Hot Potato Mash

THE SHOCK DOCTRINE by Alfonso Cuaron & Naomi Klein

Alfonso Cuaron, director of “Children of Men” - one of the best movies I've ever seen, applies his trade to a video short based on Naomi Klein's upcoming book, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”. It's eye opening to say the least. Watch it, watch Cuaron's great film and read Klein's new book!

“Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)” (Alfonso Cuarón)

“The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” (Naomi Klein)

(h/t Bhc, who is finally back in the saddle after a short hiatus)

CONTEST: Enter The Attack Iran Pool

Another NEOCON hopes for an Iran attack! I'm shocked! Who would have thunk it? Additionally, former CIA agent Robert Baer says the attack will happen within six months. And we know that Dick 'Evil' Cheney has been begging for such an attack for as long as he has been without a heart.  Further, Fox 'News' has been clamoring for an attack since not long after it helped steal the 2000 election. In other words, the decision, like the decision to invade Iraq long before we invaded Iraq, has already been made and the only thing left to figure out is when it will occur.

Thus, the timing seems ripe to start an informal attack Iran pool. Or, for a little more pizzazz, “The Day All Hell Breaks Loose Pool”. No entry fee and the winner (whoever comes closest) will get a subscription to The Nation (note: The Nation has nothing to do with this contest). To enter, leave your date (explanation optional) in the comments section with a real email address so that I can contact you should you win (I will not use your email or give it out under any circumstances). Only one entry per person and only one per day (the first person to choose a day gets it).

My guess: Friday, October 26, 2007

Explanation: We know from Andy Card that, “From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August,” so Iran is definitely safe for the next week. Then Ramadan, Islam's holiest month, runs from September 12 to October 11, 2007. And while the Bushies have repeatedly proven themselves capable of the dastardly and the stupid, one has to believe that they would have the sense to stay away from Ramadan.

By mid-October, however, the White House will be faced with a broken army incapable of sustaining Bush's continued escalation plans. Additionally, once Iraq cools off a bit, Iraqis will begin to escalate their attacks on American troops causing casualty figures to skyrocket.

Finally, the sub-prime mortgage debacle will have reached its pinnacle by October leading to a market free fall and a probable recession. This will likely break the spirit of even Bush's diehard lunatic base requiring Bush to take drastic action.

This Perfect Storm will lead to a Wag the Dog scenario that will push up Bush's timetable for an attack in order to shift the Nation's attention away from all that ails the country.  A couple of table spoons of “Shock and Awe” might just do the trick. Plus, the Bushies will want to avoid putting a damper on Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas or prime shopping months. Thus, the last half of October is a big time Danger Zone. Lastly, the White House loves to release bad news late Friday heading into the weekend.

NOTE: The point of this contest is to illustrate the absurdity that all signs point to an Iran attack while the country sits ideally by. We should all be doing everything within our power to stop this insanity.

WARRANTLESS SURRENDER & WAR CRIMES

Glenn Greenwald: “It is inconceivable on every level that the Democrats would capitulate in this way and it is disgraceful beyond what can be adequately described.”

Marjorie Cohn: “This is a Congress that has remained terrorized by the Bush administration since 9/11.”

Marjorie Cohn: “It takes the power out of judges hands and puts it in the power of Alberto Gonzales and the Director of Intelligence.” 

Glenn Greenwald: “Two months earlier James Comey testified before the Senate that he and Aschroft and others had discovered that whatever it was that they were doing from 2001 to 2004 was so illegal, so unconscionable, that they had all decided to resign en masse from the government unless that behavior seized immediately.” And Greenwald interviewed Senator Chris Dodd this weekend, “and I asked him whether or not Senators had any idea of how they had been using this secret spying in order to spy on Americans - what these additional programs are, what it was that they were doing that made James Comey and John Ashcroft threaten to resign from the government - he has absolutely no idea nor do the other Senators.”

In other words, Congress passed a law for which it knows nothing about but that we know was so unconscionable that John Ashcroft threatened to resign over it. And if that is not scary enough, the rubber stamp judges of the FISA court have been replaced by Alberto Gonzales.

