Open Thread
A Final, Tragic Note:
NYTimes: "Engaging in the banalties of life has become a death-defying act," the seven soldiers wrote of the war they had seen in Iraq.
They were referring to the ordeals of Iraqi citizens, trying to go about their lives with death and suffering all around them. They did not know it at the time, but they might almost have been referring to themselves.
Two of the soldiers who wrote of their pessimism about the war, in an Op-Ed article that appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 19, were killed in Baghdad on Monday. They were not killed in combat, nor on a daring mission. They died when the five-ton cargo truck they were riding in overturned.
dKos: The AP has reported on Yance Gray here, and KHOU, a Houston-area TV station has reported on Omar Mora here.
Gray leaves a wife and infant daughter. Mora was scheduled to return home this November, instead, he leaves behind a wife and a five year old daughter. Per E&P: one of the other five authors of the Times piece, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head while the article was being written. He was expected to survive after being flown to a military hospital in the United States.
There are no words.
1st
A sad second.
Our current administration has no soul.
Pharma Buys a Conscience
Carl Elliott / The American Prospect v.12, i17, 24sep01
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE3/Pharma-Buys-Conscience.htm
I was raised in a house filled with drug-industry trinkets. My father
has been a family doctor for more than 40 years, and drug representatives
bearing gifts have visited him throughout his career. My brothers and I grew
up tossing Abbott Frisbees and Upjohn Nerf balls. We took down messages on
Inderal notepads, wrote with Erythromycin pens, carried Progestin umbrellas.
We constructed weird Halloween costumes from models of the human hand and
brain supplied by Parke-Davis and Merck. My father was no great fan of
"detail men," as drug reps were called then. (These days, if you're a male
physician, your detail man is likely to be an attractive young woman.) Nor
did he take part in the drug industry's more outrageous marketing efforts,
such as frequent-flier miles in exchange for drug prescriptions. But he saw
no great harm in accepting drug samples for his patients or toys for his
children. Like virtually all doctors, he did not think that the gifts
influenced him in any way.
Why pharmaceutical companies want the goodwill of doctors is no great
mystery. The surprise is why they want the goodwill of someone like me. I am
a philosophy professor, and I work at a bioethics center. While I do happen
to have a degree in medicine, that degree is largely decorative: The only
prescriptions I write these days are moral ones. Despite this difference (or
maybe because of it), the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries are
funneling more and more cash into the pockets of academics who teach and
study ethics. Some of it goes straight to individuals, in the form of
consulting fees, contracts, honoraria, and salaries. Some of it--such as
gifts to bioethics centers--is less direct. Many corporations are putting
bioethicists on their scientific advisory boards or setting up special
bioethics panels to provide in-house advice. While I have not yet been
offered Frisbees or Nerf balls, I suspect that it is only a matter of time.
The issue of corporate money has become something of an embarrassment
within the bioethics community. Bioethicists have written for years about
conflicts of interest in scientific research or patient care yet have paid
little attention to the ones that might compromise bioethics itself. Arthur
Caplan, the director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics,
counsels doctors against accepting gifts from the drug industry. "The more
you yield to economics," Caplan said last January, "the more you're falling
to a business model that undercuts arguments for professionalism." Yet
Caplan himself consults for the drug and biotech industries, recently
coauthored an article with scientists for Advanced Cell Technology, and
heads a bioethics center supported by Monsanto, de Code Genetics, Millennium
Pharmaceuticals, Geron Corporation, Pfizer, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals,
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Human Genome Sciences, and the
Schering-Plough Corporation.
By no means does Caplan's center stand alone in its coziness with
industry. The University of Toronto houses the Sun Life Chair in Bioethics;
the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics has a program in
genetics funded by a $1-million gift from SmithKline Beecham Corporation;
the Merck Company Foundation has financed a string of international ethics
centers in cities from Ankara, Turkey, to Pretoria, South Africa. Last year
the Midwest Bioethics Center announced a new $587,870 initiative funded by
the Aventis Pharmaceuticals Foundation. That endeavor is titled, apparently
without irony, the Research Integrity Project.
+ Read more: http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE3/Pharma-Buys-Conscience.htm
Pharma Buys a Conscience
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE3/Pharma-Buys-Conscience.htm
What a tremendously sad story.
And now I have my 19 year old nephew (a Marine) heading to Iraq later this month.
