A Very Bright Moment for Iraq
Against all odds, Iraq's soccer team has won the Asian Cup, for the first time, dominating the final game against the heavily favored Saudi team. Bravo! (story, IHT)

No Jail for Scooter Libby
Bush commutes sentence...
Cheney's man walks free...
"The president has used his pardon power to shortcircuit the investigation of a crime to which he himself was quite likely a party, and to which his vice president, who controls him, certainly was." (more- TPM)

July 29: Wes Clark on Pat Tillman (video: Countdown)
July 26:"Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press." (more)
July 13: The White House asserts "executive privilege", refuses to release Tillman documents to Congress.(story)
A spokesperson for Representative Mike Honda (D-Calif.) called the Bush administration's refusal to cooperate with the investigation "appalling stonewalling". The House Oversight Committee has scheduled a hearing titled "The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew" for August 1. They have invited six current and former military officials to testify including Lieutenant General McChrystal and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
See our page on the suspicious circumstances of Tillman's death and the latest news developments here.

A fool's gambit backfires
After an epochal suckup to the Bush Gang, once-maverick John McCain finds his candidacy collapsing. (Wapo story)

Halliburton Moving to Dubai
Cheney's company will be out of reach of the IRS, and more importantly perhaps, out of reach of investigations into war-profiteering and corruption. Above: Sheikh Zayed, sole ruler of Dubai for thirty years now; Cheney's kind of guy.

Latest Rumsfeld sighting:
April 2: The Dark Lord himself sat down and ordered a hot chocolate just like he was any normal visitor at the Taos Ski Basin a couple days ago. The waiter refused to serve him. A month ago, a man spotted him in the Trader Joe's checkout line, and yelled out, "Mr. Rumsfeld, how can you sleep at night?" For a complete report of a major Rumsfeld encounter, see Jeff Conant's "Greeting Rumsfeld in Taos"

Valerie Plame and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York against top CIA officials for blocking publication of her memoir on national security grounds.
"Just as we have to be vigilant to protect our national security - something I believe in passionately - we have to be vigilant to protect our freedom of speech and First Amendment rights... This has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with political influence and manipulation." (story)

Of course, the Bush-man is just there to sell the wars, as for who is running them, well we all know by now...
Cheney Theme Music: stream/download

Favorite clip: Bush's Hard Work

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!" - Albert Einstein,"The World As I See It"

Michael Moore Blasts the Media: "When are you going to tell the American people the truth?" (view video)
Related: Paul Craig Roberts, "Free Press or Ministry of the Truth?"

"Patriotism in its simplest, clearest and most indubitable signification is nothing else but a means of obtaining for the rulers their ambitions and covetous desires, and for the ruled the abdication of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish enthralment to those in power." -Leo Toystoy

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." -Edward R. Murrow
   .   .   .

Giuliani in drag, with Donald Trump (click for video)

"Holding hands is the warmest expression of affection between men, It's a sign of solidarity and kinship." - Samir Khalaf, professor of sociology, American University of Beirut. (... story)

"The devil can disguise himself in many forms...if there is life on other planets it is demonic. There is no question that there are demons in outer space."
-Marion 'Pat' Robertson

"A tormenting thought: as of a certain point, history was no longer real. Without noticing it, all mankind suddenly left reality..." -Elias Canetti

"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices." Voltaire

Richard Nixon, referring to the report by the Warren Commission: "it was the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated".[sic] (...ref)

Oh, and Oswald was CIA
(view document)

2007 July-August update 5

Congress gives Bush expanded wiretapping powers
Gonzales in charge of targets
Republicans en masse, plus a few shameful Democrats have voted an extension and expansion to the Bush's warrantless wiretapping of US and foreign citizens. Apparently the scenario the administration floated, in which there might be a terror attack while Congress was adjourned, successfully sowed the fear that any Democrat voting against the bill would be attacked as having facilitated the attack by refusing the executive the autocratic powers requested. When will our representatives in Congress grow a spine, face down Bush's fear-mongering, and stand up for our privacy rights, and our constitution? (read more)

Bush Endgame
"It's the incredible shrinking presidency. He's lost battles in the courts. He's lost battles in Iraq. He's lost battles on Capitol Hill... His bank account is empty and there's nowhere to go for more. I think his presidency is essentially over."-Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University. (story- McClatchy News) Republican leader Senator Richard Lugar has [finally!] come out against the continuation of the Iraq Occupation; seconded by Sens. Voinivitch and others. However Republicans are still voting in bloc to prevent any attempt to change course. Democrats have given up on conciliation, and are set to force the GOP to openly filibuster attempts to rein in the administration.

