:: The Rational Radical Blog ::

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Radioactive Scrap: U.N. Warns of Possible Nuclear Thefts in Iraq

Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency has reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrap yards.

With all the talk about WMD's falling into the hands of terrorists, shouldn't we be guarding this stuff?! The Bushians are unbelievably incompetent.

Jack Clark 8:23 PM [+]   
Post #108225860421886898

Ambassador: Negroponte Is Expected to Be Picked for Iraq Post

Mr. Negroponte's career dates to the war in Vietnam in the 1960's and the turmoil of Central America in the 1980's.

Pity the people of Iraq with this accomplice to mass murder as the ambassador in control what reportedly will be the largest U.S. embassy in the world, 3000 people.

Jack Clark 8:16 PM [+]   
Post #108225821884898647

Holy Week Pilgrims Flock to 'Passion'

Dwight Robinson, marketing director for Bob Siemon Designs, the film's only licensee for jewelry, said that the company had to add 35 employees to its staff of 125. The company has sold 150,000 crosses and 125,000 pewter Crucifixion nails.

How many whips and vials of Jesus's blood have they sold? Mel Gibson leaves no stone unturned, does he?

Jack Clark 8:12 PM [+]   
Post #108225795574424249

Kerry Plans Effort to Show He Is a Centrist

Declaring that he is 'not a redistribution Democrat,' Senator John Kerry told a group of wealthy and well-connected supporters on Thursday that he would soon start an aggressive campaign to define himself as a centrist, in hopes of peeling moderate Republicans from President Bush.

He's still far better than Bush.

Jack Clark 4:44 PM [+]   
Post #10822454867620933

Countless Bad Decisions and 681 Deaths

We have a modest nomination for the first head to roll: Ambassador L. Paul (Jerry) Bremer, the American demi-proconsul of Baghdad, head of the Civilian Provisional Authority charged with installing Jeffersonian democracy and turning on the lights, water and sewers. Virtually every major decision he had made in Iraq has been wrong, poorly timed or just plain dumb.

Beginning with his decision to demobilize the real Iraq army and send them home with their AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, no paychecks, no future and heaps of anger. Followed by his decision to purge everyone who ever held a Baath Party card from public life and public employment, thus abandoning many Sunnis to hopelessness and anger. Followed by his latest decision to close down Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr's newspaper and provoke him to anger - without any plan to deal with that anger when it spilled over into the streets and inflamed the Shiite community.

Any one of those flawed decisions ought to be a firing offense. Just as the Feb. 27, 2003, testimony of Wolfowitz to the effect that Iraq was going to be easy to occupy ought to have been a firing offense. Just as the testimony of the deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, that the Pentagon did not do any planning for post-war Iraq because the act of planning might have contributed to starting the war ought to have gotten him fired.

Fire them all, and go on to Powell, Rice and Bush.

Jack Clark 4:42 PM [+]   
Post #108224532698366958

`THE PASSION'    Painful Sequels

To the Editor:

Re 'The Passions of the Repeat Viewers' by Alex Abramovich [March 28]:

Because Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ' has been such a box-office success, and because Hollywood producers are now apparently contemplating other religiously oriented movies, I suggest that they explore the stories of the Christian martyrs, whose deaths could certainly be dragged out in slow motion to two or so hours of torture rivaling anything Mr. Gibson produced. For starters, there is St. Cecilia, who was hacked to death, but refused to die on the first couple of tries; St. Agatha, whose nipples were plucked off by red-hot tongs; Abelard, whose emasculation would be something just a little different; St. Stephen, whose stoning could be a great, extended mob scene; and St. John the Baptist, whose actual beheading could be shown, not just the already severed head we are accustomed to seeing. This genre could provide the motion picture industry with a cash cow for decades to come.

Then to show he's even-handed, Mel could film in exquisite, loving detail the tortures the Church inflicted on "heretics" in the Inquisition. The possibilities are truly endless!

