In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Because Bush wanted to swagger again, instead of actually doing what is good for America:- Friday, September 26, 2003 -
Commander Doesn't Expect More Foreign Troops in Iraq
The commander of United States forces in the Persian Gulf said today that he was no longer counting on foreign troops to relieve American soldiers in Iraq early next year. A lack of such troops would require the Pentagon to send active-duty and National Guard soldiers to fill the gap.
- rob 5:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Fox News - Bullies & Criminals
You know, it used to be fun to make fun of Fox's blatant licking of Bush's boots. Fox News screams like murder when anyone points out Bush's administration has some similarities between fascist organizations, and now they have begun to act like fascists themselves.
The only thing people can come up with to defend Fox News is to say they are bullies. The FCC should seriously look into this. This is criminal. Fox News is not a New Channel, it isn't even a place of commentary, it is a place of sad, sick, thuggish cowards.
This is how Fox lashes out at a competitor's humorous jab: they put a person's young family in danger.
Sick
Details from CNN's Crossfire:
CARLSON: OK.
Well, on yesterday's program on telemarketing, some of you may have seen it. I jokingly gave out what I said was my home phone number. In fact, it was the main number of the Washington bureau of the Fox News Channel.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: I thought it was funny. Fox did not think it was funny.
(LAUGHTER)
CARLSON: Apparently, many of our viewers called that number, hoping to speak to me. Instead, they reached a grouchy Fox switchboard operator.
Well, to our viewers, I'm sorry I gave you that bad information, even in jest. Last night, Fox responded by posting on its Web site my unlisted home phone number, the phone number where my wife and four small children often answer the phone, as they did last night, during dinner, when the first of several hundred Fox viewers called to scream obscenities at them into the phone.
Fox had every right to be annoyed by what I did, amusing as I thought it was. They had no right to invade my privacy or to enable their followers to threaten my family.
(APPLAUSE)
CARLSON: And you know what, James?
(APPLAUSE)
CARVILLE: I say this seriously. You have four children. One of your child is in the third grade, the same classroom as my child. And you know what my definition of an operation that would scare the dickens out of little children and a mother living at home and a lot of times you being out of town?
This is a pond scum operation that would do that, that would terrify children, that would put something like that up there for the bunch of nuts that watch that thing to call and harass you.
(APPLAUSE)
CARVILLE: You pulled a joke. If they want to go adult-to-adult, person-to-person, that's fine. You're big enough to take it. They have no right to be scaring the dickens out of children, out of little children, when their daddy's out of town. And they ought to be ashamed of themselves.
- rob 11:20 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Dot Com Bubble
The Housing Bubble
The Presidential Bubble
Yes I know that article is about how George lives in a bubble, but what's fun is both metaphors or going to end with that bubble going "pop" in November, 2004.
We hope...hope...hope...hope...hope.
- rob 5:21 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Connect the Dots
If only the Bush team connected the dots, it would see what a nutty war on terrorism it is fighting, explains Mr. Prestowitz. Here, he says, is the Bush war on terrorism: Preach free trade, but don't deliver on it, so Pakistani farmers become more impoverished. Then ask Congress to give a tax break for any American who wants to buy a gas-guzzling Humvee for business use and also ask Congress to resist any efforts to make Detroit increase gasoline mileage in new cars. All this means more U.S. oil imports from Saudi Arabia.
So then the Saudis have more dollars to give to their Wahhabi fundamentalist evangelists, who spend it by building religious schools in Pakistan. The Pakistani farmer we've put out of business with our farm subsidies then sends his sons to the Wahhabi school because it is tuition-free and offers a hot lunch. His sons grow up getting only a Koranic education, so they are totally unprepared for modernity, but they are taught one thing: that America is the source of all their troubles. One of the farmer's sons joins Al Qaeda and is killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Special Forces, and we think we're winning the war on terrorism.
Fat chance.
Thanks to Atrios for the link (I think).
- rob 5:13 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Those damn Tax and Spend Liberals
Listen to this: ...details include $100 million to build seven planned communities with a total of 3,258 houses, plus roads, an elementary school, two high schools, a clinic, a place of worship and a market for each; $10 million to finance 100 prison-building experts for six months, at $100,000 an expert; 40 garbage trucks at $50,000 each; $900 million to import petroleum products such as kerosene and diesel... and $20 million for a four-week business course, at $10,000 per student.
Look at that, building roads and houses for people to lazy to build them themselves, and paying for their education to boot. That's the problem with Democrats these days, they're just happy to spend our tax dollars on these give aways.
Obviously this is political pandering to a special interest to generate votes. What pork! What 4 week business class costs $10,000! And these must be nice houses at $300,000 a pop!
What?
Sorry... what was that again? Oh, those expenses are for Iraq. I see.
Never mind.
In GOP, Concern Over Iraq Price Tag
Proving not everyone in the GOP has drank from the Bush branded grape koolaid:
Already, the administration's request for $400 million to build two 4,000-bed prisons at $50,000 a bed has raised enough questions in Congress to force Provisional Authority Administrator L. Paul Bremer to explain that cement must be imported to make concrete.
"We're not talking sanity here," Dyer [Republican staff director of the House Appropriations Committee] said. "The world's second-largest oil country is importing oil, and a country full of concrete is importing concrete."
- rob 5:11 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Strib's view of WMD issue
This is important. Yes, the United States is in Iraq and needs to be successful there. But the American people and the world were sold the U.S.-British war in Iraq on the basis of an existing perilous threat from Saddam Hussein’s WMD programs. That threat is proving to be nonexistent.
The White House for months strongly insinuated a connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of Sept. 11. Now that those links have been discredited, the administration is spinning the issue, carefully parsing its previous words to suggest it never claimed such a link. That isn’t flying very well with the American people. Neither should the efforts soon to be mounted to spin the WMD issue. We went to war over a threat that didn’t exist, plain and simple. Hundreds of American soldiers have died as a consequence.
