REST IN PEACE, TEDDI WINOGRAD
Rest in peace Teddi Winograd (Nov. 24, 1919 – August 21, 2007) Today Teddi will be laid to rest at 1 p.m. Teddi Winograd, 88 years old, was one of the sweetest, most courageous souls on the planet and I will miss her so much. As a supremely moral, ethical, humble, loving mother and patriotic American peace activist, she would appreciate this picture of Bush and the Impeach Bush banner in the sidebar. God Bless you Teddi and God Bless Marcy and the family. We will carry your mission of restoring Democracy to America - onward!
THE WHITE HOUSE: If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up? Read more below, but first, this:
Peace activist extraordinaire, the inimitable Teddi Winograd — one of my heroes, mother of the amazing Marcy Winograd who ran for Congress last fall -- and one of the greatest women in America, passed on Tuesday. "During her final hours, my mother took great pleasure in seeing me in my Impeach Bush and Cheney t-shirt. When I changed clothes, she said, 'Where's the Impeach t-shirt? I like to look at it.' Wanting to please my mother, I wore the shirt and read to her about Karl Rove's resignation. Rove's exit made her feel good when her health failed. For more on my fabulous mother, please read on" ... Warm regards, Marcy
Linda Milazzo writes: "What most amazed me about Teddi is how much more stoic she was than those of us who are decades her junior. She never complained. In fact, she wore the rest of us out. But I understand the source of her strength. She was, as Tom Brokaw would come to say, part of the "Greatest Generation." She gave birth to her son Barry while Sam was away in the Second World War. She fended for herself with dignity and strength. Barry was twelve months old the first time he saw his father.
If you want to know how a woman can go from being a millinery worker at thirteen to owning a home on Rodeo Drive, you have to read Teddi's autobiography, "Chit Chat This 'n That." If you want to understand how a woman can know EVERYTHING about owning and operating a multi-million dollar business, how a woman who never went to college self-educated herself to grasp the innermost workings of the stock market, you must read this book. If you want to understand the depth of undying love and devotion to a spouse, how deeply a parent loves her children, how much she'll do for her grandchildren, how she weathers great tragedy with dignity and grace — and how one lives with endless enthusiasm, read it.
If you want to see how Teddi and Sam Winograd dedicated their entire lives to the cause of peace, read it and you will understand why the door to Teddi's home was always open to anyone with a commitment to bettering our world.
What is left for us ... are the very same orders Sam gave Teddi in 1998 when Parkinsons took him away: "CONTINUE TO WORK FOR PEACE."
Teddi, we will!!
For many of us, the only good that has come out of the downfall of our democracy over the past seven years has been the creation of our own progressive community that embraces Teddi's passion for peace. In Los Angeles, Marcy and Teddi have been leaders in the progressive community. Teddi's lovely home has been a welcoming hub for democratic activism, intellectual stimulation, and political and social education for countless guest speakers and eager attendees.
The maternal heart of The Progressive Democrats of America, Teddi hosted the Great Minds Series at her home in Beverly Hills, where she welcomed authors and speakers Gore Vidal, John Dean, Elizabeth de la Vega, John Nichols, Cynthia McKinney, Syd Blumenthal, Cindy Sheehan, Tim Carpenter, Mimi Kennedy, Lila Garrett, Danny Schector, Harvey Wasserman, Joy Horowitz, Joe Mealey, Michael Shoob and others. She was waiting for my book to come out and had invited me to be part of the Great Mind series. I now feel Teddi is sitting on my shoulder, giving me the courage to go forward without fear.
A week before she died of cancer, she enjoyed an anti-war serenade in her peach bedroom, then courageously went to the window to wave to Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich addressing a fundraiser in her backyard garden. (Marcy Winograd: winogradblog
Teddi ready to hit the streets with her placard opposing Schwarzenegger's special election ballot measures.
Photos by Margery Epstein.
***************************
WHITE HOUSE SECRETS
If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up? Not only are they trying to prevent the people from knowing what was contained in the 5 million missing e-mails, but Dick Cheney's lawyer instructed the Secret Service that it "shall not retain any copy" of material identifying visitors to the vice president's official residence. Why? Isn't the government in our country, THE PEOPLE? This administration is the most dishonest bunch of crooks in the history of our nation. Even Nixon didn't go this far.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Tuesday that records about missing White House e-mails are not subject to public disclosure, the latest effort by the Bush administration to expand the boundaries of government secrecy.
Administration lawyers detailed the legal position in a lawsuit trying to force the White House Office of Administration to reveal what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.
The Office of Administration provides administrative services, including information technology support, to the Executive Office of the President.
The office has prepared estimates that there are at least 5 million missing White House e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005, according to the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private advocacy group.
More....
In court papers seeking to end the case, the Justice Department said the White House Office of Administration has no substantial authority independent of President Bush and therefore is not subject to the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.The issue came into focus early this year amid the uproar over the firing of U.S. attorneys. It turned out that aides to Bush improperly used Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts for official business and that an undetermined number of e-mails had been lost in the process.
The Justice Department Web site, which lists all FOIA contacts inside the government, identifies seven units inside the Executive Office of the President as responding to FOIA requests, including the Office of Administration.
The Office of Administration "has certainly acted like an agency in the past," said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel to the National Security Archive, a private group advocating public disclosure of government secrets.
Fuchs' organization filed a request in February 2006 after Fitzgerald revealed that e-mails might be missing. When the Office of Administration finally denied the private group's request in June of this year, the office said it was not an "agency" as defined by the Freedom of Information Act and was therefore not subject to the law's requirements.
The administration has been resisting disclosure of information on an array of fronts.
In September 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney's lawyer instructed the Secret Service that it "shall not retain any copy" of material identifying visitors to the vice president's official residence. The lawyer, Shannen Coffin, wrote the letter as The Washington Post sought copies of Cheney's visitors.
The letter regarding the vice president's residence was in addition to an agreement quietly signed between the White House and the Secret Service when questions were raised about visits to the executive compound by convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff.
That agreement, which didn't surface publicly until late last year, said White House entry and exit logs were presidential records not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
When the agreement was signed in May 2006, a number of private groups and news organizations had filed FOIA requests with the Secret Service in an effort to identify how many times Abramoff or members of his lobbying team visited the White House.
