I saw the film STOP-LOSS last night. I don't go to the movies much, usually waiting for a film to turn up on DVD.

But I went to see this one because, like all anti-war films, no one is seeing it despite an all star cast topped by Ryan Phillipe (who deserves an Oscar for this performance).

Some of the critics say it's not anti-war just pro GI. To me there is no difference. By graphically showing what the war does to these American kids (and what the war makes them do), it cannot help but lead the viewer to conclude that all these kids need to come home now.

STOP-LOSS is the procedure by which Bush can keep extending a soldier's tour of duty in Iraq after the fighter's commitment has ended. The kid can be back home in Indiana or Brooklyn tending to the kids and the job when he or she can be summoned back. He either goes back or goes to jail.

As STOP-LOSS shows, alot of these kids are barely holding it together. The war messed them up bad. Another tour could either kill them or leave them mentally ill for life.

But no matter. Bush can't sustain his commitment to 140,000 troops in Iraq without using and reusing the same soldiers.

It is sickening. We are all used to the government lying. But with stop-loss, the government breaks its commitment to the soldier in a way that can and often does lead to his death.

But, as I said, no one is seeing this film, just like they didn't go to the theaters to watch RENDITION. We don't want to know.

One group of war enablers should have to see STOP-LOSS. That would be every Democrat in the House and Senate who voted for the war knowing it was wrong but because it was politically expedient. They should see what they did. All the rest of us should see it because, if these kids are living this hell, at least we should know what it looks and feels like.

It's a great film.

Readers know that I have long believed that Charles Krauthammer is out of his mind. And they know that I don't believe that only because he's a right-wing extremist and a neocon promoter of everything evil in American foreign policy. For instance, I don't think Bill Kristol is nuts. I just think that he's a right-wing extremist and a neocon promoter of everything evil in American foreign policy.

But Krauthammer is different because he is such a complete hater. Hate is his life-blood and he demonstrates that at every opportunity. Additionally, I had that amazing experience of watching him flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur in 2001 when he began to bellow (from his pew) at the rabbi for saying that ultimately there must be peace in the Middle East. It was the first and only time I've ever seen anyone bellow from his seat at the rabbi -- on Yom Kippur no less.

But today Charles ratchets it up.

Read more »

Earlier today I posted a piece from today's Los Angeles Times which trashes Barack Obama for being perceived as empathetic to Palestinians.

It's a ridiculous piece. Writer Peter Wallsten, seems to be suggesting that Obama may have problems with Jews because some Arabs like him.

But thanks to TPM Cafe reader Lally and the great NATION reporter, Ari Berman, we now have the rest of the story. Turns out that Wallsten was trolling for anti-Obama dirt and turned to the far right Kahanist blogger Debbie Schlussel to give it to him. She obliged but because he didn't credit her, she blows the whistle on him.

Schlussel also also reveals that Wallsten, the LA Times reporter on the Obama beat, is desperately trying to find links between Obama and Farrakhan. (I guess that is the "scandal" the Clinton folks are counting on to end Obama's candidacy, the one they keep hinting about.)

It's pretty amazing. When did the Los Angeles Times stop being a real newspaper? Will it soon recruit Michelle Malkin to write about the immigration debate? It already has Lucianne Goldberg's son as a regular columnist. How low can it go?

The good news. We have a heads up on the Farrakhan story. The inside scoop is that he and Obama use the same barber. And that barber once said Ariel Sharon had a weight problem. You read it here first. Get ready for the firestorm.

Mark Penn may be gone but his spirit lives on.

A major piece in today's Los Angeles Times reveals that Obama may face political problems because Arab-Americans "consider him receptive despite his clear support of Israel."

This is all part of the continuing effort (especially in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh these days) to paint Obama as something less than a friend of Israel.

This is nothing new.

Read more »

Every day I hear Obama and Clinton supporters say that they have no intention of voting for the Democratic nominee if Obama [or Clinton] is "robbed" of the Democratic nomination.

It's no surprise. This is a heated campaign and feelings are intense.

But let's all take a pledge that no matter if we nominate Clinton, Obama (or any Democrat other than Zell Miller), we will vote Democratic and tell our friends to do the same.

The reason: we don't want to die. At least, not earlier than absolutely necessary.

Read more »

How amazing is it that Doug Feith has the audacity to go on Sixty Minutes to essentially brag about the war he and his fellow neocons tricked America into?

4000 Americans dead. Iraq destroyed. Thousands of dead Iraqi children.

And this war criminal goes on television to hawk his book. Watch this portion of the interview. To his credit, interviewer Steve Kroft looks like he wants to vomit.

But why belabor Feith. Any administration that would give this guy a security clearance, let alone make him #2 at the Pentagon, clearly knew what it was doing. Feith is an idiot but he is what Bush and Cheney wanted.

And he regrets nothing. Does being an American, even an American traitor, mean that you never have to say you are sorry? Not even for dead American teenagers and Iraqi babies. Not for those brain damaged young soldiers at Walter Reed and other VA hospitals.

Sickening.

For Feith's sake, I hope there is no God. (Actually, I don't).

For more information on Feith, read this.