You believed the WMD reason? It was not the main reason. We are there for establish democracy and keep four permanent bases in the heart of the middle east. Whether THAT is a wise strategy or not remains to be seen. I think not.

Has Mr. Corn seen the future--tomorrow's speech by al-M? Or did he `lose' today?

The greatest threat Iraq's people face is terror; terror inflicted by extremists.
--Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi prime minister
July 27, 2006

Iraq is a mess. Bush bears much of the responsibility for that. He invaded the country supposedly to defend the United States from a threat that didn't exist. He did not ensure that there were proper plans for the post-invasion challenges. He did nothing as his national security aides bungled one key strategic post-invasion decision after another. Now he has to contend with a violent sectarian conflict that his elective war unleashed. He has, to a limited degree, acknowledged the problem. He hasn't yet admitted there may be little he can do about it.

Here is part of an article posted by David Corn.
This paragraph speaks volumes. How can anyone improve upon it?

The poor Iraqi people must live and suffer from the terrorist's tactics inflicted upon her by Bush and the American people.

87 ashley
Someone does not want us to talk about what Israel is doing,....what they (Lebanese civilians) started for no reason other than anti-Semitism

you want to discuss what israel is doing? good.
since you are now bandying the term anti-semite around, you should start this discussion that you are asking for by defining semite.

Nazi America is a terrorist nation that prowls the world seeking the murdering and maiming of people.

2
Has Mr. Corn seen the future--tomorrow's speech by al-M? Or did he `lose' today?

The greatest threat Iraq's people face is terror; terror inflicted by extremists.
--Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi prime minister
July 27, 2006

Posted by: Just Curious at July 26, 2006 03:39 PM

Guess NOT!

as his national security aides bungled one key strategic post-invasion decision after another. Now he has to contend with a violent sectarian conflict that his elective war unleashed.

you are still giving them the benefit of the doubt. bungled. contend with a violent sectarian conflict.
to say that they(bushco) have bungled is to assign them benevolent motives which they have not even once exhibited. as if the violent conflict is not the obvious plan. after all, the war machine thrives on this violent conflict. bungling? right. all the way to the bank.
why you continue to walk the thin line between calling a spade a spade and appeasing the enablement of the support for bushco is beyond me. it makes no sense in light of the title of your book: "the lies of george w. bush". either bushco have lied and are manipulative evil opportunists and all of their motives, words and actions should be considered to be suspect, or they should not.

It was a carefully scripted moment.

The V.P. in charge of Last Throes was sitting next to the Speaker of the Oily Spoon and Big Pharma Mart, and behind the Prime Minister of the Newly Democratic and Dissolving As We Speak Iraq.

"We love you and need you," he was saying, "that is, those of us who don't hate you and are trying to kill you." "Those of us who hate you and are trying to kill you," he continued, "those we must either kill or grant amnesty to, which ever comes first."

The fly buzzing his face wasn't having any of it.

"Terrorism is the enemy," the Prime Minister declared, "except when it is the official policy of one of our allies, some of whom would do grave danger to each other, given the opportunity."

The fly still persisted, unconvinced.

The crowd in the seats applauded, rose and sat, except for those that boycotted because of the inability of the minister to denounce on particular flavor of terrorism over another flavor of terrorism.

The fly, still attracted to the stench, continued to harrass.

This comedic interlude brought to you by the Profiteers of WWIII.

9
now that was well said!

Dobbs: Why is the president ignoring our laws?
______________
NEW YORK (CNN) -- With upraised right hand and left hand on the Bible, each of our presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush, has solemnly sworn to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution of the United States.

The American Bar Association claims President Bush has violated that oath by issuing hundreds of "signing statements" to disregard selected provisions of the laws that Congress passed and he signed.

A bipartisan, 11-member panel of the ABA found that President Bush is not only disregarding laws but using such signing statements far more than any president in history. In fact, Bush has used signing statements to raise constitutional objections to more than 800 provisions in more than 100 laws. All of the presidents combined before 2001 had issued only 600.
_________________

Can't get much more "mainstream" than that!

-T

Were they once not called "executive orders?" Or is the "signing statement" something completly different.

Well, I'm off to dinner.

Spanky's telling me a lot about what the "mission" is, lately. (actually, each "patrol" is called a "mission", and little big picture stuff is really talked about.) Not building anything anymore, not "supporting" the IP or IA.

Just drivin' around trying to find stuff that might blow 'em up...BEFORE it blows 'em up! (cool pictures of a "Buffalo" vehicle removing a "donkey bomb" from the road. Cool little robot-camera thingy, too)

Tal Afar, (so far) Mosul, Balad and Tikrit. He has no idea where the troops are going to come from for the "re-taking" of B'dad. He'd rather not it be his unit, but...y'know.

In a rather touching moment, he handed his "combat" award, from the IED-survival and, uhm neutralization of the guy who set it off (and filmed it) to his mother. "I just kept thinking about you, and how I'd tell you after it all happened."

I don't know how we're gonna be able to make that Jet for the return trip... Already thinking about it.

F'ers.

-T

What a stinkin mess.

http://www.jod911.com/

Journal of Debunking 911 Conspiracy Theories, Volume 1, Issue 1

Peer-Reviewed Papers:

Advisory Board:

David B. Benson
Shagster
Len Brazil
Mike Williams http://www.911myths.com/
Debunking911 http:www.debunking911.com
JamesB http://screwloosechange.blogspot.com/
-----
is that you DB? remember when you stated that "peer review is no big deal"?
good show! ha ha - j

sorry tom. the entire sitch is bogus. - j

Please take your racial bigotry swill elsewhere.

By .

Dude, dot says we can't call mexicans,
well- mexicans.

That's lame dude. He he he

But hey, have at the Jew bashing. You swine!

He he he

You're such a BUNGHOLE!!!!

From here

Q58. "I would like to know what the President can and cannot accomplish via an Executive Order. If Congress has NOT passed laws that mandate certain Administration policies which means that those policies are merely the result of interpretation of existing law then can the President issue an Executive Order that amend those policies, assuming the new policies do NOT contravene existing law. Would this be constitutional?"

A. An Executive Order can be issued by the President at any time to modify how any part of the Executive Branch does its job, or to modify how a law is implemented, if such power has been vested in the President by another law.

For example, I did a search on executive orders with the word Naval in them, and found one that transferred control of the Midway Islands from Navy control to Department of the Interior control.

Another establishes an Emergency Board to mediate disputes among various railroads, as provided in a section of the U.S. Code.

It is certain that an Executive Order could be unconstitutional. I'm not sure I get your example, but from the executive orders I have read, the power vested in the President by the Constitution or by existing law is what is used as the basis for the ability to issue the order.

Q150. "There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about 'presidential signing statements.' What are they and where are they in the Constitution?"

A. A presidential signing statement is a document that the President attaches to a bill as he signs it, officially making the bill a law. The statement, which has relatively long history, can be anything, from a note adding the President's thoughts about a law to one completely disagreeing with the law. The signing statement has become news lately because President George W. Bush has attached signing statements to bills that have said, in essence, I acknowledge this bill, but I reserve the right to not follow the law in some instances once I sign it.

