Why liberals hate capitalism

Liberals hate capitalism because in a capitalist society they can't win, and end up working for free. Muhahahahaha!!! Al Franken should be working for free. Have you ever listened to his show? Seriously, I've caught it before (the whole know they enemy thing) and he really, really, REALLY sucks. He should be paying Air America to let him speak over the air.

A little too far?

I won't comment any more on this story. Most of you already know my stance on abortion; and I know many of my readers disagree with me, which is fine. It's what this is all about; throwing out intelligent arguments and listening with respect, even if we occasionally don't agree, right Clare?;-) But this is just a little too creepy for me. I mean really, where do we draw the line at? It's one thing, with today's knowledge and technology to try and repair these kinds of minor birth defects, but having a late term abortion because of a cleft palate?

Ok, I'm confused

Will there be a Live Aid II concert, or won't there be? Does anyone really know? Does anyone really care?

I want a souvenir too

Bush gets one, why can't I? It's not fair I say, not fair not fair not fair. /endtantrum Ok, seriously. You know someone on the anti-gun/anti-war left is going to have a fit about this, but think about it; it was given to him by the troops? What president in his right mind wouldn't want a souvenir from his troops? Well, maybe Clinton but I digress...

Yet another reason to love the Italians

You can't help but love the Italian Prime Minister. Of course, then again, you have to wonder after reading this if maybe he isn't just a little too nicey wicey with Dubbya. Don't ask don't tell, eh George......;-)

In case you haven't already,

I thought you might want to see some pictures of the new WWII memorial in Washington D.C..

Review of Day After Tomorrow

Oh my God, this movie blew. On so many levels did this movie blow. Everyone said it was going to be over the top, but to me it seemed more like it was off the deep end. Imagine a hurricane type storm that covers the entire continental United States. The movie was kind of "broken" into two halves. The first half was the catastrophic sudden climate changes, in which helicopters crashed because their fuel lines froze, people were flash frozen sitting in their cars, and dozens of F-5 tornadoes tore apart California (ok, that part was pretty cool). I'll admit, I have a thing for disaster movies and I really enjoy watching stuff get broken in them. Thus the first half of the movie was bearable because lots of stuff got broken. The second half of the movie was a complete suckfest. The viewer spends the next hour and a half watching a few survivors trying to stay warm. Seriously, that's all it is. I wanted to scream "Ok, they're cold, we get it....BREAK SOMETHING!!!!" Oh yeah, they go playing on a ship that's sitting outside the New York city library (after the tidal wave comes in and the water flash freezes). And they get chased by a bunch of starving wolves who somehow managed not to be frozen even though millions of gallons of water were frozen in a few minutes. The vice president, whom I would argue was modeled after Dick Cheney, is portrayed as a pompous know-it-all doubting mustaffa (in other words modeled after most rational thinking people). So here's the basic plot. The polar ice caps are melting causing a huge rush of fresh water into the seas which creates a huge imbalance in the oceans. This imbalance causes the Gulf Stream winds to cease blowing, preventing warm air from the equatorial section from getting to the northern regions. Next thing you now New York is under hundreds of feet of snow and it's snowing in Florida. The entire population of the United States (the ones still alive) are evacuated into, get this now, Mexico. In what was one of the few bright spots in the movie, thousands of U.S. citizens are shown evacuating into Mexico; jumping fences and crossing the Rio Grande. Funny in a sad, pathetic sort of way. And yes, I'm pretty sure I saw Gore's name in the credits. He's certainly taking this movie as gospel. In what was presumably supposed to be the most dramatic moment of the movie turned out as the most absurd; as the main characters tried to outrun the eye of this super storm where temperatures plummeted to -150F. In this scene the characters were actually shown trying to outrun a flash freeze; as they were trucking along desperate for shelter, the entire earth behind just 20ft behind them was being covered in ice. The entire scene was reminiscent of those old 80's horror flicks where the screaming scantily clad girl was running terrified from some unseen terror just a few feet behind her. I reiterate, do not see this movie. It was utterly terrible, and I will never forgive Dennis Quaid for having played a part in it. If by some chance you are one of those obsessed with disaster movies, or you're a special effects junkie; then go to a theater, pay your 8 bucks, and watch the first hour of this movie. Just be sure you leave once all the disaster effects are done. That would be about the time the sea water that's flooded New York city flash freezes. Good God what a bunch of tools.

Another upcoming review

I'm going to see Day After Tomorrow tonight (I'm confused...). Anyway, I'll have a review of this later. I wasn't going to go see it, mostly cuz it's all based on B.S. junk science. But my mom heard it was funny (actually she used the word laughable) in it's plausability (or lack thereor). I just wanna see a bunch of people get whacked by a giant tidle wave. I must confess, I get some seriouse jollies watching disaster flicks with lots and lots disaster.

Also, it has come to my attention that my funny for the day link yesterday (I'm confused again...) wasn't working, so here it is again.

Funny for the day

A friend emailed me this and I thought it was pretty funny. Then I started thinking maybe it was a bit scary because some of it doesn't seem to implausible given the current state of affairs. Go read now.

Oh yeah,

Who's the tard that signed me up for those f'ing chinese ads and newsletters?? Really f'ing hilariouse. Damned riot a minute let me tell you. And why pray-tell do I not just unsubscribe from these said newsletters? Well I'll tell you. Cuz they're all in F*****G CHINESE!!!!! And there are so many links I can't figure out which one is the unsubscribe link!! So thanks to whoever signed me up...dumbass.

Oh yeah, I got this email recently too. The amazing part is somebody is actually dumb enough to fall for this:

FROM: MARTINS D. JOHNSON
ABIDJAN COTE D’IVOIRE
WEST AFRICA
ATTN: DEAR ONE


It is my pleasure to write you, pending on this
business proposal. It may be strange to you of whom I
am and how I got your contact. However, I am Mr
Martins D. Johnson a citizen of republic of Liberia.
Also I am the accountant general / treasurer of the
then republic of Liberia I am 47 years of age and
happily married. I got your contact through a reliable
and a confident source with pleasant motives which I
shall reveal to you as soon as you are interested to
know.
As you must have heard about my country (LIBERIA)
and the serious suffering for humanity and the
national unrest killing and hostility in the hands of
the rebels this event have caused much more death and
destruction of properties in the country. As a matter
of fact my people have become emergency refugees in
other African countries. Consequently I am badly
affected because the rebels needed my assistance and
co-operation by releasing the national treasury
department to them which I Strictly refused their
entry. Therefore out of my four children two was
kidnapped including my father and they were eventually
killed by the rebels. Further more, all my investments
and other asst were burst to pieces. Even my life and
my wife and rest of my family are in danger. But it
was not only me in the government facing this hard
time, all the top government official were also
maltreated after all these,

I patiently continued but I now see it necessary to
quit Africa with my family since the
trouble never make any step of reconciliation and
Africa continent is very unreliable now as there’s
political and ethnic war in every part. Presently, I
am taking refugee with my family in Abidjan Côte
d’Ivoire under the United Nations refugee umbrella.

Unfortunately Côte d’Ivoire is Having
political unrest and many equally burst to pieces
soonest, so I am tired and sincerely need your support
and assurance to invest wisely and relocate to your
country through your productive ideas and qualities.

I have $18.5 million US dollar to be invested in your
country though your support and this existing amount
is right safe and presently not in LIBERIA but
lodged in one of the prime banks some where around
west Africa region which I may disclose to you as soon
as I receive your complacence.

I would be contented to have your private contact for
security reasons and I am very optimistic to release a
reasonable percentage of this amount to you for your
assistance.

I anticipate your speedy response remain.
Please kindly contact me immediately you receive this
message through my my electronic box .

Yours sincerely.

MARTINS D. JOHNSON

Uhm, WTF?

No seriously, WTF is up with this kid? Whatever, I wanna be an FBI agent too. That's almost as funny as the star wars kid.

Oh yeah, I have a confession to make. I'm afraid I must admit, I am the creator of the evil banana phone. Fear not friends, it's design makes it uneffective on anyone but the most hippiest of hippies...muhahahahahahahaha.....oh yeah, I jacked that link from the great war.

Just a reminder

Posts from me will be few and far between for a while still. I promise to update as much as possible, but time is just sparce right now what with moving and all. I swear I'll make up for it and start telling you all what to think in just a two or three weeks. I'm also looking for a new place to settle Freedom Nation, so if anyone knows of any good hosting providers, let me know. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards Moveable Type or BlogThis. Oh yeah, and The Story that I promised is coming soon. Honest.

Yes, that's right

I'm baaack. Took an impromptu mini-vacation the past few days. Actually we had to go to Alabama to check out the house I was signing the lease on. I don't sign anything without seeing the merchandise first! We stayed with the Lovely Mrs's family, but the only internet access was *gulp* dial up... I didn't even know companies still offered dial up! Can you believe that? Anyway, back in full force to tell you all what to think. More soon.

Wonderful reading

Ask no questions, just click here and go read Whittle's essay. Read both parts. Yes it's incredibly long, but take 30 mins out of your lives and learn something for crying out loud. You'll be glad you did. Although he is amazingly long winded, he is amazingly eloquent and insightful. I promise you won't be sorry.

Game day

Just wanted to take this moment to wish my best to the Tampa Bay Lightening; who begin game 1 tonight in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Calgary Flamers..er...Flames...whatever, anyhow. It was a tough series, but the Bolts finally edged out Philly, just like their pro-football counterparts did, twice. Someone tell Philly to build a new forum so that the Bolts can do what the Bucs did the Eagles.

