Friday, May 30, 2003
Georgie's grades on one of his pet projects "How To Make Our World Safer" are not looking real good.
Washington's "war on terror" has made the world more dangerous. Curbing human rights, undermining international law and shielding governments from scrutiny has let loose a number of copy cat government policies that has spread as fast as Sars cases in China.
The argument for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was to bring greater freedom for the Iraqi people. That has yet to be seen. The politics and distraction of the war in Iraq has had unintended, negative consequences for millions of people worldwide.
The Bush Administration's war in Iraq has contributed to diminishing human rights for millions of others worldwide," said Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "While billions were spent to dethrone Saddam Hussein, dictators and rebels elsewhere wreaked havoc on millions of people across the globe with little attention and even less condemnation from the US government or the international community."
The administration is hurting the fragile cease-fire in the Ivory Coast, a former French colony, by undercutting the French proposal for United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the African nation as a penalty for France's opposition to the war in Iraq. The UN Human Rights Commission became ensnared in US-Iraq relations
The Congo conflict has claimed between 3.1 and 4.7 million lives, mainly from war-related hunger and disease, since it began, making it the world's deadliest war since 1945.
Ruta and her family lived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province. Warefare broke out between the Lendu and the rival Hema group.
Ruta managed to escape with most of her family, although two of her brothers were killed before they reached safety in the nearby forest. After going deeper into the woods for two days without food and water, she thought she had finally reached safety when out of nowhere the militiamen, from the Lendu tribe, struck again. Ruta became separated from two of her daughters, as bullets flew everywhere. Her daughters named Mateso, aged 12, and Michelle, had just turned two.
After securing the rest of her family in another hiding place, Ruta crept back to the clearing to try to rescue the girls. "There were many wounded people" she said. "The Lendu were going about with machetes, chopping off one arm from the shoulder and then the other. Some people were screaming but most were silent.
She found them after their arms had already been cut off." The militiamen calmly cooked the flesh over an open fire before throwing their victims, some of whom were still alive, into the flames. "They were both moving, although very weakly," Ruta said.
Civilians have become so caught up in the violence, around 4,000 are sheltering at the town's airport, where a small deployment of some 700 lightly-armed UN peacekeepers are currently deployed.
Well-armed ethnic Hema fighters have taken control of Bunia having forced out Lendu militiamen who had been in control for the past week after a two-hour battle, say United Nations officials in the town.
Despite the presence of the 700 UN peacekeepers already in Bunia to monitor the withdrawal, rival Hema and Lendu tribesmen fought viciously for supremacy in the town.
The peacekeepers had repeatedly warned the UN that a bloodbath was likely and requested reinforcements.
The U.S tabled any efforts by the French to get more troops into the Congo before the latest bout of bloodshed. The Bush administration vowed that they would get even with France for their opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Subsequently, Washington has shown no interest in sending troops to any location where the French sought to get more UN peacekeepers.
The United States opposed a French-backed U.N. proposal to send more than 250 U.N. peacekeepers to Ivory Coast. The country was mired in civil strife until a force of more than 4,000 French peacekeepers and 1,200 West African troops was sent.
Lacking the firepower, equipment or mandate to intervene, they retreated powerless to their compound and watched.
A French-led force of peace-keepers hoping to halt killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to receive United Nations approval today. The 1,000-strong battalion, including some British troops, could be deployed as early as next week.
But in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, fears were growing of a fresh onslaught. A fierce battle for the town two weeks ago saw the ethnic Lendu population expelled by militia from the rival Hema group. Now the Lendu may be preparing a counter-attack.
"Some of their positions are only five kilometres from here. They are regrouping for another attack," said an official in the razor-wire protected UN compound. "We think it's not a matter of if, but when."
Red Cross workers are still burying corpses from the latest attack, sparked by a Ugandan withdrawal from the town on 7 May. Tribal militiamen armed with, guns, spears and machetes bludgeoned or shot to death more than 400 people. Some mutilated bodies bore evidence of cannibalism.
Thousands of terrified civilians huddled under plastic shelters in the UN compound, manned by a deployment of about 700 peace-keepers, the majority of whom are Uruguayan. During the massacres, the troops obeyed orders to remain at the base.
If there is quiet, it is only because the Lendu have fled. But there is a steady drip of violence - isolated shootings by night, some looting by day and the rape of girls as young as 10. Their uniformed male schoolmates roam the half-deserted streets, swinging sub-machine guns they are barely big enough to handle.
The bandaged victims of the latest massacres stand against the walls of a coffee warehouse used as a temporary hospital. One woman awaiting evacuation had part of her brain exposed. Kabagambe Lokana, 25, a fisherman, sat near by, a ring of machete wounds around his head. He only survived the attack by the Hema after being left for dead, he said. His father, brothers and uncles were killed.
There has been steady criticism of the under-resourced DRC UN mission. "It is a long, bad story", said François Grignon of the International Crisis Group at Bunia airport. He shouted to be heard as a cargo plane full of refugees fired its engine for take-off .
But to prevent further massacres, the question now is the strength of the mandate. France's ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, wants his men to have the right to open fire to protect endangered civilians.
Any strengthened mission would also have to examine the possibility of intervening in disputes outside the city in isolated villages that are difficult to reach. M. Grignon said: "Look, this town is bloody empty. The force needs to be able to stop massacres taking place in the rural areas."
Atrocities such as the massacre at Nyakunde village last year, which left 1,200 dead, could be taking place. But for now, nobody knows because the area is inaccessible to UN troops and aid agencies.
Meanwhile in Bunia, civilians, aid workers and UN troops are praying for relief from the uncertainty - and fast.
If those poor people only knew how Bush would "get even" with France, I know they would have prayed for Gore to win the election. It's too late for the dead and dying, they are just more deaths, Bush will have to answer for one day.
Sources cited:
Robert Fisk
Johann Hari: independent portfolio
Declan Walsh in Bunia
Adrian Blomfield in Bunia
Washington's "war on terror" has made the world more dangerous. Curbing human rights, undermining international law and shielding governments from scrutiny has let loose a number of copy cat government policies that has spread as fast as Sars cases in China.
The argument for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was to bring greater freedom for the Iraqi people. That has yet to be seen. The politics and distraction of the war in Iraq has had unintended, negative consequences for millions of people worldwide.
The Bush Administration's war in Iraq has contributed to diminishing human rights for millions of others worldwide," said Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "While billions were spent to dethrone Saddam Hussein, dictators and rebels elsewhere wreaked havoc on millions of people across the globe with little attention and even less condemnation from the US government or the international community."
The administration is hurting the fragile cease-fire in the Ivory Coast, a former French colony, by undercutting the French proposal for United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in the African nation as a penalty for France's opposition to the war in Iraq. The UN Human Rights Commission became ensnared in US-Iraq relations
The Congo conflict has claimed between 3.1 and 4.7 million lives, mainly from war-related hunger and disease, since it began, making it the world's deadliest war since 1945.
Ruta and her family lived in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province. Warefare broke out between the Lendu and the rival Hema group.
Ruta managed to escape with most of her family, although two of her brothers were killed before they reached safety in the nearby forest. After going deeper into the woods for two days without food and water, she thought she had finally reached safety when out of nowhere the militiamen, from the Lendu tribe, struck again. Ruta became separated from two of her daughters, as bullets flew everywhere. Her daughters named Mateso, aged 12, and Michelle, had just turned two.
After securing the rest of her family in another hiding place, Ruta crept back to the clearing to try to rescue the girls. "There were many wounded people" she said. "The Lendu were going about with machetes, chopping off one arm from the shoulder and then the other. Some people were screaming but most were silent.
She found them after their arms had already been cut off." The militiamen calmly cooked the flesh over an open fire before throwing their victims, some of whom were still alive, into the flames. "They were both moving, although very weakly," Ruta said.
Civilians have become so caught up in the violence, around 4,000 are sheltering at the town's airport, where a small deployment of some 700 lightly-armed UN peacekeepers are currently deployed.
Well-armed ethnic Hema fighters have taken control of Bunia having forced out Lendu militiamen who had been in control for the past week after a two-hour battle, say United Nations officials in the town.
Despite the presence of the 700 UN peacekeepers already in Bunia to monitor the withdrawal, rival Hema and Lendu tribesmen fought viciously for supremacy in the town.
The peacekeepers had repeatedly warned the UN that a bloodbath was likely and requested reinforcements.
The U.S tabled any efforts by the French to get more troops into the Congo before the latest bout of bloodshed. The Bush administration vowed that they would get even with France for their opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Subsequently, Washington has shown no interest in sending troops to any location where the French sought to get more UN peacekeepers.
The United States opposed a French-backed U.N. proposal to send more than 250 U.N. peacekeepers to Ivory Coast. The country was mired in civil strife until a force of more than 4,000 French peacekeepers and 1,200 West African troops was sent.
Lacking the firepower, equipment or mandate to intervene, they retreated powerless to their compound and watched.
A French-led force of peace-keepers hoping to halt killings in the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to receive United Nations approval today. The 1,000-strong battalion, including some British troops, could be deployed as early as next week.
But in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, fears were growing of a fresh onslaught. A fierce battle for the town two weeks ago saw the ethnic Lendu population expelled by militia from the rival Hema group. Now the Lendu may be preparing a counter-attack.
"Some of their positions are only five kilometres from here. They are regrouping for another attack," said an official in the razor-wire protected UN compound. "We think it's not a matter of if, but when."
Red Cross workers are still burying corpses from the latest attack, sparked by a Ugandan withdrawal from the town on 7 May. Tribal militiamen armed with, guns, spears and machetes bludgeoned or shot to death more than 400 people. Some mutilated bodies bore evidence of cannibalism.
Thousands of terrified civilians huddled under plastic shelters in the UN compound, manned by a deployment of about 700 peace-keepers, the majority of whom are Uruguayan. During the massacres, the troops obeyed orders to remain at the base.
If there is quiet, it is only because the Lendu have fled. But there is a steady drip of violence - isolated shootings by night, some looting by day and the rape of girls as young as 10. Their uniformed male schoolmates roam the half-deserted streets, swinging sub-machine guns they are barely big enough to handle.
The bandaged victims of the latest massacres stand against the walls of a coffee warehouse used as a temporary hospital. One woman awaiting evacuation had part of her brain exposed. Kabagambe Lokana, 25, a fisherman, sat near by, a ring of machete wounds around his head. He only survived the attack by the Hema after being left for dead, he said. His father, brothers and uncles were killed.
There has been steady criticism of the under-resourced DRC UN mission. "It is a long, bad story", said François Grignon of the International Crisis Group at Bunia airport. He shouted to be heard as a cargo plane full of refugees fired its engine for take-off .
But to prevent further massacres, the question now is the strength of the mandate. France's ambassador to the UN, Jean-Marc de la Sablière, wants his men to have the right to open fire to protect endangered civilians.
Any strengthened mission would also have to examine the possibility of intervening in disputes outside the city in isolated villages that are difficult to reach. M. Grignon said: "Look, this town is bloody empty. The force needs to be able to stop massacres taking place in the rural areas."
Atrocities such as the massacre at Nyakunde village last year, which left 1,200 dead, could be taking place. But for now, nobody knows because the area is inaccessible to UN troops and aid agencies.
Meanwhile in Bunia, civilians, aid workers and UN troops are praying for relief from the uncertainty - and fast.
If those poor people only knew how Bush would "get even" with France, I know they would have prayed for Gore to win the election. It's too late for the dead and dying, they are just more deaths, Bush will have to answer for one day.
Sources cited:
Robert Fisk
Johann Hari: independent portfolio
Declan Walsh in Bunia
Adrian Blomfield in Bunia
# posted by Thomas @ 1:22 AM 
Monday, May 26, 2003
Iraq is still a mess. Lets see how many excuses have we heard so far.
a) widespread looting and destruction have been described as natural exuberance
b) understandable revenge for years of mistreatment by ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
c) the decrepit state in which Hussein left the nation's infrastructure.
d) the regime had tens of thousands of thugs and war criminals on its payroll and they do not disappear overnight."
e) Hussein holdouts of fedeyeen militants are agitating the people.
f) Iran Shiite leaders infiltrated the country and are agitating the people.
What no one has said is that, WE DID NOT PLAN HOW TO HANDLE THE AFTERMATH!
We did NOT have enough troops committed to the effort
We did not have the right type of military people available to handle the chaos.
We ignored the State Department's suggestions on how to install a new governing board.
We refused to use the expertise of the UN in establishing the new government.
Bush rushed his victory landing on the carrier, to start his campaign for 2004. There were too many open issues in Iraq. Museums were looted, bands of thieves roamed the streets. Soldiers were being shot and and several were killed. There was no law no order. But Bush claimed it a victory anyway. The campaign of "Shock and Awe" was followed up with "Dazed and Confused" with George and Rumsfield in the starring roles.
Blame everything on either a,b,c,d, e, or all of the above. But NEVER, NEVER acknowledge that this war and its aftermath was a mistake. So pick an excuse any excuse will do. Just keep it off the front page. It might hurt 2004.
Memorial Day
Remember and honor our soldiers. Question our president's motives who sent them to their deaths.
a) widespread looting and destruction have been described as natural exuberance
b) understandable revenge for years of mistreatment by ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
c) the decrepit state in which Hussein left the nation's infrastructure.
d) the regime had tens of thousands of thugs and war criminals on its payroll and they do not disappear overnight."
e) Hussein holdouts of fedeyeen militants are agitating the people.
f) Iran Shiite leaders infiltrated the country and are agitating the people.
What no one has said is that, WE DID NOT PLAN HOW TO HANDLE THE AFTERMATH!
We did NOT have enough troops committed to the effort
We did not have the right type of military people available to handle the chaos.
We ignored the State Department's suggestions on how to install a new governing board.
We refused to use the expertise of the UN in establishing the new government.
Bush rushed his victory landing on the carrier, to start his campaign for 2004. There were too many open issues in Iraq. Museums were looted, bands of thieves roamed the streets. Soldiers were being shot and and several were killed. There was no law no order. But Bush claimed it a victory anyway. The campaign of "Shock and Awe" was followed up with "Dazed and Confused" with George and Rumsfield in the starring roles.
Blame everything on either a,b,c,d, e, or all of the above. But NEVER, NEVER acknowledge that this war and its aftermath was a mistake. So pick an excuse any excuse will do. Just keep it off the front page. It might hurt 2004.
Memorial Day
Remember and honor our soldiers. Question our president's motives who sent them to their deaths.
# posted by Thomas @ 10:17 PM
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
I have found a hero. OK, he is a politician, but he has guts. He has shown me that even though one is heavily invested in the political process, one can still call it likes one sees it.
My hat is off to you, Senior Senate Democrat, Robert Byrd,
You have gone toe to toe with one of the most powerful Presidents of our time and told him flat out that he has some "splaining" to do.
Senator Byrd said "The American people may have been lured into accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of long-standing international law, under false premises," said Byrd, of West Virginia. "It has raised serious questions about prevarication and the reckless use of power."
Earlier this month, the Senator criticized Bush as a "desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior," after Bush flew onto an aircraft carrier to declare an end of major fighting in Iraq. I also had a major problem with a chicken hawk president wearing a soldier's uniform.
Byrd stepped up the criticism Wednesday. He accused the president of constructing a "house of cards, built on deceit" to justify the war.
Byrd went on to say, "There is ample evidence that the horrific events of Sept. 11 have been carefully manipulated to switch public focus from Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, who masterminded the Sept. 11th attacks, to Saddam Hussein, who did not," Byrd said.
The senator said that instead of weakening terror groups, "we have given them new fuel for their fury."
He accused Bush of exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam, bungling the peace and giving contracts to rebuild the country to "administration cronies."
Halliburton, an oil services company that Vice President Cheney headed for five years, could get up to $490 million for work in Iraq under an Army contract awarded without competition.
The U.S. postwar administration of Iraq is failing, the senator said. "The smiling face of the U.S. as liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an occupier," Byrd said. "The image of the boot on the throat has replaced the beckoning hand of freedom."
It has become "painfully clear" that Iraq posed no immediate threat, he said. Searches for weapons of mass destruction have "turned up only fertilizer, vacuum cleaners, conventional weapons and the occasional buried swimming pool."
Byrd also criticized colleagues in Congress who "cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate," rather than challenge Bush because to do so would be "unpopular or maybe politically costly." I agree, many politicians hide from the facts, knowing that they risk the full wrath of the powerful lobby of conservatives. They fear for their jobs. They fear what people may think.
In a world were the pursuit for personal power usually outweighs the search for the truth, Score one, for the good guys.
West Virginia, you have a brave man, support him, because he obviously cares about the truth.
p.s. Bush lost one more staff member. Christine Todd Whitman. She led the Environmental Protection Agency through two rough and tumble years as the Bush administration sought to redefine environmental safeguards in ways more helpful to energy production and economic growth. She announced today she will resign next month and return home to New Jersey.
Early in 2001, Whitman gradually asserted herself more and scored several clear victories for the environment. They included a new proposal to slash off-road diesel emissions by more than 95 percent; a recent series of court settlements with major utilities that will result in substantial reductions in pollutants; and a decision to order General Electric Co. to pay for the cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River.
Bush has undercut many of her efforts to help the environment. Bush contradicted her public statements in 2001 by reneging on his campaign pledge to cut carbon dioxide emissions and by disavowing the global warming treaty that the United States negotiated and signed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. "
Thomas Kuhn, President of the Edison Electric Institute, an industry association, praised Whitman for asking Congress to give power companies flexibility in how they reduced pollution, as long as they met the government standard. She's got a record to be proud of," Kuhn said. "They were tough on the enforcement side but were also very, very cognizant of the fact that you have to bring industry along" as a partner.
I guess Bush has problems with people that are fair. She saw the light and bolted. She says she may find other ways of helping the environment outside of the government service.
I have lost total count of people that have left Bush. Does anyone know how many more will go?
Sources cited:
Tim Dillon , USA TODAY
By Eric Pianin and Guy Gugliotta, Traci Watson
Washington Post Staff Writers
My hat is off to you, Senior Senate Democrat, Robert Byrd,
You have gone toe to toe with one of the most powerful Presidents of our time and told him flat out that he has some "splaining" to do.
Senator Byrd said "The American people may have been lured into accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of long-standing international law, under false premises," said Byrd, of West Virginia. "It has raised serious questions about prevarication and the reckless use of power."
Earlier this month, the Senator criticized Bush as a "desk-bound president who assumes the garb of a warrior," after Bush flew onto an aircraft carrier to declare an end of major fighting in Iraq. I also had a major problem with a chicken hawk president wearing a soldier's uniform.
Byrd stepped up the criticism Wednesday. He accused the president of constructing a "house of cards, built on deceit" to justify the war.
Byrd went on to say, "There is ample evidence that the horrific events of Sept. 11 have been carefully manipulated to switch public focus from Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, who masterminded the Sept. 11th attacks, to Saddam Hussein, who did not," Byrd said.
