Impeach the President?

From Scripps Howard News Service - click here to read more...

Time to impeach Bush

By BONNIE ERBEScripps Howard News Service
20-FEB-06

Those blasphemously "liberal" media outlets have once again deprived the American public of widespread coverage of nothing less than startling poll results. The non-partisan polling firm Zogby International last month found that by a margin of 52 percent to 43 percent, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush "if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval."

Well, there's no "if" about it anymore. The president approved warrantless wiretaps in 2002. Two years later, during a campaign appearance in Buffalo, N.Y. he volunteered he'd done nothing of the kind. That's called breaking the law and lying about it.

You're doing a heck of a job, Bushie...

From Mad As Hell - click here to read more...

Armageddon Worried, Part III

A Middle-East bristling with nuclear weapons is definitely not a good idea.Hamas Takes Control of Palestinian Parliament

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb. 18 -- The radical Islamic group Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament Saturday during a somber swearing-in ceremony, and legislators from the new majority quickly made clear that they would not abide by signed agreements that recognize Israel's right to exist.

Bush's Mess

From Today In Iraq - click here to read more...

The Mess (by Peter Galbraith)

With the US Army vastly overextended in Iraq and Iran's friends in power in Baghdad, the Iranians apparently feel confident that the United States will take no action to stop them if they try to make a nuclear weapon. This is only one little-noticed consequence of America's failure in Iraq. We invaded Iraq to protect ourselves against nonexistent WMDs and to promote democracy. Democracy in Iraq brought to power Iran's allies, who are in a position to ignite an uprising against American troops that would make the current problems with the Sunni insurgency seem insignificant. Iran, in effect, holds the US hostage in Iraq, and as a consequence we have no good military or nonmilitary options in dealing with the problem of Iran's nuclear facilities. Unlike the 1979 hostage crisis, we did this to ourselves. . .

Not all Christians are nuts...

From Today In Iraq - click here to read more...

U.S. Churches denounce Iraq war

A coalition of American churches sharply denounced the United States-led war in Iraq today, accusing Washington of “raining down terror”.

The churches apologised to other nations for “the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown”.

The statement, issued at the largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade, also warned the US was pushing the world toward environmental catastrophe with a “culture of consumption” and its refusal to back international accords seeking to battle global warming.

“We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights,” said the statement from representatives of the 34 US members of World Council of Churches. “We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war. We acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name.”

The World Council of Churches meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil, includes more than 350 mainline Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches; the Roman Catholic Church is not a member. The US groups in the WCC include the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox churches and Baptist denominations, among others.

Bush's Screwed Up War

From Today In Iraq - click here to read more...

al Sadr rejects constitution:

Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr has said he rejects the Iraqi constitution backed by his partners in the biggest parliament bloc. "I reject this constitution which calls for sectarianism and there is nothing good in this constitution at all," he told Aljazeera late on Saturday. He criticised federalism in the constitution, which is rejected by Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who fear it will give Kurds and Shias too much power and control over Iraq's oil resources. "If there is a democratic government in Iraq, nobody has the right to call for the establishment of federalism anywhere in Iraq whether it is the south, north, middle or any other part of Iraq," he said. Al-Sadr's remarks raised the possibility of a crisis over one of Iraq's most explosive issues.

Impeach Bush?

From Pittsburgh Live - click here to read more...

Mainstream arguments for impeachment

As the crimes of the Bush administration mount, it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid talk of impeachment.

As a result of his continuing abuse of power, the impeachment option is making its way from the margin to the mainstream. Legal scholars on the left and the right argue that Bush may have committed "high crimes and misdemeanors," as stated in Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution.

The National Security Agency eavesdropping scandal has led Bruce Fein, who served as associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan, to conclude that this is "an impeachable offense," noting "It's more dangerous than Clinton's lying under oath."

Like the flouting of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the bill of particulars against President Bush includes other violations of law.

Cheney needs a little push...

From Time Magazine - click here to read more...

Bush had to lean on Cheney to get him to talk

President Bush had to lean on Vice President Cheney to get him to talk about his hunting accident, TIME Magazine's Nancy Gibbs and Mike Allen report in Monday editions.

