His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader of the crowd that toppled the statue in Baghdad’s Firdous Square. Now, he is filled with nothing but regret.
The moment became symbolic across the world as it signalled the fall of the dictator. Wearing a black vest, Mr al-Jubouri, an Iraqi weightlifting champion, pounded through the concrete in an attempt to smash the statue and all it meant to him. Now, on the fourth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, he says: “I really regret bringing down the statue. The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.”
Anti-war marches are scheduled for 3 PM today at both Westlake Park (4th & Pine) and the Federal Courthouse (700 Stewart St.) The two groups will eventually merge at the Henry Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Ave.
Bush’s mistake was not getting the mess over with quickly. That’s the legacy from the Southeast Asian Adventure: get it over with fast. Declare victoryy & leave.
Now the Republicans will lose the White House in 2008 (unless Hillary is the nominee) and probably lose more seats in the House and Senate.
For all you Republicans who post on this blog (you know who you are) consider the Libertarians, for a change!!
GOOD POST. THAT SAYS IT ALL FOR ME. JUST TIE IT OFF, PACK IT UP AND GO HOME. STOP THE BLEEDING.
ALL WE SHOULD DO IS MINIMIZE THE FALL OUT AS BEST WE CAN.
This has been a VERY bad day for the Bush Regime – a bad day among many bad days. Chief White House LIAR Tony Snowjob even lost his cool today. The righties don’t want you to remember MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. They don’t want you knowing how many lives have been lost in this so-called war. They don’t want you knowing how much money WHATADICK Cheney and Halliburton have made off taxpayer dollars that were supposed to fund the war. They don’t even want you to know how much this war is costing or going to cost. And this anniversary serves to remind people of the Bush lies. Yep a bad day for the inbred, cowardly, chickenhawk Publican party.
Roger I saw your name on the list along with some of your friends.
Federal Watch List Has 400,000 Names
A federal watch list of people connected to terrorism now has 400,000 names. The list, called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), established by President Bush in 2005.
“Whether it comes from an operations cable from the CIA or a very sensitive SIGINT [signals intelligence] from NSA, if there’s a piece of derogatory information on a known or suspected terrorist, it goes in that database,” Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, director of the NCTC
For all you conservatives out there please, PLEASE, PLEASE take Libertarians advice @ 1.
Please, for the sake of our country, please follow Libertarian’s advice.
Thank you.
YO, this means you. I know someone would have to be blunt with you so the honor falls to me. Glad I could help. Vote Libertarian, OKAY?
Good.
Run along, Dumb ass.
What I want to know from the conservatives is how do you defend Dick Cheney’s former company, Halliburton, moving to Dubai?
Thanks for the support, GSB. I realize it would be good for the Democrats if a lot of Republicans voted Libertarian instead of sticking with the religious zealots in the Republican Party. Sure, the Libertarian candidate probably won’t win in 2008, but a lot more votes for him/her would defintiely be appreciated and make a profound statement that the Libertarians aren’t up for the usual Republican BS this time.
Ohhhh, no Libertarian, that’s totally the wrong attitude dude. Stay postive, bro.
I’m here to support you and your cause.
REPUBLICANS VOTE LIBERTARIAN!! Make a profound statement for America. Let the policticans in Washington D.C. know you’re ‘mad as Hell and you’re not going to take it any more‘
Do it for America, show your patriotism! VOTE Libertarian!
Yeaaaaaaaa, Team!
klake
I wonder if you really thought about your comment “A federal watch list of people connected to terrorism now has 400,000 names.”
Now if there really was 400,000 people in this country that were supporters of terrorism, then we could simply declare and end to the “war on terror” today, because we would have lost.
Perhaps you believe that, but I certainly don’t, so the alternative is that there are 400,000 people that are actively opposed to the Bush administration, and are working towards a peaceful and lawful change.
So, I’m pretty sure that most of those 400,000 names are people that have participated in peaceful demonstrations, people who have been vocal opponents of the Bush administration and people that have been active in opposing the neo-con attempts to overturn our Constitutional liberties.
