WASHINGTON POST'S EUGENE ROBINSON: HERE COMES THE OBAMA SMEAR MACHINE

Obama Faces The Smear Machine

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 15, 2008; A21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081403057.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Here come the goons, right on schedule.

The "author," and I use the term loosely, whose vicious lies damaged John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign has crawled back out from under his rock to spew vicious lies about Barack Obama. Right-wing radio talk-show hosts are dutifully transmitting this concocted venom. This presidential campaign has officially gotten ugly.

(Comment: Obama campaign issues rebuttal to book's claims: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080814/ap_on_el_pr/anti_obama_book;_ylt=AnGMTzaclA7Rz41PAUJrk9qs0NUE)

The "author" I'm talking about is a man named Jerome Corsi. In a book published last year, "The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," Corsi claimed that George W. Bush was at the heart of a secret conspiracy to subsume the United States into a post-national, one-worldish North American Union. Corsi's writings on far-right blogs have been even more paranoid and delusional. He has written that pedophilia, for which he used a more graphic term, "is OK with the Pope as long as it isn't reported by the liberal press." He has referred to Muslims as "ragheads."

Corsi would be known as just another visitor from the outer fringe if he had not been the co-author of "Unfit for Command," the book that slimed Kerry's exemplary record as a Swift boat commander in Vietnam. The allegations in that book were discredited, but not before they had been amplified by the right-wing echo chamber to the point where they raised questions in some voters' minds -- perhaps enough to swing the election.

It was an abominable trick, but quite remarkable. Kerry's opponent, George W. Bush, had avoided Vietnam by taking refuge in the Texas Air National Guard. Kerry was a decorated war hero, yet somehow his valor and sense of duty were turned into a political negative and used against him.

Now Corsi, in what he acknowledges is an attempt "to keep Obama from getting elected," has come out with a book that similarly tries to turn one of Obama's strengths -- his compelling life story -- into a liability.

Corsi's new volume of vitriol, "The Obama Nation," seeks to smear Obama as a "leftist" and add fuel to the false and discredited rumor that he is secretly a radical Muslim, or at least has "extensive connections to Islam." The liberal Web site Media Matters has already demonstrated that the book is riddled with factual errors -- for example, Corsi repeats the charge, thoroughly disproved, that Obama was in church for one of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's most incendiary sermons.

But the point isn't to tell the truth. The point is to repeat the lie and thus give it new life.

Corsi's dirty work is more difficult this time because Obama has already written his life story in the autobiographical "Dreams From My Father." Since he can't reveal anything about Obama's past, Corsi is reduced to reinterpretation -- or, at times, invention.

It sounds like the kind of book that should quickly be consigned to the remainder bin, but -- unsurprisingly -- it is already a bestseller. The Post and other news organizations have noted that this and similar anti-Obama books win the imprimatur of best-seller status by being "pushed by conservative book clubs that buy in bulk to drive up sales."

This time, though, somebody is pushing back: John Kerry, whose political action committee has launched a new Web site, called Truth Fights Back, to "fight against the right-wing smear machine." The site weighs in vigorously on behalf of several Democrats who are being hit with unfair attacks, but its most urgent campaign is "making sure Jerome Corsi doesn't get away with his lies unchallenged."

The Obama campaign faces a classic dilemma. If smear attacks are left unanswered, voters can get the impression that the lies are true. But there's no way to respond without giving the falsehoods wider circulation.

Read the rest of the Eugene Robinson column here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/14/AR2008081403057.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

MARINE CORPS TIMES REPORTS: TROOPS CONTRIBUTE MORE TO OBAMA CAMPAIGN

Military personnel are contributing more to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois than to his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, according to a nonpartisan group tracking donations to candidates.

By Rick Maze - Staff writers
Posted : Thursday Aug 14, 2008 14:23:40 EDT
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/08/military_campaigncontributions_obama_081408w/


The Center for Responsible Politics says that in terms of total contributions during the 2008 election cycle, 859 service members have contributed a combined $335,536 to Obama as of June 31, an average of about $391 a person.

In comparison, 558 service members have contributed a combined $280,513 to Sen. John McCain, an average of $503 a person.

Running a close third in the contributions is Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who has suspended his run for the Republican presidential nomination but has not formally dropped out of the race. He has received $232,411 in contributions from 537 military members, an average of $433 a person.

Looking just at contributions from service members with overseas addresses, McCain trails far behind Obama and Paul.

Obama got $60,642 in contributions from 134 military personnel, an average of $453 a person. Paul got $45,512 from 99 military personnel, an average of $460 a person, while McCain received $10,665 from 26 people, an average of $410 a person.

Continue reading: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/08/military_campaigncontributions_obama_081408w/

ARMY TIMES: GREEN BERET KILLS AFGHAN AND KEEPS HIS EAR

Green Beret: Team waited to report killing

By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Aug 14, 2008 15:43:30 EDT
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_newell_hearing_081308/

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Green Berets believed a fellow soldier had killed a civilian and kept his ear but didn’t report him because they wanted their team intact for a mission to a remote Afghan village, a team member testified Wednesday.

Sgt. 1st Class Eugene Greathead testified Wednesday that team members expected gunfire during the mission and so agreed to wait several days before telling commanders about the fatal shooting. He said they didn’t want Master Sgt. Joseph D. Newell immediately expelled from the team because they wanted “all the guns on the ground.”

Greathead denied suggestions from Newell’s attorney that team members conspired against Newell because he was too aggressive and his tactics could endanger members of the team.

He said team members held meetings without Newell only to discuss how and when they would report the March 5 killing.

Newell is accused of dumping the Afghan civilian’s body in the desert and keeping his ear as a souvenir.

Read more here: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/08/ap_newell_hearing_081308/

CNN BREAKING NEWS: 18 SHIITE PILGRIMS KILLED IN BAGHDAD BLAST

You won't be reading or hearing about this in your local newspaper or on TV, but here is more proof the success of "the surge" is a myth.

18 SHIITE PILGRIMS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN BAGHAD BLAST

NEW: Coalition troops killed militant suspect during raid
Two suicide bombers kill 18 in attack on Shiite pilgrims, official says
Pilgrims en route to festival in Karbala south of Baghdad
Iraqi Interior Ministry official says 75 others wounded

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/14/iraq.main/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber attacked Shiite pilgrims Thursday evening as they traveled to a festival, killing 18 people and wounding 75, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.
The woman's attack took place in the Iskandariya district south of Baghdad.

