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.

CHEBOYGAN, MICHIGAN PARENTS WATCH VIDEO OF SON KILLED BY SNIPER FIRE IN AFGHANISTAN.

500: Deadly US Milestone in Afghan War

Kirk Semple and Andrew W. Lehren
The New York Times
Aug 07, 2008

http://tinyurl.com/6hztt3

August 6, 2008 - Not long after Staff Sgt. Matthew D. Blaskowski was killed by a sniper’s bullet last Sept. 23 in eastern Afghanistan, his mother received an e-mail message with a link to a video on the Internet.

A television reporter happened to have been filming a story at Sergeant Blaskowski's small mountain outpost when it came under fire and the sergeant was shot.Since then, Sergeant Blaskowski's parents, Cheryl and Terry Blaskowski of Cheboygan, Mich., have watched their 27-year-old son die over and over. Ms. Blaskowski has taken breaks from work to watch it on her computer, sometimes several times a day, studying her son's last movements."Anything to be closer," she said. "To see what could have been different, how it —" the bullet — "happened to find him."For months, the Blaskowskis felt alone in watching their son die in an isolated and nearly forgotten war.

And then, in June, the war in Afghanistan roared back into public view when American deaths from hostilities exceeded those in Iraq. In the face of an expanding threat from the Taliban, the conflict is becoming deadlier and much more violent for American troops, who three weeks ago reached their highest deployment levels ever, at 36,000.June was the second deadliest month for the military in Afghanistan since the war began, with 23 American deaths from hostilities, compared with 22 in Iraq. July was less deadly, with 20 deaths, compared with six in Iraq.

On July 22, nearly seven years after the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2001, the United States lost its 500th soldier in the Afghanistan war.

Click on this link to read rest of New York Times story: http://tinyurl.com/6hztt3

SEAN HANNITY AND RUSH LIMBAUGH CAUGHT USING RACE RE OBAMA

Ask yourself this. Why do the BIGGEST names in broadcasting keep reminding viewers and listeners that Barack Obama is Black?

Could it have anything to do with their own racism and the racist audience that view and listen to their programs?

Is the Pope a Catholic?

SOURCE: MEDIA MATTERS: http://mediamatters.org/items/200808070009?lid=501616&rid=12228022

Sean Hannity falsely claimed "Obama can't point to a single instance in which ... Sean Hannity or talk radio" has "made an issue of Obama's race"

Summary: On his radio show, Sean Hannity said that Sen. Barack Obama "can't point to a single instance in which President Bush or McCain or Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama's race." In fact, Hannity asserted on the March 2 edition of Hannity's America: "As more is learned about Barack Obama's positions, his past, and his affiliations, it seems that the 'change' candidate has all the same problems with race as those before him," and later added, "It's only fair to ask: Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?"

Media Matters has also documented numerous examples of other radio and TV personalities making "an issue of Obama's race."

Four days after falsely suggesting that no "prominent Republican" has "said that [Sen. Barack Obama] is not patriotic, or that he's got a funny name," Sean Hannity claimed on the August 4 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program that Obama "can't point to a single instance in which President Bush or [Sen. John] McCain or [former White House senior adviser] Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama's race." In fact, as Media Matters for America noted, Hannity asserted on the March 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity's America: "As more is learned about Barack Obama's positions, his past, and his affiliations, it seems that the 'change' candidate has all the same problems with race as those before him," and later added, "It's only fair to ask: Do the Obamas have a race problem of their own?"

Hannity has also repeatedly distorted what Michelle Obama wrote in her 1985 Princeton University senior thesis, taking the following phrase from the thesis out of context to suggest that she has divisive views of race: "because of the belief that Blacks must join in solidarity to combat a White oppressor." As Media Matters documented, the full paragraph in the thesis makes clear that Obama was purporting to document attitudes among black Princeton alumni who attended the school in the '70s, and not asserting her own views.
Media Matters has also documented numerous examples of other radio and TV personalities making "an issue of Obama's race."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh:
On the June 2 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, while discussing Obama's presidential candidacy, Limbaugh asserted that the Democratic Party was "go[ing] with a veritable rookie whose only chance of winning is that he's black."

