At Leats 4,251 Americans Dead And At Least 31,054 Wounded In Bush's Iraq War

~

There have been 4,568 coalition deaths -- 4,251 Americans, two Australians, one Azerbaijani, 179 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, five Georgians, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvians, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians -- in the war in Iraq as of February 27, 2009, according to a CNN count.

At least 31,054 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.

~

5 Myths About All Those Nukes Out There

~

But fear-mongering -- such as Dick Cheney's warning last month about the "high probability" of terrorists attempting a nuclear or biological attack -- can lead to costly mistakes.

We don't need to scare ourselves silly to guard against the worst.

*************************

"Let's see. I have eight years to do something about North Kore'a's noo-koo-lar threat. What to do. What to do. I know! Let's invade Iraq and have Saddam executed. That'll show North Korea!" - Dubya

~

Where was GOP concern during Bush years?

~

What apparently has the GOP so up in arms is the fact that most of the tax cuts benefit the working and middle classes, not the wealthy.

Income tax cuts are not going to the most affluent five percent.

Other money goes to unemployment insurance and subsidies for COBRA medical insurance for employees who have lost their jobs. (About 1.5 million workers have lost their jobs in the past three months.)

The GOP places the blame for the recession directly on the greedy home-buyers who should have realized they couldn't afford a new home but bought them anyway.

Now Republicans say homebuyers expect hardworking taxpayers to bail them out.

The Republicans conveniently overlook the fact that bankers and lending institutions were eager to make such loans.

The bankers were the professionals who should have known the risks, not the Joe Six-pack home-buyers.

~

Senate panel to review CIA programs under Bush

~

The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing a review of the CIA's controversial interrogation programs under the Bush White House, a Senate Democratic aide told CNN.


CIA Chief Leon Panetta says he does not plan to use coercive interrogation techniques on terrorist detainees.

The committee would look at how the agency carried out interrogation tactics and whether they provided useful information, the aide said. The review could be announced as early as Friday.

~

Bush staffers could face hearings

~

Former US president George Bush and leading members of his administration could soon find themselves the target of public war crime hearings and even criminal prosecutions, according to a leading US journalist.

Writing in The First Post, Alexander Cockburn reveals how former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has already been pursued by French investigators, having to swiftly leave the country on a recent visit to avoid being subpoenaed.

Cockburn reports how top Democrats such as House majority leader Nancy Pelosi have been arming to the idea of holding hearings into the conduct of Bush administration staffers such as Vice-President Dick Cheney and Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales.

~

Obama to reveal Iraq pullout plan

~

More than 4,200 US military personnel have died in Iraq since 2003
President Barack Obama is due to announce the withdrawal of most US troops in Iraq by August 2010.

In a speech later, he is expected to confirm that the US "combat mission" in Iraq will officially end by that time.

He is also expected to say that up to 50,000 of the 142,000 troops will stay in Iraq after that date to advise Iraqi forces and protect American interests.

~

US lifts ban on war dead photos

~

The US defence department has lifted a ban on news organisations showing pictures of the coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Robert Gates said photographs of the flag-draped caskets of US war dead being returned home will be allowed if their families agree.

The move overturns a ban put in place by President George Bush Snr in 1991.

Critics said the ban tried to hide the human cost of the two wars, in which nearly 5,000 US soldiers have died.

~

Too Many Overseas Bases

~



(Click on map to enlarge)

In the midst of an economic crisis that’s getting scarier by the day, it’s time to ask whether the nation can really afford some 1,000 military bases overseas.

For those unfamiliar with the issue, you read that number correctly. One thousand.

One thousand U.S. military bases outside the 50 states and Washington, DC, representing the largest collection of bases in world history.

~

Commentary: Bush and Cheney hyped the terrorist threat

~

Did George W. Bush really keep us safe after 9-11?

Those who try to construct a positive legacy from his eight years in power claim that as a major accomplishment. They argue the absence of a terrorist attack during the 2,688 days he was in office following 9-11 proves the effectiveness of his policies and is all that's needed to justify them.

They're wrong.

