I tried to respond to Mike in the Comments section but it sent my message into oblivion twice, so I'll say it here: I'm not knocking Dean's ideas or his candidacy, he just doesn't grab people where they want to be grabbed, apart from hating Bush. Hell, I hate him too, but elections aren't won by hating the other guy. For one thing, Americans always prefer the fake to the real, and Bush's lies work like a charm, every one of them. It's our fault, for watching way too much TV and allowing ourselves to be pandered to instead of reading books and having a mind. No doubt anybody reading this has one, but you my friend are in the minority, and I mean minority -- like one tiny sliver in the entire cheese wheel. No, Dean hasn't got what it takes, and he's not gonna win. He's focusing too hard on reality. Americans want fairy tales, not tough choices. For the opposite point of view, though, check out Paul Krugman for satisfying wish fulfillment, because that's all it is, wishing. I don't believe in Santa Claus either. Get used to Bush's second term; as I said, he's already in it.

- Michael 6:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The cost of Bush's Mars pipe dream?

Science. Pretty much anything great about NASA these days.

Hubble obtains deepest space view

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged the deepest view ever of the cosmos, detecting the youngest and most distant galaxies ever seen by astronomers.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the result of an unprecedented, long look of 80 days at just one patch of sky.

According to scientists, the picture reaches back to the Universe's "Dark Ages", before the first stars formed.

The image, which will be released in February, will be a major advance in our understanding of the cosmos.
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Asked how Hubble is performing Dr Beckwith said: "Hubble is doing beautifully. It's working better than when it was new. We have not yet reached the limit of what it can do."

Ahh, but NASA has. Knowledge and understandig vs. expensive and useless cool political missions? Of course you know what's going to win under the Bush administration.

Colleagues,

A few minutes ago, we concluded a meeting at which Sean O'Keefe, the NASA Administrator, announced his decision to cancel SM4, the next servicing mission to Hubble. It was his decision alone, and I will discuss the details with your personally. I will be holding a town-hall meeting in the auditorium at 3:00 pm today for everyone who is interested to answer your questions about the decision and talk about the future (source)

Without routine maintenance Hubble stops working. Basically NASA is now a show piece. The age of learning about the cosmos is over. Anything that isn't a showpiece will be cancelled. Science is boring, so science loses. (of course the fact that some of the science that NASA was producing was showing that global warming was indeed a real phenomenom has nothing to do with this).

- rob 5:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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White House Missed Chance to Kill Osama

W A S H I N G T O N, June 24— When President Bush took office in January 2001, the White House was told that Predator drones had recently spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times and officials were urged to arm the unmanned planes with missiles to kill the al Qaeda leader.

But the administration failed to get drones back into the Afghan skies until after the Sept. 11 attacks later that year, current and former U.S. officials say.

Top administration officials discussed the mission to kill bin Laden as late as one week before the suicide attacks on New York and Washington, but they had not yet resolved a debate over whether the CIA or Pentagon should operate the armed Predators and whether the missiles would be sufficiently lethal, officials told The Associated Press.

In the month before that meeting, the Pentagon and CIA successfully tested an armed Predator on at least three occasions — including once when it destroyed a mockup home resembling an Afghan structure bin Laden supposedly used, the officials said.

Why wasn't the drone deployed? Well, the White House obviously didn't think it was as important as finding an excuse to take out Saddam, or spend billions on an non-working missile defense initiative, or selling an tax cut that did absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy. There was a dispute between the CIA and the Pentagon as to who had final control over the drone, and Bush, because he is not a leader, did nothing.

- rob 2:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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White House seeks control over release of health, safety alerts

WASHINGTON — Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.

The White House Office Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment.

The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations — known as peer reviews — of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements.

Currently, each federal agency controls its emergency notifications and peer review of its projects.

Wow! Anthrax outbrake? Bush decides wether or not you are allowed to hear about it. Bush doesn't want to trouble you all with the scary details. Just let him take care of everything, and simply trust him. Heck if thousands die and we don't hear about it... are they really dead?

- rob 2:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Conservative groups break with Republican leadership

"The Republican Congress is spending at twice the rate as under Bill Clinton, and President Bush has yet to issue a single veto," Paul M. Weyrich, national chairman of Coalitions for America, said at a news briefing with the other five leaders. "I complained about profligate spending during the Clinton years but never thought I'd have to do so with a Republican in the White House and Republicans controlling the Congress."

Warning of adverse consequences in the November elections, the leaders said the Senate must reject the latest House-passed omnibus spending bill or Mr. Bush should veto the measure.

