Wednesday, September 19, 2007

THE BLACKWATER CHARADE * KENT STATE SHOOTINGS

Lately there have been serious civil rights violations — reminiscent of Kent State in 1970 when four students were killed by our National Guard simply for protesting the Vietnam War. A college student was Tasered by police for simply asking too long a question, several people were arrested for wearing ‘Peace’ t-shirts, and a minister was tackled outside the Petraeus hearing ostensibly for wearing an “I love the Iraqi People” button while black. Our fragile democracy is at stake.

From Wikipedia: The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre or Kent State massacre, occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970. Four students were killed and nine others wounded, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

Some of the students who were shot were protesting the American invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon announced in a television address on April 30. However, other students who were shot were merely walking nearby or observing the protest at a distance.

There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, high schools, and even middle schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of eight million students, and the event further divided the country along political lines.

Now Blackwater is trying to open a camp in San Diego at the Mexican border...

THE BLACKWATER CHARADE by Larry




There are approximately 163,100 U.S troops in Iraq while at the same time there are more than 180,000 private security forces in Iraq, most of them employed by Blackwater USA.

The heavy reliance on contractors in a war zone is partly the result of a post-Cold War shrinking of the armed forces and the Bush administration's preference for contracting out government functions to the corporate world.

While having contractors on and around the battlefield is not new, the situation in Iraq raises questions about whether U.S. troops have become so dependent on contract help they could not function properly in their absence.

The presence of thousands of private sector security guards adds another component to the debate. Employees for Blackwater and other companies are engaging the enemy in combat.

As the military leans on the private sector, there's a push to hold contract employees to the same legal standards as military personnel. It appears Blackwater USA security forces have less strenuous rules and laws that apply to them, than do U.S troops.

A 2004 regulation issued by the U.S. occupation authority granted security contractors full immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Unlike American military personnel, the civilian contractors are also not subject to U.S. military law either

It is suspious that contractors are being used to mask the true extent of our involvement in Iraq,What other way can you interpret it when the number of contractors exceeds the number of troops?

A July report from the Congressional Research Service said the State Department has hired over 2,600 private guards to protect U.S. diplomatic personnel and to guard the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad as well as other key sites inside the city's "Green Zone.

They are private security in the same make believe sense that our uniformed military is a “volunteer” force, since both are lured by the dollars offered by the same paymaster, the U.S. government. Contractors earn substantially more, despite $20,000 to $150,000 signing bonuses and an all-time-high average annual cost of $100,000 per person for the uniformed military.

The U.S. government purchases whatever army it needs, which has led to the dependence upon private contract firms like Blackwater USA, with its $300-million-plus contract to protect U.S. State Department personnel in Iraq.

The fact that Blackwater USA gets almost all of its revenue from the U.S. government—much of it in no-bid contracts aided, no doubt, by the lavish contributions to the Republican Party made by company founder Erik Prince and his billionaire parents—its operations remain largely beyond public scrutiny.

Blackwater and others in this international security business operate as independent states of their own, subject neither to the rules of Iraq nor the ones that the U.S. government applies to its own uniformed forces. “We are not simply a ‘private security company,’ ” Blackwater claims on its corporate website. “We are a professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations firm.

Blackwater USA is not licensed to operate in Iraq, but that didn't stop George W Bush from using them anyway. In fact the Iraqi government that Bush installed are demanding Blackwater leave Iraq after Blackwater troops fired on civilians killing 20.

The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, amid mounting public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the U.S. Embassy’s security provider Blackwater USA.

Blackwater and other private "security" outfits are known to be involved in "secret" government operations. Taxpayers pay their salaries but lack the ability to know what these "private security" forces are doing.

In that regard Americans and Iraqis find themselves in a similar situation. Blackwater has more than $500 million in U.S. government contracts, and that does not include the "black" budget operations.

Columnist Joseph Palermo said the recent incident also raises the question: What are the trained squads of right-wing mercenaries from Blackwater, Triple Canopy, and Dyncorp going to do when they come home from Iraq?

They will probably fulfill a role similar to the one played by the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The Pinkertons specialized in breaking strikes and repressing labor union organizing, as well as intimidating progressives in general with violence. Blackwater and its ilk can easily become the new Pinkertons, as they apparently already have in New Orleans.


It seems the wealthy have sealed themselves away in gaited neighborhoods while they espouse policies that strip the public of needed services and starve the faltering middle and lower income groups.

There is quickly coming a time when repressing public resistance to these economic changes will produce a booming market for companies specializing in the violent repression of dissent.

In their gated neighborhoods, the ruling elite will not have to worry about local law enforcement hedging on police repression, they can just hire their own Blackwater Security Force to do their aggression for them.


Image Design by Stephen Pitt Cartoons

245 comments:

  1. It seems those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, is true after all.

    Bush is attempting to reply the worst of the nazi, stalinist and nixon regimes, so he can top them all as well as his poppy......

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  2. Pretty ironic that Iraq seems to have higher standards of conduct than the U.S. when it comes to mercenaries' conduct. How sad is that.

    Who Hijacked Our Country

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  3. Very sad Tom and it is telling that the Bush installed regime, has no use for Bush's mercenaries.

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  4. Mercenaries have become indispensable in Iraq. But after Blackwater employees killed 11 civilians on Sunday, the government in Baghdad wants them out. The problem is, private security companies operate above the law -- and the US wants to keep it that way.

    It is safe to assume Bush will not allow this to happen.

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  5. During a telephone conversation on Monday night, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki agreed that U.S. diplomats must be free to travel around Iraq, but how they will do that is now a point of contention.

    The U.S. embassy in Baghdad relies heavily on Blackwater security to guard its personnel as they visit government ministries and other sites around Iraq. American diplomats have not been able to travel outside the Green Zone since Iraq suspended Blackwater's license following a firefight Sunday that resulted in the deaths of at least eight Iraqi civilians. "We're there to strengthen the capacity of the Iraqi Government. We're not able to do that all in the Green Zone," Rice said she told Maliki in the conversation. And, she said, he agreed.

    Malaki will never bite the corrupt Republican hand that feeds him his tidbits.

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  6. BTW Mike I answered your question on the last thread.

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  7. Blackwater was a ticking timebomb ready to explode. Unfortunately, it appears that civilians had to die for somebody to take action against this shadowy Iraq security contractor.

    Just a few days ago, Blackwater security guards fired at and killed somewhere between eight and thirteen civilians. And this time the Blackwater boys were not protecting supplies. They were protecting the American government. That’s right. Blackwater killed Iraqi civilians while careening through Baghdad in a convoy of black SUVs containing US embassy officials. The Iraq army tried to disarm them. It took the US military intervening to get both sides to step back.

    The Iraqi government wants to prosecute, but the U.S. granted blanket immunity to contractors prior to the establishment of the government. They may not have the legal authority to prosecute, but with your help, we can get the legal authority to keep them out of California.

    The Blackwater/Bush cancer continues to spread.

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  8. Once he was known as the "Flies On The Eyeballs" guy. Lately, he's been the vice president of controversial private security company Blackwater. Now, Cofer Black has a new position: top counterterrorism adviser to Massachusetts Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

    The one-time chief of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center got his flamboyant nickname after delivering a famous post-9/11 briefing to President Bush about the CIA's plans to destroy al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. ("They'll have flies on their eyeballs" when CIA is done with them, Black is reported to have said.) But that wasn't Black's most famous utterance. In September 2002, in his first-ever public testimony before a joint Congressional inquiry into 9/11, Black -- by then the head of the State Department's counterterrorism shop -- acknowledged that in terms of the CIA's "operational flexibility," after 9/11, "the gloves come off." In retrospect, it's considered the first public reference to the agency's detention, rendition and interrogation policies.

    Black left government in 2005 to join Blackwater, whose activities in Iraq have drawn both the ire of the Iraqi government and the opprobrium of House Oversight Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA). But that hasn't disqualified Black from advising Romney's campaign.

    Last week, the former Massachusetts governor proudly announced he had brought Black on board:

    More Republican ties to Blackwater.

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  9. Power in the U.S Government:


    Blackwater doesn't just operate in a legal black hole in Iraq. The private-security firm has grown expert in protecting itself from oversight and regulation in Washington as well.

    Over at POGO, Nick Schwellenbach connects Blackwater to House oversight committee chairman Henry Waxman's investigation of Howard Krongard, the State Department inspector general whom Waxman alleges stifled numerous corruption probes in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of those probes involved an alleged Blackwater scheme to funnel weapons into Iraq, and, Schwellenbach notes, it wouldn't be so difficult for Blackwater to know how to get around an IG probe. Its parent company, the Prince Group, recently hired the Pentagon's ex-IG, Joseph Schmitz.

    Indeed, all throughout Blackwater are ways to get around government oversight: Cofer Black, the company's vice chairman, used to work at the CIA with A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, formerly CIA's executive director. And, yes, you read that last name correctly: Krongard of CIA is the brother of the current State Department IG. Think Schmitz or Black knew which numbers to call in the event of a State inquiry into the company?

    That's not all.

    Roll Call reports (sub. req.) that Blackwater and its private-security colleagues are investing heavily in lobbyists to prevent Congress from passing legislation regulating their war-zone activities.

    “It’s a little bit frustrating because there are 15 different committees that have jurisdiction over what our industry does,” said Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, whose members include Blackwater and DynCorp. “We are pulled in all these different directions.”
    The private-security industry is lining up behind a bill by Rep. David Price (D-NC) to put their firms under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, thereby creating a more coherent legal framework for their operations. Apparently it wouldn't be such an onerous one. Here's how Blackwater lobbyist Alan Chvotkin described competing legislation backed by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), which would "would require more transparency in the contracts":

    Only in Bush's America could mercenaries get off with cold blooded murder.

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  10. Thanks Clif, I saw your answer.

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  11. Larry, and Lydia, you couldnt have picked a better more timely topic..........I have seen video of the tasering incident and read reports and I get angrier and more frustrated and aggravated every time I see or read about it.............we've become a a police state where Freedom and freedom of speech are mere flowerly rhetoric and lies the Reich Wing fascist use for soundbites but really loathe and despise.

    Those Brownshirt piece of shit cops should be suspended and be rotting in jail for police brutality, assault and infringing on and denying Americans citizens their Constitutional right to freedom of speech.

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  12. Thats something most people would envision happening in Nazi Germany or Russia rather than in the USA...........and that crap is happenning more and more with these Reich Wing fascists in power.............People are beaten, arrested and harrased for exercising their freedom of speech or freedom of expression to wear a shirt or hat that doesnt support the Presisent or his illegal war.

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  13. Mike:

    Think of what will Blackwater do if the ever get out of Iraq.

    They will be like the old Pinkerton guards who beat workers to near death for wanting to join unions, harrass and conjone citizens to keep them in line, as Bush instills Martial Law.

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  14. BTW Lydia, i feel like a real idiot...........It finnally clicked and I know what the 4 dead in ohio means in the Neil Young song, I always knew the song was about Vietnam, but I never knew it referrred to the Kent State massacre, I was less than a year old at the time of course.

    there were similar incidents of Police brutality at other college campuses, at University of Buffalo Police were shooting people with rubber bullets and clubbing them for no reason, one of my high school teachers got shot by a rubber bullet and clubbed with a night stick.

    Isnt it amazing that WHENEVER the Reich Wing is in power Constitutional rights and liberties get trampled, coruption, brutality and wars are rampant and education, and healthcare are neglected while deficits are rampant and economic growth lags.

    Conservatism is a disease that has plagued this country for most of the last century and has brought nothing but misery.

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  15. Another Corrupt Repug Retires:

    Another Congressional Republican is headed for the door. Congressman Jerry Weller (R-IL) will reportedly announce tomorrow that he is not seeking re-election.

    President Bush carried his district with 53% in 2004, and Weller was re-elected with 55% in 2006. With those non-landslide margins in a district that simply was not targeted, we might just see the Democrats trying for a pick-up in a possible wave election next year.

    Weller is perhaps best known for a series of land deals in Nicaragua and for his marriage to Guatemalan Congresswoman Zury Ríos Montt, daughter of former right-wing dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.

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  16. Blackwater should be scattered to the wind...........there is nothing worse than an unstable megalomaniacal wannbe dictator having his own army of mercenaries loyal to him....................I agree, I could see Blackwater being Bush's Gestapo and helping him declare martial law and seize power........Congress is playing the wait till Bush is out of power after the next election game, they NEED to be mindful that that day may never come if Bush tries to seize power.

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  17. The Republicans Hate The Troops:

    A Republican filibuster in the Senate today shot down a bipartisan effort to restore the right of terrorism suspects to contest their detentions and treatment in federal courts, underscoring the Democratic-led Congress’s difficulty with terrorism issues.

