Iraq elections look like phoney, corrupt exercise as their polticians fight with courts

Preparations for elections in Iraq next month have been thrown into disarray by a row over a court ruling allowing hundreds of candidates to stand, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The candidates were banned because they are affiliated with Saddam Hussein's Baath party which ruled the country before the invasion in 2003.

The Iraqi government has condemned the court's decision and is set to hold an emergency debate on Sunday.

Campaigning is due to start on the same day for the 7 March poll.

A government spokesman said the court decision was "illegal and unconstitutional".

The election is regarded as a crucial test for Iraq's national reconciliation process ahead of a planned US military withdrawal.

On Wednesday, the appeals panel ruling overturned a ban on hundreds of politicians from running for public office.

Baathism is a form of secular Arab nationalism and was the ideology espoused by Saddam Hussein when he came to power.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says although the list of names straddles the sectarian divide, Sunni groups have felt most targeted by the exclusions, and their protests have been loudest.

Although a minority, Sunni Muslims were dominant under Saddam Hussein's rule but have since complained of being marginalised under the post-Saddam Shia-led government. The ruling would allow the candidates to stand for election, and be subject to investigation only after the polls.

No surprise, US officials had voiced concerns about the ban, fearing that it could inflame sectarian tensions and undermine confidence in the electoral process.

The Iraq war was promoted by Republicans and the Democratic Leadership Council, which has primarily morphed into the New Democrat Coalition, which backed an extra 50,000 troops for Afghanistan to be authorized by the President last year.

Kent Conrad on Ed Schultz show - UGH! and Matthews pins Social Security Cut Plan

Kent Conrad is the biggest baloney New Democrat Coalition stooge of them all. Schultz had him on recently to promote the cut Medicare and slash Social Security commission.

Wake up, Ed. This is the enemy.

Meanwhile, Chris Matthews finally found some progressive gonads on Feb. 1 and pinned the GOP on their plans to cut Social Security. Clip is from YouTube



Members of the New Democrat Coaition will vote with the GOP to cut Social Security and Medicare when the votes comes. They will also support a Value Added Tax (VAT) "to balance the budget." The VAT is a national sales tax - one sure way to cut down the income and transfer wealth from the middle class to the elite.

The Hensarling encounter on MSNBC was summarized well by Rachel Slajda at tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com:

In the name of deficit reduction, House Republicans are going back to the Social Security well, offering budget proposals similar to those President George W. Bush proposed after his 2004 re-election that would privatize Social Security accounts and reduce cost of living adjustments.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) appeared on Hardball tonight and advocated balancing the budget by privatizing Social Security and cutting benefits for those now under 55.

"You can get better health care and better retirement security if you go to a defined contribution plan. We had this debate in Social Security a few years ago," Hensarling said:

A "defined contribution plan" means the amount contributed to the plan on the front end is fixed. Social Security and traditional pensions are "defined benefit plans," where the amount paid out on the back-end is fixed according to a formula.

"Are those under 55 ... gonna get the same deal as their parents? No, probably not," he said.

Throughout the interview, the congressman said Social Security benefits should be kept the same for those already receiving them, or those over 55.

"You mean cut Social Security benefits as a way of balancing the budget," Chris Matthews said.

Hensarling rejected Matthews' wording, but continued to call for privatization and reduced benefits for those under 55.

Obama's Rahm bomb stalked for GOP, NAFTA, New Democrat Coalition stooges

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was telling Democrats at Christmas that a win on the health issue will reverse the slide in public opinion, just as passage of another controversial proposal, the North American Free Trade Agreement, lifted President Bill Clinton in the polls.

Most modern media pundits don't mention, don't recall, or don't care that Rahm helped to ram NAFTA through Congress, and nothing has destroyed jobs more than this coporate giveaway. Factories opened in Mexico as fast as they closed in U.S.A. Our media accepted terms like "made in north america", as if that helped your parents keep their job at GM.

For Rahm the Democratic Leadership Council and Bill Clinton were the perfect tools of big business. The result was kicking millions off welfare, reducing Social Security benefits, and killing the union movement. Clinton didn't care, because he was too busy chasing skirt.

In the intervening years Rahm has risen in the political potty to swim at the top as Barack Obama's chief of staff, and has achieved a reputation for convincing Republicans to run as Democrats with Democrat money, then approving when they voted Republican.

Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson and dozens of other Senators and Representatives in the New Democrat Coalition, are the people Rahm admires. They are gutless liars, who weasel against anything for the middle class, and their allegiance is only to the campaign payoffs from corporations.

All of them would have voted for NAFTA. None of them approve of unions. All of them whine about fiscal responsibility, and then approve every war dollar spent. They all owe a lot to Rahm and his potty mouth.

Rahm and his entourage, which includes Obama, will never allow card check for unions, universal health care, an end to Bush tax cuts for the rich, or real regulation of Wall Street. And you can forget about healthcare, because that might close the spigot on the rape of the middle class.

PETA can't see its own shadowy stupidity

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in.

PETA says it's unfair to keep the animal in captivity and subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that accompany tens of thousands of revelers each Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model.

But William Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, says the animal is "being treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania." The groundhog is kept in a climate-controlled environment and is inspected annually by the state Department of Agriculture.

Perhaps, we should replace the directors Of PETA with robots, because it is cruel and unusual punishment to allow morons to run any organization.

Conan Screws NBC

I like Ed Schultz, but...

Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), the head of the New Democrat Coalition taskforce on healthcare, suggested that Senate Democrats may use budget reconciliation to pass a health bill if the Republican candidate wins a special election in Massachusetts on Tuesday.

Other options that have been discussed include the House of Representatives simply passing the bill that the Senate passed on Christmas Eve.

This is because Martha Coakley, democrat nominee for Senator, has run a lousy campaign, and many voters in Massachusetts also consider this election a referendum on President Obama, who has gained a reputation for catering to big corporations at the expense of the public good.

Ed Schultz is on tv at this moment endorsing Martha so we can give Obama another year of his super majority in the senate. Years ago,there would have been outrage against GE and Comcast for allowing commentators to use time to endorse political candidates as though it was the position of the network.

Ed is a great commentator, even though he is losing his edge and kissing up to Obama on cue, by allowing clowns like Sens. Menendez and Conrad to be guests.

What has happened to equal time. Fox is even fairer than this.

New Democrat Coalition responsible for fashioning Obama's lousy healthcare plan

There is a Sen. Ben Nelson healthcare plan, but it's really not just him. Sen. Max Baucus was the primary destroyer of single payer and public option. Sen. Kent Conrad was laughing while the bill was gutted. Sen. Blanche Lincoln never saw a bill that favored citizens she couldn't vote against.

They all have something in common, besides hate of the masses.

All are members of the New Democrat Coalition, a political cult supported by big corporations and beholden to the Democratic Leadership Council and Bill Clinton, and strangely supportive of the goals of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Mort Zuckermans of the world and their ties to the Trilateral Commission.

This not meant to sound like a conspiracy theory, but when time after time, a group of Democrats vote for Republican issues, they can't be counted as anything but Republicans - not so-called centrist statespersons.

The next crusade of these vile patricians is to gut Social Security and Medicare in order to cripple the elderly middle class. The biggest liar in this campaign, Pete Peterson employee David Walker, is already making the rounds for his hedge fund founder puppetmaster, trying to sell a commission that could set taxes and cut our benefits without anything more than an up and down rubber stamp without amendment by Congress.

These people are evil. Sadly, they have no moral compass except power and elite and effete sequestration from the rest of humanity.