The Hollywood Liberal

News Items:
Bush Speaks on Wall St.: Link exec salaries to performance
AP

See The Rest of The Comic Here

US ‘victory’ against cult leader was ‘massacre’

The Independent U.K.
Excerpt
There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre.

A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental…

The cult denied it was involved in the fighting, saying it was a peaceful movement. The incident reportedly began when a procession of 200 pilgrims was on its way, on foot, to celebrate Ashura in Najaf. They came from the Hawatim tribe, which lives between Najaf and Diwaniyah to the south, and arrived in the Zarga area, one mile from Najaf at about 6am on Sunday. Heading the procession was the chief of the tribe, Hajj Sa’ad Sa’ad Nayif al-Hatemi, and his wife driving in their 1982 Super Toyota sedan because they could not walk. When they reached an Iraqi army checkpoint it opened fire, killing Mr Hatemi, his wife and his driver, Jabar Ridha al-Hatemi. The tribe, fully armed because they were travelling at night, then assaulted the checkpoint to avenge their fallen chief.

Members of another tribe called Khaza’il living in Zarga tried to stop the fighting but they themselves came under fire. Meanwhile, the soldiers and police at the checkpoint called up their commanders saying they were under attack from al-Qai’da with advanced weapons. Reinforcements poured into the area and surrounded the Hawatim tribe in the nearby orchards. The tribesmen tried - in vain - to get their attackers to cease fire.

American helicopters then arrived and dropped leaflets saying: “To the terrorists, surrender before we bomb the area.” The tribesmen went on firing and a US helicopter was hit and crashed killing two crewmen. The tribesmen say they do not know if they hit it or if it was brought down by friendly fire. The US aircraft launched an intense aerial bombardment in which 120 tribesmen and local residents were killed by 4am on Monday.

Najaf battle sign of Iraq’s chaos and clash of loyalties

Azzaman
Excerpt
Truth is perhaps the main victim of Iraqi atrocities which exacerbated following the U.S.-led invasion itself based on lies and allegations.
And as the dust settles over the battle of Najaf last Sunday, it emerges that the official story had no grain of truth.
Iraqi officials said 263 members of a little known group they identified as the Soldiers of Heaven were killed. They and U.S. officials who sent in helicopter gun ships and tanks to back Iraqi forces were pleased of their ‘victory’.
But who were those Soldiers from Heaven? And how could both Iraqi and U.S. officials persuade U.S. troops to market a story wholly based on lies?
The ‘victory’ was short-lived and its impact has already backfired and it could not have come at a worse time for the United States as it is on the verge of launching a new military offensive to retake Baghdad.
Now it appears that Iraqi troops had attacked a huge procession by Shiite tribesmen on their way to take part in the Ashura ceremonies.

H.L.s Take
Of course the press pumped this up as another great victory in the war on Terror, when it looked like it was just another few hundred deaths chalked up to the murder monkey.

The neocons have learned nothing from five years of catastrophe

Guardian U.K.
Their zealous advocacy of the invasion of Iraq may have been a disaster, but now they want to do it all over again - in Iran

Excerpt
The United States today spends approximately as much as the rest of the world combined on its military establishment. So it is worth pondering why it is that, after nearly four years of effort, the loss of thousands of American lives, and an outlay of perhaps half-a-trillion dollars, the US has not succeeded in pacifying a small country of some 24 million people, much less in leading it to anything that looks remotely like a successful democracy…

A final lesson that should have been drawn from the Iraq war is that the current US government has demonstrated great incompetence in its day-to-day management of policy. One of the striking things about the performance of the Bush administration is how poorly it has followed through in accomplishing the ambitious objectives it set for itself. In Iraq, the administration has acted like a patient with attention-deficit disorder.

H.L.s Take
Another good question is: Why is it taking longer to win in Iraq then it did to defeat Hitler, and Japan in WW2, of course we already know the answer.

McCain’s troubles

Daily Kos
Excerpt
It seems that being the prime architect and cheerleader of the Iraq War escalation, in addition to all his latest panderings to the Right, aren’t doing his approval ratings any favors.

McCain is now viewed favorably by just 52% of American voters. That’s down from 56% earlier this month and from 59% in December. His vocal advocacy of increased troop strength in Iraq may be having a negative impact on his popularity. Just one-third of voters (34%) share McCain’s view while 56% want to go in the opposite direction and reduce the number of troops in Iraq. However, 94% think the troops will still be fighting in Iraq when the next President takes office.

