Heeee's baaaaack.

Have you ever noticed that every argument Bush has ever used to justify attacking tyrants abroad sound equally applicable to him if you simply substitute Bush's name for the villain du jour? It almost makes you wonder if he suffers from what psychology textbooks refer to as "projection."

Yet, after all his "speechifying" about the wonders of and need for "democracy" abroad, he insists on doing the exact opposite here. With his so-called signing statements negating bills clear meaning, his illegal wiretapping and searches without warrants, his executive privilege usurpations and violations of established laws and treaties, not to mention his end run of the electoral process that snuck him into office, attack the very principal of democracy at every opportunity.

If Bush were held accountable in the way he demands of foreign governments and leaders, he would be waterboarded so often, his skin would look like a prune.

The surge IS working, read the gas pumps. Money is being transfered to the intended targets and removed from the intended marks. The economy is good too, the rich are protected from loses when Bear Sterns collapses with tax dollars extracted in part from the soon to be evicted.

For once Bu$h the inferior is not lying, the long term economy is great - for the people he actually represents.

~TETTI-TATTI~ It's ALL the democrats fault?

Well does that mean the Republicans were all correct? Boy, wow, the things I didn't know are mind boggling. Thank you for that information Tetti-Tatti.

STOP__STOP___ HOLD YOUR FINGERS!!!!!!__FOOLS!

As I type this, our president is speaking on national TV, he is explaining why we went to Iraq, why we are still there in Iraq and why we aren't leaving until there is peace on Earth. He has stated facts that the surge did work exactly as planned and therfore I and any who say otherwise are incorrect. ___ SO STOP, listen to our Commander In Chief and his Generals.

He has mentioned 9-11 also, and to never forget that day.

Of course he didn't mention, there were no Iraqis terrorists of the 19 who did the 9-11 damage and that Saddam had no ties to El-Quida and that Osama bin Laden was in Afganistan or Pakistan.

I gotta go, I feel sort of sick. Bush just finished to a standing ovation from the audience.

Oh yes, not only is the angel of the ridiculous right a war criminal, he's a COWARD to boot. That's why he hid out in a tavern in Alabama when he was suppose to be serving in the guard. I might also add that daddy Bush had him put ahead of lots of other guys who weren't so lucky, and are now dead, as to have a rich senator daddy to get them out of service in Vietnam. Now, how romantic is that! Goooooooo DUBYA!

Ka-ching! Ka-ching! As long as the people in charge of this war are still making money, the war will continue.

Bush/Cheney are evil to their rotten cores! Isn't it ironic how the radical religious right-you know,the only people on the planet who are godly and rightous and know what god wants-have as their champion a man who is, by any definition of the word, a WAR CRIMINAL! And not only a war criminal but a coward to boot. That's why Dumbya hid out in a tavern in Alabama when he was suppose to be serving in the guard. Now isn't that romantic!

Success is where you find it.

If I were, oh say, the Vice president of the USA, and had, oh, call it a few hundred thousand shares of stock in my former company, and, just for arguments sake lets say this stock was languishing in single digit numbers. That the reason for that poor showing was the mismanagement of its former CEO and current Vice President is really of little consequence in this, but it is fun to note.

Now, realising that there was a potential windfall here for the taking, and considering that that (fictional) Vice President had options on many thousands of shares, how , oh how is one to cash in? OK so this is just silliness, the equivalent of ,oh I dont know, say, thinking that a Vice President woudl get drunk and shoot a good friend in the face.....how silly really!

Democrats are the reason we're still there. Corrupt, rotten, profiteering, aiding and abetting Democrats.

well, since this Holy Week, where are Dickwad and the shrub? What, no isreal zionism this week?
NOOOO guess there is no money in christian conservative values. The christian right is neither

press release from the black contingent of the green party:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZgHH72G8wQ

Unemployment, already 32 percent before the invasion, has vacillated during the occupation between 40-70 percent, according to the Iraqi government.

With more than a million dead, more than four million displaced, and another four million in need of emergency aid, a third of Iraqis are displaced, in need of emergency aid — or dead.

All this Cheney calls a "successful endeavour".

