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

[Livyjr]

Consider for a moment, if you will, in forming your own thoughts about the contents of this thread, these words of the then-DEMOCRATIC Governor of the State of New York in 1986 concerning New York State's "HISTORY" of corruption as it stood right exactly then:

"TEN YEARS AGO, a study by the Joint House-Senate Subcommittee on Investigations estimated the costs of white-collar crime at MORE THAN forty-four BILLION dollars".

"The incidence of white-collar crime has not abated in the last decade; instead, it has spiraled ever-upward as economic crime has become increasingly profitable and sophisticated!"

"The effects of major economic crime can be devastating: THE WHOLE SOCIETY suffers as crimes against business become crimes against consumers."

"GREEDY, WHITE-COLLAR PROFITEERS WILL NOT BE STOPPED until we adopt strong measures to stop them!"

- Governor's Approval memorandum, New York State Legislative Annual -1986, p.236

SO!

According to the Governor of New York State himself, the Hon. Mario Cuomo, at that time, BY 1976, the cost of WHITE-COLLAR crime in just New York State alone was already MORE THAN forty-four BILLION dollars, and it was just spiraling upwards and upwards, with no end in sight, unless, of course, WE, the PEOPLE of the State were to somehow stop it, and how was that to be done?

Now, think on this for a moment, if you will:

WHEN, not if, BUT WHEN you have white-collar crime in a state, any state, to the extent of $44 BILLION, how exactly is that happening?

And by that, what I really mean is WHO IN THE HELL IS NOT LOOKING, or doing their job at preventing this kind of crime, TO THIS MAGNITUDE?

And more to the point, WHY ARE THEY NOT LOOKING, or doing their job of preventing crime of this magnitude from occurring in the first place?

Is a "BLIND EYE" being bought and paid for, here, perhaps?

And if so, HOW can that be countered?

And when the sum of money is so big as was the case in New York State by 1976, $44 BILLION, ABSENT A COMPLETE AND TOTAL TOP-TO-BOTTOM house-cleaning of the whole of government itself, CAN ANYTHING AT ALL BE DONE, because the truth of the matter is that corruption, or crime of this magnitude cannot happen without inside help ......

Rhetorically speaking, if you're a white-collar thief to the tune of $44 BILLION, and you are "operating" in a state like New York State where the politicians allegedly are for sale, and you want to stay in business, HOW MANY CORRUPT POLITICIANS CAN YOU BUY for $44 BILLION to enable you to do so?

And hypothetically speaking, IF YOU DO buy these alleged corrupt politicians, WHICH SERVICES of theirs are you really buying, BESIDES their own "BLIND EYES"?

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...30-112745-2009r

"Commentary: Rebuilding Iraq while the U.S. decays"

By Arnaud de Borchgrave and Harlan Ullman, United Press International

Published March 30, 2006

WASHINGTON -- By the end of this year, the U.S. will have spent almost half a trillion dollars on Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

This could easily double by the time the U.S. successfully nurtures a new Iraqi democracy to viability including returning basic services such as water, electricity and transport even to pre-war levels.

To paraphrase the late great Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, that is getting to be "real money."

Meanwhile, as we "rebuild" Iraq, what is happening here to our own society and its infrastructure?

"America", Snuf, as you well know, is simply a concept ...

Not an actuality ...

In the sense that "it" is something "absolute" .....

"Something" that God "loves", as some people like to say ...

Which is their right, of course ....

Although I will ask them, "Does he really?"

But I digress ....

While to us, it might be an "ideal" ...

Another competing "reality" ...

Is that OUR America ....

And all within it .....

Is simply something to be exploited ...

And so it is ....

As my post above yours in the little window above here clearly demonstrates ....

To the REPUBLICANS, who I have considerable experience with .....

EXPLOITATION is simply a way of life ...

Polluted water means BID-NESS opportunities ...

Polluted air means profits ...

And BID-NESS opportunities ....

DECAYED INFRASTRUCTURE means real big bucks ...

Because in emergencies ...

You can extort more money for repairs ...

Than you can doing preventative maintenance ...

And so ....

OUR America is being run right into the ground ...

Just as it has been for at least thirty years now ...

As a part of an intentional philosophy ...

To enrich a few ...

At the expense of the many ...

And so .....

[Snuffysmith]

Oh Liv - I wish it were so simple:



Moussaoui's Star Witnesses

By Andrew Cohen
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 31, 2006; 12:00 PM

With jurors now in the midst of their capital sentencing deliberations, it ought to tell you something about the case against Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui that no fewer than six current or former Bush Administration officials testified on his behalf Tuesday.

The list reads like a litany of Who's Who in Washington over the past few years -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet and counterterrorism guru Richard Clarke all went to bat for the terrorist the government wants to execute for knowing in advance about the 9-11 plot and not telling anyone.


These luminaries did not of course come into federal court and appear live at the witness stand on behalf of the man connected to the worst crime in American history. But they did offer in their own words, on videotape, during testimony they gave years ago to the 9/11 Commission some of the most convincing evidence at the trial that nothing Moussaoui would have said when arrested in August, 2001 would have enabled the government to prevent the terror attacks.

And those words were highlighted by defense attorney Edward MacMahon during his closing arguments Wednesday. Over and over again, he cited Rice and Company to support defense claims that our government was simple unable and unwilling before 9/11 to understand and process what was about to happen. In this often surreal trial, where defense attorneys impeached the credibility of their own client, and prosecution witnesses embarrassed the US government more than Moussaoui ever could, it was a delicious bit of endgame theatrics from Moussaoui's lawyers to throw back at vital policy makers some of the fancy phrases (and pathetic excuses) they offered Commission members in discussing how it came to be that a few dozen men took down the mighty World Trade Center and gravely damaged the Pentagon. The message could not have been lost on jurors: the government has been saying out of court something completely different from what prosecutors are saying in court about the cause of 9/11.

Take Rice, for example, who was the head of the National Security Council on 9/11. She testified that there "was no silver bullet" that would have foiled the attacks in advance and that the government could not have hardened aircraft cockpits in three months even if it had known of a direct threat by hijackers. This is crucial to the case against Moussaoui because a prosecution witness last week had told jurors of many security measures that would have been implemented in the 25 days between Moussaoui's arrest and the terror attacks, if there had been advance warning. Rice's statement was so devastating to this government claim that prosecutors did not even mention the possibility of hardened cockpits during their closing argument.

John Ashcroft, meanwhile, also appeared in the trial, on tape and on behalf of the confessed terrorist he once famously, and incorrectly, labeled as the "20th hijacker." He told the 9/11 Commission that the Federal Bureau of Investigation's computer system actually was "42 systems" that often did not communicate with one another. Ashcroft also told the Commission, and therefore jurors, that the pre-9/11 legal wall that precluded intelligence sharing among law enforcement and spy agencies "impeded the investigation" of Moussoaui before the terror attacks. Remarks like this forced prosecutors to tell jurors during closing arguments to "keep your focus. This stuff is not what this case is about."

Meanwhile, Thomas Pickard, the acting FBI director from June to September 4, 2001, told the Commission, and therefore jurors, that he "was not aware" of Moussoaui before 9/11, despite frantic pleas for action by the agent who arrested Moussaoui. Pickard also testified that he was not made aware of the search for two Al Qaeda operatives (who later turned out to be 9/11 hijackers) who were known to be in the United States in the summer of 2001. The FBI, he said, was "being fed out of a fire hydrant" and could not process "tons of material" and for good measure he told the panel that the Attorney General had cut the budget for counterterrorism.

Then, it was left to Tenet, from the CIA, to summarize the essence of this part of the Moussaoui's defense. He told the Commission that a specific attack warning "is not good enough without a structure to put it into action." That's precisely what Moussaoui's lawyers say -- that even if Moussaoui had told federal agents whatever he knew about plans to use planes as missile, the bureaucratic structure in place before 9/11 would not have enabled enough people to know enough to do anything to prevent the attacks.

And, finally, Clarke's image was brought to the jury. The controversial face of anti-terror measures both before and after 9/11 also echoed a major defense theme of the case-- that it is only for the realm of regret and speculation to wonder what might have happened on 9/11 if things had happened differently before that awful day. "We'll never know" what would have happened, Clarke told the Commission. Later, he told Commissioners "I don't know what we would have done" with the information Moussaoui and other terrorists might have provided before 9/11. That's vital to the case because prosecutors must convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that had Moussaoui told the truth when arrested, the terror plot, or a great part of it, would have been foiled.

None of this testimony guarantees or even suggests that jurors will reject the government's argument that Moussaoui caused death on 9/11 and therefore is eligible for the death penalty. But now the record is even clearer than before that there were many reasons why Tuesday, September 11, 2001 turned out to be one of the worst days in American history. Jurors now are deciding whether and to what extent Moussaoui is culpable for what happened that day. But as Moussaoui's star-studded, surprise witnesses pointed out on video, the verdict already is out on the government's role in this sad affair.

[Livyjr]

While to us, it might be an "ideal" ...

Another competing "reality" ...

Is that OUR America ....

And all within it .....

Is simply something to be exploited ...

And so it is ....

As my post above yours in the little window above here clearly demonstrates ....

To the REPUBLICANS, who I have considerable experience with .....

EXPLOITATION is simply a way of life ...

Polluted water means BID-NESS opportunities ...

CORRUPTION, especially, means money in the pocket ...

For the person in charge of something ...

To turn their back ......

And look the other way .....

Up here, where I am ....

We had a public health engineer who refused to turn his back ...

And look the other way ....

And the State of New York ...

Simply took this engineer ...

And they crushed him .....

Which required them to violate the law, of course ...

But since both the law and the Constitution are nothing but a bunch of BULL **** here in OUR America ....

This engineer was crushed with impunity ....

And in the meantime ...

Well, you just can never have enough "PROFITS" ....

And so ...

It is BID-NESS as usual ....

In the warped and twisted MURRIKA ...

