Life in OUR America, Volume 5, the Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

And while we are on the subject of people in OUR America, these poor beleaguered LOW-HANGING FRUITS, as it were, being picked on and singled out for unfair prosecution merely because they are REPUBLICANS ...

And friends of George W. Bush ...

Like Kenny "BOY" Lay, for example ...

Who is certainly being discriminated against because he is one of George W. Bush's friends ....

We have ....

"Three More Lawmakers Linked to Abramoff"

By TONI LOCY and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - Three members of Congress have been linked to efforts by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former General Services Administration official to secure leases of government property for Abramoff's clients, according to court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday.

The filings in U.S. District Court do not allege any wrongdoing by the elected officials but list them in documents portraying David Safavian, a former GSA chief of staff, as an active adviser to Abramoff, giving the lobbyists tips on how to use members of Congress to navigate the agency's bureaucracy.

And while we are on the subject of these poor beleaguered LOW-HANGING FRUITS, as it were, being picked on and singled out for unfair prosecution merely because they are REPUBLICANS ...

And the not-so-low-hanging fruits, as well, it seems .....

We have .....

"Abramoff Said to Claim Close Ties to Rove"

By JOHN SOLOMON and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers

Tue Feb 14, 2:45 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Three former associates of Jack Abramoff say the now-convicted lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.

The White House said Monday night that Rove remembers meeting Abramoff at a 1990s political meeting and considered the lobbyist a "casual acquaintance" since President Bush took office in 2001.

New questions have arisen about Abramoff's ties to the White House since a photo emerged over the weekend showing Abramoff with Bush.

The White House would not release the photo or any others that Bush had taken with Abramoff.

Also surfacing were the contents of an e-mail from Abramoff to Washingtonian magazine claiming he had met briefly with the president nearly a dozen times and that Bush knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff's family.

Three former business associates of Abramoff, who worked with the lobbyist in various roles between 2001 and 2004, told The Associated Press that Abramoff routinely mentioned Rove when talking about his influence inside the White House.

One said he was present when Abramoff took a call from Rove's office to confirm a White House meeting had been approved between Malaysia's prime minister and Bush in May 2002.

Abramoff was being paid by Malaysia for helping it in Washington, according to evidence the Senate has made public.

All three associates would describe the Abramoff comments only on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation of Abramoff's work and fears that speaking out could affect their current businesses.

At least one said he had been interviewed by the FBI.

Abramoff was a $100,000 fundraiser for Bush and lobbying records obtained by the AP show his lobbying team logged nearly 200 meetings with the administration during its first 10 months in office on behalf of one of his clients, the Northern Mariana Islands.

The contacts between Abramoff's team and the administration included meetings with Attorney General John Ashcroft and policy advisers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the AP reported last year.

Abramoff's former assistant, Susan Ralston, went to work for Rove in 2001.

Abramoff's legal team declined comment Monday night.

According to one of the three former associates, frequently Abramoff's cell phone would ring and the lobbyist would tell the associate that the White House was calling.

To prove that he wasn't making up what he was telling the associate, Abramoff occasionally would hold up the phone so that the associate could see the incoming call was indeed a White House phone number.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a fraud and bribery conspiracy case and is cooperating with the investigation into those in Congress and the administration he used to lobby.

Asked about the three former Abramoff associates' account, the White House said Rove shared a common past with Abramoff as leaders of a young Republicans group decades ago.

"Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s," White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said.

"Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance."

Healy said Rove has "no recollection" of talking to Abramoff about the Malaysian prime minister's meeting in May 2002.

She said Bush first met the prime minister at a foreign summit in October 2001 and that the 2002 meeting in the Oval Office was "another opportunity to get together to discuss the war on terror."

[Livyjr]

And then ....

There is the economy ...

"US retail sales raise interest rate fears"

By Tony Tassell

Tue Feb 14, 1:48 PM ET

Global markets were jolted on Tuesday by much stronger than expected US retail sales data that raised the prospect of further interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve.

Treasuries weakened while Wall Street shares firmed up on news that US retailers saw their biggest monthly sales increase in January since May 2004, as warm weather encouraged shoppers to spend.

The dollar rallied strongly but briefly.

Retail sales rose 2.3 per cent in January, sharply above the average 0.9 per cent increase forecast by economists.

Excluding auto sector sales, the rise was 2.2 per cent, the largest monthly gain for more than six years.

The news added to speculation of a strong recovery in economic growth in the first quarter after a weak fourth quarter last year.

In turn, this was expected to add pressure on Ben Bernanke, the new Fed chairman, to continue to tighten monetary policy.

The central bank has raised its benchmark Fed funds rate 14 times in the current cycle to 4.50 per cent.

A further rise to 4.75 per cent is widely expected at the next meeting of its rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee over March 27 and 28.

Interest rate futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were yesterday indicating expectations of a near 100 per cent probability of another quarter point rise to 5 per cent at FOMC meetings on May 10 or June 28-29.

Mr Bernanke will provide clues on the direction of interest rates when he delivers the Fed's semi-annual monetary policy report to the House Financial Services Committee today and the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow.

Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist at Miller Tabak, described the retail sales figures as a "blowout" that put gross domestic product on track to post a gain of at least 5 per cent for the quarter.

"The data make a strong case for a 5 per cent funds rate, maybe even 5.25 per cent or higher."

"In turn, Treasury yields will follow."

"My credo remains that Treasuries rarely trade below the funds rate except when an interest rate cut is imminent."

"It's not," he said.

Al Goldman, strategist at AG Edwards, forecast that the funds rate would peak at 4.75 per cent.

He said the housing market had cooled and the economy should slow to a 3.2 per cent growth rate this year from 3.5 per cent in 2005.

Mr Goldman added that Mr Bernanke's testimony today was likely to be a "non-event" as it had been widely expected.

By late morning in New York, 10-year yields were 2.1 basis points higher, at 4.604 per cent.

Two-year yields were up 1.3bp at 4.691 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2 per cent to 11,017.59 while the S&P 500 added 0.8 per cent to 1,273.30 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8 per cent to 2,257.59.

The dollar initially rallied sharply in the wake of the retail sales data but then slipped.

The dollar reached $1.1856 against the euro before easing to $1.1893, roughly flat on the day.

In Europe, share prices were mixed amid the release of sluggish economic growth figures for the eurozone.

The data were offset by another strong reading of the ZEW Institute's index of investor confidence in Germany.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index initially rose to a fresh 4½-year high of 1,338.99, but slipped back to 1,330.80, down 0.2 per cent on the day.

Tokyo continued its volatile run.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average gained 1.9 per cent to 16,184.87.

The broader Topix index rose 1.1 per cent to 1,635.24.

[jeffmoskin]

Tokyo continued its volatile run.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Average gained 1.9 per cent to 16,184.87.

The broader Topix index rose 1.1 per cent to 1,635.24.

Seems to me that the Nikkei average was around 30,000 during the boom years (80s) before plunging to 10,000 in the 90s.

Anybody remember this?