With one million dead and 2 million fled the country, should the unemployment level have decreased?

This financial crisis will not go away because the poor and middle classes are broke and cannot bail out the socialist elites. Elite greed keeps them from bailing themselves out. With no one to bail the ship takes on water and sinks. This war will end based upon financial collapse. It is a fitting end.

CLAUDIUS: The scary thing is that for the "faith based," and/or Rush Limbaugh crowd, facts are just seen as surreptitious fictions PLANTED by liberals to confuse them and offset their faith-based perception of "reality." In other words, these people are beyond teachable, and would not recognize truth if it hit them upside the head. I guess when they can no longer pay their bills, when their jobs are outsources elsewhere, they either figure "End times" have arrived and they will be ascended upwards, or take an anti-depressant drug to maintain the delusion they've lived under.

When the bombs hit Baghdad I repented and grieved for the USA.

A few days later i wrote a reflection from my heart, published it in my first book and also posted it on my blog today.

I offer it 2 U with HOPE for a greater awakening and change, this excerpt from "KEEP HOPE ALIVE"

Chapter 13: CATS AND COMPASSION

Terese absentmindedly caressed the pristine one hundred sheet Official Mead Composition notebook during breakfast. Terese had been writing poetry for years, but refused to let anyone read any of it. She even refused Jake and had a secret ritual. The first full moon after she completed a book, she would light a fire at 1 a.m. in the fire pit where Jake barbequed. She would read her words one last time by the light of the moon, then toss in the Official Mead Composition notebook. She would walk in circles as it burned, and only after the embers died did her ritual circular walk.

After breakfast, she brushed her teeth, grabbed her backpack, and set off into the woods, pondering, "I have been wrestling with this idea for a book for too long. Will this try end up in the fire, too? As always, I do not know; I never know anything before I begin, and as long as I stay open to learn as I go, it will be okay, okay. Christ have mercy on me and help me, please! How do I explain concrete walls to little children, and why men choose violence? How do you explain irrational adult behavior to little ones? Why do men choose hatred, injury, discord, error, and darkness to love, pardon, unity, truth, and light? Why is that? Christ have mercy on us all!"

Terese sighed deeply and immediately became aware of the sun's rays filtered through the thickly canopied trail, and sensed the scurrying of small creatures around her, who were camouflaged beneath the thick carpet of leaves she tread upon. At the end of the trail, a gazebo had been erected in memory of a fallen soldier in a long ago war. Terese blessed herself as she entered, then opened her backpack, removed three gel pens and the one hundred sheet Official Mead Composition notebook, and groaned, "Okay, okay."

Terese stared at the upper left corner of the virgin leaf of paper in her Official Mead Composition notebook and sighed as she chewed the end of a gel pen. After a few deep breathes, she set the tip down at the uppermost intersection of the red vertical line and the first of twenty-four horizontal blue lines, and watched in amazement as words filled the page:

I am an old crone now, but I once was your age.

I remember, when I was seven years old, I saw a picture in the newspaper of a little naked girl running in terror from a mushroom cloud, and I wondered, why did that girl have to run for her life in her hometown, when in mine, everyone was safe and happy?

That girl in the picture wasn't safe, and she was not happy. I wondered about her, and me, and my hometown, and America.

I am an old crone now and I still wonder...

When images from Vietnam were on the TV screen, I was a mom of three and seven months pregnant with twins. I went into early labor on that day; a shot rang out in my hometown, and America's prophet bled on the concrete of Memphis.

Terese sighed, flipped to a clean page, and wondered, "I am getting nowhere. I want to explain why there is war to children, but I don't know how to go about it."

She chewed the end of her gel pen and stared into the pistil and stamen of a white and violet day lily that grew next to the gazebo. A gunfire round of riveting from the redheaded woodpecker above her head brought Terese back to her empty page, and she sighed, "Christ, have mercy on me. What's the deal with me? How could I think I could write a story to explain war to children, when I don't understand why war has to be?"

She bit her lip and sighed a few more times, before putting the gel pen back to the paper. She lit up like a Christmas tree as the words flew from her fingers:

Have you heard the one about Dorothy and her cats?

