TRUCE-TALKS COLLAPSE: NYTIMES : For the 2d time our puppet Dr.Allawi has backed down from agreements with Sadrites.

Some rival Shiite leaders want Sadr killed. Others warn that his followers would really riot if that happened. Sadrites have not disarmed.

 
THIS WARRIOR CREW: At the Republican convention, one might conclude that all the speakers had the noble war-record of McCain. But we know about Bush serving SOMEWHERE in Alabama; Cheney said he didn't choose the military as his career; Rumsfeld served between wars. If Guliani served in Vietnam, we would have heard about it.

And stalwart Bill Owens (Colorado Gov.) just insisted that an endorsement of the bloody Iraq fiasco be inserted into the platform. Bill made pro-war speeches during the Viet war, but used the unfair college deferment several times to avoid going there; then he fibbed about how he evaded service.

Bush started the damn war! He now admits it was based on a 'miscalculation'. His asking for support as a 'war President' is like the boy who killed his parents, then demanded special consideration as an orphan.

 
'CAN'T WIN TERROR-WAR', said Bush. CBS/NEWS : This is true, but people were astonished to hear it from Bush. But then, think it out: An everlasting threat of conventional war would justify the Pentagon finishing its takeover of America.

However, this is NOT a conventional war. The Pentagon's bombs & missiles may intimidate nations, but are useless against individual terrorists.

We do have to stay on semi-permanent alert in protecting our Homeland from terrorists. Restricting illegal immigrants, inspecting ship-containers, protecting our 104 nuclear waste-ponds, accelerating nurse-training, bolstering our police-forces and firemen..all such precautions will have to be rooted in our society.

These precautions are expensive, so the Bushies are neglecting them shamelessly. Their idea of protecting our homeland is having the FBI snoop into the library books we're reading.
--------------
oops! This just in! Now Bush says we WILL win war vs. Terror.
GUARDIAN
This latest Bush flip-flop came because he feared the loss of his Convention image as INDOMITABLE (well-behind-the-lines) WARRIOR.

 
'MODERATE' REPUBLICANS vs. 'social-conservatives':
The rulers of the GOP are the wealthy opponents of the Welfare State, of being taxed. They are called the 'Moderates'.

They're not against Big Government; they don't mind that the Pentagon has one million civilian employees--as long as the costs are slapped onto the deficit, to be paid for later by someone else.

They're for Socialism--for the rich only.

On this platform, the GOP would get fewer votes than the Libertarians.
They have to persuade foolish unrich people to vote for them, to vote against their own pocketbooks.

So they have to ally with 'social conservatives': a strange melange of bigots and people of principle, who are so het up about 'values', about abortion and gays, that they will vote GOP on those issues only, heedless of their own self-interest. ----------------------
The folly of social conservatives trusting Republicans: GOP controls WhiteHouse, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court: BUT ABORTION IS STILL LEGAL!

 
'9/11 JUSTIFIED IRAQ WAR', said GOP speakers. However,
---Bush undermined our campaign against Taliban, binLaden, by early obsession about Iraq.

--Bush attacked the wrong country!
--The 9/11 bombers were mainly from Saudi Arabia, as were binLaden and many of his supporters. But the Saudi honchos have long been allied with the Bush family..so that connection was soft-pedaled. (A binLaden sister-in-law just published a book about the family, claiming that many of Osama's half-siblings still support him in SaudiArabia.)

--Bush misled us about Saddam's possible nuke program, which had no existence at all. Meanwhile, Iran has gone ahead on a real program to develop nukes . Now our Iraq fiasco means we have no troops available to invade Iran--and Iran's ability to inflame Iraq Shiites against our GIs deters us from bombing Iran. (An embargo on Iranian oil is absolutely impossible--the world NEEDS that oil!)

--at the same time, North Korea has probably developed actual nuclear weapons.

(It's NOT that Iran's or N.K's nukes threaten us or the world..their only significance is as 'second-strike deterrents', to persuade us not to attack them.
The point is that if Saddam had developed a few nukes, they wouldn't threaten the world either.)

If Bush was serious about invading to restrict nuclear proliferation, his whole campaign--WHICH KILLED TWO MORE GIs FRIDAY--was goofy.

 
FOUR YEARS OF 'SOFT PATCH': Consumer confidence sagged in August beyond economic journalists (usual) overconfident predictions.
Consumers spent more in July--from savings and borrowings, not from income.

Demand also sagged, so less production will be needed, so fewer new jobs will be added.

"This soft patch may extend beyond the summer," the sages warned.
REUTERS
The truth is that the 4 years of Bush-rule have been one long soft-patch economically.

 
SADR'S PEACE--WITH WEAPONS KEPT?
Sadr--under pressure from Sistani--calls his followers to turn to peaceful demonstrations to oust the Americans. The contentious issue now is whether these followers have to turn in their weapons. Sadrites say that EVERYONE in Iraq is armed; Americans say that 3 times Sadrites have cried 'Peace', then gone back on the attack. BostonGlobe

 
FIRM,GOOFY WILL: (letter to USATODAY)
Republicans brag (31Aug) that Bush's will 'has not wavered'--slogging on in the wrong direction. One is reminded of what was said of a Russian general who came to a bad end: "The weakness of his intellect was matched only by the firmness of his will." God help us all.

 
POLL SHOWS ALLWI POPULAR: A recent poll showed Sistani, of course,as most popular--but Allwi, our top puppet, was liked by 72%.
Of course the poll was one sponsored by U.S. Republican Party, so....
INDEPENDENT

 
REGISTERED DEMS LESS LIKELY TO VOTE?
Kerry leads by 1% among registered voters, but Bush leads by 3% among LIKELY voters. USATODAY

That means that much depends on Dem attempts to get their people to vote!

Bush's polls are improving. Pennsylvania was pro-Kerry; now they're tied there.

CNN/Rather, in Pennsylvania, registered voters favor Kerry; 'likely' voters favor Bush.

 
GOOD NEWS: Sadr has called on his followers to quit fighting the Americans. (He's weaved this way before, then weaved the other way).

BAD NEWS: Iraq has quit exporting oil from Southern facilities, after a large explosion Sunday in pipelines (following many other explosions) is said to require a week of repairs. MSN (Exports from Northern facilities stopped long ago.)

Another pipeline supplying Baghdad was blown up Monday. REUTERS

Another pipeline in North was blown up on 2 Sept. MSN/MONEY

 
REMIND THE PEOPLE OF 'BUSH'S WAR'! I go out on corners regularly to flash huge signs with big,vivid letters with bumper-sticker slogans, e.g., : BUSH'S WAR: WE'RE NOT WINNING! /or
BUSH'S WAR: 60 GIs KILLED IN AUGUST./
or BUSH'S WAR THERE MAKES US LESS SAFE HERE!

The point is not to let the pro-Bushy half of our population forget the nasty war he started. Communications people say that what counts is just to associate words; verbs don't really matter. So the biggest letters in the sign should say BUSH'S WAR .

Or a sign might say:
BUSH'S JOBLESS ARMY
CUTS YOUR PAY!

or UNDER BUSH, SALARIES SAG, BUT PROFITS SURGE!
SURPRISED?

This is a free form of advertising, contacting hundreds of people in cars at noon hour.
I have 2 signs, one on each side of a posterboard, so I can contact people stopped at the light nearest me, and then also inform the people on the cross-road (with VERY BRIEF signs that can be read from a distance: e.g.
WE CAN'T WIN BUSH'S WAR
or IRAQIS HATE US! WHY?

Drawback: you'd be risking your lungs (from car exhaust) for the cause.
Plus: every week I get more waves and supporting honks, and fewer fingers...even in right-wing Fort Collins!

 
SHELL-SHOCK ('Post-traumatic-stress-disorder'): in GulfWarI, about 2% of GIs were shell-shocked. In Vietnam, 30% came home with p/t/s/d; half of them are still not cured.

In this war, about one in five are coming home with p/t/s/d. SeattlePI.com

Besides that, it has been reported that of the wounded (6900 admitted by Pentagon--MANY RECENTLY!-- over 12,000 medically evacuated) one in five have physical brain damage.

 
SEIGE IN BASRA: Brit diplomats & officials have been under seige from Sadrites for 3 weeks; 'our' police are absolutely useless in trying to counter the guerillas, whose armory has included shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles.
TELEGRAPH (Time was when the Brits were relatively successful in getting along with the Shiites.)

 
GUARDIAN : Bush's polls have been improving; but Kerry still leads in key states: he's 'strongly ahead' in Pennsylvania, leads by 9 % in Ohio, and by 6% in Florida.

 
U.S. TROOPS 'BUG IN'. We bugged out of Vietnam, leaving our foes in control, abandoning our allies.

Now the Bushies are anxious to cut down U.S. deaths in Iraq until the November election; so, in Anbar Province (the 'Fallujah' region) they have let the Islamist guerillas take over, pulling our troops back into safe (but useless) fortresses. Our former allies have 'gone over to the guerillas', or been humiliated [a horror for Iraqis] or beheaded.

We're still bombing the region--but this seems to strengthen the guerillas, enraging ordinary people as civilians get slaughtered.

The Governor of Anbar Province resigned, weeping with repentance for having cooperated with the infidels, on a TV tape--widely circulated--weeping to save his 3 captured sons. So far our puppet regime in Baghdad has not been able to get anyone else to volunteer to replace him!
-----------
While the 'Sadrite' warriors have pulled out of Najaf, they often took their weapons with them, contrary to the agreement.
NYTIMES

It seems that, for now, the Bushies are 'bugging in'.
However, ABC/News reported that during August, more than FIFTY-NINE GIs have been killed..[God knows how many were maimed or wounded!] so the 'bug-in' strategy doesn't seem to be working.