Bush and Cheney had a quiet talk. According to a Republican official, the President told Cheney how much he too loved Whittington. He acknowledged what a crushing experience it must have been to see Whittington fall after Cheney pulled the trigger on a bird, failing to see his friend nearby. After one of McClellan's press briefings, Cheney deadpanned, "He looks like he's having fun." Cheney knew what to do, being acquainted, as anyone in his position would be, with that most familiar and degrading of political rituals, the act of public penitence...

VP Cheney: Lost cause?

From Chron.com - click here to read more...

For W, blame-taking veep preferable to office-seeker

Cheney was judged to be a big help in the first term and the 2004 re-election campaign, but there is a strong sense, even among some GOP stalwarts, that his influence has ebbed.

"He was a big plus. He clearly is not now. That has to wear on a relationship," said a Republican intimately familiar with how the White House operates.

Far more important to Cheney's standing with Bush than the regrettable shooting, a Republican said, is the vice president's unflinching advocacy of invading Iraq and the costly ensuing military operation.

Bush: Incompetent or Untrustworthy?

From Morning Sentinel - click here to read more...

As I watch the actions of the Bush administration, it becomes clear that President Bush is either the most incompetent president in history or the most untrustworthy. Probably a little of both.

After Sept. 11, Bush should have gone into Afghanistan and taken out the people who brutally attacked us. Instead, he left the job incomplete and used the fear of the American people to manipulate us into an invasion of a nation that posed no threat to the United States.

Bush: Screwed everywhere he turns

From the AZDAILYSUN.COM - click here to read the article...

Advancing democracy abroad will be Bush's primary legacy

The pundits are having a field day: The U.S. supports democratic elections in the Palestinian territories but now won't even talk to the winner.

In Iraq, the winning party in U.S.-sponsored elections is dominated by religious leaders who reject the separation of church and state.

Meanwhile, violent demonstrations erupt in Muslim-dominated countries after a Danish newspaper exercises a bedrock democratic right: freedom of speech.

Assorted cartoons

Bush dismantles our country...

From the Register-Guard - click here to read more...

Preserve parks mission: Bush administration proposes changes

Published: Saturday, February 18, 2006: The National Park Service's mission was laid out in the 1916 act that created it: "To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

That clear, unequivocal mission would change under the Bush administration's proposed rewrite of the management plan for national parks. The 277-page document, if adopted by the park service, would shift the balance between conservation and recreation, and loosen controls on commercial activities and motorized recreation uses.

Safeguarding the parks for future generations would no longer be the park service's core mission. Among the most disturbing changes is the removal of language in the current manual stating that the 1916 law's intent was to ensure a predominant emphasis on conservation, particularly when conflicts between conservation and recreational values arise.

Bush's dual standard...

GWB is ready to protect you from the Iraqi's (who never attacked us until we attacked them), but not from a dangerous environment...

From American Libraries Online - read more here...

EPA Library Funds Cut 80% under Bush Budget

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s network of libraries stands to lose $2 million of its $2.5 million in funding under President Bush’s proposed 2007 budget, which threatens to close the headquarters library and many regional facilities as well as shut down the libraries’ electronic catalog.

The proposed cuts come at the same time the president is calling for the EPA to step up research in areas such as air pollution and drinking water security, according to a February 10 press release by the nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Bush is freaking NUTS

From American Progress (click here to visit their web site)...

HOMELAND SECURITY -- ADMINISTRATION OUTSOURCES OPERATIONS OF SIX U.S. PORTS TO UNITED ARAB EMIRATES:

The Bush administration has outsourced the operation of six of the nation’s largest ports to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a country with troubling ties to international terrorism. The $6.8 billion sale would mean that the state-controlled Dubai Ports World would control "the ports of New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia." Some facts to keep in mind: 1) the UAE was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan; 2) the UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Lybia; 3) according to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system; 4) after 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden’s bank accounts. A bipartisan group of seven members of Congress is calling on the Treasury Department to suspend their approval until they investigate the national security implications of the sale. Such an investigation is required by federal law but hasn't yet been conducted. You can read their letter here.

NSA Wiretapping

With the Republican majority in Congress about to cave in to White House pressure NOT to hold hearings on the legality of the NSA wirtetapping, plain old American citizens have to put our hope and trust in the courts to stop this unconstitutional practice.

American Progress (click here to connect to their web site) reports...