[Snuffysmith]

February 15, 2006
Masters of Deception
And now for the real news…
by Justin Raimondo
While the country – or, rather, the American media – is fixated on an accidental shooting by the vice president, and the airwaves are filled with the natterings of the chattering classes over this inconsequential albeit unfortunate matter, the real shooting is being largely ignored: the slaughter continues in Iraq. While reporters and pundits rush to track down every niggling detail of Quailgate, the story of how we were lied into war – and set up for a sequel – is largely untold.

Such is life in the post-9/11 Bizarro World we've all been consigned to: the trivial is spotlighted, while the real news occurs under cover of darkness. Scattered fragments of the story come out, however, and it is left for the inquiring reader – that's you and me, my friend – to fit together such pieces of the puzzle as we have and try to discern some consistent pattern.

The big news is that the Justice Department probe into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame by Scooter Libby and his cohorts has taken a new and very interesting turn, one that perhaps sheds new light on a key aspect of the case: the motivation of Libby and his co-conspirators. As Raw Story reporter Larisa Alexandrovna reveals in the first really substantive addition to the story since Libby's indictment, Plame's highly sensitive work for the CIA – involving nuclear proliferation issues – had a very specific focus at the time of her outing:

"According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

"Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program."

The exposure of Plame and her entire operation – Brewster Jennings & Associates, the CIA front company that cloaked this super-secret tracking program – effectively blinded the U.S. to the evolution of Iran's nuclear program. Not long after the outing of Plame – and just after a grand jury began hearing testimony in the Fitzgerald investigation – another security breach involving Iran made headlines: the Iranians had been alerted to the fact that the U.S. had broken the code governing their internal government communications, with the chief suspects being the neoconservative version of Che Guevara, Ahmed Chalabi, and his Iraqi National Congress, the source of much of the phony pre-invasion "intelligence" about Iraq. The truth about Iran's WMD (or lack of same) was rendered inaccessible, leaving the field open for the neocons and their foreign operatives to move into the vacuum and keep their very effective lie factory working overtime.

At the same time, the chief analyst at the Pentagon's Iran desk, Larry Franklin, a committed neoconservative, was making contact with two officials of the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the heavy-hitting Washington lobby, feeding them information that they subsequently passed on to Israeli embassy officials, including Naor Gilon, the embassy's chief of political affairs, and another yet-to-be-named official (who some speculate may be Danny Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the U.S.). The focus of the Franklin-AIPAC spy cabal: U.S. intelligence on Iran.

And that's not all. More interesting reportage by Alexandrovna points to a third prong of this disabling operation aimed at U.S. surveillance of Iran:

"Several U.S. and foreign intelligence sources, along with investigators, say an Iranian exile with ties to Iran-Contra peddled a bizarre tale of stolen uranium to governments on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring and summer of 2003.

"The story that was peddled – which detailed how an Iranian intelligence team infiltrated Iraq prior to the start of the war in March of 2003, and stole enriched uranium to use in their own nuclear weapons program – was part of an attempt to implicate both countries in a WMD plot."

A familiar cast of characters stars in this tale of intrigue and disinformation: Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian arms merchant and master of deception, who, along with neoconservative guru Michael Ledeen – another player in this drama – was entangled in the Iran-Contra affair. Larry Franklin makes a guest appearance at a meeting in Rome where the plot was reportedly hatched. Oh, and a mysterious Iranian named "Ali," who, it turns out, is the pseudonym for Fereidoun Mahdavi, a former minister under the Shah, now a secretary to Ghorbanifar.

It would have been Plame's job to debunk Ali's tall tales. Knocking her and Brewster Jennings out of the running was necessarily a top priority for those with an interest in targeting Iran. There is a lot more here than has come to the attention of the "mainstream" media, and, again, Alexandrovna is digging where others fear to tread.

All indications are that an active campaign to set up Iran for attack was going full gear even as George W. Bush was declaring "mission accomplished" in Iraq. As we look at the different pieces of the puzzle, a definite picture begins to emerge: what we are seeing are the outlines of a coordinated covert action, engineered by neoconservative ideologues in and around the Pentagon and Dick Cheney's office, and carried out in cooperation with the Israelis. Their objective: gin up a war with Iran, even as we marched into Iraq. A one-two punch that will speed the forces of "democratization" and visit upon the region what Ledeen lauds as "creative destruction."

It is commonly assumed that the outing of Plame was retaliation for her husband's vocal opposition to the war and his debunking of the myth that Saddam sought uranium in the African nation of Niger with which to make a nuclear bomb. Yet this explanation was never really very satisfactory: it assumed an extraordinary amount of self-indulgent pettiness on the part of the leakers in the White House, and a level of vindictiveness bordering on stupidity.

As we begin to understand the nature of Plame's work, her exposure takes on new significance: the War Party was intent on blindfolding U.S. policymakers by ensuring that no one with any expertise or interest in debunking their lies would remain standing. Spared the sight of reality – which is that Iran is at least 10 years away from building a viable nuclear weapon – U.S. officials would then be free to do what they did in the case of Iraq: make it up as they go along.

Libby has already been indicted, but others, as we have seen, are knee-deep in this quagmire. As the investigation deepens and broadens, and the trial date (a year from now) approaches, the twists and turns of the scandal – which ought to go down in history as Neocongate – will be mapped by the meticulous Fitzgerald, as the story of how we were lied into war is laid bare.

[Livyjr]

Seems to me that the Nikkei average was around 30,000 during the boom years (80s) before plunging to 10,000 in the 90s.

Anybody remember this?

Yes, I believe that I do, jeffmoskin ....

Which is why I like to watch these numbers ...

And especially listen to all the hype ...

From the HYPESTERS ....

Who get paid all those big bucks to feed us with this hype ....

[Livyjr]

February 15, 2006 

Masters of Deception - And now for the real news…
 
by Justin Raimondo

While the country – or, rather, the American media – is fixated on an accidental shooting by the vice president, and the airwaves are filled with the natterings of the chattering classes over this inconsequential albeit unfortunate matter, the real shooting is being largely ignored: the slaughter continues in Iraq.

Good morning, Snuffysmith .....

And thanks for your contribution in here this morning ....

When I read his opening lines, I have to wonder how old this Justin Raimondo really is ....

For he comes across as young and idealistic to me ...

AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH EITHER, believe me ....

It is just that when you are young, and this is not a universal law, or anything, I don't think that one can really appreciate such concepts as "inertia", "inertness", and just plain "total numbness" when it comes to a continuing stream of bad news, as is the case with IRAQINAM and all the lies that have been told to us by this administration since the first day they came into power here in OUR America in the year 2000 .....

I do some two and two, Snuffysmith, and I surmise by that, that you must have been around in some capacity during the Viet Nam times ....

And so ...

Whatever your own thoughts on those times might have been, the fact is ...

That you were there ..

As was jeffmoskin ...

And although I have a hole in my own record, having been out of the country in 1969 while in Viet Nam, it seems to me that people reacted the same way back then ....

It's like eating nothing but hot dogs morning, noon and night ....

