Get ready for Florida 2k4

More Jeb Bush monkey business.

The dark side of Ralph Nader

Although I remain unapologetic for voting for Nader in 2000, I'm disgusted that he's running this year. Here's an interesting look at the dark side of Ralph.

Black Gold

The Washington Monthly's Political Animal talks oil:

--

Twenty years ago the world had about 15 million barrels/day of spare pumping capacity. Ten years ago we had about 5 million barrels of spare capacity. Today we have close to none. There are ways of increasing this capacity, of course, but it takes time to build additional pumping, pipeline, and refinery capacity, and time is something we've run out of. What's more, although we can increase pumping capacity in the medium term, we will eventually run into an absolute limit on global pumping capacity, which is something on the order of 100 million barrels/day. We are probably within about ten years of reaching this absolute production peak.

In other words, even though there's a lot of oil in the ground, oil supplies are going to become permanently tight within the next couple of years and will become disastrously tight within the next decade or so. In the meantime, demand will continue to grow inexorably at about 2% per year, which means that over the next few years the price of oil is going to skyrocket and not everyone is going to get all the oil they want.

--

And, on a related note, I took a ride in Will Burnham's Honda Civic Hybrid last night. Wow. Paint me green with envy.

Michael Moore/Nick Berg connection

As if it could get any more convoluted.....

Link

More "Christian" Wackiness in Washington

Link

Excerpt:

When Pastor Upton was asked to explain why the group's website describes the Apostolic Congress as "the Christian Voice in the nation's capital," instead of simply a Christian voice in the nation's capital, he responded, "There has been a real lack of leadership in having someone emerge as a Christian voice, someone who doesn't speak for the right, someone who doesn't speak for the left, but someone who speaks for the people, and someone who speaks from a theocratical perspective."

When his words were repeated back to him to make sure he had said a "theocratical" perspective, not a "theological" perspective, he said, "Exactly. Exactly. We want to know what God would have us say or what God would have us do in every issue."

Berg Conspiracy Theories

from the Philadelphia Daily News (registration is required to read it, so I'm reposting the entire article here).

BERG CONSPIRACY THEORIES
WAR EXTRA!
By William Bunch
bunchw@phillynews.com

The strange life and brutal death of Nick Berg, the 26-year-old radio-tower repair whiz from West Chester, has prompted a din of Internet conspiracy chatter. Without endorsing anything, here’s a guide:

Theory: Video was fake
What they’re saying: If Berg was beheaded on live video, as purported, why wasn’t there more blood splattered on the camera and on his killers? Was he already dead? Why doesn’t the audio portion match up with the video? What about strange jumps in the date stamp, and evidenc e that more than one camer a had been used?

How come the masked men, chubb y and pale-skinned and possibly wearing bulletproof vests, don’t look like Arab terrorists? And why was Berg sitting in the same style white plastic chair seen in photos of the Abu Ghraib prison?

Theory: CIA claim that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is the killer is bogus
What they’re saying: Why did both CNN translators and CIA sources quoted shortly after Berg’s slaying insist that the alleged lieutenant of Osama bin Laden was NOT the killer.

Supposedly al-Zarqawi has a prosthetic leg, yet there’s no sign of that. Also, al-Zarqawi is Jordanian, but fluent Arabic speakers say the speaker doesn’t have a Jordanian accent. The killer appeared to be wearing a gold ring, supposedly prohibited in Islam.

Why does it sound like the killers are shouting in Russian at one point ? There have even been some credible news accounts that al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. bombing raid a long time ago. If he wanted the world to know that he killed Berg, why did he cover his face in a mask?

Theory: Nick Berg wasn’t really who people think he was
What they’re saying: Why would Berg abandon an Ivy League education and turn up in Oklahoma, where his e-mail password ended up with a terrorism suspect linked to 9/11 figure Zacarias Moussaoui? Why did he hang with other suspicious characters, including a U.S.-backed Iraqi ex-pat with a criminal past that included a Russian-emigre crime ring?

