Monday, July 19

Eschaton: "Louisville-AP -- A Republican leader applauded a bumper sticker being circulated in Louisville that reads 'Kerry is bin Laden's Man/Bush is Mine' as Democrats decried it.

Jefferson County G-O-P chairman Jack Richardson the Fourth says he didn't know the bumper sticker's origins, but agreed with its message.

Richardson says the local G-O-P had no involvement in creating the bumper stickers, but said the stickers were available at the county's GOP headquarters."
-----------------------------------
Coincidence?

Wednesday, July 14

Former ambassador criticizes president: "ASPEN - Former Ambassador Joe Wilson can sum up his opinion of President George W. Bush's post-Sept. 11 administration quite simply.
Everything they have put into play since Sept. 11 has come up horse turds, Wilson said when he spoke Sunday at the Sopris Foundation State of the World Conference.
The crowd of more than 400 people at the annual conference clapped, cheered and laughed when they heard his opinion, but the events that justify it are sobering. "

Tuesday, July 13

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "'It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. . . . Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife.'
-- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), advocating a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in a speech Thursday to the Heritage Foundation. "
------------------------------------
I'm guessing that Rethuglican pets are extremely nervous.
Yahoo! News - Lawmakers Ask Ashcroft Why Suspect Freed: "WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike are demanding to know why the Bush administration chose to release to Syria a terror suspect when several prosecutors and FBI (news - web sites) agents had collected evidence for a possible criminal case. The circumstances surrounding Nabil al-Marabh's release, detailed in a recent Associated Press story, are "of deep concern and appear to be a departure from an aggressive, proactive approach to the war on terrorism," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote Tuesday in a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft "
------------------------
Is this the guy they hand recruited to 'disrupt' our elections?

Friday, July 9

What if Kerry Chose Jesus?: "The purpose of this parody is to emphasize the fact that the media is ripping John Edwards apart after giving Dick Cheney a free pass for three and a half years. Cheney, arguably the most corrupt and vile individual to ever hold office in this county has enjoyed complete immunity from criticism and investigation by the media. It took exactly one day for the media to focus more negative attention on John Edwards than they had focused on Dick Cheney in 4 years. The entire first day of his nomination was spent on defaming trial lawyers as some sort of criminal element in our society, and of repeating the suggestion that Edwards comes to the job with a weak resume for leading the nation. They never, ever, anywhere in the corporate media acknowledge that George Bush was head of a state in which the role of governor is limited and relatively weak when compared to that of the lieutenant governor. Anyone who understands politics knows that being the governor of Texas did not prepare George Bush for anything other than improving his golf game. But why tell that to the public, when you can knock Edwards in the process?"

Thursday, July 8

Salon.com Politics: "'Lay was close to former President George H.W. Bush and his son, President Bush, who dubbed the executive 'Kenny Boy.' Lay lent Enron's corporate jet to the younger Bush eight times during the 2000 campaign, was co-chair of a gala tribute to him and was one of his top campaign contributors. Enron was also a major patron of Bush and the Republican Party.' "
--------------------------------
Birds of a feather
t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Kenny-Boy and George: " You have to love the irony: Since Kerry announced his VP choice of John Edwards, the Bush campaign has broadbanded the anti-Edwards slam that he is nothing more than your basic gutter-dwelling trial lawyer. This comes blithely on the heels of Bush hiring his own trial lawyer to protect him during the 70-minute Oval Office interrogation he endured regarding the Valerie Plame CIA-outing case some weeks ago. Everyone hates lawyers until they need one, it seems. "
Eschaton: "The fact is that while Moore makes a few contentions that are arguable, most of them adhere pretty closely to the known facts. This is not the case of the Bush argument for war -the media by and large reporting those phony contentions with credulous admiration. I'm willing to bet that I could find more lies, phony statements and false accusations in just about any single episode of Meet the Press, This Week or Face the Nation, devoted to Iraq and the war on terror than can be found in Moore's entire film. I could probably find more in any single five minute segment of an O'Reilly, Hannity or Scarborough show. Why are the media so furious at Moore? Because he is doing their job for them and taking away their narrative. If they did it better, he wouldn't have to. Perhaps those reporters attacking Moore should be good enough to publish some of their own comments on the war alongside it. "

Wednesday, July 7

Newsday.com: "Christ was asking, 'Don't they bother to look at me?'

'To see what?' he was asked.

'My feet. I walk on bare feet. Do they think of that when they schedule? They better look at my feet. If they cared, if they had any compassion, they would see my bare feet.'

In an effort to save their jobs, Bush and Cheney are calling on Christ to walk with them all through the Low IQ states, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana. That is where Bush half smiles or smirks, it is hard to tell which, and he says Christ and waves his arm and the crowd screams: 'Jeeee-zus!'

Then Bush calls for capital punishment. The crowds scream. 'Kill. Kill. Kill.'

And Christ is saying, 'They go in all these churches, but do they ever look up once and see a crucifix? That's how the religion was started. It was an execution. Now they use my name to call for more executions? Bush never looks up at a cross. Would he know what he is looking at?'"
Hullabaloo: "I care deeply about this, because it's the reason I'm standing here. My dad worked his whole life in the mill. When I was young, my mom folded sheets on the second shift. Both my parents started out with nothing, except a blessing that was worth more than diamonds and gold, the chance to live in a country whose dream belongs to anyone willing to work for it.

A country where the sweat and toil of mill workers can give a boy the chance to one day run for President is a far different place than a country that says how you're born, not how hard your work, is all that matters. I owe everything I am to the America I grew up in. I hope you'll join with me and fight with all we've got to save it."
----------------------------------
John Edwards is truly a man of and for the people.
Yahoo! News - Cheney Had No New Data on Saddam, Al Qaeda-Panel: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Sept. 11 commission, which reported no evidence of collaborative links between Iraq (news - web sites) and al Qaeda, said on Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) had no more information than commission investigators to support his later assertions to the contrary. "
---------------------------------
Cheney won't stop his LIES, LIES, LIES

Tuesday, July 6

Justice Department Says It Can't Share Lobbying Data Because Computer System Will Crash - from TBO.com: "WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Justice Department's database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.
'Implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating,' wrote Thomas J. McIntyre, chief in the Justice Department's office for information requests."
--------------------------------
Yes Virginia, and there are WMD's in Iraq too.

