Monday, March 31, 2008

Major shake up at the White House.

President george bush jr. resigned today in disgrace. Not because he was booed while throwing out the first pitch (America's Pastime, indeed), but because of the commencement of impeachment proceedings in the House of Reprensatives. The articles of impeachment presented by Congressmen Waxman, Conyers, and Kucinich read like a laundry list. On top of which sits "Lying and knowingly misleading the American Public into an Invasion of the soveriegn nation of Iraq." Vice president cheney could not be reached for comment, as he has moved back to his Wyoming ranch after an existing heart condition became aggravated. His waning health has most in Washington thinking his resignation is imminent, which would leave Speaker Pelosi at the helm in the Oval Office. Let's hope she'll do more with that power than she has as Speaker.

In future presidents news, Senator Hillary Clinton, after being declared the loser in the Texas primary/caucus and her direct connection to the "vast right wing conspiracy" was exposed, announced that "for the sake of the Party" she is ending her bid for the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States of America. And after the recent disqualification of Senator John McCain from the race for breaking campaign finance laws. It is simply a matter of time and formality until Senator Barack Obama is sworn in as President number 44.

In economic news, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the victims of the predatory lending schemes of large investment banks like Bear Stern, who recently received government welfare in the form of Billions of Dollars in loans and assurances, causing a renewed confidence among average citizens, investors, and consumers in the United States of America's economic policies. And after the UN, NATO, and a host of nations around the world agreed to work with Our New Leadership in fixing the problems of security, infrastructure, unemployment, and government development in Iraq, Oil prices have, after six years of almost steady increase, finally begun to come down.

Oh and one more thing...

APRIL FOOLS!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

After 5 years of getting things wrong.

In January of 2007, the failure-in-chief announced and deployed his "surge", or as the more honest like to call it, his troop "escalation" in Iraq. 20,000+ troops were added to Our 132,000 troops already stationed there. By Summertime, violence in Iraq was starting to ease a little, after a short spike of course, but the escalation was only one part of the reason. In August of 2007, muqtada al sadr's mahdi army declared a six month, self imposed cease fire. It's hard to remember al sadr among all of the Public Enemy No. 1's, rationales for war, and definitions of victory constantly thrown at the American public when it comes to Iraq. The mahdi army (a Shiite militia) has recently taken to "civil disobedience". They have shut down sections of Baghdad and Basra and are marching by the thousands for Our Exit and the disbandment of Prime Minister Maliki's government in Iraq. This "disobedience" is turning uglier and uglier by the day, making a Shia civil war a rising issue once again. An issue We should want no part of. A Maliki issued 72 hour "crackdown" ultimatum seems to have done little good to quell the resurgence of the mahdi army. We'll have to see where this leads, but the signs are not good. A major oil pipeline just south of Basra, Iraq was bombed, sending crude prices even higher. Remember when We were told Iraqi oil would pay for the invasion? Why are so many still listening, without question, to "people" that got it so WRONG in the first place? Maybe we should be listening to voices that know something about Iraq, like these men who actually lived there.

The recent rise in bombings and killings in Iraq is not a result of al qaeda (who was not there before we were) as john mcwhat the hell is going on and his little buddy bush would like Us to believe. The republican, bill clinton continues to Promote as "an honorable man" who "loves this country" (more than Barack by implication), whose "lifetime of experience " hillary continues to tout, thinks Shiite dominated and Governed Iran is training militant Sunnis it has been warring with for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. I know, it was a "senior moment". He "misspoke". You know, like she did about her Bosnia trip or her effect on the Northern Ireland peace proccess. But I'm not going to talk about their "gaffes", or the one candidate who hasn't made a major one yet, in this Ink. This one is about the War We are in, in Iraq. A war we are in because of men like john mccain. A war we are in because of faith based, politically safe, votes made by elected officials, like hillary clinton. A War that was started on false pretenses, both known and unknown, Five Years Ago. A war that has cost 4,000+ Americans their lives and has injured over 29,000. A war that has cost $500,000,000,000.00+. A war that has killed an unknown number of Iraqi civilians. We don't count them. How many Iraqis was saddam hanged for killing?

