Guantanamo: A monstrous failure of justice

George Bush promised the world that the terrorists would see American justice. Well now that he has kids in jail in Guantanamo with no scheduled court date, heck maybe there won't ever even be a trial.

This isn't American justice. No where close. The President doesn't understand what America means or what America stands for. America is more then a stock purchase plan.

The most powerful democracy is detaining hundreds of suspected foot soldiers of the Taliban in a legal black hole at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, where they await trial on capital charges by military tribunals.

Democracies must defend themselves. Democracies are entitled to try officers and soldiers of enemy forces for war crimes. But in times of war, armed conflict or perceived national danger, even liberal democracies adopt measures infringing human rights in ways that are wholly disproportionate to the crisis. One tool at hand is detention without charge or trial. Ill-conceived, rushed legislation is passed granting excessive powers to executive governments which compromise the rights and liberties of individuals beyond the exigencies of the situation. Often the loss of liberty is permanent.

Even in modern times terrible injustices have been perpetrated in the name of security on thousands who had no effective recourse to law. Too often courts of law have denied the writ of the rule of law with only the most perfunctory examination.

In the context of a war on terrorism without any end in prospect, this is a somber scene for human rights. But there is the caution that unchecked abuse of power begets ever greater abuse of power. And judges do have the duty, even in times of crisis, to guard against an unprincipled and exorbitant executive response.

After the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress rushed through the Patriot Act which gave to the executive vast powers to override civil liberties. Congress promptly authorized President George W. Bush to use all necessary force against, inter alia, those responsible for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to prevent further attacks. On Oct. 7, 2001, the air campaign against Afghanistan began.

On Nov. 13, 2001, the president issued an order providing for the trial by military commissions of persons accused of violations of the laws of war. That order has been repeatedly amended. Since January 2002, about 660 prisoners have been transferred at first to Camp X-Ray and then Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay. The number included children between the ages of 13 and 16 as well as the very elderly. Virtually all the prisoners are foot soldiers of the Taliban. By a blanket presidential decree, all the prisoners have been denied prisoner-of-war status.

How prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have been treated we do not know. But what we do know is not reassuring. At Camp Delta the minute cells measure 1.8 meters by 2.4 meters (6 feet by 8 feet). Detainees are held in these cells for up to 24 hours a day. Photographs of prisoners being returned to their cells on stretchers after interrogation have been published. The Red Cross described the camp as principally a center of interrogation rather than detention.

The purpose of holding the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay was and is to put them beyond the rule of law, beyond the protection of any courts, and at the mercy of the victors. The procedural rules do not prohibit the use of force to coerce prisoners to confess. On the contrary, the rules expressly provide that statements made by a prisoner under physical and mental duress are admissible "if the evidence would have value to a reasonable person," i.e. military officers trying enemy soldiers.

Here's what Clark says about Guantanamo (a mp3 file).

Thanks to the folks for the article and bartcop for the Clark quote.

- rob 3:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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What do the lead singer of U2 and James Baker have in common?

They both work to restructure the debt of nation's saddled with so much debt that they have no hope of coming out of their cycle of poverty unless they have much of their debt forgiven.

Of course, James only represents countries we bomb.

Bush Names James Baker as Envoy on Iraq Debt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush announced on Friday he has appointed former Secretary of State James Baker, a close family friend, as his personal envoy to seek a restructuring of Iraq's $120 billion debt.

"Secretary Baker will report directly to me and will lead an effort to work with the world's governments at the highest levels, with international organizations and with the Iraqis in seeking the restructuring and reduction of Iraq's official debt," Bush said in a statement.

When Bush says "report directly to me" he means "report directly to my dad, Dick, and the Carlyle Group."

Wasn't the oil supposed to pay for everything???

- rob 1:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Looting the Treasury

Hey look at my flag pin! Don't look at my hands stealing your money.

Looting the Future

One thing you have to say about George W. Bush: he's got a great sense of humor. At a recent fund-raiser, according to The Associated Press, he described eliminating weapons of mass destruction from Iraq and ensuring the solvency of Medicare as some of his administration's accomplishments.

Then came the punch line: "I came to this office to solve problems and not pass them on to future presidents and future generations." He must have had them rolling in the aisles.

In the early months of the Bush administration, one often heard that "the grown-ups are back in charge." But if being a grown-up means planning for the future — in fact, if it means anything beyond marital fidelity — then this is the least grown-up administration in American history. It governs like there's no tomorrow.

