U2: "Sunday, Bloody Sunday"

-Diane

Seymour Hersh discusses Iran with Wolf Blitzer.(Part One)



Part Two.

-Diane

Seen On Blogger...

Has a nice soundtrack too...

~SSquirrel

New Blogger Site...

For the truly bored or the truly stoned, a real-time look at all the pictures being uploaded to blogger. Kinda neat, if you see something you like, just click on it and it takes you to the site. Of course if it's blood or ballet it's probably Diane...

~SSquirrel

Uh-oh.

Evil sock puppets...they're everywhere.


-Diane

Michigan Stuff

I don't believe I've mentioned, but if you're interested in Michigan state politics, you can also catch me at MichiganLiberal. It's especially busy with the impending state shut down looming over our heads, and the repubs whining that they are hostages because they have to stay and actually work.

-Diane

An engagement ring on the hand of Jenna Bush is photographed during an interview before a book signing Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007, in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

-Diane

9-30-07: Meet the Press: 'Let me ask you about Iraq...'

-Diane

-Diane

Today's Must Read

From Cleveland's Jim Rokakis via The Washington Post:

Twenty years ago, the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland was a tightly knit community of first- and second-generation Polish and Czech immigrants. Today, it's in danger of becoming a ghost town, largely because a swarm of speculators, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and lenders saw an opportunity to make a buck there.


You could say it was because of them that 12-year-old Asteve' "Cookie" Thomas lost her life on Sept. 1, shot in Slavic Village when she stumbled into the crossfire of suspected drug dealers. The neighborhood wasn't always a haven for criminals -- not until hundreds of foreclosures destabilized the community. Houses (800 at last count) and then entire streets were abandoned. Crime increased as vacant properties offered shelter to people who had a reason to hide.


Another victim was Joe Krasucki. On the night of March 15, his 78th birthday, he thought he heard vandals prying the aluminum siding off his house, where he had lived for 40 years. Looters had already ransacked his neighbor's abandoned property -- a fate that awaits the majority of foreclosed houses in cities such as Cleveland. When Joe went outside to investigate, a gang of teenagers beat him so severely that he died a week and a half later.


Cookie Thomas and Joe Krasucki haunt me because they didn't have to die. In a sense, their deaths were foreshadowed in the late 1990s, when the dark side of the real estate industry -- the predatory lenders -- came to Ohio, including Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, where I serve as treasurer. They knew that the state's lax regulatory structure would give them virtually free rein. This is when we first heard terms such as "securitization," "mortgage-backed securities," "3-28s" and "risk modeling." These are code words for Wall Street strategies that made the cycle of no-money-down, no-questions-asked lending possible -- the strategies that have sucked the life out of my city.

Read the full article, The Shadow of Debt here.

-Diane

Bill Moyers takes a look at waste and contractor fraud going on in Iraq. Just last week, the House Armed Services Committee found that $6 billion worth of military contracts are under criminal review, and another $88 billion (to put that into perspective, that's two and a half times the cost of the expansion of the SCHIP bill that Bush is threatening to veto) in contracts are currently being audited for suspicion of fraud.

-Diane

Hardball: 3 time Gov. of NY Mario Cuomo guests with Tweety.

-Diane

Damnit

It would've been such a hoot.


-Diane

Jay Walker poses with his Sputnik satellite in his Ridgefield, Conn., home Friday, Sept. 28, 2007. The satellite, which Walker says is neither a model nor a replica, is one of the Sputnik satellites built by the Soviets in 1957. He says he acquired the satellite through a listing on eBay.
(September 28, 2007)

Associated Press


-Diane

Countdown: Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World"

-Diane

Countdown: The second day of Keith's interview with Bill Clinton.

-Diane

Iraqi refugees, getting more difficult everyday to flee the chaos.

-Diane

-Diane

A model wears a creation by Vietnamese fashion designer Tran Duy Ngu during Vietnam Collection Grand Prix 2007 in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)

I dunno, maybe the designer is a huge basketball fan?

-Diane

Bill Maher 9-28-07, Part One.



Part Two, guest Ken Burns.(The War)



Part Three.



Part Four.

-Diane

Late.

