A Bully Swimming in a Sea of Cowards

Dubya still hides from Cindy, hoping she'll go away if his minions keep arresting her.

Just to set the story straight-since the msm will not regarding why Cindy Sheehan was arrested last week in Washington. From Prissy's Inbox.

The reason we were arrested at the White House, Cindy Sheehan, Nancy Nahvi-(Dallas, Texas), Rebecca Bahr- (Phoenix, Arizona) and myself, Mikal Hutto-(Houston, Texas), was because we asked to see the president, sat down in front of the gate and refused to move until he came and answered our two questions.

It had nothing to do with the petition. (for Redress of Grievances-pp) We had "delivered" the petition to the White House lawn much earlier, and had been taking turns reading the names of all the soldiers who have died in Iraq all day. If you were watching CNN when Bush had his press conference announcing Rumsfeld's resignation, you could hear us. My son called me and told me he could hear me reading, and everyone chanting, "NOT ONE MORE", while the reporters were talking.

We are ALL military mothers, not just "three other women". Nancy's son, Russell Nahvi, a medic died in Iraq, Oct. 19, 2005. Rebecca has a daughter who has been to Iraq and is still active military. I have a son that just got back from Iraq four weeks ago, and is active military.

First question, "What is this war for?"

Second question, "What does winning mean? Define winning this war."

There were actually three women from Texas arrested.

When we refused to move the crowd was growing, people were joining us off the street even though it was cold, raining and getting dark. The police decided the crowd was getting too big, so they used crime tape and taped off about fifty feet square around us and told anyone they would be arrested if they crossed the tape. Some people were tearing down the tape, but finally they got it up. After the area was all cleared out they arrested us, and eventually charged us with "interfering with a government function".

Pretty odd when we all know this government does NOT function.

Hot Links

Times UK Blair admits Iraq is 'pretty much a disaster'

Tony Blair went close last night to admitting that the invasion of Iraq had been disastrous. Challenged in an interview on Al-Jazeera’s new English-language channel that the Western intervention in Iraq had “so far been pretty much of a disaster”, he gave a brief agreement before swiftly moving on.

He said: “It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It is not difficult because of some accident in planning, it is difficult because there is a deliberate strategy, al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other, to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war.”

Mr Blair’s frank remarks came on the day that one of his most loyal ministers was reported to have described the war as “his big mistake in foreign affairs”. Margaret Hodge was said to have accused Mr Blair of espousing “moral imperialism”, remarks that she denied through an aide but which were recalled by people who attended the private meeting at which she was alleged to have made them.

Tony is a little slow, but certainly not as learning disabled as Dubya...

Cryptome The Map: Palestinian Land Loss 1946-2000

Cleveland Indy Media-sent in by a Dearest Reader Malachi burns himself alive to protest Iraq war

The press has almost completely blacked out this news in mainstream press . A long time Chicago activist, artist and contributer to the Chicago jazz scene has burned himself alive in an act of protest against the iraq war. He is only one of 10 Americans in history to have done this . Buddist monks did this during the VietNam war. On Friday, November 3, a man doused his body with gasoline and set himself afire to protest the war in Iraq . He died quietly in flames. His name was Malachi Ritscher.

Haven't seen it in the news? Me neither, which is kind of strange if you ask me, considering that it happened right here in downtown Chicago in front of hundreds of commuters during morning rush hour. The only conventional newspaper coverage to date was a tiny paragraph that appeared in the Saturday edition of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Newsworthy, yes. But Prissy wishes for no one to take this route of protest. Unless they are the authors, burning copies of the Project for the New American Century.Dick and Rummy stragerize in the old days

TruthOut, and a Prissy Patriot hat tip to Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitz, you are A-OK in Prissy's book... Reviewed: Peter Lance's 9/11 Masterpiece by Jason Leopold

Lance presents convincing evidence in the form of court records, transcripts, and interviews with key players that casts Fitzgerald, along with numerous other Justice Department and CIA officials, as terribly negligent in allowing the agencies to be hoodwinked by Mohamed, who succeeded in penetrating the CIA's Europe division and the FBI in California, all while Mohamed was secretly helping bin Laden orchestrate the African Embassy bombings. The story of Mohamed, a man Fitzgerald called the "most dangerous man I have ever met," is groundbreaking and has never been fully fleshed out before.