McCain Loses Ground: Trails Obama, Edwards

Rasmussen Reports
Excerpt

Senator John McCain (R), one of the most vocal advocates of sending more troops to Iraq, has lost ground in the Election 2008 sweepstakes. He now trails both John Edwards (D) and Barack Obama (D) in general election match-ups. Prior to this survey, McCain had been ahead of every Democratic challenger in every Rasmussen Reports poll (see summary of general election match-ups).

H.L.s Take:
Of course the real question is how will Mc Cain do against Hilary, because everyone knows that she will be the nominee. (I personally am not 100% certain of that but it sure looks like a good possibility.) That is if Mc Cain will even get the Republican nomination which I don’t think he will, by the time of the primaries the Reps. are going to want to distance themselves as far from Iraq as possible, and Mc Cain is Bush’s man in congress for the troop increase. Maybe a better idea for the reps: The Guiliani/Kerik ticket.

Whats happening, haven’t had a chance to post anything today because its been a pretty busy day here at work. Usually its quiet in the morning and I have a few hours to post some stuff, but not today, I got a couple of jobs running now (dubbing television shows) and have a minute to get it together. I have been in contact with Merkahlo Medina from NBC’s News Raw, I did an interview with them a while back which they aired a few times on the channel. Now they want me to do a regular spot for them every Monday.
Under normal circumstances I would have been able to go into the NBC studios in Burbank and tape the segment, but I got this job thing now that I have to do, so they are going to have me tape a segment on a webcam and upload it to You Tube, which they will pull down and run. througout the day. The tape will be me discussing what we have been blogging about in the past week, what we are going to be talking about that day, and any commentary I can fit into a 5-10 minute clip. The only problem I can think of is that I will have to make the tape on Sunday which means I will be talking about old news that will be airing on monday. I may ask them if I can switch to a different day to make it more topical, but if not I will have to find a way to make it work. Maybe instead of discussing news stories I will just deliver my own take on whats happening.
Anyway, since I will be uploading the segments to You Tube I will also be able to post them here on the site which will be fun.
I may even have to revive the long dormant HLTV which I haven’t checked out in a long while.
So look for new segments of HL Raw on NBC news raw starting next monday. I’ll try to post some more stuff this afternoon. See you soon.

The Man Without Doubt

In a rare print interview, Dick Cheney talks about Iraq, Iran, Chuck Hagel, his image as ‘Darth Vader’ and Bob Woodward.
MSNBC
Excerpt
ON FORMER FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES WHO HAVE CRITICIZED HIM: ‘WELL, I’M VICE PRESIDENT AND THEY’RE NOT’

H.L.s Take
Wow, that sounds like the petulant response of a 5 year old. Then again Cheney, and Bush are acting like stubborn 5 year olds with the lives of our soldiers, and the nation itself. (Imitating Cheney in a high winy voice: Well i’m the vice president and your not so I can do whatever I want) What a snot nosed little punk.

Here is a new Commercial by Votevets.org, Veterans of Iraq, and Afghanistan bring the true message home. This video clip is aimed at those Senators that are still for the war. It shows that even the troops that we “support” know that this war is a worthless quagmire for everyone except the Bush/Cheney cabal. Great spot, have a look.

Here are some more pics from the protest in San Francisco over the weekend.

See them all here

Interview With John Conyers, on Impeachment and Investigating Bush

Op-Ed News
Excerpt

“There are a lot of progressives on our site who were angry, the day after the November election,” I tell him. (You know who you are .)

He smiles and says, “The day after… that soon? The new congress wasn’t even sworn in until January.”

“Yep, the day after,” I reply, adding, “They’ve been angry that impeachment is off the table.”

He pauses, purses his lips, then nods his head, agreeing, saying, “They have lots of good reasons to be angry. But, you know, the presidential race is coming, in 2008.. and it’s already 2007. If you know a way to take care of all the domestic issues, to successfully prepare to take the whitehouse, to investigate and prosecute and impeach– tell me…”

H.L.s Take
Conyers was one of the only, if not the only member of congress to show up for the war protests. If all these members of congress are now so against the war why don’t they take it to the streets. Is it because they are only against the war because they know their constituents are, and they want to protect thier jobs? I don’t really care as long as they keep opposing Bush, snd the war.

