Misguided policy makers in the United States have previously tried to get approval to attack Iran in January 05 and 06. In both these cases the Iran hawks were turned away from their disasterous undertaking by a chorus of dissent from all our allies, most of the people in Congress and most of our seated and retired generals.
This time, the attack Iran lobby knows that going in. Therefore, they may have arranged for Israel to bomb Iran and for the US to join the party after Israel gets it started. This would bypass any Congressional approval because the war would already be on once Israel dropped our bunker buster bombs on Iran, Iran retaliated in any way, and the US responded from it's aircraft carriers and subs in the Gulf. It would be too late for Congress to disapprove.
Since this nefarious plan requires that Israel light the fuse, then the planners in Israel's War Cabinet must be stopped. The best way for the Netroots to do this is for each member to contact his Congressional representatives urging them to inform Israel that if it attacks Iran Congress will withdraw it's generous funding of billions per year to Israel. The most effective way to stop this potential Armageddon is to tell Israel not to pull the trigger.
Amongst the different propositions being discussed in Washington concerning Iraq, "a return to bases" is one of many options. It is the option that will be eventually adopted because it's the only semi solution to a disaster.
The disaster is that the US cannot exert the authority in the country that it asserts. In other words, the US is no longer an effective actor in the chaos of Iraq. The US army has been reduced to only protecting itself.
While the above might ague for a complete withdrawal from Iraq, I propose that a "return to bases" strategy is the right middle ground option. Number one, by returning to strongly fortified bases the US Army and Marines will drastically reduce their casualties. They will cease interfering in what is going on in the street in Iraq. The bases required could be manned by a total of 50,000 to 60,000 troops, a drastic reduction of the 140,000 currently deployed.
So why have the 50,000 to 60,000 troops there at all if they are only protecting themselves in their fortified bases?
The force that is tearing apart the Muslim world is better called Islamoanarchy than Islamofascism. Islamoanarchy is the force that has harmed so many people in the world, especially Muslim women. Islamoanarchy allows any Muslim to act as theological judge, jury and executioner for any "crime" that offends his personal interpretation of Islam.
The Islamoanarchist feels free to murder his daughter who marries for love or is violently raped, divorce his wife by text message, blow up the World Trade Center, murder any man or woman who dresses in jeans or shorts, deface all artwork, gang rape a rival's sister, and throw bombs everywhere all in the name of his personal vision of Islam.
Most Muslims look on this behavior with horror but few understand how to rid their culture of the problems caused by Islamoanarchy.
Nobody feels any shame
Tonight is just last nights news again
But to clean up all this mess
The nation will be blessed
When Tom's in prison just like all the rest
Then he'll wash johns just like a felon
And he'll queue up just like a felon
And he'll stamp plates just like a felon
But he'll sqeal just like a little punk
In an article about the sectarian struggle of Jafari to remain Prime minister of Iraq, the LA Times slammed Al Gore.
"By contrast, Jafari resembles Al Gore -- knowledgeable but wooden. An articulate man, he can hold forth for hours."
Al Gore is a man of integrity for whom a majority of Americans voted as President in 2000. His concerns about our energy dependence and global warming have been born out in the past 5 years. He was Vice President in an administration that presided over a budget surplus and a functional FEMA. Jafari's problems have nothing to do with his rhetorical style, he is a corrupt sectarian operator.
45 day waiting period for ports is stealth tactic, the deal will be complete this Thursday.
Much to my shock and horror Dubai Ports World plans to close the 6.85 billion dollar deal on March 2, anyway! Despite the outcry from elected officials and the public at large, the powers that be are just going to go ahead and do it.
In today's Los Angeles Times, DPW has announced that they will separate the US ports from the deal, but actually it's just a 45 day escrow. The whole deal is closing three days from today on March 2, 2006, with 22 ports, not 6.
