Surprised this hasn't been diaried yet:

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military has, since 2001, cremated some of the remains of U.S. service members killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in a Delaware facility that also cremates pets, a practice that ended Friday when the Pentagon banned the arrangement.

The facility, in an industrial park near Dover Air Force Base, has cremated about 200 service members, manager David Bose said Friday night. It uses separate crematories a few feet apart to cremate humans and animals, he added.

Nice.

"There are more and more dead bodies on the streets and the stench is unbearable. Smoke is everywhere. It's hard to know how much people outside Fallujah are aware of what is going on here. There are dead women and children lying on the streets. People are getting weaker from hunger. Many are dying are from their injuries because there is no medical help left in the city whatsoever. Some families have started burying their dead in their gardens."

That was Fallujah in 2004.  Bush and Petraeus are about to do the same to the slum of 2.5 million in Baghdad known as Sadr City.  1,000 civilians have already been slaughtered.  Right now 75,000 children are trapped.  

Welcome to the buzzkill.  It's called Bush's War Crimes R Us, and it's the reason most of us have been so furious for all these years now.  

They're about to do to Sadr City what they did to Fallujah, and why?  Because they're still in power, because nobody has been able to stop them.  

Last night I wrote a diary which I really didn't expect to get much attention:

Scott Ritter - "virtual guarantee" of Iran strike

I was heartened that it ended up on the recommended list and got a lot of comments.  Today I stumbled across two more indications that the Bush administration is determined to attack Iran before the elections.  

The first is the one the title mentions.  Over at Think Progress, Bolton: Striking Iran ‘Is Really The Most Prudent Thing To Do’.  

Yesterday morning, Fox News interviewed former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton to discuss whether America is close to striking Iranian targets, as new reports indicate the Bush administration is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike." Bolton said that while there are "obviously risks associated" with a strike on Iran, the risks of not doing something are "far higher" at this point.

Scott Ritter hasn't been wrong about too many things regarding U.S. intentions in the Middle East.  He was one of the few who called "bullsh*t" on Bushco's claims of WMD's in Iraq.  A former Marine and former Republican, he's not exactly a partisan player, he seems to be a guy who just doesn't like being lied to.  And now he's telling us there's a "virtual guarantee" of a strike against Iran:

Ritter: US will target Iran next

We take a look at the military buildup, we take a look at the rhetoric, we take a look at the diplomatic posturing, and I would say that it’s a virtual guarantee that there will be a limited aerial strike against Iran in the not-so-near future—or not-so-distant future, that focuses on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command. And if this situation spins further out of control, you would see these aerial strikes expanding to include Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and some significant command and control targets.

United States is drawing up plans to strike on Iranian insurgency camp

The US military is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike" against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards’ special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi’ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.

Man found in Lady Bird Lake was teacher, FBI target
Police said that victim, who taught at a Southwest Austin middle school, may have committed suicide.

By Tony Plohetski, Sue Banerjee
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Friday, April 18, 2008

Austin police said Thursday that they are leaning toward a ruling of suicide in the death of a middle school teacher and activist whose body was found Wednesday in Lady Bird Lake with his hands and legs bound and tape over his eyes.

Yes, you read that correctly.  And here's the headline from another article about this:

Man Found Dead in Lake Claimed FBI Tracked Him

I was astounded by this comment in another diary this morning:

ABC's Morning Joe Sliming O Now (3+ / 0-)

What an awful show to wake up to ! Mika, Joe, and Tucker Carlson all calling O an unbearable elitist. Saying he's totally out of touch with modern day. Calling Tom Shales a complete fool. Obviously ABC has taken a position and needs to defend it's awful "debate" hosts but this goes way beyond anything civil. Evidently Hennenger in WSJ has an anti-O story and they are reading it over and over. They are going full- FOX. Joe Leiberman to come on.

If I may translate:  

Wow, the sewage this  morning they were pumping into my living room was particularly smelly today.  Wet, ugly, and brown, I sat there as it washed over me, gagging and choking.  I couldn't believe it!  I keep thinking "gosh, this sewage really stinks", and it's really starting to piss me off.  Oh, I need to pay the bill for that, how much is it again?

I just want to post a list of those who have tried to warn us about Bushco's desire to start a war with Iran before the clock runs out:

1. Senator Christopher Dodd

2. The British Government

3. Zbigniew Brzezinski

4. U.S. News and World Report - 6 Signs the U.S. May be Headed for War in Iran.

5. William K. Polk, at Juan Cole's site.

6. The Arab press, (and the German press, to be fair) warning us that Saudi Arabia, after Dick Cheney's recent meeting, is making preparations to deal with fallout from attack on Iran's nuclear sites.

7.  Gary Hart

And today, the Wall Street Journal is giving us a heads-up.  

What will you be doing when the U.S. strikes Iran?  Maybe writing, or reading, yet another "How Hillary Can't Win" diary?  Well, good for you.  Bushco sure ain't interested in who the candidate is, because they have the "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" song on their playlist for their "October Surprise".  Links and more over the bump.  But only if you're interested in this sort of thing.  

