Who Lost Iraq?

The Iraq venture may have been doomed from the start — but we'll never know for sure because the Bush administration made such a mess of the occupation. Future historians will view it as a case study of how not to run a country

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The insurgency took root during the occupation's first few months, when the Coalition Provisional Authority seemed oddly disengaged from the problems of postwar anarchy. But what was Paul Bremer III, the head of the C.P.A., focused on? According to a Washington Post reporter who shared a flight with him last June, "Bremer discussed the need to privatize government-run factories with such fervor that his voice cut through the din of the cargo hold."

Plans for privatization were eventually put on hold. But as he prepared to leave Iraq, Mr. Bremer listed reduced tax rates, reduced tariffs and the liberalization of foreign-investment laws as among his major accomplishments. Insurgents are blowing up pipelines and police stations, geysers of sewage are erupting from the streets, and the electricity is off most of the time — but we've given Iraq the gift of supply-side economics.

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Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a very big favor.

U.S. Ignores Conference on Environment

There weren’t any officials from the U.S. Department of Health or Environmental Protection Agency at the Conference on Environment and Health.
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Listening to how the fossil fuel-financed administration of President George W. Bush has misrepresented global warming, my impression has been that each night Bush’s people return to some other planet. They are obviously not worried about this one, as are the some half billion East and West Europeans. But Earth is in big trouble, and there was no doubt in Budapest that humans burning fossil fuels are certainly causing it.

In 2001, the Bush administration (1) reversed George W.’s campaign promise to limit CO2 emissions; (2) rejected the Kyoto Protocol; and (3) proposed a new national energy policy that will actually accelerate global warming. Then it promised to issue its own solution to the looming devastation that global warming would bring. On February 14, 2002, Bush’s administration finally delivered two major proposals addressing climate change and air quality. But behind the rhetoric of progress, neither plan does anything to curb global warming or reduce dangerous air pollution because of its “fuzzy math.”

Bush’s plan to decrease global warming uses outrageous accounting tricks to mask the fact that even if the disingenuously proposed voluntary emissions target is actually achieved, emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping pollutants would actually be increased by 14 percent over the next 10 years. That is almost exactly the same rate that these chemicals increased during the last decade.

Employment is growing again, but real wages fall to a two-year low

Just as the jobless recovery appears to be solidly behind us, a new problem has emerged: declining real wages. In fact, real wages for May fell back to the same level as November 2001, the month when the last recession ended.

How many times has the US refused to attend international conferences on the environment?

June 28, a day that will live in infamy. Typical of the low life, criminal element that is the Bush admin! Victory? Hah! It's sick! Sick! Sick!

In other news it seems as the squirrel community has become a liberal nuisance. Click on the name below to find more out about this growing conspiracy.

Iraq Regime Change a Sham, Say Mideast Experts

Like we didn't know that already, but there was this little snippet that should be very sobering for all of us:

The United States will keep at least 138,000 troops in Iraq (augmented by about 20,000 from other countries) for the forseeable future, he said. Fourteen permanent or semi-permanent military bases have been and are being constructed to house them, said Mahajan, who returned recently from a trip to Iraq.

"Those forces have, by an eleventh hour edict of Paul Bremer (head of the former U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority), complete immunity from Iraqi law and Iraqi courts," he added.

....

An edict signed by Bremer also gives U.S. and Western defense contractors complete immunity from Iraqi law.

You wanna know why the security situation is not going to get any better? When faith is lost in the system of courts and when people believe that no system of justice will ever hold accountable those that are immune from prosecution for actions against the people, for some, there is only one thing left to turn to.

Sadly, we have been witnessing the last few months of the slow development of a terrorist haven and harbor of such people, and I'm afraid that it's only going to get worse and worse from here on out.

Tony thanks for the link. Why these experts are not heard and listened to is beyond my reasoning.

Billmon is closing down the comment section of the bar. Things have just gotten too crazy for him. He's offering to support someone in opening a kind of annex site to discuss his posts, but unwilling to keep doing it himself. Can't say I blame him. The newbies, trolls and lunatics have led to me retreating into a mostly lurker type myself.

