Marine Withdraws Guilty Plea In Iraqi's Death

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A judge has granted a request by a Camp Pendleton Marine to withdraw his guilty plea in the murder of an Iraqi man.
Corporal Trent Thomas, 25, of Kilo Company in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment asked to change his plea Thursday morning, saying he no longer feels he is guilty.
Thomas said he believes he was following a lawful order. "Sir, when my country gives me an order, I follow it," Thomas told the judge, Lt. Col. Tracy Daley.
When Daley asked Thomas where the order originated, he said, "It came from my squad leader, and from there it came from my lieutenant."
Daly accepted Thomas's rationale for withdrawing his pleas. But he warned the corporal that he will be subject to the possibility of prosecution of premeditated murder, a charge that could expose him to the death penalty.
When Daly asked Thomas if he understood, the Marine replied, "Yes, I do sir."
As part of a pretrial agreement, Thomas pleaded guilty in January to charges including kidnapping, murder and assault, in the death of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad near the town of Hamdania in April.
Thomas is one of eight servicemen charged with Awad's death. He faces life in prison, but was expected to receive a shorter sentence because of the plea deal that is now in doubt.
Four others pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Good. If this guy is willing to accept the death penalty if he is convicted of murder, rather than plea bargain a less severe sentence then there may be some merit to what the man says:

"Sir, when my country gives me an order, I follow it," Thomas told the judge, Lt. Col. Tracy Daley.

I believe him. I also think that sending people that are trained to kill to "win the peace" is fucking retarded. Let's thank our chicken-shit Preznit poopy-pants for another really bad decision.

Frankly, I can't wait till the malfeasance of govenment contractors shit hits the fan.

Go Waxman!!!!!

Bush Slashes Aid to Poor to Boost Iraq War Chest

Is there no end to the idiotic policies of the Bush Adminstration?

20 face lash, prison for dancing in Saudi Arabia

Judge sentences foreigners for partying, alcohol, unmarrieds mingling
Updated: 4:48 p.m. PT Feb 4, 2007

This the country that we have helped become prosperous again by paying $70 for a barrel of oil. The kids are bored. They have degrees from universities that excel in religious training, and the pay is very little for the real work that gets done in Saudi Arabia. That does not encourage Saudis to take jobs that they consider beneath them. There also isn't a whole lot to do in the Kingdom of Saudi Aarabia.

(hit the Mute button, I do, I can't stand this singing!)

This is some video of how they deal with the boredom sometimes.

Oh boy, look what I found.

Open Net Initiative

just because

some days I can listen to this over and over and never get tired of it===
¿Qué onda güero?

Empire v. Democracy

Published on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 by TomDispatch.com
Empire v. Democracy Why Nemesis Is at Our Door
by Chalmers Johnson

Declassified, But Still Unavailable

February 5, 2007
Declassified, But Still Unavailable
...Catherine Nielsen, FOIA coordinator at the National Security Archive, a Washington-based nonprofit that seeks to educate the public on the secret history of U.S. foreign policy, says that it is “hard to say” how many of the exemptions are legitimate and how many are designed to maintain undue secrecy relating to official misconduct...

the snark writes itself on this one eh?

Bird Flu

Salvadoran torture survivor finds justice in U.S. court after more than 20 years

Justice?

No, but Negroponte's ass in one of these might be.

Or this guy: "If they do it, it's terrorism, if we do it, it's fighting forfreedom." - Anthony Quainton, U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua,1984: Anthony Quainton - Source: Off the record response of the Ambassador to a group of concerned U.S. citizens when asked to explain the difference between U.S. government actions in Nicaragua and the violence it condemns as terrorism elsewhere in the world.

GM food, factory farming, or animal flesh for Iraqibacter?

GM crop DNA found in human gut bugs
12:10 18 July 2002
New Scientist.com news service
Andy Coghlan

The Invisible Enemy in Iraq


Industrial agriculture


: US News World Rep. 1983 Feb 28;94(8):35-6. Supergerms: the new health menace.
Mann J.

The Rise of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections by Ricki Lewis, Ph.D.

Do you really think you're going to get all the information you need from the FDA?

I don't

. I'm not a vegetarian either .

Global Warming Report

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 pdf download

People ask me...

why I'm so angry all the time? Hmmmmm. Could it be that I don't pay attention to details that some rich fuck wants me to so his ass can get richer and I end up getting fired for not paying attention to some stupid, shit-job that I didn't want in the first place?

Or that I do pay attention to stuff like this?

Judge overturns convictions of Enron broadband executive
Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007
By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Writer
(AP) - HOUSTON-Just days before he was set to be sentenced, a former Enron Corp. executive's fraud and conspiracy convictions related to the company's broadband unit were overturned by a federal judge.

You think that there is justice in the "Justice system" in this country?

I don't.

Energy market deregulation is incompatible with the fight against global warming –

Yeah and another thing..I trained 23 years ago to install solar powered domestic hot water systems. I never worked in the field because the bottom fell out of the market when Reagan yanked the tax breaks on solar powered systems. I live in a country run by fucking idiots, anybody who's paying attention is pissed, I don't know why people ask me why I'm pissed.

