21 Sane Ones

HR 382 read...

To hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran

15 voted against this because they realized this is an opening for W's military intervention. The 21 with guts are:

Baldwin, Blumenauer, Boyd, DeFazio, Duncan, Flake, Hostettler, Jones (NC), Kucinich, Leach, McDermott, McGovern, McKinney, Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Paul, Rahall, Snyder, Stark, Taylor (MS)

The others... wrote off another opportunity to create peace.

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Listen Now!

Listen to Living With War

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'Impeach the President' Lyrics

I never thought I'd say it but - Thanks FOXNews. Thanks for printing the lyrics to a great song by Neil Young:

Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank God

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Top Ten W Moments

That's our Prezident!! Leader of this nation.

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This Modern World

Tom Tomorrow via Village Voice.

We only wish this was all a dream. It may never end. Next invasion target? Hell, the way W is going it could be anyone - Nepal, North Korea, Chile, France, Oregon, New York, Connecticut...

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The Wisdom of Neil

I'm LIVING WITH WAR everyday
I'm LIVING WITH WAR in my heart everyday
I'm LIVING WITH WAR right now.....
And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man ...
And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again...
and when the night falls, I pray for PEACE...
Try to remember PEACE (visualize)...
I join the multitudes...
I raise my hand in PEACE
I never bow to the laws of the thought police
I take a holy vow...
To never to kill again..
To never kill again...
I'm LIVING WITH WAR in my hear
I'm LIVING WITH WAR in my heart and my mind...
I'm LIVING WITH WAR right now...
Don't take no tidal wave...
Dont take no mass grave...
Don't take no smokin' gun....
To show how the west was won....
But when the curtain falls,
I pray for PEACE....
Try to remember PEACE (visualize).......

Lyrics to "Living With War" by Neil Young.

That seems the wisest thing yet - PEACE.

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The Wisdom of Zbigniew

Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski states:

"In the absence of an imminent threat (with the Iranians at least several years away from having a nuclear arsenal), the attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the President. "
Most strikingly, Brzezinski wonders whether the Bush administration’s current strategy is actually designed to “deliberately encourag[e] greater Iranian intransigence” and undercut chances of reaching a diplomatic solution:
"How else to explain the current U.S. “negotiating” stance: the United States is refusing to participate in the on-going negotiations with Iran but insists on dealing only through proxies. That stands in sharp contrast with the simultaneous negotiations with North Korea, in which the United States is actively engaged."
"At the same time, the United States is allocating funds for the destabilization of the Iranian regime and is reportedly injecting Special Forces teams into Iran to stir up non-Iranian ethnic minorities in order to fragment the Iranian state (in the name of democratization!)."

Thanks Zbig for joining the chorus of the sane.

Gee, do we have to wait for the bombs to drop to impeach?

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The Wisdom of Donald

Rumsfeld explained it all. Here we thought it was to find Osama, WNDes, bringing down Saddam, exporting our form of democracy. Instead it was to strangle Iran.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that the United States must persevere in Iraq and Afghanistan to contain "the extreme impulses that we see emanating from Iran." Rumsfeld linked the costly and unpopular US efforts to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan to US concerns about Iran's nuclear program and its regional might, in an interview with the Pentagon's in-house television channel. He said those who believe that US efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are too costly or are taking too long need to understand that "success in Afghanistan and success in Iraq is critical to containing the extreme impulses that we see emanating from Iran."

Three questions come to me after his interview:

1. was Iran a target all along?
2. what about Osama (though W has already stated he doesn't think about Osama anymore)?
3. the Pentagon has an in-house TV channel?

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Brazil follows same nuclear path as Iran

Brazil better watch out!

As Iran faces international pressure over developing the raw material for nuclear weapons, Brazil is quietly preparing to open its own uranium-enrichment center, capable of producing exactly the same fuel.
Brazil, like Iran, has signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and Brazil's Constitution bans the military use of nuclear energy.
Also like Iran, Brazil has cloaked key aspects of its nuclear technology in secrecy while insisting the program is for peaceful purposes, claims that nuclear weapons experts have debunked.
While Brazil is more cooperative than Iran on international inspections, some worry its new enrichment capability -- which eventually will create more fuel than is needed for its two nuclear plants -- suggests that South America's biggest nation may be rethinking its commitment to nonproliferation.
"Brazil is following a path very similar to Iran, but Iran is getting all the attention," said Marshall Eakin, a Brazil expert at Vanderbilt University. "In effect, Brazil is benefitting from Iran's problems."