IN TROUBLE WITH THE LAW: "There was one setback, however, to the administration's efforts to keep tight wraps on the NSA operation. Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to turn over its internal documents and legal opinions about the program within 20 days -- or explain its reasons for refusing." Federal Judge Harry Kennedy issued his ruling in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "President Bush has invited meaningful debate about the warrantless surveillance program," Kennedy wrote, alluding to comments Bush has made at news conferences and speeches acknowledging public disagreement about domestic spying. "That can only occur if DOJ processes its requests in a timely fashion and releases the information sought." In another development, the New York Times writes that "lawyers for a Kentucky man prepared to bring a federal civil rights lawsuit on Friday against President Bush to have the surveillance declared illegal and unconstitutional."

Bush's Science...

All images and quotes in this post are from the Feb. 13, 2006 print edition of Time magazine.

"But in the past two years, the Union of Concerned Scientists has collected the signatures of more than 8,000 scientists - including 49 Noebel laureates, 63 National Medal of Science recipients and 171 members of of the National Acadamies - who accuse the Administration of an unprecedented level of political intrustion into their world."

The Bush Military Draft...

Ths following article is a little dated, but it is still relevant...

From Reuters - click here to read more...

US Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called "stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.

The policy applies to soldiers in units due to deploy for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Army said stop-loss is vital to maintain units that are cohesive and ready to fight. But some experts said it shows how badly the Army is stretched and could further complicate efforts to attract new recruits.

Humor: Bush's reaction

From The Sexy Humorist...

Humor: Cheney Goes Berserk!

From: That's Going Too Far - read more here...

Less than a week after accidentally shooting Harry Whittington while quail hunting in Texas, Vice President Dick Cheney stabbed his wife Lynne in what the White House is calling “a kitchen accident.”

The incident, described in a press release from Cheney’s office, happened while the Cheney’s were preparing a salad together in the kitchen of their home. According to the release, the Vice President was cutting celery when “…the knife slipped and entered Mrs. Cheney’s abdomen four times.” It goes on to say that Mrs. Cheney failed to alert her husband that she was moving from the sink to the counter, which startled the Vice President and resulted in the multiple punctures.

Bush's Legacy

[We are experiencing very high winds here in the NorthEast today and there's a very good chance we could lose power. I may have fewer posts than usual.]

There are, essentially, 4 main reasons why I dislike the Bush administration so intensely.

1. Bush is lazy. I honestly believe that GWB spends a very small percentage of his time working on issues. I believe he needs to spend more time meeting with advisors, experts, scientists, educators and the educated to study the issues in detail before he sets policy and makes statements. There is probably no better example of his not doing his homework that his pronouncement during his State of the Union speech that we would reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 75% by the year 2025. The very next day his advisors indicated that he didn’t mean it. The evidence of his lack of study: his new budget proposal includes huge financial breaks for the oil industry and cuts funding for study of alternative fuels (see my earlier posts).

2. Bush is stupid. I also honestly believe that George substitutes his theological beliefs for science and fact, thus making his behavior no better than that of the village idiot. His insistence on awarding most of the US aid for the prevention of Aids on organizations that teach abstinence instead of condom use is beyond the pale when it comes to stupid. He can certainly WANT abstinence to rule the day in countries like those in Africa, but people have been fucking for pleasure since the beginning of mankind (or we wouldn’t be here) and his wanting it to stop ain’t gonna make it happen. He can preach about stopping abortions on demand in the U.S., but if he bans abortions, he still isn’t going to stop them. Instead, just like back in the pre-1950’s days, the abortions will move into back-alleys and butcher shops where many of our young women will be injured or killed from unsanitary conditions and untrained providers.

3. Bush is deceitful. He covers up important details and lies about others. If he is so sure that we do not torture our prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, why not allow UN inspectors in to interview and meet with detainees? Why not provide more information on the NSA wiretaps? Why not come clean on the intelligence about any and all of the terrorism incidents that he briefly addresses and then refuses additional information? Essentially, I view the man as a lying sack-of-shit.

4. He is a faux Conservative. I am a liberal and I believe in a government that offers support to the weakest among us. I like people and believe they should be the focus of our government’s work. We should be working to save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, not dismantle them. However, if GWB was a REAL Conservative, I could live with that – cutting Government cost, reducing taxes, creating a balanced budget, putting more of the burden on the individuals in the nation instead of on government. At least there would be some control and direction.

