Meanwhile, Back In Iraq

More GIs continue to get slaughtered for no particular reason. Here's one Green Beret I wouldn't mess with:

'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life'

You're right Sergeant, it isn't...it never was.

We have failed you young man. You trusted us to never send you into harm's way unless absolutely needed for the defense of your country, and we all betrayed that trust by allowing a morally bankrupt psychopath on the payroll of Big Oil to take charge of our brave volunteers.

Can you ever forgive us?

What? No Prenup? It Reveals True Republican Values

Just when you thought the hypocrisy of the right wingers, defenders of marriage couldn't get any more clearer, you find another example of why hetero-marriage is not better than any other kind. Have a look at this article:

Looking for a perfect little weekend vacation this fall? Here's a travel tip you don't hear very often: Head to Pittsburgh. Right away.

Seriously, get in the car and read this story later, because when you're done reading, you'll wish you'd left 10 minutes ago. There are towns with better vistas, sure, and there are getaways with more sunshine. But only Pittsburgh is the scene of the fabulously tawdry and surpassingly vicious spectacle that is the divorce of Richard Mellon Scaife.

Remember him? The cantankerous, reclusive 75-year-old billionaire who's spent a sizable chunk of his inherited fortune bankrolling conservative causes and trying to kneecap Democrats? He's best known for funding efforts to smear then-President Bill Clinton, but more quietly he's given in excess of $300 million to right-leaning activists, watchdogs and think tanks. Atop his list of favorite donees: the family-values-focused Heritage Foundation, which has published papers with titles such as "Restoring a Culture of Marriage."

The culture of his own marriage is apparently past restoring. With the legal fight still in the weigh-in phase, the story of Scaife v. Scaife already includes a dog-snatching, an assault, a night in jail and that divorce court perennial, allegations of adultery.

Oh, and there's the money. Three words, people.

No. Pre. Nup.

Read on if you dare to discover what good old fashioned republican values are all about.

Say What Mr. President?

Is any one still tracking "Bushisms?" Here's one I found today:

All I can tell you is when the Governor calls, I answer his phone

Gee whiz George, I sure hope your not reaching into Ahnuld's pocket to answer his phone. That might end up with you getting slapped with some kind of sexual harassment suit.

The Blame Game: Hey, I Thought W Didn't Like People Playing It?

You remember a bit ago when people started pointing fingers around the leak situation and Valarie Plame, no?

You remember the W, Rove and Co chastising a wide assortment of people for "playing the blame game" revolving around the Fed response to Katrina, don't you?

You remember the Presidential spokesmodel, Scotty McMessage McClellan saying we don't "play the blame game," and suggesting that people shouldn't do it otherwise they would receive the Parental Look of Disdain from the President, among others?

Well, of course, here's the president just the other day doing what? Of course, it couldn't be "playing the blame game," could it? Let's have a look:

Q Is it all their fault that these bills aren't moving, that you've got these veto threats out?

THE PRESIDENT: I think it is their fault that bills aren't moving, yeah.

What? That doesn't sound like a heaping load of blame to you? But really, the veto is a last resort for failed diplomacy. Who is not bending to the will of the people here?

Let's have a look at how he justifies his actions:

As I said, I'm not a part of the legislative branch. All I can do is ask them to move bills. It's up to the leaders to move the bills. And you bet I'm going to put veto threats out. Of course, I want to remind you, I put a lot of veto threats out when the Republicans were in control of Congress. I said, now, if you overspend I'm going to veto your bills, and they listened, and we worked together. Whether or not that's the case, we'll find out.

Now if that doesn't sound a lot like the spoiled child taking his ball and going home because he is not winning the game, I don't know what does. Really, that's not how I understand the history of the President's relationship with the prior congress. But of course, I'm critical of a man who brought us into an unnecessary, protracted, bloody, expensive war with and inside of Iraq. I can't rightly and most certainly don't trust him to act in our best interest.

Mandatory Reading For Iraq War Supporters: Five Years After The Biggest Mistake Ever Made By A Sitting President

Every time I type the phrase "supporter" I remember the quote from Animal House: "If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter." A friend of mine sent along a link to a very interesting letter posted by 12 former Army Captains.

No doubt, the reichwingers will be in full tilt to try and smear these folks, but I think we should all read this article. Have a look and tell me what you think. It's short, so I pasted the whole thing in:

Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation Iraqi Freedom in motion. Five years on, the Iraq war is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start. And, five years on, Iraq is in shambles.