Why did Berg reportedly travel to Iraq with an Israeli stamp in his passport and brag to a U.S. journalist of his visits to Israel? Why did he admittedly carry literature in Farsi, the language of neighboring Iran? U.S. officials also say that Berg, who is Jewish, had the Koran and what they have described as “anti- Semitic” literature.

Who financ ed Berg’s travels? Why was he climbing radio towers in sensitiv e areas, including near the Abu Ghraib prison? How likely is it that a Jewish kid from the Philly suburbs would have an uncle by marriage living in Mosul?

Why did the last people to see Berg alive in a Baghdad hotel report downing beers with him, when friends at home insist he didn’t drink?

Theory: Berg’s death is somehow linked to his dad’s anti-war activities
Why was Michael Berg's membership in the anti-war group ANSWER posted on an “enemies” list on the conservative Web site freerepublic .org, and who saw it?

Is there any link between Nick Berg’s firm, Prometheus Methods Tower Servic e, and the Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project, a liberal low-power FM-radio group whose founder also is involved with ANSWER ?

Where to read more

http://soj.dailykos.com/story/2004/5/17/174040/985

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/05/con04214.html

http:// www.sianews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1718

http://marc.perkel.com/archives/000233.html

Top 10 Conspiracy Theories of 2003-2004

From Alternet.

911 Hearings Disrupted

CNN quickly cut off their coverage once Rudy Giuliani finished testifying, even though someone in the audience stood up and demanded that someone ask "real questions." A bunch of reporters scurried over to photograph and tape the disruptive audience member.... who wants to take bets we won't hear what the person was asking?

I got bugs crawlin' under my skin!

A Medical Mystery: Delusional Parasitosis

Submitted by Russ Kick (of The Memory Hole) on boingbong.net. Creepy.

Excerpt:

She gathers up the black specks, the mysterious fibers and the small, fuzzy “cocoons” she finds on her skin and around her home. She tapes the macabre samples to typing paper, but she said no doctor will analyze the collection. Physicians who glance at the specimens dismiss the lot as stray hairs, clothing fibers, scabs and other common household debris, she said.

“It’s a nightmare,” Blodgett said. “Every day I awaken to a nightmare and no one will believe me.”

"Definitely a cover-up"

Link

Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in Abuse Scandal

A real American hero

Anti-war soldier faces court martial

Some excerpts:

"The way we treated these men was hard even for the soldiers, especially after realizing that many of these `combatants' were no more than shepherds."

The infantryman said he believes the war is unjust because it is about control of oil supplies. He also said he was upset over the death of civilians.

Texas executes mentally ill man

Link

The "Military Cap" frame in Berg video

Not sure what I think of this yet.... looks like it could very well be a cap of some sort. Also, looks like a light-skinned hand in the frame.

Link

"I killed innocent people for our government"

This story from the Sacramento Bee is getting a lot of play. Of course war kills innocents -- the problem is, for most of the population, they do not see the reality of war except when it suits the mediopoly and the government's interests. Out of sight, out of mind.

50 Fishy Circumstances in Berg case

Link

Bad Boykin

I predict we'll be hearing a lot more about the general who believes Jesus put Bush in the White House as the prisoner abuse scandal widens. Boykin is a certifiable nutjob who should have been fired a long time ago.

A few eye-opening links:

Boykin Allegedly Involved in Iraqi Prison Abuse Controversy

'Holy War' general linked to Iraq prison scandal

Berg met with shady Iraqi

Link

Rant from a more innocent time

Remember when getting your ding-a-ling sucked by an intern was the paragon of executive level malfeasance?

Damn, those were the days. I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Professor Pan rant from a more civilized era.

Ah, fuck all this political shit. Rick Springfield has a new album out! And don't miss the kickin' flash intro!

Groovy "Razor Blade Potatoes" Graner

Charles Graner, father of Lynndie England's baby, has a long record of alleged abuse:

TalkLeft link

His ex-wife once accused him of dragging her out of a room by her hair and trying to throw her down the stairs during a fight over their breakup. At the Pennsylvania prison where he worked as a low-level guard in civilian life, the Army reservist was accused in two lawsuits of brutality. In one, an inmate said Graner planted a razor blade in a plate of his potatoes. The lawsuits were dismissed and no charges were ever filed in the dispute with his wife, but the accusations continue to haunt Graner now that he faces court-martial in the abuse scandal.

