Father of dead soldier beaten by pro-war demonstrators

Link

On September 15th Gold Star Dad, Carlos Arrendondo was participating in a peaceful protest against the Iraq War in which he carried a mock coffin which displayed a photo of his son, Alex who was killed in action. A group of republican war mongers, seeing the offending photo of a dead American Soldier first ripped the photo from the coffin and refused to return it. When they hadn’t expressed their hate glands sufficiently, they thought it would be fun to beat the living shit out of this 47 year old, grieving father. Crooks and Liars has the photo.

A bystander named Ramesh witnessed the whole encounter and also retrieved the picture of Alex for Carlos. He was quite distressed at how he watched the men follow Carlos as he pulled the memorial, purposefully yelling epiphets and eventually taking Alex’s photograph. Soon, an ambulance showed up as well as many concerned activists. The paramedics provided first aid to Carlos but he did not seek further medical attention. Carlos sustained bloody cuts on his shins. He also reported bruises all over his torso and head where he was kicked.

If you don’t see the fascism, people, you deserve what lies ahead.

How sick is this?!

Iraq is just a shooting gallery for some:

Washington Post

A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of “bait,” such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.

The classified program was described in investigative documents related to recently filed murder charges against three snipers who are accused of planting evidence on Iraqis they killed.

A large group of Americans is nuts

Glenn Greenwald is right; there is something very strange about the evolution of the Republican Party; something authoritarian, something more than that; there is some fantasy about conquering the hostile world, some sort of John Wayne fantasy….

Pollster: Republicans want a new Reagan, who will pull out of the United Nations, in 2008

Blackwater: no accountability for the mercenaries

Juan Cole:

no colonial enterprise can be run without it. One can’t have persons of the superior race hauled before a native judge; bad show, old boy, to let the wily oriental gentlemen get the upper hand that way.

60 Minutes interview of Ahmadinejad; a joke.

Scott Pelley’s interview of Iranian president Ahmadinejad was a sad attempt at a propaganda victory for the Bush administration. What transpired showed that it was Emperor Bush who had no clothes.

Ezra Klein:

It’s sort of a shame that CBS’s Scott Pelley declined to interview Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and instead popped off aggressive statements as if he were a White House press release with a cardiovascular system. I’m for the hostile interview here, but go stupidly overboard and you lose your credibility. And Pelley went so hostile that he let Ahmadinejad easily dance away. Plus: Did we really need to have this exchange?

PELLEY: What trait do you admire in President Bush?

AHMADINEJAD: Again, I have a very frank tone. I think that President Bush needs to correct his ways.

PELLEY: What do you admire about him?

AHMADEINEJAD: He should respect the American people.

PELLEY: Is there anything? Any trait?

AHMADINEJAD: As an American citizen, tell me what trait do you admire?

PELLEY: Well, Mr. Bush is, without question, a very religious man, for example, as you are. I wonder if there’s anything that you’ve seen in President Bush that you admire.

AHMADEINEJAD: Well, is Mr. Bush a religious man?

PELLEY: Very much so. As you are.

AHMADEINEJAD: What religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion to occupy another country and kill its people? Please tell me. Does Christianity tell its followers to do that? Judaism, for that matter? Islam, for that matter? What prophet tells you to send 160,000 troops to another country, kill men, women, and children? You just can’t wear your religion on your sleeve or just go to church. You should be truthfully religious. Religion tells us all that you should respect the property, the life of different people. Respect human rights. Love your fellow man. And once you hear that a person has been killed, you should be saddened. You shouldn’t sit in a room, a dark room, and hatch plots. And because of your plots, many thousands of people are killed. Having said that, we respect the American people. And because of our respect for the American people, we respectfully talk with President Bush. We have a respectful tone. But having said that, I don’t think that that is a good definition of religion. Religion is love for your fellow man, brotherhood, telling the truth.

PELLEY: I take it you can’t think of anything you like about President Bush.

AHMADEINEJAD: Well, I’m not familiar with the gentleman’s private life. Maybe in his private life he is very kind or a determined man. I’m not aware of that. I base my judgment on what I see in his public life. Having said that, I think that President Bush can behave much better. There were golden opportunities for President Bush. He should have used them better.

What the hell sort of question is that? And Pelley’s answer is that Bush believes in God? This is the best we can do?

Sheesh.

The NY Times rightly questions the focus on Ahmadinejad, who will probably be ousted in the next elections:

In demonizing Mr. Ahmadinejad, the West has served him well, elevating his status at home and in the region at a time when he is increasingly isolated politically because of his go-it-alone style and ineffective economic policies, according to Iranian politicians, officials and political experts.

Political analysts here say they are surprised at the degree to which the West focuses on their president, saying that it reflects a general misunderstanding of their system.

Unlike in the United States, in Iran the president is not the head of state nor the commander in chief. That status is held by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, whose role combines civil and religious authority. At the moment, this president’s power comes from two sources, they say: the unqualified support of the supreme leader, and the international condemnation he manages to generate when he speaks up.

“The United States pays too much attention to Ahmadinejad,” said an Iranian political scientist who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “He is not that consequential.”