Poem in Mourning

Weary as an old plow,
dulled blades from too many rotations,
rusty red,
Death looms on every channel.
Don't they ever tire of the swords?
Slicing brains like so much red meat,
cleaved in the womb,
No blood, just catsup, to give it that
all American flavor.
Savor It
is what we have made it, gourmet
sushi,
served with
bitter herbs and ginger,
under headstones
made of ash.

ⓒ 2010 The Unknown Candidate

McCain: The More Wars President

In the midst of our economic debacle, let us not forget the most important reason to vote this November:

Do Something to End the War in Iraq

Volunteer for Million Doors For Peace

Join tens of thousands of Americans just like you on September 20th to mobilize a movement to end the war in Iraq. Watch the video for more information.

A national press conference is scheduled for Tuesday, September 16th in Washington, DC. To volunteer to canvas on the 20th please go to:MillionDoorsForPeace.org



Trouble viewing this video? Click Here.

John McCain, End the Lies, End the War

John McCain doesn't have a monopoly on loss. Our country has paid a dear price for the war in Iraq; the loss of a generation of young men and women and the toll on their friends and family.



Trouble viewing this video? Click here.

The 'Real' John McCain

The Real News Network reports:

Investigative journalist Bob Parry talks about McCain, his defense of Bush/Cheney and Iraq war

Bio:

Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist. He was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984 for his work with the Associated Press. In 1995, he established Consortium News as an online ezine dedicated to investigative journalism. From 2000 to 2004, he worked for the financial wire service Bloomberg. Major subjects of Parry's articles and reports on Consortium News include the presidency of George W. Bush[3], the career of Army general and Bush Secretary of State Colin Powell (with Norman Solomon), the October Surprise controversy of the 1980 election, the Nicaraguan contra-cocaine investigation, the efforts to impeach President Clinton, right-wing terrorism in Latin America, the political influence of Sun Myung Moon, mainstream American media imbalance, United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates [11], as well as international stories . Parry has written several books, including Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & "Project Truth." (1999) and Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq (2004).

The Truth About John McCain

Former POW says McCain is "not cut out to be President":

Dr. Phillip Butler knew McCain as a fellow POW. Watch & Listen:

Thanks to Robert Greenwalk, Brave New Pac: John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country.

[...]

We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks, but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr. Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know: friends, family members, coworkers, and especially those who don't share your political views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that has ever overplayed McCain's POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!

The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing his POW story. And it's cut across all political persuasions.

• "Whether he's deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card: the Hanoi Hilton. - Edwin Chen, Bloomberg


• "Noun, Verb, POW" - Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly


• "The McCain campaign's constant invocation of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational..." - Ana Marie Cox, TIME


• "I think they are going to it way too many times." - Howard Fineman, Newsweek

Remember how Joe Biden got the press to refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let's actually take Andrew Sullivan's lead here and get the media to boil McCain down to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn't that what they're already doing?

Running for War President at Any Cost

Robert Scheer, Truthdig, reports:

Just great! Nuclear-armed Pakistan is falling apart, Iran’s nuclear program is unchecked and congressional legislation on cooperation with the Russians on controlling nuclear proliferation is now dead in the water. Horrid news except for Sen. John McCain, who thrills to a repeat of the danger lines of the Cold War...

read more | digg story

Technorati tags: Robert Scheer, Truthdig, economy, Georgia, Iraq, John McCain, Barack Obama, 2008 electiion, President, War, Russia, Pakistan, Pornography of power

Spine-Chilling Video -- Needs to Go Viral

From Daily Kos: State of the Nation:

You know McCain must be a warmonger if even Pat Buchanan worries that McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."

Watch, then please Digg this video, cross-post, email others and get the word out. For more, click here.

Some opinions of McCain from his own party and military "commrades":

Technorati tags: John McCain, war, military, neocon, 2008 Presidential Election, youtube, video

The Forged Iraqi Letter: What Just Happened?

Ron Suskind reports:

"What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way..."