Dorothy was about your age when her tiny orange and calico cat named Peachez met with an early demise. You see, little Peachez, barely a year old, got too big for her breeches, and snuck out Dorothy's front door. Nobody knew except Rikki, the deer dog who lived next door.

Rikki could not resist his nature to hunt, and Peachez was most exotic fare, for in this neighborhood, cats lived inside. Little defenseless Peachez never had a chance, for Rikki bit right through the neck of that tiny orange and calico cat.

Oh, how Dorothy mourned; oh, how she grieved; after a week, her mother could take it no more, and told her, "Girl, you need a new kitty!"

Dorothy agreed.

"Then, I will call the cat league and see what they have in stock, okay, Dorothy?"

"Okay, okay, do it for me, please."

"Happily," her mom replied, as she dialed the animal league.

Dorothy could not believe it when she heard her mother say, "Hi, have you got any kitties that need a home?"

Dorothy exploded, "No, not just any kitty, I know exactly what I want. I want a pure white cat with blue eyes the color of the summer sky, and I'll call him Bob."

"Okay, okay. Did you hear all that, lady from the animal league?"

"Yes, I did, and, ah--good luck with it. I have a lot of cats that could be Bob; some have pure white fur, but not a one has blue eyes."

"Okay, thanks, we will continue on," Dorothy's mom sighed, as she hung up the phone.

"Girl, I have to pick up the dry cleaning next to the veterinarian's office. Come with me now, and maybe someone there will be able to help you find your Bob with blue eyes and white fur on."

For the first time since Peachez demise, Dorothy smiled when she said, "Okay, okay."

Dorothy and her mom stood in line at the vet's office for an interminable time before a doe-eyed brunette, as thin as a French-cut string bean, noticed them and inquired, "Hi, can I help you?"

Dorothy replied, "I am looking for the cat of my dreams; he has pure white fur and eyes the color of the summer sky, and his name is Bob."

"Well, this is most numinous. You see, I have a five-year-old cat back in storage that needs a home. He is very sad, for he has been in a cage for almost seven months. He has licked off all his hair, and he pouts a lot.

"You see, it was Thanksgiving week when his first family dropped him off. They didn't love him. They tossed him away. They wanted the doctor to give him a shot, to put him to sleep. But I said, 'No way! I'll put that cat in storage, and one day, someone will come in here and take him away."'

Dorothy's mom interrupted. "There must be a reason that family tossed that cat away."

The doe-eyed string bean replied, "Sister, let me tell you, this cat is no more neurotic than any other cat I have known. I will not lie to you, for he is indeed one neurotic cat, who never was a beauty. But he did have white fur when he came in here, and his eyes are still as blue as a summer sky. He is most definitely OC; you see, he licks himself a lot, and so, is now as bald as a bat.

"Oh, by the way, he whines like a banshee and paces about. You see, after his upsetting Thanksgiving holiday, the vet fixed him for Christmas, and no doubt you can imagine why he is naturally still quite upset about that. Oh, by the way, he has claws, and since he is too old for surgery, they must stay. But, sister, I assure you, he's no more or less neurotic than any other cat around. Follow me into the back room, and you will see that he really is a cool cat; you should take him away."

"I think Dorothy wants a blue-eyed baby kitty, not one so worn-out," Dorothy's mother pleaded, looking hopefully at her daughter.

"I don't care how old he is, as long as he is my Bob," Dorothy shouted over the cacophony of barking and yelping, as the doe-eyed string bean stopped in front of the center cage and announced,

"Surely, I told you--this cat has always been called Bob."

And with that, she turned, and with one smooth motion, unlatched the cage and pulled out a long scrawny cat, with a few patches of white fur, but mostly skin showing. His enormous blue eyes, the color of the summer sky, looked into Dorothy's, and he moaned like a baby in pain; Dorothy proclaimed, "He's the one!"

Dorothy took him home on her shoulder as her mom drove the Crossfire, and Bob never moved a muscle, nor made a sound. Dorothy's mom thought, This won't be so bad, right?

