Michael Moore is a Prophet and Dubya Runs Out the Clock

Can SOMEONE now say, "Michael Moore was right!"?
In my Perfect World, every sh*thead on Clear Channel and FOX news would have to apologize to Michael Moore. But in my Perfect World, those people are in jail for being public liars.
Mike's letter to Dubya is a keeper, and oh, so well written.

Did Dubya say Sacrifice? I only tuned in half way through, and had a hard time concentrating on his speech. Wow! That was boring!
Are you telling me we waited around since Mid October for THAT speech!?!
Did he say how he's going to pay for it? I heard somone say our grandchildren will have to pay $2 for ever $1 we are putting on the charge card right now.
I think the corporations who are making out on this deal should have a special War Tax to cover the expenses. The American citizen-soldier should only have to give blood, and limbs, and lives.

Whenever Bush says Nouri al-Maliki I keep hearing a faint past echo of PeeWee Herman's Magic Words: "meka leka hi meka heinie ho."
A small boy wishing hard.
He got some clue from his stylists about that, obviously, as he said 'Prime Minister Maliki' last night. Ruined my fun.
He doesn't look too slappy-happy anymore does he.
Did you wonder if he ever read any of those books in the WH library?
Just recollecting here, but remember when the set designers used to put banners, and repetitive memes, and significant portraits or even halos and large phallic symbols behind Dubya? I particularly liked the Teddy Roosevelt painting that one time. The big gun was hilarious.
If he's serious about trying to appear serious (go read it at carpetbagger's blog, I can't get my thingie to work here.)... all of a sudden, maybe Dubya could take a fashion pointer or two from the Afganistani Prime Minister, you know, that guy with all of the colorful robes and the seriously interesting hat... unless they've already figured that someone like me might be reminded of PeeWee's magic pal in a box, Jambi.

Gaaah, FOXnews is using Surge as a verb.

If you don't want to read Scott Ritter or Seymour Hersh, then GO read Pat Buchanan's recent article... he and I were right about keeping out of Vietraq even if we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. I guess that's what America is all about? Debate. Opinion. Freedom of Speech... Or was at one time, before the Hannity Enemy Watch or whatever that fascist pig calls his black list...

Check this out...beachimpeach.com
Wish I was there...
Speaking of showing up for a good old fashioned anti-war protest, I'm really sorry I didn't get to the Peace Triangle on Sunday as planned, had a family commitment. I just heard theres' another one on Sunday. Of course, Pat has been there EVERY Sunday for 3 years. That man deserves our thanks. The windiest corner in Flint, Michigan is NOT a day on the beach.

War protest marks death No. 3,000
FLINT TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Monday, January 08, 2007
By Chad Swiatecki

There are times when Bonnie Petee feels hopeless at the daily news of more military and civilian deaths in Iraq. Combating that dread by banding together with others who want an end to the war brought the Swartz Creek resident out in the cold rain Sunday. "I'm just saddened at the number of kids we've lost in the three years we've been there, and I don't really know what else to do," said Petee, one of about 40 peace marchers on the corner of Ballenger and Miller roads. "The American public doesn't really feel any day-to-day hardship from this like there was during World War II, so they don't think about it as much, and that frustrates me. I'm not sure exactly what the direction forward is from where we are now as a country, but I know it's not the way we're going." The war protests at the "peace triangle" have taken place almost weekly since before the war started in March 2003. But Sunday's demonstration - organized by the Progressive Caucus of Genesee County - was held in special observance of the war's 3,000 U.S. military deaths. As marchers toted signs calling for "Peace Now" and calling for an end to the war, passing vehicles honked in either support or defiance. Among the demonstrators were former state Rep. Jack Minore, D-Flint, and Flint resident Lila Lipscomb, mother of Sgt. Michael Pedersen, who was one of the first U.S. troops killed in the war. Lipscomb was a central figure in filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" movie on the war and has used her position to advocate political change and continuing support for injured veterans. "I chose to take a stand, and now that the Democrats have taken back the House and the Senate, it's time to take America back," a tearful Lipscomb told the crowd. "It's time to get back to the America that was loved and respected around the world instead of despised and hated for what we've done." President Bush is scheduled to give a report on changes in strategy in Iraq this week , which is expected to include an increase in troop levels. That means such demonstrators as Maryion Lee could be at it for a while longer. "We haven't all been out here every week because some of us have worked at other ways to spread the education this is a false war that never should have happened," said Lee, chair of the Progressive Caucus. "We're here today because every death has been terrible, but 3,000 is a milestone, and we're using it as a chance to show we're united in our cry for peace."
2007 Flint Journal