It’s well and good to argue that Iraq and the world are better off without Saddam Hussein in power. But while the world would be better off without lots of leaders in power, we don’t preemptively take them all out.
The American people did not agree to sacrifice American lives and many tens of billions of taxpayer dollars for regime change. They believed Bush that Iraq posed a serious threat to the security of the United States and the world. That is proving not true. Don’t let the Bush administration weasel out of this one." (emphasis mine)
- rob 5:00 PM - [PermaLink] -
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John Kerry wants you to get angry: Angry?
Umm... Kerry what a bunch of college convention repub frat boys put on shirts really isn't going to make me angry, there just idiots. Now a repub frat boy who doesn't remember college and sends our troops into a war for no reason, leaving hundreds of them dead. That makes me angry.
Kerry if you wanted to really show that you love America and want to rid it off the cancer that is George you can do one simple thing: stand up and tell us all about those innocent days as a member of the Skull and Bones.
- rob 4:56 PM - [PermaLink] -
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New Bridge Strategies
"New Bridge Strategies, LLC is a unique company that was created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to evaluate and take advantage of business opportunities in the Middle East following the conclusion of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Its activities will seek to expedite the creation of free and fair markets and new economic growth in Iraq, consistent with the policies of the Bush Administration. The opportunities evolving in Iraq today are of such an unprecedented nature and scope that no other existing firm has the necessary skills and experience to be effective both in Washington, D.C. and on the ground in Iraq."
Yee Hawww! Let's get on the money train, them buildings are smokin'!
Oh, you say, this is American, we can't blame someone for seeing a business opportunity. Well to me America is the land of opportunity, but this is a bit opportunistic, for instance, this is who runs this company:
Joe M. Allbaugh, Chairman and Director
Joe M. Allbaugh is the CEO of The Allbaugh Company, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based corporate strategy and counsel firm. A native of Oklahoma, Joe served as the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under President George Bush until March 2003. Prior to moving to Washington, D.C., he was Chief of Staff to then-Governor Bush of Texas and was the National Campaign Manager for the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign.
But what's really great about this enterprise is that it not only helps Dubya's cronies, it helps dad's as well:
Ed Rogers, Vice Chairman and Director
Ed Rogers is Vice Chairman of Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Inc., the firm he founded with Haley Barbour in 1991. From January of 1989 until August of 1991, Ed served as the Deputy Assistant to the President of the United States and Executive Assistant to the White House Chief of Staff. Additionally, Ed was the Senior Deputy to Bush-Quayle Campaign Manager Lee Atwater, from February of 1987, through the general election in 1988. Ed also worked in the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Reagan Administration.
But wait, it gets better, you don't just get cronies of old and young Bushes, you also get sleazy shadow goverment folks who helped prop up Saddam in the first place:
John Howland, President, CEO and Director
Prior to becoming President of New Bridge Strategies, John Howland was Executive Vice President of Crest Investment Company, of which he is a Principal. He has worked with Middle Eastern governments and companies, including Iraq (prior to 1989), for over twenty-five years in many areas including food distribution, transportation and oil and gas. John knows the politics of the Middle East and is very knowledgeable about Iraq and its future potential. During the years encompassing the Iran-Iraq war, he worked closely with the U.S. Government, providing food aid and logistical support to the Iraqi government.
See Bush is creating new jobs, why there's three right there. Less then 3 million to go.
- rob 4:47 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Republicans must love the poor...
...because they make so many of 'em.
"More than a million Americans sank into poverty last year, an annual Census report is expected to show today. It would be the first time in nearly a decade that the number of poor rose two years in a row."
2 years in a row, more in poverty
Thanks Paul!
- rob 4:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Well, as it is Friday, why not post Monday's Top 10 Conservative Idiots!- Thursday, September 25, 2003 -
1. The Pentagon
Remember all those so-called "support the troops" rallies that took place before the invasion of Iraq? The ones where all those chickenhawk conservatives were "supporting the troops" by insisting that they should be shipped off to die in a Middle Eastern hell-hole - all because George W. Bush convinced America that we were about to be blown up by Saddam's apparently non-existent weapons of mass destruction? I often wonder where those people are now - I mean, you don't see a lot of them around. Waving flags, parading in the streets, "supporting the troops" - or was that only when we were confronted with the exciting opportunity to kill lots of brown people? Yup, they've been remarkably silent recently, these "supporters" of the troops. It's a shame really, because the troops could probably do with a bit of extra support right now. Take, for example, the wounded soldiers who have to pay for meals while they're in the hospital. Last week it was revealed that the Pentagon is literally adding insult to injury by charging soldiers who were wounded in Iraq for meals they ate while recuperating. Some soldiers are having to write checks for up to $300 to cover the cost of their food. Odd really - George W. Bush just asked the American people for another $87 billion to foot the bill for his Iraq folly, meanwhile the Pentagon is trying to squeeze an extra dollar here and there from soldiers who were wounded in action. Still, I suppose in a time of war everyone has to make sacrifices. Everyone except Bush's super-rich friends of course, who just get an enormous tax cut.
2. Dick Cheney
Perhaps Vice President Crashcart should have stayed in his hidey-hole, because the minute he stuck his head out last week he got whacked like a fat, bald, atherosclerotic mole. The problem started when Cheney appeared on "Meet the Press" to regurgitate the usual Bush administration lies about Saddam's connections to Osama bin Laden. Said he, "If we're successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it's not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it's not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." But what's this? A few days later, the White House denied that they had ever linked Iraq to 9/11. "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11," said George W. Bush himself. Whoops! I guess Dick's feeling a little embarrased now. It must be awfully tough to be smacked down by the boy idiot who's supposed to be taking your orders.
- rob 11:40 AM - [PermaLink] -
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In uncertain times as these, there is always one thing that is certain:
Parents seek to ban books
Four parents of Science Academy sophomores are determined to protect their children.
From books.
The board of directors for the South Texas Independent School District is expected to decide tonight whether to ban two books — Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land — from the high school’s 10th grade English Advanced Placement curriculum.
