Monday, August 30, 2004

IN IRAQ  The fighting continues. At least two Iraqis have been killed and dozens injured in fierce clashes with United States soldiers in the northern town of Mosul. Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades launched attacks on two separate US convoys near Tall Afar on the outskirts of the city. The soldiers returned fire. And the flow of oil has been shut down by insurgent attacks. Oil exports from southern Iraq have been brought to a complete halt, a senior oil official said today, following a spate of pipeline attacks launched by insurgents trying to undermine the volatile nation's interim government. Just another typical day in the Bush quagmire. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 6:55 PM Back to the top

THE UNFOLDING SPYSCAM  Juan Cole continues to dig with posts here and here. It appears to be the case that someone in the Pentagon got wind that Larry Franklin had been flipped, and was terrified that the investigation might go on up the ladder at the Pentagon, in AIPAC, and with the Israelis. So they leaked news of the investigation to make sure that everybody clammed up and shredded everything. Laura Rozen at War and Peace is also on top of it. 1) The secret meetings between Pentagon officials and associates of Ghorbanifar in Europe went on for almost two years, a full year longer than the Bush administration has acknowledged. Ghorbanifar told me of three meetings. While the Pentagon originally told the Post last year that Harold Rhode, an official in Feith's office, had simply run into Ghorbanifar in Paris in June 2003, Ghorbanifar tells me that the two spent weeks planning the meeting. Ghorbanifar, according to Rozen, is an Iranian arms merchant. Warren Strobel has this piece from Knight Ridder. An FBI probe into the handling of highly classified material by Pentagon civilians is broader than previously reported, and goes well beyond allegations that a single mid-level analyst gave a top-secret Iran policy document to Israel, three sources familiar with the investigation said Saturday. The probe, which has been going on for more than two years, also has focused on other civilians in the Secretary of Defense's office, said the sources, who spoke on condition they not be identified, but who have first-hand knowledge of the subject. In addition, one said, FBI investigators in recent weeks have conducted interviews to determine whether Pentagon officials gave highly classified U.S. intelligence to a leading Iraqi exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, which may in turn have passed it on to Iran. INC leader Ahmed Chalabi has denied his group was involved in any wrongdoing. Uggabugga has diagrammed the connections. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 4:15 PM Back to the top

WAR ON TERROR NEWS  A few stories related to the war on terror that aren't getting attention. I wonder why? Bush: WOT Unwinnable He really said it. When asked "Can we win?" the war on terror, Bush said, "I don’t think you can win it." Great. First he admits he screwed up the war in Iraq and now he admits he can't win the war against terrorism. And this is the person the right whingers think can make them safe. Terrorists Strike In Boston Make that right whinge terrorists strike in Boston. An explosion that blew out a number of windows at a Boston-area laboratory specializing in stem-cell research was caused by a pipe bomb, local police said on Friday. No one was wounded in Thursday's early morning blast at Watertown, Massachusetts-based Amaranth Bio, which says on its Web site its technology is focused on organ regeneration and that it is working on cures for diabetes and liver disorders. In a statement, Watertown police confirmed the explosion was the result of a pipe bomb and said they believe someone broke into the facility. No arrests have been made, police said. Orcinus has more on this. Right Whingers Terrorize Family What a bunch of dumbasses. Parents of a newborn were erroneously targeted Wednesday by about 50 abortion protesters who raised posters of mutilated fetuses and called "Evil dwells here" through a bullhorn. The problem is they had the wrong house, said Tricia Lehra, who was on the receiving end. The group apparently thought Lehra's Washington Road home belonged to a doctor who performs abortions. Lehra, who has a 2-month-old daughter, is a Shenendehowa Central Schools counselor; her husband, August, is an electrical engineer. The target of the misplaced protest was a neighbor, Paul Drisgula, an executive of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson. Maybe Bush would change his mind about being able to win the war on terror if he started cleaning up his own party. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 12:00 PM Back to the top

Sunday, August 29, 2004

LEARN TO SPY  Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 11:22 PM Back to the top

SQUAWK, PROTESTS ARE BAD  The right whingers are all squawking that protests are bad. Lucky for democracy these freedom hating rubes weren't around to trash the efforts of these rabble rousers. 1764: Beginnings of Colonial Opposition. American colonists responded to the Sugar Act and the Currency Act with protest. In Massachusetts, participants in a town meeting cried out against taxation without proper representation in Parliament, and suggested some form of united protest throughout the colonies. By the end of the year, many colonies were practicing nonimportation, a refusal to use imported English goods. 1765: Organized Colonial Protest. American colonists responded to Parliament's acts with organized protest. Throughout the colonies, a network of secret organizations known as the Sons of Liberty was created, aimed at intimidating the stamp agents who collected Parliament's taxes. Before the Stamp Act could even take effect, all the appointed stamp agents in the colonies had resigned. The Massachusetts Assembly suggested a meeting of all the colonies to work for the repeal of the Stamp Act. All but four colonies were represented. The Stamp Act Congress passed a "Declaration of Rights and Grievances," which claimed that American colonists were equal to all other British citizens, protested taxation without representation, and stated that, without colonial representation in Parliament, Parliament could not tax colonists. In addition, the colonists increased their nonimportation efforts. 1773: Boston Tea Party. When British tea ships arrived in Boston harbor, many citizens wanted the tea sent back to England without the payment of any taxes. The royal governor insisted on payment of all taxes. On December 16, a group of men disguised as Indians boarded the ships and dumped all the tea in the harbor. The right whingers hate protests simply because they suck at organizing them. They criticize those who can do what they cannot but forget that most, if not all, democratic societies were born from protests. Shame on the freedom hating right whingers and kudos to the freedom loving protesters in New York City. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 3:01 PM Back to the top

