i never heard of bunny greenhouse

before i read this article. there ARE people working for our government who ATTEMPT to do the right thing. ATTEMPT to keep an eye on where our tax dollars are going. ATTEMPT to play fair and by the rules.

IF these honest and honorable workers are dealing with halliburton or one of their subsidiaries, dealing with an eye to what is RIGHT, well then, the honest and honorable worker is sent to sit in a corner somewhere (as a BEST case scenerio).

Why 'Bunny' Greenhouse sits in a corner

Sherwood Ross Middle East Times October 25, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Bunnatine Greenhouse sits in a cubicle in a far corner of an office in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) headquarters in downtown Washington, DC, where, she says, "I am treated like a non-person." Months crawl by yet her immediate supervisor just can't seem to find the time to meet with her to discuss a work assignment. The taxpayers of the United States pay her salary but, oddly, no demands are made of her. That's a sad plight for a dynamic woman executive who is the cover girl of the July/August issue of Fraud Magazine. She's not written up for being on the wrong side of the law, only on the wrong side of the Bush White House, now a law unto itself. Fraud is published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and Ms. Greenhouse is the recipient of the association's coveted 2006 Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award. She's been showered with honors and is the subject of laudatory press. In another America in another time, an administration might well have been proud of her. Instead, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has trashed the American Dream of this African-American woman who rose by her own bootstraps from poverty in Rayville, LA, to become the highest US contracting civilian in USACE. Hers was the responsibility for passing on $23-billion in contracts annually. A personnel file stuffed with gold star evaluations attests to her zealous guardianship of the public's money. So why is the woman everyone calls "Bunny" made to sit in a corner, punished like a spoiled child? As she told Fraud editor Dick Carozza: it's over her refusal to sign off on billions of dollars worth of no-bid, no-compete contracts that are enriching Halliburton Corp., previously headed by Vice President Richard Cheney. ......

...............Absent the honest oversight of Bunny Greenhouse and other civil servants like her, Iraq has become what one official who served there called "a fraud-free zone." Billions, not millions of dollars, likely have been stolen from both the Iraqi and the American people. In the words of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.): "The largest single recipient of Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) funds was Halliburton. The company vastly overcharged to import gasoline into Iraq and to provide other oil-related services. These overcharges, which exceed $200-million, were billed to the US Army Corps of Engineers. But US officials arranged for over 80 percent of them to be paid out of the DFI." .............

VANITY FAIR

A Web of TruthWhistle-Blower or Troublemaker, Bunny Greenhouse Isn't Backing Down

Bunny Greenhouse, a Vocal Critic of Halliburton Contract, Gets Demoted

Bunnatine Greenhouse on Halliburton Contracts

Tech Tags: bunny+greenhouse halliburton whistleblower government+contracts

you're quirky and sensitive

and odd and intelligent and funny and knowledgeable about a TON of things

and i love ya dave!

Video: Letterman, O'Reilly grapple over 'failed policy' in Iraq



.............O'Reilly: Are you gonna be on the Dancing with the Stars thing?
Letterman: You bonehead.
O'Reilly: I saw it, I saw it. I teed you right up for that.
Letterman: I mean, it's just, it's just more a choice of what to watch on television.
O'Reilly: I think people are depressed.
Letterman: People are depressed. And rightly so because we have a failed policy and Americans, God bless them, are over there, volunteering to have joined the Army, are over there and giving their lives nearly to the number of 3,000 Americans so far, so yes... people are depressed, but it's not because they want to watch Dancing with the Stars............

(you can get to the youtube video from the link above)

i have no idea what any of this is

i haven't been paying attention to the republicans saying webb wrote a novel containing pornography. i had no idea lynn cheney wrote a novel either. with or without lesbians, brothels and rapes. i don't really care about either of their literary efforts. what i DO care about is:

IF the republicans are saying 'pornography' is WRONG....WHO THE HELL is watching, reading and listening to it all? IF republicans are saying THEY NEVER have anything to do with 'pornography' i am calling them out on it. five words for ya

thou
doth
protest
too
much

VP's wife says Webb 'full of baloney,' won't discuss her own salacious novel

Lynne Cheney appeared on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. She dismissed Virginia Democrat Jim Webb as being "full of baloney" but was uncooperative when Blitzer questioned her on her own book.
Cheney, wife of the Vice President, was remarking on US Senate candidate Webb's response to charges last night that novels he has written are "pornographic," with excerpts released by GOP Sen. George Allen's camp and posted by the Drudge Report, as RAW STORY reported earlier.
The Vice President's wife had published a book of her own in the 1970's that, according to a press release today from the Democrats, "featured a lesbian love affair, brothels and attempted rapes," but as Blitzer highlighted the contradiction, Cheney became evasive. Pressed further and visibly agitated, she finally remarked that "Jim Webb is full of baloney," whereupon Blitzer changed the topic. ...........

(oh and if blitzer was interviewing webb, would he change the subject if webb was being evasive? I THINK NOT)

Stay the Course?

mr kaplan has crystalized my thoughts exactly

Marty Kaplan: W to US: Go Cheney Yourself

Marty Kaplan
At his press conference today,
President Bush rallied his remaining base -- those scattered cult members who can always be counted on to agree with whatever he says. To all other Americans, his message is: It's my way, or the die-way
If you missed the broadcast, here's the gist of it:
I'm the decider.
Except for deciding how many troops we have in
Iraq, in which case, General Casey is the decider.
Except for deciding what benchmarks the Iraqis have to meet, in which case, Prime Minister al-Maliki is the decider.
Except for deciding what "getting the job done" in Iraq means, in which case, Muqtada al-Sadr and Osama Bin Laden are the deciders.
Except for deciding if it's "stay the course," or "strategy for victory," in which case Karl is the decider.
I'm looking forward to the Baker-Hamilton report. If it agrees with my strategy for victory and getting the job done, I will read it. I call this attitude "flexibility.".....

Tech Tags: decider iraq marty+kaplan cheney

30,000 or

600,000

which do YOU think is the most credible number? it sure as hell ISN'T 30,000. i have used the word delusional way too much of late, BUT what other word is there for this type of denial?

Bush's Cynical Numbers Game

Tom Engelhardt
For a long time, the President and his top officials remained on the page first bookmarked by Centcom Commander Tommy Franks during the early phases of the Afghan War when he said, "We don't do body counts."
On December 12, 2005, however, President Bush was faced with a reporter's question: "Since the inception of the Iraqi war, I'd like to know the approximate total of Iraqis who have been killed. And by Iraqis I include civilians, military, police, insurgents, translators."
To the surprise of many, the President responded with an actual number: "How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis." When asked for the President's sourcing, White House spokesman Scott McClellan responded: "[M]edia reports which have cited information that suggests that some 30,000 people, Iraqi citizens, may have been killed." ...........

waterboarding IS torture

and don't let anyone INCLUDING cheney convince you otherwise. i hope you realize sometimes one will confess to 'crimes' one has NOT committed when subjected to torture. it's true and it's a fact (my previous posting on waterboarding)

Cheney confirms that detainees were subjected to water-boarding

By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called "water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.
Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an interview.
Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.
The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however, consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that's banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that prohibit torture. Some intelligence professionals argue that it often provides false or misleading information because many subjects will tell their interrogators what they think they want to hear to make the water-boarding stop. ...........

Tech Tags: waterboarding torture cheney terrorism

sheer lunacy

i don't know which news this dude is watching but the only OUTRIGHT liberal news i have EVER seen on a REGULAR basis is on COMEDY CENTRAL for goddess' sake! geeze.

faux is OUTRIGHT close-minded, tunnel-visioned, beyond conservative. the others, cnn and msnbc as well as the networks don't lean as far right as faux but sometimes they come day-um close. of course someone like keith olbermann is on msnbc BUT that is ONE show out of a ton of others. even pbs news isn't leaning to the left (yeah, like it USED to.)

really now, i think all of these people should put down their crack pipes (figuratively of course) and GET REAL

ABC News Director To O’Reilly: Media Has Liberal Bias And ‘We’ve Got To Fix That’

Yesterday, Mark Halperin, ABC Political Director and co-author of the new book The Way To Win, went on The O’Reilly Factor and agreed with Bill O’Reilly that members of the “old media” are too liberal and should “prove to conservatives that we understand their grievances.”
When O’Reilly pointedly asked him if he believed major news organizations — including ABC — had a liberal bias, Halperin repeated the right-wing talking point that the media is trying to suppress Republican turnout. He told O’Reilly, “If I were a conservative, I understand why I would feel suspicious that I was not going to get a fair break at the end of an election. We’ve got to make sure we do better, so conservatives don’t have to be concerned about that.” ............

