• End of combat: Just 43 days after announcing the start of the war in Iraq, President Bush on Thursday told the nation that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." He said the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government was "one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11th, 2001, and still goes on." He spoke not from the White House but from the deck of the aircraft carrrier USS Abraham Lincoln, a dramatic setting that also exerted maximum political effect for the president.
Fifty six dead in 14 days.
"Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free," was his message. "America is grateful for a job well done."
That would be the number staring out at you from every news outlet in the country. It would be on the lips of every single american you came in contact with. It would be the reason you and I were heavily armed.
7,173,466. All dead at the hands of our former "liberators" turned occupiers. How do you think that would sit with americans?
BentLiberals stunning graphic depiction of how many Normandy sized cemeteries it would take to hold the 655,000 Iraqi dead got me to thinking what percentage of Iraq's population that number represented and how that would translate in comparison to the population of the United States. More below the jump.
Family, children, reading, caring for animals, listening to and making music, hiking the moss covered paths of a favorite forest, stopping in that one place where the earth itself can be felt welcoming you into it's caring embrace. These are the things that give me solace in a world gone mad. Batshit crazy mad, where it is nothing out of the ordinary to find that a man in charge of securing rights for missing and exploited children
is in fact a child predator. A world where the man in charge of whipping the fundie faithful into a gay hating, anti-drug mass of motivated voters, turns out to have a penchant for crystal meth and weekend homosexual hookups, proving that you can in fact have your -cock- cake, and eat it too. At least for a little while. Hypocricy at it's finest.
Some thoughts and a personal plea below.
I have ranted and raved about this issue for some time now, usually when I was so pissed off that I couldn't think clearly. This morning I am feeling much more subdued and frankly, sad. I know we are getting close to the election, I know we have all given probably more than ever before, I know I have. On top of everything political, among all the scandals and outrages, behind the sinister shredding of our constitution and The Military Commissions Act of 2006 There is the ongoing travesty of veterans with no place to live.
Lets just call it like it is. The GOP has crashed and is burning. Busted. Their wheels have come off, they are overturned in the ditch, miles from the nearest tow truck, and it's dark outside. Bush, when he dares show his face, is looking more like a strung out crack-head with his hair on fire than a president. (Not like he ever has looked like a president, and no offense to you flaming crack-heads out there). Every single time he gets his smirking, punk-ass chimp face on the tube, more people are seeing him for what he is. A self absorbed, mean spirited, delusional moron that shouldn't be managing a java hut, let alone the worlds last remaining superpower. People are finally getting this, and by extension they are getting that the houses of congress have enabled this psychopathic shit for brains to jeopardize the future of every decent american who cares about anything other than greed. In their orgy of greed and lust for power republicans and a few special dems have followed this despicable little man, straight through the gates of hell.
Maybe this is a throw away. Maybe this is a self serving WATB waste of space. Maybe not. I know the goddamn elections are only a few a weeks away. I'm a Kossack for fucks sake, I'm acutely aware of all things political. I don't need to be reminded to donate whatever, however, as much as I can as often as I can. Been there, doing that. I know exactly what is at stake this November. We will either start the long process of reclaiming our beloved country, or G-d forbid, step off into dark places yet unimagined. The possibilities are bone chilling. I am scared, and I am angry. Maybe you feel just like I do.
There have been 2,831 coalition deaths, 2,604 Americans, two Australians, 115 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, three Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, four Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of August 18, 2006
Below are a few of these soldiers and some personalized links for them.
I am not going to stop writing these diaries until I don't have to.
Take a moment to honor them with your thoughts.
I turned 45 on the 8th of August. 26 year old Sgt. Steven P. Mennemeyer and 25 year old Sgt. Jeffery S. Brown both died that day in Iraq. That's twenty more years of living that I got to do than they were given. At this rate we can expect several thousand more dead in Iraq alone before bush is evicted. We cannot wait that long.
An addition 26 soldiers were killed the first two weeks of August as reported by Global Security
Below are their names and how they were killed. Please remember them and their familes. When will enough be enough.
We have all been busy lately. Loserman got his ass kicked and exposed himself as the mean spirited, self absorbed, grandiose twit that he is. Israel is leveling Lebanon and racking up a huge civilian death toll with too godamn many women and children among them. The war on Terrah caught some bad guys just in time to be exploited by team chimp. (I place Loserman in that camp). Dkos hit 100k registered users and baby jesus cheered.
