I listen to a lot of conservative talk radio. Anyone who's reading this knows the official line on war and Middle East politics, from both sides. Everyone is pointing fingers and figuring out how to make the best political hay. But I was listening to this one guy, Dan Lynch, who advertises his show as "radio for people who think" and declares himself immune from the radical fringes of either side, and even ran for office a few years ago (as an independent) and lost to a Republican who waged a dirty campaign (big surprise); he had this whole week of programs about the Palestinians and Israel, and his argument, in a nutshell, is that Israel should bomb the shit out of Hamas and anybody else who attacks, and if civilians get killed along the way, so be it. He even went as far as to suggest that we intervene in Iraq-style fashion, "to teach the governments of Syria and Iran who sponsor terrorist groups a lesson." He cares not about the Bush fabrications about why we went to war, brushing them all aside as inconsequential, that 9/11 landed this "festering hatred" in our front yard and the only thing that Arabs understand is force, "That what happened to Saddam can happen to you too, and it will."
I have a huge problem with this kind of thinking. First, we're talking about Cain and Abel here. This is blood hatred that defies all reason, all fear, and all consequences, going back to before the ink was dry on the Old Testament. For as long as people have known their history, these two have dedicated their existence to annihilate one another, this is how they define themselves, to themselves. Second, it is the height of foolishness to try to "solve the problem" of the Middle East. To look at this as a problem that has a solution is the difference between a country that is only 200 years old and the cradle of mankind, which goes back to a time before history was ever recorded. There is no solution. There are islands of peace, and episodes of war, and everlasting hatred. The national borders are all fictions, based on the last 100 years of British imperialism and American neoimperialism, and the warlords were all set up by their European and Continental masters. So these arguments of statehood are all bogus, to the extent that any one group is indigenous. It's a hypocritical argument any way you look at it, this idea of "we were here first." Nobody was anywhere first, except maybe Africa 160,000 years ago, and take a look at Africa. How come no one talks about their "right of return"? Totally specious.
Third, why do conservative-minded political thinkers think that violence solves problems? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that violence begets violence. How can we be invading countries and bombing thoroughly modern cities with the most extreme technologies of violence and war making available and talk about peace, to the very people we are bombing and murdering? How is that a "solution"? I keep imagining some Arab radio host with a call-in audience discussing in a pseudo-intellectual patronizing way why Dan Lynch and everyone who listens to him should be killed. Or you and me for that matter. Just imagine it. Lofty foreign philosophers weighing in with their audiences of "people who think," arriving at the civilized conclusion that Americans would all be better off dead, "because that's the only thing we understand." And what's with this morality? The equivocation and moral relativism used in the Middle East arguments are all disgusting. The Palestinians are evil and cowardly because Hamas hides among women and children, and the Israelis have every right to kill them all in massive bombing raids, but Israeli blood is shed indiscriminately, and thus immorally, because the suicide bombers target public places and don't distinguish between combatants and civilians. Well, what about us? We bomb the shit out of whomever we please, wherever and whenever we please, for money. What does that make us, in the moral scheme of things? It's all horseshit. I'm sick of this idea that America's job is to "do the right thing" and "solve" the world's problems. We can't even deliver a budget in Albany. The reality is, the Middle East will never, ever, in a hundred million years be free of hatred, war and blood feuds. Bush et al. have dragged us -- screaming and kicking -- straight into the world's oldest quicksand, where we will be mired for years and years and years, enough to make Vietnam look like a mud puddle. In the meantime, talk show hosts are splitting hairs about rationales. Tell it to the dead.

- Michael 10:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Though Bush's re-election strategy is based on America's sort attention span (Afganistan?), he also really depends upon the American press being a bunch of lazy hacks how print white house press releases as news. Otherwise we might be reading articles like this: US turns to the Taliban.

KARACHI - Such is the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, compounded by the return to the country of a large number of former Afghan communist refugees, that United States and Pakistani intelligence officials have met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being further ripped apart.
...

