tortured. 

Iraqii Chaos: Bug Or Design?:

"“The residual unity of [Iraq] is an illusion projected by the extreme repression of the state.” After Saddam, Iraq will “be ripped apart by the politics of warlords, tribes, clans, sects, and key families,” he wrote. “Underneath facades of unity enforced by state repression, [Iraq’s] politics is defined primarily by tribalism, sectarianism, and gang/clan-like competition.” Yet Wurmser explicitly urged the United States and Israel to “expedite” such a collapse. “The issue here is whether the West and Israel can construct a strategy for limiting and expediting the chaotic collapse that will ensue in order to move on to the task of creating a better circumstance.” "

-David Wurmser, working you in the office VP Dick Cheney.

Enough? Not yet. The Beast hungers still.

Where will this stop?

"Enemy combatants" are those poor souls who can be caged indefinitely, without legal representation, or access to the courts.

Soon, an "enemy combatant" is no longer just a terrorist King George the W. claims we captured on the battlefield, but rather anyone who "'has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States' or its military allies."

By that defintion, I think any critic of this administration qualifies for detainment, or as we said in the pre-Orwellian world- imprisonment. Don't forget, as our Republican leaders keep reminding us, to openly question their authority is to appease the terrorists.

What happens when we these two lines of thought intersect, people?

Unless, someone finds their balls and puts them in their pants and stands up VERY quickly, then no dissenter marches far from the gulag.

Those words might sound grandiose. But they are not. We are frogs in the pan. We will soon be boiled. All because we had not the courage to jump.

Olbermann delivers. Big Time.

A Pakistani Mother and daughter gang raped for twelve days because the girl continued to study for her Master's degree at home after being banned from school. Police failed to act. In order for there to be justice the women must find four male witnesses, otherwise they themselves will be imprisoned. That is the Pakistani law under the The Hudood Ordinances, which "were introduced 17 years ago when the then military dictator General Zia ul-Haq was installing shariah law in Pakistan as a way of impressing his conservative Islamic backers at home and abroad".

The leader of Pakistan had dinner with Bush last week. I wonder if this came up. If so I am sure Bush just recommended labeling the women "enemy combatants." What an elegant muzzle to the scream of injustice.

Little Superstar

The Summer Of Death:
12,400 dead Iraqiis, from May thru August
That's a lot of hearts, a lot of minds.

"The July total of 3,590 deaths was unprecedented, it said, while the August figure of 3,009, though lower, was also among the worst yet.
In its previous report two months ago, it gave a combined figure of 5,818 for the two months of May and June. The latest two-month figure shows an increase of more than 13 percent over that number, which it described as a sharp surge at the time."

Too lazy to research this further, but the American controlled government in Iraq instituted a new flag in Iraq two years ago. It seems to to have disappeared as Iraqii Kurds are now flying the flag of "Kurdistan" over goverment buildings in a supposed unwillingness to fly Saddam's. 40 million Kurds comprise Greater Kurdistan, its flag is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Those rooting for the underdog, a populace who lost their homeland in the divving up of the region after WWI, score one point.

Aljazeera.Net - US war with Iran has already begun

"trickle down theory", as in what happens with cheap diapers, aka doodoo economics: The Washington Monthly