The pilgrims were traveling to Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of the Iraqi capital.
Earlier Thursday, coalition troops in Baghdad killed a man during a raid targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, the U.S. military said.

Don't Miss
Navy guards accused of abusing detainees in Iraq
The incident occurred during an operation that led to the capture of an al Qaeda suspect "believed to conduct financial transactions for AQI and its car-bombing networks," the U.S. military said.

Troops killed the man when he "refused to comply with their instructions and made threatening movements toward them." Two other people were detained.

On Wednesday, a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in northwest Baghdad, military officials said in a statement.
The incident occurred about 10:10 a.m. (3:10 a.m. ET), the statement said.

The soldier was assigned to Multi-National Division -- Baghdad. The soldier's name was withheld pending notification of relatives, officials said.

The death brings to 4,141 the number of U.S. service members killed since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

CNN REPORTS: U.S. CONTRACTORS RAKING IN BILLIONS ON RECONSTRUCTION JOBS IN IRAQ

Report: U.S. using contractors in Iraq at unprecedented rate

Report says U.S. on track to spend $100 billion on contractors by end of 2008
Figures reflect reliance on contractors to fill jobs typically held by military personnel
Use of contractors for security criticized for lack of oversight, political favoritism
Donald Rumsfeld said contractors freed up personnel for combat roles

From Mike Mount
CNN Pentagon Producer
http://tinyurl.com/6gfljp

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States spent $85 billion on contracts in Iraq and other countries in the first four years of the war and is relying on contract employees at a greater rate than in any other war, according to a government report released Tuesday.

A report by the Congressional Budget Office says that a fifth of spending on the Iraq war has gone to contractors. Between 2003 and 2007, 70 percent of $85 billion in contracts were for work inside Iraq. The remaining 30 percent went to contracts in surrounding countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the report said.

The Government Accountability Office says the United States has spent $435 billion on operations in Iraq.

Based on war contract spending patterns since 2004, the United States could spend more than $100 billion on contractor operations in Iraq by the end of 2008, according to the report.

The U.S. military has used contractors in all of its recent conflicts, from the Gulf War to the Balkans. But military leaders are using contractors to a greater extent in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to the report, reflecting a reliance on contractors to fill jobs held by military personnel in past conflicts.

Contractors in and around Iraq help serve food, clean and provide security for the U.S. and Iraqi governments, according to the report. Most of the contracts were for logistics support, gas and diesel fuel, and food.

Read more here http://tinyurl.com/6gfljp

WASHINGTON POST: AFTER WARNINGS TO MOSCOW, US HAS FEW OPTIONS

The Washington Post is reiterating what this blogger said in a commentary on Wednesday when it comes to U.S. options regarding the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

The U.S. doesn't have the resources or the will to take on Russia and so whatever is coming out of the Bush White House is just more smoke and mirrors.

Someday some enterprising reporter from the mainstream media will level with the American public and spell out just how depleted the U.S. military is after seven years in Afghanistan and five years in Iraq.

There is absolutely no way the U.S. could take on Russia with our military begging for more recruits and in dire need of new equipment.

The Washington Post story below spells out what few options the U.S. has when it comes to Russia and Georgia:

After Warnings to Moscow, U.S. Has Few Options

By Dan Eggen and Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, August 14, 2008; A11
http://tinyurl.com/6cqbql

The Bush administration mixed strong rhetoric with modest action yesterday in response to Russia's continued military incursion in Georgia, warning that Moscow's international aspirations are threatened if it does not honor a negotiated cease-fire in the conflict.

President Bush announced the start of a humanitarian aid program for Georgia using U.S. military airplanes and ships, although officials said the effort so far includes only two scheduled flights. One shipment arrived later yesterday and another is to land today. He also dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a diplomatic trip that will take her to Paris and then to Georgia's capital of Tbilisi to show "America's unwavering support."

"The United States stands with the democratically elected government of Georgia," Bush said during an appearance at the White House. "We insist that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia be respected."

Yet Bush's statement, along with the moderate measures that came with it, served to underscore the limited options available to the United States, which has neither the wherewithal nor the willingness to enter into a military conflict with Russia on its territorial border.

Read on http://tinyurl.com/6cqbql

WHO ARE BUSH AND CONDI KIDDING? COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN

No wonder Russia is paying no attention to President Bush and Sec. of State Rice on their paper tiger threats about what the U.S. will do if Russia doesn't pullback on their invasion of Georgia.

The United States doesn't have a military that can do a damn thing about what Russia is doing.

The U .S. military is stretched way beyond their capabilities now and military commanders are crying for more troops for Afghanistan, but the U.S. doesn't have more troops.

Russia can and will tell the U.S. to go take a flying you-know-what at the moon because Russia knows the U.S. is now a PAPER TIGER.

The U.S. has 160,000 troops tied up in Iraq and 30,000 troops bogged down in Afghanistan and nothing in the military recruitment pipeline to take on Russia in Georgia.

I just saw Wendell Goler, the FOX NEWS White House Correspondent, say Russia does not want to take on the United States.

What the hell is Goler smoking?

The United States military couldn't take on a Boy Scout troop let alone the massive Russian military.

The mainstream media has to tell the truth about how the military is stretched to the breaking point, or U.S. cities will see Russian tanks rolling through them in a heartbeat.

The ONLY reporter I've seen so far tell the truth about the Russia/Georgia conflict is Shepherd Smith of FOX NEWS. He keeps asking meatheads from the right wing how the U.S. is going to take on the Russians and he gets nothing but BS from all the neocons FOX NEWS puts on the air.

If the U.S. peacekeepers and humanitarian helpers start getting their ass kicked by the Russians, the U.S. military's hand are tied because we just don't have the troops to do a damn thing about the situation and Russia knows it.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

IRAQI STUDENTS ARE FAILING EXAMS IN RECORD NUMBERS

The fallout of invading and occupying Iraq continues way beyond what is being reported by the mainstream media.

The latest victims of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq are Iraq students who are failing exams and have resorted to cheating just to try and pass courses.

