The U.S. vs Iran; Some More Dots to be Connected

Large U.S. naval, air and marine forces are on their way to beef-up the Fifth Fleet in the Persian Gulf and Middle East. They include 2 nuclear aircraft carriers with assault troops on board.

A majority of the "beltway bozos" are betting against Bush risking a major new war in the short time remaining to him as the president and Dick Cheney as the co-president, especially in light of the upcoming November election.

But a strong minority believe that Bush will pull the trigger and order American armed forces to go forward.

According to DEBKAfile, a respected Israeli internet news site, a U.S. military source has advised them to keep a close eye on America's military movements in the region for clues, because a concentration this heavy must have a definate purpose.

The words of President Eisenhower, reported in the New York Times on April 17, 1953 are truer today than they were more than half a century ago:

A life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or any other system to achieve the true abundance and happiness for the people of this earth.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity, hanging from a cross of iron.

Go ahead and connect the dots ... 'sure ain't a pretty picture!

Planet Earth to: Clinton, Obama and McCain

It's time that the three presidential hopefuls stopped shoveling-out the back of their manure trucks.

Enough already with the tripe, fluff, platitudes, accusations and mud that the 3 amigos have been slinging.

Enough already with the dreams, the experience, the phone calls at 3 in the morning .... blah, blah, blah, blah!

America is in very deep trouble and she needs a PRESIDENT WITH STONES who will tell American's just how deep the pile is that they are currently standing in and how America will get out of it.

I haven't heard any one of the presidential candidates offer specific solutions to;

• putting the brakes on the price of oil which is skyrocketing to levels that will inflate everything out of sight.
• putting a stop to price fixing amongst the big oil companies.
• increasing refinery capacity to reduce prices at the pumps.
• food prices which continue to skyrocket thus putting a huge damper on family spending. Between 2006 - 2007, food prices have soared 40%. That's just plain criminal.
• the bio-fuel scam.
• speaking about scams, when is a future President going to shut down that privately owned corporation known as the Fed - see my series on the Fed.
• this year's accelerating inflation rate.
• medical insurance and health care costs which are heading for the stratosphere.
• no new home equity lines of credit being offered.
• existing lines of credit being shut down.
• 2.5 trillion in losses to U.S. home values so far.
• the destruction of the U.S. dollar around the globe.
• the trillions in losses which are about to hit the U.S. economy from the imminent collapse of prime mortgage-backed bonds and derivitives.
• to prevent taxpayers from being taken to the cleaners by having to pay for the bailouts of investment banks, failed financial institutions and the bankruptcy of government mortgage-insuring, deposit-insuring and pension-insuring agencies.
• to prevent hyperinflation.
• to prevent the national debt from doubling and tripling over the next decade.
• to stop the off-shoring of American jobs
• to call out Bush and Cheney on their plan to start yet another war this time in Iran. Heaven help us all. After 5 years, billions of dollars and over 4,000 lives, the United States of America can't even control the city of Baghdad ... one single solitary city... never mind the country of Iraq. How incompetent is that?

This list could be much longer but the hour is late and I'm becoming more agitated and cantankerous. Let me just end this blog by saying that when it comes to any one of the 3 presidential hopefuls intelligently addressing any one of these few issues and presenting a viable solution, the silence has been quite deafening!

America you deserve better than Obama, Clinton or McCain.

Is Washington's Iranian Trigger Finger Getting Itchy Again?

Is the U.S. ramping-up to hit Iran? Follow the timeline and come to your own conclusion!

February '08

• The U.S. started purchasing oil for its Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The reserve of crude oil which is stored in underground salt domes stood at 96.2% capacity. But the government is topping it right up.
• Imad Mughniyah, a leader of Hezbollah, was assassinated by a car bomb in Syria.