    The 56-43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move to a final vote on the amendment to the Senate’s annual defense policy bill. But the measure did garner the support of six Republicans, a small victory for its supporters.

    The Senate then moved to the first big showdown over Iraq war policy of the fall, taking up a measure by Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to guarantee that troops receive home stays at least as long as their last combat deployments before being sent back to war.

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  18. Blackwater and its like ilk will be Bush's Gestapo once he instills Martial Law.

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  19. But again, great article Lydia and larry..........anyone who hasnt seen the video needs to watch it............if you arent agry and frustrated at what we have become after watching that video..............You arent an American and dont value freedom.

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  20. The footage was horrible and makes one sick with disgust over what America, under Bush has quickly become.

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  21. Three more U.S soldiers were killed in Iraq today.

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  22. Larry said...
    The Republicans Hate The Troops:

    A Republican filibuster in the Senate today shot down a bipartisan effort to restore the right of terrorism suspects to contest their detentions and treatment in federal courts, underscoring the Democratic-led Congress’s difficulty with terrorism issues.

    The 56-43 vote fell short of the 60 needed to cut off debate and move to a final vote on the amendment to the Senate’s annual defense policy bill. But the measure did garner the support of six Republicans, a small victory for its supporters.

    The Senate then moved to the first big showdown over Iraq war policy of the fall, taking up a measure by Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) to guarantee that troops receive home stays at least as long as their last combat deployments before being sent back to war."

    Larry, I hate to sound negative here, because the more support there is to repeal Nazi laws like this the better............but this is really moot anyway because we really need 67 votes to beat bush's veto.

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  23. I realize they need 67 votes, but like everything from impeachment to funding, they never try, they just give up because they do not have the votes.

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  24. BAGHDAD - In a city riven with sectarian bloodshed, workers at a 13th century Baghdad mosque mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by feeding the poor and preserving a bygone spirit of co-existence.

    The Sunni mosque of Abdul Qadir al-Gailani feeds hundreds of people a day during Ramadan, providing an evening meal for observant Muslims who fast from dawn to dusk.

    And after four years of communal violence in which tens of thousands of Sunni and Shiite Muslims have been killed, the mosque's soup kitchen remains an oasis of tolerance.

    "I can't live away from the kitchen. It's my peaceful world. We Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, are all living as brothers and never discuss our sect. We are all Iraqis," said Abu Saif, a Shiite who has worked at the mosque for more than 17 years.

    Alongside him was Haj Hameed, a Kurd who has cooked in the kitchen for a quarter century, and Sunni Arab employee Mahmoud al-Barazanchi.

    The diversity in the kitchen is matched in the crowd of Sunnis and Shiites who queue outside, metal pots in their hands, for a generous serving of lentils, chicken and rice.

    ‘Here, and only here’
    "It's here, and only here, that no one pays attention to whether we're Sunnis or Shiites," Abu Saif said, breaking into tears at the mention of Iraq's violence. "I wish one day I could sleep and wake to find my country acting the same."

    Violence has plagued Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003. But the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra in February 2006 marked a turning point in communal relations, igniting a wave of bloodletting between majority Shiite and minority Sunni Arabs.

    The depth of the violence leaves some Iraqis nostalgic for Saddam's era despite the wars, economic sanctions and brutal authoritarianism they endured under his rule.

    "The kitchen ... is a small Iraq of peace and harmony," Barazanchi said. "Before 2003 we used to have wonderful times in Ramadan when we gathered in the mosque to take the evening meal to break our fast."

    "But now we are locked inside homes just like prisoners."

    Life in Iraq.

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  25. The fog of war keeps getting thicker. The Iraqi government's decision to temporarily ban the security company Blackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad reveals a growing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private contractors but few signs U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them.

    Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees to the same code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers should do that, according to Peter Singer, a security industry expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

    A Congressional Research Service report published in July said security contractors in Iraq operate under rules issued by the United States, Iraq and international entities such as the United Nations.

    All have their limitations, however.

    A court-martial of a private-sector employee likely would be challenged on constitutional grounds, the research service said, while Iraqi courts do not have the jurisdiction to prosecute contractors without U.S. permission.

    "It is possible that some contractors may remain outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, civil or military, for improper conduct in Iraq," the report said.

    Bush and Blackwater: Loving war and loving death.

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  26. Blackwater and other private security firms long have been fixtures in Iraq, guarding U.S. officials and an international work force helping to rebuild the war-torn country.

    Prior to the March 2003 invasion, however, U.S. officials paid little attention to how prevalent these security firms would be in combat zones and the difficulties their presence could cause, according to Steve Schooner, co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington University.

    "The real problem is when we went into Iraq none of this had been worked out," Schooner said. "We hadn't thought it through."

    The result is dissatisfaction on multiple fronts that is tempered by the acknowledgment these hired hands have become an important part of the long-running effort to stabilize Iraq.

    "This is what happens when government fails to act," Singer wrote on the Brookings Web site of the incident Sunday involving Blackwater.

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  27. Larry said...
    I realize they need 67 votes, but like everything from impeachment to funding, they never try, they just give up because they do not have the votes."

    Exactly i'd be jabbing that SOB, and being a thorn in his side till he leaves office.........its like they just gave up like a bunch of cowards are are willing to let bush do as he pleases and or they are afraid of being killed or imprisoned if Bush declares martial law.

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  28. The more they force the Repugs to vote funding and impeachment and war bills down, the angrier the public will be, and pressure the Repugs.

    Of course cowards won't do this.

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  29. (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

    Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

    The Reuters/Zogby Index, a new measure of the mood of the country, dropped from 100 to 98.8 in the last month on worries about the economy and fears of a recession, pollster John Zogby said.

    "Since the last time we polled we have had the mortgage crisis, and we are hearing the recession word a whole lot more than we've heard it in the past," Zogby said.

    That's pretty sorry when Bush has a higher approval than congress, and Bush is hated by all.

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  30. MoneyCentral:

    While policymakers in Washington wrangle over how much progress we've made in Iraq, one thing is clear: The war on terror is making some people rich.

    President Bush's military buildup has caused defense-contractor revenue to double, triple and even more during the past five years, and their executives have reaped huge bonuses and stock windfalls as the companies' share prices have jumped.

    Take a look:

    CEOs at top defense contractors have reaped annual pay gains of 200% to 688% in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

    The chief executives at the seven defense contractors whose bosses made the most pocketed nearly a half-billion dollars from 2002 through last year.

    The CEOs made an average of $12.4 million a year, easily more than the average corporate chief. Since the start of the war, CEOs at defense contractors such General Dynamics (GD, news, msgs), Halliburton (HAL, news, msgs) and Oshkosh Truck (OSK, news, msgs) have made, on average, more in four days than what a top general makes in a whole year, or $187,390.

    Defense contractor CEOs are enjoying these big rewards partly because much of the war effort is being outsourced by an administration that believes private companies do things better than the public sector, say researchers at the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

    "In the most privatized war in history, lucrative opportunities abound for chief executives of defense contractors," says Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies.

    $19.5 million a year
    General Dynamics CEO Nicholas Chabraja tops the list of defense-contractor chiefs who have made the most money during the 2002-2006 defense buildup. Between 2002 and 2006, he pocketed $97.9 million, or an average of $19.6 million a year.

    Sales at General Dynamics increased 76% from 2002 to 2006, with significant help from Department of Defense spending. Overall sales increased to $24.1 billion from $13.6 billion, and at least a third of that increase came from higher Department of Defense spending.

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  31. Well i'll admit its pretty sorry for Congress, but keep in mind the Democrats dont have a bunch of drooling blindly loyal 26%ers that support them unconditional like a bunch of mindless redneck robots or brainwashed Stepford Wives!

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  32. I read that article aboyt the Defense Contractors earlier........Bush is the antithesis of Robin Hood,..........he steals from the poor and middle class and transfers wealth to the rich.

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  33. The Pope refused to meet with worthless Condi, when she wanted to have some credibility to her resume.

    It would take more than a meeting with the Pope to gain her that.

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  34. Bush is attempting to reply the worst of the nazi, stalinist and nixon regimes, so he can top them all as well as his poppy.....

    The idiotic Iraqi debacle, I would call a bad combination of Vietnam's "hamlet" program and Erich Hoenecker's Berlin Wall.

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  35. Anyone who still thinks America is a place of free speech and that we honor the right to peacefully protest our government, is just kidding themselves.

    We’re Germany. Not Nazi Germany, yet. But pre-war Germany? We’re already there.

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  36. Some of the remarkable similarities are the tactics used by the Pols and the Nazi’s include the random convey and troop patrol attacks, and the improvised explosive devices.

    One of the favorite tactics of the Pols was to put women on the balcony’s of apt bldgs to wave to the Gerry’s. Then, when Gerry drove underneath them, they’d toss molotof cocktails into the open cab halftracks and the troops sections of the half tracks, and burn the Germans alive in their own vehicles, while small arms fire cleaned up the rest.

    Of course we cheer that on as acts of heroism, but when the Iraqi’s do it to us, we call them cowards.

    Go figure.

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  37. A molotof cocktail of course is just a fancy word for an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

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  38. Muslims are to the Americans like the Jews were to the Nazi’s. I would not be surprised if there were another attack, that the government might begin to inter them, or make them wear identifying badges in public.

    I can just see it now. A couple of young, good looking blond republican youths, in their Homeland Security uniforms, complete with jackboots, kicking the shit out of a muslim cleric in the street, while laughing, “bleed muslim, bleed muslim”.

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  39. Prior to WWII, and post WW1 was where I see so many similarities to today.

    Hitler didn’t have the power he had in 33, but back to the early 1920’s Hitler and the SA (brownshirts) employed similar “bullying” tactics that we see today.

    Bullying and beating people at political events, spreading propaganda and hate speech in public meeting places. And its important to point out that the SA were members of the Nazi party as early as 1920. The branding of the Juden as a parisitical and dangerous race of religious terrorists is almost identical to what we are doing to the Muslim race today. I honestly don’t know why more people don’t see this, or talk about it more. To me its like history repeating itself.

    Its like, God (or Rod Serling) gave us all time to learn about Nazi Germany as children, and to learn the horrors inflicted on a race of people, and a religion of people, (JUDEN) and let us all talk about how horrible we thought it was, and then, once we're old enough to know better, he put us in the same position as the German people in WWII, to see if we’d do any better perhaps.

    Anyway so much of the bullying that led to his appointment as Chancellor in 33, where the Nazi’s siezed power, (the day of the “Machtergrefung”), mimics what we see going on today. Then of course later, once the title of Fuhrer (a title he had held for a over a decade within the Nazi party itself before being appointed Chancellor of Germany) was national he used the Reichstag fire as a terrorist event and instituted der “Reichstagsverordnung”, which removed basic civil liberties like Habeas Corpus.

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  40. Exactly Bartlebe he used the Reichstag fire as his 9/11 to justify changing all the laws to suspend civil liberties and give himself more and more power.

    he used the SA to bully, intimidate and beat people just as GWB will likely use the police and his Blackwater brownshirts.

    Hitler used fear tactics just like the repugs, giving the people a common enemy to hate and fear and a nationalistic crusade and war to rally arround.

    Once he seized ABSOLUTE power it was too late to oppose him..........according to the script Bush and Cheney are following the "Night of The Long Knives" where they murder, eliminate and imprison all their key rivals and enemies cant be far behind..........they WANT to use the chaos from the Nuking of Iran to declare martial law and seize power and this MUST NOT BE ALLOWED!

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  41. BTW, did you notice what that poor student swas saying when he was attacked, he wasnt attacking Kerry or harrassing him, he was asking about the votor fraud and suppression that put the Fuheror into power and WHY it wasnt being investigated and why Bush wasnt being held accountable and impeached............Freedom of speech is a joke speak out about the Nazi's in power and the Brownshirts assualt and arrest you.

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  42. It didn't matter what he was saying Mike. What they did to him constituted torture and civil punishment meted out by some half rate 2 bit University cops.

    If Kerry had any leadership skills, that was his moment.

    And he let it walk right by him.

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  43. Someone in another blog was saying that they saw Eisenhower when they were a kid, stop the police from beating a protestor.

    If Kerry had any leadership he should have walked right over and ordered those police to stop as a Senator of the United States.

    They couldn't have touched Kerry because his security would've been all over their fat, lazy untrained jellydoughnut eating buts.

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  44. :|

    Now I want a Jelly Doughnut.

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  45. I agree, Kerry SHOULD have taken charge of the situation and made sure justice prevailed................i'm no fan of Kerry's thats one of MANY reasons why.

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  46. "IF" the Neo Cons ever do declare martial law and seize power, I cant help but wonder if Cheney will find Bush expendable once he no longer needs a "face" to sell his agenda, much like Hitler found Rohm expendable once he seized ultimate power.