At some point, it's just hard to stomach another ...

And so it is with this news .....

We, of course, are an experiment in here ..

In that people like me have no "background" at this ....

And there is no real "history" for this type of forum ...

Since the internet is still new enough ....

And so ...

Between us, we stick things up on the wall in here ...

And then we see what happens ....

And somehow, in here, in Life in OUR America, we have managed to survive into a fifth volume .....

And rarely does IRAQINAM show up in here these days ....

Not because I won't "get onto" that subject ....

But because there is not a lot in the "press" when I do my scans for news ....

And it is the same old YADA day after day after day ....

Death and destruction ...

Destruction and death ....

Over and over and over ...

Incompetence, ineptness and LIES on the part of George W. Bush and his ...

And death and destruction ...

Destruction and death ...

YADA, YADA, YADA, YADA, YADA ..............................

AND WE HAVE NO CONTROL ...

No knob ...

No lever ...

No dial ...

We cannot turn it off ..

We cannot stop the madness ..

SO ...

We "shut it off", instead .....

As a means of self-protection ...

And self-preservation .....

I know up here where I am that there are still divisions and hostilities between the populace as a result of this IRAQINAM war, and those divisions and hostilities preclude meaningful dialogue on this war ...

Just as was the case with Viet Nam ....

And again, back then, it seemed that we were powerless, too ...

And so ..

We look for something else to talk about ...

Like Dick Cheney ....

Because it lightens up the mood, if nothing else ....

And Justin needs to consider these things, so that he can make his method of presentation adapt with his audience ...

And here, I am not claiming to be the GREAT COMMUNICATOR, at all ....

I just know that I have limits of endurance, myself, to what I can really bear to hear in one day ....

And so ....

I try to keep myself below that limit in here ...

And I try and avoid my own tendency to want to ask people why they cannot see what is going on ....

Because I have learned over time that that is just the way it is ...

We see what we see ...

When we see it ...

But perhaps more importantly to Justin ...

There are times when we just turn right off ..

And so ...

That is not a commentary on Justin, so much as it is a reflection on human nature, and what I have experienced of it in my limited time down here on this earth of ours ..

And so ...

[Livyjr]

February 15, 2006 

"Masters of Deception - And now for the real news …" 
by Justin Raimondo

It is commonly assumed that the outing of Plame was retaliation for her husband's vocal opposition to the war and his debunking of the myth that Saddam sought uranium in the African nation of Niger with which to make a nuclear bomb.

Yet this explanation was never really very satisfactory: it assumed an extraordinary amount of self-indulgent pettiness on the part of the leakers in the White House, and a level of vindictiveness bordering on stupidity.

As we begin to understand the nature of Plame's work, her exposure takes on new significance: the War Party was intent on blindfolding U.S. policymakers by ensuring that no one with any expertise or interest in debunking their lies would remain standing.

Spared the sight of reality – which is that Iran is at least 10 years away from building a viable nuclear weapon – U.S. officials would then be free to do what they did in the case of Iraq: make it up as they go along.

Now, Snuffysmith ...

With my above said .....

And out of the way ....

It is clear that Justin does have something to offer here ...

And it should be heard ...

Even though in a lot of ways ...

It just serves to stuff our helplessness and impotence as American citizens further down our throats ....

We have been toyed with here in OUR America ...

Played with ....

We have had our emotions tweaked ....

We have had our heads packed tight with a mountain of lies ....

And twaddle ....

And outright plain old TEXAS BULL**** .....

And we have been told that our neighbor down the road WILL INVITE TAY-RISTS to sit with him and his at their Sunday main meal ....

If they are not for George W. Bush ...

Who is the ONLY person on the whole face of this earth who is both alert enough to recognize this EXTREME DANGER OUR OWN NEIGHBORS REPRESENT TO US, and RESOLUTE ENOUGH to stop this threat, by blowing up a lot of the world, and by killing off a lot of people, and by suspending due process of law so that George W. Bush can jail OUR neighbors, for our national security, of course ...

And America sucks that pablum up, right through a straw, as though it were the very gospel truth, itself ....

I could say that these are strange times in which we live ...

But my continuing study of history has kind of convinced me that ALL times are strange ....

And about all that really does change is the date on the calendar .....

And maybe men's hair styles ...

And facial hair, of course ....

Whether the scruffy Brad Pitt, "GEE, MOMMY, I WAS TOO TUCKERED OUT TO SHAVE THIS MORNING" type of look is in or out today ....

And that is about it .....

[Livyjr]

We have been toyed with here in OUR America ...

Played with ....

We have had our emotions tweaked ....

We have had our heads packed tight with a mountain of lies ....

And twaddle ....

And outright plain old TEXAS BULL**** .....

"Lawyers Group Says Bush Exceeds His Powers"

By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

13 February 2006

CHICAGO - The American Bar Association denounced President Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program Monday, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution.

The program has prompted a heated debate about presidential powers in the war on terror since it was disclosed in December.

The nation's largest organization of lawyers adopted a policy opposing any future government use of electronic surveillance in the United States for foreign intelligence purposes without first obtaining warrants from a special court set up under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The 400,000-member ABA said that if the president believes the FISA is inadequate to protect Americans, he should to ask Congress to amend the act.

Bush and his administration have defended the warrantless eavesdropping, saying it is needed to fill a gap in U.S. security and is allowable under both the president's constitutional powers and the congressional measure authorizing him to go to war in September 2001.

The ABA has urged Congress to affirm that when it authorized Bush to go to war, it did not intend to endorse warrantless spying.

[Snuffysmith]

Good morning, Snuffysmith .....

And thanks for your contribution in here this morning ....

When I read his opening lines, I have to wonder how old this Justin Raimondo really is ....

For he comes across as young and idealistic to me ...

AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH EITHER, believe me ....

It is just that when you are young, and this is not a universal law, or anything, I don't think that one can really appreciate such concepts as "inertia", "inertness", and just plain "total numbness" when it comes to a continuing stream of bad news, as is the case with IRAQINAM and all the lies that have been told to us by this administration since the first day they came into power here in OUR America in the year 2000 .....

I do some two and two, Snuffysmith, and I surmise by that, that you must have been around in some capacity during the Viet Nam times ....

And so ...

Whatever your own thoughts on those times might have been, the fact is ...

That you were there ..

As was jeffmoskin ...

And although I have a hole in my own record, having been out of the country in 1969 while in Viet Nam, it seems to me that people reacted the same way back then ....

It's like eating nothing but hot dogs morning, noon and night ....

At some point, it's just hard to stomach another ...

And so it is with this news .....

We, of course, are an experiment in here ..

In that people like me have no "background" at this ....

And there is no real "history" for this type of forum ...

Since the internet is still new enough ....

And so ...

Between us, we stick things up on the wall in here ...

And then we see what happens ....

And somehow, in here, in Life in OUR America, we have managed to survive into a fifth volume .....

And rarely does IRAQINAM show up in here these days ....

Not because I won't "get onto" that subject ....

But because there is not a lot in the "press" when I do my scans for news ....