Essentially, it wouldn’t surprise me to find my own name on the list.
Not yours, though. You are now, and always have been a good little trooper for the administration. You’ve supported them regardless of the lies, misadventures and crimes they’ve committed.
Yes, klake, you continue to do your part in eradicating all those dangerous civil rights, and opposing that radical document known as the Constitution of the United States of America (a.k.a. “just a piece of paper”).
1. From the Bush gang’s point of view, “victory” was important only as a fee-good bone to toss to the masses. When the charade on the USS Lincoln off San Diego was over and done with, the plunder and profiteering had only begun.
I don’t give these craven fucks credit for a shred of altruism or a dot of good intentions, and neither should you.
Libertarian,
If you want to be a big picture guy on the political scene, you gotta start looking at the big picture. Follow me?
In other words, don’t worry about any short term gains the Democrats may or may not benefit from as a result of Republicans seeing the light to your cause.
You have to work long term, see the big picture. You cannot build a large political party platform if you get scared off by the prospect of the Democrats winning by attrition.
Go for it BIG GUY! It’s a new day in a big new world and it’s right in the palm of your hand.
Spell out your “call to action” message. Convince those on the right your cause is for them.
Or, just continue being a meek pussy relgated to 2nd class citizen status in the world of dog-eat-dog politcs.
As always, in America, the choice is yours.
What’s it gonna be? Big and powerful, or meager and meek?
Step up or step aside.
Lead or follow.
Put up or shut up.
I can use all the cliches in the world, but your actions, or inactions speak volumes about your beliefs.
I’ll be waiting for you at the finish line in 2008 and 2010. Beyond that it’s up to you.
The phrase “executive privilige” does not exist in the Constitution.
Only an “actvist judge” could infer its existence.
This protest stuff is going to fuck up my commute. Goddamnit, can’t we build some rapid mass transit BEFORE we tie up downtown?
GSB,
I’ve been voting for the Libertarians for 30 years+. I personally don’t want to be a politician, but I’ll continue to support the Liberatrian candidates when I can.
I know a guy who was in the AF with me, and he’s currently an elected official in WA. He’s the laziest guy who ever put on a blue shirt for the US Air Force, but he was a careerist, and looked out for himself. Intuitively, you know to what part he belongs, and it ain’t the Libertarians!
Hint: it ain’t the Democrats either!!
Klake and his dick – sucking pals in the GOP are the biggest threat to America. They are traitors and the real sponsors of terror.
Top Conservative Strategist Has ‘Written Off’ 2008, Time Magazine Says
Richard Viguerie, a leading GOP strategist, no longer believes it makes any difference who his party nominates in 2008 because that election is a goner, Time Magazine reports in an article titled, “How The Right Went Wrong”:
“But others on the right say they are looking at this election as a write-off. ‘I’m not focusing on 2008,’ Viguerie says. ‘Realistically, it will probably take until the year 2016’ before the movement regains anything resembling its former glory.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info, see http://tinyurl.com/24jnsc
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I’ve felt for some time that rightys agonizing about a standard-bearer for ’08 are wringing their hands over nothing. As I’ve posted before on this board, I think Mickey Mouse could beat the GOP next year. Hell, the Republicans may have a hard time finding a candidate who isn’t in jail!
The Time article is worth a read, but its conclusions about how the GOP brand got tarnished are obvious. Time, like the rest of MSM, uses sanitized language to describe (and downplay) the constitutional violations, criminality, and treason of the Shrub regime. I’m referring to treason not just in terms of a betrayal of conservative principles, but the prosecutable kind. You know what I mean.
In this article, though, Time seems to lose its compass in cataloguing what it calls conservative “successes”:
“At 35%, the top tax rate is about half what it was when Reagan took office; the Soviet Union broke up; inflation is barely a nuisance; crime is down; and welfare is reformed.”
