BJ Honeycutt Tells it Like it Is.

Mike Farrell, who most of you know from the TV series "Mash," tells us his feelings about HBO's documentary, "Bahgdad ER." Via Crooks & Liars.

I saw "Baghdad ER" on HBO last night (Sunday, May 21). I'd heard that the Defense Dept. had issued warnings urging servicemen and women back from Iraq to be wary of watching as it might trigger PTSD symptoms. Perhaps they hoped those about to go wouldn't watch as well, for fear they might not show up.

"Baghdad ER" is a documentary about a "CASH," a Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad. I recommend it for every American, but the queasy be warned: it is excruciating. I cringed at the gore, was sickened by the death, wept at the frustration and resignation of the medics, at the faith of the chaplain, at the simple, shocked, blank expressions on the faces of kids younger than my son – victims of this fool's war. Listening to the bravado of some, aching to comfort those who came in knowing they were hurt but not how badly, made me want to scream. Watching this horrifying, endless process, the tears on my face kept drying from the heat of my anger. Glorious, generous, talented, dedicated human beings forced to be part of this circus of carnage made me so furious I couldn't speak at the end.

I loathe the people who have created this monstrosity. I want the criminals who lied and cheated and pretended and twisted and perverted reality - and those who rationalized their crimes - so they could send over 2400 servicemen and woman to their death, nearly 18,000 to come home torn - some never to be whole again - thousands more to suffer mental damage, and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians to be swept into the garbage can of "collateral damage," to pay. These bastards and their apologists should be stripped naked and forced to walk the main streets of America, allowing every city and town that has lost a loved one to injury or death in this shameful catastrophe to heap on them the scorn they deserve.

John F. Kennedy said America would never start a war. Well, it has now, and its architects have damaged our character, poisoned our standing in the world and soiled the soul of what was once the greatest nation in the history of the world.

Brilliant. Good for you Mike!

You can read more about Mike Farrell on his website here...www.mikefarrell.org

Update on Ben Domenech.

After his embarrassing entry into the real world young Ben seems to be completely unable to acknowledge wrongdoing. Blaming everyone but himself for his blatant plagiarism, Ben is doing himself no favours.
But then again, his old mans contacts should get further employment.

Ben blaming Everyone Else on Red State

Condensed-
I know that charges of plagiarism are serious. While I am not a journalist, I have, myself, written more than one thing that has been plagiarised in the past. But these charges have also served to create an atmosphere where no matter what is said on my Red America blog, leftists will focus on things with my byline from when I was a teenager.
The Left has also accused me of foisting Sen. Frist quotes and some descriptive material from the Washington Post for a New York Press article on the Capitol Shooter. But the quotes I used were either properly credited or came from Sen. Frist’s press conference, which I attended along with many other reporters. So it is no surprise that we had similar quotes or similar descriptions of the same event. I have reams of notes and interviews about the events of that day. I also went over the entire piece step by step with NYPress editors to ensure that it was unquestionably solid before it ran.
In one instance, I have been accused me of passing off P.J. O'Rourke's writing as my own in a column for the paper. But the truth is that I had met P.J. at a Republican event and asked his permission to do a college-specific version of his classic piece on partying. He granted permission, the piece was cleared with my editors at the paper, and it ran as inspired by O’Rourke’s original.

Flat Hat

Domenech wrote that the editors of The Flat Hat were responsible for improperly including quotes from unattributed sources in his post on RedState.com

Steve Mencarini, editor of The Flat Hat from 1999 to 2000, said he supervised Domenech from fall of 1999 to March 2000. Mencarini refuted Domenech’s description of the events.
Domenech left the College without graduating, Associate Vice President for Public Affairs Bill Walker told the March 24 online edition of The New York Times.

Finaly This fool Gives an Admission and Apology

I want to apologize to National Review Online, my friends and colleagues here at RedState, and to any others that have been affected over the past few days. I also want to apologize to my previous editors and writers whose work I used inappropriately and without attribution. There is no excuse for this - nor is there an excuse for any obfuscation in my earlier statement.

This is a long story and I've only shown pieces of what has gone on, but the Washington Post has clearly shown not only that it is nothing more than a display for the current White House administration but that the management is completely out of touch with what is happening in the real world, in particular the online world and the power of the people that use it. But to hire what they thought would be a silencer to their critics really just showed them up for what they are. Shills for the Republicans and out of touch with reality. Not to mention, bad managers.

atrios has more

The Story of Ben Domenech.

