Didn’t ever think that congress was gonna defund the war didja?

yo

Siun! Erdla paid a visit to M&C today!

the ultimate goal of al qaeda, bankrupt us.

Opening soon in Baghdad: Largest U.S. embassy in the world with restaurants, 619 apartments 18 Apr 2008 A Kuwait contractor [using slave labor] has concluded the construction of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. On April 14, the State Department issued a certificate of acceptance for the 104-acre, 27 building compound. The $474 million facility is the largest U.S. embassy in the world, with 619 apartments for staffers as well as restaurants, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, volleyball court, and indoor Olympic-size swimming pool. [See: ‘Kidnapped’ Filipinos build US embassy 05 Aug 2007 An American civilian contractor has described scenes of panic and hysteria last year as Filipino construction workers were told that they were on a plane bound for Baghdad rather than Dubai. Passengers jumped out of their seats screaming in protest until a gun-toting air steward ordered them to sit down, claimed Rory Mayberry, an emergency medical technician travelling on the same flight. Mayberry said the men were “kidnapped” to build America’s luxurious new embassy in Baghdad’s green zone.]

http://www.legitgov.org/

oops hit enter button before I finished

the ultimate goal of al qaeda, bankrupt us but the good news for them is that they don’t have to do it. Just elect an asswipe and his cronies and they will do all the work for you

Siun, the ’some of them’ linky went to a “page not found”…

We’re gonna be in Iraq through the Clusterfuck presidency and for at least another two years no matter WHO wins the presidency….

meanwhile back at home, gas prices have jumped, jobless claims are up, food stamp use is up, food prices are up, supplies of jobs are low, food supply is low….

fucked up priorities

Rahmy’s earned his award, that’s for sure. Loved that Moon of Alabama article, BTW, Siun. Saved me having to think up how to express my own anger.

Should add that I think Rahm should show some of that skin himself by advocating increased immigration quotas for Iraqis displaced by the war.

Head/desk.
What a way to word something as stupidly as is humanly possible.

Two wars we’re losing, an economy in the tank because we let the financial world play fast and loose with the truth and then ship our manufacturing infrastructure overseas, and a population that can’t handle elementary algebra or a syllogism.

Gonna be a great time, eh?

Our treatment of Iraqi refugees reminds me of our ignoring the Jewish refugees during WWII where we ignored evidence of the Holocaust as “not credible” although in this case we are the culprit and the savior. Guess where our compassionate conservative neocons have sided? (They are brown and Islamic, potential terrorists!

Shame on us.

Dear Iraq..this bomb is for you. Bill ya later alligator.

Your being facetious right? Rahm has serious issues with Hispanic immigrants, why would he advocate expanding the Iraqi immigrants rates…?

And much like our treatment of Japanese Americans during WWII, we take the “safe” course and alienate some of the people best equipped to help us.

Emmanuel is another one of those people with a D behind their name that I very seriously consider to be needing to be watched like a fox in a hen house.
Sometimes he gives me a serious case of the liebermans.

It’s one of the reasons I figure it would constitute “skin”. He’d have to have real political courage to propose it. And no, I don’t expect him to. Read the link I provided. I think it’s pretty clear I think Rahm Emmanuel is a sad excuse for a human being.

I wonder if he was trying to be hip and use the word Skin like they do in golf, for money?

i think that they have an antibiotic for that

Possibly, but he should be equally aware that many of us use it to describe politicians who are willing to send other people’s kids to war.

Yep, seems to me that we elected them to defund the war.

Anything that strong probably kills anthrax, too.

must show you 2 guys better looking than scrawny Obama/

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photo.....rove_4.jpg

Gotta look at the mission statement again. I’m pretty sure I meant “get us out of the war”.

this is, of course, no accident. The plan transparently has been to drain as much wealth as possible out of our economy, while transforming us into a 3rd world economy. Much better to have a permanent poverty line class, meth-ridden battlezone cities, etc — so convenient for staffing the mercenary enforcers, ensuring that workers don’t get restless etc. And congress plays right along making sure the fund-drain goes right into the pockets of halliburton, etc.

You certainly can’t accuse Rove of being scrawny.

We did. But I think one of the secrets that our elected officials are keeping from us is that Little Boots promised them that if they did attempt to de-fund the occupation, he would allow the folks in Irak to run out of food, ammunition, supplies, etc just so he could make a political point about how Dems could not be trusted.

And they recognize that he is psychotic enough to follow through on the threat.

this is really crazy, bush gets to play cowboy on the backs of us and the next president

I’m surprised Siun didn’t mention this in her post…

BAGHDAD - Followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr denounced the American military’s construction of a concrete wall through their Sadr City stronghold in Baghdad, the scene of renewed clashes Friday between his militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi troops.

spew alert, please!

Fixed link - which goes here:
http://www.reuters.com/article.....SN17172641

And she and I are visiting Firedoglake right now.

Fatima Jameel

Well, given that the Iraqi folks in Iraq have no food, medicine, water, electricity or freedom, guess they’re succeeding.

