Ask the IRAQIS, stupid...

It boggles an exceptional mind, how US-centric decisions from Washington DC have added debacle upon depravity beyond despair.

Bush the Lesser and his stagnant neocon minions never thought to ask IRAQIS if they wanted a US force-intervention to oust Saddam Hussein.

Those neoconartists never asked IRAQIS if we should provisionally banish all Iraqi armed forces, and dissolve the Ministry of the Interior, on whose payroll were the Iraqi national police forces.

They never asked IRAQIS to accept 'reconstruction' under usurists' terms, by foreign, predominantly US corporations, whose mere presence presaged corruption, theft, diversion of funds, fraud, cost-overruns, shoddy service, inedible food (to military canteens under Rumsfeld's – and the Pentagon's – penchant for Private Military Industrial outsourcing.

They never asked IRAQIS through what means of reconcilation could the various Iraqi communities constitute their own government, rather than impose the foreign, Western concept of 'democracy' on a people who for generations have known only colonization, dictatorships and war.

And this Bush misAdministration, as well as the incoming Democratic Congress, certainly will not ask the IRAQIS how the US can transition from its overwhelming series of deadly failures: failures of pre- and post-invasion planning, of administering, of reacting, of bravado and hubris.

ZENmud raised the issue with a prior post, entitled

“The Glass is TOO Large”

... yet this issue of the survival and nation-rebuilding of the Iraqi state has been surgically grafted onto the future viability of the Republican Party.

ASK THEM!

ASK THEIR NEIGHBORS!

“Mr and Mrs Iraqi, Mr and Mrs Syrian, or Iranian: United States leadership (a term used with distaste) has destroyed the equilibrium of this important region, through the conscious decision to foist war upon your country and region. We accept the devastation we have wrought, as being unjust, unfounded and beyond unnecessary.

“We cannot ask for your forgiveness, but we who follow the deceptive Bush administration are burdened morally and economically with restitution questions, for which we seek your advice...

“Who would you invite into Iraq, to replace the American occupying forces, provide stable neutral security, for a transitional period of approximately 18 months? The United States will bear the financial burdens for this transition, and would equally request your input as to the countries, NGOs or INGOs, and companies, that can truly rebuild the devastation and horrors from this unjust war?

“We beg your input, we beseech you to allow us to offer the means for you – and people you trust - to restore your pride as Iraqis...”

This is the ONLY just solution.

And?

Probably two years (or ELECTIONS) too late...

ZENmud

World War TWO or Iraq?

Is it true?

It seems that only ZENmud took the journalistic step of defining valid endpoints, the dates that make a calculating the duration of World War II possible, for comparison to the Iraq Quagmire and Nation Deconstructing, in his post of October 26, 2006:

"No Mission Accomplished"

Here's the question:

Was it Sunday, November 26, or Saturday, December 16, that marks the utter failure of Bush the Lesser to create his
Neocom-NirvanIraq Free Market Zone?

The Lap Dog MSM seems flustered, but why? Could they not publish the basis for their stated "calculations"? Why was their mathematics so poor?

:-) ZENmud would love to hear from:

The Durango, Colorado Herald:
(November 12, 2006 / Slothower)

"The Iraq war has now lasted longer than U.S. involvement in World War II."

International Herald Tribune:
(November 23, 2006 / Rutenberg)
"the war in Iraq, whose duration will surpass that of U.S. involvement in World War II on Sunday."

USA Today:
(Posted Opinion November 26)

"Although, on Sunday, the 1,347-day-old Iraq war was being compared in duration to WWII..."

www.opinioneditorials.com :
(October 28, 2006 / Oaks)

"October 26, Terrence Hunt of the AP remarked how the U.S. involvement in Iraq will soon have lasted longer than our involvement in World War II. Ari Berman of The Nation made the same claim more than a month ago. And Rupert Cornwell of The Independent stated way back in August that “America’s (and Britain’s) disastrous war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the US involvement in the Second World War.” Each author uses the most convenient date for ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ of US involvement in World War II to make their point, but the actual length is not important for them."

