More from Saturday's Downtrodden headlines

Want to read about the Vietnamese government's violence against the Montagnards? (Want to find out who the fuck the "Montagnards" are?) Click here.

Rape Camps in Rwanda Sudan

This is horrible.

Aisha and her 17-year-old sister, Radiya, were taken to the same rape camp and held as sexual slaves for two days. "Five to six people raped each of us," Aisha says. "They did everything they wanted with us. Our condition was horrible." The sisters managed to escape and crawled to Abu Lelah. She describes the rape camp as a well-organised operation. "If women are few, they divide us five or six Janjaweed per woman. If there are enough women after their daily collections, then it's one to one."

And this isn't even half the story.

The United Nations says Darfur is the scene of the world's worst humanitarian crisis and warns it could be the next Rwanda. About 10,000 people have already died in the ethnic violence, and aid agencies warn that up to 350,000 could die in the next year unless aid groups are allowed in.

Jesus. Read the whole article to get a full grsp of what's going on in Sudan. Seems silly that a crisis like this is happening and we're paying so much attention to Iraq.

Verification

Well, now that World Net Daily claims that Michael Moore lied about an interview with Fred Barnes, I know I can believe Moore's side of the story.

For more on WND's quality reporting, click here.

I'm hurt

After posts criticizing Israel and downplaying the beheading of Nick Berg, I fully expected to see some hate mail. Or at least a couple of trolls. I've been registering my complaints in LGF comments and sent trackback pings to Right Wing News. My referral logs tell me that I've received a few hits from both sites. But I haven't received one troll, no pieces of hate mail, no nothing. I'm disappointed. Are these people too afraid to take me on?

I know you're reading. What are ya, chicken?

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm...

Wondering just who (the supposedly) new Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is? Jesse at GC13 has dug into his history and found out that, among other things, he's Ahmed Chalabi's cousin! You know, that's just swell. Jesse's post has a lot more details.

Who said I never report good news?

I do it once or twice a year. Anyways, the UN, US, Canada, and Spain (among others, I'm sure) are doing everything they can to make sure aid gets to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Personally, I'm hoping the estimates of 2000 dead in both countries are found to be incorrect, and lower. And only aid can help out with that.

Hardcore Hentai

Some guy killed himself after his wife caught him having sex with a hen.

And now a message from the friendly people who duped the Bush administration into attacking Iraq

What does Iran have to say about us?

In a display of anti-U.S. anger not seen in parliament for years, Iran's conservative-dominated legislature chanted "Death to America" and hardliners clashed with reformists yesterday in the first day of the house's new session.

Hey Bush, just remember, you're working for them!

Minnesota gives me gas

Don't you dare try selling cheap gas in Minnesota! In that state, if you run a service station that marks down gas to the point where you're not making a profit off it, the state fines your ass. One fine for selling gas too cheap was $70,000.

You might ask why service gas stations are makring down gas to the point where they don't make a profit off the sale of it. But the fact of the matter is that since gas is so expensive, they really don't make much profit off of it. The real profits are in how much potato chips, gum, candy bars, and soda you can sell to your customers. If you bring down your gas prices, you'll get more foot traffic, an therefore you'll get more sales. So it makes perfect sense. But I guess the government of Minnesota doesn't even believe in simple capitalism. It's like socialism, except without all those nifty "social" benefits.

Furthermore, it's amazing that we can see business getting the smackdown for selling gas too cheap, yet when gas prices seem to coincidentally go up for all stations at the same time, and oil companies coincidentally are recording record profits, we don't see an antitrust lawsuit. But I'm sure this is just a coincidence!

Violent mood swings

Sorry about the lack of posts tonight. I'm trying, really. I'm just not exactly in the "blogging" mood. I'm not in the mood to sift through news and information, because that involves work and comprehension, and sometimes I just don't want to do fucking anything. But, really, I'm trying. Hopefully work doesn't become too busy.

(Real) Stepford Wives

Chandrasutra has a post about modern day stepford wives that I command you to read.

Fark Headline of the Day

"Meet Wally, the Green Monster. The Red Sox mascot. Much better than last year's mascot, Dick the Chokemonster"

I feel so guilty laughing...

So it was an inside job

While I'm pointing to my archives, here's an update to a story I wrote about on 12/27/03 concerning an assassination attempt on Pakistani President Musharraf. Among other scary implications, I asserted this attempt was an inside job that had to be carried out with help from people in Pakistan's military.

Looks like I was correct.

Slow, lazy day

Lazy indeed. I just can't seem to wake up this week. Anyways, here's something from the archives to keep you entertained for a few seconds.

Oil prices have gone down

Really. So if we don't see a drop at the pump, guess who's pocketing the money.

