SubscribeKate Hoit wants you to know she really does not like ‘The Hurt Locker’
Kate Hoit of VoteVets.org and gikate.com has authored a poorly written blog post on The Huffington Post to share with the world (at least the liberal world) just what she thinks of the movie The Hurt Locker.
Spoiler alert, she doesn’t like it:
Military personnel everywhere should be celebrating: the war flick The Hurt Locker has been nominated for nine Oscar’s [sic]. American’s [sic] were so curious about the war and the soldiers who fight in it they bought 10 dollar movie tickets. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences thinks it’s worthy; finally soldiers of the Iraq war have been embraced. Problem is, it’s Hollywood’s version of the Iraq war and of the soldiers who fight it. And their version is inaccurate.
Speaking of things that are inaccurate, contrary to what Hoit says, The Hurt Locker isn’t a product of Hollywood. It’s an independent movie made outside the traditional Hollywood system for only $11 million. To say that The Hurt Locker is Hollywood’s version of Iraq is silly.
Hollywood had nothing to do with making this movie.
The movie was written by a man named Mark Boal. He was in Iraq working as a freelance reporter and was embedded with a real life Army bomb squad, the people tasked with the very important job of neutralizing IEDs, the improvised explosive devices, that Iraqi insurgents have used to kill so many of our service members in Iraq. He took things that he had experienced in Iraq and crafted them into the fictional stories seen in the movie. Though the movie is not a documentary about Army soldiers in Iraq or a training film for Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Army technicians, it is based on real-life experiences. It shouldn’t be dismissed because as Kate Hoit complains, the soldiers in the movie roll their sleeves up or don’t wear the proper type of camouflaged battle fatigues. Nit-picks such as these are just silly.
Perhaps Boal and Hoit just remember Iraq a little differently.
If you haven’t seen the movie, you really ought to. Of all the movies I watched from last year, it was one of the best.
Obama to send ‘about’ 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan
Look like President Obama is going to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Maybe.
From CBS News:
Tonight, after months of conferences with top advisors, President Obama has settled on a new strategy for Afghanistan. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the president will send a lot more troops and plans to keep a large force there, long term.
The president still has more meetings scheduled on Afghanistan, but informed sources tell CBS News he intends to give Gen. Stanley McChrystal most, if not all, the additional troops he is asking for.
McChrystal wanted 40,000 and the president has tentatively decided to send four combat brigades plus thousands more support troops. A senior officer says “that’s close to what [McChrystal] asked for.” All the president’s military advisers have recommended sending more troops.
So when does Obama become more of a “war president” than George W. Bush? Bush enjoyed refering to himself as the war president, but Obama already has more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan than Bush did, even during the Iraq surge.
I’m not sure what the point in this is. More troops to Afghanistan isn’t going to fix anything. At the end of the day, Afghanistan will always be Afghanistan. It’s an awful place filled with awful people. Invading Afghanistan may have made sense ten years ago, back when al Qaeda used it as a training base and before the terror attacks on 9-11. Now, al Qaeda is in neighboring Pakistan.
I just don’t see the point. Military force should only be used when there is a clear, obtainable military objective to be archived. Is that possible when it comes to Afghanistan?
I think not.
Iraqi policemen get a good talking to
Too bad this Army officer doesn’t speak Arabic and must rely on his interpreter to translate what he is saying to this group of Iraqi policemen.
Fair warning, if salty language is something that offends you, perhaps watching this video is not something you should do.
That Iraqi shoe guy
Evidently Muntadar al-Zaidi, the reporter that threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, is being looked upon as a hero in Iraq. Thousands of Iraqis are calling for his immediate release from Iraqi custody. His employer, Iraqi-owned TV station al-Baghdadiya, is calling for his release saying he was merely exercising his freedom of expression. By throwing his shoes at someone’s head.
I am so surprised.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that I don’t have much love for George W. Bush. I honestly think he will go down as one of the worst presidents in American history. That doesn’t mean I like the idea of a foreign reporter throwing his shoes at Bush’s head. I think this might be the very first time that I’ve ever felt defensive for George W. Bush and for that I am quite perturbed at Mr. al-Zaidi.
How dare he do something that makes me feel for George W. Bush.
Bush has shoes thrown at him in Iraq
President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq and he got not one, but two shoes checked at his head for his trouble. He was on stage with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki when an Iraqi reporter, Muntadar al-Zeidi, working for Al-Baghdadia television, an Iraqi-owned station based in Egypt took off his shoes and threw them at Bush.
I’m guessing this is not just another way of being greeted as liberators.
Palin: “I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq”
Andrew Sullivan found an interview in Alaska Business Monthly with Sarah Palin where she admitted that she hasn’t really focused on the Iraq war.
Alaska Business Monthly: We’ve lost a lot of Alaska’s military members to the war in Iraq. How do you feel about sending more troops into battle, as President Bush is suggesting?
Palin: I’ve been so focused on state government, I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe. Every life lost is such a tragedy. I am very, very proud of the troops we have in Alaska, those fighting overseas for our freedoms, and the families here who are making so many sacrifices.
Worse then being for or against the “surge” in Iraq is to not even know about it. That’s what it sounds like with Palin. Who would have ever thought John McCain would choose a running-mate that didn’t know anything about the surge?
She wants to know that there is an exit plan in place? I might be wrong, but it seems to me that Palin’s desire for an exit plan is 180 degrees out-of-phase with McCain’s strategy for Iraq.
By admitting that she has not really focused much on the war in Iraq, she is all but nullifying the claim to fame because as the governor of Alaska she is commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard.
Why Bush does not play golf
If you’ve been out on the links and haven’t seen George W. Bush whacking the ball, it’s not because you and him always have different tee times. It’s because he has decided to acknowledge the sacrifice made by U.S. service members in Iraq by not playing golf anymore.
From Politico:
“I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization’s high commissioner for human rights.
“I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man’s life,” he said. “I was playing golf — I think I was in central Texas — and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, ‘It’s just not worth it anymore to do.’”
What I find interesting is that he didn’t decide to stop playing golf because of the death of an American service member, but because of the death of a United Nations official. Curious.
I wonder, has he ever thought of acknowledging their sacrifice by stop sending them to Iraq?
I stopped playing golf years ago. Not because I wanted to acknowledge anyone’s sacrifice. I quit because I realized golf really sucks.
Protesting against the Iraq war is a waste of time
I’m not really sure why people are still protesting the Iraq war. I think it clear that this point the Bush administration doesn’t care what we think about their war. When Vice-President Dick Cheney was asked about recent polls that show two-thirds of Americans say the fight in Iraq is not worth it, Cheney replied, “So?”
They don’t care.
I think protesting a group or an entity that incorporates constant public polling — such as the Bush administration — is a complete waste of time. They already know what people think.
Iraq war will cost United States $12 billion per month
The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.
This helps put some prospective on John McCain’s view that we will be in Iraq for the next 100 years. It’s starting to add up to some real money.
The book is called The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict and it’s on Amazon for $15.61.
If only Saddam didn’t have all those weapons of mass descruction
If only Saddam Hussein didn’t have all those weapons of mass destruction mothers wouldn’t have to leave their young children for months at a time and go to Iraq. Terri Gurrola comes back from Iraq and embraces her daughter. Gurrola served in Iraq for 7 months.
Iraq to expel Blackwater mercenaries
This from the Associated Press (Via Yahoo! News):
The Iraqi government Monday ordered Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to stop work and leave the country after the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy.
The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection.
The presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country.
The reason many Iraqis consider them to be a mercenary force is because that is precisely what they are. They are mercenaries. They are professional soldiers that perform military work for money. They are often referred to as “contractors” because it sounds better.
Contractors usually need a contractors license. Mercs don’t.
Alan Greenspan admits the Iraq invasion was about the oil
Not that this was news to me. Of course it was about the oil. It was always about the oil. This from
AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.
However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,” he says.
Greenspan, 81, is understood to believe that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the security of oil supplies in the Middle East.
Britain and America have always insisted the war had nothing to do with oil. Bush said the aim was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction and end Saddam’s support for terrorism.
Not only was the invasion about the oil, but the continued occupation of Iraq is about making money for Halliburton and KBR. Money from the U.S. taxpayer. Where are all of the fiscal conservatives when you need them?
A recent congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing almost $2 billion a week. It might be different if we were actually getting something of value for our money. The middle-east is more unstable then before. There are more Islamic fundamentalist terrorists now then there was before Bush invaded Iraq. One of the goals in The War On Terror™ should be to make the number of terrorists go down, not go up.
I’m old enough to remember when being a Republican was all about fiscal responsibility. That seems like a long time ago.
The al-Qaida in Iraq is not the real al-Qaida
Our illustrious president spoke last night on the television about his most favorite subject – the Iraq war. From his speech:
Anbar province is a good example of how our strategy is working. Last year, an intelligence report concluded that Anbar had been lost to al-Qaida. Some cited this report as evidence that we had failed in Iraq and should cut our losses and pull out. Instead, we kept the pressure on the terrorists. The local people were suffering under the Taliban-like rule of al-Qaida, and they were sick of it. So they asked us for help.
The al-Qaida he should be worried about is the al-Qaida in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. That is the real al-Qaida. That is the al-Qaida that attacked the United States on 9-11. The al-Qaida in Iraq? They just call themselves that to give themselves some cheap terrorist credibility. Everyone knows that al-Qaida attacked the United States six years ago and Bush has failed to bring them to justice. Bush has failed to make them pay. Bush and his inability to make al-Qaida pay turn them into the terrorist organization that every two bit terrorist wants to be apart of.
Just because they call themselves al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida. The al-Qaida in Iraq is as much al-Qaida as American skinheads are Nazis. Sure, they may have a photo of Hitler in their mom’s basement, but that doesn’t mean they are the same bunch that fought Patton’s Third Army in the Battle of the Bulge. Those were real Nazis. They weren’t pretending to be Nazis.
