Flying is officially INSANE

The airport experience is now officially beyond ridiculously fucked up. When was the last time you flew?

For me, it was last week, when I had to go to Austin, Texas on business for a few days. I don't like flying in general. It started becoming insane after 911, (remember fingernail clippers and lighters were to be confiscated, but then a year later they were OK again?) but it's even worse now that someone got caught with kerosine a couple years ago, or whatever the hell the "flammable" liquid was.

I brought carry-on only, and accidentally packed *gasp* hair product, that, I'm sorry WAS NOT LIQUID, it was lotion, and they confiscated it. About 60 bucks' worth of Aveda stuff. Those of you who love Aveda products as much as I do can empathize. Can you imagine how much EXPENSIVE product they THROW AWAY every single goddamn day? They must be digging new landfills to accommodate it all.

Think about it. Our government or the airlines themselves could, if there were a brain in their collective heads, actually make a few dollars out of this beyond retarded "security measure" and appease us in the meantime: How hard would it be to have us pay say, $2-$3 for postage, fill out a form, and mail it back to us? Right then and there? It would take 1 minute, tops. They could skim a few cents off the top. It wouldn't bother me, to keep my EXPENSIVE product for a few bucks rather than lose it all.

And, how much you wanna bet they don't recycle any of the containers, as I would have? Unbelievable.

You'd think my rant was over but it's not. Idiocy at its finest continued at the Southwest Gate, with their assinine and kindergartenish "line" signs. There are two poles, with revolving A, B & C. on them. You are to line up after them according to what is on your boarding pass.

Behind each BIG letter (ABC) there are then markers for seats 1-10, 11-20, etc., etc., on subsequent poles, to also coordinate with the NUMBER on your boarding pass (why oh why can't they just do goddamn seat assignments?!?).

When you think of how all the other airlines don't do this, you have to wonder WHY Southwest does. I remember back when Southwest first started the A, B, C thing, and it wasn't all that bizarre. They would just call all the A's to come on board first, and then B's, etc. But no more. Now you have to get in a little "slot," between poles, before boarding!

To complete the humiliation of being treated like a baby, or someone without the ability for cogent thought, Southwest featured this sporty, older woman in shorts & tennis shoes, looking like she was about to start a cheer of some sort, on a loud speaker talking to us like we're five fucking years old. She cheerily and bossily and loudly ordered us to LINE UP next to the appropriate numbered pole marker to board. By now, after having my precious Aveda confiscated, I was seething with anger. And yet, no one else except ONE mumbling man seemed the least bit annoyed.

The capper: While in the FIRST line (before security), there was an Indian family (from India). The two young, naive airport security women looking at boarding passes & passports couldn't figure out why something on their passports didn't "look right." So they just shrugged, and LET THEM GO ON. I wasn't in the least worried about this family, mind you, because I'm not brain-washed about any "terrism" threat. BUT THE IRONY. It nearly killed me.

Sadly, even a few of my friends think the inconvenience actually makes us safer. Good lord. As if. I only hope someone doesn't get caught trying to light their underwear on fire, or we'll have to board without that, too. They already half strip search us: Shoes, belts, jewelry, jackets... I'm not even shy and I don't like removing my clothes and shoes in front of a line of gawking, angry people. Holy shit. They also gave me a hard time because I didn't take my laptop out of its case. EXCUSE ME, BUT ISN'T THAT WHAT THE GODDAMN XRAY MACHINE IS FOR!!

Holy shit this country has gone to hell in handbasket within 7 short years. Yes, I realize it started with Raygun so let's give it really a good 30 years... the shrub's madministration just kicked it into overdrive. OMG, what people are willing to do! It just BLOWS my mind.

I keep saying this, especially lately, now that gas is zooming up past $4 a gallon (reminder: it was $1.50 when the shrub stole office in 2001), but if all these changes didn't happen gradually within the past 7 years, and they just sprung them all on us know, there would be anarchy. We're like the slow, boiling frog in so many ways, aren't we?

Oh, yet another mind-blower: They confiscate your liquids but then once you pass security, you're free to buy all sorts of stuff at the shops by the gates!! How safe is that? Do they inspect everything in every shop? You can then buy WATER. OK, so these geniuses haven't figured out that you can buy powdered explosives? What's there to stop someone from bringing in powder, say, in a make-up compact, then buying water, going into the restroom & mixing it together? Oh there are so many scenarios. Still, the next time they catch a crazy person on a plane with something "threatening" like, say, a watch that ticks too loudly, those will start being confiscated, too.