Wednesday, June 30

FT.com / Arts & Weekend: "Would you take advice on how to vote from the Beastie Boys? The veteran rappers hope so: their new album To the Five Boroughs is full of grammatically challenged but politically unambiguous statements like 'George W's got nothing on me, we got to take the power from he'.

The bad news for Bush is that this album is the new number one in the US charts, having been purchased by 360,000 Americans last week - many of them potential voters"
----------------------------------
Number one music - Antibush, Number one movie - Antibush
Too many folks are onto the scam - Dixiechickin' is on the lamb.
The Founding Fathers Meet George Bush - Maureen Farrell at BuzzFlash.com: "Charles S. Beard noted that, 'You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.' "
-------------------------------------
Touche'.
Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.: "Washington Post: Despite the end of the occupation

Knight Ridder: Iraqis see hope in end of U.S.-led occupation

Los Angeles Times: end of a deeply divisive American-led occupation

San Francisco Chronicle: the U.S.-led military occupation had formally ended

Miami Herald: ended its occupation of Iraq

Associated Press: the end of the American occupation

Arizona Republic:: the 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq were transformed from occupiers into guests of a U.S.-backed government. "
--------------------------------------
Anybody but me think this is just another 'Mission Accomplished' moment?
The Washington Monthly: "What to say? The argument over the film mostly seems to revolve around whether it's factually accurate and presents a logical case, a conversation so pointless as to be laughable. I mean, it's a polemical film from Michael Moore, not a Brookings Institution white paper. It's like complaining that editorial cartoons are unfair because they don't portray the nuance of serious policy discussions."
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "Cheney just got booed at the Yankees game

(I was thinking of retitling this: 'Yankee fans tell Cheney 'go fuck yourself.'')

I just got a live phone-in from the Yankees vs. Boston game in NYC taking place right now. Dick Cheney just got booed by the crowd!

Even as my friend Michael called me from his seats at the game, God Bless America was still playing in the background. During the 7th inning stretch at Yankees Stadium, they play God Bless America and show on the big screen pictures of anyone famous who's in the audience that night. Dick Cheney is apparently in the audience, and as soon as his face went up, the entire crowd started booing! As my friend Michael tells it, this is the blue-collar Bronx we're talking about, and Cheney is still getting booed - not a good sign for the Bush-Cheney ticket. As soon as the camera guys realized Cheney was getting booed, they quickly switched the picture on the screen to someone else.

Michael's read of the situation, as a die-hard Yankees fan: The election is over."
-----------------------------------
One has to wonder how much national exposure this will receive. Story has apparantly
been confirmed by ESPN.
Eschaton: "WASHINGTON -- The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.

Such guidelines do not currently exist, said DeForest B. Soaries, head of the voting panel.

Soaries was appointed to the federal Election Assistance Commission last year by President Bush. Soaries said he wrote to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in April to raise the concerns"
--------------------------------------
Here's what I've been waiting for. They know they can't win again.

Tuesday, June 29

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Who Lost Iraq?: "Plans for privatization were eventually put on hold. But as he prepared to leave Iraq, Mr. Bremer listed reduced tax rates, reduced tariffs and the liberalization of foreign-investment laws as among his major accomplishments. Insurgents are blowing up pipelines and police stations, geysers of sewage are erupting from the streets, and the electricity is off most of the time but we've given Iraq the gift of supply-side economics.
If the occupiers often seemed oblivious to reality, one reason was that many jobs at the C.P.A. went to people whose qualifications seemed to lie mainly in their personal and political connections people like Simone Ledeen, whose father, Michael Ledeen, a prominent neoconservative, told a forum that 'the level of casualties is secondary' because 'we are a warlike people' and 'we love war.'"
Hullabaloo: "How interesting for SCLM fans that the alleged inaccuracies in Moore's movie (which I've not yet seen) appear to be considerably more upsetting to the mainstream than say, those in the president's State of the Union messages, press conferences and requests to Congress for the power to go to war with Iraq."
---------------------------
Very interesting indeed.
The Rude Pundit: "Better then to avert one's gaze from Big Tony and over to Uncle Tom. Once again, proving that no Negro is as loyal as a house Negro (see Condi, Colin, etc.), Clarence Thomas, in the lone vote against the majority opinion, does what so many slaves have done for time immemorial: he embraces the way of his master. His dissent is a frightening look at the abiding deference to power that is the hallmark of the servant beaten down to believe that he has no opinions of his own or, to put it simply, he is not worthy: 'The plurality utterly fails to account for the Government's compelling interests and for our own institutional inability to weigh competing concerns correctly.' As for the reasons behind the executive's decision to name Hamdi an 'enemy combatant,' Thomas opines, 'We lack the capacity and responsibility to second-guess this determination.' Massa's always right, as Thomas bows and scrapes, 'Undeniably, Hamdi has been deprived of a serious interest, one actually protected by the Due Process Clause. Against this, however, is the Government's overriding interest in protecting the Nation"
-------------------------------------
How far out of the 'norm' do you have to be to think the President ought to have unlimited powers with no oversight? As far as Uncle Tom I guess.

Monday, June 28

House blocks refunds in Enron case: "WASHINGTON -- The House, after a blistering face-off in which Democrats accused the White House of coddling Enron Corp., yesterday refused to order refunds for millions of Western consumers who were victimized by an artificial energy crisis in 2000 and 2001.
Republicans refused to allow the measure to come to a vote, insisting that Democrats were only attempting to embarrass President Bush and Republicans for their once-close ties to Enron. Moreover, they said that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is working hard to build a case against Enron and that Democrats should allow the agency to complete its mission."
-----------------------------------------------
Republicans looking out for your best interests? Perhaps they're unaware of the Enron Trader Tapes? To Wit:

Officials with the Snohomish Public Utility District near Seattle received the tapes from the Justice Department.

"This is the evidence we've all been waiting for. This proves they manipulated the market," said Eric Christensen, a spokesman for the utility.

That utility, like many others, is trying to get its money back from Enron.

"They're f------g taking all the money back from you guys?" complains an Enron employee on the tapes. "All the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California?"