Let’s look at this. First of all, the conservative conventional wisdom that Reagan brought down the Soviet Union is bullshit. The president who drew the line in the sand, Harry Truman, was a Democrat; and after Democratic president who followed contributed to the USSR’s ultimate defeat. No president paid a higher price in fighting communism than LBJ, a Democrat, who tried to draw a line in the sand against the commies in Vietnam. And Reagan was not the most important player in the USSR’s dissolution; Gorbachev was, followed by Pope John Paul II. Reagan wasn’t a bit player, but he was only one of many important actors on the stage, and not the most important.
Now let’s consider that 70% tax rate. It was never meaningful, because no one paid it. Yes, Republicans have nomally cut taxes — but there’s a couple of big problems here that Time doens’t mention. First, while nominal tax rates for the rich were cut in half — actually, far more than that, because they got most of the benefit from even deeper cuts in capital gains taxes — middle class taxpayers received much smaller cuts, both percentage-wise and dollar-wise. Someone in the 28% bracket who now pays 25% got only a 10% cut in his rate, not the 50% cut that Time implies. That includes the vast majority of Americans.
Second, both Reagan and Bush43 financed their tax cuts with borrowing, not spending cuts, and government borrowing isn’t free. We pay for it with inflation. What these tax cuts actually did was shift the burden of paying for government from the richest to the working and middle classes.
Inflation barely a nuisance? Who the fuck are they kidding? Since Shrub took office, energy prices have tripled; many food staples are up by more than 50% and in some cases have doubled (with more food price spikes on the way); and housing costs have soared. The official inflation figures are a joke. A house you could have bought 5 years ago for $120,000 cost you over $200,000 last year. The extra $80,000 you will spend the rest of your life trying to pay off got you absolutely nothing except an old house that’s 5 years older. You can argue Bush had nothing to do with this, it was market forces, but that argument is wrong because the real estate boom was driven by speculation (25% of all houses sold in the last 5 years were purchased by flippers), which in term was driven by lax lending practices (which are now setting up taxpayers and investors for another S & L scandal-sized bite), which was driven by the ruling conservatives’ disdain for government regulation of the financial industry.
An ironic local victim of lending excesses and speculative pricing: Stefan Sharansky, who paid $858,000 for a house to a seller who paid $360,000 for it only six months previously.
Crime down? The latest news reports say homicides and other violent crimes are surging. One reason: Bush43 killed the funding for the 100,000 extra cops that Clinton put on America’s streets simply because of his irrational hatred for anything with the “Clinton” label on it. Further, whatever decline in crime did take place in recent years was due to demographics (fewer young people), and not anything Bush or the Republicans did. They have neglected crime issues, just as they have neglected our veterans, and anything else that doesn’t have “tax cuts for the wealthy” or “Iraq military spending” stamped on it.
Finally, it wasn’t Bush who reformed welfare. That wears the Clinton label. I don’t accept the wingnut argument that Clinton was pushed into it by a Republican Congress. Welfare reform became law because Clinton didn’t wield his veto pen, and he had to buck his own party to do that. Nor did the GOP majority in Congress have a single thing to do with implementing it and making it successful; that was accomplished by Clinton appointees in the executive branch and the bureaucrats who worked under them. Welfare reform is a “Made in the Democratic Party” accomplishment. Further, it would never have worked if it had been implemented by the uncompassionate conservatives, or on their terms.
So, Time Magazine has gotten many things wrong in this article. But then, we know they shill for the conservative franchise, along with most of the MSM. (So much for the “liberal media” myth.) But one thing we can feel good about: When even the right wing MSM says the ’08 election is toast for the GOP — that means things are lookin’ up!
The Iraq War is nothing but another profit center for Greedy Republicans, Inc.
@1 It’s worse than you think, Lib — the GOP will lose the WH in ’08 even if Hillary IS the nominee.
Flakey klake @4 Of course I’m on that list, dumbass! The GOP defines as a “terrorist” anyone who expresses a political opinion to the left of Hitler. Helicopters hover over my burrow, and white vans with Homeland Security Department markings park across the street while guys work up on the utility poles — do ya think I don’t know what they’re doing? I’m on the arrest list. But the fascists have to catch me first!
