SnowMageddon Vets Storm Capital!

Paul Reickhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, explains why President Barack Obama’s pledge to bring the troops home is not enough and why more focus needs to be placed on how to help them after they’re back in the U.S.

Washington (CNN) -- The blizzard that hit Washington couldn't have come at a worse time for a leading veterans group -- but the name for its legislative push this week is certainly fitting.

Despite the monster snowstorm, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America organization is taking its Storm the Hill campaign directly to members of Congress and administration officials to push for veterans' rights.

Because of a fresh round of snowfall Tuesday night -- and the federal government being closed much of this week -- many of their meetings have been canceled or postponed.

Group founder and Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff, an Army veteran, said that despite "snowmageddon," they've been cracking away at the meetings that are still on.

He added that members are beyond determined to show up.

"We have a guy who came in from Michigan, who took four different planes to get here," he said. "Most of our folks have been through much worse than a blizzard, so they're able to handle this and keep driving on."

Continue on CNN..

Former Iraqi ambassador to gain $100

OSLO, Norway, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A former Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations expressed shock that a U.S. consultant to the Kurds may earn more than $100 million from an Iraqi oil deal.

Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, who advocated on behalf of Kurds in northern Iraq during the country's constitutional negotiations in 2005, had previously, in 2004, signed a deal with a Norwegian oil company, DNO, that gave him rights to a small portion of income from new oil discoveries in Kurdistan, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The discovery of the Tawke oil field in December 2005 could enrich Galbraith, son of renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, by more than $100 million, the Times said.

Former U.N. ambassador Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi said he was "speechless," that "an oil company was participating in the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution."

Similarly, Abdul-Hadi al-Hassani, vice chairman of the oil and gas committee in the Iraqi Parliament, said the "interference was not justified, illegal and not right."

Galbraith said he was acting as a private citizen.

"I believe my work with DNO helped create the Kurdistan oil industry which helps provide Kurdistan an economic base for the autonomy its people almost unanimously desire," he said.

http://michaelmoore.com/words/latest-news/us-adviser-kurds-criticized

Support for Afghan war at all-time low

By Paul Steinhauser
CNN Deputy Political Director
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Support for the war in Afghanistan is at an all-time low, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday morning indicates that 39 percent of Americans favor the war in Afghanistan, with 58 percent opposed to the mission.

Support is down from 53 percent in April, marking the lowest level since the start of the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The poll suggests that 23 percent of Democrats support the war. That number rises to 39 percent for independents and 62 percent for Republicans.

"Most of the recent erosion in support has come from within the GOP," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. "Unlike Democrats and independents, Republicans still favor the war, but their support has slipped eight points in just two weeks."

How does Afghanistan compares with Iraq?

"The Afghan war is almost as unpopular as the Iraq war has been for the past four years," Holland said, noting that support for the war in Iraq first dropped to 39 percent in June 2005 and has generally remained in the low to mid-30s since.

The poll's release comes after the two deadliest months for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. In August, 48 U.S. troops were killed in the fighting, surpassing the previous high of 45 the month before.

President Obama has called Afghanistan a "war of necessity" and has placed great emphasis on defeating the Taliban and al Qaeda militants operating there and in Pakistan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to approve sending thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan to deal with the growing threat from roadside bombs, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said last week.

Gates has concluded there is not enough manpower or equipment in Afghanistan to protect U.S. troops from such bombs, Morrell said. Watch U.S. senators on the next U.S. moves in Afghanistan »

The CNN/Opinion Research poll was conducted Friday through Sunday, with 1,012 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Blackwater no more....

After $1.3 billion in government contracts and controversy over the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians, Blackwater Worldwide is moving on. The Washington Post reported this week that Blackwater, the for-profit military company contracted by the Bush government to provide securities services in Iraq, will not have it’s Iraq contract renewed. But the powerful military corporation has no plans to slow down after what has been an extraordinarily profitable decade.



Nation contributor Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, discusses the legacy and future of Blackwater Worldwide, including its expansion into hot new markets: Chasing Somalian pirates, and total intelligence gathering.

Cheney Saddam......

Recently Vice President Dick Cheney gave an interview covering several topics from the invasion of Iraq to the torturing of people at good ole' G-Bay.....