IRAQ: Students Fail, Like So Much Else

By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail*
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43491

BAGHDAD, Aug 8 (IPS) - Living from one crisis to another, without electricity or freedom to move under a collapse of security, massive numbers of Iraqi students are failing their exams."It is a natural result of what is going on in Iraq under this U.S. occupation that so many Iraqi students failed the high school exams," Mahmood Jassim, a teacher in Baghdad told IPS. "How can a student pass such difficult exams feeling terrified, exhausted in the heat, in darkness without electricity, having to work in the absence of a dead or detained father, and all the problems of the world over his head." Jassim says about 75 percent of his students are failing their exams. "I am ashamed of the results my school achieved this year," a school headmaster in Baghdad, speaking on condition of anonymity, told IPS. "I cannot tell you what percentage we achieved because that will reveal me and my school. You do not really believe we are living in a democratic country, do you?"

Two headmasters, who also spoke on condition of anonymity given the prevailing atmosphere of fear, said school results showed sectarian divisions – and not for the best of reasons. Shia schools, they alleged, ran a loose invigilation system that allowed students to cheat. Some teachers believe most students who passed their exams did so by cheating. "Those who cheated have passed while the honest failed," Ghanim Jamil, a teacher in Baghdad told IPS.

"If a student is the son of a senior government official or of a member of an armed group, how can we stop them from cheating? We would be killed."

Click on link to read full story: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43491

CNN REPORTS: TROOPS CHARGED BAGGAGE FEES ON WAY TO WAR ZONES

Story Highlights
Commercial airlines charge troops fees for military kits
VFW asks industry to enact across-the-board waiver for military personnel
American Airlines says troops are allowed heavier, bigger bags
Reimbursement available, but can require forms filled out in war zones

From Deborah Feyerick CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/08/13/troops.baggage/index.html

(CNN) -- Some airlines are charging U.S. soldiers extra baggage fees to take their military kits with them as they set off for war.

Military personnel carry large, heavy kit bags containing boots, clothing and gear. In the past few months, airlines have instituted fees for all travelers ranging from $15 for one bag to $250 for a third bag.

"What we want to do is nip this in the bud by exempting the military personnel who are traveling under orders from having to pay a fee on their third bag," said Veterans of Foreign Wars spokesman Joe Davis.

The VFW sent a letter to the Air Transport Association of America, the aviation industry's umbrella group, asking that U.S. troops be exempt from any extra baggage fees.

Watch how troops are getting hit with fees »

"If you have a family at home and you stand at that airline counter and you have three bags in your hand, and they say you can't get on board unless you pay $100 up front right now, what are you going to do?" Davis said.

American Airlines, and others reached by CNN, say troops are allowed heavier and bigger bags and can check two for free, unlike commercial travelers.

Troops are allowed 190 pounds each free of charge, American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said, adding: "If they pay, they get reimbursed, so at the end, they don't pay a dime."

That's not a good answer, the VFW's Davis said.

"These young troops are going to war," he said. "There's a lot more on their mind than to have to worry or try to remember to get a hundred dollars reimbursed to them when they get into a war zone."

The military usually issues vouchers authorizing extra baggage before a flight, but troops must pay up front if they don't have one.

And though reimbursement is likely, pending approval, as with any business expense, it is not guaranteed.

The Air Transport Association says it supports the troops, but baggage policies are "made independently by the individual airlines."

85 BILLION OF TAXPAYER MONEY GOING TO CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ

The Iraq War has cost U.S. taxpayers $85 BILLION in payoffs to contractors to rebuild the Iraq the U.S. military destroyed.

U.S. spending on contractors in Iraq reported to reach $85 billion

By James Risen
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/12/america/contractor.php

WASHINGTON: The United States has reached the $85 billion mark in spending on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, according to a new government report released Tuesday, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration's unprecedented level of dependence on private companies for help in the war.

The report by the Congressional Budget Office says that about one out of every five dollars spent on the war in Iraq has gone to contractors for the U.S. military and other government agencies. Employees of private contractors now outnumber U.S. troops in the war zone.
The numbers in the report provide the first official price tag on contracting in Iraq and raise troubling questions about the degree to which the war has been privatized, several outside experts on contracting said.

The Pentagon's reliance on outside contractors in Iraq is proportionately far larger than in any previous conflict, and it has fueled charges that this outsourcing has led to overbilling, fraud and shoddy and unsafe work that has endangered and even killed U.S. troops. The role of armed security contractors has also raised new legal and political questions about whether the United States has become too dependent on private armed forces on the 21st-century battlefield.

Contractors now employ at least 180,000 people in Iraq, forming what amounts to a private army, larger than the U.S. military force, whose roles and missions and even casualties have largely been hidden from public view.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/12/america/contractor.php

VIOLENCE SWEEPS ACROSS IRAQ INCLUDING PROVINCES SUPPOSEDLY PEACEFUL FROM "THE SURGE"

There isn't much on cable TV these days about Iraq, but when the media does breakdown and decide to carry some news out of Iraq it is couched in words about how successful "the surge" has been and violence is down in IRAQ.

THIS IS NOT ONLY A LIE, BUT A BLATANT LIE AND THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IN THE UNITED STATES ARE NOW PART OF THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN IRAQ.

Here is the REAL TRUTH about IRAQ sans WHITE HOUSE and FOX NEWS spin.

Reported Security incidents in IRAQ on Tuesday.

Baghdad:
http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

#1: The bodies of two people were found with gunshot wounds in different areas of Baghdad on Monday, police said

.#2: Iraqi security forces arrested 22 people and one man was killed during security operations launched in different areas of Baghdad in the past 24 hours, Baghdad's operations command said on Tuesday. an Iraqi security soldier was killed and three were injured during the operations.

#3: A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near Khullani Square, central Baghdad at 3 p.m. Tuesday injuring three people including one policeman.

#4: An IED was detonated under control in Karrada, central Baghdad at 3.20 p.m.

#5: A car bomb was detonated under control near Wathiq Square, Karrada at 3.30 p.m.

#6: Two Katyusha rockets were detonated under control by U.S. forces in Zafaraniyah, southeastern Baghdad, Tuesday.