I am heartily aware that we are being treated this way so that the powers that be can see how much they can get away with before we start protesting it. So far, we're pathetically complicit.

I do intend to send my complaints to Southwest, but I know they won't matter. Another funny bit is that Southwest sent me a survey so they could get feedback on my "flying experience." Sadly, the space where I am to comment allots amere 50 CHARACTERS ONLY, so obviously the rant that would have gone in that space ended up here.

Appease THIS!

I'm usually no fan of Chris Matthews (a.k.a. Tweety) and his usually fairly anti-liberal show, but at very least the guy can spot a disingenuous idiot who doesn't know his history and call him on it. In this segment of his show, Tweety asks Kevin James about 50 times what the shrub was referring to in his speech for Israel's 60th anniversary, where he accused Obama of appeasing the enemy much as Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler in 1939. I know: WTF? Amazingly and interestingly, it bothered Tweety as much as it probably did anyone else with a brain, and a basic understanding of European/American History.

I could not have been less surprised, and more entertained, by the dummied-down hilarity that ensued when Tweety asked James to explain what the shrub meant and how, historically, his jab at Obama was legitimate. If you want to see the true, new conservatism at its best, watch this example of what conservatives think is a way to win an argument/wriggle out of a question they don't know the answer to.

Some over-the-top, extra-funny items of interest: Mark Green, President of Air America Radio says, "When you're in a hole, stop digging;" when James knows he's so beyond cornered he starts yelling "Clinton!" "911!" and tells Mark Green to read "Pathway to 911". No, I'm not kidding. Interest piqued, yet?

Enjoy (if you can, over the yelling), and discuss.

Holy SCHIP! The shrub breaks the law AGAIN!

OK, it's getting ridiculous. The shrub has already amassed a list of crimes longer than anyone's arm, and here he goes again.

Somehow, the fact that he's harming children of the dwindling middle class, specifically, this time angers me all the more. Oh, I know nothing will be done about it. There'll be maybe one MSM mention between American Idol, Britney and Obama/Clinton minutia stories, and then it will be swept conveniently under the rug with the other scandals and crimes. I honestly wonder why the GOP still kisses up to someone who's "legacy" among other things will be hurting the newly poorer (prior middle-class) kids:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration violated federal law last year when it restricted states' ability to provide health insurance to children of middle-income families, and its new policy is therefore unenforceable, lawyers from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Friday.

The ruling strengthens the hand of at least 22 states, including Washington, that provide such coverage or want to do so. It also significantly reduces the chance that the new policy can be put into effect before President Bush leaves office in nine months.

At issue is the future of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), financed jointly by the federal government and the states. Congress last year twice passed bills to expand the popular program, and Bush vetoed both.

Coming only one day after the horrific story on how the shrubco broke the torture laws, it's nearly overwhelming. I guess they aren't wasting any more time letting the ship sink slowly, they're going in the for the big plunge. I'm sure Nancy Pelosi will still say that impeachment is off the table. Sigh.

The United States DOES Torture

And now comes the story that claims the approval of illegal torture methods goes as high as the pResident himself.

Philip Sands of the Guardian reports on the timeline of torture crimes at Guantanamo Bay and its "coincidental" tie-in to similar treatments being approved at Abu Ghraib within the same time frame.

It is a must-read.

Excerpted below, the events that prove that, yes, the United States DOES torture and has tortured under this administration, with the administration's blessing, in blatant opposition to the Geneva Conventions:

On Tuesday, December 2 2002, Donald Rumsfeld signed a piece of paper that changed the course of history. That same day, President Bush signed a bill to put the Pentagon in funds for the next year. The US faced unprecedented challenges, Bush told a large and enthusiastic audience, and terror was one of them. The US would respond to these challenges, and it would do so in the "finest traditions of valour". And then he signed a large increase in the defence budget.

Elsewhere in the Pentagon, an event took place for which there was no comment, no fanfare. With a signature and a few scrawled words, Rumsfeld reneged on the tradition of valour to which Bush had referred. Principles for the conduct of interrogation, dating back more than a century to President Lincoln's famous instruction of 1863 that "military necessity does not admit of cruelty", were discarded. He approved new and aggressive interrogation techniques that would produce devastating consequences.