Ugh

I hate it when my computer crashes, and all articles I had been reading and wanted to post something about go with it. A slow day for the blog just got slower...

How much have the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost us?

$191 billion. That's not counting the new billions Bush just asked for. Nor does it take into account the 800 dead US troops. Nor does it take into account any costs endured by future terrorist attacks since, after $191 billion and two nations wrecked, we really haven't stopped al-Qa'ida. Whoops.

Just waiting for the hate mail to pour in after this one...

Actually, I don't get hate mail. I don't even get many trolls in my comments. If I have Matt start talking about Israel, the I have a feeling I'll get some hate mail.

Anyways, Israel's Infrastructure Minister is shocked - shocked!, I tell you - that Turkey's Prime Minister said Israel is a terrorist state. Why, how could they say such a thing?!

Well...

One of the first steps Israel took after occupying the territories in 1967 was to proclaim (Military Order 92, of 1967) all the water resources to be public property, as was the case in Israel itself since 1959. This measure, together with others taken by Israel, created a system that prevents the Palestinians from utilizing their water resources in a manner that meets their basic needs and the population's natural birth rate. ...

Throughout most of the hot months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from a severe shortage of running water in their homes. The water shortage does not enable them to meet minimal living conditions and critically affects their health and welfare. Dozens of Palestinians need hospital treatment because of the water shortage and the use of polluted drinking water. The local hospitals are unable to properly treat patients, at times leading to life-threatening situations, because of the difficulty in maintaining proper hygiene due to the lack of sufficient water. This situation is particularly offensive in light of the abundance of water supplied to the Israeli settlements, at times from locally-drilled wells, contrary to international law.

Holding back water, on top of bulldozing Palestinian homes and the murder of Palestinian civilians. Nope, no terrorist actions here! Just move along, folks.

The hypocrisy is amazing

Because they "incite violence", the US wants Qatar to start placing restrictions on Al Jazeera.

Secretary of State Collin Powell, the outwardly dovish face of the administration, went further and earlier this month formally demanded that visiting Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr al-Thani tighten the screws on the 24-hour network, which is based in his country.

Powell said in statements after meeting al-Thani in Washington that relations between the two countries were being harmed by AlJazeera's coverage.

If "inciting violence" is the Bush administration's standard for censoring the media, then it looks like The New York Times needs to be bombed with Judith Miller hung in the center of Times Square.

Just saying.

Sigh

I don't want to insult Nader, I still like the guy. And I have my own thoughts on the, "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush," argument. Those thoughts are mainly based around how weak of a candidate John Kerry really is. However, I understand that if Kerry is elected the neocons will be run out of Washington and his presidency won't be as extreme as Bush's. That alone is all the reason I need to vote for the man, but this also illustrates Kerry's problem: people will vote for him because he's not Bush, not because he's John Kerry. While a vote for Nader is most likely a vote taken away from Kerry's totals, Nader wouldn't be as much of a threat if Kerry wasn't such a weak candidate.

All I'm trying to say is that if Bush ends up winning a second term in office, please don't blame Nader. The Democrats could have given us a better candidate to vote for.

Keep that in mind after reading this important, but somewhat biased, article about polls showing that Nader will take votes away from Kerry.

The Politics of Beheading

A headless politician was found in Italy today. Nobody knows who committed the crime, but everyone suspects the Camorra crime syndicate. (You know, the mob.) So I guess other cultures beyond Arabs behead people! Now I'm just waiting for a huge outcry from the Right about how we have to find these terrorists and people like me are a bunch of assholes for paying attention to prisoner torture.

Still waiting... Still waiting... Hm, I better not hold my breath.

Yeah, yeah, OK, point proven. Now you, the reader, will either think one of two things: I'm right or I'm a dick who's been disrespectful to Nick Berg. And I don't mean to be disrespectful to Berg; I don't mean to make him a political pawn. But, unfortunately, the Right has. They have tried telling us that we should pay more attention to his beheading then the prisoner torture at Abu Ghraib (and likely elsewhere) that my tax dollars have paid for. And I hate to sound so callous, but am I supposed to be fucking shocked that Berg was beheaded? God, the government of Saudi Arabia beheaded 52 people in 2003, and we SUPPORT them. Yet when a second American is beheaded by terrorists in Iraq, I'm supposed to be shocked? Jesus. I'm not saying that this isn't a horrible death, but it's not like this is anything new, either.

In the meantime, 33 of our Iraqi prisoners have died while in our custody. We found this out after the nation finds out that we've been torturing prisoners, and somehow I'm not supposed to pay attention to this story? Somehow the media is "liberal" and "against Bush" because it pays attention to this story more than it does Nick Berg's? You know what, for anybody who thinks this: Fuck you. Fuuuuuck you. I'm sick of trying to rationalize this. If you think this is a case of bias against Bush, then you're a fucking moron.

