-Diane

White House Halloween

-Diane

Colbert Report

-Diane

-Diane

Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree

Introduction.



Part One.



Part Two.



Part Three.



Part Four.



Part Five.



Part Six.



Part Seven.


-Diane

Happy Halloween

-Diane

Are Tar and Feathers Torture?

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday announced the publication of a new book: Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond.
According to the ACLU: "Based on thousands of government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the book supplies substantial evidence that the torture and abuse of prisoners was systemic and resulted from decisions made by senior U.S. officials, both military and civilian."
Among several details in the book "that warrant public attention and further inquiry," the ACLU said, is this one: "Gen. Michael Dunlavey, who asked the Pentagon to approve more aggressive interrogation methods for use at Guantanamo, claims to have received 'marching orders' from President Bush."

Maybe we should test it out on Mukasey first, he seems to require facts "on the ground". Sounds like a volunteer to me...

My sister suggests if we have any left over, we could seal her driveway...She's very helpful that way...

S(cary)Squirrel

BOO!

Wanker of the Day

Harry Reid



-Diane

More Crap I Couldn't Make Up if I Tried.

George W. Bush: 'Screw children's health care. What the United States of America needs is cheap cigarettes.'


-Diane

Stuff I couldn't possibly make up if I tried...

"Navy Mistakenly Drops Dummy Bomb In Virginia Beach"


-Diane

Theocracy Now!

Max Blumenthal takes us on another shocking trip to the far shores of the Christian right, this time to the 2007 Value Voters Summit. Starring Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani (momentarily in drag), James Dobson, "Lucky Lou" Sheldon, Star Parker, Phyllis Schlafly, Frank Gaffney, and many more of the wingers we know and don't necessarily love.

-Diane

-Diane

Congressman Kucinich discusses seeing a UFO during this evening's debates.

-Diane

"Round Here"

-Diane

Congressman Kucinich calls for impeachment this evening during the live debate with Tim Russert.

-Diane

I gotta rock.

-Diane

-Diane

Cheney's got a gun

New York, Oct.30 (ANI): U.S.Vice President Dick Cheney went out hunting for pheasants in Dutchess County on Monday, but since he is a heart patient, he was trailed by an ambulance embedded in a 15-SUV entourage.

Cheney, according to the New York Post, attracted controversy by visiting the exclusive Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club in Union Vale, a sprawling preserve nestled along the western side of Clove Mountain, where a 5-foot-by-5-foot Confederate flag hung in a garage attached to the club headquarters.

I'd already read earlier that Cheney was staying at a gun club with a confederate flag hanging, but an ambulance? Because he's a heart patient? Pfft! You know it's for his victims.

-Diane

The body of a slain Pakistani soldier has yet to be moved even though a ceasefire between Taliban and Pakistani security forces in the area held for a second day. Four days of fighting left as many as 100 dead.

Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

-Diane

Something in the air.

Four contract workers were banned from FMC Technologies after they hung nooses at one of the firm's Houston facilities, the company announced Tuesday.

The three men and one woman also were fired from their jobs with the contractors for FMC, an oil-field services equipment manufacturer, said Maryann Seaman, FMC spokeswoman.

"FMC has zero tolerance for workplace harassment," Seaman said.

Seaman said about a month ago an employee notified company officials that he had seen a noose hanging in the FMC's Gears Road facility.

Three workers were banned from FMC after they were discovered to have been involved in placing the noose, she said.

Last week, another noose was seen hanging in the same facility, Seaman said, and another person was banned from the firm because she was involved in placing that noose.

Seaman said the company is investigating the cases. So far, she added, the firm has has not contacted law enforcement authorities, but it will do what is ever necessary once its investigation is complete.

I'm curious, does anyone have any statistics for hate crimes during the years before Bushco and during his reign for comparison? It seems to me that hatred in general has been on a steady up and up these past few years. These long, nightmarish past few years.

-Diane

Talk Clock Time

Follow the debate here, or use this thread to discuss.

-Diane

Recap: Hillary...Hillary...Hillary. That pretty well covers it, I think.

Don't miss

my post today at Michigan Liberal on Joe Knollenberg{[MI-D-09].


-Diane

Worst Person(s?) in the World

-Diane

Naomi Wolf

Wolf discusses her new book "The End of America", already on the New York Times bestseller list. The book identifies ten classic steps common to all dictatorships -- including those of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. Alarmingly, Wolf makes the case that each of these ten steps is occurring in post 9/11 America today. The book is a call to action for young and concerned Americans and this interview intimately frames this important discussion.

-Diane

(With thanks to Lynne)

Enough already

Democrats are debating whether to approve $50 billion to $70 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan, less than half of President Bush's $196 billion request but enough to keep the wars afloat for several more months.

Such a move would satisfy party members who want to spare the Pentagon from a painful budget dance and support the troops as Congress considers its next major step on Iraq.

...

These Democrats also say they want to avoid giving the public perception that the party is turning its back on the troops.

What utter contemptuous fucking bullshit. Faux news talking points? Dems, you want to support the troops, bring them home. There's more than enough money out there already to do so without handing over another red cent, and you know it.

-Diane

-Diane

Baby Bigfoot?

-Diane

O'Reilly ignores US military and civilian casualties in Iraq on his show claiming that the media has a grand conspiracy not to report the truth. He comes back after a commercial, and corrects himself to say that there were no casualties in Anbar Province, no whoopsie, there's no grand conspiracy.

But apparently Fox News liked the tale of the conspiracy and no casualties so much, that the very next morning they repeat O'Reilly's original lies.

-Diane

On MSNBC with Dan Abrams, Why won't the AG nominee just say 'yes, waterboarding is torture'?


-Diane

sweet jeezus

AT THE MOSUL DAM, Iraq -- The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.

Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.

At the same time, a U.S. reconstruction project to help shore up the dam in northern Iraq has been marred by incompetence and mismanagement, according to Iraqi officials and a report by a U.S. oversight agency to be released Tuesday. The reconstruction project, worth at least $27 million, was not intended to be a permanent solution to the dam's deficiencies.

"In terms of internal erosion potential of the foundation, Mosul Dam is the most dangerous dam in the world," the Army Corps concluded in September 2006, according to the report to be released Tuesday. "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely."

The effort to prevent a failure of the dam has been complicated by behind-the-scenes wrangling between Iraqi and U.S. officials over the severity of the problem and how much money should be allocated to fix it. The Army Corps has recommended building a second dam downstream as a fail-safe measure, but Iraqi officials have rejected the proposal, arguing that it is unnecessary and too expensive.

The debate has taken place largely out of public view because both Iraqi and U.S. Embassy officials have refused to discuss the details of safety studies -- commissioned by the U.S. government for at least $6 million -- so as not to frighten Iraqi citizens. Portions of the draft report were read to The Washington Post by an Army Corps official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The Post also reviewed an Army Corps PowerPoint presentation on the dam.

The lives of thousands of innocent people are at risk, and their only hope is the Bush administration, and the dysfunctional, militia-infiltrated Iraqi puppet regime?

Also a disquieting thought, why is this information being released publicly? Doesn't it call attention to would-be attackers towards this highly vulnerable spot? That would end the US-Iraqi bickering over how much to spend on repairs, wouldn't it?

I dislike intensely how cynical I've become, and knowing that I have plenty of good company there isn't really a comfort.

-Diane

Countdown

The real Rudy Giuliani. 'Waterboarding is not necessarily torture because it depends on who's doing it'

You can't make this shit up.

-Diane

Max Blumenthal, American Hero

Do not miss his new video.

Then after you watch it, double-check the locks on your doors and windows. Just to be safe.

-Diane

Portastatic: "Song for a Clock"

-Diane

Stephen Colbert at USC

From over the weekend.

-Diane

The horror, the horror...

Mike Sheehan of Scholars and Rogues chats with Matt Taibbi.


-Diane

Caption this.

-Diane

Another One Bites The Dust

DENVER — Rep. Tom Tancredo plans to leave the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of 2008, whether his longshot presidential bid is successful or not, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

"It's the fact that I really believe I have done all I can do in the House, especially about the issue about which I care greatly (immigration)," Tancredo, 61, told the newspaper Sunday night.

I think this makes 18 between the repubs in the house and senate. Not breakin' my heart at all.

-Diane

Top Dog.

-Diane

Kachina, a four-year-old female grizzly bear, eats treats as she plays with a pumpkin jack-o'-lantern at the San Francisco Zoo, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007. The bear treats are part of the Zoo's annual Halloween 'Boo at the Zoo' and Dia De Los Muertos' celebration. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)


-Diane

60 Minutes

The President of France storms out of an interview last night on 60 Minutes.


-Diane

Update: Better clip up at Raw Story.

Enter some pithy quote about not learning from history, and being doomed to repeat mistakes of the past.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up Monday among recruits gathered outside a police camp in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 27 people and wounding 20, police and hospital officials said.

Iraq just needs someone to pull things together and unite the people. But who?

Bush: "Ahmed Chalabi!"


-Diane

-Diane

A Sudanese girl waits for the beginning of a puppet show in the Abu Shouq internally displaced people's camp in the outskirts of el-Fasher, North Darfur.

-Diane

Just in time for Halloween

William Safire's spooky political predictions.


-Diane

Counting Crows: "A Long December"

-Diane

Ten Sheiks

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Gunmen kidnapped 10 tribal sheiks in Baghdad as the men were heading home Sunday after meetings with Iraqi officials on the nation's contentious reconciliation process, an Interior Ministry official said.

The sheiks -- seven Sunnis and three Shiites -- were riding in two vehicles through the capital's Shaab district, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army, the militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The sheiks were en route to Baquba, in Diyala province, when gunmen in several vehicles stopped their cars and kidnapped them, the official said.

The tribal leaders had just met with an official in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office in the Green Zone. Al-Maliki did not attend the meeting, a spokesman said.

It is not clear who staged Sunday's kidnappings, but it is not the first time insurgents have targeted reconciliation efforts, which are aimed at easing the sectarian tension and violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

I hesitate to speculate on the fate of the shieks, or the possible consequences of any harm that may come to them. I do understand that these shieks are responsible for holding together what is left of various tribes of Iraq. Already fragile threads of a nation in peril, I fear for what might become of the people of these tribes if their leaders are not returned to them.


-Diane

Bad campaign ad.

-Diane

The Leader of the Free World, circa 1967

Cartoonist Garry Trudeau '70 said he thinks a little-known fact about President George W. Bush '68's past -- that his first mention in The New York Times occurred in 1967 when, as former president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale, Bush defended the fraternity's practice of branding its pledges with a red-hot coat hanger -- deserves more national attention.

On Sunday, Trudeau's cartoon "Doonesbury" featured fictional character Mark Slackmeyer explaining the President's position against current anti-torture legislation by revisiting a series of 1967 Yale Daily News articles that exposed DKE's rush activities, which at the time included brandings and alleged beatings. Soon after these stories were published, the University's Inter-Fraternity Council fined the fraternity for performing "physically and mentally degrading acts," and the Times published an article in which Bush defended the brandings, comparing them to cigarette burns.

"At the time, it caused quite a stir on campus, even generating some national attention," Trudeau said.

The News article, published Nov. 3, 1967, featured a photograph of a half-inch high "D" burned into a pledge's naked backside. Trudeau drew his first cartoon for the News for the story -- a picture of smiling pledges, naked and bent over at the waist, with a figure holding a DKE branding iron standing over them.