(read the entire article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070821/white-house-secrecy
PARTING SHOT
THE WHITE HOUSE: If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up? Read more below, but first, this:
Peace activist extraordinaire, the inimitable Teddi Winograd — one of my heroes, mother of the amazing Marcy Winograd who ran for Congress last fall -- and one of the greatest women in America, passed on Tuesday. "During her final hours, my mother took great pleasure in seeing me in my Impeach Bush and Cheney t-shirt. When I changed clothes, she said, 'Where's the Impeach t-shirt? I like to look at it.' Wanting to please my mother, I wore the shirt and read to her about Karl Rove's resignation. Rove's exit made her feel good when her health failed. For more on my fabulous mother, please read on" ... Warm regards, Marcy
Linda Milazzo writes: "What most amazed me about Teddi is how much more stoic she was than those of us who are decades her junior. She never complained. In fact, she wore the rest of us out. But I understand the source of her strength. She was, as Tom Brokaw would come to say, part of the "Greatest Generation." She gave birth to her son Barry while Sam was away in the Second World War. She fended for herself with dignity and strength. Barry was twelve months old the first time he saw his father.
If you want to know how a woman can go from being a millinery worker at thirteen to owning a home on Rodeo Drive, you have to read Teddi's autobiography, "Chit Chat This 'n That." If you want to understand how a woman can know EVERYTHING about owning and operating a multi-million dollar business, how a woman who never went to college self-educated herself to grasp the innermost workings of the stock market, you must read this book. If you want to understand the depth of undying love and devotion to a spouse, how deeply a parent loves her children, how much she'll do for her grandchildren, how she weathers great tragedy with dignity and grace — and how one lives with endless enthusiasm, read it.
If you want to see how Teddi and Sam Winograd dedicated their entire lives to the cause of peace, read it and you will understand why the door to Teddi's home was always open to anyone with a commitment to bettering our world.
What is left for us ... are the very same orders Sam gave Teddi in 1998 when Parkinsons took him away: "CONTINUE TO WORK FOR PEACE."
Teddi, we will!!
For many of us, the only good that has come out of the downfall of our democracy over the past seven years has been the creation of our own progressive community that embraces Teddi's passion for peace. In Los Angeles, Marcy and Teddi have been leaders in the progressive community. Teddi's lovely home has been a welcoming hub for democratic activism, intellectual stimulation, and political and social education for countless guest speakers and eager attendees.
The maternal heart of The Progressive Democrats of America, Teddi hosted the Great Minds Series at her home in Beverly Hills, where she welcomed authors and speakers Gore Vidal, John Dean, Elizabeth de la Vega, John Nichols, Cynthia McKinney, Syd Blumenthal, Cindy Sheehan, Tim Carpenter, Mimi Kennedy, Lila Garrett, Danny Schector, Harvey Wasserman, Joy Horowitz, Joe Mealey, Michael Shoob and others. She was waiting for my book to come out and had invited me to be part of the Great Mind series. I now feel Teddi is sitting on my shoulder, giving me the courage to go forward without fear.
A week before she died of cancer, she enjoyed an anti-war serenade in her peach bedroom, then courageously went to the window to wave to Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich addressing a fundraiser in her backyard garden. (Marcy Winograd: winogradblog
Teddi ready to hit the streets with her placard opposing Schwarzenegger's special election ballot measures. Photos by Margery Epstein.
***************************
WHITE HOUSE SECRETS
If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up? Not only are they trying to prevent the people from knowing what was contained in the 5 million missing e-mails, but Dick Cheney's lawyer instructed the Secret Service that it "shall not retain any copy" of material identifying visitors to the vice president's official residence. Why? Isn't the government in our country, THE PEOPLE? This administration is the most dishonest bunch of crooks in the history of our nation. Even Nixon didn't go this far.WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Tuesday that records about missing White House e-mails are not subject to public disclosure, the latest effort by the Bush administration to expand the boundaries of government secrecy.
Administration lawyers detailed the legal position in a lawsuit trying to force the White House Office of Administration to reveal what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.
The Office of Administration provides administrative services, including information technology support, to the Executive Office of the President.
The office has prepared estimates that there are at least 5 million missing White House e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005, according to the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private advocacy group.
More....
In court papers seeking to end the case, the Justice Department said the White House Office of Administration has no substantial authority independent of President Bush and therefore is not subject to the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.The issue came into focus early this year amid the uproar over the firing of U.S. attorneys. It turned out that aides to Bush improperly used Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts for official business and that an undetermined number of e-mails had been lost in the process.
The Justice Department Web site, which lists all FOIA contacts inside the government, identifies seven units inside the Executive Office of the President as responding to FOIA requests, including the Office of Administration.
The Office of Administration "has certainly acted like an agency in the past," said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel to the National Security Archive, a private group advocating public disclosure of government secrets.
Fuchs' organization filed a request in February 2006 after Fitzgerald revealed that e-mails might be missing. When the Office of Administration finally denied the private group's request in June of this year, the office said it was not an "agency" as defined by the Freedom of Information Act and was therefore not subject to the law's requirements.
The administration has been resisting disclosure of information on an array of fronts.
In September 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney's lawyer instructed the Secret Service that it "shall not retain any copy" of material identifying visitors to the vice president's official residence. The lawyer, Shannen Coffin, wrote the letter as The Washington Post sought copies of Cheney's visitors.
The letter regarding the vice president's residence was in addition to an agreement quietly signed between the White House and the Secret Service when questions were raised about visits to the executive compound by convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff.
That agreement, which didn't surface publicly until late last year, said White House entry and exit logs were presidential records not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
When the agreement was signed in May 2006, a number of private groups and news organizations had filed FOIA requests with the Secret Service in an effort to identify how many times Abramoff or members of his lobbying team visited the White House.
(read the entire article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070821/white-house-secrecy
PARTING SHOT
Labels: Cheney, Rove criminal, stolen elections, white house corruption rove
posted by Lydia Cornell at
10:59 AM
192 Comments:
They say you're only as sick as your secrets.
Then both George Bush and Hillary Clinton are two sick fucks.
I believe the Founding Fathers had it correct when they enshrined transparency as an American value.