I'm so goddamn fucking sick of the partisan attitude in this country. The Right is so fucked, so twisted, that they have the audacity to accuse people like me of bias when I pay more attention to 33 deaths and systemic torture, then I do the beheading of one American in a region of the world where beheadings are common. This mindset is completely fucked. I realize I'm not being articulate right now, but fuck it, I don't know how else to put it. People with this mindset are completely and totally fucked, and I'm frustrated that their extreme biases won't let them see the forest for the trees. And then they turn around and accuse me of bias.

33 to 1, fuckos. 33 to 1. You tell me which number is more important. In the meantime, the mob in Italy is beheading political opponents. If beheading is such an atrocious crime as the Right would have us believe, then I expect a huge Berg-like outcry from them and their blogs.

Still waiting...

Yawn

Sorry about the lack of posts today. Too tired to concentrate on anything. It's just one of those days...

...in times when I have perked up, I've tried reading this Justin Raimondo column on neocons and the Patriot Act. Interesting stuff.

...and it looks like a general urged the use of attack dogs on Abu Ghraib prisoners. Oh, sorry, I'm trying to stretch this story out until the election. REMEMBER NICK BERG!

...the right is insane, by the way.

...and there's all the inarticulate, decaffinated ramblings you're getting from me.

Evil in a league with assfucking

Do you support EVIL?!

The new leader of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester stunned gay rights supporters by writing in a church newsletter...

``Moreover, it must be pointed out that Catholics, especially public officials, who willingly and with approval facilitate the legal sanctioning of same-sex unions are involving themselves in cooperation with evil.''

These people are insane.

Believe. Or else!

Little Green Assholes Footballs refuse to criticize Al Gore's speech yesterday. It doesn't stop them from claiming the man is nuts, though. And this bothers me. You think Al Gore is nuts? Fine, I personally have never liked the guy so I don't have any bias towards him that's causing me to make these comments. But at least tell us why you don't like the man. If you're going to quote his speech and say he's nuts, at least prepare to some points against it. Look over his speech and say, "He's wrong here, because..."

But hey, when is the last time somebody from the right thought they needed credible points to be taken seriously? After all, criticism might bring up some pesky facts. Like the fact that a whole slew of their "evidence" against Saddam came from an Iranian intelligence operation. Whoops!

Now that's what I call discipline!

How do Malaysian schools keep their students in line? Show them what it's like to be whipped!

Flogging Officer Number 1" Iskandar Zulkarnain Mohamad Radzi, 25, from Taiping Prison in northern Perak state, staged the first session on a dummy strapped to a frame before about 300 students at a local school this week.

The pupils, who were also shown photographs of the injuries inflicted by caning, told the New Straits Times they were shocked by the severity of the punishment, imposed for a wide range of crimes in Malaysia, including under-age sex.

Radzi has been whipping convicts for seven years after being taught how to swing the 1.09-metre (yard) cane at a minimum speed of 160 kilometres per hour (99 miles) and produce a force upon impact of at least 90 kilos (198 pounds), he told the paper.

Before he canes a prisoner, he dons a surgical mask to protect his identity and also to prevent bits of skin and flesh hitting his face, the daily said.

Even the most hardened gangsters cried out in pain after the third stroke and those made of lesser stuff soiled their pants after the first lash, he said.

So much for freedom and democracy in the Middle East

Israel has arrested Peter Hounam, the journalist who revealed the country has nuclear weapons by publishing the account of an Israeli whistleblower. His article was published 20 years ago. For the sake of full disclosure, nobody knows why Hounam was arrested - Israel has placed a gag order on the case.

And here I thought Israel was supposed to be a beacon of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. Silly me.

[22:48 Update - Hounam has been freed. Why was he arrested? Who knows...]

Convention hopping

I've applied for press credentials to cover the Democrat and Republican Conventions. There's a 99.9% chance I won't get credentials for either event, but if I do, expect the donations link to come back. Hint hint. :)

Fess up, bunky

The New York Times comes out and admits they became a government propaganda machine, cheerleading for war in Iraq.

OK, maybe those aren't their exact words, but that's certainly how it feels.

The New York Times' editors say the paper relied too much on reports from Iraqi opponents of Saddam Hussein without challenging their claims.

They say that in a number of cases the paper had also relied on US officials who were intent on invading Iraq. ...

The editors say that while the original stories were covered prominently, the follow-up stories that called them into question were all too often buried in the back pages.

Salon has more in a great feature article today which discusses how the lies of the NY Times, and Judith Miller in particular, helped lead the country to war.

