State of the Union Address -- Bush to say ...

Associated Press release -- Tuesday January 31, 2006
****************
President Bush, in a push to take charge of the election-year agenda, is expected to say...

Bush also is expected to...

Excerpts were released in advance of the 9 p.m. EST speech.

Bush will discuss troubles at home and abroad and say...

He is expected to call for ...

... the president plans to say.

...the president is to say.

... Bush will say...

...he is expected to say.

...he plans to say.

He also is to push for...

Bush plans to say...

(... = blah blah blah blah health care, blah blah blah blah foreign oil, blah blah blah blah freedom, blah blah blah blah 9-11, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...)

He'll say ANYTHING, don't we know that by now? But he won't DO anything.

I was going to say "just like Democrats," but that's not so -- Bush will say ANYTHING and then do NOTHING (not insofar as it has anything to do with what he promised -- without regard to what he said or logic or decency).

The Democrats say NOTHING and then do ANYTHING without regard to what they meant to say or decency or logic.

(I guess they're alike in that BOTH do whatever they're told by the people who pay them -- and I DON'T mean voters or taxpayers.)

OK -- so we know the Republicans don't care about working stiffs, and the Democrats tell us allthe time that they care ever so much but can't ever seem to DO anything (because it might offend their contributors), and members of the press are generally afraid to say anything like the truth since it might make the people in power not like them (meaning perhaps they won't keep getting those 6-figure salaries to give journalistic blow jobs to people in power and even pathetic assholes like Scott McClellan) -- so maybe it's time to think about the way the IWW got everyone else their unions and then, of course, the union men immediately turned around (literally) and bent over for the bosses, and said "Whee, it feels so good!" and kicked the IWW out "cuz they was commies."

(Of all the obscene things we see in today's society, the most vile could be the AFL-CIO members singing the praises of Joe Hill. Check their web site -- they act as if they didn't betray him and everything he lived and died for.)

He was SOoo disappointed when the Flying Purple Monkeys told him he'd been blackballed and would have leave Oz. Almost made a fellow feel sorry for him.

 

You can't keep a bad man down

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 29 — The trial of Saddam Hussein erupted into chaos on Sunday, with the new chief judge ordering all four lead defendants removed from the courtroom — one of them kicking and screaming as he went — and tried in absentia, as the entire defense team walked out in protest...

...One of the lawyers, Saleh Armouti, instantly began yelling at the judge, and Mr. Armouti, too, was dragged out. Mr. Hussein then had a furious exchange with the judge, but walked out before the bailiffs could be ordered to remove him.

"Don't call yourself an Iraqi," Mr. Hussein yelled, after Judge Abdel-Rahman told him he would be ejected. "I've led you for 35 years and now you say, 'Remove him!' Shame on you, shame on you!"

---gotta admit, it's funnier, more original and more entertaining than most of the networks' sitcoms.

Link

There's more to life than politics.

A lot more.

See, when the University of Texas folk do it, it means "hook 'em horns." (Texas Longhorns)

When a Skull and Bones man from Yale does it, it means "Satan Rules."

(And when you stick your thumb out along with it, it means "I love you" in American Sign.)

They say this is George W Bush's favorite film -- he watches it over and over and over.
Naah -- not possible.

(Yeah, I know this is the poster for the stage play, but the movie was made and is available at most video rental places. A lot of fun, even if Barbara Bush isn't your mom.)

See, if the donkey is our military, and the loaded cart is the mission the Rec Room Patriots in the Bush Administration set for them, then it's not the fault of our troops if ... well .. if it doesn't go anywhere.

The REAL State of the Union Message

I always liked Timbuk3, but in this case, the refrain "cats eat birds" doesn't seem as if it will apply.

With a porn industry raking in some 9 billion trillion skillion dollars a year (or maybe just a measly 4-5 billion), it ain't just some so-called 'pervs.' SOMONE -- a whole LOT of someones -- good clean-cut upstanding Americans who just happen to have genitals, are out there buying and enjoying it.

And Fortune 500 companies are investing in it

Of course, you could invest in munitions manufacturing, but, generally, the ultimate product of the porn industry isn't dead bodies.

Or maybe it's just a bunch of Jews trying to destroy our good clean cut Christian Guiltocracy.

Like Nina Hartley, that nice Jewish girl from Berkeley... Berkeley? Jewish? Liberal parents? Izzit true what the right-wingers say? Liberal Berzerkeley politics will lead you down a path to be corrupted by the likes of Nina Hartley? Oh what a terrible fate!