P.S., klake is a nazi
@7 “make a profound statement that the Libertarians aren’t up for the usual Republican BS this time”
No, they’ll wait until they’re a majority party, like the Republicans did, before they let power go to their heads and start behaving like kids running wild in a candy store.
@11 I, too, am for a prosperous Libertarian Party, so we don’t become a one-party country. One-party government is unhealthy. The Democrats, like everyone else, need competition to keep them honest and true to their principles. And, with the self-destructing Republican Party in its death throes, someone else now needs to step up to the plate.
14 Huh? Jim McDermott used to be in the Air Force.
John Barelli says:
klake
I wonder if you really thought about your comment “A federal watch list of people connected to terrorism now has 400,000 names.”
Now if there really was 400,000 people in this country that were supporters of terrorism, then we could simply declare and end to the “war on terror” today, because we would have lost.
Perhaps you believe that, but I certainly don’t, so the alternative is that there are 400,000 people that are actively opposed to the Bush administration, and are working towards a peaceful and lawful change.
So, I’m pretty sure that most of those 400,000 names are people that have participated in peaceful demonstrations, people who have been vocal opponents of the Bush administration and people that have been active in opposing the neo-con attempts to overturn our Constitutional liberties.
Essentially, it wouldn’t surprise me to find my own name on the list.
Definition of a Terrorist
In an interview, Russell E. Travers, who is in charge of the NCTC list as deputy director for information sharing and knowledge development, raised the question of how one defines a terrorist.
“If you swear allegiance to bin Laden, that’s pretty easy,” he said. “If you went to a training camp and have a history of blowing up U.S. interests, that’s pretty easy also. What if you went to a training camp, but then you decided you didn’t like this and went home? What if you are the brother of someone who swore loyalty to bin Laden? What if you are a member of an Islamic non-governmental organization, and some in that organization have clearly funneled money to al-Qaida? So the point is that this can become very gray. And given that we’re dealing with information that may be contradictory or it may be partial, this can be a difficult balance for us. We look at all the evidence and try to apply a reasonable standard.”
In the case of a foreign individual, “If someone was in a safe house, and we just have a name that they were in some way associated with a known al-Qaida guy, then even though we may have no other derogatory information beyond that, that would be enough to get them in TIDE and get them on a watch list, so that they won’t be able to get a visa to come to the country,” Travers says.
From the TIDE database, the NCTC extracts the name, date of birth, and some additional basic information to identify each possible terrorist. The NCTC passes those names, each tagged with a TIDE number, to the Terrorist Screening Center maintained by the FBI. Those names then form the basis for the no-fly list and other lists checked by U.S. Customs officers and State Department officers issuing visas. The FBI includes the names on its National Crime Information Center list that police officers check when stopping traffic violators, apprehending fugitives, or identifying stolen property.
If a traffic violator who is stopped in Maine is on the list as a possible terrorist, the officer at the scene can call the Terrorist Screening Center and obtain instructions. If the man is wanted, the officer will arrest him. Or the local Joint Terrorism Task Force may be called into action to conduct surveillance of the individual.
Reverent John your name is not on the list.
klake, I’m sure you’re on many watch lists
For example, I’ll bet you’re on Timmy Lieman’s watch list — he’s still hoping you’ll graduate someday so he can sell you a graduation watch.
Hey Roger, are we up for the $1 bet on the 2008 election? You remember – the one where I’ll pay you a dollar if Hillary gets the nomination and you pay me a dollar if Hillary doesn’t get the nomination? I won’t welsh either, Rog (unlike MTR). After all, it’snly a buck!
If i lose, I’ll send Goldy a dollar and he can forward it to you. That way we all stay anonymous.
Libertarian @ wherever: (several posts)
Bless you and your idealistic little heart.
Unfortunately, this is the US and not Western Europe
In Germany, France, Italy, etc. you have variations on the proportional representation system. She or he who gets 4% of the votes, also gets 4% of the seats in the legislature. It’s also cool, because if you have 2 large parties who split 85% of the vote between them, that last 4% gets to ask for a lot more than their percentage of votes naturally entitles them to.