Of the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

And its own GOD EMPORER, the ILLUSTRIOUS BUSH THE ALL-WISE AND EXCEEDINGLY MERITORIOUS ....

And so ....

"EPA wants to dilute water rules - Agency proposes to allow higher levels of arsenic, other contaminants in small communities"

By JULIET EILPERIN, Washington Post
First published: Saturday, April 1, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to allow higher levels of contaminants such as arsenic in the drinking water used by small rural communities, in response to complaints that they cannot afford to comply with recently imposed limits.

The proposal would roll back a rule that went into effect earlier this year and make it permissible for water systems serving 10,000 or fewer residents to have three times the level of contaminants allowed under that regulation.

About 50 million people live in communities that would be affected by the proposed change.

In the case of arsenic, the most recent EPA data suggest as many as 10 million Americans are drinking water that does not meet the new federal standards.

Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Water, said the agency was trying to satisfy Congress, which instructed EPA in 1996 to take into account the fact that it costs small rural towns proportionately more to meet federal drinking water standards.

"We're taking the position both public health protection and affordability can be achieved together," Grumbles said in an interview this week.

"When you're looking at small communities, oftentimes they cannot comply with the (current) standard."

But Erik Olson, a senior lawyer for the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, called the move a broad attack on public health.

"It could have serious impacts on people's health, not just in small-town America," Olson said.

The question of how to regulate drinking water quality has roiled Washington for years.

Just before leaving office, President Bill Clinton imposed a more stringent standard for arsenic, dictating that drinking water should contain no more than 10 parts per billion of the poison, which in small amounts is a known carcinogen. '

President Bush suspended the standard after taking office, but Congress voted to reinstate it, and in 2001, the National Academy of Sciences issued a study saying arsenic was more dangerous than the EPA had previously believed.

The deadline for water systems to comply with the arsenic rule was January of this year.

Several public officials and environmental experts said they were just starting to review the administration's plan, but some said they worry that it could lead to broad exemptions from the current federal contaminant standards cities and larger towns must also meet.

Besides arsenic, other water contaminants including radon and lead pose a health threat in some communities.

James Taft, executive director of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, said he and others are concerned that the less stringent standard will "become the rule, rather than the exception" if larger communities press for similar relief.

The administration may face a fight on Capitol Hill over the proposal.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who helped write the 1996 law, said EPA's proposal, "if finalized, would allow weakened drinking water standards, not just in rural areas, but in the majority of drinking water systems in the United States."

[Livyjr]

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0330nj1.htm

"PREWAR INTELLIGENCE - Insulating Bush"

By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, March 30, 2006

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration.

Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews.

As the 2004 election loomed, the White House was determined to keep the wraps on a potentially damaging memo about Iraq.

As I tell younger people all the time who are concerned about what is going on in OUR America today vis-a-vis all this lying and crap and CORRUPTION that we are getting from this BUSH REGIME ...

And the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

Of which the BUSH REGIME is a central part ..

Or facet ....

A study of history reveals ...

That all too often ...

Absolute fools and real stupid venal men ...

Gain power and control ...

Over large bodies of people ...

And nations ...

To their detriment ...

And many times ...

Destruction ...

And OUR America is no exception to the "rule" ......

And why should it be?

Because some god or other is alleged to "love it"?

"Gods" have allegedly and supposedly loved many nations in the past ...

And they are now gone ....

And so .....

As Forrest Gump would have it ...

"Stupid is, as stupid does" ......

And so .....

At its inception ...

There were grave doubts about whether OUR America could continue to survive as a REPUBLIC ...

Which form of government REQUIRES an intelligent, informed, educated body of citizens ......

As opposed to the other forms ...

Which only require a large grouping of bovine-like unquestioning SUBJECTS ....

And so ....

When OUR America itself reaches a point of where we have a larger group of BOVINE SUBJECTS than is contained in the other group, the intelligent, thinking, educated and informed citizens .....

Well, there is the death of the REPUBLIC right there ...

And no one is going to stand up and announce that fact .....

IT WILL SIMPLY BE EXPLOITED INSTEAD ....

And so ....

As your stories above clearly demonstrate ....

Karl Rove ...

And the REPUBLICANS ...

Are betting that we have reached and passed that critical juncture ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

Oh Liv - I wish it were so simple:

"Moussaoui's Star Witnesses"

By Andrew Cohen
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, March 31, 2006; 12:00 PM

But now the record is even clearer than before that there were many reasons why Tuesday, September 11, 2001 turned out to be one of the worst days in American history.

But it is that simple, Snuf ....

At least for us country folk out here in the hinterlands of civilization ...

Where lying and deceit are still considered detrimental .....

To long-term survival ...

And so ....

We tend to be less prone to hyperbole .....

Like this statement above ...

About 9-11 being one of the worst days in American history .....

What a myopic view, actually ...

From a country person's perspective, anyway .....

9-11 was simply another day in a long string of days ...

And that is that .....

What makes 9-11 somehow special ....

Perhaps ...

Is all of the government stupidity and lying associated with it ....

But out here in the country ...

Where memories have to be a bit longer than five or maybe eight nano-seconds .....

We are used to stupidity and lying by the government ...

Especially here in New York State ...

Which has one of the most corrupt and least-democratic governments of any state in OUR union ....

And so, Snuf ....

BID-NESS as usual .....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0330nj1.htm

"PREWAR INTELLIGENCE - Insulating Bush"

By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, March 30, 2006

Only two months before Wilson went public with his allegations, the Iraq war was being viewed as one of the greatest achievements of Bush's presidency.

Rove, whom Bush would later call the "architect" of his re-election campaign, was determined to exploit the war for the president's electoral success.

On May 1, 2003, Bush made a dramatic landing on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to announce to the nation the cessation of major combat operations in Iraq.

Dressed in a military flight suit, the president emerged from a four-seat Navy S-3B Viking with the words "George W. Bush Commander-in-Chief" painted just below the cockpit window.

The New York Times later reported that White House aides "had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the 'Mission Accomplished' banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot."

The fruits of Connie's CON JOB ....

Ripen on the vine ...

For all the candid world to see ....

"WE ARE INCOMPETENT ..."

"DO YOU HEAR US, WORLD?"

"UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH ..."

"AMERICA IS INCOMPETENT ..."

And so ...

"Rice Concedes 'Tactical Errors' in Iraq"

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer

Fri Mar 31, 3:30 PM ET

BLACKBURN, England - Heckled during a visit to Washington's closest ally, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States has made thousands of mistakes but is pursuing worthy goals in Iraq.

"I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure," Rice said at a foreign policy gathering, but history will judge whether the larger aims and decisions were correct.

Rice faced skeptical questions about U.S. involvement in Iraq at a question-and-answer session organized by the British foreign policy think tank Chatham House, including one about whether Washington had learned from its "mistakes over the past three years

Rice invoked her academic background to answer.

"I'm quite certain that there are going to be dissertations written about the mistakes of the Bush administration, and I will probably even oversee some of them when I go back to Stanford," Rice said.

Rice was a professor and provost at Stanford University before becoming Bush's first-term national security adviser and second-term secretary of state.

Rice was a chief architect of the Iraq war now in its fourth year.

And speaking of IRAQINAM ....

Where the FABULOUS FLYING BUSHCOS have finally admiited to making THOUSANDS OF TACTICAL ERRORS .....

Which is BID-NESS AS USUAL for the FABULOUS FLYING BUSHCOS .....

We have ....

"Status of U.S. Copter Crew in Iraq Unknown"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military helicopter crashed Saturday during a "combat air patrol" southwest of Baghdad, but the status of the crew was unknown, according to the American command.

Meanwhile, pressure mounted on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to step aside as the Shiite bloc's nominee for a second term, with some fellow Shiites urging him to withdraw to break the deadlock over a new government amid increasing sectarian violence.

A U.S. statement said the helicopter went down about 5:30 p.m. during a combat patrol southwest of the capital but gave no further details, except to say that the fate of the crew was unknown.

The statement did not identify the type of helicopter.

It was the first loss of a U.S. helicopter since three of them crashed in a 10-day period in January, killing a total of 18 American military personnel.

At least two of the helicopters were shot down.

The U.S. command also said a Marine was killed Friday during combat operations in Anbar province west of the capital.

The Marine's death brought to at least 2,328 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The violence came as U.S. officials expressed increasing impatience with the slow pace of government talks following the Dec. 15 elections.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad urged the Iraqis to speed up the process to prevent the country from sliding into civil war.

"The terrorists are seeking to provoke sectarian war, and Iraq needs a government of national unity in the face of this threat," Khalilzad said in a statement released Saturday.

"This government needs to have a good program to govern from the center, and needs good ministers who are competent."

"Iraq is bleeding while they are moving at a very slow pace," he added.

At least 22 people were killed Saturday in fresh violence in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq's two largest cities.

Six others — all Shiite men — died Friday evening when gunmen opened fire on a minibus near Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, the town's mayor, Mohammed Maarouf, said.

U.S. officials believe formation of a government of national unity would be a major step toward calming the insurgency and restoring order three years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

That would enable the U.S. and its coalition partners to begin withdrawing troops.

But talks among Iraqi political leaders have bogged down, prompting Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians to call for al-Jaafari's replacement.

The Shiites get first crack at the prime minister's job because they are the largest bloc in parliament.

On Saturday, a former Shiite Cabinet minister, Qassim Dawoud, joined those calls, saying al-Jaafari should step aside to break the deadlock.

"I personally asked that he withdraw his nomination," Dawoud told The Associated Press.

Dawoud later said four major parties within the Shiite alliance had agreed to "reconsider" al-Jaafari's nomination.

But Jawad al-Maliki, a member of the prime minister's Dawa party, insisted to Al-Arabiya television that the alliance "is united in its position" and "is backing its candidate," meaning al-Jaafari.

Other Shiite officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Dawoud was not alone in his opposition to al-Jaafari, and that representatives of major factions within the Shiite alliance would decide soon whether to withdraw the nomination.