But let's not blame the widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners on the low-level pawns, however despicable their individual actions might be. Porn starlet Lynndie England continues to insist that she was ordered to assume certain fetching positions by higher-ups.

I have no doubt she's telling the truth. PsyOps is not going to be happy.

"The Family"

And I thought Charlie Manson owned the rights to that particular organization....

For those who haven't yet read it, please read the revealing article about The Family. Notice that one of The Family's hard-praying members is Senator Fuck-Those-Iraqi-Prisoners-They-Deserved-Glowsticks-Up-Their-Asses Inhofe, Republican (duh) from Oklahoma. Yep, that's the guy who said, during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on prisoner abuse,:

I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment."

and

"They're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands. And here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

Oh, yeah -- he must be talking about the 10 to 30 percent of the prisoners who weren't picked up by mistake (according to the Red Cross Report). The rest -- the innocent ones? Well, why not punch them until they're unconscious, sic dogs on them, and make them pretend to suck each others' dicks? Isn't that what Jesus would do?

The Yes Men invade the Heritage Foundation

Hilarious!

Beetle Ghraib

Link

Nick Berg's friend on Larry King

A good friend (Bruce Hauser) just said on Larry King Live that he did not believe that Nick was offered a safe flight out of Iraq, as has been reported.

Jesus Plus Nothing -- "The Family"

Link

Jesus Plus Nothing

Originally from Harper's Magazine, March 2003. By Jeffrey Sharlet.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
—Matthew 10:36

This is how they pray: a dozen clear-eyed, smooth-skinned “brothers” gathered together in a huddle, arms crossing arms over shoulders like the weave of a cable, leaning in on one another and swaying like the long grass up the hill from the house they share. The house is a handsome, gray, two-story colonial that smells of new carpet and Pine-Sol and aftershave; the men who live there call it Ivanwald. At the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac, quiet but for the buzz of lawn mowers and kids playing foxes-and-hounds in the park across the road, Ivanwald sits as one house among many, clustered together like mushrooms, all devoted, like these men, to the service of Jesus Christ. The men tend every tulip in the cul-de-sac, trim every magnolia, seal every driveway smooth and black as boot leather. And they pray, assembled at the dining table or on their lawn or in the hallway or in the bunk room or on the basketball court, each man's head bowed in humility and swollen with pride (secretly, he thinks) at being counted among such a fine corps for Christ, among men to whom he will open his heart and whom he will remember when he returns to the world not born-again but remade, no longer an individual but part of the Lord's revolution, his will transformed into a weapon for what the young men call “spiritual war.”

“Jeff, will you lead us in prayer?”

Surely, brother. It is April 2002, and I have lived with these men for weeks now, not as a Christian—a term they deride as too narrow for the world they are building in Christ's honor—but as a “believer.” I have shared the brothers' meals and their work and their games. I have been numbered among them and have been given a part in their ministry. I have wrestled with them and showered with them and listened to their stories: I know which man resents his father's fortune and which man succumbed to the flesh of a woman not once but twice and which man dances so well he is afraid of being taken for a fag. I know what it means to be a “brother,” which is to say that I know what it means to be a soldier in the army of God.

“Heavenly Father,” I begin. Then, “O Lord,” but I worry that this doesn't sound intimate enough. I settle on, “Dear Jesus.” “Dear Jesus, just, please, Jesus, let us fight for Your name.”

* * *

Ivanwald, which sits at the end of Twenty-fourth Street North in Arlington, Virginia, is known only to its residents and to the members and friends of the organization that sponsors it, a group of believers who refer to themselves as “the Family.” The Family is, in its own words, an “invisible” association, though its membership has always consisted mostly of public men. Senators Don Nickles (R., Okla.), Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), Pete Domenici (R., N.Mex.), John Ensign (R., Nev.), James Inhofe (R., Okla.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Conrad Burns (R., Mont.) are referred to as “members,” as are Representatives Jim DeMint (R., S.C.), Frank Wolf (R., Va.), Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.), Zach Wamp (R., Tenn.), and Bart Stupak (D., Mich.). Regular prayer groups have met in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, and the Family has traditionally fostered strong ties with businessmen in the oil and aerospace industries. The Family maintains a closely guarded database of its associates, but it issues no cards, collects no official dues. Members are asked not to speak about the group or its activities.