"The whole purpose of having a Republican president is to lead the Republican Congress," said Paul Beckner, president of Citizens for a Sound Economy, whose co-chairman is former House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas. "The Constitution gives the president the power to veto legislation, and if Congress won't act in a fiscally responsible way, the president has to step in — but he hasn't done that." Emphasis Mine.

- rob 1:21 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Missile defense system called far from ready

The long-range ballistic missile defense system President Bush has ordered operational by October will be less than adequate for effective operation, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee said recently.

In a phone interview with Global Security Newswire last month, Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., said several crucial elements of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system would not be fielded on time because they have not achieved sufficient technological development.

"We don't have the essential components yet in hand of a ground-based system," he said.

In December 2002 Bush directed the military to deploy an initial missile defense capability by October 2004, which would include six missile interceptors in Alaska and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. While it appears that the interceptors are on track to be fielded by the deadline, the Missile Defense Agency has indicated that other system components will not be ready and that alternatives will be used.

Untold millions (billions) will be spend on this deployment of a defense system that everyone knows doesn't work all to make a political deadline (a month before the general election). Bush considers the entire federal budget a campaign slush fund.

- rob 1:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Karl Rove's Nightmare

DALLAS -- Karl Rove had a bad moment here the other night. It came as Wesley Clark was speaking to a packed hotel ballroom, when the retired general derided the president of the United States for what was supposed to be his supreme, cinematic moment: landing on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. "I don't think it's patriotic to dress up in a flight suit and prance around," Clark bellowed. The men had been separated from the boys.
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Wes Clark does not like what George Bush has done with Wes Clark's Army. Make no mistake: It's his Army. He can hardly go a sentence without mentioning the military -- and how, in his mind, Bush has abused it. He sent it to war precipitously and then used its men and women as "props," he says. Clark's sincerity on this point is patent. In a conversation on his campaign plane, he suddenly turned intense, a kind of growling, low-grade rage that lifted my nose from my note-taking. His Army has been abused.

- rob 11:03 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Y'know what's wrong with Howard Dean? All he stands for is I'm-the-Alternative-to-Bush. That's a no win. When Clinton came out of the bullpen -- granted, it was a different time -- he was like, "Hey Everybody, I'm Clinton! Fuck this old mind-set." And everybody was ready for it, because senior Bush was out of touch and a patrician and everything sucked for the average person -- MUCH LESS THAN IT DOES NOW -- and the president didn't have a clue. Suddenly this guy with all these political skills appears out of nowhere and takes the country by storm. That's what elections are about. New blood, fresh ideas. Dubya is stale shit, a cold war, Fear incarnate, surrounded by fossils. Yet Dean is nothing other than "I'm against everything Bush is for" -- which is a guaranteed Zero according to the electorate. You have to take the bull by the horns, grab center stage, explode through the curtains in a baby spotlight and croon. Hasn't Clinton taught the Democrats anything? You don't win by nay-saying, you win by offering Sunnier. Reagan won by "It's morning in America." G.H.W. Bush lost because he concerned himself with reality. Clinton won because he played the saxophone and told everyone things were Cool. And he was smart, we all had to turn him off, he talked so long. It was like, Yeah, yeah, you get the job, shut up. Now it's this Stalinist gulag where everyone's afraid, and the government can stick its nose up your ass and arrest you for thought crimes, but the Dems have nothing better to offer than Howard Dean, whose only selling point is that he's not Bush. Well, in America, that doesn't win you squat. You can't be the Guy Who Isn't the Other Guy. This whole thing is pathetic. Bush is already in his second term. How come those who care haven't figured this out?

- Michael 10:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Wesley Clark Calls for Probe on Iraq War

Campaigning in New Hampshire two weeks before its primary election, Clark called for a full congressional investigation into why the United States went to war in Iraq.

"We don't know what the motivation was. We just don't know. We've spent $180 billion on it, we've lost 480 Americans, we've got 2,500 with life-changing injuries," the retired general told reporters.

Clark contended that Bush was obsessed with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and with establishing a national missile defense, in the months leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks — and did not do enough to protect the nation against such an attack.

In a book released Tuesday, O'Neill criticized Bush's leadership style and suggested he planned to go after Saddam even before the attacks.

The Treasury Department (news - web sites) announced on Monday that it was launching an inspector general's investigation into how an agency document stamped "secret" wound up being used in O'Neill's interview Sunday night on the CBS program "60 Minutes."

Clark contrasted the speed of the O'Neill investigation with the slow pace of an inquiry into who last summer divulged the name of a CIA (news - web sites) official whose husband had criticized the president's Iraq policy.