The document had been drafted a few days earlier by the general counsel at the Defence Department, William J Haynes II (known as Jim Haynes), Rumsfeld's most senior lawyer. The Haynes memo was addressed to Rumsfeld and copied to two colleagues: General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and the most senior military official in the US, and Doug Feith, under-secretary of defence for policy and number three at the department.

Attached to the memorandum were four short documents. The first was a legal opinion written by Lieutenant Colonel Diane Beaver, a staff judge advocate at Guantánamo. The second, a request for approval of new methods of interrogating detainees from Beaver's boss, Major General Mike Dunlavey, the army's head of interrogation at Guantánamo. The third was a memorandum on similar lines from General Tom Hill, commander of US Southern Command (Southcom, covering Central and South America). Last, and most important, was a list of 18 techniques of interrogation, set out in a three-page memorandum.

These techniques were new to the military. Category I comprised two techniques, yelling and deception. Category II included 12 techniques, aiming at humiliation and sensory deprivation, including stress positions, such as standing for a maximum of four hours; isolation; deprivation of light and sound; hooding; removal of religious and all other comfort items; removal of clothing; forced grooming, such as shaving of facial hair; and the use of individual phobias, such as fear of dogs, to induce stress.

Finally came Category III. These methods were to be used for only a very small percentage of detainees - the most uncooperative (said to be fewer than 3%) and exceptionally resistant individuals - and required approval by the commanding general at Guantánamo. In this category were four techniques: the use of "mild, non-injurious physical contact", such as grabbing, poking and light pushing; the use of scenarios designed to convince the detainee that death or severely painful consequences were imminent for him or his family; exposure to cold weather or water; and, finally, the use of a wet towel and dripping water to induce the misperception of suffocation. This last technique came to be known as water-boarding, described on a chat show by the vice-president, Dick Cheney, as a "dunk in the water" and a "no-brainer" if it could save lives.

The Haynes memo recommended "blanket approval" of 15 of the 18 techniques, including just one of the four techniques listed in Category III: mild, non-injurious physical contact. However, he did not reject the others, nor did he advise that they were contrary to the Geneva conventions. Rumsfeld signed his name next to the word "Approved", and added his comment at the bottom of the page: "I stand for eight to 10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?"

Yeah, right, Rummy: You stand 10 hours a day without moving AT ALL? That's quite the feat. Again, the people in power currently are inhuman monsters who appear to not even realize when they are lying through their teeth.

If you want to point out a hell of alot of irony, the idiotic "war on terra" has not made us safer; it's been widely reported to have made us LESS safe. To add insult to injury, torturing political prisoners makes our own soldiers vulnerable to the same type of treatment. Add to this mess that, because our country's money goes to pay for the occupation in Iraq, our borders, ports and infrastructure are becoming less safe and more perilous every day.

It all connects, doesn't it?

The powers that be who occupy (illegally, mind you) the whitehouse have shit on the Constitution, ignored the Geneva conventions, bankrupted the country, put our soldiers in harm's way by torturing prisoners, and now it's all coming out in the wash, as they say. This is a fine article by the Guardian, and it lays out exactly how easy it was for the U.S. to simply condone torture. A low-level attorney was able to give the OK, folks. It was that easy. Rummy was complicit and helped author the thing; he should be tried for war crimes. This entire administration should be tried for war crimes.

What a disgraceful, horrifying era the U.S. has been enduring these past 8 years with these criminals at the helm. If you can't see the downward spiral, and think that someday YOU could be on the business end of a waterboarding session, you better think twice.

Niiiiiiiiiice

As someone who's been called a "potty mouth" and admits the love of the cussing, imagine my "surprise" when I saw this headline:

Book: McCain temper boiled over in '92 tirade, called wife a 'cunt'

Holy fuck!

I've been reading a lot lately about John McLame's temper problem. Having known (but luckily not dated) abusive men, he does appear to fit the bill. His wife has all the body language of an abused woman, that's for sure. Now we know why:

John McCain's temper is well documented. He's called opponents and colleagues "shitheads," "assholes" and in at least one case "a fucking jerk."

But a new book on the presumptive Republican nominee will air perhaps the most shocking angry exchange to date.

