Thursday, January 01, 2009

I Hate The War

Iraq and the New York Times. Thursday's paper offered Campbell Robertson and Stephen Farrell's "Green Zone, Heart of U.S. Occupation, Reverts to Iraqi Control." There are parts of that we may note in tomorrow's snapshot. Probably nothing from Campbell Robertson and Abeer Mohammed's "Iraq Seeks Bids to Develop More Oil Fields" which goes over the press announcement made Wednesday (noted in Tuesday's snapshot) and Wednesday's violence (noted in Wednesday's snapshot). No US deaths have been announced since the two noted in yesterday's snapshot.

This is talking entry. We'll probably take on the nonsense from __ tomorrow. It's really past the point that a reporter needs to admit they're wrong. When all of their competition continues to report differently, when it was obvious they were always wrong and when the stubborn nature of the head of that desk refuses to admit to reality, they really are just a joke.

I'm not in the mood for their garbage. I'm going back and forth on whether to note a New York Times story (the previous paragraph was not referring to NYT) about Roland Burris. Hold on, we'll note that. Backstory for those late to the party, Burris has been appointed to the US Senate. Governor Rod Blagojevich appointed Burris to fill Barack's seat. Despite the fact that Burris would be only the fifth Black person to be in the US Senate (and two date back to the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War), there are efforts to prevent him from being seated.

Monica Davey and Rachel L. Swarns offer "Tough Calculus for Blagojevich on Senate Seat" in today's New York Times. From that article:

On Wednesday, four black Democrats in the House said Mr. Burris should be allowed to join the Senate despite opposition to the appointment by Senate Democrats.
Some of those House members warned that black Democratic voters could be angered if Mr. Burris is prevented from taking the seat. Those who called for Mr. Burris to be seated were Representatives Maxine Waters of California, Donald M. Payne of New Jersey, Donna M.C. Christensen of the Virgin Islands, as well as Mr. Davis.
Senate Democrats said they were standing their ground in opposing Mr. Burris because he was chosen by Mr. Blagojevich.

First, "Senate Democrats" should have included "Non-Black Senate Democrats." There are no Black senators currently. Second, Maxine Waters is a leader. She is always among the first to step up on any needed issue and when she does other people follow. The four that have stood up, praise for them. But know that there will be more standing up. And, yes, if Burris is disrespected and denied his Senate seat, there will be fallout over this.

As we noted Wednesday, if the Illinois legislature didn't want Blagojevich to appoint a replacement they had only one option: Impeach Blagojevich. The courts had already made that clear to them. They refused to take the needed action. Blagojevich, as the state's constitution empowers him, made an appointment to the empty Senate seat.

As for the US Senate and 'leaders' like Harry Reid, it really doesn't matter what they want. It is a state decision and the legislature's refusal to take action allowed Blagojevich to utilize his powers and make the appointment. The Senate doesn't need to do a song and dance, they don't need to obstruct this historic moment. There is no question that Burris is qualified to hold the seat. He needs to be seated.

It is amazing that while Harry Reid wants to deny Burris the Senate seat that is his, Bendy Reid has gone out of his way to instruct NY Governor David Paterson to appoint Caroline Kennedy -- the unqualified, inexperienced Caroline Kennedy. A qualifed person of color is being denied a seat and an unqualified spoiled rich White kid is having their ass kissed -- and both responses are from White Harry Reid.

It's disgusting and there will be fallout if there is an effort to deny the qualified Burris.

Did I mention this is a talking entry?

E-mails. I'm glad so many enjoy "2008: The Year of Living Hormonally (Year in Review)." I think I screwed up -- including the title -- but if you enjoy it, it's due to the format. That's what makes it work, the working in of the girl group songs (plus "Don't Bring Me Down"). That's why, when I had a dream a week or two ago with that format, I knew it was the one to go with.

Bill S. wrote the public account stating he had given up hope that anything would go up this morning. It did go up late. My plan was to start immediately after the New Year's Eve party and continue working on it until it was done. Plans changed. I left the party -- figure out why -- and didn't return until after seven this morning. At which point, I started working on the piece and got it posted a little after ten o'clock. I had kidded myself throughout the early morning sex marathon that, while I was doing that, Kat would be posting her music piece. I knew she wasn't going to. That's just the lie I told myself to play 'hookey.' I showered and then immediately got to work on writing the thing.

I didn't proof it when it was finally done, I just posted it. I then worked out for an hour and came back and fixed typos and extra words (example, "killing" appeared twice in the last sentence when it only should have once). Kat came over this afternoon with her piece more or less written already and just wanting to audition it. "2008 in music" is wonderful and I don't believe Kat changed a word from when she read it to what she typed. If she did, no changes were needed.

But wait! If you think that's all the year-in-reviews, stop. Tonight Betty's "Thinning out the herd (2008)." I don't know what she thinks of it but (excepting the sections on me which I won't comment on -- positively or negatively), I think it's amazing and everything she hoped when she was discussing her plans to write it. So please check out Betty's commentary.

Also posting this evening:



The Daily Jot
THIS JUST IN! THE UNITY TRAIN KEEPS ROLLING
1 hour ago

Cedric's Big Mix
Unity train keeps on rolling . . .
1 hour ago

I hope everyone had a great new year or pleasant one, if the latter was their preference.

In many places, including the US, not everyone had a pleasant new year's. Certainly in Baghdad that wasn't the case since al-Maliki's puppet government made New Year's parties illegal. And, Reuters reports, a Mosul truck bombing claimed the lives of 3 police officers (and the driver of the truck) with five more people injured while 1 police officer was shot dead in Mosul. The 'fun' never stops in the illegal war that Bully Boy started and Barack intends to continue.


It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

Last Thursday, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4217. Tonight? 4221. Just Foreign Policy lists 1, 305,837 as the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the illegal war, up from 1,297,997.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.








campbell robertson

thomas friedman is a great man

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