Cosby critical of blacks

La Shawn Barber's corner has a great article about Bill Cosby. He gets critical of black parents not taking enough interest in their kids lives. Why am I telling you about it? Go read it for yourself.

The real enemy

Robert Spencer at FrontPageMag has an excellent article about the enemy we face today. It is not just al-quada. He partly explains how muslim extremism became what it is today and how this enemy is far from a new one. It's a long article but well worth the read.

The worst of both worlds

Or you could call it the lesser of two evils. I have to say I don't disagree with Balko. But John Kerry is just too creepy for me. Besides, I'm still holding hope that once Bush wins he's going to go all out with the right-wing-attack machine.

See, not all of Europe is bad

So in this case, we'll refrain from using the nukes...for now. As long as Italy continues to have a spine, the rest of Europe will be spared. (I am of course not including Great Britain in with the rest of Europe)

Oh good God

Not this again. I just can't take another 2000 fiasco. Of course, by then I'll be gone....

Holy Crap

This kid is my new hero!! Someone buy him a drink!! (when he turns 21 of course) See, I always new alligators were evil. Just like hippies. It seems they're wussies too, just like hippies...

Hear that rumbling sound?

That's the sound of a huge cave in by the Bush administration. Geez, I suppose it could be worse. We could have Jimmy Carter in office again. Thanks to Spoons for pointing this out.

More bad news for Moore

Ahh, this just breaks your heart doesn't it. Serves his dumb ass right, treasonous f'ing douch-bag. Of course he got a standing ovation, it was shown in FRANCE!!!

And the moon wan't made of cheese

This is a story that made me happy. I like to see things like this. Pay particular attention to where it says, "private-built vehicle". I love those words. And then the mention of a private astronaut....oh I love capitalism. Go read the story.

A victory (of sorts) in Fallujah

It's not exactly what I was hoping for; but if we are going to hand control of Iraq back over to it's people, this is a good way to start I suppose:

By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - A former Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)-era general appointed by the Americans to lead an Iraqi security force in the rebellious Sunni stronghold of Fallujah urged tribal elders and sheiks Sunday to support U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq (news - web sites).


AP Photo


Reuters
Slideshow: Iraq




Retired Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdul-Latif rose to prominence after nearly monthlong battles last month between the Marines monthlong battles in April between the Marines and insurgents hunkered down in Fallujah's neighborhoods.


"We can make them (Americans) use their rifles against us or we can make them build our country, it's your choice," Latif told a gathering of more than 40 sheiks, city council members and imams in an eastern Fallujah suburb.


The siege of this city of 200,000 people, located about 40 miles west of Baghdad, was lifted when top Marine officers announced the creation of the Fallujah Brigade — a force made exclusively of former Iraqi army officers.


The Marines withdrew from Fallujah into the rural hinterland and far-flung suburbs, allowing the Iraqi force to take up positions and start patrols inside the city. The brigade is expected to number about 1,500 men, many of them conscripts or noncommissioned officers under Saddam.


They are expected to fight the guerrillas, although some of the same insurgents who fought the Marines last month will likely join the brigade.


On Sunday, Marines of the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment provided security for the gathering in Kharma.


Latif, 66, a native of Baghdad, urged the elders to talk freely, citing the Muslim holy book, the Quran.


"The Quran says we should sit together, discuss and make a decision, but let it be the right decision," the silver-haired Latif — a slim figure wearing a blue shirt and dark blue tie and pants — told the sheiks.


The venue offered a rare insight into Latif's interactions and influence over Fallujah elders. As he spoke, many sheiks nodded in approval and listened with reverence to his words. Later, they clasped his hands and patted Latif on the back.


Latif, speaking in Arabic to the sheiks, defended the Marines and the U.S. occupation of Iraq.


"They were brought here by the acts of one coward who was hunted out of a rathole — Saddam — who disgraced us all," Latif said. "Let us tell our children that these men (U.S. troops) came here to protect us.


"As President Bush (news - web sites) said, they did not come here to occupy our land but to get rid of Saddam. We can help them leave by helping them do their job, or we can make them stay ten years and more by keeping fighting."


Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne, the Marine battalion commander, said, "No truer words have been spoken here today than those by General Latif."


Latif also told the insurgents to "stop doing stupid things."


"Those bullets that are fired will not get the Americans out, let them finish their job here so that they can return to their country," Latif said.


"Our country is precious, stop allowing the bad guys to come from outside Iraq to destroy our country."





Latif, a former military intelligence officer said to have been imprisoned by Saddam and exiled, praised the former Iraqi army.

"The army used to be honest until Saddam made the men turn into beasts, take bribes, betray their own country," he said. "The real army is the army that works hard to serve its own citizens, with courage and strength."

After the meeting, Latif told The Associated Press that the situation in Fallujah has greatly improved, that "winds of peace" prevail in the city and the people that fled the fighting have returned. He would not elaborate on the size or current activities of the Fallujah Brigade.

"Let us speak about peace," Latif said in English. "Fallujah was an open wound, now it's healing."

Hey you, wanna see

A picture of John Kerry's daughter naked? Well, not naked really...but pretty darned close. I wonder if John Kerry approved this message?


Update: Ok, I'm a tard. I posted that this was Johnny boy's wife, it's actually his daughter. I've since fixed the error. Doh, yeah I'm a tool.

More on the "torture" of Iraqi prisoners-From The Chief

Chief Wiggles has spent a lot of time in Iraq, and has done an incredible amount of humanitarian work while serving his country. He has also taught other soldiers on the fine art of interrogation. With that in mind, I think he's more than qualified to comment on the current situation.

From Chief Wiggles Blog :

A Call to the Media: (read on)

For the past 34 years I have been an interrogator in the Utah Army National Guard, serving my country proudly in this capacity. I have performed my duties as an interrogation team chief in many capacities in a variety of situations. I have been to two wars in the Middle East as a chief warrant officer, conducting numerous interrogations, screenings, debriefings, etc. I have been to South Korea some 40 plus times, been through countless interrogation exercises, and have personally conducted numerous debriefings of North Korean defectors.

I have worked with soldiers from all branches of the military, regular army soldiers and reservists, interacting with them in a variety of real combat situations and training exercises. I have read books on the skills of interrogation and have taught others the finer points of effective interrogation.

While at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq, I spent 4 months, on a daily basis, interrogating 17 Iraqi generals, both Brigadier and Major generals, successfully extracting valuable information which was later disseminated up through the chain. I lived as they lived, endured most of what they endured, feeling their pain, while trying to deal with their diverse personalities, with their idiosyncrasies, intertwined with their culture, tradition, religion, and language.

With all of this being said, I offer you my professional opinion, based on my years of hands on real world experience. Yes, this is just the voice of one man, limited to my own experiences as I have watched and interacted with countless others, both civilians and military personnel. Perhaps it is myopic at best, limited by my own exposure to a restricted number of situations, but yet in my mind it represents quite a vast array of circumstances, people, and situations.

I realize at the same time that there are exceptions, incidences that would contradict my own point of view, but I consider these to be the exception far from the rule. You can say what you will. You can say I don’t know what I am talking about or that I am naïve in my out look on life and the realities of the world in Iraq. But, I do believe I speak with some degree of authority regarding this matter.

You might consider this to be the other side of the story that is being forced fed to us from all different angles as the new media have a hay day with the incidences and the pictures from the Abu Ghurayb prison. There is another side that represents more the majority of how prisoners are treated and interrogated. Hopefully this will help you understand that the prison incidences are far from the norm and do not represent the large majority of soldiers who do respect others rights and are sincerely concerned about their well-being.

I can honestly say that we, a large group of interrogators, treated the prisoners we came in contact with, as humanely as possible, following the Geneva Convention as we have been trained to do. We made every effort to take care of their needs and insure their health and safety. We did instruct the guards in the proper care of the prisoners and responded in every instance to convey the prisoner’s feelings, concerns, and desires.

Yes there were exceptions but none I personally witnessed that were outside the scope of the Geneva Convention. If anything it was the Red Cross that didn’t comply with the wishes of the prisoners, compelling the prisoners to decline to speak with any one from the Red Cross.

I discovered early on in my career as an interrogator that the easiest way to get accurate factual information out of a prisoner was to establish a relationship built on trust, through a more kind and friendly approach. The true sign of an effective interrogator is when they can actually make the prisoner believe that they sincerely care and are concerned for the prisoner’s future. If an interrogator can convince the prisoner to change their belief system regarding who the enemy is and why they are fighting, then an effectual change can be realized.

Trust is the opening door to a person’s heart and mind, brought about by believable and apparently sincere acts of concern. On the contrary, torture results in the out pouring of fictional, miss-information, in an effort just to stop the painful process.

Our efforts in dealing with the prisoners to insure their proper care and handling resulted in the effectual winning of their hearts and minds, changing their perspective of what Americans are all about. These efforts set an example for all others to follow, establishing a proper care and handling methodology, which was contagious. We not only got information but built life long friendships with the people we had come to rescue.

I welcome any news media that would like to delve into the details of the other side of the story, the one that represents the way most American soldiers act. I would love to have the opportunity to explain my world, from my perspective, the one shared by the majority of soldiers and especially interrogators. I will gladly give them the finer details of each phase or approach that was used.