The Real McCain by Cliff Schecter, which will arrive in bookstores next month, reports an angry exchange between McCain and his wife that happened in full view of aides and reporters during a 1992 campaign stop. An advance copy of the book was obtained by RAW STORY.

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

The man who was known as "McNasty" in high school has erupted in foul-languaged tirades at political foes and congressional colleagues more-or-less throughout his career, and his quickness to anger has been an issue on the presidential campaign trail as evidence of his fury has surfaced.

(my emphasis).

What I want to know is, why was/is this so damn underreported? Can you imagine the MAJOR headlines if Hillary called Bill a fucking cocksucker? I can't. It would be played ad nauseum on every single major news outlet. Or if Obama called his wife a goddamn whore? Nope. FauxNoise would have 24/7 coverage of it for the next 3 months (much as they have the footage of his pastor's irrelevant speech).

I think the guy is worse than a loose cannon. Do you think this angry asshole would make a good diplomat? What if, in a rage against, say, Ahmadinejad, he decided to just nuke Iran in a fit of pique? What would stop him? He's even more hair-trigger than the shrub. Somehow, that doesn't make me feel safe.

Plus, calling your wife a cunt - especially in public - is about as misogynistic and hateful a display as I can imagine. Why would any woman vote for this asshole? I also think men who treat their wives like this are really displaying cowardice and how much of a bully they truly are. Good leaders have never been men, or women, who talk to their loved ones, or anyone else, in this manner. Bullying is a sign of WEAKNESS, not STRENGTH. And it also displays an inability to respect another person. I won't be told by the MSM, or anyone, that THAT is a quality a president should be espousing.

If this were one incident, I would probably just think his wife is an idiot for staying with him, and leave it at that. But apparently, his temper tantrum problem has been widely known for years. That means he's like this most of the time. Not good.

Like Homer Simpson, he appears to be addicted to Rage-ahol. But McLame's not a cartoon, so it's not funny.

The Bush Crime Family

For those of you who may think that our pResident bumbleshrub is the first in his family to have designs on taking over the country ala fascist coup, think again.

Many of you know, by now, what has been known to investigative journalists and writers such as Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller, since 2001: The shrub committed a coup d'etat and we've been a dictatorship ever since. Now, if you tell the average American that, they will look at you as if you have balloons floating out of your ears. But who are you going to believe, our bought-and-paid-for MSM or the facts?

The coup didn't start with Poppy (Poopy) Bush 41, either. To learn what a truly horrid, power-hungry, sociopathic, greedy and traitorous bunch the Bushes are, you have to go back to Prescott Bush and his nazi antics.

Prescott Bush was an acknowledged traitor who had myriad business dealings with the German Nazi party:

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

***

The debate over Prescott Bush's behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the "Bush/Nazi" connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis' plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler's rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

From The Guardian, September 2004.

Yet, for some shrub enthusiasts, even that isn't enough to shake their dog-like devotion to the bumbleshrub and his rotten family.

While Prescott got rich doing business with the nazis, he also plotted a fascist coup himself. Unfortunately for him, one honest man (General Smedley Darlington Butler), unearthed the plot:

Butler is largely forgotten today, but 70 years ago he was the most revered American military hero, the only man to have twice been awarded the Marine’s prestigious Medal of Honor. During his loyal 33-year military career, Butler led invasions, quelled nationalist rebellions and instituted regime changes to benefit U.S. business interests in Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and China.

In 1933, Butler was approached by men representing a clique of multi-millionaire industrialists and bankers. They hated U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) with a passion, and saw his “New Deal” policies as the start of a communist take-over that threatened their interests. FDR even had the temerity to announce that the U.S. would stop using its military to interfere in Latin American affairs! Wall Street’s plutocrats were aghast! They had long been accustomed to wielding tremendous control over the government’s economic policies, including the use of U.S. forces to protect their precious foreign investments. Because of Butler’s steadfast military role in upholding U.S. business interests abroad, the plotters mistakenly thought they could recruit him to muster a “super-army” of veterans to use as pawns in their plan to subjugate or, if necessary, eliminate FDR.

Butler played along in order to determine who was behind the plot. He later testifying under oath before the MacCormack-Dickstein House Committee on un-American Activities. During that testimony Butler named those who were directly involved in the plot. He also identified an powerful organization that was behind the scenes coordinating and backing the plot. This organization, the American Liberty League, was comprised of some of America's wealthiest bankers, financiers and corporate executives.