The Conference Board, a private forecasting body, said its index of consumer confidence in June rose to its highest in two years, outstripping forecasts, as labor market conditions improved

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/040629/markets_stocks_8.html

Soccerdad,

Don't you be saying bad junk about handsome Paul Bremer.

The Truth About 'Fahrenheit 9/11'

Is freedom of speech still a right even though you make a propaganda movie to promote the down fall of your President?
I think not. It's borderline treason. Fully expecting this movie to been seen by a majority of the world he expects this crap to influence world opinions.
Lets see. I'm going to make a movie and call it "John Kerry, Coward of Vietnam" Then I'll just make up a bunch of shit on him and spin it so it fits my agenda. But hey since it's on the big screen it must be the truth! RIGHT?

You people that believe that movie are a bunch of political sheep.

RC

First link did not work for me.

Second is just a right wing screed that does not deal with the movie in a substantive way, e.g. show that the facts are wrong.

Copy this

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124079,00.html

oh yeah, thanks RC...a Fox"news" story...
that should convince me...

oh yeah FOX lies to the American people on a daily basis!! I forgot. How stupid of me. Better go watch CNN then!

F'in moron!

Michael Moore is not a journalist. He is a film maker. Arguing about what little factoid in his movie is right or wrong misses the point of his kind of art. He presents things filtered by his perceptions; he strives to communicate how he sees the world.

Going to see a Moore film is like going out for a beer with a friend. You know he's going to express his opinion in an entertaining way, and that he's going to bullshit you a little.

The power of F 9/11 is just that. Moore isn't trying to tell anyone how they should think - he's telling us how he sees it, and leaving it up to the viewers to form their own opinions of what he has presented.

It's art, folks, not journalism. It is the truth of how Moore feels about Bush and our government. A truth that is striking a chord all across this country.

tings,

I guess he should of put that in the disclaimer then, huh?

From our friends at Faux news:

The movie also criticizes Bush for staying inside a Florida classroom full of kids for a full seven minutes after he learned that the country was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

However, the vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission has said that Bush did the right thing. "Bush made the right decision in remaining calm, in not rushing out of the classroom," said Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana.

I don't get this one. How could he not leave the classroom? I remember how I felt on that day and I literally ran for a TV.

RC

Just because your kind depends on the RNC and Fox to do their thinking for them, doesn't mean everyone does. No disclaimer is needed - just go see the movie instead of letting your herd leaders tell you what it's about.

Is freedom of speech still a right even though you make a propaganda movie to promote the down fall of your President? I think not. It's borderline treason.

Why borderline? why not "freedom of speech should be limited to people who support the govenment."

Mmmm, Stalinism.

Hey tings just insert your letters here...

Just because your kind depends on the DNC and CNN to do their thinking for them, doesn't mean everyone does.

Amazing how that works.

'Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man'

RC

What does an error in my post have to do with the point you brought up - the truth of F9/11? You and the other trolls play these silly little games, derailing any real discussion of the issues.

If you haven't seen the movie, you are just talking out of your ass, which I admit is not unusual for any of you freepers. Just please, quit clearing your throat here at the Leftcoaster.

tings,

Sarcasm is wasted on some people.

As for seeing the movie. I have no plans on giving Moore any of my money.

I hear a lot of you berate any media source that does not meet your political standards and then be so bold to say that person can not think for him/her selves.

Lets take a close look at that line of thinking.....
SO anyone that watches say...FOX for news would be considered a moron, by your standards, and they can't think for themselves..right? Using that analogy anyone that watches any news program would be considered a moron that can not think for themselves. Let's take it further and say any one that reads newspapers must be morons also. So what are we to do? We as Americans would all have to go out and do our own research to find the real truth about what's going on in the world to meet your standards of person that thinks for themselves.

Do you understand how stupid you people sound when you make statements like that?
This goes for both you on the Right and Left.

RC;
(Insert Dick Cheney quote here)

how about that SCOTUS administering the smackdown to the chimp? on the hamdi case 8-1! guess that's 8 more traitors to round up!