BUT, the horrible, terrible job he has done of the economy is beyond comprehension. His supporters are raving about how the economy is chugging along, but it is doing well only because Bush is buying it with borrowed money. At some point, probably no more than a year or two away, the bill is going to come due and our economy is going to collapse. We are going to pay a significant price for the lack of restraint in increasing spending while cutting taxes for the wealthy. We are going to pay a price for cutting support for the poor as they get left further and further behind.

I have seen it written elsewhere on the web and I agree with it 100%. He is the worst President ever.

Bush's Budget

From Eagle Point News - read more here...

Washington, D.C. Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) responded to President Bush's budget request to Congress today, with the following statement: "The president continues to play fast and loose with our fiscal future. At a time when the administration has ackowledged this year's budget deficit will be the largest in our history, at $423 billion, the Republicans are preparing, at the President's urging, another $70 billion in tax cuts, to add to our debt."

Why does Bush hate people?

From American Progress Action Fund - click here to visit their site

President Bush Supports Health Savings Accounts (HSA's)

Today, Wendy's spokesman Denny Lynch said the company wants to
"tell [Bush] about an innovative program that we believe serves the best interests of employees and shareholders." The "innovative program" is HSAs, paired with high-deductible health insurance. Bush wants to dramatically increase the amount of money that individuals can contribute to such accounts to encourage more high-deductible plans.

An increased reliance on HSAs, however, could actually increase the number of uninsured Americans because they won't be able to afford plans with high deductibles. HSAs provide benefits almost exclusively to high-income individuals and big businesses. "The bottom line is that what the Bush administration calls reform is actually the opposite," Paul Krugman wrote. "Driven by an ideology at odds with reality, the administration wants to accentuate, not fix, what's wrong with America's health care system."

The VP's shot heard 'round the world...

Want to see what sort of damamge a 28-gauge shotgun makes at 90 feet? Click HERE for a short video demonstration.

Bush - Stupid or deceitful?

From the Salt Lake Tribune - read more here...

Bush's budget enables America's oil addiction

Much has been made of President Bush's State of the Union commitment to reduce oil imports from the Middle East. With his budget request this week, the president had a perfect opportunity to put his money where his mouth was during that speech. Instead, he chose to slash funding for essential energy efficiency programs, prolonging our nation's painful addiction to oil and other fossil fuels.

In his recent address to the nation, Bush unveiled his "Advanced Energy Initiative," promising supposedly new support for clean energy research. He forgot to mention that this funding was actually authorized in the energy bill that he signed six months ago, at levels far greater than any spending proposed in his new budget.

Requested funding for alternative fuels, for instance, is roughly $50 million less than that earlier legislation authorizes. And increased spending on some renewable energy programs comes at the expense of others, as the president completely eliminated funding for geothermal energy, which the Department of Energy calls "one of the cleanest sources of electricity available."

By his budget...

By his budget, so shall ye know him...

From The Washington Post - read more here...

Bush Budget Would Cut Popular Health Programs

President Bush has requested billions more to prepare for potential disasters such as a biological attack or an influenza epidemic, but his proposed budget for next year would zero out popular health projects that supporters say target more mundane, but more certain, killers.

If enacted, the 2007 budget would eliminate federal programs that support inner-city Indian health clinics, defibrillators in rural areas, an educational campaign about Alzheimer's disease, centers for traumatic brain injuries, and a nationwide registry for Lou Gehrig's disease. It would cut close to $1 billion in health care grants to states and would kill the entire budget of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center.

From The Moderate Voive - read more here...

CHENEY SAYS SHOOTING OF FELLOW HUNTER WAS BASED ON FAULTY INTELLIGENCE

Dick Cheney revealed today that he shot a fellow hunter while on a quail hunting trip over the weekend because he believed the man was the fugitive terror mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri.Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the man he sprayed with pellets on Saturday was not al-Zawahiri but rather Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old millionaire lawyer from Austin, blaming the mix-up on “faulty intelligence.”

“I believed I had credible intelligence that al-Zawahiri had infiltrated my hunting party in disguise with the intent of spraying me with pellets,” Mr. Cheney told reporters. “Only after I shot Harry in the face and he shouted ‘Cheney, you bastard’ did I realize that this intelligence was faulty.”

