The head of the army has warned that Britain is almost running out of troops to defend the country or fight in military operations abroad.
The warning by General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, to fellow defence chiefs comes at a time when the army is asking for a big increase in reservists to be deployed in Afghanistan, reflecting a crisis in Britain’s armed forces.

In a secret memorandum he says: “We now have almost no capability to react to the unexpected.” Reinforcements for emergencies or for operations in Iraq or Afghanistan were “now almost non-existent”.

He adds: “The enduring nature and scale of current operations continues to stretch people”. Gen Dannatt warns the army had to “augment” 2,500 troops from other units for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring up the total force to the 13,000 needed there. This remained “far higher than we ever assumed”, he says.

He continues: “When this is combined with the effects of under-manning (principally in the infantry and Royal Artillery) and the pace of training support needed to prepare units for operations, the tempo of life in the Field Army is intense.” While the current situation was “manageable”, Gen Dannatt said he was “concerned about the longer term implications of the impact of this level of operations on our people, equipment and future operational capability”.

More at The Guardian

I didn’t know they were trying to limit what the JUDGES can see.

WASHINGTON — When Guantanamo Bay detainees challenge their status as “enemy combatants,” judges must review all the evidence, not just what the military chooses, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the Bush administration’s plan to limit what judges and the detainees’ attorneys can review when considering whether the Combatant Status Review Tribunals acted appropriately.“Counsel for a detainee has a ‘need to know’ the classified information relating to his client’s case,” the appeals court ruled. “The government may withhold from counsel, but not from the court, certain highly sensitive information.”

The appeals court decision is likely to be considered by the Supreme Court as it decides whether detainees should have greater access to U.S. civilian courts.

More at the Washington Post

I’ve been asking for weeks…….where’s Nancy. Since becoming Speaker of the House she has been virtually invisible.

NEW YORK (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who this year became the first woman to hold the top spot in the House of Representatives, is writing a memoir, to be released in the summer of 2008 by the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group.

“From my parents’ home in Baltimore to representing San Francisco in the Congress, my life has been devoted to family and public service. I look forward to telling my story for my grandchildren and in recognition of the contributions of all women across America,” Pelosi said in a statement issued Thursday by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

The book, currently untitled, will be written with a collaborator “yet to be determined,” according to Doubleday. Financial terms were not disclosed. Unlike Senate rules, House rules prohibit members from getting book advances, although they may get royalties.

Pelosi’s spokesman, Brendan Daly, said Pelosi has not yet finalized her contract so it’s not clear what her royalty deal will be. Before the contract is signed in coming weeks it will be reviewed by the House Ethics Committee.

She hasn’t decided what she would do with the royalties, Daly added.

More at USA Today

The goal posts are getting a bit tattered from all the moving. We’ll never get out of Iraq until congress stops funding it. Period.

From YahooNews:

BAGHDAD - If the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq is reversed before the summer of 2008, the military will risk giving up the security gains it has achieved at a cost of hundreds of American lives over the past six months, the commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, mentioned none of the proposals in Congress for beginning to withdraw U.S. troops as soon as this fall. But he made clear in an interview that in his area of responsibility south of Baghdad, it will take many more months to consolidate recent gains.

“It’s going to take through (this) summer, into the fall, to defeat the extremists in my battle space, and it’s going to take me into next spring and summer to generate this sustained security presence,” he said, referring to an Iraqi capability to hold gains made by U.S. forces.

Lynch said he had projected in March, when he arrived as part of the troop buildup, that it would take him about 15 months to accomplish his mission, which would be summer 2008.

Senator John Kerry has followed Sentator Byrd in calling for the NFL (National Felons League) to suspend Vick. That’s my thought. I’m sick to death of these big headed idiots with too much money and no sense whatsoever.

2006
DATE* PLAYER TEAM ARREST CAUSE/CHARGE
Jan. 28 Chris Henry Bengals Possession of a concealed firearm, improper exhibition of a firearm, aggravated assault with a firearm
Feb. 12 Terry “Tank” Johnson Bears Aggravated assault, resisting arrest (Charges were dropped.)
March 26 Dhani Jones Eagles Failure to obey a lawful command
April 14 Shaun Phillips Chargers Suspicion of obstructing or resisting an officer in the performance of his duty (No charges were filed.)
April 21 Steve Foley Chargers Resisting arrest, drunken driving
April 23 Ricky Manning Jr. Bears Assault
April 23 Maurice Jones-Drew Jaguars Assault (Charge was dismissed.)
April 23 Tyler Ebell Bears Assault (Charge was dropped.)
May 12 Reuben Droughns Browns Domestic assault (Case was dropped.)
May 26 Cory Rodgers Packers Unlawfully carrying a weapon and discharging a firearm
June 3 Chris Henry Bengals DUI
June 3 A.J. Nicholson Bengals Burglary, grand theft, vandalism
June 14 Chris Henry Bengals Providing alcohol to three underaged females
June 19 Santonio Holmes Steelers Domestic violence and assault (Judge dismissed charges.)
June 20 Jabar Gaffney Patriots Unlawful possession of a handgun
June 21 Frostee Rucker Bengals Vandalism, spousal battery
June 23 Cortland Finnegan Titans DUI
July 22 Matthias Askew Bengals Disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, failure to comply with a police officer’s order, obstructing justice (Acquitted Aug. 24.)