The books, part of the class’ summer reading list, may lead to “inappropriate sexual arousal of young teens,” parent Julie Wilde wrote in her complaint to the district.
“We feel this is inappropriate for the ages of the students at (the) Science Academy or at any South Texas ISD High School,” she continued in her letter, specifically citing Brave New World. “This is pornographic literature and we do not feel it has a place in any school funded by taxpayer dollars.
Brave New World is pornographic literature? It might lead to inappropriate sexual arousal of young teens? Come on, a gentle breeze is enough to bring about sexual arousal of a young teen; that’s how their made. I admit: I'm not sure if arousal from a gentle breeze is appropriate or inappropriate.
The only danger that those two books present to these parents is that it might cause their kids to think. These books are less arousing then 90% of TV commercials these days, but they will place a little doubt in these young minds as to the honesty and integrity of those in authority. That is a great thing, that is a gift, and that is why those books are considered great literature.
Now if she wants to talk about inappropriate sexual arousal check out this passage from a book that is found in many American homes:
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes….
That is just sick.
Here’s the full text of Brave New World, and a lot of detail about Stranger in a Strange Land.
- rob 5:13 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush: Okay we said Iraq wasn't a threat in 2001, and he wasn't, but then 9/11 happened and we realized that we suddenly had an excuse to do any damn thing we pleased! (paraphrase of the below)
Q Sir, in February of 2001, your Secretary of State said that the sanctions against Iraq had prevented Saddam from developing any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. A year-and-a-half later, before the U.N., you called Saddam a grave and gathering danger. And I'm wondering, what changed in that time? Was it the nature of the threat? Did you get new intelligence? Or did 9/11 put a new -- set a new playing field for those --
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, the Secretary of State said the same thing, as well, that Saddam was a threat. Nine-eleven changed my calculation. It made it really clear we have to deal with threats before they come on our shore. You know, for a long period of time we thought oceans could protect us from danger, and we learned a tough lesson on September the 11th. It's really important for this nation to continue to chase down and deal with threats before they materialize, and we learned that on September the 11th.
Original here.
I realize Dubya doesn't talk to daddy every day, but daddy probably could let Bush in on a little bit of history: We already knew oceans could not protect us from danger.
Also, that seems a weird redefinition of preemptive strikes, we "deal with threats before they materialize," which I guess does excuse attacking Iraq as they weren't a threat. So what next? Canada? If we get them now they won't be a threat! And Argentina! Brazil! Mexico! Andorra! Japan!
Thanks to Atrios.
- rob 4:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Diebold 1 | Maryland Voters 0
Maryland: E-Voting Passes Muster
Maryland election officials released a highly anticipated report Wednesday that examines the security of Diebold Election Systems' touch-screen voting machines.
Despite a summary in the report that states the Diebold system used in several state elections is "at high risk of compromise," the election officials and representatives of the company that wrote the report said they now have confidence in the Diebold system, and the state will proceed with its $55.6 million contract to purchase the machines.
Black Box Voting has more:
Diebold Suffering from Schizophrenia Over SAIC Report?
from the SAIC report: "The system, as implemented in policy, procedure, and technology, is at high risk of compromise."
Why is SAIC Hiding the Version Number of Deibold's Software?
- rob 11:33 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Here’s the Real Deal: Joe Scarborough is a swaggering lying idiot
For those of you who don’t know him (and since his ratings show that only a few crickets are watching his show, that’s not surprising); Joe runs a show called Scarborough Country on MSNBC:
Every weeknight, former Congressman Joe Scarborough invites you to Scarborough Country -- a place where hard work and playing by the rules are the way of life, where politicians are held accountable, and where pork barrel spending is a Capitol Offense. It’s a place where Corporate crooks end up on the 'Most Wanted' list, and you'll always get the Real Deal. Scarborough Country, no passport required, just common sense.
But here’s the real deal on Scarborough. He is a sleazy ex-congressman lawyer who uses his show as a platform to boost his agenda, ego, and finances. Does this sound like a man who would hold politicians accountable?:
Two weeks ago, MSNBC talk-show host Joe Scarborough introduced an attorney to point a finger at the "Rat of the Week."
Mike Papantonio slammed a wood-preserving company called Osmose, saying it makes a dangerous product used in playground equipment and has "figured out how to poison our children and make a profit in the meantime."
What Scarborough didn't say is that Papantonio is his law partner and that their firm has filed a lawsuit against Osmose. Instead, Scarborough urged viewers to demand a government recall of the company's product.
After an inquiry by The Washington Post, the former Republican congressman said last night on his program, "Scarborough Country": "I should have known that Mike Papantonio was involved in that case and should have asked him that question, so you could have had the full story. ... I'll be the first to admit it: I made a mistake. And for that, I'm this week's 'Rat of the Week.' "
Phil Griffin, an MSNBC vice president, said the incident was "unacceptable" and viewers "were misled. ... That won't happen again."
Jim Hale, executive director of the Wood Preservative Science Council, which represents Osmose, said: "This is what happens when you put someone on with no journalistic experience. It's the arrogance of power. This guy thinks the rules don't apply to him."
Hey, I would be surprised if Osmose was an awful company. But come on, you have your law partner come on your show and have him talk about an evil corporation without saying these rather basic things:
1) The guy I’m interviewing is my law firm partner.
2) The guy I’m interviewing is starting a class action suit against Osmose
3) So basically a company I work for is suing Osmose
He didn’t mention any of these in the interview. His apology still doesn’t mention that Papantonio was his law partner, and the concept that Scarborough didn’t know that Papantonio was involved in a suit against Osmose has either got to be a blatant lie or proof that Scarborough is a complete dimwit. Either way that interview and its "apology" does prove that Joe needs to resign.
Anyway, here’s Scarborough’s take on Bush’s UN Speech:
The president of the United States went to the U.N. today, and he went there without apologies.
DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL candidates and French leaders alike both wanted to see George Bush bow and scrape in front of the U.N. bureaucrats. He once again let them down, and he did it for good reason.
