Sunday, July 17, 2005

Where is Joseph Wilson mentioned in the 9/11 commission report?

I searched the PDF file and got 2 references to Wilson: Wilson Lowery and Thomas Wilson. Meanwhile Mehlman spins and dances and side-steps the facts. He even referenced the 9-11 Commission report noting it stated that Ambassador Wilson was sent by his wife to Niger. I looked but could not find Wilson's name anywhere. Go look for yourself the 9-11 Report and use the search tool. You won't find Wilson in that report.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Prevaricators R Us, Scottie McClelland...

See the press gaggle question Scottie boy and watch him squirm.
link to video
Gosh is the sky blue today although yesterday you said it was red? When is the truth the truth, and when is a lie a lie? And for heavens sake, what woke up the Washington media? They came out of their collective comas, not because Bush lied to the American people, but because McClelland lied to them. What skewed priorities!

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Edgware Road attack in the heart of Arab London

AN ATTACK ON ARAB LONDON

. News reports are in about the location of the Tube bombs, and the stations picked for the horrific rush-hour assaults are especially chilling. These attacks were not just attacks on our closest ally, but on the very idea of Arab and Muslim integration into the West. Among the targets in the worst attack on London since World War II was the Edgware Road station, located in the heart of wealthy, assimilated Arab London. Middle Easterners of a variety of religions and South Asian Muslims are a substantial minority of the population in London, and the Edgware Road area is the pre-eminent Arab neighborhood in the city, with a fantastic variety of Lebanese coffee shops, Saudi grocery stores, and Persian restaurants. Some even call it "Little Lebanon," though the residents and shop clients come from all over the Middle East and North Africa, and the area especially attracts a young, hip crowd that compares it to Amman or Dubai. Edgware Road is Arab London's main street.
Though we have no idea yet whether the stations or train lines that were bombed were specifically targeted, it's hard to imagine that whatever terrorist organization or cell was behind the attacks failed to consider the symbolic power of an attack on Edgware Road.

Furthermore, the timing of the attacks and their location along the arc of the Metropolitan and Circle lines spreading along in time and space from East London -- where 60 percent of London Muslims reside -- suggests a specific intention with regard to targets. After all, the Circle line can just as easily take riders to Westminster's collection of government buildings as to Edgware Road. And Al-Qaeda has a history of engaging in symbolically significant attacks against financial centers, banks, military installations, and government buildings. Why not against Arab allies of the West, as well?

The New York Times is now reporting that the other underground bombs appear to have detonated close to the Liverpool and King's Cross stations, which are transportation hubs connecting overland trains to the underground. But Edgware Road is not a hub in the same way.

In recent months we've seen Islamic jihadists increasingly going after targets in the Arab and Muslim world who have allied themselves with the west. The victims of the bombing attacks and terrorist incidents in Iraq are overwhelmingly Arab Muslims. Al-Qaeda in Iraq has just claimed that it killed the Egyptian envoy to Iraq, after condemning him as "the ambassador of the infidels." When the casualty count is in, I suspect some fraction of the victims of today's henious attacks will be Arab or Muslim, as well.

--Garance Franke-Ruta

Posted at 03:50 PM

Right wing on London bombing

If this does not make your blood boil! Idiots, morons, right wing scare mongers all. Do they not realize that aid to Africa and other developing nations is a key to preventing terrorism? Debt relief gives a country the opportunity to provide a free education to children, something now being done in Medrassas, the breeding ground of the newest jihadists. People with jobs, food and a positive future are much less likely to be terrorists. And, terrorists are made, not born.

From mediamatters.org: Fox News' Brian Kilmeade: London terror attack near G8 summit "works to ... Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together" »
"And he [British Prime Minister Tony Blair] made the statement, clearly shaken, but clearly determined. This is his second address in the last hour. First to the people of London, and now at the G8 summit, where their topic Number 1 --believe it or not-- was global warming, the second was African aid. And that was the first time since 9-11 when they should know, and they do know now, that terrorism should be Number 1. But it's important for them all to be together. I think that works to our advantage, in the Western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened."

Monday, July 04, 2005

Not Dominion, But Liberty

Reflection on this Independence Day, from The Nation
...America was founded in opposition to empire. The Declaration of Independence was a manifesto against colonialism. And the founding generations abhorred imperialism.

Their opposition to empire was not merely rooted in their own bitter experience. It was, as well, rooted in a faith that American freedoms and democracy would suffer in the nation embarked upon a career of empire.