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  47. Well, since technically Bush is Hitler, and Cheney is more like Goering or Hoess, or even Speers, I'd put Rohm more like Tom Delay.

    Delay was Bush's henchman, out there doing the dirty work, putting pressure on libs, and keeping pressure on party loyalists to keep pressure on libs, and so on. And like Rohm, Bush cut Delay loose and now Delay is looking at the Business end of the gavel.

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  48. I mean technically Bush would be Hitler in the scenario.

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  49. I will concede however that there are differences between Bush and Hitler.

    For example, Hitler was a highly decorated war hero in WW1, recieving several battlefield citations for heroism and courage under fire, including the coveted "Iron Cross".

    Bush on the other hand used his daddys influence to hide from the war.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Well i certainly see your point about Delay..........But I think Rohm controlled the SA and Brownshirts and Hitler saw that as a possible threat to his power and authority If Bush really does control Blackwater and the National Guard and police forces like he claims or desires, and Cheney Really is the brains and power controlling the agenda then that same type of rivalry and fear could develop, particularly if martial law is declared and Cheney no longer NEEDS and elected "face" to sell his agenda since he is incapable of EVER being elected president.

    ReplyDelete
  51. And of course, after the Reichstag fire in Feburary, Hitler had it rebuilt and a little over a month later it was open for business.

    On the other hand Bush has been unable to do anything with ground zero since the towers fell.

    ReplyDelete
  52. BARTLEBEE said...
    I will concede however that there are differences between Bush and Hitler.

    For example, Hitler was a highly decorated war hero in WW1, recieving several battlefield citations for heroism and courage under fire, including the coveted "Iron Cross".

    Bush on the other hand used his daddys influence to hide from the war."

    True, Hitler did actually fight in some of the wars he craved, Hitler was also somewhat intelligent, while Bush is a frat boy dunce.............They are both sociopaths though!

    ReplyDelete
  53. He's done nothing woth New Orleans either1

    ReplyDelete
  54. Well at that point Mike who cares what they do to each other. If we let it get that far then history will judge us as harshly as them.

    ReplyDelete
  55. And yes, Rohm was the head of the SA.

    ReplyDelete
  56. I often used to wonder HOW the German people could have let a monster like that come to power.............the last 5 years have answered that question in horrifying nightmarish fashion....................If the elections go smoothly and Bush and Cheney leave office as they should it will truly be a day to celebrate and breathe a sigh of relief.

    ReplyDelete
  57. The similarities are chilling, they used, phony terrorism, fear tactics and false flag patriotism and nationalism, squahed dissent and free speech, they even claimed to despise gays yet several high ranking members of the inner circle like Rohm were closet gays........birds of a feather.

    ReplyDelete
  58. You can say that again. Its getting harder and harder to criticize the german people every day. The difference is I think is our open society allowed us to catch this one early on, and hopefully I think they won't let him start a war with Iran. Of course what I fear, is us provoking Iran into doing something first. One skirmish at sea, one border crossing and boom. Bush will claim we must invade and then lookout. Then you, me, Lydia, and the millions of bloggers out there will be instant targets for the new Gestapo and bada boom bada bing our worst nightmares here.

    All of this is of course is speculative but it is based on some very real precedent and some very real signs. Bush is carefully and quitely, pushing war with Iran. I worry that something will happen before his term is out.

    I hope this is just silly fears ,but the thing is, people fear their own government right now, more than any terrorist.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Bartlebe said "I hope this is just silly fears ,but the thing is, people fear their own government right now, more than any terrorist."

    Sad but true.

    I fear thats what the spying is REALLY for to eliminate dissenters like Hitler did in the Night of Long Knives when he seized power.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Well I guess we're all kind of a little shakey about that. I just don't think theres enough support for that. What scares me is the kind of event that Bush needs to garner that type of support. If he can convince the conservatives, half of whom he's lost, that there is a crisis and deputize them as some sort of volksgruppen or something, then we'd be looking at some problems. Fortunately, I don't "think" he's that crazy. Not quite that crazy. I think he'll go to a point but not beyond. I am being optimisic here, but what else have we got.

    Its a long time until January 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  61. And the word is, if Hilary is elected, it might not be much better.

    ReplyDelete
  62. I REALLY hope Hillary doesnt get the nomination.............but i'm not a Democrat, so that ones out of my hands but i'd REALLY hate to be forced to vote for her rather than the repug in the General election.

    ReplyDelete
  63. I just don't think I will vote for her. If she gets the nod I'm going to work for the independent if he's any good.

    And if he's not, then I'm stayin home.

    ReplyDelete
  64. It's been an article of faith for the Bush administration that the invasion of Iraq was the right thing to do.

    However, the man now in charge of running that war said he is not sure.

    Defense Secretary Robert Gates' stunningly candid answer came in an interview with New York Times columnist David Brooks.

    What a buffoon.He is voluntarily running Bush's war but he doesn't know if the war is the right thing to do.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency--much of it belonging to the Iraqi people--was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.

    No wonder Bremer left so happy.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Since the Minot story broke a week ago about the missing nukeclandestine operation from Minot, we have the following (for those who are paying attention):

    1. All six people listed below are from Minot Airforce base
    2. All were directly involved as loaders or as pilots
    3. All are now dead
    4. All within the last 7 days in 'accidents' [Not all of them --LRP]

    Silly me, seeing more than there is to this story. I guess this is just another coincidence.

    But no doubt now that there will be more coincidences in the near future because as I have stated before, you need about fourteen signatures to get an armed nuke onto a B-52, and they may have told their wives and friends.

    Why isn't this covered in the media.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson on Wednesday called for the U.S. to end the war in Iraq, arguing that the troops exacerbate the sectarian violence and the billions spent could be used for health care and other needs.

    "We're a nation that spends $5.5 billion in cancer research — that's two weeks of the Iraq war," Richardson told The Associated Press. "It shows the misguided priorities."

    "We are being bled dry by an invasion that is costing us $500 billion so far — $500 billion," he said, stressing the cost. "And it's detracting from American security objectives in dealing with terrorism, with nuclear proliferation, with energy independence."

    How can anyone argue with this.

    ReplyDelete
  68. ABC News is reminding Republican presidential hopefuls that the October debate in New Hampshire isn't happening -- no matter how much Fred Thompson wants to come.

    Thompson's campaign said yesterday it was looking forward to the October 14th debate in Manchester. But ABC sent a note today to all the Republicans, reminding them the debate was canceled weeks ago.

    The GOP debate was canceled, after a Democrats' debate on October 21st was canceled to stay within party guidelines. Organizers say they didn't want to have a debate for Republicans with no matching one for Democrats.

    Who is more senile Thompson or McCain?

    ReplyDelete
  69. Reuters) - The U.S. National Guard has been strained by multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and faces equipment shortfalls totaling tens of billions of dollars, the Guard's top general said on Wednesday.

    Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said the Army National Guard needs $13.1 billion through 2013 to boost equipment levels and the Air National Guard needs $8.8 billion for equipment in that time.

    Doesn't Bush support the troops he sends to war?

    ReplyDelete
  70. Look how Bush has managed your money:

    Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told Congress on Wednesday the government will hit the current debt ceiling on Oct. 1. He sought quick action to increase the limit, saying it was essential to protect the "full faith and credit" of the country, especially at a time of financial market turmoil.

    The limit is $8.965 trillion. Unless Congress votes to raise it, the country would be unable to borrow more money to keep the government operating and to pay debt obligations coming due.

    ReplyDelete
  71. "IF" the Neo Cons ever do declare martial law and seize power, I cant help but wonder if Cheney will find Bush expendable once he no longer needs a "face" to sell his agenda, much like Hitler found Rohm expendable once he seized ultimate power.

    Shooter is every bit as stupid as Chimpy is. They'd both wind up behind the wire.

    People are right to think that Shooter is an evil man, but they are very much mistaken to assume that he's intelligent. His entire life history says otherwise; he's either been an ass-kisser or a f'up his entire adult life.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Jolly Roger said...
    "IF" the Neo Cons ever do declare martial law and seize power, I cant help but wonder if Cheney will find Bush expendable once he no longer needs a "face" to sell his agenda, much like Hitler found Rohm expendable once he seized ultimate power.

    Shooter is every bit as stupid as Chimpy is. They'd both wind up behind the wire.

    People are right to think that Shooter is an evil man, but they are very much mistaken to assume that he's intelligent. His entire life history says otherwise; he's either been an ass-kisser or a f'up his entire adult life."

    Your absololutely right JR..........let me rephrase that for accuracy...............Cheney is an incompetent moron.........but he is an incompetent moron that knows how to manipulate the wheels and levers of power to get what he wants..........at least in THIS country with only a bunch of cowardly lemmings in Congress to oppose him!

    ReplyDelete
  73. The gays love Hillary.

    She's not for marriage equality, and her husband instituted Don't Ask, Don't Tell, but man, those boys sweat for her anyway.

    A while back, Newsweek tackled this conundrum, but in next week's issue, gay newsmagazine The Advocate does it better: "Like a blushing schoolgirl, we take the varsity jock’s flirtations at face value, deluding ourselves into believing he’s going to ask us to the prom," explains editor Sean Kennedy. "When in reality he’s just using us to get to our sexy friend who will actually put out."

    Some hopeful gay voters take her carefully worded objections to marriage equality and interpret them as hints that she really, deep down, believes in it. "This is an issue that I’ve had very few years of my life to think about when you really look at it, when you compare it to a whole life span. I am where I am right now, and it is a position that I come to authentically."

    Hear that, gays? She really, really doesn't support gay marriage (or was it not the gays who were supposed to be listening up?).

    Why is this vile witch leading in the polls? I will not vote for her under any circumstances.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Christopher:

    Hillary has many of the same beliefs that the Republicans have.

    She just doesn't let them be as exposed as most.

    ReplyDelete
  75. AP:

    James Dobson, one of the nation's most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week he will not support Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson.

    In a private e-mail obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.

    I'm sure voters will all heed the advice of the deranged self-imposed moralist.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Bush caught in more lies:

    In a Thursday morning morning press conference at the White House, the President engaged in a little bit of grade inflation about his academic record.

    "You need to talk to economists," he answered when asked if there was a risk of recession in the US economy. "I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A however in keeping taxes low, and being fiscally responsible with the people's money."

    President Bush as an undergraduate at Yale did not in fact receive a grade of B in his economics course. Bush received a grade that would correspond with a C-.

    A copy of Bush's Yale transcript posted at the humorous website GeorgeWBush.org states that the president received grades of 71 and 72 in Economics. The president took the course during successive semesters of his sophomore year, 1965-66.

    President Bush, who earned a Bachelor's degree with a major in History at Yale, has long described himself as a 'C student.' He also has a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard.

    Bush's daddy must have bought those C grades, as the economy sure is operating far below C grade level.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Hollywood superstar Matt Damon lashed out at both the Bush Administration and Tinseltown while visiting France to promote his latest spy flick, "The Bourne Ultimatum," according to French broadcaster RTL.

    In interviews for the French glossies Paris Match and Telerama, Damon said "After Iraq, the Bush Administration disgusts me," RTL presenter Thierry Guerrier told listeners Wednesday. Damon also criticized the President's handling of Hurricane Katrina.

    Matt Damon speaks for America!

    ReplyDelete
  78. President Bush will announce at 9:30 AM ET that his Agriculture Secretary, Mike Johanns, will resign his cabinet post and run for the Senate seat being vacated by vehement anti-war critic Chuck Hagel (R-NE).

    Another neocon war lover desiring more.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Another Major Bush Lie:

    President George W. Bush said Thursday he was saddened by the loss of life when private security contractors opened fire in Baghdad and said he was awaiting results of a probe into the deaths.

    "Let's find out what the facts are first," Bush said in a White House news conference when asked about the killings which happened Sunday when shooting broke out in a Baghdad neighborhood where Blackwater security contractors were working.

    "Obviously to the extent innocent life was lost, I'm saddened. Our objective is to protect innocent life," he said. "I want to find out the facts about exactly what took place there."

    Bush says he is "saddened" by the 20 Iraqi deaths caused by Blackwater.

    Bush says his objective is to "protect innocent lives."

    What was the objective for causing the deaths of nearly 1 million Iraqi's and thousands of U.S soldiers Bush?

    ReplyDelete
  80. Larry, you too Lydia if you want to Hemmorage!
    an average patriot said...
    Larry
    You want to hemmorage? I wrote the other day how our permanent presence in the middle east would baloon our debt and you mention the defense Industry getting enriched but look how bad it is. Markos did this today. OMG

    ReplyDelete
  81. I suppose it doesn't really matter that Blackwater's forces are ex US military special forces people who once swore to protect the US with their lives...

    Do you REALLY think these guys would aid in turning our country into what your conspiracy theory would have you believe?