But wait! Never mind. No oil -no need for regime change there.

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A somber Earth Day?

Earth Day in CT was rather bleak. Rain, though much needed, kept many indoors. And even those who ventured out were thinking about other matters. As we are all trying to be the environmentalists through conservation, we all face an Earth threatened by more wars and bigger (more devastating) bombs. Maybe yesterday's Earth Day should have been called "No Divine Strake" Day. Rather than raising our voices and hands in respect of the Earth, our fists should have been raised against the new god...

Common Dreams has an excellent article about W's new God - the Divine Mushroom Cloud.

On June 2nd the god of America will be paraded before the people of the earth causing them to tremble in fear. Americans will again marvel as they worship the god of their own creation. Just like the restless Israelites in the desert who grew inpatient with god and fashioned a golden calf to protect them we have grown inpatient with god and fashioned a shiny idol of power. Southern Methodist University is working with the new clergy of death who have named the idol Divine Strake.
The 700 tons of explosives designed to simulate the effects of a nuclear weapon will create a glorious mushroom cloud. The goal of the ammonium nitrate and fuel to be detonated on Shoshone land will cover Las Vegas with a mushroom cloud and will measure 3.5 on the Richter scale. Some believe it is in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty which banned all testing for nuclear weapons. This simulated explosion will show the "enemy" and the war planners how the real thing will impact the ground and the air in which a nuclear bomb is detonated. Specifically, it is designed to simulate using a tactical nuclear weapon on underground facilities like the ones we are told exist in Iran. If this were the real thing the death toll would be huge, people would be incinerated in a flash with no chance to "duck and cover", much of Nevada would be contaminated with radiation. For any who might survive in the surrounding area they would experience a curse of cancers and deformities which may effect their children and their children's children. The evidence of America's idolatry is clear. We have named it Divine, worship it in our churches and trust in its power.
The names for our God used to be the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace but the names of America's idol are Divine Hates, Divine Helcat, Divine War Hawk and we practice nuclear stockpile stewardship.

It may not be global warming that changes the Earth. It may not be the environmental destruction from our consumerism and abuse of fossil fuels that is our death knell. The Earth's death and ours may be the result of one lunatic ready and willing to press that "nuclear" button for the second time in history.

It may well be the last time.

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Iran: The Day After

Iran: The Day After is a very sobering look at the possibilities.

If the U.S. attacks Iran - with nuclear or "conventional" bombs - it is virtually certain that Iranian retaliation will be swift and lethal. Iran's surrounding neighborhood is, as the military jargon puts it, "target-rich." Iran's military strategists will have a wide choice.
A direct attack on U.S. troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region (Oman and Qatar are both possibilities) is only the first option. Iran's military is certainly no match for the Pentagon, but serious retaliation doesn't require that; Tehran has plenty of conventional capacity to target those troop concentrations.
How about Israel? Tel Aviv has been making bellicose threats towards Iran even before the Bush administration took up the crusade, and Israel's 1981 destruction of Iraq's French-built nuclear power plant at Osirak still looms large in Middle Eastern memories. Iran's missiles can certainly reach Israeli cities. And given President Bush's statements that Iran represents a threat to Israel, and that the U.S. will do whatever is needed to "protect our ally," it is certainly possible that Iran's retaliation will target Israel, regardless of whether it is ultimately U.S. or Israeli bombers that drop their lethal payload.
Another possibility would be an attack through proxies, particularly in Iraq. Iraqi Shi'a and others, outraged by the expansion of Washington's war to Iran, could well push already unstable parts of the country over the edge. Southern Iraq could collapse into chaos and violence. (Conversely, the widely-discussed claim that Iran might retaliate against the U.S. by "turning loose" Hezbollah to commit rampant terror attacks around the world appears to be grounded less in facts than in febrile Washington imaginations. Such a scenario assumes that Hezbollah, a decades-old anti-occupation movement in Lebanon created to resist Israel's 1982 invasion, is nothing more than a cat's-paw of the Iranian regime that Tehran can deploy at will. It denies the reality of Hezbollah's independent, popular legitimacy, including its powerful representation in the Lebanese parliament, and the fact that despite long-standing Iranian support, Hezbollah's strategic imperatives are driven by Lebanese, not Iranian, realities.)
And what about the oil weapon? Iran certainly has the capacity to shut the strategic, but potentially vulnerable, Strait of Hormuz, through which a huge proportion of Middle Eastern oil flows to the rest of the world. What if the Iranian navy scuttled an oil tanker in the Strait, blocking oil traffic? What if it was a U.S. tanker?