In a News story the next day, Bush is quoted calling the branding "insignificant." He said he did not understand how the News "can assume Yale has to be so haughty not to allow this type of pledging to go on."

The writing was on the wall, er, asses way back then.

-Diane

Laura Bush addresses wingnut criticism on Fox News(where else?)

-Diane

Everybody Wants To Be A Rock Star

-Diane

He always looks guilty of something, doesn't he?

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is pushing $25 million in earmarked federal funds for a British defense contractor that is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and suspected by American diplomats of a "longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations."

McConnell tucked money for three weapons projects for BAE Systems into the defense appropriations bill, which the Senate approved Oct. 3. The Defense Department failed to include the money in its own budget request, which required McConnell to intercede, said BAE spokeswoman Susan Lenover.

BAE is based in Great Britain but has worldwide operations, including a Louisville facility that makes naval guns and employs 322. McConnell has taken at least $53,000 in campaign donations from BAE's political action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election. United Defense Industries, which BAE purchased two years ago, pledged $500,000 to a political-science foundation the senator created, the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.

I guess this means it's time for Fox News to start referring to McConnel as a Dem when they report on him.

-Diane

Freddie vs. The Stills

Today, as a Republican candidate for president, Thompson is cultivating an image as a tough prosecutor who, like the character he played on TV's "Law & Order," battled powerful criminals during his three-year stint as a prosecutor.

He was "attacking crime and public corruption," boasts a video played at his campaign events. During a candidate debate this month, Thompson said he spent those years "prosecuting most of the major federal crimes in middle Tennessee -- most of the major ones."

But a review of the 88criminal cases Thompson handled at the U.S. attorney's office in Nashville, from 1969 to 1972, reveals a different and more human portrait -- that of a young lawyer learning the ropes on routine cases involving gambling, mail theft and, in one instance, talking dirty on CB radio.

There were a few bank robbers and counterfeiters. But more than anything, Thompson took on the state's moonshiners and a local culture, rooted in Tennessee's hills and hollows, that celebrated the independent whiskey maker's battle against the government's revenue agents.

Twenty-seven of his cases involved moonshining -- more than any other crime.

Oh, and much more on the actor wannabe POTUS:

In court, the judge would make guttural sounds or break pencils as lawyers tried to form arguments. "Judge Gray was very tough on Fred and the lawyers in Charlie Anderson's U.S. attorney's office -- he didn't think they knew what they were doing," recalled Gilbert S. Merritt, Anderson's predecessor, who is now a judge on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

There was much to learn. After charging a man with stealing checks from the mail, Thompson saw the case dismissed because the wrong date appeared in the indictment. Another indictment, against a group of counterfeiters, was thrown out when Gray ruled that Thompson had failed to allege a crime. The judge often chided Thompson for a bad habit of leading witnesses.

In the trial of a man charged with aiding bank robber Johnny Pace in his escape, Gray completely lost it as Thompson struggled with the concept of hearsay evidence.

"I don't see any reason for the consummate passion of the United States attorney's getting stuff reversed by getting stuff in the record that has no business in there at all," the judge declared, adding that he found Thompson's conduct "utterly incompetent."

"I got initiated by Judge Frank Gray," Thompson said in a 2003 interview, "and I use that term advisedly."

Thompson's saving grace in court was his calm demeanor ("the coolest lawyer I've seen," recalls one juror, Henry Bledsoe Jr.) and his sense of humor. During a particularly tense trial, as one law enforcement witness tore seals on three successive envelopes before he could get to the evidence within, Thompson quipped, "Is there really anything in there at all?"

At one slow-paced hearing, Thompson attempted so many jokes that the defense attorney objected: "Is there any way you could rule against the assistant United States attorney for his continued humorous attempts at humorous remarks, and also his references to the fact that he would like to leave here in a hurry?"

Then some kind words for Thompson and his treatment of the poor, uneducated distillers that he prosecuted because he 'believed in what he was doing':

Chasing the moonshiners "was hard work," said Charles Lowe, who investigated cases for the federal division then called Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "The population in general bought the whiskey, and they kind of sided with the bootleggers philosophically. But Fred believed in what he was doing. . . . He fought."

Moonshine was commonly made with sugar, yeast, and a still to separate the alcohol from the fermented mash. Most Tennessee moonshine was tasty, agents say, though irresponsible moonshiners gave their customers lead poisoning by using automobile radiators in the condensing process.

Thompson's defendants were often poor, and few had high school educations, according to Bureau of Prisons reports included in court files. One typical report described a bootlegger Thompson prosecuted -- a high school dropout who had married at age 14 -- as "the product of a rural, hill-country environment where illegal distilling and running of whiskey have existed for decades."

Many in the illegal whiskey trade say Thompson was merciful and sensitive. Dwayne Kent, a moonshiner who also served as a witness in a Thompson prosecution, recalls Thompson dealing with a bootlegger who had not seen an elevator before and was afraid to board it at the courthouse.

"It was like trying to load a wild cow in a truck," said Kent, who quit bootlegging and now is chairman of his county's tax board. "But Fred handled things. He stopped himself and the other attorneys when they used big words so we could understand what they were saying."

In his final year as prosecutor -- and his biggest moonshine case involving a law enforcement official -- Freddie lost the case in 1973, and was off to Washington...to investigate the President of the United States.

Thompson's history as a prosecutor reads more like an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" than part of a bio for a future president.


-Diane

Oh my.

NEW YORK Jonah Goldberg, the conservative Los Angeles Times and syndicated columnist, has been working on a book called "Liberal Fascism" for quite some time, long enough for it to undergo at least a couple of name changes.