Military leaders recently took the chickenhawk-in-chief behind closed doors at the Pentagon to tell him of the strains on military forces. A situation that has been talked about and predicted for years now. When the military thins it becomes harder to deal with other conflicts as they arise or as they already exist in places like Afghanistan. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (who wouldn't be a bad choice for Secretary of Defense, or even Vice President) recently called the disgrace-in-chief's latest speech, on the "undeniable" success in Iraq, "another episode of 'Alice in Wonderland" where "What's up is down, and what's down is up." And in what some might call a major combat operation, the United States military dropped bombs on Basra today. Of course we all know "major combat operations ended" on May 1, 2003. President Make Believe told us so. Why should anyone listen to what this incompetent has to say? He has been wrong and has Wronged the American public and American Ideals with every decision he has made, foreign or domestic. It's time for a new style of leadership. It's time for new policies and new ways of forming them. It's time for the United States government to agree with its people and admit that Iraq was a mistake and to pull out, at least enough to let the people of Iraq, and hopefully the world george thumbed his nose at in 2003, clean up the mess this Invasion has made. I can only Hope the damage caused to Our country and theirs is not irreversible.

UPDATE:
I guess we shouldn't "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" just yet. After a week's worth of renewed violence in Basra (the City that England "secured" and left to the Iraqi Security forces) claimed 400 lives, a "peace deal" was struck to quell the violence. That deal, between mahdi militia leader al sadr and Iraqi prime minister maliki took place in... Iran. I thought president ahmadinejad arriving Iraq to fanfare (sweets and flowers), in the daylight, and with a smaller security detail than any American diplomat showed who holds more power since Our invasion, but Iran negotiating the "peace deal" for the nation bushco. is trying to build? Well thought plan PNAC. Well thought out plan.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Racialism, questions, and timing.

Senator Barack Obama, who has recently been endorsed by several "experienced" military big wigs, and more comically, one Tracy Morgan, responded to critics who have been equating him to his former pastor, and more specifically to that pastor's words. One would have thought that his "vehement" condemnation of the statements in question would have been enough. In the reactionary, all or nothing, with us or against us, political system we live with, it was not. So what did the Senator do? Did he run from his church and join Bob Jones University, like say a mccain would? No. Did he play the victim and fire nasty shots back at his critics, like say a clinton would? No. He gave a speech. (Big surprise, I know.) But to read the speech, is to see someone who thinks beyond the rhetoric. Obama spoke to the reasons behind the anger of blacks And the reasons behind the anger of whites. Not just the tit for tat argument we've had since Martin Luther King Jr. And President Lyndon B. Johnson came together on "Civil Rights" legislation. Race Is still an issue in America. It is an issue we should not forget, dismiss nor give up on. The only way to move forward is together. Even if it means working with some unsavory characters. Here's some initial pundit reaction to the speech.

I do have a couple of quick questions (one related) for the mcold campaign. 1. Is it Legal to Campaign for president as part of a tax payer funded "congressional delegation" to the Middle East? And not to get all clintonian, but 2. Does mccain denounce and reject the Support of pastor hagee who has said the Catholic Church is "the Great Whore" and the devastation of Katrina was because of the gays?

Not to leave anyone out, here's one for the gentle lady from New York. Is sending your email list a message saying, in highlighted bold text "You've let every little girl in America know that she can be anything she wants to be." playing the "gender card"? I know that question is very un-Obama, but I had to.

And finally, one last note on "the spitzer scandal", unless he gets charged and goes to trial. I do not condone governor eliot spitzer's alleged paying of a prostitute to cross state lines and meet him in DC, where still-Senator david vitter used to meet his hookers. But my Real problem was with the incredible hypocrisy of this "white knight" against prostitution, the mob and all things unethical, going to prostitutes. It is a little coincidental, however, that, at the prosecutor's discretion, this enemy of wall street giants was outed as "client #9" the same time the "free market fixes all things" bush administration/Fed decided to give away hundreds of billions of dollars to save Us, or should I say the big banks, from the mortgage bank crisis. $30,000,000,000.00 of which went to save Bear Stearns, helping JP Morgan buy the once wall street giant for $2.00 a share (over 90% below it's value three days before the purchase). It's also interesting to note that it was the "Patriot Act" that was used to catch "terrorist" spitzer. After all the talk of how the rover cabal took down the governor of Alabama, it does lead me to question a few things. But hey, I'm sure the Federal Justice Department acted completely legitimately.

