It's come to this, part duh!

It's not enough that Spain has issued arrest warrants for three American soldiers who served in Irag, charging them with the April 2003 murder of a Spanish journalist.

Nor is it enough that Italian prosecutors have charged 25 CIA officers and one US Air Force officer with kidnapping and torture for the secret 'rendition' of Egyptian cleric Hussan Mustafa Omar Nasr in 2003. (The linked article states 13 CIA agents were charged, subsequent to its publication Italy issued additional arrest warrants.)

Now Germany has issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents (11 men and 2 women) for kidnapping, torture and great bodily harm to Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen.

(pictured with his children.)
Mr. el-Masri was released after being held and tortured for five months in a secret prison; they dumped him on a hillside in Albania when our guys realized they'd grabbed the wrong guy!
Kinda like bombing the wrong Chinese Embassy because your secret CIA maps are out of date! It's all a-okay, though because 'our people' claim he was paid for the inconvenience, a claim he disputes.

Is there any civilized country with whom America is still friends?
Is there anyone in charge here in America with any honor or integrity?
Anyone who believes in American ideals?
Is there anyone at the CIA who has a clue? or the State Department?
Why are we paying these congenital idiots to destroy what it took us over 200 years to build?
Is this your America? It sure isn't mine.

For a background on this sorry debacle here's the ACLU version.
For more sordid details on the German charges, see news stories in the Washington Post or the New York Times or the UK Guardian.
Disgusting.

Bread & Circuses

The last American election cycle has barely finished and already the pundocrats of print and screen are screaming, ranting and raving about who shall lead the pack, which imperfect unannounced candidate has the best chances of surviving the pummeling the press intends to inflict.
But none of the much touted male heirs-apparent are willing to act in any manner remotely resembling leadership.


Nor does the would-be 'mother-in-chief' offer an unimpeachable stand on any of the issues that will define us for the next several hundred years, if not the next several thousand years of human history.
Forget for a moment the mad acts of the venial criminals stinking up our White House, there truly is a more nightmarish situation that requires our instant undivided attention. Global warming is even now at this very moment creating the perfect atmospheric petri dish for the most horrific human scenarios imaginable, Frank Herbert notwithstanding.

I had the lovely opportunity to attend a two-hour lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, the other day. Six Nobel Laureates spoke on the problems and opportunities Global Warming will offer us. While the nice scientists were quick to speak of the ways in which the University, the Lab, and our corporate masters could profitably study the problem and profit from some of the solutions, they had to admit that Global Warming was far more urgent and horrific than most folks were letting on.

Every day we continue to produce excess carbon-based greenhouse gases will dramatically and negatively affect the accelerating problem of global warming.

The excess carbon sequestered in the atmosphere today, as in right this minute, will take at the very least 150 years to be reabsorbed and quite possibly more than a 1,000 years.
That assumes that absolutely no additional carbon is released into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the lecture I attended was on January 20th, but I haven't seen our masterful modern civilization make any dramatic changes in the last week.

While the average village idiot nursing on the idiot box assumes that the great and magnificent American scientist will come forth with a high-technology, planet-saving solution (just in the nick of time like Superman does in the movies) the sad truth is we, each and every one of us, is immediately and personally responsible for producing the excessive and unnecessary wastes that will end us, simply because we like our 'MTV', SUV etc. The great irony is that we, each of us, could make an enormous difference and possibly save our children's lives simply by really conserving energy right now, claimed Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel McFadden.

If not, in a future too quickly to come, hurricanes will sweep our coastal cities away and flood the devastated remnants in a fashion which promises to make New Orleans in the wake of Katrina look civilized and modern.

Vast and intense firestorms will devour entire regions, filling the air with globe-encircling smoke. Those with pulmonary problems, the old or infirm will literally suffocate in plain air. The very young, with their still developing lungs will also be victimized.


Inland, water will become so scarce as to cause crops to fail on a massive scale and hunger will immediately follow. (Already we're getting official warnings that this year's snowpack in California is at drought levels.)Follow the state's figures here and the news here.


The ability of our sacrosanct capitalist system to deliver food to the many thousands of cities and millions of citizens across the country will utterly fail.
Our governmental authorities will not be able to reliably deliver water or energy.
Using the typical military measures for which America is known around the world, the same government that won't be able to deliver water or food will be able to deliver fully armored and armed gun-men to ensure any potential domestic unrest is immediately suppressed.

