Our children and their murderers

Lifted this from Democratic Veteran. Read it here.

Snapshot of a lie

This is what it looks like. Today. The numbers can't go down any more than the lies can be put back in Preznit Dental Appointment's face.

Of the 842 U.S. service members who have died in Iraq since the invasion 15 months ago, 622 were killed by hostile fire, according to a Pentagon tally. The largest part of that combat death toll, 513, has come since President Bush's declaration on May 1 last year that major combat was over.

The Post opines that the deaths are indirectly being caused by Iraqis and foreign fighters who are "seeking to derail" the occupation. Duh.

I guess that with all the RNC Blastfax facilitation that the Post and other media outlets of the SCLM* kind have done since January 2001 it's hard to hold that mirror up to view themselves. I'm guessing about 842 pairs of Lost American eyes stare right back at the SCLM* whores everytime they look towards Iraq.

For the people who think I'm crazy to be as pissed at Bush as I am. Unfortunately, most of you have never served, let alone seen combat. If you would, you would be just as angry as I am over this waste of lives. I'm sick and tired of you people sitting back in your easy chairs, all happy about us 'kicking Arab ass'. If you knew what war was really about, you wouldn't be so gung ho for it, let alone one so unjustified. Time to stop watching Rambo reruns and take a look at the human wreckage in our VA hospitals, goddammit.

*SCLM = So Called Liberal Media

A good day

Well, a pleasant surprise this morning. Our office guy, Not So Dead Ed is back on duty full-time. He still has yet to get a release from the doctor, allowing him to go back to work, but he's sick and tired of hanging around at home. 'Bout time the slacker came back to work. It's good to have him back.

One more

I have been remiss about an enlightened soul, although I do pirate from him regularly. Jonathan Edelstein, better known as The Head Heeb, has his finger on the pulse of the Holy Land and Africa and one of my primary links to news from that part of the world. You should make him a regular stop while you're surfing. I read his insights every day.

Tonight

It'll probably be a light day for me. The King of the Jews (our dear friend Dave from California) is in town and we're having dinner with him. Since he has business in NYC and we live on the Island, we're going to meet at a restaurant equidistant from both which, coincidentally, is not far from where I work. So I'm driving 30 miles home to change can clean up my nasty ass before heading back, meeting Mrs. F at the nearby LIRR station, and then meeting the King. Oy! Anyway, it'll be good to see him, though my productivity at work tomorrow will be much lower than normal thanks to the hangover I'm certain to have. It's worth it. Well, gotta empty the dog and I'm off. Have a good day.

Parsing

Remember when Slick Willie got all funny about the definition of 'is' and the Republicans broke his balls? Well, seems President Bullshit Artist has a different idea of what 'all' means than the rest of us, especially regarding his military records.

Via Lambert at Corrente. Seems the Associated Press is suing to get the complete record from the Department of Defense. Full story.

There are questions as to whether the file provided to the news media earlier this year is complete, says the lawsuit, adding that these questions could possibly be answered by reviewing a copy of the microfilm of Bush's personnel file in the Texas archives.

I really don't care, but there's one document that I haven't seen that would put this all to rest. It's called a DD Form 214. Ask any veteran about it and he (or she, you PC busybodies) will explain it.

I'm livin' large

Melanie over at Just a Bump in the Beltway points out that not only are we pissing away American money in Iraq, we're blowing the Iraqis' money too according to a just-released report from the U.N. Read the full story here.

The Financial Times, which obtained a copy of the report, said the auditors judged the fund to be "open to fraudulent acts".

"The CPA does not have effective controls over the ministries' spending of their individually allocated budgets, whether the funds are direct from the CPA or via the ministry of finance," it quoted the report as saying.

The US-run DFI was mandated by the UN security council to collect and spend Iraqi oil revenues in May last year, but has been dogged from its inception by accusations of a lack of transparency.

Bush and Company are corporate raiders, pure and simple. It would be something if they were good at it, but they're all-around inept morons and everything they touch goes to shit. And they say Dubya has grown up. Ha. When he was a businessman(and a drunken cokehead), he was a failure too.

I like surprises

And the Mrs. just walked in from Jersey, able to beat the horrendous rush hour traffic in the NY Metro Area. I'm happy and the dog's happy. I'll say good night now.

Pleasant dreams.

With friends like these

From the Asia Times:

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Grim choices
By Ehsan Ahrari

America's two major allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, "played important roles in the growth of al-Qaeda". That is one of the themes filtering out of the information provided by members of the 9-11 Commission in Washington to the American media on a background basis. The brunt of this support or acquiescence, according to those members, existed before the terrorist attacks of 2001.

The troubling aspect of that information is that these members - basing their information from all the information that they have acquired from various classified sources - are claiming that support or acquiescence for al-Qaeda in both those Muslim countries existed even in 2003, more in Saudi Arabia than in Pakistan. The unstated aspect of these contentious assertions is that both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have now turned against al-Qaeda and their hardline Islamist supporters, when those elements threatened the very survival of the two regimes.

Details here.

Who needs fucking enemies?

Morality

Before you try to legislate morality, you'd better be squeaky clean yourself. And yet another Republican crashes and burns, this time it's the GOP candidate for an Illinois Senate seat named Jack Ryan, ex-husband (or soon to be) of Jeri Ryan of Boston Public and Star Trek: Voyager. Billmon has all the dirt over at Whiskey Bar.

Actress Jeri Ryan accused ex-husband Jack Ryan of insisting she go to "explicit sex clubs" in New York, New Orleans and Paris during their marriage - including "a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling."

Jack Ryan wanted her to have sex with him while others watched, the star of "Boston Public" alleged...

Now, I give a shit what you want to do in private as long as it's with consenting adults. You want to be caged, gagged, whipped, whatever, have a nut, but don't come off holier than thou and preach to my ass while you're taking it in yours. I smell the stench of hypocrisy, or did you forget to wash that thing off?

Like I always say, people who live in glass houses shouldn't get stoned.

She blinded me with scripture?

Stole this from Kicking Ass:

Sound science

President Bush recently said, "When we make decisions, we want to make sure we do so on sound science; not what sounds good, but what is real." But what does "sound science" mean to him?

Let's see:

• In October 2002, the Bush administration replaced an online fact sheet containing information about condoms with one lacking critical information on condom use and effectiveness.


• Bush's Interior Secretary omitted key studies from her testimony before Congress on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.


• Bush let industry lobbyists write mercury pollution regulations.


• In 2001, President Bush sent Jeanne Head (of the National Right to Life Committee) as the U.S. representative to the World Health Summit, where the United States is usually represented by professionals from organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Public Health Association.

John Kerry, along with 48 Nobel Prize winners, takes issue with Bush's definition of "sound science" — saying that Bush allows ideology to overshadow the facts when determining science policies.

"We need a president who believes in science again in America," said Senator Kerry. Kerry pledged to lift the ban on federal funding of stem cell research, which offers new hope for people with life-threatening illnesses ranging from Alzheimer's to diabetes. Kerry also said that when elected, he would immediately lift the global gag rule, reinstated by Bush on his first day in office in January 2001.

Science? We don't need no stinking science. The Scriptures tell us everything we need to know. Yeesh, I'm off to the mines.

Caution: This is no satire

See what I mean about the Jesus freaks? Ever heard of a Rapture Index? Lifted this directly from their website:

The Purpose For This Index

The Rapture Index has two functions: one is to factor together a number of related end time components into a cohesive indicator, and the other is to standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting.

The Rapture Index is by no means meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is designed to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.

You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture

These are the type of people running your government. Jesus freaks waiting for The End, presumably happy it's coming so the world will be free of sinners like me. Fucking asshole, rat bastids.

I'm REALLY done

Nite-nite. By the way, I had a steak sandwich and washed it down with a Dos Equis.

Unhappy majority

Mother Jones just ran a poll and what they find is interesting:

Voters remain deadlocked in a partisan divide over which candidate to support, but this split is not indicative of the bipartisan discontent felt by most Americans, a new national poll by Mother Jones reveals*. Nearly two thirds of American voters say the country is "on the wrong track" and most -- including a majority of independents and even many moderate Republicans -- believe that they are personally worse off than three years ago on a broad range of issues, from their tax burden and job opportunities to their access to quality health care and schools. This "discontent gap" between party loyalty and the issues indicates a strategic opening for a candidate who promises real change.

Details here.

*Conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research between May 17 and May 22, this poll of 1,007 registered voters has a margin of error of 3.1 percent for the complete sample, and up to 7 percent for polling of subgroups, such as evangelicals or voters from swing states.

The feeling I get is that this election might not be as close as the pundits think.