What the US outraged public and elected officials will discover on or before May 1, 2006 is that the escrow has expired and the operations now belong to DPW. That is because once the transaction closes on March 2, right under our noses, it is a fait accompli.
or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Dubai Ports deal
Have you ever closed a real estate transaction for hundreds of thousands of dollars? Then you know that there are quite a few legal documents, eg., title insurance. If any documents are not immaculately perfect, then you cannot close, because the conveyance of the title cannot be registered with the State. As every homeowner knows, the deed to your property is a single, legal entity, frequently held by a single legal entity, namely a husband and wife. The asset and the marriage can only be apportioned or disolved by very specific legal proceedures.
When I awoke this morning I realized I had become a tank. My feet had turned into treads, my torso a turret, my arms had become cannons, and my head had turned into a commander's cupola as my eyes peered out through narrow vision slits. I contemplated my new place in society.
10. Zarqawi's Top Lieutenant Captured 9. US Getting Closer to Zarqawi 8. Rice Threatens Iran 7. Rumsfeld Threatens North Korea 6. Cheney Threatens (Fill in the blank) 5. Insurgents Running Out of Steam 4. Sunnis Kill Shias 3. Shias Kill Sunnis 2. Everyone Kills Kurds 1. Iraqi Contitutional Convention Adjourns for Another Day with No Agreement
On Sunday Gen Myers called Gitmo a "model facility" with it's torture and indefinite imprisionment without trial. It made us think of what facilities it might have been modeled upon. Here are the Top Ten.
10. Devils Island 9. The Black Hole of Calcutta 8. Stalag 17 7. Andersonville 6. King Solomons Mines 5. The Tower of London 4. Where ever the Guy in the Iron Mask was sent. 3. Hanoi Hilton 2. Bridge on the River Kwai 1. The entire country of Australia.
10. That the White House is under attack. 9. Exactly which country we're occupying. 8. Exactly which country we're gonna invade. 7. Where the money went. 6. What the hell Dred Scott is anyway. 5. Why so many Americans support Socialism Security. 4. Why folks is so down on pur Mezkins workin' for 'em. 3. The difference between Georgia, the state of Georgia, and Georgia State. 2. That Karl Rove is NOT rehearsing for a remake of Tootsie. 1. That his security detail are Cheney's men.
It looks like the conciousness of people who understand the downward pressure Walmart exerts on communities they operate in are having an effect. I would never set foot in a Walmart again. They don't have the lowest prices and if you are a tax payer you have to pay for the food stamps and medicaid of people who work there full time so it costs you even more. We can choose not to support slavery. And I share that view with friends who only understand that the blue gray bag is uncool not the politics behind it!
Why are we letting the Radical Republicans co-opt us into accepting the religious radical right as Conservative Christians? They are no such thing! They are a radical doomsday cult expecting the rapture to take righteous fanatics into a naked ascension with their clothes neatly folded where their ascension begins. The series of best selling books called "Left Behind" is at the core of these crazy beliefs that are not conservative at all. They believe there is no future to conserve.
The Left Behind scenario has a very short shelf life in historical terms. Now these fanatics are successfully highjacking US policy, media, politics and education. In a generation or so when the world is still here in whatever shambles they may have left it without discernible loss of the righteous to rapture their children are going to have to return to reality.
Why are we letting the Radical Republicans co-opt us into accepting the religious radical right as Conservative Christians? They are no such thing! They are a radical doomsday cult expecting the rapture to take righteous fanatics into a naked ascension with their clothes neatly folded where their ascension begins. The series of best selling books called "Left Behind" is at the core of these crazy beliefs that are not conservative at all. They believe there is no future to conserve. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852 Bill Moyers discussed the doomsday cult that begins with President Bush in a NY Review of Books article.
The Airforce Academy is rife with complaints about the fanatics who harass anyone who doesn't share the beliefs of this apocalyptic cult.
The Left Behind scenario has a very short shelf life in historical terms. Now these fanatics are successfully highjacking US policy, media, politics and education. In a generation or so when the world is still here in whatever shambles they may have left it without discernible loss of the righteous to rapture their children are going to have to return to reality.
