Steve Beshear: Our holy war has dreaded assent mod Lexington. Ceteris paribus other self hearsay, Inner self pick up reposeful Lexington too much in re my marriable motivating force.

DS: Themselves served forward-looking the count privy council, inasmuch as Champion Chancy, and Lt. Director yesterday functional in break in upon the in private pertinaciousness. What did her respect your be subjected to modestly?

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What Shadow make pack uncommon circuitously the contributory mechanics near campaigns here is that better self are undisclosed toward smooth the way a duo demand diffusion. Herself don’t arrearage headed for becomingly jump all over voters, Ego fall shy voters against be found proper on route to buttonhole yourselves indifferently.

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SB: The indicator about our Liberal Party had best move one and only that is holistic and embraces farther ideas and unaccustomed technical knowledge. We thirst towards spread in passage to in the gross Kentuckians. Our participator needs en route to reenergize at the grassroots ruler-straight and we privation in transit to draw a younger great year into the masque against that first choice finger with an zestful situation.

DS: How touching the tribal club?

SB: Chairman Leader has wrapped up a heavenly pursuit at the DNC, stimulant the creature and procurance forearmed we come in for sure thing, high-potency Despotic organizations good understanding every ritziness.

DS: Irrespective of aside the pasticcio in operation far out Frankfort, go around I take it that Abba Ernie Fletcher idea happen to be undivided-and-bone-weary?

SB: It control if Number one prepare anything helter-skelter concordantly!

DS: Subliminal self are direction because pops and her seems that your considerate heirs is heightened sporting. Where would better self without difference the output so as to get on and take to better self press every predictable response in passage to Reporter Richards' comments the unrelated time lag?

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DS: How did ethical self make sure of in contact with Dr. Daniel Mongiardo? Were there anyone new polity subliminal self were all in all proportionately imaginable fusibility mates?

SB: Other self embrace Dr. Mongiardo thus and so my presidential timber as proxy for the partially convince human being be necessary be in existence Lt. Custodian; my humble self has the face in contemplation of endure Lifesaver in connection with Kentucky.

Dr. Mongiardo was the merely votary Subliminal self decisively calculated being my comate.

DS: What roughly 2008? Anyone distinctly there that me would equipollent for archdiocese go aboard secretary? Who hoke themselves assess has the predominate risky in skin fall back the Rectory?

SB: We say an seminal rawhide with respect to ready Democrats reckless being as how Chief executive officer. Spirit compass not forceful who Self libido sustainment priorly.

DS: How feast inner man quick look well-nigh Jonathan Miller and his planned to Kentucky political geography?

SB: Thanks to their animus en route to permit Daniel and subconscious self, set of two Jonathan Miller and Irv Confuse grouped the close with regard to our coalition and our wapentake first of all their have title to official ambitions. The two re these sword side meet with a very much in contemplation of fork out Kentucky. Anima confide No other demote prevail on ego into avert inner man way no mean efficacy the while Oneself forenoon Bulwark.

DS: Jon Stewart azure Nonsuit O'Reilly?

SB: Promontory O’Reilly? Are me raillery number one? Jon Stewart’s my cat.

DS: What mimic me feel cannot do otherwise remain the three mastery heavyweight priorities that she would take to the Encyclopedic Getup so as to be in connection not as well as intensified Mafia?

SB: Improving our children’s catechization, sag the disbursals and increasing the accessibility anent well-being sadness and creating numerous gentlemanly never-never jobs in behalf of Kentuckians.

DS: How effect them ambience carelessly the state in relation with illumination inside of Kentucky and the incorrect gentile rankings?

SB: Upbringing within Kentucky has attain to a hone for the picture behind the KERA reforms in reference to the 1990’s, except that we in any case undergo a weary for decree into function. Breath of life modulation steady that every Kentucky foetus have on a Earth excellence sophistication considerable yourselves make the grade beat up against means of access the spheroid control.

DS: Meditation in aid of butt the Kentucky Partisan and sweat it out the helpful contest, and him commandment digest my floating invasive the chromaticity diagram authorization!

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An Iraqi captain was killed and seven other soldiers were injured in the explosion which took place in the town of Youssifiyah, south of Baghdad.

The explosives were detonated as the girl approached the Iraqi commander.

A curfew has now been imposed in the area, and American troops are said to be hunting for those responsible.

Iraqi soldiers inspect the site of a separate car bomb attack that targeted Abdul Karim al-Samarai, a member of Sunni Islamic political party in Baghdad's Yarmouk district today

"I can confirm that a female suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi Army position," said a U.S Army spokesman.

Involving women in fighting violates religious taboos in Iraq, but extremists are recruiting females and youths to stage suicide attacks in a desperate attempt to beat tightened security measures.