#7: Police found one dead body throughout Baghdad in Khilani area.Diyala Prv:

Baquba:#1: Ra'ad al-Mulla Jawad, governor of Iraq's Diyala province on Tuesday escaped unhurt a suicide vest bombing in the provincial capital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a local police source said. The incident occurred shortly before midday when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest struck the convoy of Jawad in central Baquba, damaging two vehicles of his convoy and a nearby civilian car, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Three civilians were killed and three others wounded by the powerful blast, the source said, adding the Iraqi security forces immediately cordoned off the scene, allowing ambulances to evacuate the casualties.The U.S. military says two Iraqis have been killed and at least six others wounded when a female suicide bomber struck a convoy carrying senior Iraqi officials in Baqouba. The U.S. military in northern Iraq says the woman was targeting a convoy carrying the Iraqi commander of ground forces in the surrounding Diyala province on Tuesday. It says she detonated her explosives relatively far from Gen. Ali Ghaidan because Iraqi soldiers guarding the convoy noticed she was acting suspiciously. Provincial council chief Ibrahim Majilan says the convoy was also carrying the Diyala province governor.

Mahaweel:#1: Gunmen killed one woman and wounded another in a drive-by shooting near a market in Mahaweel, 60 km (35 miles) south of Baghdad, on Monday, police said.Mosul:#1: "Three mortar shells were fired on the area of al-Daydan, central Mosul, wounding one civilian man," the source, who asked for anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: "In another incident in northern Mosul, policemen found an improvised explosive device (IED) and while defusing it one policeman was wounded," the source added.

#3: Meanwhile, a police source said the body of a gunman killed earlier by a policeman was found in the neighborhood of Adan, eastern

Mosul.#4: Two civilians were wounded in a bomb explosion. An explosive charge went off in al-Zinjli region in western Mosul, wounding two civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq

#5: unknown gunmen kidnapped two truck drivers in two separate incidents in western Mosul, a police source said. Meanwhile, the same source said that unknown gunmen kidnap two truck drivers in al-Yabesat region in western Mosul. “The gunmen blocked the way of the two trucks loading with wheat and took with their drivers to an unknown place,” he also said.Al Anbar Prv:

Ramadi:#1: Six members of the same family, including one woman and three children, were found shot dead in an open area east of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, said Colonel Salih Mahdi, a police official in Ramadi.

BRUTAL VIDEO: US MARINES RAPE A 14-YEAR OLD AND KILL HER IRAQI FAMILY

This video is a report of what happened back in March in Iraq when US Marines allegedly raped a 14-year old Iraqi girl and killed her family.

Watch VIDEO here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/yc83o17Uqhw&hl=en&fs=1

Click on diamond-shaped arrow to activate video

VIOLENT VIDEO: MARINES AMBUSHED: SCREAMING AND FIGHTING

This is a night vision video but it brings the feeling what war is like in the dark of night in Iraq for a platoon of Marines.

The screams are real. The shouts are real, and the language is not for children.


Watch VIDEO here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/tDYsGq7x1ok&hl=en&fs=1

Click on diamond-shaped arrow to activate video

SHOCKING VIDEO: IRAQ WAR VETS TALK ABOUT RANDOM KILLING OF CIVILIANS

War is not a video game like the new Army recruiting video paints it, but instead war is what these Iraq War vets say it is when it comes to killing Iraqi civilians.

The VIDEO is both enlightening and shocking.

Watch the VIDEO here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/H-WyV7eItcM&hl=en&fs=1

Click on diamond-shaped arrow in center of picture to activate video

NEW VIDEO: TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL: JON STEWART'S "DAILY SHOW"

Leave it to Jon Stewart of the "Daily Show" to spear not only John McCain on the oil drilling debate, but also pokes fun at President George Herbert Walker Bush and best of all a shot at Fox News anchors who kept reducing the time it will take to get oil out of the ground and into gas tanks. And then there is a short bit on "Miss Buffalo Chips" contest that Sen. McCain volunteered his wife for without apparently knowing how the girls dress, or more accurately---undress.

Watch the video here:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=178663&title=indecision-2008-to-drill-or-not

INDECISION 08: INFLATE YOUR TIRES: DAILY SHOW WRITERS

Here is a special segment taken from the Jon Stewart Comedy Central "Daily Show" writers.

I hope you will get a good laugh out of this:

Comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

August 10th at 2:00PM
From the Writers of The Daily Show: Inflate Your Tires!

POSTED BY: TheInDecider
http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/08/10/from-the-writers-of-the-daily-show-inflate-your-tires/

This week, Barack Obama publicly suggested making sure tires are properly inflated as one way of dealing with the rising price of gas. At the Sturgis motorcycle rally, McCain mocked his opponent's recommendation, exclaiming, "Barack Obama wants you to inflate your tires!" He added...

* "We should be able to inflate our tires with oil! And then burn them to heat our homes. Even in summer! Which would then require us to run the air conditioning!"

* "This is America! I inflate my tires with oil! I charcoal-grill everything! I don't need you coming around with your fancy, 'use the off switches on your appliances' talk! If I don't keep my refrigerator door open, how'm I going to be able to see what's in there from across the room?

What'm I supposed to do? Take my constantly-idling ride-on lawnmower over there?"

* "I should be able to use my dishwasher to wash one dish at a time! I don't want my forks mingling with my spoons! I should be able to brush my teeth by running my dishwasher! And I should be able to keep my refrigerator door open -- that way, my dog can fetch me a beer!"

* "While I'm at it, I want to fill my windshield wiper fluid with Strawberry Quik!"

* "We should be able to plug our A/C unit into the cigarette adapter! Fuck it -- put a boat motor in there 'with' the motor, have 'em both running! Take that car, keep it running to power the air conditioning in the motor home that I'm also towing, and put all on the back of a bigger truck that's driving to the oil-burning FESTIVAL!"

VETVOICE REPORTS: DISABLED VETS SHUN McCAIN IN LAS VEGAS

The more combat veterans learn about John McCain and his plans, the less they like him. The Las Vegas Sun reports:

Sen. John McCain, speaking to disabled veterans Saturday in Las Vegas, attacked his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, for his foreign policy record, while also proposing a program that would allow veterans to acquire health care at private hospitals and not just through the Veterans Affairs Department.

by: Brandon Friedman
Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 15:30:30 PM EDT
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1743

The veterans, at Bally's for their national convention, gave him a tepid reception, especially considering McCain's life story. The Arizona senator was a Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam, tortured and held as a prisoner of war for 5 1/2 years.

