Wednesday, July 11, 2007

THIS JUST IN! IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE SENATE?

 
SENATOR CRAZY CONTINUES HIS PSYCHOTIC SPREE.
 
TODAY IN THE U.S. SENATE, JOHN MCCAIN WAS RAVING IN A CLOAKROOM ABOUT THE "LIBERAL LEFT" LOOKING TO ALL THE WORLD LIKE THE MENTAL PATIENT HE SO OBVIOUSLY IS.
 
WERE HE NOT SO INSANCE, WE COULD POINT OUT THE OBVIOUS -- "LIBERAL" MEANS "LEFT."  BUT YOU NEVER TRY TO REASON WITH A CRAZY MAN OFF HIS MEDS. 
 
 
SENATOR CRAZY BEGAN SCREAMING EVEN LOUDER, MORE HIGH PITCHED, SOUNDING LIKE A YOUNG GIRL AT LEAST 60 YEARS YOUNGER, AND BEGAN TALKING FRANTICALLY ABOUT VIETNAM AND HOW, AGAIN, IT WAS ALL THE FAULT OF THE "LIBERAL LEFT".
 
WHEN APPROACHED BY THESE REPORTERS, WHO REFUSED TO MAKE EYE CONTACT, SENATOR CRAZY SCREAMED, "VOTE INSANE! VOTE JOHN MCCAIN!"
 
 
mccain
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance.  "The army takes the position, of course, I mean they wouldn't say this directly, but they need to make an example of somebody like Lt. Watada because if Lt. Watada was able to walk away from this it would send, for the army's perspective, a very bad signal to the other soldiers," Kenneth Kagan explained to Margaret Prescod on KPFK's Sojourner Truth Tuesday. Kagan and James Lobsenz are Ehren Watada's civilian attorneys.  Ehren Watada?  The first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq (June 2006) who was in the midst of a court-martial (February 2006) when Judge Toilet (aka John Head) declared a mistrial over the objections of defense (and over the realities of the law). Speaking with Prescod about Judge Toilet's ruling last Friday (Judge Toilet would not recuse himself and said there was no double-jeopardy at play), Kagan explained that the Court of Appeals decided June 29th to allow Head to rule before they did.  Kagan called Judge Toilet's ruling "a necessary step" to allow the case to be reviewed by a higher court.  Army Court of Criminal Appeals would be the next court on the chain with the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (which covers all branches of the military "and those judges are civilians.  They have 15 year terms and they are not part of the military").  Kagan stated,
"I think that the law is solidly on our side it is just that this is a highly politicized and very closely watched case" and that he was optimistic about their case.  Margret Prescod asked about the timeline and Kagan revealed that there is a good chance, due to the appeals process, that should a court-martial go through, it could be as late as next year before it starts. 
 
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 
So every now and then the lie makes it into print that the US military doesn't care a thing about self-checkouts.  This despite the fact that they (from the base in Kentucky) were the ones calling the police and instructing them of where Kyle Snyder was supposed to speak next on his West Coast speaking tour in 2006.  This despite the fact that they instructed Canadian police to arrest Snyder in February 2007.  This despite that two were sent into Canada and posed as Canadian police when showing up on the doorstep of Winnie Ng . . .
And round and round the lies wrap around the spire but no one's ever supposed to notice.  Notice.
 
Lance Herring may or may not be a war resister.  He apparently self-checked out and staged a mountain disappearance last year.  KMGH Denver reports that his parents' home was searched yesterday.  Why?  On "a tip from the military that Hering might be at his parents' home".  Vanessa Miller (Boulder Daily Camera) reports that the police searched the home for over an hour ("acting on a tip from the military") and notes that his friend Powers has stated "Hering staged his disappearance because his life was in danger because of something he knew about his fellow Marines.  Hering is a lance corporal in the Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based in California -- the same unit that had eight soldiers charged with conspiracy, kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian in Hamdania, Iraq."  Lance Hering's family has created several sites -- here and here -- the latter's top post by his father states: "Lance, where ever your might be, we are on your side.  We wish we couldl make contant and send what you may need."
 
