Mar 30 2008

Maliki’s Wild Surge

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

This is a second diary (first here) in my attempt to understand the most farcical aspect of the current battle in Basra: Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s vow that he will personally stay in Basra until order is restored, and the Sadrists surrender their weapons.  Maliki originally laid down a 3-day deadline for the surrender of weapons — and then extended it to 10 days when the first deadline fell flat.  And he is still — rather hilariously — in Basra.

One of the reasons Maliki made his strange vow was, apparently, because earlier in the week Sadr asked Maliki to leave Basra as a way to reduce tensions.  It appears Maliki is taking lessons from Bush: the single best way to get Bush to do something is to tell him that doing the opposite would “reduce tensions.”  

Let’s go back to the March 27 Telegraph:

Mr Maliki gave followers of Sadr and other Shi’ite gunmen 72 hours to surrender their weapons and renounce violence or bear the brunt of a military crackdown.

“We are not going to chase those who hand over their weapons within 72 hours,” said Mr Maliki. “If they do not surrender their arms, the law will follow its course.”

A spokesman for Sadr said his movement had appealed to Mr Maliki to reduce tensions in the city by returning to Baghdad and sending a parliamentary delegation to seek an end to fighting.

Liwa Sumaysim, a spokesman for Sadr said: “Sadr has asked prime minister Maliki to leave Basra and to send a parliamentary delegation to resolve the crisis in the city.”

So of course Maliki decides that his response should be to call Basra a “decisive and final battle” and to assert that he will not goddamn leave.

March 29 McClatchy:

Maliki again promised not to leave Basra until he completed the job, and reiterated his demand that armed militia members turn over their weapons to the state, withdraw and sign a vow to never violate the law again.

Unfortunately for Maliki, it appears that this isn’t going to work.  

After failing to break the resistance of Shiite militias in the five-day siege of oil rich Basra, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki sent a top general to hold talks with his Shiite rival, Muqtada al Sadr, Saturday night only to be rebuffed by the firebrand cleric, an Iraqi official close to the negotiations said.

Maliki denounced Shia militants in Basra as the equivalent of Al Qaida, and Sadr told his supporters not to hand over their arms to a puppet state of the United States.

The diplomatic initiative and the harsh rebuff further eroded expectations for a successful outcome to the offensive, which Maliki is personally directing from the presidential palace in the southern port city. It was not the only sign of problems.

Patrick Cockburn, writing in the Independent, says that Maliki controls less than a quarter of Basra after 5 days of fighting.  Cockburn adds:

Mr Maliki’s confident prediction that he would crush the Mehdi Army is turning out to be a dangerous gamble that is fast eroding his authority. It is damaging to President Bush, who had claimed the US “surge” had brought about a turning point in America’s five-year-old war to pacify Iraq. Mr Bush had praised the offensive as showing that the Iraqi security forces, trained and supported by the US, could at last stand and fight on their own. So far, the gun battles in Baghdad and the Shia south of Iraq are providing evidence that exactly the opposite is true.

Additionally, Cockburn, like Juan Cole previously, speculates that Maliki’s bizzare and unnecessary ultimatumism is due to orders from Cheney.  Cockburn:

The timing of this week’s attack may also be explained by the decision this month, at the prompting of US Vice-President Dick Cheney, on a visit to Baghdad, to hold provincial elections. The US aim was to allow the Sunnis, who boycotted the last polls in January 2005, to win control of their provinces. But elections also threatened the SIIC’s grip on councils in southern Iraq because the party has become increasingly unpopular and the Sadrists were expected to win at the polls.

The upshot of this pissing match is that Maliki is in trouble, and knows it.  Associated Press:

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that he might have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power.

What can I say?  Another successful surge from a Bush man.

Mar 30 2008

America and Iran are Allies in Iraq. Muqtada Al Sadr is defeating both.

Muqtada Al Sadr

Muqtada Al Sadr is poised to become the Simon Bolivar, of Iraq….

He is winning handily and defeating the alleged Militas of the government who are defecting to him and side stepping the ridiculous attempts to bomb him by the insane American forces who only know how to kill and torture civilians.

He is a nationalist…a enemy of American corporations and Iranian interests….as well as corrupt Shiites who are backed by IRan

Iran and the United States are being defeated in Southern Iraq….Iran will be blamed….though they support and have always supported the insane counter productive efforts of the United States in Iraq….both will lose to Sadr.

Whats so unsettling is no one realizes that America and Iran are ALLIES IN IRAQ…even though they claim not to be. Their actions have been coordinated to defeat the Sunnis…now Moqtada comes along and ruins everything for them…

Yes, for  America the enemy of your enemy is still your enemy but you support the first enemy (Iran). No, it’s not confusing. It’s stupid. Stupidity should never be confusing, but for Americans it’s a way of life.

3 years ago I predicted America would support the insurgents.

But America is supporting the insurgents, supporting Iran, fighting Iran and fighting the insurgents too. And making up an incredible story about “Al Queda” a non-existent group that has absolutely no impact or sway in Iraq.

