IWR News

Iraq Body Count: 2/23/08
Americans Killed: 3970
Americans Wounded: 35,796
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Iraqis Killed: 1,000,000,000+
http://www.thelancet.com
"...a small price to pay..." Rep. John Boehner
-----------------------------------------

Latest Confirmed Casualties:


*Spc. Michael T. Manibog, 31, of Alameda, CA died Feb. 8 in Taji, Iraq.

*Sgt. Timothy P. Martin, 27, of Pixley, CA died Feb. 8 in Taji, Iraq.

*Staff Sgt. Jerald A. Whisenhunt, 32, of Orrick, MO died Feb. 8 in Taji, Iraq.

*Sgt. Gary D. Willett, 34, of Alamogordo, NM died Feb. 8 in Taji, Iraq.

*Pfc. Jack T. Sweet, 19, of Alexandria Bay, NY died Feb. 8 in Jawwalah, Iraq.

*Sgt. Corey E. Spates, 21, of LaGrange, GA died Feb. 10 in Diyala Province, Iraq.

*Staff Sgt. Javares J. Washington, 27, of Pensacola, FL died Feb. 11 at Camp Buehring in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

*Spc. Chad D. Groepper, 21, of Kingsley, IA died Feb. 17 in Diyala Province, Iraq.

*Spc. Luke S. Runyan, 21, of Spring Grove, PA died Feb. 17 in Diyala Province, Iraq.

*Staff Sgt. Bryant W. Mackey, 30, of Eureka, KN died Feb. 20 in Mosul, Iraq.

*Sgt. Conrad Alvarez, 22, of Big Spring, TX died Feb. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq.

*Cpl. Albert Bitton, 20, of Chicago, IL died Feb. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq.

*Spc. Micheal B. Matlock, Jr., 21, of Glen Burnie, MD died Feb. 20 in Baghdad, Iraq.

*Capt. Nathan R. Raudenbush, 25, of (No Hometown Listed) PA died Feb. 20 in Busayefi, Iraq.


Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

Are You Getting Your Money's Worth?

Thanks to Gabriele

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

More Wars - Less Jobs

h/t to Darryl at Hominid Views

And

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

No Duh!

To boost economy, Americans want out of Iraq

Stimulus checks welcome, but AP poll reveals desire to cut war spending


Associated Press
updated 3:03 p.m. PT, Fri., Feb. 8, 2008

"WASHINGTON - The heck with Congress’ big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession — and most people think we’re in one — is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

Pulling out of the war ranked first among proposed remedies in the survey, followed by spending more on domestic programs, cutting taxes and, at the bottom end, giving rebates to poor people in hopes they’ll spend the economy into recovery."

Don't hold your breath.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

AG Mukasey Will Not Enforce Contempt of Congress Citation

In an email just released by Florida Congressman Robert Wexler it would seem that Attorney General Michael Mukasey not only doesn’t know whether waterboarding is torture but he doesn’t know for whom he works.

According to Congressman Wexler:

” During hearings in the Judiciary Committee yesterday, I told Attorney General Michael Mukasey that I called for impeachment hearings because of the stonewalling and blatant abuses of the Bush Administration. He responded by stating that he will NOT enforce a contempt of Congress citation against Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten for refusing to testify before Congress…”

Here is that testimony :

Wexler goes on to say:

” The power of the subpoena - to call officials before us - is one of the most fundamental safeguards in our system of government. To have it effectively discarded - by virtue of the President instructing Administration officials to ignore a congressional subpoenas and not even appear before Congress - is unprecedented. The idea that the Attorney General would willingly defend this position - despite Congress' constitutional right to call such witnesses, is outrageous.”

Too bad that neither of the two remaining Democratic candidates bothered to show up for the vote (or, heaven forbid, filibuster) on Mukasey’s confirmation.

But then I'm sure they can make great speeches about how they would never support someone like Mukasey.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

On "Super Delegates"

Recently I reveived an email from a fellow PCO in Everett asking the following:

"When the Washington State Democratic Caucuses are over Saturday afternoon - and if Barack Obama gets the most votes in Washington State - I encourage all Democrats to contact our Washington State U.S. Senators; Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and demand that they change their inappropriate commitment to vote for Hillary Clinton. As U.S. Senators, both women are "Super Delegates" and therefore, their votes count more than yours and mine..."