This is what set me off today.........there are no words to describe the anger I feel....
Let's hope these brave men have not died in vain. This could be the spark that becomes an inferno of anger with the citizenry that may finally end this occupation.
I have two cousins who both are on their fourth tours.
one spent three in Afghanistan then the last(until sept2008) in Iraq.
the other spent three in iraq and starts his fourth this month, right after being married.
Thank You Nicole for posting this..........
my friend has a son who has spent three tours in Iraq and has three purple hearts and a bullet and shrapnel in his left leg. He has been scheduled by the army for an exam to determine if he is fit for duty.
BaScOmBe @ 8:
I wish you and yours all the best of luck BasCoMbE......your cousins are in my thoughts.
elmerg @ 7:
It's too late for that particular hope.
BaScOmBe @ 10:
Similar story for my nephew....he got peppered with shrapnel....and he's gone back now on his second tour....
BaScOmBe @ 12:
yeah.....agreed
this has gone on far too long.........
All these dead and wounded soldiers......for what?
Two more perish, and their grieving families are left to remember their dismay at being stuck in the middle of a war that was, and is, by all rational measures, utterly without any redeeming value, yet full of sinister ulterior motives.
We are numbed a little more to the pain inside from all these senseless deaths.
The Republiscum don't want to talk to the people of Latino heritage they want kicked out of the country. Arnie ignores the will of the country and his state and vetoes a bill which would be ask the public whether they want it to end the war. He claims it's "divisive"-even though we're clearly unanimous in favor of exiting. Gorillas won't even be found in the mist at their present rate of survival. The Farmer's Almanac says global warming will extend into '08. States are starting to realize they owe
the wrongly-convicted.
Cheney doesn't care if ALL our soldiers, and all Iraqis, and all of us for that matter, are killed.
He will kill and kill and kill until he's stopped. Just like Ted Bundy. Just like all the ilk.
I'm deeply moved by the courage these soldiers showed in writing the op-ed and their digging deep in continuing the mission thrust upon them.
The Democracy Now video confirms the grave and serious truth these brave men were speaking. Too bad the main-stream media gave it such a deaf ear. The MSM were fixated in today's version of Olie North in Iran/Contra, Colin Powell at the UN, and now, Petraeus before Congress. What filter is the MSM providing?
Also, this story should have been discussed before Petraeus went to Congress. It puts the MoveOn ad so-called controversy in a new light. I don't see Petraeus as the good soldier any more. Top brass throughout the military have had enough of Bush.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39235
I feel for all soldiers in the world and always look skeptically at the politicians and generals who use them for whatever gains they perceive.
Today, may peace reign on all peace-loving people in Iraq.
mudshark @ 11:
thanks.
I only write it because I seldom hear about any decision maker or warmonger actually having a stake in what they are so willing to have other people die for.
my pain is nothing compared to the wives and children and mothers, but it is real and everyday pain. While between tours 3 and 4, cousin #2 got married, honeymooned and shipped out in the space of six weeks. There are two wives and five children with far more to lose than I. The families have an unspoken pact of fearful silence and we always remind the children of their daddy's impending return.
I keep them in my prayers and thoughts. And in their names, I thank you for yours.
mudshark @ 13:
I wonder where the doctors find the heart...
Stories like these are the ones that grab me in the gut and squeeze. It is physically painful to hear of any of our brave men and women losing life or limbs in this travesty of a war, but it pains me even more to hear people who have never been in combat a day in their lives call for more "sacrifice" -- and this means you, Mr. O'Reiley and Mr. Boehner. This story is particularly gut-wrenching for the truth that these men tried to tell the American public. Was anyone listening? Please, Please, Please... get our troops out of Iraq... swiftly and soon. Don't let Bush drag this out until he is out of office...
I was always taught that if you ever find yourself in a hole, the first thing that you should do is to STOP DIGGING! Prolonging our presence in Iraq is just delaying the inevitable and it hasn't made us safer in the least. To borrow Susan Powder's plea from the 80's "Stop the Insanity!"
When in doubt, read a physics book!
mudshark @ 9:
Ditto.
Thanks to Rudy, NYC is too expensive
for many of its own residents.
mudshark @ 13:
Sorry, I did not mention in the first response that my thoughts and prayers go out for your nephew and for you too.
