Too true not to share.

We have something else in common with the Iranians. They laugh at the Republicans too.

Courtesy of Mediaite: 

In response to a question about Republican rhetoric on Iran, that nation’s president Hassan Rouhani said that he finds it to be “laughable.” 

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour asked Rouhani about the current Republican presidential race, specifically with regard to how the candidates are denouncing the Iran nuclear deal. 

Rouhani said, “What is spoken of here in the United States of America… [is] quite laughable, it was very strange.” Iranians, he explained, view this “as a form of entertainment.” 

“Can a government become a signatory to an international agreement and then the subsequent government tear it to shreds? This is something that only the likes of Sadaam Hussein would do.”

Now of course this will have no impact on the Republican presidential candidates, or their constituents, since they think this guy is essentially Satan's twin brother and will assume this is simply Iranian propaganda.

However I think many of us have little doubt that this is more than likely an accurate assessment of how not just Iran, but other countries in the Middle East and Europe now view the Republican party.

As we move closer and closer to 2016, this should be in the forefront of our thoughts.

Source

Donald Trump goes after several of his GOP rivals but saves his most cutting remarks for Jeb Bush.

So last night Trump held a campaign rally in New Hampshire, and he did not hold back against his Republican rivals: 

The real estate mogul and reality TV star mocked Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) height, warned Carly Fiorina not to publicly challenge him, and jabbed at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush over an early campaign stumble about whether he would invade Iraq. Trump singled out Paul, who in recent weeks has pledged to expose Trump’s past record supporting Democratic causes. “Rand, I’ve had you up to here,” Trump said, holding his hand halfway up his chest to indicate that’s how tall the Kentucky Republican stands.

Trump also claimed that Paul was "scamming" the people of Kentucky by running for president while also keeping a return to the Senate as his back up plan.

At one point saying: 

“Either run for Senate and do a good job or run for president. You don’t run for president and say if I don’t make it, I will become your senator reluctantly. If I were a good, strong Republican from Kentucky, I would run against him in a heartbeat.”

Trump also pretended that he would not attack a woman when referring to Carly Fiorina right before he launched this in her direction:  

“Carly was a little nasty to me,” Trump said. “Be careful, Carly. Be careful. But actually, I can’t say anything to her because she’s a woman and I don’t want to be accused of being tough on women.” 

“I promised I wouldn’t say that she ran Hewlett Packard into the ground,” Trump said. “I said I would not say it. That her stock value tanked. That she laid off tens of thousands of people and she got viciously fired. I said I would not say it. And that she then went out and ran against Barbara Boxer for senator of California, and it’s a race that should have been won and she lost in a landslide, and I said, I will not say that, ok? So I’m not going to say it.”

But when it came to Jeb Bush Trump did not bother to pretend that he was not going for the jugular:  

“The other day, I’m watching, and [Bush] said, ‘Well, we got Saddam Hussein out, didn’t we?’ ” Trump said. “I’m not a fan of Saddam Hussein, but he ran the place, and he had no weapons of mass destruction, and now instead of Saddam Hussein, we are far more brutal, we have ISIS and we will have Iran because they are already making deals.”

Trump followed that up with this:

“The Iraq War is a disaster for the Bushes. The last thing we need is another Bush,” Trump said. “Saddam Hussein, instead of him, you have ISIS, you have Iran taking over. You tell me, was it worth what we paid for?”

Okay I have to admit that I usually watch Trump with more than a small portion of disgust, but some of these things he was saying last night actually had me cheering him on a little.

Now don't get me wrong, I still think the man is a pig.

However I kind of like it when the GOP pigs start oinking at each other, and taking chunks out of each others hide.

Donald Rumsfeld says that he never thought forcing democracy on Iraq was a good idea. Now he tells us.

Courtesy of MSNBC:

In an interview with British newspaper The Times, Rumsfeld said that efforts to oust Saddam Hussein and replace his tyrannical regime with democracy were unworkable, and that he had concerns about the plan from the beginning. 

“I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories,” Rumsfeld told The Times. “The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words.”

WTF?

Rumsfeld has just as much blood on his hands as do Bush, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, among others. And there is nothing he can say now that will wash them clean.

Remember this is the guy who once said:

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Sounds to me as if there were more knowns than unknowns, but this asshole didn't have the balls to say them out loud when it could have prevented the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iraqis.

I wonder how many more rats will jump ship in the months to come?

Millenials love Einstein more than Jesus, and hate George W. Bush more than Joseph Stalin. Well good for them!