The source told Asia Times Online that four conditions were put to the Taliban before any form of reconciliation can take place that could potentially lead to them having a role in the Kabul government...

And believe it or not, none of the conditions are: Stop acting like scary religious wackos.

I'm not saying this article is telling the truth, I'm just saying wouldn't it be nice to have a US reporter investigate this?

- rob 5:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You know. I harp on this whole Iraq war thang. But that is just the most brutal of Bush Lies (tm). The truth is he lies about EVERYTHING:

The Photographic History of the Bush Administration Putting Its Mouth Where Its Money Isn’t

- rob 4:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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ooops. For some reason Halliburton just keeps getting more and more money... and the story keeps changing. Well at least it is not an insignificant land deal in Arkansas, that would be something important.

Army Backtracks on Halliburton Contract

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this week backed off estimates that a fully competitive replacement contract would be awarded by August.

There will be no second contract if the oil restoration mission is completed before another company can take over, or if the Iraqis make their own arrangements for additional help, the Corps said.

"We're not going to try to discuss a specific timetable," a Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Eugene Pawlik, said. Asked about the Corps' earlier August estimate, Pawlik said, "I would be very surprised if that would be in the timetable, with all the requirements that are out there."

While the Army delays its decision, the government cost of the noncompetitive work awarded to Vice President Dick Cheney's former company is ballooning. The total as of last week was $184.7 million, up from $76.7 million a month ago, shortly after the assigned work expanded significantly.

- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman unleashes on Delay (at last):

'Some Crazy Guy'

So what will Mr. DeLay and his associates do with their lock on power, once it is firmly established? They will push through a radical right-wing agenda. For example, expect to see much less environmental protection: Mr. DeLay has described the Environmental Protection Agency as "the Gestapo." (as I channel my inner immature sefl - surprisingly easy - the words "takes one to know one" comes out).

Above all, expect to see the wall between church and state come tumbling down. Mr. DeLay has said that he went into politics to promote a "biblical worldview," and that he pursued President Clinton because he didn't share that view. Where would this worldview be put into effect? How about the schools: after the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay called a press conference in which he attributed the tragedy to the fact that students are taught the theory of evolution. (emphasis mine, cause that is exactly like Saddam saying the shuttle blew up as God's punishment against the US. Nut cases).

There's no point in getting mad at Mr. DeLay and his clique: they are what they are. I do, however, get angry at moderates, liberals and traditional conservatives who avert their eyes, pretending that current disputes are just politics as usual. They aren't — what we're looking at here is a radical power play, which if it succeeds will transform our country. Yet it's considered uncool to point that out.

Many of those who minimize the threat the radical right now poses to America as we know it would hate to live in the country Mr. DeLay wants to create. Yet by playing down the seriousness of the challenge, they help bring his vision closer to reality.

- rob 3:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ahh Power. How to keep it? Intimidate any who would question you or your administration Or in the case below: Questioning your important thesis that nothing could be done to have prevented the attacks of 9/11. (and that thesis is probably the most important pillar of Bush's rule. There would be no need for the PATRIOT act [or its ilk] if the attacks could have been prevented).

FBI Agent Probed After Criticism

Special Agent Robert Wright first went public last year on PrimeTime Thursday and told ABCNEWS Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross that he believes the FBI has failed to safeguard the United States from terrorist attacks.

"Sept. 11 is a direct result of the incompetence of the FBI's International Terrorism Unit," Wright said. "No doubt about that. Absolutely no doubt about that."

Wright began tracking terrorists in the Chicago area in the mid-1990s for the Terrorism Task Force. He says he soon became frustrated when he was ordered by his superiors at the FBI Intelligence Division not to make any arrests of suspected terrorists.

I got this link from either Buzzflash or Cursor, both great sites.