Why can’t we show the world that what they are seeing is an isolated incident not representative of the thousands of soldiers who do sincerely care and who have accepted the humanity of our fellow brothers, the Iraqis.

This is your chance News Media. This is a way for you to redeem yourselves from the barrage of accusations that you are biased and one sided, that you are just looking for any opportunity to crucify us and our leaders, and that you fail to provide us the American people with balanced factual reporting. We need to offset the continual flow of negative degrading reporting with factual positive stories of all the good that is being done.

Can you not hear the scream of the American people, demanding a relief from the depressing images plastered across every magazine, tabloid, and screen? Are you listening to your audience who wants balanced, truthful and unbiased reporting?

I am at your service to provide you with what Paul Harvey called, “the rest of the story”. Why won’t you help us tell the world what we are really all about? Why do you insist on fueling the fires of hatred so that more Americans can be killed out of ignorance and misunderstanding? Where is your allegiance? Will you perpetuate the limited and biased understanding of our enemies, in order to achieve some bi-partisan political goal, under the pretext of doing your job?

Email me today to get the rest of the real story.

Chief Wiggles
Doing it the only right way, the wiggles way.

Have a good day.

chiefwiggles@operationgive.org

Website http://chiefwiggles.com
Archives http://chiefwiggles.blog-city.com
Toy Drive: http://operationgive.org



Something tells me the media isn't going to pay him much attention. It just wouldn't make "good news". But we hear you Chief, the whole blogosphere hears ya.

Nick Berg's father p'ed off

Nick Berg's father Michael is blaming the Bush administration for his son's death, rather than the murdering douche-bags who actually committed this atrocity. FrontPageMag tells us why his argument is full of holes. Michael Berg, for the sake of your son's memory, WAKE UP!!!

Gay Marriage

Apparently the legislature in Taxachusets wasn't going fast enough for the State Supreme Court. So they went and made their own laws. Now let's be clear, I would never suppose to sit here at my keyboard and tell somebody what they should or should not do with their lives. It's their business. If a gay or lesbian couple want to spend the rest of their lives together then frankly me dear, I don't give a damn. My problem is when people try to skirt the law to suit their own wants. The power to make law belongs to the legislative branch, not the judicial branch. And yet four judges took it upon themselves to go and make law.

NewsMax.com: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Two by two they emerged from City Hall, the nation's first gay couples set to legally marry Monday, breaking a barrier many never believed would fall and putting the United States among four countries where gays can marry.
With the passage of a midnight deadline, Massachusetts became the first state to process marriage licenses for same-sex couples Monday. Quick court action waiving the required three-day waiting period meant that some marriages would take place by midday.

Cambridge was the only city to seize the first possible moment at midnight. It opened its offices to 260 couples and even supplied a giant wedding cake as thousands of sign-waving well-wishers cheered into the wee hours.

Judges began issuing waivers of the usual three-day waiting period as soon as court sessions began hours later, allowing some of the couples to begin tying the knot later in the day. They would first have to trek back to City Hall to pick up the marriage license, then find someone to perform the ceremony.

In Cambridge, the honor went first to Tanya McCloskey, 52, and Marcia Kadish, 56, of Malden, who have been together for 18 years and waited in line outside of the courthouse starting at 6:30 a.m.

The waiver is usually a perfunctory request that is rarely rejected, but took on added significance under the glare of media attention from around the world.

"Somewhere, someone's working really hard to find that loophole," to quash the gay-wedding march, said Baxter Brooke, 35, of Cambridge, who hoped to wed her partner, Sonia Hendrickson, 36, on Monday. "We're worried that it's not going to last."

Other Monday wedding plans included the seven couples who brought the lawsuit that eventually led the state's highest court to declare gay marriage legal.

The first couple to receive marriage paperwork at midnight was Marcia Hams, 56, and her partner, Susan Shepherd, 52, of Cambridge. After 27 years together, they sat at a table across from a city official shortly after midnight, filling out forms as their adult son looked on.

"I feel really overwhelmed," Hams said as they left the clerk's office and walked through a throng of reporters. "I could collapse at this point."

Massachusetts was thrust into the center of a nationwide debate on gay marriage when the state's Supreme Judicial Court issued its 4-3 ruling in November that gays and lesbians have a right under the state constitution to wed.

In the days leading up to Monday's deadline for same-sex weddings to begin, opponents looked to the federal courts for help in overturning the ruling. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.

The SJC's ruling emboldened officials in San Francisco, upstate New York, and Portland, Ore., to issue marriage licenses as acts of civil disobedience earlier this year. Even though courts ordered a halt to the wedding march, opponents pushed for a federal constitutional gay marriage ban, which President Bush has endorsed.

The SJC's ruling also galvanized opponents of gay marriage in Massachusetts, prompting lawmakers in this heavily Democrat, Roman Catholic state to adopt a state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage but legalize Vermont-style civil unions. But to take effect, it must get by another legislative session as well as voters. The earliest it could wind up on the ballot is 2006, possibly casting a shadow on the legality of perhaps thousands of gay marriages that take place in the intervening years.

As of Monday, Massachusetts joins the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada's three most populous provinces as the only places worldwide where gays can marry. The rest of Canada is expected to follow soon.

Married couples are entitled to hundreds of right and protections under Massachusetts law, including the ability to file joint state tax returns, automatic preference for making medical decisions for a disabled spouse and workers' compensation benefits. But other rights, such as the ability to jointly file a federal tax return, are not available because federal law defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Early Monday morning, police estimated that more than 5,000 people had descended on City Hall in Cambridge, across the Charles River from Boston and home to Harvard University. Besides scores of reporters, many in the crowd were family and friends; others simply wanted to join the party and express support.

Police said the crowds were orderly, and no arrests were reported. About 15 protesters, most from Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, stood near City Hall carrying signs. The group, led by the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr., travels around the country protesting homosexuality.

Do Taxpayers Buy Straight Couples' Cakes?

But the atmosphere was overwhelmingly festive. People cheered and held signs reading "Yay!" and urged couples to kiss as they left City Hall. The city provided a giant wedding cake for couples, many of whom had waited in line for hours.

"We came here because I've been waiting seven years, and I don't want to wait another day, another second," said Alex Fennell, 27 a Boston lawyer marrying Sasha Hartman, 29. "For me, it's excitement and gratitude. It's nothing I ever thought we would be able to do."

Hillary and Julie Goodridge, namesakes of the landmark lawsuit that started it all, tried to get a marriage license in Boston three years ago but were turned down. This time, Mayor Thomas Menino planned to greet them at Boston City Hall, where they were expected first thing Monday morning.

Out-of-state gay couples are likely to challenge Massachusetts' 1913 marriage statute, which Gov. Mitt Romney, a gay-marriage opponent, has cited to limit marriages to only Massachusetts residents. The law bars out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if the union would be illegal in their home state.

Eager to Break the Law

Several local officials, including those in Provincetown, Worcester and Somerville, have said they will not enforce Romney's order and will give licenses to any couples who ask, as long as they sign the customary affidavit attesting that they know of no impediment to their marriage.

Both sides in the debate say the issue might figure prominently in the November elections across the country.

Candidates for Congress could face pressure to explain their position on the proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

Voters in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Missouri and Utah, and probably several other states, will consider similar amendments to their state constitutions.

But the possibility of future bans didn't faze Chris McCary, 43, and his partner, John Sullivan, 37, who came to Provincetown to get married, despite that their union won't be recognized back home in Alabama.

"This is the most important day of my life," McCary said. "This window could be closed in the future, but it's still worth it."

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed


The point is that the current law does not recognize gay marriage. Now if the legislature changes the law, then we have no problems.

My main problem with the issue is why marriage is seeminly so important. Some gay/lesbian couples simply want that extra recognition as a symbol of their relationship. Others want the benefits of being married that straight couples currently get. This is where the problem comes in; at least my problem anyway. Marriage has become about benefits, taxes, and entitlements, from the government. All of which I personally am opposed to. Don't get me wrong; I'm married, and I enjoy being married. But for the first reason I mentioned. Marriage shouldn't be about taxes or tax breaks or entitlements. I gaurentee if you removed these "benefits" the group screaming for gay marriage would be reduced. You would be left with those that want to married for personal reasons and that's what it should be about.

Think I'm being a homophobe? Go over to Right Rainbow and see what Paul has to say.

WMD's in Iraq

Let's get something straight. This is by no means the smoking gun, that we've been waiting for. But it is most certainly a significant find. Because of course everyone knows that Iraq had no WMD's. Sean Penn said so, and he wouldn't lie right? He wouldn't hit his wife either, just ask Madonna.

No patriotism at Olympics

I for one, won't be watching the Olympic games this year, or ever again for that matter. What a total crock. I hope the ratings for Olympics go into the crapper this year myself. Basically they want us to not show patriotism for our country while we are there representing uhm, our country. What a bunch of tools.

Nothing today

I'm not posting anything today. I'm still letting everything that's going on sink in completely. I have a lot of thoughts running around right now that I'm not quite sure how to express. I've been getting an incredible amount of traffic lately, because of the video I have linked. I was debating taking it down, because it seemed kind of self serving. Normally I'm all for a little shameless promotion, but not in this case. But the link will stay up; I still think it's important to make it availabe for people to see; mostly because I think it's important for people to see it. There's a lot of anger going around about it right now. Some of it towards the murdering terrorists, some of it towards the Bush administration. I'll comment more on it tomorrow. My thoughts right now are just too much of a mess.