On May 21, Limbaugh said that "Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate." Speaking about 'feminazis,' " Limbaugh asserted: "They forgot affirmative action for black guys. And because of that, every bit of their plan has gone up in smoke now, because they -- if -- they had to come out in favor of affirmative action for black guys, and that's -- see, this is one of the things that really irritates the women. And there are women all over this country fit to be tied -- trust me on this. ... [L]iberals eventually are going to be devoured by their own policies. And it has happened here. Because Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate." He concluded, "So, it's just -- they just forgot that one thing: affirmative action for black guys. And if they had remembered to oppose that, then they wouldn't face the situation they face today."

Limbaugh stated during his May 14 broadcast that "[i]f Barack Obama were Caucasian, they would have taken this guy out on the basis of pure ignorance long ago."

On the January 24, 2007, edition of his radio show, Limbaugh referred to Obama and actress Halle Berry as "Halfrican American[s]," stating that "Barack Obama has picked up another endorsement: Halfrican American actress Halle Berry." Limbaugh then said: " 'As a Halfrican American, I am honored to have Ms. Berry's support, as well as the support of other Halfrican Americans,' Obama said." Limbaugh then conceded that Obama "didn't say it."

Fox News contributor Monica Crowley:
Guest-hosting the June 23 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Laura Ingraham Show, Crowley forwarded a wholly unsubstantiated smear that Obama has lied about his ethnicity. A caller to the show claimed that Obama is "not really African-American. He's Arab. Forty-three percent Arab, 6 percent African negro, and half white. And that is the biggest fraud being perpetrated on us all." In response, Crowley said that "according to this genealogy -- and again, because I haven't done the research, I can't verify this -- but according to this guy Kenneth Lamb, Barack Obama is not black African, he is Arab African." Crowley continued: "And yet, this guy is campaigning as black and painting anybody who dares to criticize him as a racist. I mean, that is -- it is the biggest con I think I've ever seen."

Radio hosts Melanie Morgan and Brian Sussman
On the December 4, 2006, broadcast of San Francisco radio station KSFO's Sussman, Morgan & Vic, in speaking to a co-host -- apparently Sussman -- Morgan referred to Obama as an, "as you call, 'Halfrican.' " Sussman responded, "Halfrican ... his father was from Kenya, his mother's white." He added that, "in my opinion -- 'cause my opinion is your average white guy," Obama "is not allowed to wear the African-American badge because his family are not the descendants of slaves, OK? He can't identify with the discrimination and the slavery and all of that that's gone into these black families for generations."

Sussman also said, "I have ... nothing against mixed-race people," but later added, "I get offended and I know I have many black friends who get offended when he [Obama] stands in front of that black audience talking like he's from the hood, born and raised, and ... can identify with all of their issues. He can't!"

Radio host and former FOX NEWS "Big Story" host John Gibson:
On the June 6 edition of his Fox News Radio show, Gibson said to a caller who spoke favorably of Obama: "You don't know what Barack Obama stands for. You just like him because he's -- he's -- he's like you and you want to see one of you up there, and you don't care what he stands for." The caller responded: "[H]e's not one of me. ... He's not one of me just because he's a black guy or something like that. That doesn't make him one of me. He's standing for him, not me."

During the April 9 broadcast of his radio show, Gibson told a caller, "[Y]ou are the third or fourth caller in a row who is -- has identified yourself to [associate producer] Christine as African-American. And when I talk to you, you obviously are smart, well-educated, well-read, and all that, and I think that your loyalty to Obama here is an issue that goes beyond the issues." When the caller asserted, "No, it's not -- it's not beyond the issues," Gibson said, "It is a racial solidarity bond you have with Obama. Tell me -- I dare you to deny that." Moments later, Gibson added: "You're sticking with Obama, because he's ... he's a brother." Gibson also asserted about Obama: "He is lying to your face but he knows you are so -- you so identify with him on the basis of race, you will not even see the lies."

