Dubya tops the list of the biggest presidential liars in recent history, according to a survey done by "The Washington Monthly" on http://www.washingtonmonthly.... .
"The Mendacity Index: Which president told the biggest whoppers?" was a survey comprising both conservative and liberal journalists and historians, who were asked to rank the most serious lies told by the last four presidents: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush 41, William J. Clinton, and George W. Bush 43.
Their guidelines: "To come up with our Mendacity Index, we asked a nominating committee of noted journalists and pundits to pick the most serious fibs, deceptions, and untruths spoken by each of the four most recent presidents. We selected the top six for each commander-in-chief, then presented the list to a panel of judges with longtime experience in Washington. Panel members were instructed to rate each deception on a scale of 1 (least serious) to 5 (most serious). Then we averaged the scores for each deception and for each president. We believe their validity rests somewhere between the Periodic Table and the U.S. News & World Report college rankings." (Probably true, as Bush 43's mendacity resulting in the never-ending massacre of thousands in his illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq, warrants a rating "off-the-charts", as the most criminal deception in recent history!)
Visit the site and you can take the survey yourself. You will also discover the mendacity indices of the other presidents who lost out to Bush 43, and find out for yourself who was deemed the least dishonest!
George W. Bush's Overall Mendacity Rating = 3.6
(Some of us think Bush deserves a Mendacity Rating of 1,000,000!)
The Trifecta.
On many occasions during 2001 and 2002, President Bush talked about a campaign promise made in Chicago that he would only deficit spend "if there is a national emergency, if there is a recession, or if there's a war," sometimes adding, after 9/11, "Never did I dream we'd have a trifecta." Reporters pressed the Bush's communications staff to prove that Bush had actually made such a statement during the 2000 campaign, but the White House couldn't turn up any proof. Bush continued to insist he'd made the promise. Score = 2.9
Cutting AmeriCorps.
In his 2002 State of the Union Address, President Bush made AmeriCorps the centerpiece of his new, post-9/11 service agenda, promising to expand the program's roster by 50 percent in order that Americans might serve "goals larger than self." But in 2003, he signed legislation that cut the program's operating budget by 30 percent. This year, AmeriCorps has half as many members as it did in 2001. Score = 3.9
Going to War.
During a visit to West Virginia in January 2002, Bush joked, "I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war." During the Vietnam War, however, Bush served with the Air National Guard in Texas, and had specifically noted on his Air Force officers test that he did not wish to serve overseas. Score = 3.1
16 Words.
In making the case for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, President Bush stated in early 2003, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Yet the CIA had itself previously warned top White House officials and British intelligence that the reports of an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from African countries were almost certainly untrue, and no nuclear program nor weapons of mass destruction have yet been found in Iraq. Score = 4.5
"Average" Tax Cuts.
Announcing his second big tax cut package in January 2003, Bush stated that "These tax reductions will bring real and immediate benefits to middle-income Americans. Ninety-two million Americans will keep an average of $1,083 more of their own money." But because the package was tilted heavily towards the very wealthy, the average tax cut for households in the middle quintile of the income spectrum was only $217, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Score = 3.6
What WMDs?
In May 2003, President Bush stated, "We found the weapons of mass destruction." U.S. forces have yet to find any evidence of chemical, nuclear, or biological weapons in Iraq. Score = 3.8
Sorry, Dubya, but apparently, much to the surprise of your "Brain" Karl Rove, You Can't Fool "We the People" All of the Time!
The Neo-Relevant United Nations is Now Needed to Clean-Up the Bush Regime's Fiasco in Iraq!
It would seem that the United Nations is far from being as "irrelevant" as the Bush Regime so dishonestly implied, when they were unable to coerce the Security Council into supporting an illegal and immoral incursion into a sovereign nation that represented no threat to any other country. Now that the Bush Regime's "post-war" plan has proved to be a disastrous, bloody & extravagantly costly fiasco, the very "relevant" United Nations is called upon to clean-up Bush's bungled mess.
For many weeks, Republican and Democratic Congressmen, Middle-east and State Department experts alike, have all called upon the Bush Gang, to ask the United Nations, with their expertise in building governmental institutions to provide assistance in Iraq.
The Bush Regime have foolishly refused wise counsel, most probably, for the following major reasons:
1. The arrogant "chicken-hawk" Rummy Rumsfeld told everyone what "geniuses" (ha!) himself & Wolfy Wolfowitz are, and that they could go-it-alone, as they are truly "arm-chair" macho-men. Perish the thought, that Rummy & Wolfy must share the decision-making with others, and it's unthinkable that they might not continue to hog all the media celebrity they've relished and clearly enjoyed, while over 330 US & British Soldiers and over 7000 innocent Iraqi civilians have been unconscionably massacred.
2. Bush's, Cheney's and Rice's paymasters: Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, Lockheed Martin, Big Oil, and the other corporate robber-barons don't want to share a "piece-of-the-action" with anyone else. These greedy ghouls are lining their pockets with gold (hundreds of billions of dollars), from the deaths, maiming, injury & misery of Americans and Iraqis who must pay with their lives and in treasure.
Meanwhile the corporate "top dogs" & "fat cats", and the richest-of-the-rich also made out with massive tax cuts (welfare for the rich), along with their immoral war profiterring to live the Belle Epoque, while the rest of us bear the brunt of the back-breaking burden and heart-breaking bloodshed.
Please refer to "The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington", by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung, by the World Policy Institute on http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... .
3. Karl Rove (Bush's Brain) was hoping beyond all reasoned hope, that the bloody, tragic guerrilla quagmire would pass, and that he could plan on staging more "Top Gun" photo-op circus acts, like the disgusting display by Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on 1st May, which has now become a garish, tinny & cruel joke.
Now America is faced with record-level deficits and debts far into the future, created by a Republican (sic?) Spend-Spend-and-Spend President and his cabal, who waged an unnecessary war in Iraq to enable them to carry-out their corrupt "bait-and-switch" tax cuts for the corporations & rich, which would have otherwise been debated in the public sphere.
What is the status report to-date?
- More killed in Iraq since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished", with a death toll of 330 US & British Soldiers and over 7000 innocent Iraqi civilians-- and no end in sight to the killings. [Refs. "CNN: US & Coalition/Casulaties" on http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2... and "Iraq Body Count" on http://www.iraqbodycount.net/... ]
- Over $71 billion squandered in Iraq thus far, and an exorbitant price tag of $4 billion per month-- and no end in sight to the spending spree to enrich the Bush Regime's corporate paymasters. [Refs. "Cost of War in Iraq" on http://www.costofwar.com/ ]
- Federal tax cuts that will create a $5 trillion deficit in the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office; but not for the richest Americans-- and no end in sight to the higher costs of oil, fuel, goods & services, as well as local & state taxes, that will hit hard the poor, lower economic, middle-class & fixed-income retirees. [Ref: "Study says deficit could soar" by Stephen J. Glain on http://www.boston.com/news/na... ]
L. Paul Bremer, who made a shameful propaganda tour with Wolfy Wolfowitz a few weeks ago, claiming that all was rosy in Iraq, and that our US Soldiers and Iraqi people were tickled-pink; is now saying that the billions Bush is recklessly squandering in Iraq won't be enough.
In "Iraq set to swallow up countless billions as costs soar, US admits", by Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Jamie Wilson in Baghdad, they report on http://www.guardian.co.uk/Ira...,2763,1030528,00.html :
"In an interview with the Washington Post, the head of the occupation authority, Paul Bremer, said it would require a huge undertaking and countless billions to rebuild the infrastructure and economy. It is estimated that it will cost $2bn to meet the current demand for electricity, and $16bn to deliver drinking water."
Countless billions? ... Countless billions? ... My goodness, now it's countless billions! ... "We the People" weren't told anything about countless billions, prior to the Bush cabal launching their "fun-and-games" incursion into Iraq! (We were told that a war was needed to protect us against an "imminent threat" of attack by Saddam Hussein using massive tons of WMDs and, a nuclear "mushroom cloud" wiping millions of us out! ... All Bush Lies, Deceit & Corruption!)
"We the People" must surely recognize that the staggering $6.7 trillion national debt, that the Bush Regime has wantonly increased due to their obscene tax cuts and greedy spending on behalf of corporations to the tune of a $480 billion deficit in 2003, and $1.9 trillion deficit by the end of 2004, demonstrates a callous disregard for the health and well-being of the United States of America and the rest of the world.
Congress must be called upon to do their duty, and investigate into the Bush Regime's lies, deceptions & corruptions, in leading this country into an illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq to enrich their corporate cronies. Moreover, we citizens should do our duty and oust the corrupt Bushies in 2004, for having, in their hubris, created such havoc and misery here at home and abroad.
U.S.A. Leads the World in Traffic Fatalities: Death Toll of 42,815 People and Rising
Every year, the United States of America loses more people due to fatalities caused by traffic accidents on our nation's highways, than any other country in the world.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released numbers comparing 2002 to 2001 with percent change: [Ref. http://www.usatoday.com/news/... ]
Total: 42,815 vs. 42,196; 1.4%
Alcohol-related: 17,419 vs. 17,400, 0.1%
Rollovers: 10,666 vs. 10,157; 5%
Large-truck crashes: 4,897 vs. 5,111; -4.2%
Total injuries:2.92 million vs. 3.03 million; -3.6%.
The death toll of 42,815 fatalities caused by automobile accidents in 2002, represents the highest point (# of deaths) in over 12 years. We are tragically on-target to surpass that goal in 2003. Many of these deaths are alcohol-related and, also result from drivers and/or their occupants not wearing seat-belts, amongst other reasons. Poor roads and bad road conditions contribute to approximately 25,000 people killed annually, demonstrating insufficient investment in our federal and state infrastructures.
[Aside: Would the American so-called "Health Care System (sic: our system is a scam & a scandal)" be to blame for these fatalities? Probably not any more than the French Health Care System is to blame for the lack of air-conditioning and social welfare for the elderly in France who tragically died this summer, due to an unprecedented heat wave ... During colossal traffic accidents, our hospitals in the USA have become over-stressed, as did those in France this summer dealing with an unpredictable catastrophe.]
America should be pursuing mass transit systems that would encourage greater safety, energy conservation, reduced pollutants, and, a more economical means of transportation.
"We the People" need to co-operate together again in endeavours that collectively will enable all of our people to participate in our civic and social life, at the most affordable prices possible. It might also save lives!
Gunter Grass Winner of 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature
Gunter Grass, Winner of 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature wrote the following article during Bush's illegal & immoral war on Iraq ... it is worth reading:
"The U.S. Betrays Its Core Values", by Gunter Grass
BEHLENDORF, Germany -- A war long sought and planned for is now underway. All deliberations and warnings of the United Nations notwithstanding, an overpowering military apparatus has attacked preemptively in violation of international law. No objections were heeded. The Security Council was disdained and scorned as irrelevant. As the bombs fall and the battle for Baghdad continues, the law of might prevails.
And based on this injustice, the mighty have the power to buy and reward those who might be willing and to disdain and even punish the unwilling. The words of the current American president -- "Those not with us are against us" -- weighs on current events with the resonance of barbaric times. It is hardly surprising that the rhetoric of the aggressor increasingly resembles that of his enemy. Religious fundamentalism leads both sides to abuse what belongs to all religions, taking the notion of "God" hostage in accordance with their own fanatical understanding. Even the passionate warnings of the pope, who knows from experience how lasting and devastating the disasters wrought by the mentality and actions of Christian crusaders have been, were unsuccessful.
Disturbed and powerless, but also filled with anger, we are witnessing the moral decline of the world's only superpower, burdened by the knowledge that only one consequence of this organized madness is certain: Motivation for more terrorism is being provided, for more violence and counter-violence. Is this really the United States of America, the country we fondly remember for any number of reasons? The generous benefactor of the Marshall Plan? The forbearing instructor in the lessons of democracy? The candid self-critic? The country that once made use of the teachings of the European Enlightenment to throw off its colonial masters and to provide itself with an exemplary constitution? Is this the country that made freedom of speech an incontrovertible human right?
It is not just foreigners who cringe as this ideal pales to the point where it is now a caricature of itself. There are many Americans who love their country too, people who are horrified by the betrayal of their founding values and by the hubris of those holding the reins of power. I stand with them. By their side, I declare myself pro-American. I protest with them against the brutalities brought about by the injustice of the mighty, against all restrictions of the freedom of expression, against information control reminiscent of the practices of totalitarian states and against the cynical equations that make the death of thousands of women and children acceptable so long as economic and political interests are protected.
No, it is not anti-Americanism that is damaging the image of the United States; nor do the dictator Saddam Hussein and his extensively disarmed country endanger the most powerful country in the world. It is President Bush and his government that are diminishing democratic values, bringing sure disaster to their own country, ignoring the United Nations, and that are now terrifying the world with a war in violation of international law.
We Germans often are asked if we are proud of our country. To answer this question has always been a burden. There were reasons for our doubts. But now I can say that the rejection of this preemptive war on the part of a majority in my country has made me proud of Germany. After having been largely responsible for two world wars and their criminal consequences, we seem to have made a difficult step. We seem to have learned from history.
The Federal Republic of Germany has been a sovereign country since 1990. Our government made use of this sovereignty by having the courage to object to those allied in this cause, the courage to protect Germany from a step back to a kind of adolescent behavior. I thank Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, for their fortitude in spite of all the attacks and accusations, from abroad and from within.
Many people find themselves in a state of despair these days, and with good reason. Yet we must not let our voices, our no to war and yes to peace, be silenced. What has happened? The stone that we pushed to the peak is once again at the foot of the mountain. But we must push it back up, even with the knowledge that we can expect it to roll back down again.
Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
Majority of Americans Call for Universal Health Care
The United States of America is the only 1st-tier country that does not provide a comprehensive national health care system for all of its citizens. It is an appalling scandal that the richest country in the world ignores the needs of nearly 45 million people who lack health care insurance. The majority of Americans call for Universal Health Care, according to a PEW Research Center Survey on http://people-press.org/repor... . They cite the following results:
"Scrap Tax Cuts for Health Insurance"
"Fully 72% of Americans agree that the government should provide universal health care, even if it means repealing most tax cuts passed since Bush took office. Democrats overwhelmingly favor this proposal (86%-11%) and independents largely agree (78%-19%). Even a narrow majority of Republicans (51%) favor providing health insurance for all even if it means canceling the tax cuts, while 44% disagree.
"In addition, most Americans especially those who support repealing tax cuts to provide universal health coverage see this as a moral issue as well as a political issue. Just a third believes this is strictly a political issue, while a narrow majority (52%) views it also as a moral question. A big majority of those who support this proposal 61% think of it as a moral as well as a political issue, while most opponents tend to see this in strictly political terms (58%)."
Over 2.2 million Americans die each year, including hundreds of thousands of deaths that are preventable with proper health care. Refer to CDC National Center for Health Statistics on http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/produ... , which shows that out of a population of 280 million people, approximately 11% live below the poverty line and 17% have no health care. This is a damning indictment of the disparity between the richest and the many who live in misery. Under the Bush Regime, the number of people living in poverty has increased (refer to "Why isn't there a 'Pre-emptive' War on Poverty?" on http://www.tblog.com/template... ).
Compared with other 1st-tier countries who have a National Health Care System, our citizens fair much, much worse: American's life expectancy is on average 78 years; whereas in France and Canada it is 79.2 years, and all other 1st-tier countries providing health care have higher life expectancies than our own. Infant mortality rates in the USA are 6.7 per 1,000 for children under 1 year old and 8.7 per 1,000 for children under 5 years old; whereas in France it is 4.4 per 1,000 for children under 1 year old and 5.8 per 1,000 for children under 5 years old, and in Canada it is 5.0 per 1,000 for children under 1 year old and 6.7 per 1,000 for children under 5 years old. Other 1st-tier countries follow the same trend.
The USA's GNP (gross national product) earns approximately $10.1 trillion per year with a population of 280 million, as compared with $1.3 trillion in France with a population of 59.4 million, and $700.5 billion in Canada with a population of 31.4 million. This represents an average per capita earnings as follows:
In other words, we generate more wealth per person than any other country in the world, but all other 1st-tier countries provide a national health care system, and their mortality rates are lower and the health of their people is better. The vulnerable in France, Canada and other 1st-tier countries with national health care, including their infants, children and elderly live longer, and they are cared for when they fall ill or are injured, instead of ignored if lacking insurance as in the USA. (Refer to "The World Bank Group" statistics on http://www.worldbank.org/data... )
You don't see and won't see the majority of citizens of France, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, or other 1st-tier countries with a National Health Care calling for the privatization of their systems. They would certainly not replicate the disastrous, callous and greed-ridden scandal that we call health care in the U.S.A. Read "Universal Health Coverage: 'Let The Debate Resume'", by Rashi Fein, PhD, is Professor of the Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School on http://www.tompaine.com/featu... .
Our own health care system is far too expensive due to exorbitant costs of health insurance and care, of which a large percentage represents over-heads. Similar to the greed of Enron, WorldCom, Halliburton, Bechtel, Big Oil, Eli Lily, etc., the CEOs and executives of HMOs and Insurance Corporations "take-the-money-and-run" greedily accumulating massive salaries far in excess of any right and proper compensation package.
The Bush Regime has worsened the situation, and is callous to the needs of our citizens-- indeed, they hypocritically brag about bringing back health care to Iraqi citizens (Iraq had National Health Care under Saddam Hussein), and yet the corrupt Bushies ignore the needs of millions of people, across the fruited plains in the USA. Moreover, the corrupt Bush Gang has awarded massive tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest richest-of-the-rich, & recklessly spent a king's ransom on an illegal & immoral war in Iraq, instead of seeking to improve the lives of our countrymen and solving the horrific health care scandal here at home.
Americans are and should be outraged that our country is the richest in the world-- and yet our citizens are treated like those in 3rd world countries instead of 1st-tier countries.
We should reassess our priorities and demand that less be spent on Bush's Corporate Cronies, the Pentagon and the insane squandering of big bucks on the Defense Industry (over $450 billion per year), and more to improve the health and lives of "We the People".
Please read "U.S. Wastes Health-care Funds: Administrative Costs Double Canada's Rate - Better System Could Aid Millions Researchers Say", by Gene Emery, on http://www.commondreams.org/h... .
"BOSTON—Thirty-one cents of every dollar spent on health care in the United States goes to pay administrative costs — nearly double the rate in Canada, according to a new comparison that sees colossal bureaucratic waste in the American system.
Americans spend $752 more per person per year than Canadians on medical administrative costs alone, according to the study by investigators from Harvard University and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which was published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers who prepared the comparison said yesterday that the United States wastes more money on health bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to the tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The team, led by Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard, said a large sum of money might be saved in the United States if administrative costs could be trimmed by implementing a Canadian-style, single-payer health care system.
"The difference in the costs of health-care administration between the United States and Canada is clearly large and growing," the researchers said, questioning whether the $294.3 billion spent each year on U.S. health care administration is money well spent.
Woolhandler, and co-author David Himmelstein, also of Harvard and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, added that if the United States adopted a Canadian-style system the savings would likely pay for coverage for the more than 41 million Americans without health insurance.
The study found overhead costs for U.S. insurance companies — mostly for underwriting and advertising — ate up 11.7 cents of every health care dollar, compared with 1.3 cents for Canada's government-run system and 3.6 cents for the U.S. Medicare system for the elderly.
Among Canada's private insurance companies, the overhead costs were even higher: 13.2 cents per dollar.
The study also found that after certain exclusions, administration accounted for 31 per cent of health-care expenditures in the United States and 16.7 per cent in Canada. The estimates do not include the advertising costs of drug companies or hospitals, health care industry profits, or the value of patients' time spent on paperwork.
But in an editorial in the Journal, Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the administrative costs in the United States might be 24 per cent lower than the Woolhandler estimate.
He said the excess spending on health care administration in 1999 was probably closer to $159 billion, not $209 billion cited in the study.
Aaron said it also doesn't prove the United States would save a lot of money if it converted to the Canadian system."
The Difference Between Genius and Stupidity is that Genius has Its Limits
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei
"Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations,--entangling alliances with none; the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;...freedom of religion; freedom of the press; freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected,--these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation." - First Inaugural Address. March 4, 1801, by Thomas Jefferson
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson
"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson
" I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others." - Thomas Jefferson
And now folks, consider the mentality of George W. Bush (43) : "A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it." My goodness, how far we've fallen from the great mind of Thomas Jefferson to the mean, petty, and stupid mind of George W. Bush. Of course, the Bush Regime has indeed, abused their powers to enact bizarre Executive Orders and, intimidates a terrified Congress into passing anti-constitutional Patriot Acts:-- in order to install their 1st American Dictatorship! (Refer to "Reign of Terror: EOs & Patriot Acts" on http://www.tblog.com/template... )
President Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, and France's President Jacques Chirac were discussing economics and, in particular, problems with the French economy. "The problem with the French," Bush afterwards confided in Blair, "is that they don't have a word for 'entrepreneur'." What? Only one amongst many of Bush's infinitely stupid blunders and buffooneries. (Refer to "The Complete Bushisms" on http://slate.msn.com/id/76886... )
"We the People" may not have the option of selecting a genius as a leader, since true genius is rare, but surely we can do better than the wooden-headedness, imbecility, and limitless corruption of the Bush Regime. America and France enjoy long-standing bonds and historical ties that will survive childish "french-bashing" by the Bushies to punish them for having the audacity to question the wisdom of an immoral and illegal incursion into Iraq, based upon a phony pretext of WMDs posing an "imminent threat", that has indeed been proved to be a disastrous guerrilla quagmire, resulting in a heart-breaking blood-bath and a back-breaking cost in treasure. (Refer to "Bush's March of Folly" on http://www.tblog.com/template... )
Reflect upon: "How the French View the American Predicament" by James P. Pinkerton, Arab News, on http://www.aljazeerah.info/Op...%20editorials/2003%20Opin ion%20Editorials/August/2 5%200/How%20the%20French% 20View%20the%20American%2 0Predicament%20James%20P.%20Pinkerton.htm .
PARIS, 25 August 2003 — "What’s French for quagmire? I learned the answer in the wake of the bombing attack that struck United Nations offices in Baghdad, Iraq.
"The word is bourbier. As the left-wing daily Liberation put it, America has found itself in a “bourbier sanglant a la Vietnamienne’’ — that is, a “bloody quagmire, Vietnam-style.’’ The even more left-wing l’Humanite argued that it’s a bourbier into which “American leaders are sinking, day to day.’’
"The other papers here were kinder, but not much more hopeful. Atop The Wall Street Journal Europe’s front page was this banner: “Bomb Attack on UN HQ in Iraq Underscores US Security Crisis.’’
"On the front page of Le Monde, the paper of record here, a front-pager was “Disarray in Washington.’’
"And Le Parisien, the daily for the city’s working-stiff subway riders, offered nearly the same header: “Disarray in the United States.’’
"Should Americans care what the French think about our occupation of Iraq? Not if they’re happy with the way things are going over there. But for those Americans who think that the United States could use some help extricating itself from this bourbier, maybe it’s worth pondering the experience of a country that’s been down this same quagmire road.
"That is, France.
"The French, too, went through their expansionary phase. They first set about colonizing Vietnam, for instance, in the late 19th century; but in 1954 they were defeated and expelled.
"Too bad Americans weren’t paying attention to that dolorous French precedent when they launched their own Vietnam crusade in the early ‘60s.
"Today, the French seem to have a better feel for the dynamics of anti-Western insurgencies than the American government.
"President Bush insists, as always, that there is light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq. But in the words of Le Parisien: “This new act of violence confirms that the country is far from from being secured. Even if the Americans are congratulating themselves for having arrested or killed most of those close to Saddam Hussein over the last three months, the situation is deteriorating from day to day.’’ So one might ask, “Who’s got a better handle on the Battle of Baghdad — the man in the White House or the reader in the Paris subway?’’