"Yeah, grandma Millie, man"

"Yeah, now she wants her f------g money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her a------ for f------g $250 a megawatt hour."

And the tapes appear to link top Enron officials Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to schemes that fueled the crisis.

"Government Affairs has to prove how valuable it is to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling," says one trader.

"Ok."

"Do you know when you started over-scheduling load and making buckets of money on that?

Before the 2000 election, Enron employees pondered the possibilities of a Bush win.

"It'd be great. I'd love to see Ken Lay Secretary of Energy," says one Enron worker.

That didn't happen, but they were sure President Bush would fight any limits on sky-high energy prices.
--------------------------------------------------
Eschaton: "Verbatim from Chris Myers (Fox Sports announcer) on today's race at Pomona pre-race program..

'You think you know Dale Earnhardt Jr.? He advised his crew to go see the Michael Moore movie Farenheit 911. He said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an American to go see... and it just shows you that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can reach far beyond the steering wheel.'"
------------------------------
Nascar Fans Take Note
Hullabaloo: "Medicare is planning a lottery later this year for people with cancer, multiple sclerosis and several other diseases. For the 50,000 winners, the government will start helping pay for their medicine, but more than 450,000 others must wait until 2006.

However, the law limits the new program to 50,000 people and $500 million, at least $200 million of which must be spent on cancer drugs. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Medicare recipients without prescription drug coverage are eligible.

'There'll be a lottery to be chosen as one of 50,000 lucky individuals,' Thompson said.

Medicare will accept applications for the lottery from July 6 to Sept. 30, and will randomly select 25,000 cancer patients and 25,000 people with the other illnesses."
---------------------------------------
Finally, A NATIONAL LOTTERY!! Bill Bennett would be proud.
FOXNews.com - You Decide 2004 - Bush Campaign Ad Contains Hitler Footage: "Bush Campaign Ad Contains Hitler Footage
Saturday, June 26, 2004

WASHINGTON Adolf Hitler's (search) image has surfaced again in the White House race. President Bush's campaign contains online video, removed from a liberal group's Web site months ago and disavowed, that features the Nazi dictator. "
----------------------------
Real bad move on the Thug's part. As if we need to be reminded what kind of Nazi thugs THEY ARE? This will backfire Karl.
Hullabaloo: "Apparently, the NY Times just got its reporters brand new calculators/vanity mirrors because they seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time doing price checks on the Kerry campaign expenditures, barely able to contain their disgust at such conspicuous consumption:


John Kerry may be only a candidate for president, but he and his entourage travel like kings. A month ago, his campaign began chartering a gleaming 757, packed with first-class seats, fine food, sleeping accommodations - even a stand-up bar. They hardly shy away from fancy hotels, like the Four Seasons in Palm Beach and the St. Regis in Los Angeles.


Strangely, they weren't so appalled back in 2000 when the Bush campaign feted them in high style on the Enron jet. In fact, as Bob Sommerby incomparably pointed out, Margaret Carlson wrote in her book that it was the gorging on imported chocolates and expensive entres (as compared to the cold box lunches provided by that lying Philistine Al Gore) that created the positive brown nosing that passed for coverage of candidate Bush:


"There were Dove bars and designer water on demand, she recalls, and a bathroom stocked like Martha Stewart's guest suite. Dinner at seven featured lobster ravioli."
----------------------------------
Don't expect the 'left wing' media to save us from the fascists. When the top rated movie in the nation makes it to ONE Mississippi theater.....be afraid.

Friday, June 25

Salon.com Politics: "Iacocca ditches Bush for Kerry


Lee Iacocca, the executive and pitchman credited with saving Chrysler, has a new project: saving America from another Bush presidency. The retired businessman endorsed Senator Kerry today at a campaign event in San Jose, California. "
-----------------------------------------
Lee is getting in early on the exodus so he won't be trampled by the upcoming stampede. Congrats.

Thursday, June 24

Moore?s Magic: 9/11 Electrifies: "Now that the merde has hit the oscillator, so to speak, Mr. Moore charges that the Bush administration is still trying to hide evidence of its own stupidity by censoring 28 pages of the independent report by the 9/11 commission. If you don?t gasp at the sight of Mr. Bush dining with the Saudi ambassador with part of the Pentagon in flames in the background, this movie is not for you. No need to talk about the President welcoming the Taliban to the State Department, knowing they were harboring the man who bombed the U.S.S. Cole. No need to go into the plans to build an underground pipeline through Afghanistan pumping money into a company owned by Vice President Dick Cheney. Alarmingly, it?s all gone unreported by an irresponsible press corps. With $860 billion currently invested by the Saudis in American business, no wonder our tax money pays for a six-man detail to protect the Saudi ambassador in Washington. But why does it take Michael Moore to tell us? This is all very dispiriting. But unless you?ve lost your sense of humor completely, you?ve just gotta laugh when Mr. Moore intercuts Mr. Bush?s tough talk from cowboy movies with actual footage of the corny cowboys in those movies saying exactly the same things."
-------------------------------------------
Bush Dines with Saudi ambassador while the Pentagon burns in the background? Now there's a scene worth the price of admission alone!
EditorandPublisher.com - Information Authority for the Newspaper Industry: "NEW YORK The Associated Press has sued the Pentagon and Air Force, seeking access to all records of President George W. Bush's military service, but the news agency wonders why it has come to this.

'It seems a little curious because the president made a pretty forceful presentation that he had nothing to hide,' said AP General Counsel Dave Tomlin, when asked for his reaction to what the AP considers government stonewalling. 'But we are not surprised.'"
-------------------------------------------
None of us should be surprised. I watched Bush on television one Sunday morning promise he would release all his records. I knew he was lying at the time because his lips were moving.
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "Our soldiers are bogged down in two different foreign countries. We're at war fighting terrorism and crippled internationally by the shame of our human rights abuses in Iraq. The White House just admitted they screwed up and, no, we're NOT winning the war on terror -- terrorist acts continue to rise. And in the midst of all this, some partisan Republicans want to waste our time by putting up for vote a Constitutional amendment that poll after poll shows most Americans don't support? Bring it on."
NRSC: "Cheney stumps for Ryan in quick visit
Excerpted from the Chicago Sun-Times; June 5, 2004
Vice President Dick Cheney flew into Chicago on Friday just to attend a dinner honoring Republican Senate nominee Jack Ryan...
...The No. 2 man in the Bush administration helped fatten Ryan's campaign coffers by nearly $500,000 at the fund-raiser at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. "
-------------------------------------------
Birds of a feather.
Kerry finds gold, slams Bush in Bay Area visit / Exasperated senator calls GOP 'so petty': "If Kerry interrupts his campaigning for the vote, he is hoping the trip back to Washington is more productive than a similar one Tuesday. After calling off a campaign swing to New Mexico to vote on a veterans' health measure, he found himself cooling his heels in the Capitol for hours before the GOP leadership finally canceled the scheduled vote.
An exasperated Kerry called it a typical example of the partisanship that drives President Bush and the congressional leadership.
'These people are so petty, so sad, so political that all they could do was spend the whole day finding a way to not let John Kerry vote,'' he said during a speech to the Service Employees International Union convention at the Moscone Convention Center on Wednesday. "
---------------------------------------------
Excellent example of the kind of divisive politics the Thugs are known for.

Wednesday, June 23

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: "In September 2003--against the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention that require occupying powers to respect existing laws--Bremer got the Iraqi Governing Council to issue an order privatizing state companies and abrogating Iraqi laws that prohibited private ownership of 'national' resources and the 'basic means of production.' "
---------------------------------------
So we are breaking the Geneva convention concerning torture AND the stealing (codeword: PRIVATIZING) of Iraqi resources! Sweet.
Wonkette: "Family Ties: The Jack Ryan Story
As you know, GOP sachems are hewing to the official line on swingin' Jack Ryan: They still back him, and they say the race should be decided on 'issues,' not sexual peccadilloes. That argument seems so familiar. . . can't quite place it. In any case: Issues. Fine. Several Wonkette readers wrote in to suggest what issues Ryan might want avoid, like, say, 'the defense of marriage.' "
Because Dubya Said So! / Why prolong this insidious war? Gouge the economy? Rape the environment? Only one retort left: "It is the new Bush doctrine. Screw proof. Screw validation. Screw the U.N. and screw Europe and screw your damn 9/11 commission and screw every hunk of lingering logic and humanitarian reasoning on the planet and screw, finally, the notion that we need to justify our actions to anyone, least of all the dumba-- American public, you who've swallowed every lie so far like Jenna swallows her 10th Coors Light.
Because I said so. It is the final comeback line. It is the only line that still holds, given how we have been awash in so many outright lies and fabrications and bogus Orange Alerts and flagrant misprisions it would make Richard Nixon cheer. It is the last twitch of Dick Cheney's political sneer, the darkening blackness in Rummy's eyes, the last spasm of Condi Rice's comatose credibility, the only pathetic shield BushCo has left. "
Heard on the horizon: calls to get all U.S. troops out of Iraq / Anti-war voices joined by some in the establishment: "'A U.S. withdrawal would be preferable to what we have now,'' University of San Francisco politics Professor Stephen Zunes said Tuesday in Washington, D.C. 'The idea that more U.S. troops will improve the situation is wrong. The truth is the opposite.'' "

Tuesday, June 22

Iraq-al Qaeda 'link' probably unfounded / White House official suspects name mix-up: "Washington -- An allegation that a high-ranking al Qaeda member was an officer in Saddam Hussein's private militia may have resulted from confusion over Iraqi names, a senior administration official said Monday. "
----------------------------------
Rethuglican diversionary tactic exposed again. Shameless aren't they.
Hullabaloo: "I could say the following without blushing: He is running against a man who was not fit for duty in 1968 and is not fit for duty today, a man who lacked the qualifications for the office when he was elected and has demonstrated it. We have been through a skein of national disasters, for which he accepts no blame, because he literally doesn't understand enough about the job to realize how a better President would have responded. John Kerry has been in public life for 35 years. He was a prosecutor when GWB was running an oil company into the ground. And he was already a seasoned United States Senator when GWB decided it was time to give up abusing substances. JK has a sharper grasp of foreign policy, and more experience with it, than any candidate for President in the last 50 years, with the possible exception of GHWB (see today's NYT). His dedication to the cause of our military and veterans is long established. And his commitment to economic and social justice for all Americans cannot be doubted. A man can't be the committed liberal Bush sometimes maintains Kerry is, and also the unprincipled waffler. Life and public service are complicated, as GWB doesn't understand. JK does. He has a sense of nuance, and the experience and values to improve the life of the country."
--------------------------------------------
Soon.
Yahoo! News - Illinois Republican to Stay in Senate Race: "CHICAGO - Republican Jack Ryan vowed to stay in the race for U.S. Senate despite embarrassing allegations that he tried to pressure his former wife to perform sex acts in clubs while others watched.

In New York, Ryan's former wife described a club "with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling." She said she refused when Ryan asked her to perform a sexual act while others watched."
-------------------------------
More Republican family values.

Friday, June 18

Church & State, A lunatic Christian cult has the run of the White House and the ear of the president. What do they want? The end of the world. Be afraid., by Neal Pollack (06/10/04): "Even Ronald Reagan, that holy-rollerist of presidents, didn't give apocalyptic Christians weekly telephone briefings on White House policy. It's almost impossible for Kofi Annan to get a meeting with the president, but Robert G. Upton, of the United Pentecostal Church, can say, as he did a couple of weeks ago in that house organ of fundamentalism, the Village Voice, 'We're in constant contact with the White House.' "
-----------------------------------
Imagine what the makeup of our foreign policy would look like had Bush been a Scientologist? Folks, it's the CRAZY TONGUE SPEAKING PENTACOSTALS who are pulling this president's strings!
Pity the other denominations if they don't stand up to this obvious breach of church/state separation. Pity us all.