About a month ago the Washington Post (WP) printed an article, it was written by none other than the Ombudsman for the WP a Ms. Deborah Howell.
Now, as you know there's been a few Republicans in the US caught out because they have been taking bribes, in fact they have offices and several people working for them specifically for this purpose. They call it "Lobbying" which I do believe does have a place in getting things done in Politics, but these guy's just went too far.
The WP, specifically it's Ombudsman Debbie Howell, wrote a piece saying that the Lobbying scandal was a Bi-partisan issue. It was not, the Democrats had not taken one cent from Jack Abramoff. So starts the theatre.

The online comments section of the WP was on fire with Liberals asking for a retraction and apology. Not only did the WP refuse but they printed an article deriding Liberal Bloggers as foul mouthed scum etc.
So, after all this, the WP starts a Right Wing blog as part of their web page. Titled "Red State Blog" throwing more fuel on the fire. The WP may think they are Bi-partisan but they are just shills for the Bush government. Their way of combating criticism is to go further to the Right. Great move guys.

As one of the founders and star Bloggers of their new online presence, they hire this kid who's resume is made up of Speech Writing for some Republicans and Editor of a Right wing publishing house, Ben Domenech. Ben was home schooled and was hired straight out of collage by the Bush administration as a speech writer, his Dad knows George ya'see.

Jim Brady, the idiot at the helm of the WP, seems to think if your a good writer your a good Blogger. Thats not how it is at all, when you blog you have to be 100 per cent transparent and factually correct or you will get ripped to shreds.
Young Ben lasted 2 day's!

They thought they could put this kid in there to make a Blog and go against the Liberal Bloggers who have a definite advantage, life experience is not something you get when being Home Schooled.
He didn't have a chance from the start, he had no real world experience and in fact an isolated narrow minded view of things thanks to his parents.
No wonder the Smirking Fool gave him hid first job job.
But here's the clincher, not only is young Ben Domenech a home schooled ignoramus who believes in creationism, but he Steals others work and puts his name on it! Oh dear.

It couldn't have possibly been scripted better. It was like watching a bus screaming down a hill. In fact one Blog was writing a piece comparing Ben's Red State blog to a Bus careering down a hill when they found out that he had quit the job. Like I said, it could not have been scripted.

Firedoglake on Ben Domenech

Well, this isn’t good for the Washington Post’s newest Red America poster boy, now is it? Sucks when your right wing compadres decide that your plagiarism baggage is too ugly, too immoral, too much of a hot potato for even their political brand, doesn’t it?

America blog.

But what's really unfortunate about this entire mess is that the Washington Post handled their foray into blogging like such amateurs that there's now the risk of other newspapers thinking that this is what blogging is about - young, uneducated, unprofessional plagiarists. We risk others thinking that Blogs are the 3rd rail of journalism, touch them at your own peril. When in fact, had the Post simply started two Blogs, a Red and a Blue one, this could have been a journalism success story - but for the fact that the Post didn't bother to vet their choice to see if he was insane and/or a word thief.

All Bloggers are not created equal. The Post wanted to get in bed with Republicans and Republican Bloggers, fine. They got Republican ethics as part of the package.

More from Daily Kos.

"yourlogohere" gives a funny description of events.

The Most Frequent Response to GW Bush in Poll was "Incompetent"!

Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deep doubts about the Iraq war and pessimism about America's future have shattered public confidence in President George W. Bush and helped drive his approval ratings to their lowest level ever, pollsters say.
A majority of Americans, 56 percent, believe Bush is "out of touch," the poll found.

When asked for a one-word description of Bush, the most frequent response was "incompetent," followed by "good," "idiot"and "liar."

In February 2005, the most frequent reply was "honest."
"His strong points as a president were being seen as personally credible, as a strong leader. That has all but disappeared,"
said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, whose latest independent poll found a dramatic decline in Bush's credibility.

What does surprise me though, is just how long it took for the American general public to realise how much of a disaster this Smirking Fool really is. Everything he has done has turned into a disaster (and believe me, I have tried to find area's where the Bush cabals reign has indeed done good, but have found No true successes) simply because he is an incompetent idiot who has surrounded himself with Sycophants.

