Fear = Love

Unsurprisingly, that's how little Georgie Bush sees it:

US President George W Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf today celebrated their close cooperation in the war on terrorism but did not deny that it began with a US threat to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age".

Winning, Cont'd

As the saying goes, with friends like us, who needs enemas?

They have organised elections, and pushed through a democratically ratified constitution that has given birth to a national government with a true mandate. They have sent their own troops and trained the locals in their tens of thousands. They have sacrificed 2700 of their servicemen's lives and more than US$300 billion ($453 billion) of their taxpayers' money.

But nothing the Americans can do has stopped post-Saddam Iraq's long slide into chaos and despair.

United States President George W. Bush and his top aides still insist civil war has not broken out.

That, however, is a simple matter of semantics after the latest United Nations report stating almost 6600 people have died in sectarian violence in the past two months for which statistics are available: an "unprecedented" 3590 in July, followed by an only marginally less appalling 3009 last month. This represents 108 killings every day - or almost 40,000 a year.

Victory!

Well done, Bush. We've shown those Islamofascist bastards that we can kill Americans just as well as they can.




















Take that, Osama!

Now the death toll is 9/11 times two. U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America's history, the trigger for what came next.

More People Who Will Be Screwed

The government could and should be caring for the men and women they've broken, but it won't:

More than one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking medical treatment from the Veterans Health Administration report symptoms of stress or other mental disorders — a tenfold increase in the last 18 months, according to an agency study.

The dramatic jump in cases — coming as more troops face multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — has triggered concern among some veterans groups that the agency may not be able to meet the demand. They say veterans have had to deal with long waits for doctor appointments, staffing shortages and lack of equipment at medical centers run by the Veterans Affairs Department.

Contributing to the higher levels of stress are the long and often repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, troops also face unpredictable daily attacks and roadside bombings as they battle the stubborn insurgency.

Victory, Cont'd

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A bomb blew up a kerosene tanker truck in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood on Saturday, killing at least 32 people, police said.

Moonbat Time

Yet more insight into the ways in which corporations spew static and obscure scientific facts:

For years, a network of fake citizens' groups and bogus scientific bodies has been claiming that science of global warming is inconclusive. They set back action on climate change by a decade. But who funded them? Exxon's involvement is well known, but not the strange role of Big Tobacco. In the first of three extracts from his new book, George Monbiot tells a bizarre and shocking new story.

Hate Radio

The war on the people of New Orleans continues, and it's ugly, down in Houston:

A radio commercial for a local gun shop advises Houstonians to arm themselves against "Katricians," adding to the growing tension between Houstonians and the Katrina evacuees who have been blamed for a rising crime rate.

The World Is Our Ashtray

And they'd better get used to it, cuz it ain't stoppin' anytime soon:

Over the last few weeks, a major environmental, medical, and political crisis has unfolded in the West African nation of Ivory Coast. On Aug. 19, a Panamanian-flagged ship owned by a Greek firm and chartered by a leading Dutch commodities broker docked in Abidjan, the country's commercial capital. The ship unloaded between 400 tons and 600 tons of toxic petrochemical waste, which was summarily dumped in open-air sites around the city and poured into the sewer system. Within days, people began to show up in hospitals complaining of symptoms ranging from nosebleeds, diarrhea, and nausea to eye irritation and breathing difficulties. So far, 50,000 people have sought medical attention, seven people have died, and dozens more have been hospitalized after being poisoned by the fumes.

The toxic waste has spread to the large lagoon that divides this city of 5 million—once known as "the Paris of West Africa"—and may have contaminated drinking water and surrounding farm land as well. The war-racked country's Cabinet ministers resigned en masse over what was seen as the government's slow response to the crisis and its alleged complicity in the dumping.

Pusher

Good news for people who can't afford meds, I reckon.

But how about we go for nationalized health care instead?

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, plans to slash the prices of almost 300 generic prescription drugs, offering a big lure for bargain-seeking customers and presenting a challenge to competing pharmacy chains and makers of generic drugs.