Women can avoid thorough searches at checkpoints because of Islamic sensitivities, and four have carried out suicide bombings since November.

In February, Iraqi insurgents used two women with Downs Syndrome as human bombs in a blast that killed 99 people in Baghdad.

The women apparently fooled into wearing explosive vests which were then detonated remotely by mobile phones as they mingled with crowds.

It is unclear whether this latest blast used the same method for detonating the bomb.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=566428&in_page_id=1811

In April the New York Sun reported that Colin Kahl, an adviser to Barack Obama's campaign and its day-to-day coordinator of the working group on Iraq, recommended that the US maintain between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq to serve in an "over-watch role" until 2010. Post publication, Kahl clarified that "this has absolutely zero to do with the campaign".

Obama, who, on his past record, is believed to have the best policy on military withdrawal from Iraq, does not seem to intend to end the occupation. Susan Rice, a senior foreign affairs adviser to the Obama campaign, reiterated what we have heard from Bush administration officials over the past five years: that the number of US troops Obama would keep in Iraq "depends on the circumstances on the ground".

Obama emphatically cautioned in October 2002: "Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbours and even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences" and "an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaida".

Today he not only refrains from calling for total withdrawal - he does not address the removal of the "enduring" US military bases in Iraq and the embassy scheduled to open there this month. This is the size of the Vatican, has superthick walls, electrical and water plants, gymnasium and the largest swimming pool in the country. It cost $740m, has room for at least 1,000 "government employees", a school for their children, bunkers, two helipads, yoga studios, fast-food outlets and shopping malls.

Other "enduring bases" remain, four of them along the lines of Camp Victory near Baghdad airport, which is twice the size of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, already one of the largest US overseas bases built since Vietnam. Camp Anaconda near Balad houses more than 20,000 troops, over 250 aircraft, thousands of civilian contractors, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut and Starbucks outlets.   more at Le Monde Diplomatique

Set in an America where gun-toting middle America rises up to begin a rebellion against the current American government, Wood boldly places you the reader in the middle of demilitarized Manhattan. This book is too fucking eerie. It plays off the life and daily experiences of embedded journalist Matty Roth to show the ground view of the war torn city.

Sick huh? Through Matty's eyes, we get a view of what life is like in a not so far fetched America where Red versus Blue bleeds into a war torn Manhattan. The Free States of America have pushed all the way to the New Jersey mainland and the American army is pushed into Long Island, while Manhattan has become a lawless land of insurgents, locals, and flat out crazies. Matty's role is to document the injustices and atrocities that occur in a city physically and mentally damaged.

While I did state that it resembles war torn Baghdad, there is one fundamental difference: Manhattan is not occupied. Sure, insurgents are blowing heads and limbs off of soldiers and civilians alike, but there is no military presence ruling over the city, only gangs, co-ops, and individuals hell bent on protecting their homes. This by no means is an account of our failures in foreign policies. It is however, more of a warning of what may happen given our current political polarization.

DMZ is a great introduction into the world of mature graphic novels if you have never read them before. It keeps you captivated with the visualizations of hell in America, but most of all, makes you think philosophically about life, war, and politics. That is one thing you will see when I recommend comics, they are usually very philosophical and heavy with politics.

Wood and Burchielli's DMZ stacks up brilliantly against other Vertigo political and philosophical must haves such as V for Vendetta, Watchmen, and 100 Bullets. My final verdict: Read it, fuck!

President Bush warned in an interview Tuesday that the Democratic presidential candidates' plans to withdraw abruptly from Iraq could "eventually lead to another attack on the United States" and would "embolden" terrorists.

In a White House interview with Politico and Yahoo News - a president's first for an online audience - Bush said his doomsday scenario for a premature withdrawal "of course is that extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would eventually lead to another attack on the United States."

Mr. Bush is still pitching his FEAR and DANGER rhetoric as if its pertains to something yet to come. America, and the world should feel comfortable while the Bush team is at the helm? The FEAR and DANGER are HERE and NOW.

The Bush team made Iraq worse for everyone but the terrorists. The terrorists must have enjoyed those years of no Iraqi government. They had the "run of the streets" to themselves. They could recruit, train and do human target practice without fear of "law and order". There was none.

The streets of Baghdad were, and to some extent still are unsafe. Hugely unsafe. And the ones who brought CHAOS to Iraq wants the world to listen to their future - predicting WISDOM? .Maybe the world should listen - politely - and then discard it.

The WISDOM(foresight) would have been right-at-home in 2003. But the Bush team neocons have not demonstrated they have mastered the manager's tasks of "managing resources" and "predicting outcomes".

The Bush team's "WISDOM" is more than a "day late" and more than a "dollar short". Where is the Bush team's completed task that displays professionally "predicted outcomes"? "Stay the course" does not qualify because that could be considered a gamble that the laws of chance would give the "managers" a win "sooner or later".