Marjorie Cohn: “Even though I am a criminal defense attorney, I quite enjoyed writing up a sample indictment of Alberto Gonzales for War Crimes. He's a war criminal because it was memos that he signed and policies that he put into place, that he convinced Bush to put into place, that led to torture of prisoners in US custody.”

“Torture is illegal under our law. It's illegal under three treaties we have ratified -- the Geneva Conventions, the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. And notwithstanding the Bush administration's distaste for treaties and so-called international law, our Constitution has a provision called the Supremacy Clause and it says that treaties shall be the supreme law of the land. That means that treaties are US law. And pursuant to those treaties we have enacted two federal US statutes -- the Torture Statute and the War Crimes Act. Under the War Crimes Act, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions constitute war crimes. So torture is illegal, all the time. And, in fact, the Torture Convention says, no exceptional circumstances, even a state of war can ever be used as a justification for torture.”

And yet we torture at Gitmo, Abu-Ghareb, all around Iraq, Afghanistan and at CIA black-sites.

Glenn Greenwald: “The greatest threat, the truly unresolved issue is whether we will have a military confrontation with Iran prior to the end of the Bush presidency.”

Amy Goodman: “And yet your explanation of the Democrats and how they are dealing with the president at his lowest polling ever -- perhaps in modern polling history, still caving in bill after bill.”

Glenn Greenwald: “What is so baffling about it is, i think people forget that immediately before the midterm election in 2006, Karl Rove's strategy was to force a vote on the military commissions act and warrantless eavesdropping.” And Democrats voted against both and the Republicans tried to make a huge deal about Democrats being weak on terror. “And the Republicans got crushed with that strategy. And Democrats refuse to realize that that strategy no longer works. Americans are largely immune to this fear-mongering.”

Marjorie Cohn: “The war was premeditated, deliberate, violation of the law. The UN Charter, also a treaty, also part of US law says the only two instances where a country can use force against another is in self-defense or when the Security Council agrees.  And there was never any evidence that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to us or any other country...and the Bush administration knew that...they intended to invade Iraq since way before 9/11. And now it's really clear why they did that. And that is to install huge permanent military bases, the biggest in the world, and the biggest US embassy in the world in Baghdad. And to privatize Iraq's oil. They are trying to push through this Iraqi oil law that even Congress is touting as a benchmark for Iraqi progress and it would give control of 3/4 of Iraq's oil to foreign oil companies.”

“It is very important not to say that the war was a mistake, the war is being fought incompetently. The war is illegal and it is also immoral. It is killing thousands of US soldiers. It is killing tens of thousands of Iraqis and draining our national treasury. And the majority of American people know this. But Congress has not caught on yet. ”

Maybe There Is Justice In The World

I don' t believe in God, karma, what comes around goes around, the good are rewarded and the bad are punished, heaven and hell, pay it forward, etc. because the evidence against all is so great. Nonetheless, a few more videos like this one of 'General' Bill Kristol might have me changing my tune.

Don't Believe The Hype - US Not Leaving Iraq Anytime Soon (Updated)

The 104-acre $592 million US Embassy in Iraq will staff more than 1,000 people and cost $1.2 billion per year to operate. 

Norman Solomon writes at AlterNet that no major presidential candidate for either party is seriously speaking about getting our military out of Iraq. Instead, we are witnessing a replay of the same lies designed to placate the populous about an eventual pullout, all the while a military buildup is in the works. Solomon writes:

Scratch the surface of current media scenarios for a U.S. pullout from Iraq, and you're left with little more than speculation -- fueled by giant dollops of political manipulation. In fact, strategic leaks and un-attributed claims about U.S. plans for withdrawal have emerged periodically to release some steam from domestic antiwar pressures.

This is the same playbook, according to Solomon, followed by the Bush administration before the 2004 election:   

Nearly three years ago -- with discontent over the war threatening to undermine President Bush's prospects for a second term -- the White House ally Robert Novak floated a rosy scenario in his nationally syndicated column that appeared on Sept. 20, 2004. “Inside the Bush administration policy-making apparatus, there is strong feeling that U.S. troops must leave Iraq next year,” he wrote. “This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democracy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go.”