The senator said that instead of weakening terror groups, "we have given them new fuel for their fury."
He accused Bush of exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam, bungling the peace and giving contracts to rebuild the country to "administration cronies."
Halliburton, an oil services company that Vice President Cheney headed for five years, could get up to $490 million for work in Iraq under an Army contract awarded without competition.
The U.S. postwar administration of Iraq is failing, the senator said. "The smiling face of the U.S. as liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an occupier," Byrd said. "The image of the boot on the throat has replaced the beckoning hand of freedom."
It has become "painfully clear" that Iraq posed no immediate threat, he said. Searches for weapons of mass destruction have "turned up only fertilizer, vacuum cleaners, conventional weapons and the occasional buried swimming pool."
Byrd also criticized colleagues in Congress who "cower in the shadows while false statements proliferate," rather than challenge Bush because to do so would be "unpopular or maybe politically costly." I agree, many politicians hide from the facts, knowing that they risk the full wrath of the powerful lobby of conservatives. They fear for their jobs. They fear what people may think.
In a world were the pursuit for personal power usually outweighs the search for the truth, Score one, for the good guys.
West Virginia, you have a brave man, support him, because he obviously cares about the truth.
p.s. Bush lost one more staff member. Christine Todd Whitman. She led the Environmental Protection Agency through two rough and tumble years as the Bush administration sought to redefine environmental safeguards in ways more helpful to energy production and economic growth. She announced today she will resign next month and return home to New Jersey.
Early in 2001, Whitman gradually asserted herself more and scored several clear victories for the environment. They included a new proposal to slash off-road diesel emissions by more than 95 percent; a recent series of court settlements with major utilities that will result in substantial reductions in pollutants; and a decision to order General Electric Co. to pay for the cleanup of PCBs in the Hudson River.
Bush has undercut many of her efforts to help the environment. Bush contradicted her public statements in 2001 by reneging on his campaign pledge to cut carbon dioxide emissions and by disavowing the global warming treaty that the United States negotiated and signed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. "
Thomas Kuhn, President of the Edison Electric Institute, an industry association, praised Whitman for asking Congress to give power companies flexibility in how they reduced pollution, as long as they met the government standard. She's got a record to be proud of," Kuhn said. "They were tough on the enforcement side but were also very, very cognizant of the fact that you have to bring industry along" as a partner.
I guess Bush has problems with people that are fair. She saw the light and bolted. She says she may find other ways of helping the environment outside of the government service.
I have lost total count of people that have left Bush. Does anyone know how many more will go?
Sources cited:
Tim Dillon , USA TODAY
By Eric Pianin and Guy Gugliotta, Traci Watson
Washington Post Staff Writers
# posted by Thomas @ 10:35 PM
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Bush looses his voice.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, said today that he will resign this summer, probably in late July. The reason might be, that he was starting to tell the truth?
Fleischer, 42, a native of Pound Ridge, New York, and veteran of more than 20 years in Washington politics, mostly on Capitol Hill, was relentlessly disciplined in pressing the president's particular message of the day. Fleisher, was an active "teller" of the neo conservative message on behalf of the Bush administration.
Fleischer said if he did not leave now he would need to stay on through Bush's re-election campaign. Sources said Fleischer was not forced out, but he wanted to avoid burning out.
I guess there is a limit to how many times a press secretary can cover the inadequacies of a president and his administration. It must be extremely hard, to knowingly, twist the truth over and over again to the American people.
Ari is much more intelligent than Bush, and the lack of intelligent forethought that Bush exhibits, must have grated on him. The President's audacity and nonsensical view of the world, must have finally stuck in Ari's craw.
I am starting to loose track on how many people have resigned from the Bush administration. I will try and count them up later. I think we have lost more that Blair lost in Britain.
Goodbye Ari, good luck on your book deals and speaking tours.
Sources Cited:
By Mike Allen
Washington Post
Reuters
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, said today that he will resign this summer, probably in late July. The reason might be, that he was starting to tell the truth?
Fleischer, 42, a native of Pound Ridge, New York, and veteran of more than 20 years in Washington politics, mostly on Capitol Hill, was relentlessly disciplined in pressing the president's particular message of the day. Fleisher, was an active "teller" of the neo conservative message on behalf of the Bush administration.
Fleischer said if he did not leave now he would need to stay on through Bush's re-election campaign. Sources said Fleischer was not forced out, but he wanted to avoid burning out.
I guess there is a limit to how many times a press secretary can cover the inadequacies of a president and his administration. It must be extremely hard, to knowingly, twist the truth over and over again to the American people.
Ari is much more intelligent than Bush, and the lack of intelligent forethought that Bush exhibits, must have grated on him. The President's audacity and nonsensical view of the world, must have finally stuck in Ari's craw.
I am starting to loose track on how many people have resigned from the Bush administration. I will try and count them up later. I think we have lost more that Blair lost in Britain.
Goodbye Ari, good luck on your book deals and speaking tours.
Sources Cited:
By Mike Allen
Washington Post
Reuters
# posted by Thomas @ 1:16 AM
Friday, May 16, 2003
I feel like crap. I can't read, I can't write, but I will return, when I get rid of whatever the hell I have. Maybe I have SARS? What are the symptoms again? Right now I don't care. I just want to sleep for a long time. Catch you when I rebound. I hope it is soon. I hate being sick. Adios for now and out.
# posted by Thomas @ 12:44 PM
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Do we really need more efficient nuclear bombs?
Do we need stem cell medical breakthroughs that would make our present drugs seem as antiquated as horseless carriages?
I put these two issues in juxtaposition, as a way of looking at how Bush views, the well being of people on this planet.
What is a stem cell? Here is a short primer.
Embryonic stem cells, are special cells, which can form almost any type of human cell. Here's the revolutionary idea in its simplest terms: Today's medicine tries to support or treat injured tissues and organs. Stem cells might simply replace them. Rather than giving insulin to diabetics, we'd give them new cells to make insulin as needed.
To continue with the car engine metaphor, we would quit fixing leaky fuel-pump gaskets and simply install a brand new pump.
While most uses of stem cells are highly experimental, they are already used in cancer treatment. After tumors and the patient's bone marrow are both killed by anti-cancer drugs, blood stem cells are squirted into the marrow, where they get a long-term lease and make the whole variety of blood-cell types.
Researchers say stem cells are do-all wonders with astonishing potential for reversing heart disease , diabetes , stroke , spinal-cord injury , even Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
We are talking major, menacing diseases that kill and disable millions of people each year.
During his campaign, George W. Bush said he opposed federal financing of "experimentation on embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be discarded or destroyed."
Patients with terrible diseases and disabilities do not agree with Bush at all. . U.S. News & World Report quoted paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve as demanding, "Is it more ethical for a woman to donate unused embryos that will NEVER become human beings, or to let them be tossed away as garbage when they could help save thousands of lives?"
Many pro-life conservatives lobbied heavily with the Republican Party. They said, that taking stem cells from a fetus or embryo amounts to unethical exploitation of human life, and healing one life does not justify destroying another. They stated that they will make absolutely sure that no destructive stem cell research on embryos is done in this country,
80 Nobel prize-winners wrote the President to support stem cell research, but to no avail. Bush hung in there with his neo-conservative base for the most part. Bush did finally agreed to limit research to the existing 60 existing stem cell lines. There is a lot of confusion of where those 60 lines of cells were. He made it sound like they were readily available to researchers, but they are not.
Among those who recommended against any change in position, these sources said, were strategist Karl Rove, the top White House liaison to conservative Republicans.
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Now lets talk about the other issue I mentioned at the start of this article. More efficient nuclear bombs. I don't think we need a primer on what nuclear bombs can do.
The Bush administration is proposing to spend billions of dollars rebuilding the country's nuclear weapons manufacturing industry, resuming the production of nuclear components and materials halted after the end of the Cold War.
Proposals in President Bush's 2004 budget would refurbish virtually every facet of the nuclear weapons complex, ranging from the nuclear test site in Nevada to the Savannah River plant in South Carolina.
The president's budget includes $320 million to build new plutonium cores --
known as "pits" -- for nuclear warheads, $40 million of which would be used to design a plant capable of producing 500 such pits a year.
An additional $135 million would go to restart production of tritium, which has not been produced by the government for more than a decade, and more funds would be spent in coming years.
The tritium, a gas that dramatically increases the force of thermonuclear explosions, will be produced at a commercial reactor in Watts Bar, Tenn. an major breaching of a long-standing policy that kept weapons work at military facilities.
The budget also includes $25 million to increase the readiness at the Nevada Test Site, so that a nuclear test could be arranged in as little as 18 months, down from the current limit of three years.
Nuclear testing has been banned since 1992, and the Bush administration has said it has no plans to resume underground blasts. But some arms experts and congressional Democrats charge that the proposed spending seems aimed at a resumption of testing.
The Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee has also approved lifting the ban on low-yield weapons research. Low-yield nuclear weapons have warheads of less than five kilotons, or about a third of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II. Combined with precision missiles, low-yield weapons could be used to hit a target without causing as much damage to surrounding areas as other nuclear weapons would.
"People don't realize that we're getting back into the nuclear bomb business in a big way, and it's a very expensive business," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the nonproliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The treatment of these two issues, Stem cell research and better nukes. says a lot about this Bush administration.
George is going to make more efficient weapons to kill mankind and risk restarting a new arms race. George, is not going to support any major efforts to help heal mankind through embracing stem-cells research.
These are only two examples of Bush's approach to the world around us.
It is obvious that, history will not be kind to our President. I hope that the majority of us, will survive the Madness of King George.
Sources Cited:
San Francisco Chronicle
CNN
U.S. News & World Report
Joseph Cirincione, director of the nonproliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Do we need stem cell medical breakthroughs that would make our present drugs seem as antiquated as horseless carriages?
I put these two issues in juxtaposition, as a way of looking at how Bush views, the well being of people on this planet.
What is a stem cell? Here is a short primer.
Embryonic stem cells, are special cells, which can form almost any type of human cell. Here's the revolutionary idea in its simplest terms: Today's medicine tries to support or treat injured tissues and organs. Stem cells might simply replace them. Rather than giving insulin to diabetics, we'd give them new cells to make insulin as needed.
To continue with the car engine metaphor, we would quit fixing leaky fuel-pump gaskets and simply install a brand new pump.
While most uses of stem cells are highly experimental, they are already used in cancer treatment. After tumors and the patient's bone marrow are both killed by anti-cancer drugs, blood stem cells are squirted into the marrow, where they get a long-term lease and make the whole variety of blood-cell types.
Researchers say stem cells are do-all wonders with astonishing potential for reversing heart disease , diabetes , stroke , spinal-cord injury , even Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
We are talking major, menacing diseases that kill and disable millions of people each year.
During his campaign, George W. Bush said he opposed federal financing of "experimentation on embryonic stem cells that require live human embryos to be discarded or destroyed."
Patients with terrible diseases and disabilities do not agree with Bush at all. . U.S. News & World Report quoted paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve as demanding, "Is it more ethical for a woman to donate unused embryos that will NEVER become human beings, or to let them be tossed away as garbage when they could help save thousands of lives?"
Many pro-life conservatives lobbied heavily with the Republican Party. They said, that taking stem cells from a fetus or embryo amounts to unethical exploitation of human life, and healing one life does not justify destroying another. They stated that they will make absolutely sure that no destructive stem cell research on embryos is done in this country,
80 Nobel prize-winners wrote the President to support stem cell research, but to no avail. Bush hung in there with his neo-conservative base for the most part. Bush did finally agreed to limit research to the existing 60 existing stem cell lines. There is a lot of confusion of where those 60 lines of cells were. He made it sound like they were readily available to researchers, but they are not.
Among those who recommended against any change in position, these sources said, were strategist Karl Rove, the top White House liaison to conservative Republicans.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now lets talk about the other issue I mentioned at the start of this article. More efficient nuclear bombs. I don't think we need a primer on what nuclear bombs can do.
The Bush administration is proposing to spend billions of dollars rebuilding the country's nuclear weapons manufacturing industry, resuming the production of nuclear components and materials halted after the end of the Cold War.
Proposals in President Bush's 2004 budget would refurbish virtually every facet of the nuclear weapons complex, ranging from the nuclear test site in Nevada to the Savannah River plant in South Carolina.
The president's budget includes $320 million to build new plutonium cores --
known as "pits" -- for nuclear warheads, $40 million of which would be used to design a plant capable of producing 500 such pits a year.
An additional $135 million would go to restart production of tritium, which has not been produced by the government for more than a decade, and more funds would be spent in coming years.
The tritium, a gas that dramatically increases the force of thermonuclear explosions, will be produced at a commercial reactor in Watts Bar, Tenn. an major breaching of a long-standing policy that kept weapons work at military facilities.
The budget also includes $25 million to increase the readiness at the Nevada Test Site, so that a nuclear test could be arranged in as little as 18 months, down from the current limit of three years.
Nuclear testing has been banned since 1992, and the Bush administration has said it has no plans to resume underground blasts. But some arms experts and congressional Democrats charge that the proposed spending seems aimed at a resumption of testing.
The Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee has also approved lifting the ban on low-yield weapons research. Low-yield nuclear weapons have warheads of less than five kilotons, or about a third of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II. Combined with precision missiles, low-yield weapons could be used to hit a target without causing as much damage to surrounding areas as other nuclear weapons would.
"People don't realize that we're getting back into the nuclear bomb business in a big way, and it's a very expensive business," said Joseph Cirincione, director of the nonproliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The treatment of these two issues, Stem cell research and better nukes. says a lot about this Bush administration.
George is going to make more efficient weapons to kill mankind and risk restarting a new arms race. George, is not going to support any major efforts to help heal mankind through embracing stem-cells research.
These are only two examples of Bush's approach to the world around us.
It is obvious that, history will not be kind to our President. I hope that the majority of us, will survive the Madness of King George.
Sources Cited:
San Francisco Chronicle
CNN
U.S. News & World Report
Joseph Cirincione, director of the nonproliferation project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
# posted by Thomas @ 11:16 PM
Hey Al, how's it goin? "
Yo, James, you know I love being the Saudi foreign minister, and I really glommed on to my title of Prince Saudi al-Faisal, but I gotta tell you. Iraq is bogus since those white American dudes bogarted the oil wells."
"I dropped by Iraq, my brother neighbor nation and I'm freaking out."
"There are like crypts and bloods and lots of other turf wars going on at once. It is a Smith and Wesson dream, bullets flying every where, every hour."
"There is too much flying lead to get the town any muchies. Cars and trucks are getting jacked. Roach coaches from aid groups are getting peppered with hot lead. It is like Watts in the 65!"
"The other day two AID trucks were jacked and someone torched their warehouse while shooting up a security guard."
"Ain't no "5""O" anywhere. Peoples are hunkered down. schools in but no ones home. With no dinars coming in, people are ready to do anything to provide for their homees. No law James, just guns and guts."
"Man, people are raggin on the soldiers. "When is the Geneva convention checking in, white american dudes with guns." They look confused James, they don't do shit they don't know shit."
"Massoud Barzani, a major domo, in the formation of the interim government in Iraq, was bummed out." He said, "if we continue in this confusion, this wonderful victory we have achieved will turn into a quagmire."
"Quagmire, quagmire, I just heard someone use that word recently". "Yea, it was Rumsfield. Rummy was sunning himself in the "glow of Iraqi Victory" dissin those people that said Iraq could be a quagmire. He was rippen them left and right. "
"Maybe Rummy spoke too soon James. If Iraq does become anything like a quagmire, Bush might not carry Ohio in 04."
"Well, James, I'm outta here. Its way too real, and I hear my bitches calling me."
"Later, Al"
Sources cited:
New York Times PATRICK E. TYLER
Yo, James, you know I love being the Saudi foreign minister, and I really glommed on to my title of Prince Saudi al-Faisal, but I gotta tell you. Iraq is bogus since those white American dudes bogarted the oil wells."
"I dropped by Iraq, my brother neighbor nation and I'm freaking out."
"There are like crypts and bloods and lots of other turf wars going on at once. It is a Smith and Wesson dream, bullets flying every where, every hour."
"There is too much flying lead to get the town any muchies. Cars and trucks are getting jacked. Roach coaches from aid groups are getting peppered with hot lead. It is like Watts in the 65!"
"The other day two AID trucks were jacked and someone torched their warehouse while shooting up a security guard."
"Ain't no "5""O" anywhere. Peoples are hunkered down. schools in but no ones home. With no dinars coming in, people are ready to do anything to provide for their homees. No law James, just guns and guts."
"Man, people are raggin on the soldiers. "When is the Geneva convention checking in, white american dudes with guns." They look confused James, they don't do shit they don't know shit."
"Massoud Barzani, a major domo, in the formation of the interim government in Iraq, was bummed out." He said, "if we continue in this confusion, this wonderful victory we have achieved will turn into a quagmire."
"Quagmire, quagmire, I just heard someone use that word recently". "Yea, it was Rumsfield. Rummy was sunning himself in the "glow of Iraqi Victory" dissin those people that said Iraq could be a quagmire. He was rippen them left and right. "
"Maybe Rummy spoke too soon James. If Iraq does become anything like a quagmire, Bush might not carry Ohio in 04."
"Well, James, I'm outta here. Its way too real, and I hear my bitches calling me."
"Later, Al"
Sources cited:
New York Times PATRICK E. TYLER
# posted by Thomas @ 1:15 AM
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Maybe Bush and Blair should install revolving doors to their administrations. People keep bailing out on them left and right. I guess some people do have integrity.
The latest person to leave is Clare Short, Britain's secretary for international development, She is the cabinet secretary overseeing Britain's role in reconstructing post-war Iraq. She resigned in protest today, accusing the United States and Britain of downgrading the proper role of the United Nations.
International Development Secretary Clare Short branded a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq that is being proposed by the Bush administration and Prime Minister Tony Blair's government.
as "shameful". The draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq twas recently proposed.
She told the House of Commons that Blair had gone back on his commitment to support a major U.N. role in Iraq, and was going full tilt with the United States "in trying to bully the Security Council into a resolution that gives the coalition the power to establish an Iraqi government and control the use of oil" while providing "only a minor role for the U.N."
She is the second person to resign from the cabinet over Iraq. She blasted Prime Minister Tony Blair in an angry speech to the House of Commons. She was one pissed off lady.
In her letter to Mr. Blair today, she said that the current draft of the Security Council resolution on Iraq. She accused Blair and Straw of having "secretly negotiated," the deal behind her back, despite of assurances she had been given about the authority of the United Nations.
She called the UK's position "totally dishonourable".
"I cannot defend it. It is wrong in international law and for the rebuilding of Iraq and it breaches the promises that the prime minister gave to me," she told BBC News.
She accused Mr Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of acting illegally over post-conflict Iraq and suggested they had gone against the advice of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith. She went postal on the guy.