"Indeed, the words of Le Figaro, the pro-American daily, seem particularly pointed — and poignant. In an editorial titled ‘’Irak: les erreurs americaines,” the paper begins by asserting, ‘’In the West, everyone hopes — or should hope — that the American pro-consulate won’t come to a bad end.”
"So far, so good. But, the piece continues, ‘’No one, even in the United States, really believes it anymore.”
"Next, the editorial considers the origins of the Bush policy.
"American neoconservatives, described with Gallic precision as ‘’a powerful lobby of ideologues,” believe that ‘’the best of all possible worlds is the one where America uses its power to impose its views and its model of social organization, whatever the other nations may think.” But in following that logic, this lobby has made three errors, according to Le Figaro.
"First, the neocons ‘’faked” the danger from Iraq, thereby reducing Washington’s ability to deal with ‘’the real menaces,” Iran and North Korea. Second, the neocons thought that they could ‘’nation-build” a democracy in Iraq; instead, “the Americans are now realizing that political surgery on a foreign body is an art much more difficult than they imagined.”
"A third error was for the United States to think, ‘’I am the strongest; therefore I don’t listen to the advice of others, even if it comes from realms as diverse as old Europe, Russia, India, China, Latin America.”
"That third item goes to what was always at the heart of the anti-Iraq war argument. And that is, if Uncle Sam couldn’t convince the rest of the world that ‘’regime change” was a good idea, then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.
"After all, alliances and international law are the friends of the peaceful and the law-abiding; the United States, for example, put consultation and consensus at the heart of its strategy in two world wars and the Cold War.
"And we won those wars — which is more than we are likely to be able to say, in the long run, about Iraq."
Bush's March of Folly : Upholding a Long Tradition of Bloodshed & Misery
Bush's March of Folly in Iraq, demonstrates a failure by Americans, to learn from history and demand greater integrity and wisdom from our leadership. The Bush Regime have failed miserably, having recklessly launched an arrogant "war on terrorism" (euphemism for stage 1: war on Iraq), lashing out against whomsoever they choose, ignoring the warnings and advice from many Military, Middle-east and United Nations experts who predicted that the USA would trigger increased terror, greater danger and, wide-spread destablization of the Middle-East, and consequently the World.
Bush was wrong, and his critics have been vindicated-- although those like Hans Blix (who was demonized) and, General Eric Shinseki (who warned against pursuing "a 12-division strategy with a 10-division Army"), are nonetheless not boasting, but are sick-at-heart, as are all conscious and enlightened human beings.
Congress have not as yet commenced to do their duty and investigate into the misdeeds and betrayal of the Bush Regime's oaths of office. It is clear that darker motives (not the Bush Gang's phony pretexts based upon "sexed-up" lies & deceit about WMDs posing an "imminent threat") drove the Bush cabal's lust for the war on Iraq, and reading an outstanding report by the World Policy Organisation entitled "Arms Trade Resource Center New Numbers: The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington", by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung, August 2003, "Introduction: A Privatised Occupation" on http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... ), reveals the real motives for Bush's Global Corporate Empire:
"It is clear that there needs to be more accountability – both to the people of Iraq and the American taxpayers – about how the privatized rebuilding process in Iraq is going to proceed. Contracts should be opened to true competitive bidding, involving not only U.S. firms but competent companies from allied nations. The decisions about which tasks are appropriate for private corporations, as opposed to U.S. government entities or non-profit, non-governmental organizations, should be made openly and transparently, with appropriate Congressional oversight and public input."
Instead, the Bush Regime have rewarded their Corporate Cronies, who are exploiting the average & low-income American taxpayers (Bush's corporations & rich have enjoyed the bounty & booty of this insane war) and Iraqi people in a brutish, ruthless and reckless manner. Donnelley & Hartung conclude "Long before the Bush Administration could sufficiently sell its case to the United Nations, Congress, and the American people, it was planning for war against Saddam and his Republican Guard. For companies like Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin this meant a big boom in business in exchange for the big booms their weapons and bombs showered on Iraq months later. Though the ties that bind these companies to the Bush administration are not quite as controversial as those linking rebuilding and private military companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel, it is still clear, by tracing overlapping personnel, that far from being a relic of the Cold War, the military-industrial complex is alive and well and thriving in George W. Bush’s Washington."
Barbara W. Tuchman describes in her masterpiece "The March of Folly" examples of catastrophic wars resulting in horrific bloodshed and misery to the populations, ranging from Montezuma's senseless surrender of his empire in 1520 to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and to the Vietnam fiasco. She concludes with some profound observations:
"If pursuing disadvantage after the disadvantages has become obvious is irrational, then rejection of reason is the prime characteristic of folly." Even when advised that their course of action were destined to fail, foolish leaders would ignore advice and considered themselves on a mission directed by God, and they could not see clearly for their emotion. Sound familiar?
"Persistence in error is the problem. Practitioners of government continue down the wrong road as if in thrall to some Merlin with magical powers to direct their steps. ... The test [of leadership] comes in recognizing when persistence in error has become self-damaging."
"Refusal to draw inference from negative signs, which under the rubric "wooden-headedness" has played so large a part in these pages [March of Folly], was recognized in the most pessimistic work of modern times, George Orwell's 1984, as what the author called "Crimestop." "Crimestop" means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments ... and of being bored and repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity."
"We the People" must not participate in the Bush Regime's "Crimestop", but must finally acknowledge that Bush is "wooden-headed" and foolishly led this country into the first 21st Century March of Folly. Let us make our voice heard and ask Congress to commence an investigation into the Bush Regime's Crimes Against Humanity, and work closely with the United Nations to repair the disastrous damage in Iraq to enable the Iraqi people to rule their own country instead of Bush's Global Corporate Empire. Let us put a stop to a long traditional of bloodshed & misery designed to enrich the few at the cost in lives and treasure of the many.
A Thing is Not Necessarily True Because a Man Dies For It
"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Portrait of Mr. W. H.
"If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather itself to such explosive power that the day it bursts through, it will blow up everything in its way." - Emile Zola (1840-1902) J'accuse
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - New Testament: John, viii, 32
Americans are finding out the hard way, that "winning-at-all-costs" is a losing strategy in the longer-term. War is not a football game, as Bush & Rice like to imagine ... indeed, they seem to prefer to watch sports than perform their duties and oaths of office ... and thus should resign and play together instead of creating havoc with such obscene hubris, resulting in the unnecessary deaths, maiming, and misery of US & British Soldiers and Innocent Iraqis on a daily basis. The Death Toll has reached 315 US & British Soldiers, and many thousands (over 7700) of Innocent Iraqis, used as Cannon Fodder in Bush's insane war games on behalf of their Global Corporate interests (The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington, by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung, August 2003 on http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... )
The Bush Regime has tried to cover-up their lies and deceit told to America and the World in order to wage their illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq. To no avail: the truth is being exposed in Great Britain, Australia, and slowly but surely across our fruited plains from sea-to-shining-sea. A ground-swell of anger and disappointment is brewing in America, most probably because we didn't "win" a decisive victory and enjoy a peaceful transformation of Iraqi society with a pliant and grateful population, instead of for moral reasons (tragically).
As the ugly truth regarding the Bush Regime's corruption and lies are exposed, Americans have no excuse for feigning ignorance: Before Bush's war in Iraq, a plethora of experts warned the Bush Regime that (1) Saddam Hussein did not pose a danger or threat; (2) UN Inspectors should be given time to find weapons and that probably most were destroyed during the early 1990s inspection process; and (3), that war would be easy, and the peace would be the real challenge. Moreover the fabricated links between 9/11 and Iraq have been proved outright lies-- indeed, questions are still outstanding regarding what the Bush Regime knew prior to 9/11 and when they knew it ... and the Bush Family links with the Saudi Royal Family who did have connections with the 9/11 terrorists.
Forewarnings from knowledgeable experts were repeated over and over again, that Iraqi people would not welcome "occupiers", and our aggression might result in more terrorism around the world. The Bushies didn't listen to any of this advice: instead they are arrogant, greedy and foolhardy. Too much was at stake for Bush to be able to provide massive contracts to corporations and robber-barons who funnel them big bucks for their campaign: quid pro quo. The Bushies needed this war on Iraq, and they wanted it badly ... Halliburton's rolling in dough ... along with Bechtel ... Big Oil ... Carlyle Group ... Defense Contractors ... Pentagon big-spenders ... etc.
In "Is Saddam Hussein's post-war plan unfolding?", Ali Ballout, (The Daily Star, 8/21/03 http://www.aljazeerah.info/22...%20o/Is%20Saddam%20Hussei n's%20post-war%20plan%20u nfolding,%20Ali%20Ballout .htm ) reports:
"Saddam had been trying to establish a dialogue with Washington since the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. In 1993, the former Iraqi leader asked me to transmit a message to the Clinton administration. In Washington, I contacted official and unofficial persons linked to the White House, among them a Pentagon expert on Iraq, Phoebe Marr, and former Under Secretary of State Joseph Cisco.
The thrust of the message was Saddam’s willingness to reach a comprehensive understanding with the US. It colorfully explained, “We cannot drink Iraqi oil,” adding, “the United States has the world’s best capacity to develop Iraq’s massive natural resources.” The response I received in Washington was: “We want the Iraqi body, but without the head.” I conveyed the reply to Saddam Hussein’s half-brother Barzan, then Iraq’s ambassador to Switzerland.
From that time on, Saddam’s strategy was to gain time in the hope that international developments would blunt Washington’s aims. Simultaneously, he reorganized his military. Eight months before receiving the German intelligence evaluation on the certainty of war, Saddam issued a circular to senior Baath Party officials instructing them to be prepared for a US attack “at any moment.” The July 2002 circular warned: “Iraq will be defeated militarily due to the imbalance in forces.” The balance would be re-established by “dragging the US military into Iraqi cities, villages and the desert and resorting to resistance tactics.”"
In other words, Saddam Hussein had no desire or interest in attacking us ... quite the contrary. Bush's imaginary massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction posing an imminent threat was a bold-faced lie used to scare the American population (who were the only citizens enmasse worldwide to believe Bush's swindle), into envisioning "mushroom clouds", biological attacks, and other nightmares that Saddam Hussein could launch within 45 minutes. It was all Bunk ... Bologny ... Bull ... Now, journalists and commentators who care about the truth and/or their reputation, across the political spectrum from ultra-conservative George Will to liberal writers including Noam Chomsky, and many, many in between: have loudly condemned the Bush Regime's abuse of intelligence to mislead the Nation into the war on Iraq.
The Bush Gang's newest spin, is this bizarre "generational commitment" to nation building, alongside the very United Nations that they trashed, condemned and called "irrelevant". Why weren't Americans told about this so-called "generational commitment" before the war? Why wasn't there a national debate on an issue of such vital importance to Americans and the World Community? Why were we told the war was to defend ourselves (& once Bush's lies & deceit were exposed), and now the purpose is supposedly to re-build the world in Bush's infantile image? (Only wishful thinkers, neo-con thugs or fools believe Bush's propaganda machine -- this war, as most wars, are about money: enriching greedy thugs off the blood of the poor dupes or "collateral damage").
Suddenly the United Nations becomes "relevant" now that we're in a tragic Guerrilla Quagmire that has evolved into an enormous out-of-control mess, as a result of the Bush Cabal's bungled planning. Of course it's the Average American who pays the price in blood and treasure, not the Bushies, neo-con bunglers, corporations or greedy robber-barons who have obscenely profited from this insanity.
Bush said today he wants United Nations involvement: first he treats them like s*it ... now they're key to bringing about peace. Ultimately, they will probably help to mop-up the catastrophe that Bush has created, when they persuade Bush's Gang that if Bush wants foreign Cannon Fodder to take the heat off of American Cannon Fodder, that they'll also want a "piece-of-the-action". Nobody is going to give their life's blood for zip ... zero ... nada ...
"The "liberation" of Iraq is a cruel joke on a stricken people. The Americans and British, partners in a great recognized crime, have brought down on the Middle East, and much of the rest of the world, the prospect of terrorism and suffering on a scale that al-Qaeda could only imagine." ...
"It was this that crippled Iraq and, ironically, concentrated all domestic power in the hands of the regime, thus ending all hope of a successful uprising.
The other day I sat with Dennis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, and the UN in New York. Halliday was the senior UN official in Iraq in the mid-1990s, who resigned rather than administer the blockade.
"These sanctions," he said, "represented ongoing warfare against the people of Iraq. They became, in my view, genocidal in their impact over the years, and the Security Council maintained them, despite its full knowledge of their impact, particularly on the children of Iraq.
"We disregarded our own charter, international law, and we probably killed over a million people.
"It's a tragedy that will not be forgotten... I'm confident that the Iraqis will throw out the occupying forces. I don't know how long it will take, but they'll throw them out based on a nationalistic drive.
"They will not tolerate any foreign troops' presence in their country, dictating their lifestyle, their culture, their future, their politics.
"This is a very proud people, very conscious of a great history.
"It's grossly unacceptable. Every country that is now threatened by Mr Bush, which is his habit, presents an outrage to all of us.
"Should we stand by and merely watch while a man so dangerous he [Bush] is willing to sacrifice Americans lives and, worse, the lives of others?"
Mr. Pilger and Mr. Halliday, the answer is no. We should not stand by and watch this disgusting blood-letting.
"We the People" should refuse to be collaborators in this corrupt Bush Regime's Crimes Against Humanity. We should contact Congress and demand the truth be fully acknowledged and that the Bush administration be tried, impeached and removed from office.
Then we should mourn all those who died for a lie ... tragically died to enrich the Bush Regime's corrupt Global Corporate Empire. Only then can we be set free to begin to repair our damaged society from Bush's Corporate Land of the Screed and the Home of the Slave, to the noble America of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
No Rogue Nation Can Dominate the World - Not Even the Hyper-power USA
As the catastrophic events in Iraq unfold, a consensus amongst both republican and democratic political experts is emerging that renders Bush's Neo-Con Doctrine of "pre-emptive" wars and invasions, null and void. The Bush Regime's "shell game" using lies and deceit to wage a corrupt war to benefit rich corporate cronies will not be re-produced elsewhere. The problem with con games is that they only work once (except with the brain-dead morons who fall for the same scam over and over again).
Citizens around the world fully recognize that no rogue nation, not even the hyper-power USA, can dominate the world and behave as arrogantly, corruptly and stupidly as has the Bush Gang, without dire consequences. The Neo-Con's lust for world domination has resulted in a terrible Guerrilla Quagmire in Iraq, and had any other country perpetrated this act, their leaders would be tried at the International World Court for Crimes Against Humanity.
Colin Powell claims we'll now turn to our friends for help in dealing with Iraq. What friends? Bush has treated them all like sh*t. Tony Blair is "in the dock" with his confidence ratings in Great Britain, badly damaged irreparably. Our traditional allies were insulted and treated brutishly by the Bush Junta, and now insist upon a UN Resolution if they are to assist in cleaning-up Bush's horrifying mess. The UN suddenly is "relevant" again, isn't it!
The Guerrilla Quagmire in Iraq won't disappear whether or not Saddam Hussein is caught, and irrespective of whether Hussein's henchmen like Chemical Ali are captured, prosecuted or even executed. Iraqis see the USA as occupiers, unconcerned with their welfare, but primarily interested in exploiting their oil. The Iraqis are right! Refer to "Arms Trade Resource Center, New Numbers: The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington", by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung, August 2003, "Introduction: A Privatized Occupation" on http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... .
Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were very wrong, and badly miscalculated that in the aftermath of a dramatic toppling of the Saddam Hussein government, Iraqis would dance in the streets lavishing flowered garlands upon our troops and popping open the champagne. They even made foolhardy comparisons between the so-called "liberation" of Iraq and Paris at the end of WW2. Respected historians were horrified at the appallingly idiotic and unrealistic comparisons-- Rice even played the "race card" recently in Dallas, Texas, where she compared "freeing the Iraqis" with the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1960s! Bush's cabal are clearly desperate and panic-stricken, and are prepared to say anything in the hopes that the ignorant will dumbly nod their heads in approval.
US Military and Middle-East experts alike warned the Bush Gang prior to waging their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq, that since the USA overpowered Iraq militarily by many thousands of orders of magnitude, the "war" would be easy, but the "peace" would be hard. Before the war, for example, Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the then Army chief, estimated that the United States would need 200,000 troops to provide security and stabilize Iraq. Rumsfeld punished him ... as others were punished. Hans Blix and Gen. Shinseki are both too honorable to gloat, although they've been exonerated and proved right!
Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are an arrogant lot, ridiculing and punishing those who disagree with their dogmatic neo-con ideology consisting of global hegemony to enrich their corporate cronies. The Bush cabal didn't listen to advice from able military or civilian professionals knowledgeable in Middle East Affairs or Intelligence Agents who didn't "come-up" with the "answers" they wanted in their 'Ends Justify the Means' approach to achieving their obscene objectives. So they resorted to telling lies and intimidating those who asked questions, and bullied their way forward to war ... it's despicable!
The Bush Regime has been exposed as incompetent and inept, as well as corrupt. Congress will reconvene soon to consider the dire consequences of the Bush Gang's bungling of Middle-East affairs and the staggeringly obscene costs in excess of $70 Billion to-date, with over $4 Billion per month to occupy Iraq. Massive deficit spending by Bush will exceed $450 Billion this year alone, and is estimated to exceed $1.9 Trillion by the end of 2004, contributing to a backbreaking $6.7 Trillion National Debt, the highest in USA History. Moreover, with nearly 3 million jobs lost under Bush's watch, even Republicans are wondering whether Bush's economic strategy isn't voodoo economics, but doodoo economics.
The loss of life in Iraq is heartbreaking, with over 313 US and British Soldiers dead, and between 6600-7000 innocent Iraqi civilians. The death toll mounts daily. In Britain, with Tony Blair's reputation tattered and in shreds, the murmurings are commencing to "Bring the Troops Home", unless the UN becomes more heavily involved in managing the security and re-building operations.
In the USA, the Bush Gang's reputation and credibility are badly damaged, amongst those knowledgeable about their lies, deceit, bungling and outright arrogance in the face of this horrific Guerrilla Quagmire. The corporations and richest-of-the-rich who obtained lavish "welfare" in the form of tax cuts and billions in immoral (and possibly illegal) contracts, are thrilled with Bush's corruption-in-their-favor , and are writing him campaign checks as fast as their Mont Blanc pens can scratch their John Hancocks.
An unofficial MSNBC Poll taken today, asking the question regarding: "Troops in Iraq: Should the world step up? " * 5582 responses as of 5:30 PM EST
Yes 77% No 23%
The Families of US Soldiers in Iraq and Veterans for Peace are waging their own battle to "Bring Them Home", and are asking why should we be the lone target in Iraq.
The Bush Gang are forced to go back to the U.N. for help: the very U.N. institution they ridiculed, mistreated, and said was "irrelevant" if it didn't do their bidding. Although they are trying to save face by suggesting that no real control will be turned over to an international coalition, it must be clear, that the Iraqi People and the World Community will not permit the USA to rape the assets and people of Iraq, as Bush's corporate cronies are doing to America.
"We the People" must stand against the immoral and aggressive tactics used by the Bush Rogue Regime, in order to make clear to the World Community that we are partners on this planet who wish to be a contributory nation, and who respect the rule of law. Frankly, we must stand against the corrupt Bush Regime for the sake of our own souls, to stop the Global Corporate Empire from exploiting this planet, its resources and people, for the benefit of a very few wealthy robber-barons.
Refer to the following article, typical of the virulent backlash against the USA, who is now seen as the Rogue Nation:
"UN is not the plaything of U.S."
Gulf News on http://www.aljazeerah.info/Op...%20editorials/2003%20Opin ion%20Editorials/August/2 1%20o/UN%20is%20not%20the %20plaything%20of%20U.S.,%20Gulf%20News.htm
21-08-2003
"The deaths of United Nations personnel in Baghdad after a massive truck bomb, signal the need for a serious rethink by the UN on its purpose. It must work to distance itself from the American administration, and to re-establish its independence. The United Nations was not created to serve the world's single superpower. It was set up to act as a central forum where all the world could meet.
The UN was confused at the highest level when it went back into Iraq after the war. Its relations with Washington were at an all-time low, but at the same time it was going to work alongside the coalition forces, accepting their presence in Iraq although many wanted the UN to take over the administration of the country. These issues were never properly debated, and a continuing pattern of giving way to the Americans continued. The terrorist attack was a callous act of brutality, but it is also the sign of an impending disaster for the United Nations and Kofi Annan's leadership. He made a great mistake in not standing up to the United States over the whole issue of how to handle Saddam's Iraq.
George W. Bush's administration wanted the invasion, and had the arrogance to tell the United Nations that it had to either approve of the invasion, or make itself irrelevant. Annan was wrong to accede to this, whether in the formal or informal debates before the war started, but also by acquiescing to the war once it had started without UN approval. By not fully backing Hans Blix's weapons inspectors and Mohammed Al Baradei's nuclear inspectors, he reduced any opposition to the war.
However, once the war was done, it was important for all able to help the Iraqi people to move into Iraq and try to help. UN officials in Iraq assumed that they were part of the old neutral UN. Annan said yesterday that "We have been in Iraq for 12 years and we have never been attacked," but those years were before the UN lost its neutrality and acquiesced in the invasion.
By working with the coalition and by not speaking out against its political failure, it is condoning the terrible lack of policy that the United States is now showing in Iraq. The world requires more of the United Nations, and its Secretary General."
Surely we can find better leaders who don't lie to us! We know we can find smarter ones! The Bush Gang bombarded Clinton from all sides with criticisms of his "tricky" use of words, obfuscation and, being "crooked". The neo-cons and right-wingers all claimed Bush would be a "straight-shooter". Bush himself said: "I'll say what I think." Hmmmm ... that turns out to be a real serious problem, as evidenced by:
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country." --President Bush, on May 1.
"Actually, major military operations. (pause) Because we still have combat operations going on. It's a different kind of combat mission, but, nevertheless, it's combat, just ask the kids that are over there killing and being shot at." --President Bush, on August 19, responding to questions about his statement that "major combat operations" were over.
Bush performed an extravagant, bombastic "Top Gun" photo-op on the USS Abraham Lincoln, on 1st May, declaring "Mission Accomplished!" and telling the world that the war in Iraq was over and had entered a "re-building" phase. Indeed, Rumsfeld denied reports the following week that we still faced opposition when asked about the looting and violence, arrogantly claiming "Stuff happens".
Since Bush's embarrassing bragging of "Mission Accomplished!", the situation in Iraq is deteriorating dramatically, and more violence is breaking out daily, not amongst the "remnants" of Saddam's supporters, as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz dishonestly barks (my gosh, Saddam sure as hell had a lot of supporters since we're told that more of his henchmen are captured every day, and yet the violence directed against us continues with an attack every 2-4 hrs!). The Iraqi population claim to hate Saddam, but say they hate the US occupiers even more. Life under Saddam Hussein was better as even today's article by Tom Friedman "No Time To Lose in Iraq" on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/0... , confirms:
"The Pentagon, with its insistence on doing nation-building in Iraq on the cheap, has been too slow in forming a provisional Iraqi government, too slow in getting the electricity on, too slow in turning security over to Iraqis. As a result, while most Iraqis are happy to be rid of Saddam, too many feel that their lives are tangibly worse in every other respect — jobs, electricity, roadblocks — because of the U.S. presence. "Saddam was paranoid, but he kept the streets open — you're closing all the arteries," Muhammad Kadhim, a Baghdad professor, said to me."
Rummy & Wolfy have really bungled Iraq with their arrogance refusing to listen to Military & Middle-East experts advising them long before the war, that the post-war re-building phase would be difficult. Rummy & Wolfy are dishonest, incompetent & inept having created a Guerrilla Quagmire for others to clean-up, and these thugs should be asked to resign.
