Welcome Truthseekers!

It's a rare "Headline Thursday" for the Malloy blog this week as Mike is traveling Friday to Seattle for the Progressive Radio Forum on Saturday (Welcome Seattle Truthseekers!). Please enjoy an encore Malloy Show tomorrow night and Mike returns LIVE Monday August 16th to meet out righteous anger about the ongoing maleovlant machinations of the Bush Crime Family.

But Mike IS live tonight and primed to discuss the following, plus take your calls:

Media Blindly Accept Notion That Russia-Georgia Conflict Is Good For John McCain

U.S. flies aid into Georgia, Russia occupies towns

Bush, Sending Aid, Demands That Moscow Withdraw

Rice says Russia faces isolation

After Warnings to Moscow, U.S. Has Few Options

Georgia president denies Israel halted military aid

Israel thought Georgia and Russia headed for war in 2007

While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied for Georgia

NRA to gun owners: Beware of Obama

John McCain, Internet dunce

Swift Boat author plagues Obama campaign

Colin Powell to reportedly endorse Obama

Clinton’s Name Will Be Put in Nomination

Arkansas Democratic chairman shot at HQ dies

Inflation Hits Annual Pace Not Seen Since 1991 

Home foreclosure filings up 55 percent in July

Man accused of locking family in trash-filled trailer

Welcome, Truthseekers, to another Friday Headline Favorites!

Here goes . . . 

American deaths in Afghanistan war reach 500

Gates endorses big expansion of Afghan army

Did White House fake link between Saddam and Al Qaeda?

CNN Airs Suskind’s CIA Forgery Allegations, Impeachment Call

Both sides claim victory after Osama's driver convicted

Extravagant Ceremony Opens 2008 Olympic Games

China Tells Bush to Butt Out 

China rebuffs Bush speech

Anthrax investigation not over

Ivins' Attorney Says Anthrax Case Is Weak

Leahy seeks motive in anthrax case

Dick Cheney to get his time in the GOP convention spotlight

The Early Word: Clintons at the Convention

What Does Hillary Want?

Clinton Supporters Won't Fade Away

McCain Aims to Drive Home Obama ‘Celebrity’ Label

New McCain Ad Calls Obama "Uppity"

McCain's campaign of mockery may be a double-edged sword

Paris Hilton for President – She´s HOT and TOTALLY ready!

So, here it is; almost the end of the first week in August. How's your summer going? Having fun? Vacation maybe? Working in the garden a bit? That can be hot, tiring work in August. Especially here in north Georgia. And the mosquitoes! Voracious little insects, aren't they. Loaded with all sorts of weird viruses, too. But, heat, mosquitoes, humidity - it all comes with August.

Early this morning my wife Kathy covered our four-year-old daughter Molly in bug repellant and dressed her in a long-sleeve shirt and dungarees before going outside to spread pine bark mini-nuggets around the rose bushes and impatiens and coleus and the now-green azalea bushes that blaze in reds and hot pinks every spring. Molly loves helping her mom in the garden. She's got a little rake and a kid-size trowel for digging and a miniature hoe that she tries to use like a shovel. Even at 8 AM the heat already is beginning to sag through the pine trees in our front yard and the humidity is building.

It's not difficult for me to imagine another early August morning 63 years ago; to invent another cute little four-year-old girl working in the garden with her mother or grandmother. Instead of north Georgia, however, this imaginary little girl is digging holes in the ground and spreading mulch around azalea bushes in the Chugoku region of western Honshu, the largest island in the archipelago that is the nation of Japan. She and her mom live in the capitol city of Hiroshima Prefecture. The child's name is . . . how about Akemi? In Japanese, her name means "bright beauty."

Akemi is happy. She knows nothing of the war raging across the globe for the past six years. She is oblivious to the policies of her country and its leaders. She's four years old, for heaven's sake. Like Molly, Akemi loves to play with her dolls. And like Molly, Akemi loves her mom and her dad and knows nothing of the fears and shadows that dance around her like the Bunraku puppets her father takes her to see when he has a weekend day off from work.

