9/11/2012

full service: hollywood and prostitution

'full service: my adventures in hollywood and the secret sex lives of the stars' is a new book by scotty bowers and marcia and i read it and are doing our book blogging tonight about the book. be sure to check out her site.

scotty bowers served in the marines and then was a bartender and a gas station attendant (when they really did exist).  he met a lot of famous people over his lifetime (he's still alive) and he writes about that in his book.  he writes about a lesbian couple in the 50s approaching him because they wanted a child.  he had sex with the 1 who wanted to carry the child and the couple ended up with a baby.  another time where he provided siring services was a college professor who could not impregnant his wife.  so scotty bowers to the rescue.  in bed with the wife and with the professor.  he not only got the wife pregnant, but he was asked to return when they wanted a 2nd child.

so those are interesting tales all by themselves but remember hollywood being in the title?

scotty had sex with a number of famous people and he supplied them and other famous people with prostitutes - male or female based upon their desires.

errol flynn, for example, loved a young woman.  that was what he wanted.  he preferred she look under 18 regardless of her age.  he would often pass out before he could have sex because he drank so heavily.

another movie star who may be less well known is ramon novarro.  he was a silent movie star.  the original 'ben hur' made him a huge star and he was in many other hits.

ramon, who was from durango, mexico, preferred men.  and he could blow 15 guys in 1 night.  repeatedly.  he preferred oral sex and he called cum 'honey.'  he thought it would keep him youthful.  (yes, he is known today more for his brutal murder at the hands of 2 nasty trcks.)

like flynn, he drank too much and would frequntly pass out or forget that he had already sucked off 1 of the guys (and so wonder why they weren't cumming).

there was charles laughton who had a trick do number 2 in a pan and then laughton smeared it on his sandwich - his own sandwich - to eat.

cary grant, katharine hepburn, raymond burr, tyrone power (male prostitutes), vincent price (the same) and tennessee williams among others.

this is a book that moves briskly and will provide you with many bits of information you never knew.

you can probably knock it out in 2 days even if you are pressed for time or are a slow learner.



let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Tuesday, September 11, 2012.  Chaos and violence continue, a new investigative report explores the continued persecuting and targeting of Iraq's LGBT community, Amnesty International decries the sentence of Tareq al-Hashemi, Jalal Talabani is said to return to Iraq shortly, the US Senate passes the Veterans Jobs Corps Bill, and more.
 
 
Senator Murray Urges Passage of Veterans Jobs Corps Bill
Bill would help train and hire veterans as police officers, firefighters, and at our national and state parks
 
 
Watch video of Senator Murray's speech HERE.
 
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Tuesday, September 11th, Senator Patty Murray,
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, spoke on the Senate floor in support of the Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012, which she is co-sponsoring. At a time when over 720,000 veterans are unemployed, this bill would increase training and      hiring opportunities for our nation's veterans, especially those from the post-9/11 era.
The  Veterans Jobs Corps Act would help put our veterans back to work as police
officers, fire fighters, and other first responders, positions that our communities are in
sore need of after 85 percent of law enforcement agencies were forced to reduce their budget in the past year. In addition, this bill would also help train and hire veterans to
help restore and protect our national, state, and tribal forests, our parks, our coastal
areas, wildlife refuges, and VA cemeteries. Senator Murray pointed out that the bill contains ideas from both sides of the aisle, is fully paid for with bipartisan spending offsets, and should not be controversial at a time when our veterans continue to
struggle. The bill is expected to be considered by the full Senate this week.
 
And we're jumping to Senator Murray's remarks on the bills:
 
 
Senator Patty Murray: "Our veterans have what it takes to not only find work, but to excel in the workforce of the 21st century."
"We cannot and should not let that training – or the millions of dollars we have invested in these men and women - go to waste. But in far too many instances that's what has happened. Too often, on the day our service members are discharged, we as a nation pat them on their back for their service, without also giving them a helping hand into the job market. This has to end."
"I urge my colleagues to build on the successes we have had in passing bipartisan veterans employment legislation. Veterans returning home all across the country are watching us and they certainly don't have time to let politics block their path to a job that will help serve their community."
The full text of Senator Murray's speech:
"Mr. President, last Friday, we were again reminded of the difficult employment picture our nation's veterans continue to face.
"In the monthly unemployment report for August, we saw that across the country there are over 720,000 unemployed veterans.
"It's a number that includes over 225,000 post-9/11 veterans - many of whom have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan - and have sacrificed time and again for our safety.
"Put simply, this shouldn't be the case.
"Our veterans have what it takes to not only find work, but to excel in the workforce of the 21st century.
"In fact, the characteristics that our veterans exemplify read like the job qualifications you might find at any major company or small business. That's because they have: leadership ability; discipline; and technical skills.
"They know the value of teamwork like few others, and they certainly know how to perform under pressure.
"And they have these skills because, as a country, we have invested in training them.
"We cannot and should not let that training – or the millions of dollars we have invested in these men and women - go to waste.
"But in far too many instances that's what has happened.
"Too often, on the day our service members are discharged, we as a nation pat them on their back for their service, without also giving them a helping hand into the job market.
"This has to end.
"And Mr. President, this Senate has taken bipartisan action in the past to begin to change the way our veterans transition from the battlefield to the
job market.
"We were able to pass the VOW to Hire Heroes Act, which I co-authored, and which was signed into law last year.
"Importantly, that new law transforms the way that we provide transition training to our service members when they leave the military.
"It also includes a provision that today in my home state, and all across the country, is providing thousands of dollars in tax credits to businesses that are hiring veterans.
"In addition to that bill, we have also worked to build partnerships with private sector businesses in order to tap into the tremendous amount of goodwill that companies have toward our returning heroes.
"Sometimes this is a simple as working with companies to show them easy steps that help bring veterans aboard, like ensuring they are advertising job openings with local veterans service organizations and on local military bases, or having veterans in their HR departments. Or just having
someone on staff that can help translate the experience of veterans into the work a company does.
"Time and again - at big companies like Microsoft and Amazon – or much smaller businesses I have seen these steps make an impact.
"Particularly, when veterans unemployment rates among young veterans ages 18-24 continues to hover around 20% action must be taken. Because that is one in five of our young veterans who can't find a job to support their family; one in five that don't have an income that provides stability; and one in five that don't have work that provides them with the self-esteem and
pride that is so critical to their transition home.
"It's a problem that manifests itself in veterans homelessness, in broken families, and far too often in our veterans taking their own lives.
"It's a problem that neither the veterans themselves, nor government
alone can solve.
"But it is also one we need to do everything we can to address.
"And here in the Senate that means a bipartisan 'all hands on deck' strategy.
"And that is exactly what the Veterans Jobs Corps represents.
"Over the next five years, the Veterans Jobs Corps will increase training and hiring opportunities for all veterans using successful job training programs from across the country.
"It will help hire qualified veterans as police officers, fire fighters and other first responders at a time when 85 percent of law enforcement agencies were forced to reduce their budget in the past year.
"It will also help train and hire veterans to help restore and protect our national, state, and tribal forests, our parks, and other public lands.
"All at a time when we face a $10 billion maintenance backlog for our public lands – a backlog I have seen personally in many of the parks and lands in my home state of Washington.
"And because training and hiring our veterans has never been, and should never be, an effort that divides us along partisan lines - the Veterans Jobs Corps takes good ideas from both sides of the aisle.
"In fact, the bill will provide veterans with access to the internet and computers to conduct job searches at one-stop centers and certain other locations an idea championed by Senator Toomey. It will help guarantee
that rural and disabled veterans' have access to veterans' employment representatives a bill from Senator Tester. It will increase transition assistance programs for eligible veterans and their spouses a bill that was introduced by Senator Boozman. And it will require consideration of a veteran's training or experience gained while serving on active duty when they seek certification and licenses a bill cosponsored by Democrats and Republicans.
"This bill says that all good ideas are welcome, because our veterans need all the help they can get.
"And it is also fully paid for in a bipartisan way.
"It has been endorsed most recently by the National Association of Police
Organizations but but there are also many veterans service organizations that stand behind this bill.
"And they do so because they know that helping veterans find employment is critical
to meeting so many of the challenges they face returning home.
"You know, Mr. President our veterans don't ask for a lot.
"Often times they come home and don't even acknowledge their own sacrifices.
"My own father never talked about his time fighting in World War II.
"In fact, I never saw his Purple Heart, or knew that he had a wallet with shrapnel in it,
or a diary that detailed his time in combat, until after he had died and my family
gathered to sort through his belongings.
"But our veterans shouldn't have to ask.
"We should know to provide for them.
"When my father's generation came home from the war – they came home to
opportunity.
"My father came home to a community that supported him.
"He came home to college - then to a job.
"A job that gave him pride.
"A job that helped him start a family.
"And one that ultimately led to me starting my own.
"That's the legacy of opportunity this Senate has to live up to for today's veterans.
"I urge my colleagues to build on the successes we have had in passing bipartisan veterans employment legislation.
"Veterans returning home all across the country are watching us and they certainly
don't have time to let politics block their path to a job that will help serve their
community.
"Surely, this is something that we can show them that we can come
together on, no matter how close or far away we are from an election.
"Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor."
 
 
Kathleen Hunter (Bloomberg News) reports the bill passed the Senate today with 95 senators voting for it and one voting against it.
 