That's OK; the U.S. media now usually buries GI deaths in the middle of a story; the 'red/Bushie' half of our population doesn't want to hear such bad news.. so Bush's election-chances aren't much damaged by the continuing pointless GI bloodshed.

 
UNEMPLOYED AND LOW PAY: (letter to NYTIMES): l. Uchitelle (29Aug) says well that what really counts is not whether the pay is lower that workers get in new jobs after being laid off (probably lower)--but whether the hugely larger group of workers in general are getting less pay than before: they certainly are.

One sentence he quotes gives the reason: "Employers have the upper hand in negotiations." NYTIMES

Workers don't dare complain about lower wages, worse working conditions, weakening benefits--because they know that many jobless people would love to take their jobs.

Few journalists connect present high rates of unemployment with dropping wages and salaries; few note the threat to typical workers from 'the reserve army of the unemployed.'

 
ANOTHER OIL-LINE BURNING in North Iraq on 1 Sept. REUTERS
--------------------------
PIPELINES SABOTAGED AGAIN: One Southern Iraq export-pipeline was blown up Saturday and another Sunday; this followed the blow-up of a cluster of pipelines earlier, which had cut exports by 50%. NYTIMES

Exports from the North have long been abandoned because of sabotage; but the Shiites in the South used to be fairly pro-occupation, so exports from the South were possible. Now our lunges at Sadr have enraged the Shiites also, and the export-money to finance our new puppet-regime is severely threatened.

We've hired mercenaries to protect these pipelines; pilotless drone-planes soar overhead to witness sabotage threats...all this cuts the profits from Iraqi oil-exports. But the pipelines keep blowing up.

 
WHO WON? Americans say Sistani told them that if Sadr didn't back down, he'd back our assault on the shrine. So Sadr did back down. But his troops got an amnesty, were allowed to melt into the crowd of pilgrims (without their weapons--but huge stores of weapons seem available everywhere!)
NYTIMES
We'll see if Sadr's popularity goes up or down now. No doubt Sistani is as powerful as ever. But he could drop dead at any time. What Shiite Ayatollah then would have the status to control Sadr?
---------
On Thursday 100 Iraqis were killed & 500 wounded in suburbs of Najaf.
In Najaf, even the moderate followers of Sistani are anti-American.
ChristSciMonitor

 
AL QAEDA IS TOO SMART & FLEXIBLE.
FinTimes :A UN report confirms what sensible observers have been saying:
The First World's attempts to 'decapitate' the terrorists by capturing big honchos, and its attempts to cut off their funding--both these approaches have failed.

The terrorists have converted top-down organization (say, waiting for orders from binLaden) to loose, independent cells of terrorists. They have this crucial asset: after our brutal bungling in Afghanistan and Iraq,there are now many thousands of potential terrorist volunteers, eager to die killing Americans, scattered all over the world. They don't need orders from 'headquarters'.

Also, their operations are run so cheaply they don't need to move millions of dollars vulnerably. (The train explosions in Madrid cost them only $10,000.)

What is obvious is that our reliance on Pentagon bombs and missiles, our ability to smash nations, is irrelevant to this unique new threat. But we will go on relying on this obsolete institution, shovelling to it hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars--after all, its real function is not to defend our Homeland, but to offer a slush fund to various billionaires.
----------
The best we can do to protect our Homeland from alQaeda attacks would be to ward off the most obvious possibilities (e.g., smuggling in a nuke in a Ship-container) and then healing and repairing after any attacks that get through (e.g., rushing through a nurse-training acceleration so germ-war attacks can be detected and responded to with drugs and quarantines.)

Such precautions would be very expensive. It's hard to imagine that we could afford them without cutting down on Pentagon money. So abandon hope.

 
BUSH NOW ADMITS 'MISCALCULATION': he says his team didn't expect to conquer Iraq so quickly, so they weren't prepared to deal with postwar Iraq. However,
--If they had taken several weeks to conquer Iraq, they still wouldn't have been ready to occupy the country competently. They entrusted the enterprise to the ignorant Rumsfeld team in the Pentagon. (It's not obvious that our ignorant State Dept. would have done much better.)

--If they used a little imagination, the Bushies could have foreseen the aftermath of the invasion.
The Baathists knew they couldn't resist our blitzkrieg for long. So it made sense for them to neither resist nor surrender, but to doff uniforms, melt into the general population, and set out to torment the infidel occupiers by guerilla war--after covering Iraq with weapons and releasing thousands of criminals from prison. (Iraqis just don't care about their own casualties--not when they're dedicated to throwing out infidel invaders. Bushies should have known this from studying the earlier Brit attempt to occupy Iraq!) The Baathists knew the Americans had almost no Arabic-speakers.

Daddy Bush conquered the Iraqi army--but he didn't try to occupy Iraq. Clinton talked about attacking--but he was smart enough not to do it.

The Bushies rushed us right into the inferno. This one 'miscalculation' was a blunder horrible enough to ensure historical condemnation for this team.
If they had any shame, they'd carve out their bowels in hari-kari.

 
IRAN IS ASKING FOR IT ! The top honcho, Ayatollah Khatami, says U.S. cannot punish Iran for its nuclear program. a) U.S. can't prove to UN that the program is set to produce bombs; (b) U.S. is too tied up in Iraq to attack Iran militarily. REUTERS

At first sight, this seems like a mad challenge to the half-crazy Bushies. Obviously they won't INVADE Iran, with a formidable army of death-loving Shiites--not when we're running out of expendable troops. But why would Khatami think we won't bomb the hell out of Iran (or have Israel do it)?

Perhaps the mad mullahs running Iran wouldn't mind having Iran reduced to the Stone Age. They might prefer to rule over rubble, as Taliban once did in Afghanistan. Sinful, Western-leaning Teheran would be wiped off the map.
(Khatami must think the nuclear stuff--and the nuclear scientists--can be hidden from the bombers.)

Also, they have an effective '2d-strike' deterrent: "You can destroy our cities; but we can make you regret it!" Right now they have easy access across the border into Iraq--thousands of Iranian pilgrims will now be traveling to the holy shrine in Najaf--these pilgrims could conceal hundreds of Iranian secret agents. Any time they want, they could trigger a huge uprising against the American infidel occupiers.

But they're counting perhaps too heavily on the partial sanity of the Bush team.
The mutual disaster might take place.
---------------------
U.S. CAN'T STOP IRAN FROM DEVELOPING NUKE-BOMBS.
USATODAY Bombing wouldn't work, because nuke-facilities are scattered & underground. All that would work is an embargo on Iranian oil exports--NOT LIKELY, WHEN THE WORLD NEEDS OIL DESPERATELY!
U.S. says they can produce bombs in 3 years.
It looks as if Bush should have invaded Iran,not Iraq.

 
A suicide bomber injured 50 people,killed 11 at a Moscow subway stop.

Gunmen have taken 132 high-school students hostage at a Russian school.
REUTERS
----------------------
TERRORISTS DOWN PLANES FLYING OUT OF MOSCOW AIRPORT!
After days of trying to deny the plain facts, Russ govt. admits that the 2 planes that crashed almost simultaneously, after taking off from the same part of Moscow airport--that these crashes were caused by terrorists.

Explosives were found in wreckage of both planes! REUTERS Apparently both planes contained several Chechnyans. Passing over the stupidity of Russ security guards letting people board the planes with explosives...
let us meditate on the stupidity of Putin continuing his hardline with Chechnya.

For at least five years, Russians have been suffering from clever, suicidal attacks by enraged Chechnyans (often suicidal women!) The original excuse for not letting Chechnya secede was that this would encourage other Muslim territories to secede. But now it's obvious that this conflict has enraged Muslims from all over the world against the bullying Russians.

One would guess that Putin just can't bring himself to back out of another clash with Muslims--not after the Soviet got thrown out of Afghanistan. So he'll go on throwing good money and blood after bad.

Two of three Russians want an end to Putin's pointless 'hardline'. But they still back Putin ! Notice the parallel: over half of Americans now see that the bloody, costly Iraq war was a mistake--even Bush now admits his team fatally miscalculated the aftermath of the invasion! Yet half of the likely voters still back Bush.

Humans are not very rational in emergencies (see the piece below on 'sweet-revenge instinct'). Democratic electorates are easily manipulated by 'waving the bloody flag'. So leaders make sure they always have a bloody flag to wave.

 
IRRELEVANT STATISTICS: 500 Iraqis were wounded yesterday in Najaf; and 12 GIs were wounded yesterday in Baghdad. REUTERS


But who counts Iraqi casualties or GIs maimed or wounded?

 
SISTANI ENDS SHIA REBELLION in Najaf--but two more pipelines enabling Iraq oil exports were blown up on Friday. REUTERS That's bad news for our puppet regime more important perhaps than Najaf stories...this regime depends on oil exports for their income!

 
PROFITS SURGE--BUT NOT JOBS! Corporate profits are up 18% over this time last year--but salaries are down--and the job-prospects will likely stay miserable in the Autumn. (But people feel more optimistic about jobs--foolishly!) REUTERS

As some wag has said, "Ask if your RICH BOSS is better off under Bush! "

 
TERRORISTS ATTACK VET HOSPITALS?
A report from 'U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies' warned that Veterans' Hospitals might be attacked. REUTERS

Who would put much credit in such reports, after all the false alarms the Bushies have subected us to? Can we really believe the terrorists would be so stupid as to launch attacks that would enrage Americans,not intimidate them?
Why not attack contemplative convents also, as symbols of infidel Christianity?
----------
Anyway, terrorists needn't bother to attack Vet Hospitals. Bushies are underfunding such hospitals shamelessly already. With friends like the Bushies, vets don't need any enemies.

