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By Weldon Berger, on December 14th, 2006
Suppose you have a family member addicted to alcohol who has finally reached the point where he either stops or dies. You gather family and friends together for one last effort to save his life: the intervention. You discuss the various options, settle on three you think will save the day and head on over to lay down the law.
“George,” you say, “this is it. Your life is a mess. We know you don’t like being told what to do but we’ve come up with some hard choices for you. You can either go on a bender now and drink as much as you want later, or you can limit yourself to a daily quart, or you can taper off over the next few years. Whichever one you choose, you have to go to AA meetings. Now, why don’t you take a nice long drive and think things over. Mind the pedestrians. And before you go, let’s drink to your new life.”
That’s basically what the Iraq Study Group has done with their “Go big, go long or go home” options. Increase the number of troops until the military throws up and passes out, or continue the maintenance violence, or try to cut back over a couple of years. And talk to those self-righteous Iranians and Syrians all the while.
Continue reading Why the Bush family intervention on Iraq failed
By Ghassan, on December 7th, 2006
Like chickens in need of a rooster, neocons perched on their proverbial eggs during the Clinton administration’s efforts to promote Middle East peace. They had an omelet recipe, and they needed an emasculated rooster to break some eggs and combine them with hallowed ingredients, like the state of Israel’s continued hegemony – a necessary component for protecting the Israeli governance while it abuses human rights, abrogates international laws, and snubs common decency. A righteous puck, George “Dubya” Bush, could not have made a better evangelist for the state of Israel’s supremacy, crowing the virtues of supporting a mass murdering Israeli Prime Minister whom he crowned as his teacher. And thus red becomes the color of the Middle East at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It’s very easy when national conscience can be defined by events like Nine Eleven. . . . → Read More: American Middle East Blues
By Weldon Berger, on December 5th, 2006
I don’t often veer into the autobiographical but for various reasons this seems a good moment to violate my own privacy.
Depression is a monster. It is a malignancy of the spirit. It is an embezzler and a daylight thief; it will rob you of your simplest pleasures, and often enough of your livelihood as well. It makes you slow, and it makes you stupid. It can drive you to drink and drugs. It will strain the patience and drain the strength of those who love you the most. It is brutal, seductive and, all too often, fatal.
Continue reading Chasing the ghost of Atticus Finch
By Weldon Berger, on December 4th, 2006
A paid informant for a US agency participated in several murders with the knowledge and consent of senior administration officials. Reporting the story based on documents unearthed during several lawsuits surrounding the issue, The Guardian says that the US department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs office paid Guillermo Ramirez Peyro more than $200,000 to act as an informant within a Juarez drug cartel even though they knew he had participated in several murders — Peyro was wearing a wire during at least one of the murders, of a Mexican lawyer, so ICE had a recording of the proceedings — and had helped conceal several more. The decision to continue using Peyro as an informant was made by very senior Justice Department officials, some of whom later colluded with ICE and Drug Enforcement Agency officials to cover up the affair.
Among those involved is the US Attorney for Western Texas, Johnny Sutton, who served as the director of criminal justice for five years under Texas governor George W. Bush and as US Attorney was responsible for the El Paso jurisdiction in which the investigation was headquartered. When a DEA whistleblower threatened to hold ICE officials “personally responsible” for Peyro’s actions, Sutton reached out to Justice Department organized crime division chief Catherine O’Neil, who passed the agent’s outraged letter along to DEA chief Karen Tandy. Tandy summoned Sandy Gonzales, the DEA whistleblower, to Washington, told him in no uncertain terms that he was out of line and then demoted him. Some of the documents used by The Guardian in their story are products of the lawsuit Gonzales filed against DEA when he resigned.
Continue reading Customs, Justice Department complicit in drug cartel murders
By Eric Brewer, on December 4th, 2006
From his November 6 memo:
Set a firm withdrawal date to leave. Declare that with Saddam gone and Iraq a sovereign nation, the Iraqi people can govern themselves.
That’s the way to think outside the box! (Although why did he include it on his list of “less attractive options”?) . . . → Read More: Rumsfeld finally has a good idea
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Word of the Decade Ignoranus: An ignorant asshole.
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Chasing the ghost of Atticus Finch
I don’t often veer into the autobiographical but for various reasons this seems a good moment to violate my own privacy.
Depression is a monster. It is a malignancy of the spirit. It is an embezzler and a daylight thief; it will rob you of your simplest pleasures, and often enough of your livelihood as well. It makes you slow, and it makes you stupid. It can drive you to drink and drugs. It will strain the patience and drain the strength of those who love you the most. It is brutal, seductive and, all too often, fatal.
Continue reading Chasing the ghost of Atticus Finch