Al-Jaafari, a physician who spent years in exile in Iran and Britain, edged out Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi for the nomination during an alliance caucus in February thanks to the support of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The prospect of a prime minister politically beholden to the vehemently anti-American al-Sadr has alarmed both Iraqi and U.S. officials.

Al-Sadr's bloc in parliament reaffirmed its support for al-Jaafari.

"We will not abandon our decision regarding al-Jaafari's candidacy," the bloc's leader in parliament, Salam al-Maliki, told Al-Arabiya television on Saturday.

Officials said that despite opposition to al-Jaafari, Shiite leaders were hesitant to move against him for fear of splitting the alliance.

Tension between the rival Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities escalated following the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra and reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques and clerics in Baghdad, Basra and other religiously mixed cities.

On Saturday, gunmen killed three ice cream vendors in Baghdad's southern neighborhood of Dora, while a butcher and his son were killed and another son was wounded in east Baghdad, police said.

The owner of an air conditioner repair shop was shot to death on his way to work in western Baghdad.

Police also found nine bodies, mostly young men who were shot in the head or strangled in Baghdad.

Witnesses also told police they saw three gunmen in a BMW pull a handcuffed man out of the car and shoot him near a highway in west Baghdad.

In Basra, a Sunni sheik was killed by gunmen in a speeding car when he left his home in the southern city.

Two policemen also were killed in a bombing south of Basra, police said.

West of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi troops killed three suspected insurgents, including a woman, and captured three others Saturday in an operation in Amiriyah in Anbar province, the U.S. military said.
__

Associated Press writers Bushra Juhi, Sameer N. Yacoub, Mariam Fam and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

 
Power!

That is what this forum gives us here in America!

Power.

For the first time in my life, at least, I am able to stand up in a public forum, without having a one minute or three minute time limit imposed upon me, and state my own piece about our America, and where it might be going, and why.

For the first time in my life, I am able to stand up in a public forum that is not owned and controlled by the political "powers that be", and I am able to exercise my First Amendment right to speak out on what I consider to be matters of public importance in America, regardless of how uncomfortable that might make the political "powers that be" feel.

In fact, with this forum, this might be the very first time that we have had real true democracy here in our Republic of America!

SO!

How about that?

After reading this above article about the assault on Fallujah, which the world is watching, I went back over to my files which are still open on the Kerry-Edwards forum, and I brought back this article which follows, from October 26, 2004, about a week BEFORE the American presidential election.

I retrieved this article as a sort of baseline, for where we are right now, and where we might be going from here, because win or lose in this battle, Fallujah is going to have consequences in our daily lives for some time to come.

I retrieved that article as a baseline for this new thread in this new forum, because of these two sentences:

"Military forces have struck Fallujah, where they believe Zarqawi and his operatives are based, almost nightly for the past several weeks."

"A major offensive there is expected, possibly after the U.S. presidential election, and most of the city's residents have fled in anticipation."

On October 26, 2004, with our election looming large on the horizon, George W. Bush appears to have played politics once more again with our national security, if indeed, as he says, Iraq is at all related to our national security.

Uncertain of the outcome, and fearing a backlash, Mr. Bush put off this assault until such time as it could no longer HURT HIM PERSONALLY, regardless of the impact it might have on anyone else, and most especially, our fighting men and women in the field in Iraq.

So, that is how we start out the second four years of Mr. Bush's reign of power in America, more unfinished business, and a bigger mess than ever.

And let me make it incandescently clear right here and now that I am not a Democrat and I have never been.

Nor am I a sour grapes loser.

I am an older American who has seen more than my share of stupid politicians in this country, and I have always wondered, "How can that be?"

How do apparently stupid and visibly corrupt individuals end up in positions of power in America all the way from school boards and town councils, right on up and through county governments and state governments, and right on up into the White House, and here Richard Millhouse Nixxon comes right to mind, along with Spiro "Spiggy" Agnew.

I know, or have a pretty good idea, at least, how George W. Bush came to be back in office for four more years, and to me, an older American, it is a real testament to where the American people are right now in their minds, more than it is any kind of statement about George W. Bush, himself.

Manipulation!

Play around with what people "think" they know, feed them a tidbit here, withold a morsal there, and you can manipulate huge numbers of people, anywhere, in any time.

Karl Rove, the man on whose shoulders George W. Bush stands, he understood this very well, and he was not afraid to do the manipulating, or cause it to happen, REGARDLESS OF THE OUTCOME!

To the Karl Roves of the world, and maybe in the end, to every single one of us, America is an abstract, an idea, rather than a living, breathing entity.

To George W. Bush's benefit, Karl Rove had the astuteness to see America as a bunch of numbers, and by making inputs here and there, and by observing whatever outputs resulted, Karl Rove was able to take fear and terror and make them into a very potent poltical weapon with which to get George W. Bush into the White House for four more years.

Well, he has done it.

And guess what, folks?

All the problems that were masked over before, well, now they are back in spades to haunt us, and for some of us older folks in America, that haunting may well be for the rest of our natural lives, to our detriment.

Right, Karl Rove?

I am an older American myself ...

Or at least I believe I am, since I don't know exactly what age you must be to qualify as one .....

In any event ...

I was born at the close of WWII .....

Which war a lot of young people in OUR America today ....

Know absolutely nothing about .....

And I served in Viet Nam ....

And I was "there" ...

Meaning alive and cognizant ...

When John F. Kennedy was killed ....

Just as I was alive and cognizant ...

When Millhouse "TRICKY DICK" Nixxon left the White House in what I thought ...

Was a well-deserved state of disgrace ....

And I live "out in the country" ....

And so ...

I tend to have my own thoughts and opinions about things ...

And this thread allows me an opportunity ...

To voice those thoughts ...

In a non-confrontational manner .....

Since in here ...

No one can be forced to have to listen to another ...

Against their will ....

And so ....

Which is not to say that everyone who comes into here ...

Agrees with me ...

Or even likes what I have to say ....

Neither of which are the point of the exercise, anyway ...

As I see it anyway .....

The "popularity" thing, I mean ...

Or the creation of yet another faction here in OUR America ...

On top of the too many that we already have .....

Just with the Democrats ...

And the Republicans ....

When I started this thread ....

It was with an idea to just kind of follow things along, here in OUR America ...

To see where we might be going in essence ...

And my "style" ...

If indeed I even have one ...

Would be along the lines of "CHRONICLING" .....

Which is to say, maintaining a daily log of what happened .....

Or what was reported to have happened anyway ....

So that periodically ...

Thanks to the memory storage in here ...

Coupled with the search engine feature ....

I could go back in time ...

And retrieve an article ....

To see where we were .....

Months ago ..

Or years ago, in the case now of IRAQINAM .....

Because to me ...

Without CONTEXT ....

It is difficult to make judgments ....

And so .....

A "jump" back in time ....

"Allawi Blames U.S. for 'Gross Negligence'"

By Jackie Spinner, Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; 5:07 PM

BAGHDAD, Oct. 26 -- Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, on Tuesday accused foreign troops in the country of "gross negligence" in the massacre of 49 Iraqi National Guard recruits over the weekend, an unusually critical remark by the U.S.-backed leader.

Allawi, in a weekly address to the Iraqi National Assembly, said his government had launched an investigation into the deaths of the U.S.-trained recruits, most of whom were lined up and executed shortly after sunset Saturday near the National Guard's main training base in Kirkush, about 60 miles northeast of the capital.

"A terrible crime was committed in which a large number of the ING were martyred," Allawi said.

"We think this shows, in addition to gross negligence on the side of some of the multinational forces, it shows the kind of insistence to hurt Iraq and its people."

Allawi, whose interim administration assumed political authority from the U.S.-led occupation authority in late June, did not explain how foreign forces had been negligent.

Efforts to reach government spokesmen on Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

The remark was an unusual public condemnation of the U.S. military and its allies in Iraq from the prime minister, who worked closely with Washington as an exile leader during the rule of President Saddam Hussein.

His political party, the Iraqi National Accord, was funded for several years by the CIA.

In a statement on Tuesday, the U.S. military called the killings "a cold-blooded and systematic move by terrorists" and said U.S.-led forces were not responsible.

The terrorists "and no one else must be held fully accountable for these attacks," the statement said.

The Iraqi interim government "is investigating this tragic incident."

"Multinational forces will fully support and cooperate to establish the facts and avoid repetition of similar events."

In Washington, a former top occupation security official said that more Iraqis were being trained for the country's security forces than the United States and its allies are capable of protecting.

"There are so many being trained now, U.S. forces can't watch them all now," Peter Khalil, an Australian defense expert who was in Iraq from last summer until this spring as the director of national security policy for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

"There are 40 battalions of the Iraqi National Guard, six or seven battalions of the Iraqi army."

"Recruits are coming in all the time."

"You don't have force levels to protect indigenous forces."

Insurgents in recent months have carried out frequent attacks on Iraqi security forces and recruits, who are being trained to eventually assume responsibility for security in the country.

There are about 100,000 members of the Iraqi security forces, and that number is expected to increase to 145,000 by January and 250,000 by the end of next year, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The unarmed recruits killed Saturday had just left the Kirkush training base aboard three buses when they were stopped at a checkpoint manned by insurgents dressed as Iraqi police officers, according to Iraqi officials.

The recruits appeared to have been forced off the buses, lined up, ordered to lie facedown and then shot.

The buses, which were taking the recruits from the base for the start of a 20-day leave, were not accompanied by security vehicles.

Meanwhile, an insurgent group, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, said Tuesday that it had kidnapped 11 Iraqi National Guardsmen, according to a statement posted on its Web site, the Reuters news agency reported.

"The mujaheddin in the army of Ansar al-Sunna captured a group of militia linked to the coalition forces that was out on patrol along the Baghdad-to-Hilla road," the group said in the statement.

Hilla is about 60 miles south of Baghdad.

The claim could not immediately be verified, but a video and photographs of the men and their captors was posted on the site.