The failures of Judy Miller and the Times' reporting on Iraq are far greater sins than those of the paper's disgraced Jayson Blair. While the newspaper's management cast Blair into outer darkness after his deceptions, Miller and other reporters who contributed to sending America into a war have been shielded from full scrutiny. The Times plays an unequalled role in the national discourse, and when it publishes a front-page piece about aluminum tubes and mushroom clouds, that story very quickly runs away from home to live on its own. The day after Miller's tubes narrative showed up, Andrea Mitchell of NBC News went on national TV to proclaim, "They were the kind of tubes that could only be used in a centrifuge to make nuclear fuel." Norah O'Donnell had already told the network's viewers the day before of the "alarming disclosure," and the New York Times wire service distributed Miller's report to dozens of papers across the landscape. Invariably, they gave it prominence. Sadly, the sons and daughters of America were sent marching off to war wearing the boots of a well-told and widely disseminated lie.

Read the whole thing and ask yourself if it's fair for the paper of Jayson Blair to even allow Judith Miller to keep her job.

CTV

MTV refuses to run ads for "Super Size Me", the new documentary about a guy who eats nothing but McDonalds food for a month and suffers for it. Why does the word "censorship" pop into my head?

Don't tell me this isn't in the back of your mind

All this talk about al-Qa'ida launching terrorist attacks this summer. I wonder what other possible targets are on the list...

My life is now complete!

I posted the first comment in a thread on Atrios today. Now I can die happy.

How many military prisoners are being tortured?

And when will the Right stop screaming "Nick Berg!" and start paying attention to the larger story?

A leaked study by the US army says abuse of prisoners in US custody is more widespread than previously known, a US newspaper has reported.

Cases of maltreatment date from as early as the war in Afghanistan in 2002 to as recently as last month in Iraq, according to The New York Times.

When these people start making sense, Bush is in trouble

What pinko-commie muthafuckas published this broadside against Bush's tax cuts?

"Given the long-term budget constraint and the huge preexisting fiscal imbalance, the tax cuts are likely to be paid for, in the main, through some combination of future tax increases and cuts to Social Security and Medicare," he writes. "To the extent that the 2001-2003 tax cuts lead to future tax increases, the combined effect is likely to make government bigger both allocatively and distributionally."

Would you believe me if I told you it was a group of limited government, free market espousing libertarians called the Cato Institute? Now I know Cato is not on our side, but read part of their reaction to Bush's speech on Iraq and just try to not crack a smile.

"President Bush missed an opportunity to clarify the role of U.S. forces in Iraq, particularly how long they will be expected to remain in the country, and he mischaracterized the sentiments of a majority of Iraqis who want the American occupation to end. Saddam loyalists and terrorists, who never comprised more than a small fraction of the population of Iraq, are now exploiting the anger and resentment of the occupation to recruit new members to their ranks. The occupation, therefore, is increasing the threat of terrorism, and must be ended both for the sake of the Iraqi people and for Americans.

"That occupation does not end on June 30, as the president said in his speech. The nearly 140,000 U.S. troops in the country, plus several thousand more from other countries, imply a measure of coercion on the Iraqi people. And, although the president said that the United States has no intention of being an occupying power, actions speak louder than words. Only by committing to a formal timetable for withdrawal will the United States be able to convince the Iraqi people that their future is truly in their hands. So long as the new interim government of Iraq, and any subsequent government, is dependent upon foreigners for its survival, it will not be seen as serving the wishes of the Iraqi people."

Maybe Kerry should hire Cato to handle his plans and policies for Iraq. Not only do they offer a stark difference from Bush's bullshit, but it would do more to sap right-leaning voters away from the Bush camp then a wishy-washy position on abortion.

And one more thing, Cato on the Patriot Act:

"Congress should await the findings of the 9/11 Commission before it takes up the Patriot Act once again. Policymakers should first assess how well our law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been using their existing powers before they confer additional powers to the government.

"One of the primary lessons that Congress should have learned from the original enactment of the Patriot Act was that it is a terrible idea to 'bundle' so many legal changes into a gigantic legislative 'package.' When that happens, it vastly increases the chances of a bad idea getting into the mix without scrutiny. What Congress needs to do now is consider the president's call to renew the Patriot Act on a section-by-section basis -- separate votes on all of the major provisions. If this procedure is followed, the provisions that have true merit will very likely be re-enacted and the ones that lack merit will very likely fail."

You know, speaking as a quasi-Green Party guy who considers the the Democrats to lean too far to the right, I could grow to like this group of limited government libertarians.