The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, “a target for misunderstanding.” [1] The Family's only publicized gathering is the National Prayer Breakfast, which it established in 1953 and which, with congressional sponsorship, it continues to organize every February in Washington, D.C. Each year 3,000 dignitaries, representing scores of nations, pay $425 each to attend. Steadfastly ecumenical, too bland most years to merit much press, the breakfast is regarded by the Family as merely a tool in a larger purpose: to recruit the powerful attendees into smaller, more frequent prayer meetings, where they can “meet Jesus man to man.”

More at link.

Hey Republican "fiscal conservatives".... check this out!

Cost of War

Berg password

This story is blowing up fast.

Berg's father says son had contact with 9-11 defendant

A romantic evening at Abu Ghraib

Link

NOTE: The article mentioned above is no longer available, so I've copied it below.

"There was a bed found in one of the abandoned buildings. There was a mattress on the ground. They had chairs all circled around it and candles all over the place," said Bischel, adding the chairs were "obviously for an audience."

Does this strike anyone else as just a little odd? More Eyes Wide Shut than Caligula?

The NY Post article:

By BRIDGET HARRISON
New York Post

May 14, 2004 -- Iraq's feared Abu Ghraib jail was one big sex romp - sometimes by candlelight with an audience watching, U.S. troops said yesterday.

Sex and alcohol were commonplace, and soldiers frequently set up candlelit rooms for voyeuristic sex shows, said a soldier who served at the notorious prison.

"There were lots of affairs. There was all kinds of adultery and alcoholism and all kinds of crap going on," said Dave Bischel, a National Guardsman with the 870th Military Police unit, who returned home from Abu Ghraib last month.

"There was a bed found in one of the abandoned buildings. There was a mattress on the ground. They had chairs all circled around it and candles all over the place," said Bischel, adding the chairs were "obviously for an audience."

The soldier said the X-rated liaisons at the prison were made easier by its maze-like layout and that other troops frequently turned a blind eye to what their pals were up to.

"One of the female soldiers supposedly had sex in a gang bang," said Terry Stowe, an MP from California. "From time to time, things like this would happen."

A Tale of 2 Chairs

Maybe it is simply coincidence. But after a while, a pile of coincidences begs for an explanation.

You'll never guess where Nick Berg worked....

Link

Berg was inspecting communications facilities, some of which were destroyed in the war or by looters.

During his time in Iraq, he struggled with the Arabic language and worked at night on a tower in Abu Ghraib, a site of repeated attacks on U.S. convoys and the location of the notorious prison where U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi inmates.

Rumsfeld lies

Yeah, no surprise. But this seems pretty-clear cut.

Link

Thanks to Mike Marshall for the tip.

America's Military Coup

Link

Excerpt:

William Odom, a retired general and former member of the National Security Council who is now at the Hudson Institute, a conservative thinktank, reflects a wide swath of opinion in the upper ranks of the military. "It was never in our interest to go into Iraq," he told me. It is a "diversion" from the war on terrorism; the rationale for the Iraq war (finding WMD) is "phoney"; the US army is overstretched and being driven "into the ground"; and the prospect of building a democracy is "zero". In Iraqi politics, he says, "legitimacy is going to be tied to expelling us. Wisdom in military affairs dictates withdrawal in this situation. We can't afford to fail, that's mindless. The issue is how we stop failing more. I am arguing a strategic decision."

Berg died for "Sins of Bush/Rumsfeld"

Link

The first I've heard about a computer password Berg used in college being linked to Moussaoui.... This story just keeps getting more bizarre.

Money for bombs, not for schools

Link

$50 billion, Wolfowitz claims, is how much Bush and the Cabal will be asking for next. It's part of a new program -- "No Neocon Left Behind."

Terrific article by Kurt Vonnegut

Link

No, it's not the bogus email attributed to the author, but an article from In These Times.