Just one of 14 veterans interviewed by the Sun after his speech said he is a certain McCain voter, and the nonpartisan group's legislative director expressed concerns about McCain's proposed "Veterans' Care Access Card."

Still obsessing over the privatization of the VA for some reason, John McCain is poised to lose the veterans' vote for good. In fact, in response to his Saturday speech to the DAV, Iraq War veteran and double-amputee Tammy Duckworth had this to say about McCain's proposals:

"John McCain has said that improving veterans' health care would be his top domestic priority as President, yet he has repeatedly voted against increased funding for veterans health care. And now he offers up an plastic card option that will lead to privatization of veterans health care. No one knows how to help and heal veterans like veterans -- had I ended up in a regular hospital after returning from Iraq, I would lost my arm. McCain's plan will only hurt the VA and our veterans more than they are already hurting."

Not surprising. While vets who haven't served in the current war--and those who've never seen combat--have tended to lean toward Republicans in general (as a holdover Reagan/Clinton-era default setting among troops), it now appears that even McCain's support among older veterans is beginning to crack. Significantly.

More from the Las Vegas Sun piece:

Other veterans, such as James Jewett and Jay Johnson of Texas, expressed misgivings about McCain using the occasion to attack his opponent so fiercely.

Duke Hendershot, a double amputee retired Marine who served in Vietnam, supported McCain's run for president in 2000 but is undecided this year.

"John just isn't the same as he used to be. He's not his own man," said Hendershot, who lives in San Antonio, Texas. "A lot of that has to do with how he's wanted this job so bad for so long that he's tied himself to President Bush."

He said McCain's embrace of Bush, whom Hendershot called a "draft-dodging coward," is even more perplexing because of the rivalry between the two candidates during the 2000 campaign.
Hendershot also criticized McCain for taking swipes at Obama in his speech. "He should have been talking about veterans issues, not his opponent," he said.

By contrast, he praised Obama for keeping his remarks tightly focused on veterans.
This is pretty damning. But it goes right in line with what we're hearing from many of Tammy Duckworth's Iraq and Afghanistan peers.

When it comes to today's veterans, they're far from impressed with John McCain's infatuation with the use of force--and his disdain for VA programs.

AFGHANISTAN: US FORCES KILL 25 TALIBAN AND 8 CIVILIANS

KABUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed 25 Taliban insurgents and eight civilians after an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Monday.

http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=290665

The issue of civilian casualties has led to a rift between Afghanistan and its Western allies with President Hamid Karzai saying on Sunday that foreign airstrikes had only succeeded in killing ordinary Afghans and would not defeat the insurgency.

The Taliban launched multiple ambushes on a patrol in the Khas Uruzgan district of Uruzgan province on Sunday, the U.S. military said in a statement.

The militants "then fled into a neighbouring compound where they held 11 non-combatants hostage, including several children and an infant," it said.

The insurgents then fired on the coalition forces from the compound and the troops called in an airstrike, but the statement said they did not know there were civilians in the building.

Read on http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=290665

PHONE CARDS SHORTCHANGE TROOPS IN IRAQ

Prepaid phone cards are packed with ways to shortchange troops in Iraq

By Dan Thanh Dang - BALTIMORE SUNUpdated: 08/11/08 11:01 AM
http://www.buffalonews.com/185/story/411983.html?imw=Y

For soldiers stationed overseas, phone calls are a crucial link to loved ones and the lives they left behind to serve their country.

So when Colin Sawyer’s mom in Mount Wolf, Pa., sent him an AT&T prepaid phone card, the 24-year-old Army gunner in Iraq was excited to have the precious 550 minutes to call home.

“I went to use it one night after patrol and an automated voice came on and said, ‘You have 55 minutes left for this call,’ ” said Sawyer, who was on leave recently to visit family.

“I had barely used the card so I thought that was strange. The thing is, letters can take two weeks or more through mail. Where I’m based, I don’t have Internet access or phone access every day, so I can go three weeks without any contact.

“So when I can call home, I don’t want to worry about whether my call will go through or if I have enough minutes to talk,” Sawyer said. “It’s happened on other cards she’s sent me, too. I never get the number of minutes it says I get on the card.”

Sawyer is right. What he stumbled upon is no glitch in the system or an accounting mistake. With prepaid phone cards — whether used by the military overseas or the public here in the States, whether it’s AT&T or another carrier — the gap between advertising and reality is exasperating and filled with gotchas.

Some prepaid phone cards come laden with fees, surcharges and insidious expiration dates.
Even worse, the amount of calling time a card owner receives may be nowhere near the amount of minutes advertised on the face of the cards.

“Why can’t AT&T just tell you exactly what you’re getting?” asks Kathleen Sawyer, Colin’s mom. “How is it that when you buy a 550-minute phone card, your son or daughter is not even going to get half of that when they use it?”

The angry mom said she has spent more than $1,000 purchasing 1,200-minute, 300-minute and 550-minute AT&T cards for her son and a 22-year-old daughter who was stationed on a Navy aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. It was often a mystery to both her children how many minutes they were actually able to use.

Click here to read rest of story: http://www.buffalonews.com/185/story/411983.html?imw=Y

IRAQ DEMANDS TIMELINE FOR US TROOP WITHDRAWAL: BUSH AND CHENEY RESIST

President Bush and Vice President Cheney continue to insist THEY will decide when US troops are withdrawn from Iraq and not the Iraqi government.

Iraq politicians are DEMANDING a timeline for US troops to withdraw from Iraq and it is their country and you would think Iraq should have the final say so on when US troops should leave Iraq.

But not when President Bush and Vice President Cheney have taken on the duty of also ruling IRAQ and deciding what is best for Iraq.

Iraq is a sovereign nation and should be able to decide what is best for their country, but Bush and Cheney are not listening to Iraq officials and steadfastly say THEY will decide when US troops leave Iraq.

What I would like to know is what does winning mean to Bush and Cheney?

