Charles Nelson Reilly dies

Sad. Read More......

Who visited AMERICAblog over the past 3 days

I'm trying out another service that shows the location of people visiting the blog. This map is of people who visited over the past 3 days or so.

Click image to enlarge.
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American soldier in Iraq: We could stay 10 years and it won't fix anything

From the International Herald Tribune

But in Safstrom's view, the American presence is futile. "If we stayed here for 5, even 10 more years, the day we leave here these guys will go crazy," he said. "It would go straight into a civil war. That's how it feels, like we're putting a Band-Aid on this country until we leave here."

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Polish government investigating whether Tinky Winky is gay (not joking)

It's time the European Union started getting tough with Eastern European governments that aren't ready for prime time. If they want to rejoin the civilized world, they should start acting like it. This is just embarrassing for Poland, and it's sad that the country hasn't learned from its experiences with the Nazis or the Soviets; the dehumanization of your citizens is a bad thing. It's also a harbinger of the problems European integration faces when some of those wanting to integrate don't live in the same century as the rest of us. Will the EU water down its commitment to civil rights and human rights to appease the lowest common denominator of hate and backwardness in its midst? If Poland isn't ready and willing to join the modern era, it shouldn't be permitted to.

PS It's nice to see that the hate and bile of now-dead bigot Jerry Falwell lives on. And actually, I'll bet that the Poles learned the news of Tinky Winky's homosexuality from the increasing evangelizing religious right extremists are doing in the former Eastern bloc. These countries have no idea who they're dealing with, and thus accept the religious right's hate wrapped in God at carte blanche. Well, it's now biting them in the ass. Read More......

"Why are we still here?", soldier asks about Iraq

Because the Republicans would rather have you die than admit that they made a mistake by supporting this war. Oh yeah, and also because the Democrats don't have enough spine to say "no."

From the International Herald Tribune:

"I thought, 'What are we doing here? Why are we still here?' " said Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. "We're helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us."

His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness....

"In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to fight this war," said Sergeant First Class David Moore, a self-described "conservative Texas Republican" and platoon sergeant who strongly advocates an American withdrawal. "Now, 95 percent of my platoon agrees with me."

When American troops are willing to give critical interviews, and use their names rather than go off the record or anonymous, that means things are really bad - why, because these guys are going to get in real trouble for speaking out. Too bad their bosses don't have the same courage. Read More......

A soldier in Iraq asks in despair: Why are we here?

He's a member of the famed 82nd Airborne. Read the essay he just published. Then ask yourself why we have an increasing number of low-level soldiers willing to risk their careers by speaking out - and they are risking their careers, this guy is going to be in serious trouble - while his bosses, his commanders on the ground, his commanders at the Pentagon don't have the courage to say boo. Yes, a number of retired generals have spoken out about the war, but nobody active duty that I can recall. The arm-chair generals, with David Petraeus in the lead, don't want to risk their careers by telling Bush and the American people the truth about the situation in Iraq. While the troops these commanders are sending to their deaths for a lost cause suffer no such fear of the truth. It's an amazing contrast.

My name is Donald Hudson Jr. I have been serving our country’s military actively for the last three years. I am currently deployed to Baghdad on Forward Operating Base Loyalty, where I have been for the last four and a half months.

I came here as part of the first wave of this so called "troop surge", but so far it has effectively done nothing to quell insurgent violence. I have seen the rise in violence between the Sunni and Shiite. This country is in the middle of a civil war that has been on going since the seventh century.

Why are we here when this country still to date does not want us here? Why does our president’s personal agenda consume him so much, that he can not pay attention to what is really going on here?

....I would just like to know what is the true reason we are here? This country poses no threat to our own. So why must we waste the lives of good men on a country that does not give a damn about itself? Most of my friends here share my views, but do not have the courage to say anything.

I omitted the portion about him watching his roommate die in flames - read the entire piece. Read More......

The appropriate response to GOP candidates when they use "Bush-style fear-mongering"

On Memorial Day 2007, it's well-established that George Bush led us into war based on lies. Bush, Cheney and Rove used terrorism and war for political advantage to win elections in 2002 and 2004. Politics was always more important than policy for the Bush team. The current crop of GOP candidates for President are using Bush's political scare tactics -- invoking Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Paul Krugman explains what should be the appropriate response:

The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.

Here’s the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a “movement” that “has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he should be treated as a lunatic.

When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of “Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda” wants to “bring down the West,” he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.

And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will “follow us home” if we leave, he should be laughed at.

But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington.

Every time the GOP candidates invoke Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, they are also highlighting Bush's failure to defeat the actual enemy who attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001. And, they must be held accountable for the reality that Bush's Iraq war has created a terror training ground in Iraq. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Memorial Day, 2007. Read More......

Wolfowitz blames the media for his problems

Uh huh. It's always the media, isn't it? Does anyone from the GOP ever accept responsibility, ever, for anything?

"I'm pleased that finally the board did accept that I acted in good faith and acted ethically," he said.

"I accept the fact that by the time we got around to that, emotions here were so overheated that I don't think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about."

He denied suggestions that lingering personal antipathy against him had contributed to his decision to leave.

"I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that.

"People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend."

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DHS shows virtually no "terrorism" connection

Despite its original mission created after 9/11 and repeatedly being told this is the mission by Bush, DHS has very little to show in terms of actual links to terrorism though it clearly has a very strong record of acting as an immigration service. Much like the "war on terror" there is quite a gap between words and actions.

Of the 814,073 people charged by DHS in immigration courts during the past three years, 12 faced charges of terrorism, TRAC said.

Those 12 cases represent 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed.

"The DHS claims it is focused on terrorism. Well that's just not true," said David Burnham, a TRAC spokesman. "Either there's no terrorism, or they're terrible at catching them. Either way it's bad for all of us."

The TRAC analysis also found that DHS filed a minuscule number of what are called "national security" charges against people in the immigration courts. The report stated that 114, or 0.014 percent of the total of roughly 800,000 individuals charged were charged with national security violations.

TRAC reported more than 85 percent of the charges involved more common immigration violations such as not having a valid immigrant visa, overstaying a student visa or entering the United States without an inspection.

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Two US soldiers killed in Iraq

And so it continues. Read More......