~
terra cimmeria: i said earlier that there would be 2000 dead troops in iraq by xmas?
xxxxxxx xx xxx: y
terra cimmeria: it looks like it will be halloween, instead

~ to mark this milestone, some u.s. senators who voted for invasion of iraq -when it was perceived by them to be the politically popular thing to do – mention that, now that the u.s. has failed to secure a victory, and the president’s 37% approval rating means it is safe for them to criticize him, they were ‘misled’ into believing that the war was a great idea, because the administration told them so:

dodd of ct:
‘had i known then what i know now, the answer would have been ‘no’, categorically’

feinstein of ca:
‘had i known that the intelligence that i reviewed in a classified form and in a nonclassified form was both bad and wrong, i would not have voted’

do they really take everything the administration says at face value? do we need senators who are this trusting and ingenuous? are u.s. senators really this fucking blockheaded? maybe feinstein should have been reading the papers that these people were reading, because two and a half years later, they are still right, and she is wrong.

~ at least, however, kurds can wear pleated pants in public:

“It wasn’t all that long ago if he had of worn this outfit and was captured by Saddam Hussein’s thugs he would have been killed for wearing it,” Bush said. “He feels comfortable wearing it here because we’re a free land.”

~ now that the death toll from the latest of the daily suicide attacks in iraq has passed 90, it seems that the u.s. state department is not interested in the iraqi flag for a day, cnn is not publishing ‘chilling’ cctv images taken of the bombers before the attack, and there won’t be two minutes of silence as big ben tolls at noon.

~
once lance armstrong retires, americans will not be interested in cycling tournaments in france, so we are working on a ‘tour de phila‘ schedule for next summer; we don’t have any alps or pyrenees, but we can use the rim-bending potholes on 21st and south streets, clueless students standing in bike lanes (on cellphones), car doors opening two feet ahead, 400 degree exhaust from buses, taxis making right turns across path, bikes stolen between stages, and that guy we shouldered on chestnut at 11pm.

~ re: london

Suicide bombers kill at least 33 in Iraq
25 die, dozens hurt in attack on Baghdad military recruiting center

-MSNBC News Services, July 10, 2005

reports state that the g8 leaders did not release a statement praising the resolve of the folks in baghdad; amercians, finns, and germans are not placing candles and flowers outside their respective iraqi embassies; no one is leaving well wishes and prayers on the craigslist baghdad rant and rave; australian parliament did not hold moment of silence for the victims; there are no cute headlines such as ‘baghdad calling’.

~ colin powell is still a tool. everyone in the world knows that he was lying when he told the united nations that iraq had weapons of mass destruction, so why does he think that he has any credibility when now telling us that iran is about to break off some nuclear weapons? he could have quit without making himself look like a whore, but they made him throw in one more trick. even if he thinks it is really true this time, the sad fact is all the morons in this country who get their news from brit hume and toby keith will commence freaking out that the iranians are coming to cut off their heads and burn some bibles with nuclear bombs if we don’t put a boot up their asses with all expediency. colin powell is a dick.

~ to the clueless freaks who think that the fact that the bushes are hanging out at clinton’s library opening is proof that this country isn’t divided because ‘red’ and ‘blue’ can come together at a photo op in little rock, need to be clued in on something; they can ‘come together’ for this event because it doesn’t mean shit. we aren’t talking about reforming health care or killing people in iraq; we are talking about posing for cameras and watching bush sr checking out chelsea in a leather skirt. when they come together on enacting policy that does anything but serve to strengthen the relative positions of their political machines, then you can sing their praises. grinning together like idiots in little rock is hollow, self-serving bullshit; if clinton had any testicular fortitude he would not have invited them and would have invited wrk.grp [w] to frame his work.

~ iyad allawi claims that no civilians have been killed in falljuah! more on the iraqification of vietnam:

“anyone who runs is a VC. anyone who stands still is a well disciplined VC”

~ colin powell has resigned, which should surprise no one. we await the deluge of liberal whining that with powell goes the only moderate voice of reason on bush’s cabinet. we say that this ‘moderate’ prick had the chance to stand up for what he knew to be true and right many times, especially before walking into the united nations and wittingly lying to the whole world about iraq’s weaponry, but he chose to sell out and tow the company line as the obedient soldier he has been trained to be – although, one might consider him to be a sellout since the days when he attempted to cover up the my lai massacre. good riddance; now bring us condi rice’s head (figuratively, of course).

~ our wordpress [w] install is finally getting hit with as much casino and finance spam as movable type. we have instituted a solution that involves the automatic deletion of a comment based upon the appearance of certain words. we will not tell you what they are, so if your comment doesn’t appear, get a thesaurus and try a new combination. combat comment spam [w] may help some of y’all other wordpress users clean up your site.