Just because someone identifies themselves as a Nazi on their MySpace page doesn’t mean they are a Nazi. Just because someone in Iraq says they are al-Qaida doesn’t make them al-Qaida.
In Harms Way
I was going through some old pictures of my Air Force days and found this. It’s of aircraft B-52G 0248. It’s probably too small to see, but the nose art shows that this aircraft had the nickname of “In Harms Way”. There is a story that goes along with the nickname. Then again, don’t most nicknames have a story? This is the B-52G that was accidentally hit with an AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile fired from an F-4G Wild Weasel on the first night of operation DESERT STORM. The B-52’s tail gunner mistakenly locked his anti-aircraft radar on the Wild Weasel thinking it was an Iraqi MIG. The Wild Weasel immediately detected the B-52 tail gun radar locking on to him and misidentified the radar signature as that of an Iraqi anti aircraft artillery (AAA) site. The Wild Weasel crew fired a HARM missile and watched in horror as it headed not towards the non existent Iraqi AAA site, but to the very B-52 is was trying to protect.
Luckily the missile failed to hit the plane, but instead detonated directly behind the bomber. These missiles are designed to hit nonmoving ground targets, not moving airplanes. The resulting shrapnel and missile debris caused an excessive amount of damage to the tail section of the B-52. It ripped off everything aft of the vertical stabilizer. This included much of the tail gun system, the aft electronic warfare suite, and the drag chute. The B-52 was able to land safely on the island of Diego Garcia at Jedda, Saudi Arabia.
It was then sent from Diego Garcia to Anderson Air Force Base on Guam for repair. I was in on the repair of this aircraft shortly after is was damaged. During the first Iraqi war, I was assigned to a squadron that was responsible for repairing B-52’s being used in Iraq being flown from Diego Garcia. I spent four months back on Guam. I had been stationed there prior for almost three years. I could have been sent to places far worse then Guam. I could have gone to Saudi. I could have spent four months on Diego Garcia. I spent two weeks there once and that was long enough for me. As it was, I loved Guam.
Why can’t Cindy Sheehan keep her word?
Cindy Sheehan is back. Her retirement evidently is over after only five short weeks. When she announced her “retirement” from the anti-war movement, she chose to make the announcement on Memorial Day. She chose to announce that she was resuming her duties as self-described Peace Mom on Independence Day. This lady certainly likes to get dramatic on patriotic holidays.
I’m only surprised she was able to keep herself out of the limelight this long. Oh well. Maybe she should have just announced last Memorial Day that she was taking a vacation.
Dear Roscoe Bartlett
Roscoe Bartlett
2412 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C.
20515-2006
Dear Roscoe Bartlett –
I’m writing this letter in regards to comments you made shortly after your historic vote last March against the continued funding of our troops in Iraq.
You stated that you were against a time table for withdrawal. Wouldn’t you agree that our military has already accomplished everything they were asked to do? They have:
- Ensured that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction.
- Removed Saddam Hussein from power.
- Allowed Iraq to become a democratic and free country.
Our troops have successfully done their job. Now it’s time for you to do yours. You need to work towards bringing them home. Their mission has been accomplished.
You stated back in March that another reason you voted NO was because one-fifth of the spending bill was pork. Expenditures unrelated to our national defense. As though the continued occupation of Iraq has anything to do with the defense of our nation. Now that the Democrats have caved and removed any type of timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, voting YES on the supplemental spending bill should be fairly easy for you to do – unless you really are a fiscal conservative. All that pork is still firmly attached to the bill.
Rick Rottman
Hagerstown, Maryland
Rudy Giuliani is an idiot
Rudy Giuliani should have been spending less time flying around the country giving paid speeches on the 9-11 terror attacks and spent more time actually learning more about them. Including the reasons we were attacked.
This following is a partial transcript from the recent Republican South Carolina Presidential debate.
REP. PAUL: No. Non-intervention was a major contributing factor. Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we’ve been over there; we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East — I think Reagan was right.
We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics. So right now we’re building an embassy in Iraq that’s bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. We need to look at what we do from the perspective of what would happen if somebody else did it to us. (Applause.)
MR. GOLER: Are you suggesting we invited the 9/11 attack, sir?
REP. PAUL: I’m suggesting that we listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it, and they are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, “I am glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.” They have already now since that time — (bell rings) — have killed 3,400 of our men, and I don’t think it was necessary.
MR. GIULIANI: Wendell, may I comment on that? That’s really an extraordinary statement. That’s an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. (Applause, cheers.)
And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn’t really mean that. (Applause.)
MR. GOLER: Congressman?
REP. PAUL: I believe very sincerely that the CIA is correct when they teach and talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in 1953 and installed the shah, yes, there was blowback. A reaction to that was the taking of our hostages and that persists. And if we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. If we think that we can do what we want around the world and not incite hatred, then we have a problem.
