Time to Put On Your Crash Helmet

"Strength and Wisdom are NOT Opposing Values."

These words were uttered by William Jefferson Clinton on July 26, 2004 while speaking at the Democratic National Convention where John Kerry was nominated as the Democratic Presidential Candidate. Unfortunately, George W. Boosh was not watching. Nor, apparently, did anyone from his inner circle read him the transcript. That's a shame, Boosh certainly could have learned something about diplomacy, strength, and above all, wisdom.

Instead of heeding the advice of a former President, Boosh has pushed us to the brink of a war of massive proportions. A war that this world has never seen the likes of, and may not survive to see the likes of again. As we move warships into the Persian Gulf, preparing for the inevitable strike on Iran, what is going on behind the scenes, in combination with what is happening before our very eyes, shows just what disarray our country and its leadership is actually in.

As we know, the Republican dominated Congress has just passed two very important and disturbing pieces of legislation. One gives Boosh the retroactive right to illegally intercept phone calls and emails of private American citizens, the other gives him retroactive carte blanche authority to do to foreign detainees whatever the particular captor deems appropriate at the time. We can hold them seemingly forever without bringing charges of any kind. And, I must add, this legislation takes away all of the rights to appeal to the American Judicial System concerning any wrongs that may have been done to them. Oh, did I say illegally? I’m sorry, the Republicans just made it legal. When I say the Republicans, it must be mentioned that it’s the Republicans minus four, two of whom happen to be the most qualified people to decide this issue. One, being John McCain, a formerly tortured POW, and two, Lindsay Graham, a former Military Attorney. (I am mentioning these two to be fair, simply bececause they fought the original legislation and were largely responsible for bringing it to our attention. They did, however, vote for the final act, while 4 Republicans did not)
That is not what I want to talk about though, it’s that other thing. The upcoming colossal war of the ages. While these numbnuts have been busy trying to retroactively keep Boosh and his crew immune from any type of legal consequences over their formerly illegal conduct, this administration has been ignoring the fact that there is a pissed off world out there, a world with the United States of America in their sights. Once again, like with Afghanistan and bin Laden, they’ve taken their eye off the ball and have ignored what has been going on inside their own administration regarding Iran. So, I’ll be happy to give them a quick update, just in case they are spying on this site.

ALL SOURCES say that there are essentially two things going on inside Iran right now, with a third soon to follow, perhaps before the upcoming Congressional election. One, the military is conducting secret operations, desperately attempting to locate the Iranian nuclear facilities so we can maybe take them out. This is despite the fact that we don’t believe that the Iranians are close to having a nuclear weapon, and despite the fact that we believe the sites to be so far underground that we can’t reach them. That these “secret” operations are going on is known of from Tehran to Bowling Green, so I don’t think I’m revealing anything one can’t find out rather easily. (Once Bob Woodward’s book hits the bookshelves on Monday, there will be no more secrets anyway) This information has been printed all over the internet, and even mentioned in the MSM. Two, the CIA is attempting to infiltrate groups inside Iran to learn all they can about the inner workings of the Iranian government, with hopes of putting together a group willing to overthrow the same government.

One problem is that neither of these things can be accomplished in the next few weeks, which is the time frame in which they have to work. The other problem is, neither group knows what the other is doing. In simpler terms, if they can possibly be made any simpler, the CIA is walking all over the military operations and the military is walking all over the CIA operations and neither of them knows where the line is. They don’t know because NO ONE IS IN CHARGE. Those who should be in charge are busy trying to spin the little problems in Afghanistan and Iraq. Too busy trying to make those places palatable enough that throats of the American people can swallow the slime that is leaking from these countries. The administration is much too busy playing politics to worry about what is happening inside Iran.

All the while, we have a man sitting in the Oval Office who has, without a doubt, lost his ever loving mind. He doesn’t really care that the CIA and the Military don’t know what the other are doing in Iran. In fact, he doesn’t care whether or not they are even there. He has no intentions to act upon whatever they can or cannot learn, or who they might be able to influence. It’s all just for show. He doesn’t care because of the third thing in the equation, and that is this. He’s going to try to bomb Iran to hell and back. Why? Because he can, and they have oil. Or, at least he thinks he can. A deluded mind can create something that Boosh, of all people, should be able to recognize. It creates something similar to "liquid courage," a description that a dry drunk like Georgie should easily understand. You know, like when you’ve had 3 too many beers, can’t carry a tune in a bucket, yet still get up and sing karaoke? Despite his experiences, that’s how Boosh is with Iran. He thinks it’s just another stroll in the park.