Read Jessica Stern's (a lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, is author of "Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill.") article entitled "How America Created a Terrorist Haven" on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/0... . Ms. Stern reports:
"In the run-up to the war, most Iraqis viewed the foreign volunteers who were rushing in to fight against America as troublemakers, and Saddam Hussein's forces reportedly killed many of them. Today, according to Mr. Alani, these foreigners are increasingly welcomed by the public, especially in the former Baathist strongholds north of Baghdad.
As bad as the situation inside Iraq may be, the effect that the war has had on terrorist recruitment around the globe may be even more worrisome. Even before the coalition troops invaded, a senior United States counterterrorism official told reporters that "an American invasion of Iraq is already being used as a recruitment tool by Al Qaeda and other groups." Intelligence officials in the United States, Europe and Africa say that the recruits they are seeing now are younger than in the past. Television images of American soldiers and tanks in Baghdad are deeply humiliating to Muslims, even those who didn't like Saddam Hussein, explained Saad al-Faqih, head of Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, a Saudi dissident group in London. He told me that some 3,000 young Saudis have entered Iraq in recent months, and called the war "a gift to Osama bin Laden." "
Families of the Military and Veterans for Peace have organized "Bring Them Home" because they are sick of the carnage of over 313 US & British Soldiers massacred, with no end in sight, by the Bush Gang to enrich their corrupt Corporate Cronies. The phony weapons of mass destruction lies and pretexts that really posed no imminent threat, have destroyed Blair's credibility in Great Britain, as it will Bush's in the USA, as more citizens realize that No Life is worth destroying to enrich this ghoulish cabal.
Yes, indeed, "stuff happens": we've been bamboozled, scammed and conned by an administration more devious and corrupt with the use of words, than any President in US History. Bush has spent over $70 Billion thus far in Iraq, and we are incurring $4 Billion per month, in an economy he is bankrupting us with his $450 Billion deficit in 2003 alone ($1.9 Trillion deficit by 2004) and a $6.7 Trillion national debt: both the largest in the history of our nation. Bush has incurred these debts to give massive tax cuts to the rich; lavish gifts to his corporate cronies; and to pay for a war for their power, glory & riches.
Bush has massacred over 313 US and British troops and between 6600 and 7700 innocent Iraqi soldiers. You should read "ARMS TRADE RESOURCE CENTER, New Numbers: The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington, by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung, August 2003, INTRODUCTION: A PRIVATIZED OCCUPATION on http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr...
"As costs mount for the U.S.-led rebuilding and occupation of Iraq, the profits of companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Bechtel, Halliburton, and Dyncorps are likely to rise substantially as a result of contracts steered their way by the Bush administration. Just last Friday, the New York Times reported yet another example of favoritism that benefited Halliburton (Neela Bannerjee, "Bechtel Ends Move for Work in Iraq, Seeing a Done Deal," August 8, 2003). " No bidding process-- just big gifts ("welfare for the rich & corporations" from the Bushies) at the good ole' USA Taxpayer's Expense.
"We the People" should contact Congress and demand an open-door investigation into the crimes and deceptions waged upon the USA and Iraq by the Bush Gang who are turning the world over to Corporate-take-all-intere sts to illegally and immorally exploit.
Bush has raised Lootocracy to staggering new heights of obscenity and raw power, that the most corrupt despots in history would have never even dreamt of! No other President in US History has awarded such massive tax cuts to the wealthiest of its citizens in the aftermath of corporate scandals that left stockholders with no pensions; loss of 2.5 million jobs under his own watch; and, an unnecessary war in Iraq: costing in lives over 313 US & British Soldiers and over 7000 innocent Iraqi civilians, and in treasure $70 Billion thus far with no limits or restrictions at a continual tab of $4 Billion per month.
Bush has recklessly spent this country into a deficit exceeding $450 Billion for this year alone, and estimates are that he will have racked-up a $1.9 Trillion deficit by the end of his sorry 4 year term in office. Bush's track-record is appalling and has been disastrous for America. Is this the Republican idea of sound fiscal management? (What happened to Tom DeLay's sermons and condemnation of any President who overspends against the Budget? Tommy-boy is silent these days, unless he is playing the part of Robespierre to re-district states to support his fascist coup d'etat.) The US National Debt has skyrocketed under Bush's watch to over $6.7 Trillion (http://www.brillig.com/debt_c...) How long can this keep going on before we collapse as did the Weimar Republic in the 1920s? Maybe that's just what the Bushies want! Bush has shown a bizarre fetish for dressing up in military garb!
One could be forgiven for asking whether like Gov. Gray Davis, the Bush Gang should be recalled for utter incompetence, if not for obvious corruption? Many conscientious Americans believe at the very least Congress should investigate into the lies, deceit and falsehoods used by Bush to wage an illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq. In Britain, they have determined already that the Blair Government "sexed-up" the Dossiers and that Saddam Hussein had no interest in attacking other countries, and moreover, no capabilities to do so. There were no massive weapons of mass destruction, much less an imminent threat of attack.
Should Congress do its job properly, they would most probably find that Bush lied to lead us into a war, and as such, that is grounds for impeachment and removal from office. At minimum, they would find Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz guilty of having illegally pressured intelligence agents to fabricate and/or support false data & information to go to war on behalf of their corporate cronies.
Additionally, the Bush Gang is surely guilty of gross negligence for the inept bungling of the war planning efforts, now resulting in a guerrilla quagmire in Iraq:-- that warrants Bush and his Cabinet being forced to resign. There may also be grounds for criminal prosecution for lying, fabrication and revealing sensitive intelligence possibly endangering a CIA Agent to punish her husband for telling the truth & intimidating others (Joseph C. Wilson who exposed the phony Niger Uranium scandal - Refer to "Will the CIA Protect the White House" by David Corn on http://www.thenation.com/capi...).
A pernicious, invidious scandal underlies these recent horrific deceptions, payoffs, and, blood-letting by the Bush Gang: It is Bush's Lootocracy in the USA and Iraq. Bush is rapidly turning the assets, environment, wealth and people of the USA and Iraq over to the Global Corporate Empire comprising the richest people in the world. The USA and Iraq are the victims of Bush's robber-barons who are looting their assets; polluting their environments; stealing their wealth & future; and, enslaving their people in slave-wage jobs paying massive local taxes. The Bush Gang treat the Planet as their Playground, and it's Peoples as their Playthings, to be treated in manner they see fit and discarded as "collateral damage" when they're through. It is an affront to our Nation and must be stopped.
"We the People" must not be intimidated and fearful by the scare tactics used by the Bush Regime who are focusing our attention on the Enemy Without. Instead, we must face the Bush Gang, who are the Enemy Within, and their Corporations-and-Robber-b arons-take-all ideology, and fight to oppose them. They do not care for America, and they only take care of themselves, their rich cronies, and the richest-of-the-rich Corporate power-brokers who are running the show.
The evidence is all around us in the very Executive Orders Bush passes, in order to deny worker's rights; exploit the environment; allow Energy Companies to rape consumers; takeover Iraq's Oil Fields; and, protect Corporations from any liabilities whatsoever, if they harm innocent civilians or the world! Refer to "Why the Lessons of Vietnam DO Matter" by Pepe Escobar on http://www.atimes.com/atimes/...
Escobar describes Iraqis who hated Saddam Hussein, but indeed hate the USA more because they are not fooled by Bush's phony posturing: They see that the Bush Regime doesn't give a damn about the Iraqi people, but only the Oil. He cites: "In Iraq, corporate Bushites at least expect to get away with the oil. And this is basically what young American soldiers are dying for: Executive Order No 13303, signed by George W Bush in late May.
This states with respect to "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein", that "any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void". In other words, according to Jim Vallette of the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington, "Bush has in effect unilaterally declared Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of US oil corporations."
The Iraqi resistance is very much aware of Executive Order 13303 - and that's why it sabotaged, and will continue to sabotage, the crucial Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. The more Iraqis have to wait for oil money to come flowing back and help the reconstruction of the country, the more the US-appointed interim government loses its already shaky credibility. The Iraqi population reads only one thing in all this: it has to buy motor fuel at inflated prices in the black market, and it has to come back to its living quarters and put up with only three hours of electricity a day."
"...With an amazingly small amount of national debate, George Bush is installing a more global and sophisticated version-one where those on top can do whatever they choose without the slightest constraints. Bush began his presidency by giving the wealthiest five percent of all Americans massive tax breaks of $75 billion a year. He paid for them in part by cutting child abuse prevention, community policing, Americorps, low-income childcare, health care, housing, and even support for military families. This spring he passed another round of cuts, $35 billion a year targeted overwhelmingly to the same lucky lootocrats.
You'd think these victories would leave the Bush administration and its core supporters satisfied that they'd transferred more than enough wealth to the very richest Americans. You'd also think they might have notice that the first tax cut neither created new jobs or stemmed the continuing loss of existing jobs. But no. House Republicans have now just voted to end the Estate Tax permanently. If the Senate goes along, this will transfer a trillion dollars more, over the coming two decades, to an even tinier group of individuals. And key Republican strategist Grover Norquist promises more cuts down the line, explaining, "My goal is to cut government...down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Conservatives once preached fiscal restraint. Now strategists like Norquist view massive deficits as a tool to strip away government's ability to affect public life. And the administration neglects practically every real need so they can shift as much money as possible away from communities that could use it to the most to those who already have more than they know what to do with. As 2001 Nobel economics laureate George Akerlof said recently, in calling the administration "the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history, "This is not normal government policy What we have here is a form of looting."
"There's a widespread temptation to identify with the winners. But in a lootocracy we all lose out. We lose our voice, our democracy, our confidence that we won't be bankrupted by medical bills or thrown into the street, our certainty that our air and drinking water are safe, our security against the bitter anger of new generations of terrorists. Ultimately, we lose our democracy. Those are the stakes, at home and abroad. We need to be clear about them. If we can give our fellow citizens sufficient context to reflect, most Americans will recognize that they don't want a world run by the Enrons and WorldComs. And that the administration's actions do not serve their interest, but only the interests of the small group that's on top.
They don't want their communities plundered or abandoned. They don't want to cannibalize the earth. They want a relationship with the world that makes us more safe, not less.
Whatever particular issues we care about and take on, we also need to focus on the larger pattern-the destructiveness of a regime based on pillage. The very outrageousness of this administration's reach must inspire us to act for a vision based on connection, respect, and learning to live within our limits. For only by rejecting the ethic of relentless taking do we honor the common ties that bind us all."
You might initially blush at this question, but it is well worth reflecting upon whether the Bush Regime is turning Americans into Nazis. There are indeed frightening parallels between the two regimes that surpass the usual cliches and simplistic comparisons.
Are you aware of what is being done to our society and in our name? You had better look deeper and think more profoundly, because (1) the erosions of our Rights; (2) the demonization of any Media that questions or criticizes; and, (3) the barbaric Crimes Against Humanity currently underway in our time, are eerily similar to the early days of Nazi Germany, and this is no exaggeration.
God help us if we ignore the disastrous changes underway since the Bush Regime and his Global Corporate Empire have taken over the country.
Ian Kershaw (Hitler 1889-1936 Hubris) describes the atmosphere in Germany in 1923: "Crisis was Hitler's oxygen. He needed it to survive. And the deteriorating conditions in Germany as summer turned to autumn, and the currency collapsed totally under the impact of the 'passive resistance' policy, guaranteed an increasing appeal for Hitler's brand of agitation. ... The country was bankrupt, its currency ruined. Inflation had gone into a dizzy tailspin. ... Speculators and profteers thrived. But the material consequences of the hyper-inflation for ordinary people were devastating, the psychological effects incalculable. Savings of a lifetime were wiped out within hours. Insurance policies were not worth the paper they were written on. Those with pensions or fixed incomes saw their only source of support dissolve into worthlessness".
These historical events are recurring today in the USA under the Bush Regime's plan to undermine the economy and our national psychological strength, in order to install their Global Corporate-take-all Empire.
(1) Erosion of our Rights
Our rights are protected in law, and under our system of checks and balances, no one is above the law, even Presidents, Pentagon Officials, Senators, National Security Advisors, etc. It is only a respect for law in which the rights of citizens are codified, that safeguards us as citizens and our society. The Bush Gang have shown outrageous contempt for the law.
In 1923s Germany, during the economic crisis, Kershaw describes "the conservatives and volkisch Right juxtaposed the negative view of a 'leaderless democracy' [parliamentary government] with a concept of a true leader as a man of destiny, born not elected to leadership, not bound by conventional rules or laws, 'hard, straightforward, and ruthless', but embodying the will of God in his actions. ''God gives us leaders and help us to true following', ... " Hitler's text.
Bush evokes the same emotive, biblical rhetoric in placing himself and the USA above any law or treaty that binds us all to civilized behavior. Americans are fooling ourselves into believing that he is protecting us, but in the meantime, Executive Orders and Patriot Acts are put in place, that directly undermine our US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Just as Hitler set-up concentration camps far from the center of Germany, where people were transferred without any forewarning or legal process, Bush has established his own concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay, where prisoners are held without trial indefinitely under conditions that have been condemned by Amnesty International. The German concentration camps began as prison camps, evolved into work camps, and later became death camps.
(2) Demonization of the Media that Questions or Criticizes the Actions of our Government
Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick drafted a decree in 1933 called "For the Protection of the People and State" extending emergency measures to the government. Hitler modified it with one brief paragragh, and wiped out "the personal liberties enshrined in the Weimar Constitution-- including freedom of speech, of association of the press, and privacy of postal and telephone communications-- [they were] suspended indefinitely".
The Bush Gang has punished press corps members who ask tough questions, and even restricted the White House Press briefings to "pre-packaged" question-and-answer-sessi ons, approved by the government in advance. (Just ask Helen Thomas and others how they have been treated.)
In the Sunday Observer, Brian Eno, writes a scathing attack entitled "Lessons in how to lie about Iraq, The problem is not propaganda but the relentless control of the kind of things we think about" (http://observer.guardian.co.u...,6903,1020303,00.html) in which he cites:
"Hired-gun PR companies were busy, preconditioning the emotional landscape. Their marketing talents were particularly useful in the large-scale manipulation of language that the campaign entailed. The Bushites realised, as all ideologues do, that words create realities, and that the right words can over whelm any chance of balanced discussion. Guided by the overtly imperial vision of the Project for a New American Century (whose members now form the core of the American administration), the PR companies helped finesse the language to create an atmosphere of simmering panic where American imperialism would come to seem not only acceptable but right, obvious, inevitable and even somehow kind.
Aside from the incessant 'weapons of mass destruction', there were 'regime change' (military invasion), 'pre-emptive defence' (attacking a country that is not attacking you), 'critical regions' (countries we want to control), the 'axis of evil' (countries we want to attack), 'shock and awe' (massive obliteration) and 'the war on terror' (a hold-all excuse for projecting American military force anywhere).
Meanwhile, US federal employees and military personnel were told to refer to the invasion as 'a war of liberation' and to the Iraqi paramilitaries as 'death squads', while the reliably sycophantic American TV networks spoke of 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' - just as the Pentagon asked them to - thus consolidating the supposition that Iraqi freedom was the point of the war. Anybody questioning the invasion was 'soft on terror' (liberal) or, in the case of the UN, 'in danger of losing its relevance'."
Now, our US Soldiers are prohibited from speaking with any press corps in Iraq. Furthermore, the BBC is being demonized for using emotive language such as "sexed-up", when the Big Scandal is that the Blair Government knew their Dossier contained lies and fabrications ... but the British and American intelligence agencies were pressured into lying to prop-up a corrupt political agenda devised by Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, with Tony Blair and Colin Powell playing the poodles.
(3) barbaric Crimes against Humanity committed in our name
Ordinary German citizens were drafted or volunteered to join the Germany Army. The atrocities committed by ordinary Germany Soldiers against an "enemy" who was demonized and told represented a threat to the well-being of the nation, is recounted by eminent historians such as Martin Gilbert, Ian Kershaw, and others. Hitler said "It must be thoroughly understood that the lost land will never be won back by solemn appeals to the good God, nor by hopes in any League of Nations, but only by the force of arms". Hitler could have been quoting Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and/or Paul Wolfowitz: Their arrogant and reckless treatment of the United Nations and those countries that didn't blindly support our aggression and incursion into Iraq was unconscionable.
You must take the time to read Brian Cloughley's heart-breaking article entitled "What has happened to the US Army in Iraq?" (http://www.counterpunch.org/c... )
In it he cites atrocities (some of which have been recorded by such notable journalists on-the-ground in Iraq, such as Robert Fisk (Independent UK) committed against innocent Iraq civilians, Of course, our US Soldiers are fighting an immoral and illegal incursion into Iraq, and they are tired, understaffed, under pressure, and demoralized. An excerpt:
""Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said."
Since when were wives and children deemed non-civilians? Are children to be used as bargaining counters? This is totally against the Geneva Conventions and against all human decency. The Nazis did this, dammit. It was one of their preferred tactics in occupied territories. Are the wife and children of Colonel Hogg considered combatants, just because he wears uniform? Can this man imagine what it would be like for his own family to be treated like this? Do the American people know what is being done in their name? This is terrible, and I never thought that an officer of US Army could ever lower himself to this sort of despicable action. I served in the Australian army in Vietnam and knew the US army well. It was rough, tough and barbaric in these days, but I thought this type of brutish and uncivilised behaviour was a thing of the past that went out after exposure of the My Lai atrocities. Apparently not."
As Edward Gibbon author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, declared "So long as mankind shall continue to lavish more praise upon its destroyers than upon its benefactors war shall remain the chief pursuit of ambitious minds."
For these reasons, "We the People" must reject the Bush Doctrine of Death and Destruction, and demand that Congress do its duty to investigate the Bush Regime's lies and deceit that led us into an unnecessary, bloody and costly war in Iraq, and also, to convict them of Crimes Against Humanity.
Let us not permit our US Soldiers to be dehumanized into committing further atrocities, and our American citizens dehumanized by turning our backs upon the destruction of the good and honorable principles upon which this country was founded.
Bush's Big Lies result in Big Quagmires costing Us Big in Lives & Treasure
The Bush Gang's performance becomes uglier and more destructive to our Nation's well-being, as each day passes:
1. Bush's Big Lies are being exposed each day, as so very crass and fraudulent, that Bush and his regime should be investigated for misleading the country into an illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq based upon LIES. Under the U.S. Constitution, Bush's actions are a crime.
Today, the British Press, is full of reports that demonstrate the "intelligence" was indeed "sexed-up", and that last minute changes were made by the Government who changed the name of the Dossier: "Right up until the publication of the final draft, and as late as 19 September, the document was entitled "Iraq's programme for weapons of mass destruction". But on 24 September, when the Government published the finished version, it left out the words "programme for". Moreover, even the plagarised document stolen from a student reported that Saddam Hussein was planning weapons programmes in the early 1990s-- i.e. no evidence of actual WMDs posing an "imminent threat". (Refer to "Revealed: last-minute changes to Iraq dossier" by Jo Dillon, Deputy Political Editor on : http://news.independent.co.uk... )
Dr. Kelly reported that it was false for the government to say that Saddam Hussein could launch WMDs within 45 minutes! Of course, he died (sic), since all who dare criticize this dangerous Bush Cabal are punished! Why isn't the Bush White House also being investigated for breaking the law with respect to destroying the career of Joseph Wilson's wife (Joseph Wilson had the audacity to tell the truth about the phony Niger uranium yellow cake sales, even neophytes could see was cooked-up by the Bushies to scare Americans witless! Refer to David Corn's article "Will the CIA Protect the White House?" on : http://www.thenation.com/capi... )
The goons in the White House and Pentagon outright lied, and poodle-Blair (investigate links with BP) went along for the ride. All these corrupt thugs should be investigated and impeached, or asked to resign. Perhaps a little jail time would teach Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Blair, and the other neo-con criminals that abuse of power is not acceptable in a democracy.
2. Bush's Big Quagmire in Iraq, where our US Soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilian alike, are living in a state of fear, because the Pentagon so badly botched up the planning, depriving innocents of necessary security, infrastructure and support, that Bush's regime should be exposed and condemned vocally by the Media and Congress, instead of this cover-up to protect their corruptions.
Today, the BBC reports that "a key oil pipeline in northern Iraq could take up to a month following a suspected sabotage attack just three days after it reopened." (Refer to : "Disruption in Iraq amid sabotage fears" on : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wo...)
The situation is dire according to journalists on the ground who report that the infrastructure is a mess and the US Soldiers and Iraqi Population are demoralized and angry.
In fact, both families of US Soldiers in Iraq and Veterans for Peace want our troops home. (Refer to "Our Troops Are Now Oppressors, US Military Families Tell Bush" on : http://www.aljazeerah.info/Ne...%20archives/2003%20News%2 0archives/August/16n/Our% 20Troops%20Are%20Now%20Op pressors,%20US%20Military %20Families%20Tell%20Bush .htm )
Is it any wonder, since the White House & Pentagon had the audacity to propose cutting the allowances of US Soldiers in Iraq last week! (Refer to : http://www.ajc.com/news/conte... ) Why doesn't this corrupt Bush cabal have their salaries cut and all profits from war confiscated to pay off the massive deficit they've caused, resulting from their deceit, arrogance and bungling?
" “George Bush said, ‘Bring them on,’” said Nancy Lessin, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, referring to the president’s response to post-war attacks on US troops occupying post-war Iraq. “Those three words galvanized Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and other veterans’ organizations to initiate the campaign we are launching today,” she said."
"“We say, ‘Bring them home now.’ Bring them home because our troops should not have been in Iraq in the first place. “Bring them home because there was no imminent danger to the United States. Bring them home because there were no weapons of mass destruction. Bring them home because there was no link between Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein,” said Lessin."
"“We are here today to say it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq, it is wrong for the US to be occupying Iraq, and there is no right way to do a wrong thing.”"
Why don't Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the CEOs & Executives from Halliburton, Bechtel, Big Oil & Bush's Rich Campaign Contributors volunteer their kids and loved ones to go fight in Iraq? Aren't they "patriotic"? Ha ha ha ha ha -- These corrupt thugs are war-profitters, immorally getting rich off the blood of our soldiers. Daddy Bush 41 has hit the jackpot-- study the Carlyle Group's profits from the blood-letting and destruction in Iraq. (Read William Rivers Pitt's speech "We Stand Our Ground", delivered on August 10, 2003, as the keynote address at the Veterans for Peace National Convention in San Francisco. Read it on : http://www.tompaine.com/featu... )
3. Bush's Big Costs in lives and treasure, due to deceit, arrogance, and inept planning, results in over 312 US & British Deaths to-date, with almost a death per day, of a US Soldier following Bush's bombastic "Top Gun" photo-op on the USS Abraham Lincoln, declaring the war over, and "Mission Accomplished!", warrants an in-depth investigation. Moreover, the incompetence of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, playing like kids in a nursery their "cowboys and indians" games, started out declaring the war would cost $1 Billion per Month, for approximately 3-6 Months. During the "war phase", it skyrocketed to $2 Billion per Month, for approximately 8 Months to 1 Year. When the predications of the Middle East Experts came true (that "know-it-all" Rummy & Wolfy ignored), and we're told now it will cost an obscene $4 Billion per Month, for a generation-- Why aren't the Media and Congress calling for these corrupt thugs to resign? It is an outrage that we've spent nearly $70 Billion already in Iraq with no end in sight to make Bush's Rich Cronies Richer! Meanwhile we've lost over 2 million jobs here at home, and are incurring record-level deficits and the highest National Debt in US History!
Read "New Numbers: The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington", by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung, August 2003, "INTRODUCTION: A PRIVATIZED OCCUPATION" published by the World Policy Institute" on : http://www.worldpolicy.org/pr... They cite the immoral profits being reaped by Bush's Corporate Cronies from warfare. An excerpt:
"Numbers dominate the recent headlines and sound bytes from Baghdad and the Pentagon."
"147,000: the number of U.S. ground troops on Iraqi soil.
