"War forms its own culture. It distorts memory, corrupts language, and infects everything around it.... War exposes the capacity for evil that lurks not far below the surface within all of us. Even as war gives meaning to sterile lives, it also promotes killers and racists." - Chris Hedges, NY Times

This story from a year ago is really disturbing and it puts to the lie the meme that a "few bad apples" are to blame for Haditha and Abu Ghraib.  I do not blame the soldiers, I blame Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for letting the military get out of control.  The story was told by Army mechanic Adian Delgado last year.

"Guys in my unit, particularly the younger guys, would  drive by in their Humvee and shatter bottles over the heads of Iraqi civilians passing by. They'd keep a bunch of empty Coke bottles in the Humvee to break over people's heads."

I said to them: 'What the hell are you doing? Like, what does this accomplish?' And they responded just completely openly. They said: 'Look, I hate being in Iraq. I hate being stuck here. And I hate being surrounded by hajis.'"

The new Iraqi PM has vowed to crush rebellious Shia militias with an "Iron Fist", declaring Barsra to be in a month-long State of Emergency.  The British are starting to be killed in larger and larger numbers and a Brit TV crew was attacked.  Problem is the Shia militia and warlords run Basra and most of the south already.

Is the real Iraq War just starting now, where the occupying coalition has to fight the Shia as well as the Sunnis?  Is Iran supplying heat-seeking missiles and improved IEDs?

A British helicopter was shot down with what the Brits suspect was a heat-seeking Strela missile.

If the Shia fight Bushco and Blairco, is the war lost?  Would Bush start a draft to hang on to the oil, or would he just stay and keep hiring expensive mercenaries as he is doing now while the coailition gets increasingly cut up?

Or is all this lies by the neo-cons to gather excuses to invade Shiite Iran?

What would you do with the $28 billion?  Pay down the deficit? Fund education? Health insurance for more people? Fund the new concentrating photovoltaics designs that will soon supply solar power at $3 a watt?

Or what?

Sen. Kerry & Rep. Hinchey Introduce Measure To Repeal More Than $28 Billion In Wasteful Tax Breaks & Subsidies For Oil Companies

Washington, DC -- With oil companies experiencing huge, record-breaking profits at the expense of Americans who are facing historic prices at the pump, U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) have introduced legislation that would repeal at least $28 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for the country's oil and gas companies.  Hinchey introduced the Energy Fairness for America Act in the House today and Kerry unveiled it in the Senate last week.  
 

Joe Klein had recently stated on ABC's This Week that using nukes against Iran must be kept "on the table".

Now progressive blogger Mike Stark has made him take those words back on the Jim Bohannon radio show.

First the pundwit's call for the Nuclear Option:

Republican Bob Ney is going down!  Jack is turning state's evidence of Quid Pro Quo and fraud to prosecutors.

Happy Abramoffukkah!

Ney misrepresented trip's purpose

In addition to likely misreporting its true cost, Ney also listed the sponsor of the trip as the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative thinktank. It later emerged that the trip was paid for by Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation. Members of Congress are prohibited from taking trips paid for by lobbyists.

This could really wake some people up to the insanity of the Far Right--hate radio host Michael Savage has called for the death of 100 million Muslims to save America.  There was a previous diary but it did not give the Web site to email advertisers of Savage's show nor did it point out how this helps Osama Bin Laden to recruit on this point that the West is conducting a genocidal Crusade against Islam.

And it got few comments.  Let's get this going in the ECHO CHAMBER, because it's too fruitful to let die:

SAVAGE: [Intelligent, Welathy People] are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, "Oh, there's a billion of them." I said, "So, kill 100 million of them, then there'll be 900 million of them." I mean, would you rather die -- would you rather us die than them? I mean, what is it going to take for you people to wake up? Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you're going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later.

http://mediamatters.org/...

THE NEO-CON VIEW OF GRABBING IRAN'S OIL:

A MAP OF "AL-AHWAZ" (Formerly Southern Iran):

Notice how the map of the "al-Ahwazi" independence movement corresponds conveniently with the reported battle plans of the neo-cons for Khuzestan and the southern coast

Some here at DailyKOS know I've been concerned that the neo-cons plan to invade Iran, not all of Iran but just the oil-bearing province of Khuzestan and the southern coast adjacent to the shipping lanes.  This article reports that in 2003, the neo-con mantra was "REAL MEN GO TO KHUZESTAN", which the author then used as the title of the article.

Earlier Diary:Intel Official: Cheney Orders Violence Inside Khuzestan

Cheney and Rummy are out-manuevering Condi for control of the Oil Wars and are putting the conquest of the Iranian oil fields in Khuzestan closer and closer.  Raw Story reports:

The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.

One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being "run" in two southern regional areas of Iran. They are Baluchistan, a Sunni stronghold, and Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead and hundreds injured in the last three months.

Congressman Mo Lashes Bush good in this one!  Calls him an Absolute Disgrace AND A liar. Hinchey explains that Bush knowingly committed a crime when he lied to Congress about the 16 words.

IMPEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"If what Scooter Libby said to the grand jury is true, then this latest development clearly reveals yet again that the CIA leak case goes much deeper than the disclosure of a CIA agent's identity to the press.  The heart and motive of this case is about the deliberate attempt at the highest levels of this administration to discredit those who were publicly revealing that the White House lied about its uranium claims leading up to the war.  The Bush Administration knew that Iraq had not sought uranium from Africa for a nuclear weapon, yet they went around telling the Congress, the country, and the world just the opposite.

HOW THE REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY, DEMOCRATS AND MODERATE REPUBLICANS SEE A WAR WITH IRAN:

Reality-Based Community Fantasy Analysis: The US and UK cannot invade and hold Iran, it would take 600,000 troops to control such a large area containing 80 million people.  

