Petraeus blames bookkeeping for the missing weapons

Check this article on WashingtonPost.com:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/07/AR2007080701726.html?hpid=topnews

Petraeus blamed record-keeping errors for the loss of weapons in Iraq, then he said something that floored me. With regard to the lack of proper record-keeping procedures during the building of Iraqi forces, he said:

"We occasionally likened it to building the world's largest aircraft while in flight and while being shot at," the general said. "But we gradually started putting those procedures into place."

Really? When did you liken it to that? And who were you speaking to when you did it? I pay pretty close attention to the news, and I'm willing to bet you didn't say it to a reporter. All I seem to remember any administration spokesman saying was how great the Iraqi security forces were doing, and how much progress we were making over there.

See, you don't get to spend five years telling us how great everything is, and then when something goes horribly wrong, turn around and justify yourself by saying how difficult the situation was. I didn't believe you when you said how easy it was, but that doesn't mean you get points for coming clean. Three months ago, maybe, but now the only honesty involved is that which makes your terrible mistake seem more justifiable.

Weapons, journalistic priorities both missing

Here's a link to a disturbing little story:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/08/06/iraq.weapons.reut/index.html

This story is about how we have lost 190,000 weapons in Iraq, including 110,000 AK-47 Assault Rifles, and how many of those weapons are now being used to fight against American Troops. Awesome. Hope that gets in the progress report we get in September, somehow I would be willing to bet it slips through the cracks.

My question is, why isn't this a bigger story? cnn.com leads with a story of 6 miners getting trapped in a mineshaft. Tragic, but almost a quarter million deadly weapons getting lost in the most dangerous place on earth is a bigger story than 6 miners getting killed, or 60 miners getting killed. How many people will get killed with those weapons?

HuffPost leads with Rudy Giuliani's daughter's facebook page. Seriously. She joined the "1 Million Strong for Barack" facebook group, and now that's a national news story bigger than taxpayer dollars being used to arm out enemies.

Foxnews leads with the coal miners, followed by the facebook page and a twelve-year old "Messiah" getting arrested in France. Ummm...okay. What the hell is wrong with the media in this country?

Obama might just be my guy

Saw this article today:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/01/obamas-terrorism-speech_n_58815.html

The article chronicles Obama's efforts to break from the democratic interest groups, including: Promising to go into Pakistan is they refuse to root out the terrorists hiding in their mountains (obviously still getting us out of Iraq), Raising the social security age without privatization, putting teachers on a merit pay system, and chastising black men who abandon their children.

Apparently a lot of people are trying to say this will hurt him. I've got news for those people. It won't hurt him with me. This guy is more right on every time he opens his mouth. I'm still technically undecided with regard to my primary vote, but I'm leaning towards Obama with an option to fall at any time. This guy is saying the things I've been waiting for a politician to say for a really long time.

Rove testimony may be the lynchpin...

Remember those contempt subpoenas issued by Congress against Josh Bolten and Harriet Myers lat week? Well, now they're considering going after Karl Rove, and I am just delighted. Bush is trying to block Rove's testimony pretty hard...good call, Bush. For some reason, I have a gut feeling that Rove testifying would degenerate pretty quickly, for two reasons. One, the guy has his finger in every pie in the world, the level of dirty tricks he has committed is basically the same as the total number of dirty tricks played and secreted by this administration. Second, and perhaps more important, Rove is a smarmy asshole who thinks he is smarter and better than everyone else, including congress. I'll bet he would happily stoop to perjury, or at least get up there and act like he had a perfect right to choose which questions to answer and which questions not to answer. God that is a scene I would love to see on C-Span, Harry Reid screaming at Karl Rove and Karl Rove just smiling back up at his with his bald head gleaming, calmly saying something about executive privilege. Happy days.

Ted Stevens Home becomes historic site with latest huge embarrasing scandal.

Ted Stevens home was raided today...He's the "The internet is a series of tubes" guy who got elected as senator from, you guessed it, Alaska or Florida. My questions are: When will some of these guys start having to leave office, and how many of them have to be forced out before we can impeach the President?

The answer to the first question is unknown and probably disappointing. The answer t the second question is. If anyone knows the answer to this question, please contact me immediately.

I'm really hoping there's some language/translation problems between my ears and the Iraqi parlaiment

Check this article on the absenteeism of the Iraqi parliament in the days leading up to their month-long vacation in August:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-missing27jul27,0,4508518.story?coll=la-home-center

First of all, it's just shocking that they would take a month-long break right now. That's already been beaten to death in the media and on blogs for months. They had to cancel the first month of that vacation under heavy protests. But now I read, in this article, that a lot of the delegates don't show up for the sessions, at least in part because they are resistant to US pressure in setting them an agenda to talk about. That's fucking balls, right there.

The reason I reference a translation problem is because the quotes from these delegates makes them come off like Paris Hilton. It's absurd how they sound. Consider:

"The Americans don't understand," (Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker) said. "The more they insist, the more there will be opposition and we will never pass it."

Uhhh...what? Are you a five year old sitting on the at the dinner table refusing to eat something he likes just because his mother told him to eat it? The US isn't trying to ram some ridiculous proposal down their throats, it's trying to make them take steps that represent the only hope for their fledgling country.

Let me just say that I HATE US policy in Iraq. I hate it. And I acknowledge that it isn't Othman's (or any of the other delegates) fault that this situation was created. It is our fault, America's fault. We should have left Saddam Hussein in power, evil as he was, but we didn't. This is the situation now. And the simple fact that those delegates have accepted the positions they have (and the $65,000 a year, by the way. More than twice as much money as I make), makes them responsible, not for the situation, but for trying to find a way out of it. To shirk that responsibility by failing to work hard, as a response to perceived US influence, borders on the criminal.

Also, let's remember what is actually at stake here. It isn't the security of the US, at least not directly. The latest wargames estimates show that Al Qaeda won't take over in Iraq if we leave. We'll probably be better off, actually, because once we leave we can go to Pakistan and take care of the real enemy in short order. Now there's an invasion I could get behind.

All that will happen if we leave is that Iraq will burn itself to the ground. Tens of thousands of people will die, if not hundreds. Torture, religious, and ethnic cleansing will be the order of the day, and sometime far down the line, a rough, three-state scenario will emerge.

That's all we're trying to prevent. The Iraqi Parliament had better wake up and help us, because I can unequivocally say that the patience of this country is running out. We ARE leaving, and the amount of work they are able to get done before we do will directly influence the amount of Iraqi blood that is shed in the next ten years.

The very thought of a Gonzales Perjury investigation makes my stomach churn

I should have been ecstatic over the prospect of a perjury investigation into Alberto Gonzales like the one proposed in this article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070726/congress-gonzales/

Instead I am lukewarm at best, and deep down I am dreading it because I already know nothing will ever come of it. The problem is that we've let these obvious liars and villains reach such strongholds of power, they can't be investigated or stopped by any traditional means.

For example, Congress has issued Contempt of Court citations for Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers, two of Bush's top political aides, for their refusal to even APPEAR to testify with regard to the politically motivated firings at the Justice Department. That doesn't matter, though, because that same justice department has already said they will refuse to enforce the citations. So the ones we are trying to investigate are the same ones whose help we need to execute an investigation. How well is this going to work?

In a similar way, how are we going to try Alberto Gonzales for perjury? The guy is the top of the heap as far as prosecutions are concerned. He is supposed to be the most gung-ho prosecutor in the entire country, yet now he is blatantly violating the laws in a ridiculous effort to defend the leader of the free world. What are we supposed to do?