Three other conclusions should be drawn from the failure of terrorists to strike at the U.S. again.

– First, terrorism isn't as big a threat as the Bush administration made it out to be.

– Second, there eventually will be another attack, because the thuggish tactics of the Bush administration have made one inevitable.

– Finally, no president can prevent any and all attacks, and we shouldn't expect absolute protection from terrorism.

~

Free the Bush memos

~

The Obama administration should make public the rest of the memos drafted by his predecessor's Office of Legal Counsel.

On his second day in office, President Obama directed all of his administration's employees to work toward "an unprecedented level of openness," explaining that transparency would "strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government."

Now the president can begin to make good on his promise of transparency by releasing the dozens of still-secret legal memos written by the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel.

~

Obama and the war on terror

~

But what has fallen udnerneath radar with all thediscussion about the stimulus package and the ever worsening economy, is the Obama Administrations reaction to court cases regarding to controversial tactics used by the Bush Administration.

The first case involved a subsidiary of Boeing, Jeppesen Dataplan,accuses the flight planning company of assisting the CIA of the "extraordinary rendition" of five men-- the process where suspected terrorists are flown tk another country to be interogated or tortured to reveal information.

The Obama Administration upheld the Bush Administrations' stance that the entire subject is a state secret.

The second involves the legal status of detainees in Afghanistan.

The Obama sustained a Bush Administration opinion that detainees at the Bagram Air Force detention facility in Afghanistan can not have access to US courts to challenge their detention because they do not have constitutional rights.

These two decisions have elicited shock and dismay from human rights lawyers and advocates who expected the Obama Administration to undo all that the Bush Administration enacted.

~

Food poisoning strikes 1 in 4 Americans each year

~

Next time you have a case of diarrhea that lasts a day or more, chances are better than 1 in 3 that it was food poisoning.

As many as a quarter of Americans suffer a food-borne illness each year — though only a fraction of those cases get linked to high-profile outbreaks like the recent salmonella-peanut scare, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

~

Exorcising Bush's Ghost

~

Simply by being there, President Obama and Vice President Biden created powerful imagery of change at last night's joint session of Congress.

Indeed, absolutely central to Obama's argument last night …was his conclusion that the previous administration so utterly failed to rise to the challenges facing the nation that we are now facing "a day of reckoning."

~

Judge refuses Iraq war 'torture death' probe

~

An Iraqi who claims his brother was arrested by British forces and tortured and killed during the Iraq war has failed in a High Court bid to win an inquiry into the death under human rights laws.

Kahdhim Resaan Hassan claims his brother, Tarek, was detained at a coalition military camp in Iraq where he was tortured and executed, before his body was dumped 400 miles away.

~

Conservative Honcho Revels in Bush Departure

~



In this file photo, David Keene, left, chairman of the American Conservative Union, gestures as he introduces President Bush to their 40th anniversary gala in Washington.

American Conservative Union Chair Says GOP Is 'Free at Last'

The chairman of the American Conservative Union slammed former President George W. Bush's record on government spending and urged his fellow conservatives to return to small-government principles.

~

Gmail phishing attack hits on heels of outage

~

Gmail users, still swooning from the extended outage on Tuesday, were hit with a widespread phishing attack hours after the blackout.

The malicious message spread via the Google Talk instant messaging chat system, urging users to a video by clicking on a link connected via the TinyURL service.

The link points to a website called ViddyHo, which invited users to submit their Gmail usernames and passwords.

Once extracted from marks these login credentials could be used for a variety of malign purposes ranging from impersonation to identity theft, or simply for sending spam.

~

'Holocaust bishop' arrives in UK

~



Williamson was given 10 days to leave Argentina by the government or risk expulsion [AFP]

A British Roman Catholic bishop who caused outrage by denying the extent of the Holocaust has arrived in London after he was ordered to leave Argentina, where he had headed a seminary.

The 68-year-old ultra-traditionalist bishop has been at the centre of controversy after he denied the use of gas chambers on Swedish television in January.

"There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies," he said.

Williamson also said he believes no more than 300,000 Jews died in Germany's Nazi concentration camps.