Let's hope we don't see this "day after." No pre-emptive or preventive wars!

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Living with War

Thanks Helen, Box of Rain, for pointing out this clip.

Can't wait for that album.

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Military Madness

Some of the last lines of this Graham Nash are so timely:

And after the wars are over
And the body count is finally filed
I hope that The Man discovers
What’s driving the people wild
Military madness is killing your country
So much sadness, between you and me
War, War, War, War, War, War

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Nucular, nuklear, nuclear...

Just something to ponder as Divine Strake and our Iranian adventure nears.

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Experts weigh in - It's NUTS

Prominent U.S. Physicists Send Letter to President Bush

hirteen of the nation’s most prominent physicists have written a letter to President Bush, calling U.S. plans to reportedly use nuclear weapons against Iran “gravely irresponsible” and warning that such action would have “disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world.”
The physicists include five Nobel laureates, a recipient of the National Medal of Science and three past presidents of the American Physical Society, the nation’s preeminent professional society for physicists.
“Once the U.S. uses a nuclear weapon again, it will heighten the probability that others will too,” the physicists write. “In a world with many more nuclear nations and no longer a ‘taboo’ against the use of nuclear weapons, there will be a greatly enhanced risk that regional conflicts could expand into global nuclear war, with the potential to destroy our civilization.”
“It is gravely irresponsible for the U.S. as the greatest superpower to consider courses of action that could eventually lead to the widespread destruction of life on the planet. We urge the administration to announce publicly that it is taking the nuclear option off the table in the case of all non-nuclear adversaries, present or future, and we urge the American people to make their voices heard on this matter.”

Come on - too hard on W. All he is trying to do is take two war fronts and combine them into one. Iran is situated between Afghanistan and Iraq - Iran is a perfect place to center our operations.

I know - sarcasm in a time of world crisis doesn't fly. We are doomed as long as W is in power.

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See you there?

To learn more visit April29.org

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Nuclear Bunker Buster (RNEP) Animation

Nuclear Bunker Buster (RNEP) Animation from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

We should all be concerned.

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Tagging Air Force One

If this is real, then these guys are very good. Getting past security - maybe they can find and get Osama.

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Lock Him Away to Stop the Next War

Lock Him Away to Stop the Next War is by far the sanest solution to our mess I have ever read.

We cannot wait any longer for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Far more efficient to have Bush certified. There is no need for further debate on his mental state. The US President is bonkers.
Having turned the White House into a madhouse, having taken more lunatic positions on more issues than any head of state since GeorgeIII (are they, perchance, related?). GWB needs a long rest and a change of medication. And it shouldn't be too hard to guide him into a padded cell. Just tell him it's the presidential bomb shelter.
A lame-duck President with the eagle as his symbol once again takes the role of hawk. With his presidency a total mess, what's there to lose? So it's time to certify the President. Yes, you'd have to certify his equally deranged Vice-President as well. And toss in Rumsfeld to keep them company. Along with anyone else in the administration, the Congress, the Senate or the Australian parliament mad enough to think Iraq a sane decision.

I think every citizen in the US and the World would chip in to pay for a board of doctors to "certify" our mad King George.

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DIVINE STRAKE

DIVINE STRAKE is not a joke. It is a real project being undertaken by a lunatic madman.

The DIVINE STRAKE full scale test is planned to be a large-yield, buried burst detonated at the Nevada Test Site. Divine Strake would appear to be associated with the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator RNEP, or possibly the B61-11 Earth-Penetrating Weapon, a fact that is obscured in most press coverage. Divine Strake is a high-explosive (HE) test sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The test is a detonation of a 700 ton buried heavy AN/FO charge above a tunnel structure. The main purpose of the test is to study ground shock effects on deeply buried tunnel structures. Of secondary interest is the airblast produced by a buried charge and its modification as it propagates over the local terrain. Scheduled for the summer of 2006, as of 01 April 2006 the test was planned for 02 June 2006.
DIVINE STRAKE is one of several "DIVINE" efforts under the Hard and Deeply Buried Target Defeat (HDBTD) program. DIVINE WARHAWK consists of deep underground operational tunnel facility defeat demonstrations using advanced weapons at the White Sands Missile Range. DIVINE HELCAT was a 2004 reconstitution exercise to determine reconstitution time for the C3I tunnel facility at Nevada Test Site (NTS). Also in 2004 planning began for DIVINE HATES, which is a WMD production and storage tunnel complex functional defeat effort.