"They didn't wait 24 hours in initiating an investigation on Paul O'Neill," Clark said. "They're not concerned about national security. But they're really concerned about political security. I think they've got their priorities upside down."

It shouldn't be noted the White House waited months to open an investigation into who leaked the name of the undercover CIA agent to the press.

This will be the nastiest campaign in decades, because not just the white house is at risk, I'm sure some of Bush's team might even be worried about some jail time if Clark or Dean gets elected.

Note, on the night before the inaguration of Clark or Dean, Bush will pardon his entire administration... just to be safe.

- rob 6:31 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ted Kennedy | 'Bush Has Put the State of Our Union at Risk'

Damn Ted, you've still got a soul! Good for you.

I'd also like to thank Brian and Alma Hart and Sergeant Peter Damon for coming today. The Hart's son, John, was killed in Iraq this fall on patrol in an unarmored Humvee. Sergeant Damon lost both his arms serving in Iraq. We honor their service and their sacrifice.

The enduring accomplishments of our nation's leaders are those that are grounded in the fundamental values that gave birth to this great country. As our Founders so eloquently stated in the preamble to our Constitution, this nation was founded by "We the People...in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." Over the course of two centuries, these ideals inspired and enabled thirteen tiny quarreling colonies to transform themselves-not just into the most powerful nation on earth, but also into the "last, best hope of earth." These ideals have been uniquely honored by history and advanced by each new generation of Americans, often through great sacrifice.

In these uncertain times, it is imperative that our leaders hold true to those founding ideals and protect the fundamental trust between the government and the people. Nowhere is this trust more important than between the people and the President of the United States. As the leader of our country and the voice of America to the world, our President has the obligation to lead and speak with truth and integrity if this nation is to continue to reap the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

The citizens of our democracy have a fundamental right to debate and even doubt the wisdom of a president's policies. And the citizens of our democracy have a sacred obligation to sound the alarm and shed light on the policies of an Administration that is leading this country to a perilous place.

I believe that this Administration is indeed leading this country to a perilous place. It has broken faith with the American people, aided and abetted by a Congressional majority willing to pursue ideology at any price, even the price of distorting the truth. On issue after issue, they have moved brazenly to impose their agenda on America and on the world. They have pursued their goals at the expense of urgent national and human needs and at the expense of the truth. America deserves better.

The Administration and the majority in Congress have put the state of our union at risk, and they do not deserve another term in the White House or in control of Congress.

I do not make these statements lightly. I make them as an American deeply concerned about the future of the Republic if the extremist policies of this Administration continue.

Yes our soldiers are dying in Unarmored Humvees. I mean the budget to pay for the Halliburton price gouged gas has to come from somewhere.

- rob 12:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Mars Needs Dim Republicans / Dubya dons a shiny spacesuit, dreams of spending billions to meet little green men. The nation cringes

Oh right like this is exactly what we need.


Let us imagine the discussion: "Boys, the nation's in massive reeling record-breaking debt and morale's at an all-time low and disposable American soldiers are dying brutal horrific deaths every day over nothing at all except our greed and flagrant cronyism and corporate petrochemical profiteering.

"Our cities are gasping and health care is a joke and we've mauled Medicare beyond recognition, and we're plundering the living hell out of Social Security, the last remaining stable and sound fund left, to try and shore up our rapacious and gluttonous spending.

"There are no WMDs and our former allies openly resent us and the poll ratings are slipping and the big glops of warmongering lies are drying like blood stains into a carpet. And it's an election year. Damn.

"What's to be done? What could rally a wary country during its time of humiliated need and force-fed ignorance? What could turn this troubled nation around in the face of oily corporate war and fiscal gluttony and environmental savagery?

"Why, neato space stations on the moon, and sending men to Mars, that's what!"

Hey I'd love space stations and missions to mars, I really would. But I'd really rather have a nation in a place of fiscal sanity before we do that. How boring. How adult of me.

And I'm sorry, It's kind of a let down. I mean, this new initiative isn't really that exciting. Go back to the moon in 16 years? It only took us 10 years to get there the first time and we could barely fire a rocket in 1960. I mean if it takes us 16 years to go to a place we could visit multiple times 35 years ago its almost an embarassing failure rather than an exciting new initiative.

And Mars? Sorry, I'm not that excited, I mean, we've had pictures of that planet from the ground for over 25 years now, what's a human going to do that really makes this more exciting... especially if we're talking about doing this another 20 plus years from now.

Bush is just talking out of his ass, because he'll be long gone when this stuff is supposed happen.

