OPERATION FOREVER: AFGHANISTAN

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OBAMA CARRIES OUT BUSH/OILCO PLANS IN MIDEAST

WHY WE WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER LEAVE THE MIDDLE EAST

YOUTUBE: THE DOORS
"Intro Apocalypse Now"
It didn't end well...


Solar, Shmolar, It's Oil & Gas We Really Want

Dick Cheney's Assassin-In-Chief, General "Spook" McChrystal, hinted to the new Rupert Murdoch Wall Street rag that we are losing in Afghanistan. This was his preamble to a demand for dropping another 10,000 American troops into the Hole In Nowhere. McChystal's predecessor in the Hole was fired for suggesting we needed 10,000 more troops in Afghanistan.

But wait, there's more! McChrystal is offering a different strategerie in the Hole: Instead of actively going after the hostile Afghans, we will passively wait for them to come after us where we hide among the less-hostile Afghans. In Vietnam, that was called "The Strategic Hamlet Program." No relation to the melancholy Dane. But it still had a tragic ending.

The "SH" Program, as the Army abbreviated it, was based upon a recognition that we were losing the war in Southeast Asia, just as the French had before us, by losing the "hearts & minds" of the local people. Since we could not make the countryside safe, we would fortify certain villages and hole up in them until Charlie and the NVA came for us. And come they did. And go we did. It didn't work. (Poor locals! Let's hope Afghan peasants don't read U.S. history! Or have boats.)

So we thought we'd try it again, in Southwest Asia this time, where we are losing the war for hearts & minds just as the Russians had before us. Maybe it was the climate, or the terrain that defeated that brilliant strategerie in 'Nam. Maybe hiding from the enemy and holding the locals hostage will work in frozen mountains and high deserts better than it did in broiling jungles and steamy swamps. Or maybe it was the people, and Caucasoid Muslim goat-herders and opium farmers will be more amoenable to being targets than Mongoloid Buddhist fishermen and opium farmers. Either way, the troops will have plenny opium, hashish & heroin to while away the hours with, waiting for Charlie, er, Talie, to come over the wall. This is the end, my only friend, the end...

Meanwhile, back in Iraq, things are falling apart, again. Violence is up. Our strategerie of pulling our troops out of Iraq's cities and hiding them in the countryside is not going as planned. Unless the plan is to keep them there forever. Maybe that is the plan. Why else would we continue two unwinnable wars (make that three with Pakistan) just digging in and fortifying our hidey holes, while allowing chaos to reign all around us? Clearly, the plan, if there is one at all, is simply to keep US troops near the oil & gas reserves and pipelines until there is peace and stability in the region. But the mere presence of US troops guarantees that there will never be peace in the region. Is the idea that chaos is easier to deal with than independent governments who might squeeze --or squeeze out-- our big Oilco's? Easier for the Oilco's, who never shed any of their own blood, and for our war machine, which is only there to shed blood for the Oilco's? Vietnam was thought to have oil too, y'know.

And after all, there is not much point in being a general in peacetime. A real general needs a war to show his stuff. A real army needs actual combat experience to know whether it can do the job. The troopies may prefer to serve their time one weekend a month, one month each year filling sandbags for disaster relief back in Iowa, but this ain't no democracy. So there will be blood, for oil. Forever.


NYTIMES
"At Least 50 Killed in Bombings in Iraq "
The war is over! YAAAAY!! We won!!! The Iraqi's lost. All of them.

' The entire village was gone. Local television broadcast scenes of homes reduced to heaps of rubble mixed with bed frames, mattresses, furniture and bloodstained pillows. A villager cried into the camera: “Look, Mr. Prime Minister and Mr. Interior Minister, where is the security that you speak about?” '

THE GUARDIAN
"Pakistan: Premature claims"
Game so NOT over!

' But that does not mean the Pakistani Taliban are a spent force. Even with Mehsud allegedly gone, the component parts of the Pakistani Taliban are still in place. Mehsud held sway over a cluster of about a dozen groups – more of a business franchise than a company – some of which have defied his orders. With Mehsud gone or going, the cohesion could be reduced further. But that could herald an increase in bombing and shooting, as each outlet of the franchise competes for exclusive rights. Besides, Mehsud's outfit was only one of a number of groups that comprise the Pakistani Taliban. '

CNN
"Support for Afghan war drops, CNN poll finds"
Gotta keep those Repukelickin's happy. They're violent and they have guns.

' A new national poll indicates that support among Americans for the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low. Forty-one percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday say they favor the war in Afghanistan -- down 9 points from May, when CNN polling suggested that half of the public supported the war. Fifty-four percent say they oppose the war in Afghanistan, up 6 points from May. "Afghanistan is almost certainly the Obama policy that Republicans like the most," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "Nearly two-thirds of Republicans support the war in Afghanistan. Three-quarters of Democrats oppose the war." '

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
"More US troops for Afghanistan: Are they inevitable?"
"Left-leaning Democrats in Congress"? Who do THEY represent? 54% of the American people? Who CARES!

' The 21,000 US troops promised to Afghanistan have still not all arrived, yet speculation is rife that rising violence may force the senior commander there to ask for more. Last month was the deadliest ever for US forces in Afghanistan. In all, 76 coalition troops were killed. Seeking to reverse that trend, the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is preparing an assessment of the mission. News reports suggest that he could ask for an additional 10,000 to 45,000 troops. Previous commanders have all asked for more forces. In the past, "the handwriting was on the wall for more forces – and may still be," says Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst at Brookings, a think tank in Washington. If General McChrystal does ask for thousands more troops, it could cause a rift between the administration and left-leaning Democrats in Congress. '

WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Taliban Now Winning "
Strategic hamlets, anyone?

' The Taliban have gained the upper hand in Afghanistan, the top American commander there said, forcing the U.S. to change its strategy in the eight-year-old conflict by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas like the volatile southern city of Kandahar, the insurgency's spiritual home. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that means U.S. casualties, already running at record levels, will remain high for months to come. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the commander offered a preview of the strategic assessment he is to deliver to Washington later this month, saying the troop shifts are designed to better protect Afghan civilians from rising levels of Taliban violence and intimidation. The coming redeployments are the clearest manifestation to date of Gen. McChrystal's strategy for Afghanistan, which puts a premium on safeguarding the Afghan population rather than hunting down militants. '

FOX NEWS
"Pentagon Disputes Claim That Taliban Is Winning in Afghanistan"
Quag, meet Mire.

' "I wouldn't say we are winning or losing or stalemated," McChrystal told USA Today. The U.S. commander said in that interview that the insurgency has "momentum" which coalition forces are working to reverse. The dispute over the course of the war comes as McChrystal prepares to present a comprehensive assessment of operations in Afghanistan -- an assessment that could eventually include requests for additional U.S. troops. Top brass are insisting that despite the sharp rise in casualties in July and an expectation of more bloody months ahead the war is not taking a turn for the worse. National Security Adviser Jim Jones, who left the door open to more troops, told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the war is not at a "crisis level." '

MT HOLYOKE COLLEGE: DEPT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
"The Pentagon Papers"
Deja vu all over again: What the Pentagon knew, and when they knew it.

' A number of contributory reasons can be cited for the failure of the Strategic Hamlet Program. Over-expansion of construction and poor quality of defenses forms one category. This reason concentrates only on the initial phase of the program, however. While valid, it does little to explain why the entire program collapsed rather than only some hamlets within it. Rural antagonisms which identified the program with its sponsors in the central government are more suggestive of the basis for the complete collapse as Diem and Nhu departed the scene. The reasons why they departed are traceable in part to the different expectations which combined in the apparent consensus at the program's beginning: to Diem's insistence on material assistance and independence, to U.S. willingness to provide assistance only if its advice was heeded, and to the failure to resolve this question either by persuasion or leverage. Having said this, it does not automatically follow that the program would have succeeded even if Diem had met U.S. demands for change. To point to the causes of failure is one thing; to assume that changes of style would have led to success is quite another. It may well be that the program was doomed from the outset because of peasant resistance to measures which changed the pattern of rural life--whether aimed at security or control. It might have been possible, on the other hand, for a well-executed program eventually to have achieved some measure of success. The early demise of the program does not permit a conclusive evaluation. The weight of evidence suggests that the Strategic Hamlet Program was fatally flawed in its conception by the unintended consequence of alienating many of those whose loyalty it aimed to win. '

USA TODAY
"McChrystal: Jobs could curb Taliban fighting "
"It may well be that the program was doomed from the outset because of peasant resistance to measures which changed the pattern of rural life--whether aimed at security or control." -The Pentagon Papers: The Strategic Hamlet Program.