This is not divine! This is simply a man who thinks he hears God's voice. I wish this was just a test - but I fear it is a prelude to a bomb drop in Iran.

We are screwed!!!

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The future can be ours

Renew US has a great little movie about how "green" it can be.

Right on target accept the McCain-Obama reference. Overlook this mistake and enjoy.

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Stop the war(s) in Iraq, Iran...everywhere and anywhere.

Thanks to Counter Punch.

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Retired colonel claims U.S. military operations are already 'underway' in Iran

Retired colonel Sam Gardiner (Air Force) has an Easter present for us - TRUTH.

...also claimed that Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told him a few weeks ago that units who had attacked the Revolutionary Guard had been captured and confessed to working with Americans. "The secretary point is, the Iranians have been saying American military troops are in there, have been saying it for almost a year," Gardiner said. "I was in Berlin two weeks ago, sat next to the ambassador, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA. And I said, 'Hey, I hear you're accusing Americans of being in there operating with some of the units that have shot up revolution guard units.'" "He said, quite frankly, 'Yes, we know they are. We've captured some of the units, and they've confessed to working with the Americans,'" said the retired Air Force colonel.

Another "mutinous soldier?" But not the only one reporting on activities:

...according to former and current intelligence officials, the Pentagon has been using a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) as an operational asset "to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack." "[I]nstead of securing a known terrorist organization, which has been responsible for acts of terror against Iranian targets and individuals all over the world – including US civilian and military casualties – Rumsfeld under instructions from Cheney, began using the group on special ops missions into Iran to pave the way for a potential Iran strike," Larisa reported. "They are doing whatever they want, no oversight at all,” an intelligence source told Larisa. Larisa reported that the MEK soldiers were told to "quit" their organization and were "renamed" in accordance with a plan conceived by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld so that they could be "converted" into a military special ops team. According to a UN official close to the Security Council whom Larisa interviewed, the "newly renamed MEK soldiers" were being employed in the place of U.S. military advance teams to commit "acts of violence in hopes of staging an insurgency of the Iranian Sunni population." “We are already at war,” the UN official told RAW STORY.

Did the generals calling for Rummy's head know of these actions? Can they stop the media blitz that has hooked itself to the war train?

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Neocon Drums Getting Louder

Turning Up the Heat for Iran Attack

Led by a familiar clutch of neoconservative hawks, major right-wing publications are calling on the administration of President George W. Bush to urgently plan for military strikes – and possibly a wider war – against Iran in the wake of its announcement this week that it has successfully enriched uranium to a purity necessary to fuel nuclear reactors.
In a veritable blitz of editorials and opinion pieces published Wednesday and Thursday, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, and National Review warned that Tehran had passed a significant benchmark in what they declared was its quest for nuclear weapons and that the administration must now plan in earnest to destroy Iran's known nuclear facilities, as well as possible military targets, to prevent it from retaliating.
Comparing Iran's alleged push to gain a nuclear weapon to Adolf Hitler's 1936 march on the Rhineland, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol called for undertaking "serious preparation for possible military action – including real and urgent operational planning for bombing strikes and for the consequences of such strikes."

The hopes of them being discredited due to their Iraqi mess is slipping away. A new venture - a much greater risk.

The $4-5 per gallon gas predicted as a result of an Iranian attack is nothing compared to the flames that will stretch around the world.

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W's sure fire way to eternity...

Thanks to After Downing Street.

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Political Capital

Thom Hartmann points to political capital as the main reason for our Iranian adventures.

So, too, it appears that Bush is now ginning up a new war just in time for the 2006 midterm elections, and Karl Rove probably has a 2007 continuing war in mind to help swing the 2008 elections (or postpone them).
...Hold on to the Republican majority. Prevent investigations of the many crimes of his administration by denying Democrats the power of the subpoena that comes with a majority in the House or Senate

Hartmann puts the future in perspective when he states

unless Democrats in Congress and the American people stand up and speak out - in the process Bush and his Republican enablers may just bring about the end of the great American experiment in democracy.