March 19th is the Fifth Anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. Scream, Cry, and/or "Pray" accordingly.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Bullshit (or why I should turn off my computer)

I've been a little angrier, not to mention more vulgar, than usual lately, when it comes to politics. Maybe I need a break or a deep breath. But I just Had to vent my frustrations with all the mounting BULLSHIT seen, read, and heard lately, though it's certainly nothing new.

While speaking (via satellite) to US military and civilian personnel, the embarassment-in-chief had this to say of Our soldiers in Afghanistan. "I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."
"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," This bit of bile raising bullshit came from the chicken hawk who avoided freeing mccain's "gooks" in Vietnam from communism. And skirting his duties in the Texas National Guards "champagne unit" to go campaigning. What planet does this guy live on. He's starting to seem more insulated and out of touch than a third world dictator.

Lil' george's third term, AKA old man mccain, has been running on the idea that the "surge is working". BULLSHIT! Savior/saint Petraeus says "no one" in the U.S. and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in the provision of basic public services. More troops reduced violence, but for the "surge" to "succeed" it needed to be coupled with political progress. Not only that, but will the reduction in violence, which is starting to swing back up recently, hold without the additional troops? What's the point if it just increases Our, currently open ended, commitment to the country bush pushed us to invade? And here's some more Iraq bullshit, the Pentagon was going to release (before it wasn't) a report stating that, after going through 600,000 documents found in Iraq, There was no link between saddam and al qaeda. But that's old bullshit! Here's some recent bullshit from Johnny "come 26 years ago" (actually it's 7 years if you only count this "new mccain"). He's out there, with others, saying This economy is strong. BULLSHIT! With big investment firms like Bear Stearns being bailed out and the Carlyle Capital group collapsing (and those are only the two most recent negative Economic factors to come out), it's time to Call Bullshit on these "America is always number one", nothing to see here, huge tax cuts for the rich and loopholes for huge corporations "trickle down" to the Americans that need help, Lying sacks of well... bullshit.

But the bullshit isn't only coming from the three terms of bush. The hillary clinton campaign, and no I'm not going to go on and on about the statements made by the former congressperson and vice presidential candidate, who left office to spend more time with her drug dealing son and crooked husband. You know what, on second thought, maybe geraldine was right. Maybe "he [Obama] would not be in this position" if he "was a white man", because, you know, it's so much easier for a black man to get ahead in politics these days. Oh wait, that's BULLSHIT! But wait, there's more bullshit from Camp Clinton, "We believe fundamentally it provides a very test of who can really win the general election," senior clinton advisor mark penn said. "We believe this will again show Hillary is ready to win and Senator Obama really can't win a general election." Aside from the fact that saying things like "Senator Obama really can't win a general election.", camp clinton both sounds like, and is helping, the republicans more than anyone else, the idea that if Obama doesn't win in the Democratic primary in PA or the other "big" states, the Democrats, that voted for hillary, will vote for mccain. States like NY, NJ, and CA will go republican, if the candidate that didn't win their primary is the nominee? BULLSHIT! There's a better chance of Texas going blue, than NY or CA going red. Even the clinton support topping governor of Pennsylvania, who recently said some whites are "not ready to vote for an African American" thinks it's bullshit.

Who's calling them on their bullshit? The liberal, Obama loving, media, whose busy trying to decide if they should run more stories on what Obama's pastor has said? Wait, Pastor??? I thought Barack was muslim? I know, "as far as" hillary "knows" he's not. But seriously, are all the Catholics that attended church services lead by pedophile priests, pedophiles themselves? It's BULLSHIT! "News" reports just continue to repeat lies and spin without saying they are lies and spin. Camp hillary, bushco., or the wackos on the way right come out with some bullshit, and it is simply reported on, if not as fact, at least without correction. To be fair, the media did run the former vice presidential candidate, whose team lost in a huge landslide, out of campaign '08 after giving her interview after interview to spew her ignorance. Lord knows the clintons weren't going to.

