What The FUCK Is Happening To This Country?

Unbelievable. Glenn Blech has just attacked a volunteer debate moderator from the League of Women voters.

What is it with these people? Fucking everybody is fair game? What are these fuckers up to? Ever since the day our President was sworn into office, Glenn Blech, Flush Rimbowl, and Pox Noose have been attacking him, and those of us who support him, despite the fact that 65,182,692 of us voted for him.

If you didn't want to click the linky, these are the linked incidents:

• FL gunman shoots exchange students;
  
• List of far-right politicians inciting violence;
  
• Murder of the Holocaust Museum guard;
  
• Murder of Dr. George Tiller;
  
• "Dirty bomb" materials found in RWNJ's home;
  
• TN skinheads arrested for plot to murder President Obama;
  
• Assault on WA activist Christie Stordeur;
  
• Assault on KY activist Lauren Valle;
  
• Arrest of a Democratic voter at a session for Eric Cantor;
  
• Intimidation of elderly black voters in TX;
  
• Attempted voter intimidation by teabaggers in TX;
  
• Reports of teabagger targeting of minority voters for harrassment coming out of many states.

There's lots more, not covered here. In OH, a McDonald's franchisee sent his employees a flyer telling them that if the Republicans win, they can expect bonuses and raises. Otherwise, fugaddeboudit. And, face it folks. This 24/7 demonization of anyone who isn't a fucking rightwing nutjob has gone too far.

It's one thing to attack your political opponents. But when you start attacking the fucking majority of your fellow-Americans because they voted for a black man in the White House, you are going TOO goddamned fucking far. For eight years, y'all told us, "Suck it up. Your side lost. Deal. You're either for us or agin' us. America — love it or leave it."

When does it get to be your turn to fucking suck it up? Y'all lost TWO FUCKING YEARS AGO, and all we've heard since then is threats, abuse, and promises of violence. And Pox Noose is at the heart of it all, spreading a seething discontent by feeding the fantasies of the worst of the worst. All along, y'all have been able to claim that none of you instigated this violence, this assault on the Constitutional liberties of the people. But now, stuff like this starts happening all over the place right around the elections, and it becomes clear to the rest of us who aren't stark barking mad, as the denizens of the TeaParty (what party? They're not registered as a party) appear to be.

Srsly. I don't want people who look or think like these pignorant dorks in charge of the country. Do YOU?

Raw Story commenter Sue Wilson says:

It's time to realize that Glenn Beck has 14 million radio listeners compared to 2 million Fox viewers. Radio airwaves are publicly owned, and we the people can and must demand accountability from broadcasters. Early next year, I am launching a project to empower communities to challenge stations' licenses. Why? Read here: http://retwt.me/1PsNH How? http://retwt.me/1PkA I need your help. I need specific instances of inciting violence on the radio. Not hate speech, our lawyers say it has to be inciting violence. I need date, time, host name, station call letters, and most importantly - audio. You get me these, I will challenge the stations' license. We the People are Taking the Media Back!

Sounds like a wonderful idea. When do we start?

If you like what Sue Wilson has to say, you can follow her on Twitter at @sueblueswilson.

And get your ass out there bright and early tomorrow and FUCKING VOTE. Unless you really want pignorant acephalic swine making the laws that will affect you and your children for the next 4-10 years.

Stumble It!

Politics: The Constitution

ICHC

Until recently, we at La Casa de Los Gatos were of the opinion that only the Idiot Son, our Chimperor from 2001 through 2008, had the temerity to refer to the document on which this nation was founded as "a goddamn piece of paper."

But thanks to literacy and the joy of reading, we find that Georgie Porgie was not the first, probably will not be the last, and is almost certainly not the only one among us who has equated this noble document with bumwad.

Which is why we should fund education, and resist the dumbing-down of the nation to which the oligarchs and corporatists among us seem committed.

Here, for your enjoyment, or at least edification, a quote:

"[...] if it is a question of the safety of the country ... the Constitution is just a scrap of paper to me."

*attributed to Asst. Sec. of War James McCloy, as quoted in Lest We Forget: The Japanese and America's Wartime Mistake, Joyce E. Williams and Alice M. Coleman

The issue in question? The forced internment of Japanese (Issei) and Japanese-American (Nisei) civilians in specially built concentration camps, in blatant disregard of Constitutional protections. Since the vast majority of those interned were guilty of nothing more than being of a different race than the majority of Americans at the time, the manifest injustice of their imprisonment required a contempt for the founding document of this country that is still difficult to believe.

Of course, one has to ask oneself exactly what people mean by "the country." Throughout history, a "country" has been variously defined as that geographical location that has been successfully held by one or more strong men (rarely, women), usually related. More recently, countries have been political entities, comprising people of different ethnicities who make common cause for their mutual protection and success. This particular country can be said to comprise those who regard this particular Constitution as a contract between themselves and their fellow citizens. That being the case, treating the Constitution as "a goddamned piece of paper" bears all the logic and clarity of thought of the statement "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

This type of information — the knowledge that the people who have power over us believe that we have no rights whatsoever — needs to be disseminated far and wide. People need to know that those who climb the ladders of power see the powerless as disposable stepping-stones to that power.

Today, we have a President who believes in listening to his fellow-citizens. This man was democratically elected in free and fair elections by nearly two-thirds of his countrymen. We also have a proportion of certifiable loons talking about bloody and violent revolution to wrest power away from our elected leader. Although they are in the minority they want to violently overcome the will of the majority.

While we agree with Jefferson that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, we don't appreciate idiots like William Kostric conflating the fairly elected and chosen President of two-thirds of his nation with tyrants like, say, Dim Son. Where was this self-proclaimed "hero" and "patriot" as Bush and his cohorts systemically looted the nation and broke its infrastructure? Cowering under his bed? Peeing his pants for fear of the pigment-endowed and hirsute perpetrators of Terra?

Mr. Kostric, since you're fond of quotations, consider these, if you will:

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-- Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson)

When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
-- Jonathan Swift

*Note: James McCloy testified in 1981 before the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians that he did not make this statement.

Stumble It!

Politics: Right-wing Terrorists

ICHC

Gee, I guess the whining of rightwingnuttia about that DHS report is starting to sound pretty hollow by now, huh? I mean, you can say the first guy was a "lone wolf." You could even cross your fingers behind your back and claim the second guy was a "lone wolf." But three in a row? That's pushing it, people. For what it's worth, boys and girls, the common factor in these three murderous wingnuts? They're all white-supremacists, racists who believe nonwhite people should be killed.