Thursday, June 17

WorkingForChange-How comforting: "The New York Times reported, 'In his recent trip to Rome, President Bush asked a top Vatican official to push American bishops to speak out more about political issues.' As Josh Marshall brightly observed: 'I guess on one level we can say we've come a long way since 1960, when John F. Kennedy had to foreswear that he'd follow the instructions of the Pope in his decisions of governance. Today we have a Protestant born-again who tries to enlist the Pope to intervene in an American election.' "
MSNBC - Saudi prince: Zionism to blame for terror attack: "Other senior Saudi officials reaffirmed the claim that supporters of Israel ? Zionists ? were behind the terror attacks.
Prince Nayef, the Saudi Interior Minister said, ?Al-Qaida is backed by Israel and Zionism.?
Some call this dangerous Saudi doubletalk. ?The crown prince?s statements are inflammatory and irresponsible,? said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. ?On the one hand they say reassuring words to American leaders, but on the other hand they spout inflammatory anti-Semitic rhetoric for their domestic population.?"
-----------------------------------------
It's OFFICIAL. The Saudi's are just as delusional as Bush! What next? Attack Israel? These folks need to get a clue. Anybody But Bush 2004
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "This boycott - the attempt to pressure movie theaters into not showing the movie -- is typical of the radical right and contrary to what a true believer in a free market economy (whether it be of jobs or ideas) should do. Remember, NO ONE on the left tried to 'ban' The Passion of the Christ or try and pressure movie theaters not to carry it. They simply expressed concern about the script and then the final film and argued with Gibson and its backers in the public arena. Everyone on the left repeatedly said he had the right to make the film and have it seen. (Obviously.)

Contrast that with those on the right who attack religious-themed movies they DON'T approve of and organize boycotts, protestors and so on. (Think of The Last Temptation of Christ, Jean Luc Godard's Hail Mary, Canada's Jesus of Montreal etc.) Quite un-American."
Torture Policy (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush and his spokesmen shamefully cling to the myth that the guards were rogues acting on their own. Yet over the past month we have learned that much of what the guards did -- from threatening prisoners with dogs, to stripping them naked, to forcing them to wear women's underwear -- had been practiced at U.S. military prisons elsewhere in the world. Moreover, most of these techniques were sanctioned by senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Iraqi theater command under Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez. Many were imported to Iraq by another senior officer, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller. "
The New York Times > Opinion > The Plain Truth: "Mr. Bush is right when he says he cannot be blamed for everything that happened on or before Sept. 11, 2001. But he is responsible for the administration's actions since then. That includes, inexcusably, selling the false Iraq-Qaeda claim to Americans. There are two unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated self-deception that is terrifying in the post-9/11 world."

Wednesday, June 16

Yahoo! News - Ex-Soldier Recalls Beating He Received in Guantanamo Drill: "Baker says he volunteered to put on an orange prison jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee in a training drill. But the five-man MP 'immediate response force' sent in to extract him was not told of the exercise. According to Baker's lawyer, the soldiers were told that Baker was an unruly detainee who had been doused with pepper spray after assaulting a sergeant.
Four MPs slammed Baker to the floor, he says, then choked him and pounded his head at least three times against the floor. Gasping for breath, he managed to spit out a code word ? 'red' ? and to croak: 'I'm a U.S. soldier! I'm a U.S. soldier!'
But the beating continued, according to Baker, until the jumpsuit was yanked down in the struggle, revealing his military uniform. Only then did the MPs realize that they had been beating an American soldier ? causing a traumatic brain injury, Baker alleges.
'What happened to me is something that should never have happened to any American soldier,' Baker wrote in an e-mail response to questions from the Los Angeles Times. 'I pray it will never happen again.'
Honorably discharged with a medical retirement in April, Baker spends dreary days inside a nondescript duplex in central Kentucky, unable to work because of what he says are seizures caused by the beating. He is taking nine prescription medications for seizures and headaches, his lawyer said. He has yet to receive disability payments promised by the military.
'The way the military treated Sean is unconscionable ? and the way they continue to treat him is even worse,' said attorney Bruce Simpson."
The Rude Pundit: "Look, this isn't just about 'Bush-isms' or mangled syntax or 'Bush doesn't do well off-the-cuff' or those kinds of cutesy shit. It's about a leader who cannot articulate his own policies. It's about a leader so insecure in his own power that he lashes out at the press to present some kind of image of control. The reality, the stark, clear reality we are all presented with is this: he has no control. He is out of control. And like so many mad leaders before him, he is leading us down the path of his madness."

Tuesday, June 15

Rocky Mountain News: America At War: "Since Fort Carson units began coming home in April, post recruiters have met only 57 percent of their quota for re-enlisting first-term soldiers for a second hitch, according to an Army report.
More disturbing, recruiters say, is they're re-enlisting only 46 percent of the quota for 'mid-career' noncommissioned officers. These are the young sergeants with four to 10 years of experience who are the backbone of the Army - its skilled soldiers, mentors and future senior NCOs. "

Friday, June 11

The Washington Monthly: "That combination is deadly. And as Mark Kleiman says, if there's also video of 'horrible things done to children' at Abu Ghraib, that would be the final straw. George Bush set the tone, and he's responsible for what happened.
Or, since he's fond of Bible verses, let's put it this way: 'Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.' Galatians 6:7."
--------------------------------------
I have seen several reports relative to the issue of abuse of children. When the truth comes out will Rush continue to push the 'college prank' angle? Just wondering?
Is U.S. like Germany of the '30s?: "The strongest criticism that the administration levels at Sen. John Kerry is that he changes his mind. In fact, instead of a president who claims an infallibility that exceeds that of the pope, America would be much better off with a president who, like John F. Kennedy, is honest enough to admit mistakes and secure enough to change his mind."

Wednesday, June 9

Insane Planet - Is President Bush Losing Sanity?: "Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.


'It reminds me of the Nixon days,' says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. 'Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That's the mood over there.'


