Save the USA

Quotes from this WaPo article illustrate that contrary to what Bush says, Iraq is not getting better.

In the first month after the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division took over security duties in northern Iraq in late fall, roadside bombs killed or wounded more than a quarter of the 34-man platoon…

“It’s definitely more dangerous this time around,” agreed Spec. David Jones, 24, of New York, on his second tour in Iraq with the platoon. “I didn’t expect to lose so many friends so soon.”..

Heavy-handed sweeps through Baiji by U.S. forces in 2003 and 2004 left many people angry, frightened and humiliated, residents say.

“Most of the people fighting the Americans tell me they do nothing for us but destroy the houses and capture people,” Adil Faez Jeel, a director at the Baiji refinery, said of the U.S. forces. “There are no jobs, no water, no electricity.”..

“When Saddam was in power, we used to go to Mosul, to Tikrit, to Baghdad. . . . It was safer all over,” said Salah Aub Ramadan Obaydi, 65, a retired teacher.. Now “people get shot every day and no one cares.”..

“We have almost no support from the local people. We talk to 1,000 people and one will come forward.”

it continues with a somewhat gory scene
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Look at what “news” has been reduced to. All Things Considered with a Goebbels like pump for the “Patriot” Act. The entire article by Michele Norris reads “Gonzales says”- literally every sentence save one.
Read full story at NPR above, or click,
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From the WaPo or (BellaCiao), turf renovation trumps right to Free Speech:

The organizers of the Tuesday protest, called “World Can’t Wait — Drive Out the Bush Regime,” say the National Park Service and the U.S. Capitol Police initially offered them the Capitol Reflecting Pool as a demonstration site but changed their minds. Demonstrators have been told to confine their gathering to the gravel walkways on the Mall between Third and Fourth streets, farther from the Capitol. The grassy areas are fenced off because they are being resodded.

Resodding land California might work in January, but DC? Sounds like a load of BUllSHit to me.
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