Jack Clark 11:14 AM [+]   
Post #108222567703763602

"You Gotta Win to Win"

What’s never mentioned, at least in the American press, is the number of Iraqi casualties: estimated to be between 8,800 and 10,700 civilians killed and tens of thousands wounded. These victims of American firepower have extended families, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Iraqi casualties are followed in the Iraqi and Muslim press with the same avid concern that American casualties are counted here.

It doesn’t take much of an imagination to conclude that a lot of Iraqis are extremely angry -- angry enough to want to fight back -- seeing people they know killed or maimed by a foreign force that doesn’t speak their language, believe in or (as they see it) respect their religion, or understand and appreciate their history and culture.

...Iraqis know that their country had nothing to do with the destruction of the World Trade Center. Many of them, probably a large majority, are glad to see their ruthless dictator gone, but they also know, as Americans don’t want to acknowledge, that it was the U.S. that helped bring Saddam to power. Until the first Gulf War, we provided him with arms and supported his use of biological and chemical weapons. The Bush administration fancies us as liberators; but Iraqis likely see us as hypocrites and invaders.

How can anyone with half a brain not see this?

Jack Clark 9:25 PM [+]   
Post #108217590085304459

AskQuestions.org - Article: Who Really Pays Taxes in America?  There are some great charts in here documenting economic injustice.

Jack Clark 9:19 PM [+]   
Post #108217556105773539

Get Out Now: This is a War of Liberation and We Are the Enemy

In Fallujah, US marines, described as 'tremendously precise' by their psychopathic spokesman, slaughtered up to 600 people, according to hospital directors. They did it with aircraft and heavy weapons deployed in urban areas, as revenge for the killing of four American mercenaries. Many of the dead of Fallujah were women and children and the elderly. Only the Arab television networks, notably al-Jazeera, have shown the true scale of this crime, while the Anglo-American media continue to channel and amplify the lies of the White House and Downing Street.

...It is said that British officers in Iraq now describe the "tactics" of their American comrades as "appalling". No, the very nature of a colonial occupation is appalling, as the families of 13 Iraqis killed by British soldiers, who are taking the British government to court, will agree. If the British military brass understand an inkling of their own colonial past, not least the bloody British retreat from Iraq 83 years ago, they will whisper in the ear of the little Wellington-cum-Palmerston in 10 Downing Street: "Get out now, before we are thrown out.

It's amazing when you compare this type of writing to mainstream corporate America reporting, isn't it?

Jack Clark 9:14 PM [+]   
Post #108217525196494690

10-Gallon Hats in Bavaria

Militiamen in three-cornered hats march into battle, settlers head west in a covered wagon, and cowboys 'stampede' cattle down the street. Blond, blue-eyed 'American Indians' walk proudly by in full costume, and Hunting Wolf coaxes forward a motley herd of bison. A stagecoach rolls into town, and Big Joe foils a slapstick bank robbery. At one point a few Union and Confederate soldiers rush toward one another on horseback and stage a saber-clashing fight.

Every so often, a fanfare rings out, and two trick riders in star-spangled red, white and blue costumes gallop down the street, one bearing an American flag and the other a Pullman City banner.

I found the show silly but compelling, and I laughed at the antics and applauded the stunts along with the rest of the crowd. The enthusiastic embrace of the cliches and characters of the American frontier dramatically demonstrated how our mythic symbols have become universal.

Universal? Typical myopia. The US and Germany constitute the universe, I guess. Forget about the other 6 billion people on the planet.

Jack Clark 12:20 PM [+]   
Post #108214325469866531

U.S. troops, cleric's militia battle outside Najaf

Some 2,500 U.S. soldiers are deployed outside Najaf, under orders to kill or capture al-Sadr and dismantle his al-Mahdi Army militia.

Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, warned of a strong Shiite response if U.S. forces entered Najaf or Karbala to capture al-Sadr.

