Today's edition of quick hits:
* On the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, deadly bombings rocked the country, leaving as many as 52 dead and 180 wounded.
* A deadly accident: "Seven U.S. Marines were killed and at least seven wounded when a mortar exploded during a live-fire training exercise overnight at an Army munitions depot in the Nevada desert, military officials told NBC News."
* The Cypriot Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected an international bailout package today. Now what?
* Syria: "The Syrian government and rebels accused each other Tuesday of firing a chemical weapon near the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least two dozen people in an attack that, if confirmed, would mark the first use of chemical arms in Syria's two-year conflict."
* Malala Yousafzai in Birmingham, England: "The Pakistani teen marked for death because she campaigned for girls' education went back to school Tuesday for the first time since a Taliban gunman shot her in the head five months ago, a family spokesperson said."
* U.S. economy: "Another month of good news on the housing-starts front. New permits for February were up 33.8 percent year-on-year, and new starts (a noisier data series that I like less) were up 27.7 percent year-on-year. Permits continue to exceed starts, seeming to offer indication of momentum built into the system."
* British austerity measures continue to fail, though Tories remain reluctant to change course.
* Dear Donald Rumsfeld, today, of all days, would be an excellent time for you to stop talking.
* Rebecca Blank, the acting Secretary of Commerce, is stepping down in July to become chancellor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
* Sharp piece from Ned Resnikoff: "In a democracy, citizens are not 'customers' of the state."
* And it's worth pausing to remember from time to time that Michele Bachmann says a lot of strange things that aren't true.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Michele, Michele Michele please just shut your gob, we'd all be happier if you did.
One way to tell if it is Syria’s rebels or the Assad regime using chemical attacks or ‘fake’ chemical attacks is to ask, if these were only used on civilians. Rebels would not use such weapons on civilians instead of fighting supporters of Assad’s regime. However, realize Assad‘s ‘regular’ military probably would not use them on only civilians either without also using them on fighting rebels. (My guess is it was probably personal military thugs of Assad’s regime ‘faking’ a chemical attack on civilians.)
Fake chemical attacks would serve President Assad three ways. One, if the attack was done by personal military thugs, the ‘regular’ Syrian military would help Assad fight the U.S. if they were to act militarily against these attacks because the ‘regular’ Syrian military knows ‘they’ did not do the attacks. Two, getting the United States to militarily act on fake chemical attacks would have a long-term effect of setting the U.S. up like the U.S. was militarily set up in Iraq’s ‘fake’ nuclear weapons. Three, ‘fake’ chemical attacks that cannot be proven fake would also hold the United States away from military action in Assad’s favor, while President Assad terrorizes his public to subdue to his regime, and plays with the United States stand on possible ‘real’ chemical attacks.
You assume unified central control over both the loyalist and rebel fighters.
Crude chemical weapons are not overwhelmingly difficult to make. A battle hardened militia with a member or two having a BS in chemistry or chemical engineering could figure out how to do it and pull it off. We are talking about replicating 1914 technology.
And with the loyalist side repeatedly attacking civilians based on sectarian identification, it is entirely possible that either side, or a group with no real side, purposefully attacked civilians based on their identity.
Mr. Resnikoff doesn't seem to understand that a failed city by definition can not fix itself. It's become a ward of the state. They should be grateful for someone that thinks of the citizens as "customers". Customers are treated much better than "voters".
You didn't actually read the article, did you?
Typical fly-by.
Happy anniversary Iraq. George Bush sends his regards.
It was an awful time for us American's, too, not just for the Iraqi's. I hope they know that.
Yes, it's terrible how many American cities were totally devastated by enemy fire, how many thousands of Americans were killed by "friendly fire," how sectarian violence has torn our country apart . . . .
I'm sure the Iraqi people feel great sympathy for us.
Rumsfeld trying to redact, redirect, recent history. So it wasn't WMD's and the nuclear cloud?