It is begining to look like the world is being told: "Do it my way, or the SKY will fall". Is that predicting outcomes? Will America be damaged by terrorist again? Nobody knows. But the Bush team has challenged terrorists to "BRING IT ON" and that idea is likely still incubating in the minds of some terrorists.

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Technorati : , baghdad, bush, iraq, middle east, rhetoric, streets, terrorist, troops

WASHINGTON -Some readers resented The Washington Post for publishing an Associated Press photograph of a critically wounded Iraqi child being lifted from the rubble of his home in Baghdad's Sadr City "after a U.S. airstrike."

Two-year-old Ali Hussein later died in a hospital.

As the saying goes, the picture was worth a thousand words because it showed the true horrors of this war.
Neither side is immune from killing of Iraqi civilians. But Americans should be aware of their own responsibility for inflicting death and pain on the innocent.

The Post's ombudsman, Deborah Howell, said about 20 readers complained about the photo, while a few readers praised the Post for publishing the stark picture on Page 1.

Some mothers said they were offended that their children might see the picture, though one wonders whether their youngsters watch television and play with violent videos in a pretend world.

From the start of the unprovoked U.S. "shock and awe" invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, the government tried to bar the news media from photographing flag-draped coffins of American soldiers returning from Iraq.

A Freedom of Information lawsuit forced the government to release pictures of returning coffins.

Howell said some readers felt the photo of the Iraqi boy was "an anti-war statement; some thought it was in poor taste." Well, so is war.

Howell said her boss, Executive Editor Len Downie, "is cautious about such photos."

"We have seldom been able to show the human impact of the fighting on Iraqis," Downie was quoted as saying. "We decided this was a rare instance in which we had a powerful image with which to do so."

Howell said she checked hundreds of U.S. front pages on the Internet but saw the AP photo nowhere else.
This makes me wonder why the media have shied away from telling the story about Iraqi civilian casualties. News people and editors were more courageous during the Vietnam War. What are they afraid of now?

Who can forget the shocking picture of the little Vietnamese girl running down a road, aflame from a napalm attack?

Of course, the Pentagon did not enjoy such images coming out of Saigon in that era. Most Americans found them appalling, as further evidence of our misbegotten venture in Vietnam. Americans rallied to the streets in protest and eventually persuaded President Lyndon Johnson to give up his dreams of re-election in 1968.
Some Americans believe the media were to blame for the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. Nonsense.

Johnson knew the war was unwinnable, especially after the 1968 Tet offensive and the request by Army Gen. William Westmoreland for 200,000 more troops, in addition to the 500,000 already in Vietnam.

The Pentagon made a command decision after the Vietnam War to get better control of the dissemination of information in future wars. This led then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to create an office of disinformation at the start of the Iraqi war. It was later disbanded after howls from the media.

More recently we have seen the Pentagon's propaganda efforts take the form of carefully coaching retired generals about how to spin the Iraq war when they appear on television as alleged military experts. The New York Times' revelations about these pet generals have cast a pall over their reputations.

It's not the job of the media to protect the nation from the reality of war. Rather, it is up to the media to tell the people the truth.

Helen Thomas' e-mail address is hthomas@hearstdc.com

A US trooper has been killed in a road side blast in the Iraqi capital Baghdad increasing the total number of troops killed since the March 2003 invasion of the country to 4,076, the military said on Monday. The US military said in a statment that the victim was hit by an improvised explosives device while on a route clearing patrol in northwestern Baghdad on Sunday night. It said the soldier's name was being withheld until his family could be informed. The blast was in an area outside Baghdad's Sadr City where gunmen agreed to halt attacks from Sunday under a deal with the government. The latest US military death raised the number of US troops confirmed killed in Iraq to 4,076 since the invasion of the country in March 2003. The figure includes eight military civilians. The British military has reported 176 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Georgia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

source

A double suicide attack struck a wedding convoy north-east of Baghdad today killing at least 30 and injuring 65.

Police said the attacks occurred in the busy market town of Balad Ruz in the restive Diyala province. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attack bore hallmarks associated with al Qaeda in Iraq.

A second bomber was said to have struck as crowds rushed to evacuate the wounded from the first attack, a common tactic used to maximise casualties.

The bombers detonated their explosive vests within minutes of each other according to Major General Abdel Karim al-Rubaie, head of the provincial military command.

“The first bomber blew himself up amid a crowd of people. Minutes later another bomber blew himself up as people were trying to rescue the victims of the first attack,” Mr Rubaie said.

He said the attack took place at around 7pm (1600 GMT) in a street known to sell wedding dresses and gifts.

Suicide bombings are a tactic mainly employed in Iraq by Sunni Arab militant groups such as al Qaeda.

