By David Swanson

While General David "Betray Us" Petraeus must be thrilled with his conversion from traitor to saint in the eyes of the pseudo-left and amazed that such things can be accomplished simply by changing the political party of the president, the group that formerly bashed him with an ad in the New York Times and now supports whatever Obama does is not as new to supporting wars as this simple story suggests.

By Dave Lindorff

If an article by Gareth Porter in run by InterPress
is correct that CentCom Commander Gen. David Petraeus and Iraq
Commander Gen. Ray Odierno, backed by a group of lower-ranking
generals, are planning to mount a public campaign to try and undermine
President Obama’s plan for a withdrawal from Iraq in 16 months, Obama
needs to act fast and nip this dangerous act of insubordination in the
bud.

Are taxes being used to subsidize the auto industry to produce more efficient gas burning cars? 

The rich are getting bailed out again? 

I want my taxes being used to support a start up company that isn't part of the corrupt establishment.  A company that will develop an alternate energy source for transportation.   Either electric or renwable fuel.  Is it to much to ask for the government to think beyond 1 year?

Oh ... Yes... That is why we went into Iraq.  Now we need a market for that oil.  Afghanistan is the forward base just in case Russia or China gets any ideas.  But lets blame it on some foreigner, as a monster, to get us into war.  Now I'm just joking.

But why bother subsidizing an intermediate step? Why not go the distance and subsidize alternative fuels?  I saw the caption flash across the news screen that the auto industry is being subsidized.

Hello,

I haven't wanted to be involved in politics but i can't hold my tongue anymore.  Here is the real reason why Lehman brothers wasn't bailed out.  This company also contributed to non-profit health agencies also.  So what is this governments stance?  Get rid of affordable health care by cutting down the companies that donate?  Read this

http://www.reuters.com/article/idINN1127961720080911?sp=true

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is a big player
in donating to political campaigns, which could be a plus if the
struggling investment bank needs federal help, said a watchdog group on
Thursday.

The position of George Bush and John McSame on Iraq has been consistent, adamant, and simple: victory not surrender. So when will Gen. Petraeus be court-martialed?

"We have to let go, and we're not reluctant to do that. And the Iraqis are not reluctant to take control," Gen. Petraeus said.

Could there be a clearer statement of surrender than this?

Petraeus' surrender appeared in yet another article about an all-but-signed "deal" to extend the U.S. military occupation beyond the 12/31/08 expiration of the U.N. mandate. But just like every previous "deal," this latest one is nowhere near "done."

By Dave Lindorff

Reuters may be “satisfied” with the Pentagon’s investigation
concluding that US troops were “justified” in their slaying of the news
organization’s working journalist Waleed Khaled back in 2005, but the
rest of us shouldn’t be.

Khaled and his driver were killed by US troops when they came on a
firefight involving US troops and Iraqi police who were allegedly under
attack. The Pentagon report into the incident concluded that the two
men came onto the scene, and American forces, seeing Khaled’s videocam
and tripod, thought it was a rocket launcher. They reportedly fired
warning shots. When Khaled’s driver did the logical thing, backing
slowly from the scene, US troops “assumed it was an insurgent tactic”
and fired to “disable” the vehicle, killing the two men.

By Dave Lindorff

I admit to feeling a little like the weatherman who keeps saying it's going to rain, and who eventually is proven correct. I feel certain that the Bush/Cheney regime is going to launch a disastrous attack on Iran, but have made several calls, which have been proved wrong, beginning back in October 2006, when I wrote that it looked like several aircraft carrier battle groups were being put in position for the assault, but then it was called off.

Now it looks like the attack is coming soon.

By Dave Lindorff

During my six-year sojourn in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, one of the things I came away with was a sense of how generally un-nationalistic and non-patriotic the Chinese people were.

Caught up in the struggle first to simply survive and then, in the mid-90s, to try and grab onto the moving train that was China’s new Great Leap into Capitalism, average mainland Chinese, whether out in the remote farmlands of western Anhui Province or in the rundown houses lining the hutongs of Shanghai or Beijing, had no time for patriotic displays or nationalistic concerns.

When Chinese Communist Party leaders in Beijing would beat the drum of nationalism over Taiwanese independence efforts in the 1990s, it evoked mostly yawns among average Chinese people, and in fact, to Beijing’s embarrassment, a popular computer game featured a war-game in which Taiwan defeated the People’s Liberation Army.

By Dave Lindorff

In a couple days, Americans will be deluged with effusive, praise-filled stories in what passes for news organizations, print and electronic, in the US, quoting Gen. David Petraeus on the glories of his and President Bush’s brilliant so-called "surge" strategy in Iraq.

There will be little critical comment on his report, which will claim that the surge is working but that Iraqi’s “need to do more” to take advantage of the surge in stability to create a stable government in Baghdad.

By Dave Lindorff

Well, the toll of wasted American lives in Iraq has hit 4000. But hey, who’s counting?

Certainly not the folks in the White House and the Pentagon, and certainly not John McCain, the prospective Republican nominee for president, who thinks the war is going just dandy.

But it’s worth noting that about a year ago, around the time that Bush’s “surge” plan got implemented with the addition of some 30,000 additional troops to the Iraq theater, the number of dead was about 3000. So it’s fair to say that Bush’s “surge” policy—his “escalation of the war in order to end it” plan—has directly led to the deaths of 1000 more young American men and women.

And what has he achieved with this bonus sacrifice?