07.30.06

You Are Cordially Invited…

Posted in SSquirrel at 12:04 pm by SSquirrel

beirut

Supporters of Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal movement allied to the Hezbollah furious over an Israeli airstrike in Qana that killed up to 50 refugees, smash the car of the Chief of the Lebanese Police Ashraf Rifi in Beirut, Lebanon Sunday, July 30, 2006 after around 5,000 protesters massed outside the empty UN building, chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans. . (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called off a trip to Lebanon today after the Lebanese government asked her not to come.

Rice said told reporters in Jerusalem Sunday that she had called Siniora to delay her planned visit to Beirut in light of events. She was in Jerusalem conferring with Israeli officials, maintaining her insistence that calls for a cease-fire in Europe and the Arab world are premature until a sustainable settlement can be worked out.

“In the wake of the tragedy that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussions in Beirut,” Rice said. “In any case, my work is here today.”

Clovis Maksoud, a well known Lebanese analyst, wrote on the front page of Sunday’s An Nahar newspaper in Beirut that Rice’s expected arrival here was “a mix of visit and running around.” He suggested it was designed as a display of U.S. concern while in fact the Bush administration agrees with Israel that the attacks must continue until Hezbollah’s militia forces are more severely degraded.

Stuck on vicious and stupid:

sustainable = not enough dead kids

premature = not enough dead kids

ripening negotiation = not enough dead kids

Hey Condi, little spot of blood on your cuffs there, maybe a little club soda…

Killing Children for Peace…

Posted in SSquirrel at 11:33 am by SSquirrel

A Lebanese rescuer wraps the body of a young boy recovered from under the rubble of a demolished building that was struck by Israeli warplane missiles at the village of Qana near the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 30, 2006. Israeli missiles struck this southern Lebanese village early Sunday, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. The Lebanese Red Cross said the airstrike, in which at least 34 children were killed, pushed the overall Lebanese death toll to more than 500. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

A Lebanese rescuer carries the body of a young girl recovered from under the rubble of a demolished building that was struck by Israeli warplane missiles at the village of Qana. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Dozens of children were feared dead today after Israeli missiles struck the southern Lebanese village of Qana, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. Survivors said that more than 50 adults and children had died.

The Israeli army said missiles had been fired from the area before the 1am air strike in which a three-story building took a direct hit.

The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defence official at the scene. At least 10 children’s bodies had been pulled out, placed in plastic bags and loaded in ambulances, he said.

In April 1996 more than 100 Lebanese civilians were killed at the same village in an Israeli artillery shelling of a UN base. The civilians had sought refuge with the UN to escape Israeli bombardment.

This is not the way to peace, we’ve known this for 2,000 years…

When will we learn it?

07.29.06

Bush’s Death Tax Raised Again….

Posted in SSquirrel at 12:03 pm by SSquirrel

AP

The U.S. command said three U.S. Marines died in action in western Iraq.

The Marines died Thursday in Anbar, the western province that is a focal point of the Sunni-dominated insurgency. A U.S. statement said they were attached to the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which operates in Ramadi, but gave no further details.

Their deaths brought the number of U.S. service members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,573, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians.

Meanwhile on Saturday, a car packed with explosives blew up in a residential district of Kirkuk, killing four people and injuring 13, police said.

The bombing occurred around 2 p.m. in the al-Wasiti district of Kirkuk, about 180 miles north of Baghdad. It was the sixth car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area’s vast oil wealth

The western regional commander of the Iraqi Border Protection Force, Brig. Gen. Jawad Hadi al-Selawi, was killed in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

A Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to al-Qaida in Iraq was killed while driving in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

Iraq’s national soccer coach resigned after receiving a death threat, sports officials said. The country’s wresting coach was killed July 13. Two days later, more than 30 sports officials, including the chairman of Iraq’s Olympic Committee, were seized during a meeting in Baghdad.

At least 10 have been freed, but dozens are still missing, including National Olympic Committee chairman Ahmed al-Hijiya.

• Four unidentified bodies riddled with bullets were found, two behind a school in western Baghdad and two by the Tigris river.

• A mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attack on police in Fallujah left four injured.

• Gunmen fired on a taxi in Baghdad carrying a father and son, killing the boy.

Fearless Leader, still talking tough with other peoples blood, still destroying other people’s lives.