And it is the same old YADA day after day after day ....

Death and destruction ...

Destruction and death ....

Over and over and over ...

Incompetence, ineptness and LIES on the part of George W. Bush and his ...

And death and destruction ...

Destruction and death ...

YADA, YADA, YADA, YADA, YADA ..............................

AND WE HAVE NO CONTROL ...

No knob ...

No lever ...

No dial ...

We cannot turn it off ..

We cannot stop the madness ..

SO ...

We "shut it off", instead .....

As a means of self-protection ...

And self-preservation .....

I know up here where I am that there are still divisions and hostilities between the populace as a result of this IRAQINAM war, and those divisions and hostilities preclude meaningful dialogue on this war ...

Just as was the case with Viet Nam ....

And again, back then, it seemed that we were powerless, too ...

And so ..

We look for something else to talk about ...

Like Dick Cheney ....

Because it lightens up the mood, if nothing else ....

And Justin needs to consider these things, so that he can make his method of presentation adapt with his audience ...

And here, I am not claiming to be the GREAT COMMUNICATOR, at all ....

I just know that I have limits of endurance, myself, to what I can really bear to hear in one day ....

And so ....

I try to keep myself below that limit in here ...

And I try and avoid my own tendency to want to ask people why they cannot see what is going on ....

Because I have learned over time that that is just the way it is ...

We see what we see ...

When we see it ...

But perhaps more importantly to Justin ...

There are times when we just turn right off ..

And so ...

That is not a commentary on Justin, so much as it is a reflection on human nature, and what I have experienced of it in my limited time down here on this earth of ours ..

And so ...

I'd say Raimondo is in his late 40s.And that puts me about 10 years older than him. And I was around during the Vietnam era as were most of my friends, colleagues, and associates. And because we were young then, it left impressions and scars for the rest of our lives. and like victims of child abuse, some of us go back for more. Unfortunately. I don't eat hotdogs.

[Livyjr]

I'd say Raimondo is in his late 40s.

And that puts me about 10 years older than him.

And I was around during the Vietnam era as were most of my friends, colleagues, and associates.

And because we were young then, it left impressions and scars for the rest of our lives.

And like victims of child abuse, some of us go back for more.

Unfortunately.

I don't eat hotdogs.

And as a Viet Nam veteran, Snuffysmith, I would say that you just said a mouthful ....

And it is a mouthful that never gets considered ....

Which is what young people like yourself thought about the sanity of the older generation around them during the Viet Nam war times .....

I have said that I have a hole in my record back then, and I do ....

When I was in Viet Nam, I had no news of what was going on over here ...

Or in the world, for that matter ....

And so ....

To this day, when people talk about what went on over here during that time ....

I just have to stand there nodding my head like some bobble-headed geek ....

Because I haven't the slightest idea what they are talking about ....

And I have no real good way to fill in the blanks ...

And so ....

As to someone your age at that time, there would have been no chance that I would have an idea of what it was like back here for you ...

And similarly, I would have no way to fill in those blanks ....

And history never bothered to record your thoughts ...

Or to even consider that they mattered ...

And so ...

[Livyjr]

And two and two makes four ...

Or so the wags up here seem to be saying anyway ....

And they would know ...

Or so they would have us believe anyway .....

The wags, that is .....

After all, their crowd runs with people like Dick Cheney .....

And George Pataki, well, he carries water for George W. Bush, himself ...

And so ...

"CALIPARI SYNDROME" is what they are calling it ....

This shooting of this old REPUBLICAN lawyer by Dick Cheney, that is .....

Although no one can say for sure .....

I mean ...

From what they seem to be saying .....

Dick was stroking and carressing his gun quite a bit that day ...

BUT WAS THAT ANYMORE THAN HE NORMALLY WOULD HAVE?

And there seems to be the real conundrum .....

Trying to figure out, at this point, what really would be abberrent behavior in Dick Cheney when he has a gun in his hands .....

Especially in light of this Calipari business that jeffmoskin and I were discussing above ....

That SIGNATURE shot .....

RIGHT TO THE TEMPLE ....

A man's head ....

A speeding car ....

Bigger than the eye on a speeding quail, though ...

And a lot slower, too .....

And a man with the fluid moves of the "Johnny-Texas Throw-Down" such as has Dick Cheney, with that gun in his hands ...

Lightning swift reflexes ...

Combined with a killer's instincts ....

The deadliest of combinations, they say ....

And OUR Dick has it in spades .....

SO ....

Might it be as they say .....

There is Dick, in his mind, looking out ...

And there ....

The road from the airport ...

And the car .....

The car that he had been told about ....

Coming .....

All the time Dick caressing that precision killing machine cradled in his arms ...

And now ...

With the fluid grace of a leopard or panther striking ...

Dick "throws down" .....

The scope automatically falls right on Dick's intended target .....

And .......

ba-BOOM .....

And winging our way back forward in time from the Viet Nam times to this BIZARRO-WORLD that has replaced those Viet Nam times, now that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have become ascendent here in OUR America ....

We have what looks like Dick Cheney going through some kind of epiphany here ......

Or a soul-cleansing, perhaps ...

Or an expiation, as some wags are calling it .....

Whatever, the BIG GRIZ is stepping right up to the plate and he is saying to all the candid world, that yes, he did blow the old lawyer away ..

And is there somebody who wants to do a thing about it?

If so, BRANG UM ON ....

"Cheney Breaks Silence on Hunting Accident"

By NEDRA PICKLER and LYNN BREZOSKY, Associated Press Writers

2 hours, 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday accepted full blame for shooting a fellow hunter and defended his decision to not publicly disclose the accident until the following day.

He called it "one of the worst days of my life."

"I'm the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney told Fox News Channel in his first public comments since the shooting Saturday in south Texas.

Cheney described seeing 78-year-old Harry Whittington fall to the ground after he pulled the trigger while aiming at a covey of quail.

"The image of him falling is something I'll never ever be able to get out of my mind," Cheney said.

"I fired, and there's Harry falling."

"It was, I'd have to say, one of the worst days of my life at that moment."

Cheney has been under intense political pressure to speak out about the shooting incident, which has become a public relations embarrassment and potential political liability for the White House.

Until Wednesday, Cheney had refused to comment on why he withheld information about the shooting, which prolonged the controversy and made him the butt of jokes.

Cheney was soft-spoken and somber during the interview with Fox's Brit Hume.

"You can talk about all of the other conditions that exist at the time but that's the bottom line and — it was not Harry's fault," he said.

"You can't blame anybody else."

"I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

Cheney said he had had a beer at lunch that day, but nobody was drinking when they went back out to hunt several hours later.

Texas officials said the shooting was an accident, and no charges have been brought against the vice president.

A report that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department issued Monday said Whittington was retrieving a downed bird and stepped out of the hunting line he was sharing with Cheney.

"Another covey was flushed and Cheney swung on a bird and fired, striking Whittington in the face, neck and chest at approximately 30 yards," the report said.

"I ran over to him," Cheney said.