The House of Flying Subpoenas
The Senate Judiciary Committee has issued subpoenas to the President's office, the Vice-President's office, the National Security Council, and the Justice Department, with a deadline for compliance of July 18, for all documents related to the administration's warrant-less wiretapping and surveillance program. The White House has refused to respond. Subpoenas have also been issued to a number of current and ex white house aides and staff, including Karl Rove Bush has ordered a stonewall. Contempt citations are in the works.
Latest: Bush Orders Justice Dept. Not to Pursue Contempt Charges
"Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege..." (see "Bush Asserts a King's Prerogative", Atlantic Journal Constitution editorial, July 25)
(WaPo July 20: "Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings")
And here in case you missed it, is the transcript of Comey's testimony about the night-time visit to ailing Ashcroft's hospital bedside by Bush's henchmen to attempt an end run around justice dept. staff and the acting chief Comey to get a sign-off on warrantless eavesdropping. A mind-boggling narrative (pdf)

Vader Latest: Cheney now claims he's not part of the executive branch and thus is not subject to executive branch oversight. Having previously claimed that his 'executive privilege' made him not subject to congressional oversight, Cheney was sounding more and more like the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland. The Washington Post has done a must-read four part expose of Cheney's secret manipulation of the government. Here is an excerpt of Hendrik Hertzberg's review of the series in The Nation:
"It's now official: for the past six years, Dick Cheney... has been the most influential public official in the country, not necessarily excluding President Bush, and his influence has been entirely malign. He is pathologically (but purposefully) secretive; treacherous toward colleagues; coldly manipulative of the callow, lazy, and ignorant President he serves; contemptuous of public opinion; and dismissive not only of international law (a fairly standard attitude for conservatives of his stripe) but also of the very idea that the Constitution and laws of the United States, including laws signed by his nominal superior, can be construed to limit the power of the executive to take any action that can plausibly be classified as part of an endless, endlessly expandable "war on terror."
More than anyone else, including his mentor and departed co-conspirator, Donald Rumsfeld, Cheney has been the intellectual author and bureaucratic facilitator of the crimes and misdemeanors that have inflicted unprecedented disgrace on our country's moral and political standing: the casual trashing of habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions; the claim of authority to seize suspects, including American citizens, and imprison them indefinitely and incommunicado, with no right to due process of law; the outright encouragement of "cruel," "inhuman," and "degrading" treatment of prisoners; the use of undoubted torture, including waterboarding (Cheney: "a no-brainer for me"), which for a century the United States had prosecuted as a war crime; and, of course, the bloody, nightmarish Iraq war itself, launched under false pretenses, conducted with stupefying incompetence, and escalated long after public support for it had evaporated, at the cost of scores of thousands of lives, nearly half a trillion dollars, and the crippling of America's armed forces, which no longer overawe and will take years to rebuild." (read "The Darksider")
Previously: "A White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an 'end run strategy' around the President... in what one intelligence official characterized as 'potentially criminal insubordination'". (story)

Growing Calls for Impeachment of Bush and Cheney
Bruce Fein of the American Freedom Agenda and the Nation's John Nichols argue for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney on Bill Moyers Journal.
On this subject, the people are way out ahead of Congress. 54% of Americans want to see impeachment hearings against Cheney right away. Yet only 15 Congresspersons have dared to join the articles of impeachment filed against him introduced by Dennis Kucinich. (see Bruce Fein's "Impeach Cheney" in Slate). (46% in that same poll are ready to impeach Bush.)

We've heard it said that impeachment is a bad idea because it would tie up congress for months when there are more important things to do. This is sheer nonsense, from either Republican dead-enders, or just plain cowardice. There is nothing more important. The Bush administration has damaged and corrupted not only the constitution and balance of powers, but also every agancy of the federal government since taking power 6 years ago. There is no area of federal administration they have not subverted and undermined. These are precisely the "kingly abuses" the Founding Fathers feared, and for which they crafted the remedy of impeachment. Impeachment of Bush and Cheney is the constitutional duty of our Congress members, who have sworn an oath to "uphold the constitution". And any presidential candidate that has not spoken out strongly against the kingly abuses of Bush and Cheney can justly be suspected of harboring kingly ambitions themselves. We need to say officially and for the record that these abuses, these crimes, these outrages, are not to be tolerated, now or ever in this country. We need to make that clear to ourselves, and we need to make that clear to the rest of the world. And the only way to do that is by impeachment.
Bush and Cheney have left a trail of impeachable offenses from year one of their tenure, and continue today. Many are already in the public record. They have even declared themselves on numerous occasions above the law, and beyond all oversight. A trial would not necessarily take that long, once congress really decides to act. First, Cheney should be removed, by impeachment or forced resignation the way Nixon's Veep Spiro Agnew was. In that case, Congress then confirms a new Vice President, let's say Chuck Hagel. Then Bush is impeached. It could all be over in a few weeks.-Editor, Dvmx.com
"Out of Control"- Marjorie Cohn (president of the National Lawyers Guild; professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law)
"Impeach Now- Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy" - Paul Craig Roberts (Reagan admin asst Sec. of the Treasury)
Thom Hartmann, July 19 interviewed Bruce Fein and Paul Craig Roberts on the crimes of Bush Cheney and impeachment (download show here)
Impeachment FAQ / Impeach07.org

