The Hollywood Liberal

U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes

Washington Post

UNITED NATIONS — In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat.

The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting “bitterness” and “deep mistrust” in Washington’s relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, Heraldo Mu¿oz, Chile’s ambassador to the United Nations, writes in his book “A Solitary War: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons,” set for publication next month.

White House back pedals on Bush comments on Iran bomb

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House on Friday sought to back pedal on comments by President George W. Bush accusing Iran of having said it was seeking a nuclear bomb.

The Islamic regime has always denied in recent years trying to arm itself with an atomic bomb, saying its nuclear program was a peaceful, civilian effort to meet its electricity needs.

But Bush in an interview with a US-controlled Farsi-language radio station said Iran has declared it wants nuclear weapons “to destroy people.”

Hume dimisses McCain gaffe as ‘a blip’ and ‘a senior moment.’

This week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeatedly and falsely claimed that Iran was training al Qaeda in Iraq. Ignoring the fact that McCain made the error at least three separate times, Fox News’s Brit Hume dismissed the mistake today as simply “a blip” and “a senior moment.” Hume insisted that “we all” agree that McCain has understanding and knowledge of world affairs. Watch it:

Mayhem At Fox News: Anchor Walks Off Set, Wallace Rails Network For “Obama-Bashing”

Fox News’ very own anchors are speaking out — and walking off — over what they perceive to be “Obama-bashing” on their network.

This morning on “Fox and Friends,” Brian Kilmeade walked off the set after a dispute with his co-hosts Gretchen Carlson (she who celebrates deadly floods) and Steve Doocy over Obama’s comment that his grandmother is a “typical white person.” Kilmeade argued that the remark needed to be taken in context and eventually got so fed up with his co-hosts that he walked off set.

Later, “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace came on the show and railed against “Fox and Friends” for what he called “Obama-bashing.”

Is Bush the worst U.S. president ever?

Historians might argue over ranking, but there’s no doubt he has been an unmitigated disaster
Mar 22, 2008 04:30 AM
Thomas Walkom
Columnist

Historians will argue over whether George W. Bush is the worst president the United States has ever endured. But that is not the point. Five years after Bush’s ill-starred invasion of Iraq, three years after Hurricane Katrina and seven months into the unravelling of the U.S. financial system, the point is that the 43rd president of the United States – regardless of his ranking in the pantheon – is a unique and unmitigated disaster.

McCain’s ties to Airbus could cost him votes in Kansas

Excerpt
WASHINGTON — As a reliably red state, Kansas has backed a Republican in each of the last 10 presidential elections. But Democrats say things could be different in 2008.

With their economy strongly tied to aviation and defense jobs, Kansans are riled over the Air Force’s decision Feb. 29 to give a $35 billion aerial-tanker contract to a partnership with ties to France, rejecting a bid by Boeing, which would have done final assembly and testing of the planes in Wichita.

As the anger builds, Democrats are reminding voters that Arizona Sen. John McCain, this year’s presumed Republican presidential nominee, has a history of sparring with Boeing, which promised to bring 3,800 jobs to Wichita if it won the contract.

Cheney’s “peace” trip to Middle East prepares new wars

Excerpt
US Vice President Dick Cheney, during a trip to the Middle East aimed at consolidating Washington’s position in its ongoing wars of aggression and preparing new ones, gave vent Wednesday to his utter contempt for the will of the American people.

In the course of an extended interview with Cheney conducted in Oman, Martha Raddatz of ABC News noted, speaking of the Iraq war, “Two-thirds of Americans say it’s not worth fighting, and they’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.”

The vice president replied, “So?”

Raddatz continued, “So—you don’t care what the American people think?” Cheney responded, “No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.”

Excerpt
WASHINGTON — As a reliably red state, Kansas has backed a Republican in each of the last 10 presidential elections. But Democrats say things could be different in 2008.

With their economy strongly tied to aviation and defense jobs, Kansans are riled over the Air Force’s decision Feb. 29 to give a $35 billion aerial-tanker contract to a partnership with ties to France, rejecting a bid by Boeing, which would have done final assembly and testing of the planes in Wichita.