Today the White House issued the following list of nominations:
 
 
Robert Stephen Beecroft, of California, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq.
T. Charles Cooper, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, vice Jeffrey J. Grieco.
Rose Eilene Gottemoeller, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, vice Ellen O. Tauscher, resigned.
F. Scott Kieff, of Illinois, to be a Member of the United States International Trade Commission for the term expiring June 16, 2020, vice Daniel Pearson, term expired.
Joshua D. Wright, of Virginia, to be a Federal Trade Commissioner for the term of seven years from September 26, 2012, vice J. Thomas Rosch, term expiring.
 
 
Robert S. Beecroft is Barack Obama's 4th nominee to be the US Ambassador to Iraq.  Senator Barack Obama participated in this process by voting to confirm presidential nominees.  But Barack's only been president since January 2009 -- not yet four years.  No, it is not common for a president to have to repeatedly nominate people to the same post over and over in one term.  And, no, no one died in the post. 
 
When Barack was sworn in, Ryan Crocker was the US Ambassador to Iraq.  Barack nominated Chris Hill who, once confirmed and in Iraq, quickly set a record for afternoon naps.  When it was realized that Chris Hill wasn't working, James Jeffrey was nominated.  Then Jeffrey wanted out and Brett McGurk was nominated.  But he withdrew his name, as Press TV notes "over a sex scandal" and  Peter Baker (New York Times) notes, when "Democrats were unwilling to defend him because he previously worked for President George W. Bush."

Currently, Robert Stephen Beecroft  is the Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy in Baghdad.  This means he's been running things since the US has no Ambassador to Iraq at present.  Yesterday, Barack Obama nominated Beecroft to be the latest in his conga line of US Ambassadors to Iraq.  Unlike Chris Hill and Brett McGurk, Beecroft actually speaks Arabic.


From June 6, 2008 through June 4, 2011, he was the US Ambassador to Jordan -- he was sworn in to that post July 17, 2008 with his wife Anne and their daughter Blythe present as then-Secretary of State Condi Rice conducted the ceremony.   Their daughter attended Brigham Young University, as did Robert S. Beecroft (if you're wondering, yes, he is a Mormon and his missionary work was done in Venezuela).  Anne and Robert Beecroft married in 1983, Blythe is their oldest child (22) followed by Warren, Sterling and Grace.  After practicing law for six years (UC Berkeley Law School, 1988), Robert Beecroft  joined the diplomatic corps in 1994.
Iraq, we were told, was a democracy -- or at least an emerging one.  If that were true, it certainly would have needed a steady hand in terms of the US diplomatic mission.  It didn't get that.  And possibly that's allowed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Maliki Thugettes to believe they could get away with anything?
 
This believe that they can get away with anything and that others have no rights and no right to expect safety or human kindness goes a long way towards explaining how members of a group that was an oppressed majority less than ten years ago is now represented by thugs who want to harm others, not lift Iraq to a higher place.
 
 
 
First Iraqi Man:  They came to me face-to-face and told me that I have to stop being gay otherwise we will kill you. 
 
Second Iraqi Man: They made every excuse to get us out of the car.  They took us away and five men started raping us. 
 
 
Natalia Antelava: In a tiny stuffy room, Ahmed, Nancy and Allou are hiding from their families and the police.  All three have received death threats.  Ahmed has not left this room for over two months now. 
 
Ahmed: I came here because I was gay and I was threatened by my family -- my immediate family -- and some unknown guys from my neighborhood.  The situation a few years ago was very bad.  But at that time, they did not pay any attention to gays.  Now they have nothing to do but look for gays -- to kill them.
 
Allou: The threat is much bigger now than before.  It's not only the militias now.  It's the police, the government who are going after us.
 
Natalia Antelava: I really wish we could show you their faces.  Ahmed's got big, dark, worried eyes on his thin face.  Nancy's really pretty and I would have never guessed that she was born male.  And Allou's got this very trendy haircut which would be completely normal in the West but here in Iraq, this sort of hair could get you killed.  Nancy is especially vulnerable in Iraq.  Born a transgender, she dreams of a sex change operation but it is impossible to have it done in Iraq, she says, and she has no way of leaving the country.
 
Nancy: My mom tried to persuade me to act like a man because I am supposed to be a man   I couldn't.  She didn't know what was inside me.  She couldn't understand that.  I can't tell you how many times I've been raped at checkpoints -- with the police, it's countless.  The worst incident was at a checkpoint on Al Sadun street.  They asked me for my ID, then asked me to get out of the car.  It was dark.  They put me against the blast wall.  Nine of them raped me.   There was nothing I could do.  If I had resisted, they would have arrested me.
 
Natalia Antelava:  If you could have anything that you wanted, what kind of life would you want to have?
 
Nancy: I want to live the life I want.  I want to be a woman and to be treated like one.  I am a human being and this is my right.
 
Natalia Antelava:  It's not just transgender, Allou had been raped too.   And I heard many other similar stories -- gay men, with even a slightly feminine appearance say they're often raped by police at checkpoints.
 
Allou:  I am so tired, so sad.  I have no freedom.  I can't say that I am gay.  I can't live my life.  I can't go home.  I have to stay here doing nothing and just wait.
 
Natalia Antelava:  He doesn't know what he's waiting for.  The situation in Iraq he says is only getting worse and without the support of international organizations, they can't find the way out of the country. They appear regularly without a warning. Each  neighborhood gets its own hit list with  names and addresses of local residents who are believed to be gay.  Each time, it drives the already hidden gay community here further underground and further into panic.  Each time, one of the gays told me, it signals the beginning of a new witch hunt.  Radical milita groups are believed to be behind this hit list.  Although officially they've been disbanded, militias still pose the greatest threat to homosexuals. But those we spoke to say that they're just as fearful of countless police and military checkpoints that are supposed to be making Baghdad safe.  This checkpoint is manned by the Interior Ministry troops.  But in Iraq, one's uniform never tells you the full story.   In this country, you can be a police man by day, a militia man by night.  These blurred lines and mixed allegiances have made it easy for the government to blame militia groups for the killings of gays. But we've discovered evidence that directly links the police with attacks on gays in Iraq. Qais is gay and a former police man. He told me he had been ordered to go after homosexuals.  He couldn't refuse and so he quit his job.
 
Qais: In 2006, 2007 and 2008, we were busy fighting terrorsm.  We didn't pay attention to gays.  On top of it, the Iraqi government had to respect the rule of law when the Americans and the British were here.  But now?  They have a lot of free time and the police are going after gays.
 
Natalia Antelava:  Have you ever been called to arrest gays or kill gays or go after gays in any way?
 
Qais:  Yes, twice.  We had to arrest this guy.  He was having an argument with someone.  Once they arrested him, they accused him of being gay. We were told to send him to another town where he was wanted for being gay.  We sent him to that town and he disappeared.  His family came to ask about him and we sent them to another town where they could not find him. Then they got a death certificate from the police but they never got the body.
 
Natalia Antelava:  With so much secrecy, fear and loathing, it's difficult to establish the exact level of the government's involvement in the persecution. But 17 gay men interviewed for this investigation said they believed they were being singled out and hunted by the state.  All see the police as a major threat.  All have recently had friends or boyfriends killed.  All said arrests were still happening.  Until recently, Ghaith worked a a police station.  One day, he came to work to find his boyfriend in a pre-trial detention cell.
 
Ghaith: Being gay is not illegal in Iraq, it's not a crime. But he was told he was arrested because he was gay.  They call gays "puppies." They would beat him, saying,  "Puppies are destroying our country.  We must rid our country of you. We must kill you all.   He was in the police station for a week.
 
Natalia Antelava: The last time  Ghaith saw his boyfriend was the day before he died.
 
Ghaith:  I was upset. I lost all control, had a fight with the guards.  I was screaming, "Why did you kill my lover!"  They said, "Since you're like him, you should be dead too."  I started looking for any document related to his death.  I told them I was going to international human rights organizations and tell them everything.
 
Natalia Antelava:  Ghaith is now in hiding, terrorfied that he is next.
 
 
Credit to the BBC which has been the world leader on this issue for broadcast outlets. No other broadcast news outlet has done as much to raise this issue or to report on the violence as the BBC has. In print form, the Denver Post has done more than any other daily newspaper and Boston's The Edge has done more than any other weekly (especially reporter Kilian Melloy).  And I don't want to take anything away from those three news outlets but it is a real shame that their strong work has not been matched by others in what is not a one day or one month or one year story but what is a story that's been going on since the start of the war and a story whose latest wave of persecution has been going on for nearly four years.  A big thank you to those who have done such a great job covering the story (and there are others who have -- especially among the LGBT press) but it is shameful that so many outlets -- so many name news outlets -- have elected to ignore this story -- repeatedly ignore it.
 
 
In Iraq, the persecution and the violence continues.  Today All Iraq News notes a Falluja home invasion of a police officers home in which 1 family members was killed and five more were left injured.  Alsumaria notes 2 corpses were found dumped on a main road in Mosul, both men had been shot to death.

The political crisis continues in Iraq.  Al Rafidayn notes that Nouri has been very skillful in playing various political blocs against one another, tossing them off balance and allowing him to continue doing whatever it is that they had been objecting to before he pitted them against one another.  (They also note Sunday's violence -- over 100 dead, over 400 wounded -- and speak with analyst John Drake who feels that the violence was more likely carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and not supporters of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.)