In the insurgent-held city of Fallujah, the U.S. military said it had killed an associate of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant whose organization claimed responsibility for Saturday's massacre.

The military said multiple sources reported that the associate was in a house in northwest Fallujah when it was attacked by U.S. aircraft at 3 a.m. on Tuesday.

The U.S. government, which has accused Zarqawi of engineering many of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in recent months, has offered a $25 million reward for his capture or death.

Military forces have struck Fallujah, where they believe Zarqawi and his operatives are based, almost nightly for the past several weeks.

A major offensive there is expected, possibly after the U.S. presidential election, and most of the city's residents have fled in anticipation.

Allawi predicted on Tuesday that insurgent attacks would increase and become even more violent.

"The enemies know if Iraqi stabilizes, it will be a serious defeat to them," he said.

"Thus, they'll escalate the situation."

"You should expect wider operations than ones done now against Iraq."

Striking a more familiar tone of optimism, Allawi vowed that the insurgents would ultimately lose in their campaign of upheaval.

"I am confident that the majority of Iraqis are willing to cooperate to stabilize the country, and the Iraqi political powers insist to defeat those gangs," he said.

Special correspondent Omar Fekeiki in Baghdad and staff writer Thomas E. Ricks in Washington contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And while we are on the subject of IRAQINAM ....

And pure goose fools .....

SYCOPHANT: a servile, self-seeking flatterer, a parasite!

"Pentagon Contradicts General on Iraq Occupation Force's Size"

By Eric Schmitt, New York Times
February 28, 2003

In a contentious exchange over the costs of war with Iraq, the Pentagon's second-ranking official today disparaged a top Army general's assessment of the number of troops needed to secure postwar Iraq.

House Democrats then accused the Pentagon official, Paul D. Wolfowitz, of concealing internal administration estimates on the cost of fighting and rebuilding the country.

Mr. Wolfowitz, with Dov S. Zakheim, the Pentagon comptroller, at his side, tried to mollify the Democratic lawmakers, promising to fill them in eventually on the administration's internal cost estimates.

"There will be an appropriate moment," he said, when the Pentagon would provide Congress with cost ranges.

"We're not in a position to do that right now."

At a Pentagon news conference with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Mr. Rumsfeld echoed his deputy's comments.

Neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor Mr. Wolfowitz mentioned General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, by name.

But both men were clearly irritated at the general's suggestion that a postwar Iraq might require many more forces than the 100,000 American troops and the tens of thousands of allied forces that are also expected to join a reconstruction effort.

"The idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far off the mark," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

In his testimony, Mr. Wolfowitz ticked off several reasons why he believed a much smaller coalition peacekeeping force than General Shinseki envisioned would be sufficient to police and rebuild postwar Iraq.

He said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, as there was in Bosnia or Kosovo.

He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force that "stayed as long as necessary but left as soon as possible," but would oppose a long-term occupation force.

And he said that nations that oppose war with Iraq would likely sign up to help rebuild it.

"I would expect that even countries like France will have a strong interest in assisting Iraq in reconstruction," Mr. Wolfowitz said.

He added that many Iraqi expatriates would likely return home to help.

In the 1991 Persian Gulf War, many nations agreed in advance of hostilities to help pay for a conflict that eventually cost about $61 billion.

Mr. Wolfowitz said that this time around the administration was dealing with "countries that are quite frightened of their own shadows" in assembling a coalition to force President Saddam Hussein to disarm.

Enlisting countries to help to pay for this war and its aftermath would take more time, he said.

"I expect we will get a lot of mitigation, but it will be easier after the fact than before the fact," Mr. Wolfowitz said.

Mr. Wolfowitz spent much of the hearing knocking down published estimates of the costs of war and rebuilding, saying the upper range of $95 billion was too high, and that the estimates were almost meaningless because of the variables.

Moreover, he said such estimates, and speculation that postwar reconstruction costs could climb even higher, ignored the fact that Iraq is a wealthy country, with annual oil exports worth $15 billion to $20 billion.

"To assume we're going to pay for it all is just wrong," he said.

At the Pentagon, Mr. Rumsfeld said the factors influencing cost estimates made even ranges imperfect.

Asked whether he would release such ranges to permit a useful public debate on the subject, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "I've already decided that."

"It's not useful."

[Livyjr]

"Pentagon Contradicts General on Iraq Occupation Force's Size"

By Eric Schmitt, New York Times
February 28, 2003

In a contentious exchange over the costs of war with Iraq, the Pentagon's second-ranking official today disparaged a top Army general's assessment of the number of troops needed to secure postwar Iraq.

House Democrats then accused the Pentagon official, Paul D. Wolfowitz, of concealing internal administration estimates on the cost of fighting and rebuilding the country.

Neither Mr. Rumsfeld nor Mr. Wolfowitz mentioned General Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, by name.

But both men were clearly irritated at the general's suggestion that a postwar Iraq might require many more forces than the 100,000 American troops and the tens of thousands of allied forces that are also expected to join a reconstruction effort.

"The idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces I think is far off the mark," Mr. Rumsfeld said.

In his testimony, Mr. Wolfowitz ticked off several reasons why he believed a much smaller coalition peacekeeping force than General Shinseki envisioned would be sufficient to police and rebuild postwar Iraq.

He said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, as there was in Bosnia or Kosovo.

He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force that "stayed as long as necessary but left as soon as possible," but would oppose a long-term occupation force.

Mr. Wolfowitz spent much of the hearing knocking down published estimates of the costs of war and rebuilding, saying the upper range of $95 billion was too high, and that the estimates were almost meaningless because of the variables.

Moreover, he said such estimates, and speculation that postwar reconstruction costs could climb even higher, ignored the fact that Iraq is a wealthy country, with annual oil exports worth $15 billion to $20 billion.

"To assume we're going to pay for it all is just wrong," he said.

Ah, yes ...

History ....

Which is never complete .....

As it is still happening ...

All around us ....

Even as I write these words in here ...

And so .....

Middle East - AP

"Iraq Faces Profound Shift in Power"

Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:08 PM ET

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq in 2005 faces the likelihood of the most profound shift of political power in its modern history, while struggling with an insurgency that has confounded U.S. strategists and their optimistic forecasts that preceded the war.

Starting with national elections on Jan. 30, Iraqis are supposed to go to the polls three times next year — first to choose a new parliament, then to decide on a new constitution and finally — if the charter is ratified — to choose yet another legislature by the end of the year.

The January ballot will be the first since the April 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

And the vote in December will complete the steps envisioned by the Bush administration to transform Iraq from one of the Middle East's most ruthless dictatorships into a functioning, albeit flawed, democracy.

That's a tall order for a nation of nearly 26 million people, a volatile Sunni-Shiite divide and large areas that are virtual no-go zones for Westerners, government officials and the country's own security forces.

If the plan works, the United States may be able to see a time when it can bring home substantial numbers of U.S. troops.

However, few of the optimistic predictions about Iraq — from jubilant Iraqis showering invading troops with flowers, to the vast oil revenues paying for the country's own reconstruction, to Iraqis taking charge of their own security — have come true.

Instead, Iraq, already America's bloodiest military operation since the Vietnam war, is awash not only in the wreckage of failed forecasts but also in tons of missing Iraqi weapons and ammunition feared to have fallen into the hands of insurgents.

This time in 2003, some American planners envisioned U.S. troops fading into the background while Iraqi police and soldiers dealt with the guerrillas.

A year later, U.S. troops were locked in their most intense urban combat — for the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah — since Vietnam.

Instead of cutbacks, the Pentagon is boosting U.S. force levels to about 150,000 by mid-January — more U.S. troops than invaded Iraq in March 2003.

Petroleum exports have lagged due to poor infrastructure, sabotage and a security situation which makes large-scale renovation projects too dangerous.

The world's most powerful military has been unable to stop suicide bombings on the 10 miles of highway from the center of Baghdad to the airport — much less protect the oil wells and the thousands of miles of pipelines.

If elections do take place, they are expected to shift power to the long-suppressed Shiite Muslim community, an estimated 60 percent of the population.

That would spell the end of Sunni domination which predates the establishment of the modern Iraqi state after World War I.

Iraq would become the only Arab land with a Shiite-dominated government — an unnerving prospect for Arab countries with large and potentially restive Shiite populations.

Only non-Arab Iran is currently under Shiite rule.

Some urban, Westernized Iraqis shudder at the prospect of Tehran-style clerical rule, although key Shiite politicians dismiss those concerns as unfounded.

Nevertheless, it will take considerable political skill for Iraq's leaders to maneuver through a tectonic power shift without inflaming sectarian and ethnic passions among Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Turkomen, Christians and others who make up this country's mosaic.

Sunni Arabs already form the core of the insurgency — much of it believed the old network of Saddam's Baath party.

If the Sunnis feel deprived of a meaningful role in the new Iraq, rebel ranks will swell.

The Kurds, estimated between 14 percent and 20 percent of the population and the most pro-American group, are anxious to maintain the self-rule they have enjoyed in the north since 1991.

If they feel threatened, or if the new constitution strips them of that right, the Kurds may push for independence, arguing that Washington owes them that for providing militiamen to fight alongside U.S. troops in the 2003 invasion.

But the dismemberment of Iraq would alarm not only every country in the region but the Europeans and the Americans as well.

More worrisome would be the response of the Sunni Arab minority — the political and social elite under Saddam, concentrated in the center and north.

Sunnis were also the backbone of Saddam's Republican Guard and security services, which went underground following the collapse of the regime, forging alliances with foreign and Iraqi Islamic extremists.

The Sunnis are divided between those who have opted to participate in politics, such as Iraq's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer, and elder statesman Adnan Pachachi, and those who reject anything that smacks of cooperation with an American force they regard as ccupiers.

Among the rejectionists is an alliance of about 3,000 Sunni clerics — the Association of Muslim Scholars.

They have called for a boycott of elections to protest both the attack on Fallujah and the continued U.S. presence.

