Shlonkom Bakazay?

So, we won the battle...

Now it's time to taste the pudding. As far as I can tell Obama has appointed a lot of old hats not representing the constituency that elected him. But he's built a broad coalition representing the spectrum, which could be the manner we may achieve a new form of politics in DC. So, let's assume for the moment he plans to be the progressive voice on the hill. I'm more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the first 100 some-odd days, especially with the shit-storm he's inherited.

Hope is alive.
And this is the most important thing at the moment.

Now it's time to get to work.
-Lim

Golly, gee willikers, I think he's a bona-fide Chi-town Hawaiian Kenyan Kansan Compound Identity freakazoid like me.

How sweet is that?

Karma police caught up with karma itself and they had coffee and donuts...or shai ooo erlgeela.

Ha ha.

You didn't think I was going to let this one slip by, did you?

Col. Steven Boylan , Petraeus' spokesman. "He has a lot of energy."

Yes, indeed, a lotta energy to fuck things up.
And he will continue to fuck Iraq if he is given the opportunity.

Unbelievably, it looks like he's going to get that opportunity by the imbeciles in DC calling the shots still.

After all the damage he's caused...

"If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too."

That's so awesome! He's mad gangsta.
So, now that he's fucked, you think he's gonna fuck them too?
HAHA...

And props for dating the vicious Arab chick...
You got jungle fever baby.

Brown turns his frown upside down.

Peace,
Lim

As if we didn't already know this...

Their plans were so special. So special, in fact, that we are faced with a mounting defecit while people are dying at an ever higher rate... and they still can't even turn the lights on in Baghdad.
So special that throwing 20,000 more troops at this parade of violence cannot possibly make things better. They got themselves to where they are now...where we are all now. And where are these people that created the false intelligence in the lead-up to the war? Running the World Bank, fired or resigned, and trying to hide away...far away...while these many get fat on the interest of their war profiteering.
Where are Chalabi and all the other con-artists and self-deluding neocons?
And recently they passed the oil law, which completed much of the mission of the war. Now they just gotta sit and wait...and watch their crooked money come flowing in.

So special that there is a refugee crisis amounting to upwards of 3.6 million people displaced. 1.6 intra-Iraq, while approximately 2 million have fled the country.
Who is to shoulder this extremely special burden?
What special plans are they coming up with now to solve the endless problems this war has created?
I bet none.

Suzanne Goldenberg reports.

. 'Alternative' agency set up to link Saddam to al-Qaida
· Mainstream intelligence was cast aside, Senate told

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday February 10, 2007
The Guardian

An "alternative intelligence" unit operating at the Pentagon in the run-up to the war on Iraq was dedicated to establishing a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, even though the CIA was unconvinced of such a connection, the US Senate was told yesterday.

A report presented to the armed services committee by the Pentagon's inspector general, Thomas Gimble, exposes the Bush administration to new charges of manipulating intelligence to make its case for going to war against Saddam nearly four years ago.

Mr Gimble described a unit called the Office for Special Plans, authorised by then Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and overseen by the former policy chief Douglas Feith, to review raw intelligence on Iraq. The main focus of the unit was establishing a link between Saddam and al-Qaida - going against the consensus in the intelligence community that the Iraqi leader had nothing to do with the September 11 2001 terror attacks.

"The office of the under-secretary of defence for policy developed, produced and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the intelligence community, to senior decision-makers," the report says.

Mr Feith's office was the source for some of the most glaring examples of faulty intelligence during the run-up to the war. In 2002 it promoted the idea that there had been a meeting between the lead September 11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta, and an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001. The intelligence community has never established this.

To finish article

Although jingoistic and following particular stereotypes in times past, 24's new season has thoroughly impressed me. I especially like Wayne Palmer, Karen Hayes, and the new Arab-American girl's character. And I love to hate Tom Villars (sp?) for all the obvious reasons. Also, I watched it in HD. Spectacular!

I've got more to say about this, but I'll leave it for later.

Taking a page out of the US book? Speaking clearly about the Iran-Contra affair whereby America armed both Iraq and Iran during the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s...and watched the two countries duke it out. Oliver North, Eliot Abrams...you know.

I wouldn't be surprised. Sure, sometimes some of their Shia "brothers and sisters" in Iraq might get caught in the crossfire on accident...but really, does Iran really care about any Iraqis? Isn't there a little bitterness left over from that war where millions died? Enough to arm the Sunni insurgency and keep Iraq in chaos?

I forgot where exactly I heard about this first, but I did hear about it somewhere.
Food for thought, anyway.

I find myself agreeing with so many Republicans.
Please check this out.

And another video: George Bush: Because he says so

While I'm at it...another really funny video

And something Helena Cobban directed me to that was interesting, a political music video.

