Yo Common Weapons! The game is over! Come on out already!

(thanks to This Modern World for the link). It seems that Condoleezza Rice has a new theory for the missing weapons of mass destruction:

Almost three weeks since the fall of Baghdad, with senior Iraqi scientists and officials in US custody, no chemical or biological weapons stockpiles have been found. Neither has any evidence been uncovered that Iraq had restarted a nuclear program.

In explaining the gap between the prewar and postwar claims on Iraq's WMD, Dr Rice said the US was now seeing the programs in a different light. "The fact is that we are beginning to see a kind of pattern on how Iraq may have hidden its weapons of mass destruction from the outside world for all of these years," she said this week.

According to Dr Rice, the weapons programs are "in bits and pieces" rather than assembled weapons. "You may find assembly lines, you may find pieces hidden here and there," she said. Ingredients or precursors, many non-lethal by themselves, could be embedded in dual-use facilities.

Ohhh kay! Let see, translated to US geography it goes like this: a farmer in Iowa has fertilizer... that's an ingredient in a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Okay let's get the farmers. There is a teeny tiny nuclear reactor in the basement of NIH in Bethesday, MD, that could be used to make a bomb. Okay let's get those medical doctors and scientists.

Seriously that's just an odd arguement, it actually reminds me of a Steven Wright joke: "I have the world's largest sea shell collection. I keep the beaches all over the world." So Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was just pretty much everything in the country that could be reporposed as a weapon? You know the hand can be used as a knife, but you still cannot cut a tomato with it (sorry... that's off topic isn't it?)

- rob 7:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Daily [Weekly] Enron was updated today:

Homophobes Unite

Last week comments made by Sen. Santorum where he admonished homosexuality were brought to light. This week more evidence of his homophobic agenda did too. Not long after 9/11 Sen. Santorum sent out a letter asking for money for a nonprofit group lobbying against gay marriages. Everyone else’s priorities were focused on the war on terror or protecting the homeland, while Santorum was equating terrorism to gay marriage.

His letter began: “I know it may sound like a huge exaggeration, particularly in light of the attack on America, but this may truly be the most important letter I ever write you.”

How did Santorum’s Republican colleagues react to public acknowledgement of his homophobic ways? They applauded him. When he entered the weekly GOP luncheon, he was welcomed to a round of applause.

Outrage

The U.S. government wouldn’t even fund a new emergency operations center for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) just two years into a massive war on terror. The public has faced anthrax attacks and is currently battling a pneumonia-like disease called SARS, and government doesn’t seem to think engaging in this battle is essential to homeland security.

Everyone else seems to see the need for such a center. That’s why Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus was willing to front the funds to make it happen. That’s right – a government building has been sponsored, just like a sports team. Go team go.

- rob 6:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." --G.W. Bush, CNN, Dec. 18, 2000

- rob 6:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Republican theocracy

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Oh and I really apologize for being negative yesterday. I just learned it was National Loyalty Day yesterday. I’m so sorry. Here I’ll make up for it: Hail o' brave plane riding Bush!

- rob 5:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Weapons? Oh weapons? Yoo Hoo. Weapons. Oh come on weapons! Alli Alli Oxum Free!

- rob 5:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I don’t mean to be all negative. Bush is the Compassionate Conservative after all, let’s look closely at that awesome African AIDS imitative he talked about at the State of the Union:

Under this bill, groups that provide AIDS prevention as well as abortion services now must keep their abortion and family-planning programs financially and physically separate from its AIDS prevention work.

In other words, they can take the money, but they can't do AIDS work and family planning in the same facility.

If this legislation passes through Congress unchanged, poor and rural communities that have only one clinic would have to build a new one in order to separate their AIDS work from their family-planning work -- an unlikely development, given the depressed economies in the targeted African and Caribbean countries. Or they would have to shut down their family-planning clinic altogether in order to qualify for the AIDS money.

This ties in well with George’s normal concern for the well being of women in the world. His concern and compassion for women is so strong that he’ll ignore his normal distain for countries like Iran, Sudan, and Libya and join with them “to delete a phrase - included in previously agreed-upon UN statements dating back a decade - that calls on countries to condemn violence against women and "refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration" to avoid the obligation to stop the violence.”

I’m getting sick. Is this all real?