"He was laying there on his back, obviously, bleeding."

"You could see where the shot struck him."

He said he has no idea if he hit a bird because he was focused on Whittington.

"I said, `Harry, I had no idea you were there.'"

"He didn't respond," Cheney said.

Whittington was reported doing well at a Texas hospital Wednesday, a day after doctors said that a pellet entered his heart and he had what they called "a mild heart attack."

Hospital officials said the Texan, though still listed in intensive care, had a normal heart rhythm again Wednesday afternoon and was sitting up in a chair, eating and planning to do some legal work in his room.

Cheney has been roundly criticized for failing to tell the public about the accident until the next day.

He said he thought it made sense to let the owner of the ranch where it happened reveal the accident on the local newspaper's Web site Sunday morning.

"I thought that was the right call," Cheney said.

"I still do."

Cheney said he agreed that ranch owner Katharine Armstrong should make the story public, because she was an eyewitness, because she grew up on the ranch and because she is "an acknowledged expert in all of this" as a past head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

He also agreed with her decision to choose the local newspaper as the way to get the news out.

"I thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting and then it would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the Web site, which is the way it went out and I thought that was the right call," Cheney said.

"What do you think now?" he was asked.

"I still do," Cheney responded.

"The accuracy was enormously important."

"I had no press person with me."

Armstrong told reporters that Whittington made a mistake by not announcing himself as he returned to the hunting line after breaking off to retrieve a downed bird.

But Cheney, an avid and longtime hunter, said Whittington was not to blame.

Through hospital officials, Whittington has declined to comment.

"He still kind of wonders what all the hoopla is about," said Peter Banko, administrator of Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial.

Cheney was using No. 7 1/2 shot from a 28-gauge shotgun.

Shotgun pellets typically are made of steel or lead; the pellets in No. 7 1/2 shot are just under one-tenth of an inch in diameter.

The pellet that traveled to Whittington's heart was either touching or embedded in the heart muscle near the top chambers, called the atria, officials said.
___

Lynn Brezosky contributed to this report from Corpus Christi.
___

On the Net:

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov

This post has been edited by Livyjr: Feb 15 2006, 06:19 PM

[Livyjr]

"Cheney Breaks Silence on Hunting Accident"

By NEDRA PICKLER and LYNN BREZOSKY, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday accepted full blame for shooting a fellow hunter and defended his decision to not publicly disclose the accident until the following day.

Cheney said he agreed that ranch owner Katharine Armstrong should make the story public, because she was an eyewitness, because she grew up on the ranch and because she is "an acknowledged expert in all of this" as a past head of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

He also agreed with her decision to choose the local newspaper as the way to get the news out.

"I thought that made good sense because you can get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting and then it would immediately go up to the wires and be posted on the Web site, which is the way it went out and I thought that was the right call," Cheney said.

"What do you think now?" he was asked.

"I still do," Cheney responded.

"The accuracy was enormously important."

"I had no press person with me."

February 12, 2006

Breaking News

"CHENEY SAYS SHOOTING OF FELLOW HUNTER WAS BASED ON FAULTY INTELLIGENCE - Believed Shooting Victim Was Zawahiri, Veep Says"

Vice President Dick Cheney revealed today that he shot a fellow hunter while on a quail hunting trip over the weekend because he believed the man was the fugitive terror mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the man he sprayed with pellets on Saturday was not al-Zawahiri but rather Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old millionaire lawyer from Austin, blaming the mix-up on "faulty intelligence."

"I believed I had credible intelligence that al-Zawahiri had infiltrated my hunting party in disguise with the intent of spraying me with pellets," Mr. Cheney told reporters.

"Only after I shot Harry in the face and he shouted 'Cheney, you bastard' did I realize that this intelligence was faulty."

Moments after Mr. Cheney's assault on Mr. Whittington, Mr. al-Zawahiri appeared in a new videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera to announce that he was uninjured in the vice president's attack because, in his words, "I was in Pakistan."

An aide to the vice president said he believed that the American people would believe Mr. Cheney's version of events, but added, "If he was going to shoot any of his cronies right now it's a shame it wasn't Jack Abramoff."

At the White House, President George W. Bush defended his vice president's shooting of a fellow hunter, saying that the attack sent "a strong message to terrorists everywhere."

"The message is, if Dick Cheney is willing to shoot an innocent American citizen at point-blank range, imagine what he'll do to you," Mr. Bush said.

[Livyjr]

February 12, 2006

Breaking News

"CHENEY SAYS SHOOTING OF FELLOW HUNTER WAS BASED ON FAULTY INTELLIGENCE - Believed Shooting Victim Was Zawahiri, Veep Says"

Vice President Dick Cheney revealed today that he shot a fellow hunter while on a quail hunting trip over the weekend because he believed the man was the fugitive terror mastermind Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Mr. Cheney acknowledged that the man he sprayed with pellets on Saturday was not al-Zawahiri but rather Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old millionaire lawyer from Austin, blaming the mix-up on "faulty intelligence."

Moments after Mr. Cheney's assault on Mr. Whittington, Mr. al-Zawahiri appeared in a new videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera to announce that he was uninjured in the vice president's attack because, in his words, "I was in Pakistan."

An aide to the vice president said he believed that the American people would believe Mr. Cheney's version of events, but added, "If he was going to shoot any of his cronies right now it's a shame it wasn't Jack Abramoff."

At the White House, President George W. Bush defended his vice president's shooting of a fellow hunter, saying that the attack sent "a strong message to terrorists everywhere."

"The message is, if Dick Cheney is willing to shoot an innocent American citizen at point-blank range, imagine what he'll do to you," Mr. Bush said.

And from the internet ....

We have some forensic analysis of this incident that has all of OUR America and the world talking .....

Did Dick Cheney just "throw down" on poor Harry, as some are saying, because he caught a glimpse of old Harry coming after him with a raised gun out of the corner of his eye, and his lightning quick reflexes just took over .....

Or is it as some others are saying, that with a natural-born predator such as the BIG GRIZ is, you just never know when they are going to turn .....

That the glue that holds the veneer of civilization onto the BIG GRIZ has become "tired" with age ....

OR ....

Could it be something else, entirely ....

Let us look and see as Comedy Central's Rob Corddry, playing the role of a "vice president firearms mishap analyst," explained it all Monday night for "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart:

Stewart: Rob, obviously a very unfortunate situation.

How is the vice president handling it?

Corddry: Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his decision to shoot Harry Whittington.

According to the best intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush.

Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.

And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man, even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have shot Mr. Whittington in the face.

He believes the world is a better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire region of Mr. Whittington's face.

Stewart: But why, Rob?

If he had known Mr. Whittington was not a bird, why would he still have shot him?

Corddry: Jon, in a post-9/11 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive.

To not have shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.

Stewart: That's horrible.

Corddry: Look, the mere fact that we're even talking about how the vice president drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm-raised wingless quail-tards is letting the quail know "how" we're hunting them.

I'm sure right now those birds are laughing at us in that little "covey" of theirs.