As the anger builds, Democrats are reminding voters that Arizona Sen. John McCain, this year’s presumed Republican presidential nominee, has a history of sparring with Boeing, which promised to bring 3,800 jobs to Wichita if it won the contract.

Were Karl Rove’s Emails Destroyed?

Excerpt
Another round in the saga of the vanished . . . reappeared . . . no–vanished White House emails. As last noted, U.S. magistrate John Facciola has now twice given the White House short deadlines to produce the missing emails or explain why they could not be produced.

On Friday afternoon, the White House stated that it had destroyed old email hard-disk drives, and that the traffic on them couldn’t be recovered. It provided evasive responses on a number of other queries, including whether emails were lost or could be retrieved. This marks a continuation of White House evasions that now stretch over almost a year. Here is Pete Yost’s account for the Associated Press:

Older White House computer hard drives have been destroyed, the White House disclosed to a federal court Friday in a controversy over millions of possibly missing e-mails from 2003 to 2005. The White House revealed new information about how it handles its computers in an effort to persuade a federal magistrate it would be fruitless to undertake an e-mail recovery plan that the court proposed.

Here is a story from Paul Craig Roberts. No wonder the cauality rate in Iraq had gone down for a while (it’s not back up). Bush and Cheney must really be making a lot of money of this war (duh!) if they can afford to pay the insurgents $800 large every day and still make a profit. I guess Bush isn’t such a bad business man afterall.

VDARE.com
It is impossible to keep up with all the Bush regime’s lies. There are simply too many. Among the recent crop, one of the biggest is that the “surge” is working.

Launched last year, the “surge” was the extra 20,000-30,000 US troops sent to Iraq. These few extra troops, Americans were told, would finally supply the necessary forces to pacify Iraq.

HL’s Take
Did you see todays headline on the 5 year anniversary. No reservations whatsoever, and unqualified success. Man what an A$$hole.

This claim never made any sense. The extra troops didn’t raise the total number of US soldiers to more than one-third the number every expert has said is necessary in order to successfully occupy Iraq.

The real purpose of the “surge” was to hide another deception. The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack US forces. That’s right, 80,000 members of an “Awakening group,” the “Sons of Iraq,” a newly formed “US-allied security force” consisting of Sunni insurgents, are being paid $10 a day each not to attack US troops. Allegedly, the Sons of Iraq are now at work fighting al Qaeda.

The German magazine Stern did an interview with Lynndie England. The woman from Abu Gharib in the picture with the prisoner on the leash, here are a couple of excerpts:

Why did you join the army at the age of 17 and against the express wishes of your mother?
I always wanted to be in the military. My whole life. I just didn’t know what branch - Navy, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, Air Force. I just wanted to serve my country and be a patriot, I guess. As a child I mainly grew up on military gung-ho movies so that’s where I got the idea. Old Chuck Norris movies, “Delta Force”, “Rambo”, “Missing in Action”, “Platoon”…..

The former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, called you and your colleagues the “rotten apples” of the military. Bush claimed to be ashamed of what you did.
Well, back then I thought: How can they say that when it was happening all over Iraq. The same thing is happening in Guantanamo now and other places. We knew that our officers knew about it and our sergeants. We thought if they know then somebody else knows. And I really do still think that Rumsfeld knew what was going on. I mean he had been there while I was there at that prison. And if he was there I know he knew what was going on. How could he have not known? And Bush? He’s the headman.

There is talk about new pictures that are even harsher than the ones we know.
I know there were some harsher pictures they had at the time of the trial that the media decided not to expose.

What was on those pictures?
You see the dogs biting the prisoners. Or you see bite marks from the dogs. You can see MPs holding down a prisoner so a medic can give him a shot. If those had been made public at the time, then the whole world would have looked at those and not at mine.

H.L.s Take
Of course Rumsfeld knew, probably Bush too. They will never be punished for it though, only the low level grunts that were ordered to carry it out. What she did was wrong but I don’t blame her as much as I do the people higher up on the chain of command. When you take a uneducated kid from the sticks, who was brought up to believe “my country right or wrong” and put them in a place where they think they must obey any order, of course you are going to have things like this happen. It’s not like Ms. England spent time studying the ramifications of the Nuremberg defense. You can read the whole interview Here

Republicans See Storm Clouds Gathering

Week of Bad News Highlights Difficult Challenges for GOP in Fall Elections
Excerpt
The latest blow came with the revelation that the former treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) had allegedly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars — and possibly as much as $1 million — from the organization’s depleted coffers to his own bank accounts.