Maybe he could invite all the kids who don’t have fathers anymore to go with him on his little bike ride around his estate, sorry his “ranch-style” estate today…

07.28.06

What Would Jesus Do?…Part 9…

Posted in SSquirrel at 11:58 am by SSquirrel

Bowing to moderates and seeking to defuse a campaign issue before leaving for vacation, House GOP leaders Friday planned a vote on a bill to increase the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour within three years.

The vote comes after almost 50 rank-and-file Republican lawmakers pressed House leaders — who strongly oppose the wage hike and have thus far prevented a vote — to schedule the measure for debate.
Democrats have made increasing the wage a pillar of their campaign platform and are pushing to raise the wage to $7.25 per hour over two years. In June, the Republican-controlled Senate refused to raise the minimum wage, rejecting a proposal from Democrats.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called it a “political stunt” for GOP leaders to attach the minimum wage increase to legislation that’s sure to bog down in the Senate. Democrats filibustered the health plans bill in May.

“It’s a political stunt to put (the minimum wage increase) on a bill they know is doomed,” Pelosi said.

Inflation has eroded the minimum wage’s buying power to the lowest level in about 50 years. Yet lawmakers have won cost-of-living wage increases totaling about $35,000 for themselves over that time.

Lawmakers fear being pounded with 30-second campaign ads over the August recess that would tie Congress’ upcoming $3,300 pay increase with Republicans’ refusal to raise the minimum wage.

07.27.06

Priceless…War Crimes Act of 1996

Posted in SSquirrel at 11:38 pm by SSquirrel

An obscure law approved by a Republican-controlled Congress a decade ago has made the Bush administration nervous that officials and troops involved in handling detainee matters might be accused of committing war crimes, and prosecuted at some point in U.S. courts.

Senior officials have responded by drafting legislation that would grant U.S. personnel involved in the terrorism fight new protections against prosecution for past violations of the War Crimes Act of 1996. That law criminalizes violations of the Geneva Conventions governing conduct in war and threatens the death penalty if U.S.-held detainees die in custody from abusive treatment.

In light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the international Conventions apply to the treatment of such detainees, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has spoken privately with Republican lawmakers about the need for such “protections,” according to someone who heard his remarks last week.

Gonzales told the lawmakers that a shield was needed for actions taken by U.S. personnel under a 2002 presidential order, which the Supreme Court declared illegal, and under Justice Department legal opinions that have been withdrawn under fire, the source said.

Since the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003, hundreds of service members deployed to Iraq have been accused by the Army of mistreating detainees, and at least 35 detainees have died in military or CIA custody, according to a tally kept by Human Rights First. The military has asserted these were all aberrant acts by troops ignoring their orders.

Defense attorneys for many of those accused of involvement have alleged that their clients were pursuing policies of rough treatment set by officials in Washington. That claim is amplified in a 53-page Human Rights Watch report this week that quoted interrogators at three bases in Iraq as saying that abuse was part of regular, authorized procedures.

While serving as White House legal counsel in 2002, Gonzales helped prepare a Jan. 25 draft memo to Bush — written in large part by David Addington, then Vice President Cheney’s legal counsel and now Cheney’s chief of staff — in which he cited the threat of prosecution under the act as a reason to declare that detainees captured in Afghanistan were not eligible for Geneva Conventions protections.

“It is difficult,” Gonzales said in the memo, “to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to bring unwarranted charges.” He also argued for the flexibility to pursue various interrogation methods and said that only a presidential order exempting detainees from Geneva protections “would provide a solid defense to any future prosecution.” That month, Bush approved an order exempting those captured in Afghanistan from these protections.

But the Supreme Court’s ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld effectively made Bush’s order illegal when it affirmed that all detainees held by the United States are protected by Common Article 3. The court’s decision caught the administration unprepared, at first, for questions about how its policy would change.

At a July 13 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Air Force’s top military lawyer, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, affirmed that “some of the techniques that have been authorized and used in the past have violated Common Article 3″ of the Geneva Conventions. The top military lawyers for the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, who were seated next to Rives, said they agreed.

Yeh sure, Alberto the Toady is worried about the troops. More likely he’s worried about the bullshit memos he wrote. Death penalty? Somebody get Alberto a blinfold and a cigarette. I’ll bring the popcorn… :)

Michigan Acorns…

Posted in SSquirrel at 7:26 pm by SSquirrel

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A poll released Wednesday shows 47 percent of voters said they’d back Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm if the election were held today, while 44 percent would back GOP challenger Dick DeVos and 9 percent were undecided.