Americans are incompetent. The population is incompetent, the press is incompetent, the leadership is incompetent, the military from the brass to the foot soldiers on the ground are incompetent.

There is no logic to American behavior in Iraq that can easily be deduced. It is clear to me however that the reason for American intervention in Iraq is to destroy the United States. It’s self destructive. That’s the logic. And it comes from a disturbed president who represents the wishes of a large portion of the population of America that years to destroy itself through “religious awakening” or the apocalypse and the return of Christ to the Earth or some such nonsense. It’s just a desire to die. The president is suicidal and a large portion of the American people are suicidal whether it is religously associated or psychologically associated. That’s another story though….

We can see that the American government leaders repeatedly display their ignorance about Iraq despite repeated “trips” (LSD?) to Iraq in which they go from the plane to the limo to the hotel to the limo and back to the plane. America is doing the work of Iran in Iraq, securing the south for Iran but Muqtada Al Sadr is ruining everything for Iran.

Sadr is a “Shiite” the enemy of America, Iran, the Militas of the Iraqi government, the Shiite Militias, the Badr group and just about everybody else. He is for a occupation free Iraq devoid of foreign influence.

He is probably the only viable alternative given the bizzarre behavior of the United States in Iraq for creating stablility in Southern Iraq and possibly even Central Iraq.

I’m sure War apologist Juan Cole who advocated bombing insurgents by air and using African mercernaries in Iraq will be opposed to Moqtada.

Well, they are bombing the “insurgents” of Moqtada Al Sadr by air and of course it’s utterly pointless.

The war criminals who are running for president have no idea who Muqtada Al Sadr is. They think he is supported by Iran. They are going to blame Iran for the defeat of American Forces in Southern Iraq. They will be mistaken. And they are going to bomb Iran due to a combination of misunderstanding and the desire to self destruct.

The truth is unbearable. America and Iran are allies opposed by Muqtada Al Sadr. And America has been doing everything Iran has wanted from the begginning by attacking Sunni insurgents who happen to be at least sympathetic in many cases to Muqtada Al Sadr.

He appears to be quite liberal compared to the rhetoric that has been associated with him. He reportedly supports the idea of a Islamic Democracy rather than a Islamic fundamentalist theocracy.

Maybe someone should look into who Muqtada Al Sadr is beyond the MSM hype about him. He appears to be quite a substantial person.

War mongers John McCain, George Bush, Hilliary Clinton and Barack Obama probably have no clue as to what is happening in Iraq and what Muqtada Al Sadr offers.

But those are the choices the American people are presented with.

Blind people to run a nation at war.

Mar 30 2008

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Leslie Gore



It’s my Party



Judy’s Turn to Cry



She’s a Fool



You Don’t Own Me

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

Mar 30 2008

John McCain, Indian Agent

(@ 9:00 – promoted by winter rabbit)


Source

The justification for Public Law 93-531 passed by Congress in 1974 was that the Navajo-Hopi land dispute is so serious that 10,000 Navajos near Big Mountain, Arizona, must be relocated, forcibly if necessary. It would be the largest forced relocation of U.S. citizens since the relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

But tradition-minded Navajo and Hopi claim there never was a land dispute. They say the dispute was invented to get the Navajos and their livestock off mineral-rich land in the Hopi reservation so it could be developed by mining companies such as Peabody Coal and Kerr-McGee.

Crossposted at Native American Netroots

This should cost McCain any possibility of him ever being the next president of the United States, period.


The ACSA challenges Senator McCain on his legislative history of Human Rights Violations: “a Skeleton in his closet: UNFIT to hold public office!”

A public research website: http://www.cain2008.org has brought together diverse historical elements of factual proof that Senator John McCain’s was the key “point man” introducing, enacting and enforcing law that removed Dineh-Navajo Families from their reservation on the Black Mesa in Arizona. The McCain revised law relocated them to Church’s Hill, Nevada (a Nuclear Waste Superfund Site, called “the New Lands” in PL 93-531). The Dineh-Navajo, a deeply spiritual and peaceful people, engaged in only peaceful resistance to being moved off lands they’d owned since 1500 A.D. Nonetheless, the Public Press and UN depicted brutalization, rights deprivation and forcible relocation.

– snip –

Senator McCain and his predecessors introduced legislation (S1973-1 and S.1003) which they claimed were justified by what has turned out to be a non-existent range war between the Dineh (mainly consisting of grandfathers and grandmothers in their 70’s living on farmlands that had belonged to their tribe since 1500 AD) and the Hopi (the 3-5 individuals rapidly assembled to assist Peabody Western Group by Senator McCain, Congressman Owens and John Boyden).

Subsequently, as the Dineh were removed from their farms by the “Relocation Commission” authorized by the US Senate at the behest of the revisions to the Public Law 93-531 introduced as S.1973-1 (1996 Partition) and S.1003 (2001 and 2005 accelerated removal of the Dineh by amendment) by Senator McCain, expanded Coal Mining Rights to their lands were granted to Peabody Western who with Bechtel Corp, have been mining the lands formerly occupied by the Dineh, and piping the coal to the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada, which serves the Las Vegas and Reno areas power needs.