If Republicans needed any more evidence of how difficult this fall may be, the past week had it all, analysts said. The Illinois race demonstrated new levels of disaffection, the party’s efforts to go on offense elsewhere were thwarted by recruiting failures, and the NRCC scandal will divert campaign resources and could frighten off badly needed contributors, they said.

"It’s no mystery," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). "You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He’s just killed the Republican brand."

Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan analyst of congressional politics, said: "The math is against them. The environment is against them. The money is against them. This is one of those cycles that if you’re a Republican strategist, you just want to go into the bomb shelter."

H.L.s Take
Mr. Rothenberg is forgetting one thing; The Democrats are also against them, and as long as the democrats are against them The Republicans have at least a 50-50 chance at winning. The pathetic Democrats will do everything in their power to make sure that the Bush/McCain reign of terror goes on forever.
The Gun is out, it is pointed at their feet, all they have to do is pull the trigger. So how will they blow it this time. Guess we will have to wait and see.

The Existentialist Cowboy
Republicans benefit from the fact that recessions are class conscious, affecting worse those who can least afford them. An era of highly leveraged US economic expansion and empire is about to come crashing down and swept away. Count on the GOP to make out like bandits.

It seems like ages ago, the US was at peace, there was a budget surplus, the economy was growing, and the unemployment rate was very low. But not everyone was happy. There was an entire group of people who harbor not good, but ill will; an entire class wished for bad times and got it.

Until now, China had an interest in keeping the US ponzi scheme propped up –they sold billions to US citizens via Wal-Mart, the economic Kudzu that ate America. But since a Chinese sub popped up undetected in the middle of the US fifth fleet, it has been apparent that the honeymoon is over. China now leads the world in dumping dollars. Everywhere, it seems, it has become a habit.

Read The Rest of The Story Here

HL’s Take:
It’s looking more and more like an economic collapse is coming. Gas prices are at an all time high, food prices are going up. Diesel prices are so high that truck drivers can’t afford to drive anymore, which causes food prices to go even higher. Housing prices are plunging, Bear Sterns just collapsed. It is all coming down hard. This is Bush’s final F&%k You to America. He is letting his buddies run rampant while they still can. After it is over he will retire to Paraguay, while the nation he ruined fights to survive.

Now she is saying the Obama campaign is attacking her for being white

Geraldine Ferraro the 1984 Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, and current Hillary supporter and fundraiser has been getting herself deeper and deeper into hot water. She blatantly came out and said that the only reason Obama is beating her girl in the race is because he is black. Ouch. Has this woman been living under a rock for the last 20 years? Did she really think she could get away with that. She has twice had a chance to recant her statement but is standing firm. Yesterday when she was asked if she really meant that she said “of course, the truth, is the truth is the truth”. So I guess she really does beleive it, but doesn’t she know that you can’t say that in a political campaign even if you really believe it is true.
Hillary, making like Bush is standing by Ferraro even though she “disagrees” with what she said. I guess Hillary wouldn’t mind if Obama said that she was only in the race because she is a woman. (or because Bill Clinton got a BJ from Monica) Ms. Clinton refuses to fire Ferraro despite the racially tinged remark. She is doing what Bush did when his countless minions screwed up. Just letting it slide.
Last week when one of Obamas key people called Hillary a monster, she was immediately fired. See it’s all about ethics. Some candidates have them, some don’t. Now Ferraro is saying that they are attacking her because she is white. Check out the video.

Polidics.com
BBC’s killer documentary called “The Power of Nightmares“. Top CIA officials openly admit, Al-qaeda is a total and complete fabrication, never having existed at any time. The Bush administration needed a reason that complied with the Laws so they could go after “the bad guy of their choice” namely laws that had been set in place to protect us from mobs and “criminal organizations” such as the Mafia. They paid Jamal al Fadl, hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the U.S. Government’s story of Al-qaeda, a “group” or criminal organization they could “legally” go after. This video documentary is off the hook…

FOX NEWS Interview with Ian Blair (THIS IS A LINK NOT RELATED TO THE VIDEO):Blair said, “Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working … but this has the hallmark of that approach.”