Tequila @ 25:
and bloomberg is so greedy he's charging the homeless rent to stay in a shelter. no shit!
Roland @ 5:
all the best.
it would be poetic justice for bush and cheney to suffer the same horrors they
now inflict on our country, our brave troops and on the people of iraq.
This story needs to be told. Every American should be required to read the original editorial and reflect on the lives of these men, cut short for an occupation of vanity.
Fellow posters, share a link to this story with your friends, relatives, even those who have become apathetic to the point of numbness.
Here's a few:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/washington/13troops.html?ref=middleeast
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_con...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/12/iraq.soldiers.dead/
"Less government" is the reason behind our tainted spinach.
Why would the U.S.Air Force announce to the world that they are standing down this Friday September 14 th. ?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/9/21257/28344
BaScOmBe @ 21:
I ask myself the same thing.........I'm so pissed off I can hardly think.............lets hope for the best.
lafin gas @ 32:
Does this include Norad?
My other nephew got lucky and got sent to Germany...I don't know why....but two of my best freinds sons went to Iraq.........I haven't heard from them in awhile....this doesn't matter but my freinds are repubs.......I don't think thier too happy right now...I tried to warn them..but at the time we were having some heated discussions......fuck.
That article came around at the same time as Michael O'Hanlon's article -- "The Surge is Working" -- was being talked about in the idiot press, and this op-ed was actually written by human beings, not think-tank Borgs. Wonder if Mr. O'Hanlon has heartburn, or a hangnail, or a dose of the flu.
Tequila @ 25:
Rudy, and, smug BLOOMBERG !!! We feel it every day here !
Whats the update on reverend Lennox Yearwood?
Hey, our second podcast is out, with our special republican sextacular: an overview of GOP sex scandals going way back in time... check it out:
http://podcasts.bsalert.com/
This is only our second radio show, but I think we're getting better - feedback is comments are most appreciated.
lafin gas @ 32:
Its meant as a review of procedures like was done with Army recruiters back in 2005. But it is the first command wide "safety day" in recent memory. At least that's the official explaination.
I'd just wish they'd get the story straight if it were 5 or 6 nuclear war-heads that were overlooked.
Thing Fish @ 40:
I'm less worried about these war-heads than I am about those aboard the Stennis and Nimitz currently bobbing about in the Persian Gulf.
Taarak @ 41:
I'm (cynically) thinking only one nuclear war head is needed for a casus belli.
"Mora, 28, . . . LEAVES BEHIND A WIFE AND A DAUGHTER. Gray, 26, . . . is ALSO SURVIVED BY A WIFE AND INFANT DAUGHTER."
*******
"And my name is Penny Evans and I've just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I THANK GOD I HAVE NO SONS
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun."
**The Ballad of Penny Evans by Steve Goodman**
(emphasis by Goodman)
*
I'd like to take this oppoortunity to post my thoughts this evening.
I often wonder where the human race would be today had we put aside concepts like religion, gut feelings and hunches while using technological achievements for the better good of humanity instead of building more destructive weapons, more sophisticated death machines and opted for sharing and caring instead of being greedy, and focusing on monetary gains and control over natural resources (oil). Where would the human race be? Where would we be had we not let some imaginary invisible gods, somewhere out there, dictate the course of history?
When one considers the progress humans have made since the birth of the Neanderthal one finds little progress. We haven't changed in the way we see our place in the universe. Sure, technology and science have changed the way we live our lives, but from an abstract perspective, not much has changed. Things will remain the same for millions of years to come absent some catastrophic event like a meteor strike or a nuclear holocaust. We won't change. The human race will have its ups and downs, but things will most likely stay the same. It’s the human condition.
Thing Fish @ 42:
I tend to think any pretense or justification for our ‘next step’ in Iran will have to be directly attributable to Iranian actions (at least semi-demonstrably). Instead of a terrorist nuclear attack, a TOR-M1 hitting the Nimitz broadside would be a better provocation. That would set the stage for military action.
I understand your cynicism though. There’s been a lot of talk about preparing for martial-law in the event of another domestic attack. But I could go down 20 different scenarios – each more frightening and less-likely with this. I think the Persian Gulf scenario more dangerous at this point.
This is insane!
"The Justice Department notified Chiquita Brands International yesterday that it will not seek to criminally charge its former top executive and other former high-ranking officers over the company's payment of bribes to a Colombian organization on the State Department's list of terrorist groups."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/11/AR200709...