He made a bogus claim that the Navajo and the Hopi were having land disputes, when the truth was, they weren’t. So what was the real intention? It must have been to steal their land and give it “to the coal companies without making any provisions to protect the burial or sacred sites,” because that’s exactly what happened.

Source

The Dineh (otherwise known as Navajo) were stripped of all land title and forced to relocate. Their land was turned over to the coal companies without making any provisions to protect the burial or sacred sites that would be destroyed by the mines. People whose lives were based in their deep spiritual and life-giving relationship with the land were relocated into cities, often without compensation, forbidden to return to the land that their families had occupied for generations. People became homeless with significant increases in alcoholism, suicide, family break up, emotional abuse and death.

– snip –

“I feel that in relocating these elderly people, we are as bad as the Nazis that ran the concentration camps in World War II.”

— Roger Lewis, federally appointed Relocation Commissioner upon resignation

“I believe that the forced relocation of Navajo and Hopi people that followed from the passage in 1974 of Public Law 93-531 is a major violation of these people’s human rights. Indeed this forced relocation of over 12,000 Native Americans is one of the worst cases of involuntary community resettlement that I have studied throughout the world over the past 40 years.”

— Thayer Scudder, Professor of Anthropology, California Institute of Technology in a letter to Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance

That is exactly.

What.

Happened, along with forcibly relocating the elderly and being what Scudder called “one of the worst cases of involuntary community resettlement that I have studied throughout the world over the past 40 years” and what Wager called,  “the largest forced relocation of U.S. citizens since the relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II.”

I thought the days of Indian Agents deceptively crafting words to steal land and resulting in forced relocation were long gone, but now there’s a republican presidential candidate running sliming for the highest office in the land,

McCain & Bush

who’s done just that. McCain introduced legislation (S1973-1 and S.1003) and claimed that legislation was justified by a non-existent range war between the Dineh and the Hopi.

(emphasis mine)


Source

James McLaughlin served under 12 U.S. presidents as an American Indian agent on the Standing Rock Reservation. He wrote an official government report covering the death of Sitting Bull at a camp near the reservation.

– snip –

Sitting Bull regarded McLaughlin as an evil enemy of all American Indians.

Well, I want a president – not an Indian Agent.


Source

John McCain’s political history is loaded with abuse of his position concerning lobbyists. Since posting actual links is against HuffPo policy, do the simple research yourself.

Look into the forcible removal of the Dineh tribes, known as the Navajo, in Arizona. Follow his ties to Atty John Boyden and the Peabody Western Group (nka Peabody Energy) and their advantages gained from McCain’s legislation S1973-1 and S1003. He pushed Atty Gen Reno in forcing them off their treaty lands and onto

a nuclear waste site (Church Hill, Nevada) through the “Relocation Commission” Look up PL 93-531. Genocide for the expansion of mining rights. Follow the money that supported his political career from the energy elites that own the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. John McCain is a corrupt politician and the evidence is there to prove it. posted 02/21/2008 at 11:28:47

John McCain “knows what’s best for America”, and that’s Straight Talk, my friends….unless of course you’re a Native American.

Mar 30 2008

I see no bravery in your eyes anymore. Only sadness

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Crossposted at The Big Orange.

There is no glory in the violence we choose to inflict upon other human beings.

There is no justice for the victims of our collective hate. There is only the suffering of the many made possible by the decisions of a few. Do not come to me with open arms or begging bowl when the alliance you seek is one of kinship or dispensation for your brutality. I am not your brother or your keeper.

There are children standing here,

Arms outstretched into the sky,

Tears drying on their face.

He has been here.

Brothers lie in shallow graves.

Fathers lost without a trace.

A nation blind to their disgrace,

Since he’s been here.

You who walk on marbled floors behind the gates that keep you isolated from the realities of your decisions to kill with impunity and destroy the lives of innocents to feed your tortured egos and fill your swollen coffers, you who glorify the hatred you breed in the hearts of the ignorant, I accuse you.

You who profit from the fear that is beaten into the collective consciousness of the masses under the pretense of patriotism, of honor, of duty, of country. I accuse you.


You who defend the indefensible with your lies and omissions, who obscure the truth with your false commissions, who with turn of phrase, through bright shiny perfect teeth, smile and give permission to kill and to maim and to rape and to die blind and happy in the pursuit of all these things we hold self evident under the illusion of exceptionality and freedom I accuse you.

The purpose of this diary is to share with you a few of my thoughts and to share this powerful video.

The song was written by a former soldier while deployed to the Balkans. It is through imagery and words and sound that we create anchors in our emotional landscape. Anchors that can serve to remind us of our humanity, our consciousness, and our struggle.