    ReplyDelete
  82. The euro hit 1.4092 dollars to the Euro,

    heck of a job georgie;

    for a historical perspective, before georgie started wasting BILLIONS of borrowed dollars in Iraq the euro was;

    0.959877 dollar to the EURO on,
    2003-01-03


    That C- in economics is a showin' again georgie....

    ReplyDelete
  83. Do you REALLY think these guys would aid in turning our country into what your conspiracy theory would have you believe?

    Why not Bozo, you and your reichwing trolls who USED to try to hijack this blog have already proved YOU are willing to son.

    Not every Veteran has Americas best interests at heart, like the former vet and reichwing fellow travelor Timmy McVeigh, (and CIA asset and former marine Lee Harvey Oswald). Just to mention a few son

    ReplyDelete
  84. The problem is the Blackwater guys of course wouldn't just agree to turn America into Nazi Germany, when presented in that light.

    But you don't become a facist state overnight you know.

    Its through "small steps" that imperialism sneaks in. No dictator is made overnight. In fact, it took over 15 years for Nazi Germany to grow into the Third Reich. Hitler started in the beer halls, lecturing patriotism, right wing conservatism and hatred of the "mongrol races" and the "liberal traitors".

    Then, when the opportunity arose through a "terrorist act" (the burning of the reichstag) Hitler used the moment to introduce "der Reichstagverordnung" to "protect the people from terrorism".

    The Reichstag Act removed certain civil liberties enjoyed by the German people, including Habeas Corpus.

    Sorry troll, but this is not "my opinion". This is history. And its repeating itself here. Just like Adolf Hitler, Bush used an act of terrorism to remove civil liberties from under our feet. Liberties that our country was founded on.

    Bush's removal of Habeas Corpus effectively dismantled our Constitution, and made providing citizens their constitutional rights, an "option".

    Guys like Voltron are essential to the standing up of a dicator and a totalitarian society. They are the enablers, who allow themselves to be beguiled by cheap talk of patriotism and a little flag waving, while their leaders lead them carefully down to hell.

    ReplyDelete
  85. And so it begins.

    U.S. detains Iranian in Iraq By
    YAHYA BARZANJI,
    Associated Press Writer
    2 hours, 36 minutes ago
    SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq -

    An Iranian officer accused of smuggling powerful roadside bombs into Iraq was arrested Thursday in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.

    The arrest could add to tensions between Washington and Tehran already strained by the detention of each other's citizens as well as U.S. accusations of Iranian involvement in Iraq's violence and Iran's disputed nuclear program.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Oh and dolty boy I forgot to mention some people don't have to leave active duty before they attempt to undermine the United States Constitution which they took an oath to uphold, like Ollie North did, which was a felony in case you cared son.

    ReplyDelete
  87. The Bush administration will continue to push Iran into a corner, until they do something he feels justifies all out war.

    Then Bush will give the word, and we'll have a multitheatre war in the middle east.

    Then, Russia and China will move into Iran, to drive us out, and if we're not careful, hello WW3.

    Dolt thinks I'm nuts, and its all conspiracy theories, but then how did I predict, on the day that Bush was elected, that he would take us into war?

    How did I know that?

    ReplyDelete
  88. I'll tell you how.

    Because it was obvious from the way he talked, thats how.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Bush has been backed into a corner. He knows that he faces serious legal battles once he's out of office.

    So war on a grand scale, may be his only shelter.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Ole' ben heilocopter load bernanke, might have done it ths time;


    Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright

    Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

    "This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.

    "Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States," he said.

    The Saudi central bank said today that it would take "appropriate measures" to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg.

    As a close ally of the US, Riyadh has so far tried to stick to the peg, but the link is now destabilising its own economy.

    The Fed's dramatic half point cut to 4.75pc yesterday has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen year low, touching with weakest level ever against the mighty euro at just under $1.40.

    There is now a growing danger that global investors will start to shun the US bond markets. The latest US government data on foreign holdings released this week show a collapse in purchases of US bonds from $97bn to just $19bn in July, with outright net sales of US Treasuries.

    The danger is that this could now accelerate as the yield gap between the United States and the rest of the world narrows rapidly, leaving America starved of foreign capital flows needed to cover its current account deficit - expected to reach $850bn this year, or 6.5pc of GDP.

    Mr Redeker said foreign investors have been gradually pulling out of the long-term US debt markets, leaving the dollar dependent on short-term funding. Foreigners have funded 25pc to 30pc of America's credit and short-term paper markets over the last two years.

    "They were willing to provide the money when rates were paying nicely, but why bear the risk in these dramatically changed circumstances? We think that a fall in dollar to $1.50 against the euro is not out of the question at all by the first quarter of 2008," he said.

    "This is nothing like the situation in 1998 when the crisis was in Asia, but the US was booming. This time the US itself is the problem," he said.

    Mr Redeker said the biggest danger for the dollar is that falling US rates will at some point trigger a reversal yen "carry trade", causing massive flows from the US back to Japan.

    Jim Rogers, the commodity king and former partner of George Soros, said the Federal Reserve was playing with fire by cutting rates so aggressively at a time when the dollar was already under pressure.

    The risk is that flight from US bonds could push up the long-term yields that form the base price of credit for most mortgages, the driving the property market into even deeper crisis.

    "If Ben Bernanke starts running those printing presses even faster than he's already doing, we are going to have a serious recession. The dollar's going to collapse, the bond market's going to collapse. There's going to be a lot of problems," he said.

    The Federal Reserve, however, clearly calculates the risk of a sudden downturn is now so great that the it outweighs dangers of a dollar slide.

    Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan said this week that house prices may fall by "double digits" as the subprime crisis bites harder, prompting households to cut back sharply on spending.

    For Saudi Arabia, the dollar peg has clearly become a liability. Inflation has risen to 4pc and the M3 broad money supply is surging at 22pc.

    The pressures are even worse in other parts of the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates now faces inflation of 9.3pc, a 20-year high. In Qatar it has reached 13pc.

    Kuwait became the first of the oil sheikhdoms to break its dollar peg in May, a move that has begun to rein in rampant money supply growth.


    well thanks to georgie's C- economics and both Alan Greenspan, and heilocoptre load ben'sputting the stock market ahead of america'sinterests the dollar is beginning to melt down, and the world s decoupling from it, to preserve their ciurriencies and economies. seems the reichwing s st plain astupid in everything they do;
    Can'tdefend the constitution,

    Can't accept the milary has rules and need to follow those rules especially in wars of agression,(like planning for follow n operations after illegally invading any country let alone a Arab country).

    can't PAY THEIR BILLS,

    failed to balance the bdget since Ronnie depends Ray-gun broke it.

    can't follow the law,(or their own hypocrtcal rules)

    Can't keep ther word,(like term limits eh, suzie the liar running again in maine for senate when in 1996 she said she wouldn't seek a third term)



    Oh and BTW about that broken dollar thingy

    China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales

    just to add to the entire collapse senario

    ReplyDelete
  91. Voltron said...
    I suppose it doesn't really matter that Blackwater's forces are ex US military special forces people who once swore to protect the US with their lives...


    So were many of the Clinton-hating militias...

    Gee...supporting the President seems to only be a one-way street with you, miscegenist!

    ReplyDelete
  92. This country is in serious trouble. I am seeing more and more instances of police cracking down hard on people exercising their right of free speech, freedom of assembly, etc. Rogue mercenaries are acting as a private army and soon they will be used against their own people. Something must be done soon. In the past two weeks we have seen the police intimidate Tina Richards and Adam Kokesh. We saw several of them attack Rev. Lennox Yearwood. I saw people being pummeled by riot shields. I saw people pepper sprayed. They're bringing out the batons and other riot gear for peaceful situations. How long will it be before they resort to Kent State style tactics.

    ReplyDelete
  93. How long will it be before they resort to Kent State style tactics.

    They already have in Iraq, in places like Fallugha in April 2004, and November 2004, and many other places where either the military or private contractors shoot first and ask questions later.

    Civilans always lose in that senario, just like at Kent State

    the new song will go,

    Blackwater and Bush is comin' ....

    ReplyDelete
  94. Here is why Bush will attack Iran:

    Why Attack Iran

    ReplyDelete
  95. Oh and since Dolt decided to crawl out of mommy's duct tapped basement, I thought he might like to see just what is happening on the Global Warming front.

    Not good BTW;

    Climate change worse than feared: Australian expert

    "In the six years since then, we've collected enough data to (check) whether those projections are valid or not," he said.
    "It turns out they're not valid, but in the most horrible way -- because for the key performance indicators about climate, change is occurring far in advance of the worst-case scenario," he said.

    "Carbon dioxide's increasing more rapidly, sea levels are rising more rapidly (and) the Arctic ice cap is melting away more quickly than were projected in 2001."


    The good news dolty is you were right we weren't as accurate as we though at the time, however the bad news son is, things are even worse the we thought at that time.

    Which means things are MUCH worse then what the liars said and you shoveled propaganda for son.

    Run dolty boy back into mommy's basement and hde from the evil liberals, islamofacists, RINO's and the billions of people you can't seem to find a way to live on this planet with(without wanting them dead or in a prison of some sort).

    ReplyDelete
  96. Hey guys if james dobson doesnt like thompson who is his favorite; multiple marriage rudy

    ReplyDelete
  97. doltron dribbled,

    I suppose it doesn't really matter that Blackwater's forces are ex US military special forces people who once swore to protect the US with their lives...

    Do you REALLY think these guys would aid in turning our country into what your conspiracy theory would have you believe?


    In a heartbeat. We understand exactly how they (and you) think. You'd like to shut us librul spoutin' types up FOR GOOD!

    ReplyDelete
  98. Breaking News! Breaking News!

    Keith Olbermann will have another award winning "Special Comment" about Bush tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Hey guys if james dobson doesnt like thompson who is his favorite; multiple marriage rudy

    Newt.

    ReplyDelete
  100. said...
    Ole' ben heilocopter load bernanke, might have done it ths time;


    Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright

    Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.

    "This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas.

    "Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region has $3,500bn under management. They face an inflationary threat and do not want to import an interest rate policy set for the recessionary conditions in the United States," he said.

    The Saudi central bank said today that it would take "appropriate measures" to halt huge capital inflows into the country, but analysts say this policy is unsustainable and will inevitably lead to the collapse of the dollar peg.

    As a close ally of the US, Riyadh has so far tried to stick to the peg, but the link is now destabilising its own economy.

    The Fed's dramatic half point cut to 4.75pc yesterday has already caused a plunge in the world dollar index to a fifteen year low, touching with weakest level ever against the mighty euro at just under $1.40.

    There is now a growing danger that global investors will start to shun the US bond markets. The latest US government data on foreign holdings released this week show a collapse in purchases of US bonds from $97bn to just $19bn in July, with outright net sales of US Treasuries.

    The danger is that this could now accelerate as the yield gap between the United States and the rest of the world narrows rapidly, leaving America starved of foreign capital flows needed to cover its current account deficit - expected to reach $850bn this year, or 6.5pc of GDP.

    Mr Redeker said foreign investors have been gradually pulling out of the long-term US debt markets, leaving the dollar dependent on short-term funding. Foreigners have funded 25pc to 30pc of America's credit and short-term paper markets over the last two years.

    "They were willing to provide the money when rates were paying nicely, but why bear the risk in these dramatically changed circumstances? We think that a fall in dollar to $1.50 against the euro is not out of the question at all by the first quarter of 2008," he said.

    "This is nothing like the situation in 1998 when the crisis was in Asia, but the US was booming. This time the US itself is the problem," he said.

    Mr Redeker said the biggest danger for the dollar is that falling US rates will at some point trigger a reversal yen "carry trade", causing massive flows from the US back to Japan.

    Jim Rogers, the commodity king and former partner of George Soros, said the Federal Reserve was playing with fire by cutting rates so aggressively at a time when the dollar was already under pressure.

    The risk is that flight from US bonds could push up the long-term yields that form the base price of credit for most mortgages, the driving the property market into even deeper crisis.

    "If Ben Bernanke starts running those printing presses even faster than he's already doing, we are going to have a serious recession. The dollar's going to collapse, the bond market's going to collapse. There's going to be a lot of problems," he said.

    The Federal Reserve, however, clearly calculates the risk of a sudden downturn is now so great that the it outweighs dangers of a dollar slide.

    Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan said this week that house prices may fall by "double digits" as the subprime crisis bites harder, prompting households to cut back sharply on spending.

    For Saudi Arabia, the dollar peg has clearly become a liability. Inflation has risen to 4pc and the M3 broad money supply is surging at 22pc.

    The pressures are even worse in other parts of the Gulf. The United Arab Emirates now faces inflation of 9.3pc, a 20-year high. In Qatar it has reached 13pc.

