BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.

Full Story Here:
McCain: Rumsfeld Was One of the Worst

Well John, I can’t say Rummy was the ‘worst’ nor can I say Iraq is the most ‘mismanaged’ either, you DO remember Vietnam don’t you John?? It was a lot worse in my opinion, but Iraq can catch Vietnam financially, and it won’t take long in todays dollars, but the loss of life hasn’t been nearly as bad… You’re partially correct, Iraq IS a mismanaged clusterf**k… But you can’t lay it all on Rummy, he’s gone and the new Sec-Def hasn’t done much yet either, a 21.5K man ’surge’ STILL isn’t enough to get the job done, so stop playing ‘politics’ and see what you can do about laying out an overwhelming PLAN OF ATTACK and talking that hardheaded, PC SOB in the White House into doing it…

GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. - Rescuers reached three stranded climbers on Mount Hood Monday, finding them in good condition after they spent a night huddled with their dog to stave off the whipping wind and snow 7,400 feet up the peak.

Full Story Here:
Crews reach Mount Hood climbers

I’m sorry, but I just feel NO sympathy for anyone STUPID enough to climb a mountain, that is a conscious decision that they make and if they get into trouble it’s their problem, it’s not like attempting to rescue a person trapped in a fire or a flood or whatever, this is a position they put themselves in and to save them requires OTHERS to risk their lives… Ridiculous…

MSNBC/WP - The guests of Mologne House have been blown up, shot, crushed and shaken, and now their convalescence takes place among the chandeliers and wingback chairs of the 200-room hotel on the grounds of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. (snip) McLeod, 41, has lived at Mologne House for a year while the Army figures out what to do with him.  

Full Story Here:
WP: Iraq vets struggle to recover

I know Vets from Vietnam and Gulf 1 and several fights in between that the military is STILL trying to figure out what to DO with them, and to NOT have to accept any responsibility along the way…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation Monday into allegations by a Sunni Arab woman that she was raped by three members of the Shiite-dominated police force after she was detained over the weekend. A top police official disputed the allegation, which could not be independently verified. (snip) Rape victims rarely come forward in this conservative Islamic country because of the risk of public scorn and humiliation. A woman who acknowledges being raped risks death at the hands of male relatives seeking to restore the family’s honor. “I told them that I thought that the Americans are the ones who rape Iraqis”, but one of them responded: ‘This is what we do to anyone who doesn’t confess,’” she said.

Full Story Here:
Iraq PM Probes Police Rape Allegations

Well, where is the outrage?? And the last lines of this story make me really not give a damn… This is the people WE are fighting and dying for, people that expect U.S. troops to rape them and asshole Iraqi troops/police that actually DO it…

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Muslim cabdriver from Somalia ran over two college students near Vanderbilt University after getting into an argument with them about religion, police said. Ibrahim Ahmed, 37, a driver for United Cab, picked up two men near the Vanderbilt campus early Sunday morning, Capt. Mike Alexander of the Nashville Police Department said, referring to the incident report.

Full Story Here:
Muslim Cabbie Charged With Running Over Students

Oh but I’m sure it was only because the students insulted the ‘religion of peace’, surely they were clearly at fault, I can’t think of any other reason a Muslim would deliberately try to run over American students other than a ‘religious’ disagreement… Right?? {/sarcasm} I can just imagine how well it would go over if the Methodists of America decided that anyone making a joke about their church would be killed… So, WHY the hell do we put up with it out of a bunch of goat loving, pedophile worshipping ragheads??

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Two car bombs exploded in an outdoor market in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 56 people and injuring scores in the deadliest attack since U.S. and Iraqi forces began a major security push around the capital last week.

The twin blasts - which tore through the open-air market in the mostly Shiite district of New Baghdad - marked the first major response by militants to the sweep launched last week and a sobering reminder of the huge challenges facing any efforts against the well-armed factions.

The death toll was reported by police and ambulance service officials on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. At least 127 people were injured, they reported.