- rob 12:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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MARS

I find this latest diversion distressing for a whole bunch of reasons, the
primary one being that Bush is clearly pandering to Tom DeLay and Florida in
an election year with no intention of following through in any meaningful
way, which leads to distressing point no. 2, that this is yet another
example of the same politically motivated reckless spending that's crashing
the USA straight into the ground, like Enron on the national scale -- i.e.,
the so-called CEO leadership they bragged about is in reality a Rogues
Gallery of incompetent management and commonplace thievery, and if you look
at the track record of these captains of industry you'll see a long list of
companies being run into the ground with all their assets stolen, while the perpetrators
go on to greater, greener pastures, leaving nothing but rubble and suffering
in their wake. The price of loyalty -- the litmus test of a Bush
administration -- is either falling on your sword, a lengthy jail term or a
knife in the back. Somebody else always has to pay for it, which leads me to
distressing point no. 3: we as a nation are now being coerced into this
pledge of loyalty to Bush, with severe consequences to pay if we don't; in
other words, we pay the consequences either way -- in blood, treasure, or punishment -- because that's how it is
with monarchs, historically. I don't know whether you noticed, but the day
before yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court, by declining to hear an appeal
concerning the rights of a defendant -- accused of being an "enemy
combatant" -- to be tried under the rule of law and according to due process
as specified in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, gutted said
amendment, ripped it up as it were, and by so doing suspended the writ of
habeas corpus. The government may now detain you indefinitely without access
to a lawyer and without informing you of the charges. Why wasn't this
front-page news? We were too busy talking about Mars. Distressing point no.
4 is that this diversionary discussion, especially among space scientists,
is becoming more and more fraught with Armageddonlike scenarios, viz: "When
this stage was reached [Mars colony], humanity would have a precious
insurance policy against catastrophe at home. During the next millennium
there is a significant chance that civilization on Earth will be destroyed
by an asteroid, a killer plague or a global war. A Martian colony could keep
the flame of civilization and culture alive until Earth could be
reverse-colonized from Mars." (Paul Davies, professor of natural philosophy
at the Australian Center for Astrobiology, from today's New York Times)
So now, merely one day after the Bush proclamation, nothing less than
the end of humankind is at stake if we don't go to Mars. We just have to
take it for granted that civilization on Earth will be destroyed, one way or
another. Let's all get used to the idea. Think of it as a given.

Klaatu, varataa, nicto

- Michael 10:04 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage

Not that I don't think marriage is great thing. But doesn't that sound incredibly liberal? You know spending money to teach people how to be better husbands and wives? You know liberals always want education plans: aids awareness, envionmental education, school text books. Liberals are just happy to spend your money on silly things. Thank god the republicans are here to spend 1.5 billion dollars educating us about why marriage is a good thing. So hear is a sneak preview of their syllabus.

• Marriage isn't really permanent. You know if you wife gets sick or old or something, heck she might get both, you can always divorce her and get married to a younger gal. Newt Gingrich did.


• Wear a condom when with asian prostitutes... I mean, when your on business trips. Neil Bush wishes he did.


• If you get caught having an affair, claim it was a youthful indiscretion, even if you were fortyone at the time of the affair. Henry Hyde did.

Of course the largest cause of divorce is financial stress. You know not earning enough money for your hard labor, not finding a job at all, not being able to afford health care, etc. But that'd be difficult to work on, so instead watch for the coming "marriage is the bomb." posters coming from the marketing geniuses of the Bush administration.

- rob 2:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Politics & Science - Investigating the State of Science Under the Bush Administration

- rob 1:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Baker Backed Loans That Added to Iraq Debt

See that's why he'll be so good about helping them reduce their debt, because he feels sooo quilty and giving them money back in the late eighties.

My favorite part:

U.S. officials were well aware at the time that Saddam had used chemical weapons against Iran and Iraqi Kurds. Iraq also was believed to have biological and nuclear weapons programs and to be harboring terrorists -- reasons the current Bush administration has used to justify toppling the Iraqi leader.

But in 1989, Baker and other officials hoped incentives might change Saddam.

See, giving them a billion dollars didn't work, so we had to go to war. Bush family diplomacy:

Will you dress better if I give you a million dollars?
No
Then we will have to stab you... 14 years from now.

- rob 1:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Verified Voting - Campaign To Demand Verifiable Election Results

Not sure if I've posted a link to this organization yet. They're working hard on making your vote be your vote, and not the voting machine's manufacturer's vote (or any low level hacker).