Tech Tags: news conservative liberal denial

jonathan hutto is a hero and a patriot

he was in iraq. he KNOWS what's going on there. he also has a heart AND a brain and a moral conscience

so are the other 100 or so troops who have signed this petition


Grass-Roots Group of Troops Petitions Congress for Pullout From Iraq


By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 25, 2006; Page A13
More than 100 U.S. service members have signed a rare appeal urging Congress to support the "prompt withdrawal" of all American troops and bases from Iraq, organizers said yesterday.
"Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home," reads the statement of a small grass-roots group of active-duty military personnel and reservists that says it aims to give U.S. military members a voice in Iraq war policy..

....."Just because you put on the uniform of our country doesn't mean you've given up your rights as a citizen," said J.E. McNeil, a lawyer for the group and executive director for the Center on Conscience & War, a Washington organization that protects the rights of conscientious objectors......................

....Navy Seaman Jonathan Hutto of Atlanta was the first service member to sign the appeal.
"I hear discussions every day among my shipmates about the war in Iraq and how it doesn't make any sense at this point," said Hutto, who is based in Norfolk and served from September 2005 until March on a ship off Iraq's coast. "There is no victory in sight, and war is still inevitable." He said he opposes the war because of its human and economic tolls, adding that the billions of dollars should be spent on jobs and education at home.
Marine Corps Sgt. Liam Madden, 22, served in Iraq's restive Anbar province from September 2004 until February 2005 and found his opposition to the war intensified after he returned to the United States. "I don't think any more Iraqis or Americans should die because of the U.S. occupation," he said, expressing disappointment that Iraqi elections in January 2005 did not lead to a decline in violence................

Tech Tags: jonathan+hutton liam+madden iraq patriot petition

huh

stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course?
never said stay the course
stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course stay the course? never said stay the course

who listens to this shite? who believes this shite? when is the ENTIRE population of the united states going to realize this administration is causing irreparable DAMAGE to ALL of us (not to mention the rest of the universe). this MUST STOP

vote
vote THEM OUT

Rumsfeld Agrees Bush Is ‘Not Backing Away From Staying The Course’

Faced with widespread disappoval of its Iraq policy, the Bush administration launched a coordinated effort this week to convince Americans it has never had a stay-the-course strategy in Iraq. On Sunday, President Bush said, “We’ve never been stay the course.” White House Counselor Dan Bartlett disavowed the label again yesterday.
But in a radio interview today with Sean Hannity, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that the Bush administration isn’t planning to shift its strategy. Rumsfeld called media reports about Bush’s reversal “nonsense,” and said “of course” Bush is “not backing away from staying the course.” ................

Tech Tags: rumsfeld insanity liars hannity iraq

insanity

ABSOLUTE and TOTAL insanity

(fair and balanced my big fat white ass)

flush limbaugh is a giant pile of steamin' shite

GIANT

Rush Limbaugh attacks Michael J. Fox: ” …he was either off the medication or he was acting. He is an actor, after all.”

a two part story (part i) on interrogations at gitmo

open your eyes and ears. how we treat people, our detainees DOES count. there ARE international laws (not even counting UNITED STATES laws) that prevent certain things. there are rights we cannot trample on.

sure there are terrorists in gitmo, but if you don't believe there are innocent people there as well you're sadly mistaken

three words

BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS
an eye opener as i said


Gitmo interrogations spark battle over tactics
The inside story of criminal investigators who tried to stop abuse

PART ONE OF TWO
By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
MSNBC
Updated: 5:06 p.m. ET Oct 23, 2006