These MSM press (IHT, USAToday) and others certainly could find inner peace and karma, just by sourcing from ZENmud - your Humble Narrator...

ZENmud

DEADLY Nation = Deadly WEAPONS...

You won't watch every section of this hard-hitting film,

DEPLETED URANIUM ALERT! Invisible War

Here are some links to get you started:

Part ONE

Part TWO

This blog purports to look at the long range, and it seems very clear from the evidence provided by individuals such as Dr. Doug Rokke, concerning the over 200,000 Gulf War Veterans, will soon to be doubled, tripled, by participants in this recent, ongoing BushTerrorWar in Iraq.

These are our sons, and daughters, whose lifes were given, though they still be walking, painfully, to a Veteran's Administration that has been gutted Katrina-style, by a lying Department of Defense. Google 'Depleted Uranium' and read on...

ZENmud

Great minds think sequentially...

If you stopped in to our favorite - trusty Bartcop - for a adrenalin-building rage/scan, you may see this cartoon at Volume 1880.


And if you are one of the less than 54 people that have visited my blog (Although 'dozens' visit Bartcop daily (his words)), you may remember that Bart published this cartoon (scroll down to above Greg Palast) in April's Vol 1742...

(An original ZENmud/multimediOrwrite production)

And great minds can determine what is beyond 'No Exit'... today's article on the massive exodus from Iraq:
"Every day up to 2,000 Iraqis go to Syria and another 1,000 to Jordan, according to the UN's high commissioner for refugees."


When the country is scorched from depleted Uranium, empty of Iraqis and STILL the US is battling Terrorists there, then it is Rove's Orwellian paradise...
(Photo: Richard Burton
torturing John Hurt in 1984
Credit: Luke at
www.bookclub9.com/1984/ )


ZENmud

Republicans = Key to IMPEACHMENT 2007

I was reading Buzzflash and weighed in on the "what to do about impeaching Bush the Lesser?" reader's input, which you could (maybe?) read at this LINK (at least as long as the link remains).

Or you can read it Here, Craig, Live, NOW:

Republicans are key...

Submitted by ZENmud on Mon, 11/27/2006 - 6:14pm.

Nixon didn't agree to resign until approximately 20% of sitting Congressional Republicans were ready to vote for his impeachment.

Without that 20%, the Democrats would not have had a filibuster-proof majority.

There is no difference now, and that is how Clinton never came to the brink: the few impeachment-oriented Democrats were not a high-enough percentage for his Presidency to be threatened.

So, when investigations against Bush OR Cheney, together or individually, are sufficient to sway enough Republicans (out of self-survival reasons, if not for the 'Rule of Law' reasons) to come over and vote against their misAdministration, the impeachment apparatus can roll forward.

Good argument earlier: impeach Bush, get Cheney. Remember, again, Agnew resigned due to an indictment to which he pleaded nolo contendre.

A similar path could be: Democrats hold investigation powers, evidence, on Bush-Iraq and Cheney-Halliburton/Energy Task Force...

Democrats force Bush to the table: sacrifice Cheney (resigns under indictment), and have option to 'appoint' new VP, conditional to Dem (we pray) Senate control and approval (so a potentially attractive Rep Presidential 2008 Candidate), have that individual sworn into office, and then Bush, facing likely Democratic PLUS Republican votes to impeach, resigns in 2008.

Vietnam is to Iraq
as
Nixon is to Bush

Logic = decisions

ZENmud

Vladimir Putin Scores 2nd 'KO

That perhaps should be plural..?..for the President of Russia, and the mysterious


and perhaps justly pseudonymed potential assassin-by-wasabi poisoning...

RIP Alexander Litvinenko
(watch this wiki grow!)

