Friday, November 11, 2022

Iraq snapshot

Friday, November 11, 2022.  DON'T RUN JOE launches, and much more.



I wish the theme to THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW were true and love was all around -- instead it seems to be spin and lies that are all around.  "Misinformation" will always exist.  Like this garbage.




Is Greatscottwii an idiot or a liar?  He's saying that, in 2004, he voted for Bully Boy Bush because the Democrat, John Kerry, wanted to restart the draft.  Now I supported John Kerry in the 2004 primaries and, for the first time ever, my candidate finally won the nomination.  And I know John.  John never supported reinstating the draft nor did he campaign on that.

But there's another problem.  

Greatscottwho explains that he "was tricked into being a Republican" -- which doesn't appear to be that hard of a trick for him -- because "then came the Iraq war, and I changed my party and never looked back."

Great Scott certainly never looked back at facts or reality.

The Iraq War started before the 2004 election.  That's why John Kerry's most infamous moment was when he was trying to explain why he voted for it in 2002 "I was for it before I was against it'" -- remember that?

Scott's either a liar or an idiot.  

And we're screwed if Joe Biden is the 2024 nominee.  In nine days, Joe limps and scoots to 80.  He's too old to be president now.  And it is disgusting and outrageous that he might be the nominee in 2024.  The greatest foreign policy crime and misadventure of the 21 century is the Iraq War.  And Joe voted for it.

No one has ever paid for that.  Joe wants to make Julian Assange pay for it -- pay for exposing War Crimes.  But no one responsible for it has ever had to pay for it in this country.  And every presidential election since the Iraq War started in 2003 has had an idiot on the Democratic Party presidential ticket who supported that war.

2004: John Kerry and John Edwards -- both voted for it

2008: Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- Joe voted for it 

2012: Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- see above

2016: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine -- Hillary voted for the war

2020: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris -- Joe voted for it


Every ticket.  Five presidential tickets.  And, for those who don't know, when only one person voted for it on the presidential ticket, it doesn't mean the other didn't.  No one who voted against the Iraq War has been on the presidential ticket.

156 members of Congress voted against the Iraq War.  Not one of them ever made the Democratic Party's presidential ticket.