' In an interview with USA TODAY, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said his No. 1 unmet need is to have functioning local governments in Afghanistan and officials who can provide basic services. "At the end of the day, what the Afghan people are really looking for is that very basic level of governance provided, obviously, with security," McChrystal said. "I wouldn't say we are winning or losing or stalemated," McChrystal said about the current fighting. "What I would say at this particular point is that the insurgency has a certain amount of initiative and momentum that we are working to stop and, in fact, reverse." Afghanistan is holding its presidential and provincial elections on Aug. 20. '

CNN
"New NATO chief warns of Afghan 'terror Grand Central' "
Hey, anybody wanna play dominoes? Not real dominoes, theoretical dominoes.

' NATO will stay in Afghanistan "for as long as it takes," the military alliance's new leader said in Brussels, Belgium, Monday. He said success in the country was NATO's top priority "to help prevent Afghanistan from becoming again the Grand Central Station of international terrorism." '

SALON.COM
"It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan"
Another sad Vietnam parallel.

' Just outside the main gate to Bagram airfield, a U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, sits a series of small makeshift shops known by locals as the Bagram Bazaar. For Afghans, it is the place to buy American goods, but the stalls that make up the heart of the bazaar are also well known for what they provide American soldiers stationed at Bagram. Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want whiskey?" "No, heroin," I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile. The shop is small, 9 feet wide by 14 feet deep, and dark. The walls at the front are lined with dusty cans of soda, padlocks and miscellaneous beauty supplies. As we enter, a teenager is visible at the back, seated in a chair next to a collection of American military knives and flashlights. The shopkeeper speaks to him in Dari. The teen stands and heads for the door, where he stops and asks my Afghan driver a question. My driver translates, "He wants to know how much you want? Twenty, 30, 50 dollars' worth?" From past experience, for I have arranged this same transaction a dozen times in a dozen different Bagram Bazaar shops, I know that the $30 bag will contain enough pure to bring hundreds of dollars on the streets of any American city. Afghanistan, after all, is the source of 90 percent of the world's heroin. I say 30 and the teen jogs off. The true extent of the heroin problem among American soldiers now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is unknown. At Bagram, according to a written statement provided by a spokesperson for the base, Army Maj. Chris Belcher, the "Military Police receive few reports of alcohol or drug issues." The military has statistics on how many troops failed drug tests, but the best information on long-term addiction comes from the U.S. Veterans Administration. The VA is the world's largest provider of substance abuse services, caring for more than 350,000 veterans per year, of whom about 30,000 are being treated for opiate addiction. Only preliminary information for Iraq and Afghanistan is available, however, and veterans of those conflicts are not yet showing up in the stats. According to the VA's annual "Yellowbook" report on substance abuse, during Fiscal Year 2006, fewer than 9,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) sought treatment for substance abuse of all kinds at the VA; the report did not specify how many were treated for opiate abuse. The anecdotal information, however, suggests there may be a wave of new patients coming, and it will include many heroin users. I'm a filmmaker, and I have been to Afghanistan several times to research a film about a soldier who died there under murky circumstances. Before his death, the soldier, John Torres, had told friends and family of widespread heroin use at Bagram. Based on my own experience, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars the Bush administration has spent on opium poppy eradication, Torres was right. I asked to buy heroin a dozen times during two trips a year apart and never heard the word "no"; I also saw ample evidence that soldiers were trading sensitive military equipment, like computer drives and bulletproof vests, for drugs. Other soldiers who have served at Bagram agree: Heroin, they say "is everywhere." And although they haven't shown up in the statistics yet, reports from methadone clinics suggest the VA's future patients may already be back in the States in force. Much like the caskets that return to the Dover Air Force base in the dead of night, America's new addicts are returning undetected. '

MORE POSTS ON THE AFGHAN WAR & PRIVATIZATION OF THE MILITARY



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Suggestion Box & Tip Jar We would like to make over this blog to make it easier to access, to read and to comment on. We would also like to serve our readers better by providing more of what you need and want to see. All serious suggestions will be considered. We hope to move to our own domain in the near future, and we would like to ask for your financial assistance in doing that, and in upgrading our hardware & software. Small one-time donations and larger long-term subscriptions are welcome. Exclusive advertising is also available. If you think we are wasting our time in doing all this, please let us know. If you wish to help us, now is the time. As always, negative bullsh*t from right-wing trolls will be sh*tcanned. Thank you to everyone else. Please send feedback & PayPal contributions to cosanostradamusATexciteDOTcom. Thanks.

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OBAMA OUTSOURCES AFGHANISTAN

JUST IN CASE AFGHANIZATION DOESN'T WORK

Anti-War, Anti-Bush Candidate Follows Bush Iraq Strategies & Tactics In Expanding Afghan War

So. It's come to this. This mellow Hawaii dude, this Harvard man, this community organizer, this brother from the South Side of Chicago, with the African-Muslim name and the fiery black Christian preacher, this guy who promised to "end the war within eighteen months," this "socialist' is turning out to be pretty much Bush. He's not going to rule out or prosecute torture. He's going to cover it up. He's not going to close Gitmo and bring about fair & speedy trials in civilian courts inside the US. He's pulled some troops out of Iraqi cities, but not out of Iraq. He's going to redesignate them as "non-combat," not redeploy them. So.

Obama has expanded the war in Afghanistan into Pakistan, against their will. We're losing people there now, and in Afghanistan, where there's a troop buildup and a major offensive going on. It's not going well. How do we know that? For one thing, there's a new "Phoenix Program" under the command of Dick Cheney's personal global & domestic assassin, General McChrystal. Can Cointelpro be far behind? Plus, we're starting to hear the kind of bullsh*t we used to hear from Defense Secretaries like Melvin Laird and Robert McNamara about "winning hearts & minds" and "Vietnamization," i.e. turning the war over to the locals. That was a disaster in Vietnam. We got our asses kicked out of there when it failed.

But wait, there's more! Now we have private security firms to clandestinely fight our battles, a corporate nightmare Mussolini never even had. Instead of paying our loyal, honor-bound, UCMJ & Geneva/Hague-conventions regulated regular & reserve military troops to fight our battles, getting their asses shot off for chump change, and coming home in widely telecast flag-draped coffins, we're hiring disposable, unaccountable, outside-the-law and very expensive mercenaries, most of them US ex-military, whose deaths will never make the front pages of our national propaganda sheets and infotainment broadcasts.

In other words, we're digging in for the long haul. We're ass-covering in advance. We're doing everything we can to minimize political collateral damage, keeping a low low low low profile, hoping everybody forgets about all the wars. Yeah, there's three now: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and maybe Iran or even Georgia, soon. Biden was over there dicking with the Rooskies just last week. Why? War is good business, even a cold war, comrade. For both sides. It gives them unlimited money and power, and lots of toys that go "BOOM!!!" Every world leader's ultimate wet-dream.

So, yes, your son will die. Your daughter will be raped and mutilated. Your country will go on just as it always has, slaughtering strangers for no apparent reason in countries you can't find on a map. Why? Try looking on a world oil & gas reserves map. Yes, you will find Iraq & Afghanistan there. And you will find oil & gas transhipment lines and ports in Pakistan & Georgia. And you will find Iran, well, sorta in the way.

So, even though Obama is a coal man, he's now working for Big Oil overseas. Is this what you voted for? It's what you got. Put a stop to it now, before Vietnamization takes hold, or get ready for official & unofficial body bags and helicopters frantically picking State Department officials off an embassy roof. And toss that homeless girl a quarter, willya? She's a Vet.



BBC NEWS
"Afghanistan 'agrees Taliban deal' "
Why not let the Americans build a highway? Bechtel can always use the money! And that new road will come in handy when the Taliban takes over again.

' Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced the shift of emphasis in the UK's Afghanistan strategy in a speech to Nato. He stressed the Afghan government must do more to talk to moderate members of the Taliban as part of a broader political process. Violence in Afghanistan has escalated in recent months as UK and US forces launched a full-scale offensive against Taliban militants in the south of the country. Presidential spokesman Siamak Hirawi told the BBC the agreement in Badghis also stipulated that the Taliban would allow the reconstruction of the main highway. If the Taliban confirm they have agreed to the terms of the ceasefire and if the deal is repeated in other provinces, then it could mark a significant new stage in the conflict, correspondents say. But it would not be the first time the Afghan government has tried to engage the Taliban. In October 2008, President Hamid Karzai's brother confirmed a BBC report that he had met former members of the Taliban in Saudi Arabia as part of a first step towards peace talks. '

CNN
"U.S.: No more enemy body counts in Afghanistan"
We have met the enemy, and he is us.

' "Indicating the number of insurgents killed has little relevance to impacting the lives of Afghans. In fact, if that were the only purpose and metric, you would likely only extend the time it takes to bring about an end to the insurgency," Smith said in an e-mail to CNN responding to a query about the change. The issue of publishing enemy body counts has been extremely sensitive to the U.S. military since the Vietnam War when the military regularly published large enemy body counts but seemed to be failing overall to make progress in the war. '

GOOGLE NEWS
"US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 677"
Start the deathclock again.