In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be 'God's will' and then tells aides to 'fuck over' anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration. "
The Rude Pundit: "Maybe President Bush and others in his administration thought that the U.S. could enact a kinder, gentler version of torture. Maybe they believed in such degrees. Maybe they believed they were superior to other torturous regimes throughout history. Perhaps. But that's more theory, is it not? And shouldn't we judge the actions of people, not their thoughts or intentions?"
Ashcroft defiant on abuse memo / Democrats accuse Bush of redefining law on interrogations: "Washington -- Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress Tuesday that he would not release a 2002 policy memo on the degree of pain and suffering legally permitted during enemy interrogations but said he knows of no presidential order that would allow al Qaeda captives to be tortured by U.S. personnel.
Angry Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee called on Ashcroft to provide the document, saying portions that have appeared in news reports suggest the Bush administration is reinterpreting U.S. law and the Geneva conventions prohibiting torture."
Yahoo! News - New Iraqi PM Not Ashamed of CIA Links: "The New York Times reported Wednesday that Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990s to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities.
It cited former intelligence officials as saying they used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq. The bombings, whose effectiveness is disputed, never threatened Saddam's rule, they said. "
-----------------------------------------
Iraq's new handpicked president used to do car bombings on our behalf!! It's getting difficult to sort the 'good' terrorists from the 'bad' terrorists!
Legalizing Torture (washingtonpost.com): "There is no justification, legal or moral, for the judgments made by Mr. Bush's political appointees at the Justice and Defense departments. Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of dictatorships around the world that sanction torture on grounds of 'national security.' For decades the U.S. government has waged diplomatic campaigns against such outlaw governments -- from the military juntas in Argentina and Chile to the current autocracies in Islamic countries such as Algeria and Uzbekistan -- that claim torture is justified when used to combat terrorism. The news that serving U.S. officials have officially endorsed principles once advanced by Augusto Pinochet brings shame on American democracy -- even if it is true, as the administration maintains, that its theories have not been put into practice. Even on paper, the administration's reasoning will provide a ready excuse for dictators, especially those allied with the Bush administration, to go on torturing and killing detainees."
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: "Reagan was a controversial president to say the least. Many people with AIDS, and their friends and families, are convinced that Reagan is at least partly responsible for the millions of deaths of people with AIDS who were ignored during Reagan's 8 years in office. And that's just for starters. This is not the kind of president you honor on your national currency, not until there's a national consensus about his place in history, and that consensus has hardly been reached.

It's time for fair-minded Americans to draw a line in the sand. Demand that Republicans stop using Reagan's death for their own partisan political gain. When Democrats held an uplifting funeral for Paul Wellstone, Republicans twisted its message and lied to the American people about it being a 'election' rally. Now that the Republicans are ACTUALLY USING A man's death to benefit their party, turnabout is more than fair play."
Whiskey Bar: Praise the Lord and Pass the Thumbscrews: "Praise the Lord and Pass the Thumbscrews
It's been pointed out to me (tip of the hat to Bernhard H.) that the team of lawyers who wrote the Pentagon's treatise on presidential torture powers was led by this woman:
U.S. Air Force's General Counsel, Mary L. Walker, discusses what it takes to leave a legacy of significance
Ms. Walker, it turns out, is a long-time Republican political appointee first brought to Washington during the Reagan administration to help oversee the looting of America's natural resources, um, that is, I mean, to serve as principal deputy in the environmental division at Ed Meese's Justice Department."
------------------------------------
Turns out this torture report is headed by yet ANOTHER CHRISTIAN LUNATIC bent on a return to the era of the Spanish Inquisition! Where are my many MAINSTREAM Christian friends? Can we truly hold the mainstream Muslims liable for the actions of their LUNATIC FRINGE if we can't even keep OURS in check?
Infoshop News - Pentagon Report Set Framework For Use of Torture: "Bush administration lawyers contended last year that the president wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department.
The advice was part of a classified report on interrogation methods prepared for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after commanders at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, complained in late 2002 that with conventional methods they weren't getting enough information from prisoners."

Tuesday, June 8

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: "To protect subordinates should they be charged with torture, the memo advised that Mr. Bush issue a 'presidential directive or other writing' that could serve as evidence, since authority to set aside the laws is 'inherent in the president.'
So the right to set aside law is 'inherent in the president'. That claim alone should stop everyone in their tracks and prompt a serious consideration of the safety of the American republic under this president."
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Great Taxer: "The contrast with President Bush is obvious. President Reagan, confronted with evidence that his tax cuts were fiscally irresponsible, changed course. President Bush, confronted with similar evidence, has pushed for even more tax cuts."
Yahoo! News - Justice Department advised White House torture "may be justified": "'It is by leaps and bounds the worst thing I've seen since this whole Abu Ghraib scandal broke,' said Tom Malinowski, referring to the prison outside Baghdad where US military guards abused Iraqi prisoners.
'It appears that what they were contemplating was the commission of war crimes and looking for ways to avoid legal accountability. The effect is to throw out years of military doctrine and standards on interrogations,' he added. "

Monday, June 7

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment: "It does seem as though one of George Bush's chief legacies may be the complete implosion of the C.I.A. -- at a time when the nation desperately needs its services. (Bush's father served as director of the C.I.A. for many years. Is there some sort of Oedipal lunacy at work?)
So now Bush will be running on a platform of -- competence? Effectiveness in the war on terror? Isn't a war on terror first and foremost a war dependent on good intelligence? At what point can we declare this charade of Republican knowhow at an end?"
More violent patients are going to Laguna Honda: "Budget cuts and overcrowding at San Francisco General Hospital are forcing Laguna Honda -- the city's lone public nursing home -- to start taking in younger and possibly even violent patients.

The issue was highlighted a few days back when a 25-year-old man suspected of being a gang member, using a wheelchair and living at Laguna Honda, rolled into the TV room and changed the channel on a Giants game that a 50-year-old disabled patient was watching.

Words were exchanged, and according to a sheriff's report, the ganger suspect threatened to call his buddies and have the older patient beaten up.