There is no provision in the Constitution for a presidential signing statement. These statements are "extra-legal," meaning they exist outside the context of the Constitution. There is nothing to say they can or should be attached - but there is also nothing saying they cannot be. However, the Constitution is clear that the President will carry out the laws passed by Congress. There is no wiggle room in Article 2, Section 3.

So what good is a signing statement, especially one that says the president might not follow the law? That remains to be seen - there have not been any Supreme Court cases dealing with signing statements, let alone contradictory ones. However, given the explicitness of the Constitution, it seems to me that any failure to carry out a law based on a signing statement would not be looked upon favorably by the Congress or the courts.

Oops broke the link, try here

'still here' --- That is indeed me. I never said that peer review is no big deal. Peer review removes some errors that would otherwise slip by. Peer review does not mean that the paper in question becomes authenticated, established fact, not even in AAAS's "Science", where we have recently seen a paper withdrawn due to fabrication of data.

Peer review is better than no peer review at all...

Mr. David Corn,

Great column!

Hope the computer stuff is going well.

Thanks for all of your work.

capt

In our democracy king george is allowed to rewrite what Congress passes. Gonsalves is obviously behind these writing statements. george started this war to save himself and the other neocons a second term. Without this war against a two bit tyrant george would never have been reelected. His 1% marginover a weak opponent (Kerry) exposes the impotency of this administration. They are selfassurably smart idiots.

DB,

Peer review is good if only you are the peer? It is the other guys that are always wrong?

Sorry DB, you made a very strong case against it, you convinced others on the blog that peer review was just a good old boys helping other good old boys. The process was fixed and meant nothing.

You had some sharing their experience[sic] with BS peer review.

I think you should have clarified long ago if you were sincere. I asked you to do so and you did not.

You have impeached your credibility by doing so.

But what do I know? I was the one that tried to support "peer review" and you even poo-pooed my commentary.

capt

No security clearances revoked over Plame

WASHINGTON --No one in the Bush administration has been stripped of security clearances over the leak of former CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to reporters three years ago.

In a letter to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., the CIA said it had no record of anyone in the administration who is no longer privy to the nation's most sensitive secrets because of the Plame leak.

The CIA also revealed it has not yet completed a formal assessment of the damage to national security that may have been caused by Plame's outing in 2003.

The assessment won't be completed until a criminal investigation of the leak has been concluded, Christopher J. Walker, the CIA's director of congressional affairs, said in the July 19 letter to Lautenberg.

For more than a year, Lautenberg and other Democrats have been calling on President Bush to fire presidential adviser Karl Rove and any other aides who discussed Plame's CIA status with reporters -- or, at the least, to revoke their security clearances.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Here is the liar telling more lies:

BUSH THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF SAID HE'D FIRE ANYONE FOR LEAKING, THAT NOBODY WAS INVOLVED.

Asked in June 2004 if he'd stand by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked, Bush replied "yes." [Bush Press Conference: Savannah, GA, 6/10/04]

When the White House was asked specifically whether Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams or Lewis Libby told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Those individuals -- I talked -- I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands." [White House Briefing, 10/10/03]

"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." [Bush Remarks: Chicago, Illinois, 9/30/03]

"The President has set high standards, the highest of standards for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." [White House Briefing, 9/29/03]

*****end of second clip*****

Hard to have it both ways. Either Bush is honorable and keeps his word or he is a liar that will say whatever he wants without any concern for the truth. That would be a pathological liar, eh?

capt

DB, what is AAAS and who's paper about what was withdrawn?

David,

For once, I agree with the precept of your article, except from a different perspective.

There are several different universal truths about militaries.

1.Militaries are created to break things and kill people. They are not policemen. If they are not proactively, preemptively breaking things and/or killing people, they need to leave.

2.Militaries are either winning wars or losing them. Stalemates go to the indigents (that's the Islamo-fascists for you liberals). So, if we are not winning this war outright, we are losing it.

General Bernard Trainor, a real hawk, in his scathing indictment of the prosecution of the war talks about numerous tactical and logistical errors made by the U.S. both before and after the invasion.

I firmly believe that most Americans, if given a choice, would rather see another 300,000 pair of boots on the ground to win this thing. They are upset not because we are there, like most of you folks are upset, but because we are not winning.

capt, I do not want to start another mini-flame war. I have just repeated shortly above more-or-less what I said before:

Just because a paper is peer reviewed does not make the conclusions of the paper established, authenticated fact. It does not matter if the paper appears in a most prestigous journal. Above I mentiioned the recent, famous mistake in AAAS's "Science".

Life has been busy and the matter did not take on any urgency until now. We are all fallible...

Ok with that?

DB you once told me that you were not very hip to the facts about 911 and about controlled demolition in particular - (i'm paraphrasing of course, i don't recall your exact words) - so how is it that suddenly are you qualified to be on an advisory board judging what has been "debunked" or not or what is foolish or not? you once told me to "show some wits man!" whereupon i said that perhaps you should exhibit some yourself. i reiterate that now and my advice to you is to distance yourself from such nonsense as 911myths.com and debunking911myths - neither of those sites cites any proof of their claims and they will only tarnish your good name in the long run. - jha

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

President cites powers of his office

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

*****end of clip*****

"asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution."

What the public thinks does not matter, what the courts say does not matter, what congress says does not matter - unless Bunnypants says so. Only what HE thinks matters.

capt

MEDIA ALERT: DEMOLISHING LEBANON -
In launching an emergency appeal for aid on July 24, the United Nations estimated that the lives of 800,000 Lebanese civilians have been disrupted by Israeli bombing. Hundreds of bridges and virtually all road networks have been systematically destroyed across the country, making relief efforts almost impossible. BBC and other journalists report many civilians trapped in the rubble of villages in the south of Lebanon cut off from medical aid by air strikes. ReliefWeb comments:

"As the conflict continues, food stocks in many parts of Lebanon are running low. Shortages of water are already a reality in parts of southern Lebanon due to a lack of electricity and fuel. The possibility of shortages of medical supplies in health facilities in the coming weeks is of growing concern. While medical and food stocks are available delivery is almost impossible in many parts of the country." ('Flash appeal on the Lebanon crisis launched today,' ReliefWeb, July 24, 2006; http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SODA-6S23GF?OpenDocument)

To date, some 377 Lebanese and 17 Israeli civilians have been killed in the conflict. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1828142,00.html)

Save The Children reports that 45% of the Lebanese dead are children, as are 200,000 of the 500,000 refugees forced to flee the bombing. (Save The Children, 'Crisis in middle east - children hit hardest,' July 21, 2006; http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=4281&group=resources?ion=news&subsection=details&gawcam=mec&gawadgrp=mec1

The Red Cross reported (July 23) that five of its volunteers and three patients were wounded when Israeli aircraft attacked two ambulances in successive missile strikes. The attacks took place near Qana when an ambulance arrived to evacuate three patients from the border town of Tibnin. The drivers said that two guided missiles were fired at each ambulance. Three injured patients - a woman, her son and grandson - were all injured again, the son losing his leg to a direct hit from one of the anti-tank missiles. (Ed O'Loughlin, 'Ambulances fired on by Israel, says Red Cross,' Sydney Morning Herald, July 25, 2006)

