Three Wars of Iraq

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Slate’s take on the war – There’s actually three, two of which we’re not doing so badly in.

Let’s put it like this: An American family that lost a son or a daughter in the defense of free Kurdistan or in the struggle against AQM (al-Qaida in Mesopotamia) could console itself that the death was in a worthwhile cause. The same could not be said for a soldier who fell in some murky street engagement, shot in the back by a uniformed policeman who was doing double duty as a member of a theocratic Shiite militia. Read more…

Also from the war today…
Wind Turbines for War Dollars – Sietch Blog
Iraq Corruption Probe Widens… Again – Mother Jones
Pentagon Denies Increase in Troops’ Suicides – alternet

Meet Your Fellow Americans

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Of course, we need to execute some of these people,” I wake up. Who do we need to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. “A few of these prominent liberals who are trying to demoralize the country,” she says. “Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that’s what you’ll get.” She squints at the sun and smiles. ” Then things’ll change.”

A brave sole over at AlterNet goes undercover on a neo-conservative pleasure cruise.

The Greats

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I’m an NPR junkie, a Google news reader. BBC, NY Times and Reuters all take top billing on my sites visited. i have deep-seated need to be in touch, to know what’s going on in the world. To be an active citizen of this wacky global metropolis.

Or I did. Lately though it’s been too much. I turn off Carl Castle in favor of my ipod, because the news is just too fucking depressing.

Put it another way – thanks to the beauty of Netflix I can watch documentaries pretty much when ever I want. It’s basically a PBS orgy on my TV all the time. Last night it was American Experience – MacArthur. This guy was a hawkish, self-righteous, conservative, egotistical mad-man. A general with a part-time gig as a one-man PR firm for which he was the sole client. Not the type of guy I’d go do a bike ride with on a free Saturday, given a choice. But for all his faults he was one of those great men of that era. Maybe they didn’t always do exactly the right thing but they saw with conviction and purpose the way forward. Leaders, i think is what they call them.

In contrast today, Scooter Libby got his sentence commuted.

The country our grandfathers thought they were fighting for is slowly and quietly dying, while we watch Paris Hilton get carted off to jail (hell, Bush should’ve just done a two-fer and let her off the hook as well – judicial precedent stacks up about the same). Where are the leaders ? Where are those magnificent bastards who we could love and hate with a passion. Or have we raised a generation so neutered and scared of offending the person next to them that we’ll just be washed into the sea by great waves of mediocrity as extremists of all varietals tell us to put our heads in the sand and be afraid?

We’re busy watching TV while the city burns.

Global Collective Sigh of Relief

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Apparently going to war with Iran is off the table this week. The British ramped back the rhetoric and employed this cool new technique called ‘foreign diplomacy.’ Sounds a great tool for developed nations to use to avoid blasting each other back into the stone age. We should look into it.

John Bolton

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This guy is having a bad week. First he made the mistake of talking history with John Stewart. Then he shows up on the BBC’s Question Time, looking like a first-rate asshat. Made for some great one-liners, including this:

There’s no moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber – they both kill innocent people for political reasons.

Read more →

I used to swim at this guy’s pool…

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Here’s a new approach: Congress should admit its mistake and repeal the authority wrongfully given to the executive branch in 2002. Repeal the congressional sanction and disavow presidential discretion in starting wars. Then start bringing our troops home.

Read more →

The Word You’re Looking For is ‘Screwed.’

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Salon has posted an excellent piece breaking down the situation in Iraq.

If you work with the U.S. or the Iraqi government, you are targeted by al-Qaida. If you work with anyone else, you are targeted by the Shiites. It’s a lose-lose situation. And what’s amazing is this slide has all happened over the past 12 months. It’s pegged to one singular event, the spark, which is the 2006 bombing of the Askariya Mosque in Samarra.

Sadly, that’s kind of the highpoint.

Déjà Vu

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As if having the president claim Texas as his own wasn’t problematic enough.

KATY, Texas – A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb has triggered a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig races on Fridays just to offend the Muslims.

Seriously ? Houston is a big city, with universities, museums and theaters…institutions who’s entire existence is to prevent incidents of dumb-assed-ness such as this. This isn’t 1950, why is this still happening?

Tell you what, let’s be real American about it and pass a ballot measure that prohibits churches that preach violence and hatred from being built in the neighborhood. That should cover your supposed mosque problem as well as pretty much every other place of worship.

Your Buddhist temple would probably be fine.

Yo Houston, stop making the rest of us look ignorant.
Or go ahead, keep doing what your doing, and see if you can get Louisiana to annex you.

Gotta Love That Freedom of Speach

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Just when you thought a blog was the only way to foist your first amendment rights on a large group of people, here comes house of yahweh with their own special brand of crazy.

I have no idea how this got on my car, but I really hope their timetable is off, as I had quite a few bike races planned for next summer. One would suppose that 13 months of nuclear war would make things a bit warmer.

Thievery…

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…You know how Apple just accidentally shipped a few thousand iPods with a Windows virus embedded in them? If you replace “Apple” with “Diebold” and “iPod” with “AccuVote,” then you’ve got a recipe for wholesale election theft.

Want to steal/hack your election ? Click here…