237: the number of U.S. service men and women killed since the beginning of ground operations.
99: the number of these deaths since May 1, the day Bush declared combat victory for the coalition.
9: the number of months since members of the 3rd Infantry Division have seen their families.
3: the number of times their homecoming has been delayed.
$3.9 billion: the number of U.S. dollars, estimated by Donald Rumsfeld, it costs per month to support U.S. efforts in Iraq. $400 billion: the projected military budget recently approved by Congress for FY 2004."
"The list goes on."
"What many reports lack, despite all of these statistics, are the real details. When it comes to who is doing what in Iraq, the facts are less clear. Your average CNN-watching American may be able to report the latest on soldiers killed or Iraqis successfully "found, killed or captured," but you’d be hard pressed to find an average American who could tell you how the scene is really unfolding. How many Americans know who supplied the war, who is in charge of reconstruction, how much they are being paid for it, and how they were hired? "
"The answer is not quite so simple as a predictable response—"the military." Few know the real details: how the projects and personnel planning post-war Iraq come from private American corporations making world-class lemonade out of the sour situation in the Persian Gulf."
"From providing the weapons and tanks that took us to Baghdad, to the personnel rebuilding dams and bridges or operating ports, to the pencils and lesson plans revamping the education system for young Iraqis, private American corporations are spearheading U.S. campaigns in Iraq and reaping the financial rewards of warfare. "
"Private corporations have played an unprecedented role in the Second Gulf War, and from the looks of just one more number—$680 million, the projected contract with Bechtel Group Inc. for its reconstructive work in Iraq—they will continue to do so."
Why are Bush's Corrupt Corporate Robber-barons permitted to amasse great fortunes at the cost in misery of lives, and taxpayer dollars? Bush has already awarded massive tax cuts to the richest-of-the-rich and corporations-- and is now providing every incentive for the Corporations to push for warfare to fatten their greedy lusts to live the Belle Epoque.
There should be restrictions upon profits and prices charged by all Corporations awarded government contracts-- and moreover, no contract should be awarded without a proper bidding process with oversight and review by Congress and independent committees. The Bush Gang bypassed bidding and contract review processes in place so that the prices charged to the US Taxpayers are right and proper, and incentives are in place for solid, responsible contracting: 'cause Emperors Bush & Cheney give their Campaign Contributors Gifts (noblesse oblige? ... used to be called bribery & used to be a crime!)! The corrupt relationship between Bush/Cheney, the Pentagon & Defense Contractors is the Big Scandal, that the Media and Congress is hushing-up!
William D. Hartung is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and co-author with Ceara Donnelley of the new report, New Numbers: The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington, and published a concise, must-read article entitled "Insiders Profit from Iraq" on : http://www.tompaine.com/featu...
Hartung cites : "Unfortunately, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq, the Bush administration has been ethically challenged and politically tone-deaf. The administration's privatized approach raises questions about insider-dealing and potential conflicts-of-interest. When the first major contract went to Dick Cheney's former firm, Halliburton, in a secret, no-bid deal; and the second major contract went from the U.S. Agency for International Development to Bechtel, a firm that USAID chief Andrew Natsios used to work for, it was painfully clear that the 'fix is in' when it comes to deciding who gets contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq."
"The Bush administration has personal and financial links to companies that have profited from the war in Iraq. These firms include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Alliant Techsystems, Halliburton, Bechtel and Dyncorp. "
"We the People" should demand an end to this insanity and corruption. Contact Congress to demand a full and open-door investigation into the Bush Gang's crimes. These thugs should be tried and impeached for Crimes Against Humanity, and War-Profiteering on a scale that would make the most blood-thirsty Roman Emperors blush.
Nothing good for America has come from Bush's Corrupt Reign of Terror on behalf of the Global Corporate Empire.
Even the "dumbest of the dumb" recognize that the existing system of providing health care to Americans isn't working (well, maybe not the "dumbest of the dumbest" & maybe the greedy neo-con rapists don't want to face reality)! Over 45 Million Americans lack Health Care Insurance, because the costs are excessively exorbitant (e.g. for the Kenny-boy-(Enron)-Lay Imperial Salaries paid to corrupt CEOs, lobbyists, and for pay-offs to slimy politicians.) Those lacking health care insurance are either unable to obtain care if ill, or lose their life savings, homes, and any assets they've worked hard to acquire, to pay "lone-shark" prices charged by the criminal-private-Health Care Gamesters. It's criminal that Americans pay over 200 to 1000 times the costs of some medical interventions, than Europeans (Americans HMO CEOs make over 500 times their European counterparts)! Refer to my previous logs entitled: (1) "The Perils of Privatized Health Care - Cut Out the Overheads", and (2) "Universal Health Care, A Reality for Iraqis, but Not Americans".
America is the only 1st-tier Nation (Bush is turning us into a 3rd world country) not to provide health care for all of it's citizens. It seems the Bush Gang are committed to only providing health care, education, services and protections for the richest-of-the-rich. No wonder Bush is callous to the sufferring in this country, as he is a spoiled child, only interested in campaigning with his Corporate Robber-Baron Cronies who write out fat checks, as their "thank you" for Bush's Gifts of "Welfare" in the form of massive tax cuts to the wealthy & corporations; while burdening the rest of us with the largest deficit and debt in our nation's history.
Dr. Rashi Fein, PhD, is Professor of the Economics of Medicine, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School. He's just published an article entitled "Universal Health Coverage Let The Debate Resume" on : http://www.tompaine.com/featu...
This article by the Physicians’ Working Group for single-payer national health insurance in the August 13, 2003, issue of JAMA should re-energize the much needed debate on universal health insurance. He cites:
"Whether one agrees or disagrees with the approach that nearly 8,000 physicians and medical students have endorsed, this group has provided a considerable service by fanning the almost extinguished spark called universal health insurance."
"The Physicians’ Working Group issues a challenge: those who reject its “solution” are challenged to present their own, better and stronger one as a replacement. Thus, it will not suffice simply to dismiss the Physicians’ Working Group solution as unworkable. The American health care system and American society face a real problem and are compelled to search for an answer."
In other words, if you don't like the proposals by over 8000 Physicans' Working Group, what's YOUR answer? It simply isn't good enough to say: "I've GOT MINE... The Rich have GOT THEIRS... TO HELL WITH THE REST OF YOU..." That's the answer the Roman Emperors like Caligula, gave their citizens: and it's barbaric, obscene, corrupt and uncivilized. We must solve this problem: to do otherwise, is to allow our own "Saddam Hussein-types" to exploit us for their own selfish gains.
Dr. Rashi Fein continues: "The proposal has numerous other features, one of which, although extraordinarily difficult to attain, would help return medicine to its earlier honored status -- the elimination of for-profit institutions and the corporatization of medicine and return to the broad-based not-for-profit community hospital and prepaid group practice. America’s physicians have never looked to government as their savior. However, while they were guarding their flanks against “big government” and its power, they were blind-sided by employers who discovered they could bargain with insurers over benefits and premiums, by insurers who -- responding to employers –- exercised control over issues of productivity, requiring more “output” at lower reimbursement, and by managed care organizations who organized delivery systems that tried to preempt the physician’s independence and exercise of clinical judgment."
"Although American medicine may fear government’s exercise of arbitrary power, government is accountable. The real danger lies in the faceless, inexorable, profit-motivated market, an institution from which there is no appeal."
The myth that private enterprise can do everything better than government, is a Corporate Lie. The demonization of government has been a fairy tale used to convince the "not-too-bright" to hand-over basic services to goons who will rape them for riches... It's as wrong-headed, foolhardy and dangerous to believe that government is BAD and corporations are GOOD, as it is to believe that the world is flat. Neither of these ghoulish, childish fairy tale fantasies are true and only the ignorant believes such nonsense.
Some of the brightest Americans are career professionals in education or the civil services including the state department, defense, energy, and other areas of our government. And, moreover, in countries where Government is not seen as "evil", to serve one's country is held in high estime and is prestigious because it is deemed an honor, as it was in the USA during the 1950s. The institutions of government are well-run in countries like France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, etc., and their public school systems, for example, are amongst the best in the world!
Indeed, American public schools were considered a model to the world, delivering superior education, from the 1950s to the early 1960s, but were tragically undermined, by lack of funding, in order to purposely instigate widespread failure such that Corporations could eventually move-in and takeover public services and brain-wash us into paying much more for much less. In the end, the Corporations want to exploit a populace of dumb serfs who will work for slave wages with no safety-nets, and worship the ruling class of Feudal Barons in the New Global Corporate Empire. With Bush's help, these Corporate Ghouls are succeeding in destroying the American Middle-Class: the backbone and strength of our society.
Privatisation isn't the answer for basic services needed by the public, because the "greed-factor" undermines safety and health issues. Services such as fire-fighting, policing, forestry, environmental protection, water systems, sewage systems, health care, libraries, the military and defense, education, energy industry, etc. should all be administered under stringent governmental regulation, in order that these services are delivered to the highest standards, and at a non-profit status-- in order that all citizens are able to live safe and decent lives. To allow the rich to put our health at risk by taking-over areas vital to our lives, in order that they can enjoy their Belle Epoque is no different than the corruptions of those regimes that the righteous (and hypocritical neo-cons) condemn.
We Americans have observed first-hand, the back-breaking and heart-wrenching consequences, of greed-ridden Corporations who exploit their workers; pollute the environment; scam their investors; and, place the public's safety and health in danger-- unless government steps in to administer and regulate their accounting, remunerations, practices and standards. (Sure, the Corporate Robber-barons prefer to amasse fabulous fortunes, rather than spend a dime to safeguard employees, stockholders or consumers-- but we can't permit their lust for riches to harm and con the rest of us into being looted and exploited miserably).
Many public institutions and services are managed in order to ensure the highest standards of safety and affordability to all the people for the benefit of the society at large. Would you really want to live in a society wherein only the wealthy could have clean water, policing, fire-fighters, etc.? Would you really want to live in a society whereby only the kids of the wealthy could visit libraries? Would you really want to live in a society where only the kids of the rich have opportunity? That's what they've got in 3rd World Countries. That's what creates misery, poverty and crime. That's what Bush's Global Corporate Empire will turn the USA into, unless we revolt in 2004!
The neo-con corporate goons who would privatize everything, place us at risk-- as evidenced throughout our history. These Corporate-take-all neo-cons are currently bankrupting any safety-net and social programme benefiting the low-income and middle-class workers, such as social security, education, medicare, unemployment insurance, welfare, etc. You'll notice however, they sure are protecting all government programmes for the Corporations & the Richest: awards of massive tax cuts & handouts, tax loopholes for the rich, subsidies, immoral tax codes, havens, pensions for the rich, and, corporate boon-doggles: all paid for by the good ole' American taxpayer.
Health care institutions should be not-for-profit-- they are better managed, when they exist to serve the public, and not the "Top Dogs" & "Fat Cats" who spend their time on the golf course, bribing politicians into enriching themselves beyond the wildest dreams of Saddam Hussein and the Roman Emperors combined! They Corporate Robber-barons Dream Big!
The Bush Family, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz & their Defense Industry Cronies (Halliburton, Bechtel, Big Oil, etc.) all are Dreaming Big:- but for themselves, and not for America, not for the good of the American people.
"We the People" should Dream Big for Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for all of our citizens. Let's make our voice heard by writing to our Congress demanding a Universal Health Care System.
David Kay's "Meaning of the Word Is, Is, Was, Was?"
Robert Novak says David Kay will come up with a surprise regarding the phony WMDs. I'll bet.
All David Kay has said (if you parse his words-- it's harder to parse the Bush Gang's words than it was Clinton's "meaning of the word is, is"), is that there is substantial evidence that Hussein HAD programmes or biological weapons (back in the 1990s)! We knew that. Unless massive quantities of the REAL WMDs are found, it's all "window-dressing"!
The Bush Gang promised not to play with "technicalities" of words-- indeed, they criticized Clinton for doing so-- Clinton lied about sex-- Bush lied about war, killing hundreds of Americans & thousands of Iraqis. Anyone unable to see the difference is morally bankrupt akin to those Germans who followed Hitler.
"We the People" have been bamboozled by the neo-cons who are covering-up the Bushies scandal, more perilous for this nation, than were either Watergate or Lewinskygate.
Bush Gang Set to Cut Pay for US Soldiers in Iraq, while Awarding Massive Tax Cuts to the Richest
Another demonstration of the callous disregard for the lives of our American Soldiers, is exposed today. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz: the goons whose inept planning has resulted in the unnecessary deaths of scores of American Soldiers and Innocent Iraqis, now want to penalize our Military further. To the Bush Gang, our men & women in the military, who have shown more courage, than these goons ever will:-- American Soldiers are simply Cannon Fodder to enrich their Corporate Campaign Contributors & Daddy Bush (Carlyle Group).
One of the outstanding professional web-bloggers on the internet, Joshua Micah Marshall, reports the following, dated August 14th 2003 12:41 PM EDT on http://www.talkingpointsmemo.... :
"This, quite literally, takes the cake. The Pentagon and the White House are pushing to cut the pay of American troops serving in Iraq. (Refer to : http://www.ajc.com/news/conte... )
Back in April Congress raised the extra allowances soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines get for being in combat zones and for family separation. The former got bumped to $225 from $150 a month; the latter to $250 from $100. The administration says this increase will cost $300 million per year. And that's too much. They want to go back to the old rates.
The administration says that amount can't be balanced with our other priorities.
What are our priorities?"
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports : "The Defense Department supports the cuts, saying its budget can't sustain the higher payments amid a host of other priorities. But the proposed cuts have stirred anger among military families and veterans' groups and even prompted an editorial attack in the Army Times, a weekly newspaper for military personnel and their families that is seldom so outspoken."
Perhaps, the Secretary of Defense corrupt Rumsfeld, and his side-kick Assistant Secretary Wolfowitz should resign, having lusted for their illegal & immoral incursion (along with the ghoulish Cheney) into Iraq, and then botched it up so badly, that more Americans will be murdered in the aftermath of Bush's bombastic idiotic "circus act" on the USS Abraham Lincoln on 1st May, when he announced the war is over and "Mission Accomplished!", than during the so-called "war". They use our Military as Cannon Fodder and have contempt for their families, cutting their modest pay, while awarding massive tax cuts to the richest-of-the-rich. They are despicable.
"We the People" should ask the corrupt cabal of "arm-chair" "chicken-hawks" who were AWOL when it was their moment to serve this country, to resign. These thugs are unfit to hold office.
The Perils of Privatized Healthcare - Cut Out the Overheads
Dr. Marc Siegel, who is on the faculty in internal medicine at New York University, is the author of the novel Bellevue (Simon & Schuster). He is contributing to an ongoing inquiry by the Senate Finance Committee into the handling of the bioterrorism crisis. A regular contributor to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Nation. His website is www.doctorsiegel.com.
Dr. Siegal asks: "Why don't we eliminate the insurance part of healthcare?" Well, why don't we? Insurance companies are raking in massive big bucks & hiring hundreds of lobbyists (over 7 per US Senator), to protect their own greedy interests, not that of Health Care for American Citizens. If we eliminated the overheads costing billions-- greedy, corrupt Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay-types, then Americans would be able to obtain Health Care, in the same way citizens of all other 1st-tier nations ("Old Europe", Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, etc), who genuinely care about the welfare of their people.
The Bushies don't give a damn about the American People-- as evidenced by their ghoulish massacre of American Soldiers & innocent civilians, in order to enrich Daddy Bush (Carlyle Group), Cheney (Halliburton), Rice (Chevron), and, the other neo-robber-barons. Moreover, they are in the pocket of the hyper-rich Health Insurance Lobbyists who rake in Gold from the blood and torment of Americans unable to obtain health care, or who lose their life savings to pay for oppulent life-styles of the Bush Gang and their Corporate Cronies (that would make Saddam Hussein blush!).
"We the People" should be outraged at the shambolic state of our economy, health care, warfare to enrich the goons, and, the freedoms undermined by Bush's Global Corporate Empire. Read the following synopsis by Dr. Siegal.
"From all the reading I've been doing on healthcare lately it has dawned on me that medicine should not be a business. Education, which is vital to a strong democracy, is not treated as a business (except for those "voucher" people), and healthcare is even more vital. A couple of months ago I was wondering if health insurance was really good for us and tried to discover how much those companies made in net profits--wondering if it would be enough to finance "universal healthcare" as opposed to "health insurance." "
"After searching the Internet for two days I discovered that the companies who were publicly traded made gobs of money, but without the profits of all the other health insurance companies which aren't publicly traded, I really couldn't reach an informed conclusion."
"Today I found a couple of reports that made my eyes cross. Consumers Union and Families USA have put together some shocking numbers. Since you are concerned about Medicare, you may want to read these reports. One telling statistic that I came across showed that the per-case cost of administering healthcare by the government was in the neighborhood of 15 cents, compared with $1.25 for the same work done by health insurance companies. The reports I'm sending you links for tells why. The other concern about the cost of healthcare is prescription drugs, of course. I'm still working on that, but if Canadians can get drugs for 25-50 percent of what Americans are paying, I'm feeling fairly confident that "reform" is greatly needed. Here are a few numbers in the reports:"
"Total Compensation to CEOs of Health Insurance Companies (2002) Norman Payson, M.D., CEO of Oxford Health Plans: $76,010,825 Leonard Schaeffer, CEO of WellPoint: $21,765,532 D. Mark Weinberg, executive VP of WellPoint: $14,046,201"
"The total of the twenty highest-paid executives in 2002 annual compensation, not including stock options: $237,907,917! Add to that the stock options: $1,153,864,691! Yes, that is a billion dollars! Together you are looking at $1.75 billion that went to twenty people in that industry in 2002. I think that answers the question I had about the profitability of health insurance companies."
"On the subject of drugs: Public Citizen found that in 2002 the drug industry hired 675 different lobbyists from 138 firms in 2002--nearly seven lobbyists for each US senator. The industry spent a record $91.4 million on lobbying activities in 2002, an 11.6 percent increase from 2001."
"For the Health Insurance reports go to: http://www.familiesusa.org/site/DocServer/Top_Do llar_report.pdf?-docID=1381" title="http://www.familiesusa.org/site/DocServer/Top_Do llar_report.pdf?-docID=1381" target="_blank"http://www.familiesusa.org/si... http://www.consumersunion.org/pdf/medicare-603.PDF" title="http://www.consumersunion.org/pdf/medicare-603.PDF" target="_blank"http://www.consumersunion.org... "
"My question: Why don't we eliminate the insurance part of healthcare?"
Laugh at Fox News, the Neo-Con's Neo-Fascist Network!
On the "lighter" side, the neo-con's neo-fascist Fox News Network, owned by the reincarnation of William Randolph Hearst: Rupert Murdoch, is suing comedian & author Al Franken, in order to help the Bush Cabal install their 1st American Dictatorship. What next? Dishonest Condi has already implied that those who disagree with the Iraqi warmongers are racist-- and they are using Hermann Goering's technique of intimidation over those who disagree with their aggressive, immoral & illegal incursions on behalf of corporate robber-barons. They threaten those who don't support their corruptions, lies & deceit with law suits and punishments.
The Bush Gang fails to comprehend that dissent is the heart and soul of democracy. But then again, they hold true democracy in contempt, and would disdain others whom they would also consider "un-patriotic", "un-American" "traitors" like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, and true patriots: whose true love of life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness, is abhorrent to Bush's Corporate Global Empire!
To watch a sample of the hitlerian methods used by the Bush Global Corporate Empire, read the following Editor's Cut blog by Katrina vanden Heuvel, of the Nation on : http://www.thenation.com/edcu...
"Shrill and Unstable Fox"
"Even in this summer of political circuses (think California recall), Fox News Network's lawsuit against comedian and author Al Franken may win the silly season award."
"Lawyers for Fox argue that the network has trademarked "Fair and Balanced" to describe its news coverage and that Franken's use of that phrase in the title of his forthcoming book ("Lies and Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced look at the Right," due in stores next month--and now, thanks to Fox, certain to be a bestseller) would "blur and tarnish" those words."
"Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows that Fox News (like the Bush Administration) is adept at saying one thing while doing another. (Its other motto, "We report, You decide," should be "We Distort, We Decide.") Fox is also a network filled with particularly shrill, mean-spirited and politically-motivated characters. Ironically, in their complaint against Franken, Rupert Murdoch's lawyers perfectly described Fox's leading personality and Franken-antagonist Bill O'Reilly, "...he appears to be shrill and unstable. His views lack any serious depth or insight.""
"For the legal view of this tempestuous trademark dispute, I sought the counsel of Peter Weiss--a widely respected trademark and human rights attorney. His suggestion: "Al Franken should countersue for damages under Section 11 of the US Code of Civil Procedure, charging abuse of the legal process." The downside though, Weiss added, is that "maybe he'll draw one of those new Bushie judges who haven't heard of the First Amendment.""
"On a lighter note, Weiss sent me his letter to Franken:"
"Dear Shrill and Unstable Al,
When I read today's New York Times story about Fox's idiotic suit to my daughter-in-law, her response was (A) "I love Al Franken" and (B) " 'fair and balanced' was the motto of the Congressional Research Service when I worked for it." That would have been about seven years ago; it may still be the case today. Either way, tell your lawyers."
"Peter Weiss (semi-retired trademark lawyer)"
"We the People" should put a stop to this absurd Bush Gang's highjacking of everything good in America, before they succeed in completely destroying our country. They have already made a damaging dent in our People's Lives, Treasure & Freedoms!
By the way, go out & buy Al Franken's book!
Universal Health Care - A Reality for Iraqis, but Not Americans?
American Taxpayers are incurring a staggering cost of over $1 Billion per Week to build a Bush-style "Democracy" in Iraq. Iraqis are learning the painful lesson that Bush's Doctrine translates into a Corporations-take-all government, as they are turned into poor serfs lacking basic services. Soon they may be longing for the halcyon days of Saddam Hussein! Some already are, as we witness daily killings of our Soldiers: more Americans were killed today (but none are named Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Bremer, or Limbaugh)!
Ironically, during US Civilian Administrator L. Paul Bremer's last propaganda tour in the USA, a few weeks ago, he bragged that over 200 universities & schools were re-opened, and hospitals all over the country were operational for Iraqis needing health care. How lucky for the Iraqi People, if true: beware, Wolfowitz's & Bremer's "rosy" pictures have been discredited by journalists and American Soldiers "on the ground". Of course, the experience of those "in the field" is quite different from the well-rested, air-conditioned, well-fed, "Top Dogs" & "Fat Cats" ensconced at Bush's Crawford Palace or in Saddam's former Palace.
What the Bush Gang don't tell you, is that all Iraqis, under Saddam Hussein, were entitled to national health care, and those unable to pay the nominal costs, were able to obtain free care & medicine. Moreover, those Iraqi students who desire to attend university, were able to obtain a free university education. But then Saddam was "All Bad", while Bush is "All Good (sic)", 'cause he doesn't want Health Care & Education for Poor & Average American Citizens. One can almost hear Bush's rant: "Nope, them ther' good fer nothin' poor folks don't deserve it ... them ther' socialists & commies want social programmes-- that ain't my idee of freedum. But I ain't gonna give in 'cause I'm a tuff guy from Texas. Nope, we'll round them ther' socialists & commies up, hog-tie 'em, and lynch 'em from the nearest birch tree. Yep, we will. Nope, they ain't gettin' nothin'- not when we rich folks deserve it ... We ain't gonna take away from us rich folks for the sake of them ther' poor socialistis & commies! Nope, bring 'em on!"
Oh, my Fellow Americans, isn't this Bush-style barbecued-"freedom", wonderful!?!
The short-sighted, dim-witted, callous Bush Gang, don't want Health Care & Education for American Citizens, unless you're rich enough to deserve it. If you're poor or working class, you don't deserve a decent life-- but these neo-cons proclaim to be religious or "Christian" & "luv life" (huh?)! One could be forgiven for re-reading the dictionary definition of "Hypocrites".