They don’t come here to attack us because we’re rich and we’re free. They come and they attack us because we’re over there. I mean, what would we think if we were — if other foreign countries were doing that to us?
Congressmen Ron Paul is correct. Bin Laden didn’t attack the United States because of our love of apple pie and baseball. He didn’t attack us because we love Jesus.
Rudy Giuliani has made a lot of money off of 9-11. You would think he would try to learn a thing or two about it. Instead he comes off looking like an idiot.
Congressman Ron Paul was right. The so-called “America’s Mayor” was wrong.
Dick Cheney once again pretends that Saddam Hussein had connections to al-Qaida
Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his kooky assertions that al-Qaida was somehow linked to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq before the United States invaded:
Cheney contended that al-Qaida was operating in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion led by U.S. forces and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida. Others in al-Qaida planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the al-Qaida operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June,” Cheney told radio host Rush Limbaugh during an interview. “As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.
Granted, he said these things on The Rush Limbaugh Show. It’s not like you normally find a whole lot of truth on that particular radio program. It’s just that even Cheney has to realize that most people know he is lying when he says stuff like this. Even people that listen to Rush Limbaugh or watch Fox News.
What’s especially ironic about Cheney saying this yesterday was that yesterday the Pentagon released a recently declassified report that disputes the assertion that Saddam was in cahoots with al-Qaida.
Dick Cheney is such a silly goose. If he wasn’t such a warm and lovable soul, he would certainly face criticism from people who value the truth. People that are into facts. He tends to get a free pass on not telling the truth because he is so damn likable.
Iraq didn’t have an al-Qaida problem until George W. Bush invaded.
George Bush criticizes Congress of going on “vacation”
George Bush criticized Congress as being “irresponsible” for going on spring break without first approving money for Iraq with no strings attached. They gave him all the money he asked for. The problem is that they tied the $120 billion dollars in military spending to a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
“They need to come off their vacation, get a bill to my desk, and if it’s got strings and mandates and withdrawals and pork I’ll veto it,” the president said. “And then we can get down to the business of getting this thing done.”
I never thought I would hear George Bush criticize anyone else for taking a vacation. He’s spent so much time on vacation that he actually set a presidential record. Hearing him criticize anyone about taking a vacation is just hypocritically weird.
What’s he going to do next, criticize someone for using a family connection to get out of going to Vietnam?
Update (5 April) : Unbeknown to me at the time when I first wrote this post, Bush left Washington shortly after criticizing Congress. He himself went on vacation to his ranch in Texas. Go figure.
The Democrats have gone and pissed off the War President
Well, they did it. The Democrats in the House agreed to give Bush $124 BILLION, but they put restrictions on it:
The $124 billion House legislation would pay for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year but would require that combat troops come home from Iraq before September 2008 — or earlier if the Iraqi government did not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress.
Bush and the other neo-cons need to learn that the American people will not sit still for a never ending occupation of Iraq. The neo-cons first tried to base American troops permanently in Saudi Arabia. We all saw how that worked out. They now want to make Iraq a permanent base of occupation to facilitate control over the Middle East.
To the neo-cons, it’s not about not leaving Iraq until “the job is done”. Whatever that means. It’s about staying in Iraq forever. It’s about having a permanent presence in the Middle East.
I doubt Bush would have invaded Iraq if it meant American forces would one day have to actually leave.
Wounded soldiers at Walter Reed ordered not to speak to reporters
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit have been told that they must awake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m.
Also on an unrelated matter, they are not to speak to the media.
Instead of telling a reporter how bad their living conditions are, they are to use the chain of command.
For those of you who have not been in the military, daily room inspections are used as a form of punishment. The military may not be able to outright punish a service member for speaking to a reporter, but they certainly can and will punish you for having dust on a light bulb.
Evidence that Bush does not care about the troops
Larry Johnson of No Quarter links to an article in the Washington Post that details conditions troops being treated at Walter Reed Army Center as out-patients. It’s pretty disgusting.
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
Call me a liberal, but I don’t think our troops injured in Iraq should ever have to live someplace where phrases such as “mouse droppings” or “black mold” are used to describe the living conditions.
At a bare minimum, American service members injured in Iraq receiving out-patient medical treatment should be treated no worse then the Bush twins. If Jenna and Barbara were receiving medical treatment on an out-patient basis. Not that they would ever be caught serving their country. They might be caught using fake ID’s so they can illegally drink, but you won’t ever see these two doing anything even remotely associated with patriotism. Even the fake kind that is popular with so many Republicans.
This is one of the results of waging war on the cheap.
The Murtha plan
U.S. Rep. John Murtha has come up with a creative way of putting a stop to Bush’s war in Iraq. It involves placing conditions on how Bush can spend the $93.4 billion in new combat funds.
- The Pentagon would have to certify that troops being sent to Iraq are “fully combat ready” with training and equipment.
- Troops must have at least one year at home between combat deployments.
- Combat assignments could not be extended beyond one year.
