The Hollywood Liberal

HL is proud to welcome a new advertiser. It is Michael O’ Mc Carthy and his new book Rebels In Hell

The boy, from the United States whose radical father is murdered by right wing hit men; the girl fleeing from the rape and beating by her Mexican, landowner step-father. The boy, rising to become a revolutionary rock and roll guitarist know as Coilean, La Artista; the girl know as Petra, in honor of the great Mexican female revolutionary who fought with Villa.
Around them rose the tens of thousands. Together they are rebels in love leading a rebellion in the midst of Hell.

Excerpt of Book Review by The Hartford Advocate
Michael O’McCarthy proves himself to be a polemical fictionalist in the mold of Orwell and Huxley. Take his protagonist, Healy, an idealistic writer whose ire was “focused on the politicians who had stolen the country for the rich.” Hmmmm. Sounds familiar. Healy’s foil is Miguel, the assassin for hire who learned his craft (extremely well!) in the U.S. Marines.

Though O’McCarthy’s novel is set in the near future, with the “3rd Petroleum War” in full swing, the tale is as timely as this week’s headlines from Iraq and Afghanistan and as old as the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.

Order the book at Amazon, or Go to the site to read more

Four More U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

AP
Excerpt
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Four U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Friday, underlining U.S. President George W. Bush’s grim prediction of “a very difficult August” for U.S. troops in Iraq.

The military said a roadside bomb killed three soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad on Thursday during operations targeting Shi’ite and Sunni militants. Eleven others were wounded. A fourth soldier died in combat in a western district.

HLs Take
That brings the official total of our soldiers killed for Bush’s folly to 3665. You know the actual total is much higher. Longer deployments, and more tours lead to more stress which leads to…

Marine convicted of murdering Iraqi man

AP
Excerpt
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – A Marine Corps squad leader was convicted Thursday of murdering an Iraqi man during a frustrated search for an insurgent.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, 23, also was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, making a false official statement and larceny…
Prosecutors said that during a nighttime patrol in Hamdania, Iraq, in April 2006, Hutchins’ squad hatched a plan to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent from his house. When they couldn’t find him, they instead kidnapped a man from a neighboring house, dragged him to a hole and shot him….
Prosecutors said squad members tried to cover up the killing by planting a shovel and AK-47 by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.
Several witnesses testified the plot was born out of frustration after suspected insurgents kept evading prosecution.

by HL
That bridge that collapsed in Minnesota the other day, had been inspected and cracks were reported last year. See Video of Bridge Collapsing Here So why was nothing done about it? One reason might be that when our Govenrment spends $200 Billion, on a useless war that it is losing anyway, there is a lot less money to go around here at home. Bush long ago took funding that was supposed to go to the states for things like..oh, infastructure, and road repair, and funneled it back to his pals in the military industrial complex, so they could make more bombs, and guns, so we could kill more innocent iraqi’s. Democrats use money for things we need here, Republicans use it for fighting wars. This is not the first time that a bridge has collapsed in The US in recent history. There have been several, and everyone happened while a Republican was in the whitehouse. Here is a list from Scholars and Rogues

• The Mianus River Bridge on Interstate 95 in Greenwich, Connecticut.
• I-90 bridge over the Schoharie Creek in New York.
• I-88 over Carr’s Creek in New York.
• I-787 ramp partial collapse in downtown Albany.
• The Silver Bridge connecting West Virginia and Ohio.
• And while this was a bridge under construction instead of an older one, the irony of this week’s collapse in California (reported by FAUX, even) makes for good irony.

Like Hurricane Katrina this is one more way for Bush to tell the American people ‘hey you got a problem don’t come to me, I’m just here to steal all your tax money and put it into my never ending wars. You gotta drive a car over a bridge, tough luck, get out and swim across if you are afraid’

And Just to prove Bush wants to cut even more money out of domestic spending to put into war.

Bush budget puts pinch on domestic spending Boosts war fund, hits healthcare

Just one more reason to impeach now. Don’t forget we are just one more big Hurricane away from Martial Law, if Bush wants it.

Speaking of Hurricane Katrina. Looks like Insurance companies just got bailed out of paying off about a Billion Dollars. A judge just said that they don’t have to pay off damage caused by Katrina. Gotta love those Insurance companies. They are the biggest bastards in the world. They will do ANYTHING to not have to pay off, when they should after you paid those premiums all those years and got nothing for it. Why bother having Insurance if they are not going to cover you?

Katrina Victims Lose in Appeals Court

AP
Excerpt

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Hurricane Katrina victims whose homes and businesses were destroyed when floodwaters breached levees in the 2005 storm cannot recover money from their insurance companies for the damages, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The case could affect thousands of rebuilding residents and business owners in Louisiana. Robert Hartwig, chief economist at the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute in New York, said in June that a ruling against the industry could have cost insurers $1 billion.

“This event was excluded from coverage under the plaintiffs’ insurance policies, and under Louisiana law, we are bound to enforce the unambiguous terms of their insurance contracts as written,” Judge Carolyn King wrote for a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Seems like Bush is blowing up the infrastructure in Iraq, as well as right here in the US. After 4 years over there. They still have no electricity for part of the day almost every day, and they are without running water a great deal of the time. Yep sounds like the work of the disaster Monkey to me. Way to win the hearts and minds George. So how long do you suppose it’s going to be before that starts happening here? And you know it will, The privatization of water resources has already begun. If you want to control a population, take away their water. After a couple of days of going thirsty they will do pretty much anything you want. Lets not forget, global warming causes drought. Less rain means less water that the peasants can drink for free.

