the nutmeg grater: i don't like the idea of censorship#links

the nutmeg grater: i don't like the idea of censorship#links

our heroes are being treated like shite

do you see that man? he was injured in iraq. he lost the use of an eye. he lost half of his scull. he has tbi and of course suffers from ptsd. you would imagine all of that would be enough of a pile of problems. you'd be wrong. he (and his family) have ONE MORE problem.

walter reed:::::::::::::::::

Almost Home, but Facing More Delays at Walter Reed
Soldier Is Told Paperwork Errors Will Slow Retirement


By Dana Priest and Anne Hull Washington Post Staff Writers

After nearly three years as an outpatient at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon had begun the wrenching process of turning himself into a civilian.
He no longer wore the uniform he loved so much. He sported a short beard and traded his black beret for a baseball cap. Granted a 30-day leave to prepare for retirement as his disability case finally made it through the system, he moved his family to Suffolk, Va., and began to babysit his two kids, clean the house and grow vegetables. Given what had happened to him in Iraq -- the traumatic brain injury from an AK-47 round that shattered one eye and half his skull -- and the chronic post-traumatic stress disorder that followed, that was about all he could handle.
Last week, Shannon, 43, was back at Walter Reed, but not to say goodbye. The doctors' signatures on two time-sensitive forms in his disability file had expired. He would have to be reexamined by his doctors, he was told, and his medical summaries would have to be written all over again. Unfortunately, the sergeant in charge of his disability paperwork had not stayed on top of his case...........


if i was king george, i wouldn't even THINK of taking ONE DAY OFF, a vacation, i wouldn't even THINK of relaxing until i was CERTAIN every single veteran (not just from iraq and afghanistan either) was cared for. what i don't understand is, why are people still enlisting when travesties like this keep occurring?


"I don't even know what 'going on with my life' means," said Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, after being told that paperwork glitches would delay his release from Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Photo Credit: Photos By Michel Du Cille -- The Washington Post Photo

i worked VERY hard on this

slide show

and i finally gave it to my friend nikki (as a wedding shower present). it didn't come out EXACTLY as the one on the cover of vogue knitting magazine's 25th anniversary issue. i used natural plant dyed cotton. it really was very easy to do, just time consuming. the part that took me the LONGEST was sewing the damn beads on AND then sewing each flower on individually. dang i HATED that (i do NOT sew)

oh i believe nicky epstein designed the scarf

whoops!

who needs the TRUTH when you want to shred our constitution and take away the rights of all (well NOT quite all) americans???

Spy Master Admits Error
Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot. The facts say otherwise.

(don't ya just LOVE the headline? they're calling it an 'ERROR' instead of what it REALLY is, a bold faced LIE)

By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Sept. 12, 2007 - In a new embarrassment for the Bush administration's top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany.
The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court. The law expires in six months and is expected to be the subject of intense debate in the months ahead. On Monday, McConnell—questioned by Sen. Joe Lieberman—claimed the law, intended to remedy what the White House said was an intelligence gap, had helped to “facilitate” the arrest of three suspects believed to be planning massive car bombings against American targets in Germany. Other U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell's testimony and urged his office to correct it..........

and..............

AP Fact-Checks Bush Iraq Speech
WASHINGTON Political realignment in Iraq's volatile Anbar province was Exhibit A for President Bush's argument Thursday that Iraq is a fight that the United States is winning.A look at some of Bush's assertions.BUSH SAID:"Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working," Bush said, noting that just last year U.S. intelligence analysts had written off the Sunni area as "lost to al-Qaida."FACT CHECK:Early Thursday, the most prominent figure in a U.S.-backed revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Iraq was killed by a bomb planted near his home.The killing of a chief Anbar ally hours before Bush spoke showed the tenuous and changeable nature of success in Anbar and Iraq at large.Although Sunni sheiks have defied al-Qaida and largely allied with U.S. forces in Anbar, the province remains violent and al-Qaida remains a threat.Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha died 10 days after he met with Bush during a surprise visit the U.S. leader made to highlight the turnaround in Anbar. The charismatic young sheik led the Anbar Salvation Council, also known as the Anbar Awakening - an alliance of clans backing the Iraqi government and U.S. forces..........

