Mike Huckabee, If you believe in one fairy tale why not others!

So, Huckabee who knows that Science is wrong because it changes whilst the eternal word of the Lord is, well, eternal also believes the Right Wing Fantasy that Saddam secreted his weapons into Syria or Jordan (Huckabee is a little ignorant of geography).

Well, why not. Since Huckabee believes in the fairy tale of religion why not hold to the fairy tale Saddam loaded his weapons onto the WMD Train to Syria (or Jordan)...



I think someone should send Mr. Huckabee an essay from Isaac Asimov entitled "The Relativity of Wrong".

From the essay: "When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."

And therein lies Huckabee's ignorance concerning science. Huckabee proscribes to the something muat be 100% right or 100% wrong theory. And if Evilutionists can not produce an absolute and complete picture then the theory is wrong. Scientific theories start as ideas and are continuously refined until such times as a more refined theory holds sway or a new idea is introduced. It is the blinkered, arrogant Religious who proclaim they have the COMPLETE and FINAL truth which can never be changed.

It was Worth It...

My conclusion is clear. NO... HELL NO... FUCK NO...

So, I don't quote or reference those running for president with whom I staunchly disagree. I do not like to give them coverage even to point out their complete ignorance (e.g. Huckabee and Evolution).

But, when you can catch Chickenhawk Warmongers who want to be president stating Iraq was worth the cost in Blood and Treasure sometimes you have to let people know the extent of their insanity. From the January 24 MSNBC debate:

First off, each respondent ignores the question was the War is worth the cost of blood and treasure;

John McCain, "The war in Iraq is justified..." Was it worth it? "It was a good idea."

Mike Huckabee, "I supported the president when he led us into this, as did the Democrats, and I think we owe him not a lot of scorn. We owe him our thanks..." So, we owe Bush who never served, whose children never served, whose extended family has never served, whose chief handler Dick Cheney never served, whose rabid on air supporters, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity never served our thanks? So Mike is your son, Mike Dale Huckabee going to join the Corps and serve over in Al Anbar any time soon?

Mitt Romney, "It was the right decision to go into Iraq. I supported it at the time. I support it now." As long as none of the 5 sons of Romney have to go anywhere near the fighting , bloodshed and danger, right? After all they are serving America right now trying to get you elected president! And I'm sure they have hopes and dreams and aspirations and it would be terribly inconvenient to force them to put their lives on hold for something so trivial as the War on Terror.

Only Ron Paul is correct on the War on Iraq, "It was a very bad idea and it wasn't worth it."

Update (01/26):
I'm not even sure what to write about Huckabee's WMDs are Easter Eggs analogy. "Just because we didn't find them, it doesn't mean they weren't there..." Kinda like the 100% complete and accurate fossil record Fanatical creationists demand be produced for every creature on earth? If we don't find them according to you I can claim they are still there, like Easter eggs right, Hucky?

Surprises: Bush & The Surge & Weasel Words

Surprise, The Bush Regime used 935 falsehoods and lies to build up support among the American populace for the Iraq War.

And after the lies brought us into War the Bush Regime bullied everyone who questioned them over the past 5 years with "Give us Just another 6 month". Surprise, Petraeus is asking for... ANOTHER 6 MONTHS!

And now, surprise, the Bush Regime is planning on using weasel words to ensure the US is stuck in Iraq for generations, by sidestepping the word treaty in order to sidestep Congress.

Remember the weasel words concerning the fate of US bases in Iraq? Let's call them Enduring instead of Permanent. Surprise, enduring means permanent.

I don't know if the Surge has actually produced a fundamental paradigm shift in the 4GW battlefield of Iraq, the history of insurgent wars would tend to indicate the guerilla forces are laying low until the extra US troops go home and operations against American forces aren't as dangerous. At which time, the insurgents will step up their attacks once more.

What I do know is obscene amounts of money have been transferred to the Warmongers running this Government. If you're eagerly awaiting your $600 rebate the Warfare State has effectively deluded you into being happy with crumbs while it gobbles down BILLIONS daily.

Two Big Assets of the Rational Response Squad.

I first became aware of the Rational Response Squad when the group trounced Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort on a Nightline debate in which Cameron and Comfort set out to prove the existence of god. The "debate" wasn't even close. Cameron and Comfort trotted out the standard canard of everything has a creator and a picture of a "Croc-a-duck", but eventually could not produce the scientific evidence of god they claimed existed and ended up falling back on the words of the so-called living god and his book. I can only assume they meant Mithras.

As I watched the video I realized Kelly, besides being intelligent, is really, really hot and possesses some other impressive assets besides a brain. Wow.