The drugs will be sold for as little as $4 for a month's supply and include some of the most commonly prescribed medicines such as Metformin, a popular generic drug used to treat diabetes, and the high blood pressure medicine Lisinopril.

Islamic Extremist = Secular Progressive

Where the fuck do they get this stuff? How do their tiny brains not explode?

ThinkProgress has obtained an advance copy of Bill O’Reilly’s new book, Culture Warrior. In it, O’Reilly claims that Osama bin Laden supports American progressives. Some excerpts from Chapter 7:

Who do you think Osama Bin Laden supports in the American culture war: the traditionalists or the secular-progressives?

…[T]hink about what I am about to put forth: From his hideout somewhere in the Mulism world, Osama bin Laden and his cohorts have got to be cheering on the S-P [secular-progressive] movement…

Speaking True

Sure, Chavez was way over the top with his Bush as sulfuric Satan schtick, but at least he knows what we need to read and isn't afraid to talk about it (as opposed to our president, who doesn't read--stories that he read The Stranger over the summer are utterly laughable):

Move over Oprah -- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is calling the literary shots this week.
...

At the United Nations, anti-imperialist Chavez began his speech by displaying a copy of U.S. writer Noam Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" and recommended that Americans read it.

By Thursday, the book had risen from backlist obscurity to be the No. 3 bestseller on Amazon.com. Before the speech, the 2004 book reprinted by Owl Books was being outsold by thousands of other titles on the online bookseller's Web site.

Send the Bastards Away

Once people heard about what they did, they were suddenly willing to deal. I wonder why that is. Perhaps because they realized that the jury was composed of humans, who would react with horrified outrage:

Three men accused of brutal attacks on men leaving San Diego's gay pride festival last July changed their pleas to guilty Friday after two days of damning testimony.

James Carroll, Lyonn Tatum, and Kenneth Lincoln will be sentenced on Monday.

Six men were attacked as they left Balboa Park where San Diego's gay pride was being held on July 29. The victims were taunted with homophobic remarks then beaten.

At least two of the victims were struck by a baseball bat. One victim, Oscar Foster, is expected to be released from hospital next week following reconstructive surgery on his face. He was struck nearly a dozen times with an aluminum bat.

The Next Plague

It's here. And cross-strains with HIV are a very real danger:

The worst forms of the killer tuberculosis bug have been gaining ground in the United States, alarming public health officials over imported drug-resistant strains of a disease that is mostly under control in this country.

Although the number of drug-resistant TB cases in the U.S. is small compared to developing nations, health officials here warn that visitors from other countries who are unaware of their infections are bringing over the deadliest mutations.

Often those with drug-resistant strains stop taking their medicine when they feel better but aren't cured.

Catblogging: Cats In - Gasp! - A Box

Cats in a box just doesn't seem to have the same shock value as snakes on a plane...

Hiatus, Perhaps

Feeling burned out from work. Light posting, probably... at least for a bit.

Gulag

That's the only word for it:

In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

Big Ol' Catholic Stupid

Blogged on this last week, but this absolute fuck-up seems to have some staying power. Well done, Ratzi:

Italian police were yesterday ordered to tighten security at potential Catholic targets across the country as the leaders of the Roman Catholic church anxiously waited to see if a personal expression of regret by Pope Benedict would assuage Muslim fury over his remarks on Islam.

The Pope's speech in Germany last week, in which he quoted a medieval ruler who said Muhammad's innovations were "evil and inhuman", has led to widespread condemnation in the Muslim world. Last night the controversy seemed to have claimed its first victims when gunmen killed a 65-year-old Italian nun and her bodyguard at the entrance to a hospital where she worked in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.

A doctor said the nun, who was named as Sister Leonella Sgorbati, from Piacenza in northern Italy, had been shot four times in the back by two men with pistols. The attack was linked by some to the Pope's remarks.