- rob 3:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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White House in Denial

And we ain't talking about a river in Egypt (har har). Nope we're talking about Nuclear Weapons (you know, the one's Saddam had... stop laughing).

Condoleezza Rice was asked on "Meet the Press" on Sunday about a column of mine from May 6 regarding President Bush's reliance on forged documents to claim that Iraq had sought uranium in Africa. That was not just a case of hyping intelligence, but of asserting something that had already been flatly discredited by an envoy investigating at the behest of the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Ms. Rice acknowledged that the president's information turned out to be "not credible," but insisted that the White House hadn't realized this until after Mr. Bush had cited it in his State of the Union address.

And now an administration official tells The Washington Post that Mr. Cheney's office first learned of its role in the episode by reading that column of mine. Hmm. I have an offer for Mr. Cheney: I'll tell you everything I know about your activities, if you'll tell me all you know.

Emphasis there was mine, because it is a great line.

for more on this: White House was warned of dubious intelligence, official says

WASHINGTON - Making his case for war with Iraq, President Bush in his State of the Union address this year accused Saddam Hussein of trying to buy uranium from Africa even though the CIA had warned White House and other officials that the story didn't check out.

I know, I know, I linked to Krugman talking about this over a month ago. "Silly me, I think lying about why we are going to war is a big deal.

- rob 2:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Quick Question about "ethics"

Why did (formally known as moderate but in this day and age that makes him a liberal) Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens recuse himself from The recent hearing on Agent Orange? Because his son was a Vietnam Vet who died at age 47 to cancer. Perhaps he thought it best to not be involved in a case that had potential personal implications for him.

Why did Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas not recuse himself from the vote on the Florida State Supreme Court mandated recount? Good question, especially when his wife was working for the Bush team setting up the transition.

Why did Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia not recuse himself from the vote on the Florida State Supreme Court mandated recount? Good question, especially when his son was working for the law firm representing Bush's team in Florida.

But Rush told me liberals have no ethics but conservatives do? Rush wouldn't lie would he?

- rob 2:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Forged Evidence

June 10, 2003

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Dr. Rice:

Since March 17, 2003, I have been trying without success to get a direct answer to one simple question: Why did President Bush cite forged evidence about Iraq's nuclear capabilities in his State of the Union address?

...

Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Ranking Minority Member
U.S. House of Representatives

- rob 1:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Homeland's Bioterror Plan Is Questioned

Turner [Jim Turner of Texas - Democrat], at a news conference with other Democrats on the committee, said the "dysfunctional state" of the department's Office of Information Analysis casts doubt on Project Bioshield plan, under which Congress would give the administration broad powers to research, buy and distribute vaccines and antidotes against bioterror threats.

Cost of the program is estimated at $6 billion over 10 years. "We can't afford to make a multimillion-dollar mistake" by contracting with companies for antidotes when the government can't determine where the real threats are, Turner said.

Paul Redmond, assistant secretary for information analysis at the Homeland Security Department, told the committee Thursday that he was not prepared to disclose detailed information on threats, and the department as yet lacks full information on what pathogens pose the most serious threats.

In his letter to the president, Turner noted that the Office of Information Analysis has hired only one microbiologist to analyze the bioterror threat, has only about 25 analysts in all and cannot hire more at this time due because it lacks the office space.

Ahhh. Boy the George boy is certainly making great strides in keeping this country save. Give him another 6 billion and he'll hire another microbiologist. Yeah baby, I know I'm in good hands.

- rob 1:35 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Republicans Limit Probe of Iraq Intelligence

Oh course. You really wouldn't want to find out if the rationale for a war was based on poor (and manipulated) "intelligence." Nah.

"There seems to be a campaign afoot by some to criticize the intelligence community and the president for connecting the dots, for putting together a picture that seemed all too obvious," said Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, of Kansas.

Well, Duh, Pat. Such a insightful statement makes me understand we you are the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The 2nd most important thing in 2004 is to vote out the Republican congress. You know of course what the most important thing to do is... don't you?

