The Who
“My Generation”

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Sent to the best schools. Allowed to go AWOL during his time in the National Guard. Through the help of family and several uber-rich friends, took control of, and gained much wealth from, several business… which he also manages to run into the ground.

In 2000, with the help of friends in ‘low’ places and a suspect court, he somehow manages to become president of the United States.

I’m not even going to start listing all of his failures from that point on. But one of those failures… and it’s a big one… is starting an illegal and immoral war. A war that has, to date, taken the lives of many of our troops and countless others of Iraqis.

He also recently vetoed legislation that would have increased health coverage to our American young; children who otherwise can’t afford to see a doctor.

But you know his ass is well protected!…

Pulled over by an F-16

EMMITSBURG, Maryland (AP) – The skies were empty at a charity air show after participants were escorted out of the area by F-16 fighter jets sent up because President Bush was in town.

The president’s security no-fly air zone was extended Sunday and included the Hagerstown, Maryland, event, but at least four pilots of antique airplanes who were supposed to join the charity show were apparently unaware of the Federal Aviation Administration restrictions. They were intercepted by F-16s and escorted out of the area, federal officials said.
[...]

Meanwhile, at the annual event, attendees were staring at an empty sky, wondering when the show was about to start. Suddenly, according to an account in The Washington Post, the crowd saw a little propeller plane buzzing along with a sleek fighter jet flying circles around it.

It was hair-raising, said Tracey Potter, owner of Hagerstown Aircraft Services Inc. “The F-16 is an evil, menacing scary sound, and at the same time — amazing.”

-Associated Press

CNN.com

The BBC has an interview with a retired CIA agent who was one of the agents who captured and killed Che Guevara. The interview took place in the Miami home of Felix Rodriquez. Mr. Rodriquez proudly displays items for the journalist to view. Makes me sick. From the article:

Full article at the BBC

It is so sad that this is what we have come to. An editorial from the New York Times:

At the height of his bardic powers, Allen Ginsberg could terrify the authorities with the mere utterance of the syllable “om” as he led street throngs of citizens protesting the Vietnam War. Ginsberg reigned as the raucous poet of American hippiedom and as a literary pioneer whose freewheeling masterwork “Howl” prevailed against government censorship in a landmark obscenity trial 50 years ago.

It is with a queasy feeling of history in retreat that poetry lovers discover that WBAI, long the radio flagship of cocky resistance to government excess, decided last week that it couldn-t risk a 50th anniversary broadcast of the late poet’s recording of “Howl.” The station retreated out of fear that the Federal Communications Commission would levy large obscenity fines that might bankrupt the small-budget station.

The retreat was hardly an exercise of the sort of rhetorical paranoia that listeners rate as part of the charm of WBAI, an outlet with a brave history in broadcasting such free speech as George Carlin’s comedic “seven dirty words.” No, this time the broadcaster had to be mindful that the F.C.C. had already fined CBS $550,000 for its absurd nanosecond telecast of Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction.” Stations are rightly worried these days that airing “fleeting expletives” can cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop.

Continue here

Democrats are positioned to bolster their Senate majority in next year’s elections, which would give them more clout regardless who succeeds President George W. Bush in the White House.

With Republicans dogged by retirements, scandals and the Iraq war, there’s an outside chance Democrats will gain as many as nine seats in the 100-member Senate in the November 2008 elections, which would give them a pivotal 60.

That is the number of votes needed to clear Republican procedural roadblocks, which have been used to thwart the Democrats’ efforts to force a change in Bush’s policy on the Iraq war, particularly plans to withdraw U.S. troops.

More at MSNBC

My my my…… 10 months and 799 U.S. lives later here we are. There will be no reconciliation. There will continue to be a civil war with Shiite versus Sunni and we can guess who the winner will be. GET US OUT NOW!!!

For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.

Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.

“I don’t think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such,” said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. “To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power.”

More at the Washington Post

8 U.S. troops have died in Iraq so far this month. 127 Iraqis have died so far this month. (that we know of)

Iraq’s Prime Minister al-Maliki stated Sunday that the Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians was deliberate murder and they should be punished accordingly. (like that will happen)

Iran has reopened 5 border crossings with Kurdish-run northern Iraq. The borders had been closed last month in protest of the kidnapping and arrest of an Iranian businessman by U.S. troops.

The situation at the Turkish border is heating up, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to step up the nation’s fight against rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party after Turkey’s army suffered its worst casualties for more than a decade.

Shiite leaders, who have signed a pact, look to dominate with Moqtada al-Sadr and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim deciding to try to end the bloodshed between their movements that was threatening to undermine their pursuit of power.

The Czech Republic is planning pulling its troops out of Iraq. They have about 100 soldiers deployed to Iraq.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said most U.S. troops should be able to return home by the end of 2008. (sooner, please)

The U.S. military has accused the Iranian ambassador of undisclosed membership in a Revolutionary Guard force and announcing the arrests of three men it described as Iranian agents responsible for kidnappings and weapons smuggling. (beat beat beat of the drum drum drum)

Security developments in Iraq, 10/8/07

I know, I know. You’ve been reading where republican candidates for president are shying away from all things Bush out of fear of having the stink of failure rub off on them.

Who Has His Ear? Giuliani’s foreign-policy team is heavy on neocons

But not our boy, Giuliani! Rudy’s planned path to success is to closely imitate the current presidential disappointment. And he’s doing it by procuring the aid of well-known neocons into his campaign efforts.

From MSNBC.com:

My advice to Rudy: Pull a ‘Lieberman’, and have Bush give you a big, wet, sloppy one right there in the public spotlight. It’ll more than guarantee the vote of those thirty’something-percenters of America’s most ignorant crowd!