The political crisis has lasted over a year.  You can chart its beginning to the end of December 2010 when it should have been clear that Nouri was trashing the US-brokered Erbil Agreement (which gave him a second term as prime minister) or the summer of 2011 when Iraqiya, Moqtada al-Sadr and the Kurds were all calling for a return to the Erbil Agreement publicly.  The political crisis can be seen as beginning in December of 2011 when Nouri's war on the Sunnis moves from mass arrests of academics and the elderly in the fall of that year to targeting Iraqiya (with his demand that Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq be stripped of his post and his arrest warrant for Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi -- al-Mutlaq and al-Hashemi are members of Iraqiya and also Sunni).

Immediately after the political crisis begins, Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and Iraq President Jalal Talabani begin calling for a National Conference -- a meet-up of the political blocs -- to address the crisis.  Nouri is immediately against it and says it's not necessary.  He'll go for a reform commission, he insists, but not a national conference.  He tries to throw one road block after another before the National Conference as prep meetins are held.  In late February, he announces it can't take place in March because the Arab League Summit will be held in Baghdad that month.  Talabani uses the international press spotlight to schedule the National Conference -- he did that by announcing the weekend before the Summit, with press arriving in Iraq in large numbers that were only expected to increase (and did increase -- for the Summit) that they would hold the National Conference Thursday, April 5th.  The announcement having been made to the press, Nouri tries to save face by announcing it himself while instructing his State of Law MPs to work on killing the conference.  The day of the conference al-Nujaifi is forced to hold a press conference to announce that the National Conference is off.

It was supposed to be re-scheduled.  Nouri then focused his efforts on killing a no-confidence vote.  Once he had done that (with the tremendous help of Jalal Talabani), he announced that the reform commission he'd earlier spoken of would do the work the national conference was supposed to.

No.

That was never going to happen.  And it ended up being nothing but a set of non-binding statements written by his National Alliance allies.  Turns out it was even worse than that.  Al Mada reports today that the National alliance is stating that they will review the reform paper before it's put forward.  Review it?  Al Mada reports State of Law wrote it.

State of Law is Nouri's slate.  Nouri wrote his own little 'reform' list.  Iraqiya is the political slate that came in first in the March 2010 elections.  Nouri's slate came in second.  Nouri is part of the National Alliance (as is Moqtada al-Sadr and his bloc of MPs and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and other Shi'ite groups).  The Reform Commission was supposed to be similar to the National Conference -- a face to face meet-up of blocs where the various issues were addressed.  Instead, it became a paper written by elements of the National Alliance sympathetic to Nouri.  Now it's become a paper written by State of Law.

It is a joke.  I-Was-Right rights today go to Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi who was the first Iraqi to publicly call out the Reform Commission and note that the whole thing was nothing but a distraction.

The Reform Commission will accomplish nothing.  Nouri implemented a power-grab at the end of 2010 and has continued it.  That's part of the objection -- and why some Iraqi politicians have compared Nouri to Saddam Husssein.  The idea that the man accused of a power grab can have his political slate write the reforms is laughable.

Part of Nouri's power grab was ignoring the Constitution which requires a prime minister-designate to name a Cabinet in 30 days or else someone else will be named prime minister-designate and get the 30 days to accomplish the task.  The Constitution requires that you name the Cabinet in 30 days or you don't get moved from prime minister-designate to prime minister.  That's not 'partial Cabinet.'  That's name your Cabinet.

Nouri couldn't do that because he wouldn't do that.  He never named ministers to head the Interior, Defense or National Security.  And, again, Ayad Allawi was the first to publicly call this out.  He said it was a power-grab.  The press insisted it wasn't.  They insisted that in a matter of weeks, Nouri would name nominees for these posts.  It's now September 2012 and he's never named nomineess.  Al Mada notes Iraqiya is calling for nominees and saying they need to come quickly in light of Sunday's violence.  Iraqiya MP Hamid al-Mutlaq states that the country is vulnerable to terrorists as a result of Nouri leaving those positions empty.  All Iraq News adds that Iraqiya has submitted a list containing the names of four members they say are qualified to be Minister of Defense.

The PUK is Talabani's political party (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan).  They tell Al Rafidayn that Jalal will return at the start of next week.  In May, as the no-confidence vote on Nouri was about to happen, Jalal suddenly began declaring signatures void.  He then ignored the request of the Kurdish officials that no one leave Iraq.  Iraq's vagabond president fled to Germany with his office insisting that he needed life-threatening surgery.

That ended up being knee surgery.  (What a close call!)  He has remained in Germany ever since.  He's been said to be on the verge of returning before.  He may or may not return next week but his political party is stating he will be returning.

He did note yesterday that the Sunday sentencing of his Vice Presdient Tareq al-Hashemi to be hanged was not helping the crisis.  Al Manar runs BBC's report about Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring today that al-Hashemi is welcome in and safe in Turkey and that "We will not hand him over."  Hurriyet Daily News states that Turkey's position is "crystal clear" and quotes Erdogan stating, "We will host al-Hashemi in our country as long as he wants to remain in Turkey.  We will not hand him over."   Amnesty International weighed in today on Sunday's violence and on the sentence against Tareq al-Hashemi:

The Iraqi authorities must urgently launch a thorough, impartial investigation into a wave of bomb attacks and shootings across Iraq on Sunday which reportedly killed at least 81 people, many of them civilians, and left scores more injured, Amnesty International said.

The apparently coordinated attacks in multiple cities appear to have targeted Iraqi civilians. Members of the security and armed forces also seemed to have been targeted. Car bomb explosions in several, predominantly Shi'a areas were among the deadliest attacks. 

"This horrific wave of attacks shows an utter disregard for humanity – the Iraqi authorities must ensure an immediate, thorough, impartial, and transparent investigation is carried out and those responsible are brought to justice in proceedings that comply with the most rigorous internationally recognized standards for fair trial," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

"There is no justification for the deliberate targeting of civilians – it is abhorrent and shows a total disregard for international human rights standards as well as the basic principles of humanity."

Several bombings across southern Iraq – including in the cities of Basra and Nasiriyah and a market near the Imam Ali al-Sharqi shrine – also resulted in deaths and injuries.

Meanwhile, a car bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk appeared to have targeted people lining up to seek employment at an oil facility, and two explosions in Kirkuk itself killed three people and wounded scores more.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attacks

Trial in absentia

The attacks came as an Iraqi court sentenced the Iraqi Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi to death after he was convicted, together with his son-in-law, Ahmed Qahtan for allegedly ordering killing a lawyer and a Shi'a security official.
Al-Hashemi, is now in Turkey and has been in office since 2005.
He has denied the charges, which he claims are politically motivated.

"The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, degrading and inhuman punishment and a violation of the right to life. This latest sentence is part of an alarming and sweeping use of the death penalty in Iraq. We call on the authorities to commute al-Hashemi's sentence immediately" said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui.

Background
In December, state run TV channel Al-Iraqiya broadcast "confessions" by men said to be al-Hashemi's bodyguards saying that they had killed police officers and officials from ministries in exchange for payoffs from al-Hashemi. This is in violation of fair trial standards, especially the presumption of innocence.

One of the bodyguards, Amer al-Battawi, died in custody in March 2012 after being held for three months. His family reportedly claimed his body bore signs of having been tortured.

The Iraqi authorities denied the torture allegations and said al-Battawi died of kidney failure.

One of al-Hashemi's female employees is currently in detention.

Rasha Nameer Jaafer al-Hussain, who was working at the Iraqi Vice-President's Office, was arrested without a warrant at her parents' house in Baghdad district on 1 January 2012. The security forces claimed they were taking her away for questioning and that she would return two hours later. Her family did not hear of her whereabouts for weeks.

A second woman, Bassima Saleem Kiryakos, was released, apparently without charge, on around 10 April.  She was arrested after her house in Baghdad was raided by over 15 armed security men in military uniform. The men did not have an arrest warrant.

ENDS
 
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org
 
 cc0
     
 
 
xxx
 
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9/10/2012

5 of my favorite books

tom hayden democrats 1

from last night, that's Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Tom Hayden Democrats" taking on the hideous tom hayden.

tomorrow, it'll be a book post, just fyi.  i don't think most of you will have heard of the book before.  but i think you will be interested in it.

it's not a sex manual but it does have sex in it - as in sex affairs among famous people.  that's all i'll say tonight but i really think you'll be interested in it.  it's non-fiction.  i'll add that as well before some 1 wonders what jackie collins' book i'm reading.

that's not meant as an insult to jackie.  i like her books and she's also a very lively, very funny person.  if i was going to be a writer, i'd want to be jackie collins.

i'm not joking.  i think she's had a huge impact.

writing for a predominately straight audience, mainly women, she introduced gay characters as real people long before other writers - more esteemed writers - were willing to go there.  

she also made strong woman an important part of the best seller in ways that so many male novelists (harold robbins among them) didn't.

whether it's lucky or whomever, jackie's women are strong and confident.  they don't wait for things to happen, they do.

my top 5 favorite books by jackie collins are:

5) 'the world is full of married men'

4) 'rock star'

3) 'hollywood wives'

2) 'lady boss'

and my number 1 fave: 'chances'!

i've written of 'dynasty' before.

let's all be really honest, which i know the shapiro's won't like.  'dynasty' rips off 'chances' big time.  that's where we meet lucky.  they use lucky for fallon with the hotel and the whole daddy fixation.  and the gay brother and all of it.


i think the hotel lucky runs is even similar to the name of the hotel fallon will run on 'dynasty.'

jackie collins writes entertaining books about characters that hold your attention and read real.  that's no easy accomplishment.

even if you will allow her as being good only on the best seller list, she's still 1 of the best on that list if not the best.

for years, it wasn't summer without a thick jackie collins book to read on the beach.  (jackie hasn't lost her talent but i've got a young daughter now.  give me a summer or two more before she wants nothing to do with mommy and then i'll be lugging a big book by jackie again.)

