rapsheet-061808-links

U.S. abuse of detainees was routine at Afghanistan bases --- http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38775.html
Special Note - A quote...." KABUL, Afghanistan — American soldiers herded the detainees into holding pens of razor-sharp concertina wire, as if they were corralling livestock. - The guards kicked, kneed and punched many of the men until they collapsed in pain. U.S. troops shackled and dragged other detainees to small isolation rooms, then hung them by their wrists from chains dangling from the wire mesh ceiling."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Deaths in Vietnam, other wars undercounted: study
--- http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1928547620080619?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
A quote...."WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New estimates of war deaths in 13 nations including Vietnam, Ethiopia and Bangladesh show that previous counts vastly understated the lives lost to war in the past half century, researchers said on Thursday." -- For more on this issue see....Fake Intel / Propaganda - Iraq's Death Toll --- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#IRAQDEATHS
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Army probe of Reuters death flawed: U.S. inspector --- http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1628835920080617
A quote...."BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers who shot dead a Reuters journalist in Iraq three years ago acted appropriately, but the Army's probe of the incident was flawed because evidence went missing, a Pentagon investigation said." -- For more on this issue see....US - Killing the Messenger
--- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/uskillingthemessenger-weblist-mpg-112907
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Drafting of U.S.-Iraq Security Agreement Began Nearly Five Years Ago - posted at ICH --- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
--- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20138.htm
Special Note - A quote...." Documents obtained by the National Security Archive under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the U.S. started drafting the agreement in November 2003. While information available in the heavily redacted copies that were provided does not specifically address such hot-button, present-day issues as the number and location of bases, or control of airspace, these preliminary planning documents show that from the outset U.S. aspirations for conducting military operations based in Iraq were essentially without limit"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

India tiptoes to the new Middle East --- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JF21Df01.html
A quote...."DELHI - The Middle East took a great leap forward this week to the post-George W Bush era. Israel's dramatic shift of glance to the forces of political Islam sums it up. "Today we have concurrent peace negotiations with both the Syrians and the Palestinians and there is no logical reason why there should also not be talks with the Lebanese," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said in Jerusalem on Wednesday."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Middle East serves US [MIOC elites] some humble pie --- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF20Ak02.html
A quote...."A series of new developments raises doubts about whether the US can still be the ultimate intersection in the Middle East through which all roads must cross. The just-hammered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel to halt violence across the Gaza Strip lacked American inputs and bypassed Washington's stated goal of marginalizing the democratically elected Islamic militant movement."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

U.S. Says Israeli Exercise Seemed Directed at Iran
--- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/washington/20iran.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1213989655-mXjDdiTPABHfu6VsCqRzSw
War Alert - A quote...."WASHINGTON — Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities." -- Also posted at CommonDreams --- http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/20/9768/ --- For more on this issue see....The Iran Game - All Over Again - 05-27-08 - mpg
--- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theirangamealloveragain-mpg-blog-052708
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Russia's foreign minister warns against use of force on Iran --- http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/20/news/Russia-Iran.php
A quote...."MOSCOW: Russia's foreign minister on Friday warned against the use of force on Iran, saying there is no proof it is trying to build nuclear weapons. - Sergey Lavrov said Iran should be engaged in dialogue and encouraged to cooperate with the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Sgt. Matthis Chiroux Refuses to be Deployed to Iraq - (YouTube - 2 min - Added: May 16, 2008)
--- http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_PPIU38MM0&feature=PlayList&p=702EFD7939BFCC83&index=70
Video - A quote...."Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, who served in the Army until being honorably discharged last summer after over four years of service in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Phillipines, today publicly announced his intention to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

