[zhenya]

Corruption in the country, while traditionally rampant, is encouraged by constitutional clause 136 B, al-Radhi said. It gives Cabinet ministers the power to block his investigations.

Hmmm, it seems that we gave them together with our democracy our loopholes to bypass the law, especially if you are in the government...

PS> We do have this thingy like obstruction of justice but it seems they managed to avoid such idiotic nonsense.

[Ninong]

Who's that I see lurking in the bushes during Brilliant Invincible Commander's Rose Garden announcement?

Why, it's the Phantom of the Naval Observatory!



P.S. -- Maybe he was out quail hunting?

[Ninong]

Bush has announced in advance that he will veto the will of the American people. Congress is sending him a supplemental appropriations bill to fund the war in Iraq and set a timetable for withdrawal, something that is supported by 70% of the American public, but El Presidente has said that he will veto this bill.

Listening to him pontificate about the evil "Democrat leaders in Congress," you can't help but believe that he has lost touch with reality. Doesn't he realize that no one pays any attention to anything he says any more?

How bad is his credibility?

Glad you asked:

In California "only 9% of Democrats and 15% of Independents think he is telling the American public the truth." Overall (including Republicans), only 28% of Californians believe Bush is telling the truth.

Bush's job approval rating in California is now 23%. That's because 49% of Republicans still approve of the way he is screwing up the country. His approval rating amongst Democrats and Independents is below 10%.

By comparison, the Republican governor of California has an approval rating of 62%. No wonder he doesn't want to be see in the same room with Bush.

Only 21% of Californians approve of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. Again, it's the Republicans who are holding that number up there in the double digits. Just 5% of Democrats approve of his Iraq policies while 94% disapprove.

Read the rest here.

[Ninong]

...lying about the intelligence he fabricated to get us into Iraq!

Cheney is still living in his own little world. Check out the lies he repeated during a nationally broadcast interview with his favorite comedian, Rush Limbaugh yesterday:

From the official White House website:

"...remember Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist, al Qaeda affiliate; ran a training camp in Afghanistan for al Qaeda, then migrated -- after we went into Afghanistan and shut him down there, he went to Baghdad, took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq; organized the al Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene, and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June.... This is al Qaeda operating in Iraq. And as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq."

This version of events was fabricated by Doug Feith. Even the Defense Department's own internal investigation agrees that it is false! Declassified portions of that investigation were released yesterday at the request of Sen. Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not organize operations for al-Qaida prior to the invasion! In fact, he did not affiliate himself with al-Qaida until 2004. His militant organization, al-Tawhid, was involved in plotting to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy and attack Israel. In fact, he was convicted in absentia and sentenced to death in Jordan for plotting to blow up the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman.

Prior to the invasion, al-Zarqawi was holed up in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq where he had affiliated himself with Ansar al-Islam, a group fighting against Kurdish-nationalist forces in the region. He was not allied with Saddam Hussein in any way, shape or form. That area of Iraq was covered by the no-fly zone. Saddam had no control of the Kurdish provinces of Iraq.

Cheney continues to repeat the big lie that Iraq and al-Qaida were allies prior to the invasion. Saddam Hussein hated al-Qaida. Sammy bin Laden hated Saddam. They were not buddies! Saddam was a brutal dictator. There is no chance in hell that he would have allowed any al-Qaida operatives to operate in Iraq because he considered them a threat to his rule.

Cheney says that "after we went into Afghanistan and shut him down there, he went to Baghdad." That's not true. After al-Zarqawi was injured fighting against us with the Taliban in Afghanistan, he went to Iran, not Baghdad. He never "took up residence" in Baghdad as Cheney claims. He did leave Iran for about a week to receive treatment for his leg injury at a hospital in Baghdad and later went to northern Iraq to join up with Ansar al-Islam.

Sammy bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were never close. Bin Laden considered him a rival. It wasn't until after al-Zarqawi put out his infamous snuff film showing him beheading an American that bin Laden agreed to allow him to use the name Al-Qaida in Iraq.

Everyone in the country knows by now that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, yet Cheney continues to repeat the same false talking points he used back in March 2003.

The NY Post (Lord Black's paper) put out an editorial yesterday or the day before endorsing Dick Cheney for the 2008 GOP nomination for president. What a riot! Let's all pray very hard that this wish comes true! Last time I checked, Cheney's job approval rating was 19%. That was a national survey, not a California survey. I think his California approval rating is in the low single digits.

