bands of the day

the subdudes

and

the iguanas


and in the same vein:

it's almost the one year anniversary of katrina. i saw a documentary on cable a few weeks ago called music in exile by robert mugge. it was about music and musicians in new orleans after the storms and devistation. the iguanas were featured along with many other amazing musicians. please look for it. it's well worth your efforts.

(i was especially enamoured of theresa andersson. i had never heard of her before)


(left: the subdudes picture from: skylineonline.com,bottom: the iguanas from their website and theresa from her website)

you'll love this. i know i did

i had to run out to the drugstore just now. i turned the radio on and it was on wtic 1080 talk radio (when i can i listen to afternoons with bruce and colin from 3 to 6 pm weekdays. unfortunately i am rarely in my car between the hours of 3 to 6 pm. otherwise the radio is on a college fm station or the cd player is on). i came in during the middle of something and the host was saying FORTY ONE PERCENT OF THE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES NOW APPROVE OF THE WAY KING GEORGE HANDLED HURRICANE KATRINA.

41%. imagine that. i didn't hear who the survey was conducted by or WHERE it was done (perhaps in some tony country club in crawford texas) but how can that be? i am totally perplexed. i am dumbfounded. i am (almost) speechless. proof this nation is wickedly effed up. HOWEVER, I WILL NEVER GIVE UP HOPE. we WILL get the monsters OUT of office and elect true honorable women and men to represent us AND the constitution.

a couple of postings ago, i gave you the link to the enagmatic paradox

now star has posted a link to a GREAT song for a GREAT cause. the song is have you had enough (link to the posting which links to the song). one of my all time favorites is singing; ricki lee jones along with tom maxwell and ken mosher from the squirrel nut zippers.

.........................

Have You Had Enough?
Have you had enough of hypocrisy?
Have you had enough of the spending spree?
Have you had enough?
Does it make you want to scream and shout?
Have you had enough of the rubber stamps?
Have you had enough of the wire taps?
If you’ve had enough, then it’s time to throw the rascals out!
We’ve let them take the test too long
They’ve gotten all the answers wrong
No plan, no shame, no oversight
Now’s the time to put it right!
Have you had enough, cause they’re all corrupt?
Have you had enough of being divvied up?
If you’ve had enough, then it’s time to throw the rascals out!
Well, do what’s right and spread the word
It’s time to make our voices heard
You cast your vote it don’t cost a dime
Sittin’ it out will be a crime
I’ve had enough, and it’s time to throw the rascals out................

please check out the posting AND the cause

...........................

there is an elvira gulch

(in all fairness the behaviour of the kid DOES sound rather bratty too)

Boy Charged For Meowing At Neighbor Lady
Family Gave Cat Away After Neighbor's Complaints

JEANNETTE, Pa. -- Meow. A Pennsylvania judge is being asked to decide whether that word is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment.
Police have charged a 14-year-old boy with that crime. Michael Loughner is accused of meowing whenever he sees his 78-year-old neighbor, Alexandria Carasia.
The boy's family got rid of their cat after Carasia complained that it was using her flower garden as a litter box. Now, she said, the boy makes meowing sounds every time he sees her..........

stop by and say hello to

enigmatic paradox

imagine rx2008

saw this on skippy's site and i knew i had to post it as well

wtf???????????/

we sell them the bombs what the f**k do you think they're going to actually DO with them? make planeters out of them? use them as ashtrays? make bbq in them? again, wtf????????

WE (well king george and his court) are JUST as guilty here. WE (king george and his court) SOLD those bombs. they killed people. they injured people, they displaced people.