Cheney the criminal

Common Criminal

From Brian Fleming's Blog...

A man who in the past has been twice convicted of driving while intoxicated is involved in a hunting accident. This twice-DUI-convicted man shot one of his companions while engaging in a clearly unsafe action--wheeling around 180 degrees with his shotgun and firing into what is always a "no-fire" zone when in a hunting party.

You're the sheriff's deputy assigned to investigate the accident. Naturally, you know that the use of alcohol may be a factor. What you'd like is to interview the suspect as soon as possible, listen to him speak, smell his breath, get a look at his eyes. You also want to get his side of the story without his being able to communicate any further with any
witnesses--you don't want any rigged stories about the timing of the shot, distance involved, number of drinks drunk and when, etc.

You're just trying to do good police work. So you go to the suspect's residence to see him. But when you get there, the suspect's bodyguards tell you that you are not allowed to see their boss. The earliest the suspect will make himself available to you is tomorrow morning.

To put it mildly: There are very, very few twice-DUI-convicted-men-who-just-shot-somebody whom you would allow to get away with this kind of behavior. But this suspect is one of them.

It's good to be the king.

Hunter shot by Cheney has heart attack

Associated Press

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting accident has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he had a "minor heart attack," a hospital official said Tuesday.

Peter Banko, the hospital administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial, said Harry Whittington had the heart attack early Tuesday while being evaluated.

He said there was an irregularity in the heartbeat caused by a birdshot pellet, and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization. Whittington expressed a desire to leave the hospital, but Banko said he would probably stay for another week.

More abuses by Bush administration...

In his State of the Union address this month, President Bush told us that we were addicted to oil and that he was going to begin the long, slow process of reducing our dependency. In the same week that he made that statement, Exxon/Mobil announced record profits - the largest quarterly (3 month) profit of any corporation in our nation's history - of over $10 billion.

But the President isn't done bilking we average taxpayers out of our wages so that he can increase oil and gas profits for his rich friends. From The Washington Post...

"The government may waive up to $7 billion in royalty payments from companies pumping oil and natural gas on federal territory in the next five years, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing administration officials and budget documents."

"The royalty relief would amount to one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in U.S. history, even though the administration assumes oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period, the Times report said."

The President's Budget

The President continues to abuse the poor and the middle class in order to reward the rich. What an asshole...

From American Progress - The Boston Globe...

"Bush is under pressure from his party's conservative wing to control federal spending, a fact reflected in his proposal for paltry growth..."

"The Department of Education's spending on basic programs would fall by $2.1 billion, or 3.8 percent, and the president would save about $3.5 billion by cutting a range of programs designed to promote the arts, technology, and after-school programs. Meanwhile, federally based programs to help pay for higher education would take significant hits: The Perkins Loan program would be eliminated, and Pell grant funding for college students would drop by $4.6 billion."

"Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who is the leading emocrat on the Senate committee that oversees education, said the cuts that Bush wants would undermine his goal of making American workers
more competitive in a global economy."

From Wonkette...

May we just take a minute to say: “Best Vice President Ever.”

Seriously, people, who can compare? Hannibal Hamlin? Cool name, sure, but he was a total lame-o. Spiro Agnew? Pshaw. Did he ever say “go fuck yourself” on the floor of the Senate? Did he ever dress like he was shoveling his suburban driveway to a memorial service at Auschwitz? Did he ever shoot a man in cold blood? No. We didn’t think so. Agnew’s a pussy and you know it. Dick Cheney is a badass, and we love him. He’s like America’s abusive father — we’re terrified of him, we hide under our beds when we smell whiskey on his breath, but we crave his attention. We need him to tell us we’ve been good. We have a sick admiration for him that we’ll be describing to our therapists for years.

Top Ten List...

From Bob Geiger at Yellow Dog Blog...