This video does that for me. It reminds me of why we struggle, why we fight the good fight, and why we cannot let any more war mongers anywhere near the White House. It is imperative that we end the occupation of Iraq, bring our soldiers home, and give them the support they will need to reintegrate into their families, lives and communities.

And I see no bravery,

No bravery in your eyes anymore.

Only sadness.

Houses burnt beyond repair.

The smell of death is in the air.

A woman weeping in despair says,

He has been here.

Tracer lighting up the sky.

It’s another families’ turn to die.

A child afraid to even cry out says,

He has been here.

And I see no bravery,

No bravery in your eyes anymore.

Only sadness.

There are children standing here,

Arms outstretched into the sky,

But no one asks the question why,

He has been here.

Old men kneel and accept their fate.

Wives and daughters cut and raped.

A generation drenched in hate.

Yes, he has been here.

And I see no bravery,

No bravery in your eyes anymore.

Only sadness.

The occupation of Iraq has gone on long enough. I urge you to learn the truth.

The Iraq veterans against the war website is a good place to start.

From a peacemaker and great human being Frank Fools Crow who lived his life as a hollow bone.

peace.

My friend Cronsense gave me this link: A flash presentation of this song, and commentary, on the occupation of Iraq from our own Ava Lou.

Peace takes Courage

And finally, another video that encapsulates the title of this diary.

Soldier Alexis Janicki. His story is heartbreaking. Please take the time to watch this young man tell his story.

Mar 30 2008

Not A “Global Warming Skeptic”

http://www.infowars.com/?p=1140

I am looking at the “Say no to Beijing 2008” ad in the upper left corner and find it related to global warming also.  Yea, we are screwing up the enviornment but the marketing effort via Big Al and this CO2 shit is only aimed at getting the peasants in chains.

Like so many other times the history of mankind elite assholes have controlled their populations with force.  If the people didn’t fall in line torture or death followed.  Technology affords the more peaceful alternative by the control of what society absorbs as truth.  A technological marketing effort.

http://www.scl.cc/home.php

One of many agencies hard at work manufacturing “your” opinion.

Watch these two carefully as We Are Change members banter about questions toward one of the premier stewards driving the policy directions of the entire world.  Far too much power have been in their hands for far too long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

People calling for 911 truth are labeled as “terrorists”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Yes, secret CIA rendition camps.  Compassionate conservatism?

It is the very same with global warming.

Villification and “tin foil hatter-fication” as assigned to two other causes of enviornmental damage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C…

Both of these are about as well known in this country as the influence of Zbig’s CFR and the Bilderburg Group.  There are global watchers though of the second phenomena, chemtrails.

Even discounting both reading behind the lines the ultimate “solution” to CO2 global warming is to collect a global tax which means setting up the global “infrastructure”, ie global government.  A global Wall Street carbon trading emporium is the real goal.

Now if the elite parasitic fucking control freaks happen to show up at my door with a solar array or one of the many supressed energy technologies made over the past sixty years then I’ll shut up, otherwise wait for those chains in the Beijing 2008 poster.

Mar 30 2008

Docudharma Times Sunday March 30



The world closing in

Did you ever think

That we could be so close,like brothers

The future’s in the air

I can feel it everywhere

Blowing with the wind of change

Sunday’s Headlines: Clinton Vows To Stay in Race To Convention: Clinton, Obama supporters wrangle over delegates: Files Released by Colombia Point to Venezuelan Bid to Arm Rebels: Brazil teen ‘killer’ investigated: Vote count under way in Zimbabwe: ‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero to give evidence in extradition case:  Under siege in Baghdad’s Mahdi army stronghold: ‘Divided’ Arab summit continues: Wed to Strangers, Vietnamese Wives Build Korean Lives: Tibet tensions high as Olympic torch nears Beijing: Whatever Happened to the IRA?

Tibetan monk protests reflect growing activism

More Buddhist monks, nuns likely to revolt against injustice, oppression

BANGKOK, Thailand – Buddhist monks hurling rocks at Chinese in Tibet, or peacefully massing against Myanmar’s military, can strike jarring notes.

These scenes run counter to Buddhism’s philosophy of shunning politics and embracing even bitter enemies – something the faith has adhered to, with some tumultuous exceptions, through its 2,500-year history.

But political activism and occasional eruptions of violence have become increasingly common in Asia’s Buddhist societies as they variously struggle against foreign domination, oppressive regimes, social injustice and environmental destruction.

USA

Clinton Vows To Stay in Race To Convention

She Stresses Finding Solution On Michigan, Florida Votes

NEW ALBANY, Ind., March 29 — In her most definitive comments to date on the subject, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Saturday to put to rest any notion that she will drop out of the presidential race, pledging in an interview to not only compete in all the remaining primaries but also continue until there is a resolution of the disqualified results in Florida and Michigan.

A day after Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged the candidates to end the race by July 1, Clinton defied that call by declaring that she will take her campaign all the way to the Aug. 25-28 convention if necessary, potentially setting up the prolonged and divisive contest that party leaders are increasingly anxious to avoid.