As soon as Dorothy put Bob down in her room, he wailed and moaned, and Dorothy did not know what to do, until her mom told her, "He's just like a baby, and you may have to walk the floors holding him all night. Welcome to motherhood."

Dorothy gleefully picked Bob back up and carried him around on her shoulder, just like you would a little baby. Every single time she put Bob down, he would whine, kvetch, and pace all around, and would stare at her with his blue eyes the color of a summer sky. Dorothy swore she heard him say, "Sister, I've got the blues bad, and I can't calm down unless you carry me around."

The very next night, the bombs hit Baghdad.

All night, Dorothy walked the floors with Bob, the blue-eyed cat on her shoulder, and a heart breaking, breaking, breaking for all the innocents caught up in the crossfire. She knew she was connected. You are too.

In the 11th century, Hildegard of Bingen knew:

God responds speedily whenever the blood of innocence is being shed. Of this the angel choirs are singing and re-echoing their praise. And yet at the loss of innocence clouds are weeping.

Bob, the blue eyed cat, has now calmed down. He doesn't want to be held, and he never makes a sound. His hair has grown back, pure white and coarse as grit. Into his summer sky blue eyes, clouds of cataracts have moved in. He moves slowly, slowly, slowly. Bob tucks his front legs under his chest and gently bows as he gets down. What a contemplative Bob has become, for deliberate movement is prayer.

A new kitty has moved into Dorothy's house, too. A black and white long–haired, green-eyed feline named Oreo. Dorothy found her when she was only a week old and abandoned by her cat mom, who left the litter and never returned. Dorothy fed the baby kitty every three hours for three weeks with an eyedropper, and kept her warm.

Oreo has now grown big and strong, and likes to play, but sometimes can be a pain. Bob always treats her gently, even when she bites his tail; he either plays or he walks away.

Terese stretched and moaned, "That's as far as I can go today."

Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes With Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"

americans better cheer up there's ninety five (95) more years to go before it is all over. we are just getting started here.

If you are twelve miles out to sea from Atlantic City and you looked at the city lights, is Atlantic City then on the west coast, the right or left coast, or the east coast? What were we talking about here? Oh yeah, five years of war and occupation of Iraq and we just got started. Hang in there, stay the course and have patience.

It's 12 billion a month, or 144 billion a year, multi-thousands dead, four million Iraqis displaced, the entire country ruined and contaminted 'forever' with radio-active DU and we now have a $76 billion dollar embassy in Baghdad. This is stupidest thing America has ever done, it's going to break our bank and we will have a depression, primarily because of this stupid, absolutely inscane, Iraq war and occupation.

We are damned if we stay there and damned if we leave, so we may as well be dammned by leaving and at least cut our losses. Ya know, when your playing Hold-em and your going for an inside straight on the river and there are six other players still in the hand and you face two raises, it's time to bluff or fold. Bush is bluffing and he's gonna get called, and it's our money and countless innocent lives he's putting in the pot.

like a creature slithering in the dark, cheney is only capable of a "surprise visit". were his visits announced, surely the world would be a better place.

Winter soldiers:
http://www.democracynow.org/

" bottle March 18th, 2008 5:42 pm

Speaking on Democracy Now, Seymour Hersh saw precise equivalency between the Iraq War Veterans' testimony in Silver Spring and his breaking of the My Lai story during Vietnam.

...

Will someone follow in his footsteps now?
Seems unlikely. Not when the New York Times won't even cover the hearings, the Washington Post publishes a story that is ideational rather than full-fledged coverage of the individual accounts, and there is nothing in The Boston Globe."

I BELIEVE TO HAVE come to realise that the BG is owned by the NYT; having seen NYT copyrights in some recent BG articles posted either here or elsewhere. If true, then I guess when the NYT won't publish articles on Winter Soldiers, then it becomes evident that the BG likely also won't.

bottle:

"I don't know about the so-called left coast and the center of the country– since I live on the right coast– but have been told the worst."

DEPENDS ON WHICH direction you're looking in. Looking south from north, you are on the left coast. And of course center is that regardless of whether we're looking southward or northward, of course. East and West works better, is more fitting when referring to the coasts; while, and again, center remains center. Ha.

