Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

I have a feeling that you may not have seen this post, Livyjr, or else you thought the punishment I have recommended for you is so cruel and unusual that you could not handle it.

Anyhow, I am repeating it, just to be sure.

A.B.

Well, Livyjr, I just do not understand how you can be so "UNPATRIOTIC. "

Tsk. Tsk.

I have decided on an appropriate punishment for you.

You are to be locked in a room for 24 hours with a tape player or DVD playing John Philip Sousa music very loudly.

That will straighten you out.

Just in case there is one soul reading this, who is taking my comments seriously, please be advised that this is said in jest.

I happen to agree with Livyjr 100%

A.B.

And that is a "punishment" that I just might enjoy, jeffmoskin and Mr. A.B., actually!

Over the years, as "therapy", or whatever, I learned to play the Irish concert flute, and tin whistle, and on Sunday mornings, I go to an old cemetary on a friend's land, out in the country near to where I am, and I play "for the ladies", as I put it, tunes like "Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like Home", and "You Are My Sunshine", and my real favorites are "Yankee Doodle", and "My Country Tis of Thee", which is really "God Save The King", EXCEPT, God didn't!

God favored us, instead, and this is back in the American Revolution that I am talking, which is where that all goes back to, especially "Yankee Doodle", which "originated" as an American tune just a handful of miles to the west of where I stand to play the tune on Sunday mornings, and in that cemetary, or "burying ground", as it would have been called back then, there are graves all the way back to 1790, and the early-1800's, and I am sure that some or more of those people actually lived during the time of the American Revolution, so, my hope is that for a while on Sunday mornings, I get them up and quick-stepping once again, for a time anyway, and then it's back to reality, and the fray, once again!

But when you are out there in a place like that, where life, American life, goes back hundreds of continuous years, and those very tunes that I am playing now, were also heard back then, as marching tunes, like what Sousa's music is, it really stirs something in me, and that thing is, I would say, the very roots, the very heart and soul of both my citizenship as an American, and my patriotism as an American, and being an American, I suppose you could really say, THOSE TWO ARE ONE, indivisible, inseparable, so as to provide for liberty and justice for all, in the face of whatever tyranny and despotism stalk OUR land, at any period of time!

OUR enduring America!

When I am standing there in that burying ground playing "My Country Tis of Thee", I am surrounded BY AMERICA; AND IT IS US!

SO!

Send the punishment my way, I am ready to receive it!

[Livyjr]

And here, before I get into anything else, I want to post this following story, and then talk about it for a few moments, from my perspective as a combat veteran, and what I think some of this story's impacts might be on us, THE CITIZEN POLITY, or "BODY POLITIC", here in OUR America ......

International News

Francesco Toiati / AP

The coffin of Italian security agent Nicola Calipari is carried Sunday inside the Vittoriano Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument in Rome, where it will lie in state.

Calipari died when U.S. troops opened fire on the car he was traveling in with the freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena.

March 6: The Italian journalist held captive in Iraq, then shot by U.S. forces after her release, tells her side of the story. 

"Wounded Italian reporter recalls ordeal - Sgrena sharply disputes U.S. version of events"

The Associated Press
Updated: 11:52 a.m. ET March 6, 2005

ROME - The Italian journalist wounded by American troops in Iraq after her release by insurgents rejected the U.S. military’s account of the shooting and declined Sunday to rule out the possibility she was deliberately targeted.

The White House said it was a “horrific accident” and promised a full investigation.

Meanwhile, an autopsy performed on the agent who died trying to save Giuliana Sgrena reportedly showed he was struck in the temple by a single round and died instantly as the car carrying Sgrena sped to the Baghdad airport.

Friday’s shooting that wounded the 56-year-old journalist and killed Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari as they were celebrating her freedom has fueled anti-American sentiment in a country where people are deeply opposed to U.S. policy in Iraq.

And for anyone just coming in, and wondering what is really going on in here, in this thread, well, what you have is me, and a couple of other older Americans, older than I am, in fact, which means that they have earned the right to have an opinion about Life in OUR America as much as anyone else has earned that right, including me; and what we are all wondering, is, WHAT IN THE HELL IS IT WITH THIS GEORGE W. BUSH?

WHAT?

What's with all the lying, the deceit, the half-truths, the hate-mongering?

What's with all the looting of OUR national treasury on his watch, ostensibly to enrich him and his, at OUR expense?

Especially, what's with all the murder that he is having committed in OUR name around the world?

AND ....

What is it with all the torture that he is having committed IN OUR NAME around the world?

And just who in the HELL does he think he really is; some kind of an avenging god, or something?

WHAT?

What is it with George W. Bush?

That's what we would like to know, actually, and so that we just don't seem like a bunch of doddering old fools in here, what I do, and sometimes them, but mostly me, what I do is actually bring into here "NEWS ITEMS" that are circulating around in OUR America each day to make my points that something appears to be really odd, here in OUR America, these days, and then, other people can actually read what I am reading, and they can then make their own objective, independent decisions as to what is really what, rather than having to accept my opinion on something that they do not have before them, which is the "RUSH LIMBAUGH TECHNIQUE" in action, actually; make a lot of comments on something that YOU CANNOT SEE, so that you cannot comment intelligently, or rebut intelligently, which makes Rush look intelligent, until you think about what he is really doing, and then you see the scam for what it is, A SCAM, but a very effective one, for all of that.

BECAUSE PEOPLE DO NOT QUESTION "BIG SHOTS" LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH!

WHY, he is a friend of the WHITE HOUSE, even, so how can he even be under suspicion?

SO!

I guess while George W. Bush is the "ANTI" of Jesus and FDR, I am the "ANTI" of Rush Limbaugh, and boy, that actually makes me feel not at all bad about myself, now that I think on it for a moment.

Of course, Rush probably is a lot more erudite and cosmopolitan and better looking than I am, and he certainly knows where to get all those prescription drugs that he is supposed to be hooked on, but what the hey!

Can't have everything, now, can we?

World - Reuters

"U.S. Shootings Strain Ties with Iraq Allies"

Mon Mar 7,12:50 PM ET World - Reuters

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq faced new strains with allies on Monday when Bulgaria said they had probably shot dead one of its soldiers after angering Rome by killing an Italian secret agent who rescued a hostage.

The shootings confirmed what for many Iraqis is a daily reality -- that U.S. forces are too quick to open fire and often kill innocent civilians in their efforts to crack down on insurgents, who killed at least 23 people in fresh attacks.

The U.S. military says it does all it can to minimise the risk of Iraqis and foreign civilians being killed.

The Bulgarian soldier was killed in southern Iraq on Friday, around the same time that U.S. forces in Baghdad opened fire on a vehicle taking kidnapped Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to the airport shortly after her captors freed her.

Sgrena was wounded in the shoulder and secret agent Nicola Calipari, who played a key role in her release, was killed.

Italy laid on an state funeral in Rome on Monday for Calipari.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov said an investigation into the death of the Bulgarian soldier showed he had probably been accidentally killed by American troops.

"Someone started shooting at our patrol from the west, and in the same direction, 150 meters (yards) away, there was a unit from the U.S. army," he told a news conference.

"The result gives us enough grounds to believe the death of rifleman Gurdi Gurdev was caused by friendly fire."

Svinarov said the Bulgarian army's chief of staff had written to General Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, asking for an investigation.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment.

ANGER IN ITALY

But the White House rejected Sgrena's suggestion that she was targeted by U.S. troops on the road to Baghdad airport.

"I think it's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform deliberately targeted innocent civilians."

"That's just absurd," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

He said the road to the airport "is one of the most dangerous roads in Iraq," plagued by suicide bombings and other attacks, and that forces often had to make "split-second decisions to protect their own security."

He said President Bush considered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi a good friend and had assured him there would be a full investigation into the incident.

Earlier the U.S. military says the Italian vehicle was traveling at high speed and ignored instructions to stop.

Sgrena disputed that account, saying they were traveling at a moderate speed.

Although the governments of Italy and Bulgaria supported the war in Iraq, a large proportion of their people opposed it.

Some 75 percent of Bulgarians disagree with U.S.-led military operations in Iraq, according to opinion polls.

SUICIDE ATTACKS

Iraq's government, yet to be formed, faces an uphill battle to rein in violence.

On Monday, Deputy President Rowsch Shways said talks were proceeding on how to distribute the top positions between the different parties.

The National Assembly is due to meet on March 16.

In Balad, north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his car outside an army officer's house, killing at least 12 people, hospital officials and police said.

In the nearby town of Baquba, insurgents attacked soldiers and police with a suicide bomb, mortars and land mines, killing at least 10 people.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

"The mujahideen ambushed a unit of the apostate guards in Baquba ... and a brave lion carried out an attack on the riffraff and turned them into scattered fragments," Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said in an Internet statement.