The explosions toppled wooden vendors’ stalls and utility poles, and blood pooled in the debris. Victims were carried into hospitals on makeshift stretchers or in the arms of rescuers.

A separate car bomb in the mostly Shiite area of Sadr City killed at least one person and injured 10, police said.

Full Story Here:
2 Baghdad Car Bombs Kill 56, Injure 127

What a difference a day can make, for 2 days the Iraqi government and OUR own government has been ‘crowing’ about the ’surge’ and how it was already working…

You don’t suppose the insurgents actually watch the MSM news do you?? Wolf Blitzer and Keith Olbermann, those guys, the ones that make damn sure to give out EVERY detail they can come up with as to troop movement and pending actions?? Surely the ragheads wouldn’t listen to that and make their plans accordingly?? Would they??

Iraq reopened border crossings with Iran after a three-day closure that coincided with the launch of the security push.

Looks like that ‘closed border’ thing worked out well huh?? I wonder how the insurgents got a bomb crew BACK in so fast?? Amazing how they get in place so quick isn’t it?? It’s almost like they never left Iraq… {/sarcasm}

Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia in Iraq is widely believed to receive Iranian money and weapons, but his forces are also cooperating on some levels with Iraq’s U.S.-backed government.

Let me tell you something, al-Sadr is a reprehensible and pretty damned useless moonbat Muslim cleric in MY opinion, but he’s NOT stupid, he sees the possibility that the USA can prevail in Iraq and he sees that people like me are calling for a HUGE escalation in Iraq and an end to this bullshit, and al-Sadr doesn’t want to get caught on the short end of the stick…

(Condi) Rice also urged al-Maliki not to squander the relative calm in the capital since the security operation got under way.

I guess this latest blast kinda negates the ‘relative calm’…

EDIT: I wrote this story earlier today and held it for late publication, looks like the numbers climbed a bit…

Iraq Blasts Kill 63, Send Grim Message

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate gridlocked on the Iraq war in a sharply worded showdown Saturday as Republicans foiled a Democratic bid to repudiate President Bush’s deployment of 21,500 additional combat troops.

The 56-34 vote fell four short of the 60 needed to advance a nonbinding measure identical to one the House passed Friday. Seven GOP senators broke ranks, compared with only two during an earlier test on the issue.

Democrats swiftly claimed victory. “A majority of the United States Senate is against the escalation in Iraq,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “As for the Republicans who chose once again to block further debate and protect President Bush, the American people now know they support the escalation” in troops.

Republicans blasted the Democratic leadership for refusing to allow a vote on an alternative that ruled out any reduction in money for troops in the field.

Full Story Here:
Senate GOP Foils Debate on Iraq Surge

Reid is correct when he says, “A majority of the United States Senate is against the escalation in Iraq,”, but Harry, it’s just not a big enough majority to get YOUR job done…

I’m against this ’surge’ thing myself, I think it’s just too small a number to actually get the job done correctly, I think they needed to place at least 10 times that many additional troops in theater, and that would be just to ’sweep’ and secure Baghdad…

And in the meantime, I think we should have deployed an additional 250K troops to sweep the rest of Iraq, if we’re going to do this thing, lets do it right, and end it once and for all, and with that many U.S. combat troops in place, Syria and Iran would be crapping in their robes, wondering which one of them is next…

I have never been convinced that we needed to go to Iraq in the 1st place, but since we’re there, for good or bad, here’s how I feel about it, why go to the party if you’re not gonna dance??

There is a decisive victory to be had in Iraq, but we MUST take the gloves OFF for it to happen, and I don’t think the Dems have on ‘boxing’ gloves, I fear theirs are made of ‘pantie lace’ and God forbid the Dems should have to actually stand up and do something that may cause them to get their ‘lillywhites’ dirty…

And to Jack Murtha, EX-Marine, and I stress the EX part, any real Marine will know why, to you Murtha, I say this, I am absolutely thrilled that I never knew you, because if you went at being a Marine in the same manner that you address public service and elected office, then you Sir, were one piss poor excuse for a Marine, I can’t for the life of me understand how anyone with the Vietnam combat record you have, the medals you won, or anyone that served with so much distinction could then turn out to be the crummy bastard you became in later years…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide car bomber rammed into a crowded market in northern Iraq moments after a booby-trapped vehicle exploded Saturday, killing at least nine people and injuring 60, police said.