Apparently at some point the Internet became aware of Kelly's great body and have been attempting to get a better look. The RRS put together a page making fun of the googling of Kelly and her boobs. The page is funny, but also points out some of those searching for Kelly do so not to gaze at her impressive rack or read her writing denouncing irrational beliefs but to issue her threats.

Update (1/23):
Moving off the topic of Kelly's boobs, which is hard to do, here is a post from Ray Comfort on the Science of the bible. Unsurprisingly, the first point is wrong, the Earth is not a sphere but an oblate spheroid.

Americans in Iraq for the Long Haul

As I have postulated in previous posts (here and here), Iraq in many respects mirrors the Philippines.

The US had military forces in the PI for 94 years and we now have verbal confirmation, besides all the circumstantial evidence provided by the enduring bases and Green Zone Mega-Embassy, the US plans to remain in Iraq for the Long Haul.

Bush has declared American forces will never leave Iraq during his Dictatorship and, when asked whether it might last 10 years, replied: "It could easily be that, absolutely."

Of course, John McCain isn't content with a mere decade. He wants the US to be in Iraq for 100 years...


And the military occupation will continue to be sold to the American populace as necessary for their safety, good for the economy and to bring the light of freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people...

Update (01/15):
Abdul Qadir, the current Iraqi Defense Minister stated Iraq will not be able to defend it's borders till at least 2018.

Update (01/18):
Tom Engelhardt has an excellent commentary on the Surge Success and the pronouncement of at least 10 more years...

Mission Accomplished 2... This time it's for real...

Lieberman and McCain have spoken, The Surge Worked. Mission Accomplished all over again.

And apparently America should believe Bush with his upbeat assessment of the Surge calling it "incredibly successful beyond anybody's expectations".

Well, after being treated to repeated claims of progress by Bush:

April 24, 2003: "And we're making progress. There's tangible, visible progress on the ground there in Iraq"

April 30, 2004: "We're making progress, you bet,"

May 24, 2004: "We're making progress. Yet there still is much work to do."

August 11, 2005: "And we're making progress training the Iraqis. Oh, I know it's hard for some Americans to see that progress, but we are making progress."

I could go on posting links to the Bush mantra of progress but The Eye of The Witch blog has already done an excellent job of documenting the White House press releases hailing progress.

Here is Keith Olbermann's Progress Retrospective from Countdown:


I'll wait to proclaim success when Americans aren't dying.

Why do Americans ignore the last 5 years of death, mayhem and destruction in Iraq?

Probably because Neocon Warmongers and Warfare State supporters, who predicted the Surge succeeded back in March or April before it began, Surge Results Visible by Charles Krauthammer. Surge's Success Going Unnoticed by William Kristol and others spend all their time bombarding Americans with the Progress and Mission Accomplished meme.

Remove Brain. Wash Brain. Reinsert. Repeat as needed.

The Surge occurred to save Bush from the prospect of having to pull troops out under his presidency. Now, he'll be able to keep troops in Iraq until he slinks his way out of the White House and down onto his ranch in Crawford or Paraguay.

And if the next President is so foolish as to try and limit the amount of money being made by the peddlers of death and lobbyists of destruction he (or she) will find themselves the subject of brutal and non-stop "You lost Iraq" attacks until the uninformed populace believes...

Human Terrain Teams

Prior to my deployments, I received a 6 hour block on Iraqi culture. It was in a large lecture hall and most of the marines in the back had difficulty hearing the 3 instructors. I do not believe the class was of much help.

But, now the Universities of America are being combed for Anthropolgists!

Enter the Human Terrain Team. Armed with their knowledge of the social sciences, the HTTers use the Etic approach to teach young americans how to interact with the Iraqi populace. Dr. David Matsuda seems to be the current front man (via this news story and this release) for news coming out of Iraq.

This has caused much strife amongst the Academic community. The American Anthropolgists Association opposse the HTT system. I can understand the expressed concerns, instead of promoting cultural understanding the HTT system enables the continued occupation of Iraq. Danger Room has a series of posts and should be referenced.

I am conflicted about this, if the professors help limit Hadithahs and incidents such as the killing of two Americans by an Iraqi soldier it could be considered a success. But, the adoption of HTT program should be viewed by the American people as nothing less than another indicator we are in Iraq for the long haul. Again think of occupation of the Phillipine Islands.

Of course, this also highlights the American predliction to snear and disdain learning. If Americans had a little more knowledge of History and Anthropology they might have known about the 1920 Iraqi revolt against British Rule. Then they would have laughed at Dick Cheney when he promised, "We would be greeted as liberators", instead of cheering on the Warfare State.