More murder footage

The old link to Berg's cold blooded murder is not working well right now because of heavy traffic. I have another link where you can get the full 5 min video. It's much cleaner quality, and much more graphic. Caution: This video is much more graphic than the one I previously linked. None-the-less I do suggest everyone watch it. I think it needs to be seen; we all need to see what we are fighting. Do me a favor though, LibertyUnites.tv has gone through the trouble of putting up this link, and it is a lot of trouble with all the bandwidth problems right now with everyone trying to download it. When you get to the sight, be kind and RIGHT CLICK the link and save it to your computer before watching it. Here is the link to the webpage LibertyUnites.tv has set up.

Go Lightning

Another thing that made me smile today. The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated Philly in game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals today 4-1, to take a 2-1 series lead. Go Lightning!!

Going to the stars

Here's a great story that made me smile. My favorite part is where it mentions "privately funded". Gotta love that.

SpaceShipOne makes third rocket-powered flight
By Leonard David, SPACE.com
Chalk up another booming flight of the privately-backed SpaceShipOne, the piloted rocket plane designed to soar to the edge of space and glide to a runway landing.

Scaled Composites, the company that built SpaceShipOne, photographed this April flight from Edwards Air Force Base.
Courtesy SPACE.com

With pilot Mike Melvill at the controls — following release from the White Knight turbojet-powered launch aircraft high above the Mojave, California desert — SpaceShipOne punched through the sky today boosted by a hybrid propellant rocket motor. According to sources who witnessed the flight, SpaceShipOne appears to have reached an altitude of a little over 200,000 feet.

Scaled Composites of Mojave is the builder of SpaceShipOne, an effort led by aviation innovator, Burt Rutan. The financial backer of the project is Microsoft mogul, Paul Allen.

Today's flight builds upon a progression of 13 shakeout tests, mostly un-powered drop glides along with two engine-thrusting runs. The White Knight took off with SpaceShipOne at around 10:30 a.m. ET today with the rocket plane landing an the ground a little after 12 noon.

SpaceShipOne's builders are expected to release specific flight data regarding today's test flight as soon as they analyze the mission.

SpaceShipOne's first powered mission took place on December 17, 2003, with the hybrid motor firing for 15 seconds. A second powered flight occurred on April 8th of this year. In that trek, the motor burned for 40 seconds. A major contractor for the hybrid motor used in the rocket plane is SpaceDev of Poway, California.

Routine recording of multiple video streams on board White Knight and on SpaceShipOne are expected to help in pilot and engineering evaluation of the flight.

Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation of Pasadena, California provides the critical camera gear. They are also supplier of the RocketCam line of onboard video systems used on rockets, spacecraft and other remote platforms.

Hot pursuit

The step-by-step SpaceShipOne missions are keyed to winning the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million purse offered by the X Prize Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri. For the cash prize, however, the clock is running as the $10 million purse expires January 1, 2005.

The Ansari X Prize money is to be awarded to the first company or organization to launch a vehicle capable of carrying three people to a height of 62.5 miles (100 kilometers), then return safely to Earth, and repeat the flight with the same vehicle within two weeks.

Twenty-seven teams from around the globe are vying for the Ansari X Prize contest. The competition is modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize — won by Charles Lindbergh after winging his Spirit of St. Louis airplane solo from New York to Paris in 1927.

Federal go-ahead

On April 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced it had issued to Scaled Composites the world's first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight.

The license came via the DOT's Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. This federal paperwork gave Scaled Composites the go-ahead to fly a string of sub-orbital flights for a one-year period — the first license to authorize piloted flight on a sub-orbital trajectory.

XCOR Aerospace, also of Mojave, California, announced in April it had received a Reusable Launch Vehicle mission license from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. That license is the first for a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that is launched and recovered from the ground. Additionally, XCOR is now authorized to test RLV technologies prior to suborbital passenger travel. The company is not in the competition for the Ansari X Prize.

XCOR's launch license is for a technology test vehicle. The license does not yet cover passenger operations. It does, however, permit revenue-generating payload flights after initial tests are completed. "A significant feature of the license is that it allows the pilot to do an incremental series of flight tests — without preplanning each trajectory," said XCOR Government Liaison Randall Clague in a press statement.

Mojave mojo

Given all the rocket plane activity at the Mojave Airport, steps have been taken to have the facility certified as a spaceport.

Stuart Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Airport, envisions the site busily handling the horizontal launchings and landings of reusable spacecraft.

Witt said the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation is reviewing an application to license Mojave Airport as an inland spaceport. In fact, the airport is already a natural center for research and development and certification programs, such as the rocket plane work of Scaled Composites and XCOR Aerospace.

Many see Mojave Airport as a magical nexus for safe, smooth coordination of general aviation activity and private aerospace development.

Mojave Airport, also tagged the nation's Civilian Flight Test Center, is situated away from major metropolitan areas, while being located near Edwards and China Lake military test ranges.

"Certainly Mojave is a premier location due to its proximity to the Edwards Air Force Base restricted areas," Burt Rutan told SPACE.com .

Adds Aleta Jackson, an XCOR Aerospace executive: "We look forward to flying our licensed spacecraft from the Mojave Spaceport." The town of Mojave — as well as the County of Kern — plan to help support the spaceport, such as designating land use that is compatible with an active spaceport, she said.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 2004, SPACE.com Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Leave it to Frank

Yup, leave to ole' Frank to bring me up when I'm feeling down.

In My World: Buck Likes His Head
"There's nothing better than a good sandwich at an Iraqi cafe after a good day of kill'n for'ners," Buck the Marine said as he sat down at an outside table.

A man wearing a mask approached him pointing an AK-47. "We have captured you, American! Now you are out hostage! Soon you will..."

Buck reholstered is .45. "Always while I'm eating," Buck grumbled, "Now my sandwich is going to taste like gunpowder." He stared at his sandwich for a moment. "Mmm... gunpowder."

A dozen more armed terrorists surrounded Buck. "You are captured, American!" one yelled.

"Dagnabbit," Buck swore, "Shoulda listened to the Commanding Officer when he told us to use the buddy system."

* * * *

Laura Bush tried to read a romance novel, but the lights kept randomly dimming. She left the bedroom to track down the cause. Soon she found her husband standing outside a locked door. As the lights dimmed, she could hear a scream behind the door. As they came back on, she could here incoherent mumbling with a thick Bostonian accent. "Are you torturing Ted Kennedy with electroshocks?" Laura accused Bush.

"He started it!" Bush answered defensively, "He said we're as bad as the Saddam torturers, so I wanted to show him he’s wrong by exposing him to real Saddam torture so he could learn the difference."

"Has he learned anything?" Laura asked.

Bush shrugged his shoulders. "Can't understand a damn thing he's saying."

"Well, it's starting to bother me, dear," Laura said firmly, "I can't read with the lights going on and off like this."

"Sorry, but it took more electricity to shock Big Fat Teddy K than we thought 'cause he's so corpulent."

"You are using that word a day calendar!" Laura exclaimed. She then kissed Bush on the cheek. "Know what? It's a nice day out, so I'll go read outside until you're through with your politics in here."

"Thanks, honey," Bush said as Laura walked off. He then looked at the locked door. "Fry, fatty, fry!" Scott McClellan then walked up. "I wasn't talking to you," Bush said, "You're 'Tubby'. Kennedy is 'Fatty'."

"I have some news for you," Scott said quite seriously, "one of our troops has been taken hostage by terrorists."

"What!" Bush shouted angrily, "Let's use everything at our disposal to get him back! We'll show those stinky terrorists a thing or two! So who was captured?"

"Buck."

“Buck who?”

"Buck... the Marine."

"Oh, he can take care of himself," Bush said, calming down, "Let's go play Parcheesi."

"Okay," Scott answered, and then glanced at the locked door, "but shouldn't you turn off that thing shocking the Senator first?"

"How the hell would I know? You think I'm torture expert or something?" He then slapped Scott across the head. "Everyone always thinks the worst of me."

* * * *

"Who are you people?" Buck asked. He was tied up and seated in the center of a group of masked men. "There's only two types of people who wear masks: Batman and bad people... and none of you look like Batman." He squinted at them menacingly. "Actually, you look... FOREIGN!"

"Quiet, infidel!" one of the terrorists shouted. He then held a piece of paper in front of Buck. "You will read this for the camera."

"You can torture me all you want by forcing me to read," Buck said firmly, "but I won't give up any information... even if you make me read something by Toni Morrison."

"We do not want information from you," answered the head terrorists, "We will behead you in front of a camera in vengeance for what the abuse at Abu Najib."

"Wasn't that Abu Ghraib?" Buck asked.

The terrorist looked confused. "Whatever. We just like cutting off people's heads while shouting like deranged howler monkeys, okay?"

"But I like my head!" Buck protested, "I use it for all sorts of things... like headbutting. Come closer for a sec."

The terrorist did, and then Buck headbutted him. "See?" Buck said. "How can you deny pleasures like that from a man? Do you people have any decency?"

"No!" the terrorist yelled, "We only like killing and shouting because of Allah and jooos and some such crap. Now, someone find something good for cutting his head off."

"We could use this," said one terrorist, holding up a knife.

"That's my KaBar!" Buck shouted, "You never touch another man's KaBar!"