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'


Monday, September 10, 2012.  Chaos and violence continue,  an Iraqi vice president is convicted and sentenced to be hanged, Iraq experiences the second most violent day of the year with over 100 dead, poor Victoria Nuland is forced to address the topic of Iraq, Senator Patty Murray prepares to fight for a Veterans Jobs Corps bill, and more.
 
Starting with veterans.  In the US, Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.  August 10th, she, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki and veterans held a press conference to discuss S.3429 - the Veterans Jobs Corps bill.  
 
Senator Patty Murray (at the press conference): Just last week I helped introduce the Veterans Jobs Corps bill in the Senate -- and it will be one of the very first bills we consider when we return to DC in September.  It's a bill that is modeled off successful job training programs across the country and in states like ours.  And it's a bill based on President Obama's call to hire more veterans as police officers, firefighters, and in our national partk.  The bill is a $1 billion investment in our veterans and their capacity to strengthen America.  And over the next five years, the Veterans Jobs Corps will increase training and hiring opportunities for all veterans, help restore and protect our national, state, and tribal forests, our parks, our coastal areas, wildlife refuges, and VA cemeteries.  It will also help hire qualified veterans as first responders at a time when 85 percent of law enforcement agencies were forced to reduce their budget in the past year.  This bill contains ideas from both sides of the aisle, is fully paid for with bipartisan spending offsets, and should not be controversial at a time when our veterans continue to struggle.  Like I said, it will be job number one when we return, and I am hopeful that regardless of party affiliation this is an idea we can all get behind.
 
 
That matters at any time but especially right now because the Senate will be considering the bill tomorrow.  From Senator Muarry's office:
 
TOMORROW: Senator Murray to Speak in Support of Veterans Jobs Corps Bill
 
BILL WOULD HELP TRAIN AND HIRE VETERANS AS POLICE OFFICERS, FIREFIGHTERS, AND AT OUR NATIONAL AND STATE PARKS
 
(Washington, D.C.) -- Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 11th, Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, will speak on the Senate floor in support of the Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012, which she is co-sponsoring.  At a time when over 720,000 veterans are unemployed, this bill would increase training and hiring opportunities for our nation's veterans, especially those from the post-9/11 era.  The Veterans Jobs Corps Act would help put our veterans back to work as police officers, fire fighters, and other first responders, positions that our communities are in sore need of after 85 percent of law enforcement agencies were forced to reduce their budget in the past year.  In addition, this bill would also help train and hire veterans to help restore and protect our national, state, and tribal forests, our parks, our coastal areas, wildlife refuges, and VA cemeteries. 
 
Senator Murray will point out that the bill contains ideas from both sides of the aisle, is fully paid for with bipartisan spending offsets, and should not be controversial at a time when our veterans continue to struggle.  The bill is expected to be considered by the full Senate this week.
 
 
WHO:        U.S. Senator Patty Murray
 
WHAT:       Senator Murray will give a speech on the Senate floor in support of the Veterans Jobs Corps bill
 
WHEN:         TOMORROW: Tuesday, September 11, 2012
                     Approximately 12:00 PM EST/9:00 AM PST (this may change depending on floor schedule)
 
WHERE:       U.S. Senate Floor
 
 
###
 
Kathryn Robertson
Specialty Media Coordinator
Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510
202-224-2834
 
 
Senator Patty Murray's office
 
Senator Murray's YouTube Channel
 
Senator Murray's Press Office Twitter Account
 
RSS Feed for Senator Murray's office
 
 
 
Now we shift over to Canada where  Kim Rivera is being threatened with deportation.  She is a US war resister, an Iraq War veteran who came back to the US on a pass and decided she couldn't return to the war because of what she had seen.  So at the start of 2007, she and her husband and their two children went into Canada.  She has applied for refugee status.  In the years since, as she's waited, she and her husband have put down roots in Canada and had two more children.  The Canadian government is currently stating that they will deport her on or by September 20th.  The United Steelworkers of Canada issued the following statement today:
 
 
TORONTO – "The USW calls on Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to grant Iraq War resister Kimberly Rivera's application to stay in Canada," said Ken Neumann, United Steelworkers (USW) National Director.
"The minister can choose to step in and allow Kimberly and her family to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds," said Neumann. "Two of Kimberly's children were born here, yet the process for deporting her failed to consider the wellbeing of her family."
Rivera is to be deported on Sept. 20, according to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) for Rivera, her husband Mario and their four young children (two of whom are Canadian citizens).
Rivera joined the U.S. Army when she was 24 and was stationed in Iraq. She believed the U.S. efforts would make her country safer and bring democracy to Iraq. Disillusioned by the reality of civilian casualties and Iraqi children devastated by loss and filled with fear, she came to Canada in 2007 and applied for refugee status. Rivera felt she could no longer participate in a war where she was contributing to causing harm and death to innocent people.
The USW has supported U.S. Iraq War resisters since 2004 when the first war resister arrived in Canada. The Toronto Steelworkers Hall is offered for the War Resisters Support Campaign's public meetings.
Members of the USW are encouraged to sign the War Resisters Support Campaign's petition and call Minister Kenney to ask that he allow the Rivera family to stay in Canada.
During the Vietnam War, 100,000 war resisters came to Canada and more than half of them remain here today. Many of them volunteered and, like Kimberly, later developed moral objections to the war that they could not ignore. In the 1970s, conscientious objectors who had voluntarily joined the U.S. military were accepted as permanent residents here without distinction from those who were drafted.
"Across the country, war resisters, including some who are now Steelworkers, were accepted here because they could not in good conscience participate in a war. They, and all of the Vietnam War resisters, have made invaluable contributions to Canadian society and to our economy," said Neumann.
Public opinion polling shows that a majority of Canadians want our government to continue that tradition today. A 2008 Angus Reid poll found that 64% of Canadians would let U.S. military deserters stay in Canada.

War Resisters Support Campaign's petition

More information:

Ken Neumann, United Steelworkers National Director, 416-544-5951

Bob Gallagher, United Steelworkers, 416-544-5966 bgallagher@usw.ca
 
 
Iraq Veterans Against the War notes Kim ("Send a letter now or call the office of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration: 613-954-1064 ") and Rodney Watson.  Rodney?  Rodney is one of those who was affected by stop-loss aka the backdoor draft.  When his service contract should have ended, he was informed that additional years were being tacked on.  Dropping back to the June 17, 2008 snapshot and this is about rallies taking place across Canada in support of war resisters:
 
 
On Saturday, rallies took place. Mario Cootauco (Canwest News Service) reported on one in British Columbia that US war resister Rodney Watson attended. Watson explained that he didn't want to return to Iraq, "There's no need for us to be over there and I saw that first-hand. I decided I needed to get out of there. I wanted to go just to be a support. I didn't want to go kicking down doors, killing children or innocent people or getting my hands dirty or anything. I support my country, but I don't support the way we're going about it."
 
 
 
 
The latest flashpoint in the battle to keep war resisters in Canada has been
the case of Rodney Watson who on Monday October 19, 2009, decided to seek
sanctuary in a B.C. [British Columbia] church rather than face deporation to the United States to face desertion charges. Watson, who is originally from Kansas City,  Kansas, enlisted in the US Army in 2004 for a three-year contract with the intentions of becoming a cook since he wanted to serve the troops in a non-combat capactiy.
In 2005, he was deployed to Iraq just north of Mosul, where he was put in
charge of searching vehicles and Iraqi civilians for explosives, contraband and
weapons before they entered the base. He was also expected to "keep the
peace" by monitoring Iraqi civilians who worked on the base and fire his weapon
at Iraqi children who approached the perimeter.
 
Rodney sought asylum at  Vancouver's First United Church on Hastings Street.   In December of 2009, Rodney, still at the church, had a column in the Toronto Star:

I have been here in Vancouver since early 2007. I have been self-sufficient. I have fathered a beautiful son whose mother is Canadian. I plan to marry her and to provide our son with a loving and caring family unit.
I have made many friends and I have built a peaceful life here.
My son and my wife-to-be are my heart and soul and it would be a great tragedy for my family and for me personally if I were deported and torn away from them.
I think being punished as a prisoner of conscience for doing what I felt morally obligated to do is a great injustice.
This Christmas I hope and pray that people will open their hearts and minds to give peace and love a chance.
 
 
Send letters of support to Rodney Watson Jr. at First United Church, 320 East Hastings Street, Vancouver BC V6A 1P4
Join and Share Rodney's Facebook page: War Resister in Sanctuary
Kim and Rodney are two Iraq War veterans who were changed by what they saw. 
 