Stewart: I'm not sure birds can laugh, Rob.

Corddry: Well, whatever it is they do -- coo -- they're cooing at us right now, Jon, because here we are talking openly about our plans to hunt them.

Jig is up.

Quails one, America zero.

end quotes

And with this seemingly whacked-out BUSHCO crowd that is rampant in OUR America right now, I bet this is about as close to the truth as any of these stories on this shooting of this lawyer by Dick Cheney will be ....

[Snuffysmith]

And as a Viet Nam veteran, Snuffysmith, I would say that you just said a mouthful ....

And it is a mouthful that never gets considered ....

Which is what young people like yourself thought about the sanity of the older generation around them during the Viet Nam war times .....

I have said that I have a hole in my record back then, and I do ....

When I was in Viet Nam, I had no news of what was going on over here ...

Or in the world, for that matter ....

And so ....

To this day, when people talk about what went on over here during that time ....

I just have to stand there nodding my head like some bobble-headed geek ....

Because I haven't the slightest idea what they are talking about ....

And I have no real good way to fill in the blanks ...

And so ....

As to someone your age at that time, there would have been no chance that I would have an idea of what it was like back here for you ...

And similarly, I would have no way to fill in those blanks ....

And history never bothered to record your thoughts ...

Or to even consider that they mattered ...

And so ...

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Robert F. Kennedy
US Attorney General 1961-64, assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning, 1968.

[Livyjr]

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped ....."

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal ...."

"Or acts to improve the lot of others ....

"Or strikes out against injustice ...."

"He sends forth a tiny ripple of hope ..."

"And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring ..."

"Those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

- Robert F. Kennedy, US Attorney General 1961-64, assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning, 1968.

Well, Snuffysmith ....

There it is ...

There it is ...

Which is why each day, we make the long trek into here ...

And power up the transmitter one more time ....

To traverse the hazards and perils of uncharted cyber-space, winging our way ever further into the trackless bounds of the BLOG-O-SPHERE ....

Because of these words above ..

And not because they were said by Bobby Kennedy ...

But because they were true before he ever put voice to them ...

And long after we are gone, they will remain true as well ...

And so ..

In our own time, we should be true to them, in return ....

Is my thought, anyway ....

Onwards ...

Upwards ..

Towards the splendid shining city we go ...

[Livyjr]

Did Dick Cheney just "throw down" on poor Harry, as some are saying, because he caught a glimpse of old Harry coming after him with a raised gun out of the corner of his eye, and his lightning quick "BORN KILLER'S" reflexes just took over .....

Or is it as some others are saying, that with a natural-born carnivorous predator such as the BIG GRIZ is, you just never know when they are going to turn .....

That the glue that holds the veneer of civilization onto the BIG GRIZ has become "tired" with age ....

Yes, indeed ...

You do hear it said from time to time that these big, predatory carnivores like Dick Cheney, the "BIG WYOMING GRIZ", that they can be tamed ...

Domesticated ...

As though they were just some big dog or something ....

And some people do appear able to tame them ...

To have wild animals like wolves and grizzly bears around them ...

Even living with them in houses and such ....

But the question always does remain ...

Are they really tame?

Might they turn?

And no one, absolutely no one ...

Ever quite knows for sure ....

"Cheney expresses remorse, DEFIANCE - Speaking on shooting, vice president accepts blame, rejects critics"

By PETER BAKER, Washington Post
First published: Thursday, February 16, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney accepted full responsibility Wednesday for shooting a 78-year-old lawyer during a hunting accident in Texas last weekend, calling it "one of the worst days of my life," but he no regret about waiting until the next day to reveal the incident to the public.

Breaking his silence four days after the shooting, a subdued Cheney recounted the incident in stark and personal terms, saying he was haunted by the memory of his friend, Harry Whittington, falling to the ground.

While Cheney allies have faulted Whittington for not signaling fellow hunters that he was nearby, the vice president said the blame belongs to him.

"Ultimately, I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and fired the round that hit Harry," Cheney said in a hastily arranged White House interview with the Fox News Channel -- which Democrats maintain has a pro-Bush bias.

"It was not Harry's fault."

"You can't blame anybody else."

"I'm the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend."

"And I say that is something I'll never forget."

The vice president rejected critics, including Republicans, who said the incident should have been announced promptly by the White House, rather than by the ranch owner calling a local reporter the next day.

"I thought that made good sense because you get as accurate a story as possible from somebody who knew and understood hunting," he said, adding, "And I thought that was the right call."

"... I still do."

Cheney, however, agreed to discuss the accident publicly only after the White House signaled that President Bush wished that Cheney had made the news public more quickly.

According to The New York Times, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that when he said, as he first did on Monday, that "you can always look back at these issues and work to do better," he had been "speaking on behalf of the White House and the President."

The interview came as Whittington's condition was upgraded at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, where a birdshot pellet was discovered to have moved to his heart and doctors performed a cardiac catheterization Tuesday.

Whittington was in stable condition Wednesday and being kept in intensive care only to guard his privacy, hospital officials said.

"He's doing extremely well," said Peter Banko, a hospital vice president, who estimated that Whittington would remain hospitalized six more days.

He said Whittington "still kind of wonders what all the hoopla is about."

"It's kind of much ado about nothing."

The White House expressed hope that Cheney's public comments would defuse the uproar.

But Democrats continued to pound away.

Even before the interview, the office of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., issued a statement accusing Cheney of being "unable, or unwilling, to level with the American people."

Cheney's account largely squared with that of Katharine Armstrong, one of the owners of the huge Armstrong Ranch in southern Texas where the vice president was hunting Saturday.

Whittington, dressed in hunter's orange, had left the group of three hunters to recover another bird he had shot and, according to Armstrong, failed to let his partners know he had returned.

Cheney said he was trying to shoot a low-flying quail when he swung his 28-gauge shotgun to the right, the setting sun in his eyes.

"I turned and shot at the bird, and at that second saw Harry standing there," he said.

Cheney estimated that Whittington was 30 yards away when the birdshot struck the right side of his face, neck and torso and knocked him to the ground, where he lay bleeding as the vice president rushed over.

The vice president said a physician assistant from his entourage arrived on the scene within a minute or two to treat Whittington, who was later taken to a hospital with as many as 200 pellets embedded in him.

The vice president said he had consumed a beer during a barbecue lunch hours earlier, but added that no one was drinking at the time of the shooting.

Kenedy County Sheriff Ramon Salinas III has said that the shooting was an accident with no misconduct involved.

But if Whittington were to die, Carlos Valdez, the district attorney for Kleberg County, said a grand jury would investigate the case and could press criminal charges.

end quotes

Well ...

Forensic analysis, indeed ....

First off, clearly, after this "blackout" of any news leaking out on this INCIDENT, it would be expected that the BIG GRIZ's story would match that of this Ms. Armstrong ...

My God, they had long enough to get this all rehearsed after all ...

"Okay, Dick, this is what we are all going to say ..."

And now, we have this rich REPUBLICAN lawyer "cooping" there in an intensive care room ....