Sorry, this doesn't count

Some on the Right are complaining that the mainstream media will not get their facts straight, and it's proven that there are WMDs in Iraq because one artillery shell filled with sarin was discovered.

First of all, this is only one shell. That's it. This one shell was discovered more than a year after Saddam was removed from power, and nobody knows it's origins. As far as I'm concerned, this shell could have come from anywhere.

Secondly, Bush and Blair had us goto war under the false pretense that Saddam had an advance missile program which could hit targets in Europe within 45 minutes. Worse, they told us Saddam was thiiiiis close to having a nuclear bomb. This was the basis of their claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and as we all know, these claims were simply untrue. (We may soon find out that this claims secretly came from Iran.) To say that the discovery of one artillery shell containing sarin proves Bush and Blair's outrageous WMD claims correct is absurd.

It's time for the Right to face the facts: Saddam did not have WMDs.

I wonder how the Right feels about being duped by Iran

"It's pretty clear that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said an intelligence source in Washington yesterday. "Iranian intelligence has been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi."

Larry Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state department, said: "When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest enemy."

We're really concerned about stopping torturing!

We just have to get our priorities straight and bust rank first.

A US Army sergeant who gave an insider's view of Abu Ghraib prison to the media has lost his security clearance and been disciplined by the military for speaking out, he said today.

I would say "unbelievable", but it really isn't anymore.

I assume we're supposed to applaud this

How does Chief Justice Rehnquist decide if Scalia should have recused himself from Dick Cheney's case after going on a hunting trip with him? He forms a committee. Ooooh, that's revolutionary!

You know what, if Rehnquist insists upon making silly suggestions like this to decide upon the bleeding obvious, then I see no reason to be serious. I propose that everyone on this committee should be 8 years old. Why? Because 8 year olds know what right from wrong is, and they are too stupid to lie. I think it makes perfect sense! And not only does Scalia get the justice he so royally deserves, but we'll get the pleasure to see him berated as a "poopyhead" in the process.

Why anybody thinks Bush is successfully waging a "war on terrorism" is beyond me

And today's news that the ranks of al-Qa'ida are swelling makes me hope that I'm not alone. What's worse than going into Afghanistan and "smoking them out of their caves"?

Osama bin Laden's network appears to be operating in more than 60 nations...

Driving the terror network out of Afghanistan in late 2001 appears to have benefited the group, which dispersed to many countries, making it almost invisible and hard to combat, the story said.

Whoops! I guess that whole war in Afghanistan was not only fought over nothing, but it only succeeded in making al-Qa'ida stronger. But at least Bush's invasion of Iraq has helped his supposed battle against global terrorism! Right?

Wrong.

The occupation of Iraq has provided a "potent global recruitment pretext" for al-Qaida and probably increased worldwide terrorism, a leading thinktank said yesterday.

And now that Bush has committed our military resources to the war in Iraq, what happens when the terrorists attack us again? There's a huge potential for this to happen since Bush has not made us any safer. What happens when more buildings fall to the ground? Will Republicans still say that people like me are unpatriotic for not supporting their bullshit wars?

Democrats [heart] Freedom of Speech!

How old and naive I've become to have forgotten about "free speech zones". Here's what the Democrats think about anybody who dares to practice dissent.

Boston's designated area for protesters at the Democratic National Convention remains what one advocate described as a "cesspool" of dirt, construction equipment, and wires, leaving demonstration organizers questioning whether the 29,000-square-foot space will be ready when the convention opens in late July.

I thought the protest area I was locked in for the 2000 GOP convention was ridiculous, but this takes the cake.

Nukular

Why am I not surprised?

Two rehearsals for his prime-time speech were not enough to keep U.S. President George W. Bush from mangling the name of the Abu Ghraib prison that brought shame to the U.S. mission in Iraq.

And in case you've been living under a rock or only pay attention to bad news from politics...

There's bad news in the world of natural disasters, too. 500 dead from flooding on Hispaniola, which, and not to be insensitive, but this gets my "Holy Fucking Shit" award of the day. I certainly hope we can get some aid to the citizens of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and quick.

Stop. Just stop.

Whenever I see a headline that says, "Arkansas Family Celebrates 15th Child," I know it's going to be a long fucking night. And how come these stories never happen in Maine? Or Pennsylvania? Or even West Virginia? Is there a reason stories like this only come from southern states?

Saturns are the most stolen cars? This has to be a mistake...

One reason why I drive a Saturn instead of a Toyota or Honda is because I thought they weren't stolen as much. None of this applies to me since I drive a Saturn station wagon from 1993 that I couldn't pay somebody to steal, but I've thought about getting an SL model when this one dies. I guess I should think again. More station wagons for me!

