Curveball says he lied about Iraqi WMD programs…
This will come as absolutely no surprise to anyone who doesn’t suckle at the teat of FoxNEWS but… Curveball (the German/Iraqi ‘source’ for many of the claims that the bush administration used to justify their invasion of Iraq) was lying. And proud of it. And he is shocked, shocked to find out his lies were used to perpetrate an unjust war of aggression.
February 22nd, 2011 at 1:59 pm
So Dems is run and hid in two states now, gutsy move for folks that want to get reelected next year.
February 22nd, 2011 at 2:03 pm
“A source told the newspaper that some Indiana Democrats might head to Kentucky. They need to avoid a state with a Republican governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to their home states.”
Pst! Hey Dems, go to Utah, they love ya there.
February 22nd, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Also, I believe that the last good Republican was a quorum jumper as well. You’ll have to look up the word quorum, it shor don mean ‘queer’ (I mean really, “Dems is run and hid”? is that even English? you are drinking and posting again, aren’t you)
Facts is so dang lib, eh?
Fact is the R gov of IN is breaking with the herd to oppose similar initiatives in his state (I believe the same is true in FL… surprisingly… hmmm… to quote Admiral Akbar “It’s a trap!” ;^)
http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?S=9803297
Yes, Lincoln ‘jumped into the national spotlight’ by fleeing the statehouse in IL to prevent similar political shenanigans. btw it didn’t work in the end, but it showed he had principle and backbone. Bet he’d be a D now.
pssst! Rethugs, Somalia, they’d love ya there! Long time.
February 22nd, 2011 at 3:38 pm
paragraphs got jumbled, 1st should be 3rd
para 1 starts w Facts (single sentence)
para 2 starts w Fact is…
hurf durf
February 22nd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
“Bet he’d be a D now.”
Well, on one hand, he freed the slaves, but, on the other hand, he wished it were possible to ship them all to Africa. Though call.
“My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia,—to their own native land.”
http://www.bartleby.com/251/12.html
February 22nd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Tough call
February 22nd, 2011 at 6:03 pm
True true Mr Smith. But think how far into CrazyTown the Rethuggles have driven (and crashed) the TeaBagger Express: even Saint Ronny of Hollywood would be considered a D by the current crop of Rethuggles (note, Rethug is so crass, Rethuggles [said with a giggle and wink] is so much more cute and non-confrontational, don’t you think?)
At any rate, it was a different era.
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Sooo, did you hear about Curveball?
Oh well.
FYI – National Post is our Right Wing Rag.
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/campus-notes/2011/02/has-national-post-declared-fatwa-911-studies
February 22nd, 2011 at 9:37 pm
even the senior council to the 9/11 Commission doesn’t purport that we have an authoritative account of what happened on 9/11
February 23rd, 2011 at 7:31 am
Did these Republican governors specifically campaign on taking away workers’ rights to organize and bargain?
As in, did they say, ‘if elected, I promise to remove workers’ rights to organize and bargain?”
Or is this just as I suspect – another backdoor, slimy, right-wing attack on the middle class, avergae joe working stiff?
\rant
More corporate tax cuts!!!! Look at all the growth corporate tax cuts have generated since 2000!!!!
/rant
February 23rd, 2011 at 9:53 am
lolz, lil scotty got punk’d: journalist calls up Guvnr Walker and pretends to be sugar daddy David Koch (pronounced ‘cock’) lil scotty proceeds to spill the beans on agents provocateurs, dirty tricks and just how popular he is on teh faux’news’.
What, you don’t believe ol Enkidu? Listen for yourself:
http://www.salon.com/news/the_labor_movement/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/02/23/koch_walker_call
Recall the Rs and put someone in there who cares about, you know, governing and the people’s business, instead of the Cock Brothers bottom line. What a scam!
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:49 am
well, mb the governor of IN is more reasonable, but sounds like someone didn’t get the talking points from the Cock Brothers: violent rhetoric, nahhhh, just some anecdotes n jokes hurf durf!
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/indiana-dep-ag-use-live-ammunition-against-wisconsin-protesters.php?ref=fpblg
Using live ammunition to clear protestors brought us Kent State. Do it again and see if that finally fixes them dirty f!cking hippies. I double dog dares ya.
February 23rd, 2011 at 10:53 am
Jimmy McMillan “the rent is too damn high” is now a Republican, now I can sleep tonight.