State Congress Name Party Notes
Alabama Rep Earl Hilliard D retired from office
Arizona Rep Ed Pastor D  
Arkansas Rep Vic Snyder D  
California Sen Barbara Boxer D  
California Rep Joe Baca D  
California Rep Xavier Becerra D  
California Rep Lois Capps D  
California Rep Gary Condit D  
California Rep Susan Davis D  
California Rep Anna Eshoo D  
California Rep Sam Farr D  
California Rep Bob Filner D  
California Rep Mike Honda D  
California Rep Barbara Lee D  
California Rep Zoe Lofgren D  
California Rep Robert Matsui D deceased
California Rep Juanita Millender-McDonald D  
California Rep George Miller D  
California Rep Grace Napolitano D  
California Rep Nancy Pelosi D  
California Rep Lucille Roybal-Allard D  
California Rep Loretta Sanchez D  
California Rep Hilda Solis D  
California Rep Pete Stark D  
California Rep Mike Thompson D  
California Rep Maxine Waters D  
California Rep Diane Watson D  
California Rep Lynn Woolsey D  
Colorado Rep Diana DeGette D  
Colorado Rep Mark Udall D  
Connecticut Rep Rosa DeLauro D  
Connecticut Rep John Larson D  
Connecticut Rep James Maloney D  
Florida Sen Bob Graham D  
Florida Rep Corrine Brown D  
Florida Rep Alice Hastings D  
Florida Rep Carrie Meek D retired from office
Georgia Rep John Lewis D  
Georgia Rep Cynthia McKinney D  
Hawaii Sen Daniel Akaka D  
Hawaii Sen Daniel Inouye D  
Hawaii Rep Neil Abercrombie D  
Illinois Sen Dick Durbin D  
Illinois Sen Bobby Rush D  
Illinois Rep Jerry Costello D  
Illinois Rep Danny Davis D  
Illinois Rep Lane Evans D  
Illinois Rep Luis Gutierrez D  
Illinois Rep Jesse Jackson Jr. D  
Illinois Rep Bill Lipinski D retired from office
Illinois Rep Jan Schakowsky D  
Indiana Rep Julia Carson D  
Indiana Rep John Hostettler R  
Indiana Rep Pete Visclosky D  
Iowa Rep Jim Leach R  
Maine Rep Tom Allen D  
Main Rep Baldacci D  
Maryland Sen Barbara Mikulski D  
Maryland Sen Paul Sarbanes D  
Maryland Rep Benjamin Cardin D  
Maryland Rep Elijah Cummings D  
Maryland Rep Connie Morella D  
Massachusetts Sen Ted Kennedy D  
Massachusetts Rep Michael Capuano D  
Massachusetts Rep Bill Delahunt D  
Massachusetts Rep Barney Frank D  
Massachusetts Rep Jim McGovern D  
Massachusetts Rep Richard Neal D  
Massachusetts Rep John Olver D  
Massachusetts Rep John Tierney D  
Michigan Sen Carl Levin D  
Michigan Sen Debbie Stabenow D  
Michigan Rep David Bonior D  
Michigan Rep John Conyers Jr. D  
Michigan Rep John Dingell D  
Michigan Rep Dale Kildee D  
Michigan Rep Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick D  
Michigan Rep Sandy Levin D  
Michigan Rep Lynn Rivers D  
Michigan Rep Bart Stupak D  
Minnesota Sen Mark Dayton D  
Minnesota Sen Paul Wellstone D deceased
Minnesota Rep Betty McCollum D  
Minnesota Rep Jim Oberstar D  
Minnesota Rep Martin Olav Sabo D  
Mississippi Rep Bennie Thompson D  
Missouri Rep William Clay Jr. D  
MIssouri Rep Karen McCarthy D retired from office
New Jersey Sen Jon Corzine D  
New Jersey Rep Rush Holt D  
New Jersey Rep Robert Menendez D  
New Jersey Rep Frank Pallone Jr D  
New Jersey Rep Donald Payne D  
New Mexico Sen Jeff Bingaman D  
New Mexico Rep Tom Udall D  
New York Rep Maurice Hinchey D  
New York Rep Amo Houghton R  
New York Rep John LaFalce D  
New York Rep Gregory Meeks D  
New York Rep Jerrold Nadler D  
New York Rep Major Owens D  
New York Rep Charles Rangel D  
New York Rep Jose Serrano D  
New York Rep Louise Slaughter D  
New York Rep Edolphus Towns D  
New York Rep Nydia Velazquez D  
North Carolina Rep Eva Clayton D retired from office
North Carolina Rep David Price D  
North Carolina Rep Melvin Watt D  
North Dakota Sen Kent Conrad D  
Ohio Rep Sherrod Brown D  
Ohio Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones D  
Ohio Rep Marcy Kaptur D  
Ohio Rep Dennis Kucinich D  
Ohio Rep Thomas Sawyer D  
Ohio Rep Ted Strickland D  
Oregon Sen Ron Wyden D  
Oregon Rep Earl Blumenauer D  
Oregon Rep Peter DeFazio D  
Oregon Rep Darlene Hooley D  
Oregon Rep David Wu D  
Pennsylvania Rep Robert Brady D  
Pennsylvania Rep William Coyne D retired from office
Pennsylvania Rep Mike Doyle D  
Pennsylvania Rep Chaka Fattah D  
Rhode Island Sen Lincoln Chafee D  
Rhode Island Sen Jack Reed D  
Rhode Island Rep James Langevin D  
South Carolina Rep Gresham Barrett R  
South Carolina Rep James Clyburn D  
Tennessee Rep John Duncan Jr R  
Texas Rep Lloyd Doggett D  
Texas Rep Charles Gonzalez D  
Texas Rep Ruben Hinojosa D  
Texas Rep Sheila Jackson-Lee D  
Texas Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson D  
Texas Rep Ron Paul R  
Texas Rep Silvestre Reyes D  
Texas Rep Ciro Rodriguez D retired from office
Vermont Sen Jim Jeffords D  
Vermont Sen Patrick Leahy D  
Vermont Rep Bernie Sanders I  
Virginia Rep Jim Moran D  
Virginia Rep Bobby Scott D  
Washington Sen Patty Murray D  
Washington Rep Jay Inslee D  
Washington Rep Rick Larsen D  
Washington Rep Jim McDermott D  
District of Columbia Rep Brian Baird D  
West Virginia Sen Robert Byrd D  
West Virginia Rep Alan Mollohan D  
West Virginia Rep Nick Rahall D  
Wisconsin Sen Russ Feingold D  
Wisconsin Rep Tammy Baldwin D  
Wisconsin Rep Jerry Kleczka D retired from office
Wisconsin Rep David Obey D  

And don't go to Crapapedia -- they've got people on their list who didn't even make it into Congress until five years after the vote took place.

But none of those people above made the ticket.  The idiots like Joe who got it wrong make the ticket.

We need better.