That's American justice and the "War On Terror" for you. Believe what the Bush administration DOES not what they SAY. The so-called "War On Terror" is a phony racket designed to do nothing but make arms dealers and security contractors (and stockholders) rich while stifling political dissent. People with power and political connections are above the law and operate outside of any accountability or scrutiny by our government which is supposed to serve the public but that in reality serves the moneyed elite which are the true paymasters.
It reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a while ago. One of those yellow ribbon things with the caption "Support our troops! Freedom isn't free". This made me wonder then, if freedom isn't free (that is, the kind of freedom we've got right here in the USA today), then what does freedom cost and who is benefiting the most from it? I think that if you look at who has gotten filthy rich since 2003 on one hand; and then who has gotten killed, maimed, traumatized, jailed without being charged, spied on, wire taped, tortured, renditioned and then stuck with a trillion dollar bill for it all on the other; it makes perfect sense why they want to keep it all going on forever.
Oh and by the way, where is Osama bin Laden? "War On Terror" indeed....
Simon @ 44:
i completely agree with you and take it one step further. if our own country had only half the destruction of property and the local authorities were overwhelmed with just emergencies where life was at risk, the "good" people of this country would quickly devolve to a state of unlawfulness much as we have witnessed in the riots we witnessed in california. i have no faith in the citizens of this country to do the right thing, they are all too concerned with vanity and avarice.
Remember, folks:
This four-year act of unilateral military aggression isn't a "war." It has been, and always will be, an illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation that had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
Why won't more people point out this spectacularly obvious triuism? Why does this pernicious fiction that we're "at war" in Iraq continue to be peddled and sold and spun?
Such a deadly -- and wholly preventable -- charade.
Sad and despicable beyond words.
Yes, there are no words.. I read it last night, forwarded to my lists, and, couldn't sleep any more..
Probably only DRAFT could disturb the apathetic sheeple, and "ME"/ all about ME nation. Unfortunately, as much as C&L does tremendous job, we are preaching to the choir here. Greed, "ME', 'wannabe' and whine/'victims' rule - it seems not the same country any more. Even being aware seems to be rare. Few brave ones end up as these guys - so very sad. Draft contributed to the end of Vietnam adventure - so now we don't hear even a mouse squeeling about it. Where are the spineless dems on this ? I believe only Edwards adressed the issue.
Their Editiorial was very well written - which doesn't make much difference: they are gone, gen. Betray-us keeps spilling his lunacy and lies to the nation, in front of the cameras.
His special genius originated from getting married with the daughter of West Point superintendent, General William A. Knowlton. These overlords trust only the ones they screw, excluding the entire American nation.
Taarak @ 45:
Scenario 21: Iran nuclear test goes awry. Natanz destroyed when nuclear device goes off prematurely. Pentagon goes ahead with plans from last year to derail any further tests by taking out all other Iranian nuclear facilities.
A far fetched fantasy. But reason has been asleep for some time now in the U.S. Nothing would surprise me any more.
Night all... pleasant dreams.
Re: NYTimes: “Engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act,” the seven soldiers wrote of the war they had seen in Iraq".