So, while Bush suggests that other lands must be occupied to preserve liberty at home, the patriots of our time recall will do well to recall words spoken on another July 4. ..on Independence Day, 1821, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams appeared before the US House of Representatives:

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.

She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

July1 Press Conference, soldiers getting all they need

An excerpt, McClellan responding to reporters:

"The President was honored to meet with the wounded and their families. They are courageous and brave souls. And it's a moving experience to see the spirit that some of the wounded have. It's an amazing spirit. I mean, there was one individual, I remember, who had lost one of his legs and he struggled to stand up so he could stand at attention and salute the President. There was another who was laying in his bed and had both his left arm and right arm, I think he'd had some sort of surgery and they were both wrapped up past their elbows. And the soldier did everything he could just to raise his right arm all the way up to his head, in full salute to the President. The President looked at him and said, "You got it. You got it." And their spirit and bravery is just amazing to see.

The President asked them if they're getting everything they need, and asked their family members if they're getting everything they need. He talks about how proud he is of them and how honored he is to see them. And --

Q He's a very emotional man. He has cried before. Did you see any tears well up, or did you see tears running down today?"

Ok so Bush asked if they were getting everything they needed...the reporter never got McClellan to expand on that...a big missed opportunity. These guys at Walter Reed may be getting everything they need, but what happens when they are discharged from the military? Then they have to wait in line for a VA appt. The VA with funding cuts, the VA that has lost many facilities. Do you know how far a Veteran has to travel to VA care in some areas? In Texas, it's far.

VA Medical Centers: Amarillo, Big Spring,Bonham,Dallas, Houston, Marlin, San Antonio, Temple.

VA Outpatient Clinics: Austin, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Fort Worth, Laredo, Lufkin, Lubbock, McAllen, San Antonio, Victoria

Community based clinics: Abilene, Aledo, San Diego, Beeville, Bridgeport, Brownsville, Brownwood, College Station, Childress, Denton, Fort Stockton, Galveston, Greenville, Harlingen, San Diego, Longview, Marlin, Odessa, Palestine,
Paris, San Angelo,(closed for remodeling),Stamford, Stratford, Texarkana, Arkansas, Texas City, Tyler, Waxahachie, Wichita Falls. Some of these clinics are only open 3 days per week.

Now, according to the VA, "The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are the most sustained combat operations since the Vietnam War. A wealth of research has shown convincingly that the frequency and intensity of exposure to combat experiences is strongly associated with the risk of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; APA, 1994) and related impairment (Kaylor, King, & King, 1987). As a result, there is good reason to be more concerned about the long-term mental health toll associated with these new wars" article link

So, do our soldiers and their families really have everything they need? Is it really within reach of every veteran? Sure if you can afford a good car and time to wait, and wait and wait.

Friday, July 01, 2005

Protesters at the funeral of a soldier

What is the world coming to? I read this on my Texas Democratic Veterans email and I was totally apalled. There is absolutely no excuse for this behavior. Wonder how many of these hippocrites have support your troops magnets on their cars? Idiots.

Protesters To Disrupt Soldier's Funeral Mon Jun 27,12:19 PM ET

A Marblehead soldier who was killed in Afghanistan is scheduled to be laid to rest Monday, but a church group from Kansas is expected to try to disrupt the services and police are on alert for any problems.

NewsCenter 5's Gail Huff reported that Staff Sgt. Christoper Piper, 43, served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and was awarded a bronze star for his combat service. The Green Beret died when his convoy was bombed June 3 in Afghanistan and a right-wing Protestant Christian church group from Topeka, Kansas is planning to demonstrate at Piper's funeral services at the Old North Church. They claim U.S. soldiers like Piper are dying because the country is being punished for its tolerance of what they see as immoral behavior, such as homosexuality.

The group, from the Westboro Baptist Church, protested several weeks ago in Dracut and Lexington, Mass., carrying signs depicting homosexual sex, with slogans such as "Pope In Hell" and "God Hates Fags," and "God Hates The U.S." Police called in extra officers to handle the demonstrations.

"I had 30 motor units, I had 12 to 14 mountain bike officers, plus I had a complement of 37 of my officers," Lexington Police Chief Kevin Richardson said.

There were no serious problems. Police plan to escort the Kansas group to the funeral services at 9:30 a.m., and will escort them away again. The police said they are protecting the group's free speech rights.