- A “stop-loss” program (back door draft) forcing soldiers to extend their enlistment periods would be prohibited.
It’s a good idea. Instead of cutting off the funds, it places common sense conditions on how those funds are to be spent. The conditions are things that really cannot be argued against.
Unless of course Republicans want to argue that troops should be sent to Iraq that are not combat ready. That troops should be sent to Iraq that have not been home for at least one year. That troops should be forced to continue serving in the military even after their enlistments are over. That combat tours should last longer then a year.
How are the chickenhawks going to argue for any of that?
So far, they don’t seem to be arguing against the actual details of the plan. No, they are instead criticizing the end results of such a plan. It will be impossible to continue Bush’s war in Iraq with such conditions placed on the war’s financing. This plan may actually work. It may actually do some good. Where a non-binding resolution does nothing, this can actually bring an end to Bush’s perpetual war in Iraq.
House passes non-binding resolution on Iraq war
The final non-binding vote was a non-binding 246 to a non-binding 182. Seventeen Republicans actually voted for the non-binding resolution.
What a waste of time. What’s the point? To let Bush know that they don’t approve of his war? Couldn’t they just do what I do and write a blog post? This non-binding resolution doesn’t do anything. A non-binding resolution has as much teeth to it as a blog post.
It seems a shame though that they didn’t allow the non-voting members of the House to vote. Since it was non-binding, what’s the difference? The representatives from Puerto Rico, Washington DC, the Virgin Islands, and Guam are allowed to pretend to be actual congressmen. They are not allowed to actually vote. This non-binding Iraq war resolution sounds like it would have been right up their non-voting alley.
If they were allowed to vote.
I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton
I don’t care how much money she’s raised or how much money she’s raised for other politicians. I don’t care that her last name has a certain ring to it that hearkens back to a time when someone much more suited for the job of President sat in the Oval Office. More suited then the guy presently sitting there.
I won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton.
The simple reason I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton is because of her vote on Iraq. In October 2002 she voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action against Iraq. Big mistake. She has stated in the past that she wasn’t sorry for her vote. Now that she is running for President, she says that she wishes she had not voted the way she had, but she blames the Bush administration for false information about Iraq.
Frankly, I’m not impressed.
She and other elected leaders could have and should have used the power of their office to press the Bush administration into proving the case against Iraq. She now blames her vote on Iraq on Bush. She claims that it was Bush “who misled this country and this Congress“.
The problem is that she believed him.
Hillary Clinton asking to be my President is a lot like someone who was ripped off by one of those stupid Nigerian email banking scams asking to be my money manger. For a lie to work, it takes two people. The person telling the lie and the person believing the lie.
The fact is she failed to even consider that Bush was wrong when he claimed Iraq posed a threat. The fact that she wont even admit it was a mistake for voting the way she did is embarrassing. I think it says a lot about her character. She wont admit her mistakes. I’ve had enough of that particular character flaw in my President.
Also, I will never vote for anyone that wears a Yankee hat. Especially if they are not from New York. Hillary Clinton is from Chicago. She used to be a Cubs fan. I guess I could understand someone being a Yankee fan if they were raised that way from a very early age. If they were brainwashed into being a Yankee fan. With Hillary, that isn’t the case. If we were to elect Hilary to be President, who’s to say she wouldn’t wear that retched Yankees hat everywhere she goes?
Local Marine injured in Iraq
I realize it’s not as important as Anna Nicole Smith dying, but a local Marine serving in Iraq has been injured. This from the local newspaper, the Herald-Mail:
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dane Fonte of Smithsburg was injured Wednesday afternoon in Iraq when he was hit by a grenade on a rooftop, Fonte’s parents said Saturday. The 21-year-old Fonte is being treated at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Hospital for bone fractures around his right eye, which also received some retina damage.
That’s one word you don’t ever want associated with your retina. The word “damage”. My hopes and prayers go out to Dane and his family.
I tried looking online for more news about this attack, but I couldn’t find anything. The only results I got were for the before mentioned article in the local newspaper. I then tried to do a less structured search. Instead of searching for Dane Fonte, I searched for MARINE+INJURED+IRAQ+GRENADE. I got lots and lots of results. None of them were about Dane Fonte though. It seems there is no shortage of news articles about Marines being injured in Iraq with grenades. Just none about 21 year old Dane Fonte.
UPDATE – The Herald-Mail updated their report. Here is what was published in today’s eddition (11 February):
SMITHSBURG – U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dane Fonte was injured Wednesday afternoon in Iraq after a grenade exploded during an engagement in Anbar province, his parents said Saturday.
The incident happened while Fonte was on a rooftop during several hours of off-and-on fighting with insurgents, but he managed to avoid the brunt of the explosion, Jeff and Carlann Christopher said.
Fonte, 21, is being treated at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Hospital for bone fractures around his right eye, which also received some retina damage, according to his parents.
“That’s the major concern,” said Fonte’s mother, who added that wounds to her son’s leg and arm were sutured on Saturday.
