Carving the Pumpkin

Slugbug: Cheney s/p trephination & prefrontal lobotomy

Kayakbiker: PeacePumpkin
________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, back at reality:

20 headless corpses found in Iraq, police say
U.S. brigadier general injured in IED attack; 29 killed in suicide bombing

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC News Services

BAGHDAD - Twenty decapitated bodies were found dumped near a police station on Monday west of the volatile city of Baqouba in Iraq, police said Monday.

There was no immediate information on who the victims were. Baqouba, about 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, is a mixed Sunni and Shiite city that has been torn sectarian violence.

In Baghdad, a U.S. brigadier general was wounded in an IED attack Monday, the U.S. military reported. He was the highest-ranking American officer to be hurt since the conflict began in March 2003.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21522861/

Comments

[Ally McRepuke]

Great job on the pumpkins, both of you!

[nmvp]

A disconcerting chat with Cheney
By MAUREEN DOWD
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

TIM RUSSERT: Mr. Vice President, welcome to "Meet the Press."

VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Good morning, Tim.

RUSSERT: How close are we to war with Iran?

CHENEY: Well, I think we are in the final stages of diplomacy, obviously. We have done virtually everything we can with respect to carrots, if you will. It's time for squash. Not to mention mushrooms, clouds of them.

RUSSERT: But you squashed Iraq, and that didn't work out so well.

CHENEY: Iraq will be fine, Tim. It just needs a firmer hand. We learned that lesson. We're not going to get hung up on democracy this time. (Expletive) purple thumbs.

RUSSERT: Isn't Secretary Rice still pushing carrots for Iran?

CHENEY: The more carrots Condi feeds 'em, the better they'll be able to see the bombs coming.

RUSSERT: First you threatened to take action if Iran built a nuclear weapon. Now you're threatening to take action if Iran knows how to build a nuclear weapon. What's next? You threaten to take action if Ahmadinejad dresses up as a nuclear weapon for Halloween?

CHENEY: Well, the difficulty here is, each time he has rejected what he was called upon to do by the international community. I'm not sure now, no matter what he says, that anyone would believe him. He's pretending he doesn't have WMD, just like Saddam.

RUSSERT: But Saddam didn't have WMD.

CHENEY: He did, Tim.

RUSSERT: He did?

CHENEY: Ever wonder what happened to them?

RUSSERT: What happened to them?

CHENEY: Think about it, Tim.

RUSSERT: The New York Times reported Saturday that the suspected nuclear reactor in Syria bombed by Israeli jets was well under construction in 2003, the same year we went to war with Syria's neighbor Iraq. Did we go after the wrong country?

CHENEY: Syria is not a country, Tim. It's a way station run by an eye doctor.

RUSSERT: Conservatives are tossing around some lock-and-load language. The president is talking about Iran sparking a "nuclear holocaust" and World War III. Giuliani adviser Norman Podhoretz thinks we're in World War IV. Shouldn't you at least give the new sanctions against Iran a chance to work?

CHENEY: Oh, we have, Tim. The sanctions were announced Thursday. It's now Sunday. I think things have gotten so bad inside Iran, from the standpoint of the Iranian people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

RUSSERT: But what if your analysis is not correct -- again? Let's put up on the screen part of an interview The New York Times' Thom Shanker did with the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen: "With America at war in two Muslim countries, he said, attacking a third Islamic nation in the region 'has extraordinary challenges and risks associated with it.' The military option, he said, should be a last resort." Your own chairman of the Joint Chiefs does not think the military can handle a third war.

CHENEY: If Admiral Mullen wants to be Admiral Sullen, that's his business. I'm not going to be a defeatist or question the courage of our fighting men.

RUSSERT: Critics say that if you attack Iran, there will be riots in every Muslim capital, the Iranians will flood Iraq with more explosives and money for the Shiite militias. They say you'll only end up making more enemies for America, and our troops.

CHENEY: Why don't we just give the Islamofascists Sudetenland, Tim? Peace in our time.

RUSSERT: The Europeans are upset that you might start another war in their backyard.

CHENEY: (Rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath) Eurappeasers.

RUSSERT: An Iranian spokesman dismissed the new U.S. sanctions as "worthless and ineffective" and said they were "doomed to fail as before." And Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards -- a group you have accused of proliferating weapons of mass destruction -- also warned that his forces would respond with an "even more decisive" strike if attacked.

CHENEY: Don't worry about Gen. Ali Baba, Tim. We gave the Israelis his home address.

RUSSERT: How will you even know where to bomb, given that all the experts say the Iranians have hidden their real nuclear facilities underground?

CHENEY: Can you say magic- carpet bombing, Tim? We didn't build those bunker busters just to stack 'em up in a warehouse in North Dakota.

RUSSERT: It's so close to the next election, Mr. Vice President, shouldn't you just keep on the diplomatic track and let the next president make this decision?

CHENEY: You really want Rudy Giuliani playing with the nuclear button, Tim? Now, that's insane.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/337288_dowd30.html

[not my vice president]

Cheney hunting trip under fire for Confederate flag

UNION VALE, New York (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney spent about eight hours hunting Monday at a secluded Hudson Valley gun club where well-heeled enthusiasts shoot ducks and pheasants.

It was Cheney's second visit to Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club in Dutchess County, about 70 miles north of New York City. The previous trip was in fall 2001.

Although a heavy police presence kept the media and curious local residents at a distance, Cheney's visit did stir up a bit of controversy when a New York Daily News photographer snapped a picture of a small Confederate flag hanging inside a garage on the hunt club property.

The photo was shown to New York City civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, who issued a statement demanding that the vice president "leave immediately, denounce the club and apologize for going to a club that represents lynching, hate and murder to black people."

Sharpton's statement was issued hours after Cheney departed the club at 3:45 p.m. for a flight out of the Stewart Air National Guard Base. In a statement issued Monday evening, Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said neither Cheney nor anyone on his staff saw such a flag at the hunt club.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/30/cheney.hunting.ap/index.html

October 30, 2007 11:21 AM

[nmp]

This goes with Kayakbiker's peace pumpkin.

Kucinich questions Bush's mental health

(CNN) — Strong words from Democratic presidential contender Dennis Kucinich may be nothing new, but his comments to a newspaper Tuesday questioning President Bush’s mental health are raising a few eyebrows.

“I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," the Ohio congressman told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."

Kucinich's comments were in reference to the president's recent remarks on Iran, in which he suggested World War III could occur if the country obtained nuclear capabilities.

“I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," Bush said at a news conference earlier this month.

The Democratic presidential candidate later said he does not consider questioning the Bush's mental health inappropriate, according the Inquirer's Web site.

“You cannot be a President of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich said. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/30/kucinich-questions-bushs-mental-health/

[slugbug]

Hey these photos showed up in Australia - right on!

http://www.rebellenation.com