Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

According to from this item from Southern California's NBC4, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the Marine Corps' top general, believes that it is

"fun to shoot some people."

What? Yeah! Not only did he say it; he said it in public! Here's the video!

According to the NBC4 story,

Many military members laughed at the comments

but Retired Vice Adm. Edward H. Martin

"was a little surprised"

What surprised the Retired Vice Admiral? The attitude? Or the statement?

"I don't think any of us who have ever fought in wars liked to kill anybody."

Aha! It was the attitude!

You tell me. Who's kidding whom? The "surprised" Retired Vice Admiral? Or the "many military members" who "laughed at the comments"?

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

In a previous post, I highlighted Manuel Valenzuela, one of my favorite writers who did not make John Kaminski's Top 25. Valenzuela writes long essays composed of long sentences; his pieces require substantial time and effort --- to read! Imagine what it takes to write them...

Let's go a different direction this time: Robert Parry writes fairly short pieces using short and simple sentences. But that's not why I like him so much. I like him because he never seems to get distracted from the major issues. He just keeps pounding away, hoping that eventually some of it might start to sink in. And maybe it will. Someday.

Most of what Parry writes, most of what we read and see and think every day, every little bit of what we think of as 'political reality', can be better understood against the backdrop of Bush's 'Perception Management' Plan. If you haven't read this important essay yet, please do so.

You can find Robert Parry at Consortium News. Or you can click on the links here to read his most recent columns:

Your comments, as always, are invited, and welcomed...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

You have the floor...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Yes, It has really happened. Not here, but in Nepal. It's been in the cards for a long time, but nobody could do anything to stop it. Sound familiar?

Pay attention, folks. This is what it looks like when a fragile democracy goes down the drain.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Russ Kick of The Memory Hole has reposted some very interesting old photos in a set called "Senior US Officials Cozy up to Dictator Who Boils People Alive".

And I thought you might like to have a look.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

There's a good article at Antiwar.com about a pile of money that seems to have developed magical powers. Here are the first few paragraphs:

"Potentially widespread" corruption? Good phrase! That's right up there with the "possibly innocent" civilians whose home was bombed the other day. Pardon our "catastrophic success"!

What am I bitching about? It's only money, is it not? And we have money to burn, don't we? No? Ok then, why are we so busy burning it?

I do not want to know how many humvees could have been properly armored for 8.8 billion dollars. I do not want to know how many American lives could have been spared. Really. I don't even want to know how many extra votes could have been gained by making sure those 8.8 billion dollars disappeared into the right pockets! Oh that's right! They did disappear into the right pockets! How ironic!!

And how many elections can you buy for 8.8 billion dollars? Don't tell me. I don't want to know!

You can read the entire article but please don't answer any of my questions!!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Brad Friedman has finally met Clint Curtis, and he interviewed him before a live audience on Saturday night at the Freedom Cinema Festival in Park City, Utah. We're eagerly awaiting Brad's return and our chance to learn more about this tantalizing story.

While we wait, Fin and I are guest-blogging here at The BRAD BLOG, and over the next few days we're hoping to continue our "Favorite Writers" series, start another open thread or two, and maybe even look at a few news stories. Here though, are links to Brad's most recent posts. We've disabled comments for this entry, but you can still discuss Brad's previous posts on their own threads:

He may be movin' along as you read this, maybe even somewhere between Tehachapi and Tonopah.

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

and so on...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

My Mother (Winter Matriarch) always told me: "There are two sides to every story." I thought I understood that immediately. Right and Wrong. My Side and the Other Side. My side was Right and the other side was Wrong and those were the two sides to every story.

It was much later that I learned she had meant "Always consider the other person's point of view." Ah... "Mom, That's good!"

And so, as a tip of the cap to the Winter Matriarch, and as a toast to depth of understanding, no matter how delayed, I hereby open a thread with questions attached ...

Suppose you lived in Baghdad ... or maybe Mosul ... certainly not Fallujah... anyway, suppose you lived in Iraq. Would you vote in this election? How would you feel about it? And why?

(If you have any open-thread type comments that don't actually pertain to the election, please post them on yesterday's 'completely open' thread, ok? Thanks.)

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

CNN is 'featuring' Michael Jackson in the 'Entertainment' news tonight. You can read their story here but I'll give you a snippet...

Now That's ENTERTAINMENT!! Cultural Nothing Ness NEWS at its best, no? Who said that? Not me!!

No, Really! It's Fabulous!! Really! Isn't it?? It's fabulous entertainment. Even the Bored and Boring Corporation often called the BBC is having some of it!

But if you go even farther afield, the perspective changes a bit, and here they are talking about something completely different!