 
REVENGE IS SWEET--IN ANTICIPATION ONLY!

Economists chatter about humans being rationally self-interested, but often that's just not so.

Centuries ago, Bishop Butler noted that hatred is just as unselfish [heedless of benefit to self] as is love!

A recent study shows [Assoc.Press, cited by NEWSDAY] that one part of the brain motivates males to revenge deliberate wrongs done to them--even if taking revenge doesn't benefit them, but actually costs them something.

That explains Americans' irrational support of enormously costly, counterproductive lunges at Afghanistan and Iraq. After the unparalleled humiliation of 9/11, our people were determined to strike back at SOMEONE--we didn't much care whom we struck, or whether these strikes would actually make us safer in the future.
------------
Many of our emotional reactions were 'hard-wired' into our brains several millennia ago, suitable for a world much different from today's.

This 'sweet revenge' instinct might have been useful for chimps and primitive humans 6000 years ago--but it isn't useful today, when cycles of reciprocal revenge could wipe out civilization. The next time some guy says to you, "What should we have done after 9/11? Just laid back and taken it?!" tell him that's his glands talking; we'd like to hear from the rational part of his brain.

Jesus' admonition was sensible as well as inspiring: "Don't return evil for evil, lest you be overcome by evil."

 
NYTIMES cites a high Iraq official in reporting that oil-exports from Iraq have been cut in HALF by the current saot.age
-------------------------------------
MORE PIPELINE SABOTAGE: ABC/NEWS reports that twenty sabotage attacks on the vital pipelines in Southern Iraq had cut oil exports by one-third.
Another source said there were eight instances of sabotage.

The British are supposed to be guarding pipelines in the South. A Brit spokesman said he was aware of only one gap, and that could have been non-terrorist. But ABC had footage of huge smoke plumes.

It looks as if Allawi and the Americans have set out to smash the Shiite resistance. Sistani is back in Najaf, and a large number of his followers are entering Najaf. But in a firefight between 'Sadrites' and the unarmed Shiites, many were killed.

But the pipelines that count are in Shia territory..(the Northern pipelines have been sabotaged so often, they don't even try any more to export oil through Turkey.) Can U.S. & its puppets get away with smashing Shiites?

(Shiites seem more primitive in tactics than the Sunni guerillas working out of the safe-havy.hen the Brits controlled Iraq in early 20th century, the Shiites rose up--including Sadr's ancestor--and were slaughtered.

[Editor went goofy.]

 
"MARCH ON NAJAF !" Ayatollah Sistani returned to Iraq and called on 'all Iraqis' to march on the holy, threatened city of Najaf, (under seige by Americans with artillery & gun ships, with a few troops of puppet regime in Baghdad as coverup). Not to be outbid, Sadr called on Muslims all over the world
to come to 'save' Najaf ! [ ESM ]

 
VIET SERVICE RECORDS: Kerry should have foreseen that bragging about his Viet heroism would invite Bushie lies to challenge his record. Thus people are distracted [by 'he said' vs. 'he said"] from remembering the staggering difference between his Viet record and Bush's.

About the latter, this much is for sure: After letting the U.S.pay a fortune to train him as an F-16 pilot (getting admitted to that program by trickery), Bush then didn't show up for a physical (for whatever reason) and so got himself disqualified as flyer.

A retired Texas pol says he is very, very ashamed that he helped rich & powerful youths get in the T.Natl.Guard to avoid Vietnam. He says a friend of Daddy Bush got him to sneak in 'W'. GUARDIAN

 
INCOMPETENT BUSH TEAM: (letter to Ft.Collins COLORADOAN)
One Dennis Woods (24Aug) argues that, because various Democrats said earlier that Saddam had MWDs and close links with bin Laden, Pres. Bush was no more guilty of lying than they were, when he said these things.
COLORADOAN
To justify invading a sovereign nation which has not attacked us, our leader should not just say such things are true; he should offer solid evidence of a practical certainty that these things are true. There was some strong evidence that Pakistan was helping the Taliban, who were sheltering binLaden--but nobody said we should invade Pakistan. Prominent Saudi Arabians were also financing and helping bin Laden (the 9/11 bombers were mainly Saudis!) yet nobody proposed invading Saudi Arabia.

Pres. Clinton said these things (about WMDs & alQuaeda) were true, but he didn't invade! Perhaps he didn't feel certain enough to justify an invasion. Or perhaps he discovered that our allies were not certain about these issues.
Or maybe he realized that the invasion would lead to the impossible task of occupying and pacifying Iraq.

In any case, he held back. This turned out to be the right thing to do.
------------------
Woods dismisses the defects of our intelligence system as 'another issue'. But the defective intelligence agencies were PART OF BUSH'S TEAM. We don't elect just an individual as President; we count on him to set up a competent team. The issue is not whether Bush lied, knowing better--though he probably did! The serious issue is his incompetence: he SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER.

After our intelligence fiasco of 9/11, he should have known that he couldn't count on the CIA or NSA to give such reliable information about Iraq as to justify an invasion. For instance, he should have known that we didn't have a single spy operating 'on the ground' in Iraq! He should have known that we had hardly any competent Arabic-speakers to translate all the telephone chatter we intercepted.
-------------------------
The incompetence of this team was further illustrated after they invaded: it turned out they had no adequate plan for occupying Iraq effectively. The truth is, that Rumsfeld and Cheney and Rice (who, it seems, really made the decisions, with Bush operating just as their puppet)--these ferocious people were completely ignorant about the Middle East.
------------
In a new investigation headed by Bush appointees, Rumsfeld has been named as negligent (at least) in controlling the Iraq prison; he knew the torture was going on, but didn't stop it. [The new report says that TORTURE WAS INVOLVED, not just 'abuse'.]

Rummy's appointee, Gen.Sanchez, was denounced even more severely in the new report. LondonFreePress
Bush, of course, continued to back Rummy even after the scandal.

(This is not just a moral issue. Our Homeland might be attacked by terrorists enraged by horror-stories--with photos--circulated worldwide, about our brutal GIs. Also, all this torture-fun has NOT yielded reliable info about guerillas' plans!)
------------------------------
If we reelect Bush, these clowns will go on running our country--into the ground.

 
I've been gone for a week, playing the role of fatuous grandfather.
When I complained about the havoc from 4 little grandchildren, my daughter responded: "You shouldn't invite the circus into town if you're bothered by elephant dung." We had a wonderful week...the circus was worth the dung.
---------------------------
An Arab journalist says that 80% of Iraqis say they think more of Sadr after his resistance to Yanks & puppet regime. He claims that one poll shows that only 2% of Iraqis approve of Allwi, our top puppet--the same percentage as those who approve of Saddam Hussein. INDEPENDENT

If we kill Sadr, we will make him immortal as a Shiite martyr. We can't discredit him. We have ourselves in another corner--unless he somehow discredits himself among ordinary Shiites.

 
BESIDES OUR STAGGERING FEDERAL GOVT.DEFICIT, we also have a TRADE deficit: that is, we sell far less overseas than we buy.

Our dollar is way down and sinking--that ought to help exports, by making them cheaper--and it should slow down imports, as more expensive. But in June, our exports dropped the fastest they had dropped in 5 years. And in July, our exports sank to a level not matched since 9/11.

Meanwhile, our IMPORTS shot up (mainly because of leaping oil prices).
The resulting deficit was a record $59 billion, just in July.

Also, consumer confidence dropped, probably because people were worried about leaping gasoline prices,without any rise in pay.INDEPENDENT

Bush was a fool to listen to his cheer-leader optimistic economists, and then to brag about how his tax-cuts (mainly for the wealthy) had goosed the economy.
He broke the economy, now he's bought it.

 
BUSH SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ! [letter to COLORADOAN]
One Chip Douglas (letter, 14Aug) says he's 'undecided' , then shows he's firmly committed to Bush. He blames the WMD mistake on the CIA: "What prudent President wouldn't act on such overwhelming information, especially in the wake of 9/11!"

To assess this claim, one must remember the common-sense principle that we should go to war only as a last resort. Before launching an unprovoked invasion on a sovereign nation, a President must--at least--have objectively reliable evidence that this nation poses an imminent threat to us.

Six months after the 9/11 intelligence fiasco, Bush should have realized that HIS CIA appointees were incompetent, that their 'information' was unreliable. He should have realized that he COULDN'T know reliably that invading Iraq was the 'last resort'.

Most likely, the Bush-team didn't CARE about WMDs. It's hard now to judge what they were hoping to achieve by the invasion--from months before 9/11 (!)--because their incompetent Occupation has made any rational goals unattainable (like our controlling Iraq oil).

 
What was the point of invading Afghanistan? We bragged that we had 'decapitated' AlQaeda..but we didn't nab binLaden or his top aides.

Now we realize that the terrorists around the world don't really need help from AlQaeda. (Consider the train-bombs in Spain.)
TheHindu

And Afghanistan is crippled by drug-lord control and Taliban control.
(Even if we are ready to hold a phony election in October.)

 
FORBES /FDA has approved new drugs that will block cancer in people exposed to radiation. The worry is not so much about nuclear explosions (tho they're possible), but about DIRTY BOMBS which are cheap and easy to assemble (they're just lumps of explosives with radioactive shells--they need no chain reaction).

