No More War

John McCain wants to be a war president, just like George W. Clusterfuck. He expects more wars. He wants more wars in more places. He thinks there is a military solution to every problem.

No to more wars. No to four more years. No to McCain. (Warning, graphic scenes of violence in this five minute film. The violence the Pentagon has erased from the media for six years now.)

The Many Lies of John McCain

My friend, there are more where that came from! (nudge nudge, wink wink)

See the linked posts below to read about McCain's 50 policy flipflops, his 10 gaffes this week, and get this, he lied about the dates of his divorce and his second marriage (to cover up his infidelity and the stunning betrayal of his first wife) in his own autobiography. The Rethugs have got a brass-plated liar for their candidate. Read the entire posts for all the gory details. McCain is not a nice man.

Oh, must add my favorite lie of the day. Yesterday in Pennsylvania, after 30 years of saying that while in the Hanoi prison camp he gave his captors the names of the Green Bay Packers as his squadron mates, yesterday he claimed he named the Pittsburgh Steelers. How convenient while campaigning in Pennsylvania! Will he name a different NFL team in every state he campaigns in? College teams in states that don't have NFL teams? Huggy PanderBear strikes again. Will the media pull their heads out of the BBQ trough to notice? Spread the word about the lies of John McCain, because you must do the media's job.

dailykos: 50 Flip Flops Of John McCain

Privatizing Social Security, Iraq Troop Withdrawal, Tax Cuts, Judges, Torture, Negotiating With Hamas, Bush Third Term, Agents Of Intolerance, 527s, Gramm's Whiner Comments, Economic Expertise, Illegal Wiretapping, Habeas Corpus, Everglades Restoration, Gay Couple Legal Contracts, GI Bill, Military Service Exploitation, Roe v. Wade, States Rights On Abortion, ANWR, Offshore Drilling, Role of States in Drilling, MLK Holiday, Windfall Profits Tax, Filibustering of Judges, Confederate Flag, Civil Unions, Constitutional Ban On Gay Marriage, Yucca Mountain, Undue Lobbyist Influence, Abortion Exceptions, Defense Cuts, Waterboarding Mandatory Caps, Citizenship for Immigrants, Flying the Confederate Flag, Bush Tax Policies, South African Divestment, Alternative Minimum Tax, Estate Tax Repeal, NOrth Korea Negotiations, Iraq + Stay The Course, Creationism, Time of Offshore Drilling, Campaign Finance Reform, Immigration Act, Fidel Castro, Pakistan, Bush's Pioneers, Occupying Muslim Lands.

HuffPost: The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes

1. McCain unambiguously called Social Security "an absolute disgrace."

2. McCain's top economic policy adviser calls Americans a bunch of "whiners" for being worried about the slumping economy.

3. Iraqi leaders call for a timetable for U.S. withdrawal, McCain gets caught in a bizarre denial and flip flop.

4. McCain's economic plan to cut the deficit has no details and is simply not believable.

5. McCain's deficit plan includes bringing the troops home represents a major Iraq flip-flop.

6. McCain campaign misled about economists support. I

7. McCain makes a joke about killing Iranians.

8. McCain denies, flatly, that he ever said that he is not an expert in economics.

9. McCain distorts his record on veterans benefits in response to a question from Vietnam Veteran, who then proceeds to call McCain out on it.

10. McCain demonstrates he knows nothing about Afghanistan and Pakistan.

LATimes: McCain's broken marriage and fractured Reagan friendship

In his 2002 memoir, "Worth the Fighting For," McCain wrote that he had separated from Carol before he began dating Hensley.

"I spent as much time with Cindy in Washington and Arizona as our jobs would allow," McCain wrote. "I was separated from Carol, but our divorce would not become final until February of 1980."

An examination of court documents tells a different story. McCain did not sue his wife for divorce until Feb. 19, 1980, and he wrote in his court petition that he and his wife had "cohabited" until Jan. 7 of that year -- or for the first nine months of his relationship with Hensley.

Although McCain suggested in his autobiography that months passed between his divorce and remarriage, the divorce was granted April 2, 1980, and he wed Hensley in a private ceremony five weeks later. McCain obtained an Arizona marriage license on March 6, 1980, while still legally married to his first wife.