Triple Cross would end up being a highly entertaining Tom Clancy-esque thriller, in other words, pure fiction, if Lance didn't have tens of thousands of pages of documents locked up in a safe-house to back up this explosive account. Remarkably, Mohamed was never sentenced for the crimes he pleaded guilty to. He is in the witness protection program, his existence shrouded under a veil of secrecy.

According to Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald, Triple Cross should be placed right next to Harry Potter in the fiction section.

Prissy looks forward to Fitz writing his own account of what actually transpired...considering it was Andrew McCarthy who was actually lead counsel in that case. (Prissy confused this with Chertoff earlier, easy mistake since she doesn't trust him either)

Peter Lance is quite the story teller. Prissy did not see Jason Leopold mention that in his analysis.

Wired News Judge won't halt AT&T wiretapping lawsuit

"I do think these are matters we can proceed on," Walker said toward the end of the status conference here, which began at 11 a.m. PST and was attended by around 50 attorneys from the government, nonprofit groups, class action law firms and major telecommunications companies.

Friday's ruling represents another preliminary victory for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed its lawsuit against AT&T in January. In its suit, the EFF charged that AT&T has opened its telecommunications facilities up to the National Security Agency and continues to "to assist the government in its secret surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans."

The ruling is also a win for attorneys in 47 other cases against numerous large telecommunications providers. The cases are in the process of being consolidated into one mammoth lawsuit in the northern district of California.

Geez Dubya, those courts just keep upholding folks rights. Not looking so good for unlawful wiretapping orders these days.

Prissy will be holding a huge party when its all settled- as she hasn't been talkin' to "Al-Queda" but you tapped her phone and had her put in TALON anyway.

Remember this?

It's not just Democrats who want answers. Senator Specter has said Bush's illegal wiretapping "violates FISA — there's no doubt about that."

Until perhaps they reminded Senator Spector he wasn't immune to having his own line tapped...about that friend of yours, aye, Mr. Married senator?

Yes indeed one little reminder from Dubya's boys and Spector shut right up..

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JTA Alleged AIPAC informant promoted

The State Department last week announced David Satterfield's promotion to senior adviser on Iraq to Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state. Satterfield was promoted from deputy ambassador to Baghdad. Satterfield is cited in the indictment against Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former foreign policy director, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst, as one of three government officials who shared information with Rosen.

Satterfield is described as meeting with Rosen in 2002, when Satterfield was second in command at the State Department's Near East desk.

Prosecutors refuse to explain why Satterfield escaped prosecution for leaking information.

How can we be shocked? Look at the commander-in-goof...

TBR The Voice of the White House

Bush has no intention of any kind of cooperation with a Democratic Congress and will go on his weird way, trying to put right wing , incompetents into Federal judgeships. The fact that not even most Republicans want them means nothing to Bush. And those fuzzy headed people who think Bush will promptly work out some kind of a rational plan for ending our involvement in Iraq are smoking hemp. Bush has no intention of changing even one of his goals and will, if allowed, stay in Iraq until the day he leaves office.

Even as I speak, they are planning to activate more National Guard units, regardless what the State Governors want and the goal is to put together a new force of ca 70,000 men and send them over to Iraq for one crushing attack on all the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds that are daring to kill Americans.

We are having identical problems in under-manned Afghanistan and we can’t take troops from Iraq to help them beat off the newly-grown Taliban. Bush simply does not care because he got his money along the way and is not up for reelection.

I said he was a nut and I meant it. I will say again that he isn’t going to change in any way so believe there will be much sadness in National Guard homes come Christmas and, given the huge new U.S. death rates, even more sorrow when their father, sons and brothers have their legs and faces blown off and come home in rubber bags.”

Unless, of course, they simply refuse Dubya's illegal orders. A good possibility, especially in light of all the evidence Guard JAG's now have in their possession. Prissy will laugh with mirth when they tell the angry little men to stuff it. The Guard can decide to "Just say No" and what can Dubya do about it, except have a temper tantrum. That didn't get his mother's attention, either...Dubya simply wishes to punish the Iraqi people "one last time" for not accepting his brand of democracy. And of course our punish our troops at the same time.

Don't count your eggs before they hatch, Chickenhawks...the public will take a strong stand against any more illegal actions. Perhaps Prissy should call in the V's...