HLs Take
The closer we get to the election, the more warnings we get from Bush that this fake terrorist is going to stage another fake attack. Spooky.

Dennis Kucinich has done it. He beat the combined forces of evil that were doing whatever they could to get him out of office. The last good politician is still in office, and impeachment is still on the table. AIPAC and Pelosi did what they could to remove the last roadblock to thier elitist takeover of the US Government, but they failed. Welcome to Pottersville picks up the story.

Well, it wasn’t the big one, Elizabeth, but your husband grabbing 50% of the vote in a five-way contest in OH 10’s Democratic primary was still a welcome sight.

Ya gotta love Cleveland. They stuck by their man, which I interpret as so many votes to impeach Dick Cheney. Kucinich was forced to abandon his presidential quest when he’d learned about City Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose war chest had swelled to half a million dollars virtually overnight thanks to corporate interests. What Cimperman didn’t count on was that Kucinich, thanks in large part to his huge netroots fanship, was able to raise a couple of hundred thou more than that.

Kucinich, the story goes, was told by representatives from AIPAC and Nancy Pelosi during his presidential race that if he would drop HR 333, the bill that would impeach Dick Cheney, they would “guarantee” him re-election to the House. This came from high up in the Kucinich campaign, which automatically elevates it from a mere rumor. So Kucinich is well on his way to getting re-elected for the sixth time and HR 333 is still on the table, to paraphrase Scarecrow of the House Pelosi. So hats off to Kucinich’s base.

HL’s Take
Fight on Dennis, You’re all we have left.

Hillary Clinton sure knows how to play a joke; she got back at all those nasty members of the press for not treating her like Bush yesterday. She is pissed off (poor choice of words) becuase they actually ask questions and report what they see of her campaign. True they may not be doing the same for Obama, but Hillary wants the Bush treatment. That is, no matter how bad you screw up, no matter how much you lie, cheat and steal, no matter how abhorrent a person you are the press always treats you like a Saint. Anyway she got back at them good yesterday by making them work out a foul urine stinking, $hit stained mens room. Is this how she will treat the American people the first time she is not happy with her ratings? Huffington Post picks up the story.

Is the Hillary Clinton campaign staffed with morons or do they just not care anymore? It is unbelievable that on the night before the Texas and Ohio (and Vermont and Rhode Island) primaries they would set up an impromptu press room in a freaking men’s bathroom, complete with urinals. Yes. It’s true. The WSJ’s Jackie Calmes posted an account of the scene last night, including the tidbit that former New Yorker and Talk editor, Diana-tome authoress and journalistic grande dame Tina Brown was stuck “gamely typing away close to a toilet” — and not just any toilet: ETP was able to confirm from someone present that Brown was “literally inches from a urinal.” According to the LAT’s Andrew Malcolm, many of the press corps had begun their day with Clinton at 5 a.m. in Toledo, Ohio before crossing the country with her to cover her in Austin, Texas. No doubt they were thrilled — especially since they also got to enjoy dinner in the men’s room, too. Tamales. Yes, tamales…..

Clinton spokesman Doug Hattaway denied that any message was being sent, saying, “These accommodations should in no way be taken as a comment on the quality of our media coverage.” Perhaps, but it sent a different message: That whoever was responsible for organizing this particular press filing center was an idiot.

Whatever the message was meant to be, whoever on the campaign knew about this and let it happen had to have known this would get negative attention and make the campaign seem churlish and vengeful. The bathroom in question was located in the Tony Burger Activity Center in Austin, Texas and is described as hosting “basketball, volleyball, drill team, musical events and graduations.” Do y’think on the night before a hugely important primary they might’ve been able to do a little better?

H.L.s Take:
Thank god Senator Larry Craig of Ohio wasn’t there. Now that would have been a story

Here is an interview with Dennis Kucinich, that was conducted on NPR Radio. Dennis is currently running to keep his seat in Ohio’s 10th Congressional District. Republican business interests are putting up a lot of money for Dennis’ Democratic challenger. Dennis also discusses endorsing a candidate, and the Ralph Nader run.