Some 15 minutes later, two rather large buddies did allegedly show up.
"
-----------------------------------
Maybe if we cut taxes back just a little bit more we can have the day care facilities involved here too! Old person's home, gang banger rehab and day care. To Bush and his cronies, it would just be another TRIFECTA!
t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Planet Reagan: " Mainstream media journalism today is a shameful joke because of Reagan's deregulation policies. Once upon a time, the Fairness Doctrine ensured that the information we receive - information vital to the ability of the people to govern in the manner intended - came from a wide variety of sources and perspectives. Reagan's policies annihilated the Fairness Doctrine, opening the door for a few mega-corporations to gather journalism unto themselves. Today, Reagan's old bosses at General Electric own three of the most-watched news channels. This company profits from every war we fight, but somehow is trusted to tell the truths of war. Thus, the myths are sold to us.
The deregulation policies of Ronald Reagan did not just deliver journalism to these massive corporations, but handed virtually every facet of our lives into the hands of this privileged few. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are all tainted because Reagan battered down every environmental regulation he came across so corporations could improve their bottom line. Our leaders are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the corporations that were made all-powerful by Reagan's deregulation craze. The Savings and Loan scandal of Reagan's time, which cost the American people hundreds of billions of dollars, is but one example of Reagan's decision that the foxes would be fine guards in the henhouse. "
Capitol Hill Blue: Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides: "?The Attorney General is tight with the President because of religion,? says one aide. ?They both believe any action is justifiable in the name of God.?
But the President who says he rules at the behest of God can also tongue-lash those he perceives as disloyal, calling them ?fucking assholes? in front of other staff, berating one cabinet official in front of others and labeling anyone who disagrees with him ?unpatriotic? or ?anti-American.?
?The mood here is that we?re under siege, there?s no doubt about it,? says one troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. ?In this administration, you don?t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.?"
Democratic Talk Radio: Democratic Voices Column: Impeaching Unstable Presidents?: "We are not talking the partisan frame-up of the Clinton impeachment era. We are talking about serious crimes and possible violations of the US Constitution that threaten the way the nation conducts our national business. These writers have been hearing behind the scenes rumbling about ticking time bombs that could bring down Bush before or (like Nixon) just after the Presidential elections.

The spending of 700 million dollars of federal tax dollars on an Iraqi invasion before Congress authorized it and supposedly before the decision was made by Bush is impeachable. There are credible reports that Bush knew about the plans to out the CIA agent wife of Ambassador Wilson and that Bush did nothing to stop it. This is certainly impeachable if true and likely criminal. Jail time for Bush would certainly not be unreasonable. We are at WAR!

Enron?s involvement in the California Energy Crisis has just been confirmed. Enron?s ties to Bush are beyond doubt. The actions of the Bush Administration during this crisis should be investigated by a Special Prosecutor. Billions of dollars were stolen from taxpayers, consumers and businesses in California. Enron is the single largest supplier of campaign cash for the Bush Republican Political Machine ever! "

Wednesday, June 2

Salon.com Politics: "Boy, talk about burying the lead. In its Monday profile of the new liberal talk radio network Air America, the New York Times spent so much time dwelling on the financial woes that have reportedly plagued the start-up company that it wasn't until the 15th paragraph that readers learned this bombshell: Talk radio novice Al Franken's new Air America show beat conservative kingpin Rush Limbaugh in New York City where the two go head-to-head every weekday afternoon from noon to three o'clock. That's according to preliminary Arbitron rating estimates for April. "
Salon.com Politics: "A Democratic critic of the Accenture contract, Rep. Richard E. Neal of Massachusetts, focused on the company's Bermuda location: 'The Bush administration has awarded the largest homeland security contract in history to a company that has given up its U.S. citizenship and moved to Bermuda. The inconsistency is breathtaking,' he said. "
-------------------------------
Breathtaking and insanely predictable.

Tuesday, June 1

Making Hay Out of Straw Men (washingtonpost.com): "The Quotable Bush

'I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein.'
-- President Bush, meeting Iraqi amputees at the White House on May 25. "

Saturday, May 29

: "By David H. Hackworth

Top military managers insist that our all-volunteer Army isnt stretched too thin from this countrys heavy and hazardous commitment to hot spots like Iraq and Afghanistan and cooler places in another 131 countries around Planet Earth. They spout positive numbers like carnival hucksters, hyping enlistment and re-enlistment rates they keep insisting are at an all-time high.

Loyalty, patriotism and seeing the results of successfully accomplishing their missions are the key factors in this success, said Col. Elton Manske, an Army personnel chief in the Pentagon.

Except thats exactly 180 degrees out from what hundreds of soldiers have told me during the past few weeks.

It also doesn't square with the fact that the Army is currently extending 44,000 soldiers under stop-loss provisions which, like a form of the draft, arbitrarily keep a soldier in service beyond the agreed-upon term of enlistment.

'Stop loss is not only a breach of contract, its a form of slavery,railed a Special Forces (SF) senior noncommissioned officer. There's a tidal wave of folks getting out. ... The number of senior SF NCOs leaving is amazing. Our battalion had three of five sergeant-majors retire, and our sister battalion had two of five. The number of master sergeants was well into double digits. I predict that the exodus will devastate the senior NCO corps at a time when experience and stability are most needed. "
New York Daily News - Ideas & Opinions - Richard Cohen: W's blind to the Iraqi reality show: "On a recent Sunday, four men, stripped to their underpants, were paraded through a city on the back of a pickup truck. They were escorted by scores of masked men shouting 'Allahu Akbar' ('God Is Great'), and their backs were bleeding from the 80 lashes each had received for selling alcohol.
Where did this happen? Fallujah, the Iraqi city described by President Bush in the most serene terms in his address at the Army War College the other night. He mentioned the city when he said military commanders had exercised commendable restraint in not leveling the place after American contractors were killed and hung from a bridge.
'We're making security a shared responsibility in Fallujah,' the President told the nation. 'Coalition commanders have worked with local leaders to create an all-Iraqi security force, which is now patrolling the city.'"

Monday, May 24

The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Editorials: "Bill Nevins, a New Mexico high school teacher and personal friend, was fired last year and classes in poetry and the poetry club at Rio Rancho High School were permanently terminated. It had nothing to do with obscenity, but it had everything to do with extremist politics.
The 'Slam Team' was a group of teenage poets who asked Nevins to serve as faculty adviser to their club. The teens, mostly shy youngsters, were taught to read their poetry aloud and before audiences. Rio Rancho High School gave the Slam Team access to the school's closed-circuit television once a week and the poets thrived.
In March 2003, a teenage girl named Courtney presented one of her poems before an audience at Barnes & Noble bookstore in Albuquerque, then read the poem live on the school's closed-circuit television channel.
A school military liaison and the high school principal accused the girl of being 'un-American' because she criticized the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's failure to give substance to its 'No child left behind' education policy.
The girl's mother, also a teacher, was ordered by the principal to destroy the child's poetry. The mother refused and may lose her job.
Bill Nevins was suspended for not censoring the poetry of his students. Remember, there is no obscenity to be found in any of the poetry. He was later fired by the principal."
----------------------------------
The true 'obscenity' is the stiffling of free speech in America.