A Veterans letter to GW Bush.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As a young man I was honored to serve our nation as a commissioned officer and helicopter pilot in the
U. S. Navy. Before me in WWII, my father defended the country spending two years in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-14). We were patriots sworn “to protect and defend”. Today I conclude that you have dishonored our service and the Constitution and principles of our oath. My dad was buried with full military honors so I cannot act for him. But for myself, I return enclosed the symbols of my years of service: the shoulder boards of my rank and my Naval Aviator’s wings.

Until your administration, I believed it was inconceivable that the United States would ever initiate an aggressive and preemptive war against a country that posed no threat to us. Until your administration, I thought it was impossible for our nation to take hundreds of persons into custody without provable charges of any kind, and to “disappear” them into holes like Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. Until your administration, in my wildest legal fantasy I could not imagine a U.S. Attorney General seeking to justify torture or a President first stating his intent to veto an anti-torture law, and then adding a “signing statement” that he intends to ignore such law as he sees fit. I do not want these things done in my name.

As a citizen, a patriot, a parent and grandparent, a lawyer and law teacher I am left with such a feeling of loss and helplessness. I think of myself as a good American and I ask myself what can I do when I see the face of evil? Illegal and immoral war, torture and confinement for life without trial have never been part of our Constitutional tradition. But my vote has become meaningless because I live in a safe district drawn by your political party. My congressman is unresponsive to my concerns because his time is filled with lobbyists’ largess. Protests are limited to your “free speech zones”, out of sight of the parade. Even speaking openly is to risk being labeled un-American, pro-terrorist or anti-troops. And I am a disciplined pacifist, so any violent act is out of the question.

Nevertheless, to remain silent is to let you think I approve or support your actions. I do not. So, I am saddened to give up my wings and bars. They were hard won and my parents and wife were as proud as I was when I earned them over forty years ago. But I hate the torture and death you have caused more than I value their symbolism. Giving them up makes me cry for my beloved country.

Joseph W. DuRocher

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

You can read more about J. Durocher here

I just read this while reading Bob Geiger.com and for me it really hit the nail on the head. I'm not even an American, I'm an Australian. But to see a great nation being led down the garden path by such an inept and despicable man as Bush leaves me appalled and dismayed.
I feel everyone who has a voice should use it to oppose his actions.
Moreover I feel Joseph W. DuRocher is a brave man in today's America where anyone saying anything against the White House is immediately painted as "hating America" and supporting Terrorism. How the hell they can come to that conclusion is beyond me.

Than You Joseph W. DuRocher you are the sort of person who will help end all this "Terrorism"!

The Tragedy of Pat Tillman - Update.

Talk Left
The Inspector General of the Pentagon has asked the army to open a criminal investigation into Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan.

The request, which came out of the inspector general's review of four previous investigations of the April 22, 2004, shooting, will likely lead investigators from the Army Criminal Investigation Command to return to Afghanistan and conduct a months long investigation into whether Tillman's death may have been a homicide, the result of criminal negligence or an accident, said an Army official who asked to remain anonymous.

Tillman's mother says:

"The Army used him. They knew right away he was killed by fratricide and used him for their own purposes to promote the war, to get sympathy for the war, for five weeks."

Meanwhile that repulsive scab on the knee of humanity, Anne Coulter, was being interviewed and would not accept that Pat Tillman wasn't a supporter of the war in Iraq. Stupid ignorant cow.
Crooks and Liars has more

Ten Years as PM Marred by Wrong Decision to Go Into Iraq

Seven News
Prime Minister John Howard says he has no regrets about sending Australia to war against Iraq.

As the coalition marks 10 years in government this week, Mr Howard acknowledged the decision to send troops to Iraq was unpopular in parts of the community.
"People will always be critical of that decision, I accept that," he told ABC radio.
But he again denied Australia had been made a greater terrorist target by joining the US-led battle."Australia was a terrorist target long before we went to Iraq," Mr Howard said.
Mr Howard accepted the Iraqi decision was controversial, but said he had no regrets.
"I don't regret the decision," he said.
"I took it in good faith at the time."
Australia went to war believing former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, but none have so far been found.

Good Grief.
Yes Honest John, it was a terrific idea. Letting a country disintegrate into civil war, literally thousands of civilians killed, the nations capital (which is in better shape than most of Iraq) still without power a lot of the time and limited fresh running water.

