The Hollywood Liberal

Bombs kill 8 American soldiers in Iraq

Chron.com
Excerpt:
BAGHDAD — Roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers in separate attacks Sunday in Diyala province and Baghdad, and a car bomb claimed 30 more lives in a wholesale food market in a part of the Iraqi capital where sectarian tensions are on the rise.

In all, at least 95 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide Sunday, police reported. They included 12 policemen in Samarra, among them the city’s police chief, who died when Sunni insurgents launched a suicide car bombing and other attacks on police headquarters.

The deadliest attack against U.S. forces occurred in Diyala, where six U.S. soldiers and a European journalist were killed when a massive bomb destroyed their vehicle, the U.S. military said. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded, the military said. The U.S. did not identify the journalist.

Two other American soldiers died Sunday in separate bombings in Baghdad.

The military Sunday also reported three other deaths — two Marines in a blast Saturday in Anbar province and a soldier who died Sunday in a non-combat incident in northern Iraq.

Those deaths raised to at least 3,373 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

US general says Iraq will get deadlier

Boston.com
Excerpt:
BAGHDAD — A US Army general yesterday forecast a rise in deaths among American forces in the coming months, a prediction underscored by the announcement that a roadside bomb had killed six US soldiers and a foreign journalist north of Baghdad. Five other American troops died elsewhere over the weekend.

Major General Rick Lynch, commander of the Third Infantry Division, said casualties will climb as American troops dig into enemy territory as part of a stepped-up military operation ordered by President Bush in January. Lynch, who oversees a swath of territory to the south and east of Baghdad, gave his bleak prediction on the heels of the deadliest month this year for American forces in Iraq.

In April, 104 troops were killed, the fourth time since the beginning of 2005 that US deaths exceeded 100 in a single month. At least 25 troops have been killed in May, a grim start to a month in which Democrats are expected to keep up pressure on the White House to plan a withdrawal from Iraq.

The real scandal at the World Bank

Independent U.K.
Excerpt:
The Bank is killing thousands of the poorest people in the world

This slo-mo scandal isn’t about apparent petty corruption in DC. It’s about how Wolfowitz’s World Bank is killing thousands of the poorest people in the world, and knowingly worsening our worst crisis – global warming – every day.

Let’s start with the victims. Meet Hawa Amadu, 70-something, living in the muddy slums of Accra, the capital of Ghana, and trying to raise her grandkids as best she can. Hawa has a problem – a massive problem – and the World Bank put it there. She can’t afford water or electricity any more. Why? The World Bank threatened to refuse to lend any more money to her government, which would effectively make it a leper to governmental donors and international business, unless it stopped subsidising the cost of these necessities. The subsidies stopped. The cost doubled. Now Hawa goes thirsty so her grandchildren can drink, and weeps: “Am I supposed to drink air?”

She is not alone. Half a world away, in Bolivia, Maxima Cari – a mother – is also thirsty. “The World Bank took away my right to clean water,” she explains. In 1997 the World Bank demanded the Bolivian government privatise the country’s water supply. So Maxima couldn’t afford it any more. Now she has to use dirty water from a well her villagers dug. This dirty water is making her children sick, and she is sullen. “I wash my children weekly,” Maxima says. “Sometimes there’s only enough water to wash their hands and faces, not their whole body … This is not a nice way to live.” The newly elected socialist government of Evo Morales is planning to take the water back – and he is, of course, condemned and threatened by the World Bank.

HL’s Take
Bush controls the world bank, what more do you need to know. The Bush family has long been a proponent of world population control, (like in Iraq and the middle east) But Africa is their favorite. They and their mega corporate sponsors, need to keep the population down in Africa through any means (like AIDS, Water privatization, and poverty) God forbid those black people get an even break in the world, then The Bushes and the big corporate cronies might have to let them keep some of that money that they rape them for every year through the Natural Resources they steal from the African people.

Sign angers some at troops rally

Pennslyvania Patriot News
Excerpt:
The Iraq debate briefly boiled over on the state Capitol steps when half a dozen people at WHP-AM’s rally in support of troops yesterday yelled at a woman holding a sign questioning the war.

Bridget Whitley of Harrisburg stood near the front of the crowd, holding a sign that said she supported the troops but wanted an end to the war.

A man from the crowd grabbed Whitley’s sign and started walking away. There was a scuffle, and a woman grabbed the sign and ripped it into pieces.

Chris Brooks of Lancaster was debating the war with Whitley before — and after — Whitley’s sign was taken.

“Weren’t you listening?” Whitley said. “Weren’t you watching four years ago when [President Bush] said it was ‘mission accomplished’?”

“That mission was accomplished,” Brooks said.

As their conversation escalated, those standing around her admonished Whitley.

“You disgust me,” someone hissed.

“I just cannot believe you come here and bring that disgusting thing here,” said Josephine Stockton of Columbus, Ohio. “People like you are demoralizing our country.”

HL’s Take
The more they realize (deep down inside) how wrong they were, the harder they fight to try to prove how right they were. The denial is as high as Mount Everest. Stupid people like these would rather look like total idiot Aholes then ever admit they were wrong. Also the more they realize they were wrong the meaner they get. No wonder most Republicans are so arrogantly ignorant. But they know it, and the internal battle they face it there own self imposed worst punishment.

Falling US dollar and surging stocks, like in 1987!

AME info.com
Excerpt:
Remember the Wall Street crash of October 1987 when stocks had their worst single day in history? Older market professionals certainly do. They also recall that the 1987 crash came after a sharp weakening of the US dollar and a rally in stocks. Is that not what we are seeing again now?

This Day of Reckoning can not be far away, and a sudden reversal of confidence by foreign investors could crash the US stock market for reasons very similar to what happened in 1987: equities riding too high on a cheap dollar.

However, the level of leverage in the capital markets is generally acknowledged to be very much higher than in 1987, beyond even what produced the Wall Street crash of 1929. So the fireworks, when they start, will truly light up the sky.

Leading the leverage boom is the hedge funds followed by the private equity funds. Nobody is exactly sure how much leverage is in the system from the derivative structures erected by these financiers but it is a house of cards that will come crashing down in a stock market correction.

HL’s Take
With the disaster monkey running the show, does anyone beleive that this is not a strong possibility. That would be the perfect F.U. ending to a perfect F.U. Presidency. A nice little going away present, severe depression, and recession, while the murder monkey slinks off to Paraguay with the U.S. Treasury.

U.S. State to Dump Touch-Screen E-Voting Systems

PC World
Excerpt:
In a major shift on e-voting that could ripple to other states, the Florida legislature Friday voted to replace nearly all of the state’s touch-screen voting systems with optical scan devices.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who initially offered up the bill mandating a change in e-voting systems earlier this year, applauded the Florida legislature for acting after the state House approved the measure. It had already been okayed by the state Senate.

The law mandates the replacement of touch-screen systems with optical scan devices and also moves up the date of Florida’s presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January. In 2008, that would be Jan. 29.

Touch-screen systems have come under criticism for being unreliable, easily hacked and lacking the transparency voters need to trust that their votes are actually being counted. To address those concerns, Crist offered a bill that would replace the systems in 17 Florida counties with optical scan devices, which require filling out a paper ballot that can later be used for canvassing or recount.

HL’s Take:
Now that Jeb Bush is out of office in Florida, they get rid of the touch screen voting machine. Of course The Bush’s got what they want out of it. 2 (stolen) terms for the monkey, 9/11, and endless war for oil, and gas prices at 3.35 a gallon for their buddies in the oil companies. Thanks Florida for ruining a good country.