' As of Sunday, July 26, 2009, at least 677 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Friday at 10 a.m. EDT. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Marines push militants out of Taliban region"
Or, they got away Scot-free. Whatever sounds better!

' U.S. Marines trapped Taliban fighters in a residential compound and persuaded the insurgents to allow women and children to leave. The troops then moved in — only to discover that the militants had slipped out, dressed in women's burqa robes. The fighters, who may owe their lives to the new U.S. commander's emphasis on limiting civilian casualties, were among hundreds of militants who have fled the offensive the Marines launched last week in southern Helmand province. Marine officers say keeping the Taliban from returning so the Afghan government can establish a stable presence will be a bigger challenge. "We have dislocated them while still protecting the people," said Col. Eric Mellinger, the operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. "Now the key is to prevent militants from coming back in, and the way to do that is to earn their (Afghan villagers') trust so that they don't allow them to come back in." '

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
"US push to put an Afghan face on Helmand offensive"
Painting the puppets' strings black makes them ALMOST invisible to the audience.

' There is a new push to dramatically expand the size of the Afghan Army and police, as the military operations now under way in southern Afghanistan is marked by a conspicuous absence of Afghans in the fight. The US's new Afghanistan strategy focuses on protecting the local population, reducing civilian casualties, and establishing security in Helmand, where the Taliban and other extremist groups have operated with relative impunity. But the military operation in the south that began July 1 has few Afghan soldiers, according to US commanders in the field. The Helmand offensive points to the need for more Afghans in the battlefield. There are roughly 4,000 US Marines operating in the Helmand region, but only about 650 Afghan soldiers fighting alongside them. There are also 6,500 British troops in the province. "I'm not going to sugarcoat it," said Brig. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commander of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade running the operation there, in a briefing with reporters earlier this month. "The fact of the matter is, we don't have enough Afghan forces, and I'd like more." There are in fact a total of 5,000 Afghan soldiers in Helmand, and more are said to be on the way, but officials haven't explained why they're not involved in the new offensive. The rest of the Afghan army is posted around the country, with many in the north, where violence is reasonably low. '

YAHOO NEWS
"US eyes private guards for bases in Afghanistan"
"Xe"? That's a Hessian name, isn't it?

' U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan may hire a private contractor to provide around-the-clock security at dozens of bases and protect vehicle convoys moving throughout the country. But the use of private contractors in Iraq has been highly contentious. Since a September 2007 shooting of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad by guards employed by Blackwater (now Xe Services), critics have urged U.S. officials to maintain much tighter controls over hired guards. The Washington Post reported Saturday that the Army published a notice July 10 informing interested contractors it was contemplating a contract for "theater-wide" armed security. "The contract would provide for a variety of security services, to include the static security of compounds on which U.S. and coalition forces reside, and for the protection of mission essential convoys in and around forward operating bases located throughout Afghanistan," the notice states. '

WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT
"Private Security Companies May Surge Into Afghanistan"
Mercenaries by any other name are still mercenaries.

' The ones whom McChrystal hires surely will. But what about the firms hired to protect the new State Department personnel on their way to Afghanistan? State Department security contractors like Blackwater Xe, Triple Canopy and DynCorp have been tied to more population-alienating abuses than the ones who work for the Defense Department. And McChrystal and his boss, Gen. David Petraeus — who dealt with the complications posed by buck-wild State Department security contractors in Iraq — won’t have control over them. The next Worldwide Personnel Protective Services contract, awarded to firms pledging to protect U.S. diplomats, will be a test of Petraeus’s oft-cited new “wingman” partnership with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the State Department’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. And this doesn’t say anything about security firms hired by private corporations doing business in Afghanistan. How to coordinate them into McChrystal’s battle plan? '

THE WASHINGTON POST
"U.S. General Sees Afghan Army, Police Insufficient"
Them damn dirty hippies is losin' us the war, AGAIN!

' U.S. commanders in southern Afghanistan told National Security Adviser James L. Jones late last month that additional Afghan forces are needed. But Jones made clear to them that Obama wants to give the nonmilitary elements of his strategy the time and resources to progress before considering new troop requests. If Obama approves a request for more training resources, he will probably have to contend with sharp questions from Congress about whether his new strategy is working as intended. Many of his constituents on the left would like to see the Afghan war ended rather than expanded. But McChrystal's "argument, and ultimately the argument of the Defense Department," will be that "if you only have one or two years to change the opinion of the people" of Afghanistan then "let's get on with it," one defense official said. McChrystal now has what the official called a "halo effect," similar to that of Gen. David H. Petraeus when he arrived in Iraq in early 2007 to preside over a major troop expansion and change in strategy that ultimately succeeded in turning the tide of that war. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Crooked Afghan police challenge Marines"
Kinda brings back memories of ARVN.

' Afghan villagers had complained to the U.S. Marines for days: The police are the problem, not the Taliban. They steal from villagers and beat them. Days later, the Marines learned firsthand what the villagers meant. As about 150 Marines and Afghan soldiers approached the police headquarters in the Helmand River town of Aynak, the police fired four gunshots at the combined force. No larger fight broke out, but once inside the headquarters the Marines found a raggedy force in a decrepit mud-brick compound that the police used as an open-pit toilet. The meeting was tense. Some police were smoking pot. Others loaded their guns in a threatening manner near the Marines. '

BBC NEWS
"Helmand's long and difficult road "
Kinda reminds us of the Ky Government. Right down to the heroin.

' The current focus on Helmand by 9,000 British and now an extra 10,000 US troops is because the province remains one of the Taliban's strongholds and the producer of more than half of the country's opium crop. The US and UK appear to have dropped the original policy of trying to eradicate the poppy crop before providing alternative livelihoods for Helmand farmers, a policy which had alienated potential allies. The US and British forces want to stabilise Helmand in time for next month's Afghan presidential elections. The levels of corruption within the Afghan government, its ineffectual reach in many provinces and the lack of a real justice system, or yet an effective police force, have all made it harder to convince the Afghan people that they are much better off now. There is now a gritty realism dawning in the campaign, and the public acknowledgement of just how difficult all this will be in the world's fourth-poorest country, which has been torn and scarred by war for the past three decades. '

AFP
"Britain urges new Afghan govt to defeat Taliban"
Politics is war by other means. See also: "Winning hearts & minds."

' British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned Afghan leaders Monday that their next government must do more to defeat the insurgency and drive a wedge between the Taliban and its backers. Miliband called on the incoming government to weed out hard-line insurgents from those Afghans involved in fighting for money, because they they have no job or who are being coerced. "We will not force the Taliban to surrender just through force of arms and overwhelming might," he said. The government with the help of the international community could do so, he said, by "dividing the different groups, by convincing the Afghans that we will not desert them to Taliban retribution, and by building legitimate governance." "We need to help the Afghan government exploit the opportunity, with a more coherent effort to fragment the various elements of the insurgency, and turn those who can be reconciled to live within the Afghan constitution." '

YAHOO NEWS
"Report: Too few officials knew of surveillance"
I got yer COINTELPRO right heah, -ssh-le!

' The report, compiled by five inspectors general, refers to "unprecedented collection activities" by U.S. intelligence agencies under an executive order signed by Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Just what those activities involved remains classified, but the IGs pointedly say that any continued use of the secret programs must be "carefully monitored." Most of the intelligence leads generated under what was known as the "President's Surveillance Program" did not have any connection to terrorism, the report said. But FBI agents told the authors that the "mere possibility of the leads producing useful information made investigating the leads worthwhile." '

WIKIPEDIA
"COINTELPRO"
A little history.

' COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI used covert operations from its inception, however formal COINTELPRO operations took place between 1956 and 1971. The FBI motivation at the time was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order. According to FBI records, 85% of COINTELPRO resources were expended on infiltrating, disrupting, marginalizing, and/or subverting groups suspected of being subversive, such as communist and socialist organizations; the women's rights movement; people suspected of building a "coalition of militant black nationalist groups" ranging from the Black Panther Party and Republic of New Afrika to "those in the non-violent civil rights movement" such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, and other civil rights groups; a broad range of organizations labelled "New Left", including Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Weathermen, almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, and even individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; and nationalist groups such as those "seeking independence for Puerto Rico." The other 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert "white hate groups," including the Ku Klux Klan and National States' Rights Party. The directives governing COINTELPRO were issued by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these movements and their leaders." '

WIKIPEDIA
"Phoenix Program"
A little more history

' The Phoenix Program (Vietnamese: Chiến dịch Phượng Hoàng, a word related to fenghuang, the Chinese phoenix) was a military, intelligence, and internal security program designed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and coordinated and executed by Republic of Vietnam's (South Vietnam) security apparatus and US Special Operations Forces such as the Navy SEALs, United States Army Special Forces and MACV-SOG (now Special Operations Group in the CIA's Special Activities Division) during the Vietnam War. The Program was in operation between 1967 and 1972, and similar efforts existed both before and after that period. The Program was designed to identify and "neutralize" (via infiltration, capture, terrorism, or assassination) the civilian infrastructure supporting the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF or Viet Cong) insurgency. The Phoenix Program is sometimes seen as an "assassination campaign," and has been criticized as an example of human-rights atrocities alleged to have been committed by the CIA or other allied organizations, including U.S. Military Intelligence. There was eventually a series of U.S. Congressional hearings. Consequently, the military command in Vietnam issued a directive that reiterated that it had based the anti-VCI campaign on South Vietnamese law, that the program was in compliance with the laws of land warfare, and that U.S. personnel had the responsibility to report breaches of the law. Supporters argue that the primary intent was to capture, not to kill, in order to gain further information. However, decentralized operations in an uncertain, ambiguous environment did lead to abuses. In many instances, rival Vietnamese would report their enemies as "VC" in order to get U.S. troops to kill them (Myra MacPherson, Long Time Passing, New York: Signet, 1984, p. 625.) In many cases, Phung Hoang chiefs were incompetent bureaucrats who used their positions to enrich themselves. Phoenix tried to address this problem by establishing monthly neutralization quotas, but these often led to fabrications or, worse, false arrests. In some cases, district officials accepted bribes from the NLF to release certain suspects. '

WIKIPEDIA
"The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia"
A short history of government-sponsored drug trafficking.

