BLUNDERS OF A FEW

Every time I read a Cindy Sheehan piece, tears well up in my eyes. This brave woman knows first hand the pain of losing a child sent to war for someone's
idiotic ideology or someone just trying to prove a point. I believe that they, the neocons, visualized overthrowing saddam hussein and incorrectly assessed, all of Iraq would be enthralled and completely support this horrendous preempted assault on their county. They so blithely thought of war as a means to turning their delusions into reality, BIG GARGANTUAN BLUNDER!

In this life we all, at one time or another have tried to prove a point or two. And, we have all experienced the feeling that what we believe in is the correct course and everyone else's belief is wrong. But hardly ever do these ego yearnings to show the world that what we believe-in is correct, result in the death and mayhem of fellow human beings. Why? Because we are civilized. What Bush and his cronies have done to prove their point is anything but civilized, in fact it is barbaric.

I enjoy consulting my dictionary on occasion to see the exact meaning of what we feel are everyday words. Reading these definitions give you a fuller
sense of what the BARBARIANS who occupy the White House are in actuality,
NO SPIN JUST PLAIN OLD AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS. And I might add... I am really PISSED that they are still GETTING AWAY WITH THE
HORRORS THEY HAVE FOISTED UPON US, especially the Mothers of the fallen, and ask... WHEN WILL THEY BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE AND PAY FOR THEIR
BLUNDERS? ThinkingBlue

civilized adj.
1. Having a highly developed society and culture. 2. Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, ethical, and reasonable:

barbaric adj. Marked by brutality or depravity:• beastly• abusive• barbarian• heartless•animalistic • bestial brutal• brutish• cruel• inhuman• monstrous• savage

blunder n. 1. A usually serious mistake typically caused by ignorance or confusion.

PS: Please read Ms Sheehan's piece, HONORING THE FALLEN, it is quite heart-rending.

Honoring the Fallen

By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t Perspective

Thursday 27 October 2005

If you believe in what you are doing, give me your stiffest sentence. If you don't, then resign.
- Gandhi

Yesterday started off with a "bang" when we went to Arlington
Cemetery to lay a wreath in the section where the Iraq War dead are
buried. In our group yesterday morning were three other members of Gold
Star Families for Peace. Juan Torres was with us and his son, Juan, was
murdered in Afghanistan.

First of all, I was followed all morning by the Park Police. I
guess because I am a very dangerous subversive. I would never hurt a flea,
but what I am dangerous to is the lies and corruption of our government.

Secondly, Juan, Beatriz Saldivar and Julie Cuniglio, who have all
had loved ones killed in this war, had brought pictures of their dead
loved ones with them to Arlington. We were told by the administration of
the cemetery that they couldn't take the pictures into the cemetery
because they were "political statements!!" We were stunned that pictures
of our children who have been killed for lies and betrayals and for purely
political reasons can't be shown in a cemetery that supposedly honors
those who have served, some making the ultimate sacrifice in war. We are
living in a state that kills our children then calls them political
statements. That speaks volumes to the chicken hawks who we are allowing
to ruin our country.

After Arlington, I met with Sen. Carl Levin from Michigan, who has
been a strong and outspoken critic against the war. The mess that George
Bush has unleashed on our country and on the innocent world weighs heavily
on his shoulders. He knows something needs to be done. Let's support him
in doing so. Today, I will meet with Sen. Stabenow from the same state.

We headed to the vigil at the White House for our hours-long wait
in the freezing cold. There was a man there who had several signs, among
them one which said: "Saddam loves Cindy." This man didn't care that
Rumsfeld (or Rumsfailed as I accidentally called him in an interview
yesterday) was buddy, buddy with Saddam and gave him or sold him tons of
WMDs before he became our enemy. I told this man that he didn't bother me,
and he told me I don't bother him either. Well, if I don't bother him, why
did he come down and make signs and march for hours screaming that I kill
our soldiers? We found out why. He was making 60 dollars an hour to do so
from some non-profit, right wing group. He said he would switch signs if
we gave him more money.

At 7:30 p.m. about 100 patriots symbolically died in front of the
White House. Then 26 of us refused to get up and were arrested. As usual,
the Park Police were very polite and efficient and many whisper words of
support and encouragement to us. We are planning another die-in tonight at
7 p.m. We need more Americans to come out and symbolically die with us
here in DC ... or do it in your own communities at relevant places, like a
federal building or a congressperson's or senator's office.

When I was being processed out, the Lieutenant warned me if I got
arrested again that I may have to stay in jail until January since this
was my second arrest and I already have one under my belt that hasn't been
resolved (which I plan on going to court for anyway). The Lt. went to bat
for me, he said, so the judge wouldn't keep me until my November court
date this time.

