Coleman Hawkins
Disorder at the Border

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(crossposted at Vagabond Scholar)

Posts earlier this month examined “Political Attack Ads“ and “Imaginary Candidates, Ideal and Dastardly.” However, even though the election season is over (for now), if you missed it this NPR story deserves a listen, as “Melissa Block talks with voice-over artists Dennis Steele and Scott Sanders about how to make a threatening voice for a political ad.” It’s NPR at its best -both informative and funny. The webpage also links several attack ads, but it’s the brilliant way this segment ends that makes it essential listening.

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NEW LEADERSHIP OFFERS MANY REASONS NOT TO HALT TAXPAYER SUPPORT FOR WAR BY STEWART M. POWELL
Hearst Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Democrats taking charge of Congress in January show little enthusiasm for cutting off Pentagon spending as a way of ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

The controversial tactic has been invoked successfully by Democrats and Republicans on at least 10 occasions under four presidents since 1970 to curtail or restrict U.S. military or paramilitary operations in seven countries.

But Senate Democratic Leader-elect Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., say they will oppose any effort to force President Bush’s hand by ending taxpayer support for 149,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

It’s “way premature to consider that,” said House Democratic Leader-elect Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Pelosi’s top deputy. “We’re not going to de-fund the troops in the field. Period.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, favors beginning phased U.S. troop withdrawals within four to six months, but adds: “I don’t think we need (funding cutoffs). There’s significant pressure on this president, given the election results.”

More here

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They gotta get it while the gettins good? Notice anti terrorism efforts thrown in there…….

(11-26) 04:00 PST Washington — The Pentagon is getting ready to ask Congress to approve emergency spending for the Iraq war, military operations in Afghanistan and anti-terrorism efforts.

The Defense Department is mum about exactly how much it will seek in the war supplemental budget request, but congressional aides predict it will range from $70 billion to over $100 billion.

This money would be on top of the $70 billion the military already has received for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 for war costs, and the approximately $380 billion Congress has approved for the Iraq war over five previous emergency spending requests since 2003.

This spending is also in addition to the $477 billion approved for the current fiscal year to pay for weapons procurement and maintenance, research and development and troop training.

Bill Hoagland, a budget adviser to Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the outgoing Senate majority leader, said Capitol Hill is gearing up for sticker shock.

More here

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Ahhhhhhh we didn’t need scholars to tell us, but maybe this administration does.

Though the Bush administration continues to insist that it is not, a growing number of U.S. and Iraqi scholars, leaders and policy analysts say the fighting in Iraq in every way meets the standard definition of civil war.

The common scholarly definition has two main criteria. The first says that the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second says that at least 1,000 people must have been killed, with at least 100 from each side.

American professors who specialize in the study of civil wars say that most of them agree that the conflict in Iraq is a civil war.

More from the scholars here

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I know a Steelers fan who has really red swollen eyes today……

Go Bears!!

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How the U.S. supports democracy and the “will of the people” is playing out in Venezula as the December elections approach. Two recent articles examine the role the US has played in trying to get the result they want.

Chris Carlson reminds us of how the U.S., having failed to get rid of Milosovic through a bombing campaign, turned to influencing the ballot box.

They sent in CIA front organizations funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Instead of guns and bombs, these U.S. forces were armed with fax machines, computers, and perhaps most importantly, sophisticated surveys done by the Washington-based polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland.(1) Their mission: to take down Milosovic by strengthening opposition groups.

So it should come as no surprise that these same actors are now operating to get rid of Hugo Chavez.

Read more at the Left Coaster

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WASHINGTON –The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is promising an array of oversight investigations that could provoke sharp disagreement with Republicans and the White House.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., pledged that Democrats, swept to power in the Nov. 7 elections, would govern “in the middle” next year. But the veteran lawmaker has a reputation as one who has never avoided a fight and he did not back away from that reputation on Sunday.

Among the investigations he said he wants the committee to undertake:

–The new Medicare drug benefit. “There are lots and lots and lots of scandals,” he said, without citing specifics.

–Spending on government contractors in Iraq, including Halliburton Co., the Texas-based oil services conglomerate once led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

–An energy task force overseen by Cheney. It “was carefully cooked to provide only participation by oil companies and energy companies,” Dingell said.

–A review of food and drug safety, particularly in the area of nutritional supplements.

Read more at Boston.com

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WASHINGTON: This column of a few weeks ago - if anyone recalls - suggested that Nancy Pelosi was ready for her prime-time political role. Please add “not yet” to several of those sentences.

The San Francisco congresswoman dashed the Democrats’ euphoria over their midterm election success and her ascension shortly as the first woman to become speaker of the House of Representatives with a clumsy effort to overthrow the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer. Her colleagues decisively defeated her, to the delight of the Republicans. Despite a good face, she’s angry, associates say.

If Pelosi wants to recapture the high ground, she had better get over it and understand what this ill-fated venture reveals about her deficiencies. If she does, this may be an insignificant blip; if not, it will be the harbinger of an unsuccessful tenure as speaker.

Full article here

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•A man lost in his geography:

1-”We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.”

George W. Bush

2-”It’s time for the human race to enter the solar system.”

