The Rag Blog

How many ‘slips of the tongue’ heve occured to George W. Bush? We advise you to stay clear – they’re apparently catching. And note Blair’s attempt to correct the ‘slip’ results in an admission more telling of the warmongers. [“I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.” George W. Bush. Boy, we just BET you guys do!!]

Blair ‘disaster’ admission over Iraq a ‘slip of the tongue’: official
by Roland Jackson Sat Nov 18, 2:11 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) – Downing Street moved swiftly to play down an apparent admission by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the invasion of Iraq had been a “disaster,” labelling his comments a “slip of the tongue.”

In an interview Friday on Al-Jazeera’s new English-language channel, broadcaster Sir David Frost suggested that the 2003 US-led and British-backed invasion had “so far been pretty much of a disaster.”

“It has,” Blair replied, before adding quickly: “But you see, what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It’s not difficult because of some accident in planning.

“It’s difficult because there’s a deliberate strategy… to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war.”

Read it here.

This is the first in a series. This guy is not the leader of the good ol’ boys club, but he’ll be along shortly. Well, maybe next week …

Letter From Venezuela: The Land of Chavismo
By Chesa Boudin
Nov 17, 2006, 08:02

As Venezuelans prepare to go to the polls December 3, expectations are that President Hugo Chávez will easily win re-election, thanks to his wide base of support among the country’s poor and marginalized majority. In this election, however, people will be voting not just on hopes and expectations but rather on the proven track record of Chávez’s “Bolivarian Revolution” and its gains in alleviating poverty.

An innovative series of social programs known as misiones, or missions–set up to parallel ineffective and often exclusionary government agencies or services, and largely funded through oil sales, which account for 47 percent of government revenue and 80 percent of exports–has delivered concrete benefits to Venezuela’s poor. As one example, roughly 3 million Venezuelans have enrolled in one of the four free educational missions–basic adult literacy, primary school, high school equivalency and university–since the programs began in 2003. Recently, in one adult literacy class, the pride of the students was palpable as one after another went to the chalkboard to transcribe–albeit with a few errors–short sentences that their facilitator read aloud. One woman in her late 60s told me after class, “This is the first time in my life when Venezuela has had a government dedicated to inclusion, not exclusion.”

A mission that brings doctors to live in poor neighborhoods, towns and villages to provide free, easily accessible healthcare is so popular that in 2004 alone it logged more visits than the entire public and private healthcare systems combined over the previous five years. There is a job-training mission, and a mission that provides food subsidies and soup kitchens. These and the other missions offer much-needed services and dramatically increase the quality of life for millions of Venezuelans, often in ways that are not easily quantifiable in commonly reported poverty indicators.

Even in the statistics, however, changes are evident. According to Venezuela’s most recent census, the number of households living in poverty has dropped from 42.8 percent in 1999, when Chávez took office, to 33.9 percent in early 2006. Households living in extreme poverty dropped from 17.1 percent to 10.6 percent during the same period. The poorest quintile of the population has seen its consumption power more than double. Official unemployment has been cut by more than half, to around 10 percent, although most jobs are either in the public sector or in the “informal” sector.

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, says that while poverty statistics tend to follow overall economic growth (and Venezuela’s economy has been growing at record rates as global energy prices have soared), the improvements are nonetheless remarkable. “The Chávez government has only had three years of stability and control over the oil industry,” he says. “In that time they have dramatically increased access to healthcare and education…. I don’t know of anywhere else in the hemisphere that has made these kinds of gains.”

Read it here.

U.S. President George W. Bush was locked out of the Singapore meeting room and struggled through dense foliage to find his podium set up well outside the conference center late Thursday afternoon. North Korean military attaches disavowed any involvement in the episode. “But I have to tell you, that is one gullible dude,” said Lt. Kim Do Sun of the PDRK army. “I think he was looking for a snipe. That’s what he said when they found him the next day,” added Lt. Kim.

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U.S. President George W. Bush said today he was surprised to learn that Vietnam does not support his efforts in Iraq. “Heck,” we woulda won here in Vietnam if we’d stayed,” said Bush. Reporters at the scene said Bush then seemed puzzled at the lack of positive response to his “woulda, coulda, shoulda” statement from Hanoi officials, some of whom had fought the US during the devastating 10-year US-Vietnam war.

* Note: PC = Paul Crassnerd, aka Demented Crank

… aka, Paul Crassnerd, sends bulletins from the newsroom front line near future.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaks with the media during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006. AP

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said “Look, the creation of Israel out of land in Palestine was like it would be to create a country just for Catholics out of part of Texas or Kansas. It’s just not the kind of thing that is ever going to sit well with those who lived there before.”