According to Human Rights Watch, Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon. Researchers on the ground confirmed that a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed one and wounded at least 12 civilians, including seven children. Eyewitnesses and survivors described how the artillery shells dropped hundreds of cluster submunitions on the village. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, commented:

"Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians. They should never be used in populated areas." ('Israeli cluster munitions hit civilians in Lebanon Israel Must Not Use Indiscriminate Weapons,' HRW, July 24, 2006; http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EKOI-6S2458?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=lbn)

Israeli Propaganda - Never Had It So Good

Assaf Shariv, media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, boasted to the Jerusalem Post last week that Israelis have been interviewed by the foreign press four times as much as spokespeople for the Palestinians and Lebanese. Shariv cited a poll of Sky News viewers that found that 80 percent believe Israel's attacks on Lebanon were justified. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Gideon Meir, added: "We have never had it so good. The hasbara [propaganda] effort is a well-oiled machine." (Gil Hoffman, 'Israel calls up media "reserves",' Jerusalem Post, July 17, 2006; http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1150886020429&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull)
===============
Never had it so good. I guess Israel is willing to sacrifice as many innocent Israelis as it takes to force Lebanon out of their own territory. And to the fool "ashley", if you did any reading at all you would know that semites, Palestinians and Lebanese, can't be anti-semite. That is like calling African-Americans anti-black. How can anyone be so stupid? Or is that just a typical flag waving ploy requiring no rationality? Turn off the TV and read a book. BTW, wipe your chin.

DB,

That is a very different position than the position you took before.

I am fine with everything.

No big deal, just a VERY different position from the position you spoke to when we discussed it before. Sure, I even asked you about YOUR peer reviewed papers back then.

The fact that you have a positive opinion of peer review when you are the reviewer is a telling point that does not support your ability to be objective about the issue.

It is only human.

capt

The American Bar Association has come out with a report condemning signing statements, with emphasis on the 800 plus comments put on laws passed by congress and signed by Bush.

The head of the ACLU disagrees with Arlen Spector that FISA needs to be updated, which would take away our 4th amendment rights.

Last post 71, while I love Randi Rhodes, I did not hear her show yesterday. I was just remarking on the historical coincidence between death squads and Ambassador Negroponte.

Jeanne, when I saw Bennett on the Today show, I was reminded of Ann Coulter and thought of Men in Black when the farmers wife says "It looked like a great big bug wearing an Eggar suit".

No waffling. We are in Iraq for the benefit of Big Oil and Big War Business. Condi is smiling bigger these days with oil pushing $100 a barrel. Rumsfeld and Cheney are also growing richer each and every day. How do you say in America, Stock Market for New American Century?

War is a big hit with the rich.

Paint the streets red with blood. Ignore the passion of the anti-war, for they are week. Drink the oil and be intoxicated on power. Wage madness on mankind. Half of them will worship you and half will not know anything happened. Damien.

'still here' --- I am sure that I never said I was or was not "hip". Yes, at that time I knew very little about the events of 2001 Sep 11, other than having read the commission's report.

Since then I have learned a goodly amount regarding the events of that tragic day at the World Trade Center. Specifically, I have quite throughly understood the collapse of WTC 7 and have quite a good understanding of the collapse of WTC 2. I stick to the science, widely understood to include the engineering and technology.

I advise the writers of Debunking 911, and have contributed to that site myself. I have occasional contact with the writer of 911Myths. Mike WIlliams is extremely careful to only present well-documented facts. When conjectures are required, he leaves them up to you.

I can, without undue effort, provide a service by assisting with filling in the answers to some of the questions regarding 2001 Sep 11. My reputation will take care of itself, thank you anyway.

Jury Finds Yates Not Guilty in Drownings

HOUSTON Jul 26, 2006 (AP) In a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity Wednesday in the drowning of her children in the bathtub.

The 42-year-old woman will be committed to a state mental hospital and held until she is no longer deemed a threat. If she had been convicted of murder, she would have been sentenced to life in prison.

Yates stared wide-eyed as the verdict was read, then bowed her head and wept quietly. Her relatives also shed tears, and the children's father, Rusty Yates, muttered, "Wow!" as he, too, cried.

Four years ago, another jury convicted Yates of murder, rejecting claims that she was so psychotic she thought she was saving her the souls of her five children by killing them. An appeals court overturned the convictions because of erroneous testimony from a prosecution witness.

Yates' chief attorney, George Parnham, called the verdict this time a "watershed event in the treatment of mental illness."

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

This is an important win for a very disturbed woman and so is also very important for all afflicted with mental health issues.

She was not a murderer she was ill. She will likely never get past the killing of her children.

It makes sense to have her in treatment and counseling for the rest of her time on this planet.

capt

Kucinich was detained while entering congress today.

If they have no concept of insurgency then they should keep harrassing liberal congressmen and women.

Kucinich and 44 others are cosponsors of a resolution calling for a cease fire in Israel/Lebanon.

Blessed are the Peace Makers. They are the ones I dig most.

Capt., I read that about half an hour back.

This day has had a cloud over it, and that ruling was a bit of sunshine. Why is it that the mentally ill can't recognise mental illness in others?

I would also agree with the same treatment for the neocons, even after their war crimes. The civilized world is like that, only in America do we kill people for their transgressions.

And the score on that account is Bush 154, Saddam 148.

Re #31: capt, we all understand that the written word, and blogging in particular, can easily lead to misunderstandings. For example, I do not recall your asking about my peer-reviewed papers.

Before my retirement I was often enough the peer who did the review of papers submitted to scientific or technical journals in my areas of specialization. Occasionally I would find some small mistakes, but the nature of the areas of specialization were such that it was more a matter of advising the editor whether or not the contribution of the paper was sufficiently large to be worthy of publication.

So I am not doing anything different now than I have for the past 40 years. Over that period of time my opinion of the value of peer review has slowly lessened, as I see more and more papers, in a variety of fields, being overthrown, or much more disturbingly, with falsified data. My apologies if my rather jaundiced wisdom is showing through too much...

other than having read the commission's report.
Specifically, I have quite throughly understood the collapse of WTC 7 and have quite a good understanding of the collapse of WTC 2.

then surely you must be aware of the extent to which the commissions report was a farce. and i find it odd that you quite throughly understand the collapse of WTC 7 when even NIST has not expounded upon that with all of their remaining credibility.
and since you bring up your quite a good understanding of the collapse of WTC 2, i will remind you that prof. wood is a structural engineer and a prof. of mechanical engineering and says with authority that "the explanations of the collapse that have been given by the 9/11 Commission Report and NIST are not physically possible. A new investigation is needed to determine the true cause of what happened to these buildings on September 11, 2001."
http://janedoe0911.tripod.com/BilliardBalls.html"
----
i'm still curious as to what AAAS might be and what article has been withdrawn from it. - j

Support Out Troops: It Costs Nothing

Supporting the troops the Bush way costs nothing. Indeed, those who chant loudest in this cause pay less in taxes than previously to support the fighting men and women abroad. Those who want to actually do something for the almost two hundred thousand military men and women in the Afghan and Iraqi messes get scant help from Bush or his Republican Congress.