' The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia is a major, nonfiction book on heroin trafficking—specifically in Southeast Asia from before World War II up to (and including) the Vietnam War. Published in 1972, the book was the product of eighteen months of research and at least one trip to Laos by Alfred W. McCoy[1] who was the principal author and who wrote Politics of Heroin while seeking a PhD in Southeast Asian history at Yale University. Cathleen B. Read, co-author and graduate student[where?], also spent time there during the war. Its most groundbreaking feature was its documentation of CIA complicity and aid to the Southeast Asian opium/heroin trade; along with McCoy's Congressional testimony, its initially controversial thesis has gained a degree of mainstream acceptance. The central idea is that at the time, the vast majority of heroin produced was produced in the Golden Triangle, from which: "It is transported in the planes, vehicles, and other conveyances supplied by the United States. The profit from the trade has been going into the pockets of some of our best friends in Southeast Asia. The charge concludes with the statement that the traffic is being carried on with the indifference if not the closed-eye compliance of some American officials and there is no likelihood of its being shut down in the foreseeable future." Air America in particular was used for this transport. Further, this heroin supply is responsible for the parlous state of the Army in Vietnam: "By mid 1971 Army medical officers were estimating that about 10 to 15 per cent... of the lower ranking enlisted men serving in Vietnam were heroin users." Having interviewed Maurice Belleux, former head of the French SDECE intelligence agency, Mc Coy also uncovered parts of the French Connection scheme, as the French military agency had financed all of its covert operations, during the Indochina War, from its control of the Indochina drug trade. '

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
"U.S. military increases attacks on Afghan drugs"

' U.S. Marines and Afghan forces have found and destroyed hundreds of tons of poppy seeds, opium and heroin in southern Afghanistan this month in raids that a top American official said show the new U.S. counter narcotics strategy in Afghanistan is working. U.S. and NATO troops are attacking drug warehouses in Afghanistan for the first time this year, a new strategy to counter the country's booming opium poppy and heroin trade. NATO defense ministers approved the targeted drug raids late last year, saying the link between Taliban insurgents and drug barons was clear. U.N. officials say Taliban fighters reap hundreds of millions of dollars from the drug trade each year, profits used to fund the insurgency. '

MORE POSTS ON THE AFGHAN WAR & PRIVATIZATION OF THE MILITARY



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BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, BOMB BOMB IRAN

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REPUBLICAN CONSERVATARDS WANT WWIII FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON

YOUTUBE: JOHN MCCAIN
"Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran"
Sing it, McNuts! This COULDA been your PRESIDENT!! Yaaaay Republicans!!!


HEY, THEY VOTED FOR MCSAME, RIGHT?

YOUTUBE: MSNBC
"Republicans Call Obama "Weak" on Iran"
Those who ignore history are Republicans.


They Prob'ly Wish They Could Vote For Kim Jung Il

People who look forward to the world coming to an end in their own lifetimes should probably not be consulted on matters of national security. For one thing, they're f'ing crazy. For another thing, they're really f'in' stoooooopit!

Seriously, how many times have the wingnuts gathered together to share Kool-Aid, stare at comets, and pray for Armageddon? Every few years, right? And does their Lord & Savior co-operate by smashing us all like bugs, just cuz it's the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year of the seventh millennium? NO, G-DD-M HIM!!!

Yet, there they are again, a few years later, begging an imaginary being to roast their own children in "cleansing" Hellfires, selling off their recreational vehicles and stocking up on batteries. What was it Einstein said? Repeating the same action over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of what, class? And I hear tell he was a pretty smart feller, for a liberal.

The wingnuts want us to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING about Iran. Why? They didn't demand that we do anything about our own obvious election problems in 2000 or 2004, right here at home. Iran has been ruled by one cleric or clerical puppet since they kicked the CIA out of there in the 70's. What's the rhubarb about now, all of a sudden? Oh, yeah, Barack "the Magic Negro" is in charge now. Boy, it really burns their grits that the President of the United States is black! And a Helluva lot smarter than them, too, thank Gawd!

Cuz, what exactly would some wingnut do, if there were a wingnut in charge at the White House this Wednesday? Nuke Iran? Invade them? Give them a sterner talking-to? You know, I don't think the Ayatollahs much give a damn what we have to say, since they got rid of OUR puppet governments over there.

Invading them would mean cranking up the whole war machine again, just as we're trying to wind down the Mess-O-Potamia the 'Pukes got us into for oil, er, uh, I mean, um, no reason at all. Ya think Joe Sixpack wants to get called up again? Or his kids? Think the Iranian people will welcome us like Frenchwomen in 1944? BWAHAWHAHAHAAAAAHAWHA!!! Think the Moon is made from green cheese? Then you must be a redneck, uh, a Republican. Same diff.

OK, so that leaves nuking them. Except for this local phenomenon known as "wind." Yeah, it's like a airy kinda thing that moves around? Carries dust and radioactive stuff all over the place? Might get the Israeli's or the Pakistani's or the Greeks or the Russians, all of whom are currently not on our hit list, and might object to being poisoned en masse. Y'know?

So, tell us, wingnuts. What EXACTLY would you have us do that could actually contribute anything positive to the current situation in Iran? You know, like if we EVER trusted you with power again? Seriously, what's on your tiny minds, conservatards? Cuz here's what all we can actually do, since anything we do will play into the hands of the worst of the Ayatollahs, thanks to our long history of meddling in their affairs, and f**king them up: NOTHING. That's exactly all we can do for those poor bastards right now, thanks to you, you murdering Repukelickin' a-holes. You've pretty much ruined our credibility in the world as the ultimate impartial defender of freedom and democracy, which is what we were before your Messiah Dubya started slaughtering random Ay-rabs for fun and profit, you IDIOTS!

So, here's what we can do, and what you can do about Iran, Pukeys: STFU!!!!!!


BBC NEWS
"Iran 'will not yield' over poll "
Maybe the conservatards are TRYING to screw Iran's liberal democrats! "More war! More war! More war!" they chant.

' Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said the nation "will not yield to pressure" over a disputed presidential election. Iran has also said it is "reviewing" whether to downgrade relations with the UK, as diplomatic tensions increase. The UK has moved to expel two Iranian diplomats in response to Tehran's decision to order two UK diplomats to leave Iran, following allegations UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called "absolutely without foundation". The British prime minister's spokesman said Downing Street was monitoring the situation. "Iran's decision to try to turn what are clearly internal matters for Iran into a conflict with the UK and others is deeply regrettable and without foundation," he said. '

YAHOO NEWS
"Obama condemns violence against Iran protesters"
Gawd, how the idiot Repukelickin bullies hate an intelligent response! Perhaps because they are incapable of one?

' The past 10 days in Iran have posed the strongest challenge to that nation's clerical rule since the system was established 30 years ago in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Before Tuesday, Obama mostly kept to a modulated response, calculating that, given Iranians' distrust of American involvement in their country, anything viewed as internal meddling from the White House would do the demonstrators more harm than good. He also is deeply interested in preserving his promised policy concerning Iran and the threat its nuclear program poses: He contends the danger has only grown through decades of ruptured diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Tehran, particularly in the past eight years under President George W. Bush, and it is time to try to change that by re-establishing direct talks. But Obama has been taken to task by some Republicans, accused of being too passive. Even with Iran's blackout of foreign press and attempted communications shutdowns, chaotic images of riot police beating and shooting protesters have seized the world's attention. At least 17 people have been killed. With an array of U.S. sanctions already in place against Iran, there are few options at Obama's disposal other than withdrawing his offer to talk. Regardless, Obama said it's too early for him to be more specific. "We are going to monitor and see how this plays itself out before we make any judgments about how we proceed," he said. Asked if his stronger language was influenced by pressure from Republicans such as Graham and Sen. John McCain, Obama scoffed: "What do you think?" And he shot back at GOP critics: "Only I'm the president of the United States." Advisers realize the new tone poses a risk that the U.S. president will become a scapegoat for Iran's leaders — just what Obama has sought to avoid. Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive strategy, said the disturbing images of the past few days warranted the tougher stance. '

LA TIMES
"Israel's top leaders voice support for Iran demonstrators"
Yeah, that'll help! You STFU, too!

' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been a convenient bogeyman for Israel. So the early claim of his reelection as Iran's president brought quiet sighs of relief to many Israeli leaders, who figured it would be easier to rally Western pressure against Iran as long as the Holocaust-denying hard-liner remained in power. Now, after more than a week of massive protests by defiant Iranians alleging electoral fraud, sentiment in Israel is shifting. Its leaders have joined the Israeli public in openly applauding the demonstrators and asking aloud whether the theocratic regime feared by the Jewish state as a threat to its existence might be crumbling. '

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REPUBLICAN COMEBACK IN 2010?

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UNLIKELY BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS
"Voter Turnout In Presidential And Midterm Elections"
A ten to fifteen per cent drop in voter participation from Presidential to "off-year" Congressional midterm elections:



WHY VOTE DEMOCRAT IF THEY'RE JUST LITE REPUBLICANS?


YOUTUBE: OBAMA IN SOCAL FOR DEMOCRATIC FUNDRAISER
"Obama: I've Done as Much as FDR"
""One of them said, 'Obama keep your promise,’ " the president said. "I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about." Ha-ha! "



Why Vote At All If Obama Doesn't Keep His Promises On Gitmo, The War, Healthcare, Cardcheck, Etc, Etc, Etc?

[In response to a post on Docudharma.com by Something The Dog Said:

' ...There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the Republican Party. The Dog has, himself, been part of this talk. Whenever this topic comes up there are those that point out the various times where the Republican Party or even the Democratic Party were down and looked as though they might be out, then have come back in with surprising swiftness. These arguments are true as far as they go but one of the major failings the Dog always finds with these comparisons is they only look at the results and fail to take into account the circumstances which allowed these changes of fortunes for the Party. One of the major influencers has been the direction of the nation over time. This is often ignored by folks making the come back argument. Over the last 30 years we have been seeing a general trend towards a more conservative point of view. This coincides with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. It is a sociological fact that folks tend to be come more conservative as they age, so the fact that the biggest generation, to that point, in American history were all moving towards middle age at the same time it make sense that the conservative point of view would gain traction. As the Generation Y citizens have grown up and become more politically active in their 30's they are overcoming the conservatism of their parents the Baby Boomers. This combined with the consequences of eight years of Republican rule is how we have gotten to this place where the Democrats control both Houses of Congress and the White House. But a big part of our electoral victory was the ability of our Party and President Obama in particular to articulate a positive vision for the future. In the 2000 election, then Governor Bush had this positive message on two fronts. First he and his campaign talked about returning honor and dignity to the White House. We can see from this vantage of 2009 how completely hollow that message was, but at the time the nation was tiered of the controversies (real and fabricated) of the Clinton Presidency. This made the returning honor and dignity message an appealing one. The other positive vision was the "Compassionate Conservative" meme. It was just what independents who leaned Republican wanted to hear, a Republican Candidate who was not tied to the perceived meanness of the Republican culture warriors. These two factors combined were enough to get President Bush close enough for the Supreme Court to award the Presidency to Mr. Bush... ' (continues)]

I would agree with Somethingthedogsaid (now I know why he chose that name: He doesn't want people to say that, or to agree with him) on some points. But, on others, I think he is way off base. It is far too early to count the Republicans out. Wishful thinking will not win us any votes. We have to look at this realistically, and never underestimate the power of the corporate & redneck Right. Also, keep in mind, Americans like divided government, generally speaking, and most voters no longer give permanent allegiance to any Party. Plus, we like to punish our Presidents in the midterm Congressional elections. The Democrats could gain in the midterms, but they could lose if they fail to get out the people who normally don't vote, but did vote in 2008. That won't happen if Obama keeps heading to the Right.

Having said that, let me address some of the "The Dog"s points. It will take up too much space on his website, so I will include a link to the bulk of it on my own blog.

Trends: If what Dog says is true about the "boomers," then we're headed for a more conservative era as they all retire and keep hanging on well into their 80's & 90's: 30-40 years for the youngest "boomers." Meanwhile, the oldest "boomers" oldest kids are getting near their 50's, so, more conservatism, according to Dog.

"Conservative. "Liberal." "Democrat." "Republican." "Boomers." "Gen-X." We need to take a big old Q-tip and clean all this nasty old label sh*t out of our ears, here. We're people, not robots or trendoids or demographics or electoral units or partisan acolytes. America never has been and never will be an ideologically-driven country. We're not much for partisan politics, either. We're pragmatists and all we expect from government is to be protected from the bad guys, i.e. foreign & domestic enemies both military and economic; to not be impoverished and otherwise to be left alone. It's only the tiny minorities on the fringes that give a sh*t about all these philosophical "issues" that just don't concern the vast majority of us.

What the last 40 years have shown us (based largely on bread & butter and certain hot-button issues) is that the vast majority, though economically & socially center-Left more and more, will still cross Party lines back and forth at will. The Democratic majority of Kennedy & Johnson shifted very slightly to a thin Republican majority for Nixon and Ford, based on the contracting economy and inflation, as well as racial issues and Vietnam. That majority shifted again to the Dems with Carter, and back again to Republicans Reagan & Bush, on money, race & "national security." Then back to Clinton on "the economy, stupid."

The Republican "victories" have in fact been largely Electoral College anomalies: Without Third Party candidates like Wallace and Anderson, the Right could not have won: Nixon won by a squeaker in the popular vote in 1968, and so did Reagan in 1980. Without Perot, Clinton might not have won, but in all these elections, the majority have leaned toward the center-Left, where the Democrats are (or should be), rather than the extreme Right, where the Republicans increasingly live. Only by virtue of these electoral tricks, i.e., covert support of splinter candidates, etc, has the Republican minority been able to win the White House.

It wasn't any "meme" or stylistic affectation that won Bush the White House. Nader cost Al Gore the White House in 2000, along with much help from Bush's brother in the Florida Governor's mansion, and Cheney's friends on the Republican Supreme Court. Bush then had the advantage of incumbency and war in 2004, plus voting-machine manufacturer Diebold's chairman running his Ohio campaign; but he still barely beat Kerry. He never had any kind of a "message." And there were no meaner culture warriors than Bush's brain, Karl Rove, and his boss, Dick Cheney. Nobody outside of his majority among rich people and Red State idiots could even stand Dumbya. He was a ridiculous, inarticulate, crude little moron and everybody who was paying attention knew that very well. He never represented anyone or any "vision" but those of the very rich and the very redneck, both minorities in this country, as Rush constantly laments. That's why Nixon, Reagan and both Bush's had to cheat.

Even after eight years of Clinton-bashing, people were still ready to vote for Gore. Bill Clinton was still wildly popular with the center-Left in 2000, thanks to a great economy and all those years the Repukelickin's wasted in bashing him, which only made him a martyr. If Gore had accepted Clinton's help campaigning, he probably would have won despite all the cheating by Bush. On that, and on the fight over the cheating, Gore screwed up. He actually still won the election, but then he lost the fight over it for lack of trying.

It wasn't ideology or "vision" that drove all this: It was electoral trickery and voter fatigue. Negative campaigning worked for the Republicans for years, right on up until the the point when the economy collapsed in the middle of McSame's campaign. In previous elections, up to 60% of those eligible to vote simply failed to do so, year after year. Negative campaigning was a large part of that failure to turn out, and that was its' goal. What was there to vote for? Wimpy, wonky Democrats trying to look like Republicans-Lite? Rich racist Republicans trying to look like good old boys? What a joke! That left it up to the 20% of actual voters who were hard-core Dems and the 20% hard-core Repub's to battle it out over the last couple of percentage points-worth left of those few who bothered to vote at all. But in this last Presidential election, it was money, not "vision" that won.

What Obama did was not ideological. Obviously, if you did look at his campaign website, or his Cabinet & staff choices, he's not a progressive, or even a liberal on many issues. But he did tap into a sentiment among the 40%-60% of those eligible to vote who frequently do not vote, and it was enough to counter any Republican dirty tricks. It seemed like he might actually be different on money issues that matter to the majority, if you didn't look too close. He wasn't ruling out things like healthcare, like McBush, who also stupidly admitted he was lousy on the economy. Mainly for economic reasons, many in the non-partisan majority voted for Obama, and for the "center-Left" issues we care about.