Charlie Rangel -- the last member of congress with a sense of humor?

Hamas' victory upsetting der ubersturmenfuehrer

Rice Urges Nations to Cut Off Hamas Aid
(and they don't mean Jerry Rice)

London, January 30 --

"The United States wants other nations to cut off aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said ahead of an international strategy session on Mideast peace prospects.

Rice ruled out any U.S. financial assistance to a Hamas government."

Boyoboyoboy -- this is the first time Bush et al have had to deal with an election they couldn't rig (not even as half-assedly as they've done in Iraq) and boyoboyoboy, they don't like it one bit.

No Jeb.
No Diebold.
No Jim Baker.
No US armed troops.

Just voters desperate for a change and their arrogant idea that "free elections" means they think they can vote for the people THEY want.

Well the pretender in the oval office and his boys and girls know how to punish people who think freedom ain't just another word for nothin' left to lose.

Those pissants who stole OUR elections know there's always something more to lose, always something the most powerful nation in the world can take away from the most disenfranchised people in the world.

Funny -- Dubya is the MOST pro-Israel prez we've had in some time, and he just may have grandstanded that little country out of existence.

Don't like it when daddy and his pals can't fix the election, eh Monkeyboy?

SHEEP

(Pink Floyd -- from Animals -- 1977)

Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away;
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.
You better watch out,
There may be dogs about
I've looked over Jordan, and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.

What do you get for pretending the danger's not real.
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes.
Now things are really what they seem.
No, this is no bad dream.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He makes me down to lie
Through pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by.
With bright knives He releaseth my soul.
He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places.
He converteth me to lamb cutlets,
For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger.
When cometh the day we lowly ones,
Through quiet reflection, and great dedication
Master the art of karate,
Lo, we shall rise up,
And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.

Bleating and babbling I fell on his neck with a scream.
Wave upon wave of demented avengers
March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

Have you heard the news?
The dogs are dead!
You better stay home
And do as you're told.
Get out of the road if you want to grow old.

Informed Comment on Hamas's Election Victory

Informed Comment -- Juan Cole's writing is ALWAYS intelligent, perceptive, and to the point. He does not fall into simplistic ignorances, such as confusing Iraqi Shi'a with Iranian Shi'a. Often, he's actually brilliant, as in this, and excerpt from an article for Salon.com that ran under the title:

How do You Like Your Democracy Now, Mr. Bush?

Hamas' stunning victory underlines the contradictions and hypocrisies in Bush's Mideast policies.

"The stunning victory of the militant Muslim fundamentalist Hamas Party in the Palestinian elections underlines the central contradictions in the Bush administration's policies toward the Middle East. Bush pushes for elections, confusing them with democracy, but seems blind to the dangers of right-wing populism. At the same time, he continually undermines the moderate and secular forces in the region by acting high-handedly or allowing his clients to do so. As a result, Sunni fundamentalist parties, some with ties to violent cells, have emerged as key players in Iraq, Egypt and Palestine.

Democracy depends not just on elections but on a rule of law on stable institutions, on basic economic security for the population, and on checks and balances that forestall a tyranny of the majority. Elections in the absence of this key societal context can produce authoritarian regimes and abuses as easily as they can produce genuine people power. Bush is on the whole unwilling to invest sufficiently in these key institutions and practices abroad. And by either creating or failing to deal with hated foreign occupations, he has sown the seeds for militant Islamist movements that gain popularity because of their nationalist credentials.

Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, a branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, has come to power in Palestine. In his press conference on Thursday, Bush portrayed the Palestinian elections in the same way he depicts Republican Party victories over Democrats in the United States: 'The people are demanding honest government. The people want services. They want to be able to raise their children in an environment in which they can get a decent education and they can find healthcare.' He sounds like a spokesman for Hamas, underlining the irony that Bush and his party have given Americans the least honest government in a generation, have drastically cut services, and have actively opposed extension of healthcare to the uninsured in the United States.

But the president's attempt to dismiss the old ruling Fatah Party as corrupt and inefficient, however true, is also a way of taking the spotlight off his own responsibility for the stagnation in Palestine. Bush allowed then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to sideline the ruling Fatah Party of Yasser Arafat, to fire missiles at its police stations, and to reduce its leader to a besieged nonentity. Sharon arrogantly ordered the murder of civilian Hamas leaders in Gaza, making them martyrs..."


