Glenn Greenwald

As Digby documented at the time, “liberal MSM journalist” Joe Klein of Time Magazine
also went on Hugh Hewitt’s show and did exactly what Halperin did —
pleaded with Hewitt to recognize Klein as one of the Good Journalists
by lavishly praising the President and the full pantheon of right-wing
icons (proclaiming that Bush is an “honorable man” and “I really like
the guy”; proudly showing off the affectionate nickname the President
gave him; touting his deep friendship with Bill Bennett; and best of
all: “I’ve always really respected Newt, because he’s a man of honor,
and he is a real policy wonk, and he really cares about stuff”).

By
sad and glaring contrast, Klein also sought Hewitt’s approval by
devoting equal attention and energy mimicking right-wing demonization
efforts to bash “the Left” (Democrats have a “black soul” that is
anti-military — Democrats are so “lost” and “off the cliff” that it
makes Klein want to “cry” — Democrats are now “harsh and stupid” —
insisting that he doesn’t want to be called a “liberal” any longer
because he doesn’t want to be associated with people like Al Gore and
Michael Moore (Bill Bennett is great, though, and he loves George
Bush)).

These are the biased leftist titans of the tyrannical,
liberal MSM who persecute the Hugh Hewitts and George Bushs of the
world (from their kneeling position, while dutifully reciting, and
nodding in desperate agreement with, every right-wing talking point).

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Unclaimed Territory – by Glenn Greenwald: October 2006:

More on Mark Halperin’s sad little crusade for right-wing blessings

 I honestly didn’t think it was possible for Mark Halperin’s behavior to become any more craven or cringe-inducing than it was during his three-hour submissive inquisition with Hugh Hewitt last night. But I was so wrong. Today, Halperin is very upset — very emotionally distraught — because Hewitt remarked both during and after the interview that he thinks Halperin is “very liberal.” Halperin spent three hours in the interview desperately trying to convince Hewitt that he is on Hewitt’s side, but that wasn’t enough to win Hewitt’s approval. Nonetheless, Halperin is willing — actually, quite eager — to go to still greater and more horrifying lengths to obtain Hewitt’s blessing. First, Halperin e-mailed Hewitt today to again try to persuade Hewitt that he is not a liberal. Hewitt didn’t print the e-mail but wrote about it on his blog, and claimed that Halperin “asked that [Hewitt] apologize for the characterization and remove the description or post” in which he called Halperin “liberal.” Hewitt also quoted Halperin’s e-mail by writing that Halperin “considers the description a ‘a serious affront to [his] professional integrity,’ and requested that I “note [Halperin’s] strong objection to [my] characterization.” Unconvinced by Halperin’s pleas both in the interview and again today that he is not a liberal, Hewitt rubbed the comment in Halperin’s face again: “Not only do I think that Mark Halperin is very liberal, I don’t think it is possible to conclude anything else.” In response, Halperin returned to Hewitt yet again, this time to request that Hewitt allow him to post a statement on Hewitt’s blog, in which Halperin expressed how hurt he was that even after he agreed with almost everything Hewitt said during the interview, Hewitt is still calling him a liberal: Dear Hugh, I really enjoyed our radio talk and I appreciated the opportunity to appear with someone I respect so much. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback, mostly from conservatives, including this reaction on Powerlineblog.com. But, as I have said to you privately, I am beginning to think you are intellectually dishonest on a few points.

Forbes.com

Attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops and Iraqi civilians jumped sharply in recent months to the highest level since Iraq regained its sovereignty in June 2004, the Pentagon told Congress on Monday in the latest indication of that country’s spiraling violence.

In a report issued the same day Robert Gates took over as defense secretary, the Pentagon said that from mid-August to mid-November, the weekly average number of attacks increased 22 percent from the previous three months. The worst violence was in Baghdad and in the western province of Anbar, long the focus of activity by Sunni insurgents.

A bar chart in the report to Congress gave no exact numbers but indicated the weekly average had approached 1,000 in the latest period, compared to about 800 per week from the May-to-August period. Statistics provided separately by the Pentagon said weekly attacks had averaged 959 in the latest period.

The report also said the Iraqi government’s failure to end sectarian violence has eroded ordinary Iraqis’ confidence in their future. That conclusion reflects some of the Bush administration’s doubt about the ability of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to make the hard decisions U.S. officials insist are needed to quell the violence.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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Army suicide rates in Iraq and Kuwait rose in 2005

Stars and Stripes | Jeff Schogol |
December 20, 2006
ARLINGTON, Va.

Army suicide rates in Iraq and Kuwait doubled between 2004 and 2005 but were still below the 2003 rate, officials said Tuesday.

But Armywide, the 2005 saw the highest rate of soldiers taking their own lives since the beginning of the Iraq war, officials said.

Officials spoke about the suicides Tuesday as the Army released a report on the third Mental Health Advisory Team Survey of troops in Iraq. Data for 2006 is not yet available.

In 2005, the number of soldiers in the Iraq theater who killed themselves was 22, double the 2004 figure of 11, but below the 2003 figure of 25, Morales said.

Armywide, the number of reported suicides was 88 in 2005, up from 67 in 2004 and 78 in 2003, said Walter E. Morales, Army suicide prevention manager.

Of the 2005 downrange suicides, five had been deployed more than once, said Dr. (Col.) Edward Crandell, who was in charge of the survey team to Iraq.

Crandell said suicide rates can vary up to 40 percent in a given year.

Asked about the increase in suicides in Iraq and Kuwait between 2004 and 2005, Crandell replied, “There’s no way to predict suicides.”