some reacations

to the liar in chief's, king george's speech

Yes, Surge, That's My Baby: Press Responds to Bush Speech
By E&P Staff
NEW YORK By the time President Bush addressed the nation tonight, little suspense about his remarks remained. What Gen. Petraeus was going to recommend -- continue to "surge" -- was clear weeks ago, and excerpts from the president's remarks were released by the White House this afternoon. So the media had plenty of time to figure out how to respond.Below we will carry some of the reactions, with new material added at the top.*Nancy Youssef, McClatchy NewspapersThursday night, Bush declared success and painted a rosy picture.There was no mention of a range of government reports, from a National Security Estimate to a Government Accountability Office report and even the testimony this week of U.S. Iraq commander Army Gen. David Petraeus, that has said Iraqi civilian casualties remain high and that it will be years before Iraqi security forces can take control.Other reports have stressed that Iraqis continue to flee their homes looking for safety at unprecedented rates and that Shiite militias continue to force Sunni Muslims from their homes. Baghdad residents complain that their city has become even more segregated than before the surge, divided now by hastily erected concrete walls to keep rival sects separate.*David S. Cloud, The New York Times:It is the second time in 10 months that Mr. Bush has opted for higher troop levels in Iraq than are favored by some of his senior military advisers. Among those who supported a smaller troop increase than the one Mr. Bush ordered last January were members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.....................

un effing believable

of course our atm machine at work is bank of america. i won't be using that one for sure

Bank of America raises ATM fees to $3
The bank says surcharges for non-customers will make its ATM network, the largest in the U.S., more convenient for its customers.

swimming in shite

and no one is telling him he STINKS. this is sheer insanity

THE PRESIDENT ASSERTED PROGRESS ON SECURITY AND POLITICAL ISSUES. RECENT REPORTS WEREN'T OFTEN SO UPBEAT.


By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer
In his speech last night, President Bush made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at times contradicted recent government reports or his own words.
For instance, Bush asserted that "Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done," such as "sharing oil revenues with the provinces" and allowing "former Baathists to rejoin Iraq's military or receive government pensions."
Yet his statement ignored the fact that U.S. officials have been frustrated that none of those actions have been enshrined into law -- and that reports from Baghdad this week indicated that a potential deal on sharing oil revenue is collapsing...............

the nutmeg grater: justice for billy#links#links

the nutmeg grater: justice for billy#links#links

you NEED to click on the link below

ummmm please click here

hmmmmmmmm a little somethin' something'

i find VERY interesting. where IS petraeus' bossman?
(now remember, those ain't my woids, theys the woids o' his bossman)
U.S.-IRAQ: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge

By Gareth Porter *WASHINGTON, Sep 12 (IPS) - In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior. That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer. The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century". .....

CentCom Chief Fallon: Petraeus Is ‘An Ass-Kissing, Little Chickensh*t,’ ‘I Hate People Like That’

During the Iraq war, the Central Command (CENTCOM) head — who leads U.S. operations in the entire Middle East region — and the Multinational Force Commander (MNF) have regularly testified together about the course of the war in Iraq.
Former-MNF Commander Gen. George Casey and his CENTCOM Commander Gen. John Abizaid constantly briefed Congress about the situation in Iraq and its regional effects. In at least four public hearings after Casey took office in 2004, the pair testified together:
Senate Armed Services [6/23/05]
House Armed Services [6/23/05]
House Armed Services [9/29/05]
Senate Armed Services [9/29/05]
In January, President Bush replaced Abizaid and Casey, who were “surge” skeptics, with Adm. William Fallon and Gen. David Petraeus. This week, Petraeus — in the first public hearings since taking on his new role — delivered his Iraq assessment to great media fanfare. But where was his boss, Admiral Fallon? Inter-Press Service suggests animosity between the two might be one reason for Fallon’s absence:
Fallon told Petraeus [in March] that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickensh*t” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.
The Washington Post reported this weekend that there is an internal military debate, described as “Armageddon,” brewing between Petraeus and Fallon because the two men have “profoundly different views of the U.S. role in Iraq.”............

we are or we aren't

which?
you know, i'm not even accusing anyone of lying here. i just don't think anyone knows what anyone else is doing or NOT doing. it's so convoluted and ugly and EVIL

Petraeus' Subordinate: Yes, We Are Arming Sunnis
By Spencer Ackerman - September
On at least three occasions that I counted during the Petraeus/Crocker hearings, Gen. Petraeus flatly stated that the U.S. is not providing weapons to the Sunni tribal fighters who, over the past year, have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq. On Monday I noted how the U.S. was giving the tribes money that they used to buy weapons, making Petraeus' assurance precious and legalistic.....

