Clueless, Clueless, Clueless

In Washington DC, it's 3am everyday, and I worry because the chimp-in-charge is as clueless as a game of Password between two blind and deaf mutes. I imagine he sits around watching old war movies because he says stupid things like he would like the "romance" of fighting on the frontline in Afghanistan. I don't believe the war in Afghanistan is as cut and dried as a WWII movie with "us" (the good guys) vs. "Them" (the indigenous people fighting off a hostile occupation force)facing off across an empty field. But that's how Bush sees it. He wishes he were young enough to fight there, but when he was young enough, he opted to party down in the Texas Air Guard, rather than enjoy the "romance" of fighting at Khe San.
And with the economy quickly sliding towards a depression, Bush is urging us to go shopping and spend, spend, spend. Just like he did right after 9/11, so you know that we're in some deep shit now. That's what the rich people do to take their minds off their troubles, shop, shop, shop.Of course, with rising oil prices driving up the price of everything, most people don't have extra cash to buy, buy, buy, and those who refinanced their homes to pay off credit card debt have lost money because the value of their home dropped with the falling housing market. Nobody wants to extend themselves because their job could be gone tomorrow, and then, with the new bankruptcy laws passed by the Republicans, they'd be stuck with a debt they couldn't get out from under forever.
Then the State Department releases a report criticizing the Russian Federation for human rights abuses. Hell? Our Congress just voted to make waterboarding okay, and we're complaining about human rights abuses there? How about a government that spies on it's citizens? The report goes on:

Security forces reportedly engaged in killings, torture, abuse, violence, and other brutal or humiliating treatment, often with impunity. Hazing in the armed forces resulted in severe injuries and deaths. Prison conditions were harsh and frequently life threatening; law enforcement was often corrupt; and the executive branch allegedly exerted influence over judicial decisions in some high‑profile cases.

Government pressure continued to weaken freedom of expression and media independence, particularly of the major television networks.he government restricted media freedom through direct ownership of media outlets, influencing the owners of major outlets, and harassing and intimidating journalists into practicing self-censorship. Local governments tried to limit freedom of assembly, and police sometimes used violence to prevent groups from engaging in peaceful protest. The government used the law on extremism to limit freedom of expression and association. Government restrictions on religious groups were a problem in some regions. There were incidents of discrimination, harassment, and violence against religious and ethnic minorities.

Maybe you should work to fix these problems at home before you start pointing the finger at other people. Double standards are for hypocrites, and you'd be their King.

Refund On Intelligence

Bubble Boy's bubble must have finally burst.
Following his trip to the Middle East to promote peace by trying to gain support for war, the president has returned home to finally focus on America, only to find that his economic policies here are immense failures, too. All those tax cuts for the rich, coupled with deficit spending on the war, and rising oil prices because of the war, have pushed this country to the brink of a recession. Ooops.
So Bush and Congress have a plan. Neither he, nor Congress believe the NIE on Iran, and since we spent $43.5 billion last year on the NIP, they have decided to give the taxpayers a refund on the money they spent on intelligence operations.
"Here, take this $300 and buy yourself something while we go start another war."

I Was Elected To Lead, Not To Read

This is what a leader does! When faced with insurmountable evidence to the contrary, he makes his own decision anyway! Since he's been spending the last year of his term on his 'legacy', it seems that President Bush has decided that it will be as the most war mongering president in history!
Bush, speaking about spreading democracy in front of the most undemocratic country in the Middle East, found his fresh fervor for force following his recent visit to Israel (which only goes to prove the validity of Mearsheimer Walt as to who really controls US foreign policy). But Bush is not planning a war, per se, just nuclear strikes against Iran.Like he suggested the US should have bombed Auschwitz, without thinking of all the innocent people who would have died, Bush is ignorant to all those US troops downwind of the fallout in Iraq (not to mention in striking range of the Iranian military, should they decide to retaliate). This is madness, and it's time the Democrats in Congress stepped up and impeached him.
A war, or nuclear strike if you will, will have a negative impact not only on the people of Iran, but on the rest of the world as well. Iran has threatened to seal of the Straits of Hormuz, thereby effectively sealing off the world from a major oil supplier, which in turn would drive up oil prices further. And if you think the economy's doing bad now, just wait until oil prices go through the roof.
This only goes to illustrate how important this election year is. Not only do we have to pick a leader who will put the real concerns of Americans first, second and third, but we also need to vote for representatives who will represent us, and not kowtow to defense contractors or other special interest lobbying groups that don't have the United States best interests at heart.

