BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Hey Barry? CAN YA' HEAR ME NOW? By Sayed Salahuddin Taliban insurgents rejected on Wednesday a U.S. offer of "honorable reconciliation" as a "lunatic idea" and said the withdrawal of foreign troops was the only way to end the war in Afghanistan. With the Afghan conflict now in its eighth year, NATO-led forces and the Taliban are locked in a bloody stalemate with violence set to rise further this year as more U.S. troops arrive and seek to contain the insurgency ahead of August elections. President Barack Obama is redoubling U.S. efforts with more troops, more diplomatic effort and more economic assistance, but he has also already spoken of the need for an "exit strategy." If the U.S. plan fails to show results, analysts say, time is on the Taliban side. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an international conference on Afghanistan on Tuesday that those members of the Taliban who abandoned extremism must be granted an "honorable form of re...

Cheney creates his own reality: U.S. 'succeeded' in Iraq Former Vice President Dick Cheney said in his first television interview since leaving office that the Iraq invasion was "worth doing" and the U.S. succeeded with its goals - a view that is shared by few others. Comment: No doubt he refers to the minority of pathological individuals who consider success the over one million dead Iraqis, almost five thousand dead US troops and the complete destruction of an entire country. "I think it was absolutely the right thing to do and I think when history reviews this period 10 or 20 years hence, what will be significant was that we did, in fact, accomplish what we set out to do," he said. "The other things are interesting and important but, you know, they're secondary to the basic result." Cheney said on CNN's "State of the Union with John King": "We have succeeded in creating, in the heart of the Middle East, a democratic...

All acts of terrorism shock, as is their intention, but there was something about the attacks on Mumbai that was particularly chilling. To suicide bombers, or to those who flew planes into crowded buildings in New York and Washington on 9/11, their victims were anonymous and faceless, though that did not make their crimes any less heinous. The Mumbai gunmen looked their victims in the eye before killing them with automatic weapons. They mowed down the innocent and the defenceless with a callousness that was inhuman. They sought out westerners but also killed many more ordinary Indians, such as those rushing to catch a commuter train home at Mumbai’s main railway station. It is hard to think of a cause, either inside or outside India, that could justify such cold-blooded brutality, or to put yourself inside the twisted minds of those who could imagine that such extreme cowardice was in any way heroic. One victim, who miraculously survived, was first shot and then had his throat cut. Mos...

FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S SOMEWHAT TRUE! I love the Onion. When I worked I would often spend my lunch hours reading the free papers around NYC and trying not to choke on a tuna sandwich from laughing. I know from writing & performing comedy that truth is the funniest material there is. Here's a couple on recent events from The Onion that are not to be missed! The Mideast Peace Talks At last week's historic Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, MD, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sat down to begin the peace process. Here is what they agreed on: Jews will have East Jerusalem from January to June and Palestinians will have it from June to December To just meet again in another seven years The Gaza Strip is the rightful land of anybody who is nuts enough to live there Each country gets a pass on one rocketing per year Matzo/falafel cross-marketing campaign could be huge To at least fight over some nicer land Leave Becky Reynolds, wh...

OSAMA SAYS: "QUIT AFGHAN WAR", BARBARA SAYS: "SCREW YOU, OSAMA!" You know what I would take away from this? That the U.S. and our allies should not only get out of Iraq, but go BACK to Afghanistan and start STRAFING THE PLACE 24/7!! Whine away, Bin Laden. Bush may have forgotten but the people of NYC have NOT! Afghanistan, if you know what's good for you - drive this piece of pond scum out of your country before we do it for you! Europe - help us get rid of this sick **** once and for all. And his 'flying monkeys' too. And make sure there's a big ole' Magen David on the bombs you drop too. (Pardon my very unladylike talk as well. - Barbara) Al-Qaida chief: Nation shouldn't be punished for sheltering me after 9/11 Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on the Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast Thursday on Al-Jazeera television. Bin Laden said it was unj...