But back to the beauty contest we call a Presidential election.
None of our statesmen running for the highest office in the land has the stomach to loudly and stridently demand the necessary, no, the imperative and immediate act of rationing carbon-based fuels, to demand we appropriately tax the polluters for the damage they're doing to our shared environment, to insist we create a massive public transportation system, none of them are working with Congress to stop the billion dollar subsidizes given to automobile manufacturers, airlines and oil companies and use that money to start conservation programs.

Hell, our parents and grandparents endured rationed gasoline, planted Victory Gardens, taxed war profits, and diverted entire industries to fight Hitler's Nazi killing machine. All Hitler wanted to do was kill a couple dozen million people. Global Warming will kill billions.
So tell me which of our so-called leaders is willing to declare all out WAR on global warming?

It was no different for the war on the poor and innocent citizens of Iraq.
Too soon it will be no different for the similarly impoverished and guiltless citizens of Iran.

No leader has stepped forward nor will any step forward to demand accountability for anything this country is doing.
Nor will there be press watch dogs to hold those leaders accountable.

And the great majority of us, the silent and powerless majority?
We won't insist this madness be halted.
We've more important issues at hand ... like who's going to be our national American Idol in 2008? What clueless, gutless, spineless greed monkey will befoul the people's house, the White House in 2009.
I just hope there's a year 2009 and an America in that year that I am still able to recognize.

Meanwhile back in the present, take a good look at what our current leader has done to address this crisis: WTF!?

It's a lovely day for the Guillotine

From Wikipedia: On this day (January 21) in 1793, after being found guilty of treason by the National Convention, King Louis XVI was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd.

I love a freedom loving people, don't you?

Tremble as China awakes

In response to the Chimp-in-Chief's military bravado, vis-a-vis turning space into an armed camp, China shot a deadly serious round across the American ship-of-state's bow.

Policy changes instituted a few months ago by the Neanderthal 'Deciders' of our national security declared that Bush & Co. "preserve(d) its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space." At the same time our cretins-in-charge threatening to "deny adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."

Last week the Chinese destroyed one of their old weather satellites by smacking it head-on with a mid-range missile. The Chinese did not use an explosive warhead to destroy the target, graphically demonstrating that their missile was extremely accurate -- capable of physically hitting a very small orbiting object approximately 500 miles away.

"For several years, the Russians and Chinese have been trying to push a treaty to ban space weapons," Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information told the New York Times. Of course our glorious leader wants nothing to do with anything that might restrain his dreams of empire. The Bush administration has long resisted signing a global treaty banning the military use of space, claiming the U.S needs to be free to militarize space.

A lot of good America's "rights, capabilities, and freedom of action" are going to be if Walmart's favorite trading partner decides it should be in control of military operations in space. With the fastest growing economy in the world, the largest population in the world, and an educational system that's churning out top-shelf scientists faster than we can dumb down our educational curriculum, China represents a formidable potential adversary. In an armed conflict, the Chinese could lose more the 600 million of it's citizens and still have a population three times the size of America.

Meanwhile Bush & Co. threaten nearly every country in the world, generating enormous sympathy for America and solidarity with our fellow humans around the world.

Now even Jordan wants to establish a nuclear 'energy' program.

Who's Jack Abramoff?

The Liar-in-Chief is sweatin'
'cuz the man he never met is talkin'

from the White House website just one year ago.
If you go to the link, it's one of the last questions...

Q: Do you meet with lobbyists?
THE PRESIDENT: I try not to. Have I ever met with one? Never having met with one is a -- if I ever say that, sure enough, you'll go find somebody. But, no, I don't have them come in. ...
Q: Can you say, sir, whether you were lobbied by Jack Abramoff or other lobbyists, and what your policy is about lobbyists meeting with senior staff?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don't know him. And this investigation will -- needs to look into all aspects of his influence on Capitol Hill, and if there's some in the White House, I'm sure they're going to come and knock on the door. But I -- I can't say I didn't ever meet him, but I meet a lot of people. And evidently, he was just like you were the other day, at a holiday party -- came in, put -- the grip-and-grin, they click the picture and off he goes. And that's just -- I take thousands of -- I mean, somebody told me I maybe take over 9,000 pictures this holiday season. And he obviously went to fundraisers, but I've never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy.


By the by, in this same press conference the Liar-in-Chief also explained why it is important to spy on American citizens
and claimed U.S. agents don't torture political prisoners.