Now someone--presumably not a fan--has hacked the book's entry at online bookseller amazon.com. Its current title -- at least momentarily at that site -- is "Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from When I Got My Advance Until I Finally Hand in the Manuscript in 2011."

The cover on the page shows a smiley face with a Hitler moustache.

Well, it wasn't me. View the book's Amazon entry here.



-Diane

-Diane

Late.

-Diane

Bill Maher

This is the full episode of last night's Maher.

-Diane

On The View, Whoopi Goldberg explains the war on terror.

-Diane

~Musical Interlude~

-Diane

-Diane

-Diane

No Comment.

A Crook County couple killed themselves and their four dogs by leaving the car running in their closed-up home, apparently distraught over a foreclosure notice on their home, authorities said.

Sheriff's deputies responded around 1 p.m. Tuesday to a welfare check on Mill Creek Road, northeast of Prineville, and arrived to find someone had used a D-4 Caterpillar tractor to move a steel fifth-wheel frame to block the driveway about 200 yards from the home, said sheriff's Sgt. Travis Jurgens.

Neighbors told deputies they had tried to check on the elderly homeowners earlier and were concerned after they did not answer the door, Jurgens said, adding that there were no signs of the several large dogs they owned.

Deputies walked to the home and detected a strong gas odor outside, then discovered a 1981 Cadillac Eldorado running inside the locked garage, Jurgens said.

Deputies forced the garage door open and looked for any victims of the heavy carbon monoxide fumes, also discovering the door to the three-level home had been propped open with a rock, the sergeant said.

Officials turned off the car and opened the garage doors before proceeding to another door outside the home. Deputies breached a locked outside door from a deck on the second floor and found the body of the 71-year-old male resident of the home, along with three dead golden retrievers, Jurgens said.

Elsewhere in the house, they found the body of the man's 69-year-old wife in the upstairs bedroom and another golden retriever at the top of the stairs, he said.

Deputies worked through the gas fumes and tried to open the home's doors and windows to investigate the scene, Jurgens said. Crook County Fire and Rescue crews were called to assist after the deputies began feeling ill effects of the carbon monoxide fumes. The fire personnel brought a large fan and breathing apparatus for the deputies to use.

Jurgens said in a news release it's believed the couple "committed suicide after attempts to save their home following a foreclosure notice left them believing they had few options."

-Diane

Bill Maher's New Rules

'We have become the most insecure, paranoid, superpower ever.'

-Diane

Four things you probably should *not* say before a judge during a custody hearing.

Earlier:

Britney Spears made a brief exit from court just moments ago. The pop singer stormed out of the courtroom in an agitated state. She was yelling, “Eat it! Lick it! Snort it! F*** it!”

Probably on Youtube before this email crossed my desk...

-Diane

Oh my.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the largest call-up of U.S. diplomats since the Vietnam War, the State Department is planning to order some of its personnel to serve at the American Embassy in Iraq because of a lack of volunteers.

Those designated ''prime candidates'' -- from 200 to 300 diplomats -- will be notified Monday that they have been selected for one-year postings to fill the 40 to 50 vacancies expected next year.

They will have 10 days to accept or reject the position. If not enough say yes, some will be ordered to go to Iraq and face dismissal if they refuse, Harry Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service, said Friday.

''Starting Nov. 12, our assignments panel will assign people to Iraq,'' Thomas told reporters in a conference call. ''Under our system, we have all taken an oath to serve our country, we have all signed (up for) worldwide availability.

''If someone decides ... they do not want to go, we will then consider appropriate action,'' he said. ''We have many options, including dismissal from the Foreign Service.''

Perhaps we'll finally get to see a bunch of these grown-up white men in suits and ties cry like babies, and join the call to end the occupation. I'll bring the popcorn.

-Diane

Swiftboat this.

As the years in Iraq have worn on, with no headway made by our leaders we elected in 2006 towards ending the debacle, while I've tried to keep my little blog centered around the war, even I grow weary. I used to do a near daily post of 'The Toll' which was a count of the US troops killed in combat. Aside from the number in the thousands that few in congress seemingly pay any attention to, the fallen have been treated shamelessly by the administration. No one firmly grounded in reality believes that the DoD accounting of the dead is an accurate number. The news accounts from the families here in the states of their loved ones passings conflict too often with the 'official' tolls. How long this has been a practice, I do not know. The same is true for the civilian death toll, that I believe the 1 million-plus number more accurately reflects is no doubt still not a true accounting due to the Muslim burial practices, and the militias who have seemed to catch on to the fact that if executed/tortured bodies turn up in any quantity in the streets of any given village that no doubt the military will come in to conduct their raids. Hence is what I believe the reason behind the bodies that we hear about being found buried under buildings and homes, when we're permitted to hear of such truths.

When the troops themselves are brave enough to speak out about what they have witnessed, I believe it's a call for most anyone who does what I do to help their voices be heard. While certainly the Washington Post has an impressive number of readers -- I assume -- I myself know how many of the people around me never read anything more than the local paper, and often that is limited to the sports and entertainment sections.

So let me share with you here some of the more glaring, yet really not 'new' revelations of a unit that is 14 months into a tour of duty in Baghdad...

Starting with the quote that is also the article's title:

'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life'

"I hate this road," someone says over the radio.

Barriers in Sadiyah are daubed with graffiti about an Iraqi National Police brigade that used to patrol the area and the Iraqi army brigade that replaced it. U.S. soldiers and residents said the police were complicit in Shiite attacks on Sunnis.
Barriers in Sadiyah are daubed with graffiti about an Iraqi National Police brigade that used to patrol the area and the Iraqi army brigade that replaced it. U.S. soldiers and residents said the police were complicit in Shiite attacks on Sunnis.

