounce his own acts. No mea culpas. Fess up. Nothing he can say will have any mitigating influence until he does so.
Thanks for the linky love.
Thanks for the link, Joe! :)
[deleted--sorry, 9/11 alternative theories are not welcome on this site. They hijack threads and lead to flame wars. There are many sites that welcome this discussion, but this is not one of them. It has nothing to do with whether or not they're true, but how it affects all the other subjects.]
Let's Pack Bush's Bags For Him!
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