Listen to The Interview Here

According to the mainstream media, Barack Obama is about to pull off the big upset and defeat Hillary Clinton. Obama is bringing in most of his money through small donations from everyday people like you and me. Hillary on the other hand is supported by the super rich corporate elite who are invested in keeping the status quo. And of course the one of the biggest donors of all are members of AIPAC. (The American Israeli Political Action Committee) Now I have heard that both Obama, and Clinton are taking money from AIPAC but apparently Ms. Clinton is taking a lot more. Hillary’s campaign is going broke and she has had to go back for even more money. Of course that means that if she wins she is going to owe them big time, and you know what that means. It means that the status quo will be preserved, more corporatism, and less for the people, it also means that Israel will be running our foreign policy. AIPAC is worried that Obama with his ability to raise money without them may not do like Bush has done, and Clinton will do, that is give them whatever they want. Consortium News Picks up the story

Right now, the front line for the Washington Establishment is Hillary Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, which has been stunned by Obama’s political skills as well as his extraordinary ability to raise money over the Internet. Obama’s grassroots donations have negated Clinton’s prodigious fundraising advantage with big donors.

Powerful lobbies – from AIPAC to representatives of military and other industries – also are recognizing the value of keeping their dominance over campaign cash from getting diluted by Obama’s deep reservoir of small donors. It’s in their direct interest to dent Obama’s momentum and demoralize his rank-and-file supporters as soon as possible.

On Feb. 25, the New York Times’ new neocon columnist William Kristol attacked Obama’s patriotism by citing the Illinois senator decision to stop wearing an American flag lapel pin because, Obama said, he saw how George W. Bush was exploiting the flag to stampede the nation toward war with Iraq.

“You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said when asked about his lack of a flag pin in October 2007. “As we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”

In a column entitled “It’s All About Him,” Kristol mocked this explanation as an example of both Obama’s dubious claim to patriotism and his pomposity.

“Leaving aside the claim that ‘speaking out on issues’ constitutes true patriotism,” Kristol wrote. “What’s striking is that Obama couldn’t resist a grandiose explanation. … Moral vanity prevailed. He wanted to explain that he was too good – too patriotic! – to wear a flag pin on his chest.”
One former Israeli official told me that the Israeli government feels it can work with Obama, Clinton or McCain, but that the Israeli lobby in the United States is adamantly opposed to Obama, preferring Clinton because “they own her.” The ex-official said the lobby has some concern, too, with McCain because of his independent streak.

Like other powerful lobbies, AIPAC is threatened by Obama’s ability to raise large sums of money from everyday Americans, thus reducing the need of Washington politicians to hold out their tin cups to AIPAC’s legendary network of wealthy donors.

HL’s Take
If this story is true, then it makes me like Obama a lot more. I don’t know how much money Obama is taking from AIPAC as opposed to Clinton, but it’s time this country stopped taking orders from Israel. We give them Billions of dollars a year in aid, and we are fighting their wars for them. Israel has a deep hatred for Muslims, that’s why we are still in Iraq, that’s why Bush is doing what he can to try to get us into war with Iran, which we would already be in if Israel had it’s way. Fortunately Bush screwed up so badly that he can’t get the support he needs to attack Iran.
I think the people in this country are starting to realize that they need someone to fight for them, and not the big corporations who want to keep things the way they are and even make them worse. I just hope Obama is not a wolf in sheeps clothes who will turn around and do all the same things that Hillary, or Bush would do.

Yesterday we brought you the story of Halliburton/KBR Employees being indicted for war profiteering, today comes the story of a Halliburton employee getting away with rape. Not only was he not arrested, he hasn’t even been fired. After Downing St.org has the story.

Barker has brought charges against Halliburton/KBR claiming that she was sexually assaulted, harassed, and falsely imprisoned while working at Camp Hope in Basra, Iraq. Barker is a military wife and mother of 3 who worked for Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary as an administrative assistant in Iraq while her husband served in the U.S. military. According to ABC News, Barker claims that State Department employee Ali Mokhtare attempted to rape her: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=3998439

“Mokhtare denied that he had attempted to rape her, but admitted that he had gone too far with Tracy, and signed a statement to that effect, which ABC News has obtained. In the document, Mokhtare states he ‘admitted that he pulled her vest and shirt’ and that he asked Barker, ‘What do you have behind there?’ He also says that he ‘made a mistake and it was stupid,’ according to the document. Despite his admission, Mokhtare, a U.S. citizen, still works at the State Department today….