Police in Baquba, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, said the attack began when five Iraqi soldiers were killed in an ambush.

A suicide car bomb then hit police heading to reinforce the area, killing two.

Three people were killed by roadside bombs.

In Baghdad, gunmen shot dead a policeman, police said.

In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi woman who had been a candidate in Jan. 30 elections for the Shi'ite alliance that topped the poll was shot dead on Sunday, alliance officials said.

Hana Muhamasji, a university professor, was one of the few Sunni candidates on the alliance list.

[Livyjr]

And for anyone just coming in, and wondering what is really going on in here, in this thread, well, what you have is me, and a couple of other older Americans, older than I am, in fact, which means that they have earned the right to have an opinion about Life in OUR America as much as anyone else has earned that right, including me; and what we are all wondering, is, WHAT IN THE HELL IS IT WITH THIS GEORGE W. BUSH?

World - Reuters
 
"U.S. Shootings Strain Ties with Iraq Allies"

Mon Mar 7,12:50 PM ET  World - Reuters

By Andrew Marshall

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq faced new strains with allies on Monday when Bulgaria said they had probably shot dead one of its soldiers after angering Rome by killing an Italian secret agent who rescued a hostage.

The shootings confirmed what for many Iraqis is a daily reality -- that U.S. forces are too quick to open fire and often kill innocent civilians in their efforts to crack down on insurgents, who killed at least 23 people in fresh attacks.

But the White House rejected Sgrena's suggestion that she was targeted by U.S. troops on the road to Baghdad airport.

"I think it's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform deliberately targeted innocent civilians."

"That's just absurd," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

In the nearby town of Baquba, insurgents attacked soldiers and police with a suicide bomb, mortars and land mines, killing at least 10 people.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for both attacks.

"The mujahideen ambushed a unit of the apostate guards in Baquba ... and a brave lion carried out an attack on the riffraff and turned them into scattered fragments," Al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq said in an Internet statement.

I don't know how many people in here actually remember back into the 1950's, and all the "COLD WAR" bull crap, and fear mongering, and scare mongering, etc., that we all had to live through back then; especially the terms "insurgency" and "counter-insurgency" that were being bandied back and forth, way back then, especially AFTER the FALL of Dien Bien Phu, where Vietnamese General Giap and his rag-tag, weak Viet Minh forces devoured the pride of La Belle France's fighting forces in a months-long siege that had the whole world on the edge of its seats while it was happening, including OUR own military chiefs down there in Washington, D.C., who were concerned that we were going to be sucked into that morass, as we were to be just so many years later, BUT ..

That is later!

Somewhere in there, in the 1950's, America created a "counter-insurgency" force of OUR own which came to be known as OUR Green Berets, although the "Green Berets" of today might be a far different fighting force than they were originally conceived to be, which was a force, OF OURS, that actually was going to go into Soviet Union-held territories to assist the people in revolting and rebelling against Russian tyranny!

Now, at that time, WWII was just barely over, and Korea had happened, and Dien Bien Phu had happened, thanks in large part to the fact that the Viet Minh in Viet Nam were using 105 mm. American howitzers against the French, 105's captured from us, incidentally, in Korea, when OUR troops there were overrun by the Chinese who invaded Korea when MacArthur took OUR troops too close to the Chinese border, 105's which were subsequently carried overland from Korea, through China and into Viet Nam, BY COOLIES, human beings, and then re-assembled there in the hills of Dien Bien Phu, to end French aggression, despotism and tyranny in Viet Nam, which those 105's did for them very effectively, and that is a fact!

Anyway, I digress.

The point is that in the mid-1950's, there was a lot of knowledge extant on "insurgencies", and "counter-insurgency", and so, the Green Berets were probably the very best soldiers at that time, with respect to knowledge of how to conduct a successful insurgency, which was their function in life, at that time.

Later, in the 1960's, the Green Berets became famous here in OUR America when John Kennedy, OUR American president at the time, adopted them as "HIS" soldiers, and then, BIG John Wayne portrayed a Green Beret in the movie of the same name, around 1968.

Anyway, out of all of that came a book entitled "The New Legions" by an American Green Beret named Donald Duncan, and in that book, he talked some about what "counter-insurgency" operations are really all about.

As it is directly relevant to what is happening over there in Iraq right now, right across the board, I would like to take a moment and quote a bit of "The New Legions", which just might be right on point here vis-a-vis this "public relations" battle that is going on over the internet between the alleged al Qaida side, and Scottie "BOY" McClellan, the spokesboy for George W. Bush!

As you read these words, TAKE NOTE AND HEED THE FACT THAT THIS IS OUR OWN DOCTRINE, OUR OWN MILITARY KNOWLEDGE THAT IS BEING QUOTED HERE, all of which has since been rejected and tossed right in the garbage can by George W. Bush and his NEW CON pack of damn fools that he has in charge of the Pentagon, and the sycophantic generals that George W. Bush kept on after PURGING competent ones like General Eric Shinseki; the sycophants and toadies who will tell George W. Bush what he wants to hear, while General Shinseki was telling him HOW IT REALLY IS!

Counterinsurgency is not just fighting guerillas, any more than insurgency is arming a group to fight.

Insurgency is political, a popular uprising against a government - to overthrow the leaders (a revolt), or to change the form of government (a revolution).

In revolution especially, armed conflict is not an essential, BUT NORMALLY COMES AFTER the elimination of due process to achieve desired political goals, and even then, overt guerilla action is only one part of the political movement.

Counterinsurgency must exist both to defeat the guerillas AND TO CONSIDER THE CAUSES of the insurgency, AND IT CAN CHOOSE TO RESPOND by changing the leaders and the form of government; convincing the people that they are mistaken and that the existing government is good for them; or convincing the people that the government proposed by the insurgents would make things worse for them.

To relate the first choice to Viet Nam: OUR ADMISSION OF THE NECESSITY FOR COUNTERINSURGENCY WAS PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF AN EXISTING INSURGENCY, and it provided proof that the government and its leaders HAD NO INTENTION of changing voluntarily.

IF WE ARE TO BELIEVE OUR OWN PROPAGANDA, we were in Viet Nam by invitation of the government (the same government that had eliminated due process), NOT TO CHANGE IT, BUT TO MAINTAIN IT.

Propaganda aside, since we had created and financed the government in the first place, it could be said that we invited ourselves; and since the government developed as it had UNDER OUR AEGIS, IT WOULD SEEM OBVIOUS THAT SERIOUS CHANGE WAS NOT TO BE PART OF THE PROCESS!

In any event, for an outside power to step in and make the change would accomplish nothing, BECAUSE IT WAS OUTSIDE INTERVENTION AND INTERFERENCE IN VIETNAMESE AFFAIRS that had started the trouble.

Special Forces personnel ARE TAUGHT NOT TO INTERFERE IN INTERNAL POLITICS because it would create resentment.

WHY THEN, should we have supposed that interference in internal politics while fighting against the guerillas would be any less resented?

(Mark well that in this period, we were talking of insurgency; it would be a few years before the American people could swallow "invasion".)

The second response poses equally interesting problems.

HOW COULD OUTSIDERS, for the most part incapable of fully understanding the people to whom they are appealing, CONVINCE THE PEOPLE THAT WHAT THEY REGARDED AS EVIL WAS REALLY GOOD?

The outsider's values were different but not necessarily better - their history is unique to them, and they have never lived under such a government: THEIR OPPOSITION IS VIETNAMESE TALKING TO VIETNAMESE!

(The task of an outsider in a country which has just gained independence from a colonial power is more difficult.)

Aid to unpopular governments is invariably used to strengthen the government, and when a significant segment of the population HAS LOST FAITH IN A GOVERNMENT'S HONESTY AND INTEGRITY, watching officials pocket money intended for the people can only increase their contempt!

Americans handling the programs were just that - the people do not identify the action with the government- AND IT WAS FURTHER PROOF THAT THE GOVERNMENT COULD NOT BE TRUSTED!

And what could it do for the Americans?

In a country that believes that a man who gives something for nothing is a fool, not asking for something in return could be interpreted as an attempt to buy love or acceptance of American ways - OR IT COULD MEAN THAT THE AMERICAN IS A FOOL!

In a country where the people survived for generations by learning to tell outsiders what they wanted to hear, HOW CAN THE OUTSIDER DETERMINE WHETHER HE IS THOUGHT OF AS AN OPPORTUNIST CAPITALIZING ON OTHER'S MISERY, OR A FOOL, OR BOTH?

It is utterly unreasonable to try to convince people who in desperation have taken up arms against the government that a change, any change, CAN WORSEN THINGS, for at this stage, THEY ARE CONVINCED THAT THINGS CANNOT GET WORSE and that even vague promises hold more hope than day-to-day reality.