Neocons:Truthseekers, or Raving Paranoiacs?

By now you've all read how the NIE proves Iran suspended it's nuclear weapons program in 2003. Still that hasn't deterred the neocons who feel Iran is still a danger, in spite of the report. Even presidential hopeful Rudy Ghouliani hasn't stopped banging the war drums.
How bad do they want this war? Well, leading neocon "godfather" claims the intelligence community is trying to sabotage Bush with the NIE. John Bolton, the bastion of sanity, has called for a Congressional investigation in to anti-Bush people in the intelligence community.
Hey! I got an idea! How about instead of spending time and money trying to start a war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, we track down the one person we know had something to do with it. I mean, if Morgan Spurlock can find Osama Bin Laden, there's no reason the US government can't find him either. Unless they don't want to find him.

Neocons Overstate The Obvious

Neocon war hawk and former defense policy board member under Donald Rumsfeld Richard "Prince of Darkness" Perle admitted Wednesday that the invasion of Iraq was an illegal act under international law. He also said he had the worse comb over and was really bald. Perle, who had to step down from his position on the advisory board because of questionable business ties still thinks the war was the right thing to do, just against the law, that's all.
Law means nothing to the neocons, neither international, nor the rights of citizens anywhere on the planet, with the US declaring it has the right to kidnap British citizens wanted in the US, not only for "extraordinary rendition", but in other cases as well.
Another PNAC member, Paul Wolfowitz, has been
offered a top position at the State Department apparently unable to hold a real job in the private sector since having had to step down from his spot at the World Bank for giving his girlfriend a raise, and not the kind in his trousers. Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the war on Iraq (and we all know how well that turned out) will be advising Secretary of State Rice on matters concerning WMD (because he knows so much about where they aren't).
Isn't it refreshing to know that instead of seeking new ideas, the current administration is looking for the same old stale ones?

Random Rantings

Last week, on Face The Nation, independent (yeah, right) Senator Joe Lieberman advocated the bombing of Iran. While not in line with the way many people feel about excelerating the MidEast conflict (most of them want it ended, hence the Democraps control of Congress in 2006), it is in line with the neocons and the Israeli government, who have been looking for an excuse to drop nuclear weapons on Iran for as long as two years ago. As Charley Reese put it:

Iran has no intercontinental missiles, and the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons is Israel. Please note that the United States flatly refuses to endorse the idea of a nuclear-free Middle East. Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has refused to sign it. Iran admits international inspectors. Israel flatly refuses to allow international inspectors. The only country in today's Middle East with weapons of mass destruction and a history of invading and occupying other people's countries is Israel.

As for Iran's alleged threat to "wipe Israel off the map," that is propaganda based on a mistranslation. Nobody in Iran has ever threatened to attack Israel militarily. The accurate quotes from Iranians have been simply that Israel as a Zionist state will eventually collapse, just as the Soviet Union as a communist state did. Iranian officials have even explicitly said they have no desire or intention of attacking Israel.

The Bush Doctrine Applied To Other Countries
Now suppose Iran, who has been threatened by not only the US, but Israel as well, decided to pre emptively strike first? Wouldn't that be okay? By the Bush regime's specious reasoning, the attacks on 9/11 were perfectly justified because the US had threatened the Taleban first with a carpet of bombs, after they rejected our carpet of gold to build a pipeline through their country.
Send Your Kids To Die, Leave Mine Alone
Mitt Romney has stated he wants to increase the size of the military. But like Joe Lieberman, Rudy Ghouliani, or any other war pimps running for the presidency (which includes everyone, with the exception of Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and Mike Gravel), none of them have any family members in the military.
That's why there's the big push to pass the immigration "reform" bill, not only will it lower wages by flooding the labor pool, but:

a provision in the stalled immigration bill that would have allowed some undocumented aliens to join the military

What right-thinking white person wouldn't endorse a war where we send all them brown-skinned people from over here to fight all them brown-skinned people over there? When this bill passes, it won't matter that the Army missed it's recruitment goals, because there'll be plenty of people to send off to kill and die for big oil and the military-industrial complex. Especially when the war engulfes the whole MidEast because some idiots decided we needed to bomb Iran.