The holy cities are a “red line,” Mahdi al-Karbala’i, al-Sistani’s representative in Karbala, said during a sermon. “We are calling for peaceful solutions, but if the coalition forces are to cross the red line, then we'll take a different stronger position.”

Al-Sistani, a moderate who has opposed anti-U.S. violence, has enormousinfluence among Iraq’s Shiite majority.

Will this deter the Bushian forces of empire? I doubt it?

Jack Clark 11:27 AM [+]   
Post #108214003817872893

Insurgents Display New Sophistication

Insurgents fighting the U.S.-led occupation force have sharply increased the sophistication, coordination and aggressiveness of their tactics over the past week, Army officers and soldiers involved in combat here said.

Most dramatically, as several thousand U.S. troops pushed south this week from the Baghdad area to this new base in central Iraq, one highway bridge on their planned route was destroyed and two others were so heavily damaged that they could not be used by heavy Army trucks and armored vehicles.

Those attacks on convoy routes, which U.S. forces were using for the first time, revealed a previously unseen degree of coordination among insurgent groups, said Army Col. Dana J.H. Pittard, the commander of a brigade-size task force now assembling for possible combat operations against the forces of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr in or near the holy city of Najaf.

Not a good sign for the Bushian dream of empire.

Jack Clark 9:49 PM [+]   
Post #108209098757227619

America Reaps the Whirlwind

The constant chest thumping in the Bush Administration about America being so great and wonderful - what's wrong with those folks who don't want American values? - leads us to ask, which American values? The dream and the promise of America, or the sordid history of America's various interventions in the past century around the world?

Exactly.

Jack Clark 9:44 PM [+]   
Post #108209067840223280

Hear No Evil, Read No Evil, Speak Drivel

On Wednesday, President Bush held only his third press conference and was asked three times whether he accepted responsibility for failing to act on warning before September 11. 'I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't [sic] yet,' he said. 'I just haven't - you just put me under the spot here and maybe I'm not quick - as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.'

Brain damage. Why has no one the courage to say so?

Jack Clark 9:43 PM [+]   
Post #108209062603694113

Iraq death toll reaches new high

April's casualty count for US soldiers has spiralled to 87, the highest for any month since the war began.
Nearly all the deaths have been in hostile incidents in two weeks which have seen major battles with both Sunni and Shia insurgents.

Did you notice that at his press conference the other night, Bush didn't repeat his "Bring it on" dare?

Jack Clark 11:03 AM [+]   
Post #108205220053607695

Tell me that Bush's performance tonight in his press conference wasn't his lamest yet. I loved it when he said he couldn't think fast enough on his feet to think of a mistake that he had made in the war on terror! I wouldn't be surprised if his poll numbers went down further as a result of this press conference.

Jack Clark 9:00 PM [+]   
Post #108191522966138510

Anti-U.S. Outrage Unites a Growing Iraqi Resistance

Moneer Munthir is ready to kill Americans.

For months, he has been struggling to control an explosion of miserable feelings: humiliation, fear, anger, depression.

"But in the last two weeks, these feelings blow up inside me," said Mr. Munthir, a 35-year-old laborer. "The Americans are attacking Shiite and Sunni at the same time. They have crossed a line. I had to get a gun."

The key question is, how widespread is this attitude?!

Jack Clark 8:50 PM [+]   
Post #108191461275086206

Time to Pay Taxes, but Who Is Really Paying?

Great chart!

Jack Clark 8:47 PM [+]   
Post #108191443008783265

U.S., France Block UN Probe of Aristide Ouster

One constitutional expert who closely monitors the United Nations says it is obvious where the blame lies.

''It is clear that the United States and France violated the U.N. charter as well as the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, with respect to their criminal treatment of President Aristide'', says Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law.

Boyle told IPS that Aristide still remains the lawful president of Haiti, a member state of the United Nations. He said Annan should have publicly taken that position, and the Security Council should have demanded Aristide's immediate return to Haiti.