...........Here's Major General Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. troops in northern Iraq, on those terms in June:
[Question] (on camera): Will the assistance or the coordination with these former insurgent groups extend to arming [them] or helping them out in logistics in any sense?
GEN. BENJAMIN MIXON, U.S. REGIONAL COMMANDER IN IRAQ: It certainly will. We have seen this in counterinsurgency operations before, using local nationals, if you will, arming them, forming them into scouts, if you will. And that's the primary role that we want to use them in. They know the territory, they know the enemy............

i wish we didn't NEED this facility AT ALL

But I must agree with Staff Sgt. Ramon Padilla
Screw the expenses," he said. "Do what you have to do to help soldiers recover better and to have a healthy life."
But we DO need this facility and we owe these men and women AND their families the right to live 'normal' healthy lives (at the VERY LEAST)

For War's Wounded, Space to Heal
At New Walter Reed Center, Amputees Try to Readjust to Life in or Out of Battle


By Steve Vogel Washington Post Staff Writer
With the fanfare of military music and a jump by paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division scheduled to mark the event, the Army will open an amputee center today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in an attempt to better rehabilitate the troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who have lost arms and legs.
The $10 million state-of-the-art center at Walter Reed, whose campus is set to close in 2011, features virtual reality rehabilitation equipment, a gait laboratory to help veterans with prosthetics walk and run and a two-story rock-climbing wall -- all tailored to get troops back on active duty or on with their lives as civilians........

i'll bet my friend brian

(the catholic worker) is going to make a pilgrimage to dc. last time he went, he did get busted for demonstrating against torture in gitmo and other places. he's a cool dude (even if he is catholic. he's a wicked LIBERAL guinness drinkin' one at that though)


Week of Antiwar Events To Start With a 'Die-In'
Protesters Advocate Civil Disobedience


By Michelle Boorstein and Allison KleinWashington Post Staff Writers
A week of events meant to crank up a national demonstration against the war in Iraq is set to begin Saturday, with a 1,000-person "die-in" at the U.S. Capitol led by current and former American troops and accompanied by taps and a mock 21-gun salute.
The die-in will be the culmination of a march and rally. Organizers hope the event will spur people in the antiwar movement to move from protesting to performing acts of civil disobedience that "get in the way of the war machine," said Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, at a news conference yesterday at the National Press Club........

my thoughts and prayers

go out to the family and friends of Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray. they were two of the soliders who wrote (very recently) the nyt oped on 'the war as we saw it'.



Two Of Seven Soldiers Who Wrote New York Times Op-Ed Die In Iraq

Deaths of Soldiers 'Brings It Home' For 'NYT' Editorial Page Editor

2 G.I.’s, Skeptical but Loyal, Die in a Truck Crash in Iraq

my original posting with a link to the oped

THEIR WORDS

not mine or a reporters
OR a king and his entire court who doesn't/don't know OR care jack shite about the troops

Troop blogs show increasing criticism of war

By Robert Weller - The Associated Press
DENVER — With the world being bombarded by all factions on their side on the war in Iraq, U.S. soldiers Internet blogs provided the kind of public relations Madison Avenue would drool over.
Soldiers told of helping Iraqi families, the loss of friends and their dangerous daily missions.
In the past year, as soldiers and Marines return for the second, third or even fourth deployments, and the death toll approaches 4,000, some soldiers began questioning the war.
At the very least they risk administrative punishments, called Article 15s, though if it has happened it has been kept quiet.
“The toothpaste is out of the tube. And, try as they might, the military’s information nannies are not going to be able to stuff it back in,” said Noah Schatman of Wired Magazine in an e-mail from Taji, Iraq. He said soldiers will pay $55 a month for a private connection.......