By
Christopher, at 4:47 AM
The govt that has been most invasive into our lives has hidden the most from us. I've always thought the people who trust the least are the one's least to be trusted. They are proving me right.
By
pissed off patricia, at 4:48 AM
Fourteen U.S soldiers were killed today in Iraq.
This wouldn't have happened if Bush had not forced a war.
By
Larry, at 6:08 AM
You can still vote in the World Blog Awards on the Left of Centrist blog.
Lydia has been nominated in several categories and I'm sure would be honored to have your vote.
World Blog Awards
By
Larry, at 6:20 AM
The only reason they are being this secretive is because they have so much to hide.
The missing emails were sent through RNC servers, NOT official govt servers and therefore CANNOT be claimed to be protected.
By
WORFEUS THE SEER, at 10:31 AM
Gov't secrecy will continue in a HRC administration. Citizens may get a few more more appealing crumbs tossed to us in her presidency, but little else will change. She recently stated the vision of her foreign policy is to be prepared for the next war.
Neo Right + Neo left = 2 halfs of whole = Corporate Party.
By
mirth, at 10:38 AM
Mike, I just found out about your donation to our radio show! You must be wondering why I never thanked you sooner.
It was awhile ago, but for some reason I didn't find out about it until now.
Thank you so much Mike. You have no idea how much we appreciate it.
If people don't support Progressive radio, the media will be completely right wing. It is hard for shows like ours to stay afloat.
Best,
Lydia
By
Lydia Cornell, at 12:19 PM
WORFEUS THE SEER said...
The only reason they are being this secretive is because they have so much to hide.
The missing emails were sent through RNC servers, NOT official govt servers and therefore CANNOT be claimed to be protected."
Right on the Money...........please advance to go and collect $200.........you beat me to the punch once again.
I'm so tired of this Executive privlige crap!
By
Mike, at 1:12 PM
Thanks Lydia........you guys both deserve support, you put out a fantastic product that there is a HUGE market and need for.........look at how Olberman's show is growing, there is a huge need for Progressive Radio it just needs the inintial support to become self sustaining........once many of the corporations and advertisers see that the country is leaning progressive and that there is a market for Progressive Radio some advertising dollars will be directed that way.
By
Mike, at 1:17 PM
BTW Lydia Great post..........in particular I really liked the first line!
By
Mike, at 1:17 PM
Its about time these clowns were thrown in jail for Obstruction of Justice.
By
Mike, at 1:22 PM
Lydia, another excellent post. I read the other day that during the 109th, Cheney instructed the GOP leadership that Congress is not allowed to issue subpoenas.
By
TomCat, at 2:49 PM
Senior diplomats retaking foreign policy
MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON -
Senior career diplomats are retaking control of key elements of U.S. foreign policy and have begun to assert significant influence as the Bush administration enters its waning months eager to salvage a legacy marred by the Iraq war.
Since assuming the helm at the State Department in 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has installed veteran foreign service officers with more than 200 years of collective diplomatic experience in seven critical posts from the Middle East to South Asia and the Far East.
By contrast, their immediate predecessors had just 72 years of combined experience and five of them were Republican political operatives with limited or no background in diplomacy, according to an Associated Press survey of senior agency appointees.
While the departure of prominent conservative hawks, including Donald H. Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz from the Pentagon and John Bolton from the State Department, is well-documented, the quiet climb to influence of Rice's choices for top jobs has been less public even as they have started to steer new courses.
By
WORFEUS THE SEER, at 2:58 PM
Please pardon me for being highly self-promotional here, but I've started a fantasy football league called Bush Bashing Bloggers, and we desperately need one last player to fill the league. Mike has a team too.
If your interested in playing, please open a new window or tab (so you don't leave here in the process) and paste this URL into it to get to the instructions on how to join. There's only one spot left. First there gets it. Thanks!
http://politicsplus.blogspot.com/2007/08/bush-busting-bloggers.html
By
TomCat, at 2:59 PM
It seems that our President and company has been up to no good since taking office. If we just look at some of the things done and got information about how or why they were done. This President and his Administration would have been out of office long ago.
Question: Why was it during 9/11 every plane was ordered not to fly, yet the bin Laden family took planes out of this country and was never questioned about anything. Why?
Question: Why has Bush started to threaten Iran, after signing directives that allow him to entrust himself with leading the entire federal government, not just the Executive Branch. Why?
By
LET'S TALK, at 4:26 PM
Ex-Nixon advisor blasts Bush's Vietnam comparison .
'Well, if you've learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you ever get us involved in another quagmire?'
In his speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Wednesday, President Bush surprised many people by invoking the example of Vietnam in arguing against a withdrawal from Iraq. CNN invited David Gergen, who served as an advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, to comment on that aspect of Bush's speech.
"He may well have stirred up a hornet's nest among historians," Gergen stated. "By invoking Vietnam, he raised the automatic question, 'Well, if you've learned so much from history, Mr. President, how did you ever get us involved in another quagmire?' ... It's surprising to me that he would go back to that, and I think he's going to get a lot of criticism."
"This is not a man who's talking about compromise," Gergen emphasized "This is not a man who's talking about a Plan B. ... This a man saying, 'I'm hanging tough.'"
CNN asked Gergen about Bush's statement that "there's one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam, and that is the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps,' and 'killing fields.'"
Gergen acknowledged Bush's point that there were "massive killings" when the US left Vietnam, but insisted, "He's wrong to say that Cambodia only occurred because we pulled back. There are many who believe, had we not gone into Cambodia ourselves ... this country might have been more stable."
Gergen added that "everybody understands" there's going to be a US pullback in Iraq when the surge ends in the spring. "We're not going to stay there forever to prevent killings," he stated. "When we start pulling back, there's likely to be a bloodbath in Iraq, too."
Gergen further pointed out that "Vietnam ... after 30 years has actually become quite a thriving country. ... So there are those who say ... 'Yeah, when we pulled back, there was bloodbath in the immediate aftermath, but after that the Vietnamese started putting their country together.' Is that not what we want Iraq to do over the long term?"
"The reason we lost Vietnam, in part, was because we had no strategy," said Gergen. "And the problem we've got now in Iraq, what is the strategy for victory? ... It's not clear we have a winning strategy in Iraq. That's what cost us Vietnam. That's why we eventually withdrew under humiliating circumstances."
