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And, yes, I DO take it personally
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And, yes, I DO take it personally

Saturday, March 31, 2007

"The system failed you" - unadulterated horse poop

"The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures," Bush is quoted as telling the hospital's patients and staff. "The system failed you and it failed our troops and we're going to fix it."

after umpteen zillion photo-ops, scads of empty presidential promises, unequivocal demonstrations of zero follow-through, and 6-plus years of bald-faced lies, i'm sure our veterans are resting more comfortably now that they know their prez is on the case...
"I'm convinced he would honor them more if he would refrain from using soldiers as props in political theater," said Ret. Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton. "I would be very happy to see him do the Walter Reed visit more like the commander and secondarily as an inspector general, rather than as a politician."

i'm still puzzled about how they manage to animate an empty suit...

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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Starting a beautiful weekend with dark headlines

it's a cool, fresh, breezy, late-summer early morning here in buenos aires with those brilliant blue skies and intense sunshine that, for me, are the city's hallmark... i wish the headlines measured up...
Gonzales, Mueller admit FBI broke law

The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the
FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.

Pentagon struggles to find fresh troops

Faced with a military buildup in Iraq that could drag into next year,
Pentagon officials are trying to identify enough units to keep up to 20 brigade combat teams in Iraq. A brigade usually has about 3,500 troops.

The likely result will be extending the deployments of brigades scheduled to come home at the end of the summer, and sending others earlier than scheduled.

Afghanistan's 'Hard Mission' Slips Away

A Canadian parliamentary panel has taken an unvarnished look at the war in Afghanistan and concluded that it is a "hard mission" that is slipping out of control. The legislators fault heavy-handed U.S. tactics for alienating the population and an inadequate NATO commitment to pacify the country.

Is the Bush surge already failing?

The president just gave a rosy assessment of his plan, but insurgents have adapted and Iraqis continue to be slaughtered.

Killing U.S. Troops Slowly

Some Bush administration officials have expressed shock at the mistreatment of Iraq War veterans at Walter Reed and other medical centers. But this scandal has many antecedents, including the neglect shown to many veterans who served in Vietnam and in the first U.S. war with Iraq.

and then there's the low comedy of dear leader...
Bush deflects Chavez's verbal attacks

President Bush refuses to be goaded into a war of words with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who is answering the president's five-country trek through Latin America with taunts of "Gringo go home."

Bush is trying to spread a message of U.S. compassion for the region and ignore Chavez, who blames U.S.-style capitalism for poverty and inequality in Latin America.

"U.S. compassion for the region..." now THAT'S a hoot... remember, george, all the people you are trying to get to swallow that lie watched how "compassionately" you handled katrina, how "compassionately" you are treating iraqis, the "compassionate" care that detainees are receiving in your custody, and the "compassionate" health care returning veterans experience under your leadership... like us, they know that the words that pass your lips do so minus any semblance of the truth...

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Sunday, March 04, 2007

HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP!

i had seen excerpts from this wapo article but i hadn't seen the accompanying photo...



The $1B+ new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

GREAT GOD ALMIGHTY...! any american who isn't embarrassed to death by this obscene display of empire run amok is seriously living on another planet... and, as e. buttler at the barstool chronicles (who tipped me off to this photo) says...
Well, of course wounded vets at Walter Reed have to live with rat shit, mold spores, and who knows how many other manifestations of privatized "care," when the Stalinist freaks they so inexplicably serve operate raj-style embassies, such as this one located in the Halliburton-approved subsidiary otherwise known as Iraq.

a new embassy is a-building in skopje, macedonia, on a hill overlooking the city, next to the 12th century fortress... i can't wait to see what kind of over-the-top monstrosity THAT turns out to be...

and, naturally, the u.s. interests come ahead of any local, historical, cultural, or religious interests...

[The] American plan to construct $50 million United States Embassy on Gradiste hill overlooking capital of Skopje, Macedonia, runs into opposition from many Macedonians, who consider hill as one of most important historical sites in country, as well as home to recently discovered 300-year-old cemetery that may hold as many as 2,000 graves; they want Macedonian government to cancel its deal to sell land to US government and designate area as national heritage spot; it appears unlikely that would happen; US Amb Lawrence Butler denies that proposed building would damage historical remains or artifacts.

that article was dated almost three years ago... the new embassy in skopje is projected to open this year...

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Saturday, March 03, 2007

A reprehensible and disgraceful choice

i'm beginning to despair about our democratic leadership ever getting their collective heads out of their collective asses...
Lieberman, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was tapped by the Democrats to deliver the party's weekly radio address.

lieberman should be marginalized in every way possible, not given the spotlight and a bully pulpit... what ARE they smoking in those leadership caucus rooms, anyway...?

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Thursday, March 01, 2007

Maj. Gen. Weightman takes the Janis Karpinski dive

or, more accurately, was thrown under the same bus that ran over janis karpinski...
The Army said Thursday that the two-star general in charge of Walter Reed Army Medical Center has been relieved of command following disclosures about inadequate treatment of wounded soldiers.

Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who was commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command as well as Walter Reed hospital, was relieved of command by Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey.

it's the same story as abu ghraib... go after the poor sap who was probably trying to do his best with inadequate resources, a constantly-declining budget, and a massively increasing workload, instead of the worthless s.o.b.'s up the chain of commmand who put him in that situation...

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