Just Foreign Policy Iraqi Death Estimator    

Saturday, March 05, 2005


Art For Girls Posted by Hello

DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER

'I just want to survive and go home with all my body parts'

Fears of soldiers on patrol in Mosul as US military death toll in Iraq tops 1,500

Rory Carroll
Friday March 4, 2005
The Guardian

The city was quiet but the soldiers sitting and swaying inside the Stryker were animated by their favourite debate: was it better to be five metres or 20 metres from an explosion?

The front gunner belonged to the 20-metre school, figuring the greater distance reduced your chances of losing limbs to the blast. The two rear gunners scoffed and said that would increase the odds of being hit by shrapnel, which fanned upwards and outwards.

Five months of patrolling Mosul had furnished evidence for both views and the discussion was as well-worn as the Stryker's tyres.

Sergeant David Phillips, 23, sighed and patted his flak jacket. "I just want to stay alive and go home with all my body parts." He spoke for 150,000 American soldiers in Iraq.

Yesterday the number of US military deaths since the March 2003 invasion crept over 1,500.

There was no official acknowledgment of the milestone, just curt statements that three soldiers had died in two separate attacks on Wednesday. "Names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin." The figure includes accidents.

The daily drip of US casualties passes almost unnoticed now, a footnote to the wider slaughter of Iraqis: five policemen killed in two car bombs yesterday, 13 soldiers killed on Wednesday, a judge on Tuesday, at least 115 police and army recruits and civilians on Monday. Some 18,000 civilians are estimated to have died.

Yesterday's headlines were about the renewal of Iraq's state of emergency, fresh attacks on oil pipelines, and deadlock between Shias and Kurds over forming a new government.

The men of Bravo company, an infantry unit which rides in the armoured Stryker vehicles of 321 Battalion in Mosul, did not care that since George Bush's re-election the artificial limbs and flag-draped coffins of US troops have faded in political significance. For them, it was personal.

"I don't tell my mom or my wife that we drive up and down streets getting blown up every day. They'd just worry all the time. I tell them we sit in the base and do the odd mission," said Sgt Nathan Purdy, who is 23.

A week embedded with Bravo company, midway through a year-long stint in an insurgent stronghold, showed a group of men with good morale and determination to catch "bad guys" but divided over the war and frustrated by an elusive enemy.

There was consensus about the reaction when home on leave. "People wanting to buy you drinks, buy you food, wanting to shake your hand, they made you feel a hero," said Specialist Matt Sutton, 24, from Illinois. Those from liberal states such as Washington said anti-war activists did not criticise them personally or echo the Vietnam-era chant of baby killer. "The country is behind us. They didn't dare," said one lieutenant.

Bravo Company's quarters are a bombed-out palace in the grounds of Camp Freedom, a sprawl of cabins and concrete shelters. Mortars land regularly but tend not to hit anything.

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Gibler said his battalion's main objective was rebuilding the Iraqi security forces which "imploded" last November after insurgents overran Mosul's police stations.

The Iraqi army was improving thanks to joint operations and would soon take half of the responsibility of securing the city. Asked about the police force he rolled his eyes, but speculated that there was enough progress for US forces to leave within three years. His desk had tomes on Islam and a "Don't mess with Texas" sticker.

Enlisted men were less sure about progress, complaining they were always on the defensive and waiting to be attacked by insurgents. "They fight like bitches, pop a few shots, then hide," said Sgt Ramirez Flores.

Drive-by shootings have wounded several in the unit but the big fear is roadside bombs which according to the Pentagon accounted for 56% of all US battle deaths in the first two months of this year. They are hidden in rubbish bags, animal carcasses, holes, rubble, cars and carts, turning every object into a potential killer.

A suicide car bomber rammed and immolated one of the battalion's Strykers but all the occupants survived, prompting reverence for the eight-wheel, 23-tonne monsters.

A tip about weapons caches this week led to a midnight mission to dig up a lawn. It yielded nothing.

"Fucking gardeners - what are we doing here?" asked one private. "And tomorrow we're giving out candy to kids again," replied his friend. "We didn't train for this."