The first, Richard "Pop-a-cop" Poplawski, decided that President Obama was going to take away his guns and freedom, so he'd better kill some cops. Well, say what you will about the police, and there's plenty to say, one of their functions is, supposedly, to protect the public against people who start shooting murderously at others. End result? He killed three officers, but they got him in the end and took away his guns and his freedom. Way to go, dumbass, you certainly managed to enact that self-fulfilling prophecy.

And then there was the charming James W. von Brunn, member of the white supremacist organization Stormfront (no link, find it yourself) and erstwhile contributor to rightwing sites like Free Republic (more accurately known as Freetardia). Of course, you probably won't find Mr. von Brunn's comments or posts anywhere in wingnuttia now, all the sites which once welcomed him with open arms have scrubbed any trace of his presence. Oh, wait, there's still the Wayback Machine. And Google caches.

Today, it's Jason Eugene Bush, leader of the Minutemen. Bush (geez, is that name synonymous with criminal in some bizarre mystical way?), like the coward that he is, decided to break into someone's house late at night with no warning, with two buddies for backup, all armed to the teeth. Why? Because the guy whose house these idiots broke into was a Latino. Maybe he was an undocumented immigrant. Maybe not. Maybe he was dealing drugs. Maybe he was an innocent. Maybe it was mistaken identity. All of these are reasons you do NOT take this shit into your own hands.

And here's another bigger, better reason: These idiots broke into this house claiming to be police. They shot and killed the guy they claim was a baddie. Then they shot and killed his nine-year-old daughter. Why? Because she saw their faces. Because she might have been a witness against them. That is the worst fucking reason to kill a little kid, you know? Not that there's any good fucking reason, but hey, when they start screeching in E above high C, I'm thinkin' at least you could say you snapped. But this? This is cold-blooded murder of a young and defenseless creature at its worst.

Fortunately, the kid's mom was not so defenseless. She had a gun, and she used it. She shot Jason Bush.

And before y'all get all self-righteous and say, "Well, yaknow, PC, he was trying to put a criminal drug dealer out of business, and all," no. No, no, no. He wasn't. He and his buddies busted into that house to STEAL money and drugs. Not that "stopping a drug dealer" would have been a reason for them to do what they did. That's what we have police for. Gather evidence, if you must, and turn it over to the cops. They're trained on the use of force and can be held accountable.

This shit? This vigilantism? This is what kills innocent bystanders, little girls named Brisenia who might have had a life, dreams, hopes, a bright future, or even a dismal one, not that that's any of our business. I guess to people like (this) Bush, the life of a little brown girl named Brisenia is not as important as the life of a white man like himself, which is why he ran like a chicken when wounded.

The Arizona papers are reporting that all three of the Minutemen involved have been arrested. Will they be tried as terrorists? Or is that distinction reserved only for brown or Muslim people who commit such crimes?

Note: These minutemen, despite their racism in common with other Minutemen, are not the same as the superset of Minutemen from which they splintered at some point. Details at link.

Additional note: SOME PEOPLE might owe Janet Napolitano and the DHS a big fucking honking big-assed APOLOGY! Except they're too busy wringing their hands and opining as how James von Brunn was actually secretly a lefty, like all those evil Democrats who came to power last year, elected by the America-hating Americans who don't believe in guns as a solution and racism as a way of life.

Stumble It!

World: For All Our Friends In Mumbai

We know nearly 200 people died and an additional 300 or more suffered injuries. You can't say, in the face of so much human suffering, God, I hope none of my friends caught it in the neck, or Please God keep my friends safe. Because what kind of a god would it be that responded to your requests, but not those of some other friend of some random victim of this violence?

In the event, here is further proof of nonexistence of any kind of divine being. To kill randomly and deliberately people who have done you no harm simply because they're unfortunate enough to be in the same place at the same time as yourself, well ... Jon Stewart and John Oliver say it best:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mumbai Tragedy

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

As for the absolute motherfuckers and giant assholes behind this, may every one of them develop scrotal rot that causes their fun bits to fall right off never to be repairable or renewable. Also their progeny, if any, unto the nth generation. Offspring of venereally diseased camels that they are. May their wives have more hair than a wool rug and may their sons and daughters repudiate them with beatings. Be sharam haramzadas.

Stumble It!

The Difference

Between the current Preznitwit:

Bushes Send Out Christmas-Themed Hannukah Cards

AP/Lawrence Jackson

Dim Son making faces at the Global Summit in Peru. Thank TPTB this is his last foreign trip. Perhaps the world will forget he ever existed, and soon.

and our future President:

"President-Elect Obama strongly condemns today's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and his thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the people of India. These coordinated attacks on innocent civilians demonstrate the grave and urgent threat of terrorism. The United States must continue to strengthen our partnerships with India and nations around the world to root out and destroy terrorist networks. We stand with the people of India, whose democracy will prove far more resilient than the hateful ideology that led to these attacks[,...]."

Brooke Anderson, Chief National Security Spokesperson

Picture from The Huffington Post

Our Future President and the First Family handing out Thanksgiving food to the needy at their local food bank. That's some Family values we can get behind. Gotta go hand out Thanksgiving dinner to los gatos!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of yez! Have a wonderful time with your loved ones in grateful enjoyment of Nature's bounty. Stay warm and safe and drive carefully.

La Casa de Los Gatos wishes you the best.

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: Palling Around With Terrorists

Oh, gee, looky dat. Someone from Sairy Failin's hometown has apparently decided to point out (ever since Sarah NailsonChalkboard started screeching about Obama palling around with them terr'ists) that Sairy's li'l paws ain't none too clean.

At least Obama never tried to hire Ayers. At least Ayers was never convicted of any crimes. At least Ayers has, apparently, reformed and gone on to become a respected academic and an activist who preaches, as well as practices, putting people first. The only connection between Ayers and Obama is a very loose one. They both served on the board of a charity; their kids attended the same school; they live in the same neighbourhood.

Apparently, li'l Sairy tried to hire G. Gordon Liddy as spokes_swine for the drilling of ANWR. Alaskan writer Shannyn Moore gives you the facts over at AlaskaReport.