Forbes Down Go Commodities, In Comes Recession

First, many point to a lack of investment in the production of energy, industrial metals and other commodities in the 1990s. For instance, oil company managements were loath to repeat the cycle of enthusiastic expansion of capacity leading to overproduction, which collapsed prices to the disastrous detriment of profits. Industrial metals producers had similar sentiments.

Second, political turmoil and military action in the Middle East, Nigeria, Russia, Venezuela and other major petroleum producers have added a substantial risk premium to oil prices.

Third, global economic growth led by American consumers has sired robust demand for commodities. The housing boom in the U.S. and many other countries has hyped demand for lumber, copper, gypsum, plastics and many other commodities.

Fourth and maybe foremost, the excess liquidity sloshing around the world, the demand for high returns, the speculative atmosphere and the devil-may-care attitude toward risk have driven investors beyond conventional stocks and bonds and into riskier areas, including commodities.

Christian Science Monitor Now, how to put Iraqis in charge

And in a remarkably sharp comment about the political atmosphere in Washington, the top US military commander in the Middle East commented that some aspects of the search for alternative strategies seemed to him unseemly.

When I come to Washington, I feel despair [here]," Abizaid told the Senate panel. "When I'm in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to our soldiers, when I talk to the Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing," General Abizaid insisted.

That said, comments this week from other US officials suggests that the intelligence community, at least, takes a dark view of the current Iraqi situation.

Iraqi insurgent attacks against US and coalition forces have increased from about 70 per month in January to 180 in October, according to the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples. The rate of attacks on Iraqi civilians has increased fourfold over that same period of time.

General Abizaid will tell Dubya whatever he wants to hear...which is exactely why he is in charge of US Central Command. Peter Pace is another "yes Massah George" man.

Prissy isn't sure why they get to wear all those medals, but it certainly cannot be for bravery.

Straight Goods, November 18 2002Media ignores Bush's own Vietnam record - part AWOL, part deserter President prefers other people fight and die

A breath of fresh air for Ohio, Governor Elect Ted Strickland's new site

Reuters Indonesia cannot rule out terrorism for Bush visit

Washington is happy with what Indonesia has done to counter militants and the Bush administration has lifted restrictions on military sales that were a major irritant to Jakarta.

There remain strong disagreements on Middle East policy. Indonesian leaders have sharply criticized the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and say Washington is too pro-Israel, a country Indonesia does not recognize.

On Saturday demonstrations against the Bush visit took place in at least eight cities across Indonesia's sprawling archipelago, most attracting fewer than 500 people.

In front of the heavily fortified U.S. embassy in Jakarta, about 150 supporters of the Islamic-oriented Prosperous Justice Party carried banners that read "Say no to Bush" and "Wanted, the killer man in the world 2006".

International Herald Tribune For Bush, at APEC meeting, Vietnam offers lessons on Iraq

For Bush, who had never set foot in Vietnam before, this visit is something of a tightrope walk. America's defeat here is increasingly being mentioned in comparison with how Iraq may turn out, and Bush was careful to stress that in Iraq, unlike Vietnam, defeat is not an option for the United States.

"The Maliki government is going to make it unless the coalition leaves before they have a chance to make it," he said of Iraq's prime minister. "And that's why I assured the prime minister we'll get the job done."

In private, some White House officials concede that Bush's visit to Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, scheduled months ago, is proving to be spectacularly poorly timed, because of all the uncomfortable parallels between the two wars.

For example, just as President Lyndon Johnson did in 1968, Bush has removed his longtime defense secretary and nominated a realist with "fresh eyes" to replace him. Just like Johnson in 1968, he is conducting a broad rethinking of strategy, and is hearing options he does not like.

Same old tired strategy, just like Vietnam...but Dubya was still on his 20 year vacation then, so he probably doesn't remember much about that war.

Lone Star Vietnam & Iraq: From Quagmire to Quicksand By Paul Abrams, M.D., J.D.

In both wars generals were called to make public political statements endorsing the strategy, and the Administration attacked the opposition as weak, cowardly, defeatist and unpatriotic. During Vietnam General Westmoreland endorsed the Administration’s military policy, claimed we were making great progress with our strategic hamlets policy, and supported civilian claims that “we have turned the corner and there is light at the end of the tunnel.” During Iraq several generals have made the incredible statements that they have enough troops and Vice-President Cheney told us nine months ago that “the insurgency was in its last throes.” Other than deposed General Shinseki, no high-ranking military man, it seems, is willing to forego that last star to save the lives and limbs of their troops.