I appreciate the warning of the Lt., but I plan on doing Civil
Disobedience again this evening. I cannot live freely in a country where
people are allowed to commit murder and roam free to commit more mayhem
while other people who are exercising their first amendment rights to free
speech are locked up in jail. I cannot live freely in a country where
others are allowed to lie to retaliate against a person who had the
temerity to challenge previous lies. I cannot live freely in a country
where bereaved family members aren't allowed to carry pictures of their
murdered loved ones into a national cemetery.

If I go before a magistrate tonight or tomorrow after my next
arrest, I will tell him/her: If you believe in what you are doing, give me
the stiffest sentence possible. If you don't, then resign.

Peace soon.

View video here

View photos here

------------------------------------------------------------------
Informed Comment -Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion Juan Cole is Professor of History at the University of Michigan

Dems Press for Iraq Investigation

Toward A Unified Field Theory of the Fraud?

Senator Harry Reid, backed by Senators Charles Schumer and Debbie Stabenow, invoked an arcane rule of the senate allowing it to be closed on Tuesday. Reid and the Democrats were protesting the inaction of the Senate Intelligence Committee, headed by Pat Roberts (R-Kan), which has been investigating failures of prewar intelligence on Iraq but has never issued its formal report on Phase II. A compromise was worked out whereby a bipartisan panel will do up a report within two weeks. Roberts insists that his own committee is making progress and dismisses the new panel as irrelevant.

The Democrats are trying to force the issue in the wake of the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Irving Lewis Libby, on perjury charges. Libby was among those who hyped Iraq WMD reports, and he had attempted to foist a lot of shaky information on Colin Powell, for whom he wrote the speech to be
delivered at the United Nations justifying the war in winter 2003. (Even with a lot of the crazier charges taken out, the speech Powell gave was greeted with open derision at the UN).
As the ever astute Steve Clemons notes,
the demand by Reid that Karl Rove be fired is gaining traction,
with even Republican Senator Trent Lott acknowledging the case for
it. Rove, Bush's political adviser, clearly passed the name of an
undercover CIA operative (Valerie Plame Wilson) to the press,
which was certainly unethical and probably illegal. Lott knows
that as long as Rove is in the White House, the rotten-eggs odor
of treason will cloak the Republican Party. (Plame Wilson has
gotten death threats from al-Qaeda, so Rove may as well have just
called up Bin Laden and said, "Guess who we've got working to stop
weapons proliferation? And by the way, here is her name and
address." You would keep a man like that in the White House why?)

Newsday's article has this tantalizing sentence: Roberts "cited
two possible roadblocks: the half-done job of analyzing more than
500 prewar intelligence claims and probing the role played by
Douglas Feith, the former undersecretary of defense for policy who
pushed vigorously for an invasion of Iraq based on flawed
intelligence."

Laura Rozen has reported on the stalled state of the Senate Intelligence Committee's
investigation of Feith and his "Office of Special Plans,"
as well as of meetings by Feith employees

Lawrence Franklin and Harold Rhode with Iranian arms dealer and notorious fraudster
Manucher Ghorbanifar in Rome (with the Italian Defense Secretary
and the head of Italian Military Intelligence also in attendance).
When Rockefeller brought up the possibility that the Rome meeting
was illegal, Feith and his office abruptly ceased cooperating in
the investigation. Feith has now left the Pentagon for private
life, presumably to forestall further investigations of his
activities in manufacturing a case for the Iraq War. His Iran desk
officer, Lawrence Franklin, has pleaded guilty to espionage for
Israel via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

So how might the investigation of Feith's office (which is
apparently dead in the water given that the Republicans on the
committee would probably decline to issue subpoenas) delay the
phase two conclusions that Roberts should be producing?

Feith and the Office of Special Plans were central to these
conclusions. If he and his employees are stonewalling, and if
Roberts won't subpoena them or threaten them with contempt of
Congress, then it is hard to see how any progress can be made.

A proper Senate investigation offers the tantalizing possibility
of a Unified Field Theory of the Iraq War fraud. That is, Feith's
Office of Special Plans, Franklin's Pentagon espionage cell on
behalf of the Likud Party in Israel, and Libby's campaign against
Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame Wilson could
all be shown to be inter-related. At the center of the conspiracy
were a group of hawks determined to set the United States in
motion to fight wars against Iraq, Syria and Iran; for the
Neoconservatives among them, these wars would leave the Likud
Party free to pursue its expansionist ambitions.
posted by Juan @
11/02/2005 06:33:00 AM
Sunday, October 30, 2005 Top Five Resignations the American People Should Demand In the Wake of Libby's Indictment

Apologize? Apologize?
Is that all the US Democratic leadership can demand from George W.
Bush after it was confirmed that his key aides and those of Vice
President Cheney planned a petty campaign of retribution against a
distinguished foreign service officer by outing his wife,
undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson? I should think not.
I should think some high-profile resignations are in order.
Although Senator Reid did ask for one resignation, I have a better idea.

1. Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney.
Dick Cheney told Irving Lewis Libby about Plame working for the
CIA. Although both Cheney and Libby had security clearances, it is
not the case that any two persons with such clearances may
properly share any information at will. Classified information is
disseminated on a need to know basis and for specific
security-related purposes. For Cheney to bandy about classified
information merely as a form of office gossip or for partisan
political purposes, even with other government officials, is
unethical and poor tradecraft at the very least, and would get any
junior CIA case officer fired. So surely the same should apply to
the vice president of the United States at a time of war.

2. Karl Rove. The president's adviser clearly told Matt Cooper of Time Magazine, at
the very least, about Valerie Plame Wilson working for the CIA.
Since this information was classified, Rove learned it from
someone with a clearance. If he did not double check as to whether
the information was classified before he released it to the press,
then he was criminally irresponsible. If he released it with the
knowledge that it was classified, then what he did was highly
unethical and possibly illegal. Either way, no one who behaves so
cavalierly with national security-related information during a
time of war has any place in the White House.
Rove must resign. If Bush does not request and accept Rove's
resignation, then he becomes an accessory after the fact to a
possible crime, and should be impeached as
such.

3. John Hannah.
Hannah, a key Cheney aide, also mentioned to Libby that Plame
worked for the CIA. He should not have been bandying about this
information without a serious national security purpose. He should go.

4. John Bolton.
Currently Ambassador to the United Nations. He has not been
implicated in the outing of Plame yet, but he did visit implicated
journalist Judith Miller in prison and is tightly connected to key
figures in the crime. He has been a twenty-first century Goebbels
of national security disinformation aimed at scaring the American
public into pursuing a series of disastrous wars (beyond Iraq, he
wants wars against Syria, Iran, and Cuba to start). He was not
confirmed by the Senate. He is a serial liar or a serial
incompetent. He has expressed himself vehemently against the
existence of the United Nations and dismisses US international
treaty obligations. He should not be representing the American
people at the United Nations.

5. Elliot Abrams.
Abrams lied to the Congress assiduously over the Iran-Contra
criminal proceedings. During this period, high Reagan
administration officials illegally sold off high-poweered weapons
like TOWs from Pentagon storehouses to the Ayatollah Khomeini.
They then took the Iranian money paid for them and put it in
secret bank accounts, using it to fund rightwing death squads in
Central America. Abrams was part of this unconstitutional and
criminal plot. He should be in jail, but was pardoned. W.
appointed him to the National Security Council, where he was in
charge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a while (he is,
like Doug Feith, more ideologically so aligned to the far
rightwing Israeli Likud Party as to be virtually a card-carrying
member; so that was really a signal of US even-handedness!). Now
he is said to be in charge of Iran! He should never have
been allowed back in high office after lying to Congress and both
houses should be ashamed that they did not block his appointment.
No wonder there is all this criminality in the White House-- they
are allowing criminals to be appointed.

MORE THINKING BLUE LINKS

• GOODBYE US DEMOCRACY, HELLO US THEOCRACY
• MONDAY MORNING HANGOVER FROM "JUSTICE SUNDAY
• Justice Sunday's Derision of Faith
• Perfumed Lies
• What War Really Looks Like ... From Bushflash
• 100 Bush Days (seems more like 100 years)
• Mother's Day Proclamation
• National Religion
• Bush Lies Democracy Dies
• AMERICA CAPITALISM
• REAL ID or REAL IDIOCY
• Deception, Denial, and Demagoguery
• War, What War?
• I DON'T FLY MY FLAG ANYMORE
• Rove and Bush STOP THE COVER-U
• WHITEHOUSE LEAK
• A HARSH WAR
• REGAINING MY HUMANITY
• LEAKS, LEAKERS AND LEAKEES
• QUEEN MOTHER BUSH
• SMALL GOVERNMENT
• BUSH'S ANATHEMA
• RELIGIOUS RIGHT'S LAST MARBLE
• LET THE GREED GAMES BEGIN
• INTELLIGIBLE DESIGN
• IBUGMAN BEGONE
• REPUB PANDORA'S BOX
• SHOOT FIRST
• WILDWEST
• BUSH'S FINGER
• A POT QUESTION
• 16 KIDS
• 2000 DEAD
• An OLIGARCHY
• CAROLYNCONNECT
• Warning very Graphic REAL PICTURES OF WAR

CAROLYNCONNETION - I've got a mind and I'm going to use
it! ThinkingBlue blogspot