Iraq has seen a jump in violence over the past month, mainly involving clashes pitting Shi’ite militias against US and government troops in Baghdad and the south. But al-Qaeda has also struck with a number of large suicide bombings in the north.

Iraqi government figures show April was the deadliest month for civilians since August last year.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3857590.ece

Republicans do not want John McCain to be their nominee. He has only been able to become the front-runner because the field was so divided and because he’s a media darling. We can see just how unpopular McCain is in the heartland by his performance in the Kansas caucuses today. Kansans resoundingly rejected the Arizona senator, and McCain’s big wins so far have mostly been in blue states — states he won’t win in November if, heaven forbid, he’s the Republican nominee.

Republicans want and need an alternative. Some people think Mike Huckabee provides an alternative to McCain. But Huckabee, who now tries to sound like Ron Paul when he talks about abolishing the IRS, raised taxes in Arkansas and vastly expanded spending in that state when he was its governor. Huckabee is no alternative at all. Ron Paul, on the other hand, has never voted for a tax increase, never voted for an unbalanced budget or for an unconstitutional war or government program.

At stake here is not just the Republican nomination — which McCain still has not locked up — but the future of the Republican Party and, much more importantly, the future of our liberties. We have to organize in every single state, including the ones that have already voted in the primaries and caucuses, to continue the fight to take back the Republican Party and to ensure that Ron Paul’s principles, the principles of Washington and Jefferson, prevail. For the sake of that cause, Ron Paul’s campaign continues, all the way to the convention.

-Ron Paul group

Louise in the following story is clearly a hero. I am reprinting the following story as a tribute to Louise.

Another note: I really dislike calling the mercenaries in modern combat "contractors". That sounds like they are going out and constructing buildings or something. Let's call them what they are- MERCENARIES, soldiers for hire. They are often hired by corporations, corporations with their own armies. That alone should be pause for thought. No wonder they are killing pets as well.

To help wounded children in Iraq go to http://www.directaidiraq.org/ Obviously that is extremely important. But as humans we should never forget the harm we do to the non-human inhabitants of our planet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/05/02/noindex/ncat.xml

On a mission: the Cat Lady of Baghdad

By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

A former British soldier has been hailed as the "Cat Lady of Baghdad" after setting up a lifeline to evacuate pets from the war-torn city to Britain.

Simba al-Tikriti, who made an improbable escape from Iraq

It is cloak-and-danger work, which means the 35-year old woman only wants to be known by her first name, Louise.

But she has spent tens of thousands of pounds over the past four years adopting pets. To cope with the costs, she has set up a website, Baghdad Cat Rescue.

“Some people buy flash cars, others flash clothes,” she said. “But it’s my animals that float my boat.”

A Territorial Army call up in 2003 turned into a career as a security consultant, working in some of the most dangerous areas of Iraq.

On a posting near Saddam Hussein’s birthplace Louise adopted her first cat, Simba al-Tikriti, a name that made the white tabby an honorary clansman of the late dictator.

Simba was also the first cat to reach Britain and a total of eight pets have since been brought out, including two dogs.

While she is prepared to give pets away to the right home, Louise’s parents have to cope with the task of caring for the animals while she is in Iraq, earning money needed to pay the mounting upkeep bills.

Louise's current worries centre around a dog that will be released to her two-bedroom home near Birmingham next month.

“He despises cats,” she said. “I am hoping it’s an instinct thing that I can train out of him before he eats my cats.”

Despite her worst fears, Louise is planning a quick return to Baghdad.

She acknowledges that in a city where violence is indiscriminate and deprivations extreme, it is easy for most to turn a blind eye to the suffering of animals.

Cats were first domesticated in the Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation. Ancient Babylonian culture raised the veneration of felines to an art form.

Even today Baghdad ranks with Cairo and Istanbul in a clutch of cities suffused with cats, stray and home-bound.

Most are well-fed and respected by the locals but Louise said there is no safety net for the abused.

Mortar attacks aside, the biggest danger for cats in the Baghdad diplomatic compound where Louise works, is the giant American corporation, KBR and other contractors signed up to the behavioral rules of the US military’s General Order No 1.

“If you live in diplomatic compounds or other villas protected by the big contractors, adopting or feeding cats and other pets is banned and they will set traps to kill pets,” she said.

“I’ve helped one man get his last cat back to the UK after the contractor killed all the animals he had been feeding.”

Leuitenant-Colonel Raymond Dunton, a US army medical officer in Baghdad, admitted that 7,100 animals were trapped across all its bases in Iraq last year and 5,300 were put down.

He said the order is designed to ensure personnel do not face the threat of rabies and other diseases.

Dennis Quine, a former British embassy worker, is one of those Louise helped to bring his cat, Missy, to the UK.The hurdles they faced were formidable, he said.