Now, I'm not supporting either of the two canidates but I do find the question to be pretty significant. Regardless of their pledge to any particular candidate, should the elected officials in each state have an obligation to their constiuents to cast their "Super Delegate" vote in accordance with the will of the majority in their state? The emailer is correct in stating that these officials' votes are weighted more heavily than the individual voter. Remember, it takes hundreds - or even thousands of voters to represent one delegate at the convention while the electeds each represent a delegate on their own. As a result, the majority of voters in a caucus state could have their will thwarted by a handful of elected officials at the nominating convention.

What do you think?

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

IWR News

Iraq Body Count: 2/08/08
Americans Killed: 3952
Americans Wounded: 35,796
http://icasualties.org/oif/
Iraqis Killed: 1,000,000,000+
http://www.thelancet.com
"...a small price..." Rep. John Boehner
-----------------------------------------

Latest Confirmed Casualties:


*1st Lt. David E. Schultz, 25, of Blue Island, IL died Jan. 31 in Scania, Iraq.

*Cpt. Michael A. Norman, 36, of Killeen, TX died Jan. 31 in Baghdad, Iraq.

*Spc. Matthew F. Straughter, 27, of St. Charles, MO died Jan 31 in Baghdad, Iraq.

*Staff Sgt. Chad A. Barrett, 35, of Saltville, VA died Feb. 2 in Mosul, Iraq.

*Chief Petty Officer Michael E. Koch, 29,of State College, PA died Feb. 4 in Iraq.

*Chief Petty Officer Nathan H. Hardy, 29, of Durham, NH died Feb. 4 in Iraq.

*Spc. Christopher J. West, 26, of Arlington, Texas, died Feb. 4 in Balad, Iraq.

*Sgt. Rafael Alicearivera, 30, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, died Feb. 5 in Tallil, Iraq.

*Spc. Miguel A. Baez, 32, of Bonaire, GA died Feb. 5 in Balad, Iraq.

*Sgt. John C. Osmolski, 23, of Eustis, FL died Feb. 5 in Balad, Iraq.

*Sgt. Timothy R. Van Orman, 24, of Port Matilda, PA died Feb. 5 in Balad, Iraq.

*Sgt. Bradley J. Skelton, 40, of Gordonville, MO died Feb. 6 in Baghdad, Iraq.


Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

Torture Should be Left to the Experts

From MSNBC comes word that current CIA Director Michael Hayden has confirmed what most of us have already figured out: The CIA has, in fact, engaged in waterboarding.

According the the article published online today, Hayden testified before a congressional committee. As part of that testimony the CIA Director confirmed that, "...fewer than 100 people have been held by the CIA in its terrorist detention program. And of those, fewer than one-third were subjected to "enhanced" interrogation methods.

As for waterboarding, it was used on only three people more than five years ago. For the first time, he identified them in public — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. Mohammed was the purported mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States..."

As I said, most of us had already assumed these things to be true. It is what Hayden wants Congress to do that is most disturbing to me. It seems that while Congress is discussing rules prohibiting the use of any interrogation methods not authorized in the Army's field manual Hayden is arguing that the CIA be exempt from such restrictions. His point?

"Hayden said that would make no sense. The Army's interrogators are young people with limited training, while the CIA's interrogators are highly trained (Emphasis TLS), he said.

The Army interrogates a broad range of people, while the CIA's program is tailored to a specific group of terrorists..."

It must take a special level of training and maturity to drown someone in a "controlled" environment.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

A Dark Anniversay

Our friends at Crooks and Liars dot com remind us that today is a dark day in American history. We are directed to "Corrente" for a post appropriately titled The Day The Music Died

"On February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the United Nations to rally support for an invasion of Iraq.


His presentation contained little substance and numerous obvious flaws, and the international community was unimpressed.


America’s mainstream media, however, declared it “compelling.”"