-Diane

The Toll

Yesterday, the US casualty toll was 3801 when I checked in the morning. This evening now it's 3800, with the following notice:

Post Iraq Deaths Not Confirmed By the DoD
Name Date
Richards, Jack D. 29-Jul-2007
Cassidy, Gerald J. 25-Sep-2007
Note: The soldiers listed above died from wounds received in Iraq, however, the DoD has not included their deaths in their official count.


Is there some new, freaky method of counting who does, and does not count as a military casualty?

-Diane

Who's the real phony?

-Diane

The killing of a Japanese photojournalist in Burma caught on tape.

-Diane

Your tax dollars at work.

-Diane

Washington's change of view on global warming.

-Diane

Not the South.

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney Greg White proclaimed to an audience at the first Hate Free Lorain County Conference that hate crimes in Lorain County were almost unheard of.

But two recent incidents may change that.

On that day, 17-year-old Travis Noble, an African-American Elyria High School junior, was beaten by two white males after being called a racial slur, and a 16-year-old Asian-American student returned to Avon Lake High School after an away football game to find her car covered in human waste and sardines. A racial slur was written on the car, police said.

I generally don't believe in meeting violence with violence. I do wonder, however, how much -- if any -- of acts of such indecency are a result of the newer non-violence policies of schools across our nation. Students are now forbidden from even defending themselves when attacked, as they will be treated the same as their attackers as far as punishments go. I grew up near this area of Ohio, and it was a proud, diverse community. Such acts of hate and stupidity would have been challanged, and yes, asses would have been kicked, as it were. The peers I grew up with simply did not tolerate such. Explanations for actions were always considered by school authorities, and there was a sense of justice, even if it was of the now politically incorrect street justice variety. This seems to have been replaced by detachment in our young people borne of the necessity of self-preservation. No one wants detentions or expulsions for standing up for what is right. So, they don't.

-Diane

You Kill With The Generals That You've Got.

BAGHDAD, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - US forces carried out an air strike early on Friday, killing at least 10 people, including women and children, in a building in a mainly Sunni area of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

The reported attack came as the US military announced an inquiry into a separate incident in which the bodies of five women and four children had been found in a central village raided by American soldiers looking for Al-Qaeda insurgents earlier in the week.

Friday's air raid targeted a building in the Al-Saha neighbourhood in southwestern Baghdad where families were sleeping, the Iraqi officials said.

Bodies were pulled out of the rubble of the building, which was destroyed.

"Ten people were killed and seven wounded when American helicopters attacked Building No 139 at 2.00 am. We have no idea of the reason for the attack," said an interior ministry official.

An official at Baghdad's Al-Yarmuk hospital said 13 people -- seven men, two women and four children -- were killed and 10 men and a woman were wounded. He said all the casualties were civilians.

Um, because they're Generals?

-Diane

Countdown: Keith: "Is Bill ill?"

-Diane

Countdown: Guest Jim Webb.

-Diane

Countdown: Bill Clinton guests with Keith.

-Diane

-Diane

Mark Knopfler - Brothers in Arms

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arm

Through these fields of destruction
Baptism of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

-Diane

Rep. Jan Schakowsky(D-IL) responds to Rush Limbaugh's comment that those serving in the military who support redeployment from Iraq are "phony soldiers."

Do I hear a call for censure anyone?

-Diane

Rep. Frank Pallone(D-NJ) responds to Rush Limbaugh's comment that those serving in the military who support redeployment from Iraq are "phony soldiers."

-Diane

Action Alert

Limbaugh:

Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are "phony soldiers"

Tell Congress to denounce this.


-Diane

Military Mom calls on Rep. Kirk to denounce John Boehner's remark.

-Diane

Preznit Cheney on Iraq in 1992

Why didn't he follow his own advice?

-Diane

Uh-oh.

It's Islamo-fascism Awareness Week at Sadly,no!


No hamsters were injured in the posting of this link.

-Diane

The Daily Show: Hillary Clinton, Laughing Machine?

-Diane

MSNBC's first look at this morning's top stories in the news.

-Diane

Countdown: Keith discusses the new ruling declaring parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

-Diane

NH Democratic Debate

Part One.


Part Two.



Part Three.


Part Four.


Part Five.


Part Six.


Part Seven.


Part Eight.


Part Nine.


Part Ten.


Part Eleven.


Part Twelve.


Part Thirteen.


Part Fourteen.


Part Fifteen.


Part Sixteen.