Good morning, I attended the anti-war march in L.A on Saturday. I took some pictures but have not had a chance to get them up. Here are some pictures from the much larger protest in Washington D.C. (Thanks to a great website What Really Happened.com)

DSCF0034 640 X 480 120 KB	DSCF0035 640 X 480 127 KB	DSCF0036 640 X 480 122 KB	DSCF0037 640 X 480 124 KB
DSCF0038 640 X 480 127 KB	DSCF0039 640 X 480 119 KB	DSCF0040 640 X 480 127 KB	DSCF0041 640 X 480 125 KB
DSCF0042 640 X 480 128 KB	DSCF0043 640 X 480 120 KB	DSCF0044 640 X 480 117 KB	DSCF0045 640 X 480 124 KB

Don’t forget tomorrow is the big…

Jan. 27 Anti-War March & Rally in LA

ANSWER and Youth & Student ANSWER will have a large and lively contingent in the protest with banners, signs, drums and mobile sound. Be part of the ANSWER contingent and help do outreach for the upcoming mass anti-war march and rally on March 17, the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war.

This march will be occuring at the same time as the huge anti-war march in Washington D.C.

Antiwar protesters target Congress

Christian Science Monitor
Excerpt
Organizers expect more than 300,000 people to converge in Washington this weekend seeking more than resolutions.

When thousands of Iraq war protesters gather in Washington Saturday, their chants and amplified speeches are likely to be heard inside the secure grounds of the White House where the commander in chief has made his case for sending more troops into combat.

It’s not just the nation’s capital, where busloads of people from at least 30 states are headed to make their voices heard.

Of course these marches are just the pre-cursor to the even larger demonstrations that will take place in March on the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq

Cheney owns Russert

Daily Kos
Excerpt
This delicious morsel about the “Meet the Press” host and the vice president was part of the extensive dish Cathie Martin served up yesterday when the former Cheney communications director took the stand in the perjury trial of former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions. Option 1: “MTP-VP,” she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under “pro,” she wrote: “control message.”

How embarrassing for Russert. He’s been shown the fool. A mere puppet.

How will he respond?

H.L.s Take
How will he respond? I’ll tell you how he will respond Markos, next time he sees Cheney He will jump up on the desk pull down his pants, bend over and yell out “THANK YOU SIR MAY I HAVE ANOTHER”

Conservative Senators Attempt To Abolish Federal Minimum Wage And Pass Tax Breaks For Businesses

Think Progress.org
Excerpt
Yesterday, a minority group of conservative senators killed a clean minimum wage bill that would have raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. Instead, the Senate will now be voting on a “compromise” bill that will pair a minimum wage increase with tax breaks for small businesses.
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) justified his opposition to the clean bill by stating, “We’re trying to make sure we don’t put mom-and-pop businesses and their employees out of work.”
But their objections to a clean minimum wage increase are based on myths:

Kennedy to Republicans: “What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?”

Bob Geiger.com
Excerpt
Angry about Republican filibustering of the minimum wage increase that easily passed the House of Representatives two weeks ago, Kennedy erupted on the Senate floor, demanding of the other side of the aisle “When does the greed stop?”

After listing many of the unrelated and pricey amendments for business that the GOP has tried to join to a minimum wage hike, Kennedy blasted Republicans and demanded to know how they can be as cruel as they are to the working poor in America…
“We don’t want to hear any more from that side for the rest of this session about permitting or not permitting votes in here when you’re denying it on the most simple concept of an increase in the minimum wage,” said Kennedy. “We don’t want to hear any more about that.”

H.L.s Take:
You have to check out this video. Kennedy goes off on The republicans and calls them out for what they are. A bunch of rich, greedy bastards who hate anyone who is not as rich as they are. People who are participating in class warfare, and will never give a working man an even break. Well lets see, the working man gave them enough votes to help them get elected in the past. This time however they lost both houses of congress mainly because they lost the middle class mainstream people. Keep up the good work guys. At this rate The Democrats will control both houses of congress, and have the 60 votes they need in the Senate, and President Hilary will be ruling over the whitehouse with the help of every Republicans best friend Bill Clinton. They just can’t stop digging their own graves.

Florida Republican fumes at not having a chair in meeting, leads walk out

Raw Story
Excerpt
     Nice Rug Dude

A Florida Republican, John Mica, who is the ranking minority member of the Transportation Committee in the House of Representatives, stormed out of a meeting last week, leading other Republican members with him. An article today in Roll Call reports that he was angry because he was not seated properly during an orientation session….
Mica was angered that he was not given a seat at the head. He asked for a new chair, and while waiting outside the room for it to arrive, asked all the Republicans to quit the meeting. “I was not pleased with the arrangement to sort of exclude the ranking member at the first meeting,” he told Roll Call.

H.L.s Take
Oh boo hoooo, he wasn’t seated at the front of the room. What a crybaby, Republicans still don’t get it that they are in the minority and always have been. They are dangerous extremists and terrorists. When the Republicans were in control Democrats
could not even get a room to hold a meeting. They had to use a basement in the middle of the night. This guy is complaining because he was not seated at the front of the room. Gee, that sucks dude.

Two Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Election Officials Convicted of Felony and Misdemeanor for 2004 Election

Ohio Election Fraud
Excerpt
A jury found two Cuyahoga County elections workers guilty Wednesday of charges that they skirted Board of Elections procedures to thwart a countywide ballot recount after the divisive 2004 presidential election.

The jury convicted Kathleen Dreamer, 40, of Cleveland and Jacqueline Maiden, 59, of Richmond Heights on one felony and one misdemeanor each.

Do new Ohio recount prosecutions indicate unraveling of 2004 election theft cover-up?

Clevland Free Press
Excerpt
Three criminal prosecutions in Ohio’s biggest county have opened with strong indications that the cover-up of the theft of the 2004 presidential election is starting to unravel. Prosecutors say these cases involve “rigging” the recount in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), where tens of thousands of votes were shifted from John Kerry to George W. Bush, or else never counted. Meanwhile, corroborating evidence continues to surface throughout Ohio illuminating the GOP’s theft of the presidency. According to the AP, County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter opened the Cuyahoga trial by charging that “the evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless.” Baxter said the three election workers “did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months” on the recount.

Cleveland, which usually gives Democrats an extremely heavy margin, was crucial to Bush’s alleged victory of roughly 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million counted. Some 600,000 votes were cast or counted in Cuyahoga County. But official turnout and vote counts varied wildly and improbably from precinct to precinct. Overall the county reported about a 60% turnout. But several predominantly black precincts, where voters went more than 80% for Kerry, reported turnouts of 30% or less. In one ward, only a 7% turnout was reported, while surrounding precincts were nearly ten times as high. Independent studies indicate Kerry lost thousands of votes in Cuyahoga County that rightfully should have been counted in his column.

H.L.s Take:
Everytime Bush runs for election, people end up getting convicted of vote fraud in the state that was the deciding margin of the election. Of course it will be proved that they stole the election in Ohio as well. The proof is there and has been shown on blogs since right after the election. So in summary, Bush stole the election both times. This country never had a Republican or conservative majority, yet we have been living under there stupid ass rule for the past 6 years. Bush steals the election in Florida, allows 9/11 to happen on his watch so he can start a war in Iraq in which tens of thousands of people are killed, they then steal the election a second time in Ohio so the carnage and profiteering can go on for at least another 4 years. Meanwhile people here at home are suffereing because all the money that should be spent to make things better here in the US goes to the war, which Bush and Cheney steal and skim off of at will. Justice will not be done until everyone involved is serving multiple life sentences.

Iraqi Soldier ‘Shoots’ Reporter: The Joke’s on U.S.

Editor & Publisher
Excerpt

“In this surreal setting, about 20 American soldiers were forced at one point to pull themselves one by one up a canted tin roof by a dangling rubber hose and then shimmy along a ledge to another hut. The soldiers were stunned when a small child suddenly walked out of a darkened doorway and an old man started wheezing and crying somewhere inside.

“Ultimately the group made it back to the high rises and escaped the sniper in the alley by throwing out the smoke bombs and sprinting to safety. Even though two Iraqis were struck by gunfire, many of the rest could not stop shouting and guffawing with amusement as they ran through the smoke.

“One Iraqi soldier in the alley pointed his rifle at an American reporter and pulled the trigger. There was only a click: the weapon had no ammunition. The soldier laughed at his joke.”…..

“In a miniature version of the troop increase that the United States hopes will secure the city, American soldiers and armored vehicles raced onto Haifa Street before dawn to dislodge Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias who have been battling for a stretch of ragged slums and mostly abandoned high rises. But as the sun rose, many of the Iraqi Army units who were supposed to do the actual searches of the buildings did not arrive on time, forcing the Americans to start the job on their own.