Here, we do first-past-the-post. Sometimes you get a 3 person race that pushes the percentage needed for the win down below 50%, but to have a win, you need close to 50% of the votes.
The Libertarian party is largely uncorrupt, ideologically clean, and not like those two big ugly dirty parties that dominate American politics.
As long as it stays that way, the odds it will get a plurality are exactly zero. When they decide they want a large chunk of the voting population, they can make deals with fundie christians, segregationists, scary state’s rights people and all the other strange bedfellows the Republicans took on to cement their majority.
At that point, as a principled human being, you’ll be disgusted with the LP, and will go off and start another “pure” fringe party for small government.
Meanwhile, dare to dream.
@ 25
Screw that! Go out and meet you counter parts to collect on a bet or dont’ make ’em!
That’s what I did.
PacMan’s no welsher, but he sure takes a shit load of time and harassing to pay up.
Libertarian @ 14:
I don’t expect you to be a politician, what I’m saying is that if you truly believe in your cause and if you think conservative are more closely aligned with your political beliefs, then by all means go for it and recruit them into the Libertarian Party.
What I’m saying is don’t let a potential temporary gain for Democrats scare you off.
Otherwise, it gives the appearance that you don’t believe strongly enough in your convictions to weather a temporary Democratic gain while you’re building your party to national prominence.
GSB,
As far as any betting goes and paying off if I lose, i’d prefer to be anonymous. If Roger takes the bet, and I lose, i’ll get him the $1. I won’t cheat ’em.
The Republicans basically went under when they fell in with the religious right. I don’t know when it happened, but it must have been at least a generation ago. I think I remember Reagan hob-nobbing with that insufferable religious idiot Pat Robertson. You rememeber him. He was the guy who said he was a “combat marine” in Korea, yet because his dad was some high mucky-muck politician, he got a staff officer job in the Korean Theater of Operations. In fact, he was bragging to his fellow marines on the boat going over to Korea that his dad was gonna get him out of the danger. I think this buffoon was actually running for prez at one time, and the embarrassment of that little story caused him to back out of the race.
There aren’t many Republicans who have even served in the military, much less been in a fight. Sure, there’s John McCain, but he seems to be imploding on his bid to get the Republican nomination.
It doens’t matter much who get the Republicna nomination in 2008 from my point of view. I’m not gonna vote for that person.
@25 I already answered that in a previous thread, Lib. I’m not willing to bet money on Hillary getting the nomination. I believe she won’t.
OK, Roger. I was just following-up. No worries!
16 I quit reading Time Mag long before I gave up on Fairview Fanny. Every once in a while someone cites an article online, or I’ll pick up a copy in the dentist’s office, and I’m quickly reminded why I gave it up.
YOS LIB BRO continues to be impressive with his posts.
He makes me proud to be a Democrat.
Thanks for your courage.
Few people can articulate & defend a position as well as you.
He is truly the Halibut of the Blogosphere.
Going back to your post at 1, my point is don’t expect some miraculous sea change in party affiliation.
Go out and do the hard work and make your party bigger. Seriously.
It’s good to have a counterbalance in politics and the truth is conservatism has taken the legitimacy away from the Republicans.
It’s time to have an honest opposition party in America and that clearly leaves the Republicans out of the loop.
Get to work.
And you wonder why the cops react the way they do…. Because a-holes like these give your “PEACEFUL” protesters a bad name.
http://www.jsonline.com/watch/.....8;id=20830
Union Firewoman @ 35:
Looks like more agent provocateurs of the Republican Party are running amok.
GBS,
Clearly you are so much more clever, than I am. I mean the way that you carefully cut me down, by inserting the letters “wo” in front of man, shows me how vast your intelligence really is. Your witty response to my post has left me without words, so I think I’ll just post a link instead.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local.....76f25b536a
Keep up those peaceful protests, that don’t harm anyone or cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars in overtime, and in this case new paint.