BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE
WHERE THERE'S SMOKE, THERE'S FIRE.
AND TODAY THERE WAS SMOKE IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
WHICH DIDN'T STOP EVERYONE FROM TALKING ABOUT BENGHAZI.
WHY, IF A STATE DEPT. EMPLOYEE (VICTORIA NULAND) HAS NOW BEEN CAUGHT MANIPULATING INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC IN ORDER TO MAKE THE STATE DEPARTMENT LOOK BETTER, HASN'T BARRY O CONDEMNED IT?
THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO LIE TO THE PEOPLE.
THE ACTIONS OF VICTORIA NULAND AND THE STATE DEPT. MUST BE CONDEMNED BY THE WHITE HOUSE.
REACHED FOR COMMENT, BARRY O INSISTED, "I HAD SO MUCH MORE FUN ON MY FIELD TRIP TO AUSTIN. I WISH I WERE STILL THERE."
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Today Military Families Speak Out notes the passing of Charlie Richardson "on May 4th, 2012 at home after a six-year battle with cancer". They note:
The seeds of MFSO were sown in the summer of 2002 when Charley’s son,
a U.S. Marine, was being deployed and it became clear he would most
likely be ending up in Iraq. As life-long peace and labor activists,
Charley, and his wife Nancy Lessin, knew they couldn’t sit by silently
while their son was being sent into harm’s way, to a war that should not
be happening, an illegal and immoral war of aggression. They brought a
sign to anti-war protests with their son’s picture on it that said, “Our
Son Is A Marine – Don’t Send Him to War for Oil!” Charley and Nancy
were overwhelmed by the response they received to the power of their
voice as a military family protesting the war.
At one of these rallies they met another a father whose son was facing deployment to Kuwait. Together, they formed Military Families Speak Out
to organize and amplify the voices of military families in opposition
to an invasion of Iraq. Just months later, Nancy and Charley spoke at a
press conference, offering their home phone number for MFSO; within
days, two hundred families from around the country joined the
organization.
In February, 2003 Charley and Nancy were lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit
against then-President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld, calling for a temporary restraining order that would prevent
the U.S. from invading Iraq until there was a congressionally mandated
declaration of war. Three active-duty service members, other MFSO
members and twelve Members of Congress were part of that lawsuit. The
case went two rounds in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and finally
failed on March 18, 2003. The bombs dropped on Baghdad the next day.
For the next two years MFSO existed in Charley and Nancy’s living
room. On top of their day jobs as prominent labor activists, Nancy and
Charley wrote grant proposals, helped members start chapters, trained
families on how to speak to the media and pushed tirelessly to create a
home for families like them, who had loved ones in the military and were
opposed to the war. Families came to them with the same story. “Thank
God I found you. I thought I was the only one! What can I do to be a
part of this?”
Staying with the topic of peace, Yavuz Baydar (Al-Monitor) notes, "Sticking to its promises, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
appears to have started pulling out from Turkey as agreed with Ankara.
At least 50 militants are said to have crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan
since May 8." At her site last night, Betty continued the conversation about how ridiculous Nouri looked for declaring Thursday that the PKK could not come into Iraq. World Bulletin News quotes
Turkey's Foreign Ministry, "This announcement seems to result more from
the contestations between Baghdad and Erbil. It is obvious that the
PKK withdrawing from Turkey will not be a threat to anyone, and that
they will leave behind terror. We are not sending terrorists to another
country to organize attacks. Therefore there is no reason to worry.
The PKK came from Iraq anyway and would enter and exit periodically.
Why are they now a problem?"
Background. Turkey has been the part of many histroical empires -- including the
Hittite, Byzantine and the Ottoman Empire. From 1918 to 1922,
Constantinople was occupied by the French, British and Italians. The
native population fought back, expelled the occupiers and the Republic
of Turkey was created. That's a very brief and incomplete history of
Turkey. Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008,
"The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's
oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has
waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of
Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's
largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration
straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of
imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While
Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order
to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these
are now at risk." May 8th saw the start of a process the two sides had spent some time negotiating.