...........Sgt. Thomas Strickland, 27, of Douglasville, Ga., calling himself the Rev Wayfarer, was one of the earliest to speak out publicly. Two days before he drowned in a vehicle accident at Mahmudijah on his second tour he condemned the leadership in “One Foot in the Grave.” He asked what the chain of command had been doing since his first tour. “We were winning somewhat when I left. And now we are being pinned down in our own (expletive deleted) homes. Insurgents are pushing locals out of their homes and taking over my area at will.”
Spc. Eleonai Israel of Bowling Green, Ky., court-martialed and given a less than honorable discharge last month after refusing to go on combat missions, said that like Horton he never heard a peep about what he said on his MySpace site during his year in Iraq...............

why is it we let SOME child abusers off

and we prosecute others? you know what? i could give two shites about people practicing polygamy (of course it IS against the law). i really don't care if it is THEIR choice and EVERYONE is comfortable with it (in the deep recesses of my cold black heart, i don't really think EVERYONE who is in a polygamous relationship IS happy with it). if you're doing it to 'get into heaven' well then you're not living in reality. i'm also not quite sure everyone who is a fundamentalist mormon who practices polygamy does it for PURE reasons......

that is neither here nor there. i AM concerned when 14 year olds (grrrls) get raped by their brothers and fathers and uncles. i AM concerned when 14 year old grrrls (when i say 14, i mean thereabouts a little older, a little younger) get MARRIED OFF. i am concerned when 14 year old boys are kicked out of their communities and their families so the male geezers in the sect get to rape the 14 year old grrrls (see of course they drive all of the boys out). what the f**k kind of society are we living in anyway?

Girl, 14, fled abuse, 'mind control' of polygamy
From Amanda Townsend and Agnes Pawlowski

CNN) -- Sara Hammon saw some of her sisters pulled out of school to be married to men they didn't know. She dreaded a similar fate. And so, she ran away from home before she was old enough to drive legally.
She left behind 19 mothers, 74 siblings, and a father she says could never remember her name, even though he repeatedly molested her.
And, she left behind a culture she says was oppressive for young women.
Hammon recently gave CNN a deeply disturbing account of her life inside the polygamous sect whose leader, Warren Jeffs, goes on trial this week in Utah.
Jeffs is accused of being an accomplice to rape. The charge stems from his alleged practice of arranging polygamous marriages between child brides and older male followers.
Hammon is not directly involved in the charges against Jeffs, which concern an arranged marriage between a girl, 14 and her 19-year-old cousin. She left the sect before she could be placed in an arranged marriage. But she is one of its most outspoken former members. Watch Hammon describe her escape from a closed world »
"Probably the worst part of the whole theology," she said, " is the treatment of women and teaching women that they are not equal to men." ..............




old postings: sara

we MIGHT call people like james dobson

big fat liars but we won't. we will just say he got his facts f**ked up (yeah right)


Focus On Falsehood: Religious Right's Dobson Spins Whoppers About AU

By Rob Boston
It seems that Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson just can't keep Americans United for Separation of Church and State off his mind. He blames the organization for things it hasn't even done!
Yesterday Dobson announced that the Internal Revenue Service has cleared FOF of allegations of partisan politicking. A story on FOF's news service by Stuart Shepard stated, "The IRS closed a nearly 12 month audit of Focus on the Family and Dr. James C. Dobson by affirming that the organization committed no wrongdoing.
"The investigation, which ended last week, was sparked by allegations from two groups that routinely bash conservatives: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They falsely accused Focus on the Family and Dr. Dobson, in his capacity as the head of Focus, of electioneering by endorsing candidates for public office."
There's one big problem with that: While CREW did indeed file a formal complaint with the IRS over Dobson's endorsements, Americans United never did. AU believed that the IRS was unlikely to consider Dobson's personal endorsements a violation of federal tax law............