The challenges facing Iraq will be to draw them into the political process, perhaps through power-sharing formulas or guarantees of Sunni status to lure them away from Islamic extremists.

Meanwhile, steps to prosecute Saddam were slowed after the government fired the director of the war crimes tribunal, Salem Chalabi, and the Iraqi leader isn't expect to stand trial soon.

But the interim government announced in mid-December that it expected to issue formal indictments against some of Saddam's top aides early in the new year.

European experts have shied away from helping excavate mass graves and gather other evidence because Iraq has reinstituted the death penalty, which Europe has abolished.

[Livyjr]

History ...

And politics ....

Equal Life ...

Here in OUR America ....

And so ....

"Katherine Harris campaign loses core staff"

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:06 a.m., Sunday, April 2, 2006

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Katherine Harris' U.S. Senate campaign lost what was left of its core team when a top adviser, campaign manager, and communications director resigned this weekend.

Harris, a Republican congresswoman challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, said Saturday she would introduce new members of her campaign early in the week.

"We are stronger as a campaign today than we were yesterday," Harris said in a press release.

Harris said her campaign has lined up people who believe in her candidacy, are committed, and support the "values of mainstream Florida citizens."

Former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who resigned in November, said, "She had the best people in the country."

"She can't get any better than that."

"This is a campaign that is spiraling downward by the minute," he said, adding she should drop out of the race.

Among those resigning over the weekend were Ed Rollins, a political adviser to President Reagan; campaign manager Jamie Miller; press secretary Morgan Dobbs; and other key staff.

Phone messages left for Rollins and Dobbs were not immediately returned, while contact information was not found for Miller.

Harris didn't immediately return a call Saturday for additional comment.

Her campaign has struggled since announcing plans to challenge Nelson last summer.

For months, GOP leaders in Washington tried recruiting someone else into the race, and Harris' fundraising was slow from the start.

Turnover has also been a problem.

She recently lost a pollster, a national financial director, treasurer and media consultant.

Advisers urged her to get out of the race.

She refused and announced last month that she would spend $10 million of her own money to compete with Nelson, whom she has trailed significantly in several polls.

end quotes

Consternation in the camp of the "ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY" here in OUR America ....

Which is the REPUBLICAN PARTY, of course ....

The "KINGS" of the "CULTURE OF CORRUPTION" presently reigning in Washington, D.C. ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

Middle East - AP

"Iraq Faces Profound Shift in Power"

Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:08 PM ET

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq in 2005 faces the likelihood of the most profound shift of political power in its modern history, while struggling with an insurgency that has confounded U.S. strategists and their optimistic forecasts that preceded the war.

And the vote in December will complete the steps envisioned by the Bush administration to transform Iraq from one of the Middle East's most ruthless dictatorships into a functioning, albeit flawed, democracy.

That's a tall order for a nation of nearly 26 million people, a volatile Sunni-Shiite divide and large areas that are virtual no-go zones for Westerners, government officials and the country's own security forces.

If the plan works, the United States may be able to see a time when it can bring home substantial numbers of U.S. troops.

However, few of the optimistic predictions about Iraq — from jubilant Iraqis showering invading troops with flowers, to the vast oil revenues paying for the country's own reconstruction, to Iraqis taking charge of their own security — have come true.

Instead, Iraq, already America's bloodiest military operation since the Vietnam war, is awash not only in the wreckage of failed forecasts but also in tons of missing Iraqi weapons and ammunition feared to have fallen into the hands of insurgents.

And then ...

What else?

IRAQINAM .....

Where "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice has finally confirmed ....

What most Americans already know ...

That the BUSHCO REGIME ...

In just a short amount of time, actually ...

Has made thousands of TACTICAL ERRORS in IRAQINAM ....

Which is the HALLMARK of George W. Bush's miserable presidency ....

To date ....

Here in OUR America ....

And so ....

"Rice, Straw make unannounced visit to Iraq"

By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 8:55 a.m., Sunday, April 2, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The top U.S and British diplomats made a surprise trip to Iraq on Sunday to prod the country's struggling leaders to end nearly four months of wrangling and form a new government.

"We're going to urge that the negotiations be wrapped up," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said as she and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flew overnight to the Iraqi capital for meetings with the current interim government and ethnic and religious power brokers.

Straw said the choice of leaders is up to Iraqis alone, but neither he nor Rice disguised the blunt nature of their mission.

"There is significant international concern about the time the formation of this government is taking, and therefore we believe and we will be urging the Iraqi leaders we see to press ahead more quickly," Straw said.

The British diplomat was making his third trip to Iraq this year.

Rice was last in Iraq in November.

"We've wanted to be out there at times that we thought we could help move the process forward," Rice said.

"And of course it's important to have fresh messages from time to time from Washington and from London about the concern that a government be formed."

Britain is Washington's closest ally in the 3-year-old war and stations the second largest number of troops in the country after the United States.

Rice and Straw were meeting with President Jalal Talabani, Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and other leaders.

The diplomats' visit comes amid growing pressure on al-Jaafari to step aside as the Shiite nominee for a second term to break the stalemate in talks on forming a new government.

Before sitting down with al-Jaafari, Rice and Straw posed for pictures with stiff smiles.

Rice looked especially uncomfortable, and said little before the cameras were ushered away.

She did not answer a reporter's question about whether she would tell the prime minister he is through.

A statement released by Talabani's office said he discussed "the efforts exerted by the representatives of the political blocs" with Rice and Straw.

Talabani also briefed his visitors on the negotiations and on the decision to form a political council for national security and a ministerial committee for national security, the statement said.

Talks among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders have stalled, in part because of opposition to al-Jaafari's nomination by the Shiite bloc.

On Saturday, Shiite politician Qassim Dawoud joined Sunnis and Kurds in calling for a new Shiite nominee, the first time a Shiite figure has issued such a public call.

Rice and Straw, who had been in northern England, arrived during a driving rain and thunderstorm at a time when U.S. officials here have been expressing increasing impatience with the slow pace of government talks following the Dec. 15 elections.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has urged the Iraqis to speed up the process to prevent the country from sliding into civil war.

U.S. officials believe the formation of a government of national unity would be a major step toward calming the insurgency and restoring order three years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein.

That would enable the U.S. and its coalition partners to begin withdrawing troops.

But talks among Iraqi political leaders have bogged down, prompting Sunni Arab and Kurdish politicians to call for al-Jaafari's replacement.

The Shiites get first crack at the prime minister's job because they are the largest bloc in parliament.

------

Associated Press reporter Vanessa Arrington in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And then ...

What else?

IRAQINAM .....

Where "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice has finally confirmed ....

What most Americans already know ...

That the BUSHCO REGIME ...

In just a short amount of time, actually ...

Has made thousands of TACTICAL ERRORS in IRAQINAM ....

Which is the HALLMARK of George W. Bush's miserable presidency ....

To date ....

Here in OUR America ....

And so ....

If there has been a bigger fool than George W. Bush ...

As an alleged "world leader" ...

In the last four ..

Or five thousand years ....

I, for one ...

Would like to know ...

Who that bigger fool was ....

Because so far as I can see ...

The GEORGE of America has won that dubious honor and distinction ...

Hands down ...

And so ....

"Iraqis flee mixed areas - Thousands of civilians desert their homes as nation moves to ethnic, religious partition"

By EDWARD WONG and KIRK SEMPLE
First published: Sunday, April 2, 2006

New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The war in Iraq has entered a bloodier phase, with the killings of Iraqi civilians rising significantly in daily sectarian violence while American casualties have declined.

The increased violence is spurring tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee from mixed Shiite-Sunni areas.

The new pattern, detailed in casualty and migration statistics from the past six months and in interviews with American commanders and Iraqi officials, has led to further separation of Shiite and Sunni Arabs, moving the country toward a de facto partitioning along sectarian and ethnic lines -- an outcome that the Bush administration has doggedly worked to avoid over the past three years.

The nature of the Iraq war has been changing since at least the late autumn, when political friction between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs rose even as American troops began implementing a long-term plan to decrease their street presence.

But the killing accelerated after the bombing on Feb. 22 of a revered Shiite shrine, which unleashed a wave of sectarian bloodletting.

Approximately 900 Iraqi civilians died violently in March, up from about 700 the month before, according to military statistics and the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent organization that tracks deaths.

The Brookings Institution put the U.S. figure at 30.

Meanwhile, at least 29 American troops were killed in March, the second-lowest monthly total since the war began.

The White House says that little violence occurs in most of Iraq's 18 provinces.

But those four or five provinces where the majority of the killings and migrations take place are Iraq's major population centers, generally mixed regions that include Baghdad, and contain much of the nation's infrastructure -- crucial factors in Iraq's prospects for stability.

The Iraqi public's reaction to the violence has been dramatic.

Since the shrine bombing, 30,000 to 36,000 Iraqis have fled their homes because of sectarian violence or fear of reprisals, say officials at the International Organization for Migration, based in Geneva.

The Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration estimated that at least 5,500 families have moved, with the biggest group being 1,250 families settling in the Shiite holy city of Najaf after leaving Baghdad and Sunni-dominated towns in central Iraq.

The families are living with relatives or in abandoned buildings, and a crisis of food and water shortages is starting to build, officials say.

"We lived in Latifiya for 30 years," said Abu Hussein al-Ramahi, a Shiite farmer with a family of seven, referring to a village south of Baghdad that is a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

"But a month ago, two armed people with masks on their faces said if I stayed in this area, my family and I would no longer remain alive."

"They shot bullets near my feet."

"I went back home immediately and we left the area early next morning for Najaf."

Al-Ramahi's family and other migrants are now squatting in a derelict hotel in the holy city.

"It's almost a creeping polarization of Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines," said Anthony H. Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

In the chaos, he said, "We see a slow, steady loss of confidence, a growing process of distrust which you see day by day as people at the political level bicker."

"Everything has become sectarian and ethnic."