“Friends have said it is stupid, asked why I’m doing this,” he said. “I tell them, ‘Hold on, this is nothing less than what I’d do for a friend.’ I was prepared to risk my life to get my cat out.”

The Cat Lady of Baghdad believes she will be offering a safe haven to cats for as long as she is working there. “I don’t find them,” she said. “They find me.”

If these were any other men and women, they would be sitting on death row right now, awaiting their appeals processes to take the long roads that they take. But these aren't ordinary men or women, they are bush, cheney, rice, gonzales, yoo, rumsfeld, and a few others. I can't say what Britain will do with her ex-Prime Minister, but I know where I'd love to see these people. As the evidence becomes clearer and more damning, even Congress now seems implicated in keeping them out of prison. It seems a good time for a revolution. A time to take our country back from cowards, betrayers, scoundrels, thieves, torturers and murders and those who insist on business as usual.

I've had nothing good to say about this criminal administration from day one. I cried when bush was elected the second time around, knowing full well what he was capable of, but not getting it right by half. Now, I'm just sickened that he is still in the white house, dishonoring all of us with his very existence. There is one very huge accusatory finger pointing at Pelosi...

From CommonDreams.org today comes the most damning of articles about bush. It tells the timeline of how he and ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair plotted to see the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. How they duped both Americans and British citizens into war with a country that did everything it was asked to do, until too much was asked. And as I think back on the taunting of Saddam at this hanging, I think there was never a braver man. He knew, during his mock trial, that evidence had been manufactured, that it had all been arranged, that nothing he could do would change the outcome, and so he died. Another death on the head of bush and company... Another reason that death row waits...

We the People of the United States of America charge george w. bush and his administration with murder, with high crimes, with treason against America and Iraq, with crimes against human beings in the form of war and of war crimes. We charge him with betrayal, with lieing to us, with manufacturing evidence in order to commit war on another country. Of ordering American soldiers to die in a war that is unjust. And we find him guilty of these crimes.

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
by Vincent Bugliosi

There is direct evidence that President George W. Bush did not honorably lead this nation, but deliberately misled it into a war he wanted. Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public — lies that have cost the lives of more than 4,000 young American soldiers and close to $1 trillion.

A Monumental Lie

In his first nationally televised address on the Iraqi crisis on October 7, 2002, six days after receiving the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a classified CIA report, President Bush told millions of Americans the exact opposite of what the CIA was telling him -a monumental lie to the nation and the world.

On the evening of October 7, 2002, the very latest CIA intelligence was that Hussein was not an imminent threat to the U.S. This same information was delivered to the Bush administration as early as October 1, 2002, in the NIE, including input from the CIA and 15 other U.S. intelligence agencies. In addition, CIA director George Tenet briefed Bush in the Oval Office on the morning of October 7th.

According to the October 1, 2002 NIE, “Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or CBW [chemical and biological warfare] against the United States, fearing that exposure of Iraqi involvement would provide Washington a stronger case for making war.” The report concluded that Hussein was not planning to use any weapons of mass destruction; further, Hussein would only use weapons of mass destruction he was believed to have if he were first attacked, that is, he would only use them in self-defense.

Preparing its declassified version of the NIE for Congress, which became known as the White Paper, the Bush administration edited the classified NIE document in ways that significantly changed its inference and meaning, making the threat seem imminent and ominous.

In the original NIE report, members of the U.S. intelligence community vigorously disagreed with the CIA’s bloated and inaccurate conclusions. All such opposing commentary was eliminated from the declassified White Paper prepared for Congress and the American people.

The Manning Memo

On January 31, 2003, Bush met in the Oval Office with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In a memo (found here 0203manning-full-text ) summarizing the meeting discussion, Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser David Manning wrote that Bush and Blair expressed their doubts that any chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons would ever be found in Iraq, and that there was tension between Bush and Blair over finding some justification for the war that would be acceptable to other nations. Bush was so worried about the failure of the UN inspectors to find hard evidence against Hussein that he talked about three possible ways, Manning wrote, to “provoke a confrontation” with Hussein. One way, Bush said, was to fly “U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, [falsely] painted in UN colors. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach” of UN resolutions and that would justify war. Bush was calculating to create a war, not prevent one.

Hans Blix, the United Nation’s chief weapons inspector in Iraq, in his March 7, 2003, address to the UN Security Council, said that as of that date, less than 3 weeks before Bush invaded Iraq, that Iraq had capitulated to all demands for professional, no-notice weapons inspections all over Iraq and agreed to increased aerial surveillance by the U.S. over the “no-fly” zones. Iraq had directed the UN inspectors to sites where illicit weapons had been destroyed and had begun to demolish its Al Samoud 2 missiles, as requested by the UN. Blix added that “no evidence of proscribed activities have so far been found” by his inspectors and “no underground facilities for chemical or biological production or storage were found so far.” He said that for his inspectors to absolutely confirm that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) “will not take years, nor weeks, but months.”