Given the failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, one would hope that the last thing on the mind of the designer of those monstrosities would be to start another war right next door to the other two. To Boosh it seems as serious as going house to house on a block in a search of a cup of sugar. He told them what would happen, and he keeps his word! Damn the consequences! It’s stunning, but that is exactly what the Booshman is going to do. He’s going to drop bombs on Iran, all kinds of bombs. Big ones, little ones, bunker busters, cluster bombs, maybe even try out the new top secret isomeric gamma ray bomb. Then he’s going to be in for a big surprise. This time, the enemy is going to fight back, and fight back hard. Let’s take a look at Iran for a moment.

Iran’s Supreme Leader is the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Like most from the mid-east region, this man has no love lost for America. Iran is roughly one-fifth the size of the United States. To put that into context, it is about the size of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico combined. Or, for you folks not terribly familiar with US geography, it's about the size of Great Britain, France, Spain and Germany combined. In other words, a BIG place. Much larger than the two countries we are currently occupying with disastrous results. Iran has a population of about 70 million people, two thirds of which are under the age of 30. Good fighting age, in other words. Iran will not run dry with their “volunteer army." They have more than enough young men willing to give their lives to take ours. They also have weaponry unlike anything we have ever had heading in our direction. They have bombs and missiles that will travel great distances, plus airplanes and ships. And, if they run out of munitions, they can get more. They are also guaranteed to use them. If Boosh thinks for a second that they will lie down and take whatever we dish out, he is sadly mistaken.

Then, of course, there is the wild card, the President of Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is perhaps as, if not more, nuts than Boosh. Or he’s crazy like a fox, I’m not sure which. One thing that I am sure of, is that Ahmadinejad is more than willing to take on the US to protect his country and its oil. Iran has been in existence under various names from the beginning of time, so their culture runs a whole lot deeper than ours. Quite frankly, they take their heritage a lot more seriously than we take ours. They will not bow down to the Great Satan, regardless of the circumstances. Being threatened by US or UN sanctions? That is probably the best laugh in Iran in years.

While Boosh claims that we are pursuing a diplomatic channel to achieve what we want from Iran, keep in mind that he said the same thing prior to our invasion of Iraq. Sources say that a series of air strikes against them are already pre-determined. They say it’s already a done deal, the plan is set in stone. The problem will begin when the plan fails, and it will fail. It will fail because once again we will not know who our true enemy is. We cannot distinguish truth from fiction, especially George Boosh. In his world the bogeyman is real and the human beings are the illusion. He is the mad scientist, and this experiment has gone badly wrong.

If we are to take out Iran, there is only one way. That is, God help us, by using our nuclear arsenal. If you think for one second that this is not being strongly considered by the Boosh cabal, you are kidding yourself. Should the unthinkable occur, should Boosh decide to fire weapons he cannot properly pronounce, the gig is up. Russia, China and the rest of the world will be on us like a rash.

He’s going to do it, folks. Put on your crash helmets. George W. Boosh is going to attack Iran. We cannot enter Iran with ground forces; we simply do not have the manpower to do it. So it will be done by air and by sea. Simply put, if he goes nuclear, we will not survive, at least not in any recognizable form.

Cyclone

When Is Enough, Enough?

George W. Boosh---“We do not torture people. This is the United States of America.”

A Canadian justice inquiry into the case of Maher Arar, a computer consultant and Canadian citizen, spells out in great detail what most of us have always known, that George W. Boosh is a liar, a fraud, and a disgrace to our nation. Boosh is also a criminal, and we now have hard evidence showing our “non torture policies” to be anything but that. Policies which Boosh has been fighting over the last couple of weeks to keep in place, unchanged, calling them “a necessary tool to fight terrorism.” Are they that, or, are they a way to round up people who look different than us, practice a religion other than Christianity, and who maybe talk to someone who may have once talked to someone who is the cousin of someone who might know a member of Al-Qaeda?

In a nutshell, here is what happened to Maher Arar. He was changing planes in New York City on September 26, 2002, over a year after 9/11 where he was detained by the CIA. He was then flown to Jordan and driven to Syria. In a classic use of the CIA Extraordinary Rendition Program, which Boosh is fighting so hard to keep, Arar was then beaten, tortured and forced to confess to training in an Afghanistan terrorist camp. Never mind the fact that he had never been to Afghanistan in his life, but had relocated to Canada from Syria at the age of 17. After his confession, he was kept in a dungeon one third the size of a jail cell for 10 months. He was then released, and returned to Canada to resume his “normal life” with his wife, an economist, who had also been placed on the Al-Qaeda watch list.

Two and one half years later, the Canadian investigation is over and Mr. Arar has been cleared of any wrongdoing. I wonder what Mr. Boosh has to say about this now? Nothing, I’m sure, since the US government refused to cooperate with the Canadian authorities as they sought to investigate this case.

