186 k per second

Not that we were ever torturing anybody but that’s beside the point.

Seems now that “the chosen one” Barack Obama has been elected president democrats like Diane Feinstein are turning off their crocodile tears of torture.

Swampland - TIME.com » Blog Archive Interrogation Policy Still A Bit Shadowy «

Now Feinstein is set to take over the Senate Intelligence Committee. And the next president, Barack Obama, is a man who supported the Army Field Manual bill. So everything should be pretty open and shut, right?

The answer is no. Read closely this passage from today’s New York Times.

Democrats like war profiteer Diane Feinstein are a disgrace.

War profiteering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Center for Public Integrity has reported that US Senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum, are making millions of dollars from Iraq and Afghanistan contracts through his company, Perini.

iraq, obama, democrats, feinstein, torture, cia

Picture Thanks to LGF

Victory in Iraq Day, November 22, 2008

By every measure, The United States and coalition forces have conclusively defeated all enemies in Iraq, pacified the country, deposed the previous regime, successfully helped to establish a new functioning democratic government, and suppressed any lingering insurgencies. The war has come to an end. And we won.

Yes Firedoglake swamp dweller Spencer Ackerman is swallowing whole the absurd assertions of NY Times reporter Alissa J. Rubin who claims the election of Barack Obama has “already shifted the political ground” in Iraq?

ATTACKERMAN » The Sky Will Open Up

Barely a week ago, the Iraqi government was refusing to sign a status of forces agreement with the U.S. military, despite the agreement’s guarantee of a full-scale troop withdrawal by 2011. Prominent Iraqi dignitaries were talking about scrapping the document entirely and securing another 12-month United Nations mandate for the occupation. The discussion bogged down so much that Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, practically threatened to take his toys and go home.

Then, on Tuesday, Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. And lo, the waters have parted. Reports the New York Times:

Just a few facts:

• Hadi al-Ameri as leader of the Badr Organization, had a very close ties to the Iranian leadership, and in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guards which was responsible for training the Badr Brigade during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

While al-Ameri was for the ousting of Saddam Hussein, he is no friend or fan of democracy or the U.S., he is a radical Shiite who believes his role is to help bring a just global caliphate into being.

And where is al-Ameri’s home office?

• SCIRI has secret cells all over Iraq which are involved in gathering information, media work and military activities. The head office of SCIRI is based in Iran among the largest Iraqi community outside Iraq temperarely estimated at one million Iraqis. SCIRI has main offices in different parts of the liberated areas of Iraqi Kurdistan.

So it makes perfect sense for the NY Times and Firedoglake to embrace Hadi al-Ameri and for al-Ameri to support Obama.

Obama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics - NYTimes.com

Barack Obama may have been elected only three days ago, but his victory is already beginning to shift the political ground in Iraq and the region.

Iraqi Shiite politicians are indicating that they will move faster toward a new security agreement about American troops, and a Bush administration official said he believed that Iraqis could ratify the agreement as early as the middle of this month.

“Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.”

Alissa J. Rubin is the same hack who spit on the graves of three murdered Service Members by trying to tie them to the rape of a 14 year old Iraqi girl.

Iraqi Court Sentences Man to Die for Killing 3 G.I.’s - NYTimes.com

Specialist David Babineau, 25, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Pfc. Thomas Tucker, 25, of the First Battalion, 502nd Infantry of the 101st Airborne Division, were attacked by insurgents as they sat in their Humvee under a bridge near the Euphrates River.

The attack was one chapter in a brutal history of this army unit. Just four months earlier, American soldiers from the same unit raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and then killed her, her parents and sister, burning the bodies afterward.

Four soldiers were convicted and sentenced in the rape case and a fifth soldier was discharged from the military. A sixth had already left the military when the others were court-martialed; he is scheduled to be tried in federal court.

None of the soldiers captured and killed on June 16 were among those implicated in the rape and murder case.

Get that…”None of the soldiers captured and killed on June 16 were among those implicated in the rape and murder case” but NY Times fabulist figured it would make for good U.S. Troop smearing if she wove it into her screed.

Somehow I don’t think Ms. Rubin is remotely capable of producing a factual unbiased story when it comes to Iraq and U.S.Troop events.

A little more on al-Ameri and his ties to Iran and The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution

The relationship between the SCIRI the IRCG (the mullahs who control Iran) has persisted and deepened recently. For example, the main Badr Corps training center, located just west of the Vahdati Air Force base in Dezful, and most of its other facilities in Western Iran and Tehran are located on IRGC property. Today, the Badr Corps is believed to have between 10,000-15,000 militia fighters. They are used by the current government in Iraq to terrorize Sunnis into submission.