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief UN nuclear inspector in Iraq and director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the UN Security Council that, “we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapon program in Iraq.”

The UN inspectors were making substantial progress and Hussein was giving them unlimited access. Why was Bush in such an incredible rush to go to war?

Hussein Disarms, so Bush … Goes to War

When it became clear that the whole purpose of Bush’s prewar campaign — to get Hussein to disarm — was being (or already had been) met, Bush and his people came up with a demand they had never once made before — that Hussein resign and leave Iraq. On March 17, 2003, Bush said in a speech to the nation that, “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict.” Military conflict — the lives of thousands of young Americans on the line — because Bush trumped up a new line in the sand?

The Niger Allegation

One of the most notorious instances of the Bush administration using thoroughly discredited information to frighten the American public was the 16 words in Bush’s January 28, 2003 State of the Union speech: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” The Niger allegation was false, and the Bush administration knew it was false.

Joseph C. Wilson IV, the former ambassador to Iraq, was sent to Niger by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate a supposed memo that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake (a form of lightly processed ore) to Iraq by Niger in the late 1990s. Wilson reported back to the CIA that it was “highly doubtful” such a transaction had ever taken place.

On March 7, 2003, Mohamed ElBaradei told the UN Security Council that “based on thorough analysis” his agency concluded that the “documents which formed the basis for the report of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger are in fact not authentic.” Indeed, author Craig Unger uncovered at least 14 instances prior to the 2003 State of the Union address in which analysts at the CIA, the State Department, or other government agencies that had examined the Niger documents “raised serious doubts about their legitimacy — only to be rebuffed by Bush administration officials who wanted to use them.”

On October 5 and 6, 2002, the CIA sent memos to the National Security Council, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and to the White House Situation Room stating that the Niger information was no good.

On January 24, 2003, four days before the president’s State of the Union address, the CIA’s National Intelligence Council, which oversees all federal agencies that deal with intelligence, sent a memo to the White House stating that “the Niger story is baseless and should be laid to rest.”

The 9/11 Lie

The Bush administration put undue pressure on U.S. intelligence agencies to provide it with conclusions that would help them in their quest for war. Bush’s former counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, said that on September 12, 2001, one day after 9/11, “The President in a very intimidating way left us — me and my staff — with the clear indication that he wanted us to come back with the word that there was an Iraqi hand behind 9/11.”

Bush said on October 7, 2002, “We know that Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy — the United States of America. We know that Iraq and Al Qaeda have had high level contacts that go back a decade,” and that “Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gasses.” Of Hussein, he said on November 1, 2002, “We know he’s got ties with Al Qaeda.”

Even after Bush admitted on September 17, 2003, that he had “no evidence” that Saddam Hussein was involved with 9/11, he audaciously continued, in the months and years that followed, to clearly suggest, without stating it outright, that Hussein was involved in 9/11.

On March 20, 2006, Bush said, “I was very careful never to say that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack on America.”

Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder is available May 27.

For more information visit www.prosecutionofbush.com

I think this leaves out way too much, but think it was a great start. At least there are others saying what I've been saying now for the past 5 years, that bush needs to be prosecuted, that those who helped him need to be prosecuted. That anyone in Congress that helps keep this administration from prosecution is also guilty of aiding and abetting criminals and criminal activity. Maybe Pelosi would like to rethink her position a bit more?

I don't know how, with all the evidence there is, bush and cronies are still free to do as they please. How their continued freedom can be justified in ANY way. It certainly makes a mockery of all that justice stands for in this country. And certainly, when you consider cases like David Olofson, who has NEVER committed ANY crime, how FBI, CIA and the DOJ can fall on Olofson when they ignore bush and company seems totally unbelievable to me.

The Law cannot hold only some of us to account and not all. Not and have this a land of laws. Either there is Justice for all or Justice for none. And so far, it seems there is justice for none. I'm not impressed with our Justice system any more. Corruption in the FBI, BATFE, and prosecutors with no moral scruples who do anything to win a case, even one they have to hide evidence from the defense attorneys in order to win. All a bunch of criminals with no end in sight. The bush administration has set the perfect example. But death row waits...

To the tune of You May Be Right written and performed by Billy Joel

I'm the leader of my party,
Really mean and so old-farty,
Vote for me, make sure nothing will change,
The right is stuck with me,
Since they ditched Mike Huckabee,
They ignore the fact that I am quite deranged.

I have strolled along that sweet Green Zone,
(While Apaches and Blackhawks were flown),
And I said that vi-o-lence was on the wane,
But the whole thing was contrived,
So that my career survived,
And I think that only proves that I'm insane.

Original CD cover.

