Fighting in Najaf Takes High Toll

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi officials said Monday that 300 militants were killed in a fierce battle between U.S.-backed Iraqi troops and insurgents allegedly plotting to kill pilgrims at a major Shiite Muslim religious festival. Elsewhere, bombings and mortar attacks targeting Shiites killed at least 15 people.

The fighting that began Sunday near the Shiite holy city of Najaf had largely subsided by Monday as Iraqi security forces frisked suspects while others patrolled elsewhere on the battlefield.

A U.S. helicopter crashed during the fight, killing two American soldiers whose bodies were recovered, the military said. The statement did not give any information on why the aircraft crashed — the second U.S. military helicopter to go down in eight days.

Ahmed Deaibil, a spokesman for Najaf province, said the fighting had continued until 4 a.m. Monday, but U.S. and Iraqi forces still had the area surrounded and had seized heavy machine guns, ammunition and other weapons.

Citing reports from commanders on the ground, he said 300 militants had been killed and 13 arrested, while the casualty toll for Iraqi forces was three soldiers and two policemen killed and 30 wounded.

i call bullshit!  

ARREST IMPEACH VIGILANCE

bah humbug! so instead of going right home after the show tonight in west palm beach fl i have to go up to long island city ny and drop off some lighting then drop off some guys stand up bass in jersey damn it! ugh very very annoying! oh well at least i should get to watch the football game on regular tv

oh i cant wait till the new nas album hit stores! that single is sick! not to mention it is about time someone from the upper echelon of hip-hop made a real statement about the current state of it

i got some crappy pop johns pizza delivered to my truck tonight!

so when i was getting ready to leave my house after my time off for thanksgving a crackwhore showed up at my truck (i was parked behing the regal on elmwood) she offered me everything for 20 dollars NASTY!

ding dong bush is dead bush is dead! gotta love bill hicks......

jesus threw the merchants out of the temple and now the megachurches are bringing them back in…………

When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,  and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, "The Scriptures declare, 'My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves."

yep i will be in nova scotia on election day i wonder if my xm radio will work? stupid inxs! why do they have to be going to nova scotia i dont want to miss the evil republican talk shows next wed. they are gonna be having heart attacks and fits of rage and will be infinitely amusing!

stupid colorado right wing evangelical fucks!

first off i would raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

second the fucks on this site from colorado are out and out LYING with the proof right there on their own site!

maybe we should make everybody that opposes raising the minimum wage live on it stupid fucks!

do any of you readers of my blog oppose raising the minimum wage? if so comment with your reason for doing so. i need to hear a coherent argument against it!

http://www.stop42colorado.org/TelevisionAds/tabid/681/Default.aspx

from site against amendment 42

Amendment 42 requires annual increases to the minimum wage in perpetuity. There is no provision for an economic downturn.

from the actual wording of the amendment (on same site dumbasses!)

Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning the state minimum wage, and, in connection therewith, increasing Colorado's minimum wage to $6.85 per hour, adjusted annually for inflation

ok well everybody vote for me nov. 7th write in sean m stitt on your ballot!

i just want to see if i can get more votes than michael mchale he doesnt even have a website stupid republican!

call michael mchale!  716-481-4243 call him stupid!

so this is what i am forced to deal with on the myspace buffalo message board after posting a message about torturing higgins to thank him for legalizing it

