Morphing Dubya and Jimmy Carter = Tony Blair

Poor Tony Blair. First, he has the war monger/Dubya's poodle legacy. Now, shades of Jimmy Carter, Blair is embroiled in an Iranian Hostage Crisis.

This man gets no breaks; and deserves none, either.

Man versus beast

I've avoided posting silly stuff here, but this one had me laughing out loud on BART this morning. These guys are future Darwin Award winners. Here's the skinny:

Guys want to impress girls, take the gals to an ostrich farm (I know, WTF? - that was my reaction, too), ostrich proceeds to kick guys' butts around, girls laugh at guys, guys come back with guns and off the ostrich, guys go to jail and have to get counseling for animal cruelty.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said:

"This whole thing is about male pride. The ostrich knocked them both on their butts."

Guys, I know you want to impress the ladies with your feats of daring-do. So a lesson in life is to not fuck around with Ostriches. They will kick your sorry asses - even after they are dead.

Read the story here.

Iraq - why the surge won't work

The surge, by itself will not, cannot work. Military intervention to control crime and murder and destruction is only a leg of the stool. Until political reconciliation occurs, the surge is moot; the stool cannot stand.

Look at the recent chaos (mind you this is JUST Baghdad, and reported for TODAY):

• BAGHDAD - A car bomb killed four policemen and one civilian and wounded nine more police in Jihad in southwest Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Police were checking a suspicious vehicle when it exploded.
• BAGHDAD - A car bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint killed a soldier and wounded three others on Wednesday near al-Shurta tunnel in western Baghdad, police said.
• BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb in Bayaa district in southern Baghdad killed three people and wounded 20 others, police said.
  BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded three soldiers in the western Ghazaliya district of Baghdad, a Reuters witness said.
• BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a market in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, killing five and wounding 15, a police source said.
• BAGHDAD - Gunmen attacked the motorcade of the head of traffic police, Jaafar al-Khafaji, in northern Baghdad, killing two traffic policemen and wounding two others, police said.
• BAGHDAD - Gunmen kidnapped Hassan Abdul-Latif, an official of the Iraqi Customs Office in central Baghdad, on Wednesday, police said.
• BAGHDAD - Thirteen bodies were found shot in different districts of Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.
• BAGHDAD - Two policemen were killed and six wounded when they approached a car bomb in Amil district in southwestern Baghdad, police said. There was a body in the car.
  
  ...
  
• A mortar round landed on Baghdad airport on Thursday with no casualties, an eyewitness said. “The mortar round landed on Baghdad airport today at 11:00 am, setting travelers there into panic,” said a VOI reporter who was present at the airport when the shell landed. The panic vanished as soon as Iraqi security men assured travelers that the situation was under control and no casualties were reported, he said. A security man told VOI “these incidents occurred repeatedly so the airport halls and runways were placed far from the range of possible mortar and katyusha attacks.” Baghdad airport, 20 km southwest of Baghdad, is also used by U.S. forces as a base. Source: Airport-Mortar :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq
• Unknown gunmen attacked a U.S. vehicle convoy on Thursday in southwestern Baghdad, setting a vehicle ablaze, an eyewitness said. “Unknown gunmen attacked with RPGs a U.S. vehicle convoy passing the main road in al-Shurat al-Rabia, southwestern Baghdad,” an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
  He added, “the attack set ablaze a U.S. Hummer.” U.S. forces cordoned off the scene while the burned vehicle was towed to an unknown place, the eyewitness said.
• “A billow of smoke covered the area near the attack location,” he said. The U.S. army could not be immediately reached to confirm the incident.
  Source: U.S.-Attack :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq
• A senior Iraqi police officer survived an attempt on his life early Thursday after an attack, by unidentified gunmen, on his motorcade in northeastern Baghdad, while one of his bodyguards was killed and two others were wounded in the attack, police sources said. “Unidentified gunmen attacked General Jaafar al-Khafaji’s motorcade using machine guns and light arms in al-Qahera neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad,” a security source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).
• “The attack killed one bodyguard and injured two others,” he added. General al-Khafaji is working for the traffic police department in Baghdad. Source: Baghdad-Assassination :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq
• Eight civilians were killed and 32 others were wounded when three booby-trapped cars went off early Thursday in different parts of Baghdad, a police source said.
• “A car bomb exploded this morning near street 20 in al-Bayaa neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring 10,” the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). “Another explosives-rigged car went off near a bus station in al-Mahmoudiya region in southern Baghdad, during which three civilians were killed and 12 others were injured,” he added. “Three citizens were also killed and 10 were wounded when a third car bomb, parked near a fuel station in al-Aamel neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, was detonated,” the source noted. Source: Baghdad-Explosion-Update 1 :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq
• A Katyusha rocket landed, on Thursday morning, near the joint security center currently under construction in Sadr city in eastern Baghdad, an eyewitness said. “A Katyusha rocket fell at 10:00 am on Thursday near the joint security center being established by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Sadr city,” an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). No immediate comment was available from police on the incident. U.S. forces announced last month that they would establish a joint security centre with Iraqi forces in al-Jazaier police station, near Muthafar square, to boost security in the city within the Fardh al-Qanoon (law-imposing) security plan. Source: Baghdad-Katyusha :: Aswat al Iraq :: Aswat al Iraq
  
  (Note: I lost the links; go to link provided at top of article for direct links of these citations.)

Where is the political reconciliation? More on this in a future post, but there is little reason to be optimistic.

Company execs building border fence were convicted of hiring illegal immigrants

Sometimes, the news just writes itself. From the Golden State Fence Company's press release:

Golden State Fence Company, one of the nation's leading fence design and installation companies, announced today that a San Diego Court sentenced Mel Kay, the Company's President, and Mike McLaughlin, another senior executive, to serve only three years probation and no time in prison. In addition to probation, both men were sentenced to a period of home detention, 1,040 hours of community service and to pay fines of $200,000 and $100,000 respectively for the hiring of undocumented workers.