Molly loves puppet shows. The last one she saw at The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta was a story about a make-believe Cinderella who joined a circus! The last time Akemi and her dad went to the auditorium to see the puppets the story was about ancient spirits who lived on Mt. Fuji and protected the pilgrims who came to honor their ancestors. When the show is over, Molly loves to stop at an ice cream shop near the theatre and have a milk shake or a crunchy cone. Chocolate. Always chocolate. Akemi loves ice cream as much as Molly does. Her favorite flavor is berry. Blueberry.  Is there a child anywhere who does not like ice cream?

It is 8 AM, August 6, 1945. Akemi and her mother dig in the soft garden earth, planting flowers that will keep their colorful petals until at least the end of October. At 8:10 AM, Akemi's mother rises from her kneeling position and goes inside their house to get a glass of cool water. At 8:12 AM she returns and offers a cup to Akemi. At 8:14 AM Akemi hears the sound of an airplane overhead, distant, like the droning of a dragonfly. She smiles and reaches for her mother's hand as the air in their garden and the air for miles and miles and miles around her turns to fire. Together, they become shadows. Like the puppets Akemi so dearly loves.

Molly stops digging and looks up at her mom. A little kid smile teases her mouth, floats across her face. Kathy is Molly's absolute model. Has another four-year-old little girl ever so dearly loved her mother? Of course. All little girls love their mothers. That is a universal truth. Molly asks for a glass of water. "I'm thirsty, Mommy. And I'm getting awfully hot. Can we go in now?"

The waves of sound from the morning cicadas roll gently against Molly and her mom as they walk into the house and close the door.

--MDM

Do you remember Nancy Pelosi's comment on ABC Television's "The View" last week? In justifying her decision to deny the oath she swore to defend the Constitution Pelosi said it might be easier for her to consider allowing impeachment proceedings to begin if someone would produce evidence that crimes had been committed by the Bush regime. Setting aside the fact that an impeachment hearing is structured specifically to find such evidence, Pelosi deliberately ignored obviously criminal acts committed by George W. Bush of which the rest of the country, as well as the rest of the world, are acutely aware. One can only speculate as to why Pelosi would take such a cavalier, dismissive stance.

Now, there's more information for Pelosi to ignore. According to Mike Allen writing at Politico.com "A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House [Bush] ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein. Suskind writes in 'The Way of the World,' to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war. (Suskind) also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official 'that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.'"

If your immediate reaction is, so? this is not exactly a news flash, you are to be forgiven. It is common knowledge at his point that the lies, phony evidence, White House conspiracies, directives from Dick Cheney and his stable of Neo-conservatives, dis-information dumps to the Bush Crime Family's co-conspirators in media (you know who they are) - all of it pasted together with the coagulated blood of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians - was designed to drive America into a war of theft, fraud, and murderous dishonor unparalleled in recent U.S. history. So, what added weight to the enormity of these crimes does a forgery add?

The dream of this war and the attendant death and destruction was foremost in the sick minds of Dick Cheney and every putrid son-of-a-bitch carefully selected by him. The goal was not only war for its sake alone, but also the theft of Iraq's oil reserves and the resulting panic that would push the price of oil to unprecedented levels. As a bonus the Fascists who drove this insanity also had the goal of, for once and for all, absolutely poisoning whatever remained of the American ideal of representative government. In its place would be a Neo-conservative corporatism that would end completely the promise presented by the Framers 232 years ago.

The "news flash" comes from the testimony in the book that yet another crime was committed in forcing the U.S. into war: forgery, the crime of thieves, liars, cheats and sneaks. A crime so fitting to the petty thugs and cheap punks who, through the protections provided by the Bush Crime Family, were able to rise to the level of international war criminals.

From the Politico.com article: The letter’s existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was passed in Baghdad to a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph who wrote about it on the front page of Dec. 14, 2003, under the headline, “Terrorist behind September 11 strike ‘was trained by Saddam.’” The Telegraph story by Con Coughlin . . . was touted in the U.S. media by supporters of the war, and he was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Over the next few days, the Habbush letter continued to be featured prominently in the United States and across the globe," Suskind writes. "Fox's Bill O'Reilly trumpeted the story Sunday night on 'The O'Reilly Factor,' talking breathlessly about details of the story and exhorting, 'Now, if this is true, that blows the lid off al Qaeda—Saddam.'"
According to Suskind, the administration had been in contact with the director of the Iraqi intelligence service in the last years of Hussein’s regime, Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti.