Stories told under severe gag orders by our brave soldiers in the above Op Ed is the tip of the iceberg. Those who were in Kuwait years before our illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, know very well who set the policies of corruption and nepotism. Definitely not Sadam Hussein but our own crooked State Department that ran the entire pre-invasion game plans through our crooked US embassy in Kuwait. Richard Jones is a classic case of an Iraq contracting fraudster. While serving as Deputy to Paul Bremer's CPA, he steered a fueling contract to a Kuwaiti firm that subsequently bilked us, badly. And Condi, in her infinite wisdom, thought that made Jones the perfect candidate to serve as "special coordinator" for Iraq, even while State's IG and DOJ were still investigating his fraud. Richard Jones was the founding father of the "Corrupt Regime" that even till today continue to infest like maggots in every possible direction of so called "Iraq Reconstruction programs". Over 8 months ahead of our invasion into Iraq through Kuwait’s UNIKOM monitoring posts, the task of large army's accommodations, catering, military equipment storage, support, logistics etc., etc. was assigned by the crooked State Department directly to Ambassador Richard Jones at the corrupt US Embassy in Kuwait. Commercial Director Patricia Gonzales under the orders of Richard Jones, made sure to invite only Jone's personal friends to "Pre invasion contracting exploratory discussions". Among them Richard Jones's most favorite personal friend named Tariq Sultan (Sultan Super Markets of Kuwait etc) was exclusively given the contract of building one of the largest warehousing and logistic contract (without any bidding or offer to any American companies). Tariq Sultan and his family's extensive experience had been in warehousing their super market's products they import but absolutely no experience of a size and sophistication as the logistic and support for over 150,000 US troops and over 85,000 support personnel. Within matter of three months the largest warehouses sprouted out from the baked desert sands of Kuwait in Jahra city and its vicinities. Along with Sultan family of Kuwait Jones's other personal friends such as Abu Khamseen, the owners of the infamous Crown Plaza Hotel and the Al-Tanmia crooked oil deal network robbed the US tax payers blind. What sophisticated kick back scheme Tariq Sultan laid out for Ambassador Richard Jones and his cronies is another story. The crooked DOJ and the State Department should go after the king pins like Richard Jones, Patrician Gonzales, Sean Murphy, etc., instead of small time military colonels, majors, Generals, KBR contracting crooks, and others. As far as the atrocities committed by us upon the innocent Iraqis, only time will tell the truth once the criminalities of Neo Cons and their conned crooks are exposed after the demise of the criminal Bushites. Why no one in the US Press has yet exposed the illegal pumping of Iraqi oil through Basra oil fields pumped 24 hours a day though the 5 foot diameter pipeline running straight from Basra to Kuwait parallel to the Jahra Hiway connecting Basra and Kuwait? Because the smoke screen is need for this multi billion dollars a month siphoning of Iraqi oil. It is of course the American national security's "top secret" that no one is supposed to talk about specially the so called “American free press”. After all Richard Pearl, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of the thugs were right when they claimed that it would not cost the United States a penny to invade and destroy country under siege by us in last 13 years. Elements of average Iraqi's suffering is the direct result of our inhumane insensitivities evolved through our repeated brain washing that desensitized us about the value of life we put on overall Arabs life. According to the Neo Cons they shun this aspect of our inhumanity by saying "O fuck the Arabs they are like animals killing each other for centuries. They will appreciate what we are doing for them in a long run once we show them that the price of millions of Arabs to die was worth acquiring the Western democracy". How can we forget the infamous words of the former Secretary of State "Madlin not so bright" when she said that it's worth the price of letting a few million Iraqi babies die under an illegal embargo of medicine and baby food supplies to bring Sadam Hussein to his knees. Today if we realistically compare our atrocities and criminalities we have committed on a foreign land and foreign nation of Iraq, it makes Sadam Hussein look like an arch angel. It was his country; his people and his sovereign land not ours to commit the genocide we are engaged on. If our lap-dog press and media dares to conduct an independent poll in Iraq today about them choosing us VS Sadam Hussein's Bathist regime, we would look like pariahs according to so called "democracy" and its principals. All the PR and Fox-like faux media with shameless and unconscionable propaganda to manage the American minds through lies and self fabrication of twisting facts to suit their crooked so called "news" of so called "free press" by the so called "free society" through the so called "free speech" for the so called "free choices" in the so called "most democratic country" at a so called "most unbiased participation" by the so called "very balanced and advance society on earth"!!!!!
No matter how many self serving Act passed by the criminal legislative US Congress and Senate, time will catch up with us and one day we will face the trials of "Nuremberg" of the kind that would suit our demonic and catastrophic upheavals we have rendered upon others under false flags and self serving hollow slogans as "democracy" "freedom" "equality" "human justice" "equal rights" "tolerance" and rest of the nonsense through our viciousness and unending predatory greed for more and more power at any cost though demonizing others to justify the crimes we commit.
Iraqi children, women and men suffer thousands times more than they ever suffered under Sadam Hussein. And here are the shameless American icons claming through their ivory towers that we have brought civilization to the Middle East. They continuously and tirelessly claim to rid the world from the "evils of slavery" "evils of intolerance" when they themselves are the prophets of such crimes.
Once the dust settles clarity shall expose the canyons in the landscape that was once so serene and without the unjustifiable eruptions of the kind we are responsible for despite our self serving hollow talks and slogans. That would be the time the masses who are being fooled today would take up arms and chase the criminals who are responsible for these crimes. We as Americans are equally suffering from their greedy and selfish twisted so called "vision of tomorrow".