The number of those killed in the Holocaust that is widely accepted is six million people.

~

Obama Favoring Mid-2010 Pullout in Iraq, Aides Say

~

President Obama is nearing a decision that would order American combat forces out of Iraq by August 2010 as he seeks to finally end a war that has consumed and polarized the United States for nearly six years, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

~

Spain may take Guantanamo inmates

~



The US is not sure what to do with release Guantanamo inmates

Spain's foreign minister has said his country is prepared "in principle" to take in some inmates released from the Guantanamo Bay US military camp.

~

ARMY STARTS BUYING RIOT GEAR

~

The government is preparing to make you a slave.

You need to prepare to be free.

****************************

See also: FEMA Concentration Camps

****************************

See also: 500,000 Plastic FEMA Caskets in Atlanta

***************************

See also: Canadian Troops To Patrol US Cities As Food Riots Feared

***************************

See also: U.S. Troops In Homeland “Crowd Control” Patrols

~

FLASHBACK: The Bush Crime Family Tree

~



(Click on above picture to enlarge)

According to classified documents from Dutch intelligence and US government archives, President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush made considerable profits off Auschwitz slave labor.

In fact, President Bush himself is an heir to these profits from the holocaust which were placed in a blind trust in 1980 by his father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush.

~

Shoe Flinger Found Bush Irritating

~

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, the world's most famous shoe thrower ― not that there's much competition for that honor ― appeared in a Baghdad courtroom, almost 10 weeks after he flung his footwear at then-President George W. Bush at a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Despite the fact that al-Zeidi has been in jail since, has been roughed up by Iraqi police and, he says, subjected to electric shocks ― and is going back to jail until his next court date, March 12 ― throwing those shoes was a career-maker for al-Zeidi.

He was an obscure reporter with an obscure Cairo, Egypt-based satellite TV channel, and is now a folk hero in the Arab world. A large throng of relatives and other supporters greeted him at the courthouse.

This is the first time the world got an explanation for his bizarre action other than what he shouted at the time: ``This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" A simple wave goodbye might have sufficed.

(NOT!)

~

Google users hit by mail outage

~

Business and consumer users of Google's popular e-mail service were hit by an outage on Tuesday.

~

Call to relax Guantanamo regime

~

A US defence department review of conditions at Guantanamo Bay detention camp has called for an easing of the isolation of prisoners there.

The Pentagon report says inmates should be allowed more social interaction and opportunities for recreation.

It comes as new US Attorney General Eric Holder pays his first visit to the controversial facility in Cuba.

Last month, President Barack Obama ordered the Guantanamo Bay camp to be closed within one year.

About 250 prisoners are still held there, nearly all without charge.

~

Holder to Gitmo, Rights Groups Uneasy

~

Attorney General Goes to Guantanamo, Human Rights Groups Question Trip's Intent

Although most of the groups were initially thrilled with the administration's promise to close the detention center, lately they have been worried that President Obama will not move as quickly or as definitively as they had hoped to investigate or reverse other legal positions taken by the Bush administration.

~

Freed Gauntanamo detainee says U.S. behind his torture

~


"We do not torture." - George W. Bush 11/7/05

Binyam Mohamed, a British resident freed from prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after more than four years, accused the U.S. government on Monday of orchestrating his torture.

Mohamed, an Ethiopian national seized in Pakistan in 2002 before being handed over to the Americans, was put on a plane to Britain after the U.S. government agreed to release him. He has never been charged or tried.

~

Air America Poll: 90% Want Bush Crimes Investigation

~

America conducted a poll that asked a question raised by Time Magazine's Joe Klein: "Should Obama pardon George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney?" The idea: a pardon would brand them for crimes without the agony of a trial.

Air American's aren't buying the Klein solution.

They want the whole lot thrown in jail. No trial necessary! A whopping 90% of our 9000 respondents want to see Bush and Company pay for their crimes with either hard time in the pokey or hard time in the pokey after enhanced interrogation techniques. (Shocking!)

