Photos you won't see in the U.S. media: Iraqi civilians killed in Ishaqi

warning: the raw story article contains graphic photos...

Agence France Presse photos of Iraqi civilians killed in March in a home in Ishaqi, Iraq...

According to Reuters report on the incident, the 11 bodies of men, women and children, including a 75-year old grandmother and a child under the age one one, were found bound in their blown-up home. All were shot in the head; the house was riddled with bullets. At the time, "The U.S. military said two women and a child died during the bid to seize an al Qaeda militant from a house."

this is the reality of what we have spawned in iraq, and yet we keep on digging the hole deeper...

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"Partying on" while the deaths multiply in Iraq

frank rich behind the firewall at the nyt...

Nothing, including the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and Haditha, has shaken American affection for the troops. Nothing should. These men and women go to war so we can party on...We've even been rewarded with a prize that past generations would have found as jaw-dropping as space travel: a wartime dividend in the form of tax cuts.

of all the adjectives applicable to the bush administration, nothing rolls off the tongue with quite the appropriateness of "obscene..."

(thanks to raw story...)

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The definition of leadership in America today

(from a google ad that appeared in the banner at the top of this weblog...)

and here ya have it... this is what equates with leadership in the united states of 2006...

Become A Powerful Leader

You can learn to conquer the world. Build Wealth, Amass Power Today.

just for the record, building wealth and amassing power have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with authentic leadership, despite what this ad would have you believe...

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Bang them war drums, John Bolton... It's why you were given a recess appointment...

the mustachioed serial abuser speaks...

BOLTON: And I think when the President says it’s unacceptable, I think what he means by that is that it’s unacceptable. So it’s important…

CAVUTO: But unacceptable means that if it keeps going on you’re going to do something about it…

BOLTON: That no option is taken off the table. And Secretary…

CAVUTO: Military as well?

BOLTON: Exactly. Secretary Rice…

CAVUTO: Unilateral military action?

BOLTON: Secretary Rice made that point again today. But that’s why I think…

CAVUTO: That we would, I’m sorry Ambassador, that we would act alone if we had to?

BOLTON: That’s why he says no option is taken off the table. But it’s also why he has, the President, has reached out President Putin and other leaders in the past couple of days to say, “We’re making a significant step here,” that will be criticized by many of the president’s staunchest supporters here at home. But he’s taking this step to show strength and American leadership and to say he’s willing to do something that may be unpopular even with some of his supporters, to remove all excuses from Iran and its supporters to say, “We went the extra mile. We gave Iran really, this last chance to show that they are serious when they say they don’t want nuclear weapons.” This is put or shut up time for Iran.

bush "reaching out...?" you have GOT to be kidding... bush wouldn't know how to reach out if his life depended on it... like everything else, he's just going through the motions... he and his criminal posse WANT a WAR...! anything less simply will not do...!

(thanks to think progress...)

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"How much such moves reflect a genuine opening up for an insular White House remains uncertain."

even the most cursory review of the bush administration will reveal that every single move has been calculated solely for show and, once the surface is scratched, that's ALL there is - show...

a look at an earlier post tells the real story... bush may give the APPEARANCE of listening and inviting in critics, but it isn't changing a goddam thing... as with everything else in this nightmarish presidency, there are no substantive actions to back up the words, it's all smoke and mirrors...

When retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey criticized the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war three years ago, he was lambasted as an armchair general and deemed an adversary by the Pentagon. So even McCaffrey was surprised to find himself in the Oval Office this week giving President Bush his thoughts on Iraq.

A White House long accused of squelching internal dissent and ignoring outside viewpoints has been reaching out in its moment of weakness to prominent figures who have disagreed with the president. Bush just hired a Treasury secretary who opposed his policy on global warming and a press secretary who dismissed his domestic agenda as

How much such moves reflect a genuine opening up for an insular White House remains uncertain.

bush's credibility, at least for the cognoscenti, was slim to nonexistent beginning with the supreme court decision of december 12, 2000, and has been in sub, sub, SUB-basement territory ever since...

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Go to hell, George, and take your constitutional amendment with you

this guy takes the meaning of pandering to an entirely new level... obviously, dobson and his ilk have made their point... they've called in their marker...

Next week, the United States Senate will begin debate on a constitutional amendment that defines marriage in the United States as the union of a man and woman. On Monday, I will meet with a coalition of community leaders, constitutional scholars, family and civic organizations, and religious leaders. They're Republicans, Democrats, and independents who've come together to support this amendment. Today, I want to explain why I support the Marriage Protection Amendment, and why I'm urging Congress to pass it and send it to the states for ratification.

Marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural, religious, and natural roots without weakening this good influence on society. Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.

it's absolutely impossible to overstate how much the administration has polarized and trivialized dialogue in this country... as a nation, we spend no time at all talking about what's really important and now bush directs the united states senate to waste time sticking its nose in what is truly none of its business... i never thought i would see my country stoop to such an absurd low... but then, i've said that on the average of once a month since bush was inaugurated...

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Judge to Scooter: No

i remember reading what libby's defense team's strategy was in asking for all of those documents but, for the life of me, i can't remember what it was...

A federal district judge dealt a severe setback on Friday to I. Lewis Libby Jr., denying him a trove of documents that his lawyers had said were crucial to his defense against charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

oh, yeah, here it is...

[T]he decision blocked the defense team's bid to expand the trial into a wider forum about the reasons for going to war in Iraq and what Mr. Libby has portrayed as the Bush administration's legitimate efforts to respond to critics of the war on the merits.

anyway, scooter, too bad...

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The Bush power train ain't even slowing down

none of this, of course, is news to those of us who pay attention... however, given its seriousness, it cannot be repeated too often or overemphasized...

Despite new disclosures about government spying on Americans and a flurry of interest in the erosion of U.S. constitutional rights, the near-term outlook appears to be for a consolidation of George W. Bush’s boundless vision of his own authority – at least until the November elections.

None of the promised investigations into Bush’s alleged abuses has made much progress, as the traditional checks and balances of the Republic – the press, Congress and the Judiciary – have either backed away or looked helpless in the face of Bush’s grab for more and more power.

In frustrating a few hesitant challenges to his so-called “plenary” – or unlimited – powers as Commander in Chief, Bush has insisted that only he can decide how to enforce laws, what reality is and when release of information endangers the national security.

i had an experience with how this is trickling down to the average joe in the u.s. last night at customs in san francisco... not a pretty sight...

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Fristed

are we surprised, and, if so, for god's sake, why...?

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) received notice from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) indicating that in response to a complaint filed by CREW, the FEC found that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's 2000 Senate campaign committee, Frist 2000, Inc. violated federal campaign finance laws...

the prime tenet of the hippocratic oath: "do no harm..."

Frist 2000, Inc. failed to disclose a $1.44 million loan taken out jointly by Frist 2000, Inc. and by Frist's 1994 campaign committee, Bill Frist for Senate, Inc. The result of the discrepancy was to make it appear that Frist 2000, Inc. had significantly more money that it actually had.

In June 2000, Senator Frist took $1 million of the money that had been contributed to his 2000 Senate campaign and invested it in the stock market, where it promptly began losing money. In November 2000, Senator Frist sought to collect $1.2 million he had lent his 1994 Senate campaign committee. As a result of the stock market losses, however, Frist 2000, Inc. did not have enough money to repay the loan. Senator Frist solved this problem by having the 1994 and the 2000 campaign committees jointly take out a $1.44 million bank loan at a cost of $10,000 a month interest. Frist 2000, Inc. did not report this debt on its FEC disclosure forms.

The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) requires full disclosure of any loans taken out by campaign committees. Yet only the 1994 campaign committee, which had been largely dormant, disclosed the loan.

In a conciliation agreement reached with Frist 2000, Inc. and the committee's treasurer, the FEC stated that the campaign committee violated the law by failing to report the loan on the 2000 Year End Report and by failing to report the repayment of the loan on the 2001 Mid-Year Report. The FEC fined Frist 2000, Inc. $11,000, as required by statute.

e-e-e-eeeh, what's up, doc...?

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It's none of your goddam business what web sites I visit

The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so.

PROPOSE legislation...? you mean they're actually considering doing it legally...? please... you can't tell me that they haven't either been doing it ALREADY or that they have every intention of doing it regardless of whether or not there's enabling legislation...

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Winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis

there must be a string malfunction on this puppet...

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at the American military on Thursday, denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians.

[...]

In his comments, Mr. Maliki said violence against civilians had become a "daily phenomenon" by many troops in the American-led coalition who "do not respect the Iraqi people."

paging mr. geppetto...