As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out.

What does Iraq look like on the ground? It's certainly far from being a modern, self-sustaining country. Many roads, bridges, schools and hospitals are in deplorable condition. Fewer people have access to drinking water or sewage systems than before the war. And Baghdad is averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.

Iraq's institutional infrastructure, too, is sorely wanting. Even if the Iraqis wanted to work together and accept the national identity foisted upon them in 1920s, the ministries do not have enough trained administrators or technicians to coordinate themselves. At the local level, most communities are still controlled by the same autocratic sheiks that ruled under Saddam. There is no reliable postal system. No effective banking system. No registration system to monitor the population and its needs.

The inability to govern is exacerbated at all levels by widespread corruption. Transparency International ranks Iraq as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. And, indeed, many of us witnessed the exploitation of U.S. tax dollars by Iraqi officials and military officers. Sabotage and graft have had a particularly deleterious impact on Iraq's oil industry, which still fails to produce the revenue that Pentagon war planners hoped would pay for Iraq's reconstruction. Yet holding people accountable has proved difficult. The first commissioner of a panel charged with preventing and investigating corruption resigned last month, citing pressure from the government and threats on his life.

Against this backdrop, the U.S. military has been trying in vain to hold the country together. Even with "the surge," we simply do not have enough soldiers and marines to meet the professed goals of clearing areas from insurgent control, holding them securely and building sustainable institutions. Though temporary reinforcing operations in places like Fallujah, An Najaf, Tal Afar, and now Baghdad may brief well on PowerPoint presentations, in practice they just push insurgents to another spot on the map and often strengthen the insurgents' cause by harassing locals to a point of swayed allegiances. Millions of Iraqis correctly recognize these actions for what they are and vote with their feet -- moving within Iraq or leaving the country entirely. Still, our colonels and generals keep holding on to flawed concepts.

U.S. forces, responsible for too many objectives and too much "battle space," are vulnerable targets. The sad inevitability of a protracted draw-down is further escalation of attacks -- on U.S. troops, civilian leaders and advisory teams. They would also no doubt get caught in the crossfire of the imminent Iraqi civil war.

Iraqi security forces would not be able to salvage the situation. Even if all the Iraqi military and police were properly trained, equipped and truly committed, their 346,000 personnel would be too few. As it is, Iraqi soldiers quit at will. The police are effectively controlled by militias. And, again, corruption is debilitating. U.S. tax dollars enrich self-serving generals and support the very elements that will battle each other after we're gone.

This is Operation Iraqi Freedom and the reality we experienced. This is what we tried to communicate up the chain of command. This is either what did not get passed on to our civilian leadership or what our civilian leaders chose to ignore. While our generals pursue a strategy dependent on peace breaking out, the Iraqis prepare for their war -- and our servicemen and women, and their families, continue to suffer.

There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.

America, it has been five years. It's time to make a choice.

I think these folks, closer to the boots on the ground than the W, Rove and Cos. hand picked "generals," are better informed and yield still better advice than will be headed the the suits in charge, no doubt.

So, How's That Freedom Spreading Experiment Going In Iraq, Mr. Bush?

Let's see.

The Coalition Of The Willing Shrinking Like America's War Libido

Looks like the "Coalition of the Willing" is about to shrink.

Britain will halve its force in Iraq to 2,500 troops from spring next year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday against a backdrop of noisy anti-war protesters outside parliament waving "troops out" banners.

Any one can do the math, but it sure seems like when the W, Rove And Co spouted their anthem, "coalition of the willing," it really seems like it's more like the coalition of the hangers on, and then only by the slimest of margins. Five thousand troops pales in comparision to the number of folk we have risking it all for the great Bush's Iraq Democracy and Freedom Spreading Experiement.

Well, this we can say, it sure seems like the American public isn't the only country that is having it's war libido doused by the cold shower that is Iraq. Just wondering, for those of you who swing "right," is this an "artificial" or a "real" deadline?

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, it doesn't seem to be progressing all that well:

Some potential progress toward reconciliation has run into recent trouble. The U.S. effort to recruit Sunni tribesmen to join the police force and fight the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq was strongly opposed last week by Shiite officials, who asserted that the Sunni recruits were killing innocent people under the guise of fighting insurgents.

"We demand that the American administration stop this adventure, which is rejected by all the sons of the people and its national political powers," the leading Shiite political coalition said in a statement. "Their elements are criminals who cannot be trusted or relied upon."