yup - progress in iraq

all right!
NOTE: i cannot find this story in any other paper or website. i think that odd indeed.
Iraq Insurgents Attack U.S. Headquarters
By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Insurgents fired rockets or mortars Tuesday at the sprawling garrison that houses the headquarters of American forces in Iraq, killing one person and wounding 11 coalition soldiers, the U.S. command said.
The command said the person killed was a "third country national," meaning someone who is not an American or Iraqi. Most troops stationed at Camp Victory are American but other coalition soldiers are based at the complex near Baghdad International Airport. No further details on the attack were immediately released.
The attack occurred as U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the top commander Gen. David Petraeus testified before Congress for a second day on the situation in Iraq since President Bush's decision to send 30,000 reinforcements to stem sectarian violence............

because not enough of our men and women are dying

da liebs wants to send more to their certain deaths (and worse)

Lieberman blames Iran for Iraq attacks, asks if invasion should be authorized

Nick Juliano
Update: Lieberman asks if Iraq war should be expanded 'in Iranian territory'Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who is among the Senate's fiercest hawks, blamed Iran for the deaths of "hundreds of American troops," and claimed the US has evidence that Iran is training insurgents outside Tehran before sending them to Iraq. He asked whether the US should expand its invasion into Iran."Is it time to give you authority, in pursuit of your mission in Iraq, to pursue those Iranian Quds Force operations in Iranian territory, in order to protect Americas troops in Iraq," Lieberman (I-CT) asked at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.......

YOU elected him, YOU reign him in

war

and The War Over the War

wapo but a link to a bunch of articles

as i said in a response to a comment cv rick left on another of my postings. i was listening to a tiny bit of testimony on npr yesterday. i don't know if crocker or petraeus was talking. whoever it was made iraq sound like a paradise! i immediately started packing a bag for my next vacation upon my return home (now THAT just isn't right, is it?)

innocent!

and if you think this is justice you are F**KING NUTS. the group(s) chiquita paid are MORE of a threat to the united states than iraq was any damn day (well iraq BEFORE we invaded it for NO reason that is).

the chiquita company was directly responsible for the DEATHS and threats and torture of MANY innocents. why do THEY get to go free? how is this justice?

i just don't understand

(for more on this ALWAYS go to immigration orange)

Ex-Chiquita Execs Won't Face Bribe Charges

By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer
The Justice Department notified Chiquita Brands International yesterday that it will not seek to criminally charge its former top executive and other former high-ranking officers over the company's payment of bribes to a Colombian organization on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.
The multibillion-dollar banana company pleaded guilty earlier this year to making $1.7 million in illegal payments to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group from 1997 to 2004. Until now, three of its officers were under investigation for authorizing and approving the payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC, after federal prosecutors warned them in April 2003 that such bribes violated the nation's anti-terrorism laws...........

previous post

even in this day and age, if you think we're all equal

you are sadly mistaken. i do NOT want to take anything away from all of those who have disappeared or their families.

why is it when a white college student disappears, hundreds including the police look for them 24/7? why is it when a young black man, still a teenager, disappears for EIGHT DAYS the police look for him six or seven days later FOR ONE AND A HALF HOURS IN THE DARKNESS OF NIGHT?

why?

Bowie Student Trapped 8 Days Details Pain, Survival Tactics

By Avis Thomas-Lester Washington Post Staff Writer
As Julian McCormick recalls it, he lay in and out of consciousness for eight days and seven nights, hot, sticky and bloody with not a clue as to what day it was or how he ended up trapped in his overturned car at the bottom of a steep embankment in Prince George's County.
To survive, he ate a fish he caught with his hands and used his high-top sneaker to drink water from the creek, the 18-year-old Bowie State University student told his parents.......

picture: www.fema.gov/kids/images/k2k/cfi01.jpg

do you swear to tell the truth?

the WHOLE truth and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH?

i guess not

'Swear Him In' Provokes Expulsion
By Ray McGovern
“Swear him in.” That’s all I said in the unusual silence this afternoon as first aid was being administered to Gen. David Petraeus’s microphone at the hearing before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.
It had dawned on me that when House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Missouri, invited Gen. Petraeus to make his presentation, Skelton forgot to ask him to take the customary oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I had no idea that would be enough to get me thrown out of the hearing.
I had a flashback to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in early 2006, when Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, reminded chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, that Specter had forgotten to swear in the witness, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; and how Specter insisted that that would not be necessary.
Now that may, or may not, be an invidious comparison. But Petraeus and Gonzales work for the same boss, who has a rather unusual relationship with the truth. How many of his senior staff could readily be convicted, as was the hapless-and-now-commuted Scooter Libby, of perjury?
So I didn’t think twice about it. I really thought that Skelton perhaps forgot, and that the 10-minute interlude of silence while they fixed the microphone was a good chance to raise this seemingly innocent question.
The more so since the ranking Republican representatives had been protesting too much. In the obverse of “killing the messenger,” they had been canonizing the messenger with protective fire............