March '08

• Washington dispatched the USS Cole to Lebanese coastal waters. Shortly after that, it was replaced with two escorts from the Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG). They are still there.
• The Israeli's announced that they would be carrying out a military exercise in April ... Code Name - Turning Point 2.
• After the announcement the Syrian's deployed 3 divisions (two armored, one mechanized) to the Lebanese-Syrian border in the Bakaa Valley, the western part of which is Hezbollah's stronghold.
• Dick Cheney visits Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey, all whose co-operation the U.S. will need if they were to attack Iran.
• German news service DPA is reporting, that according to reliable sources, after Dick Cheney's visit to Oman the Saudi Shira Council is preparing "national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom."
• Jerusalem was notified at the last minute by the White House that they were to prepare themselves for lengthy and exhaustive discussions on Iran with Cheney and his aides.
• Israel's defense cabinet was convened to decide which of Israel's military plans of action were to be presented to Cheney.
• Admiral William Fallon who was quoted as saying that "there will be no attack on Iran on my watch" resigned (was removed) as U.S. Chief of Central Command
• U.S. nuclear submarines along with another aircraft carrier attack group have been dispatched to the Persian Gulf.
• The U.S. is deploying anti-missle defenses to protect U.S. bases and Saudi oil fields.
• According to Novosti, the Russian News & Information Agency, Russian Colonel General Leonid Tivashov said "the latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran." "The Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future."
• General David Patraeus declares that Iran is responsible for a major attack on Baghdad's Green Zone and the main driver of violence in Iraq.
• U.S Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) set in motion a process that could make any bank or financial institution in the world that does business with Iran subject to complete exclusion from the U.S. financial system.

April '08

• Israel commences Turning Point 2 which is the largest exercise in Israeli history and includes the calling-up of reserves. The official explanation is that the exercise is designed to test civil defenses and the ability of the national command to continue functioning in the event of an attack with "unconventional weapons."
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak canceled a scheduled visit to Germany at the last minute.
• Damascus has deployed the 10th Armed Corps. at the Massaneh crossing of Mount Herman. Syrian troops are now strung along a continuous crescent shaped line from the central Lebanese mountains up to southeastern Lebanon.
• The Lebanese government has started to evacuate some civilians from the south.
• Hezbollah has apparently gone on alert and mobilized its forces and is buying-up weapons and rockets.
• The U.S. Navy claims that it turned away Iranian speed boats in the Persian Gulf. Iran denies reports of the confrontation.
• General Patraeus tells Congress that Iran is the cause of the Iraqi insurgency. Blames Iran for the outbreak of fighting in Basra and Baghdad and charges that they were providing funds, training, arms, ammunition to so-called "special groups."

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck ... chances are it's a duck.

If it looks like war, feels like war, sounds like war ......... chances are .................................

Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney

• Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal "War of Aggression" against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization, and subjecting our military personnel to unnecessary harm, debilitating injuries and deaths.
• Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
• Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel.
• Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.
• Violating U.S, law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant.
• Violating the Constitution by using "signing statements" to defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress.
• Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
• Violating U.S. law by using paid propoganda and disinformation, selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.
• Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory" giving unlimited powers to the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.
• Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming.

Please Note: The above is a reprint from a post appearing on www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88

54% of Americans want Cheney Impeached - 25 are Doing Something About It!

This may be old news to some, but to many of my readers around the world, this may be the first that they have heard of it.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney, first introduced as H. Res. 333 in April 2007 and reintroduced as H. Res. 799 on Nov. 6, 2007 is sponsored by the following members of Congress:

Jan Schakowsky; Maxine Waters; Hank Johnson; Keith Ellison; Lynn Woolsey; Barbara Lee; Albert Wynn; William Clay; Dennis Kucinich; Yvette Clarke; Jim McDermott; Jim Moran; Bob Filner; Sam Farr; Robert Brady; Tammy Baldwin; Donald Payne; Steve Cohen; Sheila Jackson Lee; Carolyn Kilpatrick; Ed Towns; Diane Watson; Danny Davis; Raul Grijalva and Gwen Moore.

The three charges which form the basis of House Resolution 799. Articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney are:

• systematically deceived Congress and the citizens of the United States regarding the potential threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
• systematically deceived Congress and the citizens of the United States in fabricating links between Iraq and alQaeda which have never existed.
• repeatedly threatened agression against Iran, in violation of the United Nations Charter, a treaty which the U.S. has signed and is thus - according to our Constitution - the supreme law of the land.

Give Kucinich points for guts. However I agree with the Democrats on this one. Kucinich has a better chance of becoming President than this resolution ever coming to fruition.