Hosted by Tim Russert, this was the best debate I've seen thus far. Kucinich got in some very good points on a lot of issues, and clarified some misconceptions about himself that have persisted, and Edwards made high points -- I think -- on his war, and anti-torture stances.

-Diane

-Diane

The Clenis gets Testy

Thanks to Oliver Willis, Bill Clinton on Moveon.org


-Diane

Action Alert

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).
This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site, Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

-Diane

WATB says CNN has gone over to the dark side.

-Diane

Hold the phone, Someone read the Constitution!

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

Of course, Judge Aiken will probably be called a terrorist sympathizer now...

-Diane

Default: "Wasting my Time"

-Diane

Oh my.

Someone call the waaaaahbulance.

-Diane

The Oversight Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs holds a hearing, "Third Walter Reed Oversight Hearing: Keeping the Nation's Promise to Our Wounded Soldiers." Full Chairman Henry Waxman gives opening remarks.

-Diane

The Daily Show: Last night's guest, the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales.

-Diane

For Congress

It seems they're not missing only spines...

-Diane

Cholera

Twelve confirmed deaths in Iraq -- including one in Baghdad -- since the cholera outbreak was detected on August 23.




-Diane

Wednesday Monkey Blogging

Also the "Awww" moment of the week.

-Diane

Pentagon on why you can't touch this.

During a briefing at the Pentagon, Major General Richard Sherlock declined to comment directly on the existence of the program or the cases against the three snipers.

"I can't discuss this case specifically for a couple of reasons," he said. "First of all there is a court martial that is about to convene and the soldiers connected with this case and subsequent cases deserve due process. Second of all, we don't normally discuss specific, tactics, techniques and procedures. However, I will say we base all of our actions on the laws of land warfare and the rules of engagement and our rules of engagement apply in all circumstances, which does not include simply picking something up on the battlefield."

Well of course not, you have to pick something up off the IRAQI COUNTRYSIDE (aka in Bush-speak as the battlefield) and try to walk away with it.


-Diane

Today's Must Read

Whose Plantation?

Update: Okay, make that Two Must Reads for the day, don't miss the Rude One's Ten Other Things That Surprise Bill O'Reilly About Black People.

-Diane

Olbermann: Jane Harman discusses FISA.


-Diane

Olbermann: George Bush, you couldn't make this stuff up.

-Diane

Last night's Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World"

-Diane

Wolf Blitzer interviews Nancy Pelosi, and gets right to the hard question of why she has not been able to bring an end to the war in Iraq. After Nancy's "60 votes in the senate" blah, blah, blah, Wolf asks if she is indeed saying to the Democratic base that she is throwing up her hands and saying there is nothing she can do. Nancy doesn't see how anyone who is listening could get that impression. Capping of the interview, she reminds us that "impeachment has always been off the table."

Part two of this interview is tonight on CNN.

-Diane

Iraq'd

At least five people have been killed in a bomb attack near the house of a tribal leader in north-western Iraq, local officials say.

A suicide attacker drove his vehicle up to the house before detonating his explosives, reports say.

Tribal leader Kanaan al-Shimari was injured in the blast, which took place near the town of Sinjar, reports say.

-Diane

-Diane

Over

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative agreement on a historic new labor contract, immediately ending a two-day nationwide strike and paving the way for the union to take over $50 billion in retiree health obligations.


This is good news for everyone in the industry.

-Diane

Bush insults the Cuban delegates to the UN today with a verbal attack on Fidel Castro, leading to them getting up and leaving during his speech.

-Diane

Ron Paul on MSNBC this evening discussing his popularity despite low figures in the polls.

-Diane

Danzig: "Crawl Across Your Killing Floor"

-Diane

3,800

The Toll.


-Diane

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (R) yawns as U.S. President George W. Bush addresses the 62nd United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York September 25, 2007. REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES)


-Diane

Supporting the Troops

OpenLeft is having a fundraiser in memory of the two fallen US troops who helped pen the NYT's Op-Ed, The War as We Saw it, Sgt. Omar Mora, and Sgt. Yance T. Gray.

If you're able to contribute to this great endeavor, you may do so HERE.

-Diane

Ari Fleischer still confusing Iraq with 9-11.

-Diane

Liz Cheney says Hillary sounds like a Moveon.org spokesperson.

-Diane

Dennis Kucinich on Leno last night.