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck:
On the February 12, 2007, broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Beck featured Philadelphia-based conservative radio host Dom Giordano, who claimed that "the mainstream media has dubbed [Obama] to be African-American" and said, "If you start to, you know, delve around the edges, say, 'Wait a minute, isn't he mixed race? Weren't we told that last year?' Or whatever, biracial. Not allowed to say that anymore." Beck responded by saying "he's very white in many ways," adding, "Gee, can I even say that? Can I even say that without somebody else starting a campaign saying, 'What does he mean, "He's very white?" ' He is. He's very white."
After the interview, Beck attempted to clarify his comments to executive producer and head writer of The Glenn Beck Program, Steve Burguiere, who is known on- air as "Stu." Beck claimed that Obama "is colorless," adding that "as a white guy ... [y]ou don't notice that he is black. So he might as well be white, you know what I mean?" In addition, Beck said: "I guarantee you, there will be blogs today that will have me being a racist because I say that."

On the January 25 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Beck asserted: "[I]f [Sen.] Hillary Clinton wants to be consistent, I believe, affirmative action, she should give Barack Obama an additional five percentage points just for the years of oppression."
From the August 5 broadcast of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show:
HANNITY: But I think they made a real tactical mistake here by playing the race card the way they did. It's -- because Senator McCain has gone out of his way not to do this. You know, they're making the argument that Obama is a risky choice for president. And that is the right argument to make because he doesn't have experience. And after all, if Obama had his way, we would already have been defeated in Iraq. We would have lost a major war. That's a risky experiment.

You know, when Obama says they're going to scare Americans by saying that he doesn't look like all those presidents on dollar bills, he can't mean anything other than race. In fact, Obama tipped his hand when he said it back in June: "Oh, and did I mention he's black?"

Obama can't point to a single instance in which President Bush or McCain or Karl Rove or Sean Hannity or talk radio or any other major Republican has made an issue of Obama's race.
As for his name, earlier in the campaign, when my buddy Bill Cunningham in Cincinnati, great American that he is, criticized -- he was criticized by McCain for saying Barack Hussein Obama. The only one that keeps bringing up Obama's middle name is Barack Obama. So the charge is without merit. And it is his name, by the way.

HOW U.S. INVASION AND OCCUPATION HAS DESTROYED IRAQ

Iraq has been virtually destroyed by the U.S. military invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Moronic reporters from right wing rags like the Weekly Standard, owned by Rupert Murdoch who also owns FOX NEWS, argue that conditions were worse BEFORE the U.S. invaded Iraq which is patently false.

Here is the before and after about Iraq:

– Education: According to a 2005 analysis by the United Nations University, since the 2003 invasion, 84 percent of Iraq’s higher education institutions had been “burnt, looted or destroyed.”

– Medical Care: Before the U.S. invasion, there were 34,000 doctors registered in Iraq; an estimated 20,000 have left since then. “It’s definitely worse now than before the war,” Eman Asim, a Ministry of Health official who oversees the country’s 185 public hospitals, told the New York Times in 2004.

– Electricity: Although the average hours of electricity each day across Iraq have increased since the invasion, the number in Baghdad has decreased to 10.6 hours each day, down from 16-24 before the war.

– Oil Production: Since the U.S. invasion, Iraq’s oil infrastructure has been hampered by post-conflict sabotage, with more than 450 attacks on its pipelines. Only as recently as May has Iraq been able to return to its pre-war crude oil production levels.

IRAQI PARLIAMENT CAN'T GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER

The stumbling blocks of forming a workable Iraqi government keep popping up.