ZENmud ... :-?

How to spread humor this season...

Litvinenko and Yushchenko...


ZENmud

Spy no more...

The International Herald Tribune ran the story about Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB agent, exiled and made a citizen of Britain, who died late Thursday evening. Quoting his final statement:

"You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value.

"You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women.

"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people."

Putin responded:

"A death of a man is always a tragedy and I deplore this," Putin said when asked about Litvinenko during a news conference after summit talks with European Union leaders.

Putin said the fact that Litvinenko's statement was released only after his death showed it was a "provocation."

"It's extremely regrettable that such a tragic event as death is being used for political provocation," he said.

What the world sees, is a function of the media that filters such a story. With the case occuring in Britain, still the home of a vibrant free press, there may be future developments that come across from autopsy reports, and police investigations.

But it is doubtful, in today's world, that the truth of this heinous, barbaric and chilling act, will ever be known.

(Too bad: it's hard to tell that Mr. Litvinenko wasn't an Iraqi, talking about President Bush)

ZENmud

Thanks(AT LAST)giving...

When giving thanks today, consider the entirety of that for which you are rejoicing:

• Living in the 'land of the free' carries a price: responsibility.
• Having a roof over your head(s) excludes reflection upon those who don't.
• Leftovers galore might have been rejoicefully received by one who holds her belly in pain.

And as citizens, if you are, of the United States, means understanding to the root core, that which your government is doing in your own name... with your sweat-money in its coffers.


In the next month, President Bush will do all he can to retain the power to which he has become addicted: if you pray today, pray that he doesn't end all that, for which you are presently giving thanks.


I pray, that those that have wronged someone close to them, or far away in other lands, give the greatest gift: their heartfelt apologies, for all that they supported, and enabled to be inflicted on the world, in the name of the United States.


The hopes of our children are primordial...


ZENmud

Unitary Executive (theory)...

The next time you read any neocon, any Republican Party member, or one of their Congresspuppies or religious idiots discussing 'activist Federal Judges', why not ask that idiot what they see as good, in supporting the 'activist Federal Executive branch' and denigrating the 'activist Judicial branch'?

ALL government is activist, unless it is a) the Czechoslovakian Republic pre-Velvet Revolution, or b) the Soviet Union in its implosion phase.

It's a powerful media metaphor, that citizens would do well to rebel against...

ZENmud

A tribute to President Kennedy...

Today is HIS day... and a great reminder of his voice is found through BUZZflash, and their columnist, Brent Budowsky, writing with the voice of our President, assassinated by 'those who hate Democrats.'

Excerpt: "My fellow Americans:

"On November 22 four decades ago I left you, and for those of you who think of me, let me ask a personal favor: reflect for a moment on the world we lived in, the things we believed in, the deeds we did, and the Nation we left in trust for you.

"I was born as America was winning the First World War, was young when America won the Second World War, and was President when America was winning the battle of ideas that led to our victory in the Cold War.

"History teaches lessons; here are some I pass on, to you..."

I was six when you died, John, and 26 when I started to read about what and who killed you: the surest proof that Kennedy(s) were killed by Republicans is the long life of those Republican presidents that have harmed the United States so much...

(Photo credit and gratitude to: Cavhooah.com )

Sniff,

ZENmud

Couch-potato Evening??? :-)

Hey you all,

(we all take a deep breath from daily Bush-ness)

I saw, by hasard, that a good-but-far friend, Olivier, is having some part of one of his Ultra-light flying movies shown TONIGHT on Swiss network TSR1

@ 20h25: show
"Passe-moi les jumelles"...

SO... If you're planning to be 'warm-n-cozy':
go to Africa with Olivier et Michael,
his South Africa friend and fellow pilot:

• South-to-South
• Coast to Coast

their flights, fun and lifestyle is
what's RIGHT! in our world...

"He's a gas-gas-gas, yeah....!"

