a shout out and a shot out (of stoli)

for 170 DRUNKEN russian soldiers

170 drunk Russian soldiers launch massive fight in cross-country train

About 170 drunk Russian soldiers started a huge fight in the train travelling from Chita to Chelyabinsk (Russian cities). As a result all windows in two cars have been smashed. The amount of injured people has not been reported, officials said.
The fight involving 170 drunk soldiers reportedly began on Tuesday at 12:57 p.m. The Internal Affairs Ministry of the Buratia republic sent 250 policemen to the city of Ulan-Ude, the nearest railway station, to calm down the crowd of drunk hooligans.............

how can a study warn

iraq is CLOSE to being a 'failed state'? wtf is it now? paradise?

how can those who have control, who CAUSED this sleep at night?

how can crocker say there is PROGRESS when SIXTY people were wiped off of the face of the earth?

when his co workers in the embassy are FRIGHTENED to be there


60 Die in Iraq; Study Warns Of Collapse
British Center Finds Country Close to Being a 'Failed State'


By John Ward Anderson Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, May 18, 2007; Page A14

BAGHDAD, May 17 -- More than 60 people were killed and dozens wounded in mortar strikes, drive-by shootings, roadside explosions, suicide bombings and other violent attacks in Iraq on Thursday, as a new study warned that the country was close to becoming a "failed state."
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, said the country had tread close to "the edge of the abyss" but now was making progress on political reforms needed to help mend sectarian and ethnic rifts that have pushed the country to the brink of civil war. Crocker cited what he said was Iraqi political progress toward agreements on constitutional reforms, the sharing of oil revenue and allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath political party to take government and other public jobs............

WATCH THIS and i'm not kidding

my personal favorite video of the year (so far)

i feel the slime

i need to hop in the shower

(a few stories back i mentioned some people thought i worshiped the devil. well i don't. i try NOT to judge others but dang, if these people haven't signed their souls over IN BLOOD well as i said, DANG)

Mr. Comey's Tale
A standoff at a hospital bedside speaks volumes about Attorney General Gonzales.

JAMES B. COMEY, the straight-as-an-arrow former No. 2 official at the Justice Department, yesterday offered the Senate Judiciary Committee an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source. The episode involved a 2004 nighttime visit to the hospital room of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft by Alberto Gonzales, then the White House counsel, and Andrew H. Card Jr., then the White House chief of staff. .............

.............Mr. Comey's vivid depiction, worthy of a Hollywood script, showed the lengths to which the administration and the man who is now attorney general were willing to go to pursue the surveillance program. First, they tried to coerce a man in intensive care -- a man so sick he had transferred the reins of power to Mr. Comey -- to grant them legal approval. Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation's chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice's authorization. Only in the face of the prospect of mass resignations -- Mr. Comey, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and most likely Mr. Ashcroft himself -- did the president back down...............

when yhou think of the numbers

one in four is A LOT.

when one considers firing 26 united states attorneys we all know ONE lower level employee doesn't have that type of power. we all DO know who DOES have that type of power.

will justice (get it, justice?) be done?
i seriously doubt it. it hasn't been done so far (on ANYTHING)

Justice Weighed Firing 1 in 4
26 Prosecutors Were Listed As Candidates


By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writers

The Justice Department considered dismissing many more U.S. attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified last week that the effort was limited to eight U.S. attorneys fired since last June, and other administration officials have said that only a few others were suggested for removal.

In fact, D. Kyle Sampson, then Gonzales's chief of staff, considered more than two dozen U.S. attorneys for termination, according to lists compiled by him and his colleagues, the sources said..............

i personally do NOT hide

who i am and what i practice. i don't talk about it unless asked, but almost all of my workmates know as do all of my friends. they know i'm not sacrificing babies in my basement. i am in total agreement with the woman featured in the article though. most people who don't know me the find out i am stregha, assume i worship the devil. listen up, I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL. i try to live my life as a good person. i try NOT to do evil (i'm not a saint and i have done things i'm not proud of and i'm sure i will in the future too). however, i NEVER wish anyone harm. do you know the witch's crede? i'll tell you (it is said a bit differently here and there, but it basically is:)

an' it harm none, do as you will

Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps

By NEELA BANERJEE
DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.
The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no one — not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children’s playgroups — that she is Wiccan.
Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca — a form of paganism — still faces a struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.
But Wicca in the civilian world is largely a religion in hiding. Wiccans fear losing their friends and jobs if people find out about their faith.
“I would love to be able to say ‘Accept us for who we are,’ but I can’t, mainly because of my kids,” said the suburban mother, who agreed to talk only on the condition of anonymity. “Children can be cruel, and their parents can be even more cruel, and I don’t want my kids picked on for the choice their mommy made.”.............

one of my favorite stories is; a woman at work once got all secretive. she wended her way to my desk and her eyes darted furtively here and there. in a low voice she said, 'i know your beliefs are a bit different than most a rose is a rose. do you celebrate thanksgiving?"

