Shlonkom Bakazay?

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