Prize quote:

“I think it’s terrible. If Alaska wants to put the best face on things it’s probably best to not hire felons,” Senator Kim Elton said.

Seriously, Governor, what were you thinking? This guy is a convicted felon who served four years in prison of a 20-year sentence.

For his role in Watergate, which he coordinated with Hunt, Liddy was convicted of conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping, for which he received a 20 year sentence. He served four and a half years in prison before his sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.

[...]

In 1982, Liddy published an autobiography, titled Will, which sold more than a million copies and was made into a television movie. In it he states that he once made plans with Hunt to kill journalist Jack Anderson.

From Liddy's biography. And that's not all. The guy is fucking NUTS. Plain and simple batshit crazy, fruity as a nutcake, a visitor from Planet Loopy. Dudine! Just take a look at this:


Is this how one is supposed to treat the flag? Wrap yer nuts in it? Not to mention a more horrifying sight is rarely seen and what-all. You don't have to look into those soulless little cigarette-holes-in-a-blanket eyes to know that this guy is fucking crazy, sister. You wanted to hire him? For what? To eviscerate opponents of ANWR drilling with his teeth? Girlfriend, this dude bobs for French fries, you got that? Bobbing for small shards of deep-fried potato in a vat filled with boiling oil. That has to be the textbook definition of stark raving mad.

And you're getting your knickers in a big ole bunch about William Ayers.

ICHC

Stumble It!

World: Bombings in India

A group calling itself the "Indian Mujahedeen" is claiming responsibility for the 17 bomb blasts that rocked Ahmedabad, the former capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, today. The IM, believed to be a loose coalition of three other groups &mdash SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India), Pakistan-based Lashkar e-Taiba and the Jammu-Kashmir-based Harkat ul-Jihad e-Islami.

The group emailed a 14-page manifesto to the media ahead of the bombings, claiming responsibility and declaring the purpose of the bombings &mdash to "avenge" communal violence against Muslims in 2002 in the state of Gujarat.

According to reports, some 30 people were killed and approximately 100 were injured. Twenty-four hours before the attack on Ahmedabat, the Indian IT centre of Bangalore was rocked by nine, smaller blasts. The IM is believed to be using bombs strapped to bicycles. The explosions were planned to cause maximum disruption, but some also believe that they were targeting Congress Party ministers and the home districts of political leaders who belong to the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), known for its fiery Hindu nationalism.

News sources from India are claiming that the bombs used in the attacks in Bangalore and Ahmedabad bear similar signatures &mdash rather than military ordinance, they appear to be made with ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer, and utilize quartz timer devices and microprocessors.

Intelligence sources believe that the attacks are being coordinated by Pakistan. They attribute the attacks to Pakistan's desire to distract attention from its own internal problems and the terrorist presence there, now that (thanks to Barack Obama) global attention has shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan and the Taliban. Even the U.S. is finally talking about links between Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence, the Pakistani national security and intelligence agency) and the Taliban.

Thanks to George W.'s lame duck status, the truth about the situation in Pakistan &mdash a failed state by every definition of the term &mdash and its role in international terrorism is finally beginning to emerge. Muslims who do not support terrorism really need to speak out, as the IM is actively seeking to recruit "jihadis" for its covert operations in India. Despite the occasional shameful bouts of communal violence, many and varied religions have coexisted in peace for milennia in India. Don't let the death throes of the failed Pakistani state destroy India which has given shelter to so many different groups for so long.

Stumble It!

World: Our Ally Pakistan

So the last we heard Osama bin Laden was hiding out somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Pakistan has done a pretty crappy job of trying to find him. Fact is, they've done almost as badly as we.

Then we sent Benazir Bhutto back there with the idea that she could clean up the place and make it kinda sorta look like a pretend democracy, but our good buddy Musharraf just got her killed instead.

Then he told us that some "tribal" folks actually took her out and he had proof, but the proof turned out to be not very convincing.

Now, A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program is dropping his own bombshell. Turns out, Musharraf &mdash our good buddy, our pal, our all-out friend Pervy &mdash pressured Dr. Khan into lying about who gave nuclear weapons technology to our good friends &mdash no, waitaminnit, to our Axis of Eevul enemies, Iran, North Korea, and Libya.

It was Pakistan, says ABC. Based on what Dr. Khan is saying, the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf asked Dr. Khan to confess to having sold nuclear technology to these rogue states, saying it would get the U.S. off their backs if Dr. Khan would confess.

Well. We know the U.S. government has lied repeatedly to everyone. We know the Pakistani government has lied repeatedly to everyone. And we know that Dr. A.Q. Khan has lied at least once to everyone. The question now is, which of these liars should we believe?

A pertinent snippet:

After his 2004 confession, Pakistani President Musharraf refused to allow U.S. or international experts to question Khan.

"It's none of their bloody business," said Khan, who insisted he would never discuss his past activities with any U.S. investigators.

At least this makes sense now. Why would Musharraf want U.S. or international investigators to have access to Khan, who might just retract his confession? So why is Khan retracting his confession now? Is it because he has prostate cancer and may soon be dead anyway? Is it because Musharraf is now a "toothless tiger"?

Heckuva job, Bushies. Another mess for the new President to clean up. What a bunch of incompetents and fools.

Stumble It!

Osama bin Laden winning?

On my way home from work, I listened to the radio program, It's Your World, sponsored by The World Affairs Council. I only heard part of it. Their guest speaker was Mike Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden Unit. Chilling. I was skeptical about some of the things he said. However, this part I agree with: he said that we are losing the war on terrorism mightily. He said it's fine that we make jokes about Osama bin Laden ... but that it is crucially important that we also learn about him and respect him -- so that we can defeat him. Right now bin Laden is winning the war and he is a true leader. What have been bin Laden's goals? Scheuer describes them:
-- To bleed us financially to weaken our economy.
-- To make us spread our military too thin so that basically we don't win anywhere.
-- To cause disunity inside our country. A disturbing dangerous disunity.
Check.
Check.
Check.
All three.
Okay ... the tanker is headed for the bridge. We need a leader who can really turn this thing around.

And, as I've said before, Bush and his cronies are smirking all the way to the bank.

Postscript: Wikipedia has a very interesting article about Michael Scheuer. One of the interesting things he talks about is all the chances the CIA had of assassinating bin Laden during Bill Clinton's presidency -- but Clinton did not want him killed. We have no idea the reasons of course. But it's interesting to think about.

Post-postscript: Michael Scheuer received a Ph.D. in British Empire-U.S.-Canada-U.K. relations from the University of Manitoba. As Ms. Manitoba, I must point this out.

Stumble It!

DHS: The Fascist State

Just when you thought it was safe to travel to America comes the story of a hapless Italian tourist jailed without recourse for ten days while his "well-educated, well-connected" (we believe that means rich and powerful, in the common parlance) girlfriend and her family tried to get him out. Caveat: You need to register and login before you can view the story at the link.

Domenico Salerno, the youngest son of a prosperous contractor in Calabria and a recently graduated lawyer who works in his brother’s law firm in Rome, has an American girlfriend whom he visits several times a year.

Apparently, DHS decided that Mr. Salerno, whose command of English is limited, posed some sort of swarthy threat to the nation. They accused him of seeking asylum and dumped his tush in the hoosegow.

You might form some sort of idea about the social background of Mr. Salerno's American girlfriend when you read this comment from her father about the indignities visited upon Signor Salerno:

“We have a lot of government people here and lobbyists and lawyers and very educated, very savvy Washingtonians,” said Jim Cooper, Ms. Cooper’s father, a businessman, describing the reaction in his neighborhood, the Wessynton subdivision of Alexandria. “They were pretty shocked that the government could do this sort of thing, because it doesn’t happen that often, except to people you never hear about, like Haitians and Guatemalans.”

Although swarthiness is not an absolute prerequisite for having your ass dragged off to the caboose. Witness the treatment of Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl of Iceland, who was held by these valiant representatives of our nation. All uncaring about our fragile economy and its dependence on the tourist trade, they had the gall to seize a blond, pink female person and handle her most inappropriately. And now this.

We can't wait for them to arrest an entire planeload of Israelis, or better yet, Lubavitchers, and fling their tuchuses into confinement for "looking like terrorists," or summat. The combined howls of outrage should surely lead to a "reorg," as we call it in the SillyValley, of the DHS, hopefully rousting out the most maleficent and reducing its powers to appropriate, Constitution-respecting levels.

It won't happen unless you do something about it, though. Reps Jane Harman (D-CA) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss) have just announced that the DHS is planning to spy on Americans within the country and share any information with local law enforcement. Presumably, the DHS, like our Pretzeldunce, believe that the Constitution may be substituted for toilet paper if there is a shortage of the latter.

Write Harman and Thompson and tell them what you think. Hell, write your Rep too.

Stumble It!

Bring The Troops Home NOW!

Well. Isn't that just ducky? Raw Story tells us that, after reviewing hundreds of thousands of captured Iraqi documents, the Pentagon has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any connection at al with al-Qaeda.

Apparently, the only links between Saddam and any terrorist groups were just like ours. Just as we funded and armed Osama bin Laden to wage Islamic Jihad against the Russians when they invaded Afghanistan in support of Babrak Kamal's government, Saddam Hussein funded and armed groups to attack "Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime."

The study is due to Congress and for general release by midweek.

The article, penned by Warren Strobel of McClatchy's Washington Bureau, states, in part:

[...] the upcoming Pentagon report promises to be a particularly stark and thorough refutation of one of the primary Bush administration arguments for the invasion of Iraq [i.e., that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda. Another Bush Misadministration argument, that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, has already been thoroughly refuted.] The subsequent war has come at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, nearly 4,000 US troop deaths, and some half a trillion US dollars and counting.

Mr. Strobel's math skills are poor &mdash or perhaps McClatchy prefers to err on the cautious side of the balance ledger. Current wisdom has it that the total cost of Shrubya's Little Misadventure will run to over three trillion dollars. These costs do not address the Iraqis we've maimed and wounded, or the bills that other countries foolish enough to join in the "coalition of the willing" face. Britain, for example, announced today that their estimated cost will total approximately ten billion pounds sterling.

The article adds that the Bush Misadministration continues to lie about Saddam's Iraq and al-Qaeda, despite previously released documents and reports indicating the same findings as the forthcoming extensive review. As recently as last April, Vice President Dick Cheney again asserted a link between the Iraqi dictator and the terror network. So, if you know anyone stupid enough to listen to them and believe, please buy a copy of the review when it is released and use it to beat some sense into them.

The study is entitled "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents." Although it has been essentially complete since last year, it has been undergoing what one U.S. intelligence official described as a "painful" declassification review.

The article notes, in a painful aside, that "In fact, al Qaida in Iraq didn't emerge until 2004, a year after the invasion." Was that before or after Commander Codpiece was strutting around on the deck of an aircraft carrier in a uniform before a banner that screamed "Mission Accomplished," to the collective spooging of the shameless press corps?

Photo montage from grupo-utopia.com with the request that you spread it around

Meanwhile, we note that almost exactly a month ago, Auntie Beeb published a piece about the "reverse surge" that appears to be grimly prophetic. That article was pointing out the increase in violent incidents, many of which seemed to be targeting the Sunnis that the U.S. has been wooing with large sums of money:

US commanders on the ground [...] have pumped money into local economies by employing tens of thousands of young Sunni men as local auxiliaries - now re-named "Sons of Iraq" after several unhappier titles such as "Concerned Local Citizens" - to act as the eyes and ears of the US and Iraqi troops in the struggle against the militants.

They are also trying to encourage the Baghdad government to be more proactive in providing services and job-creation schemes in areas where the insurgents have been driven out.

But as we, and many others, have pointed out, the war has been going on for five years at this point. It's a bit late to start trying to win "hearts and minds." What's more, as the U.S. military strategy in Vietnam might suggest, the buying over of the "Sons of Iraq" sounds suspiciously like Tricky Dick's "changing the color of the corpses."

Al-Qaeda, and those Iraqis who are fighting the U.S. military will treat as traitors any Iraqis who side with the U.S. military. The U.S. is not going to stay in Iraq forever, John McCain or no John McCain. We simply cannot afford to. Sooner or later, our internal economic straits will be so dire, as a result of siphoning money out of the country to fund a prolonged war, that our economy will collapse. The U.S. is not willing to accept Iraqi refugees in any significant number. Despite the fact that more than 4 million Iraqis are now refugees, either in their own country or in Syria, Jordan, and other neighbouring nations, only approximately 7,000 have been accepted into the U.S. to date, and the original target of 25,000 has been lowered to 7,000.