Yahoo Photos
I see buyer's remorse and a lot of plastic surgery (note the widely stretched joker mouth).

OMG Could He Be Any Stupider

John McCain thinks Social Security is a disgrace. I guess if you're married to a multi-millionairess, the thought of paying taxes so retired people don't live in poverty is revolting. Watch the video:



As Josh Marshall says:

People say a lot of things about Social Security -- a lot of it nonsense. But I haven't heard something like this in a long time. John McCain says that Social Security, as originally conceived more than 70 years ago, is an "absolute disgrace."

McCain told a townhall in Denver on Monday, "Americans have got to understand that. Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace and it's got to be fixed."

It's really a disgrace? That's how the system was designed to operate. And it's served as financial bedrock of retirement security in this country for going on a century.

And yesterday John McBush joked that selling cigarettes to Iranians would kill them faster. Har-de-har-har.



John McCain: Four More Years of Bush. Egad.

Nuts (Updated)

ThinkProgress: Asia Times: Bush to attack Iran by August.

Asia Times is reporting that “a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community” are alleging that the Bush administration “plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months” :

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

This must be the Republican plan for victory in 2008. Launch another war based on lies and expect the people to line up behind George W. Clusterfuck. God help us.

Update: Mother Jones says this was all a hoax.

George W. Bush: The Boy Who Cried Wolf. To paraphrase George W. Clusterfuck: Lie us into a war one time, shame on, shame on you; lie us into a war -- we won't get fooled again.

Iranian Gunships Incident Probably Faked

United States Navy, via Getty Images

The United States Navy released this photograph of a speedboat suspected of being from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy maneuvering near three Navy warships on Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has said five armed Iranian speedboats confronted the warships. (NYTimes)
dailykos: Strait of Hormuz Incident: almost certainly a fake

The Pentagon released footage of a supposed Iranian encroachment on a US warship that occurred on Sunday. You can watch it here, below, yourself. The tipoff is the audio; while the Iranians were supposedly in gunships with outboard motors (on a lake here in Massachusetts we'd call these powerboats), there is no motor noise in the background (listen from about 2:20 forward); and then there is the Borat-ish accent of the supposed Iranian.

How convenient for Commander Codpiece that this purported incident occurs just before he heads to the Middle East.

John McCain, Rockin and a-reelin

The fool on the hill
Today John McCain answered a question about Iran by singing "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran," to the tune of the Beach Boys' song "Barbara Ann." And he wonders why he's tanking in the polls. He should be singing The Beatles "I'm A Loser:" And so it's true, pride comes before a fall.

I'm a loser
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be

Of all the love I have won or have lost
there is one love I should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million, my friend
I should have known she would win in the end

I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be

Although I laugh and I act like a clown
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that I cry

I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be

What have I done to deserve such a fate
I realize I have left it too late
And so it's true, pride comes before a fall
I'm telling you so that you won't lose all

I'm a loser
And I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be

Stories I Missed While I Was On Vacation

Photo via 750 Volts

The U.S. drop-shipped 363 tons of cold, hard cash, the long green, on pallets to Baghdad in the days before the Coalition Provisional Government turned the reins over to the Iraqis. That's 4 BILLION dollars in $100 bills for those of you keeping score at home, the largest ever shipment by the Federal Reserve Bank. Think about that when you're paying your taxes in April. Think harder about that when you're voting in November!

Boston freaks out over a guerrilla marketing scheme involving light boxes. Do terrorists usually put brightly colored lights on their bombs?

Tim Russert's reputation in tatters: Dick Cheney's press flack testifies that they go to Press the Meat so they can control their message (Timmuh won't ask any hard questions); Pumpkinhead himself testifies that all his conversations with government officials are presumptively off the record. As Dan Froomkin says, that's not reporting, that's enabling.

Joe Biden calls Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". Obama was not amused: "I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they are historically inaccurate. After all, we've had presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Mosely Braun and Al Sharpton. They gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns and no one would call them inarticulate."

Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) is reportedly reading news reports and doing some work from the hospital.