In both wars U.S. complicity with torture severely damaged our international reputation and reduced the chances for ultimate success. During Vietnam it was the tiger cages and the My Lai Massacre, and, for good measure, the notorious statement that “we had to destroy a village to save it.” Although we have not (yet) had the Iraqi My Lai trial, Abu-Ghraib is Iraq’s tiger cages. We have nearly destroyed Fallujah, with perhaps other cities to come.

There are also some interesting, but substantively irrelevant, congruencies. A major architect of each war, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara for Vietnam and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for Iraq, had their failures rewarded by promotion to President of the World Bank. In each war the junior Senator from New York was the prior President’s closest advisor, a “carpetbagger,” and a major contender for President.

Vietnam had a lot to teach us about what would happen in Iraq, but those lessons were ignored and vehemently denied. Perhaps, just perhaps, we can still learn from the quagmire how to extricate ourselves from the quicksand. The first lesson is to eschew false fears and false hopes. In both wars the exit strategy was to fashion a Constitution, conduct democratic elections, and train the locals to take over their own security. In Vietnam the latter process (dubbed, “vietnamization”) took more than four years, cost tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers’ their lives, with many more seriously wounded, plus an untold numbers of non-combatant Vietnamese lives and limbs, and a generation of birth defects from spraying large areas with dangerous plant toxins. The outcome was no different than if we had left several years earlier.

Cleveland Plain Dealer No more money for Iraq war, Kucinich says

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the former presidential peace candidate whose opposition to the Iraq war is now practically mainstream, wants to cut off future funding for the war.

It's the only way to assure a pullout soon, he says.

The Cleveland Democrat, appearing Wednesday on the Democracy Now independent broadcast network and Thursday on Fox News, says he will push that message in Congress and try to get a majority of his colleagues to agree. He would leave current funding in place but refuse the next Bush administration request for more money for the war, which could come by spring.

That's why Cleveland keeps Dennis, he's got that mid-western common sense that seem to leave many politicians when they get to Washington.

The Age Ghosts of Vietnam War haunt Bush

The comparisons will nonetheless be the subtext of Mr Bush's every move as he travels in Hanoi and then stops in the city that in his youth was known as Saigon, and that became the scene of a US military debacle. And he will have to convince his allies, ordinary Americans and perhaps himself that Iraq will end differently.

Until now, when asked what he had learned from Vietnam, Mr Bush has almost reflexively reached for the same line: That he does not micromanage his generals the way Johnson did. It is a response drawn from conservative orthodoxy about what went wrong in Vietnam, an argument that had the generals been allowed to fight their way, the United States might have won.

In Hanoi, Mr Bush will find himself inside Government halls adorned with paintings of Ho Chi Minh. He will be talking about the future of Asia with Ho's Communist successors who, Washington once warned, could not be allowed to win under any circumstances.

NYT Minister’s Own Rules Sealed His Fate

Now, the question was, what punishment did Mr. Haggard deserve? The board had two options: discipline him or dismiss him as senior pastor of New Life Church. Could he take a leave of absence, repent, receive spiritual counseling and return to ministry?

The answer became clear the next morning, the overseers said, when Mr. Haggard gave an interview to a television news crew as he pulled out of his driveway with his wife and three children in the car. He denied having sex with the male prostitute, and said he had bought methamphetamine but never used it. The overseers said they watched Mr. Haggard, affable as ever, smile grimly into the television camera and lie.

“We saw this other side of Ted that Friday morning,” said the Rev. Michael Ware, one of the overseers. “It helped us to know whether this would be a discipline or a dismissal.”

The Rev. Mark Cowart, another overseer, agreed. “It was a defining moment."

It will be a defining moment when the neocons can no longer deny they don't follow their own rules, just like Rev. Haggard...Dickie's next fundraiser

Quotes of the Day

Bill Maher new rule

NEW RULE: When the Iraq Study Group gets done studying Iraq, it should study America.

Now, I know liberals have been on a high these last 10 days, and it can't be the meth because that's a gay evangelical drug.

When Rep. Charles Rangel, (D-N.Y.) was asked what he thought about Bush, he said: "Well, I really think he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

It is “hard to resist” spoofing a pope “who seems to have been raised in libraries and not among people,” wrote Francesco Merlo, a columnist for the daily paper (Italian) La Repubblica.

Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.--Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)