Republicans Blocking all Attempts in Congress to End War
July 18 update: Senator Reid calls all-night session to force vote on withdrawal; Republicans to filibuster, yet again
The New York Times reports on the inability of Congress to deal with immigration, let alone the Iraq war and global warming, as arising from both parties drifting to their extremes. In truth the problem is that one party have proved to be lock-step enablers and defenders of a cultish gang which has wrecked the federal agencies, trampled the constitution, and wrought death and destruction in illegitimate warfare abroad. The opposition Democrats, in spite of winning the last elections, still don't have the votes to overcome Republican unanimity and the executive veto, so a kind of stalemate has resulted. We are forced to await the defections of a handful of Republicans before anything can be changed. This is not a case of both parties becoming polarized. Not at all. It is about government as a quasi-criminal enterprise, with a willing collaborator in the ruling party, and the belated effort to redress the mess. It is mystifying why Republicans would support bad policy with such unanimity, and one might even imagine they are being blackmailed on some level, in a Rovian strategy to make the opposition look confused or to join ranks, thus creating "partisan deadlock" and giving the minions of the "unitary executive" the opportuniy to demean the value of congress further. (In addition to the Iraq withdrawal bill, 'Republicans have also blocked votes this year on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs'. - Seattle Times:"Constant filibuster threat is tying Senate in knots"
"Today's GOP is not a political party that plays well in a free and democratic system... What we have seen over the last few years is a highly organized syndicate dedicated to the criminal usurpation of political power for personal gain..." -Why Can't They Impeach The Entire Republican Party?- R.J.Eskow, 7/26/07
Lately, Republicans have unanimously defended Attorney General Gonzales, a boss's hack if there ever was one, whose term has been dedicated to using Justice to ensure permanent Stalinist one-party rule, via warrantless wiretapping, voter suppression, protection of corrupt cronies, and bogus cases brought against opposition figures. Even a feeble vote of no confidence has been blocked by the GOP, let alone the immediate impeachment and indictment for obstruction of justice which he clearly deserves. (read Comey testimony)

And by the way, re voter suppression: Paul Weyrich, kingmaker and guru of the religious right, called for suppressing voter turnout because it will help the intolerant right take over and keep control. Here is the clip. Let's be clear: this man, and his fellow travelers, disdain democracy. They are enemies of the people.

I have just finished David Talbot's "Brothers- The Hidden history of the Kennedy Years"; this is an important and moving account of what was really going on from the day JFK was inaugurated, through his murder, and through to Bobby's murder in 1968. It is a story amnesiac and amoral America has tried hard to forget, confuse and deny. Here was a leader of the kind we only can dream of today; full of grace and personal power, dedicating his life to working toward peace, justice, and enlightened governance in America and the world. In less than three years, he pushed major civil rights legislation, tried to defuse the cold war nuclear confrontation, securing a test-ban treaty with the Soviets, and attempted to defuse the poisonous confrontation with Cuba. In this, he took on a rogue and unaccountable CIA, a bloodthirsty and belligerent military establishment, the Mafia, then tangled with the CIA and anti-Castro Cuban guerrillas, vicious southern racists, and fanatical anti-communists who saw treason in every reasonable effort toward understanding and peace. He carried on with his inspired effort even though it seemed at times everyone in the military-security establishment had the knives out for him. He and Bobby feared a military coup, assassination, and a rogue military launching the missiles. Three times in less than three years he blocked military schemes to launch nuclear war on the Soviets. And he ultimately paid with his life. Finally, after 2 years and 10 months in office, JFK was murdered- with extreme prejudice: as he rode in the presidential limousine, in a festive motorcade, in front of thousands of citizens. The shameful horror was compounded as the media and all branches of the government rushed to frame the patsy, Oswald, and close all investigative doors. Bobby was in shock, not sure what dark alliance was responsible, in agony over what he might have done to avert the assassination, in agony over what he should do next. Many begged him to run for president in 1968; it seemed only Bobby, enormously popular, could set things right. But Jackie, and others, were afraid 'they' would kill him too. And two months after Martin Luther King was assassinated, on the night of his victory in the California primary, when it was clear he would be elected president, he too was murdered, not by Sirhan, who stood 6 feet in front of him, but by a shot fired from less than three inches to the back of his head. Another coverup. Nixon is elected. Jackie marries Onassis, hoping to find safe haven for her children, who she thought might also be killed*.

This is a very personal narrative of these extraordinary brothers, who were in retrospect the true captains of that millennial movement that later became "the sixties", envisioning peace, freedom, and social justice in America and in the world. The reader will also learn the story of JFK's affair with Mary Pinchot Meyer, the estranged wife of CIA's Cord Meyer, protege of the mysterious counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton, who had bugged her apartment and her bedroom, and recorded trysts with JFK, which included sex, pot, and even LSD. One can only imagine how this information might have inflamed certain elements. Mary Pinchot Meyer got her acid from Leary himself, telling him that she and several other women in Washington hoped to 'turn on' world leaders and bring about peace in the world. A year after the assassination of JFK, Mary too was murdered, while walking along the Potomac, one shot to the head, one shot to the heart.

