A big lump of coal for Democratic voters and anti-war activists... the House followed the Senate's lead in capitulating to Bush, again....

House Approves $70 Billion More for War
Dec 19, 5:42 PM (ET) By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress approved $70 billion Wednesday for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a bitter finish for majority Democrats who tried to force a change in President Bush's war policy.

The House's 272-142 vote also sent the president a $555 billion catchall spending bill that combines the war money with money for 14 Cabinet departments.

Bush and his Senate GOP allies forced the Iraq money upon anti-war Democrats as the price for permitting the year-end budget deal to pass and be signed. But other Democrats were eager to avoid being seen as not supporting troops who are in harm's way - and avoid weeks of bashing by Bush for failing to provide that money.

"This is a blank check," complained Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "The new money in this bill represents one cave-in too many. It is an endorsement of George Bush's policy of endless war."...

Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed: Bush Negotiates Permanent Presence in Iraq
2007-12-03
By Marjorie Cohn

The revelation that Bush will sign an agreement for a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq before his term is up confirms the real reason he invaded Iraq and changed its regime.

It was never about weapons of mass destruction. It was never about ties between Saddam and al Qaeda. And it was never about bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. These claims were lies to cover up the real motive for Operation Iraqi Freedom: to create a permanent American presence in Iraq. With Bush's November 26, 2007 announcement that the United States and Iraq were negotiating a permanent "security relationship," his lies have been exposed...

Ah yes, the plans for permanent occupation of Iraq are finally revealed...
White House Releases "Principles" for Permanent Iraqi Presence By Spencer Ackerman - November 26, 2007, 11:12AM
So it begins. After years of obfuscation and denial on the length of the U.S.'s stay in Iraq, the White House and the Maliki government have released a joint declaration of "principles" for "friendship and cooperation." Apparently President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration during a morning teleconference.

Naturally, the declaration is euphemistic, and doesn't refer explicitly to any U.S. military presence...

How convenient, who ever said anything 'bout benchmarks?...

U.S. Scales Back Political Goals for Iraqi Unity
November 25, 2007 By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 — With American military successes outpacing political gains in Iraq, the Bush administration has lowered its expectation of quickly achieving major steps toward unifying the country, including passage of a long-stymied plan to share oil revenues and holding regional elections.

Instead, administration officials say they are focusing their immediate efforts on several more limited but achievable goals in the hope of convincing Iraqis, foreign governments and Americans that progress is being made toward the political breakthroughs that the military campaign of the past 10 months was supposed to promote...

F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause November 14, 2007
By DAVID JOHNSTON and JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter...

The U.S. House Just Voted $50 Billion More for War
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-11-14
Organizations and individuals who fail to criticize this new funding vote will relinquish the right to criticize the occupation of Iraq. If you silently support funding it, you oblige yourself to remain silent on the horrors of it. We are citizens, not partisans, and only as citizens will we survive this ordeal. If this passes the Senate (or is altered in a conference committee) and is sent to the White House, Bush will have the option of accepting $50 billion more for his ongoing crime. If Bush vetos, or the Senate rejects, or the $50 billion runs out, we'll be back in the House - and with what strength to press for an end to these bills? What strength remains after caving in completely this evening? What peace pledge? What Out of Iraq Caucus? What Progressive Caucus? What opposition party? The silence of millions of Americsns who have demanded an end to funding for the past year or for the past five years is absolutely deafening. It's the sound of our tombs. Speak now, people, or forever forget about peace...

What the hell happened to the the Out of Iraq Caucus???...

(11/14/2007) Liberal Democrats back party's war bill

3 leading House anti-war Democrats said they now back a $50 billion bill that funds the war but calls for most troops to come home by December 2008.

Their support paves the way for the bill's passage Wednesday.

Woolsey-Lee-Waters Support Bill

Secret Source of Phony Iraq Intel Outed Nov 2 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball," whose false tales of biological weapons labs bolstered the U.S. case for war, wasn't the prominent chemical engineer he claimed to be and invented stories to help his case for asylum in Germany, a new report says.

"Curveball" is Rafid Ahmed Alwan, who did study chemical engineering but made poor grades and never managed a biological weapons facility, according to CBS'"60 Minutes," which will broadcast on Sunday a report describing how Alwan became a secret intelligence source...

