I'm Ready to Explode!

This is one ordinary netizen who is about god-damn ready to storm the f-ing capital and...[censored because I'm certain the bastards are monitoring me]...!

First Halliburton, now this. I'm so angry I can't even type. I'll give you a peek...all four of the big no-bid contract recipients which FEMA was supposed to rebid are now getting extended because, as we've all seen, they've done such an f-ing good job with rebuilding after Katrina.

And the obvious rub... "The Shaw Group's lobbyist, Joe Allbaugh, is a former FEMA director and friend of President Bush. Bechtel CEO Riley Bechtel served on Bush's Export Council from 2003-2004, and CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp. have done extensive previous work for the government. Read it and get ready for change. All right all you wimpy liberals out there, are you ready for impeachment yet? I say we go for a 2 for 1 deal with both the Bush and quick-draw McGraw too.

The Jews' Conspiracy with Western Nations Revealed

In my Build a Nation, Lose a Christian post, I told you about the guy over in Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman, who converted from Islam to Christianity (16 years ago!) and now, the ultra-liberal puppet government we instituted over there is about to give him the death penalty. Well, it seems as though further developments in that case have finally revealed what those sneaky Jews are up to: their plot to take over the world involves a carefully orchestrated plan to first convert all the mentally ill people of the world to Christianity! This is truly stranger than fiction. I'm not making this up (well, ok, I'm drawing my own conclusions).

Apparently, diplomats have said the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case, and recently authorities have said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial. On the other hand, one clever cleric has demanded that clerics be able to question Rahman in jail to discover why he had converted to Christianity, suggesting "it could have been the result of a conspiracy by
Western nations or Jews."

It gets better. What is even more amazing is that a chief proponent of chopping this guy's head off for being an apostate (gee, here I thought that was just a clothing store), was thought of as a "moderate":
"Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die," cleric Abdul Raoulf told the Associated Press. Raoulf has long been considered a moderate and was often at odds with the Taliban, which jailed him three times before the hard-line group's ouster in 2001" [link broken]

Another Ordinary Netizen?

Just so the vast hordes who read this know, I've officially invited another person to be a member of this blog. Stay tuned for further developments. You may be in for a treat, or at least a distraction from my drivel.

Was the War Worth It?

A couple opinions are presented below. Most responses from this CNN article were "no"...I tried to post "yes" responses, but the few there were were hardly convincing...I mean can you really take Gen. Tommy Franks as an objective one?--it was so superficially party-line that you could tell he didn't even believe it; not a bit of conviction, so I didn't bother posting it. What I found especially interesting though was who those "no" responses were written by...not exactly bleeding heart liberals...check it out (full story):

RICHARD HAASS: After three years, my answer would be no, although any judgment at this point is necessarily an interim one. The war has absorbed a tremendous amount of U.S. military capacity, the result being that the U.S. has far less spare or available capacity to use in the active sense or to exploit in the diplomatic sense. It has weakened our position against both North Korea and Iran. It has exacerbated U.S. fiscal problems. The war has also contributed to the world's alienation from the U.S. and made it more difficult to galvanize international support for U.S. policy toward other challenges. Iraq's legacy could also lead to renewed American public resistance to international involvement.
Haass, a former aide to President George H.W. Bush, is president of the Council on Foreign Relations

LAWRENCE B. WILKERSON: I'm principally a strategist, and from that perspective the war has been a disaster. First, the foremost winner has been Iran: it rid itself of its greatest threat, Saddam and his military, without firing a shot; won the December 15 Iraq elections; owns the south, particularly Basra; and has felt the freedom to elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, in turn, has felt the freedom to reclaim leadership of radical Islam, leadership Osama bin Laden claimed on 9/11. Second, the foremost loser--after Iraq itself--has been Israel, whose leaders must now fear more than ever the new strategic maneuver room afforded Iran by the U.S.'s ineptitude. Third, the general war against global terrorists has been affected greatly by the failure in Iraq. Recruiting among Muslim ranks has been aided significantly, while America has squandered the upper hand in the world of ideas, which is the real battlefield of this conflict.
U.S. Army Colonel Wilkerson, now retired, was chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell

BERNARD-HENRI LEVY: No. Because it was the wrong target: Iran and Pakistan are infinitely more threatening. Because it was the wrong approach: the neoconservatives, who put no stock in government policy at home and thus can't do so abroad, produced no plans for democratic nation building. And, above all, because this war, which aimed to reduce the number and strength of terrorists, has instead increased them. What was needed was to break the infernal cycle of the "clash of civilizations," a la Sam Huntington and Osama bin Laden. Instead, the war breathed new life into it. In short, rarely have the famous words of Blaise Pascal rung more true: "He who would act the angel becomes the beast." What begins as a noble moral intention to bring down a tyrant becomes a political disaster and a gigantic step backward in the long, necessary war against fascislamism. A field of ruins!
French philosopher Levy is author of the recently published American Vertigo

FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: I believe that the balance sheet for the war at this moment is quite negative. The war foreclosed the possibility of Saddam restarting his WMD programs and replaced his dictatorship with Iraq's new democracy--both real gains. Balanced against these gains are costs that go well beyond the direct human and financial ones. The occupation of Iraq has served as a tremendous stimulus for Arab and Muslim anti-Americanism and thus has made radical Islamist terrorism significantly worse than it would otherwise be. America's reputation around the world has taken a huge hit among ordinary people who are now more likely to associate our democracy with scenes of prisoner abuse than with the Statue of Liberty. We, of course, do not know what the future will bring, but the upside potential of Iraq's post-Saddam order looks more and more limited. The central state will remain weak for years to come, and where the Shi'ite parties have established their rule, we get not a liberal democracy but an Iranian-style rule by clerics.
Fukuyama is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the author of America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy

Build a Nation, Lose a Christian

Sounds like a fair deal to me. Disbelief would be the one word I'd use to describe this story about some poor bloke in Afghanistan who converted from Islam to Christianity and now potentially faces a death penalty for that little epiphany. Horror would be another word. And as I reflect on Bush & Co's policy of nation-building, I can't help but shake my head and think, "is this the kind of nation-building for which we are sacrificing so many lives and so much money?" I thought we overthrew the Taliban because they were the type of regime that demonstrated all sorts of intolerant atrocities just like this. But maybe that's just me.

Jim Webb article

I found this op-ed in the USA Today while searching the web for information on Jim Webb. I must admit that, being a John Kerry supporter, it was difficult to read. Nonetheless, as I read through the article I was impressed with the arguments that Webb makes in reference to both Kerry and Bush, but it wasn't until I realized the point in time in which this article was written and glanced at the date that I became a true believer. Mr. Webb's prescience is amazing and reflects the type of thinking that this country needs. It's easy for me to be saying the things now that he was writing over two years ago. What is hindsight for me was foresight to him.

Here is an excerpt from the article if you're too lazy to follow the link and read the whole thing. Although he has much to criticize about Kerry, Jim Webb saves perhaps his most stinging condemnation for GW: "Bush arguably has committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory. To put it bluntly, he attacked the wrong target. While he boasts of removing Saddam Hussein from power, he did far more than that. He decapitated the government of a country that was not directly threatening the United States and, in so doing, bogged down a huge percentage of our military in a region that never has known peace. Our military is being forced to trade away its maneuverability in the wider war against terrorism while being placed on the defensive in a single country that never will fully accept its presence."

Finally, some choices

You've got to check out these two U.S. Senate candidates, especially if you live in PA or VA.
Chuck Pennacchio
Jim Webb
Both seem to be making the kind of (common-) sense that the Ordinary Netizen can wrap his mind and heart around.

Stinky Correction

I wrote the other day that I didn't think the peanut farmer's (and I say that with sincere affection) approval rate dipped as low as King George's, but I stand corrected. I recently read somewhere that Jimmy Carter's actually hit, I think it said, 28%. Even so, I know of no republican that'd want to be in such close range to the democratic president they still love to kick. While I'm on the topic, man, it pisses me off to no end when those f-ing pompous republican bastards make statements like, "it took Reagan to get the hostages freed" when anyone who has an ounce of brains knows that there was plenty of political wrangling to postpone the release until Ronnie was sworn in--taking the credit for all of Carter's hard work.

Still Crazy After All These Years

The Mid-East is much like that Paul Simon song, Still Crazy After All These Years. I know, I know, hindsight is 20/20, and it's difficult not to want a evil dictator like Saddam to be over-thrown. And I admit a small amount of triumphant machismo at seeing his statue toppled--frankly, any ruler egotistical enough to have statues, paintings and other likenesses littering the entire country deserves to be out of power. Nonetheless, from taking even a casual look at the history of that region of the world, you just had to know that invading and overthrowing Saddam under the guise of fighting terrorism was and is a big mistake. All you really have to know is that we took out Iran's long-time enemy, their counter-weight. The country that kept them in check so to speak, and now we are worried about Iran being emboldened? That's about as ironic as whipping our country into a frenzy about fighting a war on terror, axis of evil and all that stuff and then wondering why the citizens of this great country didn't cozy up to the Dubai ports deal. Let's face it, there is no shortage of fanaticism in the Mid-East. Maybe things were simpler when a ego-maniacal ruler who had no ties to Al-Qaeda, and who kept the nuke-happy, fundamental Shi'ite Iranian's in check, was in power. Call me, and Jack Murtha, crazy.