Dick Cheney’s Top 10 Excuses For Shooting Fellow Hunter

From the home office in blue-state New York, here’s Vice President Dick Cheney’s top 10 excuses for shooting fellow hunter Harry Whittington on Saturday:

10. Sick and tired of Whittington’s “Hey, I’m having a heart attack” jokes

9. Pushed over edge by Dixie Chicks and Streisand blasting on pick-up truck stereo

8. Ongoing dispute over whether it’s acceptable to torture quail before shooting them

7. Thought he saw Michael Moore on other side of tree line

6. Bombed out of his gourd on Wild Turkey and Lone Star Beer

5. Companion’s ill-advised decision to wear Moveon.org sweatshirt

4. Was trying to impress Jodie Foster

3. Whittington’s repeated ribbing that Bush is actually the “real president”

2. Targeting scope on rifle made by Halliburton

And the number one excuse given by Dick Cheney for almost blowing away hunting companion Harry Whittington…

1. Because he’s a wartime vice president, damn it

Bush lies about Abramoff connection

This image is Photoshopped and is not related to the story below.From American Progress: The Progress Report

ETHICS -- NEW PHOTO OF BUSH AND ABRAMOFF REBUTS ADMINISTRATION'S SPIN:

The New York Times and TIME magazine have released a photograph of fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff standing near President Bush at the White House on May 9, 2001. At the 2001 meeting, Bush met with 21 state legislators, Abramoff, and several of the lobbyist's tribal clients.

Abramoff charged his clients $25,000 for arranging the meeting. The New York Times reports, "[The picture] leaves unanswered questions about how Mr. Abramoff and the tribal leader, whom he was trying to sign as a client, gained access to a meeting with the president on the White House grounds that was ostensibly for a group of state legislators who were supporting Mr. Bush's 2001 tax cut plan." The White House previously tried to deny Abramoff's presence at the May 2001 meeting. "The White House has no record of the Coushattas or Abramoff at the May 9, 2001," said White House spokeswoman Erin Healy in June 2005.

Losing the war in Iraq...

From American Progress: The Progress Report

IRAQ -- CONSERVATIVE SENATOR WARNS 'WE'RE IN MORE TROUBLE TODAY' IN IRAQ THAN EVER BEFORE:

President Bush continues to paint an upbeat picture of the war in Iraq. In his recent State of the Union address, Bush said that he has a "clear plan for victory" and "we are in this fight to win, and we are winning." But on Sunday's CNN Late Edition, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) sounded a different note: "[T]hings haven't gone the way the administration said and others said it was going to go. In fact, I think we're in more trouble today than we've ever been in Iraq." On the same program, former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi said he is "worried" about a civil war erupting in the country.

HUMAN RIGHTS -- U.N. REPORT FINDS UNITED STATES IS ABUSING DETAINEES:

A new United Nations report on the nearly 500 detainees at Guantanamo Bay "concludes that the U.S. treatment of them violates their rights to physical and mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture." The report's authors, who were not allowed access to the prisoners, call on the United States to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison and allow the detainees to go to trial, arguing that the U.S. justification for continued detention is a "distortion of international law." Manfred Nowak, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture and one of the U.N. envoys, said his team was "'particularly concerned' about the force-feeding of hunger strikers through nasal tubes that detainees said were brutally inserted and removed, causing intense pain, bleeding and vomiting."

From American Progress: The Progress Report

Political cartoons

Click any image to enlarge.

Please Riot....

The following cartoon was stolen from Another Blog...

Iraq Forever!

A few days ago I posted some information about President Bush's real reason for the Iraqi war - he wants to establish permanent military bases there to be used as staging sites for waging war against other middle-eastern nations. More proof (I found the link at Bush Out - by Gandhi) from News.Telegraph

The airbase at al-Asad is the biggest marine camp in western Anbar province. It is in the midst of the most rebellious region in Iraq, where thousands of insurgents have been killed in a series of operations over the past year.

But get "inside the wire" and this stretch of desert increasingly resembles a slice of US suburbia rather than the front line in a war zone.

Its restaurants include a Subway and a fast food pizza shop. There is a coffee shop, football pitch and even a swimming pool.

From CBS News - read more here...

(CBS) Some $8.8 billion dispersed for reconstruction efforts in Iraq is unaccounted for, says the U.S. official in charge of tracing it.

Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, says $8.8 billion is unaccounted for because oversight on the part of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the entity governing Iraq after the war, "was relatively nonexistent."

From the Washington Post...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

Losing support?

The head of Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, has said his country may come to regret the overthrow of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Yuval Diskin said a strong dictatorship would be preferable to the present "chaos" in Iraq, in a speech to teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Read more in the BBC News...

What we have become...