“Mokhtare was a diplomatic official in Basra who first came to Iraq as a Farsi translator interviewing detainees. The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service investigated the allegations against Mokhtare and presented the case to the Justice Department for prosecution, but ‘the case was declined for prosecution’ states the document. Furthermore, investigators requested that the State Department suspend Mokhtare’s security clearance, but according to a handwritten note at the bottom of the document, that request was denied.”

Following the incident, Barker says, Halliburton confined her to a living container where she was constantly watched, including when she used the bathroom. Food was brought to her as if she was a prisoner, and she was denied medical attention and any outside communications. Barker says she was forced several days later to wear the same clothing she’d worn the night of the assault (ordinary pants and a long-sleeved shirt) and paraded through a crowded dining area apparently to humiliate her. This was part of the official investigation, aimed at determining whether she was sexually provocative. At this point she was still be refused medical attention.

Eventually, Barker says, she was able to use a cellphone belonging to National Guardsman Kevin Rodgers. Barker’s husband, 1st Sergeant Galen Barker, says that his wife contacted him through Rodgers. He then tried unsuccessfully to get to Kuwait so that he could rescue his wife from Iraq. Barker continued to be held against her will by Halliburton, and the State Department continued to stall her release. She was eventually rescued by Dr. David Pakkal of the State Department who took her to Kuwait.

When she returned home, Barker spoke out about what she had been through and began pursuing justice through U.S. courts. She says she was the first victim to do so. Several months after returning home, in July of 2005, Barker started receiving phone calls from other Halliburton employees who also alleged sexual harassment and rape while in Iraq. Barker learned that a State Department investigator and a Halliburton employee had given her home phone number out to gang rape victims because they thought Barker could help them.

PHOTO: Stewart Hoffer

Barker says the State Department offered her $3,500 in cash to drop certain charges, but she refused.

Halliburton has requested private arbitration instead of facing a civil suit and claims that this is required by Barker’s employment contract. A judge ruled this month in favor of arbitration, arguing that sexual harassment, including assault, is a reality in today’s workplace. Barker’s attorney Stewart Hoffer is in the process of appealing this order.

Barker was invited to testify before Congress on December 19, 2007, by Congressman Bob Etheridge. Barker’s newborn twins were fighting for their lives, but Barker made the trip to Washington, only to be denied the opportunity to testify.

HL’s Take
Slowly the whole house of cards is coming down, Eventually all the players in this tradegy of a war will face the consequences. Except of course for Bush, and Cheney. They are obviously bulletproof as far as the media, and congress are concerned. Those two could be filmed cutting open live babies and ripping thier hearts out, and the media would still find a way to sugar coat it, and make it seem so grand and noble.

Yesterday I watched one of the Oscar nominated documentaries “No End in Sight” It is basically a history of the Iraq war, It goes over every detail from the planning of the war which started right after 9/11, all the way up to the “surge” which was made possible by the fact that Bush, Rumfeld, and the Iraq Czar L. Paul Bremer refused to listen to anyone who knew what they were talking about in regard to how many troops we sent over there. People like General Shinseki, and Jay Gardiner who was the first Iraq Czar, when Bush found out that Gardiner was actually trying to do some good over there, Bush fired him and replaced him with Bremer, who proceeded to FUBAR’d (A military term meaning F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition)
The film also details how the Bush administration made the worst possible decision at every possible term. The incompetence was so stunning that I feel it had to be intentional. You see they wanted to make sure we were there for as long as possible so they could steal as much money throught the oil as possible.

The movie also highlights all the no bid contracts awarded to Kellog, Brown and Root (aka KBR) which is a subsidiary of Halliburton the company that Dick Cheney used to run and still owns hundreds of thousands of shares of stock in. The actions of KBR were blatantly criminal, and today comes word that 35 KBR execs. have been indicted for war profiteering.

