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After a year with no action by the Democratic majority on Iraq except the writing of more and bigger blank checks, a slate of frontrunners for president who claim they will end the war but actually plan to keep the occupation and talk of "success" in Iraq that only the blindness of our bought-and-paid-for media could buy, I thought we could all use a dose of video fun. And who better than the completely amazing Bremner, Bird and Fortune.
Along with these favorite BBF clips, I’m quite partial to their thoughts on Ahmedinejad as well:
And perhaps the finest analysis of the decision to invade Iraq found anywhere is their Between Iraq and a Hard Place.
So dear firepups – happy new year! enjoy and laugh and catch your breath – we’ll have lots to do in 2008!
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- Rachel Maddow: “Who’s the Monkey in Washington in This Story?”
- Late Night: Erick Erickson Calls the President and Vice President Liars, Claims George W. Bush Won the War in Afghanistan
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ZED!
Good evening CT … hope you enjoy the vids~
Siunshine! We have sooooooooo much to do.
Sorry, no linky, AFP is subscription only…
Hi Siun.
And to think, a year ago we were hoping George would listen to the ISG.
Yea, it took a flag officer to tell us that shit.
We surely do Eureka!
I love the Brits!
Ahem
No place in Iraq is safe, says US military
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Despite a drop in violence across Iraq, there is still no place in the country that is safe from attack by extremists, the US military warned on Sunday.
“We have made no projections of peace at hand. We realise that security is very fragile and that at any moment any attack could occur at any place in Iraq,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad.
Read in full: AFP: No place in Iraq is safe, says US military
Erdla
A Season’s Greetings!
or, for those families where talking politics
around the table leads to problems, try:
Agree-Zone Seatings
Much Mahalo! I couldn’t get it to work… 8-)
BETRAYUS was on NPR this morning say sometin different dontcha know
those cheese eating surrender monkeys/AFP dont know nuttin
Shocking…who could have imagined?
not Conda lezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzza
1. Copy the first paragraph of the story you want to link to.
2. Go to google
3. Select News
4. Paste the paragraph into the search box.
5. You’re done.
Good evening Erdla! happy christmas to you and yours!
yes the google is magic
Danke, Erdla! Google kept giving me an error 502 message…
Folks, on the previous thread we have a person taking about Nam vets getting spit on. Don’t let that shit pass by unchallenged, it’s part of the Pubs bullshit that has kept resistance to this war at a minimum.
Hello Erdla.
I hope that your family and your country see peace in 2008.
Just ‘We the People’… and any Officer who isn’t named Baghdad Bergner or Betrayus… 8-(
And the head of the Iraq government is now in London, suffering from pressure.
Thx. Working late with Um Thalit, Nur, Hassan, Mohammed Ibn Laith, and Omar on the listing for English reader of the events of the year. We’re doing it as a series and have got up to April. It’ll go up as a PDF so people print it and refer to it some time tomorrow.
Wait a minute. Does this mean the year long campaign to lay all the problems in Iraq at the feet of the Iranians is no longer operative?
-G
Great, funny but real bid, siun. Happy New Year everyone!
bid=vid
Erdla – I heard you had a big job in the works. I’m sure everyone will find the PDF very helpful … and we’ll link it up next week.
Thanks Siun, the vids were really good.
Let’s not forget that George the Brain, has a C minus MBA.
Thx. Txb :-) Actually I’m one of the three who isn’t Iraki (I’m Danish), Du (my husband), and markfromireland (my father in law) are the other adjnabis (foreigners) but the Iraki contingent try not to oppress us too much :-)
I think you’ll find that http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/iraqunrestusqaeda takes you to the same article.
Kiddo – if you click the BBF link, there’s a great George explaining how to invade Iraq to the Turks video … you’d like it.
Such a coincidence. Iran has oil too.
Hello Siun!!!!!
Howdy y’all!
paid imposter methinks
May I wish you a peaceful year regardless of your nationality?
Watching the second vid above. What a scream. Will take a look at the BBF link also. Thanks. ;0)
evening all! Great videos, Siun!
Sadly, it’s a myth that soooo many Nam vets have incorporated into their thinking. When ever I hear that in person I’ll sit with the person and try to get at where it came from. It almost always is the case of having heard it from some one else. I guess it shouldn’t piss me off so much but it does.
your pdf sounds like a great resource… many thanks.