February 24th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
It’s been so long since I’ve been here, I had to clean the cobwebs out of my account. Friggin’ mice tore all of the foam out of my lies.com couch, too.
So…honestly. Is there anyone out there who is actually surprised that the Iraq intel was bullshit?
More of an “about time” thing than an “really? zomg” thing.
It seemed pretty clear for a long time that the intel about WMD had nothing to do with our government’s desire to invade Iraq. There has been much speculation as to why, and I don’t believe the conspiracy theories. Personally, and from reading some of the neocon manifestos, I believe that it was just dangerously idealistic thinking that put us there. As far as the bullshit intel, the administration essentially said:
“We’re goin to Iraq…you; intelligence guys – make a damn case to sell this thing to the world and take the fall when everyone finds out that this was bullshit. You, PR guys, make up a few one liners to sell this thing domestically”
February 24th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
hey EP
welcome back, sorry about the couch, you can borrow my futon if that helps
A depressingly large number of people who watch fox’NEWS’ think we found teh WMDz!1!1!!! Or that ‘the whole world thought he had WMDz!’ which was just not, you know, true. I can recall discussing this exact ‘source’ in 2002/2003 with a friend who is a virulent wwnj. Even tho we helped him and his wife become US citizens, we helped them start a business, we helped when their ultra-premi child was born (funny how they were fine sucking down almost a million dollars worth of socialmalistical German healthcare (paid to the finest US hospitals) FREEDUMB!).
When I questioned W’s wargasm, I was labeled a “maggot” “traitor” “arm chair general” and worse and more. I have refrained from poking this article in his face, but curveball (and dumbya) lied, and thousands died – hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as well. and he’s racist too… just sayin… Bit of a pattern… hmmm
ooo looky! Democracy is breaking out all over and we didn’t drop a single JDAM to do it! Obama’s speech in Cairo was mocked by these same wwnjs, but it is looking pretty prescient now wouldn’t you say? (not that I’m giving more than a smidge of credit to O, I think he’s failed to lead on this like so many other things…)
February 24th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Speech in Cairo, was that what started the revolution of hope?
February 24th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
no, not by a long shot, but I think it did send a message to the street.
I’d give far more credit to the instant comm of cheap cellphone cams, twitter, facebook and youtube. Why, you could almost give some credit to the guy that talked incessantly about the Information Superhighway, what was his name? wwnjs erroneously say he claimed to ‘invent’ the intertubes (lolz) He had some other thing he talked a lot about… global something or other?
Sociamalism! also
Speaking of which, the quitter from twitter hasn’t been dominating the newscycle for weeks (praise imaginary skyfather!)
February 24th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
… the administration essentially said:
“We’re goin to Iraq…you; intelligence guys – make a damn case to sell this thing to the world and take the fall when everyone finds out that this was bullshit. You, PR guys, make up a few one liners to sell this thing domestically”
Wow, that’s quite a conspiracy. (I wonder if it could be true.)
Paradoxically, ethan also says, “I don’t believe the conspiracy theories.”
Sounds to me that he believes at least one.
February 24th, 2011 at 8:35 pm
ethan,
welcome back! cards on the table, shall we?
i think you think that i am an idiot and that i think you are sensible.
i actually think you are relatively smart but not very informed, that you do not give a *uck what i think, & that you think i am misinformed.
i want a truce, but with you and me understsanding each other, i think i may not understand you.
waddya think?
February 25th, 2011 at 7:16 am
@knarlyknight: Wow – I’m probably not all that smart, because that took me a couple of reads to parse :). I didn’t know that a truce was necessary – were we at each other’s throats? In any case – I’m happy to listen to and understand you. I know that my politics are pretty out there…especially in that I refuse to tow anyone else’s party line. This is part of the reason why I’ve been mainly keeping my politics to myself – it’s pretty unlikely that anyone wants to hear my drivel. I definitely don’t dump much of this on my friends, because I want to keep them. Then again, after hearing about the pre-war intelligence being bullshit, it was just too damn juicy for me not to be a smug dickhead about it. Call it a weak moment. Further, I’m sure that I could be better informed. I’m not much of a scholar, and work too damn hard to spend much time researching. I do think that I know enough to be dangerous. I’m also young enough to still believe that I might know a thing or two…but that’s fading with age. (A friend made this graph, that applies so well to what I’m saying.)
