While waiting for Jeopardy after catching up on the news about tonights area hailstorm this ad played. I found it on YouTube and am sharing it with you.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus will testify in front of congress today. They are supposed to give the glowing reports of success we are supposed to be seeing in the conflict there. You know…the surge is working, we are in control of he Green Zone, we have had less casualties because of the surge. That kind of Bushieshit.

They probably wont talk about the 4023 US soldiers killed at first. I wonder if the 29,628 officially wounded soldiers will even be mentioned. Nobody there will have the balls to mention the stop-loss, flopping our troops back for another tour, travesty that is going on. I doubt the tragic loss of up to a million Iraqi lives and the displacement of over 4 million people will come up either. Just a lot of posing and puffing of the chest.

While both McCain and Clinton are on the Armed Forces Committee McCain is the one to give the opening speech. Lieberman and Graham are on that committee as well. The pundits are saying that the hearing there will just be a Bush Butt Buddy Blowout Bash. That Clinton’s late question will seem insignificant after all of the Repulicaspeak at the beginning of the session.

Then the warmongers will travel down the hall to the Foreign Relations Committee where Barack will be . I am in agreement with the news people that the questions asked there will be less party line and more about the realities of the war. Maybe the General and Ambassador will have to be more candid. Maybe they will show some truth in the testimony. I really don’t think they will be allowed to by the administration but maybe their lies will have more of a chance to be exposed. If the questions are being asked by non Bushies maybe they will slip and tell a real fact or two. I doubt that though.

I just hope it doesn’t turn into a campaigning debacle. There are so many risks to that. This question and answer period is about lives. It’s about bringing our troops home. It’s about the billions of dollars wasted. It’s about lies told and lies exposed.

It isn’t about partisan politics because when our soldiers are there all party lines go away. The men and women serving may feel their own political feelings but they are comrades and don’t need party division when their lives and safety are at stake.

Lets hope something positive comes from these meetings. Lets hope the answers they give don’t satisfy the American public and the demand for the immediate return of our men and women gets louder. Lets hope the liars are exposed and the McSame ideas get shot down.

Lets hope.

Although I have been remiss in being a proper blogger and haven’t been posting diligently, most of the others have been. Now on Saturday night I have a feeling of non-productivity so I have tried to get something done. But…(dadgum buts)…I can’t get any clear thoughts out so I am going to try to pass some other folk’s creativity along. Bear with me for a bit and I will get my wind back. For now follow these links for news and commentary of the week.

Last Sunday The Political Cat told us her opinion about the links between Cheney, Bush and Nouri al Maliki. Even though she has been changing routines with her meds she was able to point out the costs of this war in lives, money and extending tours for our troops and how the leaders are behind it.

ViceZilla brings us the stink from San Francisco, the birthplace of my favorite band the Grateful Dead, where they are considering naming a fitting monument to George W.Bush.

Stephen was drinking liberally in New Milford when he passed along rumors of Hillary suspending her campaign and added the beer back to his whiskey with a link to a funny video called Mrs. C.

Buzz gave a moving non Believers tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King over at Buzz Daly Sez.

The Grateful Dissident talked about the “Million Man March” in Iraq.

Alicia who lives somewhere near the Last Left Turn Before Hooterville, shared what they are talking about in the beauty shop.

Fade over in the House Of The Rising Sons brings us links to Montel calling for real support for our troops especially the wounded ones.

Gordon with the Alternative Brain brings us a letter from Iraq.

Dusty shows us its her right to be left of center by showing us pictures of Georgie playing by himself.

I wonder if he is shunned because of his ineptitude dealing with the dignitaries. Do you think maybe he is also alone because of the fact he supported the liars who led America and the rest of the world into this huge debacle that has cost so many lives, limbs and dollars? I think the fact the death toll is so high in Iraq because of the lies was the reason he was greeted the way he was when he threw the first pitch of the season for the Washington National’s last Sunday. I love this footage as I believe the sentiment shown will also be shown in November to Senator John McSame.

Robert Reid of the associated press says 4 more soldiers were killed today to bring the death toll of American soldiers in Iraq to
4000.

The reports of Shi’ite’s firing into the green zone are further indications that the surge isn’t working where the extra troops are concentrated.

I haven’t been posting much this past week. I have never written anything as draining as the post from Wednesdays blogswarm. The reports of the lost soldiers make me cry again. Damn! Bushco’s liars don’t really seem to care.

It’s time to bring our troops home. No more should have to die. Not for the reasons they are dying, thats for sure.

Remember McSame and his suggestion for 100 more years? At the rate of 4000 every five years that would average to at least 80,000 lives for a war based on lies. Such a shame.

I haven’t been as lively when it comes to posting lately. Things have been a blur in my part of Roswell the past few days. I have been spending a lot of time writing for tomorrows blogswarm edition of Alien Trucker. While writing my post many emotions have come back to me and tears have been flowing from this old hippies heart and eyes. It has been heart wrenching to put these words on “paper” and sometimes the crying gets more attention than the writing. The emotions my story brings to me has been blinding me  to current news and my usual rants.  The post will be long so set aside about 10 minutes of your busy day to read it if  you are so inclined.