Full Story Here:
Back-To-Back Blasts Kill 9 in N. Iraq

Well, I’ve never been TOO big to admit it when I am wrong, and I guess I was just plain wrong, Mr. Bush’s ’surge’ appears to be working, for Baghdad at least, bombings and deaths ARE down, in Baghdad… But the insurgents and terrorists are gearing up to kick ass in ‘other’ places… Imagine that… Here’s an idea, send in enough troops to actually get the job done and be sure to TELL the terrorists and insurgents that our guys coming, next thing you know, they’ll just go to Iran, easier ‘pickings’ for them, no U.S. Army and Marines to contend with, and THAT is a good thing…

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Some 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, a “terrible indictment of the world in 2007,” the head of the U.N. food agency said.

Full Story Here:
U.N.: Hunger Kills 18,000 Kids Each Day

I’ve been called heartless before, maybe I am, I have a real problem working up any excitement over this one, most, if not ALL of the nations that have all these ’starving’ people would take our aid and keep it for themselves and STILL let their own people go hungry, and many of these ’starving’ nations are the very ones that sponsor the terrorists that would set off a bomb in OUR back yard if given the opportunity… Maybe they are experiencing ‘generational genocide’ but maybe they need to rethink THEIR ways, and ask themselves WHY conditions are SO bad in their country…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told government leaders Saturday that the contentious debate in Washington over President Bush’s war strategy reflects U.S. doubts that democracy will take hold in Iraq. The chief U.S. diplomat, on an unannounced visit to the capital, acknowledged that people in both countries are impatient about signs of progress in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

Full Story Here:
Rice Ties War Debate to Democracy Doubts

As for me, that has been my fear from the very start, that the Iraqis aren’t capable of governing themselves, what example have they had?? The dictatorship of Saddam?? That is NO example, and that’s why I have felt that we should have taken control of Iraq, at least for a while, and taught them how to govern in a free nation, and gradually hand power TO them, not just dump it on em in one big heap, might have made a huge difference in this cluster f**k…

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama, taking a fellow black lawmaker to task, said Saturday voters are ready to elect a black president. “At every turn in our history, there’s been somebody who said we can’t,” the Democratic senator from Illinois told a nearly all-black audience of about 2,000 at Claflin University.

Full Story Here:
Obama: U.S. Ready for Black President

Maybe so, but YOU aren’t it… You’re a ‘half black’, mixed up mutt and a half-assed raghead wannabe… Way too much ‘half’ stuff for me… And my concern is NOT that you ‘claim’ blackness’, it’s the fact that you DO have a Muslim background, and regardless of how much you denounce it, and no matter how far back in your past it is America is NOT ready for a ‘closet Muzzie’ or an admitted ‘recreational narcotics’ user… We don’t need another Bill Clinton in the White House, and I feel this Obama would end up making ‘Bubba’ look like a choir boy…

ROME, Feb. 16 —An Italian judge indicted 26 Americans on Friday, most of them C.I.A. officers, in what will become the first trial of the American program of secretly whisking away terror suspects. Italy’s former top spy was also indicted.

Full Story Here:
Italy Indicts C.I.A. Operatives in ’03 Abduction

Good luck on this ‘trial’ thing…

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With tourists streaming into town for Mardi Gras celebrations, a spasm of gun violence left two people dead and seven wounded - more bad news for a city struggling to rebuild itself and its tourism industry.

Officials noted the bloodshed did not occur near any of the parades Thursday night to celebrate Carnival, which culminates Tuesday in Mardi Gras.

The two unrelated shootings were not random or part of a robbery, and the victims were all targeted, Sgt. Joe Narcisse said.

