McCain taunts Obama

(It is remarkable how little the candidates have had to say about Iraq during the campaign. Maybe it is because McCain challenged Obama six months ago, Obama rose to the challenge, and other issues have gain more immediate concern among the electorate. Or maybe both are being statesmenlike, and are staying quiet to avoid disrupting the delicate SOFA negotiations that President Bush and Madame Rice are negotiating so, ahh, skillfully? This is what I wrote six months ago. -co 08-10-29)

McCain says Obama should visit Iraq again, as he hasn't been there in two years, and so much has changed. McCain goes every few months. For a stroll through the markets, without body armor, no less. Also, with Lieberman by his side to correct him when he puts his foot in it.


Now what does McCain think anyone is going to learn about Iraq from doing the DoD dog and pony show? It didn't keep him from thinking Iran supported Sunni militants in Iraq.

Some other juicy quotes, and my questions:

he has wanted to surrender for a long time

Okay, so if he wants to surrender, who does he want to surrender to? Huh, John?

talk about dates for withdrawal, which basically is surrender

So why is Obama's withdrawl plan surrender, while your plan to out by 2013 is not?

in Iraq after we're succeeding so well

If we are succeeding so well, how come you want to stay there five more years?

Another bit of bluster:

"I will never surrender in Iraq," McCain said. "I'll bring the troops home, but I'll bring them home with honor and victory."

Just like Nixon made Peace With Honor.Does McCain consider Nixon's peace agreement honorable? Was it 'victory'? Would have preferred to stay a POW in Hanoi, or to come home as a result of an agreement that many consider less than honorable, and equivalent to surrender? Does he wish Nixon would have made the deal and brought him home four years earlier? Is he going to say to the troops, "You can tough it out, I did." Yeah, prove you are tough, but what for? Toughness is no substitute for intelligence.

Younge: Bush & Hillary pissing on our legs

Gary Younge of the Guardian compares Hillary's arrogance to Bush's.

Now while I will admit there are some similarities, I am not sure that there is any significance beyond that anyone who would run for President of the US has a rather large ego.

What is Bush's worst trait? Utter contempt for the law? Inveterate lying? Fear mongering? Passing laws to pay off his buddies on the backs of the poor and working class? General incompetence? 'My Pet Goat'?

Hillary's efforts to twist the rules might be a harbinger of contempt for the law, notwithstanding that the primary rules are hopelessly screwed up to start with. The RFK and 3am comments fit with the fear mongering. Paying off pals, well, I can't imagine Hillary doing that. At least, James McDougal might have questioned her competence at it. What, Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999? You're welcome, Mr. Rubin. General incompentence and 'My Pet Goat' are Bush-only specials.

Troop Reduction Rite Of Spring

The U.S. Government is permforming its annual rite of spring, in which it forsees troop reductions in Iraq, which always fail to materialize.

This years quota is unspecified, with Petraeus foaming,

“I do believe,” he said, “that there will be certain assets that, as we are already looking at the picture right now, we’ll be able to recommend can be either redeployed or not deployed to the theater in the fall.”

What a wimp. In previous years the Generals had the gall to be a lot more bold in their lies.

April 11 2005 Drop from 142000 to 105000

April 26 2006 Remove 30000 down to 100000

May 27 2007 50% troop reduction next year, to 100000 by elections


More lies

Whadda crock of shit. Now you go back to 2004, and you find Kerry saying that we could withdraw troops from Iraq, and the faggot Bush attacked him for saying that. Then he has his servant generals say the same shit the next four years. Unbelievable.

The Barack Obamabillies

So Hillary and her media repeaters are spewing the line that she is the better candidate because White Appalachians Without A College Education (WAWACE (tm)) will vote for McCain instead of Obama.

Leaving aside the critical issue of why we should give a shit about that, if we want to buy into Hillary's argument we should consider the question of whether Hillary or Obama would do better against McCain. This has been beaten to death, but on the plus side for Hillary we have WAWACE and Republican women. On the plus side for Obama we have independents, educated Republicans, Black people, people who never liked Hill and Billary, antiwar people, and people who think that Hillary and her husband making $15 million a year might just have a slight hint of corruption.

I am not a Black person, nor do I claim any special insight into what Black people think about voting for Hillary. However, Blacks have been a core constiuency for the Democrats for 40 years, voting for the party at rates around 90%. One of their own has won the majority of delegates that are selected by voters and caucusers. If the stupordelegates were to overturn the majority of Democrats and deny their guy, they would not be irrational in feeling that white Democrats had stolen the election from them. In all likelihood, enough would stay home on election day to ensure that McCain wins.

Finally, why should we cater to the lowest impulses in the electorate rather than the highest?

I do think that Obama will do a lot better than people are giving him credit for. He campaigned hard in southern Illinois and did well there when he ran for Senate. Southern Illinois borders, uh, Kentucky, by the way. It will be harder because the fall campaign will be wholesale campaigning, not retail.

McGovern to Fallon: Stop the Crazies

It's a bit long, but Ray McGovern exhorts Admiral Fallon to speak out against the coming Iran war.