Mr. Joshua, not mr. joshua wrote:
i don't need any encyclopedia to know we are living in the most free, most democratic country in the existense of mankind (except perhaps the U.S. during the 80's, no draft, lots of cheap drugs and Rock and roll, baby). Let the crap on tv and the net (youtube), in the papers, on the radio etc. etc. etc. be your guide. I hear constant Bush bashing and I also see some support. I see people waiting for the republicans Oct. surprise, and what do we see, "anonomous" sources about that scumbag Foley, like these democratic cocksuckers "just found out" about it. Fascism is about the complete supression of the other sides ideas (like the U.S. in the 70's or the early 90's). One side dominating 3 branches of government, the press, the clergy and all relevent publishing outlets. Liberal cocksuckers like the idiot that started this post can not deal with ANY disagreement. THEY, not true conservatives, are by their own definitions the fascists. The most totalitarian regimes on the planet since Nazi Germany have been the leftist paradises of Cuba, the USSR, eastern Europe, Cambodia etc., etc. If you're gonna get on a high horse, be prepared for a long fall motherfucker, cuz trust me, as a former republican supporter, it's a doozie.
~~~my name is Mr. Joshua and I approved this message.

wow just WOW!

Fascism is about the complete supression of the other sides ideas (like the U.S. in the 70's or the early 90's). One side dominating 3 branches of government, the press, the clergy and all relevent publishing outlets.

One side dominating 3 branches of government - hmmmm republicans do that

the press, all relevent publishing outlets - those should just be combined into media. most media IS conservative although i am sure you subscribe to the "liberal media" mantra that seems to be so popular in america today. sadly that just is not true. i would reccommend picking up Noam Chomsky's media control cd or the book both are good book has an update about todays media control here go now buy it please i beg of you! http://www.amazon.com/Media-Control-2nd-Spectacular-Achievements/dp/1583225366

the clergy - well lets see family research council, christian coalition etc etc etc i think i shouldnt even have to touch this one

the complete supression of the other sides ideas - while you cant completely suppress the other sides ideas (those pesky things tend to just escape no matter how hard one might try to suppress them!) i would say the stranglehold conservatism has on the american media has done quite a swell job suppressing liberal ideas.

go here http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050711&s=chait071105

to begin with, the plain fact is that liberals have plenty of new ideas. Troll websites of the Center for American Progress, the Brookings Institution, or the Century Foundation, and you will find them teeming with six- and twelve-point plans for any problem you can imagine: securing loose nuclear weapons, reforming public education, promoting international trade, bolstering the military, and so on. They get churned out by the shelfful providing more material than any presidential administration could hope to enact.

i feel an obligation to disagree with this one too

i don't need any encyclopedia to know we are living in the most free, most democratic country in the existense of mankind

heres a site that ranks global press freedom we rank 24th http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=204&year=2005

oh uh australia is more free than us! have you even been outside our borders? get yourself a passport then come back and tell me about how free we are. shit you live in buffalo go to canada! not that we are bad or not free it just annoys me that people are so ignorant in thinking we are better than everyone else its one thing to have pride its another to face reality. the reality is that we are NOT the most free nor even the most democratic country in the existence of mankind.

one last thing GET A SPELLCHECKER!

oh yeah i just bought a book today called how to survive a robot uprising. i suggest you hit up your library or local bookstore before it is too late!

listen leave comments!

The new audio is of Mike Malloy talking about that horrible fake christian pat robertson.

kill him bring him back to life

so mr i hate free speech also LOVES torture? go figure! mr scum-bag extraordinaire Brian Higgins voted FOR torturing people yesterday. have i mentioned yet today how much i hate that guy? ugh! anyway so call the fuckers office and tell them what a scum the guy they work for is i know i am tomorrow morning!

Higgins, Brian

NY

27th

202-225-3306

A Vote That Will Live in Infamy -- Who Will Betray Their Country Today and Who Will Stand Up for America? (117 comments )

You must read this New York Times editorial on the detainee bill that Senators will be voting on today. They are not the only ones saying this, it is just a simple summary of the one of the worst bills in American history. This piece of legislation guts what this country is founded on.As the New York Times explains, it is our Alien and Sedition Acts.

There is no excuse. Democrats who vote for this bill because of cowardly political expediency will forever be tainted. We will never forget. This is the most un-American bill I have ever seen. Republicans have proven themselves to be craven sycophants who will do Vice President Cheney's bidding no matter what, over and over. There is almost no hope for any of them. They will go down in history as the leaders of the worst Congress of all time. But the Democrats ...

For the love of God, you are supposed to be our last line of defense. You are about to gut our whole system of government. Torture. Indefinite detentions. Unlimited and arbitrary executive power. What on God's green earth is American about any of that? You're going to let them turn us into a third rate banana republic.