mcclatchy brings you what they DIDN'T say

What Crocker and Petraeus didn't say
By Nancy A. Youssef and Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's top two officials in Iraq answered questions from Congress for more than six hours on Monday, but their testimony may have been as important for what they didn't say as for what they did.
A chart displayed by Army Gen. David Petraeus that purported to show the decline in sectarian violence in Baghdad between December and August made no effort to show that the ethnic character of many of the neighborhoods had changed in that same period from majority Sunni Muslim or mixed to majority Shiite Muslim.
Neither Petraeus nor U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker talked about the fact that since the troop surge began the pace by which Iraqis were abandoning their homes in search of safety had increased. They didn't mention that 86 percent of Iraqis who've fled their homes said they'd been targeted because of their sect, according to the International Organization for Migration.
While Petraeus stressed that civilian casualties were down over the last five weeks, he drew no connection between that statement and a chart he displayed that showed that the number of attacks rose during at least one of those weeks.
Petraeus also didn't highlight the fact that his charts showed that "ethno-sectarian" deaths in August, down from July, were still higher than in June, and he didn't explain why the greatest drop in such deaths, which peaked in December, occurred between January and February, before the surge began..........

and this from cnn yesterday

so under saddam they buried three dozen a week. AFTER WE CAME TO 'LIBERATE' them and BRING THEM DEMOCRACY (out of GOODNESS of our hearts) they bury 250 to 2,000 a month. yeah, that shows 'em JUST what democracy really is, doesn't it!

Volunteers collect Baghdad's nameless dead

Editor's note: This is part of a series of reports CNN.com is featuring from an Anderson Cooper special this week, "Live from Iraq," which airs at 10 p.m. ET.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Sheik Jamal al-Sudani leads a group of volunteers with one of the most solemn tasks in Iraq: Collecting and burying the hundreds of unclaimed dead every month and giving them a proper burial.
"I only think about one thing: That one day, I will face the same fate as these people have faced, and will there be someone to take care of me and bury me, too?" the sheik told CNN.
The discovery of slain bodies in bustling, war-torn Baghdad is a daily fact of life, as ever-present as the lively markets, the solemn mosques, the blinding sunrise and the soft sunset.
Many of the bodies of the slain men, women, and children -- found on the streets, in the sewers and in the ruins of bombings -- have never been claimed because some are so mangled and charred, they're unidentifiable. ..............
.....Such grim volunteer work isn't entirely new to the region. Under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the sheik said, they often buried more than three dozen unidentified corpses a month.
After the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, that number rose to around 250 a month, he said. Following last year's Askariya bombing, the volunteers buried as many as 2,000 per month. The numbers now are back in the low hundreds, the sheik said. ......

rushing to failure?

what does that mean? does it mean we are winning? we've been there, in iraq, LONGER than world war ii. in world war ii we were up against hitler, mussolini and the emperor of japan. we took ALL of 'em in far less time than it's taking us in iraq. at what cost? BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of dollars. that to me is secondary (even though those BILLIONS could be spent on OUR children's health, taking care of the victims of gulf coast storms, taking care of our elderly, taking care of our veterans and on and on). but no. we are going to continue to pour billions into a country where all we want is their black gold. we have sent thousands of our men and women to their deaths AND WORSE (i mean the ones who come back alive on the outside but dead on the inside) and TENS OF THOUSANDS of THEIR dead. plus MILLIONS of them being displaced. more time. NO we MUST DEMAND and immediate solution. no we don't belong there. we made iraq into a steamin' pile of shite.