It has been 5 long costly years since the Bushco agents sent our military to attack Iraq and what a horrible occupation it has been since. At this point there are 274 bloggers signed up to post in unison about this insane war based on the lies of those we are supposed to trust. I encourage you to follow the link above and read as many different opinions as you can. Then let your voice be heard by writing/calling your congresspersons and let them know how you feel about the war on freedom in Iraq. The war on our freedom as well as theirs is horrible with at least 3990 of our troops killed and up to a million Iraqis slaughtered as well.

My opinion is and will be that we MUST defeat McCain and his proposal to spend 100 years or more occupying Iraq. Vote Democratic Party as the crooks there have a better chance of getting elected than any honest politician. Then we MUST demand the new officials BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW AND STOP THIS SENSELESS KILLING FOR BUSHCO!

sorry about all of that yelling. It’s just time to do it.

Our president “strongly disagreed” with presidential candidate Barak Obama yesterday about diplomatic meetings with Cuba and Iran.

“Just talking with them sends the wrong message, confuses U.S. allies and raises the international profile of regimes that suppress human rights”, Bush said responding to Obama’s statement he would try to negotiate with Iran if elected. More of the warmongers rhetoric to spur us into a war with the Iranian government.

Continuing he also said that negotiations with Raul Castro would just be more of the same. And we all know how well the United States policies with Cuba have worked. Almost 50 years after the sanctions went into effect Fidel finally was defeated…sorta.

Responding to Obama’s promise to start talks, and willingness to meet with, leaders from Iran, Cuba, Venezuala, Syria and North Korea, Georgie decried diplomacy by saying “… it’ll send the wrong message. It’ll send a discouraging message to those who wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners. It’ll give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity.”

With the United States just achieving the honored status of having the highest per capita population behind bars that is a ridiculous statement. While the Evil Bushman rallies for immunity for the telecoms domestic spying continues to grow. Using the human rights stance he continues to support taking them away from Americans while refusing to negotiate with those governments who also violate the basic rights of their citizens putting him in the same category as those he speaks against.

Invasion and stripping the rights of citizens of foreign lands is more his speed. Sending the army we have to to occupy other countries suppresses human rights much faster than diplomatic talks. Suppressing the dignity of the populace is evident here as well.

No country can hold their heads high if they neglect the fighting men and women they send into war without proper equipment. There is no dignity for a country that neglects the veterans after their return from fighting in a war. No honor in a country that spies on its citizens phone calls and e-mails. And I wonder how W can even think of talking about another nation’s status after the lies, deceit and manipulation our government used to start a war that has claimed over a million lives.

Obviously the present administrations lack of diplomacy hasn’t worked. They refuse to learn though. They keep rushing headlong into war talk while not even trying to negotiate policies that would bring better human rights and dignity to the people of other places.

I guess that they would rather kill them than try to negotiate for their rights.

A thousand years John? Fifty is too many.

McCain needs to rethink his policy of the occupation of Iraq before he bumbles all of our resources away.

From VoteVets.org

A tip of my space helmet to Army of Dude.

Wait ’til their judgement day comes.

Black Sabbath doing “War Pigs”. Footage added may be too graphic for some viewers so go ahead and watch it.

Bring our soldiers home.

While those in Washington are half steppin’ around the issues like selling arms to the Saudi’s and the people who are crossing the lazy Rio Grandio there is a bigger issue that is being neglected. While they say it, these very politicians are doing nothing that even resembles support for our troops.
Extended tours of duty. Redeploying soldiers after they have already served a full tour. Vetoing pay raises and better medical care for the soldiers. All of these things are being done while the politicians wave and scream SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.
They tell us that if we speak out against the war that we are actually speaking out against the troops. Yet they treat our troops like big piles of poop. Not really supporting them in my opinion.
We have our yellow ribbons on the back of our SUV’s and wave our flags everywhere. But how much support are we giving these men and women who are giving their all so we can have plenty of gas to burn at 15 MPG? Saying so isn’t cutting it.
Australia paid General Motors over $9000 per unit to have protective plating on each of the Humvees they bought for their soldiers. Our Pentagon won’t protect our kids by having this on US vehicles. Mothers are forced to send their kids Kevlar vests because they aren’t in the military budget.

“SUPPORT OUR TROOPS”. they cry.
Last July a group called Veterans For Common Sense filed a lawsuit in Federal court in San Fransisco against the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs. The suit alleges that at least 320,000 and up to 800,000 Iraq vets are being denied benefits for disabilities and medical care. These are kids with injuries and psycological problems from the war that can’t get any support.
People with missing limbs (no protection in the Humvees) are homeless. Kids with physical and mental problems are wandering without help. It takes an average of 831 days to get each case approved. That is 2 years and three months on average.
A recent survey estimates that 70% of Americas homeless men are Viet Nam vets. Add the returning Iraq war vets and the percentage soars.
The suit also names VA Secretary Jim Nicholson and his chiefs of getting $3.8 million in bonuses when the budget for returning vets was over a billion dollars short 2 years running.Sounds like a big corporation who rewards budget makers for shortchanging the workers.
So my challenge to you is twofold. Only one of the criteria I propose to you MUST be done. You have the internets and the Google so look up the addresses and phone numbers of your congressman or woman. Demand they do something for our returning veterans. Make it clear that you want the best for the brave women and men who fought this evil war. Demand more, more, more for them.
Or go out and take that magnetic yellow thing off your car and take down your flag.
One or the other! You can’t have the ribbons if you don’t truly SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.