From the New York Times:

“BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 28 — The American ambassador has told Shiite officials that President Bush does not want the Iraqi prime minister to remain the country's leader in the next government, senior Shiite politicians said Tuesday.”

And the Prime Minister’s response:

“BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 29 — Facing growing pressure from the Bush administration for him to step down, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari of Iraq vigorously asserted his right to stay in office today and warned the Americans against undue interference in Iraq's political process.

Mr. Jaafari also defended his recent political alliance with the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, now the prime minister's most powerful backer, saying in an interview that Mr. Sadr and his thousands-strong militia were a fact of life in Iraq and need to be accepted into mainstream politics. “


What can I say about the above? Sometimes, if I’m very lucky, a brief statement of fact says it all! If there was ever any real doubt regarding the Bush “administration’s” intent regarding letting the Iraqis settle their own affairs, there seems to be none now. Oh, yeah, it seems we are in the process of constructing large, seemingly permanent military bases in our “new territory” as well as openly interfering in their electoral process. Looks like an AGENDA to me!

An agenda. Nah, that’s PARANOID! We were and are solely interested in the good and welfare of the Iraqi people. We went to war, as all good and moral nations do, only after we were convinced of the evil intentions of Saddam Hussein. We gave him ample time to disarm and destroy all those WMD’s he didn’t have; it was only after he stubbornly refused to do so that we regretfully launched our invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq.

I mean, our Jackass-in-Chief SAID so, didn’t he?

Things don’t seem to be working out the way this imbecile hoped they would, do they? Which may be ironic and marginally redeeming for all the unpatriotic pessimists who have been criticizing our leader for years, but doesn’t help the thousands of dead, maimed, and crippled Americans and Iraqis one bit.

And this from the same source as the former:

“LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

“But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.”

Dontcha like that line about our president being “certain?” He’s been certain all his life, and screwed up every venture and responsibility he’s been entrusted with. Now he’s merely continuing his daily portrayal of the proverbial wastrel son, the lad who pisses away his entire inheritance on wine and women, and has now returned to the fold for a refill.

Perhaps now that Tom Delay has resigned from Congress and withdrawn from politics, Bush and his familiars can impose upon him to make the Iraqi elections turn out a more “favorable” outcome. The way he has done in Texas. The way the Republicans have done in our very own country. Perhaps Bush can have the pseudo-Christian Delay anointed prime minister of Iraq. That’d work out! Look how well Diem did in Vietnam! And how beneficial THAT adventure turned out for the average citizen!

Trust in Bush! Light at the end of the tunnel and all that!

Here’s some more great news:

“BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 1 — The war in Iraq has entered a bloodier phase, with American casualties steadily declining over the past five months while the killings of Iraqi civilians have risen tremendously in sectarian violence, spurring tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee from mixed Shiite-Sunni areas.

“The new pattern, detailed in casualty and migration statistics and in interviews with American commanders and Iraqi officials, has led to further separation of Shiite and Sunni Arabs, moving the country toward a de facto partitioning along sectarian and ethnic lines — an outcome that the Bush administration has doggedly worked to avoid over the past three years.”

Enough said, my stomach is turning acidic…

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Guest workers…

Guest workers?

Who sits around and thinks up these euphemisms? Does every word from the Bush administration have to be an insult to normal intelligence?

Let's be clear about the matter: The only thing Bush and his corporate supporters want from Mexico and points south is cheap (read: slave) labor. The only reason that there are (according to Bush, and I guess that means it’s true) “jobs no American will do” is because those jobs no longer pay a wage that will support life. Nor do they come with health insurance, or any other benefits. Landscapers (as an example) used to be paid fifteen to twenty dollars an hour; now Mexican workers will do the job for whatever the owners pull out of their pockets. If it’s more than four dollars a day, it’s a windfall for these poor guys. It’s been said that these workers pay taxes. Oh really? On what? On daily cash payments? Why do I doubt that they even bother to file?

Where in the hell are our labor unions? Why is there no outcry from the onetime defenders of the working class? Don’t bother looking for an answer. The question was rhetorical…

Does no one have the nerve to stand for the truth? Guest worker program? Give me a break. The last “Guest Worker” program our government sanctioned involved trans-Atlantic sailing ships and took a civil war to end.

Any one who stands for workers’ rights these days is branded a socialist, a communist, or a fool.

Let me close with yet another quote, this from Paul Robeson, an actor, athlete, singer, author and yes, an avowed socialist. The following is from Robeson’s testimony before the McCarthy committee during the fifties. While I am no communist, and certainly no Robeson, there is something courageously candid and satisfying to his answers. And something eerily timeless about the questions:

“Mr. ARENS: Now I would invite your attention, if you please, to the Daily Worker of June 29, 1949, with reference to a get-together with you and Ben Davis. Do you know Ben Davis?

“Mr. ROBESON: One of my dearest friends, one of the finest Americans you can imagine, born of a fine family, who went to Amherst and was a great man.

“THE CHAIRMAN: The answer is yes?

“Mr. ROBESON: Nothing could make me prouder than to know him.

“THE CHAIRMAN: That answers the question.

“Mr. ARENS: Did I understand you to laud his patriotism?

“Mr. ROBESON: I say that he is as patriotic an American as there can be, and you gentlemen belong with the Alien and Sedition Acts, and you are the non-patriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”

I thank all my Megillah friends and family for their indulgence, I welcome any and all comments.