NEW YORK SEZ: FUCK YOU BUSH  Sept. 11 families don't want convention in New York RNC protesters throng Manhattan streets Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 1:20 PM Back to the top

THE RIGHT WHINGERS ON IRAQ  Posted to the comments of BuzzMachine. Jeff, why are you avoiding posting about what's going on in Iraq? You and your warflogging ilk wanted this war. Posted by Robert McClelland at August 29, 2004 11:34 AM Robert--Jeff is not your personal news provider--you and your ilk can find what you want at Daily Kos or Democratic Underground, Al Jazeera or a million other pro terrorist sites. Posted by Kat at August 29, 2004 11:37 AM Posted to the comments of Drumwaster's Rants. Why are you warfloggers all avoiding posting about what is going on in Iraq? You all wanted this war, now face the reality of the quagmire. Posted by: Robert McClelland at August 29, 2004 08:37 AM But you call it a "quagmire". Your masters at the DNC Talking Points would be proud of you. They like ignoring the facts, too. Posted by: Drumwaster at August 29, 2004 09:38 AM And the best for last, posted to the comments of the Yapping Chihuahua. How's that quagmire in Iraq working out for you? I'm only asking because you right whingers have apparently abandoned it. Posted by: Robert McClelland on August 29, 2004 10:31 AM Hey Robert, you're getting soft in your old age. It's Reich Wingers, you senile parrot. Get it right! *snicker* Not that it's gonna help any of you Leftie Loonbats in a few more weeks...keep showing yourselves for the immature bunch of overgrown children you are, boys. Everytime you open up your crusty mouths, it just makes us Conservatives look better. --TwoDragons Posted by: LC Denita TwoDragons, G.L.O.R. on August 29, 2004 10:41 AM How's that head up your ass working out for you, McFelcher? I'm only asking because you dipfuck moonbats have apparently run out of DNC talking points and are desperately trying to change the subject. Posted by: zetetic on August 29, 2004 11:30 AM About what you'd expect from a pack of lying scumbags who pushed for a war as though it were the single most important thing in the universe and then abandoned it after it turned to shit before their very eyes. The right is living in denial over the outcome of this war by refusing to believe that the US has lost it. Don't let these scumbags get away with it. If you're a blahgger, mention Iraq at every opportunity. If you just post to blahgs, throw it in their faces. They wanted this fucking war, now they can live with the outcome of it whether they like it or not. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 1:02 PM Back to the top

I SPY  The Washington Monthly is on top of the unfolding Pentagon spy scandal as is Juan Cole, who has some excellent coverage here and here. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 12:25 PM Back to the top

BREAKING NEWS  Iraq is still FUBAR and the right whingers don't care. While American troops have been battling Islamic militants to an uncertain outcome in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, events in two Sunni Muslim cities that stand astride the crucial western approaches to Baghdad have moved significantly against American plans to build a secular democracy in Iraq. Both of the cities, Falluja and Ramadi, and much of Anbar Province, are now controlled by fundamentalist militias, with American troops confined mainly to heavily protected forts on the desert's edge. What little influence the Americans have is asserted through wary forays in armored vehicles, and by laser-guided bombs that obliterate enemy safe houses identified by scouts who penetrate militant ranks. Even bombing raids appear to strengthen the fundamentalists, who blame the Americans for scores of civilian deaths. I'm sure the right whingers will be all over this developing story. I mean, surely they didn't beat the drums of war for over a year only to abandon Iraq like a child who begs their parents for a new toy and then discards it a few weeks later because it didn't live up to their expectations. I'm sure the absence of commentary from the right on the situation in Najaf recently was just an aberration. Yup, I expect to be reading the right whinger's assessment of how the war in Iraq is progressing any minute now. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 12:10 PM Back to the top

Saturday, August 28, 2004

A REQUEST FOR ANY CONVENTION GOERS  Could someone remind President Bush that it has now been 1,083 days since he said he'd catch this man dead or alive. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 4:18 PM Back to the top

OUCH  Photo via Oliver Willis. Photos via Robert Fisk. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 12:25 PM Back to the top

MY BLAHG'S ASSHOLE OF THE WEEK #2  And the undisputed winner is, Sean McCormick of PolSpy. For those of you who don't know, Carolyn Parrish is the Liberal MP who recently called Bush's coalition a "coalition of idiots". Clifford Olson is a serial murderer. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 12:06 AM Back to the top