Does it mean someone from the scores of warring parties in Iraq will sign an armistice?

Are Bush and Cheney planning on sailing the battleship Missouri up the Tigris River and have a full-fledged armistice signing ceremony on the deck of the USS MISSOURI like was done at the end of World War II with the Japanese and General Douglas MacArthur?

For two people who have sent 4,144 young Americans to their death in Iraq and another 30,000 seriously wounded and perhaps disabled for life, it appears as though BUSH and CHENEY have exceeded their powers and should step back and let Iraq decide what is best for Iraq.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN, Editor of CORKSPHERE

BAGHDAD - Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26123767/

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting that the agreement include a "very clear timeline" for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, but he refused to talk about specific dates.

WASHINGTON POST: SOLDIERS WALK THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD HANDING OUT AMERICAN TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO IRAQIS

Money as a Weapon. A modest program to put cash in Iraqis' hands stretches its mandate with big projects.

By Dana Hedgpeth and Sarah CohenWashington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 11, 2008; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081002512.html

In the five-year struggle to finish the war in Iraq, military leaders and their troops have said a particular weapon is among the most effective in their arsenal:
American cash.

Soldiers walk the streets carrying thousands of dollars to pay Iraqis for doorways battered in American raids and limbs lost during firefights. Sheiks appeal to commanders to use larger pools of money locked away in Humvees and safes at military bases for new schools, health clinics, water treatment plants and generators, knowing that the military can bypass Iraqi and U.S. bureaucratic hurdles.

Army documents show that $48,000 was spent on 6,000 pairs of children's shoes; an additional $50,000 bought 625 sheep for people described in records as "starving poor locals" in a Baghdad neighborhood. Soldiers ordered $100,000 worth of dolls and $500,000 in action figures made to look like Iraqi Security Forces. About $14,250 was spent on "I Love Iraq" T-shirts. More than $75,000 sent a delegation to a women's and civil rights conference in Cairo. And $12,800 was spent for two pools to cool bears and tigers at Zawra Park Zoo in Baghdad.

Click on link to read full Washington Post story.

RACISM AND THE RACE: "THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM"---NEW YORK TIMES OP/ED

Charles M. Blow, op/ed columnist for the New York Times, puts his finger right on the reason why Sen. Barack Obama has not moved miles ahead of Sen. John McCain in EVERY poll.

Personal friends of this blogger know I have been saying the same thing for months and months.

There can't be any other reason why Obama remains stagnant in the polls than racism.

All the other excuses pundits and anchors use to try and explain why Obama can't break away from McCain are pure. unadulterated sophistry.

There are "closet racists" and there are "latent racists," but the bottom line is racism is "the elephant in the room" that nobody seems to want to look at.

ABOVE COMMENTS BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE


August 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

Racism and the Race

By CHARLES M. BLOW
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/09/opinion/09blow.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

This is supposed to be the Democrats’ year of destiny. Bush is hobbling out of office, the economy is in the toilet, voters are sick of the war and the party’s wunderkind candidate is raking in money hand over fist.

So why is the presidential race a statistical dead heat? The pundits have offered a host of reasons, but one in particular deserves more exploration: racism.

Barack Obama’s candidacy has shed some light on the extremes of racism in America — how much has dissipated (especially among younger people) and how much remains.

According to a July New York Times/CBS News poll, when whites were asked whether they would be willing to vote for a black candidate, 5 percent confessed that they would not. That’s not so bad, right? But wait. The pollsters then rephrased the question to get a more accurate portrait of the sentiment. They asked the same whites if most of the people they knew would vote for a black candidate. Nineteen percent said that those they knew would not. Depending on how many people they know and how well they know them, this universe of voters could be substantial. That’s bad.

Welcome to the murky world of modern racism, where most of the open animus has been replaced by a shadowy bias that is difficult to measure. As Obama gently put it in his race speech, today’s racial “resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company.” However, they can be — and possibly will be — expressed in the privacy of the voting booth.

If the percentage of white voters who cannot bring themselves to vote for a black candidate were only 15 percent, that would be more than all black voters combined. (Coincidentally, it also would be more than all voters under 24 years old.) That amounts to a racial advantage for John McCain.

And this sentiment stretched across ideological lines. Just as many white independents as Republicans said that most of the people they knew would not vote for a black candidate, and white Democrats were not far behind. Also, remember that during the Democratic primaries, up to 20 percent of white voters in some states said that the race of the candidate was important to them. Few of those people voted for the black guy.

Some might say that turnabout is fair play, citing the fact that 89 percent of blacks say they plan to vote for Obama. That level of support represents a racial advantage for him, too, right? Not necessarily. Blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic in the general election anyway. According to CNN exit polls John Kerry got 88 percent of the black vote in 2004.

Think racism isn’t a major factor in this election? Think again.

CNN: U.S. SOLDIER KILLED AS BOMBERS TARGET U.S TROOPS ACROSS IRAQ

Anyone who believes the BS put out by the BUSH WHITE HOUSE and their puppet propaganda branch, FOX NEWS, that "the surge" has calmed things down in IRAQ is living in some kind of a dream world.

Bombers have stepped up their attacks on U.S. troops all across Iraq, and one U.S. soldier was killed on Sunday.

U.S. soldier killed as bombers target troops across Iraq
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/10/iraq.main/index.html

Story Highlights
NEW: U.S. soldiers among 24 wounded in blast north of Baghdad, official says
Two people killed, 10 injured when bomb explodes outside bank in Baghdad
Suicide car bomb explodes outside Kurdish security department, killing 3
Four separate bombings target Iraqi army patrols

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A U.S. soldier was among five people killed Sunday in a suicide attack north of Baghdad, a military spokesman said.

Twenty-four people, including two U.S. soldiers, were injured in the blast, Maj. John Hall said.
A suicide bomber targeted a group in Tarmiyah, about 30 miles (50 km) north of Baghdad, killing the soldier and four Iraqis, he said.

The blast was one of several deadly explosions across the war-ravaged nation Sunday, an Interior Ministry official said.

Earlier in the day, a bomb exploded outside a bank in Kamaliya, a Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 10 others, the official said.

A suicide car bomb exploded outside a Kurdish security department in Khanakin town about 62 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Baquba, killing three people and wounding 20 others, including Kurdish security officers and civilians, the Interior Ministry said.

