5 Years

It has been five years since the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. And so the day of protesting began as per usual in the no free speech zone known as America:

Today, police arrested more than 30 people “who blocked entrances at the Internal Revenue Service building” as “part of a day of protests to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.” Demonstrators also converged in Miami and San Francisco, and other cities across the country.

It wasn't long after that until we heard and read the banner news that it was all over:

MAY 1, 2003:
Mission Accomplished

"My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
-Bush, 5/1/03

It is five years later and, right now, 3992 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Innocent Iraqi civilians are still getting slaughtered by supposed friends and foe alike. And bush fanatics talk of 10, 100 OR even ONE THOUSAND more years of this. Nevermind the last five years. What has happened just in the last week in Iraq?

Monday 17 March: 92 dead

Baghdad: 3 are killed in minibus explosion, Karrada; roadside bomb kills policeman, Mansour; mortar attack kill 5 at soccer field (2 of them children), Ghadeer; mortars hit house, kill 6 children, Sawmar; 7 bodies.

Karbala
Karbala: suicide bomber kills 52 near shrine.

Basra
Basra: gunmen kill policeman; woman's body found.

Anbar
Haditha: gunmen attack checkpoint, kill policeman.

Diyala
Abu Saida: roadside bomb kills 1.

Ninewa
Mosul: roadside bomb kills 1; 10 bodies.

Kirkuk
Udhaim: 3 bodies of neighbourhood patrol found.

Sunday 16 March: 26 dead

Baghdad: car bomb kills 1, Mansour; 5 bodies.

Diyala
Hwedir: 5 policemen die in clashes.
Khanaqeen: roadside bomb kills Kurd.
Muqdadiya: 2 bodies.

Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 2 policemen; roadside bomb kills 1; 3 bodies -one beloning to 11-year-old boy.

Basra
Basra: 4 bodies.

Wassit
Kut: 2 bodies.

Saturday 15 March: 19 dead

Baghdad: 2 bodies.

Diyala
Al-Huwayder: gunmen kill civilian.
3 bodies.

Ninewa
Mosul: truck bomb kills 1 at checkpoint; bodies of 3 brothers found.

Wassit
Kut: 6 die in clashes; gunmen kill 1 during house raid.
Numaniya: body found.

Babil
Iskandariya: gunmen kill civilian.

Friday 14 March: 15 dead

Baghdad: football coach is shot dead, Al-Yarmuk; street sweeper killed by roadside bomb; 2 bodies.

Wassit
Kut: 2 policemen are killed in clashes; motorcycle bomb kills 1; chieftain's son is killed in clashes; bomb strikes minibus, kills 2.

Babil
Hilla: rockets kill 4.

Ninewa
Rabiya: suicide bomber kills interpreter at Syrian border.

Thursday 13 March: 39 dead

Baghdad: car bomb kills 18, Bab al-Sharki; gunmen kill journalist; 3 bodies.

Diyala
Baquba: civilian killed by gunman.

Salahuddin
Al-Hajaj: 3 Sahwa killed by gunmen.
Tikrit: gunmen kill policeman.
Baiji: gunmen kill 2 at checkpoint.
Samarra: 15-year-old girl is shot dead by police who open fire on family car at checkpoint.

Najaf
Najaf: policeman killed in drive-by shooting.

Kirkuk
Al Zab: suicide bomber kills 3.
Kirkuk-Rashad highway: car bomb kills 1.

Wassit
Kut: 2 killed by rockets during clashes.

Ninewa
Daybaka: 1 body found.
Mosul: abducted Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho is found dead.

Wednesday 12 March: 24 dead

Baghdad: roadside bomb kills 2, Amin; 4 bodies.

Diyala
Bazaiz Buhrz: US forces fire warning shot and kill 10-year-old girl.
Benizad: 5 Sahwa shot and beheaded at checkpoint.
Dali Abass: 1 body.
Kanaan-Balad Ruz: 1 body.
Imam Habash: 2 bodies.
Muqdadiya: 2 bodies.

Salahuddin
Baiji: policeman is shot dead.
Samarra: 3 fuel truck drivers killed by roadside bomb.

Tuesday 11 March: 90 dead

Baghdad: gunman kills 1 riding on minibus; 5 bodies.

Salahuddin
Dhuluiya: suicide car bomber kills 8 at checkpoint.
Tikrit: 3 die in US airstrike.
Samarra: 20 bodies found in mass grave -5 of them children.