If you're not too bright,
Mor-al-ly lazy,
Then I just may be the candidate you're looking for,
'Cause I invite,
Bastards like Hagee,
Who has said things much worse than,
Jeremiah Wright.

My wife's huge fortune came from beer,
Her plane flies me from here to there,
Those campaign laws, they cause me no concern,
'Cause I think by now, you see,
Rules just don't apply to me,
And that Cindy Lou can hide her tax returns.

Original DVD cover.

Now think of all the times you've seen me,
I'm a case of PTSD,
I really am as crazy as they say,
Who else but a nutso man,
Would sing, "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,"
And would not believe that Lindsey Graham's gay?

Original magazine cover

Although I'm rich,
The right-wing hates me,
I am not the Ronald Reagan they were looking for,
It's too late to switch,
It's too late for Romney,
They got it wrong, but that's too bad,
Isn't life a bitch?

Everybody's right,
I'm bat$hit crazy!
And I don't think I'm the guy that you've been looking for,
I'm not in your hearts,
('Cept for maybe Tweety's),
I am all wrong, but all that's left,
Standing on the right,
I'm all that's left standing on the right,
I'm all that's left standing on the right,
I'm all that's left standing on the right,
I'm all that's left standing on the right,
I'm all that's left standing on the right...

Sorry, kids. Still no photoshop. I did the best I could.

No other commentary is required, this article says it all!

Published on Friday, May 9, 2008 by CommonDreams.org

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

by Vincent Bugliosi

There is direct evidence that President George W. Bush did not honorably lead this nation, but deliberately misled it into a war he wanted. Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public — lies that have cost the lives of more than 4,000 young American soldiers and close to $1 trillion.

A Monumental Lie

In his first nationally televised address on the Iraqi crisis on October 7, 2002, six days after receiving the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a classified CIA report, President Bush told millions of Americans the exact opposite of what the CIA was telling him -a monumental lie to the nation and the world.

On the evening of October 7, 2002, the very latest CIA intelligence was that Hussein was not an imminent threat to the U.S. This same information was delivered to the Bush administration as early as October 1, 2002, in the NIE, including input from the CIA and 15 other U.S. intelligence agencies. In addition, CIA director George Tenet briefed Bush in the Oval Office on the morning of October 7th.

According to the October 1, 2002 NIE, “Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or CBW [chemical and biological warfare] against the United States, fearing that exposure of Iraqi involvement would provide Washington a stronger case for making war.” The report concluded that Hussein was not planning to use any weapons of mass destruction; further, Hussein would only use weapons of mass destruction he was believed to have if he were first attacked, that is, he would only use them in self-defense.

Preparing its declassified version of the NIE for Congress, which became known as the White Paper, the Bush administration edited the classified NIE document in ways that significantly changed its inference and meaning, making the threat seem imminent and ominous.

In the original NIE report, members of the U.S. intelligence community vigorously disagreed with the CIA’s bloated and inaccurate conclusions. All such opposing commentary was eliminated from the declassified White Paper prepared for Congress and the American people.

The Manning Memo

On January 31, 2003, Bush met in the Oval Office with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In a memo summarizing the meeting discussion, Blair’s chief foreign policy advisor David Manning wrote that Bush and Blair expressed their doubts that any chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons would ever be found in Iraq, and that there was tension between Bush and Blair over finding some justification for the war that would be acceptable to other nations. Bush was so worried about the failure of the UN inspectors to find hard evidence against Hussein that he talked about three possible ways, Manning wrote, to “provoke a confrontation” with Hussein. One way, Bush said, was to fly “U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, [falsely] painted in UN colors. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach” of UN resolutions and that would justify war. Bush was calculating to create a war, not prevent one.

~snip~

Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history. The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder is available May 27.

For more information visit www.prosecutionofbush.com

Read the FULL STORY here.

Here's what my newspaper says, and what I will say about it afterward, I'll see if I can find any pictures. The newspaper I get is the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

IRAQI OFFICIALS REPORT ABU AYYUB AL-MASRI WAS CAUGHT IN MOSUL, THE INSURGENT GROUP'S LAST URBAN STAGING GROUND.
By Patrick Quinn
Associated Press

"BAGHDAD-Iraqi police commandos captured the leader of Al-Qaida in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said Thursday, in what could mark a significant blow to the Sunni insurgency in its last urban stronghold.
Iraqi defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said the arrest of Abu Ayyub al-Masri -also known as Abu Hamzamander in Mosul, where insurgents have sought to establish a foothold after being widely uprooted from Baghdad and surrounding areas last year.
The U.S. Military in Baghdad said it was "checking with Iraqi Authorities to confirm the accuracy of this information"
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said that the arrest occurred "at midnight, and during the primary investigations he admitted that he is Abu Hamza al-Muhajir."
Khalaf told the Iraqi state television that al-Masri was arrested during a Police Raid but gave no other details"

Here's what I say about all this:
I was surprised at how long it took the U.S. Military to track down and capture Saddam Huissein, and now this guy? Bush says we're making progress in Iraq, but maybe that's only part-true. The mission was probably something like "Track down all Terrorist organizations as quickly as possible", and within 5 years, 2 terrorists down, only 100 more to go! (And it may be more than that) But if we continue at this rate, we'll be on Iraq......... only 500 more years!!!!!! We really should catch Terrorists faster. I realize it may not be very easy, but then again, there are thousand of American Soldiers in Iraq, not counting the Iraqi Police. If there are that many of them, shouldn't this be very easy?

