Santana
Corazon Espinado

H/T Patriot for sending this one to me!!

The ‘surge‘ is going well. With streets blocked by check points and American troops ‘advising’ Iraqi forces, on consecutive days, the Bab Sharqi market was attacked, body parts strewn amongst stalls, goods - and bodies and injured hauled away on the wooden carts used to bring goods to sell. Shorja market was next in firing line, with its covered and outdoor stalls, alleys, serving all from traders who used to come from Kurdistan for the cheaper Baghdad price (road now too dangerous) locals, the Catholic priest, workers and refugees housed in the church moments walk away.

Next was the Friday Ghazil animal market, believed the oldest in the Middle East, a weekly amble through the exotic, the heartbreaking, the songbirds, snakes and the illicit. An exceptional act of bravery was the attack on the bird market. It takes a particularly fearless mindset to declare a war on birds. The mortars which landed in the Kholoud secondary school, in west Baghdad’s Adil district, killing five students and injuring twenty, shredding young bodies with flying glass, were reportedly fired just thirty metres from a ’surge’ crackdown checkpoint.

In 2003 Baghdad’s ancient Muntanabi book market, a place to wander in wonder at its offerings, was blown up. It had stood on the site for innumerable generations, books laid out on the street, on trestles, on laps - and in the ancient alleyways and covered nooks and crannies, near dark, where the dust was blown off seventeenth century gems and first editions of the wonders of French philosophers, poets. Goethe, Shakespeare, Dickens, hid on piled shelves, no country’s greats seemingly not to be found. The booksellers, professional or amateur, handled their volumes as if fragile, utterly precious. A purchase meant a parting.

‘Bring ‘em on’ : the books, the birds, the kids, in this ‘last ditch crackdown’, part of a plan devised by George W. Bush, according to Al Jazeera.Perhaps when the last remnant of Mesopotamia’s ancient heart and soul has been finally ripped out and the last Iraqi has left or been slaughtered, the new pioneers will arrive and build Walmarts, Starbucks, Kentucky Fries, Mesopotamia Mackburgers, from northern Nineveh’s wonders to Basra, from Babylon to Eden (Qurna.) The myriad marvels of this extraordinary land are truly pearls cast amongst swine - the occupying, brute forces.

The duty of care these illegal occupiers have is total, thus they are responsible for ever tragedy. But so depraved are these new Mongols, they have moved on from sending pictures of burned and slaughtered Iraqis to porn sites in exchange for their revolting images and reportedly now collect Iraqis’ brain matter for ‘trophies’ to put in the fridge back at base. Heaven help the communities to which they return and the children they raise. And again, from where are these deviants recruited? Such psychotic sicknesses could surely only have come from a recruiting drive in secure psychiatric institutions, or maximum security penal institutions.

The grief of non Iraqis can never mirror that of Iraqis with the courage to live through this hell, or those forced to flee all they held dear and watch its destruction from afar. But the horrors of the last near four years for those who love this incomparable place, surely feels like the real thing.

Barbara Nimri Aziz, in a shortly to be published book (’Swimming up the Tigris’ - Florida University Press) who knows the country as her own, writes in a chapter headed: ‘Imagine’. She recounts a call from a friend, Mohassen: ‘As an Iraqi, I will not be forced from my homeland … my country .. I love my nation. I will not allow Americans to take it from us, from my father, my President, from any Iraqi.’ Then:

‘Imagine (the embargo) years of your friends dying, give up before you, departing … stricken by cancers, heart failures, miscarriages, diabetes, ulcers’ (denied embargoed medicines.) She recounts also those who fled to save their children from Americans, British and their few straggling ‘allies’.

Continue reading at Global Research

Excuse me while I go throw up now. Senator Arlen Specter, who in the middle of the night, slipped in the portion of the Patriot Act that is allowing Gonzales to fire U.S. attorneys and replace them with Bush’s tools thinks we should be able to watch Supreme Court proceedings. Thanks Arlen, but your still nothing but a tool and a danger to this country…..and you make me sick.

First Amendment Center Online intern
02.09.07
Renewing his fight to bring more openness to the Supreme Court, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., re-introduced a bill late last month that would allow high court proceedings to be televised for the first time.

Co’sponsored by Republican Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa) and John Cornyn (Tex.) and Democrats Richard Durbin (Ill.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Russ Feingold (Wis.), the legislation, S. 344, would allow cameras in all open sessions unless a majority of the justices said the coverage would violate the due-process rights of a party before the Court.

Read more here

H/T Bat for sending me this link. This guy will pay for the rest of his life for what he’s done, or not done, so to speak……and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest suffer no consequences. They feel no remorse. Oh how I’d like to lay a little pain on them.