Idiocracy

Should be filed in the "Horror" section. It's not much of a stretch, which is really scary.

Paper: Indictment against Alleged Cunningham Briber "So Close"

...A couple of weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Attorney overseeing the investigation, Carol Lam, had ordered her prosecutors to draw up the indictment before she was finally forced out in mid-February....

In Defense of Lam
Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007 | Over the past several years, San Diegans could trust that when something in public life or the white-collar world smelled funny, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam would be there to sniff it out.

Oregon senator threatens filibuster

By MATTHEW DALY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- An Oregon senator is threatening to filibuster a must-pass spending bill if Congress does not extend payments to rural counties hurt by cutbacks in federal logging.

"The federal government has an obligation to rural Oregon, and it's time to meet that obligation," said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore...


Republicans are lying, hypocritical, Bush bootlicking pond scum .
Remember all the "obstructionist" language they spouted.
Remember how much horrible media coverage the Democrats received when they discussed filibustering?

Class Warfare & the Minimum Wage:
Behind the Senate's Attack on American Workers

by Anthony DiMaggio
January 29, 2007

yeesh

end_war_30700.MOV

End War Protest. January 27, 2007. Downtown San Diego, Horton Plaza.

1/27/06 Horton Plaza in San Diego No War protest

Beachblogger42 was busy taking pictures and posting them.

I'm going to borrow one because these are acquaintances of my kid's and the negativity regarding the protesters was a very tiny portion of the over all response, but I did hear it. Military people are not supposed to protest and I'm sure this particular group of marines was just trying to get into the mall (Horton Plaza) and they had no choice but to walk through the protest because that's where the bus stops. One of them muttered "Freaks." as they walked by the group of teenagers that I was standing with. These two were more interested than the other kids in attracting attention. I spent 4 or 5 hours with some of these kids and I was impressed at their knowledge of current events and complete disgust with the Bush Regime. Genuninely nice kids. They seem like good kids, no drugs, or alchohol, they get good grades and they were very polite with me. All in all the protest was extremely well received, there were lots of thumbs ups and honking in support, a ton of smiles, hell, it looked like most of the cops were having a good time. This time it was wonderful, the haters were soooooooooooo outnumbered.

:) Oh, and yeah there were a LOT more people there than in previous years. All in all not a bad turnout for a military town. I'm really bad at judging numbers but I thought there were about a thousand, but the fishwrap says 1500.

CONVICTIONS in Ohio!
Thursday, January 25, 2007

You didn't really think that BushCo won the election without cheating, lying and stealing did you? Did you really think that they did it legally?

I had to comment

Drug-Resistant Supergerm Infecting Wounded GIs
READ MORE: Iraq
Wired Steve Silberman Posted January 26, 2007 02:03 PM

I'm researching nutrition like crazy lately and I know why there are supergerms, and it's not because doctors are prescribing too many antibiotics for infections. It's because of:

Antibiotics
Almost all of the animals raised for food in the United States today are given antibiotics to stimulate growth and to keep them alive in filthy, disease-ridden conditions that would otherwise kill them. Roughly 70 percent of the antibiotics used in the U.S. each year go to animals raised for food.31

Who are the terrorists?

Government Food Safety System a Sham
By Jason Mark, AlterNet. Posted January 25, 2007.

When Does Green Rage Become Ecoterrorism?
By Matt Rasmussen, Orion Magazine. Posted January 25, 2007.





Amendment I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of relgion or prohibiting the free exercised thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assembly and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

India, Russia for axis with ChinaBut oppose anti-satellite missile test

Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 25India and Russia today supported their trilateral axis with China, but opposed Beijing’s January 11 testing of an anti-satellite missile saying that they were against militarisation of space.

Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union

Off the Rails: Big Oil, Big Brother Win Big in the State of the Union
Published by Greg Palast January 24th, 2007 in Articles
by Greg PalastTuesday, 23 January, 2006

How can anyone not love Greg Palast? He can deliver the most heinous news and still make you laugh.

Now for some good news and an excuse to use a picture I dearly love again.

U.S. wind power seen growing by a quarter in 2007

remarks on the stou

Mr. Webb, you give great speech.


It is all but wasted on president-cornered-in-the-garage for he has once again said nothing, and he will hear nothing.

Ethnic Cleansing in L.A.

By Brentin Mock, Intelligence Report. Posted January 20, 2007.

Acting on orders from the Mexican Mafia, Latino gang members in Southern California are terrorizing and killing blacks...

...The violence is not even limited to Los Angeles County. This November, six members of a Latino gang in Carlsbad, Calif., were arrested and charged with hate crimes for allegedly hurling racial slurs at a black teenager -- ...

They kill white kids in what used to be white neighborhoods too.

Oil, Not Terrorists, the Reason for US Attack on Somalia

The reward for those who fought in another of our bloody oil wars and were seriously injured?

Sources say case workers for wounded laid off
By Karen Jowers - Staff writerPosted : Saturday Jan 20, 2007 8:33:08 EST

Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said.
The case workers for the Military Severely Injured Center serve as advocates for wounded service members who have questions or issues related to benefits, financial resources and their successful return to duty or reintegration into civilian life — all forms of support other than medical care.