Cheers, ciao, à bientôt, 

ZENmud :-)

Thoughts on James Carville: ex-genius...

Let's start here: it took the Republican party, after the Watergate-Carter 1970s, about 14 years to build a grass-roots network that enabled their 1994 Contract with (or “On”?) America, which allowed them to break the long, dominant stretch of Democratic Congresses, enabling their half-generation of anti-Clinton, and PRO-Bush majorities in Congress.

It took Howard Dean, former front-running Presidential candidate*, only TWO years.

In the face of right-wing-biased media, which nailed shut the Dean campaign, with its false-light portrayal of his purely American enthusiasm, Howard learned the media lesson just as one would hope John Kerry, or Hillary Clinton would learn it also:

'Fool me once, shame on me: fool me twice, shame on you!'

And thus, less than a week after this sumptuous and redeeming victory, a fool stepped forward, a media-darling since his 'heroic' victory as campaign manager for Bill Clinton – James Carville – to portray in a similar false light, this stunning reversal of Political Washington, as sought by the MSM.

James Carville, having perhaps the only 'gravitas' sufficiently engrained in the American Psyche to so render himself, has proved willing to perform this MSM hatchet-job... that Karl Rove would be proud to have been acknowledged as the auteur.

Within two weeks of this massive political Republican Party MELTDown, the MSM has already created the 'Fragile Nancy Pelosi' issue-bias, instead of reporting on the merits of the Hoyer-Murtha challenge for the House Majority Leader post; it has also created the 'Dean's a loser' Carville-ian dementia that is probably being repeated as often as Fox promotes its OJ Simpson blood-lust-hypotheticating-event.

Why would a right-wing MSM ("Main Stream Media") want to froth up the soup about Pelosi and Dean, as much as it wanted to skewer John Kerry in 2004?

One reason – not yet discussed – that I've thought: these become a manufactured opportunity to 'cripple' the Democratic victory, in the eyes of the American public.

Its aftermath will provide necessary doubt for the opening of the 2007 Congressional year, slated with investigations on:

• September 11;
• the lead-up to, and the initiation of the war in Iraq; and,
• the financing of its subcontractors, and reconstruction efforts.

Taking out the man that united the party, and the woman that is destined to lead the Democratic Congress, are simple ASSASSINATION attempts, clean, useful 'preventative medicine' for the 2008 Republican political efforts to retain the presidency...

*This author was briefly associated to Candidate Dean's 'Foreign Policy Telephone Group', in 1999-2000.

ZENmud

Double Creature Feature

Will just leave the photoShopped artwork speak for itself...

Janus

Gemini

ZENmud :-)

Good interview with Eric Schlosser...

I visited Buzzflash to find the dailies... and found this article/interview at Grist about Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, now a narrative film impacting the perceptions of United States residents of their fast food industry.

If the film does what his book did: reveal the formation, and transformation of an industry and its agricultural, political and marketing partners, with massive environmental impacts across the land, it could affect people's dining habits, and reduce the environmental inpact of Agri-business. (Photo Credit : © Fox Searchlight)

Can't believe I'm showing FOX a credit... for a film against fast-food and the politics of agrrrrrri-business.


ZENmud

What did the Doctor give him?

If you read the International Herald Tribune, today's Webpage 'front page' has an interesting photo of Bush the Lesser:


I recognize the face of a 'chemically-supported' individual...

ZENmud

His CENSORED George the Lesser

Thanks to Capital Hill Blues for providing the quote du jour for George the Evil... "lily livered motherfuckers" (sorry, mom!)... can you believe he was talking about 'Good Republicans' and not the liberals of the USA?

His 'Anus the King...

"Homosexuality: Jung acknowledged the potential neurotic effects of homosexuality, but he did not see it as an illness in itself."

:-))

ZENmud

Voting in the USA...

