My head is going to explode. My head is definitely going to explode. I’m sending out an S.O.S. to any and all sentient American politicans. Tell me if you can make any sense of this (emphasis mine).
President Bush’s new Iraq strategy calls for a rapid influx of forces that could add as many as 20,000 American combat troops to Baghdad…
…When Mr. Bush gives his speech, he will cast much of the program as an effort to bolster Iraq’s efforts to take command over their own forces and territory, the American officials said. He will express confidence that Mr. Maliki is committed to bringing under control both the Sunni-led insurgency and the Shiite militias that have emerged as the source of most of the violence.
The American officials who described the plan included some who said they were increasingly concerned about Mr. Maliki’s intentions and his ability to deliver. They said senior Bush administration officials had been deeply disturbed by accounts from witnesses to last Saturday’s hanging of Saddam Hussein, who said they believed that guards involved in carrying out the execution were linked to the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia that is headed by Moktada al-Sadr, whose name some of the executioners shouted while Mr. Hussein stood on the gallows.
“If that’s an indication of how Maliki is operating these days, we’ve got a deeper problem with the bigger effort,” said one official, who insisted on anonymity because he was discussing internal administration deliberations over a strategy that Mr. Bush has not yet publicly announced.
Hey, Mr. Administration Official, do ya think?
There is absolutely no reason for Congress to fund this lunacy. I can tell you right now that it will…not…work. I don’t care if McCain says, “It’s just so hard for me to contemplate failure that I can’t make the next step.”
Congress has the power to halt the increases by cutting off money for Mr. Bush’s proposals. But some Democrats are
gutless cowardstorn about whether to press ahead with such a move for fear that it will appear that they are not supporting the troops.
Forget about the appearances. How has funding this war worked out so far? How has it supported the troops? How do things appear to you right now? After 300 billion dollars?
The President’s plan has only one component that will work. This is it:
…supplemented with a jobs program costing as much as $1 billion intended to…
The rest of that sentence says something about painting schools and cleaning streets (presumably of more than the four dozen headless bodies that litter them each morning). Can we get serious? Can we, as a nation, get serious? I mean, come ON!!
Nobody with a brain wants this escalation.
it’s not that we weren’t forewarned…damn! I hate to pull this up again, but:
The disconnect from reality is complete and ongoing. There’re are very few options left on the table, impeachment? coup? revolution?…This administration is truly mad with power.
As AG says…”Let us pray”
We have more worries than Iraq.
The Sunday Times, UK has this headline:
Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran
ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Just Swell!
I’m reminded of an old Kingston Trio song from the early 60’s called the Merry Minuet.
They’re rioting in Africa
They’re starving in Spain
There’s Hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the German’s
The Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate the Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don’t like anybody very much
But we can be tranquil
And thankful and proud
For mans been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away
BTW, I left out the last stanza last night as I was putting this together.
The song concludes.
There’s rioting in Africa
There’s strife in Iran
What nature doesn’t do to us
Will be done by our fellow man
Kudos to composer Sheldon Harnick
magnificent “National Brotherhood Week:
They would need to fly air space controlled by George W. Bush to do that.
George Bush thinks if he can single-handedly start Armageddon he will automatically be first in line for the Rapture. Unfortunately, he seems to have some born-again Jews in Israel on the Armageddon band wagon with him.
George took it to heart when he heard the line:
Your flag decale won’t get you into heaven anymore.
Its already over-crowded from your dirty little war….
Jesus don’t like killin,
No matter what the reasons for.
And your flag decale won’t get into heaven anymore.
So Rapture is Bush’s only ticket to glory.
I can just see Christ coming back just to bitch slap George on international CNN.
When news leaked about Bush’s plans including a jobs program in addition to rebuilding Iraq, I thought he is looking for funds to pay for more war – remember Rumsfeld shifting money from Afghanistan funds and using these funds to build up our forces for going into Iraq.
By hook or crook, Cheney is going after Iran.
I wonder how many of those “surge” troops are needed to protect the “no permanent bases” bases & their supply lines. How many troops are needed to protect the builders of the palace.. uh embassy, ya embassy. How many troops are needed to protect the troops that are not needed there, those that are at desk jobs which could be done here. How much of the billions are to pay for the “mercs” to protect Cheney`s interests.
With all the billions already stolen, lost or mis-used, how nice to include a measely billion for job opportunities. Wow, I`m on it. As soon as young men of working age & ability go apply for these jobs, they get tortured, maimed &/or killed, because they have to deal with people viewed as infidels. BOOT THE LOSER, NOW.
The nation is getting serious. The problem is that bush isn’t.
I feel exactly the same way as you do. My head explodes still on a daily basis. The Democratic party has to end this. CUT THE FUCKING FUNDING! And Congress needs to repeal the idiots war power BS. Immidiately.
As Jeff Huber pointed out we have no real power to stop Bush from this surge or bombing Iran for the first 90 days. We have no legal power here people, NONE! Bush doesn’t care what we think. He doesn’t care what you want or think, what I want or think, what the Democrats who have congressional power want or think, what his own troops want or think, he will have what he wants and there isn’t a God Damned thing any of us can legally do about it period.