What's really important to the "mainstream" media right now is some hooker's myspace page. It's amazing. The reds can yell impeachment the day after a sex scandal breaks (no charges have been filed yet), but when a republican breaks international law, not to mention treaties, when his administartion surveils Us without warrant, or sometimes, reason, when an administration breaks National Security laws, misleads and lies Us into war, hell when a republican Senator is connected with a prostitution ring, impeachment is only for the "crack pots". Liberal media indeed. I call bullshit on the lot of them. BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!

I think I'll spend my weekend at a wintery beach yelling at the ocean.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Son of A Bitch-in-Chief

I'm sorry, but this really pissed me off. I really get no pleasure in hating the president of My Country, but with

Scandals from editing health and environmental reports for political reasons, to firing members of the judiciary for political gain, to torture, to losing billions in war funds, to stifling dissent.

...and this son of a bitch-in-chief has the balls, the audacity, to sing something like this! It's like joking about WMDs while Americans die looking for them, oh wait he did that too.


It reminds me of a little kid on the playground going nyahnah nah nah nah nah, certainly not the president of the United States. Truly Pathetic.

Here are some other "great moments" from the worst president in history.
Thank you Mr. Letterman.


Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Spin and hypocrisy

My favorite headline from the "clinton bashing" media the day after what they dubbed "super tuesday II" came from CNN. The "world news leader" declared "Clinton Trounces Obama". To be fair, similar headlines were everywhere. Senator Clinton did "trounce" Barack Obama in Rhode Island. She also beat him by 10% in Ohio. In Texas, however, it seems the "hillary hating" media and the Hillary Clinton campaign may have been either shortsighted, unaware of how the Texas Democratic Party (yes there is one) disperses its delegates or maybe (just maybe) they were Spinning last Tuesday into more of a big deal than it was. That way Senator Clinton could continue without much pressure to drop out. Something the "biased against Senator Clinton" media and the Hillary Clinton Campaign both want. Maybe that's why they all kept talking about the "next contest" being in Pennsylvania, leaving out second class states like Wyoming, which Obama won last week, and Mississippi, which he is poised to win today. Oh yeah, and on "super tuesday II" Barack did trounce Hillary in Vermont. I do realize that his 21% trouncing only gave him a net increase of 3 delegates, but Senator Clinton's incredibly trouncing turning point in Ohio only gave her a Whopping gain of 9.

Turns out Senator Clinton wasn't the only one laughing and smiling as the confetti came down for her 10% victory in Ohio (if Obama had confetti at every victory of 10% or more, he'd have had 22 by now, 18 of those victories were by more than 20%). Blabber mouth limbaugh was celebrating on his radio show. Not for mccain clinching the republican nomination, but for the fact that Senator Obama hadn't. Seems he was telling his Texas listeners to go out and vote for Clinton in the "open" voting that allows republicans to vote in the Democratic "Primary". Maybe that's why the caucuses had different results than the straight voting.

Senator Obama's campaign released their fundraising numbers for February last week. The campaign raised $55,000,000.00 from 727,972 donors, including 385,101 new contributors. The Barack Obama for President campaign has received donations from 1.07 Million donors. His campaign currently holds the lead in the Democratic Primary's popular vote, state total, and delegate count, leading the Senator to say this in response to the ClintonS' talk of a "dream ticket". "I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place is offering the vice presidency to someone who’s in first place".

In other political news, the hypocrisy of the righteous seems to have added another chapter with the fall of the "white knight", Eliot Spitzer, in New York. Though the Governor of New York, a democrat, has not been charged with a crime. He has apparently been connected to online hookers. Communications concerning price, transportation, and hotel room info is the evidence released so far released for "client no. 9". A sex scandal has a much longer, and louder, media shelf life than say a crimes against the Constitution story. Spitzer would have to be a republican congressman (see larry or david) to think he'll get over this scandal without resigning.


My first quote from an ass (outside of bush administration "officials"):
"If Obama is the nominee, we [republicans] are doomed," - limbaugh on Feb. 6

Monday, March 03, 2008

There's no "end" in quagmire.