Nothing in our national experience prepared us for the spectacle of a government launching a war, increasing farm subsidies and establishing an expensive new Medicare entitlement — and not only failing to come up with a plan to pay for all this spending in the face of budget deficits, but cutting taxes at the same time.

Recent good economic news doesn't change the verdict. These aren't temporary measures aimed at getting the economy back on its feet; they're permanent drains on the budget. Serious estimates show a long-term budget gap, even with a recovery, of at least 25 percent of federal spending. That is, the federal government — including Medicare, which Mr. Bush has given new responsibilities without new resources — is nowhere near solvent.

Then there's international trade policy. Here's how the steel story looks from Europe: the administration imposed an illegal tariff for domestic political reasons, then changed its mind when threatened with retaliatory tariffs focused on likely swing states. So the U.S. has squandered its credibility: it is now seen as a nation that honors promises only when it's politically convenient.

What really makes me wonder whether this republic can be saved, however, is the downward spiral in governance, the hijacking of public policy by private interests.

The new Medicare bill is a huge subsidy for drug and insurance companies, coupled with a small benefit for retirees. In comparison, the energy bill — which stalled last month, but will come back — has a sort of purity: it barely even pretends to be anything other than corporate welfare. Did you hear about the subsidy that will help Shreveport get its first Hooters restaurant?

And it's not just legislation: hardly a day goes by without an administrative decision that just happens to confer huge benefits on favored corporations, at the public's expense. For example, last month the Internal Revenue Service dropped its efforts to crack down on the synfuel tax break — a famously abused measure that was supposed to encourage the production of alternative fuels, but has ended up giving companies billions in tax credits for spraying coal with a bit of diesel oil. The I.R.S. denies charges by Bill Henck, one of its own lawyers, that it buckled under political pressure. Coincidentally, according to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Henck has suddenly found himself among the tiny minority of taxpayers facing an I.R.S. audit.

Awhile back, George Akerlof, the Nobel laureate in economics, described what's happening to public policy as "a form of looting." Some scoffed at the time, but now even publications like The Economist, which has consistently made excuses for the administration, are sounding the alarm.

Sorry for clipping so much of it, but you really should read this essay, heck this is only half of it, go click the link above and read it all. Thank you.

- rob 1:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Rush Limbaugh engaged in 'doctor shopping,' investigators say

Oh Rush... Rush... Rush. An idiot, a blowhard, a liar, and a hypocrite, but I never thought you would also be a convict. But, unlike you, I can admit I was wrong. Looks like I was wrong, you will soon be a convict.

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Group asks Justice Department to investigate alleged bribe attempt in Medicare vote

Presently America has two parties:

1. The Democratic Party - the party of spineless wimps who never saw an affront to America by the GOP that they wouldn't apologize for.
   
2. The Republican Party - the party of thugs and theives who never saw a friend who shouldn't get some of your tax dollars.

The Justice Department said Thursday it would review complaints from political watchdog groups that Republican House leaders tried to bribe Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., to vote for a Medicare bill.

Smith voted against the bill despite what he described as threats against his son, Brad Smith, who is running for the House seat his father is vacating next year.

Nick Smith said his own party's leaders offered money for his son's campaign if he voted for the bill and that they threatened to support other GOP candidates for the seat if the congressman voted against the legislation.

"Bribes and special deals were offered to convince members to vote yes," Smith wrote in a Nov. 23 newspaper column.

Mark Glaze of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center said if the allegations are true, House members violated a federal law against bribing public officials.

- rob 12:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Stop the looting

My friend Doug gets the same Move On pleas that I do, but he rewrites them with even more passion and sends them along to his friends with hopes that people will respond. Here's his latest message. Please do act. It is important.

The White House is now asking Congress to hastily approve one of the biggest spending bills ever - 820 billion dollars. Naturally, the White House is also cutting lots of last-minute, backroom deals, doing favors for their friends who run huge corporations, at our expense. These last‑minute giveaways include:

• Rolling back rules requiring that people be paid for overtime. Eight million hard-working families count on these fair compensation rules.
  
  
• Allowing media giants to monopolize even more local media outlets than before. Companies like Fox that have bought more outlets than current law allows would now be allowed to keep them. In fact, this bill raises the limit just the amount that Fox needs.