-Diane

Bloggers Write Books

Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide (Paperback)

by Bob Harris


I just got my copy of my friend Bob's new book, and can't wait to read it. As I read the back cover, it lists some of his writting for National Lampoon, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...he's never mentioned this! Anyways, it sounds certain to be fascinating, go buy yourself a copy.

-Diane

Countdown: Keith discusses the politics of terror.

-Diane

The Pentagon's defense spending priorities.

-Diane

Canada's new arctic surveillance system.

-Diane

Fuzzy Math

The msm is giving some attention to the methodology, as it were, to the military's new and improved method of tallying the dead in Iraq:

On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street. Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street. According to the U.S. military in Iraq, the solitary man was a victim of sectarian violence. The first four were not.

Such determinations are the building blocks for what the Bush administration has declared a downward trend in sectarian deaths and a sign that its war strategy is working. They are made by a specialized team of soldiers who spend their nights at computer terminals, sifting through data on the day's civilian victims for clues to the motivations of killers.

There's a lot of crap about the logic to this new method, and then here is the standard definition of death due to sectarian violence:

"We look at every single record and de-conflict between coalition and host nation [information] to ensure that nothing is duplicate or erroneous," he said. "Then we look at every record and apply our methodology and criteria to it and assess whether it's ethno-sectarian."

Their written definition of that term is: "An event and any associated civilian deaths caused by or during murders/executions, kidnappings, direct fire, indirect fire, and all types of explosive devices identified as being conducted by one ethnic/religious person/group directed at a different ethnic/religious person/group, where the primary motivation for the event is based on ethnicity or religious sect."

Then there's this nugget at the end:

The killing of seven Iraqis on Aug. 25 in the predominately Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Kadhimiya was judged sectarian. The victims were Shiites, and the method and location -- a car bomb in a marketplace -- pointed to Sunnis.

Two Iraqis killed by a car bomb on Sept. 3 were not included in the sectarian database, however. The attack occurred on a road near Ramadi, not far from where President Bush was meeting with government officials that day. But the victims, regardless of ethnicity or sect, were Iraqi policemen. They were counted elsewhere.

Where the tally of the dead that are filed under 'elsewhere' is located, I do not know. Your guess is good as mine.

-Diane

-Diane

I just love this video.

-Diane

Security Crackdown

The daily violence round-up from McClatchy:

Baghdad

- Two mortar rounds fell in the Green Zone at 08:00 this morning, said Iraqi Police. No casualties were reported.

- 2 children were killed and their parents injured when a mortar round fell on their home in Talbiyah at around 09:00 am.

- Gunmen opened fire upon a coaster bus returning Rafidain Bank employees to their homes. 1 female was killed and another injured.

- 12 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi police. 1 in Qanat St; 1 in New Baghdad; 1 in Shaab; 1 in Sleikh; 1 in Jihad; 2 in Hurriya; 1 in Dora; 2 in Saidiyah and 2 in Amil.

Najaf

- The General Secretary of the National Accordance Group, Najaf Branch, Adel Waheed Abood was targeted by gunmen and sustained two bullets this morning; one in the neck and another in the shoulder. The Heath Department in Najaf say his condition is critical. He was a nominee for the position of Governor in Najaf governorate.

Kirkuk

- An IED targeted the motorcade of the Chief of Police of Kirkuk Governorate, General Jamal Taher in Kornish St. near al-Aras Casino, downtown Kirkuk at 08:30 this morning. One of the security personnel was injured.

- A car bomb detonated targeting Chief of Police of al-Multaqa town on the highway between Kirkuk and the town of Dibis to the north of the city at 09:30 this morning. 4 policemen and 3 civilians were injured.

- Kirkuk Police found the body of policeman Shihab Ahmed Khalaf, 36, with several bullet wounds to his head, yesterday evening.

- 2 civilians injured in a car bomb explosion near the new bridge, Wahed Athar neighborhood downtown Kirkuk at 01: 00 this afternoon.

Fallujah

- A number of fuel tankers that provide the local fuel stations with various oil products were set afire by gunmen near al-Gurma area to the north of Fallujah resulting in the death of a driver.

- The police Station in Ameriyat al-Fallujah was targeted by mortar rounds. There were some casualties amongst the policemen, said eye witnesses. No official statement was made as to casualties.