An excerpt:

Can I tell you the truth? I mean this isn’t like TV news, is it?

Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey.

And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.

Amen, Kurt.

More interesting Berg news

Link

Serious shit.

Still more Nick Berg weirdness

Link

U.S. Denies Holding Beheading Victim

Excerpts:

An American civilian who was beheaded in a grisly video posted on an al-Qaeda-linked Web site was never in U.S. custody despite claims from his family, a coalition spokesman said Wednesday.

Senor said that to his knowledge Berg "was at no time under the jurisdiction or detention of coalition forces."

Michael Berg told The Associated Press, however, that U.S. officials were "playing word games."

"The Iraqi police do not tell the FBI what to do. The FBI tells the Iraqi police what to do. Who do they think they're kidding?" the elder Berg said.

Calls by the AP to police in Mosul failed to find anyone who could confirm Berg was held there. The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority runs Iraq, controlling not only the police, but the military and all government ministries.

FBI agents visited Berg's parents March 31 and told the family they were trying to confirm their son's identity.

On April 5, the Bergs filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military. The next day, Berg was released. He told his parents he had not been mistreated.

Berg's father blamed the U.S. government for creating circumstances that led to his son's death, saying if his son had not been detained for so long, he might have been able to leave Iraq before the violence worsened.

"I think a lot of people are fed up with the lack of civil rights this thing has caused," Michael Berg said. "I don't think this administration is committed to democracy."

Asked for details about Berg's last weeks in Iraq, Senor replied: "We are obviously trying to piece all this together, and there's a thorough investigation." He said he was reluctant to release details but did not say why.

"The U.S. government is committed to a very thorough and robust investigation to get to the bottom of this," Senor said, adding that "multiple" U.S. agencies would be involved and that the FBI would probably have overall direction.

Senor said that in Iraq, Berg had no affiliation with the U.S. government, the coalition or "to my knowledge" any coalition-affiliated contractor. But Senor would not specify why Iraqi police, who generally take direction from coalition authorities, had arrested him and held him.

Police in Mosul "suspected that he was engaged in suspicious activities," Senor said, refusing to elaborate. Berg was released April 6 and advised to leave the country, Senor added.

Michael Berg said that in early April, his son refused a U.S. offer to board an outbound charter flight because he thought the travel to the airport - through an area where attacks had occurred - was too risky.

State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said that on April 10, Berg told a U.S. consular officer in Baghdad that he wanted instead to travel to Kuwait on his own.

Berg apparently had an Iraqi in-law in the Mosul area, according to emails to his family.

Brig. Gen Mark Kimmitt said the only role the U.S. military played in Berg's confinement was to liaise with the Iraqi police to make sure he was being fed and properly treated because "he was still an American citizen."

More weirdness in the Nick Berg story

This from Tom Tomorrow's weblog:

--

Something odd here

Posted by the Sandwichman over at MaxSpeak:

On March 7, 2004 an "enemies list" composed of signatories to an anti-war petition was posted on the Free Republic website. The introductory and subsequent comments on that list suggest that the purpose of the posting was to encourage people to harrass the individuals on the list and to circulate their names to agencies and individuals that might take action against them.

Nick Berg's father, Michael Berg was on that list and he named Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc. as an affiliation. According to his family on March 24, 2004 -- approximately two weeks after publication of the enemies list on the Free Republic website -- Nick Berg was detained by Iraqi police who handed him over to US forces, he was then held until April 6 when he was released, the day after his family had filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia federal court. Nick Berg was not heard from again after April 9.

Which brings up something that's been bugging me--maybe it's nothing, but why is Berg wearing what appears to be an orange prison jumpsuit?

(end excerpt from T. Tomorrow's blog)
--

Nick's parents sent this message out to a listserv for people who work on communications towers, in which they write:

On March 14 our son, Nick Berg, left for Iraq to inspect some radio towers that had been damaged during last year's war. His goal was to secure some contract work for his business, Prometheus Methods Tower Service. He planned to return on March 30 through Amman, Jordan.

On March 24, Nick was picked up by the Iraqi police in Mosul and held for questioning for no apparent reason. He was subsequently detained by the U.S. military and interrogated by the FBI until his release on April 6. No reason was ever given for holding him for these 13 days. Immediately upon his release he emailed the family and proceeded south to Baghdad where he was staying at the Al Fanar Hotel.

On April 9 he called us and said that he was seeking a safe route out of the country either through Jordan, or possibly Turkey. Most of the major routes were closed due to military action around Fallujah. Since that time we have had no contact with our son. No one we know in Iraq has seen or spoken to him, and we know that he has not accessed his email. We are extremely worried about his safety. We are asking anyone who has seen Nick or knows anything about his whereabouts to come forward and give us this information so that he can be safely brought home.

--

And this article, from before the killing, talks more about the FBI involvement.

It all seems a little strange. I'm not sure what to make of it, but it seems like the story is deeper and more convoluted than it's being portrayed

Quotable

"Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.”

--Lt Gen William Boykin,
speaking of G.W. Bush,
New York Times, 17 October 2003

Wisdom of the Father

When Bob Woodward asked Bush if he had consulted his father before invading Iraq, Bush said no.... instead, he sought strength and advice from his "heavenly father."

Well, maybe he should have listened to his earthly daddy instead:

"Trying to eliminate Saddam.... would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible.... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.... there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

--George Herbert Walker Bush (aka Huge Berserk Rebel Warthog), from his memoir, A World Transformed.

Berg's father blames U.S. military

Link

Funny, we're not seeing this angle played up on the TV news. And there's been little, if any, mention on televised news about the father's questions about why his son was held incommunicado for so long by the U.S. His parents had to sue to get him out of U.S. custody.

The murder is inexcusable. But this tragedy should not be crassly played up to defend the Bush war effort, nor to excuse atrocities against Iraqi prisoners. Of course, that's exactly what is happening.

Republican Nutjob of the Week

Link

"I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment," the Oklahoma Republican said at a U.S. Senate hearing probing the scandal.

"These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations," Inhofe said. "If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals."

Coalition military intelligence officers estimated that about 70 percent to 90 percent of the thousands of prisoners detained in Iraq had been "arrested by mistake," according to a report by Red Cross given to the Bush administration last year and leaked this week.

Tell this wacko what you think:
Phone: 202-224-4721

Mexican UFO sighting

I started seeing articles about this yesterday.... now it has hit CNN.

Whale Cries

Killer whales living off the west coast of the US are extending the length of their calls to each other to be heard above the din of heavy boat traffic.

Link

Red Rectangle Nebula

Beautiful new image from Hubble....

Sad.... but great for business!

Across America, War Means Jobs
link from the Washington Post

"For us, the economy is great," said Allen, senior vice president and general manager of Armor Holdings Inc.'s Mobile Security Division. "It's a sad situation, but . . . " His voice trailed off, then he added, "I don't think anyone here is thinking about it that way."

In this corner of a critical presidential-election battleground state, the economy is surging with the urgency of a boom. But it wasn't President Bush's tax cuts, Federal Reserve interest rate policies or even a general economic turnaround that did the trick. It was war.

more....

The horror

And so it goes....

Coincidentally -- after all, no one in our government would be so callous as to use human lives to manipulate the populace, would they? -- a tape of an American contractor being beheaded was released to the media today. Coincidentally, of course, it came to light during Senate testimony about the abuse of Iraqi prisoners.

The video of the beheading of Nick Berg is horrific. Make no mistake, it is barbaric and depraved. I have seen the video, and it's one of the worst things I've ever seen. And it should be condemned by anyone with an ounce of humanity.

But I can't help but think it was released precisely because of the current hearings into the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. If the release was orchestrated by the U.S. -- and I'm only speculating that might be the case -- it will have the effect of inflaming the passions of many U.S. citizens and convincing them that the examples of the abuse of prisoners is mild and perhaps even necessary to combat the kind of monsters who would execute a civilian so cold-bloodedly. If the Pentagon leaked this video for propagandistic purposes, it is a masterful public relations coup.

If the timing is just coincidence, it still serves the violent elements on both sides of this conflict. The violence against the U.S. and against Iraqis will undoubtedly escalate.