THE ANSWER IS YES I DO. (of course i do it in a different way - but it has NOTHING to do with wicca or stregha. it has to do with my own soul. i celebrate it by fasting. the ONLY DAY i fast.)

more on yet ANOTHER king george appointee

i know if i was in charge of picking someone to oversee a health program dealing mainly with women - i'd pick someone who DIDN'T BELIEVE IN BIRTH CONTROL but DID believe in abstinence (among other things)

N O T

is anyone keeping any sort of tally of all these appointees? seems like there are so very many. more than ALL other administrations put together (or is it just moi?)

Heckuva job? Bush Administration vaunted bogus credentials for birth control czar, records show

Lindsay Beyerstein and Larisa Alexandrovna

Medical Directorship was part time or volunteer post, group says
The former head of the federal agency overseeing family planning programs misled the public about his qualifications and background, a RAW STORY investigation has found.
Appointed by President George W. Bush in late 2006 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Eric J. Keroack resigned unexpectedly in March of this year after Massachusetts officials launched a formal investigation into allegations of Medicaid fraud during his tenure in private practice.
Medicaid is a state-federal health program for the poor.
Although as an appointee he quickly became mired in controversy over his opposition to birth control, abortion and comprehensive sex education, newly obtained documents show that from the start Dr. Keroack was far from qualified to head the federal women’s health program. ...

...........HHS officials repeatedly cited Keroack’s long tenure in private practice as one of his key qualifications, along with his highly publicized role as medical director for a chain of Christian pregnancy centers.
According to the Washington Post, “Eric Keroack, a nationally known advocate of abstinence until marriage, served for more than a decade as medical director for A Woman’s Concern, a Massachusetts nonprofit group that discourages abortion and does not distribute information promoting birth control. But HHS spokeswoman Christina Pearson said yesterday that most of Keroack’s professional time had been devoted to his private practice of 20 years, not the group.”................

my war

i read about colby's blog (now a book) in an article in the guardian

i checked it out and found a wicked cool

link (make sure you REALLY read what pops up)

my war killing time in iraq by colby buzzell

talk about as FAR from the truth as you can get

shite

Pope Benedict: Native Americans "longing for Christianity"

by
Chris in Paris

............In a speech to Latin American and Caribbean bishops at the end of a visit to Brazil, the Pope said the Church had not imposed itself on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.They had welcomed the arrival of European priests at the time of the conquest as they were "silently longing" for Christianity, he said.................

wow the slime

is oozier than even i thought.

if someone breaks the law (the someone being you or i), and that someone is caught, that someone would have to pay the price, no?

YES

well then how come all of the law breakers in king george's court (including the king himself) are NOT paying the piper for ALL of the dancing they've been doing?

Initial warrantless eavesdropping program deemed illegal by the Justice Department

By Jonathan S. Landay and Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration ran its warrantless eavesdropping program without the Justice Department's approval for up to three weeks in 2004, nearly triggering a mass resignation of the nation's top law enforcement officials, the former No. 2 official disclosed Tuesday.
In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said that those he believed were prepared to quit included then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Comey said then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card visited Ashcroft as he lay gravely ill in a hospital bed on March 10, 2004, and pressed him to re-certify the program's legality. Ashcroft refused.
"I was angry. I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very seriously sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me," Comey recalled. "I thought it was improper." ...........

another catch-22 moment

DoD Flip-Flop: YouTube Banned, But Watch It
US Mil Calls on Troops to Watch Its YouTube Channel After Nixing YouTube Access

One day after the Pentagon banned US military personnel worldwide from accessing the wildly popular YouTube Web site via DoD computers and networks, the weekly electronic newsletter of the US-led Multi-National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I) today makes a banner appeal for US forces and others to watch MNF-I's new YouTube channel.
Oops................

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

what?

is HELL freezing over? are pigs flying? the white house has picked a 'war czar' who, not only wants to talk about guns BUT WANTS TO TALK POLITICS AND ECONOMICS? who gives honest answers when asked about such things as surges.

let's hope the job just isn't a name. let's hope lt. general lute IS the solution here. i know i'm keeping a good thought out for him (and all of our women and men serving as well as all innocent iraqis)

Bush Taps Skeptic of Buildup as 'War Czar'
Lt. Gen. Lute Accepts Position Others Spurned


By Peter Baker and Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writers

President Bush tapped Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute yesterday to serve as a new White House "war czar" overseeing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, choosing a low-key soldier who privately expressed skepticism about sending more troops to Iraq during last winter's strategy review.
In the newly created position, Lute will coordinate often disjointed military and civilian operations and manage the Washington side of the same troop increase he resisted before Bush announced the plan in January. Bush hopes an empowered aide working in the White House and answering directly to him will be able to cut through bureaucracy that has hindered efforts in Iraq..........

.............In choosing Lute, Bush picked a key internal voice of dissent during the administration review that led to the troop increase. Reflecting the views of other members of the Joint Chiefs, Lute argued that a short-term "surge" would do little good and that any sustained increase in forces had to be matched by equal emphasis on political and economic steps, according to officials informed about the deliberations...............

because i am a girl

read the stats. they're eye opening

Discrimination Against Girls ‘Still Deeply Entrenched’

by Terri Judd / Harriet Griffey
Almost 100 million girls “disappear” each year, killed in the womb or as babies, a study has revealed.
The report, “Because I am a Girl”, exposes the gender discrimination which remains deeply entrenched and widely tolerated across the world, including the fact that female foeticide is on the increase in countries where a male child remains more valued
The report highlights the fact that two million girls a year still suffer genital mutilation, half a million die during pregnancy - the leading killer among 15 to 19-year-olds - every 12 months and an estimated 7.3 million are living with HIV/Aids compared with 4.5 million young men. Almost a million girls fall victim to child traffickers each year compared with a quarter that number of boys.
Of the 1.5 billion people living on less than 50p a day, 70 per cent are female, with 96 million young women aged 15 to 24 unable to read or write - almost double the number for males.
While many of the most shocking figures in the Plan International report relate to developing nations, sexual discrimination is still prevalent in the north.
In the UK, two women a week are killed by current or former partners. The country also has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe and having a baby at a young age means women are more likely to miss out on education and slip into poverty. There has also been a substantial rise in obesity in young girls in the UK......................

my favorite quote of the week

In an interview with Fox News, Vice President Cheney called Wolfowitz "a very good president of the World Bank," adding, "I hope he will be able to continue."

so this isn't reason enough (not even counting all of the men and women the big dick and ALL of the rest of king george's court have sent into harm's way in iraq. not even counting katrina. not even counting stifling our scientists on global warming and other things. not even counting king george consulting with mr focus on the family dobson over iran YES you heard me OVER IRAN. the list is way longer but i'll stop now)

Bank Rebukes Wolfowitz On Ethics
Rules Were Broken, Committee Says


By Peter S. Goodman Washington Post Staff Writer

A World Bank investigating committee sharply rebuked President Paul D. Wolfowitz, concluding that he broke ethics rules and undermined the integrity of the institution in engineering a hefty pay raise for his girlfriend..

...In a written response, Wolfowitz maintained that he acted in good faith in seeking to resolve an obvious conflict of interest. He accused the bank's ethics committee of forcing him to oversee the raise for his longtime companion, Shaha Riza, as compensation for her transfer to a different job. The ethics panel was afraid to confront her, Wolfowitz said, because its members knew she was "extremely angry and upset."..........

ok, as you can see he blames the board for FORCING him to deal with his 'EXTREMELY ANGRY AND UPSET' grrrlfren'. then, THE SWAIN has the NERVE to blame his grrrlfren'! oh no he did'nt (oh YES he DIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDD)

yet, the white house still LOVES this dude!

no additional comments from me are necessary

U.S. Embassy employees fearful over Green Zone attacks

By Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Embassy employees in Iraq are growing increasingly angry over what they say are inadequate security precautions in the heavily fortified Green Zone, where recent mortar and rocket attacks have claimed the lives of six people, including two U.S. citizens.
In spite of the attacks, embassy employees complain, most staff members still sleep in trailers that one described as "tin cans" that offer virtually no protection from rocket and mortar fire. The government has refused to harden the roofs because of the cost, one employee said.
A second official called it "criminally negligent" not to reduce the size of the embassy staff, which a year ago was estimated at 1,000, in the face of the increasing attacks and blamed the administration's failure to respond on concerns that doing so might undermine support for President Bush's Iraq policy...........

cliff schecter sees things as they REALLY are

a terrorist IS a terrorist no matter if they use the word allah OR jesus

Extremist Taunts His Victims From Prison

By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer

Victims of Eric Rudolph, the anti-abortion extremist who pulled off a series of bombings across the South, say he is taunting them from deep within the nation's most secure federal prison, and authorities say there is little they can do to stop him.
Rudolph, who was captured after a five-year manhunt and pleaded guilty in deadly bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and a Birmingham abortion clinic, is serving life in prison at the "Supermax" penitentiary in Florence, Colo.
Housed in the most secure part of the prison, he has no computer and little contact with the outside world aside from writing letters.
But Rudolph's long essays have been posted on the Internet by a supporter who maintains an Army of God Web site. The Army of God is the same loose-knit group that Rudolph claimed to represent in letters sent after the blasts.
In one piece, Rudolph seeks to justify violence against abortion clinics by arguing that Jesus would condone "militant action in defense of the innocent.".......

now check out cliff schecter's version -

Imagine this a little differently

(i would have printed a bit of an exerpt but i can't get the formatting mr schecter used to work. it's not the same without it, so please check it out yourself)

as i said

these peeps really know how to spin. it's amazing for a couple of reasons. they can do it with a fairly straight face AND we're ALLOWING them to do it.

lie to us, deceive us. SEND OUR MEN AND WOMEN INTO HARM'S WAY while their pockets are being lined and their kids are home safe and sound (well maybe NOT sound)

Death squad activity up 40 percent in a month

As the White House stood firm in its commitment to a troop surge in the Iraq war, statistics released this week show a key indicator of progress in Iraq trending in the wrong direction.
Insurgent death squads dumped 234 bodies around Baghdad in the first 11 days of May, a 41 percent increase from the 137 bodies dumped around the capital during the first 11 days of April, The Observer of London reported Sunday.
Addressing reporters Monday, White House spokesman Tony Snow said there was "concern" about the rise in death-squad activity, but he maintained "the longer-term trends ... still generally are down and considerably so."
Speaking before the release of the new statistics, a Pentagon spokesman in Baghdad downplayed the increase of violence. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad that there had been a "very slight uptick" in the number of "murders and executions" in Baghdad............

what's that queen song

that is sticking to the back of my brain?

ah, yes, it's

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

of course mr mcnulty says he's leaving because he has to send his kids to college. WE all know why he's really leaving. i only wish the RIGHT people, those REALLY responsible would start resigning. that ain't gonna happen though.

one thing about the king and his entire court. they sure do know how to spin a tall tale.

Justice Dept.'s No. 2 to Resign
McNulty Is 4th to Quit Since Disputed Firings


By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer

Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty announced his resignation yesterday after 18 months on the job, becoming the fourth senior Justice Department official to quit amid the controversy surrounding the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
In a one-page letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, McNulty said he will leave his post in late summer because of the "financial realities" brought on by "college-age children and two decades of public service."
McNulty, 49, said in an interview that the political tumult over the prosecutor dismissals -- including his role in providing inaccurate information to Congress -- did not play a part in his decision. He said he has not lined up a job but is considering his options.............

to cbs

I just read the following on imdb

CBS News veteran Linda Mason, who was appointed to head the news division's "standards and special projects" unit following the "Memogate" scandal two years ago, has attributed the continued decline in the ratings for The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric to the fact that the public "seems to prefer the news from white guys." In an interview with the CBS blog Public Eye, Mason said she has concluded from the downward trend of Couric's ratings and the upward trend of Charles Gibson's that viewers "want the reassurance of a Walter Cronkite." Mason suggested that she was surprised by the failure of the public to latch on to Couric. "I had no idea that a woman delivering the news would be a handicap. And I'm afraid that Katie's paying a price for being the first woman. But I think it's a great trail that she's blazing, and I think if the broadcast continues to be as good as it has been, if we continue to break news, if we continue to tell interesting stories, people will start to watch."