Run, Dick, run! Please!

P.S. -- Why is Conrad Black's paper endorsing Cheney for president? You might recall that Lord Black is on trial right now for all sorts of illegal crap. Guess who's prosecuting him? Yeah, that's right -- Patrick Fitzgerald! Haha! Fitz wants $92 million in restitution and probably a bunch of years behind bars. Lord Black is trying to get his Canadian citizenship back so that, if convicted, he can serve his time in a Canadian prison rather than a U.S. prison. The Canadians are in no hurry to accomodate him. You see, back in 2001, "Mr." Black renounced his Canadian citizenship so that he could become a British lord. Money can get you anything in the U.K., just ask Tony Blair. Oh, that's right, they're investigating Tony for exactly that right now, aren't they?

P.P.S. -- Looks like even the corporate mainstream media is picking up on this story now and pointing out that Cheney's lies have already been refuted by every investigation to date.

[Ninong]

In spite of what Walnuts! McCain told us following his April Fool's Day rug-shopping excursion in Baghdad, it is still not safe to walk around there on your own. In fact, the security situation there is so tenuous right now that the government has declared a 24-hr ban on all vehicles beginning at 5 a.m. Monday, April 9.

Moqtada al-Sadr has changed his mind and is now ordering his Mahdi Army militia to confront coalition forces. (P.S. -- That's what was widely reported but it now appears that it was not exactly what al-Sadr said. He has now clarified his position by calling on the Mahdi Army to STOP fighting against coalition forces.) Fighting between coalition forces and Mahdi Army militia has intensified in several parts of Iraq over the past few days. (Al-Sadr is now calling on the Mahdi Army militia to cut it out.) Al-Sadr is still hiding out in Iran but he is now speaking in public again after lying low for the past few months.

It is obvious what al-Sadr's game is. He wants us to leave Iraq so that the Shia majority can take over. In the meantime, he's not at all upset that the Sunni insurgents are fighting against coalition forces because the more Sunnis we kill, the fewer will be left to confront the Shia majority after we leave. This is why Saudi Arabia's king is freaking out right now.

I have no idea what McCain and the other GOP lunatics were thinking when they repeated the Cheney-Bush Administration's line that we're making wonderful progress in Iraq because things are not better now than they were a few months ago. Sure, there has been a temporary reduction in violence in Baghdad but the overall level of violence in Iraq is now higher than it was when the "surge" began. They simply moved their operations to where we weren't. We can't be everywhere in Iraq. That would require a force at least three times the size of what we have there now.

Dick Cheney is still repeating the same lies he told four years ago in spite of the fact that his own Department of Defense issued a report contradicting what he said on the same day he said it. And Bush is still cherry-picking the "intel" to support his delusional view that "things are better in Iraq." He quoted from two unnamed Iraqi bloggers a few days ago who reported how nice things are now and how much better life is now than it was previously thanks to President Bush.

Obviously Bush didn't read the comments posted by these bloggers or the new book by Iraq's former defense minister. Things are not getting better in Iraq. We have been in Iraq for four years now and for the past three and a half years the administration has been telling us that the "next six months" will be critical. The "next six months" will be the turning point. Within "six months" we will see noticeable improvement. "Six months" from now, we should be able to start withdrawing our troops. In "another six months," the Iraqi army will be fully trained and capable of operating on their own.

"Another six months" passed a long time ago.

[Ninong]

White House Tells Press: Huge Anti-American Protest in Iraq Shows 'Progress'

Iraq "is now a place where people can freely gather and express" ...how much they want to kill us!

New York: A huge anti-American protest swept two cities in Iraq today (Monday), but White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters this only underscores how much "progress" the U.S. is making in that country.

I don't know how much more "progress" we can stand.

This is the same as Deputy Leader Dick telling us back in 2005 that the increased level of violence was a sign that the insurgency was in its "last throes." He has never backed down from that characterization. He is still convinced that the insurgency is in its last throes and that the increased level of violence today is just more proof that he's correct.

I don't know how much more "proof" we can stand.

You can read it here.


__________________________________________________ ______

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell

"War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength." -- George Orwell

"Huge anti-American demonstrations in Iraq are a sign of progress." -- The White House

[Ninong]

In celebration of the fourth anniversary of the toppling of Saddam Hussein, some of the Iraqi staffers at McClatchy's Baghdad Bureau listed the many ways things have improved in Iraq over the past four years.