Granholm’s numbers have improved slightly since a June poll. Then, 46 percent said they’d back DeVos and 44 percent said they’d back the governor, with 10 percent undecided.

Both polls were conducted by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA for a consortium made up of The Detroit News and television stations WXYZ of Detroit, WOOD of Grand Rapids, WILX of Lansing and WJRT of Flint.

Dum’ya’s Death Tax…

Posted in SSquirrel at 9:22 am by SSquirrel

A native of a small town in west Michigan has died while fighting in Iraq.

Army Spec. Dennis K. Samson, 24, of Hesperia in Oceana County was killed Monday by enemy gunfire, said employees of the Harris Funeral Home in Shelby who talked with family members after they were informed by the Army

Samson, assigned to 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division in Ft. Campbell, Ky., died in Taqaddum, Iraq, of injuries sustained by enemy small arms fire, according to the Department of Defense.

The soldier was a 2000 graduate of Hesperia High School. His track coach, Doug Baird, described him as a kind person and a “free spirit” who excelled in cross country, the Muskegon Chronicle reported.

“He was a four-year varsity runner for us,” Baird said. “He worked very hard at our workouts. He was the type of kid you wanted on your team… He had a smile on his face.”

“It’s a tragedy that we lost him so early.”

Someone’s Son

Triple Sou-Kow…Or Still Turning Corners in Iraq…

Posted in SSquirrel at 9:11 am by SSquirrel

Masked Iraqi police officers detain suspected insurgents involved in a shooting on patrolling Iraqi police officers, Wednesday, July 26, 2006, in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The gunmen attacked an Iraqi police patrol in a drive-by shooting, killing two police officers and wounding one civilian, and were arrested shortly after according to police. (AP Photo/Adam Hadei)

When the “police” wear black ski masks and blindfold people they “arrest”, I think that, technically, You’re not really living in a “Democracy”. I’m checking my sources on this but I’m pretty sure…

Bloooown Up, Sir!

Posted in SSquirrel at 9:03 am by SSquirrel

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A rocket and mortar barrage followed by a car bomb blasted an upscale, mostly Shiite district Thursday, killing 31 people and wounding 153, police said. The attack came just days after President George W. Bush agreed to send more U.S. troops to the capital to curb sectarian violence.

The explosions occurred at midmorning in the religiously mixed neighborhood controlled by a major Shiite party, two days after President George W. Bush approved plans to send more U.S. and Iraqi troops into the capital city to curb rising sectarian violence.

Several rockets and mortars landed in the district, some destroying a bank and an apartment building that later collapsed in flames, said Interior Ministry secretary Saadoun Abu al-Ula. The others exploded in the middle of busy streets crowded with traffic.

Iz It Safe?

Posted in SSquirrel at 8:37 am by SSquirrel

The US House of Representatives was set to vote yesterday on a nuclear deal with India that threatens to fuel a nuclear arms race in Asia. The deal, a centrepiece of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, comes as the US is pressuring Iran and North Korea to halt their nuclear programmes.

Under the deal, the US will sell India nuclear fuel and technology for civilian purposes, in exchange for India putting most of its reactors under international safeguards. But a former head of Indian intelligence has said publicly the deal will allow India to produce 50 more nuclear warheads a year than it can now, by freeing up existing uranium reserves for military use.

The vote in Washington comes days after satellite photographs revealed Pakistan is building what analysts believe is a large reactor capable of producing enough plutonium for 50 warheads a year, a discovery which has led to fears of an intensified nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan.

Who thinks this is a good idea? Who? Dum’ya caved to India just to have something to announce that sounded good on his trip there last year. Now Pakistan is going plutonium. Two mildly stable countries engaged in a permanent war. 50 more nukes a year each. He’s gonna get a million people killed this time.

bin Laden determined to attack where? These people aren’t stuck on stupid, they were born on stupid.

07.26.06

Norm!!!

Posted in SSquirrel at 8:59 pm by SSquirrel

Norm Coleman Sr., the father of Minnesota’s junior senator, was cited for lewd and disorderly conduct Tuesday after police officers reported finding him engaged in a sex act in a car near a pizzeria on E. 7th St. in St. Paul.

A police report said officers were called to Savoy Inn about 6:30 p.m to investigate a report that two people were having sex in a car. The police report stated a woman, Patrizia Marie Schrag, 38, also was cited for lewd and disorderly conduct.