- rob 1:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey Hey Hey Good Bye

Bush is not unbeatable. But it will take some brutal frankness on the part of the Democratic candidate (and it will also mean the Greens better play nice). A candidate the remembers American is about freedom, and what the means, both its costs and its treasures.

Poll: Bush Approval Drops on Sour Economy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Bush's approval rating has dropped to 57 percent from 73 percent since April as voters soured on his handling of the economy, a poll published on Wednesday showed.

But the economy has one very bright spot: The Housing Market.

Executive Shuffle at Freddie Mac Could Destablize Housing Market

The turmoil at Freddie Mac, one of the largest mortgage finance companies, is creating ripples through financial markets and could threaten the robust housing market that has brightened an otherwise dreary economy, analysts said.

Oh dear. You know what this could mean. Yep. War. With someone. Somewhere.

- rob 1:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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And this link from a former Republican (years and years ago) and very close and loved relation:

Who will rescue America's spies?

"The American people were manipulated," bluntly declares one person from the Defense Intelligence Agency who says he was privy to all the intelligence there on Iraq. These people are coming forward because they are fiercely proud of the deepest ethic in the intelligence world - that intelligence should be nonpolitical - and are disgusted at efforts to turn them into propagandists.
.
"The Al Qaeda connection and nuclear weapons issue were the only two ways that you could link Iraq to an imminent security threat to the United States," says Greg Thielmann, who retired in September after 25 years in the State Department, the last four in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. "And the administration was grossly distorting the intelligence on both things."

- rob 3:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A somber post from an anonymous reader:

"Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for victory of this idea." --Mein Kampf

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=19&u=/nm/un_court_usa_dc

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&e=11&u=/afp/us_attacks_immigration

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&e=2&u=/ap/ashcroft_terrorism

- rob 3:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Cheney's CIA visits pressured us: analysts

Multiple visits to the CIA by the United States Vice-President, Dick Cheney, created an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments on Iraq fit with Bush Administration policy objectives, intelligence officials said.

Okay, you are supposed to provide intelligence, if you feel pressure to write something else and you do, well, then you aren't doing your job. But Cheney gave us an example of why you do not push people to falsify and exaggerate "intelligence," it makes American look like a criminal on the world stage. The Bush administration will have tainted America's international standing for decades. Thanks George.

- rob 2:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Okay so maybe Bush lied about the reason to go to war. But is was still a good thing, the war was a success.

AP Tallies 3,240 Civilian Deaths in Iraq

The count is still fragmentary, and the complete toll — if it is ever tallied — is sure to be significantly higher.

This doesn't include our military dead, or theirs. Yes people die in wars, maybe that is why you should really know why you went to war.

- rob 2:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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SADDAM Hussein might be behind Iraq's continuing unrest even if he was dead, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today as occupation authorities strugggled to stave off anarchy and rebuild the devastated land.

Yikes! Ghosts!!!

here's more:

"To the extent it's not proven that he is not alive, there are people who might fear he could come back. If they fear he could come back they might be somewhat slower in an interrogation to say what they know," he said.

Okay that makes the top statement a little more clear. But here's his excuse for the missing WMDs. People are soooo scared of Saddam they won't give up what they know about the weapons during an interrogation. Maybe they need Andy Sipowicz to handle the interrogation.

The quotes are from: Saddam 'source of Iraqi unrest'

- rob 2:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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And for more humor: This week's Top Ten Conservative Idiots.

- rob 2:23 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Just click the picture if you enjoy immature humor at Ashcroft's expense. You know I do.

- rob 2:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Just for Fun:

As poetry, is it defensible? - The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld

If you're walking towards a wall
And you decide you want to go to the opposite wall,
The sooner you make the correction
The easier it is.
If you wait until you're right face up against the wall
Then you've got to make a sharp turn.