The one thing I hate more than anything else in this fiasco is the inability of these people to accept that they were, and still are wrong. The invasion of Iraq was wrong in every single area. Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with 911, Saddam was complying with the UN and had no WMD's. The invasion of Iraq as with the War on Terror is a farce.
Howard, Blair and Bush knew these facts but still, they all deliberately Lied to their respective nations. Liars and Hypocrites all.

The only reason we are a target for terrorists is because we have sided with and supported the American governments failed and disgraceful Foreign Policy.

It's a shame that what have could of been a reasonable tenure as Australia's PM for the last Ten years is marred by such a tragic and disgraceful decision by Howard to follow Bush and Blair's lead into Iraq.
Nothing good has come of this.

1300 Deaths in Iraq Last Week.

The Washington Post

BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.

Morgue officials said they had logged more than 1,300 dead since Wednesday -- the day the Shiites' gold-domed Askariya shrine was bombed -- photographing, numbering and tagging the bodies as they came in over the nights and days of retaliatory raids.
The Statistics Department of the Iraqi police put the nationwide toll at 1,020 since Wednesday, but that figure was based on paperwork that is sometimes delayed before reaching police headquarters. The majority of the dead had been killed after being taken away by armed men, police said.

The disclosure of the death tolls followed accusations by the U.S. military and later Iraqi officials that the news media had exaggerated the violence between Shiites and Sunnis over the past few days.

More here...

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

What can I say? How much of a tragedy this is? How the US government was wrong, on so many levels, how they Lied? How absolutely disgraceful the actions of the people who started and those that supported this entire fiasco are? Well, it is all of those but so, so much more.

But the biggest question for me is, why do people support and vote for these greedy despicable politicians? I've asked that question a lot lately and am still at a lost as to why.

"The Smiths" singer Morrisey reportedly questioned by FBI

United Press
LONDON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- British rocker Morrissey says agents from the FBI and Britain's Special Branch picked him up for questioning after he labeled President Bush a "terrorist."
"They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England," Morrissey told Sky News Friday. "But it didn't take them very long to realize that I'm not."
Morrissey said he was surprised at the interest since he does not subscribe to any political group and doesn't "really say anything unless I'm asked directly and I don't even demonstrate in public."
He said his experience proves freedom of speech is an illusion.
"My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies," he said. "You can't really speak your mind and if you do you're investigated."

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

Meanwhile Bush is opening up 21 US shipping ports to a UAE State owned shipping company. Not that I really care, but the hypocrisy of this guy ceases to amaze.

The Tragedy of Pat Tillman.

This isn't a new story by any means but I was reminded of it while reading an article at one of my regular reads, Yellow Dog Blog.

In short, Pat Tillman was a professional Grid Iron player in the US. He was young and had a very lucrative future ahead of him, in fact Tillman turned down a $3.6 million contract with the St. Lois Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army . After 911 Pat and his brother enlisted in the US Marines.

From Wikipedia-

The two brothers completed training for the elite Army Ranger school in late 2002 and were assigned to the second battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment in
Fort Lewis, Washington. Both Pat and Kevin were deployed to the Middle East as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pat Tillman was subsequently redeployed to Afghanistan, where, on April 22 2004, he was killed in action by friendly fire while on patrol.
His unit was attacked in an apparent ambush on a road outside of the village of Sperah about 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Khost, near the Pakistan border. An Afghan militia soldier was killed and two other Rangers were injured as well.
The U.S. Department of Defense concluded that Pat Tillman's death was due to friendly fire aggravated by the intensity of the firefight.
It was later learned that in fact, no hostile forces were involved in the firefight, and that two allied groups fired on each other in confusion over an exploded mine or remote controlled bomb. U.S. Army Special Operations Command, however, initially claimed there was an exchange with hostile forces.

A later investigation conducted by Brigadier General Jones found that the Army was slow to correct the story of a hostile exchange of fire after learning that it was false.

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

Tillman's family requested a report on the death of their son, and it was only then that they found out that he wasn't killed in battle but was in fact shot and killed by friendly fire.

I have to say that I do realise that this type of thing can happen. But, all the lies and secrecy, especially to the family is a disgrace.

"Brig. Gen. Gary M. Jones revealed that in the days immediately following
Tillman's death, US Army investigators were aware that Tillman was killed by friendly fire. Jones reported that senior Army commanders, including Gen. John Abizaid, knew of this fact within days of the shooting, but nevertheless approved the awarding of the Silver Star, Purple Heart, and a posthumous promotion. The citation report accompanying these awards said that Tillman was killed by enemy forces and contained a detailed account of the alleged battle which Army leadership knew had never taken place.