'NYT': U.S. Probing Israel's Use of Our Cluster Bombs

By E&P Staff Published: August 24, 2006 10:45 PM ET
NEW YORK The New York Times reports Friday, based on interviews with two anonymous officials, that the State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the U.S. that restrict how it employs the weapons.Several Lebanese children have been killed and many others injured in recent days from unexploded cluster bombs still littering the landscape. A United Nations unit said this week that it had found cluster bombs in 249 locations in southern Lebanon. The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls "began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties,' the Times' David S. Cloud reveals. Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, told the Times, “We have heard the allegations that these munitions were used, and we are seeking more information.” He declined to comment further.........

here is an eye opener

Six Questions for Michael Scheuer on National Security

Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006. By Ken Silverstein.
Sources Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years before resigning in 2004; he served as the chief of the bin Laden unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. He is the formerly anonymous author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America. I met him for breakfast last week at an IHOP in the Virginia suburbs outside of Washington. Over a plate of eggs and hash browns, he answered a series of questions about the current state of the Bush Administration’s “War on Terrorism.” His prognosis was illuminating and insightful—and, unfortunately, almost unrelentingly grim.

1. We're coming up on the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Is the country safer or more vulnerable to terrorism?

On balance, more vulnerable. We're safer in terms of aircraft travel. We're safer from being attacked by some dumbhead who tries to come into the country through an official checkpoint; we've spent billions on that. But for the most part our victories have been tactical and not strategic. There have been important successes by the intelligence services and Special Forces in capturing and killing Al Qaeda militants, but in the long run that's just a body count, not progress. We can't capture them one by one and bring them to justice. There are too many of them, and more now than before September 11. In official Western rhetoric these are finite organizations, but every time we interfere in Muslim countries they get more support.

In the long run, we're not safer because we're still operating on the assumption that we're hated because of our freedoms, when in fact we're hated because of our actions in the Islamic world. There's our military presence in Islamic countries, the perception that we control the Muslim world’s oil production, our support for Israel and for countries that oppress Muslims such as China, Russia, and India, and our own support for Arab tyrannies. The deal we made with Qadaffi in Libya looks like hypocrisy: we'll make peace with a brutal dictator if it gets us oil. President Bush is right when he says all people aspire to freedom but he doesn't recognize that people have different definitions of democracy. Publicly promoting democracy while supporting tyranny may be the most damaging thing we do. From the standpoint of democracy, Saudi Arabia looks much worse than Iran. We use the term “Islamofascism”—but we're supporting it in Saudi Arabia, with Mubarak in Egypt, and even Jordan is a police state. We don't have a strategy because we don't have a clue about what motivates our enemies..........


please read the rest

who was the last president you knew who lost A PLANET???

i cannot take credit for that line but bruce and colin can

pas de deux approximativement NOTHING

wicked wicked wicked funny dear mr stewart

this is a couple of days old

i just didn't get around to publishing it. shocking in this day and age. well shocking to ME, i guess not to the baptists (otherwise, they'd run this asswipe preacher OUT of the church IMMEDIATELY)

Church Fires Teacher for Being Female

WATERTOWN, N.Y. (Aug. 21) - The minister of a church that dismissed a female Sunday School teacher after adopting what it called a literal interpretation of the Bible says a woman can perform any job - outside of the church.

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on Aug. 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.
The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." The Rev. Timothy LaBouf, who also serves on the Watertown City Council, issued a statement saying his stance against women teaching men in Sunday school would not affect his decisions as a city leader in Watertown, where all five members of the council are men but the city manager who runs the city's day-to-day operations is a woman............

this is a personal invitation to the 'reverend' timothy lasswipe. i'd like you to come to dinner with me, my sisters and ALL of their grrrl children. really. i think we have a few things we'd like to discuss with you. hell, we won't TEACH you or try to exert authority OVER you. we'll just CHAT with you. not to worry, i'm the shortest amazon in my family at 5'8". my niece (baby gina, who by the way isn't a baby any longer, she was just the first grandchild born to my parental units) is just a shade over 6' and her baby sister is just a shade over 6'1". so we're nice and demure. again, not to worry. we just want to TALK that's all, TALK

of course when you think of it

this article is right on the mark. everything we (i am using the term WE loosely here, i don't consider myself part of the we BUT i am a citizen of the united states of america) have done in iraq and elsewhere in the middle east is SETTING IRAN UP to be a solid strong power (not that i WANT that mind you, it's just that is what is happening due to king george's incompetence)