"FOR HIS PRIVACY" ...

Which means that someone of a lesser stature than this lawyer who really needs that room is going to be deprived ...

Because of this deference being shown this rich REPUBLICAN lawyer ...

Who don't need to be in intensive care, at all ....

According to them, anyway ...

As though intensive care in a hospital were like a private hotel for rich REPUBLICAN shooting victims who want their "right to privacy" jealously guarded ....

BY EVERYONE ...

While they work assiduously to guarantee that we do not have the same ...

RIGHTS, that is ....

[Livyjr]

Yes, indeed ...

You do hear it said from time to time that these big, predatory carnivores like Dick Cheney, the "BIG WYOMING GRIZ", that they can be tamed ...

Domesticated ...

As though they were just some big dog or something ....

And some people do appear able to tame them ...

To have wild animals like wolves and grizzly bears around them ...

Even living with them in houses and such ....

But the question always does remain ...

Are they really tame?

Might they turn?

And no one, absolutely no one ...

Ever quite knows for sure ....

And in the end, the real grizzly bear, or the wolf, for that matter, would not stoop to, or tolerate, the exceedingly beastial, sick and perverted abombinal "conduct" that its alleged human "counterpart", the HONORABLE Richard Cheney, the "BIG GRIZ", has been advocating for quite some time now, that being the TORTURE of human beings by Dick and George's version of what they think OUR America should be ...

Which is this crawling obscenity similar to the one in Europe that OUR other America went to war to defeat back in the 1940's ......

"New, graphic images from Abu Ghraib aired - Officials fear previously unseen pictures, video will further enflame Muslims"

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press
First published: Thursday, February 16, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- New images showing Iraqis abused by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison three years ago threatened Wednesday to enflame public anger already running high over footage of British soldiers beating youths in southern Iraq.

Images of naked prisoners, some bloodied and lying on the floor, were taken about the same time as earlier photos that triggered a worldwide scandal and led to military trials and prison sentences for several lower-ranking American soldiers.

Many of the pictures broadcast Wednesday by Australia's Special Broadcasting Service, including some that appear to show corpses, were more graphic than those previously published.

One of the video clips depicted a group of naked men with bags over their heads standing together and masturbating.

The network said it was forced to participate.

In the Middle East, where there have been widespread anti-Western protests recently over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV aired some of the Australian station's footage but refrained from using the most shocking and sexually explicit images.

CNN also broadcast excerpts.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Defense Department believed the release of additional images of prisoner abuse was harmful and "could only further inflame and possibly incite unnecessary violence in the world."

Whitman said he did not know whether the photos and video clips were among images the Pentagon has been withholding from public release since 2004.

But another defense official said Army officials had reviewed the photographs posted on the Sydney Morning Herald's Web site and matched them to images that were among those turned over to military authorities in 2004 by a U.S. soldier.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to address the matter publicly, said the photos contained no new information about abuse.

Although the Abu Ghraib case was exhaustively reported here years ago, the new images could revive the issue of treatment of Iraqis by U.S.-led occupation forces.

This week's release of video showing British troops beating Iraqi youths during a violent 2004 protest in the southern city of Amarah prompted the Basra provincial administration to sever ties with British authorities.

The fresh Abu Ghraib pictures were broadcast as the United States is trying to reach out to the disaffected Sunni Arab community, the backbone of the insurgency, in hopes of encouraging Sunni insurgents to lay down their arms and join the political process.

Most of those who suffered abuse at Abu Ghraib were believed to have been Sunni Arabs.

Mindful of the risks, some key Iraqi officials either avoided comment or sought to play down the images, noting the Americans had already punished Abu Ghraib guards.

Presidential security adviser Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei called the abuse "unjustifiable" but added that it was important to remember that the actions occurred more than two years ago, offenders had been punished and rules on treatment of prisoners were tightened.

Saddam warned U.S.

Saddam Hussein told aides in the mid-1990s that he warned the United States it could be hit by a terrorist attack, ABC News reported Wednesday, citing 12 hours of tapes the network obtained of the former Iraqi dictator's talks with his Cabinet.

"Terrorism is coming."

"I told the Americans," Saddam is heard saying, adding he "told the British as well."

"In the future, what would prevent a booby-trapped car causing a nuclear explosion in Washington or a germ or a chemical one?" Saddam said.

But he insisted Iraq would never launch such an attack.

ABC News said the CIA found the tapes in Iraq and that the 12 hours were provided to it by Bill Tierney, a former member of a U.N. inspection team who was translating them for the FBI.

Official alleges torture

Nermine Othman, Iraq's human rights minister, said that 170 Iraqis were tortured last year in a secret prison in Baghdad.

Othman said the torture occurred in Interior Ministry buildings.

Death squad operating

Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, the American general overseeing the training of Iraqi police, said the U.S. military has stumbled across the first evidence of a death squad within Iraq's Interior Ministry.

Allegations that death squads targeting Sunnis are operating within Shiite-dominated police forces have been circulating since last May.

[Livyjr]

"Those ripples build a current ...."

"That can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

- Robert F. Kennedy, US Attorney General 1961-64, assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning, 1968.

We can only hope ...

Even with an oppressive and tyrannical crowd that is as well entrenched here in OUR America as these BUSHCOS .....

Who, like a virus ...

Seem to have infected OUR America with perversion and beastiality ...

Right on down to the level of its most common citizens ....

"Iraq Death Squad Claims Being Investigated"

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 1 minute ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad has been operating in the country, a top official said Thursday.

Meanwhile, attacks around the country killed 10 people, including six Iraqis who died in a car bomb in Bagdad.

Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari also condemned the latest images of detainees abused in the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in 2003, but noted that those responsible had already been punished.

The investigation into the death squads was announced as police found the bodies of 10 more men who had been shot execution-style and dumped in three different areas of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite suburb of Shula.

Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister in charge of domestic intelligence, said the investigation followed U.S. military claims that soldiers had detained 22 Iraqi men wearing police uniforms who were about to kill a Sunni Arab man last month.

"We have been informed about this and the interior minister has formed an investigation committee to learn more about the Sunni person and those 22 men, particularly whether they work for the Interior Ministry or claim to belong to the ministry," Kamal told The Associated Press.

A U.S. general said American forces had found evidence of a death squad operating in Iraq's Interior Ministry, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site Wednesday evening.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who commands the civilian police training teams in Iraq, said the men were employed by the Interior Ministry as highway patrol officers.

An American military official in Baghdad confirmed the report but declined to provide further details.

He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was unauthorized to speak to the media.

The bodies of Sunni Arabs, bound and gagged and shot in the head, have been turning up in Baghdad for months, fueling allegations of sectarian killings, which Sunni Arab leaders say are often carried out by Shiites in army or police uniforms.

Shiites have also been systematically massacred by Sunni extremists in Baghdad, Diyala province and mixed areas to the south of the capital.

Human Rights Minister Nermine Othman said she believed lower-level Interior Ministry officials were using criminals to kill Iraqis.