    Kuwait became the first of the oil sheikhdoms to break its dollar peg in May, a move that has begun to rein in rampant money supply growth.

    well thanks to georgie's C- economics and both Alan Greenspan, and heilocoptre load ben'sputting the stock market ahead of america'sinterests the dollar is beginning to melt down, and the world s decoupling from it, to preserve their ciurriencies and economies. seems the reichwing s st plain astupid in everything they do;
    Can'tdefend the constitution,

    Can't accept the milary has rules and need to follow those rules especially in wars of agression,(like planning for follow n operations after illegally invading any country let alone a Arab country).

    can't PAY THEIR BILLS,

    failed to balance the bdget since Ronnie depends Ray-gun broke it.

    can't follow the law,(or their own hypocrtcal rules)

    Can't keep ther word,(like term limits eh, suzie the liar running again in maine for senate when in 1996 she said she wouldn't seek a third term)



    Oh and BTW about that broken dollar thingy

    China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales

    just to add to the entire collapse senario"


    Yeah Clif, it appears Helicopter Ben has chosen to defend the economy and stock market and sacrifice the economy............I think he is trying to force rates down temporarily to give people a window to refinance and avoid forclosure then he will raise rates to defend the dollar........if all our foreign creditors dump the dollar we are screwed and hyperinflation due to monetizing the debt will be the outcome.

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  101. Actually considering Dobson thinks making his sons shower with himself is a good idea, he just might be secretly wishing Mark Foley runs.....

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  102. Well mike, considering Hyper-inflation was what laid the ground work for Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ben is just laying the ground work for Bush to declare an economic emergency and himself "dictater fur life", (Until dead-eye convinces him to go hunting.).

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  103. BARTLEBEE said...
    The problem is the Blackwater guys of course wouldn't just agree to turn America into Nazi Germany, when presented in that light.

    But you don't become a facist state overnight you know.

    Its through "small steps" that imperialism sneaks in. No dictator is made overnight. In fact, it took over 15 years for Nazi Germany to grow into the Third Reich. Hitler started in the beer halls, lecturing patriotism, right wing conservatism and hatred of the "mongrol races" and the "liberal traitors".

    Then, when the opportunity arose through a "terrorist act" (the burning of the reichstag) Hitler used the moment to introduce "der Reichstagverordnung" to "protect the people from terrorism".

    The Reichstag Act removed certain civil liberties enjoyed by the German people, including Habeas Corpus.

    Sorry troll, but this is not "my opinion". This is history. And its repeating itself here. Just like Adolf Hitler, Bush used an act of terrorism to remove civil liberties from under our feet. Liberties that our country was founded on.

    Bush's removal of Habeas Corpus effectively dismantled our Constitution, and made providing citizens their constitutional rights, an "option".

    Guys like Voltron are essential to the standing up of a dicator and a totalitarian society. They are the enablers, who allow themselves to be beguiled by cheap talk of patriotism and a little flag waving, while their leaders lead them carefully down to hell."

    Thats it exactly Bartlebe.......dictatorships and Totalitarianism emerge slowly in small little steps freedsom is always suspended because of some feigned or supposed danger and it is always cloaked in pseudo patriotism and nationalism with lots of flag waving and demonizing the opposition as unpatriotic...............all the laws are changed to give the wannabe dictator more and more unchecked power and freedoms and liberties are sacrificed in the cowardly name of safety.

    Finally some crisis appears and the dictator declares martial law allegedly to resore order and during that contrived crisis all dissenters are murdered and imprisoned and there is no going back.

    And Bartlebe is 1000% correct, the enablers like Volt legitimize the fascists and allow the transformation to take place.

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  104. There has GOT to be some inflation, and it's GOT to be pretty bad. It's the only way the dollar can correct itself. Everybody knows it; up till now everybody's pretended otherwise. But they knew.

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  105. Well mike, considering Hyper-inflation was what laid the ground work for Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Ben is just laying the ground work for Bush to declare an economic emergency and himself "dictater fur life", (Until dead-eye convinces him to go hunting.).

    Maybe. All the indications on the ground are that he's going to go a little further south than Texas, and fairly soon.

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  106. Bush ET AL are just installing a back-up plan Hitler ET AL never considered,(but a few former nazis did find that plan rather convienent in 1946) IMHO

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  107. Of course we all will feel pretty stupid if Bush just quiety hands over the White House in 09 to President Obama, and the dems quietly move into office.

    :|

    I can't wait to feel stupid.

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  108. It's ironic that you posted this fine article, Larry, as it's quite similar to one I'm working on, not yet quite ready for release. Great job!

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  109. The Republicans are racists:

    Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) has become the latest Republican presidential candidate to drop out of a long-scheduled forum at a historically black college, the Huffington Post has learned.

    Tancredo joins frontrunners Fred Thompson, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney, who have been widely criticized for snubbing the PBS event at Morgan State College.

    Like the other candidates who pulled out of the forum, Tancredo cited scheduling conflict, despite the fact that the date for the forum has been set for months. But a person involved in planning the forum called the timing of Tancredo's decision "a bit curious," noting that it "came less than 24 hours after a Tancredo spokesperson expressed concerns to us about the inclusion of Alan Keyes at Morgan State."

    Keyes, an African American, joined the GOP presidential race several days ago and participated in a "Values Voter" forum earlier this week.

    Last month, Tancredo stirred controversy by urging an end to federal aid to the Gulf Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It is "time the taxpayer gravy train left the New Orleans station," he said.

    Criticism of the GOP response to the black voter forum continues to grow. On Thursday, President Bush made a rare comment on the 2008 race, urging Republican candidates "to reach out to the African American community." A New York Times editorial Thursday said the decision to snub the forum falls into "the category of What Are They Thinking?"

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  110. (Reuters) - A Kansas military cemetery has run out of space after the burial of another casualty of the Iraq war, officials said on Thursday.

    "We are full," said Alison Kohler, spokeswoman for the Fort Riley U.S. Army post, home of the 1st Infantry Division.

    U.S. Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, both Kansas Republicans, on Thursday sent a letter to William Tuerk, the under secretary for memorial affairs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, urging for full funding for a new cemetery for Fort Riley.

    "While a new cemetery would not be completed in time to alleviate this situation immediately, it is vitally important," Roberts and Brownback, a Republican presidential candidate, said in their letter.

    "We truly owe our military members a debt of gratitude and the least we can do is provide them with an honorable burial ground," the senators wrote.

    Since the 2003 beginning of the war in Iraq, Fort Riley has lost 133 soldiers and airmen, though not all are buried in the Fort Riley cemetery. Sgt Joel Murray, who died September 4 in Iraq, took the last available.

    Bush is the one who has filled every military cemetery all over the U.S.

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  111. Sen. John McCain's campaign has raised only $3.7 million to date for the third quarter, an influential friend of the Arizona Republican has told The Washington Times.

    "The hope was to reach $4.5 million, about a third of what was raised in the 'disastrous' second quarter," the McCain supporter told Ralph Z. Hallow, who will report the story in Friday's editions of The Times.

    Speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect his relationship with the senator, the friend said: "Those are gross numbers, not net. Plus the campaign is carrying $2.5 to $3 million in debt. [He's] done for."

    Being senile means Wartime Johnny doesn't understand.

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  112. Is this delusional or arrogance:

    President George W. Bush insisted on Thursday he will be a "strong asset" for Republicans battling for election in 2008, despite shaky opinion poll ratings born of a tumultuous presidency.

    Bush, who has 16 months left in his second term, laid out a battle-plan for 2008 Republican candidates, based on a robust 'war on terror' policy, support for Iraq and low taxes.

    "Strong asset," Bush said emphatically, when asked at a White House news conference whether he would be an asset or liability for Republicans in presidential and congressional elections next year.

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  113. The dollar tumbled to a record low against the euro on Thursday and reached parity with the Canadian currency for the first time in 31 years on expectations of more cuts in U.S. interest rates after this week’s sharp reduction.

    The sell-off started in Europe and continued later in the day in New York as investors and analysts concluded lower benchmark rates in the world’s largest economy will hurt the return on dollar-denominated assets, diminishing the greenback’s appeal.

    Against the euro, the dollar breached the key $1.40 level and almost touched $1.41 at around noon in New York. The euro zone single currency also rose above 70 pence against sterling for the first time in one and a half years.

    Guess Bush's C grade in economics had nothing to do with this.

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  114. Carlyle agreed on Thursday to sell a 7.5 per cent stake in itself to an arm of Abu Dhabi’s government – the latest US private equity group to bring in a sovereign wealth fund as a big investor.

    Blackstone sold a near 10 per cent stake in its management company to the Chinese government in May. A different arm of the Abu Dhabi government bought a stake in Apollo Management in July. Selling stakes to international sovereign wealth funds has become a popular way for US buy-out groups to cash in on their booming businesses while expanding their influence in new markets. The Carlyle deal demonstrates that the credit squeeze has not halted such transactions.

    Mubadala, the arm of Abu Dhabi which has invested in sectors as diverse as Libyan oil exploration and Ferrari, the Italian motor company, is paying $1.35bn for the Carlyle stake.

    Maybe Bush can sell them some more U.S ports.

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  115. Breaking News! Breaking News!

    Keith Olbermann will have another award winning "Special Comment" about Bush tonight.

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  116. In the wake of the ongoing Blackwater scandal, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wants to have a frank discussion with Erik Prince, the company's founder. His House oversight committee will hold a hearing on Blackwater on October 2. And it just won't be a party if Prince doesn't attend.

    Waxman sent Prince a letter today requesting his appearance at the hearing. The little-seen Blackwater official probably won't take kindly to Waxman's intent to question "whether the specific conduct of your company has advanced or impeded U.S. efforts."

    The Blackwater hearing offers Waxman the opportunity to link the issue with a different investigation his committee is undertaking. Waxman is also looking into whether the State Department's inspector general, Howard "Cookie" Krongard, obstructed an inquiry into allegations that Blackwater, on a State Department contract, was illegally smuggling weapons into Iraq. Krongard has been invited to an October 20 hearing before the committee.

    Bush won't like this!

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  117. The FBI, working with an Alaska oil contractor, secretly taped telephone calls with Sen. Ted Stevens as part of a public corruption sting, according to people close to the investigation.

    The secret recordings suggest the Justice Department was eyeing Stevens long before June, when the Republican senator first publicly acknowledged he was under scrutiny. At that time, it appeared Stevens was a new focus in a case that had already ensnared several state lawmakers.

    They can't do that to a Republican!

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  118. Blackwater Security, who was involved in a shootout Sunday that updated reports now say left over 20 Iraqi unarmed civilians dead, has yet to offer an apology for the attack. They continue to state that they fired in defense against a perceived threat.

    Of course, they don’t have to say they’re sorry. They have The US Secretary of State to do that for them.

    Condoleezza Rice has apologized both personally and on behalf of the United States government for the shootings. She has done so, it is reported, to forestall Blackwater’s expulsion from Iraq.

    Given the heinous nature of the reports of Blackwater’s actions (shooting unarmed Iraqis who were felling the scene in the back), the operative question becomes why? Why defend such lawless, vicious behavior? Here’s a possible explanation:

    Diplomats, engineers and other westerners in Iraq rely heavily on protection by Blackwater. The Iraqi decision created confusion on the ground, with uncertainty over whether protection was still available and whether Blackwater staff should leave the country immediately.

    Add to that new reports that the US has now restricted the movements of diplomats and others since the Blackwater shootout, and it becomes plain enough: the US can’t operate in Iraq without Blackwater’s protection. After all, the troops are being used for more important work - pursuing the oil interests of the US. So duties normally assigned to troops - providing protection to senior officers, diplomats, and important corporate interests (like oil business executives) have to be contracted out. Since Blackwater is a primary security provider for these people, the American presence in Iraq, and hence, Bush administration foreign policy, is captive to the likes of Blackwater.

    Condi will defend the mercenaries.

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  119. Here is what Republicans do to the parents of our troops:

    Members of “Gathering of Eagles” who assaulted gold star father Carlos Arredondo in broad daylight in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2007, throwing him to the ground and kicking him.

    Account of what happened from Arredondo’s wife By Mélida Arredondo:

    Carlos Arredondo, 47 year old father of two sons, arrived in the nation’s capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20 years and 20 days old. The memorial consists of a casket, poster- size photographs of Alex when he graduated from boot camp, before his second tour in Iraq, lying in state at his wake, and a photo of Alex with his younger brother Brian.

    Saturday, September 15, 2007 consisted of first a rally, a march towards the capitol and then a die-in. Carlos pulled the memorial along the march route approaching the rotunda near the capitol building. Several of the marchers requested for him to speak about the memorial where a crowd gathered around him. After finishing, several people walked with Carlos as he pulled the memorial. Several pictures of Alex dressed in his blues were attached to the display.