A man with no face stares at me from the corner of a room. He pleads for help, but I’m afraid to move. He begins to cry. It is a pitiful sound, and it sickens me. He screams, but as I awaken, I realize the screams are mine.

That dream, along with a host of other nightmares, has plagued me since my return from Iraq in the summer of 2004. Though the man in this particular nightmare has no face, I know who he is. I assisted in his interrogation at a detention facility in Fallujah. I was one of two civilian interrogators assigned to the division interrogation facility (DIF) of the 82nd Airborne Division. The man, whose name I’ve long since forgotten, was a suspected associate of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, the Baath Party leader in Anbar province who had been captured two months earlier.

The lead interrogator at the DIF had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned. It is rare that I sleep through the night without a visit from this man. His memory harasses me as I once harassed him.

Despite my best efforts, I cannot ignore the mistakes I made at the interrogation facility in Fallujah. I failed to disobey a meritless order, I failed to protect a prisoner in my custody, and I failed to uphold the standards of human decency. Instead, I intimidated, degraded and humiliated a man who could not defend himself. I compromised my values. I will never forgive myself.

Read more at the Washington Post

33 U.S. soldiers have died in the first 9 days of February. 2 UK soldiers. 1 Polish Soldier. 558 Iraqis have died so far this month. And the House of Representatives spent the day arguing about Nancy Pelosi’s use of a plane to fly back and forth from California to D.C. Must be nice to not have nothing pressing to worry about other than the Speaker of the House’s use of an aircraft, which she did not request, but rather the Seargant of Arms requested. Heck of a job. Way to take care of the really important stuff Republicans!!!!!!!

09-Feb-2007 1 | US: 0 | UK: 1 | Other: 0
UK NAME NOT RELEASED YET Basra - Basrah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
08-Feb-2007 3 | US: 3 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - friendly fire
07-Feb-2007 12 | US: 11 | UK: 0 | Other: 1
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Tarryl Hill Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Corporal Jennifer M. Parcell Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
POL Lance Corporal Piotr Nita Diwaniyah (near) - Qadisiyah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Gilbert Minjares Jr. Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
US Manuel Ruiz Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
US Sergeant Travis Pfister Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
US Jennifer Harris Fallujah (between Fallujah and Baghdad) - Anbar Hostile - helicopter crash
06-Feb-2007 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Joshua J. Frazier Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Baghdad (southwest of) Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
05-Feb-2007 2 | US: 1 | UK: 1 | Other: 0
US Lance Corporal Brandon J. Van Parys Al Anbar Province (near Euphrates River) Hostile - hostile fire - grenade
UK 2nd Lieutenant Jonathan Bracho-Cooke Basra (As Sarraji district) - Basrah Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
04-Feb-2007 2 | US: 2 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Sergeant Randy J. Matheny Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US NAME NOT RELEASED YET Diyala province Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
03-Feb-2007 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Staff Sergeant Ronnie L. Sanders Baghdad Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
02-Feb-2007 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Captain Kevin C. Landeck Baghdad (south of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Staff Sergeant Terrence D. Dunn Baghdad (south of) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Specialist Alan E. McPeek Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
US Private Matthew T. Zeimer Ramadi - Anbar Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire
US Chief Warrant Officer Officer Keith Yoakum Taji (near) - Baghdad Hostile - helicopter crash
US Chief Warrant Officer Jason Garth DeFrenn Taji (near) - Baghdad Hostile - helicopter crash
01-Feb-2007 7 | US: 7 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Corporal Richard O. Quill III Al Anbar Province Non-hostile
US Sergeant Major Michael C. Mettille Camp Adder - Dhi Qar Non-hostile - illness - heart attack
US Hospitalman Matthew G. Conte Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Gunnery Sergeant Terry J. Elliott Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Specialist Eric R. Sieger Buhritz - Diyala Non-hostile - vehicle rollover
US Private 1st Class Tyler Butler Baghdad Non-hostile - vehicle accident
US Private 1st Class David C. Armstrong Baghdad Non-hostile - vehicle accident
Source

I see the situation in Iraq getting uglier than we ever imagined in the near future.

BAGHDAD, Feb. 8 — Iraqi and U.S. forces should not launch a military offensive against the militias — most of them Shiite — that are a major source of turmoil in Iraq, but should instead rely on nonviolent steps to bring militiamen into the political fold, according to an Iraqi report that draws largely on the views of prominent Shiite politicians.

“In the short-term at least, there can be no military offensive against the militias. Military confrontation, in the current climate, will only strengthen their appeal and swell their ranks,” the Baghdad Institute for Public Policy Research concludes.