I think we do need a granite memorial to those young Americans with the names of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and the rest of those cowboys placed prominently over the names of the dead. Then put the dates beginning and ending so there won't be any revisions of history.
Then lift it by skycrane helo and drop it outside the bedroom window of a certain Crawford ranch so the owner can look at it every day for the rest of his life.
Salon published a dying soldier's open letter to the Bush Administration.
Thank you Rochester 12.
Awesome Rochester
Well, no, it wasn't awesome at all. It was deeply heart-breaking.
But I understand what you mean. The bigger picture is that empathy rocks. Without it, we'd be... well, Conservatives.
One powerful letter ...
Rochester
I agree with you but for the record when I used the word awesome it means I am in awe of the person who wrote that letter not some Bill and Ted Excellent Adventure awesome.
I would love to see TRMS present a story on Iraq War Veteran Tomas Young and his "A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran" that was published today.
His story follows many of the points Rachel has been focused upon and gives more insight/questions brought up in the Hubris documentary.
I, too, hope TRMS will broadcast this letter and interview some of the principles, including Phil Donahue. Then, we will see how much courage NBC has!
Harry Reid didn't waste any time with exploiting the tragedy at Hawthorne by referencing the tragedy and sequestration cuts in the same breathe.
...evidently his people back pedaled rather quickly...
Yet another feeble attempt by the Dems to politicize a mere 2% cut in the budget increase. Now we're hearing the egg roll may be cancelled. On both sides of the aisle, a typical day care center
Do you two think that the two huge cuts in Foreign Secuirty that the Republican House insisted on in the 2009 and 2010 budgets had no effect on security at our U.S. Embassy in Benhazi, Lybia and the White House lack of information to go public on?
Are you both volunteering to do our soldiers jobs and training with 'no' money so you can keep your overseas non-taxed money invested in Wall Street?
Yes Frank,
every single one of the hundreds of millions of hard working, tax paying, blue collar conservatives in this country has un-taxable investments in Wall Street.
And not one single Rich Liberal would ever even think of doing such a dasterdly deed.
Right, right, right..... Stop the Bullcrap man.
And please, read the Sequester. Cuts in spending increases? And troops now have to work for free because of it? Really?
Frank- your 2nd paragraph described lots of high level Democrats. Recall John Kerry's taxes payed in his 2004 campaign. Ends out almost all of his nearly billions- earned by marrying, was invested in tax free instruments. Ditto Al Gore- and you can keep going down the list. Look at your heros, Warren Buffett or George Soros...
I'm so glad to know that Malala is doing well. She a bright spot amid the rest of the gloomy news.
Osborne's failure is another bright spot for me,though. I read the UK edition of the Guardian just for the delightful schadenfreude I feel from reading about his dismal failures. I do feel for the British people though.
Just as The United States has a system where two political parties share power and tolerate each other, Iraq needs a system where three sects share power and tolerate each other.
Since the beginning of the Iraq war, I wanted to think of a way that the three major sects in Iraq divided by population advantages and disadvantages could share government power.
My first idea was maybe the Iraqi people could vote for three candidates of each sect, from their favorite to their least favorite, where their votes could then be counted-up together, so that the Shiites would not always have the population advantage. Realizing, after that, that the Shiites would still have the advantage under such a system, I then thought that breaking up the percentages of vote worth might solve that problem.
Where the dominant Shiites first vote could count 100% of a vote, their second-choice vote could count 75% of a vote and their third choice-vote could count 50% of a vote. Where the second in popularity, the Sunni, their first vote would count 125% of a vote, their second-choice vote would count 100% of a vote and their third choice-vote could count 75% of a vote to make up for the unequal advantages. The Kurdish, the third in popularity dominance, could have their first vote count 150% of a vote, their second 125% and third, 100%. Then the Iraqi people’s votes could be added up with their ‘second-choice’ vote having almost as much power as their first, in Iraqi voters choosing the sect they think would have the most ‘tolerance’ for their sect’s culture and policies.