What did Bush tell Blair, that is worth such a fallout in his staff? It has to be pretty good. Maybe Bush told him that, god told George, that Blair has heavenly support, no matter how many people he looses as long as Blair continues to kiss Georgie Boy's butt. God is in the details or in Blair's case, god seems to be in Georgie's butt crack.
Sources cited:
WARREN HOGE New York Times
BBC
Krishna Guha, Financial Times
The latest person to leave is Clare Short, Britain's secretary for international development, She is the cabinet secretary overseeing Britain's role in reconstructing post-war Iraq. She resigned in protest today, accusing the United States and Britain of downgrading the proper role of the United Nations.
International Development Secretary Clare Short branded a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq that is being proposed by the Bush administration and Prime Minister Tony Blair's government.
as "shameful". The draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq twas recently proposed.
She told the House of Commons that Blair had gone back on his commitment to support a major U.N. role in Iraq, and was going full tilt with the United States "in trying to bully the Security Council into a resolution that gives the coalition the power to establish an Iraqi government and control the use of oil" while providing "only a minor role for the U.N."
She is the second person to resign from the cabinet over Iraq. She blasted Prime Minister Tony Blair in an angry speech to the House of Commons. She was one pissed off lady.
In her letter to Mr. Blair today, she said that the current draft of the Security Council resolution on Iraq. She accused Blair and Straw of having "secretly negotiated," the deal behind her back, despite of assurances she had been given about the authority of the United Nations.
She called the UK's position "totally dishonourable".
"I cannot defend it. It is wrong in international law and for the rebuilding of Iraq and it breaches the promises that the prime minister gave to me," she told BBC News.
She accused Mr Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of acting illegally over post-conflict Iraq and suggested they had gone against the advice of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith. She went postal on the guy.
What did Bush tell Blair, that is worth such a fallout in his staff? It has to be pretty good. Maybe Bush told him that, god told George, that Blair has heavenly support, no matter how many people he looses as long as Blair continues to kiss Georgie Boy's butt. God is in the details or in Blair's case, god seems to be in Georgie's butt crack.
Sources cited:
WARREN HOGE New York Times
BBC
Krishna Guha, Financial Times
# posted by Thomas @ 1:03 AM
Monday, May 12, 2003
Here is what is being said about Iraq sanctions. Here is my best guess at the interpretation of what the world's politicians are really saying.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US plans for the immediate future of post-war Iraq which offer the UN only a limited role have been officially presented to the Security Council.
"Diplomats from the US and UK - who initiated the military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein as Iraqi leader - spoke of a "constructive reaction" to the proposals at a closed session in New York."
Interpretation: The United States is threatening France, Germany and Russia, and will get even with them if they do not cooperate this time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"But early responses from other Security Council members were cautious
Interpretation: "We don't see anything in your proposal that will benefit us so, Stick it Georgie Boy!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The kind of words we heard were that our resolution was forward-looking
US ambassador the UN, John Negroponte
Explanation: "Europe said to stick it, but they didn't say No"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The German ambassador expressed hope that the Security Council would avoid fighting the "battles of the past" and find a unity of purpose again.
Explanation: The Germans are saying "We want a part of the action"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Security Council had been deeply split over the war against Iraq, but members have vowed to work constructively on the post-war resolution.
Interpretation: France and Russia want the money they are owed, and they want a piece of the pie in Iraq as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, our correspondent says negotiations promise to be long and difficult, with France and Russia likely to dissent.
Interpretation: It is going to be a pissing contest for a while.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to diplomats, the 15 Council ambassadors are spending the weekend outside the city with Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Interpretation: "Come on boy's, what does everyone want, from the Iraq reconstruction?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legal experts are expected to meet on Monday, followed by fresh council consultations on Thursday.
Interpretation: The United States is looking for loopholes on how to work around the U.N. security council. France, Russia and Germany are looking into how to stick the United States, into a corner, and force the U.S. to give in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Americans - cosponsoring the new motion along with the UK and Spain - are seeking a quick decision from Security Council members, but anticipate at least two weeks of negotiating before a vote.
Interpretation: The United States is not going to wait long, for UN approval. In 2 weeks the U.S. will work without the UN. The U.S. thinks it will take 2 weeks to get Iraq's oil fields up to where the U.S. can export oil to "favored nations", and tell the world it is a "humanitarian effort". Iraq NEEDS this money to keep, the Iraqis from starving, and to help with the CRITICAL health emergency which now exists.
Interpretation of the interpretation: Stick it France, Germany, and Russia, we are going to sell oil to our buddies and not to you!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Under the US proposals, a new body comprising the US and UK - known as the "authority" - would decide how income from the sale of Iraqi oil would be spent.
The UN, which currently controls Iraq's oil revenue, would be confined to an advisory and coordinating role.
Interpretation: The U.S is going to take over Iraq's Oil, and give it to Republican fund donators like Halliburtan, who is going to take their time rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, and they will do it right in front of the UN, to rub it in their noses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking after the introduction of the resolution, Gunter Pleuger of Germany - another vociferous opponent of the war - agreed that sanctions "aren't necessary any more", but said that lifting them raised many difficult questions.
He also said clarifications were needed over the role of the UN in the new Iraq - an issue that continues to divide the council after the military victory of US-led coalition forces.
Interpretation: Germany does not want to miss out of the billions of dollars to be made in Iraq, They want what Iraq owes them and they want oil from Iraq as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the UK spoke of "a decidedly constructive atmosphere" at Friday's session.
" What we're trying to do in the Council and in the coalition on the ground is serve the needs of the Iraqi people and restore Iraq back to Iraqis for their own purposes and their own benefit as quickly as possible," he said.
Interpretation: If Germany international law experts can't find a way to force the U.S. to back down, they will give in to Bush.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The draft resolution does not mention the return of UN weapons teams, but does for the first time recognize the coalition as an "occupying power" under international law - a move which the UK ambassador said had "pleased" the council.
Interpretation: OK, we know and you know there are NO weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. It is water under the bridge. A lot of us in the security council, won't rub your nose in it, besides that, we know you don't give a damn, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, nobody cares anymore, we still don't want to be shut out!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a statement issued on Friday, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that France would take a "constructive" approach to the US resolution, but reiterated his support for a central role for the UN.
"After the emergency phase, establishing a stable, democratic Iraq that is recognized internationally is one of our key priorities," the statement said.
"The strong involvement of the international community, via a central role for the United Nations, is indispensable to ensuring its legitimacy."
Interpretation: The U.S knows Iraq will be unstable fro a very long time, so the U.S. is planning on settling in and manage Iraqi oil exports for a LONG time to come. It might be time for France to kiss and make up with Bush, if they want to get anything out of this deal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The resolution would allow some contracts concluded by the old Iraqi government under the oil-for-food program to be honored - a move designed to please the Russians, correspondents say.
Interpretation: If Russia buys in, they will get some of their debt payed back and some iraqi reconstruction business as a subcontractor to Haliburtan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An official appointed by the Americans to advise the Iraqi finance ministry, David Nummy, said the lifting of sanctions was crucial to reviving trade and restarting the economy.
"If the world cares about the basic lives of the ordinary Iraqi they will come to their aid by supporting the lifting of sanctions, allowing goods to flow into the country," he told reporters.
Interpretation: The U.S. will go around the UN council and say that they had to, in order to, stem the "medical and humanitarian crisis that is growing every day"
Interpretation of the Interpretation: "Get your act together Europe, we have the oil and you don't. We will do what we want with "OUR NEW FOUND OIL WELLS" and you can't stop us.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Buy more SUV's it will help the economy and don't worry, we will have plenty of oil for it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
US plans for the immediate future of post-war Iraq which offer the UN only a limited role have been officially presented to the Security Council.
"Diplomats from the US and UK - who initiated the military campaign to oust Saddam Hussein as Iraqi leader - spoke of a "constructive reaction" to the proposals at a closed session in New York."
Interpretation: The United States is threatening France, Germany and Russia, and will get even with them if they do not cooperate this time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"But early responses from other Security Council members were cautious
Interpretation: "We don't see anything in your proposal that will benefit us so, Stick it Georgie Boy!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The kind of words we heard were that our resolution was forward-looking
US ambassador the UN, John Negroponte
Explanation: "Europe said to stick it, but they didn't say No"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The German ambassador expressed hope that the Security Council would avoid fighting the "battles of the past" and find a unity of purpose again.
Explanation: The Germans are saying "We want a part of the action"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Security Council had been deeply split over the war against Iraq, but members have vowed to work constructively on the post-war resolution.
Interpretation: France and Russia want the money they are owed, and they want a piece of the pie in Iraq as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, our correspondent says negotiations promise to be long and difficult, with France and Russia likely to dissent.
Interpretation: It is going to be a pissing contest for a while.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to diplomats, the 15 Council ambassadors are spending the weekend outside the city with Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Interpretation: "Come on boy's, what does everyone want, from the Iraq reconstruction?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legal experts are expected to meet on Monday, followed by fresh council consultations on Thursday.
Interpretation: The United States is looking for loopholes on how to work around the U.N. security council. France, Russia and Germany are looking into how to stick the United States, into a corner, and force the U.S. to give in.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Americans - cosponsoring the new motion along with the UK and Spain - are seeking a quick decision from Security Council members, but anticipate at least two weeks of negotiating before a vote.
Interpretation: The United States is not going to wait long, for UN approval. In 2 weeks the U.S. will work without the UN. The U.S. thinks it will take 2 weeks to get Iraq's oil fields up to where the U.S. can export oil to "favored nations", and tell the world it is a "humanitarian effort". Iraq NEEDS this money to keep, the Iraqis from starving, and to help with the CRITICAL health emergency which now exists.
Interpretation of the interpretation: Stick it France, Germany, and Russia, we are going to sell oil to our buddies and not to you!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Under the US proposals, a new body comprising the US and UK - known as the "authority" - would decide how income from the sale of Iraqi oil would be spent.
The UN, which currently controls Iraq's oil revenue, would be confined to an advisory and coordinating role.
Interpretation: The U.S is going to take over Iraq's Oil, and give it to Republican fund donators like Halliburtan, who is going to take their time rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, and they will do it right in front of the UN, to rub it in their noses.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking after the introduction of the resolution, Gunter Pleuger of Germany - another vociferous opponent of the war - agreed that sanctions "aren't necessary any more", but said that lifting them raised many difficult questions.
He also said clarifications were needed over the role of the UN in the new Iraq - an issue that continues to divide the council after the military victory of US-led coalition forces.
Interpretation: Germany does not want to miss out of the billions of dollars to be made in Iraq, They want what Iraq owes them and they want oil from Iraq as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock of the UK spoke of "a decidedly constructive atmosphere" at Friday's session.
" What we're trying to do in the Council and in the coalition on the ground is serve the needs of the Iraqi people and restore Iraq back to Iraqis for their own purposes and their own benefit as quickly as possible," he said.
Interpretation: If Germany international law experts can't find a way to force the U.S. to back down, they will give in to Bush.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The draft resolution does not mention the return of UN weapons teams, but does for the first time recognize the coalition as an "occupying power" under international law - a move which the UK ambassador said had "pleased" the council.
Interpretation: OK, we know and you know there are NO weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. It is water under the bridge. A lot of us in the security council, won't rub your nose in it, besides that, we know you don't give a damn, that there are no weapons of mass destruction, nobody cares anymore, we still don't want to be shut out!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In a statement issued on Friday, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that France would take a "constructive" approach to the US resolution, but reiterated his support for a central role for the UN.
"After the emergency phase, establishing a stable, democratic Iraq that is recognized internationally is one of our key priorities," the statement said.
"The strong involvement of the international community, via a central role for the United Nations, is indispensable to ensuring its legitimacy."
Interpretation: The U.S knows Iraq will be unstable fro a very long time, so the U.S. is planning on settling in and manage Iraqi oil exports for a LONG time to come. It might be time for France to kiss and make up with Bush, if they want to get anything out of this deal.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The resolution would allow some contracts concluded by the old Iraqi government under the oil-for-food program to be honored - a move designed to please the Russians, correspondents say.
Interpretation: If Russia buys in, they will get some of their debt payed back and some iraqi reconstruction business as a subcontractor to Haliburtan.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An official appointed by the Americans to advise the Iraqi finance ministry, David Nummy, said the lifting of sanctions was crucial to reviving trade and restarting the economy.
"If the world cares about the basic lives of the ordinary Iraqi they will come to their aid by supporting the lifting of sanctions, allowing goods to flow into the country," he told reporters.
Interpretation: The U.S. will go around the UN council and say that they had to, in order to, stem the "medical and humanitarian crisis that is growing every day"
Interpretation of the Interpretation: "Get your act together Europe, we have the oil and you don't. We will do what we want with "OUR NEW FOUND OIL WELLS" and you can't stop us.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Buy more SUV's it will help the economy and don't worry, we will have plenty of oil for it.
# posted by Thomas @ 12:18 AM
Sunday, May 11, 2003
Now that we have started to make Iraq our 51st state. They will need a constitution. Let's review our own Constitution.
Our Constitution
"The Constitution was adopted by a convention of the States on September 17, 1787, and was subsequently ratified by the several States, on the following dates: Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788.
Ratification was completed on June 21, 1788."
Over all the 216 years, since its inception. there has been a tremendous amount of discussion and legislation to improve it. It only seems right that we should let Iraq use it. They have already started to adopted certain aspects of it already. Take the Second Amendment, Iraq has really taken that one to heart, and Bush has provided the new NRA chapter a big boost.
New Iraq NRA Chapters
Bagdad and other cities in Iraq are almost as heavily armed as Detroit in the summertime. There is opportunity in chaos, look at what has happened in Iraq. Gun merchant Odai al-Rubbai would like to thank the US-led coalition, not for Iraq's liberation from Saddam Hussein, but for all the civil disorder that followed.
''Business is booming!'' said Rubbai, 32, who does brisk business selling stolen weapons to a panicked citizenry in the capital city. ''It is the law of the jungle out there now.''
Guns, whether AK-47s nabbed from looted armories or Berettas heisted from private collections, have flooded Iraq in recent weeks, stolen by thieves, resold to gun dealers, and then purchased by anxious families seeking a way to protect themselves.
The thefts of weapons also mean that Baghdad's criminal underworld is better armed than the city's police force.
''The biggest problem facing Baghdad is security,'' said Baghdad's new police chief, Zubair al-Nuaimy, who recounted how two officers were killed and two others injured in a recent shoot-out with gun thieves. ''Our policemen now only carry a pistol. I'd like them to have machine guns.''
Now, as one dealer noted wryly, ''the Ministry of Interior no longer exists.'' There are thousands of guns available, because of the regime's decision to hide caches of weapons in civilian areas so that residents could fight the incoming US troops. Instead, looters ripped open the boxes of weapons after the troops arrived, flooding the gun market.
Fleeing Iraqi soldiers also added to the mix. Dealers say some troops were so desperate that they traded their weapons for civilian clothes.
In the cluttered and dirty streets of Baghdad's black market, Kalashnikovs, the most readily available gun and the weapon of choice, sell for about $50. Beretta pistols cost $200. But nearly every kind of weapon and ammunition is for sale, from bullets to rocket-propelled grenades to bazookas to machine guns.
6-year-old children display boxes of bullets, while their fathers - nearly all former criminals released from prison this year by Hussein - show off their guns. This closely follows NRA's long time focus on Youth.
NRA Youth mission
Past NRA President Marion Hammer introduced her 10-year-old grandson Michael, stating, "I know that when NRA reaches out and takes the hand of a child, we are touching America's future." Hammer also outlined the NRA's agenda to "invest" in America's youth, win their "hearts and minds," and ensure the organization's longevity" "I pledge to you to dedicate my term in office to two demanding missions. One is building an NRA bridge to America's youth. The other is being fiscally far-sighted to provide for bold new programs that will teach America's children values to last a lifetime." This mission statement can easily be transferred to Iraqi youth.
The NRA has integrated this youth movement into their agenda. The annual NRA meeting in Philadelphia, includes items for sale such as NRA bibs (as seen on this report's cover) and infant sleepwear, as well as a full line of products featuring its Eddie Eagle mascot, from children's backpacks to plush toys. Now that is adorable! The perfect gift for little urchins, and there are a lot of them in Iraq.
Family NRA Members in Iraq
''You can't see an Iraqi family without a gun,'' said Hasim al-Nassiny, the director general of preventive medicine at the Ministry of Health. ''Even 10-year-old children have guns.''
You Can't Take Our Guns Away! I'll call Tom Selleck!
''I think we should buy them all back,'' he said. ''But we are unable to do this, so maybe we should wait for the allies to help us, or wait until a new government here is elected.''
But Rubbai, the gun dealer, laughs at the idea. The illegal gun trade will stay until Iraq's political future is clearer, he said. ''In these times, I don't believe people will ever deliver guns up,'' he said. ''And if they do, they will just hand over a few - and keep the rest.''
Now if that doesn't sound like a true NRA member, than I don't know what does.
Charleston Heston at NRA's 1997 annual meeting in Seattle Washington
AK-47.net Trust the People
U.S. Constitution
NRA Website
Our Constitution
"The Constitution was adopted by a convention of the States on September 17, 1787, and was subsequently ratified by the several States, on the following dates: Delaware, December 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787; New Jersey, December 18, 1787; Georgia, January 2, 1788; Connecticut, January 9, 1788; Massachusetts, February 6, 1788; Maryland, April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788.
Ratification was completed on June 21, 1788."
Over all the 216 years, since its inception. there has been a tremendous amount of discussion and legislation to improve it. It only seems right that we should let Iraq use it. They have already started to adopted certain aspects of it already. Take the Second Amendment, Iraq has really taken that one to heart, and Bush has provided the new NRA chapter a big boost.
New Iraq NRA Chapters
Bagdad and other cities in Iraq are almost as heavily armed as Detroit in the summertime. There is opportunity in chaos, look at what has happened in Iraq. Gun merchant Odai al-Rubbai would like to thank the US-led coalition, not for Iraq's liberation from Saddam Hussein, but for all the civil disorder that followed.
''Business is booming!'' said Rubbai, 32, who does brisk business selling stolen weapons to a panicked citizenry in the capital city. ''It is the law of the jungle out there now.''
Guns, whether AK-47s nabbed from looted armories or Berettas heisted from private collections, have flooded Iraq in recent weeks, stolen by thieves, resold to gun dealers, and then purchased by anxious families seeking a way to protect themselves.
The thefts of weapons also mean that Baghdad's criminal underworld is better armed than the city's police force.
''The biggest problem facing Baghdad is security,'' said Baghdad's new police chief, Zubair al-Nuaimy, who recounted how two officers were killed and two others injured in a recent shoot-out with gun thieves. ''Our policemen now only carry a pistol. I'd like them to have machine guns.''