US Army Sergeant Matthis Chiroux Refuses to Deploy to Iraq --- http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/17/us_army_sergeant_matthis_chiroux_refuses
Related article - A quote...."Sergeant Matthis Chiroux served in the Army for five years, with tours in Afghanistan, Japan, Germany and the Philippines. Last month, Chiroux announced he would not deploy to Iraq. On Sunday, Father’s Day, the deadline for him to report for active duty expired. [includes rush transcript]"
Real Video Stream || --- http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/june/video/dnB20080617a.rm&proto=rtsp
Real Audio Stream || --- http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2008/june/audio/dn20080617.ra&proto=rtsp
MP3 Download || --- http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0617-1.mp3
More… || --- http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/17/stream
For more regarding this type of issue see....Become a Neo-Roman - or Remain an American - 08-11-07 - mpg
--- http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/becomearoman-blog-mpg-081107.html
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Big oil cashes in on Iraq slaughter --- http://wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/oil-j20.shtml
A quote...."Four major US, British and French oil companies are getting their hands on the petroleum reserves of Iraq for the first time in 36 years, based on no-bid contracts, the New York Times reported Thursday. -- These deals reached with the US-backed regime in Baghdad have placed the five-year-old US war of aggression in the clearest possible perspective."

========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====
House approves $162 billion war-spending bill --- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/19/MN9211C17R.DTL
Some quotes...."The House approved the largest war-spending bill to date Thursday, bending to President Bush's call for $162 billion in war funding with no strings attached and giving his successor enough money to wage the wars until July 2009." -- "The House vote is likely to end almost two years of clashes between Democrats and the White House over the Iraq war, which Bush and Republicans have largely won." -- bold by website editor

"Two years of clashes", who do they think they're kidding?!?! They call that badly acted Kabuki play 'clashes'? It could only have been worse if Pelosi and the rest of the Demo elites had pulled down their skirts (that's right - plural), bent over and in full view of the cameras let Bush "do them all".

The solution by the way folks for all of this "betrayal" is real simple. When everyone goes into their respective voting booths this November simply don't vote for either a Demo or a Repub. That's It! That's the solution! It REALLY is that simple. If everyone did that on November than the duopoly party called the DemoRepubs would be gone, never to be seen again.

Really folks how easy can it get? All you have to do is one simple little thing. Quit your whining, quit your complaining, get registered and drag your sorry collective butts down to the voting booth and VOTE for anyone BUT a DemoRepub.

Problem solved....if you do anything else, you deserve what you get. – mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Bush Gives Dems STDs --- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/bush-gives-dems-stds_b_108254.html
A quote...."The least popular, most lawless president in American history took to the Rose Garden today to thank congressional Democrats for having unprotected political sex with him. For caving -- not compromising, but totally capitulating -- on war funding and and telecom immunity, Nancy Pelosi, Stenny Hoyer and the blue dogs they lie down with have been rewarded with the same herpetic embrace that is turning John McCain into a Republican cootie incubator." -- This one was fun! - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

What Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Fred Hiatt mean by "bipartisanship" --- http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/20/bipartisanship/
A quote...."It's bad enough watching the likes of Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel and a disturbingly disoriented Nancy Pelosi eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, exempt their largest corporate contributors from the rule of law, and endorse the most radical aspects of the Bush lawbreaking regime. But it's downright pathetic to see them try to depict their behavior as some sort of bipartisan "compromise" whereby they won meaningful concessions:"
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Financial Meltdown And The Madness Of Imperialism - posted at CounterCurrents --- http://www.countercurrents.org/
--- http://www.countercurrents.org/lotta160408.htm
From the history file - A quote....

"[To the possessor of money capital] “the process of production appears merely as an unavoidable intermediate link, as a necessary evil for the sake of money-making. All nations with a capitalist mode of production are therefore seized periodically by a feverish attempt to make money without the intervention of the process of production.”— *Karl Marx*, Capital, Volume II, “The Circuit of Money Capital”

This editor had no idea that Karl Marx of all people would predict the rise - and fall - of a corporation like Enron. Never forget that before they fell they were thinking of setting up a market to literally buy and sell....the weather. - mpg - posted 04-16-08

========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Obama, the Yang to Bush's Yin
06-20-08
mpg

So we now have an economic system whereby our “elites” have tried to offshore all of this nation’s production facilities, converted most of its economic activity into the buying and selling of "synthetic" debt instruments (i.e. vapor-money, funny-money, monopoly money, over-priced houses, over-priced securities, what-have-you) and is allowing the Fed to pump vast sums of liquid (you know what) into the economy in a vain hope of inflating it and preventing the inevitable consequences of having an economic system based on producing nothing but bogus paper and military hardware.