Just one small question to close with, which I have asked in a similar vein a number of times. When recruiting new police officers from the ranks of qualified Iraqi's, how do we tell which Iraqi is our friend and which is our foe?

F! The Dead Iraqi Civilians, Our Guys Are The Good Guys

I suppose that rationalizing the killing of civilians is why the CEO of Blackwater gets paid the big bucks:

"We have 1,000 guys out in the field. People make mistakes, they do stupid things sometimes."

ERIK D. PRINCE, chief executive of Blackwater USA

"Oops.Sorry we killed your uncle...Ahmed."

"No President Would Have Been Better"

A friend of mine pointed me to some interesting commentary. This particular quote left me laughing, in that "it's the sad truth of it" sort of way.

And by that, I literally mean NO president. That is, if the office were just left vacant for 8 years, the country would be in profoundly better shape.

War, Indeed, Is Hell

But the question remains, are we executing a proper strategy in Iraq?

Imagine this. Your Iraqi. You have an 8 year old son. He's walking home from school one day and spies some interesting yellow chord on the side of the road. He stoops over, examines the piece. Finding it interesting, he puts it in his pocket for his collection of cool found items at home. As he takes his third step away from the location, thwack. His head splatters about and his body falls to the sniper's rifle.

In a place where it is extremely challenging to tell who the good guys are from the enemies you so want dead, when would this scenario play out? When the US snipers lay bait.

How would you feel if you were the sniper doing your job and you come to find out, you've just killed one of the newly minted Iraqi police departments officer's sons. What do you think think this father would have to say about our presence in Iraq?

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

"Baiting is putting an object out there that we know they will use, with the intention of destroying the enemy," Capt. Matthew P. Didier, the leader of an elite sniper scout platoon attached to the 1st Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment, said in a sworn statement. "Basically, we would put an item out there and watch it. If someone found the item, picked it up and attempted to leave with the item, we would engage the individual as I saw this as a sign they would use the item against U.S. Forces."

Nice.

Calling It Quits At 50,000 hits?

Call me crazy, but I'm thinking about tossing in the towel on this blog, or seriously revamping the format. If you look on over to the site meter, I'm nearing 50K hits, and that may be a good time to bow out.

Certainly, blogging is addictive, but I think I've run out of new things to say. One alternative I've thought of was to go to a once a week format - posting, say only on Tuesdays, or some such thing. Or, another option would be to start photo blogging - where folks who spotted my work might order up an image or two for a small fee depending on resolution of the image.

What's your two cents on the matter.

Is Freedom Salve Enough To Cure What Ails the Globe?

When GW suggested that he was engaged in the defining ideological struggle of the 21st century, he wasn't kidding. If you take a look at his address delivered today at the UN, it's riddled with unbridled rhetoric designed...well, to do what?

When W suggest that to the UN General Assembly that

This great institution must work for great purposes -- to free people from tyranny and violence, hunger and disease, illiteracy and ignorance, and poverty and despair. Every member of the United Nations must join in this mission of liberation.

two things strike me: 1) Is this enough to fix what ails the globe? And 2) Isn't this what the UN technically is already supposed to be doing?

Really, if freedom is the salve that cures situations such as Iraq, how long should we give it? Is our model for spreading freedom the right model?

If "spreading freedom" is your aim, might there be another, more effective way to do it than raining death upon a nation in the name of said freedom?

What Is A Radical Liberal Organization?

The one that is condemned for condemning war, apparently. The Irony should not escape us.

Have a look at these videos for a fun juxtaposition:



The Rovian spin masters have learned well:



"Victory is America's only choice?" Holy smokes, we are knee deep in rhetorical horse manure.

Well, you have got to love a President who finds freedom of speech disgusting.



Fortunately, the first amendment protects people who say things that the President may find objectionable. Even so, do you think the good general needs protection from Move On dot org?

And to complete the rhetorical offensiveness trifecta. Let's have a look as Olbermann condemns the condemnation that W delivered on the condemnation of the General advert from MoveOndotorg:



And so is Olberman, MoveOn or GWBush radical? If so, what is it that these displays of free speach really done to produce damage on America? If these advertisements are truly damaging to the American people, I'd like to see the evidence - you know, real concrete empirically derived evidence, not the rhetorical spew from those who inhale deeply on the GOP Political Crack Pipe.