FRR – Pat Lang – has several times in the past recounted how he was spat upon on his return from Vietnam. As he’s the truthful type I believe him.
Raven, you can pay me to come and play whack-a-troll.
We’re doing that on my blog now too.
you know this right?
http://www.politicsandtechnolo…..p_con.html
siunshine (i love ES’s nickname for you), here’s hoping for a happy and safe new year for all.
Thanx, RGB! Erdla what is your take on the “Awakening Councils?”
The last vid is also a panic.
Jeg ogsaa ønsker til allesammen en gladelig Jul og en rigtig godt Nyt Ar. Tak for din arbide, Gorillas Guides. (Sorry for the misspellings, I just used all of my Danish!)
Of course and returned with my blessings – which as I was reared an atheist is rare for me :-)))))))))
Casserooo, I was checkin your blog last night. . .while I was arguing about another minor point, You’d think I learn to just read whatever people say and nod my head instead of jumping ugly. Feel me?
It reminds me of when Matt Sanchez was claiming to be the victim of liberal hatred at Columbia – which earned him the adoration of conservatives – saying that he was called a ‘baby-kller’. Problem is, they used that epithet in ‘Nam, not in this particular ‘war’. No one’s been called a ‘baby-killer’ for 30 years or so. And of course, Sanchez was never able to back up his claims with any evidence.
Nåh er du ikke dygtig og meget sød. Tak for det
George …the great one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABIHB1uJKQY
And Tony Blair is a roving ambassador to the Middle East and Africa.
Did you say something ugly?
The John Edwards post or the new one about avatars?
Rusty Calley lives.
I thought people yell “BABY KILLER” at abortion clinics.
dead irony
Nah, bout a guy whining about Nam vets getting spit on. I have to listen to that on the MSM but the Lake is my house!
was it anti-war people who spit on him or was it ww2 vets?
that’s what jerry lembcke said, iirc (jerry is a prof at holy cross, in my home town).
Erdla – not sure if you heard but TexBetsy has a good connection with one of the groups we all talked about the other week for refugees – looks like her amazing work will get used with some Iraqi families!
From (Just about) our Front Page:
http://gorillasguides.com/2007…..sh-xinhua/
“We decided to fight the al-Qaida militants because they started to assassinate fighters and leaders from the resistance groups. They tend to kill indiscriminately.”
Iraq’s anti-al-Qaida Sunni militias see uncertain future (English Xinhua) by Ahmad Jamal
Tags: Awakening Councils, Militia
But the best take is from Lurch of Main and Central:
Anbar May Only Be Snoozing
Hello everyone. Here’s to Peace on Earth in the New Year.
(Special hello to Erdla and your dear and ever-growing family!)
Thanks, Siun, for a year of wonderful posts.
Siun she is going down there on teacher inservice day next week.
Wonderful news – Txb – thanks.
That’s where they do it now. In the 60’s and 70’s it was ‘Nam vets.
I am waiting for a direct connection to be established to what’s going on in Pakistan and Iran. Does Pakistan have oil?
Hi Laura … it has been quite a year, eh?
And Erdla, thanks for linking to Lurch who is a continuing favorite of mine (and who likes some wacky videos too!)
Cassie – that’s good to hear! hope you are having good holidays.
Kiddo – some very good posts on Pakistan over at Moon of Alabama – it’s been refreshing given the amnesia of so much of the coverage here.
Hi, everyone! Thanks, Siun, for very provocative and eloquent posts this year!
Du and Lurch get on very well. For those of you who don’t know Main and Central. Lurch is a veteran (US) a loving grandfather, and a very shrewd writer on Military matters. Well worth bookmarking, I think most of you will like his politics too.
Laura – Many thanks.
Selise – the PDF will be a regular feature from now on, and it’s for the English readership. We have to cut back the English coverage the strain they’re under is intense so this is a way of providing something useful and reducing the burden on the Iraki contingent.
look for balochistan on the map.
more generally, democracy now! had a good program on friday.