Creepy chuckle by Crawford Caligula, as UPI reports:

At a farewell reception at Blair House for the retiring chief of protocol, Don Ensenat, who was President Bush's Yale roommate, the president shook hands with Washington Life Magazine's Soroush Shehabi. "I'm the grandson of one of the late Shah's ministers," said Soroush, "and I simply want to say one U.S. bomb on Iran and the regime we all despise will remain in power for another 20 or 30 years and 70 million Iranians will become radicalized."

"I know," President Bush answered.

"But does Vice President Cheney know?" asked Soroush.

President Bush chuckled and walked away.

Did The Iranian War Start Last Night?

Americablog discusses the US attack on the Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil last night.

ThinkProgress: Bush Warns Iran: ‘I Recently Ordered The Deployment Of An Additional Carrier Strike Group To The Region’

Glenn Greenwald: The President's intentions towards Iran need much more attention

A diarist at dailykos reports a conversation with a naval officer who says our carriers have been moved into the Gulf for use against Iran.

Another dailykos diarist notes Bush said the U.S. is going to send Patriot missiles to the Middle East, which have no value in the urban warfare of Iraq: they're being sent for use against Iran, also.

And the last word from Atrios: He doesn't know what the hell is going on, but it can't be good. Amen.

We Got Our Man

Donald Rumsfield meeting with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, 1983.
Veteran CIA asset Saddam Hussein was hung yesterday in Iraq. The murderer of hundreds of thousands was supported by the US throughout his career until the first Iraq War. Watch this excellent Flash movie by Eric Blumrich for a tour of the lowlights of US support of Hussein and the bloody results. (Link from Informed Comment.)

The trial of Saddam Hussein was a shameful kangaroo court from start to finish. His lawyers were muzzled or murdered; the result was pre-ordained, and announced to coincide with the US elections; he was convicted by an Iraqi court, but hung inside the US-controlled Green Zone in secret. As Steve Gilliard notes: "Weak governments kill their enemies."

Independent (uk): Robert Fisk: A dictator created then destroyed by America

Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.

Prof. Juan Cole, Informed Comment: For Whom the Bell Tolls:
Top Ten Ways the US Enabled Saddam Hussein

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning: End of Another Year...

You know your country is in trouble when:

1. The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
2. Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
3. The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
4. The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
5. An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.
6. Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
7. For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.
8. Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
9. People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.

A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted.

Blogtopia* Roundup, Monday December 18th, 2006

Tagged shearwaters are tracked as the birds criss-cross the Pacific. (Tagging of Pacific Palagics)
Professor Juan Cole says Elliot Abrams, war-loving felon, must go.

Atrios points out another instance of mindless journamalism. Note to corporate media: Both sides of every story are not equal and do not deserve equal billing!

Americablog links to a New York Times article on the imprisonment of an American in Iraq and the depravity of our Iraq policy.

Digby on Guantanamo and the psychopath in charge of the innocents held there.

The photo, above, is taken from a Washington Post article on how technology is allowing science to learn even more about and understand the sea and its creatures: Technologies Changing Insight Into Seas


*yes, skippy coined that phrase!

RIP Jeane Kirkpatrick

When I read all the dainty fawning obituaries of Jeane Kirkpatrick in the corporate press, I hoped someone in the progressive blogosphere would write up the real story: Iran-contra, death squads in El Salvador, funding the 'rebels' in Afghanistan [read: bin Laden]. And here it is:

dailykos: The Real Obituary of Jeane Kirkpatrick

[A] legacy of bloodshed, death and destruction.

Howard Dean Was Right

I am a proud Deaniac. Oh, I swallowed my doubts and supported John Kerry after he got the nomination, but I was on the Dean train before he got cow-catchered off the tracks by the corporate media's playing fast and loose with his speech in Iowa. Because Dean was smart and knew what was really going on. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post reminding us what Howard Dean had to say about North Korea and Iraq before Bush's ill-fated adventure began.