Really, think about it. Mr. Bush's propagandist speech writers must have creamed their shorts when they came up with the idea to use a rather benign advertisement by a left wing agency to advance their own political agenda. There is no proof that the Good General needs protection from Move On Dot Org, nor are they radical. Move on is not putting spikes in trees in hopes to maim the lumberjack here.

Really, who is playing politics here and who should be condemned?

Why Is It The President Still Thinks It Was "Kids" That Brought The Planes Down On Us?

You know, our strategy in dealing with these extremists who still want to attack us is on the one hand, chase them and find them and bring them to justice; and on the other hand, help change the conditions that caused 19 kids to get on airplanes and come and kill nearly 3,000 citizens on our soil.

If W is suggesting that he has a strategy for fixing those conditions, it's not obviated in his overt actions. I sure wish he would let us know how he's changing the conditions, but I'm not overly optimistic. He's not made a dent in the gangland shootings in our town and the conditions that cause teenagers to join gangs. As to what makes him think he can change the conditions that make people sign up to be suicide bombers, I have no clue.

Proof That Humans Have Been Brutal For Eons

Found this link to a National Geographic web location that has pics of bodies recovered from the bogs of Northern Europe. It's definitely proof that, while the weaponry may have "improved," the brutality of people toward other people doesn't change much.

An Historic Day For The US Economy?

A friend of mine from Canada sent me this comment in an email. Thought I'd share it with folks in the blogosphere. Let me know what you think:

Today the Canadian dollar is trading on par with the US dollar, something not seen since 1976. That's bad for me as I used to buy Canadian dollars for much cheaper. A little more than 5 years ago the cost was as little as 62 cents. Now I would be better off working in Canada to better afford living expenses and mortgage. I think this is just the first strong economic signal revealing how badly Bush has lead the country. Now I'm curious to see how the US will manage to finance its debt as foreign investors continue to dump the US dollar.

Interesting when you open your window to perspectives not driven by the US spin doctors. And of course, The W is on rapid fire with the Presidential Propaganda Catapult fully loaded:

Q Mr. President, economists say that the nation is at increasing risk of recession. What do you say?

THE PRESIDENT: I say that the fundamentals of our nation's economy are strong.

Proving once again that simply because the President says something doesn't make it true. Try convincing some one who just had their house foreclosed on them if they think the economy is strong.

No Surprises: Move Along, Nothing To See Here

Greenspan writes:

"I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

How Do We Know Who The Enemy Is: Repirse

I've got a new dentist. She's awesome. But I get ahead of myself.

I had my regular cleaning slated last week. Every six months if I need it or not. Never had a cavity, and every dentist I've had says that it's pretty much going to stay that way. "It's the gums you have to worry about," they preach. So, I floss. Daily. Whether or need it or not.

I've often had a sneaky idea to play a prank on the dentist and walk into the office one day for a cleaning after having eaten a whole bag of Oreos. Smile, "ready for my cleaning!" Haven't done it yet, but maybe in six months.

So, I walked into my dentist's office last week expecting to see my regular person. Nope. The old dentist has been in the biz for nearly 30 years and she brought in a new doc since the last time I was there. So, I get a new hygienist and a new Doc. The doc, in order to get to know the patients, opts to do my cleaning instead of subjecting me to the new hygienist. I've never actually had my teeth cleaned by the Doctor.

As we begin, she introduces herself, and the usual casual banter. I ask her politely, where she was before this to get a sense of how much experience she has. It's my subversive way to measure if I should put my teeth in her hands. Turns out she was a dentist for several years in the Military. Achieving a high rank, she got the free trip to the big kitty litter boxes we know as Iraq and Kuwait.

She was stationed in Falujia for a stretch. The only female around for miles. She worked on our GIs, as well as contractors working at the various bases. I asked her how that was, in a society that doesn't really respect females in general, to rip out the teeth of some big burley Iraqi and various Arab males. She laughed.

I then asked, "how did you know you weren't working on a terrorist?" She said, "Well, you couldn't really think about that much. You had to put it out of your mind. Otherwise, you would drive your self crazy. But, I don't know. I might actually have aided and abetted a terrorist by pulling an abscessed tooth or two. I'll never know. That and I had no way of knowing if one day, some one with a bomb strapped to his chest wasn't sitting in my chair. Yeah, I had to put those things out of my mind."

