Thursday, November 29, 2007

Reuters AlertNet - FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Nov 29

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb near a minibus wounded six passengers in Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb near a minibus wounded five people near a hospital in central Baghdad, police said.
Reuters AlertNet - FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Nov 29

BAGHDAD - One U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire on Wednesday in western Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

MOSUL - A car bomb wounded two policemen in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAQUBA - Twelve people were killed and 25 wounded in a Katyusha rocket attack in al-Salam village near the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

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Duh, Earth to AP

The number of U.S. troops killed in November remained at a low not seen since March 2006 on Thursday, a respite from years of bloodshed that forced some 2 million Iraqis to flee and prompted the buildup of nearly 30,000 more American forces.

Ok, get this.Casualties are lowest since March 2006, a respite from years of bloodshed. Since when is a year and a half qualify for "years of bloodshed"

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Reverend Hotfeet


Do you know where your Pastor is tonight? Ordinarily, family values wingnut preachers , well, value sticking around their families. Not so this guy. But he’s got an ironclad excuse, one that fellow Religious Right Wingers ought to find plausible and sympathetic .

"The pastor of a Hammond church who mysteriously vanished in 1980 in what was described as an abduction by a satanic cult has been rediscovered as an Arkansas mayor."

"Don LaRose admitted to newspaper reporters Tuesday he left his wife and two daughters behind in Hammond. He said he fled because he was about to be abducted by a group of shadowy figures who had kidnapped him in New York five years earlier."

Well, who wouldn’t hi-tail in out of there when shadowy figures figure into things. And of course he couldn’t tell his wife and children cause the nightcrawlers might have them bugged or something.

But never mind, he landed square on his feet.

"LaRose has gone by the fake name Ken Williams for 27 years, and maintains a talk-radio show, a new marriage and has served as the mayor of Centerton, Ark., since 2001."

Well at least he made another family, so he can’t be all bad.

“He seemed to be a great man, with integrity, honesty, a good rapport, he loved people, good communicator,” said Lee Roy Floyd, the janitor at the church and a 45-year member of its Deacon Board. “You think, good gracious, this is a good find.”

In other words a typical Republican.

And those sneaky devil dog Satanists , now you see ‘em now you don’t.

"The day before he disappeared, he was speaking to a group in the church, and in the middle of his sermon he stopped talking and looked at the back of the room. No one who turned around saw anything, but LaRose later claimed he had seen one of the Satanists through a window."

“And the next day he left. He was gone"

Pass The Catsup Please


art.hairball.nejm.jpg NOT GRANDMA'S SUGAR CURED HAM



CNN) -- It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine is devoting part of its Thanksgiving issue to a giant hairball -- and not the feline kind.art.hairball.nejm.jpgDoctors say this hairball removed from a woman's stomach weighed 10 pounds.The prestigious journal details the case of a previously healthy 18-year-old woman who consulted a team of gastrointestinal specialists.She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss.After a scan of the woman's abdomen showed a large mass, doctors lowered a scope through her esophagus.It revealed "a large bezoar occluding nearly the entire stomach," wrote Drs. Ronald M. Levy and Srinadh Komanduri, gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.For the uninitiated, a bezoar is a hairball."On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years -- a condition called trichophagia," they wrote.Doctors untangle the strange case of the giant hairball - CNN.com

And a redhead at that. On the upside hair is known to be low-fat and low-cholestoral.

Crooks and Damn Crooks

Official probing Rove now under investigation himselfJason RhynePublished: Wednesday November 28, 2007del.icio.us del.icio.us | StumbleUpon Print This Email This The federal official helming a probe into potentially illegal partisan political activities conducted by Karl Rove and other White House officials is himself the focus of a federal investigation.Scott Bloch, the Bush-appointed head of the US Office of Special Counsel, is under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers, The Wall Street Journal's John R. Wilke reports.
The Raw Story | Official probing Rove now under investigation himself


A Special commission was created today to attempt a finding of just one honest person in the Bush Administration. George Bush, through White House spokesperson Dana Perino, stated he would veto any attempt by Congress to investigate anything about his Administration. When Democrat leaders in Congress got word of Bush's position on their efforts, they immediately backtracked saying they would compromise by invoking "The Pretty Please" clause of the Constitution. When it was pointed out there was no such clause in the Founding Document of the country, democrats were visibly shaken then announced they would begin hearings to discover where their collective spines had gone. Anonymous sources inside the White House reported Mr. Bush giggled sardonically upon hearing democrats plans.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Explosive News From Bombistan

A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. convoy wounded three civilians in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.