President Bush has long considered his first responsibility to be protecting the American people, whether from Osama bin Laden or from Saddam Hussein. And this kind of thinking has long baffled the likes of Jacques Chirac and Howard Dean, who believe that police actions in countries where American security is not on the line is OK, like Kosovo or Bosnia. But he becomes indignant if our president wages wars that actually make America a safer place to live.
Where has Scarborough been for the last few months? Guess what Joe, bin Laden is running around the hills of Afganistan (or Pakistan) right as we speak so George isn’t being very responsible there. And it increasing looks like the war with Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place and according to a British report and a CIA report the war has made terrorist attacks against US interests more likely. And though it may be a news flash for you (not surprising as you work at a cable news channel) but Iraq was not a threat to the U.S. Secretary of State Powell said as much in 1991 before the PNAC convinced Rove that war was a good political gimmick. There weren’t any WMDs in Iraq either, just like Powell said, the embargo was working.
More from Joe:
But I ask this question: Since when did legitimacy come from a bureaucracy that selected a terrorist state like Libya as the head of its Human Rights Commission?
That’s not to say we don’t need the United Nations’ help. We do.
Here is a said fact, Bush is such a failure in diplomatic relations that the UN not only put Libya in charge of its Human Rights Commission, for the first time it its history it didn’t vote US a seat on the commission. It was a message from the world to Bush: We don’t trust you.
So you are proud that Bush was yet again a jack ass in front of the UN, but you admit we need the UN’s help. Why? Because if they help us many American lives will be saved, not to mention the monetary savings. But Bush’s performance you so loved so much has insured that international help will be minimal.
Way to go George. And Joe, please quit and go back full time to your small time lawyer job you have in Florida.
Links:
No WMD in Iraq, source claims
A Failed Address
Bush isolated as speech to UN falls flat
Powell On Saddam (2001): He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction.
- rob 11:21 AM - [PermaLink] -
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U.S. durable goods orders drop
ORDERS FOR DURABLE GOODS, items intended to last three years or more, decreased 0.9 percent in August, the Commerce Department said. It was the first decline since April and bucked expectations on Wall Street for a 0.6 percent rise.
Ouch. Is there such a thing as a triple dip recession?
Yes, I knew a continued recession is bad for Bush, but I'm not happy either as it is bad for me and some unemployed friends, and for all Americans.
November, 2004 can't come soon enough. America needs some grown ups in charge.
- rob 10:45 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Berlusconi vaunts Italy's secretaries- Wednesday, September 24, 2003 -
"Another reason to invest in Italy is that we have beautiful secretaries... superb girls," he [Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi] added.
This is the guy who earlier this month said that Mussolini never killed anyone.
Oh, and he's supports Bush, I think he's what the Bush Administration calls the "new europe."
- rob 10:28 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Diebold takes down blackboxvoting.org
Geeks in England seem to be aware something fishy is going on. Hello NBC? Helllooo CNN?
DIEBOLD ELECTION SYSTEMS has brandished lawyers' threats to take down that pesky citizens activist website blackboxvoting.org. It seems they charged copyright infringement regarding materials on other websites that blackboxvoting.org merely linked to, despite such links having been ruled legal by appellate courts in other instances.
- rob 5:34 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Senators Dispute Charge That Iraq War Is 'Fraud'
Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, told the Associated Press in Boston on Thursday that "this was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud." Texas is Bush's home state.
Kennedy also said he believed some of the $4 billion being spent on Iraq each month was "being shuffled" to leaders in other countries "bribing them to send in troops."
So basically Kennedy is accusing the president of treason. So the republicans leap to Bush's defense:
Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison complained that Kennedy was making "a slur" on her home state of Texas "to say this plot was made up" there.
Bush is going down!
- rob 3:59 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Dean telling it like it is:
"We stand at a critical moment in American history. Either we come together and take action now to restore a politics of participation and a politics of the people, or we allow the Washington insiders and the special interests to continue to make the back room deals that are destroying people's faith in our government.
"Democracy itself is at stake in this election. The extreme right wing of the Republican Party has shown nothing but contempt for democracy. From the impeachment of a sitting President, to the recount in Florida, to opportunistic redistricting efforts in Colorado and Texas, and now in the recall effort in California, a narrow band of right-wing ideologues have subverted the democratic process whenever they haven't liked the outcome."
- rob 1:31 PM - [PermaLink] -
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pResident Whistle Ass
Sure writing the above might be considered insulting to the office of the President of The United States of America. And it is, but it is a way of quickly summarizing an even larger insult to the office of the President of The United States of America, and that is that George W. Bush presently holds that title.
And besides, who but a Whistle Ass says things like this in his United Nations speech:
Events during the past two years have set before us the clearest of divides: between those who seek order, and those who spread chaos; between those who work for peaceful change, and those who adopt the methods of gangsters; between those who honor the rights of man, and those who deliberately take the lives of men and women and children without mercy or shame.
Between these alternatives there is no neutral ground.
Wow, let us hope he was just whistling through his ass, because there are so many ways to pick apart just that sentence.
First, it again seems to show Bush’s complete inability to recognize shades of grey. Why is it important to see that evil, like many things is a continuum, there are levels of evil, if you don’t have the ability to think that then by reading Bush’s own words “between those who seek order, and those who spread chaos; between those who work for peaceful change, and those who adopt the methods of gangsters,” you are left with no choice but to lump Bush with Saddam and Osama. Because quite frankly was invading Iraq working for “peaceful change?” Is the present state of Iraq leaning more towards chaos or order? And as much as I dislike Bush he is not as bad as Saddam or Osama, not even close. I still think Bush is bad, of course, but see bad is a continuum, an infinite scale, and there is much distance between Bush and those guys.
