The Hollywood Liberal

How much more insane must are laws get. Every year more new and tougher laws are enacted here in the U.S. for every type of offense. We are already the most incarcerated nation in the world with more people doing more time for more ridiculous things then China, Russia, and every other nation in the world. Of course as usual its all about fear mongering. Politicians warn you that you are not safe, and everyone cowers in fear, and god forbid the politician that wants to try to bring some sense of reason back to the laws. When that happens the fear mongerers (usually republican) scream out that said politician is “Soft on Crime” and all the Soccer moms and scared republcians run out and vote for the guy who is trumpeting fear. Check out this Video of a guy convicted of drunk driving. He was walking his bike across his own lawn, a cop pulled up and ticketed him for not having a headlight on the bike (!?!?) Then arrested him for DUI because he had one or two. Unbelievable.

Bush warns of more U.S. losses in Iraq

L.A. Times

You will die when I day you must die

Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - Acknowledging deepening frustration over Iraq, President Bush said Wednesday he is considering an increase in American forces and warned that next year will bring more painful U.S. losses. New Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad that a troop surge was an obvious option.

Bush was unusually candid at a year-end news conference about U.S. setbacks and dashed hopes in the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,950 U.S. military members.

He said “2006 was a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people. We began the year with optimism…

H.L.s Take:
No George, you began the year with optimism. You were fairly certain that nothing would happen to you. However for the soldiers it is a different story. So if you are in Iraq right now, chances are you won’t be coming home. Sorry about that, but there is nothing Bush can do about it. Everytime Bush gets involved in anything people have to die. How else can they continue to steal billions a year. You understand don’t you soldier????

Insurgent TV channel taunts U.S. troops 24 hours a day and becomes a sensation

L.A. Times
Excerpt:
BAGHDAD — The men with laptops sat around an unadorned conference table, chatting amicably about their plans and operations.
The scene on the newly launched Al Zawraa satellite television channel could have been footage from the boardroom of any company, if it weren’t for the ski masks the men wore and the subject of the meeting: future mortar attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq.
The renegade, pro-insurgent Al Zawraa channel, with a 24-hour diet of propaganda against U.S. forces and the Iraqi government, has become something of a sensation throughout the country. It has drawn condemnation from U.S. officials, Iraqi politicians and Friday prayer leaders.
Most hours of the day it plays footage of U.S. soldiers in Iraq being shot and blown up in insurgent attacks…

H.L.s Take:
Bush must have been watching this channel because apparently he just figured out the following

Bush: Iraq insurgents hurt U.S. efforts

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - Summing up a year of setbacks, President Bush conceded Wednesday that insurgents in Iraq thwarted U.S. efforts at “establishing security and stability throughout the country.”
Bush didn’t wait for the first question before assessing the past 12 months. “2006 was a difficult year for our troops and the Iraqi people.”
He also said he supports a moderate coalition in Iraq, a new effort by the government to “marginalize the radical and extremists” in Iraq.
Most of the questions dealt with the war in Iraq, but the president was also asked about the pregnancy of Mary Cheney, the openly gay daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Speaking of Mary Cheney, Here is the latest from Pixwit

Push, Mary, push! Ohmigod, he’s the spitting image of his grandad!

Whats happening? If you are a regular reader of the site, you may have noticed that the postings have become fewer and further in between, there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that I have become a full time member of the work force again. I finally got a good job offer, and took it. I’m still working in the Hollywood movie and TV industry, still not making as much as I was 5 years ago, but its the best offer I have had since, and the job has other benefits that offset not making as much money.
Another reason is that in the ever changing world of internet web commerce it is getting harder and harder to make money on the site. I made a decent living for a couple of months there, but now it has slowed down drastically. The problem began when my old web hosting server threw me off for having too much traffic, and using too much bandwidth. The new server caused problems that severly cut down on traffic to the site, I still have to switch to another new server/host but there have been obstacles to my doing so that have yet to be overcome. At some point I will switch over again which will cause the site to be down for a day or so. My job offer came at just the right time in terms of income from the site. The postings will continue at the slowed down rate, and will not be coming every day. I will still try to do all the other stuff that I loved doing on the site such as comics and movie reviews, when feasible.

On another note that will concern commenters to the postings. I have been trying for months now to stay ahead of the spam comments that are posted to the site on a daily basis but just keep getting buried deeper and deeper in spam. I am talking about automated comments for BS websites. (usally sex oriented) It’s gotten to the point where I have to go on and remove the spam comments 3 times a day. I have to plow through all the spam to find the legit comments, and delete the rest. I went out of town over the weekend and when I came back last night had over 1500 spam comment waiting for me. So the new policy is from now on all comments must be approved first. I am going to see if that slows down the spammers. The other option is to make each commenter register before commenting. The spammers leave bogus names and email addresses on the comments anyway so I don’t know if that will work. Ok time for me to get back to work, talk to you soon.
H.L.

News Items:
Bush reviews options on Iraq policy
Bush Iraq update may be after Christmas

See The Rest Of The Comic Here

Here it is, all 84 pages of it. Maybe Bush can get Condi to read it to him as a bedtime story

IRAQ STUDY GROUP REPORT

AP
Excerpt:
There is no guarantee for success in Iraq . . . There is great suffering, and the daily lives of many Iraqis show little or no improvement. Pessimism is pervasive . . . the ability of the United States to influence events . . . is diminishing.” (p.1)

“There is no action the American military can take that, by itself, can bring about success in Iraq.” (page 70)

“U.S. forces seem to be caught in a mission that has no foreseeable end.” (p.12)

“The United States must not make an open ended commitment to keep large numbers of American troops deployed in Iraq.” (p.xvi)

“U.S. economic assistance should be increased to a level of $5 bilion per year rather than being permitted to decline.” (page 87)

H.L.s Take:
Read that last line again. So thats what this report is all about, It’s not about trying to end the war, it’s about making it OK to dump even more of our tax dollars into Bush’s mass murdering dash for cash. “Hey I got an idea lets spend 5 Billion a year, then we can steal even more of the money. Come on guys, the nation is not entirely bankrupt yet, there is still more loot to grab.

Life in Iraq grates on soldiers’ morale

AP
Excerpt:
RAWAH, Iraq - Almost none has heard of the Iraq Study Group, and though a few know that Donald Rumsfeld is out as defense secretary, the name Robert Gates draws blank stares.
While much of America broods over the future of a bloody, expensive and increasingly unpopular war, the Marines and soldiers fighting it in the volatile cities and vast deserts of western Iraq say the big picture doesn’t concern them —
McAndrew and the other members of Company D live in a three-story police station that looks luxurious from the outside but has no running water, power that comes for a few hours than goes out for days and very little heat — even as temperatures plunge well below freezing.
The outpost takes mortar and machine gun fire and rocket attacks every few days, insurgents stash roadside bombs and the recent announcement of a death sentence against Saddam prompted a wave of attacks against American forces here.
The battalion has had three Marines killed and 80 wounded since arriving in September

H.L.s Take:
They don’t know about the Iraq study group, or even that Rumsfeld is out, and another Bush Yes man is in…but they do know that the war is a joke of a debacle, and that they should not be there. Maybe Bush should consult with some of these guys instead of the Iraq Study Group