"We will kill you with your own knife," the terrorist laughed, "Now untie him and hold him down for the camera."

Buck looked skyward. "I'm in trouble," Buck said in silently prayer, "These are some of the worst for'ners yet, and I need your wisdom, Grandpappy, on getting out of this."

"I will give you a plan that has served many a Marine well in this situation," answered Jebediah the Marine, "When they untie you, kill them all."

"Semper Fi, Grandpappy."

* * * *

"Thank you for tuning into Al Jazeera, now with almost as much anti-American and anti-Jew propaganda as The Guardian," the anchorman said, "We have heard that al Qaeda has captured yet another American and will behead him in vengeance for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Let's enjoy."

The tape started rolling, and on screen were the terrorists being chased by Buck with his KaBar. "Let's see how you like having your heads cut off!" he yelled.

"Save us, Allah!" screamed one of the terrorists.

"Cut them pig f**kers!" spoke Allah from up high, "Yee-haw!"

"Cut the tape!" yelled the anchorman. He then looked to the camera nervously and said, "I guess we're having some technical difficulties." He adjusted his collar and then added while shaking his fist, "Technical difficulties because of the jooooos!"

* * * *

"We're you hurt at all?" General Abizaid asked Buck.

"All that screaming and yelling gave me a headache," Buck admitted. "What it was worst on was my KaBar, which I think I'll need to replace."

"The Japanese ambassador would like to have a congratulatory word with you," Abizaid said.

"For being taken hostage, you are very dishonorable," the ambassador said. He then spit on Buck's boots.

"Hardass," Buck uttered as the ambassador walked off.

"And now I would like to award you with the molybdenum star," Abizaid said as he placed the medal on Buck's dress blues, "This somewhat prestigious award is given anytime a Marine avoids decapitation in a public forum and then proceeds to decapitate the enemy in return. Now, don't throw it over a wall, because you only get one."

A phone was brought out to Buck. "The President would like to have a word with you," Abazaid announced.

Buck picked up the receiver. "Congratulations," President Bush said, "on escaping the terrorists and then beheading a dozen of them."

"A baker's dozen, sir," Buck corrected.

"Anyway, if I could ask a favor of you," Bush continued, "If my wife asks, I was playing poker with you last night."

"But I was with the terrorist then, sir."

"Fine. We were all playing poker. They're dead, so they can't refute the story."

"Okay, sir." Buck hung up the phone and then took out a piece of paper. "I would like to read a speech I prepared." He cleared his throat. "People should have their heads, and it is wrong for anyone to want to take them away. Anyone who is so evil... so foreign... as to want to cut off people heads and celebrate should have their own heads removed. The terrorists I done cut the heads off of did not like it very much. I hope they learned a lesson from that which will serve them well in for'ner hell where they are surely being sniped by my Grandpappy up in Marine Heaven using the M1-Garand we done buried him with.

"Some people say we should understand the terrorists; I just say we should understand where they are so we can kill them. The world will be a better place when all bad people are headless... or, as seen from another perspective, body-less.

"And one more thing..." Buck looked confused for a moment. "Can't even read my own dang handwriting," he grumbled. After starting at it for a moment, he finally exclaimed, "Oh yeah:

"Ooh-rah!"



And as always, if you enjoyed this satire by Frank J., you can LYAO some more by going to IMAO.

Incoherent musings

Bah. I wanted to follow up yesterday's tantrum with something cool and topical and intellectual. But I just can't do it. After seeing this yesterday, I just can't seem to put a coherent thought together. I mean, what do you do when you see something like that? Lord Spatula had a good idea to start with, but even this I don't think goes far enough. I see stories like this and they make me feel better. And of course this is good for a smile. But still the anger returns. Am I the only one that feels this way? A type of anger that just won't go away? Don't psychiatrists have a term for that? There has to be an answer. But what? You sit and watch a man murdered in cold blood, a civilian, and there's just no rational explanation. And then I see spew like this, and this and it seems that all hope just goes down the crapper. To be honest I'm more worried about losing the battle here at home than I am the WOT. Can the terrorists and the left really beaten us? Sometimes I think they already have.

I spend an hour ranting

And then I see stories like this, and all is right with the world. I feel better now. You go Capt. Chontosh.

Need to vent

Folks, I'm gonna be honest. I'm pretty upset with the state of affairs right now. We have people calling for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. We have people yelling and screaming about some naked pictures of Iraqi prisoners. We have people screaming for the U.S. to pull it's troops out of Iraq. We have people screaming about atrocities committed by American Forces. People are outraged. Well, I'm outraged too. You want to talk about torture? Stacking a bunch of prisoners on top of eachother naked is far from torture. Standing a prisoner on top of a crate and hooking wires up to him (and nothing else, he was in no real danger) and telling him he would be electrocuted if he fell is not torture. Popping out the eyes of a six month old baby because his mother wouldn't rat out a family member is torture. Beating and raping your Olympic team for not bringing home the gold is torture. Dropping poisonous gas into villages and killing thousands of civilians is torture. Throwing thousands of people into mass graves (some still alive) and throwing dirt on top of them is torture. Holding a man hostage in front of a TV camera and cutting his throat and hacking away at his neck until his head comes off is torture. Honor killing your daughter because she was raped by her brother is torture.

People are outraged because a few soldiers acted like complete fucking tools and bullied around a few prisoners. Here's a newsflash for you folks, they weren't there because of parking tickets. They are outraged because Bush didn't do what he's doing now before 9/11; and not that he's doing it, they're outraged that he is.

What I want to know is, where's the outrage about this, and this, and this, and this, and this; or how about this, or even this, or this for that matter. Where's the outrage over this?? While we sit around pissing and moaning, we have forgotten what happened to us just under 3 years ago. It hasn't even been 3 years people!! And yet it seems we have forgotten. We've forgotten how for a short time we were all Americans again; there was no right wing, left wing; no democrats or republicans or libertarians or objectivists or anarchists or socialists. We were all Americans; nothing more, nothing less. And for a while it stayed that way. Then somehow, partisanship took over again. And some want to think of what happened on September 11, 2001 as nothing more than a great tragedy. Well that's just not so. The space shuttle Columbia was a tragedy. Hurricane Andrew ripping through southern Florida was a tragedy. A massive earthquake ripping through the west coast during the World Series was a tragedy. The Buccaneers not making the playoffs last year was a tragedy. What happened on September 11, 2001 was nothing short of an act of war. And it wasn't the first. Remember the first WTC bombing in '93? Who do you think was behind that? Do you remember the Oklahoma City Bombing? Sure, ol'e Timmy was executed, but was he alone? It doesn't appear so with the new intel coming out. How about the Khobar Towers in '96? How about the multiple attacks on U.S. embassies in '98? Remember the U.S.S. Cole? All these were direct attacks against the United States. Where was the outrage then? What has happened to this country that we are more concerned with what people think about us than we are about protecting our citizens, their freedom and sovereignty? We had become a country that will bend over and take it up the bumm. What justice did we see for these attacks? We were promised swift justice, but we got nothing but lip service. It took the mass murder of 3000 people to really get people's attention, and even then it slipped away after a short while. Over the last 15 years we have lost literally thousands of our people to terrorist attacks, yet what have we learned from this. Not a damned thing. Then something happened. We elected some hic cowboy into office, and yet again; we were attacked. But something was different this time. He gave us the same lip service that we were used to. Yet something was different. Soon we were hearing about resolutions from congress authorizing the POTUS to go to was, and he did. And for a while it was good. We thought FINALLY, we had a president who was going to stand up to the world and not take it up the ass. Someone who we thought would do what was right and defend his country, regardless of what others thought. And then the partisanship began to seep in again. And again the POTUS was appealing to the U.N.. And again it seemed as if we were pulling punches. Sure, we were and are doing much more than we have in recent history. But still you look around and there are people in the world who think that the U.S. is a country that will cut and run just as we always have. And you know what? We are that kind of country. We have people in this country who think that the U.S. is to blame for everything that has happened to us. Hell, they think the U.S. is to blame for everything wrong with the world. Simply put, we have a country full of people who hate America, and will do whatever it takes to see her fail. And the sad part is that it's her own people that want to see her fail. They don't want us to be a sovereign country, they want us to be "just like the rest of the world". I've got news for you, I don't want to be like the rest of the world. I don't care that the rest of the world hates us. In fact, I kind of like it. It means that they envy us. The are pissed off because we are not like them and yet we are still better. Even on our worst day, we are better than any other country out there. But how long will that last? Every day people in this country seek to weaken that which makes us great. To break us down. Tell us "We need to be like them". If we are like them, they won't hate us. Whoopdy freakin' doo. We need to wake up people. We need to realize that the defense of this country and it's people is priority 1. Everything else is secondary. If other countries jump on board great, if not; fuck'em. I could care less. This country is more than capable of taking the best this world has to throw at it, so long as we are WILLING to do it. There is a saying; the strongest man in the world is the one most willing to stand alone. We need to be willing to stand alone. Now more than ever. We need to be leaders in this time of the world. Not a country who compromises for the sake of dimplomacy. Peace is not the absence of threat, it is the presence of justice. There are those who are happy simply not being in the presence of an apparent threat These people are not free, they are prisoners of their own fear. Peace does not equal freedom any more than freedom equals equality. If we are not willing to stand alone, to do what it takes to be free, then we may have peace. But what is the cost of this type of peace? What are we willing to trade for this peace? If peace means giving up everything it is that makes me free, makes me who I am, than I don't want it. Sometimes my friends, peace is just another word for surrender.