"I think there are many people inside the Interior Ministry involved with these deaths or giving the uniforms of colleagues to criminals," she said.

"These officials are helping the criminals by informing them on where targeted people are going or where people are living."

"They are helping them in different ways."

A Sunni Arab political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, praised the investigation and said perpetrators should be brought to justice.

"Since a very long time, we have been talking about such violations and we have been telling the Interior Ministry officials that there are squads that raid houses and arrest people who are found later executed in different parts of the capital," said party member Nasser al-Ani.

In the latest violence, a car bomb targeting a U.S. military patrol killed six civilians and wounded 11 Thursday in northern Baghdad's Shula neighborhood, said police Maj. Moussa Abdul Karim.

An Iraqi policeman was killed and three bystanders were wounded by a car bomb in Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood, while gunmen killed an Iraqi Army captain and his driver in the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

Three prominent Iraqi tribal members were also fatally shot in a drive-by attack on their car north of Baghdad, police said.

A Jordanian Embassy driver was killed in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad, officials said.

Another car bomb blast in Baghdad targeted the convoy of Nouri al-Nouri, a former government human rights official who was dismissed in December over the discovery of tortured detainees in a Baghdad government building.

Al-Nouri escaped the blast unharmed but four civilians were wounded, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said.

The motive for the attack was unclear, but it came as Othman, the human rights minister, said several Interior and Justice Ministry employees were expected to be prosecuted over the torture about 170 Iraqis, most found in November at the Jadriyah Interior Ministry facility in Baghdad.

Othman said her ministry will release a final report on the torture claims next month.

In a statement on the detainee abuse photos broadcast on an Australian TV station Wednesday, al-Jaafari said "the Iraqi government condemns the torture practices revealed through the recent pictures that show Iraqi prisoners being tortured."

But he welcomed the U.S. denunciation of the pictures, which date back to 2003, when earlier images were released of U.S. forces abusing detainees.

[Snuffysmith]

http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon02162006.html

Dancing Around Accountability
Dick Cheney's Fox Trot
By NORMAN SOLOMON

When Dick Cheney surfaced on Wednesday long enough for an interview with Fox News eminence Brit Hume -- an event that CNN’s Jack Cafferty promptly likened to “Bonnie interviewing Clyde” -- the vice presidential spin emerged from a timeworn bag of political tricks. Cheney took responsibility. Whatever that means.

The New York Times website swiftly made its top headline “Cheney Takes Full Responsibility for Shooting Hunter.” Just before Fox News Channel aired interview segments at length, the summary from anchor Hume told viewers that Cheney had accepted “full responsibility for the incident.” Hours later, the Washington Post’s front-page story led this way: “Vice President Cheney accepted full responsibility yesterday...”

Ironically -- while news outlets kept using the phrase “full responsibility” -- the transcript of the interview posted on FoxNews.com shows that Cheney never used any form of the word “responsibility.”

Whatever their exact words, the politicians who can’t avoid acknowledging culpability are often the beneficiaries of excessive media plaudits for supposedly owning up to what they’ve done wrong. But those politicians rarely do more than just what the spin doctor ordered.

It’s not brave or even forthright for an official to express the contrition that seems advisable from a public-relations standpoint. When a convicted defendant voices remorse just before sentencing, the statement is often viewed as little more than a ploy dictated by circumstance. But when a politician ostensibly “takes responsibility” in the court of public opinion, much of the media coverage attaches great significance to an essentially hollow statement that is a transparent effort to extinguish a scandal-fueled firestorm.

In almost every instance when a politician “takes responsibility” with great fanfare, there’s no penalty attached to the proclamation. Across the terrain of political media, the I-take-responsibility maneuver is the equivalent of a hit-and-run driver offering an over-the-shoulder yell of “Sorry about that” while speeding away from a grisly scene.

On July 30, 2003 -- several months after the occupation of Iraq began -- President Bush held a news conference while U.S. forces continued to search in vain for weapons of mass destruction. High up in a front-page story, the New York Times reported that Bush “took responsibility for the first time for an assertion in his State of the Union address about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program that turned out to be based on questionable intelligence.”

Bush told reporters: “I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. I also take responsibility for making decisions on war and peace. And I analyzed a thorough body of intelligence, good, solid, sound intelligence that led me to come to the conclusion that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power.”

In that instance, as in so many others, the president’s declaration about taking responsibility was nothing more than hot air for inflated rhetoric -- a dodge to divert attention from indefensible actions and evident deceptions.

Last year, on Sept. 13 at the White House, the president said: “Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.” Policies during the five months since then have compounded the administration’s deadly negligence in response to Hurricane Katrina, underscoring the diversionary significance of the I-take-responsibility scam.

When Brit Hume and Dick Cheney did their Fox trot, they were performing the kind of spectacle we’ve seen many times on television. Network correspondents and powerful politicians know the boundaries and the steps. Their footwork may look simple, but it’s fancy and well-practiced. Contrary to pretense, the probing journalist doesn’t probe too much, and the forthcoming politician merely hunkers down with a new twist.

And so it goes: Whether the media uproar has to do with a quail hunt, or lethal negligence in connection with a hurricane, or chronic deception for a war, top officials may finally opt to “take responsibility.” But that’s nothing more than a propaganda technique for those who view lying as an essential means of governance.

Norman Solomon’s latest book is “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” For information, go to: www.WarMadeEasy.com

[Livyjr]

http://www.counterpunch.org/solomon02162006.html

"Dancing Around Accountability - Dick Cheney's Fox Trot"

By NORMAN SOLOMON

And so it goes:

Whether the media uproar has to do with a quail hunt ....

Or lethal negligence in connection with a hurricane ....

Or chronic deception for a war .....

Top officials may finally opt to “take responsibility” ....

But that’s nothing more than a propaganda technique ....

For those who view lying as an essential means of governance .....

There was a time in this country when it had "leaders" instead of politicians ...

And there was a time when those leaders talked straight ...

Because they needed to be understood ...

Much was at stake ...

And it had to do with the survival of the nation itself ...

For example ...

George Washington .....

He did not use a spokesperson like this present BUSHCO crowd does ...

He could speak for himself ....

Because he was one ...

A practiced leader ...

And so ...

He did not need some media dandy to go out there and pump him up ...

And Abe Lincoln ...

Read the Lincoln-Douglas Debates ...

And there is Lincoln articulating HIS own point of view ...

Whether you like it ...

Or not ...

And whether you agree ....

Or not ....

As well .....

And there are others ....

FDR certainly was articulate ....

Eisenhower was a leader .....

He could also speak for himself ......

And now ...

We have a charade on-going in the White House, it seems ...

We have a caricature for a president ...

And a seeming thug for a vice-president ...

And we are supposed to believe that this is all the result of some "rational" process ....

And what a crock that is ....

For a rational approach to governing does not produce skewed results like these ....

No way in HELL ....

SO ....

The concluding lines in this article you posted above really speak volumes about where we are right now today in OUR America ....

With this crowd we have in power ....

Who view lying as an essential means of THEIR governance .....