Ya gotta kill the village to save it. Didn't we learn that last time?

Our alleged President's commitment to freedom in Iraq is almost equal to his commitment to freedom in the US.

Did that unbreakable commitment come with a warrantee?

"The failure of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq will condemn every advocate of freedom in those two countries to prison or death, and would extinguish the democratic hopes of millions in the Middle East."

See, I agree with some of this. I also think it's happening...

"Having seen the worst of tyranny, the Iraqi people will reject the return of tyranny."

Yeah, I think they might be doing just that.

Give them freedom but not yet.

(Paraphrasing St. Augustine of Hippo, whose birthday is today.)

This guy must have been one of them evildoers.

If we weren't taping their mouths up there, we'd have to do it here.

I have a feeling that what will cost Bush the most votes is continuing to emphasize and broadcast the horrible consequences of his actions. Electrolite has definitely been doing a yeoman-like job of documenting the horrors. I think that and continuing documentation of the cowardice, avarice, and mismanagement trumps documentation of the mealy-mouthed hypocrisy.

I'd just like to

a) Get Congress to pass to pass HR2239 (for which Patrick has now posted a supporting link) so that it will be harder to rig the election.

b) Find out what I can do to get more people to the polls to vote the usurpers out.

c) [A wishful fantasy] Participate in a class action suit that would impose civil, financial penalties on the personal fortunes of Bush, Cheney, and their followers for misjudgment, misspending, wrongful deaths, negligence, and whatever else they might legally be proved guilty of.

Bush is coming for an election photo-op with the Queen next week, and his security have told the Metropolitan Police to shut down a large chunk of central London. Fortunately the Met (and Ken Livingstone) say they're not having any: it may come as a surprise to Bush, but in the UK people have a right to assemble for peaceful protests. (Of course, the last time the dictator of a totalitarian state came for a visit, Blair suppressed all visible protest from the streets along which the dictator would be travelling...)

Bush is going to London? Even though his handlers may not be able to guarantee him the standing ovations he requires? Golly, what a brave and self-sacrificing thing for him to do. Puts his Vietnam War sacrifices right in the shadows, it does.

You're reading too much into the President's words. "Freedom" in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn't mean freedom for the Iraqis or Afghanis--it means freedom for the U.S. to exploit the wealth of those countries, just as "freedom" on our own country means corporate freedom.

Clearly, the soldiers were introducing the man to his right to remain silent.

The man was a terrorist! You can tell by his accent, which didn't come through in the article.

St Augustine is the perfect saint for today - God gave me the strength to repeatedly run out on my kids and their mother, but she kept tracking me down and making me have sex. Also she made me support my elderly mom, who had wrong thoughts.

From this we can tell that women aren't moral enough to run a family.

St. Augustine was also the inventor of the introspective autobiography, a not-inconsiderable cultural achievement. We know about his many personal faults because he told us about them.

I'd recommend reading Garry Wills's recent book on Augustine before dissing him in any of the standard ways.

Well, he and I diverge on which parts of his behavior he should have been repentant for, but I'll go find the book and read it for another view.

Of course, a catholic priest once told me "If [Augustine] wasn't a sinner, he wouldn't have been much of a role model," which I suppose in fairness is true.

In order to ensure good order and public safety, the audience at all Mr. Bush's public appearances in London will be provided by members of the British Armed Forces.

At least, it is rumoured that a certain retired Naval Officer said, "The bugger can tell it to the Marines."

i want to find an aid organization that is sending food, blankets, clothing and medical supplies to iraq, and donate my camcorder.

the camcorder is the number one weapon of freedom in the 21st century.

got an extra camcorder in your closet? send it to iraq today!

A word on camcorders (good idea) make it a small one, as at least one journalist was lit up by Coalition forces because they thought he was pointing an RPG. Also reports are surfacing of increasing maltreatement of accredited journalists by soldiers who after all are at the recieving end of a campaign calculated to make them paranoid, jumpy and trigger happy. A million Iraqi hands holding camcorders is a happier thought than RPG's and AKM's, you'd think.

The link to the actual story is broken, do you have a saved version? thanks.

Saved Reuters link here. (Google News is your friend.)

Yeah, I should have reposted when I found it, moments later. I wrote about this on my blog a bit,
and I still haven't found a pick up story that deals with it. If anyone else does, please let me know?