| Home | Recent Comments | Categories |
The war for cheese
[Quote:]
Majikthise points us to The War Tapes, now opening in New York:
“The War Tapes? is a milestone in journalism. For the first time in this war, citizen soldiers became citizen journalists. The result is a movie unlike anything you’ve ever seen about the war in Iraq.
In 2004, Deborah Scranton got permission to become an imbedded journalist in Iraq. However, instead of embedding herself with a unit, she distributed small digital video cameras to 10 soldiers in Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry (MOUNTAIN) Regiment. As a director, Scranton’s genius was to figure out how she could take herself out of the story and let the soldiers record the war as they experienced it. It’s impressive that she directed the movie remotely, primarily through emails, instant messages, and uploaded Quicktime “dailies.?
And here’s what they were risking their lives for:
The Guardsmen spend most of their tour protecting convoys of supplies for KBR, a private military contractor and subsidiary of Halliburton.
Most of the [KBR] drivers are so-called “third country nationals? [TCNs], guest workers imported from distant countries to risk their lives for a pittance. Most don’t speak English.
The Guardsmen curse KBR’s treatment of its TCN workforce. One night, they stop to treat a TCN with a leg full of shrapnel. We see that he has been driving a truck with no windows and no windshield. The soldier with the camera bitterly explains that the truck was like that when it left the depot. KBR doesn’t care, his life is cheap.
That’s expected. Here’s the money quote:
So, what’s in these marvelous trucks? Cheese, frequently. Sometimes septic waste. Or cheesecake. Occasionally, fuel. The soldiers start making jokes about the war for cheese. We see that KBR is doing very well on this operation. We see how US soldiers risk their lives to protect cheese and other sundries. Then we watch KBR selling it all back to them at exorbitant prices.
That’s our Republican party for you: Warmongers, War criminals, and above all—war profiteers.
Cute Overload: Stop the insanity
[Quote:]
Terror and the language.
I would have thought that these charges could fairly be represented as terrorism, yet in 108 links in Google News, there is no mention of “terror” or any of its derivations.
I guess it helps if you’re a white conservative Christian.
Daniel Gross eats a book. By Daniel Gross
[Quote:]
Dan Gross Eats Dow 36,000 100K
On April 7, searching for one of those snappy rhetorical endings that is the hallmark of every Slate piece, I reached a bit too far. Skeptical that the Bush administration could convince a boldface banker to assume the thankless (and comparatively low-paying) task of replacing Treasury Secretary John Snow, I wrote: “John Snow will have a replacement, and he may very well come from the corporate world. But if it’s an A-list Wall Street CEO, I’ll buy a copy of Dow 36,000 and eat the first chapter.”
Oops. On May 30, President Bush nominated Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson to replace Snow. And Paulson is about as A-List a Wall Street CEO as there is.
And so, much to the delight of Slate’s New York bureau, a luncheon of Dow 36,000 and field greens, drizzled (well, drowned) with balsamic vinaigrette, was served. See the video above.
The Vintage Mac Museum
[Quote:]
Brown: E-mail shows Bush glad FEMA took Katrina flak
[Quote:]
Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Friday that he received the e-mail five days before his resignation from a high-level White House official whom he declined to identify.
The e-mail stated that Bush was relieved that Brown — and not Bush or Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — was bearing the brunt of the flak over the government’s handling of Katrina. (Watch how Brown fell from grace — 4:00)
The September 2005 e-mail reads: “I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn’t there, but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the president replied, ‘I’d rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.’ ”
The sender adds, “Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader.”
The buck stops where? Hey, just because he’s the decider doesn’t make him actually responsible for any those decisions!
US gives diplomacy ‘weeks, not months’
The Guardian on Thursday January 30, 2003
[Quote:]
The US president, George Bush, has said he would give diplomacy over Iraq “weeks, not months” - but that he would welcome the exile of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
“For the sake of peace, this issue has to be resolved,” Mr Bush said, in an effort to increase pressure on a divided international community.
Mr Bush was speaking after meeting Italian president Silvio Berlusconi - one of eight European leaders to back the US position in articles in the Times and the Wall Street Journal today. The British prime minister, Tony Blair, was also one of the authors, though the French and German leaders were notable absentees.
Remember? Press event with European leader. Threat of WMD. “Weeks not months.”
Now fast forward to today:
[Quote:]
President George W. Bush said on Friday that Iran has “weeks not months” to respond to a U.S.-backed offer aimed at containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions and said Tehran needs to suspend uranium enrichment.
At a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Bush said that if Iran does not suspend enrichment, “there must be a consequence.”
“We’ve given the Iranians a limited period of time — you know, weeks not months — to digest a proposal to move forward. And if they choose not to verifiably suspend their program, then there will be action taken in the U.N. Security Council,” Bush said.
Hmmm.. I wonder what’s going to happen next…
The coming war with Iran will either terrify the American people into rallying around the White House, or enrage them like nothing you’ve seen in thirty years.
It will either guarantee Republican victory in 2006 and 2008…or force Bush to become the second president to resign in disgrace and end the threat of Republican fascism for a generation.
There is no middle ground.
|
Jack the cat chases black bear up tree
[Quote:]
A black bear picked the wrong yard for a jaunt, running into a territorial tabby who ran the furry beast up a tree — twice.
Jack, a 15-pound orange and white cat, keeps a close vigil on his property, often chasing small animals, but his owners and neighbors say his latest escapade was surprising.
“We used to joke, ‘Jack’s on duty,’ never knowing he’d go after a bear,” owner Donna Dickey told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Friday’s editions.
Neighbor Suzanne Giovanetti first spotted Jack’s accomplishment after her husband saw a bear climb a tree on the edge of their northern New Jersey property on Sunday. Giovanetti thought Jack was simply looking up at the bear, but soon realized the much larger animal was afraid of the hissing cat.
After about 15 minutes, the bear descended and tried to run away, but Jack chased it up another tree.
Dickey, who feared for her cat, then called Jack home and the bear scurried back to the woods.
“He doesn’t want anybody in his yard,” Dickey said.
Bear sightings are not unusual in West Milford, which experts consider one of the state’s most bear-populated areas.
No doubt this ‘documentary’ is as factually farcical as Michael Moore’s steaming pile of propaganda. Take a needle out of the haystack and cry “AHA ! All Straws Are Sharp Metal Pointed Sticks!”.
You’re attacking the messenger, not the message - that’s all you got on this report? I guess it must be true then.
The message is supply trucks are being attacked, we’re sending along protection. No doubt that’s being done for the majority of supply trucks in Iraq for everything from cheese to hospital supplies. Hard for me to see a real problem with doing that.
The message is KBR supply trucks. If it were army supply trucks sending supplies for the army, I’d agree with you - but in this case it’s the army protecting the company that is fleecing the members of that army.
..and fleecing good taxpayers like Jericho
In terms of fleecing, way more gets yanked out of my pockets for welfare and counter-productive social programs. If the army wants to farm out supply delivery, that’s not a problem for me. I’d rather see a soldier with an M-16 or BAR in hand ready to react to a threat than sitting behind the wheel of a truck.