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For the present, I'm doing all my posting at Washington Outsiders .

Still Looking for Answers - Friday edition

Juan Cole is very busy this morning and sharp as a tack... as usual.

'US can withdraw from Iraq while Army is being created'

Washington, Oct 14 (PTI) Former Secretary of Defence Melvin Laird has said the United States can withdraw from Iraq while Iraqi army is being created, as happened in case of Vietnam.

Laird noted in an article in Foreign Affairs that the United States managed to withdraw American forces while creating a viable South Vietnamese army.

The same approach, he claims, could work in Iraq today.

"I believed then and still believe today that given enough outside resources, South Vietnam was capable of defending itself, just as I believe Iraq can do the same now.

"For me, the alleged prison scandals reported to have occurred in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay have been a disturbing reminder of the mistreatment of our own PoWs by North Vietnam.

" The minute we begin to deport prisoners to other nations where they can legally be tortured, when we hold people without charges or trial, when we move prisoners around to avoid the prying inspections of the Red Cross, when prisoners die inexplicably on our watch, we are on a slippery slope toward the inhumanity that we deplore." PTI

Miller and the Neocons

More WMD Pie in the Sky

... How to explain Bush's strange agenda? Well, when someone doesn't read the newspapers and doesn't know anything about the wider world, and just accepts whatever close aides tell him, then he might easily believe 10 impossible things before breakfast. The real question is who his aides are really working for, who wants Bush to believe these dangerous fantasies.

All the News that fits their agenda

Another prime example of the MSM being a day late and a dollar short (as it were).

TIME MAGAZINE - Sep. 26, 2005
Saddam's Revenge
The secret history of U.S. mistakes, misjudgments and intelligence failures that let the Iraqi dictator and his allies launch an insurgency now ripping Iraq apart
By JOE KLEIN

Why didn't TIME take up this story when Scott Ritter wrote about it over a year ago?

Published on Friday, July 23, 2004 by Tribune Media Services
Saddam's People are Winning the War
by Scott Ritter

Anybody got any theories?

Emotional Rather blasts 'new journalism order'
By Paul J. Gough

... occasionally forcing back tears, he (Dan Rather) said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said. ...

Is it pay-back time, yet?

Okie dokie... In Bush's FEMA appointments we've got a shining example of how utterly corrupt the Republicans are: political patronage, ultra-cronyism. I think we need an investigation by an independent council/prosecutor(meaning someone who hates Bush with a passion). The investigation should be in depth, reporting it's findings in mid-Nov. 2008. The staff could leak give progress reports to the press every week. With subpoena power, an unlimited budget and years to dig, there should be plenty of dirt uncovered. The person chosen to head the investigation should have certain Starr-like qualities. The investigation should have a name, hmmm lets see.... Oh, I know!... we could call it; the BrownieWater Scandal. [/satire]

neo-conomic

In spite of right-wing rhetoric; for most Americans, the economy is getting worse and life is getting harder. Sadly, the Republicans are working overtime to pass laws that will favor the richest Americans while making things even tougher for the rest of us.

Poverty rate rises to 12.7 percent
JENNIFER C. KERR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Even with a robust economy that was adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million - up 1.1 million from 2003 - according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure.

The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people. ...

... Overall, the nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year. Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold. Since then, the number of people in poverty has increased steadily from 32.9 million in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, to 35.8 million in 2003. ...

Answer the Question, George!

Published on Saturday, August 20, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Hypocrites and Liars

by Cindy Sheehan

... "I got an e-mail the other day and it said, 'Cindy if you didn't use so much profanity '. There's people on the fence that get offended.'

And you know what I said? 'You know what? You know what, god damn it? How in the world is anybody still sitting on that fence?'

"If you fall on the side that is pro-George and pro-war, you get your ass over to Iraq, and take the place of somebody who wants to come home. And if you fall on the side that is against this war and against George Bush, stand up and speak out." ...

Bush lies unravel

What noble cause???? What global war on terror... ism????
The Busheviks are so busy stealing and so incompetent at governing that we are really and truly soooo screwed!

(CNN) -- A former top aide to Colin Powell says his involvement in the former secretary of state's presentation to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was "the lowest point" in his life.

"I wish I had not been involved in it," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a longtime Powell adviser who served as his chief of staff from 2002 through 2005. "I look back on it, and I still say it was the lowest point in my life." ...

Judge berates US failures as 9/11 supporter is convicted
By Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor

A GERMAN court yesterday convicted a Moroccan student of belonging to the al-Qaeda cell responsible for the attacks on America of September 11, 2001, but acquitted him of direct involvement in the murder of nearly 3,000 people.

Mounir al-Motassadeq, 31, was sentenced to seven years in prison for membership of a terrorist organisation, but the judge ruled that the more serious charges were not proven, in part because of a failure by the US authorities to co-operate with the prosecution.

In a three-hour judgment, read out before a court in Hamburg, Judge Ernst-Rainer Schudt said that the US Justice Department had refused to co-operate fully with the German court.

“How are we supposed to do justice to our task when important documents are withheld from us?” the judge asked. ...

Rockets Fired at U.S. Navy Ship in Jordan

By Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writer

EL ALAMEIN, Egypt -- Militants fired at least three homemade rockets from a warehouse hide-out in the Jordanian port of Aqaba today, narrowly missing a U.S. Navy ship and killing a Jordanian soldier.

Jordanian forces cordoned off the port city and scoured the rough desert and surrounding hills in search of the men suspected of waging the most serious militant strike against the U.S. Navy since the destroyer Cole was bombed off the coast of Yemen in 2000.

A shadowy group loyal to Al Qaeda issued an Internet statement claiming responsibility for the attack. ...