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“When I found out Persians are there, now, in Iran…radical Persianism…see, we have to be there, ’cause that’s where all of the radical Persianist terrorists send money from to the Democrats in the US. And besides, if that Iranish guy with the wimpy beard can have a nuke, anybody can have a nuke, and so then suddenly, I’m nobody special, see?” said Mr. Bush. “You want your president to have a smaller belt buckle than some Persianist guy with a wimpy beard?” asked Bush.

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“Suck it up, Chump Bush, and ****ing dance with the one who brung you,” said Vice-President Cheney in a call to the President prior to the 2006 mid-term elections overheard by German intelligence agents, according to a transcript of the call today released by German legal authorities who filed eight war crimes charges against the Vice-President. The prosecutors said that response came when Bush told Cheney he was considering drawing US troops down in Iraq if things didn’t improve there soon.

“HAL still is serious billions in the hole, so you better either stay the (expletive) course or find another war for HAL,” the VP allegedly said during the call. “Karl Rove made you and I got your political virginity, you naive (expletive) so know we can take you right back down. Now go do something to get the price of crude back up there and keep it up there,” added Cheney, according to the trial transcript copy released by the German prosecution Wednesday.

It was Cheney’s comments to Bush that caused the EU authorities to investigate whether a criminal conspiracy to profit-gouge during wartime had begun with the end of the call.

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“I don’t really think we were criminals,” Bush told the court. “All I ever wanted to do was be baseball commissioner,” said Bush, according to sources close to Bush’s court-appointed mental health guardian. Bush’s mind and attention seemed to wander during the arraignment, which is widely believed to have occurred on Friday, following his rendition to Syria by Pakistan, which had occurred on the previous day, according to surprised eye-witnesses at the Damascus Inter-Continental Airport.

Meanwhile, unrest continued for the seventh day today in Islamabad, following news that Pakistan President Gen. Musharref had left the Pakistani capitol to settle in Nevada, where he will run his new father-in-law’s Kia dealership, said a source in Al Jazerra’s Las Vegas office.

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“Thabba thabba…..thaat’s all, folks!”

From our very own Thorne Dreyer, this revealing article plus all the documentation on which it’s based.

The Spies of Texas
Newfound files detail how UT-Austin police tracked the lives of Sixties dissidents
by Thorne Dreyer

“Even a paranoid can have enemies.” — Henry Kissinger

Allen Hamilton kept his files secret until his death in 2005, long after his retirement as campus police chief for the University of Texas at Austin. His son discovered them while cleaning out his father’s office. The boxes of documents and photos from the 1960s included records of the most horrific event in Chief Hamilton’s tenure—the August day in 1966 when Charles Whitman perched atop the UT Tower with a high-powered rifle, killing 15 and wounding 33. Graphic photos from the Whitman archives were made available to newspapers to mark the 40th anniversary of that bloody day.

But Hamilton’s files also provide valuable links to the complex political and social currents that were washing over the campus four decades ago. These documents—made public here for the first time—tell the story of how the University of Texas spied on its nonconformist and dissident students. The records—covering a period from approximately 1963 to 1970—show the extensive efforts that campus police made to identify, watch, and follow students and faculty members whom it found suspicious.

The files include more than 500 pages of department memos, some from student informers; lists of names of campus “dopers” and activists; and photocopies of newspaper articles and leaflets. Also included are over 250 surveillance photographs. The documents reveal that among the subjects campus police were monitoring at the time were Janis Joplin, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Richard (“Kinky”) Friedman.

Read the rest here. The link for all the documentation and photographs is here.

Contractor’s Boss in Iraq Shot at Civilians, Workers’ Suit Says
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: November 17, 2006

CAMP FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 16 — Two former employees of an American private military contracting firm have claimed in a Virginia court that they saw their supervisor deliberately shoot at Iraqi vehicles and civilians this summer, and that the firm fired them for reporting the incidents.

The allegations, made in a lawsuit filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court, accuse Triple Canopy, one of the largest private military contractors to work with the United States in Iraq, of retaliating against the men for reporting that the supervisor had committed violent felonies, and perhaps murder, on the job.

It also claims that Triple Canopy’s management blacklisted the men in the private military contracting industry, rendering them unemployable in the lucrative trade of providing private security in Iraq.

Read it here.

FILM-IRAQ: A Glimpse of Life Under Occupation
Aaron Glantz*

SAN FRANCISCO, California, Nov 15 (IPS) – The most honoured film about the Iraq war is opening at theaters across the United States this month.