"[Bush] talks black and white," Gergen concluded. "Victory or withdrawal, those are the two options. And Democrats and Republicans are saying, 'Mr. President, there is a third option here, and that is a partial pullback. Stay there, try to prevent a civil war.' ... Today, there was no indication he was willing to do that."
In addition to Gergen's comments, several of the major national newspapers have already printed statements by scholars and historians of the Vietnam War, disputing Bush's comparison of Iraq to Vietnam and his suggestion that the US could have imposed a successful outcome in Vietnam if it had just stayed longer, as Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell outlines in a column entitled "Apocalypse...Now? Press Examines Bush Linking Iraq to Vietnam."
"Invoking the tragedy of Vietnam to defend the failed policy in Iraq is as irresponsible as it is ignorant of the realities of both of those wars," Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) said, in a statement sent to RAW STORY.
Somebody should tell the chimpleton, that invoking Vietnam when he got daddy to help him hide out in the Texas Nationasl Guard when he wasn't AWOL, and dead eye and other reichwing blathering talking heads hisd from combat (along with quite a few trolls here) just reminds the nation whan a bunch of gutless chicken hawks the reichwing and their sycophats really are.
Right dolty and gay-dalf?
That and it's a BIG tell that the lack of a coherent strategy since the illegal invasion is beginning to become painfully obvious to even the dumbest of the reichwing, er the president.
By
clif, at 4:30 PM
Lydia that was very good and it gets worse. Bush can do absolutely what he wants and go unchecked. He answers to know one.
It is sickening listening to him but he can do whatever he thinks is right for the country and in his little mind that means whatever it takes to follow his new order for us and the world.
If he feels the Government is in danger he now has the right to declare martial law and you know to him it is in danger by those of us that are against him, so?
By
an average patriot, at 4:44 PM
I don't advocate violence, but perhaps its time for a new American Revolution to take our country back from King George {Der Fuhrer[Adolph]Bush.
God Bless.
By
Anon-Paranoid, at 5:44 PM
i wonder that myself. why the secrecy and the texas two step around which branch of government you belong to? why aren't any of them willing to answer any- any!!!- questions whatsoever? what do they know that we don't- and they don't want us to? the answer probably would scare me. but i am willing to take that chance.
By
betmo, at 6:39 PM
and- i agree with anon-paranoid.
By
betmo, at 6:40 PM
off topic- do you all have a rogue rss feed somewhere that i don't know about? you can email me at
betmo110@gmail.com
thanks :)
By
betmo, at 7:03 PM
Guys, don't fall for the right winger incognito trying to get bloggers to advocate insurrection.
Just ignore the trolls.
They're none too bright.
By
BARTLEBEE, at 7:50 PM
R.I.P. Teddi Winograd, Marcy's mother. Teddi hosted salons in her home on Rodeo Drive, with activists, Congress people, authors and great minds. I can't believe I was out of town 2 weeks ago when she had Dennis Kucinich in her backyard for a garden party.
I had no idea she would die so suddenly.
Every week or so she would open her home for the Progressive Democrats to hear authors like James Moore, John Dean, Gore Vidal -- all on CSPAN.
I am so sad. She asked if she could host one of these "Great Mind" series for my book when it comes out.
I will miss her. God Bless Teddi!
By
Lydia Cornell, at 8:37 PM
What happened to "If you gots nothing to fear, you gots nothing to hide!"
That's the mantra the wingnuts shout at us when we protest being spied on, cavity searched, having our business records seized, or having spy satelites trained on our houses.
If BushCo gots nothing to hide, then why are they so worried?
Obviously they have MUCH to hide.
By
PoliShifter, at 9:41 PM
Lydia-
First, thanks for posting about that lady who passed. I'd never heard of her. It was nice to read about someone who had a real reason to get up in the morning. Passionate and worthwhile.
Second, your first sentence was perfect:
"If they have nothing to cover up, why are they covering everything up?"
And not just about the information they've destroyed/refused to hand over/whatever...they operate outside the law on EVERYTHING and have from the beginning.
They are snubbing their noses at us. We are the people, the U.S. citizens and they're shitting on us everyday in every way. I am thoroughly OFFENDED every second they are allowed to remain in power.
There are (have been) several justifiable reasons to file the Articles Of Impeachment against (at least) cheney and bush, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER PELOSI & REID THINK THEY CAN "GET IT THROUGH"!
Hats off to Dennis Kucinich for that.
I know. I almost went off on one of my rants. Caught myself in time.
By
Chuck, at 10:07 PM
Check out this excellent story by an American who went to Iraq as a contractor.
It is on Sumo's blog and it is quite telling.
Sumo Merriment
By
Larry, at 4:08 AM
A US soldier was killed Wednesday west of Baghdad, the military said.
The Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier was killed and three others were wounded during combat operations in an area west of the Iraqi capital, according to a brief statement that provided no other details.
The death toll of US military personel has reached at least 3,722 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Another normal day in Baghdad!
By
Larry, at 5:16 AM
A SUICIDE truck bomber targeted a police agency in northern Iraq, killing at least 27 people and wounding 65, police and hospital officials said.
Yesterday's attack occurred just before noon in Beiji, 250km north of Baghdad and many of the casualties were civilians, according to local officials.
Another normal day in Iraq!
By
Larry, at 5:17 AM
"By their fruits you shall know them.'
Good people and good strategies - produce good results.
What is Bush's self-created war and Bush's surge producing?
By
Lydia Cornell, at 5:25 AM
Voting is still going for the World Blog Awards of which Lydia has been nominated in several categories.
Please go to the Left of Centrist blog and cast your vote. I know Lydia would be honored with your support.
World Blog Awards
By
Larry, at 5:42 AM
Chuck and Karen - I agree. WE MUST IMPEACH. We must start impeachment articles, at least start the process. Even if it doesn't get through, it shows we value the principles of a Democracy. We have to show the world, our kids that criminals must be held accountable.
On your blog, these stories are amazing -- people arrested for "peace protests and peace signs."
The thing is, the police are mainly fueled by Rush Limbaugh's drug-addled anger and all the idiotic right-wing liberal bashers that make them feel "manly."