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In Frankfurt, heading back to the USSR

apologies for the headline snark... i couldn't resist...

yes, i'm in FRA... i rolled out of bed in SKP this morning at 4 CET, will again hit ground in SFO at 4:20 p.m. PDT, and again in RNO at 7:10 p.m. PDT, a mere 27 hours later...



i'm fascinated by airlines, even though working for united almost kicked it out of me... the more exotic the better... yes, i know, i'm not supposed to be snapping photos out on the ramp, but...



i confess to doing a bad thing... i stopped by the frankfurt airport mcdonalds for breakfast... i'm an infrequent mcdonalds customer but sometimes their breakfast just hits the spot...

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Three constitutional crises

(sidney blumenthal in the guardian...)

the essence of the "constitutional crises" we are facing as a nation is the simple fact that the president has taken the position that the u.s. constitution does not apply in any meaningful way that would limit a president's actions in a "time of war..." since we are in a "war" that has no foreseeable conclusion, as a general principle, the constitution can be said to no longer apply as the guiding document of the united states government...

In the short run, Bush's defence of his war paradigm may precipitate three constitutional crises.

In the first, freedom of the press is at issue. On May 21 Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general, announced the possibility that the New York Times would be prosecuted for publishing its Pulitzer prize-winning article on the administration's domestic surveillance. "It can't be the case," he said, that the first amendment trumps the right of the government "to go after criminal activity".

In the second case, a wartime executive above the law may be asserted. Last week the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who charged the vice-president's former chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby with perjury and obstruction of justice, made plain his intention to summon Cheney to the witness stand to impeach Libby's credibility or else commit perjury himself. But will the administration fight the subpoena as an infringement on a unitary executive that should be immune from such distractions in wartime?

In the third case, if either house of Congress should fall to the Democrats in the November midterm elections, the oversight suppressed during one-party rule would be restored. Would the administration refuse congressional requests for documents as it did when the Democratic Senate in Bush's first year asked for those pertaining to Cheney's energy taskforce, which reportedly included Enron's CEO Ken Lay, last week convicted on numerous counts of fraud?

blumenthal accurately frames the issue...

[T]he constitution is an intricate mechanism of checks and balances that creates constant accountability. The question at the heart of Bush's politics is whether that can be indefinitely suspended and the constitution radically revised.

i think the choice of the word "revised" is a misstatement... "scrapped," imho, would be more accurate...

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U.S. to Iran: We'll be glad to talk to you if you agree in advance to the demand that we want to talk with you about.

< rolls eyes > so, let me see if i understand... iran wants to talk... the u.s. has been avoiding it like the plague but pressure has mounted to the point that we would look like even bigger fools than we do already if we don't at least make the effort... however, as a pre-condition to talking, we're insisting that iran bow to the demand we've been making all along before we even sit down at the table... is it just me or is this response as empty as george bush's suit...?

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US would join EU nations in talks if Iran suspended uranium enrichment and reprocessing work.

there is no way that iran could fall for such a patently bullying ploy and, in fact, they didn't...

The Iranian state news agency dismissed the offer as a "propaganda move", in the first reaction from Iran.

but, in the greatest tradition of show business, for george the-empty-suit bush, the show must go on...

President Bush said he believed the issue could be solved diplomatically.

he believes nothing of the kind... if he did, we would have been talking a hell of a long time ago...

[UPDATE]

[S]ome participants in the drawn-out nuclear drama questioned whether this was an offer intended to fail, devised to show the extent of Iran's intransigence.

ya THINK...?!?!?!

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George Orwell: "When deceit becomes universal, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

colleen rowley at the huffpo...

Unfortunately over the past four years, speaking the truth has become even more revolutionary. Since the truth threatens those in power, the whistleblowers who have followed us have risked and suffered a great deal more. The administration has sought to silence potential whistleblowers, purged those they consider disloyal and aggressively retaliated against a host of government employees, even when those employees were required by law to expose corruption.

i am sitting here, writing this post, in a country that was part of the former yugoslavia, where consent was manufactured and dissent did not see the light of day, and i am asking, what is happening to my country...?