Please join me in calling on Congress to stop this bill, at:

moveon.org/looting/

Two beefs:

1. Many of the bill's worst provisions have been inserted at the last minute by top Republican negotiators. The final bill, more than 400 pages long, was first shared with Democrats the day they were leaving for Thanksgiving (25 Nov.), in an attempt to force an immediate vote, sight unseen. Instead, Congress is returning for a special session next week. The House is expected to vote on it on Monday, 8 December. The Senate is being asked to approve it on Tuesday the 9th. But as Senator Harry Reid (D‑NV) said, "A legislator would have to have rocks in their head to agree to something they haven't yet read."
   
   I couldn't agree more, especially when you consider that majorities in both houses of Congress have already rejected both the media ownership change and the overtime rollback. Now, guess what - they're back.
   
   
2. Process aside, the spending itself is also outrageous. It's part of a long pattern of President Bush spending billions of our tax dollars to reward his friends and campaign contributors, a pattern the Nobel prize-winning economist George Akerlof has described as "a form of looting."

This fiscal irresponsibility must stop. If this irks you too, there's something you can do in three minutes flat. Please join me in calling on Congress to stop it, at:

moveon.org/looting/

Thanks Doug and Move On!

The hero again this hour is Senator Byrd:

Byrd to Block Omnibus Funding Bill

"Instead of sending 13 fiscally responsible appropriations bills to the president, we are being force-fed a bad piece of legislation dictated to the Congress by the Bush administration," Byrd said. "This is no way to govern. This is no way to serve the American people."

After a bipartisan start to negotiations on the bill, Republicans "took a balanced package and at the eleventh hour insisted on changes that were never considered when the individual bills passed the House and Senate," Byrd said. As examples, Byrd cited the elimination of provisions overturning regulatory and administration actions on overtime pay and the outsourcing of federal work to the private sector.

This doesn't end it though, so please go to: moveon.org/looting/

- rob 4:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Weapons of Mass Distruction found! In the hands of Terrorists! In Texas!

Oh... they're not Muslim? Never mind.

CBS 11 Investigates Poison Gas Plot

Federal authorities this year mounted one of the most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing, CBS 11 has learned.

Three people linked to white supremacist and anti-government groups are in custody. At least one weapon of mass destruction - a sodium cyanide bomb capable of delivering a deadly gas cloud - has been seized in the Tyler area.

Investigators have seized at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and chemical agents. But the government also found some chilling personal documents indicating that unknown co-conspirators may still be free to carry out what appeared to be an advanced plot. And, authorities familiar with the case say more potentially deadly cyanide bombs may be in circulation.

Since arresting the three people in May, federal agents have served hundreds of subpoenas across the country in a domestic terror investigation that made it onto President Bush’s daily intelligence briefings and set off national security alarms among the country’s most senior counter-terror officials.

And I'm reading this off of the website of a CBS affiliate. Not CBS mind you, not Fox News or CNN or the New York Times.

Americans are damn good people and would do the right thing if they were just told what the hell is going on in the world! (heck, I'd like to know).

This link was from Orcinus who has a great posting updating us on domestic terrorism (you know, Oklahoma City, Anthrax mailings...).

- rob 3:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Teacher sues over limits on history curriculum

The only reason why extremist fundamentalist Christians haven't turned America into a country like Afganistan under the Taliban is because of the constitution, its not because they don't want to.

You want to learn about the history of western civilization? Greece? Something as simple as why we have an Olympic games every four years? Well some Christians in Maine have decided that even the knowledge of other cultures will somehow taint our children.

A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Presque Isle who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district, claiming it violated his First Amendment right of free expression.

Gary Cole of Washburn, a teacher at Skyway Middle School, sued School Administrative District 1 in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Cole alleged that complaints by "a small group of fundamentalist Christian individuals" led to the creation of a curriculum "which never mentions religions other than Christianity and never teaches the history of civilizations other than Christian civilizations."

"He can't even teach the history of anti-Semitism (or the) history of ancient Greece," said Cole's lawyer, A.J. Greif of Bangor.

"How can you explain the evolution of democracy in the Western world without talking about ancient Greece? He can't talk about all the influences of the Indian, Japanese or Chinese cultures."

Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said on Tuesday that he had not seen the lawsuit, but he noted that the curriculum has been "developed by teachers across the district and adopted by the SAD 1 School Committee."

"Teachers are expected to follow the curriculum," he added.

umm... but if they can't teach about non-Christian civilizations how do they teach about the United States?

thanks to Atrios for the link.