Wasit
Kut: 22 are killed in clashes, 5 of them children.

Diyala
Muqdadiya: 2 bodies.

Dhi Qar
Nassiriya: roadside bomb hits bus carrying mourners returning from a funeral, kills 16.

Babil
Yusufiya: bomb explodes in building, kills 1.
Iskandariya: gunmen kill 1.

Anbar
Thar Thar: suicide car bomber kills 2 Sahwa members.

Ninewa
Mosul: 5 are killed when gunmen attack police checkpoint; 3 die in a car when US helicopter opens fire.

Basra
Basra: gunmen kill 1.

That is 21 confirmed dead Iraqi children just in the last week alone...

Just a typical week in Iraq as bush spreads FreeDumb. Do you really want to do the math on five years of this:


I'll save you the trouble of doing the simple math here...

FIVE YEARS times 52 WEEKS times 21 DEAD IRAQI KIDS equals

A special place place in hell for all of you war cheerleaders...

If you are currently stuck in a foreclosure battle...

Do you think the judge should know about this:

Yesterday, the FBI disclosed that it has launched criminal investigations against 17 companies “in the fallout of the subprime mortgage collapse.” Two Justice Department officials have confirmed that Countrywide Financial is one of the companies under investigation.

Ya know... Courts might not want to be rushing to judgments in these cases. There is nothing routine about what is going across America in this mortgage crisis. The article discusses some of the problems they see:

While the bureau will not comment on the companies that are under investigation, two Justice Department officials confirmed to ABC News reports in last week's Wall Street Journal that Countrywide Financial is under investigation.

FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment on any open cases after the recent troubles of investment bank Bear Stearns, which JPMorgan Chase bailed out earlier this week by purchasing the company.

But in an interview with the Reuters news service Tuesday, Neil Power, section chief of the FBI's Economics Crimes Unit, alluded to a possible probe, saying, "Common sense would indicate that we would look at something that big."

"The problem is that banks weren't doing their due diligence," Power said.

It would seem to me that a lack of due diligence on the part of the banks would make them more responsible for any foreclosures on people that should not have had mortgages offered to them in the first place. We expect Joe and Suzy Sixpack to be a little bit ignorant in how these things work and the risks involved but banks should bear a greater responsibility since this is their field of expertise. It seems to me that anyone being foreclosed on in these kind of situations (ARMs, balloon payment mortgages, etc.) should be looked at as somewhat of a victim to a crime.

Also being looked at are hedge funds, like Bear Sterns, and their investments and transactions surrounding all of this. There are some emails that suggest some serious problems in Bear Stern's management. It is also a seemingly ever changing investigation:

Though the list of companies under investigation has grown, one FBI official said the number of firms under investigation is "fluid," as some of them may not pan out, some of them might close and more firms could come under scrutiny as these long-ranging investigations continue.

The FBI Criminal Investigative Division currently has 1,253 mortgage fraud investigations into all types of mortgage fraud and schemes around the country, including illegal property flipping, home equity schemes and check fraud cases.

Currently in the works is some possible relief for those that are suffering under looming foreclosures:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are introducing legislation “aimed at stabilizing financial markets by helping as many as 2 million homeowners avoid foreclosure.” The separate bills look to give the Federal Housing Administration “a key role in helping to renegotiate distressed mortgages and would provide up to $300 billion in guarantees to new lenders.”

Hopefully this is not too little too late and - unlike handing out corporate welfare to the likes of Bank of America, Countrywide and Bear and Sterns - this will offer some real help to the American people that need it.

[update] via C&L, America is becoming a tent city nation:

Why doesn’t our media cover stories like this? They talk about the economy and mortgage crisis, but they aren’t showing the real effects of it. Instead we have to rely upon foreign news to hear about tent cities popping up in America, full of citizens that once owned their own homes.

Iraq War Blogswarm Tomorrow

I meant to write about this a few days ago but here is a little advance notice as the Iraq War Blogswarm is tomorrow, according to Rocky at Alien Trucker:

March 19 will be the last day of the first five years of the invasion of Iraq. Numerous bloggers will be swarming the internets about this subject. I will be one of them.

I don’t know much about getting images and adding links and all of that simple techy stuff so I am not able (at this moment) to put the supplied graphic/link in my side bar. I have, however, figured out how to put images as well as links in my posts so here is the link to the March 19 blogswarm site.

