More Money for Slaughter

"Gentle reader, are you getting enough vicarious pleasure from the slaughter of Iraqi women and children to justify this price tag? Is murdering 'ragheads' that important to you? If so, you are one sick person, just like every member of the Bush administration." Paul Craig Roberts

Congress has decided to keep spending your money to fund terror around the world. What's another $50 billion when so much has gone into Halliburton's coffers already? While more money is spent to kill people the Bush administration has decided to make sure that even fewer people have the opportunity to tell us about it. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld has ordered all reporters to leave Guantanamo. When the next suicide takes place there, we probably won't be told about it.

The suicides of three prisoners there capped off a week of glee and gloating over death. So much for the GOP "culture of life" which only applies to embryos and Floridians in vegetative states.

While politicians and newspapers out did one another dancing on Zarqawi's grave, the U.S. government dismissed the suicides of desperate prisoners held without charge as a "p.r. move." Even the Bushies had to take back that disgraceful remark, but only as a "p.r. move." The State Department spokesperson who first uttered those awful words knew what she was saying. Bush and his team are all uncivilized barbarians, and what comes out of their mouths first is exactly what they mean.

Zarqawi Schmarqawi, Part II

"I don't think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq. I think George Bush is. - Michael Berg

Michael Berg's son, Chris, was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq last year. Zarqawi was fingered as the killer, but Michael Berg is unconvinced. He is a man after my own heart. Once you lie to him he has problems with trust.

Berg is correct when he says that the biggest killer in Iraq is Bush. The blood of thousands is on his hands, and by extension on ours as well. Of course, if we could just stop giving our government permission to be barbaric, our hands would be clean again.

Zarqawi Schmarqawi

I really can't take yet another turning point in Iraq. Zarqawi's death is just the latest in a long line. Check this laundry list from Alternet.

The truth is really quite simple. No one likes being occupied. Even if Zarqawi was the mastermind they claimed, there will be other masterminds until the U.S. leaves.

Black Commentator

Thursday is Black Commentator day. Glen Ford has a great piece on Radio BC about a truly diabolical plan to implant microchips in immigrants. Well, they will start with immigrants. Prisoners will be next, anyone who questions Bush will be next. You get the picture.

In my column I take on reporting of the Haditha killings. It is all to the good that this story has been reported, but the killings should not be treated as some sort of anomaly. There have been many Hadithas in Iraq and they are the inevitable result of military occupation.

George and Laura Split

As I reported back on May 26th, the tabloids are saying that George and Laura are in serious trouble. George is hitting the bottle and Laura wants him to seek counseling. Now comes word that Laura has moved out of the White House and is staying at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. The Mayflower will neither confirm nor deny.

Let's see if the New York Times finds this news fit to print. They defended their voyeurism of the Clinton's marriage, but they have yet to print anything negative about the Bush family.

Now comes word that the rift is caused by Condi Rice, Secretary of State and rumored home wrecker. She did have a slip of the tongue a few years back and call Bush her husband, maybe she is finally turning her fantasy into reality.

I actually hope that if the corporate media ever has the guts to report on George and Laura that they leave Condi out of it. There are enough indications that George never stopped drinking and that he is in serious need of mental health care. They have to play catch up by reporting on him the way they should have been all along.

Who am I kidding? The media protects him and defends his policies from the occupation of Iraq to the elimination of the estate tax. They certainly won't touch his private life.

Ann Coulter's Hate

It is good that Ann Coulter's hate filled screed against 9/11 families has been universally condemned. I do wish that her other hate filled screeds were condemned with the same degree of vehemence. In a lecture at UCLA Coulter said she supported Israel for the same reason she supported apartheid South Africa. Both countries were "surrounded by savages." Here is more of Ann's hit parade of fascism and bigotry.

"I don't really care about the electorate."

"I think our motto should be, post-9-11: 'Raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences.'"

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

Conservatives love her. In her "raghead" speech at the Conservative Political Action Caucus she received enthusiastic applause. The 9/11 widows are the recipients of Coulter's wrath because they dared question Dubya and they are right to be angry with Coulter, but everyone should be angry with her. Coulter should be condemned for her ethnic slurs and eliminationist rhetoric, not just for attacking icons of America's suffering.

By the way, Coulter is under investigation for vote fraud in Florida. She truly does not care about the electorate.

Is Michelle Malkin an Anchor Baby?

Who is Michelle Malkin? She is a self-hating Filipino-American who lives and breathes for white supremacy. Malkin believes that the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was a good thing. I kid you not. She even wrote a book about it, In Defense of Internment.