“The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001,” Suskind writes. “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq – thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice President’s Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.”

Mike Allen adds that, "Suskind writes in his new book that the order to create the letter was written on 'creamy White House stationery.' The book suggests that the letter was subsequently created by the CIA and delivered to Iraq . . . The author claims that such an operation, part of 'false pretenses' for war, would apparently constitute illegal White House use of the CIA to influence a domestic audience, an arguably impeachable offense."

So, there you are, Ms. Speaker. There's something for you to consider when you say, "Well, if someone would offer some evidence . . ." Don't you think it's time, Ms. Speaker, for you to get the hell out of the way and allow the U.S. Constitution to function as the Framers intended? If you insist on ignoring your oath of office, so be it. Others, in grand positions of power and influence like you, have done the same. But why not let the investigation - the equivalent to a criminal court preliminary hearing - begin? Or is there something in the impeachment testimony that might link you as a co-conspirator?

Is that a possibility, Ms. Speaker?

- MDM

There he goes again. This time President Chucklenuts is off to Asia to visit a handful of countries - including China on the opening day of the Olympics - as he spends the next seven days pissing off heads of state, embarrassing career U.S. embassy staffs, making goofy remarks at inopportune times, and demonstrating yet again the utter stupidity that the rest of the civilized world is convinced must be rampant in the U.S. How else to explain the election of this fool? Twice. Surely the American people were capable of selecting a president whose general leadership qualities were more focused than, say, the membership coordinator of a college fraternity already suspended for campus drug abuse and harassing sorority girls, right?

Regarding the reaction of the citizens of the repressive states in which Bush will be playing diplomatic grab-ass, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, is quoted in today's Washington Post, "Chinese people will seize the opportunity through peaceful protest to advance their own freedom agenda, the Chinese government will crack down, and President Bush will look awful if he ignores the repression around him and simply applauds the athletes."

Kenneth Roth is correct, of course. Bush would "look awful." But, to whom? Can you imagine George W. Bush raising questions about torture, illegal detention and extra-judicial executions? In China? How ludicrous would it be for the man who put his imprimatur on cozy little interrogation rooms and execution centers such as Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base, Diego Garcia, not to mention the kidnappings and illegal international flights known as "rendition" in order to flush away the trail of yet another Bush torture victim - how inappropriate for that man to raise the question of whether or not China was still a police state that places zero value on the life, humanity or legal rights of its citizens.

So, what is Bush to do? Protest the crimes against humanity committed by major violator of international human rights laws and protocols? With his record? Please. The Chinese leaders would simply slap him on the back, raise a toast of huáng jiǔ, and remind him that China owns the monetary system of the U.S., not to mention the means of production of all that worthless crap the near-bankrupt Americans still seem to love to accumulate. So, sit down, Honorable President, and watch the next event. It's the javelin throw.

Which is exactly what he will do. Sit down. Grin. Ask idiotic questions. ("Hey, if its such a Great Wall, how come its all fallen down and crumbly lookin'? Heh-heh-heh-heh . . . Hey, you know why it's called a javelin? heh-heh-heh-heh")

Bush's trip to Seoul, South Korea, will be met with hysterical protesters who are really, really, pissed off because their government has decided to start again importing U.S. beef. Yeah, beef. Let's take to the streets over beef. (Let that sink in a moment.) The South Koreans believe U.S. beef may contain the so-called "mad cow" virus and for some reason think their physical health is more important than international trade deals designed to benefit massive agri-businesses based in the U.S. The nerve.

While Bush is in Thailand, he will probably have great difficulty keeping his dates straight since the official calendar in that country is based on the Eastern version of the Buddhist Era, which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian (Western) calendar. For example, the year AD 2008 is called 2551 BE in Thailand. Got that?

Why do we care where Bush goes at this late date in his presidency? We are in a holding pattern. It is difficult to breathe. The next presidential election in the U.S. is in three months. Bush can go wherever, and so many of us wish he would do just that. Go. Get lost. You have fucked things up so severely, George, it's going to take decades to repair your damage.

Enjoy the Olympics.