Now, as one dealer noted wryly, ''the Ministry of Interior no longer exists.'' There are thousands of guns available, because of the regime's decision to hide caches of weapons in civilian areas so that residents could fight the incoming US troops. Instead, looters ripped open the boxes of weapons after the troops arrived, flooding the gun market.
Fleeing Iraqi soldiers also added to the mix. Dealers say some troops were so desperate that they traded their weapons for civilian clothes.
In the cluttered and dirty streets of Baghdad's black market, Kalashnikovs, the most readily available gun and the weapon of choice, sell for about $50. Beretta pistols cost $200. But nearly every kind of weapon and ammunition is for sale, from bullets to rocket-propelled grenades to bazookas to machine guns.
6-year-old children display boxes of bullets, while their fathers - nearly all former criminals released from prison this year by Hussein - show off their guns. This closely follows NRA's long time focus on Youth.
NRA Youth mission
Past NRA President Marion Hammer introduced her 10-year-old grandson Michael, stating, "I know that when NRA reaches out and takes the hand of a child, we are touching America's future." Hammer also outlined the NRA's agenda to "invest" in America's youth, win their "hearts and minds," and ensure the organization's longevity" "I pledge to you to dedicate my term in office to two demanding missions. One is building an NRA bridge to America's youth. The other is being fiscally far-sighted to provide for bold new programs that will teach America's children values to last a lifetime." This mission statement can easily be transferred to Iraqi youth.
The NRA has integrated this youth movement into their agenda. The annual NRA meeting in Philadelphia, includes items for sale such as NRA bibs (as seen on this report's cover) and infant sleepwear, as well as a full line of products featuring its Eddie Eagle mascot, from children's backpacks to plush toys. Now that is adorable! The perfect gift for little urchins, and there are a lot of them in Iraq.
Family NRA Members in Iraq
''You can't see an Iraqi family without a gun,'' said Hasim al-Nassiny, the director general of preventive medicine at the Ministry of Health. ''Even 10-year-old children have guns.''
You Can't Take Our Guns Away! I'll call Tom Selleck!
''I think we should buy them all back,'' he said. ''But we are unable to do this, so maybe we should wait for the allies to help us, or wait until a new government here is elected.''
But Rubbai, the gun dealer, laughs at the idea. The illegal gun trade will stay until Iraq's political future is clearer, he said. ''In these times, I don't believe people will ever deliver guns up,'' he said. ''And if they do, they will just hand over a few - and keep the rest.''
Now if that doesn't sound like a true NRA member, than I don't know what does.
Charleston Heston at NRA's 1997 annual meeting in Seattle Washington
AK-47.net Trust the People
U.S. Constitution
NRA Website
# posted by Thomas @ 12:01 AM
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Bush Plan for re-election?
Lets pretend that Bush will do anything to get re-elected. Yes, I know that may be a stretch, but humor me here.
He backs off from his saber rattling against North Korea. He now saying that we will not allow North Korea to export nuclear weapons. His intelligence has told him that Korea is several months away from making and testing an atom bomb, they think. It may take them longer to fashion it into a workable payload. That is why Bush will gamble that he can keep that fire simmering without letting it get into a full fledge fire. He is counting on Powell to intervene if the flames get too high. He wants that potential conflict out in front for the public to worry about. He will do this all the way to November 2004.
Powell gets Public Respect
He has also let Powell publicly win one over rummy by having an ex-diplomat assigned to handle Iraq reconstruction. It is only a partial victory however. even though Gardner will report to Paul Bremer. Brenner will report to Rummy. So the Defense Secretary is still in charge. Rummy wins again!
Powell also apparently made some headway against rummy on Guantanimo. However, Whatever information they may have had is pretty much useless by now. So letting some of those people go is pretty low risk, especially the kids and the 80 and 98 year old men.that were caught up in the net. That is also a low risk activity for Rummy. Powell is getting peanuts for his efforts.
Both of these "public" wins for Powell is to show confidence in him. He will try to start mending fences with old europe. This does 2 things for Bush. It keeps the EU off balance and keeps the divisions within the group open. This will hinder any effort to put together a cohesive common defense plan or a common and comprehensive economic plan among themselves. to compete with the U.S. We can't have no silly europeans compete with America!
Adjust the heat as needed
Bush will leave the North Korean situation on simmer. He will again get the public into believing North Korea can and will attack the US one day, maybe one day soon. He will initiate his long dead missile defense plan as part of his homeland defense measure. He will do this as a means of again, keeping people especially women afraid. The demographics indicate that women are more likely than men to be cowed into believing Bush's message of fear. The Woman vote is very important to the Republicans. This should keep the economy on the back burner, and the public won't even notice. Men will follow.
The fires will continue to get stoked
Rumsfield, and Rummy will do what they have to to keep fires burning in the Mideast, and keep Powell busy. Wolfowitz is now kicking turkey in the side to get them agitated. Rummy is doing what he can to keep Syria and Iran on the defensive. Classic Good guy Bad guy routine for the public, but Powell is not playing, he really wants agreements with other nations to work. Too bad for him, Rummy want to shoot more guns off.
Jack Powell around, keep him busy and use up the clock too.
Powell is going to get a hell of a lot of frequent flyer miles this next year. He will be chasing his tail all around the mideast.
The rope-a-dope
Rummy, Bush, Cheney and Wolfowitz are going to tie him up pretty well. He is going to be the public distraction for Bush's election campaign. Hey, look over there, while I really decide what is best for the world.
Foreign Service accomplishments are good pr, but not necessary.
Bush will highlight any foreign relation efforts in the mid-east as proof of keeping the lid on a very dangerous world. to ensure world peace and fostering democracy, under the Bush empire.
Lets roll
Bush has started the ball rolling. In between the arm-twisting of Congress to adopt his budget. He dropped all sanctions against Iraq. It is now up to Powell to get the security council to support us without giving them any active role in Iraq's reconstruction. I want it all, and you can't play.
Bush will publicly back off quite a bit on Iraq and all foreign affairs for the most part. He has turned over the reins to Powell. He will give all appearances of focusing on the economy and jobs. He might throw in some proposals for school vouchers and gun control. "Look at me, I'm here for you America." No matter what he proposes, he can blame Congress if they don't pass.
UN role in America's future
He wants Powell to secure the vote for other nations on the security council to go along. Meanwhile, Rummy and company will keep verbally jabbing at the council members. To make things harder on Powell. Whether the UN agrees or not does not matter to Bush. Bush does not really want them, but he wants the illusion of once again trying to work with the UN, only to be obstructed by either the French, Germans and or the Russians. Bush is counting on the Mini-Un he has coerced into helping out in Iraq He is eating up the clock till November.
Iraq issues
If Iraq flares up, he will say "Democracy is a difficult process and we must be patient"
Terrorist attacks
If there is any attack on US soil or overseas. He will use it to continue fostering fear to win in 2004.
Israel/ Palestine
Sharon will do what they always do, pretend to go along for a wile, then reiterate that Palestine has to start with eliminating terrorism. Many in Congress openly support Israel, so they will keep the heat on for that one. This is a no-lose situation for Bush, it eats up the clock, and there are plenty of people to blame for any lack of progress.
Bush will keep up his warrior image, he will saber rattle and threaten at key moments before and during the campaign. He will also tie in to September 11th and how he enabled us to get even with evildoers terrorist nations like Afghanistan and Iraq during his tenure. and how he will continue to fight the good fight against the other axis of evil nations just waiting to strike out at our country.
Lord help us, This might work for our warrior king.
Lets pretend that Bush will do anything to get re-elected. Yes, I know that may be a stretch, but humor me here.
He backs off from his saber rattling against North Korea. He now saying that we will not allow North Korea to export nuclear weapons. His intelligence has told him that Korea is several months away from making and testing an atom bomb, they think. It may take them longer to fashion it into a workable payload. That is why Bush will gamble that he can keep that fire simmering without letting it get into a full fledge fire. He is counting on Powell to intervene if the flames get too high. He wants that potential conflict out in front for the public to worry about. He will do this all the way to November 2004.
Powell gets Public Respect
He has also let Powell publicly win one over rummy by having an ex-diplomat assigned to handle Iraq reconstruction. It is only a partial victory however. even though Gardner will report to Paul Bremer. Brenner will report to Rummy. So the Defense Secretary is still in charge. Rummy wins again!
Powell also apparently made some headway against rummy on Guantanimo. However, Whatever information they may have had is pretty much useless by now. So letting some of those people go is pretty low risk, especially the kids and the 80 and 98 year old men.that were caught up in the net. That is also a low risk activity for Rummy. Powell is getting peanuts for his efforts.
Both of these "public" wins for Powell is to show confidence in him. He will try to start mending fences with old europe. This does 2 things for Bush. It keeps the EU off balance and keeps the divisions within the group open. This will hinder any effort to put together a cohesive common defense plan or a common and comprehensive economic plan among themselves. to compete with the U.S. We can't have no silly europeans compete with America!
Adjust the heat as needed
Bush will leave the North Korean situation on simmer. He will again get the public into believing North Korea can and will attack the US one day, maybe one day soon. He will initiate his long dead missile defense plan as part of his homeland defense measure. He will do this as a means of again, keeping people especially women afraid. The demographics indicate that women are more likely than men to be cowed into believing Bush's message of fear. The Woman vote is very important to the Republicans. This should keep the economy on the back burner, and the public won't even notice. Men will follow.
The fires will continue to get stoked
Rumsfield, and Rummy will do what they have to to keep fires burning in the Mideast, and keep Powell busy. Wolfowitz is now kicking turkey in the side to get them agitated. Rummy is doing what he can to keep Syria and Iran on the defensive. Classic Good guy Bad guy routine for the public, but Powell is not playing, he really wants agreements with other nations to work. Too bad for him, Rummy want to shoot more guns off.
Jack Powell around, keep him busy and use up the clock too.
Powell is going to get a hell of a lot of frequent flyer miles this next year. He will be chasing his tail all around the mideast.
The rope-a-dope
Rummy, Bush, Cheney and Wolfowitz are going to tie him up pretty well. He is going to be the public distraction for Bush's election campaign. Hey, look over there, while I really decide what is best for the world.
Foreign Service accomplishments are good pr, but not necessary.
Bush will highlight any foreign relation efforts in the mid-east as proof of keeping the lid on a very dangerous world. to ensure world peace and fostering democracy, under the Bush empire.
Lets roll
Bush has started the ball rolling. In between the arm-twisting of Congress to adopt his budget. He dropped all sanctions against Iraq. It is now up to Powell to get the security council to support us without giving them any active role in Iraq's reconstruction. I want it all, and you can't play.
Bush will publicly back off quite a bit on Iraq and all foreign affairs for the most part. He has turned over the reins to Powell. He will give all appearances of focusing on the economy and jobs. He might throw in some proposals for school vouchers and gun control. "Look at me, I'm here for you America." No matter what he proposes, he can blame Congress if they don't pass.
UN role in America's future
He wants Powell to secure the vote for other nations on the security council to go along. Meanwhile, Rummy and company will keep verbally jabbing at the council members. To make things harder on Powell. Whether the UN agrees or not does not matter to Bush. Bush does not really want them, but he wants the illusion of once again trying to work with the UN, only to be obstructed by either the French, Germans and or the Russians. Bush is counting on the Mini-Un he has coerced into helping out in Iraq He is eating up the clock till November.
Iraq issues
If Iraq flares up, he will say "Democracy is a difficult process and we must be patient"
Terrorist attacks
If there is any attack on US soil or overseas. He will use it to continue fostering fear to win in 2004.
Israel/ Palestine
Sharon will do what they always do, pretend to go along for a wile, then reiterate that Palestine has to start with eliminating terrorism. Many in Congress openly support Israel, so they will keep the heat on for that one. This is a no-lose situation for Bush, it eats up the clock, and there are plenty of people to blame for any lack of progress.
Bush will keep up his warrior image, he will saber rattle and threaten at key moments before and during the campaign. He will also tie in to September 11th and how he enabled us to get even with evildoers terrorist nations like Afghanistan and Iraq during his tenure. and how he will continue to fight the good fight against the other axis of evil nations just waiting to strike out at our country.
Lord help us, This might work for our warrior king.
# posted by Thomas @ 12:26 AM
Friday, May 09, 2003
Are you tired, listless, do you poop out at parties? Call your House Representative and tell them to vote for the "Family Time Flexibility Act". You will get plenty of time to rest up. You'll have a lot less money, but plenty of time.
Leave it up to the "family friendly" Republican party to come up with this seductive solution, It's H. R. 1119, and it's called the "Family Time Flexibility Act". The House leadership, wants to pass it by Mother's Day as a gift to America's working women.
Here is how they worded this act. I love how they try an appeal to all the hard working people that still have jobs, and make it sound like we would be crazy not to support this legislation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAMILY TIME OPTIONS FOR U.S. WORKERS
H.R. 1119 , Family Time Flexibility Act
Sponsor: Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL)
The Workforce Protections Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), has led efforts to modernize outdated workforce laws and is expected to move a bill early this year to give parents more flexibility to spend more time with their families. Republicans want American workers, particularly working mothers and fathers, to be able to choose to spend more time with their families, as most public sector workers are already allowed to do.
Working men and women find it increasingly difficult to balance family and work responsibilities, and unfortunately their employers are hampered by an outdated federal law in their attempts to accommodate worker requests for more family time and flexible work schedules. While flexible work schedules have been available to public sector workers for years, private sector employees are denied these benefits because of an outdated 1938 law that does not meet the needs of workers in today's economy.
To address this problem, Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) reintroduced H.R. 1119, the Family Time Flexibility Act, legislation that offers a workable solution to this problem for both employers and workers who are attempting to balance work and family responsibilities. The bill removes obstacles in federal law that prevent many employers from providing hourly paid workers increased flexibility to spend time with family, attend teacher conferences, care for an ill relative, extend maternity and paternity leave, or other family needs that may arise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My concern is that men and women workers that still work, are so tired from working a full time job and working at home, they will never realize what Republicans are trying to do; and jump at anything that promises flexibility." I saw how well Bush sold the invasion of Iraq, so now I have reasonable doubt that anyone will really notice this one.
So what's wrong with such flexibility?
Most of us really want flexible work hours but this bill, with its advertised illusion of flexibility, would eliminate, one of the fundamental rights enacted by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a 40-hour workweek and time-and-a half PAY FOR OVERTIME!
Under the Family Time Flexibility Act, an employer can decide to reimburse you for overtime with compensatory (COMP) TIME, RATHER THAN with PAY. So, if you work eight extra hours, your boss can give you 12 hours of comp time, which you can use or cash out sometime in the next 13 months, at the employer's convenience, whenever they think they can do without you. "So Jimmy, take your one week off next February and one week and a half at the end of March."Make sure you enter that into your schedule." This is great if you are management, but it is going to suck if you are not.
Is this how Republican's deal with a poor economy and lack of employment?
Many low-wage, hourly workers simply cannot live without the extra money they earn working overtime. Do you think employers may discriminate against employees who insist on overtime pay rather than comp time? For these low-wage workers, says Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass., the result will be "less time for their families and less income to support those families."
If you don't get that second job, to support the effects of this act, you will have the flexibility of sitting at home spending quality time with your spouse, watching your bills pile up.
Don't you just love it when a group of people just love kicking you when you are down and out? Thank you Rep. Judy Biggert, may I have another!
Sources cited:
Committee on Education and the Workforce U.S. House of Representatives
San Francisco Chronicle.
Leave it up to the "family friendly" Republican party to come up with this seductive solution, It's H. R. 1119, and it's called the "Family Time Flexibility Act". The House leadership, wants to pass it by Mother's Day as a gift to America's working women.
Here is how they worded this act. I love how they try an appeal to all the hard working people that still have jobs, and make it sound like we would be crazy not to support this legislation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAMILY TIME OPTIONS FOR U.S. WORKERS
H.R. 1119 , Family Time Flexibility Act
Sponsor: Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL)
The Workforce Protections Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), has led efforts to modernize outdated workforce laws and is expected to move a bill early this year to give parents more flexibility to spend more time with their families. Republicans want American workers, particularly working mothers and fathers, to be able to choose to spend more time with their families, as most public sector workers are already allowed to do.
Working men and women find it increasingly difficult to balance family and work responsibilities, and unfortunately their employers are hampered by an outdated federal law in their attempts to accommodate worker requests for more family time and flexible work schedules. While flexible work schedules have been available to public sector workers for years, private sector employees are denied these benefits because of an outdated 1938 law that does not meet the needs of workers in today's economy.
To address this problem, Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) reintroduced H.R. 1119, the Family Time Flexibility Act, legislation that offers a workable solution to this problem for both employers and workers who are attempting to balance work and family responsibilities. The bill removes obstacles in federal law that prevent many employers from providing hourly paid workers increased flexibility to spend time with family, attend teacher conferences, care for an ill relative, extend maternity and paternity leave, or other family needs that may arise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My concern is that men and women workers that still work, are so tired from working a full time job and working at home, they will never realize what Republicans are trying to do; and jump at anything that promises flexibility." I saw how well Bush sold the invasion of Iraq, so now I have reasonable doubt that anyone will really notice this one.
So what's wrong with such flexibility?
Most of us really want flexible work hours but this bill, with its advertised illusion of flexibility, would eliminate, one of the fundamental rights enacted by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, a 40-hour workweek and time-and-a half PAY FOR OVERTIME!
Under the Family Time Flexibility Act, an employer can decide to reimburse you for overtime with compensatory (COMP) TIME, RATHER THAN with PAY. So, if you work eight extra hours, your boss can give you 12 hours of comp time, which you can use or cash out sometime in the next 13 months, at the employer's convenience, whenever they think they can do without you. "So Jimmy, take your one week off next February and one week and a half at the end of March."Make sure you enter that into your schedule." This is great if you are management, but it is going to suck if you are not.
Is this how Republican's deal with a poor economy and lack of employment?
Many low-wage, hourly workers simply cannot live without the extra money they earn working overtime. Do you think employers may discriminate against employees who insist on overtime pay rather than comp time? For these low-wage workers, says Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass., the result will be "less time for their families and less income to support those families."
If you don't get that second job, to support the effects of this act, you will have the flexibility of sitting at home spending quality time with your spouse, watching your bills pile up.
Don't you just love it when a group of people just love kicking you when you are down and out? Thank you Rep. Judy Biggert, may I have another!
Sources cited:
Committee on Education and the Workforce U.S. House of Representatives
San Francisco Chronicle.
# posted by Thomas @ 12:10 AM
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
I read about the suspected Iraqi Mobil weapons lab. I didn't know if I should be happy or sad. Most of me wants the world to see how Bush lied to get us into this war. Then I realized that the world is not going to really believe anything, he says anyway. It is like he said "you are either with us or against us". Most of the world is against us.