The Delusional

Sometimes I wonder if I'm living on a different planet called "Alter Earth complete with Vitamin C and Common Sense!" How else to explain statements from the only man in the blogosphere who's possibily more hairy than me?

I also liked the way the president unapologetically linked what we are doing in Iraq with the broader war on terror. Critics like to believe that Saddam was somehow utterly unconnected to broader terror, had no potential to enable it, and was too secular to cooperate with al Qaeda. They're wrong on all counts. [tasnote: Really? Where's the proof? Where's the compromising photos of Sadaam and Osama?] In the wake of 9/11, a Saddam-Zarqawi alliance would have been a terrible threat. Now we have a Baathist-Zarqawi insurgency. And we have had a year to defeat it. [Something tells me this Baathist-Zarqawi alliance would have never happened if we never invaded Iraq in the first place.] Threading the needle of sovereignty, transfer of power, battling terrorism and coordinating elections is still a massive undertaking. But I was reassured by the president's speech. It's a beginning. He now has to make a version of it again and again and again. He is up against a press corps determined to make this transition fail, in order to defeat a Bush presidency. [Is he actually serious with this line? Please tell me he's not. Please tell me he's not this delusional.] He will need true grit to withstand it.

I think I need true grit just to read through this shit.

"Warehousing"

This article on refugees is rather disturbing.

More than seven million of the world's nearly 12 million refugees have been "warehoused" in dangerous border areas or urban slums without regard to their basic human rights for 10 or more years, according to the 2004 "World Refugee Survey" released Monday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR). ...

With hundreds of thousands of Afghans having returned home in the wake of the Taliban's ouster in late 2001, the largest number of refugees in the world as of the end of 2003 was Palestinian – some three million, divided between the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East which, as a result, holds 37 percent of the world's total number of refugees.

Africa ranks second with about 3.2 million refugees, or 27 percent of the total, followed by South and Central Asia (1.9 million, most of whom are Afghans in Pakistan); East Asia and the Pacific (953,000), Europe (884,000), and the Americas (543,000 – or only about five percent of the nearly 12 million throughout the world).

Anal Rape = Immunity

After sodomizing Iraqi citizens with broom sticks, US troops will be, "granted immunity from prosecution in Iraq after the crucial 30 June handover." So much for freedom, justice, and sovereignty.

Blogging blind

Site Meter isn't registering hits, and Technorati won't tell me what other blogs have linked to me in the past week. Grumble. If you're here, feel free to leave a comment and remind me that people are reading. If you link to a post, feel free to send a trackback ping.

[Got sick of waiting for Site Meter to fix itself, so I got a new counter. So I'm watching you again. Do dah do dooo..]

Welcome to Vietnam

I'm not sure how much I should say about Bush's speech. I mean, I guess I have to say something, but I don't have anything new to say because what Republicans claim is Bush's "coherent plan" is just the same shit that we've been hearing for a while.

"There are five steps in our plan to help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom," Mr Bush said. "We will hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government, help establish security, continue rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, encourage more international support and move toward a national election that will bring forward new leaders empowered by the Iraqi people."

Not only is there nothing new here, but I don't see how anyone can call this a plan. Bush is merely reiterating his current policy which, as we all know, has worked fucking wonders. Not only has this policy failed the Iraqi people, but it has failed to win over hearts and minds on the homefront. Even a deep south, conservative state like Alabama thinks Bush has failed. This an an example of Bush's base, the people he depends on to vote for him, and he's losing their trust. Bush has actually managed to fuck up so much that Kerry is finally moving ahead of him in the polls.

But none of this seems to matter. Bush continues to echo some tired lines from the 60s

President Bushtrying to dispel rising doubts about the war, declared Monday night the United States would stay in Iraq until it was free and democratic and suggested more U.S. soldiers might have to be sent to stop enemy forces bent on destroying the new government.

Remind you of anything we've heard from another president whose home was Texas? If I still haven't jogged your memory, then maybe a draft will.

Our government explained in a nutshell lightbulb

Iraqi blogger Raed plays standup comedian.

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to replace a lightbulb?
The Answer is SEVEN:
1. one to deny that a lightbulb needs to be replaced
2. one to attack and question the patriotism of anyone who has questions about the lightbulb,
3. one to blame the previous administration for the need of a new lightbulb,
4. one to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of lightbulbs,
5. one to get together with Vice President Cheney and figure out how to pay Halliburton Industries one million dollars for a lightbulb,
6. one to arrange a photo-op session showing Bush changing the lightbulb while dressed in a flight suit and wrapped in an American flag,
7. and finally one to explain to Bush the difference between screwing a lightbulb and screwing the country.

I knew Clinton wagged the lightbulb!

