THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE TODAY (7/2/08). THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST UNITE TO SHOW THE WORLD WE DID NOT SUPPORT OR APPROVE OF THE INJUSTICES OF THIS ADMINISTRATION AND THE CRIMES IT COMMITTED AGAINST IRAQ, THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD.  TO REGAIN OUR STATURE IN THE WORLD, WE MUST CHARGE BUSH AND CHENEY WITH WAR CRIMES BEFORE THE REST OF THE WORLD DOES IT FOR US.  CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPERSONS TODAY!

The lack of oversight characterizing both the Bush administration and crony capitalism have bankrupted the U.S. and created the need for perpetual war. With Cheney stirring up trouble over Iran, we can't wait until November 2008 to fight back.

Toxic economy

Take the Fed's recent $30 billion bailout of Bear Sterns. Why throw taxpayer dollars at a company with massive amounts of "toxic waste" on its books, created largely through reckless behavior chasing short-term profits?

Disturbing news, news to me that is - because counterpunch did an article on this over a year ago which I was unaware of.  I am not seeing any coverage of this issue anywhere.  If this is true, which I suspect it is, we can no longer just point the finger at the Bush crime family. And, if it is true that Pelosi accepted this blood money, or any other Democrat, they need to come clean, tell the truth, and return it. 

 

The first link is to today's article:

 

Democratic Blood Money

by, Joshua Frank:

 

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank04042007.html

 

The next link is to the investigation, you will need to scroll to;

"Diane Feinstein: A question Of Ethics"

 

By Dave Lindorff

I for one am not going to fuss about Halliburton moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai on the sunny coast of the Persian Gulf.

It makes sense, and it makes things so much clearer, too.

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish - Special flights brought in tonnes of banknotes which disappeared into the war zone

An armed guard poses beside pallets of $100 bills in Baghdad. Almost $12bn in cash was spent by the US-led authority...

The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent... (more)

There's been a lot a big numbers floated by the past few days. Let's review, first the really big one, Smirk's Three Trillion Dollar budget which includes $719 BILLION for the starving military, including almost $300 billion for ongoing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. So how does he plan to pay for this obscene increase in US global military domination? By cutting the budget for Medicare, Medicaid, education, health care and children's programs. What a mean heartless little tyrant our illegitimate Dear MisLeader... (more)

In scenes reminiscent of the 6th Armies assault on Stalingrad, president Bush’s “surge” appears to be a last ditch, all or nothing attempt to bring a military victory in Baghdad that it cannot realistically achieve.

Battle for Baghdad: City braces itself for US surge
Urban fighting amid the ruins
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
Published: 28 January 2007

Lina Massufi, a 32-year-old Iraqi laboratory assistant with two children, is a widow - her husband was killed by US troops when he accidentally drove down a closed road in 2003. In the past three months she has seen her house raided and her furniture smashed 12 times.

Here is an article from MSN Money which details investment opportunities in the Iraq “war:”

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/InvestInTheNe...

By Jon Markman

Considering all the flak that President Bush has endured for ordering 20,000 more troops to Baghdad, it's a wonder that he didn't just pick up the phone and dial 1-800-MERCENARY.

That's what the Pentagon is likely to do anyway, as it has throughout the Iraq conflict. Thanks to loopholes in the law and budgeting process, upward of 20,000 private military contractors -- sadly, the term mercenary is passé -- are believed to be at work for the United States in the region, and their ranks are growing all the time.

Little item via TPM almost slipped by.... Things have goten so BAD in Iraq and Afghanistan the mercenaries are pullin' out....

I think this is what's called a bad sign (from the AP) ...

Manhattan security company Kroll has withdrawn its bodyguard teams from Iraq and Afghanistan after it lost four workers in Iraq, its parent company said Wednesday.

Michael Cherkasky, president and chief executive of Kroll owner Marsh & McLennan Cos., told The Associated Press that the business in the two countries wasn't worth risking the lives of their employees.

By David Swanson

"Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers," by far the best film Robert Greenwald has created, is not about the military industrial complex. Rather, it is about the remaining shell of the former military, having embedded within itself not just the media, but numerous other corporate entities. The U.S. military no longer cooks its own food, washes its own laundry, repairs its own vehicles, or guards its own V.I.P.s. We've privatized everything, right down to the shooting -- mercenaries make up the second largest contingent in the Coalition of the Killing.

Private corporations cost more and provide less, or in the case of the reconstruction of Iraq: provide virtually nothing. There has been no reconstruction, and various corporations have provided literally nothing – at great expense. Halliburton has sent drivers to risk their lives hauling empty trucks back and forth across Iraq. And when a $75,000 truck breaks down, for lack of a spare tire or an oil filter, they blow the truck up or abandon it.