I wish the world’s mathematicians would take this idea on and figure out those percentages could work. We would need to make sure, that the Shiite sect would still have a chance at winning sometimes. Perhaps the Sunni and the Kurdish could grant the Shiites control of the military in each election to ensure their three-vote-shared-power to encourage Shiite leadership to go along with the system.
Would the Iraqi people want such a system? I just want to hear the Iraqi’s say to their selves and each other, where there is a will, there is a way.
I'm not sure if you have been keeping up with the Steubenville rape case, where two high school boys were just convicted for raping a 16 year old girl.
Though this whole thing has been a tragic ordeal, the CNN coverage of it is just plain fascinating. Take a read of some of this load:
Holy crud, what a bunch of scumbags! They didn't even mention the victim once! They spent the entire coverage going "Oh, these poor rapists are having their lives ruined by some drunk slut". I've dealt with rape apologists before, but this really takes it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2013/03/18/cnn-is-getting-hammered-for-steubenville-coverage/
Just when I thought Arizona couldn't get any crazier, we now have a bill requiring a birth certificate to use a public toilet. That's right! It's to prevent anyone using a bathroom that doesn't match the gender on the birth certificate.
Gosh, I never realized that was a problem, all those transgender people rushing to pee in the wrong gender toilet! You really can't spell crazy without r-az.
http://www.azcentral.com/insiders/laurieroberts/2013/03/19/bathroom-bill-really-rep-kavanagh/
I have always pondered the legitimacy of the "Separate but Equal" status of public restrooms...
Wow! Talk about Theatre of the Absurd! That being said I can still remember going to a Pagan festival where some of the Dianic Separatists wanted a space exclusively for women who were born women. Which is equally Theatre of the Absurd.
Many places in Europe are just restrooms- any gender. I use to see people proclaiming we should be much more like Europe on these blogs. Haven't heard that lately...
Rusty
Most of the newer restrooms where I work are unisex. Just a single room but many of them in one area. So I guess where I work is more like Europe. Is that OK withn you? :-)
While most on the LEFT were talking about rape trials the GOP unleashed it’s latest campaign to push Progressive agenda to the back of the bus. It started this morning with a David Brooks article about Progressive budgets and Joe Scarborough morning commentary.
Yes David Brooks, Joe Scarborough and other Conservative wackos, do your pathetic best to prop up your Republican brethren while demonizing the Progressives who NEVER get to put a plan fully into action.
Sound economic policy would get our government to spend tax $’s inside USA instead of madness such as the 1.3 to 3.7 TRILLION wasted on Iraq. Also the Feds need to address a serious misallocation of wealth and resources such as the bills coming from the Pentagon, Homeland Security and DEA.
Seize $ (ill gotten profits) back from war profiteers, Oil companies, Wall Street con artists and the Bush Crime Family Corporate Crime Wav capos. Sounds ridicules, right? That’s how David Brooks and other GOP apologists come off to me.
The bought news media, along with the GOP, are going down kicking and screaming trying to save the miserable failure known as Conservative ideology. This is a Ivory Tower make believe world where everyone conveniently forgets it was Bush/Cheney supplemental spending that got us into the terrible economic mess we’re suffering from now. For that matter IT’S ALWAYS REPUBLICAN SPENDING THAT SCREWS OVER THE AMERICAN PEOPLE! Why oh why do you Conservative imbeciles keep falling for their BS?
Most of the news ancHOr’s speak to the American PEOPLE like we’re supposed to be stupid like the Conservative useful idiots. But NO, that BS doesn’t work anymore does it? All of the sudden you sell-outs are realizing the PEOPLE are paying attention and STARTING TO DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY! …and this scares the Ivory Tower crowd.
