Saturday, August 29, 2009

Two of the fallen are identified

Yesterday, the US military announced two deaths in eastern Baghdad. The Defense Dept identified the two fallen:

Sgt. Earl D. Werner, 38, of Mondovi, Wis.; and

Pvt. Taylor D. Marks, 19, of Monmouth, Ore.

Oregon's KCBY provides some details on the two:

Pvt. Taylor Marks was born in Salem, Ore. on Nov. 9, 1989. He was raised in Monmouth, Ore. He was a graduate of Central High School and joined the Oregon Army National Guard attending a training with a friend. His thoughts were to join the military and continue his education. He was contracted to go to the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio in California, but made the decision to defer his schooling in order to deploy with the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
He is survived by his mother Michelle and stepfather Don; sister Courtney age 15; brother Alex age 19 of Monmouth, Ore, and father Morey Marks of Salem, Ore.

[. . .]

Werner was killed in the incident in Rashid, Iraq on Aug. 28, 2009 when his convoy was struck by an explosive formed penetrator and was serving with the 41st Special Troops Battalion (STB), 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
Werner was on his third deployment with the Oregon National Guard. His first deployment was as part of the 2nd Battalion, 162 Infantry in 2004. Later he deployed with the 234th Engineer Company in 2007 before transferring to the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team for deployment.
During his time with the Oregon National Guard, Werner was awarded the Bronze Star, two Army Commendation Medals and the Combat Action Badge.
He is survived by his wife Casey and son Charles, 19, of the Amboy, Wash. area.

New topic. I like Susan Burke. She's a great attorney. But this isn't a shining moment for the resume:

Judge T.S. Ellis III expressed deep skepticism about the claims. "Are you accusing Mr. Prince of saying 'I want our boys to go out and shoot innocent civilians?' '' he asked the attorneys."These are certainly allegations of not engaging in very nice conduct, but where are the elements that meet the elements of murder? I don't have any doubt that you can infer malice. What you can't infer, as far as I can tell, is intent to kill these people.''

That's from Jerry Markon's "Blackwater Founder Accused in Court of Intent to Kill" (Washington Post). Blackwater is not a 'nice' company and Erik Prince has plenty of problems. Susan Burke may indeed have proof of the assertions she made in court Friday. Regardless, she needs to move slowly and she needs to grasp that if it blows up, she's the one going down. When the Christic Institute pursued justice in a manner that may have put the cart before the horse and the case imploded, it wasn't, "Poor Daniel Sheehan and Sara Nelson." No, they were exiled. Little s**ts like Chip Berlet lined their own cages by ripping apart the Institute. By the same token, if this implodes, you'll see similar little Chippies step forward to save their own asses.

I like Susan Burke, she's a smart woman. She tends to have everything nailed down before she ever steps in the court room. And hopefully she's done that this time and will be able to back up every claim. However, it's equally true that you can be egged on (and Christic was) by people who swear they'll be there with you no matter what but they're lying.

The same way the group of people who pretended to care about ending the Iraq War and about Cindy Sheehan's protesting all bailed to get on board with Barry O.

Again, I like Susan. If her case goes well, we'll probably start noting it in the snapshot. If it doesn't, this will probably be all I say on it until people start grabbing the knives to carve her up in order to save their own asses.

On Cindy, Kevin Hechtkopf (CBS News) states, "But Sheehan no longer has the following she once had, when thousands joined her in Crawford and across the country. As CBS News White House producer Robert Hendin reports, there were was only a handful of people in her audience yesterday, in addition to the four speakers. There were more present from the media than there were protestors." Gary Harmon (The Daily Sentinel) observes:

Its almost as though they never really cared.
The logical explanation for the sudden silence would be that the United States, under new presidential leadership, was retreating back to its own borders.
Oh, but no.
President Obama has kept Defense Secretary Robert Gates in charge at the Pentagon.
Gen. David Petraeus no longer is tagged with the “betray-us” tag suggesting he was somehow a traitor.
And the commander in chief, Obama, has suddenly begun confusing himself with Lyndon Johnson, ordering the escalation of the war by pouring in 17,000 troops and bringing the United States’ commitment to 68,000 by the end of the year.
Americans in Afghanistan under Obama’s watch have more weapons at hand than did Americans in Vietnam did under Johnson’s.
Predator drones, laser-guided missiles and bombs, etc., all augur in favor of the modern conflict, but they did so as well under the Bush administration.
Polls even tilt against involvement in Afghanistan, with 50 percent of respondents saying the effort no longer is worth the while.
Yet the quagmire crowd no longer can be bothered even to whine about the Obama administration’s stunning failure to draw up an exit strategy.
If you’re getting the sense that the so-called peace protests had nothing to do with peace and were motivated entirely by partisan politics, well, you’re likely on the right path.