RC

I'm not interested in playing your games. You make an assertion that what you have to say is over my head in an attempt to discredit the things I've said. It's a stupid little adolescent trick and only illustrates my point that people like you aren't interested in discussing the issues.

I've often wondered what it is trolls get out of posting? Frankly, I think of trolls like obscene phone callers, there on the other end of the line, getting some weird thrill out of your reaction.

I mostly ignore you guys. You aren't capable of more than nit picking, insults and a few rhetorical tricks. I was just in a mood today, because all these weird little people are crawling out of the wood work and Billmon shut his comment section down. I felt like a fight. You can resume being an asshole without my interuption.

lol... good one Dave.

I've often wondered what it is trolls get out of posting?

Know thy enemy.

tings said:
I was just in a mood today, because all these weird little people are crawling out of the wood work and Billmon shut his comment section down.

Egads, surely that can't be where all the trolls came from.

Or maybe because they succeeded they multiplied?

Hey RC, I saw the movie. As one of my coworkers mentioned, a comparison would be a Japanese "documentary" on World War II. (I thought that was kind of a clever comparison.)

It seemed to most I've talked to as a partisan informercial. I think the true believers were out in force for the initial weekend, but I bet this movie drops like a stone in subsequent weeks. It just wasn't that funny. Looks like the reviews are confirming that Moore played pretty loose with the facts.

He might have limited the release to a smaller number of theaters to make sure the venues were crowded. I think with a larger opening, there would've been empty seats. That's kind of an old political ploy, and you have to credit Moore for being a master of illusion.

Oh as for your high and mighty debating. I've heard that song and dance before.

Go read the posts at.... Can you imagine Boy George Doing This?

The topics are getting so in-depth I think you need to join in.

Bitch and Moan

I think you have a point; we can all sling mud at any news source. However, I think most people on the blogs usually cross check their information with multiple sources, and I know I hunt down the original source of things that interest me.

The thing is one of our resident trolls tried to make an assertion about something based only on second hand sources. That isn't thinking for yourself, and if you look up thread, he was the one who called us sheeple first. This is an insult the trolls here have been hurling often and I just felt like calling one of them out today.

I bet this movie drops like a stone in subsequent weeks.

if it never sold another ticket, it would still be the most successful documentary ever. (OTOH, "The Heart & Soul of America" is coming out soon. That will probably knock F9/11 off its perch and push Bowling for Columbine down to #3)

enough of this nonsense about the #1 movie in America. What's #1 on the Non-Fiction charts?

a comparison would be a Japanese "documentary" on World War II. (I thought that was kind of a clever comparison.)

Oscar Freakin Wilde, it is.

With regards to fox article, the first point about vacation doesn't tell us how much time other prezs spent at camp david, its just arbitrarily subtracts it from Bush's total.

The classroom bit is a judgement call, it can be interpreted either way as far as i am concerned.

That Bush approved the flight is wrong but it doesn't answer the question was Bush involved in starting the process to get the flights for his friend.

Other FBI people have been quoted as saying that given the enormity of the problem, 3000 killed, a couple of hours of interviews did not fit standard protocol.

The fact that the visit was approved by clinton is irrelevant to the point that Bush had business dealings with them.

So Its not full of holes.

I'd like to see you come up with similar rails against the like of Rush, Hannity, coulter et al. Other wise you are no better than what you accuse us of.

Lets stop the mud sliging with the idoits and discuss why we are better off as a country of money grubbing, human rights trampling, lying, holier than thou, environment trashing republican assholes.

Next we can discuss how we can stat a war (unprovoked of course) with another oil laden nation. As we watch the body bags come home, we can scold people for focusing on the negative.

The best part is, all of our CEO buddy's will really like us and invite us to play golf because we reduced their personal taxes, and opened the federal treasury to ther plunder.

Finally in our twilght years when average winter temperatures are 89F. We can be glad that we put so much of that money away so we can continue to afford expensive (even for us) air conditioning and food. And be glad that we are not like those people we fucked with such impunity for all those years.