However, the House Committee did not properly investigate the coup plot. In fact they helped to cover it up. The powerful fascist [sic] plotters behind the coup were never questioned, let alone arrested or charged with sedition or treason. The Committee even dropped from their report of Butler's testimony most of the names of these wealthy bankers and corporate presidents whom Butler had identified. Butler was of course outraged and he went on national radio to name the names of those behind the coup plot. A sympathetic reporter from the Philadelphia Herald, Paul Comly French was one of the only mainstream journalists to help Butler expose the plotters. John Spivak, a reporter, from the socialist magazine New Masses, interviewed Butler and helped him to put the coup plotters' names onto the public record. (Click here to read Spivak's account of the fascist plot: "The Plot and the Main Players.") For the most part, the mainstream media either ignored the story or went to great lengths to ridicule General Butler. (In his book 1000 Americans, anti-fascist journalist and media critic, George Seldes, described the media's coverup of Wall Street's plot. Click here to read an excerpt.)

Although Butler's patriotic efforts did thwart this fascist coup plot, the Wall Street bankers and corporate leaders who sponsored it continued to conspire behind the scenes to rid America of FDR and to smash his “New Deal.” Evidence of continued efforts by powerful U.S. fascists to regain control of the White House is illustrated by a 1936 statement by William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany. In a letter to Roosevelt, he stated:

“A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime.... A prominent executive of one of the largest corporations, told me point blank that he would be ready to take definite action to bring fascism into America if President Roosevelt continued his progressive policies. Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there. Propagandists for fascist groups try to dismiss the fascist scare. We should be aware of the symptoms. When industrialists ignore laws designed for social and economic progress they will seek recourse to a fascist state when the institutions of our government compel them to comply with the provisions.”

Many of the plotters exposed by Butler, had been boosting their fortunes by investing in the fascist experiments of Mussolini and Hitler. Some of them even amassed great profits by arming the Nazis, both before and during WWII.

This is the family that has been running roughshod over this once-great nation for nearly a century, with no repercussions. It appears that, sadly enough, the Bushes can do just about whatever they want. Proof positive of this was Poopy Bush 41's eerie and nefarious apparent dalliances with child prostitution. Remember this frontpage headine from 1989?

Part of the reason I write this, even though the shrub will be leaving office fairly soon, is because people need to realize that the Bushes are not going to give up all the power they have built. No way. So, if you think that the reins will change in November, you may have another think coming.

My prediction is that the Bush crime family is not about to pass the baton without an illegal and quite destructive fight.

I will save the post wherein I expain how this evil cabal stole the last 2 presidential elections in a future post.

Just for the record, I have gotten so much new work (yay!) that it leaves me very little time in which to read the news, let alone blog.

Well, it's something....

From Citizens for a Legitimate Government:

Breaking: 'When a member of the Bar is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory.'

Former Cheney Aide Libby Disbarred --Bush Commuted Libby's Prison Sentence Last Year 20 Mar 2008 A Washington, D.C., radio station reports that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney, has been disbarred. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Court of Appeals stripped Libby of his ability to practice law after he was found guilty last year of obstructing the investigation in the CIA leak investigation, WTOP radio reported.

***

Vice President's Former Chief of Staff Convicted of Lying to Investigators in Plame Case 20 Mar 2008 Vice President [sic] Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was disbarred today by a District of Columbia court which ruled that his convictions last year for perjury and obstructing justice in a White House leak investigation disqualify him from practicing law.

Admiral Fallon is out; BETRAY-US is in

Have we just lost the final bastion keeping us from a war with Iran? It sure looks like it.

This is bad news: Admiral William Fallon left his post on Tuesday. Did he leave it willingly, or was he forced out?

An article from March 11 in Esquire warned us; and now it's come to pass:

The Man Between War and Peace

As the White House talked up conflict with Iran, the head of U.S. Central Command, William "Fox" Fallon, talked it down. Now he has resigned.

1. If, in the dying light of the Bush administration, we go to war with Iran, it'll all come down to one man. If we do not go to war with Iran, it'll come down to the same man. He is that rarest of creatures in the Bush universe: the good cop on Iran, and a man of strategic brilliance. His name is William Fallon, although all of his friends call him "Fox," which was his fighter-pilot call sign decades ago. Forty years into a military career that has seen this admiral rule over America's two most important combatant commands, Pacific Command and now United States Central Command, it's impossible to make this guy -- as he likes to say -- "nervous in the service."