 

Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi:  Yesterday Prime Minister Maliki and his politicized judiciary concluded the final phase of their theatrical campaign against me using a kangaroo court set up for this purpose. It was really a shamble.  Therefore, while reconfirming my and my God's absolute [authority],  I totally reject and will never recognize the unfair, the injust, the politically motivated verdict which was expected from the outset of the unfair trial.  I consider verdict a medal on my chest and a fair cost that I have to pay in return of my absolute dedication in serving my country Iraq.
 
That's Iraq's Vice President al-Hashemi speaking in Turkey today at a press conference -- video here. and here.   Sunday, Ramadan al-Fatash (DPA) explained "that a Baghdad court sentenced in absentia Iraq's vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, to death on terrorism charges. Al-Hashemi, Iraq's most senior Sunni Muslim official, has called the charges a political ploy by the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki."   Lara Jakes (AP) reported, "The Baghdad courtroom was silent Sunday as the presiding judge read out the verdict convicting al-Hashemi and his son-in-law of organizing the murders of a Shiite security official and a lawyer who had refused to help the vice president's allies in terror cases. The court sentenced both men in absentia to death by hanging. They have 30 days to appeal the verdict."  Al Jazeera adds:

Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Istanbul, where Hashemi currently is, said the vice president "didnt seem very worried at all" as Turkey has refused to hand him over to the Iraqi authorities. "He knows he is safe," she said.
Our correspondent also noted that the final sentence was a lot more watered down than the initial charges.
"At the beginning he was being indicted for financing and organising death squads. He was told he was behind at least 150 attacks. If you look at today's sentencing it has been completely watered down. Compared to what he was accused of, he has just been sentenced on the killing of a lawyer and a security official," she said.

BBC News notes, "Other Sunni politicians have denounced Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - who issued the warrant for Mr Hashemi - as a dictator, accusing him of deliberate provocation that risked plunging the country back into sectarian conflict.  Correspondents say the fragile coalition government of Sunnis, secularists and Shia has appeared to be in danger of collapse ever since."  Emily Alpert (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Turkey has not tried to send Hashemi back to Iraq, despite Interpol issuing a 'red notice' to member countries requesting his arrest in May. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet quoted an anonymous diplomat calling the death sentence 'obviously a political decision ... an absurd situation'."  Attorney Muayad Obeid al-Ezzi headed al-Hashemi's defense team and he tells Al Jazeera, "This ruling has no legal value or effect.  In-abstentia rulings cannot be considered final or enforced."  Hurriyet Daily News notes:


"This is obviously a political decision. Sentencing the country's vice president to death is an absurd situation," a Turkish diplomatic source told the Daily News. Recalling that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said al-Hashemi could stay in Turkey for as long as he wants, the source said he was not anticipating a change in this position. The Turkish government had said it would not extradite al-Hashemi to Iraq, after Interpol issued a red bulletin against the fugitive Iraqi politician in May.


State of Law got what it wanted which is one reason for them to stop gloating.  Another reason is that their glee backs up the belief that this was politically motivated.   Alsumaria reports that State of Law's Haitham al-Jubouri is insisting Turkey must hand over Tareq and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand Turkey hand the vice president over.  Even worse, State of Law MP Saad al-Muttalibi immediately rushed to Iran's Press TV to offer 'facts' like, "It has nothing to do with politics.  The court was not politically motivated.  There was hard evidence linking the person to the death squad."  I'm sorry, Saad al-Muttalibi was a courtroom observer?  No, he wasn't.  So his statements which have him seeing the evidence is suspect.  Either he's lying when he maintains "there was hard evidence" and he has no idea whether there was or wasn't or else he did see the evidence and since he was neither judge nor juror, why was he shown the evidence in an ongoing trial?
 
 
Al Mada reports that some believe Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will intervene in the crisis. Kitabat notes that al-Hashemi has repeated his call for an end to the executions in Iraq which are seen as politically motivated (and amnesty law is supposedly on the verge of being passed but in the meantime Nouri is ordering that Sunnis be executed -- this has led to two prisons have hunger strikes and a prison riot when Sunnis were taken out of the prison to Baghdad to be executed).  Omar al-Jawoshy and Michael Schwirtz (New York Times) quote Talabani stating, "It was regrettable to issue, at this particular time, a judicial decision against him while he still officially holds office."
 
Sam Dagher and Ali A. Nabhan (Wall Street Journal) report, "Many saw the verdict against Tariq al-Hashemi -- a prominent Sunni politician who has professed his innocence and has been sheltered by the Sunni Islamist-led government in Turkey since April -- coupled with Sunday's attacks as emboldening those among Iraq's Sunni minority who see violent confrontation rather than politics as the only way to regain powers lost to the Shiite majority after the U.S.-led ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime more than nine years ago."

And why would anyone assume that politics was a way to regain power when the March 2010 election results were overturned by the White House?  We called that out in real time while many remained silent.  It was not minor.  If you say you used war to create a democracy -- an illegal reason for war -- and you then turn around and nullify the results of an election, then don't be surprised when people -- especially people new to democracy -- lose faith in the process.

The March 2010 elections saw Iraqiya come in first.  Iraqiya is a political slate that welcomed all and was more concerned with a national identity than a sectarian one.  Nouri refused to run with Dawa (his political party) and instead created the slate State of Law which was sectarian.  The Iraqi people turned out in record numbers to vote and despite bribes from Nouri -- he bribed in the 2009 provincial elections as well -- and violence, they put Iraqiya in first place.

Which means Ayad Allawi should have had first crack at forming a government.  That's what the Constitution says.  Instead, Nouri dug his heels in because he wanted that second term and the White House backed him up.  He would not have survived causing an 8 month political stalemate without the backing of his puppet masters. And it was the White House that brokered the Erbil Agreement in November 2010 which finally ended the political stalemate.  The Erbil Agreement was supposed to see Nouri make various concessions to get a second term as prime minister -- but Nouri used the agreement to get that second term and then broke the contract and the US played oblivious -- this after swearing to the blocs that it was a binding contract and it had the US government's full support.

When the bulk of the US military left Iraq (the drawdown), Nouri amped up his targeting of Iraqiya and Sunnis.  He screamed for Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq to be removed from office, he swore out an arrest warrant on Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, etc.

Nouri's refusal to honor the Erbil Agreement has created a second political stalemate that's over a year old.  His actions starting in December 2011 have created a political crisis.

Chelsea J. Carter and Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) quote  al-Hashemi stating, "The verdict is unjust, political and illegitimate and I will not acknowledge it. [. . .] To my dear people, I say, make sure that al-Maliki and those who stand behind him don't get what he wishes.  Because they want sectarian strife."  Reporting on the press conference in Turkey, Ahul Bayt News Agency states,  "Mr Hashemi was the most pro U.S. politician in Iraq and his case has sparked a political crisis."   Wow.  What a way to repay Tareq for that, huh?  The US government couldn't have been more in character if they'd put him on the refugee application list and then spent two to three years ignoring his application. 
 
The State Dept issued the following today:
 
 
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
September 10, 2012
Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns will travel to Amman, Jordan, Baghdad and Erbil, Iraq and Ankara, Turkey September 10-15 to engage leaders on our strategic regional priorities. His visit will provide a strong signal of U.S. commitment to the region and enhance international coordination efforts on Syria.
And because of the verdict, Iraq actually figured into a US State Dept press briefing.  Follow along and note what happens.
 
 
QUESTION: To start with, Iraqi Vice President Tariq Hashemi, as you know, has been sentenced to death in absentia. Do you have any comment on the verdict?
 
MS. NULAND: Well, as you know, Arshad, we have discussed the Hashemi case with a number of Iraqis leaders over these many months. Consistent with our prior positions on Iraqi legal and judicial matters, the United States supports a fair and transparent judicial process in accordance with the constitution and the laws of Iraq and its international legal obligations.
We are concerned about the potential for an increase in unhelpful rhetoric and tension on all sides, and we call on all of Iraq's leaders to continue to try to resolve their disputes consistent with the rule of law and in a manner that's going to strengthen Iraq's long-term security, unity, and commitment to democracy.
I would simply add that our understanding is that under Iraqi law, there is an opportunity for Mr. Hashemi to appeal this. We will, obviously, monitor this case and see what happens.
 
 
QUESTION: Do you regard this as having been a fair and transparent process?
 
 
MS. NULAND: Well, again, I think we've said all the way along that we have concerns, and we look forward to seeing where this case goes in the future.
 
QUESTION: No, no. But you began by saying you reiterated your support for a fair and transparent process. When you say you've said all along you've had concerns, I mean, are you – now that there's a verdict and a sentence, can you not say – I mean, do you continue to be concerned that this was not fair nor transparent – the process by which this was arrived at?
 
 
MS. NULAND: Well, again, I think I made clear that it is not clear that this legal process is necessarily over, so I don't think I want to go any further than I did at this time.
Please.
 
 
QUESTION: Mr. Hashemi said today from Turkey that his case is political, so he doesn't really believe it's a legal issue at all. Do you see it as a political? He's accusing Prime Minister Maliki of making a case based on allegations mainly politically targeted rather than legal system in the court system, the court.
 