The documentary “Iraq in Fragments” by independent film-maker James Longley won best director, cinematography and editing when it opened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Since then, it has won awards at festivals in Chicago, Cleveland, Thessalonica, and at the Human Rights Watch film festival in New York.

What sets “Iraq in Fragments” apart from the mass of other journalism on Iraq is that it does not confront the issue of the war directly. U.S. soldiers are on the periphery of the film, as are Iraqi politicians, Ba’athist insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists.

Instead, viewers are treated to a view inside Iraqi culture and daily life under occupation. It is cinematographically beautiful, taking viewers into places as diverse as schools, barber shops, auto shops, mosques, markets and train stations.

In production notes to the film, Longley writes about entering Iraq shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

“I could film whatever I wanted as long as I could stay alive,” he writes, with no government minders or stringent visa requirements. “My guess was that I would have about a year before either a new authoritarian government would be put in power or Iraq would descend into civil war and become too dangerous to work in. I needed to make my film while it was still possible.”

Read about it here.

It continues to be a nightmare owing in large part to the American presence.

Locals Accuse U.S. of Massacre in Ramadi
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

RAMADI, Nov 17 (IPS) – U.S. military tank fire killed scores of civilians in Ramadi, capital of Al-Anbar province, late Monday night, according to witnesses and doctors. Anger and frustration were evident at the hospitals and during the funerals in the following days.

Iraqi doctors and witnesses at the scene of the attack said U.S. tanks killed 35 civilians when they shelled several homes in the Al-Dhubat area of the city.

Ramadi, located 110 km west of Baghdad, has been beset with sporadic but intense violence between occupation forces and insurgents for several months.

On Tuesday, hundreds of people carried the 35 coffins of the dead to a graveyard in a funeral procession which closely resembled an angry demonstration.

“We heard the bombing and we thought it was the usual fighting between resistance fighters and the Americans, but we soon realised it was bombing by large cannons,” 60-year-old Haji Jassim explained to IPS at the burial. “We weren’t allowed by the Americans to reach the destroyed houses to try to rescue those who were buried, so certainly many of them bled to death.”

Jassim claimed that everyone killed was innocent, that they were not fighters. He said that when he and others attempted to reach the rubble of the destroyed homes, located near mosques whose minaret’s loudspeakers had broadcast pleas for help, “There was a big American force that stopped us and told us the usual ugly phrases we hear from them every day.”

Jassim, speaking with IPS while several other witnesses listened while nodding their heads, said that ambulances did not appear on the scene for hours because “we realised that the Americans did not allow them to move,” and that as a result, “there were people buried under the rubble who were bleeding to death while there was still a chance to rescue them.”

Read it here.

This article comes from someone who has ‘been on the ground’ in Iraq. It is a well researched and written analysis of the political situation in country and worth the time to read.

Anatomy of a Civil War: Iraq’s descent into chaos
Nir Rosen

On April 7, 2006, the third anniversary of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, I drove south with Shia pilgrims from Baghdad to the shrine city of Najaf. The day before, on the same route, a minibus like ours had taken machine-gun fire in the Sunni town of Iskandariyah. Five pilgrims were killed.

My companions—a young man named Ahmed, his mother, and their friend Iskander, a driver—came from Sadr City, the Shia bastion in Baghdad named for Muhammad Sadiq al Sadr, a popular and politically ambitious Shia cleric slain in 1999. They wanted to hear a sermon by Sadr’s son, Muqtada, who after the war had become the single most important person in Iraq and the only one capable of sustaining the fragile alliance between Shias and Sunnis. His power had only grown, although hopes for that alliance were now gone.

It was Friday, and like my companions, I was going to the Friday prayers. I had been following this practice since I arrived in Iraq in April 2003, when it became clear that clerics were filling the power vacuum created by the war. After the fall of Saddam and his Baath Party, looting and anarchy gave way to forces of more organized violence: men with guns, some wearing the turbans of clerics, some the scarves of the resistance, and many belonging to criminal gangs. Despite American intentions to create a secular, democratic Iraq, clerics were quickly replacing Baathists, and in the absence of anything else the mosque would become Iraq’s most influential institution.

Read the rest of this remarkable piece here.

Bill is a perfect example of someone who is almost what he appears to be. To a naive person this very well spoken, extremely organized person appears to run just what he proclaims to, a “No spin zone.” Well, with a little bit of knowledge you will quickly realize that he spins, he rolls, he tosses, he dodges, he diverts and he ends up right where he started, with his personal point of view being declared
victorious. Bill is sometimes fair, but only when there is no chance of challenging his view. Out of the Fox bunch, Bill does have the most integrity, which is a very scary reality! Talk about setting low standards.