The following community sites have updated since yesterday evening:


Cedric's Big Mix
Barry from behind the frosted window
54 minutes ago

The Daily Jot
THIS JUST IN! CELEBRITY COMPASSION!
54 minutes ago

Thomas Friedman is a Great Man
And Dennis went to the Loo
16 hours ago

Mikey Likes It!
Joni Mitchell, Tom Rush
16 hours ago

Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
ted and barry
16 hours ago

SICKOFITRADLZ
Joe Bageant is a sexist pig
16 hours ago

Trina's Kitchen
Italian Potatoes in the Kitchen
16 hours ago

Ruth's Report
Holly Near releases new album
16 hours ago

Oh Boy It Never Ends
Graham Nash Songs For Beginners
16 hours ago

Like Maria Said Paz
Ted Kennedy
16 hours ago

Ann's Mega Dub
Katty van van vanden Heuvel
16 hours ago

Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills)
Dave Marsh, Carly SImon
16 hours ago


Okay, now I'm about to note something but this isn't the language that I use. Drive-bys, don't e-mail me saying, "You said ___." No, I didn't. This was sent to the public e-mail account and we will note it. It's not language I use. (Neither is it 'dirty' language.) It's a passionate statement on an issue that already results in great passions.

MORE ON THE DISASTER SOME PALESTINIAN INTELLECTUALS BRING ON THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE‏

My 18th August appeal to supporters of the Palestinian cause, under the title, The Deafening Silence of The Palestinian Cause Supporters, opens as follows :

"I am overwhelmed by the silence which followed my OPEN LETTER TO ALL SUPPORTERS OF THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE‏‏, emailed to hundreds of them on the 16th of August (Melbourne time). Of particular surprise is the silence of Palestine supporters in Australia, some half a dozen websites of whom have been on my mailing list. Is it not clear that allowing the zionist Gestapo to terrorise me, my son, and my daughter is green light for it and for its ASIO partners to act similarly against all genuine supporters of the Palestinian cause in Australia, and perhaps even worldwide ?

Is it not clear that myself, my daughter and my son have been punished by the zionist Gestapo because of my strong support for the Palestinian cause - as anti-zionist Israeli of Jewish background - during the past 40 years ? Is it not clear that ASIO collaboration with this zionist terrorism against Australian citizens - thus violating the rule of law in Australia - will extend to zionist terrorism against all supporters of Palestine in Australia, as a result of their silence ? "

Those that are responsible for that silence conspiracy have thought, perhaps, of throwing only me to the zionist mad dogs, but they are in effect throwing with me, my daughter and my son,also the Palestinian cause to the zionist mad dogs. This is because added to the green light they signal to the zionist Gestapo to continue our torture,they also open wide the gate for the zionist Trojan horse to be brought into the Palestinian citadel. That Trojan horse has got its belly full of zionist impostors - Noam Chomsky and his cabal, Uri Avnery and his cabal - armed with lies and pretences and ready to ruin the Palestinian citadel from within.

I suspect that at the bottom of this disastrous attitude by some influential Palestinian intellectuals is the reverence instilled in themselves for any "academic scholars" like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Jeff Halper, Ran Hacohen,Neve Gordon and others in Chomsky's zionist cabal; and for zionist "peace activists" in general, like Uri Avnery and and his zionist cabal in the Gush Shalom organisation. Such reverence is wrong ,of course, and has no justification in reality, as we shall see below.

Tertiary education in Western countries like the USA is controlled and financed by big business. As a result, only what is in the interest of big business is allowed to be taught.

Another result is the distortion of science by Big Pharma and by other corporations in the teaching of medicine and other branches of science. However, nowhere are the distortions as obvious as in the so called "humanities" fields, such as economy,history, politics, law,etc. The most rediculous and most conspicuous distortions are the titles "Political Science" ,and "political scientists" bestowed on those that pass the exams. Obviously, politics is contrary to science ! Thus, the politics of the oppressors are always in opposition to the politics of the oppressed, and the politics of the rulers are against the politics of the people ! What has the study of politics to do with science ? Nothing !

Yet, the world rulers popularised the false notion that "eduction" brings power to the people. Here, in Australia, there have been big propaganda campaigns to extoll the virtue of reading of books, while 95% of the books in most public libraries are cultural trash made up of trivia, lies and nonsense. Occupied Palestine has been the victim of similar propaganda which extols uncritically the "virtue" of academic studies in the USA and other Western countries.

Hence the Palestinian reverence for "scholars" like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein and their zionist cabals. Consequently, whenever I have exposed them as zionist impostors, I brought down on me the anger of those influential Palestinian intellectuals who admired them for their "scholarship" and for purporting to support the Palestinian cause.

Use the link for more information. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.













thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends
Posted by at