Clinton, Obama supporters wrangle over delegates

The acrimony is evident at district conventions in Texas this weekend, with each side accusing the other of underhandedness.

HOUSTON — Less than a month ago, Texas Democrats turned out in huge numbers for the presidential nominating contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, confident that, no matter who won, the party would have a popular, well-financed candidate.

But that exuberance is gone now.

Across the state this weekend, tense confrontations — even shoving matches — erupted as partisans for Clinton and Obama battled over how to interpret the March 4 election results and how to choose delegates to the Texas Democratic convention.

At one particularly raucous session Saturday at Texas Southern University, a leading Clinton backer, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, was booed by hundreds of Obama supporters, and police were called later to break up heated exchanges that left some in tears.

Latin America

Files Released by Colombia Point to Venezuelan Bid to Arm Rebels

BOGOTÁ, Colombia – Files provided by Colombian officials from computers they say were captured in a cross-border raid in Ecuador this month appear to tie Venezuela’s government to efforts to secure arms for Colombia’s largest insurgency.

Officials taking part in Colombia’s investigation of the computers provided The New York Times with copies of more than 20 files, some of which also showed contributions from the rebels to the 2006 campaign of Ecuador’s leftist president, Rafael Correa.

Brazil teen ‘killer’ investigated

Police in Brazil are investigating claims by a 16-year-old boy that he has murdered 12 people.

The boy made the claim after being arrested on suspicion of murder last week in the southern city of Novo Hamburgo, its police commissioner said. The teenager’s identity has not been revealed because he is a minor.

Police said the boy claimed he had killed in fits of rage or to get revenge and in one case because someone wanted to date his sister.

Africa

Vote count under way in Zimbabwe

Vote counting is under way in Zimbabwe, with the main opposition MDC claiming it is winning the battle to oust President Robert Mugabe.

The MDC said it was ahead in most constituencies but continues to fear the vote will be rigged.

Results may not be finalised for some days and the government warned the MDC not to declare an early victory.

Mr Mugabe is battling the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai and independent Simba Makoni for president.

‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero to give evidence in extradition case

A hero of the genocide in Rwanda whose story was immortalised in the film Hotel Rwanda will give evidence in a British court next week to try to stop the extradition of four men accused of crimes during the violence.

Paul Rusesabagina was credited with saving more than 1,000 lives during the outbreak of violence in 1994 in which more than a million people died. As manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines in the capital Kigali, he used his contacts to save Hutus and Tutsis. He has since become an outspoken critic of the government in Rwanda and now lives in Belgium.

Middle East

Under siege in Baghdad’s Mahdi army stronghold

The violence that began in Basra and spread to the capital continues as fears of a new civil war grow

The gunfire built to a steady rhythm. American soldiers in a Stryker armoured vehicle fired from one end of the block. At the other end, two groups of Shia militiamen pounded back with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. US helicopters circled above in the blue afternoon sky.

As a barrage erupted outside his parents’ house, Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, adviser to the Mahdi army of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, rushed through the gate to take shelter. He had just spoken with a fighter by mobile phone. ‘I told him not to use that weapon. It’s not effective,’ he said, talking of the rocket-propelled grenade. ‘I told him to use the IED, the Iranian one,’ he added, referring to an improvised explosive device. ‘This is more effective.’

‘Divided’ Arab summit continues

An annual summit of the Arab League is continuing in Syria’s capital Damascus but key leaders are staying away amid signs of a growing regional rift.

Only 11 heads of states from the 22-member organisation were present at the summit’s opening on Saturday.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were among those sending low-level delegations to the two-day gathering.

They blame Syria for the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon – a charge denied by the government in Damascus.

The Lebanese government is boycotting the summit completely.

Asia

Wed to Strangers, Vietnamese Wives Build Korean Lives

KWANGMYONG, South Korea – The two couples’ baby girls were born last month only two days apart, the younger one on the morning of the Lunar New Year. Each girl, everyone later agreed, had her Korean father’s forehead and her Vietnamese mother’s nose.

It was one year ago that the girls’ fathers had gone to Vietnam and, in the first two hours of a five-day marriage tour, plucked their mothers out of two dozen prospective brides at the Lucky Star karaoke bar in Hanoi.

Tibet tensions high as Olympic torch nears Beijing

BEIJING, March 30 (Reuters) – Further unrest in Tibet’s capital appeared to have been sparked by attempts by police to carry out security checks, indicating the tension and volatility remaining in Lhasa weeks after a deadly anti-government riot.

It was unclear exactly what occurred in Lhasa on Saturday but a mobile text message to residents from police said security checks carried out earlier in the day had “frightened citizens” and caused panic in the city centre.

Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet and Radio Free Asia quoted witnesses as describing people “running in all directions and shouting”.

Europe

Whatever Happened to the IRA?

Spend Easter Sunday in Belfast and you have to wonder what happened to the IRA.

The first time I visited Belfast, in 1977, it was a city under siege. Stores were closed. British bunkers protected by anti-rocket meshing sat on most intersections. Police and military patrols were the only sign of life on the street. The Europa, which had to be the most bombed hotel in the world, was a sandbagged fortress.

On paper at least the 1998 agreement between the IRA and the British government was what started to put an end to the violent conflict. But at the bottom of it the IRA lost the will to fight.

Mar 30 2008

Common sense and logic .. from who else, except Al Gore?

Gore expects the situation to “resolve itself” by the time the convention comes around.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2…

MURFREESBORO – Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday that he expects the Democratic nomination fight will “resolve itself” before the party’s convention in late August.

Gore told The Associated Press that he sees no urgency in endorsing a presidential candidate.

“What have we got, five months left?” he said in a brief interview after a speech at Middle Tennessee State University.

When pressed that several prominent Democrats, including Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, have expressed hope for an earlier decision on the nomination, Gore said: “I think it’s going to resolve itself. But we’ll see.”

Sort of disappointed to see Howard Dean doing something a little different ..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03…

“If we have an ugly, divided convention, we will lose. John McCain is not a strong candidate for president. The only way we lose is if we are divided.”

I think Gore’s got the right frame here, the correct vision to adopt. Dean should be backing away from even giving the appearance that Democrats will be anything but united, come August.  

Mar 30 2008

The Weapon of Young Gods #16: Treating The Symptoms

“Don’t call 911.”

I think that I’m the one who says this, but I can’t be sure. The field lights are shining down too brightly, blacking out details on the shapeless forms that hover just above me. “Was that Derek? Is he, like, awake?” Jaime, from far away. “Jesus fucking Christ, dude, look at his head!” Troy, a little closer. Their voices are disembodied, gurgling into my ears, passing through infinite layers of misty-black, liquid fog; through ripples of pain spilling down from the back of my skull. Skull. Goal post. Roy. Allison. “That was the fucking scariest hit I’ve ever seen, Ali.” Jaime again. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh man. I’m totally calling an ambulance,” says Roy, also nearby, still shaken up.

“Don’t call 911, dammit!”

Previous Episode

I know I say it that time, and a dozen pairs of eyes look down on me, pouring out their panic, disgust, fear, sympathy. Ali says something but I can’t hear. Her face is obscured by the light and I can’t read her lips. “Should we move him?” Darren asks. “I told you, no,” says Rob. “Student Health is closed, and we’ve got to call an ambulance. They’ll take care of him.” Murmured agreement. “No,” I say, and try to sit up, but only prop myself up by the elbows briefly before everything swims and I almost hit the ground again, but someone catches me and keeps the blackout away. “No hospital,” I whisper. “Not tonight. Just…home. Someone take me home.”

“Derek, man,” mumbles Roy, “you might, um, have a concussion. You kind of should, like, see a doctor,” but someone hisses and spits about “emergency rooms and goddamn ambulances and just fuck that” and I have a blinding, crippling headache and all I want to do is sleep and Roy shuts up. Somehow I’m sitting up straight now and he comes over and sits next to me, says nothing, starts untying his shoes. The crowd, my team, the other team, dissipates in twos and threes. My head weighs itself in tons. The overcast night sky drops a few miles lower and I wonder if it will crush me before someone has the sense to get me out of there. Across the field, Troy and Rob trudge back to the locker room, but Ali steps into sight again and says the game’s called off, two injuries, no more players, intramural rules, forfeit blah blah. I say okay, whatever, blink, only keep one eye open for a while because for some reason it feels less oppressive that way. Feels even less when I close both.

I sit there for a little while longer as the night ages gracelessly and more people leave, and I ramble at Roy about how the last time I was in a hospital, I was thirteen and had re-broken a freshly healed arm playing soccer. He still says nothing but I keep talking about how even though I was in absolute shock and so repressed the memory of it, my mom and my sister were there and so told me what happened. My sister said that my arm was literally bent into a curve. She said she was all the way in the waiting room but could still hear me screaming like a wild animal when the doctors re-set the break, just snapped it back into place with absolute brute force. I tell Roy that I have to take her word for it, and that it sort of freaks me out to this day that I was so horribly out of control and all he says back is “Pain does shitty things to people, dude,” then gets up to leave. Or maybe the girls chase him off, I don’t know. Either way, Roy is gone in the direction of the dorms by the time Ali and Jaime both hoist me up saying “we’ll take you home.”

Within ten minutes I’m shuffing across the field like a three-legged dog, blindly following the two chattering, mud-grass-stained angels into the abyss. They say we’ll stop at their apartment for an ice-pack and “a few other things” then go to my house, okay? I think I reply because they smile pleasantly and turn back around. The path begins where the soccer field endsm and winds behind the baseball diamond, then alongside an ivy-covered chain-link fence. The ruffling feather wings in front of me lose my attention for the split-second it takes to stare into the impenetrably dark tennis courts. Ali-Jaime pulls me back up to speed just in time to step into a small street bathed in red light. I say something like “wait til the light turns green” but we all cross anyway. El Colegio beckons up ahead, but we ignore that street and turn left instead, plunging into the dull yellow light of a perpendicular sidewalk. Isla Vista now looms darkly on our right, quiet except for the usual anticipatory humming of pent-up dementia, but we’ll be far away by the time it explodes. Fallen eucalyptus leaves endure our feet and a muffled Beastie Boys song floats out of an apartment window on El Greco.