Political opposition, communist AND non-communist, had been eliminated, the leaders hunted down or chased from the country.

An army of security police crawled across Viet Nam, seeking out all those who dared voice disapproval of the regime; portable guillotines moved from village to village to expedite summary justice, and the jails were filled with political prisoners dying under the most barbaric circumstances.

The armed forces were being used as tax collectors and to protect the government and landlords FROM THE PEOPLE!

Peasants who thought they had won their land in their fight for independence were forced to pay for it or see it returned to the landlords.

The black market, fed by American largesse and government, enriched a few while the rest grew poorer.

Elections, though an unopposed mockery, were rigged!

How could outsiders - well fed, well clothed, with an excess of money, living in air-conditioned hotels and villas, cooperating with the government responsible for the conditions - convince people living in a nightmare that the other guys were worse?

It turned out to be far easier to convince the American people that Vietnamese communists were trying to take over a free country - and that this was the worst thing possible - than it was the Vietnamese of anything.

It is a testimonial to our media and propagandists that unable to define "communism", the American people know it is EVIL; and unable to define "democracy", know it is GOOD!

end quotes

Well, folks, there it is!

That is what we know about insurgencies, or rather, that is what we knew, BEFORE this Bush Co. crowd took over, and now, we apparently know nothing at all, about anything!

SO?

What are we supposed to do then, as LOYAL Americans?

Are we supposed to take all of OUR own military doctrine and knowledge gained after all the years from our own successful insurgency (REVOLUTION) against British tyranny and oppression, and just toss it into the trash can, as this Bush Co. has done?

Are we supposed to become mindless sycophants and toadies, because that is what the Bush Co. wants around him, people who will worship his every word as the WORDS OF GOD, even though they are mindless drivel?

Are we supposed to worship this Wolfowitz as some kind of military genius, when he obviously does not know his *** from a hole in the ground?

Or does loyalty to OUR America now require us, as the citizen body of this nation, as its sovereign, to stand up and say, HEY, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?

Think it over, folks, and think it over well, for it is YOUR COUNTRY, and your future that is at stake here.

As for me, I am old now, and well, who ever knows, but as for me, I think this adminstration is the biggest botch-job that I have ever had the misfortune to come across, and you know what, I'm not afraid to say that in public.

In fact, I just did!

SO!

How about that!

And if this thread all of a sudden has no Livyjr posts in it for awhile, well, you'll know that they got me.

AND THEN ...

Well, stay tuned!

'Cause who ever really knows!

LIVE!

LATE-BREAKING!

Life, in OUR America!

[jeffmoskin]

s

"Bolivia Teeters as President Submits Resignation"

1 hour, 27 minutes ago   

By Mario Roque

LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian President Carlos Mesa, worn down by Indian protests and wrangling over how to develop massive gas reserves, submitted his resignation to Congress Monday and left opposition lawmakers to decide the fate of his mandate.

Congress will most likely meet Tuesday.

Analysts said it could reject the surprise move announced by Mesa Sunday as an influential indigenous majority's protests to nationalize foreign investments, especially in the gas sector, swelled.

In El Alto, a poor and mainly Indian city on the outskirts of the capital, protesters clashed with scores of Mesa supporters throwing rocks.

Below in La Paz, thousands filled the presidential palace square and chanted support for Mesa.

"I cannot continue to govern besieged by a national blockade that strangles the country," Mesa, a political independent, said in his resignation letter read on television by Presidency Minister Jose Galindo.

In recent weeks, protests and highway blockades, including from a regional autonomy movement, have grown.

Demonstrators in El Alto have threatened to cut off La Paz's water supply and occupy the international airport.

If Congress accepts Mesa's resignation, it will be the second time a Bolivian president has quit in less than two years over basically the same issue: the poor Indian majority's drive to have a greater voice in Bolivia's economy.

U.S.-ally Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada fled the country in October 2003 after 67 people died in the "gas war," nearly a month of protests against his plans to export gas through traditional foe Chile.

Mesa was his vice president and planned to finish the mandate in August 2007.

In his speech Sunday, Mesa singled out coca growers' leader Evo Morales and his Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, which had planned nationwide protests this week to push for heavy state intervention in new gas legislation.

MAS followers were in the midst of highway blockades and occupation of oil fields.

One company had closed down one of its wells this weekend to discourage occupation.

Morales lost the 2002 presidential election to Sanchez de Lozada and is Washington's Bolivian bete noire for his opposition to the U.S.-led campaign to eradicate coca leave cultivation, the raw material for making cocaine.

Now he wants high royalties and less rights for multinationals that have invested over $3 billion to exploit South America's second largest natural gas supply behind Venezuela.

CALLS TO BLOCK RESIGNATION

If the resignation is accepted, conservative Senate chairman Hormando Vaca Diez, an advocate of tougher measures against protesters, would take over.

Congress could opt for an interim leader or call new elections before 2007.

Analysts said Congress should act responsibly by rejecting the resignation, which would allow Mesa to govern the nation of 8 million with a stronger mandate.

"Bolivia's democracy is in its worst moment," said political analyst Carlos Toranzos.

"Parliament should cast aside its political calculations to find a solution for this institutional crisis."

Another analyst, Roger Cortes, said, "The worst thing Congress could do is accept the resignation."

Neighbors of South America's poorest nation also worried about turmoil on their doorstep.

"I hope the Bolivian Congress ratifies and reaffirms that the president continues," President Alejandro Toledo told RPP radio Monday.

Bolivia has a long history of institutional instability in its 172 years of independence and Mesa, a historian and TV journalist, knows this better than anyone.

He once wrote a book called "Bolivian Presidents: Between Ballot Boxes and Bullets."

(Additional reporting by Jude Webber in Lima)

Another sad chapter in the long saga of the IMF and World Bank trying to separate Bolivians from their huge cache of natural gas.

Behind Bolivia's Gas War

Commentary, Jim Shultz,
Pacific News Service, Oct 17, 2003
Editor's Note: To Bolivians marching in the streets, "free" trade of natural gas or other resources from their impoverished country to California is just another name for theft.

LA PAZ, Bolivia--Bolivians don't know what's good for them, declared the editors of the New York Post. Citing widespread opposition and protest to a proposed deal to export Bolivian natural gas to California, the paper observed: "And right now in Bolivia -- the poorest country in all of Latin America -- there are people fighting to remain poor."

The broad opposition to the proposed gas deal is not fueled by stupidity. Ordinary Bolivians have not stood before armed soldiers because they just don't understand the subtleties of global economics. At work is a conflict between the country's two very different populations, one glowingly rich and the other abjectly poor. The real issue in the "gas war" is how Bolivia should integrate itself into the global economy -- who will win and who will lose.

Two hundred miles away from the eye of the conflict in the capital city of La Paz lies the small city of Potosi and behind it the small mountain "Cerro Rico" (Rich Hill). For 300 years, from the mid-1500s to the mid-1800s, this single hill of silver bankrolled the Spanish empire. Millions of Bolivian Indians and slaves died extracting the silver for the Spanish. Here is a history written into the Bolivian soul -- a country that sat atop one of the greatest sources of mineral wealth in the history of the planet ended up being the poorest in South America.

Today the nation's newest and probably last "Cerro Rico" is a mammoth underground reserve of natural gas that the government is planning to harvest, in association with a British-backed consortium, Pacific LNG. To Bolivia's wealthy elite and their allies at the International Monetary Fund, the deal looks like a financial boon for a country that could very much use one. Average Bolivians see an unfolding repeat of the theft of the nation's silver.

"The money will all just end up in the pockets of the president, the ministers and other politicians," says Lourdes Netz, a former Roman Catholic nun. "Look at all the public companies that have been privatized. Have the people benefited?" First give us political reforms so we have a government we can trust, many Bolivians say. Then we can cut the gas deal.

For 15 years, Bolivia has been the main South American lab rat for the pro-privatization, unfettered-market theories of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The results have been disastrous. The economy has been in a crisis for half a decade.

In 2000, Bolivia obeyed World Bank orders to privatize the public water system of its third-largest city, Cochabamba. This led to a takeover by Bechtel, the California engineering giant, massive rate hikes on the poor, and a civic rebellion that forced Bechtel to leave. Last February, when the International Monetary Fund sought to impose a belt-tightening package, citizens revolted and were met with army tanks. Thirty-two people were killed. Now, once again, Bolivians are being shot in their streets for the crime of confronting an economic model imposed from abroad and which they don't believe in.

There is another element of remembered history to the current conflict over gas. Pacific LNG wants to ship the gas out of landlocked Bolivia through its Pacific coast neighbor, Chile, a proposal that runs into deep, century-old national resentment over Chile's seizure of Bolivia's last remaining access to the sea in 1879. School children here are still taught that the nation must reclaim its ocean. For many Bolivians, the thought of giving such a big prize to Chile, without a sea access deal in return, is unacceptable.