Political pressures hinder passing elections law - MP

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 07 /08 /2008 Time 8:25:43

http://tinyurl.com/57bt2g

BAGHDAD, Aug. 7 (VOI) – An MP from the Kurdistan Coalition (KC) said on Thursday that political pressures exerted by some parliamentary blocs on the Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani were the main reason for Wednesday's session adjourning without passing the provincial council elections law.

"We are in the Kurdistan Coalition had agreed with the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC) to pass the law during yesterday's session in accordance to the proposal made by the UN," Sirwan al-Zahawi told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI)."The proposal says that if the Kirkuk cause has not been resolved during this year, political powers should leave the issue to the Iraqi government and the parliament's chairmanship to put all necessary mechanisms and conditions to hold the elections in the oil-rich Kirkuk," he explained.

"The KC had announced its agreement on the proposal thus there is an agreement among main political powers on passing the law," he also said."

After the KC agreed to pass the law, we were surprised during yesterday's session that the speaker adjourned the session, the matter made us feel injustice," the MP noted.A legislator from the Kurdistan Coalition parliamentary bloc, Abdul-Mohsen al-Saadon, said yesterday that the Iraqi Parliament ended Wednesday afternoon's extraordinary session, after forming a committee of parliamentary blocs' heads to find a consensus text for the provincial election bill.

THE "ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM"---RACISM---WHY OBAMA IS IN TROUBLE

The mainstream anchors and pundits have been scratching their heads and trying to find out why Barack Obama is not miles ahead of John McCain in the polls.

Like "the elephant in the room," the reason is right in front of their eyes but the media continues to travel down roads like the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska that end up a dead end in trying to explain why Obama hasn't taken off in the polls

Racism is the "elephant in the room" and all polls indicate people will not be honest with pollsters when asked if race will affect their vote.

Of course it will, and the McCain campaign, which is now run by Karl Rove surrogates and former Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth leftovers from the '04 campaign, are going to work 24/7 in reminding the "closet racists"that Barack Obama is a Black man.

FOX NEWS and the right wing radio talk shows keep pounding away at how Obama is an "elitist and arrogant" even though Obama was raised by his grandmother and lived for many years on food stamps.

John McCain, on the other hand, came from a military family including a father who was an Admiral in the U.S. Navy, and McCain never had to rely on food stamps to eat. McCain may have ended third from last in his class at Annapolis, but he still was among the privileged few who receive an appointment to attend the U.S. Naval Academy.

But it is isn't just latent racism why Obama is in trouble.

The media have turned on Obama and they are coming off as McCain campaign assistants as the story below so aptly points out.

Comments by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

Why Obama Could be in Trouble

By Robert Parry, Consortium NewsPosted on August 7, 2008, Printed on August 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/94030/

It might seem unlikely that the United States would elect John McCain to succeed George W. Bush when that would ensure continuation of many unpopular Bush policies: an ill-defined war with the Muslim world, right-wing consolidation of the U.S. Supreme Court, a drill-oriented energy strategy, tax cuts creating massive federal deficits, etc., etc.

But there are reasons -- beyond understandable concerns about Barack Obama's limited experience -- that make a McCain victory possible, indeed maybe probable.

Here is one of the big ones: The U.S. news media is as bad as ever, arguably worse.

On Monday, Obama gave a detail-rich speech on how he would address the energy crisis, which is a major point of concern among Americans. From ideas for energy innovation to retrofitting the U.S. auto industry to conservation steps to limited new offshore drilling, Obama did what he is often accused of not doing, fleshing out his soaring rhetoric.

McCain responded with a harsh critique of Obama's calls for more conservation, claiming that Obama wants to solve the energy crisis by having people inflate their tires. McCain's campaign even passed out a tire gauge marked as Obama's energy plan.

For his part, McCain made clear he wanted to drill for more oil wherever it could be found and to build many more nuclear power plants.

