Can't really blame them

In it's ineffable wisdom, the State Department has decided to force diplomats to take posts in Baghdad and "Provincial Reconstruction Teams" around Iraq. Well, it looks like a few hundred of them are raising a stink. They raised a ruckus today at a meeting thsat I'm sure was designed to get them all trunk-to-tail on the idiocy that is the Iraq occupation.

No go. Look for a bunch of resignations if Condi pushes this.

Oh,great.

The Mosul dam, built on gypsum, is a disaster waiting to happen. And the money we have poured in to keep it from flooding Mosul and Baghdad, well:

"Our focus is on whether the project that the Corps undertook got carried out and the answer to that question is no," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general. "The expenditures of the money have yielded no benefit yet."

..."yielded no benefit..." Well big surprise there.

I know we didn't build the damn thing in such a stupid way, but if it goes and kills a ton of civilians, the world will blame us. And I will blame Bush and the Republicans for the stupid, incompetent way they have bungled anything to do with the reconstruction of the country THEY invaded.

Republicans: deadly, stupid, and a danger to the entire planet.

Killer Immunity

Yep. Blackwater mercenary thugs get immunity from the State Department after they slaughter 17 Iraqis who committed the sin of getting in their way. Way to win hearts and minds, Condi.

Have I told you lately how much I hate the evil Republican Party and all their minions?

Beautiful Idiot

Okay, White House liar-for-George Dana Perino is a hottie. But she is either an idiot or has no moral compass. (Duh. She's a TerrerPublican. I vote for both.) She just said that there will be health benefits to the warming of our planet. I kid you not. Check it out here.

Still, if we're going to be lied to, let's at least have a pretty face do the dirty work. beats the hell out of Tony Snow. (Hmmm...Snow. Enjoy that while it lasts.)

A "Criminal Event"

That's what a US military investigator calls the actions of Blackwater in the Nisoor Square Massacre. Here's the evidence, from the MSNBC website:

• At least two cars, a black four-door taxi and a blue Volkswagen sedan, had their back windshields shot out, but their front windshields were intact, indicating they were shot while driving away from the square, according to the photos and soldiers. The Volkswagen, which crashed into a bus stand, had blood splattered on the inside of its front windshield and windows. One person was killed, soldiers said.
  
• U.S. soldiers did not find any bullets that came from AK-47 assault rifles or BKC machine guns used by Iraqi policemen and soldiers. They found evidence of ammunition used in American-made weapons, including M4 rifle 5.56mm brass casings, M240B machine gun 7.62mm casings, M203 40mm grenade launcher casings, and stun-grenade dunnage, or packing.
  
• A white sedan, carrying a doctor and her son, had not entered the Nisoor Square traffic circle, where the Blackwater vehicles had stopped, when it was fired upon, according to the aerial photos. News reports have said the guards shot at the car because they believed it approached them in a threatening manner.

By the time US troops arrived:

"[the square] was flooded with more than 50 Iraqi security force personnel, including top generals. The police were evacuating victims. By then, the smoke, which had risen from the burning white sedan, had vanished. Two charred bodies were still in the car.

"People were upset," recalled Sgt. Derrek Martin."

UPSET? I should think so. And it's even worse. Mercenary rampages like this feed into all the anti-US sentiment that Middle East terrorists feed on:

"It was absolutely tragic," said Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division and the Army's top commander for Baghdad. "In the aftermath of these, everybody looks and says, 'It's the Americans.' And that's us. It's horrible timing. It's yet another challenge, another setback," he said.

Mercenary troops killing people who ARE DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO GET OUT OF THE WAY make the task of doing anything good in Iraq incalculably more difficult. If we don't slap Blackwater and its ilk down, Iraq is as good as lost.

So Blackwater can hold OUR OWN TROOPS AT GUINPOINT...

...AND GET AWAY WITH IT?

What in the hell is wrong with this country? I hate to employ the overused comparison to Hitler and his boys, but this is nothing but brown-shirtism at its worst.

One Marine officer put it this way: "Their attitude was, 'We're f---ing security; we don't have to answer to anybody'."

And the Nazis thought the same damn thing.

This is getting downright scary, folks. We MUST get rid of the corrupt Republican leadership that allowed, and profited from this craziness, before we have to fight Blackwater over here. It seems our troops are already having to fight them over there.-

Aww, poor widdle GOPer congwessman has to work five whole days a week.

My tiny fiddle is playing a sad song for this wanker.

Be careful out there

Because there are some dangerous right-wing nuts around. This guy ran into one, but really it was almost the other way around.

Whatever will Mulla Dobson say about this?

Two Iraqi Christian women were slain in their car by a private security firm Tuesday. Not Blackwater...this time. I wonder if the Christian right will make a peep about this one? How about it, big D?

Even the Iraqi PM calls Blackwater murderers

Al-Malaki is gunning for the mercenaries now. Hearts and minds, people.

Oh, the metaphor!

How fitting. The fire sprinklers at the new US Embassy in Iraq DON'T WORK. What a perfect physical analogy for the disaster that is George Bush's Iraq policy. We build this huge structure (ie: occupy the place) and when the place bursts into flames, our sprinkler pipes burst.

This is about competence, people. As in utter lack of. These people could f* up a wet dream. But I forget, right wing fundamentalists don't have wet dreams. Never mind.

Another Toe Tapping GOPer

This is getting ridiculous. ANOTHER "family valuers" hypocrite. At least this one had the sense to drop out of the race.

Naomi Wolfe nails Blackwater

This is what we're in for if we let them intimidate us. Remember that Blackwater is angling for domestic work. They've already been called in during Katrina. This is where the fascist GOP wants to take us.

Why soldiers fight

This is the story of one man risking his life and performing a super-human feat for a comrade in arms. A Brit, by the way. Yep, one of those Brits about whom some White House stooge said:

“Operationally, British forces have performed poorly in Basra,” said the official. “Maybe it’s best that they leave...”

Tell that to the Colour Sergeant, stooge.

Nothing to see here....

...except that the Arctic is melting even faster than we thought. But take comfort, little consumers. Exxon and Shell and Dick Cheney assure us that it's all in our scientists' little pin-heads. We must not say anything that interferes with the economic climate for big corporations. Nope, that must be sunny at all times.

More Blackwater

Whoa, two posts in a day. That's because we are beginning to see more of the cost of hiring mercenaries to do our dirty work. The evidence is in, and Blackwater shoots first, checks the dead later. Kind of a "Let God sort 'em out" operation. Which makes sense for an outfit run by a right-wing theocrat.

Your modern republican party. Enjoy.

Go read Army Of Dude

Long time no post. Same old stuff lately. GOP evil, Democrat wimpiness. Been real busy studying the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. SOMEDAY I'll get that degree.

But today I found a blog that YOU MUST READ about the Limbaugh "phony soldier" crap. This "phony" soldier eviscerates the mighty ass-sitter with pictures and words. If there is a phony, it's the big fat radio blowhard and his chickenhawk audience.

Please READ Army of Dude, and send the link out far and wide.

And remember, wherever there is injustice, greed, lies, and evil, there is usually a Republican at the root of it, gettin' rich.