Instead of caring for all of our American Citizens, the hypocritical Bush Gang funnel trillions into the Military Industrial Complex (refer to recent blog entitled "Daddy Bush 41 Hits Jackpot from Bush 43 War on Iraq!"), and into Corporations-- who get massive Government Programmes ala "Welfare for the Rich", paid for by the good ole' American Taxpayer.
Big Government spending is okay, when it profits the Global Corporate Empire, according to the right-winged ideologues at the neo-fascist "think tanks" like the American Enterprise Institute (Cheney's Brain & Rove's Brain) who tell Bush what to think, say & do. We spend an obscene $400 Billion (out of a $2 Trillion Budget) on the Defense Industry-- exceeding the next richest 18 countries combined. But nope, no health care for the masses of Americans-- we can't have that!
The neo-creed is: "Socialism for the Rich is Delightful" (Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, Pharmaceuticals & the Rich get massive Tax Cuts, Loopholes, Subsidies, and "Welfare" from the American Taxpayer)-- Social Programmes for those in need, the elderly, middle-class, low-income, and poor, are demonized, as the neo-con goons shout: "Nope, social programmes bring the Downfall of Western Civilization (sic)." (As if life under the neo-con fascists could be called: civilized! Ha!) What Bunk, People! God Forbid that we spend hard-earned Taxpayer Dollars on services to improve the conditions of life for "We the People", instead of enriching the Corporations & the Richest-of-the Rich.
We're being duped by a corrupt cabal of neo-fascist robber-barons, who have put their puppets in the White House, lusting for their neo-feudal system, in order that they can live the "high life", while we are destined to play the miserable role of their neo-serfs. But even these corrupt neo-rapists can't fool all of the people all of the time!
In an article entitled "Docs push for universal health care" by Kate N. Grossman, Staff Reporter, Chicago Sun Times, on : http://www.suntimes.com/outpu...
Grossman cites:
"Nearly 9,000 doctors, including two former U.S. surgeons general and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, have signed on to a drive to create a Canadian-style national health insurance system."
"A group of top doctors led by Chicago doctor Dr. Quentin Young, a longtime advocate of national health insurance, drafted a proposal published in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, one of the country's top medical journals."
Supporters cite: *It would cover every American for all necessary medical care and serve as an expanded and improved version of Medicare."
"*It would save $200 billion annually by eliminating bureaucracy, overhead and profits of the insurance industry and reducing spending on marketing. Savings would cover the costs of the uninsured and universal drug coverage."
One little teensy-weensy problem, folks: the insurance industry and private institutions who scam the American People every year, wouldn't rake in the massive jackpots they accumulate, if the current barbaric, inhumane system was replaced with a Universal Health Care System. My gosh, we wouldn't want the Chairman of the largest HMO, making over $350 Million/Annum to take a pay-cut, would we?
For years, the Big Corporate Insurance & HMOs have spent hundreds of millions big bucks, paying off corrupt Politicians like the Bush Gang, into scaring you by saying: "You'll have to wait for health care services-- there will be long waiting lines." This argument is bogus for those who lose their life-savings, homes, assets & jobs, to pay-off back-breaking & heart-wrenching debt, to the Health Care Insurers & Industry's "Top Dogs" & "Fat Cats".
In those countries offering National Health Care, patients normally don't wait if an intervention is serious; and, no one is denied health care, who is in need. Surely, the ability to obtain health care, and not be bankrupted doing so, outweighs our current system that denies care to those in need, and, over-charges our people (Americans pay over 200 times for similar interventions than in Europe!): Just another example of blood-money obtained by blood-thirsty corporate vultures!
Another problem involves the obscenely high over-heads to pay-off the Health Care Insurance & Industry's Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay-style reimboursements to rapacious "executives". Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year for the greedy CEOs & Lobbyists for the Health Care Industries, who provide no care themselves, and instead spend their time on the golf course, seducing corrupt politicians into protecting their "back-sides"? Cut out these "over-heads", and find competent administrators at reasonable salaries, instead of the rapacious golden deals the existing robber-barons use to loot the Patients and American Citizens.
Indeed, the USA is the only wealthy 1-tier nation, not to offer a Universal Health Care programme for all of its citizens. The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and other "Old Europe" nations, all have National Health Care in additional to Private Plans, which ensure that no citizen will "go broke" or go without Health Care.
"We the People" should take the opportunity to back these enlightened Physicians and Ex-Surgeon Generals calling for Universal Health Care. It is barbaric to mimic the USSR, who spent massively on their Military Machine enriching a minority, and impoverishing their people. It was a bankrupt political philosophy, destined to fail, as is the neo-con's Global Corporate Empire. Don't wait until we're a 3rd World Country, which the Bush Gang are quickly turning us into (having created the largest deficit & debt in our nation's history-- to pay-off their Corporate Campaign Contributors).
Write Congress to demand Universal Health Care. Don't buy the "bull" about it costing too much. Many experts estimate that less than 10% of the amount we spend enriching the Pentagon & Defense Industry Goons, would cover the costs!
Ignore Global Warming & the Environment at the Peril of Innocent Life
During the Big Tobacco Wars with the Medical & Scientific Establishments and Patients dying of cancer, that proliferated from the late 1960s through the early 1990s, these callous Corporations disingenuously claimed that science could not prove with 100% certainty a link between smoking and cancer. The debate raged on, because the scientists tried desperately to explain the concept of deductive reasoning and probability theories, that rendered their conclusions to be sound. In science, there is no such thing as 100% certainty in predicting any event. The electricity in your house, is founded upon experiments carried out by inventors based upon scientific theories, that always leave a percentage probability of doubt, by definition.
That doesn't render science's premises and conclusions invalid, however. In fact, if human beings made no decisions, or, took no actions or risks to improve our conditions, unless 100% certainty was verified, we would still live in caves and cook by camp-fire. Mankind develops inventions, medicines and cures, and approaches to solving problems, based upon theories that are often over-ridden by future generations. Sir Isaac Newton wisely said: "If I have seen further than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." Human advancement is progressive and demands that we take action based upon the best evidence possible: a sort of "pre-emptive" strike at the heart of problems posing risks to our health. (Tragically, the Bush Gang only see "pre-emption" as a Tool of Death & Destruction on those whom they want to exploit & over-power.)
Ultimately, the link between smoking and cancer was proven to be substantiated with empirical evidence to support the Medical Establishment's claims and solid probabilities that substantiated the Scientific Community's findings. Big Tobacco Corporations outright lied about the health risks for years, knowing full well, that the Medical & Scientific Communities were right. These corrupt corporations exploited the population's ignorance of scientific reasoning, deduction and probability theory-- They killed thousands of people for profit (claiming that smoking had no ill-effects upon health).
Tragically, the same Corporate-dominated reckless mentality, ignoring the well-being of the environment and global warming which poses dire consequences to the world, is being propagandized, by the Bush administration and Corporations with no foresight or concern about the health of this planet. The Bush administration even deleted those passages from a Governmental Report that warned of devastating damage caused to the environment by Global Warming. (The Bush Corporate Thugs like deleting intelligence that doesn't support their dogmatic neo-fascist diatribes-- and replacing it with their fabrications, lies & deceit). The Bush Gang censored this report, paid for by the US Taxpayer, and published by the US Environmental Protection Agency, before Christie Todd Whitman resigned last May (in the aftermath of being undermined by Cheney & His Gang of Rough-riders who don't care about Polluting the Environment, anymore than they do killing People in Iraq-- They only want their Power & Riches and the Consequences to Others be Damned!).
Predictably, Bush named Utah Governor Mike Leavitt as chief of the US Environmental Protection Agency-- someone with a track-record of "supporting development over conservation and would further shift environmental regulation out of Washington." His concern about the needs of Corporations over the health of the world, is consistent with the Bush Gang's rapacious invasion of every nation & area of the world that the Global Corporate Empire's neo-feudal robber-barons lust to exploit. Bush isn't smart enough to comprehend the consequences of decisions he is told to make by Cheney and Rove. And, his Corporate-take-all Campaign contributors don't give a damn about the world, providing they can enjoy their neo-Belle Epoque.
To permit Corporations and Peoples to trash the environment and ignore global warming, is to imperil all living creatures and future of humanity. It is foolish and reckless because we are dependent upon a web of life that is interdependent. Moreover, the preponderance of evidence supports the scientific community's claim that the Human Race (particularly the USA who consumes more energy/capita than any other nation on earth) is damaging the world's environments (e.g. forests, lakes, rivers, atmosphere, habitat for wildlife, etc.). This is unconscionable and foolhardy-- but not inconsistent with the Bush Gang's disdain and contempt for the law, other nations, "not-rich" life, and, the vulnerable of the world.
"We the People" should be wary of those indifferent to safeguarding the natural world, and heed Professor Monbiot's warning: ""So we slumber through the crisis. Waking up demands that we upset the seat of our consciousness, that we dethrone our deep unreason and usurp it with our rational and predictive minds. Are we capable of this, or are we destined to sleepwalk to extinction?"
Read Professor George Monbiot's article entitled "Sleepwalking to Extinction" on : http://www.monbiot.com
Excerpt: "The extreme events to which climate change appears to have contributed reflect an average rise in global temperatures of 0.6C.6 The consensus among climatologists is that temperatures will rise in the 21st century by between 1.4 and 5.8C: by up to ten times, in other words, the increase we have suffered so far.7 Some climate scientists, recognising that global warming has been retarded by industrial soot, whose levels are now declining, suggest that the maximum should instead be placed between 7 and 10C.8 We are not contemplating the end of holidays in Seville. We are contemplating the end of the circumstances which permit most human beings to remain on earth."
"Climate change of this magnitude will devastate the earth's productivity. New research in Australia suggests that the amount of water reaching the rivers will decline by up to four times as fast as the percentage reduction of rainfall in dry areas.9 This, alongside the disappearance of the glaciers, spells the end of irrigated agriculture. Winter flooding and the evaporation of soil moisture in the summer will exert similar effects on rainfed farming. Like crops, humans will simply wilt in some of the hotter parts of the world: the 1500 deaths in India through heat exhaustion this summer may prefigure the necessary evacuation, as temperatures rise, of many of the places currently considered habitable. There is no chance of continuity here; somehow we must persuade our dreamselves to confront the end of life as we know it."
"Paradoxically, the approach of this crisis corresponds with the approach of another. The global demand for oil is likely to outstrip supply within the next 10 or 20 years. Some geologists believe it may have started already.10 It is tempting to knock the two impending crises together, and to conclude that the second will solve the first. But this is wishful thinking. There is enough oil under the surface of the earth to cook the planet and, as the price rises, the incentive to extract it will increase. Business will turn to even more polluting means of obtaining energy, such as the use of tar sand and oil shale, or "underground coal gasification" (setting fire to coal seams). But because oil in the early stages of extraction is the cheapest and most efficient fuel, the costs of energy will soar, ensuring that we can no longer buy our way out of trouble with air conditioning, water pumping and fuel-intensive farming."
Daddy Bush 41 has Hit the Jackpot from Baby Bush 43 War on Iraq!
Ah! Follow the money-trail, folks! We all know that the Bush Gang & their Corporate Pay-masters have found a gold-mine (but no WMDs, the phony pretext upon which they steal their ill-gotten gains) by invading Iraq, conquering the country, and, exploiting the misery & deaths of Americans & innocent Iraqi People. Don't forget the OIL, too!
Did you know that Daddy Bush 41 has hit the jackpot from Baby Bush 43's, illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq? Well, he has! Well, it's all in the Family Folks, isn't it!
Read William Rivers Pitt's speech "We Stand Our Ground", delivered on August 10, 2003, as the keynote address at the Veterans for Peace National Convention in San Francisco. Read it on : http://www.tompaine.com/featu...
Veterans organizations all over the USA, are starting to ask questions about the Bush Gang's lies & deceptions to wage their dirty, stinking "war". They are increasingly concerned that Soldiers (307 Americans & Brits) and thousands of innocent Iraqis (6600-7700) have been massacred to prop-up Bush's hack-filled administration full of power-mad "arm-chair" "chicken-hawks" whose only discomfort is the cramps they get from sitting behind a desk all day, having used every "trick in the book" to avoid serving their country: these thugs are pathetic!
William Rivers Pitt reports:
"You will note that I did not name George W. Bush, for blaming Bush for the gross misadministration of this government is like blaming Mickey Mouse when Disney screws up. He is not in charge. Truman said "The buck stops here," and so we point to Bush as a symbol of all that has gone wrong. But he is not in charge. These other men, these New American Century men, have delivered us to this wretched estate, and by God in Heaven, there will be a reckoning for it."
"But is it all ideology for these men? Of course not. There is the payout. Have you ever heard of a company called United Defense, out of Arlington, Virginia? Let me introduce you. United Defense provides Combat Vehicle Systems, Fire Support, Combat Support Vehicle Systems, Weapons Delivery Systems, Amphibious Assault Vehicles and Combat Support Services. Some of United Defense's current programs include:"
"The Bradley Family of Fighting Vehicles, the M113 Family of Fighting Vehicles, the M88A2 Recovery Vehicle, the Grizzly, the M9 ACE, the Composite Armored Vehicle, the M6 Linebacker, the M4 Command and Control Vehicle, the Battle Command Vehicle, the Paladin, the Future Scout and Cavalry System, the Crusader, Electric Gun Technology/Pulse Power, Advanced Simulations and Training Systems, and Fleet Management. This list goes on and on, and includes virtually everything an eternal war might need."
"Who owns United Defense? Why, the Carlyle Group, which bought United Defense in October of 1997. For those not in the know, the Carlyle Group is a private global investment firm. Carlyle is the 11th largest defense contractor in the United States because of its ownership of companies making tanks, aircraft wings and other equipment. Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164 companies which generated $16 billion in revenues in the year 2000 alone. The Carlyle Group does not provide investment or other services to the general public."
"Who works for the Carlyle Group? George Herbert Walker Bush works for the Carlyle Group, has been a senior consultant for Carlyle for some years now and sits on the Board of Directors. This company is profiting wildly from this war in Iraq, a tidy gift from son to father."
"And then, of course, there is Dick Cheney's Halliburton, profiting in the millions from the oil in Iraq. Halliburton subsidiary, Brown & Root, is also in Iraq. Their stock in trade is the building of permanent military bases. Here is your permanent military presence in Iraq, and all for an incredible fee. Cheney still draws a one million dollar annual check from Halliburton, what they call a 'deferred retirement benefit.' In Boston, we call that a paycheck."
Check-out the Carlyle Group on the "Google" search engine and you can also find sources claiming that the Saudi Arabian Royal Family has funneled monies for years via this bizarre "Group", who have supported the Bush Family for generations. Talk about "generational commitment"! When will Condi (disloyal to the USA, while playing loyal Mommy Dearest to Bush 43 & Chevron) investigate into the National Security Risks for America from these links?
Is it any wonder that Bush's corrupt White House refuse to release 28 pages from the 9/11 Investigative Report?-- A smart investigator might find out more about the Bush Family Connections to the Saudi Royal Family (who have close links to Osama bin Laden), and the 9/11 attacks.
The Bush Global Corporate Empire won't let that happen because the American People might learn that the real links weren't between Osama & Saddam (enemies), but instead, between Osama & George(s) 41 & 43 (bon amis?).
"We the People" have been bamboozled, scammed, & conned, while the Bush, Cheney & Saudi Royal Families have hit the jackpots at the expense of our American Blood & Treasure, and that of the Iraqi People.
The Madness of King George's Hatred & Contempt for Democracy
The Mad King George has stupidly shown a dangerous hatred and contempt for Democracy. The Iraqi people are outraged by the Bush Gang's neo-colonialist occupation and are calling for us to leave their country.
The Bush Regime's refusal to engage the United Nations and other countries in the re-building effort, is both reckless and foolhardy. This neo-con Regime's corruption and callousness is also resulting in ever more unnecessary Deaths & Carnage each day:-- today for example, another American died and others were maimed & injured. Bush's neo-con cabal want complete control of Iraqi assets, services & people, in order that their campaign contributors can rake in the massive profits to enrich the corporate robber-barons from Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, and other corporate pay-masters.
Iraqi leaders and experts on the Middle-East are decrying the Bush Gang's hypocritical contempt for Democracy. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz & the other neo-con ideologues talk ... talk ... talk ... "Freedom" & "Democracy" -- and yet, their actions show hatred and contempt for the will of the Iraqi People (Democracy) and the will of Americans. The Pew Research Centre's polls reveal that the majority of American People want the U.N. involved in the Iraqi Reconstruction Programme. Sorry, America People-- but the despotic Mad King George's Regime Don't Want the U.N.: So that's that!
Violence has continued to break-out in Basra, Tikrit and Baghdad, this week-end. Observe the news-reels, and you won't see a happy & free populace (Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz all said that the Iraqis would welcome us with "open arms" throwing flowers in the paths of our armed forces:-- another deception like their phony WMDs pretext!). Instead, the opposite is occurring: the Iraqi people are throwing grenades, not flowers-- and aren't welcoming us, but hate us.
Our Soldiers want to come home, and continue to inform journalists that "Rumsfeld should resign" and "We want to go home; Iraqis don't want us here; and, We don't belong here."
Meanwhile, at Crawford Ranch (a far cry from Brownsville, where the poor don't have indoor plumbing), the Mad King George, his side-kick (gum-on-shoe) discredited Condi Rice, and Karl Rove (Bush's Brain) are throwing parties for campaign contributors, and happily singing "Kumbaya" while people are dying in their "War". Cheney & Rumsfeld look well-rested, and are also having the time-of-their-lives-- really enjoying this war-- while Americans are Dying & Maimed, and innocent Iraqis are slaughtered.
Back in Washington DC, John (Robespierre the Incorruptible) Ashcroft, is anxiously preparing for the return of Congress in September, in the hopes of intimidating any Senators who question his Patriot Act 2 (Elimination of American Democracy & Bill of Rights), by labelling them "un-patriotic", "un-American", and "traitors". Rove & Ashcroft and Rice & Rumsfeld and Cheney & Wolfowitz, have studied Hermann Goering and John Foster Dulles-- scare the superstitious populace with visions of "murky dangers & monsters" & intimidate those opposing your policies. "We'll say they don't luv America. We'll say they hate patriotism. We'll say they luv Osama bin Laden & Saddam Hussein.", the Mad King George can be imagined to murmur, after Rove & Rice repeat it at least 7 times, to commit this jingo to his alcohol-soaked brain that don't work so good.
Goering (refer to my last weblog "Bush, the Bungler, is all about "the Bible, Baseball and Barbecue"") understood how to scare the People into committing atrocities. Dulles was a war-monger who undermined a Democratically-elected Government in Iran (refer to "We Had a Democracy Once, But You Crushed It" by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman on : http://www.zmag.org/content/s...), and pushed for the insane War in Indochina, scaring ignorant Americans into thinking that the entire world would suddenly be transformed into a Communist Gulag. Read "The March of Folly: America Betrays Herself in Vietnam" by Barbara W. Tuchman. Replace the names of the nut-cases like Dulles with Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz, and Indochina with Iraq-- and it's deja vu all over again!
Given Condi's recent screed that poverty and hopelessness causes terrorism and ferments hate, perhaps the Mad King George ought not bankrupt the USA, placing a back-breaking & heart-wrenching deficit & debt (largest in US History) on the poor, low-income & middle-class, and fixed-income retirees, while giving the wealthiest 5% massive tax cuts for the rich in his insane "welfare for the rich" programme. These callous thugs have caused increased local & state taxation for those with modest incomes, and, slashed social services helping those in need. Ask the discredited Condi whether the corrupt, inept Bush/Cheney Corporate-take-all Economic Programmes, pose a threat to our National Security, since they result in wide-spread dissatisfaction and desperation within America, that she so glibly propagandizes for nations that the neo-cons lust to invade and conquer.
"We the People" had better beware of the nouveau bunk being thrust down our throats by the Madness of King George's hatred and contempt for Democracy. Otherwise, we'll wake-up to find ourselves in a Neo-Feudal State, where the Global Corporate Empire rules with an iron fist, and our freedoms become a nostalgic memory of the past.
Read "Preventive War 'the Supreme Crime: Iraq: invasion that will live in infamy" by Noam Chomsky, on : http://www.zmag.org/content/s...
Excerpt: "Washington told the United Nations that it could be relevant by endorsing US plans, or it could be a debating society. The US had the "sovereign right to take military action", the administration's moderate Colin Powell told the World Economic Forum, which also vigorously opposed the war plans: "When we feel strongly about something we will lead, even if no one is following us" ."
"President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair underscored their contempt for international law and institutions at their Azores summit meeting on the eve of the invasion. They issued an ultimatum, not to Iraq, but to the Security Council: capitulate, or we will invade without your meaningless seal of approval. And we will do so whether or not Saddam Hussein and his family leave the country. The crucial principle is that the US must effectively rule Iraq."
"President Bush declared that the US "has the sovereign authority to use force in assuring its own national security", threatened by Iraq with or without Saddam, according to the Bush doctrine. The US will be happy to establish an Arab facade, to borrow the term of the British during their days in the sun, while US power is firmly implanted at the heart of the world's major energy-producing region. Formal democracy will be fine, but only if it is of a submissive kind accepted in the US's backyard, at least if history and current practice are any guide."
Excerpt: "According to one career military officer who worked for eight months in the Near East/South Asia bureau in that office, the political appointees assigned there and their contacts at the State Department, the NSC and Cheney's office tended to work as a "network" and often deliberately cut out, ignored or circumvented normal channels of communication both within the Pentagon and with other agencies."
""I personally witnessed several cases of staff officers being told not to contact their counterparts at the State [Department] or the [NSC] because that particular decision would be processed through a different channel," wrote retired Lieutenant-Colonel Karen Kwiatkowsky. "What I saw was aberrant, pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline.""
"In an interview with Inter Press Service, she insisted that her views of Feith's appointees and operations were widely shared by other professional staff, and quoted one veteran career officer "who was in a position to know what he was talking about" as telling her before the Iraq war: "What these people are doing now makes Iran-Contra look like amateur hour.""
""I think it's time for a serious investigation [of Feith's office]," she said. "I just hope Congress will take it on.""
Bush, the Bungler, is all about "the Bible, Baseball & Barbecue"
"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best 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 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. 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 peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Hermann Goering, April 18, 1946, while awaiting the Nuremberg trials.
One could be forgiven for deducing that Georing's words are Karl Rove's (Bush's Brain), source of inspiration for the Bush Gang's 21st Century Wars, that they are recklessly unleashing upon the world. The illegal and immoral incursion into Iraq, was stage 1, the trial balloon. Subsequent stages in the "works" are: North Korea & Iran. Unless we call a halt to their insanity!
Cheney, is leading the charge, with the ghouls in the Pentagon, including Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Bolton, and other inept, power-hungry neo-cons, now conducting "Pre-emptive" Strikes upon Diplomacy, against North Korea & Iran, both of whom have made overtures to co-operate. Come on, folks, if a peaceful solution is found, the Defense Industry won't gorge off the Trillions from spilt Blood & Treasure, that the War-Booty will generate!
Meanwhile, the Bumbling, Bungler, Bush, is at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, singing "Kumbaya" with Condi Rice at his side at all times, to remind him of the lyrics. Bush may be an "innocent" guy's guy, but he's clearly unfit to be President of the United States.
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" - Thomas Jefferson
The French sneer that Bush is all about "the Bible, baseball and barbecue." Americans wouldn't understand the irony at work here: Experts in Government consider that democratically-elected leaders are supposed to focus on governing in accordance with their constitutions. World leaders are generally required to spend the majority of their time focused on the issues and needs of their countrymen. Not Bush!