George W. Bush

3-”The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.”

George W. Bush

•A man lost in his logic:

4-” It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment.

It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it. ”

George W. Bush

5-”Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.”

George W. Bush

6-”These people are trying to shake the will of the Iraqi citizens, and they want us to leave…I think the world would be better off if we did leave…”

George W. Bush

7-”I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”

George W. Bush

8-”If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”

George W. Bush

9-”Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George W. Bush

10-Well, I think if you say you’re going to do something and don’t do it, that’s trustworthiness.

More from the genius here

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Meanwhile, another U.S. post in Iraq is blown up.

Militants Sunday fired at least two mortar rounds at a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad, setting the post on fire, according to Iraqi police and the U.S. military.

Hours after the attack, a plume of black smoke could be seen rising into the evening sky.

Citing security reasons, a U.S. military spokesman would not confirm the “effectiveness” of the attack, but said it originated just outside Sadr City.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Sunday characterized the situation in Iraq as a “political crisis” and said politicians are the only ones who can stop the further security deterioration and bloodshed of innocent people.

There is no hope to save Iraq and stop the bloodbath unless politicians “realize there are no winners or losers in this battle,” he said, speaking to reporters at the Political Council for the National Security.

He said acts of terrorism are a reflection of political disagreements and Iraq’s government is about to “tackle” those people who are against the will of Iraq, the Iraqi people and the national reconciliation among the people.

Iraq’s leaders promised Sunday to track down those responsible for the war’s deadliest attack by insurgents, the string of bombings that killed at least 200 people in Baghdad’s Sadr City on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

Complete article at CNN

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I can’t begin to imagine what the long term costs for Iraq War vets will be. Higher than any other war, to be sure. I’m not buying $127 billion. I think it will go way beyond that in the long run. Just another fucking mess Bush is going to leave behind. Another cost of this war no one speaks of.

Nov. 25, 2006 - Sgt. Brent Bretz has had 57 operations since he lost both legs in Iraq.

Bretz, 24, is getting care at Brook Army Medical in San Antonio, and expects to be discharged soon on 100 percent disability. But he will need still more surgery and is counting on the Veterans Administration to pay for it.

Advances in body armor and battlefield medicine mean soldiers are surviving injuries that would have killed them in past wars. Some will need lifetime care - which means the government is facing a massive bill.

According to recent research by Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda Bilmes caring for Iraq’s wounded will cost the government $127 billion.

“The costs that we see today are just the very, very tip of an enormous iceberg,” says Bilmes.

Read more at ABCNews

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LOS ANGELES — The lawmaker poised to cause the Bush administration’s biggest headaches when Democrats take control of Congress may just be a grocer’s son from Watts who’s hardly a household name off Capitol Hill.

Rep. Henry Waxman has spent the last six years waging a guerrilla campaign against the White House and its corporate allies, launching searing investigations into everything from military contracts to Medicare prices from his perch on the Government Reform Committee.

In January, Waxman becomes committee chairman — and thus the lead congressional hound of an administration many Democrats feel has blundered badly as it expanded the power of the executive branch.

Waxman’s biggest challenge as he mulls what to probe?

“The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose,” he said.

The choices he makes could help define Bush’s legacy.

“There is just no question that life is going to be different for the administration,” said Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the current committee chairman. “Henry is going to be tough. … And he’s been waiting a long time to be able to do this.”

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

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Iraq insurgency now financially self’sustaining-NYT

NEW YORK, Nov 25 (Reuters) - The Iraq insurgency has become financially self’sustaining, raising tens of millions of dollars a year from oil smuggling, kidnapping, counterfeiting, corrupt charities and other crimes, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

According to a classified United States government report, a copy of which was obtained by the newspaper, groups responsible for many of the insurgent and terrorist attacks are raising an estimated $70 million to $200 million a year from illegal activities.

Some $25 million to $100 million of the total comes from oil smuggling and other criminal activity involving the state-owned oil industry aided by “corrupt and complicit” Iraqi officials, the Times said, citing the report.

As much as $36 million a year comes from ransoms paid over hundreds of kidnappings. Unnamed foreign governments — identified in the past by senior U.S. officials as including France and Italy — paid kidnappers $30 million in ransom last year alone, the report said.

The Times also quoted the report as saying: “If recent revenue and expense estimates are correct terrorist and insurgent groups in Iraq may have surplus funds with which to support other terrorist organizations outside of Iraq.”

The report, completed in June, was provided to the newspaper by U.S. officials in Iraq who told the Times they had done so in hopes that the findings could improve U.S. understanding of the challenges faced in Iraq.

According to the Times, the report holds out little hope that much can be done any time soon to stem the flow of funds to insurgents, acknowledging how little U.S. authorities in Iraq know about crucial aspects of insurgent operations.

And it paints a bleak picture of the Iraqi government’s ability, or willingness, to take the necessary measures to contain the insurgency’s financing, the Times said.

Full article here

This war should have never been allowed to start without U.N. approval and help… and needs to end NOW! People over there are dying every day, with NO POSSIBILITY of a victory. Bush speaks of some future victory if we ’stay the course’. Does anyone know what that means?

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