Though his eye now is patched, Carlann Christopher said her son could detect some amount of light since he was flown from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a suspected staging area for insurgents fighting U.S. troops.
“There’s 10 fingers, there’s 10 toes, his personality is there,” she said in an interview from the hospital.
She said Fonte’s superior officer, Cpl. Joshua Pitcher, was not as fortunate, and now is “fighting for his life” after receiving more severe head trauma from the same device.
Jeff Christopher received a cell phone call about his son being taken to the hospital Thursday afternoon while he was at Lowe’s in Hagerstown.
He wasn’t told the extent of his son’s injuries, but left the store and immediately drove to Twigg Cycles in Hagerstown, where his wife works, and went to the hospital.
“We didn’t talk a whole lot,” Carlann Christopher said.
Her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, has traveled to Bethesda several times in the last few months with other members of the Hagerstown chapter of the U.S. Military Veterans Motorcycle Club. They also have traveled to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to support other military personnel injured in the line of duty.
While with their son, Carlann Christopher said Fonte’s sergeant, who lost his legs in October, was one of a number of people who have stopped by to visit him.
“He came in to see him walking on prosthetics,” she said.
“This place is a living miracle,” she said. “The outpouring of love … There’s nothing we could ever want for.”
“The nurses and doctors at Bethesda Naval have been the best,” her husband added.
Despite attempts by his father to deter him from joining the Marine Corps, Fonte enlisted immediately after graduating from Smithsburg High School in 2003, his mother said.
He was deployed to Iraq in September, and was scheduled to complete his term of service with the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment in August.
“He’s just worried about his guys still over there,” Jeff Christopher said. “That’s all he’s concerned about.”
Fonte’s younger sister, Casey, 18, said her brother was “out of it” when she first saw him Thursday.
On Friday, he was laughing and telling jokes, she said Saturday.
“He still has all of his body parts, thank God,” she said while cleaning her brother’s room at their parents’ house off Vodys Court in Smithsburg, where his Marine Corps unit’s colors fluttered in a chilly wind.
A standout football player and wrestler in his years in high school, Fonte’s mother anticipates a hearty welcome home from the community for her son, who she said has an infectious smile and personal drive to be the best.
“I think if Dane ran for mayor of Smithsburg, I’d think he’d win hands down,” she said.
Send white trash celebrities to Iraq
Anna Nicole Smith died. She was found “unresponsive” in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
This was huge news for some reason. I couldn’t believe how much the mainstream news media seemed to care about the death of Anna Nicole Smith. There were other things going on Thursday that were far more important and effected far more people then Anna Nicole Smith dying in an Indian casino hotel room.
Take Iraq for example. Almost every single day American service members are killed in Iraq. It seems to me that nobody even cares anymore. At least not the way they care about Anna Nicole Smith dying.
I think that is what bothers me the most about Bush’s war in Iraq. It’s not the flawed reasons and false justifications for invading Iraq. It’s not the colossal waste of money. Money we don’t really have. What bothers me the most is how little my fellow Americans seemingly care about the troops being sent over there.
Contrary to what you may have read on a magnetic yellow ribbon bumper sticker placed on the back of an SUV, Americans just don’t care about American solders dying in Iraq.
I realize just how little Americans care when I see the collective slobber fest over the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Frankly, I’m suprised she didn’t O.D. years ago. Like her son.
Maybe the answer to ending the war in Iraq is to draft white trash celebrities and send them to Iraq. Force them into the military and make them ride around Baghdad in an unarmored HUMVEE. Maybe then America will finally start to care what happens over there. Maybe if Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears were sent to Iraq, people might finally care what happens over there.
Maybe.
Bush is thinking of sending more troops to Iraq and Suzanne Somers’ mansion burned down
I was watching CNN this morning when I learned that there is yet again another fire raging forth in Malibu. So far, four mansions have been destroyed, including the home of Suzanne Somers.
Because of the Santa Ana winds and the geographical location of the hills surrounding Malibu, mansions along the beach in Malibu are constantly burning down. It’s not the first time a celebrity’s home was destroyed in Malibu and it wont be the last. I think it’s dumb to build a mansion someplace where so many of them have burned to the ground, but what do I know? It’s not like I was smart enough to invent the Thighmaster.
Watching CNN switch gears to the topic of sending more troops to Iraq made me realize that there is a parallel between the two stories. What does Bush sending more troops to Iraq have to do with Suzanne Somers and her home burning down?
Sending more troops to Iraq at this point would be like Suzanne Somers going out tomorrow and buying fire insurance .
For both, it’s too late. The time to send more troops to Iraq would have been at the time of the invasion. Before anarchy and chaos and upheaval were allowed to take root in Iraq. Before the looting and before the sectarian violence.
Now it’s simply too late.
If Suzanne Somers were ever going to buy fire insurance for her Malibu mansion, the time would have been before the fire destroyed her home. For her to now say that she is thinking of buying fire insurance would be ridiculous.