- rob 12:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hussein Warned Iraqis to Beware Outside Fighters, Document Says

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

The document appears to be a directive, written after he lost power, from Mr. Hussein to leaders of the Iraqi resistance, counseling caution against getting too close to Islamic jihadists and other foreign Arabs coming into occupied Iraq, according to American officials.

It provides a second piece of evidence challenging the Bush administration contention of close cooperation between Mr. Hussein's government and terrorists from Al Qaeda. C.I.A. interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Mr. Hussein.

That sad thing is that disproving Bush's lies us a moot point. He updates his lies like a stock ticker. The war wasn't about WMDs, terrorism, or 9/11... it was simply a continuation of a Clinton policy. Because Bush always does everything that Clinton does, just ask his interns. Of course, his new lie was immediately proven a lie, but that's okay, cause we're going back to the moon on your great grand kid's money!

- rob 12:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Calpundit: Black is White, Up is Down

Great post on another instance of Bush putting politics before running this country.

The most recent version was released a month ago, but it turns out that the final version released by the political troops was dramatically different from the initial draft written by HHS scientists. Upon learning of this, Bush heckler-in chief Henry Waxman commissioned a report comparing the scientists' draft with the final draft. Here's my favorite part:

The scientists’ draft concluded that “disparities come at a personal and societal price,” including lost productivity, needless disability, and early death. The final version drops this conclusion and replaces it with the finding that “some ‘priority populations’ do as well or better than the general population in some aspects of health care.” As an example, the executive summary highlights that “American Indians/Alaska Natives have a lower death rate from all cancers.”

You gotta love it. Amid all the bad data they were able to find a few examples where minority groups did better than others, so they highlighted that instead. This is sort of like commissioning a report on income disparities and highlighting the fact that blacks do very well in the area of professional basketball.

- rob 12:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Clear Channel Bans any Opinions that are not pro-Bush. Even other conservatives.

How to Lose Your Job in Talk Radio

Why only a couple of months after my company picked up the option on my contract for another year in the fifth-largest city in the United States, did it suddenly decide to relegate me to radio Outer Darkness? The answer lies hidden in the oil-and-water incompatibility of these two seemingly disconnected phrases: “Criticizing Bush” and “Clear Channel.”
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Clear Channel Communications, the 800-pound gorilla of the radio business, owns an astonishing 1,200 stations in 50 states, including Newstalk 550 KFYI in Phoenix, where I do the afternoon program … or did until last summer. The principals of Clear Channel, a Texas-based company, have been substantial contributors to George W. Bush’s fortunes since before he became president. In fact, Texas billionaire Tom Hicks can be said to be the man who made Bush a millionaire when he purchased the future president’s baseball team, the Texas Rangers. Tom Hicks is now vice chairman of Clear Channel. Clear Channel stations were unusually visible during the war with what corporate flacks now call “pro-troop rallies.” In tone and substance, they were virtually indistinguishable from pro-Bush rallies. I’m sure the administration, which faced a host of regulatory issues affecting Clear Channel, was not displeased.

Criticism of Bush and his ever-shifting pretext for a first-strike war (what exactly was it we were pre-empting anyway?) has proved so serious a violation of Clear Channel’s cultural taboo that only a good contract has kept me from being fired outright. Roxanne Cordonier, a radio personality at Clear Channel’s WMYI 102.5 in Greenville, S.C., didn’t have it as good. Cordonier, who worked under the name Roxanne Walker, was the South Carolina Broadcasters Association’s 2002 Radio Personality of the Year. That apparently wasn’t enough for Clear Channel. Her lawsuit against the company alleges that she was belittled on the air and reprimanded by her station for opposing the invasion of Iraq. Then she was fired.
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One Clear Channel executive had me take an unexpected day off for the sin of reporting the breaking news on March 27, 2003, that neocon hawk Richard Perle, of the Defense Policy Board, had relinquished his chairmanship under scrutiny of his business dealings and for blaspheming that Donald Rumsfeld was the worst Secretary of Defense since Robert McNamara.
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Clear Channel made it clear—“With you, I feel like I’m managing the Dixie Chicks,” said my program director—that they would have liked to fire me anyway. While a well-drafted contract made that difficult, it did not prevent them from tucking me away outside prime time.

Found this on Bartcop (I think).

- rob 12:43 PM - [PermaLink] -

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In our main story Bush spends billions on a war that has nothing to do with terrorism under the name of fighting terrorism. Meanwhile, at our underfunded front lines....

Park Police Bomb Their Terrorism Test

In broad daylight on Sept. 11, 2003, somebody deposited what could have been a "dirty bomb" at the Washington Monument. U.S. Park Police never noticed.