Your so called president is responsible for putting you there without the appropriate training for fighting the insurgents

Notice the Bush administration is as far from the killing as possible, but then that is not unusual for that bunch of, let everyone elses kids die as long as they arnt ours. The Administration of how much money can I make from this war.

Big HMMMMM

Tom Feeney, Lobbyist and Friend to Firm Harboring Communist Spy, Implies Dan Rather a Communist!


Throws 'C'est La Vie Comrade Rather' Political Fundraising Event!...

While continuing to protect actual Communist spies with whom he worked in Florida.


As reported in yesterday's The Hill:

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) is hosting a fundraiser Wednesday at the Capitol Hill Club to celebrate the last broadcast of veteran "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather, who has long vexed conservatives with what they see as a liberal bias.

The "C'est La Vie Comrade Rather" event - for the benefit of Tom Feeney for Congress - will be held from 5-7 p.m., during which attendees will watch Rather's final newscast at 6:30.

Feeney told The Hill that the open bar will remain open only if guests drink from their left hands.


http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001237.htm


---You Go Brad...I love you man....---

HAHA Posted by Hello

AMEN!!!!!!!! Posted by Hello

And The Plot Thickens

----If you have not been following this story..You have been missing it. This story gets bigger and bigger and bigger and WHY?..Because Clint Curtis has yet to discredited. Yet EVERY ONE he is making accusations against HAS BEEN CAUGHT LYING....Go Google it and get ready for a hell of a ride. Or go see Brad at www.bradblog.com He is all over it!---

From the New Times article...


The troubling charge of vote tampering has yet to be proved, of course, but almost everything else Curtis said about his former employer has been. Curtis charged that Yang Enterprises engaged in a pattern of dirty dealing, including intentionally overbilling the state on the company's contract with the Florida Department of Transportation. Curtis said that he had heard Feeney, who was Yang's former lawyer and lobbyist, airily tell Yang, "Bill them [FDOT] anything you like." And Yang Enterprises did. A report by FDOT Investigations Manager Michael K. Bowen, released earlier this month, found $248,255 in questionable charges, and the state wants a refund.

Bowen also discovered that Curtis was correct when he told state authorities that Yang employed a Chinese spy who was given access to state and NASA data. A former consultant for Yang, Hai Lin "Henry" Nee pleaded guilty in federal court last year after trying to ship Hellfire missile technology to China.

The article also goes on to mention...
Though no major South Florida news organizations have reported on Curtis' charges, Tailpipe has an eerie feeling that we haven't heard the last of them.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001229.htm

Question. Every. Thing. Posted by Hello

CNN says the rise of the unemployment numbers is a' GOOD THING', 'in this economy'..It shows our 'Confidence in the market'...Yeah..Yeah Ok... Posted by Hello

More Quotes From Stupid People

Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh said the following on the March 1 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:


LIMBAUGH: The life expectancy of men is drawing closer to that of women. Women still live longer than men because their lives are easier. This is -- (laughing, grunting) this is according to government statistics released yesterday.

---He is just mad cause his pills are low...Go back to rehab Limpball..You are obviously high and stupid....Again...---

Art For Boys. Posted by Hello

Bill Olielly proves hes stupid...Again.

O'Reilly on ACLU: "I think they're a terrorist group. ... I think they're terrorists"


Fox News host Bill O'Reilly labeled the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) a "terrorist group" for filing a lawsuit against Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and for opposing Bush administration anti-terrorism measures that the group believes are unconstitutional. The lawsuit accuses Rumsfeld of approving illegal interrogation methods that led to the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody; the ACLU also believes that measures such as federal "no-fly" lists and expanded investigative and surveillance powers for federal law enforcement under the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional. O'Reilly added: "They're terrorizin' me and my family. They're terrorizing me. I think they're terrorists."



http://mediamatters.org/items/200503030007

---Oh Silly Bill...Ofcourse considering you just paid out BIG TIME to settle a suit where you were humping your fist over the phone to any available employee...I can see where you would see a lawsuit as not only a terrorist threat but as a threat against YOU personally..They have a name for it...Its called paranoid dellusion. They should have pills for that if Rush Limpball didn't hog all the meds.