Here’s the best part, Spencer Ackerman, who now praises al-Ameri and his support for Obama had no problem revealing al-Ameri for what he is when it suited his America bashing storyline at Talking Points Memo last year:

It’s appropriate to treat this report with skepticism. Hadi al-Ameri is a ruthless militia commander, and SCIRI has long and deep ties to Iran, so it’s hardly surprising that al-Ameri would seek to exonerate his sponsors.

Unbelievable.

obama, nutroots, ny times, iraq, troop withdrawl, al-ameri, Alissa Rubin

This add in support of John McCain from an Iraq War Veteran and Vets 4 McCain sums up Barack Obama’s transparent patriotism and disrespect for American Service Members in less than 2 minutes.

H-T to Tracy Carol

obama, troops, iraq, 2008, video,

It drives me crazy when McCain doesn’t call out and debunk nonsensical ignorant left wing talking point myths like “we were not greeted as liberators” in Iraq.

The United States and our troops were greeted as liberators, that’s a fact.

Events that transpired in Iraq following the initial toppling of Saddam Husein due to the lack of any workable plan to control Iraq’s infrastructure and the insurgency is a failure of the administration that is well documented and will be taught in West Point for generations to come as “what not to do”, but to conflate the two is willful ignorance and a slap in the face of the great Men and Women of our Military.

Emotional Torrent Greets G.I. Arrival in Central Baghdad

Much
of Baghdad became, in a moment, a showcase of unbridled enthusiasm for
America, as much as it metamorphosed into a crucible of unbridled
hatred and contempt for Mr. Hussein.

When the city awoke to find
that the American capture of the government quarter in west Baghdad on
Monday had been followed overnight by a deep American thrust into the
city’s eastern half, the fear ingrained in most Iraqis by nearly 24
years under Mr. Hussein’s brutally repressive government evaporated, to
be replaced by a bursting, irrepressible urge for freedom, and, among
the looters, a carefree, joyous defiance of law that lapped over, at
many major government buildings, to setting places afire.

American
troops, but almost as much any Westerner caught up in the tide of
people rushing into the streets, were met with scenes that summoned
comparisons with Europe’s liberation from the Nazis.

Iraqis on
foot, on motorscooters, in cars and minivans and trucks, alone and in
groups, children and adults and elderly, headed for any point on the
map where American troops had taken up positions — at expressway
junctions, outside the United Nations headquarters, at two hotels on
the Tigris River where western newsmen had been sequestered by Mr.
Hussein’s government — and erupted with enthusiasm and gratitude.

Shouts
to the American soldiers of “Thank you, mister, thank you,” in English,
of “Welcome, my friend, welcome,” of “Good, good, good,” and “Yes, yes,
mister” mingled with cries of “Good, George Bush!” and “Down Saddam!”

Larry Elder

Thanks to Flopping Aces for the video clips.

Technorati Tags: obama, left, liberators, iraq, mccain, debate

“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

- Barack Obama on O’Reilly Factor 9/4/2007

Let’s head out into the reality based orchard and pick a nutroot blog off the tree and see what they have said about the surge.

Firedoglake » Carl Levin: The Surge Failed

Carl Levin: The Surge Failed
By: Blue Texan Friday February 8, 2008 7:00 am

Damn right it did.

Firedoglake » Nancy Pelosi: The Surge Has Failed

Nancy Pelosi: The Surge Has Failed
By: Blue Texan Monday February 11, 2008 10:30 am

Pelosi joins Carl Levin and tells it like it is:

Firedoglake » Petraeus Admits The Surge Has Failed

Petraeus Admits The Surge Has Failed
By: Blue Texan Friday March 14, 2008 7:00 am

Proconsul Petraeus, Who We Must Never Question, on the Bush/McCain Surge:

Firedoglake » Democrats Should Agree: The Surge Isn’t Working

Democrats Should Agree: The Surge Isn’t Working
By: Blue Texan Tuesday January 29, 2008 10:30 am

This caught my eye (via Yglesias):

Obama: Surge Succeeded Beyond ‘Wildest Dreams’ - America’s Election HQ

The troop surge in Iraq has been more successful than anyone could have imagined, Barack Obama conceded Thursday in his first-ever interview on FOX News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.”

I’ll be looking forward to the posts that call out Obama on his claims of the Surge being a wild and dreamy success.

Technorati Tags: obama, surge, irag, nutroots, firedoglake

Talking Points Memo is giddy because it seems David Axelrod from team Obama puts CNN John Roberts in his place when Roberts questions Obama’s change from immidate withdrawal of troops from Iraq to his phased withdrawl plan.