The Army’s Surgeon General, Dr. (Lt. Gen.) Kevin Kiley, said he does not see a trend in the suicide rates.

“It only takes a few to shift the numbers,” Kiley said.

Kiley said he has no evidence linking suicides with multiple deployments or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, saying most suicides are impulsive decisions.

“In some cases we’ve had young soldiers who will get bad relationship news and walk right into Porta-Potty and end their lives, and no one has an opportunity to intervene,” he said.

Kiley said he is standing up a suicide prevention cell to tackle the problem.

“The cell I am standing up in MEDCOM is to get to MEDCOM, which is my command, more fully engaged with the G-1 to sort these issues out to see if there is something we’re missing; to see if there is some new strategies, either in training, leader training, further reduction in stigma in seeking health care, and frankly, I’m not really ready to discuss it because my staff hasn’t come to me with some new ideas and some ideas initiatives in that regard,” he said.

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George Harrison

Blow Away

Day turned black, sky ripped apart Rained for a year ’til it dampened my heart Cracks and leaks The floorboards caught rot About to go down I had almost forgot.
All I got to do is to love you All I got to be is, be happy All it’s got to take is some warmth to make it Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away.
Sky cleared up, day turned to bright Closing both eyes now the head filled with light Hard to remember what a state I was in Instant amnesia Yang to the Yin.
All I got to do is to love you All I got to be is, be happy All it’s got to take is some warmth to make it Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away.
Wind blew in, cloud was dispersed Rainbows appearing, the pressures were burst Breezes a-singing, now feeling good The moment had passed Like I knew that it should.
All I got to do is to love you All I got to be is, be happy All it’s got to take is some warmth to make it Blow Away, Blow Away, Blow Away.

4&20 blackbirds:

Heh. bloggers do suck, but i’ld say the analogy that we are like rR picking at the scraps. is only partly true. The missing part of that analogy is where a baracuda pays the shark to not report eat a story fish. Then the remora fish points out that it is the sharks reporters responsibility to do so. Or the part about where the sharks keep merging and merging until they become one huge mega shark that is controlled by a few special interest baracudas and they forget to do their job all together or something like that…

New cover-up claims in WMD dodgy dossier | News | This is London:

Tony Blair faced fresh accusations of a “cover up” today over his discredited claims about Saddam Hussein’s weapons arsenal. Brian Jones, a former nuclear and biological arms specialist at the Ministry of Defence, reignited the row over the Government’s “dodgy” dossier on Iraq with new claims that Parliament was misled. Dr Jones, the official at the Defence Intelligence Staff who was a key witness at the Hutton Inquiry, revealed that senior intelligence experts had rejected one of the most striking claims in the dossier. While most attention has focused on the claim that Saddam could fire a WMD within “45 minutes”, another key claim about the Iraqi regime speeding up production of biological and chemical agents was also deeply flawed,

… he said. A highly secret MI6 report on the agents was included in the government report in September 2002 even though analysts considered it was “crap” and it had been rejected by them “within hours of seeing it”, Dr Jones revealed in today’s New Statesman. The key piece of intelligence, dubbed “Report X”, was officially rejected as coming from an unreliable source by July 2003, when MI6 formally withdrew it. Mr Blair insists he did not know about the error until after the event, but Mr Jones points out that “any one of a number of officials in various government departments will have known and should have been alert to the danger of Parliament-being misled”. Dr Jones emerged as the “star” witness of the Hutton inquiry when it emerged he was the only official to formally object to intelligence caveats being left out of the dossier in the rush to its publication in the run-up to war. He alleges that MI6 chief John Scarlett, chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee at the time of the dossier’s drafting, knew that defence intelligence experts had not approved “Report X”. “I am more convinced than ever that Report X was welcomed in September 2002, not as a particularly valuable piece of new intelligence but as a way to finesse a “sexed-up” dossier past the experts on WMD. The normal intelligence process of sceptical scrutiny was subverted,” he said. “I believe there were experienced intelligence professionals on the JIC who had seen Report X and understood it was not substantial. This means that the Government’s claims [after the Butler Report on the dossier], that the intelligence process needed to be tightened.. .was part of a cover-up intended to blame intelligence rather than policy for the mistake that led us to war.” The Butler Report into the intelligence on Iraq revealed that the source of the last-minute report was discredited. The “sub source” who had allegedly passed on the information denied later to MI6 that he had said any such thing. Lord Butler also found that former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove briefed Mr Blair personally on Report X. He told the Prime Minister that the source remained “unproven”.

Daily Kos: Spocko Rocks ABC! Micky Mouse blinks! Updated: Spocko jumps in:

 Spocko comments

When I started CallingAllWingnuts, one of the hundreds of bloggers that came by to introduce themselves was Spocko of Spockosbrain (now defunct, for reasons soon to become revealed).  Spocko was doing some work related to my own in his own market in California’s Bay Area.  His target?  KSFO, home of Melanie Morgan, Lee Rogers, Brian Sussman and other poisonous 2nd rate talk show wingers.

Since this is Spocko’s gig, I’m gonna pretty much use his words to explain what’s gone down.  Before the flip, to give you something to chew on as you click to the full story, I can tell you this much:  you’re gonna love what you read.  Spocko has actually cost Disney money – he chased away advertisers and forced them to pay a law firm to intimidate his ISP.  The story isn’t all good though – Spocko’s broke and can’t afford to wage the legal battle, so he’s shut down.  That said, maybe we can use this space to buck up his spirits a little bit and see if there are any lawyers that want to file a Rule 11 motion against Disney’s unscrupulous lawyers…

anyway, flip for the complete story.

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