General David Petraeus (the man who originally said there was no military solution to Iraq, only to completely change his tune after Bushco made it clear who the boss was, and whispered sweet nothings about being President some day into his ambitious ear) will be testifying this coming week on Capitol Hill.  According to the British, Petraeus will be telling lies and "beating the drum" for strikes against Iran.  The British are worried.

British officials gave warning yesterday that America's commander in Iraq will declare that Iran is waging war against the US-backed Baghdad government.

I don't even know where to begin with this one.  Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post has an article up which contains, in one place, more damning information about Bush and Cheney and the administration's illegal shenanigans immediately following 9/11, including warrantless wiretapping, torture, and lying about, well, just about everything.  There's a far more readable version of it here at Truthout.org.  I'll just start here:

It's a case study in how the Bush administration intimidated the press after 9/11.

The publication of a new book by Eric Lichtblau, one of the two New York Times reporters who in late 2005 broke the story of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program, is calling attention to how the White House successfully persuaded the Times to suppress its expose in the fall of 2004 - when it might have had a profound effect on President Bush's reelection hopes.

That's just the set-up.  It gets better, much better.  

Well this is no April Fool's joke, seeing as how it was actually reported yesterday, and in the Arab press:

A military source lifted the veil on information that the American ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker has decided to change the location of the American Embassy [which is now] in the Green Zone in Baghdad, because it has been suject to a series of rocket attacks in recent days, that have led to the killing and injuring of a number of American employees.

UPDATE:  This move is apparently temporary.  I thought I quoted that in the story, but I guess I missed it.  They are temporarily moving the embassy to a "safer" place (whatever that would be):

American Ambassador Ryan Crocker gave the order Saturday night to move the location of the Baghdad Embassy, temporarily, from the Green Zone to an alternate location, which he didn't specify.

This is not Maliki's offensive.  This is Dick Cheney's.

If, after eight years of Bushco, you think that something happens "accidentally" with them, that there are just "coincidences" in what they do, well, you need to brush up on the last eight years.

Cheney, and McCain, just went to Iraq (and Saudi Arabia).  As their planes are headed back to the United States, suddenly al-Maliki goes on a crazy offensive into Basra, stirring up all kinds of sh*t.  

Just as things are really blowing up, McCain makes his big "foreign policy speech".

What is happening in Iraq is all about the campaign, nothing more.  It's all about keeping the GOP in power in November.   Follow me beyond ...

I'm kind of amazed this hasn't been discussed here yet, seeing as how it finally hit ABC News just today.  But here's the report that I first saw, from the website of a local NBC station in Connecticut:

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- New forensics evidence presented Tuesday during a symposium at Foxwoods suggests Sirhan Sirhan did not fire the fatal shots that killed Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Well ... how interesting.  If you're up this late, you might find this a good late-night discussion topic.  

What the fuck do you want me to do, America? First you want me to fight the war, which entails killing people. Then when the wrong people get killed you want to send me to prison and make an example out of me so other soldiers will "fight more compassionately." I’m not about to lie down and die in a third world country where no one gives a fuck about democracy, much less the other tribe of Hajis down the road. If I can help it no one is standing in my way of coming home. The only positive thing about stop loss is that I’m going to be a lot more lethal knowing that I’m on expired time.

(snip)

Terrorizing the citizenry into compliance with twelve gauge rounds and using the Humvee as a battering ram... I once made a guy eat a shotgun barrel... I’ve seen many people beat up and generally abused and didn’t give two fucks. Hell, I encouraged it. All of it was done for a reason. And in my mind it was completely justified. But because it was justified doesn’t make it right by any means. For some reason all that fucks with my head more than watching my friends lie motionless in the streets of Iraq and pour out of a burning Humvee, on fire themselves.

Poor John McCain.  Maybe he just hasn't mastered the art of those new-fangled computer thangs, but I just did a quick look on Google News which, well, makes a total idiot out of him.  

Anyone else see the humor in this?

One word:  coal.

Here is what the coal industry could do to the beautiful green hills of Pennsylvania, with Hillary's support:

She said as much just yesterday ....

And also proved herself to be a first-class LIAR.  

Here are some of the snippets from the story about which I'm diaring that I toyed with using as headlines:

U.S. had imprisoned "women and children"

"... it’d be cool to get a photo next to a dead person"

"... one of those Hitler things, like a concentration camp, almost"

"Whatever the worst thing that comes to your mind, that was it --- the place you would never ever, ever, ever send your worst enemy."

"The stench was unbearable: urine, feces, body rot."

Gross and systematic violations of the Geneva Conventions

The legacy of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld ... and, sadly, America itself.

Apparently there's a new story coming out in the New Yorker about the truly deranged, grotesque, and officially condoned practices in Abu Ghraib.  

Let's face it, this country -- our government -- is all about Corporate Welfare.

The invasion of Iraq?  Corporate Welfare.  Literally millions of dollars handed out, in shrink-wrapped bricks, from the backs of trucks.  Billions given to "contractors" who can't even keep sewage from backing up into light fixtures in the new Police Academy in Iraq.  Halliburton and KBR, who, without government contracts, would cease to exist.  Most of our 500 billion/year "defense industry", which is busy using our money to make things like cyborg-moths and robotic SUV's, you know, stuff we REALLY need.  

And today's example:  The 30 billion dollar pork-chop hung around the neck of Bears Stearns so that JP Morgan would play with it.