Besides, the "hearts and minds" that the U.S. military is trying to win are deeply split even among themselves. We've said this repeatedly: Iraq has always been a fractured, heterogenous nation, with many different ethnic and religious groups, divided loyalties, in many ways still adhering to family, clan, tribe and feudal notions of society.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Auntie Beeb once again informed us just yesterday that a woman had detonated her explosive vest when she came calling on a Son of Iraq. Chances are that, just like the Issawi celebrants mentioned in the previous link, the woman was either a member of the tribe of the slain "Son of Iraq," Thaer Ghadban al-Karkhi.

According to Auntie Beeb, Al Karkhi was the head of one of the majority-Sunni Arab Awakening Councils, allied with the US military against al-Qaeda in Iraq. How true that is, we have to wonder, since the same piece identified "Sheikh" Abdul Sattar Abu Risha as the head of the Awakening Council in Anbar, a key US ally who was widely credited with having defeated al-Qaeda in much of western Iraq. Greg Palast can give you the lowdown on the "Sheikh."

We ourselves have blogged about the "Sheikh's" mysterious trips with U.S. money. $75 million worth, fellow-taxpayers.

Meanwhile, to add further credence to Auntie Beeb's prognostications, Raw Story is telling us that forty-two people died in Iraq today as the result of violence. Forty-two. Do you know forty-two people? Add up your family members. You might have to include a few neighbours or colleagues.

Now imagine that these people who you, maybe, love, or like, or just know, were blown to smithereens. An assemblage of body parts, bloody meat, barely recognizable as human. Now imagine that happens to you every day. You probably don't know enough people to sustain that kind of loss every day for a year, probably not even a month. Well, for the Iraqis, this has been going on for five long years. And some days, it's a lot more than forty-two people.

In other news, eight U.S. servicemen were also killed. When are we going to bring our troops home? Because this has gone on too damned long. The troops did the job they were sent there to do. An army's job is to fight. They fought. The other stuff has to be done by non-military qualified and experienced civilian personnel. But Boy George wanted to send his friends and cronies out there to bilk the taxpayer, and because they're the friends and cronies of an incompetent boob, to no one's surprise they too are incompetent boobs. So now we have a failed state, in which people are being killed every day in large numbers. And it's too dangerous to send qualified experienced civilian personnel out there to help to fix the mess we made.

Every day that the soldiers stay there is one more day that they present a target to a people furious that their country has been invaded, their jobs are gone, their economy is faltering, they don't have power or light or working telephones, their streets are unsafe, and their wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters are being raped and beaten and killed, while their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands are kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Get them out NOW. Bring them home.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, articles like this are just beginning to show up on the radar. The article states that railcars due to ease congestion in Philadelphia will be delayed. See if you can guess why.

New SEPTA Regional Rail cars will be at least four months late, delaying relief for riders on the increasingly crowded rail lines, SEPTA officials said yesterday.

[...] delivery of the rest of the 120-car order will also be pushed back at least four months, Nowakowski said. Final delivery of all the railcars is now scheduled for October 2010.

Rotem [the company building the cars, Ed.] was unable to procure enough of the type of steel specified in the SEPTA contract because the U.S. government has cornered the market; it is using the steel for armoring vehicles bound for Iraq, Nowakowski said.

For the sake of the dying, dead, maimed and wounded, in Iraq and at home; for the sake of the faltering economy, the people losing their homes, the people without health care, or with inadequate care; for the sake of the families that are being fractured by the stresses of this war; for the sake of the nation that is tottering under the accumulation of debt and the loss of its sons and daughters &mdash bring them home. End the war now.

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Constitution: NSA Craps On It

Looks like every organization in every arm of this current Misadministration takes its cue from Chimpy McDunce. If he's going to wipe his butt on the Constitution, they feel obliged to rush to do the same, in an attempt, we suppose, to prove their bona fides.

Today, for example, Raw Story tells us that the NSA is "quietly" expanding their surveillance of U.S. citizens.

"According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records,"

states an article by Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal. Note: You need to register to read the article.

The article goes on to say:

"The NSA receives this so-called 'transactional' data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected."

Note: Our emphasis, Ed. Since no one is monitoring the NSA's scrutiny of your information, we have no idea how they determine that a "link to al Qaeda" should be "suspected." Is it like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? If your roommate in college had a penpal who married a cousin of a German of Turkish origin whose grandfather came from the same village as a woman who is married to a man whose cousin-in-law is a member, are you automatically a suspect?

Bearing in mind that the U.S. Government currently has imprisoned some one per cent of its own citizens, and the privatization of prisons has proceeded apace, making the imprisoning of people a lucrative industry, do you really trust that your government is able and willing to search for terrorists without infringing on your Constitutional rights? After all, they're scrutinizing every damn thing you do, including your credit card transactions.

Is there anyone so virtuous among us that they can cast the first stone at transgressors and offenders and say to the spies, examine everything I've ever done, you won't find a trace of something even slightly illegal? And even if you are, you paragon of virtue, do you want your government going through all your private stuff? Your health records? Your email to you girlfriend or mistress? Your private slutty chats with guyfriends or girlfriends about the hot sex you had with that borderline perv you once knew? Are you sure that among the people you dated, or your friends or colleagues or neighbours there is absolutely no one who might have a criminal record? Whose conversations with you could be misconstrued?

"The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light," she continues. "They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world's main international banking clearinghouse to track money movements."

[...]

If a person suspected of terrorist connections is believed to be in a U.S. city -- for instance, Detroit, a community with a high concentration of Muslim Americans -- the government's spy systems may be directed to collect and analyze all electronic communications into and out of the city.

[...]

Two current officials also said the NSA's current combination of programs now largely mirrors the former TIA project. But the NSA offers less privacy protection. TIA developers researched ways to limit the use of the system for broad searches of individuals' data, such as requiring intelligence officers to get leads from other sources first. The NSA effort lacks those controls, as well as controls that it developed in the 1990s for an earlier data-sweeping attempt.

[...]

NSA gets access to the flow of data from telecommunications switches through the FBI, according to current and former officials. It also has a partnership with FBI's Digital Collection system, providing access to Internet providers and other companies. The existence of a shadow hub to copy information about AT&T Corp. telecommunications in San Francisco is alleged in a lawsuit against AT&T filed by the civil-liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, based on documents provided by a former AT&T official. In that lawsuit, a former technology adviser to the Federal Communications Commission says in a sworn declaration that there could be 15 to 20 such operations around the country.