Daily Kos has the story:

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island, Illinois have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

And, the dirty little secrets are in free-flow mode

Saturday’s Chicago Tribune tells the sordid tale:

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war’s largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors’ pockets, records show.

(snip)

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny ongoing grand jury activity. But court records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and military investigative agents who have been assigned to the case. Interviews as well as testimony at the sentencing for Peleti, who has cooperated with authorities, suggest an active probe.

The home to the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM), Rock Island, Illinois serves as the epicenter for the ongoing FBI probe into war-profiteering committed by KBR, because it’s here that the Army top brass at the arsenal act as administrators for all contracts awarded to KBR’s so-called LOGCAP III — which calls for the company to feed, shelter and support U.S. troops – while helping to restore Iraq’s oil infrastructure.

“No End in Site” talks about this in depth. I want to see this case go all the way to the top, to the head war profiteers, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bremer, and many more

John McCain thinks he can change America’s mind on Iraq, he thinks he can convince people that the surge is working. McCain just came out and said if he cannot do that he looses. Well guess what Johnny Boy, you lose. There is no way anyone that wasn’t going to vote for you anyway (the harcore 25% that will never admit they were wrong.) is going to believe a word your lying ass has to say about Iraq. The quagmire you helped prolong with your whole “surge” idea. Don’t you think that saying we should stay in Iraq for the next thousand is going to make people know that you are justing fronting for the neocons and the oil companies, and your corporate masters. Hey John did lobbyists pay you to say that. You seem to be pretty far into their pockets. C’mon John, even Hillary says the war has to end. You better find a way to steal a bunch of states in the election John otherwise you got no chance.

AP
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio - John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can’t, “then I lose. I lose,” the Republican said.

But McCain ever the flip-flopper immediately retracted his statement that he will lose

“Let me not put it that stark,” the likely GOP nominee told reporters on his campaign bus. “Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the county both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security.”
“If I may, I’d like to retract ‘I’ll lose.’ But I don’t think there’s any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge,” McCain added. “Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree.”

John must have realized at that moment that he was dreaming about Iraq, but he can’t think that he can win by running on the economy? How is he going to fix the economy? by ending the Bush tax cuts. His own party will revolt agaisnt him if he does that. We know he isn’t going to end the war, so what will he do? Nothing.

Over the next eight months, McCain said he would take the same approach when discussing Iraq that he’s taken all year as he won primary after primary on his way to securing the GOP nomination.

He said he would “tell them that I understand their frustration and their sorrow over the sacrifice that has been made and then I try to explain to them what’s at stake and what’s going on there now. And that’s the best I can do.”

Sorry Johnny Boy, not good enough, not nearly good enough

Heres a story about all the graft, kickbacks, extortion, and greed that goes along with War Profiteering. Of course this story as all MSM stories like this attempt to punish the low level Death Merchants, and will never come close to mentioning the biggest war profiteers of them all: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the Neocon murderers for profit. It was the same deal as Abu Gharib where the low level uneducated grunts who were just following orders get punished, but the people who issued those orders are never touched. Of course this is the real reason for all wars: Money. The rich despicable bastards get even richer while the poor who join up becuase they cannot get any kind of decent work get killed.

Chicago Tribune
Inside the world of war profiteers

Excerpt:
ROCK ISLAND, Ill.—Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war’s largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors’ pockets, records show.

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Rock Island sentenced the Army official, Chief Warrant Officer Peleti “Pete” Peleti Jr., to 28 months in prison for taking bribes. One Middle Eastern subcontractor treated him to a trip to the 2006 Super Bowl, a defense investigator said.

Prosecutors would not confirm or deny ongoing grand jury activity. But court records identify a dozen FBI, IRS and military investigative agents who have been assigned to the case. Interviews as well as testimony at the sentencing for Peleti, who has cooperated with authorities, suggest an active probe.

Read The Whole Story Here

The Republican front runner and until know shoo-in for the nominantion has been hit by twin blasts by a 12 guage shotgun today. First off a report out of the New York Times is saying that McCain has been having an affair with a woman over 30 years younger than him, he also apparently has been doing some favors for the woman who is, get this, a Lobbyist. McCain you silly old man. Did you really think she was hanging out with you for your good looks. And what will McCains’s wife think of this? Then at the same time some people want to talk to him about loans, and public funding and lines of credit that he used on his campaign. So McCain seems to be every bit a crooked as Bush, and the rest of the Republicans, no new news there. You know this won’t be any detriment to his nomination because only Democrats should be taken to task for affairs and illegal dealings with lobbyists, and illegal loans. Wasn’t McCain a part of the Campaign Finance Law. The Republicans will love this guy. You can read all the sordid details here.

