Day: August 23, 2006

Gov. Dean: Katrina Revealed Bush As ‘the Small Man behind the Curtain’

Jon Ponder

I think Katrina — the response to Katrina was effectively the end to the President’s presidency in the sense that people all of a sudden saw the small man behind the curtain.

People in America and throughout the rest of the world for a long time have believed that Americans can fix anything, that we’re better organized and better managed — managed better than anybody, and that if something really awful happens, call on the Americans.

And for the first time in our lifetime and in the world’s lifetime, since World War II — since before World War II — we suddenly saw an American president just descend into failure.

And I don’t think he’s ever recovered from that.

– DNC Chair Howard Dean on CNN today

Bush’s New War Lie: If U.S. Leaves Iraq, Terrorists Will Follow Us Home

Jon Ponder

Because terrorists can’t read maps.

If we redeploy out of Iraq, their civil war will follow us home, breaking out in Sunni on Shia violence in the streets of Fon du Lac and Boise.

In the run up to war in Iraq, the Bush Administration offered us a tangled web of spin: Iraq possessed WMD, Saddam was building a nuclear bomb, the oil revenues in Iraq would pay for the war, we would cakewalk into Baghdad as liberators.

At his news conference yesterday, Pres. Bush unveiled the latest lie — this one intended to convince the public that the U.S. must stay in Iraq, despite the cost in blood and treasure.

This latest uber-spin is a doozy: If we leave Iraq now, the president says, the terrorists will follow us home. Like most spin from the Bush White House, it sounds reasonable on the surface. The problem, of course, is that it isn’t factual.

The bloodshed in Iraq today is not being perpetrated by “terrorists.” Almost all the violence comes from Iraqi Sunnis trying to kill Iraqi Shi’ites. By definition, it is a civil war. Attacks by non-Iraqi terrorist groups like al Qaeda are all but nil.

Here is the president in full peroration yesterday, floating the new lie:

Now, if you say, are you going to change your strategic objective, it means you’re leaving before the mission is complete. And we’re not going to leave before the mission is complete. I agree with General Abizaid: We leave before the mission is done, the terrorists will follow us here.

And:

And there’s a fundamental difference between many of the Democrats and my party, and that is, they want to leave before the job is completed in Iraq. And again, I repeat, these are decent people. They’re just as American as I am. I just happen to strongly disagree with them. And it’s very important for the American people to understand the consequences of leaving Iraq before the job is done.

This is a global war on terror. I repeat what our major general said — or leading general said in the region. He said, “If we withdraw before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here.” I strongly agree with that. And if you believe that the job of the federal government is to secure this country, it’s really important for you to understand that success in Iraq is part of securing the country.

To recap: If we redeploy out of Iraq, their civil war will follow us home, with Sunnis exploding car bombs to kill Shi’ites on the streets of Fon du Lac and Boise.

Indian Union: CIA is Converting Hindus to Christianity

Buck Banks

Conspiracy theology: According to WorldWide Religious News, the leader of a growing Hindu nationalist group is accusing the United States of mounting an effort to convert Indians to the Christian faith.

The U.S. government allocated $20 billion for the NGOs to work and convert people to Christianity.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [or RSS] chief K. S. Sudarshan yesterday alleged that the CIA of U.S.A. with the help of NGOs was indulging in religious conversions in India.

Delivering the special address at a symposium on “Empowerment of Hindu Intelligentsia,”… he claimed that the U.S. government had allocated $20 billion for the NGOs to work and convert people to Christianity.

“The CIA planned to establish one church in every post office area. The churches would be established walking distance and voice distance away,” he said.

He said the NGOs planned to set up schools, hospitals, etc., to veer the rural people away from their Hindu moorings.

He alleged that the missionaries were also misleading the tribals, with whom they worked, by saying that Aryans had invaded their land.

But wait, there’s more! Sudarshan also accused Muslims of trying to spread their religion by migrating to new areas, infiltration and jihad, and claimed Pakistan is building mosques and madrasas along the border with India to convert Hindus to Islam. Hmmm, wonder why he didn’t accuse the Jews of anything ….