Homecoming for veterans of war can produce deep distress, rather than a joyful reentry to civilian life. The U.S. government has proven itself prolific at starting wars with little debate about what happens to its soldiers -- but not adept at winning them, especially when their opponent fights back. In Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, U.S. troops with superior technology fought hard, but those who started and commanded the wars could not provide a strategy for winning them.

Worse, the Korean and Vietnam Wars seem to have taught the war-makers little. High tech and well-trained troops do not substitute for knowledge of the enemy's history and reality, without which solid strategy becomes impossible.

Nor do slogans provide for the real needs of veterans who did the dirty work. I remember sitting in university classes next to bitter Korean War vets in the 1950s. They benefited from the GI bill, which paid for their education and helped them buy homes. "Yeah, a great deal," one said to me after we left a history class. "I killed people, saw my buddies killed and wounded. What for?"

-----------
What for? Exactly! Why do our men and women have to fight? Why do they have die? I ask you, "What for? Yes, I ask, 'What for?'"

The stupidity of it is beyond human comprehension!!!

Israel troops 'ignored' UN plea
The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say.
Posted Jul 26, 2006 01:20 PM PST

I am relinking this because this is the story that reports that the UN Observation Post was hit with a "precision-guided missile". What this means is that the building was "painted" with a special coded laser called a "designator". This puts a laser dot, usually infra-red so that the people near the target are not aware of it, but which is visible to the seeker on precision-guided munitions, to guide them in.
So this attack was no accident. The Israelis had to point a designator at that building for the bomb to hit it.
==============
How the hell do these murderers keep getting away with this? Will this be another one of those famous "cake walks?" If Bush supports this you can bet it is a very bad thing.

The ultra-rich, the persons with the most to lose, pay no taxes to support our troops. When will the over 50% of Americans realize that this Iraq war is to help keep the ultra-rich's lifestyles and enslave most Americans to poverty wages???

#32
THAT'S IT! EUREKA!!!
The neocons are aliens. We need Men in Black to root them out and exterminate. Squish. Send them to the light. Splat.

*note to reader in the anti terror booth. Just kidding.

41 amen

Support the Troops? What for?

Jeaane, they have anti-terror booths and people that can read?

Gerald, so that's where Joe went. Tie a yellow ribbon around that riff.

DB,

I was pretty specific and you were too. I cannot account for your memory and mine is not even close to what it once was but you expressed a very different opinion that you expressed today.

I understand that a "peer reviewed" paper on a subject which you do not agree (conceptually) is a personal perspective on the facts concerning that specific issue.

So be it.

capt

The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people."
--- Hugo L. Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

"Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have."
--- Richard Salent, Former President of CBS News

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; To lie outright; To pervert; To vilify; To fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and or lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
--- John Swinton, former Chief of Staff, The New York Times (1953)
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
--- David Ben-Gurion, from Ben-Gurion, a Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar (May 1948)

Here are a few examples, just from the past day's news, most of which you probably never will hear about from American news sources and, if you do, will be tightly spun to support the Israeli party line:

1. Two Lebanese Red Cross ambulances, plainly marked and with emergency lights flashing, were shelled and strafed by low-flying Israeli jets. Each took a precision, laser-guided American-made missile through its roof, precisely in the middle of the cross. Your tax dollars at work, folks.

Israeli Jets "accidentally" attacked a UN observer post, despite flags and markings clearly designating it as UN and despite unequivocal proof that they knew of it beforehand. American media reported it because the UN is making a big deal about it being intentional, but what isn't being reported is how many times that post was attacked: fourteen times. Four UN observers died. A mistake, says Israel. Fourteen coincidental mistakes. Do you believe in coincidence? Like Israel's 1967 repeated attacks upon the USS Liberty, this is a war crime, but America's veto will prevent the UN from lodging even a formal complaint. Also like the USS Liberty: Do you suppose the UN observers were observing something that Israel did not want reported? Or do you believe in coincidence?

Israel told Lebanese civilians to get out of harm's way in southern Lebanon, then proceeded to bomb the roads and bridges necessary for that exit. Not satisfied, Israel then fired upon Lebanese families on the open road who were trying to leave, just as they had been told to do by Israel. One of those families was in the ambulances noted above. This is a war crime.

Israel is employing true weapons of mass destruction (banned internationally) - both antipersonnel cluster bombs and chemical weapons that burn people in a way doctors never before have seen. These chemical weapons victims are all civilians, 25% of them children.
=============
I saw a comment from someone named Carey who said they understood how these tactics may have been necessary for Israel in the beginnig, but not now. When is it necessary to murder innocent people in terrorist bombings, EVER?

Re #38: 'still here', I remind you that I invited you to join many others on a PhysOrgForum thread which is specifically devoted to such questions. That is not the purpose of this blog. I will, just this once, respond to some of your remarks.

NIST plans to release a final report of WTC 7 this December. I point out that those who voluntarily build the Debunking 911 site have contributed, in a small way, to NIST's studies. In the meantime there is the FEMA report and the NIST preliminary report. In addition, there are the interviews on Firehouse.com. This information has been condensed, for easier comprehension, on Debunking 911.

Judy Woods is a mechanical engineer, not, AFAIK, a structural engineer. Her specialty is a useful one: dental fillings. No structural engineer who has looked at the data agrees with her model, instead using conservation of momentum and known modes of structural crushing to build models of the collapse of the towers.

I wrote a computer program for a slight variant of the other models and verified it against actual measurements of the beginning of the collapses. My model, to nobody's surprise, essentially agrees with the observations, quite well considering the simplicity of the model. For the very beginning, read the NIST NCSTAR report. It is quite good and very thorough.

AAAS: American Association for the Advancement of Science. The organization publishes "Science" weekly, attempting to include papers from all the fields of science. Not too long ago, a Korean molecular biologist faked some data and the resulting paper was peer reviewed and published in "Science". Two graduate students happened to notice the likelyhood of faked data and they were right. The Korean government was rather upset, to put it mildly. (Blogging on almost any site devoted to science would have notified you of this recent, very famous case of scientific dishonesty.)

Now, 'still here', no more about this on David Corn's site, at least from me. Come join us on the new thread devoted to these matters on PhysOrgForum. Sincerely.

i like the name redalert and wish i'd thought of it! i will now be greenlight in honor of redalert until someone spoofs it. so all comments subsequent to 38 using the name still here should be considered to be spoofs.
sincerely, greenlight.

Re #47: capt, What I recall writing was the peer review is important. It is! But peer review does not catch all errors, all the time.

In the sciences and engineering research areas which I understand well enough to read with profit, I almost always accept the data and conclusions expressed. In the areas I understand the best, I know enough to sometimes take issue with the conclusions reached. This may result in my writing a letter to the editor or a short paper explaining the alternate interpretations. (Maybe that is a long winded way to say what you just said?)

aha! PhysOrgForum thread ! last time i looked at that there were 600 pages of at least 5 comments per page devoted to wtc demolition. hardly the place for a serious discussion.

Judy Woods is a mechanical engineer, not, AFAIK, a structural engineer.

prof. wood is indeed a structural engineer and a prof. of mechanical engineering at clemson u. and even were she a simple escalator repairman her example speaks for itself. it cannot be debunked since itself is a simple debunking of the NIST/911 commission. to think that her debunk is debunked is just bunk. she welcomes comments and if her model were not appropriate she would make the necessary changes.
but you are right this is not the place for a discussion about the exploding of wtc.
peace and ha out.