Not to mention our ignoring the Palestinian refugees for the last 40 years or so. Plus many of the Iraqi refugees are in Syria, a country with which we have such great relations. Smart, eh?

Welcome Fatima and Erdla - it’s an honor to have you both here.

This seems analogous to the Chinese billing a prisoner’s family for the bullet used in the execution. Good idea, Rahm, what’s the market price of a JDAM these days?

You’re correct. I was thinking of the US types (troops etc) over there, showing my US centric bias but yeah, the whole thing is a total clusterf*ck run by the supreme clusterf*ck.

Tell her I admire atheists too! And I respect her all the more for it! 8-)

As I do not admire atheists I will leave you to do that for yourself :-)

Fatima Jameel

Honored

hi siun and pups–edteller said he and howie are looking for recent articles about rahm’s PAC –our common values, so if anyone has anything, he’s looking for it. he wasn’t more specific than that.

i wonder what it is we don’t know that is going on here. i wish reps and sens had to make statements about individual issues and post them, so we can see what’s going on. it’s not making sense lately, more confusing than it already was.

need to get a few plants in the ground, bbl.

====

i had a great comment about raum’s ’skin in the game’ remark but it keeps getting yanked, so, i’ll just say it differently this time and see if it goes through, although i like the original comment better. cuz it’s what we’re doing….i’ve seen worse posted, so, dunno.
we’ve circumsized the iraqis already, now we’re goin’ for the neuter. (did i clean it up enough? if not, delete the last part, i even separated it to make it easy.)

Tell her I admire atheists too!

Why, thank you. Not so many folks do in this country.

Touche! ;-)

“skins” ain’t money- they’re holes where you have the lowest score of your group- no ties.

You make an excellent point, as usual.

IMHO, however, we’re past that. A lot of our cash is going to the militias. Pulling back forces them to find other funding sources. Militarily, the occupation is untenable.

Marine at check point outside of Baghdad

Also we can’t afford it.

If the people of the Middle East have any sense of a Dem versus a thug (I doubt they do), they’ll associate Dems with getting US forces out.

We have much greater leverage if we pull out. No one will want us to come back. Keeping a brigade or two out in the desert, out of combat zones, seems like a nice compromise.

Always good to see Gorilla’s Guides.

Looks like someone started a new article already.

I wonder how Iraqis would see a difference when they pass the same blank checks?

Then again, I also think that since Iraq belongs to the Iraqis, we have no right to be there let alone leave anyone there.

Can I just point out as an Iraki that the more impoverished America and Americans become the better it is for me and for every other person in my country and for every other person with brown skin who lives in a country that has something your ruling class wants to steal. And before anyone asks yes I am a Muslim, and yes I am a Sadrist.

Fatima Jameel

(There is breaking news on the Primary - Jane’s just added that as it came through - but we can also continue here if people like)

Wrong analogy, I remember something back when my brain still worked when skins equaled money.

This is a great read from a link over at GorillaGuides:

http://nonarab-arab.blogspot.c.....ashes.html

Can’t argue with that .
They stole anything that wasn’t nailed down here long ago.
We don’t like them either.

ZoSO

It may not matter, Jane. I think that the woman with the flag-pin comment may have gotten enough Pennsylvanians to ask…”am I really like that”?

Ironically, by putting her on it actually confirmed to many people (and I’m sure a lot of “middle Ground Pennsylvanians” just how right Obama was. Some people ARE so resentful that unable to sort out their issues…and instead of enunciating real ones…get caught up in phony “hot-button” ones.

CTuttle - I’ll be doing my usual wrapup on Sunday and will definitely be talking about the wall - and the continued seige that the people of Sadr City are being forced to live under.

hahahahaahahahahahaha

I think you’re wrong for two reasons

First, if America gets more desparate for resources, things will get worse for those of you who have them, not better,

and second, when we’re gone there will be someone else to take our place.

I don’t blame you one Iota, I just disagree with the your first premise… Sadly, our imperialist Prez has made it all but a certainty…

Huh? What happened there?…I was commenting on Jane’s next post about Hillary and MoveOn…and got booted back here through a space-time wormhole!

I guess Jane pulled it in deference to Siun…! ;-0

slight timing glitch … pretend you never saw it

I was presented with a “piss off” message that said I couldn’t comment on a draft article. Looks like it was published by mistake.

yea i was in the matrix…..wo

I’m sorry Dave, I can’t let you do that.

—–Hal——

Off topic, but somewhat related:

Speaking of skin in the game, Lance Dutson is Sen. Susan Collins’ Internet Director and there’s a rumor flying around that Lance’s wife is cheating on him:

http://lancedutson.wordpress.c.....omment-119

Poor baby. /snark

It certainly seems to be a tactic imported from out of the Likud playbook…! 8-(

It was declassified, then reclassified…

So … I know it feels hopeless but I am hoping folks will let their congresscritters know this is unacceptable.

Can Congressman Murtha and his pals really be stupid enough not to realize that if they vote extra money, Bush will still spend it all and then come asking for more in the middle of the election?