Oh By The Way...TERRORIST don't FILE LAWSUITS...They, ya know, sell chemical weapons to dictators whom they know will use them. Terrorists...HAHAHAHA...You so funny white boy...

Not.---

Creepy Bastard. Posted by Hello

There's that christian attitude showing through! Posted by Hello

Churchill Victory

Colo. prof. won't be fired over comments

March 5, 2005


BOULDER, Colo. --University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman said a professor who compared Sept. 11 victims to Nazis will not be fired if a review turns up only inflammatory comments, not misconduct.

"If we find it is just about speech, there will be no action," Hoffman told the school's faculty assembly Thursday, adding that she feared a "new McCarthyism" was responsible for the uproar over Ward Churchill's essay.

The university is reviewing Churchill's speeches and lectures to see whether he should be dismissed for exceeding the boundaries of academic freedom. A decision is expected next week.

Hoffman did not comment on published reports this week that the university was considering buying out Churchill's contract to end the firestorm over his essay.

Gov. Bill Owens called on the university to fire the tenured professor, and some lawmakers have suggested reducing the school's funding.

Churchill's essay, which likened "technocrats" killed in the World Trade Center to Adolf Eichmann, attracted little attention until January when he was invited to speak at a college in upstate New York. The college and a handful of other schools canceled Churchill's appearances, citing security concerns.

Churchill says he wrote the essay after television networks characterized the attacks as senseless. He contends they were the logical result of repressive U.S. policies.


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/05/colo_prof_wont_be_fired_over_comments?mode=PF


---Give em hell Mr. Churchill. Make them remember what the hell the first amendment actually says....---

Sgrena's coworkers at the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto cheer upon learning of her release.
 Posted by Hello

In a video delivered anonymously to The Associated Press, a tearful Sgrena is seen pleading for her life.
 Posted by Hello

DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER

US attack against Italians in Baghdad was deliberate: companion
Published: 3/5/2005

ROME - The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate.

"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.

"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

The shooting late Friday was witnessed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office which was on the phone with one of the secret service agents, said Scolari. "Then the US military silenced the cellphones," he charged.

"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.

When Sgrena was kidnapped on February 4 she was writing an article on refugees from Fallujah seeking shelter at a Baghdad mosque after US forces bombed the former Sunni rebel stronghold.

Sgrena told RaiNews24 television Saturday a "hail of bullets" rained down on the car taking her to safety at Baghdad airport, along with three secret service agents, killing one of them.

"I was speaking to (agent) Nicola Calipari (...) when he leant on me, probably to protect me, and then collapsed and I realized he was dead," said Sgrena, who was being questioned on Saturday by two Italian magistrates.

"They continued shooting and the driver couldn't even explain that we were Italians. It was really horrible," she added.

Sgrena, who was hospitalized with serious wounds to her left shoulder and lung after arriving back in Rome Saturday before noon, said she was "exhausted because of what happened above all in the last 24 hours".

"After all the risks I have been running I can say that I'm fine," she said.

"I thought that after I was handed over to the Italians danger was over, but then this shooting broke out and we were hit by a hail of bullets."

The chief editor of Sgrena's left-wing newspaper Il Manifesto Gabriele Polo meanwhile branded Calipari's death a "murder".

"He was hit in the head," he said.

Calipari will be given a state funeral Monday.


03/05/2005 13:43 GMT

AFP and Turkish Press

http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38029

Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was kidnapped outside a mosque in Baghdad on February 4, 2005.
Has returned to Italy alive but injured Posted by Hello

It never ends Posted by Hello

DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER

Talks on Iraqi Coalition Government Falter :

Politicians had hoped to convene the new parliament by Sunday. But Ali Faisal, of the Shiite Political Council, said the date was now ``postponed'' and that a new date had not been set.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4837863,00.html

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House GOP wants more defense, less foreign aid :

Republicans want to spend one-point-eight (b) billion dollars more than the president is asking for

http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=3023723

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The price of torture:

The techniques employed by the American torturers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay are among the most insidious and effective.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/02/EDGAMBID291.DTL

http://tinyurl.com/6gw9k

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Russia slams US human rights report :