The first time I saw her on Fox news I asked myself, "Who is this sister?" It turns out she is no sister of mine, not racially, politically, philosophically or otherwise. She is just very dark skinned. This fact has to have caused her much grief in life. Like Ramesh Ponnoru and Dinesh D'Souza, the other white supremacy loving, right wing haters of other dark skinned people, she must have been called nigger many, many times.

At any rate, Michelle is currently foaming at the mouth because immigrants sometimes reproduce. To hear her tell it, their offspring, "anchor babies," are a threat to civilization. The anti-immigrant zealots want all of us to have our pants in a twist because immigrants sometimes have babies after they arrive in the U.S. Those children are American citizens. The nativists are alarmed because these babies can grow up and petition for their parents and othe relatives to immigrate legally.

It turns out that Malkin may be an anchor baby herself. Her father is a physician who came to the U.S. on a work visa sometime in 1970. Michelle was born in October 1970. Unless he arrived in January 1970 and impregnated his wife immediately upon arrival, he and the missus had already created their little anchor baby jackpot before they left the Phillippines.

Her father did come here legally, but Malkin makes no such distinction between legal and illegal pregnant foreigners.

At East Coast hospitals, tales of South Korean "obstetric tourists" abound. (An estimated 5,000 South Korean anchor babies are born in the US every year). And, of course, there's a terrorism angle...The time is ripe to reassess drive-by citizenship and what it means to be an American.

The obstetric tourists are here legally, just like Malkin's dad. Time is up Michelle. If mom was pregnant when she arrived, you should give up your "drive by citizenship." Keep it moving and don't come back.

Kerry Won, Ohio was Stolen

"We should have put more money behind it. I take responsibility for it; it was my mistake. They spent something like $30 million, and we didn't. That's just a terrible imbalance when somebody's lying about you." - John Kerry

What an idiot. All Kerry had to do was call them, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, liars. That is it. That is all. He should have called them liars and sued them for slander. He didn't need money to call them liars, he just should have said so, often.

Wimping out to right wing smears was the least of Kerry's crimes. The election was stolen from him, it is provable, but he still straddles the fence. The current issue of Rolling Stone has an exhaustive report from Robert Kennedy, Jr. on the subject.

Ohio was the key part of the theft that sent Bush back to the White House. Kerry had an opportunity to expose the theft and delegitimize Bush, but being Kerry, he did nothing. He still says nothing about it. What a loser.

Kerry is now rebutting the Swift Boat chargers. Talk about a day late and a dollar short. In general I hate the fact that Hillary Clinton is already the democratic establishment choice for 2008. There is a bright side, however. I won't have to hear about Kerry anymore.

George and Laura Split!

The Globe seems to think so anyway. Will the New York Times write about the marriage of the current White House occupants? Frankly, I don't care about the state of the Bush marriage, but if the Times is going to use 2,000 words worth of newsprint to tell us how often Bill and Hillary see each other, they can tell us that George and Laura may not be speaking and that he may be hitting the bottle once again. Actually, I never thought that he ever stopped drinking, but that is another story.

Thanks to Media Matters for the scoop. At times like this I am reminded of the running joke in the Men in Black movies. The New York Times can't be trusted, but the tabloids can.

Satan is Pro Abortion

Who knew? According to the web site Christian Shirts, the God of this World, Beelzebub, Prince of Darkness, Lord of the Flies, the Devil, is pro-choice and canvassing for votes.

I thought the Evil One was pro Bush. In any case, I have come up with another t-shirt slogan.

"Vote for War" - Satan

That is a shir every Christian should own.

Thanks for the Shout Out

Every one wants a little validation every now and again. Common Dreams gave me a pat on the back today when they linked to my latest commentary in Black Commentator. My subject was Tony Snow and his "tar baby" remark. Thanks very much Common Dreams.

Racism in Anti-Immigrant Debate

What nobody seems to ask, though, is why they [Minutemen] have to "weed out the racists" in the first place. If the core of their appeal isn't racial in nature, then why do they draw so many people for whom it is?
David Niewert, Orcinus

I never thought of the CCC as being a white supremacist organization in the mode of say "Stormfront" or something like that. It's a neo-confederate group which is certainly racist but organized explicitly around hatred of African-Americans. The fact that they are touting the ridiculous Aztlan "threat" puts the lie to any claims that this immigration debate isn't being fueled by racism.
Digby

CNN has a lot to answer for. Recently Lou Dobbs used a graphic supplied by the Concerned Citizens Council, the new name for the old white citizens councils that ruled in the days of segregation. Dobbs is helping peddle the idiotic notion that Mexicans immigrate to the U.S. in order to concur the southwest. It is nonsense, but if it were true that means the old adage is true. Payback is a bitch.