God help us all in next 7 years and the proceeding years thereafter!
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
Rough. They deserved better.
It's a tragedy when any soldier dies.
It's specifically tragic to me that these soldiers who demonstrated several kinds of courage have died. The courage to sign up to serve and the courage to speak the truth about a war that is so popular with the powerful and so unpopular with the rest of us.
Why is it that those who speak truth to power, those who seek change---Kennedy, Wellstone, Dr. King, and these soldiers are always the ones to die early?
You can be Rush Limabaugh and Ann Coulter will live to ripe old ages and bless them anyway.
It's just interesting to note.
Oh yes, there are words. I just can't write them here, or this post will be deleted.
How ironic that these men were in a WAR ZONE, survived, and then were murdered because they wrote a newspaper article.
I am an atheist, but so wish I could believe that there was a heaven and hell, so these murdering Republicans could go where they deserved to be.
CappuccettoRossso says:
"Probably only DRAFT could disturb the apathetic sheeple, and “ME”/ all about ME nation. Unfortunately, as much as C&L does tremendous job, we are preaching to the choir here. Greed, “ME’, ‘wannabe’ and whine/’victims’ rule - it seems not the same country any more."
AMEN! I don't know how old you are. I am 54 and it most certainly is not the same country as when I was 21. What happened? Was it gradual? Did it happen when I was busy raising children and working full-time? Why didn't it happen to some of us?
Or, as you suggest, was it always this way, and the only reason Americans didn't act this way earlier was because of the draft?
That just pisses me off! More of our men die for what?!
I second that. Only a draft will mobilize the American public out of this silent stupor.
if we stick to patreaus' plan there will be no choice but for a draft.
god forbid, what happens to the homeland if the is another terror attack? the national guard will be overseas, the equipment we need -overseas, the funds- overseas. our president, on his 600th day of vacation. so angry that we will not leave my kids a better america like my parents did for me.
This stinks! First, we have Tillman, whose mother can't get a staight answer from the Junta. This Junta kills people who disagree! I'm from Minnesota. The Wellstones were assinated, pure, plain, and simple. So was Cochran from Missouri. These were the personal work of King Geo. who can't be offended.
Dear Congress,
Grow some f'n balls and end this nightmare. If it were their families and kids over there, this would have been done a long time ago. The whole damn government is letting this happen to strut their big egos and small penises (yes you too Pelosi)
I swear, with all these morons in power, tomorrow is not promised. The whole place needs to be cleaned out. One way or the other.
BaScOmBe @ 27:
I didn't vote for Rudy, Bloomberg or Pataki. Any time. Those idiots are helping to push the working classes out and the rich people in. Look what their doing to Harlem! I love New York, but I may be forced to move to PA or elsewhere. As long as it isn't a red-state.
Sorry everyone, but I just had to share this with you all:
This is a copy and paste of a post by my favorite neo-con at Japantoday.com on a thread about bush's proposed troop withdrawl:
We're going to make troop cuts
Sarge (Sep 13 2007 - 18:08) Rate | Report
when conditions on the ground permit or when the Iraqis tell us we're not wanted anymore. Right now, only 43% of Iraqis are telling us that. That means only 43% are ungrateful wretches. Being as how these people suffered for so long under Saddam, who was ousted by the illegal invasion, that's understandable.
Neo-con logic: Sure it's sending the whole world to hell in a hand-basket but at least it's still good for an occassional laugh.
Daily Reading pt 1...
A Poor Choice for replacement Attorney General: Ted Olson Helped Bush Steal the Presidency and Was an Architect of the "Arkansas Project" to Impeach Clinton. Of Course, For Bush, That Kind of Illegality and Anti-Democracy Activity Qualifies Him to be AG.
- http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/letters/all-abramowicz.6037595sep13,0,...
Gee....did anyone really believe he'd pick someone qualified??? Oh and this moron is a Federalist Society member....
Is the Dem Leadership Finally Realizing That They Shouldn't Confirm Partisan Hit Men? Maybe. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said today: “Ted Olson will not be confirmed.” “He’s a partisan, and the last thing we need as an attorney general is a partisan.”
- http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/12/reid-announces-opposition-to-olson-f...