Aw, Jeez

Bill at Whiskey Bar comes up with an apt, albeit sad, metaphor.

Contractors, again

About these civilian contractors who are meeting their demise in the Middle East. Now, I feel bad for their families, but these guys knew the risks, especially those going into Iraq. Why in Hell do they think they're getting these great salaries for going there? I knew a guy who worked in Saudi Arabia for quite a few years, and he knew the risks. He worked in Iran too, just before the Shah fell. There are risks, great ones, and those who go over there are aware of them, or they should be. If you're gonna work in a war zone or some other unstable place, you should be prepared for the danger.

Good

Connecticut Governor John Rowland to resign this evening at 6 p.m.

Rowland, who is 47, was easily reelected to a third term in 2002. He's admitted lying about accepting gifts and favors from friends, and he is also accused of helping out a wealthy real estate businessman, making phone calls for him, and earning a wind fall profit in the process.

Full story.

About time the crook left. Another Republican crashes and burns. Good, damn good. Remember Ella Grasso? I miss the old broad. Now she knew how to run Connecticut.

Another reminder

Fahrenheit 9/11 opens Friday. Go see the trailer here.

Drawbacks

One of the drawbacks to Mrs. F going away on business (aside from not having her to curl up with tonight) is that I have to cook for myself. Well, not really. I have to heat something up for myself; she did all the cooking on Saturday. The problem is that I'm a lazy bastid when it comes to food. Eating has never been a priority for me, although Mrs. F's cooking has brought it up quite a few notches. In years past, I would have gone to bed without eating dinner, knowing she'll be home tomorrow and I won't starve, or I would have just eaten some potato chips or some crap. Now I know there's barbecue chicken and steak in the fridge, and some of Mrs. F's homemade cucumber salad and potato salad. but I don't want to have to put it all together and heat up the meat. See, lazy. Makes the Mrs. nuts, but hey, I'd eat burgers for every meal if she'd let me. That makes her crazy too, because that's all I'll eat if she's gone for any length of time. Burgers and dogs, a meal in one pan and I can eat it off a paper towel without using utensils. Only one thing to wash. I guess my being lazy about washing dishes is directly proportional to my enthusiasm for cooking. Or heating stuff up as it were. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Anyway, I'm knocking off, although I might be on later if I'm laying in bed, surfing the Net with my pants around my ankles. I'll say goodnight now, however.

Pleasant dreams.

The Kiwi view

Via Today in Iraq, from the Ashburton Guardian, Ashburton District, New Zealand:

Without in any way denigrating our soldiers’ professionalism, maybe they’d be better off at home.
We’re wasting them in the so-called “war on terrorism”. Sending troops out against terrorists doesn’t work.
The British know. Crack SAS troops fought IRA Provisionals for decades and never looked like defeating them.

[. . .]

Some reports suggest that al Qaeda wants President George W. Bush in the White House for another four years.
Why? Well, for starters, Mr Bush’s Middle East policy is providing a bonanza of new funding and new recruits for al Qaeda. Almost three years after the September 11 atrocity, al Qaeda is flourishing. Instead of being pounded into dust, it’s stronger.
Another reason for al Qaeda to back the Republican ticket is the gulf emerging between Europe and the United States.
This gulf is in the best interests of terrorists worldwide, and President Bush seems hell-bent on widening it.

Sounds about right. Read the whole story here.

A bright spot

Remember when I spoke about actual cooperation between Isrelis and Arabs?

Too bad you don't hear more of this. From The Head Heeb.

More quiet cooperation

Al-Ahliyya Amman University, Jordan's first private university, wants to open a branch in Israel. Maher Hurani, the university's owner, evidently hopes that an influx of Israeli Arab students - and possibly Jews as well - will make up for the 500 Syrians who have threatened to resign if the Israel branch is built.

Details here.

I posted that on 2 June and today The Head Heeb has more good news on this front.

Maher Hurani, the owner of Al-Ahliyya and a Jordanian millionaire of Palestinian descent, has put together an organizing team that consists of Israeli Arab businessmen and both Arab and Jewish professors. The designated president of the Israeli branch will be Eitan Ben-Tzur, a former director-general of the Israeli foreign ministry, and much of the financing and planning will come from Nizar and Annan Darawshe, who have long-standing connections in the Jordanian business world.

It does my heart good to hear this. Read the whole story.