They stop, look around. The streets of Sadiyah are deserted again. To the right, power lines slump down into the dirt. To the left, what was a soccer field is now a pasture of trash, combusting and smoking in the sun. Packs of skinny wild dogs trot past walls painted with slogans of sectarian hate.

A bomb crater blocks one lane, so they cross to the other side, where houses are blackened by fire, shops crumbled into bricks. The remains of a car bomb serve as hideous public art. Sgt. Victor Alarcon's Humvee rolls into a vast pool of knee-high brown sewage water -- the soldiers call it Lake Havasu, after the Arizona spring-break party spot -- that seeps in the doors of the vehicle and wets his boots.

"When we first got here, all the shops were open. There were women and children walking out on the street," Alarcon said this week. "The women were in Western clothing. It was our favorite street to go down because of all the hot chicks."

Many bombs, sectarian killings, and families fleeing to any nation that would have them ago. It's been during this unit's last 14 months that our dear internet friend and blogger River -- of Bagdad Burning -- and her family left for Syria, leaving their home, most of their belongings, family members, and friends behind.

But in one instance about two months ago, the American soldiers heard that the Wolf Brigade planned to help resettle more than 100 Shiite families in abandoned houses in the neighborhood. When platoon leader Lt. Brian Bifulco arrived on the scene, he noticed that "abandoned houses to them meant houses that had Sunnis in them."

"What we later found out is they weren't really moving anyone in, it was a cover for the INP to go in and evict what Sunni families were left there," recalled Bifulco, 23, a West Point graduate from Huntsville, Ala. "We showed up, and there were a bunch of Sunni families just wandering around the streets with their bags, taking up refuge in a couple Sunni mosques in the area."

As the militiamen and insurgents battled it out, the bodies mounted up. U.S. troops said that earlier this year it was common for them to find at least half a dozen corpses scattered on the pavement during their daily patrols.

Militiamen in BMWs rode around the neighborhood with megaphones, demanding that residents evacuate. Mortar rounds launched from nearby Bayaa, a Mahdi Army stronghold, began crashing down regularly in Sadiyah. Three mosques in the neighborhood were rigged with explosives and destroyed.

The national police erected checkpoints outside other mosques and prevented Sunnis from attending services. The U.S. soldiers began facing ever more sophisticated armor-piercing roadside bombs known as EFPs, short for explosively formed penetrators. Some of them were linked in arrays that blasted out as many as 18 heated copper slugs.

Over time, the neighborhood became a battleground that residents fled by the thousands. Hundreds of shops shut down, schools closed, and access to basic services such as electricity, fuel and food deteriorated. "The end state was people left. They felt unsafe," said Timmerman, the operations officer.

"We were so committed to them as a partner we couldn't see it for what it was. In retrospect, I've got to think it was a coordinated effort," Timmerman said. "To this day, I don't think we truly understand how infiltrated or complicit the national police are" with the militias.

Those of us following along at home have noted the infiltration of the national police by the militias that our troops here confirm, again. At this point one can only assume the administration simply doesn't care, because afterall, it is Bush's war on terror, along now with most of our congress.

"This is a dangerous place," said Capt. Lee Showman, 28, a senior officer in the battalion. "People are killed here every day, and you don't hear about it. People are kidnapped here every day, and you don't hear about it."

On Oct. 14, Washington Post special correspondent Salih Saif Aldin was killed while on assignment in Sadiyah.

Those who patrol the neighborhood every day say the fight has left them tired, bitter, wounded and confused. Many of their scars are on display, some no one can see. Sgt. 1st Class Todd Carlsrud has a long gash on the right side of his neck and carries a lump of shrapnel lodged against his spine that his doctors would not risk cutting out. Another sergeant felt the flaming pain of a bullet tearing through his cheek and learned the taste of his own warm blood. He was one of three soldiers that day to get shot in the head -- a fourth was hit in the biceps -- when his squad walked into a house and found two gunmen waiting.

"The closer we get to leaving, the more we worry about it," said Alarcon, 27, sitting at a plastic table with several other soldiers outside their outpost in Sadiyah. "Being here, you know that any second, any time of the day, your life could be over."

"Gone in a flash," said Sgt. Matthew Marino.

"We had two mechanics working in the motor pool get hit by mortars," Alarcon said. "You would have never thought." Both died.

Many of the soldiers from the battalion are on their second tour in Iraq. Three years ago, they were based in Tikrit, the home of Saddam Hussein, a city they entered expecting to fight a determined Sunni insurgency. By the end of their tour, with much of the violence contained, many of them felt optimistic about progress in Iraq.

"I honestly thought we were making a difference in Tikrit. Then we come back to a hellhole," Marino said. "That was a playground compared to Baghdad."

The American people don't fully realize what's going on, said Staff Sgt. Richard McClary, 27, a section leader from Buffalo.

"They just know back there what the higher-ups here tell them. But the higher-ups don't go anywhere, and actually they only go to the safe places, places with a little bit of gunfire," he said. "They don't ever [expletive] see what we see on the ground."

Hear that, John McCain. Congress. Katie Couric. Michelle Malkin. I know there are more, and I'm almost certain we'll be hearing from them.

I don't know how many of these brave young men today dared to tell the truth will make it home, but I'll be here -- fwiw -- to defend them against anyone who dares to question their honor, patriotism, or integrity.

Read the entire piece here.

-Diane

It's time for some Floyd.

-Diane

Bill Donahue and his moral outrage of the week

What. a. fucking. hypocrite.

-Diane

Heh.

More Americans believe in ghosts than approve of George W. Bush.



-Diane

Live From Congress: Representative Wants To See, Meet More Kids Online


-Diane

Global Warming

Watch the Arctic Sea ice melt in time-lapse photography.

-Diane

Gotdamnit, I didn't make the list!

