Breaking News-No lapel Flag Pin, Mcain Un-American?

Ok, i admit, the subject is a bit over the top, but thanks to my friends at Crooksandliars.com and their fine post noticing that one of the candidates was without required American flag lapel pin.

Credibility?

In another attempt to shake up his dying presidential bid, Senator John Mcain has suspended his campaign, in order to put "country first" while the 700 billion dollar bailout of Wall Street is being debated. Dont be fooled by these desperate moves.

Whenever he is in trouble, Mcain plays the distraction game, just as he did with his selection of the so called "hockey mom" whatever the hell that is, Sarah Palin. In the most recent hail mary pass, Mcain said he would suspend his campaign and not attend the first presidential debate. In this he is hoping the voters see him as a bold leader, putting nation ahead if his personal goals. But this is a crassly political move, to distract you from the fact that within the space of a week he said the "fundamentals of our economy are strong," only to have his running mate say we could be on the brink of a depression. Oh wait, he also opposed the AIG bailout before he was for it. And he calls this leadership?

And now we, the US taxpayer, are supposed to foot the bill for a 700 billion dollar blank check, to be given to ONE person, the sec of the treasury, and unelected, appointed position by the President, you remember him I am sure?

I am well aware that this is a major crisis that needs to be addressed with urgency, but that does not mean it must be rammed down the throats of the American people. Think of 700 billion dollars. That is more than the Iraq War has cost, and we are supposed to just accept it because the people in Washington say it must be done? Reminds me of the run up to the war. Bush says it must be done, he will accept nothing but his own proposal, a 3 page, 3 page document giving almost unlimited spending authority in the hands of one man, and he was not elected, or even hanging chadded elected. We must not rush into this, in my opinion. But we do need to give Wall Street some comfort, so bill must be passed very soon. Just let us know the truth, none of this "fundamentals are strong" bullshit.

Furthermore, where has the President been in all of this? He waits ten days to give a speech on the crisis, and when he does, he gives us a history lesson on how we got in this mess, and little on what needs to be done. Instead, for the past week, he has let Treasury Sec Paulson and Fed Chief Bernanke do all the talking, since as the GOP propagandists have repeatedly said they have more credibility on the issue than the President. Imagine that. He has lost credibility, even among his own cabal. Indeed Rep King, republican of New York said those exact words, that they have more cred than he does on this issue, and then went on to say it reminded him of how the President used Gen Petraeus when his credibility on the War in Iraq was bankrupt. He could not have made a more damning assessment of the standing of the President in the peoples eyes. It was amazing, and i dont think he intended to convey that message. I noticed, jumped out of my seat, but i doubt many others will notice.

So here we have a war with no end in sight, and a huge financial crisis that we have no idea what the outcome will be, and a President, by his own right wingers admission, that has no credibility on either issue. And we are supposed to trust him that he has answers? Not this American.

USA-A OK!

Have you seen it?

I just finished reading an article by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. In it he describes how the Pentagon is continuing a practice started under Sec Def Rumsfeld that media is not to have access to funerals of fallen service personnel killed in the line of duty in Iraq. This is one of the worst practices, of many, that the Bush Adm has employed to not remind the otherwise occupied with other things America that there is a full scale shooting war involving the entire U.S. military that has killed in excess of 4000 Americans, and untold tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's.

The practice of shielding the military dead from the U.S. public starts from the moment the brave fallen arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. No photographs are allowed besides official military ones, and then they are released on with a freedom of information request. This practice has been in place for several administrations, including the Clinton Adm. I hve never understood this one.

But the most egregious abuses have taken place under the Bush Administration. The manipulation begins when the public affairs office for the Army calls a family of a fallen soldier who have already granted media access and pressures them to move the media back from the proceedings, so they cannot hear any of the eulogy of see the flag ceremony and presentation to the family.

In a war that the President says is being waged for the very survival of the United States, indeed western civilzation as a whole, he has asked the nation for absolutely no sacrifice. When about 1 percent of the population is directly involved, that says volumes. There is a saying that has been in use for some time now, and that is "the United States is not at war in Iraq, merely the United Stated Military.

Yet, the President would have us believe Americans are not dying or coming home lame, blind, insane from Iraq. When was the last time you saw a funeral of a fallen soldier, marine? Or god forbid, a picture of a dead American, or even bleeding American.

It is shameful, in my opinion.

Liebermann and Dead Americans

So Joe Liebermann thinks that if Barack Obama is elected President there is a good chance there will be a terrorist attack within his first year in office. Now the Mccain surrogate says he also meant that if Mccain was elected, the same could happen, based on the fact the 2 World Trade center attacks happened in the first year of Clinton, and Bush's presidency.

Liebermann would have you believe he was simply making the point that we need leadership and all that from the beginning. Of course we see how much leadership Ole W has offered, so being a chief executive for a large state like Texas obviously does not automatically make you a good president.

It is this obsession the right has with dead Americans. If they are not talking about 9/11, they are hoping for another to show that the "war on terror" is not just some charade. See, if we are attacked again, it shows how stupid Dems are, and that only the wacky right can protect us...

Success

John Mccain recently said we are "winning" the War in Iraq, based on the great "successes" that have been achieved as a result from the surge of troops sent in last year.

To be able to understand what winning means, we must first define success. Baghdad has become a city of ethincally cleansed neighborhoods separated by ten foot high concrete barriers. There are no more mixed areas of Sunni living next to Shiite. That simply does not exist.