~

Rename Law? No Wisecrack Is Left Behind

~

Two years ago, an effort to fix No Child Left Behind, the main federal law on public schools, provoked a grueling slugfest in Congress, leading Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, to say the law had become “the most negative brand in America.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan agrees. “Let’s rebrand it,” he said in an interview. “Give it a new name.”

And before Mr. Duncan has had time to float a single name, scores of educators, policy wonks and assorted rabble-rousers have rushed in with an outpouring of proposals.

*****************************

George thought they were night vision binoculars!

(They should rename it, "No Child Should Be Smarter Than George W. Bush Act" or how about, "Walmart Greeters Of The Future Act". Better yet, how about doing away with it altogether?)

~

Arab League delegation tours Gaza to assess damage

~


MORE PICTURES

The delegation will document alleged war crimes committed by Israel during Operation Cast Lead, the unprecedented Israeli assault that targeted Gaza Strip on Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, this year.

~

FLASHBACK: Definition of “Anti-Semitism” expanded to include one’s personal preferences

~

The Jewish campaign to relegate everything to the “anti-Semitic” category because they refuse to be criticized is becoming increasingly ludicrous and more dangerous to free thinking Americans.

Now, they have determined that lack of tolerance for Israelis and Zionists is also considered anti-Semitic.

This is ridiculous! Furthermore, it is an insidious invasion of privacy in that Jewish defenders seem determined to gain access to non-Jewish minds in order to establish additional dictates regarding personal preferences, like and dislikes.

Well, I have a list of grievances for the Jewish people regarding “their” supremacist, self-righteous, racist behavior toward non-Jews.

Every Jew on the planet is an ANTI-GENTILE, however, no one not even the most devout Christian criticizes this kind of Jewish behavior. It is as if they are immune from all prosecution regardless of their actions bestowing upon them a kind of worldwide ‘Carte Blanche’ status in diplomatic immunity.

It appears perfectly acceptable for Jews to be anti-Gentile, even calling them ‘goyim’ or cattle occasionally in public. However, it is a downright abomination if one is anti-Semitic to the point that a person could lose a job, suffer ridicule and separation from their church and who are generally shunned in society, possibly forever. This glaring unfair double-standard, in my opinion, is downright anti-American!

So, why are we tolerating this behavior from Jewish Americans? Fear - is the answer.

~

Report: Vatican readmits society that propagates anti-Semitism

~

In lifting the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson who has been accused of Holocaust denial last month, the Catholic Church also readmitted a priestly society that openly propagates virulent anti-Semitism, according to a probe by a Belgian Jewish newspaper.

The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated The Society of St. Pius X in 1988 along with Williamson and three other member priests, declaring their consecrations were "unlawful" and "schismatic."

In January of this year the Vatican lifted the excommunication. On the same day, a Swedish television station aired an interview with Williamson in which he denied the existence of gas chambers during the Holocaust.

~

Trial of Iraqi ‘Shoe-Thrower’ Is Adjourned

~

The trial of the Iraqi television journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush was adjourned after 90 minutes on Thursday until March 12.

But the brief appearance of Muntader al-Zaidi, who has been incarcerated since he threw the shoes at a news conference in Baghdad on Dec. 14, was enough to trigger applause and shouting both in the courtroom and in the hallways outside.

~

Kyrgyzstan parliament votes to close key US airbase

~



The US air base in Manas near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, which is to be closed. Photograph: Ivan Sekretarev/AP

US to be deprived of its last military airbase in central Asia, dealing blow to Afghan mission

*********************

(Only 736 more bases to go.)

~

former guantanamo camp guard brandon neely speaks out

~




~

"Looking Ahead" or Overlooking Crimes Against Humanity?

~

I am a little stunned. I have been watching the news and listening to all the chatter about the scandal surrounding Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the alleged impropriety of people like Bill Richardson and Tom Daschle.

Watching all this, I’ve been thinking, “Somewhere in Texas, former President George W. Bush is clearing brush in perfect peace.”

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is likely out duck hunting in Wyoming, as if he has every right to be walking around free.

Like we are supposed to forget their crimes.