“When the Iraqi units finally did show up, it was with the air of a class outing, cheering and laughing as the Americans blew locks off doors with shotguns. As the morning wore on and the troops came under fire from all directions, another apparent flaw in this strategy became clear as empty apartments became lairs for gunmen who flitted from window to window and killed at least one American soldier, with a shot to the head.”

And another:

“Many of the Iraqi units that showed up late never seemed to take the task seriously, searching haphazardly, breaking dishes and rifling through personal CD collections in the apartments. Eventually the Americans realized that the Iraqis were searching no more than half of the apartments; at one point the Iraqis completely disappeared, leaving the American unit working with them flabbergasted.

“’Where did they go?’ yelled Sgt. Jeri A. Gillett. Another soldier suggested, ‘I say we just let them go and we do this ourselves.’”

H.L.s Take:
After almost 4 years and several tours in Iraq, peoples brains get twisted, After seeing so much murder, death, and violence, pointing an unloaded gun at a reporter and pulling the trigger might seem like a funny joke. Too bad this guy had to be get himself so screwed up because the monkey, and his keeper Dick, refuse to listen to anyone, and MUST continue to rake in the cash while everyone else pays, and suffers.
So the Iraqi soldiers are not showing up for work, and not taking the job seriously, well how would you feel if some foriegn army attacked the US then wanted you to help them go in and kill your fellow countrymen. You probably wouldn’t be too into it either.

Cheney: Senate Resolution “Won’t Stop Us”

CBS News
Excerpt

(CBS/AP) The White House reaction to the Senate resolution opposing President Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq came from Vice President Dick Cheney. In a word, he was defiant, saying about the general idea of a resolution, “It won’t stop us.”

“We are moving forward. The Congress has control over the purse strings. They have the right, obviously, if they want, to cut off funding,” Cheney said Wednesday in an occasionally testy CNN interview.

H.L.s Take
Sounds to me like Cheney is throwing down the gauntlet to congress. When he says it “won’t stop us” who is he referring to? him, and Bush? Because they are just about the only 2 people who want this troop surge to go forward, of course they are the 2 people who stand to profit from it the most. Cheney is daring Congress to step up to the plate and act like they have a pair, of course he is betting they won’t cut funding for the war because he knows that Democrats are afraid of a fight. The Dems are thinking to themselves “oooh if we cut funding for the war people may say that we were responsible for losing the war and they might not vote for us next time” BULLSHIT. Everyone is against the troop surge, and a majority of the American people will support them for cutting off the funding. It may be the surest way to ride to victory once again in 2008. So come Democrats, show some balls and cut off they bastard monkeys funding. Q

Jobless claims rise to 16-month high

AP
Excerpt
WASHINGTON - The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits shot up last week by the largest amount in 16 months, reversing two weeks of big declines.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that 325,000 newly laid-off workers filed claims for jobless benefits last week, an increase of 36,000 from the previous week. That was the biggest one-week rise since a surge of 96,000 claims the week of Sept. 10, 2005, when devastated Gulf Coast businesses laid off workers following Hurricane Katrina.

The increase of 36,000 was bigger than the 20,000 rise that had been forecast.

H.L.s Take:
What??? I thought that the economy is supposed to be doing great. The stock market is at an all time high. Ohhh yeah thats right, the economy is only doing well for the super rich, and for large corporations. But for regular people like you and me, its just a big smokescreen. Just like everything else Bush, and the Republicans do.

Did you see Bush’s speech last night? I didn’t. A friend of mine called up and said, “are you watching the speech?” I said no I’ve already seen it. “What do you mean its on live now?” he asked. Trust me I’ve seen it time and time again I replied. While the speech was on I was watching a show about the rivalry between The Lakers and Celtics in the ’80s. Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird are two of the greatest basketball players ever, and made the NBA what it is today. James Worthy, Kareem Abdul Jabber, Robert Parrish, and Kevin Mchale also made it one of the greatest sports rivalries ever. It makes todays NBA look lame in comparison. I did happen to flip past the speech at one point as it was on so many channels, and all I saw was everyone in the place (democrats especially) giving the monkey standing ovations for everything he said. “Ah the usual circle jerk” I thought to myself. The entire congress giving Bush a collective handjob. Yep seen it all before many times. Anyway here is Jim Webb’s response to Bush, he slams him on the war after the dems, gave him countless standing O’s. Good work dems.