Appeasement

Bush said " "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals...We have heard this foolish delusion before... We have an obligation to call this what it is ... appeasement"

The weasel in chief wants to have is pie-in-the-face and eat it too. Of course he was talking about Obama and his statements about using diplomacy with Iran, but to Pius Thickness, Obama might as well be He-who-must-not-be-named. When Obama dares to respond, or the media point out that he was implicitly referring to Obama, the brown-shirts go, "We didn't say Obama, nothing of the sort, you hypersensitive liars. But, the fact you took offense points out you are guilty, guilty, guilty, harrumph, who is playing footsie with the terrorist Iranians, hah!" (Hmm, Maliki, but pay no mind...)

This is the height of hypocrisy.

McFarlane's Cake

Bush and McCain are harping on Obama for daring to consider diplomacy. Their hero Ronald Reagan would never stoop to negotiating with bad people.

Oops!

Edwards Endorses Obama

John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama deep in the belly of the Republican beast in Grand Rapids, MI. The rally at which he endorsed Obama was held in an arena named after one of George Bush's largest contributors.

This is a very sharp move. Edwards' campaign was directed at working class America, a group well represented in Michigan, and with whom Obama appears to need to strengthen his support. Michigan is a very good state in which to announce that endorsement. Further, it helps to counter the talk that Michigan will feel insulted by the delegate controversy. Finally, the endorsement was done at Van Andel arena, named after one of the Amway cofounders and his faithfully Republican family.

This is good evidence that Obama is not going to run a typical, wishy washy Democrat campaign, or be satisfied campaigning in safe territory.

Corrupt Condi

My April post on Condi's corruption was a bit lacking on details. The AP adds some with its report on yesterday's testimony of Arthur Brennan and James Mattil.

The U.S. embassy "effort against corruption - including its new centerpiece, the now-defunct Office of Accountability and Transparency - was little more than 'window dressing,'" [Brennan said].

The Office of Accountability and Transparency, or "OAT" team, was intended to provide assistance and training to Iraq's anti-corruption agencies. It was dismantled last December, after it alleged in a draft report leaked to the media that al-Maliki's office had derailed or prevented investigations into Shiite-controlled agencies.

Hmmm. Condi said she would have to get back to Waxman, and her reply was to shut down State Dept. anti-corruption efforts. Balls, eh?

Blue Dog Idiot Pansies

Conservatives say "Screw the veterans."

"As a group which includes a number of veterans, the Blue Dogs are unwavering in support of our brave service men and women who have risked their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the group's co-chairman for communications.

"We want to pass a GI Bill that is fully paid for so that there is absolutely no chance that these important benefits for our veterans will be cut due to budgetary constraints in the future. We support this program; we just want to make sure that it is done in a responsible manner."

By their logic, the anti-war folks could argue "We support the troops; we just want to make sure that it is in a responsible manner..", as nothing about this damned war has been done in a responsible manner, not the non-existent WMD cooked up as a rationale for war, not the "Bring em on" bullshit bravado, not the 'Mission Accomplished' abomination aboard the USS Potemkin, not the outsourcing of everything, not the Abu Ghraib criminality, not the failure to secure Iraqi weapons that have been turned into IEDs for years, not the complete misunderstanding that we and Iran are supporting the same faction in Iraq, and on and on. The Blue Dogs are awfully late to the party to start talking 'responsibility' now, and hypocritical too, when supporting education for vets would be one of the few responsible things to come out of the war. Make sure its paid for? Sell some F-22s for scrap.

Blixa: Yippy yippy yi yippi ayyy

All right, one more silly video, this one an advertisement. Yippee!

Condoleeza Lies

I found this video by the band Capital Scum, called Condoleeza Lies. It has only a few more viewers than I have readers, so if you make it here, check it out. They rock way hard.



For another video treat, check out Void of Harmony by Alabama Thunderpussy.

Where are the pro-lifers now?

Ali Hussein is pulled from the rubble of his home after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad's Sadr City. The 2-year-old died at a hospital.

Deborah Howell's discussion of the picture:

About 20 readers protested, and a few praised, a stark Page 1 Associated Press photo in Wednesday's editions of a dying child named Ali Hussein being lifted from the dusty rubble of his home after a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad's Sadr City. The caption said he died at a hospital.

Some readers thought it was an antiwar statement; some felt it was in poor taste; others were reminded of their children and didn't want them to see it. Todd Ellinwood of Arlington wrote: "I do not expect to receive the news in an antiseptic fashion -- bad things happen that an informed citizen should be aware of -- but a picture of a toddler in his dying moments is beyond the pale."

Tom Huff of Bealeton thought the picture was "politically motivated. It gives the impression that the war in Iraq is unusually cruel to civilians . . . Note that the militants have used the brutal practice of attacking our troops from civilian populations with the very goal of provoking retaliatory strikes and getting this exact picture onto the front pages of American newspapers." I checked hundreds of U.S. front pages at the Newseum Web site and saw it nowhere else.

