I just got hired by Blackwater, and I’m leaving for Iraq next week. I can assure you that Blackwater will continue to operate in Iraq regardless of what the Iraqi Government says.

As a prediction, this may be right, but the attitude that makes it likely is a good reason why Blackwater should not be allowed in country.

Regardless, I wish you well. Stay safe and try to do no harm. Things are bad enough.

Uh, No. No one here sleeps with fishes, although I used to have guppies when I was a kid.

http://action.dennis4president…..ew/id_1451

Finally, the good folks at CREW have given us a handy list of the 22 most corrupt politicians in Congress. Few suprises: 18 Republicans and 4 Dems on the list, including Murtha. Howie Klein notes that California has too many; lots of defense spending in those districts, I suspect, and that’s why wars are easy to start and hard to stop. It’s time to deal with that, too.

Just another day at the office, eh?

All of this is great, and immunity/lawlessness is a huge issue, and the NYT story is a big step forward.

What I’m waiting for is clear MSM inclusion of the Blackwater/privatization numbers with the troop levels/surge numbers. That, and the amount of money that is being spent on all of this.

It has taken its time coming to the fore, but in some ways the natural moment is right after the Gillespie/Petraeus September stagecraft. This Blackwater mess is the perfect muckraker story: an inexhaustible resource that is virtually untapped.

It’s interesting that we hear a lot about terrorist training centers in Afghanistan/Pakistan and elsewhere, but we don’t hear much about the Blackwater training camp in North Carolina and the fact that they wanted to open up another one in the San Diego backcountry, right down there in Wilkes/Cunningham/Issa/Foggo-land near the border. Any others?

The emerging accounts of this incident (not very well-timed for Bush and Petraeus, I must say) contain their own escalation of the problem. A car bomb went off “nearby”–mentioned in passing, but casual and common enough that it sets the stage. The Blackwater team apparently fired on a car that didn’t move out of the way, killing an adult and child. (Fear of car bombs at every turn.) The crowd started to react, not sure how, but the guards fired on the crowd. But the topper is that Blackwater helicopter air support was already there, firing on the crowd. We know they have a fleet of jets and apparently a fleet of helicopter gunships. What don’t they have?