Josh on Saakashvili:

It seems Georgian President Saakashvili's tear of international showboating continues unabated. In a press conference with Secretary Rice currently being televised he is claiming that Europe is to blame for the Russian invasion because of the failure to grant NATO entry to Georgia. This is followed by some odd arguments about why Georgia didn't at the least give Russia a robust pretext by launching into South Ossetia last weekend. It's Czechoslovakia (1938 & 1968), Poland, Kuwait, Afghanistan and several other crises of the past rolled into one and we don't greet this like standing up to Hitler and Stalin our honor is lost today and our freedom tomorrow.

Given that Russia's military intervention was at the very least provocative, and at the worst, a gross overreaction, what the hell kind of message are we sending by having Condi Rice (who finally decided to end her vacation and do something) stand up with Saakashvili and backing up Bush's rattling of the anti-Russian sabre?

"We support Georgia's sovereignty, we support its independence, we support its territorial integrity, we support its democracy and its democratically elected government," Rice said....

In Washington, President Bush on Friday chided Russia for Cold War-style behavior, saying, "Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."

Bush said the United States stands "with the people of Georgia and their democratically elected government." He said the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity "must be respected."

"We will not cast them aside," he said.

Bush said Russia's invasion of Georgia in recent days has "damaged its credibility."

"Russia must respect the freedom of its neighbors," Bush said, calling Georgia a "courageous democracy."

All in what appears to be an attempt to shore up McCain's presidential prospects and to join him in his irresponsible pronouncements on the conflict. The ironies in Bush's condemnation aside, this coming on the heels of the agreement with Poland to station US missiles there, leading to this:

A senior Russian general warned Poland today that it was leaving itself open to retaliation - and possibly even a nuclear strike - by agreeing to host a US missile base.

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the Russian armed forces' deputy chief of staff, issued the extraordinary threat in an interview with Interfax, a Russian news agency.

"Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike - 100 per cent," he was quoted as saying, before explaining that Russian military doctrine sanctioned the use of nuclear weapons "against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them".

Excellent. Just excellent. Good job, BushCo.

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it." Condoleezza Rice, August 13, 2008.

Perhaps someone should rephrase that for dear Condi. How about:

"This is not 2003 and the invasion of Iraq, where the United States can threaten a nation, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it." EdG, August 14, 2008.

It really isn't (on my mind) all that much, but the headline, though too obvious to be used, was still too tempting to be ignored.  Still, I think my grandmother was born there; she had no fond memories of the place and, with so many other Jewish families, got out when she could and arrived, thankfully, in Boston, around the turn of the 20th century, very young.

But the thought arises that the Bushies have decided that reviving the Cold War on the way out might be a fun thing to occupy their last few months.  I don't think so, however.

I am at a loss to come up with one positive accomplishment that Condoleeza Rice has achieved in her time in office.  She dismantled the Department of State that Colin Powell had begun to competently staff and manage.

In his opinion column, Ambassador Marc Ginsberg states:

In the annals of U.S.-Russian relations, Secretary of State Rice has proven once again to be not up to the task at effectively managing the one area of foreign policy that is her principal area of expertise -- U.S.-Russian relations. The sad situation in Georgia has been a powder keg for years, and as with other trouble spots that have erupted on her watch, Rice and her team have been unwilling to do the heavy lifting of diplomacy to try to prevent such dangerous situations from escalating. No preventive diplomacy here.

I am afraid I cannot name any accomplishment under her watch....Can anyone else?

  This probably would have been a comment, but I don't think it would have been fair to the diarist to make it one, I also wanted to get more of a consensus than I'd have been allowed in that instance.
  Earlier today, a diarywas posted, in which more than a few comments let fly with the term 'bitch', in description of Condoleeza Rice.
  I'm certainly no defender of the current administration, and in no way condone any of the actions or positions it's taken, but comments like, "She ended up being the Bushists own nappy headed ho, Cheney was her PIMP" really don't sit well with me. I was under the (apparently mistaken) assumption, that given what we went through during the primary wars, people around here would understand that the rules concerning Hate Speech, don't only apply to certain women.  

Stuart Taylor  exhorts us not to support the prosecution of the worst offenders of the Bush administration  for war crimes. They are not criminals just because they lied about WMD. They are criminals for the way they conducted the war: for torture, kidnappings and assassinatons. The criminality is not excused  by their duty  to keep the country safe: in fact they made us less secure and caused more American casualties in Iraq.

So who are these crazies asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor by the next administration?

Among those calling explicitly or implicitly for criminal investigations are 56 House Democrats; retired Maj. Gen. Anthony Taguba, who headed the Army's investigation into the Abu Ghraib torture scandal; liberal groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the ACLU; human-rights lawyers including Scott Horton of New York and Philippe Sands of London; and the New York Times editorial page. Retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, has raised the possibility of prosecuting current and former administration lawyers "in a foreign court, or in an international court."

Hi folks,

Wanted to bring this to the attention of people here in the States because it's the only pressure the Colombian government fears. Yes, that "War on Terror" ally of Mr. Bush (and DynCorp, Blackwater etc) Colombian government.

The right in Colombia has had blood, or corruption money, on its hands since time immemorial and the only pressure they fear is in Washington. Let's pay them back for supporting Bush & Co. when they lied to get us into an unnecessary war. A very profitable war for his buddies in the oil and armaments' industries, I might add.