Speaking publicly for the first time, senior U.S. law enforcement investigators say they waged a long but futile battle inside the Pentagon to stop coercive and degrading treatment of detainees by intelligence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Their account indicates that the struggle over U.S. interrogation techniques began much earlier than previously known, with separate teams of law enforcement and intelligence interrogators battling over the best way to accomplish two missions: prevent future attacks and punish the terrorists.
In extensive interviews with MSNBC.com, former leaders of the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigation Task Force said they repeatedly warned senior Pentagon officials beginning in early 2002 that the harsh interrogation techniques used by a separate intelligence team would not produce reliable information, could constitute war crimes, and would embarrass the nation when they became public knowledge.
The investigators say their warnings began almost from the moment their agents got involved at the Guantanamo prison camp, in January 2002. When they could not prevent the harsh interrogations and humiliation of detainees at Guantanamo, they say, they tried in 2003 to stop the spread of those tactics to Iraq, where abuses at Abu Ghraib prison triggered worldwide outrage with the publishing of graphic photos in April 2004.
Their account, confirmed by the Navy's former general counsel, outlines a fierce debate within the Defense Department over the competing goals of justice and security in the war on terror. President Bush has said repeatedly that the detentions at Guantanamo were intended not only to secure intelligence information to prevent al-Qaida attacks, but also to "bring to justice" the terrorists.
As a result, a dual structure of intelligence gathering and criminal investigation, with two arms of the U.S. military, with overlapping missions, interrogating the same prisoners, continues today.........

Tech Tags: gitmo abuse detainees pentagon

if THIS doesn't change your mind about king george

and his delusional world, i don't know what will

how the hell many times did that man say, 'stay the course'? a million perhaps? well NOT according to king george. HE NEVER SAID IT (and if he did, he sure as shite didn't mean it)

Bush: ‘We’ve Never Been Stay The Course’

During an interview today on ABC’s This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years. George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker’s plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is “between ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run.’”
Bush responded, ‘We’ve never been stay the course, George!’ ........

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]
BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]
BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]
BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]
BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]
BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]...............

Tech Tags: delusional iraq king+george stay+the+course

movie of the day

stevie

Intimate Storytelling; Steve James On His Personal Doc "Stevie"


by Patricia Thomson
Shortly after director Steve James finished the award-winning basketball documentary "Hoop Dreams" in 1995, he renewed contact with Stephen Dale Fielding. The filmmaker had once been Stevie's Big Brother, and he was curious how the shy, awkward youth had fared in life. The answer was a troubling one, sending James on a documentary endeavor that lasted more than four years. The result is "Stevie," a powerful portrait of a troubled soul who winds up facing child molestation charges. Winner of the cinematography award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, the feature-length film opens theatrically in New York and Los Angeles today and will be released nationwide through April and May by Lions Gate Films. In this interview, the director talked about the evolution of "Stevie," his own role as a character in the film, and the challenges of having a personal relationship with his subject.........


an amazing documentry by steven james. when mr james was in college he became a big brother to stevie. years later mr james decided to pay stevie a visit. to say it wasn't pretty, is not even close. as a youngster stevie was abused (allegedly but i believe it) AND unwanted. he spent time in foster homes and finally ended up with his step grandmother. no relation but she took him in. that's where we still find him all of these years later. broken glasses, rotting teeth, dirty clothing, drunk. through the years stevie has been in all sorts of trouble with the law. it appears they were all fairly minor UNTIL something VERY ugly happened while mr james was filming. it certainly isn't a mystery movie, but you should see it for yourself. along with stevie and his step grandmother, stevie's sister, brother in law, aunt, 'friend', fiancee and a few townfolk were in the movie. mr james was in the movie as well. from what i read, that wasn't his plan, it just happened.
i personally have never seen such an effed up life in MY whole life.

it's disturbing yet draws you in

from wapo, an in-depth look at garry trudeau

from his feelings on king george to feelings ABOUT mr trudeau from o'reilly (o'wrongly i mean) and mccain

i personally think mr trudeau is a BRILLIANT satirist. after reading this profile of him, i like him even more

Doonesbury's War

the following comes very far into the article (i DID say it was thorough)

......As apolitical as the B.D. story is, elsewhere in the strip Trudeau regularly unleashes his disgust for the Iraq war and the man who is waging it. Trudeau's time at Yale overlapped with George W. Bush's -- he knew him slightly and disliked him even then, largely for what he saw as a sense of smug entitlement ("all noblesse and no oblige.") In the strip, often on Sundays, with maximum readership, Trudeau just kills Bush. One Sunday this year, Michael Doonesbury and his old friend Bernie were discussing the Iraq war and wondering whether it keeps the president awake at night because of its enormous, heartbreaking human toll. In the final panel, Trudeau cuts to a signature exterior nighttime view of the White House. From inside come two dialogue balloons: "What's wrong, dear?" And: "It's the stem cells. I hear their cries."...........

image of b d from doonesbury by garry trudeau

Tech Tags: garry+trudeau comics satire doonesbury

wonder who is behind this ban

you KNOW it's not really the prime minister's. you KNOW it was OUR decision to quash the REAL figures.