Water taps run dry in Baghdad

AP
Excerpt
BAGHDAD – Much of the Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at least 24 hours, compounding the urban misery in a war zone and the blistering heat at the height of the Baghdad summer.

Residents and city officials said large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid cannot provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations.

Baghdad routinely suffers from periodic water outages, but this one is described by residents as one of the most extended and widespread in recent memory. The problem highlights the larger difficulties in a capital beset by violence, crumbling infrastructure, rampant crime and too little electricity to keep cool in the sweltering weather more than four years after the U.S.-led invasion

Speaking of Water, (Isn’t it funny how all these stories interconnect) The house approved by a margin of 381-40, the Water Resources Development Act. The Senate Vote is going to be equally strongly in favor of with Senators from the most liberal Barbara Boxer, to the most conservative (Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma) on the same side. But, guess what Bush wants to do?
Veto it.

Setting the Stage for More Katrinas

Time
Excerpt

Once again, it’s President Bush against just about everyone else. This time, he’s vowing to veto the Water Resources Development Act, a wildly popular collection of 940 Army Corps of Engineers projects, including $3.5 billion for post-Katrina Louisiana and $2 billion for the Florida Everglades. Archliberal Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer of California and archconservative ranking Republican James Inhofe of Oklahoma can’t agree on the color of the sky, but they’re both pledging to override a veto.

HLs Take
Time argues that until the Army Corps of Engineers,who they blame for the levee collapse, is fixed of their stunning incompetence, that there is no point in giving them money to fix anything.
Come on guys, lets get realistic. Bush loves stunning incompetence. He has based his career on it. Bush wants the Corps of Engineers, and FEMA (heck of a job Brownie) screwing up as much as possible.

Old Flipflopper McCain is at it again. Back on March 2nd we did a comic called John McCain Flipflopping with Disaster A small sampling.

“McCain has been for Bush’s immigration program, (and everything else Bush is for, yet he still wonders why his campaign is DOA) Of course those ever so tolerant Republicans have crucified him for it. So what does Johnny boy do? He pulls a 180 on his immigration policy. Now he wants to kick those ‘greasy wetbacks’ right the hell out of here. Straight across the Mexican border.

McCain changes course on immigration

AP
Excerpt

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn’t include a path to citizenship.

The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year….
Observers said McCain’s switch was political. “He recognizes his position on the issue is killing him,” said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors vigorous immigration enforcement.

HLs Take
Way to stand up for your principles John. Just like you did in 2000 when Bush lied and said you fathered a baby by a black Crack Ho. It was a lie of course, but what did you do John? You made out with Bush because you thought it would help you get the nomination. What does that make you John? Oh yeah a whore. Just like you were back on July 26, 2005.

Looks like Fred Thompson is having as much trouble raising money as McCain. The Republicans are in so much S**t right now, none of them can raise any money worth a damn. So if it’s not going to be Thompson or McCain, who? Romney? or will Ron Paul continue to rise up, and get these corrupt criminals out of the election completely?

Fred Thompson Will Drop Out

Newsmax
Excerpt

Let’s take the beginning of August to step back and examine some political developments: 1) Fred Thompson — before he has even announced his candidacy — is beset with difficulties. He did not raise the amount of money his backers expected for his Exploratory Committee, and this should be easy because the first money a candidate raises is from his closest supporters, past donors and associates. The fact that he couldn’t even meet his own internal goal of $5 million (he raised about $3.5 million) shows big trouble for Thompson. He has already had a major staff shake-up, further evidence of a troubled campaign, and he hasn’t even announced his candidacy yet!

33 Down, 502 to go.

33 Congress Members for Impeachment

AP
Excerpt

Congress is taking the next month off. Congress Members will be in their districts. They’ll be near your house. They have offices near your house. Now is the time to ask them to cosponsor H Res 333 or introduce their own articles of impeachment against Cheney. If they agree to cosponsor H Res 333, you should contact Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s office and let him know. If they do not agree, you should make a bunch of big posters that say “Honk to Impeach” and stand on the street corner in front of your Congress Member’s office. Or you should sit in their office, read the Constitution out loud, and refuse to leave. August is your time to make your message clear. 54% of Americans want Cheney impeached, and 40% do not. See how many of that 54% you can bring with you to your representative’s office.

HLs Take
I called the office of my congressman Henry Waxman a couple of weeks ago to request an interview with the HL, I was told to leave my number (yeah I haven’t heard that before) and they would get back to me. I insisted on calling back, and the second time was told the same thing. So I left my number, imagine my surprise when I didn’t get a call back. Is that why I voted for him, to be ignored? I realize that Henry is a busy man what with him single handedly busting the Republicans for all the corruption that went on for the last 7 years, but his appointment secretary could have called back. I will be on the phone with this person whose name is Karen Lightfoot (or something like that) again. I want Henry on here. I got some questions for him.