I went to his blog and checked his story. I said on the last thread that I never question the personal experience of another Nam Vet. A Mama Cass type unloads on a snake eatin SF officer and he just takes it? Gotta respect his restraint. Lembke points out that every myth has a seed of truth. I still do not believe these incidents were commonplace and the damn sure were not any more common that flattening a village to save it.
Lahoma tells me I am starting to slip into snarcosis. I do that frequently. She wants that I say Happy New Year and goodnight. ;0)
i’m so sorry about the strain the gg team is under – but appreciate the idea of a pdf. may even use in the spring for leafletting (that is where i stand at an intersection and hand out a flyer or some information to passing cars).
I replied above.
Is that an effect of breathing too much snitrogen?
Raven – this is a good piece on the whole spitting issue. I certainly do not remember it as common practice back then – which is not to say it may not have happened a few times of course.
oops – left out the link: here
Selise one thing about our content is that all of it is there for the taking. But if you want a posting in particular in either:
HTML format
MS Word Format
PDF format
Text format
All you have to do is to leave a comment asking for it and we send it to you. It can take a few days but we always do it.
The one thing we ask people not to do is to hotlink (link directly) to images in postings as that can put a big strain on our server.
Yea, that’s Jerry. I had some email exchanges with him after the book came out. I suppose it’s only fair to point out that Bob Greene’s “Homecoming” was a collection of experiences that vets wrote, some said they had been and some said they had not.
I have missed out – what is happening with GorillaGuides? Anyone care to give me backstory?
Hey Prof,
Left a reply for you at the end of the Book Salon thread.
Alicia: Hi! The Guides folks are putting together a year end review that will be available soon in PDF format.
Thanks, Siun!
(((GorillasGuides)))
thank you! any of those formats will work. i like leafletting because it’s a way to get information to people who probably don’t read blogs. can’t really do it in the winter though (everyone has their car windows up)… but come warmer weather….
selise – is that Worcester, Mass that is where Jerry Lembcke is from? My grandmother is from there.
That depends on the ‘depth’ of the snarks. Goodnight. Movie time.
Cool! I missed that one.
yep… i live in worcester, and that’s where holy cross is. i met jerry in 2002 or 2003 at a local peace group.
btw, I was quite serious in recommending the BBF video Between Iraq and a Hard Place – it has more truth we ever see on TV here and is a great piece to pass around.
Brief history:
“Guides” was started by the Late Laith Abu Mohammed, Maryam, Nur Hussein Ghazali, and markfromireland, and around 10 others, 15 years ago as part of a bridging effort, the blog is a part but only a part of what they do. As the blog has expanded it takes more and more effort to produce because the Iraki contingent have to live as well as doing their “ordinary” jobs and simply survive.
Less than 2% of the readership are anglophones so the English coverage is being scaled back. There are lots of sites doing “war coverage” not so many from the POV of people who actually live there and see the effects daily.
But “Guides” as a whole if I can put it like that looks East not West.
Thank you, GG – I went over to your blog and you all are doing yeoman’s work. Can we help – donations or otherwise?
ot – has anyone seen hugh around? i probably shouldn’t worry (and i hope he won’t be pissed), but he’s been updating his list almost every day (and sometimes several times a day) since april… but i haven’t heard from him since christmas day.
Maybe he went someplace nice for vacation where they don’t have politics or news.
Alicia – Guides does not accept donations but one great way to help their work is to share the link.
One thing many of us do to honor the work of GG is to send donations to the Red Crescent. The Red Crescent is the only humanitarian group functioning in all of Iraq – and many members of the Guides team are also related to that org.
that would be great – but i don’t think that was in the plan. oh well, just thought i check and see if he’d been around. don’t want to stick my nose in were it doesn’t belong (at least not too much *g*)
I miss the Aku Aku.
-G
P.S. Here’s a good link to Jerome a Paris. He says we gotta start beating the drums before the GOP-er machine tries to lay the whole big shitpile that George W. created in the laps of the Democrats.
Well, I will certainly blog about it and send a donation to Red Crescent.
I agree! Lurch does an excellent job(so do ya’ll at GG)… I was busy cooking and just got back… Thanx, again…! 8-)
i blame greenspan even more than bush. but clinton helped to, by deregulating the banks.