The shifts in violence and migration patterns are fueling discussion about whether Iraq is devolving into civil war.

Although that determination may be impossible to make in the short term, the debate itself could increase the political pressure that President Bush is facing at home to draw down significantly the force of 133,000 American troops here.

Even if American deaths keep falling, polls show the American public has little appetite for engagement in an Iraqi civil war.

Commanders in Iraq say the insurgent groups in the country, particularly al-Qaida in Iraq, have shifted the focus of their attacks in an effort to foment civil war and undermine negotiations to form a four-year government.

"What we are seeing him do now is shift his target from the coalition forces to Iraqi civilians and Iraqi security forces," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a senior spokesman for the American command.

"The enemy is trying to stop the formation of this national unity government; he's trying to inflame sectarian violence."

American officials say that the solution to the sectarian bloodshed lies in the Iraqis quickly forming a national unity government, with representatives of all major groups in Iraq checking each other through compromises.

But with each political milestone -- the transfer of sovereignty in 2004, two sets of elections in 2005, the referendum on the constitution -- the Americans have asserted that the country would stabilize.

Instead, the violence has continued unabated, sometimes changing in nature, as it is doing now, but never declining.

In any case, the mass migrations could mean that Iraq's political groups will have little incentive to compromise with one another, as they separate into their enclaves.

For example, at least 761 families have settled in Baghdad after moving from Anbar Province and other Sunni-dominated areas to the west, according to Iraqi government statistics.

The same is happening on the Sunni Arab end -- there are reports of 50 families moving from Baghdad to the Sunni enclave of Fallujah.

"The situation for those displaced won't be resolved anytime soon," said Jemini Pandya, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration.

[Livyjr]

And before I must go ...

Some more history ...

This time ...

From right here ...

In OUR own nation ....

"Archaeologists Launch Large Dig in Va."

Sat Apr 1, 10:59 AM ET

KING WILLIAM, Va. - Archaeologists are expected to begin searching thousands of acres on the Middle Peninsula this summer for Indian artifacts, marking one of the biggest investigations of its kind in Virginia history.

The area to be explored is the future site of a reservoir approved for construction last year, a project that has drawn fierce opposition from three Indian tribes.

The tribes also are upset about the archaeological dig, which will focus on 6,000 acres of forests and fields.

"Let the poor people rest, let the artifacts rest," said Warren Cook, assistant chief of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe.

The Pamunkey, Mattaponi and Upper Mattaponi tribes have refused to sign an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which governs the archaeological project.

But their opposition is largely symbolic.

Under federal law, Newport News must locate archaeological resources under threat from the reservoir and protect them or mitigate their loss.

"We've felt all along that you cannot mitigate this sort of problem," said Upper Mattaponi Chief Ken Adams.

"We've been here ... 10,000 years and (Newport News) has been here 400 years and they want us to mitigate?"

"That's impossible."

The Mattaponi and Pamunkey reservations are within three miles of the reservoir site and the Upper Mattaponi tribe owns acreage about 8 miles away.

"This is not like digging up Aztec remains in Mexico," said David Bailey, a lawyer representing the Mattaponi in its fight against the reservoir.

"The tribe is literally 2 miles away, so it's very sensitive."

Newport News proposed the 1,500-acre reservoir several years ago and offered the tribes $1.5 million in compensation, which they rejected.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the reservoir last year.

The tribes contend the reservoir will violate a 17th-century peace treaty that protects their right to hunt and fish.

Newport News has a state permit to divert up to 75 million gallons of river water a day into the reservoir, which the Mattaponi fear will hurt the local shad population.

The city is studying the shad migration to determine safe times to pump the water.

The archaeological investigation could last for several years.

Researchers hope it will give them a clearer picture of the evolution of Indian culture in Virginia, said Chris Stevenson, of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Archaeologists who surveyed the site of the proposed reservoir in 1996 found — but did not excavate — 112 camp sites.

Artifacts revealed Indians had lived in the area for 8,000 years.

"There's going to be some really exciting stuff," said Tim Thompson, the corps' Norfolk District archaeologist.

___

Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com

[Snuffysmith]

For my West Coast Friends and roots from a Los Angeles transplant:

N.C.A.A. Tournament
Bruins Have a Shot at Title No. 12

Published: April 2, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS, April 1 — The U.C.L.A. traveling party gathered on the floor of Conseco Fieldhouse early Saturday afternoon, already celebrating glory's grand return.
When U.C.L.A. officials planned this pregame pep rally, reserving time on the Indiana Pacers' home court, they also arranged for a guest speaker — a surprise guest speaker, in every sense of the term.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was never known as a master orator, but when he took the floor in front of fans, he made a point that will be remembered like one of his skyhooks. He told the baby-blue throng not to expect another John Wooden era. He told them to savor whatever era is beginning right now.

It was a simple point, but one that has been difficult to grasp for the past few decades at U.C.L.A. Whether or not this year's Bruins remind anyone of Abdul-Jabbar and Wooden, they are in position nonetheless to capture the team's 12th national championship and end 11 years of frustration. U.C.L.A. throttled Louisiana State on Saturday night at the RCA Dome, 59-45, in as convincing a fashion as ever.

Three years after the Bruins went 10-19 and two years after they went 11-17, they will play for the title Monday night against Florida. If the Bruins win — they are 11-1 in championship games — they will surely be compared to North Carolina's basketball program, another traditional power that won the title last season, three years removed from an 8-20 record.

On the same court where U.C.L.A. suffered its most famous humiliation — a first-round loss to Princeton in 1996, the year after winning the national title — the Bruins played Saturday night like they were the ultimate underdogs. Ignoring hand checks and diving for loose balls, U.C.L.A. showed how much it has changed.

"Our intensity defensively for the entire 40 minutes was really, really incredible," U.C.L.A. coach Ben Howland said. "That's the best defense we played all year."

Four and a half minutes into the game, Howland sprinted to midcourt during a timeout to congratulate his team for taking an early lead. Then he started screaming "Stance!" every time the Bruins went on defense. In one stretch, when his players made three steals in a row, he jumped up and down on the sideline.

U.C.L.A. demoralized the Tigers at the outset, countering their overwhelming size advantage with Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, a lanky freshman from Cameroon. Mbah a Moute, who is nicknamed the Prince of Westwood because he is the prince of his village in Cameroon, became king for a day.

Slashing between L.S.U.'s most formidable bodies — Tyrus Thomas and Glen (Big Baby) Davis — Mbah a Moute scored 17 points and added 9 rebounds. He was cheered by supporters who waved Cameroonian flags and wore T-shirts that read "Cameroon Crazie." Now if only Mbah a Moute could get a postgame meal of viper and boa constrictor, two of his favorite dishes.

Playing U.C.L.A. looks about as pleasant as eating live rattlesnake. While many teams talk about defensive intensity, the Bruins demonstrate it on almost every possession. To reach the Final Four, they held Memphis to 45 points. To reach the championship game, they held L.S.U. to 45 points. The Tigers shot just 32 percent from the field, did not make a 3-pointer, and watched the Bruins run off with 10 steals.

Asked how other teams react to the defensive pressure, U.C.L.A. point guard Jordan Farmar said: "They don't do things normally. They look at each other, they point fingers. Their eyes get big, like deer in the headlights, like they don't know what hit them."

Los Angeles usually likes its champions more glamorous, running the floor and throwing lob passes for dunks, but U.C.L.A. has waited too long to be choosy.

This matchup was supposed to pit the U.C.L.A. guards, Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo, against L.S.U.'s more athletic frontcourt. But Davis shot 5 of 17, Thomas scored only 5 points, and the Bruins elbowed them aside. U.C.L.A. center Ryan Hollins, who sustained a bruised knee during practice Friday, came skipping out onto the court for introductions. Lorenzo Mata, the backup center who broke his nose in practice Wednesday, played with a mask on his face.

The U.C.L.A. practices might have been tougher than the game. The Bruins led by 16 points in the first half and 24 in the second half, then rested in the final minutes. The Bruins expected to outwork the Tigers, but they could not have imagined that they would also outrebound them, 42-33.

After Farmar cinched the victory with a deep 3-pointer as the shot clock expired, he turned to the L.S.U. band and drummed the letters on his jersey. It was the kind of gesture that is common around college basketball, but on Saturday night, it took on greater significance, simply because of the letters involved.

Star-gazers soon began turning their attention to the U.C.L.A. cheering section, filled with celebrity alums — football player Troy Aikman, actor Tim Robbins and Abdul-Jabbar. Children could be seen running up and down the aisles to fetch autographs.

In recent years, it has not been so easy being a Bruin. Alumni have seen their crosstown rival, Southern California, rediscover its football dominance while U.C.L.A. continued searching for its elusive basketball tradition.

Life in Los Angeles, after a few upside-down decades, may be returning to normal.

[Livyjr]

Well, Snuf ...

I wonder what jeffmoskin will have to say about any of that ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

Or John McCain, for that matter .....

Is he waffling here ...

Or what?

"McCain Softens Language on Jerry Falwell"

Sun Apr 2, 12:59 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Potential presidential candidate John McCain says he longer considers evangelist Jerry Falwell to be one of the "agents of intolerance" that he criticized during a previous White House run.

The Republican senator from Arizona will be the commencement speaker in May at Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., institution that Falwell founded in 1971.

"We agreed to disagree on certain issues, and we agreed to move forward," McCain said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

In 2000, as he sought the Republican nomination that eventually went to George W. Bush, McCain said:

"Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."

On Sunday, McCain said that Christian conservatives have a major role to play in the Republican Party, but added, "I don't have to agree with everything they stand for."

end quotes

No, Senator ...

That is right ...

In OUR America ...

Despite the intolerant views of a few ...

Whom you have identified ....

You are entitled to your own views ...

And so ....

[Livyjr]

And starting out in here this morning ...

We have the weather ...

Which to me ....

Is and remains a far greater thing to be worried about ....

Here in OUR America .....