NY Times
For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.

But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.

McCain Loan Raises FEC Questions

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government’s top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can’t drop out of the primary election’s public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.

Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.

McCain’s lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can’t stop him. Potter, who was FEC chairman in 1994, said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.

"Well, it was done before in another campaign. … We think it’s perfectly legal. One of our advisers is a former chairman of the FEC, and we are confident that it was an appropriate thing to do," McCain told a news conference Thursday.

The Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and most of the rest of the DLC, and DNC hate Dennis Kucinich. He is the only one holding them back from completing the Facist takeover they have been working on for decades. These Democrats are especially pissed that Dennis is trying to impeach their good friend George W. Bush Jr.
To get back at Dennis they are investing heavily in some out of towner to go in and beat Dennis in his own district. Here is an interview with DK

Buzzflash.com
The independent media is a treasure, and we understand how important it is to access independent media to be able to have a viewpoint that is unadulterated by the commercial interests. … There are many people who are trying to get out independent messages. I know BuzzFlash is one of them. Cherish those outlets, because they’re the key to maintaining whatever semblance of a democracy we still have. …

Impeachment is not, per se, removal from office. It really says that there are serious questions that must be asked as to the conduct of the people who are guiding this nation. And in the case of the President and the Vice President, there is incontrovertible evidence that they lied to take us into a war. They should be held accountable.

– Congressman Dennis Kucinich

* * *

Many progressives lamented that the person who most articulated their values in the current presidential primary race was Dennis Kucinich (or John Edwards). But in large part due to media neglect of his campaign, he was never able to get enough exposure to gain traction. MSNBC even went to court to keep him out of a presidential debate.

Kucinich cut short his effort to raise fundamental issues of justice at the national level because trouble was brewing in Cleveland. In short, well-monied interests took advantage of Kucinich’s presidential campaign to back a candidate to challenge Dennis in the March 4th Ohio primary. So Kucinich had to suddenly switch gears from running for president to battling to keep his Congressional seat, due to well-heeled opposition who don’t cotton to Kucinich’s calls for corporate and political accountability.

We don’t normally do this, but you can help Congressman Kucinich by going to http://kucinich.us/ and making a contribution. And if you live in his district or know someone who does, help get out the vote for Dennis on March 4th. We need his fearless truth to power.

Read The Interview Here

Bush hanging out with his only friends
Happy President’s Day, Today is the day that we celebrate the leaders of this (once) great nation. Back in the ’60s or so, we used to celebrate Washington’s Birthday, and Lincoln’s Birthday, which happened to be only a week or so apart. Then at some point it was decided that 2 days off for everyone was too much, so they combined the two days, and added in all the other Presidents as well. This was a Republican idea so that great leaders like Nixon, and later Reagan, Bush, and Bush could bask in the glory.
So today is the day for Jr. It is his last President’s day. Time for him to greet the people, and bask in all of his accomplishments before he rides off into the sunset. But wait, it appears he already had ridden off into the sunset. Rather than host a ceremony honoring his achievements and those of his predecessors, and trumpeting his success in Iraq, and with the economy, Bush is nowhere to be seen. In fact he is about as far away from Washington D.C. as you can get before you start coming back around again. Bush is hanging out with the Masai Tribesman in Kenya.
Perhaps he is afraid of a repeat of his original inauguration, where his limo was pelted with eggs. You see the people were not happy when they stole his way into power, and they are even less happy now. So unhappy in fact that Bush has cleared out of the hemisphere rather than face the music of the worst Presidency in history. The most criminally inept government in the history of the world. The 943 Proven lies Bush has told have sunk this country to a new low. I will not go over all the things that Bush lied about and all the other crimes he committed that would take up an entire library of books. You can browse this site to see many of them.
Let’s just hope that by next President’s Day Bush will be where he really belongs, in prison.