If we follow the Iran plans set forth already, it is not just the "American experiment in democracy", it may be the human experiment on Earth that may end or be very dramatically curtailed. Nuclear weapons, millions dead, Shiite uprisings, shifts of poweer... Logic and history, as Hartmann points out, shows one path to travel. W and his cabal are walking down a very different (and dangerous) one.

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The Human Costs of Bombing Iran

Matthew Rothschild reports on the coming(?) war on Iran. The good news - our troops may not be involved. The bad news - we'll still drop bombs. The worst news:

“The number of deaths could exceed a million, and the number of people with increased cancer risks could exceed 10 million,” according to a backgrounder by the Union of Concerned Scientists from May 2005.
The National Academy of Sciences studied these earth-penetrating nuclear weapons last year. They could “kill up to a million people or more if used in heavily populated areas,” concluded the report, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Physicians for Social Responsibility examined the risks of a more advanced buster-bunker weapon, and it eerily tabulated the toll from an attack on the underground nuclear facility in Esfahan, Iran. “Three million people would be killed by radiation within two weeks of the explosion, and 35 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, would be exposed to increased levels of cancer-causing radiation,” according to a summary of that study in the backgrounder by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
While Congress last year denied funding for a new nuclear bunker-buster weapon, the Pentagon already has a stockpile of one such weapon in the arsenal: the B61-Mod11, according to Stephen Young, a senior analyst at the Federation of the American Scientists.
That the Administration is considering using such a weapon against Iran is “horrifying and ludicrous,” says Young.
But it is now Bush Administration doctrine to be able to use such weapons. The new “National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” which Bush unveiled in March, discusses the use of nuclear weapons in an offensive way. “Our deterrence strategy no longer rests primarily on the grim premise of inflicting devastating consequences on potential foes,” it states. “Both offenses and defenses are necessary. . . . Safe, credible, and reliable nuclear forces continue to play a critical role.”
If the United States used nuclear weapons against Iran, it would be violating the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty, which prohibits nations that possess nuclear weapons from dropping them on nations that don’t.

Iran is touting its entry into the nuclear club (I still wonder if that is such an honor). So does this mean a nuclear weapon is around the corner? Experts

...familiar with the program say Iran still is far from producing any weapons-grade material needed for bombs and may be exaggerating its own progress.

Will this stop W? Not if he sees this as his ticket to glory.

History made - inner voices heeded - and millions die.

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Stop Bush Before he Attacks Iran

Jesse Jackson sums it up beautifully:

War would destabilize the Persian Gulf. Terrorism would spread. Bin Laden and others would rouse 1.2 billion Muslims with cries that the United States is seeking to destroy Islam. America would be supported by few if any of our allies -- and actively, if not directly, opposed by Russia and China. We need international diplomacy, not unilateral bomb rattling toward Iran. We need a concerted plan for energy independence, reducing our reliance on foreign oil. We need to engage the world's nations in a grand alliance against terrorists -- not isolate America as a rogue nation. It is time for Congress to act boldly and early before the administration rolls out another supposedly cost-efficient war in time for the fall elections.

We have got to stop W this time. This mistake and lie may be the BIG ONE!

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His inner voices are getting louder...

A tip of the hat to Ward Sutton and the Village Voice.

As Yogi said - "it's deja vu all over again."

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FOX News ... setting it straight!

FOX - W's mouthpiece - attacks Hersh and Iran in one fell swoop.

I guess if we bomb Iran, FOX cameras will have first dibs on the cockpit camera position.

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It's that time again...

Jesus - the Peacenik

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And so it begins...

Iran 'shoots down unmanned plane'.

RAN had shot down an unmanned surveillance plane in the south amid reports that the United States is planning military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, a press report said today.
"This plane had taken off from Iraq and was filming border areas," a report in the hardline Jumhuri Eslami newspaper said.
It added the Islamic Republic "officials have obtained information from the plane system and recordings", without giving any further details.

This occurs and the buildup continues as dire wranings are given. Even our pal Mubarak of Egypt warns

...most Shiites across the Arab world are loyal to Iran first rather than the countries where they live.
"There are Shiites in all these countries (of the region), significant percentages, and Shiites are mostly always loyal to Iran and not the countries where they live."

So if we bomb and attack Iran, we open a Pandora's Box (again)?

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Imagine...