"With "enduring" U.S. military bases established in Iraq, and an embassy in Baghdad the size of the Vatican City, there appears to be no end in sight for the U.S. occupation of Iraq."

Obama and Billary aren't explicitly named in the article, or certainly not Obama, while neither names appears in the last para. of the article; but the last para. inherently bears both of their names, for, and as everyone knows or else should, they both side with maintaining the criminally established U.S. embassy and military bases in Iraq, which in turn means maintaining war of western conquest and domination over Iraq and its whole population; for starters.

Support Obama for President, but to do so responsibly means making sure that if he wins, then it will evidently be necessary to energetically work on getting him to get the USA and its criminal allies ALL OUT OF IRAQ and ENITRELY SO; that is, to abide by both U.S. and international laws.

Oh well, anyone who thinks that being a responsible citizen is a part-time job, lasting only for whatever minutes it takes to cast a ballot every two or four years, does NOT know what it means to be a [responsible] citizen and voter. Anyone who thinks that elected officials are not human, that they are absolutely flawless, is infantile. Elected officials can be thought of as political leaders, but they sometimes even often need to be led.

Responsible citizens and voters must be leaders themselves, therefore. So support, vote, elect him, and then lead him to do what needs to be done.

It's a simple solution or avenue to follow, while being successful about this is another matter. So follow the simple prescription and energetically work to make it successful. Voila, the only reality-based solution available this year.

Billary, NEVER!

Speaking on Democracy Now, Seymour Hersh saw precise equivalency between the Iraq War Veterans' testimony in Silver Spring and his breaking of the My Lai story during Vietnam.

He pointed out that there is always a lag time between significant consciousness-raising and its absorption by the mainstream media; but, I have to suggest, is not our print journalism moribund?

Hersh at least was able to publish his account, win a Pulitzer Prize for it, make a distinguished career for himself, and
most of all, HELP US GET OUT OF VIETNAM.

Will someone follow in his footsteps now?
Seems unlikely. Not when the New York Times won't even cover the hearings, the Washington Post publishes a story that is ideational rather than full-fledged coverage of the individual accounts, and there is nothing in The Boston Globe.

I don't know about the so-called left coast and the center of the country-- since I live on the right coast-- but have been told the worst.

Forty years ago there would be pictures, biographies, and word-for-word testimony taking up half of the front pages. So what has happened? A graying about the gills of our newspapermen. One needs to re-read "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery to seek possible understanding.

There, early on, a distinction is made between sentient human beings and adults.
The only thing that interests adults is numbers.

We could take this further and ask which numbers. "A third of Iraqis are displaced, in need of emergency aid-- or dead."

Not those numbers! Those mean nothing to the gray-gills who missed the whole Iraq story at a time when they could have prevented it. So their spirits are low. They have been whacked about. They have lost their innocence. Unfortunately-- and this is the real mystery-- they have done so willingly.

So-- internet users-- whack them on their gray gills some more, please. Michael Gordon, you coldest of all cold fish, you are the biggest churl ever to appear on Democracy Now except maybe for Lou Dobbs.

Kem,
thanks for the Elvis update.
You gotta love the guy!

WELL YOU ARE SO RIGHT IT IS OBVIOUS TO THE MASSES and the media masters that the capitalist War Economy is Dead on arrival.

So like with JFK they are doing some post operation work to kind a make you think it is the fault of some lone nut Commie who should have stayed in the Marines and out of Russia!

One Oswald is gone but were is Osama?

Who cares there is a War ON!

No Jim , Elvis is alive, I've had coffee and penaut butter sandwichese with him there at a coffee shop in Remus. He wants to buy the Makinaw bridge from me. And John McCain and anyone else who thinks the SURGE is working, is just as delusional as I am.

