Murtha & the Wimpy Dems want to Quit on Iraq?!?!?

It is shameful – a downright disgrace to democracy and American morality – for a congressional representative to talk down to the President and Vice President as John Murtha did yesterday.

The “Hawkish Democrat” tirade story of Rep. John Murtha has been all over the news & web – but everyone seems to be missing the point. Murtha said (video):

“I like guys who’ve never been there that criticize us who’ve been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done,”

Murtha is referring to his decades spent as a marine with no regard to the fact that Bush and Cheney’s calling in the name of God and democracy would not come until later, in a much more macro sense. I mean, was Murtha doing his best to proliferate democracy and freedom throughouut the world?

Desert Rat all but takes the words right out of my mouth by stating the obvious: “We LOST THE WAR IN VIETNAM!! So don’t go casting slurs and throwing mud at anyone that wasn’t there with you, LOSING the war…”

What are the dems smoking by baselessly faulting the Pres and VP for a war which they approved. And, behind their backs, no less, with Bush being halfway around the world in China, and Cheney is in an undisclosed location guarding our constitution and its laurels for modern democracy with his life from this hapless partisan slander.

Am I the only one who hears Speaker Hastert when he makes it clear: “We must not cower like European nations who are now fighting terrorists on their soil.”

Just watch, I betcha if these crazy dems continue building momentum on their unfounded theories and pussyfooted blame game, we DO get attacked! And in some tree-filled park in San Francisco, no less, where all those commie blue-bloods think they’re SAFE. They’re NOT, and their naivete is endangering US ALL!

Lemme tell ya, Cheney was being EASY on Murtha when he compared him to Michael Moore. I’d say he’s more like Castro – even BEFORE all the Parkinsons! To Joshua Micah Marshall, who has the gall to suggest that the Republicans might be “joking” with their remarks, I’ve got this: are you K-I-D-D-I-N-G me?!?!?

I’m not ALL against Democrats, in fact, some of my closest friends voted for Clinton (in 1996), but I think we’ve just got to COME TOGETHER already, andn help bring democracy to the middle East. After all, we’re ONE nation under God, not two, and in lieu of God’s presence, we at least have a president that’s been personally approved by the big man himself.

I’ll leave with a segment, not from FOXnews, but Today show. The video is here. Rene Syler:

An influential Democratic congressman with close ties to the military says U.S. troops in Iraq have done their duty, and now it’s time for them to come home. But Republicans are calling that surrender!

voulez vous couchet avec moi
I can’t help but wonder if that’s the FRENCH flag he is standing in front of!!!???!!!

Pentagon on White Phosphorus: No… Meaning Yes

The Pentagon on Monday denied using white phosphorus in Iraq. The next day, they admitted that it had been used against insurgents in Fallujah.

Today’s UK Independent has full coverage of this and other recent cover-ups in U.S. military operations.

The most sickening aspect of this is that by at first denying the charges, the government appears to be concealing the worst. It seems American media has become afraid to break stories such as these and the CIA secret prison story   only two weeks ago. And now, we realize that it REALLY might be for the best interests of the U.S. image abroad to NOT publish such article with the assumption that the Pentagon is already familiar with the top news of the day in Europe and elsewhere.

The alarm sounded early this week in the Pentagon and they issued a flat-out denial of using white phosphorous for anything other than as a smoke-screen. Astute bloggers jumped on this topic, and uncovered whether it was anti-Americanism, or justified broke earlier last week in Europe after the broadcast by RAI in Italy and then Sky (doesn’t Murdoch own sky)?

WP is not a chemical weapon, but as the Independent explains, it is against Article 35 of the Geneva Conventions to use weapons that cause “superfluous or unneccesary suffering.” The Conventional Weapons Convention bans the use of WP:

against military targets “inside a concentration of civilians except when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians”.

The Pentagon’s denial, then admittance of the use of WP forced even coalition allies to retract statements that they had made

The Pentagon needs a Public Relations professional. In today’s world of blogger’s and transparency of any public documents, getting caught in a lie can be fatal. The use of WP in Fallujah had already been written about in the military rag Field Artillery (.pdf) as I pointed out over a week ago.