US interventions have boosted Iran, says report

Staff and agenciesWednesday August 23, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

The US-led "war on terror" has bolstered Iran's power and influence in the Middle East, especially over its neighbour and former enemy Iraq, a thinktank said today.
A report published by Chatham House said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had removed Iran's main rival regimes in the region.
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians and its invasion of Lebanon had also put Iran "in a position of considerable strength" in the Middle East, said the thinktank.
Unless stability could be restored to the region, Iran's power will continue to grow, according to the report published by Chatham House
The study said Iran had been swift to fill the political vacuum created by the removal of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The Islamic republic now has a level of influence in the region that could not be ignored.
In particular, Iran has now superseded the US as the most influential power in Iraq, regarding its former adversary as its "own backyard". It is also a "prominent presence" in its other war-torn neighbour, Afghanistan, according to Chatham House's analysts.
The report said: "There is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East.........

king george (among all of his OTHER gifts) is giving out fashion advice

This Man:

told this man:

he was wearing a “ridiculous-looking outfit.”
That is all.

an amazing editorial cartoon by john de rosier

i didn't publish it here because i am unsure about copyright laws. so please click on the link. it so crystalizes my feelings i cannot even tell you..........



who the hell...........

an ABSOLUTE MUST READ from

jim hightower

this is an AMAZING and detail filled article. i need not say any more. mr hightower has said IT ALL

Where Bush's Arrogance Has Taken Us

.........The War President
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."-George W., August 2004
Number of Americans killed in Bush's Iraq war as of August 2006: 2577
What Bush press flack Tony Snow said the day the total number of American dead reached 2,500: "It's a number"
Number of Americans killed since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" on May 1, 2003: 2,438
Number of Americans wounded (a vague term that includes such horrors as brain damage, limb blasted off, eyes blown out, psyche shattered, etc.) in Bush's war:
Official count: 18,777
Independent count: up to 48,000
Estimated number of Iraqi civilians (men, women, and children) killed in Bush's war since Saddam Hussein was ousted: 38,960
For Iraqis, the bloodiest month of the war so far: June 2006
more than 100 civilians killed per day
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit's advice to Iraqis who see TV reports of innocent civilians being killed by occupying troops: "Change the channel."
Percent of Iraqis who want American troops to leave: 82
Stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction found in Iraq since Bush committed Americans to war in 2003 on the basis that Saddam had and was about to use WMDs: 0
Number of nations in the world: 192
Number that joined Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" (COW) to invade Iraq: 48 (The list includes such military powers as Angola, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Latvia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Romania, Solomon Islands, and Uganda.)
Number of COW nations that actually sent any troops to Iraq: 39 (Of these, 32 sent fewer than 1,000 troops. Many sent no fighting units, deploying only engineers, trainers, humanitarian units, and other noncombat personnel.)
Number of the 39 COW nations contributing troops that have since withdrawn them: 17 (An additional 7 have announced plans to withdraw all or part of their contingents this year.)
Number of COW troops in Iraq: 150,000
Number of these that are U.S. troops: 139,000
Number of White House officials and cabinet members who have any of their immediate family in Bush's war: 0
Follow the Money
We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."-"Howling Paul" Wolfowitz, Deputy Defense Secretary, in testimony to Congress, March 2003
The official White House claim before the invasion of what the war and occupation would cost U.S. taxpayers: $50 billion
As of July 2006, the total amount appropriated by Congress for Bush's ongoing war and occupation: $295,634,921,248
Current Pentagon spending per month in Iraq: $8 billion (or $185,185.19 per minute)..........

and now for some GOOD news

'bout time, no?