ACTING LIKE ITS FOR REAL When I was acting there was a principle called THE WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF - click here for explanation . I'm not sure if people are suspending reality here to think ANYTHING can actually be accomplished here. Why do we persist in thinking that we can negotiate with the Arabs? Why do we think that these leaders have any of the cajhones to take these people on? We can't - because just look at how they treat their own. Even if (miracle of miracles) we do get some PROMISE of peace (anyone having Oslo deja vu here?) can we trust or even believe them? What is wrong with people? Am I and some of my politically minded, clear-seeing friends the only ones who see this farce?? Israel wants peace. That's clear - but AT WHAT COST? How bad? Are they so desperate to "get married" they will wed themselves to evil? How long can we be ostriches? Am I one of the only ones who sees? Olmert is useless, he's not even listening to his own pe...

The Big Lie of George W. Bush by Brent Budowsky It is repeated today by Republicans on the floor of the Senate and restated on this site, only yesterday, and it goes like this: The Democrats have an al Qaeda problem, and this war, which was started with the Big Lie that claimed it was necessary to defeat bin Laden, must be continued to promote the Big Lie that to change the policy would help the terrorists, when the exact opposite is true. How odd that the title of Al Gore's brilliant film, "An Inconvenient Truth," is used to repeat this falsehood, when Gore's brilliant book, The Assault on Reason, was the most sweeping and devastating destruction of this lie that created 3,600 Gold Star Mothers and allowed bin Laden to escape, regroup and gain strength. George Bush and John McCain will be proven right about Iraq? No, the only question left is how many must continue to die for the vile, wrong, self-destructive war and how far the Senate Republicans will go to let this...

PRESIDENT BUSH LOSES HIS WAR ON TERRORISM Heck, I coulda told you this! When I heard " we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here " I almost spit out my lemonade. Apparently Dubya forgot where 9/11 happened. And he hasn't been to Dearborn, MI.. (I'm sure Debbie Schlussel would be happy to show him around.) Dubya's BFF Tony Blair, could have taken him on a long walk around London, that might have done it. They are here, Mr. President. Oh, and you almost sold our ports to your buddies the Saudis too. So explain to me how that's winning the war on terrorism? How's that over there and not HERE? I am not, by any means, saying we don't need to fight and protect our country, our children or our way of life from the Islamofascists. As I have heard said "war is profane, defense is compulsory." Absolutely compulsory. And terrorists don't understand rhetoric or negotiations - they understand one thing and...

DICK'S STILL SINGING THE SAME TIRED SONG When I was a teenager many radio stations started using a computer fed format. It did away with the need for disc jockeys. A predictable pattern of tunes was programmed onto a computer and the sequence varied every few hours until the whole thing was reprogrammed with the latest top 40 hits or new releases. And so it goes with the Vice President. Apparently this man either doesn't get out much or is locked into a cycle of "this fear-mongering worked before so it should work again" mentality. This particular cycle still has him trying to link Al-Queda to the war in Iraq. The PNAC kool-aid. This link has been debunked so many times, its almost pathetic that these West Point grads had to sit and listen to this. The war had just started when they enrolled and now at graduation they have to listen to the Vice President who swore in April 2003 that major combat operations in Iraq had ended. So, when some of these cadets are d...

"Explosive" new Hersh scoop: Bush funneling money to Al Qaeda-related groups by Evan Derkacz So what could possibly be more "EXPLOSIVE" and "DEPRESSING" than the fact that the president is having a 24 hour attack plan drawn up for targets in Iran? Why, funding anti-Shiite Sunnis linked to Al Qaeda without Congressional approval and without appropriate appropriation, of course. Seymour Hersh's latest piece in the New Yorker reveals that the Pentagon is accelerating plans for an attack on Iran, that ex-Iran-Contra figure John Negroponte is moving to the State Dept because he's "too ethical" for the Pentagon and that the president is pushing the "absolute limit" of his authority in bypassing Congress and sowing the seeds of an even greater Middle East clusterfuck. For This Entire Post and Video CLICK HERE When I heard this on my daily talk-radio diet today, I almost fainted!! More horrible than we all imagined! - B.