I find it remarkable that in my lifetime, our most eminent heroes, the ones most admired and beloved worldwide, were all murdered, here in America: John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and we might as well add John Lennon. In all cases, investigations were nothing more than coverups, blaming the 'lone gunman', a deranged individual whose act, while wrenching, had no historical or political significance beyond tragic anomaly. Looking back on it all, it seems that on that terrible day in November 1963 America took a sharp detour from the path to a good and wise future; it seems we've been adrift ever since, cut loose from the enlightenment project upon which our country was founded, and ultimately vulnerable to the kind of insanity we see today.
-SM
*John Kennedy Jr. was killed, in a small plane crash in 1999, just as he let it be known he was considering entering politics.

see my piece "Selling The Fear" at The Baltimore Chronicle or archived here

Robert Kennedy Jr.'s rousing speech at Live Earth
excerpt:
"Now you've heard today a lot of people say that there are many little things that you all can do today to avert climate change on your own. But I will tell you this, and it is more important than buying compact flourescent light bulbs or buying a fuel efficient automobile. The most important thing you can do is to get involved in the political process and get rid of all of these rotten politicians that we have in Washington D.C. who are nothing more than corporate toadies for companies like Exxon and Southern Company, these villainous companies that consistently put their private financial interest ahead of American interest and ahead of the interest of all of humanity. This is treason and we need to start treating them now as traitors. And they have their slick public relations firms and their phony think tanks in Washington D.C. and their crooked scientists who are lying to the American people day after day after day. And we have a press that has completely let down American Democracy. That's giving us Ana Nicole Smith and Paris Hilton instead of the issues that we need to understand to make rational decisions in a democracy - like global warming.
And so I am going to tell you this, that the next time you see John Stossel or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity - these flat-earthers, these corporate toadies, lying to you, lying to the American public, and telling you that global warming doesn't exist - you send an email to their advertisers and tell them that you are not going to buy their products anymore." ( video ... transcript)

"It's my job to protect you!"

New intelligence report: Al Qaeda stronger than ever
Fear Focus on Pakistan
Back in 2002, US forces allowed BinLaden to escape from Afghanistan to Northwest Pakistan. Had we caught him, it would have been difficult to use a "War on Terror" as a cover for an occupation of Iraq. The opportunity to take over Iraq in the wake of 9/11 trumped getting BinLaden and Zawahiri and the rest and ending the story there.
BinLaden's coterie has been holed up in NW Pakistan ever since, protected from US raids by the Pakistani government, and from Pakistani raids by the widespread support he enjoys in that 'lawless' region.
Now, Pakistan teeters on the brink... BinLadenism is spreading out from the northwest territories, and with the revolt of the lawyers and the siege of the Red Mosque Musharref is losing support on both sides of the secular/Islamist divide.
And thus the nightmare scenario: A coup by Pakistani security elements is a non-zero possibility. Some elements of the military and intelligence services are Islamist. Pakistan has a nuclear warfare capability, with delivery systems including missiles and F16 bombers. Fill in the rest.
Latest: Wave of bombings and attacks on soldiers follows siege of Red Mosque;
McClatchey: U.S. threatens action in Pakistan
AlQaeda in Pakistan was the subject of several interviews on Charlie Rose on July 18: Brian Ross, David Sanger
recent background: "Violence intensifies in Pakistan" and "Pakistan Truce Appears Defunct" and "Pakistan's Top Judge to Lead Anti-Musharraf Rally"

The successful building of an Al Qaeda franchise in Iraq, the resurgence in Afghanistan, the strategic progress in Pakistan, the radicalization of the Palestinians and the Lebanese, are all driven by the US occupation of Iraq.
That occupation has invented it's own novel horrors, but is also an enormous outrage-amplifier of the long-festering Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Unlike Israel in the West Bank however, US forces cannot even hope to control Iraq, it's just too big. And so Iraq has become, as predicted here and elsewhere, an ideal training ground for would be fighters, right in their own neighborhood, where they can learn skills and tactics, and get some battle experience. What fired-up islamist militant wouldn't want to go fight the American Crusaders in Arab Babylon? Afterwards, they go home, organize cells, share information over the net, plan their own missions. Al Queda is metastasizing. This is one of the many 'opportunity costs' of the mad venture in Iraq.

Pakistan: see above for latest Pakistan developments
The Brits have knighted Salmon Rushdie... In response, Pakistan's clerics 'knight' Osama bin Laden, giving him the honorific title "The Sword of Allah". and put an 11 million dollar bounty on Rushdie's head. In response, the US Senate doubled the bounty on Bin Laden to 50 million. Musharref's grip is looking more and more shaky... See "Some in U.S. Intelligence See Musharraf on His Way Out"
July 1: "A document from the Interior Ministry warned Pakistan's security forces in North-west Frontier Province abutting the tribal areas were outgunned and outnumbered and had forfeited authority to the Taliban and their allies." (read "Musharraf is Warned Taliban Militancy Could Engulf Pakistan")
Maybe Bin Laden and Zawahiri had a plan all along: while America is distracted in Iraq, they've been busy in Pakistan, with a cold eye on it's nuclear arsenal...