I think maybe I've been slacking off because I can't find my sense of humor and I'm really sick of crying. Thank God the Democrats are keeping their promises and trying to roll back some of the damage that 12 years of Repugnant thuglicans have wreaked upon this country. I am looking forward to watching Jim Webb comment on Preznit Whinypants speech tomorrow.

The Kingdom of Silence

one word: Blech.


Greg Palast the Con p 263 of Armed Madhouse

In his vulturous, brain-damaged way, Zell Miller was right: Stand up for Black voters and the redneck boobs will take their revenge. So the election came down to this: Nitwits who think Ollie North's a hero not a conman, who can't name their congressman, who believe that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin laden were going steady, who can't tell Afghanistan from a souvlaki stand and bloated with lies and super-sized fries, clomped to the polls 59 million strong to vent their small-minded hatreds on us all.

I fear the election was an intelligence test that America flunked.

(So far this is my favorite paragraph in the book .)


THE KINGDOM OF SILENCE
A job at a Saudi newspaper offers a rare look inside a closed society.
by LAWRENCE WRIGHT
Issue of 2004-01-05Posted 2004-01-05

This New Yorker article is very long. Parts of it are very funny, and I'm sure that this passage is meant to be somewhat sympathetic:
"For most of the country’s business and intellectual leaders, and for many of the royals, the Western world had been a refuge from the intellectual and sensual sterility of the kingdom. I suspected that many had nurtured a secret escape plan in case the extremists gained complete control—they would retreat to second homes in Santa Barbara or Miami. But now such places seemed hostile to them. These élite men who had prided themselves on living in two worlds felt trapped in their own stern culture, and they were suffocating."


My first thought after reading it was Good, maybe the chickenshit Saudis will do something about their out of control religious idiots.

Deeeesgusting

Tomgram: Klare, The Pentagon as an Energy-Protection Racket


Yeesh, if you met anybody in the Navy in the last 30 years, this is not news, they've been babysitting oil tankers on their way out of the Persian Gulf for at least that long.

The US Government has an even longer laundry list of grievances (that rarely get an appeal for redress) for GIs {Government Issue}. It's a long and disgusting list. Here are a few.

CA National Guard

Schwarzenegger Backs Bush's Iraq Troop Surge
Jan 12, 2007 5:50 pm US/Pacific

So, hey brainiac, who's gonna take care of California's levees while more of the California National Guard goes to Iraq to try to secure oil supplies? Oil supplies that we need since your corporate base doesen't give a shit about anything but profits.





And they profit from the status quo.


California was at one time a magnet for the best and brightest students because the state invested in research and development because the corporate interests shared in that investement and PAID THEIR FUCKING TAXES. Now the corporations all have cadres of lawyers whose job it is to find out how to avoid paying taxes. Chevron is one of his gold sponsors. They got their way on 87 didn't they? They ain't paying no damn taxes on the oil they suck out of the ground in Cali.

Got a pretty good deal in Iraq, also:
...From those earliest days until now, throughout all the twists and turns, the blood and chaos of the occupation, the Bush Administration has kept its eye on this prize. The new law offers the barrelling buccaneers of the West a juicy set of production-sharing agreements (PSAs) that will maintain a fig leaf of Iraqi ownership of the nation's oil industry -- while letting Bush's Big Oil buddies rake off up to 75 percent of all oil profits for an indefinite period up front, until they decide that their "infrastructure investments" have been repaid. Even then, the agreements will give the Western oil majors an unheard-of 20 percent of Iraq's oil profits -- more than twice the average of standard PSAs, the Independent notes...

A sweet deal for 'official' felons

A sweet deal for 'official' felons
By S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 11, 2007

(yeah, yeah, I know, the Washington Times? ewwwwwwww)

..Bills that would withhold the pensions from members of Congress convicted of major crimes have been introduced in the past and failed. They usually die in the Senate. "They always worry that somehow they will get caught and lose their pensions," Mr. Kirk said of the senators. "They have always killed this common-sense reform." The measure's supporters say they are optimistic this time because of the strong push for ethics reforms this session -- a response to voter anger at Washington corruption that is credited in part for Democratic gains in last year's midterm elections. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, promised "serious consideration" of the proposal. Still, the effort is encountering the usual skepticism among seasoned lawmakers in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle. "I understand the image," Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican, said of the pension payments. "I think the concept is achievable, but we had better be careful about it." "It is easy to pontificate and take this great ethical stand, but then you have to ask yourself, 'Well, what about this senator's or this congressman's innocent spouse who still has to live? What about the money that was actually paid into the retirement system?' " The specter of punishing "innocent spouses" also was raised by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "I would think the type of offense committed should have some weight, especially for someone who violates the public trust," he said. "We shouldn't have any different standard than any other part of government."

And we'll see if this bill dies also. I don't belive for one damn minute that Dukie Cunningham's wife is "innocent." She knows what a Navy officer makes, and she knows what a congressman makes and it isn't now, nor was it ever enough to live in Rancho Santa Fe and shop in antique stores.