Certain very real bread & butter issues that the majority actually cares about are finally coming to a head now after more than forty years of suppression. Number one is health care. So far, Obama has effected little or no change that favors unions, gays, the anti-war movement, secularism, and other "leftist" causes. He will lose those people in 2010 & 2012 if that doesn't change very soon. If he continues to pander to the big healthco's and drops the ball on what the majority wants, universal single-payer national healthcare, then that 40%-60% is likely to sit out the next two elections in record numbers.

By energizing their own base, and discouraging the already disappointed Democratic base, the Republicans could not only stem any losses, but make some gains in the next election. This has been the pattern in mid-term Congressional elections for a long time. Democratic over-confidence, Obama's pandering to the corporations & the religious Right, and his Bush-lite stands on civil liberties and militarism may exacerbate this trend next year.

Don't count on Gen X or Y: If the economy is not back on its' feet well before NOV 2010, many of them could be unemployed, bankrupt and even homeless. They may very well register a protest vote with a Green, a Libertarian, a "reasonable-sounding" Republican; or None Of The Above, the real majority Party, by not voting at all. If they choose to stay home in large numbers next election day, Republicans can win, and they know it. That's been their very effective strategy for over forty years now.

All media bullsh*t and wonky "memes" aside, Barack had better watch his back and start producing for us, the center-Left majority, economically, or he could end up like Carter or Clinton. With all that inherited wealth and international corporate money behind them, the Republicans are not going away any time soon. And don't even THINK of another 9/11. The first one is murky enough: The next one could succeed in decapitating the government. Personally, I wouldn't trust the military or their friends the Republicans if Obama were to be sitting in the White House when a plane or a missile hit it, or Capitol Hill. Don't even THINK of it!


WIKIPEDIA
"United States midterm election"
"Midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president's and/or incumbent party's performance. They usually don't turn out well for the party of the president; over the past 17 midterm elections, the president's party has lost an average 28 seats in the House, and an average 4 seats in the Senate: TABLE:"



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REPUBLICAN RACISTS CRY "RACISM"

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SUPREME COURT NOMINEE IS "TOO HISPANIC"

Imperial Republican Grand Dragon Rush Limbaugh Marches Off To Work

SLIMIEST RACE-BAITERS ON EARTH ATTACK NOMINEE FOR BEING LATINA
MSNBC
"Rachel Maddow Responds To Rush Limbaugh "Reverse Racist" Crack"

Rachel tells it like it is.


The Party Of Lincoln Is Now The Party Of The Confederacy

Ever since Richard "I Am Not A Crook" Nixon teamed up with George "I'll Never Be Out-'N*ggered'" Wallace to subvert our country's electoral process in 1968, the GOP has been the Party of hatred and racism. Their strategy has always been to divide and conquer America on behalf of wealthy traitors and multinational corporations. It has worked remarkably well: Republicans like Nixon, Ford, Reagan & Bush and Lite Republicans like Carter and Clinton have run the country into the ground for over forty years. The result is an economy in shambles, a standard of living in ruins, and a paradise for rich foreign paracites and their traitorous buddies here, like Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, Beck, Hannity, McConnell, Boehner, Rove, Gingrich and Cheney.

The fact that most Americans now reject their race-baiting doesn't faze them. With no coherent political philosophy, wildly unpopular Party policies, and nothing positive to offer Americans they have made to suffer with their failed strategies, race is all they have left. It still appeals to their mentally ill base in the South, and wherever sad losers gather elsewhere to share teabags. With enough electoral fraud and dirty tricks, Republican racist appeals might just succeed in limiting their losses in the next few elections and guaranteeing their survival. That will give them time to plan and execute or encourage acts like 9/11 and political assassinations. In chaos, there is opportunity.

How else could a few rich fat nasty old white guys get anybody to vote for their selfish bullsh*t? Even with all the help in the world from the tame corporate media, they can't hope to win fairly. So it's back to the racialist drawing board. And it's time to tune them out for good.


NY DAILY NEWS
"GOP Holy Trinity on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: She's a 'racist'
The pot-bellied calling the kettle a sp*c.

' Never ones to shy away from a fight -- even a losing one -- the Holy Trinity of the GOP -- Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh -- have taken to calling the Supreme Court justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor a 'racist,' with Gingrich even going so far as to ask her to withdraw. Immediately after the announcement on Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh was the first to started banging the war drum by calling Sotomayor a "horrible choice" and "a racist ... or reverse racist." '

THE AMERICAN PROSPECT
"THE SOUTHERN STRATEGY AGAINST SONIA SOTOMAYOR."
Same old "conservative" racist bullsh*t.

' A case against Sotomayor based on her "credentials" or "intelligence" is false on its face--this is a kind of Southern Strategy all over again. By stoking white resentment over the rise of allegedly unqualified minorities getting prominent positions, the GOP is hoping to derail her nomination. It probably won't work, but it's another sign of how little the GOP learned from last year's election. '

SCOTUSBLOG.COM
"Judge Sotomayor’s Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases"
One thing about judges: Every word is on the official, permanent public record: These decisions are who she really is, as a judge.

' Judge Sonia Sotomayor is an obviously serious candidate to serve on the Supreme Court. We have been struck by how the amount of commentary about Judge Sotomayor has ignored the most accessible and valuable source of information: her opinions as an appellate judge. Last year, I directed a project in which a team of Akin Gump summer associates extensively reviewed Judge Sotomayor’s opinions. Amy Howe subsequently revised and expanded their work, with contributions by me. Here, we make our first effort at summarizing what we regard as Judge Sotomayor’s principal opinions in civil cases. Our only goal is to identify and summarize the opinions, not evaluate them. A summary of additional civil cases, as well as Judge Sotomayor’s leading criminal law opinions will follow. '

CNN
"Sotomayor's resume, record on notable cases"
The judge's actual resume: Not a member of Mecha (She's not Mexican, Rush...)

' (CNN) -- Here is a look at the resume and record of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whom President Barack Obama has chosen as his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.• Age 54 (Born June 25, 1954, New York City) Judicial Career • U.S. Appeals Court judge, 2nd Circuit, 1998-present • U.S. District Court judge, 1992-1998 • Nominated to federal bench by Bush in 1991, Clinton in 1997 Government/Legal Career • Former N.Y. County Assistant District Attorney, 1979-1984 • Former private practice attorney, Pavia & Harcourt, New York, 1984-1992 Politics • Confirmed by Senate 67-29 in 1998 • Confirmation to current seat took over 1 year • Was opposed by majority of GOP senators • Was unopposed in 1991 confirmation process Historic Milestones If Nominated • Would be first Hispanic Supreme Court justice • Would be third female Supreme Court Justice (second on current Court) Education • J.D., Yale Law School, 1979 • B.A., Princeton, 1976 (summa cum laude) '

NY TIMES
"Lecture: ‘A Latina Judge’s Voice’ "
The entire "racist" statement, in context. Fair & balanced.

' Now Judge Cedarbaum expresses concern with any analysis of women and presumably again people of color on the bench, which begins and presumably ends with the conclusion that women or minorities are different from men generally. She sees danger in presuming that judging should be gender or anything else based. She rightly points out that the perception of the differences between men and women is what led to many paternalistic laws and to the denial to women of the right to vote because we were described then "as not capable of reasoning or thinking logically" but instead of "acting intuitively." I am quoting adjectives that were bandied around famously during the suffragettes' movement.

While recognizing the potential effect of individual experiences on perception, Judge Cedarbaum nevertheless believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices and aspire to achieve a greater degree of fairness and integrity based on the reason of law. Although I agree with and attempt to work toward Judge Cedarbaum's aspiration, I wonder whether achieving that goal is possible in all or even in most cases. And I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society. Whatever the reasons why we may have different perspectives, either as some theorists suggest because of our cultural experiences or as others postulate because we have basic differences in logic and reasoning, are in many respects a small part of a larger practical question we as women and minority judges in society in general must address. I accept the thesis of a law school classmate, Professor Steven Carter of Yale Law School, in his affirmative action book that in any group of human beings there is a diversity of opinion because there is both a diversity of experiences and of thought. Thus, as noted by another Yale Law School Professor -- I did graduate from there and I am not really biased except that they seem to be doing a lot of writing in that area - Professor Judith Resnik says that there is not a single voice of feminism, not a feminist approach but many who are exploring the possible ways of being that are distinct from those structured in a world dominated by the power and words of men. Thus, feminist theories of judging are in the midst of creation and are not and perhaps will never aspire to be as solidified as the established legal doctrines of judging can sometimes appear to be.