Such as the criminal neglect in August 2005 when over 1,300 people died during Hurricane Katrina. You remember Katrina: Cadavers floating in flood waters on prime time TV while Bush was on vacation, and Condoleezza Rice was shoe-shopping on Fifth Avenue.

And the torture of prisoners sanctioned at the highest levels of government. Contests were held in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to see who could scare the naked prisoners so badly by siccing dogs on them that they would urinate themselves. All this courtesy of policies and procedures initiated by Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo and Donald Rumsfeld.

There was the detaining and kidnapping of people the U.S. government wanted to torture in what were called “extraordinary renditions,” sending them to Syria, Egypt and Uzbekistan among others.

How about the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program that swept up the conversations and communications of millions of people on unprecedented levels? All in fundamental violation of what is supposed to be the basic constitutional protection of the right of privacy.

There was the spinning of the “weapons of mass destruction” myth as the causa belli for war in Iraq, with its staggering human toll and no end in sight. You remember Condoleezza Rice’s famous proclamation: “But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” It was a lie.

With all this, we are supposed to rally behind President Barack Obama’s view that “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backward” when it comes to the crimes of Bush and company.

Well, perhaps Obama can “look ahead” past all that, but I don’t think it ought to be true for the rest of us. Doing so effectively enshrines such behavior. The stain of it stays, and even if the U.S. government did not engage in such things again — and not renouncing it heightens the possibility that it will — it still becomes part of the overall ideology of what is acceptable.

As John Ashcroft of all people noted when discussing the specifics of torture with his colleagues, “History will not judge this kindly.” I don’t think this waits on history. There is a need now to stand against this.

~

Cheney and the Goat Devil

~

I was dubious about Will Ferrell doing his Bush impersonation one more time on Broadway.

As we lurch through the disasters bequeathed by W. — the economy tanking, 17,000 more troops going to Afghanistan, Chrysler pleading for a total of $9 billion — would audiences still laugh at Ferrell’s lovable fool of a president?

I was wrong. The audience for the Sunday matinee of “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush” howled in delight.

I asked Adam McKay, the former head writer of “Saturday Night Live” who directed and co-wrote the show with Ferrell, why people respond this way to one of the worst presidents ever.

“He’s so clearly a neglected 13-year-old that there’s something really kind of heartbreaking about him,” McKay said, calling him “a good-time Charlie” who was “just used his whole life to front questionable business endeavors, and in a way that’s what his presidency was.

“He doesn’t have Cheney’s cartoonish need for power and greed that’s so off the charts you don’t even understand how Cheney got that way. W. may have some awareness, deep down inside, sort of like a petulant teenager who just flunked the trig quiz and knows he screwed up. I think Cheney not only knows but is delighted with everything he did, as is Rumsfeld.”

In the show, the former president dismisses waterboarding as a spa treatment at Bliss, and reveals that he did walk in on Cheney once in the basement of the White House locked in the amorous arms of a giant goat devil in a room full of pentagrams.

~

Prosecute Bush for war crimes

~

How Gerald Ford's Pardon of Nixon Enabled Bush's War Crimes

Gerald Ford granted Richard Nixon an absolute pardon for all federal crimes committed while he was in the White House - including for crimes connected to the Watergate scandal. Ford surrounded himself by advisers who would later play key roles in the Bush administration and in shaping Bush's Iraq war policy.

Donald Rumsfeld served first as his chief of staff and then as Secretary of Defense.

Dick Cheney also served as Ford's chief of staff.

Paul Wolfowitz served in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Nixon, like Bush, believed in the unitarian executive theory: that the president ran the country and the other branches were subordinate to him.

One of Ford's first acts was to appoint George H. W. Bush as head of the CIA to push back on Congressional oversight.

Because Ford pardoned Nixon and his accomplices, men like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz did not learn from example and felt free to scheme another day. When George W. Bush was appointed president by the Supreme Court in 2000, he brought all those old boys back into the White House.

For all we know, there could be other younger versions of Cheney and Rumsfeld that worked behind the scenes in Bush's White House.
If Obama does not prosecute Bush for war crimes, they will feel free to scheme again. Next time it could mean the end of democracy.