These drugs might help the people originally caught in radioactive area by a dirty bomb. But then that area--perhaps a commercial center--will stay radioactive, uninhabitable for a long time.

After setting off one of these dirty bombs, the terrorists could just announce they're ready to set off another in another city...and the population would panic and flee.

Bush has not made us 'secure'.
---------------------
Instead of spending $150,000 MILLIONS on pointless wars in Afghanistan & Iraq, Bush should be funding necessary but expensive precautions for protecting our Homeland--warding off attacks as much as possible, and repairing, healing damage from attacks that get through.

 
ABCnews / TEN THOUSAND unarmed Iraqis (some all the way from Baghdad, 100 miles away) have arrived in the Holy City of Najaf, to form a 'human shield' around the beseiged Sadr and his militia, holing up in the sacred Shrine of Ali--to protect them from American assaults.

Meanwhile, our puppet regime has cut off truce-talks with the Sadr camp.

An explosion has cut off oil flowing from the Southern (Shiite) oil-fields to Baghdad.

Another explosion has cut the Northern oil-line to Turkey.

Oil-exports are still blocked in South.

Allwi's regime in Baghdad is dependent on Shiite oil for Baghdad, and also on money from export of oil from Shiite regions. This puppet regime is really in no position to enrage Iraq's Shiites!

 
WHAT IS ALLAWI UP TO? It's easy to understand why the American generals are attacking the Holy City of Najaf. They're just dumb about the psychology of Iraqis, especially of Shiites.

But Allawi, our top puppet now in Baghdad--why did he OK the attack? He's from a Shiite family, even though he's now gone secular. So he must have known the explosive consequences that would follow such an attack. Why does he accept those consequences, or even WANT them? He was in Saddam's Intelligence agency; he's presumably not short of cunning.

It looks now as if Iraq will split into 3 parts: Kurdish, Sunni Arab, and Shiite. Much suffering would follow, as millions will have to relocate into their proper area. As I've said before, I can see why Israel would favor such a split: better to face 3 weak enemies than one united strong one. (In fact the new Kurdistan might be friendly to Israel!)

I can also see why Western oil companies would rather bargain with 3 weak governments instead of one strong one. So if Allwi is in their pay, that would explain his strange behavior.

After such a split, the Kurds and the Shiites will eventually be rich indeed...most of the oil, I think, is in their territories. The big losers will be the Sunni Arabs, with the smallest population and the least oil in their territory.

Also, they've run the region for centuries; the humiliation of their fall would be maddening.The Sunni Arab leaders have every reason to fight this outcome to their death. (They'd be in just about as bad a situation in a 'united, democratic' Iraq, with the Shiites outnumbering them in voting by three to one.) But with the approval of the Shiites and the Kurds, the U.S. perhaps could crush the Sunnis by bombing.

Two problems for Allwi's plot (in my hypothesis):
1) The Sunni Arab leaders might foresee an even worse disaster for themselves after a split than in a Shiite democracy. That would explain the demonstrations in Sunni areas against the U.S. thrust into Najaf; they want the Shiites to see they are siding with them.

Also, that would explain the powerful fatwa just issued by the Council of Sunni Scholars, forbidding any Muslim Iraqi (Allwi's militia) to cooperate with infidels (Americans) in fighting against any other Muslims (the Sadri militia).

2) The rich Shiite region would be dominated by Shiite Iran, right next door. Shiite Iraq and Shiite Iran, united, might be a fearsome enemy for Israel and a formidable bargainer with the oil companies. That alliance would surely be a formidable enemy of America.

In any case, the U.S. army will be reduced to irrelevance; the only function the Gis will have is as sitting ducks.
-----------
Or could Allwi be really allied with the Baathist Sunnis, and determined to crush Shiite resistance? If he can provoke a brainless, suicidal Shiite uprising, thus justifying a slaughter of the Shiites...

But once again, he'd have to reckon with Shiite Iran, perhaps guiding the Iraqi Shiites away from such a self-destructive uprising, guiding them into some better strategy.
----------------------
It's hard to figure what Allwi has to gain from the strange Najaf incursion. But in trying to understand this strange move, we should keep asking "What's in it for Allawi?"

 
A LIGHTNING-BOLT FATWAH ! An influential committee of SUNNI scholars just issued a fatwah, saying that NO MUSLIM CAN FIGHT AGAINST OTHER MUSLIMS, SIDING WITH INFIDELS. That is, this condemns all Iraqi 'security forces' which the U.S. pretends are leading the attack vs. Sadrites in Najaf! [ Juan Cole, a U.S. expert, cited by INFORMATIONCLEARINGHOUSE ]

 
SPLITTING IRAQ? For the first time, some influential Shiites are talking openly about rejecting authority from Baghdad, because our puppet regime there OKd our attack on the sacred city of Najaf. It turns out that this could even be legal under the present interim constitution. GUARDIAN

(Could they then order GIs out of their territory?)
-----------------------
Trouble is, there are lots of Shiites who live outside the 'shiite area' --for instance in 'Sadr City' in Baghdad. And there are Sunnis and Kurds and Shiites mixed together all over Iraq.

 
William Buckley (FT.COLLINS WEEKLY,11-17Aug) chants the tired old Bushie mantra: we are at war. Well, everyone knows that when you're at war, you get ready to attack other nations, and you raise the Pentagon budget.

But this is NOT that kind of war. Even Buckley is smart enough not to talk directly about attacking other nations. We'll attack 'terrorist structures', 'incubation pods of terrorists'. But it turns out that means Iran and North Korea--in other words, we attack other nations.

The unique danger to our Homeland now comes from individual terrorists, NOT from other nations;indeed, the biggest worry we have is not about STRONG enemy nations, but about weak governments who can't control terrorists within their nation--as indeed we ourselves can't.

Our Pentagon is only useful for attacking other nations.(However, we don't dare attack NorthKorea now; they could retaliate in dreadful ways.) Yet we shovel $1100 millions each DAY to the useless Pentagon, while devoting far less to funding sensible--but expensive--precautions against individual terrorists: e.g., inspecting the thousands of huge ship-containers which enter our ports each day; each one could contain a nuclear bomb.
Also we should enforce no-fly zones over our 104 nuclear waste-ponds which could be hit by small planes loaded with explosives.And so on.

Many Americans trust the Bush team to guarantee our security. These yahoos must interpret 'security' as having lots of bombers and missiles.If they thought instead about protecting our Homeland effectively,they'd see that the Bushies don't give a good damn about that project.

 
FOR NEW READERS: Most of the 1600 short pieces here are 'downers': explications of the innumerable ways the Bush-team are harming America.

But one is an upper: a description of the most impressive human I've ever met--an Irish nun running an orphanage in Inchon, Korea.
To read about her, click on PHILOMENA

 
TAX-CUTS FOR THE SUPER-RICH: The NON-PARTISAN Congressional Budget Office calculates that two-thirds of Bush's tax cuts went to people making more than $200,000 each year--while one-third went to those making more than ONE MILLION each year--each got over $78,000 back.

"Everyone got a tax-cut",say Republicans. Yeah, each poor family got $250 back.
-----------------
Main result? Not more jobs! (one million fewer than when Bush came in!)
Not higher pay for ordinary people (that's DROPPED this year).

Our Federal Budget was $100 billion in SURPLUS in 2001. Enter Bush: now it's more than $400 billion SHORT. REUTERS

We now have a legal limit on how much debt Feds can owe: SEVEN MILLION MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. But that won't be enough;
poor Republicans have to RAISE that limit--and BEFORE ELECTIONS, too!

 
REPUBLICAN FLIP-FLOPS: (letter to DenverPost)
E.J.Dionne(13Aug) raises an important issue: how Republicans can consistently talk about 'family values', while they support the corporations whose TV advertising steadily undermines these values.

This advertising does more than rouse lust. To getAmericans to consume more than sanity allows, the corporations render us childish. Childish people don't study, or workconscientiously; childish people 'max-out' their credit-cards, then evade debts by bankruptcy; 'kidults' spread sexual plagues; childish people shoot family members, or women who have jilted them.

The poor 'conscience-voters'. They don't reflect on this fact: Republicans control the White House, the Congress, and the SupremeCourt; yet abortion is still legal !

These moralistic people don't realize that Republicans NEED gay marriage and abortion--to raise money from their indignant consituents and to get them out to vote--AGAINST their own interests!

Wealthy Republicans are the smartest Americans; unrich Republicans are the dumbest.

 
TWO THOUSAND JOIN BESEIGED MILITIA AT SACRED TOMB:
Kuf is twin-city of Najaf; thousands, unarmed, marched in blazing heat right into Najaf, RIGHT THRU U.S. LINES, to join the surrounded militia of Al Sadr. "All of us are soldiers of Moqtada Sadr ! "

He was reported wounded in several places.[This was denied by Allwi regime.]He called on his followers to continue the fight even if he was captured or 'martyred'.

Another thousand started marching to Najaf from Karbala.

10,000 SUNNIS demonstrated against allied attack on Najaf.
(Demonstrations also in other cities.)

A Sadr spokesman standing right outside the GreeenZone--HQ of U.S. & its puppet regime--called for people to march the hundred miles to Najaf.
BloombergNews
---------------
SADR LAYS DOWN CONDITIONS for peace (again!)
--Milita pulls out of Najaf AFTER U.S. & govt.forces pull out.
--A religious authority (not the central govt) runs Najaf.
--His militia is allowed to carry weapons 'for self-defense'.