Paul Craig Roberts has a great article on CounterPunch "A Bankrupt Superpower: The Collapse of the American Empire." I am sure as all of you know, and Craig states it, this country is financially broke. When you engage in conversation with people who think all is well and condemn progressives, tell them the country is bankrupt. An illegal occupation of Iraq that so far has cost us $1-3 trillion, $52 trillion of debt in junk bonds that floats beneath the spider web of bad subprime loans, and more than $300 billion worth of debt to China and other countries. Bernanke can keep putting his toes and fingers in the cracks to very temporarily hold back the inevitable deluge that is about to consume this country, but tell anyone who is confident that the economy is fine that they are kidding themselves. Wait until the piper shows up. It won't be pretty at all! Heckuva job Bushie, Dickey, and Bernanke!

Did someone say DELUSIONAL?

I think Presely and John Lennon and Phil Ochs would be protestin with us and they probably still are....

Kem,
Your kidding right?

I'm gonna demonstrate with some friends down town Tampa out side some politicians office.

I will try and keep things peaceful.

Maybe we should celebrate "5 years of protest and still alive to tell the tale"

YEEESSSSSSSSSSS..........

@ andersdl,

"Can we re-name the USA the USD for the United States of Delusion ?"

No, we cannot!

The letters "U", "S" an "A" are holy and stand for the secret name, United State of Arrogance.

Almost 4,000 dead American soldiers and more than 1.3 million Iraqis. What is insanity? Is that really a moot question?

Cheney's delusional comments about how successful the Iraq occupation has been escape all reality. He had to make another "surprise" visit surrounded by heavily armed guards, to only the Green Zone, that caught 2 mortars while he was there. This is in stark contrast to Ahmanadinajad's ability to travel down the road from the airport (something no American politician has nerve enough to do) to areas within and outside of the Green Zone without wearing any body armor and with three weeks prior notice of his coming. Does't anybody in the MSM see the irony of this? What good is any of our "news" networks if they won't tell the truth?

The Neo-Cons have forgotten about the same factor that tripped up Daddy Bush during Gulf War One: properly managing the end game (perhaps he and his cronies forgot to read the relevant chapters about that in Machiavelli and Clausewitz). With the Iraq fiasco, managing the end game is the least of their worries, as the real goal, securing the oil supply and distribution centers, has largely failed to happen due to the insurgency (who make oil facilities a prime target...they are nowhere as confused as the American public as to the real reason for this mess). Their secondary goal of enriching their corporate buddies off the government tit has been reached spectacularly though.

ROY EIDELSON

very good videos. i'm still wondering if they really believed what they were saying.........

Response to Ezeflyer
Re: The Neo Con American policy has largely achieved its stated goals at what cost?
This argument has a long history (see the British Empire), but I'm going to assume controlling oil and the Middle East in general is profitable.
Re:Besides the cost in lives and standing in the world, if we burn the oil, we get more global warming.
I suppose the cost in lives makes some people squeamish. Of course, good Christians on the right who largely support and finance the Republican party don't have any such squeamish qualms. As for American standing in the world, I can only assume it is enhanced by its show of might, power and control over Iraq using just a few hundred thousand soldiers and contractors. As for global warming, there is not a country in the world that pays serious heed to it- beyond lip-service.
Re:But if we don't, somebody else will. Makes one wonder whether capitalism is a cancer, really.
Yep, oil is popular stuff worldwide! Perhaps a cancer, but Capitalism is also largely considered by nation states as the most efficient way to stimulate economic growth.

5 years and according to McCain, only 95 more to go. Sorry most of us won't be around to see how
it ends.

When I was a kid I used to listen to my grandfather talk about flying his dive bomber against the Japanese. He talked about the great victories and precise bomb strikes with "huge fireballs" coming up from the ships. I built plastic models of the WW2 planes and ships and remade these "great battles" over and over on the great blue sea of my carpet.
As I got older, I listened to my uncle talk about Vietnam and patrolling down the river on a PBR. He also told of great battles and "kicking ass". I listened to amazing tales of courage and survival. I also heard stories of "huge fireball explosions" and spectacular destruction. As a teenager, I wanted to see a napalm explosion and shoot a machine gun. I very nearly enlisted in the Marine Corps.
It is unfortunate that they never told what the wars were about, why we were there, what the objectives were, or how horrible it really was. Like so many Americans, I learned that we were the "good guys" and we "always won". America was invincible and the bad guys wanted to take our freedom away.
It is a responsibility we have to tell out children the truth about war. War should always be a last resort and only in self defense. There is never any honor, glory, or Hollywood drama in war. We should never hide the lines of flag-draped caskets, the tears, or the crippled veterans. The movies and the video games glorify war and the kids that play them laugh at the huge explosions or applaud the successes of their sniping. They need to differentiate between game war and reality war.
As long as these kids keep thinking of spectacular battles, huge fireballs, or kicking ass, they will continue to enlist and continue to fill the caskets. If that happens, the preteens now will take their place after the next 5 years and the cycle will continue.