Ok, so I was going to write this long piece how life sucks in Iraq and how silly it is for Mccain and Bush and the rest to use words like victory and success, but I just saw on the wire that 51 people killed in a suicide car bomb in Baghdad. Thats so successful, you know.

The kind of success and progress being made in Iraq go like this:

I heard on the news that there was a house break in somewhere in Chicago. So in a preemptive move, I decided to burn my neighbors house down, lest the thieves decide to come to our area. Now, when he is obviously pissed at me, I dig him a ditch to live in. Hey, its offers some shelter. See, makin progress.

Is al-Qaida in Iraq led by foreigners?

Recent documents obtained by CNN appear to contradict another one the Bush Administrations claims about the War in Iraq, specifically that al-Qaida in Iraq is(AQI) a foreign led organization. These documents show that Iraqi's are the ones giving orders, while foreigners are more involved as front line soldiers, such as suicide bombers.

For the past 5 years, the U.S. has made the claim, presumably based on intelligence gathered in Iraq, that AQI's ranks wee made up of Iraqi's with foreign leaders, mostly Saudi's. Now we learn from these documents the opposite.

What to make of this? Well, there are several conclusions to make. The most troubling, yet most plausibe, given recen intelligence failures, is that the U.S. simply got it wrong again. They fit the intelligence to make the narrative that suited them best for public consumption. AQI being a foreign outfit makes it seem more scary, more "bin Laden'ish" as it were. See, having a bunch of Saudis strapping belts of explosives wrapped with ball bearings on the poor helpless Iraqi's is far more insidious than if it is Iraqis giving the orders.

That way, we are fighting the "war on terror" as Bush sees it, as opposed to Iraqi's fighting a foreign occupation.

I am curious to see how Bush spins this one. Their has been little reaction, of course, from Bush and his minions, because they would have to admit a mistake, and we know all about how much the devout born again Christian Bush likes to admit his failings and try to atone for them, as any good Christian is faith bound to perform.

What is a Patriot?

Bright Boys

Watching the testimony of General Petraues and Ambassador to Iraq Crocker giving testimony before Congress, and the stupid, long winded ill informed all too political questions by Senators, and all I can think of is the quote from the movie "All the Presidents Men," when Deep Throat and Bob Woodward are talking in the garage.

"Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand."

This can work for any politicians. Especially when the lights come on in those Senate committee rooms...

Joke of the Day

Monopoly Fight

photo by-Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The ongoing offensive by Iraqi and American forces in the southern port city of Basra and its apparent stalemate appears to be a harbinger for the future in Iraq. Notwithstanding the declarative statements by Prime Minister Maliki that the operation would be decisive in eradicating militia control of the southern part of Iraq, these ragtag groups of fighters have fought to a draw the federal forces, backed by U.S. and British warplanes.

With Basra under the control of 3 different militias backed by their respective armed wings, the Badr Organization of the Supreme Islamic Council, the Mahdi Army of radical cleric al-Sadr as well as the Fadhila Party and its fighters, the federal government of Maliki has been unable to assert a monopoly of force in most of southern Iraq.

Though President Bush hailed the offensive as a "bold decision" by Maliki, and stating it that it is turning point in the war, a war that has entered it fifth year, it appears to be destined to be like all the other major "turning points" and show how deep the rifts are between warring factions and how difficult it will be to either bring them together or defeat them outright. It has been apparent that they militias will be very difficult to defeat, as evidenced by the offer of cash payments if the fighters laid down their arms. This after many statements by Maliki that the offensive would be final and defeat "criminal elements" as Maliki called them, from Iraq forever.

Well, this is not happening, and they have fought the Iraq forces backed by US and UK warplanes to a stalemate. It seems like Iraq is seetling into a Lebanon type situation. That is, where you have a federal government unable to exert a monopoly of force throughout the nation, while large cities or areas of land are controlled by political parties backed by military forces. See Hezbollah and Hamas for examples.

In addition to these being politicians and fighters, they are also community leaders, operating schools, hospitals, even gas stations run by the Mahdi Army. SO what oyu end up having are state within states, battling for control of streets and alleys.

It just seems like nothing never gets better, it only gets slightly better or much worse.

Jokes of the Day

Numbers Game

I edited the post "4000" and sent it as a letter to the editor at the Chicago Tribune. They posted it on their "online exclusive" section of the website. Click on title to see letter at the Tribune website.

Power of Art Redux

The following video clip from the "Power of Art" series by Simon Schaama is an excellent example of the repeated marriage of Art and War. As is usual, Art gets the better of War. What a perverse statement.

I first posted this video last year, and felt today was a good day to show it again.

4000

Just learned that the death toll for U.S. Service Personnel in Iraq has reached the 4000 mark. Not sure what to say on this. Need to think for a few minutes.

Though to put it in some context for how bad it is for Iraqi's, that 4000 number was about how many Iraqi's were being killed a month at the height of the violence last year.

Guess I need to think about numbers. What do they mean? Do they mean anything more than a guide post? And we have to find our own way after that? I dont know anymore. If we pull out the violence gets worse, in my opinion, and if we stay it only seems like we keep the lid on, while thousands will still die, in my opinion.

I dont know. Honestly...


cartoon by Jeff Danziger

Molly Cake Takes The Fashion World by Storm!

I know this is not my regular beat, but my good friend Molly has a new blog that is quite fashionable, if I may say so! Check it out, and as always, tip your bartenders!

Click on Molly to be taken on a wonderful journey!

March Madness

Anyone Watching?

Bob Schieffer has a fine commentary on the lack of attention paid to the War in Iraq by the U.S. public. Check it out.