From The Family Security Foundation:

With the help of the Internet, wealthy donors, and willfully ignorant newspapers and television networks, dangerous “hate” organizations are growing powerful in the world of politics. They aim to distort facts to push their own ideological agenda – usually at the expense of ethics, integrity, and morals. Unfortunately, these groups are propagandizing millions of Americans because biased newspapers, magazines, and cable news networks are knowingly treating the information these organizations spoon feed them as fact.

Hatred knows no ideology, and there are groups like this on both sides of the political spectrum. They may not share the same dogma, but what they do have in common is their unwillingness to bend in their strictly biased view of the world.

Based on their effectiveness of disseminating propaganda, here are the ten most dangerous organizations in America:

10 ) Think Progress

9 ) Muslim Student Association

8 ) CodePINK

7 ) American Civil Liberties Union, National

6 ) Family Research Council

5 ) Center for American Progress

4 ) League of the South

3 ) MoveOn.org

2 ) Universities and Colleges

1 ) Media Matters for America

Since The Great Orange Satan didn't make the list either, I guess I shouldn't feel too left out. Maybe next year...

-Diane

Condoleezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzza

Internal State Department e-mails, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, show top officials were extensively briefed about repeated incidents of Blackwater security guards killing innocent civilians more than two years ago.

It was only in the last month that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took action to review the activities of Blackwater and other private security companies in Iraq.

The assistant secretary of state who oversaw Blackwater and other contractors, Richard Griffin, resigned yesterday in the wake of a critical internal review.

Yet, the e-mails show that State Department officials had extensive knowledge of a growing problem in the summer of 2005, and complained about a lack of a compensation program for civilian victims.

"Obviously it is not pleasant meeting with these individuals with nothing more to offer than apologies, condolences and vague promises," wrote a State Department security officer based in al Hillah, Michael Bishop, to his superiors at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

I think I can save Condi the inconvenience of testifying before congress of her knowledge of these emails, and the dilemna of which pair of shoes to wear for the hearing. She has no recollection of these emails. It worked for her before.

-Diane

Dire UN Warning

-Diane

Countdown

Secret document that was not to be released until after the November 2008 elections reveals Rudy Giuliani had little knowledge of Al-Qaeda until after the attacks on 9/11, contradicting claims by Giuliani.

-Diane

Uh-oh.

Cheney's going hunting again this weekend. Don't say I didn't warn ya.


-Diane

Dana, Episode 4

-Diane

Caption this.

-Diane

Declining Violence in Iraq

BAGHDAD - A Sunni schoolteacher was seized from his car, then shot to death Thursday by suspected Shiite militia fighters, police said, a grim reminder of persistent sectarian tensions in Iraq.

Ahmed al-Janabi a 45-year-old father of three, was driving to visit his sister in a predominantly Shiite area in southwestern Baghdad when gunmen in two cars stopped him at an intersection.

They took him away in his car after examining his identification and food ration cards, which would have identified him as Sunni by his name, tribal affiliation or place of residence.

Police found his body in the car in a nearby neighborhood about an hour later. Al-Janabi had been shot three times in the eyes, according to an officer at the hospital where the body was received.

-Diane

Frontline November 6th

Extraordinary Rendition

-Diane

Double Digits for Colbert

Comedian Stephen Colbert is not a threat to win the presidency, but the odds are that that his satire will win plenty of laughs and maybe even some votes.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Colbert is preferred by 13% of voters as an independent candidate challenging Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani. The survey was conducted shortly after Colbert’s surprise announcement that he is lusting for the Oval Office.

Okay, ha ha, funny fun...but what if he wins?

-Diane

The Rise and Fall of The Shrub

Currently at 24%, it looks much more damning with the rise and fall illustrated this way.

-Diane

MOP: Destination Iran?

Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.

The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.


The MOP is the the military's largest conventional bomb, a super "bunker-buster" capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to "an urgent operational need from theater commanders."

What urgent need? The Pentagon referred questions on this to Central Command.

ABC News called CENTCOM to ask what the "urgent operational need" is. CENTCOM spokesman Maj. Todd White said he would look into it, but, so far, no answer.

As much as I don't want to think about the possibility of a US strike on Iran, each day it seems to become more of a likelihood. There doesn't seem to be any real effort within congress to stop this from happening, nor from any of what are considered to be the frontrunners in the Dem party candidates for POTUS, unless I've missed something?

-Diane

Episode 4

-Diane

-Diane

Crazy bastard Bill O'Reilly says that Portland, Oregon -- and the left wing in general -- are more ...I think the word he used was 'tolerant' of pedophiles. Don't make me watch it again.

-Diane

I can't believe what George Carlin said on The View today! Listen...

-Diane

Condi Rice is accosted by a protestor with blood-colored hands today, and watch her reaction. I get the impression she gets called a war criminal a lot.

-Diane

Countdown

Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World.

-Diane

Foo Fighters: "On The Mend"

-Diane

Perfected: The Ann Coulter Song

Via BraveNewFilms


-Diane

Hearing on Iraq Costs & Interest: Spratt's Opening

The Budget Committee holds a hearing, "The Growing Budgetary Costs of the Iraq War," to examine the impact of a sustained presence in Iraq and the additional "borrowing costs" of interest payments on the debt incurred. A total calculation through 2017 brings an estimate of $2.4 trillion. Chairman John Spratt gives opening remarks.

-Diane

Today's Must-Read

Chris Dodd's leadership vs. Clinton and Obama's game playing

(by Glenn Greenwald)


-Diane

George Carlin on Countdown last night with Keith Olbermann.

-Diane

Your Tax Dollars at Work

BAGHDAD, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Iraqi police searching for a member of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia shot dead his two infant daughters and wounded his wife in a raid on Tuesday, a senior official in Sadr's movement said.