I was home that day; watching Powell's testimony. I so clearly remember UN Inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohammed El Baridai questioning Powell's sources and requesting information on the coordinates and locations of the various "labs" and "weapons caches" only to be told that this was all "classified and sensitive information." That part of the day's story rarely saw the light of day in the American media.

"LiberalViewer" over at YouTube offers us this piece of video from Meet the Press from June of 2007 in which Powell attempts to defend himself by placing the blame for his complicity on agents within the CIA.

Powell does not get off the hook that easily however when you compare his UN testimony to statements he made two years prior:

Finally, on this Super Duper Tuesday, "Corrente" commenter Corrine, offers her memory of that day with this stinging reminder of what might have been:

"Only one Democratic candidate was brave enough to call bullshit on Colin Powell:


February 5, 2003


WASHINGTON, D.C. – Statement by Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Howard Dean in response to U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s comments today before the U.N. Security Council:


“While I have the utmost respect for Secretary of State Colin Powell, I heard little today in his comments before the U.N. Security Council that makes the President’s case for war strong enough to establish a new doctrine of preemption, or strong enough for going to war unilaterally.


“The Secretary of State made a compelling case for what the American people already know. Saddam Hussein is a deceitful tyrant who must be disarmed.


“But I heard little today that leads me to believe that there is an imminent threat warranting unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq.


“Terrorism around the globe is a far greater danger to the United States than Iraq. We are pursuing the wrong war. While Secretary Powell discussed the previously known fact that elements of Al Qaeda have been present in Iraq, he did not offer compelling evidence that there is a current operational link between the two.


“Despite the Secretary of State’s comments today, we continue to have more questions than answers in this debate about sending U.S. troops into harm’s way.


“This is the gravest decision any President will make: Whether to send our sons and daughters into battle to risk their lives for freedom.


“Neither the President in his speech before Congress nor Secretary of State Colin Powell today before the Security Council has made a case for immediate, unilateral military action."

Gov. Dean was indeed a lone voice in the wilderness as the re-playing of Powell's "dog and pony show" in the days following accounted for the final push in American opinion polls that gave Bush his green light to launch this country into a quagmire from which we will not soon extricate ourselves.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

"former Sergeant" Kelly Dougherty

Over at Washblog my friend Arthur Ruger does yet another fine job of putting many of my feelings and frustrations into words.

His recent post about the declining political importance of the continuing occupation of Iraq is supported elequently by the words of "former Sergeant" Kelly Dougherty:

Iraq Veterans Against The War - there's more of them organized. Up from  last year's 8 chapters nationwide to 37 chapters.

January 10, 2008
By Kelly Dougherty,
Former Sergeant, Army National Guard,
Executive Director, Iraq Veterans Against the War;IVAW

In just over a year, America will have a new President.

We will have endured a year of campaign commercials and attack ads.

We'll have watched debates devoid of any real discussion of the withdrawal from Iraq that a growing number of Americans now call for.  We'll have waited, for yet another year, for our leaders to find a way to say what we know in our hearts: we must leave Iraq.

But what will have changed in the next year that will make that happen?

We must face this fact: we run the serious risk that one year from today we'll be right where we are now, but with another year's worth of casualties, a year's worth of grieving families, a year's worth of Iraqi anger and suffering built on our occupation of a country we now know was no threat to us.

Ending this war in a year is different than ending it now, just as ending it now is different than ending it a year ago, or a year before that.

There is a price to pay for every day that we wait.

As a veteran who served in Iraq as a military police sergeant, I see our continued occupation of that country as more than simply a list of numbers.

On daily patrols through Baghdad and other cities, your glance darts from one window to the next and you look with suspicion at everyone you pass, waiting to be attacked.

Every time you drive, you anxiously scan the roadways and gutters, anticipating the explosion of a roadside bomb that will send burning shards of metal through both vehicles and flesh.

Indiscriminate home raids at all hours of the day and night become a common experience, as do the mass detentions of terrified and angry Iraqis.

You spend hours at checkpoints, with your finger on the trigger, prepared to make life and death decisions in a country where the line between civilians and combatants is blurred and in constant motion.

   These things take a toll, on our soldiers, their families, and the Iraqi people.

As members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, we know these things and many of us still face them on a daily basis.