Threatened species Red List shows escalating 'global extinction crisis' - http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/12/internationalnews.gree...
"We urgently need to reverse this trend and start living within the planet's natural resources - not just for the wellbeing of these threatened species but also for our own."
Its not alarmism....its called reality and if you don't do something about it...you're condemning the future of this world
CREW: Why is 'No Child Left Behind' enriching Neil Bush? Federal money is being funneled to a company with no proven track record of effectiveness, but that happens to be run by the president’s brother.
- http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/30104
NCLB needs to be destroyed, not 'fixed'...just completely destroyed....get back to learning, options (work programs, tech programs)....and stop making kids test taking automatons with no practical applications to anything in the real world
Its just another money making scheme (destroy publicly funded education) screwing the American people brought to you by the Bush Crime Family
Sean Hannity is the BuzzFlash Media Putz of the Week: Sean could be a beloved Republican son-in-law, except that the guy is an unctuous con artist who gives the appearance of reason while using his "smoothness" to disguise his artful demagoguery. Hannity might be impressive if he ever had the guts to put himself on the front line, instead of virulently attacking true patriots who want to get our GIs out of Harm's Way.
- http://mediaputz.com/07/09/putz0913.html
Daily Reading pt 2...
Does Admiral Fallon Think MoveOn's "Betray Us" Ad Was Too Weak? - http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/12/202647/128
If George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden were engaged in a boxing match, the al Qaeda leader would have long ago been declared the winner by technical knockout (TKO).
- http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/more.php?page=opinion&id=1671
Petraeus, Bush & the 'Central Front' Myth - http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/091207.html
Fooled you: Schwarzenegger vetoes non-binding out-of-Iraq vote for Californians. Looks like party politics as usual, for the guy who claims to favor a withdrawal timetable. - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iWS13BzLilkHmimi7kuy8B_giSzA
It's corporations vs. the whales in the North Atlantic. Canada moves towards helping the whales. Can you guess what the US stand is? - http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=919
Every single money grubbing a$$hole out there....bend over, I'll show you where you can shove your money
Judge Backs Vermont's Auto-Emissions Rules - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14359093&ft=1&f=1003
Al Gore isn't volunteering to jump into the presidential race, so some Massachusetts Democrats want to draft him. - http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2007/09/bay_state_democ.html
Even More Signs of an Impending Cheney/Bush Nuke Air Attack on Iran - http://www.attytood.com/2007/09/gloating_1.html
Mark my words...whether through attrition or people just plain WTFU....this event will destroy this country & the Republican party...
James L. Horton of the Robert Marston & Associates PR firm is worried about Wikileaks, a new website that provides a means for people to share information about unethical behavior by governments and corporations. - http://www.prwatch.org/node/6419
Daily Reading pt 3...
Obama's Iraq plan says we start leaving now and continue to leave at a steady pace. He also addresses the refugee problem. (Full speech is at Obama's own website: 'Removing our troops is part of applying real pressure on Iraq's leaders to end their civil war.')
- http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/12/358319.aspx
Virginia Senate Seat to Flip Democratic? Democratic Warner Could Replace Republican Warner. - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/12/AR200709...
There Goes the REAL Mission for the Busheviks in Iraq: "Compromise on Oil Law in Iraq Seems to Be Collapsing" - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/world/middleeast/13baghdad.html?ex=134...
Uh...oh....Big Oil get mad....tell their boys in WH to bomb Iran....if we can't control Iraqi Oil...we can send our stocks through the roof by destroying the world Oil supply...
Strong Evidence Emerges That 'Osama bin Laden' in New 9/11 Video Is an Impostor - http://www.skeeterbitesreport.com/
Even al-Jazeera Has Doubts About the New Footage Ex-Army Linguist: New bin Laden Video 'Is a Forgery'
Tragic. As mentioned upthread, this op-ed piece came out about the time of Pollack and O'Hanlons hackery. Of course MSM blared and ran with their bullshit for days, while "The war as we see it" languished. I hope the sacrifice of the above soldiers will at least bring this article to more citizens, because to read it is to be innoculated to bushit.
A comment on how bad MSM is at their job; the Houston Chronicle in its front page obit of Mora, never even mentioned his authorship of the above article.