These competing plans offered a chance for the evening news to address an issue of substance that is high on the voters' agenda. Instead, NBC News anchor Brian Williams devoted 30 seconds to the dueling energy speeches, without any details and with the witty opening line that Obama was "refining" his energy plan.

So, instead of dealing with a serious issue in a serious way, NBC News ignored the substance and went for a clever slight against Obama, hitting his political maneuvering in his softened opposition to more offshore drilling.

Williams's quip fit with one of the press corps' favorite campaign narratives, Obama's flip-flopping. But the coverage ignored far more important elements of the story, such as the feasibility of Obama's vow that "we must end the age of oil in our time" or the wisdom of McCain's emphasis on drilling -- and nuking -- the nation out of its energy mess.

And, as for flip-flops, McCain's dramatic repositioning of himself as an anti-environmentalist -- after years of being one of the green movement's favorite Republicans -- represents a far more significant change than Obama's modest waffling on offshore oil.

Click on link above to read the full story by Robert Parry, award-winning journalist.

DROP IN U.S. CASUALTIES COINCIDES WITH SURGE IN IRAQI DEATHS

The U.S. can use the lowest ever July casualties and declare victory. But victory over whom?

(Comment: This is the same question we have been asking for months. What does "victory" in Iraq look like? And who signs the armistice agreement?)

The Unites States has received reports that its combat casualties in Iraq dropped to their lowest level in July with glee.

The Pentagon and the White House saw it as an indication of the success of their military tactics and that security conditions were improving in the country.

But is it possible to measure the situation in Iraq within U.S. parameters of success and failure?

By Fatih Abdulsalam, AzzamanPosted on August 5, 2008, Printed on August 7, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/story/93976/

The killing of only four U.S. service personnel in July, the fewest combat casualties for any month since America's 2003 invasion of the country, will only remain an American measure which cannot be extended to the conditions in Iraq.

Lowest ever U.S. casualties may speak volumes for the U.S. but it has little meaning for Iraqis.
The drastic drop in U.S. casualties coincides with a drastic surge in Iraqi casualties.

Joint U.S. and Iraqi military operations are proceeding in several provinces, leaving behind a trail of destruction and many casualties. The U.S. keeps no tally of the Iraqis it kills. Neither does the Iraqi government.

There is no indication of an end to these military operations. U.S. military commanders say many more are in the offing.

The military tactics pursued by the U.S. in the past five years have illustrated that military campaigns in which heavy weapons like warplanes, artillery and armor are deployed, have become the means to solve problems, though experience has shown that they have drastically failed to do so.

Iraqis have no security guarantees because those carrying arms are still afraid for their own security.

U.S. troops, Iraqi armed forces and the country's marauding militias see their weapons as the only means for survival.

The U.S. relies on its own security parameters to judge its performance in Iraq, the country it invaded and destroyed.

But Iraqis need other parameters for their own security - no more militiamen on the streets, no more invasions of cities and towns by U.S. and Iraqi troops, no more infighting between U.S.-raised militias and other Iraqi groups.

Iraqis have other parameters in mind. They long for national reconciliation which the mighty U.S. military machines has failed to bring about and the Iraqi government has been dodging all efforts to have it materialized.

Go back to link and continue reading....

So long as these parameters are not met, there will be no success in Iraq.

Coercive security measures are proceeding ahead unabated. Baghdad is being bisected by concrete walls. Tribes are being armed and Iraqis are fighting Iraqis. The death squads are dormant and not finished.

McCAIN: GET TO WORK!!!! MOVEON.ORG VIDEO

This is MoveOn.org's VIDEO answer to McCain's plea to a biker rally in Sturgis, South Dakota that Obama and Congress should get to work on the energy crisis.

This is the same rally where McCain volunteered his wife, Cindy, to be a participant in "Miss Buffalo Chip" contest obviously not knowing the other participants appear almost naked and make a stripper's convention look like a Girl Scout convention.