- rob 5:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A bill to allow the CIA and Defense Department the authority to issue administrative subpoenas?
Oh what a surprise, I don’t know how that got in there. Oh, the Bush administration put that in there.

- rob 5:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Another fine Krugman: Acid Test

Warren Buffett has called C.E.O. compensation the "acid test" for reform. Between 1970 and 2001, in an orgy of mutual back-scratching by C.E.O.'s and their boards, median pay among the top 100 executives soared from 35 times that of the average worker to more than 500 times as much. So what happened in 2002, as unemployment rose, wages failed to keep up with prices and stocks declined — and stories of corporate malfeasance filled the news? Nothing. O.K., not exactly nothing: some of the huge options grants at the top went away, reducing the average among the top 100. But according to Fortune, which put a pinstripe-clothed pig on its cover, median pay among top executives rose another 14 percent.

Last summer it seemed, briefly, as if the torrent of scandals — and the revelations about how closely some of our politicians were tied to scandal-ridden companies — would bring about a public backlash against corporate malfeasance. But then the topic largely vanished from the news, driven out by reports about Iraq's nuclear weapons program and all that.

- rob 5:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It’s been a busy week, here it is Friday, and I’m posting the Monday’s Ton Ten Conservative Idiots' link. Here’s one that is very scary. Is this so we have enough nukes to bomb Mars (what with the Mars / Saddam connection).

8. The Bush Administration (again)
Good news! It was reported last week that the Energy Department said that "the United States has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has restarted production of plutonium parts for bombs." Well hoorah! Said Jon Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "to the average U.S. citizen, it would be accurate to say we have restarted the production of nuclear weapons." Yippee! Now North Korea will be sure to take us seriously when we tell them to stop making nukes. And in case you were wondering, it costs about $6 billion a year to get this program back up and running, which is 50 per cent more than we were spending on nuclear weapons during the Cold War. That $6 billion could buy an awful lot of schoolbooks. But then I guess when it comes to the choice between leaving no child behind and throwing sanity to the wind, it's Whoosh! Goodbye sanity! Have a nice flight!

- rob 5:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Rummy's deal

Its funny that conservatives often talk about how the huge problem with liberals is their “moral relativity” I was never sure what that meant, until I an example. Make money selling North Korea a nuclear power plant, while warning the world of North Korea’s potential ability to make nuclear weapons. But old Rummy’s got it down:

Not only was Donald Rumsfeld a director of ABB, the Swiss firm hired by Kim Jong Il to build nuclear reactors in North Korea, but he may also have sought Washington's help to secure the contract for the construction conglomerate. In the current issue of Fortune, Richard Behar closely scrutinizes Rumsfeld's role in the North Korean nuke deal. What he discovered demolishes the rote denials served up by Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke, who has told reporters that her boss "does not recall" any discussion of the $200 million project while he sat on the ABB board.
…
By then, the framework designed to forestall a nuclear North was highly controversial in Washington, partly because Kim was known to be developing long-range missiles. That same year, Rumsfeld chaired a congressional commission on ballistic missile threats, which concluded that North Korea could strike the U.S. within five years. In a "subtle swipe" at the ABB reactor deal, the so-called Rumsfeld Commission also said that North Korea maintained its nuclear weapons program. Behar notes that "Rumsfeld's resume in the report did not mention that he was an ABB director," a position he held until 2000.

- rob 5:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Senator Santorum met with some constituents the other day, and depending on whom you ask the meeting went like this:

The meeting did not go well, and Mr. Santorum, who has infuriated gays by likening homosexuality to incest and bigamy, left in a hurry, tripping over a chair, the parents said.

"What we tried to do in this meeting was reach him on a human level, and we found no humanity there," said Melina Waldo, a former constituent of Mr. Santorum who lives in Haddonfield, N.J. She said he was "condescending, belligerent, argumentative and arrogant."

Or like this:

A spokeswoman for Mr. Santorum, Erica Clayton Wright, described the meeting as "a very professional and polite exchange." She declined to give details, however, saying, "Constituent meetings are private."

Either way I find it funny that the article states: Republican leaders in the House and Senate have stood by him. But it doesn’t mention that the White House recently praised him as a man of inclusion. Perhaps that would be bad to say after George looked so heroic yesterday, making a speech to folks who probably could be up for a court martial for not clapping.