I can understand if the average citizen doesn't comprehend the idea of habeas corpus, but a United States senator? It is the foundation of western government. An accused must be allowed to see a judge. If the executive branch has the sole authority to hold people indefinitely without ever charging them, we cease to be a civilized country. That is nearly the textbook definition of tyranny. What is left of America?!

What have you let Al Qaeda do to us? You let them win by destroying who we are.

No more excuses. Any Republican who votes for this tomorrow can never be called anything but radical. Any journalist that calls any of them moderate again should be fired on the spot. Any Democrat who votes for this is the worst kind of coward. I am tired of giving them one more chance. Stand up, you spineless weaklings. You have the right to filibuster to protect all of us against this very thing. Use it!!!

It is your job to protect the republic. Do your job!

The House has already voted and already passed the bill. They have betrayed us. Only 7 brave Republicans stood against the bill. Some of them are as conservative as it gets and I vehemently disagree with them on fundamental issues. Nonetheless, I will forever see them as American heroes. There is a bottom line. This is it.

34 useless Democrats voted for the bill. One of them is Harold Ford, Jr. who was a classmate of mine in college. One of them is Sherrod Brown who has been very helpful to our show and appeared many times with us. But this is not the time for personal friendships to get in the way of what is right. They have abdicated their duty. They have let us down. This is not the time for political expediency. This is the time for men of courage.

How many will we find tomorrow? Who will vote for this atrocity? Who still up against it? Who has enough courage to say -- not on my watch. Somebody, for the love of God, filibuster this thing. If you don't, you will live to regret it forever. Not because of political implications, but because of what it says about you. When it counted, were you willing to sell out America and all that she stands for?

The Young Turks

first and foremost let me say that if you have not read Hegemony or Survival yet THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU!

HUGO CHAVEZ

Representatives of the governments of the world, good morning to all of you. First of all, I would like to invite you, very respectfully, to those who have not read this book, to read it.

Noam Chomsky, one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals, Noam Chomsky, and this is one of his most recent books, 'Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.'" "It's an excellent book to help us understand what has been happening in the world throughout the 20th century, and what's happening now, and the greatest threat looming over our planet.

The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads. I had considered reading from this book, but, for the sake of time," "I will just leave it as a recommendation.

It reads easily, it is a very good book, I'm sure Madame you are familiar with it. It appears in English, in Russian, in Arabic, in German. I think that the first people who should read this book are our brothers and sisters in the United States, because their threat is right in their own house.

The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." "And it smells of sulfur still today.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world.

I think we could call a psychiatrist to analyze yesterday's statement made by the president of the United States. As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums, to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world.

An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: "The Devil's Recipe."

As Chomsky says here, clearly and in depth, the American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its system of domination. And we cannot allow them to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated.

The world parent's statement -- cynical, hypocritical, full of this imperial hypocrisy from the need they have to control everything.

They say they want to impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing weapons.

What a strange democracy. Aristotle might not recognize it or others who are at the root of democracy.

What type of democracy do you impose with marines and bombs?

The president of the United States, yesterday, said to us, right here, in this room, and I'm quoting, "Anywhere you look, you hear extremists telling you can escape from poverty and recover your dignity through violence, terror and martyrdom."

Wherever he looks, he sees extremists. And you, my brother -- he looks at your color, and he says, oh, there's an extremist. Evo Morales, the worthy president of Bolivia, looks like an extremist to him.

The imperialists see extremists everywhere. It's not that we are extremists. It's that the world is waking up. It's waking up all over. And people are standing up.

I have the feeling, dear world dictator, that you are going to live the rest of your days as a nightmare because the rest of us are standing up, all those who are rising up against American imperialism, who are shouting for equality, for respect, for the sovereignty of nations.

Yes, you can call us extremists, but we are rising up against the empire, against the model of domination.

The president then -- and this he said himself, he said: "I have come to speak directly to the populations in the Middle East, to tell them that my country wants peace."