The embassy will be 6 times larger than the United Nations compound in New York

The hype about leaving Iraq was b.s. then as it is now. What's of particular interest is what Solomon writes is the reason behind the half-hearted calls for withdrawal by Democratic candidates:

Those candidates know that powerful elites in this country just don't want to give up the leverage of an ongoing U.S. military presence in Iraq, with its enormous reserves of oil and geopolitical value. It's a good bet that American media and political powerhouses would fix the wagon of any presidential campaign that truly advocated an end to the U.S. war in -- and on -- Iraq.

The nearly completed US embassy monstrosity.

What this all means for Iraq and our troops in Iraq, in the run-up to the 2008 election, depends on where you sit:

The disconnect between public opinion and elite opinion has led to reverse perceptions of a crisis of democracy. As war continues, some are appalled at the absence of democracy while others are frightened by the potential of it. From the grassroots, the scarcity of democracy is transparent and outrageous. For elites, unleashed democracy could jeopardize the priorities of the military-industrial-media complex.

Unfortunately, the odds of winning the struggle for an Iraq pullout and winning back our democracy are equally bad. See the stolen elections of 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Thus, instead of listening to the political rhetoric and media propaganda it is imperative to look at the facts, including:

1. JOINT CAMPAIGN PLAN: recently leaked classified plan which calls for a significant American role in Iraq until at least 2009.

2. KOREA MODEL: Bush has referred to the Korea Model on multiple occasions over the last couple of months. The US has a significant military force in Korea for more than a half century.

3. PERMANENT MILITARY BASES: Despite the recent House Bill banning permanent bases in Iraq, the US continues to build huge multi-billion dollar bases. First, the House Bill only bans new bases which should hardly be a problem since the permanent bases have long been under construction. Second, if need be, the military need only call the bases, some of which are the size of small towns, “enduring” bases. 

4. WHITE HOUSE THINKS PROGRESS IN IRAQ IS SATISFACTORY: Despite missing on 10 of 18 “benchmarks”, the Bushies appear pleased with our progress in Iraq.

5. NEOCONS & FOX NEWS ALSO PLEASED WITH IRAQ PROGRESS: Watch Fox 'News' on any given day or check out this mashup of neocon Fred Kagan I recently put together.

6. THE OIL: We are not going anywhere until the oil issue is settled. In other words, not until the Iraq legislators we installed feel sufficiently bribed or threatened enough to hand over the vast oil resources of their country to Exxon. 

7. THE BUSH LEGACY: Sure it is a joke. Everything the Bushies have touched over the last 6 1/2 years have gone the same way as Iraq. His so-called greatest achievement, No Child Left Behind, has been disastrous for education. Hurricane Katrina. Squandering the surplus and creating a ginormous deficit. Turning world opinion against Americans. Dividing the country. Torture. Corporate giveaways. Extraordinary rendition. Gitmo. Habeas Corpus. 9/11. Osama. The point being, that Bush will go down as the worst president ever even if we were to find some face saving way out of Iraq. 

But, because everyone says his legacy depends on Iraq and he clearly believes the same, what incentive does he have to throw in the towel? There might be a few people in the world willing to sacrifice their own legacy for the greater good of humanity, but Bush ain't one of them. Hell, it took the mightiest of efforts to get W. to sacrifice a single day of vacation to conduct a fly-over of the gulf region days after Hurricane Katrina hit.

8. THE EMBASSY: Like the permanent bases, the new half billion dollar plus, gigantic, architectural disgrace of an embassy (seen in the three photos above) will cost more than a billion dollars a year to run. 

Thus, the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the White House plans are to continue full speed ahead in Iraq no matter what General Petraeus September progress report brings. And the lame attempts by the leading Democratic presidential candidates to put a stop to the Iraq war does suggest that, as Solomon writes, they fear what upsetting the media and elite power brokers would do to their candidacy and thus will continue to not rock the Iraq boat.