Yep, He's That Crazy

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei in an interview Friday said "I have no brief other than to make sure we don't go into another war or that we go crazy into killing each other. You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say 'let's go and bomb Iran'." I'm sure Mr. ElBaradei wasn't aware that during the first Bush's tenure, the neocons in his administration were referred to as "the crazies", but I'm sure he's aware that there only two countries who think a military solution is the only way to solve the problem with Iran:the US and Israel.
While Dick Cheney prefers an "end run strategy" around the president if he doesn't get his war on, Secretary of State Condi Rice says The US is not preparing for a war with Iran (we just have half of our naval fleet floating around the Persian Gulf as part of their summer vacation plans) and that Vice President Dick Cheney is in step with that policy. Never mind that chief neocon Norman Podhoretz called for the bombing of Iran now, we're supposed to trust these people's blood lust, and their never ending quest for control over the Middle east's oil reserve, at the genocide of all indigeonous people who just happen to live above it.
In the meantime Bush has called for the release of three Iranian Americans detained in Iran (while still holding five Iranian diplomats "captured" in Iraq.) Of course, when you leak that you are sending covert operatives into Iran, you can't be too surprised at the outcome.
The US is struggling in Iraq, and still hasn't finished up in Afghanistan. Only a crazy person would think that another "pre-emptive" war would be more successful than the other two. Unfortunately, Cheney is as sound as a dollar.

The Very Definition Of Insanity

Some people never learn. After years of covert US operations around the globe, the Bush administration authorized new covert operations against Iran. Maybe this time things won't get totally fucked-up, but given Bush's track record, if I was a wet dream, I'd be pretty fucking scared right now. No wonder so many people want to get rid of Bush.
The thing is, the IAEA has still to find all the things the corporate media has claimed Iran is guilty of. But that won't stop the US from starting another war. I guess they can always call in the UN after they totally botch that war, too

Audioslave-Doesn't Remind Me

Isn't Iran A Sovereign Nation?

Continuing on the Bush administration policy of hypocrisy, the weapons used in an attack in Iran came from the US. Wasn't it last week that the Bush administration laid claims that weapons seized in Iraq came from Teheran? They then backed off the statement and said they were coming from Iran, but not the government. (You remember, these weapons)Meanwhile, US patrol ships are on alert in the Gulf, as the rhetoric escalates like US carrier groups there.
Then over in Afghanistan, al Qaida releases a video of it's attacks on US forces there. The "terrorist" organization is hiding out in Pakistan, which brings to mind Bush's oft-repeated statement:

"[w]e have made it clear to all nations that if you harbor terrorists, you are just as guilty as the terrorists, you are an enemy of the United States, and you will be held to account."

So shouldn't we threatening Pakistan? Well, according to Porter Goss:

when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play."

In other words, we can't go into Pakistan because it's a sovereign state, even though it's harboring terrorists. But Iraq and Iran are sovereign nations, too, yet we didn't hesitate to invade them when they didn't harbor terrorists, and Iran even offered to help us with the Taleban in Afghanistan.
The "war on terror" began as we sought those responsible for the terrible attacks of 9/11. 9/11 was also used as a pretext for our invasion of Iraq, even though later, Bush admitted that there was no link.Now Bush isn't even bothering to link Iran to 9/11, instead relying on the resolution passed in 2002 granting him power to invade Iraq, which he acquired under false pretenses, (i.e., by lying). So while the politicians waste time arguing on whether to pass non-binding resolutions on Iraq, instead of investigating and impeaching those who manipulated intelligence to get their oppurtunity to wage an illegal war against a sovereign nation, the Bush cabal is planning to start another war, the third of his presidency. I guess George didn't have to clean his plate before he got dessert when he was a child.