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A Skopje cab driver on Dick Cheney and Halliburton

i never miss an opportunity to talk with taxi drivers no matter where i happen to be... if you want to know what's on the mind of the locals, you can bet they will be the ones to tell you...

yesterday evening, in the cab between the office and my house, i was chatting with the driver... it's coming up to election time here in macedonia and the driver was sarcastically pointing out how skopje city officials have decided that now is a good time to repair some streets in hopes of buying a few votes... i commented that it's the same everywhere in the world... in buenos aires last year, the city officials decided that fixing up the city parks just prior to the elections was a terrific idea... this led to a discussion of the seeming universality of public officials on the take... he turned to me and said, "i can't remember, what's the name of your vice president, the one who works for that company that has all the contracts in iraq...?" "dick cheney," i replied... "and what's the company?" he asked... "halliburton," i said...

my point to folks back in the u.s.: if a cab driver in skopje, macedonia, can see it so clearly, why can't we...?

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Murtha: "This [Haditha] is how you lose the Iraqi people"

imho, the iraqi people were lost quite some time ago...

They knew about this a few days afterwards and there’s no question the chain of command tried to stifle the story. I can understand why, but that doesn’t excuse it. Something like this has to be brought out to the public, and the people have to be punished.

when the role models for deceit, lies, spin, and cover-up are the current tenants of the white house, the pentagon, the state department, the department of justice, and every other major and minor executive branch operation, and the reprisals for truth-telling are swift and devastating, what the hell do we expect...? the instinct for survival is primal and not easily squelched...

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For the record, I agree with Pachacutec at Firedoglake

Memorial Day Truth: There Is No “War on Terror”

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Holy shit, Batman...! I thought Kyoto was DEAD, but it's B-A-A-A-ACK...!

how did THIS guy slip through the cracks...?

President Bush’s new nominee for Treasury Secretary, Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr., not only endorses the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse emissions, but argues that the United States’ failure to enact Kyoto undermines the competitiveness of U.S. companies.

i wonder if he's gonna do a harriet miers disappearing act...?

Today, a coalition of free market-based policy groups sent a letter to President Bush asking him not to nominate Goldman Sachs Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Henry Paulson as Treasury Secretary given his controversial stand on environmental issues.

The letter was signed by the National Legal and Policy Center, the Free Enterprise Action Fund, Capital Research Center, National Center for Public Policy Research, and Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise.

< rubs hands together in glee > well, THIS oughta be interesting...!

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Alito steps up to the plate and does what he was put there to do

Justices, 5-4, Limit Whistleblower Suits

The Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for government employees to file lawsuits claiming they were retaliated against for going public with allegations of official misconduct.

By a 5-4 vote, justices said the nation's 20 million public employees do not have carte blanche free speech rights to disclose government's inner-workings. New Justice Samuel Alito cast the tie-breaking vote.

[...]

Dissenting justices said Tuesday that the ruling could silence would-be whistleblowers who have information about governmental misconduct.

"Public employees are still citizens while they are in the office," wrote Justice John Paul Stevens. "The notion that there is a categorical difference between speaking as a citizen and speaking in the course of one's employment is quite wrong."

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Why, in god's name, is ANY newspaper offering advice to Bush?

save the column inches... save the printer's ink... save the bandwidth... save your friggin' breath...

This is a relatively straightforward bill [Enhanced Energy Security Act of 2006] with big ambitions — to reduce the demand for oil, thus reducing America's contribution to global warming while enhancing its national security. President Bush, who has made so much of the dependency issue without offering legislation of his own, would do the country a great favor by getting behind it.

h-e-L-L-L-LO-O-O-O...! read my lips... george bush d.o.e.s.n.'t. g.i.v.e. a. s.h.i.t. about global warming, national security, or oil dependency... not ONE... not even a TINY ONE...!

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Peter Daou on the pervasiveness of anti-left and pro-right in the media

a really nice profile and interview of peter daou over at huffpo...

I've gradually come to the realization that the single biggest obstacle facing the left is the pervasiveness of anti-left and pro-right narratives in the media. What's the point of your message if it's filtered through a media lens that's unfavorable to your position? You know, 'weak' Dems and 'strong' Republicans, 'un-American' left and 'patriotic' right, and so on.

Until the left gets its act together to address this imbalance, we'll have more Gore-ing of Gore and Swift-Boating of Kerry. And more anti-Hillary tabloid journalism like the kind we've seen recently from the New York Times, David Broder, Tim Russert and others. The astonishing thing is that the "liberal media" absurdity is so entrenched that arguments about pro-right narratives are still met with suspicion, if not outright derision. The standard reply from rightwing bloggers is not a factual rebuttal, but simply "you must be crazy."

peter has my respect in spite of his work for john kerry in 2003 and 2004...

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Oh, and by the way, Afghanistan is going to hell too

ugly, ugly, ugly...