Some seriouse retribution is in order for this

I can see it now: The left screaming for us to get out of Iraq. That what a few soldiers did is going to cause more of this. In case you haven't heard, a group of terrorists, claiming to be affiliated with al-queda, murdered an American civilian by cutting his throat and hacking his head off. I've got news for you people, this was going on before we invaded Iraq. It'll continue if we leave Iraq. The only solution is to kill these people before they kill us.


BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A video posted Tuesday on an al-Qaida-linked Web site showed the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq and said the execution was carried out to avenge abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

In a grisly gesture, the executioners held up the man's head for the camera.

The American identified himself on the video as Nick Berg, a 26-year-old Philadelphia native. His body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday, the same day he was beheaded, a U.S. official said.

The video bore the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American." It was unclear whether al-Zarqawi - an associate of Osama bin Laden believed behind the wave of suicide bombings in Iraq - was shown in the video or simply ordered the execution. Al-Zarqawi also is sought in the assassination of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002.


(AP) Supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant in the streets of Najaf, Iraq, Tuesday...
Full Image


The Bush administration said those who beheaded Berg would be hunted down and brought to justice.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. "It shows the true nature of the enemies of freedom. They have no regard for the lives of innocent men, women and children."

Berg was a small-business owner who went to Iraq as an independent businessman to help rebuild communication antennas, his family said Tuesday. Friends and family said he was a "free spirit" who wanted to help others - working in Ghana, in one example - and that his going to Iraq fit with that ideology. They said he supported the Iraqi war and the Bush administration.

U.S. officials had feared the shocking photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad would endanger the lives of American troops and civilians.

Also, Berg's killing happened amid a climate of anti-Western sentiment, which flared in Iraq after last month's crackdown on Shiite extremists and the three-week Marine siege of Fallujah west of Baghdad. Anger at the United States swelled with the publication of the Abu Ghraib photographs, which continue to stir rage throughout the Arab world.


(AP) Iraqi members of the 'Fallujah Brigade', soldiers of the former Iraqi army conduct security checks...
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In the video, five men wearing headscarves and black ski masks stood over a bound man in an orange jumpsuit similar to prison uniforms.

"My name is Nick Berg. My father's name is Michael. My mother's name is Suzanne," the man, seated in a chair, said on the video. "I have a brother and sister, David and Sara. I live in ... Philadelphia."

The video then cut to Berg sitting on the floor, his hands tied behind his back, as a statement was read in Arabic. Berg sat still during the statement, facing the camera, occasionally raising his shoulders.

After the statement was finished, the men pulled Berg on his side and thrust a large knife to his neck. A scream sounded as the men cut his head off, repeatedly shouting "Allahu Akbar!" - or "God is great."

They then held the head out before the camera.


(AP) Iraqi detainees walk through shower runoff water while being transferred between compounds at the...
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The Bergs, who live the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester, Pa., last heard from their son April 9, the same day insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy west of the capital.

Berg attended Cornell, Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oklahoma, where he got involved in rigging electronics equipment while working for the maintenance department, his father said. He helped set up equipment at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000.

While at Cornell, he traveled to Ghana to teach villagers how to make bricks out of minimal material. His father said Berg returned from Ghana emaciated because he gave away most of his food and that the only possessions he had when he returned were the clothes on his back.

Michael Berg said his son saw his trip to Iraq as an adventure that also fit with his desire to help others.

"I would say he was a free spirit, very intelligent," said Nick Fillioe, a sports director at the West Chester YMCA. "He was a real smart guy. He knew a little bit about everything."


(AP) Residents of the Shiite neighborhood Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, start to rebuild the headquarters...
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Berg's family said they were informed by the State Department on Monday that he was found dead.

When told about the Web site, Berg's father, brother and sister grasped one another and slowly dropped to the ground in their front yard, where they wept quietly while holding each other.

"I knew he was decapitated before," Michael Berg said. "That manner is preferable to a long and torturous death. But I didn't want it to become public."

The decapitation recalled the kidnapping and videotaped beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 in Pakistan. Four Islamic militants have been convicted of kidnapping Pearl, but seven suspects - including those who allegedly slit his throat - remain at large.

Last month, Iraqi militants videotaped the killing of Italian hostage Fabrizio Quattrocchi, but the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera refused to air it because it was too graphic.


(AP) Iraqi gunmen, loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, show their guns in the center of...
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In the video of Berg, the executioners said they had tried to trade him for prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage for some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused," one of the men read from a statement.

"So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins ... slaughtered in this way."

Seven soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company face charges in the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in a scandal that has sparked worldwide outrage. One of those soldiers faces a court-martial in Baghdad next week, the first to go to trial.

The American administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, said Tuesday that the soldiers accused of abuses would be brought to justice.

"I find the behavior of these American soldiers completely unacceptable and outrageous," Bremer told Associated Press Television News. "I share the outrage of the Iraqi people and the people of the world as to what these guys did."

April 9, when Berg last made contact with his family, also was the day that seven American contractors working for a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp. and two military men disappeared after their supply convoy was attacked on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Four of the Halliburton workers and one of the military men have since been confirmed dead. Halliburton worker Thomas Hamill escaped his captors May 2 and returned home to Mississippi on Saturday. The two other Halliburton workers and the other soldier remain missing.

Two soldiers also vanished April 9. One was later found dead and the other, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, was taken captive and remains missing.

In other developments Tuesday:

- The head of Iraq's war-crimes tribunal said the United States has pledged to hand over Saddam Hussein and about 100 other suspects to Iraqi authorities before July 1 if Iraq is ready to take them into custody. U.S. officials denied any decision had been reached.

- Iraqi leaders in Najaf said radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed to end his violent standoff with the U.S.-led coalition if the Americans defer murder charges against him until a permanent constitution is adopted next year and an elected government takes office.

- A Russian energy company worker was confirmed dead and two others abducted Monday when gunmen fired on their car south of Baghdad, Russian officials said.

- A homemade bomb exploded in a crowded market in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing four Iraqis and wounding 23, a security official said.



Footage of the murder: Warning, extremely graphic. These Godless fuckers need to die. It's us or them people, there is no negotiating. Us or them. Period.

More "abuse" in Iraq

Sort of, well; not really. I was wondering when this was going to happen. From Newsday:

Frauds Try to Exploit Iraq Abuse Scandal

By LEE KEATH
Associated Press Writer

May 9, 2004, 3:13 PM EDT


BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The scandal over abuse at Abu Ghraib is bringing out the stories, from people fearing for imprisoned relatives, from former detainees who claim mistreatment -- and from possible frauds looking to exploit the uproar.

At a press conference by human rights groups in Baghdad on Sunday, numerous former prisoners came forward to tell of abuse including beatings by soldiers and sleep deprivation. The accounts resembled those found by U.S. investigators at the notorious prison.

Fallujah native Abdul-Qader Abdul-Rahman al-Ani, his left elbow wrapped in bandages, his right forearm bound in a cast, recounted how he was beaten by soldiers who picked him up last month. The soldiers tied him and two others arrested with him to a tree and sodomized them one after the other, he told journalists.

"I ask President Bush," he said. "Does he agree with this?"

As Ani, 47, repeated his story, he was interrupted by Jabber al-Okaili, a member of one of the human rights groups that organized the gathering. "He's lying," al-Okaili shouted. "He's a liar!"

Al-Ani was rushed to an office, where al-Okaili and others unwound the bandage on his left arm and found the elbow unscarred and healthy. They cut off half of the cast on his forearm, even as al-Ani insisted, "By God, it's true, everything I say is true."

"All his papers were forged," al-Okaili, of the Free Iraq Institute, said after al-Ani left the building. "Who knows why he did this. Maybe he was paid by former members of Saddam Hussein's regime."

"There are people who try to exploit the situation," said Adel al-Allami, of the Human Rights Organization of Iraq. "We have to be very careful and very precise in our facts. This is a very sensitive issue."

Others at the gathering brought piles of documents to prove their cases: plastic identification bands giving the dates of their imprisonment, certification of their release, and photos of bruises and scars they said they received at the hands of Americans.

One man, Khayrullah al-Kinzawi, showed pictures of the sores on his hands he said he suffered while jailed last year, soon after the American invasion. "They tied my hands behind my back, then dragged me across the dirt. It tore my hands to pieces," said al-Kinzawi, a 65-year-old shop owner from the southern city of Nasiriyah.

For relatives of prisoners, the photos of Iraqis being stripped and humiliated by American guards heightened their fears that their loved ones were being abused.

"When I hear things like this, I can't help but be afraid," said Basma Qassem, 33, whose husband Mahdi Jabbar Ahmad was arrested from their home in Baghdad's Azimiyah neighborhood three months ago. "I've been to Abu Ghraib seven times and they tell me I can't see him. Every time they tell me to come back again."

Sabriya Karim, 57, said she was searching for a son arrested in July and unheard from since. Raad Hussein Mandil was wounded when U.S. troops opened fire during a raid on their Baghdad home in which he and three of his brothers were detained, said Karim, 57.

The brothers have since been accounted for and are being held at Umm Qasr prison in southern Iraq.