I honestly don't think any of these people have ever studied American history or have an inkling about our Constitution or the rights of citizens in a Democracy. Bush obviously has never had a civics lesson either. He barely passed 4th grade.
By
Lydia Cornell, at 5:42 AM
She was such an inspirational woman. A loss to many. I think, as an aside, that Progressive Democrats are onto something with respect to changing the party from the inside. The Dems need some pressure to take steps in the left direction!
By
Lynn@ZelleBlog, at 11:13 AM
Disgusting! Ari Fleischer raises 15 million dollars to SELL THE WAR in commercials on his new campaign "Freedom's Watch" instead of spending 15 million dollars on actually HELPING our troops get new body armor or helping the grieving widows, or using that money for a much better purpose,
And he didn't even know the name of the soldier who is appearing in his ads.
The Repugs would rather spend all their money and time SELLING the war, rather than actually devising sensible strategies such as protecting, negotiating and helping people in need.
By
Lydia Cornell, at 1:38 PM
I sometimes think that Fuchs and his lawyer pals just sit around, get drunk, then write the most outrageous legal briefs they can think of, trying to out-do one another with their blatant disregard for the Constitution, sanity, and reason.
By
dguzman, at 1:59 PM
That was a beautiful tribute to Teddi, Lydia!
Also, I thought I would stop by and let you know that your blog was one of the featured spots on the very first BWR at my new place. Drop by any time!
By
Robert Rouse, at 5:33 PM
Nice looking site Robert and Congrats for getting away from Blogger and going on your own.
By
Larry, at 5:56 PM
(Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Thursday the U.S. housing downturn is likely to lead the country into recession, but that the largest U.S. mortgage lender will survive.
In an interview, Mozilo also said that to promote liquidity, the U.S. Federal Reserve should cut the rate it charges banks to borrow.
Countrywide faced a credit shortage this month as mortgage defaults rose and capital markets tightened. On August 16, it announced an unexpected drawdown of an entire $11.5 billion credit line because it had trouble selling short-term debt.
But on Wednesday, Bank of America Corp said it would invest $2 billion in Countrywide, buying preferred securities convertible into common stock.
This eased fears about Countrywide’s fate, which at least two analysts this month had said could include bankruptcy.
Mozilo called the investment a “vote of confidence” and a “priceless endorsement,” but said housing and the economy were not out of the woods.
It's the faltering Bush economy!
By
Larry, at 6:10 PM
Newly uncovered "rules of engagement" show the U.S. military gave elite units broad authority more than three years ago to pursue suspected terrorists into Pakistan, with no mention of telling the Pakistanis in advance.
The documents obtained by The Associated Press offer a detailed glimpse at what Army Rangers and other terrorist-hunting units were authorized to do earlier in the war on terror.
Didn't the Repugs attack Obama for suggesting the same senario?
By
Larry, at 6:16 PM
A lobbying firm with close connections to the Bush administration is aiding the efforts of an opposition leader in Iraq who is seeking Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ouster.
The revelation that lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, whose president is a former US envoy to Iraq, is supporting former interim prime minister Ayad Alllawi, was first reported by IraqSlogger. The firm has sent hundreds of e-mails in Allawi's name from an e-mail address it purchased, DrAyadAllawi@Allawi-for-Iraq.com, and it has purchased the Web domain AllawiForIraq.com.
BGR's president, Robert Blackwill, was presidential envoy for Iraq in 2004. Amid speculation that President Bush would support Maliki's replacement, the administration has stressed its continued support of Iraq's prime minister.
"It's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he will remain in his position -- that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship," Bush said Wednesday.
CNN correspondent Ed Henry reported Thursday that a senior administration official told him "the White House is aware of this, and they may at some point try to tell the firm to dial this back because it undermines what President Bush has been saying publicly."
Poor Bush even his neocon cronies disageee with him!
By
Larry, at 6:20 PM
US industrial firm Textron has agreed to pay 4.65 million dollars in fines for kickbacks its French subsidiaries made in the now defunct UN oil-for-food program in Iraq, the US Justice Department said Thursday.
Textron took responsibility for 600,000 dollars in kickbacks paid to the Iraqi government between 2000-2003 by the three French subsidiaries in its David Brown fluid and power business unit seeking to sell industrial pumps, gears, and other equipment to the Iraqis.
The kickbacks secretly inflated by 10 percent contracts that needed to be approved by the United Nations under the oil-for-food program, set up to help Iraqis cope with punitive sanctions slapped on Saddam Hussein's regime after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The Justice Department said it agreed not to file criminal charges against Textron as the company had early on discovered and reported the payments, as well as others made in other countries.
Another corrupt Bush ally!
By
Larry, at 6:26 PM
This is for Bartlebee...
You said..
" BARTLEBEE said...
Guys, don't fall for the right winger incognito trying to get bloggers to advocate insurrection.
Just ignore the trolls.
They're none too bright.
7:50 PM ".
First of all sir\madam...I am not a troll as both larry and lydia can attest to.
Whether you want to believe it or not we are under a Dictatorship and War with Iran is very likely within the next 6 months.
When one has the same power that Adolph Hitler had one does not give it up. So all the talk about the elections next year are nothing but that. Talk!!!
You believe what you want too, however don't start calling me a right winger since you don't know shit about me and I won't call you a Nazi sympathizer.
God Bless
By
Anon-Paranoid, at 6:27 PM
(AP) -- Wall Street ended a mildly erratic day slightly lower Thursday after anxiety about widening credit problems offset investor optimism about a $2 billion capital infusion into troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.
It's the faltering Bush economy.
By
Larry, at 6:36 PM
It's the Bush Economy:
(Bloomberg) -- The credit-market freeze that's paralyzing leveraged buyouts, mergers and myriad computer-driven trading strategies may cut Wall Street bonuses for the first time in five years.
``There's a lot of pessimism out there,'' said Gary Goldstein, chief executive officer of executive-search firm Whitney Group in New York. ``Looking at the world today as we see it and the impact the crunch is likely to have, it looks like bonus pools will decline.''