Haider Mujed was away when a police unit raided his house in Kerbala, Haider al-Jaberi told Reuters. The police then shot his two daughters, Mariam, 3, and Ayat, 18 months, he added.

The police in the city said a shooting has occurred and that Mujed's wife and one daughter were wounded, but did not give further details.

"They killed his children deliberately, they shot them," Jaberi said. "Nothing justifies what happened. They have killed infants."

All for the bargain price of 8k for every man, woman, and child in America. Heckuva job, 43.

-Diane

Wednesday Monkey Blogging

-Diane

Freedom Fries with that Bushit?

President Bush plans to outline new steps today aimed at pressuring Cuba's government to move to democracy and ease political repression, including offering new scholarships and computer access for the country's youth and the creation of a new international fund to finance Cuban reconstruction under democratic leadership.

The moves were outlined last night by a senior administration official, who previewed Bush's first extended discussion of U.S.-Cuba policy in several years. The steps, to be announced at the State Department, amount to no major shift in the country's long-standing approach to Cuba, which consists of efforts to isolate the regime economically and limit diplomatic contact until Havana liberalizes its half-century-old communist system.

"The key for this president is fundamental democratic change," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging today's speech. "If the regime were serious about that, they could take a number of steps today."

After all of these horrible years, I still can't give up hope of a government that actually puts the needs of it's own children, and people in general before tossing out money it does not have in attempts to convince other nations to come over to the dark side.

Can Bush's democracy sound appealing to anyone at this point? Someone pop his bubble, please.

-Diane

2.4 Trillion; More than Vietnam and Korea Combined

New estimates show Iraq, Afghanistan will cost US $2.4 trillion; White House refuses to provide estimate

The United States is spending about $8,000 per man, woman and child in the country to pursue wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to new estimates that show the wars will cost about $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

More than one-fourth of the money spent in Iraq and Afghanistan -- $705 billion -- will go to paying interest on the wars' costs, which are being funded with borrowed dollars, according to an estimate to be released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office. Iraq accounts for about 80 percent of the costs with a $1.9 trillion tab, including $564 million in interest, a House budget committee staff director told USA Today, which reported the numbers Wednesday morning.

"The number is so big, it boggles the mind," Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) told the newspaper.

The CBO previously estimated the war's costs at $1.6 trillion, which did not include interest payments or Bush's latest request for an extra $46 billion in war funding.

Since President Bush decided to invade Iraq in early 2003, the war's costs have skyrocketed as government number-crunchers continue to revise their estimates.

The latest estimate is more than 40 times higher than the Bush administration's initial estimates that the war would cost between $50 billion and $60 billion; meanwhile a proclivity for cutting taxes has marked Bush's tenure almost as much as his dedication to mounting international invasions.

If only we could force the warmongers to foot the bill for this themselves. It would probably wrap things up fairly quick if it were their own money, methinks.


-Diane

Part 3

-Diane

~QOTD~

"The bill provides for basic needs like bullets..."

-- Bush43


The veto of the SCHIP plan to provide children with health insurance coverage, and the slashing of funds for low-income and elderly people's energy assistance for Winter heating fuel suddenly become crystal clear.


-Diane

Day One.



Day Two.



-Diane

Ryan Adams: "This House is Not For Sale"

-Diane

-Diane

White House Halloweeen 3: Star Wars

-Diane

Live Chat with Senator Dodd

Live chat now at Firedoglake with Senator Dodd on FISA and telecom immunity. Login to Ustream to participate in the chatline.




-Diane

Caption this.

[Reuters}

-Diane

Also from Olbermann last night, the fear card.

-Diane

Countdown last night: Is Gonzo about to face prosecution?

-Diane

Do I hear 9, 10?

Via Think Progress:

In an interview with the Nashua Telegraph editorial board, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said yesterday that the “next eight months” will determine whether the Iraq war can be “won”:

“Within some months from now, I would say in seven or eight months, if we continue to see the progress we’ve seen in the last eight months, I think Americans will be generally accepting that we are withdrawing and ceding more authority over to the Iraqi military and that we are achieving quote ’success,’ ” McCain said.

Wow. That 'seven or eight months' almost got me. The new updated F.U. is barely recognizable as the same tired old regurgitated line when it's worded that way.

-Diane

Over 1/2 Million Told to Evacuate

892 buildings destroyed, 269 thousand acres burned, one death with more feared, and 37 injured that include 17 firefighters as this one rages on. The LATimes has updates, and government resources listed today.

As tragic and dire as the situation is, CNN's Glenn Beck spews this nugget:

"[A] handful of people who hate America ... are losing their homes in a forest fire today"

What's left for this idiot? Shoving old ladies off curbs and into oncoming traffic?

-Diane

-Diane

This is footage of George Bush attending the recent Hispanic National Heritage Month Celebration. Bush is bobbing his head to the beat of the Latin classic "Guantanamera".

Guantanamera means the 'girl from Guantanamo'...

I'm just sayin'.

-Diane

Hat tip to John Lucid. Get well soon, John!

Live Video from California Wildfires

Streaming video from Harris and Witch Creek brush fires burning in the East County.

And this site has a lot of important emergency update information, areas under evacuation orders, shelter listings, disaster relief, as well as the addresses of homes that have been destroyed by fire if you're trying to track family and friends that you're unable to reach by phone.

-Diane

Ron Paul wins Fox News poll much to their own dismay, so, they attempt to discredit their own poll results.

-Diane

Cafferty Files: Jack discusses the situation between Turkey and the Kurds in northern Iraq. Also, George Bush -- in another great compassionate conservative move -- has opted to cut the funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, even in light of the predicted increase in home energy costs this winter. Only 16% of the 38 million eligible Americans will receive assistance, and many of these are the elderly.