As far as I’m concerned, after the Bush/Cheney disaster, the Republican Party is dead to me. The results of Bush/Cheney and the Republican controlled Congress (1994-2006) speak for themselves. Waste, fraud, abuse of power, scandal, privatization, corruption, media consolidation, sexual deviancy, welfare for the rich, soldiers getting electrocuted in showers due to shoddy contractors, arms dealing, environmental deregulation, war profiteering, Constitutional violations and a Corporate Crime Wave of epic proportions. The greatest looting of a nation’s wealth & resources in the history of mankind… Yet these shameless hypocrites have the audacity to act they’re the responsible adults at the table, BULLS***!
All the proof one needs is to look at what the GOP is doing today. Lies, obstructionism, racism, dirty tricks, voter suppression. See the Tea Party freshmen in Congress wasting tax dollars on extravagant lifestyles, deviant sex & luxury rent cars… WHAT HAPPENED to fiscal responsibility, mofo‘s? The GOP is a bunch of Functional Psychotics and need to be TREATED AS SUCH!
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©2013 by FGE
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“…the Koch Bros, Sheldon Adelson, L. Brent Bozell, David Siegel, Bob Perry, Diane Hendricks, Rich Devos, Foster Friess, Louis Moore, Trevor Rees-Jones billionaire types are suffering from a form of excessive compulsive disorder. If they couldn’t hide behind the wealthy eccentric labels they’d be known as Hoarders.”
Thom Hartmann
@spoAct... Dead on ! ..
But you forgot to mention the FREE get out of jail card that president Obama and the prick at the D.O.J. ERIC HOLDER have given to all these republican pirahnas !...
From the torturers in the Bush administration, to corrupt C.E.O.'S in Wall Street to international Banks ( HSBC) that have admitted to illegal money laundering for Mexican Drug Cartels for years !...
They have ALL received a FREE GET OUT OF JAIL CARD !...
From president Obama and Eric Holder !...
Only in America kids !.. Only in America are the rich ABOVE THE LAW !...
Tea part troll alert. This guy hates Obama- must be a tp racist.
Dick Cheney’s Halliburton stock value (held in an, ahem, “blind trust”) doubled over the eight years he was VP, from about $5 million to $10 million. I bet Cheney, therefore, set a record among former presidents and vice-presidents regarding making a financial killing while, ahem, “serving” in high public office. Of course, Cheney dismantling the federal bidding process and replacing it with no-bid contracts helped profit him immensely, along with a whole lot of crony Republicans, as Cheney (and Bush Republicans) awarded billions in no-bid contracts to right-wing companies like…Halliburton. IOW, the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War were great for the war profiteers, with Dick Cheney not only being VP for eight, long torturous years, but also the War-Profiteer-In-Chief.
Regarding Donald Rumsfeld (and the excellent segment I just watched on Rachel's show), Rumsfeld's claim 10 days after the Iraq War was "pre-emptively" started about his knowing where Saddam Hussein's WMD was located (east, north, south and west of Baghdad) makes one wonder if the locations of these "suspected sites" were relayed to the U.N. WMD inspectors kicked out of Iraq by GW Bush 48 hours before Republicans started hostilities in Iraq? IOW, was information about these "suspected sites" deliberately withheld from the U.N. WMD inspectors on the ground in Iraq before March 20, 2003, with these "suspected sites" the "trump card" that the Neo-Con Republicans planned on playing once U.S. forces invaded Iraq, went to these "suspected sites" and, as the Neo-Con Republicans hoped, found WMD present?
The evidence is in Judith Miller's NY Times dispatches from inside Iraq, when she was embedded (per the pre-war plan), with the U.S. military task force that rushed into Iraq to check-out these "suspected sites." IOW, she expected a "scoop," possibly as payment for her having helped write many of the NY Times articles before the war that claimed Iraq had an active nuclear program and massive stockpiles of WMD. Oooops, no WMD no active nuclear program. One of Miller's first embedded dispatches from inside Iraq related how the WMD military search team she was with pulled out of an ongoing tank battle, skirted the fighting and rushed northward to a "suspected site" west of Baghdad. No WMD, The site was half-buried under sand and long abandoned. This NY Times article by the embedded Miller was printed around the same time Rumsfeld made his comment about "knowing" where the WMD was to be found. This was the "ace" up the Neo-Con's sleeves, or so they thought. But remember, the Neo-Cons KNEW about these "suspected sites" before March 20, 2003 but deliberately chose not to share this "intel" with the on-the-ground U.N. WMD inspectors, who over months of searching for WMD and an active nuclear program in Iraq found NOTHING.
