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dark roasted blend

(images credit: Asaad Saleh)

i thought this was a joke

after all i had just been to the onion. read some pretty funny articles and saw some pretty funny pictures. perhaps, i thought, one of those onion articles accidentally escaped and made it's way over to the progressive. really. i thought that. surely this article COULD NOT be real. wtf is the king of the united states issuing signing statements or executive orders or directives about LEBANON for? wtf gives him the RIGHT to issue signing statements about LEBANON?

it's NO joke

Bush’s Executive Order on Lebanon Even Worse than the One on Iraq
August 3, 2007 By Matthew Rothschild

George W. Bush is churning out executive orders and Presidential directives just as fast as Dick Cheney’s lawyers can fill up yellow legal pads.
The power that he is asserting—no, grabbing—with these executive orders is astonishing and alarming. Such power imperils our liberties and our democratic system of government.
Two weeks ago, Bush issued an extraordinary executive order entitled, “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.”
It gives to the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to freeze the property of people who are engaging in violence or who “pose a significant risk” of engaging in violence against the Iraqi government or the economic and reconstruction plan for Iraq.
It also bans donations of “food, clothing, and medicine, intended to be used to relieve human suffering” to anyone whose property has been frozen.
On August 1, Bush issued a similar executive order, this one entitled, “Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or Its Democratic Processes and Institutions.”
Syrian meddling in Lebanon constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Bush asserted, adding, “I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”
This executive order is even more sweeping.
Where the one on Iraq applies to people who engage in violent acts or pose a significant risk of engaging in violent acts, this one doesn’t even bother to limit it to that. Anyone who engages in any act—violent or nonviolent—against the government of Lebanon can now have his or her property frozen.........


please note, the white house website confirms it is NO joke

of course THIS makes more sense than iran and syria

of course our buds the saudis (well just a tiny fraction, NOT all) WERE responsible for 9/11.

of course instead of going after the REALLY guilty parties, WE INVADED AN INNOCENT (saddam was NOT innocent but he had NOTHING to do with 9/11) country and wreaked havoc. the havoc will continue for YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS to come

we don't give a shite though, do we? king george and his court continue to point their collective finger at iran.

iran is an ugly place. no doubt about it. their president is insane. no doubt about that either. there ARE doubts about their capabilities and courses of action though.

Saudis' role in Iraq insurgency outlined
Sunni extremists from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide bombers, a U.S. official says

By Ned Parker, Times Staff Writer

BAGHDAD — Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis...........