Friday, December 10, 2004
American Values
From The Times :
The family's two men were blindfolded and plasticuffed. "We have done nothing wrong," the elder detainee, Hatam Moslah Jabar, 20, pleaded quietly in English. "This is a big insult for us."
A student of Shakespeare and Wordsworth at al-Anbar University, he seemed an unlikely insurgent suspect. Thirty minutes later he was released, along with every other detainee the squad had captured that morning, with a slap on the backside and shout of "Run. Get going!"
Sergeant Santiago's team found neither a weapons cache nor a single insurgent in the dozen houses they checked. Iraqis -- even a crippled woman in her eighties -- were questioned on the whereabouts of weapons and sometimes, if they were men, plasticuffed and blindfolded, sometimes humiliated and threatened.
Just before the operation ended and the troops withdrew to Ramadi, the Doc forgot himself. The team had entered a house and found only an Iraqi man in his thirties and a young baby. The Doc put a cigarette to his mouth and raised a lighter.
"Hey, Doc! What the f*** ya doing, man?" exclaimed Sergenat Santiago as the rest of the squad joined in a chorus of dissent. "You can't goddamn smoke here! You might give the kid asthma or some s***! Don't go givin' no one else your cancer! Smokin' in front of a kid -- Jesus!"
posted by Green Voicemail 12/10/2004 09:44:00 PM
Iraq War -- #1 in Amputations
Time to invest in American Orthopedics stock.
From The Indianapolis Star :
U.S. troops injured in Iraq have required limb amputations at twice the rate of past wars, and as many as 20 percent have suffered severe head and neck injuries, according to new data giving the clearest picture yet of the severity of battlefield wounds.
The data are the grisly flip side of improvements in battlefield medicine that have saved many combatants who would have died in the past: Only one in 10 U.S. troops hurt in Iraq has died, the lowest rate of any U.S. war.
But those who survive have much more grievous wounds. Bulletproof Kevlar vests protect soldiers' bodies but not their limbs, as insurgent snipers and makeshift bombs tear off arms and legs and rip into faces and necks. More than half of those injured suffer wounds so serious they cannot return to duty, according to Pentagon statistics.
Now, from the right side of the room: U-S-A!! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!
posted by Green Voicemail 12/10/2004 09:44:00 PM
A Public Service Message
"Hi young drug users! It's your buddy Rush Limbaugh!"
From an interview with Jerry Stahl on Salon (sorry about the annoying ads they make you watch....)
On a more serious note, you have to give Rush credit -- he's probably done more to curb the spread of opiate use in this country than anybody. When I was coming up, you had this hipster dope-fiend legacy: Lenny Bruce, Miles Davis, Burroughs, Richards and Nick Cave. Now you've got ... Rush Limbaugh. I mean, who wants to do the same drug as some overfed, unlaid right-wing toady? I can just picture Rush scratching his nose and explaining his anti-immigration policy to the maid he bought his shit from. Buying Dilaudid from your maid -- does it get any more Republican?
(swiped from rimone )
posted by Green Voicemail 12/10/2004 06:20:00 PM
Requirements
Sleazeballs, and obviously, uninsured.
You are required, by LAW, to read this post from Andante over at Collective Sigh .
Failure to read this post will subject you to a fine of 2 years in prison, or 4 years of a Jeb Bush Administration.
posted by Green Voicemail 12/10/2004 07:35:00 AM
Bush: The 'Cream' or The 'Clear'
Canseco: A George Bush role model?
An interesting quote from this article by Steve Kettman in Salon :
Any responsible list of those implicated in baseball's steroid mass has to include former Texas Rangers managing general partner George W. Bush, who on Aug. 31, 1992, traded Ruben Sierra to the Oakland A's in exchange for Jose Canseco. Once a Ranger, Canseco immediately started giving teammates detailed primers on using steroids.
In his State of the Union address on Jan. 20, 2004, Bush said that "tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now." But when "he was the owner of a baseball team, Mr. Bush did nothing about steroids," Paul Begala remarked on "Crossfire." "Although other sports were cracking down on steroids, Mr. Bush and his fellow baseball owners refused to do a thing.
"In fact, Mr. Bush even traded for Jose Canseco, bringing him to the Texas Rangers -- a man who one sports agent told the UPI was 'the Typhoid Mary of steroids.' Perhaps Mr. Bush can get some advice on the steroid crisis he's just discovered from the man he has repeatedly praised, California governor and former steroid abuser Arnold Schwarzenegger."
posted by Green Voicemail 12/10/2004 07:13:00 AM
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Which America-Hating Minority Are You?
Go to the quiz here
Stolen from Island Dave .
posted by Green Voicemail 12/09/2004 01:30:00 PM
Left Wing Offense
The next week of picks:
JACKSONVILLE over Chicago
NEW ENGLAND over Cincinnati
BUFFALO over Cleveland
Indianapolis over HOUSTON
DALLAS over New Orleans
BALTIMORE over NY Giants
ATLANTA over Oakland
MINNESOTA over Seattle
DENVER over Miami
PITTSBURGH over NY Jets
Detroit over GREEN BAY (flip a coin)
ARIZONA over San Francisco
CAROLINA over St. Louis
SAN DIEGO over Tampa Bay
Philadelphia over WASHINGTON
Kansas City over TENNESSEE
posted by Green Voicemail 12/09/2004 01:07:00 PM
Why Blogging is Slow
I do a lot of my blogging at work, during my break time. However, the computers at work have been very slow. I haven't STOPPED blogging, it's just that I've not been able to get to the computer. And when I come home, my wife would obviously want me to talk with her instead of documenting the latest outrages of Boy George's kingdom.
Furthermore, my wife has two friends flying in over the weekend. So, with the social whirl, there might even be fewer opportunities. But we're still gamely hacking away at blogging on this end.
posted by Green Voicemail 12/09/2004 01:03:00 PM
Sunday, December 05, 2004
The New Rules for Our 'Allies'
Hey, in the old days we BRANDED our slaves!
From
Boston.com :
Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned.
...
One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons.
...
Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, " 'What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?' All this Oprah [stuff]," he said. "They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, 'I'm with you.' We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe.
...
US commanders and Iraqi leaders have declared their intention to make Fallujah a "model city," where they can maintain the security that has eluded them elsewhere. They also want to avoid a repeat -- on a smaller scale -- of what happened after the invasion of Iraq, when a quick US victory gave way to a disorganized reconstruction program thwarted by insurgent violence and intimidation.
To accomplish those goals, they think they will have to use coercive measures allowed under martial law imposed last month by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
"It's the Iraqi interim government that's coming up with all these ideas," Major General Richard Natonski, who commanded the Fallujah assault and oversees its reconstruction, said of the plans for identity badges and work brigades.
....
Sounds like a mutual admiration society. The Iraqi puppet government hides behind US authority whenever it wants its safety assured. We hide behind the puppet government whenever we wish to do something morally devious. Hey, General Natonski, why don't we just tell the Iraqi "government" we want no part of such plans? (oops. that would give the game away....)
That above scenario sounds like something Saddam Hussein would have come up with. But remember.
WAR IS PEACE.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
posted by Green Voicemail 12/05/2004 09:16:00 PM