''The fact that they did not demonstrates the continuing and further degradation of the Office of the Secretary-General, the U.N. Secretariat and the Security Council under this current regime of U.S. hegemony,'' said Boyle, author of 'Destroying World Order.'

International law be damned when it conflicts with what the Bushians want to do!

Jack Clark 8:40 PM [+]   
Post #108191400060238716

New Reports on U.S. Planting WMDs in Iraq  I certainly don't know if this is true, or if this Mehr News Agency has any credibility. I certainly do know that I wouldn't put it past the Bushians to be engaged in such an activity. If they were, and got caught, it's certain impeachment. Let the story unfold as it may...

Jack Clark 8:22 PM [+]   
Post #108191292589840083

Kerry Ignores Reproaches of Some Bishops

Mr. Kerry's decision to receive communion represented a challenge to several prominent Catholic bishops, who have become increasingly exasperated with politicians who are Catholic but who deviate from Catholic teaching.

Mr. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, supports abortion rights and stem cell research, both of which are contrary to church teaching.

And similarly: Bishops Take on Pro-Abortion Legislators

Too bad they don't take on the anti-Jesus, anti-Matthew 25:31-46 right-wing pseudo-Christians.

On this issue, Sean Hannity had a guest on who was supporting the bishops. Hannity asked the guest whether since Hannity, a public figure, opposed the Church's teachings against the death penalty and birth control, should Hannity also be barred from Communion. The guest had no real answer. Hannity said he felt such activity by the bishops was going down a dangerous road.

Hannity especially has a problem, not just with the bishops, but with Jesus, since Hannity consistently violates Jesus's Matthew 25:31-46 injunction about how to treat "the least of these."

Jack Clark 8:18 PM [+]   
Post #108191273858775133

Unasked Questions: The 9/11 Commission Should Ask Who Authorized the Evacuation of Saudi Nationals in the Days Following the Attacks  Will they have the guts and the perserverence to get beyond the evasive answers they'll receive?

Jack Clark 5:01 PM [+]   
Post #108190086687690412

Yet Another Challenge to Wal-Mart

Costco pays its workers about $5 an hour more compared to Wal-Mart and has about twice as many workers covered by company health care.

Oh, yes, and Costco has a store in Inglewood.

Boycott Wal-Mart, shop at Costco.

Jack Clark 9:20 PM [+]   
Post #108183001520207209

Al-Qaida May Not Want Bush to Lose Election  Very true, considering all the hatred for the U.S. that Bushian policies have engendered around the world.

Jack Clark 8:37 PM [+]   
Post #108182744896607851

Battle for Iraqi Hearts and Minds Suspended in Face of Escalating Resistance

The Democratic criticism was to be expected, but Bush should be more concerned with some of the talk coming from his usually loyal right-wing commentators.

Perhaps the best known of them, Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly, was running out of patience, he told his audience last week, making a comparison between Vietnam and an Iraq where Americans increasingly fight on behalf of a population that will not help itself.

'If these people won't help us, we need to get out in an orderly manner,' O'Reilly said. 'If, come next October, Iraq continues to be a big mess, President Bush might very well lose the election.

'Mr. Bush and his advisers must know that. And that's why there's still a chance that the Iraqi radicals will be beaten.

'But time is running out, both for Iraq and for the Bush administration.'

O'Reilly warns the Bushians. O'Reilly still thinks the war was a grand idea, he just doesn't like the way the Bushians are conducting it.

Jack Clark 8:23 PM [+]   
Post #108182660361727589

If you want to read two conservative columinsts starting to sound the panic button about Bush's chances in November, check out this and this.

Jack Clark 8:17 PM [+]   
Post #108182623472304503

When U.S. Aided Insurgents, Did It Breed Future Terrorists?