DB,

"What I recall writing was the peer review is important. It is! But peer review does not catch all errors, all the time."

That is not what I remember reading in your previous posts on the subject. Most likely my inability and lack of understanding.

I try to be very careful with my words but the limits on my ability to understand what I read are legendary and makes any claim of comprehension on my part laughable so I never take myself too seriously.

"If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking." ~ Lyndon B. Johnson (1908 - 1973)

capt

Re #52: 'greenlight', thank you for the correction. Dr. Judy Wood, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson, has not pushing a single paper devoted to what a civil engineer means by 'structural engineering'. Means something different to a mechanical engineer.

Since her model fails to account for all the laws of physics and the known approximations for what civil engineers call structures, it is instantly dismissable and I, along with civil engineers and physicists and even chemists, have done so.

The new thread on PhysOrgForum is only about 50 pages long and is the appropriate place to consider the science of the WTC collapses and whether or not the airplane strikes sufficed to destroy the buildings.

Peace.

Re #53: capt, right. But the quote would be improved if LBJ had said "at most one of them is doing the thinking."

I can't believe David allows someone to say poo-poo on this site. This is getting out of hand.

Clean Water: Clean Wounds

Drinking water could be a simple, cheap and effective way to clean wounds according to a recent study by the University of Western Sydney and Sydney South West Area Health Service.

Professor Rhonda Griffiths, from the UWS School of Nursing, says the research arose from an inquiry by community health nurses who needed evidence to support a common practice and belief that showering patients with leg ulcers was both safe and effective.

"In response we searched for studies done by others on cleansing wounds using the shower, however we were unable to locate any evidence to support the practice," Professor Griffiths says.

"So we conducted a six-week double blind, randomised controlled trial in South Western Sydney involving 35 patients with 49 wounds.

"None of the wounds cleansed with tap water showed signs of infection and we found no sign that the healing rate was slow.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I have always thought tap water was the first step in cleaning a wound. I had never thought about the possible infection or pathogens. Ignorance is bliss (sometimes).

capt

Oops! "published", not "pushing". Tch, tch.

Dudes, Capt and RS are having a lovers quarrel just like a soap opera. You Cornnuts are friggin funny.

Since her model fails to account for all the laws of physics and the known approximations for what civil engineers call structures, it is instantly dismissable and I, along with civil engineers and physicists and even chemists, have done so

what her model does is to simply point out that the NIST/911 commission's account of the "collapses" defy the laws of physics - for you and your anonymous engineers and physicists and even chemists to dismiss it out of hand is just another tactic towards prolonging the inevitable. you know it, i know it, NIST knows it, and prof. wood knows it.

thread on PhysOrgForum ..... is the appropriate place to consider

agreed. i relent sir.

DB,

"If everybody's thinking alike, somebody isn't thinking." ~ Unknown

I would have said: If everybody's thinking alike, nobody is thinking.

capt

Re #60: 'greenlight', I haven't had such a good laugh in a long time. Thank you.

Re #61: Good. Hope to meet you there.

Peace.

Re #62: Yes, yes! To quote capt, "If everybody is thinking alike, then NOBODY is thinking!"

still here
5

you should start this discussion that you are asking for by defining Semite.

anti-Semite: In Webster's dictionary, there is a picture of YOU. That should be easy enough for even a Jew hating, anti-Semite, racist, ignorant bigot like YOU to understand.

#45
Geof01,
They can read if we keep it simple.

*Just kidding.

still here

ps

That was not name calling. capt says it is OK to call the President a NAZI, if capt believes The President is acting so, Therefore, since you are acting like a Jew hating, anti-Semite, racist, ignorant bigot, according to capt, it is not name calling.

The answer is that sometimes liberty and freedom are worth dying for. It is a poor student of history that cannot recall the tens of thousands of Continental Army soldiers that risked their lives over such bloodless issues as taxation and quartering.

Thank goodness today's Democratic Party didn't have a say in our own war for independence. Apparently genocide is the minimum requirement to fight and die for. Anything less presumes that war is not an option.

Ironically, one thing the Democrats were willing to fight and die for was the right to keep black slaves, for it would have hurt the profitability of their precious plantation owners. And for this, Democrats have earned the entire black vote in perpituity. Talk about short memories.

I know, I know. That's ancient history and there's nothing to learn from those experiences.

Of course, if liberals had any conscience whatsoever, they realize that we're at fault for installing Saddam in the first place, thus leading to the deaths of over 2 million people during the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, his numerous genocides of Kurds and Shiites, his attacking of Israel and Kuwait.

Yet it is somehow "stupid" of us to actually fix the mistake that we made since it would require warfare. Nay - to liberals, fixing the mistake is actually just another mistake. (Logic never was a strong suit of liberals.)

What is a Semite?

From Wikipedia

The concept of a "Semitic" peoples is derived from Biblical accounts of the origins of the cultures known to the ancient Hebrews. Those closest to them in culture and language were generally deemed to be descended from their forefather Shem. Enemies were often said to be descendants of his cursed brother Ham. In Genesis 10:21-31 Shem is described as the father of Aram, Asshur, and others: the Biblical ancestors of the Aramaeans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Sabaeans, and Hebrews, etc., all of whose languages are closely related; the language family containing them was therefore named Semitic by linguists. However, the Canaanites and Amorites also spoke a language belonging to this family, and are therefore also termed Semitic in linguistics despite being described in Genesis as sons of Ham (See Sons of Noah). Shem is also described in Genesis as the father of the Elamites and the descendants of Lud, whose languages were not Semitic.

The Proto-Semitic peoples, ancestors of the Semites in the Middle East before the break-up of the hypothesized original proto-Semitic language into various modern Semitic languages, are thought to have been originally from the Arabian Peninsula. Other theories place proto-Semitic in the Ethiopian Highlands and Eritrea.
=============
The Canaanites are the present day Lebanese, so please stop with the bullshit rhetoric. I hear loud uproars over Muslims and the perceived wish that all infidels must die. It is said this belief is derived from the Koran. But, have you read the Talmud lately? Do you feel that you are a pig in human form? Semite? This is all religiously based. You are completely clueless. Dump these cruel and vengeful Gods, they are nothing but trouble. The real God loves all equally.

Ad hominem abusive or ad personam

Ad hominem abusive (also called argumentum ad personam) usually and most notoriously involves insulting one's opponent, but can also involve pointing out factual but damning character flaws or actions. The reason that this is fallacious is that usually, anyway insults and even damaging facts simply do not undermine what logical support there might be for one's opponent's arguments or assertions; argumentum ad personam short-circuits these potential arguments from logic in favor of a direct attack on the opponent's authority.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Personal attacks are petty and expose the impotent position on the facts on the part of the attacker. If the attacker had a valid argument they would not devolve into Ad Hominem.

I supported my post with references to the facts that support Bush and his family have been in business with the Nazis.

That is not a personal attack on Dumya as he is not involved in the discussion, he is not voicing an opposing view and I support my commentary with facts. Facts not challenged by anybody.