So. the following article which said " that-some-of-the-equipment-on-the trailer-could-have-been-used-for-purposes-other-than-producing biological-weapons-agents,-but-that-American-and-British-weapons experts-have-concluded,-based-in-part-on-information-from-a-defector, "that-the-unit-does-not-appear-to-perform-any-function-beyond-what the-defector-said-it-was-for,-which-was-the-production-of-biological agents."-and-that-Although-the-findings-were-not-conclusive-as-of today,-and-may-not-be-for-some-time,-they-were-nevertheless important,-for-the-White-House-as-well-as-the-Pentagon." article does not mean a damn thing to anyone except for Karl Rove. who has to make it true or spin it to make it true.
So. the following article which said " that-some-of-the-equipment-on-the trailer-could-have-been-used-for-purposes-other-than-producing biological-weapons-agents,-but-that-American-and-British-weapons experts-have-concluded,-based-in-part-on-information-from-a-defector, "that-the-unit-does-not-appear-to-perform-any-function-beyond-what the-defector-said-it-was-for,-which-was-the-production-of-biological agents."-and-that-Although-the-findings-were-not-conclusive-as-of today,-and-may-not-be-for-some-time,-they-were-nevertheless important,-for-the-White-House-as-well-as-the-Pentagon." article does not mean a damn thing to anyone except for Karl Rove. who has to make it true or spin it to make it true.
# posted by Thomas @ 9:01 PM
We finally got an official White house answer as to why Bush had to fly in a Navy S-3B Viking jet onto the USS Abraham Lincoln last week. that included an air show and a televised speech to the nation. In his address, the president declared victory in Iraq in front of cheering sailors and a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."
The White House admitted yesterday that President Bush could have taken a helicopter to the aircraft carrier, despite saying earlier that the ship would be hundreds of miles offshore and impossible to reach any other way than by jet aircraft.
According to Ari Fleisher, Georgie boy wanted to use an ''aircraft that would allow him to see an aircraft landing the same way that the pilots saw an aircraft landing,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday. "He wanted to see it as realistically as possible. And that's why, once the initial decision was made to fly out on the Viking, even when a helicopter option became doable, the president decided instead he wanted to still take the Viking." Barnum and Bailey would have been proud of the show, and all at taxpayer expense.
I am starting to appreciate Senator Byrd, he's got big ones cajones. He is not afraid of criticizing our self-proclaimed holy-warrior President.
According to Washington Post and other papers, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, saying he was "deeply troubled" by Bush's actions, which he called "flamboyant showmanship." The octogenarian lawmaker criticized the White House for using the carrier "as an advertising backdrop" and the military "as stage props" for Bush's speech.
He further said, "To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech," Byrd said. "I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln . . . but I do question the motives of a deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech." Somehow his motives are pretty apparent. "Look at me!, look at me! I am a warrior too, vote for me in 2004"
I am glad the President is interested in seeing the war through the serviceman's view, "as realistically as possible" Here are a few more things he could have done.
He could have put on chemical suit and walk in the desert heat with the infantry, when they were under attack? A real warrior king would do that.
He could have had hooked up the cable to the statue of Saddam in Bagdad and operated the tank controls as it pulled it down. That would have been a heck of a photo op.
There are a vast number of Armed service tasks he could have participated in. It's too bad the Army doesn't have mules anymore; he could have posed at what he is best at; walking behind the hard working mules, shoveling shit.
Sources Cited:
Anne E. Kornblut Boston Globe
Dana Milbank Washington Post
The Guardian
CNN
The White House admitted yesterday that President Bush could have taken a helicopter to the aircraft carrier, despite saying earlier that the ship would be hundreds of miles offshore and impossible to reach any other way than by jet aircraft.
According to Ari Fleisher, Georgie boy wanted to use an ''aircraft that would allow him to see an aircraft landing the same way that the pilots saw an aircraft landing,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said yesterday. "He wanted to see it as realistically as possible. And that's why, once the initial decision was made to fly out on the Viking, even when a helicopter option became doable, the president decided instead he wanted to still take the Viking." Barnum and Bailey would have been proud of the show, and all at taxpayer expense.
I am starting to appreciate Senator Byrd, he's got big ones cajones. He is not afraid of criticizing our self-proclaimed holy-warrior President.
According to Washington Post and other papers, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, saying he was "deeply troubled" by Bush's actions, which he called "flamboyant showmanship." The octogenarian lawmaker criticized the White House for using the carrier "as an advertising backdrop" and the military "as stage props" for Bush's speech.
He further said, "To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech," Byrd said. "I do not begrudge his salute to America's warriors aboard the carrier Lincoln . . . but I do question the motives of a deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech." Somehow his motives are pretty apparent. "Look at me!, look at me! I am a warrior too, vote for me in 2004"
I am glad the President is interested in seeing the war through the serviceman's view, "as realistically as possible" Here are a few more things he could have done.
He could have put on chemical suit and walk in the desert heat with the infantry, when they were under attack? A real warrior king would do that.
He could have had hooked up the cable to the statue of Saddam in Bagdad and operated the tank controls as it pulled it down. That would have been a heck of a photo op.
There are a vast number of Armed service tasks he could have participated in. It's too bad the Army doesn't have mules anymore; he could have posed at what he is best at; walking behind the hard working mules, shoveling shit.
Sources Cited:
Anne E. Kornblut Boston Globe
Dana Milbank Washington Post
The Guardian
CNN
# posted by Thomas @ 4:47 PM
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
A Bagdad Diary
Here is a story about a teen who kept a diary. This is no ordinary diary. It was written while the teen witnessed the bombing of Bagdad.
The diary was kept, before, during and after the bombing of the Capital. In it, she shares her fears as she hunkered down in her apartment home, She writes in her orange journal and describes the emotions of an ordinary family, during the battle for Bagdad and how they tried to cope during the massive attack by coalition forces. The backdrop of this story is the collapse of Saddam Hussein and his government,
Her name is Amal, she is 14 years old. She often wrote in it while laying down on the floor, by lamplight. Here are some of the entries from her diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"As the bombs fall, "Bush's missiles" are the enemy and US forces are to be feared."
Monday, March 17
"In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate."
"My name is Amal. I have a happy family of nine: Three brothers Ali, Mohamed and Mahmoud (3rd grade )... and sisters Fatima (16 years), Zeinab (9th grade), and twins Duha and Hibba (5th grade)".
"I am very proud of my mother, because she is a great person, she works and works, and brings us food because my father died ... in 1996 in a car accident".
"We don't want war on Iraq, the country of civilization and prophets. War is torment. Mother is crying because of her fear for us. War takes away the people we love."
"We prepare by filling water buckets in case there is no water or electricity. Duha and Hibba pray God Almighty that there will be no war. At 8:30, my mother made bread. Bakeries close during the war."
Tuesday, March 18
"At 7 a.m., I went to school with Zeinab, and we found no more than 10 girls. Families are afraid, and no one knows where they will go during the war."
"Hibba and Duha went to school. It was noon, [but] they came back at 12:30 and said there was no one in school. We children have no fault to die because of war. People say tonight is war at 1 a.m."
Wednesday, March 19
"We woke up at 7 a.m., cleaned the apartment, had breakfast, and sat talking about the war. Duha and Hibba prayed and recited from the Koran for the sake of peace. We ... like peace and refuse war."
"People are crying not just because of war, but also because of hunger. An egg is 200 dinars [eight cents]; bread is expensive. Everything is expensive...."
"At 4 a.m., Bush started bombing. My mother cried "Fatima! Fatima, wake up! The war has started!"
Thursday, March 20
"Mahmoud woke up and is so afraid. Duha and Hibba are ... hoping for the morning to come. Why is Bush bombing us. Don't you have any mercy in your heart for children?"
"Now it is 6 a.m. and [neighbors] Um Saif and Um Noor come over to the house very afraid, and in tears. It was calm at 12:30 p.m. [We] went to the market, and found only a few groceries. We came home ... cut the cheese in slices, drank tea, and started talking about war. Mother asked: "Is Bush intending to bomb us today?" [The twins] said "God willing, he won't."
"The electricity was out, so we went to our mother's friend Um Jalal. On the way back to our house, the siren sounded again and we were very frightened and tried to run as fast as we can back home saying, "God save us!" At 9:15 p.m., the bombing was intense, close to our home."
"Now I am sitting in the corridor in front of our apartment with my sisters and mother. The sound of bombing is getting stronger and stronger.... Then it turns quiet again ... and we don't know when Bush's storm hits again. Fatima thinks that we are living and dying at the same time, but how long will it be like this?"
Friday, March 21
"Today is Baghdad's turn. At 8:10 p.m., the siren was heard. [Friend] Omar was talking about war when a missile flew just over the building. Then at 9, the bombing was louder; [we] were crying from the sound and the shaking of buildings, so we went in front of the house. [The Saif family] were crying in the street; we went inside, where [friend] Um Haidar fainted."
"I am writing and the house next to our building is shaking. It's now 9:35 p.m., and all the families in the house are terrified and crying for God to bring the morning...."
"We went on top of the roof ... and saw smoke coming from the palaces and smoke not far from our building.... at 10:30 p.m., the bombing resumes."
"I've never seen anything like this. I'm so afraid tears are running down my eyes, and I'm saying "Oh God, dear God."
Saturday, March 22
"It's 3:16 p.m. The bombing now is throughout the day, too. At 2:15 a.m., a very loud sound, and mother wakes up terrified. At 4, loud explosions are heard. God, why must we torment and suffer?"
Sunday, March 23
"[We] went to al Fanar Hotel, and there were all the peace people [Western activists]. It was a good joke because they wanted to celebrate my birthday. We were sitting with Jamal, the journalist, talking about peace when suddenly, big bombing sounds frightened everyone."
"At 5:30 p.m., we saw a plane and it shot three times, very loud and intense. We saw on TV dead US soldiers and other prisoners. Prisoners were from Texas. What is the fault of these dead soldiers? What is the fault of their families and their mothers crying out for them? Why this war?"
"Sirens sounded and at 7:08, US planes hit us. We have hope and very big hope for peace. I love hope because it's the most beautiful thing in the world and I wish hope will continue in every Iraqi family and American. I wish from God only peace."
Tuesday, March 25
"At 3:50 p.m., we hear missile attacks. The wind is dusty, the wind is fast, and the water is red-colored. It truly is like the anger of the sky, as the war is against the will of God. He created man to be good, peaceful with love, not to choose war and kill people. At 7:50, the winds are very strong, the door of our apartment is banging. The sirens sound again...."
Wednesday, March 26
"At 1:35p.m: The sky turned red-colored as if it were the blood of innocent people.... It's truly sad for the innocent Iraqis and the Americans dying without a cause, with the sky pouring dirt on the streets. The sky is upset...."
Thursday, March 27
"Now its 5:56 pm, and [the children] are playing in the corridor not knowing when Bush might hit Baghdad. They are laughing."
"There is silence, then suddenly a big blast.... We stay awake until the morning."
Saturday, March 29 - Sunday, March 30
"Americans started bombing at 1:20 p.m. The children ... ran in with fear in their eyes. Mother said 'Don't be afraid!' We all group in one room. Hibba, Duha, and Mahmoud pray.... War! War! War! Don't you see [children]? Why? Why? Why this killing war?"
Monday, March 31
"They never stop bombing throughout the night and the morning. Now I hear the sound of ambulances. We spent the night with Abu Saif's family.... What are the feelings and emotions of Mr. Bush and Mr. Prime Minister [Blair]? Don't they think of love that beats from the heart?"
Tuesday, April 1
"At 5:15 p.m. the electricity is out ... the corridors are dark. Please God enlighten us, show us the light. The electricity comes back.... We see on TV the injured children in the south. We see sad pictures of [a] dead infant, pictures that would make even a rock cry.... Where is justice?"
Thursday, April 3
"I see on TV that US soldiers were entering homes. I see them tying up children and women in Basra. I am writing and the tears are running from my eyes."
Friday, April 4 - Sunday, April 6
"The electricity hasn't come.... The water was also cut.... Should we die of thirst? They took [the] airport ... and some say that the Americans are coming into Baghdad and our troops can't resist them.... Protect us, we are scared."
"Every day we have to fill buckets of water from downstairs. We hear loud bombing and shooting close to our building ... no one may go up to the roof."
Monday, April 7
"Planes are passing by and bombing so, so hard.... At 3:23 p.m., we hear clashes between US and Iraqi troops. At 4, we heard on the news that the Americans occupied the presidential palace."
Tuesday, April 8
"The planes come and go, and fear and terror control us completely.... These seem like our final moments, but God responds to our prayers. Every time it calms down, we are getting more worried because we don't know what will happen."
Wednesday, April 9
"At 4:53 p.m. I see a [American] tank pass by the street next to us ... and Baghdad fell into American hands."
Thursday, April 10
"We woke to the loud sound of the radio in Um Mohamed's house, and she was yelling that Baghdad and Iraq was occupied by the US. The news on the radio is that Iraqis are destroying government buildings and stealing ... and that Saddam Hussein and his family have fled. The fear from these robbers is even worse. What is happening to our people, stealing without thought? What will the Americans do?"
Friday, April 11 - Sunday, April 13
"Iraqis usually go early to the mosque for Friday prayers, but Iraqis are [now] waking to rob the people. We used to trust Saddam Hussein, but we don't know who to trust anymore.... Three tanks went by carrying US soldiers while hospitals are being looted and nobody says anything."
At 5:30 p.m. (Sat.), US tanks stopped at our building and people were greeting the soldiers. Duha and Hibba went over and the soldiers gave them chocolate.These soldiers are nice, but they are moved by Bush. The children surrounded the US tanks and they were happy. The Americans blew up the Iraqi tank and left; the children waved goodbye.
"We woke up (Sun.) to ... the American tanks. Mother told me to get some water using the buckets. Dear God, why this torture? Why don't they bring electricity?"
"At 3:10 p.m., US troops passed by walking, and at 5:20 p.m. they left and the people accompanying them danced to the sound of American music. At 8:30 pm, tanks passed by. I was on Um Saif's balcony. I was afraid. The Americans waved and I waved back, but I was afraid."
Monday April 14
"At 1:55 p.m., the twins come home and say Americans are walking on the street, and writing their names on children's hands. Hibba's hands have soldiers' names written on them. [The twins] say the soldiers were nice and both are pleased with this happy meeting. Are they really nice? Nobody knows but God."
Tuesday, April 15
"At 3:30 p.m., we hear the sound of planes . I look from the windows and see calm, birds are flying, children are playing happily. Safety is very nice. No one is talking about America or war."
"Two tanks pass the building, the children run, shouting, "Mama, Mama! Look at the beautiful tanks with Americans in them!" These are children; they don't know anything."
Wednesday, April 16
"The people are asking: "Where is Saddam Hussein? Where is his army?" This was the "final battle" between Iraq and America, as Saddam called it. Nobody knows how the war ended so fast. Thirty years of Saddam's power all gone! Everybody is asking about Hussein. What if he turns up ? Iraqis don't like surprises."
"This week, the family's electricity was restored, though it's intermittent. When it's on, they can fill up their water tank. No one is in school yet; radio reports say school may reopen in the middle of May. The family is greatly relieved that brother Ali has returned from the front."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is one view of what was experienced during the massive attack. Her words reflect the horror, and the unchecked fear, that Bush brought those people. She will never forget this event. Will this be the last traumatic event in Amal life? I don't know. Bush has opened pandora's box over there and no one, not even George himself can close it.
I am sorry Amal. I apologize for all the upheaval our President caused you. You are free of a dictator, Now you have uncertainty, instability, intermittent violence, competing factions vying to fill the power void, and a colonial power somewhat in charge. I hope you can sleep without dreams and live without any more fear.
Sources Cited:
By Scott Peterson
The Christian Science Monitor
Here is a story about a teen who kept a diary. This is no ordinary diary. It was written while the teen witnessed the bombing of Bagdad.
The diary was kept, before, during and after the bombing of the Capital. In it, she shares her fears as she hunkered down in her apartment home, She writes in her orange journal and describes the emotions of an ordinary family, during the battle for Bagdad and how they tried to cope during the massive attack by coalition forces. The backdrop of this story is the collapse of Saddam Hussein and his government,
Her name is Amal, she is 14 years old. She often wrote in it while laying down on the floor, by lamplight. Here are some of the entries from her diary
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"As the bombs fall, "Bush's missiles" are the enemy and US forces are to be feared."
Monday, March 17
"In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate."
"My name is Amal. I have a happy family of nine: Three brothers Ali, Mohamed and Mahmoud (3rd grade )... and sisters Fatima (16 years), Zeinab (9th grade), and twins Duha and Hibba (5th grade)".
"I am very proud of my mother, because she is a great person, she works and works, and brings us food because my father died ... in 1996 in a car accident".
"We don't want war on Iraq, the country of civilization and prophets. War is torment. Mother is crying because of her fear for us. War takes away the people we love."
"We prepare by filling water buckets in case there is no water or electricity. Duha and Hibba pray God Almighty that there will be no war. At 8:30, my mother made bread. Bakeries close during the war."
Tuesday, March 18
"At 7 a.m., I went to school with Zeinab, and we found no more than 10 girls. Families are afraid, and no one knows where they will go during the war."
"Hibba and Duha went to school. It was noon, [but] they came back at 12:30 and said there was no one in school. We children have no fault to die because of war. People say tonight is war at 1 a.m."
Wednesday, March 19
"We woke up at 7 a.m., cleaned the apartment, had breakfast, and sat talking about the war. Duha and Hibba prayed and recited from the Koran for the sake of peace. We ... like peace and refuse war."
"People are crying not just because of war, but also because of hunger. An egg is 200 dinars [eight cents]; bread is expensive. Everything is expensive...."
"At 4 a.m., Bush started bombing. My mother cried "Fatima! Fatima, wake up! The war has started!"
Thursday, March 20
"Mahmoud woke up and is so afraid. Duha and Hibba are ... hoping for the morning to come. Why is Bush bombing us. Don't you have any mercy in your heart for children?"
"Now it is 6 a.m. and [neighbors] Um Saif and Um Noor come over to the house very afraid, and in tears. It was calm at 12:30 p.m. [We] went to the market, and found only a few groceries. We came home ... cut the cheese in slices, drank tea, and started talking about war. Mother asked: "Is Bush intending to bomb us today?" [The twins] said "God willing, he won't."
"The electricity was out, so we went to our mother's friend Um Jalal. On the way back to our house, the siren sounded again and we were very frightened and tried to run as fast as we can back home saying, "God save us!" At 9:15 p.m., the bombing was intense, close to our home."
"Now I am sitting in the corridor in front of our apartment with my sisters and mother. The sound of bombing is getting stronger and stronger.... Then it turns quiet again ... and we don't know when Bush's storm hits again. Fatima thinks that we are living and dying at the same time, but how long will it be like this?"
Friday, March 21
"Today is Baghdad's turn. At 8:10 p.m., the siren was heard. [Friend] Omar was talking about war when a missile flew just over the building. Then at 9, the bombing was louder; [we] were crying from the sound and the shaking of buildings, so we went in front of the house. [The Saif family] were crying in the street; we went inside, where [friend] Um Haidar fainted."