Russia has rejected criticism on human rights from the United States, attacking the US State Department's annual human rights report as a "politically biased" document that ignored the rest of the world's concerns on alleged US violations of human rights.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1314993.htm

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What Comes After Farce?
Marx explained that history always repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce. This just in from the New York Times:

http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/article_735.html

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Canadian Sovereignty, America-Style

US Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci has warned Canadians that the United States will have no qualms about launching interceptor missiles into Canadian airspace, claiming that Canada "[gave] up its sovereignty"

http://www.canadiancontent.net/commtr/article_746.html

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About This Site

“They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety”
- Benjamin Franklin

http://www.waronterrorismwatch.ca/

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EPIC Report: FTC's Market Approach Has Failed to Protect Consumer Privacy

In conjunction with the opening of EPIC's first satellite office in San Francisco, California, EPIC has released a policy report arguing that self-regulation has failed to meaningfully address consumer privacy. New technologies and invasive practices from the online world are finding their way into the offline world and have dragged down the practices of ordinary retailers. This paper argues that the FTC and Congress should reevaluate their commitment to market approaches, and empower consumers with privacy law that incorporates Fair Information Practices. (Mar. 3)

http://www.epic.org/

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Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena,

Wounded by U.S. soldiers after she was freed following month in captivity, returns to Rome.

http://edition.cnn.com

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Australia

Has an American company contracted to process Tax Returns. The three biggest banks recently announced an American company to process all their transaction data.

Now that is a worry

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Shooting not justified: journo

05:42 (AEST) FREED Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena has said the shooting by US troops in Iraq that left her injured and an Italian intelligence officer dead was not justified.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/breakingnews/

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Diggers set off for Baghdad
March 5, 2005 - 5:19PM

The latest group of Australian soldiers bound for Iraq were farewelled as they set off for a six month deployment.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking-News/Diggers-set-off-for-Baghdad/2005/03/05/1109958149169.html

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3/4/2005
Senior Democratic staff on Capitol Hill lash out at mainstream press, question Dems

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=150

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SCIENCE FILE
A Hidden Tomb Is Uncovered in Egypt

One of the best-kept mummies ever found, from about 500 BC, was discovered with two others, archeologists say.
From Associated Press

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-mummy5mar05,0,4515386,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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Republican media adviser found dead

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050303-110422-6672r.htm

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Satellite images show about 90 UN inspection sites in Iraq stripped or razed

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Satellite imagery shows about 90 sites in Iraq which had been subject to UN inspection and monitoring have been stripped of equipment or razed, the chief weapons inspector said in a report Friday

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/03/04/950668-ap.html

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Shiite spiritual leader calls for unity, quick formation of government

BAGHDAD (AP) - The spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite majority said Saturday that the clergy-led United Iraqi Alliance must finally unite and form a government one month after Iraq's first democratic elections.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/03/05/951300-ap.html

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Iraqi judge who was to have tried Saddam reported killed outside Baghdad home

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/03/01/946718-ap.html

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Al-Qaida in Iraq launches Internet magazine urging Muslims to join jihad

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Iraq/2005/03/03/949251-ap.html

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DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE;



NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN


America No. 1?

America by the numbers

by Michael Ventura

02/03/05 "ICH" - - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy

(the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).
Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

The European Union leads the U.S.

In...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
"Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
We're not the place to be anymore.

The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th."

In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
"The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
"U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million
(NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher

(NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe

(NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder

(CNN, Dec. 14, 2004)
.
"Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.

"Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).

"Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors.

In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).
The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade

(CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004

(The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).

Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.

One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house

(CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
"Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined"

(The European Dream, p.28).

"Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable"

(The European Dream, p.32).

Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll

(Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

"Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available"

(USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

"The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever"

(USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle.

www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

Friday, March 04, 2005


Just creepy....By The Way..AWOL is 30 days or less..georgie was missing 113 days..this is techinically NOT AWOL..It is dessertion. Posted by Hello

Nuff Said. Posted by Hello

Art For Girls. Posted by Hello

Can you stop the ride, please? I wanna get off... Posted by Hello

Thursday, March 03, 2005

ReBelle Dispatch

PENTAGON BUDGET BLACKMAIL



Give us more money, or soldiers aren't going to get paid. That's the cynical game the Pentagon's leadership has been playing with the Army's budget in recent months. And now, it's crunch time.