***

The answer is that he might not get away with it for much longer. President Bush is not accustomed to a subordinate who speaks his mind as freely as Fallon does, and the president may have had enough.

***

(emphasis mine).

Admiral Fallon has left the building. The same building that still houses his once-underling, one of the biggest military sycophants of all time, General Petraeus (I do prefer "Betray-us"; never has a nickname been so perfect, no?). Remember last year when Admiral Fallon told Betray-Us that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that" and a shitstorm from a very offended rightwing ensued? One must wonder what pressure the madministration has been putting on Fallon ever since.

And the madministration loves them some Betray-Us! Admiral Fallon, in sharp contrast, appears to be much more of the type of person one would expect to be an Admiral, whereas Betray-Us falls somewhat short in any type of practical comparison:

Fallon is a veteran of 35 years in the Navy, operating in an institutional culture in which an officer is expected to make enemies in the process of advancement. "If you are Navy captain and don't have two or three enemies, you're not doing your job," says the source.

Fallon acquired a reputation for a willingness to stand up to powerful figures during his tenure as commander in chief of the Pacific Command from February 2005 to March 2007. He pushed hard for a conciliatory line toward and China, which put him in conflict with senior military and civilian officials with a vested interest in pointing to China as a future rival and threat.

He demonstrated his independence from the White House when he refused in February to go along with a proposal to send a third naval carrier task force to the Persian Gulf, as reported by IPS in May. Fallon questioned the military necessity for the move, which would have signaled to Iran a readiness to go to war. Fallon also privately vowed that there would be no war against Iran on his watch, implying that he would quit rather than accept such a policy.

A crucial element of Petraeus's path of advancement in the Army, on the other hand, was through serving as an aide to senior generals. He was assistant executive officer to the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Carl Vuono, and later executive assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Henry Shelton. His experience taught him that cultivating senior officers is the key to success.

(my emphasis). Nevertheless, Fallon's out, and Betray-Us is IN. What a travesty, indeed.

People need to realize the importance of this and hugeness of what has just occurred here. But, as usual, our mainstream media is too busy chasing Britney around, making Spitzer's whore a star, and the like to tell us how goddamn SERIOUS this is and what it means for our country and Iran.

The Los Angeles times summed the power struggle up nicely. Again, in this madministration, if you're not a crony and think for yourself, you are not welcome. In this madministration, you must kow-tow or be given the boot (or worse). Independent thought is not welcome. Strength of character is definitely a major flaw. Too bad for Fallon he had all that and more:

Predictably, the right says that Fallon, who abruptly resigned Tuesday, was insubordinate and wrong about the so-called surge.The left charges that Bush gets rid of military advisors whose counsel he dislikes. In fact, the clash of the military titans may have been less ideological than institutional. Field generals always want more troops for as long as possible, to minimize casualties and avoid giving up battlefield gains. The top brass in Washington are paid to plan the endgame and prepare for the next conflict, which is why tensions between Petraeus and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will persist after Fallon. But the clash also reflects an agonizing U.S. national security dilemma that won't be settled on Nov. 4: How long can we afford to keep fighting in Iraq, and who will be forced to take the fall for "losing Iraq" if we stop?

The timing of Fallon's resignation is provocative. In less than a month, Petraeus will testify again before Congress. The troop surge he recommended is coming to an end in July, as scheduled, because even with extended 15-month deployments, the Army has no more troops to send. The U.S. will be back to its pre-surge troop strength of 130,000, although many military analysts believe that it can sustain a deployment of only 80,000 to 90,000 without breakingthe back of the Army. Nevertheless, Petraeus is expected to ask for a "strategic pause" in further troop withdrawals in order not to jeopardize the much-improved security climate in Iraq. Petraeus will be grilled on whether the less than impressive Iraqi political progress justifies an extended U.S. troop presence.

If it hasn't been as transparent as a bumbleshrub lie, it should be. The evil cabal that occupies our White House intends to invade Iran come hell or high water before their stolen terms are over, and they aren't messing around.

One of the last powerful and noble men to oppose that is now gone.