Despite whatever implications the U.S. government and military may face regarding the use of white phosophorous as an incendiary device, (CNN tonight says they are investigating the use of WP as a “chemical weapon,” which we already know is not how it is classified – it is thermally activated) considerable damage has already been done to the country’s program in Iraq, especially the accountability of the Pentagon.

If only they would stop trying cover all of the bases defensively and get proactive. If this is nation-building abroad, it is surely at the expense of the nation at home. Today, Sunni’s describe the torture endured at prison camps that were until this week unknown to U.S. troops. Meanwhile, they are not trusting Shi’ite leadership in investigating the shi’ite run prisons. Sounds like Iraqi leadership is taking a page out of our own book of “how to investigate yourself” democracy. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh published an editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal slamming the government for avoiding a probe] into Able Danger. And Robert Scheer in his debut column at his new home, the SF Chronicle, repeated his shout for and end to flat-out white lies.

Perhaps once again the media is frightened of WHAT ELSE we may find out if we press the issue of the recently released DITSUM No. 044-02 Defense Intelligence Agency Report, which claims:

The Bush administration’s key evidence for the apocryphal Osama bin Laden-Saddam Hussein alliance — said by Bush to involve training in the use of weapons of mass destruction — was built upon the testimony of a prisoner who, according to the DIA, was probably “intentionally misleading the debriefers.”

The Public is ahead – and just imagine where the government must stand now in the eyes of the world. Curtain call to Hawkish Dem. John P. Murtha for producing today’s Seismic Shift in Congress:

The war in Iraq is not going as advertised.  It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion.  The American public is way ahead of us.   The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction.  Our military is suffering.  The future of our country is at risk.  We can not continue on the present course.   It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region.

I will try not to vomit while I read for you the reaction from our Speaker of the House Dennis J. Hastert’s (R – IL) blog:

[Murtha and the Democrats] would prefer that the United States surrender to the terrorists who would harm innocent Americans. To add insult to injury, this is done while the President is on foreign soil.

Gimme a break – we’re in this together. Now, let’s work on cleaning up this mess!

Tribune Sucks

FOX News – Biased? or Just Ignorant?

fair and balanced
On any given day, Fox News Channel has more unique viewers than CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC combined.

More people rack their brains with a steady stream of misinformation from the too-ugly for radio pundits and “anchors” at Fox than skim the headlines of the Sunday L.A. Times.

Bias and partisanship is more or less irrelevant when such a large percentage of the populous is exposed to downright misinformed pundits who speak from a “no-spin zone.”

The latest example comes from Bill O’Reilly, who not only proclaimed this week on his “Radio Factor” that “the war in Iraq is all about Chirac,” he later insisted on “O’Reilly Factor” that if al-Qaeda attacked the U.S., nobody would care if they hit San Francisco:

“[I]f Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off-limits to you, except San Francisco.

Media Matters for America has a deluge of further examples (with video), not limited to O’Reilly or the Fox News Channel.

It is not worth noting the incredulously ill-informed yammering and wankering that occurs on a daily basis across the cable and local news spectrum without pointing out the long-term harm this has on American culture.

The image of the United States in the eyes of the world is repeatedly harmed by the promotion and amplification of such absurd ideas as Scooter Libby’s indictment for perjury, among other things, proved that “no underlying crime” was committed. This was repeated in several news broadcasts.

Simply put, our nation’s comfort with consumer-driven news programs and networks is a serious threat to democracy.

This CAN be remedied. Most visitors or immigrants to the U.S. are completely surprised by the lack of pertinent local or international information in any American news broadcast. Most shocking of all, is that there are actually commercials!

A poll conducted by the Public Relations Society of America and released Thursday found that 61% of the general public generally trusted news on PBS and NPR, while 56% trusted papers like the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or New York Times, and 53% trusted the commercial broadcast and cable news operations.

Considering this, how is it that the federal government is threatening to cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and divert those funds for Gulf Coast restoration and recovery efforts?

As it stands, without applying further cuts, Public Broadcating (radio & TV) gets a whopping $1.30 per capita in federal funding. Compare this to upwards of $100 in the UK and Germany, even $27 in Canada and Australia.

Clearly, something must be done.

Fox News