MS. NULAND: Well, again, I think we've said – and I said it again here – that with regard to political disputes, political concerns between figures in Iraq, we want to see those solved through discussion among them, through a political process. I don't think with regard to this specific case I'm going to go any further than I went in responding to Arshad.
Said.
 
QUESTION: But I mean, can I just say – I mean, you're saying – you're saying – in response to these particular questions, you're saying a very general statement about politically motivated cases. And so it's unclear whether you think this is a politically motivated case, or you're just taking the time to remind people that you have a problem with politically motivated cases.
 
MS. NULAND: I would say what we've been saying all along, that we've had concerns about the way this has been dealt with. The legal process continues.
Please.
 
QUESTION: A quick follow-up on this.
 
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
 
QUESTION: Mr. Hashemi is – of course, Iraq is a close ally of the United States. You've spent a lot of time and effort training its judiciary and so on. And he is on the run. He is a fugitive. He also is in a country that is another country that is allied with the United States. So how do you handle this? If they call for his extradition, how do you deal with it? Just to follow up on Nadia's question, is it a political or is it a judicial --
 
MS. NULAND: Well, I think you're taking me into hypothetical places having to do with extradition, et cetera.
 
 
QUESTION: But they are – I mean, they are asking for him to be turned over.
 
MS. NULAND: Yeah. I think I'm not going to go any further than I've already gone, Said.
 
QUESTION: I'm just a little confused on what type of discussion you want to have. You say a discussion that avoids unhelpful rhetoric. But now you have a death penalty against someone. Should they be discussing, what, how to implement his death, or I mean, what's left to discuss at this point?
 
MS. NULAND: Well, as I said at the beginning here, the Iraqi judicial process provides for appeal. It's up to Mr. Hashemi how he's going to proceed there. But given the fact that this – the legal process here may not be over; I don't think I'm going to go any further than I already have.
Please, in the back.
 
QUESTION: In order for him to appeal, he needs to be physically – according to what legals are saying in Iraq – physically to be present in Iraq. And him and people from his party, Al-Iraqiya, are having fears over his safety, and that's one of the reasons why he fled from Iraq. So do you think that his concerns and his people's concerns are legit? And also, I mean, the death penalty seems like, I mean, if he gets there and if those concerns are proven to be true, I mean, that's really another death penalty. So it's either – whether he goes or he stays out, he has the penalty, the same verdict.
 
MS. NULAND: Well, again, this is an issue that is something that's going to have to be worked out going forward. I think I'm not going to comment any further than I already have.
Moving on to something else? Samir, please.
 
QUESTION: Was this on the agenda in the U.S.-Iraq talks that Assistant Secretary Jones had last week in Iraq?
 
MS. NULAND: Whether this specific case of Mr. Hashemi came up with Assistant Secretary Jones, I will check on that for you, Samir. I think we've been pretty clear and transparent with the Iraqis all the way through about our concerns about all of this.
Please.
 
QUESTION: One more on this?
 
MS. NULAND: Yeah.
 
QUESTION: You, I think, said that you had concerns about the possibility that this could lead to an increase in tensions and heated rhetoric, something like that.
 
MS. NULAND: Mm-hmm.
 
QUESTION: When you say tensions, do you mean violence?
 
MS. NULAND: I think there's concern about whether it's rhetoric, whether it's violence, whether it is anything that takes us further away from the kind of political dialogue that Iraqis have got to have with each other in order for the country to move forward.
 
QUESTION: Just a quick follow-up on this. Do you expect with – in the increased sectarian tension, and Mr. Hashemi being the most senior Sunni in Iraq, do you expect that this actually will spill over into a more sectarian strife?
 
MS. NULAND: Well, again, I'm not going to predict the future here. I think we have concerns, as I said at the beginning, that there will be increased tension going forward.
Please. Moving on? Go ahead.
 
Did you catch it?  Did you catch how many times she wanted to change the topic.
 
I'm sorry Victoria Nuland is discussing Iraq boring you?  Forget that your own family -- husband, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and possibly a pet monkey -- all advocated the Iraq War as did you while working for Dick Cheney, whether you want to discuss it or not, the US tax payer is on the hook for billions in Iraq but now spent by the State Dept.  In other words, you should be discussing Iraq every damn day, not working to avoid the topic.
 
 
 
 
 
Yesterday, Iraq was slammed with violence -- this despite Tom Hayden flaunting his xenophobia just last week and declaring the war over (the entitled and xenophobic think that just because the US government starts a war, the war is over when the US government says so) -- and it was the second most violent day of the year.  July 23rd saw 115 people killed in violent attacks.  (Monday July 23rd, the death toll was 107 . . . until all the bodies were counted.  On Tuesday the 24th, "This morning, AP notes that the death toll from Monday's attacks 'has risen to 115.'  Reuters notes the increase and credits it in part to a Baghdad bombing and a Baquba bombing 'late on Monday' which claimed 9 lives and thirty-one injured.") 
 
Jamal Hashim and Mustafa Sabah (Xinhua) reported, "The deadliest attack in the day occured near the city of Amara, some 365 km south of Baghdad, when two car bombs exploded at a marketplace near the shrine of Shiite Imam Ali al-Sharqi in the town that holds the name of the Imam, killing 18 people and wounding some 70 others."  Mohammed Tawfeeq, Chelsea J. Carter and Josh Levs (CNN) have the best break down of the violence, reporting it by city: Baghdad, Amara, Kirkuk, Western Basra, Tikrit, Taji, Nasiriya, Falluja, Abu Ghraib.

Sky News counted 109 dead and notes that Baghdad accounts for 51 deaths alone.  Kareem Raheem, Aseel Kami, Raheem Salman, Ahmed Rasheed, Patrick Markey, Barry Malone and Andrew Osborn (Reuters) quote Sadr City's Alla Majid stating, "I heard women screaming, I saw people running in all directions, chairs scattered in the street.  My windows were blown out, my mother and two kids were injured too."   Suadad al-Salhy and Raheem Salman (Reuters) note that attack targets included "the French consular building in the usually stable city of Nassiriya" and 1 guard was killed and four more injured. 

Through yesterday's attacks, Iraq Body Count counts 140 people dead from violence in Iraq so far this month.  
 
Violence continued today.   Sinan Salaheddin (AP) reports an attack on a Dujail checkpoint that has left 3 Sahwa dead.  (Sahwa are fighter originally put on the US payroll to stop attacking US troops and US equipment, in 2008, then top US commander in Iraq David Petreaus -- now CIA Director -- credited Sahwa with turning a phase of the war around.  Sahwa are also known as "Sons of Iraq" and "Awakenings.")  All Iraq News notes a Falluja roadside bombing has left two Iraqi soldiers injured.  Alsumaria adds police are stating that they killed a suicide car bomber in Falluja.  All Iraq News also notes an armed attack in Samarra which left 2 people dead and three people injured.  Trend News Agency notes that Turkish warplanes bombed northern Iraq for over an hour in their ongoing conflict with the PKK.    Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk."  AFP notes Turkish TV (NTV network) today stated that battles between the PKK (and other Kurdish rebels -- PKK are in northern Iraq) and the Turkish military this year  have left over 461 people dead after 1,000 military assaults.
 
 
Alsumaria notes that KRG President Massoud Barzani is stating that the Baghdad-based government is failing the people, that is has created a crisis (the political crisis) and, instead of addressing it, has exploited it.  Equally true, Nouri made time to dash over to Iran when Tehran beckoned for a summit when he should have been addressing the ongoing issues in Iraq.   It is assumed (true or not) that al Qaeda in Mesopotamia is responsible for the attacks.  Dar Addustour notes the Ministry of the Interior is blaming that group while Parliament wants answers as to how the attacks happened, how the attacks continue to happen?

That's a question people should ask.  They should have asked it in 2010 when they were going to vote in parliamentary elections.  Nouri's been prime minister since 2006.  At what point does he get held accountable for his actions?

Remember that Nouri has not filled the security ministries.  He was supposed to do that in December 2010.  Instead, he has assumed leadership of them in what was rightly called a power-grab at the start of 2011.  As violence has increased in Iraq, there has been no Minister of Defense, no Minister of the Interior and no Minister of National Security.  Just two months ago,   Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support."   At what point does Nouri get held accountable for failing to provide security and failing to staff the security posts?
 
 
 
Posted by at

9/08/2012

barack palin's energy policy

the 'new york times' fact checked some of the assertions made thursday night at the dnc.  i'm going to note their energy section, but they cover all the major topics (including medicare) at the link so if there's an issue your interested in use the link:


ENERGY
Mr. Obama, seeking to capitalize on energy trends for which his administration is only partly responsible, announced that he was setting a goal of cutting "our oil imports in half by 2020, and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone."
He intends to achieve that goal by increasing domestic oil and gas production, mandating increases in autos' and trucks' fuel economy, substituting ethanol and other alternative fuels for gasoline, streamlining regulation and converting trucks and buses to run on natural gas.
But the campaign said the administration would continue to lease public lands and offshore areas for drilling, including in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska. Industry groups contend that the administration has held back oil development on public lands, and that most of the increased production is coming from private property.
A campaign document says the president is using 2008 as a baseline for the reduction in imports, allowing him to claim credit for several years of declining demand for fuel because of the recession and leasing and production decisions made by former President George W. Bush's administration.
The president's projections are in line with those of government and independent analysts, who say that if current trends continue, imports will decline to levels not seen for decades, even without additional policy changes.
-- John M. Broder


barack is the 'drill baby drill' nonsense that all the people who attacked sarah palin pretended to be against.

the artic ocean will be a drilling land in a 2nd obama term.

remember that when liars like tom hayden drag their tired ass to the corner to whore a little more.

tom hayden is pure trash.

acting like he's in love with barack or something.

maybe he is.  we all heard rumors about tom hayden after casey and before jane.  he was supposedly quite the little blow job king -- giving, not receiving.  you put that off as angry talk meant to destroy some 1 - or did back then.  but now you have to wonder, you know?