With just the amount of the Iraq budget of 2007, $138 billion, the government could instead have provided Medicaid-level health insurance for all 45 million Americans who are uninsured. What's more, we could have added 30,000 elementary and secondary schoolteachers and built 400 schools in which they could teach. And we could have provided basic home weatherization for about 1.6 million existing homes, reducing energy consumption in these homes by 30 percent.

But the economic consequences of Iraq run even deeper than the squandered opportunities for vital public investments. Spending on Iraq is also a job killer. Every $1 billion spent on a combination of education, healthcare, energy conservation and infrastructure investments creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than the same money going to Iraq. Taking the 2007 Iraq budget of $138 billion, this means that upward of 1 million jobs were lost because the Bush Administration chose the Iraq sinkhole over public investment.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79988/
The Iraq War Is Killing Our Economy

DRWU wonders:

Dahr, Cockburn, Ritter, Hedges– all clear-eyed on Iraq

Bush, Cheney, the neo-cons all cockeyed.

Why are the demented in charge?

********************

Of course the short quick answer is "because enough Americans voted for them and all the Democrats who now control congress".

The more complete answer is becasue (despise him though we ought!) Cheney-dog is 100% correct when he asserts,"our way of life is non-negotiable".

He is not talking about the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, checks and balances, and due process under the law, because the past 7 years have shown that all of them are very negotiable and valued about as much as used toilet paper.

What the running dog Cheney is really talking about (though he himself is sufficiently distracted by wet-dreams of empire and dominat control to not fully grasp it) is our inalienable "right" as Americans to devour resources which belong to otherson our terms rather t5han their's.

Devour those resources out of all proportion to any true need and squash any and all people who would question our "right" to do so like they were bothersome cockroaches.

What will "success in Iraq and Afghanistan" look like? American oil companies controlling and extracting the profit from the second largest proven reserves of light crude oil in the world is what it will look like.

Transhipment pipelines criss-crossing Iraq and Afghanistan delivering oil from Central Asia as well as Iraq to terminals located in the Persian Gulf and the Mediteranian Sea is what it will look like.

Foutenn well-defended, permanent military bases bases to protect "our" oil and "our" investment in this part of the Middle East is what it will look like.

A vast "embassy complex" theme park that will look like a cross betweem Disney World and the Mall of America is what "success in Iraq will look like.

By all measures above Cheney dog is right--"we" are making "incredible progress".

Dahr, Cockburn, Ritter, Hedges-- all clear-eyed on Iraq

Bush, Cheney, the neo-cons all cockeyed.

Why are the demented in charge?

Of Course this war is a success for Cheney! His friends have gotten super rich. Dubya thinks he is a man. AND it has made all the other bad stuff they have done seem so much "less bad" in comparison.
Yur duna heckova job shooter!

The Neo Con American policy has largely achieved its stated goals at what cost? Besides the cost in lives and standing in the world, if we burn the oil, we get more global warming. But if we don't, somebody else will. Makes one wonder whether capitalism is a cancer, really.

It's a damn shame the insurgents missed dick during his visit to Iraq, that at least would have allowed impeachment proceedings to start.
I'm still struck by the paucity of what passes for news in the usa, this weekend our cable provider showed fox news on its preview channel. Pathetic doesn't begin to describe that shlock and shtick. The only time you hear about conditions in Iraq on fox was when they talked about the troops, what was/is happening to the people of Iraq is topic-non-grata.

bush et the neocons still inhabit a world where their 'enemies' fear the usa above all else, the rest of us have started to fear the deluge that will follow their reign of error.