Once, long ago, I had a lot of respect for this man. But now, I can't stay quiet about him any longer. I thought his experience as a POW could offer a person like our current Emperor some insight into the cruelity and folly of war. But I was very wrong. He has toed the line of all the Emperor's ideas as of late. And somebody's gotta start calling him out on this.

John McCain says "War detractors offer no ideas" in this headline. But McCain is a parrot and almost rivals Tony Blair's poodle dogish behavior in the lead up to the war with his current support of Our King's plan. Thus, he offers no insight to anything. Choosing the worse of two evils... more specifically, sending 20,000 some odd troops into Iraq versus not sending them... is folly to the highest order.

So, I propose a vote of No Confidence in John McCain.

How bout you?

I'm not talking David or Wayne Palmer here. He's the real thing.
We hope so, anyway. Let's see.

The Obama Revolution

Just wondering, because that's what I heard tonight from a good source.
Like he's taking some heavy pills for bi-polar disorder.
I'm being totally serious.
Anybody hear the same?

Back in the US of A.
My nephew is getting baptized and I'm going to be the Godfather.
I'm already so proud of him. He's impressively fast at learning. Not even 9 months and is he's about to walk!

I've gotta start practicing my Brando impersonation. There was a time I could do it pretty well, but I tried again recently and I don't remember it being that difficult.

What else is cooking?


I saw Apocalypto.
Loved it. The subtleties of symbolism and plot are fascinating.
There are truly not enough films about the indigenous peoples of North America.

At the moment, I'm watching Ms. Collateral Damage (Madeleine Albright) wax holier than thou about the Iraq war on CSPAN.
How obscene! Why do I watch this repulsive pornography?

Speaking of pornography, here's a few things...

In other news, Gen. George Casey said, "I think it's probably going to be the summer, late summer, before you get to the point where people in Baghdad feel safe in their neighborhoods." [source] I don't know about you, but I'm going to remember this and revisit this again in the summer. We'll see if he's full of shit or not...or out of a job.

I'm seeing the phenomenon of blaming the Iraqis for all that is wrong in Iraq, more and more...
Now that brain-drain has effectively cut-out most Iraqis with any sort of western leanings, it is going to be difficult to get Iraq on its feet. Is it their fault that they want to leave a place so violent? I ask all those saying it's Iraqis to blame, why is it so violent after 4 years of war? Who started the war? Why wasn't there any WMD? Why was the war persecuted with so many lies?

Perhaps because they couldn't have had the war without the lies.

So, who's fault is it really?

This is how the subtext to the headline today on CNN's website reads, "Rice explores peace in the Middle East":

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice explored opportunities for a fresh start in the stalled effort at a political compromise between Israel and the Palestinians.

At the start of a week-long trip to the region, she warned that an enduring peace cannot be stamped "made in America."

Of course, it's true...but it's the ultimate cop-out and just a way to stave of criticism for all the inaction by the American government regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the last 5 years and heavy bias towards the Sharonian ideal while Israel runs rampant radicalizing the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, much like the US government has radicalized Iraq.

But how convenient for the looney toons in the WH...because now they can have their excuse to have a war on Iran.

The world gone crazy...stoking the flames of extremism seems like one of the objectives of this administration.

I've decided to start blogging again.
Politics has gotten more interesting all of the sudden.
And I've got several snarls left in me yet.
I'll see how it goes anyway.

So, I'm hearing talk about the possibility of democrats being able to block more funding of the Iraq debacle.
Amazing, no?

Why'd it take so damn long? And T.Snow is now saying supporting this stance is unpatriotic.
Is that the last and shortest straw? Almost tantamount to saying John Murtha is a weeny, spineless liberal...
Chabuduo anyway...

We are now entering the densely ironic phase of this very predictable war.
Meaning, I could have predicted (and subsequently did predict) that this war would go this badly.
I mean, that's why I was so against it to begin with.
The possibility of failure was high based on the original premise and all the following premises, as we have seen.
And now, since talk of this troop increase has been discredited by just about every bona fide expert on Iraq...we're at yet the same point again. To be clear, a physical place, a sort of crossroad we've reached many a time...
Which end will the knife turn on?
One ring to rule them all? (Fascism) Or all rings to rule nothing? (Chaos, Anarchy)
Those are the choices Iraq as a complete entity faces now.
Not to say there isn't some grey area.
Point is,
even the best possible one is a bad one.

So, whether or not they put more troops in...doesn't really matter. Because we don't really know which direction to expect if we do, or if we don't.

While it would be better they didn't, they will...and they will see the negative effects of it a couple steps down the road.
And there will be another senate hearing about it that will amount to nothing. Where we'll see more experts discredit the original decision to have the troop increase. Some of course saying, I told you so.
So what? So what? So what?
Iraq's fucked. And the world is so much worse off for it.
Everybody knows this much now.
And believe me, that's enough.

But what do I really think about said troop increase?

20,000??? Are you kidding me?
Are they deliberately trying to make a bad situation worse?
That's what I'll say. Talk about kindling...
It screams disaster. And they are crazy for talking about putting such a small amount in such a manner.
It's foolish to the highest order.

And even trying to fathom the possibility of an exponential increase in troops, say upwards another 100-150,000, to a total of 250,000...would simply be impossible for American Armed Forces to absorb at the moment.

But would putting only 20,000 more troops in make sure Iraq becomes a fascist religious state or a continued chaotic chasm of violence? Lets get down and dirty with this one.
Yes...
There's simply no way of knowing.
In many ways, the fascist secular state appears to have been better compared with the ever-narrowing field of options facing Iraq and Iraqis now. And that's the real travesty of the whole matter. That we've regressed so greatly. One would like to say, two steps backward, then eventually one step foward. But can we now? Can we really expect any improvement with Iraq in the coming years, even if democrats are steering more?

I doubt it.

So, yes...things have gotten more interesting.
And I wanna exhume my thoughts for you in the coming weeks.
haha
Thanks...
bye,
Lim

If there could have been a divine source of musical inspiration walking amongst us, it was James Brown. Now he's left us for greener pastures. Thank you James, for all the good times past and good times to come.

I'm gonna tell you the story of when I saw him live in concert, on accident, sometime.

Peace,
Lim

Bush and Blair will blame anyone but themselves for the consequences of their disastrous war - even its victims

Gary Younge
Monday November 27, 2006
The Guardian

'In the endgame," said one of the world's best-ever chess players, José Raúl Capablanca, "don't think in terms of moves but in terms of plans." The situation in Iraq is now unravelling into the bloodiest endgame imaginable. Both popular and official support for the war in those countries that ordered the invasion is already at a low and will only get lower. Whatever mandate the occupiers may have once had from their own electorates - in Britain it was none, in the US it was precarious - has now eroded. They can no longer conduct this war as they have been doing.
Simultaneously, the Iraqis are no longer able to live under occupation as they have been doing. According to a UN report released last week, 3,709 Iraqi civilians died in October - the highest number since the invasion began. And the cycle of religious and ethnic violence has escalated over the past week.

The living flee. Every day up to 2,000 Iraqis go to Syria and another 1,000 to Jordan, according to the UN's high commissioner for refugees. Since the bombing of Samarra's Shia shrine in February more than 1,000 Iraqis a day have been internally displaced, a recent report by the UN-affiliated International Organisation for Migration found last month.

Those in the west who fear that withdrawal will lead to civil war are too late - it is already here. Those who fear that pulling out will make matters worse have to ask themselves: how much worse can it get? Since yesterday American troops have been in Iraq longer than they were in the second world war. When the people you have "liberated" by force are no longer keen on the "freedom" you have in store for them, it is time to go.

To finish reading article...clickity clack.

Hallelujah!

Rejoice!

Praise be...

And Americans aren't as dumb as we/you thought they were. Sure, it took long enough, but we ain't that stupid after all. Ha. This is the most important part of this victory. It's a signal to the world...
The giant has awaken and quickly destroyed the hubris of Cheney and Co.

We will see what practical implications this victory has in the coming months, but there has been a notable shift in rhetoric already I think.

Perhaps more later...

Let me put that up here again...because I simply don't believe CNN has regarded this as news.

Alberto Fernandez, director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs, made his comments on Saturday to the Qatar-based network.

Shouldn't he be charged with inciting violence? or is he actually quelling it by stating the plain truth?

Here's exactly what was said:

"But I think there is a big possibility ... for extreme criticism and because undoubtedly there was arrogance and stupidity from the United States in Iraq," the diplomat told Al Jazeera.

Straight talking to the Al Jazeera crowd? WOW....talk about change of tactic. It is the appropriate course of action on the PR psyops campaign. Save some soldiers by being real. So, I commend State for cleaning up some of the mess Defense and WH precipitated. See here for more on that.

But of course, this is a drop in the bucket. It won't change the actual course of this war on its own. There needs to be more creative ways to connect people with one another on a human level. There needs to be intelligent people who actually know something about Iraq handling the situation. Not ignorant morons with moral blindfolds...

Small victories are still victories, though. And this is a bit of a watershed moment to me. So we'll see if this is a drop or if it will really rain.

The guy I used to spend endless hours watching on Sportscenter growing up as a kid....
is now tearing a new asshole in many a person through his 'special comment' feature during the past several months.

I'd like to collect a list of them in this post, but we'll start with the most recent one.

I'll add more later.