But look at that statement again: “between those who seek order, and those who spread chaos.” Hmm… that’s problematic too. You see, Order and Chaos are also a scale, and well, quite frankly Saddam was much more close to the Order side then we are, and that is a good thing for us. You see, Democracy and Freedom are quite a bit chaotic, and dictatorships generally tend to be quite orderly. Quite frankly, though it is a good thing Saddam is gone, and even though the present skyrocketing crime levels in Iraq are (hopefully) temporary, the crime rate will probably never be as low as it was in Saddam’s time. It is a little easier for a dictatorship to maintain order (what with doing away with those pesky juries and due process and search warrants and what not) then it is for a free country. Let us be really concerned when Bush starts talking about getting the trains running on time. Actually he’ll never say that, trains represent mass transit, and mass transit is bad for oil companies. Actually what is most wrong with this statment is that Bush is talking about Osama again, who hated Saddam almost as much as Bush. It is all so confusing.
But Bush’s statements aren’t always so confusing. Earlier this week he gave a speech to the ruling party's official media outlet: Fox News.
BUSH: I've hurt my knee, and...
HUME: How bad is it?
BUSH: It's bad enough that I cannot run.
HUME: What is it? Is it...
BUSH: It may have been a little meniscus. I might have torn it a little bit. I pulled my calf, then I hurt the meniscus, and I am hoping to find a lot of sympathy around here, but I haven't found any yet.
HUME: Looks like you hit the wrong town.
BUSH: Wrong place, exactly. Maybe I ought to go up to Capitol Hill...
HUME: Oh, yeah, that's a hotbed up there. What are you doing for exercise?
BUSH: Exercise. Elliptical (ph). Jim Ryan (ph), here at the White House during a t-ball game, I believe it was, suggested that I go to the swimming pool back over there and run in the pool, put a little floaty on and run.
See that wasn’t confusing, and such an incredibly revealing statement too.
Actually the interview did contain something revealing. Revealing and very very frightening.
BUSH: Yes. You know, look, I have great respect for the media. I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news. And I...
HUME: I won't disagree with that, sir.
BUSH: I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.
Now you know why Bush says things are going well in Iraq. Now you know why Bush says the tax cuts are working. Now you know why he seems to be completely out of touch with the world. It seems that way because he is.
- rob 1:28 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Fighting For Our Future: Bev Harris- Tuesday, September 23, 2003 -
Voting Machines (Search TCS) and their makers, such as Dieblod (Search TCS) have been stories that we’ve been interested in here at TCS since the very beginning, with our link to Ballot-Tampering in the 21st Century in our template being there from day one.
We’ve watched the story grow wider and wider, which can only be good news for the future of American. And it was great to see this article (its Salon, but if you watch an ad you can read the whole thing for free):
An open invitation to election fraud
Not only is the country's leading touch-screen voting system so badly designed that votes can be easily changed, but its manufacturer is run by a die-hard GOP donor who vowed to deliver his state for Bush next year.
...
according to Bev Harris, a writer who has spent more than a year investigating the shadowy world of the elections equipment industry, the replacement technologies the court cited may be worse -- much worse -- than the zany punch-card systems it finds so abhorrent. Specifically, Harris' research into Diebold, one of the largest providers of the new touch-screen systems, ought to give elections officials pause about mandating an all-electronic vote.
Harris has discovered that Diebold's voting software is so flawed that anyone with access to the system's computer can change the votes without leaving any record. On top of that, she's uncovered internal Diebold memos in which employees seem to suggest that the vulnerabilities are no big deal. The memos appear to be authentic -- Diebold even sent Harris a notice warning her that by posting the documents on the Web, she was infringing upon the company's intellectual property. Diebold did not return several calls for comment.
…
So what was the flaw?
Specifically the flaw was that you can get at the central vote-counting database through Microsoft Access. They have the security disabled. And when you get in that way, you are able to overwrite the audit log, which is supposed to log the transactions, and this [audit log] is one of the key things they cite as a security measure when they sell the system.
So you can break in and then hide your tracks.
You don't even need to break in. It will open right up and in you go. You can change the votes and you can overwrite the audit trail. It doesn't keep any record of anything in the audit trail when you're in this back door, but let's say you went in the front door and you didn't want to have anything you did there appear anywhere -- you can then go in the backdoor and erase what you did.
Who would have access to this? Are we talking about elections officials?
A couple situations. Obviously anybody who has access to the computer, whether that's the election supervisor, their assistants, the IT people, the janitor -- anybody who has access to the computer can get into it.
Where is this computer -- is there one per county?
Yes, there's one per county.
…
There's nothing -- no security in this?
No, in fact in the memo, [Ken Clark, an engineer at Diebold] says specifically that they decided not to put a password on it because it was proving useful. They were using the back door to do end runs around the voting program. And he named two places where they were doing this, Gaston County, N.C., and King County, Wash.
Right, in the memo he says, "King county is famous for it. That's why we've never put a password on the file before."
What does that mean? Why would the counties find this useful?
I have no idea what they were doing. [But] because you can change anything on the database, they could have been doing anything, whether it was nefarious or just fixing a stupid thing that they had done. The problem is this: You should set up the program so that anything you do is going to be recorded and watched and audited -- it's official. There's nothing you can do that's legitimate by going into a back door that never records anything. If you need to go change some vote total because they came out wrong, that needs to be done publicly and the candidates should be aware of it. You don't do that by going into a back door.
This isn’t “chicken little” stuff. In fact, it looks as if our democracy has already been attacked, but that any evidence of it has been wiped clean. That sad thing is that we’ll never know.
And Georgia also had some wacky results, right?
They did. They had six upsets. The most famous one is Max Cleland [the Democratic senator and the incumbent]. That's because he was quite far ahead in the polls and an 11-point shift happened overnight and [Republican] Saxby Chambliss won instead. And the other upset that surprised people was Sonny Purdue, who was the first Republican governor elected in 134 years.
Do you think those elections were legitimate elections?
Well, I think that it was an illegal election in that they had no idea what software was on the machines at the time. Georgia was a situation where they had changed the software not once or twice but seven or eight times so it went through so many permutations without even being examined by anyone, and nobody has any idea what the machines did. [Harris says she confirmed these preelection changes to Diebold's software in conversations with Georgia voting officials, but Diebold denies that any changes were made. In February, Joseph Richardson, a spokesman for the company, told Salon: "We have analyzed that situation and have no indication of that happening at all."]