Many thanks “Guides” don’t ever accept donations – but we do suggest that if people want to help Irakis directly that the only humanitarian organisation that works everywhere in Irak and is completely non-sectarian is the Iraki Red Crescent that’s their homepage and has a link to a donations page.
Red Crescent can be reached here. You can choose to donate to Iraq specifically, either for humanitarian aid or to help displaced peoples.
And NAFTA… 8-(
Yes siun, we do have lots to do next year. And we’re not gonn ahave much chance to rest before we have to start on that FISA thing again.
But we’re on a mission from God.
Beefart – thanks for the FISA reminder!
We really do need to get ready on that one!
A news source to keep an eye on is Xinhua Irak Coverage Home page Xinhua Top News they use good local journalsits as stringers and pay them well over the going rate. Their bureau chief doesn’t sit in the office either. You’ll often get stories there long before anyone else picks them up or you’ll get details you won’t get elsewhere.
I wish the head of the GreenZone government had taken with him to London ALL Irakis suffering from pressure, or exhaustion, or just hating-this-war-in-our-country. London would be a lively place, the Americans could come home, and the Irakis could then return to their country to remake it as they wish, without our interference and meddling.
Unfortunately, though, such expeditions are only available to the Vichy Irakis.
PS — Raven, I thought you did a fine job previous thread regarding the spit-libel. Please know there were others (well, one, at least) watching to jump in should you have needed help. Seeing how well you handled it, I stayed out. But you’re correct, it never ever happened and is part of the untruth about America’s Vietnam experience.
Thanks for that.
can I go O/t on a Vietnam thing? I was a youngster but probably more aware than my peers of what was going on because I had 2 potentially draftable brothers. Plus my parents talked about current affairs at the dinner table and if you weren’t up to speed you could just sit and listen.
Anyway…… you mention not questiooning another nam vet. the thing i hear so much is how you guys got spat on when you came home. like it was commonplace. why does this story still have legs? wasn’t that very, very isolated occurance? i juat ghet the feeling that has taken on a life of its own.
I just read David “the dean” Broder’s op-ed of today. What a piece of work!
Apparently a dozen or so has-beens (Sam Nunn. Chuck Robb. David Boren. Gary Hart. Chuck Hagel. Bill Brock. John Danforth. Christie Todd Whitman. Bill Cohen. Alan Dixon. Bob Graham. Jim Leach. Susan Eisenhower. David Abshire. Edward Perkins.) have announced their intention to congregate at the University of Oklahoma to decide whether and which of the current presidential candidates are sufficiently “bipartisan.” If they aren’t pleased, they’ll support a third-party run by multibillionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has switched from party to party to no party.
So, I hereby announce my intent to sit at home waiting for a bipartisan effort to re-establish the rule of law in the United States of America by prosecuting the White House incumbents for their flagrant violations of the laws and the Constitution of the United States of America. Until then, I’ll support either John Edwards or Ron Paul. So far as I know, all other candidates have dropped out of that effort, including to my horror Chris Dodd on whom I was counting.
Wow, Erdla, I just took a look. That’s a great link. I noticed it yesterday at GG and wondered who these folks were. Thank you.
Yeah. We were really happy that day Reid pulled the bill. We’ve got to get that feelin’ back – hey we can do somethin’ (indeed, we helped do domethin’ – and keep at it.
That’s what this whole beef is about. GG did point me to Pat Lang’s blog and he does state that a Mama Cass type spit on him when he was in uniform. I think it was isolated but shit, what do I know. I came home and took to the streets. I would literally fight anyone who said a word about my long hair. I was in a “tribe” of folks in a college town that included many Nam vets and we all felt the same way about the war. We were totally embraced by folks in the movement so maybe I’m blinded by my own experience. Fuck it and drive on as we said. . .don’t mean nuthin.
I’ve read many times that that story has been debunked. So far as I can tell, no Viet Nam vet was ever spat on because of his/her service and/or the outcome of that war. It’s simply more righ-wing mythology.
What’s the basis for saying Dodd isn’t still trying to restore the Constitution?
What a bunch of fucking assholes. BTW, Bloomberg has been a very evenhanded non-ideological decent mayor.
Thanks, I probably just fed a troll. You know how jumpy I get.