Among the things the Iraqis have to be thankful for:

-- We have more ministers than any other country on this crazy earth. We have even useless ministries which were invented to please some political parties. We have as far as I know 36 ministries while the USA has only 15 ministries. So we have more than double.

-- Iraqis never feel afraid of the electric shocks because we have electricity power for only two hours a day or three hours as a maximum. The rest of the day we have to use small Chinese generator that cost something like 100 $ which are not really powerful enough to kill people.

-- We have the biggest number of the bodyguards in the world. Each minister has not less than 15 four-wheel cars carrying at least 5 bodyguards. Each of the 275 members of the Iraqi parliament has the same number of the bodyguards and some of them (the heads of the political blocs) has even more than that. By the way, I didn’t count the bodyguards of the presidential committee members, the prime minister and his two deputies and the parliament president and his two deputies because they have foreign bodyguards.

I have to stop counting the achievements of our great governments and the greatest American administration headed by the inspired president Bush because I would never finish counting the great achievements. You can read the few ones I mentioned and you can judge by yourself.

You can read the full article here.

[Ninong]

Bush seeks overseer for Iraq, Afghanistan... but he can't get anyone to take the job!


WASHINGTON - The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " he said.

You can read the full article here.

P.S. -- Let's not forget that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CENTCOM commander and the commander of coalition forces in Iraq all opposed the "surge" -- PUBLICLY! The fact that the Joint Chiefs unanimously opposed the possibility of a "surge" in advance of the President's decision to order one was virtually unprecedented. The President replaced the CENTCOM commander and the commander of coalition forces in Iraq.

It should come as no surprise that he's having a hard time finding any qualified retired military general officer to go along with his Iraq strategy, even when he is only asking known conservative Republicans!

P.P.S. -- I nominate Gen. Anthony Zinni for the job but they wouldn't dare ask him. He might accept if he had authority to oversee an orderly redeployment from Iraq and not a continuation of the current failed "stay the course" strategy.

[Ninong]

In an effort to maintain troop levels, the Pentagon has increased re-enlistment bonuses six-fold over the past four years. They're even paying National Guard troops $15,000 re-enlistment bonuses and if they re-up while on duty in a battle zone (Iraq or Afghanistan), the bonuses are tax-free.

Experienced Army Special Forces guys are being offered as much as $150,000 to re-enlist for another 6-year term.

Read the full article here.

[CSeaSee]

The bonuses should be tax free. I think for getting shot at and risk being blown up in a war with no legitimate cause and no end or real progress in sight, their pay should be tax free, too. I'd be the first to chip in to make that happen.

[Ninong]

The tax-free aspect is an inducement to get them to sign the re-enlistment papers while they're overseas in the battle zone and not back at home where they might be influenced by family members to hold off. Another tactic they typically employ is to offer huge bonuses for 6-year re-enlistments right when the soldiers are in the middle of their initial four-year enlistment. They get better results with that than waiting until the end of their four-year enlistment when many of them may opt to simply get out and enter the ready reserve for the remainder of their 8-yr obligation. As soon as they get that bonus, a lot of them (especially the single ones) run out and buy a brand new car that they can't even afford the insurance on.

The Army has relaxed their standards to the point where they are taking a lot more high-school dropouts and people with criminal records. They're also taking people regardless of I.Q. It's just about impossible to be rejected. They even enlisted an obviously autistic kid until his parents protested and got the enlistment cancelled.

The Army is so desperate, they have now raised the enlistment age to 42. Can you imagine going through basic training for the very first time at 42?

FORT KNOX, Ky. (Army News Service, June 22, 2006) – The Army has raised the enlistment age to 42, made possible under provisions of the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization Act.

P.S. -- And let's not forget that there are 20,000 airmen and sailors on ground combat duty in Iraq right now! Virtually all National Guard combat brigades and most National Guard support units have done 12-16 month tours in Iraq and they are getting ready to go back early next year according to plans announced by the Pentagon. Most of the Army's 44 combat brigades have done two tours already, some have done three and a couple of brigades have done four tours! And all of the R.A. tours will now be for 15 months instead of the usual 12 months. Marine combat tours are still 7 months but they bounce them back and forth constantly.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

According to the ultra-Republican Wall Street Journal:

"A petition drive is under way at Brigham Young University to withdraw an invitation for Cheney to speak at commencement later this month. Critics at the school question whether he sets a good example for graduates, citing his promotion of faulty intelligence before the Iraq war and his role in the CIA leak scandal.