Courtesy of the Daily Mail: 

George W Bush has gone down in history as one of the world's most evil people, just behind Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden. 

The former president beat Stalin, Mao and Lenin as a figure of hate in a new study of history's biggest heroes and villains. 

Albert Einstein, meanwhile, beat Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and even Jesus Christ to be crowned the world's biggest hero. 

This is according to the opinions of almost 7,000 students from 37 countries including Argentina, Pakistan, South Korea, Italy, and the US. 

The students, who had an average age of 23, were asked to give their opinions on 40 figures and significant events throughout world history. 

Interestingly enough the historical figures more despised than Bush were Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, and Adolph Hitler. Great company you keep there Georgie! (Can you believe his brother actually thinks he might be elected to the White House?)

Personally I was a little disappointed to see that Jesus beat out Buddha for biggest hero, and that President Obama was nowhere on the list.

I found this study particularly interesting in that the sampling was from all over the world, and that it was focused on a fairly young population.

This indicates to me that these young people are less religious, more inspired by science (Thomas Edison and Sir Isaac Newton also made the top ten.), and totally fed up with dictators and their wars.

In other words they are moving toward a more peaceful coexistence based on a love of logic, and away from the constant state of warfare dictated by an adherence to religious doctrines.

If true that is very good news indeed.

Man if you think Jeb Bush flubbed that question about invading Iraq get a load of Marco Rubio spinning like a top over the same question.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

“But what [Megyn Kelly] asked was, ‘Was it a mistake to go to war with Iraq?'” Wallace pressed. 

“That’s not the same question,” Rubio replied. “The question I was asked was what you know now.” 

“But that’s the question I’m asking you,” Wallace explained. “Was it a mistake to go into Iraq?” 

“It was not a mistake for the president to decide to go into Iraq because at the time he was told…” Rubio said before being interrupted. 

“I’m not asking you that,” Wallace reminded him. 

“The world is a better place because Saddam Hussein is not there,” the Florida Republican argued. “But I don’t understand the question you’re asking… A president cannot make a decision knowing what someone might know in the future.” 

“That’s what I’m asking you,” Wallace tried again. “Was it a mistake.”

Okay now I want to see every one of the Republican presidential wannabes self destruct over this same question. I think so far only Rand Paul has managed to unequivocally say that invading Iraq was a mistake. 

Boy you know what Rubio could have used during this interview?

A cold sip of refreshing water.

Would have probably made all the difference.

George W. Bush sheds a single hypocritical tear for the thousands he sent to their deaths, or sentenced to a lifetime of pain and suffering.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

In an interview that aired on Sunday, ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked the former president if the new initiative helped him cope with the 6,800 service members killed, and 51,000 wounded. 

“No question it helps,” Bush stuttered. “I have a duty.” 

“I obviously get slightly emotional talking about our vets because I’m in there with them,” he added with a single tear spilling down his right cheek. 

“But my spirit is also uplifted when I visit with vets. As I say, there is no self-pity… They don’t say, ‘Woe is me.’ They say, ‘What can I do to continue to serve?’”

There are NO amount of tears this asshole could shed that would ever match the number shed by the families of the soldiers that he sent to their deaths based on a lie.

A lie by the way that I believe he knew about all along.

There were too many people telling him that Saddam Hussein did not have nuclear weapons,and lacked the capability to manufacture them, for Bush to claim he was ignorant of that fact. 

He used the terror from 9-11 to wage a war of choice, to get revenge for his daddy, that sent thousands of trusting soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, to their deaths.

No he is a POS and there should be NOBODY who wastes an ounce of their precious sympathy on the likes of him.

Correspondence between George W. Bush and Tony Blair during run up to Iraq war may be declassified.

Courtesy of RT:  

Tony Blair and George Bush exchanged voluminous correspondence prior to the start of military operations in Iraq. Now, the UK is moving to declassify details of the talks for an inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the conflict, British media reported. 

The release, set for the upcoming year, is expected to include more than 100 documents, described as a collection of notes, records of 200 minutes of ministerial level talks, telephone conversations and private meetings between the British prime minister and American president, The Independent reported. 

This will give the green light for the Chilcot Iraq Inquiry to publish an account of the conflict, where much attention will be given to decisions made by then Prime Minister Tony Blair. Indeed, the files could play a major part in determining Blair’s historical legacy, which critics say has been stained by the Iraq War. 