Joe Biden has spent the week trying to do a victory lap -- at his age, any form of movement is difficult.  There's no victory lap to be had.  The House is probably going Republican.  The Senate could go either way.  And he's trying to claim victory.  

The exit polls show the American people don't want him to run and that they think the country is going in the wrong direction.


Mid-week, Gloria Borger rightly called Joe out on CNN for his response that he not changing anything he's doing for the next two years.  Gloria stated, ""Now you have 75% of the country saying that we're headed in the wrong direction. Seventy-five percent believe we are in a recession. And then the president, you know, in a way to try to brag about himself and what he's done" says he's not changing anything.



He's a Moron with a War On -- even if he needs Viagra to get it up.



Inflation rose at an unadjusted annual rate of 7.7 percent in October, according to data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Thursday morning. The report noted that consumer prices rose by 0.4 percent over September, the same rate as the previous month.

While consumer prices are still rising at a pace not seen since the early 1980s, with devastating consequences for working class living standards, the October rate was less than the 7.9 percent that had been predicted by analysts.

The BLS Consumer Pricing Index (CPI) summary said the inflation rate for October was “the smallest 12-month increase since the period ending January 2022,” and was down from the September rate of 8.2 percent.

The statement said that the “all items less food and energy index rose 6.3 percent over the last 12 months.” But in the critical categories of energy and food, prices increased by 17.6 percent and 10.9 percent respectively.


There's a group getting media attention, Roots Action.  They're site is DON'T RUN JOE -- if they had any humor it would be DON'T RUN, JOE, YOU MIGHT BREAK A HIP.  If they had a sense of grammar, it would be DON'T RUN, JOE.  Their mission:

Democrats will need bold leadership in 2024. We're calling on Joe Biden to announce that he's not running for re-election.

They note:

In 2024 the United States will face the dual imperatives of preventing a Republican takeover of the White House and advancing a truly progressive agenda. The stakes could not be higher. The threat of a neofascist GOP has become all too obvious. Bold and inspiring leadership from the Oval Office will be essential.

Unfortunately, President Biden has been neither bold nor inspiring. And his prospects for winning re-election appear to be bleak. With so much at stake, making him the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in 2024 would be a tragic mistake.

“Moderate” policies have failed to truly address such pressing concerns as the climate emergency, voting rights, student debt, health care, corporate price-gouging, and bloated military spending in tandem with anemic diplomacy.

Biden triumphed over Donald Trump in 2020 with vital help from extraordinary grassroots efforts in swing states by progressive organizations (including RootsAction). A president is not his party’s king, and he has no automatic right to renomination. Joe Biden should not seek it. If he does, he will have a fight on his hands.

Contact: info@rootsaction.org | Learn more at our FAQ


Can you imagine the GOP putting a presidential candidate in a debate with Joe, someone under 62, who stands on the stage with energy and awareness?  The Democratic Party cannot afford Joe.



On June 13, 2022, Suadad al-Salhy, a senior reporter for Middle East Eye in Iraq and a former correspondent for Reuters, checked her phone to find that three people had texted her a screenshot of a post on the social network Telegram. The post, on a channel run by a government-affiliated Iraqi paramilitary group, asked followers whether they were aware that Salhy’s sister was an opposition politician. It included images of the two women. 

Salhy is Iraqi, and in 2004 covered the Battle of Fallujah and the American invasion. She is not easily frightened. But as Iraq changed in the years since, paramilitaries have taken prominent roles in the country’s economy, security, and government and operate with practical impunity. Since the end of 2019, paramilitaries are suspected to have been behind at least thirty-six assassinations, with activists and journalists as their primary targets. In November 2021, they went as far as to conduct a drone attack on Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi, an assassination attempt that was widely seen as retaliation for his attempts to bring a paramilitary “death squad” to justice. 

Social media attacks can serve as a precursor. In May 2020 Hisham al-Hashimi, a renowned analyst of paramilitaries and terrorism, saw an uptick in posts targeting him. Just weeks later, on June 9, 2020, he was shot by two gunmen on the back of a motorcycle as he returned home. 

Salhy’s sister is in fact a politician, and the two had kept their being related a secret to protect each other. Salhy did not want her sister to become a target because of what she had written; nor did she want her work to be associated with her sister’s political positions. Now the paramilitaries were letting them know that their relationship was not only understood but monitored. “It was just telling me they can reach me,” Salhy said. “And if they cannot reach me, they can reach my family.” 


Iraq remains a war zone and no one has paid for their role in harming that country.  Instead, they get away with it.  They don't even have to answer questions as the Tweet below demonstrates.


Let's close with BROS.











The following sites updated:





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