Monday's riots in Kabul, in which altogether 14 died and over 100 were wounded and during which thousands thronged the streets chanting "Death to America", also produced violent attacks and gunfire throughout the city, with hotel windows being sprayed with machine gun fire. The protests were sparked by a traffic accident. But they have other roots.

The US military presence in Afghanistan has quietly been pumped up from 19,000 to 23,000 troops.

A fresh US airstrike in Helmand killed some 50 Afghans on Monday Over 400 Afghans have been killed by US bombing and military actions in only the past two weeks. While most of these are Pushtun nativist guerrillas (coded by the US as "Taliban"), some have demonstrably been innocent civilians. (Taliban are, properly speaking, mostly Afghan orphans and displaced youths who got their education in neo-Deobandi seminaries in Pakistan and were backed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. It is not clear that those now fighting the US in southern Afghanistan are actually in the main Taliban in this technical sense.)

Whoever they are, the Pushtun guerrillas have been waging a very effective terror campaign in the countryside around Qandahar, and have launched a fierce series of spring offensives. They wounded 5 Canadian troops on Monday, something US mass media anchors somehow have trouble getting past their lips. (Another 5 had been wounded last week, and several Canadian and French troops have been killed, not to mention US troops.)

A recent US airstrike that killed 16 children, women and noncombatant men provoked an enormous outcry in Afghanistan, and sparked President Hamid Karzai to begin a presidential inquiry into it.

ALL the chickens are coming home to roost...

(thanks to juan cole...)

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Frist: Protecting the flag isn't pandering

at least he has some familiarity with the word...

Amending the Constitution to prohibit flag burning may be considered political posturing in the nation's capital, says Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, but it's not pandering to the GOP's conservative base to pursue such protection.

"It's important to the heart and soul of the American people," said Frist, R-Tenn., who is considering a White House bid in 2008.

Asked on "Fox News Sunday" if flag burning and gay marriage were the most important issues the Senate can address in June, Frist said the agenda will focus on securing the country and its values.

frist is the celebrity spokesperson for pandering... our country is going directly to hell and the majority leader of the united states senate focuses on flag-burning and gay marriage... utterly pathetic...

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"The most powerful person no one has never heard of"

evidently, scooter didn't leave much of a vacuum...

The signing statements are just one tool that Addington [Vice-president Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, David Addington] and a small cadre of ultraconservative lawyers at the heart of the Bush administration are employing to prosecute the war on terrorism. Little known outside the West Wing and the inner sanctums of the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department, Addington is a genial colleague who also possesses an explosive temper that he does not hesitate to direct at those who oppose him. Addington, says an admiring former White House official, is "the most powerful person no one has never heard of."

Name one significant action taken by the Bush White House after 9/11, and chances are better than even that Addington had a role in it. So ubiquitous is he that one Justice Department lawyer calls Addington "Adam Smith's invisible hand" in national security matters.

it seems that megalomania is a primary qualification for those who wield the REAL power in bushworld...

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Sunday photoblogging: Matka Gorge, Macedonia

a dam was constructed across the matka (translation: womb) gorge in the early 20th century, creating a narrow but very deep reservoir that extends nearly 5km up the gorge... there are several medieval eastern orthodox monasteries perched high up on the crags, strategically located to escape the ravages of the ottoman occupation...



today, the crags are a magnet for macedonia's numerous mountain clubs, and the hiking paths and an outdoor cafe at the head of the dam draw hundreds of skopje city dwellers looking for a little bit of nature on a beautiful sunday in late may...

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Hayden is in - 78 to 15

and we didn't get answers to diddly-squat... sigh... raw story has the vote breakdown...

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But, of course

corporatocracy... not an organization you or i belong to...

The baker's son from Bangor, Maine, was never wealthy, and his government salary went only so far. When the motorcades and military escorts ended in January 2001, his final financial disclosure form listed tens of thousands of dollars of charge-account debts at interest rates as high as about 25 percent.

Within weeks of leaving office, he was living in a $3.5 million McLean mansion with a swimming pool, a cabana and a carriage house.

Cohen's career had entered a classic final phase: the monetizing of the public man.

Instead of returning to Maine, which he had represented in the House and Senate for more than two decades, Cohen followed legions of government officials into the business of consulting and lobbying. Trading on an insider's knowledge, contacts and personal cachet, the former defense secretary created his own Washington firm, the Cohen Group , which works for some of the biggest companies in the defense industry.

a loyal servant of the global empire...

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