Bush doesn't even understand the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights, and if he read them, without being informed as to their origins and authors, would dumbly describe their authors as: "Them there' socialists or commies just don't get it ... But we'll show 'em. Yah ... we'll show 'em ... Bring 'em on!". Insiders in the White House report Bush doesn't like to read (which might explain his stilted performances, as it's clear he doesn't even comprehend the words read off the monitors!) Of course, most neo-cons don't comprehend the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights, either, since having failed to read the Federalist Papers, they forget that the Founding Fathers intended them to be interpreted within the context, conditions and frame-work of today (2003) and not 1776!
"On Air Force One, he [Bush] doesn't even want to see cable news shows on the TV. He prefers videotaped replays of Texas Rangers baseball games. He likes to relax by clearing brush on his Texas ranch in 90-degree heat. He prays often during the day, and his regime includes Bible reading and the daily devotional "My Utmost for His Highest," which is popular among evangelicals."
That behavior might be okay, for Bush's hypocritical buddy, Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay who plundered pension funds, corporate assets & jobs, to enrich himself while attending church on Sunday. But it's kind of nice for a President of the United States, to uphold the separation of Church and State, enshrined in our laws, and also to spend a little time reviewing independent news, instead of being spoon-fed "baby-food" news by Corporate Cheney and "Fabulous" Condi.
Shouldn't we hold our elected officials to a higher standard? We're at "War" for goodness sake. Over 300 Coalition Forces and 6600-7700 Iraqis have been slaughtered. We're squandering over $4 Billion in taxpayer money per month, having already wasted over $67 Billion, and rising daily. It's more than an unpleasant reality: it's dire!
Bush announced today the appointment of one of his fund-raising buddies, Thomas Foley, to run the Iraqi private sector, deciding upon those services to privatize, sell-off, and, those to shut down. Will any of those Iraqis we've supposedly "freed" have a say so? (Apart from the corrupt, embezzler Chalabi, who is no different from the neo-con CEOs who raped Americans of their pensions & jobs. No doubt, Chalabi is also a neo-con quite willing to rape Iraqis providing he is well-rewarded. Corruption is a universal trait)
Why isn't the United Nations called upon to work with the Iraqi Councils to determine the best way to administer the country's assets, for the benefit of the Iraqi people? Could it be that what's good for American Corporations isn't good for Iraq? The U.N. has experts in nation building-- Bush's Corporate Robber-barons are experts at lining their own pockets with Gold. Some "freedom" for the Iraqi People, hmmmm ...
In the meantime, Bush is hypnotizing ignorant Americans, to the tune of "Everything is Beautiful", by chanting, with a straight-faced smirk, that all is proceeding well, just fine & dandy, in Iraq. Since, he doesn't read reports back from journalists on the ground, or disgruntled Iraqis, and doesn't watch the news-- he probably really believes it.
Please refer to : "US Troops Risk Alienating Iraqis as They Kill More", "Terrified by unabated bombings and grenade attacks, US troops killed seven Iraqis on Friday, risking further alienating the war-affected people." on : http://english.peopledaily.co...
Graham cites: "US troops made the worst possible start to their new "softly-softly" approach to security raids in Iraq yesterday by killing three men, injuring five others and having one of their own shot dead."
"The initiative -- aimed at winning friends instead of creating enemies -- was only hours old when their soldiers opened fire without warning on Iraqi men selling weapons in a market in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit."
Sorry, Bush, but Everything Ain't Beautiful. The rosy pictures your Gang paints of Iraq don't "square-up" with the facts on the ground. More deception? Well, if it worked the first time, why not, huh?
For a frightening assessment of the process that Cheney & Rumsfeld used to deceive the American People, and highjack the government, to wage an illegal & immoral war upon Iraq, read "The Paper Trail to War" by Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years, is now on the steering group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Before retiring, he led one of two CIA teams conducting the most-secret daily intelligence briefings at the White House. Refer to : http://www.tompaine.com/featu...
Mr. McGovern describes:
"I could scarcely believe my ears listening to Vice President Dick Cheney on July 24 defending the decision to go to war in Iraq. In light of what is now known, it was hard for me at first to tell whether he was applauding or blaming the intelligence adduced to support that fateful decision. "
"The centerpiece of Cheney's speech was a "mis-overestimate" -- the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) issued on Oct. 1, 2002. Reciting some of its main judgments, Cheney charged that it would have been "irresponsible" to shy away from using force to deal with the threat they depicted."
"But wait. Has no one told the vice president that the NIE's conclusions, though described as "high confidence" judgments, have been thrown into serious doubt by more than four months of experience in Iraq? Where is the nuclear weapons program Iraq was said to be "reconstituting"? Where are the chemical and biological weapons Iraq was purported to have?"
The NIE was published after Bush, Cheney, Rice & Rumsfeld already had decided to go to war in Iraq.
He concludes: "Many of my former colleagues at the CIA are still holding their noses. One suggested, not wholly in jest, that the biblical verse at the entrance to CIA headquarters -- "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" -- be sent on rotation to the State Department, to be replaced by "We cook estimates to go.""
Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the neo-con Gang all "cook the books" for our consumption. But the best is yet to come! More wars are on the horizon with the "axis of evil" North Korea & Iran being dishonestly "set-up" as the "fall guys".
Blind ideologues in the "bowels" of the Pentagon, like Feith & Bolton, are running around the world, behaving like thugs instead of statesmen, threatening other countries in a manner unbefitting a government official (and they would do Saddam, Odai & Qusai proud). They are currently planning to push North Korea and Iran into Wars. These countries have attempted to negotiate and agreed concessions: but this blood-thirsty gang doesn't want peace. They lust for war. So does Big Oil, Defense Contractors, Halliburton & Bechtel. It's insane! It's corrupt! It's despicable!
The warnings and forebodings of the upcoming Bush Wars to satiate the lusts of his Global Corporate Empire, can be found by searching on BBC, Atimes.com, TomPaine, Guardian UK, Independent UK, Alternet, and many other web-sites. Today an excellent "must-read" article was published in the UK Guardian by Simon Tisdall, entitled "The US is starting a nuclear fight that will be hard to stop. The hawks are gunning for a showdown with North Korea and Iran" on : http://www.guardian.co.uk/com...,3604,1015278,00.html
Tisdall cites:
"Bolton went nuclear, verbally speaking, only hours before North Korea finally acceded to longstanding US demands for multilateral talks on its nuclear arms ambitions. South Korean officials were relieved that the North had not used Bolton's broadside as an excuse for further prevarication. But like the rest of us, they were left wondering whether Bolton had launched a deliberate pre-emptive strike against the nascent diplomatic process."
"This raises a key question, as America's twin confrontations with North Korea and Iran over nuclear arms accelerate towards a crunch in the next few weeks. In a nutshell, peaceful, internationally supportable, diplomatic solutions to both disputes are available. Their outlines may be clearly discerned; the mechanisms by which they can be achieved are more or less in place. But does the US actually want to cut a deal?"
"But such compromises may not suit the likes of Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith at the Pentagon, and other hardliners, including perhaps Bush himself - who has professed personal loathing for Pyongyang's communist leader."
He proceeds to outline the ways in which those in the "bowels" of the Pentagon are undermining any peaceful resolution to problems with both North Korea & Iran. No wonder the neo-con attack dogs are "out to get" Powell and anyone else with the sanity to suggest it might be a little dangerous, if not immoral, to trigger a nuclear holocaust.
You would think that Condi might have educated Bush on the horrors brought about, by the atomic bomb named "Little Boy", dropped upon Hiroshima, by a Boeing B-29 bomber, at 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1945, 58 years ago. But then again, such unhappy talk might interfere with their bible readings & baseball games at their Texan barbecues this summer.
Unfortunately, far too few researches are following the "money-trail" in sufficient detail, and indeed, its at the heart of the corruption endemic within the White House and Pentagon, with their connections to Corporations, having placed these war-mongers in key positions of power, to carry out their greedy-goals to obtain vast Wealth & Riches. Tragically, the price is Blood of our Soldiers & Innocent Victims, and, Trillions in Taxpayer Money, hitting the poor, low-income, middle-income, and retirees on fixed-incomes, hardest. These modest folks will bear the brunt of Bush's obscene deficits & debts, and, not the wealthiest for whom Bush awarded massive tax cuts & "welfare for the rich".
"We the People" must rid ourselves of our cherished illusions and childish fantasies (e.g. We're always Good & Everybody Else whom the Corporations don't like is always Evil). We must demand that the Bush administration be investigated for misleading the American People and the World into their incursion upon Iraq. Moreover, we must stop future Wars that are unnecessary, illegal & immoral, from being waged, resulting in the heart-breaking toll in blood and treasure. There is no self-defense justified in bullying & prodding others into a fight. The arrogant, bully-boy postures and threats lodged against other nations, by the Bush Gang & their Rottweiler, Bolton, including North Korea and Iran, achieves nothing and is not constructive.
We are witnessing insane hubris by the Bush Gang, and our people and the peoples of this world deserve better.
During the 17th Century a "craze" captured the imagination of a superstitious populace, involving the transmutation of base metals into silver and gold. In both the 17th and 18th Centuries, con-artists abounded, with claims to be able to transmute stones and metals into riches, using secret potions, powders, and cantations. The phenomena eventually led scientifically-minded seers of that age, to investigate the nature of the physical elements, ultimately leading to the debunking of such nonsensical buffoonery. In the meantime, the lucky amongst these Middle-Age "snake-oil" salesmen made off with a King's Ransom, while those who were unmasked as charlatans were tortured to death, hung or burned at the stake.
Today, the neo-alchemists have discovered a new scam for convincing the superstitious populace, that the blood of innocent civilians and the looting of their country's assets, will make the faithful believers, rich beyond their wildest dreams. These neo-charlatans have convinced the greedy and corrupt that they will transmute Blood into Gold. It's a 21st century pipe-dream, just as delusional, but more blood-thirsty, invidious and cruel in its design.
At least, in the late Middle-Ages, the soldiers in the armies got some "booty" for their labours: Not today! Today the "booty" goes to Corporate Robber-barons & "Chicken-Hawks" who risk nothing, except cramps from sitting all day in an "arm-chair" & watching the blood-and-guts of innocents being killed, in order to enjoy their neo-Belle Epoque! At least, the "snake-oil" salesman of yore "paid-the-price" if caught-- today's neo-"snake-oil-salesmen" get rich from innocent soldiers and civilians spilling blood, under false pretences.
The American People have been mislead by imposters posing as "republicans" or "conservatives", but who are in fact, labelled "neo-cons", and are Corporate "Dog-Robbers". Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz, are Corporate "Dog-Robbers", doing the bidding of Big Oil, Halliburton, Bechtel, and others who exploit Government institutions and policies for personal gain and wealth. ("Dog-Robbers" were the aides to the Generals in WW2, who set their patrons up in fancy hotels, furnishing them with fine food, wine, women & song, in "Old Europe" so the "top-dogs" and "fat-cats" in the Military could live like Emperors & Kings, while our soldiers spilt their blood and guts in battle).
The neo-con "court jesters" and "attack dogs" like the blowhards Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Krystol, etc. are all funded by neo-fascist "think tanks" like the American Enterprise Institute, or insidious corporate entities like the Carlyle Group-- that enrich those who loot for the Corporate Robber-barons, and punish those who speak-out for "We the People".
Now, the ignorant American populace is being spun alchemistic fairy tales with no basis in reality:
1) USA will bring "freedom" to Iraq - this is designed to squelch any criticism of the real motives behind the Bush/Cheney Global Corporate Empire's immoral & illegal incursion into Iraq, expending Lives (Death Toll has Reached 300 Coalition Forces! Over 6600-7700 Iraqi Civilians Massacred!) and Treasure ($4 Billion per Month! Over $67 Billion Squandered to-date).
Of course, the Bush Gang selectively forgets to inform you that Iraq's national assets have been "sold-off" to their cronies, and that the People of Iraq have NO SAY in the contracts awarded to the Corporate Robber-Barons who put the Bush/Cheney junta in office.
2) USA will "find" WMDs ... still unclear as to whether they'll find actual "weapons" or "programmes" ... as they swing-back-and-forth from one lie to the next, day by day. Can a "programme" (a document) pose an "imminent threat"? Hmmmm ... well if it's sufficiently heavy a volume, it might knock someone out (sic) ... but how many pages are needed to fill a missile?! Laugh if you will ... but lies were told to lead us into war.
The Bush Gang is desperate to divert the attention of the American Public, who already suffer attention-deficit-disorde r, away from their inability to substantiate the insane visions of "mushroom clouds", nuclear attacks, and, chemical & biological weapons about to hit us with only 45 minutes notice. The Bush Gang used "brain-washing" techniques of repetitive mantras shouted at us continually until most folks fell for their deceptions.
3) Yesterday, a discredited Condi Rice played the "race card" in Dallas:-- implying bizarrely, if you're not pro-war, you must be a racist! Come on, really folks. Get serious. Did John Belushi rise-up from the grave & write the script? ("Saturday Night Live" desperately needs some decent material from talents of yore like Belushi, Aykroyd, Chase, etc.:-- maybe they could simply re-play Rice's satirical farce.)
Perhaps the French should have invaded Birmingham, AL and the South, in the early 1960s, and enforced a regime change in the USA-- as the blacks fled to Paris in those days to escape the tyrannical persecution in the USA. Of course, the Iraqi people have expressed almost daily, by killing one of our soldiers, they want to be freed of USA.
Poor Condi is sounding oh, so desperate these days, but then maybe Johnny Cochran advised her upon what to do, if the truth inconveniently gets in the way of their agenda.
4) Americans will profit from cheap oil. Check the prices at the pumps, My Fellow Americans. It's increasing, not decreasing. Iraq is having to import oil, and the people "over-there" are being gouged, as are "We the People" "over-here".
Moreover, when Halliburton, Big Oil, Bechtel and other greedy-gusses get their hands on that precious resource: they'll spike the prices upwards to giddy heights, harming low-income, middle-class, and fixed-income retirees, in order that the Corporate "Top-Dogs" and "Fat-Cats" can live like the Feudal Emperors and Kings of yester-year.
Since we're not informed of the truth-of-the-matter by our own Media, one must seek sources like the BBC, ATimes.com, and the Bangkok Post (which actually report information sent out from AP, Reuters, etc.). The Bangkok Post reported today on http://www.bangkokpost.com/Ne...:
"US rivals say Halliburton has near-lock on Iraq oil work"
"Officials of the Corps of Engineers did not return numerous phone calls Thursday seeking comment on the contract. But last month, in response to questions from other companies about Halliburton's role, the corps said on its Web site that all potential bidders had received the same information to ``eliminate any competitive advantage'' Halliburton might have from its involvement in the Iraqi reconstruction work so far."
"Working in Iraq has helped turn around Halliburton's financial performance, its second quarter results showed. The company made a profit of $26 million in this year's period, compared with a loss of $498 million a year earlier. The company stated that 9%, or $324 million, of its second-quarter revenue of $3.6 billion came from its work in Iraq. _ NYT News Service"
US Corporations have complained that Cheney's old "stomping grounds", Halliburton, were given the lucrative contracts, taking Halliburton from multi-million dollar losses, to a profit position (Are they being run by another crony like Bush's Buddy, Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay, who "takes the money and runs"):-- and that no bidding process occurred-- no contractual competition occurred-- and no review by Iraqis or independent over-sight committees, took place. Should massive government contracts be awarded to a Corporation, like Halliburton, having run-up hundreds of millions of dollars of debt? Are they being mis-managed, or is there malfeasance at Halliburton?
Halliburton paid out over $40 Million to Cheney ... They have been "awarded" $2-3 Billion in Government Contracts without bidding or review! (Perhaps you should revisit the dictionary definition of: BRIBERY?) Anyone who knows even a "teensy-weensy" bit about business, knows that a 50-to-1 to 75-to-1 Return-on-Investment (ROI) ain't bad, nope, it ain't bad at all! For those who aren't corporate-wise, most investment decisions require a 3-to-1 ROI. Of course, Cheney can be generous with the good ole' taxpayers money, if it enriches himself & his corporate cronies.
One might be forgiven for wondering if such blatant "war-profiteering" & "cronyism" shouldn't be illegal. Or is it? It's a crime under the US Constitution to mis-lead a People into War, based upon deception.
The Bush Gang & their Global Corporate Empire have discovered the "secret" alchemists's formula for transmuting innocent Blood into Gold. (Of course, Bush's buddy, Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay's formula was transmuting Pension Plans, Corporate Assets & Jobs (Misery) into Gold! But too many victims complained!) Under the neo-alchemy formula: Dead men tell no tales! The Bush Gang have devised their secret neo-potions, neo-powders & neo-cantations, all used to enrich the top 5% and kill-off and/or impoverish the rest of us!
Please keep the following neo-alchemy formula a secret:
(A) Buying-Up the US Government's neo-"Dog-Robbers" & getting them to do your bidding ... and,
(B) Buying-Up the neo-fascist "think tanks" & Media as Cheer-Leaders to "Rah-Rah-Rah" on behalf of their Corporate Global Empire.
(C) Wage War upon a country that can't really fight back, as it is vastly inferior militarily, and destroy their infrastructure. Hedge your bets with countries containing vast assets (but if not, ensure the good ole' American Taxpayer is patriotically willing to "foot-the-bill").
(D) Obtain massive government contracts with no bidding or oversight to re-build at "top dollar", exploiting natural and human resources at slave labour wages.
Expenses (A) + (B): Give corrupt politicos lusting for power & money cushy jobs in Washington D.C.!
Transmutation Secret (C): Blood & Treasure paid for by Poor & Average Taxpayers and Innocent Targets!
Revenue (D): Massive contracts with no questions asked!
Gold! (Profit) = Transmute [(D) by (C)] Minus [(A)+(B)]
Et Voila! Like Halliburton your annual report will happily boast record-level profits! What about (C)? Ah, that's the alchemist's secret potion, powder & cantation of Death and Destruction.
In the meantime, the very purposes of our US Constitution and Bill of Rights are under-mined, and any concern about the welfare of the American People and the vulnerable around the world, is drowned-out and shouted-down.
Don't tell anybody their secret-- otherwise, the neo-alchemist's scam might be discovered! And after, all the Blood of Innocents is Cheap; the Destruction of another Country Doesn't Affect You (sic); and, it sure will transmute a lot of Gold for the Bush/Cheney Global Corporate Empire.
Iraq Didn't Use Chemical or Biological WMDs in the "War" :-- Did the US Government?
The hypocrisy and deception of the Bush/Cheney Empire has reached legendary proportions around the world. Prior to their illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq, which has resulted in over 296 American & British casualties & between 6600-7000 innocent Iraqi civilian deaths, the Bush Gang threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iraq, if Saddam Hussein dared to use chemical or biological WMDs against our troops.
It turns out the chemical/biological protection suits hidden by Iraqis, may have been needed to protect their people against the on-slaught of American chemical & biological WMDs, that we immorally used against their people (whom the Bush Gang hypocritically claimed to "liberate" -- hmmmm ... some "liberation" (sic), isn't it? ...).
The Iraqi military did not use any chemical or biological WMDs in their vain attempt to fight-off the vastly superior & equipped powers of the US Military. (We spent over 400 times/annum-- trillions more than Iraq on the Military Industrial Complex.) However, both "The Nation" (http://www.thenation.com) & AlterNet(http://www.alternet.org) report that the US government used napalm in Iraq ... Could this be true?
The US Government reported the American Military ceased to use napalm after the damaging & irreparable affects upon innocent children and adults alike, during the Vietnam War. The impact upon the nervous systems of the Vietnamese people and our own soldiers was so horrific, that it was prohibited in subsequent military actions.
There is an increasing pattern of deception by the Bush administration that is staggering in it's arrogance and ghoulishness.
We may actually use worse gaseous WMDs than napalm, in our warfare-- but shouldn't this be subject to the standards of Congressional over-sight and review? The US Government is obliged to respect international treaties and guidelines for public scrutiny, to ensure that we do not violate basic human rights and agreed rules of engagement in battle.
"We the People" should write our Congress in outrage to un-cover, yet again another potential crime dug-up from the "bowels" of Rumsfeld's & Wolfowitz's Defense Department & Pentagon.
"Here's yet another Vietnam-era flashback: Marine fighter pilots and commanders newly returned from Iraq have confirmed dropping dozens of napalm-type bombs to clear the path to Baghdad during the war. Col. Randolph Alles who commanded Marine Air Group 11 told the San Diego Union-Tribune, "We napalmed both those (bridge) approaches.
Unfortunately, there were people there because you could see them in the (cockpit) video. He added, "The generals love napalm. It has a big psychological effect."
The Pentagon officials trying to squirm it's way out of the situation – they had repeatedly denied using napalm during the war – by claiming that the "Mark 77 firebombs" are "remarkably similar" to napalm weapons, but technically not the same."
August 6, 2003 @ 2:38PM
The Reign of Terror: Executive Orders & Patriot Acts
Bush is not the first American President to exert his will through the use/abuse of Executive Orders. In fact, during the Clinton administration, a number of critical articles were issued by such "think tanks" as the Cato Institute and the Heritage Foundation, expressing concern regarding the separation of powers as defined in the US Constitution.
"THE SEPARATION OF POWERS"
An excerpt from an article entitled "The Use and Abuse of Executive Orders and Other Presidential Directives", by Todd F. Gaziano:
"There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person." --Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu1
"The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." --James Madison, Federalist 46
"All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." --U.S. Constitution, Art. I, § 1
"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." --U.S. Constitution, Art. II, § 1, cl. 1
"One of the great and enduring gifts from the Founders' generation was the inclusion of separation of power principles in the United States Constitution. The Framers had studied the writings of Montesquieu and other political philosophers as well as the workings of the separate branches of their own state governments. Their conscious design to enforce this separation of functions was carefully explained in The Federalist Papers and during the debates over ratification of the United States Constitution. The separation of powers is now enshrined in both the structure of the Constitution and various explicit provisions of Articles I, II, and III."
Gaziano's proceeds to outline the lawful responsibilities of the Executive Branch of Government, and the history of Presidential use/abuse of the Executive Order. It is well worth reading and may be accessed on : http://www.heritage.org/Resea...
In the aftermath of 9/11, with our country shocked and terrorized by that horrible tragedy, the Bush & Cheney administration has exploited the opportunity to pass Executive Orders and the Patriot Act, harmful to our democracy. The American citizenry should question the reign of terror brought "down upon our heads" by the Bush & Cheney Gang, cynically using 9/11 as an excuse to tear asunder the very fabric of our system of "checks-and-balances" and the structure of government.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS
Bush has issued 116 Executive Orders (EO) to-date (http://www.archives.gov/feder...); his father G.H.W. Bush issued approximately 97 EOs by the same time in his adminstration; and, Clinton issued approximately 131 EOs in the same period of his administration. Apparently Bush didn't learn any lessons from the conservative critics of Clinton's excessive use of EOs. This is not a good trend, as EOs are designed to be used for National Emergencies.
Recently, our Presidents have abused EOs to legislate their agendas, and it is important for Congress to reverse this trend, particularly in light of the unstable state of peace in the world today, and, Bush & Cheney's Global Corporate Empire designed to hand-over the world's natural resources and people to be exploited by corporations.
Some examples of President Bush's abuse of EOs are as follows:
1) EO 13201-13204 signed on February 17, 2001, wherein President Bush's appalling and outrageous decision to issue "four mean-spirited, anti-worker executive orders sought by his corporate contributors and by right-wing ideologues . These orders undermine worker rights and dismantle thoughtfully constructed and effective working relationships between labor and management", reported by "Bush issues anti-worker executive orders" on : http://www.goiam.org/politics... .
2) On November 1, 2001, President Bush signed EO 13233 it represented "a step backward with respect to holding government officials accountable--the very issue that was at the heart of Watergate. It effectively repealed the passage of the 1978 Presidential Records Act (PRA) allowing Presidential Papers to be made public." This resulted in the papers of Presidents and Vice-Presidents from G. H. W. Bush forward to be locked and only accessible by a court order (demanding expensive litigation outwith the possibility for many scholars, reporters, historians, and certainly the public).