There are 271 Blogs signed on to this so far but the reality is that many Blogs will be covering the sad fact that we will have been occupying an illegally invaded nation, Iraq, for five years as of tomorrow, whether as part of the Blogswarm or not. Just in case you hadn't noticed because the news stopped covering Iraq... Not like it is an election issue or anything, eh?

Chris Shays Killer's Eyes

Via tparty (who works for Jim Himes) at My Left Nutmeg:

It sounds like Ted Mann asked the wrong question:

"The Iraqis," said Shays, before briefly threatening to end the interview on the subject, "are starting to like us, and that's a fact."

The congressman grew animated when asked if that was not an anecdotal judgment, explaining that he had gauged the opinion of Iraqis by going "outside the umbrella of the military" on his frequent visits to the country.

It is a bit of a sore spot, I suppose. In 2008, on the five year anniversary of the invasion, Shays says he regrets his vote on the IWR because we didn't find any WMD in Iraq:

"Knowing what I know now, I would not have voted (for it), on two accounts," said Shays, of the 4th District in Fairfield County, in a phone interview. "One, there weren't weapons of mass destruction. But the second count is if I had known how poorly we would fight the war the first three and a half years. So, you know we made horrendous mistakes."

Yet way back in 2006, when the war was a mere three and a half years old, Shays said we should have gone into Iraq "sooner" and "not for WMD"

MLN has the video of Shays being crazy, as per usual.

Chris Shays is no different than bush or McCain. They are all bloodthirsty warmongers in the GOP.

Obama Picks Up 7 More Delegates in Iowa Saturday

Say what? Say yep... Obama picks up 7 more delegates in Iowa on Saturday:

Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with more than 86 percent of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared to 32 percent for Clinton. About 16 percent of the delegates picked at Saturday's conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he's dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January.

Democratic Party projections said the results mean Obama increased by seven the number of delegates he collects from the state, getting a total of 23 compared to 14 for Clinton and seven for Edwards, with one to be decided.

Twelve automatic delegates bring the state's total to 57. Obama has been endorsed by four of those and Clinton three, with the remainder uncommitted.

Note the funky emergence of some funny term that has no definition in political speak: "automatic delegates"? Meaningless unless you are trying to make something "super" seem less sinister when you try and convince them to "automatically" vote for the loser in Colorado:

A while back we noted that top Clinton advisor Harold Ickes had admonished the press not to use the phrase "super delegates" but instead to employ what he claims is the more accurate "automatic delegates." The Clinton campaign has pushed for this change of phrase on the thinking that calling them "super delegates" carries a negative connotation that somehow they're more powerful or privileges than other delegates. And that's important because their path to the nomination will almost certainly have to rely on super delegates going overwhelmingly for Clinton despite Obama's having the majority of pledged delegates.

Got that?

Hey AP! Quit the stenography posing as journalism and report on the facts about the SUPER delegates.

The Report the Government Didn't Want You to Read

The "Iraqi Perspectives Project - Phase II" is up for your reading pleasure:

ABC News has requested and obtained a copy of the Pentagon study which shows Saddam Hussein had no links to Al Qaeda.

(READ THE FULL REPORT HERE.)

It's government report the White House didn't want you to read: yesterday the Pentagon canceled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's availability and didn't make the report available via email or online.

Based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion and thousands of hours of interrogations of former officials in Saddam's government now in US custody, the government report is the first official acknowledgment from the US military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to al Qaeda.

Meanwhile... The right wing is grasping at straws (and strawman arguments) to try and justify the criminal bush administration's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Go figure?

I am glad they posted it because I didn't like waiting for my copy in the mail. You can find the "Iraqi Perspectives Project - Phase I" over here. Both of the reports are some pretty heavy reading and won't make as much sense if you aren't familiar with the background of the many organizations mentioned (which would explain the right wings confusion, since they never understood any of it from the beginning as evidenced by their screwing it all up) and they are not exactly written in an entertaining style.

Watching Them Watching You...

According to the ACLU, the fear mongering government figures there are about 927,269 terrorists walking amongst us all at this very moment:

Why are there so many names on the U.S. government's terrorist list?

In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 - and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month.¹

At that rate, our list will have a million names on it by July. If there were really that many terrorists running around, we'd all be dead.

Now, figuring that there are 50 states and then the District of Columbia that makes for about 18,181 terrorists for every state. Perhaps, even, your next door neighbor? As for the District of Columbia? You will find all of the D.C. terrorists scurrying to and from the various GOP offices on The Hill and the White House.

Those effin' Republican terrorists and their fear campaigns...