Continue reading

Technorati tags: Ron Suskind, Forged Iraqi Letter, Saddam Hussein, CIA, George Tenet, Iraq, Iraq war, WMD, Politics, Bush, Bush administration, Politics of Fear

Iraq Has $79 Billion Surplus — What's the US Deficit Again?

CitizenSugar reports:

"Thanks to rising oil prices, Iraq will enjoy a $79 billion surplus by the end of the year, according to a report requested by a bipartisan group of senators. While the US has spent $48 billion in American taxpayer money on Iraq's reconstruction since 2005, Iraq has spent only a fraction of its oil revenue on reconstruction projects. And, Iraq spent only 1 percent of its 2005-2007 budget to maintain existing projects already funded by Americans or Iraqis. Thus, preinvasion promises that Iraqi oil money would finance the rebuilding of Iraq have gone unfulfilled...."

Continue Reading.

Technorati tags: Iraq, Iraq War, US Economy, US Deficit, Reconstruction, Oil

Obama in Iraq

Juan Cole for Informed Comment writes about Barack Obama's visit to Iraq, as well as the recent attempt by the Bush administration to "muddy the waters this weekend regarding the interview of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with Der Spiegel, in which he expressed approval of Barack Obama's plan to get US troops out of Iraq within 16 months of next January." (Truthout)

Juan Cole, Informed Comment, reports:

"Der Spiegel proves al-Maliki story correct; series of bombings hit Baghdad.

"Despite all the talk about Iraq being "calm," I'd like to point out that the month just before the last visit Barack Obama made to Iraq (he went in January, 2006), there were 537 civilian and ISF [Iraqi Security Force] Iraqi casualties. In June of this year, 2008, there were 554, according to AP. These are official statistics gathered passively that probably only capture about 10 percent of the true toll.

That is, the Iraqi death toll is actually still worse now than the last time Obama was in Iraq! (See the bombings and shootings listed below for Sunday). The hype around last year's troop escalation obscures a simple fact: that Obama formed his views about the need for the US to leave Iraq at a time when its security situation was very similar to what it is now! Why a return to the bad situation in late 2005 and early 2006 should be greeted by the GOP as the veritable coming of the Messiah is beyond me. You have people like Joe Lieberman saying silly things like if it weren't for the troop escalation, Obama wouldn't be able to visit Iraq. Uh, he visited it before the troop escalation, just fine...."

Continue reading.

Technorati tags: Obama, Iraq, Der Spiegel, al-Maliki, surge, war, timetable, 2008 Presidential Election, politics

The Secret War in Iran: Part 3

The Real News Network reports:

"Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military intelligence and congressional sources. In his recent article "Preparing the Battlefield," Seymour Hersh, investigative journalist and famed author for The New Yorker, says that the leadership of the Democratic Party has authorized spending over $400 million in support of a presidential finding that greatly expands the use of secret operations inside Iran, including perhaps the use of lethal force. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. "This president has read it this way: anything that has to do with the military, even if it's intelligence collection by the military, is part of warfare, preparing the battlefield," Hersh tells The Real News Network. "And they don't have to tell Congress anything." In this three-part interview with Paul Jay, Hersh says that a Gallup poll suggests that most Americans would rather the nation talk to Iran rather than go to war, in light of the current conditions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The problem lies in getting more public support. "So one of the things the special operations troops are doing is trying to escalate the amount of incidents inside Iran, trying to get more stuff going, more terrorism, more bombings, more internal disturbances, and hopes, maybe, in the fantasy football world in the vice president's office, in hopes that the Iranian government would crack down on the minorities big time" which would not only mean bad press for them, but give America a vehicle for going in."

Technorati tags: Iran, War, Bush, Cheney, Foreign Policy, Seymour Hersh, The Real News

Israel: Culture of fear

Judith Norman and Alistair Welchman (Jewish Peace News) write:

"This opinion piece (link below) discusses what is perhaps the most significant psychological mechanism acting to help make the Jewish community support Israel’s occupation: the fear of collective annihilation. Seth Freedman argues that a culture of fear like this has a life of its own, independent of whether it is grounded in something real, and, indeed, has a tendency to create objects of fear where there are none. Of course this psychology is very much in the interests of those who seek to perpetuate the occupation and who encourage this culture of fear. Thus, a people as victimized, oppressed, dispossessed and essentially powerless as the Palestinians under occupation is magnified into a monster that threatens the existence of a nuclear-armed state. This is a neat argument, and explains, for instance, the disproportionate hysteria over the Qassam rocket attacks.