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'



Friday, September 7, 2012.  Chaos and violence continue,  Tom Hayden crawls out of his rock to spin (and spin badly), people take to the streets to show their support for Bradley Manning, Jill Stein appears on Bill Moyers' new program, and more.
 
Old Whore Tom Hayden resurfaced to distort, lie and smear.   Tom Hayden is a joke.  He is so much of a joke that Barack Obama publicly and repeatedly derided what he termed "Tom Hayden Democrats" in 2007 and 2008.  Possibly demonstrating that men who abuse women are nothing but big cowards, Tom Hayden's never called out Barack but instead worked overtime to talk up the man who has repeatedly and publicly mocked him. 
 
Hijacking the E-Train to Crazy Town and packing plenty of stupid, Tom rabidly barks at everyone including Paul Krugman -- anyone who might question the politics of  Barack Obama -- in total or partial as he tries to whip people in line for his abuser Barack Obama.
 
Dirty whores don't speak for the campaign.  Which is why Tom Hayden goes on at length about ObamaCare and how it was up to politicians and the people are just too stupid to grasp this but last night in Charlotte, North Carolina, Barack was stating it's not "what can be done for us, it's about what can be done by us."
 
There are many decisions Barack's made and actions Barack's taken that I will hold against him.  The lunatic ravings of Tom Hayden, however, are not on that list. Here Tom  is molesting the topic of Iraq:
 
 
 
Many in the peace movement did not believe it then and dismiss it now. To the extent this is a rational objection - and not blindness - it rests on two arguments. First, some claim that Obama was only following the withdrawal plan already agreed to by George Bush. It is an interesting question for future historians to uncover what shadow entity orchestrated the Iraq-US pact between the end of Bush and the coming of Obama.
 
Oh, history will be the judge?  Seriously?  I seem to recall most of us on the left ridiculing Bully Boy Bush when he responded to questions about the Iraq War with statements like that.
 
That aside, it is logical to conclude that the immanence of Obama's victory pushed the Bush administration to wrap up the best withdrawal agreement possible before the unpredictable newcomer took office.
 
It isn't logical to conclude any such thing.  If the opinion of the people of the world didn't matter to Bully Boy Bush before starting the illegal war, if the opinions of world leaders didn't matter to him, why in the world would the election of Barack matter?
 
People like Tom Hayden live in their own fact free world.  Never having spoken to even one person who worked on the SOFA, Hayden 'just knows' exactly how it happened.  The SOFA replaces the UN mandate for the occupation.  The UN mandate was yearly -- each year it had to be renewed.  Nouri renewed it on his end twice.  Outraging the Iraqi politicians both times.  The first time (the end of 2006), he insisted he wouldn't do that solo again, that he'd get approval from Parliament.  But then he turned around and did the exact same thing at the end of 2007.
 
The Bush White House realized early on (late 2007), that an agreement that replaced the UN mandate would need to run longer than one year because there was too much anger over these yearly renewals.  For that reason, it was a contract that ran three years.   Even something that basic is beyond the Tom Haydens.  They bought into the lie -- and how popular it was -- that Nouri was sticking it to the White House and dictating the terms.  Other than the amount of 'rewards,' Nouri didn't dictate a thing.  And the SOFA was written prior to the November 2008 election.  (Is Tom even aware of that?)  November was about fine tuning it and about surveying Parliament and greasing palms (the Parliament was adament that they would be voting on this contract). 
 
Tom:
 
In addition, Obama increased his previous withdrawal commitment in February 2009 to include virtually all American forces instead of leaving behind a "residual" force of 20-30,000.
 
Tom's spinning so hard that even he has to admit the reality in the next sentence:
 
It is true that as the endgame neared, Obama left open the possibility of a residual force after American ground troops departed, saying he would be responsive to the request of the Baghdad regime.
 
Yes, Barack gave an interview to the New York Times as candidate about residual troops.  I remember that very well.  And you know what I remember most about that?
 
 
On the subject of Iran, Barack Obama appears on the front page of this morning's New York Times. War pornographer Michael Gordon and Jeff Zeleny who lied in print (click here, here and here -- the paper finally retracted Zeleny's falsehood that should have never appeared) present a view of Barack Obama that's hardly pleasing. Among the many problems with the article is Obama as portrayed in the article -- and his campaign has issued no statement clarifying. The Times has the transcript online and from it, Barack Obama does mildly push the unproven claim that the Iranian government is supporting resistance in Iraq. Gordo's pushed that unproven claim repeatedly for over a year now. But Obama's remarks appear more of a reply and partial points in lengthy sentences -- not the sort of thing a functioning hard news reporter would lead with in an opening paragraph, touch on again in the third paragraph, in the fourth paragraph, in . . . But though this isn't the main emphasis of Obama's statements (at any time -- to be clear, when it pops up, it is a fleeting statement in an overly long, multi-sentenced paragraphs), it does go to the fact that Obama is once again reinforcing unproven claims of the right wing. In the transcript, he comes off as obsessed with Hillary Clinton. After her, he attempts to get a few jabs in at John Edwards and one in at Bill Richardson. Here is what real reporters should have made the lede of the front page: "Presidential candidate and US Senator Barack Obama who is perceived as an 'anti-war' candidate by some announced that he would not commit to a withdrawal, declared that he was comfortable sending US troops back into Iraq after a withdrawal started and lacked clarity on exactly what a withdrawal under a President Obama would mean." That is what the transcript reveals. Gordo really needs to let go of his blood lust for war with Iran.
 
And then over at Third that Sunday (November 4, 2007), we offered "NYT: 'Barack Obama Will Keep Troops In Iraq" which was taking the transcript and writing the report as the Times should have covered it.  Tuesday November 6, 2007 (see that day's snapshot), Tom Hayden finally discovers and writes about the article with rah-rah for Barack because he didn't read the transcript (and he actually misread the printed article) resulting in this garbage.  After we called him out, he would write another article suddenly 'discovering' the transcript and find that things were not as sunny as he'd made out to be.
 
Point being, he's no one to trust for facts.
 
 
 
Tom-Tom's thrilled Barack doesn't have 'residual troops' in Iraq but for Barack to have residual troops, the SOFA would need to be extended or replaced.  With nothing to extend it or replace it,  it had to be followed.  That's how a contract works.
 
Tom:
 
Here, some on the left seized on these remarks to later claim that Obama had to be forced by the Iraqis to finally leave. There is no evidence for this claim, however. It is equally possible - and I believe more credible - that Obama was simply being Obama, knowing that the Iraqis could not possibly request the Americans to stay.
Dissecting diplomacy, like legislation, is like making sausage, in the old saying. Obama certainly knew that he would gain political cover if he could say with credibility that he was only following Bush's withdrawal plan and Iraq's request.
 
There is evidence for that claim.  I know Tom doesn't care for Arabs.  Remember it was only during his Iraq War makeover that he finally 'apologized' for being a tool of the right-wing Israeli government while he was a small-fry state legislature who stupidly thought he would end up president done day.  There was Tom, cheering on the murder of Palestinians.  He really hasn't changed his anti-Arab views.  Try to remember that when everyone was telling Jane Fonda that Rollover was an iffy project, Tom was telling her it was political, prescient and important (in the film, the world's financial downfall is caused largely by greedy, you know this is coming, Arabs).  If Tom weren't so 'allergic' to Arabs, maybe he'd read the Arab press.  You can find many articles that argue Iraqis forced Barack to back down.  Those articles generally note that Iraq refused to grant immunity to US service members and that the White House had already made that a deal breaker.
 
 
 Having ignored the mountain of articles on that point, Tom wants to then argue:
 
 
A more bizarre left criticism of Obama on Iraq is that the war itself never ended but instead morphed into a secret war with tens of thousands of Americans fighting as Special Ops or private contractors.
 
 
Is he drunk again?  Is that it?  I have no idea.  But last week,  Sean Rayment (Telegraph of London) reported:
 
More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious "Black Ops" over the past two years.
It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as "al-Qa'eda in Iraq" have been killed by the SAS.
The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called "Task Force Black" which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS.
 
 3,500 killed over the last two years.  Seriously, Tom-Tom, you're going to ignore that?  You who tries to reference the Honduran death squads in how many articles on Iraq?  You're going to ignore that 3,500 Iraqs have been 'taken off the street' as a result of being captured by US and British forces?  And that "several hundred" have been killed during this time?
 
The wars on Latin America in the 70s and 80s targeted which groups?  The citizens the oppressive regimes wanted to shut up.  And we're not bothered by the news from the Telegraph?
 
And this isn't 'conspiracy' talk.  This is what's been reported by the few reporters who've bothered to report.  In December of last year, while everyone was filing 'withdrawal, Ted Koppel filed an important report on Rock Center with Brian Williams (NBC).