Statistically, it was about 20 per cent of United States voters that saved the entire population from the policies of His 'Anus George W Bush, and the neocon/religious factions that drove forward those policy positions he took: some of the most heinous in US history.

Forty per cent of the total voting public were present; thus somewhere near 19 per cent voted for the 'stay the course which we assure is evolving' Republican ticket.

Some would ponder whether the question of voting has become such a meager necessity for today's citizens.

Some would ponder whether the voting machine fiascos of years past were in evidence this year.

I would hazard a guess, that the overwhelmingly dark, Machiavellian forces that guide Karl Rove and his disciples in crime, saw in this year an overwhelming tide rising against them. Give me credit for thinking of them as darkly as they think of you, citizens of the United States. And give me credit for this thesis:

Rove told his voting-machine-Army to leave the machines alone this time.

Why would he do this? Simply put: to give the 'voting conspiracy theorists' NOTHING to work with, in anticipation of the Presidentials in 2008.

Analysis: If I had been instrumental in turning three successive elections, through various nefarious voting-machine activities, towards 'my' Republican party, and had estimated the percentage of fraudulent votes that would be required to keep the Senate and House in Republican control, I might easily convince myself that the resulting numbers were across-the-board too high.

High enough to attract obvious investigations at State-level, if not national. High enough to sway public opinion towards manifest re-regulation of voting machine technology, programming and performance. High enough, to lose any chance of manipulating the coming Presidential election of 2008.

And my choice? Why not 'call off the dogs' for this election? Given the typical US media or citizen's short-term focus, a 'fairly-fair' election would let me hibernate and sophisticate my election strategy for the next election cycle...

ZENmud

The Glass is TOO Large...**

Democrats now have both the integrity and the 'mandate' lost by George W Bush, to transform the United States policy on Iraq, and the simplest and most world-positive solution is dreadfully obvious:

ask Iraq, ask its neighbors.

Ask those who the Bush war has seriously wronged: the remaining Iraqi people, and their neighbor-States. Ask those for whom recent US foreign policy has inflicted outrageously insensitive and illegal war, has increased domestic unrest and Islamic fundamentalism, or the worsening status of the Israeli-Palestinian equations.

Ask them the following simple questions:

From which country or countries would you accept outside security forces on Iraqi soil, from February 1, 2007 until June 30, 2008... that occupying force to be paid by the budget of the United States Government?

From which countries or regions would you accept reconstruction assistance, from public, NGO or private sectors, in partnership with Iraq's Federation of Workers' Councils and the (remaining) private sector?

Given the obvious source's of Iraqi wealth, its oil and gas reserves, its agricultural capacities and native intelligence, what fair division is possible among regions or across religious lines?

IOW: what's your payoff, to lay down your arms?

The Democratic Congress should instruct the President that such an obvious plebicite, for the benefit of all Iraqi citizens living on the territory, is the third-way, the one solution that negates both 'Stay-the-course' victory-chasing, and the mis-named 'Cut-n-Run' which has stained this necessary dialogue.

Answering these questions could truly be the only 'third-way', for it offers what is sure to happen: increased US expenses in Iraq; it may reverse that which may be irreversible – increased animosity by an ever-worsening world opinion over US foreign policy; and, it puts responsibility at the roots of all possible Iraqi futures: in the hands of its own people.

Whether the United States increases its ground forces in Iraq in these post-election 'final throes' of the Republican paradigm, or whether some withdrawal-of-forces variant – as surely will be presented by either the Baker Iraqi Study Group or a future Democratic initiative, there will be continued high costs incurred by the American taxpayer in 2007. What would promote transparency and create results in actual Iraqi reconstruction efforts would be the transfer of US funds to either a European coalition, or an Islamic-based coalition, capable of reducing the mistrust of Iraqis.

By initiating this Plebiscite the US, through Democratic Congressional leadership, would aggressively stride towards a more open-arms world focus, that might equate with a reversal of the cynicism perceived within the Bush Administration, and the skepticism or dismay of various countries historically allied with the United States. It shows willingness to atone for the mistakes that have been committed since 2001.