"I am writing and the house next to our building is shaking. It's now 9:35 p.m., and all the families in the house are terrified and crying for God to bring the morning...."
"We went on top of the roof ... and saw smoke coming from the palaces and smoke not far from our building.... at 10:30 p.m., the bombing resumes."
"I've never seen anything like this. I'm so afraid tears are running down my eyes, and I'm saying "Oh God, dear God."
Saturday, March 22
"It's 3:16 p.m. The bombing now is throughout the day, too. At 2:15 a.m., a very loud sound, and mother wakes up terrified. At 4, loud explosions are heard. God, why must we torment and suffer?"
Sunday, March 23
"[We] went to al Fanar Hotel, and there were all the peace people [Western activists]. It was a good joke because they wanted to celebrate my birthday. We were sitting with Jamal, the journalist, talking about peace when suddenly, big bombing sounds frightened everyone."
"At 5:30 p.m., we saw a plane and it shot three times, very loud and intense. We saw on TV dead US soldiers and other prisoners. Prisoners were from Texas. What is the fault of these dead soldiers? What is the fault of their families and their mothers crying out for them? Why this war?"
"Sirens sounded and at 7:08, US planes hit us. We have hope and very big hope for peace. I love hope because it's the most beautiful thing in the world and I wish hope will continue in every Iraqi family and American. I wish from God only peace."
Tuesday, March 25
"At 3:50 p.m., we hear missile attacks. The wind is dusty, the wind is fast, and the water is red-colored. It truly is like the anger of the sky, as the war is against the will of God. He created man to be good, peaceful with love, not to choose war and kill people. At 7:50, the winds are very strong, the door of our apartment is banging. The sirens sound again...."
Wednesday, March 26
"At 1:35p.m: The sky turned red-colored as if it were the blood of innocent people.... It's truly sad for the innocent Iraqis and the Americans dying without a cause, with the sky pouring dirt on the streets. The sky is upset...."
Thursday, March 27
"Now its 5:56 pm, and [the children] are playing in the corridor not knowing when Bush might hit Baghdad. They are laughing."
"There is silence, then suddenly a big blast.... We stay awake until the morning."
Saturday, March 29 - Sunday, March 30
"Americans started bombing at 1:20 p.m. The children ... ran in with fear in their eyes. Mother said 'Don't be afraid!' We all group in one room. Hibba, Duha, and Mahmoud pray.... War! War! War! Don't you see [children]? Why? Why? Why this killing war?"
Monday, March 31
"They never stop bombing throughout the night and the morning. Now I hear the sound of ambulances. We spent the night with Abu Saif's family.... What are the feelings and emotions of Mr. Bush and Mr. Prime Minister [Blair]? Don't they think of love that beats from the heart?"
Tuesday, April 1
"At 5:15 p.m. the electricity is out ... the corridors are dark. Please God enlighten us, show us the light. The electricity comes back.... We see on TV the injured children in the south. We see sad pictures of [a] dead infant, pictures that would make even a rock cry.... Where is justice?"
Thursday, April 3
"I see on TV that US soldiers were entering homes. I see them tying up children and women in Basra. I am writing and the tears are running from my eyes."
Friday, April 4 - Sunday, April 6
"The electricity hasn't come.... The water was also cut.... Should we die of thirst? They took [the] airport ... and some say that the Americans are coming into Baghdad and our troops can't resist them.... Protect us, we are scared."
"Every day we have to fill buckets of water from downstairs. We hear loud bombing and shooting close to our building ... no one may go up to the roof."
Monday, April 7
"Planes are passing by and bombing so, so hard.... At 3:23 p.m., we hear clashes between US and Iraqi troops. At 4, we heard on the news that the Americans occupied the presidential palace."
Tuesday, April 8
"The planes come and go, and fear and terror control us completely.... These seem like our final moments, but God responds to our prayers. Every time it calms down, we are getting more worried because we don't know what will happen."
Wednesday, April 9
"At 4:53 p.m. I see a [American] tank pass by the street next to us ... and Baghdad fell into American hands."
Thursday, April 10
"We woke to the loud sound of the radio in Um Mohamed's house, and she was yelling that Baghdad and Iraq was occupied by the US. The news on the radio is that Iraqis are destroying government buildings and stealing ... and that Saddam Hussein and his family have fled. The fear from these robbers is even worse. What is happening to our people, stealing without thought? What will the Americans do?"
Friday, April 11 - Sunday, April 13
"Iraqis usually go early to the mosque for Friday prayers, but Iraqis are [now] waking to rob the people. We used to trust Saddam Hussein, but we don't know who to trust anymore.... Three tanks went by carrying US soldiers while hospitals are being looted and nobody says anything."
At 5:30 p.m. (Sat.), US tanks stopped at our building and people were greeting the soldiers. Duha and Hibba went over and the soldiers gave them chocolate.These soldiers are nice, but they are moved by Bush. The children surrounded the US tanks and they were happy. The Americans blew up the Iraqi tank and left; the children waved goodbye.
"We woke up (Sun.) to ... the American tanks. Mother told me to get some water using the buckets. Dear God, why this torture? Why don't they bring electricity?"
"At 3:10 p.m., US troops passed by walking, and at 5:20 p.m. they left and the people accompanying them danced to the sound of American music. At 8:30 pm, tanks passed by. I was on Um Saif's balcony. I was afraid. The Americans waved and I waved back, but I was afraid."
Monday April 14
"At 1:55 p.m., the twins come home and say Americans are walking on the street, and writing their names on children's hands. Hibba's hands have soldiers' names written on them. [The twins] say the soldiers were nice and both are pleased with this happy meeting. Are they really nice? Nobody knows but God."
Tuesday, April 15
"At 3:30 p.m., we hear the sound of planes . I look from the windows and see calm, birds are flying, children are playing happily. Safety is very nice. No one is talking about America or war."
"Two tanks pass the building, the children run, shouting, "Mama, Mama! Look at the beautiful tanks with Americans in them!" These are children; they don't know anything."
Wednesday, April 16
"The people are asking: "Where is Saddam Hussein? Where is his army?" This was the "final battle" between Iraq and America, as Saddam called it. Nobody knows how the war ended so fast. Thirty years of Saddam's power all gone! Everybody is asking about Hussein. What if he turns up ? Iraqis don't like surprises."
"This week, the family's electricity was restored, though it's intermittent. When it's on, they can fill up their water tank. No one is in school yet; radio reports say school may reopen in the middle of May. The family is greatly relieved that brother Ali has returned from the front."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is one view of what was experienced during the massive attack. Her words reflect the horror, and the unchecked fear, that Bush brought those people. She will never forget this event. Will this be the last traumatic event in Amal life? I don't know. Bush has opened pandora's box over there and no one, not even George himself can close it.
I am sorry Amal. I apologize for all the upheaval our President caused you. You are free of a dictator, Now you have uncertainty, instability, intermittent violence, competing factions vying to fill the power void, and a colonial power somewhat in charge. I hope you can sleep without dreams and live without any more fear.
Sources Cited:
By Scott Peterson
The Christian Science Monitor
# posted by Thomas @ 11:37 PM
An army of Juans
I read an article about the number of steps Riayan Tejeda took from his front door to the military recruiter's office. It was 206 steps from his Washington Heights apartment home. A violent drug trade dominated his Dominican neighborhood when Riayan was 14 . Two years later, the Heights erupted in several days of violence after a police shooting. In 206 steps he went from this hard knock life as a immigrant kid to become a U.S. Marine. He told his mother what he had done, and why: "You just watch me. I'm going to make something of my life."
Baghdad had collapsed, the statues of Hussein were toppled, and Bush was said to be giddy. Then, on April 11, in the messy mop-up after the assault on Baghdad, Sergeant Tejeda was killed in a firefight with some straggling Hussein loyalists. He was 26 years old, Riayan Tejeda almost made it. Just a couple of weeks before, Riayan's father took those same 203 steps to come into the recruiting office to ask the recruiting sergeant on behalf of Riayan's worried mother, if he heard from his child? Where was his child? When would his child be coming home? Of course, neither man knew that Riayan was alive at the time, but he would soon die, in Baghdad. Did the recruiter take those 203 steps to get back to his parents with the news of his death? I believe Riayan took those 203 steps to get a better life.
Some ask, why would a Dominican die for the United States? Was the United States using the promise of expedited citizenship as a lure to bolster its front lines? A woman who gave her name only as Celeste paused in front of the sidewalk memorial to Sergeant Tejeda, muttered in Spanish that "he died for a country that wasn't even his," then she moved on.
Sergeant Tejeda served for more than eight years in the Marines, but was never able to became an American citizen. He was one of more than 37,000 legal permanent residents serving in the armed forces, according to the Defense Department, and one of many to be wounded or die during the invasion of this unjust Iraqi war. Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel, whose Congressional district includes Washington Heights. Mr. Capel said that Mr. Rangel would seek citizenship for the sergeant posthumously if his family desired it, but that so far no discussions with the family had taken place. Little was said about the fact that posthumous citizenship was a purely symbolic gesture with no rights or privileges accruing to the deceased person's family (Last week, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Ca) proposed automatic citizenship for the surviving spouse and children of non-citizen soldiers killed in battle and given posthumous citizenship).
More dead immigrants get citizenship
The role of immigrant soldiers received widespread attention when Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, who made his way from Guatemala to California when he was 14, became the second American soldier to die in the conflict. Several dead non-citizen soldiers, including Gutierrez and Garibay, also have been granted citizenship posthumously by the Department of Homeland Security.
Lots of immigrants in the service
As the United States confronted massive military, political and humanitarian tasks in Iraq, the nation's armed forces relied on thousands of other "green-card soldiers.'' They are part of the 37,401 non-citizen soldiers serving in the U.S. armed forces - the highest number since the Vietnam War.
Fast track immigrants to get into the service with no guarantees
The Bush administration had established a fast track naturalization process for foreign recruits in July 2002 as part of the "war on terror." Instead of waiting three years before applying for citizenship, green-card holders in the armed forces who entered after September 11, 2001 could apply immediately for citizenship. Such offers are often granted in limited form during periods of "military hostilities". In July, Bush signed an executive order allowing immigrants to apply immediately after joining the military. Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, has urged Bush to go even further and grant automatic citizenship to immigrant soldiers fighting in Iraq. Fat chance, Bush wants immigrant soldiers, without any strings attached.
Although the Bush Executive Order contained no guarantees that citizen status would be granted or even expedited, the rumor that automatic citizenship was being granted for military service began to circulate in Latino communities both here and abroad. The number of permanent resident enlistees jumped from 300 a month before the fast track reform to 1,300 a month. Mexican nationals reportedly flooded consulates attempting to volunteer. Just a rumor was enough for many to show their desire for a part of the U.S. dream.
Why there are many immigrants applying for military service?
One reason is that many have no jobs or just lost their jobs, because of the economy. Some lost their jobs because of the "war on terror". Non-citizens can't get a security clearance. It's the same reason why thousands of people lost their jobs after 9/11 as baggage handlers and security screeners in U.S. airports, after a new law made it illegal for non-citizens (even those with papers) to hold those jobs. A judge later dismissed that measure as unconstitutional.
Some risk the chance of dying to get an education
Both citizen and non-citizen recruits most often enlist as a way to get an education, seduced by the recruiters' promise of technical training or money for college contingent upon an honorable discharge. For the permanent residents who found themselves in Iraq, their round-about-path to college carried them, from Latin America to the U.S. to Baghdad, al-Nasiriyah, and Mosul. Some of them will not be attending classes as they and their families had hoped. Instead they serve on the front lines.
The hunting ground for recruits
Alongside the Bush incentive, the Pentagon, just like liquor and cigarette companies, have learned to pander to the poor. It pays off. The poor are desperate for a way out of the ghetto the barrio. The Pentagon launched a massive publicity campaign targeting the Hispanic market. "$30,000 for college" claimed the glitzy ads although the fine print did not point out that very few veterans would ever see such amounts of money. Nor was it mentioned that many studies show that people who go directly to college earn more money over the length of a career than those who enter the military first. "Education" became the recruiter's buzzword because the Pentagon had learned from studies contracted out to the Rand Corporation and other think tanks that Latino and Latina recruits joined the military primarily in search of "civilian job transferability."
It's not an answer in the long run.
Very few jobs, however, transfer over, for most Latinos, the exception perhaps, is careers in automotive repair, and law enforcement. Small arms expertise and truck driving, however, do not translate well into civilian success. For a majority of Latinos, military service does not close the economic gaps separating the majority of Latinos from the rest of society. It actually widens those gaps.
They just wanted an education
Latino and Latina GIs are no different from other poor youth drawn into the web spun by military recruiters. Many have fallen those buzzwords "Education" and "Citizenship". It has been widely reported that former POW Jessica Lynch, the daughter of a poor family from Appalachia, joined because she wanted to be a teacher. According to his former mentor, the young man from Guatemala, José Gutiérrez, joined the Marines to get an education. Twenty-one year old Francisco Martinez Flores, killed when his tank fell into the Euphrates, enlisted so that he could go to college and become a stockbroker or an FBI agent, according to his friends (Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03). In short, what motivated these young people to enlist was less the defense of "our freedom" or "honor" than it was simply to increase their access to a decent education and a better life, and for many, citizenship.
Some people just can't win!
"Due to national security and many other restrictions, non-citizen members of the military have only a small, select number of Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) to choose from when enlisting or re-enlisting. In all service branches, immigrants and non-citizens are over-represented in the field of infantry. They are most likely to be called first to the front lines. You can't handle our baggage but we'll let you handle point.
We will have grunts now instead of teachers or doctors.
So, young Latinos and Latinas are filling the lowest ranks of the military in the lowest-tech occupations. As they do so, the pipeline of Latino and Latina teachers, doctors, and other professionals continues to dry up, a fact that will have devastating consequences for their communities for decades to come. The barrios are bad now, in the future they are going to get worse.
Immigrant blood flows in the sand.
Immigrant blood has always been shed alongside their American counterparts. It now flows in the sands of the cradle of civilization, bound by the ancient waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. What can we say of the young Latinos who sacrifice their lives in Iraq? That they fought without knowing their enemy, played their role as pawns in a geopolitical chess game devised by an arrogant President, and died simply trying to get an education; trying to have a fair shot at the American Dream that has eluded the vast majority of Latinos for over a century and a half; dying as soldiers who just wanted to be students and citizens.
Look on the bright side. You might be an American citizen, after you're dead.
For Latinas and Latinos, the bestowal of posthumous citizenship is bitterly ironic. Do Mexican, Puerto Ricans, or Central American immigrants have to die to win the approval of the majority of American society? So, what is being said is "The only honorable immigrant is a dead immigrant soldier?" Or as an old Chicano ballad from the Viet Nam war put it: "Now should a man/Should he have to kill/In order to live/Like a human being/ In this country?" If Latinos were good enough for military service (so much so that the military academies continue to employ affirmative action policies), why were they not good enough to receive a decent education? Finally, how could one reconcile the fact that foreign nationals from Latin America were fighting with the U.S. military in Iraq at the same time that armed vigilante "ranchers" hunted Mexican workers along the Mexico-Arizona border for sport, just like animals?
The next time you see an immigrant cleaning your toilets, mopping your floors, making up your beds, or cooking your food, ask yourself could they have a loved one fighting for you? Are the people you see deserving of your contempt?
Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Sources cited:
Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel
Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03
The Miami Herald.
Brad Heath / The Detroit News
Pilar Marrero,
Pacific News Service, Apr 11, 2003
Los Angeles Officials Urge Immediate Citizenship for Immigrants in US Military
Mike O'Sullivan Los Angeles
Jorge Mariscal Viet Nam veteran
I read an article about the number of steps Riayan Tejeda took from his front door to the military recruiter's office. It was 206 steps from his Washington Heights apartment home. A violent drug trade dominated his Dominican neighborhood when Riayan was 14 . Two years later, the Heights erupted in several days of violence after a police shooting. In 206 steps he went from this hard knock life as a immigrant kid to become a U.S. Marine. He told his mother what he had done, and why: "You just watch me. I'm going to make something of my life."
Baghdad had collapsed, the statues of Hussein were toppled, and Bush was said to be giddy. Then, on April 11, in the messy mop-up after the assault on Baghdad, Sergeant Tejeda was killed in a firefight with some straggling Hussein loyalists. He was 26 years old, Riayan Tejeda almost made it. Just a couple of weeks before, Riayan's father took those same 203 steps to come into the recruiting office to ask the recruiting sergeant on behalf of Riayan's worried mother, if he heard from his child? Where was his child? When would his child be coming home? Of course, neither man knew that Riayan was alive at the time, but he would soon die, in Baghdad. Did the recruiter take those 203 steps to get back to his parents with the news of his death? I believe Riayan took those 203 steps to get a better life.
Some ask, why would a Dominican die for the United States? Was the United States using the promise of expedited citizenship as a lure to bolster its front lines? A woman who gave her name only as Celeste paused in front of the sidewalk memorial to Sergeant Tejeda, muttered in Spanish that "he died for a country that wasn't even his," then she moved on.
Sergeant Tejeda served for more than eight years in the Marines, but was never able to became an American citizen. He was one of more than 37,000 legal permanent residents serving in the armed forces, according to the Defense Department, and one of many to be wounded or die during the invasion of this unjust Iraqi war. Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel, whose Congressional district includes Washington Heights. Mr. Capel said that Mr. Rangel would seek citizenship for the sergeant posthumously if his family desired it, but that so far no discussions with the family had taken place. Little was said about the fact that posthumous citizenship was a purely symbolic gesture with no rights or privileges accruing to the deceased person's family (Last week, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Ca) proposed automatic citizenship for the surviving spouse and children of non-citizen soldiers killed in battle and given posthumous citizenship).
More dead immigrants get citizenship
The role of immigrant soldiers received widespread attention when Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, 22, who made his way from Guatemala to California when he was 14, became the second American soldier to die in the conflict. Several dead non-citizen soldiers, including Gutierrez and Garibay, also have been granted citizenship posthumously by the Department of Homeland Security.
Lots of immigrants in the service
As the United States confronted massive military, political and humanitarian tasks in Iraq, the nation's armed forces relied on thousands of other "green-card soldiers.'' They are part of the 37,401 non-citizen soldiers serving in the U.S. armed forces - the highest number since the Vietnam War.
Fast track immigrants to get into the service with no guarantees
The Bush administration had established a fast track naturalization process for foreign recruits in July 2002 as part of the "war on terror." Instead of waiting three years before applying for citizenship, green-card holders in the armed forces who entered after September 11, 2001 could apply immediately for citizenship. Such offers are often granted in limited form during periods of "military hostilities". In July, Bush signed an executive order allowing immigrants to apply immediately after joining the military. Cardinal Roger Mahony, leader of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest, has urged Bush to go even further and grant automatic citizenship to immigrant soldiers fighting in Iraq. Fat chance, Bush wants immigrant soldiers, without any strings attached.