It is ironic that we need to rely on the Chinese to get the unvarnished truth… What a travesty… Oh, Survey says most of the PKK are under 25… The Turks must be pleased that they’re fostering the patriotic fervor within the younger set… 8-(
As I said, GG said this Patrick Lang fellow said he was so I googled him and here is what I got
I was spat on a by a Momma Cass type in a flowered mumu in March or April, 1968 while standing in front of the terminal (believe there was just one then) at San Francisco International waiting for a bus to take me to Travis Air Force Base. I was a captain and was in uniform. She walked up to me, spit on my chest and stood there looking at me. I asked her if she did that often. She said yes. I asked her if she were in college. She said she was. I asked her if the “girls” had a duty roster for spitting on soldiers. She said yes. I went back into the terminal and had a drink.
I claim that this story is true. pl
Posted by: W. Patrick Lang | 17 November 2006 at 03:24 PM
http://turcopolier.typepad.com…..mer_w.html
It is inexcusable that any Democrats, in this year of the most extraordinary presidential field EVER, are participating in such a pas-de-deux with GOPs around Broderella’s bipartisanship tree. The elected GOPs are the reason America has come to this horrific pass — they have no right to help fix their mistakes by injecting their crazed free-market, low-tax ideology into the debate.
Nunn, Hart, Robb, Graham and any other FORMER Democrats who participate in this foolishness should be ashamed of themselves.
Ironic? Yes. A travesty? Well, a shame–on us–certainly. On on the other hand, anything that gets us out of our U.S.-centric world view ain’t a bad thing!
But I keep hearin it. Last time I heard it was that time some soldiers got held up at the airport inj Oakland and somebody on FOX News compared it to troops getting spat on after Vietnam. I just don’t recall any contemporaneous coverage of it. they accept it as gospel.
I’m surprised at Hart.
How much are they being paid in any manner and who is paying them to vacation in Oklahoma?
A lie that is repeated often enough becomes a ‘truth.’
It is brought up constantly
AND does OKK know about this??
I never liked Nunn.
‘zactly. But people swear by it. ’cause they’ve heard it so much. we have to get better at that.
Fucking pieces of shit. “Bipartisanship” is just cover for continuing the infernal process of destroying ordinary American’s for the benefit of oligarchs.
I had never heard of this Pat Lang fellow but he appears to be an educated, progressive dude who happens to be a Special Forces Nam vet. Again, every myth has a seed of truth. To say NO vet ever got spit on is too much. My dad used to coach with a guy who came up in San Francisco in the 50’s and he said they would beat up sailors for fun. Some incidents probably had nothing to do with politics.
Oh, crap. Apostrophe error. I hate that.
I’m with you … and Hart was not my cuppa tea.
Now if we had a Democratic candidate who was really speaking up, I don’t think we’d see an opening for such activities
I love it when serious Democrats seek the advice of Republicans about their candidates bipartisanship.. Joe Lieberman meets Orwell.
Pat Lang is far from a progressive fellow, very far. He is very worth reading but he is not always right (smile)
So Bloomberg wants to buy out the DLC?
I seem to recall my DI’s at Ft. Sill cautioning us not to go out into Lawton alone… The Locals took a dim view of us… ;-)
Oh, OK. I just glanced and saw him railing against Bush. Not many Green Beanies are liberals.
It’s this “bridge the divide” garbaggio that gives me the heebie-jeebies about Obama. I don’t want a President who’s going to “reach across the aisle”. I want a President who is going to read the fucking riot act to these racist-pandering middle-class-destroying depraved right-wing barbarians. These assholes have damn near destroyed this country, and it’s time someone with real power called them on it.
I can’t wait for all the Very Serious People jizz to be spilled over this bipartisanship shindig. Digby will have a field day. Atrios too.
And FDL, I imagine.
Very many of my contemporaries and friends served in Nam, and I drank beer and shot pool with many many more veterans. None ever mentioned having been spit on. All thought of that what was happening there was horrible. A very few thought that “we could have won” if only we’d only held out longer and/or been more aggressive. Most thought that the whole thing was terminally stupid.
Hell, you should have tried to score in Seattle in the summer of 68 with a buzz cut! Luckily there was this ex-sailor. . .