Tom Cruise Canned From Paramount

we MUST get these people OUT of office

we MUST elect HONORABLE WOMAN AND MEN to our senate and congress. this man is living in another dimension (just like king george in a previous posting). read what inhofe has to say: THE UN TEACHES GRRRLS HOW TO BE PROSTITUTES???????????????????????????????????????????? THE DEVELOPMENTS IN IRAQ HAVE BEEN NOTHING SHORT OF A MIRACLE?????????????????????MIRACLE??? what the f**k???????? i am so seething. if the good people of oklahoma (hi john) re-elect this piece o' steamin' scheist, well then, it's ALL on them. we must open our eyes. iraq is NOT a miracle. 2,600 of our men and women are DEAD and countless are wounded both of body AND mind. what good is it doing the united states of america for us to be in iraq? what are WE getting out of it? i personally am getting NOTHING. i feel no safer, i am paying 3.00 PLUS for a gallon of gas (which by the way, i have been loosing for some time now. i had a rotted filler pipe and didn't know about it right away). my mail is being read, my phone calls are being listened to. if i was of a different ilk, i'd mistrust my neighbors (i'm NOT of that ilk). i just DO NOT understand how ANYONE can support this war BASED ON LIES LIES AND MORE LIES. i am NOT the unamerican one here. i am NOT the traitor here. i support our constitution. it is MORE than a piece of paper to me. WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP


Inhofe optimistic on Iraq

By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer 8/22/2006

It's well on the way toward handling its own security, he says U.S. involvement in Iraq has been incredibly successful and developments there have been "nothing short of a miracle," Sen. James Inhofe said Monday.
During his half-hour speech before the Tulsa Metro Chamber at the Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place, Inhofe called the United Nations an "absolute disaster" whose peacekeepers in Africa have been "going around teaching girls to be prostitutes." .........

...........Inhofe has visited Iraq 11 times.
"What's happened there is nothing short of a miracle," he said.
Nevertheless, Inhofe said the current international situation makes him "wistful for the Cold War."
"Then we had one powerful opponent, in the Soviet Union," he said. "They were predictable; we knew what they had. This is not predictable." ......

.........On other matters:
Inhofe defended the "bridge to nowhere," a $320 million project that Oklahoma's other senator, Tom Co-burn, tried to kill.
The span connecting Ketchikan, Alaska, to an island with 50 inhabitants has been cited by critics across the political spectrum as an example of government waste, but Inhofe called it an example of "one of the few things in Washington that works." .........

havoc wrought by terrorists????????????/

havoc wrought by terrorists??????????????? no one FROM iraq bombed the world trade center.............NO ONE. this man is spouting SHEER LUNACY. makebelieve. he's living in another world. not this one for sure.

Bush: Leaving Iraq now would be disaster
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent Mon Aug 21, 7:52 PM ET
President Bush said Monday the Iraq war is "straining the psyche of our country" but leaving now would be a disaster.
Bush served notice at a news conference that he would not change course or flinch from debate about the unpopular war as he campaigns for Republicans in the fall congressional elections. In fact, he suggested that national security and the economy should be the top political issues, and criticized the Democrats' approach on both.
Many Democrats want to leave Iraq "before the job is done," (what effing job is what i want to know? what exactly IS our job in iraq? why DID we invade iraq? i don't understand. i need someone to 'splain that to lucy) the president said. "I can't tell you exactly when it's going to be done," he said, but "if we ever give up the desire to help people who live in freedom, we will have lost our soul as a nation, as far as I'm concerned." (freedom? FREEDOM? king george has NO idea what the hell freedom IS)
Now in its fourth year, the war has taken a toll — more than 2,600 Americans have died and many more Iraqis have been killed. Last month alone, about 3,500 Iraqis died violently, the highest monthly civilian toll so far. Bush's approval rating has slumped to the lowest point of his presidency, and Republicans are concerned that they could lose control of Congress because of voters' unhappiness.
Bush said he was frustrated by the war at times.
"War is not a time of joy," (duh) he said. "These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, (challenging and difficult? i guess he's never served in the armed forces during time of WAR. oh wait, yes he did. you can't see it but i'm laughing at that statement. our men and women are dying. i'm not even counting the thousands of iraqis. CHALLENGING? no. INSANITY yes) and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists."........... (how about HAVOC WROUGHT BY THE KING OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?????????????)

