Year Ends At 3000

Today the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq reached 3000. 3000 young people dead. For what? The incompetent Bush administration continues the irrational Iraq war and, unfortunately, more people will lose their lifes. Until the democrats and the rational republicans get the strength to do what is right: Vote to block funding for the Iraq war.

That would be the only way to force an end to this war. When I hear democrats interviewed on TV saying "We would never do that...we would never withdraw support from our troops..." it reminds me of the same democratic weakness and indecision that resulted to the lack of opposition to this bizzare war when it was first proposed by Bush et al in 2003 with obvious lies (WMDs). The only way to support our troops is to cut the funding for the war. Hopefully the democrats and rational republicans (whose numbers appear to rapidly increasing) who oppose the war will realize that sooner than later. The sooner, the more lifes will be saved.

Saddam's Execution

Are we back in the medieval times? It certainly felt like that yesterday watching on CNN international the final moments of Saddam before hanging. Although, Saddam was a terrible dictator and a criminal, it is hard to believe that in 2006 we will have the whole world watching images of the....hanging of someone... Hanging? In this century? As for the right-wingers who in their world of illusions believe that the hanging of a powerless ex-dictator was some sort of victory, they better remember the support that Donald Rumsfeld and his likes had given to Saddam Hussein in the past.

I obviously oppose the death penalty for anyone, including people as bad and as evil as Saddam Hussein. The death penalty is barbaric and uncivilized. I believe that Amnesty International was right to deplore the execution. Civilization and death penalty are incompatible with each other.

It should be also noted that Human Rights Watch also deplored the hanging of Hussein. That organization has for more than 15 years documented the human rights crimes committed by Hussein's regime, and has campaigned to bring the criminals to justice. However, as Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program said: “Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can’t justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment”.

John Edwards

During my absence John Edwards announced that he will be running for president. That was expected, but it is still great news. Although I have not decided yet which democrat I will endorse for these elections, he is leading the field right now.

He is smart, aggressive and would make a great president. And he is NOT a member of the DLC. So, unless Al Gore decides to run, I am very likely to endorse and support John Edwards. A winning democratic ticket for 2008 would be Edwards-Obama, and I hope it happens.

By the way, I also like the fact that Dennis Kucinich announced that he will run. I have no doubt that he will push the Iraq issue.

Back

I am finally back. After a long cruise in the Carribean I got back last night. A lot has happened since then. Beyond Saddam's hanging, an interesting development in the last week was the announcement of John Edwards that he will run for the presidency in 2008.

Happy Holidays

Tomorrow I am leaving to go to a cruise in the Carribean. I dont think I will be able to post from there. So,

Happy Holidays

to all regular and irregular visitors of this blog. I will be back before the new year and will post again then.

Oh, and here is a nice video to watch for the holidays.

A little too late

Lamont camp cleared in hacking of Lieberman Web site.

" The U.S. attorney's office and state attorney general have cleared former U.S. Senate candidate Ned Lamont and his supporters of any role in the crash of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman's campaign Web site hours before last summer's Democratic primary."

That came a little too late. At that time, Lieberman blamed hackers for his site going down, to create sympathy for himself and pretend to be the "victim of hackers".

It is hard to believe that a pathological liar like Lieberman was re-elected in a blue state like Connecticut. It pretty much shows that if you are a reasonably good liar you can be re-elected.

War Crime Warnings

Wow. The White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox measures used by the Bush administration...

Interesting....huh?

War Crimes?

A strong case  for the impeachment of GW.    Certainly, violating the Geneva conventions is grounds for impeachment.  Unless we are not in a war.  But the administration insists we are in a war.   

The next president?

There are many unofficial reports confirming what we already know. John Edwards will enter the race for president in 2008. On the other hand, a DLC member, senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, dropped out of the race before he even entered. He is the second DLC'er after Mark Warner to drop out. Now only Hillary and Iowa governor Tom Vilsack represent the (right-wing) DLC in the race for president.

I think that John Edwards has an excellent chance to be the next president. What I believe will happen is that Edwards will beat Hillary in Iowa (he is already leading in polls there) and gain momentum. We will likely end up seing a 3-way race between Edwards, Hillary and Obama, and I believe Edwards will win by a narrow margin. If that happens, it is very likely that he will pick Obama as a the VP candidate for the democratic ticket.

Now, it is obviously hard to predict with certainty who will be the winner of the democratic primaries. But make no mistake, the democratic presidential candidate will be the next president. No republican has even a remote chance to win the presidency in 2008. Some, like Giuliani, may make it more difficult for the democrats, while others, like (extreme far right) Newt Gingrich or (very low-weight) Mitt Romney would make it very easy. I also think that if McCain is the republican candidate, he will be defeated by a landslide. No matter what, the next president will be a democrat. And I believe it will be John Edwards.

Last options for Iraq

It is amazing that there is still some debate on what to do with Iraq. I really dont get it. You have people like McCain and pathological liar Joe Lieberman advocating to send more troops to Iraq. You have Bush insisting that we "can win". Then you have most democrats and some republicans (Chuck Hagel and Gordon Smith) who have realized that things are terrible over there and we should start thinking of getting out. And then you have the troops stuck in the middle of a horrendous bloody civil war among different islamic factions.
The country desperately needs leadership. And the democrats better deliver that after January 1. There is only one simple solution. Get out now. Call it anyway you want. No matter how many more troops one would send, the outcome can not change at this point. That country is destroyed and can not be controlled at this point. The more we stay, the worse things will get for us. Why? First of all because more troops will be killed for no reason at all. Second, because the more we stay now, the less influence we will have in the region after we leave.