Later I sink into limbo again while sitting on the staircase at the girls’ apartment, and I don’t care about the rivers of blood and sweat I imagine pouring down my body, don’t care that my bike might sit and rust there on the racks for three days in the salty sea air, don’t care what Ali and Jaime are bickering about as they descend back toward me. I think I hear Jaime say something like “I never know when to say X or E,” and Ali laughs as she hands me the makeshift icepack, which is viciously cold on the back of my head, but the pain is gradually beaten back to a low roar and I get up easier than I expected. The three blocks to my apartment cease to exist and suddenly giant numbers materialize out of the night- a huge green 8…1…7- the building next to mine, and then I’m lurching up my own staircase, losing my grip on the universe’s axis once again when I’m almost pulverized by a stray comet. Its name is Ben, and I’m just about to say hi when Colin’s voice erupts out ot the darkness, “Jesus fucking Christ bro watch out for Derek man what happened to your head want a drink?” Someone else accepts my cup but the backwash lingers anyway. Colin is still booming about “you should take care of that dude hey Ben get off the roof we have to leave on time tomorrow what the fuck?”

Ben continues to follow his own orbit while Ali and Jaime introduce themselves to Colin and duck inside with him. I look off the balcony but get dizzy and lean against the guard rail, slowly oxidizing in the ocean air. The icepack shifts gently around the back of my dripping, numb neck before returning to its place on the throbbing goose-egg at the base of my skull. A cool breeze cuts through the night’s humidity, carrying on it the sonic soup of the surrounding student ghetto’s nightly self-immolation. I barely notice it, but it’s the last relatively peaceful thing I hear tonight.

Mar 30 2008

Iglesia ……………………………………… Episode 44

 

(Iglesia is a serialized novel, published on Tuesdays and Saturdays at midnight ET, you can read all of the episodes by clicking on the tag.)

Previous episode

They were walking through the remains of an underwater city….underwater. Dolphins swam all around them. Hundreds of them. They swam and played in the ruins darting through marbled arches and between the pillars and columns of temples and above the rooftops of the ancient ruins. It was almost too surreal to register in his present state, until a group of dolphins swam up and started laughing at them and pointing with their fins.

Wait, no. They were laughing at him. Rogers had a finger to his lips and was looking at them and shaking his head. He thanked God that Rogers had let go of his ear.

Only now that his reverie of pain had been broken did Abe think about….breathing. He suddenly grasped his throat in his hands and made all of the other reflexive, silly looking motions that go with the instinctive reactions of the body when a humans most basic ……and taken for granted …….function, has suddenly ceased. Now that his brain had finally gotten involved, he was thinking he couldn’t breathe. Even though they had been walking for five minutes under water…..without any problem whatsoever.

The dolphins were now rolling on the sea floor, laughing their asses off….Rogers attempts at etiquette and decorum lost in the paroxysms of humor that were, for dolphins, as unavoidable as breathing. Of course, it did seem that breathing was pretty darn avoidable, here, now that you mention it.

Abe’s lungs had evidently chosen to believe his mind and were acting as if they needed air. He tried breathing, he tried not breathing, he screamed…….which seemed to help. Since screaming was impossible…but had worked. Which seemed to short circuit that whole brain thing. He relaxed….and concentrated on being pissed at the dolphins, who were still cracking up. He flipped them off. Which had the predictable effect of making them roll around and laugh even harder. He was so busy giving them his best Death Glare that he didn’t notice Rogers opening another door.

As he stepped through, he noticed that the more familiar emotions of imminent death and being highly cheesed off had returned him to a state that was a fair bit higher up the evolutionary ladder than the love-sick bovine he had been just a few short minutes ago.

Mar 30 2008

My US Navy son has returned from Iraq

Back in mid-September, I diaried about visiting with my son before he left for Iraq.  His daughter turned 8 months old yesterday.  Today her Daddy arrived home, safe and sound.

Physically, AFAIK, he is fine.  Psychologically, he’s probably okay as well.  He is pretty solid and he knows how to let bullshit slide by.  For 6 months, he and unit have been under the never-ending blare of FUX Propaganda posing as news from the outside world.  Not to mention 12 hour shifts, 6 days and one day off.  And you can’t really prevent rubbing shoulders with the gung-ho types.  You just try to avoid them as best you can.

My apologies, I am an HTML dumbfuck, so this is a C&P of my diary at dkos.

I just wanted to update y’all.

Here is the Unit’s press release.  One of the items of accomplishment was this:  

Despite a less than optimal work environment, the squadron maintained peak performance throughout the deployment, boasting an impressive 99.6% sortie completion rate.