Although the Bush Executive Order contained no guarantees that citizen status would be granted or even expedited, the rumor that automatic citizenship was being granted for military service began to circulate in Latino communities both here and abroad. The number of permanent resident enlistees jumped from 300 a month before the fast track reform to 1,300 a month. Mexican nationals reportedly flooded consulates attempting to volunteer. Just a rumor was enough for many to show their desire for a part of the U.S. dream.
Why there are many immigrants applying for military service?
One reason is that many have no jobs or just lost their jobs, because of the economy. Some lost their jobs because of the "war on terror". Non-citizens can't get a security clearance. It's the same reason why thousands of people lost their jobs after 9/11 as baggage handlers and security screeners in U.S. airports, after a new law made it illegal for non-citizens (even those with papers) to hold those jobs. A judge later dismissed that measure as unconstitutional.
Some risk the chance of dying to get an education
Both citizen and non-citizen recruits most often enlist as a way to get an education, seduced by the recruiters' promise of technical training or money for college contingent upon an honorable discharge. For the permanent residents who found themselves in Iraq, their round-about-path to college carried them, from Latin America to the U.S. to Baghdad, al-Nasiriyah, and Mosul. Some of them will not be attending classes as they and their families had hoped. Instead they serve on the front lines.
The hunting ground for recruits
Alongside the Bush incentive, the Pentagon, just like liquor and cigarette companies, have learned to pander to the poor. It pays off. The poor are desperate for a way out of the ghetto the barrio. The Pentagon launched a massive publicity campaign targeting the Hispanic market. "$30,000 for college" claimed the glitzy ads although the fine print did not point out that very few veterans would ever see such amounts of money. Nor was it mentioned that many studies show that people who go directly to college earn more money over the length of a career than those who enter the military first. "Education" became the recruiter's buzzword because the Pentagon had learned from studies contracted out to the Rand Corporation and other think tanks that Latino and Latina recruits joined the military primarily in search of "civilian job transferability."
It's not an answer in the long run.
Very few jobs, however, transfer over, for most Latinos, the exception perhaps, is careers in automotive repair, and law enforcement. Small arms expertise and truck driving, however, do not translate well into civilian success. For a majority of Latinos, military service does not close the economic gaps separating the majority of Latinos from the rest of society. It actually widens those gaps.
They just wanted an education
Latino and Latina GIs are no different from other poor youth drawn into the web spun by military recruiters. Many have fallen those buzzwords "Education" and "Citizenship". It has been widely reported that former POW Jessica Lynch, the daughter of a poor family from Appalachia, joined because she wanted to be a teacher. According to his former mentor, the young man from Guatemala, José Gutiérrez, joined the Marines to get an education. Twenty-one year old Francisco Martinez Flores, killed when his tank fell into the Euphrates, enlisted so that he could go to college and become a stockbroker or an FBI agent, according to his friends (Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03). In short, what motivated these young people to enlist was less the defense of "our freedom" or "honor" than it was simply to increase their access to a decent education and a better life, and for many, citizenship.
Some people just can't win!
"Due to national security and many other restrictions, non-citizen members of the military have only a small, select number of Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) to choose from when enlisting or re-enlisting. In all service branches, immigrants and non-citizens are over-represented in the field of infantry. They are most likely to be called first to the front lines. You can't handle our baggage but we'll let you handle point.
We will have grunts now instead of teachers or doctors.
So, young Latinos and Latinas are filling the lowest ranks of the military in the lowest-tech occupations. As they do so, the pipeline of Latino and Latina teachers, doctors, and other professionals continues to dry up, a fact that will have devastating consequences for their communities for decades to come. The barrios are bad now, in the future they are going to get worse.
Immigrant blood flows in the sand.
Immigrant blood has always been shed alongside their American counterparts. It now flows in the sands of the cradle of civilization, bound by the ancient waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. What can we say of the young Latinos who sacrifice their lives in Iraq? That they fought without knowing their enemy, played their role as pawns in a geopolitical chess game devised by an arrogant President, and died simply trying to get an education; trying to have a fair shot at the American Dream that has eluded the vast majority of Latinos for over a century and a half; dying as soldiers who just wanted to be students and citizens.
Look on the bright side. You might be an American citizen, after you're dead.
For Latinas and Latinos, the bestowal of posthumous citizenship is bitterly ironic. Do Mexican, Puerto Ricans, or Central American immigrants have to die to win the approval of the majority of American society? So, what is being said is "The only honorable immigrant is a dead immigrant soldier?" Or as an old Chicano ballad from the Viet Nam war put it: "Now should a man/Should he have to kill/In order to live/Like a human being/ In this country?" If Latinos were good enough for military service (so much so that the military academies continue to employ affirmative action policies), why were they not good enough to receive a decent education? Finally, how could one reconcile the fact that foreign nationals from Latin America were fighting with the U.S. military in Iraq at the same time that armed vigilante "ranchers" hunted Mexican workers along the Mexico-Arizona border for sport, just like animals?
The next time you see an immigrant cleaning your toilets, mopping your floors, making up your beds, or cooking your food, ask yourself could they have a loved one fighting for you? Are the people you see deserving of your contempt?
Happy Cinco de Mayo.
Sources cited:
Jim Capel, the New York chief of staff to Representative Charles Rangel
Betsy Streisand, "Latin Heroes," U.S. News and World Report, 4/14/03
The Miami Herald.
Brad Heath / The Detroit News
Pilar Marrero,
Pacific News Service, Apr 11, 2003
Los Angeles Officials Urge Immediate Citizenship for Immigrants in US Military
Mike O'Sullivan Los Angeles
Jorge Mariscal Viet Nam veteran
# posted by Thomas @ 12:53 AM
Sunday, May 04, 2003
A grateful president has a unique way of rewarding our armed services.
I wonder how warmly Bush would have been received if the sailors on that air craft carrier knew that Bush is pressuring Congress to pass his budget? A budget, which by the way, will cut over $25 billion from their veteran benefits and health care.
It seems like everything this guy touches is marked with deceit. I hope those sailors that shook his hand, checked to see if they still had their wallets afterwards.
Bush is the oily, slimy kind of guy that takes people's money, kills their dog, gets them fired, shoots their neighbors, and leaves the victims smiling afterwards. Are we stupid or is it that we just don't care?
I guess time will tell how long these future vets will hold Bush in high esteem. Should Bush's budget pass, how many of them will smile when they get that letter from the VA explaining the details of their slashed benefits package.
I said it before and I'll say it again. What a hypocrite! He sends our young men and women into combat and he wants to cut their health benefits and $150 million in school aid for their kids! But not worry, those people that have the fewest number of relatives in the armed services, known as "the rich" will get reduced taxes on their dividends.
Joe Fox Sr., head of Paralyzed Veterans of America, calls the cuts “an in-your-face insult to the veterans of this country.” The reduction will slam the poorest disabled veterans and cut GI Bill benefits for soldiers who are currently serving in Iraq. The plan could also mean the loss of 9,000 VA physicians in a shorthanded VA system.
How many of the reservists will have jobs when they come back? Many were already part of the 8.8 million unemployed workers before they were called up.
Besides loosing a lot of their benefits, the physically and the mentally wounded that come back, may also be unemployed and unemployable. Some reservists will not have jobs when they come back. Chances are, many were already part of the 8.8 million unemployed workers, before they were called up.
Do you think they'll put that on Government recruitment posters. "Join the army, avoid the army of the poor for a while anyway."
Sources cited:
BBC News
Joe Fox Sr., head of Paralyzed Veterans of America,
I wonder how warmly Bush would have been received if the sailors on that air craft carrier knew that Bush is pressuring Congress to pass his budget? A budget, which by the way, will cut over $25 billion from their veteran benefits and health care.
It seems like everything this guy touches is marked with deceit. I hope those sailors that shook his hand, checked to see if they still had their wallets afterwards.
Bush is the oily, slimy kind of guy that takes people's money, kills their dog, gets them fired, shoots their neighbors, and leaves the victims smiling afterwards. Are we stupid or is it that we just don't care?
I guess time will tell how long these future vets will hold Bush in high esteem. Should Bush's budget pass, how many of them will smile when they get that letter from the VA explaining the details of their slashed benefits package.
I said it before and I'll say it again. What a hypocrite! He sends our young men and women into combat and he wants to cut their health benefits and $150 million in school aid for their kids! But not worry, those people that have the fewest number of relatives in the armed services, known as "the rich" will get reduced taxes on their dividends.
Joe Fox Sr., head of Paralyzed Veterans of America, calls the cuts “an in-your-face insult to the veterans of this country.” The reduction will slam the poorest disabled veterans and cut GI Bill benefits for soldiers who are currently serving in Iraq. The plan could also mean the loss of 9,000 VA physicians in a shorthanded VA system.
How many of the reservists will have jobs when they come back? Many were already part of the 8.8 million unemployed workers before they were called up.
Besides loosing a lot of their benefits, the physically and the mentally wounded that come back, may also be unemployed and unemployable. Some reservists will not have jobs when they come back. Chances are, many were already part of the 8.8 million unemployed workers, before they were called up.
Do you think they'll put that on Government recruitment posters. "Join the army, avoid the army of the poor for a while anyway."
Sources cited:
BBC News
Joe Fox Sr., head of Paralyzed Veterans of America,
# posted by Thomas @ 10:50 PM
They are not all coming back alive, are they George.
Do you remember when our illustrious president gave Saddam" 48 hours to get out of town"? Some in Iraq have taken that same view of our soldiers in Iraq.
Last week week, over a dozen local Iraqi's were killed by U.S.-led troops, in the western town of Falluja. The town is calm for the moment as calls from some local religious leaders are vehement about the ouster of the military forces.
According to the locals. "This area never had any looting," said Salih Ahmed. "Everyone here knows everyone else and we live very quietly, so why are the Americans here? We don't need them"
"The people here are not part of any organization, but this area is very tribal and it's very opposed to the American troops being here in our district," said Mustafa Munem, one of a group of men discussing the situation on a street corner. Here is the part where it looks like they took a page out of the "George Bush Book of Diplomacy" and said "We have given the Americans a warning to go and gave them three days to leave Falluja." Sounds like Bush, doesn't it ? "You have 36 hours to get out of town " "Now git!"
According to UPI, the military has attempted to use the local cleric to ask for calm. As he spoke to a reporter, a U.S. Army Humvee drove down the main street of the town -- located just about an hour from Baghdad's city center -- and warned the people not to attack the Americans or throw stones. Overhead, Apache attacks helicopters and two OH-06 observation helicopters armed with chain-guns and rockets hovered within 50 yards of the crowd tracking their movements in anticipation of any trouble.
Several people said that the local cleric's calls for cooperation with the U.S. forces would be ignored. I don't think that cleric has much of a future there anymore, he may want to try for assylum.
"This sheikh is a coward, he is for America," said Mohammed, an older townsperson. "The true Muslim sheikh's have told us to fight the Americans. If they do not leave we will drive them out."
"This is democracy?" snarled one man to a reporter. "Is this liberation? This war was not against Saddam; it was for Israel and for oil. Bush is a cowboy and a criminal." Imagine, those people figured what Bush is, and many people in this country, don't have a clue. "We know the American and British people are good people, but they have been lied to by these criminals." "We will drive them out." I am glad that at least those Iraqis understand that not all of us are like Bush and his coalition of the uncaring.
When Mohammed, was asked by a reporter how the Americans would be forced to leave, he turned even grimmer. "Watch," he said. Sounds ominous, but I don't think they will evict the American troops. I do believe however, that there will be violence for a while. One grenade was thrown at a number of Coalition soldiers and it wounded seven Americans last week..
Nearly a dozen interviews by reporters echoed these sentiments of the Iraqis. The battle for the hearts and minds of Falluja seems to have been lost in a the deadly American gunfire earlier in the week.
Throughout the numerous Mosques, calls to prayer and sermons to the faithful included calls to oppose the Americans. Reporters did not hear any calls for cooperation. Friday noon sermons are typically the most important and political in the Muslim world. Locals continue displaying the weapons they have been stockpiling for use against the Americans to a reporter, including RPGs, AK-47s and grenades. Locals warned foreigners not be in the town on Sunday night, when a operation by some militants opponents of the occupation could be planned.
I read the reports from both sides of the skirmish that started all of this, and it seems like there were probably some Iraqi's shooting their guns in the air. They may or may have not been aiming the guns at the soldiers. None the less. 17 civilians were killed and many others were wounded. Seven Americans were wounded in a grenade attack afterwards. Sounds like a typical scenario from the West Bank.
Dear Georgie Boy,
During your major photo op on the deck of the aircraft carrier yesterday, you received a lot of applause from the carrier's sailors for bringing them back home. You didn't mention that many soldiers will not be coming home right away. The majority of our soldiers will remain there a while. Some will be coming home in body bags. However, in your defense, as you stood there, grinning from ear to ear on that deck with your presidential locks waving in the sea breeze, you didn't mention how, some were going to come back, did you Georgie Boy.
Sources Cited:
United Press International
Do you remember when our illustrious president gave Saddam" 48 hours to get out of town"? Some in Iraq have taken that same view of our soldiers in Iraq.
Last week week, over a dozen local Iraqi's were killed by U.S.-led troops, in the western town of Falluja. The town is calm for the moment as calls from some local religious leaders are vehement about the ouster of the military forces.
According to the locals. "This area never had any looting," said Salih Ahmed. "Everyone here knows everyone else and we live very quietly, so why are the Americans here? We don't need them"
"The people here are not part of any organization, but this area is very tribal and it's very opposed to the American troops being here in our district," said Mustafa Munem, one of a group of men discussing the situation on a street corner. Here is the part where it looks like they took a page out of the "George Bush Book of Diplomacy" and said "We have given the Americans a warning to go and gave them three days to leave Falluja." Sounds like Bush, doesn't it ? "You have 36 hours to get out of town " "Now git!"
According to UPI, the military has attempted to use the local cleric to ask for calm. As he spoke to a reporter, a U.S. Army Humvee drove down the main street of the town -- located just about an hour from Baghdad's city center -- and warned the people not to attack the Americans or throw stones. Overhead, Apache attacks helicopters and two OH-06 observation helicopters armed with chain-guns and rockets hovered within 50 yards of the crowd tracking their movements in anticipation of any trouble.
Several people said that the local cleric's calls for cooperation with the U.S. forces would be ignored. I don't think that cleric has much of a future there anymore, he may want to try for assylum.
"This sheikh is a coward, he is for America," said Mohammed, an older townsperson. "The true Muslim sheikh's have told us to fight the Americans. If they do not leave we will drive them out."
"This is democracy?" snarled one man to a reporter. "Is this liberation? This war was not against Saddam; it was for Israel and for oil. Bush is a cowboy and a criminal." Imagine, those people figured what Bush is, and many people in this country, don't have a clue. "We know the American and British people are good people, but they have been lied to by these criminals." "We will drive them out." I am glad that at least those Iraqis understand that not all of us are like Bush and his coalition of the uncaring.
When Mohammed, was asked by a reporter how the Americans would be forced to leave, he turned even grimmer. "Watch," he said. Sounds ominous, but I don't think they will evict the American troops. I do believe however, that there will be violence for a while. One grenade was thrown at a number of Coalition soldiers and it wounded seven Americans last week..
Nearly a dozen interviews by reporters echoed these sentiments of the Iraqis. The battle for the hearts and minds of Falluja seems to have been lost in a the deadly American gunfire earlier in the week.
Throughout the numerous Mosques, calls to prayer and sermons to the faithful included calls to oppose the Americans. Reporters did not hear any calls for cooperation. Friday noon sermons are typically the most important and political in the Muslim world. Locals continue displaying the weapons they have been stockpiling for use against the Americans to a reporter, including RPGs, AK-47s and grenades. Locals warned foreigners not be in the town on Sunday night, when a operation by some militants opponents of the occupation could be planned.
I read the reports from both sides of the skirmish that started all of this, and it seems like there were probably some Iraqi's shooting their guns in the air. They may or may have not been aiming the guns at the soldiers. None the less. 17 civilians were killed and many others were wounded. Seven Americans were wounded in a grenade attack afterwards. Sounds like a typical scenario from the West Bank.
Dear Georgie Boy,
During your major photo op on the deck of the aircraft carrier yesterday, you received a lot of applause from the carrier's sailors for bringing them back home. You didn't mention that many soldiers will not be coming home right away. The majority of our soldiers will remain there a while. Some will be coming home in body bags. However, in your defense, as you stood there, grinning from ear to ear on that deck with your presidential locks waving in the sea breeze, you didn't mention how, some were going to come back, did you Georgie Boy.
Sources Cited:
United Press International
# posted by Thomas @ 2:45 AM
Friday, May 02, 2003
Now that Bush has waged and ended his war with two "evil doer" nations, do you really feel safer?
If thieves were able to break into museums and remove priceless artifacts under the noses of our military, could someone have also removed weapons of mass destruction too? By the way, When a soldier was asked to go and safeguard the museum, one Iraqi was told "it's not my job." You can some men out of the workplace, but you can't take the workplace out of some men.
The way that we invaded Iraq under false premises, do you think that we created fewer or more radical islamic terrorists? I guess if you count the number of Ak47s and divide by the number of of specially printed Korans with an index on how to make explosives, it might give you a terrorist index to start with. xAk's/Radical Islamists. Multiply it by the number of Rumsfield threats to mideast nations per week. You then get (Rummy Rants * xAK's) per (Radical Islamists * Week). This can be reduced to [Rummy RantsxAK47's/Radical IslamicWeek]. I have to take a break now, I need my meds.
Ok, I'm back now and I feel much better, where was I, oh yea.
Do you think that there is enough resentment by our old allies that they may start looking the other way when it comes to their help with the apprehension of terrorists? Many countries have supplied unprecedented cooperation in finding radical terror cells right after September 11th.I don't know how well we are thought of now. "Andre' is that c4 in that bag?" "No "mon ami" I saw nothing, nothing, nothing." "Have a nice trip to New York Mr. Mohammed."
Do you believe that some of the billions and billions of dollars being spent in Iraq could have been better spent on beefing up homeland security instead? The States have not received the money the federal government promised them so far. So other services are being cut, sometimes those services are from police and fire departments. Will I soon see Firemen at street corners with "Will Work For Gas Masks" signs.
Do you think the forced cataloging and profiling of immigrants from the Middle East makes them more or less friendly to the US? Do they feel like they are being treated fairly? Will some of them get fed up enough to do something drastic? If you hear the following phrase, run! " My life has turned to shit because I am from the Mideast! "
Does the United States' undermining of the UN and refusal to join in any and all international agreements make you feel like countries around the world will watch our backs after we refuse to help them? You think the UN security counsel will pass our requests for resolutions without serious debate and compromises on our part? I'll trade you one "oil for food" for "rebuilding the iraq telephone system" and Park Place.