From The Rude Pundit - 2/9/2006

Gitmo Starvation and American Restraint: So let's try to get our minds around this: Right now, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the United States is holding roughly 500 detainees, most of whom were not captured on the battlefield, most of whom were not associated with al-Qaeda, many (if not most) of whom weren't even Taliban.

Let's try to get our minds around this: Say you're one of the non-Taliban, non-al-Qaeda detainees, just reward meat around the wrong mountainside at the wrong time with the wrong warlord's men ridin' by, and now you're at Gitmo. Say you've been hooded, led around on a leash, been threatened with dogs, stripped nude, forced to stand for days, had fluids forced into you intravenously until you pissed yourself, denied sleep, made to act like the guards' bitch, endured loud music blared into the tiny cold cell where you curled up naked, on concrete, with air conditioning blasting, all the "humane" methods approved by the Pentagon, and then finally you've told your captors what they wanted to hear, that somehow you are, at the very least, associated with evil people, whatever lie will stop the pain and degradation. Then you realize the catch. By not confessing, you assured your continued humane torture. By confessing, though, you assure that you will never be let free, never tried, never allowed to see family or friends again.

So you go on a hunger strike. Hell, your abused body's all you've got left to protest with. Let's try to get our minds around the methods used to stop the Gitmo hunger strikers from dying: the U.S. military is using restraining chairs, the same kind that are used and abused in prisons around America. They render the seated person virtually helpless, preventing nearly every part of the prisoner's body from moving. Then, once seated, "in a humane and compassionate manner," the Gitmo hunger strikers have tubes shoved into their noses or mouths and they are force-fed, with mouths clamped shut to prevent vomiting. Some were fed so much that they shit themselves. Because, see, according to the government, "hunger striking is an al-Qaeda tactic used to elicit media attention and also to bring pressure on the U.S. government." For surely, if, as Pentagon documents supposedly show, only about 8 percent of the detainees were al-Qaeda when captured, more are now.

More on War...

From: Today In Iraq

Attack on Iran: A Looming Folly

The wires have been humming since before the New Year with reports that the Bush administration is planning an attack on Iran. "The Bush administration is preparing its NATO allies for a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran in the New Year, according to German media reports, reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish media," reported UPI on December 30th.

"The Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel this week," continued UPI, "quoted 'NATO intelligence sources' who claimed that the NATO allies had been informed that the United States is currently investigating all possibilities of bringing the mullah-led regime into line, including military options. This 'all options are open' line has been President George W Bush's publicly stated policy throughout the past 18 months."

An examination of the ramifications of such an attack is desperately in order. Unlike Iraq, Iran has not spent the last fifteen years having its conventional forces worn down by grueling sanctions, repeated attacks, and two American-led wars. While Iran's conventional army is not what it was during the heyday of the Iran-Iraq war - their armaments have deteriorated and the veterans of that last war have retired - the nation enjoys substantial military strength nonetheless. According to a report issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in December of 2004, Iran "has some 540,000 men under arms and over 350,000 reserves. They include 120,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards trained for land and naval asymmetrical warfare. Iran's military also includes holdings of 1,613 main battle tanks, 21,600 other armored fighting vehicles, 3,200 artillery weapons, 306 combat aircraft, 60 attack helicopters, 3 submarines, 59 surface combatants, and 10 amphibious ships."

"Iran is now the only regional military power that poses a significant conventional military threat to Gulf stability," continued the CSIS report. "Iran has significant capabilities for asymmetric warfare, and poses the additional threat of proliferation. There is considerable evidence that it is developing both a long-range missile force and a range of weapons of mass destruction. It has never properly declared its holdings of chemical weapons, and the status of its biological weapons programs is unknown."

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From the Progress Report from the American Progress Action Fund...

"THE INSECURITY FACTOR: Bush has based American withdrawal on the training of Iraqi security forces: "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." But a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report concludes that "the continuing strength of the insurgency ha[s] made it difficult for the United States to transfer security responsibilities to Iraqi forces and progressively draw down U.S. forces." On Tuesday, Vice President Cheney said that U.S. has "now got a large number of Iraqis taking the lead [in] various places around the country

from a security and military standpoint," but the reality, as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace said, is that "only one Iraqi army battalion is capable of fighting without U.S. help. That is the same number as in September."