Diyala

- A suicide bomber detonated in a gathering in a mosque in Baquba. A number of tribal sheikhs, Baquba Chief of Police and a number of officers and a large number of locals were attending an Iftar banquette when the explosion took place. Primary reports put casualties at 20 killed, amongst whom was Baquba Chief of Police and 30 injured.

Now remember, if the bullets enter through the forehead, then they are a true Iraqi casualty. Elsewhere, then they've just been murdered. Crime is everywhere.

-Diane

Ali Saadoun al-Daami grieves for his brother, slain journalist Jawad Saadoun al-Daami, outside the morgue at al-Yarmouk hospital in Baghdad. Al-Dammi, a Shiite who worked for the Iraqi television station al-Baghdadiyah, was gunned down in Baghdad's western Qadisiyah neighborhood on Sunday. (AP Photo/Wisam Sami)
(September 24, 2007)


-Diane

How's that surge working out?

BAGHDAD, Sept. 24 — A suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday at a banquet intended to be a reconciliation feast between provincial officials and former Sunni insurgents in Diyala Province, killing 16 people and wounding at least 28.

Among the wounded were the provincial governor, the regional police chief and the local military commander, local police officials said. At least one former insurgent leader was killed, they said.

The gathering was of the type that is a cornerstone of American plans to reconcile former insurgents with the Iraqi government and enlist their help in fighting Sunni extremist groups. The strategy has produced security gains in Sunni areas in western Iraq, and the military is trying to repeat that success in places like Diyala, a mixed area of Sunnis and Shiites north of Baghdad.

The American military confirmed that American officers had attended the meeting, held at a Shiite mosque in an outlying district of Baquba, the provincial capital. It said soldiers had been attacked by a suicide bomber, but said nothing about any wounded or dead among the Americans.

“There are an unknown number of casualties, and the incident remains under investigation,” the military statement said.

If I understand the Petraeus method of counting the dead, this is a non-issue. What remains unclear to me, however, is am I being treasonous for pointing this out? Or, just a DFH?

-Diane

David Shuster And Marsha Blackburn: Hypocrisy over political attacks? David Shuster really lets her have it for her alleged 'knowledge' of Moveon.org and criticism while she cannot even name the last soldier who died in Iraq who was from her district.

-Diane

Elvis Perkins: "While You Were Sleeping"

-Diane

Wide Stance?

You gotta see this.


-Diane

In this video is the report of a college newspaper that has created a local, and national stir by featuring a front page headline that said "Fuck Bush." The editor of the paper who printed the article is David McSwane, the same young man from my earlier video from 2005 who uncovered the fraudulent recruiting office practices.

-Diane

Jena:

'Now gotdamnit, we only had two nooses hanging from our whites only tree!'



-Diane

Uh-oh.

Way to encourage positive diplomatic discourse.

-Diane

A man looks inside the vehicle of Jawad al-Daami, a journalist for Baghdadiya television, where he was shot by gunmen, outside Yarmouk hospital morgue in Baghdad September 24, 2007. Gunmen killed Daami on Sunday in al-Qadissiya district of southwestern Baghdad, an Iraqi journalists' association said. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (IRAQ)


-Diane

In 2005, a 17 year old conducts a sting operation on a local recruiting office for his high school paper. The disturbing practices he uncovers lead to a day of nationwide shutdowns at recruitment centers.

-Diane

-Diane

"Bait"

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces."

...

"It's our job out here to lay people down who are doing bad things," Spec. Joshua L. Michaud testified in Iraq in July, discussing the unit's numerous casualties. "I don't want to call it revenge, but we needed to find a way so that we could get the bad guys the right way and still maintain the right military things to do."

Call me a dirty fucking hippie, but this sounds a lot like cold-blooded murder. It also makes me wonder how many of the victims were not old enough to be considered adults, and were no more than curious children eager to take home some new find to show their friends.

The Pentagon and your tax dollars at work.

-Diane

Part One.



Part Two.

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials' saber rattling about Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions to similar statements made before the start of the Iraq war.

"I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq," Brzezinski told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

Also guesting is Henry Kissinger.

-Diane

Joshua Bell does Beethoven 5/5

-Diane

Iraq vs. Blackwater.

-Diane

Beer!