Another link from This Modern World

- rob 5:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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DeLay is a small minded pity little ex-exterminator who, quite frankly, thinks of Washington as his little toy. That is why I'm so happy that his own actions are coming back to haunt him. He's got 2 little nasty scandles right now, and both prove that the Republican party is quite taken with the idea of abusing power.

Diverting the War on Terrorism

The recent dust-up over Republican attempts to gerrymander the Texas Congressional map had an overlay of old-fashioned political silliness and skulduggery. What is coming to be known as the Tom DeLay Power Perpetuation Act failed famously when more than 50 statehouse Democrats fled to Oklahoma, where they hid out until the bill died, depriving the Republican majority of a quorum. But it turns out that officials in Washington and Austin, desperate to round up the Democrats, made a platoon of Keystone Kops out of federal and state law enforcement agents. That is no laughing matter.

The new Department of Homeland Security was called in on the case as if it were the patronage police and the dissenting Democrats were terrorists. Mr. DeLay's office breathlessly passed along detailed intelligence on the fugitives. More than 1,000 hours were devoted to the two-day search by 54 Texas officers. At least one F.B.I. agent appears to have been involved in the search.

The fact that federal agencies were involved in the partisan squabble is outrageous. Investigators usually assigned to track down terrorists or drug smugglers were sent off to try to find a small plane that had ferried one of the missing Democrats out of Texas. Documents relating to the search were later destroyed — in theory because the search did not involve a crime. Democrats are well within their rights to demand state and federal inquiries.

and

Delving Into Those Donations

SPOKESMEN FOR House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.), Rep. Joe Barton (Tex.), Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (La.) and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.) steadfastly deny a connection between $56,500 in campaign donations last year from executives of a Kansas-based energy company and the involvement of the four Republican lawmakers in legislation of keen interest to that company. We can understand why aides for the congressmen and senator would issue such denials. It is against the law for members of Congress to promise legislative favors in exchange for political donations. But executives of the firm, Westar Energy Inc., seem to have had a different take on their relationship with the legislators.

As Post writer Thomas B. Edsall reported last week, the Westar executives believed, as is evident from documents disclosed in a federal investigation of the company, that their donations to political groups linked with the four key Republicans would cause Congress to exempt their firm from a federal regulation they regarded as troublesome. Whether the campaign contributions were a quid pro quo for legislative action on a measure sought by Westar should not simply be a subject of debate between press secretaries and the media. Given the political game plan described by Westar executives and the subsequent legislative action that was taken, the matter warrants prompt investigation by the Department of Justice.

- rob 5:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Thanks also to This Modern World for bringing up this hilarious Onion article:

Bush Visits U.S.S. Truman For Dramatic Veterans'-Benefits-Cutting Ceremony

NORFOLK, VA—With more than 5,400 jubilant Marines and sailors cheering him on, President Bush landed on the deck of the U.S.S. Harry S Truman in a Navy jet Monday to preside over a historic veterans'-benefits-cutting ceremony.

"Your brave and selfless service to your country will not soon be forgotten," Bush told the recently returned Operation Iraqi Freedom soldiers. "At least, not for another five or ten years."

After congratulating the soldiers on their victory over Saddam Hussein, Bush announced that the new budget passed by the Senate includes a $14.6 billion reduction in veterans' benefits. He then held aloft a pair of oversized scissors and snipped a ribbon bearing the words "Veteran's Benefits."

"No one knows the meaning of the word 'sacrifice' quite like our men and women in uniform," Bush said. "Whether sacrificing their lives or their health coverage, these brave Americans are willing to do whatever it takes to help this nation, and for this I salute them."

And for the wonderful finale:

"We all stand behind our Commander-In-Chief," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Henry Williams, 23, of Norfolk, VA. "When he started this war, President Bush called upon Americans to support its troops. Now, he's calling upon his troops to accept six-month waits for hospital visits and pauper's funerals. In these times of economic crisis and uncertainty, it is our duty to stand behind our president, whether or not he is standing behind us."