IT'S EFFING SICK

Iraq's Prime Minister Bars Release of Civlian Casualty Numbers

UNITED NATIONS Iraq's prime minister has barred the Health Ministry from releasing alarming casualty figures that showed violence in Iraq was killing 100 civilians a day and provided a rare insight into the worsening sectarian conflict, according to an internal U.N. memo obtained Friday. The memo from top U.N. envoy for Iraq Ashraf Qazi to several senior U.N. officials said Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's office had twice instructed the ministry not to release the numbers to the United Nations and that his office would now be responsible for releasing any such information. The U.N. mission in Iraq had published the Health Ministry's numbers in its bimonthly reports about the human rights situation in Iraq. The figures were seen as one of the rare reliable indicators of the civilian suffering in Iraq — and U.N. officials even suspected they have underreported the actual number of civilian deaths. The figures gained widespread international attention in July, when they showed that some 6,000 Iraqi civilians had died over the previous two months, or about 100 people a day, the victims of assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, and torture. In the next report, released in September, the civilian death figures painted an even grimmer picture, showing civilian deaths had risen to an all-time high of 6,599 for July and August. .........

Tech Tags: iraq death+toll reality truth civilian+casualties

a shout out to dena gleason

it gives my heart great joy to hear of people like ms gleason. DOING something. i'll say it one more time (because i've been accused of ALL sorts of things). i am NOT pro-abortion. i AM pro-choice. i am PRO sex education i am PRO contraceptives. i am PRO knowledge (knowledge is power). ABSTINENCE DOES NOT WORK (another story on that subject later. it will take a while to write and i've been putting it off for quite a while).

women, do NOT give up your rights. your body YOUR choice(s)

South Dakota's Abortion Ban Showdown

By Rebecca Clarren, Ms. Magazine Posted on October 20, 2006, Printed on October 22, 2006http://www.alternet.org/story/43139/
Sioux Falls, SD -- College student Dena Gleason, 24, squints at the address on the blue wooden home with the two-car garage, then strolls resolutely toward the front door, armed with an open smile and a clipboard. The smell of freshly mowed grass clings to the thick evening air of midsummer, and the American flag on the porch droops in the heat.
This neighborhood, with its manicured lawns and tree-lined streets, is fit for a Norman Rockwell painting, but to Gleason, a senior at South Dakota State in Brookings, it's simply the staging ground for the most important social battle she's faced in her lifetime.
She's taken the semester off school and given up two jobs in order to gather tons of signatures and talk to hundreds of people, trying to convince them that a vote No on Referred Law 6 this November is critical for protecting women's rights. In February and March 2006, the state legislature of South Dakota passed, and Gov. Mike Rounds signed, a bill to outlaw abortion in the state.
With no exceptions for rape, incest or a woman's health--only to "prevent the death" of a pregnant woman--it is the most draconian abortion ban in the country. South Dakota is a conservative, sparsely populated place--known for its Great Plains, Black Hills and Badlands--where abortion is already so constrained that there is only one clinic for its 775,000 residents. The state's antiabortion groups thought it was a perfect place to launch a further attack, but despite the legislative victory they have an all-out battle on their hands: The ban's passage has spurred thousands of state residents such as Gleason--many of them political naifs--to action........

