The difference between Republicans and Democrats
So, while Democrats are complaining about programs in swing states where Republican "operatives" will station themselves in various polling stations (primarily ones in minority neighborhoods) and "challenge voter eligibility" (ie, harrass voters and hold up the whole process),... (For more on this and a great cartoon, check out this post from Tom Tomorrow. Also, Arie over at the Daily Outrage has a comprehensive post with links on all the Republican fraud.

Republicans are complaining because Democrats are, get this, encouraging people to vote! Can you believe that...how utterly DEVIOUS of them! Actually encouraging potential voters to get out and vote, rather than trying to hinder ones already trying to vote...oh those DASTERDLY Democrats!


Meanwhile, some crazed group of tree-hugging enviro-nazis is criticizing the US for it's use of torture in Iraq. Don't they know we have BOMBS and we're not afraid to use them on anyone who disagrees with us (and by "us", I mean the Bush administration, which received less than half of the votes cast by voters in 2000, in an election in which less than half of eligible voters voted).

It just gets worse and worse.
So, the big news yesterday and today is exactly what Arie (over at The Daily Outrage) and I said SHOULD have been the big news more than a week ago. A whole butt-load of explosives has disappeared from Iraq SINCE the US-led invasion. (I'm not even bothering with a link...check any news site and you'll see one...as for commentary, check atrios's post here and the ones before it.)

So, just to sum things up for us: not only has the US-lead invasion of Iraq turned it into THE center for terrorism for the entire planet (when before, it was the source of no international terrorism), but now the occupying US forces have let more than 300 tons of explosives vanish...most likely falling into the hands of terrorist who have been using or will use it to kill people. Nice...and yet the latest poll I just saw on CNN showed that when asked: who can do a better job of fighting terrorism, they respond in favor of Bush by a margin of 55% to 35%!

I just saw a soundbite where some right-wing pundit had this disturbing comment on the news:
"People like John Kerry are going to torture this into some kind of political issue"

Wait...they let 4000 times as much explosives as Timothy McVeigh used in Oklahoma City disappear (very likely falling into terrorist hands, let's face it), and asking HOW such a horrible thing could happen is just "politics"?!?

This just gets more and more unvelievable.

What was Bush's response to this story yesterday? Well, he completely avoided the issue in his stump-speaches, but a spokesman said this: "John Kerry has no vision for fighting and winning the war on terror, so he is basing his attack on the headlines he wakes up to each day,"

In other words, they're CRITICIZING Kerry for keeping up on current events. I guess Bush was serious when he boasted a year or so back that he didn't read the news.

I guess when you keep your head stuck in the sand and ingore blatant, obvious failures, someone who reads the news is worth chiding.

Oh, and Bush is preparing to ask for 70 billion MORE dollars to plunder and blunder in Iraq. (Thanks to Atrios for the linke on that...I saw it on CNN, but can't find it on their website yet). As for the draft...well, they're not admiting that YET, but the Pentagon is asking for another 20,000 more US troops. But only "temporarily".

No future? Why not be cannon fodder?
It's going to get harder to convince young Iraqi men to enlist with the "new" Iraqi Army, when attacks like these are a very real future they face.

A group of at least 49 soldiers of the new Iraq Army were ambushed and killed while on their way home after graduating from training, a U.S. military official said.

Penhaul said the killings were part of a growing pattern in Iraq with insurgents aiming to deter men from joining the new Iraq army.


But have no fear. The Army may have had poor planning and disasterously-flawed intel, thanks to Rumsfeld, Chenney and Bush's lies and incompetence, but one thing the Army does have experience in is convincing young men to join up and sign their lives away. The key is to make sure that the everyday life these young men (and their families) face is even more threatening than a military life.

The Army recruits a large percentage of its soldiers (and if you're talking "front-line" soldiers, then it's a large majority of them) from poor neighborhoods...we all know that. The portion of Farenheit 9/11 where Micheal Moore followed two Army recruiters around a poor section of Michigan was revealing, but really nothing new.

But, here are some interesting quotes from Nester Fernendez, an Army recruiter specializing in the same poor neighborhoods from which he himself came:

Fernandez's message is simple: If you're from a low-income neighborhood, in which drug use, crime, high unemployment and dead-end jobs are rampant, enlisting is about escaping and taking advantage of the stability, skills training and scholarship money that the Army offers its recruits. In fact, before Fernandez offers any of the official, sleek Army literature, he often hands out a simple flier he has designed in the form of a job notice and which makes no mention of the Army. Instead, it announces "positions available" in bold type and offers guaranteed pay raises, travel and rent-free housing.