"The private university, which is owned by the Mormon church, has “a heavy emphasis on personal honesty and integrity in all we do,'’ said Warner Woodworth, a professor at BYU’s business school. “Cheney just doesn’t measure up.'’

Well, I'm sure he won't be turned away at the only other school where he is scheduled to speak, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. They don't really have a choice in the matter and, besides, Cheney is a decorated anti-war veteran (five deferments with oak leaf cluster).

P.S. -- Did you notice that neither Bush nor Cheney showed up to throw out the first pitch this year? Last year Bush was too chicken to show up, so he sent Cheney. Cheney got booed! This year they were both too chicken to show up.

Students at BYU who are opposed to Cheney giving the commencement address there have collected 3,600 signatures so far on a petition requesting that the school select a "more appropriate" replacement speaker. Let's not forget that the student body at this school is overwhelmingly Republican!

“The problem is this is a morally dubious man,” said Andrew Christensen, a 22-year-old Republican from Salt Lake City. “It’s challenging the morality and integrity of this institution.”

However, BYU does have a chapter of Young College Republicans and their chairman has collected 2,000 signatures on a petition of support that he hopes to present to Vice President Cheney in person when he arrives on April 29 for his little speech.

“We’re excited for the world to see what B.Y.U. really is,” Mr. Lassen said. “No matter what you think of Cheney, he’s easily the most powerful man in the world.”

In case you haven't already guessed, David Lassen, 23, is the chairman of the BYU College Republicans!

[Ninong]

Baghdad is just as safe as Indiana in the summertime: Provided you don't eat in the Iraqi parliament building's cafeteria inside the heavily fortified, allegedly secure Green Zone.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria in a stunning assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, U.S.-protected Green Zone on Thursday, killing at least eight people, including two lawmakers, the American military said. At least 10 other people were wounded.

P.S. -- Let's all go for a walk in one of those "safe" Baghdad neighborhoods. Talk about someone whose "relationship to reality" is in question.

[Ninong]

More progress in Iraq...


"The sectarian killing is over." The citizens of Iraq are "happy and delighted" because "this mysterious sectarian killing and kidnapping is over in their neighbourhoods." -- Nouri al-Maliki, March 19, 2007.

Except that four bombs killed 157 183 people in Baghdad today:

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 157 183 people and wounding scores as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.

In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 112 people and wounding 115, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.

A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

We want the citizens of Iraq to know that their government is doing everything humanly possible to find...

...the "police official" who released that information to the biased liberal media.

Sen. John McCain's office has announced that he and Sen. Lindsey Graham...

...will be visiting the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad this weekend to prove that it is just as safe as "Indiana in the summertime."


McCain gearing up for another Baghdad shopping spree.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office has announced...

...that the resignation of the six cabinet ministers allegedly controlled by Moqtada al-Sadr will have no effect on the functioning of the new Iraqi unity government since it hasn't functioned in several months and it has never been unified.

I wonder if this is another one of those "milestones" President Bush keeps telling us about. We need some more pictures of women in abayas holding up their purple-inked fingers to prove how well things are going with the new democratically elected unity government. I'm having a hard time keeping track of all these "milestones," "turning points," "tipping points," "landmarks" and "encouraging signs."

First Lady Laura Bush's press secretary announced...

...that Mrs. Bush is still convinced that "many parts of Iraq are stable now, but, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everybody."

Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino has asked the media to please stop discouraging everybody and find some good news to report for a change.

Vice President Dick Cheney called Rush Limbaugh's show to...

...complain that this is all Nancy Pelosi's fault.


__________________________________________________ ___

"As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." -- George W. Bush, June 28, 2005.

And, unless we set a deadline to stop funding this madness, we can expect: "As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down." -- George P. Bush, June 28, 2021.

[Ninong]

I saw a video clip of Karl Rove -- T-Blossom, as "W" affectionately calls him -- on Keith Olbermann's show this evening. Rove was on stage at some school and he was taking questions from the audience. A biased liberal pinko commie student asked Rove, "Whose idea was it to launch a pre-emptive war against Iraq?"

