Milk Shake

My milk shake brings all the boys to the yard,
and they’re like,
its better than yours,
damn right its better than yours,
I can teach you,
but I have to charge

I know you want it,
the thing that makes me,
what the guys go crazy for.
They lose their minds,
the way I wind,
I think its time

la la-la la la,
warm it up.
la la-la la la,
the boys are waiting

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - “My son told me, ‘Mom, I am afraid when I go to school there will be an explosion,’” sighed Iqbal Safi, bringing her six-year-old Ali to his first day at Jawad Salim primary school in central Baghdad.Ali, in a neat, turquoise, button-down short’sleeved shirt and blue jeans, listened quietly by her side.

“But he is so happy he is coming,” she said. “Usually he has to stay in our tiny flat. It is too dangerous to let him out, even to go to the kiosk down the street and buy juice.”

The start of Iraq’s school year was greeted with trepidation on Wednesday, but also joy, as parents accepted that their children might be in danger but hoped they would find relief from the boredom and fear of a city consumed by violence.

“We feel sorry for the students. How will they manage to study with all these bombings, killings and kidnappings?” said Suaad, an Arabic language teacher at nearby Zanabuq Primary School, asking that her surname not be used.

continue reading

Israeli troops have raided a bank and the offices of money-changers in West Bank towns, confiscating funds they say were intended to fund militants.

The army said it seized almost $1.5m (£0.8m) in raids on premises in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Ramallah.

The money had mostly come from Syria and Iran and was intended for Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, the army said.

Palestinian sources have said that millions of dollars, documents and files were “stolen” in the raids.

continue reading

For those of you who would like to listen to Chavez’s UN speech, here it is.

I read about this earlier today and was shocked.

Associated Press Writer

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. (AP) - A man was arrested in the gruesome dragging death of a woman after a stained and tattered photograph of him was found at the crime scene, police said Wednesday.

Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 36, was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of murder and jailed without bail. Investigators said they were still trying to identify the victim, who was dragged behind a vehicle with a rope, leaving a trail of blood more than a mile long.

Authorities did not immediately respond to questions about how the photograph ended up near the woman’s body, which was discovered Monday in a suburban neighborhood about 20 miles south of Denver.

The picture shows a couple who appear to be in their 30s, with the man leaning his arm on the woman’s shoulder. Investigators did not say whether the woman in the picture was the victim.

More here

47 U.S. troops have died so far this month.

Wednesday September 20, 2006 11:01 PM
By The Associated Press

As of Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006, at least 2,690 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,140 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is five more than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 118 deaths; Italy, 32; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, El Salvador, four each; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, one death each.

INXS…..Mystify

You can read “Faces of Guantanamo” here
On September 14, 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights released Faces of Guantnamo, a report offering a revealing glimpse of the lives of men currently detained at Guantnamo. While recent news has focused on information about the 14 “high-value” detainees recently transferred from secret CIA prisons abroad to Guantnamo, the realities for more than 450 detainees already imprisoned at the base have been pushed to the background. Faces of Guantnamo highlights the cases of nearly thirty men who have been held in Guantnamo for nearly five years-despite significant evidence that they are innocent of any wrongdoing.

For the men at Guantnamo, the theory of their imprisonment - now in its fifth year for most of
them - is that they were soldiers, technically, “enemy combatants.” The “enemy combatant”
definition in use exceeds what is permissible under the Geneva Conventions; and scores, perhaps
hundreds of men do not fit even within its broad reach. In brief, they were not soldiers. They
engaged in no hostilities. In the chaos of wartime, many in Afghanistan and Pakistan were sold for
money or as part of tribal or local grievances; others were picked up far from any battlefield.i Of the
over 700 men held at Guantnamo since January 2002, more than 240 have been transferred or
released to freedom.ii Of the men still detained, at least 140 are “cleared for release” by the U.S.
Government.iii Many of these men, held on the flimsiest of evidence, were merely guilty of being in
the wrong place at the wrong time. Others have been denied access to evidence that potentially
would exonerate them. Some have even been declared by the U.S. Government to be non-enemy
combatants, yet still languish in Guantnamo.iv
U.S. military personnel,v and even the findings of the flawed tribunals at Guantnamo,vi have
thoroughly discredited the Administration’s claims that Guantnamo detainees are the
“worst of the worst.”vii Detainees have been asking for the habeas hearings they were promised
two years ago after the Supreme Court ruling in Rasul v. Bush. The refusal of the United States to
provide real hearings to the detainees gravely injures our reputation and our ability to coordinate
abroad the struggle against terrorism. By contrast, fair determinations by judges that persons still
held are indeed combatants in ongoing wars will lend credibility to the nation’s foreign policy.For the men at Guantnamo, the theory of their imprisonment - now in its fifth year for most of
them - is that they were soldiers, technically, “enemy combatants.” The “enemy combatant”
definition in use exceeds what is permissible under the Geneva Conventions; and scores, perhaps
hundreds of men do not fit even within its broad reach. In brief, they were not soldiers. They
engaged in no hostilities. In the chaos of wartime, many in Afghanistan and Pakistan were sold for
money or as part of tribal or local grievances; others were picked up far from any battlefield.i Of the
over 700 men held at Guantnamo since January 2002, more than 240 have been transferred or
released to freedom.ii Of the men still detained, at least 140 are “cleared for release” by the U.S.
Government.iii Many of these men, held on the flimsiest of evidence, were merely guilty of being in
the wrong place at the wrong time. Others have been denied access to evidence that potentially
would exonerate them. Some have even been declared by the U.S. Government to be non-enemy
combatants, yet still languish in Guantnamo.iv
U.S. military personnel,v and even the findings of the flawed tribunals at Guantnamo,vi have
thoroughly discredited the Administration’s claims that Guantnamo detainees are the
“worst of the worst.”vii Detainees have been asking for the habeas hearings they were promised
two years ago after the Supreme Court ruling in Rasul v. Bush. The refusal of the United States to
provide real hearings to the detainees gravely injures our reputation and our ability to coordinate
abroad the struggle against terrorism. By contrast, fair determinations by judges that persons still
held are indeed combatants in ongoing wars will lend credibility to the nation’s foreign policy.