Friday, May 21

Naked Truth (PNEWS) Portal - US Tried to Plant WMDs, Failed: "According to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense Department (DoD), the Bush administration's assurance about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) plan to 'plant' WMDs inside the country. Nelda Rogers, the Pentagon whistleblower, claims the plan failed when the secret mission was mistakenly taken out by 'friendly fire', the Environmentalists Against War report."
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: May 16, 2004 - May 22, 2004 Archives: "Department of unintended Chalabi ironies. From President Bush's commencement speech at LSU: 'On the job, and elsewhere in life, choose your friends carefully. The company you keep has a way of rubbing off on you. And that can be a good thing or a bad thing.'"
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | George Bush never looked into Nick's eyes: "George Bush's ineffective leadership is a weapon of mass destruction, and it has allowed a chain reaction of events that led to the unlawful detention of my son which immersed him in a world of escalated violence. Were it not for Nick's detention, I would have had him in my arms again. That detention held him in Iraq not only until the atrocities that led to the siege of Fallujah, but also the revelation of the atrocities committed in the jails in Iraq, in retaliation for which my son's wonderful life was put to an end. "
--------------------------------------------
Direct Quote from the father of slain American Nick Berg.

Wednesday, May 19

WorkingForChange-Scandal's shame, Massachusetts' pride: "In the end, the irony is grim: The U.S. military bans openly gay soldiers but apparently does not effectively screen out heterosexual sadists. Meanwhile, at home the president tries desperately to make an election-year issue out of preventing free adults from civilly consecrating same-sex partnerships.
Unfortunately there are many in this country, at least in the political class, who claim to support the rights of the individual abroad while struggling to limit them at home. Yet, as with classic images from earlier civil rights movements, such as that of a poised black girl walking to school through a jeering crowd, the dramatic scenes of joy and love now unfolding in Massachusetts are likely to be looked back upon by future generations with a 'what took us so long?' relief.
Bush has condemned the Massachusetts high court for tampering with the 'traditional values' enshrined in the Constitution. But we should be grateful for such tampering, or we would still have slavery and women still would not be allowed to vote. "

Tuesday, May 18

Locked in Abu Ghraib - The prison scandal keeps getting worse for the Bush administration. By Fred?Kaplan

Bush knew about it. Rumsfeld ordered it. His undersecretary of defense for intelligence, Steven Cambone, administered it. Cambone's deputy, Lt. Gen. William Boykin, instructed Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who had been executing the program involving al-Qaida suspects at Guantanamo, to go do the same at Abu Ghraib. Miller told Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of the 800th Military Brigade, that the prison would now be dedicated to gathering intelligence. Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, also seems to have had a hand in this sequence, as did William Haynes, the Pentagon's general counsel. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, learned about the improper interrogations—from the International Committee of the Red Cross, if not from anyone else—but said or did nothing about it for two months, until it was clear that photographs were coming out. Meanwhile, those involved in the interrogations included officers from military intelligence, the CIA, and private contractors, as well as the mysterious figures from the Pentagon's secret operation.

That's a lot more people than the seven low-grade soldiers and reservists currently facing courts-martial.

Yahoo! News - FIRE THE WAR PIMPS: "
NEW YORK--A year and a half late and 30,000 lives short, supporters of the war in Iraq finally admit that they were wrong.
When I appeared on Bill O'Reilly's show recently, his bellicose bravado was MIA. We argued about Bush and war, but he studiously avoided talking about Iraq. The Fox News demagogue limited his attacks to my opposition to the war against Afghanistan (news - web sites). To his credit O'Reilly, formerly a ferocious advocate of the Iraqi invasion, was one of the first media war promoters to concede that Iraq had never been a threat to the United States. 'I was wrong,' he told ABC in February. 'I think every American should be very concerned' that weapons of mass destruction have not been found. "

Monday, May 17


http://www.cicap.org/congress/

Thursday, May 13

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Clash of Civilizations: "The Bush hawks, so fixated on making the Middle East look more like America, have made America look un-American. Should we really be reduced to defending ourselves by saying at least we don't behead people?"

Wednesday, May 12

Will the Torture at Abu Ghraib (Finally) Open Americans' Eyes? - Maureen Farrell at BuzzFlash.com
AlterNet: SCHEER: Thread of Abuse Runs to the Oval Office: "The Red Cross complained directly to the authorities at that time, two months before the now-infamous photographs were taken.
The White House and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld have for months stubbornly ignored and kept from the public the conclusions of both the Red Cross report and the even more damning internal report done by Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba for the Pentagon in March. "
Mirror.co.uk - US WORKER EXECUTED IN REVENGE FOR JAIL TORTURE: "Nick's distraught dad Michael blamed the US government for his son's after he was arrested in March in Mosul. He had ebeen trying to find work fixing communications masts. His parents filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia alleging illegal detention by the American military.
His father added: 'I think a lot of people are fed up with the lack of civil rights this thing has caused. I don't think this administration is committed to democracy.'"

Tuesday, May 11

Pa. family angry with American government over son's brutal death: "Michael Berg lashed out at the U.S. military and Bush administration, saying his son might still be alive had he not been detained by U.S. officials in Iraq without being charged and without access to a lawyer.
Nick Berg, a small telecommunications business owner, spoke to his parents on March 24 and told them he would return home on March 30. But Berg was detained by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Mosul on March 24. He was turned over to U.S. officials and detained for 13 days.
His father, Michael, said his son wasn't allowed to make phone calls or contact a lawyer.
FBI agents visited Berg's parents in West Chester on March 31 and told the family they were trying to confirm their son's identity. On April 5, the Bergs filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia, contending that their son was being held illegally by the U.S. military. The next day Berg was released. He told his parents he hadn't been mistreated.
Michael Berg said he blamed the U.S. government for creating circumstances that led to his son's death. He said if his son hadn't been detained for so long, he might have been able to leave the country before the violence worsened."