The Hollywood Liberal

News Hounds

George Galloway, the controversial and fiery Member of the British Parliament, who once read the riot act to Sen. Norm Coleman during Senate hearings on the Oil for Food Progam, has done it again. On August 6th at the height of the war on Lebanon, Galloway tongue-lashed Sky News, the Murdoch-owned “sister station” of FOX News, accusing the network of biased unbalanced reporting. Both Sky News and FOX News are owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

One more reason why it sucks to be in a war.

Mistaken coalition bombing kills up to 12 Afghan policemen

AP
Excerpt:
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – Up to 12 policemen were killed in Afghanistan when a US-led coalition plane mistakenly bombed them, officials said, while two suicide blasts wounded eight more police and a US soldier.
The coalition plane that dropped the bomb on a police patrol in eastern Paktika province may have mistaken the convoy for a band of Taliban attackers, provincial border police regiment commander Abdul Hamid said.
“They came under US bombardment and 12 policemen where killed, including the police commander,” Hamid said.
The coalition confirmed “an event did happen”. “It is under investigation. We are scrambling to get the details,” spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said.
President Hamid Karzai said he was “shocked and angered” and had ordered an investigation. The incident was the latest in a string of coalition bombings that have killed civilians or Afghan security forces.
“I have repeatedly asked the coalition forces to take maximum caution while carrying out operations and I want that incidents like this must not be repeated,” Karzai said in a statement that put the death toll at 10.

H.L.s Take
The U.S. Military (Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush) Can’t defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan after 5 years, they can’t defeat the “insurgents” in Iraq after almost 4 years The U.S. spends half our tax dollars on the military, which amounts to more money then the budgets of most countries on this planet combined. Why can’t they finish what they started in these places. Oh, did I mention that the commander-in-chiefs name is George W. Bush. Karzai just learned what everyone learns who gets in bed with Bush, you always get screwed.

9/11 Detainee Released After Nearly Five Years

AOL
Excerpt:
TORONTO (Aug. 13) – The date was Sept. 12, 2001, but Benemar “Ben” Benatta was clueless about the death and destruction one day earlier.
About a week before, Canadian officials had stopped Benatta as he entered the country from Buffalo to seek political asylum. On that Sept. 11, he was quietly transferred to a U.S. immigration lockup where a day passed before sullen FBI agents told him what the rest of the world already knew: terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

It slowly dawned on Benatta that his pedigree – a Muslim man with a military background – made him a target in the frenzied national dragnet that soon followed. The FBI didn’t accuse him of being a terrorist, at least not outright. But agents kept asking if he could fly an airplane.

He told them he couldn’t. It made no difference.

“They gave me a feeling that I was Suspect No. 1,” he said in a recent interview.

H.L.s Take: No Charges, no explanation, nothing. Just hey sorry about the last 5 years of your life, but we had to look like we were doing something.

If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs, and maybe your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery, isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance. Of how much you really want to do it. And you’ll do it, despite rejection in the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods. And the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.

That is the closing quote of Henry Chinaski as writer Charles Bukowski in the new movie that opens today called “Factotum.”
More and more lately I know exactly what he means. When you are going after what you really want nothing else really matters, and all the other bullshit in the world seems to go away. Of course the problem is that for most people going all the way with something they love rarely pays the bills, so people end up compromising the happiness they can find in life.

Read The Whole Review Here

I’m going to the Pacific Council of Foreign Affairs Meeting tomorrow. Special Guest Michael Chertoff. Story and pics to follow. Anyone have any questions they want me to ask him????