Bonuses, the financial industry's annual rite of compensation typically calculated as a multiple of salary, probably will decline as much as 5 percent from 2006, according to Options Group, the New York-based firm that has tracked pay and hiring trends for more than a decade. While the payouts often far exceeded the average of $220,650 at the biggest U.S. securities firms last year and increased as much as 20 percent from 2005, the subprime-mortgage collapse already has drained the punch bowl.
Hardest hit will be employees who create and sell securities backed by mortgages or pools of debt, Options Group said. One out of every three people in those roles may lose their jobs unless business picks up by the end of the year, the firm estimates. Bonuses may fall as much as 40 percent.
Hedge Funds
Hedge-fund investment managers, whose average payout climbed as much as 15 percent last year, may see a drop of 5 percent to 10 percent in 2007. Bonuses for employees in fixed- income units may fall as much as 10 percent, compared with a 10 percent gain last year, Options Group estimates.
Now even the millionaire stockbrokers are hurt by Bush's economy!
By
Larry, at 6:38 PM
This administration has done so many questionable things and is so secretive that I'm sure whatever they have done is way worse than what Nixon did.
I had a dream last night that Bush resigned over some scandal! It was so real that when I woke up and realized it wasn't true I was deeply disappointed! Can we hope my dream was precognitive?
By
Mauigirl, at 6:42 PM
Mauigirl:
I wish your dream would come true, but in this mess, it was only a dream!
By
Larry, at 6:43 PM
(Reuters) - Al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 15 Iraqi women and children after attacking two villages north of Baghdad on Thursday and killing a religious leader who had been trying to form an anti-al Qaeda tribal alliance, police said.
Police said 32 people had been killed in an hour-long battle between villagers and al Qaeda. The attackers, who struck just after dawn, dragged the imam of the local mosque, Younis Abd Hameed, and three worshippers outside and executed them.
Another normal day in Bush's Iraq!
By
Larry, at 6:44 PM
Facebook is Hotter Than Myspace For Politics:
(Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old L.J. Tsunis has some advice for his favorite U.S. presidential candidate: start hanging out on Facebook already.
"Rudy Giuliani is absolutely making a big mistake by not being active on Facebook," Tsunis told Reuters in a message posted through the popular social-networking site.
"Millions of votes could be had on here that may swing the election one way or the other."
Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and the Republican front-runner in many opinion polls, is the only candidate for the November 2008 presidential race who has not gotten the message.
Every other major player has set up shop on the site, which draws millions of predominantly young users looking to flirt, make friends and goof off.
Candidates see social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace as tools to win over young voters who are difficult to reach through more traditional campaigning.
In this early popularity contest, Sen. Barack Obama is the clear favorite so far -- the Illinois Democrat even gained the support on Facebook, however briefly, of Giuliani's Harvard-bound daughter, Caroline.
Obama has drawn nearly twice as many online "friends" who link to his profile than any other candidate, and many of them have become volunteers for the campaign.
By
Larry, at 6:47 PM
Poor Twiggy Coulter:
Progressive Democrat Issue 116: INDIANA FOCUS: Continuing the fight against Ann Coulter
As I highlighted last week, Ann Coulter is slowly being dropped by paper after paper because of her hate speech and advocacy of violence. Interestingly, one of the first newspapers to drop her column due to her disgusting rhetoric was, long ago, the conservative National Review. They dropped her column after she responded to the 9/11 attacks by stating that America should "invade their [terrorists'] countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Wow...what kind of anti-Muslim nut case are we talking about here?
Since then her hate speech has only gotten worse. She has compared Islam with the KKK and routinely advocates violence against liberals and insults homosexuals. You can read more about what she advocates and says here. She has the right to say what she wants. And newspapers have the right to carry it. But, we have the right to fight back as well. Last month highlighting her anti-gay rhetoric led to practically all her advertisers (other than Amazon.com) to pull their ads off her website. Now we are asking newspapers that carry her column to stop giving her hate speech a platform.
Keep running your mouth Twiggy Coulter and lose all your revenue!
By
Larry, at 6:53 PM
Larry, Twiggy is a compliment!
Maui Girl - that was such a wonderful dream! I love that you are thinking so much about it that you actually dreamed it.
I think our collective unconscious could actually bring justice about: Let's all see Bush in handcuffs... being marched off to jail. Would that it were true.
I wonder how Ann Coulter got away with publicly stating Bill Clinton should be assassinated. She said it 3 times, in different ways, and committed actual crimes to help get him impeached.
By
Lydia Cornell, at 7:09 PM
Didn't he say this before:
Warner: Bush should begin Iraq withdrawal
Republican senator says the president should set timetable, not Congress
President Bush should announce on Sept. 15 a small initial pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq to spur the Iraqi government to take steps toward political reconciliation, an influential Republican senator said Thursday.
Virginia Sen. John Warner said Bush should “announce on the 15th that in consultation with our senior military commanders he has decided to initiate the first step in a withdrawal of our forces.”
Warner, a senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee who has pressed Bush to change his Iraq policy, suggested a withdrawal of “say 5,000″ troops, who could be home by Christmas in December of this year.
Warner said the United States needed “to show that we mean business” when it says its commitment to Iraq is not open ended.
Warner and Hagel said the same thing before the funding vote, then both Repugs fell in line with the other sheep in Bush's pathetic flock, and vote to continue the war.
By
Larry, at 7:21 PM
BAGHDAD: Two suicide car bombers attacked a US-led coalition forces outpost in northern Baghdad killing four Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11 American troops, the US military said on Thursday.
The attack took place on Wednesday at the outpost manned by US soldiers from 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division and Iraqi soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division.
The military said four Iraqi soldiers were also wounded in the twin suicide bomb assault.
The exact location of the outpost was not revealed by the military. On Wednesday, 14 American soldiers died when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed before dawn in northern Iraq. The accident was one of the worst suffered by the military in more than four years of conflict in Iraq.
Another normal day in Baghdad!
By
Larry, at 7:26 PM
Larry said...
A lobbying firm with close connections to the Bush administration is aiding the efforts of an opposition leader in Iraq who is seeking Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ouster.
The revelation that lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith and Rogers, whose president is a former US envoy to Iraq, is supporting former interim prime minister Ayad Alllawi, was first reported by IraqSlogger. The firm has sent hundreds of e-mails in Allawi's name from an e-mail address it purchased, DrAyadAllawi@Allawi-for-Iraq.com, and it has purchased the Web domain AllawiForIraq.com.