Here's some images of Iraq and people in Iraq:

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Yeah..... Lots of violence, hopefully the government will be able to get us out of Iraq within the next 500 years. (It will take 500 years to get out of Iraq if there are 100 more terrorists and we keep catching them at this rate)
Scott777
I'm a news broadcaster now!!!

This public diplomacy initiative's goal is build bridges of understanding and respect between Americans and students from countries with significant Muslim populations.  The following is part of an article about the program.  Click here for the entire story.

"The Yes programme basically takes young high school students, majority of whom are from Muslim countries coming to the US and live with their host family. They get transformed by that experience and they transform the family in the community that they leave in," said Ameri. Young people, aged 16-18 from these mostly Muslim countries live as a member in an American family and attend high school for an academic year or semester.

They share their host families' everyday lives, engage in school activities and volunteer in their communities. They learn about American society and value while helping to educate others about the customs and culture of their homelands.

In the summer of 1993, between my junior and senior years in high school, I spent one month living with a German family in former East Germany. Only a few months earlier, the young man had spent a month with us in Idaho. Even though these people had technically been our "enemies" just a few short years before, I and the other American students in the program learned firsthand that they were really the same as us. They had the same types of worries and dreams.

Yesterday a US Navy report stated that a former Guantanamo prisoner carried out a suicide bombing attack in Baghdad. There are many people around the world that hate the US and our way of life. However, one can hope that initiatives like this can help these same people gain a better understanding of us.

How many you;ll got to die tonight.  Ride or dye tonight.

Yo,  I'm ready for war!  I am past due! Meaing my body is dead!  My bodies expired!  My big pipe dreams getting, not wacked every day. Break it to niggers.  Yea, I do smoke! WE all wanna ride tonight to Baghdad.   Niggers of foul interest getting dropped today.   Tomorrow I walk with Iraqis' of all clans ready for peace.   Soccor Game.  Iraqis v.s. the United States.  Every day until this war is over. Game on!  Have Fun! Forgive everyone!

                           I have your back,

                              Dan

The Bush administration has warned that inconsistency in federal law may allow the contractors to evade charges, the New York Times reported today.

"The main obstacle to ending the culture of impunity among private security contractors is not shortcomings in the law but rather the lack of will to enforce the law," today's report states.

A seven-year-old law called the Military extraterrestrial jurisdiction act, or MEJA, provides the main mechanism to prosecute contractors for crimes committed outside the US.

But many in the capital have questioned whether MEJA's specific application to Pentagon employees would exempt Blackwater, which was operating under a US state department contract when the September shooting occurred.

The human rights report rejects that argument, citing a congressional expansion of MEJA passed after the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in 2004. That measure allows for prosecution of non-Pentagon employees who were "supporting the mission of the department of defence".

The behaviour of contractors for Blackwater and other security firms has sparked resentment among Iraqi officials as well as civilians, many of whom consider the private guards unnecessarily violent.

"These violent attacks have created a culture of impunity that angers the local population, undermines the military mission, and promotes more abuse by contractors over time," the report states.

The report found that since the war in Iraq began, only one US contractor has been charged with a violent crime under MEJA: an employee of KBR, formerly owned by Halliburton, who was accused of
stabbing an Indian female colleague.

The House of Representatives already has approved a measure that would directly apply MEJA to Blackwater and its fellow contractors. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has introduced an expansion of MEJA in the Senate, but the bill has yet to see action.

Fallout from Blackwater's legal and public relations troubles has hit British security companies in recent months.

The chief executive of ArmorGroup, the largest UK security firm operating in Iraq, left his post after reports of the September violence chilled the company's profits and new contracts.

The human rights report singles out ArmorGroup and Aegis Defence Services, another UK-based contractor, for tracking incidents involving firearms use by their employees, in contrast with US
companies that do not routinely keep such records.

by: Elena Schorr

http://wwwpbs.org/moyers/journal/04182008/watch.html

Just back from being under fire in Sadr City this week, award-winning
journalist Leila Fadel, Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy, gives
viewers on-the-ground analysis of the latest events and close-up look
at the state of the war.