Afghanistan:
In a desperate attempt to avert the re-Talibanisation of Afghanistan, US and Allied Forces are responding to perceived militants with massive firepower, long-range artillery, and aerial bombing, often of villages and mixed populations; in addition to recent frequent massacres of civilians carried out by jittery troops as suicide bombings Iraqi-style make their appearance, the rising toll on Afghan civilians is straining the political foundation of the occupation; Karzai is furious: "Our innocent people are becoming victims of careless operations of NATO and international forces...Afghan life is not cheap and it should not be treated as such" (latest)
Update July 2: "Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, has called for an investigation into reports that 45 innocent Afghans were killed in a Nato-led air assault in the south of the country, the latest in a series of attacks which an incensed public is calling 'civilian massacres'"... (story)
Note that Afghanistan, which was conquered in a CIA-led operation, now accounts for 90% of the world's opium.

Palestine: With US troops killing Arabs in Iraq, the administration somehow thought the Palestinians wouldn't notice, and that in the elections we pushed as part of the "democracy" cover story, they would confirm the same corrupt and discredited crew preferred by Washington and Tel Aviv. They didn't - they voted for Hamas, and so we armed Fatah to wage a proxy war on the legitimate government, succeeded in splitting off Gaza, and embraced - and funded- an unelected regime in the West Bank. Way to go!
July 15 update: Bush has cancelled Secretary Rice's July mideast peace tour; she will instead go to the region in August accompanied by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Gates is the Iraq Study Group's man; maybe the adults are belatedly taking over her mess too?

Iraq: A Hot Summer in Hell
Iraq's parliament is taking the summer off; it reaches 130 degrees in Baghdad in August. Meanwhile US forces patrol the streets in full combat gear. Maliki says the US forces can leave any time they want. But we know they'll stay- at least until the 'Oil Law' is passed, the measure which gives multinational corporations 70% of future Iraqi oil revenues.
Report: Half of the foreign fighters in Iraq are Saudis (not Iranians, Syrians etc) Saudis responsible for most suicide bombings...(story LAT)
Full circle
The US is now financing and providing arms to Sunni Baathist militias, supposedly to fight Al Queda in Iraq. Note that Bush invaded Iraq to destroy the Baathist regime, which had successfully kept Al Queda out of Iraq. Having succeeded in that, and opened up Iraq to Al Queda, we are now supporting the Baathist insurgents to fight them. Unsaid is the fact that in this strategy we are also strengthening the Sunnis vis a vis the Shiia government. And the Shia leaders know they will be fighting these Sunnis sooner or later. Shades of the Iraq-Iran War of the eighties, when the US supported Saddam against Iran, and secretly sold weapons to Iran. Moreover, the Bush push failed to get the Shiia government to disband or at least control the the Shiia militias; Sadr's Mahdi Army stood down for a while, but the outcry over many murderous bombings of the Shia by the Sunni has brought the Shia militias back to the fore. This latest US strategy looks sure to accelerate the approach of full scale civil war in Iraq.
latest: "Mistrust as Iraqi Troops Encounter New U.S. Allies" (NYTimes)
Earlier: "U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq To Battle Old Qaeda Allies" (story)
(also: "Qaeda group in Iraq threatens to attack Iranians"
Peter Galbraith, NY Review of Books: The 'war' is lost... what next?"
July 1: "The Americans can leave anytime they want. We can handle it."-Iraqi PM Maliki (story)
"The Other War: Iraq Veterans Speak Out on Shocking Accounts of Attacks on Iraqi Civilians" must-read at The Nation and covered on Democracy Now

Lebanon: The US is supporting a Lebanese Army assault on a Sunni Salafist group, Fatah-al-Islam, indiscriminately shelling a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli where the fighters are holed up. US is supplying weapons and military help. The White House is trying to blame Syria, but this is nonsense- Syria is not going to be supporting Sunni Salafis; on the other hand, it does seem to be true that it was the US together with Saudi Arabia which was funding these Salafists, as a sort of black ops network in the wings in case of a Shiia Hezbollah take-over attempt, and that this is a case of blow-back. (Seymour Hersh, New Yorker) Democracy Now coverage)

Somalia: The US Navy is shelling targets in Somalia. (ref) With the US-backed Ethiopian overthrow of the Islamic Courts in Somalia, "anarchy, murder and piracy have returned". "Since the start of this year, there has been a sharp increase in piracy attacks off the Somali coast. Piracy had been brought under control until Ethiopian and Somali troops [backed by the US] ousted the Union of Islamic Courts." (story)

Syria: We learn that Cheney's men (esp Elliott Abrahms) tried to get Israel to attack Syria during the Lebanon War of last summer.