- rob 5:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Found this link thanks to This Modern World. I find it chilling.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/

DoD Identifies Navy Casualty
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

We does a President need to be honest about why we are going to war? So, we the people, and our representatives in Congress can determine if a War is really necessary. If a War is worth it. Yes sometimes wars do need to happen, but rarely. Infrequently. They should be avoided at all costs. Because this is what the cost is. Those were people just beginning to live their lives. Is a secure source of oil worth the cost of having an html coder having to make links like that... almost every day? (let alone the $100 billion price tag).

Remember when supporting and riding mass transit was about saving the environment? It looks like it saves lives too.

- rob 2:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman: Who's Accountable?

Yet dishonest salesmanship has been the hallmark of the Bush administration's approach to domestic policy. And it has become increasingly clear that the selling of the war with Iraq was no different.

For example, look at the way the administration rhetorically linked Saddam to Sept. 11. As The Associated Press put it: "The implication from Bush on down was that Saddam supported Osama bin Laden's network. Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks frequently were mentioned in the same sentence, even though officials have no good evidence of such a link." Not only was there no good evidence: according to The New York Times, captured leaders of Al Qaeda explicitly told the C.I.A. that they had not been working with Saddam.

Or look at the affair of the infamous "germ warfare" trailers. I don't know whether those trailers were intended to produce bioweapons or merely to inflate balloons, as the Iraqis claim — a claim supported by a number of outside experts. (According to the newspaper The Observer, Britain sold Iraq a similar system back in 1987.) What is clear is that an initial report concluding that they were weapons labs was, as one analyst told The Times, "a rushed job and looks political." President Bush had no business declaring "we have found the weapons of mass destruction."
...

It's now two months since Baghdad fell — and according to The A.P., military units searching for W.M.D.'s have run out of places to look.

One last point: the Bush administration's determination to see what it wanted to see led not just to a gross exaggeration of the threat Iraq posed, but to a severe underestimation of the problems of postwar occupation. When Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, warned that occupying Iraq might require hundreds of thousands of soldiers for an extended period, Paul Wolfowitz said he was "wildly off the mark" — and the secretary of the Army may have been fired for backing up the general. Now a force of 150,000 is stretched thin, facing increasingly frequent guerrilla attacks, and a senior officer told The Washington Post that it might be two years before an Iraqi government takes over. The Independent reports that British military chiefs are resisting calls to send more forces, fearing being "sucked into a quagmire."

I'll tell you what's outrageous. It's not the fact that people are criticizing the administration; it's the fact that nobody is being held accountable for misleading the nation into war.

- rob 2:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Media exec hopes to cash in on TV consolidation

Frank Washington, the CEO of System Integrators Inc. until the Sacramento newspaper-software company was sold in June 2000, heads a new company these days called Moon Shot Communications. And his new goal is to make a lot of money in the next several years by buying TV stations across the country, waiting for their value to increase, and then selling them to the highest bidders.

It sounds innocent until you read on:

Washington and four partners are working with investors and the Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C.[emphasis mine], a major private-equity firm, to line up stations they might buy. They figure they can assemble groups of TV stations for good deals now, by purchasing TV stations owned mostly by small companies outside large U.S. markets. Washington counts on the sellers not seeing the same potential in their properties that he does.

You remember The Carlyle Group don't you?
They are responsible for the fun irony of having George Bush the elder waking up in the White House on September 11th, 2001, to get ready for a meeting with Shafig bin Laden (Osama's brother) (to be fair it was a large Carlyle Group meeting and at the time the Bin Laden family were share holders... there were others folks there too). Wonderful.

- rob 4:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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When office politics (i.e. CYA 'cover your ass') becomes international politics:

"A smoking gun may well exist over WMDs, but it may not be to the Government's liking," said one senior source. "Minuted details will show exactly what went on. Because of the frequency and, at times, unusual nature of the demands from Downing Street, people have made sure records were kept. There is a certain amount of self-preservation in this, of course."

What's All This Then?

Spies threaten Blair with 'smoking gun' over IraqSenior intelligence officers kept secret records of meetings after pressure from No 10

See, the British Press, and people, are, for some reason, taking this whole bit about the Prime Minister lieing about war quite seriously. So now they've got people over there scrambling for cover.

Intelligence officers are holding a "smoking gun" which proves that they were subjected to a series of demands by Tony Blair's staff in the run-up to the Iraq war.

The officers are furious about the accusation levelled by the Leader of the Commons, John Reid, that "rogue elements" are at work in the security services. They fear they are being lined up to take the blame for faulty intelligence used to justify the Iraq war.

The intelligence services were so concerned about demands made by Downing Street for evidence to use against Iraq that extensive files have been built up detailing communications with Mr Blair's staff.

Meanwhile the same thing is being said over here, but we're kind of cool about. You know, cause its only war, its only lives, its only our nation's international reputation, its not like it was something wicked, like a blow job (sorry I had to say that, I thought Clinton should have felt a lot of heat for lying under oath, and I feel Bush should feel insane amount of heat for lying to the people about the reasons of going to war, remember he talked about evidence that was already known to the white house to be false in The State of The Union).

Ex-Official: Evidence Distorted for War

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration distorted intelligence and presented conjecture as evidence to justify a U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a retired intelligence official who served during the months before the war.

"What disturbs me deeply is what I think are the disingenuous statements made from the very top about what the intelligence did say," said Greg Thielmann, who retired last September. "The area of distortion was greatest in the nuclear field."

Thielmann was director of the strategic, proliferation and military issues office in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. His office was privy to classified intelligence gathered by the CIA and other agencies about Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear programs.

- rob 4:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I didn't bother reading this, but I am impressed they've done full page ads in newspapers, including the times. Vote To Impeach

- rob 2:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why do Perle, Wolfowitz, and the like on PNAC love Bush so much. Well Perle sums it up this way (item at bottom of page):

"The first time I met Bush 43, I knew he was different. Two things became clear. One, he didn't know very much (emphasis mine). The other was he had the confidence to ask questions that revealed he didn't know very much. Most people are reluctant to say when they don't know something, a word or a term they haven't heard before. Not him. You'd raise a point, and he'd say, 'I didn't realize that. Can you explain that?' He was eager to learn."

They love a puppet. I do think it is a strength to admit a lack of knowledge, but a President shouldn't consist only of the lack of knowledge and the strength of inquiring about it. Basically Perle and his ilk can plant whatever theories they have of the world into this blank slate. Puppetry.

- rob 2:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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How He Stayed Hidden

Eric Rudolph seems to be a hero of the most extremist of Christian fanatics in America. So I wonder what the bible says about Bears?

Though authorities are searching his former hiding spots to determine if he had help along the way, Rudolph gave the impression that he was always alone. At times, he claimed, the solitude got to him. He said he hadn’t been with a woman in so many years, even “the bears started looking good.”

- rob 1:55 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Is lying about the reason for a war an impeachable offense?
by John W. Dean (the guy knows something of illegal Executive Office actions)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also under serious attack in England, which he dragged into the war unwillingly, based on the missing WMDs. In Britain, the missing WMDs are being treated as scandalous; so far, the reaction in the U.S. has been milder.

New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, has taken Bush sharply to task, asserting that it is "long past time for this administration to be held accountable." "The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat," Krugman argued. "If that claim was fraudulent," he continued, "the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history -- worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra." But most media outlets have reserved judgment as the search for WMDs in Iraq continues.
...

To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.

Nixon claimed that his misuses of the federal agencies for his political purposes were in the interest of national security. The same kind of thinking might lead a President to manipulate and misuse national security agencies or their intelligence to create a phony reason to lead the nation into a politically desirable war. Let us hope that is not the case.

- rob 1:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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