In the first shooting Thursday evening, three people were shot, two fatally, in a car parked in the Ninth Ward, far from the heart of the party. The survivor - the car’s driver - told police he knew and had given a ride to the man who shot them, Narcisse said.

Full Story Here:
9 Shot As New Orleans Starts Mardi Gras

I’ll bet you BIG money that “Chocolate Boy” has his ass puckered up TIGHT over this news story, because THIS is only the starting point… New Orleans will never change, not until it’s under water, then we can call it the ‘modern day Atlantis’…

In January, the Convention and Visitors Bureau unveiled an aggressive advertising campaign to attract tourists to the city 18 months after Hurricane Katrina.

And I am pretty certain this isn’t going to make a lot of people want to hurry up and get there either, except for those lawless heathens looking for a place to ‘ply their trade’ and avoid being caught, because I seriously doubt the N.O.P.D. can find thier own ass, with BOTH hands and a set of directions…

“A lot of people back home told us not to come,” Lisa Pencak said. “But we have crime in Pittsburgh as well, it’s really no big deal. You have to be careful anywhere you go.”

Well Lisa, you should have listened…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi troops moved into a Sunni neighborhood in southern Baghdad on Thursday, while insurgents struck back with car bombs that killed seven people. In southern Iraq, British troops sealed off the border with Iran to prevent weapons smuggling.

Full Story Here:
Car Bombs Kill 7 Amid Iraq Crackdown

Well, not as many as in ’some’ bombings I suppose… Let’s face it, the attacks are going to slow down a bit, but this ’surge’ is not going to stop them, it will only slow them down, to stop this crap it’s going to take a lot more than we’re prepared to do at this time, some folks think I’m anti war, well, I’m not anti war, I am anti ‘half-assed’ war, and that’s what we’re engaged in, we tell em we’re coming a couple of weeks in advance, they clear out, it looks good on paper and it’s nothing more than a joke, a sad joke perpetrated by a President that has NO idea of how to fight a war…

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats, expecting House passage Friday of a resolution opposing President Bush’s military buildup in Iraq, are turning their sights on an even loftier target - the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar budget. Congress next month is to consider Bush’s request for nearly $100 billion more for the war, a request that promises to become a new battleground over his Iraq policy.

Full Story Here:
Democrats to Focus on Troop Funding

The Dems are dead set on stopping the funding for a poorly planned and poorly prosecuted war, isn’t that a big surprise?? I wonder?? If Bush had actually gone into Iraq, when he had the majority support in both houses and a big chunk of America, and turned our troops loose and let them actually DO the job they should have done instead of this PC ‘we don’t want to offend anyone’ bullshit that Bush is SO fond of, would the Dems feel different today?? And would BOTH houses still be Republican controlled?? I think the answer to both of those questions is yes…

HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) — Hershey is cutting 1,500 jobs over three years as part of a plan to scale back production and move some manufacturing to Mexico, the candy maker announced Thursday. When the plan is complete, Hershey’s will make its chocolates and other candies at fewer plants and have a lower overall cost structure. About 80% of Hershey’s manufacturing will take place in the U.S. and Canada. (snip) Results lagged due to weak merchandising, the company said, as well as a recall of products made at a plant in Canada after salmonella bacteria was discovered.

Full Story Here:
Candy maker Hershey to cut jobs, send some manufacturing to Mexico

And Hershey somehow thinks that the Mexicans are going to make a higher quality product?? Every day we’re one step closer to a North American Union…

MIAMI — Retired Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway said Wednesday that he hates gay people, but later said he regretted the remarks. “You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people,” he said while a guest on Sports Talk 790 The Ticket. “I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”

Full Story Here:
Former NBA Star Tim Hardaway: ‘I Don’t Like Gay People’

I wonder why some people will say things like that and then not have the courage to stand behind their convictions?? Surely he didn’t get pressured by the NBA or any endorsements he may have had?? Ya think?? Letting $$$ stand in the way of his true feelings??