The spew on the blog directed to any individual poster is a personal attack ergo Ad Hominem.

I might be giving too much credit to some but I am tempted to assume people know the difference.

"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), The Gay Science, section 191

capt

65 67 ashley
anti-Semite: In Webster's dictionary, there is a picture of YOU. That should be easy enough for even a Jew hating, anti-Semite, racist, ignorant bigot like YOU to understand.

Therefore, since you are acting like a Jew hating, anti-Semite, racist, ignorant bigot, according to capt, it is not name calling.
---
this is the discussion of israel that you were lamenting the absence of @ 87 on the previous thread?
i asked you to define semite and you call me a jew-hater.
in fact the term semite is used to refer to ALL the people of that region, not just jews.
so while an israeli is always a semite, a semite is not always an israeli.
now that you have cleared that up for me why don't you begin this discussion of israel that you have insisted that some mysterious Someone does not want us to talk about. after you my dear - ladies first!

The Middle East: What happens next?

Israel withdraws unilaterally? Diplomatic settlement? Israel snared in counter-insurgency? Lebanese government falls? Israel invades Lebanon? We analyse the options.

Option 1: Israel withdraws unilaterally

How? Amid international outcry over mounting civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, President Bush is prevailed upon to pressure the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to rein in the military.

And then what? Uneasy truce in which status quo is restored: probable halt to incoming rockets but Israel still vulnerable to raids like the one 13 days ago in which two soldiers were abducted by Hizbollah. Hizbollah celebrates "victory" and continues to build its strength as a military force, claiming it has twice defeated the Israeli war machine.

Winners ... Hizbollah - would still claim victory over Israel, angering US, which views militia as a proxy for Iranian terror.

... and losers Israel - would still say it had degraded Hizbollah " infrastructure," but at a huge cost to its international reputation.

So will it happen? Unlikely, given the high political cost to Israel and the US.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

There are four more scenarios at the linked piece. A frank discussion and some dire predictions.

capt

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself: Robert Ingersoll

=
The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human: Aldous Huxley

=
"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.": Thomas Jefferson

=

Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Consider this a "cease and desist" order of our material on this site. Continual postings will be prosecuted.

The deserter is at it again.

Harper's: Former official says Bush mulling sending American troops to Lebanon

"The officer, who had broad experience in the Middle East while at the CIA, noted that NATO and European countries, including England, have made clear that they are either unwilling or extremely reluctant to participate in an international force. Given other nations' lack of commitment, any "robust" force" between 10,000 and 30,000 troops, according to estimates being discussed in the media" could by definition require major U.S. participation. According to the former official, Israel and the United States are currently discussing a large American role in exactly such a "multinational" deployment, and some top administration officials, along with senior civilians at the Pentagon, are receptive to the idea.

The uniformed military, however, is ardently opposed to sending American soldiers to the region, according to my source. "They are saying 'What the fuck?'" he told me. "Most of our combat-ready divisions are in Iraq or Afghanistan, or on their way, or coming back. The generals don't like it because we're already way overstretched."
-----------------------
Somebody needs to tell the president that the military personal aren't made in a factory. They aren't the plastic toys he used to have command over as a kid.
Or maybe somebody should get a visual aid for him. Something that shows him what the numbers mean.

"See, President Bush. All our guys are over here and here."
"Well, why can't we push some over here?" The president took a cigar and pushed the plastic soldiers on the map.
"Ahhh, ok. Sir, I know what your getting at."
"Why can't we do that?"
"That's Greece, sir."

Capt,
It appears you are the master of rationalization. You're able to blather incessantly as why it is OK for you to name call, but all other who do are in the wrong.

You then set up your fishing pole and bait it with a fortune cookie, waiting for a nibble, so you can blather incessantly again. One must conclude from this, you are THE master/baiter, with the possible exception of red alert and dot, who like to bait and nibble on each others poles.

#76
Seriously, is that supposed to make sense? If you are going to take up so much bandwidth at least get amusing.

UN Officials: Observers Asked Israel 10 Times To Halt Bombs

JERUSALEM (AP)--U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon called the Israeli military 10 times over a six-hour period to ask it to halt its nearby bombing before their observation post was hit, killing four people, according to details of a preliminary U.N. report on the incident released to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

During each phone call, an Israeli official promised to halt the bombing, according to a U.N. official who had seen the preliminary report.

The U.N. peacekeepers at the post said the area within a kilometer of the post was hit with precision munitions, including 17 bombs and 12 artillery shells, four of which directly hit the post Tuesday, the report said.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Seems like it was no accident.

capt

Smoke signals from the battle of Bint Jbeil send a warning to Israel

Qlaya, Southern Lebanon -- Is it possible - is it conceivable - that Israel is losing its war in Lebanon?

From this hill village in the south of the country, I am watching the clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up to 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and others surrounded, after a devastating ambush by Hizbollah guerrillas in what was supposed to be a successful Israeli military advance against a "terrorist centre".

To my left smoke rises too, over the town of Khiam, where a smashed United Nations outpost remains the only memorial to the four UN soldiers - most of them decapitated by an American-made missile on Tuesday - killed by the Israeli air force.

Indian soldiers of the UN army in southern Lebanon, visibly moved by the horror of bringing their Canadian, Fijian, Chinese and Austrian comrades back in at least 20 pieces from the clearly marked UN post next to Khiam prison, left their remains at Marjayoun hospital yesterday.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

What kind of sick cynicism would have the Israeli army shooting red cross ambulances through the cross? The same thing that has them target and kill UN observers that had asked ten times to stop?

capt

Young vets joining unemployment lines

Young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are having a harder time finding a job than their peers who didn’¥ serve in the military.

Last year, about one in six veterans between 20 and 24 was jobless, nearly double the rate for nonveterans their age. It was brighter in the second quarter of this year, when young vets had an 11.2 percent jobless rate, but that was still higher than the 8 percent for nonvets their age and more than twice the overall unemployment rate.

Labor and veterans officials are surveying young vets to try to find out why. But experts have some theories:

-Some veterans are entering the work force for the first time and aren’¥ adept at explaining their military skills to civilian employers.

-Some who saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which makes it difficult for them to work and makes employers leery of hiring them.

-Permanent jobs that offer middle-class wages and benefits are scarcer these days in some regions.
-------------------
I don't know anybody who says the economy is good. It sucks.

Is Nazi America and Nazi Israel planning to nuke Syria and Iran? We know that they have collaborated on the attack of Lebanon. Will Nazi America send troops into Lebanon, probably yes, because Nazi Americans love to see their men and women killed and maimed?

Have Nazi Americans accepted the belief that a good American is a dead American?

The Israeli army has gone against an army that has trained as fiercely as their own. If the Israelis look at their own history they will recall that that is how they started. All they had was a will to win.

Are the numbers of the unemployed Americans going down because a dead American from the Bush wars will not constitute an unemployed American?

RedAlert, you are a Babbleonian. Same babble, different day.

Americans are a stupid lot!!! No outrage for Americans going into a wrong and immoral war!!! No outrage for dead and maimed Americans for going to war to spread Islam across the world!!! Yes, Americans are a very stupid lot!!!