Blair has been criticized for failing to challenge then-US President George W. Bush on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, specifically chemical and biological weapons, which a Joint Intelligence Committee report said in September 2002 “could be ready for firing in 45 minutes.” 

The former Labour leader said he worked to restrain the Bush administration’s seeming determination for military involvement in Iraq, even as UN weapons inspectors on the ground failed to discover any chemical or biological stockpiles. 

A senior government official predicted the results of the inquiry will not do Blair any favors: "In the new year it seems the Chilcot inquiry is going to be published. Everyone will be assuming: bad hair day for Tony Blair and Jack Straw." Straw served as Blair’s secretary of state.

All I can say is, if they do NOT redact the most damaging portions,  this would be a great gift to those of us who know that the administration lied about the reasons for the war, and bullied Blair into following them into the abyss.

It might also give the Right Wing an opportunity to see what REAL treason looks like so that they can see the damn difference from now on!

If we remember what the LAST Republican presidency was like, perhaps we will be patriotic enough to avoid another one.

We could have paid Saddam 1 billion dollars to leave Iraq and avoided a war that has cost us 445 billion dollars to date.

Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq, it was claimed last night.

Fearing defeat, Saddam was prepared to go peacefully in return for £500million ($1billion).

The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President's Texas ranch.

The White House refused to comment on the report last night.

Just think how simple it might have been to go into Iraq after its leader had fled and then suggested to the Iraqis that they might want to give democracy a chance and elect the next leader of their country. No destruction of Iraqi infrastructure to contend with, no anger from thousands of families who had lost loved ones in bombing raids by allied forces, no reason to rebuild the military from scratch since it would not have been disbanded, it would have been a cake walk.

But then I guess warmongers just don't want a peaceful resolution to a conflict. I mean who gets a medal of valor for good negotiating?

Great article that lays out all the information about Iraq and Bush's war that we will ever need to know.

Much of this information may not be new to many of us, but when it is laid out like this it just makes me angry all over again at this administration.

They ignored history, lied, destroyed an entire country for selfish reasons, and have put all of us at risk.

Here are just a few of the excerpts that really got to me.

• Saddam Hussein started his career as a political thug, on the payroll of the CIA during the 1950s and 1960s, torturing and murdering Iraqi leftists whose names were provided by American intelligence, and participating in an armed coup against the Iraqi government.
• Right after 9/11, according to Clarke, “The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, ‘I want you to find whether Iraq did this.’ Now he never said, ‘Make it up.’ But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said Iraq did this. I said, ‘Mr. President. We’ve done this before. We have been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind. There’s no connection.’ He came back at me and said, ‘Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there’s a connection’. And in a very intimidating way. I mean that we should come back with that answer. We wrote a report. It was a serious look. We got together all the FBI experts, all the CIA experts. We wrote the report. We sent the report out to CIA and found FBI and said, ‘Will you sign this report?’ They all cleared the report. And we sent it up to the president and it got bounced by the National Security Advisor or Deputy. It got bounced and sent back saying, ‘Wrong answer. … Do it again’.”
• To this day Bush says in his speeches that Saddam did not comply with the UN, that Saddam kicked the inspectors out of Iraq, and that Bush had Security Council authorization to invade. None of those statements are true.
• As a result of this war, over 3,500 Americans are dead, and perhaps 20,000 or so are gravely wounded. Americans have not been allowed to see the caskets returning to Dover Air Force Base.
• The best, most scientific, and least politicized estimate of Iraqi dead suggests that probably close to one million have now perished in the country’s post-war chaos, out of a population of 25 million.

Now if this is new information to you then I am glad you finally turned off FOX News and decided to learn the truth. Welcome to you.

But more likely you have already read all, or most, of this information. However I think it is important that we continue to revisit these facts and remind ourselves just how incredibly incompetent and deceitful this administration has proven itself to be.

And to always remember that they are never going to be a source of truth on any subject about this war or anything that shows them in a bad light.

If you are lovers of the truth then you are going to have to skip much of the mainstream media which still acts like a mouthpiece for the White House. (Anybody notice the misinformation about Iran that CNN has been promoting?)

But you can find that truth here and on many of the sites listed on my blogroll. We may not be trained journalists, but we also cannot be bought off or pressured by our advertisers to tell falsehoods. We are an eclectic bunch but we are passionate about getting to the truth.

(By the way if you would rather watch the truth on television rather then search for it on the Internet, then allow me to direct you to "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann and "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart. They are both very entertaining and will give you the real story that you may not get from many other news outlets.)