Visitors sit in a festival tent of the Oktoberfest in Munich. The world's biggest beer festival opened with the traditional beer barrel tapping earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Christof Stache)
(September 22, 2007)

-Diane

~Musical Interlude~

-Diane

Hillary Clinton on Meet the Press today now says not another penny for Iraq war funding,(she includes and *unless* in there) and if she's elected she will begin an immediate phased withdrawal from Iraq, with a definitive timeline. Russert really hammers her with her past statements on a timeline, as well as her voting record on Iraq.

-Diane

Rest in Peace

A fire truck and Patriot Guard riders lead the funeral procession for U.S. Army Sgt. Omar Mora, who died in a Baghdad vehicle accident weeks after writing a New York Times opinion piece critical of the Pentagon, on Interstate 45 in Texas City, Texas. Mora was killed Sept. 10 along with five other U.S. soldiers and two detainees. The single-vehicle accident also wounded 11 other soldiers and one detainee. (AP Photo/The Daily News, Kevin M. Cox)
(September 22, 2007)


-Diane

Oh my.

The NYT's is worried about being considered too liberal.

Say 'hi' to Judy for me, Chuck. Jeezus.

-Diane

Them Bombs

Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. They quickly pulled out a dozen cylinders, all of which appeared identical from a cursory glance, and hauled them along Bomber Boulevard to a waiting B-52 bomber.

The airmen attached the gray missiles to the plane's wings, six on each side. After eyeballing the missiles on the right side, a flight officer signed a manifest that listed a dozen unarmed AGM-129 missiles. The officer did not notice that the six on the left contained nuclear warheads, each with the destructive power of up to 10 Hiroshima bombs.

That detail would escape notice for an astounding 36 hours, during which the missiles were flown across the country to a Louisiana air base that had no idea nuclear warheads were coming. It was the first known flight by a nuclear-armed bomber over U.S. airspace, without special high-level authorization, in nearly 40 years.

As if this weren't already bizarre enough, an Air Force report on the 'event,' now known by the military code name for such a debacle as a 'Bent Spear'report contains the following passage:

"No press interest anticipated."

I'll try not to go all conspiracy theory on you, but I find it curious how quickly, and with such detail the administration -- the same administration that doesn't honor subpoenas from congress -- is revealing such a massive fuck up.

For those who don't recognize it, the above photo is how Bush started his push into Baghdad in 2003, with B-52's raining bombs down on the city. If another war is in the making, I do not know. I can't think of a more certain way for Bush to ensure our continued presence in Iraq than to attack its neighbor, Iran, and we all know he doesn't seem capable of changing strategery beyond more of the same.

-Diane

$3,850.00

The amount per second spent for the war in Iraq.


-Diane

-Diane

Rachel Maddow's Campaign Asylum. Rachel is going to show you some freaky people.

-Diane

-Diane

~Musical Interlude~

-Diane

A grab from a video entitled "Execution of a Divine Judgement". An Al-Qaeda front has claimed to have "executed" five captured Iraqi soldiers, and posted a short video on the Internet allegedly showing their killing.(AFP/Internet)


-Diane

"Ah'm gonna hurl."

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


-Diane

Cholera hits Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Sept. 21 -- An outbreak of cholera has spread from northern Iraq to Baghdad, infecting at least 1,500 people, the World Health Organization announced Friday.

A 25-year-old woman this week became the first Baghdad resident found to have cholera, and more cases are likely to be confirmed, a WHO spokeswoman said. About 1,500 cases have been confirmed in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, and more than 24,000 other cases are suspected there. At least 10 people have died of cholera in Iraq.

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Cholera is an acute intestinal infection spread through contaminated water or food, making it easy to prevent in countries where clean water is prevalent. A nationwide shortage of chlorine in Iraq has limited access to potable water and put millions at risk of contracting the disease, which can remain dormant in some people while quickly killing others. Officials say the widespread displacement of people within Iraq has contributed to cholera's swift spread over the past several weeks.

In the Kurdish north, restaurants have stopped serving tea because of fears of spreading cholera, but poor families continue to drink whatever water is available. The WHO has sent medical supplies to the area, as well as literature encouraging people to wash their hands and boil their water to kill the cholera bacterium.

When your main water source is a river that is filled with the rotting corpses dumped by sectarian militias after killing sprees, it seems rather insulting to tell these people to wash their hands more often, and boil their water when they have precious little fuel to do anything with.