You probably won't see much about Sundance on CNN from the look of things, but on the other hand you can read more about it on Aljazeera!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Michael McManus, conservative author of the syndicated column "Ethics & Religion," received $10,000 to promote a marriage initiative.

Three weeks ago we found out that Armstrong Williams had sold his honor for $240,000. Wednesday it was revealed that Maggie Gallagher had sold hers for a mere $21,000. And now it's Mister Ethics & Religion himself, and the price was a measly ten grand. It's like an auction in reverse. How low will they stoop? Stay tuned.

You can read the entire Salon piece here, although you have to register or watch a short ad in order to do so. You can also find a related blog item from Winter Patriot and that's here. Maybe it's not brilliant, but at least it's short, and no registration or ad-watching is required! [ahem]. And if you want to enjoy the fruits of your ten thousand tax dollars, you can start here.

Also of note: I found out about the Salon piece through Russ Kick's fine blog, The Memory Blog, which serves as a companion to his fabulous site, The Memory Hole. Russ is a bit of a stickler about knowledge and information. He doesn't like to see it go missing. So whenever he gets his hands on a document, or a set of documents, that's being hidden [or in danger of being hidden], he posts it at The Memory Hole. And whenever he learns about these kinds of things, he posts blog items about them at The Memory Blog. I have both sites bookmarked [hint, hint!] and I visit them regularly [hint, hint!].

The Memory Hole became something of a story when Russ obtained and posted a set of photos the Pentagon doesn't want us to see. But it's been good for a long time, and there is plenty of interesting reading to be found there. [hint, hint!]

Have fun at The Memory Blog, but don't disappear down The Memory Hole!! And please don't swallow too much of that good old "Ethics & Religion".

This thread is completely open.

There's not even a question this time.

If you think we need a question, please consider this ...

What's up?

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

In a previous post, I highlighted John Kaminski's list of his 25 favorite writers, mentioned that some of my favorites hadn't made Kaminski's list, and threatened to divulge a few names.

OK then. Here's a name: Manuel Valenzuela. And here's a sample: Because There Is No Cause.

If you haven't read this piece already, please do so. Cheryl mentioned it in a comment on another thread, and even said "WOW", so some of you may have read it already. But it's way too good to be buried in a stack of comments. Even with a "WOW". Isn't it, Cheryl?

It's a long story composed of long sentences. No sound bites here. But enormous food for thought, and masterful use of the language. Perhaps I can entice you with a few paragraphs...

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Check this out: I have a great new idea for scamming an election. What do you think of this?

Suppose you took a filled-in ballot, used a blank sticker to cover the oval filled in by the voter, colored in a different oval, and then fed the ballot into an optical scanner. How do you think the machine would count that ballot? Pretty slick, no? I am so clever! Nobody else would ever think of doing something like this, would they?

On second thought, maybe somebody else would think of it. And according to this article from RAW STORY, it's already been done. Quite recently, in fact. And you'll never guess where!

Tough question, no? OK, here's a hint: What's round on both ends and high in the middle? Did you say "Ohio"? Well, maybe you will guess after all. But you'll never guess which ovals had stickers on them...

Well, what do you think about that? I thought I had a good original idea here. Apparently it is a pretty good idea, but it's not exactly original. Oh well...

Read the entire story here. Then come back and scream and yell all you like. This really does call for a good rant.

But don't just rant here. Spread the pressure around.

Or as Brad would say: Go Make Some Noise!!

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

If you needed any further proof that the American government doesn't give a damn about its soldiers, here's a story to make you cry ... again! It looks like our Justice Department has fallen so deeply in love with torture, that in their view, it's not only OK for our guys to torture their guys, but it's also OK for their guys to torture our guys!

I quote the following passages from an article written by John Norton Moore, published by Slate, and headlined: Abuse of Trust: The POW scandal you haven't yet heard about.

Moore writes:

Moore details the horrific treatment suffered by Americans who were held prisoner in Iraq during George Herbert Walker Bush's 'excellent Iraqi adventure', and describes their efforts to hold the Iraqi government accountable. These efforts culminated in a lawsuit against the Iraqi government, which the POWs won. But then something very strange happened...

This incredible situation may be reversed on appeal, if the Supreme Court decides to hear the case, and if it rules in favor of the POWs. But what is the likelihood of the Supreme Court ruling against the Justice Department? And...

So there you have it. Our Justice Department won't even let the Geneva Convention protect our own troops! But at least they can't be accused of using double-standards! They don't want the Geneva Convention to protect anybody!!

Oh yeah! Freedom and Liberty are definitely On The March ... in the Land of the Formerly Free, and the Home of the Utterly Depraved!