12,000 militiamen captured. ChannelNewsAsia
--------------------
Sadr preached at the sacred Tomb, with one arm in a sling. He said that a truce would be just a truce IN NAJAF; he encouraged his followers to 'fight on', elsewhere. INDEPENDENT

Earlier, 2 British-raised Muslims were interviewed at the Tomb; they sneaked all the way to Najaf, ashamed to be comfortable in Britain while their brothers suffered in Najaf. Other Britishers were stopped from going to Iraq.
-------------
Years ago, the Shiites brought down the Shah's regime in Iran by mass marches, unarmed, in Teheran. One in every four Iranians joined the march; the troops refused to fire on them.

There was a story (where?) that hundreds of 'our' security forces deserted to join Sadr's militia.
-----------------------
U.S. has stopped offensive in Najaf, while negotiations proceed. REUTERS
----------
We Westerners may think that Sadr is ABUSING SHRINE by holing up there are firing mortars from there. But world's Shiites may see it this way:
Sadr's forces are making a last-ditch attempt to defend the shrine, to make sure that no INFIDEL soldiers trample in its sacred precincts.

 
MEDIA SILENT ON IRAQ: Bush's re-election prospects depend on Americans' forgetting about Iraq fiasco, as they have forgotten about Afghanistan.

U.S. media (especially cable-TV news) has simply cut Iraq coverage ever since the 'power transfer' (farcical as that was)--even though GIs are dying at an increased rate, and 7 cities are in the throes of a Shiite rebellion.
GUARDIAN
---------------------------
NYTIMES, WashPost now admit they helped Bushies lie us into war.
But they haven't really reformed.
-----------------------
Now is the time for antiwar people to remind citizens (who WANT to forget about the fiasco) of the ongoing war.

I have a sign I wave at dozens of slow-moving cars: BUSH's WAR:
OVER THIRTEEN THOUSAND GI CASUALTIES--SO FAR!
[ABC News says that over 12,000 have been medic-airlifted to German hospital. And then there are over 1000 killed, in Bush's TWO wars. See below.]
I get far more friendly responses than hostile ones.

All the sign needs to do is to tie up the word "BUSH" with the word "WAR'.
(& perhaps also: "WE CAN'T WIN!" )

 
McCAIN--HOW MUCH B.S. WILL HE TAKE?
In 2000, John McCain ran against Bush in the Rep.primaries. Some Bushies ('independent of the Bush campaign', of course) circulated in North Carolina the story that McCain had fathered an African-American child. FinTimes

Apparently they also questioned his stalwart military career. And now they have questioned Kerry's. McCain denounced this last slander, and called on the WhiteHouse to denounce it; apparently they have not yet done so.

Yet McCain travels with slimy Bush to endorse him. What the hell?

 
AMERICANS IGNORE WOUNDED on highways as well as in war.
The Media are celebrating drops in deaths and injuries on highways (what with seat-belts and crackdowns on drunk drivers.)

But buried in the story is this: nearly THREE MILLION Americans were injured on the highway last year! GUARDIAN

That's one in a hundred Americans. If each year you have 1-in-hundred chance to be injured, that means you have a VERY STRONG CHANCE to be injured over your lifetime.

Americans just assume that all injuries are slight. But many, many Americans have permanent back or neck injuries--and there are a surprising number of BRAIN injuries (as there are in Iraq war).

Add to the accident-chances the damage done to our health by auto-pollution, and the damage done to world-climate by CO2 emissions--and you see autos as a major threat to humans.

This danger could be cut considerably by carpools, public transit, fuel-efficient cars, and so on. But it won't be, because of nutty U.S. 'love-affair' with BIG cars.
------------------------------------
HOWEVER, now that China and other 3d-world countries are leaping up in increased wealth, they are demanding their share of world oil. World oil-prices jump up--almost to $46 per barrel !

Optimists point out that this price is not so high, compared to past crises, when adjusted for inflation. But that just means that other prices are now higher than they were, ADDING to pressure on ordinary people. Their wages are sinking; their health-care costs and college tuition are sky-rocketing. We should ask how expensive is gas, compared to DISPOSABLE INCOME of ordinary Americans.

Eventually, after U.S. drivers have cut back on food for their families, even sold their children into slavery---average yahoos here WON'T BE ABLE TO AFFORD the luxury of all those huge cars.

That's good news--for America and the whole world...except that China,etc., will also now be burning gas, polluting atmosphere and raising world temperatures.

 
PAKISTAN 'SOURCES' SAY binLaden has called for attacks on top leaders of U.S. & allies, and for disruption of U.S. elections REUTERS

Yes, but don't forget how subject Pak. is to Bushie pressures. Bush's last hope is foolish (but shrinking) American trust in him to lead fight against 'terror'.
So Bushies have to constantly yell about terror-danger.

If no big attack takes place on NYC and D.C. financial buildings--at some point Americans will lose interest in these boys crying 'Wolf'.

Of course, at some point, terrorists WILL attack in America; we are vulnerable in dozens of ways--some of these dangers could by mitigated (not removed entirely) by expensive precautions--which Bushies won't fund. (See NYTIMES oped below on the precautions we COULD afford if Bush hadn't dragged us into Iraq fiasco.)

 
OIL EXPORTS TO RESUME--FOR HOW LONG? Shiite insurgents have apparently agreed to let exports through Basra resume. (But sabotage-repair means export-rate is reduced.)

However, Shiite workers have stopped flow of petrol products to Baghdad, to protest U.S. attack on Najaf (approved by our puppets). REUTERS

Iraqis are enraged at our attacks on Najaf. How long until oil-exports are blocked again?
-----------
FINAL ASSAULT POSTPONED? The Marines were ready to 'take' Najaf Wednesday--but then the assault was called off, after militia leaders said that in retaliation they would blow up the oil pipelines that made oil-exports possible.
REUTERS

The Shiite uprising has spread to seven cities.

There is no doubt that if enough suicidal Shiites attacked the oil-lines, they could be destroyed.

Sadr told his followers to keep fighting even if they see him a prisoner or martyr.

Even Deputy Pres. of our new regime has called for U.S. forces to get out of Najaf.
-----------
TOP IRANIAN AYATOLLAH DENOUNCES U.S. ATTACK ON NAJAF:
Khamenei says whole Muslim world will react, calls U.S. 'shameless.'
REUTERS

U.S. should reflect that Najaf is sacred not just to 60% or more of Iraqis, but also to many, many millions of Shiites in Iran and other surrounding countries.
-----------------
Four top Ayatollahs (including Sistani) have left Najaf. Americans have taken Najaf city center, and blockaded the holiest shrine region, where the Mahdi forces are holed up.

Oil-exports have not yet been restarted from Basri. [Thursday]

 
MEDICARE GIMMICK BACKFIRES ON BUSH: WashPost says that the 'Prescription Cards' ballyhooed by Bushies ($87 million spent on promotion) have not gone over. 47% of seniors have unfavorable view; only 26% have favorable view. Only 10% of those eligible have signed up. Fewer than 1 in 3 say the cards will help them. Kerry 5% ahead of Bush on Medicare.

A Democrat pollster says Kerry is 22% ahead of Bush on Medicare.

 
FORGET IRAQ, AS WE HAVE AFGHANISTAN?
Since 'power handover', U.S. media have moved Iraq stories to inside pages, so Americans will forget the fiasco, which cannot be made palatable.
(Americans have largely forgot about our fiasco in Afghanistan--partly because few GIs have died there.)

Not that fewer GIs are dying in Iraq. 42 died in June, before 'handover', but 54 have died in July. But U.S. media are toning it all down. So says Paul Krugman in NYTIMES

 
OREGON NATL.GUARD SOLDIERS BREAK UP TORTURE BY OUR NEW PUPPETS--BUT THEN TOLD (BY HIGHER U.S. OFFICERS)TO GO AWAY & SHUT UP. OregonLive

One point of 'turning over power' to our new puppets was so that torture could go on, without our troops doing the torture.

 
FINALLY! REAL UPDATED NUMBERS ON WOUNDED:
U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany is where over TWELVE THOUSAND wounded GIs from Iraq have been evacuated to. Horrific scenes of MAIMED soldiers. Medics are stressed psychologically; 'None of us will return the person we were when we came here." ABC/NEWS

Other casualties were presumably evacuated directly to U.S. hospitals.
Slightly wounded soldiers are treated right in Iraq, then returned to duty.

 
PAKISTAN'S ROLE in allowing terrorism and in blocking terrorism is complex and puzzling.

Bushies got some cooperation from Musharref (enough so his Islamist enemies call him 'Busharref'.) But observers say he hasn't done much to stop Taliban from using Pak. as safe-haven, then running across border to attack Afghanistan.

Also, he has not interfered with 'madrases', the Islamic schools where future terrorists are recruited.

U.S. critics say Bushes are channelling all help through Mushareff (which identifies him as U.S. puppet). He has escaped several assassination attempts.

He did serve the Bushies well in just coming up with computer disks which enabled them to panic NewYorkers & D.C. about an 'imminent' threat of terrorist attack..a 'threat' whose response is bankrupting these two Democrat cities. A leading Democrat on the 9/11 committee says he has seen no info that would support threat-assessment as 'imminent'.

If Islamists took over Pakistan, they would have a LOT of nukes to play with!
GUARDIAN

 
BASRA OIL-FLOW STOPPED: 90% of Iraq's oil-exports go out thru Basra. 95% of the new regime's income comes from this exported oil. (Exporting from the Northern line through Turkey has been hopelessly blocked by repeated sabotage.)