In other words, don't believe the hype heard throughout the mainstream media concerning a troop withdrawal or pullout. Because it's pure and simple propaganda.

Read Solomon's article at AlterNet

UPDATE: Bhc has a must read post on how the Bushies are using the “liberal” media to manufacture the consent necessary for the long term presence of significant American troops in Iraq. While the entire read is a must, I particularly loved this paragraph:

Yes, this is a victorious day for the truth-seekers at Powerline and Captain's Quarters. Michele Malkin is moist. For not only has the truth about Iraq won out, it has done so by the fey hand of “liberals,” from the “liberal” Brookings Institute, and been doled out on the pages of the “liberal” New York Times, sure to be sopped up with gusto by those northeast, latte-slurping liberals. This is good, you see, because liberals run everything, which is why the US is fighting two failing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, agitating and arming for a third with Iran, sending missile defenses to Europe to piss off the Russians in the hopes of ramping up a new cold war, sending arms to Saudi Arabia, backing the brutal actions of Ethiopian government troops in Ethiopia and Somolia, and arming rebels in Darfur. If liberals weren't in charge, why, imagine the bliss. But I digress.

UPDATE II: Pentagon Announces 20,000 more troops headed to Iraq

Nearly 20,000 U.S. troops based in the United States will begin departing for Iraq in December as part of the regular rotation of combat forces there, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.  These Army and Marine Corps units are not related to the buildup of American troops announced by President Bush in January, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The Sky Is Not Blue!

CNN's Michael Ware responds to General Peter Pace's comments about a “sea change” in Iraq. To be blunt, Ware calls bullshit on Pace and the Bush administration.

It is important to note that the Bushies are now making a concerted effort to convince Americans that the “Surge” is working. Pace makes a day long visit to Iraq and sees flower gardens. Neocon a-hole Frederick Kagan was on Fox News Sunday telling Brit Hume that Stephen Hadley had it wrong - the surge is not just going well but very well! And neocon-in-chief, General Kristol, is also on record stating that Iraq is the new Monte Carlo or something similar.

Speaking of Monte Carlo, I'm betting that we are in the beginning stages of what will turn out to be the most insane and massive propaganda campaign the world has ever seen. The administration is essentially setting out to convince the American people that the sky is not blue. Just like we see the blue sky every day, we see and read about the escalating violence and rising death tolls in Iraq every day.

Can the Bushies succeed in convincing us that, counter to all the evidence, Iraq is now a fantabulous success? Well, you do know that the sky is not really blue, it just appears that way...

VIDEO MASHUP: Neocon Fred Kagan Is A Liar

Cross-posted at BRAD BLOG

UPDATE: The original video had one error identifying Frederick Kagan as a co-founder of PNAC. In fact, it was Robert Kagan, Freddie's brother who co-founded PNAC with General Kristol. Freddie is merely a rank and file member of PNAC and signatory to some of the reports generated by the neocon think tank. (hat tip Robert Danow)

Neoconservative co-founder of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) and author of Bush's recent Iraq “Surge” plan, Frederick Kagan, shared a virtual propagandafest with Brit Hume on Fox 'News' Sunday yesterday. BRAD BLOG covered the entire charade that was Kagan's Plan for Success back in January along with a timeline evidencing Freddie's ever-changing call for a troop surge which began with 50,000 additional troops and ended up with either 20,000 or 33,000 more soldiers depending on the day of the week.

Perhaps the only thing more amazing than Kagan's lack of honesty and empathy for our troops is Fox's audacity for continuously giving Kagan and his warmongering kin, including “General” Bill Kristol, a platform to spout their neoconservative rhetoric. If Fox 'News' had any integrity whatsoever it would implement a Mendoza Line type requirement for its pundits. In baseball, all one has to do to stay even with the Mendoza Line is get a hit 1 out of every 5 at bats. Imagine if Fox made it a requirement that Kagan had to be right on at least 1 of 5 matters that he weighs in on. Actually, as far as I know, if the minimum requirement were merely to be right once he wouldn't make it on the air.