Journalism Credentials Masters degree in journalism

There is no doubt that Mr. O’Reilly has a real education in journalism. He did however seem to forget the definition of journalism.

Journalism: ”j&r-n&l-“i-z&m – : writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation and without opinion.

Indicators

Certain Outcome: the entire goal of Bill’s show is to prove his guest wrong, or right, depending on who the guest is. The bottom line is that whatever Bill’s position was prior to his show, that will be his position after the show. Even if he acknowledges a point or two he concludes every show with a pseudo intellectual “I told you so.” There is no point in watching this nonsense. It is a news infomercial for Bill’s opinion.

Attack the messenger: Much like almost all of the Fox News on screen clowns, Bill does his share of launching personal attacks on people who do not share his views. He does his share of name calling and pointing out controversial aspects of people he disagrees with regardless of whether it has anything to do with the current topic. To paint a picture of how wrong this is to do when dealing with journalism you might think of it this way, regardless of Michael Jackson’s odd personal life you can not in any way question his musical talent. Mr. O’Reilly would use Michael’s personal life to discredit his talent. It is wrong both technically and morally.

God’s Word: Bill takes it upon himself to declare what is right, wrong, brave, cowardly, patriotic, treason, etc. He gets up on his pulpit and speaks God’s word. OK Bill, settle down. We know how you feel, don’t claim to be the clearing house for ethics and Human conscience

Why he is dangerous

The big danger with Bill is that he conducts himself in a very authoritative manner. He is impressive. He also tells people over and over how fair he is, so unless you have a clue you will believe him. Remember we are a society of mostly followers. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the truth is that people are easily
fooled. Bill puts on a great show and his impressive delivery is very convincing.

A Message

Hey Bill, a person with your level of education in journalism should realize that opinion has no place in journalism. While you may be qualified to be a journalist, you are not currently practicing the craft. You should be honest and just admit what you are, a right wing conservative who argues his opinions very impressively. You are another example of Fox News’ fraudulent claim of being a “News” network. Someone with your education should realize that once opinion enters, journalism exits.

Charlie Loving

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bottle 7-Up
1 cup halved seedless grapes
use to baste the duck as it finishes cooking

1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup of rasins or cranberries the smushed kind not canned
1 cup of pecan meat. Best to have young pecans that you have gathered prior to the squirrels getting them.
1/2 cup of bacon all chopped up, so fry it first to get it all brittle. The stuff in the front of the smoke house is best
Pepper
4 cups of bread crumbs, the loaf that got hard will do, the one you baked last week.
1/2 cup of scalded milk. You can use yesterdays milk for this and don’t drain off the cream. sort of mix it.
2 eggs beaten. They were gathered in the afternoon. Make sure they are good by floating them.

The Duck.

Go to the duck blind. Check your fowling piece and load it, 12 gauge with a long barrel is best, use bird shot or duck shot. Ask the gun freak you know which is best? Make sure you have a duck stamp. You will have to pick a big duck, the biggest is best and will be older and tougher, All that flying south and north makes them tough. There aren’t too many ducks these days so this part is hard and the ducks that there are are leary. The old Daffy saying, “A leary duck is a live duck.” Keep the dog quiet and wait for the ducks to come. Oh, yes put the wooden ducks in the pond to fool the other ducks into thinking there are ducks on the pond. Also pick a cold day so you can suffer properly. Frozen feet are a big part of duck hunting and be sure to put your feet in cold water so that the water can seep into the water proof American Hunter boots and get your feet wet.

It may take a few days to get a duck or you may not get one and will have to go to the meat store. There are not many wild ducks at the store so buy a non-wild duck and take your duck stamp and put it on the frozen duck. Tell everyone about sitting on the silly stool in the frozen tundra by the pond and waiting for the ducks to come and how cool a shot you are. “The ducks flew in from the southwest and right at dawn… bla bla bla.”

Or go to the Chinese market and buy a duck. Those ducks are usually really bad. Taste like crap and are all red and already cooked.

In a pinch you could substitute a goose but not a chicken or other fowl.

So, if you do happen to get a duck you will have to clean it. Remember ducks are water repellant so pull out all the feathers and don’t use water, the hot water trick doesn’t work that well on ducks. You have to take out the gizzard and yuck on the inside. Stick a very sharp knife in the duck’s (dead Duck) butt hole and cut it open so you can get to the gick and then pull all the gick out. You then pick out the pin feathers or sear them off with a blow torch. Put the clean duck in the marinade for three weeks or until tender. Use a good marinade for this. Once the duck is ready put it in a pan and cook it.