"But they say they don't have Raad. No one knows where he is," Karim said. "I don't even know if he's alive. They say people die in these prisons and no one is ever told."
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press


This was the kink in the armor the insurgents were looking for. What those soldiers did to those prisoners was pathetic. It wasn't torture, but is was completely unbecoming of someone wearing the uniform of the United States Military. What these morons are doing is just retarded.

Only whites can be racist

There really is no such thing as reverse racism. Honest, there isn't. We all know that white people are the only ones who can be racist right? Whatever. From the Washington Times:

Chicano group denied funding


By Valerie Richardson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


Stanford University students have voted to stop funding the Chicano group MEChA after a series of articles in the conservative Stanford Review accused the organization of racism.
In what is believed to be the first such vote on any college campus, Stanford students voted 1,357 to 1,329 to withhold MEChA's special fees, which amount to more than $40,000. The students voted about five months after articles in the Review cited anti-white statements in MEChA documents and compared the group to the Ku Klux Klan.


MEChA stands for the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.
Stephen Cohen, Stanford Review editor, said the articles were responsible for stirring opposition to the group, especially after campus MEChA leaders refused to renounce the founding documents.
"This was a huge, huge victory for us," said Mr. Cohen, a Stanford junior. "We were the only group calling for students not to fund MEChA, and we've been calling for this for years now. We didn't really expect it to happen, so we were pleasantly surprised."
However, campus MEChA leaders said the vote was based on "misinformation," insisting that the modern club no longer subscribes to all the views in the founding documents, according to the Stanford Daily, the school newspaper.
The students voted as MEChA faces increasing criticism statewide for statements included in some of its original documents, particularly El Plan de Aztlan.
El Plan de Aztlan describes white people as "the brutal 'gringo' " and "the foreigner 'gabacho,' " saying they invade the Chicano territories, exploit their riches and destroy their culture. It calls for Chicanos to reclaim "the land of their birth" and "declare the independence of our mestizo nation."
The plan's motto, "Por la Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada," means, "For the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing."
MEChA chapters have publicly dismissed the statements as the product of the radical 1960s, when pro-separatist sentiment was running high. Last year, Jorge Mariscal, a professor at the University of California at San Diego, called the plan "a poem written almost 35 years ago in a period of increased social activism and high-flying rhetoric."
Founded in 1969 at the University of California at Santa Barbara, MEChA now has chapters on nearly every California college campus and in most high schools in the state.
In recent years, however, some prominent California politicians have been called on to renounce their MEChA memberships. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante came under fire for his MEChA roots in the gubernatorial race last year, as did Los Angeles City Council member Antonio Villaragosa in his bid for Los Angeles mayor.
Glenn Spencer, a MEChA critic who has produced documentaries on Mexican immigration issues, said he knew of no other anti-MEChA funding vote on any other California campus.
"I've been following them for 13 years, and I don't recall them ever being turned down for funding," said Mr. Spencer, who also operates the American Patrol Web site. "I'm glad to see the students of Stanford show some backbone and speak the truth."
However, he also predicted that such votes could push MEChA to the political fringe. "If this starts to go to other campuses, you're going to see a real radicalization of MEChA," he said.
The vote doesn't mean the end of Stanford MEChA. With a total budget of about $100,000, the organization also receives funding from the academic departments, the Stanford Fund and El Centro Chicano, the school's Hispanic umbrella group, according to the Review.



Ha!! Oh please, make the laughter stop!! This brutal gringo can't stop convulsing!!

But, but, but, I thought everyone knew

That there really was no link between Sadaam and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I mean, really; everyone knew Sadaam was not involved in terrorism in anyway shape or form, right? Right? From FrontPageMag:

The Saddam-9/11 Link Confirmed

By Laurie Mylroie
FrontPageMagazine.com | May 11, 2004



Important new information has come from Edward Jay Epstein about Mohammed Atta’s contacts with Iraqi intelligence. The Czechs have long maintained that Atta, leader of the 9/11 hijackers in the United States, met with Ahmed al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence official, posted to the Iraqi embassy in Prague. As Epstein now reports, Czech authorities have discovered that al-Ani’s appointment calendar shows a scheduled meeting on April 8, 2001 with a "Hamburg student."


That is exactly what the Czechs had been saying since shortly after 9/11: Atta, a long-time student at Germany’s Hamburg-Harburg Technical University, met with al-Ani on April 8, 2001. Indeed, when Atta earlier applied for a visa to visit the Czech Republic, he identified himself as a “Hamburg student.” The discovery of the notation in al-Ani’s appointment calendar about a meeting with a “Hamburg student” provides critical corroboration of the Czech claim.



Epstein also explains how Atta could have traveled to Prague at that time without the Czechs having a record of such a trip. Spanish intelligence has found evidence that two Algerians provided Atta a false passport.



The Iraqi Plot against Radio Free Europe



Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the Czechs were closely watching the Iraqi embassy. Al-Ani’s predecessor had defected to Britain in late 1998, and the Czechs (along with the British and Americans) learned that Baghdad had instructed him to bomb Radio Free Europe, headquartered in Prague, after RFE had begun a Radio Free Iraq service earlier that year.



On April 8, 2001, an informant for Czech counter-intelligence (known as BIS), observed al-Ani meet with an Arab man in his 20s at a restaurant outside Prague. Another informant in the Arab community reported that the man was a visiting student from Hamburg and that he was potentially dangerous.



The Czech Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation for al-Ani’s rendezvous with the Arab student from the head of the Iraqi mission in Prague. When no satisfactory account was forthcoming, the Czechs declared al-Ani persona non grata, and he was expelled from the Czech Republic on April 22, 2001.



Hyman Komineck was then Deputy Foreign Minister and had earlier headed the Czech Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Department. Now Prague’s ambassador to the United Nations, Komineck explained in June 2002, “He didn’t know [what al-Ani was up to.] He just didn’t know.” As Komineck told the Times of London in October 2001, "It is not a common thing for an Iraqi diplomat to meet a student from a neighboring country."



Following the 9/11 attacks, the Czech informant who had observed the meeting saw Mohammed Atta’s picture in the papers and told the BIS he believed that Atta was the man he had seen meeting with al-Ani. On September 14, BIS informed its CIA liaison that they had tentatively identified Atta as al-Ani’s contact.



So Many Errors: the Clinton Years



Opinion polls show that most Americans still believe Iraq had substantial ties to al Qaeda and even that it was involved in 9/11. Yet among the “elite,” there is tremendous opposition to this notion. A simple explanation exists for this dichotomy. The public is not personally vested in this issue, but the elite certainly are.



America’s leading lights, including those in government responsible for dealing with terrorism and with Iraq, made a mammoth blunder. They failed to recognize that starting with the first assault on New York’s World Trade Center, Iraq was working with Islamic militants to attack the United States. This failure left the country vulnerable on September 11, 2001. Many of those who made this professional error cannot bring themselves to acknowledge it; perhaps, they cannot even recognize it. They mock whomever presents information tying Iraq to the 9/11 attacks; discredit that information; and assert there is “no evidence.” What they do not do is discuss in a rational way the significance of the information that is presented. I myself have experienced this many times, including in testimony before the 9/11 Commission, when as I responded to a Commissioner’s question, a fellow panelist repeatedly interrupted, screeching “That is not evidence,” even as C-SPAN broadcast the event to the entire country.




Former White House counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke is a prime example of this phenomenon. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, when President Bush asked him to look into the possibility of Iraq’s involvement, Clarke was “incredulous” (his word), treating the idea as if it were one of the most ridiculous things he had ever heard. On September 18, when Deputy National Security Adviser Steven Hadley asked him to take another look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, Clarke responded in a similar fashion.



Yet as we know now, thanks to Epstein’s work, Czech intelligence at that point had already informed their CIA liaison that they had tentatively identified Mohammed Atta as the Arab whom al-Ani had met on April 8, 2001.



Evidence is “something that indicates,” according to Webster’s. Proof is “conclusive demonstration.” The report of a well-regarded allied intelligence service that a 9/11 hijacker appeared to have met with an Iraqi intelligence agent a few months before the attacks is certainly evidence of an Iraqi connection.



Clarke’s adamant refusal to even consider the possibility of an Iraqi role in the 9/11 attacks represents an enormous blunder committed by the Clinton administration. Following the February 26, 1993, bombing of the World Trade Center, senior officials in New York FBI, the lead investigative agency, believed that Iraq was involved. When Clinton launched a cruise missile attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in June 1993, saying publicly that the strike was punishment for Saddam’s attempt to kill former President Bush when he visited Kuwait in April, Clinton believed that the attack would also take care of the terrorism in New York, if New York FBI was correct. It would deter Saddam from all future acts of terrorism.



Indeed, Clarke claims the strike did just that. The Clinton administration, Clarke explains in Against All Enemies, also sent “a very clear message through diplomatic channels to the Iraqis saying, ‘If you do any terrorism against the United States again, it won't just be Iraqi intelligence headquarters, it'll be your whole government.' It was a very chilling message. And apparently it worked.”



But if the entire 1991 Gulf War did not deter Saddam for long, why should one cruise missile strike accomplish that aim? Indeed, the Iraqi plot against Radio Free Europe—the existence of which is confirmed by RFE officials—is clear demonstration that the June 1993 cruise missile strike did not permanently deter Saddam.