As Bro pointed out today….the point that’s being missed is that congress is going to suspend habeas corpus.

Mon Sep 18, 2006 at 12:46:34 PM PDT
Something very momentous is about to happen. It looks like the McCain Graham Warner version of the military commissions bill is going to pass. While much attention has been paid to the difference between the Bush and these “rebel” Republicans versions, very little notice has been taken of the fact that the McCain version too takes the draconian step of suspending habeas corpus, the linchpin of a free society.

Read more at DailyKos

Thom Hartman wrote a great article about this. You can read it here

habeas corpus (hay-bee-us core-puss) n. Latin for “you have the body,” it is a writ (court order) which directs the law enforcement officials (prison administrators, police, or sheriff) who have custody of a prisoner to appear in court to help the judge determine whether the prisoner is unlawfully in prison or jail. The writ is obtained by petition to a judge in the county or district where the prisoner is incarcerated, and the judge sets a hearing on whether there is a legal basis for holding the prisoner. Habeas corpus is a protection against illegal confinement, such as holding a person without charges, when due process obviously has been denied, bail is excessive, parole has been granted, an accused has been improperly surrendered by the bail bondsman, or probation has been summarily terminated without cause. Historically called “the great writ,” the renowned scholar of the Common Law, William Blackstone called it the “most celebrated writ in English law.” It may also be used as a means to contest child custody and deportation proceedings in court. The writ of habeas corpus can be employed procedurally in federal district courts to challenge the constitutionality of a state court conviction.

I met her in a club down in old soho………

UPDATE: You can listen to the speech here

From CNN

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the United States to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, calling President Bush “the devil.”

“The devil came here yesterday,” Chavez said. “He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world.”

The leftist leader, who joined Iran last week in an alliance against U.S. influence, accused Washington of “domination, exploitation and pillage of peoples of the world.”

“We appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head,” he said.

He also said the United Nations in its current system “doesn’t work” and is “antidemocratic.”

Chavez called for reform, saying the U.S. government’s “immoral veto” had allowed recent Israeli bombings of Lebanon to continue unabated for more than a month.

“Venezuela once again proposes today that we reform the United Nations,” he said.

By ALEX DeMARBAN
Anchorage Daily News

Published: September 20, 2006
Last Modified: September 20, 2006 at 07:01 AM

A Venezuelan-owned oil company will warm 12,000 rural Alaska homes this winter with an enormous gift of heating fuel that some elated residents in the Bush call a godsend — and ironic.

The donation from Houston-based Citgo will buy 100 gallons of fuel for every household in 151 villages. But the gift worth roughly $5 million comes courtesy of a country whose leftist president is pals with America’s enemies and supports Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Hugo Chavez also calls our president mean things, such as “genocidal murderer” and “madman.”

Read full article at Anchorage Daily News

For more information on protest locations and how to organize a protest, visit The World Can’t Wait

Organize and Speak Out Against Bush Administration War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity!

On September 19, 20 and 21, The International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration calls on all campuses and communities across the country to organize public events to expose and denounce the Bush administration’s war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Bush Regime’s actions cry out for resounding calls of conscience by the many, many people across the country who do not want these acts carried out in our names. They call for hundreds of events, sending a loud “No, not in our name!” far and wide.

Events and protests will happen on campuses across the country.

Saw this last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann’s WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD segment. (follow the link to watch the video)

Here’s the gist of it, from TPMmuckraker.com:

Halliburton to Wounded Employee: You’ll Get a Medal — If You Don’t Sue

Justin Rood - September 18, 2006, 2:10 PM

Halliburton will help its combat-zone employees get the honors and recognition they deserve — if they promise not to sue the company. That’s according to new documents released today by Senate Democrats.

Ray Stannard was a truck driver in Iraq for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. In 2003, he was part of a fuel convoy that was ambushed by insurgents. Seven Americans died in the attack and 26 were injured, including Stannard. He is suing the company.

His company knew the convoy’s route was dangerous and unprotected, he says, but sent the convoy through anyway. “What they did was murder,” Stannard told CBS News recently. “And I stick by that.”

The circumstances of his injuries qualified Stannard for the U.S. Defense of Freedom medal, the civilian equivalent to a soldier’s Purple Heart. In offering to forward Stannard’s medical records to the Department of Defense so they could confirm and appove his award, KBR required him to sign a release form. (You can see the document here.)

More…

I’d decline the damn medal and sue the f__k out of them.

Who is in charge of the Capitol Police? Are they under the umbrella of Homeland Security?

Exodus of officers linked to security failure
By Jackie Kucinich

A loss of staff caused by growing discontent with the way the Capitol Police are managed could have contributed to the security failure yesterday and may create additional problems, according to sources familiar with the reason behind the exodus of officers.

The force has lost 18 to 22 officers to U.S. Air Marshals in the last three weeks, and more are planning to leave, according to two sources close to the Capitol Police.

Officers are unhappy with the leadership of the department since Chief Terrance Gainer retired in April, said one knowledgeable source, who was granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.

Read more at The Hill