That's true. If we walk in the streets of the Bronx, if we walk around New York, Washington, San Diego, in any city, San Antonio, San Francisco, and we ask individuals, the citizens of the United States, what does this country want? Does it want peace? They'll say yes.

But the government doesn't want peace. The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war.

It wants peace. But what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? In Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last 100 years in Latin America and in the world? And now threatening Venezuela -- new threats against Venezuela, against Iran?

He spoke to the people of Lebanon. Many of you, he said, have seen how your homes and communities were caught in the crossfire. How cynical can you get? What a capacity to lie shamefacedly. The bombs in Beirut with millimetric precision?

This is crossfire? He's thinking of a western, when people would shoot from the hip and somebody would be caught in the crossfire.

This is imperialist, fascist, assassin, genocidal, the empire and Israel firing on the people of Palestine and Lebanon. That is what happened. And now we hear, "We're suffering because we see homes destroyed.'

The president of the United States came to talk to the peoples -- to the peoples of the world. He came to say -- I brought some documents with me, because this morning I was reading some statements, and I see that he talked to the people of Afghanistan, the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran. And he addressed all these peoples directly.

And you can wonder, just as the president of the United States addresses those peoples of the world, what would those peoples of the world tell him if they were given the floor? What would they have to say?

And I think I have some inkling of what the peoples of the south, the oppressed people think. They would say, "Yankee imperialist, go home." I think that is what those people would say if they were given the microphone and if they could speak with one voice to the American imperialists.

And that is why, Madam President, my colleagues, my friends, last year we came here to this same hall as we have been doing for the past eight years, and we said something that has now been confirmed -- fully, fully confirmed.

I don't think anybody in this room could defend the system. Let's accept -- let's be honest. The U.N. system, born after the Second World War, collapsed. It's worthless.

Oh, yes, it's good to bring us together once a year, see each other, make statements and prepare all kinds of long documents, and listen to good speeches, like Abel's yesterday, or President Mullah's . Yes, it's good for that.

And there are a lot of speeches, and we've heard lots from the president of Sri Lanka, for instance, and the president of Chile.

But we, the assembly, have been turned into a merely deliberative organ. We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world. And that is why Venezuela once again proposes, here, today, 20 September, that we re-establish the United Nations.

Last year, Madam, we made four modest proposals that we felt to be crucially important. We have to assume the responsibility our heads of state, our ambassadors, our representatives, and we have to discuss it.

The first is expansion, and Mullah talked about this yesterday right here. The Security Council, both as it has permanent and non-permanent categories, (inaudible) developing countries and LDCs must be given access as new permanent members. That's step one.

Second, effective methods to address and resolve world conflicts, transparent decisions.

Point three, the immediate suppression -- and that is something everyone's calling for -- of the anti-democratic mechanism known as the veto, the veto on decisions of the Security Council.

Let me give you a recent example. The immoral veto of the United States allowed the Israelis, with impunity, to destroy Lebanon. Right in front of all of us as we stood there watching, a resolution in the council was prevented.

Fourthly, we have to strengthen, as we've always said, the role and the powers of the secretary general of the United Nations.

Yesterday, the secretary general practically gave us his speech of farewell. And he recognized that over the last 10 years, things have just gotten more complicated; hunger, poverty, violence, human rights violations have just worsened. That is the tremendous consequence of the collapse of the United Nations system and American hegemonistic pretensions.

Madam, Venezuela a few years ago decided to wage this battle within the United Nations by recognizing the United Nations, as members of it that we are, and lending it our voice, our thinking.

Our voice is an independent voice to represent the dignity and the search for peace and the reformulation of the international system; to denounce persecution and aggression of hegemonistic forces on the planet.

This is how Venezuela has presented itself. Bolivar's home has sought a nonpermanent seat on the Security Council.

Let's see. Well, there's been an open attack by the U.S. government, an immoral attack, to try and prevent Venezuela from being freely elected to a post in the Security Council.

The imperium is afraid of truth, is afraid of independent voices. It calls us extremists, but they are the extremists.

And I would like to thank all the countries that have kindly announced their support for Venezuela, even though the ballot is a secret one and there's no need to announce things.

But since the imperium has attacked, openly, they strengthened the convictions of many countries. And their support strengthens us.

Mercosur, as a bloc, has expressed its support, our brothers in Mercosur. Venezuela, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, is a full member of Mercosur.