The budget for the NSA's data-sifting effort is classified, but one official estimated it surpasses $1 billion. The FBI is requesting to nearly double the budget for the Digital Collection System in 2009, compared with last year, requesting $42 million. "Not only do demands for information continue to increase, but also the requirement to facilitate information sharing does," says a budget justification document, noting an "expansion of electronic surveillance activity in frequency, sophistication, and linguistic needs."

So we're paying over one billion dollars to scrutinize every Web site visit, telephone conversation, and email of Americans within the United States, and the FBI wants that budget doubled.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more effective &mdash and less intrusive &mdash to monitor email, conversations, and Web sites to and from countries with known terrorist presences? And leave internal monitoring to that supervised by courts tasked with protecting the civil liberties of Americans? And we're not referring to the FISA courts, which have rubberstamped every request by the government for permission to spy on anybody. We're referring to some real goddamned respect for the Constitution.

Either it is our founding document and we obey it faithfully, or it's just a "goddamned piece of paper," per Chimpy McDunce, and we throw it away and start all over again. Which will it be, peoples?

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World: Slipping Into The Fascist State

Image from ToddAlbert.com

Unlike parodist Jonah Goldberg, we do not throw the term "fascism" around lightly. Like the estimable Dorothy Parker, we would like to throw it aside with great force. Preferably into the rubbish pile of history.

Our dictionary defines fascism as:

NOUN: 1. often Fascism a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government. 2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

Over in the U.K., Scotland Yard is, presumably at the bequest of the authorities, engaged in electronic eavesdropping of a Labour Party MP whose sole claim to their attentions appears to be a boyhood friendship with an imprisoned constituent who is

accused of running a US-registered website in the late 90's that raised funds for the Taliban and for Chechen militants. He is being held by British authorities pending deportation, although there are no charges against him in that country.

The MP in question, Sadiq Khan, is an activist lawyer who had brought a series of controversial malpractice cases against London police. Khan has campaigned actively against the extradition.

We posit that the actions taken against Khan constitute suppression through terror and censorship, given that the bugging apparently

... violates a long-standing official policy against eavesdropping on members of Parliament.

If there are no charges in the U.S. against the imprisoned constituent Babar Ahmed, why is the British government attempting to deport him? Where are they deporting him? To the U.S.? Have they tried him in a court of law? Of what crimes has he been found guilty?

These questions trouble us. If we are not a nation of laws, if we do not respect our own laws, then what are we?

The movement from democracy and a rule of law to fascism, dictatorship, and a rule of men is a slow slide, not a rapid change. Germans would have risen as one against Hitler if he had immediately proposed a move from a nation grounded in law to a fascist dictatorship. The Munich Beer-Hall Putsch proved that, despite a disillusioned and beaten populace, mass confusion, poverty, and the bleak aftermath of defeat in war, people would not willingly renounce their civil liberties and accept an outright dictator. It took nearly a decade of lies, manoeuvering, chicanery, and an election before the fascistic Nazis could come to power.

We have lived through eight years of rule by an individual with all the mental wherewithal of a shrub. The UK has had his lapdog equivalent in Tony Blair. If we are to halt the slide towards fascism, we - all of us - must speak up and act as best we can.

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Politics: The Politics of Wealth and Poverty

Image from WaronWant

Langdon Gilkey, a Professor of Divinity at the University of Chicago School of Divinity, wrote an interesting little book called Shantung Compound, detailing his experiences as a detainee in a Japanese internment camp in China. Casa de Los Gatos prepares a reading list at the beginning of every year, to force a little focus on the process of reading one's way through rooms and boxes full of books that have been collecting dust for nearly two decades, leading to the ingestion of much cold and allergy medication as a result of dripping noses and sore throats.

At any rate, as part of the Book Project, slated to complete this year (more about this at some future time over at the Other Blog), we chanced upon Professor Gilkey's fascinating little book.

In light of the recent disappointed perusal of Norman Cleaveland's tome on his time in Ampang, Malaysia, we were prepared to be further disappointed by the experiences of Americans in an Asian continent swirled by social and political ferment.

We're pleased to say that Professor Gilkey has somewhat mollified our resentment by remaining impartial and lucid on the topic of his experience, while retaining a clear-eyed perception that we don't always agree with but respect nevertheless.

In the course of reading the book, we came across this interesting observation on wealth and poverty that we feel impelled to share:

... I came to see that wealth is by no means an unmitigated blessing to its community. It does not, as may often be supposed, serve to feed and comfort those who are lucky enough to possess it, while leaving unaffected and unconcerned others in the community who are not so fortunate. Wealth is a dynamic force that can too easily become demonic &mdash for if it does not do great good it can do great harm.

Professor Gilkey is referring to the arrival of care packages from the American Red Cross to the detention centre where he, together with several hundred other Americans and several thousand "gaijin" of other nationalities &mdash British, Russian, Persian, Eurasian, Belgian, Dutch, and so on &mdash were being held. While the bounty of the American Red Cross would have ensured each detainee would have one to one-and-a-half care packages that would help them survive the brutal Northern Chinese winter, some seven Americans preferred that the Japanese should turn over all the packages to Americans only, thus ensuring that each American had seven packages (way more than needed) and no other person had any.

He goes on to say:

Had this food simply been used for the good of the whole community, it would have been an unmitigated blessing in the life of every one of us. But the moment it threatened to become the hoarded property of a select few, it became at once destructive, rather than creative, dividing us from one another and destroying every vestige of communal unity and morale.

[...]

I suddenly saw, as never so clearly before, the really dynamic factors in social conflict: how wealth compounded with greed and injustice leads inevitably to strife, and how such strife can threaten to kill the social organism. Correspondingly, it became evident that the only answer was not less wealth [...] but [factors] that might lead to sharing and so provide the sole foundation for social peace. It is the moral or immoral use of wealth, not its mere accumulation [,...] that determines whether it will play a creative or destructive role in any society.

[...]