"No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice? Above all shall that man be above it, who can commit the most extensive injustice?" - George Mason, one of America's founding fathers, July 20, 1787
(George Mason was the guy who was really concerned about the Constitution NOT including a Bill of Rights, and finally refused to sign it, I think. I'm in a hurry right now and can't take time to Google it, and Bloggedy Blogger is acting finicky again.)

Deadline looms as US toll reaches 3,000
01 January 2007
As United States President George Bush hacked down brushwood and rode his bike at his Crawford ranch this weekend, he gave the impression of a US president little preoccupied by two Iraq milestones that complicate his deliberations on a change of strategy.
The first, the hanging of Saddam Hussein, found Bush asleep, and according to advisers he spent only a short time discussing the execution. The second, the reports of the 3 000th US fatality in Iraq, evinced a only general remark.
"The most painful aspect of the presidency is the fact that I know my decisions have caused young men and women to lose their lives," Bush said at an end-of-year press conference in Texas. A White House spokesperson added simply that the president "will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain".
The 3 000 figure was arrived at by the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an internet-based monitoring group, and by the Associated Press, which keeps its own tally of US military deaths. The Pentagon disputed the figures, saying that the total of confirmed dead was 2 983. Nonetheless, the widespread reporting of the grim milestone appeared set to offset whatever boost Bush will get from the news about Saddam's death.
The White House is due to announce a new course for Baghdad on January 10. Time is running out for the US and British governments. The insurgents and those engaged in the sectarian killing can afford to wait. But domestic political pressures put a question mark over US staying power.
As a former Texas governor who signed a near-record number of death warrants, Bush will have had few qualms about the execution. There was also a personal element: he blamed Saddam for an assassination attempt on his father during a visit to Kuwait in 1993.
But far from marking the closure of an era in Iraq, Saddam's execution will exacerbate sectarian tensions. The fears of the minority Sunni Muslims will have been increased by the comments of his Shia executioners in support of the Shia militia leader, Moqtada al-Sadr.
Bush acknowledged the scale of the Iraq crisis on Saturday in a short statement on Saddam's death. Abandoning the gung-ho approach of past years, he cautioned that Saddam's demise would not halt the violence. "Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead," he said.
A US adviser involved in the talks on a new strategy said: "There is recognition that the present strategy is not working. But alternative options are limited." The source said there was a general disillusionment in the US administration with the Shia Muslim-dominated government led by the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, which is increasingly viewed as condoning -- or at least failing to act against -- sectarian killing. "It would have been easier to implement a new strategy in 2005. It gets harder every day. We have painted ourselves into a corner with this [Iraqi] government," the source said.
The debate within the administration about what to do next is still to be resolved. Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, is leading those in favour of the "surge" approach: sending a further 20 000 to 40 000 US troops to Baghdad to reinforce the present US force of 140 000 in a final attempt to subdue the Iraqi capital.
But the White House was given several warnings on Saturday from figures across the political spectrum that any change of course in Iraq should be conducted in consultation with the new Congress. Richard Lugar, the outgoing Republican chairperson of the Senate foreign relations committee, told Fox News that should the administration proceed with any move to increase troop numbers without involving Congress, Bush could anticipate "a lot of hearings, a lot of study, a lot of criticism".
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter argued that only a surge in troop numbers, of 300 000 to 400 000 would make a difference. Speaking on CNN, Brzezinski criticised the core group gathered around Bush to determine Iraq policy. With the exception of the new Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, he noted "a narrow decision-making group embedded in its own opinions ... is now making the decision about a change of course."
Also feeding into the White House are the views of the Pentagon, the state department, the intelligence services and, the catalyst for the rethink, the Iraq Study Group report, published last month. The debate is being conducted against a domestic political background in which opposition to the war is growing.
A senior US military source identified the core of the problem as the US pursuit of democratic government ahead of security and economic reconstruction. What Washington had ended up with was an Iraqi government that shared different objectives from the US: establishing the dominance of the Shia rather than fostering reconciliation and unity. He said the view of the US military in Iraq is that the police force was so riddled with sectarianism that the only possible course was to disband it and start again; it was also rife in the Iraqi army, a trend encouraged by the Iraqi government.
"We are still in charge. The Iraqi government is a facade," the military source said. "How can our strategy be to accelerate the handover to this government and the Iraq army. This is a rush to failure."
The British government privately shares the US administration's disappointment with Maliki.
Saddam's execution posed a special problem for the British government, given its opposition to the death penalty. The British Foreign Office said it had made repeated approaches to the Iraqi government, making clear its opposition to the execution. Officials had planned a last-minute plea for clemency by the ambassador, Dominic Asquith, to the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, and Maliki. But the plan was abandoned. A Foreign Office source confirmed that no final approach to the Iraqi government was made by a senior British diplomat.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, questioned about the prospect of the death penalty in November, proved initially reluctant to denounce it, but eventually did so. On Saturday, the British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, reiterated Britain's opposition to the death penalty but welcomed the fact that he had been tried by an Iraqi court. "He has now been held to account." she said.
Guardian News and Media Limited 2006