and i sent the following to cbs via their online feedback
If in fact Ms Mason said this (and if she did and if I were in charge of CBS her butt would be OUT OF THE DOOR IMMEDIATELY), let me reassure you, I personally have NO PROBLEM with WOMEN DELIVERING THE NEWS. I DO have a problem with some insipid perky lamebrain with a fake smile pasted on her face, delivering the news. HOW DARE Ms Mason even utter something like "the public prefers to get the news from WHITE GUYS". How racist and misogynistic. Why would she assume it's the fault of the public Ms Couric's ratings stink? It's MS COURIC herself and those that chose her for the position. Please don't ever insult my intelligence, my gender or the entire human race by saying things like Ms Couric is blazing a trail for women. Holy schmagolies. The ONLY thing Ms Coric succeeds in doing is giving me a migraine!

sen boxer bitchslaps (figuratively) sen graham

i WISH it was literally.........

(partial transcript and video found at the link)


Lindsey Graham: Escalation Critics Are Calling The Troops ‘Losers’

Today on CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Bush’s Iraq critics are calling the troops losers. “Let’s don’t undercut [Bush’s escalation plan],” he said. “Let’s don’t declare this war lost because you’re telling all these soldiers and Petraeus that they’re losers.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) immediately ripped into Graham’s characterization, stating, “I don’t know anyone who opposes this war that ever said our troops are losers. Our troops are winners.”
Boxer continued, “Lindsey, just be careful what you say. The bottom line here is that the losers are the ones who have engineered this war, made a huge mistake — Dick Cheney we’re in the last throes, the war will last six months — and all of you who have supported this escalation and have turned us away from fighting al Qaeda into putting us in the middle of a civil war.” ....

...........BOXER: I don’t know anyone who opposes this war that ever said our troops are losers. Our troopers are winners.
GRAHAM: Harry Reid did.
BOXER: Excuse me. He never said our troops are losers. Now, Lindsey, just be careful what you say. The bottom line here is, the losers are the ones who have, you know, engineered this war, made a huge mistake, Dick Cheney, we’re in the last throes, the war will last six months, and all of you who have supported this escalation and have turned us away from fighting al Qaida into putting us in the middle of a civil war.
Now, the fact is I want to be very clear on this, Wolf. I’ve lost in California 21 percent of the dead troops. You understand that? Twenty-one percent either were born in California or were stationed in California.................

more SURGE news

how long are we going to allow this to continue? i'm asking. i'm not asking those that think in a similar vein to me. i'm asking the liebermans of the world. you know the one's who kiss the kings ass. i'm asking THEM. how long?

Death Squad Tolls In Baghdad Rising Again

By Cernig
The surge is failing in one of its primary aims, curbing death squad killings in Iraq.
In the first 11 days of this month, there have already been 234 bodies - men murdered by death squads - dumped around the capital, a dramatic rise from the 137 found in the same period of April. Improving security in Baghdad and reducing death-squad activity was described as one of the key aims of the US surge of 25,000 additional troops, the final units of whom are due to arrive next month.Meanwhile the insurgents in Diyala have been successfully attacking the US military's much-vaunted Stryker armored vehicles. You know, the ones Rummy said would be perfect for the job and that came with an $11 billion pricetag..............

wonder how long lt general blum

is going to keep his job? he appears to speak the truth. the king doesn't like that much

U.S. National Guard chief says funds lagging risks

By Kristin Roberts
MUSCATATUCK, Indiana (Reuters) - The National Guard is likely to see an unprecedented level of new funds to fix or replace equipment worn out in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that's still not enough to make the force ready for homeland missions, its chief said.
"The president's budget is unprecedented in the history of the Guard in providing money to the Army National Guard to reequip," said Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau.
But still, it leaves equipment gaps, especially in the area of Humvees, trucks and other transport gear, that do not match the level of risk Blum said he sees.............

the students SHOULD be upset

they should be because this, what the king and his court have done, is their legacy. the king is spending billions upon billions on an unjust, illegal and immoral war. a war some of these high school kids MAY have to fight in (if we don't stand up to the king). these kids SHOULD be upset. THEY SHOULD thank michael baker for showing them the truth

Nebraska Teacher Taken Out Of Classroom For Showing Iraq Documentary

Last year, Michael Baker was one of only forty-seven teachers in Nebraska to obtain National Board Certification. Last month, he showed his students at East High School in Lincoln the documentary, Baghdad ER, which shows the lives of doctors, nurses, medics, and soldiers in Iraq. The next day, Baker was no longer in his geography classroom.
Says former colleague Michael Anderson: “I believe there were students who went home and were troubled about what they saw, and there were parental phone calls to the principal, and the next day she walked him out the door because she didn’t have the courage to stand up to the complainers.".........

aw c'mon, i would have been HONORED!