The Iraqi people, and the citizens of other Islamic States in the region, would be asked by such serious questions to absorb some responsibility for their own destiny, in effecting a choice of new alliance partners (Ie: France, China, Indonesia, Brazil), in choosing capable private-sector players in construction, engineering and other development sectors, and give them hope that the Bush nightmare is ending.

Second priority to a Democratic Congress, would surely be to pass a law that provides, in the incidence of US citizens or corporations who, while implementing various US Government initiatives effecting Iraq, have fraudulently diverted, stolen or misused funds or contracting authorities, would be liable to extradition TO Iraq for legal procedures and punishment.

This Act, perhaps the "US Restitution of Iraqi Integrity Act", would address the legal implementation of the taxpayers' contribution to the really democratic new State of Iraq...

** If asked "is the Glass half-empty, or half-full, know there is yet one other response: the Glass is TOO LARGE...

ZENmud

Nothing nice...

I think His 'Anus King George,
having found himself with nothing, not-nice to say (meaning: he has to play-nice with the new neighbor kids, after six years of ignoring them), has nothing at all to say:

No SNOW job for two days now...


ZENmud

NkDonalds

ALERT

That's Nuked Donald... Imagine if this Arrogant incompetent war criminal was smart enough to have retired ten days ago?

Rumsfeld runsfled... the devil's bastard steps down...

Out the door: maybe had he done this last week, Republican voters might have voted differently... so! Was PRIDE put before the PARTY?

Then the machine is cracking... can't wait for the next SNOW job press briefing... tomorrow???

ZENmud

The end of the Beginning... or?

ZENmud :-)

BUSH Anal-eyes'd...

Are you ready, Your 'Anus, King George the Lesser? Tomorrow it begins... the key word is 'it'... for we do not yet know how Rove and Bush will recuperate their powers, if an election is actually fairly counted.

I think sometimes, George's eyes look just like a pair of Sphincters...

Look closely :-)

He's on the phone right now, ensuring that EVERY dirty trick that Karl 'Turd Blossom' Rove ever utilised, is being fully incorporated TODAY, in his desperate bid to hold on to his unitary presidential powers... to destroy Our Country.



ZENmud

Some URLs for Election Day

See Blue Revolution
http://democrats.com/taxonomy/term/7922

See the Election Defense Alliance

See Neiman Watchdog, from the Neiman School of Journalism at Harvard University

Here's to a robust and fairly counted election (cough)...



ZENmud

This is a test...

This is a test of the United States citizen's alert network.

The next 21 sentences offer readers a sequence of unquestionable facts:

1. President Bush has expressed unwavering faith in the election results from Tuesday's Congressional races – that his Republican Party will not be defeated.

2. Bush has signed the Military Commission Act of 2006 into law.

2a The second Section of this Act (An Act which establishes all 'proper' procedures to accommodate the Bush Administration's intense desire to continue its torture and repression of detainees with minimal connections to terrorism) specifically offers an exception through which the President can create even more repressive commissions in case of martial law being declared.

2b Within the context of the MilCom Act, its application is expanded to include “any person subject to this chapter, who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly aids an enemy of the United States..., shall be punished as a military commission ... may direct.”

3. Bush has signed into law the Fiscal Year 2007 Defense Authorization Bill.

3a This bill is massive, containing sections that address 'innocuous' military spending items. However, last minute amendment insertions will allow Bush to control the various States' National Guards (which prior would require the permission of the State's Governor) without a Governor's permission.

3b This would allow a President to suppress a campus demonstration at Harvard with State Guard pulled under Presidential order from Texas.

4. The balance of evidence leans toward proof of the Government's establishment of FEMA Camps, capable of housing thousands of prisoners in over forty locations; some show evidence that 'first arrivals' may be forced to build further facilities to house followers.