Iraq was a catastrophic error done by an incompetent administration. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Blair and Powell have major responsibility for this disaster. Several of them have broken the international law in the process of starting that war. If Bush and his incompetent group continue to ignore the public opinion and the will of the American people and insist in continuing this insane bloody war with no purpose, they should be impeached. The democrats have to get the strength and the guts to move on with impeaching, at the very least Bush, Cheney, and Rice. That may be the only way to save lifes and stop that psychotic war. History is watching.

The Chilean Army Dismisses Pinochet's Grandson

The grandson of sociopathic murderer and criminal Augusto Pinochet was just dismissed from the Chilean army because of giving an unauthorized speech at his Pinochet's funeral on Tuesday. He praised the monster as a great world leader who saved Chile from Marxism.

I am sure there would be some that would argue that the Chilean goverment should not have done that. Oh yeah? If someone was praising Hitler in Germany and was in the military he would, rightfully so, be dismissed right away. It is no different in this case. Pinochet was a Hitler-like or Stalin-like leader, and praising him should not be compatible with being in the military of that country. The Chilean goverment did the right thing to dismiss the fascist grandson of Pinochet.

The Washington Post Endorses Fascism

This editorial in the Washington Post is unbelievable. They essentially praise one of the worst fascist dictators and criminals in history for the "economic miracle" in Chile.

Of course thats not true. The success of the Chilean economy has absolutely nothing to do with Pinochet's crimes. But even if that were the case, praising that mass murderer for that is still beyond comprehension. The end does not justify the means and it is absolutely unacceptable to give credit to Pinochet for anything. It is no different than defending people like Hitler or Pol Pot.

The editors of the Washington Post should retract their dispeakable editorial and apologize to the families of the victims of Pinochet. They are responsible for degenerating a newspaper that used to have credibility in the past to a piece of paper that defends fascism.

Pinochet:The departure of a criminal

Fascist dictator and criminal Augusto Pinochet died. Today was no different than when Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and other criminals and mass murderers in history died. What is remarkable in this case, is that this monster escaped justice and was never prosecuted for his crimes against humanity. He lived a normal, comfortable life until his death.

It is unacceptable in any civilized society that mass murderers and terrorists like Pinochet can openly escape the justice system. And his neo-nazi-like supporters had the nerve to demonstrate in support of him. Anyway, as a human rights lawyer from Chile put it:

"What saddens me is that this criminal has died without having been sentenced".

The picture below shows Pinochet with the then democratically elected President of Chile, Salvatole Allende, 2 weeks before Pinochet overthrew him, killed him, and established his fascist regime in Chile.

Republican Senators Attacking the Bush Administration

It seems that the Bush administration has a huge problem. Apparently republican senator Gordon Smith from Oregon said that the Iraq war may be "criminal". He is right.

There is no question that Bush has lost the support of the country on the war. It now appears that he losing the support of his party. This administration should not be making decisions on behalf of the American people on Iraq. The democrats should now push for withdrawal and if this does not happen, they should move on and impeach Bush, Rice, Cheney and the rest who designed this war, a war that is criminal according to the republican senator.

Bush should be impeached

Thats what I think, and I dont care whether it is politically correct or not. This post in Daily Kos summarizes the reasons for that well I think.

Candidate for president

Great news for certified lunatics and their supporters. Now the religious-lunatic wing of the republican party will have an official candidate for president.

Here is our suggestion to Sam Brownback: Pick Ann Coulter as your VP running mate and make Jerry Falwell the chairman of your campaign. You will be all set for a huge victory.

Lieberman starts speaking honestly

There is no question that Joe Lieberman is a liar. During his campaign to get re-elected in Connecticut, he kept telling how he wants to "bring the troops back from Iraq". Now, he made clear that he wants to send more troops to Iraq.

Thats the kind of a senator for which 50% of the voters in Connecticut voted for. A liar, who lied big time to get re-elected. What is amazing is that it was so obvious when he was lying then, that makes you wonder whether the voters who voted for him paid any attention to the election at all.

I have recently concluded that there are 3 democrats significantly responsible for the re-election of Lieberman and the consequences of such re-election. These were high-profile democrats who campaigned for him in the democratic primary. They are Bill Clinton, Barbara Boxer, and Barack Obama. Without them Lieberman would not be in the senate today.

Why do I say that? One could argue that what they did was irrelevant because Lieberman lost the primary. In fact all 3 of them subsequently "passively" endorsed Lamont. Well, the support that Lieberman got from these 3 popular democrats, especially Clinton, allowed him to get enough support and lose the primary by a very narrow margin (4%). Such marginal loss allowed him to run as an independent and resurrect himself in the general election with the open support of the republican election machine Such support from "liberal" democrats (in fact Barbara Boxer is really a liberal) gave him credibility to low information democratic voters that lasted through the general election. Lets not forget that 30% of the democrats in Connecticut voted for Lieberman and against the democratic party in November. Without such votes Lieberman would have never been re-elected.

So, congratulations Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Barbara Boxer. You succeeded in helping the re-election of a man who represents the very worst in politics in this country.