-Diane

Wolf Blitzer: Is the government hiding air traffic safety data? In some instances, in a survey of pilots, near collisions near double figures released to the public.

-Diane

Matchbox Twenty: "How Far We've Come"

-Diane

But, hey, rugs are three for five dollars

Prague - A correspondent for the United States-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) went missing while on her way to an interview in Baghdad on Monday morning, the radio station said.

"Police found the body of her driver, shot and dumped in the street," RFE/RL said in a statement.

"There is no trace of the car or RFE/RL's correspondent."

These reports always turn my stomach. There's no telling how many times this woman will be killed before she is dead.

-Diane

"Bloggers Without Borders"

An update from River in Syria.


-Diane

Darth Cheney:

"We will not let Iran go nuclear."

Can someone take away his drum, please?

-Diane

California Wildfire: 10,000 Ordered to Evacuate

RAMONA, California (CNN) -- Residents of about 10,000 homes northeast of San Diego were ordered Monday to flee an out-of-control wildfire, one of several burning across Southern California.

A long line of vehicles streamed westward out of Ramona after the mandatory evacuation order as flames of the Witch wildfire closed rapidly on the San Diego County community.

Fresh in residents' memories is the Cedar fire that killed a dozen people south of Ramona four years ago this week, consuming more than 280,000 acres near the town.

The Witch fire was one of several major wildfires to ignite Sunday around Los Angeles and San Diego, fueled by hot, dry conditions and pushed by fierce Santa Ana winds. Thousands of homes were threatened.

At least one death and 17 injuries were reported Sunday.

Large fires bore down on Malibu, Santa Clarita and two rural communities east of San Diego on Monday morning as thousands of firefighters battled the blazes. Photo See photos of the fires »

The Witch fire was moving much faster than expected, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said, and it had penetrated the San Diego city limits early Monday.

Sanders urged San Diegans in the fire's potential path to "collect important belongings so they can evacuate immediately." He said reverse 911 calls would be made by San Diego police to inform residents who should leave their homes.

The death and injuries -- including burns to four firefighters -- were caused by the Harris fire straddling Highway 94 east of San Diego. It started Sunday morning and had spread more than 20,000 acres by late Sunday, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. It was 5 percent contained, he said.

Thirteen civilians were burned in the Harris fire, said spokeswoman Roxanne Provaznik.

While smaller fires were burning late Sunday around Los Angeles, major wildfires threatened the beach community of Malibu and the city of Santa Clarita.

Elsewhere, it's confirmed that global warming is contributing to these massive, deadly wildfires.

-Diane

Bush: The mere knowledge of how to make a nuclear bomb justifies attack.

-Diane

-Diane

Elvis Perkins: "While You Were Sleeping"

-Diane

Stephen Colbert on Meet the Press 10-21-07

Stephen discusses his Presidential bid, Part One.



Part Two.

-Diane

Re-Run...

Larisa fights off brain-eating republican zombies, and I scream a lot.

-Diane

Impeach

Impeachment cards...I wonder if there's a bulk rate? Need a gift for a Rep or Senator? ;)


-Diane

-Diane

"Know thine Enemy"

Iraqis explain the roots of the insurgency.


-Diane

-Diane

Caption this.

-Diane

Good Cops--Bad Cops

BAGHDAD, Oct. 20 -- The men gathered in the evening at the schoolyard to execute their attack. By the time they finished, at least seven rockets had crashed down nearly four miles away inside the American military headquarters compound in Baghdad, killing two U.S. soldiers and wounding at least 38 other people, according to U.S. soldiers.

From the courtyard of his concrete-barricaded garrison in southwestern Baghdad that evening, Lt. Col. Patrick Frank heard the distinctive sound of rocket fire. He hurried inside his command office to flat-screen panels displaying aerial imagery to pinpoint the launch site.


Within minutes, his cellphone began ringing. Several Iraqi informants told him the attack had originated near the decrepit school in al-Amil, recalled Frank, the battalion commander in the neighborhood. His sources agreed on another thing, too, he said: "There were several Iraqi police vehicles spotted leaving the scene."

In the days since the Oct. 10 rocket barrage, U.S. soldiers have arrested eight police officers suspected of collaborating with Shiite militiamen to target the U.S. base. Assaults by mortars and rockets on military installations across the country are relatively common -- though the missiles frequently land in unpopulated areas. But if the police are found guilty, the Camp Victory assault would represent one of the more glaring examples of Iraqi security forces turning on their American partners to devastating effect.

"It's no secret the Iraqi police have some systemic problems with corruption," said Maj. Bill Kinsey, operations officer for the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. "They've got dirty cops. I would say 'just like anywhere else,' but there's more of them and the stakes are higher."

Staff Sgt. Lillian Clamens, 35, a mother of three from Lawton, Okla., and Spec. Samuel F. Pearson, 28, a former college football player from Westerville, Ohio, were killed in the attack. The military has not released the names or nationalities of the wounded. One U.S. military official said that most of the injured were American soldiers but that many suffered minor wounds and have since returned to duty.

"This is one of their more effective attacks. But it's not the first time," Kinsey said. "You've got to get rid of them so the rest of the police can start doing their job."

Try ending the gotdamn occupation and taking their 'targets' home where they belong. It's not rocket science.

-Diane

The Killers: "For Reasons Unknown"

-Diane

~Musical Interlude~

-Diane

Are Cats Evil?

-Diane

On Friday's Countdown, Stephanie Miller calls Tweety a "right wing tool" heh.

-Diane

Things seen at the right-wing "Values Voter Summit"

These photos are from a group "People For The American Way Foundation" a progressive group that keeps tabs and exposes such wingnuttery.



-Diane

Note: Thanks to Matt in the comments for pointing out my error.