THE PRESIDENT: ... if they're saying we tortured people, they're wrong. Period.
Q: Could you call on your Texas straight talk and make a clear and unambiguous statement today that no American will be allowed to torture another human being anywhere in the world at any time --
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. No American will be allowed to torture another human being anywhere in the world. ... I know some have said, well, why did he put a qualifier in there? And one reason why presidents put qualifiers in is to protect the prerogative of the executive branch. You see, what we're always doing is making sure that we make it clear that the executive branch has got certain responsibilities. Conducting war is a responsibility in the executive branch, not the legislative branch.

What a difference a year makes.

It's come to this.

Spanish prosecutors, the same decent, law abiding and moral folks who had the monstrous Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet held under house arrest in England and threatened to arrest the war criminal Henry Kissinger, now seek the arrest of three American soldiers for war crimes in Iraq.

Judge Santiago Pedraz has issued an international search-and-capture warrant for Sgt. Thomas Gibson, Cpt. Philip Wolford and Lt.Col. Philip De Cam to stand trial for the deliberate and unprovoked murder of Spanish journalist Jose Couso, 37, pictured.

Putting evil to rest

The White House doesn't understand why so many Americans are horrified and disgusted by the manner and atmosphere in which Saddam Hussein was lynched.

"There seems to be a lot of concern about the last two minutes of Saddam Hussein's life and less about the first 69 years, in which he murdered hundreds of thousands of people," White House press secretary Tony Snowjob whined and mewled to anyone with a TV camera who'd pay attention.

What Snowjob and his Chimp-Master don't understand is this is not about Saddam, who was clearly a murderer and a genocidal despot. This is about us. This is about America. Saddam was our prisoner and our responsibility.

It's no surprise that the same day Snowjob complains that he can't understand the fuss about Saddam's vigilante-style lynching, an FBI report comes out detailing acts of horrific abuse at the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay. There our soldiers are torturing prisoners, in some cases torturing them to death. In one incident an American guard wiped her menstrual blood on a prisoner's face after fondling his genitals! WTF? In another incident a soldier pretended to defecate on a prisoner's holy bible, the Koran (which as I understand also contains the first five books of the Old Testament).

Who is charge? Who is watching? Who is ordering these acts?

Are Americans honorable, civilized people who believe in the rule of law, who believe in a civilized response to horrific crimes? Or are we barbarians like those we deplore?

If we want to be moral examples for the world, if we want to be world leaders, we must act like world leaders not psychopaths and murders. We must uphold higher standards. No civilized person can possibly justify the circumstances surrounding Saddam’s death. No reasonable American, no honor-bound, law-abiding person of integrity can possibly justify, excuse or rationalize the barbaric acts of torture and debasement prisoners of war are receiving right now in secret American military prisons around the world.

While the gutless cowards in the White House, the excuse-giving, draft-dodging, war-profiteers in the White House now blame others for what happens, you and I know the truth and for that I am ashamed.

This beautiful country that I love is showing it’s worst side to the world.
No wonder the nuclear arms race is on again.
If I were the leader of a foreign country I’d be doing everything in my power to assure my people that they were safe from American violence.

And the new year begins...

Yesterday I wrote about what was wrong with Saddam Hussein's lynching. Today, once again, someone else has said it better. Robert Fisk is one of the most knowledgable and renown reporters of events in the Middle East -- it's a beat he's been covering for decades. Here's his story. The news is out there and it's easy to find, despite the despicable propaganda and lies spread by the mainstream media. The real question is why don't we, honorable just Americans, care enough? Why haven't we the courage to stop the madness?

The whole lynching, including the taunts, the curses and the jeering from from the masked vigilantes in charge can be easily viewed on You Tube. It's not a pretty sight!












But throughout it all, Saddam comes off as the better man, and (worse for the US) now he is a martyr to his nation and his people.

I have to wonder how many of our soldiers will die unnecessarily or be critically wounded as a direct result of this, the latest screw up by the schoolyard bullys, the moral cowards who squat illegally in our White House?












And now more...
'The White House uses the NY Times to wash its hands of this affair' by Glen Greenwald

And this: 'Rank fiction emanating from the White House with the intent of distancing itself from this grotesque affair' penned by Chris Floyd .

To read the original propaganda piece issued by the White House (on how it wasn't responsible for the late night lynching of Saddam Hussein) you'll want to read the original press release dictated to the tarted up war-whore known as the New York Times with lavish and loving personal dictation services performed by Misters John F Burns and Marc Santora.

Get a clue fellow citizens. The whole world is painfully aware that the manner of Saddam Hussein's execution is far too similar to the way in which thousands of African-Americans were 'brought to justice' by hasty late night public lynchings. That time is too recent and too notorious, the world around, for the obvious similarities not to be glaring.