The entire article is at Salon.com

Link

Thousands of Fatah Members Protest in Gaza

IBRAHIM BARZAK Associated Press Writer

January 27,2006 | GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Thousands of activists from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party demonstrated in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday, burning abandoned cars, shooting in the air and demanding corrupt leaders resign after their devastating election loss to the militant Hamas movement.

************************
--And they're the GOOD GUYS!
*************************

Acting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asked world leaders not to legitimize a government led by Hamas, saying elections are not a "whitewash" for terrorist groups.

Livni told reporters that Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last summer opened a window of opportunity in peace efforts, but with the election of Hamas, "the Palestinians slammed it shut.

*****************
Guess he's too young to remember how Palestine got to be Israel in the first place, what with the the Stern Gang and the Irgun blowing stuff up, like the King David Hotel.

And this is NOT a knock on the beginnings of Israel -- if you have no power, that's pretty much the only way to make your point, but then it's called 'terrorism.' (whereas if you are IN power, it's called 'Collateral Damage.')

This is a knock on today's hypocritical attitude toward people who got to be the government by doing EXACTLY the same things the Zionists did a few years back.

And oh, yeah -- the irony? Israel and the US helped CREATE Hamas as a way to undercut Yassar Arafat's political power base.

Talk about 'Unintended Consequences." Almost as bad as the CIA teaching Osama ben Ladn how to blow things up.

Sabl's Law of U.S. Political Rhetoric y Andrew Sabl

"No argument can succeed in American politics if it contains a subjunctive."


The Administration never says the people it's spying on might be terrorists, or that it would be a good idea to tap their phones if they were terrorists. They ARE terrorists, the whole policy is a program for keeping track of terrorists, and anyone who opposes it is easy on terrorists.

Conversely, imagine Democrats trying to say that the power "might" be abused:
"You're accusing the President of dirty tricks! Where's the proof, you paranoid Deaniac?"

Link

Hamas Wins Palestinian Election

"Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Thursday the U.S. position on Hamas as a terrorist organization has not changed, despite the militant group's stunning victory in Palestinian elections.

"'You cannot have one foot in politics and another in terror,' Rice told the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland via a telephone hookup to the State Department. 'Our position on Hamas has therefore not changed -- It is identical to the rest of the world's opinion about us.' "

Democrats Denounce Bush's Human Pesticide Testing Plan

GEORGE BUSH -- MEET YOUR MENTOR, DR. MENGELE


Monday 23 January 2006

Washington, DC

Today, Senator Barbara Boxer, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, and Rep. Hilda L. Solis criticized a Bush Administration plan to promote pesticide experimentation upon humans. The plan, contained in a final draft rule, was leaked to the legislators by a concerned Administration official who requested that the original copy of the plan not be duplicated in its entirety and widely distributed out of concern for anonymity. According to the EPA's communications plan, the Administration will officially announce the pesticide experimentation plan later this week as a final regulation.

In August 2005, Congress enacted a moratorium upon EPA using human pesticide experiments until strict ethical standards were established. Senator Boxer championed the moratorium in the US Senate. Representative Solis pushed the moratorium through the US House of Representatives.

"The Administration plan is inconsistent with the law passed by Congress with bipartisan support. The loopholes which allow continued testing on pregnant women, infants and children are contrary to law and widely accepted ethical guidelines, including the Nuremberg code. The fact that EPA allows pesticide testing of any kind on the most vulnerable, including abused and neglected children, is simply astonishing," said Senator Boxer.

******************

So who says calling them "monsters" is too harsh?

Who says a comparison to the Nazi's is over the top?

They're not human -- that much is obvious.

I might consider them Insect Conspiracy types, except for the fact that I know millipedes personally with more social conscience than this band of verminous robots.

Link

"Bush Says Good Intel Needed to Find Enemy

- - - - - - - - - - - -

January 23,2006 | MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Bush, speaking in Manhattan, Kan., is expected to make a point of defending his secret domestic eavesdropping program. It's part of a new administration effort to convince Americans that the National Security Agency's communications spying program is necessary to fight terrorism.

***********

BLAH BLAH BLAH FUCKING BLAH -- OF COURSE WE DO -- THE REAL QUESTION -- WHY WON"T THEY USE THE FISA RUBBER-STAMP WARRANT COURT... unless...

... unless they're diddling with people even that court of bent-over political appointees wouldn't approve -- like PETA and the Anti-war Quakers (redundant) in Florida. And anyone who doesn't agree with them.