At least 75 people have been killed by the army since the conflict began. According to eyewitnesses and coroner's reports, most of them suffered gunshot wounds at point-blank range. One soldier was reported killed by his superior when he refused to fire on a crowd.

President Gonzalo Sànchez de Lozada, elected with 22 percent of the vote a year ago and now supported by less than 10 percent of his people, has earned a new nickname: "The Butcher." The focus of the protests has now shifted from gas to a demand that the president resign.

His vice president and key members of the government have already broken with him over the massacres, but he insists on staying, branding calls for his departure sedition. This is especially ironic given that Sànchez de Lozada himself called for his predecessor, Hugo Banzer Suarez, to step down two years ago during a national crisis far less extreme than the current one.

It seems impossible for Sanchez de Lozada to regain anything near the credibility he needs to complete his remaining four years in office. But the U.S. Embassy and other powerful allies seem intent on keeping him in office.

Bolivia's conflicts over the game plans for global economics did not begin with the gas war and will not end with it. Bolivians have taken to the streets because they know better -- they want to seize control of their own economic future.

PNS contributor Jim Shultz is the executive director of the Democracy Center (www.democracyctr.org), based in California and Bolivia.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_arti...52aaac364cf501d

IF WE ARE TO BELIEVE OUR OWN PROPAGANDA, we were in Viet Nam by invitation of the government (the same government that had eliminated due process), NOT TO CHANGE IT, BUT TO MAINTAIN IT.

Propaganda aside, since we had created and financed the government in the first place, it could be said that we invited ourselves; and since the government developed as it had UNDER OUR AEGIS, IT WOULD SEEM OBVIOUS THAT SERIOUS CHANGE WAS NOT TO BE PART OF THE PROCESS!

Sigh, anther great America tradition continues. This is exactly how we acquired the Panama Canal:

In 1878 Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French engineer who built the Suez Canal, began to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, which was then part of Colombia. Tropical disease and engineering problems halted construction on the canal, but a French business (the New Panama Canal Company) still held the rights to the project. Roosevelt agreed to pay $40 million for the rights, and he began to negotiate with Colombia for control of the land. He offered $10 million for a fifty-mile strip across the isthmus. Colombia refused.

"We were dealing with a government of irresponsible bandits," Roosevelt stormed. "I was prepared to . . . at once occupy the Isthmus anyhow, and proceed to dig the canal. But I deemed it likely that there would be a revolution in Panama soon."
Teddy was right. The chief engineer of the New Panama Canal Company organized a local revolt. Roosevelt immediately sent the battleship Nashville and a detachment of marines to Panama to support the new government. The rebels gladly accepted Roosevelt's $10 million offer, and they gave the United States complete control of a ten-mile wide canal zone.
Roosevelt ordered army engineers to start digging. Thousands of workers sweated in the malarial heat. They tore up jungles and cut down mountains. Insects thrived in muddy, stagnant pools. "Mosquitoes get so thick you get a mouthful with every breath," a worker complained. The mosquitoes also carried yellow fever, and many fell victim to the deadly disease before Dr. William Gorgas found a way to stop it.

Some Americans did not approve of Roosevelt's behavior. "There was much accusation about my having acted in an 'unconstitutional' manner," Teddy shrugged. "I took the isthmus, started the canal, and then left Congress -- not to debate the canal, but to debate me. . . . While the debate goes on, the canal does too; and they are welcome to debate me as long as they wish, provided that we can go on with the canal."
Work did go on. Despite lethal landslides, workers with dynamite and clumsy steam shovels cut their way across a continent. They built a railroad, three sets of concrete locks, and a huge artificial lake. Nine years later the freighter Ancon entered the new channel. Hundreds of construction workers hopped aboard for the historic ride. A shiny towing locomotive pulled the Ancon into the first lock. Bands played and crowds cheered as the ship slipped into the Pacific.

Roosevelt liked to repeat an old African saying: "Speak softly, and carry a big stick. You will go far." In Panama, Teddy proved to the world that he was willing to use his big navy as a stick to further American interests.

http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/joining.html

This post has been edited by jeffmoskin: Mar 7 2005, 11:49 PM

[Livyjr]

Another sad chapter in the long saga of the IMF and World Bank trying to separate Bolivians from their huge cache of natural gas.

"Behind Bolivia's Gas War"

Commentary, Jim Shultz,
Pacific News Service, Oct 17, 2003

Editor's Note: To Bolivians marching in the streets, "free" trade of natural gas or other resources from their impoverished country to California is just another name for theft.

LA PAZ, Bolivia--Bolivians don't know what's good for them, declared the editors of the New York Post.

Citing widespread opposition and protest to a proposed deal to export Bolivian natural gas to California, the paper observed: "And right now in Bolivia -- the poorest country in all of Latin America -- there are people fighting to remain poor."

The broad opposition to the proposed gas deal is not fueled by stupidity.

Ordinary Bolivians have not stood before armed soldiers because they just don't understand the subtleties of global economics.

At work is a conflict between the country's two very different populations, one glowingly rich and the other abjectly poor.

The real issue in the "gas war" is how Bolivia should integrate itself into the global economy -- who will win and who will lose.

Well, jeffmoskin, well done with this article, as it provides quite a bit of background to a story and issues that I was not really that up-to-date on, with all the other crap going on in this nation of ours and this world of ours as well.

You got to run ninety miles an hour these days just to get further and further behind, and forget staying on top of everything, as this Bolivia story clearly demonstrates.

It is especially interesting to read about this IMF, which to most people, AND ME, is still a kind of real shadowy presence, here in this world of ours.

A puppet master, it seems, and world governments are simply its puppets, dancing to whatever tune the IMF happens to call at that moment.

In 1988, about March or so, I was a health officer in a corrupt county in the corrupt Empire State of New York.

In January of 1988, the New York State Public Health Law had been amended to allegedly demand greater accountability for state monies going to county health departments, and I had made it quite clear that as of January 1, 1988, I was going to toe that line, and make sure that it stayed "toed" by the BIG MONEY INTERESTS that were interested in "developing" the county that I was health officer in.

SO!

One day, I got a "summons" to report to the conference room on the fifth (EXECUTIVE) floor of the county building, where a big gathering of "land developers" were to meet with the county executive, ABOUT ME!

Now, a point that must be taken into consideration here is that the county had been established as a county health district back in 1946, while the charter form of county government, which provided for the office of county executive, did not come into being until 1975, and the point is that the county executive had absolutely no control over the workings of my office, or the health district, EXCEPT .....

Except for the fact that he "controlled" my boss, the county public health director, who had been executive secretary of the New York State Republican Committee, before being brought over to my county in or about 1977 to serve IN THE CAPACITY OF A MEDICAL DOCTOR, AND THEREBY take over operations of the county health department, to turn it into a "graft mill" for the Republicans, despite the fact that the man had no medical training or degrees whatsoever.

And here it must be added that the New York State Department of Health had "okayed" that deal, which was and still should be a matter of record in the corrupt Empire State.

SO!

There we all were, in that conference room including "Mr. JIMMY DEE", who was the "STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT MAN" assigned as a "watcher" over me.

The developers got right to the point.

They had a suitcase, or briefcase of money with them, which the county executive, on TV Channel 13 out of Menands, New York later confirmed had within it $80,000, as I recall (I have a videotape of that "news" conference, so it is a part of the public record), and they made it clear that if I was not "gone" at his hands, that the money would go to a challenger of their choice in the upcoming election for county executive.

I'll never forget the look on the face of the State Health Department man, MR. JIMMY DEE!

He was positively gloating, like a cat just got a nice big plate of cream set right down in front of it, and no other cats allowed in the room while that one fat cat got to lap up all it wanted.

As to the county executive, well, they were talking his language, and he was hearing them with every ear that he had attached to his body.

In fact, I think some saliva was coming out of his mouth at the prospect of getting his hands on that money, right then and there, BUT ....

Of course, there was still some "arranging" that had to be done, as the county executive did not have the power himself to "get rid of" me.

NO!

That was yet to come, BUT .....

There was where the seeds were sown, and by then, the land developers had the State Health Department "necessary men" right where they needed them, in their pockets, BECAUSE they were operating through the Republican Party at the state level, and the state Republican Party then yanked strings for them from within.

That was done by having one particular state senator, whose name appears in here from time to time, "threaten" to remove certain job titles or line items from the funding for the state health department.

And I was "going down", that was for certain, unless I became "compliant", of course, which is the exact word used in a newspaper article published right around the time of that "meeting", to demonstrate to all the watching world the POWER these land developers wielded in the county, and to further demonstrate the SOLIDARITY that they had with the county politicians whose real job, or DUTY it was to protect the county residents from these developers!