The institute said the 18-page report, “Dismantling Iraq’s Militias,” was based on a round-table discussion by six Shiite politicians, two Kurds and a Sunni Arab. Government officials said Thursday it would be considered in setting policy, but some here saw it as reflecting the private thinking of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as more U.S. troops arrive to try to end the violence.

The institute said the 18-page report, “Dismantling Iraq’s Militias,” was based on a round-table discussion by six Shiite politicians, two Kurds and a Sunni Arab. Government officials said Thursday it would be considered in setting policy, but some here saw it as reflecting the private thinking of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as more U.S. troops arrive to try to end the violence.

Read more at the Washington Post

We are Family…..

WASHINGTON · One of President Bush’s uncles, William H.T. Bush, was among directors of a defense contractor who reaped $6 million from what federal regulators say was an illegal scheme by two executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants, documents state.

The uncle, known as “Bucky,” is the youngest brother of the first President Bush and heads an investment firm. William H.T. Bush was an outside, nonexecutive director of Engineered Support Systems Inc., a defense contractor whose profits were bolstered because of the Iraq war.

St. Louis-based ESSI supplied equipment and electronics to the military. It was acquired last year by another defense contractor, DRS Technologies Inc. ESSI has been under investigation by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning the alleged options backdating scheme.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

Why do Republicans hate America?

WASHINGTON · Key House Democrats said Thursday that they are considering a plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of 2008.

Under the plan, several dozen detainees would be kept at the facility and tried there.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said he hopes to include the provision in legislation this spring that Democrats also intend to use to try to prevent further increases in troop strength in the war in Iraq.

Without public notice, Murtha dispatched Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., to the detention center at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on a one-day trip late last month to recommend ways for closing it. Both men said the prison has become counterproductive as the United States tries to win converts overseas in the war on terror.

“Without closing it, this just plays into the propaganda of the enemy,” Moran said in an interview.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

that prewar intelligence work at the Pentagon, including a contention that the CIA had underplayed the likelihood of an al-Qaida connection, was inappropriate but not illegal
Well of course it wasn’t illegal. Nothing these guys do is illegal. Another action within this administration with no consequences, other than the loss of over 3,000 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, half a trillion dollars, a civil war in Iraq….but hey, it isn’t illegal!

WASHINGTON — A “very damning” report by the Defense Department’s inspector general depicts a Pentagon that purposely manipulated intelligence in an effort to link Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida in the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, says the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to go to war,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. He said the Pentagon’s work, “which was wrong, which was distorted, which was inappropriate … is something which is highly disturbing.”

The investigation by acting inspector general Thomas F. Gimble found that prewar intelligence work at the Pentagon, including a contention that the CIA had underplayed the likelihood of an al-Qaida connection, was inappropriate but not illegal. The report was to be presented to Levin’s panel at a hearing Friday.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

“Donohue called for Edwards to fire the bloggers, citing posts that the women made in the past several months in which they criticized the church’s opposition to homosexuality, abortion and contraception…”

Hey, fat ass, if there’s a law against criticizing the church, feel free to point it out! If there’s a law against free speech in this country, just say so. Until then, STFU!

The only way I could have accepted Edwards’ dismissal of these two women would be if the Catholic League, at some past date, had done the same with the likes of Bill Donohue. Damn hypocrite can dish out the hate but can’t take it.

All this hate! What the hell is the church coming to? When people join church, is it so they can be part of a club of hate? I don’t think so. They could have joined the White Aryan Resistance or Ku Klux Klan, and not be bothered with dressing up on Sunday mornings. Then again, the church is the only game in town that promises eternal life. That way, you can have your hate… and spew it too!

Edwards to retain embattled bloggers

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday he was personally offended by the provocative messages two of his campaign bloggers wrote criticizing the Catholic Church, but he’s not going to fire them.
[...]Amanda Marcotte Melissa McEwan

An angry Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, which counts 350,000 members, criticized Edwards for not firing the two bloggers. Donohue also promised a nationwide public relations campaign in newspapers, magazines and Catholic publications to tell voters what the candidate had done.

“When Mel Gibson got drunk and made anti-Semitic remarks, he paid a price for doing so. When Michael Richards got angry and made racist remarks, he paid a price for doing so. … But John Edwards thinks the same rules don’t apply to him, which is why he has chosen to embrace foul-mouthed, anti-Catholic bigots on his payroll,” Donohue said.
[...]

Donohue also doesn’t shy from blunt language sometimes in his criticism of gays, Hollywood’s control by “secular Jews who hate Christianity” and even the Edwards bloggers, whom he referred to as “brats” in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC.

Source: Yahoo! News

For more on Bill Donohue, visit Majikthise