    As Carlos passed counter protesters, one man ripped a picture of Alex from the memorial. Carlos leaped on the man to retrieve the picture. It was at that point that approximately five others all began to attack Carlos by kicking him in the head, legs, stomach and back.

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  120. Here is what Republicans do to the parents of our troops:

    We all know well how those yellow-magnet "patriots" feel about soldiers. Just ASK one of them for more sacrifice than a magnet.

    Those bums are the worst entitlement-class this country has ever produced. They feel ENTITLED to the protection of our Armed Forces without serving, ENTITLED to Police, fire departments, and highways without paying for them, ENTITLED to drive Land Rovers and Denalis no matter if their own children may suffer in a third-world hellhole when the oil runs out (not to mention they feel ENTITLED to destroy the planet with their pollution.)

    And these BUMS cry about Welfare and WIC recipents. They make me sick.

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  121. Half (50%) of American voters favor government guaranteed universal health care coverage. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey also found that a plurality (43%) believe such a program would be better run by private companies than by the government.

    The survey was conducted shortly after Senator Hillary Clinton unveiled her health care proposal to the nation. Clinton’s plan would require every American to purchase health insurance and provide financial assistance through tax breaks and other means to help keep in affordable.

    Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters now say that the U.S. health care and health insurance system needs major changes. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say modest changes are needed. In evaluating Senator Clinton’s proposal, 49% of voters believe it calls for major changes and 24% say Clinton is seeking modest changes. Another 7% say she is proposing only minor while 20% are not sure.

    Of course the Repugs want noone but the wealthy to have healthcare.

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  122. If anyone really thinks Der Fuhrer Adolph Bush will step down than think again.

    The question is will a Democratic President label Der Fuhrer and all those who helped destroy our country enemy combatants.

    The possibility of that leaves the question open as too would Der Fuhrer take a chance that one would.

    That being the only way to hold any of them accountable means he could be arrested even if he pardoned himself before leaving office.

    That would mean he could be held forever without the right to Habeas Corpus a power he got from his RFN's under the MCA Act of 2007.

    So if you were Der Fuhrer would you step down and take that chance?

    That's why I have repeatedly stated that he would declare Martial Law and suspend elections.

    Why no one even brings this up is beyond my comprehension. Why does no one think this could not happen?

    Why does no one believe that its highly likely that there will be no elections?

    Why does everyone still say we will restore our rights once he take back the White House and gain majorities in the House and Senate where we can pass the bills needed too do that?

    Can anyone truthfully answer those questions? Can anyone convince me that we are still living under a Constitution and are truly Free?

    Does anyone not believe that we are now America The Fourth Reich?

    Better start thinking of ways to flee before they do come for you to silence your words and you end up in their Concentration Camps or even Dead.

    If you don't believe that what I say is possible than your head is truly in the sand or up your ass. You better pull it out and see the light before it is too late.

    God Bless.

    PS: I've written about many of these things over the past year and have left many comments about them.

    Those who have read them agree that I may be right, however I get the feeling that there still not sure if it is possible and can happen here.

    I only report, you decide.

    God Bless.

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  123. Actually Jr, what Larry ISN'T telling you is that the man Arredondo attacked has both his kids serving in the military.
    That man, (Peterson) Didn't realize the picture was of Arredondo's son. He thought he was simply desecrating a picture of a Marine.

    He also leaves out that in 2004 when the Marines came to tell Arredondo his son had died, he doused their van with gasoline and set it on fire. (himself too apparently) Luckily for him they didn't charge him for that.

    He also only gained citizenship in 2006 largely due to his sons death.
    (he's from Costa Rica)


    Regarding entitlement...

    You say "without paying" for all those services. My taxes don't count?

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  124. And Larry, tell Hillary and Edwards to keep their laws off my body.

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  125. I think Voltron is just another reason that Abortion should be legal.

    God Bless.

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  126. anon, it is certainly possible, it is even likely that bush may try to declare martial law, however it is NOT a certainty that it WILL happen, OR that it will be successful if he does attempt it...........I prefer to remain hopeful as if there is no hope then there is nothing but despair.

    BTW, there is a BIG difference between hope and blind ignorance,...........that said I am aware of what you are trying to say and your frustration that no one is taking this threat serious beccause I agree that virtually NO ONE is taking this grave threat to freedom seriously and that makes it far more likely to actually happen.

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  127. I do believe that voltron means Larry Craig should keep his hands of his body.

    Or maybe the RFN US Prosecutor who arrested for wanting to have sex with a five year old little girl.

    Typical Republican Nazi's.

    God Bless.

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  128. No Volt When Billionaires are paying LESS proportionally in taxes than their secrataries or the working poor and in many cases benefitting far more that doesnt count Why should a hedge fund manager or Warren Buffet be taxed at a lower rate than a teacher...............I await your response with baited breath.

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  129. While your at it please explain why you show more deference and respect for blackwater than you do for personal freedoms and liberties................could it be a complex because they are actually over their fighting in the war you support verbally but dont have the guts to actually support in person.

    As for you supporting freedom and liberties..........not so much eh Volty?

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  130. mike...
    It's more than possible. They only need to kill a few hundred citizens and the masses will silently fall in line.

    The police will handle the local population while Blackwater will provide the security.

    And don't forget that they have been spying on American Citizens since he got into office.

    I also believe that the Democrats are afraid of being arrested as Enemy Combatants and that is why Pelosi took Impeachment off the table.

    They are now scared for their lives and they never should have passed the MCA Act of 2007.

    I wrote about that before the election and ask how anyone could give that sort of power to anyone before a National Election.

    And yet they caved in and gave away our Constitution. And they wonder why the American People have such a low approval rating of them.

    Go figure, huh.

    God Bless.

    Got to run, get up early for work.

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  131. Yo Dolty boy so YOU admit that the person who grabbed a picture which belonged to another was BREAKING the law stealing something that was NOT his for political motives?

    He was trying to VIOLATE somebody else's first amendment right to free speech at a political event?

    I guess that CLOWN forgot his oath to support and defend the US constitution which MEANS Bozo,defending the rights of those you politically disagree with, NOT stealing their belongings son, and the rest of the people with that clown stealing anothers belongings were just helping the Unamerican individual break the law and violate the US Constitution right dolty boy you dunce ........


    Why do you reichwingers always want to VIOLATE the constitutional rights of others? (Then screech like the bedwetters you are when you think yours are violated).

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  132. No price is to great to sacrifice to keep Dolty safe AS LONG as SOMEONE ELSE is paying that price and doing the sacrificing for him.

    As long as others are sacrificing their lives in the war HE supports instead of him or paying unfair proportions of taxes INSTEAD of him, or losing their freedoms and liberties while he is not thats all fine by him!

    Warren Buffett and Bill gates two of the wealthiest and most intelligent and successful people in the world say the tax system is not fair but apparently Dolt and GWB two neer-do-wells seem to know better.

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  133. Anon-Paranoid said...
    mike...
    It's more than possible. They only need to kill a few hundred citizens and the masses will silently fall in line.

    The police will handle the local population while Blackwater will provide the security.

    And don't forget that they have been spying on American Citizens since he got into office.

    I also believe that the Democrats are afraid of being arrested as Enemy Combatants and that is why Pelosi took Impeachment off the table.

    They are now scared for their lives and they never should have passed the MCA Act of 2007.

    I wrote about that before the election and ask how anyone could give that sort of power to anyone before a National Election.

    And yet they caved in and gave away our Constitution. And they wonder why the American People have such a low approval rating of them.

    Go figure, huh.

    God Bless.

    Got to run, get up early for work."


    Anon our country is so clueless and obsessed with Brittny Spears nonsense I dont even think they would notice a few hundred people murdered or imprisoned.........I think it would take the murder of anywhere between tens of thousands to a hundred thousand to inspire the type of fear and obediance you are referring to.

    As for your theory that the Democrats are afraid of being imprisoned or murdered and that is why they are not challenging and opposing Bush I have said similar things as well.....I think you are very likely right......the fact that they dont even TRY to challenge or oppose him but just make the weakest and most disgraceful pretence at challenging Bush speaks volumes.

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  134. According to Oxfam’s July 30 2007 report, Rising to the Humanitarian Challenge in Iraq,

    over two million people have been displaced inside Iraq and another two million have left the country as refugees.

    Forty-three percent of Iraqis are living on less than a dollar a day, and 15 percent can’t buy enough to eat.

    Twenty-eight percent of Iraq’s children are malnourished, and 92 percent are suffering from learning problems.

    A 2006 study by the Iraqi Ministry of Health found that 70 percent of primary school children in a Baghdad neighbourhood suffered from symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting and stuttering.

    The conflict has probably killed more people than the 1994 Rwandan massacres.

    The Lancet medical journal sponsored the world’s only on-the-ground scientific report on Iraqi casualties.

    Using well-respected scientific methods, the study estimated a median figure of 655,000 excess deaths between the 2003 invasion and June 2006.

    If this death rate has remained constant over the subsequent year, then the invasion and occupation are responsible for over a million Iraqi deaths.

    If what happened in Rwanda was a genocide, then so is the carnage occurring in Iraq.

    Heck of a job georgie ....... a world class war criminal and murder

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  135. If you missed Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" you can see it here:

    Blue Herald

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  136. Selling out America:

    While American and European companies have been shelving acquisitions after jitters in the credit market dried up potential financing, oil-producing countries in the Middle East showed Thursday that they do not share the same limitations.

    In a series of multibillion-dollar deals, Dubai, Qatar and Abu Dhabi reached out to acquire significant stakes in three stock markets and a U.S. private equity firm, illustrating their increasing appetite for investing the growing wealth from record oil prices in high-quality assets abroad.

    But one of the deals could run into political resistance in the United States - as happened last year when DP World of Dubai was pressured to sell the U.S. port operations it had acquired as part of a larger deal.

    On Thursday, Dubai - the fastest-growing financial center in the Gulf - agreed to take a stake in the Nasdaq Stock Market, which is based in New York. It would become the first government-controlled stock exchange to hold a significant stake in an American rival, prompting calls in Washington for a national security review of the Nasdaq deal.

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  137. (Reuters) - A big overhang of property will bring U.S. house prices down further, but it is too early to say if the economy will plunge into recession, former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan was quoted as saying on Friday.

    Greenspan said in an interview with Austrian magazine Format that low interest rates in the past 15 years were to blame for the house price bubble, but that central banks were powerless when they tried to bring it under control.

    "It's a difficult situation, there is an enormous overhang on the real estate market," Greenspan was quoted as saying. "Many buildings which just have been finished can't be sold ..."

    "So far, prices have dropped only slightly. But it was enough to cause alarm around the world," he said. "Prices are going to fall much lower yet."

    "However, it is too early to answer the question about a recession. We simply don't know yet. It depends on how flexibly the economy can react," he said.

    Greenspan said deregulation and the introduction of market economies in the former Communist bloc after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 had caused a global boom and a worldwide reduction of interest rates, which both helped fuel the property bubble.

    "There is no doubt about the fact that low interest rates for long-term government bonds have caused the real estate bubble in the United States," he said.

    It's the Bush economy!

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  138. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate earned its 11% job approval by overwhelmingly passing a non-binding resolution sponsored by Texas Sen. John Cornyn condemning an ad by the liberal political action group MoveOn.org, which excoriated Gen. David Petraeus for “cooking the books” to support the White House’s policy on Iraq and calling him “Gen. Betray Us.”

    Twenty-two senate Democrats supported the resolution. They are cowards and should be ashamed of themselves for supporting this resolution and against the enshrined right of free speech.

    Here is the complete list of DINO Dems by name and state:

    Max Baucus (D-MT)
    Evan Bayh (D-IN)
    Benjamin Cardin (D-MD)
    Tom Carper (D-DE)
    Robert Casey (D-PA)
    Kent Conrad (D-ND)
    Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
    Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
    Tim Johnson (D-SD)
    Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
    Herb Kohl (D-WI)
    Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
    Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
    Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
    Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
    Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
    Bill Nelson (D-FL)
    Ben Nelson (D-NE)
    Mark Pryor (D-AR)
    Ken Salazar (D-CO)
    Jon Tester (D-MT)
    Jim Webb (D-VA)

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  139. Can't blame the Iraqi government for wanting Bush's well paid, privatized mercenaries out of their country. Just another disgusting example of Republicans making money from the blood of others.

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  140. Senator MIKE GRAVEL IS ON LIVE with us right now.
    www.bashamandcornell.com
    talking about the Iran issue

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  141. Voltron said...
    And Larry, tell Hillary and Edwards to keep their laws off my body.


    Sure.

    If you'll keep your fat-ass off this blog, I'm sure we can arrange that for you. We'll m ake sure you lose your health insurance and never have to worry about working a union job again in your life...

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  142. George Bush the Texan is 'scared of horses'

    President Bush may like to be seen as a swaggering tough guy with a penchant for manly outdoor pursuits, but in a new book one of his closest allies has said he is afraid of horses.

    Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a "windshield cowboy" – a cowboy who prefers to drive – and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".

    He recalled a meeting in Mexico shortly after both men had been elected when Mr Fox offered Mr Bush a ride on a "big palomino" horse.

    Mr Fox, who left office in December, recalled Mr Bush "backing away" from the animal.

    ''A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion," he said, according to the Washington Post.

    Mr Bush has spoken of his fondness for shooting doves and cutting brush on his Crawford ranch in Texas, which he bought in 1999.

    The property reportedly has no horses and only five cattle.


    In Mr Bush's defense, his wife Laura says he know how to "milk a bull" .......... must be something with that Texas faux cowboy routine of his.

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  143. AP:

    A bomb attack Friday against a convoy of French troops killed one soldier and injured many Afghans near the blast, while heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan killed about 75 Taliban fighters and six civilians, officials said.

    The attack in western Kabul blew the windows out of a civilian bus and set at least one vehicle on fire. At least six civilians were in serious condition, and many others had lesser injuries, said Zormai Rasa, the local police chief.

    I thought Bush claimed he won this war!

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  144. Bush is an Embarrassment Again:

    Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.

    "It's out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bush's comments received worldwide coverage.

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  145. The Republicans Love Dead American Soldiers:

    The Senate blocked legislation Friday that would have ordered most U.S. troops home from Iraq in nine months, culminating a losing week for Democrats who failed to push through any anti-war proposal.

    The vote, 47-47, fell 13 votes short of the 60 needed to cut off debate.

    "We're going to continue to lose lives and squander resources while they (the Iraqis) dawdle," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who sponsored the bill.

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  146. Former CBS anchor Dan Rather recently filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, saying they made him a "scapegoat" when he was fired for a September 2004 story on 60 Minutes about President Bush's unsatisfactory service in the Texas Air National Guard.

    When Rather appeared on Larry King's program Thursday, King began by showing him a 2005 clip of himself saying, "I'm not a victim of anything except my own shortcomings."

    But he added, "Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news."

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  147. Keith Olbermann had a searing "Special Comment" for President Bush and his press conference denunciations yesterday of MoveOn.org and Democrats who refused to condemn the liberal group's recent ad criticizing Gen. David Petraeus.

    The president was, according to Olbermann, "behaving a little more than usual like we'd all interrupted him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR."

    After criticizing Bush for sidestepping substantive issues at the press conference in "condescending and infuriating fashion," Olbermann zeroed in on the final moments of the Q&A, which he called "a big, wow political finish that indicates, certainly that if it was not already, the annual Republican witch-hunting season is underway."

    "Most importantly, making that the last question?" Olbermann asked about a question from reporter Bill Sammon, who asked what the president thought of the MoveOn ads. "A plant, so that there was no chance at a follow-up and so nobody could point out...that you were the one who inappropriately injected Gen. Petraeus into the political dialogue of this nation in the first place."

    "Deliberately, pre-meditatively and virtually without precedent," he continued, "you shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman and now you're complaining about the outcome--and then running away from the microphone."

    Olbermann also played tape of a television ad from the Republican National Committee--originally aired 19 days before the 2006 mid-term elections--which featured a quote from terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri claiming he had acquired "suitcase bombs." The ad concluded with an image of an explosion, followed by the text, "These are the stakes. Vote on November 7."

    "That one was OK, Mr. Bush?" Olbermann asked. "Terrorizing your own people in hopes of getting them to vote for your own party has never brought as much as a public comment from you."

    "But a shot at Gen. Petraeus...that merits this pissy, juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?"

    "Your hypocrisy is so vast, sir," the host accused Bush, "that if you could somehow use it to fill the ranks in Iraq, you could realize your dream and keep us fighting there until the year 3000."

    Keith Olbermann most honest person in the media!

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  148. Two aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani were gunned down in southern Iraq, prompting Basra followers of Iraq's top Shiite cleric to boycott Friday sermons and call for better protection for the country's religious leaders.

    The deaths brought to at least five the number of al-Sistani aides slain since early August, raising fears about the security surrounding al-Sistani as Shiite militias wage an increasingly violent struggle for power in Iraq's oil-rich south.

    The attacks late Thursday drew protests from al-Sistani's followers and calls for stepped up protection of the religious hierarchy.

    The reclusive spiritual leader has been the target of at least one assassination attempt since 2003. Born in Iran, al-Sistani, who is in his 70s, commands the deep respect of Iraq's majority Shiites and millions could riot, fuelling sectarian tension, if he comes to harm.

    "Security officials ... should put an end to the wave of assassinations. Such killings might target prominent figures whose absence if killed might affect the political process," another al-Sistani aide, Ahmed al-Safi, said in his sermon Friday in Karbala.

    Bush's war is going so well!

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  149. Two U.S soldiers were killed and five more wounded in bombings near Baghdad today.

    This just makes Bush smile!

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  150. Hey guys did you see that the republican congresswoman in minnesota who is always grabbing bush when he is around said bush kissed her recently at an event and at another event he told her he wanted to kiss her again

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  151. clif said...
    George Bush the Texan is 'scared of horses'

    President Bush may like to be seen as a swaggering tough guy with a penchant for manly outdoor pursuits, but in a new book one of his closest allies has said he is afraid of horses.

    Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a "windshield cowboy" – a cowboy who prefers to drive – and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".

    He recalled a meeting in Mexico shortly after both men had been elected when Mr Fox offered Mr Bush a ride on a "big palomino" horse.

    Mr Fox, who left office in December, recalled Mr Bush "backing away" from the animal.

    ''A horse lover can always tell when others don't share our passion," he said, according to the Washington Post.

    Mr Bush has spoken of his fondness for shooting doves and cutting brush on his Crawford ranch in Texas, which he bought in 1999.

    The property reportedly has no horses and only five cattle.

    In Mr Bush's defense, his wife Laura says he know how to "milk a bull" .......... must be something with that Texas faux cowboy routine of his."


    Typical repug "PRETEND" tough guy!

    BTW, you sure Laura didnt mean sling the bull.........because thats about all this idiot does is sling BS!

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  152. Yeah Larry, I heard the lying fool claim saddam killed Mandella..........I'm surprised he didnt try to claim the President of iran killed him he tries to demonize and blame Iran for Everything else.

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  153. Holly said...
    Hey guys did you see that the republican congresswoman in minnesota who is always grabbing bush"

    Wow first a male repug with a "wide stance" trying to grab dick in the bathroom stall and now a female repug grabbing Bush........when are those hippocrites gonna learn to keep their hands to themselves unless things are consensual........and they trashed Clinton!

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  154. Erik Prince the chief crony/thug of Blackwater is supposed to testify before congress..........Will he spit in their face and claim Executive Privilige to defy them and obstruct justice like the other Bush cronnies and thugs?

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  155. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  156. clif said... George Bush the Texan is 'scared of horses'

    Hell, he's scared of Barney!

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  157. Larry
    I don't know how else to reach you. I thought I coined a phrase this morning saying Bush's Forever War, until I was doing the research and found thiis very telling video. Get involved if you want, peruse it, it's very tellingt. Let me know what you think. Bush's Forever war

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  158. More Republican Thuggery:

    CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery plans to press criminal charges after he was shoved and sent down a flight of stairs while questioning a congressman Friday, knocking him into a woman who also fell.

    The incident happened in Joliet, where Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) was announcing his intention not to run for reelection.

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  159. Iraqi forces have taken the lead for security in only about eight percent of Baghdad's neighborhoods more than eight months after the start of the US troop surge, a senior US commander said Friday.

    Is that "surge" still working?

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  160. Justice Department investigators appear to be honing in on a once-powerful Hill aide and lobbyist who they believe can tie former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) to the ongoing corruption investigation swirling around convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

    A grand jury has subpoenaed House payroll records for Ed Buckham, who is believed to have served as a conduit between Abramoff and DeLay. Buckham served as DeLay's chief of staff in the late 1990s before moving to a nonprofit largely funded by Abramoff and his clients.

    Buckham made more than $1 million between 1997 and 2001 from the US Family Network, a nonprofit that existed largely "as a vehicle for funneling corporate funds to DeLay's advisers," as the Washington Post reported last year. The nonprofit also paid DeLay's wife, Christine, more than $3,000 per month for three years.

    As The Politico notes, the subpoena, which was served Thursday, is the first formal indication that Buckham is the focus of the Justice Department's federal corruption investigation.

    Another former DeLay aide, Tony Rudy, has already pleaded guilty to accepting payments from Abramoff's clients while working for DeLay. Former DeLay aide Michael Scanlon also has pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the probe.

    It's those slimy Republicans again!

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  161. Despite opposition from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, US security company Blackwater was back on the streets of Baghdad on Friday, four days after being grounded over a fatal shooting incident.

    Maliki, meanwhile, was in the firing line over a damning report by the US embassy made public Friday detailing corruption plaguing his government, which said the attitude of his office to tackling the problem was "openly hostile."

    Blackwater guards, whom a furious Maliki wanted replaced after they opened fire in Baghdad killing 10 people, were on Friday protecting US personnel on limited missions, US spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told AFP.

    Bush always gets his way.

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  162. Larry the surge is working for Bush as the "battle of the bulge" worked for Hitler, (in this analogy Betray-Us report was given the day before the weather cleared and allied planes could fly close air support again.)

    Betray-us is serving in the long tradition of officers like Gen Westmoreland, ie. lie and obfuscate the truth for their political masters who promoted them ahead of their peers. (and to whom they are loyal to instead of protecting the US Constitution which they took an oath to do.)

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  163. (AP) -- A bootmaker to world leaders, including President Bush and Vicente Fox, is in a Colorado jail, charged with money laundering and conspiring to illegally smuggle the skins of protected animals into the United States to provide exotic footwear for high-end clients.

    An official from the Mexican environmental protection agency holds a boot confiscated in the raid.

    1 of 2 The arrest of Martin Villegas -- and Mexico's raid of a warehouse filled with hundreds of cowboy boots and belts made from endangered species -- has raised questions about how much Fox knew of the scheme and whether the former Mexican president purchased illegal boots himself.

    Before Fox left office in December, Villegas created a special brand of cowboy boot named after him, which was manufactured in Mexico's shoemaking capital, Leon, in Fox's home state of Guanajuato.

    The Mexican bootmaker also produced footwear for Fox's bodyguards, Cabinet members, relatives and friends -- including Bush, a fellow lover of ranchwear who accepted a pair of ostrich-skin cowboy boots as a gift during a visit to Fox's ranch in 2001.

    Fox, in Rome for his election as co-president of an association of center-right parties from around the world, was under fire this week from Mexican media speculating not only about the boots, but also the source of his post-presidential wealth.

    Another corrupt connection of George W Bush.

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  164. Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

    The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock.

    Do we really believe Bush's Federal Prosecutors will do anything to Blackwater!

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  165. Dozens of corporate executives who backed President George W. Bush for re-election in 2004, including some of his top fund-raisers, are now helping Democrats running for president.

    John Mack, chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., and Terry Semel, chairman of Yahoo! Inc., are among some 60 executives writing checks to Democrats such as Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, a review of U.S. Federal Election Commission records shows.

    Bush won't like this!

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  166. Big Brother Bush is Watching You:

    Privacy advocates obtained database records showing that the government routinely records the race of people pulled aside for extra screening as they enter the country, along with cursory answers given to U.S. border inspectors about their purpose in traveling. In one case, the records note Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Gilmore's choice of reading material, and worry over the number of small flashlights he'd packed for the trip.

    The breadth of the information obtained by the Gilmore-funded Identity Project (using a Privacy Act request) shows the government's screening program at the border is actually a "surveillance dragnet," according to the group's spokesman Bill Scannell.

    "There is so much sensitive information in the documents that it is clear that Homeland Security is not playing straight with the American people," Scannell said.

    The documents show a tiny slice of the massive airline-record collection stored by the government, as well as the screening records mined for the controversial Department of Homeland Security passenger-rating system that assigns terrorist scores to travelers entering and leaving the country, including U.S. citizens.

    The so-called Automated Targeting System scrutinizes every airline passenger entering or leaving the country using classified rules that tell agents which passengers to give extra screening to and which to deny entry or exit from the country.

    The system relies on data ranging from the government's 700,000-name terrorism watchlist to data included in airline-travel database entries, known as Passenger Name Records, which airlines are required to submit to the government

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  167. The U.S. military confirmed yesterday that it awarded the largest security contract in Iraq to a private British firm, Aegis Defence Services, in a deal worth up to $475 million over two years.