Than this al Qaida crowd .....

And so ...

"Storms Across 6 States Leave 19 Dead"

By KRISTIN M. HALL, Associated Press Writer

37 minutes ago

RUTHERFORD, Tenn. - Severe thunderstorms packing tornadoes and softball-sized hail left a path of destruction across six Midwest states, killing 15 people in west Tennessee and at least four others in Missouri and Illinois, officials said.

The Sunday storms caused a clothing store to collapse in Illinois, overturned mobile homes in several states, and pelted thousands of concertgoers with rain in downtown Indianapolis.

Power was knocked out to at least 300,000 customers in Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.

Half a dozen tornadoes and softball-sized hail were reported in northeast Arkansas, where about half of the town of Marmaduke had evacuated because of gas leaks and other concerns, police said.

In Tennessee, eight people died near Newbern in Dyer County and seven in neighboring Gibson County, local emergency officials said.

Gibson County emergency officials set up a temporary emergency command post, triage center and morgue in Rutherford, where three people were killed.

A family of four were killed in nearby Bradford, Gibson County emergency official Bryan Cathey said.

"Our resources were just overwhelmed," he said.

A twister carved a path through a cluster of homes near the Jimmy Dean Foods plant north of Newbern, where several victims died.

The plant, which makes breakfast sausages and other food products, also sustained some damage, a security guard said.

In Fayette County, just east of Memphis, a home was thrown from its foundation, a grain silo destroyed and a mobile home overturned, The Tennessean reported.

The National Weather Service in Memphis preliminarily reported tornadoes in five counties in West Tennessee — Dyer, Carroll, Haywood, Gibson and Fayette — and officials said the storms caused extensive damage to buildings.

In Missouri, strong winds were blamed for at least three deaths.

A 42-year-old man was killed when winds knocked over his mobile home near Circle City, Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner said.

A second death was reported in Braggadocio in Pemiscot County, the state emergency management office said, but no details were available.

Another man was killed when a tree fell on him as he walked along a trail in Castlewood State Park near Ballwin in St. Louis County, a spokeswoman for St. Louis County police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A state of emergency was declared in the southeast Missouri city of Caruthersville after a tornado caused heavy damage there.

Details of the damage weren't available.

High winds caused an Illinois clothing store to collapse in Fairview Heights, east of St. Louis, killing a 54-year-old man, police Capt. Nick Gailius said.

Emergency crews were searching the rubble for any additional victims, their progress slowed by a gas leak, Gailius said.

Others were injured in the collapse, he said.

A Kentucky county declared a state of emergency early Monday after rescue workers struggled to get to rural areas because of power lines and trees that blocked roadways.

"We're concerned that there's a lot of hidden back roads that are hard to get to," said Matt Snorton, Christian County's emergency management director.

He said at least three dozen people were injured in what officials believe was a tornado.

At least 30 people sought medical care at the emergency room in Hopkinsville, he said, and a couple were considered seriously injured.

Severe thunderstorms also struck Indianapolis as thousands of fans departed a free John Mellencamp concert that was part of the NCAA's Final Four weekend.

Concertgoers scrambled for cover as tornado sirens sounded and sheets of heavy rain lashed the sidewalks and streets, according to television reports.

Meteorologists were also trying to confirm reports of a tornado in downtown Indianapolis.

In Ohio, the storms ripped off the roof and chimney from a home in Warren County northeast of Cincinnati.

Downed trees and power lines were widespread.

"In every county in southwest Ohio, there has been some type of damage," said Myron Padgett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington.

[Livyjr]

And since we are on the subject of storms on the horizon ...

Well ...

We might as well jump over there to IRAQINAM .....

Where one is brewing ....

Thanks to George W. Bush ...

And his incompetence ...

And especially ...

His inability to be able to take in data ....

And make course corrections ...

In mid-stream ....

Because George just doesn't seem capable of grasping the fact ...

That he is not MASTER OF THE WORLD ...

With the world at his feet ...

Prancing around ....

On its hind feet ....

Like a little dog begging for a bone .....

"Violence Between Shiites, Sunnis Escalates"

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

23 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, killing a bystander and wounding half a dozen others.

Gunmen shot down six people, including a child, in a market area of the southern city of Basra, police said.

Also Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Iraqi leaders to form a government as soon as possible to curb the bloodshed and rein in sectarian militias behind much of the violence.

Violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims has escalated since the Feb. 22 bombing of an important Shiite shrine in Samarra.

In Baghdad's Dora district, four gunmen charged into a Shiite home late Sunday, lined up a brother, two sisters, and an uncle against a wall and shot them dead, police said.

The father of the family, a grocery shop owner, had been killed six months earlier by gunmen in the same neighborhood, one of Baghdad's most dangerous.

The mother was visiting relatives when the Sunday attack occurred, police said.

The victims of the drive-by shooters in Basra included a navy officer, two policemen, two workers at an electrical plant, and a boy, police said.

Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, is 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

The car bombings happened early Monday, one in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City slum, the other in the central district of Karradah, both mostly Shiite areas.

The Sadr City explosion killed at least one civilian and wounded four others, and two were wounded in Karradah.

The targets were not known, police said.

Bombings in Buhriz damaged several buildings including a barber shop and grocery store in a market district of the town, which is a former Saddam stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Police discovered two bodies in eastern Baghdad — one in Mashtal that was handcuffed and shot in the head, another in Baladiyat that was strangled and covered with bandages.

In Dora, drive-by shooters killed a police captain outside his home late Sunday, police said.

In northern Iraq, the regional government of Kurdistan released the Kurdish writer Kamal Karim just a week after he received an 18-month sentence for articles on a Kurdish Web site that accused one of the region's top leaders of corruption, said Mohamed Khoshnaw, a government spokesman.

The prime minister of the Kurdish regional government issued a pardon for Karim, citing international pressure to release the writer.

The visit by Rice and Straw comes at a time of uncertainty over the fate of interim Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite nominee for a second term but widely blamed for the deadlock in talks on forming a unity government following the Dec. 15 election.

Sunni and Kurdish politicians have called for the Shiite bloc to replace al-Jaafari as its nominee.

Last weekend, two prominent Shiite politicians joined calls for the prime minister to step aside — a sign that al-Jaafari's support is cracking.

Rice and Straw, who arrived Sunday for a surprise, two-day visit, made clear they are frustrated with the slow pace of talks on a new government and said the country needs a strong prime minister as quickly as possible.

During a news conference before departing Monday, both Rice and Straw were careful to avoid specifically calling for al-Jaafari to be shunted aside.

But Rice said the next Iraqi prime minister must be a "strong leader" capable of unifying the people of this fractured land.

"We have emphasized, Secretary Rice and myself, time and again that who becomes nominated and elected ... including the prime minister is a matter of sovereign decisions by the sovereign parliament," Straw said.

But he added "somebody has to fill these positions and fill them quickly and we've urged those we have been speaking to do so."

Both Rice and Straw spoke of the need for the next government to curb the power of sectarian militias.

"You have to have the state with a monopoly of power," Rice said.

"We have sent very strong messages" that there must be "a reining in of militias."

Rice and Straw said they set no deadlines, and there were no immediate signs of progress following the string of meetings the two held Sunday with Iraqi politicians and ethnic and religious power brokers.

___

Associated Press writers Mariam Fam and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

CONNIE'S CON-JOB .....

Connie being Condoleeza Rice, of course .....

Connie had "all the right stuff" to help herself along the GUMMINT career path ...

Down there in the CAPITAL of the CULTURE OF CORRUPTION in Washington, D.C. .....

Help the BIG BOSS along ...

With a passle of lies .....

And you get to go along, yourself ...

And so Connie did ....

Now, that the chickens are coming home to roost ...

We get to have an almost daily spectacle of CONNIE and the FRUITS of HER CON-JOB dancing around out there on center stage ...

Looking like real damn fools ...

For all the candid world to see ...

And to mock ...

And deride ...

Because Connie ...

While lies and graft and corruption ...

Might get you far in Washington, D.C. ....

Outside of that very small city .....

Where life is a little more real ...

And demanding than it is down there ...

In "UN-REALITY VILLE" ......

Liars aren't worth doodly-squat ....

And so ....

"Rice presses Iraqis to form government"

By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:05 a.m., Monday, April 3, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Secretary of State Rice and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday that while it is up to the Iraqi people to chose their own leaders, the international backers who have spent blood and money to end a dictatorship here have a right to expect that it will happen quickly.

Neither Rice nor Straw pointed to any specific accomplishment from a day and a half spent huddling with nearly all of Iraq's squabbling factions.

But they said their message that Iraq must quickly form a government of national unity got through.

"We are entitled to say that whilst it is up to you, the Iraqis, to say who will fill these positions, someone must fill these positions and fill them quickly," Straw told reporters at a news conference.

"There is no doubt the political vacuum that is here at the moment is not assisting the security situation," Straw said.

Rice said the troubles in Iraq called for a strong leader who could help unify the people of this war-ravaged land.

But, she added, "It's not our job to say who that person ought to be."

Rice said the quick formation of a new government "is something that the international community has a right to expect."

"You cannot have a circumstance in which there is a political vacuum in a country like this that faces so much threat of violence," Rice said.

Both Rice and Straw emphasized that it was up to the Iraqis to decide on their new prime minister.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the nominee of the Shiite bloc, has been widely criticized by Sunni and Kurdish politicians whom the Shiites need as partners to govern.

Straw and Rice both acknowledged that the Iraqis had made progress in building a democratic system after decades of Saddam Hussein's tyranny, economic sanctions and conflict.

The two diplomats spoke of the need for the next government to curb the power of sectarian militias alleged to have been behind the wave of reprisal killings of Shiites and Sunnis.

"You have to have the state with a monopoly of power," Rice said.

"We have sent very strong messages" that there must be "a reining in of militias."

Rice and Straw said they set no deadlines, and there were no immediate signs of progress following the string of meetings the two held with Iraqi politicians and ethnic and religious power brokers.