That same point can be made with respect to people of color. No one person, judge or nominee will speak in a female or people of color voice. I need not remind you that Justice Clarence Thomas represents a part but not the whole of African-American thought on many subjects. Yet, because I accept the proposition that, as Judge Resnik describes it, "to judge is an exercise of power" and because as, another former law school classmate, Professor Martha Minnow of Harvard Law School, states "there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives - no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging," I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that--it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others. Not all women or people of color, in all or some circumstances or indeed in any particular case or circumstance but enough people of color in enough cases, will make a difference in the process of judging. The Minnesota Supreme Court has given an example of this. As reported by Judge Patricia Wald formerly of the D.C. Circuit Court, three women on the Minnesota Court with two men dissenting agreed to grant a protective order against a father's visitation rights when the father abused his child. The Judicature Journal has at least two excellent studies on how women on the courts of appeal and state supreme courts have tended to vote more often than their male counterpart to uphold women's claims in sex discrimination cases and criminal defendants' claims in search and seizure cases. As recognized by legal scholars, whatever the reason, not one woman or person of color in any one position but as a group we will have an effect on the development of the law and on judging.

In our private conversations, Judge Cedarbaum has pointed out to me that seminal decisions in race and sex discrimination cases have come from Supreme Courts composed exclusively of white males. I agree that this is significant but I also choose to emphasize that the people who argued those cases before the Supreme Court which changed the legal landscape ultimately were largely people of color and women. I recall that Justice Thurgood Marshall, Judge Connie Baker Motley, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, and others of the NAACP argued Brown v. Board of Education. Similarly, Justice Ginsburg, with other women attorneys, was instrumental in advocating and convincing the Court that equality of work required equality in terms and conditions of employment.

Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences, a possibility I abhor less or discount less than my colleague Judge Cedarbaum, our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice O'Connor has often been cited as saying that a wise old man and wise old woman will reach the same conclusion in deciding cases. I am not so sure Justice O'Connor is the author of that line since Professor Resnik attributes that line to Supreme Court Justice Coyle. I am also not so sure that I agree with the statement. First, as Professor Martha Minnow has noted, there can never be a universal definition of wise. Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

Let us not forget that wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society. Until 1972, no Supreme Court case ever upheld the claim of a woman in a gender discrimination case. I, like Professor Carter, believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable. As Judge Cedarbaum pointed out to me, nine white men on the Supreme Court in the past have done so on many occasions and on many issues including Brown.

However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Other simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color on the bench. Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see. My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage. '

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POPE RON-PAUL ENCYCLICAL

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PAULTARDS CELEBRATE MASS IN FED SQUARE

FOR ONCE, LIBERTARIAN (RECOVERING OR CLOSET-REPUBLICAN) PONTIFF IS RIGHT!
MONKEYS CAN TYPE SHAKESPEARE! GIVEN ENOUGH TIME...

Texas Congressman Proposes Audit Of The Federal Reserve: No Papal Bull!

Very old populist hooey, this anti-bank stuff. Pre-dates Jackson. Andrew, not Jesse.

Does Pope Ron-Paul use ATMs? Receive a paycheck? Live in a home that was ever mortgaged? Then he's part of the Federal Reserve System, too. We all are.

We need a banking system. It should not be entirely private, for reasons that ought to be obvious after the last twelve months: Government oversight is not enough, we must have control of our finances. But direct control by politicians on a day-to-day basis is not a good idea, either, as it would subject our personal and business finances to political vendettas and electoral politics. I'm sure most of these anti-bank "libertarians" (closet Republicans & recovering Republicans) would be against THAT.

Having said this, anything that cannot be explained is, by definition, inexplicable, or as Webster would have it, "incapable of being explained, interpreted, or accounted for [an inexplicable disappearance]." Unaccountability seems like the opposite of what you want in a bank.

If it can't be explained, it's probably something somebody doesn't WANT you to know, like whose buddy got what favor to cover whose ass, and why. That ain't banking. That's insider politics and crony capitalism at its' worst. It's our money, and our government, including the Fed. The system works, yeah, but for whose primary benefit? It should be the depositors and the taxpayers, not the bankers and their shareholders, first. A little light on the subject would be a good disinfectant, in case there's any stench of corruption on up in there.

The problem with our system today, and not just the Fed, is that it relies almost exclusively on "conservative" corporatist industry expertise. Our government is full of Wall Street types, defense contractors, agribusiness shills, etc. Is it any wonder that our government's policies are so violently pro-business and anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-shareholder? Duh. Chickens, meet foxes. They'll be managing your house.

The biggest disappointment, so far, with Obama has been his continuation of this. He could have selected experts from the labor movement or academia, dissenting voices from non-corporate think-tanks and NGOs. There are many with government and industry experience who are not outright whores for the corporations. But he chose the whores, in part because they have more gov't experience. But if the government NEVER listens to or hires non-corporate advocates, then they will NEVER have government experience.

This was a chance to reverse that pernicious trend, and the Dems blew it. This is why people say there is no difference between the two Parties, and why nuts like Paul come into being. But for once, I agree with him: Audit the suckers on a regular basis. And that includes the Treasury, FNMC, FHLMC, the SEC and all the rest of them. Let's just see who's minding the store, and how, and for whom.

Great post, Captain! Read the whole thing, folks!


HUMAN VOICES
"Show me the money"
Thanks to Capt. Fogg for this:

' Sometimes I think Ron Paul's ideas may be too simplistic. This isn't one of them. In a Forbes editorial last week, Congressman Paul called for an audit of the Federal Reserve Bank. Paul of course, doesn't buy the idea that the Fed is necessary to keep inflation low and to promote growth. Truth be told, I've been of the opinion that it has played a part in all but eliminating the 10 - 15 year cycle of boom, panic and collapse that has plagued our economy since the Washington administration. Maybe it has but maybe, as the Congressman claims, it's been the cause of inflation and a drag on growth. Maybe there's a better way and I'm the first to admit I don't know. '

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GAS PRICES GOING UP, SWITCH NOW

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OBAMA ELIMINATES OIL SUBSIDIES

YOUTUBE: BILL MOYERS JOURNAL
"BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Bill Moyers on Big Oil | PBS"
Let's not forget the endless Oil Wars. Let's end that, too.


GREEN, ALTERNATIVE, RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WILL BENEFIT

Better Dump That Gas-Guzzling Truck, Get A Hybrid While You Can

We were as distraught with record high gas prices as the next guy, who shot himself on the gas line. But we were almost as upset when gas prices went precipitously down again, and everybody forgot about conserving, clean energy, going green. It could have been a pivotal moment in our nation's history. Instead, just as in the aftermath of every previous oil shock since the 1970's, nothing happened. We got our asses kicked by skyrocketing oil & gasoline prices, long lines at the pump, odd-even license plate number rationing, and the near collapse of the U.S. auto industry, not to mention the rest of the economy. But as soon as the threat had subsided, we went back to happily guzzling gas, happy as pigs in their own sh*t.

Well, here we are again. Only this time, we're all in it really deep. We have no choice but to change our behavior, for our own good. But we won't. Even with the Bush Recession, mini-cars and hybrids are being passed up for big engines and bigger bodies, just like the bad old days. People are still cruising around aimlessly in their giant SUVs & pick-up trucks, wasting gas for fun & Big Awl profit.

In all fairness, most of us have no choice. Decades of foolish pro-car pro-gas planning and development has left us without public transit or access to alternative energy for private transit. Your taxes, investments and consumer spending have all been channelled into supporting a chaotic system that is now choking us all, economically, environmentally and socially. How much time do you waste every day all tied up in traffic, or running dozens if not hundreds of miles from home to school to work to shopping to school to home and back again the next day, unable to walk anywhere and unwilling to hassle with your meager local mass transit sustem? Our civilization is now built around the car, and it will take a major committment to change that.

That's what Obama is doing right now, today, with this announcement. Take heed. As he promised in the campaign, renewable and alternative energy is a priority. Curing the car cancer is the solution to many of our problems. But only by prolonged and concerted government intervention, or the kind of private market manipulation seen in every oil crisis since 1970, sustained this time, will people themselves change. So get ready for some strong medicine, and some howling from the oil companies & Wall Street's personal representatives in government & the media: The Republicans and their tame corporate talking heads. Don't listen. Tune them out. Turn them off. Do the right thing. And this time, stick with it.


YAHOO NEWS
"Obama budget rescinds oil, gas industry tax breaks"
It's time to start kickin' gas!

' President Barack Obama outlined a budget plan Thursday that would end $26 billion in oil and gas industry tax breaks, point to a new direction for dealing with nuclear waste and shift government aggressively toward helping to develop renewable energy sources. Obama called the tax break to the oil and gas industry "unjustifiable loopholes" in the tax system that in most cases other companies do not get. '

REUTERS
"UPDATE 2-Obama budget cuts oil tax breaks to raise billions"
Take THAT, Big Awl! Go ahead & secede, Texas!

