Saturday, July 03, 2010

All those promises, nothing ever changes

And all those promises
that you made and left behind
were filled with emptiness
You were never really mine
Every sweet caress
was just your second best
Broken promises

Baby, I'm amazed
at how long I still believed
How many lies it takes
before someone like me sees
All the tears you cry
never can deny
that you make love a lie
All the tears you cry
they never could deny
that you make love a lie
-- "All Those Promises," written by Janis Ian, appears on her album Folk Is The New Black


Timothy Williams (New York Times) reports that Falluja -- hit twice in 2004 by the US military -- will not be getting the "citywide sewage treatment system" the US government promised and which American tax payers footed the bill for: "Now, after more than six years of work, $104 million spent, and without having connected a single house, American reconstruction officials have decided to leave the system unfinished, though they portray it as a success." Williams goes on to document how that abandoned project is not an isolated occurrence.

Broken promises. And six years to build a citywide sewage treatment system? It's all been smoke and mirrors -- special effects billed to the tax payers.

Reporting on other broken promises, Tim Arango (New York Times) explains combat missions will not be ending in August (oh, the surprise!) and speaks with a group of US soldiers in Mosul currently "hunting terrorists and covertly watching an Iraqi checkpoint staffed by police officers whom the soldiers say they do not trust." Arango explains that combat missions ("hunting insurgents, joint raids between Iraqi security forces and United States Special Forces to kill or arrest militants") will be renamed "stability operations." In other news, Barack Obama will rename his sphincter a "soft ice cream maker" and, no doubt, the same people lapping up "stability operations" will be lapping up his "soft ice cream."

The Iraq War passed the 7th year mark last March and other than wasting lives and money, what was accomplished?

If it's me that's driving you to this madness
Then there's one thing that I'd like to say
Take a look at your life and your lovers
Nothing ever changes
[. ..]
Nothing ever changes...you know it doesn't
Nothing ever changes...oh you know it doesn't
Nothing ever changes...you know it doesn't
Nothing ever changes
-- "Nothing Ever Changes," written by Stevie Nicks and Sandy Stewart, appears first on Nicks' Wild Heart

Nothing ever changes. Even when the White House flips. Nothing ever changes.

The following community sites -- plus wowOwow -- updated last night and today:



And Mike's "Idiot of the Week and Zogby" went up last night. We'll close with "Mark Ruffalo: Why I signed the “Crimes are Crimes…” Statement" (World Can't Wait):

"With US intelligence reporting there are less than 20 Al Queda members in Afghanistan, with the constant bloodshed and intangible objective in Afghanistan --it does not matter what General we put in- we are just changing seats on the Titanic or putting a new color 'lipstick on a pig'. Get us out of Afganistan!"- Mark Ruffalo


Join with Mark as a signer of this statement..and donate to get it published


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













thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends
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