Mornin BT

I’m off, back to that place again, see you all in a half hour.

That’s what we call “spreadin freedum”

Prof. Juan Cole has an article on Bush/McBush over @ Salon today:

John McCain Runs for Bush’s 3rd Term

Digg it!

BT, in that picture,
is that the light at the end of the tunnel?

OT: Here’s why Admiral Fallon opposed war with Iran: http://www.agoracosmopolitan.c…..01932.html

The oncoming train…

America is a Warfare State. We the people expendable. Wars are not. Money makes the world go round, world go round, world go round….

And of course, they always cite the decline in violence compared to June 2007 the absolute peak, just like they carefully choose dates like “since June 2003″ for their economic statistics to make themselves look as good as possible.

Figures don’t lie, but liars can figure.

I don’t know how Condi Rice sleeps a night and looks in the mirror in the morning. She and McBush are reflections of each other. No conscience. Twisted souls.

OT – Safety of the food supply hearing on C-SPANIII today at 10:45 PT. Topics included food processing technology, recent incidents of contamination, and proposed changes to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

We may have less control over fresh produce but we, as consumers, have great control over processed foods. Don’t buy them unless you are 100% certain the country of origin has very strict laws in their own country.

I don’t know how Condi Rice sleeps a night and looks in the mirror in the morning. She and McBush are reflections of each other. No conscience. Twisted souls.

Ahem, You might be saying more than you realize here…*g*

She sleeps in a big and fluffy comfortable bed. She sleeps deeply. Just like Shotgun Dick, Chimpy, Pickles and the girls, Kristol, Friedman, and the rest of the plutocrats.

Bush feels just fine about himself because, as Bob Geldoff will tell he’s done a lot for Africa.

Kinda like Columbian drug lords who build clinics and soccer fields.

They don’t need to witness the dirty work that happens in their name…Unless they want to see a video tape, which can easily be gotten for thrills.

-G

Well, at least the drug lords build clinics and soccer fields.

from your link -

A reasonable conclusion to draw is that neoconservatives within the Bush administration are willing to sacrifice much or all of the U.S. Fifth Fleet by militarily provoking Iran to launch its anti-ship cruise missile arsenal in order to justify ‘total war’ against Iran, and force regime change. A new Pearl Harbor can be averted by making accountable Bush administration officials willing to sacrifice the Fifth Fleet in pursuit of a neoconservative agenda.

I of course spewed at the “making accountable”

all we have left is that those skippers now deployed are in lockstep with the current Chair of the JCS

and that all the players really get the level of recklessness they are dealing with

The media blackout on showing coffins coming home and the horrors of the wounded has inured this country to the actualities of the consequences of war.
No one is being bombarded every night on the news of footage of gun battles and roadside bombs going off, the images of children missing limbs, the real victims, so no one gives a fuck. it isn’t in their thought stream.Instead everyone is concerned that gas prices are going up again.

Hope to catch a rerun of that hearing after the “bidness” of Congress is over today. I HATE how little the dims have managed to accomplish since 2006 but the one silver lining is at least there *are* hearings being held (regardless of the outcome) vs. the fact the thugs almost never held one. :-( Think about how little we would know about what’s been going on; may be one of the reasons more people are voting dem.

Have you read the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan? He recommends buying as few foods from the interior of the store (which is where all the processed stuff hangs out) vs. around the edges. Makes excellent sense.

OT-but thought you might be interested in my Congresscritter’s position on FISA:

FISA: The importance of modernizing our archaic foreign intelligence laws cannot be overemphasized. Loopholes in current legislation have resulted in our foreign intelligence system becoming mired in superfluous court warrants for foreign-based terrorists being monitored on foreign soil.

FISA law applies even to a cell phone conversation between two people in Iraq, because those communications are channeled through wires contained within U.S. hubs, requiring intelligence officials to comply with the outdated regulations and obtain a FISA court order before proceeding to monitor and track foreign terrorist activities.

Last summer, Congress vociferously debated how to modernize these gaps in our intelligence system, and ultimately passed the bipartisan Protect America Act (PAA) in August. The PAA both provided a 6 month “FISA fix” and protected the civil liberties of American citizens, and was set to expire on February 1, 2008.

Then, on January 29, 2008, after having six months to craft permanent FISA modernization legislation, Congress instead passed a mere 15 day extension, and then allowed that extension to expire before breaking for the President’s Day recess. As a result, America’s national security continues to be weakened and undermined.

Those in Congress who have been reluctant to give our intelligence community the tools it needs to protect America must realize that intelligence is our most vital weapon to protect America from future terrorist attacks. As the need to pass a permanent solution to correct the gaps in our foreign intelligence law becomes increasingly critical, I will continue to advocate for the tools so desperately needed by our intelligence community, and to update you on further legislative action.

With a mindset like this, where do you even begin?!! My fellow citizens here actually elected this fellow!

Why trouble our beautiful minds when we can watch Brittany Spears suffering from mental illness or speculate on Eliot Spitzer’s penis?

-G

Why is congress person a propaganda tool?

Why do I have a hunch that the WH blast-faxed all their Congressminions this text to use in constituent letters…. maybe we should compare notes district to district….