11/27/07 Reuters: Car bomb wounds 4 civilians in Mosul

11/27/07 AFP: Suicide blast hits police HQ

11/26/07 Reuters: Roadside bomb kills 1, wounds another in Mosul

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Lamest of Lame Ducks

Israel, Palestinians commit to peace timetabletemplate_bastemplate_basPresident Bush announces that both sides have agreed to a joint document that commits them to work toward a treaty by the end of 2008.By Johanna Neuman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer9:22 AM PST, November 27, 2007WASHINGTON -- President Bush announced today that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to a joint document that commits them to work toward a peace treaty before the end of next year.
Israel, Palestinians commit to peace timetable - Los Angeles Times

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Actually, Bush's belated effort to hold this conference is a welcome action. Although it remains to be seen if he and the others genuinely follow up on today's peaceful gestures. Unfortunately, If past history of the last 7 years is any guide, there will be little if any engaged follow-up. With Hamas now in charge of the Gaza Strip and their intransigence of accepting Israel's right to exist, it is unlikely any real progress will be made. I suspect this is George W. Bush trying to spruce up his God awful legacy of the Iraq quagmire and general incompetence on a range of issues.
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"The reason to establish a Palestinian state now, said Bush, after years of diplomacy of failure, is that "a battle is underway for the future of the Middle East -- and we must not cede victory to the extremists."

Israel, Palestinians commit to peace timetable - Los Angeles Times

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What a tragically comic statement from Mr. Bush. After 7 years of nearly total disengagement from the Israel-Palestinian dispute, he claims exasperation for the failure of diplomacy that didn't happen under his watch. I'm past being outraged by shit like this from the Bush administration. We're less than a year away from the 2009 Prez election [we hope] and nothing short of impeachment and removal from office will change anything Bush does between now and then. I'll Just continue howling at the moon when the need arises.

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Monday, November 26, 2007

Daily Bombistan Report

A suicide truck bomb killed one soldier and wounded five others in an attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint on Sunday in the Al-Zab area, 35 km (20 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said. Another soldier was missing.


11/26/07 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds 2 people in southern Baghdad

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No Surprise Here

Baath reform spurs uproar in Iraq parliamentPosted by roboblogger 6 hrs ago | via Los Angeles Times This link will take you off Topix“Then they may reach decision-making positions without punishment to [those who were] wrongdoers.”BAGHDAD -- Reforms that would ease curbs on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party rejoining Iraq's civil service and military appeared headed for legislative gridlock after attempts Sunday to read a ...
Iraq News - Topix

Memo to our GOP "pollyanna" Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham

As I stated in an earlier post, Iraqi Shiite's will never agree to allow their former Baathist tormentors to join the Shia government. Your musings recently about being "cautiously optimistic" is the worst kind of magical thinking. It is the same type wishful thinking that got us into the Iraq mess to begin with. It is also devoid of basic common sense that we would normally expect from a sitting U.S. Senator. Even if the Iraqi Shiite legislator's pass some sort of Baathist reconciliation law in order to placate the US, it will be so weak as to not allow but a few, if any, Baathist's to return to government. And otherwise would not be enforced in real practice.

Something to consider, sirs. Every day that war supporters string out our occupation of this Muslim country, more people will die. More American GI's and more Iraqi's. And "we can't afford to lose" ain't no battle plan. The ONLY possible way to truly get Iraqi's to work out their differences is to simply leave them alone, or, unless they ask for help with DIPLOMACY to help mediate an agreement to live in some sort of peace with one another.

And has the surge worked as planned ?-- a temporary reduction in violence without reconciliation does not equal success. Do you plan on keeping the surge level of troops in Iraq indefinitely and destroy the American military? Please tell us.

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Sunday, November 25, 2007

And Now For Something Completely Different



-- Al Qaeda
"appealed to the environmentalist lobby today with an announcement that
it would offset the organization's carbon emissions caused by 9/11, and emissions from recent attacks in Iraq.
A team from the newly appointed "Terrorize Global Warming" cell of the
terrorist organization has spent the last few months calculating the
total carbon dioxide emissions from 9/11 and plans to invest in a range
of projects to cancel out the CO2 released by these attacks."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWSFLASH : Al Gore single handedly defeats Global Terrorism AND Global Warming at same time. When asked how he accomplished this he stated he simply helped Osama find his inner environmentalist. He also said OBL insisted on Gore dressing up as George Bush for a round of paintball with him and Ayman. The deal nearly fell thru when Al Zawahiri insisted on playing with real AK 47's. However, after some heated parlay it was agreed to let Ayman tie Mr. Gore to a tree naked and pour some water over his head.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The team has calculated that the attacks that took place on
September 11 released close to 4.5 millions tons of CO2. Research shows
that Al Qaeda may have indirectly accelerated global warming with these attacks. Says Osama Bin Laden in a newly released press video, "We are doing all we can to become carbon neutral, and are very sorry for the damage to the ozone layer planes crashing into the World Trade Center has caused. We are doing all we can to offset this sudden release of carbon-dioxide gas."