It wasn't a real bomb, just a suspicious-looking black plastic bag stuffed with garbage. And the culprits weren't terrorists, but investigators from the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General, out to demonstrate the monument's vulnerability on that infamous anniversary.

As documented in photos and a memo obtained by The Reliable Source, the feds left the bag at the rear of the obelisk for 20 minutes, then moved it near a security checkpoint where tourists lined up to enter the landmark. "Again, the unidentified bag sat there, undisrupted and unnoticed, for roughly 15 minutes," wrote Inspector General Earl E. Devaney in the memo, citing his "grave concerns for the security and public safety at these facilities."

No Park Police could be seen on patrol, except for one in an unmarked car who "appeared to be sound asleep," Devaney wrote.

The memo, now in the hands of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, has some staffers in stitches. But Rep. Jim Turner (D-Tex.), ranking committee member, is outraged. "Without a doubt, if there had been a terrorist attack on the Washington Monument on Sept. 11, 2003, hundreds of tourists could have been killed," Turner told us yesterday. "Usually when we say someone was asleep at the wheel, it is just an expression, but this time, the Park Police were literally asleep at the wheel. . . . Someone needs to be held accountable for this."

The memo increased controversy surrounding Park Police Chief Teresa C. Chambers, whom the National Park Service moved to fire last month after she publicly called the 620-member force overstretched and underfunded. Chambers, placed on leave and under a gag order from her bosses, can't comment. But supporters say she ordered an investigation, confirmed the lapses and tried to fix them -- all while under attack from what her attorney calls "internal terrorists."

- rob 12:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush opens a new war front:

US plane bombs Yorkshire village

US MILITARY investigators were last night trying to establish how one of their F-15 fighter jets managed to bomb an area of Yorkshire.

oops.

Okay, to defend Bush, he had nothing to do with this. So let's just concentrate on the fact that he used 9/11 as a marketing ploy to wage an unjust war that has killed thousands, close to 500 American soldiers, and left thousands of young americans with missing arms or legs or worse.

- rob 12:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman: The Awful Truth

People are saying terrible things about George Bush. They say that his officials weren't sincere about pledges to balance the budget. They say that the planning for an invasion of Iraq began seven months before 9/11, that there was never any good evidence that Iraq was a threat and that the war actually undermined the fight against terrorism.

But these irrational Bush haters are body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freaks who should go back where they came from: the executive offices of Alcoa, and the halls of the Army War College.

- rob 11:59 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush admits he targeted Saddam from the start

Let me repeat that:

Bush admits he targeted Saddam from the start

WASHINGTON -- President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that he was mapping preparations to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as soon as he took office.

Bush's comments came in response to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's contention in a new book that the chief executive was gunning for Saddam nine months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and two years before the U.S. invasion of Iraq." Emphasis mine.

If this isn't the headline of your newspaper today or tomorrow, write them a letter asking them why?

I mean its not as if Bush said this just under a year ago (but you see, he did):

BUSH: "Actually, prior to September the 11th, we were discussing smart sanctions. We were trying to fashion a sanction [regimen] that would make it more likely to be able to contain somebody like Saddam Hussein. After September the 11th, the doctrine of containment just doesn't hold any water, as far as I'm concerned.

"I told you the strategic vision of our country shifted dramatically. And it shifted dramatically because we now recognize that oceans no longer protect us; that we're vulnerable to attack. Emphasis Mine.

9/11 did shift his strategy, not his strategy for defending America, but his strategy for marketing an uneeded war.

9/11 is a marketing dream come true for Bush. That is tragic. That is criminal. Please you Bush supporters, try to defend this. Put your pride aside. I was immensely disappointed in Clinton, don't feel bad that you have been disappointed in Bush. It'll be good for your soul to finally open yourself up to the truth. You were sold a war by a snake oil salesman.

- rob 11:57 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush: Delusions of Grandeur

W & aides broadcast media hate

He didn't free the slaves.
He didn't rid the world of Hitler.

He didn't even - like his father - preside over the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

Yet George W. Bush tells New Yorker writer Ken Auletta: "No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."

With stunners like that, no wonder he spends so little time with journalists.

- rob 11:45 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Experts Agree: Bush's war has hurt America and our fight against terrorism

Study Published by Army Criticizes War on Terror's Scope

A scathing new report published by the Army War College broadly criticizes the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour into an "unnecessary" war in Iraq and pursuing an "unrealistic" quest against terrorism that may lead to U.S. wars with states that pose no serious threat.