I do find this suspicious -- they have since scrubbed clean the flash memory and gotten rid of the small cards that store the results from each touch-screen machine. They've overwritten it with a whole new thing. What's amazing is you keep paper ballots for 22 months, and they're an awful lot bulkier than these credit card-size memory cards, but for some reason they felt compelled to get rid of them all. They have also overwritten all of the GEMS programs in the counting machines. They've gone through and overwritten everything in the state.
Dieblod has basically authenticated the memos by stating Harris’s posting of them is breaking copyright law, and if fact have made Harris take down Black Box Voting’s sister site: Black Box Voting.org, which now features only this message on the home page:
NOTICE
Due to a dispute with Diebold, Incorporated, and its wholly owned subsidiary Diebold Election Systems, Inc. (collectively "Diebold"), which is claiming links to certain materials that do not reside on the blackboxvoting.org website constitute copyright infringement, blackboxvoting.org has been temporarily disabled.We regret any inconvenience this may cause visitors and journalists to the blackboxvoting.org site and hope to have this matter resolved shortly.
In the interim, send questions or information requests to admin@blackboxvoting.org.
This matter cannot be taken seriously enough. Voting is the key to freedom. It is what protects our rights described in The Constitution, it is the means in which we try to live up to the ideals described in the Declaration of Independence.
If nothing is done about this, Diebold will be left guarding The Bill of Rights.
Diebold, Incorporated is now safeguarding the foundation of America’s history, the Charters of Freedom: the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in three customized high-tech vaults installed at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. The recently renovated rotunda and re-encasement of the Charter documents is being unveiled to the public on Thursday, September 18, 2003 at 10 a.m.
oh. Not good. Sometimes irony really stings.
- rob 12:37 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Powell On Saddam (2001):
We will always try to consult with our friends in the region so that they are not surprised and do everything we can to explain the purpose of our responses. We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place, but we are always willing to review them to make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does not affect the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and the ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good conversation on this issue. Emphasis mine.
The Bush Administration circa 2001: Sanctions Worked!
The question for the 2004 campaign. Why did we go to war? I still don't know.
I wonder if this page mysteriously disappears from State Departments web site.
Thanks to Eschaton.
- rob 3:56 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Why is everyone looking at me funny?
Reality Bites (Back)
You can only fool most of the people some of the time, and that time is up, and Bush's numbers aren't looking good:
USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll results
1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?
September 19-21, 2003
Approve 50
Disapprove 74
August 4-6, 2003
Approve 60
Disapprove 36
March 22-23, 2003
Approve 71
Disapprove 25
6. If retired General Wesley Clark were the Democratic Party's candidate and George W. Bush were the Republican Party's candidate, who would you be more likely to vote for — Wesley Clark, the Democrat or George W. Bush, the Republican?
Registered Voters, Sep 19-21
Clark 49
Bush 46
Read the complete Poll here.
- rob 3:00 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bringing integrity back to Washington.
Justice Not Prosecuting Ex-Bush Official
Ten days after the catered party in her honor in October 2001, Victory urged a policy change benefiting telecommunications companies that helped pay for the catered $3,000 event with 60 to 80 guests at her home in Great Falls, Va.
...
The party's six hosts were from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, Cingular Wireless, SBC Communications, Intelsat Global Service Corp., Motorola Corp. and Victory's former law firm, Wiley, Rein & Fielding.
Victory said last January that the telecom industry hosts of the event were friends who paid for the party out of their personal funds.
But the inspector general found that the cost of the party "was borne by the hosts' respective companies."
Don't worry about government corruption, because the Justice Department is busy spending our tax dollars (and the resources that could be used in fighting terrorism) making shure Chong (of Cheech & Chong) goes to jail for selling bongs (not drugs mind you, just bongs):
Tommy Chong, who played one half of the dope-smoking duo in the Cheech and Chong movies, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison and fined $20,000 (U.S.) today [9/11 no less] for selling bongs and other drug paraphernalia over the Internet.
The 65-year-old was allowed to remain free until federal prison officials tell him in a few weeks where he must report to prison.
Chong also forfeited about $100,000 for his arrest on federal drug paraphernalia charges. He'll spend a year on probation after he's released from prison.
- rob 2:38 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Grass Roots Republican style:
Republican Party blanket-emailed newspaper editors
- rob 2:30 PM - [PermaLink] -
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I was recently arguing with someone via Instant Message about the CIA's involvement with Chile in the seventies. Funny that Michael should be posting some of his personal knowledge of that era (me personally, being a child at the time, I didn't even know their was a coup until I saw the movie Missing). Anyway, here's some bits I found on the internet that helped me educated my friend:
Powell: "It is not a part of our country's history that we are proud of."
fun documents:
Department of State, Memorandum for Henry Kissinger on Chile, December 4, 1970: In response to a November 27 directive from Kissinger, an inter-agency Ad Hoc Working Group on Chile prepared this set of strategy papers covering a range of possible sanctions and pressures against the new Allende government. These included a possible diplomatic effort to force Chile to withdraw--or be expelled--from the Organization of American States as well as consultations with other Latin American countries "to promote their sharing of our concern over Chile." The documents show that the Nixon administration did engage in an invisible economic blockade against Allende, intervening at the World Bank, IDB, and Export-Import bank to curtail or terminate credits and loans to Chile before Allende had been in office for a month.
CIA, Report of CIA Chilean Task Force Activities, 15 September to 3 November 1970, November 18, 1970: The CIA prepared a summary of its efforts to prevent Allende's ratification as president and to foment a coup in Chile-- track I and track II covert operations. The summary details the composition of the Task Force, headed by David Atlee Phillips, the team of covert operatives "inserted individually into Chile," and their contacts with Col. Paul Winert, the U.S. Army Attache detailed to the CIA for this operation. It reviews the propaganda operations designed to push Chilean president Eduardo Frei to support "a military coup which would prevent Allende from taking office on 3 November."