Osama also states, "I'm a strong....believer of
global....warming, and we have been doing all we can to slow...it
[down]. For example, I reduced the number....of people who go on planes
since September [11]! Everyone's too....scared!....Haha!...Also, I've
reduced...the....[world's general population through various acts of
EVIL]. So you can see that we [care!]
"

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Osama also opined on the sorry state of the US Republican Party and If things weren't what they were, he would consider a GOP run as their only green candidate.

AND THERE'S MORE

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UPDATE; Late this evening a Senior Administration official poured cold water on news of the Gore/Osama breakthru treaty, only stating that Mr. Gore was just jealous at losing the 2000 election and was indulging in a political stunt.
However , we have learned that the "Nuclear Football" carrying our nuclear missile launch codes had mysteriously disappeared.

Apparently it was located, along with the Vice President in an empty bathroom stall near the "Situation Room". Unconfirmed reports are that when found, Mr. Cheney was furiously attempting to open the locked case, but was unsuccessful. While being led away those standing by report hearing Mr. Cheney screaming "Damn you Scott Beauchamp" followed by "Go Fuck yourself World".

We will keep you informed as events unfold.

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Same Old, SameOld

Row mars Iraq parliament hearing on Baathists billReuters - 1 hour, 40 minutes ago BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bill that would ease curbs on former Baathists was presented to Iraq's parliament on Sunday, but a row quickly erupted and forced postponement of debate on a draft law seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.
Iraq news from Yahoo! News


Message to Senator Lindsey Graham., your about to swallow a shitpot full of crow. When do you expect the Shia to let former {and current} Baathists back in the Green Zone Iraqi government. Ask yourself If democrats had kidnapped, tortured, and murdered wingnuts on a daily basis for three decades how eager would you be to let them in a government your side was now in control of. Ok. I know that's an awful analogy, but it's early and the best I could do.

Anyway, I bet the answer is none. In fact, you might have some unmentionable ideas on how to deal with your former tormentors. So, again, why would you expect anymore from the Shia.
One more thing that's nonsensical in a long list of nonsense caused by the US occupation.
Maybe you should ask the Brits what happened in Basra when they pulled out completely.

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More Encouraging News From Bombistan formerly known as Iraq

A roadside bomb wounded two civilians in the Waziriya district of northern Baghdad, police said. A second roadside bomb exploded when Iraqi security forces arrived on the scene, killing one soldier and wounding six others, police said.

11/25/07 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds 6 people in Mosul



11/25/07 NYTimes: In reminder of Iraq instability


11/25/07
AP: Car Bomb Kills 9 in Baghdad

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Saturday, November 24, 2007

Friday, November 23, 2007

A Behind the Veil Look At The Insurgency

Iraq -- Land of Eternal Misery

Iraq faces cholera health catastropheFriday, November 23, 2007 11:24 GMTBaghdad is facing a health catastrophe, with reports of cholera rising over the past weeks to more than 80 new cases, Iraq’s Health Ministry said. Most of the new cases have been reported in poor areas deprived of water and other basic services, an official at the Health Ministry said. The official added that six government hospitals suffer from unsanitary water supplies among which Yirmuk Hospital.
Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite TV Network | Iraq News | Iraq faces cholera health catastrophe

How many Cholera outbreaks happened in Iraq prior to Bush's most awful adventure in creating Democracy through the barrel of an M-16? But wingnuts cry out that Bush didn't invent Cholera, so what's the problem. And anyway The SURGE IS WORKING defeatocrats, didn't you read Krauthammer in the Post this morning.

Well how can you argue with the Grand Poopah neocon himself, whose been wrong about everything he's said about Iraq from goddamn day one. Message to wingnuts, surge this -- clean water and lots of medicine yesterday, or Cholera and other diseases raging in the sewage soaked streets of Mesopotamia will play hell with Teh Surge success. And if you can't manage that, send lots of lumber for the about to soar demand for caskets. Yea, I know it will play hell with the budget deficit THAT YOU FUCKING CREATED. But isn't that why God created Chinese loan sharks. And don't fret too much., the kid's will pay for it.

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DE-NILE ---- A River In Egypt ?