5. The neutral objectivity of US voting machinery has been not proven, nor for some companies that manufacture such machinery and have expressed solid support of the Republican Party.

6. Various States' Chief Election Officers have, in past years (Harris, FL 2000, Blackwell, Ohio, 2004), passed regulations or rules that deprived US citizens of their constitutional rights to vote.

7. The US media has consistently refused to address serious investigations of alleged voter manipulation.

8. The Republican Party, driven by Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, exploits the fears inherent from the policy choices it has conscientiously chosen, and encourages through its media supporters a distorting and violent rendition of liberal Democrats.

9. American media, has, however, covered at great lengths the various recount-Revolutions that have provoked governmental change, demissions or concessions, in the Ukraine, Venezuela, the 'Stans, or recently in Mexico.

10. The overwhelming media 'pass' granted to nearly all Republicans has left both Democratic officeholders and seekers, as well those citizen-supporters, in a form of denied-reality shellshock.

11. As was the case in 2000 and 2004, almost all polls are showing a much greater percentage of US voters seeking a change in US policies through support of Democratic candidates.

12. Strident Democratic, anti-war or anti-Bush demonstrations have been neutralized through suppressions, including unlawful arrests, segregation into 'free speech zones' or denied aircraft boarding through government-sponsored blacklisting.

13. The United States will vote on Tuesday.

14. A positive Democratic result could, given improper media influence, provoke retaliatory Republican riots, while any overwhelming Democratic defeat (through voter suppression or vote-tally manipulation) could truly provoke violent city actions.

15. In the face of citizen reactions to Tuesday's vote, Bush could invoke 'National interest' and declare martial law, summon the National Guard, arrest Democratic supporters, find them guilty under a military commission to established OUTSIDE the incedibly lax scope of the Military Commission Act of 2006, and force them into domestic Guantanamos for...ever.

16. It could begin WEDNESDAY.

17. It is, as of October, LEGAL.

Repost: Sobriety test: the Department of HomeSec...

[originally posted September 12, 2006 : the HomelandSec page has not yet been corrected]

I guess it's too much to ask the good Americans at Homeland Security to keep their simplest War FOR Terror concepts clearly indicated...

I posted this link to DepHomeSec in y-day's post. That page renders the timeline of official Homeland Security Advisory System announcements: the yellow > Orange > RED (since we've apparently forgotten the -green- and -blue- zones). I got dizzy reading it, and you'll see why here, exclusively at crystelZENmud...

Look closely at the headers on the page; if DHS cannot keep their own threat-assessment values straight, how can any American take them seriously?

Remember!
Green > Blue > Yellow > Orange > RED
AND
RED > Orange > Yellow > Blue > Green

(“Hey, that's EASY, kids!”)

Now, regard the sequence from February 27, 2003 until May 30, 2003 (the headers of which are reproduced here with 100 per cent accuracy: words 'raised' and lowered' in bold by ZENmud)...

March 12, 2002 –
Introduction of Homeland Security Advisory system at Yellow
[.....]
February 27, 2003 (“All clear”)
Lowered from Orange to Yellow

March 17, 2003 (The pre-war warnings)
Raised from Orange to Yellow
(???? Hello? DHS? You don't "raise" to Yellow)

April 16, 2003 (“All clear”)
Lowered from Orange to Yellow

May 20, 2003 (Terr'ism in S.Arabia and Morocco)
Raised from Orange to Yellow (????)

May 30, 2003 – (“All clear”)
Lowered from Orange to Yellow

Should we give them the benefit of the doubt? No.

I can't believe that someone in this Republican misADMINistration is stupid enough (hint: yes, I can...) to leave such a blatant confusing mistake on their page for months, maybe even for now three years' running?
(if you're perplexed, remind yourSelf how one raises AND lowers warnings from same-color to same-color?