W sings Imagine. I wish this was not a doctored movie. Imagine if he really sang this song and believed in this message. IMAGINE...

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Using nukes to stop nukes!

US considers use of nuclear weapons against Iran

Seymour Hersh, in the New Yorker, once again writes about or insane foreign policies and adventure.

A senior unnamed Pentagon adviser is quoted in the article as saying that "this White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war."
The former intelligence officials depicts planning as "enormous," "hectic" and "operational," Hersh writes.
One of the options under consideration involves the possible use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, to insure the destruction of Iran's main centrifuge plant at Natanz, Hersh writes.
But the former senior intelligence official said the attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the military, and some officers have talked about resigning after an attempt to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans in Iran failed, according to the report.
"There are very strong sentiments within the military against brandishing nuclear weapons against other countries," the magazine quotes the Pentagon adviser as saying.
The adviser warned that bombing Iran could provoke "a chain reaction" of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world and might also reignite Hezbollah.
"If we go, the southern half of Iraq will light up like a candle," the adviser is quoted as telling The New Yorker.

At least there are some who tend towards sanity. But who will win this battle?

If W has his way, we may all be bending over and kissing our asses goodbye!

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Reality imitates Art

Think Progress has an article and photo of Harry Taylor, a real hero, who used his constitutional rights to lambaste W. In looking at the photo (at left) it clearly brings to mind the Norman Rockwell painting called "Freedom of Speech."

The only difference is that Rockwell showed the audience looking toward the speaker as a hero. The woman to Taylor's right (our left) looks like she is ready to blow a bubble. "How dare you criticize God's representative on Earth. I'd do anything for W, including giving up sanity and reality."

Taylor closed his remarks by stating:

I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

I wonder how he made it out of the meeting - questioned by FOX security - surely put on THE LIST?

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Saddam - This is Your Life...

BushFlash has the modern life of Saddam. One time friend, one time foe, future friend, CIA pensioner?

Great flash clips movie - a must see!

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Kerry comes around - sort of ...

Kerry states:

I believe that American combat troops should come home from Iraq in 2006 - not the distant future as President Bush does. Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government. And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.

Great first step John. What took you so long on coming forward? And why stop the withdrawal if the government is formed. Make May 15 the deadline ... period.

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Bush authorized leak on Iraq

Scooter squeals and rats out the big guy.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say.
Libby’s testimony also puts the president and the vice president in the awkward position of authorizing leaks — a practice both men have long said they abhor, so much so that the administration has put in motion criminal investigations to hunt down leakers.

Didn't W say that whoever leaked the info should be fired?

Iraq, Iran, this, the economy, lies... the reasons he should leave keep piling up.

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A rosy future?

AP reports on some very dire warnings about our future environment in "Is It Too Late to Stop Global Warming?"

But many scientists are not so sure that the oncoming train of global warming can be avoided. Temperatures are going to rise for decades to come because the chief gas that causes global warming lingers in the atmosphere for about a century.
"In the short term, I'm not sure that anyone can stop it," said John Walsh, director of the Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
There are limits, experts say, to how much individuals can do. The best we can hope for is to prevent the worst -- world-altering disasters such as catastrophic climate change and a drastic rise in sea levels, say 10 leading climate scientists interviewed by The Associated Press. They pull out ominous phrases such as "point of no return."
The big disasters are thought to be just decades away. Stopping or delaying them would require bold changes by people and government.
"The big payoff is going to be for our children," said Tim Barnett, a senior scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. "Together, if we take a concentrated action as a people, we might be able to slow it down enough to avoid these surprises."
"You don't give up," said Schneider, co-director of Stanford's Center for Environmental Science Policy. "If you have high blood pressure, do you sit there till you die or do you take Lasix," the blood pressure medicine.
Both Barnett and Walsh said the question they get most from the public is: What can I do personally about global warming? They tell people to drive less and drive fuel-miserly cars, be more efficient about heating their homes.
But those efforts "are not going to change us from an irreversible course to a reversible one," said Walsh. "What you really want to say is: 'You can't go on like this. We can't go on like this."
Robert Correll, a top scientist in charge of an eight-country research program into arctic problems caused by global warming, recognizes the contradictions, especially since developing nations such as China, India and those in Africa will play bigger roles in greenhouse gas pollution in the future.
The individual effort, Correll said, "is damn important, but you're not going to make much difference." That requires group or governmental action, he said.

Just keep on changing to flourescents. Keep driving less. Save energy. Conserve.

