Month: October 2005

Reading the various daily science news websites I check out each morning, I was hit by the coincidental announcement of several cases where the scientific community is fighting back against “bad science” (the misuse of data to promote a specific – usually conservative or corporate – agenda), against stonewalling, and against the apathetic (or antagonistic) attitude of “business as usual.”  It’s good news when we see the “good guys” taking a stand since scientists are usually reluctant to get involved in the political fray, so I thought I’d share the information with you all, below the fold.

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In a warped effort to minimize the number of US casualties that have died in the illegal war on Iraq, the right-wing blogosphere is buzzing with inane justifications now that the death toll has reached 2000+. I guess that’s what you have to do when you continue to support a president who, without a doubt, lied to everyone about his reasons for the invasion which has also resulted in the deaths and injuries of countless Iraqis – countless because your president refuses to acknowledge the real destruction he’s caused.

Just as CNN did yesterday in a report in which it compared the number of deaths to those in the Battle of the Bulge, wingers are trying to comfort themselves by proclaiming it’s ”only 2000”, after all. “So while we mourn our servicemen and women, and celebrate their heroism, and thank their families for their sacrifice, let’s keep this in perspective,” that blogger writes. This coming from a person who has to use CDC stats on deaths from septicemia to prove that 2000 dead soldiers are no big deal. Pathetic.

One wingnut commenter over at Sister Toldjah’s site chimed in with this:

2000 is a number. The lefties, Bush-haters, and anti-war idiots think a round number is so fearsome.

I don’t see these people recoiling from the round numbers of people killed by the left wing regimes in Vietnam, China, and Cambodia (Pol Pot). I don’t see them counting the number of people killed by al Qaida and demanding that they stop.

Just like their dear leader, when all else fails – lie. No doubt, right-wing nutbars like that don’t think the 2000+ who died on September 11, 2001 counted for much either except when they want to use 9/11 to justify whatever bile they choose to spew on any given day.

Look. You can’t have it both ways. Either a death means something or it doesn’t. If you keep beating the war drums and insist that every single person who died in Iraq to this point died because “freedom is on the march”, either you honour those soldiers or you don’t. And if you choose to minimize the number of soldiers who have died, then you don’t know what it truly means to honour anyone.

So take your smug justifications and stick them where the sun don’t shine. The rest of us “anti-war idiots” will be somberly remembering what those deaths mean today – and every day – until this insane war ends and we will also fight your dear leader who still refuses to give the troops the proper protection and equipment they need. And, we will not hide in our houses or in the halls of government like you. We will stand out in the streets and show you exactly what honouring the dead really means.

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TODAY’S NEWS ::
Prosecutor Winding Up CIA Leak Probe

It’s DoD Donald Rumsfeld proximity to Intelligence fabrication, and not VP Cheney’s responsibility. The political HQ in the White House under Karl Rove is of course target in DoJ Fitzgerald’s investigation in the outing of Valerie Plame.

The confidential intelligence about CIA agent Plame must have been gathered by David Wurmser and his DoD Office near NESA/OSP in the Pentagon, and leaked to “Scooter” Libby and Stephen Hadley. Judith Miller was not a CIA but a DoD Operative on the coat tails of Chalabi.

More below the fold »»

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Bill Frist (R-TN): To not remove President Clinton for grand jury perjury lowers uniquely the Constitution’s removal standard, and thus requires less of the man who appoints all federal judges than we require of those judges themselves.

Mitch McConnell (R-KY): Perjury and obstruction hammer away at the twin pillars of our legal system: truth and justice … ‘ `if oaths should cease to be held sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights would become insecure.'”

More of these “appetizers” from Jane Hamsher are at the firedoglake blog.

Maureen Dowd on Judith Miller: “The traits she has that drive many reporters at The Times crazy – her tropism toward powerful men, her frantic intensity and her peculiar mixture of hard work and hauteur – have never bothered me. I enjoy operatic types.”

(From my dictionary) TROPISM: “To move or turn in response to an external stimulus, either by attraction or repulsion …”

Maureen will be on the Don Imus show (MSNBC TV) in the 5am PT hour. Imus has been obsessing about Judy and Scooter having an affair … apparently there’s buzz all over Washington.

More buzz: The Los Angeles Times says that the leak inquiry seems to be shifting to Rove. On Tuesday — besides dispatching FBI agents to the Wilsons’ neighbourhood (spelled the Canuck way in honor of Catnip’s story on the neighboUrs) — prosecutors “question[ed] a former West Wing colleague about contacts Rove had with reporters in the days leading to the naming of the covert operative.”

P.S. JPol sent this along from the NYT: “A front-page article yesterday about the C.I.A. leak investigation misstated the terms under which Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed last year by the special counsel in the case. He was not under oath.” (Published: October 26, 2005) I hope that’s the last correction in THAT story.

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According to an article in the USA Today on-line, the head football coach of the United States Air Force Academy thinks that his team is probably getting its ass regularly kicked on the gridiron because opponents have many “Afro-American kids [that] can run very, very well.”

In other military news, the Secretary of the Army released a report yesterday saying that he thinks the U.S. Army is in danger in any potential match-up with Nigeria, because Nigerian soldiers are “very athletically gifted blacks, while too many white soldiers in the U.S. Army have to rely on their brains and technology for effective killing skills.”  (In case any freeper happens to read this — the preceding sentence is pure bullshit).
 

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