The American military has not properly tracked hundreds of thousands of weapons intended for Iraqi security forces and has failed to provide spare parts, maintenance personnel or even repair manuals for most of the weapons given to the Iraqis, a federal report released Sunday has concluded.
[. . .]
The answers came Sunday from the inspector general’s office, which found major discrepancies in American military records on where thousands of 9-millimeter pistols and hundreds of assault rifles and other weapons have ended up. The American military did not even take the elementary step of recording the serial numbers of nearly half a million weapons provided to Iraqis, the inspector general found, making it impossible to track or identify any that might be in the wrong hands.
Exactly where untracked weapons could end up — and whether some have been used against American soldiers — were not examined in the report, although black-market arms dealers thrive on the streets of Baghdad, and official Iraq Army and police uniforms can easily be purchased as well, presumably because government shipments are intercepted or otherwise corrupted.
In a written response to the inspector general’s findings, the American military largely conceded the shortcomings.
Greeaaat. But it gets even better:
Because the inspector general is charged only with looking at weaponry financed directly by the American taxpayer, the total of lost weapons could end up being higher.
1. Call your local (city/county) board of elections to verify your voter registration. (Do a Google search.) Double-check the location of your polling place. (Many Philadelphia polling places changed this year…) In Philadelphia, the number to call is 215-686-1500.
2. Make note of the physical location - that’s where local demonstrations will take place if they steal the election again.
3. If you’re voting absentee (not something I recommend), make sure of all applicable deadlines and requirements.
4. Write a short, heartfelt letter explaining why this election is so important, and why you’re voting for the Democrats. Send it to everyone on your email list.
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about Red Auerbach. But it seems that even more important than his legacy as a winning coach is his legacy as a progressive one. From the New York Times obituary:
Auerbach coached the Celtics to nine N.B.A. championships, eight of them consecutively from 1959 to 1966. He built another six championship teams as the Celtics’ general manager and oversaw a final one, in 1986, as the team’s president, a position he held at the time of his death.
[. . .]
Auerbach was also a pioneer in race relations. In 1950, his first season coaching the Celtics, he chose Chuck Cooper of Duquesne University as the first black player selected in an N.B.A. draft. In the 1963-64 season, the Celtics became the first N.B.A. team to start a game with an all-black lineup: Russell, K. C. Jones, Sam Jones, Tom Sanders and Willie Naulls.
When Auerbach named Russell as his coaching successor, it was the first time a black had become coach of a major American pro sports team.
Another day, another desperate, misleading attack ad from a Republican candidate.
Jim Gerlach, the incumbent republican in Pennsylvania’s Sixth District, has accused Democratic candidate Lois Murphy of being Anti-Semitic because — get this — she is supported by MoveOn.org. In what way is MoveOn an anti-semitic organization, you ask? They have an open forum on their website; a few anonymous posters used it to write anti-semitic messages.
Thus, the organization, itself, is anti-semitic.
Ooooo-kaaaaay. Obviously, Gerlach is not a golfer. </gratuitous Lebowski reference>
Here is Murphy’s statement on the issue:
ALERT: Gerlach Playing the Anti-Semitic Card
True to form, a recent Gerlach radio ad attacks me by charging that I am supported by a group he labels anti-Semitic, and suggests that I endorse anti-Semitism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only is this charge highly offensive, but it is grossly inaccurate and unbecoming for any member of Congress to throw around this heinous charge in a desperate attempt to remain in office. Such improper language is counterproductive and undermines the seriousness of the issue.
Let’s set the record straight. MoveOn.org has a website that includes an open forum where anyone can post messages. A few of those messages—written by people who were not in fact members of the organization—contained offensive remarks. MoveOn.org acted swiftly to remove the messages, apologized, and immediately condemned them.
The Anti-Defamation League, which strives to end “defamation of Jewish people,” issued a statement by national director Abraham Foxman on its website titled “ADL Welcomes MoveOn.org’s Responsiveness in Removing Anti-Semitic Messages.” The message also said that “ADL is pleased with Mr. Pariser’s (executive director of MoveOn.org) responsiveness to our concerns and believes the matter has been resolved satisfactorily.”
To see the ADL’s statement in its entirety, click here.
I love the smell of desperation on Election Day morning.
I’m short on time today, so here is a late and abbreviated FRT post. I’ll try to do better next week.
To play, put your digital music player on shuffle, click play, and list the first ten songs that show up. Leave your list in comments or trackbacks. If you click past the bad or embarrassing songs, you must really be off your meds, like Rush says.
On NPR today, reporter Don Gonyea recounted his trip to the 8th Congressional District of Wisconsin — a heavily Republican district that Gonyea describes as “real Republican, red Wisconsin.” In the last election there, the Republican candidate received 70% of the vote; the current election is now a toss-up.
Though the report is interesting, from its small details (I love the Oneida Nation surf music) to its larger point (I love the fact that this district is now in play), what made it special was a little detail sandwiched, so to speak, amid all the political mumbo-jumbo.