Holding all the Neo-Con Republicans behind the Iraq War abomination accountable for War Crimes is actually too mild.
In your opinion- is Eric Holder inept or crooked? As I see it, you would have to have one of those two opinions...
I guess censorship beats discussion anytime. That's why I love the lefties. They dish out innuendo and meanness, but when someone brings up something they aren't comfortable with, they and the hosts resort to censoring.
It's manners Rusty. Of which you lack.
No, not really. It's the questions that make liberals queezy. I asked it in a nice way.
I'm actually pretty polite on here. Not normally calling people names, etc. guess that is one way you could identify me as not being a liberal. You, as well, could be a conservative. You seem decent.
Rusty
No I am a liberal. I was just raised to be polite. A person can't always be pegged down. I try and keep an open mind.
Ok. Could you show where I lacked manners?
Well Rusty it seems on your profile your comments are not displayed so I can not bring up any comments where you' "lack manners". But I will state I have seen you be to say politely as I can ungentle.
Ok- I do ask un gentle questions- here, in response to alledged criminal behavior by a Republican official- I merely asked if Holder was inept or crooked- cause it seems if there is substantial criminal behavior- the justice department shouldbe acting. If they aren't- then are they inept? Or on the take? I suspect the answer is that the activity isn't quite so clear cut being illegal- but liberals on here like to cut and paste huge diatribes with such accusations.
Now- I get called Rustbrain (that's one of the nicer things)- get accused of raping babies and young women- etc. So I just find it amusing that I don't call people names- just question their premise of bias- and get censored. I would suggest to you that it isn't because I'm ill mannered or mean- but because people on these blogs don't want opposing ideas to populate these blogs...
Sad to see that no one is proposing setting up a monument to those other heroes of the Iraq conflict -- the thousands of people who knew the war was based on lies, before it started, and tried to alert everyone (including youngmen rushing off to war and death) to the human outrage that was about to take place.
How will we honor those heroes?
In the middle of MSNBC's 'Hubris' reairing on Friday, the supposed 'mobile chemical weapons laboratories' are filmed up close, with the canvas covers long gone.
However, infuriatingly Rachel never states what they actually ARE!
They were AMETS, Artillery Meteorological System, converted trucks used for launching weather balloons for accurate artillery guidance. They were not even solidly enclosed, hardly a good choice to generate anthrax. Provided to Iraq for the Iranian War.
Tony Blair was certainly LYING about the 'labs' since the British taxpayers paid for AMETS when Saddam Hussein never paid the invoice from a British contractor. That was reported by The Guardian on February 28, 2003, THREE WEEKS before the bombing of Baghdad.
How £1bn was lost when Thatcher propped up Saddam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/28/iraq.politics1
Discussed in June 2003 as a major load of B.S. by Bush's poodle Tony Blair -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jun/08/iraq.foreignpolicy
Regarding the 10th anniversary of our U.S. invasion of Iraq... many times I see "the surge" credited with getting the situation under control, preventing widespread civil war in that nation. I don't believe that ~30k additional troops and support deserve that credit. Instead perhaps paying off corrupt warlords and sheikhs with our country's abundant wealth encouraged them to call off the attacks. This adventure cost America billions/trillions, and now we are paying ourselves back with cuts in programs that benefit the most vulnerable. We must do all we can to prevent this. I believe we are so taken advantage of.
North Korea is starting to make me nervous. I don't think people are paying enough attention to it.