Tech Tags: south+dakota abortion womens+rights abstinence

do YOU know who you're voting for

really know?

this is rather disparaging

Racists on the Ballot: Hard-Right Radicals Run in 2006

By Alexander Zaitchik, Intelligence ReportPosted on October 20, 2006, Printed on October 22, 2006http://www.alternet.org/story/43227/
In 1989, notorious white supremacist David Duke ran for a vacant seat in the Louisiana state legislature and won. Despite repeated efforts -- and winning more than 670, 000 votes, a majority of the state's white voters, in a 1991 gubernatorial bid -- Duke would fail to convert this electoral victory into higher office. But the former Klan leader remains convinced that the road to national power for those who share his views runs through local and state assemblies. At last year's European American Conference, a racist pow-wow Duke organizes annually, he implored audience members to enter politics -- and start small.
"State representative races can be won with modest budgets and small staffs, while affording the winner possible major media attention and the ability to file and promote legislation that can materially improve our people's plight," proclaimed Duke, citing personal experience.
"Most importantly, a state representative office is winnable for political novices and provides an excellent springboard for higher office."
This electoral strategy for building an extremist political movement in the U.S. was recently echoed by neo-Nazi John Ubele in an essay posted on the website of the Nationalist Coalition, a white nationalist group. In "The 2006 Elections: A Call to Action," Ubele expounds upon the positive uses of local campaigns, even failed ones, in helping lay the groundwork for a "national pro-White political party." These include heightened exposure for extremist ideas and organizational and management experience for activists.
One extremist who has gained both exposure and experience in 2006 is Larry Darby. As a candidate in a two-way Democratic primary race for attorney general of Alabama, Darby lived up to his recently earned reputation as an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. While campaigning, Darby made headlines by stating the Holocaust did not occur, telling an Associated Press reporter that no more than 140,000 Jews died in Europe during World War II, most killed by typhus. His outspoken atheism -- and support for legalizing marijuana -- pushed Darby even further outside the conservative mainstream of Alabama politics.
Yet, despite his views, his (later abandoned) atheism, and his near total lack of resources, Darby managed to poll 44% of the vote -- more than 163,000 votes.
While some of the lessons of Darby's success are particular to the race -- Darby ran against a political unknown, was listed first on the ballot, and was at least a vaguely familiar name to many Alabamians -- one lesson from his race and those of David Duke applies across the country: Dark-horse candidates with extremist views and unsavory allies can make surprisingly strong runs for office and poison public discourse in the process.......

Tech Tags: racist neo+nazi extremist candidates

mr fernandez, you and i AND THE WHOLE world know

you did NOT misspeak

what you said IS the truth. did you get your wrist slapped for saying those words? 83 american troops DEAD in iraq this month. 83. those are our sons and daughters and husbands and wives and our friends and neighbors. we're not even allowed to see those 83 come home, in a box, but home

the 83 doesn't even come near the number of our troops who were injured and maimed this month. i don't even have an idea how many THAT was

BRING THEM HOME NOW

Diplomat 'mispoke' on U.S. arrogance in Iraq

By Claudia Parsons
BAGHDAD, Oct 22 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. diplomat who said the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq said he "seriously misspoke" in an interview aired on Sunday after U.S. President George W. Bush said he was flexible on tactics, if not strategy.
In an attack that highlights the problems Washington faces in recruiting and training Iraqi security forces, 13 police recruits were killed and 25 wounded in an ambush on a convoy of buses near the town of Baquba on Sunday.
U.S. military deaths in Iraq in October have reached 83, making it the most deadly month for Americans this year and adding to pressure on Bush before Congressional elections next month in which Republicans could lose majorities in both houses.
"We tried to do our best (in Iraq) but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," U.S. State Department official Alberto Fernandez told Al Jazeera television, according to a Reuters reporter who heard the interview, which was in Arabic.
Fernandez, the State Department's director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern affairs, said that he had misspoken during the interview.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq. This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize," Fernandez said in a statement.
The State Department had said that the English translation of the comments posted on Al Jazeera's English-language Web site had misquoted Fernandez.
As violence rages, the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been meeting Shi'ite clerics this week to enlist their support in calming militia infighting in southern Iraq as well as sectarian strife between Shi'ites and Sunnis.
Disarming militias such as the Mehdi Army, loyal to powerful young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, is seen as crucial by the United States but has proved difficult for Maliki who relies on the support of the political groups linked to the militias.........