Pardon me while I wipe the drool off my chin

Amazon wish lists just aren't complete if one can't include this. But since I'm probably the only person here who used to be a speed metal/power violence drummer, I dount anyone else would understand my pedal envy.

(Yes, "power violence" is a genre of music. If you're wondering what it sounds like, download some songs by Spazz or Charles Bronson (the band, not the dead guy). And if you find a song by Spazz called "shovetheinternetupyourgapinganalcavity@dork.com", you're golden.)

From the archives

Loaded Mouth, 3/14/03:

The New York Times asks the question, "What Will It Cost to Rebuild Iraq?" Nobody knows the answer to this right now, but there are estimates that this will cost $20 billion and we would need 200,000 troops there to secure the country, which would spread our military out pretty thin (I guess the only good thing about that is that means that we wouldn't have the military strength to invade another country, unless the draft is brought back...) Years and years of commitment are needed for this process. So far, the US has been looking for takers on a $900 million contract to help rebuild Iraq after we bomb the crap out of it, and our current track record with rebuilding Afghanistan goes against us.

Looks like some pre-war predictions that us doves were screaming about weren't that far off the mark.

Gas prices got you down?

Some people are avoiding the Bush Tax by filling up with vegetable oil from restaurants.

You must have really enjoyed Bush's speech

I haven't had a hit since 7:00 tonight. I took a nap before work and I wasn't able to catch the speech, but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss much. Tell me if I'm wrong.

What if our media told us the truth about Chalabi last year?

Because even NPR wasn't reporting the truth about him as far back as 4/8/03. Prehaps if our mainstream sources of media told the public who Chalabi actually was, there would have been a public outcry against him and the Bush administration could have never put him in a position of power where he ended up serving Iran instead of us.

Rummy shows he's concerned about fixing the problem

Fixing = Make sure nobody sees evidence of the problem.

Mobile phones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld...

...some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.

Damn, that evidence is just so pesky!

People are so fucking stupid

When looking for comments from idiots, the first place I check is Instapundit. Glenn Reynolds has a knack for finding them all and advertising them like they are pearls of wisdom we should pay homage to. For example:

MICHAEL BARONE offers advice to President Bush and observes: "Roosevelt did not have to deal with one problem Bush faces today. And that is that today's press works to put the worst possible face on the war."

Notice how that pesky little Vietnam issue is overlooked in this simple-minded slam against the media. It's like a bullshit war that began when a president from Texas lied to us, and killed tens of thousands of US troops plus more than a million Vietnamese, that just isn't an issue these days. Nope, it's that damn liberal bias that makes the media critical of war!

God. And these are the same people who tell us that the economy's doing great, Bush is the best president ever, his war on terrorism has only made us safer, and there really were weapons of mass destruction even though we're finding out that the false evidence of the existence of such weapons came from an Iranian intelligence operation that duped the Bush administration out of millions in foreign aid. Everything's fine! Just move along, folks, nothing to see here...

Hah hah ha. Yawn.

More proof that the right has the lamest senses of humor on the planet. (Not to mention their lack of talent with Photoshop.) And speaking of lame, how about that whacky Dennis Miller!

The Bush Tax

Inflation is going up. But the article urges you not to worry, because this is merely a sign of how great the economy is doing. Now that people have more (shitty) jobs to choose from, companies can push up the price of goods to make sure that you still can't save a penny!

Classy

Right wing dipshit Tim Blair tells us what he really thinks about women protesting against Bush.

Here are the gals at a recent protest, which looks more like some kind of "Skanks for Bush" support march. All that free advertising!

God knows what derogatory statements he would make if a large group of black people protested against Bush.

Yes, your tax dollars actually did blow away a wedding with helicopter gunships

The fact that a before and after video tape of the wedding now exists is further proof that we should never believe the military when they attempt to deny allegations of atrocities they have committed. Spekaing of which...

The US has insisted it was responding to fire from foreign fighters near the border with Syria, but its chief military spokesman in Iraq conceded on Saturday that a celebration may have been taking place at the site.

"Bad people have parties too," said Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt.

And I'm sure a few people armed with a few guns are more than willing to take on a few helicopters. Right, Gen. Kimmitt? What else do you expect us to believe?

The evidence against your stance exists and it pretty much concludes that you're a big, fat liar. Give it up.

Even Israeli government officials instigate comparisons to Nazis

No shit. These aren't Ted Rall's words, folks.

A senior cabinet member touched a sensitive nerve in Israel on Sunday by saying he was reminded of the suffering of his family under Nazi rule when he saw TV images of an Israeli offensive in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, insisted that he was not likening army actions to Nazi policies. However, he said the picture of an elderly woman searching for medication in the rubble of a home razed by Israel in the Rafah camp reminded him of his grandmother.