~

America can handle the coffins

~

A ban on showing the return of our military dead is a disservice to them and to us. Obama should lift it.

The ban was imposed during the Persian Gulf War by President George H.W. Bush, who -- along with then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney -- became convinced that if Americans saw photos and television footage of the caskets of dead servicemen and servicewomen being unloaded at Dover, it would undermine support for the war.

In part, this was a reflection of the aversion to openness and the antipathy toward the media that seem imprinted on the Bush/Cheney DNA.

~

2 former border agents released from prison

~

Two former U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler were released from prison Tuesday and allowed to return to their homes in El Paso.

Jose Compean, 32, and Ignacio Ramos, 40, served roughly two years of their respective 12-year and 11-year prison sentences before President George W. Bush commuted their sentences Jan. 19, his last full day in office.

~

Passionate Bush Defends 8-Year Dictatorship

~

Satire by Chimpplanet


George W. Bush passionately denied his turbulent presidency had damaged America's moral standing in the world, in a defiant defense of his record while at a bathroom at a Dallas MacDonald’s.

The unpopular Republican president, who may have stolen two elections, bequeathed Democrat Barack Obama a nation locked in two foreign wars, traumatized by the worst economic slump since the 1930s and with the budget deficit heading towards a trillion dollars.

He also irreparably damaged the American moral fiber by allowing torture, rendition and jailing of humans without trial.

But Bush, largely unrepentant, argued he had acted to keep America safe by locking up all possible terrorists and torturing them until they admitted their guilt. and he spread freedom to Iraqis, if they liked it or not, and even if though he had to kill over a million of them and ruin the country’s infrastructure.

He lashed out at "elites" from Europe and elsewhere, who frowned on his policies and warned that "axis of evil" foes Iran and North Korea were still dangerous. He said that if he had more time in office, like Hugo Chavez, he would have made France and Germany part of the Axis of Evil.

He said Obama would also face the grave threat of a terror attack on the US homeland by CIA Al-Qaeda and his buddy Osama bin Laden. He had video tapes to prove it.

Bush was most impassioned when confronted with claims he had tarnished America's global reputation.

"I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged," Bush said.

"It may be damaged amongst some of the dumb middle class Americans and Europeans— but people still understand America stands for Empire; that America is a country that provides such great hope to the very wealthy.”

"You go to Africa, you ask Africans about America's generosity and compassion — go to India ... go to China and ask. They are extremely poor, work for pennies a day for American companies and don’t have Internet, so they don’t know any better."

Bush argued that he could have been popular in Europe for blaming Israel for all the problems in the Middle East, or by signing the Kyoto climate change accord, or by joining the International Criminal Court, but he was the decider and decided to please the rich and Israel and keep out of prison after his presidency was over.

"I wouldn't worry about popularity. What I would worry about is going to prison for crimes against humanity and putting torture in place that make it easier to find out what my enemy is thinking."

Bush, who opponents argue insulated himself from a broad spectrum of advice, was also dismissive of critics who have savaged his presidency.

"I don't see how I can go back home in Texas and look in the mirror and be proud of what I see if I allowed the loud voices, the loud critics, to prevent me from doing what I though was necessary to screw the country."

The president also signaled a fight for his legacy in the years ahead.

"Thank you for giving me a chance to defend a record that I am going to continue to defend because I think it is a good, strong record, no matter what 90% of the world think."

Bush warned Obama will shoulder a heavy responsibility for U.S. security.

"The most urgent threat that he'll have to deal with and other presidents after him will have to deal with is an attack on our homeland which is already being planned by Dick Cheney.”

Bush said history should remember his unpopular Iraq war policy for the surge of troops he ordered when violence threatened to spill out of control thus stopping the Iraq death toll at a mere 1-1/2 million.

"I decided to do something about it, and to send 30,000 troops in as opposed to withdrawing. That part of history is certain and the situation did change. My daddy told me I should have pulled out of Iraq immediately after going in like he should have pulled out of my mom.”