Haven't we seen enough of their attitude toward people who, patriotically, responsibly, politely even, do NOT agree with their point of view?

It's a religious war to them -- not against the Muslims -- against Liberals and anti-war people and etc... And religious war means there's no compromise -- it's all GOOD or EVIL.

Well, if we're evaluating who's EVIL, I know which side is doing the killing and maiming, which side is stealing from old sick people, which side is sneaking and peeking and torturing and lying .

Haven't we heard enough lies to know what to expect every time that piece of shit that tries (unsuccessfully) to walk like a man open his mouth? Of course we do.

Why would anyone even think he knows the truth, let alone speaks it? You think Dick and Karl tell him the truth?

Thank God for hubris, smug little shit swaggering around delivering the lines The Odd Couple -- Dick Cheney and Karl Rove -- give him, thinking he's immune to being held responsible. He's not. No one is.

Bush and Abramoff

Time says it has now seen five photographs of George W. Bush and Jack Abramoff together. McClellan said last week that Abramoff had visited the White House for a few "staff-level meetings" and a couple of Hanukkah parties....

But there's also a picture of Bush, Abramoff and Raul Garza Sr., the blue-jeaned and bolo-tied chairman of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe, a Texas Indian tribe Abramoff represented.

A Hanukkah party? Well, no. The photo seems to have been taken in May 2001 when Bush met with tribal leaders at the Old Executive Office Building -- a meeting arranged with the help of both Abramoff and Grover Norquist.

***

But the photo is misleading because it doesn't record what Bush was saying when he shook Abramoff's hand:

"Hi, you must be Ken Lay whom I've never met."

Jack Abramoff and Osama ben Ladn?

Washington Post, 9/27/01:

SunCruz Casinos LLC has turned over to the FBI surveillance pictures and other records from two Florida gambling cruises on Sept. 5. In both cases, a company official said, there was a passenger who looked similar to one of the [9/11] hijackers, and the name given by the passenger was either the same or similar to the hijacker's name.

Associated Press, 9/27/05

Police would not comment on whether they got any big breaks from Abramoff or his former partner, Adam Kidan, both of whom were indicted Aug. 11 on federal fraud charges in connection with their September 2000 purchase of SunCruz Casinos for $145.7 million from Boulis.


Oh, of course he COULDN'T have helped set up the single greatest crime in American history as a way to solidify the grip of Bush- Cheney- Rove- Rumsfeld and the Republican Party into a long-lasting stranglehold (which it did), could he?

Of course not. (Waddaya, crazy or something'?)

Americablog -- always worth the time to check.

Link

Fighting Ourselves in Falluja

January 23, 2006

By BING WEST

Newport, R.I.

The lesson the Pentagon should learn from Iraq is to avoid ... the position he (Bremer) and the American military commanders in Iraq were placed in by the White House's failure to put one person in charge...

In 1967, when confusion among military and civilian officials in Vietnam was undermining the war effort, President Lyndon B. Johnson placed all civilian reconstruction and security functions under the top general, William Westmoreland, insuring unity of command under Westmoreland's successor Creighton Abrams...

******

And that's why we won the war in Vietnam, right?
Good old Bing -- he always knows how to solve the problem.

Link

Would it be taking it too far to suggest that perhaps the Bush Administration (i.e., Karl Roverer and Dick Cheney) have made certain Osama ben Ladn stays alive and uncaught because it serves the purpose of short-term political gain?

I don't think so -- that it's taking it too far.
Probably the opposite, the statement is too diffident and cautious.

That little thing of turning back when they almost had him still has the stink of corrupt purposes even these years later.

So we've gone from the old days when we got to pay (in blood and money) for what THEY (the rich and powerful) were afraid of, to where we get to pay for them to maintain boogeymen while they plunder our wealth for their own coffers, arrogant and cocksure and afraid of nothing.

(Ahh -- hubris -- the only protection we have against power-crazed monsters.)

A wise an peaceful man once said this:

"The duty of every aristocracy is to dig its own grave, and the sooner it does so, the better. The more it delays, the more it will fester and the worse death it will die."

Swami Vivekenanda

Since we are prohibited from taking any action in that direction by the laws passed to protect themselves from the public, we can only wait and watch and look hopefully to the day when that happens.

IT's USEFUL to Bush to have Osama ben Ladn running around loose, because Osama is portrayed as Freddy Kruger, so the only people he actually has his henchmen chase are the few people left who are trying to protect our land and animals.