Do you feel like we have isolated ourselves so much, that people around the world would not bother crossing the street to help us? Are you interested in starting a business overseas to take advantage of cheap labor? How is your Mc Donald's franchise in France, doing, Mr Jones"
If you traveled overseas tomorrow would you tell people there you are American or would you claim you alive in Toronto? So much for freedom of travel. Visit Michigan instead.
Has Islamic fundamentalists just expanded their base as they rushed in to fill the void America created when Saddam was toppled? The long oppressed Shiites represent over 60% of the population in Iraq. Don't you think this self professed anti-american faction, will have a very strong voice in the new government? Will it make you feel safe if a "Tailiban" type of government comes into power? What's one more invasion, besides we already know where the good restaurants are.
Does the continuing erosion of "freedoms" in America coming from Patriot Act I and Patriot Act II make you feel like you are free. Does it make you feel safer that our administration divides everyone neatly into "you are either with us or against us". Does it make you feel you can question ANY Government policies, without being called anti-American and unpatriotic? Ask people who have been put on "no fly" lists by the government. Ask the Dixie Chicks, Tim Robbins and others who are being threatened physically and financially for their views. "Sie erlernen, das Furer zu begrüssen". (You will learn to salute the Fuhrer.)
Do you have more freedom with an administration that wants to limit women's rights, affirmative action, sex education, research into stem cell to help seriously handicapped people, while promoting prayer in your children's school regardless of your faith, promoting assault rifles, 50 mm guns for private use, and unrestricted gun ownership? Do you feel safer with more guns on the street? Remember, "Guns don't Kill People, People Kill People. "and NRA people will give up their assault weapons when you pry them from their cold dead hands! Does anyone have a crowbar? No, I don't want to pry the weapons from their hands, I want to use it to knock some sense into their thick skulls and I need something heavy. Their heads are thicker than most.
Do you feel more secure in you job? If you still have one. Has Bush done everything possible to help you feel secure in your employment? Let's put it this way how confident are you that you will have a job to come back to if take a long vacation?
So, tell me now, has Bush made you feel safer so far? By the way, send me your gas mask, if you are not using it.
If thieves were able to break into museums and remove priceless artifacts under the noses of our military, could someone have also removed weapons of mass destruction too? By the way, When a soldier was asked to go and safeguard the museum, one Iraqi was told "it's not my job." You can some men out of the workplace, but you can't take the workplace out of some men.
The way that we invaded Iraq under false premises, do you think that we created fewer or more radical islamic terrorists? I guess if you count the number of Ak47s and divide by the number of of specially printed Korans with an index on how to make explosives, it might give you a terrorist index to start with. xAk's/Radical Islamists. Multiply it by the number of Rumsfield threats to mideast nations per week. You then get (Rummy Rants * xAK's) per (Radical Islamists * Week). This can be reduced to [Rummy RantsxAK47's/Radical IslamicWeek]. I have to take a break now, I need my meds.
Ok, I'm back now and I feel much better, where was I, oh yea.
Do you think that there is enough resentment by our old allies that they may start looking the other way when it comes to their help with the apprehension of terrorists? Many countries have supplied unprecedented cooperation in finding radical terror cells right after September 11th.I don't know how well we are thought of now. "Andre' is that c4 in that bag?" "No "mon ami" I saw nothing, nothing, nothing." "Have a nice trip to New York Mr. Mohammed."
Do you believe that some of the billions and billions of dollars being spent in Iraq could have been better spent on beefing up homeland security instead? The States have not received the money the federal government promised them so far. So other services are being cut, sometimes those services are from police and fire departments. Will I soon see Firemen at street corners with "Will Work For Gas Masks" signs.
Do you think the forced cataloging and profiling of immigrants from the Middle East makes them more or less friendly to the US? Do they feel like they are being treated fairly? Will some of them get fed up enough to do something drastic? If you hear the following phrase, run! " My life has turned to shit because I am from the Mideast! "
Does the United States' undermining of the UN and refusal to join in any and all international agreements make you feel like countries around the world will watch our backs after we refuse to help them? You think the UN security counsel will pass our requests for resolutions without serious debate and compromises on our part? I'll trade you one "oil for food" for "rebuilding the iraq telephone system" and Park Place.
Do you feel like we have isolated ourselves so much, that people around the world would not bother crossing the street to help us? Are you interested in starting a business overseas to take advantage of cheap labor? How is your Mc Donald's franchise in France, doing, Mr Jones"
If you traveled overseas tomorrow would you tell people there you are American or would you claim you alive in Toronto? So much for freedom of travel. Visit Michigan instead.
Has Islamic fundamentalists just expanded their base as they rushed in to fill the void America created when Saddam was toppled? The long oppressed Shiites represent over 60% of the population in Iraq. Don't you think this self professed anti-american faction, will have a very strong voice in the new government? Will it make you feel safe if a "Tailiban" type of government comes into power? What's one more invasion, besides we already know where the good restaurants are.
Does the continuing erosion of "freedoms" in America coming from Patriot Act I and Patriot Act II make you feel like you are free. Does it make you feel safer that our administration divides everyone neatly into "you are either with us or against us". Does it make you feel you can question ANY Government policies, without being called anti-American and unpatriotic? Ask people who have been put on "no fly" lists by the government. Ask the Dixie Chicks, Tim Robbins and others who are being threatened physically and financially for their views. "Sie erlernen, das Furer zu begrüssen". (You will learn to salute the Fuhrer.)
Do you have more freedom with an administration that wants to limit women's rights, affirmative action, sex education, research into stem cell to help seriously handicapped people, while promoting prayer in your children's school regardless of your faith, promoting assault rifles, 50 mm guns for private use, and unrestricted gun ownership? Do you feel safer with more guns on the street? Remember, "Guns don't Kill People, People Kill People. "and NRA people will give up their assault weapons when you pry them from their cold dead hands! Does anyone have a crowbar? No, I don't want to pry the weapons from their hands, I want to use it to knock some sense into their thick skulls and I need something heavy. Their heads are thicker than most.
Do you feel more secure in you job? If you still have one. Has Bush done everything possible to help you feel secure in your employment? Let's put it this way how confident are you that you will have a job to come back to if take a long vacation?
So, tell me now, has Bush made you feel safer so far? By the way, send me your gas mask, if you are not using it.
# posted by Thomas @ 11:20 PM
Bush our Hero
Watching Bush in a flight suit makes me physically ill. How he can compare himself to those who bravely serve in the military, is amazing to me. It makes a mockery of the armed services. Here is a US President who sends thousands of American men and women in harm’s way. a duty he ducked while he was under oath to fight for his country
Bush has often bragged about his service record, but through the freedom of information act, his actual service record is very different than what has been presented during his campaign efforts for public service.
According to the Washington Post, Bush was 12 days away from losing his student deferment and the Vietnam war was going hot and heavy then. Hundreds of kids were being killed every week. A lot of students were trying to find ways of getting out of the draft. Some went to Canada, some would actually maim themselves to avoid getting drafted. A lot of kids joined the National Guard right away. It was a "primo" alternative to actually serving in a shooting war. The waiting list to get into the guard was extremely long for that same reason. They easily got their quota of men. Many waited quite a while to even get a chance to qualify. A lot of them did not make it. The list for fresh bodies needed in the war was shorter than the list for a National Guard spots. The list of people waiting to get into the Air Guard was much longer than all others.
Two weeks before Georgie was to graduate from Yale, George Walker Bush stepped into the offices of the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington Field outside Houston and announced that he wanted to sign up for pilot training
George's father was a congressman from Houston at the time, so it was no problem getting him to the front of the line. He received what some called "Special Consideration". Newsweek reported on July 9, 2000 that the Bush campaign "launched a secretive research operation designed to scour all records relating to his Vietnam-era service" during preparation for Bush's 1998 re-election campaign. They paid "hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers" $19,000 to review the records. According to Newsweek, one result of her work was to deflect charges that former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes helped Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard despite low qualifications and a long waiting list. Barnes was later forced to testify under oath that he helped Bush.
Back at the ranch, George went to Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts to take the Air Force Officers Qualification Test He scored 25 percent on a "pilot aptitude" test and 50 percent for navigator aptitude . It was the lowest acceptable grade. Bush was sworn in as an airman the same day he applied. His commander, was Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt of the 147th Fighter Group. George agreed to spend almost two years in flight training and another four years in part-time service.
In late November, Bush was sent to Moody Air Force Base outside Valdosta, Ga., for a year-long undergraduate flight school. In the middle of his training, President Richard M. Nixon sent a plane down to fetch him for an introductory date with his older daughter Tricia, according to fellow trainee Joseph A. Chaney. It did not lead to another date. She must have been uggggggly. Rep. Bush wound up giving the commencement speech.
According to reports by the Boston Globe, Bush stopped flying only 22 months later in April 1972. He was subsequently grounded from flight on August 1, 1972 because he "failed to accomplish his annual physical." There is no mention of the grounding in Bush's biography. Imagine that! When questioned by the press, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett has offered several different reasons for this grounding. Initially Bartlett said that Bush could not get to Houston for his physical, but this was proved wrong when it was shown that Bush could have visited flight surgeons stationed in Alabama. Bartlett then said the F-102 fighter that Bush was trained to fly was removed from service, but this was proved wrong when it was shown that the F-102 remained in service in Bush's unit for two more years. The smart money was on the speculation, that Bush skipped his annual physical in 1972 because the Pentagon that year imposed random drug testing for the first time, and Bush feared he would fail the exam. Bush has admitted drinking heavily at the time, and has refused to deny using cocaine before 1974. Similar allegations have been reported in the Times of London and the New York Post. More "Special Consideration"??
In May 1972, with two years to go on his six-year commitment to the Guard, Bush moved to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign. He asked if he could do his Guard duty there. This son-of-a-congressman and fighter pilot won permission to do "equivalent training" at a unit that had no aircraft and no pilots. The national Air Reserve office then disallowed this transfer. For months, Bush did nothing for the Guard. In September 1972, he won permission to train with a unit in Montgomery. But the commander of the unit and his administrative officer told the Boston Globe that they had no recollection of Bush ever reporting for duty. And when Bush returned to Texas after the November election, he did not return to his unit for months, according to his military records. His annual performance report, dated May 2, 1973, noted he had "not been observed at this unit" for the past year. In May, June and July of that year, he did pull 36 days of duty. And then, as he was on his way to Harvard Business School, he received permission to end his Guard service early. Even More "Special Consideraton"???
The records suggest Bush skipped out on the Guard for about a year. (And during that time he had failed to submit to an annual physical and lost his flight status.) A campaign spokesperson said Bush recalled doing duty in Alabama and "coming back to Houston and doing duty." But Bush never provided any real proof he had. Asked by a reporter if he remembered what work he had done in Alabama, he said, "No, I really don't."
A fair assumption was that he had gamed the system and avoided a year of service, before wiggling out of the Guard nearly a year before his time was up. It looked as if he had served four, not six years. The Boston Globe obtained copies of Bush's military records and discovered that he had stopped flying during his final 18 months of service in 1972 and 1973. More curious, the records showed Bush had not reported for Guard duty during a long stretch of that period.
Say, it isn't so! Our leader was AWOL! I wonder why he was not prosecuted under military law? I think the phrase "SPECIAL CONSIDERATION" has a lot to do with it.
When he enlisted in the Texas Air Guard, Bush had signed a pledge stating he would complete his pilot training and then "return to my unit and fulfill my obligation to the utmost of my ability." Instead, he received flight training--at the government's expense--and then cut out on his unit. According to National Guard guidelines "He had not been faithful to the Guard". " The bottom line is that George W. Bush lied and ducked out of his committment to the Armed Services.
So, we can surmise that he is lier, and a coward, two outstanding qualities for a "chicken hawk politician"
Bush took a solemn oath while the United States was waging war in Indochina to serve his country in the Texas Air National Guard. He did not honor that oath, He ran away, using his father to cover his chicken hawk ass.
Bush looked quite heroic hopping out of that plane dressed in a flight suit and striding across the flight deck. I am sure we will see him in that flight suit until the November election. What imagery. The problem is that the image is obviously distorted when you know him to be a lier and a coward. I can forgive him being a lier. He is a politician, but why does he have to soil the uniform of brave men and women.
This wasn't just a campaign stunt? Was it? Bush wouldn't waste taxpayer money and exploit the death of thousands of Iraqis and the 128 American lives, for crass political advantage. Sure, And Georgie boy really did serve honorably in the Guard.
Sources Cited:
Washington Post
Boston Globe
Newsweek
Times of London
The New York Post
Watching Bush in a flight suit makes me physically ill. How he can compare himself to those who bravely serve in the military, is amazing to me. It makes a mockery of the armed services. Here is a US President who sends thousands of American men and women in harm’s way. a duty he ducked while he was under oath to fight for his country
Bush has often bragged about his service record, but through the freedom of information act, his actual service record is very different than what has been presented during his campaign efforts for public service.
According to the Washington Post, Bush was 12 days away from losing his student deferment and the Vietnam war was going hot and heavy then. Hundreds of kids were being killed every week. A lot of students were trying to find ways of getting out of the draft. Some went to Canada, some would actually maim themselves to avoid getting drafted. A lot of kids joined the National Guard right away. It was a "primo" alternative to actually serving in a shooting war. The waiting list to get into the guard was extremely long for that same reason. They easily got their quota of men. Many waited quite a while to even get a chance to qualify. A lot of them did not make it. The list for fresh bodies needed in the war was shorter than the list for a National Guard spots. The list of people waiting to get into the Air Guard was much longer than all others.
Two weeks before Georgie was to graduate from Yale, George Walker Bush stepped into the offices of the Texas Air National Guard at Ellington Field outside Houston and announced that he wanted to sign up for pilot training
George's father was a congressman from Houston at the time, so it was no problem getting him to the front of the line. He received what some called "Special Consideration". Newsweek reported on July 9, 2000 that the Bush campaign "launched a secretive research operation designed to scour all records relating to his Vietnam-era service" during preparation for Bush's 1998 re-election campaign. They paid "hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers" $19,000 to review the records. According to Newsweek, one result of her work was to deflect charges that former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes helped Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard despite low qualifications and a long waiting list. Barnes was later forced to testify under oath that he helped Bush.
Back at the ranch, George went to Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts to take the Air Force Officers Qualification Test He scored 25 percent on a "pilot aptitude" test and 50 percent for navigator aptitude . It was the lowest acceptable grade. Bush was sworn in as an airman the same day he applied. His commander, was Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt of the 147th Fighter Group. George agreed to spend almost two years in flight training and another four years in part-time service.
In late November, Bush was sent to Moody Air Force Base outside Valdosta, Ga., for a year-long undergraduate flight school. In the middle of his training, President Richard M. Nixon sent a plane down to fetch him for an introductory date with his older daughter Tricia, according to fellow trainee Joseph A. Chaney. It did not lead to another date. She must have been uggggggly. Rep. Bush wound up giving the commencement speech.
According to reports by the Boston Globe, Bush stopped flying only 22 months later in April 1972. He was subsequently grounded from flight on August 1, 1972 because he "failed to accomplish his annual physical." There is no mention of the grounding in Bush's biography. Imagine that! When questioned by the press, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett has offered several different reasons for this grounding. Initially Bartlett said that Bush could not get to Houston for his physical, but this was proved wrong when it was shown that Bush could have visited flight surgeons stationed in Alabama. Bartlett then said the F-102 fighter that Bush was trained to fly was removed from service, but this was proved wrong when it was shown that the F-102 remained in service in Bush's unit for two more years. The smart money was on the speculation, that Bush skipped his annual physical in 1972 because the Pentagon that year imposed random drug testing for the first time, and Bush feared he would fail the exam. Bush has admitted drinking heavily at the time, and has refused to deny using cocaine before 1974. Similar allegations have been reported in the Times of London and the New York Post. More "Special Consideration"??
In May 1972, with two years to go on his six-year commitment to the Guard, Bush moved to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign. He asked if he could do his Guard duty there. This son-of-a-congressman and fighter pilot won permission to do "equivalent training" at a unit that had no aircraft and no pilots. The national Air Reserve office then disallowed this transfer. For months, Bush did nothing for the Guard. In September 1972, he won permission to train with a unit in Montgomery. But the commander of the unit and his administrative officer told the Boston Globe that they had no recollection of Bush ever reporting for duty. And when Bush returned to Texas after the November election, he did not return to his unit for months, according to his military records. His annual performance report, dated May 2, 1973, noted he had "not been observed at this unit" for the past year. In May, June and July of that year, he did pull 36 days of duty. And then, as he was on his way to Harvard Business School, he received permission to end his Guard service early. Even More "Special Consideraton"???
The records suggest Bush skipped out on the Guard for about a year. (And during that time he had failed to submit to an annual physical and lost his flight status.) A campaign spokesperson said Bush recalled doing duty in Alabama and "coming back to Houston and doing duty." But Bush never provided any real proof he had. Asked by a reporter if he remembered what work he had done in Alabama, he said, "No, I really don't."
A fair assumption was that he had gamed the system and avoided a year of service, before wiggling out of the Guard nearly a year before his time was up. It looked as if he had served four, not six years. The Boston Globe obtained copies of Bush's military records and discovered that he had stopped flying during his final 18 months of service in 1972 and 1973. More curious, the records showed Bush had not reported for Guard duty during a long stretch of that period.
Say, it isn't so! Our leader was AWOL! I wonder why he was not prosecuted under military law? I think the phrase "SPECIAL CONSIDERATION" has a lot to do with it.
When he enlisted in the Texas Air Guard, Bush had signed a pledge stating he would complete his pilot training and then "return to my unit and fulfill my obligation to the utmost of my ability." Instead, he received flight training--at the government's expense--and then cut out on his unit. According to National Guard guidelines "He had not been faithful to the Guard". " The bottom line is that George W. Bush lied and ducked out of his committment to the Armed Services.
So, we can surmise that he is lier, and a coward, two outstanding qualities for a "chicken hawk politician"
Bush took a solemn oath while the United States was waging war in Indochina to serve his country in the Texas Air National Guard. He did not honor that oath, He ran away, using his father to cover his chicken hawk ass.
Bush looked quite heroic hopping out of that plane dressed in a flight suit and striding across the flight deck. I am sure we will see him in that flight suit until the November election. What imagery. The problem is that the image is obviously distorted when you know him to be a lier and a coward. I can forgive him being a lier. He is a politician, but why does he have to soil the uniform of brave men and women.
This wasn't just a campaign stunt? Was it? Bush wouldn't waste taxpayer money and exploit the death of thousands of Iraqis and the 128 American lives, for crass political advantage. Sure, And Georgie boy really did serve honorably in the Guard.
Sources Cited:
Washington Post
Boston Globe
Newsweek
Times of London
The New York Post
# posted by Thomas @ 12:51 AM