"I don't want these kids to make the Army a career," he says. "I want them to move in, prepare themselves for the future, and move the hell out. I want them to make something of themselves and do something for their families. No matter how you cut it, the Army is a job, and it is a good job."

Yes, it's a "good job" if the only other future you have ahead of you is stifling poverty, durg addiction, or jail time. Frenedez knows and admits this.

"...and I don't paint any pretty pictures of what he's facing. A kid will face dangerous situations on the front line, but no more dangerous than life on these streets.

...I want every last kid out of here," he says, "because the risks they take [in their own neighborhoods] are much greater than those in the Army, even if they are in combat. And I tell them that. I break it down in a way they can not misunderstand."

So, keep a large portion of the country (whether it's the US or Iraq) impoverished and living under the constant threat of violence, and your Army's ranks will never get too thin.


BETTER OFF DEAD?
And, on a related note, I came across this distressing story while researching this post. For those who will say "I don't feel sorry for those kids...no one holds a gun to their heads and says 'you have to join'...it's their choice. Don't give me that crap about poverty...it's still their choice."

Fine, even if you feel that way, you've still got to admit that treating soldiers like this is a disgrace.

Part of the warrior ethos, the soldier's creed of the U.S. Army, is to "never leave a fallen comrade."

"And it doesn't just pertain to the battlefield," Hagenbeck said. "It means, when we get them home they're a part of the Army family forever."

But Johnson now lives in his car. It is where he spends most of his days, all of his nights, in constant pain from his injuries and unwilling to burden his family...

Stories like Tyson Johnson's are not unique.

Many of the severely wounded soldiers returning from Iraq face the prospect of poverty and what they describe as official indifference and incompetence.

But it's not only those who ENTER the Army poor...

"Guys I've met, talking to people, they'd be better off financially for their families if they had died as opposed to coming back maimed," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Kelly, who served as a civil affairs specialist for the Army while in Iraq.

On July 14, 2003, the Abilene, Texas, native had been on his way to a meeting about rebuilding schools in Iraq when his unarmored Humvee was blown up. A piece of shrapnel the size of a TV remote took his right leg off, below the knee, almost completely, Kelly said.

Kelly attests to receiving excellent medical care at Ward 57, the amputee section of Walter Reed, but said he quickly realized that the military had no real plan for the injured soldiers. Many had to borrow money or depend on charities just to have relatives visit at Walter Reed, Kelly said.

"It's not what I expected to see when I got here," he said. "These guys having to, you know, basically panhandle for money to afford things."

Even those who'd achieved "The American Dream" through hard work and planning are not safe:

Staff Sgt. Larry Gill, a National Guardsman from Semmes, Ala., wonders whether his 20 dutiful years of military service have been adequately rewarded.

Last October, Gill injured his left leg when on patrol during a protest outside a mosque in Baghdad. A protester threw a hand grenade which left Gill, a former policeman, with leg intact, though useless. He received a Purple Heart from the military, but no program, plan or proposal of how to make a living in civilian life.

"It's not fair, and I'm not complaining," Gill said. "I'm not whining about it. You know, I just, I just don't think people really understand what we're being faced with.

Gill expects he will have to sell his home, the dream house he and his wife, Leah, designed and built, where they raised their children.

"I've never questioned my orders," he said. "I've slept with rats and stood in the rain and wondered why I was standing in the rain, and, you know, for my children to have to do without based on a lack of income from me, it's frustrating."

Leah Gill agreed. "I just don't feel we should have to uproot because of an injury that he received while he was serving the country," she said. "It shouldn't come down to that."

No, it shouldn't.

AWOL? Who do you think you are?
Another case of What's good for the Goof isn't good for the Cannon Fodder from CNN.


And isn't it a good thing that Bush and Co have made Iraq and Afghanistan SAFE for freedom and democracy.


And, for those soldiers who survive the debacle of Iraq and Afghanistan (and Iran...and Syria...and...?), they still have Gulf War sickness to worry about.

What did one pathological liar say to another?
Check out this story from Atrios...it's too bizarre. Apparently Bush promised Pat Robertson that the US would not suffer casualties in Iraq. Not only that, he also said "I've been to war" before...?

Americans to First Ladies: "Shut up and cook something!"
This is sad, but not suprising.