While the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in the north is
where the PKK will go, it has been the central government out of Baghdad
which has spent the week complaining. Along with Nouri, you've had his
Cabinet members launch various verbal attacks on Turkey. How bad is
it? So bad that Nouri's government figured they better make nice with
another neighbor. Al-Shorfa reports,
"Iraq has re-opened its land border crossing with Jordan two weeks
after closing it for security reasons, Anbar's local government said
Friday."
Jordan, like Turkey on Sunday and Syria previously, has been accused by
Nouri and his Cabinet in the past of being responsible for the ongoing
protests in Iraq which kicked off December 21st and continued today. Iraqi Spring MC reports that a Reuters reporters has been detained in Anbar while attempting to cover a protest. In related news, the National Iraqi News Agency reports,
"Police forces prevented the media and journalists from entering the
Mosque of Muhammad Rasoolollah in the city of Kirkuk to cover the
unified Friday prayers." Falluja is in Anbar and the sit-in continues there. In this Iraqi Spring MC video, the speaker in Falluja rejects the division of Iraq. Today's protests were about unity and dignity and a unified Iraq. Alsumaria notes
the Ramadi protest saw tens of thousands turn out to celebrate dignity
and choose peace. They called on the United Nations and the religious
authorities to curb Nouri's lust for power. NINA reports
that the Ramadi and Falluja protesters "demonstrated after Friday
unified prayers on The international road condemned the double standard
policy of Maliki government in dealing with Iraqi people component and
demanded to bring down such a government."
It was another bad day for prime minister and chief thug Nouri al-Maliki. Alsumaria reports
that cleric and movement leader Moqtada al-Sadr declared his sympathy
for the Iraqis who've lost family members as a result of the purchase
and use by Nouri's government of 'magic' wands -- which have been known
not to work since 2009. Moqtada urged the families who lost loved ones
and those who were injured as a result to sue the person who purchased
the items. (That would be Nouri.) April 23rd (see the April 24, 2013 snapshot),
James McCormick, the man who made and sold the wands, who was on trial for those wands,
was pronounced guilty on three counts of fraud. And still Nouri has
allowed -- no, insisted that the wands be used. May 2nd, McCormick was sentenced to a maxium of 10 years. Jake Ryan (Sun) quoted
Judge Richard Hone stating, "The device was useless, the profit
outrageous and your culpability as a fraudster has to be placed in the
highest category. Your profits were obscene. You have neither insight,
shame or any sense of remorse." And yet last Friday, Ammar Karim (AFP) reported
that the 'magic' wands to 'detect' bombs (and
drugs and, no doubt, spirits from the other world) are still being used
in Iraq. He spoke with a police officer in Baghdad who admits that
everyone knows that they don't work but that the police are under orders
to use the wands.
Last Saturday, NINA reported,
"Leader of the Sadrist Trend, Muqtada al-Sadr, demanded Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki to apologize and stand before Parliament to answer about
the deal of the explosives detection instruments." Moqtada suspects
some
Iraqis were bribed in this deal and wants names he also demands that the
'magic' wands stop being used immediately stating that they are "an
insult to the Iraqis' intelligence." Moqtada and Iraqiya have called
for Nouri to appear before Parliament and explain why the wands were
purchased, who profited from them and the various details of the deal
that was made for them.
Al Mada reports
that the Ministry of the Interior claimed today that they would recover
all the money spent on the magic wands. Ministry of the Interior
Inspector General Aqeel Turaihi states that they have known and
acknowledged since October 2010 that the magic wands do not work.
Regardless of whether money is recovered for the purchase, as Moqtada
al-Sadr points out, lives have been lost and people have been injured.
The violence continues today. National Iraqi News Agency reports Mohammed al-Rawi (Director of the Statutes Civil Dept in al-Qaim) was shot dead in Anbar Province, a Diyala Province car bombing left a wife and husband injured, and a Babil Province sticky bombing claimed 1 life and left another person injured. All Iraq News reports an armed clash in Mosul that left 1 police officer and 3 rebels dead and, in southern Mosul, police shot dead 1 rebel. Al Jazeera notes a bombing targeting the al-Sultan mosque in Mahaweel. Sameer N. Yacoub (AP) reports 3 people were killed in the bombing and seven more injured.
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