The report, by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, warns that as a result of those mistakes, the Army is "near the breaking point."

It recommends, among other things, scaling back the scope of the "global war on terrorism" and instead focusing on the narrower threat posed by the al Qaeda terrorist network.

- rob 5:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Economy pumps out jobs in Canada:

America: Billions in tax cuts, 9 times the population, December job growth: 1,000
Canada: No Bush, December job growth: 53,100

Taking population into effect, Canada did over 477 times better in December than we did.

Bush 04: A Greater Failure This Great Nation has Never Seen

- rob 5:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The privileged losers

The Ruling Class

In this angry, devastating examination of "the House of Bush," Kevin Phillips asks the question that seems to have occurred to no one else: How did these people get so entitled? How is it that a family in no way distinguished by genuine accomplishment, moral and/or political conviction or exceptional intelligence has managed to lay claim as a matter of right to the American presidency, and how is it -- this is the real puzzler -- that the American people seem to have acquiesced in this presumption? How did we manage to put ourselves in the hands of a family that clearly believes it has dynastic stature, with all the privileges and entitlements attendant thereto, and behaves accordingly?

Phillips, an experienced political strategist and former White House aide, is correct to say that what he calls the Bush "restoration" -- the election to the White House in 2000 of George W. Bush, only eight years after the public's emphatic repudiation of his father, George H.W. Bush -- is unprecedented in American history. The two Adams presidents were elected a quarter-century apart and represented different parties, the two Roosevelts were separated by two decades and came from different branches of the family, and any Kennedy dynastic aspirations were thwarted by bizarre twists of fate. Yet even though the first Bush presidency was by any reasonable standard a failure, the inner leadership of the Republican Party felt so beholden to the first George Bush that it anointed his callow son and namesake almost upon the moment he won the governorship of Texas and, hand in glove with the big-money interests to which the Bushes have always cozied up, effectively closed the 2000 nominating process to anyone else.

Along with O'Neill's book, there is hope that this literary one to push that might send Rove in panic mode, they're already talking about a probe against Paul O'Neill.

The U.S. Treasury has asked the U.S. inspector general's office to investigate how a possibly classified document appeared on Sunday in a televised interview of ex-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, a department spokesman said on Monday.

"It's based on the (CBS program) '60 Minutes' segment, and I'll be even more clear -- the document as shown on '60 Minutes' that said 'secret,"' Treasury spokesman Rob Nichols told reporters at a weekly briefing.

In a new book about his term as Treasury chief, O'Neill, who left the job in December 2002 in a shake-up of President Bush's economic team, criticized White House policies and provided author Ron Suskind with thousands of administration documents.

While Nichols said it is customary for departing officials to take documents when they leave, this probe will focus on how possibly classified information appeared on a television interview as one of O'Neill's papers.

The probe will get more resources than the 9/11 commission and the CIA leak investigation combined.

The books themselves:

- rob 4:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It's Back!

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 139

8. Staples in Colrain, MA
Perhaps this story has something to do with the fact that Fox News has been scaring the crap out of Americans with the prominent "TERROR ALERT HIGH!" banner they've been displaying 24/7 for the last month. Julie Olearcek of Colrain, MA, got quite a fright recently when, as she was relaxing at home, a state trooper shone a flashlight through her window. And why did he do this? Simply because Julie had inquired about flight simulation software for her ten-year-old son at the local Staples store, and after she left they called the police. Nice going, idiots. Julie Olearcek is a 15-year Air Force Reserve pilot, her husband is also a pilot (who is currently on active duty), and their son is naturally keen to follow in the family footsteps. Not that that should make any difference - there are hundreds of thousands of avid flight simmers across the country. But for some reason the staff at Staples in Colrain seem to have been instructed to report to the police anyone buying flight sim software - or even showing an interest in buying flight sim software - despite the fact that Staples in Colrain STILL SELLS FLIGHT SIM SOFTWARE! I mean, if they're that worried about terrorists using PC flight sim software to train themselves to a proficient enough level where they can fly a plane into, I dunno, the Colrain Dollar Store, why don't they just take the damn software off the damn shelves? Or is it now company policy to waste the police's time making them follow up on every single person who expresses an interest in this popular hobby? Fer crying out loud...

9. Katherine Harris
Look out! Apparently not content with stealing the presidency and then winning a seat in Congress, Katherine Harris may be about to run for Senate. I guess fixing an election for your boss really does pay off. Harris would be running for Sen. Bob Graham's seat (Graham is retiring this year) and presumably expects her wonderful dual performance as Florida's secretary of state and co-chair of George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000 to help her carry the day. But while winning a seat in Congress is not so tough - even if it's in a heavily Republican district and you don't win it by a particularly large margin despite being one of the most famous Republicans in Florida - winning a Senate seat is a more daunting prospect. Are good looks, charm, and wit all Katherine Harris needs to win the seat? If so, she'd better get to work acquiring some good looks, charm and wit. Or are substance and gravitas key factors? Actually, you know what, don't worry about it. Katherine Harris has got about as much chance of becoming a Senator as I have of taking a trip to Moonbase Dubya.

10. The Conservative Club For Growth
And finally, congratulations to the Conservative Club for Growth who this week make their second appearance on the Top Ten list. The Club for Growth previously appeared back in Idiots 106 for running campaign ads against Republican moderates Olympia Snowe and George Voinovich because they voted against a Bush tax cut during the invasion of Iraq. The ads featured Snowe and Voinovich with French flags digitally inserted behind them. Get it?!?! Anyway, they're back on the list this week for deciding to interfere in the Democratic primary in Iowa, running an ad with a delightful script suggesting that "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs." I guess the rantings of Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity have really borne fruit if this is what now passes for political debate in America. Still, since the Club for Growth has seen fit to run this ad, we now feel much more comfortable about telling them to keep their pitchfork-hoisting, hoedown-attending, moonshine-drinking, tractor-driving, dungaree-wearing, banjo-playing, pig-fucking, Clinton-penis-obsessing, right-wing freak show out of our primary process. See you next week!

- rob 3:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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More from O'Neill's book

O'Neill Calls Bush a Disengaged President

Below I say Bush is only thinking about re-election and Iraq. That seems to be the truth:

O'Neill said that a lack of real dialogue characterized the Cabinet meetings he attended during the first two years of the administration and gave O'Neill the feeling that Bush "was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people."

O'Neill was also quoted in the book as saying that the administration's decision-making process was so flawed that often top officials had no real sense of what the president wanted them to do, forcing them to act on "little more than hunches about what the president might think."

O'Neill said in his CBS interview that the atmosphere was similar during the one-on-one meetings he held with Bush.

Speaking of his first meeting with the president, O'Neill said, "I went in with a long list of things to talk about and, I thought, to engage (Bush) on. ... I was surprised it turned out me talking and the president just listening. It was mostly a monologue."

And in today's news: Bush is barely even thinking about Iraq. It's all politics, all the time:

Aides Say Bush Is Already Absorbed in 2004 Race

The official White House line, repeated once again by President Bush at a fund-raiser at a lush Palm Beach golf resort only on Thursday, is that "there's plenty of time for politics." The message is that he is so focused on the business of running the nation that he has paid little attention to the details of his re-election campaign.

In reality, presidential advisers say, Mr. Bush is wholly absorbed by the race.

The president personally made the decision to hold the Republican National Convention in New York City, one adviser said. He talks daily to Karl Rove, his chief political aide, about the ups and downs of his Democratic competitors. He keeps a close eye on his fund-raising totals, which now amount to more than $130 million.

Other advisers say that Mr. Bush, who was deeply involved in his father's presidential campaigns, is far more immersed at this point than his re-election staff likes to admit, and often sets strategy hand in hand with Mr. Rove.

His picking of NYC for the convention is going to be the nail in the coffin of his presidency. He won't win re-election after such a gross display of politics near a time of national mourning. It will be sickening.

- rob 9:54 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Let's see if CBS changes the title to make it more pro-Bush later, as they have in the past.

Bush Sought Way To Invade Iraq?

And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.

“From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.

“From the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime,” says Suskind. “Day one, these things were laid and sealed.”

As treasury secretary, O'Neill was a permanent member of the National Security Council. He says in the book he was surprised at the meeting that questions such as "Why Saddam?" and "Why now?" were never asked.

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill. “For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.”

And that came up at this first meeting, says O’Neill, who adds that the discussion of Iraq continued at the next National Security Council meeting two days later.

He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. “There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, ‘Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,’" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001.

It was planned all along. 9/11 was an excuse. Thousands of Americans dying became an asset to Bush so he could get support for his little pet projects. Rumsfeld was directing intelligence resources to place blame on Iraq for 9/11 inside the pentagon, within hours of it being hit.

Criminal, crass, immoral politics at its worse.

Bush wasn't paying attention to Osama or Al Quaeda in the months leading to 9/11, and the really sad thing is that he isn't now. Iraq and re-election is all that he is thinking of.

- rob 9:48 AM - [PermaLink] -

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