- rob 5:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Just going to throw this all in one post today, this stuff was from MHO, This Modern World, or I just stumbled upon it.

Bechtel and the Bin Laden family, two great tastes that test great together.

All along we are hearing 9/11 was Clinton's fault, or that it would have happened no matter what, or that we need to limit our liberties to be safe. Well why not see what went wrong. We already know the Bush administration hates the idea of an independent investigation, but it hates the government's investigation too. Newsflash: The Bush and Clinton Administrations Could Have Done Better. That isn't horrible. What is horrible is not wanting to see what went wrong so that we can prevent it in the future.

Here's a good editorial that asks the obvious question: Were supporters misled?

Here I talk about stuff that everyone knows Bush is better at than some democrat. Well we definitely know he'd be better at fighting drugs and inflation. Well, at least we know the price of heroin is coming down.

- rob 4:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Got this link from This Modern World, it is always fun with wacko's: Garner: Americans Should Beat Chests with Pride

"We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to look in a mirror and get proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say: 'Damn, we're Americans!'," Jay Garner told reporters, saying that Iraq's oil fields and other infrastructure survived the war almost intact.

I'm damn proud the oil fields didn't burn too. I'd even be more proud if every Iraqi citizen was paid a percentage of the oil producing profits of its nation. Imagine that, America says it is the oil of the Iraqi people and later proves it by giving them a piece of the pie! Not only would it help the Iraqi people, not only would it help America's internationally standing, not only would it make the ruling family of Saudi Arabia nervous, and get the average joe in the to believe America really does stand for something (again), it'd also make me proud. It'd even beat my chest in front of the mirror... though I might stop really quickly because that would be a little embarrassing.

- rob 5:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I got this from MHO: Did our leaders lie to us? Do we even care?

''Would it bother you if we were to discover that George Bush lied about the case for going to war?'' I asked.

He knew what I was referring to. His blunt answer left my jaw hanging.

``Everyone knows he lied about weapons of mass destruction being the point of the war.''

Just a few weeks ago, any statement from me that Bush's case for war was riddled with inconsistencies and illogic would have brought swift and fierce condemnation from this fellow.

Now, basking in the glow of military conquest -- and confronted by a thus-far futile search for chemical and biological weapons -- this hawk breezily conceded the point while also waving it away as inconsequential.

Have we become a country that wears its hypocrisy openly and proudly?

- rob 5:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I had heard about this yesterday, and now it is available. Please, please, if you don't have Real Player, get it. This is worth it:

Bush vs. Bush

The President questions The President. Republicans around the world go "Whaaaaa?".

- rob 3:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Oh great. Thanks George, We now have another multinational military organization out there. What happens when EU goes to war with NATO?

Meeting in Brussels, the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg signed up to a raft of measures that could lead to a fully fledged European Security and Defense Union by the end of next year.

The new alliance would commit members to create a rapid-reaction force capable of preventing conflicts and managing crises anywhere in the world, to set up a European security and defense college and arms procurement agency, and to come to each other's aid in the event of an attack by another country.
...
Rejecting warnings from British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the Belgian initiative could cement divisions between Brussels and Washington, Chirac said: "In order to have balance, we need a stronger European Union and a strong United States."

- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Below I mention a Scary Article. The article is called: Rumsfeld heralds 'first strike' era

Here's some excerpts:

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that his country has entered a new era in which it must pre-emptively seek out and prevent attacks by terrorists and terrorist states.

He told coalition troops at US Central Command in the Gulf state of Qatar that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq showed that America had made a good start.

Aye, that was a marvelous start. Ummm.... I'm more worried about the middle and end.

- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Here is a gossip's take on the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner that took place on Saturday. Not really interesting save for this great excerpt:

President Bush cracked no jokes at the dinner, instead honoring journalists who were killed in the line of duty in Iraq.... No one, it seems, was in much of a clowning mood. Take the exchange we heard about between comedian/smartass Al Franken and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz:

Franken: "Clinton's military did pretty well in Iraq, huh?"

Wolfowitz: "Fuck you."