Today three bombs killed at least 17 people in Baghdad, which is less than half the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli missiles on Saturday.

The surge in Iraq has made parts of Iraq more secure. Imagine that. More troops equaling more security. The political process isn't making the same progress, though it did recently make some. I mention Iraq, because we are still at war there, as we are in Afghanistan. We also shot missiles into Somalia today in an attempt to kill "a known al Qaeda terrorist". This last military strike is most likely what we'll see more of, if the War in Iraq ever does actually end. Specific strikes on "al qaeda" where they live and train will be a change from invading and occupying a nation for five years (Iraq not Afghanistan) that had little, to nothing, to do with al qaeda until after we arrived. The president of Iran is visiting Iraq and is receiving the "red carpet" treatment in a country whose old tyrant-in-charge was an archenemy of Iran. When will mahmoud ahmadinejad finally thank the neo cons for giving Iran the only clear victory, so far, in their War in Iraq? His nemesis is gone. The, albeit more secular than Iran, shi'a majority in Iraq hold the majority of the seats in the Iraqi government. Not only that, the Iraqi government, whose nation we have spent 4,000+ American lives and $500 Billion to build, has now given him a pulpit to say "the US should get out of Iraq". Well done cheney, rumsfeld, wolfowitz, perle, chalabi and every other bullshit artist that the alcoholic cheerleader-in-chief had "faith" in.

The Mahdi Army, headed by "cleric" moqtada al sadr, has had a cease fire in place since August. Do you think that might have something to do with the reduction of violence since the summer?

The blunders made by the men and woman in charge of Our government, in particular the War in Iraq, have created an impossible situation. Whether intentional or not, allowing the looting of government buildings, libraries, and museums, some of which housed 5000 year old artifacts from Mesopotamia (the land of Babylon), unemploying thousands of low to middle ranking military men, and the slow to fix/lack of improvements to infrastructure essential for Iraqi survival (electricity, water, etc.) has created a situation where military aged, and younger, Iraqi males are angry, desperate, and broke. A situation that certainly makes militias like the mahdi army, and worse, look better to those "left behind" during the "liberation". It also makes it so, in the US military's eyes, every, of age, male Iraqi is a suspect to be detained, and that's not very encouraging to Iraqis either. The fall of the oppressive dictator saddam hussein is seen as an improvement by many in Iraq, but the overall life they have been left with thus far in the US occupation of their Country is not an improvement. Maybe they really did want to greet us with sweets and flowers, but didn't when they saw that we really didn't give a damn about them or their culture. We just wanted saddam, and a big old base/embassy right smack dab in the middle of the region.

The question now is what happens next and when. When, and if, we leave, what will we leave? Will al sadr's "army" come out guns a blazing at the Sunnis? Will the Shi'a rule the government and be allied with Iran's Shi'a theocracy? Will the country, bush is "bringing democracy" to, be forced to fracture into three segregated regions, like Senator Biden has been calling for for years? And the 80 pound gorilla in the room... How long can Our Military sustain these troop levels, with troops having longer and more numerous tours, without a draft?

The atrocious mistakes made in the first weeks of this war have lead to a much longer and more expensive occupation than we were told was estimated by the chicken hawks-in-charge. The anger and desperation that these mistakes caused make it hard to leave without thinking that the violence will erupt upon departure. Some say Our presence is causing more violence than it's preventing. I hope they're right, because we are going to begin Our troop drawdown/redeployment once a Democrat takes the White House. A redeployment based more on attacking al qaeda, and other terrorists, specifically, and not invading nations with tenuous, if any, ties to them.

This is one Hell of a disgusting mess these men and a woman have created in Iraq and the greater "middle east" region. Iran, Hamas, Hezzbollah have become more powerful, because of the failed and flawed policies of this administration. Policies made by Experienced men, like dick and rummy. I say, try them all for treason for willfully misleading Our Nation to war under false pretenses, or try them at the Hague for invading a sovereign nation without provocation, or not abiding by the Geneva Conventions, or for the bush doctrine of pre-emptive war. The "bush doctrine"... I Hope no one uses it on US?