' * Oil tax break cuts to raise $26 bln over 10 years * DOE 2010 budget to total $26.4 billion * Funding for solar up 83 pct, wind up 36 pct * Plans to fill up emergency oil reserve (Recasts lead, adds comments from Chevron, U.S. energy secretary, details of solar, wind funding) The budget proposal, which must be approved by Congress, includes ending "unjustified tax loopholes" for oil and gas companies that would raise $26 billion over the next 10 years. The White House rejected as "unfounded" industry claims that ending the tax breaks would take a significant toll on U.S. oil and gas production. It said oil and, to a large extent, gas are internationally traded commodities whose prices are determined on the world market. "The oil and gas subsidies are costly to the American taxpayer and do little to incentivize production or reduce energy prices," the administration said in its budget. '

MCCLATCHY
"Obama boosts biofuels, saying climate and economy will benefit"
Now let's get rid of ethanol. And no more boondoggles for Big Ag.

' President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced plans to boost the use of biofuels to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and break the country's dependence on foreign oil. The plan to increase the use of new biofuels would reduce petroleum use by 11 percent in 2022, add jobs and significantly cut climate-damaging emissions, administration officials said. If the country does nothing to curb oil consumption, oil use would increase by 40 percent by 2030 and emissions of heat-trapping gases would rise by a similar amount. "Our economy is at the mercy of foreign oil producers, and everybody feels that when it hits us at the pump," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said. '

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OBAMA IS NOT AMERICAN

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"BECAUSE, LIKE, HAWAII IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY"

YOUTUBE
"Obama is not a American citizen We Will not take it anymore"
Uncle Tom's Cabin Fever.


CONSERVATIVES DISENFRANCHISE AMERICAN HEROES

Hawaii Boys Who Fought & Died For Freedom: Medal Of Honor Heroes
Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetary of The Pacific

"Lotta furrin-soundin' names here, Yawl SURE these boys is Murkins?" Well, they fooled the President of the United States, if they're not. While Republicans have been hiding safe at home, Hawaii men and women have been fighting for their freedom, and dying in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, Vietnam, Korea, WW2, WW1... Auwe!

PREVIOUS EVIDENCE OF OBAMA's "NON-CITIZENSHIP."

HAWAIIAN INDEPENDENCE BLOG
"Obama born in Hawaii = not a natural born U.S. citizen? "
Yes, the Baltic precedents always rule, here. What would Latvia do, that is ALWAYS the question we Americans must ask ourselves.

' Ponder this, from the U.S. Constitution: No person except a natural born citizen [...] shall be eligible to the office of Presiden. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. If you consider the history and believe that Hawaii is not legally a part of the United States, as many do, then one might ask, is Obama a natural born citizen of the United States? One could even make the argument that being born in Hawaii, he's a Hawaiian national! I believe the most compelling legal analysis based on Hawaiian kingdom and international law and precedent, is that the Hawaiian national population today is comprised of descendants of Hawaiian subjects and those foreigners who were born in the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1898. But it is a gray area that obviously hasn't been tested. In looking at the Baltic states as what I believe is the most apt comparison, Latvia and Estonia adopted this approach, with only descendants of citizens and persons born in the country prior to the occupation being citizens, while Lithuania adopted a more inclusive approach, providing those born in the country subsequent to the occupation with the option of citizenship as well. Could Obama have the option of becoming a Hawaiian national at some point in the future as the transition unfolds? '

HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN
"Hawaii’s fallen warriors"
The Hawaii Medal Of Honor: Aloha for the koa.

' Lawmakers will pay tribute to service members who have died in the past year by awarding the Hawaii Medal of Honor. Since the medal was conceived in 2005, lawmakers have awarded 120 medals in 2007 and 67 last year to surviving spouses and family members. Takai, in a House floor speech earlier this month, said, "It has almost been five years since the war on terrorism began. While there continues to be much debate for and against this war, there is no debate about the tremendous sacrifices made by our service members and their families." He added, "In the past five years, the war against terrorism has changed our world and our lives in a profound way. Ultimately, it's not about politics, it's not about money and it's not even about winning. It's all about the families and their loved ones and what these brave men and women sacrificed to our country." Among the 19 families who will be present Tuesday will be Regina and Fabian Gagalac, whose son, Sgt. Alexander Gagalac, would have celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday. Gagalac was killed Sept. 9, 2007, just weeks before he was to return home. He died in Al Hawijah, Iraq, from injuries sustained from a rocket-propelled grenade while on a combat patrol. Gagalac, a Leilehua High School graduate, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He was serving his second combat tour in Iraq when he was killed. On Good Friday, nearly three dozen of the Gagalac family and the mother's side of the family gathered at his Punchbowl grave site to celebrate his birthday and that of this twin brother, Alexis. Both brothers were in Iraq at the same time in 2004 -- Alexander with the 25th Division and Alexis with the 1st Stryker Combat Brigade, sent from Fort Lewis, Wash. Alexis Gagalac left the Army and re-enlisted into the Hawaii Army National Guard and was assigned to Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry. Regina Gagalac said the last time she saw her son Alexander was when he was home on leave last year and celebrated his 28th birthday. The death of his twin brother has also deeply affected Alexis Gagalac, who has left the Hawaii Army National Guard and will transfer to the Hawaii Air National Guard. He visits his brother's grave site every day, carefully tending to it as he did on Friday when he removed a small American flag because it was tattered and replaced it with a newer one. '

HOME OF THE HEROES (HAWAII)
"The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to"
Francis is still the only Chinese-American ever to have won the Congressional Medal of Honor: Salute Capt. Wai.

' *Wai, Francis B.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, Headquarters, 34th Infantry. Place and date: Leyte, Philippine Islands, 20 October 1944. Born: 14 April 1917, Honolulu, Hawaii. Entered service at: Honolulu, Hawaii.
Citation:
Captain Francis B. Wai distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action, on 20 October 1944, in Leyte, Philippine Islands. Captain Wai landed at Red Beach, Leyte, in the face of accurate, concentrated enemy fire from gun positions advantageously located in a palm grove bounded by submerged rice paddies. Finding the first four waves of American soldiers leaderless, disorganized, and pinned down on the open beach, he immediately assumed command. Issuing clear and concise orders, and disregarding heavy enemy machine gun and rifle fire, he began to move inland through the rice paddies without cover. The men, inspired by his cool demeanor and heroic example, rose from their positions and followed him. During the advance, Captain Wai repeatedly determined the locations of enemy strong points by deliberately exposing himself to draw their fire. In leading an assault upon the last remaining Japanese pillbox in the area, he was killed by its occupants. Captain Wai's courageous, aggressive leadership inspired the men, even after his death, to advance and destroy the enemy. His intrepid and determined efforts were largely responsible for the rapidity with which the initial beachhead was secured. Captain Wai's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
'

HOME OF THE HEROES (HAWAII)
"The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to"
Hawaiian Superman, and just a Private.

' *PILILAAU, HERBERT K.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company C, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Pia-ri, Korea, 17 September 1951. Entered service at: Oahu, T.H. Born: 10 October 1928, Waianae, Oahu, T.H. G.O. No.: 58, 18 June 1952.
Citation:
Pfc. Pililaau, a member of Company C, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. The enemy sent wave after wave of fanatical troops against his platoon which held a key terrain feature on "Heartbreak Ridge." Valiantly defending its position, the unit repulsed each attack until ammunition became practically exhausted and it was ordered to withdraw to a new position. Voluntarily remaining behind to cover the withdrawal, Pfc. Pililaau fired his automatic weapon into the ranks of the assailants, threw all his grenades and, with ammunition exhausted, closed with the foe in hand-to-hand combat, courageously fighting with his trench knife and bare fists until finally overcome and mortally wounded. When the position was subsequently retaken, more than 40 enemy dead were counted in the area he had so valiantly defended. His heroic devotion to duty, indomitable fighting spirit, and gallant self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit upon himself, the infantry, and the U.S. Army. '

HOME OF THE HEROES (HAWAII)
"The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to"
An engineer from the pineapple fields, who gave his life for his comrades.

' *KAWAMURA, TERRY TERUO
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, 173d Engineer Company, 173d Airborne Brigade, Republic of Vietnam. Place and date: Camp Radcliff, Republic of Vietnam, 20 March 1969. Entered service at: Oahu, Hawaii. Born. 10 December 1949, Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii.
Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Cpl. Kawamura distinguished himself by heroic action while serving as a member of the 173d Engineer Company. An enemy demolition team infiltrated the unit quarters area and opened fire with automatic weapons. Disregarding the intense fire, Cpl. Kawamura ran for his weapon. At that moment, a violent explosion tore a hole in the roof and stunned the occupants of the room. Cpl. Kawamura jumped to his feet, secured his weapon and, as he ran toward the door to return the enemy fire, he observed that another explosive charge had been thrown through the hole in the roof to the floor. He immediately realized that 2 stunned fellow soldiers were in great peril and shouted a warning. Although in a position to escape, Cpl. Kawamura unhesitatingly wheeled around and threw himself on the charge. In completely disregarding his safety, Cpl. Kawamura prevented serious injury or death to several members of his unit. The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Cpl. Kawamura are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army. '

More pictures of Punchbowl.
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