Over all, she did a fantastic job. And I walked out of the visit with a new found respect for this petite, blond, rock hard Dentist who risked it all and survived. I told her she must have been very lucky, "because not many come out of Iraq whole." She said, yes, indeed.

It brought to mind for me the question I raised a while back: How do we know who the enemy is in Iraq?

Don't Despise The Deserter

In a melancholy mood about the wars our governments believe are beneficial to our society? Here's a great tune to consider:

The Deserter, by John Richards

Here I stand in a land
That isn't my own
Far from the country
That I know as home

Sent here by the government
And armed by a King
I'm told I must kill men in order to bring
Peace to a foreign land

There he lies on a land
No longer his own
In the grey of the country
He once called his home

He was sent here by government,
Might not agree
And if someone must kill him
God, why is it me?
To bring peace to a foreign land

Don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter
Who ran from the war

Don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter
Who ran from the war

I went down to drag him
Away from the wire
But there were rifles to the left
And we started to fire

He was riddled with bullets
I was smothered in blood
And I can't see how murdering somebody could
Bring peace to a foreign land

Don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter
Who ran from the war

Don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter
Who ran from the war

So I ran from the fighting
And threw down my guns
I ran with the moon
And slept by the sun

Arrested by government
And charged by the King
To be shot 'cos I can't kill in order to bring
Peace to a foreign land

Don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter
Who ran from the war

Don't despise the deserter
Don't despise the deserter
Who ran from the war

© John Richards

Where Are The Pissed Off Republicans And Why Are They Not More Vocal?

Letters to the Editor are fun. Here's a few that cause me to ponder the question that is the title to this post. I'm pasting in the whole of the one's from today's SF Chronicle because the breadth if interesting juxtaposed with each other.

Enjoy:

The Republican Party has left me

Editor - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is right on target in his criticism of the Republican Party. I registered as a Republican in 1946, on my 21st birthday. I was a Republican before most of the delegates to the Republican convention were born. I have not left the Republican Party. The party has left me.

To me, a conservative is someone who wants to conserve what is good, and change what is bad. That is not what it means to the people who now dominate the party. They want a way of life that may be consistent with life in 1807, but has nothing to do with 2007. They are completely out of touch with reality. Global warming? A myth spread by left-wing tree-huggers. Evolution? An anti-Christian creed spread by atheists.

The Republican Party needs new leaders: people who accept science, and are not locked into fundamentalist religion. If it does not change, it will go the way of the Whigs, the Know Nothings, and other vestiges of the past. I am not comfortable with the Democratic Party, but I find that now I am even more uncomfortable with the Republican Party.

ALFRED HEXTER
Kensington

Really, I don't find much conservative about the current batch of supposed "compassionate conservatives" either.

Certainly, those worried about getting killed by foreign terrorists don't live in our nation's ghettos:

At a crossroad

Editor - For the people of Richmond:

I am a slave
To the man in the grave
"It's revenge I crave,"
say the young and the brave

Spending the best years
Wiping your mother's tears
Soothing your sister's fears
Until the moment nears

When you have a gun in your hand.
Your future is planned
You're not taking a stand
When others demand,

"It's an eye for an eye."
Do you ask why?
If you don't ask why, another will die.
Is it time for another drive-by?

You walk closer to the ride
A symbol of gang pride
The last man who sat there died
Your two worlds collide

Your conscience or the gun
Your mother's last son
The clock has begun
To stand or to run

To lock and load
You're at a crossroad
The clock has slowed
Courage showed

I was a slave
To the man in the grave
Then I forgave
It was my life to save

ANTHONY OERTEL
San Rafael

And this reader raises an interesting question about the supposed "coalition of the willing."

Help from abroad

Editor - If the sole remaining rationalization for leaving U.S. troops in harm's way in Iraq is to prevent more inter-sectarian bloodshed than we've already unleashed by bumbling in, why is our president not calling on the international community - especially the Arab states - to help quell the violence?

ALLAN MANN
Alameda

And, in the odd event you've not known Phil Frank's work, you may want to google the man. His comic strips were splendid.

Missing Phil Frank

Editor - I cried Friday morning, reading the front page of The Chronicle on my way upstairs with the paper. Like many other members of the Bay Area comics community, I knew Phil Frank. Like his beloved strip, he was warm, funny, politically right-on, and very San Franciscan, without one ounce of mean-spiritedness. If The Chronicle can continue to run Peanuts in perpetuity, can't you do the same for Farley?

TRINA ROBBINS
San Francisco