Bush 41: A War Left Unfinished



The claim that Iraq was involved in 9/11 is also strongly opposed by some senior figures in Bush 41. They include former National Security Council Advisor, Brent Scowcroft, who wrote in the summer of 2002, “There is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks.”



Iraqi involvement in the 9/11 attacks carries serious implications for judgments about the way that Bush 41 ended the 1991 war. As will be recalled, after 100 hours of a ground war, with Saddam still in power and Republican Guard units escaping across the Euphrates, Bush called for a cease-fire. Colin Powell, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pushed for that decision, and Scowcroft backed him, although it was totally unnecessary, and many Arab members of the coalition were astounded at the decision.



To err is human. And if one errs, one should correct the mistake and move on. The prevailing ethos, however, is quite different, even when serious national security issues are involved. Extraordinarily rare is a figure like Dick Cheney, who as Secretary of Defense, supported the decision to end the 1991 war with Saddam still in power, but after the 9/11 attacks was prepared to recognize the evidence suggesting an Iraqi role in those attacks and memorably remarked that it was rare in history to be able to correct a mistake like that.



Why we are at war: Iraq’s Involvement in 9/11



Never before in this country’s history has a president ordered American soldiers into battle, without fully explaining why they are asked to risk life and limb. One would never know from the administration’s public stance that senior officials, including the President, believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks.



Iraq was indeed involved in those assaults. There is considerable information to that effect, described in this piece and elsewhere. They include Iraqi documents discovered by U.S. forces in Baghdad that U.S. officials have not made public.



We are now engaged in the most difficult military conflict this country has fought in thirty years. Even before the fiasco at Abu Ghraib became widely known, both the American public and international opinion were increasingly skeptical of U.S. war aims.



In taking on and eliminating the Iraqi regime, Bush corrected a policy blunder of historic proportions. His decision for war was both courageous and necessary. Now, he needs to make it clear just why that decision was made.

See, Sadaam really didn't have any ties to terrorism. Hey, I've got this bridge for sale.....

Killin' them poor defensless Iraqis'

Yup, yup. You know the coalition forces have nothing better to do than take pot shots at unarmed Iraqi civilians. This from the BBC (and everyone knows that they're not biased at all):

UK troops 'shot harmless Iraqis'


An eye-witness said Hanan Saleh Matrud's death was not an accident
UK troops have killed Iraqi civilians including an eight-year-old girl when they were under no apparent threat, Amnesty International has claimed.

Of course the eyewitness is never named...

The human rights organisation claims in a report that in "many" cases the deaths of civilians by the British military had not been investigated.

Inquiries have been "secretive" and conducted by Military Police, it adds.

Gee, the military police investigating crimes alleged to be committed by the military... who woulda thunk that. And you mean to say they weren't sharing their investigation with the world?? Oh the travesty

The claims are the latest in string of allegations about the treatment of Iraqis by US and British forces.

Separately on Tuesday the High Court ruled that relatives of 12 Iraqis allegedly killed by UK troops will get a full court hearing into the decision not to hold independent inquiries.

Of course they conveniently don't tell you whether or not the families of these alleged victims were firing at coalition forces first.

The families want to have the deaths declared a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, but the UK government says the convention does not apply in Iraq.

Yeah, we are kind of at war and stuff...

On Monday, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told MPs action was pending against British soldiers in two cases of alleged abuse.

Wait a minute, I thought they weren't being investigated?? I'm not going to bother fisking the rest of this article, as it only gets more asinine and I think I'm going to hurl.

Why aren't we seeing these anymore?

Does anyone ever wonder why the media doesn't want us to see these images anymore? Of course it's not because of some sort of media bias obviously so it MUST be something else, right? right?????

Online petition at Kerry's page

John Kerry's webpage has an online petition to force Rumsfeld to resign. So if you want Rummy to resign *cough*, go sign the petition. Of course, if someone were to go over and fill in some derogatory comments in the name fields, well hey; who am I to judge, right?

Also courtesy of Glenn Beck

Glenn's got some nice pics of our soldiers serving in the M.E.. I guarentee you won't find any of these on any of the major media outlets. Disclaimer from Glenn; Please note that these pictures are not for everyone. If you believe Bush is Hitler and Michael Moore doesn't smell like bacon, this page is not for you....

You can view the pics here.

The military isn't as behind on things as some would like you to believe

Yes, these allegations of abuse have been around for a while now. But according to some on the left, nothing was done about it until the pictures were made public and the Bush administration "rushed" to do damage control. This simply isn't the case. Yes the abuse really isn't a new situation. But niether are the investigations by the administration. Courtesy of Glenn Beck, we get the opportunity to take a look at the exact time-line of events around these abuse charges.

2002

Feb. 8: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says President Bush has decided that Geneva Convention protections do not apply to terrorist detainees from Afghanistan, but says all prisoners will be treated humanely.

December: In separate incidents, two Afghan detainees in U.S. custody die of blunt-force injuries. Both are classified as homicides and remain under investigation.

2003

March 19: Iraq war begins.

June 30: Reserve Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski named commander of 800th Military Police Brigade, responsible for guarding Iraq prisons.

July 23: Amnesty International says it has received reports of torture of prisoners by coalition forces in Iraq.

Aug. 31-Sept. 9: Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who runs the military prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, conducts an inquiry on interrogation and detention procedures in Iraq. He suggests that prison guards can help set conditions for the interrogation of prisoners.

October: Red Cross conducts a 'no-notice' inspection of Abu Ghraib prison and later submits a report to U.S. military authorities in Iraq detailing abuses. Rumsfeld says he was not briefed. Red Cross later says several inspections between March and November found 'serious violations'.

October-December: Many of the alleged abuses at Abu Ghraib take place during this time period.

Oct. 13-Nov. 6: Maj. Gen. Donald Ryder, provost marshal of the Army, investigates conditions of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib. He finds problems throughout the prisons. Some units, including the 800th Military Police Brigade, did not receive adequate training to guard prisons, he notes. He also says military police (MPs) should not assist in making prisoners more pliable to interrogation, as their job is to keep prisoners safe.

Nov. 24: Twelve prisoners are shot, three fatally, in prison riot at Abu Ghraib.

Nov. 26: Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abed Hamad Mowhoush loses consciousness and dies under questioning at undisclosed location in Iraq. Case is under investigation by CIA inspector general. A second prisoner death during questioning, this one at Abu Ghraib, is also under investigation.

2004

Jan. 4-8: Red Cross reports improvements at Abu Ghraib.

Jan. 13: Army Spc. Joseph M. Darby, an MP with the 800th at Abu Ghraib, leaves a disc with photographs of prisoner abuse on the bed of a military investigator.

Jan. 14: Army launches criminal investigation of Abu Ghraib abuses.

Jan. 14-15: Gen. John Abizaid, chief of Central Command, tells Gen. Richard Meyers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, of the investigation and says it is a 'big deal'.

Jan. 16: Central Command issues one-paragraph news release announcing investigation of "incidents of detainee abuse" at unspecified U.S. prison in Iraq.

Jan. 18: A guard leader and a company commander at the prison are suspended from their duties, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, a senior commander in Iraq, admonishes Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who commanded the brigade.

Jan. 19: Sanchez orders a separate administrative investigation into the 800th. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba was appointed to conduct that inquiry on Jan. 31.

Jan. 31: Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba appointed to investigate prison abuses.

Early February: Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, brief President Bush on the prison abuse investigations.

Feb. 2: Taguba visits Abu Ghraib. Throughout the month, his team conducts interviews in Iraq and Kuwait.

Feb. 26: Sanchez publicly discloses the suspension of 17 military personnel but gives no details.

March 12: Taguba presents his report to his commanders. He finds widespread abuse of prisoners by military police and military intelligence. He also agrees with Ryder that guards should not play any role in the interrogation of prisoners.

March 20: Six soldiers face charges stemming from alleged abuse at the prison. The military announces the beginning of possible court-martial proceedings.

April 4: Internal Army review of prison management recommends administrative actions against several unnamed commanders in Iraq.

April 6: Third Army commander Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan approves Taguba's report.

April 12: CBS's 60 Minutes II informs Pentagon that it is planning to broadcast photographs of Abu Ghraib prison abuse.

April 14: Myers calls CBS News anchor Dan Rather to request delay in broadcast, saying the pictures will incite violence against U.S. troops and could endanger the 90 Western hostages held by Iraqi militants. CBS agrees. Myers calls a week later and obtains another delay.

April 28: CBS airs the photos, setting off an international outcry. Bush, Rumsfeld and Meyers say this is the first time they have seen any of the photographs.

April 30: The military announces Miller has been put in charge of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.

May 1: Sanchez approves Taguba's report. Six more soldiers receive administration reprimands; two are relieved of their duties. A seventh receives a lesser reprimand. Other investigations are also under way, including into the military intelligence unit that conducted interrogations at the prison.

May 3: Bush urges Rumsfeld to make sure that any guilty U.S. soldiers are punished for "shameful and appalling acts." Rumsfeld's aides say he has not yet read the Taguba report, although they say he has kept abreast of the allegations of mistreatment.

May 6: Bush apologizes to the Arab world for abuse, says Rumsfeld will stay in his Cabinet.

May 7: Senate and House committees call Rumsfeld to testify. Rumsfeld apologizes for abuses and for laxity in informing the president and Congress, proposes compensation for victims and appoints panel to review prison system.



It seems the military and administration aren't as behind on things as some would have us believe. Gee, who woulda' thunk it.