Doesn't even need a comment. A snicker suffices.

Strolling Baghdad with Senator McCain: Update

I thought my post yesterday sufficient with regards to John McCain's take on Baghdad. I was wrong.

I finally watched the video of Wolf Blitzer talking wit Michael Ware about this situation in Baghad. I had read the transcript, but honestly, this is one video that you have to watch; the transcript just doesn't do justice. Ware has been working for CNN in Baghdad for four years, and he says on-air:

[N]one of the American generals here on the ground have anything like Sen. McCain’s confidence. I mean, Sen. McCain’s credibility now on Iraq, which has been so solid to this point, is now being left out hanging to dry. To suggest that there’s any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I’d love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.

And to think that Gen. David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed humvee? I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain’s said this, I’ve spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There’s multiple humvees around it, heavily armed. There’s attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So, no, Sen. McCain is way off base on this one.

I'm certainly not the first to ask, and probably not the last, but it still needs to be asked - Is McCain losing it?

For my previous post, go here.

Thursday political potpourri

Glenn Greenwald on why Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater couldn't survive in today's conservative scene. Greenwald's money shot:

[T]he right-wing movement in this country is now -- an authoritarian movement animated by the Orwellian slogan that "security leads to freedom" which embraces and seeks ever-expanding government power based on the claimed need to protect people from all the scary, lurking dangers in the world -- dangers which are constantly stoked and inflammed in order to maximize the craving for "security," derived by vesting more and more power in the hands of our strong, protective Leaders.

Meanwhile, the Politico reports republicans are fearful of a 2008 meltdown. Hmmm, I couldn't possibly guess why.


Former British ambassador Craig Murray charges the Brits have produced a fake map of the Iran-Iraq border to explain away the hostage crisis.
Murray writes:

A) The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government. Only Iraq and Iran can agree their bilateral boundary, and they never have done this in the Gulf, only inside the Shatt because there it is the land border too. This published boundary is a fake with no legal force.

B) Accepting the British coordinates for the position of both HMS Cornwall and the incident, both were closer to Iranian land than Iraqi land. Go on, print out the map and measure it. Which underlines the point that the British produced border is not a reliable one.

Murray goes on to note that none of this excuses the Iranians not giving back the Brits. Barry Lando picks up the story, too.


The New York Times reports a widening income gap between the rich and poor in this country to a level not seen since before the depression. Cue a Bush administration mouthpiece saying with a straight face that everyone has benefited from the tax cuts. Ahh yes, here's Brookly McLaughlin, the chief Treasury Department spokeswoman.

[T]he share of income taxes paid by lower-income taxpayers will be lower than it would have been without the tax relief, while the share of income taxes for higher-income taxpayers will be higher.

The administration can get away with this because they are without shame. Meanwhile, reep POTUS candidates are all vying for more tax cuts (WSJ).

Yesterday was the annual broadcasters dinner with hosts Dubya and Flava Rove. This little affair is quite informative about the incestuous little affair between big media and the political elites. The American public is ever the loser when Karl Rove can rap to the correspondents who give your nightly news.

The Saudi King isn't holding Dubya's hand anymore, at least when it comes to the Iraq war. Street cred at the Arab Summit apparently trumps American interests. Wow. I am so surprised.


On a positive note, the Tuskegee Airmen are finally going to be honored with the richly deserved Congressional Gold Medal. My only complaint - they aren't taking George Tenent's.

Strolling through the streets of Baghdad with John McCain

I really wonder about McCain. The so-called straight-talk express seems to have run off the road and crashed into a ditch. McCain is seemingly wandering around, injury to head, babbling incoherently. On Monday, McCain was a guest on Bill "Doubling Down on Morality" Bennett's radio show where he said:

There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today.

Hmmm. Well, Sadr City would be a good choice - you might get to see a Katusha Rocket attack.

Or, you could go to the Doura (Dora?) District to dodge roadside bombs.

Wait, how about going to the Abu Dsheer neighborhood? Mortar attacks are the thing to see. If you dare.

I wouldn't got to Mustansiriyah University where a policeman was killed and three wounded in a suicide car bomb attack.

I would avoid the Zayouna district of eastern Baghdad. Gunmen killed a police lieutenant working in the Serious Crimes Unit. No, I wouldn't stroll there.

And, I would seriously avoid the al-Maalif district of western Baghdad. Gunmen opened fire on a police patrol, killing one policeman and wounding two others.

Oh. Uh. Do also avoid the Ghazaliya district in eastern Baghdad. An Iraqi soldier was killed and two wounded in a roadside blast.

Do avoid the Bayaa district. A car bomb killed two civilians and wounded ten others at a major intersection.

Unless you can stomach floating bodies, I would suggest avoiding a stroll along the famed Tigris River.

Alright, so you don't want to go strolling around Baghdad. How about the Green Zone. Everyone knows the Greeen Zone is safe. Right?

Uh, not really. Insurgents have been bombarding the Green Zone with mortar attacks. Nine people were wounded and two killed in three mortar or rocket strikes since Monday. On Tuesday a U.S. contractor and a U.S. soldier were killed, and one U.S. state department employee was wounded.

Maybe McCain was talking about some other part of the country. Nah - mortar attacks, car bombs, suicide bombers, chlorine gas attacks, sectarian reprisals, and tortured bodies are everywhere. No, I'm not citing it - read the gosh danged front page of your newspaper.

Senator McCain, I strongly suggest you burn your particular version of Fodor's. We don't want you going and getting kidnapped out on the streets of Baghdad. Do we?