Rove replied, "It was Osama bin Laden's idea."



There are two things wrong with that answer. The most obvious one is that they are still peddling the phony baloney that Iraq was somehow connected to 9/11. Cheney continues to do the same thing every time he opens his mouth halfway, which is all the way for him since one side of his mouth hasn't worked since the Ford Administration. But the second thing that is wrong, and perhaps even more telling, is that Rove is saying that they let Sammy bin Laden make their decisions for them.

I always thought it was Paul Wolfowitz's idea to launch a pre-emptive war in Iraq. In fact, I know it was his idea, supported by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. That has been their fantasy for the past 15 years. Wolfowitz is the guy who did most of the "planning" for the war. He's the one who assured us that the cost would be no more than $50 billion and that estimates at the time that it might run to $100 billion were absurd. He also told us that Iraq's oil revenue would fully fund the reconstruction of the country after we finished bombing it. And Wolfowitz is the draft dodger who told Gen. Eric Shinseki that his estimate of "several hundred thousand troops" was "wildly off the mark."

And speaking of Wolfie, has anyone else been keeping up with his latest problems at the World Bank? Seems most of the staff there is a bit put out by Wolfie's little deal with his girlfriend. She used to be his mistress but now that Wolfie is legally separated from his wife, I guess she's his girlfriend. You might remember that when we made Wolfie head of the World Bank, his girlfriend was already employed there as a $60,000/yr staffer. Since it was well known that she and Wolfie were lovers, it was felt that for the sake of appearances, she should find a job elsewhere.

From Salon:

Not only did the World Bank president find his companion Shaha Ali Riza a cushy job in the State Department, but she received a security clearance — unprecedented for a foreign national. [..]

(I)n 2006 Wolfowitz made a series of calls to his friends that landed her a job at a new think tank called Foundation for the Future that is funded by the State Department. She was the sole employee, at least in the beginning. The World Bank continued to pay her salary, which was raised from $60,000 to $193,590 annually, more than the $183,500 paid to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and all of it tax-free. Moreover, Wolfowitz got the State Department to agree that the ratings of her performance would automatically be "outstanding." Wolfowitz insisted on these terms himself and then misled the World Bank board about what he had done.

Exactly how this deal was made and with whom remains something of a mystery. The person who did work with Riza in her new position was Elizabeth Cheney, then the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. And Riza's assignment fell under the purview of Karen Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. But these facts raise more questions than they answer.

You see boys and girls, that's how a compassionate conservative administration works. And for anyone who is really, really slow, she got the job thanks to VICE-PRESIDENT Cheney.

[Ninong]

Check out this YouTube video clip.

[Frag Hag]

While we're on YouTube, check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAzBx...elated&search=

[Ninong]

Yeah, that was hilarious. I posted that link yesterday in this post in the GOP candidates thread.

Walnuts! said today that he was just kidding and that people need to "get a life." Funny, that's not the way he responded when John Kerry messed up the punch line in his joke about Bush getting us stuck in Iraq.

MoveOn.org has already used that clip in a new anti-McCain ad that they will start running in primary states this weekend.

Personally, I think it's all much ado about nothing except that it was incredibly stupid of McCain to even joke about something like that knowing that he was being taped. Of course he was joking but it does show that deep down he might really be a little trigger happy when it comes to his foreign policy should he be elected president. Lyndon Johnson played up the same theme in his landslide victory over Barry Goldwater in 1964.

P.S. -- The video clip of McCain singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" is not nearly as damaging to him as the video clip of him in that outdoor market in Baghdad buying $1 rugs with Lindsey Graham in an effort to prove to us that there are neighborhoods in Baghdad that are safe enough for you and I to walk around in. McCain has lost touch with reality. He and his new BFF George Bush are both in denial. Bush has already lost the war in Iraq. The only way he can 'win' it militarily now would be to institute a draft and send over 500,000 additional troops. That's not going to happen because many of us still remember Vietnam.

[Frag Hag]

Yaak. How did I miss that?!! I guess I'm going to have to blame my lack of post reading comprehension on a noisy household.

Oh well, on a brighter note, now I know what song to put on my Ipod if I decide to take a leisurely stroll in the "safe" Baghdad neighborhood...

Shay

[zhenya]

While y'all watching TV check out this stand up comedian...
YouTube - President Bush Makes Fun of Himself (really)=