Infuriated cabinet colleagues said that even if unspoken, the analogy was clear, and demanded he retract his comments. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Lapid that his remarks were "unacceptable and intolerable," according to political sources.

Since members of Sharon's government are calling themselves Nazis, does this automatically take comparisons of Israel's treatment of Palestinians to WWII-era Germany's treatment of Jews off the list of statements which are unquestionably antisemitic?

Disco Inferno

Jesse at Gotham City 13 uncovered a shocking new photo of Bush during his party days. Click here to see the rest of it!

It's a man's world, but why?

This is interesting, though I'm sure this survey wasn't scientific and it's validity can be questioned. But a survey done by Blogads says 79.1% of blog readers are men. Scientific or not, that percentage is surprisingly/alarmingly high, and it makes me wonder if there's something that we as bloggers are unintentionally doing that shuts women off to the medium. One thing I'd like to note, that runs on par with Blogads results, is part of a study done by Clancy Ratliff at CultureCat: "Whose Voices Get Heard? Gender Politics in the Blogosphere." One section from this study is called "Results: Observation of "A-List" Linking Practices," which details how top blogs will give the majority of their links to other male bloggers, female bloggers seem to get shut out. Looking at her results, Blogads 79/21% ratio becomes more believable.

Looking at my own links, I'm probably only slightly better, though I haven't done a head count in a while. I looked at Clancy's study a while back, and I'll admit that when deciding to link to a blog these days, I take gender into account. Plus half my commenters seem to be women, and Lumenia has access to post to Loaded Mouth, though she never seems to... So I guess I'm not that bad. But still, blogging seems very much like a man's ballgame, and I'm wondering why that is.

Just a reminder that there are still children starving in Africa

Because some people need to be reminded.

Guess who got a Palme D'Or at Cannes?

Michael Moore, that's who. If such a highly regarded film does not receive a distributor in America, you can very well consider it censorship.

I'm a bad, bad liberal

I've already admitted that I wouldn't mind shooting guns with Ender. Now, to add to my list of sins, I've caused two people who may have voted for Kerry to go completely against the man. I've probably helped more people hop the fence, but they haven't admitted it yet.

I can't blame myself fully for causing Kerry to lose votes. It was Kerry who came out and said that he would appoint pro-life judges to the federal bench, a position that nobody in their right mind should support. But what I find interesting, if not pathetic, about Kerry is just how much he's bungled the election already. Let's face it, this man was handed a unified left on a silver platter. Everyone was shouting, "Anybody but Bush! Anybody but Bush!" People who hated everything about the man were willing to vote for him if it meant getting Bush out of the White House. Socialists like Howard Zinn were endorsing whoever the Democrat nominee was before the primaries were over. I haven't kept tabs on Zinn lately, but I wonder what he's thinking now.

I hate to say "I told you so," but in February, I pegged Kerry as a horrible candidate. Blunted made a comment to this post:

I dunno.. I'm almost willing to endure another shitty 4 years of Bush in order for the Democratic Party to grow a set of balls.

Did you hear that, DNC? GROW A FUCKING SET ALREADY!

How many people do you think feel this way? Because I think this sentiment is growing. Before the primaries were over, the left was ready to stand behind any candidate that won them. Nader wasn't even an issue, we couldn't pay attention to him. We had to get Bush out of office, no matter what.

It's amazing how quickly Kerry has squandered this mindset. Now Nader is on the ballot is 7 states, and Kerry's shift to the right will only push more people into Nader's camp, or out of the voting booth completely.

It's bad enough that Kerry doesn't know how to campaign, but it's worse that he can't even present himself as the anti-Bush. Instead of taking hard positions against Bush's stance on Iraq and abortion, Kerry has said that he has a secret plan to bring the troops home "with honor" (a la Nixon in 1968) and that pro-life judges are OK. Well, shit, thanks for giving me reasons to vote for you!

I understand that with a President Kerry, we wouldn't have to worry about preemptive wars or the draft, and he would clear the neocons out of the administration and just bring in moderate Republicans like McCain. Which isn't exactly great, but you'll take anything you can get after having to deal with Rumsfeld. Kerry, for now, still has my vote. But this doesn't mean that I have confidence in him. If the Kerry campaign keeps shifting to the right, coupled with his inability to campaign in a way that reaches the people, then I wouldn't be surprised if he loses in a landslide election.

We already have a Republican running for president. It's about time that we had a Democrat in the race. If Kerry is not upto the job, then he should step aside so the Democrats can nominate an actual alternative to Bush.

Sunday is Sex Day!

What are your thoughts on masturbation?

Sunday is Cartoon Day!

As always, two by Ted Rall.