For George Bush to say now he is thinking of sending more troops to Iraq is equally ridiculous. Now it’s simply too late.
The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has now reached 3,000
I remember when the death toll in Iraq reached 1,000. The news made a big deal about it. As though 1,000 dead of a senseless war was a lot worse then 999 dead. This from the same AP article over on Yahoo:
A Pentagon report on Iraq said in December the conflict now is more a struggle between Sunni and Shiite armed groups “fighting for religious, political and economic influence,” with the insurgency and foreign terrorist campaigns “a backdrop.”
Sunni versus Shiite is another way of saying Iraqi versus Iraqi. There is a civil war going on in Iraq and American troops are stuck in the middle of it.
The sad thing about all this is that I don’t think the American people really care. Sure, they might put a non-permanent magnetic yellow ribbon on the back of their SUV, but I think the American public is basically disconnected from this war and it’s effects. We are constantly told that those in the military volunteered to be in the military. In a way, they wanted to go to Iraq, right?
Wrong. Just because somebody joined the U.S. military doesn’t mean they elected to throw their life away in some foreign civil war. Most join the military to learn some job skills or to help pay for college. Some join because they simply cannot find a job with good pay or benefits. Some actually join to defend the United States. Few join because they want to go to some oil rich foreign country and overthrow the government.
U.S. death toll in Iraq reaches 3,000 [Yahoo]
Saddam Hussein executed for war crimes
Holy smokes. They actually did it. Not that I’m surprised. I always knew once the invasion of Iraq started that, Saddam Hussein would end up dead.
Not that I feel even the smallest amount of sympathy for him. The guy was one of the biggest assholes of the 20th century. A century chalk full of raging assholes. Not only did he kill a massive amount of people over the years, he was an extreme troublemaker in a part of the world that didn’t need any more trouble. He waged an 8-year war against Iran. When saddled with huge debts because of the 8-year Iraq-Iran war, he decided to just invade Kuwait. This was one way of erasing the $14 billion he had borrowed from Kuwait to help finance the war with Iran. Being that the rest of the world enjoyed buying oil from Kuwait, many countries, including the United States had a huge problem with this. The United States put together a massive military invasion that we affectionately called OPERATION DESERT STORM.
It also resulted in a never ending, continuous American military presence in the region. Mainly in the country of Saudi Arabia. This was to ensure that Saddam Hussein didn’t continue to pose a threat to his oil rich neighbors.
The oil must flow.
The United States military presence also ensured Saddam didn’t kill anymore of his own people in the north and in the south of Iraq. Something that he was famous for doing.
One of the difficulties with permanently basing thousands of American troops in Saudi Arabia is that some Muslims had a real problem with this. Muslims that were real old-school serious about their Islamic faith. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of the Islamic faith. To some Muslims, basing American troops in the land of Mecca was more then a little sacrilegious. They felt as though it was desecrating the land of the Prophet Muhammad.
If only there was a way of knowing this. Remember, this was before the advent of Google or Ask Jeeves. It wasn’t as though somebody could have just “looked it up”.
One of these old-school serious Muslims to have a problem with American troops based in the birthplace of Islam was some really tall prick named Usama bin Laden.
In fact, he was so unhappy with American troops being in Saudi Arabia that bin Laden directed his people to commit the worst terror attack in history against the United States. Something we now refer to as 9-11.
Though it’s more then a little morbid, I have no problem waking up this morning to find out there is one less asshole in the world.
I guess it always does happen in threes. James Brown, Gerald Ford, and Saddam Hussein.
That’s not a 5-day work week
I don’t know what is more ridiculous. Republican congressmen that think a 5-day work week is too brutal or Democratic congressmen that think Monday night to Friday afternoon constitutes a work week. It seems to me that neither group has any understanding what the American worker does each and every week.
Not that it should be any surprise.
Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said.
With the hours they will be working, it’s a wonder they even qualify for medical benefits. It almost seems like they are working part-time. Sort of.
This from the Republican viewpoint:
“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”
Those mean Democrats. They want members of congress to actually work. They want to keep congressmen like Jack Kingston away from their families. I guess that’s why they refer to it as public service. As in they are serving their nation. Whining about time away from the wife and kids sounds pathetic.
They had no problem sending American service members off to Iraq. I know Representative Jack Kingston enjoys posing with American service members when they come back from Iraq. I bet a lot of them want to be home with their wife and kids too. Instead, they are in Iraq stuck in the middle of a civil war. Maybe next time congressmen Jack Kingston uses an American soldier back from Iraq as a prop in a photo, he can tell them about the hardship for working a 5-day work week.
UPDATE - While Representative Jack Kingston (R-Ga) was whining about having to actually work five whole days a week in Washington DC, 10 more American GI’s were killed in Iraq today.
5-day work week is a Capitol Hill culture shock [Washington Post]
It’s a war on peaceful Christmas!
The owner of this wreath and the house it’s adorning is being fined $25 dollars a day by her home owners association. The reason? Because the president of the home owner association believes this wreath is some sort of anti-Iraq war protest.