Shell5960w @ 54:
I believe everyone who has done evil in the world by willfully hurting others will experience, in the twilight between death and the afterlife, all the pain they have visited upon those persons as if they were the victims themselves. This is the hell that awaits them. Imagine how long, how excrutiating the process will be, considering how many lives have been destroyed by these murderous, unrepentant people, and the nature of their crimes.
Help The Blues Free The Innocent!
Please check my website for more details about the DNA Blues Ball I am producing in Dallas on Nov 24th. Dallas County (Texas) leads the nation in post conviction exonerations. So far 37 tests have resulted in 14 convictions being overturned. For decades the Repugs have controlled the D.A. office. Until now. Last January Dallas citizens voted in the FIRST African American D.A. in Texas history, Craig Watkins, and he's a Dem! He took office in January with a pledge to work with the InnocenceProjectOfTexas.org to find other cases worthy of review, and as of now they have earmarked another 200. The atty's working on these appeals do so pro bono, because all of the inmates are indigent--and the state only wants to spend money to prosecute, not free the innocent. Talk about a perfect opportunity for Obama to get some good ink for a good deed. Btw, the BBC is currently in town all year working on a full length documentary on some of the college interns working with IPOT, and I got word yesterday that 60 Minutes will be there at the Blues Ball filming too. I just would like to get the word out to those who might want to contribute money (yes, they are a legit non-profit) to IPOT so we can get these tests done.
I don't think I will be able to watch the Decider/Commander/Moron speechifying tonight.
I HOPE there's a HUGE turnout for Saturday's rally in DC.
...and still they enlist! Madness.....
Was Murphy shot in the front or the back of the head in order to be counted as a casualty of war to Rethugs.
From Rawstory 'Editor & Publisher article':
Hit and Myth: Poll Shows 1 in 3 Americans Still Believe Saddam Involved in 9/11
That's to be expected, we all know about those 28%ers' lack of intelligence.
But the breakdown of that third shocked me a bit:
"Four in 10 Republicans still hold this view, compared with 32% of Independents and 27% of Democrats."
Does this mean that 27% of Dems are ignorant/retarded, or, more charitably, duped?
Turning Up The Heat On Bush
BaScOmBe @ 28:
same goes for me Roland.....wishing you and yours all the best of luck............is sit me or is there more of us with family and friends serving overthere........more and more people are saying they have family and friends either in or going too Iraq......
Here's some more progress for the asshats in DC:
Key Sunni ally of U.S. assassinated.
mudshark @ 71:
Then, dammit!!!! Why the hell is that!?!?!? Please, forgive me.... I can only pray to every deity past, present, and future that your loved one(s) will survive and return home safely but I have to ask...... how the hell can we NOT influence these youngsters who insist on enlisting and serving to resist and in that way end the idiocy that is Iraq and the Bush Regime!? WTF is going on!? Is there no way whatsoever that you could've convinced your 19-year-old nephew of the farce that is this senseless war? Seriously..... and again, please do forgive my outburst. I absolutely forbid my son to even remotely consider enlisting on pain of death!!!! I'd rather do it then let the White House Whores take my son from me!
More wasted lives in a war based on lies.
IMPEACH the fucking war criminals now !!!!!
Anyone see this Consumerist profile on the Worst Credit Card in the World? After all the fees, you get a credit limit of $53. What's the use? MasterCard shouldn't get away with this. Help us fight unfair credit card fees.
Is this what happens to soldiers who tell the truth about what's really going on in Iraq? This is not a coincidence.
There is something wrong here. Who is killing these men? As above: "this is not a coincidence."
After having read the OpED on the NYT we have indeed lost a couple of your best.
Allow me to examine the numbers involved here for a moment.
Lets say 165,000 troops. 60 deaths a month.
That division reveals the odds of any individual being killed
at about 300 to 1.
165,000 / 60 = .00036 X 100 = .036%.
A third co-writer was seriously wounded prior the the vehicle accident.
Had enough yet.
fragged?
cnn NOR THE OTHER infotainers have reported that Israel invaded Syria's Airspace, regulating it to a head line, not taking the story very seriously, spending more time on panda Bears.
With the middle east on the brink of WWIII, for cnn to cover up and later spin for Israel's aggression is appalling, but predictable, for they virtually never report the daily killing of Palestinians in Gaza, when 2 little girls were SHOT by the IDF, NOTHING was said on CNN .
When Israel invades Syria's airspace and shots were fired , you can count on CNN to protect Israel.
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