These are the first few lines of a letter signed in the last few days by Professor Chomsky, and others, addressed to President Alvaro Uribe, with copy to the Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco and Secretary of State Condoleeza "Condi" Rice. It was sent today.

the rest can be read at:   Colombia Support Network

The waning days of power must be rough.  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice makes her 22nd trip to Israel, shows up in Jerusalem, knocks on the door of her favorite luxury hotel and finds out they didn't leave the light on for her.

The Bush Administration is helping Saudi Arabia develop nuclear energy - yet Saudi Arabia has vast amounts of oil and endless sunshine for solar power.  This op-ed "Why Is Bush Helping Saudi Arabia Build Nukes?", in the Wall Street Journal by Representative Markey (D.  Mass.), outlines this outrageous policy.

Paul Watson Contends there's a: Corporate Media Blackout On Bilderberg Meeting. He says:

"...Ben Bernanke, Condoleezza Rice", Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton(see UPDATE) "amongst a host of other global power brokers have all convened in Chantilly Virginia to secretly discuss the future of the world - yet not one mainstream U.S. corporate media outlet has uttered a single word about the 2008 Bilderberg conference...do you still not think it odd that not one mainstream U.S. press outlet has even mentioned it in passing?...

"...A mere book signing by an ex-politician would generate at least a few headlines, yet we have dozens of CEO’s, European and Federal Reserve banking and finance kingpins, Prime Ministers, European royalty, NSA officials, professors from top Universities, NATO and UN officials, oil company chairmen, and foreign policy luminaries meeting behind closed doors and yet not one single U.S. media report..."

More Below the Fold:

If I had it to do over, I would begin this sentence again. I just don’t like how it’s turning out; it’s so seven seconds ago. In truth, however, the distance between two sentences is an infinity. Each word is a candle placed between facing mirrors – receding endlessly into a long-forgotten past, extending eternally into an unknowable future.

(Aside) There is an ancient Russian traditional method of cleansing, i.e. energy, as in negative in a room or house, that uses such a combination of candles and mirrors. "Traditional Russian healers believed that all forms of negative energy would be pulled inside the corridor created by two mirrors and so disappear forever" and that this method would clear the negative energy from a single room.

But it is the present that confounds me.

Even as the Iron Curtain of Media Silence trembles with, of all things, Scott McClellan’s latest confirmations and non-revelations of media complicity in BushCo propaganda, Dick Cheney fires two salvos across Madame Supertanker’s diplomatic bow using the twin blunderbusses of Ruprecht Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal and Weekly Standard.

It's time to take the Bush Administration's actions to their appropriate conclusion.

It's remarkable to me how two of history's latest, greatest buffoons—George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden—after years of lurking in relative obscurity, came to prominence onto the world stage about the same time, just in time to do extraordinary damage.

Both are megalomaniacs, incompetent scions of wealthy families, fundamentalist believers in warped views of G-d and humans, leaders of sheep-like followers, morally and spiritually bankrupt, and shadowy, imperious "leaders" whose personal pissing match ("you dis'spected mah daddy" vs. "damn you li'l bush") has drawn us into the wars a select few are fighting on both sides today (y'know, while they and their children stay out of harm's way...the harm they've created?).

Arlen Specter demands an investigation into "spygate"

courtesy of Oliver Stone....and apparently just before the Presidential Election this November, says ABC News Australia........

Director Oliver Stone has landed a distribution deal with Lionsgate to get his upcoming film about President George W Bush into theatres in October, shortly before the US presidential election.

The political biography is to be called W and features No Country For Old Men star Josh Brolin as Mr Bush.

Shooting is slated to start in Louisiana this week, Lionsgate said.

In addition to Brolin, the film stars Elizabeth Banks (Seabiscuit) as first lady Laura Bush, James Cromwell (The Queen) as former president George H W Bush and Ellen Burstyn (Requiem For A Dream) as his wife, Barbara Bush.

Rounding out the cast are Thandie Newton (Crash) as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Jeffrey Wright (Syriana) as former secretary of state Colin Powell, Scott Glenn (The Bourne Ultimatum) as former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Ioan Gruffud (Fantastic Four) as former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Still to be cast are the roles of Vice-President Dick Cheney and former White House political adviser Karl Rove

.

A leaked Office of Special Counsel memo describes an investigation into the federal prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman [and 10 other high-profile cases, involving U.S. Attorneys and White House officials].  The Siegelman investigation, conducted by an OSC task force, was shut down on orders from OSC head, Scott Bloch, whose office and home were raided Tuesday by the FBI.

"The question is who told them to shut it down," Siegelman said Wednesday when told of the memo. "Why would you start an investigation and let it proceed and then shut it down? The logical conclusion is that somebody intervened and told them to shut down the investigation ... we need to get to the bottom of this." (AP)

This is an effort to spread some real knowledge about Iran and it's influence in Iraq.
Yes, knowledge gained by one who knows the area like few commentators do.
Knowledge, not propaganda, which is all we hear from The Washington Post, and most media types and "experts."

What we used to simply call "truth" has gone by the wayside.

Politicians such as McSame, Bush/Cheney, Rice, and sadly, Hilliary "obliterate"-Iran Clinton all seem to have the same goal and it is not protecting our freedoms. It is trying to controll oil-rich countries. McCain just accidentally admitted it. What they are good at is in obfuscating the truth. They have taken on the nefarious practice of confusing a lot of propaganda with a snippet of truth, and then blurring it all together with the hope that The People will not understand and see through their shameful tactics.

What does a true expert know? Can you stand the truth, America?

Below you will find truths, reported by the man I believe to be the most objective and knowledgeable source on Iraq and the Mideast today.Nir Rosen's article.