Department of Defense, U.S. Milgroup, Situation Report #2, October 1, 1973: In a situation report, U.S. Naval attache Patrick Ryan, reports positively on events in Chile during the coup. He characterizes September 11 as "our D-Day," and states that "Chile's coup de etat [sic] was close to perfect." His report provides details on Chilean military operations during and after the coup, as well as glowing commentary on the character of the new regime.
The CIA tries to argue that they weren’t directly involved in the Pinochet coup, though they admit knowing about it before hand, and had funded and armed an earlier coup attempt.
CIA, Cable Transmissions on Coup Plotting, October 18, 1970: These three cables between CIA headquarters in Langley, VA., and the CIA Station in Santiago address the secret shipment of weapons and ammunition for use in a plot to kidnap the Chilean military commander, General Rene Schneider. "Neutralizing" Schneider was a key prerequisite for a military coup; he opposed any intervention by the armed forces to block Allende's constitutional election. The CIA supplied a group of Chilean officers led by General Camilo Valenzuela with "sterile" weapons for the operation which was to be blamed on Allende supporters and prompt a military takeover. Instead, on October 22, General Schneider was killed by another group of plotters the CIA had been collaborating with, led by retired General Roberto Viaux. Instead of a coup, the military and the country rallied behind Allende's ratification by Chile's Congress on October 24.
So it’d armed and trained and planed with these folks and worked together with them on an earlier try, I’d say that is a pretty direct indirect involvement.
Here's a cia cable on the cia's earlier coup attempt:
The official word from the cia: The CIA's report to Congress revealed that beginning in the early 1960s and continuing through the late 1970s, the U.S. funneled millions of dollars to opposition groups to prevent the rise to power of the Chilean left. The CIA admitted its participation in an unsuccessful 1970 plot to prevent President Allende from taking office and its knowledge of the 1973 coup that led to Allende's death and the rise of Pinochet.
Much can be found here at The Chile Documentation Project
- rob 2:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Korry recounted two moments in particular: He insisted on seeing the president after finding out about Track 2, and Kissinger intercepted him, intoning gravely, "Mister Ambassador, do you think your country would lie to you?" Ed responded urgently, "I have to see the president." When finally Korry was admitted to the Oval Office, Nixon sat behind the desk punching his fist into his hand, saying over and over, "We're gonna get the sonofabitch! We're gonna get the sonofabitch!" and he thought, Oh no.- Monday, September 22, 2003 -
- Michael 2:06 AM - [PermaLink] -
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In honor of Michael's post below (burried beneath my long copy and paste jobs):
Ann Coulter's Love for Pinochet
By not opposing a military coup by the great Augusto Pinochet against a Chilean Marxist, Salvador Allende, the Times implied, the U.S. was party to a terrorist act similar to the 9-11 attack on America. This is how the Times describes Pinochet's 1973 coup: "A building – a symbol of the nation – collapsed in flames in an act of terror that would lead to the deaths of 3,000 people. It was Sept. 11."
Allende was an avowed Marxist, who, like Clinton, got into office on a plurality vote.
blah blah blah. Ann's insane. I guess we shouldn't spend too much time explaining to Ann that America is about promoting Freedom and Democracy, and not about defending IT&T. Ah, but Ann still think's Saddam ordered 9/11.
How to lose a war
On the basis of their recent pronouncements, the position of the Democratic Party seems to be that Saddam Hussein did not hit us on 9-11, but Halliburton did.
No Ann, that was Bin Laden and al Queada (I plan to spell that differently every day) that was behind 9/11, but see, if we keep that in mind we might wonder why we are in Iraq and basically ignoring Afganistan, and that kind of thinking just isn't good for Halliburt... ooops... I mean... that just isn't good for Dubya.
- rob 5:05 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Tom Toles
I was a big fan of his a few years back, but haven't been reading him lately, but he's definitely still got it:
Here's another good one. Browse around.
- rob 4:00 PM - [PermaLink] -
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As of January 2005, Bush will be looking for work, so he's been brushing up on his resume:
George W. Bush
MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
* I attacked and took over two countries.
* I spent the U.S. surplus and bankrupted the Treasury.
* I shattered the record for biggest annual deficit in history.
* I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
* I set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.
* I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.
* I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
* In my first year in office I set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.
* After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history.
* I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips by any president in US history.
* In my first two years in office I allowed over 2 million Americans to lose their jobs.
* I cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in US history.
* I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
* I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.
* I set the record for the fewest press conferences of any president since the advent of TV.
* I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any other president in US history.
* I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
* I presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
* I cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
* I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
* I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
* I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.
* Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history. (The 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).
* I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud in any market in any country in the history of the world.
* I am the first president in US history to order a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
* I have created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
* I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any other president in US history.
* I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Human Rights Commission.
* I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the Elections Monitoring Board.
* I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.
* I withdrew from the World Court of Law.
* I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
* I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors access during the 2002 US elections.
* I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations. The biggest lifetime contributor to my campaign, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).
* I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.
* I am the first president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied, saying the enemy had the code to Air Force One).
* I took the world's sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
* I am the first US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.
* I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
* I set the all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling their huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.
* I have removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
* In a little over two years I have created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided that the US has been since the civil war.
* I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years turned every single economic category heading straight down.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES
* I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).
* I was AWOL from the National Guard during a time of war.
* I refusee to take a drug test and was grounded while a member of the National Guard.
* All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
* All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
* All minutes of meetings of any public corporation for which I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
* Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review
From an email going about for quite a while now. Thanks Sy!
I corrected a few things that I feel the email overshot, and I'm sure there are things I missed, but still, it is quite an impressive resume. I'm sure his retirement from the White House will be quite lucrative.
- rob 2:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Baghdad Burning
Like Salem Pax's Where is Raed?, Baghdad Burning is a blog coming out or Iraq, and let's us peak at a different take on many events going on in Iraq. It is also a fasinating source of interesting stories about how our grandchildren's tax dollars are being sent (that's how deficits work you know).
Yesterday, I read how it was going to take up to $90 billion to rebuild Iraq. Bremer was shooting out numbers about how much it was going to cost to replace buildings and bridges and electricity, etc.
Listen to this little anecdote. One of my cousins works in a prominent engineering company in Baghdad- we’ll call the company H. This company is well-known for designing and building bridges all over Iraq. My cousin, a structural engineer, is a bridge freak. He spends hours talking about pillars and trusses and steel structures to anyone who’ll listen.
As May was drawing to a close, his manager told him that someone from the CPA wanted the company to estimate the building costs of replacing the New Diyala Bridge on the South East end of Baghdad. He got his team together, they went out and assessed the damage, decided it wasn’t too extensive, but it would be costly. They did the necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water depth, expansion joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward- $300,000. This included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors, travel expenses, etc.
Let’s pretend my cousin is a dolt. Let’s pretend he hasn’t been working with bridges for over 17 years. Let’s pretend he didn’t work on replacing at least 20 of the 133 bridges damaged during the first Gulf War. Let’s pretend he’s wrong and the cost of rebuilding this bridge is four times the number they estimated- let’s pretend it will actually cost $1,200,000. Let’s just use our imagination.
A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company. This particular company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around- brace yourselves- $50,000,000 !!
- rob 12:07 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Editorial: No Iraq link / White House backs off on 9/11
Defenders of the administration want to label those who have doubts about the truthfulness of the White House as "liberals" or "anti-American" or "unpatriotic." Those labels are just so much name-calling. There's nothing liberal or conservative, unpatriotic or anti-American about being upset that those who hold the highest offices in the land somehow find it impossible to level with the American people on such serious matters as national security and foreign policy.
If lies about private, consensual, albeit adulterous, sex can bring the impeachment of a president, it's not remotely wrong to raise questions about misstatements on issues that go to the very survival of this nation.
- rob 12:03 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush goes AWOL when soldiers need care
Bush doing his best to lose the military vote.
Again, the applause seemed to lack a certain enthusiasm usually found when the president speaks to military groups. After the speech, Pvt. Kenneth Henry, 21, a Third Division radar operator with a field artillery unit, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying of Mr. Bush:
"He likes war. He should go fight in a war for two days and see how he likes it."
Mr. Bush's military experience consists only of serving as a jet pilot with the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. But his outfit never left Texas, and he since has been accused of going AWOL for a year to campaign for a political pal of his father's.
...
Under the Bush plan, the Department of Veterans Affairs would disqualify about 1.5 million veterans, two-thirds of those now in the VA disability program.
...
The Bush administration is trying to cheat the veterans while continuing to send today's troops back into action, all at the same time, thereby creating more casualties and new disabled veterans who can be denied benefits. And don't think the troops don't know.
Ahh... never mind. Bush has the military vote locked up.
Accenture was recently awarded a contract to provide internet voting to the military. Internet voting is the least secure and the most prone to fraud. Accenture refused to reveal how much it was paid for the contract.
- rob 11:57 AM - [PermaLink] -
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9/11 is also the anniversary of a much less celebrated occasion in American history -- 1973 -- the year we officially got into the business of overthrowing democratically elected governments at the behest of American corporations with ties to a Republican administration that set the blueprint for kidnapping and assassination of foreign leaders. CIA insider Peter Kornbluh (September 9, 2003) discusses our now infamous covert action in Chile to overthrow Allende and install August Pinochet, a tyrant whom Kissinger defends as key to American interests, even though he murdered 4,000 people every two weeks and orchestrated car bombings in Washington. Some of this is covered in The Trials of Henry Kissinger, a movie that features, among other things, an interview with my late friend, Edward Korry.
Korry was the U.S. ambassador to Chile during the Allende overthrow and he was a friend of my family. I remember in 1976 he was having what turned out to be a nervous breakdown, because at the time, he didn't know about Track 2: the nefarious CIA planning against Allende, and Kissinger's and Nixon's involvement in his planned assassination. I remember Ed pacing back and forth in our living room, strands of spittle in the corners of his mouth, as he obsessed (he could talk for hours on end, uninterruptedly) about our government's complicity and his role in it, as a dupe. I became so involved with his story that I ended up taping him for about four and a half hours in 1976 for a high school history project, and sat mesmerized as he recounted all of this. He didn't know anything about the CIA undermining him at the time, that's how covert it was. (Now, of course, the whole thing seems quaint. Disgusting, huh?) Well, what surprised me more than anything was that when I started telling people about what we as a country were doing in Chile, and what was going on in our own State Department (Nixon almost did away with the Constitution, he came that close), nobody listened, and if they did, they yawned. Nobody cared. They looked at me with their eyes glassed over, waiting for me to shut up so they could change the subject. People my own age didn't care. I think that's what truly sent Korry over the deep end -- testifying to Congress (Richard Helms, at the time head of the CIA, pinned the whole sordid affair on Korry and made him the fall guy) and getting nowhere. (I read every page of his long, long testimony, which is no less than an indictment of American international corporations such as ITT and Anaconda Copper, who feel they have a right to every natural resource in South America and continue to kill people for it, at the time with the aid and encouragement of the Nixon administration, and, it turns out, Congress.) Frank Church featured prominently in the hushing up and public tarring of Korry. Church is a slime shitbag, despite his hero status among the American liberal left. After that dead end, he brought his story to the New York Times, who refused to publish a word about it. That's when he started having his breakdown. The Times didn't get around to publishing it until seven years later, at which point it was old news. They even admit as much in Korry's obituary (he died earlier this year). That proved to me as early as 1976 how complicit the so-called liberal media is in our illegal foreign exploits. The truth is, the media is a business like any other, and it has to stay in business, and you don't do that by running stories like this, because Americans just don't want to hear about it. That's why Bush gets away with it.
This time, I don't think Americans will be so lucky with the Constitution.
- Michael 12:15 AM - [PermaLink] -
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"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
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