April is the cruelest month, but right now I bet the folks living in the Green Zone just want to get out of March:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A mortar barrage hit Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses Iraq’s government and the U.S. embassy, police said, a day after Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to stand down.
The Green Zone has come under intense mortar and rocket attack over the past week as Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Sadr have battled Iraqi and U.S. security forces in the capital and in southern Iraq.[…]
A siren wailed inside the U.S.-protected compound in central Baghdad and a recorded voice warned people to take cover amid the sound of explosions, Reuters witnesses said.
A dust storm enveloping the city made it difficult to see where the missiles were landing, but police said a volley of at least six mortars had hit the Green Zone. They had no details of any casualties.
You know, maybe Senator Clinton should schedule a trip to Baghdad now. Then she could credibly claim some of that “I’ve been under fire” experience that seems to be so essential to Commander in Chief stature. Then again, it never hurt Bush or Cheney to have avoided combat. Maybe she should just sneer a bit in front of Tim Russert and claim the Mahdi Army is in its “last throes.” That ought to show America she’s got the both the requisite “good judgment” and “intestinal fortitude” to keep our military bogged down in an ever more senseless slaughter in Iraq.
Which reminds me, speaking of last throes, did you see this? Guess who’s best buds with Mrs. Clinton now: it’s the founding member of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy himself, Richard Mellon Scaife. Who knew that Spring would bring such an unlikely romance?
(cont.)
More than most modern political figures, Sen. Clinton has been criticized regularly, often harshly, by the Trib [Scaife’s paper in Pittsburgh]. We disagreed with many of her policies and her actions in the past. We still disagree with some of her proposals. […]
Sen. Clinton came to the Trib anyway and, for 90 minutes, answered questions.
Her meeting and her remarks during it changed my mind about her.
Walking into our conference room, not knowing what to expect (or even, perhaps, expecting the worst), took courage and confidence. Not many politicians have political or personal courage today, so it was refreshing to see her exhibit both. […]
. . . I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today than before last Tuesday’s meeting — and it’s a very favorable one indeed.
I imagine being a black man who has a chance to beat St. McCain trumps all of Mrs. Clinton’s alleged misdeeds, like the Mafia style murder of her law partner and former lover, Vince Foster, she allegedly ordered, her acceptance of $50,000 from a Chinese spy “probably in exchange for space weapons research” (I didn’t know Hillary would sell out her country for so little, did you? I thought her asking price was at least $100,000), and stealing the White House silverware (among other crimes). Suddenly Senator Clinton and Richard Mellon Scaife are an item, but in a purely platonic sense I’m sure. All it took was an anti-semetic, America hating “mulatto” running for President to bring about this stunning rapprochement. Will wonders never cease this election cycle?
At least we can take heart in the one constant in our political life this year: Our Dear Leader is still hated by the vast left wing conspiracy, which includes — Baseball fans!
President George W. Bush was greeted Sunday by thousands of resounding boo’s while being introduced at the Nationals Park in Washington, DC. Walking to the field from the tunnel, the booing did not let up. With a wave a and an un-acknowledging smile, he walked to the mound, threw a pitch to the catcher and quickly left the field.
Here’s the video:
Thank god for small favors, eh?
Obviously, you are too naive to understand that Clinton sitting down with Scaife (the man whose paper accused her of murdering Vince Foster) is just evidence of how she would sit down and talk to our enemies…
Meanwhile:
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In the early 1970s Scaife was recruited as a front man and bankroller for the CIA’s London-based “news service”, Forum World Features (Conason and Lyons, 2000). At Forum, Scaife sponsored and directed what his long-time CIA friend who recruited him, Frank Barnett, calls “political warfare.” Barnett wrote:
“Political warfare in short, is warfare–not public relations. It is one part persuasion and two parts deception…. The aim of political warfare…is to discredit, displace, and neutralize an opponent, to destroy a competing ideology, and to reduce the adherents to political impotence. It is to make one’s own values prevail by working the levers of power, as well as by using persuasion.” (Barnett, 1961).
NSIC – National Strategy Information Center
≈ Cross-posted from idredit’s diary — Scaife gives Hillary Clinton thumbs up ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."This goes completely against my better judgement, and it’s not a very good way to start a Monday, but something little Davey Brooks said yesterday on Timmy’s Play House, aka MTP(that’s Meet The Press, not McCain’s Trusty Plebes) sounded almost sensible. Actually, it was the only semi-sensible thing he said at all. So I guess that makes it noteworthy.
Of course, this will only happen in a Beltway pundit’s dream. Never in the real world.
But after that brush with reality, Brooks then veered back into the black hole of conventional pundit wisdom.
Yeah! That damn Howard Dean! The party listened to his wild, radical and purely insane rantings in 2006 and look what it got us. A Republican ass kicking. And Davey sure doesn’t want that to happen again.
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NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) – Followers of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will not hand over their weapons as part of a move to end a week of fighting in Iraq, a top Sadr aide said.
The aide, Hazem al-Araji, also said that Sadr’s followers had received a guarantee from the government that it would end “random arrests” of Sadr followers. “The weapons of the resistance will not be delivered to the Iraqi government,” he told journalists at Sadr’s office in the holy city of Najaf after distributing a statement from Sadr calling on followers to stop fighting.
Sadr’s statement also called for the government to halt arrests of his followers and implement an amnesty law to free prisoners. “We confirm that there were guarantees taken from the Iraqi government to fulfill all the points in this statement. Thus, no more random arrests.”
Iran brokered truce
The Interior Ministry said 210 people had been killed and 600 wounded in Basra during the week. In Sadr City, 109 dead bodies and 634 wounded were brought to just two hospitals, said Ali Bustan, head of the health directorate for eastern Baghdad. Scores more died elsewhere in the capital and the south.
As alliances shift, Iran wins. Again
≈ Cross-posted from Jeff Huber’s diary — Al-Sadr Does the Christian Thing ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."