And go down I did, and hard, because that "compliant" gear is just not one that I have in my gearbox, and that still goes on to this day, where I am without rights and protection of law in my town, my county, and of course, in the corrupt Empire State of New York, and when I read your article on Bolivia, that all came back as kind of an example in miniature of what is going on down there in Bolivia.

After that meeting in 1988 where the "cash was flashed" to the county executive, I was sent out, by my boss, to what was in actuality a waiting ambush, where a back-hoe operator came within inches of decapitating me with the swinging bucket of his machine, and when the news got back that they had blown the ambush, that I was still alive, then I was "declared", ON TV CHANNEL 13, as the lead story on the 6 o'clock news, by the county executive to be "DANGEROUS", a deranged "VEET NOM vet-rin gonna be out killing people", and that was that!

And it still is!

Slick!

Human life ain't worth a dime, jeffmoskin, not one dime.

Not last month, not last year, and not now.

And that article on Bolivia you posted just goes to demonstrate that one more time.

Well done.

[Livyjr]

Human life ain't worth a dime, jeffmoskin, not one dime.

Not last month, not last year, and not now.

And that article on Bolivia you posted just goes to demonstrate that one more time.

Well done.

And that brings me to where I was heading anyway this morning, in all likelihood, which is to this "SHOOTING GALLERY" that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have set up over there in Iraq, where under George W. Bush, human life there is as worthless as it was when Donald Rumsfeld was over there giving hugs and kisses to Saddam Hussein because Saddam was being a good boy for Donald by killing off a lot of people that Donald didn't like, WITH POISON GAS, which Donald did like!

George W. Bush!

JUDGE, JURY, EXECUTIONER!

RULER OF THE WORLD, AND THE SUN, MOON AND STARS, to boot!

And before anyone starts howling about how unfair I am being here, KEEP IN MIND, as it is a matter of record, that George W. Bush has in his possession a piece of paper that says no American shall be responsible for the deaths of any Iraqi citizens, which gives them a license to kill, with impunity, JUST LIKE WE HAD IN VIET NAM, where you could kill anyone you wanted, so long as they were "only" Vietnamese.

A LICENSE TO KILL!

SPORT SHOOTING, it was called.

One day, one 'ole boy, a sargeant, in fact, over me, just upped and shot a farmer standing out in a field.

That same sargeant also liked to strip down Vietnamese women, especially in front of their children.

He liked to hear them shriek, and of course, they were powerless to do a thing about it, which is what turns people, "sick twists", like him on, apparently.

And then they come back to here, and become a good American again, and who knows, maybe even a high-ranking Republican, and a Bush supporter to boot, because someone sure is, as I did not put this abomination of an adminstration in office the first time, nor was I in any way responsible for them coming back into power this time around!

"Friendly fire's terrible toll in Iraq - Troops make snap decisions amid constant threat, and sometimes the consequences are horrific"

By RAWYA RAGEH and TODD PITMAN, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, March 8, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- They're told every day across Iraq -- tragic stories of people dying amid gunfire, shattered windshields and car seats covered in blood.

Friendly fire -- often at U.S. military checkpoints -- is taking a toll on the United States and its allies, as the shooting deaths of an Italian intelligence agent and a Bulgarian soldier highlight the terrifying reality of Iraqi roads.

But Iraqi civilians are getting tangled up in the violence as well, at an alarming rate.

"They're just cowboys," Abdullah Mohammed said Monday of U.S. troops who killed his brother Feb. 28 in Ramadi.

Mohammed said his brother edged too close to an American patrol.

"They killed him without any reason, they suddenly shot at his car."

In a country where insurgents strike daily, there's no doubt some of the force is justified.

Weary of suicide car bombers, U.S. military vehicles in Iraq carry signs in Arabic warning civilians to keep a distance or risk "deadly force."

Similar warnings are affixed to fortified, tank-manned U.S. checkpoints around the capital.

But despite such warnings, Yarmouk hospital -- just one of several large medical facilities in Baghdad -- receives several casualties a day from these types of shootings, said Dr. Mohamed Salaheddin.

On Saturday, American soldiers fired on a civilian vehicle in Baghdad, killing a woman and wounding her husband, said Iqbal Sabban, a police officer.

But both sides are often to blame, she said.

"Soldiers carry signs asking people to stay away, but people are sometimes careless," Sabban said.

"The Americans are sometimes jittery and open fire at civilians just like that."

While shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians are so common they're rarely reported in the media, deaths of foreigners can grab headlines and increase pressure on America's allies to pull out.

On Friday night, U.S. troops raked a car with gunfire that was carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad's international airport, wounding her and killing an Italian intelligence officer who'd just negotiated her release from insurgents.

The Bush administration described the shooting as a "horrific accident" that came after soldiers at a particularly dangerous checkpoint tried to motion to the speeding car to stop, thinking it may have been carrying suicide attackers.

The White House rejected Sgrena's claim that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire and that soldiers may have targeted her car because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

"It's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform would deliberately target innocent civilians," countered spokesman Scott McClellan.

He said the airport road "has been a place where suicide car bombers have launched attacks."

"It's been a place where (former Saddam Hussein) regime elements have fired upon coalition forces."

"It is a dangerous road, and it is a combat zone that our coalition forces are in."

"Oftentimes, they have to make split-second decisions to protect their own security."

Italian military officials said two other intelligence agents were wounded in the shooting; U.S. officials said it was only one.

Sgrena rejected the U.S. military's account of the shooting, claiming that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire.

That same day, a Bulgarian soldier was shot to death with a machine gun.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov said Monday that coalition forces likely shot the soldier by accident.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov summoned the American ambassador, James Pardew, and complained about the lack of coordination among coalition troops.

And Svinarov insisted "the coalition partners undertake emergency measures to improve coordination."

In both Bulgaria and Italy, the deaths sparked debate over keeping troops in Iraq.

Bulgaria has a 460-member infantry battalion in Iraq; Italy has deployed about 3,000 soldiers.

A U.S. spokesman, Marine Sgt. Salju Thomas, said every incident in which there is a loss of life or injury would be investigated, at least those involving U.S. troops and civilians.

Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said the rules of engagement at checkpoints in Iraq are built around the concept of "escalation of force."

Soldiers are taught to warn a potentially threatening vehicle before shooting at it.

Soldiers who shoot at vehicles are told to try to disable it by hitting the engine block, he said.

But routine guard duty can turn into deadly combat with lightning speed, and soldiers often must make split-second decisions.

Venable said the rules are "a guide to help our soldiers bear the responsibility of pulling the trigger or not."

Asked if rules of engagement changed after the Italian agent was killed, Thomas said:

"I can't discuss rules of engagement for operational security."

"But we're constantly evaluating our procedures."

In Rome, Italy paid homage Monday to the intelligence officer killed while escorting Sgrena to freedom, with a state funeral in a Rome basilica drawing as many as 20,000 mourners -- some bringing flowers, some waving flags -- and all of the country's top officials.

The killing of Nicola Calipari, 50, fueled anti-American sentiment in a country that was strongly opposed to war in Iraq, and prompted Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a staunch supporter of the U.S.-led military campaign, to demand that Washington provide a full explanation of the shooting in Baghdad.

The Santa Maria degli Angeli basilica -- originally designed by Michelangelo on the ruins of the Baths of Diocletian -- and the surrounding piazza were packed with mourners.

Berlusconi and U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler were among dignitaries at the service.

[Livyjr]

And that brings me to where I was heading anyway this morning, in all likelihood, which is to this "SHOOTING GALLERY" that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have set up over there in Iraq, where under George W. Bush, human life there is as worthless as it was when Donald Rumsfeld was over there giving hugs and kisses to Saddam Hussein because Saddam was being a good boy for Donald by killing off a lot of people that Donald didn't like, WITH POISON GAS, which Donald did like!

George W. Bush!

JUDGE, JURY, EXECUTIONER!

RULER OF THE WORLD, AND THE SUN, MOON AND STARS, to boot!

And before anyone starts howling about how unfair I am being here, KEEP IN MIND, as it is a matter of record, that George W. Bush has in his possession a piece of paper that says no American shall be responsible for the deaths of any Iraqi citizens, which gives them a license to kill, with impunity, JUST LIKE WE HAD IN VIET NAM, where you could kill anyone you wanted, so long as they were "only" Vietnamese.

A LICENSE TO KILL!

SPORT SHOOTING, it was called.

One day, one 'ole boy, a sargeant, in fact, over me, just upped and shot a farmer standing out in a field.

That same sargeant also liked to strip down Vietnamese women, especially in front of their children.

He liked to hear them shriek, and of course, they were powerless to do a thing about it, which is what turns people, "sick twists", like him on, apparently.