This is mildly funny because when Dick "no really I'm smiling' Cheney was Secretary of Defense he credited the Reagan administration for buidling up the strong military that quickly won Gulf War I. He, correctly believe it or not, stated that the defensive spending spent today is for a stronger future, i.e. all of Reagan's spending gave Bush the elder a strong military. I assume he was saying it in context of justifying spending in his time to make sure he left a strong military for the next President. So is the military that was able to lead an invasion that would "go down in military history because of its unprecedented combination of power, precision, speed and flexibility, (to quote Rumsfeld in this scary article)" the military that Clinton built? I thought he had left us dangerously weak? Oh, I'm so confused.... is someone not telling the whole story out there? oh dear....

- rob 3:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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From the bottom of this page in the Washington Post (thanks go to Buzzflash)

Homemaker's Recipe for Success

The White House made a number of recess appointments last week as Congress fled for spring break. One was April H. Foley, a "homemaker," according to campaign contribution disclosure documents, from South Salem, N.Y. She was named to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank. The appointment is good until Congress adjourns next year.

So why a homemaker for this job? Well, "early in her career," the White House announcement says, she was director of business planning for corporate strategy with PepsiCo Inc. and director of strategy for Reader's Digest Association. More recently, she was president of the United Way of Northern Westchester County, N.Y. Not all of it, just the northern part.

Still not locked in on the merits? Did we mention she used to date George W. Bush when both were at Harvard Business School and has remained friends with him?

Hmm.... What does Laura have to say about all this?

- rob 3:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Perhaps we should just have a permanent link to Paul Krugman: Matters of Emphasis
"We were not lying," a Bush administration official told ABC News. "But it was just a matter of emphasis." The official was referring to the way the administration hyped the threat that Saddam Hussein posed to the United States. According to the ABC report, the real reason for the war was that the administration "wanted to make a statement."

And what kind of statment is that? We don't trust the American people to make the right decisions if they have all the facts? I thought we were promoting Democracy. Sorry, I'll stop interuppting.

Meanwhile, aren't the leaders of a democratic nation supposed to tell their citizens the truth?

One wonders whether most of the public will ever learn that the original case for war has turned out to be false. In fact, my guess is that most Americans believe that we have found W.M.D.'s. Each potential find gets blaring coverage on TV; how many people catch the later announcement — if it is ever announced — that it was a false alarm? It's a pattern of misinformation that recapitulates the way the war was sold in the first place. Each administration charge against Iraq received prominent coverage; the subsequent debunking did not.

Did the news media feel that it was unpatriotic to question the administration's credibility? Some strange things certainly happened. For example, in September Mr. Bush cited an International Atomic Energy Agency report that he said showed that Saddam was only months from having nuclear weapons. "I don't know what more evidence we need," he said. In fact, the report said no such thing — and for a few hours the lead story on MSNBC's Web site bore the headline "White House: Bush Misstated Report on Iraq." Then the story vanished — not just from the top of the page, but from the site.

Thanks to this pattern of loud assertions and muted or suppressed retractions, the American public probably believes that we went to war to avert an immediate threat — just as it believes that Saddam had something to do with Sept. 11.

- rob 2:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I got the below piece from This Modern World. Here's another piece from that site, really wrapping up the whole Senator Santorum story, and adds an interesting tid bit about the GOP and press coverage in general:

I had the opportunity to cover the 2000 GOP convention when I was the morning guy on Working Assets' RadioForChange.com. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) was the first Out homosexual ever to address a GOP convention. He wasn't talking about gay rights or civil liberties, of course -- he was actually discussing Free Trade with China -- but right in front of him, just below the stage, were several GOP activists, including a nice chunk of the Texas delegation, visibly and demonstratively praying for his Eternal Soul to release its wickedness.

Somehow the networks didn't manage to include that in their coverage.

The next morning, I interviewed the guy in person, live on the air. And just before we started, one of the GOP's media handlers let me know that for the purposes of the following discussion, Jim was not gay.

- rob 12:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A while back I posted an article about Congressmen living in housing subsidized by a religious group (scroll down to the bottom if the anchor doesn't work). Here is an interview with the author of a larger piece about that religious group. Scared yet? Are you paranoid even if there is a conspiracy :-)?

- rob 12:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Now that Bush is taking his act to NYC to coincide with 9/11, here's a letter from a family victim to endorse his second term, which is a foregone conclusion. Dubya standing atop the smoking graves of the dead with a bullhorn and a smile while the crowd chants "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" delivering empty promises to New York is burned into my brain forever.

- Michael 1:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

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