Cheney Defends His Torture Policies

"I have been ... focused very much on whatwe needed to do to defend the nation."– Dick Cheney, December 15, 2008

Saddam Defended His Torture Policies

"I'm doing it for Iraq. I'm not defendingmyself. But I am defending you."– Saddam Hussein, December 5, 2005

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http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=1085

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KARL: Now, President Bush recently said that his greatest regret was that the intelligence was wrong on weapons of mass destruction. Is that your biggest regret?

CHENEY: No, I wouldn't -- I understand why he says that. I certainly share the frustration that the intelligence report on Iraq WMD generated but in terms of the intelligence itself, I tend to look at the entire community and what they've done over the course of the last several years. Intelligence -- it's not a science, it's an art form in many respects and you don't always get it right.

I think while I would mention that as a major failure of the intelligence community, it clearly was. On the other hand, we've had other successes and failures. I think the run-up to 9/11 where we missed that attack was a failure. On the other hand we've had great success since 9/11 in terms of what the intelligence community has contributed overall to the defense of the nation, to defeating al Qaeda, to making it possible for us to do very serious damage to our enemies.

KARL: You probably saw Karl Rove last week said that if the intelligence had been correct we probably would not have gone to war.

CHENEY: I disagree with that. I think -- as I look at the intelligence with respect to Iraq, what they got wrong was that there weren't any stockpiles. What we found in the after action reports, after the intelligence report was done and then various special groups went and looked at the intelligence and what its validity was. What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stocks.

They also found that he had every intention of resuming production once the international sanctions were lifted. He had a long reputation and record of having started two wars. Of having brutalized and killed hundreds of thousands of people, some of them with weapons of mass destruction in his own country. He had violated 16 National Security Council resolutions. He had established a relationship as a terror sponsoring state according to the State Department. He was making $25,000 payments to the families of suicide bombers.

This was a bad actor and the country's better off, the world's better off with Saddam gone and I think we made the right decision in spite of the fact that the original NIE was off in some of its major judgments.

Blackwater..... War Profiteers??

Check out this new video from BravenewFilms.org

Liberal Pranksters Hand Out Times Spoof

By Sewell Chan / New York Times

Sorry, folks, the paper isn’t free. And the Iraq war isn’t over, at least not yet.

In an elaborate hoax, pranksters distributed thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, the 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others.

The spurious 14-page papers — with a headline “IRAQ WAR ENDS” — surprised commuters, many of whom took the free copies thinking they were legitimate.

The paper is dated July 4, 2009, and imagines a liberal utopia of national health care, a rebuilt economy, progressive taxation, a national oil fund to study climate change, and other goals of progressive politics.

The hoax was accompanied by a Web site that mimics the look of The Times’s real Web site. A page of the spoof site contained links to dozens of progressive organizations, which were also listed in the print edition.

(A headline in the fake business section declares: “Public Relations Industry Forecasts a Series of Massive Layoffs.” Uh, sure.)

Gawker is reporting that the prank looks like the work of the liberal pranksters known as the Yes Men, who were the subject of a 2004 documentary film.

Later on Wednesday morning, the Yes Men issued a statement claiming credit for the prank. The statement said, in part:

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street.

Catherine J. Mathis, a Times spokeswoman, said: “This is obviously a fake issue of The Times. We are in the process of finding out more about it.”

Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a co-author of “The Trust,” a history of the family that controls The Times, said in a telephone interview that the paper should be flattered by the spoof.

“I would say if you’ve got one, hold on to it,” Mr. Jones, a former Times reporter, said of the fake issue. “It will probably be a collector’s item. I’m just glad someone thinks The New York Times print edition is worthy of an elaborate hoax. A Web spoof would have been infinitely easier. But creating a print newspaper and handing it out at subway stations? That takes a lot of effort.”

He added, “I consider this a gigantic compliment to The Times.”

There is a history of spoofs and parodies of The Times. Probably the best-known is one unveiled two months into the 1978 newspaper strike. A whole cast of characters took part in that parody, including the journalist Carl Bernstein, the author Christopher Cerf, the humorist Tony Hendra and the Paris Review editor George Plimpton.