An anonymous official said that the oil-flow through Basra has been stopped, since the new Shiite uprising. GUARDIAN
--------------------
Four GIs killed and Sixteen wounded in Najaf fighting. Sadr says he will fight on till his death. Mahdi masked men controlled the streets in Basra.
GUARDIAN
-------------
Another helicopter downed by Shiites in Sadr city . No GIs killed.

 
GANGSTERS ARE 4TH IRAQ FORCE: Besides the Kurds, the Sunni Arabs, and the Shiites, gangsters are a 4th force to be reckoned with.

Middle-class Iraqis have their children & relatives kidnapped and held for ransom. Such victims approve of ruthless methods of new regime.
"I'm glad Allawi is a disciple of Saddam; we need a tyrant!" said the father of one boy returned for a payment of $10,000. FinancialTimes

Too bad Bushies didn't foresee this problem, chattering about 'democracy' and the 'rule of law' which they would install. Sunni guerillas now in power in Fallujah have installed harsh, primitive Islamic law of Sharia. Middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad, run by our incompetent puppets, might envy citizens of Fallujah.

When it's all over, it may well turn out that all the GI blood shed here may result in 'Saddam lite', one dictator replacing another. (Our puppets have already closed down AlJazeera, the critical Arab press.)

 
SHIITE UPRISING BACKED BY IRAN? The JerusalemPost cites Iraq's defense minister as claiming that Iranian weapons have been captured from Sadr's fighters in Najaf. Sadr says the Shiite Iranians are 'dear neighbors'.

Our puppets in Baghdad say the fighters are NOT Sadr Shiites, but gangsters; but Sadr says they're authentic rebels. He refuses to disarm them or to leave Najaf.

We're killing lots of them, but there are lots left (perhaps replacements come in faster than we kill insurgents.)

(Israel is getting ready to bomb Iranian 'nuclear' plants.)
----------------------------
IRANIAN DIPLOMAT KIDNAPPED: A militant group says they kidnapped this guy because Iran has been 'stirring up sectarian strife',etc.[ NYTIMES ]
This sounds like it's a Sunni group, angry because Iran is backing Sadr's shiites.
(It's bad enough that Iraqi Shiites outnumber Sunni Arabs three to one. Over one million Iraqi Shiites fled to Iran during Saddam terror. They are now coming back, perhaps indoctrinated in insurgent cause.)
==================
CHALABIS will be arrested. Chalabi, the erstwhile darling of Rumsfeld--the man who was a major force in luring us into Iraq invasion--is now accused of counterfeiring.

More interesting, his nephew is accused of murder. His nephew is top honcho on panel trying Saddam ! [ REUTERS ]


Either (a) they appointed a murderer to try Saddam-- or (b) friends of Saddam are slandering & threatening this guy, to interfere with Saddam's trial. In either case, the whole Saddam trial is being reduced to farce.
=============
IRAN BLUSTERS against the threat of economic sanctions, or even attacks by U.S. and/or Israel. A top honcho said that 'radicals' in Iran are talking about 'stupid' attacks on Europe, like the train-bomb in Spain. FinTimes

(The most obvious '2d-strike' move by Iran would be to increase help to Sadr's Shiite uprising in Iraq.)
===========
In Najaf, beseiged insurgents admire (& perhaps even envy) the 'martyrs' blown up by the Americans. GUARDIAN

Polish forces in Najaf basically gave up, and turned over two provinces to Americans. Lots of luck.
[ BBC WORLD NEWS]

 
NYTIMES oped explains how Bush's Iraq war is impoverishing us, so we can't afford adequate Homeland Defense.

For the $144,000 MILLIONS Bush has spent in Iraq, we could afford these necessary precautions against terrorist attacks on Homeland:

--safeguard our ports for 10 years./ upgrade the Coast Guard, over 5 years.

--AND protect our airliners from shoulder-fired missiles.

--AND inspect Cargo containers for terrorist materials.

--AND screen baggage better on airliners.

---AND pay for ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND more police officers.
--AND equip fire departments.
[Interestingly, these critics never mentioned our need for huge subsidies for emergency enlargement of our nurse-training programs. Even before germ-war attack, we face urgent shortage of nurses!]


--AND secure roads & railroads.

--AND put nuclear materials around the world out of reach of terrorists.

--AND add 40,000 more regular troops (instead of ruining Natl.Guard & Reserves by over-use.)

--AND rebuild Afghanistan, AND pay farmers to switch from growing opium to growing other crops.

--AND triple non-military assistance to countries other than Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia.

--AND Quadruple amount we now devote to public diplomacy efforts in Muslim world; AND triple the financing of Endowment for Democracy for 5 years.
----
All this, if we had only restricted Pentagon spending to $1000 millions per DAY, without the Extra spending for Iraq!
--------------
When Americans say that Bush guarantees their 'security', they must be thinking:

--we haven't been attacked since 9/11--even though everyone knows the attack is coming.

--'security' is the power to smash other nations--not the safety of our own Homeland. In fact, we don't dare smash other nations, for fear they will launch a 'second strike' at our Homeland, vulnerable in so many ways!

 
NIXON PROLONGED WAR TO GET RE-ELECTED. A taped conversation between Nixon & Kissinger showed that N. knew South Vietnam would get swallowed up by the North, but that he couldn't bug out before the election.
So they kept up the war, sacrificing thousands of GIs and tens of thousands of Vietnamese, just to get re-elected.

(The American people were dumb enough to re-elect Nixon by a landslide, rather than vote for George McGovern, a combat veteran learned enough to be a college prof.)
HoustonChronicle

Sound familiar? The difference is that Nixon didn't get us into that war, while Bush did. Bush counting on support as 'war president' reminds one of the lad who killed his parents, then demanded special mercy as an orphan.

 
An overlooked analysis of the present conflict, in ChristSciMonitor :

U.S. & our puppets dream of squashing the insurgency before election in January. But, says analyst, "I've never seen an insurgency suppressed in (mere) months. Insurgents don't need to win--only to avoid losing. They can prolong any conflict.

"The Insurgents are on the initiative..U.S. is merely responsive."

"Unreported attacks: 35 to 40 (up to 60) attacks on GIs each day. This is not a ragtag insurgency, with untrained troops and castoff weapons. They're highly trained.
This is more than harrassment...it's an attack at the heart and fiber of Iraq security and unity.

"U.S. attacked Fallujah, then backed down and [handed F. over to insurgents].
Fallujah has become a pan-Arabic symbol of anti-U.S. resistance...Arabs defending their community in the face of almost certain death. This has touched the hearts of people throughout the Arab world."

And this was written before the NEW SHIITE uprising !

 
ISRAEL READY TO ATTACK IRAN if Russia delivers u-rods that would enable Iran to join the N-club.

No doubt Israel could bring this off, and could assassinate many Iranian leaders. But these Shiites might not object to martyrdom; [Israelis threaten to kill Iran's nuke scientists--but these could presumably be hidden.]...and there are many ways Iran could retaliate in a 'Second Strike.'

U.S. worries that, with a border on Iraq over 700 miles long, and with strong influence among Iraqi Shiites, Iran would retaliate vs. Israel attack by stirring up a real uprising among Iraqi Shiites--which, coordinated with Sunni guerillas now working such devastation, might very well make U.S. 'occupation' impossible. [report cited by InformationClearinghouse ]

Prestigious U.S. COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS warns Bushies to stop Israelis from any such strike, because it would NOT topple the Ayatollahs' regime, and because Iran could really foul up our pathetic projects in Iraq AND AFGHANISTAN. WorldTribune.Com
--------------
Exiles warned Bushies that destroying Saddam & Taliban would remove 2 enemies of hateful Iran, a member of 'Axis of Evil'. But they were ignored.
Now they've made Iran a Superpower in the region.

We could end up facing two Shiite fundamentalist allies, each with a sea of oil to bolster their power. BostonGlobe, cited in InternatlHeraldTribune

When Geo.Bush Sr. didn't go on to conquer Baghdad, observers said that he didn't want to remove Baathists, great enemies of Iran. It turns out that intelligence and good-sense are not always inherited.

 
PRESIDENTS & JOBS: Is it just a fluke that Bush,Jr. will have the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover (another Rep.) in Great Depression?

Among the last 16 Presidents, Reagan is the only Republican in the top 8 for job-growth; all the other 7 in the top rank are Democrats.

The bottom 8 are ALL REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS!

Still, "W" is uniquely bad, among all 16 ! NYTIMES,7Aug,BusinessDay.
----------------
Why is that? Low job-growth means high unemployment, which enables bosses to cut pay & benefits among those still working. (The workers don't dare complain, with all the jobless coveting their jobs.)

Low pay-cost mean high profits for the Republican favorites, the billionaires.
---------------------------
By the way, we hear about billionaires supporting Democrats. They're news because they're unusual. Most billionaires, unsurprisingly, give to Republicans.

 
SIXTEEN GIs KILLED SO FAR IN AUGUST. BostonGlobe&Mail

On Aug. 4th & 5th. TWENTY-SEVEN GIs were wounded.

 
TOMMY FRANKS, former U.S. Army commander in Iraq, told BBC that DOUGLAS FEITH was perhaps the 'dumbest guy on the planet."
Feith is still one of the biggest honchos among the Pentagon Rummies; he was a major player in distorting 'intelligence' reports to say that Saddam posed a threat to the world.

Tommy also said again that we'd have to stay in Iraq AND AFGHANISTAN for three to five years (perhaps not at the same high level of troops).

He claims he told his staff FOUR DAYS BEFORE 9/11 that his biggest fear was an attack on WorldTradeCenter!