Woof, Woof Viagra- The choice of a new generation…

The Fruits of War…

Posted in SSquirrel at 11:58 am by SSquirrel

Palestinian children look at the body of Sabah Abu Haleeb, a three year old girl, who was killed during an attack by Israeli troops, in Gaza city July 26, 2006. Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including seven militants and a three-year-old girl in fighting across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics and witnesses said. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES)

The fruits of war is not peace, the fruits of war are dead people, even three year old girls…

War is never the answer, it never has been, it never will be.

Condi’s Coming to Town…

Posted in SSquirrel at 11:00 am by SSquirrel

The blood soaked legacy of this administration will destroy the Repugnican Party…

One Reason to Suggest…

Posted in SSquirrel at 10:53 am by SSquirrel

BBC


Smoke rises from Khiam village after being hit by Israeli airstrikes, one of which killed four U.N. military observers who were part of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon July 25, 2006. (Karamallah Daher/Reuters)

UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says.

The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say

The four unarmed UN observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, died after their UN post in the town of Khiam was hit by an Israeli air strike on Tuesday.

The UN report says each time the UN contacted Israeli forces, they were assured the firing would stop.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has expressed “deep regrets” over the deaths.

Israel is conducting an investigation into the deaths.

It has rejected accusations made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the targeting of the UN position was “apparently deliberate”.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said “something went really wrong” to cause the deaths, but also said there was no reason to suggest the bombing was deliberate.

Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, there had been several dozen incidents of firing close to UN peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, some of them repeatedly, a UN official said.

As a result of these attacks, 12 UN personnel have been killed or injured, the official said.

Last night’s bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiam, near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as Unifil.

Four unarmed military observers were in a bunker and the bunker collapsed as a result of the bombing, the UN official said.

Rescue workers were trying to clear the rubble, but Israeli firing ” continued even during the rescue operation“, Struger said.

Annan said two UN military observers were killed with two more feared dead. Later, the UN official confirmed that a third body was recovered from the rubble.

The victims included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, UN and Lebanese military officials said.

Annan said the “co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked UN post at Khiam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by prime minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire.”

Furthermore, he said, General Alain Pelligrini, the UN force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout yesterday “stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack”.

Any volunteers for an expanded UN force? No? Are ya sure? We gotta a couple immediate openings…

This was no accident…

07.25.06

Safer Than Baghdad…

Posted in SSquirrel at 11:04 am by SSquirrel

AP - Mon Jul 17, 10:44 PM ET Red-hot lava cascades down the slopes of Mayon volcano, about 340 kilometers (212 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines in its continuing ‘mild and quiet’ eruption late evening Monday July 17, 2006. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, PHIVOLCS, said the silent, steady flow of lava and debris on the 2,474-meter (8,118-foot) mountain has reached 800 meters (2,624 feet) down the summit but accompanying tremors have eased down to more than 100 overnight but still not ruling out an explosive eruption. (AP Photo/ Bullit Marquez)

The Condi Rice “Peace is War” Tour…

Posted in SSquirrel at 8:53 am by SSquirrel

Condi “Mushroom” Rice is apparently on a mission to convince the world once and for all that this is the craziest group of war-mongering nut jobs ever to inhabit the US Government. Her message? Could ya kill people faster?

Condi Unplugged:

Rice said, “We need to get to a sustainable peace, there must be a way for people to reconcile their differences.”

Translation: “Dead people are very peaceful”

“It is time for a new Middle East,” she said. “It is time to say to those that don’t want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not.”

Translation: “We will bury you” (She looked kinda silly banging her Manolos on the table though)

In her visit here, Rice also told Abbas “how very much admiration there is for you in the United States for your courage and your continuing leadership of the Palestinian people.”

Translation: We’re gonna keep sabotaging your government until your own people kill you…

“You have our pledge that our common work of bringing a two-state solution to the people of Palestine and the people of Israel that we will not tire in our efforts,” Rice said.

Translation: “We gonna keep ignoring you”

If you decide that all Shiites in Lebanon are Hizbullah “collaboraters”, then killing children seems reasonable to them. Can’t tell the players without a pogram I guess. Is Bush president of Israel too?

Worst President Ever…Part 2,467…

Posted in SSquirrel at 7:49 am by SSquirrel

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.

“I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence’, because I don’t believe that I am non-violent,” said Ms Williams, 64.

“Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.” Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

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