While it is fairly easy to use blunt geopolitical reasoning explain the motivations behind the occupation, it is always more difficult to explain why so many Jews in Israel and around the world support such cruelty. Analyses such as this go a long way towards such an explanation."

Must Read: Seth Freedman: Culture of fear | guardian.co.uk

"History has handed the Jewish people the fear of annihilation on a plate – but while the fear exists, what is feared may not..."

Photo Credit: Israeli soldiers scuffle with Palestinian protestors during a demonstration. (AFP)

Technorati tags: Israel, War, Peace, Foreign Policy, Iran, Seth Freedman, Guardian

Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Bush?

Ray McGovern, Consortium News, reports:

"It's crazy, but it's coming soon. The armed forces are working out details. Impeachment may be the only way to stop it...."

Read more.

Related Articles:

• t r u t h o u t | US Says Exercise by Israel Seemed Directed at Iran

Technorati tags: Iran, Bush, War, Olmert, Israel, Foreign Policy

Not Ready for Prime Time Iran

Read up. You won't find this stuff on CNN:

• Asia Times Online | Bush 'plans Iran air strike by August':

  "The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently...."
  
  

• Iran Warns IAEA on Nuclear Cooperation | NYTimes.com:

  "Iran said on Sunday it might have to limit its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, criticizing the agency's report which said Tehran's alleged research into nuclear warheads was a matter of serious concern...."
  
  

Technorati tags: Iran, IAEA, United Nations, War, Foreign Relations

Iraqi Clerics Against U.S. Bases

Clerics call for referendum on proposal to indefinitely station US troops in Iraq:

"The Bush administration will have a hard time extracting a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) from the government in Baghdad – indefinitely stationing US military troops in the country just as in Japan and South Korea. Muqtada al-Sadr wants any agreement to be submitted to a national referendum. Grand Ayatollah Sistani has recently been visited by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Najaf. And he practically ordered Maliki to call a national referendum. Now Ayatollah Kazim al-Haeri – the 5th grand Ayatollah of Iraq - has issued a fatwa against the agreement."

--The Real News Network

Technorati tags: Iraq, War, Clerics, U.S. Military Bases, Permanent Bases, Foreign Policy

Take Action: Stop Bush from Bombing Iran

This, today, from TrueMajority.com:

"The Jerusalem Post broke the news this morning: George Bush intends to attack Iran in his final months in office.

'The official claimed that a senior member of the president's entourage, which concluded a trip to Israel last week, said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for.'1

Congress has the power to stop him. There is a resolution already in the Senate called S. Res. 356. It's a straightforward and simple resolution that says, 'A resolution affirming that any offensive military action taken against Iran must be explicitly approved by Congress before such action may be initiated.'

Tell your Senator to support and fight for S. Res 356:
http://www.TrueMajority.org/dontbombiran

Today's story is just the latest to discuss the increasingly belligerent rhetoric of the Bush administration towards Iran. Just last week, President Bush compared anyone who seeks to negotiate with Iran to those who appeased the Nazis prior to World War II.

We only have a few months until our long national nightmare of the Bush Administration comes to an end. But, it is abundantly clear that they intend on going out with a bang. It's time for the Congress to embrace its role as a co-equal branch of government and stop them before it is too late.

Send a message to your Senator right now: http://www.TrueMajority.org/dontbombiran

Thanks for taking action to stop another war."

-- Ilya Sheyman, Online Organizer, TrueMajority.com

Also See:

• Scott Ritter Warns of Bush Attack on Iran | The Progressive


• Ominous Signs That White House Advisers Want More Wars | AlterNet:

  "Is there a resurgence by the remaining hawks in the Bush administration?"