The map does show how much of Mexico's territory was stolen by the United States in the 1840s. Look at it this way, Mexicans are just coming back to their old neighborhoods.

It is high time that the racism inherent in the anti-immigrant argument was called what it really is. It doesn't matter if CNN and the rest of the corporate media want to normalize and validate hate speech.

Throw the Key Away

Former Enron chieftains Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are guilty. Actually, we have known that for some years now, but a jury made it official. Thank goodness for a little justice. On second thought, let's wait until they are sentenced before we rejoice.

Why Bush Will Nuke Iran

People like Senator Byrd now are talking about impeachment. But Bush is too fast for us -- he will nuke Iran before any hearings on his high crimes and misdemeanors can take place.
Dr. Justin Frank

Dr. Justin Frank is a psychiatrist and author of "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President." Frank has studied Bush's life, his words and most importantly his deeds and reached terrifying conclusions.

Our president is a deeply disturbed man, a dry dunk who is incapable of feeling empathy. According to Frank, Bush needs to have limits set on his behavior, but no one has done that. The president will conduct a nuclear test in Nevada on June 2nd and the press and the Congress have said little if anything about it.

As his approval ratings tank and talk of impeachment grows, Bush will become more dangerous, not less so. Frank predicts, and I have long believed, that he will attack Iran as opposition to his administration grows and becomes more coordinated.

I missed the march in New York City on Saturday, but I was able to attend an interfaith service sponsored by Clergy and Laity Concerned About Iraq. Poet Drew Dellinger was among the speakers. In one of his poem Hieroglyphic Stairway Dellinger says that his descendants come to him in dreams and ask him these questions.

what did you do while the planet was plundered? what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

One of the things we should all do is set limits on the insane people who will bring this country to destruction if we fail to act.

Si Se Puede

"The British, the French, the Spanish and the Dutch didn't get green cards when they showed up on Indian lands. "
Black Commentator

Power to the people. Yesterday more than 1 million people marched across the nation to demand citizenship rights for immigrants. It isn't surprising that rallies took place in Washington, San Diego and New York. You do have to take notice when 3,000 march in Garden City, Kansas, a town with only 30,000 residents.

I digress, but did anyone wonder why the Chappaquiddick Band of Wampanoag spoke shortly after Sen. Ted Kennedy? For a moment my imagination got the best of me and I thought the Republicans were behind it. Maybe living in the Bush age has made me too paranoid.

Cynthia McKinney and Tom Delay

MATTHEWS: Thanks. I owe you one. I owe you two -- today and last night.
DELAY: No you don't.
MATTHEWS: No, I do.
DELAY: I appreciate it.

Cynthia McKinney is a member of Congress, not a serial killer. If you believed what you read in the papers this week you would believe she is the latter.

Republicans need a good distraction this week. After all, Tom Delay is about to be fitted for an orange jump suit. McKinney got into a shoving match with a Capital Hill cop when she didn't stop at a security check point. A bad decision definitely, but she could be a lot worse.

McKinney could have shot someone and then dispatched a private citizen to tell us about it. She could have instigated a war that would make her a much wealthier person. I guess only Vice Presidents get to do those things.

In an era when trillions of dollars have been stolen from tax payers, when the U.S. government advocates torture, I can't get worked up because of pushing and shoving in the halls of Congress. I wish Democrats would do a little more pushing and shoving, figuratively speaking of course.

Speaking of the indicted Tom Delay, he gets applause when he enters Congress. He also has "journalists" who live to suck on his toes. If Chris Matthews had any shame, he would quit his job as host of the laughably named, "Hardball."

Matthews has been whoring for Republicans for quite a while but he was caught on tape with Delay during a commercial break.

MATTHEWS: Hey thank you for calling me. It was a good thing for me, mostly.
DELAY: Oh really.
MATTHEWS: Oh of course it was. We got on the air as fast as we could....
[...]
MATTHEWS: Shannon [DeLay aide] told me, she called me, she said 'don't worry -- he's not calling in to complain'...
MATTHEWS: Have you seen this new focus group stuff on the candidates?
DELAY: No I haven't
MATTHEWS: It's great stuff. I'll send it to you -- it's great -- yeah it's great stuff. Hillary, John Kerry. All these guys, all these democrats, and how they do. And, uh, Frank Luntz did it...
DELAY: who I like
CM: ...and Hillary did not do well. Kerry did well.
DELAY: You're kidding.
MATTHEWS: I am NOT kidding. They didn't like Edwards -- they thought he was a rich lawyer, pretending to care about poor people...
DELAY: Too slick. Too slick.
MATTHEWS: ...and Hillary was a know-it-all.
DELAY: Nothing worse than a woman know-it-all

There is something worse than female know it alls, and that is journalists who treat one party's talking points as though they are truth revealed from the heavens.

Delay announced this week that he isn't running for re-election but apparently he still wields a hammer. Chris Matthews seems to think so anyway. He knows his bread is buttered by the right wing, even if they are on the way to jail.

Israeli Soldier Killed Reporter in Cold Blood

Mr. Miller died as he and colleagues were trying to leave a Palestinian house at night, holding a white flag with a torch shone on it, clad in body armour and helmets with the letters "TV" written on it in fluorescent tape.

Did you know that James Miller, a British cameraman, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in 2003? Of course you don't know about it. No one in the American media told you.

The shooting really isn't surprising. Occupiers do not take kindly to having their dirty work exposed. They are also unaccustomed to being called to account for their actions. They can do anything they want, including shoot reporters in the neck.

Yes Virginia, There is a Pro-Israeli Lobby

Can there be any doubt that Israel holds sway over American politicians and the media?Presidential candidates vie with one another to promise that they will attack Iran in order to protect Israel. Neither they nor the media will point out that Israel is armed with nukes and Iran can’t possibly have any for at least five years.

It is amazing that Israel and its American allies wanted a war against Iraq, but anyone who points out that very public information is labeled an anti-Semite. Worse yet, no one can point out that the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein when he had WMDs or that Israel pushed for that alliance as well.

Israel may have known about the 9/11 terror attaks. No one is supposed to talk about the so-called moving company in New Jersey whose workers happened to be Mossad agents who happened to have cameras pointed at the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. I’m also not supposed to mention the Israeli art students who only sold their work at the FBI and DEA.
Sounds strange to me, but what do I know. I’m just an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.

It seems I'm not the only one who is sick and tired of Israel getting America into one mess after another. A few brave voices dare to speak up in an age when even plays that criticize Israel are banned. "My Name is Rachel Corrie" can't find a home on the New York stage.

Professors Stephen Walt of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, are in the news because of their study "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." They haven't done anything revolutionary, just document the power of Israel's lobby in America.

Amazingly, their detractors claim there is no lobby or that it isn't really effective or declare that Condi Rice is a gentile.

That is the primary power of the lobby, labeling as anti-Semitic anyone who notices its success. I wish that someone would tell me the rules. Am I allowed to say that there is a lobby for Israel? Am I supposed to say its effect is neglible? Am I supposed to acknowledge its success but do so in hushed tones?

Let me know sometime soon. If I'm going to be called an anti-Semite, I would like to know why.

Condom Rice

I never liked her, but I didn't say it. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw did.

As he introduced his guest, the Foreign Secretary held up a copy of a local newspaper and read out the headline: "Condom….er, Condi Comes to the Centre of the World".

Where is Freud when you need him?

9/11: Enough Already

I have had it with 9/11. This week the city of New York released tapes of 911 calls made from the World Trade Center. Two films are due to be released this year, one about Flight 93 ("Let's Roll") and the other about firefighters.

Idealizing American dead only serves to diminish the dead in other countries. I recall being terrified and grief stricken on that awful day, but I'm not going to fetishize what I felt. To do so makes me think that my life is more valuable than another's. As much as I love being alive, I have to say that I don't have more of a right to stay that way than anyone else in the world.

Those are brave words coming from a New Yorker. Osama's warnings are meant for me, my family and my neighbors. I'm the one with a bulls eye on my head.

Having said that, I still say no to 9/11 memorials. The city and state of New York are about to waste millions of tax payer dollars to bail out a developer, all in the name of building something, anything, at the site known as ground zero. What a waste.

What business would move to the site of two terror attacks? The answer of course if no one will. The government will be the primary tenant, all so that we can say that the terrorists didn't win.

Well they did win. They killed nearly 3,000 people, and they taught us they would kick ass. That means they won. Period. Get over it.

We aren't the losers just because of Osama either. 9/11 was used to justify the occupation of Iraq. It empowered the awful neo-cons who now want to attack Iran and make America even more of a mass murderer.

It is never hard to get Americans to kill people somewhere in the world, but 9/11 made it all too easy. Yes, we lost on September 11, 2001. The families of the dead lost most of all. If we think of anyone we should think of them, and then we should move on. Further displays of public grief only empower the killers to keep killing.