And many other Latin American countries, CARICOM, Bolivia have expressed their support for Venezuela. The Arab League, the full Arab League has voiced its support. And I am immensely grateful to the Arab world, to our Arab brothers, our Caribbean brothers, the African Union. Almost all of Africa has expressed its support for Venezuela and countries such as Russia or China and many others.

I thank you all warmly on behalf of Venezuela, on behalf of our people, and on behalf of the truth, because Venezuela, with a seat on the Security Council, will be expressing not only Venezuela's thoughts, but it will also be the voice of all the peoples of the world, and we will defend dignity and truth.

Over and above all of this, Madam President, I think there are reasons to be optimistic. A poet would have said "helplessly optimistic," because over and above the wars and the bombs and the aggressive and the preventive war and the destruction of entire peoples, one can see that a new era is dawning.

As Sylvia Rodriguez says, the era is giving birth to a heart. There are alternative ways of thinking. There are young people who think differently. And this has already been seen within the space of a mere decade. It was shown that the end of history was a totally false assumption, and the same was shown about Pax Americana and the establishment of the capitalist neo-liberal world. It has been shown, this system, to generate mere poverty. Who believes in it now?

What we now have to do is define the future of the world. Dawn is breaking out all over. You can see it in Africa and Europe and Latin America and Oceanea. I want to emphasize that optimistic vision.

We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.

Venezuela joins that struggle, and that's why we are threatened. The U.S. has already planned, financed and set in motion a coup in Venezuela, and it continues to support coup attempts in Venezuela and elsewhere.

President Michelle Bachelet reminded us just a moment ago of the horrendous assassination of the former foreign minister, Orlando Letelier.

And I would just add one thing: Those who perpetrated this crime are free. And that other event where an American citizen also died were American themselves. They were CIA killers, terrorists.

And we must recall in this room that in just a few days there will be another anniversary. Thirty years will have passed from this other horrendous terrorist attack on the Cuban plane, where 73 innocents died, a Cubana de Aviacion airliner.

And where is the biggest terrorist of this continent who took the responsibility for blowing up the plane? He spent a few years in jail in Venezuela. Thanks to CIA and then government officials, he was allowed to escape, and he lives here in this country, protected by the government.

And he was convicted. He has confessed to his crime. But the U.S. government has double standards. It protects terrorism when it wants to.

And this is to say that Venezuela is fully committed to combating terrorism and violence. And we are one of the people who are fighting for peace.

Luis Posada Carriles is the name of that terrorist who is protected here. And other tremendously corrupt people who escaped from Venezuela are also living here under protection: a group that bombed various embassies, that assassinated people during the coup. They kidnapped me and they were going to kill me, but I think God reached down and our people came out into the streets and the army was too, and so I'm here today.

But these people who led that coup are here today in this country protected by the American government. And I accuse the American government of protecting terrorists and of having a completely cynical discourse.

We mentioned Cuba. Yes, we were just there a few days ago. We just came from there happily.

And there you see another era born. The Summit of the 15, the Summit of the Nonaligned, adopted a historic resolution. This is the outcome document. Don't worry, I'm not going to read it.

But you have a whole set of resolutions here that were adopted after open debate in a transparent matter -- more than 50 heads of state. Havana was the capital of the south for a few weeks, and we have now launched, once again, the group of the nonaligned with new momentum.

And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions, my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.

And as you know, Fidel Castro is the president of the nonaligned for the next three years, and we can trust him to lead the charge very efficiently.

Unfortunately they thought, "Oh, Fidel was going to die." But they're going to be disappointed because he didn't. And he's not only alive, he's back in his green fatigues, and he's now presiding the nonaligned.

So, my dear colleagues, Madam President, a new, strong movement has been born, a movement of the south. We are men and women of the south.

With this document, with these ideas, with these criticisms, I'm now closing my file. I'm taking the book with me. And, don't forget, I'm recommending it very warmly and very humbly to all of you.

We want ideas to save our planet, to save the planet from the imperialist threat. And hopefully in this very century, in not too long a time, we will see this, we will see this new era, and for our children and our grandchildren a world of peace based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations, but a renewed United Nations.

And maybe we have to change location. Maybe we have to put the United Nations somewhere else; maybe a city of the south. We've proposed Venezuela.

You know that my personal doctor had to stay in the plane. The chief of security had to be left in a locked plane. Neither of these gentlemen was allowed to arrive and attend the U.N. meeting. This is another abuse and another abuse of power on the part of the Devil. It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all.

May God bless us all. Good day to you.