- rob 3:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Homophobia Endangers National Security

U.S. military ousts gay linguists

She [Glover] learned Arabic at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), the military’s premier language school, in Monterey, Calif. Her timing as a soldier was fortuitous: Around her graduation last year, a Government Accounting Office study reported that the Army faced a critical shortage of linguists needed to translate intercepts and interrogate suspects in the war on terrorism.

“I was what the country needed,” Glover said.

She was, and she wasn’t. Glover is gay. She mastered Arabic but couldn’t handle living a double life under the military policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” After two years in the Army, Glover, 26, voluntarily wrote a statement acknowledging her homosexuality.

Confronted with a shortage of Arabic interpreters and its policy banning openly gay service members, the Pentagon had a choice to make.

And they chose homophobia over nation security.

In the past two years, the Department of Defense has discharged 37 linguists from the Defense Language Institute for being gay. Like Glover, many studied Arabic. At a time of heightened need for intelligence specialists, 37 linguists were rendered useless because of their homosexuality.

I remember in the days right after 9/11 it was reported that two gay translators were let go at the same time the dangers of a shortage of translators became blatantly apparent. There was even concern that some of our translators could be spies for al Queada.

You want to guarantee your translator is not working for al Queada or any Muslim extremist group? Make sure they are gay. That is your guarantee.

I love our nation... please people lets stop being stupid. This kind of stupidity is going to get more people killed.

- rob 3:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Tide is turning?

Statewide electronic voting delayed

Columbus - Ohio's sweeping review of electronic voting machines turned up so many potential security flaws in the systems that the state's top elections offi cial has called off deploying them in March.

The detailed findings confirmed what academics, computer scientists and voter advocates across the country have said for months: Electronic voting systems are prime targets for manipulation by anyone from expert computer hackers to poll workers to individual voters.
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Diebold Election Systems, the Ohio-based company that has taken the most heat for potential flaws in the security of its machines, was not singled out in the review. The machines of the three other companies selected during Ohio's extensive certification process - Sequoia, Hart InterCivic, and Election Systems & Software - were also found to carry risks.

Diebold led the pack in the number of serious flaws in its systems, but the technology of the other companies also was found to be riddled with problems.

The review confirmed a laundry list of security flaws that some observers had tried to dismiss as merely alarmist. Among the findings:

Voter "smart cards" inserted in the machines could be deciphered or counterfeited and used to cast illegal votes.

Poll supervisors' passwords could be easily guessed and used to manipulate election results or end polling early. Diebold, for example, has the same password - 1111 - nationwide, and investigators were able to guess it in two minutes. Emphasis mine.

Hear that Maryland? You spent millions on your election system, and the only thing that might insure you have a fair election in 2004 is a lot of prayer. Atheist? Well, in Maryland that probably means you wouldn't be allowed to legally vote anyway:

Article 36 of Maryland's Declaration of Rights (link goes to a pdf)
"That as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such manner as he thinks most acceptable to Him, all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore, no person ought by any law to be molested in his person or estate, on account of his religious persuasion, or profession, or for his religious practice, unless, under the color of religion, he shall disturb the good order, peace or safety of the State, or shall infringe the laws of morality, or injure others in their natural, civil or religious rights; nor ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry; nor shall any person, otherwise competent, be deemed incompetent as a witness, or juror, on account of his religious belief; provided, he believes in the existence of God, and that under His dispensation such person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefore either in this world or in the world to come." Emphasis mine. (taken from Atheists are Discriminated Against in Seven State Constitutions)

- rob 3:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Bird Was Perfect But Not For Dinner

I wonder what our troops really think of the pResident.

First he wanders around the deck of an aircraft carrier wearing a codpiece.
Now he wanders around an airport holding a center piece.

- rob 3:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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US fires Guantanamo defence team

I thought Bush was going to show the terrorists and the world American Justice, but what he meant was Texas Justice. They are not the same.

A team of military lawyers recruited to defend alleged terrorists held by the US at Guantanamo Bay was dismissed by the Pentagon after some of its members rebelled against the unfair way the trials have been designed, the Guardian has learned.

And some members of the new legal defence team remain deeply unhappy with the trials - known as "military commissions" - believing them to be slanted towards the prosecution and an affront to modern US military justice.

- rob 1:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Politics in California

By car, of course.

Someone is blogging the freeways  of Southern California - FREEWAYBLOGGER.com

- rob 1:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Well, here's your 5 points for ya. Bush is a still a contender. Impressive for a miserable failure.

Poll Says Bush's Approval Is on the Rise

President Bush's standing with the public has improved since his surprise Thanksgiving trip to Iraq amid signs of a stronger economy and following congressional passage of a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

Bush's job approval was at 61 percent in the National Annenberg Election Survey conducted the four days after the holiday, up from 56 percent during the four days before Thanksgiving. Disapproval of the president dropped from 41 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll released Tuesday.

This is a 5 point increase on a survey that was already 5 to 7 points above the other national polls, but I do think the jump is real... but temporary.

- rob 1:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because we still have the link exchange banner showing up on the older pages (which do get visited occasionally), we get about 5 free exposures of our banner a day. Not huge, not enough to generate traffic, but why not a means of delivering a message?

Here's the newest banner I submitted. In three days we'll see if Microsoft finds it appropriate or not (I don't mention the site name, that's already gotten us rejected once before).



Be gentle on your comments, I did this in about 5 minutes with MS Paint.

- rob 1:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Secrecy



Harry Truman understood the importance of open government in a free society. George W. Bush does not.

From the first days of his administration, President Bush has taken steps to tighten the government's hold on information and limit public scrutiny of its activities. Expansive assertions of executive privilege, restrictive views of the Freedom of Information Act, increasing use of national security classification, stonewalling in response to congressional requests for information - all these were evident even before the September 11 attacks. Since then, the clamps on information have only tightened.

Here, Public Citizen chronicles and documents the administration's obsession with secrecy, as well as the steps we, and others, are taking to fight it.

Thanks Sy!

- rob 12:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman on Diebold

Hopefully this issue has hit - big time (I love channeling Cheney).

Hack the Vote

nviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." No surprise there. But Walden O'Dell — who says that he wasn't talking about his business operations — happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States.

For example, Georgia — where Republicans scored spectacular upset victories in the 2002 midterm elections — relies exclusively on Diebold machines. To be clear, though there were many anomalies in that 2002 vote, there is no evidence that the machines miscounted. But there is also no evidence that the machines counted correctly. You see, Diebold machines leave no paper trail.

Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, who has introduced a bill requiring that digital voting machines leave a paper trail and that their software be available for public inspection, is occasionally told that systems lacking these safeguards haven't caused problems. "How do you know?" he asks.
...

But there's nothing paranoid about suggesting that political operatives, given the opportunity, might engage in dirty tricks. Indeed, given the intensity of partisanship these days, one suspects that small dirty tricks are common. For example, Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently announced that one of his aides had improperly accessed sensitive Democratic computer files that were leaked to the press.

This admission — contradicting an earlier declaration by Senator Hatch that his staff had been cleared of culpability — came on the same day that the Senate police announced that they were hiring a counterespionage expert to investigate the theft. Republican members of the committee have demanded that the expert investigate only how those specific documents were leaked, not whether any other breaches took place. I wonder why.

The point is that you don't have to believe in a central conspiracy to worry that partisans will take advantage of an insecure, unverifiable voting system to manipulate election results. Why expose them to temptation?

I'll discuss what to do in a future column. But let's be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake.

- rob 12:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Run for your life! Linda Tripp is on TV!



Scary woman...

Though I'm glad she's okay after her breast cancer treatment, I'm still not sure why she wanted to take some of our tax money and give it to lawyers.

- rob 12:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If Bush aides had thought balloons, they'd read: "must... stop...lying... can't... stop... lying...."

White House Version of Mid-Air Exchange Disputed

British Airways said on Monday that none of its pilots made contact with President Bush's plane during its secret flight to Baghdad, contradicting White House reports of a mid-air exchange that nearly prompted Bush to call off his trip.

Come on guys, it was a PR coup, and yet you needed to fluff it up. This reminds me of the aircraft carrier landing fiasco, where Bush had to fly because it was too far out to sea for a helicopter, forgetting the fact that the carrier was so close to land it had to turn so Bush could have the sea as his back drop. They just constantly need to fluff up Bush, truth be damned. I thought only porn stars needed fluffers.

- rob 12:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Already.. and it hasn't been a week.

Afterglow fading on Bush's PR coup in Iraq

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Changing the tone in Washington

How do you get a "Medicare Reform" bill that hurts seniors, medicare, and increases the deficit? Simple: bribery. Welcome to Bush's America, the largest banana republic in the world.

Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith? - Stop protecting him, Congressman.

Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., says that sometime late Nov. 21 or early in the morning Nov. 22, somebody on the House floor threatened to redirect campaign funds away from his son Brad, who is running to succeed him, if he didn't support the Medicare prescription bill. This according to the Associated Press. Robert Novak further reports,

On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, [Rep.] Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat.

Speaking through Chief of Staff Kurt Schmautz, Smith assured Chatterbox that Novak's account is "basically accurate." That means Smith was an eyewitness to a federal crime. United States Code, Title 18, Section 201, "Bribery of public officials and witnesses," states that under federal law, a person commits bribery if he

directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official or person who has been selected to be a public official, or offers or promises any public official or any person who has been selected to be a public official to give anything of value to any other person or entity [italics Chatterbox's], with intent to influence any official act. …

Promising to direct $100,000 to Rep. Smith's son's campaign clearly meets the legal definition of bribery. The only question, then, is who to prosecute.

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

- rob 11:53 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Heroes who are probably having to work overtime in the Bush era: FAS Project on Government Secrecy

- rob 1:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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So Bush spent two and a half hours at a Baghdad airport on Thanksgiving. Though little more than a layover it was a smart political move on Rove's part, and a necessity as Hillary Clinton was already over there.

however, if this stunt doesn't push bush up 5 or 6 points in post-Thanksgiving polls, then, save for another war, Bush is done for in 2004.

For comparison here's a pre-Thanksgiving poll by Time.

If George W. Bush runs for re-election, how likely are you to vote for him?
Very Likely: 32%
Somewhat Likely: 15%
Very Unlikely: 38%
Somewhat Unlikely: 10%

That's 47% pro-Bush vs. 48% anti-Bush, and the anti-Bush number is defintely stronger.

More at: TIME Magazine: Divided Over Bush

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Another Meme Alert!

The new meme goes something like this: Vote for Bush because his feelings get hurt when people don't like him.

Go to DRUDGE REPORT 2003® for the most sad sack photo of Bush I've ever seen.

- rob 12:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Meme Alert!

Drudge Report is always a good place to look to see what new memes the ruling party (formally known as the semi-respectable Grand Old Party) is trying out. It seems they are going back to a meme they used to great effect against McCain: "you must support Bush, because the opponent is angry... dangerously angry."

Personally which would you rather have President: A man like Dean who is angry that Americans are being lied to by their own government, or a man like Bush, who goofs off and mugs to the camera before declaring war.

Well under a headline of "DEAN 'PASSION' PHOTOS: RIGHTEOUS ANGER OR RAGE? we get great photos like this one:


For more go to: DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2002® (yes, I know its 2003, but Drudge is living in 2002, back when neocons could still fantazise about a wonderful victory in Iraq).

- rob 12:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Another Campaign Slogan



"If you want smaller government vote Democratic in 2004"

From the excellent post: "Starve the Beast"?

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

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All who argue in favor what we as a country do and to whom we do it should read these uncensored stories of the war.

"I was so surprised because in Baghdad we thought we were in danger from the Iraqis. And it was a shock that the Americans shot against journalists, against freedom of the press. And I think they wanted to do it like that. They wanted to shoot against the press to say, we are in Baghdad now and everything is possible so be careful." -- Caroline Sinz, reporter, FR3

"I didn't want that piece of tape to end up on the trash heap of history. And through some coaxing on my part, we showed some of the tape, which included badly burned and blown up bodies. So often we don't show those things on television. But I remember saying that if it wasn't appropriate for broadcast at that time of day then we shouldn't be fighting wars at that time of day. Not to show it is a lie." -- Craig White, cameraman, NBC

Graham was there to meet some of the journalists who had been embedded with the troops on the way to Baghdad. He saw that some them had developed a very close relationship with the marines they were traveling with. "There were some people who were just stoked to be with the marines, this was some kind of childhood fantasy. They loved watching the Americans kick some Iraqi ass and were completely into this sort of hoo ha, marine mind set. And others were sort of indifferent. . . . It turned out to be a more dangerous job in a lot of ways. And it turned out to be pretty interesting, but at the same time it didn't sound like journalism. It sounded a lot like tourism with the army." -- Patrick Graham, freelance reporter