Bush warned Hamas it must halt rocket fire on Israel if there is to be a durable ceasefire in Gaza. But if the rockets stop, Israel will find other reasons to slaughter some Hamas and many more innocent Palestinians. Like Israel says, “No one is innocent.”

"President Obama's election does speak volumes about how far this country has come when it comes to racial relations. The part of the country I come from still believes there’s a place for the colored."

Bush admitted to a series of mistakes in his presidency, including the decision to give a speech under a "Mission Accomplished" banner on a US aircraft carrier just before all hell broke loose in Iraq.

He also admitted dropping his dog once by mistake and also loosing a fight with a pretzel. He now knows he shouldn’t have tried to give the German Chancellor Merkel a back massage in public and shouldn’t have let them catch him giving the finger on video.

He defended his decision to play a guitar during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a monster storm which saw his administration accused of deserting thousands of people in inundated New Orleans.

"Could things have been done better? Absolutely not. Absolutely not."

"I just can't envision myself, you know, with the big straw hat and a Hawaiian shirt sitting on some beach, having some of those drinks with the little umbrellas, so instead I will sit on an ass and smell the cow dung on my ranch", he commented when asked about his retirement.

"Particularly since I quit drinking. HA, HA, HA! If you believe that one, you’ll believe I invaded Iraq because of nookoolar weapons."

~

Drink Coffee, Live Longer and Healthier!

~

Coffee Drinking Lowers Women's Stroke Risk

Drinking coffee appears to lower the risk for stroke among women, with more consumption translating into more protection, Spanish and American researchers suggest.

-----------------------------------------

Prevent Alzheimer’s: Keep the coffee flowing

Recently, several studies were performed that show that a diary dose of coffee (or more precisely caffeine, an adenosine receptor antagonist) helps to minimize the production of malformed amyloid beta and thus reduces the risks of developing Alzheimer’s.

~

Food banks toss out food linked to peanut recall

~

Food banks nationwide are being forced to toss thousands of pounds of food containing peanut products recalled in the salmonella outbreak — a particularly painful process as those same pantries struggle to meet a growing demand in a floundering economy.

Foods like granola bars, cereals, cookies, nut mixes and peanut butter have long been a mainstay of pantries because of their durability and long shelf life.

~

"Those On Welfare Will Continue To Demand More Welfare"

~

GM, Chrysler Push for More US Aid After Legacy of Mistakes

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, already relying on government aid to survive, take their case to the US Treasury today that they can undo past mistakes and justify more US aid to return to ...

~

Chávez Decisively Wins Bid to End Term Limits

~


President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela waved to supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace after the results of the referendum were announced.

President Hugo Chávez handily won a referendum on Sunday that will end presidential term limits, allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely and injecting fresh vibrancy into his socialist-inspired revolution.

~

Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'

~

The UK and the US have "actively undermined" international law in the way they fight terrorism, a report by judges and lawyers has said.

The International Commission of Jurists carried out a three-year global study.

Gains made in the previous century to a shared consensus on human rights have been immensely damaged over the last seven years, it concluded.

*****************************

"But Alberto Gonzales, who was my personal lawyer, told me that torture and locking up people without a day in court was legal and that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply." - Dubya being arraigned at The Hague

~

Coincidence? Two Israeli Mossad Agents and a 9/11 Family Truther in Mysterious NY Crash????

~

50 killed in NY plane crash; 2 Israelis suspected onboard

The Israeli Consulate in New York is also involved in an effort to inquire for more details on the victims of the crash.

A Continental Airlines spokesperson said, "At this point, we have no knowledge of any Israelis onboard the plane." However the Foreign Ministry stated that the airline had contacted the two Israelis' families.

************************

See The Five Dancing Israelis Arrested On 9-11

~

Bush Loved Drinks And Had The Hots For Condi Rice

~

Laura left Bush twice. During his affair with Condoleezza Rice, she asked him to stop acting like Bill Clinton.