So the lie that the US military isn't interested?  Well if your name was Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee and you served on the Yakima Herald-Republic and wrote today's editorial "Military has more pressing business than tracing deserters" then you would be a DUMB ASS.  That's DUMB ASS Michael Shepard, DUMB ASS Sarah Jenkins and DUMB ASS Bill Lee.  No wonder The Seattle Times Company alternately talks of selling off the loser paper or of doing a clean sweep of the paper.  Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee are DUMB ASSES in other ways as well but we just went over this topic yesterday.  All the points noted apply to Shepard, Jenkins and Lee.
 
And on the topic of dumbnes, moving from village idiots to global ones, Bully Boy underwhelmed in Cleveland, Ohio yeterday as he spoke on the topic of the illegal war doing his usual song and dance.  Carolyn Lochhead (San Francisco Chronicle) reports that Bully Boy says the escalation "is only beginning" and reminds everyone that, in December 2006, Bully Boy bragged to the press that the issue of withdrawal is "not going to face this government. . . .  We've mad that part clear.  It'll face future governments."  Jeff Zeleny and Sheryl Gay Stoblerg (New York Times) note that Bully Boy is saying that there must be patience (his mantra whenever he screws up) until the September report to Congress. Michael Abramowitz (Washington Post) notes Bully Boy spoke to "a friendly audience" and quotes Bully saying, "I believe that it's in the nation's interests to give the commander a chance to fully implement his operations.  And I believe Congress ought to wait for General Petraus to come back and give us an assessment of the strategy that he's putting in place before they make any decisions."  AFP notes that the Bully-flop took place "days before an interim assessment is due on the operation to surge 30,000 more troops into Iraq, amid reports that the Iraqi government has met none of its required political and military targets."
These 'targets' or 'benchmarks' are the imposed ones set by the US that have nothing to do with improving the lives of Iraqi but do include things such as the theft of Iraqi oil via a hydrocarbon law.  On that proposed legislation, CBS and AP note, "Kurdish leaders on Wednesday spoke out against a key oil law, raising further doubts over efforts to pass one of the political benchmarks sought by the U.S. at a time when the Bush administration is trying to fend off critics of its Iraq policy."  As Patrick Cockburn (Independent of London via CounterPunch) observes, "The benchmarks the Iraqi government is meant to achieve in exchange for US support were never realistic and have more to do with American than Iraqi politics."
 
Howard La Franchi (Christian Science Monitor) reveals that the White House was "caught off guard" and "scrambling" to get control of an issue that they apparently didn't know they had lost.  Attempting to gain control included, as Susan Milligan and Michael Krandish (Boston Globe) report, involved sending Dick Cheney to Congress in an attempt to charm members of Congress.  At risk, as Anna Mulrine (US News and World Report) noted yesterday, was the $649 billion for the Defense Authorization Bill which would continue to fund the illegal and expensive war.  Anne Flaherty (AP) noted today that private conversations between Bully Boy and Republican members of Congress were on the need to 'change course' (which is not the same "End the war").  Therefore, it was no surprise the way the vote  for the Webb Amendment went today.  Noam N. Levey (Los Angeles Times) explains, "Democrats fell four short of the 60-vote super-majority demanded by Republican leaders for an amendment to the defense authorization bill now being debated in the Senate."  It should be noted Republicans aren't the only ones posing.  The much touted Webb amendment would only pull US 'combat troops' out of Iraq -- those doing training, police work or fighting terrorism would remain.  If it seems familiar, yes this was the nonsense of the Pelosi-Reid measures.
 
From one scandal to another.  Robert Kubey (FAIR's Extra!, May/June 2007, pp. 14-15) reports on the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act of 2007 (passed October 16, 2007) which gave the Bully Boy amazing powers and shredded the Constitution, "giving Bush -- and all future U.S. presidents -- new and sweeping powers to use the U.S. military anywhere in the United States, virtually as he sees fit -- for disaster relief, crowd control, suppression of public disorder, or any 'other condition' that might arise."  With guest Frank Morales, Bonnie Faulkner explored this issue today on her program Guns and Butter -- how it could be used, when it could be implemented and those KRB/Halliburton emergency pens we're all supposed to forget about (we've covered that already, as have Robert Parry, Margaret Kimberley, Bonnie Faulkner and others). [Note the archived broadcast of Guns and Butter usually goes up at the show's website on Thursdays.]  Kubey notes that the law is opposed by the Adjutants General Association, the National Governors Association, the National Guard Association and others. The Extra! link is text the Guns and Butter is audio.
 
 

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