Since the fall, Rumsfeld & Co. have been dipping into the Army's day-to-day funds -- like money for soldiers' paychecks -- and then daring Congress not to make up the difference with a second, "supplemental" pile of cash.

The tab comes due this Spring, Defense Daily reports. The Army needs $41 billion of that supplemental kitty by then, or else it is going to go broke, without cash left to pay G.I.s.

Already, the service has pulled forward some $11 billion in funds from the third and fourth quarters of its [fiscal year 2005] budget, a senior Army budget officer said at a briefing on Friday.

“I think it’s early May when we run out of money,” the official said. The most money is being spent on operations and maintenance. “What we’re doing right now is taking monies from the fourth quarter and the third quarter…we’re already spending, you know, my September paycheck.”

“We’ve pulled in about the last five and a half months to spend in the first six and a half.” That same official said that this sort of spending has no practical effect on soldiers, according to Defense Daily. And he's probably right, for the moment. What politician would vote to deprive a soldier of his paycheck?

But key members of Congress, like Sen. John McCain, are getting increasingly fed up with this backdoor effort to add tens of billions to the defense budget by essentially holding G.I.'s livelihood hostage. Sooner or later, things are going to come to a head.


http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001410.html


----TENS OF BILLIONS...Who would YOU lie too for that kind of money?...----

Art For Boys. Posted by Hello

Art For Everybody. Posted by Hello

Wake Up America, Wake up...

China issues human rights record of the US



BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- China issued the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2004 Thursday in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004 issued by the U.S. on Feb. 28.

Released by the Information Office of China's State Council, the Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show that serious violations of human rights exist on the homeland of the United States.

"In 2004 the atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the dark side of human rights performance of the United States. The scandal shocked the humanity and was condemned by the international community. It is quite ironic that on Feb. 28 of this year, the State Department of the United States once again posed as the 'the world human rights police' and released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004. As in previous years, the reports pointed fingers at human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions (including China) but kept silent on the US misdeeds in this field. Therefore, the world people have to probe the human rights record behind the Statue of Liberty in the United States," said the report.

The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in 2004 from six perspectives: Life, liberty and Security of Person; Political Rights and Freedom; Economic, social and Cultural Rights; Racial Discrimination; Rights of Women and Children; and Infringement of Human Rights of Foreign Nationals.

This is the sixth consecutive year that the Information Office of the State Council has issued human rights record of the United States to answer the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued annually by the State Department of the United States.

American citizens are threatened by rampant violent crimes and severe infringement of civil rights by law enforcement departments. "Violent crimes pose a serious threat to people's lives," said therecord.

The record quoted the Department of Justice of the United States on Nov. 29, 2004 as saying that in 2003 residents aged 12 and above in the United States came across about 24 million cases of crimes, including 1.38 million violent crimes like murders and robberies, averaging 475 cases per 100,000 people.

"Police violence and infringement of human rights by law enforcement agencies also constitute a serious problem," the record said.

Chinese citizen Zhao Yan was handcuffed and severely beaten onJul. 21, 2004 while she was in the United States on a normal business trip. She suffered injuries in many parts of her body and serious mental harm, according to the record.

Boasted as "a paragon of democracy," the United States' democracy is actually manipulated by the rich and malpractice, said the record.

Referring the elections in the United States are in fact a contest of money, the record said, the presidential and Congressional elections last year cost nearly four billion US dollars, some one billion US dollars or one third more than that spent in the 2000 elections.

According to the U.S.' official website www.opensecrets.org, the 2004 presidential election has been listed as the most expensive campaign in the country's history, with the cost jumpingto 1.7 billion US dollars from 1 billion US dollars in 2000.

Poverty, hunger and homelessness have been haunting the United States, the world richest country, according to the record.

The report stressed the United States refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and took negative attitude to the economic, social and cultural rights of the laborers.

According to the statistics released by the US Census Bureau in2004, the number of Americans in poverty has been climbing for three years. It rose by 1.3 million year-on-year in 2003 to 35.9 million, the report said.