Tech Tags: alberto+fernandez us+troops iraq al-jazeera

stay the course

the decider decided that

this month, october, with over a week left in it HAS BEEN THE DEADLIEST MONTH for our troops in over two years. yet nothing has changed. we're still there. WHY? saddam was not and is not osama. iraq had NOTHING to do with 9-11. they had no wmd. they didn't do anything to us. NOW they are sure. but WE INVADED THEIR COUNTRY. WE HELPED START THEIR CIVIL WAR

WE MADE ONE HUGE MISTAKE which cost this country way more than money. ask the relatives of the service people coming home in boxes (which we are not allowed to see)

shiits - sunnis, the people responsible for caring for our troops don't even know the difference.
(see this would be funny)


Oct. Toll at 78 for U.S. Troops in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Three U.S. Marines were killed in combat Saturday in Anbar province, the military said, making October the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq this year. The deaths raised the October toll to 78, surpassing the previous high figure of 76 in April and making October - with more than a week left - on course to be the deadliest month for American service members in two years.
Also Saturday, a dozen mortars rained down on an outdoor market crowded with holiday shoppers, killing at least 18 people in a Shiite-dominated city that was the scene of a deadly market assault earlier this year, police said.
The mortar attack in Mahmoudiyah came soon after bombs hidden in plastic bags left on five bicycles ripped through the market, which was crowded with shoppers ahead of the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holiday, said police Lt. Hayder Satar. Such dual attacks are frequently employed by armed groups to inflict additional damage on crowds that form after the initial bombing.
Satar said at least 18 people were killed and 52 injured in the attack on the city about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Mahmoudiyah, a primarily Shiite Muslim city surrounded by rival Sunni communities, was the scene in July of one of the worst assaults on civilians in recent months when suspected Sunni gunmen sprayed grenades and automatic weapons fire in a market, killing at least 50 people, mostly Shiites.............

Tech Tags: war death+toll iraq sunni shiite decider

if you're so frightened to go to the mall

that you need to carry a concealed weapon. PERHAPS YOU SHOULDN'T BE GOING TO THE MALL IN THE FIRST PLACE

Woman Shot at Mall Shows Dangers of Concealed Carry

We’ve been covering this story in our America’s Shooting Gallery, and now a Fayetteville paper has a closer look at it. Early last week, a young woman was shot at a mall in North Carolia– we later found out that it was because someone had accidentally dropped a firearm, and it had gone off, hitting her in the stomach.
It could happen anywhere that people gather. It did happen at Cross Creek Mall early Sunday evening, when a loaded handgun fell out of someone’s pocket. The gun hit the tile floor and fired a .380-caliber bullet into 18-year-old Krystal Anderson’s chest.
If this were almost any other city in America, Anderson might not have survived the experience. But this is not any other city. It’s the home of more combat-seasoned soldiers than almost anywhere in America. Two 82nd Airborne medics — John Terhune and Donald Clark — were nearby, heard the shot and quickly began treating her wound. Both medics served in Iraq and knew what to do to keep Anderson alive until the ambulance arrived. Now she’s in the intensive care unit at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, in stable condition. We join her family’s prayers for her return to health.
So far, the gun-toter who caused the mishap hasn’t been identified. Police are waiting until they can speak with Anderson before releasing details of the incident.
But we do know this much: The mall has a code of conduct posted at its major entrances, saying only law enforcement personnel are allowed to carry guns in the mall. Nobody else should have a gun there.
On this, we agree with the gun guys: signs posted in front of malls don’t work. You can’t just put up a sign and expect everyone to follow it– especially people who think it’s possible to safely carry firearms around in public places. They obviously don’t operate on logic.........

guns concealed+weapons nra

and i call myself mad!

i should be ashamed of myself. i'm nowhere NEAR the madness of this candidate; crozier. click on the link for the video

GOP Candidate: Kids Should Use Textbooks as Protection From School Gunmen

by Bob Geiger Oct 21 2006 - 11:04am permalinkarticle tools: email print read more Bob Geiger
A candidate for state superintendent of education in Oklahoma has proposed a plan to protect schoolchildren from gun-related violence by putting old, thick textbooks under every school desk in the state for students to use in self-defense if a crazed gunman storms their school.
In case you're waiting for the other shoe to drop, yes, the candidate is indeed a Republican.
The GOP's own Bill Crozier believes that old schoolbooks could be used as effective shields should a gun nut begin shooting up campus and even produced a video showing how it would work...................