Technorati tags: Activism, Activists, True Majority, Iran, Bomb, Bush, Foreign Policy

Olbermann: Mr. President, the War Isn't About You

MSNBC:

"Olbermann reacts to President Bush's recent interview with Politico.com and online users of Yahoo. Olbermann takes issue with Bush's claim he gave up golf to honor dead GIs ...."

As usual, Olbermann shows how well the title "Idiot in Chief" describes the current occupant of the Whitehouse:



For complete transcript and video: Click Here.

Also See:

• Will Bunch | President Bush Committed Political Treason Today

  "I've seen a lot of sad things in American politics in my lifetime -- the resignation of a president who became a national disgrace after he oversaw a campaign of break-ins and cover-ups, another who circumvented the Constitution to trade arms for hostages, and yet is now hailed as national hero. And those paled to what we have seen in the last seven years -- flagrant disregard for the Constitution, the launching of a "pre-emptive" war on false pretenses, and discussions about torture and other shocking abuses inside the White House inner sanctum.
  
  But now it's come to this: A new low that I never imagined was even possible...."

Technorati tags: Keith Olbermann, Countdown, Special Comment, Bush, Iraq War

It's the Occupation, Stupid!

It's amazing to me that one of the astute Democratic strategists haven't figured out that the debate on Iraq has been argued on a false premise promoted first by BushCo and, now, by McBushCo. This isn't rocket science, folks....

It's Occupation, Not War
By Charley Reese
Antiwar

"The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended some years ago. In Iraq, the war ended with the fall of Saddam Hussein's government; in Afghanistan, with the fall of the Taliban government. What's been happening since is occupation and resistance to occupation.

It's always helpful to call things by the right name. One of the ways using the wrong word can trip us is illustrated by John McCain's campaign theme. We have to win the war in Iraq, he keeps saying. Ending a war implies either winning or losing. No such baggage is attached to an occupation. You can end an occupation without either winning or losing. You just withdraw your troops...."

Technorati tags: Iraq, War, Occupation, Anti-War

Iraq Weekly Reader

• Petraeus's Betrayal | War on Iraq | AlterNet:

  "By undercutting the widespread support for getting out of Iraq, Petraeus did indeed betray the American public, siding with an enormously unpopular president who wants to stay the course in Iraq for personal and political reasons that run contrary to genuine national security interests. Once again, the president is passing the buck to the uniformed military to justify continuing a ludicrous imperial adventure, and the good general has dutifully performed."

• FINANCE: U.S. Lawmakers Invested in Iraq, Afghanistan Wars:

  "U.S. lawmakers have a financial interest in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a review of their accounts has revealed."

• ABC News: Whom Are Our Troops Endorsing?


• Leaked Draft Agreement Reveals Iraq End-game: Indefinite Occupation | AlterNet:

  "Not that it should come as a surprise."

• U.S., Iraq Negotiating Security Agreements | WAPO:

  "The Bush administration is negotiating two accords with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to replace the U.N. mandate for a multinational military presence there that expires at the end of this year." And, Paul Richter reports for The Los Angeles Times: "Senators warned Thursday that Congress would not allow the Bush administration to complete pending security agreements with Iraq without lawmakers' approval, because of concerns that the pacts would tie the hands of the next president."

• Powell: Troops in Iraq Must Be Reduced (AP):

  "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday that President Bush's successor will have to come to grips with the reality that the United States cannot continue to keep such large numbers of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan."

• Truthdig | Sinking Into the Quagmire:"

  Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s congressional check-in about Iraq this week didn’t offer much hope for America’s overseas entanglements, and as coverage of the overseas wars wanes, the media isn’t holding politicians’ feet to the fire—or telling the real story about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

• The Real News: Did Petraeus part ways with the neocons?


• Is David Petraeus Dirty? Ted Westhusing Said So, and Then He Shot Himself | AlterNet

  "...To these commanders the only real problem was the fact that they had a deeply honorable soldier in their command that was likely to rock the cash cow. Westhusing was so bereft at the realization of his part in this breakdown in the military's code of conduct, and the atrocities carried out in America's name, that he became despondent and finally in June, 2005, he shot himself. It was called a suicide, though there have been some questions raised about it...."

Technorati tags: David Petraeus, Iraq, War