Four separate bombings targeted Iraqi army patrols, the Interior Ministry official said:
• A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol and a minibus carrying Finance Ministry employees. The blast killed three people, including a soldier and an employee, and wounded 10 others, including four soldiers and five employees.
• A car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army patrol in al-Madaen, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) east of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding five others.
• A bomb went off over a bridge in Kadhimiya, a Shiite neighborhood in northwestern Baghdad. The blast wounded three soldiers, the official said.
• A bomb exploded in east Baghdad's Zaiyuna district, wounding two soldiers and two civilians.

POLLS SHOW CATHOLICS WILL VOTE FOR McCAIN

The Catholics this blogger knows can use any code words they want such as BARACK OBAMA is "too arrogant," "too elitist," "too skinny," "too whatever," but what it boils down to is for many, many Catholics this Catholic knows BARACK OBAMA is TOO BLACK.

PERIOD.

Comment by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

THE REST OF THIS BLOG REPORT COMES FROM A RIGHT WING BLOG SITE

Catholics Opting for McCain

August 9th, 2008 at 06:07am Mark Noonan
http://blogsforvictory.com/2008/08/09/catholics-opting-for-mccain/

Social issues are driving it:

The latest Associated TV/Zogby International poll reports a significant change in Catholic support for the leading presumptive presidential nominees of both major U.S. political parties. Zogby analyst Fritz Wenzel explains that the shift amongst Catholics is due to increased concern about “social values.”

In mid-July, Catholics polled by Zogby International favored Democratic Sen. Barack Obama by 11 percent. The latest poll now shows they favor Republican Sen. John McCain by a margin of 50 to 34 percent.

Zogby International said in a Tuesday press release that McCain leads Obama among all voters by 42 to 41 percent, as measured by a telephone poll of 1,011 likely voters. The poll, commissioned by Associated TV and conducted from July 31 to August 1, claims a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

On the other hand, an Associated Press/Ipsos poll conducted between July 31 and August 4 finds Catholic support evenly divided between both candidates.

Fritz Wenzel, a Zogby Polling Analyst, gave CNA a statistical breakdown of the 269 Catholic respondents’ answers.

About fifty percent of the Catholics favored McCain, while 34 percent favored Obama. Twelve percent were undecided, while two and one percent favored third-party candidates Bob Barr and Ralph Nader, respectively.

“Catholics vote largely on a set of conservative values and on social values. On social values McCain has a natural advantage because of his pro-life stance, compared to Obama’s pro-choice stance,” Wenzel told CNA.

“This is a dominant issue in voting for Catholics because of the balance of the Supreme Court. The other issues are also important. When you start thinking about the conditions in the Iraq War, that was a concern for Catholics earlier. It’s becoming less so, so voters are turning to other, more domestic concerns.”

BELOW ARE NOT THE COMMENTS OF BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE, BUT COMMENTS FROM A RADICAL RIGHT-WING BLOGGER

The push is rapidly coming to a shove and I think that, in the end, a very large majority of devout Catholics will give their votes to John McCain.

There’s just too much riding on this election to think that Obama is the man for the times. While a lot of Catholics very much want large increases in social spending (heck, in a way even I do - though I don’t want to pour it into the failed, liberal programs; I have other ideas), with the Supreme Court in the balance and the Culture of Life poised for some real victories under continued Republican government, the thought of a few more billion for social spending drops in the scales of relative values. Lets first save life, then we can worry about what to do with the life once here.

There is also in Obama that very off-putting arrogance and self-centeredness. While we’re not better than anyone else, there is in Catholic attitude a demand of humility, and the higher you go the more humble we want you to be. As Obama rises, so does his ego, and Pride isn’t a deadly sin for nothing, you know?

All in all, this year is shaping up to have a lot of surpises in store, and the fact that the Catholic vote might go decisively for McCain - and perhaps hand him the White House - is just one of a dozen oddities…but it is good that my fellow Catholics are wise to the needs of the day.

WHITE HOUSE STATIONERY ORDERED FAKE 9/11 LETTER THAT LED TO IRAQ WAR: CHENEY LIKELY SUSPECT

Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery

08/08/2008 @ 8:38 pmFiled by John Byrne
http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=11877

In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks

A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.

The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico's Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the White House released a statement on Richer's behalf. In it, Richer declared, "I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document ... as outlined in Mr. Suskind's book."

The denial, however, directly contradicts Richer's own remarks in the transcript.
"Now this is from the Vice President's Office is how you remembered it--not from the president?" Suskind asked.

"No, no, no," Richer replied, according to the transcript. "What I remember is George [Tenet] saying, 'we got this from'--basically, from what George said was 'downtown.'"
"Which is the White House?" Suskind asked.

"Yes," Richer said. "But he did not--in my memory--never said president, vice president, or NSC. Okay? But now--he may have hinted--just by the way he said it, it would have--cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president."

"But he didn't say that specifically," Richer added. "I would naturally--I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president."

"But there wasn't anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president," Suskind continued.
"Nope," Richer said.
"It just had the White House stationery."
"Exactly right."

Later, Richer added, "You know, if you've ever seen the vice president's stationery, it's on the White House letterhead. It may have said OVP (Office of the Vice President). I don't remember that, so I don't want to mislead you."

Suskind says decision to post transcript unusual
Suskind posted the transcript at his blog, saying, "This posting is contrary to my practice across 25 years as a journalist. But the issues, in this matter, are simply too important to stand as discredited in any way." It was first picked up by ThinkProgress and Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein.

Suskind's new book asserts that senior Bush officials ordered the CIA to forge a document "proving" that Saddam Hussein had been trying to manufacture nuclear weapons and was collaborating with al Qaeda. The alleged result was a faked memorandum from then chief of Saddam's intelligence service Tahir Jalil Habbush dated July 1, 2001, and written to Hussein.
The bogus memo claimed that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had received training in Baghdad but also discussed the arrival of a "shipment" from Niger, which the Administration claimed had supplied Iraq with yellowcake uranium -- based on yet another forged document whose source remains uncertain.

The memo subsequently was treated as fact by the British Sunday Telegraph, and cited by William Safire in his New York Times column, providing fodder for Bush's efforts to take the US to war.