March for Peace Oct 27

msg. from David Swanson...
It has been over 4 ½ years since the invasion of Iraq. Since that time we have discovered more evidence of what was already obvious: that the reasons we were given for going to war were lies. We have lost the lives of over 1 million Iraqi citizens, and 3,833 U.S. soldiers. Over $600 billion of US taxpayer money has been spent on this illegal occupation, and Bush is asking for billions more.

The time has come for the occupation of Iraq to end. Congress is not doing anything, so it is up to us to make a difference. Over 100 groups have come together under the United For Peace and Justice banner to take a stand and have their voices heard. Those voices are saying loud and clear - END THE WAR!
http://www.oct27.org/brave_new_video ...

Report on Monday CodePink disruption of the Petraeus hearing in the House. Led by Tallahassee's own Lydia Vickers (that's her standing on the chair shouting down the 'good' general...

What a fabulous start in D.C. CODEPINK (Desiree, Barbara, Lelsie A., Medea B., Mona, Arizona Liz, and myself), IVAW, Col. Wright, David Swanson and others waited almost four hours this morning to go into the Petreaus Report hearing. CODEPINK co-founder Gael Murphy was refused entrance and tried in vane to get in the room. One of the Capitol officers had his panties in a wad and decided only 7 of us could go in. Even Medea couldn't change his sorry mind. Cindy Sheehan and her sister DeDe arrived about 30 minutes before the hearing started and were refused entrance. The up-tight cop actually gave us little blue pieces of paper with numbers on them 1-7. CPer Debby gave up her number so Col. Wright could get in. In the mean time, The Honorable Rev. Yearwood had been in line with us for about 2 hours. Just as we started to go in he was pulled from the line for "cutting in" - it's sooooooooooo high school.

Full report below the fold....

What Crocker and Petraeus Didn't Say By Nancy A. Youssef and Leila Fadel Monday 10 September 2007

Washington - The Bush administration's top two officials in Iraq answered questions from Congress for more than six hours on Monday, but their testimony may have been as important for what they didn't say as for what they did.

Envoy's Upbeat Tone Glosses Over Baghdad's Turmoil
September 11, 2007 By ALISSA J. RUBIN and DAMIEN CAVE
BAGHDAD, Sept. 10 — The assessment that Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador to Iraq, gave to Congress on Monday left unmentioned or glossed over some of the most troubling developments of the past nine months. His portrait of Iraq did not include many of the signs of deepening divisions between Sunni Arabs and Shiites and within each sect, which have raised fears among many Iraqis that their country will fracture further.

His testimony did not address the continuing wave of internal displacements, only glancingly mentioned Baghdad’s starved infrastructure and said almost nothing about the government’s inability or unwillingness to deliver services to other parts of the country as well. ..

The Day After: Editorials Not Convinced by Petraeus By E&P Staff
Published: September 10, 2007
NEW YORK So what does the press have to say, on the day after the landmark testimony of Gen. David Patraeus (along with Ambassador Ryan Crocker) on Capitol Hill, with another day to come on Tuesday?

We will present the editorial reaction as it comes in, but most of it has been negative.

Progress in Iraq? Don't buy the BS propaganda...

Experts Doubt Drop In Violence in Iraq - Military Statistics Called Into Question By Karen DeYoung Thursday, September 6
The U.S. military's claim that violence has decreased sharply in Iraq in recent months has come under scrutiny from many experts within and outside the government, who contend that some of the underlying statistics are questionable and selectively ignore negative trends.

Reductions in violence form the centerpiece of the Bush administration's claim that its war strategy is working. In congressional testimony Monday, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is expected to cite a 75 percent decrease in sectarian attacks. According to senior U.S. military officials in Baghdad, overall attacks in Iraq were down to 960 a week in August, compared with 1,700 a week in June, and civilian casualties had fallen 17 percent between December 2006 and last month. Unofficial Iraqi figures show a similar decrease.

Others who have looked at the full range of U.S. government statistics on violence, however, accuse the military of cherry-picking positive indicators and caution that the numbers -- most of which are classified -- are often confusing and contradictory. "Let's just say that there are several different sources within the administration on violence, and those sources do not agree," Comptroller General David Walker told Congress on Tuesday in releasing a new Government Accountability Office report on Iraq...