MR. KOPPEL: I realize you can't go into it in any detail, but I would assume that there is a healthy CIA mission here. I would assume that JSOC may still be active in this country, the joint special operations. You've got FBI here. You've got DEA here. Can, can you give me sort of a, a menu of, of who all falls under your control?


AMB. JAMES JEFFREY: You're actually doing pretty well, were I authorized to talk about half of this stuff.
 
 
 
Back during Vietnam when he had a little bit of guts, Tom Hayden wouldn't have accepted this as 'withdrawal' but today he's just an old whore.  In fact, didn't Tom-Tom just affect outrage over 600 US troops in Honduras?  (He did, click here.) As Barbra Streisand tells Robert Redford in The Way We Were, "Hubbell, people are their principles."  How sad for Tom Hayden that he no longer has any principles.
 
You know who does appear to have principles?  Bradley Manning.
 

Monday April 5, 2010, WikiLeaks released US military video of a July 12, 2007 assault in Iraq. 12 people were killed in the assault including two Reuters journalists Namie Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Monday June 7, 2010, the US military announced that they had arrested Bradley Manning and he stood accused of being the leaker of the video. Leila Fadel (Washington Post) reported in August 2010 that Manning had been charged -- "two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first encompasses four counts of violating Army regulations by transferring classified information to his personal computer between November and May and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system. The second comprises eight counts of violating federal laws governing the handling of classified information." In March, 2011, David S. Cloud (Los Angeles Times) reported that the military has added 22 additional counts to the charges including one that could be seen as "aiding the enemy" which could result in the death penalty if convicted. The Article 32 hearing took place in December.  At the start of this year, there was an Article 32 hearing and, February 3rd, it was announced that the government would be moving forward with a court-martial.  Bradley has yet to enter a plea and has neither affirmed that he is the leaker nor denied it.  The court-martial was supposed to begin this month has been postponed until after the election . 
 
Yesterday, protests took place across America as people showed their support for Bradley.  Yael Chanoff (San Francisco Bay Guardian) reports on the action in San Francisco where participants included Iraq Veterans Against the War's Joshua Shepherd:

"It's a process to turn around once you've joined the military and committed so much of yourself to this institution," Shepherd told protesters today.
Shepherd was one of six veterans arrested at Obama campaign headquarters in Oakland Aug. 16. 
After the rally, protesters marched and protested a group watching Obama's DNC speech.
"I find it hypocritical that Obama promised to protect whistle blowers four years ago," said David Zebker, a San Francisco CPA who attended march.
 
 
 
A group of about 20 local DC area people, who are affiliated with the Bradley Manning Support Network,arrived at the DNC headquarters to meet with a representative of the Obama 2012 campaign to deliver our letter with our concerns for Bradley Manning (see below).
We were met at the main entrance of the DNC by security who refused entrance to about 4 people from the group who wanted to go inside and deliver our letter and to request that it be faxed to President Obama. The security guards told us to get off the front steps as were on private property. We explained that we were there on business. They refused us entry. We said we would not leave. Police were called. US Capitol Police showed up in four police cars and one police wagon. We talked with the police and explained were there with important business we needed to engage the campaign with and President Obama. After a while the US Capitol Police all left presumably because they didn't want to get involved, probably telling the security guards that it wasn't their jurisdiction and that we hadn't broken any laws.
 
The report also includes photos by Ted Madjosz.  Max Obuszewski (Baltimore Non-Violence Center) adds of the DC protest, "When we arrived we were chanting "President Obama Free Bradley Manning." Kevin Zeese an attorney who is a member of the steering committee of the Bradley Manning Support Network explained why the charges against Manning should be dismissed and why we were focused on President Obama. He noted that the decision to hold Manning in solitary confinement was made by a three-star general at the Pentagon and it would be surprising if he acted without the approval of the president, Joint Chiefs of Staff or Secretary of Defense, in other words the decision to illegally torture a U.S. soldier being held in pre-trial detention was made at the highest levels of government."  The Bradley Manning Support Network notes that protests took place "in 34 cities across the United States [and] targeted local Obama campaign headquarters to demand the President free accused WikiLeaks whistleblower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee PFC Bradley Manning.  International supporters, in Australia and the U.K. also protested at U.S. embassies."
 
The San Jose Mercury News has a photo essay (by Kristina Sangsahachart) of the San Jose protest.  World Can't Wait's San Francisco chapter notes:

In San Francisco Thursday night, about 80 people met up tonight in the Mission District at a BART (subway) plaza, lofting colorful banners and signs.  We came from different movements – antiwar, Occupy, veterans – and people were feeling fierce.  A short rally brought up speakers from the Bradley Manning Support Network, Courage to Resist, Code Pink, World Can't Wait, and Veterans for Peace.

Nancy Siesel (Demotix) notes the NYC protest with a photo essay.  In the comments of a post at Naked Capitalism, Jill shares her experience protesting:
 
 
I want to relay my experience protesting the torture and illegal imprisonment of Bradley Manning.
As two people tried to enter the office to deliever a letter to Obama on Manning's behalf, the staffers locked the door and closed the curtains. That says a lot. But here's what I thought was most interesting.
They weren't prepared for protest. I am convinced peaceful protest is a good avenue to pursue. They think they've locked everything down, that people are too afraid, too tired, too progagandized to take them on. They need to know that isn't true.
And here's one more thing. They wouldn't let anyone in while we were picketing. If there was a large enough group to form 24 hour picket lines around the Obama and Romney campaign HQ's, it might be worth trying. It would be necessary to offer voter registration while picketing because this is offered at the HQ and this should not ever be stopped. But if their response to protest is to shut down their office, well, it's something to think about!
 
Protests against war took place yesterday as well.  CODEPINK notes:
 
PRELIMINARY PHOTOS.

PRELIMINARY VIDEO HERE.

Charlotte, NC—At 4:15pm today, Thursday, September 6, hours before President Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, five CODEPINK activists dropped a 40 foot giant pink slip banner that read "YES WE CAN END WAR" off of a parking garage at S. College and 3rd Street near the Democratic Convention.  CODEPINK national organizer Alli McCracken, 23, from Washington, DC, was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for "attaching a banner to private property without permission." 
"When the war in Afghanistan started I was only 12 years old, and for my entire adult life the US has continued to squander precious tax dollars on war, while young people like me can hardly afford college or healthcare, and many can't find jobs," said McCracken.  "Both the Republicans and Democrats continue to pour money into the bloated Pentagon budget instead of addressing people's real needs.  I'm sick and tired of the huge amount of corporate and super-PAC money going into elections that keeps our politicians funding war, killer drone strikes, and weapons to Israel.  Let's put people before profits!"

"There were 34 police officers involved in arresting this one peace activist, clearly a huge waste of taxpayer money," said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK.  "At a convention that is supposed to be the most open convention in history, it's tragic that a young activist would be arrested for peacefully expressing her desire to end war, a position that the overwhelming majority of Democratic delegates support."
CODEPINK has demonstrated at both the RNC and DNC, including speaking out every night at the RNC and Wednesday night, September 5, when CODEPINK co-director Rae Abileah unfurled a pink banner inside the convention that read "Bring Our War $$ Home" during Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer's speech. 
In the wake of the Citizens United case, with corporate and super PAC money in politics polluting democracy and drowning out the will of voters, CODEPINK will also be calling for money out of politics. "We want people-powered elections that prioritize human needs over war and greed," said CODEPINK co-director Jodie Evans.  "And we'd like the police to go after the real war criminals instead of nonviolent protesters."
CODEPINK, founded in 2002, is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into health care, education and other life-affirming activities. www.codepink.org
 
Wow.  The war's 'over' but Iraqis are being killed by Brits an
 
 
Violence continues in Iraq. The month's not even a week old and already Iraq Body Count can count 29 violent deaths in the country -- and that's just through Wednesday.


Think about that.  The month started on Saturday and already 29 reported deaths.   Just through Wednesday.  Think about that and ask yourself where the US reporting on that has been.  Seems Iraq was 'in the news' with US outlets this week -- in terms of what was said at the DNC.  But no one has talked about 29 dead in 5 days.   And already today Alsumaria reports an attack today on a military checkpoint outside Baghdad killing 2 Iraqi soldiers and a Shi'ite shrine in Kirkuk was attacked leaving 3 people dead and eleven more injured.  Kitabat adds the death toll has risen to 8 and that the number injured now stands at thirty-three.   In addition, All Iraq News notes Turkish war planes shelled northern Iraq last night and that there was an attempt on Sheikh Ali Shuwaili (cleric for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani) in Sadr City yesterday with unknown assailants using guns with silencers shooting at him.  Sam Dagher (Wall St. Journal) counts 8 dead today and 88 injured.  Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts 12 dead.
 
In the US, the Green Party has made Dr. Jill Stein their presidential nominee and Jill's campaign notes:
 
 
This week on Moyers & Company, Bill talks with Green Party presidential and vice presidential candidates Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala about their campaign platform and what they've learned about American politics. 
The episode, appropriately entitled "Challenging Power, Changing Politics,"  delves into the history of the candidates' civic engagement and their vision for a just, sustainable future. Don't miss it!
"Moyers & Company airs weekly on public television – Check your local listings  and learn more at www.BillMoyers.com
 
 
 
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