Jones reported that members of Tillman's unit burned his body armour and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire. Several soldiers were subsequently punished for their actions by being removed from their Army Rangers unit. Jones believed that Tillman should retain his medals and promotion, since he intended to engage the enemy, and behaved heroically.

Tillman's family was not informed of the finding that he was killed by friendly fire until weeks after his memorial service, although at least some senior Army officers knew of that fact prior to the service"

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

Everything about this "War on Terror" is wrong but when they cannot even tell the truth to the parents of the Soldier who died it casts a darker shadow over the morals of the Goverments who started it.
The fact that he was the ultimate team player and it was his own men who killed him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.

Spider snacks on snake

This is a bit old but I thought it was intersting enough to share...

Bloemfontein - An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long Aurora house snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider.

Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm in Bloemfontein, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the strange sight next to a desk in her office.

The snake, which had obviously died from the spider's poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum immediately identified the spider as a female brown button spider.

The brown button spider, easily identifiable by a red hourglass marking on its stomach, is not quite as deadly as a black widow.

It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it.A red mark on the snake's stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it. Even a fly that accidentally landed on the snake was chased off aggressively.

Iraq Power and Water Still Not Working Properly

New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below preinvasion values even though $16 billion of American taxpayer money has already been disbursed in the Iraq reconstruction program, several government witnesses said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Of seven measures of public services performance presented at the committee hearing by the inspector general's office, only one was above preinvasion values.

Seriously, how on Earth could anyone with any semblance of common sense or decency vote for a President and Administration with such an undeniable record of failure?

Check at the bottom of this page to see just how much the Iraq war has cost the taxpayers of the US.

Tony Abbott Rejects Abortion Pill

Tony Abbott would like to have the people of Australia believe that this has nothing whatsoever to do with his religion. Yeah sure.

ABC News
The Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott says he will not approve the use of the abortion pill RU-486 in Australia.

Mr Abbott has told PM he's received advice from the Chief Medical Officer that RU-486 has a higher rate of "later adverse events" that could require urgent intervention, than surgical termination.

The Australian Democrats, though, have accused Health Minister Tony Abbott of skewing information about the abortion pill to support his own religious position.

And the Australian Medical Association says that the Health Department advice on RU486 that Tony Abbott released today is plain wrong and ignores international research on the subject.

The AMA also says that the drug will now continued to be denied to Australian women for political reasons.

Is there anything more arrogant than politicians thinking they know better than everyone else? Including Medical professionals on Medical issues.
This is an issue between the Woman and her Doctor not a bloody politician who lets is personal religious beliefs dictate his politics.

Facts About Guantanamo Bay that the White House Don't Want You to Know

I've just finished reading an article about Guantanamo Bay and it leaves me with absolutely no confidence in the US Governments handling of this farcical (fantasy?) "War on Terror".
The US Government, more specifically the Neo-cons and in particular Shrub and his close buddies have no intention whatsoever in "defeating" or ending terrorism, they want it to continue to fuel their economy. The Bush cabal has made a lot of money from War profiteering. In fact George Bush is the 3rd generation to make money out of war.

National Journal

National Journal undertook a detailed review of the unclassified files to develop profiles of the 132 men. NJ separately reviewed transcripts for 314 prisoners who pleaded their cases before Combatant Status Review Tribunals at Guantanamo.
Taken together, the information provides a picture of who, exactly, has been taken prisoner in the war on terror and is being held in an anomalous U.S. military prison on an island belonging to one of America's bitterest enemies.
Reporter Corine Hegland's exhaustively researched cover story in this issue -- studded with probative details and human stories that every serious student of the war against terror should read -- provides powerful evidence confirming what many of us have suspected for years;

That a very high percentage, perhaps the majority, of the 500-odd men now held at Guantanamo were not captured on any battlefield, let alone on "the battlefield in Afghanistan" (as Bush asserted) while "trying to kill American forces" (as McClellan claimed).

Fewer than 20 percent of the Guantanamo detainees, the best available evidence suggests, have ever been Qaeda members.

Many scores, and perhaps hundreds, of the detainees were not even Taliban foot soldiers, let alone Qaeda terrorists. They were innocent, wrongly seized noncombatants with no intention of joining the Qaeda campaign to murder Americans.