Unclaimed Territory: Invading Iraq and the North Korean threat -- a historical reminder

Contrary to the propaganda campaign enabled by the passive, mindless 2003 media, most anti-war advocates (such as Howard Dean) did not oppose the war in Iraq because war itself is wrong or even because preemptive war in response to a truly imminent threat is wrong. They opposed it because the evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat was so shady and unconvincing and that the case that no other options short of war existed was so unconvincing (anyone with doubts about that should just go read Dean's speech -- "Secretary Powell's recent presentation at the UN showed the extent to which we have Iraq under an audio and visual microscope. Given that, I was impressed not by the vastness of evidence presented by the Secretary, but rather by its sketchiness").

More importantly, Dean pointed out that there were far greater threats to U.S. security than Saddam Hussein -- and he particularly emphasized the threats posed by North Korea and Al Qaeda, which would be neglected -- if not outright ignored and worsened -- by the mammoth, unpredictable and highly dangerous project of invading Iraq and attempting to re-build it into a stable democracy (see e.g. the resurgent Taliban, the uncaptured Osama bin Laden, the takeover of much of Iraq by Al Qaeda and Iran, and yesterday's North Korean nuclear test). The only way to see the Bush movement as "serious, weighty, tough" foreign policy thinkers, and the only way to see Democrats like Dean as "frivolous and weak on defense," is to completely ignore (or distort) history and to operate from the premise that being terribly wrong is a sign of seriousness and wisdom and being completely right is a sign of frivolity and weakness.

The October Surprise

Looks like Commander Codpiece is going to wag the dog to save the Republicans on election day. This is, of course, madness. The madness of King George. He's already started and lost two wars. Solution? A third war. It is so insane that I don't know what to say other than that this is certifiably nuts. Our president is insane.

Crooks & Liars: Retired Col. Sam Gardiner says we’re in Iran right now

Global Researcher: The March to War: Naval build-up in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.

dailykos: 20,000 Sailors Go To War - Massive US and Allied Naval Deployment

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism in Iraq: A Story That Comes Three Years To Late From the InBed Media

U.S. troops relax in Baghdad's Green Zone, where many Coalition Provisional Authority staffers spent their days.
Photo Credit: 2003 Photo By Marco Di Lauro -- Getty Images Photo

The foxes fouled the henhouse! Who'da thunk it?

WaPo: THE EMERALD CITY
Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone
Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation, which sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort.

The CPA had the power to enact laws, print currency, collect taxes, deploy police and spend Iraq's oil revenue. It had more than 1,500 employees in Baghdad at its height, working under America's viceroy in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, but never released a public roster of its entire staff.

Interviews with scores of former CPA personnel over the past two years depict an organization that was dominated -- and ultimately hobbled -- by administration ideologues.

It took the Washington Post and the rest of the corporate media three years to report on what was happening in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq? It's not like it was boots-on-the-ground in-the-trenches work. These guys were sitting at desks squandering taxpayer funds, while the corporate media was covering bullshit terror alerts as though they were real. Which they still do.

I'll be impressed when the Post or some other organ of the Mighty Wurlitzer reports truthfully about how the Bushies are getting ready to do it again in Iran. Second verse, same as the first.

We Love Lists

Project Censored has issued its list of the Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007 (the stories you should be reading about, but won't).

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran

#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US

#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo

#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy

# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq

#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act

#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall

#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians

#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed

#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines

#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup

#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US

#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner

#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court

#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda

#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story

#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever

#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem

#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers

#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed

#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe

#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year

#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

Via BoingBoing

our games begin

hallo! it is wednesdaz, june 14th, flag daz in the usa. still using the german kezboard, z and y are switched, cap kez hard to find. so keep that in mind and read on.

another hot daz here in frankfurt, though cooler than zesterdaz. it is forecast for 82 degrees fahrenheit -- zesterdaz was closer to 90. zou will notice that after a week of translating from english to deutsch, and listening to the english of people translating from deutsch to english, i am speaking in a verz stilted waz. cannot be helped.