Selective Service plans "readiness" tests for military draft
By Kasie Hunt, Associated Press Writer
December 22, 2006
href http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/
articles/2006/12/22/selective_service_plans_readiness_
tests_for_military_draft?mode=PFWASHINGTON
(AP) The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn't want to bring back the draft.
The agency is planning a comprehensive test -- not run since 1998 -- of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.
Scott Campbell, the service's director for operations and chief information officer, cautioned that the "readiness exercise" does not mean the agency is gearing up to resume the draft.
"We're kind of like a fire extinguisher. We sit on a shelf," Campbell told The Associated Press. "Unless the president and Congress get together and say, 'Turn the machine on' ... we're still on the shelf."
Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson prompted speculation about the draft Thursday when he told reporters in New York that "society would benefit" if the U.S. were to bring back the draft. Later he issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft.
The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that policy has not changed and no proposal to reinstate the draft is being considered.
The "readiness exercise" would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and its network of appeal boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, Campbell said.
The Selective Service will start planning for the 2009 tests next June or July, although budget cuts could force the agency to cancel them, Campbell said.
President Bush said this week he is considering sending more troops to Iraq and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look into adding more troops to the nearly 1.4 million uniformed personnel on active duty.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the Army by 40,000 troops would cost as much as $2.6 billion the first year and $4 billion after that. Military officials have said the Army and Marine Corps want to add as many as 35,000 more troops.
Recruiting new forces and retaining current troops is more complicated because of the unpopular war in Iraq. In recent years, the Army has accepted recruits with lower aptitude test scores.
In remarks to reporters, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels "in the common purpose of serving."
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said such a proposal would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list.Hearst Newspapers first reported the planned test for a story sent to its subscribers for weekend use.The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. Reincorporated in 1980, the Selective Service System maintains a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.
Associated Press writers Sara Kugler in New York and Devlin Barrett in Washington contributed to this report.
2006 The New York Times Company