Prof, you need to do better at telling us how you really feel. *g*
Sing out!
They are certainly serious: serious fucking assholes.
George Felix Allen is a spitter. He spits his tobacco juice at women, including his ex wife. Google it.
Hell, I know marines who used to do that.
Them’s my bro’s!
I’ll drink to that!
Biography
Incidentally he’s a conservative.
Sometimes I get to feeling a bit intense.
I am sure that there were isolated incidents–but not the wholesale myth that has been bruited about. My comment to BL was only that myths become ‘realities’ when they’re repeated often enough. (Viz the numbers of people who STILL believe Iraq had WMDs).
Or get their jar head asses whipped tryin!
Well, fuck him then:)
I’m always charmed by the Norwich Terriers line …
I read Lang regularly and learn so much, not just from him but also from his commenters.
Gnite ya’ll happy frickin new year
HFNY to you, too! See y’all upstairs.
Yea,I was reading one of his posters talking about taking ears, teeth and skulls and cheering when the REMF’s got rocketed. Nice buch.
Right on, my brotha! ‘Bipartisanship’ just mean Dems rolling over onto their backs like they have been doing all along.
The man is a professional soldier. So am I, Dubhaltach is a professional soldier who has served both in Afghanistan and Irak, he’s the son of a professional soldier. On professional matters you take your information from professionals no?
Well, now that it’s quieter, happy New Year Siun. And Erdla, my very best wishes to you and your family. Hope the newest members settle in with ease. Love and hugs to you all.
Erdla – I think we get so wrapped up in domestic partisanship that we miss the value of some like Pat Lang who can teach us a lot even when we disagree with him on politics or some of his opinions.
Thanks Laura!
And Erdla – I hope you have a chance for a nice glass of bubbly in the midst of all this New Years. I hear your hands will be even more full soon which is lovely news!
More fools those that do that – people do not pick their dentists on the basis of their politics :-)
Her room has developed what Du calls a severe case of
PINK!
Frills have set in.
And so have teddy bears.
Two of the teddy bears have pink frilly dresses.
She’s a walking feminist nightmare…. and a very sweet child.
now there’s a thought!
I’m going to have to check my dentists voting record!
wonderful! My daughter was a real shock to me .. I was into Hanna Anderson black cotton dresses for her with bright primary colors and all she wanted at that age were frills and yes, PINK!
gotta say, it was rather fun! and she’s my best fashion consultant ever!
and how nice for you to get some Girl energy in the household!
Both my girls were the same at 6! Now that Hanna is 15, black is the order of the day (after day after….) Feminism is inevitable in your family, fear not!
LOL re: your dentist.
Phew finished for the night. 4 months in one posting is a lot. They’re going to put up some of Zeynab’s postings – she and I got vey friendly, I really miss her, strange how you get to be friends with someone you never met, but very wonderful too. She was so HUGELY proud that she was the first in her family ever to be able to read and write in any language and so determined that her children would stay in school. Such a waste of life and talent this wicked wicked war.
Quite a few reports on Red Crescent fatalities too. :-(
Well done Erdla! a lot of work for you all … and so many losses this year. I certainly understand the closeness that is possible …
I saw the mention of the latest Red Crescent losses … wicked is all too true.
Give that young pink star an extra hug …
She was very polite and very very firm about that :-)
I suspect she will shine brightly – your additions are the best news of the year! (all 4 of them!)
I’ve always wanted a lot of children – 6 seems like a good number, 4 we make ourself, and 2 who need somebody to love them. Du and I know it’s well worth it as you know some of his siblings were adopted.
Technical question which has just ocurred to me – do you happen to know if we have to do the sodding PDF’s in letter size for Americans and Candaians and A4 for the rest of world?
laughing … sodding PDFs!
We deal with that a lot with work – and actually A4s are usually prinable on letter size paper if you leave nice big margins …
You have sneak preview mail – I did this one as letter just to be safe -
Wonderful – thank you! and have a lovely day Erdla!
Just looking at it now – amazing! we’ll definitely circulate next week so folks can share these around.
You too – now I need to feed the boys wake their father and get some sleep!
GODT NYTÅR! (og på gensyn til mange flot oplevelser i 2008.)
Sleep well!