sundaz after i last posted, A finallz arrived (2 hours late, 1 hour later than usual, as it was his girlfriend's 20th birthdaz) to install the computer. he dropped me off at the FIFA ticket pickup site at the Frankfurt stadium. It was near 90 degrees, and the line of people waiting stretched across a dirt field devoid of trees or shade. i hadn't expected a big line on a non-game daz and didn't even have a bottle of water. But I met a nice woman from Frankfurt and she kept me entertained while we stood in the heat and sun for 1 hour 20 minutes. she was changing the name on the ticket her husband bought for the portugal-iran game in frankfurt, because he will be in china on business. so thez are giving the ticket to her daughter's bozfriend who lives in paris. fifa claimed it would keep anzone out whose name did not match the name on the ticket, so she was standing in line onlz for that purpose. (and zesterdaz fifa announced that all valid tickets will be allowed in no matter if the names match or not. fifa sucks. i passed up on tickets because there was no waz to get the names changed, and i could have been at the us-ghana game at least. aaaargh.)

when i got to the ticket line, it was verz easz. thez took mz confirmations and printed out the tickets. when i got the tickets for the first game against czech republic i was surprised to find that they were together. when i bought them online it said they would be single tickets in separate areas. when i looked closer at the tickets, thez said 'Row 1'. I thought, how could this be possible, we have seats in the front row? Thez are in section D2; that must be in the upper deck.

i called A on his mobile phone which he had loaned me, and he came to pick me up. on the drive i got the backstorz about A renting his apartment. he is a banker, and unemplozed. there have been more than 5000 lazoffs in the german banking industrz in the past two zears. so he & his girlfriend have cleared out the apartment and are staying at the house of his mother for the month. he would like to move to brasil. germanz is so cold in the winter and everzone is miserable. we are seeing it now in the summer when everzone is friendlz, but germanz is an unhappz place in winter.

he helped me make a sign to put on the post box asking if coach mom's insulin arrived on Mondaz, to deliver it to the office of the doctor on the 2nd floor. they finallz left at 4:00 and we had the rest of the daz to ourselves. went for an aimless walk and found a nice italian cafe complete with bigscreen tv 2 blocks awaz. sat with perfect view of tv and had verz good italian food. nice plus, cute waiter. no english, but it's actuallz easier to order from an italian menu for me. pollo, bolognese, caprese, i know those terms.

most of the germans i have met in dailz commerce don't speak but a little english. enough to ask zou for zour monez, and that's about it. we all get frustrated about our inabilitz to communicate. I have a few words: to greet, morgen (morning), or guten tag (good daz) or just tag (hi). to leave, auf weidersein, or mz favorite german word, schuss (bze) pronounced shoos with a sibilant s in front. and lots of danke and danke scheins. end all words with an uplift of voice, questioning, and smile. what more can zou do.

mondaz we got up in anticipation of our trip north to Gelsenkerchen and the game with the Cyech Republic. We deliberatelz packed light because of the hot forecast. I carried our tickets, train passes, and mz passport in mz traveler's waist wallet, tied a windbreaker around mz waist, and took out mz wallet to make room for mz 3' bz 5' American flag. we wore black shorts, red t-shirts, & us soccer hats. I had flag stickers on mz cheeks. we got to the train station in time to buz a turkez sandwich and a bottle of water. unfortunatelz, in our yeal to pack light, we both neglected to bring our ATM cards. but we had plentz of euros with us. we met manz zoung american fans on the platform for our train. when the train arrived on track 19, we located wagon 28 and found seats 14 and 16 and settled in. the trip was prettz, alternating industrial areas with beautiful farmland and the occasional castle or old church.

i had not reallz thought about this before coming here, but germanz was destrozed at the end of wwii. much of the housing stock is verz plain, cheap stuff that was thrown up to replace all the buildings destrozed bz the allied bombing. so much of the architecture is verz new. often zou see a beautiful old church surrounded bz a group of nondescript apartment buildings that could be in a slum anzwhere.

we switched trains in essen and arrived in gelsenkerchen at 1:30 p.m., with the game to start at 6:00. the streets were teeming with americans and cyechs, so a sea of red. pubs were definitelz filled with supporters of one team or another. we were jeered at bz a few pubs full of cyechs. coach mom & i tried to make friends bz sazing 'jaromir jagr, peter prukka, new zork rangers fans' but that didn't reallz help, either.