For more, click on TOMMY .

 
NEW POLL (AP, cited by ABC /online:
"Best at protecting U.S.": B 52%, down from 58% in March.
K43%, up from 35% in March.
[K up even among men under 35!]

"Best at creating jobs": K 55%, B 39% (even before awful July job-figures!)

"Bush OK vs. Terrorism?" Yes 51%, NO 48%.

"Would vote for..." K 48% (up from 45% in July).
B 45%, down from 49% in July.

 
SHAMELESS BUSHIE AD: In primary in 2000, Bushies ran a completely dishonest ad trying to discredit McCain's distinguished military record.
Now they're running an ad trying to discredit Kerry's distinguished military record. McCain just called this ad "dishonest and dishonorable."

He called on WhiteHouse to denounce the ad also; but they haven't.

He says, "I can't believe the President would stoop to such a cheap trick."
ABC NEWS

But what can he expect, when a deserter is running against an authentic war hero?

The question is whether McCain will stay on board the Bush-reelection team.

He has high principles, but few brains. Before the invasion, McCain predicted that the Iraqis would be so grateful for their liberation, they would persuade other Muslims throughout the world to quit hating America.

Instead, we have 6-year-old Iraqis heaving molotov cocktails at hated GIs.

80-90% of Iraqis see us as occupiers,not as liberators.
A clear majority wants us to get out soon. ABC NEWS

 
MEN-ONLY IN SAUDI VOTE: For the first time in 40 years, Saudi men will be allowed to vote for local officials. Originally, the top honcho said that everyone could vote--but now it turns out that women can't vote. FinTimes

After all, women are not even allowed to DRIVE in S.A. !

As everyone knows by now, the Bushes and the Saudi honchos have been allied for decades. (One Saudi gave gifts of $27,000 just last year to Laura and 'W'.)
One wonders if Bushies will note this unsurprising anti-woman move of the Saudis.

 
INSURGENT FLARE-UP: Insurgents openly fought with our forces, in several Iraq cities, in Sunni & SHIITE areas, after the truce with SADR broke down (both sides blamed the other side).

Two GIs were killed; 6 yr.old children threw molotov cocktails at GIs. CNN (Bushies have insanely involved us in this UNWINNABLE guerilla war.)

16 GIs were wounded. Hundreds of insurgents were killed, said U.S. spokesman. (But what counts is how many thousands are LEFT!)
REUTERS

SISTANI LEAVES IRAQ for London, for treatment of heart-trouble.
The top Shiite Ayatollah has often been a force for peace.
REUTERS

Our governor in Ramadi just resigned, in order to get his two kidnapped sons released. FinancialTimes
---------------------------------------
"The sudden explosion of violence by alSadra's fighters and their considerable strength took U.S. & Iraq authorities by surprise. U.S. military sources have been convinced that the Mahdi army had been decimated in April.

"This week's fighting showed the insurgents to be stronger and more numerous than ever." UnitedPressInternatl.

[Small wonder that a U.S. general said they couldn't be beat: "We could kill every militant and they'd recruit even more." (heard on ABC/NEWS) ]

 
OIL PRICES UP,UP,UP! Crude oil soared toward $45 a barrel: there was trouble in various oil-producing countries--and there was a fire in 3d-largest U.S. refinery, which has not yet restarted production. Oil at $50 a barrel is not unthinkable. REUTERS

T.Boone Pickens said earlier that gasoline might soar to $3 a gallon by the end of the year...by election time?

If gas prices don't go down soon, SUV Republicans might sulk in November.

 
BAD JOB-FIGURES: 'Economists polled' had predicted 230,000 jobs would be added in July. Instead, only 32,000 were added (when 150,000 must be added just to put in work the people added each month to job-seekers!)
What's more, the jobs-added figures for May & June had to be revised downwards.
REUTERS

These 'polled economists' are regularly far too optimistic; they are more cheerleaders than analysts.

The Bushies reminded everyone that the jobs-total has been rising (often by very little) for 11 months. Bush critics can remind people that the total # of jobs is still 1.1 million lower than when Bush came in--he has the poorest job-record of any President since the Great Depression.

Unfair to blame President for job-losses? There are at least 3 tax provisions that reward firms that replace American workers with machines or foreigners.
Also: huge unemployment drags down pay, benefits of those still employed (they can't complain, knowing about all those who would like to take their jobs); and that raises profits of Bush's billionaire buddies. Sure enough, median pay , adjusted for inflation, has actually DROPPED during the last year--and profits have jumped up.

 
A FASCINATING RUMOR: AsiaTimes cites a rumor that Russia's Putin will announce (just before our elections!) that he will send 40,000 troops to pound down guerillas in Fallujah. What would Putin get from this? We'll shut up about any atrocities he commits against the Chechens. (Of course we and the rest of the world have ALREADY shut up about these atrocities!)

What would we get? We don't dare slaughter Fallujans indiscriminately with the world media watching. Putin doesn't care about the media.
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ON THE OTHER HAND: now that the Shiites seem to be rising up against foreigners and their puppets, Putin might be smart enough to realize that his 40,000 troops would be crushed by the combination of smart Sunni guerillas and suicidal millions of Shiites.

 
SADR CALLS FOR UPRISING AGAINST AMERICANS, AGAINST 'BLASPHEMERS'. One previous call made a lot of trouble; another previous call fizzled out. But he can clearly call out hundreds of armed men into the streets. NYTIMES
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OUR POLICE INFILTRATED: A colonel in Ramadi was arrested by U.S.
TurkishPress Of course, Americans couldn't detect infiltrators--they don't even speak the language. We'll see if the new regime can do better.
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MYSTERY OF HOW MANY GIs WOUNDED: The ARMY TIMES is supposed to be independent of Pentagon control--but when one tries to search there for the TOTAL NUMBER OF WOUNDED IN IRAQ, one cannot find such a figure. (We can read that 98% of them survive--but perhaps without a leg, an arm, an eye, or a functioning brain!)

It's amazing how U.S. media let Pentagon get away with concealing the total number of those evacuated from Iraq for serious illness or wounds.

One figure, from UnitedPress last November, referred to 18,000 evacuations.
But since then, silence.

ORLANDO SENTINEL (back in Nov.'03) said that nearly 10,000 GIs had been killed, or evacuated as wounded or sick from Iraq..this from Pentagon spokesmen. (Slightly injured or slightly sick GIS would be treated in Iraq, not evacuated.)

On News.Google.com, one finds a column by Scott Ritter in BOSTON GLOBE & MAIL saying that 'MORE THAN 5000' have been wounded. That is surely an absurdly conservative guess.

A letter-to-the editor in FortWayne paper guesses that up to 30,000 GIs have been evacuated as sick, or wounded. But no detailed support is given for this claim.

But what's amazing is that, when I search for IRAQ+WOUNDED, and go through the first 40 entries on NewsGoogle, those two guesses are the only ones I find !

In WORKINGFORCHANGE.COM I found an indignant protest that the news of 900th GI dead was buried in U.S. media--but I could see no reference to the number wounded or evacuated. When I tried to search for that info, I was told there was some error, and that info couldn't be reached.

 
ONE THOUSAND GIs DEAD since 9/11: Jimmy Breslin says this number 'STANDS IN THE SKY' to accuse Bushies. NEWSDAY

(And of course over 10,000 MAIMED, wounded, or MIND-INJURED.)

For this price in blood [not to mention $150,000 millions in money] what have the Bushies bought us?

Safety for our Homeland? NewYork & D.C. are even now under heightened 'Orange' alerts for possible terrorist attacks.

Rescue for Afghanistan? Osama is still at large. Taliban have been harbored by Pakistan, and are underminining reconstruction efforts. The only flourishing sector of Afghan economy is the skyrocketing production of OPIUM.

"Well, we wiped out Osama's training camps in Afghanistan!" But now our air-surveillance sees new activity in camps on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
Pakistan doesn't want our troops to go into that area; (our few troops probably don't want to go in there!) We're counting on Pakistan's military to root out these camps--but Pak. military has so far , for whatever reason, pretty well failed this test.
CNN

Stability for Iraq? HARDLY! [see ChristSciMonitor survey below.]

A British Parliamentary committee warns that both nations (after our 'rescues') are on the verge of becoming 'failed states' (nations where weak central governments can't block terrorist safe-havens.)
----------------------------------
Not 'Mission Accomplished'--instead,for the Bushies,
NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED!

 
BUSHIES SKIMPING AGAIN ON HOMELAND PROTECTION:
For a lousy $7 billion (equivalent to ONE WEEK'S Pentagon budget), they could retrofit on all our airliners devices to outwit shoulder-fired anti-plane missiles.

(They've said that twice Americans have tried to buy or sell such missiles--there are thousands available worldwide.) But Bushies say we can't afford this protection.
---------------------
Bush wants to appropriate only $3 billion or so for next year for 'first responders' in terrorist emergencies. [ ABC NEWS ] That's about the amount he shovels to the Pentagon (irrelevant for HomelandProtection) every 3 days !
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Earlier, Bush signed law which, 3 years after 9/11, would allot $5 billion (over ten years!) to pay pharmaceutical giants to develop counters to germ-war (slogan is : BIOSHIELD. )

 
NO MORE INTERVENTIONS? A headline in FinTimes quotes a retired U.S. general as saying that, whoever wins the election, the era of 'idealistic' U.S. meddling around the world is over. Thank God. The world needs a 'policeman'--perhaps a sensible Scandinavian country-- but not a blind, ignorant one like U.S.
=====================
NORTH KOREA 2D-STRIKE: A respected Brit military think-tank says N.K. now has mobile-launched missiles (from subs or freighters) with a range of up to 2500 miles..obviously intended to carry nuclear missiles (or gas or germs).