It boggles the mind that one could raise and lower from Orange to Yellow repetitively, and that a supervisor approved that... Might it have been a Katrina-associated oversight?

Arrogance in manipulation, should at least be associated with perfection in its application...

ZENmud

KERRY

He did what he did: they will do what they do! Don't vote FOR the media slant...

ZENmud

Hunker-down-and-die...

I think that's the name of the latest
New! Bush! Policy! Spin! Announcement!

"We're not anything like 'stay the course,' man, we're totally 'Hunker-down and die...'

When Bush authorized the use of Smart Bombs, who would possibly have known that they would be so sadly successful in targeting Wedding Party families?

I think he's maybe destroyed about 3 or 4 (or 34?) different Iraqi wedding families in the last three years, seven months and thirteen days (3y 7m 13d), a sad thing, truly.

Better check that one...

ZENmud

Central Command Slide

Here it is:

Iraq is only a
matter of days
away from a
total
Bushian
catastrophe...

ZENmud

Thanks to the NY Times for their acquisition of this powerful slide from our military...

BUSH Assassinates his Presidency...

SHOOTS SELF IN-BETWEEN THE EYES...

His own words, my friends: “The enemy we face in Iraq has evolved over the past three years.”

His own words, my friends: “Stay the course, stay the course, stay the course, stay the course: We never said "stay the course."”

And Dick Cheney? Or Rumsfeld, Rice and any General still on the payroll?

“Stay the course, STAY THE COURSE, Stay the Course, stay the course...”

You really don't need my interpretation of that, do you?

Okay, okay, this is what you know already: the US President, who as Commander-in-Chief presents weekly to US citizens amazing new vocabulary, including 'Abu Ghraib'd', 'waterboarded' and 'extraordinary rendition flights', was trying NOT to say the following:

“Today, in nearly as many months as our country endured the Second World War, I have forced our honorable Armed Forces, as well as the poor, shellshocked and innocent people of Iraq, to inflict grievous injuries upon each other, by an ill-founded and base policy known popularly as 'stay the course'.

“In doing so, I have ignored the evolutionary capabilities of our enemy, whose knowledge management skills have obviously benefited overwhelmingly from our occupation presence, to better understand the capabilities of our hardware, and thereby our hard-fighting soldiers' tactical capabilities.

“To my unending regret, I must face the fact that my reliance on Donald Rumsfeld's talents appears to be misbegotten. I must face the fact that I ignored Dick Cheney's implementation of Operation Golden Retirement.

“I have not upheld the United States Constitution, forsaking my Oath of Office and designing policies consistently to burden greatly the future debt load pawned off to your sons and daughters, and their offspring.

“Do not fear for the future: China would not think of dumping their US bonds on the market overnight, thereby destroying our currency and reaping the benefits of out-strategizing its capitalist enemy...

“We lowered taxes so low on the rich that most of them have seen a 20 per cent amelioration of their fortunes, while the great majority of you have only seen gas prices rise in similar fashion, forcing your (not without global benefit) to reduce your driving habits.

“You know, it could really be said, that 'America's finest days are behind her...', and that the crash of the United States model of government 'of, for and by the people' was never allowed to experience its own evolution, being controled by that same band of cowboys whose fathers helped plan the Fall of the Kennedys...

“As I survey this press room, and think about the little I've accomplished, and the great amount that I have destroyed or allowed to be destroyed, I really know that the evolution of our country that I directed was only to help benefit those people whose support made all my millions in retirement funds possible.

“So, remember, we Ripoffublicans won many elections by invoking “STAY the course”, while those we've dehumanized as our enemy have evolved...”

Makes you want to cry? Cry for a lost United States...

ZENmud

DESTINY AWAITS... and the Planet

Tax cuts... for the rich

More treaties renounced than in all previous Administrations...

Preemptive war

Negligent protection of 'the Homeland'

Tax corruption, moral corruption...

Destiny awaits...

Voting day

ZENmud