Idiot Nation

"We don't do torture." George W. Bush

"You're either with us or you're with the evildoers." George W. Bush

"Hey evildoers, where do I sign up?" John S. Hatch

"The Power of Nightmares is a compelling BBC documentary written and produced by Adam Curtis. As powerful as it is, it contains some footage that I wish I hadn't seen, as it was truly nightmarish itself. Nine or ten men are bound with their arms above their heads against a prison wall. Then they are savagely whipped. They scream as bloody wounds are opened on their backs. At the end of it their backs are smeared by their tormentors with animal fat (I naively thought it was water) and then are shoved into cells to which ravenous attack dogs are introduced, presumably to eat them alive. In the film we are spared viewing this spectacle, but we can hear their horrible screams. This was Nasser's Egypt. There is no reason to believe anything is different under Mubarak. Both good friends of America. When Nasser was asked if torture took place in Egypt under his regime, he very coolly denied that any such thing would be tolerated. He appeared irritated at the question. The nerve to even ask!

It was the same with the Shah of Iran. Of course we don't torture people, he said, we don't have to. Of course Mr. Pahlavi was lying through his teeth, and his torture methods were taught to the feared and loathsome Savak secret police by America itself.

The central premise of the Power of Nightmares is that fear can be used by unscrupulous leaders as a potent tool to manipulate a gullible population and to concentrate power. Fear can command consent like nothing else. In the end, as we have witnessed, it would seem that nothing is more powerful than peoples need for perceived security, even if it is false. Thus non-existent Iraqi WMD's, Condi's magic mushroom clouds, some anthrax that came from government labs (and which source has proved as elusive as Osama), World Trade Center buildings that fell as a result of controlled demolitions thus pointing to US Government involvement (didn't the PNAC people pray for a Pearl Harbor event?), and the Constitution is in tatters. People are being spied upon. Innocent people are being held extra-judiciously. People are being tortured. Well, the Constitution is only a goddam piece of paper, isn't it?. Like the Bible. Toilet paper.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Another very good piece thanks to ICH!

capt

#78... Seems like it was no accident.

Damn, I forgot what I read on how long, but that UN post has been in the same (known) position for years.
Only ignorant people would believe it was an accident to hit a known position with guided munitions.

I think since '78?

happy has said that the economy is good for him - my neighbor has just purchased a new car as has my brother so their personal economies must be good -
in truth i see food prices slowly climbing, mostly produce, and milk is exhorbitent - fuel is rising and will continue to do so - i see many more hopeless wanderers on the streets now than i used to and the number of day-laborers hanging around to "do the jobs that no-one else will do" has increased almost exponentially, and that's not a good sign -
is the economy good? those that already have enough would probably say yes but those who don't have enough are sinking into a morass -

Babylonians tried to build a tower high enough to reach god. Bushevicks tried to build a war big enough to reach god by realizing the prophesy of the rapture.

Why the Bushevicks think god wants us to make wars when it is counter to the gospel in the New Testament is completely illogical. Could it be their religious faith is as insincere and the politics they practice?

The Bushevicks serve the false gods of power and profit motive. God warned us when man made the golden calf. Will god be so forgiving again?

It's off to bed! God willing; I will have some interesting posts in the late AM or PM of July 27, 2006.

#91 JerryL, great post!!!

Why did the U.S. go into Iraq? Remind us.

Why are U.S. troops still there?
1) Oil.
2) Most of their oil is still in the ground and our folks know how to get it out
3) Pottery Barn rules, we broke it... and it would be a shitty thing to destroy another country's infrastructure and not put things right.
4) Oil.
5) The Big Oil Co.s won't do the job unless we pacify the place:
"More than three years after the U.S.-led invasion, no big oil company has stepped forward to spend the huge sums necessary to tap Iraq's giant oil reserves and get crude flowing and revenues pouring into Iraq's government to help pay for food, jobs and even medical care."

"'It will take a lot more to bring in the big guys,' said Sharif Ghalib, a senior analyst with Energy Intelligence Research in New York."

"None is likely to start prospecting until company chiefs feel reasonably assured that their workers won't be sent home in coffins and that their investments have legal protection that won't be taken away by a new government."

"'We are interested and they are interested. But we need those conditions in place to take it to the next level,' Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister told The Associated Press. 'It's too soon to make a judgment on how close we are. I suspect we could be a few years away.'"

Yeah, it'll hurt Big Oil if their workers come home in coffins; but they might actually lose a bit of sleep if their investments get pulled out from under them. Soooo, how much longer will our troops be in Iraq? A few more years, sayeth the Big Oil Execs.

"How many books--or intelligence reports--has Bush read about the intricacies of Arabic culture, history and politics?"
--David Corn

How many books has Mr. Bush read? About Arabic culture, no less? Ooof. That was stone cold, Mr. Corn. That one is worthy of the Wednesday Night Funnies.

And speaking of which....

Texas Family Loses Two Sons in Wars

LUBBOCK, Texas (July 26) - Less than two years ago, Roy Velez got the worst news a father could get: His oldest son was dead, killed during combat in Iraq.

This week, his pain only deepened with news that his youngest son had died in Afghanistan.

UPDATE: Ireland Warned Israel Of UN Outpost In Lebanon

DUBLIN (AP)--Ireland on Wednesday filed an official protest with Israel alleging that its senior United Nations peacekeeper in Lebanon made six telephoned warnings about Israeli shelling near a U.N. border outpost - hours before it suffered a direct hit and the four soldiers inside were killed.

Speaking after a 40-minute meeting with Israeli Ambassador Daniel Megiddo, two senior Cabinet ministers said they doubted Israel's claim that the attack was accidental.

Megiddo said his government would do all it could to avoid hitting United Nations positions and firmly rejected suggestions that Israel would ever target one. "You can't forget, however, that this is a war zone," he told reporters outside the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he had been summoned.

Defense Minister Willie O'Dea and Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said what the ambassador told them wasn't credible.

"The ambassador said it was a war situation. We don't regard that as sufficient explanation and we are asking him to convey that in no uncertain terms to his government," O'Dea said.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

More and more, by and by Israel bomb the UN peacekeepers intentionally. Yet they claim to be waiting for "international forces" to take over? Hmmmm.

capt

As promised the next installment of Wednesday Night Funnies:

A little visual funny:
* Caddy Pake
* Another puzzle for Mr. Bush

Colbert: What a week for our president. Yesterday he lost his 'vetoginity' -- that a boy, George. And today, after six years of silence, he finally stood up and testified at the NAACP Convention in Washington. Now a lot of people assumed the president would get a chilly reception. Wrong. The NAACP embraced him. The man got huge applause. Take a look
on screen: Bush receiving applause after saying, "I understand many African Americans distrust my political party."
Colbert: Showered with love.