[I]n the eyes of Mahmood Mamdani, a Uganda-born political scientist and cultural anthropologist at Columbia University... the spread of terror as a tactic is largely an outgrowth of American cold war foreign policy. After Vietnam, he argues, the American government shifted from a strategy of direct intervention in the fight against global Communism to one of supporting new forms of low-level insurgency by private armed groups.

... Using third and fourth parties, the C.I.A. supported terrorist and proto-terrorist movements in Indochina, Latin America, Africa and, of course, Afghanistan, he argues in his new book, "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror" (Pantheon).

Is this proposition not widely accepted? What else were Unita, the Contras, etc?

Jack Clark 10:27 PM [+]   
Post #108174764265054371

GIs: Depleted Uranium Dust Made Us Ill  If they're sick, imagine how sick the Iraqis (and Afghanis) will be, who are at the receiving end of our weapons.

Jack Clark 10:23 PM [+]   
Post #108174739495195989

Images of Civilian Dead, Wounded in Fallujah Become Anti-American Rallying Point

In newspapers, the stories ask if the deaths of perhaps hundreds of innocent civilians is not a greater crime than the horrific deaths and mutilations of four Americans.

..."When the four Americans were murdered, almost all Iraqis were horrified, and understood that the reaction must be strong," said Iraqi journalist Dhrgam Mohammed Ali, referring to the killing March 31 of four private security guards whose bodies were then mutilated, dragged through Fallujah and hung from a bridge.

"But now, we see women and children dying, trying to escape and not being allowed to, and many stop remembering the dead Americans. Instead, they wonder why four dead Americans are worth so much, while hundreds of dead Iraqis are worth so little."

Doesn't the US response violate the war crime principle of proportionality?

Jack Clark 10:21 PM [+]   
Post #108174727002576089

IRS has Become a Subsidy System for Super-Wealthy Americans; Winks at Rich Deadbeats

IRS data, adjusted for inflation, show that the poor are really getting poorer and the super rich are getting fabulously richer, a trend enhanced by their falling tax burden. In 1970, the poorest third of Americans had more than 10 times as much income as the super rich, the top 1/100th of one percent. Back then the poor had more than 10 percent of all income and the super rich had one percent.

By 2000 the two groups were equal -- the 28,000 Americans at the top had as much income as the 96 million at the bottom. The poor's share of income fell by half while the super rich's share rose to more than 5 percent of all income.

Wow! Read the entire article for more eye-openers.

Jack Clark 10:18 PM [+]   
Post #108174708472379092

Anti-U.S. Outrage Unites a Growing Iraqi Resistance  Winning hearts and minds the tried and proven American way.

Jack Clark 10:14 PM [+]   
Post #108174688045224907

'Skyscraper' Suicide-Hijack Warnings Came During Clinton Era

[B]y the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. intelligence had known for years that al Qaeda wanted to train kamikaze pilots to carry out 9/11-style attacks against buildings like the World Trade Center.

The Bushians weren't up to speed on prior intelligence reports?

Jack Clark 10:01 PM [+]   
Post #108174611157929129

Ashcroft out of Loop on Aug. 6 Warning Memo

Attorney General John Ashcroft never saw the Aug. 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) warning of an al-Qaida attack inside the United States because President George W. Bush, with his penchant for secrecy, had restricted the distribution of the PDB to just seven national security officials, Newsweek reports in its current issue.

Could there be any more conclusive evidence of the ludicrous -- and damaging -- level of secrecy the Bushians engage in?

Jack Clark 9:59 PM [+]   
Post #108174598109201650

Bush's Pre-9/11 al-Qaida Memo Released

President Bush was told more than a month before the Sept. 11 attacks that al-Qaida had reached America's shores, had a support system in place for its operatives and that the FBI had detected suspicious activity that might involve a hijacking plot.

Even Newsmax.com isn't spinning this for Bush! With this info, did Bush order more federal marshalls on planes, more stringent passenger inspections, or anything at all?

Jack Clark 9:55 PM [+]   
Post #108174575552823715