The Sunday Telegraph cited the main source for its story on Iraq's 9/11 involvement as Ayad Allawi, a former Baathist who rebelled against Saddam and was appointed a government position after the US occupation.

Nothing in the story explains how an Iraqi politician was privy to the fake memo, but the New York Times column alluded to Allawi and described him as "an Iraqi leader long considered reliable by intelligence agencies."

"To characterize it right," Richer also declares in the transcript, "I would say, right: it came to us, George had a raised eyebrow, and basically we passed it on--it was to--and passed this on into the organization. You know, it was: 'Okay, we gotta do this, but make it go away.' To be honest with you, I don't want to make it sound--I for sure don't want to portray this as George jumping: 'Okay, this has gotta happen.' As I remember it--and, again, it's still vague, so I'll be very straight with you on this--is it wasn't that important. It was: 'This is unbelievable. This is just like all the other garbage we get about . . . I mean Mohammad Atta and links to al Qaeda. 'Rob,' you know, 'do something with this.' I think it was more like that than: 'Get this done.'"
Magazine asserts Feith created bogus document

Today, The American Conservative also published a report saying that the forgery was actually produced by then-Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans, citing an unnamed intelligence source. The source reportedly added that Suskind’s overall claim “is correct."

"My source also notes that Dick Cheney, who was behind the forgery, hated and mistrusted the Agency and would not have used it for such a sensitive assignment," the magazine wrote.
"Instead, he went to Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans and asked them to do the job. … It was Feith’s office that produced the letter and then surfaced it to the media in Iraq. Unlike the [Central Intelligence] Agency, the Pentagon had no restrictions on it regarding the production of false information to mislead the public. Indeed, one might argue that Doug Feith’s office specialized in such activity."

More of Suskind's transcripts are available here.

AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE REPORTER SAYS IT WAS CHENEY WHO WANTED LETTER FORGED THAT LED TO WAR WITH IRAQ

American Conservative: It was Feith’s office, not CIA, that forged the Habbush letter.

Ron Suskind’s new book alleges that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein linking the dictator to the 9/11 terrorists.

The American Conservative’s Philip Giraldi argues today that “an extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community” told him Suskind’s overall claim “is correct,” but that it was Douglas Feith’s Office of Special Plans — not the CIA — that forged the letter:
My source also notes that Dick Cheney, who was behind the forgery, hated and mistrusted the Agency and would not have used it for such a sensitive assignment.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/07/american-conservative-it-was-feiths-office-not-cia-that-forged-the-habbush-letter/

Instead, he went to Doug Feith’s Office of Special Plans and asked them to do the job. … It was Feith’s office that produced the letter and then surfaced it to the media in Iraq. Unlike the [Central Intelligence] Agency, the Pentagon had no restrictions on it regarding the production of false information to mislead the public. Indeed, one might argue that Doug Feith’s office specialized in such activity.

A CIA counterrorism expert said that, in the run-up to war, Feith’s office recommended that the CIA’s finding of no link between Iraq al Qaeda relations “be ignored. Not challenged, not made the subject of a critical dialogue between policymakers and analysts, but ignored.”

VOICE OF AMERICA REPORTS: U.S.-LED FORCES KILL 4 WOMEN AND 1 CHILD IN AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan Coalition Says 4 Women, Child Killed in Offensive Against Militants

By VOA News 08 August 2008
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-08-voa14.cfm

U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan say Friday they inadvertently killed four women and a child while battling militants in central Afghanistan.

Ghazni Province, AfghanistanA U.S. military spokeswoman, Lieutenant Colonel Rumi Nelson-Green, says the civilians were killed Thursday as troops moved in on a key Taliban militant in the Giro district of central Ghazni province.

She says armed militants threatened coalition forces, which responded with small-arms fire, killing several Taliban as well as the women and the child. Three militants were arrested.

The U.S. military called the deaths "inadvertent" and promised a full investigation.

CNN REPORTS: IRAQ BOMBING KILLS 21: TWO MARINES DIE

The Olympics and the John Edwards' affair have not stopped the violence in Iraq as another attack took place on Friday killing 21.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A bombing at a crowded outdoor market in northern Iraq on Friday killed 21 people and wounded 50 others, according to police.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/08/iraq.main/index.html

Nineveh provincial police said the parked car bomb went off in Tal Afar, west of Mosul. There has been violence in Tal Afar throughout the Iraq war, and U.S. and Iraqi troops in Nineveh province have been taking on al Qaeda in Iraq there.

Also Friday, the U.S. military announced that two Marines died in a noncombat-related incident near Karma on Thursday in Anbar province.

Nine American troops have died in Iraq so far this month -- two in combat and the others in vehicle accidents and other noncombat incidents.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE UNDER REPORTS BATTLEFIELD CASUALTIES

Veterans for Common Sense http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ has uncovered a glaring and sickening error in the way the Department of Defense reports battlefield casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense reports more than 78,000 battlefield casualty statistics for both Iraq and Afghanistan. While casualties in Iraq appear to be decreasing, casualties in Afghanistan continue rising.

During July 2008, the U.S. military reported 800 battlefield casualties. The monthly average number of casualties per month for both wars is approximately 900. A battlefield casualty is defined as killed, wounded, injured, or ill whiled deployed to the war zone.

The injured and ill are counted only if they are medically evacuated out of the country due to serious conditions. These figures are for the military only.

The most recent Department of Veterans Affairs report indicates 325,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran patients treated in VA hospitals and clinics.

DoD Fact Sheet: Impact of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars
Updated by Veterans for Common Sense on August 6, 2008

78,048 Total U.S. Military Battlefield Casualties Through August 2, 2008

Casualty Category
Iraq War
Afghanistan War
Both Wars
Deaths
4,122
561
4,683
Wounded in Action
30,490
2,309
32,799
Medically Evacuated Due to Injury or Disease
33,529
7,037
40,566
Total Casualties
68,141
9,907
78,048

Sources: Department of Defense: Afghanistan War (Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF), Casualties from Oct. 7, 2001, through Aug. 2, 2008; Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF), Casualties from Mar. 19, 2003, through Aug. 2, 2008; DoD Contingency Tracking System, through Mar. 31, 2008.