It also illustrates the problems with sanitized war coverage. CNN doesn't do feature articles on Iraqis who are blown to shreds by U.S. cluster bombs, or decapitated by daisy cutters. You have to read the International media for that kind of coverage. But all it takes is one gruesome video of an American to excuse all the atrocities that have been committed in the name of George W. Bush and his cabal of Neo-con murderers.

Remember.... all of this is happening because the Bush cabal took us to war -- a preemptive, unnecessary war that was opposed by anyone with half a fucking brain and a milliliter of conscience. George Bush is responsible for Nick Berg's death, as well as the deaths of ten thousand Iraqis and over 700 U.S. troops.

But as I posted earlier, it's all part of the total strategy for global dominance. WWIII is a necessity to keep the bloated, oil-based machine of Western "civilization" limping along until it all falls apart. What happens then is anyone's guess.

UPDATE
Michael Berg's father has his say.

Army Times: A failure of leadership at the highest level

Link

Excerpts:

There is no excuse for the behavior displayed by soldiers in the now-infamous pictures and an even more damning report by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba. Every soldier involved should be ashamed.

But while responsibility begins with the six soldiers facing criminal charges, it extends all the way up the chain of command to the highest reaches of the military hierarchy and its civilian leadership.

And...

This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war.

Photo leak -- intentional?

I caught a bit of CNN on my television before work yesterday morning. A reporter was interviewing some pitiful meathead who lives in the hometown of one of the soldiers on trial for the S&M Iraqi prisoner shenanigans.

I paraphrase what he said to the camera:

"I don't know why he's (the soldier on trial) in trouble. They (Iraqi insurgents) killed our people, dragged 'em through the streets, and hung 'em up. We're at war, you know. Why should they be able to do that to us and we have to treat them with respect?"

I knew it would come to this, even before Rush Limbowel made his comment that the soldiers were simply "blowing off steam." Indeed, when you've demonized and dehumanized an entire country (or region) -- which is what war does, by definition -- why shouldn't we electrocute them and force them to wear panties on their faces for our amusement? Why shouldn't we hogtie them and fuck them in the ass with glowsticks? Shit, I'll bet more glowsticks have been stuck in assholes at Burning Man than in Abu Ghraib.

And let's pretend, just for shits and giggles, that we're a clique of racist, power-obsessed, reptilian-brained Neo-Nazi-cons who are determined to create a new world war -- perhaps to make a ton of money for our military/industrial complex pals, or maybe to hasten the return of Jesus H. Christ himself, or simply because we get hard-ons killing brown skinned non-Xtians and sacrificing rednecks to Moloch. If we really wanted to inflame an entire region -- nay, an entire world full of Muslims -- into fanatical hatred, wouldn't the cleverly orchestrated leak of torture photos serve our agenda ever-so-well? Want to get every red-blooded Arab man and boy to sign up for jihad? Show them faceless photos of Arab men and boyz naked, humiliated, hog-tied, and homosexualized -- the Arab Everyman as S&M boy toy of some West Virginia Army skank smoking a Marlboro and giving a thumbs-up to the camera. Presto! Instant world war.

Perhaps I'm to conspiratorial, and perhaps the Neo-Con cabal is just made up of doddering idiots who didn't realize Seymour Hersh was going to spill the beans. But it's all far too perfectly plotted. Peak oil is here, it's the end of a all-or-nothing game of Risk, and the last rolls of the dice are being made. The final grab for the final puddles of oil
are underway. Unfortunately, control of all the remaining puddles requires WWIII. Yesiree, it requires the fall of (or Western co-optation of) Syria, Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Libya (already happened).... and so forth. And Russia. And China.

BushCo. knew the torture was happening, and encouraged it. They knew photos would leak, and probably encouraged that, too. It worked. The entire Arab world is convinced the U.S. is out to get them. And guess what? It's true!

Ah, screw this negative ranting -- I'm going to get me an adult Happy Meal.

Blood for Oil

The truth is quite apparent:
U.S. Oil Interests in Iraq
The Oil Crunch

Welcome

For your enjoyment:
Really horrible Iraqi prisoner photo