There was a really cool looking window that popped up when I tried to post that said I couldn’t comment on a draft. LOL I was like, “Doh”.

oh Siun…i first posted the skin in the game comment here….he is another sick littlepr****k,wall street master of the universe……..gawwwwwwwww i hate the people

Bill Moyers is doing a story about reporting in Sadr City tonight on PBS.

hahahhahahaahaha

and TWEETY is brain dead sorry mods

Awesome, Moyers is top-notch…!

Siun,
That video is amazing, it’s simple and effective,
and the clear message delivered.

i really can not stomach tee bee snooze

thanks for the heads up LS

So let’s see: Not only is there no consideration of cutting off George’s blank checks, Congress also wants to make sure that the next president (whoever that may be) doesn’t need to come to Congress with a plan to leave Iraq before writing them their own blank check.

does this leave any doubt that the D majority congress we worked so hard for never had any intention of ending the war?

and that it looks like neither do our presidential candidates?

yep– he’s a Clinton backer extraordinaire and I don’t think he really wants an end to the war(s). Sadly.

Great post Siun, and welcome to Fatima and Erdla and many thanks to all of you at GG.

In a word, no. Why they are doing it is an interesting question, but you’d have to be a drooling idiot not to have worked out the pattern by now.

Bill Clinton called Obama Senator from Punjab?

is this a Maccaca moment?

As it’s my people being slaughtered by yours without any justification other than your country’s unfortunate habit of waging genocidal wars in what you refer to as “third world” country’s I have a more personal “take” on this than you. Moreover I see no reason why your civilian population should not suffer the results of their war.

did he say that?

and second, when we’re gone there will be someone else to take our place.

IMHO, Iraq will be a “failed state” for at least the next twenty years. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are just using it as a buffer against Iran and vice versa. The same way France for centuries used Germany and Poland as a buffer against the Russians.

i have been 1000% against this war,and most all others………Im so very,very sorry,that the LUNATICS took over the asylum…..they are most evil…so very sorry

I thought that it was Obama that called HRC the Senator from Punjab…

we are self destructing

i just got the tail end…so that was a joke?

Do you have any advice for us on how to make american democracy work towards ending the slaughter of the people in your country?

Fatima … a very important point. It always seems that we in the west and particularly in the US feel that there are no consequences for our actions. Yet we have allowed our government to spend … how many billions? to destroy your country … but we think we should continue to lead the life of comfort.

While I do not wish suffering on myself or my fellow citizens, I have no right to claim comfort when I have not stopped your suffering.

GOOD that will stop you destructing other peoples’ children.

Fatima Jameel

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/6/15/0634/74618

There was something up next about Hillary & MoveOn, but it seems to have been yanked off.

Bob in HI

Fatima Jameel:

Is there any news you can share with is about conditions now in Iraq? We try to provide updates from GorillasGuides and Iraqi sources but I would be interested to hear your own account.

Who will there to take your place is Irakis. I find it infuriating the way westerners pretend that a country that was unified long before they were will collapse just because their detestable and completely unwelcome presence is ended.

Now I know how the Germans felt after Hitler. Collective guilt has been the price we pay for surrendering our democracy to Fascists. I am so sorry.

We can only atone by the example of Jimmy Carter, yet our present leaders have an agenda and no conscience.

Not quite. Barack Obama accused Hillary Clinton of being the “Senator from Punjab”:

According to an unsigned document that Obama’s campaign released on Friday, Hillary Clinton is not the senior Democratic Senator from New York. She is, apparently, the sole Democratic Senator from Punjab.

I seem to recall that Clinton had called herself this once as well, but I can’t find a source.

I can only talk about al-Shula where I live. No electricity, no water, very little food getting through. The Badr brigade death squads are back.

Me too!! I will add that it is exactly how I feel about the current Administration in our country…I’m worried they will continue to occupy “us” too.

You are probably right, but I hope you are wrong. There’s nothing to stop the new president from withdrawing immediately. The right says there will be chaos, but they said the same thing about Vietnam. Remember the domino theory. Arabs are not Vietnamese. They seem to live for revenge, so the aftermath will not be pleasant, but hopefully even arabs have common sense. If not we will have to wait until it gets sorted out. I cannot stand when GWB rails against terrorism while we decimated a country. You have a friend like the US, you don’t need enemies.

oh dear god,i love children,i love all your children ,and pets and flowers andd trees and art…im an art historian….im so VERY SORRY,and whatever i can do to help…i shall

I can only talk about al-Shula where I live and that was two days ago before I left Irak for this trip. No electricity, no water, very little food getting through. The Badr brigade death squads are back.

Could we leave presidential back and forths out for a few minutes (esp since it seems we will be discussing them later)?

With our guests - Fatima Jameel and Erdla - I’d be more interested in learning about what’s happening in Iraq from someone who knows firsthand.

ive gone without electricity for 2 weeks after the hurricane……..its horrendous,i CANT EXPRESS MY SORROW AND GRIEF FOR YOU…i dont know what to do

Are the Badr brigades associated with SCIRI…?

I see no evidence of that.

Ho Chi Minh threw our ass out of South Viet Nam. 50,000 dead US soldiers. Sunni’s, Shiites, and Kurds have not been able to unify against the US occupation.

Yes