Liberal smear campaign

An anonymous Democrat began circulating this photo to blogs around the country as part of a smear campaign against the Republican establishment:


The photo depicts President Bush dressed in traditional Saudi garb.

"This is truly pathetic," said an anonymous spokesperson. "Anyone who would stoop to releasing such a photo must have been desperate."

What Michelle Obama REALLY said

The unedited version:



The Fox News version with the word "really" edited out:



Do any Americans still take Fox News seriously? If so, tell me why. Well, maybe because the mainstream media does. Guess which version they're circulating.

Why I don't eat beef

USDA Orders Largest Meat Recall in U.S. History - washingtonpost.com

By David Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 18, 2008; Page A01

The Agriculture Department has ordered the largest meat recall in its history -- 143 million pounds of beef, a California meatpacker's entire production for the past two years -- because the company did not prevent ailing animals from entering the U.S. food supply, officials said yesterday.

About 37 million pounds of the meat -- cuts, ground beef and prepared products such as meatballs and burrito filling -- went to school lunch and other public nutrition programs, and "almost all of this product is likely to have been consumed," said Ron Vogel, a USDA administrator.

The investigation leading to the recall happened after an employee secretly taped employees giving electric shocks and high pressure water sprays to cows too sick to stand up, and sent the video to the Humane Society.

Repose

I started this blog as a continuation of my personal journal, but thanks to the magic of BlogThis and other devices to connect one's blog to the rest of the Internet, it has become mostly a compendium of the news I find newsworthy. The personal observations have gotten rarer and rarer.

Tonight I'm sitting here at the table with Steve, who is playing his new guitar. The sweet notes fall like honey on my ears. I'm sipping a local brew--Eye of the Hawk--waiting for the rice to cook and trying to keep the cat, who has just come in from the rain, out of my lap. Unlike most cats, she is indifferent to water, but very much in need of warm, soft laps, regardless of whether she is wet or dry.
She sits on a cushion between me and Steve and complains as only a cat can do. Steve stops to pet her and speak to her in high-pitched tones. "Oh, Cleo! Oh, the kitty!" Then he resumes playing those lovely liquid guitar notes.

Sitting across from Steve, with Cleo in between, I pull out my cell phone and capture him playing and Cleo sitting and email them to my computer.

And here they are, moments later, on my blog. What a new world we live in.

Well, at least Bush has made us safer at home

Oh, wait. We'll safer some time in the future, but six years after 9/11, we're not there yet.

U.S. Military Unprepared for WMD Strike, Panel Says

Published Friday, Feb. 1 by the NTI's Global Security Newswire

The U.S. military lacks necessary training and equipment to respond to a WMD attack against the United States, an independent commission said in a report released yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 10).

In its 400-page report, the panel concludes that the United States “does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available” to respond to an attack involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, “an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk,” the Associated Press reported.

“Right now we don’t have the forces we need, we don't have them trained, we don't have the equipment," said Arnold Punaro, chairman of the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves. “Even though there is a lot going on in this area, we need to do a lot more. … There's a lot of things in the pipeline, but in the world we live in — you’re either ready or you’re not.”

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, head of U.S. Northern Command, said the U.S. Defense Department plans to assemble a 4,000-soldier force over the next year that would be specially trained to handle the aftermath of a WMD strike.

The three-tiered team would include several hundred first-responder troops, a second group of about 1,200 medical and logistics personnel, and a third group for support forces such as engineers and aircraft units, he said.

“The capability for the Defense Department to respond to a chemical, biological event exists now,” Renuart said. “It, today, is not as robust as we would like because of the demand on the forces that we've placed across the country. … I can do it today. It would be harder on the (military) services, but I could respond” (Lolita Baldor, Associated Press/Google News, Feb. 1).

Meanwhile, a Joint Chiefs of Staff panel is conducting a 90-day investigation aimed at pinpointing weaknesses in Pentagon measures now in place to educate and train U.S. troops to respond to WMD attacks, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday.

“This is well-tilled ground, but the themes keep reoccurring. So the whole thrust out of this was how do we make it better,” said Jean Reed, director of chemical and biological weapon defense programs. Reed noted that the Defense Department last reviewed its preparations for a WMD attack following the 1991 Gulf War.

The steering committee last month briefed two Joint Chiefs of Staff bodies — the Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction committee and the Force Protection and Functional Capabilities Board — on its work, Reed said.

“We took the briefing … in terms of saying, ‘here is the study, here are the sorts of gaps that have been identified,’” he said. The panel expects to submit its full recommendations in April (Carlo Munoz, Inside the Pentagon, Jan. 31).

Blog: Inside Iraq

A recent post from the fascinating blog, Inside Iraq:

January 29, 2008

method of corruption

Corruption is the disease that corrodes Iraq's body from the inside. I can say that corruption one of the passages to terrorism it is the mold of terrorism. Any terrorist can join to any ministry if he has amount of money and that what made the ministries moan of corruption aches.

Many parties finance their militias by stealing Iraq's fortunes every where in Iraq. If we want to weaken the terrorism we should destroy its mold the corruption. May be you will say that I'm exaggerate of that, but if you live in Iraq you will see this fact.

Ten days ago we knew from newspapers that the integrity commission uncovered the deal of buying cars for the cabinet that amounted millions of Dollars. After week they deposed the head of the commission and declare to Iraqis that the deposition has no relation with the cars deal (I'm trying believe them). MOI decided to prevent Iraqis from traveling without its knowledge to open a new gate for corruption by bribe the employees there (the citizens will be obliged to pay money in order to hurry their travel).

The evidence burned to hide the corruption proofs like what happened in the …….. ministry before three years and like what happened yesterday when the corrupted burned the building of Central Bank with the office of inspector general (according to one MP's statement).

The corruption series has start but has no end in Iraq.

Yesterday my brother was telling me about a girl live in our neighborhood cash 800$ to employ the jobless people. This girl has very good relations with important officials in the government especially in MOD and MOI. They use this girl as a connected ring to gain bribe.

My brother told me that he doesn't want to study any more "am I study to give money to bad women to get a job?"

ABOUT THIS BLOG

"Inside Iraq" is a blog updated by Iraqi journalists working for McClatchy Newspapers. They are based in Baghdad and outlying provinces. These are firsthand accounts of their experiences. Their complete names are withheld for security purposes.

Posted at 09:47 AM | Permalink