Tom Cruise Can Always Run for Florida Senate

Trish

Links to the Church of Scientology might work out better for a candidate for the Florida Senate than they are for Tom Cruise.

State Rep. Frank Farkas, whose senate run is based on being term-limited out of the Florida House, is making an issue of the ties rival Kim Berfield has with the church, whose “spiritual headquarters” is Clearwater, Florida. He is mailing flyers to voters warning them of how Berfield is funding her campaign.

In May Gov. Jeb Bush apologized for calling Scientology “some weird little group.”

Farkas said he is not criticizing the church but revealing that a political committee with ties to Scientologists might spend big on Berfield’s behalf.

…The mailing states:

“Key leaders in the controversial Church of Scientology make up the advisory board of this group which also helps directly fund Ms. Berfield’s campaign. Ms. Berfield has a history of visiting and participating in church events and fundraisers, often praising their efforts, so expect them to return her many favors. They are counting on her as a key ally in their current ambitious expansion plans across Tampa Bay.”

Unlike in Hollywood, where Cruise was recently sacked by Paramount for allowing his religion to overshadow his acting, Scientology is gaining acceptance among its former Florida detractors.

Scientology has been a hot-button issue in Clearwater since late 1975 when the church arrived covertly and purchased a city landmark, the Fort Harrison Hotel. Two years later, church documents seized by the FBI revealed plans to “take control” of Clearwater and discredit its “enemies” – political leaders, local police, newspaper editors and reporters.

Strained relations between Scientology and the community began to thaw in recent years. A watershed moment occurred in 2002 at the church’s 75th anniversary party at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. The guest list was a virtual who’s who of local political, civic and business leaders. Since then, politicians have grown comfortable attending church events and taking Scientologists’ political donations.

And in May Gov. Jeb Bush apologized for calling Scientology “some weird little group.”

And as Jeb goes, so goes the Florida Republican party.

Farkas, a chiropractor by trade, would have greater credibility if he hadn’t been investigated last year for accepting gifts of travel and other favors from a gambling interest trying to set up shop in Florida. Farkas and three state senators were questioned about what amounted to money laundering after the funding was run through the state Republican Party’s treasury.

Across Florida, Republican voters are facing choices like these: a known sleezebag or someone who panders to Scientologists. Win or lose, it just makes me gladder I’m a Democrat.

British General: It’s ‘Sectarian Violence,’ Not ‘Civil War’ in Iraq

Buck Banks

Blame Iran: Sorry, Trish, I’ve been reading Defense Department press releases again. I just can’t stop myself.

They put out a doozy yesterday that featured British Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Fry, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq and the senior British military representative in Iraq. It seems that American media have grown wary of listening to U.S. military officials, so the DoD decided to foist a guy with a funny accent on them via satellite phone from his Baghdad headquarters. Fry collaborated by parroting a smorgasbord of drivel, inanities and lies, as well as bully-talking to Iran on Bushco’s behalf.

‘I think that we can see a very clear Iranian role in stoking up violence inside Iraq.’

Fry claimed that Iraq is experiencing some localized sectarian strife, but is not embroiled in a full-blown civil war as reported by some irresponsible news media: “In my judgment, we are not in a situation of civil war,” said Fry. He acknowledged a “very intense sectarian conflict” in an area that includes Baghdad and its environs and reaches 40 miles or so north to Baqubah.

Fry has a very narrow definition for “civil war”:

He said a collapse of central government and large-scale population migrations are hallmarks of civil wars. So Iraq is not in a civil war because the Iraqi government is intact and functioning, Fry said. Also, there’s no mass movement of Iraqis milling about the land or leaving the country, he added. Iraq’s elected leaders are in control and are busily addressing pressing national issues, he said.

Most of Iraq is stable, Fry pointed out, noting 14 of the country’s 18 provinces experience little or no violence. He also cited the Iraqi police takeover of security duties in Muthanna province at the end of July as another positive step. Japanese military engineers that had worked in that province have been sent home.

Now that last bit is just not true — the Japanese were not “sent home,” they left, as ordered by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi after a couple of them got their asses shot off.