Though it won't matter anyway. Our environment is shot but so is everything else. We are totally doomed when our Prezident takes it up a notch and invades Iran, pisses off Russia and China, and declares himself "Dicktator for Life."

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The Art of War for the anti-war movement

Scott Ritter has a brutally frank discussion about the anti-war movement today.

In short, the anti-war movement has come face to face with the reality that in the ongoing war of ideologies that is being waged in America today, their cause is not just losing, but is in fact on the verge of complete collapse. Many in the anti-war movement would take exception to such a characterization of the situation, given the fact that there seems to be a growing change in the mood among Americans against the ongoing war in Iraq. But one only has to scratch at the surface of this public discontent to realize how shallow and superficial it is. Americans aren't against the war in Iraq because it is wrong; they are against it because we are losing.
The anti-war movement, first and foremost, needs to develop a laser-like focus on being nothing more or less than anti-war.
The anti-war movement needs to study the philosophies of those who have mastered the art of conflict, from Caesar to Napoleon, from Sun Tzu to Clausewitz. It needs to study the "enemy" learning to understand the pro-war movement as well as it understands itself.
In order to gain the upper hand politically, and actually position itself to stop not only those wars already being fought (Iraq), but also prevent those being planned (Iran), the anti-war movement will need to re-examine in totality the way it does business.

Ritter is correct in his view. But there are so many other issues that progressives and liberals are committed to (environment, civil liberties, human rights...). It is very hard to march and protest and not only focus of peace but also Mother Earth and culture. All thos issues are intertwined and under attack from W. As Ritter points out:

It often seemed that every left-wing cause took advantage of the event to promote its own particular agenda, so that "No War in Iraq" shared the stage with the environment, ecology, animal rights, pro-choice, and numerous other causes which not only diluted the anti-war message which was supposed to be sent, but also guaranteed that the demonstration itself would be seen as something hijacked by the left, inclusive of only progressive ideologues, and exclusive of the vast majority of moderate (and even conservative) Americans who might have wanted to share the stage with their fellow Americans from the left when it comes to opposing war with Iraq (or even Iran), but do not want to be associated with any other theme.

So maybe we make a few exceptions at the next marches, but never forget the other important issues. The solution - same energy and passion but different rallies?

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The Endgame in Iraq

New York Times editorial

Iraq is becoming a country that America should be ashamed to support, let alone occupy. The nation as a whole is sliding closer to open civil war. In its capital, thugs kidnap and torture innocent civilians with impunity, then murder them for their religious beliefs. The rights of women are evaporating. The head of the government is the ally of a radical anti-American cleric who leads a powerful private militia that is behind much of the sectarian terror.
The Bush administration will not acknowledge the desperate situation.

But they fail to come to a conclusion that so many are yearning for - withdrawal.

Instead they have some hope in W's attempt to call Shia leaders together to create

"a broad-based national government."

This, in the eyes of the NYT, is a

"broadly inclusive government he is trying to bring about offers the only hope that Iraq can make a successful transition from the terrible mess it is in now to the democracy that we all hoped would emerge after Saddam Hussein's downfall. It is also the only way to redeem the blood that has been shed by Americans and Iraqis alike."

So much for the "liberal media." This is a call of "you break it, you fix it." But we can not fix this.

A much better call would be to withdraw our troops, have U.N. troops take over, END THE INSANITY!

Don't worry NYT. I won't be cancelling my home delivery yet.

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Fools - not just April Fools

Gary Hart writes about the permanent bases in Iraq.

As we learned nothing from the French experience in Indochina, we have learned nothing from the 28-year British occupation of Iraq. Presumably, our remaining forces, say 50,000 to 75,000, will be garrisoned outside the chaotic urban areas where they will be used to keep Syria at bay, intimidate the Iranians, and protect the Saudis (and their/our oil). Problem is, garrisoned U.S. forces will be safe within their fortresses from suicide bombers but sitting targets for mortars and IEDs launched by primitive artillery.
Anyone thinking we are entering the end-game better wake up. Our neoconservative policy makers are still willing to risk the U.S. Army in a mad Middle East imperial scheme that composed the real reason for the Iraq war in the first place.

This is no April Fool's joke. W wants us there for the long haul. The camps have fast food joints, swimming pools and even a car dealership. Can anyone tell me what the hell a car dealership is for? Will we be adding a new star to our flag?

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