Petraeus Backs Initial Pullout
General Praises Progress, Warns Against 'Rushing to Failure'
HOW SIGNIFICANT WOULD THE PULLBACK BE?
The General's Long View Could Cut Withdrawal Debate Short
The General Does Battle With . . . a Broken Mike
In Congress, Mixed Reactions
Poll Highlights Disconnect Between U.S. Commanders, Iraqis
Where's the Diplomatic Surge?
General Studies: Iraq Experts Take on the Petraeus-Crocker Report
THE WAR OVER THE WAR

and of course while all of that shite was going on THIS:
8 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Die in Vehicle Wrecks; Another Killed in North

more on our injured veterans

they're coming back with injuries no one is prepared to treat.
why do young men and women keep on enlisting when they see the treatment given to those already serving? i don't get it. the bumbler in chief, king george, is directly responsible for the lives of every man and woman serving. we MUST demand they all get proper treatment

AP Reveals The Other 'Surge': Brain Injuries for GIs
NASHVILLE The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers.Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science."I've been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they're saying to me, 'We're seeing things we've never seen before,'" said Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University's brain injury rehabilitation program.Doctors also are realizing that symptoms overlap with post-traumatic stress disorder, and that both must be treated. Odd as it may seem, brain injury can protect against PTSD by blurring awareness of what happened.But as memory improves, emotional problems can emerge: One of the first "graduates" of Vanderbilt's program committed suicide three weeks later."Of all the ones here, he would not have been the one we would have thought," Schneider said. "They called him the Michelangelo of Fort Campbell" — a guy who planned to go to art school.As more troops return from the war, brain injuries are a growing burden — for them, for the few programs to treat them, and for taxpayers who pay for their care and disability if they cannot hold jobs.Most TBIs are mild, and most of these patients recover within a year. But one-fifth of the troops with these mild injuries will have prolonged or lifelong symptoms and need continuing care, the military estimates. Nearly all of the moderate and severe ones will, too........

you are bringing them over to iraq

you are making them stay longer than they should (well we shouldn't be there at all....), you're putting them in a situation where they don't know the local customs or language. you're putting them in a situation where they face death every second.

then when they are injured and you bring them home, you treat them like SHITE. why aren't we AT THE VERY LEAST demanding justice for our injured vets?

Veterans' health care system fails Gretna Marine

Posted by Bill Walsh WASHINGTON -- Marine Cpl. Jacob Schick says he was ready to die in Iraq. He wasn't prepared to come home in pieces.
The bomb that tore through the floor of his Humvee in the fall of 2004 shredded his legs and left arm. Forty-six surgeries later, Schick is an amputee still learning to cope with physical limitations that as a star high school athlete he never dreamed he would face.
Perhaps just as daunting has been learning to navigate the veterans' health care system, which he says demeans the sacrifice of all veterans.
"When you have to deal with the VA (Veterans Affairs) or TRICARE (the federal health insurance program), you feel beaten down," Schick said. "You are a number, and you feel like a number. It's a total, total beat-down."
Schick, 25, who grew up in Texas and Louisiana and now lives in Gretna, is one of the 10 injured veterans featured in an HBO film, "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq," that airs tonight. The title of the documentary, produced by "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini, refers to the date that the injured narrowly escape death and realize that they are still alive. .............

today is the day

petraeus and crocker present 'their' report before congress. what can we expect? well i'm expecting nothing more than what we have gotten the entire time from king george and his court. LIES (and more lies).

will i be wrong? i hope so. i hope we hear the truth FINALLY. i hope we hear, you stupid chumps. you let king george invade iraq for NO VALID REASON. sure the pockets of a bunch of old white men are lined, but is that enough to justify all our deaths and their deaths? i want someone to say that.................
ryan vs petraeus? i think not. the truth vs lies? more like it

The Iraq Report's Other Voice
Ambassador's Appraisal May Carry a More Lasting Weight


By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Two witnesses will testify to Congress today on progress in Iraq. One arrived last week from Baghdad aboard a military aircraft, flanked by a bevy of aides and preceded by a team of advisers assigned a suite of Pentagon offices. The other flew commercial, glad that the flight was long enough to qualify for a business-class government ticket.
Their disparate routes to Washington capture the differences in anticipation and hoopla surrounding their joint congressional appearance. What lawmakers will hear from Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, has been the subject of frenzied speculation for months. Armed with four-star authority and a stack of charts, he is expected to say that expanded U.S. military operations show signs of success and merit more time..........