Funny -- he's not even doing the actual fighting and he's STILL acting like a snivelling little coward.

ELF and ALF are valid political entities with a valid political point of view and the tactics of those people who represent themselves as acting on behalf of ELF or ALF are no more extreme than those of the sheriffs, the FBI, the DEA, or any other legal organization -- usually less extreme, actually.

But of course, if you fuck with the profits that come from destroying the land, you've crossed the line.

Hey -- we outnumber those guys (the Bush Administration) 200 million to maybe 10,000. Isn't there SOMETHING we can do?

11 Indicted in Cases of Environmental Sabotage - New York Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - A federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., has indicted 11 people on charges that they committed acts of domestic terrorism on behalf of two shadowy environmental groups, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front...

The director of the F.B.I., Robert S. Mueller III, who appeared with Mr. Gonzales, said one of the bureau's "highest domestic terrorism priorities" was prosecuting people who commit crimes "in the name of animal rights or the environment."

****************

OR, in real American language, the "highest domestic priorities" are to prosecute anyone who dares to stand up for the environment or animal rights, i.e., anyone who would dare to interfere with the Big Time Yeehah Money Men who give their bribes to the Bushies -- they being, among others -- Mining, Lumber, Oil, Cattle, and Factory Farming Industries.

In other words, anyone who dares to interfere with anyone who is busy making money destroying the land and the flora and fauna thereupon.

Did anyone think these Yahoos would do anything different?

As for the "terroristic" nature of ALF and ELF -- when the people who destroy the land and the living creatures there write the laws to protect their ravagings and prevent anyone from stopping them legally, well, in the words of Saint Barry Goldwater, the Right-Wing Republican Archon --

"Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice."

(What else can a poor marginalized human mammal do?)

Link

"Feinstein says she'll vote against Alito's confirmation, but she doesn't think that the Democrats will launch a filibuster, and she wouldn't support one if they did. 'I don't see those kinds of egregious things emerging that would justify a filibuster,' Feinstein said on 'Face the Nation.' 'I think when it comes to filibustering a Supreme Court appointment, you really have to have something out there whether it's gross moral turpitude or something that comes to the surface.'"


Someone on her staff, when she was a City Supervisor, once told me that she was "the first Fascist Liberal I've ever seen."

So, if there are any MODERATE Republicans out there who want to be Senator from California, go for it. They may tell you there's no chance, but that's what they told Bill Clinton.

Problem is, the Republicans are as much a bunch of big assholes as the Democrats and they will, once again, nominate someone just to the right of Attila the Hun (who is, actually, governor).

Supreme Court Denies Protester's Appeal

- - - - - - - - - - - -

January 17,2006 | WASHINGTON _ -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from an anti-war protester who was convicted of violating the boundaries of a "restricted area" established during President Bush's visit to South Carolina in 2002...

A Secret Service agent told Bursey he could protest in a designated demonstration area a half-mile away. When he refused to leave the restricted area, he was arrested.

The case is Bursey v. United States, 05-767.

****************

Of course they refused to hear it -- they don't work for us anymore, they work for the Emperor, or, in the words of Big Tony Scalia and Clarence "Uncle" Thomas: "Izzat ok, boss?"

New Orleans Mayor Says God Mad at U.S.

(As if he knows anything, let alone what's on God's mind)

By BRETT MARTEL Associated Press Writer

January 16,2006

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country..."

"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

---When asked to comment, God said, "IGAF."

Not trying to draw any comparisons here, just found this Dr. Seuss WWII cartoon rather universal.

Amazing stuff -- this is the Sombrero Galaxy, but don't take my word for it -- this is from the Astronomy Picture of the Day website, NASA's gift to us out here in the public -- a different picture every day, described in detail by an astronomer. Check it out -- sure makes the day start better than reading political news.

Wow -- do we need a better definition of DISINGENUOUS?

Seeing all those congresspeople desperately giving away (some of) the bribe money they took overt he past 5 years (to politically useful charities)?

Disingenuous.

How about Dis-honest?

Dis-graceful.

Dis-gusting.

It's not a hot potato, guys -- it doesn't make any difference if you get rid of it NOW.

You're only going to get burned for having taken it THEN.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.

We'll all think fondly of you as we try to deal with the outrageous pharma medicare payoffs, and the rest of the plunder.

The way the Italians thought of Mussolini at the end of that war.

There isn't a jury in this country that wouldn't be ready to convict any of you.

You'd stand a better chance with a change of venue to Baghdad.