~ brilliant:

The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians. – independent

~ we are skeptical about the feasibility of the ‘boycott for equality’ [w] plan and about the reliability of amercians when it comes to remembering not to purchase things, but we do like gays and we do like reduction of consumption, so we figure we”ll take part. all you have to do is refrain from buying crap and/or take all your money from an atm (deposit it the next day). there are more particulars at the site.
our skepticism arises when we acknowledge that we will still be buying the same amount of goods for our debate-party vegan dip; we will just have to do so on thursday night.

~ we also acknowledge that it is lame and otherwise disappointing that john barrow has declared his support for federal jurisdiction over marriage. again georgia has a choice between a piece of shit republican and a piece of shit democrat. yet people still wonder why the angry red planet votes for nader.

~ let’s not shit ourselves, but more on the aforementioned possibility that georgia might bring it, backed up with numbers, is written up in creative loafing [w]

~ “The people who told us That two and two is ten Are now trying to tell us That two and two is five” –bbragg.

thanks to paul bremer for informing us that there were not enough troops in iraq to keep the peace and to prevent looting and the ensuing insurgency. even if john kerry hadn’t told us this last week, most of us could tell there were not enough troops after the invasion because we noticed that the peace was not kept whilst looting and insurgency ensued. the low number of troops was donald rumsfeld’s great idea; he spent a lot of time admonishing retired generals and armchair napoleons who said that the forces were insufficient. perhaps he will now admit that he screwed up by trashing the powell doctrine?

well, for rumsfeld’s part, he decided instead to throw in his information that “[he has] not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two” concerning Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. is not this pretty much what we learned from the new yorker and alternet and the nation and common dreams over two years ago? even teenagers in silver body paint on the streets of new york seemed to have this knowledge years before these old men in ties and jackets.

why do security moms still think that this party is competent to either pursue the war on terror or unravel the quagmire in iraq? the republicans are more interested in micromanaging the conflict with an eye on defense contractors profit margins (see bush’s debate comment that it is too expensive to inspect cargo on planes and ships for bombs or nuclear material) than in achieving victory.

~ there is nothing but hollowness in bush and cheney”s latest desperate attempts to slag kerry by saying that he is unfit to lead because he did not “respect” iyad alawi. their words are hollow because alawi deserves no respect; he is a ruthless killer picked from iraq”s secret police to serve as our strongman. americans shouldn”t think for a moment that this guy is a respectable ally*; the guy is a blood-stained dirtbag and everyone in iraq knows it; the moment our troops and mercenaries aren”t propping him up, expect to see that guy hanging from a bridge over the tigris.

*we will not note the irony of bush”s contrived indignation at the unkind words towards alawi, considering the treatment that real allies like france and germany have received from the bush administration.

~ furthermore, bush is continuing to lie:

“Fewer Iraqi security forces will be fully trained by the end of this year than cited by President Bush…according to Pentagon documents. The documents show that of the nearly 90,000 currently in the police force, only 8,169 have had the full eight-week academy training.” –Reuters

~ as if to drive home our point that they* will say any crazy thing to make us believe that night is day and that cats are dogs, our secretary of defense spins this web:

“We had something like 200 or 300 or 400 people killed in many of the major cities of America last year. Is it perfectly peaceful? No. What’s the difference? We just didn’t see each homicide in every major city in the United States on television every night.” –donald rumsfeld

what is the punchline here? that there is a difference between random urban crime and methodical mechanized killing of 1,040+ dead american troops and 10,000+ iraqi civilians? or is it that if we shouldn’t be concerned about the death in iraq then by extension we must also think it acceptable that “200 or 300 or 400” citizens are killed in our cities each year?

remember when we used to employ eunuchs to guard our harems? a similar tactic should be used for secretaries of defense; it is not necessary that they be castrated, but rather they need to not be deranged psychos who don’t let death weigh heavily on their consciences.

* republicans, conservatives, evangelicals, neocons, fundamentalists, right wing are not always the same thing; we need a term than encompasses all of them, the way ‘liberal’ has been reconstructed to mean anything that ‘the right’ thinks is bad.

~ tom tomorrow [w], of all people, has compiled some links that lead one to believe that there were (are?) kids being abused by u.s. troops in abu ghraib prison, including a teenage girl who was made to strip off her clothes. if true, i wonder if rush limbaugh will call this a fraternity prank, as well.

~ the torn and seared flesh on our hands has greatly hindered our sticker project.