... Western culture as a whole is learning that material progress and the wealth that it creates are no unmixed blessings. The present possession of security and goods in a world where the majority are hungry and insecure puts the Western world in much the same position as those Americans in the camp [...]. If the material gains of modern Western society can be spread over the world with some evenness, this new wealth may create a fuller life for us all. [...] Wealthy classes and wealthy nations are unmindful of the destructive effects of their wealth, isolated as they are by the comforts and perquisites of their possessions. Those outside the charmed circle of privilege, however, remember, and no lasting community can be formed in the midst of the bitter resentment that inequality and selfishness inevitably engender. [...]

The resentment against the West on the part of the whole nonwhite world is mainly the consequence of the white man's refusal to share his social privileges with men of another color.

There you have it. "They" don't hate "us" for our freedoms. Everybody hates and bitterly resents anyone who lives in luxury as they starve. That's just the nature of the beast that we call the human being. No amount of moralizing, preaching, religion, aid, or whatever will change that.

That is why, in order for a lasting peace to be built that will embrace the whole world and lead to the end of war, cruelty, hatred, racism, abuse, and social injustice, we must all share what we have with our less fortunate neighbours. And that is not to imply any moral duty, but simple common sense. If you have seven loaves of bread and the poor and hungry neighbours around you have none, and you do not willingly share with them, they will come to your home and tear you limb from limb in order to acquire your bread to feed their hungry loved ones.

So, when we at Casa de Los Gatos hear the less humane among us retort, "If they want enough to eat, let them stop breeding like flies! That's why they're poor and starving," we reply, "If you want them to stop breeding like flies, give generously but commonsensically of your money and your service to teach them birth control. Give them condoms and mifepristone and The Pill and abortions. Give them medicine and science and education and half your loaf of bread."

Otherwise what else is there for them to do but bomb your towers and railways and marketplaces? It's not as if their life is joyous and meaningful. As their (and your) lives should, and could, be.

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World: Pakistan - The Beginning Of The End

Raw Story reports that "Islamic militants" overran Sararogha Fort in Pakistan, close to the Afghanistan border, killing seven soldiers. The military claims that, of troops in the fort, 20 are missing, while 15 managed to escape to another military outpost some 22 miles away.

Of course, the Pakistani military is famous for its assertions of success in the face of defeat. The veracity of the military and governmental spokesweasels is such that anyone betting money on them will be lucky to come home in a barrel, sans shoes, at that. The "Islamic militants," for example, could be resurgent Taliban. They could equally well be Balochs or Pathans in revolt against the hideous oppression that's been meted out to them for some three or four decades. Oppression that has intensified recently, as witnessed by clashes in Balochistan.

In a poignant quote, the reporter states about the military spokesweasel's announcements:

It was not immediately possible to verify the army's claim that 50 attackers died in the assault; in the past the rebels have given much lower figures for their own casualties.

With the recent expulsion of an American journalist, it appears other writers must be more circumspect than to outright call the various apparatchiki liars, as such.

Now Musharraf's spokesweasels announce that he is leaving soon on a trip:

... Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced Musharraf will travel next week to Belgium, France, Switzerland and Britain to meet with European leaders and attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Meanwhile religious extremist and corrupt tinpot Nawaz Sharif waits in the wings. Sharif's primary claim to fame is that he made Pakistan a nuclear power. That should be real reassuring to the idiots in the West who schemed and plotted and pushed Benazir Bhutto into returning to Pakistan so she could be assassinated, even as they propped up their good friend and "gentleman" Pervez Musharraf to the tune of billions of dollars.

A pertinent quote about Sharif's relationship with Musharraf:

There was personal bad blood between General Musharraf and Mr Sharif, added Hussain. The President was angered that Mr Sharif once refused to allow his plane with 200 other passengers on board to land, until it was forced to make an emergency landing with five minutes of fuel left: while Mr Sharif resented General Musharraf for ousting him from power and throwing him into jail.

Will Musharraf suffer the same fate as other unpopular heads of state who have been deposed in absentia?

Pakistan's fractured condition is the definitive pronouncement on Bush's failures in foreign policy.

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Environment: A Compressed-Air Car?

How cool is THAT? Tata Motor Company of India is working with a French company to produce a car that runs on compressed air. Tata has been manufacturing and selling compressed-air buses for nearly eight years now, so the compressed-air car should not be much of a challenge for them at all.

Details about the car:

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

Mini-CAT? City Cat? Too damned cute for words.

$7K for a car. I can't remember when they cost that little.

Raw Story has the video clip and the details.

We here at The Political Cat believe that no one can have too much CAT in their lives. OK, we did once top ten of the little fuckers, and that's dangerous territory, but for a Cat this cute, we'd make way. And will that take the country off the foreign oil teat, or what?

Even though the primary source of oil imports into the U.S. is Canada, Saudi Arabia follows close behind, and it would be worth it to wipe the smug grins off the faces of the people who sponsored Osama bin Laden. If we stopped buying their oil, they wouldn't be able to fund the retrogressive Wahabi school of Islam that is responsible for the jihadist madrassahs that are turning out "martyrs" and "fighters" for the troubling wars attempting to destabilize Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.

And besides, it's hella cute, that little Cat car.

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Politics: Impeachment Hearings

Yay for Robert Wexler. He's taking the impeachment resolution to the Web. Wanna impeach but can't because weak-kneed asskissers and weasels in Congress insist impeachment is "off the table"? Put it back on the table with Rep. Robert Wexler.

Raw Story has the details. For those too impatient to bother about the story, go directly to Rep. Wexler's impeachment site and let him know how you feel.

This round it's Cheney. Next round, if the Chimperor hasn't gone yet, it'll be his turn.

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Iraq: Bonus Update On Afghanistan

Because we're winning so winningly. In the winningest way. So winningly, in fact, that the poor exhausted soldiers - yes, those very troops whom we support by buying made-in-China yellow ribbon magnets for our SUVs while they lose their brains, bodies, minds, souls, and lives to keep those SUVs supplied with gasoline - are deserting! Those lousy cowards! How dare they refuse to sacrifice for us? How dare they force the Young Republicans on fine college campuses and golf courses everywhere to face the dreaded possibility of a (shudder) draft?

What's the matter with them? Have they stopped listening to Their Masters' Voice? Apparently. At least, Raw Story tells us that the number of soldiers deserting this year marks an 80 per cent increase over 2003. You think these guys might be tired or something? Too many deployments and stop-loss orders? Nah! They're children of the working class. They're used to working. Unlike the rich Republican youth, who've never had to soil their hands with work a day in their lives.