On Wisconsin!

Let's hear it for the good senator from my home state! Apparently he has rattled the republicans. Read about it here.

Pew! What Stinks?

It wouldn't happen to be Bush's recent approval rating as polled by the Pew Research Center would it? You bet it is. I wonder what the record low is among U.S. Presidents. I don't even think Carter reached that low of a number during the hostage rescue failure and oil crisis, but maybe I'm wrong; I was pretty young at the time of his presidency. All I know is that 33% is pitiful for such a big shot like W. That's gotta mean a sizeable chunk of fellow repubs are abandoning him...which is good, even if it's only for their own political futures and not for the ethical/moral, patriotic, or just plain common-sense reasons that most folks have for disapproving of Bush.

Connecting the dots on the Moussaoui Case...

We are seeing how good the republicans are at throwing their own under the proverbial bus. First, their own president with the Dubai ports deal and now the government prosecutors are completely vilifying Carla Martin. She really has become the "fall girl" for this almost fatal misstep in trying Moussaoui. However, the way I see it, the government prosecutors completely oversold the FAA's ability to have prevented the 9/11 hijackers from carrying out the attacks if they had been tipped off by Moussaoui...so in an effort to appease the prosecutors, Ms. Martin went ahead and sent out all sorts of prepping information--court transcripts, prior testimony summaries, etc.--to seven witnesses to prep them for their testimony. What I don't know, but I wonder, is whether or not Ms. Martin was aware of the court order forbidding such actions--whether or not it was the prosecution's responsibility to make her aware of it and perhaps "forgot" to tell her that the judge said not to do this...but when the gig was up they have to play the astonished, holier-than-thou role and crucify her for taking such actions--admittedly overzealous actions I'm sure she took trying to please them and help win the death penalty. Granted, she is blond and was a flight attendant, but--stereotypes aside--I don't think she's dumb enough to have done this completely on her own. Then again, I still have doubts about the 'single-bullet theory'.

Terror on Trial: The Government's Showcase

Well, you've probably heard the news by now--the government's lawyers have apparently attempted to shape the testimony of seven key witnesses in the sentences phase of the Moussaoui trial. The judge has taken under advisement a motion by the defense that the death penalty now be thrown out. So now that SOB probably wont fry because some duncette named Carla Martin, a senior Transportation Safety Administration lawyer, did some prepping of seven Federal Aviation Administration officials while the testimony was pending--even after the judge had issued an order to avoid such actions. Nice. All this is of course following other government mis-steps enroute to putting terrorists on trial, such as the earlier terrorist convictions in Detroit being set aside because of prosecutorial misconduct. And let's not forget that the sentences imposed in terrorism cases in Buffalo, N.Y., are in also jeopardy because of a little Bush thing called...WARRANTLESS WIRETAPS!
I'll attempt to connect the dots together in this case in a subsequent post.

Civil War Anyone?

I mentioned the other day that it is fairly evident that Iraq is in a de facto civil war. As an ordinary netizen I guess it doesn't carry much weight (especially in a blog that no one reads!-), but when an Army Major General says it, it is another matter all together. Retired as he may be, Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash was a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina so he ought to know a thing or two about civil wars. Therefore, when he says "We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," I think people should listen--at least I hope so. It is sad but true, and affirming that the Ordinary Netizen's common-sense view on Iraq is now being shared openly by military officials--not just political pundits--and other experts in the field.
Read more at: http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=1689688&page=1

Frankly, I'm shocked

That yet another Bushie is corrupt. Yep, I'm shocked too George!
[broken link]

It just gets better and better...

How much we were deceived by the Bush machine in its bid to invade Iraq is getting to the 'crazy level' even if you aren't a conspiracy theorist! Read how... "The story of Saddam training foreign fighters to hijack airplanes was instrumental in building the case to invade Iraq," a detailed report in the March-April issue says. "But it turns out that the Iraqi general who told the story to the New York Times and 'Frontline' was a complete fake a low-ranking former soldier whom Ahmed Chalabi's aides had coached to deceive the media."