Talking Points Memo | Pays To Do Your Homework

Obama’s Axelrod administers a gentle smackdown to CNN’s John Roberts …

It seems TPM should “do their homework” and Obama’s own David Axelrod is the one whose “knowledge doesn’t extend far enough”. Axelrod an arrogant cocky prick if there ever was one and I am no John Roberts fan.

Here is Obama saying he wants to IMMEDIATELY withdraw troops from Iraq.

Some articles Axelrod and the TPM crack staff may want to glance at:

Obama calls for immediate withdrawal from Iraq | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii’s Newspaper

CLINTON, Iowa — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is calling for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. combat brigades from Iraq, with the pullout being completed by the end of next year.

“Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq and there never was,” Obama said in excerpts of the speech provided to The Associated Press.

“The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year — now,” the Illinois senator says.

Obama calls for the immediate withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq | Mail Online

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has called for the immediate withdrawal of all US combat brigades from Iraq, with the pullout being completed by the end of next year.

“Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq and there never was,” said Obama.

“The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year - now.”

Newsbusters has more on Obama’s Iraq flipping and flopping.

Update: 7/3 Obama now reserves the right to “refine” his “Iraq plan”?

Technorati Tags: talking points memo, josh marshall, obama, iraq, 2008, cnn, john roberts, david axelrod

Isn’t it curious how the left celebrates terrorist suspects gaining access to American courts and at the same time are virtually silent on the clearing of the U.S. Marines charged in the “Haditha” kangaroo prosecution.

Technorati Tags: iraq, haditha, terrorism, nutroots, left,

David Axelrod are Barack Obama on the Surge in Iraq.

Hope and Change: Top Obama Strategist Changes Obama’s Previous Position on the Surge, and Hopes You Won’t Notice

Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » THEN - Obama Didn’t Think Surge Of Troops Would Work; NOW - Never Disputed A Surge Of Troops Would Work

Technorati Tags: obama, 2008, democrats, iraq, surge, axelrod

I’m getting a little bored with the continuous stream of nonsense flowing from the nutroots at Firedoglake.

Firedoglake - Sunday Talking Heads: May 25, 2008

Over 1.2 million Iraqis have died as a result of Bush’s War in Iraq according to Just Foreign Policy. The number of soldiers on our side killed in Operation Enduring Freedom aka Afghanistan is 817. I found no current numbers for the death count of Afghans.

The nutroot lefties like Firedoglake are still referencing and linking to Just Foreign Policy - Iraqi Death Estimate.

Here is an excerpt from “Just Foreign Policy” who still proudly pushes the debunked and discredited Lancet Study.

It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

That study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The graphic above provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)

The fact that the Lancet Study has been proven to be a complete sham seems irrelevent to the “Reality Based” progressives.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Data Bomb (01/04/2008)

Over the past several months, National Journal has examined the 2006 Lancet article, and another [PDF] that some of the same authors published in 2004; probed the problems of estimating wartime mortality rates; and interviewed the authors and their critics. NJ has identified potential problems with the research that fall under three broad headings:

1) possible flaws in the design and execution of the study;

2) a lack of transparency in the data, which has raised suspicions of fraud;

3) political preferences held by the authors and the funders, which include George Soros’s Open Society Institute.

David Drake

The Lancet study was, in part, funded by Liberal Sugar Daddy György Schwartz, better known as billionaire George Soros, a Liberal activist whose well-known sympathy for terrorists and whose love of Socialism and Marxism, and whose hatred of the United States and our Allies, knows no boundaries.

In another appearance of self-contradiction and conflict, justforeignpolicy.com cites, their number of Iraqi deaths “this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count.” Perhaps justforeignpolicy should release their mathematical calculations on how they arrive at their number of 1,173,743 because in January, the number of Iraqi deaths estimated by Iraq Body Count was between 80,381 - 87,792.

FOXNews.com - Anti-War Billionaire George Soros Funded Iraq Study

A study that claimed 650,000 people were killed as a result of the invasion of Iraq was partly funded by the antiwar billionaire George Soros.

Soros, 77, provided almost half the nearly $100,000 cost of the research, which appeared in The Lancet, the medical journal. Its claim was 10 times higher than consensus estimates of the number of war dead.

The study, published in 2006, was hailed by antiwar campaigners as evidence of the scale of the disaster caused by the invasion, but Downing Street and President George Bush challenged its methodology.

New research published by The New England Journal of Medicine estimates that 151,000 people - less than a quarter of The Lancet estimate - have died since the invasion in 2003.

“The authors should have disclosed the [Soros] donation and for many people that would have been a disqualifying factor in terms of publishing the research,” said Michael Spagat, economics professor at Royal Holloway, University of London.

And the left complains about Oil Companies funding Global Warning research?

Technorati Tags: iraq, firedoglake, nutroots, lancet study, lancet, soros