Yes, yes, yes.....everybody knows the game plan, pump this toxic sludge out there into the other 155 countries economies, dropping the dollar all the way, squeeze your workers standard of living, leverage your military power over other people’s economic assets (Iraq's oil), pop your interest rates back up in a big way with the "kinder and gentler Obama" (a.k.a. “the build phase”, the yang to Bush's yin, the Jeff to Bush's Mutt....etc.) so Obama can "heal" our nation’s woes and “feel our pain” while they jack rates into the stratosphere, (this is probably what Obama meant by "change", a massive deliberate recession to wring inflation out of the economy) suck those now deflated dollars back in and than hopefully start the cycle all over again.

But they've run out of time, this ain't Regan in the eighties, they've done way to much damage already. By every measurable factor of economic output or input, per capita debt load per family, real inflation, actual GDP, Trade deficit, the Federal deficit, etc... They’ve exceeded any economist's wildest expectations regarding just how mach damage an economy can take and still function after it's been totally gutted.

And they're planned war with Iran ain't gonna help either, they've got way to much inflation now, with the Straights of Hormuz closed and oil at $250 a barrel and another war, they'd have a bit more on their collective plate than they could deal with.

So they made the deal, last year Bush told the world "Iraq will be like South Korea" and if you don't let it be "I'll start World War Three". Than they ran around for the last four months feverishly sending Treasury Secretary Paulson and his assorted lackeys to all the big holders of US securities (China, Russia, Saudi Arabia), telling everyone they want the dollar supported. Even Bernanke has joined the party and is trying to jaw-bone the dollar up. They even got George Soros of all people in on the act.

So now they're just gonna squat in Iraq, try to take that country's oil as a consolation prize (they were hoping for a lot more, like Iran's oil, the Caspian Basin, even Saudi Arabia) count up the cash they've made so far, let Obama do his "let's get together and rebuild America thing" and "I share your pain" and “hope, hope, hope” while he wrings his dainty little hands about that "dastardly Fed raising interest rates" (and does nothing about it - after all what can he do). And than we'll all work really, really, really, hard like the busy little worker bees we’re' supposed to be to pay back the ten to fifteen trillion dollars worth of damage our elites have done to the economy.

And who knows, if we’re really good little boys and girls and work really hard, and save our money, and let Obama tax us, and reduce our social security benefits....they can start their war on schedule in 2010 or 2012. If not we may have to wait a whole'nother ten years before they start another war.

Now wouldn't that be a darn shame? - mpg
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Czech Republic opposes US Missile Shield in Eastern Europe --- http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9394
A quote...."WARSAW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Czech opposition has gathered over 100,000 signatures in support of a proposal to hold a national referendum on the placement of a U.S. early-warning radar in the Czech Republic, an opposition spokesperson said on Thursday. -- The agreement between Prague and Washington, which was officially approved by the Czech government on May 21, is expected be ratified by the end of 2008."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

India's inflation rate shoots to 13-year peak of 11.05 pct --- http://www.axilltv.com/at/news.php?id=13072
A quote...."NEW DELHI (AFP) -- Indian inflation raced to its highest level in 13 years, accelerating to over 11 percent after a fuel price hike, according to data Friday that piled pressure on the government as general elections loom."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

First major wave from the economic collapse of the United States hits Canada --- http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1755
A quote...."One of the main reasons the economic collapse of the United States is catching many people by surprise is because our ‘elected leaders’ and the mainstream media continue to tell half-truths."
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====

Fans in frenzy for feisty Firefox --- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JF21Dj02.html
A quote...."HUA HIN, Thailand - Netizens finally got their hands on the latest version of the Firefox web browser this week. Its creator, Mozilla, encouraged people to download the software on Tuesday, which it dubbed "Download Day" to set a world record for the most-downloaded piece of software within 24 hours. "
========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ====