Security in Iraq, or John McCain is an asshole part 2

From the Times of London: "A newborn baby was one of at least 14 children and adults killed when a suicide bomber detonated a lorry laden with explosives close to a primary school in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk yesterday.

The latest massacre of Iraqi children came as 21 Shia market workers were ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital. The victims came from the Baghdad market visited the previous day by John McCain, the US presidential candidate, who said that an American security plan in the capital was starting to show signs of progress."

Part 1 is here.

Expectant...

Expectant..., originally uploaded by Stephen10031.

I saw these chaps in Tribeca the other day.

Snow, Tribeca, April

Snow, Tribeca, April, originally uploaded by Stephen10031.

A half hour later, it was bright sunshine. At this spot, 291 Church Street, a gallery called Apexart has a small exhibition of art relating to the Comedy Central show, Drawn Together.

Cutting smoking, trans fats and... weenies

I hate Republicans as much for their incoherence as for any other of a multitude of reasons. The incoherence of conservatism in this country begins with the claim that government is the problem, not the solution, a big central tenet of the Cult of Reagan. One might usefully ask all Republicans, why, if they hate government so much, do they ever run so eagerly for office or fight with such passion to get their hands on the levers of legislative power, but don't expect a coherent answer.

The Bush Administration is so messed up that it cut the federal budget for the levees at New Orleans a year before Hurricane Katrina, while spending and even just losing track of, unheard-of amounts of tax payers money... in Iraq.

In every direction, the party of small government reaches out with its stinking, blood-dripping hands and seizes whomever by the throat and croaks "do as I say, not as I do." Remember how Terry Schiavo was fair game?

Milder, but no less incoherent examples can be seen here in New York City. Local Republican Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, showed his adherence to the government-is-bad mantra first by banning smoking in public spaces. More recently, trans fats were banned in all city restaurants. And now, not content with regulating pedicabs and anything else that looks regulate-able, the Department of Health wants to regulate your penis:

"New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is planning a campaign to encourage men at high risk of AIDS to get circumcised in light of the World Health Organization’s endorsement of the procedure as an effective way to prevent the disease."

John McCain is an asshole, part 1

And so are all Republicans and Democrats, and anyone who has ever opened their stupid mouth and offered empty words that supported the Iraq War and the vile, evil, blood-dripping monster occupant of the White House.

On a Sunday visit to a Baghdad market, the McCain "delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit."

McCain's pal Mike Pence then told reporters that the market was: “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime."

Local Iraqi shopkeepers then told reporters after that the security measures were "abnormal." And so is anyone with their moral sense in the sewer that is American politics, a sewer so disgusting that George Bush and his party saw fit to start a war that guaranteed their reelection in 2004 and lotsa contracts for their corporate buddies. Bush had one policy in 2000, and that was to start a war. The man looked like, smelt like and was a schmuck then, and the media looked at him and didn't call him a schmuck, and I guarantee you there are reporters everywhere who knew that he wasn't fit for office and didn't say a word.

Why is this allowed to happen? Does anyone else share my sense of fury that this sort of shit is happening before our eyes? People at this market will die in terrorist attacks in Iraq before the year is out, but this is a fair price for McCain and company to get a photo-op.

Is there any material difference between this sort of behavior and eating human flesh?