So to go back to the previous post. Perhaps I should have worded that better – I don’t believe in the more elaborate conspiracy theories (e.g. war for oil, revenge, one-upping the father Bush, etc). What I was trying to say is that the second Iraq war was brought on by political ideology, and I don’t think that the reasons cited had much to do with why we went. The reasons cited gave us a legal and diplomatic foundation to invade, but beyond that – as much as I disagree with the political ideologies of the Bush administration, I never believed that those people were stupid. There was definitely an agenda.
I believe that the second Iraq war was about nation building – and the idea that toppling a totalitarian government (and making a “beacon of democracy” in the Middle East) would scare other totalitarian governments into submission. Further, it was believed that this would eventually help plant seeds for popular revolutions among the authoritarian nations who we’re reluctantly allied with (Egypt, Saudi Arabia). I wish I remembered where I read this, I would definitely site it, but it was documented as part of the neo-conservative ideology that Bush became more open to after the September 11 attacks. I’m sure that guys like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz smugly believe that their actions are somehow responsible for the political upheaval happening in the Middle East right now…and this is probably impossible to prove either way – and Iraq is not quite a beacon of democracy yet. It’ll be decades before that dust settles and we really know if we did those people any real favors – or any real benefits will ripple to other nations in the region.
Anyway, them’s my thoughts on Iraq.
February 25th, 2011 at 7:23 am
Grr, I meant cite, not site. Lies/Wordpress still needs an edit or preview button.
February 25th, 2011 at 7:33 am
enk, best signs I’ve seen at the WI protests…
“Walker is Addicted to Koch!”
“Koch Whore!”
February 25th, 2011 at 7:46 am
@enkidu: It’s tricky business questioning a war when it’s going on (or when it starts). Around that time is when much of the political talk reeks of jingoism. Tempers are high, and many want to thump their chests and sound patriotic. I wouldn’t take the accusations thrown your way personally.
On the other hand, being right about a few things…it takes a big man not to say “I told you so”. I’m not all that big. :)
February 25th, 2011 at 10:16 am
thanks ethan, understanding goes a long way.
re: parsing, it was far easier to write than to read.
Great Graph.
i too have the humility to realize that my knowledge may be dangerous because I do not know everything.
February 25th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
elaborate conspiracy theories – war for oil…
well, it was one of the factors (see Paul Wolfowtiz testimony before congress saying Iraq could pay for our war on Iraq/Saddam – hey how’d that work out? ;) w was a somewhat failed oil man and I wonder why they had maps of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in that Energy Task Force meeting in 2001?
I know someone who worked directly inside the bush white house for years on bioterrorism and he told me that the internal slang or shorthand for the Iraq war was “43”. When he asked why they used that number, he was told by more than one person that it was because they calculated that the Iraq War would be worth it if oil was $43 a barrel. Sounds to me like they did indeed have oil as one of many factors. The biggest? Perhaps not. I think they just wanted to finish the job, kick some @rab @$$ and show the rest of them dang towelheads that you don’t f!ck w the USA!!! (note, not my view, just my thinking on their ‘thinking’).
Remember when 9/11 happened Rummy was all for bombing the crap out of Iraq “because that’s where the targets are”.
WMDs was an excuse. The facts were being fixed about the policy.
NL, funny signs! i love the difference between the WI protestor signs and the psycho racist teabircher signs. Our Ashley is soooo much better than their Ashley. I’ll say it again: Our Ashley is a hero, their Ashley is a zero.
February 25th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
enk,
“43” is some fine, fancy math. I wouldn’t know where to start a calculating that. Let’s see, American taxpayers pay (trillions or godzooksaphillions of dollars) for an invasion lasting no more than 3 months but maybe up to 30 years. That’s the costs. The benefits are that Pro-Western oil companies get to take over facilities that were then mainly Iraqi, Soviet, and Chinese, iirc, and would be able to “free up” production which had been held in check by international sanctions, for hte benefit of the oil copmanies and their shareholders.
Yes Enk, it looks like perfectly acceptable wwnj math:
American taxpayers pay trillions / western oil company shareholders benefit in the billions = $43 /bbl
February 25th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
What’s this? http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/iraq.asp
February 25th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
ethan,
I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
– Robert McCloskey