Ever hear of Khuzestan?  Well you're about to hear a lot more about it soon, because that appears to be the only province of Iran that we're actually going to take control of in the up-coming war with Iran.

It's the province where 90% of the currently producing oil fields are located (see maps above).  And it's right next to all our forces in Iraq, so--with an indigenous Arab rebellion--we can easily take Khuzestan on the tired old WMD and democracy excuses.  All without the 600,000 troops estimated for a full conquest of all Iran.

The other diary on this was wrong and skimpy, so I stepped in.  This is very imPORTant, you might say.

Forget LIHOP, this is pure MIHOP!  How in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster could Bush do this, unless he truly does want to leave the barn door wide open for another attack!

This is the most outrageous --

If the Dems don't come out swinging on this one...  Hillary too, Goddamit!

White House Defends Port Operations Sale

AP - 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports.

Lawmakers asked the White House to reconsider the deal.

The sale to state-owned Dubai Ports World was "rigorously reviewed" by a U.S. committee that considers security threats when foreign companies seek to buy or invest in American industry, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said.

http://news.yahoo.com/...

Churches to mark Darwin's birthday
Hundreds to join `Evolution Sunday,' organized by a Wisconsin academic

By Lisa Anderson
Chicago Tribune
national correspondent
Published February 11, 2006

NEW YORK -- Nearly 450 Christian churches around the country plan to celebrate the 197th birthday of Charles Darwin on Sunday with programs and sermons intended to emphasize that his theory of biological evolution is
compatible with faith and that Christians have no need to choose between religion and science.

"It's to demonstrate, by Christian leaders and members of the clergy, that you don't have to make that choice. You can have both," said Michael Zimmerman, dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, who organized the event.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/...

This is what I have been saying for years.  THe whole world knew OBL was at Tora Bora--and for a week the only American on the scene was Geraldo Rivera!  After he was there for about 4 or 5 days, some Special Forces showed up on ATVs--but that was it!

Hinchey says Bush didn't want to capture Bin Laden

When the US didn't capture Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, it wasn't by mistake, Congressman Maurice Hinchey of Hurley theorized.

Instead, Hinchey said the Administration had a motive for not capturing him. "Why did we do that? The only logical answer that comes to mind is they didn't want to capture Bin Laden because if they captured Bin Laden and wiped out the Taliban, which they could have done at that moment, there would have been no justification for going to war in Iraq, and they wanted to use that as a justification for attacking Iraq," he said.

Hinchey is a critic of the war in Iraq and the Bush administration, who he says lied about the reasons for going into Iraq.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/...

What do you think?  Take Poll below

Don't forget that Jack Abramoff's own secretary, Susan Ralston, became Karl Rove's Personal Assistant, and that Abramoff said he contacted Rove personally on relieving his client Tyco from having to pay some taxes and still be able to get federal contracts.  Abramoff said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" on Tyco.

But that's not the half of it!  It was only revealed this August that in 2002 Bush himself fired a prosecutor, Frederick Black, investigating Abramoff over a scandal in Guam.  Rove recommended the replacement and the inquiry of Abramoff ended! ""The demotion of ... Black looks political and should be investigated," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said in a press release." It would be Obstruction of Justice by Bush if true, and I personally believe it to be Obstruction, given what we already know.

Yet the media today is just asking about staff meetings.  There's way more than that alreday under investigation!

Hinchey Officially Calls For U.S. Department Of Justice Investigation
Into Development & Legality Of Secret Domestic Surveillance Program

Says President Cannot Circumvent Constitution; Must Work With Congress To Find Legislative Solutions
That Would Help Track Potential Terrorists While Protecting System Of Checks & Balances

Kingston, NY -- Deeply concerned about the constitutionality and precedent of President Bush's secretly authorized domestic surveillance initiative being conducted without warrants, Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) today formally called for a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the development and legality of the program.  Hinchey and a group of his House colleagues this week will send a letter to H. Marshall Jarrett, DOJ's Counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility asking for an investigation into how the surveillance program came about, the involvement and objections of DOJ officials regarding the program, and the overall legality of the initiative.    

Don't forget that Jack Abramoff's own secretary, Susan Ralston, became Karl Rove's Personal Assistant, and that Abramoff said he contacted Rove personally on relieving his client Tyco from having to pay some taxes and still be able to get federal contracts.  Abramoff said "he had contact with Mr. Karl Rove" on Tyco.

But that's not the half of it!  It was only revealed this August that in 2002 Bush himself fired a prosecutor, Frederick Black, investigating Abramoff over a scandal in Guam.  Rove recommended the replacement and the inquiry of Abramoff ended! ""The demotion of ... Black looks political and should be investigated," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said in a press release." It would be Obstruction of Justice by Bush if true, and I personally believe it to be Obstruction, given what we already know.

DoJ Inspector General Glen Fine is investigating Bush's ending of Abramoff's Guam Scandal

My investigation on the flip, Jack!

Abramoff's Greenberg Traurig Law Firm has exposed itself to possible legal troubles by defending Jack and not cutting him loose immediately.

Officials at the lawfirm that employed indicted conservative lobbyist Jack Abramoff lied about what they knew about his role in a massive lobbying scandal and when they knew it, former Abramoff associates say.

Greenberg Traurig's Connecticut Avenue offices in Washington provided the stables for a coterie of aggressive lobbyists who wooed members of Congress with lavish donations, skybox suites and Scottish golfing jaunts. The firm said they first learned of Abramoff's misadventures when they appeared in the pages of The Washington Post.

Those familiar with the sequence of events say this is a lie. They maintain the company's top executives learned of Abramoff's financial relationship with Rep. Tom DeLay's (R-TX) former aide Michael Scanlon when they represented Abramoff in a bankruptcy trial.