monday morning humor

by the way, i filled my car up yesterday (only 1/2 tank give or take) and i have a lil' subaru, it was approximately $23.00. oh, and i didn't torture anyone either. just an fyi

Chevron adds former Pentagon legal chief to legal staff
East Bay Business Times - by Mavis Scanlon
Chevron Corp. has hired as its chief corporate counsel William Haynes II, who until February was general counsel for the Department of Defense. Haynes, who will report to Chevron General Counsel Charles James, replaces former chief corporate counsel William Buck, who retired, according to Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson.
As reported in Newsweek, Harper's and elsewhere, Haynes, who was general counsel at the Pentagon from 2001 until his resignation in February, is under Senate scrutiny for his role at the Pentagon, specifically for his role in crafting policies that led to alleged abuses of detainees and terror suspects at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
In an April 5 article, Newsweek reported that Haynes had requested a memo from the Justice Department that concluded that federal laws against torture, assault and maiming would not apply to suspects interrogated overseas. "The memo's disclosure raises new questions about the role that Haynes and other Bush administration lawyers played in crafting legal policies that critics say led to abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere," Newsweek wrote. Haynes has hired criminal defense attorney Terrence O'Donnell and has agreed to be interviewed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to Newsweek.
In his new role at Chevron (NYSE: CVX), Haynes, who is 50, will supervise Chevron's staff of more than three dozen attorneys.
Haynes is considered an ally of Vice President Dick Cheney and a longtime supporter of President George Bush; he even volunteered to make calls on Bush's behalf when Bush was up for election in 2000, according to a Senate questionnaire Haynes submitted when he was nominated in 2003 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. ...........

i disagree

the LAST thing we actually need is yet ANOTHER report on iraq. we don't need one. we KNOW the situation there (and here). we know it's destroying human life here and there. we know it's costing billions (yes and the report will cost money as well) here and there. it's unnecessary. it's redundant. even if we DO spend the millions on the report. IT WILL EFFING BE IGNORED OR LIED ABOUT JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER EFFING REPORT THESE DAYS (on ANY subject)
Kennedy and Levin Want New Report on Iraq Released

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
A new intelligence report on the situation in Iraq is "essential" to upcoming debates on the war, and its judgments should be publicly released, Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said yesterday in a letter to the head of the nation's intelligence agencies.
Levin and Kennedy asked Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to release an unclassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate before Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq, testify April 8 before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which Levin chairs.
Without the NIE, Levin and Kennedy wrote, "Congress and the American people will not have the essential information needed for an informed public debate." The document, an update of two previous assessments publicly released last year, was completed and delivered to Congress on Tuesday.
Several lawmakers familiar with its conclusions declined to provide specifics but said it contained little information beyond public accounts of recent events in Iraq. "The stuff that was positive, they emphasized. The negative, they stated, but deemphasized," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was briefed on the intelligence estimate early this week. ......

unsustainable levels of stress

heavy deployments are inflicting "incredible stress" on soldiers and families and that they pose "a significant risk" to the nation's all-volunteer military.

do you know what that means? i do. let's just say you're a heartless, souless, evil monster and that doesn't bother you. doesn't the thought of the united states of america NOT being able to protect itself SCARE YOU?

Heavy Troop Deployments Are Called Major Risk
Readiness Is Dangerously Low, Army Chief Says

By Ann Scott TysonWashington Post Staff Writer
Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years.
In a stark assessment a week before Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is to testify on the war's progress, Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, said that the heavy deployments are inflicting "incredible stress" on soldiers and families and that they pose "a significant risk" to the nation's all-volunteer military.
"When the five-brigade surge went in . . . that took all the stroke out of the shock absorbers for the United States Army," Cody testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee's readiness panel. .........

how can one think we are 'winning'?

winning? doing a good job? helping the people of iraq? saving the united states from terrorists (by being in iraq that is)? bringing 'democracy' to the middle east? delusional. insanity. evil. lying. oil. millions displaced. thousands of us dead. tens of thousands of them dead. no no no

Gen. Rorschach and the Iraq-Shaped Inkblot

By Dana Milbank
Which of the following best characterizes the situation in Iraq?
a. Impressive, effective and satisfactory?
b. Worrisome, alarming and weak?
If you chose (a), congratulations -- you are supported by Gen. James Jones and his commission studying security in Iraq. And if you chose (b), well, you are also supported by Jones and his commission, who presented their report to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
"Our overall evaluation is that real progress has been achieved," Jones told the senators, and then he qualified that judgment with words such as "uneven," "unsatisfactory," "overly sectarian" and "failed."........

this just RIPS me

instead of worrying about the government in IRAQ why the f**k aren't you worrying about YOUR OWN (and my own too) government????? THAT has to change. our congress MUST start impeachment proceedings immediately. why not preach that? why? why not talk to your congress about that senator levin? i am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO steamed

Senator Calls for Maliki's Ouster
Levin Urges Iraqis To Replace Leaders


By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer

Declaring the government of Iraq "non-functional," the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said yesterday that Iraq's parliament should oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his cabinet if they are unable to forge a political compromise with rival factions in a matter of days.
"I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said after a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan.........