I guess we can take heart that the younger generation is slowly waking up, though:

By more than 2 to 1, those 65 and older say a first lady shouldn't hold an outside job, according to the nationwide survey. Those 30 to 64 are divided roughly evenly on the question. But younger Americans, 18 to 29, say by almost 2 to 1 that it would be fine.

Two miles and two generations down the road from the senior center, at Westminster Senior High School, students in Carol Richardson's issues class struggle to imagine why anyone would think that the first lady shouldn't work outside the White House.

"It's an awfully old-time way to think, to say she should know her role and the first lady has no power beyond making sure the flowers don't wilt," says Aaron Luce, 16.

"We're not in the 1900s any more," agrees Brianna Garvey, also 16, who hopes to become a nurse. "It takes your whole life to go with what you want to do. If you love your career -- and I think I will -- you don't want to give it up."

More Bad news in and about Iraq
So, here's voice number...oh, I've lost count...umpteen thousand, saying that the invasion of Iraq was mishandled. This time, it's coming from Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who will undoubtedly now be "exposed" by the Bush campaign as a panty-waisted, pinko liberal. Nothing here we haven't all heard before:

Bush lied, thousands died (and contiue dying).

Or, as Jon Kerry said (from the article linked above):

"Mr. President, when it comes to the war in Iraq, it is time to come clean and acknowledge what your military leaders have told you privately," he said. "The bottom line, Mr. President, is that your mismanagement of the war has, in fact, made Iraq and America less safe and less secure than they could have been and that they should have been today."


Also from Iraq, a charity worker who's spend more than two decades helping the poor in the Middle East was kidnapped in Iraq yesterday.

Hassan, who was born in Ireland, holds duel British and Iraqi citizenships, and has been a highly respected humanitarian official in the Middle East for 25 years...

CARE International, which operates in more than 72 countries, is one of the few international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to remain in Iraq.

Most NGOs pulled foreign staff out after the two Italian aid workers were kidnapped for three weeks in September.

Yep...that's "liberated" Iraq for you. Less safe for Christians, less safe for Muslims, less safe for charities. But hey...how about those profit margins at Haliburton and Bechtel!

A new website about Ann Coulter
Check out the website for "Strap-on Veterans for Truth". I can't vouch for its authenticity--some people seem to think it's satire--but it IS an interesting read.

We are a coalition of former friends and co-workers of Ann Coulter who are upset by her vicious anti-gay, anti-muslim, anti-feminist rhetoric and feel the truth should be told. Our organization, Strap-On Veterans For Truth, is dedicated to exposing the true past of America's number one hatemonger...

As Pudenda Shenanigans, she was well known on the drag circuit in Key West. Whether she actually had a full sex change or not is a matter of debate, although her adam' apple is still visible in photos, under the appropriate light.

The Yanks Need Help...or is it just little Georgie?
The US is now requesting help from the British in Iraq, asking for a redeployment of UK forces to help bolster the US ones. Some British politicians smell a rat...his name is George W. Bush.

Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond voiced his concern over the weekend.

"I don't want to see a single Black Watch soldier sacrificed and jeopardized for a political gesture from Tony Blair to George W. Bush," he said.


And it seems the Afghans really are having a good ol' "Florida-style" election to make George and Jeb proud.

At a news conference Tuesday, Qanooni said there is evidence of ballot boxes being filled with Karzai votes in at least four provinces: Ghazni, Herat, Zabul and Kunduz. He says his representatives were threatened when they went to check on suspected ballot-box stuffing in Zabul province.

And...

Qanooni also complained that his representatives were unable to monitor ballot boxes during transit from polling stations to counting centers. Organizers acknowledge some boxes arrived with broken seals but say they were damaged by clumsy handling.

Clumbsy handling...hmmmm. Well, at least several thousand minorities weren't summarily prohibited from voting just by the color of their skin. Well...give them time...this is just their first go at De-mock-racy!

Kofi weighs in, too.
Just another voice in the crowd of knowledgable and worldly people who know that the world is no safer since the US invaded Iraq.

"I cannot say the world is safer when you consider the violence around us, when you look around you and see the terrorist attacks around the world and you see what is going on in Iraq," Annan told the ITV network.

The phrase you're looking for, Mr. Secretary General, is "Pandora's Box".

Oh, and Brent Scocroft, former National Security Advisor to George Bush I, has spoken out on the utter failures in Iraq and Afghanistan again.