Israel... Under Siege, Or?
Amnesty International Report: In 2006, Israel killed more than 650 Palestinians of whom 320 were civilians and 120 children. In the same period, Palestinians killed 21 Israelis. Amnesty also accused soldiers and settlers of committing "serious human rights abuses, including unlawful killings against Palestinians mostly with impunity". (story)

Egypt Fatwa- mixed sex working places only if the men suckle on the women's breasts first.
Cairo. May 21. Ezzat Attia is president of Al Azhar university's Hadith department which studies traditions based on the Prophet Mohammed's words and deeds. His edict, which sparked an uproar in the media, stated that a woman can only be alone with a man to whom she is not related - such as an office colleague - if she nurses him "directly from her breast" at least five times. The edict caused a furor in the Egyptian press, and was retracted within days. (story)

Turkey's prime minister, under pressure from the secularist Turkish Army for his Islamist support, warns of a Turkish attack on Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. (story) Update July 15: Responding to press reports, US Defense Secretary Gates says Turks are not massing troops on the border. (story)
Counterpunch, July 19: "The Next Invasion of Iraq"

Iran
Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out. President "not prepared to leave conflict unresolved." -Guardian July 17: The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months..."
-ABC: Bush Authorizes Covert Effort To Destabilize Iran
"The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com." (story)
-Not surprisingly, Iran has arrested two Iranian-Americans working for the Woodrow Wilson Institute and the George Soros Open Society Institute as being part of these intelligence operations.
-US Conducting Covert Industrial Sabotage Against Iran
CBS Reports: "Sources in several countries involved told CBS News that the intelligence operatives involved include former Russian nuclear scientists and Iranians living abroad. Operatives have sold Iran components with flaws that are difficult to detect, making them unstable or unusable.
-Nine US warships in Gulf for show of force. (story)
-IAEA reports that Iran is defying the Security Council and continuing development of nuclear enrichment programs. (story)
-It has come out that Cheney was pushing for an attack on Iran earlier this year. "Vice President Cheney helped to lead the side favoring a military strike" said former CIA official Riedel (ABCNews, the Blotter)
More Iran files

Deaf Ears
It turns out that our intelligence did warn Mr. Bush that occupation of Iraq could become a disaster; he just didn't listen; (or maybe Cheney never let him see the report?). "U.S. intelligence agencies warned senior members of the Bush administration in early 2003 that invading Iraq could create instability that would give Iran and al-Qaida new opportunities to expand their influence, according to an upcoming Senate report... The Senate Intelligence Committee also found that the warnings predicting what would happen after the U.S.-led invasion were circulated widely in government, including to the Pentagon and the Office of the Vice President. It wasn't clear whether President Bush was briefed." (story)

Iraq: Creating the violent dystopia of the future
One wonders what monster we are creating in Babylon. After overseeing the destruction of the existing government and infrastructure, we have introduced: a disfunctional sectarian-based political system, random and routine kidnapping, lethal checkpoints, unjustified imprisonment, abuse, torture, and wanton killing of citizens; thousands of heavily armed, highly paid private army mercenaries from Columbia, South Africa, Chile, etc, working for Blackwater and others, exempt from Iraq's laws. And squadrons of hunter-killer robot drones, lurking in the skies over Iraq, so someone in an office in Nevada can unleash hell on people below, just like in a video game. To complete the picture, note that a nationwide biometric identity database including eye-scans of the entire Iraqi population is underway.

Newly released FBI Doc: "The plane [which flew Bin Laden's family out of the US after 9/11] was chartered either by the Saudi Arabian royal family or Osama Bin Laden"

Kidnapping, torture, secret prisons, illegal wiretapping, corruption, cronyism, gangsterism in the White House, perversion of our constitution and balance of powers, an insane war and occupation abroad, mounted and waged to a chorus of lies; I am ashamed of what they do in our name, in the name of "protecting us". Ashamed also that our compatriots re-elected this administration in 2004, when we already knew plenty and had a chance to be rid of them, and that our "opposition party" leaders pre-emptively announced that impeachment was 'not on the table'. We have a collaborationist mainstream media, which presents fatuous talking heads, mired in beltway spin, who wouldn't know an unspun truth if it was tacked to their face. The middle class, the spine and core of American values and freedoms, is being sucked dry by multinational vampire corporations with the government cheering them on, while a spiraling number of billionaires game the system to heap up riches unimaginable a decade ago, all the while benefitting from a lower tax rate on the money their money makes them than working people pay on their labor. And at a time the world must join together to preserve our planet, our military budget is larger than all the rest of the world's nations combined, our 'leaders' sow fear and hatred and division, sabotage treaties, and demean and threaten our friends and neighbors abroad.

In the best of worlds, one might assume the nation's leaders and managers were doing a good job, making smart choices and exercising wise judgement. We assume that's part of their job description, and we can focus on our jobs. Once in a while though, things get so seriously out of whack that we must take on the unpleasant duty of examining just what is going on, find the truth through a haze of spin and lies, and once we do, raise the alarm among our fellow citizens so that the power of a democracy can weigh in on the crisis and begin to set things right again. When I began writing Dvmx.com, it seemed few people in the media were speaking out against the bizarre turn America had taken since the 9/11 Shock and Awe operation. I felt a kind of civic duty to take up my pen- or my keyboard- as a citizen journalist, contributing what I could to righting the situation. I had hoped to see the end of the nightmare with the election in 2004. But because the media has been complicit, the whole process, which should have matured before the 2004 election, has taken much longer. I'm taking a break to refresh the spirit this summer. - SM
NB: Watch Michael Moore's "J'accuse" on CNN

Forgetting, and repeating history
On the evening of April 18, 1946, Gustave M. Gilbert, the German-speaking prison psychologist who had free access to the Nazi prisoners at the Nuremburg trials, visited Goering in his cell, and later recounted their conversation in his memoir:

"We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

'Why, of course, the people don't want war,' Goering shrugged. 'Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.'