One of the surely interesting chapters will be that concerning his relationship with wife Laura. It is not a well known fact that she left him twice, the second time being mid-way through his presidential mandate. Supposedly, the reason was his hidden (but revealed) love for alcohol which she would not tolerate and she left him, probably going to one of the presidential residences (Camp David most likely).

She gave him an ultimatum: alcohol or her.

It was not easy convincing a wife of 31 years to come back. He justified everything with stress at work and pressures he was under. Laura would not accept his apology, reminding him of their previous problems – he was too fond of alcohol, too often.

Still, with time, Laura accepted his promise to quit the “booze” and returned to the White House.

~

Axelrod responds harshly to Cheney

~

David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, said Sunday that recent comments by Vice President Dick Cheney about the new administration were “irresponsible” and suggest that he is “having a hard time dealing with … the verdict of the American people.”

~

On C-SPAN, Historians Rate W the 7th Worst President Ever

~

This morning we learn that C-SPAN has surveyed historians to again come up with a President's Day ranking of commanders-in-chief.

Fittingly, for this Abe-a-licious year, the 16th president comes in at #1, with Honest Abe Lincoln retaining his top slot.

The worst president, as judged by the panel of historians, is James Buchanan.

And there he is, George W. Bush, ranked as 7th worst. (8th worst is John Tyler.)

*******************************

(I wonder if those 6 other worst-than-Bush presidents were responsible for the death of over a million people (in Iraq) or for the bankruptcy of the US government or for bringing back torture.

Notice how this ABC article is "fair and balanced" (sorry again, FOX) by adding a video mentioning that Clinton was the worst of all presidents in moral authority. I guess ABC can't attack Bush without showing that Clinton was worse.)

~

Autism ruling fails to convince many vaccine-link believers

~

A special court's Thursday ruling that no proven link exists between autism and certain early childhood vaccines seems to have done little to change the sometimes-passionate opinion fueling the debate.

Thousands of parents have sought compensation saying, early childhood vaccinations triggered their children's autism.

**************************

(When you can't trust the US Food and Drug Administration, how can you trust the US Health Department when their "Masters" decide that the dumb American people have not proven that vaccinations cause autism?)

~

FLASHBACK: Chamish - Exclusive Photos Of Huge New US Base In Israel

~

I have seen these kind of installations when I was in the military for years I was stationed at a base where a major part of it was like this.

These are not barracks of any kind. The metal facilities built up on the rocks are huge electronic facilities probably filled with CIA and extensive phone and other electronic monitoring stuff. The bunker is one just like the ones I was around at the base I was at here in California. It is a missile launch bunker.

Somewhere within a mile to 5 miles are silos with the missiles in them, This kind of a facility has minimal personal but filled with covered electronics that can even be monitored from the US itself. Not one of those large buildings is for people to live in or even really work in.

~

US army 'wants more immigrants'

~


US Army 69th Immigrant Battalion, Ft. Dix, NJ

The United States army is to accept immigrants with temporary US visas, for the first time since the Vietnam war, according to the New York Times.

Until now immigrants have had to have permanent residency - a "green card" - in order to qualify for the services.

But those with temporary visas will be offered accelerated citizenship if they enrol, the Times says.

*********************************************************

737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire

With more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving across the planet and military bases spread across each continent, it's time to face up to the fact that our American democracy has spawned a global empire.

~

Rumsfeld Knew His Guys Were Torturing People to Death, Which Is a Serious Crime

~

71% of Americans want to see Bush investigated, and it's about time Obama's team hightailed their way over to court to start doing it.

~

Roused by 9/11, a Tireless, Clear-Headed Crusader for Truth in Government

~

Beverly Eckert

Late Thursday night, Ms. Eckert died in a plane crash near Buffalo.

Her public life ran between two calamities, seven and a half years apart. But that life hardly was defined by them.

What distinguished Ms. Eckert — and many of the other 9/11 families — was a civil refusal to settle for platitudes from government.

Ms. Eckert’s penetrating gaze fell on everything from building codes that left the skyscrapers without enough stairways for emergency evacuations, to a system of national intelligence that seemed to have a hard time passing e-mail messages from one agency to another.

It was truth-seeking, in service to the nation.

~