(alot more)

Read more »

H/T G for this post. R.I.P. Army Spc. Christopher Kube.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq (AP) — Army Spc. Christopher D. Kube was memorialized Thursday in a packed theater at this outpost in east Baghdad. Another fallen soldier. Another reminder, far from the public spotlight, of the grief that hits not only families of this war’s casualties but also their comrades in arms.

He was 18.

He was a newlywed.

He was killed on July 14, eight months after he arrived in Iraq on a deployment that made him nervous from the start, as one fellow soldier remembered. Back at his home station, Fort Carson, Colorado, he drew attention for being so young, so short, so slight and so cheerful.

“When I saw him I asked, `How old are you, 10?”‘ recalled his platoon sergeant, Staff Sgt. Eugenie Byron-Griffin. “`What are you doing here? You’re a baby.’ He looked me straight in my eye, with his chest poked out like he does, and he said, `I’m 17, and I ain’t no baby. I’m a man.”‘

Tears flowing, she added: “Everyone in the unit used to mess with him because he was so small. And almost always he would fight hard to prove his manhood. Like when he purchased his first vehicle and bragged about how little he paid for it.”

He was determined, Byron-Griffin said: “Even when he was afraid, he would face his fear straight-up. And that was what he did when he enlisted in the Army. He said he was afraid he would deploy to Iraq. But he wanted to make a better life for himself and his family.”

Born on September 7, 1988, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Kube enlisted on October 25, 2005, just making the minimum legal age of 17 for joining the military.

More at CNN

Ok, so I added a little to it……….

From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush will undergo a routine colonoscopy Saturday, in hopes of finding his brain, and will transfer power to Vice President Dick Cheney during the procedure, expected to take about two and a half hours, just long enough for Cheney to push the button, the chief White House spokesman said.

Tony Snow said Friday that the procedure, during which a doctor looks for any signs of cancer, will be carried out at Camp David, Maryland, and the president will be placed under anesthesia.

Bush’s last colonoscopy was in June 2002, at which time his brain was not located, so they’re going to look again since it hasn’t been found anywhere else in the past 5 years, and no abnormalities were found at that time. Since it appears he still has his head up his ass, they felt it was time to have another look.

From Headzup (I love their videos)

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.

Under federal law, a statutory contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, “whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action.”

But administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.

“A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case,” said a senior official, who said his remarks reflect a consensus within the administration. “And a U.S. attorney wouldn’t be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen.”

More at the Washington Post

From Welcome to Pottersville(a must read blog):
By Paul Krugman
NYTimes

In a coordinated public relations offensive, the White House is using reliably friendly pundits - amazingly, they still exist - to put out the word that President Bush is as upbeat and confident as ever. It might even be true.

What I don-t understand is why we-re supposed to consider Mr. Bush’s continuing confidence a good thing.

Remember, Mr. Bush was confident six years ago when he promised to bring in Osama, dead or alive. He was confident four years ago, when he told the insurgents to bring it on. He was confident two years ago, when he told Brownie that he was doing a heckuva job.

Now Iraq is a bloody quagmire, Afghanistan is deteriorating and the Bush administration’s own National Intelligence Estimate admits, in effect, that thanks to Mr. Bush’s poor leadership America is losing the struggle with Al Qaeda. Yet Mr. Bush remains confident.

Sorry, but that’s not reassuring; it’s terrifying. It doesn-t demonstrate Mr. Bush’s strength of character; it shows that he has lost touch with reality.

Actually, it’s not clear that he ever was in touch with reality. I wrote about the Bush administration’s “infallibility complex,” its inability to admit mistakes or face up to real problems it didn-t want to deal with, in June 2002. Around the same time Ron Suskind, the investigative journalist, had a conversation with a senior Bush adviser who mocked the “reality-based community,” asserting that “when we act, we create our own reality.”

Read more »

H/T TOB for this post!

By Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

This is a wake-up call that we are about to have another 9/11-WMD experience.

The wake-up call is unlikely to be effective, because the American attitude toward government changed fundamentally seventy-odd years ago. Prior to the 1930s, Americans were suspicious of government, but with the arrival of the Great Depression, Tojo, and Hitler, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Americans that government existed to protect them from rapacious private interests and foreign threats. Today, Americans are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to government than they are to family members, friends, and those who would warn them about the government’s protection.