Damn The Damning Evidence

Here's the US's "evidence" that Iran is providing EFPs to the insurgency, offered up by three unindentified US officials (which is already a tell, if they had real evidence, they'd use their top guns to promote it). Already, I can see two problems with it that lead me to believe this is beingused as part of the case for an Iranian invasion by the US. And really, that believe the bulk of television watching morons to be too stupid to figure this out, but here goes.
1.)The lettering is in English. In Iran they read and write Farsi. Why would a country manufacturing weapons use a different language other than their own on them? We don't use Arabic on our weapons, because probably 99% of American read English, if they can read at all.
2.)The date of manufacture on this bomb, as indicated by the 3-2006, is absolutely wrong. Sure, for us it's 2007, however, for the Islamic calendar, it's 1428. So nnaturally, weapons manufacturers in Iran would use the infidels calendar as opposed to their own.
Of course, Iran denies any of this evidence, so the question becomes one of who do believe? The people of Iran, who are tring to prevent their country from being nuked by a crazed madman and his disassociatative frontman, or the people who were caught lying to us about our reasons to go to war with Iraq? What was the original idiom Bush mangled oh so many years ago? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, I won't get fooled again.

Wake Up America, We're Getting Our War On Again

Who'd-a thunk it? With two American battleship groups floating around the Persian Gulf, and American stealth bombers ready in Bulgaria, Iran decides to attack US soldiers in Karbala. Yes, investigators believe the five attackers may have been trained by Iran, even though they drove American vehicles, used American weapons, had American-style uniforms and American IDs and spoke like Americans. Because there's nothing Iran wants to do more than engage the world's only superpower, who is just spoiling for a fight with them. Ahmadinejad maybe crazy, but he's certainly no fool, and wouldn't do anything to provoke a country led by a cowboy with an itchy trigger finger. It's not like the Iraqis would have anything to do with this, would they?
In the meantime, the US is warning Europeans not to invest in Iran's oil, which means that after we attack, all previous deals will be nullified, kind of like we did when we took over Iraq, leaving US oil companies like ExxonMobil to post record profits.Maybe it because some of Europe doesn't see a nuclear Iran as a dire situation.
The US has announced it wil use fighter jets to patrol the Iraq-Iran border, to deter Iranian assistance to Iraqi militants, while the US has delayed it's report on Iran's role in Iraq, because manufacturing evidence tales time, dammit, if you don't want to be exposed as a fraud. After what happened last time, they have to be a leetle bit more careful.

Didn't Any Of These People Read 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'?

The Bush administration has a problem. Looking to start a war with Iran people still remember the lies they told about Iraq. Like the mangled maxim he muttered many years ago, "Fool me twice...can't get fooled again".
Already the dialogue has started to shift towards another end. Because they have been exposed, in part by Scooter Libby's trial, as manipulating intelligence on Iraq to give the appearance of a weapons program in Iraq that didn't exist, the whole "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons" crap has been been put on the back burner, and now has shifted to a "nuclear Iran",(mostly because Iran hasn't been found to be doing anything except building a nuclear power plant). Now, our failure in Iraq has been shifted from "terrorists and insurgents", to a Iranian backed insurgency. Yes, we are not fighting an occupation resistance, we are faced with an Iranian backed Sunni insurgency (which is strange, since most of Iran is Shi'ite).
So, for those of you who wish to see what Iran looks like before we nuke it back to the stone age, take a look here. Some people get what the troops surge in Iraq is all about, while others believe that it's all about winning. Or victory. Or not failing.
Thousands of people gathered yesterday to protest the war. Conspicuously absent were any Democratic presidential aspirants save Dennis Kucinich. John Edwards has stated:

"At the top of these threats is Iran. Iran threatens the security of Israel and the entire world. Let me be clear: Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons."

Which if it doesn't explicitly state he supports a military option against Iran, it certainly is implicit. Hillary Clinton, busy campaigning in Iowa has said in the past:

"A nuclear Iran is a danger to Israel, to its neighbors and beyond. The regime's pro-terrorist, anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric only underscores the urgency of the threat it poses. U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal. We cannot and should not – must not – permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons. In order to prevent that from occurring, we must have more support vigorously and publicly expressed by China and Russia, and we must move as quickly as feasible for sanctions in the United Nations. And we cannot take any option off the table in sending a clear message to the current leadership of Iran – that they will not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons."

She also said that when she voted for the war in Iraq "I acted on the best judgment I had at the time." What if her judgement on Iran is wrong, too?