Friday, August 27, 2004

FOR YOUR COUNTRY OR YOURSELF  John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in order to ensure all American POWs would be returned to the US. George Bush meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah in order to ensure that Saudi Arabia would increase oil production to lower gas prices before November to help the president's re-election prospects. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 6:56 PM Back to the top

I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS  John Kerry and John Lennon at an anti-Vietnam rally in the early 1970s. Photo via Democracy For California. President Bush and Uzbek President Islam "boil`em alive" Karimov in 2002. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 1:07 PM Back to the top

KERRY CRITIC LOSES JOB  I bet the right whingers will howl over this one. The Clackamas County Prosecutor who appeared in an ad against John Kerry has been suspended from his job, but not for speaking out. Al French has been the target of local protests after his appearance in a political ad questioning the the Democratic candidate's war record. Only in America, and regimes like North Korea, can a person be punished for criticizing a politician. This person has simply become a hot potato and they dug up any reason they could find to get rid of him. What a wonderful country the US is becoming. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 12:44 PM Back to the top

Thursday, August 26, 2004

COALITION OF THE WHINGING  Ahhhhh! Parrish called it a "coalition of idiots". She's anti-American! No, she's an anti-semite! She wrecked Canada! She should be fired! She should be shot! Hangin's too good for her! AIEEEE! Off with her head! Off with her head! (Post edited for comedic purposes.) Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 4:31 PM Back to the top

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

INSTAOBSESSION  Instarube writes, "This seems like news." And just what does he think is news? Al-Sistani heading to Najaf? The release of another report on the Abu Ghraib scandal? How some American's lost their overtime pay on Monday? No, what seems like news to Instarube is yet another dull story from the Moonie Times nitpicking Kerry's Vietnam service. Seriously, Instarube doesn't even serve as a useful news and blahg aggregator any longer. There was a time when he at least provided this service, but his drooling obsession with trying to prove that Kerry is a liar by dredging up inconsequential bits of nonsense from 30 years ago is just a sad sight to witness. It's also a clear indication that he has passed beyond the realm of sanity into the world inhabited by the Coulters, Limbaughs and anyone else who has ceased to be useful to the right and is now just an embarrassment to them. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 1:14 PM Back to the top

UH-OH  This doesn't sound good. Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric returned to the country on Wednesday and urged Iraqis to march on the "burning city" of Najaf, where fighting is creeping closer its sacred shrine. Aides to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said he had arrived in Iraq from Kuwait and was heading to Najaf, his adopted home, after receiving heart treatment in London for three weeks. The call to march on Najaf by the Shiite moderate--who has said little about a crisis that has killed hundreds and undermined the authority of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi--could escalate passions among the majority Shiite community in Iraq. "Najaf is burning. Ayatollah al-Sistani is on his way back and calls on Iraqis from all provinces to join him in the holy city," the aide, Hamed al-Khafaf, said by telephone from Beirut. The logistics of the march would be known shortly, he said. It's unclear exactly what al-Sistani's intentions are, but one thing is clear; he's no longer content to sit on the sidelines. Update: Swopa has more on this developing story. The thing that concerns me about this is not so much what al-Sistani's intentions are--I for one feel that he is just looking out for the best interests of Iraq and it's people--but that, given the way the growing insurgency has been mishandled, he and his many followers will be unwillingly drawn into this quagmire. If this were to happen it would certainly signal the end of Bush's grand ambitions for Iraq. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 11:50 AM Back to the top

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

RACISTS AND THE RIGHT  It would seem that a few of the right whingers, who enjoy reading my site, are offended by me linking their ideology to the ideology of neo-Nazis and white supremists. Too bad. Here are a few examples of their shared ideology. Neither group likes multiculturalism. From Colby Cosh. It has promoted multiculturalism, which, by definition, is anathema to the notion of history as a common frame of reference. A google search of any right wing blog on the word "multiculturalism" will almost invariably turn up results in which it is referred to in a negative connotation. And now from Stormfront. You might call this an extreme example - but it is not at all uncommon in modern America as Congress and the federal and state bureaucracies dance to the tune of multiculturalism and the New World Order that is being imposed on an uninformed and unconsulted American people. Even their rhetoric is identical as both the white supremist groups and mainstream right whingers often make references to "the Balkanization of America." Both groups share the same view on religion's place in their nation. From the Texas Republican Party platform. The Republican Party of Texas affirms that the United States of America is a Christian nation, and the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history. Our nation was founded on fundamental Judeo-Christian principles based on the Holy Bible. The Party affirms freedom of religion, and rejects efforts of courts and secular activists who seek to remove and deny such a rich heritage from our public lives. And now from the KKK platform. The recognition that America was founded as a Christian nation. The similarities don't end with these few examples either. They share common views on gun control, immigration, international organizations--like the UN--and treaties--such as NAFTA--and affirmative action, just to name a few. I could go on, but even a cursory examination of sites like Stormfront or the KKK will reveal that the ideology of neo-Nazis and white supremist groups is in fact right wing extremism. Another simple fact is that these extremists are moving ever further into the mainstream right because it's becoming an increasingly more hospitable environment for them. Happy thoughts to you. Robert blahgged this at 3:58 PM Back to the top