    Aegis won the high-stakes derby over six other contenders, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the bidding process. The deal, however, is being challenged by another British company that bid on the contract. Erinys Iraq is seeking an injunction from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to stop the Army from carrying out the contract. Erinys, which is also planning a separate appeal of the award to Aegis, had unsuccessfully sought to challenge the Army's decision in protests with the Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

    Members of Congress, meanwhile, continue to raise questions about the use of foreign private security forces, such as Aegis, to protect U.S. commanders and soldiers. Federal lawmakers have requested that the GAO look into the use of private security contractors in Iraq. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction also is conducting its second audit of Aegis, based on a request from a member of Congress who has expressed concerns about the firm's chief executive, Tim Spicer. He is a retired British military officer whose previous private military company, Sandline International, had been hired to quell insurgencies in countries such as Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone.

    Doesn't this firm have ties to Lapdog Blair?

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  168. As many as 10,000 Buddhist monks marched through Myanmar's central city of Mandalay on Saturday, witnesses said, in one of the largest demonstrations against the country's strict military regime since a 1988 democratic uprising.

    At the same time, about 1,000 monks began marching toward downtown in the country's biggest city, Yangon, from the Shwedagon Pagoda _ Myanmar's most revered shrine and a historic center for protest movements.

    It was the fifth straight day the monks have marched in Yangon, and the numbers indicated that the anti-government protest were growing in size.

    The monk's activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices, triggering demonstrations against policies that are causing economic hardship.

    Bring the Monks over here.

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  169. Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Friday that the alternative minimum tax — which is expected to generate as much as $1 trillion over the next 10 years — could be eliminated by balancing it out with even more tax cuts.

    Giuliani's remarks prompted a bewildered response from his audience of technology executives. Both Republicans and Democrats said they assumed that the candidate must have misspoke as he responded to a question about the tax and its affect the middle class.
    Giuliani left the speech without taking questions from reporters. His campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

    Just like a typical Republican: More tax cuts in a near depression economy.

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  170. Welcome Fascism!


    I'm sure you saw the tasered UCLA video!

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  171. The Iraqi people are about about as free as my left nut in a jockstrap.

    The president of Iraq orders Blackwater out of his country, and we just IGNORE him.

    Theres the so called freedom and democracy we brought to them.

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  172. BARTLEBEE said...
    The Iraqi people are about about as free as my left nut in a jockstrap.

    The president of Iraq orders Blackwater out of his country, and we just IGNORE him.

    Theres the so called freedom and democracy we brought to them."

    Exactly, I meant to comment on this earlier this morning Bush has stated repeatedly we will ONLY be there as long as the Iraqi's want us there well 80% of the Iraqi's have wanted us out and 80% of Americans want us out and NOW Iraq's President has ORDERED Blackwater out and guesswhat they are STILL THERE.............................we have an occupation just as we have said ALL ALONG!

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  173. Bot Only has black water been ordered out of Iraq and is being investigated for the massacre.............They are also being investigated and were subpoenaed by Congress for supplying the Insurgents with weapons which should be an act of treason.............how much do you want to bet Blackwater will defy the Congressional Subpoenas and obstruct justice by claiming Executive Privlige just like the other Neo Con Cronmnies and Bush lackies.

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  174. Whats so pathetic is how a delusional dunce of a man like GWB just keeps getting away with committing treasonous act after treasonous act and doing as he pleases...........i mean we are not talking about some evil genius here.

    That just shows how useless, incompetent and inept Congress truly is it was disgusting that the repug minority managed to derail the Habeous Corpus Bill but yet pass some worthless piece of paper deriding people for calling Betrayus the lying shill he truly is!

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  175. Harry Reed should be impeached for incompetence over both of those!

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  176. "Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason…
    There can be on right of speech where any man…[is] compelled to suppress his honest sentiments.
    Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker."

    -Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

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  177. You'd think the repugs were still the majority and the Democrats were the toothless minority.........except for subpoena power I honestly dont see any change from the Democrats taking back Congress this past November, they are a disgrace!

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  178. (Reuters) - The United States will press Iraq's neighbors and world powers on Saturday to implement U.N. pledges to do more in Iraq at a high-level meeting called by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

    Why didn't they do this before the worthless war?

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  179. The spineless spew will probably lose Congress since there is no difference.

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  180. BTW Lydia you and Doug had a great interview yesterday with Gravel he sounds like a smart guy you guys really allowed him to shine yesterday by asking the right questions..........I wish he could sound like that in the debates, the MSM and other candidates want to matginalize him, they dont give him equal airtime and he doesnt come across well in the brief time they give him............but he made a lot of sense yesterday and said some great things that I strongly agree with.

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  181. The AFL-CIO and its unions said Friday they will spend an estimated $200 million on the 2008 elections, with the nation's largest labor federation devoting $53 million exclusively to grass-roots mobilization.

    In addition, the AFL-CIO said it would deploy more than 200,000 volunteers leading up to the election, with special focus on battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.

    "Today the AFL-CIO is sending a powerful message that we are going to change the course of our country in 2008 by electing a president and candidates at all levels who are committed to restoring the promise of America to working people," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

    The announcement came as the AFL-CIO's executive council met at the group's headquarters in Washington to plan the federation's political strategy for the presidential, congressional and state elections next year.

    AFL-CIO leaders are looking to put a Democrat in the White House and help that party pick up as many as six seats in the Senate and five in the House. Democrats took control of Congress in the 2006 elections.

    "We're going for the trifecta: the House, the Senate and the White House," said Gerald McEntee, the AFL-CIO's political committee chair and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.

    The AFL-CIO and its unions spent an estimated $150 million during the 2004 presidential elections, but Democrats came up short in the White House and their bid for congressional control.

    The AFL-CIO has not endorsed any of the Democratic presidential candidates, although it has freed its 55 member unions to endorse whoever they choose.

    In 2004, the AFL-CIO spent $50 million almost exclusively on grass-roots mobilization for Democrat John Kerry's losing effort to capture the White House, AFL-CIO officials said. The federation spent $40 million on the 2006 elections in which Democrats regained control of the House and the Senate.

    The $53 million dedicated for grass-roots mobilization will be spent on House, Senate and the presidential race, officials said.

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  182. Blackwater needs to be tried for treason and scattered to the wind..............its time all these criminals, cronnies and thugs like Blackwater and Halliburton stop getting these no bid contracts.

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  183. Mike, as long as Bush's private SS goose-steps behind their beloved Fuhrer, there is no crime so great as to interfere with their service to the Reich.

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  184. If we, the Americans, their "liberators" don't respect the authority of the Iraqi government, then HOW THE HELL ARE THE IRAQI PEOPLE SUPPOSED TO?

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  185. Today, the number one enemy opposing democracy in Iraq, is the American govt.

    By ignoring the Iraqi govt's demands for Blackwater to leave Iraqi soil, Blackwater and the US Govt are undermining the efforts to stabilize Iraq.

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  186. Check out the new post at Liberal Lucidity. Nice feature of blogs, including Lydia's.

    Liberal Lucidity

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  187. BREAKING NEWS!!!


    There is no more doubt in the Blackwater shootings.

    The AP is reporting tonight, that the Iraqi govt has the entire event on video, and it clearly shows the Blackwater chickenshits shooting down unarmed Iraqi civillians completely UNPROVOKED!!!

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  188. Bartlebee, and this, after Bush said "If the Iraqis want us to leave, we'll leave."

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  189. Thats right Lydia.

    This is a milestone moment in the war.

    Bush said its all for the Iraqi government, which he calls soverign and free.

    Well the Iraqi govt DEMANDED Blackwater troops leave Iraq immediately.

    And Bush and the Pentagon just thumbed their nose at them, and left them right there.

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  190. Condi Rice suggested the Iraqi govt was overreaching believing the reports of the villagers, and tried to discredit the reports, supporting of course the Blackwater acct.

    Well now Condi, theres VIDEO of the event.

    You lying witch.

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  191. Iraq: Blackwater guards fired unprovoked

    By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
    47 minutes ago

    BAGHDAD - Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in a shooting last week that left 11 people dead, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

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  192. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

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  193. Well according to the Iraqi govt this ain’t the first time Blackwaters pulled this kind of shit.

    Apparently the video is going to be used in some sort of Iraqi court proceedings to charge Blackwater, and maybe the guys responsible. Of course, the US will never allow Americans to be subject to Iraqi justice.

    Sure, we stood up a govt.

    A puppet regime that answers to us, or we will kill them

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  194. Chimpy's "Grade A" economic policies have left the actual value of property in Manhattan LOWER than in Dublin.

    Mull that one around for awhile. We all think of NYC as being so pricey..... and yet, Dubliners are snatching up apartments in entire neighborhoods.

    Londoners were also doing it, but it appears their bubble has finally burst. That means they'll be able to afford London property again real soon.

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  195. AP:

    Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki kept a polite distance Saturday as they attended a group meeting and avoided discussion of a Baghdad shootout involving guards from a U.S. company protecting American diplomats.

    With tensions soaring over the Sept. 16 incident, Rice and al-Maliki chose not to speak directly at a United Nations gathering at which they were among senior diplomats and officials from Iraq's neighbors, including Iran and Syria, weighing future assistance to Iraq.

    I thought Malaki was Condi's friend!

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  196. Sunday Talk

    MTP: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY); Alan Greenspan
    FTN: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY); Politico’s John Harris; NYT’s Chief Washington Correspondent David Sanger
    This Week: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY); roundtable of WaPo’s E.J. Dionne, NYT’s David Brooks, Cokie Roberts and George Will; PBS documentarian Ken Burns on new war doc
    FNS: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY); Newt Gingrich; Ken Burns
    Late Edition: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY); French FM Bernard Kouchner; Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE); ex-NSA Zbigniew Brzezinski; ex-SoS Henry Kissinger; Gloria Borger.

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  197. Pentagon Report Gives Lie to Surge Success

    An article on how the schedule for turning Iraqi provinces over to the Iraqi army and police for security purposes has slipped to August 2008 notes of a new Pentagon report:

    ' The Pentagon report cited a litany of problems with the police. For example, it said as few as 40 percent of those trained by coalition troops in recent years are still on the job. Also, due to combat loss, theft, attrition and poor maintenance, a "significant portion" of U.S.-issued equipment is now unusable.'

    Just to underline what is said here, 60 percent of the policemen who got even the very minimal training on offer to them have disappeared from the force; and not much is left of the weaponry ("equipment") that the US gave the Iraqi police.

    This isn't what Bush told America!

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  198. Some called it a bridge to the future. Others called it the bridge to nowhere.

    On Friday, Alaska decided the bridge really was going nowhere, officially abandoning the project in Ketchikan that became a national symbol of federal pork-barrel spending.

    While the move closes a chapter that has brought the state reams of ridicule, it also leaves open wounds in a community that fought for decades to get federal help.

    "We went through political hot water — tons of it — and not just nationally but internationally," Ketchikan-Gateway Borough Mayor Joe Williams said. "We have nothing to show for it."

    The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan, on one island in southeastern Alaska, to its airport on another nearby island.

    Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday the project was $329 million short of full funding.

    Ted Stevens won't like this!

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  199. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is seeking answers in the Administration's involvement in an Iraqi oil deal that appears to benefit a large Republican donor and ally of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

    The recent oil deal between the U.S.-based Hunt Oil Company and the Kurdistan Regional Government raises questions, since Hunt Oil, a privately held oil company based in Texas and its founder, Ray Hunt, have close ties to Vice President Cheney and are large donors to President Bush. The deal also appears to undercut the goal of oil revenue sharing but is predictably consistent with the Administration's attempt to privatize Iraqi oil assets. Both Hunt Oil Company and Kurdistan are strong allies with the Bush Administration.

    "As I have said for five years, this war is about oil. The Bush Administration desires private control of Iraqi oil, but we have no right to force Iraq to give up their oil. We have no right to set preconditions for Iraq which lead Iraq to giving up control of their oil. The Constitution of Iraq designates that the oil of Iraq is the property of all Iraqi people," Kucinich said.

    Kucinich is calling for a Congressional investigation to determine the role the Administration may have played in the Hunt-Kurdistan deal, the effect the deal could have on the oil revenue sharing plan and the attempt by the Administration to privatize Iraqi oil.

    "The Administration has misled Congress and the media into thinking that pending Iraqi oil legislation before Iraq's Parliament was about the fair distribution of oil revenues," Kucinich said. "But the Hunt Oil deal with Kurdistan should expose the real intent of that legislation, and that is, promoting a privatization scheme.

    "It is hard to imagine that in Iraq there is any matter more controversial than oil. So long as the U.S. occupies Iraq, there can be nothing more damaging to the United States' world reputation than the awarding of oil agreements to Bush Administration cronies."

    The Hunt Oil deal with Kurdistan suggests the war has made foreign access to Iraqi oil a reality. The connections between Hunt Oil Company and the Bush Administration are numerous.

    Why doens't anyone listen to this man?

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