I am outraged, disgusted, I’m in fact ashamed to have my name associated with this country. Is this what we want? Is this what we’ve turned into? Does this type of activity make us safer? And if so, do we want to be safer? Answers, No; Yes; No; No; not if it has to be done this way.

How many Maher Arar’s are there currently housed in holes in the ground in god awful places in our name? Whether you like it or not, they are there in the name of Cyclone, Murph, Rockpicker, Stoney, Belgium, Sean, montanafreeman, freeacre, Ely Whitney, all of us. There is no way around that. I’d bet there are thousands, if not tens of thousands. How many successful prosecutions of “terrorists” have we made since 9/11/2001? Certainly no more than you can count on your fingers. You probably don’t need to use both hands.

This administration and the citizens of this country have gone mad. Admittedly 9/11 was a tragic event, and someone needed to pay a price for it. Yet here we are, 5 years later, with our idiotic leader begging, pleading, threatening, and pulling every trick he has out of the bag to keep the program going that allowed for this to occur to Mr. Arar. Why? Because Mr. Arar happens to be of the Muslim faith and just so happened to talk to a couple of guys on the street who were on some phony watch list.

We have blown Afghanistan to hell and back, yet the Taliban remain in power. Maybe not in name, but make no mistake about it. The Taliban run Afghanistan, we only put a momentary blip in their radar screen. We are still there, with troops dying each and every day.

We are in the middle of a Civil War in Iraq, again have troops dying every day with no end in sight. We are spending Billions of dollars per week accomplishing nothing but destroying another country and pissing off the remaining people in the world who don’t already hate us, if there are any.

And George W. Boosh has the audacity to stand before the American people and say to us and the world, “WE DON’T TORTURE PEOPLE!”

When is enough BS enough? When are the people of this nation going to say “NO MORE?” When are the people of this nation going to realize that we cannot turn the world into a “democracy?” When are the people of this nation going to realize that we don’t even have a legitimate democracy here? When are the people of this nation going to say “YOU WILL NOT TORTURE PEOPLE IN MY NAME?” When are the people of this nation going to say “BRING OUR KIDS HOME” from the ill conceived wars that they are sent into? When are the people of this nation going to say that because you are not a Christian you are not automatically a terrorist? When are the people of this nation going to grow some hair on their chests and march on Washington, revolt, burn down the White House, use the arms that the right wing fight so hard to protect, do whatever it takes to stop this madness and take this country back from the madman who leads it?

Today, George W. Boosh is going before the UN to once again try to sell them a package of BS, the same package that he has crammed down the throats of the American people for the last six years. My bet is that the rest of the world is going to subtly laugh in his face. Despite Tony Blair’s best efforts, we have lost the rest of the world.

As we attempt to “spread democracy around the globe,” the globe sees what our “democracy” is like. And they don’t like what they see. In fact, they don’t see a whole lot of difference in what they already have at their place. They see poverty, rigged elections, citizens being executed, outrageous fuel prices, a country with no real money, liars and thieves in positions of power, and they see A COUNTRY WILLING TO TORTURE INNOCENT PEOPLE TO GET WHAT THEY WANT.

The rest of the world has clearly had enough. The question becomes, why haven’t we?


Cyclone

The War on Terror; Lost

Osama bin Laden has scored the biggest victory possible in the phony Boosh "War on Terror," and the funny thing is he didn't have to lift a finger to achieve victory. Well, he did bait the trap, but beyond that he merely sat in his cave or mansion or whatever the hell he's in these days and watched the Moron in Chief implode our Republic. bin Laden couldn't have possibly achieved this with his own resources, no matter the number of young fanatics he could find willing to blow themselves up for Allah.

bin Laden has maintained throughout his "career in terror" that the United States would be the master of her own undoing, and I'll be darned, he has been proven correct. The moment we moved into Afghanistan, our troops were doomed to be slaughtered. Boosh learned nothing from the Soviet attempt to control Afghanistan. In case you have forgotten, after a decade or so of fierce fighting, the Soviet's turned tail and ran. They were unable to defeat the Afghan warlords and druglords and steal their drugs and money, despite the overwhelming force they presented. Battling them on their turf was not a good idea, and is still not a good idea in the 21st century. That is where the trap was set, with bin Laden correctly assuming that Boosh would attack Afghanistan immediately after 9/11/2001. And, attack he did. We moved the Taliban out of power faster than anyone could have imagined, but the Taliban have proven patient and resourceful if nothing else. Now, some 4+ years later, they are nearly back to where they were prior to our invasion. How did that happen? Well, we inexplicably took our eye off the ball and gave bin Laden the gift that keeps on giving. We moved most of our military might and power into Iraq.