They need clean drinking water. You'd think Chimpy could squeak some out of that $200 billion he's asking for, but don't hold you're breath waiting for that, either.

-Diane

Bush: 'Oh, BTW...'

WASHINGTON -- -- After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.


Um, Bush did not 'smother' calls to cut the military presence in Iraq. The Democrats handed this victory to him on a silver platter.

-Diane

Bill Maher's New Rules, 9-21-07.

-Diane

Michael Moore opens up a Rudy Giuliani sex shop.

-Diane

Another Shocker.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors are investigating allegations that employees of Blackwater -- the security firm accused of shooting dead up to 20 Iraqi civilians -- illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq, according to U.S. government sources.


-Diane

-Diane

This Week's highlights on Young Turks with Cenk Uyger

Maybe NSFW. ;)

-Diane

KT Tunstall: "Hold On"

-Diane

Preview of Stephen Colbert on The Simpsons

-Diane

Abandoning Our Troops: A Betrayal of Trust

Will you help take the fight to the home states of those who voted against giving our troops adequate rest time at home between deployments? Any amount at all helps, and most donations are small. Click here.


-Diane

Indeed.

Ads don't kill people, wars do.


-Diane

Oh my.

I guess since this is a Canadian magazine, the senate won't have to stay in session all weekend passing articles of condemnation.

Hat tip to Scott Tribe.



-Diane

Bush: "Strong Asset" for Republican candidates?

That's CRAZY!!! With the Republicans giving a big fuck you to the American people, And half the Democrats forgetting the constitution we thought it was important to remind people of the larger thing going on here.

Here is a weekend send-off to GW Bush and a big F.U. to the war-mongers from Iraq Summer.



-Diane

Iraqis Seeking Asylum Near Pre-War Levels

"If current trends are maintained, by the end of the year the number of Iraqi asylum seekers might reach the levels witnessed between 2000 and 2002 when, annually, an average of 40,000 to 50,000 Iraqis sought asylum in the 36 industrialized countries included in UNHCR's statistics," the agency added.


Ok, so we freed Iraq. Who the hell wants to live there?

-Diane

Four Days, Blackwater Back on the Street.

In the Interior Ministry’s version of that day, the events began unfolding when a bomb exploded shortly before noon near the unfinished Rahman Mosque, about a mile north of Nisour Square. Embassy officials have said the convoy was responding to the bomb, but it is still unclear whether it was carrying officials away from the bomb scene, driving toward it to pick someone up or simply providing support.

Whatever their mission, and whoever was inside, the convoy of at least four sport utility vehicles steered onto the square just after noon and took positions that blocked the flow of midday traffic in three directions. But one family’s car, approaching from the south along Yarmouk Street, apparently did not stop quickly enough, and the Blackwater guards opened fire, killing the man who was driving, the ministry account says.

“The woman next to the driver had a baby in her arms,” said an official who shared the report, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to share it. “She started to scream. They shot her,” the official said, adding that the guards then fired what appeared to be grenades or pump guns into the car as it continued to move. The car caught fire.

“The car kept rolling, so they burned it,” the official said.

After being judged 100% guilty by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, why then is Blackwater back in action?

-Diane

Rep. Peter King(R-NY): "Too many mosques..."

-Diane

Be afraid . . . be very afraid

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Republican Party in New Hampshire recently came up with a novel idea for a fund-raiser: having donors pay $25 to fire semiautomatic and automatic weapons at a Manchester gun range. It was such a success that party officials in other cities plan to hold similar events.

I wonder who is issuing permits for this, who is screening the shooters(or are they arming felons as long as they're repubs?), and who is supplying the automatic weaponry?

I just see the potential for a host of issues, both safety and legal in nature.

-Diane

89.6 Million

The portion of the U.S. population under age 65 that went without healthcare insurance for all or part of the past 2 years.

-Diane

-Diane

Those bin Laden Videos...

I've wondered more of late exactly how the bin Laden videos are found on the internets, and who exactly transcribes them, and more importantly -- would we even know if the translations were correct? Afterall, this is the administration that sat paralyzed with ineptitude during Katrina, and now rather than admit to failings in Iraq twists words and statistics into something resembling Grimms faerytales.