Sean Neary of Kensington said, "As horrible as the image is, I applaud The Post for having the courage to print it, especially on the front page . . . Americans needed a wake-up call to the true horror of war. And they got it in the photo of young Ali Hussein."

Bonnie Jo Mount, deputy assistant managing editor/photos, said, "We often publish images of war in the form of inanimate objects: blown-up vehicles, piles of debris, missiles in the air. The injured child reflected the civilian toll and related directly to the news of the day. We have a responsibility to inform our readership; sometimes that means publishing images that might make people uncomfortable."

Executive Editor Len Downie is cautious about such photos. "We have seldom been able to show the human impact of the fighting on Iraqis. We decided this was a rare instance in which we had a powerful image with which to do so."

My first reaction was to wish the photo off Page 1, but I changed my mind. The photo packed more of an emotional wallop than almost any image since that of the little naked girl running from napalm during the Vietnam War. It was a stunning reminder that not only soldiers die in wars.

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.

Tom Huff's argument is that if we bomb and kill kids, it is because someone made us do it. With millions dead and millions of refugees, what kind of idiot would argue that the war is not unusually cruel to civilians? What kind of coverage of the war would not be politically motivated? Kissing George Bush's ass?

More Rice Incompetence

Rice's State Department put Nelson Mandela on its list of terrorists. Condi says she is embarrassed by this.

Well, she ought to be, but I don't get how she can be embarrassed by this, but not be embarrassed by working for President 'Bring 'em on' in any capacity.

18 1/2 Minute Gaps are for Wimps

When Condoleeza Rice used the phrase "we can't wait for the smoking gun", she may have had the Nixonian meaning of the phrase in mind.

The Bush administration did not archive White House emails between March 1 and May 22, 2003. That's an 83 day gap, blowing away Nixon's nano-sized 18 1/2 minute gap. Just for good measure, the Bushes also neglected to archive emails from September 30 to October 6, 2003, while they were arranging the Plame coverup.

The Bushes dismantled the Clinton-era ARMS system for automatic archiving in September 2002, just as the Iraq War Traitors were launching their misbegotten 'new product'.

Horse Racing and Bullfighting

Another Kentucky Derby horse, runner up Eight Belles, is injured. She is killed immediately, as opposed to Barbaro, whose treatment lasted for six months before he was killed.

All the ladies in their pretty dresses, all the men in their fine suits, America's wealthy, off to a fine day of tradition and conspicuous anachronism, and they had no idea they were walking into a slaughterhouse.

Bush Finds for War with Iran

Andrew Cockburn reveals that

Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."

The Iran saber rattling has been going on for a while, but this along with Fallon's resignation shows that Bush-Cheney are angling to go out with a bang.

Even if you have written your congressdogs before, write them again. Keep up the heat on everyone.

McCain the Invader

John McCain said, “My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”

What, "Blood for Oil?" Can't let that cat out of the bag, so McCain clarified. Here is part of Robert Fantina's savaging of McCain's clarification, from Counterpunch today:

Not so, Mr. McCain soon ‘clarified.’ He wasn’t referring to the Iraqi War, now in its sixth year, and one of the major concerns of the voters in the upcoming presidential election. .... No, he was simply giving a history lesson, and referring to the Gulf War. ... “We didn’t want him (Saddam Hussein) to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil, and it’s more important than any other part of the world.”

McCain's comments, the original and the clarification, both imply that he thinks it is okay to invade and attack another country if they have oil we want.

EPA Official Forced to Resign For Defending Public Health Against Dow's Dioxin

The Chicago Tribune reports on the resignation of Mary Gade. Gade was forced to resign because she did her job and tried to get Dow to live up to its obligation to clean up the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers. Truthout link that I hope will not go away

Tittabawassee River Watch continues to do excellent work on the Dow Dioxin issue. Some links from them:


Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D Rhode Island) will be leading an oversight hearing into the politicization of the EPA and the circumstances surrounding Gade’s dismissal next Wednesday.

Youtube video of his C-Span 2 speech.



Additional information can be found at
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/02/epa-politicization-gonzo/ .

The UM Dioxin study provided some interesting data in response to a question at a DEQ community meeting. The data indicates that 10% of residential properties in the Tittabawassee flood plain have soil with dioxin concentrations over 1000 ppt, most of them with multiple samples. Further, 35% of flood plain sits have soil with dioxin levels over 90 ppt, again most with multiple samples.

In the document, the UM scientists admit

garden soil 2378-TCDD concentration was statistically significantly associated with serum 2378-TCDD

The context for this admission is that the UM scientists continue to attempt to downplay the link between soil dioxin and serum dioxin, and to imply that the dioxin contamination is not a problem. This is not surprising, given that their study was funded by Dow, although it is disappointing that the UM crew prefers to sell their reputation to Dow rather than serve the public.

May Day

Juan Cole recalls Bush's miserable, sniveling, contemptible pronouncement of Mission Accomplished five years ago today. We got an election in six months folks. Let's accomplish something with it.