Oh, and the word javelin comes from Middle English and it derives from Old French javeline a diminutive of javelot which meant spear. The word javelot probably originated from the Celtic language. Anything else, Chucklenuts?

--MDM

Hi Truthseekers,

Not exactly a "good news week" for any American, was it?  Hightest unemployment numbers in 4 years as companies shed another 51,000 jobs.  Our two biggest mortgage lenders teeter on the verge of collapse as the home foreclosure rate continues to rise.  The once-time automaking company GM is posting record-setting losses. 

But hey, they'e dancing in their $500 italian shoes over at Exxon-Mobile!  So at least the're some good economic news to celebrate . . . if you're an oil baron.

Here are some of our favorite headlines from this week:

Social worker: Anthrax suspect was 'homicidal'

Bush Unveils Spy Guidelines, Angering House Overseers

Judge rejects Bush's 'absolute' immunity argument against subpoenas

Waiting for Rove

McCain Camp Says Obama Is Playing ‘Race Card’

After race debate, McCain appears before black group

John McCain feels a little frost at Urban League conference

Economic models predict clear Obama win in November

Barack Obama accelerates his economic stimulus plan

GM's $15.5 Billion Loss Is Third-Biggest in a Century

Jobless rate highest in 4 years

Unemployment Rate Hits 5.7% As Companies Shed 51000 Jobs

Stocks pulls back on jobs data, corporate losses

Too late to save sinking dollar?

Bush administration projects record 2009 deficit

Bush Signs Housing Bailout Law in Private

President Bush Optimistic On Continuous Economic Growth

John McCain is a lot of things. From his record in the Navy it is readily apparent he was an incompetent pilot who single-handedly caused more damage to the U.S. Pacific fleet in the 1960s than the entire North Vietnamese military. He provided a working definition of a terrorist when he flew bombing raids over North Vietnamese cities that resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians – men, women, children - during our war of aggression against what was then a so-called "third world country" struggling for its independence from the colonial West. After being shot down, he was a prisoner of war who, according to other U.S. military personnel being held in the same detention center, readily told his captors whatever they wanted to hear when they applied "enhanced interrogation" techniques not unlike those now applied by CIA interrogators and "private contractors" hired by the Bush Crime Family for their expertise in torturing people vacuumed up in Bush’s phony "war on terror." When he finally was released as a POW and returned to the U.S. he opted for adultery and left his ill wife for a wealthy young woman who could support him in the style to which he felt entitled. He was – and is – a liar.

McCain, working willingly with the same Republican filth that engineered George W. Bush’s twin thefts of the presidency over two superior candidates, Al Gore and John Kerry, now finds himself where he is most comfortable – in the political gutter. His handlers understand his campaign for president is going nowhere. The country is not in the mood for another half-witted Republican thug who will continue on the course to national destruction so effectively set by the Bush Crime Family over the past seven years. Facing a charismatic, young, intelligent political newcomer, McCain has decided to do what he does best – lie. His political attack machine in recent weeks has resorted to complete bullshit in attempting to define Barack Obama as unpatriotic, disrespectful of the military, willing to sacrifice his country for a political career ("He would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign!") and, in what amounts to an hysterical last-ditch ploy, an attempt to paint the Corporate-leaning, moderate-to-conservative Democrat as a "Socialist," a word in the American collective consciousness that, when applied to one’s political opponent, is the same as calling him a child molester, a homosexual predator, a drug dealer whose clientele is found among middle school students, and, the worst slur in post-911 America, Obama may be a secret Muslim.

Adding slobbering incoherence to an already meaningless campaign, McCain’s latest television attack ad states that while Obama was in Germany last week he "made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops because the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras.'' That's absolute bullshit and the scum who produced the ad know it is absolute bullshit. But, the people to whom the ad is targeted will pause and think, "Did he really? Did Obama do that? No kidding? It wouldn’t be on TV if it wasn’t true, right?" That is how the Republican slime machine works. One of Karl Rove’s gurus once said, "By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed." Another Rovian model declared, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The quotes are from Hitler and Goebbels respectively.

Stealing a campaign slogan from Hubert Humphrey’s 1968 Democratic Presidential campaign, McCain has tried to label himself a "Happy Warrior." I’ve got a better ID tag for this thug: "Lying Son-of-a-bitch."