eye openeing

and ms valenti catches mr lubrano. i guess mr lubrano claimes FEMINISTS dig stripper poles in frat houses. he claims they (the feminists) think the poles are EMPOWERING. ms valenti points out the ONLY woman mr lubrano quotes in his article is a woman that works for the company that MAKES THE STRIPPER POLES.
(speaking of which i haven't seen my favorite stripper in a LONG time. i miss her hankerchief wearing self! - she wears hankerchiefs in lieu of real clothing. no, not at the club, OUT IN PUBLIC. keep your fingers crossed. perhaps i'll run into her today. i need to get a camcorder. i did have quite the adventure LAST sunday. what with the fireman, the ex-pro hockey player and the half dominican half spaniard. i could just kick myself for not having something to record that day. my sundays get me through the whole rest of the week)

Feminism responsible for frat-house stripper poles

Why is it that feminism is always blamed for tacky sexist trends?
College fraternities, long known as bastions of grace and decorum, are these days featuring yet one more accoutrement of scholastic refinement - the stripper pole.
The most important campus development since the keg, the stripper pole shines like a luminous totem festooning the halls of the American academy. It's erected for a single, glorious purpose:
To get drunken chicks to do slutty stuff.
And where does feminism come in?
Post-feminists argue that the pole is empowering. If a young woman chooses to use it, they say, she is telling the world that she is in charge of her sexuality............

of course they drive all of the boys out

how else could all of the'elders' get all of the young babes? how this can go on is beyond belief. this is child abuse. wives at age 14 (yeah, i know they finally got jeffs but i'm sure they only did it because of public outcry) boys kicked out of their homes at 14 and 15. utah and arizona authorities doing VERY little to stop all of this shite. hey it's ILLEGAL to have more than one wife. well i don't so much care if someone is polygamous, what i DO care about is the children. marrying young girls or kicking young boys out. THAT MUST STOP

here are the real lost boys (and girls)

Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help
By ERIK ECKHOLM
ST. GEORGE, Utah — Woodrow Johnson was 15, and by the rules of the polygamous sect in which his family lived, he had a vice that could condemn them to hell: He liked to watch movies.
When his parents discovered his secret stash of DVDs, including the “Die Hard” series and comedies, they burned them and gave him an ultimatum. Stop watching movies, they said, or leave the family and church for good.
With television and the Internet also banned as wicked, along with short-sleeve shirts — a sign of immodesty — and staring at girls, let alone dating them, Woodrow made the wrenching decision to go. And so 10 months ago, with only a seventh-grade education and a suitcase of clothes, he was thrown into an unfamiliar world he had been taught to fear.
Over the last six years, hundreds of teenage boys have been expelled or felt compelled to leave the polygamous settlement that straddles Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.
Disobedience is usually the reason given for expulsion, but former sect members and state legal officials say the exodus of males — the expulsion of girls is rarer — also remedies a huge imbalance in the marriage market. Members of the sect believe that to reach eternal salvation, men are supposed to have at least three wives.
State officials say efforts to help them with shelter...........

how insane IS this dude?

oh and osama too of course

the REASON osama mentions iraq is BECAUSE WE INVADED IT. he wouldn't give two shites about iraq UNLESS we were there. king george is a giant steamin' load who just doesn't get it

Bin Laden video shows needs for Iraq resolve: Bush
US President George W. Bush said Saturday that a new video from terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden showed how dangerous the world remains and how the United States must show resolve in Iraq.
"I find it interesting that on the tape, Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is a part of this war against extremists," Bush said after the release of the video, bin Laden's first in three years.
In the tape the Al-Qaeda chief marks six years since the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon with a call for an escalation of the insurgency in Iraq.
"If Al-Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, its because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive attacks and develop a safe haven," Bush said as he met in Sydney with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"And the reason they want a safe haven is to launch attacks against America or any other ally. And therefore it's important that we show resolve and determination to protect ourselves, deny Al-Qaeda safe haven and support young democracies, which will be a major defeat for their ambitions," said Bush.............