One could be forgiven for wondering if Bush's father, Cheney, Rumsfeld & those in Bush 41's Gang's embarrassing dealings with their "buddy-at-the-time", Saddam Hussein, might have been exposed, prior to their incursion into Iraq. Refer to "Critics Blast Bush Order on Papers" on : http://www.commondreams.org/h...
3) On May 22, 2003, Bush signed EO 13303, that effectively "hands blanket immunity from lawsuits and criminal prosecution in connection with the sale of Iraqi oil." Today, an article in the L. A. Times entitled "Immunity for Iraqi Oil Dealings Raises Alarm" by Lisa Girion, Times Staff Writer, cites the following on : http://www.latimes.com/news/n...,1,145151.story?coll=la-home-headli nes:
"Lawyers for various advocacy organizations said the two-page executive order seemed to completely shield oil companies from liability — even if it could be proved that they had committed human rights violations, bribed officials or caused great environmental damage in the course of their Iraqi-related business."
"As written, the executive order appears to cancel the rule of law for the oil industry or anyone else who gets possession or control of Iraqi oil or anything of value related to Iraqi oil," said Tom Devine, legal director for the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit group that defends whistle-blowers."
For more analysis, read "War on Americans: Executive Power Grab on Tap at the White House?" by Sarah Foster, worldnetdaily.com, on : http://www.sweetliberty.org/i...
PATRIOT ACTS
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) outlines concerns regarding the Patriot Act and Executive Orders signed by Bush that is so broad in it's definitions, that it could be applied to those citizens who commit acts of civil disobedience or who don't agree with their political agenda. Please visit the BORDC web-site on : http://www.bordc.org .
Congress hurriedly passed through a bizarre legislation, (most likely prepared months in advance of 9/11 by the White House), turning over unprecedented powers to the Executive. Congress was panicked in the after-math of 9/11, and did not do their duty and thoroughly review & debate the merits and dangers ensuing from the act. They also acted cowardly, and cowered in their fear of being called "un-patriotic" or "un-American" by the Bush Gang-- a standard intimidation and brain-washing tactic.
BORDC cites that "The USA Patriot Act gives the FBI and CIA the rights to wire-tap; monitor e-mail; survey medical, financial & student records; and, break into homes and offices without prior notification."
Now, Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft & the Gang are trying to push through a USA Patriot Act 2, which will enable them to strip those "labelled" as "enemy combattants" of their American Citizenship (there are no guidelines for this appellation: you may be called an "enemy combattant" at the whim of the President). No longer an American citizen, you will be deported to a "place with no government" (i.e. American Concentration Camp at Guantanamo Bay, where no laws apply?).
"We the People" need to contact our Congress, and request that they over-turn USA Patriot Act 1, and do not under any circumstances pass the un-American Patriot Act 2. Moreover, we need an independent over-sight review board to assess the abuses of Executive Orders enabling Presidents to legislate from the Executive Branch, which is un-constitutional.
We Don't Want to Admit the Truth Staring Us in the Face
The eminent historian, Barbara W. Tuchman, describes in her highly acclaimed & well-respected work "The March of Folly", the phenomena of some in the British Parliament who warned their government prior to the American Revolutionary War, that the American Colonialists were increasingly disgruntled at the back-breaking taxes sent back to England, instead of used to improve the infrastructure & lives of those in the Colonies. These British observers warned that a new policy should be considered in order to avoid an unnecessary & costly war. The British war-mongers, retorted that the Americans loved England, and understood the need to pay high taxes in order to retain their "support" and "wise rule". Well, we know the outcome of the self-deluding propaganda put forward by those in the British Aristocracy, who called those opposed to war with the American colonialists: "un-patriotic", and those Americans who wanted independence: "terrorists".
"We the People" should remember that those who do not learn from history, are destined to repeat its mistakes. Read the following article published today on : http://www.atimes.com :
Insider fires a broadside at Rumsfeld's office By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - On most days, the Pentagon's "Early Bird", a daily compilation of news articles on defense-related issues mostly from the US and British press, does not shy from reprinting hard-hitting stories and columns critical of the United States Defense Department's top leadership.
But few could help notice last week that the "Bird" omitted an opinion piece distributed by the Knight-Ridder news agency by a senior Pentagon Middle East specialist, Air Force Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski, who worked in the office of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith until her retirement in April.
"What I saw was aberrant, pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline," Kwiatkowski wrote. "If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of 'intelligence' found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post-Saddam [Hussein] occupation [of Iraq] has been distinguished by confusion and false steps, one need look no further than the process inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense [OSD]."
Kwiatkowski went on to charge that the operations she witnessed during her tenure in Feith's office, and particularly those of an ad hoc group known as the Office of Special Plans (OSP), constituted "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-option through deceit of a large segment of the Congress".
Kwiatkowski's charges, which tend to confirm reports and impressions offered to the press by retired officers from other intelligence agencies and their still-active but anonymous former colleagues, are likely to make her a prime witness when Congress reconvenes in September for hearings on the manipulation of intelligence to justify war against Iraq.
According to Kwiatkowski, the same operation that allegedly cooked the intelligence also was responsible for the administration's failure to anticipate the problems that now dog the US occupation in Iraq, or, in her more colorful words, that have placed 150,000 US troops in "the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan".
Kwiatkowski's comments echo the worst fears of some lawmakers, who have begun looking into the OSP's role in the administration's mistaken assumptions in Iraq. Some are even comparing it to the off-the-books operation run from the National Security Council (NSC) during the Ronald Reagan administration that later resulted in the Iran-Contra scandal.
"That office [OSP] was charged with collecting, vetting, disseminating intelligence completely outside the normal intelligence apparatus," David Obey, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, said last month. "In fact, it appears that the information collected by this office was in some instances not even shared with the established intelligence agencies and in numerous instances was passed on to the National Security Council and the president without having been vetted with anyone other than [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld]."
Little is known about OSP, which was originally created by Rumsfeld and his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to investigate possible links between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group. While only a dozen people officially worked in the office at its largest, scores of "consultants" were brought in on contract, many of them closely identified with the neo-conservative and pro-Likud views held by the Pentagon leadership.
Headed by a gung-ho former navy officer, William Luti, and a scholarly national-security analyst, Abram Shulsky, OSP was given complete access to reams of raw intelligence produced by the US intelligence community and became the preferred stop, when in town, for defectors handled by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), led by Ahmed Chalabi.
It also maintained close relations with the Defense Policy Board (DPB), which was then chaired by Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Feith's mentor in the Reagan administration. Perle and Feith, whose published views on Israeli policy echo the right-wing Likud party, co-authored a 1996 memo for then-prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that argued that Saddam's ouster in Iraq would enable Israel to transform the balance of power in the Middle East in its favor.
The DPB included some of Perle's closest associates, including former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey and the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, who played prominent roles in pushing the public case that Iraq represented an imminent threat to the United States and that it was closely tied to al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.
In her article, Kwiatkowski wrote that OSP's work was marked by three major characteristics:
First, career Pentagon analysts assigned to Rumsfeld's office were generally excluded from what were "key areas of interest" to Feith, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, notably Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. "In terms of Israel and Iraq, all primary staff work was conducted by political appointees; in the case of Israel, a desk officer appointee from the Washington Institute for Near Policy [a think tank closely tied to the main pro-Israel lobby in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]."
Second, the same group of appointees tended to work with like-minded political appointees in other agencies, especially the State Department, the NSC, and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, rather than with those agencies' career analysts or the CIA. "I personally witnessed several cases of staff officers being told not to contact their counterparts at State or the National Security Council because that particular decision would be processed through a different channel," Kwiatkowski wrote.
The CIA's exclusion from this network could help explain why Cheney and his National Security Advisor, I Lewis Libby, a long-time associate of Wolfowitz, frequently visited the agency, in what analysts widely regarded as pressure to conform to OSP assessments.
Third, this exclusion of professional and independent opinions, both within the Pentagon and across government agencies - according to Kwiatkowski - resulted in "groupthink", a technical term defined as "reasoning or decision-making by a group, often characterized by uncritical acceptance of conformity to prevailing points of view". In this case, the prevailing points of view were presumably shaped by neo-conservatives like Feith, Wolfowitz and Perle.
Kwiatkowski's broadside coincides with the appearance in neo-conservative media outlets, notably the Wall Street Journal, of defenses of Feith, who is widely seen as the Pentagon's most likely fall guy if it is forced to shoulder blame for bad intelligence and planning. The government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pressed President George W Bush to fire Feith for several months, according to diplomatic sources.
In a lengthy defense published on Tuesday, the associate editor of the Journal's editorial page described Feith's policy workshop as "the world's most effective think tank".
(Inter Press Service)
Intimidating the Media: Beware of the Bush/Cheney Global Corporate Empire
Over the past few years, a dangerous and bizarrre phenomena has arisen, and is destined to under-mine the very foundation of our supposedly "free" society: It is the current intimidation and demonization of the Media.
In today's, neo-orwellian world, if the Bush & Cheney Global Corporate Empire is even questioned or criticized, those doing so are labelled as "biased", "traitors", "un-american", "communists"-- Soon, those who ask tough question & criticize this neo-Imperial Bush Regime will be labelled "blasphemeres" and we'll be told they should be "burned at the stake" or shipped off to the American Concentration Camp at Guantanamo Bay.
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and other neo-fascist "think-tanks" have obtained hundreds of millions of dollars from hyper-rich contributors, who fund neo-con "court jesters" and "attack-dogs", like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer, and unknown right-winged bloggers who blast & drown the airways with their repetitive, hate-filled, fanatical screed, chanting the same weary mantras, over-and-over-and-over again (a standard brain-washing technique):
1) If we dare criticize Emperors Bush & Cheney war-mongering based upon false pretences (i.e. Iraq): they fill the airways with fear & terror, shouting: "9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11" ... "mushroom clouds" ... "Evil Terrorists" ...
The Bush/Cheney propaganda machine then absurdly intimidates detractors with such bizarre nonsense as: "You must LOVE Saddam Hussein & HATE America", hoping that anyone who seeks the truth will quake with FEAR & SHUT-UP!
2) If we dare criticize Emperors Bush & Cheney corrupt economic policies giving massive tax cuts to the rich, and loading the lower economic, middle-income, & fixed-income retirees with back-breaking & heart-wrenching debt, exceeding $1.9 Trillion by the end of 2004, then they fill the airways with fear & terror, shouting: "taxation is wrong-- taxation is wrong-- taxation is wrong" ... although payroll tax, sales tax, and local/state taxes have had to skyrocket to make up for Bush & Cheney's "welfare for the rich" programmes. Bush & Cheney have created the highest deficit and national debt in our Nation's history!
Services needed for the society to live decently are being slashed so the neo-con Feudal Lords & Ladies can live the neo-Belle Epoque in the neo-Feudal System, as we're turned into neo-serfs.
3) If we dare criticize Emperors Bush & Cheney on the highest rate of unemployment in decades, they move those who have given-up looking for a job, into another statistics column, and lie to us-- falsely claiming that the economy is improving. "U.S. Labor Department showing the economy is losing jobs. Payrolls in July fell by some 44,000 jobs -- after dropping 72,000 in June. The overall unemployment rate actually improved to 6.2 percent from 6.4 percent the previous month -- but this was attributed to people giving up the search for work and dropping out of the labor market." by EU Business report.
If it's better, then why then isn't anyone with a "brain" investing in the stock-market?-- Because, they know that the neo-con corporate crooks, like Bush's good buddy: Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay, are still able to rape their corporation's assets, pension plans & stock-holders blind.
The Media isn't reporting the horrors on the ground in Iraq. For that, you need to read Robert Fisk's articles published in the Independent UK on-line, or at ZNET on : http://www.zmag.org/weluser.h...%20Chomsky
The Media isn't reporting the horrors of their own incompetence, fear, and intimidation by Bush & Cheney, so instead they give us false "rosy" pictures, rather than the truth. For that, you should refer to the ways in which the Media in the US & Britain are being silenced on : http://www.zmag.org/recent_fe...
The Media isn't reporting the horrors of the economic recession and the sell-off of the U.S.A. to their Corporate Cronies & Robber-barons. For that, you should refer to Paul Krugman on : http://www.nytimes.com . Also, refer to David Corn on : http://www.thenation.com
"We the People" should be demanding that TV Networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, etc. seek the truth (don't expect honesty from FOX, as they are a neo-con propaganda channel, "cheer-leading" for whatever crimes Bush & Cheney commit). We should also demand that the Newspapers like the L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, Washington Post and others, fulfill their obligations to a free society-- and start reviewing & analyzing in-depth and reporting the crimes committed by this corrupt Bush/Cheney cabal. We have the right to demand that our news agents investigate into the truth, and stand-up strong in the face of the Bush regime's intimidation tactics. We need to refuse to be silenced! Refer to "The Nation" on : http://www.thenation.com , and read "Fake Patriots" by George Monbiot on : http://www.monbiot.com
Our Founding Fathers created the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution before all others for a purpose:
"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances."
"We the People" should not forget this, and let us not allow the Media to be coerced into a deafening silence by the neo-con, neo-fascists who would only permit us to express their own corrupt point of view, and only support their actions in favour of a neo-Feudal state and a corrupt Global Corporate Empire exploiting the world's resources and human beings at slave labour wages.
We have the right and moreover, the obligation, to express views opposed to the dangerous direction they are "pushing-and-pulling" this country-- and all conscientious citizens must oppose them by calling for Congressional Hearings into the lies told by Bush/Cheney regarding their phony pretexts for the illegal & immoral incursion into Iraq, in which thousands of innocent people were massacred.
If Congress refuses to do their duty, then we have the duty to oppose them at the voting booth in 2004!
Our country is being recklessly driven in a dangerous direction, "off a cliff", and, will soon crash economically-- as we have already crashed hard morally and legally, having invaded a sovereign nation, Iraq, that didn't threaten us and didn't pose a risk to our welfare. Moreover, the vast majority of nations of the world, (excepting the U.K., Spain & a few tiny countries desperate for U.S. financial aide), stood against this immoral & illegal incursion into Iraq, massacring thousands of their innocent civilians, and hundreds of our own people, under false pretences.
It takes "brains" to negotiate peace, it takes "brawn" to fight like a thug-- this neo-con Bush Gang's "fabulous (sic)" people have shown the latter, and are sadly lacking in the former. Wisdom and judicious actions may not appear "sexy" to those who lust to watch "blood-and-guts" spilt on TV, from their arm-chairs, far from danger, and safe & sound in the "bosom" of their offices or homes (unlike the brave soldiers who were lied to about the motives of war):-- But it simply isn't civilized-- and the massacre in Iraq wasn't necessary. That constitutes a Crime Against Humanity.
Three Patriots in Print, conservative and democratic, alike, published today excellent articles, pointing out some of the dangers this country is facing. Both the Republican and Democratic parties indeed, include many men and women, of principle (But tragically, not in the White House: from Bush 41-Clinton-Bush 43, our Country has been "sold-out" to Corporations, at the dire peril of our Citizens). We are inexorably, being turned into Corporate Global Empire (where profits for the "top-dogs" & "fat-cats" reign supreme), rather than a Nation based upon the principles as codified in the U.S. Constitution & Bill of Right.
Many of our citizens have been scammed, bamboozled, and fooled into thinking Bush & Cheney's neo-con, neo-fascist cabal, are "conservatives". They aren't! Teddy Roosevelt, who cared about the environment & nature, would be shocked, appalled and down-right sickened by the corrupt Bush administration, who has sold-us to the Highest Corporate Bidder. These corporate robber-barons lusted for war in Iraq, to obtain fat, juicy, oil, reconstruction & materials contracts, that the Iraqi people have no say, no voice, and no power to decide upon. Do you really call that "freedom"? Don't be absurd.
Three Patriots in Print, published today, "must-reads" are:
[1.] Joshua Micah Marshall's blog, dated 4th August, at 1:05 a.m., in which he discusses the visceral hatred that many Democrats have for Bush, is not dissimilar to the vitriolic hatred the right-winged Republicans showed for Clinton. Of course, one could be forgiven for asking why destroying a man based upon a lie about a sexual liaison, was so horrific; while these neo-con hypocrites who hated "lies" are supporting the biggest liars: Bush & Cheney, whose lies resulted in the unnecessary massacre of thousands of human lives.
Excerpt: "But there was perhaps a third of the electorate that believed deeply in the president's illegitimacy (then Clinton, now Bush) and were driven further into that belief by the fact that they could not manage to get the rest of the electorate (say 60% or so) to see the man in the way they did."
[2.] Patrick J. Buchanan's article entitled "Trading Seabiscuit for a rabbit", in which he discusses the dire impact upon our country's jobs and economy, based upon allowing Corporations to export jobs to country's like China and Chile, which pay slave labour wages. Buchanan points out that this trend started with Bush 41, continued with Clinton, and that Bush 43 has loss over 2 Million Jobs during his term of office.
In the meantime, Bush & Cheney, flush this country's economy down the proverbial toilet, in order for their Corporate Robber-baron cronies to "cash-in" on misery of those earning slave labour wages, and drive our American workers into unemployment, with fewer safety-nets and services. The Corporations pay slave labour wages & steal natural resources (e.g. oil), resulting in increased profits, so that they can enjoy the Belle Epoque, with the World's People's & Environment as their play-things, toys in their neo-play-ground, to exploit as they see fit!
Is this "freedom" folks? How are citizens supposed to enjoy a good "life", "liberty" & the "pursuit of happiness", in a Corporate Neo-Fascist Feudal System, where we are all relegated to become serfs?
Excerpt: "Moreover, to give the president his victory, Republicans had to put party interests on the shelf. For Democrats have lately begun to notice that under President Bush, one in every seven U.S. manufacturing jobs has vanished. U.S. manufacturing jobs have been disappearing at the rate of 75,000 a month for 34 months. U.S. workers in manufacturing are now fewer in number than in the 1950s and the smallest share of the labor force since the early 1800s."
[3.] George Monbiot's article entitled "America Is A Religion", discusses a frightening social & political trend, that Bush & Cheney have exploited for political gain. Instead of encouraging national debate and reasoned political discourse, this corrupt neo-con cabal, have become the High Priests, with whom one better agree, lest one be labelled a "traitor", "blasphemeres", "Anti-American" ... It is this religious-zealotry displayed by a looney administration run amok, with cynical designs for everlasting power & riches for their corporate cronies-- that is destroying the fabric of this nation.
Excerpt: "So those who question George Bush's foreign policy are no longer merely critics; they are blasphemers, or "anti-Americans". Those foreign states which seek to change this policy are wasting their time: you can negotiate with politicians; you cannot negotiate with priests. The US has a divine mission, as Bush suggested in January, "to defend ... the hopes of all mankind",10 and woe betide those who hope for something other than the American way of life."
"The dangers of national divinity scarcely require explanation. Japan went to war in the 1930s convinced, like George Bush, that it possessed a heaven-sent mission to "liberate" Asia and extend the realm of its divine imperium. It would, the fascist theoretician Kita Ikki predicted, "light the darkness of the entire world".11 Those who seek to drag heaven down to earth are destined only to engineer a hell."
"We the People" had better pay attention to the warning signs that these real patriots, and others, have the courage to point out. Patriotism is not agreeing with whatever dictatorial rulings that our neo-Emperor Bush & Cheney orders-- Nor is Freedom the "ability" only to do whatever we're instructed by such a corrupt cabal.
The Great Mission of our Founding Fathers was for our citizens to be free and work together for a good Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness. We must stand-up for this Principle upon which so many brave men and women have given their lives, and oppose this Bush & Cheney regime, which doesn't even comprehend this Republic for Which It Stands.
Lest we forget, while we're enjoying our summer vacations, and only 2% of American Households have a family member in the Armed Services, (... How many people do you know with a loved-one in Iraq?), the death toll is still rising almost daily. With no sacrifice demanded by the Bush administration, it is no wonder that so much callousness to the loss of life in Iraq, exists in America. If a military draft were to be called tomorrow, the outcry for the war to be halted would ring from "sea-to-shining-sea"!
The US & British Military Death Toll in Iraq stands at 292, including 249 Americans. Since Bush bombastically announced an end to the "war" and "Mission Accomplished!" in his top-gun "circus act" on May 1st, 123 US & British soldiers have been killed, including 113 Americans. Thousands of innocent Iraqis have been massacred.
"We the People" surely cannot in good conscience idly sit-by while our brave men and women, and innocent Iraqis are killed, as the result of an illegal and immoral war upon Iraq. We must write to our Congress to demand that the U.N. are invited to participate with the Iraqi people to organize their government, in order that we may leave their country. The exorbitant costs in Lives (292 & rising) and Treasure ($4 Billion/Month & rising) is obscene.
Yesterday, the MSNBC web-site reports the Table of Casualties in Iraq to-date, on : http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08 -02-041655.asp?reg=MIDEAST" title="http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08 -02-041655.asp?reg=MIDEAST" target="_blank"http://famulus.msnbc.com/Famu...
BAGHDAD, Aug. 2 — A U.S. soldier was killed and three wounded overnight in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their convoy north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Saturday.
The attack on the 4th Infantry Division convoy brings to 53 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in hostile action in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1.
Following is a table of U.S., British and Iraqi casualties in the Iraq war and its aftermath as announced by U.S., British and Iraqi authorities or independently confirmed by Reuters correspondents.
NOTE: The figures in brackets refer to casualties after May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over.
U.S. AND BRITISH TROOPS KILLED:
COMBAT/ATTACKS
United States 167 (53) Britain 14 (6)
NON-COMBAT
United States 82 (60) Britain 29 (4)
IRAQIS KILLED:
MILITARY 2,320#
CIVILIANS Between 6,085 and 7,796+
# - U.S. military estimates relating only to fighting in or near Baghdad. No other figures available.
+ - Figure compiled on Web site www.iraqbodycount.net, run by academics and peace activists, based on incidents reported by at least two media sources.
NOTE: NON-COMBAT is defined as accidents, U.S. or British fire killing or wounding their own troops, and other incidents unrelated to fighting.
A Man of His Word??? "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but You Cannot Fool All of the People All of the Time"." ... Or Can You? That's the problem that Karl Rove, "Bush's Brain", is trying to crack!
Bush speaks, and his words don't match his actions. Even right-winged columnists admit that his glib "acceptance" of responsibility for the deceptions in his 2003 State of the Union address, was meaningless: No consequences will ensue. Bush wasn't angry or shocked at having been given phony, crummy, false "intelligence" to mislead the American People and the World into a war. One could be forgiven for suspecting that he purposely misled the nation, having intended to invade Iraq in the early days of his administration, well in advance of 9/11 (used cynically to whip the Americans into a frenzy of fear).
"We the People" have been manipulated in the most cynical and corrupt manner, by an administration focused on enriching Corporations and Hyper-rich cronies. Who is paying the price? Those who have Died in Iraq, and Average & Low-income Americans, who are paying a massive $1.9 Trillion Deficit Tab which the Bush Gang will have incurred by the end of 2004.
Meanwhile, while the Bush Gang giddily enjoy their neo-Belle Epoque, the rest of us will bear the misery of neo-serfdom under their neo-Feudal System.
For the Facts, the following page taken from the Democratic National Committee web-site (http://www.democrats.org/):
George W. Bush's July 30, 2003 Rose Garden appearance was only the ninth time in his presidency that he has formally stood before the press corps to accept questions in a news conference format. Whether on the economy or Iraq, domestic issues or those abroad, Bush's answers to reporters' questions were in open conflict with the facts.
"...I mean what I say." -President George W. Bush [Belfast, Ireland, 4/8/03; St. Louis, MO 3/18/02]
Bush on the Military
Bush: "I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely."