The majority were not captured by U.S. forces but rather handed over by reward-seeking Pakistanis and Afghan warlords and by villagers of highly doubtful reliability.
These locals had strong incentives to tar as terrorists any and all Arabs they could get their hands on as the Arabs fled war-torn Afghanistan in late 2001 and 2002 -- including noncombatant teachers and humanitarian workers. And the Bush administration has apparently made very little effort to corroborate the plausible claims of innocence detailed by many of the men who were handed over.
Only 35 percent of them (more precisely, of the 115 whose court files specify the locus of capture) were seized in Afghanistan; 55 percent were picked up by Pakistanis in Pakistan.

The 314 transcripts released to the Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit give similar results. The 314 men described there included 97 Afghans who were arrested in Afghanistan. But they also included 211 foreigners, 152 of whom -- or more than 70 percent -- were arrested outside of Afghanistan. And 145 of those men were captured in Pakistan.

The administration has also disclosed very little about who the Guantanamo detainees are, excepting 1) redacted transcripts of 314 detainees' hearings before Guantanamo's nonjudicial "Combatant Status Review Tribunals" or CSRTs; and 2) somewhat more-detailed responses to the federal court petitions filed by lawyers for 132 of these 314 men.

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

This is after the the American, British and Australian Governments have all peddled Lie after Lie in trying to defend their actions. Everything about Guantanamo Bay is wrong, the fact it tortures prisoners, gets coerced statements and confessions from the Illegally held prisoners (which mean nothing because the prisoners would have written and signed anything at all at the time), no access to the Red Cross or any other Humane Society (normal POW's are allowed this) The illegally held prisoners are not given POW status nor are they given Criminal status therefore denying them every single right and protection normally associated with POW's or prisoners. The illegally held prisoners are not even allowed protection under the Geneva Convention.
If the US Government ever wants to take the high ground in regard to any future or present hostilities then it has lost all credibility. They have no right to treat people in such a manner.

These are people picked up off the battlefield in Afghanistan. They weren't wearing uniforms ... but they were there to kill."
-- President Bush, June 20, 2005
"These detainees are dangerous enemy combatants....They were picked up on the battlefield, fighting American forces, trying to kill American forces."
-- White House press secretary Scott McClellan, June 21, 2005
"The people that are there are people we picked up on the battlefield, primarily in Afghanistan. They're terrorists. They're bomb makers. They're facilitators of terror. They're members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban....We've let go those that we've deemed not to be a continuing threat. But the 520-some that are there now are serious, deadly threats to the United States."
-- Vice President Cheney, June 23, 2005
"These are people, all of whom were captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, [Osama bin Laden's] bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."
-- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, June 27, 2005

Bush Verses Science

The past few weeks George Deutsch has been mentioned on a few Blogs because of him using his position at NASA to hamper real scientific study and progress involving Climate Change. George Deutsch got his job at NASA by being a loyal young Republican. He was a Presidential Appointee to NASA. Well, not no more he ain't!

From America Blog
George Deutsch, the Bush "war room" campaign staffer, who was on a quest to end science at NASA, has "resigned." Yep, he doesn't work there anymore. Seems young Mr. Deutsch had some discrepancies in his resume:

George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agency officials said.

NASA Chief Backs Agency Openness (Feb. 4, 2006) Mr. Deutsch's resignation came on the same day that officials at Texas A&M University confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his resume on file at the agency asserted.

Mr. Deutsch's educational record was first challenged on Monday by Nick Anthis, who graduated from Texas A&M last year with a biochemistry degree and has been writing a Web log on science policy, scientificactivist.blogspot.com.

After Mr. Anthis read about the problems at NASA, he said in an interview: "It seemed like political figures had really overstepped the line. I was just going to write some commentary on this when somebody tipped me off that George Deutsch might not have graduated."

He posted a blog entry asserting this after he checked with the university's association of former students. He reported that the association said Mr. Deutsch received no degree.

Does the phrase "Your doing a heck of a job Brownie" sound familiar?



Washington Post has more.

A Time magazine cover story today shines a spotlight on Bush's relationship of convenience with science. Mark Thompson and Karen Tumulty write that "growing numbers of researchers, both in and out of government, say their findings -- on pollution, climate change, reproductive health, stem-cell research and other areas in which science often finds itself at odds with religious, ideological or corporate interests -- are being discounted, distorted or quashed by Bush Administration appointees.

Something That Was Said During the State of the Union Address.