German sex toy seller to pay damages to football stars

German sex toy company Beate Uhse has been ordered to pay 50,000 euros (65,000 dollars) in damages to two German football stars after selling vibrators named for them during last year's World Cup........

artwork: Suzanne Treister

if a tree falls in the woods.........

and if we can't see and hear the bombs dropping or blowing up in iraq, they didn't happen? some sound directives here (NOT)

Iraq to bar press from blast scenes

Agence France-Presse

BAGHDAD - Iraq's interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and cameramen from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said Sunday.
His announcement was the latest in a series of attempts to curtail press coverage of the ongoing conflict, which has already attracted criticism from international human rights bodies.
"There are many reasons for this prohibition," he told AFP.
"We do not want evidence to be disturbed before the arrival of detectives, the ministry must respect human rights and does not want to expose victims and does not want to give terrorists information that they achieved their goals," Khalaf said................

the department of state vs the department of defense

at odds over how to rebuild iraq. i'm sitting here stunned. why does ANY branch or organization of the united states decide how to BEST "rebuild" iraq? hey peeps, IT AIN'T OUR COUNTRY. WE have NO power there (well we should NOT have any power there). what are we going to do? do the same thing we've done in other countries? put some sort of puppet government in place - whereupon they too eventually turn against us.

i'm waiting for the rest of the united states to wake up and DEMAND from their congress people and senators an END TO OUR OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

Defense Skirts State in Reviving Iraqi Industry


By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 14, 2007; Page A01
Paul Brinkley, a deputy undersecretary of defense, has been called a Stalinist by U.S. diplomats in Iraq. One has accused him of helping insurgents build better bombs. The State Department has even taken the unusual step of enlisting the CIA to dispute the validity of Brinkley's work.
His transgression? To begin reopening dozens of government-owned factories in Iraq.
Brinkley and his colleagues at the Pentagon believe that rehabilitating shuttered, state-run enterprises could reduce violence by employing tens of thousands of Iraqis. Officials at State counter that the initiative is antithetical to free-market reforms the United States should promote in Iraq...............

we all know about

pat tillman and jessica lynch (and i'm NOT taking a THING away from them) but do we all
know about lavena johnson (i have posted on her before)?

if not - you SHOULD

Center for Media and Democracy on Tillman/Lynch hearings and LaVena Johnson story
Posted by Philip Barron
............Farsetta takes special note of Pfc. LaVena Johnson and other soldiers who died or were wounded under unexplained circumstances in Iraq and elsewhere. The report goes on to focus on the many aspects of the committee hearing that were glossed over or ignored altogether by mainstream press coverage.
Farsetta's report is well worth reading. It is welcome not only for its recognition of LaVena Johnson and other fallen soldiers, but its exposure of a negligent media and its insights into the broader costs to democracy brought about by the war.
(As before, I ask you to sign the LaVena Johnson petition to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees, and to contact your legislator on those committees. Thanks.) .............

it's rather pointless of me to

talk about the horrors of war

when the horrors of war happen:

5 Die in Ambush of U.S. Patrol in Iraq
Massive Search Launched for 3 Missing After 'Coordinated' Attack

(it's NOT pointless for me to say BRING OUR MEN AND WOMEN HOME NOW, though)


By Sudarsan Raghavan and Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, May 13, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD, May 13 -- A massive aerial and ground manhunt involving hundreds of American and Iraqi troops was underway Saturday for U.S. soldiers missing after an organized assault on a military patrol south of Baghdad. The convoy was carrying seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi army interpreter, and the attack left five dead and three missing.
The pre-dawn attack occurred 12 miles west of Mahmudiyah, a volatile city nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers within a rural region dubbed the Triangle of Death. It is known to be infiltrated by al-Qaeda fighters and other Sunni insurgent groups. As of early Sunday, no group had asserted responsibility for the attack, U.S. military officials said....................