'There is one difference,' I pointed out. 'In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare war.'

'Oh, that is all well and good [Goering replied], but voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.'"   -G. M. Gilbert, "Nuremberg Diary" Farrar, Straus and Co., 1947, pp. 278-79.

Goering was accused of creating the concentration camp system and plotting "aggressive war" against Poland. Goering's defense was that Germany was a sovereign state; that Hitler was legally elected; that every nation has the right to organize its affairs as it sees fit, that concentration camps were invented by the British during the Boer War, and that internment of aliens and political opponents was practiced by both Britain and the United States during WWII.

previously, with some updates:

On "winning" or "losing" the war... This was an illegal war to begin with, a tragic and disastrous conspiracy of mean-spirited bad judgement which will do lasting damage in the US and in the world. In that case what would 'winning' mean? I suppose for the diehard supporters of occupation, it would be a successful democratic Iraqi government that united warring sectarian factions, became an inspiration to the region, and provided oil and bases for the US, thus somehow redeeming the bogus project. Given the dishonesty and foolishness with which this entire enterprise was conceived and pursued, that seems the least likely outcome.
It should be noted that the US is not 'fighting' the same 'war' we started in 2003. The war on Saddam and his government was 'won' fairly quickly, and should more accurately simply be termed an "invasion". Had the US walked out at that point and turned the mess over to someone else, even a modified Baathist regime, our 'victory' might have been plausible. Instead we occupied the country, screwing around at the CPA under Bremer for a couple years until a new enemy arose against us- nationalists fueled by extremists, in the midst of an anarchic conflict between the majority Shiia to whom we turned over the reins of government, and the dispossessed Sunni. It's no longer a 'war'. The damage caused by this continuing occupation is still being justified by those who are willfully blind to the realities we have created on the ground by our gross mishandling of it, who still cling to the now impossible fantasy used to retroactively sell the war once the WMD lies were exposed.

Bush Anoints Himself Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency
The latest self-promotion of the Unitary Executive... (story)

A Reminder: The Bush Gang Has Already Suspended Habeus Corpus.
Habeus corpus has been a cornerstone of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence since the Magna Carta of year 1215, which states:
In the future no official shall place a man on trial upon his own unsupported statement, without producing credible witnesses to the truth of it. (38)
No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. (39)
Repeal the Military Commissions Act!

Ghouliani, America's Mayor
Here was a man who'd long since worn out his welcome in the city he ruled. What with the corruption and cronyism clouds over him and the nasty marital and extra-marital relations which had invaded Gracie Mansion, a man who stumbled into the hero role quite by accident and stupidity, mainly because his emergency bunker which he had built in the World Trade Center, the target of a previous attack, was inaccessible due to the current attack. So he was wandering the streets, a great subject for the TV cameras...
What actually did he do to morph into the hundred-million-dollar Giuliani Partners, and Republican presidential front-runner status? Well, the main thing he did, as attested by city officers in interviews later, was to mobilize city-wide resources to expedite the removal of the WTC debris (aka 'forensic evidence', as Ghouliani well knew, having started his career as a prosecutor). He did so with such alacrity that the steel beams were on their way to China before anyone asked how fuel fires could cause such collapses; ashes and debris with human remains were used to fill city potholes. 911 workers don't like him. Read Ailing Ground Zero Workers Taint Giuliani's 9/11 Legacy

FISA warrants are easy to get. Even after the fact. Refusal rate around .02 of 1 percent. So why bother bypassing them and getting every one upset?
1. To assert president's authority to do whatever he wants to do (in order to protect us of course).
2. So as not to leave records of who was being wiretapped. This is the big one. Because they were wiretapping people for other reasons. Like Nixon did, to see who didn't like them, or who disagreed on policies; and journalists, to find out who their sources were and 'plug the leaks'- silence the whistleblowers. And officials everywhere, making sure everyone towed the line; anyone in fact, to get some dirt on people - always useful when it comes to 'arm-twisting' ... you get the picture. You don't ask for a warrant because you don't want a paper trail of who your targets are.

Scholars for 9/11 Truth
Scholars for Truth press release: "An influential group of prominent experts and scholars have joined together alleging that senior government officials have covered up crucial facts about what really happened on 9/11... These experts contend that books and articles by members and associates have established that the World Trade Center was almost certainly brought down by controlled demolitions and that the available relevant evidence casts grave doubt on the official story about the attack on the Pentagon. They believe that the government not only permitted 9/11 to occur but may even have orchestrated these events to facilitate its political agenda."
"Founders include Robert M. Bowman, Former Director of the U.S. "Star Wars" Space Defense Program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, and a former Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions; Morgan Reynolds, former Chief Economist for the Department of Labor for President George W. Bush, and former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis; and Andreas von Buelow, former assistant German defense minister, and director of the German Secret Service."
Website, Scholars for 9/11 Truth
Watch videos of demolitions at Controlled Demolition Inc.'s website. CDI was contracted for the 911 cleanup. Also the Murrah Building cleanup.