However, the use of state funded education to turn Americans into cogs for industry or the military is a topic for another post.

Government Authority Tells World to stop hurting Religious Authority

Well, two recent incidents have me dismayed and perplexed. Our betters in Government have become alarmed since their systems of control are under attack. Hence we have the United Nations Third Committee of the 62 General Assembly approved a draft resolution Combating the Defamation of Religion.

The Assembly would further note, with deep concern, the intensification of the campaign to defame religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities...

I have to give credit to the EU, led by the Representative of Portugal, which voted against the Resolution stating, "However, the concerns set out in the draft amounted to religious intolerance." And to India, which pointed out the draft "focused excessively on a single religion". Because this draft amounts to nothing more than a don't say anything bad about the religion of peace.

However, let me be very clear, no religion deserves respect. Religion is a construct, created by men and further refined by men throughout the years. No man-made idea or construct deserves respect. Period. It is Man, himself, who deserves respect. No system of thought is above or exempt from criticism, ridicule, or the prospect of being discarded to the dustbin of history. Religion above all, since it purports to speak to ultimate truth.

Of course, I also don't know what defamation exactly entails.

If I point out mohammed killed people who disagreed with him, experienced hallucinations and lied about having a horse fly him to Jerusalem and back in one night, have I defamed islam?

If I call christanity a collection of ideas taken from other religions and philosophical systems have I defamed, christanity?

And what should the punishment be for Richard Dawkins for this commentary?

Re-education? A Fine? Imprisonment? The pillory? The Heretic's Fork?

And the news from the US is as bad. Randy Forbes (shockingly a R-VA) has proposed the Government vote to change American history. House Resolution 888, contains this clap-trap:

Whereas religious faith was not only important in official American life during the periods of discovery, exploration, colonization, and growth but has also been acknowledged and incorporated into all 3 branches of American Federal government from their very beginning

I won't get further into the list of Whereasses, please go here for the excellent piece by Chris Rodda, or here for another good post, or here

This is another attempt for militant christians, ala House Resolution 847 Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith, to continue to force their fantasies upon the American populace and turn America into a christian theocracy.

John Edwards, maybe, but I doubt it

Well, Mr. Edwards says if he's elected all troops will be out of Iraq within 9-10 months, save a contingent at the Disneylandesque US Mega-Embassy.

I applaud Mr. Edwards for the courage, in the current American political world, of admitting he made an error with his 2002 vote for war. As I've have stated earlier, it is difficult to admit an error and with political opponents ready to pounce on any actual or apparent change as flip-flopping, changing one's position becomes nigh impossible.

But, before I get all weak in the knees over Johnny I need to more closely examine the way Mr. Edwards made his money on malpractice cases. I hope it wasn't in destroying individual doctors from the perch of perfect, years gone by, hindsight. I also need to peruse Mr. Edwards other campaign statements.

As for future foreign policy, with this kind of money being allocated will you be able to resist the demands of the Warmongering profiteers?

Free Republic Update:
It's also sober to read what the Freepers have to offer up on John Edwards plan. Of course these people claim to support the troops, by wanting them to stay in Iraq forever. In reality Freepers use the troops as a club to attack political enemies...

This means they can come home now, right?

Al-Qaida in Iraq 75 percent destroyed.

Oh, but Gen Petraeus states the gains are, "tenous... and could be reversed".

And so the cycle of almost success continues. The cycle of just another six months and We're makin' progress which will keep us in Iraq for... 50 years?

Is it worth it?

Is Iraq worth what we are paying? No.

Does leaving cheapen the sacrifices of those who have served and those who gave the final full measure? Maybe...

But it's a vulgar gambler's fallacy of irrational escalation used by Chickenhawk Warmongers to tap into the raw emotions of those who have lost loved ones or those who have served and want to, need to believe their government didn't send them into a war for profit.

But, as everyone who's worn the uniform can tell you the goals of the military are:
1) Mission Accomplishment.
2) Troop Welfare.

The US government doesn't "Support the Troops". To politicians sitting in a Corinthian leather chair in DC, you the soldier, are a blip on a power point presentation. If you're ground into hamburger to accomplish the mission, oh well.

Take a look at the graphic above. Notice anything? The last 4 years have all been statistically the same. And that's it. Each of those 3900 killed is nothing but a number to Washington, a statistic.

I hope next year will be different. I hope at the end of 2008, we won't add another 850 and 6000 to the those grim totals. We have purchased a fragile peace by throwing money at the Anbar Sheikhs and right now Moqtada al-Sadr is just bidding his time. Many things could lead an upsurge in violence; the death of Sayyid Ali Husaini al-Sistani, a broader Kurdish-Turkish War, a revival of the Anbar insurgency.