What makes this statistic so amazing is the fact that it was achieved while supporting a very challenging flight schedule with minimal equipment and resources. Around-the-clock flight operations yielded more than 760 combat sorties, totaling over 3,700 flight hours.

My son is an E-6 (I think, I never can remember) and runs one of those ground crews.  It’s his job to make those sorties happen.  Apparently, he and his mates did a damn good job.

Al Asad Air Base is also known as “Camp Cupcake” because of its many amenities and relatively safe location.  IIRC, it was originally named that because it was the Iraqi base that was in the best condidion when the U.S. took command of it.

I have not yet heard from him, he called my parents early this morning from Bangor, Maine.  They all know I am not a morning person, so good news can wait.  It’s also just as well, since I woke up with a cold and I feel like shit.

During one of our conversations during his time there, sometimes Yahoo IM and sometimes by phone, he indicated that he will probably have to do another deployment to Iraq.  The question is; will it be 6, 9 or 12 months from now?  We all hope it is none of them.

I told you that so I could tell you this.  During the run-up to the really fucking stupid invasion of a sovereign nation, he was stationed 2 or 3 times each in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.  When the green light was given, Turkey refused to allow the US to use it’s airspace for battle purposes.   So they spent their time shutting down those facilities.  Soon afterward, he went to Saudi Arabia and did the same thing for a portion of the base there.  I joked to him that his unit should name their activities “Operation Enduring Clean-up” rather than “Enduring Freedom”.  So, If he does have to go back, I hope it will be for “Operation Final Clean-up”.

For those who might be unaware, this effort is a very worthwhile cause.  Ninepatch and other kossaks can provide some great tips to brighten the day of a member of our military in battle.

And I told you that, so I could tell you this.  In looking at the info at anysoldier.com I noticed that they proscribed sending any pork products to military personnel in Iraq.  Being the smart-ass that I am, I included a bag of pork rinds in a package I sent to my son.  When I asked, with a laugh, if he received them he said yes and seemed confused about why I was laughing.  Turns out, pork rinds are sold at the Base Exchange.

I am not the first kossak to share a happy story such as this, feel free to say “me too” in the comments.  I can’t recall any kossaks diarying about a death in their families, make sure you speak up, too.

The IGTNT series appears frequently here.  I wish that wasn’t necessary.  I admire the IGTNT team for their efforts.  Over 4,000 US military killed, tens of thousands wounded, hundreds of Allied military killed, thousands more wounded, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, wounded and displaced, hundreds of billion of dollars wasted.

Mine is a small, happy story in the midst of chaos.

Peace.

Mar 30 2008

How German “intelligence” helped Bush regime fabricate the case for war in Iraq.

One of the reasons the Bush-Cheney regime was able to lie so effectively to the American public in selling its case for invading Iraq was the appearance of legitimacy that came from foreign intelligence agencies.  Five years after the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States of America (with a coalition of coerced and bribed allies that eventually fell apart as the occupation went sour), the truth of how German intelligence officials helped fabricate the case for war is being told — but not in America.

Der Spiegel reporters Erich Follath, John Goetz, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark tell at last the story of how a drunken Iraqi defector sold made-up bullshit to German authorities.

If you’re looking to hide out from the rest of the world, the grayish white residential block in this southern German city would be a good place to be. Six families live here, most of them with children, and the building blends inconspicuously into the dull suburban skyline. A green toy tractor is parked out front, the bicycles have baby trailers, one of them complete with an American flag fluttering in the breeze. On a mailbox hanging outside the building’s entrance, the name Rafed has been scrawled in pale green handwriting — difficult to read, but decipherable from up close.

There are many the world over who would love a chance to chat with the man whose mail lands in this post box. The US Congress is desperately interested in him, and the White House once even expressed an interest in trotting him out on primetime television. A book has been written about him and Hollywood is currently working on a motion picture documenting his life.

The man’s codename is “Curveball.” And in an earlier life, he played a crucial role in the geo-politics at the beginning of this decade: He was the man who provided vital “evidence” that ultimately contributed to the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies. But that role has since turned into his greatest problem: Everything he claimed to know about Iraq’s weapons program, all the proof he presented, was fabricated. His lifeline, though, has yet to be cut: Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), remains loyal to their source. They keep him under cover and protect him from uncomfortable questions — here in southern Germany.

The rest of the article is far too long to reproduce here in its entirety here, but I have done so on my discussion forum.  Or you can read the article at the link above.  At any rate, the truth of how four thousand American soldiers and roughly one million Iraqis (and counting) had their lives needlessly sacrificed on an alter of greed and imperial ambition must be told.  This is only one of many tiers in the construct of lies that led to war.  Others, including former CIA European station chief Tyler Drumheller and investigative journalists David Corn and Michael Isikoff, have described parts of the ‘Curveball’ story.  All these sources and more are worth reading, if for no other reason than to track the myriad deceptions used to sell the invasion.

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