And then they come back to here, and become a good American again, and who knows, maybe even a high-ranking Republican, and a Bush supporter to boot, because someone sure is, as I did not put this abomination of an adminstration in office the first time, nor was I in any way responsible for them coming back into power this time around!

"Friendly fire's terrible toll in Iraq - Troops make snap decisions amid constant threat, and sometimes the consequences are horrific" 
 
By RAWYA RAGEH and TODD PITMAN, Associated Press
First published: Tuesday, March 8, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- They're told every day across Iraq -- tragic stories of people dying amid gunfire, shattered windshields and car seats covered in blood.

Friendly fire -- often at U.S. military checkpoints -- is taking a toll on the United States and its allies, as the shooting deaths of an Italian intelligence agent and a Bulgarian soldier highlight the terrifying reality of Iraqi roads.

But Iraqi civilians are getting tangled up in the violence as well, at an alarming rate.

"They're just cowboys," Abdullah Mohammed said Monday of U.S. troops who killed his brother Feb. 28 in Ramadi.

While shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians are so common they're rarely reported in the media, deaths of foreigners can grab headlines and increase pressure on America's allies to pull out.

On Friday night, U.S. troops raked a car with gunfire that was carrying Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad's international airport, wounding her and killing an Italian intelligence officer who'd just negotiated her release from insurgents.

The Bush administration described the shooting as a "horrific accident" that came after soldiers at a particularly dangerous checkpoint tried to motion to the speeding car to stop, thinking it may have been carrying suicide attackers.

The White House rejected Sgrena's claim that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire and that soldiers may have targeted her car because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

"It's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform would deliberately target innocent civilians," countered spokesman Scott McClellan.

He said the airport road "has been a place where suicide car bombers have launched attacks."

"It's been a place where (former Saddam Hussein) regime elements have fired upon coalition forces."

"It is a dangerous road, and it is a combat zone that our coalition forces are in."

"Oftentimes, they have to make split-second decisions to protect their own security."

Italian military officials said two other intelligence agents were wounded in the shooting; U.S. officials said it was only one.

Sgrena rejected the U.S. military's account of the shooting, claiming that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire.

And while Bush Co. spokesboy Scottie "BOY" McClellan is making his "big noise" about how the Italians aren't telling the truth here, JUST WHAT ARE THE ITALIANS REALLY SAYING, in return, with regard to the spokesboy's claims:

"Italy foreign minister disputes U.S. claim"

By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:47 a.m., Tuesday, March 8, 2005

ROME -- Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday that the car carrying an intelligence officer killed by U.S. fire in Iraq last week was not speeding up and did not receive signals to stop, countering suggestions by American authorities.

Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, speaking to parliament, also ruled out suggestions that the shooting that killed Nicola Calipari was the result of an ambush, but reiterated the government's demands for a full explanation from Washington.

Fini was the first Italian official to openly dispute the U.S. account, and his comments put fresh pressure on Washington to get to the bottom of the matter.

President Bush has promised a full investigation.

Calipari, 50, was shot Friday as he headed to the Baghdad airport after securing the release of Giuliana Sgrena a month after the Italian journalist was abducted by Iraqi gunmen.

"The car was traveling at a velocity that couldn't have been more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour," Fini said.

There were no attempts to stop the car, as indicated by the U.S. military, he added.

Sgrena has said the shooting might have been intentional because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

Fini dismissed that hypothesis as "groundless."

"It was an accident," he told lawmakers.

"This does not prevent, in fact it makes it a duty for the government to demand that light be shed on the murky issues, that responsibilities be pinpointed, and, where found, that the culprits be punished."

He said Calipari, an experienced officer who had negotiated the release of other hostages in Iraq in the past, "made all the necessary contacts with the U.S. authorities," both with those in charge of airport security and with the forces patrolling areas next to the airport.

Several Rome newspapers have said a lack of communication between Italian intelligence and U.S. forces may have led to the gunfire.

La Repubblica daily, citing unnamed U.S. military sources, said that Italian officials did not send notice of the hostage's liberation or of the type of vehicle she was being carried in.

Fini stressed that the U.S. government is an allied country that has promised full cooperation.

Fini's comments come a day after Italy honored the slain intelligence agent with a state funeral that drew up to 20,000 mourners.

Crowds lined the streets and clapped as a car bearing his casket approached the Rome basilica.

The slaying of Calipari has fueled anti-American sentiment in a country where many protested the war in Iraq.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi, a strong U.S. ally who sent 3,000 troops to secure postwar Iraq despite opposition at home, has demanded a full explanation from Washington.

Amid the unanswered questions and outrage, Italian officials at the funeral urged national unity in Calipari's memory.

"This is the moment to pay homage all together, without controversy, to the heroic gesture of Nicola Calipari," Berlusconi's right-hand man, Gianni Letta, told the crowd.

"We are proud of you, we'll follow your example and your extraordinary lesson in life."

Sgrena has said Calipari died in her arms after trying to shield her with his body from the American fire.

Before the funeral, Calipari's body lay in state at Rome's Vittoriano monument, where police estimated 100,000 people streamed past his coffin.

The body had been returned from Iraq on Saturday night.

Italian military officials said two other intelligence agents were wounded in the shooting; U.S. officials said it was only one.

Sgrena rejected the U.S. military's account of the shooting, claiming that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire.

The White House dismissed Sgrena's suggestion she was deliberately targeted.

"It's absurd to make any such suggestion, that our men and women in uniform would target individual citizens," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

He noted that the car was traveling on one of the most dangerous roads in Iraq.

[Livyjr]

And while Bush Co. spokesboy Scottie "BOY" McClellan is making his "big noise" about how the Italians aren't telling the truth here, JUST WHAT ARE THE ITALIANS REALLY SAYING, in return, with regard to the spokesboy's claims:

"Italy foreign minister disputes U.S. claim" 
 
By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:47 a.m., Tuesday, March 8, 2005

ROME -- Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday that the car carrying an intelligence officer killed by U.S. fire in Iraq last week was not speeding up and did not receive signals to stop, countering suggestions by American authorities.

Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini, speaking to parliament, also ruled out suggestions that the shooting that killed Nicola Calipari was the result of an ambush, but reiterated the government's demands for a full explanation from Washington.

Fini was the first Italian official to openly dispute the U.S. account, and his comments put fresh pressure on Washington to get to the bottom of the matter.

President Bush has promised a full investigation.

And why do the words "YEAH, RIGHT" just leap right to my lips when I read these words above about George W. Bush promising a "full investigation" of this matter, which, to be really full, would have to implicate him as Commander-in-Chief?

IN FACT, the investigation is already over, if you listen to the spokesboy, Scottie "BOY" McClellan:

The White House rejected Sgrena's claim that American soldiers gave no warning before they opened fire and that soldiers may have targeted her car because the United States opposes Italy's policy of negotiating with kidnappers.

"It's absurd to make any such suggestion that our men and women in uniform would deliberately target innocent civilians," countered spokesman Scott McClellan.

"It is a dangerous road, and it is a combat zone that our coalition forces are in."

end quotes

WELL, FOLKS, THERE IT IS!

It's a dangerous road!

It's in fact a combat zone, although how it comes to be that is up for questioning, where Iraq is supposed to now be at peace, according to George W. Bush, which raises the question of how a particular road THEN BECOMES a combat zone, and that answer is that George W. Bush has it be so.

HE IS RESPONSIBLE, AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, FOR THIS DEATH, AND EVERY OTHER DEATH IN IRAQ!

YES!

But, oh no, we can't have that, an American president being seen as being accountable for his actions, SO ..

GET OUT THE BROOM AND SWEEP THIS UNDER THE RUG, where it has already gone, thanks to the spokesboy!

George W. Bush promising to investigate anything anymore is just plain laughable, unless of course, IT WOULD BE TO INVESTIGATE ME, OR US, AS LIKELY TAY-RISTS, and then give or sell that information to this Choicepoint, which could then, of course, sell that information to whomever, including the criminal elements that they deal with, so that the criminals can then steal OUR identities to make money off of, which is what America IS all about these days!

GOT TO KEEP THAT ECONOMY ROLLING RIGHT ALONG, DON'T YOU KNOW!

George W. Bush and his just don't have enough, and never actually will, if truth be told on that.

Every loose nickel or dime that they have not yet taken or stolen from us rankles them, and so .....

BUT .....

Back to this alleged "investigation" that George W. Bush has "promised"!

What a crock, is what I am going to say!

It will be like the investigation into the torture of Abu Ghraib, where of course, IN A HIGHLY BUREAUCRATIC MILITARY STRUCTURE, where orders come DOWN, and supervision is 24/7, ONLY A HAND-FULL of rogues, who, of course, right in plain sight of all these superior officers, WERE ABLE, according to George W. Bush, to hide their unlawful actions FROM ALL THE SUPERIOR OFFICERS RIGHT THERE WITH THEM, to be able to commit these atrocities that George W. Bush wants us to believe did not come directly from his desk in the form of an order to commit them.

BULL CRAP, GEORGE!

How big a fool do you need to be to be considered a "LOYAL AMERICAN" these days is my question that I would like George W. Bush to investigate: HOW BIG A BLIND FOOL MUST WE NOW BE TO BE CONSIDERED "GOOD" AMERICANS?

How much must we continue to stomach?

And that answer is simple: IF YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOU, EVERYTHING!

VOICE OF GOVERNMENT SMOKESCREENPERSON (deflecting attention FROM George W. Bush TO Italians): Why them EYE-TALIANS, everybody knows that they're nothing but a pack of dagos, and wops, and guineas, and WHY, THEY ARE MAFIA, each and every one of them, and they don't look like us, and they are bad people, look at the MUS-AH-LEENEY fellow that George H. W. Bush, THE FATHER OF OUR GREAT GOD-FEARING PRESIDENT had to go and fight back there in WWII to make the world free from them EYE-TALIANS, AND SAFE FOR REAL GOD-FEARING FOLKS, and why, this guy that we righteously killed, well, he flat out deserved it, because HE CHOSE TO SPEED, he chose to act in a threatening manner to OUR GOOD LOYAL AMERICAN TROOPS who are over there in that heathen land of IRAQ, DOING THE WORK OF OUR GOD, and everyone knows them EYE-TALIANS, well, THEY'RE NOT LIKE US GOD-FEARING AMERICANS because they worship dead emporers as their gods, and of, course, there is the MAFIA FACTOR involved here, and WE HAVE GOOD INTELLIGENCE ..... yada, yada, yada, yada, yada!

OH, and the investigation is over!

YEAH, RIGHT!

[jeffmoskin]

You got to run ninety miles an hour these days just to get further and further behind, and forget staying on top of everything, as this Bolivia story clearly demonstrates.

It is especially interesting to read about this IMF, which to most people, AND ME, is still a kind of real shadowy presence, here in this world of ours.

A puppet master, it seems, and world governments are simply its puppets, dancing to whatever tune the IMF happens to call at that moment.

The IMF and WORLD BANK, organizations which the average America thinks BENEFITS the development of the third world, are the most TOXIC elements of our so-called foreign policy, second only to the sharply-pointed spear approach of his excellency, Bush the Lesser.

They had a suitcase, or briefcase of money with them, which the county executive, on TV Channel 13 out of Menands, New York later confirmed had within it $80,000, as I recall (I have a videotape of that "news" conference, so it is a part of the public record), and they made it clear that if I was not "gone" at his hands, that the money would go to a challenger of their choice in the upcoming election for county executive.

REALITY TV: Livyjr, you should find that videotape and take it to TV Channel 13. We Americans just love to see "scandals" about our so-called honest politicians...

[Gabrielle]

Livyjr., Jeff, A.B., etc.

I have been worried for many hours now about you guys with respect to the changes made on here. I would PM you but can't. I just want to let you all know that you're very important to me and that I hope you stay!

[Livyjr]

REALITY TV: Livyjr, you should find that videotape and take it to TV Channel 13.

We Americans just love to see "scandals" about our so-called honest politicians...

I guess I didn't make myself clear here, jeffmoskin!

The videotape is OF AN INTERVIEW that the county executive did on TV Channel 13, a live interview that was broadcast all over that part of God's creation that TV Channel 13 out of Menands, New York covers!

The FBI had a copy of that interview!

The Attorney General HAS a copy of that interview!

Thanks to that LIVE interview, ON TV CHANNEL 13, everybody knows about the "eighty thousand BIG ONES", as the county executive called it, in that Channel 13 interview, which was held, LIVE, in October of 1988, to justify my removal as a health officer in a corrupt county in the corrupt Empire State of New York.

The videotape is part of a public record that is actively being suppressed, right now, here in the corrupt Empire State of New York.

If I could figure out a way, I would be broadcasting that videotape on the internet myself.

Of course, IN the corrupt Empire State, where the live interview depicted on the videotape actually took place, HO HUM, what else is new?

AND THERE IT IS, in a nutshell, which is why the corrupt Empire State is listed in the TOP TEN corrupt states in America!

Go figure!

And now, the disease is coming your way, jeffmoskin, and from that excellent article you posted the other day in here on that LA mayoral race, the seeds are perhaps taking root, as they must, because like any kind of pestilential vermin, corruption has to continually keep moving, as like a pack of locusts, or rats in a corn crib, they always eat themselves out of house and home in the one place, and having destroyed one "host", well, it's back on the move again, and there they now are, right out there with you!

[Livyjr]

Livyjr., Jeff, A.B., etc.

I have been worried for many hours now about you guys with respect to the changes made on here. 

Changes?

[Livyjr]

Livyjr., Jeff, A.B., etc.

I have been worried for many hours now about you guys with respect to the changes made on here. 

I would PM you but can't. 

Hhhmmmm!

Me, too, Gabrielle!

Interesting!

And as I have said before, if someone sees this grey-haired guy with a mustache, bloodied up some, and nailed to a tree, and this thread has no Livyjr posts, oh well, that was likely me.

And if there is a small, older, middle-eastern-looking guy with a beard nailed to a tree near me ......

[Gabrielle]

Hhhmmmm!

Me, too, Gabrielle!

Interesting!

And as I have said before, if someone sees this grey-haired guy with a mustache, bloodied up some, and nailed to a tree, and this thread has no Livyjr posts, oh well, that was likely me.

And if there is a small, older, middle-eastern-looking guy with a beard nailed to a tree near me ......

You're positively infectious, Livyjr!

I should let you know that my kitchen is now a butter yellow color. I was thinking while painting it about how painting our house and fixing it up (with whatever limited resources we have in my case) is such a vital part of the American dream here in OUR America. And also that I have to curb my "I want this" "I want that" consumer urges. You know, when you paint, you've got a lot of time to think. It's kind of like meditation. It clears the mind to paint.

Anyway, if you guys leave, then the light and warmth of our potbellied stove will go out, too. The place just won't be the same. And over this I have worried for the past several hours. I'm beginning to suspect worry is a sort of a mild, perhaps faint even, teeny tiny little problem for me...

This post has been edited by Gabrielle: Mar 8 2005, 10:27 AM

[Livyjr]

Anyway, if you guys leave, then the light and warmth of our potbellied stove will go out, too. 

The place just won't be the same. 

And over this I have worried for the past several hours. 

I'm beginning to suspect worry is a sort of a mild, perhaps faint even, teeny tiny little problem for me...

Painting is good, Gabrielle, and worry?

Well, that seems to be a part of the package that comes with being human!

You'll grow out of it, with time and practice!

And the best way to start that process is doing what you just did, look at it right in the eyes, and say, I know you, and I can beat you!

There is no need to run outside

For better seeing!

Nor to peer from a window!

Rather abide,

At the center of your being!

For the more you leave it,

The less you learn!

Search your heart and see

If he is wise who takes each turn!

The way to do, is to be!

- Lao Tze

[Livyjr]

I guess I didn't make myself clear here, jeffmoskin!

The videotape is OF AN INTERVIEW that the county executive did on TV Channel 13, a live interview that was broadcast all over that part of God's creation that TV Channel 13 out of Menands, New York covers!

The FBI had a copy of that interview!

The Attorney General HAS a copy of that interview!

Thanks to that LIVE interview, ON TV CHANNEL 13, everybody knows about the "eighty thousand BIG ONES", as the county executive called it, in that Channel 13 interview, which was held, LIVE, in October of 1988, to justify my removal as a health officer in a corrupt county in the corrupt Empire State of New York.

The videotape is part of a public record that is actively being suppressed, right now, here in the corrupt Empire State of New York.

If I could figure out a way, I would be broadcasting that videotape on the internet myself.

Of course, IN the corrupt Empire State, where the live interview depicted on the videotape actually took place, HO HUM, what else is new?

AND THERE IT IS, in a nutshell, which is why the corrupt Empire State is listed in the TOP TEN corrupt states in America!

Date: September 27, 1994

Certified Transcript of Examination of county executive "little Johnny Biggg", by order of Federal District Court for Northern District of New York

LIVYJR: Now, on October 13, 1988, do you recall being interviewed by Chris Kapostacy for the Capital Region Report that was subsequently broadcast over Channel 13 television?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I remember being interviewed by a number of people.

I have a vague recollection of being interviewed by Chris Kapostacy.

LIVYJR: And do you remember referring to Livyjr in your conversation with Ms. Kapostacy as being a "poor man"?

LITTLE JOHHNY BIGGG: Poor man?

I don't remember that at all!

LIVYJR: Do you remember telling Ms. Kapostacy that there was a number of developers who were developing a large pool of money to use to run against you?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I don't remember saying that to Ms. Kapostacy, no.