Intelligent observers are puzzled that President Bush is persisting in a futile and unpopular war at the obvious expense of his party’s electoral chances in 2008.

In the July 18 Los Angeles Times (”Bush the Albatross”), Ronald Brownstein reminds us that Bush’s behavior is disastrous for his political party. Unpopular presidents “have consistently undercut their party in the next election.” Brownstein reports that “88% of voters who disapproved of the retiring president’s job performance voted against his party’s nominee in past elections. . . . On average, 80% of voters who disapproved of a president’s performance have voted against his party’s candidates even in House races since 1986.”

Brownstein notes that with Bush’s dismal approval rating, this implies a total wipeout of the Republicans in 2008.

A number of pundits have concluded that the reason the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush’s follies is that they expect Bush’s unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory next year.

There is a problem with this reasoning. It assumes that Cheney, Rove,and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts or are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his warmonger-police state fling. “After me, the deluge.”

Isn-t it more likely that Cheney and Rove have in mind events that will, once again, rally the people behind President Bush and the Republican Party that is fighting the “war on terror” that the Democrats “want to lose”?

Such events could take a number of forms. As even diehard Republican Patrick J. Buchanan observed on July 17, with three US aircraft carrier battle groups in congested waters off Iran, another Tonkin Gulf incident could easily be engineered to set us at war with Iran. If Bush’s intentions were merely to bomb a nuclear reactor, he would not need three carrier strike forces.

Lately, the administration has switched to blaming Iran for the war in Iraq. The US Senate has already lined up behind the latest lie with a 97-0 vote to condemn Iran.

Read more »

In a little-noticed executive order issued on Tuesday, President Bush directed the Treasury Department to block the U.S.-based financial assets of anyone deemed to have threatened “the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq” or who “undermin(e) efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq.”

The order empowers Treasury, in consultation with the State and Defense Departments, to target those individuals or organizations that either “have committed, or … pose a significant risk of committing” acts of violence with the “purpose or effect” of harming the Iraqi government or hindering reconstruction efforts. It applies to “U.S. persons,” a category including American citizens. It had not previously been disclosed — and still hasn’t — that U.S. persons are abetting the Iraqi insurgency, nor that Iraqi insurgents have property in the United States, raising questions about who in fact the order targets.

“The part where they reserve lots of discretion to themselves is the list of conditions that goes beyond determination of acts of violence. ‘Threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq,’ that could be anything,” says Ken Mayer, an expert in executive orders and a University of Wisconsin political scientist. “Think of the possibilities: it could be charities that send a small amount of money (to groups linked to) the insurgency, or it could be the government of Iran that has assets in the U.S. and has money that flows through a U.S. bank or something like that.”

The order permits the targeting of those who aid someone else whose assets have been blocked under the order — wittingly or not. And under Section Five, the government does not have to disclose which organizations are subject to having their assets frozen:

For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.

More at TMP

ENCINITAS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, OceanWorks Development has sent a Notice of Claim to federal, state and local agencies and elected officials to gain exclusive rights to virtually the entire Southern California Bight for the purpose of developing, building and operating an international airport.

This unprecedented claim was submitted to the Department of the Interior, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Aviation Administration, among more than a dozen other agencies. The Claim begins the process to lay the legal foundation for the project. Currently, OceanWorks plans to situate the airfield some 10 miles off the San Diego coastline.

OceanWorks CEO Adam Englund said, “The Claim will provide our investors with assurance of OceanWorks’ exclusive rights to this development within the claimed area. It is the first step to making our vision a reality.”

OceanWorks’ Claim to the 40,000 sq. mile area was prompted last fall, after the San Diego Airport Authority failed to find a suitable site within or near San Diego County for an urgently needed new airport. An initiative put forth by the Authority seeking public support for locating the airport at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was opposed by the military and environmentalists and overwhelmingly defeated by the voters.

Said Englund: “The offshore option is the best and apparently the only viable one for San Diego. We aim to make it the most secure, self’sustaining, economically vibrant, and greenest airport ever built.”

More at Yahoo

For months September has been cast as a pivotal time for determining the course of the war in Iraq, yet a top general now says a solid judgment on the U.S. troop “surge” there may not come until November.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno says he will need until at least November to assess the troop buildup in Iraq.

Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno told reporters after a Senate hearing Thursday that he would need beyond September to tell if improvements in Iraq represent long-term trends.

“In order to do a good assessment I need at least until November,” said Odierno, a deputy to Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. military commander in Iraq.

Petraeus and other officials testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and briefed reporters on Thursday. Making strides toward security and political goals could take more time than first thought, they warned.

A stark assessment came via video link from the Iraqi capital when Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador, told the committee that Iraq is gripped by fear and struggling to meet security and political goals by September.

More at CNN