Bushies say these couldn't reach U.S. targets--but that's not what the think-tank says. FinTimes On any given day, there are hundreds or thousands of ships within 2500 miles of our shores. Any one of them could contain such a missile--which would NOT be countered by our expensive, useless 'anti-missile missiles' !

N.K. would not be suicidal enough to attack us first; but IF we bombed them flat (as the Pentagon Rummies would love to do) they could make us regret launching a first-strike at them.

More and more nations will imitate N.K. in devising '2d-strike capacity' against our incredibly-vulnerable Homeland, to neutralize our 'Darth Vader' first-strike capacities.

The 21st century will NOT be 'the American Century'.

 
IRAQ SECURITY VANISHING: The ChristianSciMonitor has run a survey of warnings from different observers (from various countries) that Iraq is sinking into chaos, with the guerillas basically taking over huge areas (like 'SadrCity' in Baghdad, and Najaf.

The Bushie dream that setting up a new and different puppet regime would cut U.S. casualties (conveniently before our election) has evaporated.

 
"We all thought he had [gas/germ] weapons..they may still be there." This from Bush. He's really dumb to admit there might still be WMDs in Iraq.
It's blazing summer there; our troops CAN'T don protective space-suits.
Bush is admitting that he's deliberately risking their horrible fate, every week he leaves them in Iraq.

 
MORE BODY-COUNT NONSENSE: U.S. spokesmen, after an air-raid on Taliban forces, said they had killed 50 insurgents. But local Afghan authorities said only 2 were killed. NYTIMES

A good idea is to ignore all such extravagant body-count claims by our military; what counts is not how many enemy we have killed, anyway--what counts is how many are left to attack us and our allies....and that becomes clear from the attacks, without needing to trust any 'spokesmen'.

 
DEBT TO BE UNLIMITED? We now have a 'required' limit on how indebted U.S. can get--an easy limit, one would think, of over $7 million millions ! But that's not enough--if we don't raise the limit BEFORE NOV. ELECTIONS!, we can't pay our bills--says Treasury Secy.Snow. Boston.Com

That should be embarrasssing to Bushies who have raised our annual Deficit to unprecedented and dangerous heights. But shame 'doesn't work' for them.

 
PHILLIPINE SLAUGHTER: Around 1900, U.S. launched an unprovoked invasion of the Phillipines. A U.S.History Prof recently guesses that in this 3-year war, 4200 GIs were killed and TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND PHILLIPINOS were slaughtered. Americans don't hear much about this war.
TheJournalNews

Our conduct in Iraq is not something new.

 
NOT LAST HIRED--BUT STILL FIRED! Under Bush, over FIVE MILLION workers who had been on the job for at least three years GOT FIRED.
[a higher percentage than in the previous two recessions.]
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Our grad programs in science COULDN'T SURVIVE if we enrolled only Americans--they're simply not qualified. But universities are determined to keep these programs: grad students work the labs (so big grants can come in), and also teach (in broken English).

Result? Four in every Ten science grad degrees go to foreigners.
[RMtnNews4Aug]

Some will stay here (including a few terrorists)--others will return home and lead the competition against our firms--or train other terrorists.
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American workers, more and more, are NOT WORTH THEIR KEEP.
(as humans,yes--but as workers needed by our corporations,no.)

Thinkers who care for workers' welfare should ponder how to get them to SPEND LESS (especially to have FEWER CHILDREN.)
--------------------------------
Many American women don't even know about the 'morning-after' pill (it actually prevents conception or nidation up to 72 hours after unprotected intercourse). Philanthropists here should be sponsoring an educational program.

In Britain, even girls under 16 will be able to buy these pills 'over-the-counter', without needing prescriptions. INDEPENDENT

Not so here,even though the advising scientists of the FDA recommended this change. The Bushies don't dare offend their Fundamentalist-Yahoo constituents (Catholic or Protestant).

A smart mother of a teen-age girl would get a prescription herself for these pills, and make them available to their daughter. If the girl is too submissive to insist on condoms, or to substitute oral sex, and if the mother doesn't want her to go on birth-control-pills at an early age--the morning-after pill could be a vital precaution.

I could imagine a clever boy (not wanting to support an illegitimate child) asking the girl to take this pill after unprotected vaginal sex.

 
CONVENTION & POLLS: The poll-consensus is that Kerry did raise people's opinion of his qualifications, but strangely didn't gain against Bush.

Only one poll showed a comparative advance: ABC/Washington Post said K/E went from 47% to 50%, while B/Ch went from 48% down to 44%.

However, in terms of qualifications,
this same ABC/W.Post poll showed startling advances:
'Better as Commander-in-Chief'? K 43% up to 48%/ B 51% down to 48%.

"Who would better handle Iraq?" K 40% to 48% /B 52% down to 46%.
NYTIMES3Aug.

 
A REASONABLE REQUIREMENT: "Suppose fewer than half of Americans can name three cities is a given country--then we shouldn't bomb it." This from Ed Rall in TO AFGHANISTAN & BACK.

In other words, as long as Americans are as cheerfully uninterested and
pig-ignorant as they are about the outside world, we shouldn't meddle destructively overseas.

 
A private firm has started charting job-additions-&-subtractions.

In July, there were 70,000 jobs cut; up 8% from June.

New hires were down to 27,000 (after 5000 in June and 55,000 in May.)

People polled thought that jobs are now 'easier to find'--but 'help-wanted' ads are down. CNN
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The RATE of permanent layoffs in the last 3 (Bush) years was over 11 million workers (people over 20 years old) each year. That was the highest rate since (and nearly equal to) the rate in the 'early 80s' (which were the Republican REAGAN years!) And that rate was the highest since the Great Depression (Republican HOOVER years! )

Too bad so many U.S. workers are too dumb to 'vote their pocketbooks'. U.S. wealthy vote THEIR pocketbooks!
NYT BUSINESS DAY 2AUG.

 
GUERILLAS SCORE AGAIN: The 'Northern Pipeline' just re-started exports through Turkey (after sabotage closed it three weeks ago). New sabotage yesterday promptly cut off exports again. INDEPENDENT
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HELICOPTER DOWNED: SADR's Shiite militia downed a U.S. copter on 5Aug. Fighting broke out in Najaf, the Holy City, breaking a truce there. Each side claims the other side started the fight. (Guess which story most Iraqis will believe!)

Ayatollah Sistani, a moderate rival of Sadr, is suffering from heart-trouble, which may be aggravated by the Najaf fighting. If he died, then Sadr (already admired by 2 out of 3 Iraqis) would get even more power. He has denounced the current Baghdad regime, correctly, as U.S. puppets. REUTERS
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So much insurgency has been displayed in MOZUL that our regime had to impose a curfew (from 3PM to dawn each day). Observers worry that the insurrection has spread far beyond the 'Sunni Triangle'--North to Mozul, and South to the Shiite areas.
--------------------------------
Six GIs died Mon.& Tues.,a police-colonel was killed today--and another promised to resign if his abducted sister is spared. NYTIMES
=================
The question arises again: what GOOD is done by keeping our GIs over there, in constant danger of death, maiming, or mental harm? How long will Americans tolerate this bloody stalemate?
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Crude Oil just jumped up to $44 a barrel on international markets, partly because of Bushies' inability to protect the Iraq oil-pipelines.
(Many wondered why retreating Saddamites didn't set fire to oil-fields. At the time, U.S. army took credit for preventing that. But perhaps Saddamites saw how quickly we put out the Kuwait fires--and they didn't want to pollute the air over their own country as they had done over Kuwait. So they settled back and got ready to sabotage exports. )
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All that blood for oil--but we're not even getting cheap gas! And we probably won't, before our elections!

 
"BETTER TO FIGHT 'THEM' IN IRAQ THAN HERE!" But of course even winning in Iraq (which we can't do) would NOT mean we won't have to 'fight them' here. The 'them' are different in Iraq and here.

Brit. intelligence claim they've heard from an AlQaeda informant that A.Q. will attack U.S. in early September. NEWSDAY

(An anonymous senior CIA official, still working for Bush, earlier published a book IMPRERIAL HUBRIS, claiming that Bush has done such a good job of recruiting new terrorists that AlQaeda will likely attack us before the election, to get Bush re-elected!--assuming that our Yahoos will, after the attack, rally round their Leader--never mind the shameless neglect that Bushies have shown toward effective protection of our Homeland.)
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ANOTHER FALSE ALARM? This one might be for real--but consider these points on the other side--

--Bushies have been pressuring Pakistan to come up with some startling news to distract us from Dem.Convention. Pak. captured this A.Q. guy, but waited four days to tell us.
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--Much of the disturbing info about floor-plans,etc., was a) collected THREE YEARS AGO by A.Q., & (b) was collected through internet sources available to anyone.

--Bushies said that the surveillance was also recent; but a federal official said that wasn't certain.

--An official said, "We've discovered an information-collection effort, as opposed to launching an attack." REUTERS

An official said, "These financial institutions are in NO IMMINENT danger!"
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Bushies seem to be in a win-win situation: if A.Q. does attack before November, U.S. Yahoos will rally round their leader.

If A.Q. doesn't attack, then Bushies can claim that they saved us from attack.
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An expert on JimLehrer's news-show pointed out that, as things are now, terrorists--without actually attacking, without risking their assets--just by letting their threats be known--can close down, to a great extent, American cities.