11/23/07 Reuters: Car bomb kills two worshippers in Jurf Al Sakhar

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Bomb Strikes Baghdad, Killing 13 | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Bomb Strikes Baghdad, Killing 13 | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited: "The explosives were hidden in a box that is commonly used to carry small animals, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information."

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Romper Room

This is what we're fighting for in Iraq. Yes ,I know, but the surge is working and George W. Bush is a friekin' genious. Well then, Ok!, bring the troops home and we'll have a confetti parade down Main Street USA with GWB and The God General Petraeus waving to the impressed American masses.

And we'll turn the whole Iraq nightmare we made over to these guys.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
MPs: Lack of quorum affects Iraq security

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 09:45 GMT

"A number of lawmakers have confirmed that security deterioration is due in the first place to the lack of parliamentarian quorum which is taken advantage of by some parties, therefore surpassing the mechanism of accountability hat was supposed to control the lack of quorum. In fact, security problematic is hardening the legislative process and impeding the ratification of proposed laws.
On the other hand, as the Justice and Accountability Law will be discussed soon, a number of parliamentarians have submitted a series of proposals over whether this law includes sufficient guarantees to preserve civil rights of families included therein."

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See, It's just Hard work.






© 2007 Alsumaria Iraqi Satellite Network

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Iraq Through the Looking Glass

My first post on this little blog will take a look at where we are in Iraq today. Like many of you, what exactly is happening in Iraq seems a mish -mash of lessoning violence and non-stop propaganda from the Neocons and the Bush Administration. Is the Surge working? Well there is a non-deniable reduction in daily violence in some key areas such as Baghdad. But how much and why?

I'm certainly no expert on insurgency wars but one thing I'm pretty confident about and that is they usually go through periods where lessoning violence gives way to hope for the end of hostilities. Another thing I feel fairly sure of is that unless there is a political reconciliation between the combatants they will surely start fighting again. They may change strategies or allegiances or both, but a continuation of fighting will almost certainly occur.

There is also the perennial question of who is our enemy in Iraq?
The following is an excellent article by Robert Dreyfuss that gives some illumination as to who we are fighting in Iraq.

"We aren't fighting the Shia. The Shia merchant class and elite, organized into the mostly pro-Iranian Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and the Islamic Dawa party, are part of the Iraqi government that the United States created and supports -- and whose army and police are armed and trained by the United States"

Well, of course this is an obvious point even if not 100 percent true. The Shia from the beginning were smart enough to see the American intervention in Iraq could only benefit them in the long term. Play along with American neocon idealists for forced democratization and the Shia would wind up controlling all the levers of power in Iraq. Even Moqtada Al Sadr wised up and called off his Mehdi army to let this scenario play itself out. So here we are with an intransigent Shiite dominant Iraqi government absolutely unwilling to share resources and power with the Sunni's. No political reconciliation means no peace, even if we're having a current lull in the insurgent civil war.

"And we certainly aren't fighting the Kurds. For decades, the Kurds have been America's (and Israel's) closest allies in Iraq. Since 2003, the three Kurdish-dominated provinces have been relatively peaceful."

The Kurds are our best friends in the Middle East, certainly among Muslim nations, and even rivaling our historic ally Israel. This could change if we allow Turkey to continue threatening Kurdistan with Military incursions.

"We're not exactly fighting Al Qaeda any more either. Despite President Bush's near-frantic efforts to portray the war in Iraq as a last-ditch, Alamo-like stand against Osama bin Laden's army, U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq are having a hard time finding pockets of Al Qaeda to attack these days, though the group still has the power to conduct deadly attacks now and then. In recent weeks, General David Petraeus, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and other authorities have pretty much declared Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) dead and buried."

Somehow , this has been the most baffling element of the Iraq insurgency and continues to be so. On the one hand, we have General Petraeus and the neocons raving how the surge has all but wiped Iraq clean of Al Quaida. On the other hand, it's obvious that many Sunni's who had welcomed AQ to help fight the American's are turning sour on AQ fanaticism and bloodthirsty ways and seem to be willing to purge them from their territory,

It begs the question is the surge responsible for lessoning attacks from AQ?, or is it the Sunni's who have quashed AQ in their ranks?, or is this a Sunni ruse and AQ in Iraq is just lying low or changing locations and tactics? It's hard to say because the dynamics of AQ in Iraq and the Sunni insurgency as a whole are largely unknown.

A recent AP article seems to indicate that maybe AQ has shifted it's operations to Northern Iraq. Time will tell if AQ in Iraq is really on the ropes, as wingnuts are shouting, or have just taken their bloody bandwagon on the road, like so many times before.