The UAE may take Alan Greenspins advice and unpeg from the US dollar. While the US dollar hits record lows against the Euro.

-G

that would be informative. wonder who wrote the draft.

Have you read the book In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan? He recommends buying as few foods from the interior of the store (which is where all the processed stuff hangs out) vs. around the edges. Makes excellent sense.

I like that! It can be a simple shopping plan anyone can use. I just realized that is basicaly what I do and never realized it.

With a mindset like this, where do you even begin?!! My fellow citizens here actually elected this fellow!

At the ballot box was my first (flippant) thought but maybe earlier than that wold be good. Find a viable candidate in opposition to the twit and send her/him some money or volunteer or both. We have to drag these bastards out by their roots. Good luck

It can be a simple shopping plan anyone can use.

Eat organic and buy local

OT–

Slida with Eliot as he leaves his 5th Avenue apartment en route to announce his resignation…

Now on topic, great post Blue Texan. I am supposed to go to a party for a soldier on leave and returning home for 18 days. He is my niece’s step-son. When I talked to my niece, she says he hears the bombs “all the time!” He is stationed between the airport and Baghdad proper. I said I thought the surge was supposed to be working, but she said the bombing continues and it’s always in and around Baghdad. I told her I thought it was supposed to be even worse around Tikrit.

When I asked her whether he’s home for good, she said no, but he said he’s not going to re-up. She said she’s just hoping that they don’t extend his stay there to fifteen months; I said she ought not to worry about that; instead she should worry that they don’t send him back, since some soldiers are sent back for two or three tours or more. She said she realizes that they could keep him there regardless that he doesn’t re-up, but she’s hoping for the better. I’ve mentioned before, this young man has only one kidney, and he married a young woman with a pre-school child just before he left for basic. I hope he makes it through this period. I wish I could understand why young people would volunteer for this mess to begin with.

Other Pollan suggestions:

1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup. He does a wonderful take-down on a loaf or bread there.

3. Avoid food products that make health claims.

Repugnican talking points in action! You might say they are walking Rethug talking points!

Sounds good to me! This was my contribution.

Have to leave for work just as Spitz takes the long walk to the podium.

After his presser & the talking heads aftermath will it be possible to get this story onto the backburner of the news cycle? I’m holding the thought.
Read you all later.

kinda like a chain store, just fill up the space and sell the goods.

Eat organic and buy local

The best option of all! I’m fortunate. I moved to an area that has many small organic farmers so I buy direct such items as local honey, local produce and can enjoy the good life. This is a lot harder for people who live in cities, work, rear kids and do all the things it takes to run a home. They are stuck with Whole Foods. Their grocery bill knocks me for a loop.

The grocery stores here also buy from local farmers if they want to stay in business. This is a unique situation. When I lived in Reno I didn’t have much in the way of options. In fact, my options were zilch. The produce in the couple of “organic” markets looked like Safeway’s throwaways. That’s hard on people.

An army officer (has a wife and two kids) developed a serious type of cancer. He received treatment and his cancer went into remission. He had a few years to go til retirement. He reenlisted for a couple years more, believing he would not be sent back to Iraq after his recovery from cancer. He’s currently in the Green Zone. Many officers end up there. A friend of his was recently shot in the head and killed by a stray bullet that went into his tent while he was exercising.

If our kids were still young & in school, I’d avoid school lunches and send ‘em from home. I’d fear the school lunch food sources, being subsidized, more likely to end up being from unreliable sources. Maybe I’m wrong. But it’s hard to trust as much as we once did.

back again pups
(get ready for the understatement of the day)–> man, our country is in a world of hurt.
contaminated water and food sources, ever growing social divide, countless men, women and children losing their lives over a senseless war, a totally witless, souless administration, etc.

Not even like shooting fish in a barrel — ducks in a bathtub, more like. Never did see the sense of pouring an openwater fleet into a salt lake. Weren’t there examples going back to the ’60s and even to WWII about scheming to see what events could be put together that would incite a desired war; something in the threads a few months ago. Sacrifice a plane supposed to be full of students in order to justify an invasion of Cuba? This would be kind of a variation on a false flag op. Yeah, the Iranians sank the carrier group, but what choice did we give them?

Newly declassified statistics on the frequency of insurgent attacks in Iraq suggest that after major security gains last fall in the wake of an American troop increase, the conflict has drifted into a stalemate, with levels of violence remaining stubbornly constant from November 2007 through early 2008.

The New York Times does not quite have this right.
The “major security gains” came about from bribing the Sunni warlords, the after-effects of ethnic cleansing, and Sadr’s cease-fire. The additional troops were not the primary reason for the reduction in violence. In fact all the increase in troop strength managed to accomplish was to defer the violence. And in doing so the total violence and deaths will be greater than if there had been no increase in troop strength.

The only way to peace in Iraq is to withdraw the US occupying forces.

The only way to peace in Iraq is to withdraw the US occupying forces.

yup

no country wants foreigners occupying their land

Why is congress person a propaganda tool?

corrected.

It’s been said before, but I’ll repeat it here again: The battle for the control of Bagdad (Sunni vs shiite) has only begun. Much, much more of this to come.