Fry noted that a majority of Iraq’s citizens are Shiite, and were persecuted for years by Saddam Hussein’s pro-Sunni regime. Then, no doubt following orders from Downing Street and the White House, Fry tries again to link Al Qaeda to Iraq, blaming the group for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra, are charging that the global terror organization wants to start a Shiite-vs.-Sunni civil war to bring down Iraq’s democratically elected puppet government.

Joining forces with Al Qaeda to incite violence between Iraq’s Shiite and Sunni population said Fry, is the evil Shiite Iranian government. He claimed that Iran is sending money, weapons and personnel into Iraq to assist pro-Shiite insurgents.

“I think that we can see a very clear Iranian role in stoking up violence inside Iraq,” Fry said, citing continuing anti-Iraqi government rhetoric voiced by senior Iranian officials. Some anti-terrorist military operations in Iraq are aimed at interdicting Iranian-sourced weaponry and training cadre, he said.

Fry said statements from [Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials, who have vigorously denounced Iranian meddling in Iraqi affairs, encourage him. Such outspokenness by Iraqi officials demonstrates Iranians aren’t pulling the strings of a “puppet” Iraqi government, he said.

Yeah, it’s Bushco that’s pulling those strings, buddy, and don’t you forget it!

Fry said U.S., British and other coalition forces are providing stability until the new Iraqi government and its security forces achieve traction. And after the violence in Iraq subsides, there will “need to be a certain process of settlement as people find their level in political terms and economic terms, and indeed, in terms of just the social and cultural accommodation of living together,” Fry said.

I would argue that the insurgents are just trying to accelerate the process of people finding their level, and the sooner the U.S. is out of Iraq, the sooner that process will be complete.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

We are advocates for the abolition of war; we do not want war, but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun. When classes and states are eliminated there will be no more wars.

— Mao Zedong (1893-1976), Founder, Chinese Communist State

PA Sen: GOP’s Santorum Admits Helping Green Party in Order to Split Dem Vote

Jon Ponder

On “Hardball” Monday night, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) freely admitted — as we first reported on August 11 — that his Republican supporters are helping the Green Party candidate for the sole purpose of splitting the liberal vote in November in order to improve his own margins in his campaign for re-election:

[Hardball host CHRIS MATTHEWS: Senator Rick Santorum, you just said the enemy of my enemy is my friend. You and the Green Party of Pennsylvania. It would be helpful to you to have a large Green Party turnout to reduce the support for the Casey campaign.

Have you had any dealings or has your campaign had any dealings to get them on the ballot, to do anything to support anything for the Green Party of Pennsylvania, any role at all?

SANTORUM: Yes, absolutely. We have been absolutely up front about the fact that we want the Green Party on the ballot. We asked folks to circulate petitions for them. In fact, we even had folks who work for me and volunteer for me to go out and volunteer and work for them. We ask folks who would like to help them financially to go ahead and do it. I know members of my campaign did.

So, no, we‘ve been very up-front about the fact that I have an opponent in Bob Casey, Jr., who does not want to engage in a Senate race. He wants to engage in personal attacks and hide behind his father‘s name and not engage in any kind of substantive debate in this campaign.

And we have someone in Carl Romanelli, who‘s the Green Party candidate, who‘s at least willing to debate me. My opponent has not agreed to debate me in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania yet. And we want someone who will.

Pentagon to Force 2,500 Marine Reserves Back to Iraq

Jon Ponder
“You can send Marines back for a third or fourth time, but you have to understand you are destroying their lives. It is not what they intended the all-volunteer military to look like.”
— Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

It appears that U.S. Marines are no longer supporting Pres. Bush’s failed policy in Iraq:

The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it would begin calling Marines back to active-duty service on an involuntary basis to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan — the latest sign that the American force is under strain and a signal that the military is having trouble persuading young veterans to return.

Marine commanders will call up formerly active-duty service members now classified as reservists because the Corps failed to find enough volunteers among its emergency reserve pool to fill jobs in combat zones. The call-ups will begin in several months, summoning as many as 2,500 reservists at a time to serve for a year or more…

“You can send Marines back for a third or fourth time, but you have to understand you are destroying their lives,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “It is not what they intended the all-volunteer military to look like.”