The Hollywood Liberal

This is the last time we will send you back over there and extend your tours I promise. I am the President of the United States you can trust me…. Oh wait, never mind back to the front again.

U.S. Army extends Iraq duty for 4,000

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – The Army is stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it is again extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months — the second such move since August.

The extension reflects a dilemma for Army leaders: either keep one group of soldiers in Iraq longer than promised, or replace them with another group that has not yet had its minimum 12 months at home between combat tours. Either choice risks upsetting some soldiers and their families. And the fact that the choice cannot be avoided is a sign that troop rotations in Iraq are squeezing the Army from several directions.

Some members of Congress are expressing concern that the military is over-stretched by the war. On Monday, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., said the situation in Iraq is “disintegrating” into a civil war.

H.L.s Take
Thats right Arlen, pretend you care enough to raise a stink about it, but then cave in at the last minute like you always do. How many tours will these soldiers have to do before they start speaking out against the colossal monkey failure that their mission is. Most of them still Love Bush and are happy to die for him.

He’s got to be hating this.

Diplomat: U.S. to overlook Chavez barbs

AP
Excerpt:

CARACAS, Venezuela – The verbal attacks Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched against President Bush should not affect diplomatic relations between the countries, the U.S. ambassador said Monday.

My government’s position is that we are going to ignore, we can ignore and we should ignore the words. It’s the actions that count,” Brownfield told the local Globovision television network.

“This bilateral relation is so important for the two countries that we try to ignore the polemical words, the rhetoric.”

Officials in Caracas and Washington have exchanged harsh words and accusations in recent months amid increasingly tense diplomatic relations between Venezuela and the United States.

H.L.s Take
Bush has got to hate it when someone tells the truth about him and gets away with it. It must be the first time in his life it has ever happened, but Bush is owned by those oil boys so he has to take it until he can find a way to have Chavez killed and take over his countries oil like he did Iraq.

Think Progress.org

In April, President Bush received the National Intelligence Estimate, which “represents a consensus view of the 16 separate spy services inside government.” NIEs are “the most authoritative documents that the intelligence community produces…and are approved by John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence.”

Here’s what the NIE said, according to the New York Times:

[T]he American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks…The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

On August 21, President Bush held a press conference and told the American people the exact opposite. Click on Pic to See Video:

Story

Bill Clinton was on Fox News Yesterday when they tried pulling that Republcian crap of blaming him for things that Bush responsible for. He let them have it good. Check it out

Check out this audio clip of Ned Lamonts latest Radio ad. It talks about how Lieberman missed one out of every 4 Senate votes, including some pretty important ones he could have helped his fellow Democrats out with. Of course Joe was never a Democrat anyway.

Macacca Boy, is in deep Monkey Poo Now

Weekly Standard Goes Apeshit on George Allen!

Daily Kos
Excerpt:
If you’re a Republican politician, you really know things are getting bad when a leading conservative magazine attacks you, brutally mocks you, and otherwise rips you to shreds. Well, that’s exactly what has happened to George Allen, with The Weekly Standard’s just-released October 2 issue. It’s bad news right from the git-go, with the front-page picture of Allen and a monkey (see above) and the article’s title, “George Allen Monkeys Around: Forget the presidential campaign. Can he still win his Senate race?”

H.L.s Take:
After it came out that Allens mother was Jewish which he claimed he didn’t know. Allen released a statement saying “How dare you disparage me that way” He later released a statement saying “I am proud of my diverse heritage.” Thats got to suck, Hating a certain group all your life, then finding out you are a part of that group. But then again don’t all Republcians hate themselves, they must or else why would they act that way???

U.S. Army Torturing and Killing Civilians in Afghanistan. They would have gotten away with it fi not for This Times Special Investigation.

A Silence in the Afghan Mountains

LA Times

James Champion Unit C.O.

Excerpt:
The 10-member Special Forces team, part of the Alabama National Guard, returned to their families in the spring of 2003 with tales to tell of frenzied firefights and narrow escapes.

But the team also had come home with secrets.

Apparently unknown to Army officials, two detainees had died in the team’s custody in separate incidents during the unit’s final month in eastern Afghanistan. Several other detainees allege that they were badly beaten or tortured while held at the base in Gardez.

A member of the Special Forces team told The Times his unit held a meeting after the teen’s death to coordinate their stories should an investigation arise.

“Everybody on the team had knowledge of it,” the soldier said, insisting on anonymity. “You just don’t talk about that stuff in the Special Forces community. What happens downrange stays downrange…. Nobody wants to get anybody in trouble. Just sit back, and hope it will go away.”

What distinguishes these two fatalities from scores of other questionable deaths in U.S. custody is that they were successfully concealed — not just from the American public but from the military’s chain of command and legal authorities.

The deaths came to light only after an investigation by The Times and a nonprofit educational organization, the Crimes of War Project, led the Army to open criminal inquiries on the incidents.

H.L.s Take:
If they would have just reported the killings to the Army they would have probably been told “Hey, stuff happens don’t worry about it” But they tried to hide it. Now they are caught red handed. (with blood) Its not the crime, that gets you, Its the coverup

The Soldier gets screwed once again. He went out there and fought the war, survived, and now he’s home its time to pay up for your little vacation in Iraq.

New York City’s Reservists Are Asked to Return Iraq Pay

NY Times
Excerpt:
When they were called up for military service in the wake of 9/11, hundreds of uniformed city workers in the Reserves faced the suspension of their city health and pension benefits. The city offered them an option: it would keep paying their salaries and continue their benefits, but when they returned they would have to repay the city their city salary or their military pay, whichever was less.

Now the bills from the city are coming due, for far more than many veterans imagined they would have to pay — as much as $200,000 — and often for more money than they ever received.

The city is demanding that the veterans repay their gross salaries, even though they never saw about a third of the money, which went for taxes and other deductions. The commissioner of administrative services, Martha K. Hirst, said veterans should be able to get back the difference between gross and take-home pay by amending their tax returns. But several tax accountants said the city had created an accounting quagmire.

David Gitel, a tax accountant in Manhattan, said that if the employees paid the money back over several years — which many will have to do — rather than in a lump sum, they could lose thousands of dollars in income-tax and social security payments.

H.L.s Take: So they have to repay the money that was taken out in taxes, this way the Federal Government gets to collect twice from guys who risked their taxes.
Want to get screwed, I know a sure way, 2 ways actually. 1. Join the Military, 2. Do business with Bush.

In the Army People Kill other people, usually the dreaded “enemy” but sometimes things get confusing out there and people other then the “enemy” get killed.

The Army vs. Spec. Richmond

Washington Post
Excerpt:
Edward had been among the first soldiers to be sent to prison for killing a civilian in the Iraq war, and among the first to walk out of prison. What waited for him was a parole officer in heat-struck Louisiana.

He didn’t like anyone standing too close. He slept on the floor instead of the bed. When he went through a box the Army had sent home, he found his uniform, infantry badges and ribbons. The vestments of a soldier’s life. Edward put all of it in the trash

H.L.s Take
When you are out on patrol for months or even years at a time, nerves get frayed, soldiers get jumpy after hearing so many explosions, and seeing so many of their fellow soldiers get killed. They get jumpy and sometimes pull the trigger too soon, and innocent people die. Yet one more reason why we should not be going to wars because Bush lied us into them so he could steal oil and get weapons maker richer. This guy should not have been out there at all. Now he has to spend the rest of his life dealing with what he did. Thanks to Bush