Mc Cain & Abel

Mc Cain are you truly able
to save that black gold
in the oily fertile valley for the few?
Are we truly able to pay for a century of strife
Are we truly able?
Say.....Mc Cain
Who slew Abel?

Skull and bones sounds like a fraternity
Did your jungle Nam jet get lost in fratricide?
The Qur'an and the Bible don't have much to hide
they both concur on Abel
but are you Cain?
like a farmer of old for told on a scroll
by the holy depleted U dead sea

Mr. Mc Cain are you blamed for starting eternal strife?
Would you prefer a bomb or a knife?
How about a name like Sue?
Aren't you glad your framed as blue?
Does a villain know what he must do?

They're not done yet.

Sure, Iraq is in ruins and ready to give their oil away.

Sure, the US has gone through a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in the last 30 years.

But there are still a lot of people who have no possibility of contributing to the workforce now that industrialization has made labor less necessary. Hitler called them "useless eaters". The heirs of Hitler run this country now.

Do not be surprised if the previously announced "bird flu" is released.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/bird-flu/mg19325874.900-hybrid-flu-virus-in-nearmiss-escape...

I see that those Neo-Cons, Dick and John, have traveled to Iraq at taxpayer expense to gloat. It's no wonder that I have unpluged my propaganda box.

The Surge is a success in what it set out to do. It came at a time when Democrats had just taken the majority in both houses of Congress, and had a mandate to end this armed robbery. Bush gave them a different option. Simply defeat the surge and then declare political victory. Pathetically enough, they couldn't even do that.

So how is it that these people can declare "mission accomplished" a "successful endeavor" (and it is not over yet), or that the surge is working? What is wrong with this majority in this country. From my view I see too many Christians friends oblivious or in denial about what is being done to other human beings in theirs' and their God's name.

I see the FED (BANERS and Financiers) bailing out themselves and then having one of their members purchase Bear-Steans for $2 a share. Where are the simple questions of a conflict of interest, a misuse of U.S. taxpayer money and so on.

It seems nothing can be done and this period of U.S. will go down in history as comparable to Nazi Germany. No, not an extreme comparison unless you buy that we had good intentions and they had bad ones— tell that to the surviving Iraqi's.

Can we re-name the USA the USD for the United States of Delusion ?

Cheney and McClone's Iraq PR stunts this week provide a good distraction from one of the more consequential domestic delusions...financial industry corruption.
Bear Stearns demise this week is the biggest bank failure since the Hoover administration (or Great Depression, take your pick)and W is reassuring us that US "economic fundamentals are sound".

The only way W's statement is correct is if " economic fundamentals" are now defined as tranferring the nation's wealth from the 99% to the 1%. That process has become a well oiled machine under the Bush regime.

From a psychological perspective, it's also important to consider how and why White House warmongering has proven so effective despite the tragic disaster that is Iraq today. I examine these questions in a 10-minute online video entitled "Resisting the Drums of War." It describes how the Bush administration has promoted the misguided and destructive war in Iraq by targeting five core concerns that often govern our lives--concerns about vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. Looking ahead, the continuing occupation of Iraq--or an attack on Iran--will likely be sold to us in much the same way. The video examines these warmongering appeals and offers suggestions for how to counter them. It's available for viewing HERE.

P.S. For a brief but deeply troubling chronicle of the president's public warmongering and demonization of Iran, please take a look at my 3-minute YouTube video entitled "Forewarned Is Forearmed: Bush On Iran." It is available HERE. Thanks.

In purely political/Machiavellian/Clausewitzian terms McCain is correct. United States is sitting powerfully (controlling oil) in the centre of the world. This article seems to suggest that the populace of USA has turned against, "war as policy/politics by other means". Perhaps (and the subjective position of the American people is debatable), but by way of contemporary political analysis, one concludes Neo Con American policy has largely achieved its stated goals.

the number of U.S. soldiers in much higher
adding in 20,000+ suicides
from this I.I.I.I.

ILLEGAL
INVASION
INTO
IRAQ

"The surge is working". ~~John McCain~~

And Elvis Presley is alive and lives in Remus, Michigan.