Tonight the source is revealed:

The South Carolina mother of three sits with her laptop at her dining table, poring over Jihadist Web sites and occasionally unearthing a hidden al-Qaida video that the terror network hadn't yet released. Mansfield, who uses that name as a pseudonym because she receives death threats, was the first to find the most recent Osama bin Laden tape. She did it after writing software to hack into the password-protected site. Her reaction: "I'm just a fat 50-year-old mom who scooped al-Qaida."

Yep, 'Mom' searches out the videos of evil, transcribes and turns them over to the government. I'm damn near speechless.

-Diane

Dan Rather on Larry King Live

Rather discusses his suit against CBS, and the undue influence by government and big corporations on the media.

Olbermann invites O'Reilly to get tasered...again.

-Diane

Bidding Starts at $9.99 plus shipping.

Right From the Stall at the Minneapolis St Paul International Airport Public Bathroom or Public Lavatory ...you have it here first....a 8 inch lenght of Toliet paper..white single ply standard airport issue tissue.This is a true Political Treasure sure to go up in value in the years to come.Shipping $4.25

-Diane

I get knocked down, but I get up again.

-Diane

How Long?

When will we hear the wingnuts in congress condemn this?



-Diane

Olbermann's Special Comment 9-20-07

Olbermann's promised special comment on George Bush's smear of Moveon.org.

-Diane

Hmm...

AHMADINEJAD 'WILL NOT PUSH TO VISIT GROUND ZERO'

What is with the HUGE text on this header from the site whose name shall not be mentioned? Seriously, wtf? Is it implied relief that a non-white man won't gain access to
a place that wingnuts have laid claim to as their own special spot?

Myself, I would've gone with the casualties in Iraq for a headline, or perhaps this:

Pentagon Probes $6 Billion in Contracts


-Diane

Look at how cocky someone is after today's senate vote against Moveon.

-Diane

Kucinich: 'I've said for 5 years this war is about oil'

-Diane

Needed to see this again

-Diane

Caption this.

-Diane

Countdown, the Blackwater probe.

-Diane

Our government's top ten dubious accomplishments, it's getting ugly out there.

-Diane

Cafferty Files 9-19-07: Passing the buck while Bush runs out the clock.

-Diane

Tales from teh Surge

Soldiers are now getting their brains checked out before deployment.

I'm finding it a little difficult to believe that suddenly the military is becoming pro-active in healthcare.

Two more members of Iraq's parliament drop out.


Another soldiers dies of non-combat related causes.

This is the 17th non-combat related death so far in September.

The U.S. military has introduced "religious enlightenment" and other education programs for Iraqi detainees, some of whom are as young as 11, Marine Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, the commander of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, said yesterday.

Stone said such efforts, aimed mainly at Iraqis who have been held for more than a year, are intended to "bend them back to our will" and are part of waging war in what he called "the battlefield of the mind." Most of the younger detainees are held in a facility that the military calls the "House of Wisdom."

I shudder to think what really goes on here.


-Diane

-Diane

D-I-P-L-O-M-A-C-Y

NEW YORK -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked permission to lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site when he comes to New York City next week, but the request was denied, a police official said Wednesday.

The request was more than denied, US officials use the request as an opportunity to attack Ahmadinejad.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters Wednesday that the United States would not support Iran's attempt to use the site for a "photo op."

"Iran can demonstrate its seriousness about concern with regard to terrorism by taking concrete actions," such as dropping support for Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and suspending their uranium enrichment program, Khalilzad said.

and here:

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said a visit to ground zero "is a matter for the city of New York, but it seems more than odd that the president of a country that is a state sponsor of terror would visit ground zero."

Can't this administration even pretend not to be a bunch of warmongering zealots for a few hours?

-Diane

Why?

Can anyone tell me why this administration, and its Republican lackeys hate our troops?

This is frustrating to us Dems, but it is heartbreaking, and far too much strain on our already overtasked military.

-Diane

-Diane

Heh heh

I'm still sick, but on good antibiotics, and this really gave me the smiles I needed today.


-Diane

Senator Webb slams McCain's opposition to his pro-troop amendment. The CNN anchor continually talks over Webb, and tries to cut him off. Webb makes his points, but it would've been great if the anchor had shut her big mouth.

-Diane

The Sparkle Pony Dance

WASHINGTON (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.

We all know we got the worst. preznit. ever. but whoa, congress! Y'all better get cracking and end the occupation in Iraq.

-Diane