The detail — the telling detail — came when Gonyea interviewed a waitress at a Green Bay restaurant called The Golden Basket:
[roughly 4:30 minutes in]
Don Gonyea: So, the next day, back in Green Bay, I hit the morning rush hour at the Golden Basket Restaurant. It’s a place not too far from Lambeau Field, where the Packers play football. Bonnie Leroy has worked here for seventeen years.
Bonnie Leroy: Well, we have eggs, meat, potatoes, toast, for $2.99. Then we also have other specials, like Mexican omelette and pancakes.
Gonyea: Leroy says candidates come in here a lot; they shake hands at election time. . . in fact, she fondly remembers the time, in 2004, when the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, complete with his Secret Service protection, stopped by.
Leroy: He brought his own food in. You know, he wouldn’t eat the food that’s here, for . . . safety reasons. It was for his own protection . . . great! great!
Whaaa? Cheney’s too high and mighty to eat the same chow as the good people of Green Bay, Wisconsin?
Really, I have no idea whether it’s common practice, among politicians, to travel with a coterie of private chefs so as to avoid sharing meat and potatoes with the hoi polloi, but perhaps we should all remember that Cheney isn’t so much an elected politician as an appointed one — a Viceroy, if you will, who is only a heartbeat away from the royal throne.
And we all know that royalty must be protected from the grave security threat posed by short-order cooks.
I didn’t post about Bush’s ridiculous claim, this past weekend, that his administration has never had a “stay the course” policy in Iraq. It just seemed too . . . too obvious a lie, even for this administration, for it to be taken seriously by anyone. The evidence to the contrary is out there, and we’re living in the YouTube age; some industrious teenager has, no doubt, already compiled a series of clips of Bush saying the words “stay the course” over and over again, with “Would I Lie to You?” playing in the background.
But Bush’s assertion has, apparently, gone unchallenged by CBS and the AP (via Atrios). This silence on the part of the mainstream press goes way beyond attack-poodle punditry (poodluntrity?). We have arrived at a point when even the most basic, the most obvious, the most bold-faced of lies is allowed to propagate itself, like a virus, throughout the media landscape, without even so much as an antibody in sight. The sad thing is that we reached that point five years ago.
Lord, November 7th can’t come soon enough, can it?
There is one constituency I worry about, though, in all of this: the Republican pundits. After months — nay, years — of faithfully regurgitating the Republic “stay the course” mantra, these pundits have been left abruptly by the President with no rhetorical ground upon which to stand. The script has been changed at the last minute; all of those perfectly-timed sneers and knowing smiles will now have to be reworked into an entirely new routine.
That’s got to be a hard life, being a Republican marionette whose handlers have started to tangle all of the strings. But, I’ll say one thing for them: those suckers sure know how to dance.
I just wish they’d tango out of the room, already.
Update:Think Progress has a nice collection of “stay the course” clips (second video on that page). Sadly, The Eurythmics do not make an appearance.
Mary Beth and Dwight, who have devoted countless hours to promoting the progressive blogosphere through the annual Koufax Awards, are in need of your help. As Susie of Suburban Guerrilla writes:
I just got off the phone with my friend MB and she’s in that really bad, desperate dark place where there’s no way out. I’ve been there. It’s awful, and the only thing that can pull you out of that pit is the kindness of others.
Mary Beth and husband Eric run Wampum (home of the Koufax awards) and they’re in dire financial straits right now, much worse than me. (And much worse than you can tell from their post. Trust me on this.)
They have four kids under ten, two of them autistic, and no heat at night. They’re living in an RV, and they’re cold all the time. The brake line on their RV just started leaking, and they can’t move out of Mendocino County with no brakes.
They’re applying for whatever aid they can, but they’re not eligible for much. I know what that’s like - to be so poor, and so desperate, but not quite poor enough to get help.
I’m asking every single one of you who’s in a position to help to please do so. Whether it’s $5 or $50, they really do need your help. (There’s that handy Amazon donation button up at the top of their left-hand column.)
If you live anywhere near Ft. Bragg (California) and can lend a hand (whether it’s housing, brake repairs or food), let me know and I’ll put you in touch.
If your blog has derived any benefit from the Koufax awards — a link, perhaps, that brought you new readers (and thus helped increase your advertising rates) — or even if you’ve just admired, from afar, the work that MB and Dwight have done to raise the profile of the progressive blogosphere, you can do no better than to give something back now. Please give what you can, and encourage others to do the same.
I’m going to have to add my list later tonight. But, for those of you who’d like to play, here’s how you do it: put your digital music player on shuffle, click play, and list the first ten songs that show up. Leave your list in comments or trackbacks. If you click past the bad or embarrassing songs, you’ll be cursed with worse luck than a Republican in November. And you don’t want that!
Update: I’m back from a trip to Staten Island today. I don’t think I went there once during the five years I lived in New York City. That’s a shame — it’s a pretty interesting place.
Favorite Song: “Lay Lady Lay,” but I want to throw “See America Right” in the mix, too. Hey! Least Favorite Song: “No Matter” Favorite Album:Nashville Skyline
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