Despite what you see on TV, or read in the paper, this is daily life in Iraq.

A year from now, will we have moved any closer to withdrawal?

Or will our leaders continue to push such a decision off into the future, where, like so many decisions made by the powerful, the price to be paid rests squarely on the shoulders of the next generation?

We are at a crossroads: we can focus our energy exclusively on an election in which no viable candidate is committed to rapid withdrawal, or we can spend the next year ensuring that whoever takes office, Republican or Democrat, will face a country mobilized to the cause of bringing our troops home.

The veterans and active duty troops of Iraq Veterans Against the War represent the generation that is living with the pain and consequences of our leaders' daily decision to continue this war.

We have watched our closest friends be killed and injured, we've seen innocent people dehumanized and destroyed.

   We are first-hand witnesses and participants of an illegal war and occupation and we are here to tell you that we have had enough.

We have come together, as members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, with this message: It is time to put this awful chapter of our history behind us.

It is time to do the right thing for the people of Iraq and the people of America.

It is time.

Arthur ends with this:

"If at the end of the cycle you and I will more than likely still be discussing when we can start withdrawal,
... whether or not America should maintain a jillion military outposts in Iraq,

... whether or not our oil companies deserve control of Iraq's oil,

... and whether or not some new on-going "surge"-ical politico-military tactic requires patience,

then we all are mere fiddling Nero's watching Rome burn

and we are all tragically guilty, responsible and accountable for the tears

... because we had it in our power to stop the carnage and refused to do so

... because politicians and spinners

glorying in and playing with their newly won power

led us to believe there was a better way while telling us to keep fiddling."

Thank you Arthur. Thank you Sergeant Dougherty.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue

Baskin and Robbins Comes to Washington

Baskin and Robbins is coming to town. Unfortunately they will only be selling Rocky Road.

Last night there was a Democratic social hour on one of the commercial media networks that involved the two REMAINING Democratic candidates. It seems like only last month that there were seven Democratic candidates for President. Wait! It WAS only last month that there were seven candidates! WTF???!!! Is it possible that, with only four states having participated in an “official” caucus or primary that one of the two remaining candidates has already secured enough delegates to have the nomination within reach? Let’s look (Needed to secure the nomination: 2025)

CNN DELEGATE COUNT (actual vote counts only):

Clinton: 49

Edwards: 26

Obama: 63

CNN DELEGATE COUNT (including Super Delegates):

Clinton: 232

Edwards: 62

Obama: 158

Hmmm sure doesn’t seem like anybody has a lock on the nomination yet does it? So why drop out this early in the process? Can you say “SHOW ME THE MONEY!”? In years past candidates have had time between January and June to visit a couple of states each week, meet more voters and raise more money to help get their message out. However, thanks in great part to the growing American attitude of “I want it all and I want it now,” and fed by the commercial media’s desire to “move the story”; by February 5th over half of the states will have held their caucus or primary - with 22 states holding events on that one day! The impact of this condensed calendar on good candidates who are not “sponsored” by some big money interest or another is that they cannot effectively compete for the voter’s attention and are forced to drop out of the race as early as the votes can be counted in just one state.

And so, before I wake up on Washington State’s Caucus Day, Saturday, February 9th, I am left with a choice between a US Senator who voted for the invasion and the continuing occupation of Iraq and a US Senator who spoke out in opposition to the invasion of Iraq (when he knew he would not be saddled with a pesky vote) but, since his election, has voted for every dollar requested to continue the ongoing occupation of that country. My choice is between two US Senators who haven’t met a “Free Trade” deal that they didn’t like. My choice is between two US Senators who voted to build a fence between the United States and Mexico. My choice is between two US Senators who were not present to cast their vote for or against recent FISA legislation or the confirmation of Michael Mukasey as US Attorney General (who couldn’t say if waterboarding is torture). My choice is between a US Senator who voted FOR the Kyl-LIEbeman amendment declaring Iran to be a terrorist state or a US Senator who didn’t even show up for the vote (a problem that seems to have preceded his days in the US Senate.)

And so, because my “choice” is NO CHOICE I will be voting accordingly.

Peace,
Chad (The Left) Shue