BGR's president, Robert Blackwill, was presidential envoy for Iraq in 2004. Amid speculation that President Bush would support Maliki's replacement, the administration has stressed its continued support of Iraq's prime minister.
"It's not up to politicians in Washington, D.C. to say whether he will remain in his position -- that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy, and not a dictatorship," Bush said Wednesday."
I had a feeling Bush and the Neo Cons would try to oust Maliki after what he has said the last 2 weeks......Maliki has made it clear he is NOT GWB;s puppet and that is unacceptable for the Neo Con crime syndicate.
By
Mike, at 8:09 PM
I fully expect Maliki to be assassinated or overthrown very soon.
By
Mike, at 8:10 PM
look at our own Generals for example.......Any who have dared to disagree with Bush and the Neo Cons has been attacked and/or replaced from Shinseki to Peter Pace who recently stated that Cheney and Bush had absolutely No hard evidence against iran and attacking them was both a mistake and unwarranted.
By
Mike, at 8:13 PM
Bush will blame Malaki and replace him so he has an excuse to "surge on."
By
Larry, at 8:14 PM
Bush and his pack of Neo Con fools dont REALLY want to LISTEN to their generals, they want fealty from their generals.
Bush oulled the bait and switch instead of Petraeus actually writing the Iraq Report, the white House is actually writing it.
Thats like leting a police officer conduct the internal affairs investigation of himself or letting a kid write his own report card and grade himself.
Like Usual Bush has destroyed the credibility and integrity of the process and made a farce out of it.
By
Mike, at 8:16 PM
No Larry, i think Maliki will be most likely killed.
By
Mike, at 8:17 PM
I also think Bush will buy time and try to derail the Democrats attempts at pressuring them by offering to listen to Petraeus and make a relatively insignificant withdrawl.......so that even after the withdrawl there will still be MORE troops there than BEFORE the surge.
By
Mike, at 8:19 PM
I think Bush needs a fall guy and Malaki is the perfect one.
By
Larry, at 8:19 PM
Larry said...
I think Bush needs a fall guy and Malaki is the perfect one."
Your right..........but did you ever hear the saying "dead men dont talk".........I think before the end of the year that may apply to Maliki!
By
Mike, at 8:27 PM
Maliki basically just supported iran and told Bush to get out...........That doesnt sit well with the evil emperorors plans for installing a puppet in Iraq.
By
Mike, at 8:29 PM
I don't know but they will use Malaki to blame.
By
Larry, at 8:29 PM
The Neo Cons are ALLREADY supporting a rival while Maliki is still in power if that isnt telling I dont know what is.
By
Mike, at 8:31 PM
Bush is getting ready to continue the "surge" then parlay into Iran.
By
Larry, at 8:36 PM
The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.
Despite some evidence that the troop buildup has improved security in certain areas, sectarian violence continues and American-led operations have brought new fighting, driving fearful Iraqis from their homes at much higher rates than before the tens of thousands of additional troops arrived, the studies show.
By
Larry, at 8:41 PM
The movement to develop alternatives to mainstream corporate-owned radio got a boost recently with a bi-partisan congressional bill to expand low-power FM (LPFM), a class of frequencies devoted to non-commercial community groups. Though LPFM stations only broadcast a radius of three-and-a-half miles, they offer the chance to bring seldom-heard voices on the air.
Media activists and reform groups see LPFM as a cheap, accessible medium that counterbalances the formulaic music and news of conglomerates like Clear Channel, while offering ownership and control to underrepresented groups. A recent study by the media-policy think tank Free Press found that women own 6 percent of the country’s full-power commercial radio stations; people of color and ethnic minorities control just 7.7 percent. It can cost as little as $5,000 to launch a no-frills LPFM station. About 800 stations have been established since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began licensing them in 2000.
The voices aired on low-power stations include evangelists, social critics, tomato pickers and indie rockers—all linked by the credo that radio should reflect the heterogeneity of the communities it serves.
Low-power broadcasters “are only able to succeed because they are authorized by the local community,” says Hannah Sassaman, an organizer with the Prometheus Radio Project, a Philadelphia-based radio advocacy group.
Prometheus has led the grassroots push for LPFM and is now building support for the Local Community Radio Act of 2007, introduced in June by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) in the House, and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Senate.
The bill would repeal strictures that have stunted LPFM’s growth. In 2000, lawmakers passed rules that in effect restricted LPFM to rural areas, after industry interests alleged that their “interference” would impinge on full-power broadcasters. But new research from the FCC shows that expanding low-power radio, even in denser markets, would not disrupt existing stations. Nonetheless, the National Association of Broadcasters recently reprised its warnings of “inevitable interference,” while opposing the bill.
Media activists say LPFM not only poses no technological hazard, but serves community needs that commercial stations ignore. When Hurricane Katrina hit, low-power outlets emerged as a community-based crisis response in Texas and Mississippi, where volunteer-run stations broadcasted on-the-ground news to survivors and tracked the relief effort.
Prometheus has helped seed new LPFM stations through “barnraisings”—collective construction projects that lay the technological groundwork for stations and train locals in media production.
One barnraising alumnus, the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), has used LPFM over the last four years to organize some of the country’s most vulnerable laborers. CIW broadcasts on political and labor issues to Haitian and Latin American farm workers in their own languages, and provides safety information when hurricanes hit.
“Through LPFM, our communities can have an independent voice, whose commitment is to the community itself and not to any other interests,” says CIW Co-Director Lucas Benitez. “It gives us a place to analyze the problems we face daily, and a place to look for solutions together.”
KOCZ in Opelousas, La., run by the civil-rights group Southern Development Foundation, has helped revive the area’s famed Zydeco music scene by promoting local artists and provided a dedicated forum for community news.
“If we did not have this type of media democracy, people would not have the opportunity to educate themselves and move themselves up,” says John Freeman, one of the station’s founders. “[Full-power media] only wanted to control what these people could hear. It was a disgrace.”
With more frequencies, LPFM might finally gain ground in big cities. REACHip Hop (Representing Education, Activism and Community Through Hip Hop), a New York-based media-activist group, is partnering with Prometheus and like-minded activists to start a station centered on the city’s youth. Activist Rosa Clemente says REACHip Hop envisions the station as an outlet for politically oriented public affairs programming and as an alternative to corporate hip-hop stations.