"Pictures of dead soldiers are terrible for morale. I decided that I had to move this picture to my editors because this is the reality, this is what is happening out here. If people back home can't look at this photograph and think of Larry Brown every time they think of what it took to take Saddam Hussein out of power, then we shouldn't be here. As it turns out, the military had their own thoughts about what that picture says." The army was upset. They claimed the picture was disrespectful to Larry Brown and to his family. One of the senior leaders on the ground voiced his opinion. "He said, 'wouldn't it have been much better, you could show that same idea of loss, with a flag draped coffin coming back from Andrew's Air Force Base'? And I thought to myself, it's not the same thing. It's the visceral reaction that people have and this is the power of the photograph. . . . My bosses were very upset. They fought very hard to get this photograph out there and a lot of compromises had to be made. From what I heard the Chief of Staff of the Army was very, very upset with us for publishing that photograph. . . . I've seen people at the lowest point of their lives. I've seen people with no lives, I've seen dead people and you have to come back. And every night when I was out in the field, I would look at a photograph of my daughter and she reminded me of the civility that we exist in and I would wish that everybody in the world could have that. I don't know why people have to die." -- Rob Curtis, photographer, Army Times

"The Iraqis who had been defending that stretch of road were roasted alive. I couldn't see them but I could smell them and it's the most sickening smell you'll ever smell in your life and it stayed in your clothes for days. In the day light you saw there were just skeletons, burned, macabre looking figures on the ground like pieces of charcoal. . . . I remember looking at them and thinking what a waste. You're somebody's husband, your somebody's father, you're somebody's son and now you're dead. You're out here in nowhere, we're not going to bury you and wild animals will eat your corpse. No one is going to know how you died, where you died, you just simply vanished off the planet." -- Ross Simpson, reporter, Associated Press Radio

Nakhoul was about to become part of the story herself. She was with her crew on the 15th floor balcony of the Palestine Hotel the morning it was struck by shells from an American tank. "I went to the balcony and our cameraman gave me his camera because I was looking to see close up. The photographer told me 'Samia, look.' There was an orange glow in the sky and we looked left for a second. This is the one that exploded in our office. I felt a lid of fire hit my head and we're all on the floor screaming and shouting in pain." Shrapnel from the bomb pierced through the Reuters room on the 15th floor. Nakhoul suffered brain injuries and some of her colleagues were seriously wounded. But tragically her cameraman, Taras Protsyuk was killed. "The minute I knew that Taras died for me life would never be the same. We were all waiting for the end of the war and he'd tell me about his son. He had a wife and he was young, he's full of life. It told me that life can change in one second." Nakhoul blames the American military for the attack. She says that the whole world knew that there were hundreds of journalists based at the Palestine hotel that day. "The main thing that I still get angry about - I was at the office. I wasn't on the street that day because I decided that we couldn't get into the street. It was like somebody stabbed you in the back." -- Samia Nakhoul, Gulf Bureau Chief, Reuters

"Wars are fought by people, they're not fought by machines. There's a chain of command and there are people all along that chain with a wide contrast of characters. There were all different kinds of people and that's what I think tells the story of war." He was on foot patrol with the troops when they came across an Iraqi trench. The bodies of the Iraqi soldiers that had been killed during the previous nights shelling where still in their positions. "That's when I saw what I thought was a very important picture, which was white flags protruding from the trenches. It would suggest that they were trying to surrender. There are 2 British soldiers looking down at the bodies and I think the picture tells a story." -- Steven Hird, photographer, Reuters

Branigin was listening on a radio headset when his unit made a tragic error in judgment. As an old Land Rover approached a nearby checkpoint, a warning shot was fired. But the vehicle didn't stop. "I heard a rapid succession of half a dozen 25 mm cannon rounds from one of the Bradley's. They just blew this vehicle away. The company commander looking through his binoculars shouted at the platoon leader, 'you just killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough.' He was really outraged and it was clear at this time that the platoon was distracted." 10 civilian Iraqis were instantly killed - including 5 young children. It was a tragic incident that was widely reported in the western media. It was one of the darkest moments for the American military. Branigin sees the story it as proof that the embedded process during the war worked. "I think they were pretty clear that there would be good times and bad times - this is what they said. I took them at their work so I didn't have any compunction about not reported what happened. They understood that it was a tragedy that happened and that I just had to tell it like it happened." -- William Branigan, reporter, Washington Post

That's our game plan, folks. Get used to it, because this is what we'll be doing over there for the next 20 years. There's a pattern to the madness of conquest, and it neither begins nor ends with Iraq.

- Michael 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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