"It's continuing to be hot down there in Washington, D.C. As a matter of fact it's so hot, President Bush talked to the NAACP just for the cool reception....He spoke for ten minutes and then he gave back rubs."
--David Letterman

"For the first time in his presidency, President Bush addressed the NAACP convention. For five years he was asked to appear at the NAACP, but didn't make it. Well, that's nothing. He was asked to appear at the National Guard for six years and never made any of those."
--Jay Leno

"Actually, it almost didn't happen. When President Bush overheard a couple of staff members saying he was going to give a speech at the NAACP, Bush got mad. He said, 'You can't fool me, I know what that spells.'"
--Jay Leno

"There was one embarrassing moment today for President Bush when they phoned the Pentagon about evacuating Lebanese-Americans. He said, 'I didn't even know Dick Cheney's daughter was over there.'"
--Jay Leno

"Earlier today, President Bush vetoed funding for stem cell research. See, I don't think he really understands these issues. President Bush said today, 'Stem cells may be dangerous, especially if people talk on them while driving.'"
--Jay Leno

"People still talking about President Bush's use of a four-letter word at the G-8 Summit. It's not a big deal, President Bush using a four-letter word. Now if President Bush used a four-syllable word, that would be unbelievable."
--Jay Leno

"In a speech, Vice President Dick Cheney said, 'Either we are serious about this war or we are not.' Of course, people didn't know if he meant the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war against people who disagree with him."
--Jay Leno

"President Bush is back in Washington. He's back from the big G-8 Summit in Russia. President Bush said he got a lot of s**t done."
--David Letterman

"Apparently the G-8 Summit was not that successful. Only one good thing came out of the G-8 Summit. They issued a desperate plea to Superman."
--David Letterman

"President Bush made a number of gaffes at the G-8 Summit. One of them -- he gave a neck rub to the Chancellor of Germany. So you know what that means? He's drinking again."
--David Letterman

"President Bush will be addressing the NAACP tomorrow. This will give him a chance to communicate his vision to the black community, or at least give them something to goof on."
--David Letterman

"Congratulations, Mr. President. I was getting worried. You had been in office for almost six years and hadn't done the dirty deed yet. Now the first time you do it, it's always a little awkward, so don't feel bad that you end up vetoing a bill that two-thirds of the country supports. But now that the first one is over, you're going to want to do it over and over. You're going to want to put your pen on anything that looks remotely like legislation. . I got some good news in that area. You're probably going to have a lot of bills to veto after this November when the Democrats take back Congress."
--Stephen Colbert

And one last funny for Mr. Corn and his recalcitrant computer:

"Despite the heat, President Bush is keeping busy. Earlier this week at the White House, President Bush met with the Prime Minister of India. There was an awkward moment when Bush asked the Indian Prime Minister, 'Now that you're here, could you see why my computer is acting up?'"
--Conan O'Brien

Signing off from the swamps of Laguna Madre. Will be back in dry, dusty, 104-degrees-in-the-shade San Antonio tomorrow. Woohoo!

93 thanks man.i suppose ashley, butt head. LBH and observer would consider it anti-semetic or ad hominem. there are no categorical prejudicial characterizations of semites in my thesis nor have I directed my argument so as to mock, discredit or humiliate anyone with whom I've discussed the thesis. these concepts may be a little too tricky for those who protest too much.

Pande,

Thanks man, I needed a funnies fix!

capt

Jerry,

Just ignore the ignorant. Your post was very balanced and thoughtful. They built the mouse with a scroll wheel specifically for the troll posts.

The trolls are not serious so no reason to take them seriously.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~ Dr. Seuss (1904 - 1991)

capt

"We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in 'reality.' And reality has a well known liberal bias."

~ Stephen Colbert, Speech to White House Correspondents' Dinner, April 30, 2006

'toon

"More than three years after the U.S.-led invasion, no big oil company has stepped forward to spend the huge sums necessary to tap Iraq's giant oil reserves and get crude flowing and revenues pouring into Iraq's government to help pay for food, jobs and even medical care."

as if one red cent would ever see it's way to paying for food, jobs and meds for iraqis.
don't forget about l. paul bremer's 100 rules for iraq.

Scientists Say They’ve Found a Code Beyond Genetics in DNA

Researchers believe they have found a second code in DNA in addition to the genetic code.

The genetic code specifies all the proteins that a cell makes. The second code, superimposed on the first, sets the placement of the nucleosomes, miniature protein spools around which the DNA is looped. The spools both protect and control access to the DNA itself.

The discovery, if confirmed, could open new insights into the higher order control of the genes, like the critical but still mysterious process by which each type of human cell is allowed to activate the genes it needs but cannot access the genes used by other types of cell.

Iraq War a Mistake, Say 56% of Americans

More adults in the United States are disappointed with the latest developments of the coalition effort in Iraq, according to a poll by Gallup released by USA Today. 56 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, up five points in a month.

The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein's regime was launched in March 2003. At least 2,567 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 18,900 troops have been wounded in action.

In December 2005, Iraqi voters renewed their National Assembly. In May, Shiite United Iraqi Alliance member Nouri al-Maliki officially took over as prime minister.

Yesterday, al-Maliki met with U.S. president George W. Bush in Virginia. Bush reiterated his commitment to the military operation, saying, "I’∂e told the Iraqi people we stand with (al-Maliki), and that no matter how tough it gets, we will complete this mission. We owe it to those who have served in combat. We owe it to those who have lost a limb. We owe it to those who have lost a life." 52 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. should withdraw immediately or within the next 12 months from Iraq.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

More poll numbers.

capt

Iraq War a Mistake, Say 56% of Americans

More adults in the United States are disappointed with the latest developments of the coalition effort in Iraq, according to a poll by Gallup released by USA Today. 56 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, up five points in a month.

The coalition effort against Saddam Hussein's regime was launched in March 2003. At least 2,567 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 18,900 troops have been wounded in action.

In December 2005, Iraqi voters renewed their National Assembly. In May, Shiite United Iraqi Alliance member Nouri al-Maliki officially took over as prime minister.

Yesterday, al-Maliki met with U.S. president George W. Bush in Virginia. Bush reiterated his commitment to the military operation, saying, "I’∂e told the Iraqi people we stand with (al-Maliki), and that no matter how tough it gets, we will complete this mission. We owe it to those who have served in combat. We owe it to those who have lost a limb. We owe it to those who have lost a life." 52 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. should withdraw immediately or within the next 12 months from Iraq.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

More poll numbers.

capt

US politician Dean calls Iraqi PM "anti-semite"

US Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean called Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an "anti-Semite" on Wednesday for failing to denounce Hizbullah for its attacks against Israel.

"The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite," the Democratic leader told a gathering of business leaders in Florida. "We don't need to spend 200 and 300 and $500 billion bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hizbullah."

Al-Maliki has condemned Israel's offensive, prompting several Democrats to boycott his address to a joint meeting of Congress and others to criticize him.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

What the heck is Howard thinking? Is it just me or does the very idea of being called and anti-Semite because you "refuse to condemn Hizbullah" give you the creeps?

As if blind support for anything Israel does is a requirement or you are an anti-Semite? That is as dumb as "my country right or wrong".

I have never had much of an issue about support for Israel but my support stops short of accepting everything without question. Truth can withstand any test so why would any truthful government need blind support? That is unless they are purposely pulling some crud that requires nobody looking at what is done.

capt

"The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious." ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Maybe what Iraq needs are tax cuts. Or perhaps some "values" legislation or amendments. Speaking of amendments, I wonder what happened to what used to be a major issue, amendments to the new Iraqi constitution. Homer Hewitt www.altara.blogspot.com

Don't support the Troops

I don't support the troops