Why the hell is an Aussie writing about the State of the Union Address? (SOTU) I hear the rowdy rabble roar from the rear. Well, it's because what happens in the U.S. affects what happens in Australia, and in fact, affects much of the world. The Stock market in Australia hardly does a thing until they've heard what is happening in the US. We have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because Terrorists attacked the US. and it goes on.
So, I like to keep abreast of what is happening over there.

Although riddled with fabrications, prevarications, Spin and just blatant Lies. The one paragraph that did catch my attention was when Shrub said that his Government was meeting it's responsibility in providing Health Care for the poor and Elderly. That's just wrong.
Recently in America there has been a huge cock-up with the way the Federal Government is "providing Health Care for the sick and Elderly" in fact the exact opposite would be more accurate.
About 3/4 of the way through the SOTU address he said. -

Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care

Why is that so bad?
Well, just recently Bush introduced one of his policy's for Health Care for people on low income. The introduction to this system was an absolutely disaster. People were supposed to have their names transfered over to an Insurance Company, this didn't happen they were just kicked off instead so something like 6 million Sick, Disabled and Elderly were left with no option than to pay the full price for their medications.
Most, if not all, could not afford to do that. But can you imagine how these people felt when they heard that news?

It may not sound that big a deal but if you can imagine and Old age pensioner, some one in a wheel chair or who is in so much pain that getting to the Chemist or Dr. is a mission in itself and then to have the Pharmacist say "No, sorry, you've been taken off the list" I can't even imagine the panic and despair that some of the people would have felt knowing that from now on they cannot get any of their medications.

But then, in the SOTU address this man with War in his Heart Say's "Our government has a responsibility to help provide health care for the poor and the elderly, and we are meeting that responsibility. For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care."

Why do the people of the US take this ? Do they not care (unless it happens to them or someone close to them of course) Do they think someone else will fix the problem? Do they actually believe what their President is saying when he Say's things like that?
We have our problems in Australia but I honestly don't think our PM could ever get away with such blatant prevarications as what the US Government seem to be getting away with.


Here is the full transcript of the speech if you would like to read it.
SOTU Transcript

I'm With Stupid.

This picture has been circulating the internet quite a bit just lately. Kudos to the kids who set it up.

Katrina Investigation is Hampered by the White House.

Surprise surprise, the White House is refusing to handover important documents and is also preventing key officials from co-operating with the congressional Inquiry into the pathetic government response to Hurricane Katrina late year.
In a national address in New Orleans in the days after Katrina, George Dubya made promises that a "thorough" congressional investigation into the relief debacle would be made and that he would fully co-operate with any investigation.


Daily Kos article

White House spokesperson Trent Duffy said that the White House is refusing requests to allow officials like Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff; his deputy, Joe Hagin; Frances Fragos Townsend, the domestic
security adviser; and her deputy, Ken Rapuano to testify on Capitol Hill about their responses to the catastrophe. Moreover, the White House also refused to provide e-mail correspondence and other communications made by Administration officials for examination, all the while claiming to be cooperating with the Congressional committee.

The UK Guardian reports-

The Bush administration has refused to hand over email correspondence about the storm and has prevented officials involved in the government reaction from appearing before the Senate. Those officials include the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card, and his deputy, Joe Hagin, Frances Fragos Townsend, the president's adviser on homeland security, and his deputy, Ken Rapuano.

Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Inquiry on Monday he had been told not to comment on his conversations with top White House officials.

Typical.
Have mentioned how much I hate Liars and Hypocrites today yet?

A New Flag

I came across this article while looking through Google News and thought it would be a suitable follow up to the previous Australia Day article I wrote.

Here a few of the flags sent in to the Sydney Morning Herald article.



I had to include this one because it is the same Logo as used on the BLF Qld T-shirts. Identical colour and all! Needless to say, I wore mine with pride! And to be honest i think it is a great flag, love those colours.

And last of all we have this Flag...The Designer obviously thought it appropriate as to the "feel" of the country these days.


The flags were designed by, from top left, Kevin Yeats did the Southern Cross and State Star design, Roger Graf - Fingle Head NSW did the mixed motif design, Geoff Evens did the large Kangaroo, North Sullivan did the Green and Gold Southern Cross and Tony Eames designed the "Deputy in the Southern Hemisphere" Flag. That statement alone is enough for me to loath GW Bush.

A New Flag for Australia