this is what we are there fighting for?

to have women's rights non existant. well beyond that. to have women killed in the name of 'HONOR'????? day um. now lawyers who dare to defend women are being killed? sounds like a GREAT country with GREAT morals and a GREAT way of life. yeah, let's go over there and kill a bunch of people, stir up a civil war and make it WORSE than it ever was. throw in MORE violence against women and what do you have??????????????????????????? AN EFFING MESS

UN: Iraqi lawyers killed defending women's rights

Iraqi lawyers are being attacked and killed for defending the legal righs of women, according to a report filed by the UN.
The United Nations' IRIN Information Office reports that according to an Iraqi legal association, dozens of lawyers have been murdered and "hundreds attacked" for defending cases percevied to be "against Islam."
The threat of violence against Iraqi lawyers has driven many to surrounding countries, according to the report.
Portions of the IRIN article are excerpted below. The full article is available here.
#
Defending the rule of law and women’s rights is costing some Iraqi lawyers their lives. Since October 2005, 38 lawyers have been murdered and hundreds attacked for defending cases which their enemies say are "against Islam," according to the Iraqi Lawyers Association (ILA), a nationwide organisation...........

molly (i love her!!!) from texas has the scoop on lamont from connecticut

and why osama bin is so very happy ned won. the terrorists were on the edges of their seats the night of the election i'll have you know!

Molly Ivins: Osama Hearts Lamont

By Molly Ivins
If you listen to Dick Cheney, Bin Laden & Co. were staying up late to hear the Lamont-Lieberman election returns from Darien, Conn. AUSTIN, Texas—The most cunning refinement yet in the administration’s plot to scare the liver, lights and onions out of us with Tales of Terror Plots is the Department of Homeland Security’s brilliant move to declare Indiana the national center of terrorism, with 8,591 potential targets. Many citizens have questioned the Indiana move—some claiming it is a waste of money trying to stop attacks on the Wabash Cannonball. The Statue of Liberty and the Washington Monument might merit a little more attention. This is precisely why it is better to have Michael Chertoff and Karl Rove making these Homeland Security decisions, rather than Osama bin Laden. The defeat of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary alerted Veep Dick Cheney to the menace. Ned Lamont, the guy who beat Lieberman, said he was surprised that Cheney claimed his victory would embolden Osama bin, as we call him Texas. “My God, here we have a terrorist threat against hearth and home, and the very first thing that comes out of their mind is how we can turn this to partisan advantage,” complained Lamont. Lieberman warned that Lamont’s call for a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq would be “taken as a tremendous victory” by the terrorists. Cheney said it would encourage “the Al Qaeda types” who want to “break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.” .........

a letter from 18 writers

including three Nobel Prize recipients

The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner--and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis--there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this "kidnapping" was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources--most particularly that of water--by the Israeli Defense (!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last seventy years.
Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly--who but field commanders can forget this for a moment?
Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.
This has to be said loud and clear, for the practice, only half declared and often covert, is advancing fast these days, and, in our opinion, it must be unceasingly and eternally recognized for what it is and resisted.
PS: As Juliano Mer Khamis, director of the documentary film Arna's Children, asked: "Who is going to paint the 'Guernica' of Lebanon?"
John Berger
Noam Chomsky
Harold Pinter
José Saramago
Eduardo Galeano
Arundhati Roy
Naomi Klein
Howard Zinn
Charles Glass
Richard Falk
Gore Vidal
Russell Banks
Thomas Keneally
Chris Abani
Carolyn Forché
Martín Espada
Jessica Hagedorn
Toni Morrison

i disagree

i of course believe king george thinks he is a citizen (well royalty) above suspicion (GREAT movie by the way) and not only that, i absolutely believe no one has the stones to bring him to trial/justice. he (and his court) have broken MANY laws. there is NO doubt about that. yet, not one of them is afraid of being charged. why? it's AIN'T gonna happen. why not? NO ONE HAS THE BALLS

