Apparently the US Army concocted a tale of heroism around the death of Corporal Pat Tillman in order to “foster a sense of patriotism” across the country.

The Army Ranger’s parents, who were interviewed by The Washington Post, feel that the Bush administration and the United States Army lied about the circumstances surrounding his untimely death in Afghanistan. “It was a sign of disrespect…The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting,” Tillman’s mother, Mary, told the Post.

The young pro-football star was killed by his own men in Afghanistan, apparently mistaken for an enemy. Tillman’s father, Patrick Tillman Sr., believes that there should have been a homicide investigation into his son’s death.

It wasn’t until after a public memorial service that the Tillmans were told the truth about how their son died, a truth which would have horrified and infuriated a country so caught up in what some have called “a war that should never have been.”

The Army calls the false reporting “early mistakes” and has apologized for the reports.

The Unites States Government’s tenuous position on the side of good against evil took another battering today at the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the Un Food for Oil Programme.
The British Independent politician George Galloway was called before the committee led by the panel’s chairman Sen. Norm Coleman to explain the alleged assertion that Galloway had been awarded rights to buy oil from Iraq because of his opinions about Iraq.More..
An inetersting perspective on this is the way the US media handled Galloways Interrogation.
The senators start throwing the accusations at him and he not only deflects them fairly well, he starts throwing back the accusations he has, culminating with the comment “I was right, the US was wrong”… then CNN thought it was boring enough they needed to go to commercial. MSNBC and FOX News both thought they were more interesting so they put him in a muted side box and started talking amongst themselves. CSPAN2 is showing senators walk around the floor during a break in another hearing and it’s not streaming on their site. BBC is the only station I see covering it gavel to gavel. It is a rather heated exchange going on between Mr. Galloway and the senators. I guess the US stations want to edit it to show later and make whoever they want to look bad.

But Human Rights Minister Rejects nomination
The Prime Minister of Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari has announced the final positions of his cabinet today with the main post, the Defense Ministry going to a Sunni Muslim.Two more Sunnis were selected for cabinet posts though the seections have to be still approved by Parliament.This is expected to be a formality this Sunday.
Jaafari said in a televised news conference, that a Sunni Arab is to be human rights minister and another will be deputy premier.Unfortunately noone told proposed human rights minister Hisham al-Shibli that he had been picked for the post.

“This post was given to me without anyone consulting me. I was surprised when they nominated me. It was just because I am a Sunni,” he said. “This is something I reject completely. I am a democratic figure … and I am completely against sectarianism.” There are only Sunni Arab lawmakers in the 275-member parliament.

He was asked but declined to reveal who would hold the powerful defence and oil ministries but has Newsinsider believes that the Defence Chief will go to Saadoun al-Dulaimi, a Sunni Arab, while the oil ministry will be head by Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a Shia Muslim.

The US Government either pays like the Mob or is dipping into the Iraqi Till..
In a audit released wednesday, it was reported that nearly $100 million of Iraqi money, not US taxpayer funds has gone unaccounted for with little or no documentation from the funds designated for the Reconstruction of Iraq.

The report, describes how hundeds of millions of dollars were distributed for Iraq reconstruction projects with very little accountability.Two US payment officers with cash account balances of $777,050 and $715,000 left Iraq without clearing their balances with the account manager. An attempt was made to remove the outstanding balances by “simply washing accounts,” the report said.

The Italian Governmet are about to release their version of the circumstances behind the death of their secret agent, Nicola Calipari who was shot to death by US forces at a military checkpoint.
In a statement,Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says another Italian agent who was in the car with Mr Calipari and freed journalist Giuliana Sgrena has given his account of what happened.
Mr Berlusconi said: “This reconstruction of events has been made according to what has been witnessed by another agent who was with Mr Calipari and does not coincide totally with what has been communicated so far by the US authorities.”

Italy had made all necessary contacts for safe passage, advising the US military at the airport as Sgrena was en route, Mr Berlusconi said.
“A light was flashed at the vehicle from 10m away,” Mr Berlusconi said. “The driver at this point stopped the car immediately and at the same time there was gunfire for about 10 or 15 seconds.

“A few shots reached the vehicle - one killed Mr Calipari and another bullet injured Ms Sgrena in the shoulder.”
Italian newspapers have published classified sections of an official US military inquiry into the killing that found no fault could be laid on US troops.
The Americans did invite Italians to join in their inquiry, but the Italian representatives protested at what they claimed “was lack of objectivity in presenting the evidence” and returned home to Italy. Parts of the US’S censored report revealed that the checkpoint was only a temporary one and include “recommendations that the American military modify their checkpoint procedures to give better and clearer warning signs to approaching vehicles”.

Pubscrawl
by McBourbon
I had to cover it sooner or later, so I’m going to discuss the puking masses of humanity covered in permanent marker we all know and love…the drunks.

I’m not opposed to this classless group of wandering bastards, mostly because I find myself wandering with them at times, but there is still something I need to get off of my chest about drinking and what it does to people.

From my spot here at the end of the bar, I’ve become a bit of an elitist because I recognize patterns of behavior and try not to replicate them. For example…I have no desire to down a fifth of Black Velvet with a Coke chaser and then try to pick up women. If you’ve attempted this, you know that you usually end up with some toothless Neanderthal woman with a mullet who is wondering why no one has asked her to dance to the last slow song of the night or, if was a particularly good year for BV, a man with the same qualifications as the woman I just described. You sleep with them and then wake up ashamed, penniless, and with the taste of dip spit, cigarettes, and pork or fish in your mouth and a Sharpie Tattoo which reads Insert Dick Here on the side of your cheek with an arrow pointing toward your mouth. That sucks, and it should convince you to quit drinking until the next time the guys get together for a night out.

Worse yet is getting passed-out drunk with your former fraternity brothers during Homecoming who will pull your pants down and take pictures of you in your underwear (or less) in various sports poses holding various sports equipment near or, god forbid in, your ass. This should be avoided at all costs. Besides, what are you doing back at college anyway? At your age, the college hotties just laugh at you with their friends in the bathroom when you try to pick them up anyway.

Worst of all drunks are the beer toughs who get ripped on Budweisers all night and then intentionally bump into you just so they can blame you for the contact and start a fight. These assclowns should be lined up and dealt with in Flamethrower fashion. They serve no purpose except to spoil someone else’s good time. If you are this type of drunk, do the world a favor and kill yourself. (Note: McBourbon and McBourbon’s friends, family, co-workers, and associates cannot be held responsible if you should do something as foolish as what he just suggested in the previous sentence. Should you find yourself in a position where you might kill yourself based on McBourbon’s advice in this column, seek help first or just do it. There is obviously something wrong with you and not him, and he refuses to take any more responsibility for your stupidity.)

What I can say for the drunks, however, is that for all of them that are assholes looking for a fight (and there are plenty of those), the majority of them are fun-loving and harmless fools who will remember only bits and pieces of the previous night. So I say, screw with ‘em! I’m all for the Sharpie tattoos and sport poses. Hell, you could even go so far as to drop them off in a vacant lot or empty field with nothing but their boxer shorts, a flashlight, and a note stapled to their chest that includes some sort of graphic designs with subtitles underneath it which thank the victim for donating his body to alien research. And spank his ass a lot before you drop him off. The anal probe stories he’ll tell will stick with you and your friends for a lifetime.

Oh…and if you should see me in this condition at the end of the bar, just call my fiancé and tell her it happened again. She’ll understand and then pick me up in the field.