Racial discrimination has been deeply rooted in the United States, permeating into every aspects of society, said the record

The record said that the colored people are generally poor, with living condition much worse than the white. According to a report of The Guardian of Britain on Oct. 9, 2004, the average netassets of a white family is 88,000 US dollars in 2002, 11 times of a family of Latin American ancestry, or nearly 15 times of a family of African ancestry.

Racial prejudice is ubiquitous in judicial fields, the record said. The proportion for persons of colored races being sentenced or being imprisoned is notably higher than whites.

In accordance with a report published in Nov. 2004 by the US Department of Justice, colored races accounted for over 70 percent of inmates in the United States.

The situation of American women and children was disturbing. The rates of women and children physically or sexually victimized were high, said the report.

According to FBI Crime Statistics, in 2003 the United States witnessed 93,233 cases of raping. Virtually 63.2 in every 100,000 women fell victims. Statistics released by the US Labor Departmentin Jan. 2004 showed a woman who worked full time had the median earning of 81.1 percent of that for a man, according to the report.

In addition, according to the report, child poverty was a serious problem. A story released from AP Washington on Oct. 12, 2004 said that about 20 million children lived in "low-income working families" -- with barely enough money to cover basic needs.

Children were also victims of sex crimes. Every year about 400,000 children in the US were forced to engage in prostitution or other sexual dealings on the streets.

The atrocity of US troops abusing Iraqi POWs exposed the infringement of human rights of foreign nationals by the United States, said the record.

According to US media like the Newsweek and the Washington Post,as early as several years ago, in US forces' prisons in Afghanistan, interrogators used various kinds of torture tools foracquiring confession, causing many deaths.

The International Committee of the Red Cross believed that abuse of detained Iraqis in the notorious Abu Ghraib Prison was not a single case and it was a systematic behavior, the report said.

The report pointed out that the United States frequently commits wanton slaughters during external invasions and military attacks. A survey on Iraqi civilian deaths, based on the natural death rate before the war, estimates that the US-led invasion might have led to 100,000 more deaths in the country, with most victims being women and children.

Jointly designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, the survey also finds that the majority of the additional, unnatural deaths since the invasion were caused by violence, while air strikes from the coalition forces were the main factor to blame for the violence-caused deaths.

Despite tons of problems in its own human rights, the United States continues to stick to its belligerent stance, wantonly trample on the sovereignty of other countries, and constantly stage tragedies of human rights infringement in the world, said the report.

At last, the report said that the United States should reflect on its erroneous behavior on human rights and take its own human rights problems seriously instead of indulging itself in publishing the "human rights country report" to censure other countries unreasonably.


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/03/content_2644016.htm

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Memorial for 31 servicemen killed in helicopter crash
U.S. Marines line up during a memorial service for 31 servicemen at Camp Korean Village, near Ar Rutbah, western Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005. Thirty Marines and one sailor died on Jan. 26, 2005 when their helicopter crashed near Rutbah while conducting security operations.
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Identifying the remains.
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Identifying the remains

Iraqi man Ghirayer Ali kisses the skull of his son Rahim, as his remains are the remains of his son are unearthed, at a cemetery for those who disappeared during Saddam Hussein's regime which is newly-accessible to Iraqi citizens, in Abu Ghraib, outside Baghdad, Thursday. Rahim's family says he was 32 in the year 2000, when government authorities took him away without giving any reason, and only yesterday did his family discover he was buried here in one of hundreds of numbered graves. A list of the former Saddam government which matches numbers to names has just been made available, allowing for proper burial.

Hundreds Welcome Home Spokane Heroes

The Stories I like to hear!! Welcome home!!!


More than 100 Marines from the Fifth Battalion of the Fourteenth Marine Regiment and one Navy corpsman from the Spokane-based P-Battery arrived home in Spokane Wednesday afternoon, six months after leaving for Iraq.
Hundreds of friends and family members were there to greet the servicemen with open arms.
Many of those who returned provided security at an Iraq airbase near Fallujah.

DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER

US military death toll in Iraq hits 1500
March 3, 2005 - 7:24PM


The number of US military deaths in the Iraq campaign rose to 1,500 on Thursday, an Associated Press count showed. A soldier assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed Wednesday in Babil province in the so-called "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad, the military said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking-News/US-military-death-toll-in-Iraq-hits-1500/2005/03/03/1109700603782.html

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Got Evidence?....www.michaelmoore.com Posted by Hello

Once we know the name of you we will speak it aloud. On that day you will be returned from The Under World, and you will be, again, among the living. Once your name is restored to you, you will take your rightful place in history. Then your own mouth will be opened, and you will speak to us again. Welcome back. You are more beautiful than we had imagined. Posted by Hello

Meet The Good Doctor

--When I get Pics in the right format I will post them.--

--- Meet Zahi Hawass, Egypt's top antiquities official...He is a true legend and personal hero of mine. I will be posting more on him as we go along. Just to let you understand who the good doctor is consider a moment his title. No tomb in Egypt can be touched without his permission. No temple can be looted under his watch. He controls the very treasures of all Upper AND Lower Egypt. But that is not why he is my hero.

Because I have been reading up on Egypt since I was a kid I have known of Dr. Hawass for most of my life. Not his titles; but his work and involvement in the archeology of a nation I have dreamed of all my life.

He is my hero because when new discoveries are found and he goes to reclaim them in the name of Egypt, his abundant love of history is clear. His hands fascinate me. I stare at them as he speaks and I know he has touched treasures so magnificient I can only imagine them in deep dreams unrestrained by sleep. But to say he touchs them is not really correct.

He carresses the artifacts. He lingers his fingers on them like a lover. I dream of touching them in that very same way.

I am so very glad they are in his loving hands.

And a big HELL YES to the AUSTRAILIAN TEAM that found this AMAZING discovery. History will remember you all. Fondly. And thank you for never giving up the search.---


2,500-year-old mummy found



SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) - Archeologists found three coffins and a remarkably well-preserved mummy in a 2,500-year-old tomb that they discovered by accident when they opened a secret door hidden behind a statue, Egypt's chief archeologist said Wednesday.

The Australian team was exploring a much older tomb - dating back 4,200 years and belonging to a man believed to have been a tutor to the 6th Dynasty King Pepi II - when they moved a pair of statues and discovered the door, said Zahi Hawass, Egypt's top antiquities official.
Inside, they found a 26th Dynasty tomb with "three beautiful coffins," each with a mummy, and "inside one coffin was maybe one of the best mummies ever preserved," Hawass told reporters at the excavation site in the cemetery of Saqqara, 25 kilometres south of Cairo
.
"The chest of the mummy is covered with beads. Most of the mummies of this period - about 500 BC - the beads are completely gone, but this mummy has them all," he said, standing over one of the mummies, swathed in turquoise blue beads and bound in strips of black linen.
The names of the mummies have not been determined, but the tomb is thought to be that of a middle-class official.

Hawass said the wooden coffins, called anthropoids because they were in the shape of human beings, bore inscriptions dating to the 26th Dynasty, together with a statue of a god called Petah Sakar. Petah was the god of artisans, Hawass said, while Sakar was the god of the cemetery.

The door was hidden behind 4,200-year-old statues of a man believed to have been Meri, the tutor of Pepi II, and Meri's wife, whose name was not known.

Meri was also believed to oversee four sacred boats found in the pyramids, which were buried with Egypt's kings to help them in the afterlife, Hawass said.

"I believe this discovery can enrich us about two important periods in our history, the Old Kingdom, which dates back 4,200 years, and the 26th Dynasty, that was 2,500 years ago," Hawass said.

According to tradition, Pepi II - the last king of the 6th Dynasty - ruled from 2278-2184 BC, one of the longest in ancient Egyptian history.
Naguib Kanawati, the head of the Australian team from Sydney's Macquarie University, said the site had been under excavation for ten years. It fell into neglect after Pepi II's rule and was covered by 15 metres of sand, until it was used again as a cemetery 2,600 years later.
"By that time the art of mummification was perfected to the extreme," Kanawati said.

Archeologists would begin tests on the mummies to learn more about their medical conditions, including using CT scans, as they are currently doing with King Tutankhamen, Hawass said.


http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2005/03/02/947490-ap.html

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