Fact: It Took Bush At Least Five Different Tries To Take Responsibility For His Use Of Bogus Intelligence During The State Of The Union. Reporters asked Bush five times about his false State of the Union statement that Iraq sought uranium in Africa: once in Uganda, twice while meeting with Kofi Annan, once during a press conference with Tony Blair and once at Bush's own news conference at the White House Rose Garden. Only on the last occasion, in the Rose Garden, did Bush acknowledge responsibility for what he said at the State of the Union. [Bush Media Availability, Entebbe, Uganda, 7/11/03; Bush/Annan Media Availability, 7/14/03; Bush/Blair News Conference, 7/17/03; Bush News Conferences, 7/30/03]
Bush: "We also appreciate the military families who share in the hardship and uncertainties of this essential mission."
Fact: Bush's 2004 Budget Would Hurt Military Families. Bush's budget for 2004 proposed several cuts that would be directly harmful to military families. Bush would cut $200 million in funding to public schools on military bases -- children with parents serving in Iraq would be disproportionately hit. Bush proposed a massive $14 billion cut over ten years in veterans benefits. His most recent tax package excluded 260,000 children with parents on active military duty in the expanded child tax credit. Bush would cut from $10.7 billion to $9.2 billion a program for military housing, and require larger enrollment fees for prescription drug coverage. [House Appropriations Committee Minority Staff, 6/16/03; Washington Post, 6/17/03; Children's Defense Fund Fact Sheet, 6/5/03, http://www.childrensdefense.o...]
Bush: "...if we were to reveal the content of the [9/11 report] -- by the way, 29 pages of a near-900 page report -- it would reveal sources and methods. By that I mean, it would show people how we collect information and on whom we're collecting information, which, in my judgment and in the judgment of senior law enforcement officials in my administration, would be harmful on the war against terror."
Fact: Even The Republican Author Of The 9/11 Report Says Most Of The Classified Material Would Not Jeopardize National Security. Senator Richard Shelby, (R-AL) former chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee disagrees with Bush. Shelby told CNN, "I can say that what's in the 28 pages, in my judgment, after spending eight years on the Intelligence Committee, 90, 95 percent of it would not compromise, in my judgment, anything in national security." Shelby the classified pages "might be embarrassing to some international relations." [CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight, 7/29/03; NBC Meet the Press, 7/27/03]
Bush: "[Evidence that Saddam was working with Al Qaeda is] just going to take awhile. And I'm confident the truth will come out."
Fact: UN Al-Qaeda Monitoring Team Said U.S. Failed to Present Evidence of Hussein Harboring Al-Qaeda. Michael Chandler, the chief of the UN team monitoring efforts to track Al Qaeda, told reporters that "We have never had information presented to us-even though we've asked questions-which would indicate that there is a direct link [between al Qaeda and Iraq]." [Agence France Presse, 6/26/03; New York Times, 6/27/03; ]
Bush: "I analyzed a thorough body of intelligence -- good, solid, sound intelligence that led me to come to the conclusion that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power."
Fact: Senior Bush Officials Admit Bush Didn't Even Read The National Intelligence Estimate -- The CIA's Comprehensive Report On The Iraqi Threat. In October 2002, the CIA released its report on the threat posed by Iraq-a document that represented the consensus of intelligence agencies under the Bush administration. A senior administration official told White House reporters that "The President has been briefed...about the contents of the NIE. I don't think he sat down over a long weekend and read every word of it...The President of the United States is not a fact-checker." [White House Background Briefing, 7/18/03; Washington Post, 7/19/03]
Bush: "Dr. Condoleezza Rice is an honest, fabulous person, and America is lucky to have her service. Period."
Fact: Condoleezza Rice Has Contradicted Herself, And The Truth, In Explaining Both Pre-9/11 Intelligence And Bush's Use Of False Intelligence During the State Of The Union Address. In May 2002 Rice told reporters that "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." The Congressional report on 9/11 released last week noted that "from at least 1994, and continuing into the summer of 2001, the Intelligence Community received information indicating that terrorists were contemplating, among other means of attack, the use of aircraft as weapons." Rice also repeatedly asserted that no one "at levels that got to us" knew Bush's State of the Union claim linking Iraq to Africa was bogus. But Rice herself was sent a warning from the CIA questioning the Africa connection, and she even read the National Intelligence Estimate, which warned that intelligence was "highly dubious." [Rice Press Conference, 5/16/02; House-Senate Joint 9/11 Inquiry Report, December 2002, p. XI; Associated Press, 7/28/03; Hadley/Bartlett Gaggle, 7/22/03; Associated Press, 7/24/03; Tenet Statement, 7/11/03]
Bush: "...what we can do is we can be -- obviously at home, continue to be diligent on the inspection process of baggage, as well as making sure those who board aircraft are properly screened."
Fact: The Bush Administration Cut 6,000 Federal Screeners From America's Airports, Funding For Air Marshall Program. In May 2003, the Transportation Security Administration, (TSA) an agency under President Bush, cut 6,000 screeners-11 percent of the total-from duty checking luggage at airports. The cuts came even though there are still not enough automated scanners to check all luggage, and only a proportion of bags can be searched by hand. On July 25, 2003, the TSA asked Congress for permission to cut $104 million -- 20 percent -- from the air marshal program. After criticism from Senate Democrats, the Department of Homeland Security pledged to reverse those cuts. [Los Angeles Times, 5/1/03; Washington Post, 5/1/03; Associated Press, 7/31/03; Washington Post, 7/31/03]
Bush on the Economy
Bush: "American families have begun to receive checks from a $400-per-child increase in the child tax credit. This time when we say, the check is in the mail, we mean it."
Fact: Nearly 12 Million Children in Moderate Income Families Are Left Out of Bush, GOP Tax Bill. The new Bush, GOP tax bill accelerates the phase-in of the $400 child tax credit increase passed as part of the 2001 tax cut. However, the bill leaves out 11.9 million children in moderate and low-income families who earn between $10,500 and $26,625 per year, including 1 million children in military and veteran families. These families are left out because due to standard deductions they do not owe federal taxes and the bill does not allow them to claim the tax credit as a refund. The cost to expand the child tax credit to low and moderate-income families would have been $3.5 billion, a figure amounting to one percent of the total package. [New York Times, 5/29/03; CBPP Fact Sheet, http://www.cbpp.org/5-28-03ta...; Children's Defense Fund Fact Sheet, 6/5/03, http://www.childrensdefense.o...]
Fact: House Republicans Passed Bill Set to "Doom" Child Tax Credit Expansion. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) rejected efforts to expand the child tax credit to lower-income families, which would cost $3.5 billion, and only approved it as part of a new $82 billion tax package. "Ain't going to happen," DeLay said of stand-alone legislation. The Washington Post reported, "The House's decision to broaden and extend the proposed tax cuts could doom the enhanced child credit for low-income parents altogether." [Associated Press, 6/10/03; Washington Post, 6/13/03; H. Res. 270, Roll Call Vote #274, 6/12/03]
Bush: "Congress needs to make sure that the child credit is refundable for lower-income families."
Fact: Bush Own Plan Left Out Low-Income Families from Child Tax Credit. Bush's economic plan, introduced in January 2003, did not make the child tax credit refundable for low and moderate-income families. According to a CBPP report on the Bush plan, "Working-poor families would lose because they would receive no tax cuts (the plan fails to accelerate the components of last year's marriage penalty relief and child credit expansion that focus on the working poor)." [CBPP Fact Sheet, http://www.cbpp.org/1-7-03tax...; Scripps Howard News Service, 4/18/03]
Fact: Sen. Grassley Said White House Not Working on Child Tax Credit for Low Income Families. The Wall Street Journal reported, The White House's "urgency hasn't been conveyed to Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), who said it has been awhile since he has heard from the White House on the child-credit issue -- though his staff has been in touch with the White House on the matter." [Wall Street Journal, 7/23/03]
Bush: "Now, we have laid out a plan which shows that the deficit will be cut in half over the next five years."
Fact: Deficit in Coming Years is Growing Not Shrinking; Figure for 2008 is $36 Billion Higher than Estimated in February. The White House now projects a $226 billion deficit in 2008, which is roughly one-half of this year's $455 billion deficit. However, this amount is $36 billion higher than the White House's February 2003 estimate of $190 billion. [OMB, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2004, Summary Table S-1; Mid-Session Review, Table 1, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb...]
Fact: Deficit in 2008 Marks $861 Billion Reversal from January 2001 Projection. When Bush took office in January 2001, the Congressional Budget Office projected a surplus of $635 billion for 2008. The $226 billion deficit now projected for 2008 represents a massive reversal of $861 billion. [CBO, Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2002-2011, January 2001; OMB, Mid-Session Review, Table 1, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb...]
Fact: Goldman Sachs Economists Blamed Bush for Long-term Budget Deficit, Predicted Increasing Long-Term Interest Rates. The Washington Post reported, "Surveying the $455 billion deficit forecast for 2003, Goldman Sachs was blunt. 'The Bush administration does bear some responsibility for the sharp deterioration in the long-term outlook,' Goldman economists wrote, predicting higher interest rates. On cue, yields on 10-year Treasury bonds shot up to their highest level since December. Rates on 30-year mortgages climbed to January's level. And economists warned that rising long-term interest rates could choke off an incipient economic recovery." [Washington Post, 7/27/03, emphasis added]
Bush: "I view the actions [the Bush tax cuts] we've taken as a jobs program, job creation program."
Fact: Over 2 Million Jobs Have Been Lost Since Bush's 2001 Tax Cut Was Enacted. In 2001, when touting his tax cut Bush said, "My plan is good for the long-term health of our economy. It is good for the businesses that create jobs." Overall, 2.1 million jobs have been lost since the 2001 Bush tax cut was enacted; the measure was signed on June 7, 2001. [Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov; Bush Remarks, 6/7/01; Bush Remarks Announcing the Tax Cut Plan, 2/5/01]
Recently, the Deputy Defense Secretary, Wolfy Wolfowitz, the "brains" behind the botched-up, bungled incursion into Iraq now turned guerilla quagmire, that he's lusted for since the early 1990s, went to Congress to request even fewer over-sights into the "doings" inside the "bowels" of the Pentagon, than the already paltry accountabilities & "checks-and-balances", currently in existence. Could this be due in part, to his own inept cost over-run for Iraq, from a naively-optimistic (sic) pre-war estimate of $1 Billion/Month, to a mid-war estimate of $2 Billion/Month, and, today's "post-war (?)" estimate of $4 Billion/Month: Where will it stop? What will it be tomorrow?
Wolfowitz's bizarre demands that we "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" and Ask No Questions, is as outrageous, as his incompetent, bumbling Planning & Execution to-date: both have already exacted too heavy a toll on our Country's Lives and Treasure!
The Pentagon is costing & spending more that the combined national defense budgets of the 18 NATO member states, China, Russia and the rogue Middle-east states, totaled ! They aren't protecting us-- they're economically "bilking" us, and our representatives are told by the Bush/Cheney regime, not to ask any questions. Is this what they call "freedom"?
Every American Citizen should review the NOW with Bill Moyers web-site episode entitled "Inside the Pentagon" on : http://www.pbs.org/now/politi...
The blood-thirsty shenanigans going on inside of the "bowels" of the Pentagon will make your "blood-run-cold"! A small indication of the ghoulish designs by corrupt loonies was exposed last week in the bizarre U.S. Gambling Casino on Death, proposed by the crack-pot Poindexter. However, folks, that was "small potatoes" compared with the corruption and anti-American plans currently underway.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us back in 1960 to beware of the Military Industrial Complex running amok, in his now famously prescient prediction:
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government."
That may now be seen as a gross under-statement! The Pentagon is wasting U.S. Taxpayer money on programmes that are not in our best interest; boon-doggles that aren't even operable; and, are designed to enrich Pentagon Officials, who will at some future date, obtain cushy, comfy positions in the Defense Industry. These guys are raking in the "big bucks" faster than President Bush can launch "Pre-emptive Wars" on those he labels "evil" based upon on phony pretexts.
Franklin "Chuck" Spinney, an ex-Pentagon official, has testified before Congress on the waste and mis-management of multi-million, multi-billion dollar projects run amok. He reports that over $1 Trillion dollars in taxpayer money has gone missing, and can't be accounted for!
Under our system of "checks-and-balances", government agencies are subject to an annual audit process:-- Not the Pentagon! This audit is designed to demonstrate that taxpayer money is spent in accordance with the agreed programme upon which the budget was originally authorised. Supposedly, rules exist to enable "over-sight" of governmental departments, in order to protect this country from rogue elements who run amok (remember Poindexter?)!
The Pentagon has obtained "waivers" excluding them from the audit process, that results in the Defense Department & Pentagon spending trillions of taxpayer dollars, with no effective oversight or accountability. Shockingly, they have recently been entirely exempted from any audit whatsoever! This obscene exemption does not represent the governance required under a democratically-run republic, accountable to the people.
Moreover, trillions of taxpayer dollars are funnelled to Corporations like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, Bechtel, and others', whose CEO paypackets have risen over 100% & more, in the last few years. Someone ought to be able to "connect the dots" and "analyze the data points" ... it doesn't take a "Nobel-prize Winning Genius" to recognize the corruption and abuse in the unsavoury relationship between the Defense Department/Pentagon & Defense Contractors in the Private Sector, who are both-- "bilking" the stock-markets, "bilking" the investors, "bilking" the pensioners, and "bilking" the American taxpayers. There is a lot of "bilking" going on, my fellow Americans.
Contracts are awarded to these Corporate Insiders in the Pentagon for boon-doggle programmes that aren't even operable: for example, the Missile Defense Programme, recently awarded billions by Bush/Cheney to their cronies, and the damn thing can't even hit a target unless it's artificially equipped with a homing device that says to the "missile": Here I am, come and get me!
We spend approximately $400 Billion on the Pentagon/annum-- an insane amount of taxpayer money. The Bush/Cheney Gang increased that expenditure, and asked Congress to authorise a foolhardly $8.3 Billion for FY 2003, for the "Missile Defense" "circus-act", that frankly, won't protect America. It'll only protect the Corporate Robber-baron's 1st Class Summer Vacations to "Old Europe", and Defense Dept/Pentagon Official's future appointments as Board members or Consultants, by the very Defense Industry Corporations that landed these fat, juicy "contracts". Review history of Missile Defense on Global Security web-site on : http://www.ucsusa.org/global_...
There were 53,202 US Military men and women killed in Viet Nam. (Refer to Casualties - US vs NVA/VC web-site on : http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tbl.html" title="http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tbl.html" target="_blank"http://www.rjsmith.com/kia_tb... ) Many of our brave men were massacred by our own Defense Department/Pentagon who gave them M-16 rifles, that they knew jammed & misfired, but they didn't bother to fix. It is a well-documented fact that many of our soldiers were killed as a result of expensive defense tools (50% failure rate on M-16s!) that didn't work properly, and the Pentagon knew it at the time.
Do you think anything is different today? If anything, there was more over-sight during Viet Nam? We're being scammed by the Pentagon into thinking they're protecting us ... Don't be fooled "all of the time", people!
"We the People" should contact our Congress, and demand that the Pentagon be held accountable, as per the original guidelines, to ensure that their programmes, budget and expenditure are thoroughly reviewed, and that funding be cut unless they can account for the US Taxpayer dollars spent. We're not talking about a few dollars "here-and-there" both squandered and "gone missing", but Trillions, folks.
A fraction of the money squandered on a phony national defense, could be spent on education, health care, homeland security, and, infrastructure to improve our country. Where is the vision for a good "life", "liberty", and "pursuit of happiness" for "We the People"? Not in this "scam" being perpetrated upon us, by squandering the excessively, insane amounts of money, that doesn't "protect" us, but instead enriches the Corporate Defense Industry and Government "Top-Dogs" & "Fat-Cats".
One could be forgiven for wondering whether the US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's orwellian economic statements, aren't part of an overall Bush investment strategy to blackmail us into spending our meagre & disappearing savings in the crack-pot, cracked-up & ailing stock market. Keep interest rates low, so you'll figure: Why not risk my money & spend, spend, spend? Don't do it, folks!
Unless you've got "money to burn", you'd be crazy to invest in this unstable stock-market until:
[1.] The Corporate Crooks like Bush's good buddy Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay are tried and punishment is doled out, and are forced to make financial restitution to their employees, pensioners, and investors. These crooks should pay-back the money they stole to live the Belle Epoque, at the price of hardship, suffering and misery of the aforesaid. They should also spend a number of years in the "clinker" where they can contemplate their crimes!
These arrogant, ruthless neo-CEOs with no morals, ethics or principles need to be made an example of, in order that future "greedy-gusses" tempted to "take the money & run" re-consider their blood-thirsty, predatory actions. Severe financial penalties are the best remedy, as these goons depend upon propping themselves up socially, using their ill-gotten gains.
[2.] Systemic changes are made to re-instate regulations governing the accounting practices and financial reporting, to ensure that these Corporate Raiders, Thieves & Crooks, can't loot their corporations, employees, retirees and stockholders.
The Securities and Exchange Commission have refused to upgrade the regulations needed to obviate future corporate crooks from carrying out their "shell-games", and stealing from the corporations they are appointed to serve.
Bush & Cheney have refused to take positive action, and, instead are diverting our attention onto war, massacre, and terror. This tactic is used by Bush & Cheney who have themselves profitted from corrupt corporate tactics, and show no interest in demanding corporate accountability.
Bush promised in the aftermath of the Stockmarket Crash in 2001, that he'd bring those who "raped" their corporations, to justice and ensure that corporate fraud would be prosecuted. Sadly, Karl Rove seems to have copied almost verbatim O. J. Simpson's infamous hyped-up PR gambit to "not rest until I find the real killers" (of his wife Nicole) ... Both Bush & O. J. henceforth, have demonstrated their interest in Golf, and not in "catching" those robbing people of their pensions, investments, jobs and/or lives.
[3.] Interest rates are increased again, in order that savings plans offer a viable alternative for those with limited incomes upon which they depend. "Saving" should be encouraged in a time of uncertainty. The stock-market is subject to too much volatility and possible fraud, to be relied upon by those with modest assets. (Moreover, it is unconscionable to steal from those with very little, to redistribute the cumulative ill-gotten gains to the richest of the rich!)
Bush's investment strategy is designed to encourage us unwisely to spend, instead of protecting ourselves and saving our money. We should pressure the government to increase interest rates and encourage fiscal discipline in our own homes, locally, state-wide, and in the federal government. Tragically, Bush has run amok and recklessly spent us silly into the largest deficit in our nation's history.
If you have acted as Bush (he's squandered Taxpayer money) has thus-far, and spent yourself silly, you are making expensive interest payments on the debt incurred. In fact, you are accountable for both the interest payments on your own debt, and the deficit spending by Bush & Cheney. Double-whammy!
Who do you think profits from the billions Americans pay-out in interest payments on their own and the country's debt? The Robber-barons like Bush & Cheney who are sitting pretty ... and those in control of the US Federal Reserve. Hmmmm ...
Are we being blackmailed into squandering our hard-earned savings on a lottery (called the Stock-Market), by keeping interest rates down, that effectively coerces the public into spending? Americans should consider the risks associated with investing in a stock-market that hasn't been fixed or remedied in the aftermath of the rapacious looting by the corrupt CEOs and investors.
The Bush & Cheney gang haven't taken any positive actions to seek justice or rectify the underlying loopholes, because they are part of the problem, and not the solution.
"We the People" should refuse to be scammed and conned out of what little we are able to save, and thus, placing ourselves in a vulnerable and potentially dire position.
We've already been scammed and conned out of trillions of taxpayer dollars and the blood of our citizens, to prop-up this corrupt, inept Bush administration whose policies only benefit the Corporate Robber-barons, who put them in office to do their bidding.
The health of a nation isn't measured by spinning statistics from one column to the next, in order to deceive us. The unemployment rate is still growing-- but thousands have given up seeking a job ... that's tragic and no spin or numbers-game can undo the heart-ache to so many people in this current economic crisis.
Our people need decent paying jobs, health care, education, and well-run services to live respectably. How can citizens claim we have the "freedom" to seek a good "life", "liberty" and the "pursuit of happiness" in a country run by a "Corporation-Grabs-All" Bush/Cheney President, that denies us the right of economic opportunity?
* * *
Postscript: Two Financial Articles published today:
"U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and private economists believe the economy will stage a material rebound in the second half of this year. Some economists are predicting a growth rate in the second half in the range of 3.5 per cent to four per cent or more."
[i]How will a recovery materialize with people out of work, scared to lose their jobs in an economic down-turn, recession, and, deficit, caused by the inept, mis-management by the corrupt Bush administration.[/i]
"Even if that should turn out to be the case, it would take time for the job market to show real improvement, economists said. Some economist believe the jobless rate could move higher in the months ahead because job growth probably won't be strong enough to handle an expected influx of people looking for jobs amid an improved economic climate."
"President Bush's misguided economic policies have failed to create jobs," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "Since President Bush took office, the country has lost 3.2 million jobs, the worst record since President Hoover," she said."
"Manufacturers, hardest hit by the 2001 recession, continued to hemorrhage jobs. The sector lost 71,000 positions in July, marking the 36th month in a row of job losses. Retailers, normally the engine of job growth, cut 14,000 positions in July, and education and health services lost 1,000."
"The unemployment rate in the United States dipped to 6.2 per cent in July, however the drop reflected people leaving the work force and not a burst in hiring as businesses cut jobs for a sixth month in a row, still wary despite signs the economy is on the mend."
"The Labor Department report Friday suggested that the job market remains stubbornly sluggish, frustrating jobseekers on Main Street, discouraging investors on Wall Street and polarizing lawmakers in Washington as they look for a way to get the economy back to full throttle."
"Employers chopped 44,000 jobs in July, which brought losses since January to 486,000. Economists had been saying the statistics might show positions had been added, perhaps as many as 10,000."
"Risks remain." [i]That's the understatment of the year! [/i]
"The U.S. Treasury market fell 4.39 percent in July, according to Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., making it the worst performance since Jimmy Carter was president amid the Iran hostage crisis".
"Treasuries haven't had a more dismal month since February 1980, when the market declined 4.91 percent, said Steven Berkley, head of fixed-income indexes at Lehman Brothers in New York."
"``We had to blow the dust off of this one,'' he said. ``It's historic.''"
"The yield of the U.S. Treasury's 10-year note, which moves in the opposite direction of its price, climbed to 4.59 percent this week from a 45-year low of 3.07 percent in mid-June. The losses came as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the economy was improving and the government reported that unemployment, business demand for goods and gross domestic product growth were better than investors had expected. "
"Investors' sentiment toward bonds has soured, according to Chuck Tennes, director of portfolio management at Rydex funds. The Rockville, Maryland-based firm's Juno Fund, which bets on falling bond prices, gained 12 percent in July."
"``We're at a time when many people believe that interest rates are going to reverse a long trend downward and move upward,'' he said in an interview."
"The weaker U.S. dollar and projected federal and state budget deficits are putting ``new pressure'' on bonds, he said. "
"Bond Funds"
"Mutual funds investing in bonds are likewise suffering. Fidelity Investments and Vanguard Group, the two largest U.S. mutual fund companies, said Wednesday that investors withdrew more than they added to bond funds in July after almost two years of net inflows. Fidelity said the outflow was ``notable'' while Vanguard specified that $1.9 billion was pulled."
"In June, investors deposited $5.3 billion in bond funds industry-wide, according to the Investment Company Institute. That was the lowest since December 2001, when investors withdrew $969 million. They added $65 billion to bond funds in the first half of the year."
"Declines this week were exacerbated as mortgage investors dumped Treasuries to protect against rising interest rates. Traders are looking ahead to the government's sale next week of a combined $60 billion of three-, five- and 10-year Treasuries."
"The amount is a record for the government's quarterly sale of those maturities, and the flood of debt helped depress prices. The U.S. is boosting its debt sales to fund a budget deficit the Bush administration estimates at a record $455 billion for the year through Sept. 30."
"Overall, the bond market as measured by Lehman's Aggregate Index lost 3.36 percent of its value in July, the worst performance since December 1981 when bonds plummeted 3.74 percent. For the year, the index has gained 0.43 percent."
