George Galloway K.O.s Glass Jaw Norm With all three branches of the government firmly in the hands of neocons and the press brought to heel, it's thrilling to see a champion rise up to defend America from lies and disinformation. Yesterday's liberal juggernaut, George Galloway, English Respect Party MP. "Gorgeous George" knocked 'em to the mat. Senator Norm Coleman, who I'm ashamed to say represents the great state of Minnesotain the senate, got his ass handed to him on a platter yesterday at the Senate Hearings on the so-called "Oil for Food" scandal. Like all fascists, Norm turns into a 98 pound weakling when confronted with his own bullshit. His performance reminded me of "Glass Joe" from the 90's arcade game "Punchout". Galloway turned the tables on Norm by refusing to be on the defensive. His performance is instructive for all of us. This administration has lied so many times to the American people as to be totally untrustworthy. If we go on the attack, the house of cards will fall. Here's Galloway's closing statement to Norm's Kangaroo Court via Brad Blog. Savour the taste of victory. "Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies. “I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning. "Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies. If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth. "Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer. "Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it. "Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee. That the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government. Read Brad's Post: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001398.htm

Gary Hart's Question of The Day At The Huffington Post, Senator Gary Hart asks whether or not we're building permanent bases in Iraq: Though the press has been unaccountably lax in pursuing this question, the best evidence, mostly from non-"mainstream" sources, is that we are building somewhere between 12 and 14 permanent military bases. Permanent in this context means concrete and steel not tents and trench latrines. If the goal of the Project for a New American Century, as it thereafter became the Bush administration, was to overthrow Saddam Hussein, install a friendly government in Baghdad, set up a permanent political and military presence in Iraq, and dominate the behavior of the region (including securing oil supplies), then you build permanent bases for some kind of permanent American military presence. If the goal was to spread democracy and freedom, then you don’t. So, are we? Or are we not? Read It: The most optimistic among us might expect this administration to cut and run for the sake of political expediency as the casualties rise. The fact is, this administration's actions indicate it intends to remain in the middle east for the long haul. So far, 1,612 soldiers have died in Iraq, but ten times the number won't shake the president from his indifference to human suffering.

Enough About The White Chicks Via Atrios, a thoughtful commentary on the latent racism of our network news white chick fixation: Define racism. One could certainly make the argument that the cable networks that continually focus on these missing white women, to the virtual exclusion of minority women, are practicing a form of racism. The racism in this case, however, while predicated on color, does not concern itself with the color of one's skin. Rather, it is based on the color of money, ratings points and competition. Would an African-American woman who went missing days before her wedding receive the same (or any) coverage as that of Wilbanks? Not likely.