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: NOTE MY OBJECTION to the record to this procedure.

I don't know what we're going to do here!

Presumably, we're listening to some type of tape that's not been identified.

SO!

Just note my objection for the record.

LIVYJR: This is an excerpt from a tape recording of a Channel 13 news broadcast, and we'll provide you with a copy of the tape.

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: I just placed my objection on the record as there being no proper foundation for this.

Nor is it proper procedure at a deposition.

But go right ahead and do it!

(Whereupon a portion of the tape was played)

LIVYJR: Do you recognize the voice?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I recognize the voice, yes!

Chris!

I don't know who the other guy was, though.

Yes!

I do!

Yes!

LIVYJR: And that is you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Object to the form.

You can answer.

LITTLE JOHHNY BIGGG: It was tough to hear, but it sounds like my melodic voice, yes!

LIVYJR: Do you remember telling Chris Kapostacy about developers who were getting a fund of money up to run against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Object to the form of the question.

I think it's already been asked and answered.

If your question is, does the tape recording refresh his recollection, I'll pemit him to answer that.

LIVYJR: Okay.

Having heard this excerpt of the tape recording, does that refresh your recollection with respect to whether you told Ms. Kapostacy that there were developers who were saving a large amount of money to run against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Object to the form.

You can answer.

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I remember -- well, that obviously refreshes my memory!

I didn't know I said it to her or not.

There was some general information like that from the developer's side.

And then there was the other side, which indicated they weren't too pleased with me, either.

LIVYJR: And what was the source of YOUR INFORMATION that the developers had a fund of $80,000 to run against you, or run somebody against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Note my objection to the form!

I don't know where that amount came from!

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I don't know that, either!

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: But you can answer the question, GENERALLY!

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: To the best of my recollection, I think it came out of some of the public hearings and legislative hearings and just general rumor floating around.

I don't put much stock in that stuff!

LIVYJR: Did the fact that the developers were allegedly saving up a fund to run somebody against you have anything to do with YOUR DECISION to place Livyjr on leave of absence?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: OH, ABSOLUTELY NOT!

end quotes

Subsequently, the FANCY LAWYER went to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, and requested them to seal this record, ALL OF IT, which they did, which means that none of it can be used in future Federal court proceedings.

And so it goes!

[Livyjr]

Date: September 27, 1994

Certified Transcript of Examination of county executive "little Johnny Biggg", by order of Federal District Court for Northern District of New York

LIVYJR: Now, on October 13, 1988, do you recall being interviewed by Chris Kapostacy for the Capital Region Report that was subsequently broadcast over Channel 13 television?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I remember being interviewed by a number of people.

I have a vague recollection of being interviewed by Chris Kapostacy.

LIVYJR: Do you remember telling Ms. Kapostacy that there was a number of developers who were developing a large pool of money to use to run against you?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I don't remember saying that to Ms. Kapostacy, no.

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: NOTE MY OBJECTION to the record to this procedure.

I don't know what we're going to do here!

Presumably, we're listening to some type of tape that's not been identified.

SO!

Just note my objection for the record.

LIVYJR: This is an excerpt from a tape recording of a Channel 13 news broadcast, and we'll provide you with a copy of the tape.

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: I just placed my objection on the record as there being no proper foundation for this.

Nor is it proper procedure at a deposition.

But go right ahead and do it!

(Whereupon a portion of the tape was played)

LIVYJR: Do you recognize the voice?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I recognize the voice, yes!

Chris!

I don't know who the other guy was, though.

Yes!

I do!

Yes!

LIVYJR: And that is you?

The Nominations for the 42nd Annual New York EMMY Awards

And The Winners

1A Outstanding Single Newscast

Award Recipient:

Newschannel 13 Live at 6 (Newschannel 13 Live) June 1, 1998 (WNYT) Paul Conti, News Director; Rick Kissane, Producer; Ed Dague, Chris Kapostasy, Anchors

[Livyjr]

Date: September 27, 1994

Certified Transcript of Examination of county executive "little Johnny Biggg", by order of Federal District Court for Northern District of New York

LIVYJR: Now, on October 13, 1988, do you recall being interviewed by Chris Kapostacy for the Capital Region Report that was subsequently broadcast over Channel 13 television?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I remember being interviewed by a number of people.

I have a vague recollection of being interviewed by Chris Kapostacy.

LIVYJR: Do you remember telling Chris Kapostacy about developers who were getting a fund of money up to run against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Object to the form of the question.

I think it's already been asked and answered.

If your question is, does the tape recording refresh his recollection, I'll pemit him to answer that.

LIVYJR: Okay.

Having heard this excerpt of the tape recording, does that refresh your recollection with respect to whether you told Ms. Kapostacy that there were developers who were saving a large amount of money to run against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Object to the form.

You can answer.

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I remember -- well, that obviously refreshes my memory!

I didn't know I said it to her or not.

There was some general information like that from the developer's side.

And then there was the other side, which indicated they weren't too pleased with me, either.

LIVYJR: And what was the source of YOUR INFORMATION that the developers had a fund of $80,000 to run against you, or run somebody against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Note my objection to the form!

I don't know where that amount came from!

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I don't know that, either!

North East RadioWatch: May 30, 1998 by Scott Fybush

Congratulations to Chris Kapostasy, who leaves her anchor position at Albany's WNYT (Channel 13) after 17 years, to go to work for NBC.

[Livyjr]

Date: September 27, 1994

Certified Transcript of Examination of county executive "little Johnny Biggg", by order of Federal District Court for Northern District of New York

LIVYJR: Do you remember telling Chris Kapostacy about developers who were getting a fund of money up to run against you?

FANCY LAWYER FOR BIGGG: Object to the form of the question.

I think it's already been asked and answered.

If your question is, does the tape recording refresh his recollection, I'll pemit him to answer that.

LIVYJR: Okay.

Having heard this excerpt of the tape recording, does that refresh your recollection with respect to whether you told Ms. Kapostacy that there were developers who were saving a large amount of money to run against you?

LITTLE JOHNNY BIGGG: I remember -- well, that obviously refreshes my memory!

I didn't know I said it to her or not.

LIVYJR: And what was the source of YOUR INFORMATION that the developers had a fund of $80,000 to run against you, or run somebody against you?

Chris Kapostasy-Jansing to address NYSUT conference

April 7, 2003

ALBANY, N.Y. APRIL 8, 2003 - Chris Kapostasy-Jansing, formerly of NewsChannel 13 WNYT in Albany and currently an NBC News correspondent and anchor for MSNBC, will be the keynote speaker at a day-long conference designed to give teachers an opportunity to network about current professional issues.

Her address is titled "Education in the Real World - Journalism in the Classroom."

Some 315 new and veteran educators from dozens of Capital Region school districts are slated to attend "Motivate and Celebrate the Teacher in You," on Thursday, April 10, from 3 to 9 p.m. at the Saratoga Springs City Center.

Jansing is scheduled to speak at 5:45 p.m.

Jansing has been on the scene of most major stories during her tenure with MSNBC.

In addition to her blow-by-blow anchoring of the unfolding events of September 11, she covered Pope John Paul's 2000 pilgrimage to the Holy Land from Jerusalem, traveled with the candidates for the 2000 election, and reported on the Columbine shootings, the death of JFK, Jr., and the Elian Gonzalez saga, among others.

She received a National Headliners Award for her coverage of the Timothy McVeigh execution.

In addition to working for MSNBC, Jansing's duties include work as a correspondent for "Dateline NBC," and substitute anchor for "Weekend Today " and the weekend edition of "NBC Nightly News."

While acting as evening anchor for NewsChannel 13 WNYT in Albany, New York, Jansing was honored with numerous awards for excellence in journalism, including two Emmys - one for her coverage of the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta, and a "Best Documentary" award from the New York State Broadcasters Association.

A native of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, Jansing graduated from Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.

[Abu Beacon]

Anyway, if you guys leave, then the light and warmth of our potbellied stove will go out, too.  The place just won't be the same.  And over this I have worried for the past several hours.  I'm beginning to suspect worry is a sort of a mild, perhaps faint even, teeny tiny little problem for me...

Not to worry, Gabrielle.

Of course, I can only speak for myself, But I'm not going anywhere unless the Lord taps me on the shoulder and says words to the effect of " A.B. , your time is up. "

In which case, it would be useless to argue.

In regards to your having some worries, Gabrielle, I can only pass on to you the very old bit of advice given to me many years ago.

Two rules for worry free living.

Rule # 1. " Don't sweat the small stuff. "

Rule # 2. Everything is small stuff.

Remember, Gabrielle, you are a big part of our team now, so stick around.

BTW - In case you hadn't noticed, I answered your question on post # 353.

A.B.