Rice stayed overnight in the fortified Green Zone, the first time she has done so.

The move was intended to signal confidence in Iraqi security measures and counter the impression among Iraqis that high U.S. officials swoop in to give orders and then quickly depart.

Mortar fire could be heard in the Green Zone as she dined with Sunni leaders and others.

Britain is Washington's closest ally in the 3-year-old war, and stations the second largest number of troops in the country after the United States.

U.S. officials and others have been stepping up pressure on the Iraqis to settle their differences and set up a new Cabinet based on results of December parliamentary elections.

Rice, Straw and other leaders hope a unified government would have both symbolic and practical effect to curb the continual violence and pave the way for U.S. and other coalition troops to begin heading home.

U.S. officials have allowed it to become an open secret that Washington wants al-Jaafari gone, and Rice looked pained as she made small talk with him for a few minutes before the cameras were ushered out.

Talks among Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders have stalled, in part because of opposition to al-Jaafari's nomination by the Shiite bloc.

On Saturday, Shiite politician Qassim Dawoud joined Sunnis and Kurds in urging a new Shiite nominee, the first time a Shiite figure has issued such a public call.

On Sunday another Shiite legislator Jalal Eddin al-Sagheer called for al-Jaafari to withdraw his nomination, saying the prime minister no longer had the acceptance of Iraqi parties and the international community.

[Livyjr]

IRAQINAM .....

When we ....

Or more properly ...

George W. Bush's followers were getting ready to invade IRAQINAM .....

I had all these younger folks ...

In their thirties ....

Born after Viet Nam was over ...

Telling me ...

A Viet Nam combat veteran ...

That IRAQINAM was not going to be another Viet Nam ....

Because of how smart George W. Bush really was ....

And when people like me would question that assertion ...

Especially the one that implied George W. Bush even had the sense to get in out of the rain ....

Let alone prevent IRAQINAM from becoming another Viet Nam ...

I at least ...

Was dismissed as nothing but an old fool ...

And a real loser ..

Because, of course ...

I was a Viet Nam veteran ...

And EVERYBODY knows about them .....

And that is alright with me ....

That these people have their opinions ....

Because it doesn't really change anything ....

And so ....

Viet Nam ......

And Ngo Dinh Diem .....

Who, if he had a brain in his head ...

This IRAQINAMI politician, al-Jaafari .....

Should be considering the fate of ...

Now that "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice is over there in IRAQINAM ....

Selling him out .....

And looking for his head on a platter ...

To appease some other faction over there ...

In IRAQINAM .....

JUST LIKE WAS DONE IN VIET NAM .....

By America ...

And so ....

NGO DINH DIEM

Ngo Dinh Diem was born in Vietnam in 1901.

His ancestors had been converted to Christianity by Catholic missionaries in the 17th Century.

Diem, like previous generations of his family, was educated in French Catholic schools.

After he graduated he was trained as an administrator for the French authorities in Vietnam.

At the age of twenty-five he became a provincial governor.

During the French-Indochina War, Diem left Vietnam for the United States.

While there he met influential Catholics like John F. Kennedy.

He told them that he opposed both communism and French colonialism and argued that he would make a good leader of Vietnam if the French decided to withdraw.

When the Geneva conference took place in 1954, the United States delegation proposed Diem's name as the new ruler of South Vietnam.

The French argued against this claiming that Diem was "not only incapable but mad".

However, eventually it was decided that Diem presented the best opportunity to keep South Vietnam from falling under the control of communism.

Once in power, the Americans discovered that Diem was unwilling to be a 'puppet' ruler.

He constantly rejected their advice and made decisions that upset the South Vietnamese people.

Several attempts were made to overthrow Diem but although the Americans were unhappy with his performance as president, they felt they had no choice but to support him.

In October, 1955, the South Vietnamese people were asked to choose between Bo Dai, the former Emperor of Vietnam, and Diem for the leadership of the country.

Colonel Edward Lansdale suggested that Diem should provide two ballot papers, red for Diem and green for Bao Dai.

Lansdale hoped that the Vietnamese belief that red signified good luck whilst green indicated bad fortune, would help influence the result.

When the voters arrived at the polling stations they found Diem's supporters in attendance.

One voter complained afterwards:

"They told us to put the red ballot into envelopes and to throw the green ones into the wastebasket."

"A few people, faithful to Bao Dai, disobeyed."

"As soon as they left, the agents went after them, and roughed them up ..."

"They beat one of my relatives to pulp."

After the election Diem informed his American advisers that he had achieved 98.2 per cent of the vote.

They warned him that these figures would not be believed and suggested that he publish a figure of around 70 per cent.

Diem refused and as the Americans predicted, the election undermined his authority.

The North Vietnamese government reminded Diem that a General Election for the whole of the country was due in July, 1956.

Diem refused to accept this and instead began arresting his opponents.

In a short period of time, approximately 100,000 people were put in prison camps.

Communists and socialists were his main targets but journalists, trade-unionists and leaders of religious groups were also arrested.

Even children found writing anti-Diem messages on walls were put in prison.

When it became clear that Diem had no intention of holding elections for a united Vietnam, his political opponents began to consider alternative ways of obtaining their objectives.

Some came to the conclusion that violence was the only way to persuade Diem to agree to the terms of the 1954 Geneva Conference.

The year following the cancelled elections saw a large increase in the number of people leaving their homes to form armed groups in the forests of Vietnam.

At first they were not in a position to take on the South Vietnamese Army and instead concentrated on what became known as 'soft targets'.

In 1959, an estimated 1,200 of Diem's government officials were murdered.

Roman Catholics made up only just over 10% of the population in South Vietnam.

As a reward for adopting the religion of their French masters. Catholics had always held a privileged position in Vietnam.

The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in the country and most of the officials who helped administer the country for the French were Catholics.

The main religion in Vietnam was Buddhism.

Surveys carried out in the 1960s suggest that around 70% of the population were followers of Buddha.

The French, aware of the potential threat of Buddhism to their authority, passed laws to discourage its growth.

After the French left Vietnam the Catholics managed to hold onto their power in the country.

Deim was a devout Catholic and tended to appoint people to positions of authority who shared his religious beliefs.

This angered Buddhists, especially when the new government refused to repeal the anti-Buddhist laws passed by the French.

On May 8, 1963, Buddhists assembled in Hue to celebrate the 2527th birthday of the Buddha.

Attempts were made by the police to disperse the crowds by opening fire on them.

One woman and eight children were killed in their attempts to flee from the police.

The Buddhists were furious and began a series of demonstrations against the Diem government.

In an attempt to let the world know how strongly they felt about the South Vietnamese government, it was decided to ask for volunteers to commit suicide.

On June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Due, a sixty-six year old monk, sat down in the middle of a busy Saigon road.

He was then surrounded by a group of Buddhist monks and nuns who poured petrol over his head and then set fire to him.

One eyewitness later commented:

"As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him."

While Thich Quang Due was burning to death, the monks and nuns gave out leaflets calling for Diem's government to show "charity and compassion " to all religions.

The government's response to this suicide was to arrest thousands of Buddhist monks.

Many disappeared and were never seen again.

By August another five monks had committed suicide by setting fire to themselves.

One member of the South Vietnamese government responded to these self-immolations by telling a newspaper reporter:

"Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands."

Another offered to supply Buddhists who wanted to commit suicide with the necessary petrol.

These events convinced President John F. Kennedy that Diem would never be able to unite the South Vietnamese against communism.

Several attempts had already been made to overthrow Diem but Kennedy had always instructed the CIA and the US military forces in Vietnam to protect him.

In order to obtain a more popular leader of South Vietnam, Kennedy agreed that the role of the CIA should change.

Lucien Conein, a CIA operative, provided a group of South Vietnamese generals with $40,000 to carry out the coup with the promise that US forces would make no attempt to protect Diem.

At the beginning of November, 1963, President Diem was overthrown by a military coup.

After the generals had promised Diem that he would be allowed to leave the country they changed their mind and killed him.

He was replaced by Nguyen Van Thieu, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of South Vietnam.

During those hectic months of late summer in 1963 when the Kennedy Administration appeared to be frustrated and disenchanted with the ten-year regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon, it approved the plans for the military coup d'état that would overthrow President Diem and get rid of his brother Nhu.

The Kennedy Administration gave its support to a cabal of Vietnamese generals who were determined to remove the Ngos from power.

Having gone so far as to withdraw its support of the Diem government and to all but openly support the coup, the Administration became impatient with delays and uncertainties from the generals in Saigon, and by late September dispatched General Maxwell D. Taylor, then Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and Secretary of Defense McNamara to Saigon.

Upon their return, following a brief trip, they submitted a report to President Kennedy, which in proper chronology was the one immediately preceding the remarkable one of December 21, 1963.

This earlier report said, among other things "There is no solid evidence of the possibility of a successful coup, although assassination of Diem and Nhu is always a possibility."

The latter part of this sentence contained the substantive information.

A coup d'état, or assassination is never certain from the point of view of the planners; but whenever United States support of the government in power is withdrawn and a possible coup d'état or assassination is not adamantly opposed, it will happen.

Only three days after this report, on October 5, 1963, the White House cabled Ambassador Lodge in Saigon:

"There should be... urgent covert effort . . . to identify and build contact with possible alternate leadership."

Knowledge of a statement such as this one made by the ostensible defenders and supporters of the Diem regime was all those coup planners needed to know.

In less than one month Diem was dead, along with his brother.

Thus, what was considered to be a first prerequisite for a more favorable climate in Vietnam was fulfilled.

With the Ngo family out of the way, President Kennedy felt that he had the option to bring the war to a close on his own terms or to continue pressure with covert activities such as had been under way for many years.

Because the real authors were well aware of his desires, there was another most important statement in the McNamara-Taylor report of October 2, 1963:

"It should be possible to withdraw the bulk of U.S. personnel by that time...." (the end of 1965).

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNngo.htm