IS THERE A PLACE FOR A PRIVATE ARMY IN A DEMOCRACY? DO WE STILL HAVE A DEMOCRACY?

Every little fascist turd needs his own bullies. Early on Bush Family benefactor Adolf Hitler had the Sturmabteilung (better known as the S.A.), the Nazi Party's "Assault Division. And, just like their Nazi heroes, George Bush's GOP wanted a private army too. They found it through billionaire GOP contributor and deranged psychopath Erik Prince and his disreputable mercenary army, Blackwater.

This new Newsweek paints a dismal picture of the GOP's violent little army. Like a report in Saturday's Washington Post, 5 Witnesses Insist Iraqis Didn't Fire On Guards, the Newsweek story exposes the vicious and brutal mercenaries as a cancer on the honor of our nation's involvement in Iraq.

Since the fatal Sept. 16 Blackwater USA shooting in Baghdad’s Nasoor Square, officials from the private security company have insisted that their guards were responding to fire from “armed enemies.” Yet an extensive evidence file put together by the Iraqi National Police and obtained by Newsweek-- including documents, maps, sworn witness statements and police video footage-- appears to contradict the contractors’ version of events. A confidential incident report, which has been provided by Iraqi National Police investigators to American military and civilian officials, concludes that the Blackwater vehicles “opened fire crazily and randomly, without any reason.”

A neighbor of mine, a high ranking civilian working in Baghdad, has told me repeatedly that he refuses to have anything to do with Blackwater. They are worse than rabid animals and they shoot at Iraqis for sport. His contract stipulates that his body- guards are provided by any security firm except Blackwater. He's told me for years that the hatred the Iraqis have for Blackwater is the most intense hatred he's ever seen and that the American dislike for the Hessians couldn't have come close. Many think that the one charge that may eventually take Bush to the Hague will be his loosening of this violent band of mercenaries on Iraq.

The incident at Nasoor Square is remarkable only because it has been widely reported. For Blackwater, it is an everyday occurrence. It happened just around the corner from National Police Headquarters and Iraqi police officials were on the scene within minutes. They and other Iraqi witnesses swear that Blackwater mercenaries opened fire completely unprovoked. "No one shot at Blackwater," says Col. Faris Saadi Abdul, the lead Iraqi police investigator. "Blackwater shot without any cause."

The report from the House Oversight Committee, released to members in preparation for today's hearing are startling and makes one wonder once again what could possibly be on Nancy Pelosi's mind to take impeachment off the table. Bush's Regime is a criminal enterprise and Blackwater is a very real and very clear and present danger to American democracy. The report reveals that:

(1) Blackwater has engaged in 195 “escalation of force” incidents since 2005, an average of 1.4 per week, including over 160 incidents in which Blackwater forces fired first; (2) after a drunken Blackwater contractor shot the guard of the Iraqi Vice President, the State Department allowed the contractor to leave Iraq and advised Blackwater on the size of the payment needed “to help them resolve this”; and (3) Blackwater, which has received over $1 billion in federal contracts since 2001, is charging the federal government over $1,200 per day for each “protective security specialist” employed by the company

This morning's NY Times has a story on this report and it boggles the mind that the American public can allow the Bush-Cheney Regime to remain in office for even another hour. Blackwater CEO, Erik Prince, whose family has given countless millions of dollars to neo-fascist organizations and Republican politicians-- and who has gotten close to a billion dollars in contracts in return-- will be testifying under oath today. Seven notoriously extremist Republican Party politicians, Dan Burton (IN), Christopher Cannon (UT), Darrell Issa (CA) [who Jane tells me is already acting like an obstructionist dick as the hearing were getting underway today], Patrick McHenry (NC), John Mica FL), Mark Souder (IN) and Lynn Westmoreland (GA), have demanded that the Oversight Committee postpone the hearings to give the Regime more time to tamper with evidence and come up with a credible story. Henry Waxman is unlikely to didn't take them seriously.