SALT LAKE CITY — Most of the thousands of Bosnians living in the Salt Lake City area are refugees of war, and all of them are toughened by the experience of making new lives in a new country. (snip) The number of Bosnian refugees in the Salt Lake City area has been estimated to be 3,000 to 7,000, most of them Muslims fleeing violence by Serbs in the early 1990s.

Full Story Here:
Anti-Bosnian Backlash Feared in Utah

For me, it’s not the fact that the guy was from Bosnia, I don’t care WHERE he was from, I look at the ‘religious’ affiliation this time, and I am firmly convinced that if given the opportunity, many Muslims WILL commit acts of heinous violence right here in the USA… And unlike Mr. Hardaway in the previous story, I don’t make statements and then recant because it wasn’t popular or because it pissed someone off, I make NO SECRET of it, I hate Muslims and Islam and consider them to be the scourge of the earth…

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of U.S. troops swept house-to-house through mostly Shiite areas virtually unopposed Wednesday in the opening phase of the long-awaited Baghdad security crackdown. But four U.S. soldiers were killed outside of the capital in an area not covered by the operation.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, Iraqi soldiers and police set up new checkpoints across the city of 6 million people, snarling traffic and forcing people to walk across bridges jammed with cars and trucks.

The U.S. military said 14 suspects were detained and four weapons caches discovered during the day’s operation - seemingly a low tally. But U.S. officials say they are more concerned about establishing a long-term presence in the areas so that the public will gain confidence in security forces to protect them.

Full Story Here:
Baghdad Sweep Meets Little Resistance

From the above: ” But U.S. officials say they are more concerned about establishing a long-term presence in the areas so that the public will gain confidence in security forces to protect them.”, provided that “long term presence” is the responsibility of the Iraqi forces, I have NO problem with it, if it entails a “long term” U.S. presence, we have a problem, the Iraqis have got to stand for themselves, on their own…

Iraq’s Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, warned that advance publicity on the security operation had given Shiite militias time to flee the city for bases elsewhere in the country.

Ya think?? Have ANY of these goofy asshats ever heard the term ‘Operational Security’?? I think not…

And you can bet that since they knew it was coming, right down to the when and where, they cut out, blew town and will stay that way until the heat is off, and as long as the bombs aren’t going off in Baghdad, the ‘Bush Bots’ will be patting themselves on the back and proclaiming ‘Mission Accomplished’ all over again…

The Baghdad neighborhoods targeted by the Americans - Shaab, Ur and Baida - lie north of the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, which had been off-limits until Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lifted his protection of the notorious Mahdi Army, the largest Shiite militia.

Last year, U.S. soldiers came under intense sniper fire in those neighborhoods from Mahdi Army militiamen who were expanding into Shiite areas outside Sadr City.

And these Mahdi Army clowns are not only the ‘prime’ players in this bullshit, they are also the ones the DoD and the White House wouldn’t let OUR Marines finish off because every time we engaged the bastards, they ran and hid in a mosque, and taking out a mosque just wouldn’t be politically correct now would it??

Staff Sgt. Michael James, 32, of Chillicothe, Mo., said the area in northeastern Baghdad had been targeted before but not in such force.  

“This is the final clearing. We’re trying to hit all the major hotspots. I don’t think it has ever been cleared as fully as it will be today,” said James, of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

James said he wasn’t surprised that the troops did find more as they hunkered down in a so-called Joint Security Station in the area for the night.

“It’s never clear. These guys are going to have safe-houses all over the place. Whenever we come into one area, I’m sure they just move on,” he said. “Just our presence alone is enough to push the bad guys out. They’re not stupid enough to fight an entire battalion, because they will lose.”

And as soon as the Iraqi government and the DoD tell the MSM that it’s over, and as soon as the insurgents are assured that the U.S. military has backed down, it’s ON again…  

This is an exercise in futility I think, one that will gain us nothing, and the really sad part of the whole thing is, the ‘bad guys’ KNEW we were coming, that part makes me sick…