Iraq? Why? The Boosh administration has finally, after many years of confusing the American people by delivering different messages through different sources, admitted that Saddam Hussein had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with 9/11. For years, they used different administration officials to say different things, I assume, to maintain some form of plausible deniability for Boosh or somebody. And for many years it worked. Readers of this blog have known that there was no 9/11 + Iraq connection since the inception of the Real Deal, but the typical mainstream media watching American did not. Astonishingly, some still believe that Saddam was involved. I'm sorry to say that there is simply no hope for those folks. They will believe it until the day they die. Though George Boosh himself, during a press conference last week, said unequivocally that there was no connection, some still won't believe it. Forget them, they aren't reading this anyway. But Iraq?

Osama bin Laden, who has managed to keep from being "brought to justice" by this administration for over 5 years, must feel as if he has hit the lottery 10 times over. Why? We are essentially doing or have done his work for him, in two ways.

First, by our waterboarding of innocent detainees among other discretions at Abu Ghraib, by our finally admitting (what we all already knew) that we have been running private CIA prisons in countries that permit torture, by failing to assemble a true coalition of willing countries and giving the middle finger to world opinion and the UN, we have destroyed our credibility across the globe. We have exactly one ally, and the leader of that nation has already agreed to step down within a year due to the fallout of joining us in this venture. Yet Boosh continues playing cowboy, despite an extremely conservative Supreme Court telling him that his detainee policies are unconstitutional. Though Boosh says we do not torture people, his actions the past couple of days beg questions. He has been on Capitol Hill, a rare occurence for any President (urgh), twisting the arms of his Republican buddies to okay his unconstitutional practices, retroactively. Fortunately, he has so far failed with John McCain (a former POW), Lindsay Graham (a military lawyer turned Senator) and others. Even Colin Powell, (albeit several years too late to regain my respect) has turned on him, along with several key Republican Senators. Boosh is so mad that he is threatening to stop interrogating suspects entirely should Congress not give him what he wants. Like a child, he will take his ball and go home if he doesn't get his way. Boosh said than Colin Powell's argument used "flawed logic," for heaven's sake. The world is upside down when a man with the IQ of Boosh has the guts to question someone with Colin Powell's intellect on matters concerning logic. That is how far we've fallen, and there is no end in sight to this madness. With each Boosh utterance, he further damages our credibility and moral standing around the world. His bizarre performance in the Rose Garden today makes me think that Boosh is fighting this issue so hard in order to avoid the possibility of facing war crime accusations or trials. I am dead serious about that. Boosh is already facing potential legal trouble with his illegal wiretapping. That is an American issue. Permitting the torture of non-American citizens is a WORLD issue.

But, that's not the cherry on top of the sundae for Osama bin Laden. The second thing, the real cherry, came when we removed Saddam Hussein from power. Not only did Saddam Hussein have nothing to do with 9/11, he and Osama in Laden are sworn enemies. Either would have killed the other if given the chance. Osama is fighting a holy war, Saddam is an atheist in the eyes of bin Laden. They live in and seek (at least until Saddam was removed) different worlds, have different ideas about most things. The only thing they have in common is a hatred for the United States, a less than novel concept these days. In fact, years ago bin Laden went to Saddam Hussein to try to foster some type of relationship, and Saddam essentially snubbed him. bin Laden has not forgotten that, has in fact used it to build his network with other Muslim Saddam haters. What a deal. It must be quite a party for him as he watches his hated enemy number one, the United States, take down hated enemy number two, Saddam Hussein. All the while, he remains loose and his network grows, along with his mystique. bin Laden will never again have a recruiting problem. Hell, he may soon even have some real, caucasian Americans to choose from. I notice a certain restlessness about the American people these days, and wouldn't be surprised to see the next Timothy McVeigh turn up with a name like Muhammed.

Osama bin Laden has won this war, and has paid only the price of convincing 19 "more than willing" hijackers to give their lives by flying planes into a few buildings. Not even he could have imagined the magical results of that simple act. Even if Boosh convinces the Republicans to retroactively legalize his torture policies, we have become exactly what Osama said so long ago that we were/would become, a rogue nation. I have often said that we were nothing but a Banana Republic disguised as a Superpower, and that is proving to be true. Meanwhile, Boosh is like a pitcher who throws a no-hitter and loses the game by walking in the winning run. Osama wins the game without a hit. Whoulda thunk it?

Cyclone


"And so, in my State of the--my State of the Union--or state--my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation--I asked Americans to give 4,000 years--4,000 hours over the next--the rest of your life--of service to America. That's what I asked--4,000 hours."

George W. Boosh; Bridgeport, Connecticut; April 9, 2002 (tell me he's not drinking)