On May 19th Reuters released the following statement from the Commanding general of all forces in Iraq -

The U.S. military's top commander in Iraq said he believed at least two of three missing U.S. soldiers abducted a week ago were still alive.

General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said it had been feared one of the missing three might have died, but he did not know for certain if all three were alive or dead.
"As of this morning, we thought there were at least two that were probably still alive," Petraeus told the U.S. Army newspaper Army Times in an interview on Friday.

"At one point in time there was a sense that one of them might have died, but again we just don't know," he said.

What the hell is wrong with these people are they just ignorant or do they have an overwhelming need to see their name in print?

If two of the three soldiers are alive, and I hope that is so, Petraeus most probably just sealed their fate. If I was a relative of the three I would be raising hell right now. Doesn't anybody that is supposed to be in charge have any common sense? I am more convinced than ever that their all blooming idiots.

For those of you that don't subscribe to the Mississippi Press, I have posted below a letter I wrote that was published on 14 May 2007. I have highlighted a portion of the letter I will discuss further after you have read the letter -

During the past couple of weeks Mr. Don Brimm and I have been exchanging pleasantries about this twice unelected president and the illegal invasion of Iraq. I'm sure it will come as a relief to you and your readers that I have no intention of continuing this debate. It is patently clear to me that my logical and sound reasoning will not penetrate the neo-con wall that Mr. Brimm has chosen to surround himself with. I am convinced this wall is designed to keep out all reason, logic and the truth. I shall make one more comment - as to my statement in the last letter I wrote that we are real close to being a fascist society, I shall refer Mr. Brimm and others to the following website - http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

Now on to some other issues -

From time to time this paper and "the other coast paper" will publish an editorial or a letter from a citizen of the coast bemoaning the fact that despite acquiring thousands of signatures we were not able to persuade our 19th century minded legislatures to pass an animal cruelty bill with some teeth in it. Invariably the author will site Representative Jeff Smith as a driving force to get this kind of legislation passed. Let me once again remind your readers of an incident that happened to a citizen of the coast when she tried to convince Smith that this legislation needed to be passed. She presented him with the petitions we had acquired, again with thousands of signatures, he told her in no uncertain terms that as long as he was the chairman of the Judiciary B committee a bill making animal abuse a felony would never get out of committee. He is still the committee chairman and has yet to let a felony animal abuse bill out of his committee. It is my understanding that a committee chairman has the power to push a bill to the floor even if it meets major opposition by the other members of a committee. In short - don't think Smith is going to be the hero of the hour.

As reported in this paper on the 2nd of May of this year candidate for LtGov State Senator Charlie Ross, Republican, called for a special session of the state legislature to address his proposal for a voter ID bill. The Republicans in state after state are trying to push a voter ID law down the throat's of their state citizens. They always use the same argument - "It will stop voter fraud". Expert after expert have studied this allegation every time this argument rears its ugly head, and have all arrived at the same conclusion - there is no proof that in recent history massive voter fraud ever occurred. These same experts agree that ALL voter ID bill's are meant to suppress the vote of persons of color. It is just another version of the "poll tax". I urge all of you that are concerned about a further watering down of your civil rights, call your state representative and make them aware that you do not support a voter ID bill in this state.

Last item of concern - why is the State Health Department so concerned about protecting the health of the citizens of this state by closing down mom and pop operations that sell home baked, and canned goods at farmers market's, but don't seem to care about the pollution foisted on the citizens of this state by the likes of DuPont and Chevron? Could it be that money talks?

Now as to the reason I have posted this letter and highlighted the portion concerning voter ID and the attempt by the Republican Party to impose rules that are meant for one thing and one thing only - to suppress and intimidate the vote of people of color. It just happened that on the same day the Mississippi Press printed my letter Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! conducted an interview with the well respected, and much published, reporter, Greg Palast. The gist of the interview was that he had gotten his hands on 500 of the e-mails that Karl Rove had either initiated or had received. The majority of this e-mails were related to the on going scandal involving Gonzales and the firing of U.S. Attorneys. The content of some of these e-mails left no doubt that in some cases the firings were because the attorneys would not go along with Republican schemes to suppress the vote of people of color. You can either view the entire interview read a transcript of the interview here. What I was not aware of was that one of the fired attorneys, David Iglesias, is the person Tom Cruise portrayed in the movie " A Few Good Men".

Crooks and Liars

For those of you that haven't seen it, please use the following link to watch a video from You Tube of what can only be described as the unvarnished truth that this administration doesn't want us to see.

Crooks and Liars

The following is an analysis of how far the State of Mississippi has allowed its Medicaid program to fall. All statistics are from Public Citizen and are reflected in the following categories: (note: all italics are copied from the Public Citizen web site)

Elgibility - The state ranks 49th in eligibility. This reflects its restriction of services to those at the lowest mandated poverty level in most cases, leaving out many who cannot afford private health insurance, and its exclusion of those who are poor due to extreme health care costs, the medically needy. This poor showing in eligibility in Mississippi means that large numbers of people are excluded from Medicaid just because of where they happen to live, and they would be covered in a state with more lenient eligibility criteria.

Scope of Services - The score for scope of services is the lowest in the nation and represents only 33.4 percent of the total value. This reflects not only the exclusion of some services (e.g., psychologist services, dentures, hearing aids, prosthetic and orthotic devices, among others) but also the fact that the state has limitations in terms of amount, type, duration, and frequency of services, all of which cost points in the final score. The state scores particularly poorly in the subcategories of devices and equipment and rehabilitation. This poor showing in scope of services means that, even if people qualify for the program, they may not have access to many services provided to Medicaid recipients in states with a broader benefits package.

Quality of Care - In terms of quality of care, it ranks 25th. This reflects a better-than-average performance in staffing and monitoring nursing care, indicators in which many other state programs are quite deficient.

Provider Reimbursement - In the reimbursement category, Mississippi is tied with four other states in the 30th rank. Despite its obvious deficiencies in covering a population in need, Mississippi does a creditable job in paying its providers in comparison with both national standards and their Medicare counterparts. Nevertheless, it loses points in this category because it provides low provider payments for gynecological services and spends less than average on care per enrollee.

Mississippi ranks 50th in the U.S. for providing Medicaid services to its citizens. Though Quality of Care and Provider Reimbursement statistics are in the middle, the two biggest factors and most important are how many people Mississippi excludes (Elgibility) from Medicaid and how many services and needed prosthetic devices are excluded (Scope of Services).

You can go to an interactive summary of the report here. This site will not only let you view how Mississippi ranks in all of the rated areas, but you can also see how the other states ranked.

This wonderful and at the same time frightening slide show about a report from The Guardian (a U.K. paper) appeared in The Guardian on the 2nd of May. He is imbedded with their version of a MASH unit. The call theirs an Incident Response Team (IRT). Please go here to view this eye opening slide show. You will never see anything like this published by ANY U.S. news agency.

One of my favorite cartoon strips was and is "Calvin and Hobbs. Last Xmas my daughter gave me the Complete Calvin and Hobbs. There are three volumes that run from the beginnig until Bill Waterson stopped publishing it on December 31st 1995. Like me, it was a sad day for a lot of Americans. I am currently on volume 3.

On August 9, 1992 Waterson published a cartoon that can only be called prescient. Given the state of the worlds environment I thought it would be appropriate to share this particular cartoon with you all. It is in the form of a poem (anybody that is at all familiar with Waterson's work knows that he was particularly gifted in writing poetry), and needs no illustrations to accompany it.

Without further adieu and with thanks to Bill Waterson -

The Aliens came
from a far distant world
in a large yellow ship
that blinked as it twirled.
It rounded the moon,
entered our sky.
We knew they had come
but we didn't know why.

Bright the next morning,
with noisy commotioin,
the ship slowly moved
out over the ocean.
It lowered a tube
and drained the whole sea
for transport back home
to their galaxy.

The tube then sucked up
the clouds and the air,
causing no amount
of earthling despair.
With nothing to breathe,
we started to die.
"Help us! Please stop!"
Was the public outcry.

A hatch opened up
and the aliens said,
"we're sorry to learn
that you soon will be dead,
but though you may find
this slightly macabre,
we prefer your extinction
to the loss of our job."


The last frame shows Calvin sitting next to Hobbs. He hands him a piece of paper and says - " That's my science fiction story. Think it's too far-fetched?" Hobbs replies - " Not enough, really"

While I was researching another administration faux pas today, I came across something that our twice unelected president said to some of his GOP cronies in December 2005. I don't recall if I heard this at the time. Either way it is worth bringing to the fore front again. When I first came across this today I couldn't believe that anybody, let alone an individual serving in a position that is supposed to protect the freedoms of ALL Americans, actually said it. I did a lot of research and after having found the evidence at many different places I have arrived at the conclusion that the following is true.

In December of 2005 a group of GOP Senators met with the dictator-to-be to discuss the renewal of certain elements of the Patriot Act. They cautioned the dictator-to-be that some of the provisions could be in direct conflict with the Constitution. Here is his reply -

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face! It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

Sources say the president, when told his insistence on preserving some provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives following the Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination disaster, stated, "I don't give a goddamn: I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

Are you scared yet? You should be. Is it no wonder we are in the perilous position were in and that our freedoms and the American way of life are teetering on the brink of destruction?