Amazing. You watch those towers come down, you watch CDI demolition videos, and you know. Yet for many in the opposition, 9/11 is still no-go territory. Even The Daily Kos will ban you if you post doubts on the government story. George Washington Blog: 9/11 and the Left

Loose Change updated
New 9/11 documentary by Dylan Avery. Free viewing online, DVD available.

Here's the Decider-in Chief responding [sic] to 911 doubts: Bush-911.mov

Over-Loaded Update:
The top 25 managers of hedge funds in New York were paid, in 2006 alone, three times the total annual salaries of NYC's 80,000 school teachers combined. Their average daily income was 1.5 million. (paid weekends and holidays too). Three earned more than a billion dollars in the year.
Westender writes: "What have these individuals done to justify their incomes? In a word, nothing. Their wealth derives overwhelmingly from financial speculation, short-term bets on stocks or derivatives, and similar operations that produce no real value. Others have specialized in pressuring corporations to cut costs, slash wages, and downsize in order to increase share value. The hedge fund managers typify an American ruling class that has become increasingly divorced from any direct relationship to the productive process, making its money through parasitism and fraud....
"This is a portrait of an aristocracy of wealth that is unlike any other period in American history. A tiny layer of society- the top one-tenth, or even one-hundredth or one-thousandth percent of the population- has amassed unimaginable wealth while wages for the majority of the population, in the US and internationally, continue to stagnate or decline." (ref)

"Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of Providence be equally enjoyed by all?" -Samuel Adams, 1722-1803; Adams, the 2nd president, was known as the 'Father of the American Revolution.'

Music for Bush-time
Here are some of our favorite wry pieces of internet musical agitprop
gathered for Dvmx by BambinoDiva.
Imagine... Walk on the Wild Side download / stream
I'm the Decider- Kookookachoo download / stream
Have You Had Enough? -Ricky Lee Jones download / stream
It's Hard Work! download / stream
BushBoogies video remix download

There's a great mix of these tracks along with other samples and atmospherics from George Galloway to HunterThompson, called "Music for Wartime" at BambinoDiva.com. It's a classic portrait of the times.

DeepToy.com, Sacredsex.com, TantricDiva.com, PriceSlam.com, Silkynet.com... DVMX has some great domain names available. It's not too late to get a great address on the internet! See full lists here

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Bush names Zoellick
World Bank President

Listen to Rudy Giulliani berating a constituent

In response to US plans to place an anti-ballistic missile system in Poland and Czech Republic, Russia has pulled out of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. (story)

Bobby knew the Warren Commission was a lie. But he thought he could only get to the bottom of it after he became president.

John Stewart riffs on Bush's conception of his "job". click for video

Bush: "I'm on the lookout!"

The largest proportion of foreign fighters in Iraq, 45%, are from... Saudi Arabia! (story)

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."
"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said, "There's a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"
-Reported by Doug Thompson re an 11/05 meeting with congressional leaders on the Patriot Act.

"We will export death and violence to the four corners of the Earth in defense of our great nation."
- quoted in"Plan of Attack"
by Bob Woodward

Sibel Film 'Radioactive'
"Possibly the festival's most radioactive entry, this 2006 documentary for French TV centers on FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds, who was fired from the bureau's translation unit in March 2002 and subsequently claimed she'd seen evidence of money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and participation in the nuclear black market." (story)

"There is only one reason that I am in the Oval Office and not in a bar. I found faith. I found God." George W. Bush (...story)

"I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I don't need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation." George W. Bush, quoted in "Bush at War"

"I'm a war president." Bush. Meet the Press 2/13/04


"Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president." Bush, campaign speech July 2004

"When I am talking about war I am really talking about peace" -G.W. Bush (Link)

Mr. Bush in New Orleans
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." Bush at a Washington dinner, March 2001

"See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
Bush in Greece May 2005 (ref)

"Am I a malignant genius in the background whom nobody sees come out of his cave? That's a good way to work, in fact."-Dick Cheney to USA Today, 2004 Note that according to a Pew Research Poll, 31% do not know Cheney is the vice-president.

Bush flips the bird, Washington, 8/05
It's not the first time the POTUS is on tape giving his "one-finger victory salute"

Download the video

"Americans think the danger is terrorists. They don't understand. Terrorists cannot take away habeus corpus, or the bill of rights, or the constitution, they cannot suspend constitutional government, abolish the separation of powers... the terrorists are not anything like the threat we face to the bill of rights and the constitution from our own government, in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just don't understand that, or at least a majority don't." -Sen Mike Gravel on Air America

See "Former Bush Speechwriter Hints at 9/11 Inside Job"

"I believe that women have the fate of the Earth in the palm of their hands. Some 53 per cent of us are women and we really are pretty wimpish. We don't step up to the plate - and it's time we took over. I think men have had their turn and we're in a profound mess."- Helen Caldicott

An amazing number of appearances by Giuliani dressed as a woman... civics trivia: name one president ever photographed in drag.