While we weren't looking, another 50 soldiers have been killed in the occupation of Iraq. Below the fold are their names. Take a minute to remember them.
The recent massacre at Qana of 37 children has brought the worlds attention to the devastating price of war that civilians and in particular kids, pay when the grownups just can't get their shit together. It is tragic and heartbreaking. Many may not know, or care to know, how many children are affected by war and the horrific consequenses they face due to the failure of the worlds leaders to maintain peaceful relations amongst themselves. Besides being killed and then excused by the disgusting phrasing of "collateral damage", children are being forced to fight in wars around the globe. This diary is about bringing awareness to the plight of these children, some as youngs as six or seven years old, that are stolen from their homes and made to fight. This is not playing war like many of us did as kids, this is the real deal.
More below.
President George Bush today held a press conference to officially "come out" as a dyed in the wool sociopath.
Addressing the reporters present he declared himself "loud, proud, and on a mission to alienate, piss off, destabilize and kill as much of the rest of the world as possible with my remaining time in office". I'm tired of pretending to be something that I'm not, and I'm tired of hiding behind this whole compassionate conservatism thingy Bush said. He then gave a thumbs up to those in the room, obviously mocking his predecessor Clinton's famous crowd pleasing gesture.
They started it! Bullshit you did! They are the terrorists! No way! You are!
So since you don't support these attacks you must love terrorists!
Fuck you thats's not what I said! Did so! Did Not! Did so!
Here are some links that prove my point!
Those links are bullshit!
Here's different links!
Those links aren't credible either!
Fuck you!
No.. Fuck you!
Care for more? Tired of the redundant pomposity?
How about some ground rules.
Boy King George says that we are a Nation at War. He says it's a war we cannot win. It's a War without end. Amen.
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes ... known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
-- James Madison, Political Observations, 1795
So how much this all costing us Georgie? More below.
I'm glad to see the diary exposing the ugly truth about the poor and homless by One Pissed Off Liberal tonight. Thanks to him for doing it. I wrote a diary yesterday after work talking about homeless vets. I wrote the thing in about five minutes after completely blowing my lid reading a few articles depicting the plight of homeless veterans. I knew I had struck a cord here when the thing stayed on the rec list for about 18 hours. I have since calmed down, a little, little meaning I was able to do some constructive research and planning tonight. I have some follow up information below the fold and some links to get you started helping immediately.
Herold Noel had nowhere to call home after returning from military service in Iraq. He slept in his Jeep, taking care to find a parking space where he wouldn't get a ticket.
"Then the nightmares would start," says the 26-year-old former Army private first class, who drove a fuel truck in Iraq. "I saw a baby decapitated when it was run over by a truck -- I relived that every night."
I don't want to hear another godamn word out of the whitehouse or the fucking sadist living there. Not one fucking word. Not until ALL our vets are taken care of and have their needs met. I don't want to hear a fucking peep from repug or dem alike until I don't have to see this shit anymore. I can't even think of outrageous enough descriptors to describe the criminality of this.
More below.
I know there's been a lot of attention paid to Neil Young after he released his latest album Living With War, but as most of you know Neil has been at this for a long time. I found an old concert video of him with Crazy Horse, probably from sometime around 1975, doing Cortez The Killer which I hadn't seen before.
It's a song about Cortez and the spanish invasion of the new world.
Below the fold is the video link from youtube, along with the lyrics.
I have decided for today to take a break from all things political and try to enjoy those things I appreciate, and one of those things is the music of Neil Young.
The guitar work in this video is excellent and he's using his famous black Les Paul. Turn it up and Enjoy!
My wife, myself and our youngest son, (he's seventeen) finally saw Gores movie tonight. We almost drove all the way to Madison WI. last weekend to see it and and then found out it would be in our city this weekend, so we postponed our viewing till tonight. I am glad we did. We were getting ready to leave just as ElizabethD put up her Saturday night WYFP diary and I had time to make a quick snarky post about Kos being the KingPin when my son came in to tell us of his plans for tonight. It of course didn't include us. At first that is.
Follow me below for just a minute so I can tell you how the movie affected him and his thoughts on the matter.
Perhaps you have not heard about the South Central Farmers, a coalition of working poor families that have been farming a 14 acre plot for 14 years in the heart of south L.A. Maybe you haven't heard of them because like most things that paint the govt. in a less than favorable light, they don't get much media attention. The story of the urban farming community is another sad tale of the wealthy elite more concerned with profit than human interest, and local government complicit in destroying healthy thriving community for the sake of big money. More below.