Or it’s a symbol of Satan.
As it turns out, both of these things are strictly forbidden by the home owners association. You would think the woman who owns this home and the peace/Satan wreath would know this since she used to be the president of the home owners association.
Congressman Rangle wants to draft Paris Hilton into the Army
Congressman Charles Rangel wants to bring back the draft:
Congressman Charles B. Rangel has long advocated returning to the draft, but his efforts drew little attention during the 12 years that House Democrats were in the minority. Starting in January, however, he will chair the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. Yesterday he said “you bet your life” he will renew his drive for a draft.
“I will be introducing that bill as soon as we start the new session,” Rangel said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He portrayed the draft, suspended since 1973, as a means of spreading military obligations more equitably and prompting political leaders to think twice before starting wars.
Spreading military obligations more equitably is code for making rich kids serve in the military. Oddly enough, not that many rich kids enlist to serve in the military. In fact, it’s not just rich kids that choose not to join the military. Kids that can go to college tend to go to college.
Does anyone really think it’s only kids that cannot go to college or find a decent job also happen to be the most patriotic of their generation? That they somehow love America more then other kids? I don’t think so.
Some believe that the fact the military is supposedly an all volunteer force has caused too many Americans to feel detached when it comes to sending our military into harm’s way. War sucks, but they all volunteered, right? Too many people actually think like that. It stops people from asking questions when our leaders rattle their sabers. When they want to invade another country.
Maybe more people would be reluctant to wage wars of choice if they actually had loved ones in the military. A son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, or a grandchild. At least I would like to think so.
If Elvis Presley can be drafted into the Army and sent overseas to drive a truck, so can Paris Hilton.
Amid Uproar Over War, Rangel Renews Call for Draft [Washington Post]
Saddam was found guilty!
What a surprise. Saddam was found guilty. I never saw this coming. I realize that the United States had total control over this trial. It’s just that everything else the Bush administration has tried to do in Iraq has been a total failure. Why should the show trial of Saddam be any different?
Saddam was charged with a crime that doesn’t even exist in the Iraqi law. That is why deposed leaders are tried in international courts governed by international law when they commit crimes against humanity. They are never tried in their own countries.
I’m sure things in Iraq will settle down now that their deposed leader has been sentenced to death. If not now, surely when they finally lynch Saddam from a tall tree. I wonder if senator George Allen still has that lynching rope he use to display in his office. I realize it was was only a racist prop. That doesn’t mean it cannot be used to help spread democracy.
I have not been this surprised with a verdict since OJ Simpson was found liable for the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown in civil court.
Iraqi tribunal sentences Saddam to hang [Yahoo News]
The all-volunteer military
President George W. Bush said something that I found interesting. He had this to say at a rally for one of his Republican stooges:
“The men and women who serve in our all-volunteer armed forces are plenty smart and are serving because they are patriots — and Senator Kerry owes them an apology.”
First he implied that our service members are in Iraq because they volunteered to go to Iraq. That’s simply not true. Just because they took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies doesn’t mean they volunteered to go off and make Iraq a democracy.
Bush also said that members in the military are serving because they are “patriots”. That is simply not true. Most join the military for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with patriotism. Whatever that word even means these days. Sometimes I think it has been turned into something to do with magnetic yellow ribbons and boycotting the Dixie Chicks. To listening to Sean Hannity and getting as many tax breaks as you possibly can.
A majority of the people that enlist in the military do so because of need. Some join for the job training. Some join for help paying for college. Some join for the medical benefits. Others join because they simply want a steady paycheck. Some join for all of these reasons.
If a kid has the means to go to college or to obtain a well paying job, he or she will be far less inclined to enlist in the military.
If anyone owes the troops an apology, it’s George W. Bush. He sent them to invade a country under false pretenses. Thousands of young men and women have been killed or permanently disfigured because of weapons of mass destruction that never existed. Whoops. The fact is that Bush sent our military to invade and occupy a country for false reasons. His huge whopping mistake he himself refuses to admit.
He has no business demanding Kerry apologize for anything. It’s embarrassing. I don’t know if he knows this, but John Kerry is not even running for re-election.
John Kerry proves that he still loves the taste of his own foot
John Kerry reminded us today just how he lost the 2004 presidental election to George W. Bush. He said the following while speaking to college kids at Pasadena City College:
“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
Republicans immediately made the leap that Kerry was saying that troops in Iraq are in Iraq because they are dumb. Because they did not try hard in school. Kerry responded by saying that he was not refering to the troops, but to Bush. The man who got us into Iraq under false pretenses and has no plan for getting us out.
Kerry was trying to say that Bush was an idiot.
I highly doubt the Kerry was trying to say that military service members are dumb. He is just an awful public speaker. He says things in a way that Republicans can easily pounce on and misconstrue. This is the man that said, “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”
If Kerry wants to point out that Bush is an idiot, he needs to clearly say so.
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