White House to withdraw funding for rebuilding Iraq

"The US government is not planning to continue funding reconstruction projects in Iraq, in what appears to be a major climbdown from the White House's one-time pledge to build the best infrastructure in the region..."


(I love that -- "CLIMBDOWN." A much more face-saving term than Wm Burroughs' more accurate "So grab your ermines, Mary, because the whole shit-house is going up in chunks.")

"It is a badly kept secret that reconstruction has gone badly. Essential services have been very slow in coming back on line and roughly half the money earmarked for reconstruction has been diverted into the military effort against the insurgency.

"The newspaper quoted Brigadier General William McCoy, the commander overseeing construction projects, saying the US funding was never meant to be more than a "jump-start ... The US never intended to completely rebuild Iraq," he said."

(You ever see two cats start to get into it, and one realizes he's gonna die if he really has to fight it out ... and that one does this sort of moon-walk backwards as if to say "Fight? What fight? I'm not backing off -- there's no fight here. I just have an important appointment. Sorry.")

"If confirmed, the withdrawal of reconstruction funds from America would be a further signal that the Bush administration is looking at ways to lessen the US commitment to Iraq as it faces increasing political pressure to start finding a way out..."

(Or as the Monty Python Knights of the Grail put it so well --- "RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!! -- So what ever happened to "You broke it, you bought it?")

Link

Scott Ritter STILL knows whereof he speaks regarding Iraq

This is an excerpt -- read the entire article HERE

... The year 2005 may have been the year of democratic elections in Iraq, but history will judge it as the year that set the foundation for large-scale civil war in Iraq. No amount of papering over of the deep and serious fractures that exist in post-Saddam Iraq can cover up the reality that Iraq today is a failed nation state.

In Iraq we find not only Sunni versus Shi'a and Arab versus Kurd, but Sunni versus Sunni (secular versus Islamist), Kurd versus Kurd (a renewal of the old KDP-PUK rivalry), and Shi'a versus Shi'a (the Iranian-backed SCIRI versus the home-grown Iraqi Shi'a movement led by Mokhtar al-Sadr).

Iraq today is a tinderbox waiting for a spark to set it off. Until now the presence of American troops has served as a fire brigade of sorts, extinguishing flames before they could explode out of control. But in doing so, the Americans have allowed for the accumulation of massive amounts of "fuel" in the form of resentment and greed and political ambition which will produce a fire storm that no American force, whatever the size, can extinguish...

The year 2006 will be the year in which America reaps what it has sown in Iraq. The "democratic government" of the SCIRI theocratic tyranny will serve to finally rupture the tragic nation state we once recognized as Iraq into a cauldron of competing fiefdoms, all of whom will be engaged in a life-or-death civil war that has the characteristics more akin to a wildfire than any known political process. Stuck in the middle will be the armed forces of the United States, powerless to stop the fighting which will erupt around them, and incapable of preventing themselves from getting scorched by the flames of civil conflict they helped fuel and ignite...

****

And might I add -- of course, this administration will point the finger of blame for the disaster at those people who saw it coming and tried to warn them.

Because that's what you do when you're guilty as hell.

Question of the day -- Is Scott McClellan more pathetic or more vile? Or does one not preclude the other?

I just watched part of his press conference -- just inadvertently since it was on CSPAN when I turned the TV on to check a later listing on another station ---

So I watched that stuttering, snivelling piece of detritus that whimpers like a convicted lobbyist and wondered:

"Does he REALLY believe the Democrats in congress want to weaken and endanger the country? Do his masters all believe that, that the Democrats are, essentially, traitors?"

How did we come to be run by Nazi tactics?

I guess it shouldn't be any surprise since this administration is just the most recent generation of Bush-Family Nazi-collaborators, starting with both gramps raising and sending money to Hitler to buy bullets to kill our guys for years before and also through the first 10 months of the war.

And then Poppy had 11 former SS Men serving as "ethinc consultants" during his failed re-election bid, all of whom were being managed by Monkey Boy, and, of course, typical of everything the little shit has ever put his fingers into, it blew up, and it was discovered, and it failed and needed to be covered up.

These people are vile subhuman scum, with no agenda but to loot the treasury, sell off our resources and denounce anyone who points to THEIR crimes as a threat to our country.

They don't seem to realize that the only threat is to THEIR credibility and really seem to be doing the "L'etat c'est moi" two-step and we all remember how that ended up for the muckety-mucks.

Is it Tumbrel Time again?