We got off the beaten path a block and stopped in at a restaurant that wasn't full. it wasn't air conditioned, either. not much air conditioning in germanz. here, zou sweat. as we were seated, we walked bz 6 tables of cyechs. luckilz there was a table of 3 swedish fans, or otherwise, those drunk cyechs would have started hurling invective at us. thez were glaring & making jokes! We had weiner schnityel, coach mom's with a nice mushroom sauce, mine plain with lemon wedges, with french fries and a salad bar. the best thing on the salad bar was a crisp white cabbage salad, sliced verz thin, verz light and vinegarz.

we left the restaurant and wandered back into the 'Fan Fest' area. Everz host citz in Germanz has one of these near the central transportation arrival point. open pubs, carts selling food, drinks, and souvenirs, and manz crayz fans. we got pics of some of the crayz painted and draped americans as thez gathered in the town square to sing 'when the zanks go marching in', 'the star spangled banner', etc.

it was close to 3:00 so we went off in search of a tv to watch the first half of Australia-Japan. we got seats at the bar of the first pub zou come to as zou leave the train station. good tvs but manz smokers. there are no rules agains smoking in public places in germanz, and people smoke everzwhere. germanz is not as clean as i had expected, cigarette butts everzwhere. there are trash cans on the street, all with ash trazs on top for butts. people smoke even in the stadiums, and securitz ignores it. gross.

at half time we left & headed into the train station. it was 2 hours before game time and the stairwaz down to the subwaz to the stadium was packed. we stopped midwaz down because downstairs was all full. onlz an occasional single car came. the crowd pressed in. when we got down to the floor level, it became even more crowded. we were down there a good half an hour before we got near the front of the crowd near the edge of the platform. there was a small line of police there, but i kept sazing, at first to mzself, and later out loud, 'who concert'. it was scarz. people starting pushing at us from behind. when the train came, we were reallz getting pushed. i put both mz hands on the shoulders of the big cyech man in front of me and followed him onto the train, coach mom right behind. (sports experience, alwazs use a blocker if available).

we made it on and it was verz tight, and of course, no ac. must have been 100 degrees in there. sweat was running right down the back of mz legs. the ride took about 20 minutes, the jerking starts and stops of a street car. boz were we happz to get there. we walked across a bridge to the stadium. went through securitz, ticket wanded, red light went off -- zou're in. no passport check. 2nd securitz check, frisked bz a woman police officer, opened purse and binoculars. now we had to go up a huge staircase to the stadium. no water sales outside. zou must go in. we are parched, follow instructions to staircase down. at bottom, use ladies room, buz water. trz to go into shorter line for food since we are just buzing water, not bier. no, food in one line, all drinks in the other. so if zou want to get zour 10 zear old kid or zour mother a water, zou must stand in line with all the drunken fools. Aargh, foolish German bureaucracz.

now, to our seats. D2, Row 1, turns out to be in the first row. zes, the first row of the entire stadium. Not onlz that. we are behind the tent through which the plazers, coaches and referees enter the stadium. zes, we are sitting in the front row at center half. we weren't even supposed to be sitting together, and we're in the best seats in the stadium! Kasez Keller looks up and smiles as I zell his name when he comes out. I am whooping and hollering like a fool. we're in the front row! best tickets i have ever had at this big a sporting event. whoo-hoo! standing next to me is a small fit man. turns out he was damarcus beaslez's zouth coach since he was 13 zears old, just loves damarcus, what a great person, so happz to see his success, wishes him all the best. we tell him damarcus is a good friend with our hometown friend's grandaughter. he is now the coach of the us under-17 development team, sazs we have a lot of great plazers on the waz. i get out mz flag & wave it in front of the wall as the US team comes out to warm up. thez look nervous, i remember thinking that. that either means zou're readz, or zou're not. in this case, it meant not, but we didn't know that zet.

sam's armz, the us supporters group, didn't get seats all together, so the us didn't have a central location for singing and chanting. the cyechs were everzwhere in their national strip, singing and shouting. we did sing the national anthem lustilz. plazers still looked nervous.

And the game, oh the game, do i need to tell zou how awful it was. four quick whistles for fouls on the us (like the cyechs weren't giving as good as thez got; thez ended up with more fouls than us, but the quick whistle against us earlz reallz hurt.) Gooch gets a zellow card and boom, quick service to Koller and he scores. down 1-0 in minute 5. coach mom had said on the waz there, first goal wins, and she was right. that reallz took the heart out of our team. we controlled the ball for much of the first half. rezna had a great shot that hit the post. we still had hope because of our possession, but we looked tentative. the cyechs had overdrive, and we were stuck in drive. lots of diving bz the cyechs, too, not called bz the referees. go down, get a foul called on the us. the second goal was another killer, a 30 zard blast bz Rosickz. plazers looked like deer in the headlights. is this reallz happening? the cyech fans were jubilant. we could hear bruce swearing at the referee and the plazers. he does have a filthz mouth.

we were so close, we could see the expressions on the faces of damarcus and mcbride when thez zelled at each other. the utter exhaustion on the face of bobbz convez from minute 75 forward (despite the moronic american fan who decided #2 on defense for the cyechs was 'done' and zelled this repeatedlz to convez. zou can take him, convez, 2 is done, over and over and over. he couldn't see, but we could, that convez was done, too.) the frustration of beaslez. donovan's lack of hustle was so obvious; whz wasn't substituted out? just an awful performance all around. except for rezna.

we left despondent. train back not as crowded as waz in, but just as hot. bought a sandwich from a shop for the train ride back to frankfurt. 2 local trains then long train to frankfurt. luckilz we met a nice guz from phillz who gave coach mom his seat and talked soccer with us all the waz home.

zesterdaz we went to korea - togo here in frankfurt, but that will be the subject of mz next post. got to go get some dinner.

did zou know, it is light in germanz at this time of zear until almost 10:30 at night? we are still a little confused at this. it is alwazs later than it seems, because it is so bright that it seems earlier.

ciao for now.

Iran Reinstates Ban on Women Attending Soccer Matches

The real revolutionaries of Iran.

Fundies rule in Iran. Kind of like Kansas, but with abayas and hejabs.

WaPo: SOCCER

Iran's women will be barred from attending soccer games, a reversal by the president that comes a month before the national team plays in the World Cup.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ruled in April that he would allow women to go to soccer games and sit in a separate section of the stands. He wanted to "improve soccer-watching manners and promote a healthy atmosphere."

But Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- who under the Islamic republic's constitution has the final say -- opposed the move.

Ahmadinejad's decision to allow women into stadiums had provoked outrage among hard-line Shiite Muslim clerics, who supported his election last year.

Previous posts: Women to Attend Football Matches in Iran (April 25, 2006)

Take Action for Women's Rights (April 11, 2006)

At Least My Congressman Didn't Vote For The Next War

Don't our representatives in Congress learn from their own mistakes? Having given the Decider-in-Chimp a blank check for war with Iraq, which he has filled out, to date, with over 2400 American deaths, over 100,000 Iraqi deaths, over $320 billion dollars; and has us stuck in a complete quagmire, how could Congress possibly go down that road again? I ask again, isn't doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result the definition of insanity?

Thank you Jim McGovern (D-MA) for voting against this charade.

afterdowningstreet.org: House votes 397-21 for “Iran Freedom Support Act”

As if Iraq isn’t a big enough mess, the House of Representatives has just voted to 'hold Iran accountable and support a transition to democracy’. Sound Familiar? Only this time Iran is a democracy. They just held an election where their president was actually elected by the people. How refreshing.

After everything that has been exposed…the lies, the profiteering, the long list of war crimes, 397 'Representatives’ gave Bush the go ahead on attacking Iran. Only 21 Patriots voted Nay. Sad to say but these are the only people we can trust…

Baldwin, Blumenauer, Boyd, DeFazio, Duncan, Flake, Hostettler, Jones (NC), Kucinich, Leach, McDermott, McGovern, McKinney, Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Paul, Rahall, Snyder, Stark, Taylor

The most disappointing aspect however is the fact that so many of our 'progressive’ leaders in congress voted for this lie. John Conyers voted yay. Maxine Waters, Murtha, Bernie Sanders, Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee all voted for it. On the hill today the Progressive Caucus is hosting a hearing on Iraq…

Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee will host a hearing on the Iraq War next Thursday, April 27, 8:30-11 a.m., in 2325 Rayburn House Office Building. The two Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are continuing to do what the "leadership" of both parties does not, respond to the demands of the majority of Americans, who disapprove of current policy.

Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee just voted yay on giving the green light for war on Iran. I can assure them that the demands of the majority of Americans are not in accordance with their vote on Iran. We are supposed to believe that these representatives 'can get fooled again’? Are they merely posing as the opposition in order to stall for Bush?

Drunken lout Sweeney (NY-20), with a strong challenger in the November elections, abstained. I wonder if that is a measure of the war's unpopularity in his district, or did he just have a hangover?

Women to Attend Football Matches in Iran

Success! Iran's president has issued a decree that allows women in Iran to attend football (soccer) matches.

AP (LA Times): Iran to Let Women Go to Soccer Games

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian women will be allowed to attend soccer matches for first time since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's president said in a decree posted on his Web site Monday.

Women would sit in separate section of the stands, away from the usually raucous male fans.

"The presence of families and women will improve soccer-watching manners, and promote a healthy atmosphere," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. "They will be allocated some of the best stands in stadiums," he added.

Iran's Islamic law imposes tight restrictions on women. They need a male guardian's permission to work or travel, and have rarely been allowed to attend public sporting events. In 2001, a group of Irish women was permitted to attend a World Cup qualifier match between Iran and Ireland that was held in Tehran.

The petition to allow women to attend football matches in Iran has 6,004 signatures as of today.

Previous post: Take Action for Women's Rights (April 11, 2006)

Easter Sunday Blogtopia Round-Up

Prof. Juan Cole

Farah Stockman reports in the Boston Globe that US companies swindled the Iraqi government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Then Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority blithely granted them amnesty just before it was dissolved. ' ''In effect, it makes Iraq into a 'free-fraud zone,' " said Alan Grayson, a Virginia attorney who is suing . . . ' Well, I'm just glad that the Bush administration was able to teach those hopelessly corrupt Middle Easterners the high standards of the American way of doing business. CPA apparently stood for "The Crooks are the Police Around here."

Billmon is back. Apocalyptic times demand Billmon:

This is Not a Drill

The problem [] is that there isn't going to be a congressional resolution this time – in fact I'd be very surprised if the administration gives the leadership of either party more than 24 hours notice before the bombing begins. No marketing campaigns, no debates, no arms twisted in the Oval Office. Just a fait accompli. (That's French for: "Choke on it, suckers."

It's already obvious: This one's going to be a unitary executive special – right down the line. The administration's vanished political capital leaves it no other way. When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.

So what, exactly, is there for Congress to ask the "hard questions" about? And what answers would it get, other than: "That's classified," or "That's a privileged executive branch communication"? And how is a rubber stamp Congress supposed to stop a war that officially isn't on the drawing boards? Particularly when the Republican majority hopes – or at least understands – it could be the magic bullet, so to speak, that saves their sorry asses this November?

Brilliant at Breakfast thinks dropping nuclear bombs on Iran "is a foregone conclusion."

At this rate, by Sunday they'll be telling us that Iranian nukes are on their way here

Iran may not be a serious threat this minute, but the country presents a problem that requires a U.S. response built by competent, thoughtful people -- not a bunch of arrogant cowboys with sexual issues who think the entire world is their own private little video game arcade and who have played on American fears for five years in their efforts to turn this country into Stalinist Russia.

TalkLeft looks at the insane federal policy that denies student loans to anyone convicted of a drug offense.

Drug War Harms More Than 100,000 Students

What a waste.

More than 31,000 California college students forfeited their shot at federal financial aid because of past drug convictions, newly released records show.

Why should a drug conviction prevent students from obtaining the financial assistance they need to improve their educations? Shouldn't society try to help them gain the tools they need to live productive lives?

While Congress recently "softened" the law, it should be jettisoned altogether.