Bush needs to attack Iran is another terrorist attack. He’ll have no problem with that. To not go insane consider the big picture (and then go insane anyway)
The collective demonization of Muslims, including the vilification of Islam, applied Worldwide, constitutes at the ideological level, an instrument of conquest of the World’s energy resources. It is part of the broader economic, political mechanisms underlying the New World Order.
Yup, serious as a heart attack, Booman.
My head explodes every time I read a quote from some government employee “who insisted on anonymity because blah blah blah.” WTF do these people think they’re getting paid for, and by whom?
The time has come to stand up, let them choose whether to stand with george or against him.
TO: Booman:
“Can we get serious?” A good question. As a nation? Maybe not.
I can just see the heads of good progressives like yourself exploding all across the nation right now. My liberal head exploded a dozen years ago when Bill Clinton announced his world record prison population.
If you think its nuts now just wait until the right-wing of the Democrats undermine any effort to -not fund the surge-. Both parties, I believe, will come apart at the seams over the Iraq debacle. There are a substantial number of Democrats who will insist on supporting the troops no matter how bad the policy.
John Mc.Cain is suffering Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from Vietnam and is in denial about bad policies.
The basic problem with Iraq is that it was bad policy from the start. Vietnam was the same way. A bad policy. You cannot hope to “win” with a bad policy. You can only lose.
In a state of pure egoism, McCain, Lieberman and Bush will not accept that the policy is the problem. The policy is and always has been bad policy.
McCain needs therapy not a presidential campaign.
I await the first Iraqi terrorist attack on U.S. soil or on our assets outside of Iraq. This policy is destined to spin out of control. Bush can issue orders that step us into deep shit and congress won’t know until they find themselves reaching for the toilet paper.
My fondest fantasy, (one that I am promoting hoping to inspire them to the idea), is that the generals will go to congress and demand impeachment for Bush and Cheney. Many of the generals and much of the national security staff, including CIA staffers, have tried to do the right thing these past six years. Try doing the right thing with the wrong orders coming from the bad civilian leadership of the administration and congress.
Bush and Cheney can still issue orders. Regardless even of Congressional purse strings. Bush’s ability to find like minded yes-men in the Pentagon and intelligence to do stupid things is a phenomena that will give historians volumes of new books to write for centuries to come.
I can see the congress and two parties spitting blood and getting physical over Iraq surge funding. The generals and ex-generals will need to step into the congress and demand impeachment. The American people will need to step into the streets and demand impeachment.
“Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass
I don’t have the figures right now, but it seems to me that 300B would be very close to the amount needed to, if not completely, fund a single payer health care system for this country.
Single payer has been repeatedly discussed at the national level off and on since TR and the Bull Moose Party.
That tells me the health of those in this country is completely unimportant to the Republicans and the Democrats who refuse to support HR 676.
We’re going to support Maliki by taking on the militia supports Maliki (and is probably the force that keeps him alive). This disconnect simply shows how screwed up our policy and policymakers are.
Moqtada al-Sadr? Then why send troops to Baghdad? They need to be in southern Iraq in particular cities like An Najaf, Karbala, Amarah, and Basra, and sealing the border with Iran.
Seriously, the northern HQ and place of “birth” of his Shi’ite Mahdi army and M-a-S may be Sadr City, that suburb of Baghdad, but its heads are in An Najaf, the holiest city to Shi’as, where senior clerics give the orders to militant Shi’as in Baghdad.
And I would suspect the Mahdi Army also takes orders from Iranian agents situated in Basra and environs, but not headquartered in Baghdad.
Well, our chance to convince Nancy Pelosi to Impeach Bush/Cheney is this Monday Jan. 15th..
Pelosi most likely said impeachment was “off the table” to remove any appearance of conflict-of-interest that would arise if she were thrust into the presidency as a result of the coming impeachment.
What we need to do is to pressure Pelosi not to interfere with impeachment maneuverings within her party. Sending her Do-It-Yourself impeachments legitimizes her when she is forced to join the impeachment movement in the future.
Sacks and sacks of mail are about to arrive in Nancy Pelosi’s office initiating impeachment via the House of Representative’s own rules this Monday January 15th. This legal document is as binding as if a State or if the House itself passed the impeachment resolution (H.R. 635).
There’s a little known and rarely used clause of the “Jefferson Manual” in the rules for the House of Representatives which sets forth the various ways in which a president can be impeached. Only the House Judiciary Committee puts together the Articles of Impeachment, but before that happens, someone has to initiate the process.That’s where we come in. In addition to a House Resolution (635), or the State-by-State method, one of the ways to get impeachment going is for individual citizens like you and me to submit a memorial. ImpeachforPeace.org has created a new memorial based on one which was successful in impeaching a federal official in the past. You can find it on their website as a PDF.
You can initiate the impeachment process and simultaneously help to convince Pelosi to follow through with the process. Do-It-Yourself by downloading the memorial, filling in the relevant information (your name, state, etc.), and sending it in. Be a part of history.
http://ImpeachForPeace.org/ImpeachNow.html