Yellow Dog

If you happen to get sick, don't expect any help from the so-called "compassionate conservatives" running our country (into the ground). Not only has the Bush administration cut workers' overtime pay and refused to raise the minimum wage, but now the Dept. of Labor is reporting a huge reduction in the number of paid sick days for employees. How ironic that this comes at the same time the incompetent Bush admin. oversaw a shortage of the flu vaccine.

According to the article in USA Today,
"Some employees say they feel pressured not to take time off.

Tanya Frazier says she was fired from her job as an executive assistant after taking time off to care for her 9-year-old daughter, who had the flu. She says she had used all the nine sick days allowed by her employer.

"My boss said, 'You're too dedicated a mother and not dedicated to your job,' " says Frazier, 39, a single mother in Topanga, Calif., who now is a temp."

So much for the "family values" that Repugs are always touting.


Yahoo! News - Sick days dwindle, disappear for many

This interactive page from the Washington Post is pretty powerful (and depressing). It's called "Faces of the Fallen" and includes the picture, name, and age of American soldiers killed in Iraq along with a description of how they were killed.

washingtonpost.com: Faces of the Fallen

An update on casualties: 1170 US dead; 1316 coalition dead
53 coalition casualties so far this month, for an average of almost 5 deaths per day

Hey, Bush voters: Still think Bush's war of choice was worth it? Still think it doesn't matter that we haven't found any WMD and went to war based on lies? Do you think at all? (Apparently not, since you voted to give the man responsible for the senseless killing a second term.)

To Ashcroft's recent resignation as Attorney General, I can only say "Good riddance." He was a divisive, polarizing figure who trumpeted indictments of terrorists like Moussaioui or Padilla that ended up going nowhere. According to this news report, "With Attorney General John Ashcroft, the country often got more bark than bite from its Justice Department chief. Usually willing, often eager to get on television to announce a development in the legal war on terror, many of Ashcroft's heralded breakthroughs turned out to be far less decisive and important than first declared."

CBS News | Ashcroft's Mixed Legacy | November 10, 2004 11:14:47

But now Bush has nominated Alberto Gonzales to take Ashcroft's place. Here are few of his credentials:

On Jan. 25, 2002, Mr. Gonzales wrote a memorandum to President Bush in which he supported the Justice Department's position that suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban members did not need to be treated according to rules of the Geneva Conventions, which govern treatment of prisoners of war.

Even Secretary of State (Colin) Powell objected to Mr. Gonzales' memorandum undermining the Geneva Conventions, which Mr. Gonzales called 'obsolete' and 'quaint.'"

Gonzales also defended the administration's policy — essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in lower courts — of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.

Bush Names Gonzales to Succeed Ashcroft

Oh well, I guess the Chief of the Justice Dept. shouldn't let pesky things like international treaties and the rule of law get in his way.

Since we're hearing so much about how Bush supporters voted their "values" (very narrowly defined), it's time for an update on the "payoff" of this administration's moral decision-making, such as the decision to launch a pre-emptive war in Iraq:

--Total Iraq Casualties: US 1147; Coalition 1293
--US fatalities so far this month (as of 11/10): 26
--Some headlines from today (11/10):

DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Cpl. Robert P. Warns II, 23, of Waukesha, Wis., died Nov. 8 as a result of enemy action in Babil Province, Iraq.

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty
Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Zapp, 20, of Houston, Texas, died Nov. 8 as a result of enemy action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq.

DOD Identifies Air Force Casualty
Master Sgt. Steven E. Auchman, 37, of Waterloo, N.Y., died Nov. 9 from injuries received when multiple rocket propelled grenades struck his location in Mosul, Iraq.

AFP: US soldiers in Iraq hit by parasite
MORE than 650 US troops deployed in Iraq have been infected with a fly-borne parasite that causes chronic, festering sores.

Reuters: Rebels hold 20 national guards
IRAQI rebels released a video today showing what they said were 20 Iraqi national guards they had captured in Fallujah.

AP: Car Bomb Targeting Iraqi Police Kills 10
A car bomb targeting police exploded Wednesday in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 10 people, police said.

AP: Iraq Troops Find 'Hostage Slaughterhouses'
An Iraqi general said troops found "hostage slaughterhouses" where foreign captives had been killed.

Three relatives of Allawi kidnapped in Baghdad
A cousin of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the cousin's wife and his daughter-in-law were kidnapped on Tuesday evening from their house in Baghdad, a source from the premier's political party said on Wednesday.


Now, let's review the moral and ethical decisions that led to the war in Iraq:
A) We went to war in Iraq because Saddam had WMD and was a threat to the US. Oops, it was later discovered that that was a BIG LIE (but the morally courageous Bush took the high road and blamed it on "faulty intelligence" that he received).
B) We went to war in Iraq to avenge the deaths of US citizens on 9-11. Oops again, the connection between Al Quaeda and Saddam has never been proven (and has been actively disproven, despite Cheney's BIG LIES to the contrary).
C) We went to war with Iraq because they have the second largest oil reserves next to Saudi Arabia (and to get Cheney's company, Halliburton, a lot of lucrative contracts). This is more likely to be true--or at least hasn't been disproven like the reasons above--but is this an ethical or moral reason to launch a pre-emptive attack? Even the duped Repugs know the answer to this rhetorical question.

Here you go, Bush voters. This blood is on your hands now.

Iraq Coalition Casualties

New term for the Bush Administration: Same Incompetence

"Several thousand shoulder-fired missiles -- the kind that could be used to shoot down aircraft -- are missing in Iraq, and their disappearance has prompted U.S. military and intelligence analysts to increase sharply their estimate of the number of such weapons that may be at large, administration officials said yesterday.

Government officials said the threat that the Iraqi missiles could be used to target military or civilian aircraft remains a very real one.

The U.S.-led invasion forces did not secure all weapons depots in Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of tons of munitions were looted. U.S. officials fear that the shoulder-launched missiles were among the items carried off by groups willing to sell them on the black market to terrorist organizations.

Western intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of al Qaeda's desire to acquire the missiles for use against American and other airliners. The weapons are easy to hide and cost relatively little -- from less than $1,000 to $100,000 each.

In 2002, terrorists launched two Russian-made SA-7 missiles at a commercial airliner taking off from Mombasa, Kenya. The State Department estimated in 2003 that more than 40 aircraft have been struck by portable missiles since the 1970s, causing at least 24 crashes and more than 600 deaths worldwide."

Oh well, at least we should be thankful we don't have gay marriage.

Missing Antiaircraft Missiles Alarm Aides (washingtonpost.com)

Some Sunday thoughts on the power of utter blind faith:

"It simply boggles the mind: we've already had four years of some of the most appalling and abusive foreign and domestic policy in American history, some of the most well-documented atrocities ever wrought on the American populace and it's all combined with the biggest and most violently botched and grossly mismanaged war since Vietnam, and much of the nation still insists in living in a giant vat of utter blind faith, still insists on believing the man in the White House couldn't possibly be treating them like a dog treats a fire hydrant."

(Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle)