Iraq, Afghanistan, Anti Anti-Terror, FEC Abstains and Bush Bucks.

President Bush's attempts at imperialism are starting to stink like week old fish. Someone should have told him that it's a lot easier to get into messes than to get out of them.

Now he has two full blown messes on his hands and Bush has no idea of what to do.

So we'll just mark time and keep feeding troops into the Hell that Bush has created until someone tells the War President to just declare victory and leave. That way Bush can save face and troops at the same time.

We're finding out that a lot of lying went on in an attempt to cover up the slaughter at Haditha. In a really lame public relations effort, the Pentagon is ordering troops to undergo "ethics training."

The U.S. military investigation of how Marine commanders handled the reporting
of events last November in the Iraqi town of Haditha, where troops allegedly
killed 24 Iraqi civilians, will conclude that some officers gave false
information to their superiors, who then failed to adequately scrutinize reports
that should have caught their attention, an Army official said yesterday.

We've just found out that our troops killed two women at an observation post. One was on the way to the hospital to give birth. And we watch a bad situation get worse.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. forces killed two Iraqi women — one of them about to give
birth — when the troops shot at a car that failed to stop at an observation post
in a city north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials and relatives said Wednesday

It's hard to understand the confident statements coming from the White House, when we don't even have control in Baghdad.

BAGHDAD, May 31 -- For many of the 12-year-olds bent over their final exams
in classrooms where the stifling heat already edged toward 100 degrees by 9
a.m., Wednesday's tests would signal the end of their families' days in Iraq

Sometime after 9 a.m., bullets started flying. The 12-year-olds, well into
their math tests, "were terrified," screaming and sobbing, said Um Bakir, a
mother who recounted the battle. The parent of a sixth-grader, she would
identify herself over the telephone only by her family name, which means mother
of Bakir. She refused to identify her son, citing fears for the family's
safety.

According to Bush's new Domestic Policy Advisor Karl Zinsmeister, "the battle of Iraq is no longer one of war fighting—but of policing and politics."

Iraq's President has declared Basra in a state of emergency. They must need more police and politics. I'd send Zinsmeister, he thinks he's an expert.

BAGHDAD, May 31 -- Alarmed by an explosion of crime and violence in the vital
southern city of Basra, the Iraqi prime minister visited local leaders there on
Wednesday, declared a state of emergency and warned that he would respond to
security threats "with an iron hand."

The bad situation in Afghanistan is picking up momentum as the Afghan patience is wearing thin with Bush and his puppet leader Hamid Karzai.

Something has gone alarmingly wrong in Afghanistan, previously touted as the
Bush administration's one quasi-successful venture in nation-building.
Afghanistan's rising carnage still has not reached Iraq-like levels. But the
trend is running in decidedly the wrong direction. Poorly thought-out American
policies are at least partly to
blame.
Unless Washington starts correcting its mistakes, parts of Afghanistan could
start tumbling back toward the kind of anarchic chaos that once made such areas
an attractive sanctuary for international terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

We did come out and admit that American troops fired into the crowd at the traffic accident, instead of just over their heads. Of course, all those dead and wounded Afghans kind of forced our hand.

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 31 -- U.S. military officials acknowledged Wednesday
that American troops had fired at an angry mob that surrounded the scene of a
traffic accident in the Afghan capital Monday morning. Officials previously had
said the troops fired only into the air.

Trouble in Afghanistan is not just Talibanism, from Pakistan's Daily Times.

There are also reports that much of the money for reconstruction is not being
properly utilised and ends up in Western coffers through salaries and
commissions to Western staff and experts hired for advice. There are also
allegations of corruption. Much of this information is not hidden. Recent
conferences in Kabul have pointed to this rising menace of corruption and
nepotism and Afghans have indicated that they are not happy with the situation.
The logical conclusion is that some people are getting very rich while the
majority is still below the poverty line. Add to that the element of ubiquitous
violence and we have a mix that is highly inflammable. The bombing of the mosque
will add fuel to this fire.

Some getting very rich, while most are in poverty, sounds like the Republicans are in charge over there. Oh yeah, they are.

Things are going so well in the States that Homeland Security is cutting anti-terrorism funds to NYC and D.C.. They're probably just anticipating the repeal of the estate tax. Gotta cut back somewhere. Besides, what's the chance that terrorists would choose New York City or Washington D.C. to attack?

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday slashed anti-terrorism money for
Washington and New York, part of an immediately controversial decision to reduce
grant funds for major urban areas in the Northeast while providing more to
mid-size cities from Jacksonville to Sacramento.

The Federal Election Commission has decided that it is easier to do nothing than something.

The same rules that allowed independent "527" groups such as America Coming
Together and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to pump more than $400 million into
the 2004 election campaigns will remain in place for now, the Federal Election
Commission announced yesterday, a decision that invites even larger sums to be
spent influencing races this year and in 2008.

Bush received $45,000 in illegal campaign contributions. But, like any good Bush will tell you, there's no such thing as good money or bad money, money is all there is.

TOLEDO, May 31 -- A coin dealer and prominent GOP fundraiser at the center of an
Ohio political scandal pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges that he
illegally funneled about $45,000 to President Bush's reelection campaign.