Besides, the Republikids are just following the excellent example of their duly appointed leaders. Didn't Shrubya's daddy get him a plum job in the TANG, so he'd never have to put his own butt on the line? Didn't Richard Bruce the Dork Lord have "more important priorities" than fighting a war meant for the "little people"? Didn't Mittens of Teh Sacred Underroos have God's work to do, instead of getting drafted?

The desertion rate is 42 per cent higher than it was last year.

According to the Army, about nine in every 1,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to nearly seven per 1,000 a year earlier. Overall, 4,698 soldiers deserted this year, compared to 3,301 last year.

Despite the continued increase in desertions, however, an Associated Press examination of Pentagon figures earlier this year showed that the military does little to find those who bolt, and rarely prosecutes the ones they get. Some are allowed to simply return to their units, while most are given less-than-honorable discharges.

Well, there you have it, boyz and girlz. That's one way to show your discontent. If enough of you desert or refuse to fight, you can stop the war. Instead of waiting for our political class, who don't have a single testicle or ovary among the lot of them. The Republicans will never cross Shrubya, who is holding on to the war with all four feet and teeth. And the Democrats don't have a veto-proof majority and are too fucking wimpy to rescue you from the quagmire.

If you want out of Iraq, lay down your arms and refuse to go. It's nothing short of horrifying that so many young people, American and Iraqi, are suffering unspeakably for the sake of cheap gasoline. Because, after all, as the AP points out, 2007 was the worst year in Iraq in terms of American casualties.

Meanwhile, over in Afghanistan, things are going just swimmingly. Here, for example we show you 59 dead Afghani children, five of their teachers, six lawmakers and five of their bodyguards, the handiwork of some crazed suicide bomber. One hundred other children were wounded in the attack. The population will totally support a war effort that ends up killing them and their children in droves, yeah.

The article goes on to state:

The insurgency being waged by the Taliban and other extremist outfits has gained steam since it was launched in the months after the hardliners were driven from government in 2001 by a US-led force.

More than 5,500 people have been killed so far this year -- most of them rebels.

It does not define how one ascertains that the dead might be "rebels." Given the high number of civilian deaths, one wonders if anybody, the Afghan government included, has the first fucking clue.

Meanwhile, the WaPoo announces that Afghan's opium production last year was a record-breaker. Yay! More street drugs for the average American to get hooked on. [/end sarcasm and disgust.]

Proving once again that the WH has the capacity for humour, the article went on to say:

In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the amount of land under cultivation in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. Cultivation in the two main production provinces, Helmand in the southwest and Oruzgan in central Afghanistan, was up by 132 percent.

White House drug policy chief John Walters called the news "disappointing."

Well, of course they're producing record-busting quantities of opium. It's not like they have health care, education, peace, a working infrastructure, or jobs. Sheesh. The administration claims "a resurgent Taliban" is behind the increase in drug production. Given Shrubya's daddy's peeps' involvement in the drug trade in Nicaragua, one can't help but raise a questioning eyebrow.

Especially when one Gen. James L. Jones, the supreme allied commander for NATO, states that drug cartels with their own armies engage in regular combat with NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan,

"It would be wrong to say that this is just the Taliban. I think I need to set that record straight," he added.

In other news, MSNBC announced that 2007 was the deadliest year for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the invasion of that country in 2001.

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the Taliban's ouster. More than 5,800 people, mostly militants, have died so far this year in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

Meanwhile, we're most decidedly winning in Turki, Reuters reports. The majority of Turks support an incursion into Kurdish territory in Iraq, and are dubious about joining the EU. They also view the U.S. as the chief threat to peace in the Middle-East.

And China just announced that they refuse to attend a meeting with the U.S. to discuss tougher sanctions on Iran. Given that we owe them the house, the car, and one and a half of the children, there's not much we can do about that, huh, Chimpidiot? Because you gave them the keys to the bank, fool, and now they just laugh when we bluster and howl.

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World: Philippine House Of Representatives

An explosion inside the Philippine House of Representatives has killed two and injured nine, reports the International Herald Tribune. The dead included Congressman Wahab Akbar and Marcial Talbo, the driver for Representative Luz Ilagan. Representative Ilagan suffered injuries to her right leg and back.

Congressman, Henry Teves, is in critical condition at the hospital, officials said. A total of nine people, some of them congressional staff members, were also hurt.

House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who confirmed Akbar's death, called the explosion "an act of terrorism."

"I don't want to be frightened by these terrorists and destabilizers so I have ordered the sessions to resume tomorrow," de Venecia said by telephone.

He said the police were going to sweep the premises overnight for other possible explosives.

[...]

Cris Puno, a spokesman for Akbar, suggested that the attack was directed at the congressman. Akbar and his family have ruled Basilan, an island in the south notorious as a sanctuary for the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, for decades.

[...]

The country's legislators are currently deliberating whether to impeach Arroyo, who is accused of corruption and human rights violations.

Given the endemic corruption in the Philippines, this could well be an attack by Arroyo, or an attack by Abu Sayyaf against Akbar, or an attack by Basilan inhabitants who are tired of the fact that Akbar's family pretty much rules Basilan. Details will, I am sure, follow.

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Iraq: 1.6 Million Children Homeless

Suffering Christ. What now? CNN reports that 1.6 million children under the age of 12 years are homeless inside Iraq itself, and that more mothers and fathers are abandoning their children as the grim pressures of war grow. According to Said Ismail Hakki, president of the Iraqi Red Crescent,

... Many of the families are living in areas without basic needs, like water and electricity, and there are no jobs available. "It's a desperate situation," he said. "Children are becoming a liability for both the father and the mother."

One father, speaking about what the Red Crescent is doing for his daughter who is blind in one eye and losing sight in the other:

"Our children are suffering. All they talk about is weapons and bombs," he said. "They are children. We are older; our hair turns gray. What happens to them hearing all the explosions and bombs?

"We can't make them feel better because we are down."

That's a sentiment that haunts the head of the Iraqi Red Crescent.

"There are times I get up in the middle of the night and I say, 'Oh my God, how are we going to solve it? God help me to help those kids!'"

So much for your fucking success, Emperor Chimpface.

The Iraqi Red Crescent is accepting donations, in case you feel like doing something to remedy the horrendous stinking mess that Caesar Idioticus hath wrought.

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