“This is a perfect way for our generation to create our own institutions, run by our own people,” says Clemente.
Michele Gutierrez, an organizer with the Bay Area-based Youth Media Council, which focuses on media as a tool for social change, says LPFM is only the start.
“We must continue to challenge a media system controlled by the privileged few,” she says. “The power to communicate, and therefore the power to transform society, belongs to everyone.”
A way for Liberal Talk Radio to be heard.
By
Larry, at 8:48 PM
The Official George W. Bush
"Days Left In Office"
Countdown:
515 DAYS
0 Hrs 0 Min 11.6 Sec
Will this day ever come?
By
Larry, at 9:00 PM
Hi guys I haven't been around for some time but I was looking on other blogs today and noticed several new people have joined you here Lydia
By
Holly, at 9:05 PM
Mike, Juan Cole is getting some info that says you just might be right,
Military Coup Planned for Iraq?
A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.
"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . . [The writer indicates that attempts have been made to recruit cabinet members from the ranks of expatriate technocrats.]
The six-member board or commission would be composed on non-political former military personnel who are presently not part of the government OR the military establishment, such as it is in Iraq at the moment. It is said that the Americans are supporting this behind the scenes.
The plan includes a two-year period during which political parties would not be permitted to be part of the government, but instead would prepare and strengthen the parties for an election which would not have lists, but real people running for real seats. The two year period would be designed to take control of security and restore infrastructure.
. . .[I]t is another [desperate plan], but one which many many Iraqis will support, since they are sick of their country being pulled apart by the "imports" - Maliki, Allawi, Jaafari et al. The military group is composed of internals, people who have the goal of securing the country even at the risk of no democracy, so they say. "
So the stupid people who thought invading Iraq and overtrowing the government was a good idea.... want to over throw the government they put in place because they can't control it well enough.....
Are they planning on another million Iraqi deaths from this fiasco also?
By
clif, at 9:25 PM
WASHINGTON -- As of Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007, at least 3,724 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 3,047 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is 18 higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 168 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Romania, South Korea, one death each.
These are a result of Bush's Black Heart!
By
Larry, at 9:29 PM
BAGHDAD — Firing back in an escalating war of words, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki on Wednesday chided U.S. officials for expressing impatience with the Iraqi government's failure to unite divided political factions and said Iraq would find other friends if the United States was disenchanted.
"These statements do not concern us a lot," Maliki said to reporters while he was visiting Syria. "We will find many around the world who will support us in our endeavor."
Nice going Bush: You can't even control your own puppet.
By
Larry, at 9:34 PM
Losing John Warner on the war was a big deal.Warner is a well respected hawk with the neocon types. If Warners out, then watch them all drop out.
By
WORFEUS THE SEER, at 10:05 PM
larry....
Even the death count you listed is not correct.
Truth is that if one is wounded the clock stops as they begin transport to a medical base out of Iraq.
If you die of your injuries on the way or at the medical hospital your death don't get listed as being killed in Iraq.
I would more than likely place the death count around 10 or 12 thousand.
Time to hit the sack...
God Bless.
By
Anon-Paranoid, at 10:14 PM
WORFEUS THE SEER said...
Losing John Warner on the war was a big deal.Warner is a well respected hawk with the neocon types. If Warners out, then watch them all drop out."
Yeah but Warner has spoken out against the war several times before..........but when it came time to vote he fell right back in line for his Neo Con masters.............i'll let his actions speak this time rather than his words.
By
Mike, at 10:23 PM
clif said...
Mike, Juan Cole is getting some info that says you just might be right,
Military Coup Planned for Iraq?
A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact. There is no certitude that this plan can or will be implemented. That it is being discussed at high levels seems highly likely.
"There is serious talk of a military commission (majlis `askari) to take over the government. The parties would be banned from holding positions, and all the ministers would be technocrats, so to speak. . . [The writer indicates that attempts have been made to recruit cabinet members from the ranks of expatriate technocrats.]
The six-member board or commission would be composed on non-political former military personnel who are presently not part of the government OR the military establishment, such as it is in Iraq at the moment. It is said that the Americans are supporting this behind the scenes.
The plan includes a two-year period during which political parties would not be permitted to be part of the government, but instead would prepare and strengthen the parties for an election which would not have lists, but real people running for real seats. The two year period would be designed to take control of security and restore infrastructure.
. . .[I]t is another [desperate plan], but one which many many Iraqis will support, since they are sick of their country being pulled apart by the "imports" - Maliki, Allawi, Jaafari et al. The military group is composed of internals, people who have the goal of securing the country even at the risk of no democracy, so they say. "
So the stupid people who thought invading Iraq and overtrowing the government was a good idea.... want to over throw the government they put in place because they can't control it well enough.....
Are they planning on another million Iraqi deaths from this fiasco also?"
Clif, after the interactions between Bush and Maliki over the past two weeks, my money says Maliki is toast before the end of the year.................Bush will probably proclaim his support for him just like he did for Rumsfeld before he fired him then........kaboom.
Theres no honor or loyalty among thieves.
By
Mike, at 10:26 PM
I almost forgot I have another blog called The Peacemakers * The LIght of Truth
Here's the address: http://lydiacornell.blogspot.com/
It's also got a link on my home page.
Please visit. I am going to post my spiritual writings and healings soon, all the archived stuff which I have hidden.
By
Lydia Cornell, at 12:27 AM
(AP) -- A bomb dropped by a U.S. fighter jet was believed to have killed three British soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defense said Friday. Two other soldiers were injured.
Another result of Bush's war!
By
Larry, at 5:22 AM
BAGHDAD - Sixty suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters hit national police facilities in a coordinated attack in Samarra, sparking two hours of fighting that saw three people killed and more than a dozen insurgents captured, police said Friday.
The masked attackers drove into the city at dusk Thursday in about 20 vehicles, including pickups with machine-guns, then split into small groups and assaulted four police checkpoints and a headquarters building, a Samarra police official said.
One policeman and two civilians — a woman and an 11-year-old girl — were killed in the fighting in the city