Supreme Court Strikes Fear

Reprimanded by the Supreme Court, the Bush administration rushes to evade punishment
by Nat Hentoff August 20th, 2006 11:26 AM

The interrogations of prisoners now condemned by the Supreme Court were ordered by policy makers at the highest levels of the administration—who could be prosecuted under the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996. Scott Horton, chairman of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on International Law and adjunct professor, Columbia Law School
In June, the Supreme Court ( Hamdan v. Rumsfeld) placed commander in chief Bush and the top of his policy-making chain of command in jeopardy for the treatment of their suspected-terrorist prisoners in Guantánamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan and elsewhere.
So much has happened since June—the Middle East war, the civil war in Iraq, and the plot to blow up multiple U.S.-bound passenger planes—that most Americans have only a hazy idea of this Supreme Court decision that blew up the administration's grand strategy for extracting information from its prisoners around the world by any means necessary..........

the big dick (hears what he wants to hear)

kill kill kill

Cheney Gets Flawed Neocon Briefings on Iran

By Larisa Alexandrovna, Raw Story. Posted August 19, 2006.
In what has become an all-to-familiar storyline, Dick Cheney is receiving flawed intelligence briefings from a clique of neocons who are viewed skeptically by veteran analysts.
The Bush administration continues to bypass standard intelligence channels and use what some believe to be propaganda tactics to create a compelling case for war with Iran, US foreign experts and former US intelligence officials have said.
One former senior intelligence official is particularly concerned by private briefings that Vice President Dick Cheney is getting from former Office of Special Plans (OSP) Director, Abram Shulsky.
"Vice President Cheney is relying on personal briefings from Shulsky for current intelligence on Iran," said this intelligence official.
Shulsky, a leading Neoconservative and member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), headed the shadowy and secretive Department of Defense's OSP in the lead-up to the Iraq war -- helping to locate intelligence that would support the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq...........

another op/ed right ON the mark

I Dare Any American to Name a Single Bush or Republican National Security Success...Just One

A. Alexander, August 18th, 2006
Republicans are masters at creating a political perception that is entirely divorced from reality. On no other issue is this highlighted more clearly than regarding national security. What is more incredible still, is that the American people buy into these Republican myths regardless of what their own senses tell them.Somewhere in the national security formula must be a variable called competence. How is it possible for a president or party to keep the nation secure, if their strategy has resulted in a string of one failure followed by another? Bush and Republicans began the war in Afghanistan, completed half the job, pulled out most of the military resources, and have done virtually nothing as that country slips back into the hands of al Qaeda and the Taliban. A recent report stated, in no uncertain terms, that the Bush-backed strategy for combating an Islamist insurrection in Pakistan has failed 'badly'. The Bush administration's attempts at preventing Somalia from falling to Taliban-like Islamists, has also failed. All this, of course, says nothing about the complete and utter disaster known as Iraq. ..............

bring home the 172nd

some shocking statistics

and i do mean shocking. i don't understand how this level of abuse could happen.

Sexual Abuse By Military Recruiters
Over 100 Women Raped Or Assaulted By Recruiters In Past Year

(AP) More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams. A six-month Associated Press investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all regions of the country. "This should never be allowed to happen," said one 18-year-old victim. "The recruiter had all the power. He had the uniform. He had my future. I trusted him." At least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests. That's significantly more than the handful of cases disclosed in the past decade. ....................