And then there is the money. Only a fool or a madman would continue to throw money into a losing proposition.

We are currently paying 15 Billion a month for Iraq and Afghanistan. That doesn't include the 440 Billion set aside at the beginning of the fiscal year for the War Department.

Unfortunately, what's worse Iraq isn't a losing proposition, to some. Vast amounts of US money have simply been wasted, to the point where, We the People will never know what happened to billions of dollars of hard currency in Iraq.

But, it's been a windfall for Ahmad Chalabi, Blackwater, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and many more tied into the sick and twisted Waltz of Death.

Ron Paul loses some Luster

Well, I'm in an unevinable position when it comes to Ron Paul.

On a positive note the NYTimes did print a follow-up stating they should not have run a string of allegations and assertions without allowing a response from Paul's campaign. Not that it has stopped the racist meme from being adopted as "Internet Fact" by the likes of Democratic Underground.

But, Ed Brayton of Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a video of Ron Paul rejecting evolution, stating "it's a theory... theory of evolution. No one has absolute proof on either side."

Uugh.

I can't vote for someone who could reject the mountains of evidence for Evolution. And I can not in good conscience, rationalize his statments by telling myself Paul played to the audience and is trying to garner votes. Because if I am to vote for Paul, he has to be above that kind of pandering. Otherwise I am as guilty as everyone else who ignores the ugliness of their favorite candidate...

The problem is, Ron Paul's stated position on the Occupation of Iraq, understanding the root causes of 9/11 (It's Blowback not because they hate us for our freedom or because women drive cars unescorted), and ending the Imperial American Empire are a strong siren's call for me.

But, I can not ignore these repeated warnings .

Update (12/27):
Ironically, it seems, being caught up in the Paul Revolution caused me to lose sight of the title of my own blog...

Do you know what USMC stands for?

U
Suckers
Missed
Christmas

To all the Devil Dogs and Servicemembers overseas away from Hearth & Home, Friends & Family, Have a Safe and Merry Christmas.

One day hopefully, We The People, will understand the True Spirit of Christmas take command of our lives and not allow a bureaucracy to send our children into War for the advancement of the careers or stock portfolios of the Few...

The Anti-War 110th Congress!

Yes, I'm so glad the democratically controlled congress is saying no to giving the Warmongers money!

Wait, this post reads the senate just approved another 70 Billion in war funding?!? And now Iraq/Afghanistan have surpassed Vietnam in War Profiteering...

Let's read what hillary had to say about Funding the Iraq War 7 months ago:
"Well, today we're talking about this very important immigration issue, there'll be time to talk about that later." ~ hillary clinton

Well of course you have time hillary, you don't have to worry about chelsea getting her Tits blown off by an IED! But, of course chelsea is special she's been groomed for leadership and has just started a $150000 job in New York. Can, We the People really ask such a special young woman to put that all on hold and endanger her health, life and sanity?

Unbelievable. Can anyone continue to delude themselves a democratic president will pull the troops out before 2012? Let alone any of the Insane republicans... This is one of the wages of the Warfare/Welfare State...

Vote for Ron Paul.

Religious/Military Indoctrination

So, you are a squad leader and you have to take:
Tarawa defended by the Japanese or
The Fort Douaumont during the Battle of Verdun or
Pork Chop Hill in Korea or the
Russian Guns in redoubt at Balaclava...

How do you convince the men you aren't just ordering them to a wasted death? Why convince them they are in the service of a Glorious Sky Daddy and will be rewarded in their next life! And if any parents question the death of their loved one? Why just ask Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich what to say! You see, the truth is, if the parents are upset their son is dead it's probably because they are Evil Non-Religious people and stupidly they believe their son is "wormdirt" and not enjoying the Big Reward. A sort of heartless Pascal's Wager.

And what better time to pound in the indoctrination than when the young men are under the stress of Boot Camp? You could even title your Religious Brain-washing 'God's Basic Training'! The First Strategic Objective being: Evangelize and Disciple All Enlisted Members of the US Military.

The ignorance on display here is disgusting. And once again this can be attributed to a lack of knowledge of history. Instead of distrubting copies of a book containing bronze age myths why not let military recruits read The War Prayer by Mark Twain?

Oh... Well I know why because the State doesn't want it's cogs to question the decisions of the State. The State has enjoyed a cozy relationship with Religious Authority. Everyone knew their Country was the Just Country, the Righteous Country because religious "leaders" said so.

Fortunately, a man of great courage, Michael L. Weinstein, is standing up, speaking out and leading the fight against those using their Military Rank to coerce and force their religious beliefs upon the troops under their control.