Here is the hilarious VIDEO which points out McCain was absent for EVERY vote on the energy bill.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

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

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

BEST IRAQ WAR VIDEO EVER!!!! LILAC TIME

The title of this video says it all. This video is devoted and dedicated to every brave young American who sacrificed their lives for the stupid and needless war in Iraq. The music, Lilac Time, is haunting and is a perfect background to this video you won't want to miss.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

Watch video here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/nWGKeUmFuW8&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

VIDEO TRIBUTE---10,000 MILES AWAY

I'm so fed up with the media in United States I can't see straight. They have decided the Iraq War is not worth covering anymore and every moronic reporter in the news business has bought into the idea "the surge" has been a roaring success.

IT WASN'T AND NEVER WILL BE. THE SUNNI AWAKENING SHOULD GET ALL THE CREDIT NOT THE U.S. MILITARY WHO STOOD AROUND AND PERFORMED GUARD DUTY. IF THE US MILITARY WAS SO SUCCESSFUL, HOW COME THERE WEREN'T MORE REPORTS ABOUT ALL THE INSURGENTS AND AL QAEDA WHO WERE KILLED?.

Here is another heart-breaking video which I'm presenting because I will NEVER forget the brave young men and women who served in IRAQ.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN editor of CORKSPHERE

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/oPsPZMvC3yY&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

VERY, VERY SAD VIDEO DEDICATION TO US ARMY IN IRAQ

The economy and selfish interests of so-called AMERICANS has shoved the Iraq War to the back burner in a every news room in the nation.

This is not only a sickening indictment of the AMERICAN people who have no vested interest in the war, but the finger of guilt it put right in the FACE of EVERY so-called journalist in AMERICA.

Every AMERICAN and every flabby-assed journalist in AMERICA should be forced to sit down and watch this video over and over again.

This VIDEO is supposed to bring tears to your eyes, but for some reason I've got a feeling not many AMERICANS and NONE of press could give a damn about the faces in this heart-breaking video.

Commentary by BILL CORCORAN, editor of CORKSPHERE

Watch VIDEO here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/WPatV7ZwhaY&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN CENTER OF PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

WASHINGTON POST: IRAQ BANKS BILLIONS IN SURPLUSES

The United States is shelling out $9 BILLION DOLLARS a month to fight the war in Iraq and help in rebuilding Iraq and all the time the Iraqi government is salting away almost $90 BILLION DOLLARS in surplus profits from the sale of oil.

What's wrong with this picture?

Iraq Banks Billions in Surpluses, GAO SaysNation's Oil Revenue Rising Sharply While U.S. Funds Reconstruction Projects

By Karen DeYoungWashington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008; A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/05/AR2008080502493.html

Iraq's oil income will more than double this year, even as Baghdad continues to spend only a small percentage of its own money on reconstruction and services while it banks billions in surplus funds, according to projections by U.S. government auditors.

Between 2005 and 2007, only 10 percent of Iraq's expenditures went toward reconstruction, with just 1 percent spent on maintaining U.S. and Iraqi-funded investments in roads, water, electricity and weapons, according to a report released yesterday by the Government

Accountability Office. Even when Baghdad has allocated larger sums, the report said, it has spent only a small portion of the budgeted money.

Those trends, which the report said have continued during the first half of this year, are likely to fuel further congressional discontent over ongoing U.S. payments to rebuild Iraq. "It is inexcusable for U.S. taxpayers to continue to foot the bill for projects the Iraqis are fully capable of funding themselves," Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said in a statement yesterday.

Click on link to continue reading story.

VIDEO: TRIBUTE TO OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS

The mainstream media seldom mentions the deaths of our fallen heroes from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and that in my opinion is a travesty bordering on treason.

This video is a touching and beaufiul tribute to our fallen heroes.

http://www.youtube.com/v/HkvVfqzjkG4&hl=en&fs=1

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