And for April Fool’s Day in 1999, the British business executive Richard Branson printed 100,000 copies of a parody titled “I Can’t Believe It’s Not The New York Times.” Also that year, a 27-year-old Princeton alumnus named Matthew Polly, operating a “guerrilla press” known as Hard Eight Publishing, published a 32-page spoof of the newspaper.

Vets group slams McCain on voting record

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/10/military_vets_congress_reportcard_100708/

Vets group slams McCain on voting record

By Rick Maze - Staff writerPosted : Wednesday Oct 8, 2008 12:38:28 EDT

The nation’s most prestigious group for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans released a congressional scorecard on Tuesday that ranks Republican presidential candidate John McCain as having one of the worst voting records when it comes to supporting troops and veterans.
The grade is due to his absence on several key votes on military and veterans’ issues over the last two years.

McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a decorated Navy fighter pilot who spent 5½ years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, received a D on the report card from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He is one of nine lawmakers — four senators and five members of the House of Representatives — who received a D or F from the nonprofit, nonpartisan group.

McCain’s presidential campaign staff did not respond to calls asking for comment on the report.
Two people — both Republicans — received an F: Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

For senators, scores were based on 10 votes involving increased funding for veterans’ programs, expansions of benefits, a vote to purchase Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles and four separate votes at various stages of consideration of the Post-9/11 GI Bill of Rights and co-sponsorship of the bill.

McCain’s Democratic challenger, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, received a B on the report card, the same grade received by Obama’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. Obama and Biden also missed key votes; Obama missed four and Biden three.
Fifty-five senators received an A on the report card.

In the House, grades were based on 13 votes and co-sponsorship of the full-tuition GI Bill benefits that became law earlier this year. Votes included increasing veterans’ funding and benefits, a veterans’ suicide prevention bill, a bill giving refugee status to translators who worked with U.S. troops in Iraq, expanded wounded warrior treatment programs and a bill ending the government’s policy of requiring repayment of bonuses for people who did not complete their military obligation because of death or disability. Five House members received a D, but 250 others received an A.

Vanessa Williamson of IAVA said the grades are based on items drawn from the association’s legislative agenda, which was provided to every congressional office.

Getting a good score was not that difficult because many of the votes on veterans’ issues were unanimous or nearly unanimous. In the Senate, only three votes on the Post-9/11 GI Bill made a significant difference in grades. In the House, two votes on the GI Bill and a 2007 vote about whether Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans should be given two years or five years of no-questions asked health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs made the difference.

One hundred fifty lawmakers received perfect scores.

Slipping through the news cracks.....

Just some videos that aren't making enough news rounds...


Mitt Romney Blasting Mccain!



Mccain's Health

John McCain has not yet released his medical records to the public. McCain is 72 years old, and has been diagnosed with invasive melanoma. In May of this year, a small group of selected reporters were allowed to review 1,173 pages of McCain's medical records that covered only the last eight years, and were allowed only three hours to do so. John McCain's health is an issue of profound importance. We call on John McCain to issue a full, public disclosure of all of his medical records, available for the media and members of the general public to review.



Sign the petition:

http://therealmccain.com/

Signed by 45,642 people, 2,187 doctors:



Mccain Economic shift!





Alaska women rally against Palin!

This is the largest political rally in state history......



From Mudflats:

Never have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.

So, if you’ve been doing the math… Yes. The Alaska Women Reject Palin rally was significantly bigger than Palin’s rally that got all the national media coverage! So take heart, sit back, and enjoy…Sarah Palin most definitely does not speak for all Alaskans.

UPDATE: According to John Amato over at C&L, Alaskan right-wing talk radio host Eddie Burke exposed the names of this rally's organizers on the air. And he called those who protested "socialist, baby killing, maggots."





Sarah's Interview mishap....





A number of the claims that Palin made were false. She has never issued an order to the Alaska National Guard and every vice president “over the last 30 years had met a foreign head of state before being elected.” In addition to saying that she hasn’t “really focused much on the war in Iraq” in March 2007, Palin also called for “an exit plan” from Iraq. Although she can see Russia from some parts of Alaska, Palin has never actually traveled there.



ThinkProgress has put together a document compiling what we know about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) vice presidential running mate. Here are the issues:

http://thinkprogress.org/palin-digest/